• About
  • The Poetry of Protest

Show Me Progress

~ covering government and politics in Missouri – since 2007

Show Me Progress

Monthly Archives: June 2011

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r): Oops, who let those gay people into my town hall?

30 Thursday Jun 2011

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

4th Congressional District, Butler, missouri, teh gay, town hall, Vicky Hartlzer

Yesterday, in Butler, Missouri (via Joe.My.God. and Think Progress):

Representative Vicky Hartzler (r): Okay, first of all, are you guys with the Democrats or the Republicans?

Question: So, the, the, uh, two thousand four amendment [crosstalk]…

Representative Hartzler (r): Am I gonna see you next year?

Question: Well, you will when you come to Columbia. [crosstalk]

Representative Hartzler (r): I know. I just wondered, are you friendly or are you not?

Question: Well. [second voice: “We’re friends [inaudible]…”]

Representative Hartzler (r): Oh, no. Okay. All right.

Question: The two thousand four amendment to ban same-sex marriage…

Representative Hartzler (r): Oh, I’m so, I can’t believe you asked me that. I just… [inaudible] [crosstalk]

Question: Well, it’s a a cause, it’s a cause of yours.

Representative Hartzler (r): So, so, sorry.

Question: So, that in, in combination with the statement [crosstalk] you made, uh, earlier this month where you said [inaudible] incest and bestiality. How do you think [crosstalk]…?

Third party: Are you, are you taking pictures, video?

Person on camera: Yeah, sure.

Third party: Okay.

Representative Hartzler (r): No, you misunder, that was a mis, a misunderstanding [crosstalk] of the quote.

Question: Okay, well [crosstalk] Okay. Amendment.

Representative Hartzler (r): Certainly on that, so. [crosstalk] That was really taken out of context.

Question: So, how do you think the, the amendment? [inaudible] How do you think that makes people, young people, like me, who are gay feel about ourselves, to come up in to a society that, to us seems like doesn’t value us in the same way straight people are valued?

Representative Hartzler (r): We’re not, we’re not the ones changing the policy. [inaudible] So you shouldn’t feel bad at all. In two thousand [crosstalk]…

Question: Why shouldn’t I feel bad if there’s an amendment, you champion [inaudible crosstalk] an amendment prohibiting me from…

Representative Hartzler (r): [inaudible] Right now it has been the law of the land for a long time that marriage is a [inaudible] commitment between a man and a woman. All we did in two thousand four is just put that in the Constitution. So we’re not changing policy at all. And, and anyway, so you shouldn’t feel bad, anyway. [crosstalk] It’s nice to meet you guys.

Question: So, you don’t think I should feel bad at all?

“…I know. I just wondered, are you friendly or are you not?…”

Interesting, not all town halls are going to be like the annual “clap louder” convocations of the Chamber of People’s Deputies. On occasion someone’s gonna slip in and ask a question.

Recently:

Are teh gay really so icky, Vicky? (March 24, 2011)

Representative Vicky Hartzler (r) on DADT: it’s all about the plumbing (April 1, 2011)

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r): teh gay are so icky (June 5, 2011)

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r): stop being mean by quoting what I said (June 8, 2011)

Campaign Finance: big contributors continue to rush in…

30 Thursday Jun 2011

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

campaign finance, Chris Koster, HRCC, Jay Nixon, missouri

Today, at the Missouri Ethics Commission:

C091068 06/29/2011 HOUSE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE INC Realtors PAC-MO PO Box 30635 Columbia MO 65205 6/28/2011 $15,000.00

[emphasis added]

You think the Realtors know how the HRCC spends its money? Just asking.

