Republicans in Jefferson City Have Done it Again

Have you heard this latest obscenity from Republican legislators in Jefferson City? Missourians voted for the state to accept federal Medicaid dollars from Washington so more Missourians would have health insurance--and so, health care--but the Republicans wanted nothing of it. So in spite of our voice and vote, they voted down accepting this money and funding Medicaid for more Missourians, more lower income Missourians.

Once again, like on the people voting down the "Right to Work" law some time ago, we, the people, vote on something, let our will be known but the GOP, the Republicans do away with it. We all, Missourians, voted to end the Right to Work legislation and we voted to expand Medicaid but the Republicans upended both our votes. Not done there, our own Kansas City Star reports that one representative, Justin Hill of Lake St. Louis, is quoted as having said “I am proud to stand against the will of the people.” What unmitigated gall. Clearly he and his fellow Republicans know not at all how our election system and government is supposed to work. And check this out--from the same Star article: "Business people, social workers and others stood on the floor repeating the facts: Missouri has more than enough money to extend health insurance coverage to the working poor. Expanding Medicaid will actually bring more money into the state."

This is insane. This is obscene. This is heartless and immoral. The way these Republicans would have it, it's all only for them and their own political party and their donors. This is wrong. So wrong. We must stand up, Missourians. And we must vote these people, these Republicans, out of office. They must be made to pay for not just ignoring but denying the will of we, the people.

What Is It With Kansas City, Missouri and Purchasing Contracts?

Kansas City, for pity's sake.  You and contracts.  Now, this time, again, it's the new airport.

Delay at KCI? Council’s bungled contract could slow progress on new airport terminal

Construction firm asks feds to investigate why it was denied $75 million KCI contract

The city of Kansas City, Missouri was founded in 1853.

Will we ever, ever get letting purchasing contracts right?

Ever?

Shame On You, KCPT

This week's "Week In Review" was, once again, lily white.

The entire panel.

Not one "person of color" to discuss the city's issues, problems and opportunities.

A Less Convenient, More Congested, Extremely Expensive and Completely Unnecessary Single Terminal Airport

A friend--an architect, no less--made this very clear, intelligent, fair observation this past week out on Facebook. (See link and credit below).

Mayor Sly James and The Kansas City Star and all kinds of people and organizations have come out for this new, single terminal, more-than-one-billion-dollar-boondoggle of an airport, saying, now it's "fiscally responsible" (it's anything but) and the right thing to do and the way to go forward with progress and the city. They also claim it will be just as convenient as our current airport and terminals.

To which I and a lot of us out here promptly say "bunk."

Think about this.

If, God forbid, the "New KCI" people and vote wins this coming week, we would get, yes, a single terminal airport. Sure, it will blow through more than 1 billion dollars that we don't need to and shouldn't spend and it will make flying in and out of Kansas City far more expensive and it's grossly, fiscally and environmentally irresponsible but there's one more thing.

We would get that one, single security check in.

Think how that works at other airports.

Think of the lines, the long, long lines just to get to security, that one security check in at all those other airports. Then think of waiting to get through that security.

We don't have that now. With our current terminals, we don't have those abominable long lines and long, long waits.

And Mayor James and the Star and others are going to tell us it will be just as convenient?

That there won't be long lines?

Really?

And people are going to fall for that?

Vote NO Tuesday, November 7 on Question 1.

Save KCI! | Better Solutions Come From Better Discussions

Save KCI - Home | Facebook

Save KCI (@SaveKCI) · Twitter

Link:

Sven Erik Alstrom

Another Day, Another Push by The Star for the Airport Boondoggle

Okay, the sun came up again this morning so naturally, our own Kansas City Star had to print yet another article on why we should vote for the billion dollar plus boondoggle that would be a bright, shiny, new single terminal airport.

KCI is unfit for the security needs 

of an uncertain tomorrow

So okay.

Fine.

It's not fit for the post 9/11 security world.

