Yesterday, at the Missouri Ethics Commission:

C061621 05/25/2012 MO COLLEGE REPUBLICANS Gary Grewe 2533 Greenbriar Ridge Drive Saint Louis MO 63122 G. J. Grewe, Inc. Properties 5/25/2012 $10,000.00

[emphasis added]

C000953 05/25/2012 MO REPUBLICAN PARTY Anheuser Busch Companies One Busch Place Saint Louis MO 63118 5/23/2012 $25,000.00

[emphasis added]

And a possible tune for their campaign soundtrack:

Via Twitter:

Rep. Vicky Hartzler ‏@RepHartzler

Defense $ is 20% of the budget but faces 50% of total cuts. RT if you think Congress isn’t doing enough to provide for the common defense. 2:16 PM – 25 May 12

And a reaction:

American Spring ‏@AmericanSpring

@RepHartzler You must be kidding. End all occupations and no domestic drones. You voted to cut food stamps $33 Bil.2:20 PM – 25 May 12

Is Social Security figured in that percentage, too?:

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

….Representative Hartzler:….Uh, Social Security, of course, money comes in for that. So, we got that. Medicare, Medicaid, net interest, and, as you can see, it’s rather small right now, that’s the interest on the debt. I have some concerns with that though if our interest rates go up, what that could do to our national budget. It could eat up a lot more of it. And the other mandatory program, uh, they lumped a bunch of programs there where Congress has approved in years past and we don’t vote on every year. They just say if you qualify for xyz then you get x dollar benefit. So, they put in there everything from Pell Grants to unemployment, uh, food stamps, welfare programs, farm subsidies, all of those type of programs that  are mandatory they lumped them together. So, you can kind of see where the money is going. Now, here’s the problem, though. The next slide shows here’s how much is coming in. The green is our total amount of tax revenue that you and I send in every April fifteenth and businesses send in. Only makes up part of what we’re spending so the rest is borrowed. That’s why we’re now borrowing forty-two cents on the dollar at the federal level just to keep all those programs going that you just saw. That’s why we’re in the problem that we are, I mean, you and I don’t do that at home. I mean, we can’t keep borrowing forty-two cents out of every dollar. It’s unsustainable [crosstalk] and…

Voice: Is Social Security in that two point two trillion?

Representative Hartzler: Uh, that’s a good question. I’ll have to check on that. I think it is.  [crosstalk] Anyway, no.

Voice: I don’t think so. You said [inaudible] our tax money by April fifteenth.

Representative Hartzler: Anyway. Well [crosstalk], yeah…

Voice: Taxes are April fifteenth [crosstalk]. Social Security’s not a tax, right. But it is our money. So, where’s that flow in the flow?

Representative Hartzler: It is part of the revenue that’s in there. So, I may have misspoke as far as April fifteenth. But, anyway, you can see we got a deficit. That’s the bottom line, bottom line….

Just asking.

Today, at the Missouri Ethics Commission:

C121042 05/25/2012 MISSOURIANS FOR HEALTH AND EDUCATION Gary Forsee 3 Dunford Circle Kansas City MO 64112 Retired 5/23/2012 $25,000.00

[emphasis added]

This appears to be the first direct big dollar contribution from an individual supporting the tobacco tax initiative campaign.

From their amended April quarterly report:

REPORT SUMMARY

MISSOURIANS FOR HEALTH AND EDUCATION [pdf] 5/10/2012

8. Total All Receipts This Election $697,300.32

14. Total Expenditures This Election $635,301.61

27. Money On Hand at the close of this reporting period $61,998.71

[emphasis added]

CONTRIBUTIONS AND LOANS RECEIVED

MISSOURIANS FOR HEALTH AND EDUCATION [pdf] 5/10/2012

11. TOTAL CONTRIBUTIONS RECEIVED AT FUND-RAISERS AS REPORTED INLINE 8 ON FORM CD1A $0.00

12. TOTAL ANONYMOUS CONTRIBUTIONS RECEIVED FROM PERSON GIVING $25 OR LESS $0.00

13. TOTAL MONETARY CONTRIBUTIONS RECEIVED FROM PERSONS GIVING $100 OR LESS $100.00

14. TOTAL IN-KIND CONTRIBUTIONS RECEIVED FROM PERSONS (NOT COMMITTEES) GIVING $100 OR LESS $0.00

[emphasis added]

Previously:

Initiative petitions on raising the tobacco tax (February 14, 2012)

Campaign Finance: Initiative petitions on raising the tobacco tax (February 15, 2012)

Campaign Finance: cough, cough, hack, hack (April 10, 2012)

Campaign Finance: up in a cloud of smoke (April 20, 2012)

Campaign Finance: smoke gets in our eyes… (April 26, 2012)

…or possess the sense of humor to pull it off.