C031159 06/29/2011 MISSOURIANS FOR KOSTER Eastern Missouri Laborers’ Educational and Benevolent Fund 3450 Hollenberg Dr Bridgeton MO 63044 6/29/2011 $8,000.00

C031159 06/29/2011 MISSOURIANS FOR KOSTER NovaSys Health P.O. Box 25230 Little Rock AK 72221 6/29/2011 $10,000.00

C031159 06/29/2011 MISSOURIANS FOR KOSTER Cenpatico Behavioral Health, LLC 7711 Carondelet Suite 800 Saint Louis MO 63105 6/29/2011 $10,000.00

C031159 06/29/2011 MISSOURIANS FOR KOSTER Laborers Local Union #264 PAC 1101 E 87th St Suite 103 Kansas City MO 64131 6/29/2011 $2,500.00

C031159 06/29/2011 MISSOURIANS FOR KOSTER Heavy Construction Laborers’ Local Union #663 PAC 7820 Prospect Ave Kansas City MO 64132 6/29/2011 $1,500.00

C031159 06/29/2011 MISSOURIANS FOR KOSTER Western Missouri & Kansas Laborers’ District Council PAC 1101 E. 87th St. Suite 100 Kansas City MO 64131 6/29/2011 $2,000.00

C031159 06/29/2011 MISSOURIANS FOR KOSTER Bridgeway Health Solutions Arizona, LLC 7711 Carondelet Suite 800 Saint Louis MO 63105 6/29/2011 $5,000.00

[emphasis added]

The Attorney General (D) continues to do very well.

C001135 06/29/2011 JAY NIXON FOR MISSOURI Gary Robb 5500 Ward Parkway Kansas City MO 64113 Robb & Robb LLC Attorney 6/28/2011 $6,250.00

C001135 06/29/2011 JAY NIXON FOR MISSOURI Anita Robb 5500 Ward Parkway Kansas City MO 64113 Robb & Robb LLC Attorney 6/28/2011 $6,250.00

C001135 06/29/2011 JAY NIXON FOR MISSOURI K & M Enterprises LLC 1200 Main St Ste 3900 Kansas City MO 64105 6/28/2011 $6,250.00

C001135 06/29/2011 JAY NIXON FOR MISSOURI Robb & Robb LLC 1200 Main St Ste 3900 Kansas City MO 64105 6/28/2011 $6,250.00

[emphasis added]

You think these folks know each other? There’s more for Governor Nixon (D):

C001135 06/29/2011 JAY NIXON FOR MISSOURI Husch Blackwell Political Action Committee 4801 Main Ste 1000 Kansas City MO 64112 6/28/2011 $5,000.00

C001135 06/29/2011 JAY NIXON FOR MISSOURI MHS Trust DTD 222 S. Central Ave Ste 506 Saint Louis MO 63105 6/28/2011 $5,000.00

C001135 06/29/2011 JAY NIXON FOR MISSOURI MOSFA PAC INC 221 Bolivar St Suite 300 Jefferson City MO 65101 6/28/2011 $1,500.00

[emphasis added]

That’s a total of $36,500.00 for the governor’s reelection campaign today.

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r): evidently math skills or facts aren't a strong suit

29 Wednesday Jun 2011

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

4th Congressional District, agriculture, fact challenged, math challenged, missouri, subsidies, Vicky Hartzler

In The Hill:

New Member of the Week: Rep. Hartzler sees God’s plan in politics

By Ramsey Cox – 05/16/11 06:19 AM ET

….According to the Environmental Working Group, Hartzler and her husband received around $775,000 in federal farm subsidies during the last 15 years.

“We do participate in the government programs, like probably 95 percent of farmers do,” Hartzler said. “People who aren’t familiar with the agriculture industry, you know, try and make that look like something exceptional….”

[emphasis added]

From the Environmental Working Group:

Farms Getting Government Payments, By State, according to the 2007 USDA Census of Agriculture

State/Number of Farms/Number of Farms Receiving Government Subsidies/Percent Receiving Government Subsidies

United States 2,204,792 838,391 38.0%

Missouri 107,825 45,102 41.8%

[emphasis added]

That’s some misunderestimate for someone familiar with the agriculture industry.