Then fix it. Because it is "fixable." It is doable.

instead of throwing it away and walking away from it, fix it. 

Have terminal B act as the entrance point, use the gates there and then have walkways going out, for the rest of the available flights, to the other two terminals, A and C.

It would be far, far more fiscally responsible and would still retain its convenience. It would also be vastly more environmentally responsible, no small thing.

And if one more person says "It won't be paid with taxes!", I'm going to scream.

If this gets voted through, as it shouldn't, the prices of our flights out there are going to mushroom. Let's not kid ourselves. We still pay for it. We can't be naive about that.

The whole idea that we can't update and modernize and improve what's there is utter, complete nonsense and grossly, fiscally irresponsible, at least, to say nothing of the environmental irresponsibility.

Then there's this claim, I hear and see repeatedly:

"It would cost just as much to make repairs to the airport as it would to build a new one."

Nonsense. Again, nonsense.

How on this green Earth could walking completely away from functioning facilities, functioning, working buildings and building completely new, starting all over again, be remotely less expensive than working with what we have? In what parallel, upside down, topsy turvy world is that true?

It has not been maintained in the last several, too many years. The Airport Authority out there has been Jonesing for a bright, shiny, very expensive new toy so they haven't maintained it and kept it up at all! So instead of throwing it away and walking away from it, LET'S DEMAND THEY MAINTAIN IT, update it, sure, make it safe for 21st Century security, everything. BUT FIX IT, don't throw it away.

It's not just the intelligent thing to do, it's the responsible thing to do.

Because it's sure not so in this world. The Star themselves, though years ago, did print and give air to one architectural firm's plan and study with how to reuse our existing facilities and terminals. No one seems to remember that.

Another KCI renovation option surfaces

Oh, yeah.

Vote no on question 1 November 7.

Save KCI

For stupidity and irresponsibility, this is right up there with the repeated and seemingly never ending idea and talk of walking away from Kauffman Stadium and building another, downtown.

The Never-Ending 

Stadium Boondoggle

Republicans, Ignoring Our Infrastructure

Dave Helling, at our own Kansas City Star, penned a terrific, maybe even important article in the paper yesterday about our government representatives and their seemingly complete ignoring of our infrastructure.

While Washington fiddles, Kansas City’s infrastructure crumbles

A little from the article:

This spring, Kansas City voters agreed to raise their taxes to pay for bridge and street improvements over the next 20 years.

Now those same voters are contemplating a $1 billion proposal to build a new airport terminal. Jackson County may soon consider a $300 million jail project. The Buck O’Neil Bridge may need a $150 million upgrade. Multibillion-dollar water and sewer repairs are underway.

It’s a familiar tale: Crumbling infrastructure, ignored for far too long, must be repaired or replaced at enormous cost.

Kansas City isn’t the only city facing these problems, of course. It’s almost a cliche: Harbors, the electric grid, highways, rail transit and water systems across the nation are falling apart more rapidly than ever.

In March, the American Society of Civil Engineers claimed the U.S. must spend $4.6 trillion by 2025 to make needed repairs to dams, highways, airports and other public facilities.

How did we get in this mess? The answer seems obvious: Repairs that should have been finished years ago were delayed or dismissed, the victim of anti-government, anti-tax fervor.

To govern is to choose, and some projects necessarily had to wait. Not everything can be built at once.

But costs never go down. Each year of delay means more expensive streets and sewers and jails and airports, as Kansas Citians know all too well.

As usual and ever, Mr. Helling is so right. Republicans in Congress, specifically, have been making sure all through the Obama years that little or no money was spent on infrastructure for fear that--gasp--the economy might improve under someone other than a Republican in the White House. Other than hating government spending of all kinds, they're no excuse to not spend on our infrastructure now.

CBS News and their "60 Minutes" program did a terrific segment on it. It was 3 years ago, in 2014.

