Praeger the Prevaricator

Sandy Praeger, the RINO Insurance Commissioner for the state of Kansas, has stepped into the 2nd Congressional District between the incumbent, U.S. Rep. Lynn Jenkins, and her Democrat Party challenger, Margie Wakefield of Lawrence.

According to the Topeka Capital-Journal on October 24, "Kansas Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger said in an interview information shared by Jenkins on Medicare cuts, premium rates and policy cancellations was 'just across-the-board wrong.'" Praeger was then quoted as saying the following: "

No polices have been canceled due to [the Affordable Care Act]."

That is a flat-out lie. The fact that millions of Americans had their policies canceled due to Obamacare was the basis for Barack Obama's oft-stated claim, i.e., "If you like your health care plan, you can keep it," being named as PolitiFact's "Lie of the Year" for 2013. According to PolitiFact, "So this fall, as cancellation letters were going out to approximately 4 million Americans, the public realized Obama’s breezy assurances were wrong." 

The cancellations did not stop in 2013. According to Politico on October 17, 2014, "More than 22,000 Coloradans were informed in the past month that their health coverage will be canceled at the end of the year, state insurance authorities disclosed this week, a spike in cancellations already roiling the state’s fierce campaigns for the Senate and governor’s seat." Further:

Health plan cancellations in late 2013 exploded into a national controversy that only subsided when President Barack Obama rewrote Obamacare rules to let states and insurers revive canceled health plans and continue them for up to three years. 

Colorado was one of those states, but the Rocky Mountain State only agreed to let substandard plans continue through 2015. Ten insurers have agreed to continue their plans through 2015, Salazar noted, but the nearly 200,000 people covered by those insurers face the same cancellation notices next year if they haven’t obtained coverage that meets Obamacare standards by then.

Make no mistake about it--these plans are being canceled due to Obamacare. Praeger lied to the Capital-Journal, which should surprise no one since she has a long history of lying to advance her left-wing agendas.

Peter Hancock gets the facts wrong--again

Liberal activist Peter Hancock of the Lawrence Journal-World reported on the GOP gubernatorial primary election shortly after it was clear that Gov. Brownback had won the election. According to Hancock, Brownback won despite a "surprisingly strong showing by a virtual unknown in politics." In the same article, Hancock noted that "Secretary of State Kris Kobach handily won his GOP primary." Note that Brownback won over Winn 63% to 37%. Kobach won over Scott Morgan 65% to 35%. Apparently, Hancock believes the difference between winning "handily" and facing a "surprising strong showing" from an opponent is two percentage points.

Not content with reporting on just the election results, Hancock continued with this tidbit: "Brownback's primary win came on the same day that a new Gallup poll showed Kansas is the only state in the nation to see an increase in the number of uninsured residents since enactment of the federal health insurance law, commonly known as Obamacare." Hancock provided a link to a Kansas City Star article about the poll, but he obviously failed to read that article. If he had, he would have noticed the headline: "Kansas is the only state to see a significant increase in its uninsured rate, survey says." (My emphasis) Hancock dropped the word "significant" from his reporting. If you check out the actual Gallup poll, you'll find that two other states--Iowa and Virginia--also saw increases in their uninsured rates.

Hancock also failed to include a qualification from Kansas Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger, who supports Obamacare. According to Praeger in the Star's article, the number “appears to be an anomaly that needs more review. To have the uninsured jump that much in one year would be unprecedented.” Praeger added, “We will try to find out where the discrepancy is.”

According to the Star, Dan Witters, research director for the Well-Being Index, "did not offer an explanation for the growth in the uninsured population in Kansas. However, Kansas is among the states that have not expanded their Medicaid programs to cover more people with low incomes, an option through the Affordable Care Act."

That is true. However, 21 states that also did not expand their Medicaid programs saw decreases in their uninsured rates.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article1093005.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article1093005.html#storylink=cpy

Republicans for Kansas Values endorse Paul Davis

The Davis-Docking campaign has released a list of 104 Republicans who have, as a group that calls itself "Republicans for Kansas Values," endorsed Paul Davis, the Lawrence liberal Democrat, and his running mate, Jill Docking.

Looking through the list, the names are overwhelmingly names that appear on a list of so-called "Traditional Republicans for Common Sense." I wrote about this group in May, and made the following points:

Founding members of Traditional Republicans for Common Sense include former U.S. Sen. Sheila Frahm, former U.S. Rep. Jan Meyers, former State Sen. Dick Bond, and others who have not stood for election since the last century. It might be unfair to call these politicians “has-beens,” but there is an “All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up” feel to the group....