Campaign Finance: ditto

29 Wednesday Jun 2011

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

2012, campaign finance, governor, Jay Nixon, missouri, Missouri Ethics Commission

Sounding like a broken record, today, at the Missouri Ethics Commission:

C001135 06/28/2011 JAY NIXON FOR MISSOURI Centene Management Company LLC 7711 Carondelet Ave Saint Louis MO 63105 6/26/2011 $20,000.00

C001135 06/28/2011 JAY NIXON FOR MISSOURI Thomas Green 1830 Craig Park Court Saint Louis MO 63146 Law Offices of Thomas R. Green Attorney 6/26/2011 $5,000.00

C001135 06/28/2011 JAY NIXON FOR MISSOURI Liberty Mutual Insurance Co Political Action Committee 175 Berkeley Street Boston MA 02117 6/26/2011 $2,500.00

C001135 06/28/2011 JAY NIXON FOR MISSOURI Missouri Insurance Coalition PAC 220 Madison Street Third Floor Jefferson City MO 65101 6/26/2011 $2,500.00

C001135 06/28/2011 JAY NIXON FOR MISSOURI FEAPAC of Missouri 11880 College Blvd. Ste 120 Overland Park KS 66210 6/26/2011 $2,500.00

C001135 06/28/2011 JAY NIXON FOR MISSOURI The Travelers Indemnity Company One Tower Square Hartford CT 06183 6/26/2011 $2,500.00

C001135 06/28/2011 JAY NIXON FOR MISSOURI S.V. Associates Partnership 1830 Craig Park Ct. #101 Saint Louis MO 63146 6/26/2011 $2,000.00

C001135 06/28/2011 JAY NIXON FOR MISSOURI Cottonwood Properties 1830 Craig Park Ct. #101 Saint Louis MO 63146 6/26/2011 $2,000.00

C001135 06/28/2011 JAY NIXON FOR MISSOURI American Family Insurance Missouri Political Action Committee 4802 Mitchell Avenue Saint Joseph MO 64507 6/26/2011 $1,000.00

C001135 06/28/2011 JAY NIXON FOR MISSOURI Shaffer Lombardo Shurin 911 Main Suite 2000 Kansas City MO 64105 6/27/2011 $25,000.00

C001135 06/28/2011 JAY NIXON FOR MISSOURI MOSFA PAC INC 221 Bolivar St Suite 300 Jefferson City MO 65101 6/27/2011 $5,000.00

C001135 06/28/2011 JAY NIXON FOR MISSOURI Fred Pryor One Briar Point Dr. Kansas City MO 64116 Retired Retired 6/27/2011 $2,500.00

C001135 06/28/2011 JAY NIXON FOR MISSOURI Charles Garney 4200 N Hickory Lane Kansas City MO 64116 Briarcliff Development CEO 6/27/2011 $2,500.00

C001135 06/28/2011 JAY NIXON FOR MISSOURI Kimberly Almalech 20875 Saratoga Hills Rd Saratoga CA 95070 None Homemaker 6/27/2011 $1,500.00

C001135 06/28/2011 JAY NIXON FOR MISSOURI Fox & Vuylsteke LLP 110 East Lockwood Avenue Ste 150 Webster Groves MO 63119 6/27/2011 $1,000.00

C001135 06/28/2011 JAY NIXON FOR MISSOURI Diana Chancellor 17512 Summit View Place Rdg Glencoe MO 63038 None Homemaker 6/27/2011 $1,000.00

C001135 06/28/2011 JAY NIXON FOR MISSOURI The Driscoll Firm PC 211 N. Broadway Suite 2440 Saint Louis MO 63102 6/27/2011 $1,000.00

That’s a total of $79,000.00 for today.

Previously:

Campaign Finance: another big dollar day for Governor Jay Nixon (D) (June 28, 2011)

Campaign Finance: The Governor (D) is on a roll… (June 25, 2011)

Campaign Finance: a gubernatorial fundraising ping pong match (June 24, 2011)

Campaign Finance: The Governor (D) Strikes Back, part 2 (June 22, 2011)

Campaign Finance: The Governor (D) Strikes Back (June 21, 2011)

Another edition of simple answers to simple questions

28 Tuesday Jun 2011

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

bumper stickers

No.

On a vehicle in west central Missouri, obviously one of the 27 percent.

It has to be someone with a really short attention span.

