Another Missouri republican breaks through the national mockery threshold:

@pwire Taegan Goddard

Headline of the Day: “Kinder says his only relationship with stripper was to watch her dance.” pwire.at/nawYdJ 5 hours ago via bitly

Well, well.

@MBersin Michael Bersin

@pwire Mo. Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder (r): a patron of the arts. 4 hours ago

Cue republicans complaining about Democrats being mean:

Kinder says his only relationship with stripper was to watch her dance

By Jo Mannies, Beacon political reporter  

Updated 12:39 pm Thu., 8.18.11

….Kinder and Barklage echoed previous assertions by the lieutenant governor’s campaign, and the state Republican Party, that state Democrats were behind the story and have helped keep it going.

Those assertions have been denied by the state Democratic Party and campaign operatives for Gov. Jay Nixon.

However, state Democrats have issued releases or made press calls almost daily raising questions about Kinder’s alleged behavior, as asserted by Chapman, and his strip club visits….

Oh, woe.

“When your opponent is drowning, throw the son of a bitch an anvil.” James Carville

Over at the DailyKos they had this to say about a leaked poll that shows Russ Carnahan very slightly ahead of both Ed Martin and Ann Wagner in a potential run for the 2nd district congressional seat:

A Russ Carnahan internal poll made its way to Dave Catanese’s hands, showing the de-districted Democrat with tiny leads over possible Republican opponents in the new 2nd CD. Carnahan leads teabagger extraordinaire Ed Martin 42-40 and former state party chair Ann Wagner 40-39 in the survey from Lake Research. I’m not so sanguine about these results, though, as MO-02 is very red territory and Carnahan would have to contend with Barack Obama at the top of the ticket.

But, I ask, didn’t the redistricting changes to the 2nd do something to dilute its former makeup? Also, as a resident of the 2nd district, I’ve never found it to be as virulently red as the election of Todd Akin would suggest – lots of old-timey, “moderate” GOPers out here. Their votes for Todd, who for a long time kept his wilder tendencies pretty low key, were more a Pavlovian response to the GOP bell than an endorsement of Todd Akin’s extremism. And now that the Tea Party’s ringing that bell, lots of them are a little less enthusiastic than before about the GOP brand.  

That’s only my read, of course, and, I could be very wrong – poll respondents did rate the Tea Party five points higher than President Obama after all, and there is also  some evidence that the poll results could change as voters become more familiar with the candidates:

The August survey found Carnahan up two points on Martin, 42 percent to 40 percent and leading Wagner by a single point, 40 percent to 39 percent.

After being read positive messages about both candidates, Martin leads Carnahan by five points, 47 percent to 42 percent.  Under the same scenario with Wagner, it’s a closer race, with the Democrat besting the former ambassador 44 percent to 43 percent.

I’d like to know the content of those “positive messages.” When negative messages about Martin and Wagner were read, it’s also interesting that, overall, pointing out that they posed a threat to Medicare was pretty effective in lowering their approval rates – but emphasizing Ed Martin’s past record of corruption also got lots of negative traction.  

…versus answering to a possible future indictment at The Hague.

Via Twitter:

@sarah_steelman Sarah Steelman

Heard Obama on bus tour preaching the gospel of big government. Most disconnected President since Carter. #MOSEN 16 Aug

So much for being disconnected:

The Nobel Peace Prize 2002 was awarded to Jimmy Carter “for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development”.

The Nobel Peace Prize 2009 was awarded to Barack H. Obama “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples”.

Because no one remembers anything that happened between January 2001 and January 2009. Then again, for the twenty-seven percent, that’s a feature, not a bug.

Yesterday, at the Missouri Ethics Commission:

CONTRIBUTION OF MORE THAN $5,000.00 RECEIVED BY ANY COMMITTEE FROM ANY SINGLE DONOR – TO BE FILED WITHIN 48 HOURS OF RECEIVING THE CONTRIBUTION

C000953 MO REPUBLICAN PARTY [pdf] 8/17/2011

Rex Sinquefield

244 Bent Walnut

Westphalia, MO 65085

n/a retired

8/16/2011

$30,000.00

[emphasis added]

You’ve got to wonder what they all think about income taxes, you know, an equitable revenue stream intended to support the infrastructure of civilization that isn’t supposed to be regressive. Just asking.

Today at the Missouri Ethics Commission:

C001135 08/17/2011 JAY NIXON FOR MISSOURI The Accurso Law Firm 4646 Roanoke Parkway Kansas City MO 64112 8/15/2011 $25,000.00

C001135 08/17/2011 JAY NIXON FOR MISSOURI Carey & Danis LLC 8235 Forsyth Blvd. Suite 1101 Saint Louis MO 63105 8/17/2011 $14,287.77

[emphasis added]

Lieutenant Governor Peter Kinder’s (r) nimbus has been quiet lately.

