“We’ve become so good at this that Missouri politicians could give seminars to Colombian drug lords on how to launder money,” Missouri State Senator Charlie Shields (R-St. Joseph)

So instead of enforcing the rules on campaign contributions, just chuck ’em?  Is that really the message that the state lege is trying to send?   That is the net effect of a piece of legislation ramrodded through the state Senate by the wingnut “money equals speech” majority on Wednesday.  The legislation, sponsored by Shields, removes limits on political contributions in state and local races.  Because, according to Shields, the limits had done little to stanch the flow of money and influence.  Instead of operating within the rules, they instead encourage fundraisers and politicians to create ways to sidestep the rules.  Never mind that they are sticking a thumb in the eye of the voters, who, in 1994 passed the rules into law by a ballot initiative.

Senator Jeff Smith, Democrat of St. Louis, said the entire Senate should be ashamed.  “We are inviting powerful special interests to have even greater sway over the policy process than they already do,” Smith said.  

An effort to submit the matter to a vote of the people was shot down on a party-line vote, with 20 Republicans overruling 11 Democrats. Republicans also defeated a proposal to delay the repeal until Jan. 1 to avoid changing the rules in the middle of this year’s campaigns.

Instead, the Senate adopted a clause that would make the repeal take effect as soon as the governor signs it, rather than on Aug. 28, shortly after the primary election and just before the start of the fall campaign.

Senators gave the repeal preliminary approval on a voice vote after nearly five hours of debate. It still must receive final Senate approval before going to the House, where it enjoys significant support.

The legislature previously repealed the limits effective Jan. 1, 2007, but the law was thrown out by the state Supreme Court. During six months of unlimited contributions, Gov. Matt Blunt received as much as $300,000 from one Texas couple. Several senators received as much as $40,000 from a single contributor.

C’mon Missouri!  This isn’t what you had in mind when you elected these jackals to protect you from the non-existent threats of gay marriage, abortion and drivable roads, is it?  Have you seen enough of these towering dumbasses yet?  Can we get a Democratic majority in at least one chamber come November?  These greedy Publican bastards simply can’t be trusted.

KC Blue Blog has this revealing information:

When you think of pay day loan companies you think of their presence in communities more heavily concentrated with residents below the poverty line, right?

Well, a University of Utah law professor says think again.

According to his research just released, the strongest presence of pay day loan companies and profits are not related to the poverty line but instead directly coorelated to the amount of “christian conservative” politics.

His research finds that the larger the political influence and control by “christian conservatives” is, the larger the profit and presence of pay day loan companies is.

And guess who’s number one in this shameful scenario: Missouri.

The rest of the story is at KC Blue Blog.

Last month, I attended a meeting in Jeff City of Missourians for Tax Justice and received a brochure with a section describing the changes in our tax code that they deem necessary and fair. It’s as good a brief summary of the tax issues in Missouri as you’ll find:

The two major sources of state revenue are the individual income tax and the sales tax. Changes are needed in each so the tax burden falls more equitably on those most able to pay.

The structure of our individual state income tax is badly outdated. Brackets are graduated only up to $9,000. Above that amount all taxable income is taxed at the same 6% rate. The $9,000 figure was set in 1931; the brackets and rates were set in 1971. The on-going shortfall of funds for essential needs can be cured by updating our income tax. This is the logical way to raise the revenue to fund services Missourians need.

A 1993 law made the individual income tax somewhat more progressive by limiting the federal tax deduction on the state income tax. This tax increase to fund schools affected only the top 10% of income tax payers.

The sales tax is imposed on necessities but fails to tax services purchased largely by high income persons. The state also loses large amounts of revenue from sales tax exemptions and income tax credits that benefit special interests.

In 1997, Missourians for Tax Justice organized statewide grassroots support for the permanent exemption of food from the state’s three cents sales tax. This bill passed almost unanimously, due to citizens’ demands. But some state sales tax and all local sales tax on food remains. MTJ supports the elimination of all sales tax on food.

