Regular readers of the best liberal E-zine in Wichita (that would be us) know of our continued opposition to Christofascist Todd Tiahrt who supposedly represents Sedgwick County. This is the second election in which Maggot Punk members have canvassed the town knocking on doors, distributing flyers and talk person to person about how awful a representative Tiahrt is for the community. We must be doing something right because the conservative newspaper "reporter" Dion Lefler wasted some time mocking and insulting us for our campaign activities.

To clear up the many reasons why we oppose Todd Tiahrt we'll have to explain how he votes. The Wichita Eagle does a sparse job on following Republican candidates in office so the public is largely uninformed about how Tiahrt doesn't represent their interests.

Tiahrt's Environmental Record

Tiahrt has one of the worst environmental records in Congress. The Sierra Club has recorded that he continually votes against environmental protections. Every year since 2000 he has voted against every bill that would protect the environment. To his credit in 2000 he voted pro-environment on a bill that would protect the Delaware River from damaging dredging. The Delaware River is, of course, not in Kansas so Tiahrt does a better job of protecting the environment closer to where he lives rather than in the community he represents.

An example of the bad environmental policies he supports can be found on the Sierra Club political page. Some examples includes his opposition to increased fuel efficiency standards. Think about how you are paying $2 a gallon for gasoline and thank Tiahrt for doing nothing to decrease consumption. Although a 25% increase in national fuel efficiency would mean we would no longer be dependent on Middle East oil thereby increasing national security he voted to give more oil money to those regimes that support terrorists. Also that means more money in the pockets of oil companies which pay lobbyists to give a lot of gifts to politicians like Tiahrt. No matter, Japan will make more fuel efficient cars gaining a larger part of the market thereby taking more jobs out of America but Tiahrt doesn't care about your job.

Tiahrt was in favor of more arsenic in your drinking water, drilling and mining in our national monuments, more pollution in the scenic Yellowstone, legislation that would allow industries to increase the amount they pollute the air and drinking water, and he was in favor of giving huge tax incentives to mega rich oil and gas companies. So if you are in favor of more pollution, higher gas prices and more involvement in Middle Eastern politics then Tiahrt's your man. If you think clean drinking water, and clean air is a good idea then Tiahrt isn't for you.

Tiahrt and Jobs

The AFL-CIO tracks legislation that primarily involves labor issues. No surprise that Tiahrt doesn't represent the working person. This past year Tiahrt has had an awful record protecting jobs, good pay and job safety. Keep in mind this is a guy who promised to impose term limits upon himself but changed his mind upon getting into office. We should keep him to his promise of term limits and vote him out of office.

The most recent record by the AFL-CIO is in 2001 so it doesn't reflect Tiahrt's continued votes to deprive working people of overtime pay. Common sense says that if you work hard you should get paid for your hard work. Tiahrt thinks those who work over 40 hours a week shouldn't get any special recognition. Anyway, here's a sample of Tiahrt's votes on labor issues.

He voted to drain the Social Security surplus in order to pay for Bush's tax cuts for the rich (Tiahrt also supported that). Therefore money that you have earned and paid into the Social Security fund won't be there so some rich guy (like Tiahrt) can buy a yacht. Tiahrt gets a huge pension after he leaves so he won't even need Social Security. Tiahrt voted in favor of school vouchers which would take money away from the public school program because it's needed to be dispersed over a much larger school system that included private and religious schools. Many families have two working parents (some work multiple jobs) so they can't afford the extra expense of private schools nor do they have the time for homeschool so they are forced to send them to even more underfunded public schools had Tiahrt been successful with his scheme to bankrupt public schools. As mentioned before he voted for the mega tax cut for the rich in which 1% of the population (those making over $373,000) would get 38% of the tax cut (make that the highest 2% and they get 60% of the tax cut). Less tax revenue means less social programs so it's just more money out of the working class who must pay higher fees and higher local taxes to make up for the loss of public revenue. Tiahrt voted against an economic stimulus plan that would extend unemployment benefits to those affected by the terrorist attacks. Many of those worked in the Wichita community who were laid off by Boeing. In 2004 Tiahrt voted to allow companies to get federal defense contracts even if those companies moved the manufacturing jobs overseas. Local airplane manufacturers get a lot of defense contracts so that's just a vote to send local jobs to Mexico.

So if you like working, like better pay, like benefits and like more money in your pocket then don't vote for Tiahrt because he thinks those corporations that give him huge contributions are more deserving of the money you work hard for.

Tiahrt on Civil Rights

It's no surprise that Tiahrt get's a 100% rating on the Christian Coalition scorecard. For someone who hates freedom of religion, freedom of speech, medical advancements, women's rights and gays he is their man. Heck, such thought would probably lead one's son to kill himself because he can't tolerate the insensitive bigotry at home. Somebody a bit less biased (the CC did lose their tax exempt status over their biased voter guides after all), let's look to the ACLU scorecard to grasp how Tiahrt voted on civil rights issues. No surprise he voted in favor of Big Brother government than protecting the rights of the American citizen.

Tiahrt is a rabid anti-choicer, that's no surprise. He would sooner have a woman die than allow her to have an abortion that would save her life. Even in countries where there is a much higher death rate through birth complications he denied them funding in the name of conservative compassion (he even denied them birth control because dying from starvation is better than wearing a condom). Don't let those children who couldn't be aborted be adopted because Tiahrt doesn't like adoption. He voted against allowing gays to adopt children prefering children to rot in orphanages until they are 18. For some reason he really hates gays. He doesn't think they should get health care even when their partner pays for it, nor should they even be allowed to work. Goodness, didn't Tiahrt's kind do that to the Jews back in the day? In the manner of freedom of religion he isn't in favor of it. When children go to school he feels they should be forced to pray to Jesus and have the taxpayers set up chapels in schools, or force the starving to accept Jesus in order to get a taxpayer funded meal. Tiahrt even supported the anti-rave bill that would ban raves. Why ban raves? Probably because Tiahrt doesn't like the music or something. To top it off Tiahrt doesn't even think racial minorities should have the right to vote so he voted for legislation that would make it more difficult for them to vote. Well heck, can't have them voting because if we actually counted all the votes from African-American communities in Florida then Gore would be sitting in the White House. It must really irk Tiahrt that his opponent is a minority. His opponent is Michael Kinard, who unlike Tiahrt, has worked to educate and better the community of Wichita and is much more qualified to hold office.

Book of the day: Fahrenheit 9/11 by Michael Moore

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