Falling apart: 

America's neglected infrastructure

What Mr. Helling didn't go into in the article, no doubt due to space limitations, was that it's also Republicans in our own Missouri statehouse in Jefferson City that are keeping us from repairing, improving and modernizing our infrastructure, specifically our highways and bridges.

And sure, very Republican, Right Wing, "tow the line" Senator Roy Blunt has given infrastructure spending some verbal support now and then but to date, nothing from him or Congress or his political party. The following is from 2015.

Senator Blunt Gives Lip Service to Our Infrastructure and the Work It Needs

The fact is, there is no finer or better example of needing infrastructure work and spending than right here in Missouri. Take this, for starters. It's from 2015.

MoDOT: 600 Missouri bridges 

are in poor to serious condition

In the meantime, MoDoT hasn't been able to do much but "catch up" work, the barest of upkeep on our bridges because of Republicans lack of work in Jefferson City on this issue.

Then there is our statewide Interstate 70. It, too, is a perfect example but for both the state and nation.

Our I-70, running as it does all across the state, from the Illinois border on the East to the Kansas border on the West and right through Columbia, is old, outdated, neglected and literally dangerous.

Missouri home to 4 of nation's 

deadliest highways

It's so big a story and subject, it's even gone international

Chinese billionaire Jack Ma says 

the US wasted trillions on warfare instead of 

investing in infrastructure

Besides the fact that they are, we are, neglecting our infrastructure, making travel more dangerous and even difficult, to put off the repairs only costs us more, later, when we finally do fix the roads and bridges and highways and sewer systems, etc.

Then there's the fact that improved infrastructure helps business, helps commerce. It makes that business easier to conduct because we're more productive, we can travel easier and with less cost. It also naturally helps leisure travel, driving up business.

Then there's the fact that this kind of infrastructure spending reverberates through the economy, through the nation, creating jobs as well as generating new and more business.

Invest in Infrastructure to Boost Jobs 

and the Economy

There have been studies on it, too, of course, on infrastructure spending.

Every $1 Of Infrastructure Spending 

Boosts The Economy By $2

For our safety, for jobs, for growing business, for a growing economy, all, at the very least, there is every reason in the world to boost infrastructure spending both in Washington, at the Federal level, as well as in Jefferson City, on the state level.

Now I'm just hoping our local PBS station, KCPT, gets a bunch of middle-aged and older, Right Wing white men together on one of their weekly news programs to discuss it.

Links:

No urgency on I-70 from anywhere

Inaction from Jeff City

A desperate note to our representatives 

in Washington and Jefferson City

Senator Blunt Said WHAT???

The Insanity of Not Funding Our Highways and Infrastructure

No expansion projects for the next five years, says MoDOT

Pressure Building for the Nation's Infrastructure--

and Maybe for the People

America's rotting empire: Billionaires galore 

and a crumbling infrastructure

Austerity and why we need a jobs bill from Congress

Austerity Won't Work if the Roof Is Leaking

What Will It Take to Get Congress to Give Us an Infrastructure Bill?

MoDOT: 600 Missouri bridges are in poor to serious condition

I-70 Westbound Lane Closed After Crews Find Crack In Bridge Beam

Missouri Roads Face Funding Crisis

Congress Chooses Austerity Over Job Creation and Economic Growth

It's the Austerity, Stupid: How We Were Sold an Economy-Killing Lie

Why we need a jobs/infrastructure bill from this Congress

Governor Brownback and Kansas Republicans Keep Making Things Worse

Everyone knows, a few years ago, in Kansas, very Republican Governor Sam and all his Republican, Right Wing cohorts at the Topeka State Capitol slashed taxes on the already-wealthy and corporations in that state and raised them on the working-, middle- and lower-classes.

Terrific.

We all also know that, since those actions were put in place, Kansas' credit rating has been downgraded and income for the state has dropped horribly, leading to cuts in state budgets, including, tragically, the schools.

Bad and getting worse.

Now, these same rocket scientists in Topeka want and need to raise money for the state, for those budgets, rather naturally, so what do they do?

