Islamaphobe Cartoon Contest

Our Muslim radio friend, Dean Obeidallah, sponsored the Draw Your Favorite  Islamaphobe Contest (you can hear Dean's show Saturdays, Ch 121 Sirius/XM). We here at TTFFIATT(IAT) can not pass up a contest, so we had two entries,  lampooning Lindsay Graham and Pamela Geller. One a professional fright-monger and the other a professional hate-monger. Not that there is anything wrong with mongers; no one has trouble with fishmongers or ice cream conemongers. The important difference is the commodity  that is being peddled.

I didn't win. Didn't even make the final eight. Dean is still my only Muslim friend (despite his error in cartoon judgement).

KS Legislature april 15

GOP stands up for individual rights - unless  you are poor 

 "25 bucks is all you get, scum! (Although many ATMs give out cash in multiples of $20) so, $20 is all you get, scum, because of FREEDOM!"

Cash is fungible, you won't be able to tell if a recipient is using his/her benefits "correctly". A person who uses TANF cash to pay rent will free up money earned at work to pay for cruises, diamond rings, municipal bonds, bail bonds, or contributions to political candidates.  (You were aware TANF requires recipients be employed). This is about government punishing poor people. If you truly cared about doing something for poor people, you would raise the minimum wage so that there would be fewer poor people.

P.S. Concerning HCR 5010 - If the Constitution gives state governments the right/duty to "protect the liberty of our People", then legislatures around the country, and in particular, the Kansas legislature, have done a pretty poor job. In particular, the efforts to making voting more difficult, the denial of health insurance to low income citizens, the shifting of tax burden from state government to local governments, and the embrace of the Laffer curve, and the creation of a system of legalized bribery called campaign contributions. Thankfully, there is a Federal government that, in some cases, can save us from our neighbors at the state capitol.

Could Something of Interest be Happening Somewhere Other Than Kansas?

Minnesota                            Kansas

Just in case you didn’t read this in the news, in 2010 the people of Minnesota elected a Democratic Governor, Mark Dayton, an heir to the Target fortune.  Gov. Dayton raised income taxes on individuals making more than $150,000 a year, and on couples earning more than $250,000. He also began raising the State minimum wage, it will reach $9.50 an hour in 2018.
I am sure that at the time, some said, “You can’t raise taxes on the Job Creators or force them to pay employees more!  The Corporations and small business owners will stop hiring, shut down, and then move away!!”
However, what they saw in Minnesota was an increase in tax revenue, an increase in employment, and an increase of the median income. Not only did the richest citizens not move away, the improving economy has increased the number of tax payers in the $150,000 + tax bracket. The state has a $1 Billion budget surplus as of January 2015. The Governor is going to apply one third of the surplus to public education. That’s right, an increase in school funds. Minnesota  also set up a State exchange under the Affordable Care Act and they expanded Medicare to make health insurance available to the poorest of it’s citizens. (Which cost the state $0).
Compare those facts to what you have read in the news. The State of Kansas stopped collecting taxes on it’s richest citizens, it has refused to increase wages for the lowest earning citizens. Budget deficits are forcing the State to delay/renege on pension promises made to employees. Funds intended for highway projects are being detoured to cover budget shortfalls. Expenses once covered by the State are being shifted to local governments who have had to raise property taxes. Public education funds that were promised are being sliced in the middle of the school year. Some Kansans who had no healthcare coverage were able to buy coverage through the Federal exchange, but the refusal to expand Medicaid has left some of our fellow citizens in a black hole of health insurance; too rich for Kansas Medicaid but too poor for subsidized coverage.
During the last election Sam Brownback said that the “Sun is shining in Kansas, don’t let anyone tell you different.” Well, facts are telling us that the sun IS shining, but apparently in Minnesota. Here, not so much.