Via Twitter:

Jason Hancock ‏@J_Hancock

Preparations nearly complete for a very frigid inauguration tomorrow.[….] 11:57 AM – 13 Jan 13

Let’s see, a General Assembly dominated by the lunatic fringe of the majority party with a veto proof margin. Yeah, that’ll make for warm fuzzies.

Previously:

“The Imperial Senate will no longer be of any concern to us…” (December 10, 2012)

Yes, a starship would be a much better investment:

Official White House Response to Secure resources and funding, and begin construction of a Death Star by 2016.

This Isn’t the Petition Response You’re Looking For

By Paul Shawcross

The Administration shares your desire for job creation and a strong national defense, but a Death Star isn’t on the horizon. Here are a few reasons:

   The construction of the Death Star has been estimated to cost more than $850,000,000,000,000,000. We’re working hard to reduce the deficit, not expand it.

   The Administration does not support blowing up planets.

   Why would we spend countless taxpayer dollars on a Death Star with a fundamental flaw that can be exploited by a one-man starship?

However, look carefully (here’s how) and you’ll notice something already floating in the sky — that’s no Moon, it’s a Space Station! Yes, we already have a giant, football field-sized International Space Station in orbit around the Earth that’s helping us learn how humans can live and thrive in space for long durations. The Space Station has six astronauts — American, Russian, and Canadian — living in it right now, conducting research, learning how to live and work in space over long periods of time, routinely welcoming visiting spacecraft and repairing onboard garbage mashers, etc. We’ve also got two robot science labs — one wielding a laser — roving around Mars, looking at whether life ever existed on the Red Planet.

Keep in mind, space is no longer just government-only. Private American companies, through NASA’s Commercial Crew and Cargo Program Office (C3PO), are ferrying cargo — and soon, crew — to space for NASA, and are pursuing human missions to the Moon this decade.

Even though the United States doesn’t have anything that can do the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs, we’ve got two spacecraft leaving the Solar System and we’re building a probe that will fly to the exterior layers of the Sun. We are discovering hundreds of new planets in other star systems and building a much more powerful successor to the Hubble Space Telescope that will see back to the early days of the universe.

We don’t have a Death Star, but we do have floating robot assistants on the Space Station, a President who knows his way around a light saber and advanced (marshmallow) cannon, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which is supporting research on building Luke’s arm, floating droids, and quadruped walkers.

We are living in the future! Enjoy it. Or better yet, help build it by pursuing a career in a science, technology, engineering or math-related field. The President has held the first-ever White House science fairs and Astronomy Night on the South Lawn because he knows these domains are critical to our country’s future, and to ensuring the United States continues leading the world in doing big things.

If you do pursue a career in a science, technology, engineering or math-related field, the Force will be with us! Remember, the Death Star’s power to destroy a planet, or even a whole star system, is insignificant next to the power of the Force.

Paul Shawcross is Chief of the Science and Space Branch at the White House Office of Management and Budget

Years ago I remember folks debating whether John F. Kennedy’s Catholicism disqualified him to be president. After all, the argument went, if he is a good man, then he must take his religion seriously and defer to the dictates of the Pope on policy issues. Did we really want to surender control of the country to il Papa?

We all know how that came out and the revisited arguments seem quaint. Today, however, we have another “Pope” who demands the allegiance of politicians. And to man, most Republicans and, sadly, some Democrats offer it up unthinkingly. I’m speaking of Mr. Wayne LaPierre, President of the NRA.

Even GOP politicians I suspect know better tread softly around the gun lobby, whose main representative Mr. LaPierre is. Take, for instance, Senator Roy Blunt. In the aftermath of Newtown Blunt was quick to genuflect in the direction of the NRA. His response to the tragedy? Shift the conversation to the issue of mental illness, a variation on the time-honored NRA refrain of “guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” Easy, of course, to overlook the fact that guns make it soooooo much easier for people to kill other people.

A week or so after the tragedy and just after Mr. LaPierre’s formal statement on the Newtown shootings, an hilarious recitation of the full range of time-honored NRA crap, the true believers began to crawl out from under the rocks where they had been hiding, waiting for the righteous dudgeon aroused by the shooting of little children to abate. Their remedy for gun violence? Counter bad people with guns with good people with guns.

