http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2010/dec/07/kansas-gov-elect-sam-brownback-name-cabinet-tuesda/
For the cabinet position pertinent to this forum :D, Governor-Elect Sam Brownback has announced that current KDOT secretary Deb Miller will be retained. Miller was initially appointed by Sebelius in 2003.
Not too sure on the politics that go on in Topeka, but from the road user's point of view, KDOT has continued to do excellent work during Miller's term, so I can't see anything bad about her staying on.
I was actually hoping Brownback would keep Miller on, so I am pleased by this news. Brownback has a reputation for being a social conservative (he was an evangelical Christian at one point, but has converted to Catholicism), so he has had a fair number of people running scared. Personally I think he will govern as a political moderate, though it is difficult to say what will happen if, e.g., there is another push for more restrictions on abortion.
Quote from: J N Winkler on December 08, 2010, 05:23:40 PM
though it is difficult to say what will happen if, e.g., there is another push for more restrictions on abortion.
IMHO That point is irrelevant to this thread it should not have any effect on transportation in Kansas.
Abortion per se is not directly relevant to transportation in Kansas, but political polarization in general is unhealthy for agendas which call for significant levels of tax finance--roads being one.
Haven't you heard about the new highway they're building to the abortion clinic?
That joke hits too close to home in Wichita. Dr. Tiller's clinic used to be right on Kellogg (US 54) and when the anti-abortion protesters tried to shut it down during the Summer of Mercy in 1991, they shut down Kellogg too. (At the time it was a four-lane divided surface boulevard--the expansion to full freeway standard opened around 2006.)
Quote from: J N Winkler on December 08, 2010, 05:54:58 PM
the anti-abortion protesters tried to shut it down during the Summer of Mercy in 1991, they shut down Kellogg too. (At the time it was a four-lane divided surface boulevard--the expansion to full freeway standard opened around 2006.)
That's just civil disobedience. Or, are only those on the political left allowed to use it?
EDIT:
JN, I am willing to remove my posts if you remove references to abortion.
Or, at the very least, we can drop it here.
I don't want to get into an abortion argument but I always hate when people on this forum put out political and or religious subject that are contentious that have little or no relevance to the issue at hand.
Guys, don't make me ask Scott for a padlock.
Quote from: mightyace on December 08, 2010, 06:06:06 PMQuote from: J N Winkler on December 08, 2010, 05:54:58 PMthe anti-abortion protesters tried to shut it down during the Summer of Mercy in 1991, they shut down Kellogg too. (At the time it was a four-lane divided surface boulevard--the expansion to full freeway standard opened around 2006.)
That's just civil disobedience. Or, are only those on the political left allowed to use it?
I don't really understand the motivation for this question. I only said that the protests shut down Kellogg; I didn't offer an opinion as to whether they were justified or not. In general I think it is dangerous to have a fixed, categorical opinion on the usefulness and moral justification of political protest regardless of the group engaging in it and whether that group's cause can be characterized as right or left.
QuoteEDIT:
JN, I am willing to remove my posts if you remove references to abortion.
I don't want to get into an abortion argument but I always hate when people on this forum put out political and or religious subject that are contentious that have little or no relevance to the issue at hand.
The reference to abortion was intended to highlight the fact that divisive issues surface from time to time in Kansas politics, not to express a view one way or the other. I also did not spell it out in detail in my previous post, but Brownback has a reputation as a political chameleon. As a department head in the 1990's, he was regarded as a progressive. The evangelical Christianity and conversion to Catholicism came later, while he was a US senator. This has prompted an editorial (http://stateofthestateks.com/2010/10/21/insight-kansas-editorial-will-the-real-sam-brownback-please-stand-up/) on a site dedicated to Kansas politics under the title, "Will the real Sam Brownback please stand up?" On the abortion issue itself Brownback has been tagged as pro-choice and pro-life at different times. For me personally, it matters less what Brownback thinks about abortion and more that his stated views on it are a marker of how changeable his opinions have proved to be in time.
My personal view, and it is only that, is that Brownback will govern as a moderate on most issues. But he is still a bit of an unknown quantity (since his election, as a popular Republican in a Republican-leaning state, was essentially a coronation) and there is no shortage of divisive issues. Some of them, like abortion, don't have much of a bearing on the public budget. Other perennially controversial issues, like school finance and state approval of new coal-fired power plants, have knock-on effects on transportation because they either influence the demand for transportation facilities or the amounts of money that are available to build them, or both.
Quote from: J N Winkler on December 08, 2010, 07:21:42 PM
I only said that the protests shut down Kellogg; I didn't offer an opinion as to whether they were justified or not. In general I think it is dangerous to have a fixed, categorical opinion on the usefulness and moral justification of political protest regardless of the group engaging in it and whether that group's cause can be characterized as right or left.
I apologize, you are correct on that point.
As for the rest, I better understand your viewpoint and am willing to call it a truce at this point.
Quote from: J N Winkler on December 08, 2010, 07:21:42 PM
divisive issues surface from time to time in Kansas politics, not to express a view one way or the other.
That's an understatement as Kansas was one of the hotspots in the the debate over slavery prior to the American Civil War.