Previously: Campaign Finance: Gov. Jay Nixon (D) has a super Sunday (February 5, 2012)

At the Missouri Ethics Commission:

C001135 02/09/2012 JAY NIXON FOR MISSOURI Missouri State Orthopaedic Association PAC PO Box 2124 Jefferson City MO 65102 2/7/2012 $1,000.00

C001135 02/10/2012 JAY NIXON FOR MISSOURI BNSF Railway Company 2500 Lou Menk Drive Fort Worth TX 76131 2/8/2012 $5,000.00

C001135 02/11/2012 JAY NIXON FOR MISSOURI Dealers Interested in Government PO Box 245 Jefferson City MO 65102 2/9/2012 $5,000.00

C001135 02/11/2012 JAY NIXON FOR MISSOURI EdisonLearning, Inc. 900 S. Gay Street Suite 1000 Knoxville TN 37902 2/9/2012 $3,000.00

C001135 02/17/2012 JAY NIXON FOR MISSOURI Shamberg, Johnson & Bergman 2600 Grand Boulevard Suite 550 Kansas City MO 64108 2/15/2012 $25,000.00

C001135 02/18/2012 JAY NIXON FOR MISSOURI Anheuser-Busch Companies One Busch Place Saint Louis MO 63118 2/16/2012 $25,000.00

C001135 02/18/2012 JAY NIXON FOR MISSOURI The Law Offices of Stephen R. Bough 917 W. 43rd Street Kansas City MO 64111 2/16/2012 $1,000.00

C001135 02/18/2012 JAY NIXON FOR MISSOURI Gordon Philpott 7345 Westmoreland Drive Saint Louis MO 63130 Retired Retired 2/16/2012 $2,000.00

C001135 02/23/2012 JAY NIXON FOR MISSOURI Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America 950 F Street, NW Suite 300 Washington DC 20004 2/21/2012 $3,500.00

C001135 02/24/2012 JAY NIXON FOR MISSOURI Carey & Danis, LLC 8235 Forsyth Boulevard Suite 1101 Saint Louis MO 63105 2/22/2012 $16,814.99

C001135 02/25/2012 JAY NIXON FOR MISSOURI UNITE HERE TIP Missouri State & Local Fund 275 Seventh Avenue 10th Floor New York NY 10001 2/23/2012 $15,000.00

C001135 02/25/2012 JAY NIXON FOR MISSOURI Ken Ash 8470 Highway 40 West Columbia MO 65202 Show-Me State Games Executive Director 2/23/2012 $1,000.00

The campaign contributions keep coming in for Governor Jay Nixon (D).

Yesterday, at the Missouri Ethics Commission:

C111126 02/24/2012 MISSOURIANS FOR RESPONSIBLE LENDING PICO NATIONAL NETWORK 171 SANTA ROSA AVE OAKLAND CA 94610 2/24/2012 $25,000.00

C121010 02/24/2012 GIVE MISSOURIANS A RAISE PICO NATIONAL NETWORK 171 SANTA ROSA AVE OAKLAND CA 94610 2/24/2012 $25,000.00

[emphasis added]

For capping interest rates on payday loans and raising the minimum wage. Such a novel humane idea. Who would be for such things?

That Saul Alinsky, at it again:

Our Mission

PICO is a national network of faith-based community organizations working to create innovative solutions to problems facing urban, suburban and rural communities. Since 1972 PICO has successfully worked to increase access to health care, improve public schools, make neighborhoods safer, build affordable housing, redevelop communities and revitalize democracy.

PICO helps engage ordinary people in public life, building a strong legacy of leadership in thousands of local communities across America.

Nonpartisan and multicultural, PICO provides an opportunity for people and congregations to translate their faith into action. More than 40 different religious denominations and faith traditions are part of PICO.

With more than 1,000 member institutions representing one million families in 150 cities and 17 states, as well as a growing international effort, PICO is one of the largest community-based efforts in the United States. Together we are lifting up a new vision for America that unites people across region, race, class, and religion.

