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Monthly Archives: July 2011

An ORGANIZED letter writing campaign

31 Sunday Jul 2011

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

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letters to the editor, missouri, Missouri Progressive Action Group, MOPAG

Letters to the EditorLast spring, Claire McCaskill attended a meeting of Missouri Progressive Action Group (MOPAG) in St. Louis. One of the many items we discussed was letters to the editor, and Claire pretty much begged us to get letters in the papers in the collar counties, the counties that ring K.C. and St. Louis. She wanted that because those counties have such large numbers of swing voters and because people actually read those small local papers. But I know from experience how far any such pleas to write LTEs go. A super convincing plea might produce a flurry of letters. But the sort of efficient, dependable flow of LTEs Claire would like to see? Uh-uh. One plea or twenty of them ain’t gonna make it happen.

So at the next month’s meeting, I suggested that our group form a committee to see that the efficient, dependable flow of LTEs in the small papers in collar counties–and elsewhere around the state–become a reality. I wanted a committee chairman with a cadre of volunteers who would regularly pick a given topic for LTEs, decide on talking points, and always explain the morality that underlies our arguments. (Facts and figures alone do not convince voters. To do that, you have to touch their emotions and appeal to their morality.  So, for example, a letter about businesses getting tax breaks and then shipping American jobs overseas might conclude that when someone (in this case, the taxpayer) helps you out generously, it is shameful to take his money, stab him in the gut, and walk away laughing while you count the money.) Once persuasive letters were written, the committee would see that they were distributed to appropriate papers.

Willy Kessler offered to head the letter writing committee. She and her–at that point–three volunteers agreed on some guidelines and decided they would not only keep track of who was sending letters to which papers but also record which letters got published and in which papers. They set about getting a complete list of papers with contact info and editorial policies and were about ready to start. … Then life intervened.  Kessler was out of commission for a couple of months. But she’s back and ready to roll. She is calling a meeting on Tuesday to settle a few last questions and then get started writing.

The committee now has eight writers. They need at least ten, but think what they could do with twenty. If you have a knack for letter writing, consider joining them. You’ll get the talking points to make the process easier. And you’ll know that you’re helping convince persuadable voters that our side has the values they agree with.

Aerotropolis: looks like the rich will get richer, and the poor ….

31 Sunday Jul 2011

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

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Aerotropolis, missouri

Here’s a plan to improve Missouri’s economy: cut help for disabled renters and help in paying property taxes for low income elderly homeowners. Give that money to Paul McKee and other rich developers in the form of tax breaks for Aerotropolis. That’s what the legislature is about to do, as Ben Marten of Missourians for Tax Justice explains:

In September, Missouri lawmakers are expected to reconvene for a special session aimed at passing a jobs creation package to promote economic development. Legislation that increases corporate tax exemptions and general business incentives, though deeply flawed as policy, isn’t a novel concept. Yet, leaders in Jefferson City are expected to do more than simply give money to corporations: lawmakers are actually planning to pay for these giveaways by revoking property tax credits for elderly and disabled renters.

The Associated Press reports that the legislation “would authorize tax breaks to attract international shippers to Lambert-St. Louis International Airport…. It also would create incentives for science and technology companies, computer-based data storage centers and big-time amateur sporting events. And it would revamp existing programs so Missouri could offer incentives to retain companies being enticed by other states – a provision particularly intended counteract Kansas’ efforts to lure companies from Kansas City, Mo.”

Of course, there is little evidence that these giveaways will actually produce jobs for Missourians, or expedite business decisions to expand in the Show Me State.

One reason to object to these tax credits is that they play into the the ongoing hustle of corporations pitting one state against another (not to mention one municipality against another). Even more compelling is that on this rare occasion Jeanette Mott Oxford, champion in our state lege of a fairer tax system, finds herself agreeing with Sinquefield’s Show Me Institute. Both regard these credits as political cronyism. SMI advises legislators not to take at face value claims that the bill will further economic development or create jobs:

The structure of the incentives laid out in the Aerotropolis legislation do not advance Missouri’s economic interests because a vast majority of the incentives are tailored to advance the financial interests of a small group of businesses and private developers,at the expense of pre-existing businesses and state taxpayers.

The Aerotropolis tax credits would subsidize warehouse construction, as well as cargo flights from Saint Louis to international destinations. Up to $300 million in tax credits – more than 80 percent of the bill’s tax breaks – would be made available for the construction of new warehouses around the airport. Those tax credits could be used to pay up to 30 percent of a warehouse owner’s demolition, construction, and equipment costs. The bill requires that warehouses qualifying for those incentives must be built on 100 contiguous acres of land or in specially designated areas. There does not seem to be any practical reason for the “100 acre” requirement contained within the Aerotropolis tax credit bill. The requirement seems to serve only to restrict who could draw upon such tax credits, narrowing the field to a small pool of large-scale developers. Such a strange requirement is not unexpected, but it is an unfortunate example of the cronyism that can flourish almost hidden in the details of a lengthy bill.

