President Obama’s inability to “man up” to the malfeasance connected with his administration, coupled with an inability to tell the truth, appears to be a pathological characteristic of his presidency.

“Hope and change” has been replaced with an ethos of cynicism and duplicity.

With the election of her husband, Michelle Obama said, “For the first time in my life, I am proud of my country.” After America has been repeatedly lied to by Obama, who falsely claimed that you could keep your doctor and your health insurance, is the first lady still proud?

Fortunately for the Obama family, they are exempt from Obamacare. Apparently the cook is too good to sit at the same table with the proletariat.

Republican attempts to remove the special carve-outs for Congress under Obamacare were blocked in a party-line vote by the Democratic majority at the time. Is there no limit to the hypocrisy of this president and the Democratic Party?

If you have employer-based insurance, get ready. The other shoe has yet to drop. When the employer mandate kicks in, millions more Americans will lose their coverage and be forced into the uncertainty of overpriced Obamacare exchanges.

After five years of experience with the empty rhetoric of this administration, can anyone seriously have confidence in anything its people say or do?

Bush Jr. showed respect
The Hutchinson News | November 26, 2014
by Gregory H. Bontrager

I frequently had concerns about the policies of President George Bush Jr. but I never questioned his integrity or patriotism.

He placed the welfare of the country above partisan politics and tried to do the right thing for all of us.

I miss the respect he showed the American people and the honesty he brought to our White House.

Appreciating Reagan
Topeka-Capital Journal - October 29, 2013
by Gregory H. Bontrager

The foundation for our modern military and economic growth was established during the Reagan era. All the left-wing revisionism in the world can’t change that.

President Ronald Reagan pulled the United States out of recession within the first two years of his administration and placed the nation on the road to unprecedented prosperity. He did this with sound economic policy and an ability to work with people of differing political views. That is an attribute profoundly lacking in the current administration.

Reagan navigated government shutdowns that were managed as painlessly as possible. That, too, is unlike the Obama administration, which uses every opportunity to treat the American people as if they are pawns to be played for maximum political effect.

If Ronald Reagan had been elected in 2008, the recession of that year would be a receding memory. Instead of fleeing the country to escape unreasonable taxation and regulation, a renaissance would be sweeping American businesses. The national coffers would be overflowing with tax revenue from a booming economy. Unemployment would be a fading nuisance and our military would be second to none.

A Reagan administration would promote technologies like "fracking" and the Keystone Pipeline to make us energy independent. The Chinese would never attempt to hack Reagan White House computers and Iran and North Korea would be quivering under a rock.

Instead of Reagan's vision of a "shining city on the hill," we are being guided into a slum by a Pied Piper and a Democratic Party that knows no shame.

Does anybody ever look at Al Gore and think, "My God, this guy was almost elected president?" In five years, will anybody look at Barack Obama and think, "My God, this guy got elected president twice?"

Benghazi haunts Hillary
The Hutchinson News | May 12, 2014
by Gregory H. Bontrager

Unfortunately for the Obama administration and Democratic heir apparent Hillary Clinton, the Benghazi scandal has sprouted a new pair of legs.

The four Americans who were abandoned by their country may soon become more than just another footnote in the sordid legacy of the Obama administration.

Perhaps Ms. Clinton will discover what a difference it really does make as her complicity in this sinister affair becomes apparent to even the most limited voters.

You reap what you sow, and if the American people want to continue with this progressive liberal belly flop into another presidential election cycle, Madam Clinton will make the ideal candidate.

In fairness to Clinton, she does possess that Bernie Madoff skill-set of milking the progressive Ponzi scheme until even the best and brightest have been thoroughly flimflammed.

Obama demagogues
Topeka Capital Journal - October 16, 2011
by Gregory H. Bontrager

The Kansas congressional delegation is trying to save the nation from the total mismanagement of our entitlement programs by President Obama and his misguided supporters. Every reasonable approach taken by the Republicans to solve the entitlement problem is demagogue as an attack on those most dependent on these programs.

instead of working with the Republicans, Democrats are using scare tactics to advance their political agenda.

