Quick Takes

From Kansas Policy Institute. For more information and a radio interview, see Kansas freedom scorecard released.

From LearnLiberty.org, a project of Institute for Humane Studies:

We are currently living through a revolution in education. The way education is carried out and delivered, both in the United States and abroad, is changing dramatically. These changes are fueled in part by technology, but the main cause is a social transformation. All kinds of people are voluntarily cooperating to provide an education that they control and that reflects their desires rather than those of governments, large firms, or political movements. Prof. Stephen Davies explains how some of these innovations are improving education for students. This transformation in the way education is delivered “can only be an enormous change for the better,” Prof. Davies says.

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This Friday (May 24, 2013) the Wichita Pachyderm Club features Bob Knight, former Wichita mayor. His topic is “25 Year Overview of Wichita City Government.”

The public is welcome and encouraged to attend Wichita Pachyderm Club meetings. Meetings are held almost every Friday in the Wichita Petroleum Club on the top floor of the Bank of America Building at 100 N. Broadway. The program starts at noon, and it is suggested that guests arrive by 11:45 am in order to get their lunch before the program starts. The meeting costs $10, which includes a delicious buffet lunch and beverage. For more information click on Wichita Pachyderm Club.

From the Wall Street Journal, May 18, 2009, just four months after Barack Obama became president.

Tax Audits Are No Laughing Matter

A president shouldn’t even joke about abusing IRS power.

By Glenn Harlan Reynolds

Barack Obama owes his presidency in no small part to the power of rhetoric. It’s too bad he doesn’t appreciate the damage that loose talk can do to America’s tax system, even as exploding federal deficits make revenues more important than ever.

At his Arizona State University commencement speech last Wednesday, Mr. Obama noted that ASU had refused to grant him an honorary degree, citing his lack of experience, and the controversy this had caused. He then demonstrated ASU’s point by remarking, “I really thought this was much ado about nothing, but I do think we all learned an important lesson. I learned never again to pick another team over the Sun Devils in my NCAA brackets. … President [Michael] Crowe and the Board of Regents will soon learn all about being audited by the IRS.”

Just a joke about the power of the presidency. Made by Jay Leno it might have been funny. But as told by Mr. Obama, the actual president of the United States, it’s hard to see the humor. Surely he’s aware that other presidents, most notably Richard Nixon, have abused the power of the Internal Revenue Service to harass their political opponents. But that abuse generated a powerful backlash and with good reason.

Continue reading at Wall Street Journal.

Join Americans for Prosperity-Kansas for this special event to learn how to effectively employ the Frederick Douglass Liberty Messenger Methodology. The Frederick Douglass Entrepreneurship Model is the answer and strategy for encouraging and empowering people to “stand on their own legs” — becoming responsible for their own Life, Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness.

A “grassroots” initiative, The ConservativeMESSENGER’s mission has been to: Enlighten, Educate, Empower and Equip its members based on the Frederick Douglass Republican™ Methodology—a unique and powerfully effective strategy to: (1) Re-Ignite America’s Passion for Liberty; (2) Help the Republican Party recapture its political distinction; (3) Save the souls of the politically lost; (4) Promote racial unity; (5) Create an atmosphere for political dialogue without the accusation of racism or Uncle Tomism; (6) Trump the race card.

K Carl Smith, ConservativeMessenger Training Session
7 pm Tuesday, May 21
Best Western Airport Inn & Conference Center
6815 West Kellogg, Wichita (click for map)

There is no charge to participate, but RSVPs are appreciated at sestes@afphq.org or 734-5861. Visit Frederick Douglass Republicans to learn more.

It’s so convenient to do your grocery shopping.

The tip for this week’s Wednesday #Waste story comes from @bob_weeks via our mobile app. Give it a try! bnkrpt.am/10sPdfZ

— Bankrupting America (@BankruptingAm) May 15, 2013

Former NAACP Chairman Julian Bond states on MSNBC that the targeting of Tea Party Groups by the IRS is legitimate, and compares the Tea Party to the Taliban. Thank you to Washington Free Beacon for transcript:

BOND: I hope not. I hope they don’t get any more air. They are the Taliban wing of american politics. We all ought to be a little worried about them.

