…and the guy who continually says, “Oops.” It’s enough to bring tears to your eyes.

On a vehicle in west central Missouri.

There’s always the cult of the lost cause.

The 1% know how the game is played.

Yesterday, at the Missouri Ethics Commission:

C000953 11/17/2011 MO REPUBLICAN PARTY Herzog Contracting Group PO Box 1089 Saint Joseph MO 64502 11/16/2011 $15,000.00

C111045 11/17/2011 RUPP FOR MISSOURI August A Busch III 1 Mid Rivers Mall Dr St Peters MO 63376 retired 11/17/2011 $25,000.00

[emphasis added]

The usual suspects…

“…It needs to be a little bit more egalitarian. It needs to be more for the people than for the few. That’s how I feel about it…” – an Occupy activist, today, on the Quad at the University of Central Missouri, in a conversation with a few apparent Ron Paul supporters.

Occupy the Quad – in conversation.

Several students held an Occupy demonstration on the Quad at the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg today. We interviewed one of the students after she had been engaged in a lengthy conversation with three apparent Ron Paul supporters. The Ron Paul “supporters”, by their comments, appeared to defenders of Wall Street, corporatist apologists, anti-organized labor, and quite comfortable with exporting jobs overseas because that labor is “cheaper”.

The transcript of our interview:

Show Me Progress: Why are you out here today?

Kelley Dragoo: Um, I’m trying to raise awareness right now for the Occupy movement. Um, a lot of people on campus are uninformed or misinformed. And right now we’re just trying to raise, raise awareness and get, get people, um, to stop thinking about it and start doing something about it.

Show Me Progress: Uh, so how long have you been out here this afternoon?

Kelley Dragoo: I’ve been here since six in the morning. Um, it’s been quite a long day [laugh]…

Kelley Dragoo, Occupy activist and University of Central Missouri student, on the UCM Quad in Warrensburg.

…Show Me Progress: So, what, what kind of, uh, feedback have you been getting.

Kelley Dragoo: Uh, I’ve gotten some pretty positive feedback. We’ve had, you know, we had a few hecklers. Somebody came by earlier this morning and told me that if I burned a flag he would punch me in the face. And I said, well, I’m not, I don’t plan on burning any flags [laugh]. Um, and, uh, I think, I think the overall aware, I think it’s just been an atmosphere of awareness, you know. I’ve had a lot of, um, a lot of one on one conversations talking to people and just letting them know what’s going on, um, about how our, our First Amendment rights are being challenged all over the nation right now. Uh, via the protests being slowly silenced, um, in New York City right now. Uh, they’re, they’ve been kicked out of Zuccotti Square on, they got kicked out of Zuccotti Square on Tuesday. Tried to, um, tried to, uh, get a restraining order against the police to allow them to stay there and continue, you know, protesting and, uh, push came to shove, and they, they got kicked out. And they’re, they’re not allowed to, to occupy with, with tents anymore. They’re allowed to protest, but, uh, they’re, the government’s doing everything in its power to kind of stifle it.  And, um, it’s scary, you know, these are our First Amendment rights. And that’s happening, that, you know, that’s not just New York City, that’s Boston, Philadelphia, uh, San Francisco, I heard, I heard Dallas and St. Louis are having problems as well as Oakland. I know a lot of people knew what was going on in Oakland, but the problem is the media’s not, not doing anything about this. And if they are it’s in a very biased and negative sort of way. And it’s scary that, that we’re being silenced and, and no one seems to understand that.

Show Me Progress: Uh, so, how long do you plan to be out here?

Kelley Dragoo: Um, I’ll be out here until five o’clock today. But, like I said, I’m just trying to get people informed, um, and, and I’ve got, I, I have a sign up list, uh, trying to get people’s num, you know, information to get them activated. Uh, next semester I think is when we’re gonna go a little bit harder and, uh, try and get people more involved.

“…And right now we’re just trying to raise, raise awareness and get, get people, um, to stop thinking about it and start doing something about it…”

That’s how you start building a movement.

There’s been a strong backlash among retail employees who are being asked to open stores for Black Friday at midnight this year instead of five a.m. Retail trade groups are as perplexed as Marie Antoinette over their unreasonable employees.

Ellen Davis, a vice president for the National Retail Federation, pointed out that other workers – including movie theater and some restaurant employees – already work that holiday.

