I read the National Review Online so you don’t have to.  Remember this is the “sane” right wing.  See Glenn Greenwald today for why that might not be the case.

Kathryn Jean Lopez, the editor of the NRO, thinks Obama will pick McCaskill as his VP.

If Obama is the nominee, his running mate will be Claire McCaskill. Yes, she’s another senator, but has some real-life and political experience to her – former prosecutor, from Missouri, middle American white woman … went with Obama early …. Mark my words …

I attended a fundraiser for Chris Benjamin, the Democratic candidate in the 31st Senate District, at a home in Warrensburg on Thursday evening. The event was well attended, crowded if you will, and the noise level of all the combined conversations made it almost impossible to hear at times.

The energy of those in attendance was very high. Their conversations revolved around the fact that the Democratic Party has a strong group of candidates up and down the ticket and the strong belief that this is going to be a Democratic year, a year of change for the better. This was reflected in the comments of those who spoke at the event.

Chris Benjamin thanked the crowd for their attendance, their enthusiasm, and for embracing his candidacy:

…Working in Jefferson City…I found that…working families have been neglected…

I am a product of the public education system and I am very, very proud of that. I grew up in Harrisonville and went to the Harrisonville public schools, went to Mizzou…it’s essential for the future of our families and of our state, for the future of our economy to have kids that have a world class education. And the only way we’re going to do that is if we make public education a priority in Missouri. Unfortunately, that’s not the case right now. Higher education is very important….Our kids who are graduating high school need to have access to a college education…Well, we’re number 49 in our commitment to higher education. I’m here to tell you – we can do better…

…I’m very, very excited about this year, as you can see the crowd we have here tonight. We have some wonderful candidates…

We only have to pick up eleven seats [in the House]. I’m telling you, that’s going to happen. We’re going to have a Democratic speaker [applause]…

…We saw that…on February 5th – 230,000 more Democrats turned out to the polls…because we are energized, because we, in this room, the Democrats in the state, the Independents, and a lot of Republicans understand we need change in state government and national government. It’s going to happen this year…  

…I’m going to work very hard for you in Jefferson City, when I go to the Senate…I’m going to make working families a priority, and public education a priority, and health care access a priority…

A number of county and legislative candidates were introduced and each spoke briefly in turn. One brand new candidate, Carla Keough from Butler Missouri filed yesterday morning at the Secretary of State’s office in Jefferson City for the 125th House District – challenging republican Barney Fisher. By all accounts she is an energetic community activist and a formidable fundraiser. This will be another interesting race to watch.

It’s going to be a Democratic election year.

ISSUES COLLABORATION WITH CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE BYRON DELEAR

HELP CRAFT OUR PLATFORM TO OPPOSE PRO-WAR REP. TODD AKIN

This is the story of our growing Health Care crisis and the necessary shift in our national priorities to get things turned around.

Largely it’s a story of how politicians have become oblivious to the needs of our people and have sacrificed those needs in favor of serving special interests.  I believe in representing people – not special interests.

Delivering quality and affordable Health Care for every American is an absolute priority for this Congressional campaign. It has been a personal pledge and commitment for my entire political career.

With upwards of 50 million Americans without health insurance, and the people that do have coverage not using it because they can’t afford the co-pays, premiums or deductibles, the ruthless reality of our Health Care system is frankly, inhumane.

I support Medicare for all, but at the very least every American should immediately have access to the insurance plan that members of Congress now enjoy. Without delay, this should be passed straight away in the first hundred hours when the 111th Congress convenes in January of 2009.

As Health Care costs rise dramatically, millions of Americans are living in a state of fear of going bankrupt and being sent to the poor house if they get sick. And yet callous politicians, like my opponent, refuse to help.

Even in the midst of our worsening economy, Rep. Akin shockingly voted to maintain the unaffordable regime of rising costs in Health Care.

Akin voted to prohibit Medicare from negotiating drug discounts with manufacturers, keeping drug prices high and preserving huge and unfair profits for pharmaceutical corporations. Consequently, Akin received a low score of only 11% by the American Public Health Association (APHA) on health issues.

In 2007, Rep. Akin voted to deny Health Care for 4 million children.

How is it possible that in America today we are so accustomed with guaranteeing a child an education and yet if that child falls sick we don’t allow for that child to visit a doctor? It doesn’t make sense now, does it?