Missouri and its local governments are too dependent on sales taxes for needed revenue. This overuse of the regressive sales tax, along with our out-dated income tax structure, add up to a tax system that overburdens low-and-moderate-income taxpayers and does not require a fair share from high-income taxpayers. MTJ urges citizens to join a sales tax revolt and vote against all sales tax increases.

Missouri’s 6.25% corporate income tax rate is among the lowest in the country. Due to tax loopholes, many corporations pay less than that–or nothing. This tax produces less than 2.8% of the state’s revenue for FY2008.

Plenty of food for thought there, no? And our chances of making any of the recommended changes with a Republican legislature and governor range from none to less than that. That’s another reason we’ve got to take at least eleven new House seats this fall, elect Jay Nixon, and at least make some serious inroads into the Republican majority in the Senate.

…always thinking they can legislate their way out of having to follow federal law?

Um, folks, federal supersedes state.  If you learned nothing else from the voter-ID fiasco, you should have learned that.

What are the foam-flecked, goose-stepping rascals up to this time, you ask?  Well, they are trying to change the parameters of medically accepted definitions to classify emergency contraception, or the Morning After Pill as an abortive agent.  It isn’t.

The state legislature has spent a lot of time and energy since the GOP took over in 2000 toward trying to legislate a woman’s right to control her own body out of existence.  These are the folks who decided that a city bus driver who transported a teenage girl to an abortion appointment could, under certain but certainly not unusual circumstances, be prosecuted as an accessory.

Legislation presented to a House panel last week would classify emergency contraception as an abortion-inducing medication, contrary to the definition used by the Food and Drug Administration.

The bill also would protect pharmacies from lawsuits and from punishment by state regulators for refusing to sell or fill a prescription for any drug defined as triggering an abortion. Supporters said it would remove any financial incentive to sue the pharmacy’s owners for refusing to sell or stock an item that violated their conscience.

Opponents attacked the proposal as an unconstitutional restraint on reproductive freedom and an unconscionable affront to sexual assault victims. They said the bill would enshrine an inaccurate medical description in Missouri law, lead to increased numbers of abortions and leave millions of rural Missouri women without access to a safe and reliable form of birth control.

Filling prescriptions “is an essential function of your job,” said Pamela Sumners, executive director of the Missouri affiliate of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League. “If you become a pharmacist, you should do your job.”

The bill applies specifically to two drugs: RU486, the early name for mifepristone, the drug administered in a doctor’s office to perform a nonsurgical abortion; and emergency contraception, which is marketed as Plan B.  (emphasis added)

A spokewoman for Missouri Right to life said that her group considers ec a form of abortion because in some instances it can prevent implantation of a fertilized egg, and members of  her group believe that pregnancy gets underway the second the sperm hits the egg.  By the time of implantation “the human is long past the stage of being a so-called fertilized egg” she submitted in a written statement.  (All would do well to note that,   scientifically, that is exactly what it is.  A fertilized egg is to a fully formed human what a cookbook on the shelf is to a seven course meal.  It is the instructions.  There is a real live fully functioning, sentient, human female providing the building materials.  She shouldn’t just get a vote, she should have veto authority.)

The FDA notes that the morning after pill won’t work if the fertilized egg has already implanted in the uterus, pregnancy has begun, and the females body has begun the requisite endocrine support for a successful pregnancy.  

This is just another try by the paternalistic nitwits in the state lege to make an end run around the law and force their own version of morality and misogyny down the throats of the women in this state.

I am going to ignore it today, at least until the returns from Wisconsin and Hawaii come in. Instead I am going to share a couple of thoughts on down-ticket races…

The farther down the ticket a race is, the more direct impact it has on your life.

Think about it: An incompetent city councilman or alderman, a corrupt county commissioner or a crooked sheriff has more potential to negatively impact your life than a bad president does; and don’t even get me started on school boards.

I watched in abject horror as school boards were overtaken by fundamentalist, anti-science whack-jobs who openly scorned intellectualism.