“Their employees aren’t up in arms about it,” she said. “It’s almost ironic that on Thanksgiving, people are complaining about having a job.”

No doubt such ingrates neglected to say last Thanksgiving, ‘Thank goodness I don’t have to be at work until five a.m. tomorrow.’

Carl Peterson would recognize Davis’ Let Them Eat Cake attitude. People like her tsked when his grandfather committed suicide:

Fifty years ago this January, my grandfather took his life.

He was a poor share-cropping farmer barely eking out a subsistence living on a hilly 120 acres. He labored long, back-breaking hours for less than minimum wage.

At 72, Grandpa was still farming the land, but a cancer operation had taken his life savings. With no money for an extra operation and in a time before Medicare, he chose a 12-gauge rather than beg for charity.

Too many Americans have no empathy for those like my grandfather. They choose to blame the poor rather than help them.

Peterson’s grandfather wasn’t some lazy, no account. And neither are these retail employees, They have a right to bitch that they would have to quit the Thanksgiving Day celebration by two p.m. if they hope to get some decent sleep before starting work.  Some of them think the family stuff matters as much as the shopping stuff.

Oh, wait. Lieutenant Governor Peter Kinder (r) hasn’t announced yet.

Dave Spence (r) has announced he’s running for governor. The Missouri Democratic Party had some thoughts on that announcement:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

November 15, 2011

[….]

MDP Statement on Dave Spence Joining Governor’s Race

Jefferson City, Mo.-The Missouri Democratic Party released the following statement today upon news reports that Dave Spence will run for Missouri Governor. Spence, a former businessman from St. Louis, headed a bank that has refused to repay its TARP funds and he made millions of dollars going into business with one of the Wall Street firms that helped create the financial crisis.

“It’s hard to imagine Republican primary voters supporting a guy like Dave Spence, who not only supported the bank bailouts – but even took a $40 million government bailout for his own bank and then refused to pay it back.  Right as the national recession was hitting Missouri families hard, David Spence got rich and had had no problem letting taxpayers pick up the bill for his failed bank,” said Caitlin Legacki, Missouri Democratic Party spokeswoman….

[….]

What Dave Spence Isn’t Telling You About His “Business Background:”

   Spence Served on the Board of a Troubled TARP Bank – Which Still Hasn’t Paid Back Bailout Funds. From 2005 until March 2011, David Spence served on the board of directors of Reliance Bank, which received $40 million in bailout money through the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) and yet still paid its CEO a lavish salary as well as bonuses and perks.  The bank was later the subject of action by the FDIC and the Fed earlier this year.  According to the St. Louis Business Journal, the bank stopped making payments on its TARP debt in November 2010.  (St. Louis Business Journal, 3/25/11; 8/9/11; St. Louis Post Dispatch, 5/13/05; St. Louis Business Journal, 10/7/11; Treasury.gov)

       Spence Defended Wall Street Bailout, Called It An “Extra Cushion of Capital”. When asked by the Associated Press about Reliance Bank’s decision to stop paying back the TARP money it owes, “Spence said he doesn’t recall any details about that decision, but he said the federal bank bailout program helped avoid a potential economic disaster by providing banks with ‘extra cushion of capital.'” [AP, 11/8/11]

   Spence’s Company Was Purchased by Wall Street Firm Tied to Financial Crisis and Bank Bailouts.  Last year, Spence’s company was purchased by a private equity firm called Irving Place Capital for a reported $260 million.  Irving Place Capital (formerly Bear Stearns Merchant Banking) was previously the private equity arm of the defunct investment bank Bear Stearns, which played a key role in causing the financial crisis and the global recession. After Bear Stearns collapsed and was acquired by JP Morgan (with the help of a$30 billion taxpayer guarantee from the Federal Reserve), Irving Place Capital spun off to become an independent private equity firm in November 2008.   [St. Louis Post Dispatch,9/1/10; Private Equity International, 10/28/08]

Dave Spence’s Bailout Timeline

   May 2005 — Spence Joins Reliance Board [St. Louis Post Dispatch, 5/13/05]

   February 2009 – Reliance Announces It Had Received $40 Million from TARP [St. Louis Business Journal, 2/23/09]

   April 2009 – Spence Is Re-nominated to Reliance Board of Directors [Reliance Bancshares, SEC filing 14A, 4/15/09]

   April 2009 — St. Louis Post Dispatch reports that Reliance’s CEO made lavish salary + perks year bailout was passed.  [St. Louis Post Dispatch, 4/23/09]

   September 2010 — Spence buys 500,000 Shares of Reliance Stock [US Fed News, 9/25/10]

   February 2011 — Reliance Bancshares suspends TARP preferred dividends.  [SNL Bank Midwest, 2/24/11]

   March 2011 — Spence resigns from Reliance board  [SNL Bank Weekly Midwest, 3/21/11]

###

Heh.

