March 15 (Bloomberg) — It is looking more and more like the Democratic Party’s idea of health-care reform will be enacted, notwithstanding the election of Scott Brown in Massachusetts and the opposition of the American people.

If the legislation does survive the gathering political storm, then it will present historians with a fascinating puzzle. In the 1990s, President Bill Clinton tried to enact universal health care, and his failure wiped out the Democratic Party in the next election. In 2010, history may show, President Barack Obama won passage of health-care legislation, and his success wiped out the Democratic Party in the next election, if not beyond.

The economy is still limping along, but some members of Congress are nevertheless riding in style: At least 10 House members are spending more than $1,000 a month in taxpayer money to lease cars.

Rep. Emanuel Cleaver appears to be the biggest spender.

In the last quarter of 2009, the Missouri Democrat doled out $2,900 a month to lease a WiFi-equipped, handicap-accessible mobile office that runs on used cooking oil.

The political commentariat doesn’t know what to make of those thousands of Americans who have spontaneously thronged to tea parties and town hall meetings to oppose the big government programs of the Obama administration and Democratic congressional leaders.

Some on the left attack them as fascists or racists, though evidence of that is sorely lacking. David Brooks in The New York Times compared them to the New Left campus radicals of the 1970s, which comes closer to reality but doesn’t quite ring true.

I come before you a humbled man, dear reader, hat in hand and foot in mouth.  For years, I have decried the Roe Decision as bad law with no solid precedence.  I was wrong, and have learned the error of my way.  Justice Blackmun was following a fine legal tradition when he delivered the much maligned opinion of the court.

What brought about this jurisprudential epiphany?  As is often the case, it began with an innocent, only moderately related, conversation.  I was involved in a conversation the topic of which was that Kansas Supreme Court Justice Carole Beier was a ridiculous excuse for a judge.  Anytime you discuss corrupt, insane and or booze-addled judges, one name must come to mind - Judge Roy Bean.  We were, and it did, but I was a little bit surprised when I was asked to explain exactly why Bean was a member of the incompetent judge Hall of Fame. (more…)

Hodge writes at a RedState diary entry:

Sam Brownback cannot be taken seriously while ex-banker Lynn Mitchelson remains a campaign co-chair.

Some questions for future Kansas Governor Sam Brownback:

1. Why did you choose a provably corrupt public official to be a campaign co-chair?
2. Why is part of your campaign team giving a no-bid legal contract to the Democratic Party Chairman’s law firm, at the largest Kansas college, and when the college’s lawyer has clear ethical problems?
3. Are you trying to make Sarah Palin’s PAC look like a well-run organization?
4. Should we assume that you have given up hopes of becoming a future US President?
5. Is this how you plan on running the State of Kansas - through reckless acts of incompetence, corruption, and cover-ups, then followed by failed attempts to intimidate your critics (and even top news agencies)?  That’s what your choice of campaign co-chairs tells us.
6. Do you realize that for every one liberal “Republican” to whom your campaign is reaching out, you are losing - perhaps permanently - the support of two or three conservative voters?
7. Really, Senator? Really?

RedState readers, I can explain to you the national banking crisis, in three words:  Meet Lynn Mitchelson.

For 15 years, the ex-banker Lynn Mitchelson has been one of seven at-large elected trustees at Johnson County Community College.  In large part because he is now unelectable, Mitchelson will permanently retire from public office in 2011.

Mitchelson once had a reputation in Kansas City as someone who could “fix banks.”  Troubled banks would hire him as a temporary CEO, and, in theory, he would bring them back to health.   But now that his record in elected office is widely known, I’ll be surprised if he is ever again hired by a bank.  Why?  Because he is directly responsible for much of lawlessness, failed cover-ups, and retaliation that has become commonplace at JCCC.  The only thing more embarrassing than the corruption in which Mitchelson has participated, is that he has been so unsuccessful at carrying it out.  I did not properly understand the phrase “the cover-up is worse than the crime,” until I had witnessed first-hand Mitchelson at work.  Time and time again, Mitchelson’s actions have brought national embarrassment to this college, the largest college in Kansas.

I had not planned on writing about Mitchelson’s work, but today I’ve learned that JCCC leaders have made malicious, baseless legal threats directly to the top conservative news organization RedCounty.com, where I have written in detail about JCCC’s culture of corruption.

Inexplicably, the once-thought-to-be-conservative Sam Brownback months ago made Mitchelson a key part of Brownback’s 2010 campaign for governor, even though Mitchelson’s public record was already well-known.  Brownback campaign manager David Kensinger - who apparently is under the illusion that Brownback can literally do whatever he wants, and that Brownback then will automatically receive the enthusiastic support of conservatives - doesn’t want to talk about it.

Click here to read the rest of the article.

Daylight Saving Time begins early tomorrow morning, but, according to the latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey, 47% of Americans don’t think the time change is worth the hassle. Forty percent (40%) disagree, and 13% more aren’t sure.
These figures are unchanged from our survey last October, when Daylight Saving Time for 2009 ended.
Men tend more than than women to think advancing the clock an hour to guarantee more sunlight in the afternoon and evening is worth the trouble. Adults 40 to 64 are more likely to feel the change is worth the hassle than those in other age groups.