How ludicrous to hear our president speak of fighting for the middle class when the focus of his administration has been the advancement of his job-destroying progressive agenda.

The failure of the Democrats to resolve the nation’s problems is a prelude to what will likely be the most negative presidential campaign in our history. Obama’s only hope of retaining the presidency will be by pitting class against class and race against race.

Clearly the welfare of the nation is secondary to Obama’s blind ambition for power and his allegiance to “think tank” progressive dogma.

Obama is no Reagan
Topeka Capital Journal - February 25, 2013
by Gregory H. Bontrager

If Ronald Reagan had been elected in 2008, the recession of that year would be a receding memory. Instead of fleeing the country to escape unreasonable taxation and regulation, a renaissance would be sweeping American businesses. The national coffers would be overflowing with tax revenue from a booming economy. Unemployment would be a fading nuisance and our military would be second to none.

A Reagan administration would promote technologies like “fracking” and the Keystone Pipeline to make us energy independent. The Chinese would never attempt to hack Reagan White House computers and Iran and North Korea would be quivering under a rock.

Instead of Reagan’s vision of a “shining city on the hill,” we are being guided into a slum by a Pied Piper and a Democratic Party that knows no shame.

Does anybody ever look at Al Gore and think, “My God, this guy was almost elected president?” In five years, will anybody look at Barack Obama and think, “My God, this guy got elected president twice?”

Obama re-election a national mistake
Topeka Capital Journal - November 10, 2012
by Gregory H. Bontrager

With the re-election of Barack Obama, the United States has officially become a banana republic. From a nation that produced patriots like Ronald Reagan and John Kennedy, we have knowingly selected the lowest common denominator as our commander in chief.

From China to Iran, the enemies of freedom can now breathe a collective sigh of relief as the citizens of the United States have placed an empty suit at the helm of state. To think the American people would select Barack Obama over a man like Mitt Romney is a national embarrassment that we will not soon overcome.

Never in history has a nation so great fallen so far, so fast, as ours did on Nov. 6, 2012. Albert Einstein said, "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." Using this definition, anyone who expects anything.

Liberal invasion
The Hutchinson News | Posted Apr 11, 2013
by Gregory H. Bontrager

The intrusion into our lives by well-meaning progressives has become pervasive. Who would have believed that the mayor of a major American city would try to mandate the size of the soda you could buy or that an appointed 15-person panel in Washington, D.C., would dictate the medical treatment you may receive.

Progressive liberals have one thing in common: They know what's better for you than you do. They give us utopian promises backed by trillion-dollar deficits, crony capitalism and a stagnant economy. All they ask in return for "utopia" is your freedom, while exempting themselves from the same rules the rest of us are mandated to live by.

Will New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg or the Hollywood elite be placed on a waiting list to see the doctor or denied medical treatment? Will they be forced to walk down streets with guards who are not permitted to carry semiautomatic weapons? Of course not, but these same elitists will demand this of you and your family.

Into the abyss
Topeka Capital Journal - December 25, 2011
by Gregory H. Bontrager

America is being held hostage by the most destructive force in modern history. This malignant force didn’t come from Russia or China, but the halls of Harvard and a cadre of ultra-left, America-hating higher educational organizations.

The end result of this education is Barack Obama, a confused, disorganized, incompetent mentality who can only survive in the fish bowl of the cloistered halls of some Ivy League world of make believe. We find ourselves spiraling into the abyss, led by a clueless narcissist who will stop at nothing to extend his failed regime without a wit of concern that he is dragging the rest of us down with him.

Merry Christmas, Jimmy Carter, your place as the most incompetent president in history has been taken by Obama.

Sharpton, Jackson racially
profiled Zimmerman
Topeka Capital Journal - July 27, 2013
by Gregory H. Bontrager

Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson aren’t interested in truth or justice. They are just making a living doing what they do best, race-baiting an innocent man.