Former State Sen. Wint Winter, Jr. of Lawrence is also a member of Traditional Republicans for Common Sense. Winter, last elected to office in 1990, has opposed conservative Republicans for many years. For example, in November 1998 Winter and other “moderate” Republicans backed Craig Templeton over Jim Mullins, a conservative, in the election for chairman of the Douglas County Republican Party. U.S. Rep. Vince Snowbarger had just lost to Democrat Dennis Moore, leading one “moderate” to accuse Mullins of “sitting on his hands” prior to the election. Interestingly, just a few months before the chairmanship election, Templeton was the president of the short-lived Douglas County chapter of the Mainstream Coalition, a liberal organization founded by Rev. Robert Meneilly in Johnson County in 1994. The coalition’s political action committee, MAIN*PAC, actually mailed 67,000 postcards in opposition to Snowbarger’s reelection in 1998.

Is it possible that Winter was unaware of the Mainstream Coalition’s opposition to Snowbarger? Not likely. Winter’s brother, Dan, was on the Mainstream Coalition’s board of directors at the time. MAIN*PAC did its banking with Johnson County Bank, where Dan was the CEO and president.

Of course, Winter is quoted in the Davis-Docking press release along with Dick Bond, who recently accused U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts of "drinking the Kool-Aid" since he allegedly has moved to the right during recent years.

Conservative Republicans would be wise not to assign too much credibility to Republicans for Kansas Values. Their values are neither Kansas nor Republican values. Endorsing a far-left state representative who shares Barack Obama's ideology proves that.

UPDATE: Kansas Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger, Lawrence, is also a member of Republicans for Kansas Values. Earlier this year, she teamed up with Jill Docking and other liberals to form "Reroute the Roadmap." At that time, Praeger "insisted her membership in the group was not tantamount to an endorsement of Davis." Of course, that claim fits in with her tendency to stray from the truth.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/the-buzz/article337679/Praeger-continues-to-distance-herself-from-Brownback.html#storylink=cpy

(Liberal) Women for Kansas

Clockwise from left: Lisa Callahan, Janet Wright, Emira Palacios, Laura Dungan and Wakeelah Martinez
have formed a new political group called Women for Kansas. (April 28, 2014) Mike Hutmacher/ The Wichita Eagle

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2014/05/04/3439157/newly-formed-group-urging-women.html#storylink=cpy

The Wichita Eagle had an article in its May 4 edition about a new political group called Women for Kansas. According to the article, Women for Kansas' "initial goal is to defeat Brownback and Secretary of State Kris Kobach at the polls this fall. The group supports Democrats Paul Davis and Jean Schodorf to replace them."

The Eagle presented Women for Kansas as a bipartisan group of women who just got involved in politics because of their concerns with Brownback and Kobach. However, the reporter did not discuss exactly who these women are. It is extremely important for conservatives to look at the people involved with these groups to see who they are and what else they have done in the past. I recognized Emira Palacios name because I wrote about her in my book, Chapter 19: Defeating the Socialist Coalition and Restoring Our Constitutional Republic: 

I did not realize the full extent of the Socialist Coalition’s involvement with the immigration issue until Sunflower Community Action (SCA), a Wichita-based group, bused nearly 300 people to Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s home on June 15, 2013 to protest his views on illegal immigration. Fortunately, Kobach and his family, which includes four young daughters, were not home when the mob arrived.

I had never heard of SCA before, but after a quick Internet search found that the group is part of National People’s Action (NPA), a Chicago-based community organizing network with affiliates in fourteen states. In fact, Emira Palacios, a coordinator with SCA, also serves as NPA’s vice president and secretary. Palacios came to this country as an illegal immigrant more than twenty-five years ago. (SCA’s executive director, Sulma Arias, was also an illegal immigrant.) 

In the past, NPA has engaged in protests similar to the one at Kobach’s home. For example, in March 2004, NPA protested outside the home of Karl Rove, President George W. Bush’s chief political advisor, to show their support for the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act, or the DREAM Act. “If President Bush wants our [re-election] vote, he has to give us the dream,” Palacios said. According to CNN, “Palacios said Rove agreed to meet with group leaders in his garage but then chastised them for protesting in front of his house and scaring his children.” 

On May 16, 2010, Nina Easton, a Fortune magazine journalist and Fox News contributor, called police around 4:10 p.m. to report that there were at least 500 protesters on her neighbor’s property in Chevy Chase, Maryland. The neighbor, Bank of America executive Greg Baer, was not home at the time. However, his fourteen-year-old son was. Out of fear, he locked himself in a bathroom. The protest was organized by NPA and SEIU. 

A month before the protest at Baer’s home, NPA and SEIU staged a similar protest at the home of JP Morgan Chase executive Peter Scher.