Campaign Finance: another big dollar day for Governor Jay Nixon (D)

28 Tuesday Jun 2011

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

2012, campaign finance, governor, Jay Nixon, missouri, Missouri Ethics Commission

Yesterday, at the Missouri Ethics Commission:

C001135 06/27/2011 JAY NIXON FOR MISSOURI Strong Garner Bauer PC 415 East Chestnut Expressway Springfield MO 65802 6/25/2011 $50,000.00

C001135 06/27/2011 JAY NIXON FOR MISSOURI Stephen Gorny 5519 E Mission Drive Mission Hills KS 66208 Bartimus Frickleton Robertson & Gorny Attorney 6/25/2011 $30,000.00

C001135 06/27/2011 JAY NIXON FOR MISSOURI James Frickleton 3012 W 117th St. Leawood KS 66211 Bartimus Frickleton Robertson & Gorny Attorney 6/25/2011 $25,000.00

C001135 06/27/2011 JAY NIXON FOR MISSOURI James Bartimus 11150 Overbrook Rd Ste 200 Leawood KS 66211 Bartimus Frickleton Robertson & Gorny Attorney 6/25/2011 $25,000.00

C001135 06/27/2011 JAY NIXON FOR MISSOURI Zevan & Davidson Law Firm 1 North Taylor Avenue Saint Louis MO 63108 6/25/2011 $25,000.00

C001135 06/27/2011 JAY NIXON FOR MISSOURI Dollar, Burns, & Becker, LC 1100 Main Street Suite 2600 Kansas City MO 64105 6/25/2011 $25,000.00

[emphasis added]

That’s $180,000.00 in big dollar contributions. But wait, there’s more:

C001135 06/27/2011 JAY NIXON FOR MISSOURI The Benson Law Firm LLC 111 S. Baltimore PO Box 219 Kirksville MO 63501 6/25/2011 $5,000.00

C001135 06/27/2011 JAY NIXON FOR MISSOURI John Larsen Jr 1108 Olive Street 4th Floor Saint Louis MO 63101 Larsen, Feist & Hess, PC Attorney 6/25/2011 $2,000.00

C001135 06/27/2011 JAY NIXON FOR MISSOURI Andrew O Brien 7101 Westmoreland Drive Saint Louis MO 63130 O’Brien Law Firm Attorney 6/25/2011 $2,000.00

C001135 06/27/2011 JAY NIXON FOR MISSOURI The Padberg & Corrigan Law Firm 1926 Chouteau Ave Saint Louis MO 63103 6/25/2011 $2,000.00

C001135 06/27/2011 JAY NIXON FOR MISSOURI The Law Offices of PalmerOliver PC 205 Park Central E. Ste 511 Springfield MO 65806 6/25/2011 $1,000.00

C001135 06/27/2011 JAY NIXON FOR MISSOURI John Boyd 612 NE Seabrook Court Lees Summit MO 64064 Boyd & Kenter, PC Attorney 6/25/2011 $1,000.00

C001135 06/27/2011 JAY NIXON FOR MISSOURI John Cook 715 N Clark Cape Girardeau MO 63701 Cook, Barkett, Ponder & Wolz Attorney 6/25/2011 $1,000.00

C001135 06/27/2011 JAY NIXON FOR MISSOURI Michael Feist 3225 HWY. 13 W Harrisburg IL 62946 Larsen, Feist & Hess, PC Attorney 6/25/2011 $1,000.00

C001135 06/27/2011 JAY NIXON FOR MISSOURI C H Parsons Jr PO Box 428 Dexter MO 63841 Parsons & Wilson Attorney 6/25/2011 $1,000.00

[emphasis added]

Did you ever think we’d see the day when a four figure contribution wasn’t that big a deal? Me neither.

By the way, that’s a total of $196,000.00 in one day.

I know who I'm voting for when I cross over for the Missouri republican Presidential Primary

27 Monday Jun 2011

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

clowns, Iowa, Michele Bachmann

Representative Michele Bachmann (r).

None of the others even come close.

Representative Michelle Bachmann (r): …But what I want them to know is, just like John Wayne was from Waterloo, Iowa, that’s the kind of spirit that I have, too…  

John Wayne was born Marion Robert Morrison in Winterset, Iowa, in 1907.