Without a wit of concern that George Zimmerman was defending himself from a violent assault by a stranger in the darkness, these men of God profiled Zimmerman based on his racial ethnicity because he dared to defend himself from an African-American assailant.

These self-proclaimed leaders of the civil rights movement chose a course of high-profile demagoguery by appealing to the base instincts of the mob.

We have come to know the shenanigans of Sharpton and Jackson all too well. We can only hope more rational leaders among the African-American community will have the courage to step up and provide an alternative to the antics of these two cynical opportunists.

Seal the border
The Hutchinson News
July 5, 2013 12:00 am | Updated: Feb 25, 2014.
by Gregory H. Bontrager

If the Mexican government spent as much time and energy protecting its citizens from human traffickers and drug dealers as it does race-baiting the United States, maybe a lot of suffering could be avoided. If you are worried about the Mexican people, ask the Mexican government what it is doing to protect its citizens? Zero.

The fact is the Mexican government is pimping its citizens out for cold hard U.S. cash. That's it in a nutshell: money! Mexican men, woman and children abused, degraded and murdered by fellow Mexicans, all done with the complicity of the Calderon administration.

What are the words to that old song? "I ain' t got no-body." It's not American guns or drug-users or evil corporations driving up the body count in Mexico, it's greed for U.S. currency and an overriding disregard for the welfare of its own citizens, driven by the oldest motivator in the world: money.

Who got bin Laden?
Topeka-Capital Journal - January 12, 2011
by Gregory H. Bontrager

Did Obama kill Osama? No! If not for the groundwork of George Bush and Dick Cheney, Osama bin Laden could have been living in Trump Tower and the Obama administration wouldn't have had a clue.

Our brave Navy SEAL's, using information obtained from enhanced interrogation techniques and the policies of Bush/Cheney, led us to bin Laden, while the single greatest accomplishment of President Obama is to take credit for the work of someone else.

You can't have it both ways: If you're going to blame everything on "eight years of Bush," you have to give him credit for the demise of bin Laden too.

The Obama disaster
Topeka-Capital Journal - April 5, 2010
by Gregory H. Bontrager

Within a year the full weight of the Obama disaster has become apparent. The democratic mantra of "the stimulus saved the economy" is a lie. The "stimulus" is nothing more than years of pent-up pork barrel spending financed on a sea of barrowed Chinese cash.

While schools close and unemployment lines swell, does our "new left" savior acknowledge his mistake? No, in true demagogic fashion he blames others for his failure and seeks to expand his disastrous policies with the claim "we haven't gone far enough." The health care plan is going to lower the deficit - like unemployment won't go above 8 percent, right?

Our government is in the hands of ne'er-do-wells who haven't got a clue beyond a youth spent in Ivy League classrooms that reek of half-baked socialist theory, educated idiots who couldn't organize a trip to the outhouse; cocktail party liberals like Barack Obama who seek to take from those who succeed and redistribute to those who don't.

Their indoctrination into left-wing dogma is complete, what Fidel Castro or Chairman Mao couldn't do "out of the barrel of a gun" our schools and universities have done in masterful fashion. These "angels of light" have hijacked our "shining city on the hill" and are transforming it into another bankrupt people's dog pile.

Thomas pegs Obama
Topeka-Capital Journal - July 20, 2009
by Gregory H. Bontrager

Once again, syndicated columnist Cal Thomas was on the mark. His insight, expressed in a recent column, into Obama's belief that a good press release or putting on a good show in front of a teleprompter makes for sound policy is so true.

The fact is, Obama is all fluff and very little substance. It's unfortunate that some liberals in this country swoon every time they see his face and fail to realize it's backed by a head filled with tried and failed left-wing policies as old as Karl Heinrich Marx.

Down the road to oblivion we travel, with the belief that Obama's pretty face and glib syntax are going to save us from something.