I’m not going to preach for paragraphs, but I am going to enter a plea that we all, each and every one of us, watch our newspapers and familiarize ourselves with the issues facing our localities, and with the candidates running in those down-ticket races. They really are important, they really do matter.

Those are the people we elect to select textbooks and set curriculum for our schools, fix the pothole at the end of the street, get that buzzing street light outside your bedroom window fixed and prosecute the bad seed who broke into a secluded, empty house, trashed it, and used it for a meth lab.

When you really stop and think about it, their impact is manifest.

Choose wisely.

The nerve of some citizens. I mean, really. Thinking they can attend a public meeting (that we want kept private), assuming they can question us for barring them from such meetings, presuming they have … like… rights. And this Sierra Club jerk, Midkiff, did more than question us. He told us how it was going to be. But I guess we showed him.

What a poor sport, though. When Tony Messenger of the Springfield News-Leader asked Midkiff to write an Op-Ed piece about what’s been going on, he agreed to do it. Well screw him, and lotsa luck getting anybody to pay attention. We’re the pooh-bahs and that’s how it’s going to stay.

Here’s a pirated copy of what Midkiff plans to publish:

Public monies, public meetings

Ken Midkiff

At the last meeting of the Missouri Air Conservation Committee (MACC), under “Meeting Schedule” on the agenda was a notation that a tour was scheduled at Premium Standard Farms, Inc. on March 26.

The MACC is the body – created by statute – that oversees the Air Pollution Control Program (APCP) of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.  APCP personnel serve as staff for the MACC.  MACC also establishes policies, positions, and adopts regulations about air quality.  Members are nominated by the Governor and approved by the state senate.   Members serve without compensation, but expenses (meals, lodging, travel) are paid for with public monies.

All of this makes the MACC a public body, subject to the Open Meetings and Records Act.  The act is a state law – Chapter 610 of the Revised Statutes of Missouri – and is known commonly as the Sunshine Act in that the intent is to shine the sun on actions of public bodies and elected officials.

But, in a rather blatant attempt to avoid complying with this law, a reporter from the Post-Dispatch was told that this was NOT a meeting that the public could attend, but was a tour of a private operation.   I sent an email to Jim Kavanaugh, Director of the APCP, informing him that I, reporters, attorneys, and other citizens intended to attend.  He forwarded my email to David Gilmore, Public Relations guy for the MACC.  Mr. Gilmore referred to my “request” and stated that I needed to submit this to Robert Brundage, attorney with the law firm of Newman, Conley, and Ruth and legal counsel for the Missouri Agriculture Industry organization.

Mr. Gilmore was then informed that my email in no way was a request, but rather was a simple notice of intent to attend a public meeting, so that arrangements could be made.  I further noted that it was not at all understood why it was necessary to seek approval from an attorney with a private law firm in order to attend a public meeting and asked for an explanation of this.

Mr. Kavanaugh then sent an email stating that Mr. Gilmore was not at work due to an illness, and that the “tour” might not take place due to scheduling conflicts.

That’s where it now stands.    

It should be noted that the MACC is currently considering regulations to impose odor controls on most factory hog operations.  It should also be noted that a representative of Premium Standard Farms is on record as adamantly opposing such controls.   The concern is that employees of the hog operations would have members of MACC all to themselves during this private “tour” and would lobby the members to adopt the positions of Premium Standard Farms.

Whatever.  This is apparently yet another attempt by a public entity, operating with public funds, to avoid complying with state law – and provides yet another example why we need a Sunshine Act.  

Ken Midkiff is pictured above.

More from Baghdad Bob Blunt:

As for the national outlook, Blunt dismissed the gloomy predictions, saying the high number of GOP retirements actually could work in his party’s favor.

“In a year when voters are clearly interested in change, having a Republican run … from outside of Washington is better than having a Republican who’s tired of being in Congress and has voted 22,000 times,” Blunt said.

Last time I posted on Blunt’s fantasy world, St. Louis Liberal commented:

I’ll have what Blunt is having

Clearly it is some good s**t…..

Yeah, except for the DTs he’s going to have on the first Wednesday in November.