Furthermore, although Aerotropolis proponents cite increased international trade as the reason to create hundreds of millions in subsidies, the bill would allow warehouse owners that do not process any international cargo to draw upon the tax credits.

[emphasis mine]

I’d say something snarky about what happens when Republicans finally tackle a jobs bill, except that I can’t even lay this one entirely at their door. St. Louis Mayor Slay, St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley, and Governor Nixon have been pushing this hard. Aerotropolis ought to create jobs building warehouses and transporting cheap Chinese made American flags. Do Democrats justify cutting the circuit breaker program as a tradeoff for those jobs? Maybe, but it don’t seem right to me.

Touching the Third Rail of American Politics

31 Sunday Jul 2011

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

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Arizona, bumper stickers

Bumper stickers on a resident’s car at a retirement community:

These folks vote.

And the republicans want to mess with Social Security and Medicare?

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D): taking constituent calls during the republican debt hostage crisis

30 Saturday Jul 2011

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

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Claire McCaskill, Debt ceiling, missouri, republican debt hostage crisis, Senate

Senator Claire McCaskill (D) today via Twitter:

@clairecmc Claire McCaskill

Just spent a couple of hours answering the phones in my office. Dominant message? Don’t cut Soc Sec or Medicare and #compromise. 2 hours ago

Senator Claire McCaskill (D) taking constituent calls in her office. Photo via Facebook.

A few of the Facebook comments:

Close the tax loophole and stop the corporate welfare… you promised to cut waste and duplication in governmental programs, please continue your work. DO NOT cut social programs or veteran’s bemefits. We need jobs!

….lets start with the ‘tax breaks’ for the rich, which in reality is ‘tax spending’ much of our nation’s debt could be fixed by repealing the bush ‘tax spending’ for the wealthy.

Cut, cap and balance is a no win solution. Claire is a good senator. It’s the tea party caucus who is trying to destroy our REpublic at any costs. They are anti Obama in everything, and no one can convince me otherwise that it is all about race. Period. The tp’ers are trying to destroy our Republic at any costs, and they no where near patriots of any shape. Go, Claire, and stop the madness of the tea party.

Hold Strong – the wealthy MUST pay their fair share. The Republican dogma about tax cuts for welthy so they can reinvest in America doesn’t work when they are reinvesting in China!

Sorry Claire it is not going to work we know you are a lier [sic]

Congress passed the spending bills to commit to spending over the years. They passed the temporary tax cuts then made them permanent. The affardable health insurance act hasn’t taken affect- when it does it is expected to provide more care at less cost.

This President gets stuck with the blame.

Senator keep up the good work, keep focused on creating jobs and finding the common ground to govern. The extreme left and extreme right are both wrong in my opinion.

get rid of the Bush tax cut for the wealthy. They are not creating any new jobs and are taking large bonuses for themselves.

If the R’s want to compromise for the Country why are they spending billions on negative political ads blaming D’s for the economic crisis? Poor taste! The deficit is PAST spending. We want a democratic solution. Sen McCaskill is interested in the public interest not private interest. We don’t want fascism & some of these crazy things proposed in Washington are close.

And the latest, via Twitter:

@clairecmc Claire McCaskill

Taking a blanket and pillow to the Capitol. #neveragoodsign 6 minutes ago

Followed by quick comments from friends:

@BGinKC Blue Girl

@SharkFu @clairecmc I have suggestions on who to smother with that pillow, and thoughts about the blanket and a bag of oranges, as well. 4 minutes ago

@SharkFu SharkFu

@BGinKC oooh, you are BAD! #ILike 3 minutes ago

Shall we throw veterans out of Veterans' Homes?

30 Saturday Jul 2011

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

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closing veterans' homes, missouri, Veterans' Homes

Harvey Ferdman, a St. Louis activist, sent out this letter asking his political acquaintances to rally at the Veterans’ Home in St. Louis on Monday. Republicans are in the process of closing down that home and before long all the veterans’ homes in the state, even though the state only pays for 21% of the cost:

Missouri Department of Public Safety Veterans Commission

St. Louis Veterans Home

10600 Lewis & Clark Blvd

St Louis, MO 63136

Monday, August 1st, 2011 at 10:00 AM (gather in the lobby at 9:30 AM).

Our State Legislature has decided to gradually defund the MO State Veterans Homes (there are 7 across the state, one in St. Louis) at a time when there is a 1600 person waiting list!