James O’Keefe will play dress up for a chopped up video in three, two, one….

Short story: ILU-486

Posted on February 20, 2012

Summary: In the not-so-distant future of Virginia, the Personhood Act has outlawed abortion and chemical birth control. That doesn’t mean they don’t exist, though.

ILU-486

for Evil Dr. Em and the twitter brigade

Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way? James 2:25

About fifteen percent of Merrimack, Virginia was unemployed, but by god, they had congressmen looking out for them. It was comforting, one could have thought as they sat in the dim light of the living room and flipped through the government channels to watch lawmakers burn the midnight oil and make more laws….

High Broderism – Also frequently seen as merely “Broderism.” A fetishistic attachment to bipartisanship for bipartisanship’s sake; reflexive adherence to false equivalencies, regardless of whether what one side says is patently insane. The result of forty years of believing that Dirty Fucking Hippies may be hiding under your bed. Whereby a center-right pundit, often Broder himself, decrees that bipartisanship is a good thing and can be achieved if only everyone would agree with the center-right pundit. For the last ten years or so, High Broderism has been the shorter version of virtually every op-ed from David Broder.

Like this would be something to celebrate? Apparently so:

Senator Claire McCaskill The nonpartisan National Journal released their annual rankings of members of Congress from liberal-to-conservative today-and Claire has landed exactly in the moderate middle, ranking #50 out of 100….

That is, ignoring the reality that the Overton Window has been moved so far to the right that what once was “moderate” is now considered extreme left and:

….the GOP knows that the middle DOES matter.  They know that by playing to their base in very well-crafted ways, they can shift the very definition of what the middle is. By introducing radicalism into the public discourse (and taking initial heat for it), whatever used to be radical within this context becomes moderate by comparison….

And, our “all things are equal” old media’s view is, not surprisingly:

McCaskill, Blunt land in – or near – the middle on conservative/liberal rankings

Posted on February 24, 2012 by Deirdre Shesgreen

Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., found the Senate’s sweet spot, at least according to a ranking by National Journal, a nonpartisan Washington publication. The Journal released its much-anticipated annual rankings Friday, and McCaskill landed in the No. 50 slot on the liberal-to-conservative scale….

….Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., was ranked as the 40th most conservative senator. Blunt landed in between Sen. Mike Johanns, a Nebraska Republican, and Thad Cochran, a GOP senator from Mississippi.

It’s not surprising that neither of Missouri’s two U.S. senators are at their party’s extreme ends….

[emphasis added]

Think about that last one for a second. Apparently Senator Roy Blunt (r) is considered something of a moderate because there are more people in his party in the Senate who are batshit crazy.

And ye shall know them by the company they keep.

50. Claire McCaskill, Mo. (D) 58.0 49 52 48

51. Joe Lieberman, Conn. (ID) 57.7 51 52 45

60. Thad Cochran, Miss. (R) 37.3 40 29 40

61. Roy Blunt, Mo. (R) 36.2 43 33 30

That doesn’t exactly inspire confidence.

Forget for a moment that the National Journal‘s definition of what constitutes liberal or conservative is useless in our presently skewed political environment. If the obstructionist opposition party is populated by extremist right wingnuts you’re not a “moderate” when your party’s extreme left is labeled as the likes of Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D) and you’re on the other end. It just means you’ve been pandering to the inside the beltway conventional wisdom.

X marks the spot for Senator Claire McCaskill (D): a chart created from the National Journal‘s

liberal/conservative ranking of U.S. Senators by vote.

In our present environment a true moderate would be in the middle of their own party, not to the right of it.

This is going to become a much quoted classic line in the history of Missouri politics:

I-Team: Sen. Jim Lembke says his vote can’t be bought with cheeseburgers

11:41 PM, Feb 23, 2012

“….My position is that I can’t be influenced by someone buying me a cheeseburger,” said Lembke, who sat down with NewsChannel 5 for a lengthy interview.