Develop our own energy resources
Topeka-Capital Journal - September 20, 2012
by Gregory H. Bontrager

The United States sits on untapped oil reserves estimated up to 2.3 trillion barrels, three times the reserves of OPEC. We are also the world’s largest producer of natural gas and coal.

So why do we spend billions importing petroleum from hostile powers and enriching our enemies when we are literally the energy capital of the world? This energy can be obtained safely but we allow misguided politicians and eco-radicals to block our path to energy independence and the revitalization of our economy.

In the meantime, we sit on an untapped gold mine that could free us of debt from China and dependence on Middle East principalities that hate us. We should be reaping the reward of our own natural resources. Energy independence by 2020 is an easily obtainable goal. The alternative is bondage to foreign powers that gloat at our misfortune.

The presidential election this November will be decisive in determining if the United States remains a superpower or fades into the obscurity of history.

Judiciary's integrity iffy
The Hutchinson News - Febuary 10, 2010
by Gregory H. Bontrager

There needs to be a comprehensive investigation of the 27th judicial district. In my view, The Hutchinson News article of Nov. 27 represents the tip of the iceberg. I don't think this is a problem with one judge, but a result of having elected officials whom the community has allowed to take up residency in their positions.

An examination of various attorneys and their relationship with the Reno County courts is in order. From personal experience I have called into question the conduct of our legal/judicial system as it relates to civil issues in Reno County. I believe cronyism and favoritism are rampant in the 27th district.

I am of the opinion the Commission on Judicial Qualifications' primary roll is not to protect the citizenry from bad judges, but to protect judges from legitimate grievances of the public. I personally have had a local attorney refuse to take me as a client because I filed a complaint against one of our local judges. I was warned by another attorney to drop my complaint "because this is a small town with a long memory."

Such is the political environment in Reno County. Lawyers who have to appear before the same judge year after year have more concern for their careers than the welfare of their clients.

U.S. Energy flaws
Kansas City Star | 07/05/2013
by Gregory H. Bontrager

Once again, the Obama administration has proved itself tone deaf to the energy needs of the American people by lacing his desire to appease the radicals of the eco-left ahead of the security and economic needs of the nation.

Clean, abundant coal with the thousands of jobs it created was the first casualty. Now the Keystone XL pipeline continues to be held hostage by the administration despite empirical evidence of the safety and viability of the project.

It would appear that on the food chain of political priorities, the welfare of the nation ranks behind a minority of environmental radicals who view us and our energy needs as an impediment to their extreme agenda. All it would take is the stroke of the president’s pen and Keystone with all its benefits would become a reality.

Death panels are here
The Hutchinson News | October 14, 2014
by Gregory H. Bontrager

Obamacare isn’t going to call them death panels. The pattern will play out similar to the VA scandal. By limiting timely access to healthcare by using administrative delays, they are rationing healthcare. In effect, they have created death panels by allowing those most in need to die before receiving an appointment for medical treatment.

This is no longer in the realm of theory; faceless, nameless bureaucrats who sit at desks and care more about budgets and hiding mistakes will coldly, callously let you die.

What makes you think Barack Obama, who is off for a round of golf after the brutal beheading of a fellow American, will spend much time worrying about the fate of you and your family?

U.S. receding as power
The Hutchinson News | August 29, 2014
by Gregory H. Bontrager

It’s almost biblical the way the United States is receding as the pre-eminent World power. And with our decline chaos follows. We lack even the rudimentary political will to control our own borders, much less our vital interests around the world. As Friedrich Nietzsche said generations ago “out of chaos comes order.” The frightening thing is Nietzsche’s kind of order comes at the price of our freedom and if you live in the Middle East … maybe your head.

As the forces of darkness coalesce around our “shining city on the hill” feckless self-serving cowards inhabit the seats of power in Washington. Our enemies' fear has turned into mocking laughter, as this stranded giant can’t even stop foreign children from walking across our border in broad daylight. Deviant lifestyles are taught as if they were normal in our schools and left-wing disinformation is passed off as truth.