I spoke with Administrator Smith at the St. Louis Home on Friday and he said the following:

There was a reduction in funding that began in 2009 and continues today … “if the current rate of decrease continues, then all the Homes will have to close by April 2013”.

This is amazing considering that the Homes Program is funded 49.41% VA Per Diem, 29.33% Resident Contribution, and only from 21.26%-General Revenue.

He replied in the affirmative when I asked if it would help secure funding from our State Government for these homes if people who want to see them stay open show up to Monday’s Veterans Commission meeting.

Many thanks to Norma Jean [Downey] for alerting me/us to this.

Regards,

Harvey Ferdman

The republican Debt Hostage Crisis: Speaker Boehner's meaningless bill barely passes

30 Saturday Jul 2011

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Claire McCaskill, Debt ceiling, missouri, Vicky Hartzler

Speaker John Boehner’s (r) joke passed in the House despite bipartisan opposition:

FINAL VOTE RESULTS FOR ROLL CALL 677

     S 627      RECORDED VOTE      29-Jul-2011      6:25 PM

     QUESTION:  On Passage

     BILL TITLE: Budget Control Act of 2011

That’s right. No Democratic votes for it and twenty-two republican votes against it.

How the Missouri delegation voted:

—- AYES    218 —

Akin

Emerson

Graves (MO)

Hartzler

Long

Luetkemeyer

— NOES    210 —

Carnahan

Clay

Cleaver

Oh, look, Rep. Michelle Bachmann (r) voted “no”.

The Twitterverse lights up like a holiday tree:

@BGinKC Blue Girl

So the House has passed a stone, er, @SpeakerBoehner’s idiotic corpse of a bill. Ho Hum and who cares? It’s dead and so is his career. 1 hour ago

@pourmecoffee pourmecoffee

Procedure now is the Senate will table Boehner’s bill and a secret committee of Freemasons will decide what to do next. 1 hour ago

Meanwhile, the Senate has to deal with the mess:

@clairecmc Claire McCaskill

We’ll obviously be working all weekend.I’m going to spend some time on my office switchboard answering calls myself. 1 hour ago

And, true to form, the republicans obstruct:

@clairecmc Claire McCaskill

Not a good sign. Someone on R side objected to us even beginning to do business. Requiring silly procedural vote. #compromise 16 minutes ago

The republicans can’t help themselves, it’s in their nature.

Campaign Finance: the HRCC keeps rakin' it in – what are they gonna spend it all on?

30 Saturday Jul 2011

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

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campaign finance, HRCC, missouri, Missouri Ethics Commission

Probably robocalls, eh?

In the past few days at the Missouri Ethics Commission:

C091068 07/29/2011 HOUSE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE INC Dealers Interested In Government PO Box 245 Jefferson City MO 65102 7/29/2011 $10,000.00

C091068 07/29/2011 HOUSE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE INC Friends of Chris Molendorp PO Box 722 Belton MO 64083 7/29/2011 $10,500.00

C091068 07/29/2011 HOUSE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE INC Friends of Shane Schoeller PO Box 746 Willard MO 65781 7/29/2011 $5,250.00

C091068 07/29/2011 HOUSE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE INC Altria Client Services Inc 3601 Commerce Rd Richmaond VA 23234 7/29/2011 $10,000.00

C091068 07/28/2011 HOUSE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE INC FEAPAC of MO 11880 College Blvd Ste 120 Overland Park KS 66210 7/28/2011 $11,500.00

C091068 07/28/2011 HOUSE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE INC RightChoice Managed Care Inc PO Box 68086 Cinncinnati OH 45206 7/28/2011 $12,500.00

[emphasis added]

Do they know what the HRCC spends all that money on? Do they care? Probably not.

Democracy in action (and inaction)

29 Friday Jul 2011

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

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debt crisis, Medicaid and Social Security, Medicare, missouri, Todd Akin

The Tea Partiers had to cancel their planned event for next Monday. They were hoping to fill Kiener Plaza for a sarcastic happy birthday to President Obama. Since Kiener Plaza will hold thousands, there’d have been plenty of room, since the steering committee only got three RSVPs. (And one of those was from flaming liberal Brian Matthews.)

Rally for Soc Sec & Medicare-Akin's office

Rally at Todd Akin's office


At noon on Friday a crowd of 100 or so showed up in 100 degree heat in the middle of a workday to berate Todd Akin for voting to kill Medicare. Saturday is its 46th birthday, and Akin wants to kill it before it turns 47–either that or take a baseball bat to the economy.  He’d settle for either, just like a thug who arrives in your bakery with a bat, looks around and muses: “Nice little economy you got here. Shame if something was to happen to it.”

Rally at Todd Akin's office

That’s THE Paul Ryan that Todd Akin is watching with admiration.