You could have ham and eggs. If you had some ham and if you had some eggs…

A video compilation by personman of Representative Vicky Hartzler’s (r) obsession with China expressed at recent town halls in the 4th Congressional District:

From the Warrensburg town hall on August 10,2011:

….Representative Hartzler: Shh. All right. China owns twenty-nine percent of our foreign debt. That is a real concern to me. I said I’m on the Armed Services Committee and I’ve got to sit in a lot of hearings and I can tell you, I don’t know what China’s doing, but it’s concerning. They are building fourteen nuclear submarines right now. We’re building one. They have been devoting over twelve percent of their budget to national defense. Uh, they just introduced their version of a stealth aircraft fighter plane recently. And they just unveiled a twelve hundred mile aircraft carrier busting bomb. So, it’s a little concerning that they hold this much of our debt. In fact, with the interest that we pay China we would be able to buy three, or they could buy, three joint strike fighters and still have fifty million dollars left over. So, um, there’s a lot of reasons I think that we need to get out of debt. But certainly this obligation, um, to China is a concerning one….

We can take a look at what China is doing.

From the World Bank:

Military expenditure (% of GDP)

Country 2006/2007/2008/2009

China 2.0 1.9 1.9 2.0

United States 4.0 4.0 4.3 4.7

….Military expenditures data from SIPRI are derived from the NATO definition, which includes all current and capital expenditures on the armed forces, including peacekeeping forces; defense ministries and other government agencies engaged in defense projects; paramilitary forces, if these are judged to be trained and equipped for military operations; and military space activities. Such expenditures include military and civil personnel, including retirement pensions of military personnel and social services for personnel; operation and maintenance; procurement; military research and development; and military aid (in the military expenditures of the donor country). Excluded are civil defense and current expenditures for previous military activities, such as for veterans’ benefits, demobilization, conversion, and destruction of weapons….

[emphasis added]

From visualeconomics:

Military Spending Worldwide

….The United States spends $711 billion on military spending each year, representing 48 percent of the total military spending in the world….

….The Middle East and North Africa spend $82 billion on military spending each year. This is 5 percent of the world’s military spending. Australasia and East Asia together spend $120 billion on military expenses. This is 8 percent of total world military spending. China spends 8 percent of the world’s total military spending with $122 billion spent each year. Europe spends a total of $289 billion on military spend annually. Europe’s military spending is 20 percent of the world’s military spending….

[emphasis added]

I wonder if she’ll describe a bomber gap at the next town hall? Just asking.

Previously:

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r): town halls in Clinton and Warrensburg (August 10, 2011)

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r): town hall in Warrensburg, part 1 (August 11, 2011)

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r): town hall in Warrensburg, part 2 (August 12, 2011)

Vicky Hartzler is trying trying to scare you (August 12, 2011)

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r): town hall in Warrensburg, part 3 (August 13, 2011)

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r): town hall in Warrensburg, part 4 (August 14, 2011)

No matter what you might think about Claire McCaskill’s policy decisions, you can’t say that she doesn’t make a real effort to learn what her constituents are thinking – Tea Party, independent or progressive. She tours the state and she or her staff take on all comers. Her town hall meetings in the summer of the Tea Party were models of even-handedness. The same was true of almost all Democrats – they boldly went among the raucous and enraged and tried to talk reason – sometimes gently, and sometimes, as in the case of Barney Frank, by showing a little tough love – but few of them ran away from their obligation to their constituents.

However, now that the GOPers who were victorious in 2010 are showing their real colors, threatening to decimate Social Security and Medicare while trying their best to drive our country off an economic precipice in order to preserve tax breaks for the wealthy, what do we see? Folks are not only getting angry, they are more than willing to tell their representatives about it (see for instance this Paul Ryan town hall meeting). The resultant angry constituent meetings have provided a rude awakening for some of the worst offenders. But instead of listening to what people want and ameliorating their offensive policies, many of the GOP congresspersons are busy trying to figure out how to mute the voice of the very people they are supposed to be representing. They want to the minimize the embarrassment their bad policy decisions have caused them.

Take, for example, Colorado’s GOP Rep. Lamborn who has prohibited protesters from congregating outside his office – unless they are supporters. And then there are the cagy GOPers like Paul Ryan (R-Wis), Ben Quayle (R-Ariz.) and Chip Cravaack (R-Minn) who have decided to charge admission to their ersatz “town halls” in order to discourage the shows of dissenting opinion (and outright anger) that have bedeviled them recently and might make it into even more embarrassing Youtube videos.

Bear in mind that these folks, none of whom seem to be to aware of the implications of accepting employment as a representative of the people, any more than they understand the implications of the first amendment, are all beneficiaries of the Tea Party. I’m sure I don’t need to remind you that the Tea Party is made up of folks who  have spent the better part of the last two years spouting off about what the Constitution does and does not mandate. Funny how few of the fringers seem to worry too much about the Constitution when you get down to inconvenient particulars.

Of course, this type of one-sided representation is nothing new for those of us here in Missouri who live in Rep. Todd Akin’s (R-2) district. Brother Todd’s been stage managing his appearances for the benefit of the faithful for the past few years. Given Akin’s extreme positions, his skill with easy to manage video and telephone “town halls” and invitation only events should stand him in good stead during his run for the Senate.