NPA was founded in 1972 by Shel Trapp and Gale Cincotta, Alinskyite community organizers based in Chicago. How far to the left is Palacios' SCA? According to the group’s website, in high school, Louis Goseland, SCA’s director of organizing, “threw himself at any opportunity to organize his fellow students and quickly found himself immersed in the local activist community.” “From an early age, I was exposed to the power of organized people,” Goseland writes. “My mother was a long time member of the Communications Workers of America, my grandmother is a long-time activist for the rights of women, and my father is a radical in every sense of the word.” Democratic Socialists of America has identified Goseland as a DSA member who participated in Occupy Wichita. Two of the three books Goseland recommends SCA's website are Rules for Radicals by Saul Alinsky and Dynamics of Organizing by Shel Trapp. In June 2013, Goseland’s groups on Facebook included Wichita Democratic Socialists, Occupy Wichita and Kansas, Socialist Party USA, and WSU College Democrats. 

Did the Eagle mention Palacios' leadership roles in the radical SCA and NPA? No. The reporter merely noted that she is "a facilitator at Seed House-Casa de la Semilla in Wichita."

A visit to Women for Kansas' website also turns up some interesting information. As I noted earlier this week, Kansas Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger is an honorary chair of the group. She apparently has no problem teaming up with a woman who thought it was all right to demonstrate at the home of a fellow Republican.

Another honorary chair is a Johnson County lawyer named Judith Deedy. Deedy has been in the news lately because she is the executive director of a group called Game On for Kansas Schools. Game On portrays itself as "a nonpartisan grassroots effort."  However, an inadvertent email exposes that claim as a lie. That email demonstrated that Game On is taking direction from the Davis gubernatorial campaign. Deedy is also a member of the Mainstream Coalition. Despite its name, the Mainstream Coalition is far from mainstream. I wrote a report on the group 15 years ago, which you can read here.

It doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out the game plan here. Groups with innocuous-sounding names are preparing to form a coalition to defeat Brownback and Kobach this fall. These groups will all be closely aligned with the Davis and Schodorf campaigns, but will be portrayed as grass-roots efforts by those in the media who are ignorant and/or complicit. Sandy Praeger will assist these groups as a prominent Republican in the state to give the groups bipartisan cover. Note that Praeger is also part of an anti-Brownback group called Reroute the Roadmap. Two other Republican women, Rochelle Chronister and Sheila Frahm, also founded this group. Like Praeger, Chronister and Frahm, who lost to Brownback in the 1996 GOP primary election for the seat vacated by Bob Dole, are honorary chairs of Women for Kansas. Three Democrat women, Joan Wagnon, Laura Kelly, and Jill Docking, also founded Reroute the Roadmap. Docking, of course, is Paul Davis' running mate.

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2014/05/04/3439157/newly-formed-group-urging-women.html#storylink=cpy

   

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2014/05/04/3439157/newly-formed-group-urging-women.html#storylink=cpy

Sandy Praeger prepares to betray her party

The Wichita Eagle reported over the weekend that a new group, Women for Kansas (I'll have more about the radical leaders of this group in a future post), has formed to work towards the defeat of Governor Sam Brownback and Secretary of State Kris Kobach, both Republicans, this November.

Interestingly, the Women for Kansas website lists Kansas Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger, also a Republican, as an honorary co-chair.

Praeger has run as a Republican during her entire political career, has benefited from the votes of Republicans, and endorsed Brownback for governor in 2010. Praeger herself was on the ballot in 2010 to seek her third four-year term as insurance commissioner. She is not seeking re-election this November.

I usually vote for Republicans, but have never voted for Praeger for one simple reason: She is a very dishonest person.

In April 1997, then-State Sen. Sandy Praeger visited Eudora High School and made the following statement:

"Many people think they ought to be able to carry a gun for protection. Statistics show that the national crime rate is on the decline, while accidents related to guns, particularly those involving children, have increased."

(Source: Vickie Hull, "Senator Praeger talks to EHS government classes," The Eudora News, April 24, 1997. p. 1.)

Praeger lied to those students. According to the National Safety Council, there were 64 percent fewer fatal firearm accidents among children in 1995 than in 1975. In addition, the National Center for Health Statistics reported in 1994 that fatal firearms accidents fell to the lowest annual number since record-keeping began in 1903.

At the time Praeger lied to these students, it was true that the national crime rate was on the decline. However, the crime rate was on the increase in Kansas, which had not yet allowed the right to carry. I asked Praeger this question at a Chamber of Commerce "Eggs and Issues" breakfast on April 26, 1997:

"During the years following Florida's enactment of the right to carry in 1987, that state experienced a significant decline in violent-crime rates. During the same years, the Koch Crime Commission reported that Kansas experienced a significant increase in violent-crime rates. How do you explain this?"

Praeger's response? "Statistics can be used to show anything." She then went on to cite statistics concerning the national crime rate and accidental death rates, including the lie she told the students.

Why do I bring up Praeger's lie from 17 years ago? Because Praeger has never been shy about lying to advance her agenda during her entire political career. Keep this in mind as she teams up with Paul Davis in his quixotic quest to unseat Sam Brownback.