Why, raise taxes on purchases, of course.

And who does that hurt most, precisely? Look no further than Dave Helling and the  Kansas City Star today for the answer:

Analysis: Kansas workers with low to moderate incomes will feel the greatest pain from tax increases

The stupid, it burns.

A little from the article:

Every Kansan will feel the sting of the budget and accompanying tax hikes passed at the end of the state Legislature’s marathon 2015 session. Homeowners, workers, businesses, smokers — all will pay more.

But no group, experts believe, gets hurt more than the state’s low- and moderate-income workers, those earning between $30,000 and $50,000 a year.

They now face higher taxes on essential purchases without most of the subsidies that protect poorer Kansans from government’s bite.

Low-income workers, unlike those with significantly higher earnings, must watch their pennies carefully to pay for other essentials such as transportation and housing. Soon, more of those pennies — which quickly grow to dollars — will be on their way to Topeka.

“There’s only so much you can squeeze from the lowest end of the scale,” said Annie McKay, executive director of the Kansas Center for Economic Growth. She called the tax bill deeply disappointing.

“We’ve moved up the food chain,” she said. “This looks to pick the pockets of lower- and middle-income Kansans.”

Kansas will soon collect 6.5 cents on every dollar that residents pay for food. That’s among the highest sales tax rates on food in the country.

And then there's this irony and screw-up for the Kansas "small government", "low tax" chuckleheads in Topeka:

Some lawmakers in the Kansas City area now think shoppers will take their grocery business to Missouri, where food sales taxes are dramatically lower. At $200 a week, a Kansas grocery shopper can save almost $550 a year in sales taxes just by crossing the state line.

For someone earning $600 a week, those savings are probably critical.

And then it gets worse here, with this tax increase, too:

The tax hit for low- and moderate-income Kansans isn’t limited to food purchases.

That higher sales tax will now be embedded in clothing purchases, cars, nonprescription medicines and more, costing taxpayers cash. Businesses might raise their prices to cover their own higher taxes. An increase in the cigarette tax will now cost a pack-a-day Kansas smoker $471 a year. (The Missouri tax of 17 cents a pack translates to $62.)

And the new tax bill contains other hikes, unrelated to purchases, that will pinch the state’s residents. The package reduces the state deductibility of local property taxes and mortgage interest, driving up most Kansans’ income tax payments. The 2012 income tax rate cuts — which studies have shown actually increased tax liabilities for poor and low-income residents — have been locked in place, at least for the time being.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/news/government-politics/article24020830.html#storylink=cpy

“What we’re going to see in the coming years is a growing number of working poor in Kansas, who don’t have access to support but don’t have enough to make ends meet,” McKay said.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/news/government-politics/article24020830.html#storylink=cpy

If there's any silver lining to all these dark clouds, it's this:

Yet next year’s potential for a Kansas crisis — and the real one this year — has dampened enthusiasm for serious tax cuts in most other states. Several Republican governors have cited the Kansas struggle in scaling back their own tax reduction plans this year.

Even most Republican presidential candidates have shied away from broad, across-the-board tax cut plans. The anti-tax fervor that has dominated the GOP for decades has given way, at least in part, to targeted tax reduction plans that might do less damage to the government’s revenue stream.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/news/government-politics/article24020830.html#storylink=cpy

But let it never be said these Right Wing, extremist Republicans learn anything. At least, if they do learn, it's none too quickly:

Yet the anti-tax sentiment in the modern Republican Party remains strong, Kansas notwithstanding.

“There are going to be different kinds of tax cuts offered,” said Richard Skinner, a political science professor at Johns Hopkins and George Washington universities. “But I think all the Republican candidates will offer some sort of major tax cut.”

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/news/government-politics/article24020830.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/news/government-politics/article24020830.html#storylink=cpy

Lots of us who know and like Kansans and want good things for them, hope the time will have finally come in our friend's and family member's state for them to finally, finally vote these knuckleheads and greedheads out of office.

