One Used-Up Athlete & One Ambitious Self-Promoter File Against Boyda

The filing deadline in the state of Kansas has passed, and there weren't any surprises associated with the filings for the 2nd Congressional District.

Republican Party:
Jim Ryun
Lynn Jenkins

Democratic Party:
Nancy E. Boyda

UPDATE: And two more!

Libertarian Party:
Robert Garrard

Reform Party:
Leslie S. Martin

Very early in Boyda's term various other names were bandied about by the national press as potential challengers, including State Representative Lee Tafanelli, Frm. Speaker of the Kansas House Doug Mays, Senate Majority Leader Derek Schmidt, and leader of the crazy brigade (Kansas Americans for Prosperity) Alan Cobb.

For one reason or another they all decided against challenging Boyda....Schmidt didn't want to run in a district he didn't live in, Tafanelli got burned early by writing an editorial saying Boyda has lost millions for the military bases when she actually hadn't, and we're just guessing Doug Mays' life is a lot easier now that he doesn't have to deal with partisan politics. As to Alan Cobb...well...he had blogs to bother instead.

Anyway, the line up is now official, and exactly has it had been for months.

By the way- we've seen some Jim Ryun yard signs in Topeka...this puppy's about to hit full swing!

Boyda & Moore Vote on Tax Relief While Republicans Lie

"Largest tax increase in history," right?

Wrong.

From the Lawrence Journal-World:

It’s a simple statement that packs a powerful political wallop.

Jim Ryun, Lynn Jenkins and Nick Jordan — all Republicans trying to unseat two Democratic congressional incumbents who represent Lawrence — say the Democrats voted for the largest tax increase in the history of the United States.

Did U.S. Rep. Nancy Boyda, whose district includes west Lawrence, and U.S. Rep. Dennis Moore, whose district includes east Lawrence, endorse such a proposal?

Both Boyda and Moore say absolutely not, and that their potential rivals are distorting the record.

And they, of course, are distorting the records of both Boyda & Moore. What actually happened?

Hours after the vote, the National Republican Congressional Committee issued a news release targeting what it considers vulnerable Democrats, and accusing them of voting for a record $683 billion tax increase.

But the Democrats say that’s not true, and so does a nonpartisan budget study group.

“It’s dishonest to claim that the budget resolution passed by the House ‘raises’ taxes,” said Moore. “The budget resolution does not change the tax code at all, but presents a fiscally responsible long-term plan for our nation’s finances, including keeping tax relief for families and the middle class,” he said.

Democrats argue the resolution envisions eliminating the budget deficit in 2012, while funding critical needs and preserving middle class tax cuts.

Repeat: it preserves the middle class tax cuts. Preserves them. End of story. Might taxes go up on the wealthiest Americans? Yes, yes they just might, but will they increase on middle class Americans. No.

But Jim Ryun is perfectly happy to lie about that.

In a speech before the anti-tax group Americans for Prosperity, Ryun said the resolution that Boyda voted for will increase the taxes on millions of Americans, including many in the middle class.

But the resolution also includes policy language that calls for middle income tax relief, including extension of the increase in the child tax credit, relief from the so-called marriage penalty, and other deductions aimed at the middle class.

“Nancy has always believed that the middle class relief should be made permanent,” said her spokesman Thomas Seay. He said the sunset clauses in Bush’s plan don’t take effect until 2011. “Nancy has said again and again that when this issue reaches a vote, she’ll support extending middle class tax relief,” Seay said.

Ryun is willfully misleading anyone who will listen to him about what this resolution did- and that is simply beneath someone who wants to represent all of us in the United States Congress.

So, fine, you don't want to take it from two Democrats that they aren't raising taxes when Republicans say they are? That's fair. How about, instead, a non-partisan group of budget analysts?

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities says the budget resolution contains no tax increase, let alone the largest in U.S. history.

The resolution approved by the House assumed that the nation’s tax law would be amended to extend some of the expiring tax cuts, especially those affecting middle class families, according to the center, which is a nonpartisan group that works on policies and programs that affect low- and moderate-income families. The costs of those tax cuts would be offset by other changes in policy, which could include eliminating the tax cuts for the very wealthy, some Democrats have argued.

Of the allegations made by the Republicans, Aviva Aron-Dine, a policy analyst with the center, said, “Our view is that that claim is inaccurate.”

She added, “The language of tax increases is very powerful. It’s important to correct the record.”