But it wasn’t all cheeseburgers.

In 2011, lobbyists reported giving Sen. Lembke 107 meals and gifts, including a $350 golf outing paid for by AT&T. The Plumbers and Pipefitters Local #562 bought him a meal for $100. Another lobbyist bought him a $120 bottle of wine….

[emphasis added]

The cheeseburger part, that is.

It’s been a good week, eh?:

Conservative Local Lawmakers Left Behind by Redistricting

Jordan Shapiro

February 23, 2012 6:00 PM

….Sen. Jim Lembke, R-St. Louis County, would still live within his current district, but would be facing a more Democratic leaning electorate. Like Cunningham, Lembke’s term expires this year.

“I am very surprised and disappointed,” Lembke said….

As if redistricting is supposed to protect incumbents? This couldn’t have happened to a more deserving person.

And all sorts of folks are piling on.

If you want a friend in politics, get a dog.

A release from the Missouri Secretary of State’s office:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Thursday, February 23, 2012

[….]

Secretary of State’s Office Receives Tentative State Senate District Maps

Jefferson City, MO – Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan released the following statement after the State Senate Reapportionment Commission filed tentative district maps with her office:

   “Absent any further action by the state legislature or Missouri courts, candidate filing will begin on Tuesday, February 28, as state law requires.

   As it currently stands, citizens will be able to file to run for the congressional districts approved by the state legislature and the state House of Representative districts submitted by the Appellate Apportionment Commission in late 2011.

   Although our office has received the tentative Senate maps, the process for finalizing those boundaries remains incomplete until the conclusion of a 15 day public comment period. Because of that, candidates who intend to file for state Senate may consider waiting until after the final map is filed with our office.

   For anyone who chooses to file for state senate before the boundaries are finalized they may later withdraw, pay another filing fee and re-file in another district until filing closes on March 27 at 5:00 pm.”

It should also be noted that there are currently lawsuits pending challenging both the congressional district maps and state House of Representatives district maps.

— 30 —

I have a sneaking suspicion that our candidate filing stories are going to go a long way toward feeding the blog content beast in the coming month.

Previously:

Chamber of Commerce does a number on Claire McCaskill (February 15, 2012)

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D): the radio ads strike back, sort of (February 22, 2012)

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D): the 2012 television response ads start (February 23, 2012)

The second television ad from Senator Claire McCaskill’s (D) reelection campaign:

Announcer: The promises America makes our veterans are sacred. Claire McCaskill understands. When her father returned from World War Two he was given access to health care and an education. Today Claire fights to keep that promise for this generation, bringing our soldiers and dollars home from Iraq, better access to care for veterans in rural areas, and a jobs bill that gets our soldiers back to work. Because for Claire McCaskilll protecting our veterans is personal.

Claire McCaskill (D): I’m Claire McCaskill and I approved this message.

Because the right wingnut front organizations and Super PACs will inundate the airwaves otherwise.

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but Missouri GOP gubernatorial candidate Dave Spence and Mitt Romney, who is sorta, kinda, occasionally, the leading GOP presidential candidate, have lots in common:

1. Spence is rich and Romney is rich (though to be fair, Romney isn’t just rich, he’s super-rich).

2. Given the newfound media concern about the growing financial chasm between the 99% and the 1%, both want to downplay that fact. Spence and his surrogates (i.e., Peter Kinder) emphasize the self-made millionaire angle. Ditto Romney –  when he isn’t choking on his silver spoon. Who could forget Mitt’s stories about his days as an unemployed millionaire. Or the Mitt who’s qualified to feel our pain because he’s lived in the “real streets of America,” which he apparently confuses with the private streets in a spate of exclusive, gated communities.

