Conservatives protest GOP contributions to  liberal Republican hit group

Senate Leadership PAC supporting Republican liberals over conservatives in primaries

Some conservative-leaning legislators are crying foul over contributions by the Kansas Senate Leadership PAC to a group that also is helping finance liberal-leaning Republicans whose aim is defeat conservatives in the Aug. 5 primary by sending mail claiming, among other things, that GOP conservatives have ties to the KKK and want to send parents to jail for trying to save sick children.

According to the latest available campaign finance reports, the Senate Leadership PAC contributed $45,000 to "Kansans for a Traditional Republican Majority," a group that supports liberal candidates running against conservatives by distributing negative material widely condemned by both moderates and conservatives.

The group has especially targeted conservative candidates for the state senate, as  well as Johnson County DA Phill Kline, who is running as an incumbent. [ Read more...]

House speaker, others sign no-new-taxes promise to Kansas taxpayers

Morris, Vratil, Schmidt refuse to rule out take hikes

Last week, the Kansas Taxpayers Network released its 2008 list of legislators who have signed a pledge not to support higher state taxes during the upcoming legislative session.

The release of the names of pledge signers has been an annual pre-election ritual for the last 14 years. This year, the state faces a revenue shortfall and Gov. Kathleen Sebelius has mandated a two percent across-the-board spending cut.

Sebelius has not indicated that she'll propose new taxes for 2009, but if she did, she might have an easier time getting new taxes passed in the Senate than in the House.  [ Read more...]

'Don't look at us,' say Kansas lawmakers

Conference of State Legislatures says raise gas tax to pay for bridges and highways

With the price of gasoline near record levels and consumers driving less, the National Conference of State Legislatures called on the U.S. Congress Friday to raise the federal gas tax to bolster the Highway Trust Fund.

That would seem to put Kansas legislators who are in the thick of re-election campaigns on the record as supporting a gas tax hike, when gas already is hovering at around $4 a gallon

But lawmakers from both parties who attended the NLCS convention in New Orleans were quick to assure Kansas Liberty that they never would have voted in favor of the resolution. [ Read more...]

KansasLiberty Backgrounder: In more and more instances, prosecutors refuse to enforce laws they don't like

Enforcement of statutes a growing problem in Kansas

Many Kansas residents will admit they look the other way when certain laws are ignored. Few people dial 911 when they spot a jaywalker, for instance.

However when the Kansas Legislature, state and local prosecutors and the Kansas courts make significant decisions that some find a contradiction to basic laws, residents start to react.

In examples ranging from seat-belts to late-term abortions, the apparent inability to enforce laws is growing. [ Read more...]

First shot in environmentalists' war fired in Kansas

Coal industry under siege

President Bush on Thursday said there was “no more reliable source of electricity than coal,” adding that its use will be a key component in reducing the nation’s dependence on foreign oil.

That puts the commander in chief squarely at odds with environmental groups, including Earthjustice, the group that assisted Gov. Kathleen Sebelius in her battle against an expansion of a coal-fired power plant in Holcomb.

It also puts Holcomb at the starting line of a global campaign not only against coal, but for a series of international agreements to mandate alternative sources of energy and redistribute wealth. [ Read more...]

Criminal trial against Tiller can proceed

Judge declares Kansas' abortion law constitutional

A Sedgwick County District Court judge said Monday Kansas’ abortion law passed constitutional muster and declined to dismiss 19 criminal charges against late-term abortion clinic operator George Tiller.

Tiller had sought the dismissal, arguing that Kansas’ law was unconstitutional. Specifically, lawyers for Tiller contended that a provision in the law that requires abortionists to get an unaffiliated physician to concur that a late-term abortion is medically necessary before the procedure can occur was constitutionally unacceptable. Tiller claimed the requirement placed an unfair burden on women who wanted late-term abortions..

Tiller now will face 19 counts of failing to get a second opinion from an unaffiliated physician. [ Read more...]

Former JoCo sheriff claims police need help finding sex offenders who have slipped through the cracks

Ex-lawman says Kansas has 5,000 sex offenders loose on the 'honor system'

Since 2007, sex offenders in Kansas have been required to register with the sheriff’s offices in the cities in which they intend to live.

The state’s database of sex offenders now includes around 5,000 registrants. Offenders, who are required to re-register every 90 days, are scattered throughout the state, with most concentrated in the state’s largest cities.

But at least one former sheriff says most law enforcement agencies are not routinely spot-checking to ensure that sexual offenders are actually living where they say they’re living. [ Read more...]

Comment: Nothing is free, including liberty, welfare and laziness. In fact, of all the rights we enjoy as Americans, none comes at a higher price than the right not to vote, as Greg Beck explains.

Secure the blessings of liberty

Kansas primary elections are next Tuesday and as Ronald Reagan once said, "…we have come to a time for choosing. Public servants say, always with the best of intentions, 'What greater service we could render if only we had a little more money and a little more power.' But the truth is that outside of its legitimate function, government does nothing as well or as economically as the private sector."

And what is our government's legitimate function?  Our Constitution's Preamble says "to establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty."

Providing for law and order, the common defense and securing liberty all seem pretty clear.  Not so clear is promoting the general welfare.  The founding fathers certainly didn't mean the establishment of a welfare state nor were they advocating socialism or communism that liberals push us ever closer toward each day. [ Read more...]

The Week on the Web

Speaking of hate mail. The envelope please: KCNewsWatch has awarded KTRM the victory in the "meanest ad" campaign - no small feat in an election year.

Dems devour their own, too. Kansas Meadowlark carries the news that the Democrats' Senatorial Campaign Committee is spending another $22,000 to defeat three-term state Sen. Mark Gilstrap. Sebelius and the party hierarchy have targeted Gilstrap for his pro-life views and thrown their support to challenger Kelly Kultala. The winner will have to face the GOP's Steve Fitzgerald.

When it rains money, it's Stowers. The Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce's "Life Sciences Fund" has donated $95,000 to KTRM and other pro-liberal groups and candidates, according to an AP report on the Hays Daily News site. Kansas Meadowlark scooped the AP on this by five days, but then he works for free. Plus, we can only link to him so many times.

A Preview of the Coming Week