Day by day the agencies responsible for maintaining order are being used as tools to spy on and persecute honest citizens because of their political views. As free American citizens it is time that we reassert our constitutional sovereignty and take back our government from leftist usurpers who are determined to save us from ourselves whether we like it or not.

http://www.kansas.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/article1328595.html

Muslims...Take Christian Children
And Behead Them, Rape And Kill
Their Mothers, And Hang Their Fathers
By Theodore Shoebat

Third world invasion has begun
The Hutchinson News | July 21, 2014
by Gregory H. Bontrager

The third world invasion of the United States has begun. Not in darkness but in broad daylight the invaders walk across our southern border unchecked and are fed, housed and clothed at taxpayer expense.

At the same time the most highly trained soldiers in the world are receiving pink slips in the field and receiving shoddy medical treatment at home.

Among the invaders are a fifth column of gang members and violent criminals who pass themselves off as children.
Is this just another unintended consequence of the most incompetent administration in history or a calculated effort to polarize the electorate along racial lines?

When all you have to offer is six years of total failure the only strategy left is to divide and conquer.

Grow a spine
The Wichita Eagle
by Gregory H. Bontrager

Wouldn’t it be neat if President Obama would grow a spine when dealing with third-rate thugs like Vladimir Putin or the mullahs in Iran? As it is, the only people getting the shaft by our fearless leader are American citizens and allies like Israel who have discovered through bitter experience how expendable they have become in the politically expedient world of Obama.

The burden of fear has been lifted from the shoulders of the Putins of the world as the administration retreats into the fantasy that stuff like climate change is as big a threat to humanity as Iran getting a nuke or Putin invading Ukraine.

If the Obama administration had spent as much effort working with Republicans as it does deceiving low-information voters or weaponizing the IRS to target political opponents, perhaps prosperity instead of angst would be the hallmark of this failed administration.
http://www.kansas.com/2014/03/21/3357436/letters-to-the-editor-on-birth.html
http://www.hutchnews.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/article_75d5b558-b722-5953-b319-c0c7eedea8ec.html
http://cjonline.com/opinion/2014-04-08/letter-obamas-leadership-wea
http://www.kansascity.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/article511265/Television-noise-guns-National-Time-Out.html

Holder beholden to wrong cause
Topeka Capital Journal - September 10, 2013
by Gregory H. Bontrager

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder won’t be fired or resign because he is invaluable to President Barack Obama’s plans for America. Holder can be counted on to do the bidding of his master without question. Throughout history, it has been impossible for leaders like Obama to operate without functionaries like Holder.

Holder’s allegiance is not to the Constitution but to his political philosophy, which benevolently masquerades behind the iron fists of such agencies as the Internal Revenue Service.

With disregard for the law, this administration has shown a willingness to use government agencies in a chilling attempt to silence its political opponents. Using executive orders, Obama has shown contempt for constitutional authority by imposing his will on a population that has already spoken.

Obama succeeding at incompetence
Topeka Capital Journal - February 3, 2014
by Gregory H. Bontrager

If incompetence were an Olympic event, President Barack Obama would win the gold. Across the board and in every category, this Harvard-educated community organizer has set a new standard in how to mess things up.

If there is a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, just stand back and let Barack be Barack. From the South China Sea to the finest health care system in the world, calamity follows in the wake of this clueless left-winger whose primary skill is standing in front of a teleprompter telling one lie after another.

Does Obama really care about the plight of the American people? Ask former Defense Secretary Robert Gates. or the 5.6 million innocent Americans who have been unceremoniously kicked off their health insurance plans.

The United States has a problem, for sure. It’s the “ends justify the means” philosophy of progressive liberals like Obama and the academic elitists like Zeke Emanuel. These folks know what’s better for you than you do, and think nothing of using the coercive power of the state to force you into submission.