[emphasis added]

The republican governing philosophy makes a whole lot more sense now, in a Jonathan Swift non-ironic sort of way:

Michele Bachmann promises to be a clown and kill teenagers

Posted on: June 27, 2011 4:09 PM, by Greg Laden

…And she still doesn’t know where anything is…

Michele Bachmann promised, in an interview associated with her announcement to run for President of the United States (POTUS) and Effective Leader of the Free World (ELFW), that she would become a professional clown and murder dozens of teenage boys and young men.

Or, perhaps, she is just confused…

The U.S. Supreme Court lays another egg

27 Monday Jun 2011

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Arizona, campaign finance, Supreme Court

The big one in the batch was Citizens United [pdf]. This continues the corporate free speech atrocities, as today the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Arizona’s longstanding public campaign financing law, 5-4:

…ROBERTS, C. J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which SCALIA, KENNEDY, THOMAS, and ALITO, JJ., joined. KAGAN, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which GINSBURG, BREYER, and SOTOMAYOR, JJ., joined…

ARIZONA FREE ENTERPRISE CLUB’S FREEDOM CLUB PAC ET AL. v. BENNETT, SECRETARY OF STATE OF ARIZONA, ET AL. No. 10-238. (2011) [pdf]

Under Arizona law, candidates for state office who accept public financing can receive additional money from he State in direct response to the campaign activities of privately financed candidates and independent expenditure groups. Once a set spending limit is exceeded, a publicly financed candidate receives roughly one dollar for every dollar spent by an opposing privately financed candidate. The publicly financed candidate also receives roughly one dollar for every dollar spent by independent expenditure groups to support the privately financed candidate, or to oppose the publicly financed candidate.

We hold that Arizona’s matching funds scheme substantially burdens protected political speech without serving a compelling state interest and therefore violates the First Amendment….

Because the compelling state interest, in the opinion of the court, must be that anonymous corporate money trumps everything.

From Justice Kagan’s dissent:

….The First Amendment’s core purpose is to foster a healthy, vibrant political system full of robust discussion and debate. Nothing in Arizona’s anti-corruption statute, the Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Act, violates this constitutional protection. To the contrary, the Act promotes the values underlying both the First Amendment and our entire Constitution by enhancing the “opportunity for free political discussion to the end that government may be responsive to the will of the people.” Id., at 269 (internal quotation marks omitted). I therefore respectfully dissent….

….Indeed, what petitioners demand is essentially a right to quash others’ speech through the prohibition of a (universally available) subsidy program. Petitioners are able to convey their ideas without public financing-and they would prefer the field to themselves, so that they can speak free from response. To attain that goal, they ask this Court to prevent Arizona from funding electoral speech-even though that assistance is offered to every state candidate, on the same (entirely unobjectionable) basis. And this Court gladly obliges….

….Most important, and as just suggested, the very notion that additional speech constitutes a “burden” is odd and unsettling. Here is a simple fact: Arizona imposes nothing remotely resembling a coercive penalty on privately funded candidates. The State does not jail them, fine them, or subject them to any kind of lesser disability. (So the majority’s analogies to a fine on speech, ante, at 19, 28, are inapposite.) The only “burden” in this case comes from the grant of a subsidy to another person, and the opportunity that subsidy allows for responsive speech. But that means the majority cannot get out from under our subsidy precedents. Once again: We have never, not once, understood a viewpoint-neutral subsidy given to one speaker to constitute a First Amendment burden on another. (And that is so even when the subsidy is not open to all, as it is here.) Yet in this case, the majority says that the prospect of more speech-responsive speech, competitive speech, the kind of speech that drives public debate-counts as a constitutional injury. That concept, for all the reasons previously given, is “wholly foreign to the First Amendment.” Buckley, 424 U. S., at 49….

[emphasis added]

The motto of the “balls and strikes” Roberts Court: Them that has the gold, makes the rules.

