We spent last week soliciting notes of thanks from Kansans to this state's veterans in honor of Veterans Day. Yesterday we delivered these notes to VFW, VA and other Veterans Organizations across the state. Here are couple of the more than 300 notes we received:

Ed Outlaw: Your sacrifice of your safety and well being; separation from your family, monetary sacrifices cannot be repaid in dollars. As the Chairperson of the Democratic Veterans' Caucus (Kansas Democratic Veterans' Association), I join with all of the members of our caucus in expressing our deep gratitude for your service to the country, regardless of your party affiliation. Let us keep the flag flying for those still in harm's way.

Ruth Clark Elementary - Mrs. Black's Third Grade Class: We would like to thank you for serving our country. One reason we would like to thank you is for being brave and protecting our country from enemies. Without people like you who join the military, our country would not be a safe and free place to live. We think you are brave and a hero. Sincerely, Mrs. Black's Class - Darrin, Trever, Alan, Ricky, Madison, Dakota, Jared, Shilo, Aubrey,Brady, Destiny, Douglas, Tyler, Mimosa, Sierra, Josh, Raegen, Bryan, Cody, and Mrs. Black.

Thanks to all of you who wrote notes, and most importantly Thank You Veterans.

While we have become accustomed to Senator Brownback missing votes, this time he failed to show up for a vote that would provide much needed relief to the people of Greensburg. Although he skipped out on the vote, Brownback is taking credit for the bill nonetheless. After shirking his responsibility to the people of Kansas, Brownback adds insult to injury by making false claims of credit for helping Kansans in need.

"Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Democratic Party? Or a friend of a Democrat? Or a neighbor of one?"

Those are the sort of questions moderate Republicans can now expect to be asked after the Kansas Republican Party this weekend created a "Loyalty Committee"* to ferret out "impure" Republicans.

Hawver's Capitol Report (subscription only) has news that the KRP intends to strip Kansas Republicans of their voting privileges and party positions if there is evidence that they support anyone but Republicans. Anyone who "donates, contributes, [or] endorses a candidate other than the Republican nominee" is under the gun. No word yet whether just showing up at a Democratic event, as some well-known Republican officials have been known to do, counts as blasphemy.

Chairman Kris Kobach will lead the inquisitors in their hunt under powers granted by a change in the party constitution passed at the KRP's mid-year convention Saturday. This action accompanied a vote of "no confidence" in moderate National Committeeman Steve Cloud, which is the first step toward removing him from his post.

Kansans who are tired of having their political beliefs questioned can join a party that welcomes them by filling out this form.

* Yes, that's its actual name. Apparently the "Un-Republican Activities Committee" brought back too many memories.

The Kansas Health Policy Authority is currently touring the state (find out when they'll be in your town here) listening to Kansans' stories and soliciting ideas on how to solve the health care crisis. They'll use those ideas to put together a plan for full coverage to present to the Governor and Legislature later this year.

The Kansas Health Institute today describes how one of the first stories they've heard provides yet another example of how the current system is failing people every single day.

A couple months ago, 62-year-old Guadalupe Rios took herself to the emergency room at the University of Kansas Medical Center.

"I'd had a real bad stomach ache for like four days," she said. "It got to the point where I just couldn't take it anymore. I didn't want to go because I don't have insurance. But I had to go."

Rios, who's single, said she was in the emergency room from 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.

"At 10:30 they took me up for some tests. They said my potassium levels were low, very low. They were worried about me," she said. "I left at 8:30 the next morning."

Her bill: Around $6,000.

That's more than half of what Rios, a gift-shop clerk, earns in a year.

Rios can't get on Medicaid because her $11,000 a year salary is "too much."

How much could she make and still get on Medicaid?

$3,778.

A year.

Rios doesn't want a free ride. She wants to pay her bills and pay her fair share. But like so many other Kansans, she also simply can't afford the skyrocketing cost of health insurance and health care. She says she's avoiding other surgery because of it.

Something needs to be done, and state leaders need to hear your stories.

The Washington Post is reporting that White House Political Aide Karl Rove gave secret briefings to diplomats regarding top White House targets for the 2008 Election.

On Jan. 4, just after the 2006 elections tossed the Republicans out of congressional power, Rove met at the White House with six U.S. ambassadors to key European missions and the consul general to Bermuda while the diplomats were in Washington for a State Department conference.

According to a department letter to the Senate panel, Rove explained the White House views on the electoral disaster while Sara M. Taylor, then the director of White House political affairs, showed a PowerPoint presentation that pinned most of the electoral blame on "corrupt" GOP lawmakers and "complacent incumbents." One chart in Taylor's presentation highlighted the GOP's top 36 targets among House Democrats for the 2008 election.

On Rove's hit list where Representatives Nancy Boyda and Dennis Moore. With both of Kansas' Democratic legislators in Mr. Rove's sights, only three states have more targeted House seats.

But wait, how appropriate is it to brief Foreign Relations staff about political targets?

The briefings struck some former ambassadors as highly unusual.

"That just didn't happen. Frankly, I am shocked to hear it," said former senator James Sasser (D-Tenn.), who served as President Bill Clinton's ambassador to China in the late 1990s. "I'm one who strongly believes that politics ought to end at the water's edge."

Perhaps Mr. Rove and his staff should read up on the Hatch Act.

The Buffalo was emailed photos of a large billboard on I-70 in Kansas with the word IMPEACH written on it. At first I thought for sure it was graffiti, turns out it's for real:

The sign does not say who should be impeached. But to Muchow, it's pretty obvious - President Bush.

The "I-word" has had a resurgence. On Tuesday, 130 of the 317 e-mails sent to the office of U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Missouri Democrat, centered on impeachment - all of them in favor...

A fresh survey by the American Research Group, a Republican group, found that 45 percent of respondents said they supported launching impeachment proceedings against Bush while 46 percent said they opposed such a move.

A majority of respondents, 55 percent, said they wanted Vice President Dick Cheney out; 40 percent said they did not.