Obama Zone
The Wichita Eagle | Sep. 11, 2012
by Gregory H. Bontrager

You unlock this door with the key of intellectual dishonesty. Beyond this door is another dimension – a dimension of lies, a dimension of deceit, a dimension of unparalleled failure.

You’re moving into a land of both darkness and despair, of a downgraded credit rating and a $16 trillion deficit. You’ve crossed into a land where middle-class income dropped by 5 percent, and with the worst economic recovery since the Great Depression.

Congratulations, you’ve just crossed over into the Obama Zone.

Third-rate leaders
The Hutchinson News | 9/29/13-Updated: 2/25/14
by Gregory H. Bontrager

When progressive liberals, including the president, are confronted with opposing points of view, they often resort to unfounded accusations or name-calling of the crudest sort. Bigotry and prejudice are unpardonable, except when they do it.

Progressives feel justified in their own hypocrisy, which is why we have IRS-type scandals. They consider themselves morally superior to the rest of us, so normal rules of conduct don't apply to them. Only in partisan Obama circles could the last five years be touted as a success.

Domestic and international policies are formulated in stumbling ad-hoc leaps resulting in one failure after another. To progressives, success is determined by ideology rather than what is in the best interest of the people. We are a first-class nation with third-rate leaders who have made us the laughingstock of the world.

Letter: Stealing technology
Topeka Capital Journal -September 4, 2011
by Gregory H. Bontrager

While the United States slumbers, an insidious assault is being perpetrated against our nation by the People's
Republic of China. As reported by Peter Brookes of the Heritage Foundation (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bk
iPQ-sJE), the United States has become a virtual supermarket of unabated theft of military and commercial technology.

With our preoccupation with the war on terror, this looming superpower - more powerful and deadly than the former Soviet Union - is aggressively seeking to supplant the United States as the preeminent military and economic power on the globe.

Following a policy of appeasement, the Obama administration has abysmally failed to protect the American people from the Chinese. Why design for yourself when you can steal the best. And steal they do, from nuclear warheads to toaster ovens. According to Brooks, the PRC has 3,500 front companies in the U.S. whose sole purpose is the theft of our technology.

While Red China plays military and economic hardball, the Obama administration remains oblivious, exposing America to what may be the greatest threat to our national survival in modern history.

This is a friend?
Topeka Capital Journal -April 28, 2011
by Gregory H. Bontrager

Potential presidential candidate Donald Trump has finally had the nerve to use the “C” word — you know, that 800-pound gorilla in the room that everyone seems to ignore. China steals our technology with impunity and has implanted malware in our power grid.

The Chinese have a specially designed ballistic missile just waiting to take out our carrier battle groups. They manipulate their currency to take unfair advantage of us, and we owe them tons of money. But I guess we don’t have anything to worry about do we? They are our friends, right?

When we watch the media’s coverage of President Obama, are we viewing professional journalism or another episode of American Idol? The tough, relentless questioning that follows congressional Republicans vanishes when the media is covering the Democratic/Obama left.

From Benghazi to the “fiscal cliff,” the Obama regime has been given a softball pass by NBC, ABC and CBS. These once great news organizations have become grotesque caricatures as they shill for the “most transparent administration in history.”

The only light in this dark room has been provided by Fox News. On critical issues, Fox is routinely excluded from White house briefings. According to White House adviser David Axelrod, “Fox is not a real news organization.” Could it be that Fox tells the American people the uncomfortable truth instead of the administration spin?

As twilight descends on objective Journalism in America, the only firewall between the American people and the complete subjugation of the press by the progressive/Obama left has been Fox News.

Beck the brilliant
Salina Journal- November 12, 2009
by Gregory H. Bontrager

Glenn Beck of Fox News is a brilliant entertainer who overstates the truth the way truth is supposed to be overstated. The left is wilted by his blistering, hard-hitting persona and they just can't stand it.

