Friday, January 28, 2005

Kansas Day 2005

Just a quick reminder for any of you in North East Kansas that the Kansas Republican Party is holding its annual Kansas Day events tonight and tomorrow (Jan 28th and 29th). The events take place at the Topeka Capital Plaza beginning at 4pm today.

For those of you who don't know, Kansas Day is the Republican Party's annual convention/party. It involves lots of receptions, an after hours sponsored by the Young Republicans and a good chance to talk to any of your elected officials.

This year Kansas Days may be especially interesting for political junkies because the KSGOP will be electing new leadership and a new chairman. Tim Shallenburger, former state Treasurer, is widely expected to get the nod, but some grumbling and potentially fireworks can be expected as control of the party (and its debts) shifts from the current Moderate leadership into Conservative hands.

Regardless, I will be there tonight and I hope to see you there.

Timothy Burger

Monday, January 24, 2005

Kansas Legislative Update

Just a quick update, for those of you who forgot, during the campaign "educating our children" was "priority number one" for just about everyone. Well, some how "priority number one" seems to be slipping in the standings. Last week I highlighted the fact that Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius had decided not to deal with education this year (or at least until the '06 Governor's race kicks into gear later in the year, then she will have a plan to fix education). I thought I would highlight some of the important issues that have emerged since then:

According to State Representative Lance Kinzer:

"This week the House Federal & State Affairs Committee, of which I (Kinzer) am a member, will hold at least three days of hearings on SCR 1601, which would limit marriage to one man and one woman."

At least, at least three days of hearings? What is there to hear about, ministers and conservatives are against gay marriage, gay activists and most liberals are for it. There, the hearing is over, let's vote. Then let's get on to something important like, well, issue number one, education, issue number two jobs and economic development, issue number three who cares about number three until we deal with one and two.

The logic of this debate borders on the ridiculous and three days of it in the state capital is a profound waste of taxpayer time and money.

According to the Lawrence Journal World:

Although Governor Sebelius still doesn't have the leadership ability to tackle education, she has developed a comprehensive plan to deal with the pressing issue of wind energy tourism in the Flint Hills of Kansas.

That's right, no education plan but a plan for wind energy, and almost a million dollars of new funding (funding that could have bought books or higher salaries for teachers) to study options for wind energy tourism in the Flint Hills.

I conducted a comprehensive study of this matter while driving through the Flint Hills last year. My conclusion is that while the Flint Hills are a important part of Kansas and provide food for a good portion of the world, they are mostly endless prairie, which is not very interesting to most people, in fact very boring for most people, and still not interesting with a giant windmill on them, so in short, not a very good tourist destination. So there, million dollar study done, time for an education plan.

Timothy Burger