You better bet your boots it's important to correct the record. Lynn Jenkins, Jim Ryun & Nick Jordan, along with the NRCC, are all misleading voters- and, we're sorry, lying about something as fundamental as a tax increase is deeply distressing.

Don't let the Republicans lie to voters- make sure everyone knows Nancy Boyda is committed to working for middle class tax relief.

Lynn Jenkins Photo Caption Contest #3

After a week of Jenkins-related news, we're back again today with a Jenkins-related photo for your captioning pleasure. This week, a picture of Lynn Jenkins speaking at the Americans for Prosperity summit- you know, AFP are those folks who are virulently opposed to government spending...

Just thought it was a fun poke at Jenkins' hypocrisy.

Enjoy!


If anyone has any pictures of Lynn or Jim that they'd like to see featured here, e-mail us at boydabloc@gmail.com

KS AFP's Alan Cobb doesn't like us much

We've spent much of last Friday e-mailing back and forth with Alan Cobb, Executive Director of the Kansas branch of Americans for Prosperity.

He doesn't like us much.

Why? Because he doesn't like the way we represented his organization in our post about the AFP meeting of anti-government hacks in Topeka- at which Jim Ryun & Lynn Jenkins spoke.

Mr. Cobb demanded we issue a retraction- heck, take the whole post down- because we were "knowingly making a false statement(s)" about AFP.

We, very politely, told him we had done no such thing.

He, generally, didn't like that we had said AFP's stated goal was devastating cuts to government programs. We tried to explain to him that, well, his own mission statement says the goal of the organization is to cut taxes and reduce the size of the budget, which, at the federal and state level would lead to cuts in something. We just guessed as to where those cuts would be.

He didn't like that.

Excerpts of said e-mail exchanges follow. :-)

From Alan Cobb:

You have intentionally and deliberately posted false information on your blog. You have yet to provide any evidence or source for your statements about budget cuts we advocate.

No, no we haven't posted anything false- and, certainly the Americans for Prosperity web site serves as a beautiful source. He is right to say, though, that they don't lobby for specific cuts, just great big general ones. We'll get back to that in a moment.

He went on to say:

I understand you and other bloggers need to be politically provocative, but it is certainly intellectually weak, and illegal, to knowingly post untruths about groups with whom you disagree. Is the actual truth not good enough to get your folks riled up?

Gosh, tossing out insults certainly is the sign of an intellectual giants, of course. As to the "illegal" part, he supports his point by quoting for us a definition of libel.

li·bel

1. A false publication, as in writing, print, signs, or pictures, that damages a person's reputation.
2. The act of presenting such material to the public.

I suggest you change your statements to more accurately and truthfully reflect our organizations specific goals, and ideas.

Tossing out scary legal terms in an effort to strong-arm a poor, defenseless blogger into doing what you want certainly isn't very nice. Neither is knowingly misrepresenting the law in an effort to do the same thing.

Everyone, please read the definition provided by Mr. Cobb. Note the word "person's."

A plain text reading of the Kansas statute that happens to be applicable (K.S.A. @ 21-4004 for those few, few who care) and even to Mr. Cobb's definition, says libel is an offense against a person. Americans for Prosperity is a group, not a person, and, thus, would have some pretty significant hurdles to jump before they could even attempt to bring a defamation suit. We believe Mr. Cobb is an attorney, and knows that full well- which makes it that much more unfortunate that he'd threaten us so.

But all of that is silly to discuss (as we told Mr. Cobb), because nothing we've posted anywhere on this blog ever even approaches the Kansas statutory definition of defamation (which, of course, isn't nearly as simple as the cute little quote Mr. Cobb lobbed at us in his e-mail). In the end, all we've done is offered a perspective Mr. Cobb doesn't like. Unfortunately for him, that's just not illegal.

Anyway, we responded thusly:

From: Boyda Bloc
To: Alan Cobb
Subject: RE: your blog

Mr. Cobb, we will have to continue to disagree. This blog posted nothing false about your organization, we merely correctly stated your organization leads the charge for reduced federal/state spending- reduced spending equals reductions in services. The two cannot be separated.

Your STATED goal is budget reduction, lowered taxes. Your STATED goal results in massive budget cuts and the slashing of social services. Nothing we've said is false, unless you live in a world where actions have no consequences. We, sir, do not.

We've published opinion & fact & logical extensions of AFP's mission statement, and you don't like our take on it. That doesn't make it libelous, sir.