* Slightly edited for clarity.

As usual, right wing think tanks are spreading lies about anyone who funds liberal or progressive causes.  Their latest target is  Peter Lewis,  Chairman of Progressive Insurance.  In response to some nasty stuff Jeanette Mott Oxford received online from someone, she wrote back taking the points made by Lewis’ critics and turned them around.  This is a wonderful example of how Democrats can be proactive in supporting the good people out there who help us financially.   It’s time to stop playing defense and do some bragging about folks who care enough to put their money where their mouth is.  I hadn’t heard of Peter Lewis until I saw this.  Feel free to share with others.

Susan C  

“You know their TV commercials, the ones featuring the ditsy actress all dressed in white. What you might not know is that the Chairman of Progressive is Peter Lewis, one of the major funders of causes that stand for liberty and justice for all in America. Between 2001 and 2003, Lewis donated $15 million to the ACLU, the group most responsible for defending the religious freedoms that the founders of our nation secured for us through the First Amendment. For example, the ACLU has consistently fought for the right of Christians to practice their faith as guaranteed by our Constitution’s Bill of Rights. In 2004, the Presbyterian Church of the Awesome God in Lincoln was threatened with criminal penalties if they did not relocate. They were renting storefront space in a part of the city that was zoned industrial.

ACLU negotiations with the Planning Commission and the City Council resulted in churches being allowed to locate in any zone, industrial or otherwise. The ACLU also fought for the right of a Christian second-grader to sing “Our God Is An Awesome God” at a voluntary after-school talent show.  

“Lewis also gave $12.5 million to MoveOn.org and Americans Coming Together:

– MoveOn formed as a way to call for arms inspections instead of a war in Iraq, a decision that now looks pretty sane given the lives lost there even though no weapons of mass destruction were found. They have circulated other petitions, calling for protecting our children from mercury and other pollutants, stating the need to get the influence of big money out of politics through campaign finance reform laws, and supporting other public policy changes that many believe would make our nation a more healthy and democratic nation.

– Americans Coming Together has focused on making sure that all eligible citizens register to vote and exercise their right and responsibility to do so. They have done special outreach to low-wage workers, for example, those who ride public buses to and from work. Often these citizens feel abandoned by both Republicans and Democrats who answer to high dollar donors instead of the average working man and woman. Americans Coming Together has shared a message that might be paraphrased as “this land is your land too, and YOU are what democracy looks like.”

Lewis’ funding for these groups was conditional on matching contributions from George Soros, a Hungarian-American businessman who played a major role in the peaceful transition of Hungary from communism to capitalism between 1984 and 1989. Soros has donated more than $35 million to underprivileged children in New York state, and he has also funded campaigns to change U.S. drug policy so that we stop spending so much money on locking up non-violent addicts who could be more successfully treated through medical treatment and community mental health programs instead of imprisonment.

Lewis made a fortune as a result of capitalism, and now finances several organizations that do nothing to weaken capitalism. His efforts call us to remember that government is a way that we care for the common good – through institutions that raise the quality of life for all of us – affordable education, safe drinking water, law enforcement, fire protection, roads/ports/bridges, the military, public libraries, and so much more. These institutions actually strengthen our ability to have a strong economy by ensuring that we have trained workers, inventions, infrastructure to take goods to market, natural resources that last for future generations, public safety in times of natural disaster or crime, etc.

Groups that Lewis funds sometimes hold Fox News accountable when they present misleading information that turns out not to be true, violating their own claim to be “fair and balanced.” The word “progressive” is used to describe what Lewis funds, and, at root, a progressive is someone who believes the U.S. must always be moving forward, correcting past mistakes (immoral policies like slavery, barring women from voting, etc.), and more fully living with “liberty and justice for all.”

Peter Lewis practices the capitalism that has built a large middle class in the U.S., selling a product that competes favorably with other insurance products. He makes no attempt to hide who he is – since the causes that he donates to all have to report his gifts publicly. He just stands up for what he believes in – as guaranteed by our rights to freedom of speech and freedom on assembly, also in the Bill of Rights. Many conservative Americans find his auto insurance a good buy and would agree with him that government has to work for the common good and that the influence of money is a terrible threat to American democracy. In fact, now that I know more about him, I am more interested in buying insurance from his company.”

JMO

Via Twitter:

@RepHartzler Rep. Vicky Hartzler

Pres. Obama continues his taxpayer-paid campaign bus tour today in the Midwest. Wonder how much this is costing taxpayers? 4 hours ago

Would you rather he fly? Maybe not.

My goodness, traveling around the country and having his staff expell dissenting voices from public events would be an impeachable offense, wouldn’t it?:

…Weise and Young were admitted to the event at that time, but were later ejected, after the Secret Service agent had consulted with and been advised by White House Advance Office employees. In recommending ejection, these White House Advance Office employees (according to the complaint) appeared to be following an established White House Advance Office “policy of excluding those who disagree with the President [George W. Bush] from the President’s official public appearances….”

After all, this is America where our political figures must maintain access for and contact with those who they serve, right?