Link.

As 120 million U.S. Census forms begin to arrive in mailboxes around the country, only 13% of Americans realize that it is illegal not to answer all of the Census questions.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 57% of adults think
- incorrectly - that it is not against the law to not answer all the questions on the Census. Another 30% are not sure.

Link.

About 5 million to 7 million properties are potentially eligible for foreclosure but have not yet been repossessed and put up for sale. Some economists project it could take nearly three years before all these homes have been put on the market and purchased by new owners. And the number of pending foreclosures could grow much bigger over the coming year as more distressed borrowers become delinquent and then, if they can’t obtain mortgage relief, wade through the foreclosure process, which often takes more than a year to complete.

Some bankers still say yes.

That is hard to believe considering the drought in lending. U.S. banks posted a 7.5% decline in 2009 in total loans outstanding, the steepest percentage drop since 1942, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Consumer lending fell by 3.8% as roughly 7,200 banks and credit unions pulled back on mortgages, credit cards and other loans, according to an analysis by The Wall Street Journal.

THE Obama administration introduced a plan this week to encourage defaulting homeowners to sell their houses at a loss, the latest in a long line of reform packages promising to break the logjam of underwater mortgages. But without major changes to the bankruptcy system, such measures won’t aid the American families torn apart by the economic upheavals of the last two years.

AUSTIN - The State Board of Education tentatively approved new standards for social studies on Friday with members divided along party lines - some blasting them as a fraud and conservative whitewash, others praising them as a tribute to the Founding Fathers that rightly portrays America as an exceptional country.

The standards, which will influence history and government textbooks arriving in public schools in fall 2011, were adopted by 10 Republicans against five Democrats after weeks of debate and across a racial and ideological chasm that seemed to grow wider as the proposal was finalized Thursday.

AUSTIN, Tex. - After three days of turbulent meetings, the Texas Board of Education on Friday approved a social studies curriculum that will put a conservative stamp on history and economics textbooks, stressing the superiority of American capitalism, questioning the Founding Fathers’ commitment to a purely secular government and presenting Republican political philosophies in a more positive light.

We reported in May that after passing a millionaire surtax nearly one-third of Maryland’s millionaires had gone missing, thus contributing to a decline in state revenues. The politicians in Annapolis had said they’d collect $106 million by raising its income tax rate on millionaire households to 6.25% from 4.75%. In cities like Baltimore and Bethesda, which apply add-on income taxes, the top tax rate with the surcharge now reaches as high as 9.3%-fifth highest in the nation. Liberals said this was based on incomplete data and that rich Marylanders hadn’t fled the state.

Well, the state comptroller’s office now has the final tax return data for 2008, the first year that the higher tax rates applied. The number of millionaire tax returns fell sharply to 5,529 from 7,898 in 2007, a 30% tumble. The taxes paid by rich filers fell by 22%, and instead of their payments increasing by $106 million, they fell by some $257 million.

IF THERE IS A RECOVERY IN AMERICANS’ FINANCES, they don’t see it.

The Federal Reserve reported Thursday that the net worth of U.S. “households” increased at about a 5% annual rate in the fourth quarter, a good deal slower than the blistering 20% pace over the two previous quarters, but still a solid increase.

Not long after the news was posted on the Wall Street Journal’s Web site early that afternoon, the vituperative comments began to flow. Many simply dismissed the data as inaccurate or worse. The numbers simply didn’t jibe with what they were seeing in their own finances or those around them.

Link.

Link.

The proposal would connect Fort Worth, Oklahoma City, Wichita and Kansas City and could be moving full speed ahead if supporters can get lawmakers on board.

“It’s been an exciting project to be a part of because it keeps gaining momentum as it goes along,” said Joni Johnson of the Northern Flyer Alliance, a group who’s lobbying for the project.

On March 9, the Wichita (Kansas) City Council voted 6-0 in favor of an ordinance that aims to significantly reduce the theft of scrap metal in the city.

In 2007, the Kansas Legislature passed legislation regulating scrap metal dealers. Wichita incorporated many of the policies, but added a number of additional features to tighten the rules.

Link.

WICHITA, Kansas - Wednesday was Women’s HIV Awareness Day. Statistics say a woman in the U.S. tests positive for HIV every 35 minutes and since there’s no cure, early detection means everything. And that’s why health experts say every woman needs to be tested.

Of the state’s major population centers, Wichita leads the state in unemployment at 8.6 percent. Wichita has been hit hard by job losses in the aerospace industry. Unemployment was lowest in Lawrence at 5.8 percent.

Kansas won its 2,000th game on Thursday, joining Kentucky and North Carolina in the elite club. Taylor has been around for 57 of those wins, but he feels enough ownership that he would prefer he didn’t have to give the shirt to his mother, Jeanell. She is from Hoboken, N.J., she now lives in Lawrence and she inevitably ends up with the spoils of victory that her talented son receives on days like these.

Eric Foss, a law student from Overland Park, is chairman of KU’s student Republican group, College Republicans. Foss said the group is preparing for next semester’s campaign in big ways.

“This year, we’ve been mainly focusing on building up our organization,” Foss said. “I think conservative students and students who consider themselves Republicans are pretty fired up at this point.”