With his impromptu style, Mr. Beck makes the toes of the neo-Marxist Obama administration curl like the Wicked Witch of the East in Munchkin Land. The closest thing the left can muster is Keith Olbermann of MSNBC. If he's the best you can do, all hands abandon ship. Um ... is that Barney Frank boarding that life boat?

Remember, if you repeat the truth over and over again someone will believe it. This is why the Obama administration hates Mr. Beck and Fox News with a passion

No friend to America
The Hutchinson News | Feb 03, 2011
by Gregory H. Bontrager

Godfather of the progressive movement, billionaire George Soros of The Open Society Institute is silently trying to destabilize the American democracy. Hiding behind well-financed front organizations, this Judas, who as a youth during World War II assisted in confiscating property of fellow Jews (as revealed in a 1998 "60 Minutes" interview), hides his nefarious financial empire offshore to avoid the scrutiny of U.S. financial regulators. He will use any means necessary to reshape the world in his own twisted, left-wing image.

With billions of dollars and insidious fifth-column maneuverings, Soros is attempting to encircle independent media outlets and replace the truth with his progressive "one world" dogma. What happens to those who stray from Soros' path? Ask Juan Williams, formerly of National Public Radio.

Using mouthpieces like the Huffington Post, Soros is relentlessly moving toward the destruction of our core American values.

Unfortunately, Mr. Soros has run into a problem; fearlessly, Glenn Beck of Fox News is exposing this elitist socialist in his insidious plot to reshape our nation and the world in his own distorted, godless image. If Mr. Soros is successful in his endeavor, hopefully we will receive better treatment than he gave his fellow Hungarian Jews 65 years ago.

Abused orders
Topeka-Capital Journal - February 24, 2010
by Gregory H. Bontrager

Officers shortchanged
Topeka-Capital Journal - March 03, 2008
by Gregory H. Bontrager

How does it feel to be slapped in the face? If you are a corrections officer in Kansas, you know. The sad fact is the slap didn't come from an inmate, but the Legislature.

Instead of being recognized for safeguarding the safety and welfare of the community, we are being treated like a doormat. While legislators sit safely in guarded chambers and walk on polished marble floors, corrections officers walk on hard concrete with the sound of steel on steel and the ever-present danger of sudden physical assault.

At a time when assaults on staff are increasing, coupled with an overwhelming turnover rate, the Legislature is attempting to reduce the standard of living of Kansas Department of Corrections employees. It is attempting to take away our cost of living increase, our longevity pay and, in a feeble attempt to appease us, it wishes to issue an insulting 1.5 percent wage increase.

Add to this that inmates of the KDOC can take grievances to Topeka for review, but the Legislature is attempting to take away that right for corrections officers. Inmates seem to have gained more rights than law-abiding citizens. As citizens, we pay for gas, medical care, food and a roof over our heads; this is all provided to inmates at taxpayer expense.

Kansans should be outraged at the treatment we are receiving from our elected leaders. Kansas corrections officers rank 40th in pay in the United States. Corrections officers represent part of the thin line that stands between "them" and the community. With every action the Legislature takes, that line is becoming thinner.

While legislators retire with hefty pensions, the dedicated men and woman of the KDOC will continue to sink into a low standard of living while working in an increasingly violent environment

Beware of 'predator'
The Hutchinson News - Febuary 23, 2010
by Gregory H. Bontrager

Citizens of the United States beware. At this moment, you are being stalked by a cunning, sophisticated predator. Thousands of American men and women have fallen victim to this ruthless hunter. The tool this predator uses is a smile, and the warm embrace of a lover.

This predator has one goal, to gain entry into the United States by marrying an American citizen. Once this objective is accomplished, you have served your purpose. You will be discarded like a rag.

Be assured this predator is not alone. He or she will have access to attorneys who specialize in distorting the intent of our legal system.

No matter how unethical, they will get the job done. The predator, through legal maneuvering, is now transformed into a "victim."