Bushies screw Kansas again. First it was the Air Force Tanker, now it looks like the Bush administration, aided and abetted by Roberts and Tiahrt, are rigging a government contract to go to their political allies. This time it's the contract for a bio-defense lab. Manhattan, Kansas, is still in the running, but the fix may be in.

Before Martin Luther King, Jr., there was A. Philip Randolph. Without A. Philip Randolph, no Martin Luther King, Jr.

After Randolph led a 12-year campaign to win a union contract for the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, he was catapulted into the top ranks of African-American leaders. In 1941, he launched the March on Washington Movement (MOWM) and compelled President Roosevelt to issue an executive order outlawing discrimination in defense production. Randolph continued the struggle and the MOWM during WWII. At its 1943, the MOWM adopted a policy of non-violent direct action to fight discrimination. After the war, Randolph led the campaign that integrated the Armed Services. In 1962, Randolph and Bayard Rustin conceived the idea for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Randolph was, fittingly, the lead speaker at that 1963 event and, just as appropriately introduced Martin Luther King, Jr.

I'm not sure if "hero" is the right word, but I've decided to start a weekly series featuring some of the political and intellectual giants of the American democratic left. (I may include some non-Americans such as George Orwell or Tommy Douglass who have had a profound lasting impact on the American democratic left.)

Norman Thomas is first up, partly because Rick Hertzberg recently blogged about him after neo-con David Frumm mistakenly called Thomas an "adamant isolationist."

Here's what Hertzberg wrote...

In May of 2005, a 3-member subcommittee of the Kansas State Board of Education held hearings to determine whether Darwin's long-held Theory of Evolution should be challenged in public-school science curriculum. At stake was, in effect, the definition of science for Kansas schoolchildren.

Kansas vs. Darwin takes you inside the hearings to meet the characters who captured the world's attention: school board members who believe their literal interpretation of the Bible trumps modern scientific evidence, and members of the Intelligent Design Network who believe mainstream science is conspiring to suppress evidence that would overturn evolution. You'll also get face to face with an organization of Kansas scientists, educators, and citizens that organizes a worldwide response to put an end to what they see as a religiously-motivated kangaroo court.

Kansas vs. Darwin is a heady, absorbing swirl of politics, science, religion, education and emotion in which the filmmakers unflinchingly race from one, compelling point of view to its polar opposite in order to challenge the viewer's own opinions. Audiences may experience discomfort as they plunge to the heart of one of mankind's most central questions of existence - and to the epicenter of the American culture war.

I'm beginning to think that North Carolina Senator Libby Dole, married to one-time Kansan Bob Dole, might be the dimmest bulb in the United States Senate.

Now I don't follow North Carolina politics closely, but here are two real bone-headed moves.

On June 23, US Senate Jim Slattery meet with a group of union activists from the IAM and other unions to discuss his campaign. This is the first of several YouTube clips I'll post here. In this video, he makes an off-the-cuff summary of why he's running.

I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity, and independence bequeathed by your fathers is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought light and healing to you has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. - Frederick Douglass, 1852 Independence Day speech

More thoughts for this Fourth of July weekend...

Is Kansas Secretary of State Ron Thornburgh playing politics with the November ballot? Ballot Access News reports:

The ballot-qualified Kansas Reform Party held its state convention back on May 31, and nominated candidates for office, including presidential electors pledged to Chuck Baldwin for president. On June 27, the party turned in the paperwork for these nominations. The Kansas Secretary of State has hinted that he won’t allow the party to do this...

Roberts should have known that it was unfair to ask Boeing to compete with a company subsidized by European governments.

At a press conference in Wichita Tuesday, Jim Slattery, Candidate for US Senate for Kansas, criticized incumbent Senator Pat Roberts’ role in the removal of a precisely worded "Buy American" provision from the 2006 Defense Authorization Bill. The removal of the provision allowed European Aeronautic Defence and Space (EADS) to compete with Boeing for the Air Force tanker contract.

“Roberts had two chances to fight for Boeing and Kansas,” Slattery said. “First as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and then as a member of the conference committee for the 2006 Defense Authorization bill. On both occasions, Roberts failed.”

The explicit purpose of the provision was to prevent EADS from competing against Boeing for the Air Force tanker contract.

Tuesday was the filing deadline for Republican and Democratic primaries in Kansas. Kansas Democrats are is an upbeat mood with a...

full slate of candidates running this year for federal office and the State Board of Education and will also have more legislative candidates on the ballot than ever before. In 2004, Kansas Democrats contested 62 Republican-held legislative seats. This year, the Kansas Democratic Party has candidates running in 134 seats, including 77 seats currently held by Republicans.