Previously:

Those who have the gold get to rule (June 10, 2010)

HB 1201 in Jefferson City: public campaign financing (April 5, 2009)

Missouri campaign finance legislation: same planet, different worlds (February 14, 2008)

How to rein in a greedy corporation

27 Monday Jun 2011

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

missouri, Missouri American Water Company, MOPAG

Union workers at Missouri American Water Company are holding out against the contract the company is trying to force on them. Actually, “contract” is too generous a description of it. It’s more like a caricature of a contract. A burlesque. A sick parody that offers a two percent raise, coupled with a 50 percent rise in health care premiums and deep cuts in services. Oh and by the way, there’s a clause in there that destroys the union, granting the company the right to outsource whichever jobs it jolly well decides to.

Missouri American Water Co. picket

The workers have demonstrated in front of the company headquarters and most Saturdays they show up in front of the home of one or another of the company executives for informational pickets. A week ago Saturday, I visited with a dozen or so brave, persistent souls who were standing on the sidewalk in front of the Webster Groves home of the company’s Human Resources Manager, Ann Simmons. One of the workers, Jim Wheaton, told me that a man had passed them a few minutes before I arrived and had said that he sympathized with their need to fight back but that they were out of line to picket particular execs at home. Blink. How dare they embarrass a woman who has sat in contract negotiations and supported taking their union away from them? How loutish, how uncivil, how unrefined of the workers to publicly scold Ms. Simmons. After Wheaton remembered to close his mouth, he asked the passerby if the man had a better solution. “Well no.”

Jim and Cheryl Wheaton

Missouri American Water Co. picket

I do. I have a better solution. These twelve brave souls need to show up at Ms. Simmons’ home next Saturday with an additional 200 people. Or better yet, 500. They need to make sure that the media know they’ll have hundreds of workers  blocking the sidewalk all up and down both sides of that quiet little neighborhood. Every week. They need media attention. Now, while Americans are pissed off at the attacks on worker rights, NOW is the time to make a very public spectacle of what Missouri American Water is trying to pull.

“Oh really,” those twelve dogged picketers say. And how do you propose we conjure up those other 500 bodies? We’ve misplaced our wands.

No wands required. It’s as simple–and as daunting–as forming a metro wide alliance of progressive groups–not just Missouri American Water workers, but NEA and AFT teachers, UAW guys and Teamsters, plus all those people who belong to liberal entities like Jobs with Justice, Pro-Vote, Alliance for Retired Americans, Coalition for the Environment, Sierra Club, Women’s Voices Raised for Social Justice, Young Democrats and Show Me No Hate. It’s the “You get my back and I’ll get yours” philosophy. And I can even tell you who is proposing to act on that idea. Missouri Progressive Action Group (MOPAG) is touching bases with all the stakeholders I just named and many more and inviting them to a conference where such an alliance might be formed.

Let me offer an example of what such an alliance could achieve. Last month, when I was in Cheyenne for a couple of weeks, I needed a haircut. I was explaining to the hairdresser, a gay man named Joe Corrigan, what MOPAG is about and he told me that Wyoming, a very red state, has a statewide progressive alliance. He said it was so effective that it managed to stop every one of the anti-gay bills introduced in the legislature. When one of the bills was being discussed in committee, Corrigan told me, a burly construction worker got up and told the committee members that the bill under consideration was immoral. “It’s wrong and unamerican to target people just because they’re gay,” he said. Joe said that testimony was so much more effective than if a gay hairdresser had spoken. I asked why the guy had done it. “Why? he said in disbelief. “Because. He’s union. He’s in the alliance!”

Missouri progressives already do a lot of good coordinating, of course. Unions working with progressive groups managed to stop dead every one of the anti-worker bills in the last legislative session. Pro-Vote has had an alliance for years, and now they have a new executive director, Matt Patterson, who is working to breathe more life into it. But a more encompassing vision might accomplish even more. It might, for example turn a couple of hundred people out in front of Ann Simmons’ home in Websters Groves on a regular basis. It might instill the fear in badly behaved St. Louis corporations of facing a unified front from working people.

An alliance like that could target one or several Republican held seats and put a lot of boots on the ground to shove out of power a few those legislators who hate public schools, poor people, puppies and pensions for working people. A professional researcher and pollster, a lifelong Democrat, has offered MOPAG her services free to help us design and do a poll in whichever area we choose to target.