A campaign video by Jeff Barth (D), campaigning for Congress in the June primary to run against incumbent Kristi Noem (r) in November in South Dakota:

I just love the Internets.

Majority PAC is running a television ad in support of Senator Claire McCaskill (D):

Announcer: Why are the corporate special interests attacking Claire McCaskill? Because they want to keep getting tax breaks when they ship our jobs overseas.

And Claire McCaskill’s determined to stop them. She’s working to end tax breaks for companies that outsource jobs. And instead, give incentives to companies that create jobs here in Missouri.

That’s the real McCaskill record. Whatever it takes for Missouri jobs.

Majority PAC is responsible for the content of this advertising.

The ad is running in the Kansas City television media market.

Previously: Campaign Finance: organized labor always looks after working people (May 21, 2012)

Today, at the Missouri Ethics Commission:

C111126 05/24/2012 MISSOURIANS FOR RESPONSIBLE LENDING Communications Workers of America 501 Third St NW Washington DC 20001 5/24/2012 $15,000.00

C121010 05/24/2012 GIVE MISSOURIANS A RAISE CWA District 6 Political Educ Committee 10733 Sunset Office Dr Suite 201 Saint Louis MO 63127 5/24/2012 $15,000.00

[emphasis added]

For raising the minimum wage and capping the interest on payday loans.

Would you expect anything else?

Today, bumpers stickers spotted on vehicles in west central Missouri:

Did anyone ask Joe Lieberman?

Ah, they must think the nation longs for the good old days.

Not exactly.

Via the Great Orange Satan:

 

NBC-Marist Polls – May 2012

Florida

Registered voters: n=1078, MOE +/- 3.0%

Do you think the current economic conditions are mostly something President Obama inherited or are they mostly a result of his own policies?

Economic conditions mostly inherited 56%

Economic conditions mostly result of his own policies 37%

Unsure 6%

Virginia

Registered voters: n=1076, MOE +/- 3.0%

Do you think the current economic conditions are mostly something President Obama inherited or are they mostly a result of his own policies?

Economic conditions mostly inherited 57%

Economic conditions mostly result of his own policies 36%

Unsure 7%

Ohio

Registered voters: n=1103, MOE +/- 3.0%

Do you think the current economic conditions are mostly something President Obama inherited or are they mostly a result of his own policies?

Economic conditions mostly inherited 57%

Economic conditions mostly result of his own policies 35%

Unsure 8%

If dubya were running today do you think he’d get to 35%? And Mitt Romney (r) wants us to return to the good old days. Good luck with that.

Today, at the Missouri Ethics Commission:

C001135 05/24/2012 JAY NIXON FOR MISSOURI Gregory Boyce 701 Market Street Suite 900 Saint Louis MO 63101 Peabody Energy Chairman & CEO 5/22/2012 $10,000.00

C001135 05/24/2012 JAY NIXON FOR MISSOURI Peabody Investments Corporation 5995 James S. McDonnell Boulevard Saint Louis MO 63134 5/22/2012 $15,000.00

[emphasis added]

Sherman, that is your 1,000th fortune cookie. Do you want to spoil your dinner?

“Useless laws weaken the necessary laws.” – Charles-Louis de Secondat, baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu (1689 – 1755)

May 23, 2012

Gov. Nixon sets Aug. 7 election on right to pray

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Gov. Jay Nixon today issued a proclamation setting the vote on a constitutional right to pray for the Aug, 7, 2012, ballot.

House Joint Resolution No. 2, passed by the General Assembly in 2011, proposes a constitutional amendment to Article I, Section 5, of the Missouri Constitution, guaranteeing the right to pray.  Without the Governor’s action today, the proposed constitutional amendment would have appeared on the Nov. 6, 2012, ballot.

Because the provisions of the amendment would be effective immediately if approved by voters, Gov. Nixon chose to set the election in August.

I suppose people could pray for a jobs bill from the Missouri General Assembly. That would be a waste of breath.

Previously:

HJR 2: “Useless laws weaken the necessary laws.” (December 30, 2010)

Department of Redundancy Department: Representative Mike McGhee (r) (January 4, 2010)

HJR 62: brace yourself for “Talk Like a Pirate Day” (May 5, 2010)