We'll gladly do one thing for you: We'll clarify. We'll be happy to point out it isn't Social Security and Education you want to see cut. It's everything- literally all programs- that could see devastating cuts due to your efforts. It wasn't precise of us to limit it to the social programs we listed, and we apologize.

We should have been more broad.

And we should also say you don't care what gets cut, who gets hurt, and what kind of havoc you cause- as long as taxes go down, and budgets don't grow. The people of Colorado thank you, I'm sure.

-BoydaBloc

In the end, Alan's right- we misspoke. We didn't commit libel, we merely didn't expound enough. They aren't calling for specific cuts in anything. They're championing cuts- ridiculous cuts- to pay for irresponsible tax policy. It might not be social programs, it might be Defense, or infrastructure maintenance- something will get cut if you cut the monies available.

So, yes, Mr. Cobb, you were right. We weren't clear. We put limits on the real damage you and your organization could do. We're dreadfully sorry- and thank you so much for giving us the chance to clarify that fact.

By the way...Mr. Cobb e-mailed us a several more times- finally saying he was asking "one more time" for us to make the changes he demanded. Hopefully this post will placate him- though, for some reason, we don't see that as a likely outcome.

And, just for giggles- here are a half dozen stories about exactly what could happen if Alan Cobb gets his way...and, wow- cuts to social services, education- even public safety as Colorado Springs is in such awful shape 55% of the city's budget is generated by sales tax..and can't afford enough people to answer 911 calls.

A Taxing Debate, BEWARE: TABOR is coming; After devastating government services in Colorado, the "Taxpayer Bill of Rights" threatens to spread, Commission's Revenue Cap Proposal Would Require Cuts in Education, Health, and Safety, and Harm Business Climate, Springs' 911 callers give up, Business leaders learn Colo. is still short on money for critical services, Fund our higher education.

(Credit where credit is due: The above picture was taken from the Americans for Prosperity web site. What on Earth are they doing to those children?)

Jenkins & Ryun: "We promise to cut funding to Social Security, Medicare, Education"

Today, Americans for Prosperity, one of the most radical anti-governement organizations active in America today, held a rally in Topeka, and two of the featured speakers were the two Republicans vying to replace Congresswoman Nancy Boyda. Characteristically, they ripped each other limb-from-limb.

You know, actually, it's funny that AFP wanted Lynn Jenkins and Jim Ryun to speak at their event. Neither one of them are what you'd call paragons of fiscal responsibility. Much to our glee, they both pointed that out.

We're just partisan bloggers, so we understand if you don't want to take our word for it. Would you prefer, instead, to take it straight from Jenkins & Ryun themselves?

[Jenkins] also blasted Ryun, accusing him of being part of the former Republican majority that ratcheted up pork-barrel spending.

"Republicans like our own Jim Ryun, voted yes and sat back and watched as our spending and debt skyrocketed," Jenkins said.

[...]

[Ryun] also criticized Jenkins for supporting what he called "irresponsible" tax hikes and for failing to commit herself to rejecting tax increases while in the Legislature. His comments echo criticisms lodged by a national anti-tax-hike group that attacked Jenkins' record last year.

Those things are so true! Club for Growth has indeed already run TV commericals in Kansas reminding voters Lynn Jenkins voted to increase taxes again and again when she was in the state legislature.

And, well, like this blog pointed out only a few weeks ago, Jim Ryun certainly never shied away from requesting earmarks when he was in Congress- and he was content to watch the number of earmarks increase 10 fold while he was in office (they've gone down since Boyda took the seat, by the way).

In the end, we shouldn't be surprised. This was just another display of two desperate politicians looking for any constituent group they can sell themselves to in order to win the nomination of their party- even if they have to deny their own realities to get it done.

Honestly, while all that wallowing in Fantasyland is beneath a federal candidate, it's actually horrifying Jim Ryun and Lynn Jenkins would even be willing to speak to an organization as radical as AFP (who, if they got their way, would eliminate ALL funding for social programs- that includes Social Security, Medicare, student loans- the list goes on and on). It's shocking to see anyone running for office tie themselves to a group who are actually dedicated to making people's lives harder.

Luckily, we have a better option in November, and while Jim Ryun and Lynn Jenkins side with radical groups who want to make all of our lives worse, we can be sure Nancy Boyda will do her best to prevent ridiculous cuts to social programs, and that she will do everything in her power to make sure the sort of irresponsible policies being proposed by Jenkins & Ryun, Inc. will never go into effect.