Anyone think that the typical republican primary voter’s opinion of TARP and bailouts has changed since 2010?:

Newsweek Poll conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International. Oct. 20-21, 2010. N=848 registered voters nationwide. MoE ± 4.2.

“Now thinking about the federal government’s actions in response to issues facing the U.S. today. Please tell me if you think each of the following was good for the country or bad for the country in general. First/Next, what about the government bailout of the financial and banking industries?”

Republicans

Good – 13%

Bad – 79%

Mixed (vol.) – 6%

Unsure – 2%

[emphasis added]

If Lieutenant Governor Peter Kinder (r) announces for the race we’ll be watching that August primary and passing the popcorn.

Governor Jay Nixon (D) was born lucky, eh?

Attorney General Chris Koster (D) has asked the General Assembly to expand the mandatory reporting requirement for child sexual abuse to everyone. The press release from the Attorney General’s office:

November 15, 2011

Attorney General Koster asks legislature to consider strengthening Missouri’s mandatory reporting for child sexual abuse

Jefferson City, Mo. – Attorney General Chris Koster today is asking the Missouri General Assembly to consider requiring any person who witnesses sexual abuse of a child to immediately report the evidence to law enforcement. Currently under Missouri law, only members of certain professions, including teachers, physicians and clergy, or those with responsibility for the care of children, are required to report child sexual abuse.

“The recent incidents at Penn State highlight the disparities across the country in the manner in which state laws handle reporting sexual abuse of children,” Koster said.

“If a citizen walks in on the sexual abuse of a child, his duty as a citizen should be clear. We are all mandatory reporters. When it comes to protecting children, passing the buck should not be an option in our state.”

Koster said that as of April 2010, 18 states require all individuals to report the suspected abuse or neglect of children, according to a report released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Those states are: Delaware, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Wyoming had laws. Koster asks the Missouri legislature to consider adding Missouri to this list.

Koster urges individuals who suspect abuse of a child to report their concerns to the Child Abuse and Neglect Hotline at 1-800-392-3738.

The Penn State story has certainly expanded the discussion.

At the Great Orange Satan:

Occupy Wall Street roundup, Day 59

….Hey, remember back when Republicans started showing up to health care town halls and outside Obama public events armed with rifles and the like, not to intimidate or threaten anyone but as a form of “political speech”? Yeah, camping is much worse. That was free speech with guns; this is free speech with camping. So you can see why they have to crack down. With police in riot gear, no less….

Blatant camping, of course, requires a stern response:

Update: ‘Occupy’ crackdowns coordinated with federal law enforcement officials

Rick Ellis, Minneapolis Top News Examiner

November 15, 2011

Over the past ten days, more than a dozen cities have moved to evict “Occupy” protesters from city parks and other public spaces. As was the case in last night’s move in New York City, each of the police actions shares a number of characteristics. And according to one Justice official, each of those actions was coordinated with help from Homeland Security, the FBI and other federal police agencies.

The official, who spoke on background to me late Monday evening, said that while local police agencies had received tactical and planning advice from national agencies, the ultimate decision on how each jurisdiction handles the Occupy protests ultimately rests with local law enforcement.

According to this official, in several recent conference calls and briefings, local police agencies were advised to seek a legal reason to evict residents of tent cities, focusing on zoning laws and existing curfew rules. Agencies were also advised to demonstrate a massive show of police force, including large numbers in riot gear. In particular, the FBI reportedly advised on press relations, with one presentation suggesting that any moves to evict protesters be coordinated for a time when the press was the least likely to be present….

Update: Mayors deny colluding on ‘Occupy’ crackdowns

City leaders say they traded notes on protesters but sweeps were no coordinated scheme

Update: About that ‘DHS Coordinated’ Crackdown on Zuccotti Park…

….Is that true? Maybe. But given that this information came from Examiner.com, the proper response is “citation needed.” Why? Because Examiner.com is Fox News light….

