Notes from the Kansas GOP Caucus

I just got back from attending the Kansas Republican caucus for Sedgwick and Butler Counties, conducted in the Century II convention center in downtown Wichita. The caucus was scheduled to begin at 10:00, but attendees were urged to arrive before 9:00. At 10:00, officials announced that over 3,000 were in the auditorium, and the line outside was still several blocks long. So they delayed the start awhile to let everyone get in.

Kansans tend to be a taciturn bunch, so there was not a lot of the raucous shouting and foot-stomping that accompanies political gatherings elsewhere.

Still, it was obvious that many folks came to this event with passion for their candidates, and the Republican Party in general. Rep. Todd Tiahart (R-KS) brought the crowd to their feet several times with a rousing reminder of why this country cannot afford a Democrat in the White House.

As expected, the Ron Paul crowd wins the Spirit Award for the greatest number of campaign posters and most eccentric outfits.

The Huckabee contingent was almost as loud, but apparently the Huckabee campaign is having a little cash crunch, judging from this photo.

After all the speeches and hoopla were done, it was time to get down to business and cast our votes.

An interesting side story: I sat next to a middle-aged woman who has two sons serving in the U. S. Army. One, an officer, just returned from a tour of duty in Iraq. The other, an enlisted man, is still there. She confirmed what I have heard so often from others who have loved ones in harm’s way in this war. Those who serve are fully committed to the rightness of our mission there. The worst thing this country could do would be to yank these warriors out of Iraq before the job is completed. As much as this mother wanted her sons home safe and sound, she was more concerned that they come home with honor, having accomplished what they were sent to do. She was at this caucus to prevent a surrender Democrat from besmirching the honor of her sons. God bless her!

On the way out of the convention center, I snapped this photo. This is what it’s all about.

The Rules in the Global Warming Debate

Let me see if I have this right:

Skeptics of global warming are not allowed to reference any weather anomalies that might suggest the earth is cooling, not warming — and there are plenty of those this winter (or see the government’s own data here).

But the global warming alarmists, like Sen. John Kerry, are free to point to a single storm system as definitive proof that global warming is on the verge of destroying the planet.

As Mike Gallagher notes,

The obsession that liberals have with global warming has gotten so out of hand that they sound like a bunch of mental patients in an asylum.

Consider for a moment what a clever strategy this is: it’s too cold outside, must be global warming. Too hot? Global warming. Hurricanes? Tornadoes? Floods? Global warming all.

It really is enough to make you heave.

Ordinary people can sense when they are being dealt a rigged hand. And this game is definitely rigged.