JoeyBahr.com

Seven Days to go.

Seven days until I get a key.

A key that will turn the lock.

The lock that has held me in place for three years.

Three years that ends in seven days.

Know hope.

Now it’s time for Kansas to put forth their say in who should be the Democratic Party’s Nominee for President.

This year I am in a position I haven’t been for a while.  I am a civilian essentially in the process.  I don’t work for the Party or an elected official.  I am capable of unleashing my talents for one of the candidates.

As you can tell from the title, I am choosing to support Barak Obama.  Two reasons why.

First, he is someone who truly can change not just the party in the White House but the nation.  We sorely need this.  America is reeling from 8 years of the Bush Administration.  The nation is fractured and standing on the edge of serious economic problems.  Add that to the existing problems with the military and our standing in the world and something needs to be done.

Obama is the person who can bring people together to get things done, not score political points.

The second reason rests with the fact that he was born in El Dorado, Kansas.  And the old partisan in me would love to stick it to the Republicans in this state by having a Democrat born in Kansas elected President.

Now it’s time for you to go and caucus for him on February 5th.

As some of you might know, I have a new job as an office supply salesman.  (Please spare the rest of us from your paperclip jokes.  Trust me, they aren’t funny…at all.)

With my job, I end up spending time in my car driving to call on my customers.  This windshield time has allowed me to notice something; on most Top 40/Hot Adult Contemp. stations, you are almost guaranteed to hear one of a few songs when you switch over.

Given this insight, I present you with the current list of songs you are bound to hear:

1. Avril Lavinge’s latest, ummm, I don’t even know the title of it, all I know is it is an annoying song.
2. Gwen Stefani’s latest, The Sweetest Escape.  Not a bad song, but it definitely has some strong annoying potential when over played, which it will reach that critical mass in about 1 week.

So their you have the first list of songs you are bound to hear.  I will try and keep it updated.

Only in the Great State of Kansas can the people worry about dodging a tornado one moment then hunker down for a blizzard in the next moment.

Proof in point is this Tornado Watch currently in effect until 6:00 AM February 24th. Followed later in the day by this Blizzard Warning. Both of these watches/warnings are for Barton County, Kansas.

Now you know why us Kansans will say if you don’t like the weather now, just wait five minutes, it will change.

This post is a test of using automator to ummm post posts to the blog.

Yeah, I’m sure that last sentence violated like 5 or 6 grammatical laws.

For many years now I have pursued the training of squirrels for world domination. I am pleased to say that my training is starting to bare fruit.

Soon my furry tailed minions will be going after more than bike riding opera singers. I won’t let you know where they will show up next.

Yeah, so I missed judged what that tropical system was going to do.  But, in consolation, I did nail the fact that gas prices were going up.

Yeah I’m not celebrating that fact either.

For all you Kansans who have a hankering to fire off some bottle rockets this weekend even though they are illegal, let me offer an alternative.

45,000 Bottle Rockets shooting off in less than 2 minutes.

Wow, that was pretty.

The most important day of the 2006 Kansas Legislature will be Monday, January 9th, the first day of the session. Normally the first day of the session is a rather uneventful day.

This is the day where Legislators get reacquainted with each other. Any new members will be sworn in and the ceremonial actions will be made to prepare for the State of the State Address. The day ends with the Governor’s speech and the replies by the opposing party leaders.

As the Representatives and Senators head off to their favorite watering holes Monday night, they will have more than the Governor’s speech to mull over. The 9th is also the day that the Legislative Division of Post Audit will finally release their study on school finance in Kansas.

The release of the study will set the direction of the session. If they find that the level of funding is adequate, then the Legislature will still address the issue of Education, but with far less urgency.

If the Division of Post Audit finds that additional funding is needed to meet the Constitutional requirement that the State provide a suitable education, then the war is on. Conservatives will find ways to try and discredit the study. Moderates will seek to find the mix of revenue to reach the goal set in the report. Liberals, the handful that actually are in the Legislature, will say that the amount cited by the auditors is not enough for the kids of Kansas.

This report is so important to the direction of the session that it is logical that the Governor’s staff probably has two State of the State speeches ready. One for if additional money is needed for schools and one for if it is not needed.