It can't happen soon enough.

Link to another great article on the mess that is Kansas of late, here: Kansas Republicans Are Slaves To A Monster Of Their Own Making

And check out this headline, today, on Kansas, too, from The New York Times:

Kansas: College Funding Is at Risk Without Tax Increase, Governor Says

I love that headline. Governor Brownback and his Republican Party associates wrecked the state's budgets with their "trickle down", tax the middle class and poor strategies and now are saying, "Give us our tax increases or the schools get it."

Nearly unbelievable.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/news/government-politics/article24020830.html#storylink=cpy

Hey! I got a GREAT IDEA!

LET'S FLY TO CITY X TO SEE THEIR NEW AIRPORT!!!

Said no one.

Ever.



So flights are down, period, the airlines are shrinking, paying for a new airport is problematic, at least, as these people point out...

but we should definitely build a new airport and not refurbish our existing one.

Right.

Got it.

Makes all the sense in the world.

Quote of the day--on our current Congress

The current 112th Congress has passed just 151 public laws since it convened in January 2011, the fewest laws in at least six decades. The next-most-unproductive national legislature — the 104th Congress, 1995-1996 — passed 280 public laws. It still found time, under a Democratic president and a Republican Congress, to shut down the federal government for several weeks.

For comparison, the 1947-1948 “do-nothing” Congress attacked by Harry Truman passed 906 public laws.

--Steve Kraske and Dave Helling, from their article "The End of the Middle" in Sunday's Kansas City Star newspaper

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/08/18/3768596/the-end-of-the-middle-how-the.html

Notes on KCPT's "Kansas City Week in Review" this week

1) There is no way the Kansas tax bill will go through as is;

2) Rush Limbaugh being inducted into the Missouri Hall of Fame is disgusting, period;

3) The way the Republicans had this "ceremony" for Limbaugh's induction was disgusting and deceitful;

4) Dave Helling is right--the things the state governments in Kansas and Missouri has been spending their--our--time on is, too frequently, pointless, partisan and wasteful, at minimum, time and again and they need to stop this trend. The people will have to step up, speak up and get them to stop. Another example of the waste of State lawmakers' time, after the Rush Limbaugh bust and the ceremony for it is proposing and voting on a law against Sharia law. Just ignorant.;

5) The Star's articles this past week is the kind of good, reporting, hard-hitting research and writing they should be doing;

6) There is no way the Boilermaker's Union can support what The Star shows, specifically the pay of the top leaders of the group, for no bigger than the Union is;

7) Stacey Cameron doesn't look or seem trustworthy, unfair as that may be;

8) Dave Helling just doesn't look well. Naturally I/we hope he is.

Link: http://kcpt.org/localproductions/kansas-city-week-in-review/

Kansas and Missouri Legislators decidedly NOT doing their jobs

Yet more on the Kansas and Missouri legislators lately, not doing their jobs. From Dave Helling in The Star earlier this week: Kansas, Missouri unlikely to meet deadline on health care "Kansas and Missouri are almost certain to miss an end-of-the-year deadline for establishing a key component of the nation’s health care law — health insurance 'exchanges' where individuals and businesses can compare and purchase coverage." Forget that thousands--at least--of people in both states don't have and need health care. Forget that this could help lower the cost of health insurance in both states. Sure, forget that. And as if all this, above, weren't bad enough, check this out: "Last year, Kansas declined a $31.5 million “early innovator” grant for an exchange." Nice, huh? If I were from Kansas, this is just one more of many big reasons to be angry. What you have to keep in mind is that both legislatures in these two states have Republican majorities and they don't want to appear to support the Affordable Care Act of this President. Forget that it helps their constituents. Remember, though, to put your political party first. Terrific. There are two glimmers of hope mentioned in the article. Here's the first: "If Kansas or Missouri fails to certify its plan by year’s end, the federal government is required to step in and create one." The second bit of hope is that other states are, in fact, creating their exchanges. You can bet the insurance agencies are out there now, giving untold amounts of "campaign contributions" to our lawmakers, in an effort to kill all this, lest they have to reduce our health insurance premiums. Anyway, again, thanks to both Republican Party state houses--for nothing. Link to original article: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/02/23/3448606/kansas-missouri-unlikely-to-meet.html

A no-bid contract??!!