3. Both Romney and Spence have what we euphemistically refer to as a problem with the truth:

— Romney has a particularly rich record in this regard. So much so that Steve Benen began keeping track of Mitt’s fibs on a weekly basis at the Washington Monthly; you can find some of those compilations here, here and here. Benen has continued collecting Mitt’s whoppers in his new job at The Maddow Blog, where he posts them each Friday (read the last two weeks’ worth here and here).

— Although he has been in the public eye for a much shorter time, Spence is no piker when it comes to concocting convenient narratives. We all know the story of his home economics degree by now, and we also know that, contrary to what he tried to imply, he meant to deceive and he’d been doing so for some time. If that isn’t enough, Spence’s effort to evade responsibility for the TARP misadventures of Reliance Bank while he sat on the Board of Directors – from which he profited handsomely – smells just about as fishy.

4. Both men like to brag that they have demonstrated that they have what it takes to govern because they were successful businessmen. Remember the last CEO who was elected president? A genial go-getter named Herbert Hoover who managed to dig the great depression even deeper with his conservative business management ideas.

As far as that goes, we’ve already seen that, in Romney’s case, running a for-profit didn’t translate that well into running a state. There are, believe it or not, differences between government and the world of finance. During his stint as Governor of Massachusetts, which was flattened by the 2001 recession, the state ranked 47th in job creation.

Whether or not Spence would do better is, of course, moot, but the ideas he’s putting out there on the topic of jobs don’t suggest that he’ll bring anything to the table that you couldn’t find by tapping any run-of-the-mill GOP hack.

So there you have it. Big-time presidential Tweedledum and (relatively) small-time gubernatorial Tweedledee.* A couple of millionaires who, now that they have time to kill after feathering their nest in the world of finance, want to feather their caps in the public sphere.

*Slightly edited for clarity.  

Today, Representative Vicky Hartzler (r) spread some more right wingnut spin via Twitter:

Rep. Vicky Hartzler ‏ @RepHartzler

Heritage report: Nearly half (49.5%) of all Americans don’t pay any federal income taxes. It’s time to get people working. 8:05 AM – 23 Feb 12

Yep, spin.

April 13, 2010, 8:51 pm

Who Doesn’t Pay Taxes?

By DAVID LEONHARDT

….You can see this by looking at the Congressional Budget Office data on tax rates by income group. It shows that the total net federal tax rate for the poorest fifth of households – that is, those most likely to pay no federal taxes – was still positive. In 2006, the last year for which there is data, this rate was 4.3 percent. The average income-tax rate for this group was indeed below zero: -6.6 percent. But the combined rate of payroll, investment and excise taxes was 10.9 percent, leading to a net positive rate of 4.3 percent.

A positive federal tax rate for these poorest 20 percent of households suggests that fewer than half of them pay no federal taxes. That’s where the estimate in my column – that at most about 10 percent of all households pay no net federal taxes – comes from.

Let’s talk about regressive taxes:

Yes, 47% of Households Owe No Taxes. Look Closer.

By DAVID LEONHARDT

Published: April 13, 2010

….The different kinds of federal taxes are really just accounting categories. At the end of the day, the government has to cover the cost of all its operations with revenue from all its taxes. We can’t wish our deficit away by saying that it’s mostly a Medicare and Social Security deficit.

If anything, the government numbers I’m using here exaggerate how much of the tax burden falls on the wealthy. These numbers fail to account for the income that is hidden from tax collectors – a practice, research shows, that is more common among affluent families. “Because higher-income people are understating their income,” Joel Slemrod, a tax scholar at the University of Michigan, says, “We’ve been overstating their average tax rates.”

State and local taxes, meanwhile, may actually be regressive. That is, middle-class and poor families may face higher tax rates than the wealthy. As Kim Rueben of the Tax Policy Center notes, state and local income taxes and property taxes are less progressive than federal taxes, while sales taxes end up being regressive. The typical family pays a lot of state and local taxes, too – almost half as much as in federal taxes….

[emphasis added]

Representative Hartzler (r) needs to get better talking points from the puppet masters.