ROBERTS: Sir, do you think that’s a little harsh, calling them the Taliban wing of American politics?

BOND: Not at all. The truth may hurt, but it’s the truth.

This Friday (May 17, 2013) the Wichita Pachyderm Club features Jeff Herndon, News Anchor on KAKE TV, Wichita’s ABC affiliate. The title of his presentation is “The Role of Social Media in Local News Coverage.”

The public is welcome and encouraged to attend Wichita Pachyderm Club meetings. Meetings are held almost every Friday in the Wichita Petroleum Club on the top floor of the Bank of America Building at 100 N. Broadway. The program starts at noon, and it is suggested that guests arrive by 11:45 am in order to get their lunch before the program starts. The meeting costs $10, which includes a delicious buffet lunch and beverage. For more information click on Wichita Pachyderm Club.

It’s shocking to realize the accumulated gravity of this. #WeHadNoKnowledge

Now available to view for free on hulu: “John Stossel looks at affordable medical care offered by a Oklahoma doctor. Guests debate the merits of Obama’s health care law and a veterinarian fights his state to keep his online consultations active.”

For background, see Ambassador Hotel Industrial Revenue Bonds: The City of Wichita should not approve a measure that is not needed, that does not conform to the city’s policy (based on relevant information not disclosed to citizens), and which is steeped in cronyism.

Amazingly Obama actually said the following quote just days before the IRS scandal broke.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Unfortunately, you’ve grown up hearing voices that incessantly warn of government as nothing more than some separate, sinister entity that’s at the root of all our problems. Some of these same voices also do their best to gum up the works. They’ll warn that tyranny always lurking just around the corner. You should reject these voices. Because what they suggest is that our brave, and creative, and unique experiment in self-rule is somehow just a sham with which we can’t be trusted.

We have never been a people who place all our faith in government to solve our problems. We shouldn’t want to. But we don’t think the government is the source of all our problems, either. Because we understand that this democracy is ours. And as citizens, we understand that it’s not about what America can do for us, it’s about what can be done by us, together, through the hard and frustrating but absolutely necessary work of self-government. And class of 2013, you have to be involved in that process.

From NetRightDaily, a project of Americans for Limited Government.

I think I’m most troubled by the city seemingly not concerned about the lease payments or the water bill. I’ll be surprised if NBC is ever able to pay these debts.

An internal audit of the city-owned National Baseball Congress’ books shows its operators are more than a quarter-million dollars in debt and two years in arrears to the city on lease payments for Lawrence-Dumont Stadium. …

As a result of the audit, city officials have put in place a series of financial requirements, Layton said Monday, including a demand that the Wingnuts pay off a $138,000 debt to the city — $66,000 in back lease payments for 2011 and 2012, along with a delinquent $72,000 water bill — by Nov. 1.

Continue reading at City audit of National Baseball Congress ’ books reveals quarter-million-dollar debt, delinquent payments.

From Americans for Limited Government:

ALG demands congressional investigation into IRS targeting of tea party

May 13, 2013, Fairfax, VA — Americans for Limited Government President Nathan Mehrens today issued the following statement urging Congress to investigate the Internal Revenue Service’s admission that it was targeting groups for audits on the basis of their tea party affiliation:

“The use of the nation’s tax agency to target groups for audit and review on the basis of political leanings is an egregious abuse of power. This is beyond Nixonian in its flagrant disregard for the rule of law as it was intended to stifle dissent, and now there must be accountability. We know the Democrat-controlled Senate will not be bothered to inquire what happened, but the House of Representatives can and should use its power to subpoena witnesses to get to the bottom of this scandal. Our laws either apply equally to all citizens and citizen groups regardless of political leanings, or we have become nothing more than a banana republic.”

Original article is ALG demands congressional investigation into IRS targeting of tea party.

From Reason.tv:

“Milton Friedman said the true cost of government is what we spend, not what we tax. We ultimately have to pay for this,” says Jonathan Bydlak, president of the Coalition to Reduce Spending and former director of fundraising for Ron Paul’s 2008 presidential campaign. “If we’re not paying for it now, we’ll pay for it tomorrow.”

