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This is the state where Rick Santorum - Rick fucking Santorum - won the Kansas caucus in 2012, while trying to become (mother of God) President of the U.S. Santorum - imagine if that name does enter the dictionary as a slang for gay sex?
Another state embarrassment? Have you watched the freaking Daily Show lately? It's Pastor Sam Brownback. Come on, the guy's buddies with Texas Gov. Rick Perry, the loyal American who's flirted with the idea of secession and used to go shooting at a rifle range with the word, "nigger" on its sign. Brownback was the only governor to attend Perry's prayer spectacle a few years back when he was trying to be (holy Stonewall Jackson) president of this Evangelical Christian Nation. From the pulpit, the gentle spoken Sam read quotations from Martin Luther King, Jr. and I was like, "C'mon, who are you kidding?"
Brownback's first action as Kansas governor was to disband the state arts commission, leaving Kansas as the only state without an arts commission. (It's since been brought back.) But I wasn't surprised. Hard core conservatives, on the whole, don't like art anyway, Dubya's paintings of Putin and Poppy Bush, notwithstanding.
There's a warmth, a congeniality to Brownback's personality that Thomas Frank described as almost "(Bill) Clintonesque" in his 2003 book, What's the Matter with Kansas? True, Brownback doesn't project the slimeball smug arrogance of Fox "News" heads, but make no mistake, he is a scorched earth radical.
It's unprecedented for a Kansas governor to oust members of his own party as Brownback has done. It was a massacre. Those bad Republican senators, those RINOS who differed with Brownback on cuts to taxes, education and social services - they got their heads chopped off by the Brownback Machine. The Koch Brothers, who have backed Brother Sam for around 20 years, put their money behind getting the liberal commie bastards - calling themselves Republicans - ousted in the primaries by hardcore conservatives.
Dick Kelsey, an evangelical preacher-senator, pro-life with high ratings from the NRA. Liberal pussy. Wouldn't play ball with Sam and got his ass thrown on Brownback's Enemies List - you know, like Tricky Dick Nixon had - and got his ass handed back to him in the primaries.
I would think a good leader would welcome dissenting viewpoints so he could look at issues from all sides and make informed decisions. You know, that's how Abraham Lincoln did it.
But Brownback is an ideological purist, a True Believer. He says his experiment in Kansas is going to work, given time, and I think he believes his own bullshit.
He turned down free money from the Federal Government to expand Medicaid to cover the people who made too much to qualify for the program, yet not enough to qualify for the Affordable Care Act. A true pragmatist wouldn't care where the money came from, wouldn't consider it tainted. If it helped raise all ships, he would take advantage.
But not Brownback. Between 79,000 and 150,000 Kansans have been denied healthcare coverage, but at least the simon pure Sam Brownback hasn't dirtied his hands with the federal government and that nasty Obamacare that needs to be repealed even though it was voted on fair and square.
Not expanding Medicaid will cost Kansas hospitals between $2.6 billion between 2013 and 2022, according to an Urban Institute report. But listen to Brownback and the Tea Party. They know best about fiscal policy. They're true conservative Republicans.
In 2010, Brownback campaigned on reducing poverty in Kansas, which seems like a lot of cheap talk now since he's done his damndest to keep the poor down.
He let a federal grant expire - again, turning down free money - that would have kept foodstamps available to unemployed people without dependent children. An estimated 20,000 Kansans were thrown off the program. Brownback wanted to give the filthy freeloaders the incentive to find jobs.
TANF (Temporary Aid to Needy Families) was drastically reduced and accessibility for the poorest of the poor has become a lot more complicated.
Remove the safety net from the least of these and spend $1.8 billion in tax breaks and incentives for businesses. Eliminate income taxes for 100,000 Kansas businesses. No other state in history has taken such a radical move.
Then there's the slashing of education funding so drastic, the Kansas Supreme Court ruled it in violation of the state constitutional requirement for adequate education funding. One would think Brownback would have more respect for the state constitution. After all, he's so intent on upholding the state's gay marriage ban.
But then Brownback signed into law a bill passed by the legislature, saying firearms are immune from federal legislation - a law deemed unconstitutional by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.
Brownback and his right-wing friends have destroyed a more than 100 year tradition of moderate, progressive Republican policy in Kansas, pandering to their government hating, ammosexual, "fag bashing," "family values" teavangelical army of Christian Sharia zealots.
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| Democratic candidate for governor - Paul Davis |
But hey, it's the rough and tumble world of politics and Christian Sam has no problem going down the sewer to attack Democratic challenger Paul Davis for being in a strip club 16 years ago. Hell, all I want to know is whether the lap dance girl was good looking.
Shameless? He connected Davis to the Carr brothers. (Davis knew one of the victims.) All I could think of when I saw the ad was "Willy Horton."
I'm sure Brownback would dismiss me as part of "the left" or "liberal media." He was on CBN (Christian Broadcasting Network) getting interviewed by pseudo-journalist David Brody, who has his balls in the white sheet of the Republican Jesus. Does the "mainstream media" want to "craft a narrative" and play "out to get you?" he asked.
In a dead heat race, the media is now reporting Brownback to be ahead of Davis. Obviously, the Koch brothers have been going balls out in these final days before the election. I'd like to be able to say they're not going to be able to buy this election, that David will beat Goliath, but we won't know until Nov. 4. Between 15,000 and 20,000 voters - many of whom would vote for Davis - are being disenfranchised by the Kris Kobach Crackdown. And it's happening all across the country - brown, back and liberal voters getting shut out. If Republicans can't win fairly, they'll cheat and when the election's stolen, they'll call it a "mandate."
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| Kris Kobach & Ted Nugent |
I'd like to see Paul Davis win the governorship in Kansas and the totally cool Wendy Davis (no relation) take it in Texas, but things aren't looking good for her. The majority of Texans, it appears, support the candidate who pals around with that diaper shitting, racist, ammo-fanatic Ted Nugent. I wish it was all Willie Nelson and Austin City Limits down there, but it's not.
There's not much hope for Texas, but I'd like to see Kansans live up to their strong history and send Brownback packing. Maybe that will give him incentive to find a new job. Hell, he'd just get hired by Fox "News" anyway.
I didn't get around to mentioning the people from Brownback's own party (the old school Republicans he screwed over) who are trying to shut him down. But you can see it in this hilarious clip from Jon Stewart's Daily Show.