Kansas City, Missouri and yet another no-bid contract?? Are you freaking kidding me? There's an article in this morning's Star, telling of yet another of these things: Energy auditor angry over no-bid Green Impact Zone contract Why is this even legal let alone allowed? How much hell do taxpayers have to raise until this kind of ridiculous, irresponsible, unfair, biased practice is no longer allowed? Why is this even still legal, on this, local level or on national, public purchasing? Why does the Federal Government get a pass on it? The Pentagon and Department of Defense do this with abandon, from what I read. I ask again, why is this allowed? Why is this legal? It's long past due that this should be done away with. If anything needs an initiative so we get it on local, state and national ballots for election, it's this. Link to original article: http://www.kansascity.com/2011/12/12/3338975/dispute-over-weatherization-grant.html

Mayor seeks US Attorney assistance: to eliminate competition?

From the Kansas City Star today:
Mayor asks U.S. attorney to look at Port Authority

By DAVE HELLING and MIKE MANSUR

The Kansas City Star

Mayor Mark Funkhouser has asked U.S. Attorney Beth Phillips to consider assigning an investigator to examine the Kansas City Port Authority.

Funkhouser’s letter Tuesday to federal authorities came in response to an article Sunday in The Kansas City Star examining allegations of a potential conflict of interest involving one of the Authority’s attorneys, William Session.

And that's all well and good, since the Star's story Sunday on possilbe misdeeds by the Port Authority, especially as it involves this one attorney, at minimum, William Session.

But is the Mayor dog-piling so he can eliminate competition for the very office he's running for again, at present?

Is that possibly also true for other members of the City Council who are also running for the job of Mayor?

It certainly seems like a strong possibility and likelihood, folks.

Right or wrong be damned--these people want to clear a path for themselves, it seems.

Stay tuned.   This should get exciting.

Link to origninal story:  http://www.kansascity.com/2010/12/14/2520406/funkhouser-asks-us-attorney-to.html

Another Funkhouser Fail

Seriously, I'm not just writing this to "dog-pile", in effect, on the Mayor.

This morning, I went to the Star, expecting a front page article--with pictures--of the Mayor's self-promotional giveaway party last evening that cost us all $6300.00.

No pic.

No story.

No nothing.

On further searching, buried on A4 of the local section was a picture, for sure, and a short 9 paragraph story on his "town hall meeting" he threw for us last evening.

Man, is this guy out of touch. Whew.

First things first, though. The Star's picture was unfair to us, the public, and pretty distorted of the event and its attendees.

If you saw the picture as I did, it looked like the Sprint Center was packed.

But it wasn't.

Check this out--go to the Pitch website and see their pictures of the same event: http://blogs.pitch.com/plog/2010/05/mayor_mark_funkhousers_sparsely_attended_carnivaltown_hall_meeting_at_sprint_center_slideshow.php

Not packed at all.

So, Star, you've upped your game concerning local coverage and it's much better and I salute that and you now for it but this was badly represented to us, your readers. You need to give us a good, representational picture of public events like these and this was off the mark.

Now, back to the Mayor.

Don't you know he's got to be feeling a bit like Jay Leno right now?

I mean, nobody likes him. Nobody wants him. Nobody thinks he's a success. But the show keeps going on. Ouch. It's gotta hurt.

I love the fact that the story was covered and written by Dave Helling and that's all in got in the paper. If Dave gave it little note, you know it's not important.

And what is important?

How about the fact that Kansas City, Missouri is up to 39 homicides this year?