Charles Pierce at Esquire:

A Militarized Force Takes to Zuccotti for the Economic Elite

Your right to peaceably assemble for the redress of grievances, and how you may do it, and what you may say, will be defined by the police power of the state, backed by its political establishment and the business elite. They will define “acceptable” forms of public protest, even (and especially) public protest against them. This is the way it is now. This is the way it has been for some time. It’s just that people didn’t notice. And that was the problem with the Occupy protests. They resisted the marginalization – both literal physical marginalization, and the kind of intellectual marginalization that keeps real solutions to real problems out of our kabuki political debates. They could not be ignored….

….That was the real problem with the Occupy people. They were being heard….

And old media may be waking up:

November 15, 2011, 11:06 am

Reporters Say Police Denied Access to Protest Site

By BRIAN STELTER and AL BAKER

….the New York Press Club, said in a statement that “the brash manner in which officers ordered reporters off the streets and then made them back off until the actions of the police were almost invisible is outrageous.”

The group added, “We want the department to investigate the incidents involved this crackdown on Zuccotti Park and we want assurances it won’t happen again.”

We can only hope.

Last Thursday at the St. Louis state senate hearing on whether to create a health care exchange in Missouri, Dave Smith, a lobbyist for Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, tried to be neutral. Since he was there to debunk certain ‘myths’ about exchanges and since all  of the myths were ideas propounded by Republicans, the “neutral” stance was more of a polite fiction than a reality. It was almost by way of apology to his Republican brethren on the panel. He himself is a Republican and Lord knows Anthem isn’t owned by Democrats. But after all, the idea of health care exchanges isn’t a liberal idea. It was first proposed a number of years ago by the Heritage Foundation. Professor Sidney Watkins made that point in the video I posted last week (at 8:13 in the video).

Although Smith wasn’t willing to say so explicitly, his remarks led to the conclusion that the exchange would be sound public policy for officials in either party.

We can always hope that the Republican senators will take that point of view into account and ignore the unsubstantiated claims of the Ed Martins (again, see last week’s film, not only to hear his dubious generalizations but also to hear them debunked.)  

@lhfang Lee Fang

GOP is already hailing the midnight police raid on peaceful #OWS protesters. Trying to use it against Dems bit.ly/v09rnr 3 hours ago

The Communications Director for the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC):

@brianjameswalsh Brian Walsh

The acolytes for @elizabethforma in full effect in NYC attacking our first responders. Will anyone ask her to comment tomorrow? 3 hours ago

Elizabeth Warren (@elizabethforma) is a Democratic Party candidate for the U.S. Senate in Massachusetts.

You mean these unionized first responders?:

9/11 responders bill defeated by Senate GOP filibuster

December 09, 2010|By the CNN Wire Staff

Senate Democrats failed Thursday to win a procedural vote to open debate on a bill that would provide medical benefits and compensation for emergency workers who were first on the scene of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The motion for cloture, or to begin debate, needed 60 votes to pass due to a Republican filibuster, but fell short at 57-42 in favor…

[emphasis added]

Chutzpah.

@brianjameswalsh Brian Walsh

What we’re seeing tonight in NYC are the supporters of @elizabethforma versus the public servants of the NYPD. 3 hours ago

What we saw in December 2010 was the Senate republicans versus the public servants of the NYPD. You’d think the Communications Director of the NRSC would be able to keep track of those things.

Chutzpah.

@brianjameswalsh Brian Walsh

The question is when will @elizabethforma show up in NYC to stand with her acolytes as they attack the NYPD? #OccupyWallSt 3 hours ago

Chutzpah.

@MBersin Michael Bersin

@brianjameswalsh Will Senate republicans show up to explain their Dec 2010 “support” for first responders? bit.ly/rZziSj 33 seconds ago

Just asking.

The phrase “for the children” has entered the realm of parody in our popular culture. We smile knowingly when in films and TV comedies a sleazy scamster uses the “for the children” plea to manipulate emotions and disguise self-interest. Nevertheless, cynical comedy aside, we all also know on some deep level that this comedic trope only works because the welfare of children is really, truly paramount – so much so that our concern becomes easy to exploit.