MOPAG’s next meeting is this Saturday at the St.Louis County Headquarters On Lindbergh at 12:30 p.m. If you’re a St. Louisan who wants to take action instead of kvetching about the sorry state of affairs, be there. Or call Rea (314-727-7374) and ask to be added to the MOPAG listserv. But if you join, do it knowing that sometime soon you’ll be asked to do something.  

Why should our video games be any different than our society?

27 Monday Jun 2011

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Alito, Supreme Court, torture, video games

There’s an interesting footnote (the second) in Justice Alito’s concurrence to Justice Scalia’s opinion in BROWN v. ENTERTAINMENT MERCHANTS ASSN. (No. 08-1448) 556 F. 3d 950, affirmed. (2011) overturning California’s ban on selling or renting violent video games to minors:  

…Under the California law, a game that meets the threshold requirement set out in text also qualifies as “violent” if it “[e]nables the player to virtually inflict serious injury upon images of human beings or characters with substantially human characteristics in a manner which is especially heinous, cruel, or depraved in that it involves torture or serious physical abuse to the victim.” ยง1746(d)(1)(B). In the Court of Appeals, California conceded that this alternative definition is unconstitutional, 556 F. 3d 950, 954, n. 5 (CA9 2009), and therefore only the requirements set out in text are now before us….

Why should our video games be any different than our society?

Poll finds lack of support for ‘torture’ investigations

updated 3:16 p.m. EDT, Wed May 6, 2009

“…Roughly one in five Americans believe those techniques were torture but nonetheless approve of the decision to use those procedures against suspected terrorists,” CNN Polling Director Keating Holland said. “That goes a long way toward explaining why a majority don’t want to see former Bush officials investigated…”

Washington Post-ABC News Poll

This Washington Post-ABC News poll was conducted by telephone April 21-24, 2009, among a random national sample of 1,072 adults using both conventional and cellular phones…The results from the full survey have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points…

…30. Obama has said that under his administration the United States will not use torture as part of the U.S. campaign against terrorism, no matter what the circumstance. Do you support this position not to use torture, or do you think there are cases in which the United States should consider torture against terrorism suspects?

4/24/09

Support not using torture – 49%

There are cases to consider torture – 48%

No opinion – 2%

1/16/09

Support not using torture – 58%

There are cases to consider torture – 40%

No opinion – 2%

Do you think the undecideds work in the video game industry?

Previously: A Small Clique Of Legal Extremists… (February 24, 2008)

← Older posts

Subscribe

  • Entries (RSS)
  • Comments (RSS)

Archives

  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • October 2010
  • September 2010
  • August 2010
  • July 2010
  • June 2010
  • May 2010
  • April 2010
  • March 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010
  • December 2009
  • November 2009
  • October 2009
  • September 2009
  • August 2009
  • July 2009
  • June 2009
  • May 2009
  • April 2009
  • March 2009
  • February 2009
  • January 2009
  • December 2008
  • November 2008
  • October 2008
  • September 2008
  • August 2008
  • July 2008
  • June 2008
  • May 2008
  • April 2008
  • March 2008
  • February 2008
  • January 2008
  • December 2007
  • November 2007
  • October 2007
  • September 2007
  • August 2007

Categories

  • campaign finance
  • Claire McCaskill
  • Congress
  • Democratic Party News
  • Eric Schmitt
  • Healthcare
  • Hillary Clinton
  • Interview
  • Jason Smith
  • Josh Hawley
  • Mark Alford
  • media criticism
  • meta
  • Missouri General Assembly
  • Missouri Governor
  • Missouri House
  • Missouri Senate
  • Resist
  • Roy Blunt
  • social media
  • Standing Rock
  • Town Hall
  • Uncategorized
  • US Senate

Meta

  • Log in

Blogroll

  • Balloon Juice
  • Crooks and Liars
  • Digby
  • I Spy With My Little Eye
  • Lawyers, Guns, and Money
  • No More Mister Nice Blog
  • The Great Orange Satan
  • Washington Monthly
  • Yael Abouhalkah

Donate to Show Me Progress via PayPal

Your modest support helps keep the lights on. Click on the button:

Blog Stats

  • 733,460 hits

Powered by WordPress.com.

 

Loading Comments...