The two events illustrate the relative weakness of the Tea Party. And yet their minority in the U. S. House of Representatives is casually switching its bat from one hand to the other, attempting to extort money from little guys who don’t have it to give, and almost hoping for a chance to start swinging at the display cases and the plate glass window.

Barbara Woodruff spoke with fire and clarity about the position these threats leave her in. She and the other residents of a newly opened complex for seniors are sweating out whether they will get their checks and be able to pay the rent. Woodruff is blunt and had the crowd with her.

But as far as Todd Akin is concerned we never showed up. His office door was locked with a note taped next to it that his staff was in a “meeting.” We did show up though, as Fox News and Channel Five will tell you. They were there to film it. They heard Amy Smoucha of Jobs with Justice describe how often people on the left have called Akin’s office asking for a meeting. Dozens of times. With never a single response.

We even brought a cake–shaped like a coffin, to mourn the possible death of Medicare. But of course, there was no one there to accept it or acknowledge that we exist or matter. What better way for his staff to tell us “Let them eat cake.”

Rally at Todd Akin's office

We are democracy in action. But as far as democracy goes, Todd Akin depends on inaction. He doesn’t give a good goddamn about ordinary Americans or democracy.

Akin, Graves and Emerson voted to raise debt ceiling in 2004

29 Friday Jul 2011

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

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Debt ceiling, Deficit, Jo Ann Emerson, missouri, Sam Graves, Todd Akin

Think Progress notes that Todd Akin (R-2), Sam Graves (R-6 ), and Jo Ann Emerson (R-8) voted to raise the debt ceiling in 2004 with nary a squawk about deficit spending. Think Progress‘ writers add that:

All of these Members of Congress can vote for a clean hike again and avert disaster – saving discussions about deficit reduction (and more importantly, jobs) for appropriations debates that take place once America’s financial future is safe.

If they could vote to raise the debt ceiling in 2004 when the national debt was at 7.4 trillion dollars, why can’t they do so now when the major reason that the debt has increased is the recession created by GOP economic policies between 2000 and 2008?   In regard to GOP hissy fits about spending in the Boehner plan, Steve Benen gets it just right:

What will go largely overlooked is that we already are trying things their [i.e., the GOP] way. Whether the GOP wants to admit it or not, the economy is advancing exactly as they want it to. The private sector is being left to its own devices; the public sector is shedding jobs quickly and scrapping investments; and the only permitted topic of conversation is about debt-reduction.

This is the script the GOP wrote. When it’s followed to the letter, Republican complaints are absurd.

Ask yourself, just why can’t these bozos let their deficit cutting stand on its own merits; why do they need to take the economy hostage to get their way if they really have a case? And why now are they trying to create even more chaos and uncertainty? Why are they willing to destroy the economic credibility of the United States? What has the GOP got against us – the American middle class – the folks their insane agenda is going to hurt the worst?

David Farr: the living symbol of present day America

29 Friday Jul 2011

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

David Farr, Emerson Electric, missouri, Todd Akin

David Farr, CEO at Emerson Electric, is putting the muscle on his people to contribute to Akin’s senatorial campaign. Whether they decide to give is all voluntary, of course (wink, wink). In his letter to employees, Farr writes that the decision “will have no impact on your employment with Emerson.” Next, he says they should contact the company’s D.C. office as to “whether or not you plan to attend [Akin’s fundraiser] and the amount of your donation.”

Some extortionists are smoother than others. Some can skip the baseball bats. Especially if they have a reputation. And Farr does.

Mr. Farr has aggressively moved Emerson production and design operations to low-cost, low-regulation environments outside the United States, particularly the People’s Republic of China. Under Mr. Farr’s leadership, Emerson laid off 14% of its U.S. workforce in 2009, eliminating nearly 20,000 jobs. While speaking at the Baird Industrial Outlook Conference in Chicago, in November 2009, Mr. Farr attacked the Obama administration for its attention to “labor rules” and “health reform”, and stated: “What do you think I’m going to do? I’m not going to hire anyone in the United States. I’m moving.”

Tough guy. And it’s paid off for Emerson. The company has prospered under Farr’s guidance. Yes indeedy, it has.

He was also named one of the Top 25 Managers in 2000.[9] Emerson has been awarded as well under Farr’s management having been named one of the 100 Best Corporate Citizens in 2004. Institutional Investor magazine named David Farr,CEO of Emerson EMR, one of The Best CEOs in America in the electrical equipment and multi-industry in 2008. category.

Farr is a living symbol of the U.S. in the late twentieth-early twenty-first centuries. Corporate moguls prosper as they ship our jobs abroad and then buy politicians to keep the arrangement running smoothly. They sip cognac at their homes in Ladue and sneer at any yokels who don’t admire Todd Akin.  

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