The Missouri legislature, however, has had a different take. Here, for the past few years at least, “for the children” has meant doing your bit to protect fetal life, living children be dammed. The last chair of the House Standing Committee on Children and Families, Rep. Cynthia Davis, was up-front about her anti-abortion priorities. Fortunately, the term-limited Davis is now history, and it’s possible that the new committee leadership may be willing to consider engaging  with the needs of Missouri’s real, fully-developed children.

And not a moment too soon. As a recent series of reports in the St. Louis Post Dispatch make clear, Missouri’s under-regulated child daycare system could use some TLC from the committee. The series, which explores the issues surrounding the accidental deaths of more than 40 children in unlicensed daycare settings in Missouri over a relatively short span of time, exposes a lax system with little accountability. Sadly, past efforts to correct these failings have been opposed by conservatives who, while children are dying, argue that efforts to regulate providers are too intrusive.

At least partly in response to the Post Dispatch reports, the House Standing Children and Families Committee has scheduled hearings to guide corrective actions. If the hearing that took place in Kansas City recently is indicative, according to committee member Rep. Jeanette Mott-Oxford (D-59), there may be some hope for improvement.

Given the clear evidence of the need to update daycare regulations, two bills that have failed several times in the past, known popularly as Nathan’s Law and Sam Pratt’s Law, might possibly make it through the legislature. Among other provisions, these bills would address the ratio of children to caregivers, and permit the State to investigate and shut-down unlicensed daycare providers who are facing criminal charges.

Senator Scott Rupp (R-2) has combined the two into one bill, SB 339. When it comes to child care at least, Rupp seems to march to a different drummer than his GOP primary opponent, Cynthia Davis, who was instrumental in obstructing passage of Sam Pratt’s law, named for a child who died while in daycare. Davis is notorious for her statement that it was “a ‘souvenir’ bill designed to soothe his grieving family.” In contrast, Rupp states that:

I want Missouri parents to be certain that when they go to work or attend to personal business, their children are in the best hands possible.

Welcome as these changes might be, they would, however, only begin to scratch the surface of Missouri’s child care needs. As Mott-Oxford reports, the evidence is clear that ensuring quality child care will require more than just tightening standards for daycare providers.

Prior to the Kansas City hearing, Mott-Oxford and her committee colleagues boarded the Operation Breakthrough “City You Never See” bus tour. Operation Breakthrough is a non-profit Early Head Start/Head Start organization that has been helping meet the child care needs of low-income, working Kansas Citians since 1971. The bus tour provides an educational opportunity that enables participants to learn about the lives of families in areas of the city where “children stand in line for food, where working parents desperate for shelter break into abandoned buildings, where Missouri babies born into poverty struggle to survive.”

As you might imagine, the stories our legislators heard on the bus tour offered powerful testimony to the fact that Missouri not only needs to make child care safer, but must also insure that quality day care, tailored to meet the developmental needs of its clients, is more widely accessible.  Mott-Oxford suggests four legislative actions that she believes would achieve that goal:

First: Expand eligibility requirements for child care assistance.  The sate currently offers subsidies to working parents who are at or below 127% of the federal poverty level; the national average for such assistance is 185% of the poverty level. Mott-Oxford advocates for revising the way we determine the poverty level. She points out that we use a measure developed in the 1950s and 60s that is based on the cost of food; 60 years later, such a measure is no longer realistic as other expenses, housing and health care, for instance, stand in a different ratio to the cost of food than they did in the past.

Second: Reimburse child care providers at the market rate. We all know that we only get what we pay for, and we can’t expect to get good child care providers for a pittance.

Third: Offer support to day care providers to enable them to obtain training that will, in turn, allow them to offer a better product, one that will merit higher pay.

Fourth: Fund outreach to increase participation in the Parents as Teachers program.  

Mott-Oxford’s H.B. 583, which was introduced last session, would have addressed the last three points; sadly it didn’t survive the session. We can only hope that the time has finally come when Missouri’s lawmakers will be willing to address the welfare of its most vulnerable citizens. In Missouri 212,369 children live in poverty. As the Operation Breakthrough Webpage eloquently notes:

These children are full of potential. With the right start they can absolutely become the fireman who comes to the rescue, the chef who feeds the town, the lawyer who fights for what is right or the doctor who saves the day. They can be contributors to the community.

The elephant in the room, of course, is that serving the potential of these children will cost money – money that the state does not have and will not have as long as the legislature will not address the issue of revenue.  In the next few weeks, I hope to write in greater detail about the related issues of poverty and taxation in Missouri.