HUTCHINSON, Kan. - It's easy to become discouraged listening to the litany of bad news about the economy. This is particularly true if your information is coming from the rant radio crowd. One can imagine Limbaugh at the point of wetting himself as he gleefully reports the latest figures.

However when listening to the figures relating to declining home purchases it struck me that this could be considered a very positive indicator.

GREAT BEND, Kan. - Our local, state, and federal governments heavily regulate individual conduct by people. Let's say I took a gallon of gas and threw it on my neighbor's front lawn. I would find myself in the Barton County jail for "criminal damage to property."

When I drive to work each day, I can only travel 20 mph through school zones, and 30 miles per hour elsewhere in town. If I break the law, I get pulled over and get a traffic ticket. The criminal codes that regulate people prevent you from hurting others, or yourself.

For good reason, we make it illegal for people to speed, text while driving, steal, commit arson, and drive while drunk. We make it illegal for people to push another person down on the street, to pull a gun or knife on another person. We make it illegal to smoke marijuana, to smoke in public, and to use illegal drugs.

BASEHOR, Kan. - In this month's Harper's magazine, the magazine's Washington editor, Ken Silverstein, puts together a scary picture of what right-wing Republican, Tea Party, no-taxes governance in action looks like.

Look no farther than Arizona.

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MCDOWELL CREEK, Kan. - I have often wondered what the Plains Indians felt as hide hunters killed off their bison--the vast herds which were the center of their lives. These days, the poor folks along the Gulf can no doubt identify with those indigenous peoples--and the helpless rage and pain they must have felt. As plumes of oil, toxic to humans and wildlife, invade their beaches, fisheries, and wetlands, they can only stand by and watch helplessly, unable to protect what they love and live from. "I get tears in my eyes, because when you'd pull into that marsh previously, fish would jump and scurry," said one Louisiana resident (quoted in Newsweek), describing a ruined wetland. "[Afterwards,] ain't a bird, ain't a bug, nothing....Everything was dead."

Though the spill in the Gulf was an accident, and the killing of the bison was intentional, there are similarities between the two catastrophes. Both were the result of market forces too big for their actual settings. President Obama and Attorney General Holder have raised the possibility of criminal prosecutions: Given the number of safety violations that BP stands accused of, it may in fact turn out that the Gulf has been savaged by criminals.

BASEHOR, Kan. - I'm torn. I can see both sides of an issue that's very dear to me: General Aviation flying, particularly from small community airports. As a smartaleck once said, "If a man can see both sides of a problem, you know that none of his money is tied up in it." Well, that's me: I don't have any money tied up in it directly. But, as a taxpayer and a community supporter, I do have money tied up in it.

There's a major effort underway in General Aviation (GA) to save as many small- and medium-sized airports as possible from shutting down and, at the same time, to protect the users of those airports from increased fees and taxes. General Aviation, by the way, is a term that refers to just about anything other than scheduled passenger service by the airlines.

GREAT BEND, Kan. - The Kansas Chamber of Commerce scolded 14 local chambers of commerce on Thursday for supporting a tax increase to fix the yawning Kansas budget deficit. The starkly differing constituencies of the KCCI (Kansas Chamber of Commerce and Industry) and local chambers of commerce can no longer be papered over.

The KCCI supports huge transnational corporations. The local chambers support Main Street. The KCCI supports far-right libertarian thought. The local chamber groups supports small businesses, whether owned by Republicans, Democrats, Independents, or non-political types.

I assume these local chambers of commerce pay dues to belong to the mother organization: the KCCI. Expect some defections. You can expect this recent dustup to be the prelude for more infighting between the 'mothership' and the local chambers. The KCCI is completely out of touch with small business, and is not worthy of being paid dues by any local chamber of commerce in the State of Kansas.

MCDOWELL CREEK, Kan. - "Families have to balance their budgets," my Republican friend said to me, "and the state should, too." We were discussing Kansas's latest round of budget cuts. I had expressed a worry that deeper cuts would eliminate even more jobs and that insufficient spending on education and infrastructure would undermine long-term recovery. Afterwards, I thought about the family as a metaphor for the state. What if we pushed the analogy further?

A few days ago, I was in a post office in another community, waiting to mail a package. I had spent the previous day on the phone and then on-line, trying to get the USPS's click 'n ship to work. The USPS has been urging customers to complete transactions on-line; but after many hours of frustration -- and multiple "chats" with on-line help -- I learned that the zip code I was trying to mail to had not yet been entered into the system. Hence, my trip to an actual, physical post office. There I found a line of customers extending out the door and around the lobby. I was recovering from surgery and unsteady on my feet, so my package and I leaned against various spots on various walls as the line crept toward the two employees at the counter.

GREAT BEND, Kan. - The results are in, unemployment in Kansas jumped during the month of January from 6.2% to 7.1%. Kansas needs jobs; no one will argue with that. Kansas needs good paying jobs, jobs where a person can work hard, receive a paycheck and not have to worry about food at the end of the month. That should not be a debate.

It is no secret legislature in Kansas has continued to hand out tax exemptions and
give sweetheart deals to major corporations for years, while at the same time enacting tax cuts. Now the state is in trouble and according to The Pew Center On The States, a nonpartisan organization, it may be several years before our states realize just how dire our budget situation is. This is because of two reasons - people in the state of Kansas will need monetary support from the state while they are unemployed, and people are spending less. Both issues have only just begun. When people spend less money that means less revenue, or taxes for the state, this will begin to really hit the budget in the next fiscal year.

WICHITA, Kan. - Like many other progressives, I voted for President Obama with the hope that he could facilitate positive change. But, alas, on issue after issue, Obama has been playing a one-note samba titled "Let the corporations have their way." The guy who was elected because he was "from the outside" has put in place a team that seems to be full of insiders.

In regard to our expectation that Obama would rein-in the banking industry, it's frustrating to find out the banking industry is not only fighting rule changes, but virtually the same rules and same people are still in place that led to our economic crisis.

I agree with Thomas Jefferson, who said, "If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their money, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them (around the banks), will deprive the people of their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered."