C111205 05/16/2012 SPENCE FOR GOVERNOR James Vaughn 83 River Rd. West Newbury MA 01985 Self Solar Project Developer 5/16/2012 $20,000.00
C111205 05/16/2012 SPENCE FOR GOVERNOR Douglas Albrecht 16 Upper Ladue Rd. St Louis MO 63124 Bodley Group Chairman 5/15/2012 $5,000.00
C001135 05/16/2012 JAY NIXON FOR MISSOURI Michael Ponder 715 N. Clark Street Cape Girardeau MO 63701 Cook, Barkett, Ponder & Wolz Attorney 5/14/2012 $1,300.30
C001135 05/16/2012 JAY NIXON FOR MISSOURI Charles Brown PO Box 10 Lebanon MO 65536 Missouri Eagle, LLC CEO 5/14/2012 $1,000.00
C001135 05/16/2012 JAY NIXON FOR MISSOURI Dalton C Wright PO Box 192 Lebanon MO 65536 Lebanon Publishing Company President 5/14/2012 $1,000.00
[emphasis added]
Could be a friend of Mitt's from his government run health care days in Massachusetts.
Rep. Vicky Hartzler's (R-4) big on cutting wasteful spending - except when it effects Vicky Hartzler. Remember how after going on and on about "reckless and runaway" government spending, she still dug in her heels and said no,no, no, when she had a chance to cut wasteful agricultural subsidies? Seems she liked the more than $750,000 she and her family collected while on the government agricultural dole.
Now, after still more spouting off about cutting the fat out of government, Vicky's at it again - making profuse use of government "franking" privileges to send out glossy flyers trumpeting her work in Congress. Hartzler is one of the ten biggest spenders in the U.S. House of Representatives when it comes to tax-payer funded mailings, having, over a nine-month period, spent $253,156.
This is the same Vicky Hartzler who, as Think Progress notes, uses her Website to call for "a freeze on discretionary spending except for our national defense, including veterans, Medicare, and Social Security."
But hey - remember how Hartzler excused "some" agricultural subsidies as essential for "national security" purposes? She now claims that her use of the franking privilege to send out mailers isn't really wasteful because:
After 34 years of leadership by [the district's previous Congressman, Rep. Ike Skelton (D)], we feel like it's important for me [sic] people to get to know me and for me to hear from them. It's part of serving the people that you represent is to communicate with them, and that's always been a priority of mine.
Well, gee willikers! Since it's her priority ... what can I say?
The situation:As per Think Progress, a staffer for climate denialist, big-oil loving James Inhoffe actually told the truth - and made a few oil lobbyists uncomfortable. The staffer wrote to "top oil and gas lobbyists" to express the Senator's displeasure with the industry's collaboration with the Obama White House on fracking regulations. The email didn't pull any punches when it came to describing the cozy relationship between Republicans and the oil and gas industries:
Moving forward, we-your partners-would kindly ask for better coordination and communication from you to prevent the Obama administration from pulling similar stunts in the future.
Think Progress also notes that this "partnership" between Big Oil and the GOP is far from one sided. In return for the coordinated "attacks on behalf of industry interests," GOP congressional types have pulled in a mighty monetary haul - literally millions - over the past few years.
The Missouri angle: Lately Missouri's GOP Senator Roy Blunt has been highly vocal about rising gas prices - to an almost comic extent. He implicitly and explicitly blamed the Obama administration's effort to regulate drilling in sensitive areas, subject the Keystone XL pipeline to environment regulation, and to enact fuel efficiency standards. The underlying theme is, of course, nothing new for Blunt - over the years, he has managed to work it into almost every issue from jobs to taxation. He's also done his best to insure that the industry keeps pulling down those big taxpayer subsidies - the icing on its highly profitable cake.
The high cost of doing business with Roy Blunt: Blunt has been well rewarded for the services he renders. According to the Center for Responsive Politics (via Think Progress), since 2006 he has pulled in $363,950 in campaign donations from the oil and gas industries. Only nine senators have higher totals for the same period and almost all of them are from big oil producing states or prominent in the GOP leadership (such as Mitch McConnell). It's a sure thing Blunt isn't getting the money just because he's from Missouri. Missouri's other senator, Democrat Clare McCaskill has received only $55,058 in Big Oil money since 2006. Wonder why Roy gets a bigger handout?
Just keep these facts in mind next time you hear or read statements by Roy Blunt haranguing us about energy policy or ranting about the effect of "job-killing" regulations on the oil and gas industries. Although, come to think about it, intelligent and careful regulation of the oil and gas industries could kill lots of highly rewarded senatorial jobs.
"I'm for Mitt Romney," Bush told ABC News this morning as the doors of an elevator closed on him, after he gave a speech on human rights a block from his old home - the White House.
WASHINGTON, D.C. - EMILY's List, the nation's largest resource for women in politics, announced today that it is placing the following candidates "On the List:"
The EMILY's List community now stands at more than one million members strong. These supporters are getting their information earlier, quicker, and on the web and they're ready to take action now. "On the List" is a new way for EMILY's List members to engage with and support promising candidates early in an election cycle. By putting Hensley, Neuhardt and Romero Roses "On the List," EMILY's List is ensuring that she has access to this powerful network of supporters.
"Teresa, Sharen and Gloria are prime examples of what strong women leaders can accomplish in their communities" said Stephanie Schriock, President of EMILY's List. "We can take back the House and make government work for America's working families again if we elect women like Teresa, Sharen and Gloria. These three women are the kind of coalition builders and problem solvers that Americans are looking to send to Washington.
Hensley currently serves as the Prosecuting Attorney for Cass County, where she has been a lifelong resident. She has a record of convicting child abusers, domestic violence offenders, drunk drivers, and murderers. Hensley recently received the Missouri Attorney General's Justice Award for Domestic Violence Prevention....
A significant chunk of the introduction before this excerpt sounded suspiciously like "He has his faults, but at least he doesn't kick his dog."
And, again, projection, with absolutely no sense of irony, in the republican controlled House chamber. Speaker Steve Tilley (r) on intolerant liberals:
Speaker Steve Tilley (r): ....But these aren't the kinds of things that the radical liberal groups want to make known when they talk about Rush. Instead these liberals who try to put forth the illusion that they believe in a philosophy of tolerance or understanding, they're anything but tolerant. And they're anything but understanding
But fortunately there are only a handful of them here in Missouri. I think I read where the latest anti-Rush rally in Columbia actually broke single digits. [laughter] Which, Rush, it's actually an improvement because they had an anti-Rush rally at the Capitol where there were more media than protesters....
Because we should always display tolerance for people who use their power and influence and microphone to call a young woman expressing an opinion on public policy a slut.
Oh, we understand all right.
"....I think I read where the latest anti-Rush rally in Columbia actually broke single digits. [laughter] Which, Rush, it's actually an improvement because they had an anti-Rush rally at the Capitol where there were more media than protesters..."
So Rush Limbaugh is now in the Hall of Famous Missourians, right alongside Harry S Truman, Walt Disney, Mark Twain and General Jack Pershing, but there was something different about this induction.
General Pershing didn't make it into the hall until 1995, 47 years after he died and 75 years after he whipped together a two-million-man army and brought World War I to an end within seven months of taking over as the commander of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) after four years of one of the bloodiest wars in history.
President Truman wasn't inducted until 1991, nineteen years after he passed away, and 40 years after he left the presidency, 70 years after he was a lead-from-the-front Captain in Pershing's victorious army, 55 years after he assured the next world war was won by reining in fraud and shoddy equipment by defense contractors with his Truman Committee and 46 years after he signed the treaty that brought that war to an end aboard the USS Missouri.
Walt Disney wasn't inducted until a quarter century after he passed, presumably when the generation he had delighted - and scared spitless in brief moments - were occupying seats in the General Assembly and saw fit to honor the icon from their childhood.
And Mark Twain had been dead for over 70 years when his bust was placed in the hall, over a hundred years after he first achieved a measure of fame and notoriety. Thomas Hart Benton was immortalized by the mural he painted in the capitol decades before his bust was installed in 1985.
Living inductees are not unheard of, Speaker Tilley didn't break precedent there. John Ashcroft is there, and he's still alive - but he was also Governor, Senator and Attorney General. Bob Barker is there, but he was inducted after he retired from public life and after years of doing all manner of things to make the world a better place, including putting up millions of dollars of his own money to fund a vessel to save whales.
Like Bob Barker, Walter Cronkite was inducted while still living, but after he retired from a long and illustrious career as America's most trusted newsman.
The big difference with Limbaugh and other living inductees, however, is that they were inducted in public ceremonies to great fanfare. They greeted the public that feted them. They were humble and decent and they made everyone in the state, regardless of how they lean politically, proud to be from the same place that produced such remarkable people who went out into the world and made their mark and never forgot where they came from and the values we learned growing up here.
Limbaugh's induction, however, was quite different. There was no fanfare, there was no public announcement. It was done in secret, behind locked doors, with invited guests only present for the unveiling. There would have been no press at the event if Limbaugh hadn't been spotted by some of the members of the press who have a daily presence in the capitol.
The way it was done is at least as scandalous as the fact it was done. Perhaps Steve Tilley isn't the sociopath we've come to take him for since he became Speaker and the rest of the Animal House rejects took over the House and started embarrassing the state on a semi-daily basis, whereas with the previous GOP majority, the one I call the Emery-Davis Era, the humiliation was spaced out a bit more. It used to just be bi-weekly.
The current majority in the Missouri General Assembly is the political equivalent of an alternative middle school for boys with severe behavior disorders. They are obsessed with lady parts and scared to death of being called "gay" - just like 12-year-old boys. They are obnoxious, obstreperous, in-your-face, mean-spirited, hateful, willfully ignorant, intolerant, psychologically foreclosed and, in general, just plain stupid. What is really frightening is to think that these chuckleheads are a reflection of the people they represent. My roots in rural Missouri go back eight generations, and while there is always a contrarian or two in every community, they were isolated cases, not the majority, and the rest of the folks there didn't send them to the General Assembly -- Not even in the Ozarks where they invented and hold the copyright on "contrarian."
I've thought about this overnight, and as infuriating as it is, it's far more pathetic. So instead of asking Governor Nixon to pull the bust, I have a different idea. Add to it. Engrave his remarks at the induction -- where he attacked about half of the state by calling us "deranged" (to the approving laughter and applause from the hand-picked crowd that could be counted on the play along). And engrave some of his greatest hits along with it. Add the backstory of his inclusion, making sure Steve Tilley's name is cast in bronze as part of the display. Make the GOP -- especially Steve Tilley -- own it. Let it stand as a monument to extremism and division and the hatred-as-a-virtue ethos that the current GOP majority in the Missouri General Assembly has come to embody.
Be so thorough that he is considered the first inductee into the Hall of Infamous Missourians. Just make sure to leave room to add to it, because he'll out-Rush himself soon enough and embarrass all the sane people left in the state, and we'll want to document that for all time, too.
Meanwhile, I have an idea for all the ladies out there who might want to protest this offense somehow, but not go to jail for vandalism: Save your empty blister-packs of birth control, and leave them on the pedestal that holds his bust. Make a pilgrimage to the capitol to make an anti-offering to the impotent demi-god of misogyny and impotent rage, and take a picture and put it on Facebook.
We can make our point without going to jail for defacing state property.
The Mellman Group conducted a survey [pdf] of 600 likely voters in Missouri on the 2012 U.S. Senate race for Majority PAC from May 8-10, 2012. The margin of error is 4.0%. The poll memo was released yesterday:
McCaskill Continues To Lead The Missouri Senate Race Against All Comers
[....]
Despite being subjected to over $5 million dollars in negative attack ads from her Republican opponents, third party groups and Super PACs, our recent survey shows Senator Claire McCaskill leading all three of her potential Republican opponents in her bid for reelection. Indeed, her margin over the two opponents we examined in our last poll has actually increased since March 9th. Methodological failings render the results of other recent polls misleading.
[....]
Senator McCaskill has weathered a barrage of negative attacks and maintains a clear lead against all three of her potential GOP
opponents. McCaskill leads Sarah Steelman by 9 points (45%-36%) John Brunner by 8 points (46%-38%), and Todd Akin by 5 points (44%-39%) with 19%, 16% and 17% undecided, respectively.
Indeed, strong support for McCaskill nearly outpaces total support for her Republican rivals, with 36% supporting her strongly against Steelman, 35% supporting her strongly against Brunner, and 36% supporting her strongly against Akin. By contrast, barely a fifth of voters support Steelman (18%), Brunner (20%), or Akin (19%) strongly.
[....]
The poll memo includes a criticism of a sampling technique utilized in Missouri by other pollsters.
The conclusion:
...In short, thanks to her overall lead, more intense support, and edge among independents and moderates, Senator McCaskill is poised to mount a winning reelection bid regardless of her eventual opponent.
Projection, with absolutely no sense of irony, in the republican controlled House chamber.
Rush Limbaugh (r) spoke in the House chamber today on the occasion of his bust being placed in the Hall of Famous Missourians by Speaker Steve Tilley (r). By all accounts the ceremony was closed to the public.
Rush Limbaugh (r): ....I'm sorry I, I take it for granted but in, the Speaker when he announced this, uh, and I'm sure that any of you in the room [inaudible] your share of it. But the Speaker's office and people in his office and the Speaker himself have been under assault for wanting to do this and, believe me, uh, it's, it's east to s, you know what, Rush, be better off me trying this some other year. He didn't do that. Um, he hung in, it was tough. He did not give them any quarter. Uh, laughed at them when they called his office, which is what you have to do 'cause they're deranged. [laughter] They literally are deranged, our friends, so called friends on the other side of the aisle are deranged. This is when my family now forgets I'm here. [laughter] Uh, but, but, he stood up to it and, uh, in fact, enjoyed it and threw right back at them....
That would explain why the ceremony was by invitation only.
Vicky Hartzler (r), as a member-elect of the House, in November 2010:
...Last week I had a great day meeting with the commanders at Whiteman Air Force Base, learning more about their missions, hearing their concerns and ideas, and touring the Base. It was an honor to meet these dedicated public servants who have given their lives and talents to keeping us free. I was thrilled to get to sit in the cockpit of the Apache Helicopter, an A-10 Thunderbolt, and the B-2 Stealth Bomber. We have such a national security treasure here in Missouri's 4th and I look forward to working with them to protect and defend our country...
This past week:
The House Armed Services Committee filed H.R. 4310 with the Rules Committee on Thursday May 10, 2012. H.R. 4310, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013, was filed as ordered and reported by HASC on Wednesday, May 09, 2012....
Representative Robert Andrews (D-New Jersey) offered Amendment 128:
AMENDMENT TO H.R. 4310
OFFERED BY MR. ANDREWS OF NEW JERSEY
In section 4201 of division D, relating to Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation, increase the amount for B-2 EHF Extremely high Frequency Radio (PE 0101127F) by $71,000,000.
In section 4201 of division D, relating to Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation, reduce the amount for Ballistic Missile Defense Midcourse Defense Segment (PE 0603882C) by $71,000,000.
That's right, Representative Vicky Hartzler (r) voted against an appropriation for an operational system based in her district in favor of a pie in the sky boondoggle throwback to the Reagan era.
"...Somebody needs to stand up for people who are being pushed down. And organized labor has done it and the Democratic Party has a history of standing up for people who are being pushed around. That's why I'm a Democrat..."
Representative Emanuel Cleaver (D) speaking at the at the Jackson County
Democratic Committee's Truman Days dinner in Kansas City on May 12, 2012.
Representative Emanuel Cleaver (D): ....And what I want you to understand is our party is the party that it is because we stand with working class people. We stand with working people who get up every day and make this country run. Did you know that we wouldn't even have a middle class but for organized labor. [voice: "That's right."][applause] No middle class in this country. [applause] And we have people getting up every single day, every single day with their number one goal to dismantle organized labor. That's what they want to do. They don't want labor to have a voice...
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