The non-partisan coalition encourages politicians to sign a pledge agreeing to consider all spending open for reduction, including defense and entitlements. Politicians who sign the pledge also promise to vote against any spending increase unless it’s offset by spending cuts. Thirty-nine candidates for federal office have already signed the pledge; among them are Ted Cruz (R-Fla), Mark Sanford (R-S.C.), and Doug Collins (R-Ga.).

Bydlak sat down with Reason’s Nick Gillespie to discuss the group, the growing problem of government spending, and which big ticket items should be cut.

For more, see Coalition to Reduce Spending.

Kansas has not considered “parent trigger” laws, which let parents force changes to underperforming schools. Given the record of school reform legislation in Kansas this year, I doubt such a law would make much progress. Kansas schoolchildren will have to wait another year.

From Education Next:

“Parent Trigger” Laws Spark Debate Over Strategies for School Reform

Laws give parents more leverage for demanding school improvement, but will they result in legal battles or better schools?

CAMBRIDGE, MA — Parent trigger laws allow a majority of parents at a low-performing school to vote to convert a school to an independently-run charter school or force major staff changes. In a forum released today by Education Next, Ben Austin and Michael J. Petrilli discuss the hurdles parent trigger groups face and whether parents really can turn around chronically failing schools. “Pulling the Parent Trigger” is now available at www.educationnext.org.

Ben Austin, whose Parent Revolution group championed the nation’s first parent trigger law in California in 2010, states that “politicians across the political spectrum find common ground around the simple notion of giving parents power over the education of their own children.” Without an “organized parent effort applying pressure to the system,” he writes, bureaucratic inertia keeps low-performing schools the same year after year.

Parent trigger laws give parents in disadvantaged neighborhoods more power at the table where decisions are made, Austin notes, as they permit a 51 percent parent majority to force a school turnaround or conversion to a charter school. In Adelanto, California, for example, the school board recently approved the parents’ petition to convert Desert Trails Elementary School to a charter this fall, managed by a highly qualified, nonprofit charter operator.

Austin argues that the parent trigger is a more effective tool for low-income parents than policies that focus on expanded school choice (including public and private schools). He notes that low-income parents need improved schools for their children in their neighborhoods, and they often lack the financial resources and/or access to information that wider school choice options require. He stresses that meaningful change for low-income families rests on public school improvement, the sole focus of parent trigger laws.

Petrilli agrees that strengthening parent power over their children’s education is imperative, but doubts that trigger laws will result in significant improvement in schools, even if parent groups are able to surmount formidable opposition from the education bureaucracy. The lawsuits and negative publicity that bedeviled the movement in California, for example, show that “successfully pulling the parent trigger is going to be a slow, expensive slog anywhere that school boards choose to resist.”

Even if triggers are successfully pulled, both charter school conversions and school turnarounds are problematic, Petrilli notes. Public schools that have converted to charters often come to be seen as “faux charters” that gain a few operational freedoms, but not enough to make a difference. School districts and boards often are indifferent to these converted charters and the schools do not thrive; districts are also reluctant to embrace turnarounds that they did not want.

A more constructive reform strategy, argues Petrilli, is to continue to expand school choice through new, high-quality options. With more independent charter schools, growing digital learning options, and the expansion of opportunities for private school choice via taxpayer-funded scholarship programs, the nation will have “lots more excellent options from which parents can choose,” and school choice at scale might “finally force districts to improve.”

The full articles are at Pulling the Parent Trigger.

A Wichita auto dealer wants to build a new facility in a different location, so approval of a Kansas state bureaucrat is required. The Kansas Register informs us so.

Although I think it’s unlikely this application will be rejected, this is another example of the overreach of Kansas regulation to the detriment of commerce. Besides this application, the same dealer will make a separate application to move its Lexus dealership.

More on this issue is at Kansas auto dealers benefit from anti-competitive law.

Kansas Senator Michael O’Donnell comments via his Facebook profile on an unbelievable event that happened in the Wichita school system. The article O’Donnell links to is Heights High suspends senior class president over Twitter post.

Tomorrow, the student that is the subject of this controversy will appear on the Joseph Ashby Show.