Our country is the only industrialized nation without coverage for all her citizens and we spend twice as much per capita than any other nation for our Health Care – 17% of our GNP. That’s 90% more than Germany, France or Canada. And don’t think that America is paying a premium for quality because the World Health Organization ranks us at 37th, sandwiched between Slovenia and Costa Rica. An overemphasis on corporate profits has swept away the most basic human needs of the American people. Our Health Care is too expensive and it’s broken.

Why is it that Health Care in America costs so much?

In our current privatized system, over 30% of the cost pays for expensive Washington lobbyists, exorbitant salaries of CEOs, extravagant corporate jets and flashy advertising campaigns. Money skimmed right off the top before any care is ever provided.

Another moral failing is the insurance industry’s sole-focus on profits as opposed to healing, creating an adversarial relationship between care providers and their patient’s needs.

Today, we find insurance corporations scheming to save costs by using lame excuses, citing medical preconditions and controlling hospitals and doctors in refusing care to patients. It is unconscionable that we have let things get so far off track.

How did all this happen?

Over the years, the pharmaceutical, insurance and medical industry have increased their influence on Congress, as they spend billions on Washington lobbyists and fund the campaigns of many members of the US House and Senate. They have succeeded in dominating Federal regulatory policy to serve their profit motives. In many cases, lobbyists have actually written the laws affecting the industries they represent.

Now, the barriers to the people’s voice from being heard will not fall away voluntarily. These special interests have a lot of motivation to shut down any reforms that may impinge upon their profits.

With catchy slogans such as, “If you think Health Care is expensive now, wait until it’s free,” many of their paid-for spokespeople, including elected officials, will attempt to dismiss calls for reform as “socialized medicine”.

Most Missourians are waking up to the ridiculousness of these arguments as we already have national examples of viable single-payer programs up and running in the form of Medicare, taking care of folks and operating at a fraction of the cost.

To quote bestselling author Thom Hartman’s book, Screwed: The Undeclared War On The Middle Class,

“According to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, if all of America’s health insurance companies, HMOs, and other middlemen were eliminated, and the government simply paid your medical costs directly to whomever you chose to provide you with health care, the savings would be so great that without increasing the health-care budget we could provide cradle-to-grave health care for every American.

That’s because for every $100 that passes through the hands of the government-administered Medicare programs, between $2 and $3 is spent on administration, leaving $97 to $98 to pay for medical services and drugs.

But of every $100 that flows through the corporate insurance programs and HMOs, $10 to $34 sticks to corporate fingers along the way.”

Political wisdom, bipartisan support and actually getting things done must be weighed with the ideals and principles for the specifics of whichever plan finally materializes.

The Democratic Presidential candidates – Obama and Clinton – both have offered plans for fixing our Health Care crisis, and although none can be considered strictly single-payer like Medicare, they all succeed in creating a very important paradigm shift in our thinking.

A NEW NATIONAL PRIORITY: PROVIDING CARE FOR THOSE WHO NEED IT

Now that we’ve started to unpack the problem of the massive political influence that the pharmaceutical and insurance industries leverage upon our corridors of power, sadly, it becomes very clear why there’s a denial of service afflicting Americans.

It’s because profits have been put above people.

I believe that we as a nation are better than that, that we are more compassionate with our fellow human beings and more sensitive to the needs of each member of our American family.

The gravy train of greed, enjoyed by the HMOs, pharmaceuticals, medical and insurance corporations must end.

I consider it a moral and fiscal imperative to fix our broken Health Care system and will fight to establish the fact that in our country, nobody has to live in fear of becoming sick and being left behind; that in America, we take care of our own.

The solution is for our political leaders to heed the wisdom found in the philosophy of the oath taken by our physicians, “to do no harm”.

The solution is for Congress to put the interests of the American people first.

“Together, we can get Missouri and America back on track”

One Hour Air America Radio Interview with DeLear on 3/1/08

I, like I’m sure many of you did, submitted a respectful but forceful letter to the junior Senator from Missouri regarding her vote against the Dodd amendment that would have removed retroactive immunity against the telecoms for their part in President 24%’s warrantless domestic spying program.

I finally received a reply.  You won’t like it.

In part, here’s how she justified her vote:

Please keep in mind that this is a limited immunity that applies solely to the telecoms, not the government. I just don’t think we should punish these companies for their good-faith reliance on government assurances that they were assisting in a legal effort to combat terrorism. If the government violated our surveillance laws by eavesdropping without the necessary warrants, then it is the Administration – not the telecoms – that needs to be held accountable. That’s why I supported Senator Specter’s (R-PA) amendment, which would have substituted the federal government in place of telecoms as the defendant in lawsuits, allowing existing legal actions to move forward in an appropriate manner. While this measure was rejected, the underlying legislation would still allow citizens to sue the government for past violations and telecoms for future violations of the new law. As your United States Senator, I remain determined to get to the bottom of any government misconduct.