Granted other issues will be discussed during the session. Topics such as setting a minimum age for marriage, stiffening the penalties for animal cruelty, rewriting the eminent domain laws to give land owners more protections, another proposal by Wichita Mayor Carlos Mayans to subsidize airlines at Mid-Continent Airport, and the State’s debt load will be broached. Most of these topics will at some time have to deal with how does it mix in with the battle over education funding.

One legislator might have to vote a certain way on a revenue enhancement (fancy way of saying tax or fee increase) bill to get a vote on a topic mentioned earlier. Smart legislative strategists and tacticians will know to watch the education report as that could be the gravy train for the year.

Another element of the education debate to watch will be the simmering battle between the Legislature and the Supreme Court over the Court’s role in appropriating money. Many conservatives began to use the term “Activist Court” after the decisions to throw out the death penalty law and that the State was not funding public schools in a suitable manner as directed by the State Constitution. Many of these legislators felt that the justices were trying to appropriate money from the bench when only the Legislative Branch can appropriate money. This debate is bound to flare up again as many of the conservatives did not get the votes they wanted to tie the hands of the Judicial Branch in future cases.

The final cherry to put on top of a potentially contentious session is the fact that 2006 is an election year. The entire House of Representatives and the Statewide elected offices are up for election this year. Many of the people needed to make a vote successful for a new school funding package might run away out of fear from being branded a tax and spend liberal in their primary or general election race.

Mix all of these components together and you have a recipe for a long, nasty, and not to mention bloody session. Which will make you wonder who said that Kansas politics can be boring?

Kansas Politics keeps getting more and more interesting. For at least the third election in a row, Cindy Neighbor will face off against Mary Pilcher-Cook for control of a House seat in Northern Johnson County. The difference this time? Cindy Neighbor will be running with a “D” behind her name instead of a “R”.

Cindy Neighbor’s announcement of her new party affiliation puts her as the second Johnson County Republican to jump ship to the Democratic Party for the 2006 Election. County Attorney Paul Morrison was the first when he let it be known he was going to run as a Democrat for Attorney General.

Both politicians highlighted how the Republican Party no longer welcomes people with their views. They see the Democratic Party as the party that speaks to the issues that concern them.

Democrats are more that willing to invite these people over to the Party. With registration differences as stark as they are in Kansas–27% of the registered voters in the 2004 Election were Democrats, 46% were Republicans–you will be glad to get as many to come over as you can. (This is assuming that the Party was not actively recruiting an existing Democrat to run against Rep. Pilcher-Cook already.)

Now two people does not make a stampede, but it does cause one to take notice. It shows that maybe Paul Morrison’s change was not an isolated occurrence. So who is the next one to turn in a new voter registration card after Paul Morrison and Cindy Neighbor?

If anyone has a list of the next people to jump the good ship GOP, I am certain it would be some of the hard-core leaders of the Conservative wing of the Kansas Republican Party. Granted this list is more of a wish list than a definite thing, but it would highlight the vicious war the two wings have waged for years.

Moderates now face three choices in how to handle the fractured nature of their party. One, they could stay and fight it out with the Conservatives and see who wins. Two, they can stay and dance to their own drummer and hope the Party will give them the same level of resources in an election as a Conservative candidate. Three, they decide to join the Democratic Party and leave the GOP behind.

Right now, most of the Moderates will opt for the first two choices. For many of them, they identify themselves, the Moderate Republicans, with the Abolitionists who founded the state and with the Republican power structure that has ran Kansas ever since. To many, it would be very hard to see a “D” after their name on the ballot.

Would Republicans like former State Senate Presidents Dick Bond and Dave Kerr join to the Democratic Party? What about former Governor Mike Hayden? Hayden currently serves in the current administration as the Secretary of Wildlife and Parks but remains a Republican even though Governor Kathleen Sebelius is a Democrat.

Sure Democrats would welcome these Moderates into the party with open arms. (Well maybe not quite so open for Sen. Kerr.) Democratic Party leaders would know that snatching Moderate heavyweights such as those just listed could cause others on the fence to cross over. Yet, that is probably the reason many of the big Moderates will retain the “R.”

They know that a stampede to the Democratic Party would give the Republican Party over to the Conservatives and possibly even spell doom to the GOP in Kansas. Many of these Moderates would not want the blood of a dead Kansas Republican Party on their hands.

Those who have been in politics for a long while also know that the real test of the jump will come not in the beginning but after the honeymoon of the successful elections, when the Moderates must deal the the Liberal wing of the Democratic Party. Which would make for even more interesting times.