From the office of U.S. Representative Mike Pompeo, a Republican who represents the Kansas fourth district, including Wichita:

Rep. Mike Pompeo Introduces Light Aircraft Revitalization Act of 2013

Washington — Today, Congressman Mike Pompeo, R-Kansas, will introduce the Light Aircraft Revitalization Act (LARA), which would cut regulations on the general aviation industry and thereby improve safety, decrease costs, and free private-sector innovation. The bill is cosponsored by Dan Lipinski, D-IL, Sam Graves, R-MO, Todd Rokita, R-IN, and Rick Nolan, D-MN.

The bill addresses a number of challenges facing the general aviation industry caused by outdated regulation, including the steady decline in new pilots, flight activity, and the sales of new small general aviation airplanes. For example, the average general aviation airplane is 40 years old.

Over the last 18 months, the FAA Part 23 Reorganization Aviation Rulemaking Committee (ARC), composed of aviation authorities and industry representatives from around the world, has worked to create a regulatory environment that will contribute significantly to revitalizing the health and safety of new and existing light airplanes. LARA requires the implementation of the Part 23 ARC recommendations by the end of 2015.

“General aviation has never asked for a bailout, but we can cut red tape and at the same time improve safety, effectively revitalizing the industry by cutting the cost of new planes,” said Congressman Pompeo. “The existing outdated certification process needlessly increases the cost of safety and technology upgrades by up to 10 times. With this bill, we can ensure that the general aviation industry has what it needs to thrive.”

“Congressman Mike Pompeo has long been a champion of general aviation, and we applaud his efforts to move this process forward,” said Michael Thacker, Cessna’s senior vice president of engineering. “The active and willing participation of the FAA and other international regulatory bodies has been critical to the success of this effort so far.”

“We appreciate Congressman Pompeo’s leadership on this important legislation that spurs the FAA to adopt regulatory change to double the safety and cut certification costs in half for light general aviation airplanes,” said GAMA President and CEO Pete Bunce. “We look forward to working with him and other members of Congress in moving this legislation forward.”

More information about this bill is on its Govtrak.us page at H.R. 1848: To ensure that the Federal Aviation Administration advances the safety of small airplanes, and the continued development of the general aviation industry, and for other purposes.

A gold standard takes the management of money out of the hands of politicians and bureaucrats, and that’s good. From LearnLiberty.org, a project of Institute for Humane Studies:

Before 1974, U.S. dollars were backed by gold. This meant that the federal government could not print more money than it could redeem for gold. While this constrained the federal government, it also provided citizens with a relatively stable purchasing power for goods and services. Today’s paper currency has no intrinsic value. It is not based on the value of gold or anything else. Under a gold standard, inflation was really limited. With floating value, or fiat, currency, however, some countries have seen inflation reach extremely high levels — sometimes enough to lead to economic collapse. Gold standards have historically provided more stable currencies with lower inflation than fiat currency. Should the United States return to a gold standard?

This Friday (May 10, 2013) the Wichita Pachyderm Club features Dwight D. Keen, who is Chairman of KIOGA (Kansas Independent Oil & Gas Association). His topic is “The Role of Government in Energy Development.”

The public is welcome and encouraged to attend Wichita Pachyderm Club meetings. Meetings are held almost every Friday in the Wichita Petroleum Club on the top floor of the Bank of America Building at 100 N. Broadway. The program starts at noon, and it is suggested that guests arrive by 11:45 am in order to get their lunch before the program starts. The meeting costs $10, which includes a delicious buffet lunch and beverage. For more information click on Wichita Pachyderm Club.

Due to a shortage of water, Wichita’s Waltzing Waters may not be used this year. The Wichita Eagle reports in WaterWalk fountains may not be turned on this summer due to water shortage. Other problems with this fountain is noted in Waltzing Waters fountains undergoing repairs.

This Friday (May 3, 2013) the Wichita Pachyderm Club features Dr. John Bardo, President of Wichita State University. His topic will be “Globalization, the New Economy, and Regionalism; the Role of Wichita State University.”

The public is welcome and encouraged to attend Wichita Pachyderm Club meetings. Meetings are held almost every Friday in the Wichita Petroleum Club on the top floor of the Bank of America Building at 100 N. Broadway. The program starts at noon, and it is suggested that guests arrive by 11:45 am in order to get their lunch before the program starts. The meeting costs $10, which includes a delicious buffet lunch and beverage. For more information click on Wichita Pachyderm Club.