With all due respect Madame Senator, are you that clueless?  Don’t you get it?  Retroactive immunity is as much about shielding the Bush/Cheney Administration from future investigations and possible criminal actions as it is protecting the telecom industry.  Combine this with President 24%’s claim of national security and executive privilege in hiding illegal domestic spying and we’ll never know the extent to which our Constitutional liberties were violated.

Nobody has made a case that blanket immunity goes against the “good faith” Republican talking points you spout as a weak justification for your cowardly vote.  In fact, one of the arguments that the telcos won’t cooperate in the future has been proven false given how things have worked just fine since the “Protect America Act” bill lapsed.  

Just look at the news reports of the last two months and the out-of-control law enforcement efforts to suck up electronic intelligence without warrants.  Does the fact that this administration has been incompetent as evidenced by Sec Chertoff’s recent admission that illegally obtained information could have gone out to local law enforcement?  Or the “driftnet” approach to gathering domestic information?

And you want to trust these people with our civil liberties?  If you grant telco ammnesty, you close off any avenue we have left to see just how far these people have gone.  The Specter Amendment you support doesn’t do that.  We won’t rush to the ballot box to defend the phone companies so why are you so seemingly eager to do so? Have you ever asked yourself why this administration wants to keep concealed both the nature of the surveillance and the fact that it had to indemnify the companies at the outset?

Thank goodness some of your Democratic colleagues in the Senate and more importantly in the House, have the Constitution in mind as they fight not only against the actions of a highly unpopular President but against craven Democrats such as yourself.

If I wanted somebody from Missouri in the Senate who would vote like a Republican on matters most important not just to Democrats but anybody who’s concerned about the growth of unbridled executive power and rampant invasions of what privacy we have left….I would have not only voted for Jim Talent, I would have given money to his campaign.  Those are both things I did for you in 2006.  

And here we are two years later and on every important vote, not just this one but several others, you have not only failed those people who worked against great odds to get you elected in a state far more red than most people care to admit, you have failed the Constitution.

We have to ask ourselves what is worse?  Having a Republican water carrier for this administration or a feckless Democrat in his place?

Things have quieted down a bit from the initial flurry of people filing for office with the Secretary of State in Jefferson City, though there have been a few interesting things to mull over since then.

For instance, in the 4th Congressional District Ike Skelton filed to run for re-election as a Democrat on March 7th. Interestingly enough, one Stanley Plough of Clinton, Missouri volunteered on that same day to fall on the sword in this race for the republican party. The least challenging political job in Missouri has to be that of campaign manager for Ike Skelton…  

You’ve just got to love the ballot placement for the republican primary in the governor’s race:

Richard Allen Kline

Scott Long

Sarah Steelman

Kenny Hulshof

In the 17th Judicial Circuit (Cass and Johnson counties) there will be an election in November to fill the remainder of the term of Joe Dandurand who was appointed to the Western Court of Appeals by Matt “baby” Blunt. Gee, the governor hasn’t yet appointed anyone to take the spot until then. Mike Wagner of Harrisonville has filed as a Democrat. On the republican side J. Michael Rumley, Lynn Stoppy, and Karl Timmerman (on March 6th) have filed for the seat. Karl Timmerman faced (now former) Johnson County Prosecutor Mary Ann Young in the 2006 republican primary for an Associate Judge position in the 17th Circuit. Legend has it that hundreds of Democrats spontaneously crossed over vote for Karl (or was that to vote against Mary Ann?), only to desert him for the ultimately successful Democrat in the November general election. Lynn Stoppy (uh, in 2006 there was a Brackin at the end of that name), the current Johnson County Prosecutor who triumphed in the 2007 recount for the 2006 prosecutor race by 36 votes (after the largest precinct in the county ran out of ballots in the general election – thank you Gilbert Powers for your usual level of competence)(her Democratic opponent did around 350 votes better than Claire McCaskill in the county – talk about a “vote of confidence”…) was one of Mary Ann Young’s assistant prosecutors in Johnson County after leaving the Cass County Prosecutor’s Office (Uh, Lynn, are you ever going to tell anyone why? Just asking…). Have I lost anyone yet? This particular race has a back story and a cast of characters larger than that of any daytime soap opera.