Sure, it's not Chicago, with their record-breaking killings but it's not even Summer and hot weather and we keep getting senseless, needless shootings and killings in town and still, THE MAYOR AND HIS OFFICE HAVE DONE NOTHING--ZIP, NADA--TO ADDRESS IT.

I had to attend my daughter's graduation last night or I was going to attend this thing. Had I gone, I wanted to ask him what, if anything, he EVER intended to do about the murder rate in town.

I've said, here, time and again that he should announce that he is going to align with church and community leaders, neighborhood groups, etc., to address this problem in the city.

I was going to ask him last night if he could/would do that and if he didn't think it was long overdue.

No, instead he wants to borrow "$100 million to fix sidewalks, streets and curbs near schools..." as well as get "a renewed quarter-cent sales tax to provide more police officers near school buildings."

Terrific. His answers are--both--to raise taxes. Great idea.

Is there anyone out there who thinks getting new sidewalks, streets and curbs near public schools is going to improve the learning that's going on in the schools?

Let's ask Superintendent Covington. And the teachers, let's ask the teachers.

And why hasn't the city--already--been taking care of the streets, curbs and sidewalks anyway, as they're supposed to be doing, instead of trying to come up with yet another tax and program to do all this?

But the Mayor doesn't get all this. He thinks it's a great idea and wants us to join him.

Not gonna' happen. Sorry, there, Funk. It just isn't going to happen.

Besides being a poor and poorly thought program--THAT ALSO RAISES 2 TAXES, in effect--he doesn't have enough time to get this through, who is he kidding, besides the Squirt and himself?

So if it were a grade, Mayor, you'd get an "F" for that assignment you turned in last night.

Could you forget about this now, stop embarassing yourself and maybe address the murders and murder rate in town?

You probably have time enough for that.

Thoughts on a Sunday

--Apparently it was another "lily white" day of Sunday morning news programs.

After searching them all and seeing most, I don't think there was one "person of color" represented on any of the shows. No minority perspective other than the one minority of women.

Surely this will change soon.

Note to networks: there's a whole world of "minorities" in the US whose viewpoints aren't being given, when they're left off the programs.

--George Will is, of course, against the President's plan for health care reform and said as much, again, on ABC's "This Week" program.

ABC should have had the economist Paul Krugman on, if possible, to counter his viewpoints. They needed someone authoritative on to rebut what points he made.

--I hadn't read anywhere, to date, about three Republican representatives (Hennsarling, Pence and Campbell) proposing we cap the national debt at 20% of the GDP. This was news to me.

I'm sure it will get traction, too.

It would have anyway, but with the news out today that the Social Security Administration is starting to pay out more--much more--than it takes in this year, it's easy to see this will resonate with Americans a great deal.

Speaking of spending, did you know the US has 90 military facilities in Japan?

Anyone thought of cutting there?

And why are we still in Germany?

And Italy?

--Quotes from "Kansas City Week in Review" on KCPT this week, both regarding state cuts in spending, due to Missouri and Kansas budget deficits in the millions of dollars:

"Our expectation of government has to change." --Nick Haynes, moderator.

"The 'day of reckoning' really is here." --Dave Helling, KCTV 5 reporter

--The Kansas City, Missouri Chamber of Commerce moving to Union Station is a great idea and deal for the station, the Chamber and the city, overall, period.

Good on ya', Chamber---you did good.

--From a song on KCUR today:

"Every generation thinks its the last, it's the end of the world..."

Face it, folks, we're just not that significant.

(Not that you can't help your neighbor).


Let's all have a great week.

(Also, you might go to KC Photog Blog this Wednesday for one picture per hour of the Brookside St. Patrick's Day parade, starting fairly early in the day. I think they turned out pretty well and they're a lot of fun.)

It needs to be said

Dave Helling and Steve Kraske are two of the best things happening in Kansas City when it comes to reporting political issues and stories for the Kansas City metropoltan area, the state of Missouri and the Midwest.

Without their reporting and writing, we wouldn't know a lot about what's going on in this city, for good or ill and we need them and their work.