In the 120th Legislative District the Democratic candidate, Kristi Kenney filed on opening day. Kenney ran against Shannon Cooper, who is now term limited out, in 2006. Scott Largeant, a republican from Clinton also filed on the first day. Orval Lee Page of Harrisonville filed as a republican on March 7th (that seems to have been a busy day, too). People have been scratching their heads and asking, “Who the hell is that?”

Well, there’s this Orval Page:

Proposed Committees and Proposed Committee Appointments for The Reform Party of Missouri 2001-2002 Rev. 020101

State Legislative Candidate 2002 Recruitment Sub committee—Elizabeth Dulaney, Steve Dotson co-chair, Brad Vold, William T. Baker, Rob Penningroth, Richard J. Gimpelson, George Baker, Orval Page, Donald Bowan, Don Kersten.

But, then again, it’s such a common name…

The first quarter 2008 campaign finance reports will be in at the Missouri Ethics Commission in mid-April. We’ll be able to see how things stack up for these and many other fascinating races then.

Are there any other filings for office which might pique our curiosity?  

The sadness of St. John McCain

Remember how John McCain was so brave because he stood up to Bush on the issue of torture? Well, all of that is no more, as McCain has now voted against a bill that would ban waterboarding.

It’s easy to point out, as many have, that this demonstrates that McCain isn’t really the straight talker that the media portrays him as. Of course, this isn’t really news as he’s already caved on things like lobbyist influence and religious fundamentalism in order to try to impress the conservative base before the election. But rather than gleefully pointing out McCain’s inconsistencies, I think this particular action is best described as a profoundly sad event. McCain is someone who has been tortured, who knows what if feels like, and who has stated publicly that it doesn’t work and that other methods are more effective at getting information. Yet, in order to get to the White House, he has now sold his last shred of human dignity to pander to the bloodlust of the far right. I often believe, despite the mountains of evidence to the contrary, that politicians retain at least some core principles even while they play the dirty game. Events like this do not help this belief.

Also, considering the bazillions of hours of press McCain got for criticizing torture in the past, it would be nice if the mainstream media would actually cover his shift in position.

CentCom commander William Fallon said that there would be no war with Iran during his watch.  Well, it is no longer his watch, and many analysts are suggesting that this is a sign that the Bush administration would like to attack Iran before leaving office, despite the fact that such a war would surely be even more disastrous than the current occupation of Iraq.

It is also worth noting that Dr. Keshavarz, Washington University in St. Louis professor and author of “Jasmine and Stars: Reading More Than Lolita in Tehran” was recently on a panel with Scott Ritter, the former U.N. weapons inspector who argued before the invasion that Iraq had no WMDs.   Ritter was very worried about U.S. aggression against Iran and said (before the resignation) that pushing Fallon out would be a sign that the Bushies are moving in that direction.

The next few months are likely the neocons’ last chance for a while to start another war to “protect U.S. interests” (i.e. oil & defense contractors).  We all need to be ready to fight hard to make sure that does not happen.

   War is a nasty, dirty, and horrible experience. Only those who have never experienced war see it as a grand adventure. We have spent over five years making war on the citizens of Iraq and killed hundreds of thousands. In the process, we have lost thousands of military personnel and made our homeland much less secure. For every “terrorist” that we kill, another ten fill their shoes; and for every innocent father, mother and child we kill, another twenty stand up to avenge their needless deaths. The 9-11 Commission concluded that the government and people were not involved with the events of that terrible day, but we continue to spend BILLIONS of dollars to rid Iraq of Iraqi people. More important than financial cost is the human cost.

  We have sent troops to war without body armor, without vehicle armor, without communication systems and at times without ammunition. The military medical system is choked on broken bodies and spirits of our Iraq veterans, and their suffering affects their spouses and children as well. Our military is stretched to the breaking point and cannot even respond adequately in such events as floods or tornadoes. At this point it does not matter who started what first, but as Gandhi said “An eye for an eye makes us all blind.” Are we already blind to effects of war? We are all suffering! As gas prices continue to rise, the cost of everything will rise and more and more of our neighbors will fail to bankruptcy. Everything that we do or not do is related to the economic bleeding that is occurring in this country. We need leadership with a vision of peace; we need leaders that knows peace brings prosperity.

  I am a combat veteran with blood on my hands. I can’t change the past and must now work to change the future. Please, look within yourself to make peace on a personal level. Teach your children to treat others with respect, compassion and kindness, and more importantly, model this behavior for them. Help those in need. Volunteer. Let your elected officials know it is way past time to bring our service members home. Peace is the answer. Despair is contagious, but so is Hope!

  Thank-you for taking time to read this.