But who are the good people?  Missouri legislators think they know. They quickly announced their intention to introduce legislation that would arm teachers. At about the same time a somewhat disturbing story hit the news. Remember the Vermont teacher who turned in his bushmaster semiautomatic rifle and requested a mental health evaluation? But according to one lawmaker, Republican Rep. Stanley Cox, of Sedalia, people “might think twice about attacking schools if they knew that teachers or administrators could be carrying guns.” That’ll be a real deterrent to a suicide minded shooter for sure, not to mention fantasy-addled schizophrenics. It’s hard to see the upside of turning our schools into the wild West.  

A recent guest commentary in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch attempted to justify the American “gun culture” by claiming that it had been intended by the founding fathers to insure that citizens would always have the option of revolution against oppressive government. Put aside the fact that folks who manage to get a right to armed revolution (a right to treason?) out of the second amendment’s mention of a well-regulated militia might be the victims of their own overactive imagination (and, what, out of idle curiosity, do they make of the words “well-regulated”). It’s enough to just think for a minute abut those types on the fringe right who are convinced that the Affordable Health Care Act is the last word in oppressive dictatorship, designed to institute death panels and take their Medicare away. Do we want these ignorant and volatile individuals armed with military weapons and hot to march on Washington?

One of the halllmarks of a civilized nation is the ability of citizens to leave their homes without fear of random violence – and without arming themselves to fend off, for instance, angry old men who think that “stand your ground” legislation means you can shoot teenagers who play their music too loud. We are not a vigilante nation, but a nation of laws. We depend on laws and equip police and other agencies to enforce them so that we can enjoy a peaceful life. If this system fails to meet our needs, we examine our laws, our policing and our courts and make reforms as necessary. Second amendment rights are not exempt from those laws and appropriate regulation, nor should they be. All of which means that it would be a shame if the quasi-religious allegiance that the GOP and some weak-spined Democratic politicians offer to the money-bags of the gun lobby allows our country to become an anything goes, every man for himself, gun-toting hell-hole.

This could explain why the capitol press corps wasn’t too keen on the appropriation of space in the House press gallery, now discontinued.

Via Twitter:

Elizabeth Crisp ‏@elizabethcrisp

House @SpeakerTimJones has started a blog that will include weekly video entries [….] #MOleg 5:02 PM – 11 Jan 13

Who issues the credential? Just asking.

The past few days at the Missouri Ethics Commission:

C001135 01/09/2013 A BETTER MISSOURI WITH GOVERNOR JAY NIXON Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Kansas City PAC for Missouri 2301 Main Street Kansas City MO 64108 1/7/2013 $10,000.00

C001135 01/11/2013 A BETTER MISSOURI WITH GOVERNOR JAY NIXON American Petroleum Institute 1220 L Street, NW Washington DC 20005 1/9/2013 $10,000.00

[emphasis added]

Do they know something we don’t? Just asking.

Previously:

Campaign Finance: jumping on that bandwagon to who knows where (January 6, 2013)

Campaign Finance: it’s not a Hemi (January 2, 2013)

Campaign Finance: dialing for dollars (December 30, 2012)

Campaign Finance: no difference, then? (December 23, 2012)  

Today, via Twitter:

Rep. Vicky Hartzler ‏@RepHartzler

VP Biden says the President may bypass Congress on gun control. That would be an affront to the Constitution & an affront to the people! 8:36 AM – 10 Jan 13

Bad timing, again:

One student critically wounded in California school shooting

….The lone suspect, a 16-year-old male student, was arrested after a teacher and a school administrator who confronted him persuaded the boy to put his gun down….

Among the few replies to Representative Hartzler (r):

Diane Gilliland ‏@Dharma115

@RepHartzler Ya think? Maybe the opening bell for 2nd American Revolution, more like. 8:44 AM – 10 Jan 13

Uh, the side with an air force always wins.

Senator Maria Chappelle-Nadal (D) filed SB 124 on January 8th:

SB 124 Creates the crimes of failing to stop illegal firearm possession, negligent storage of a firearm, and failure to notify a school of firearm ownership

Sponsor: Chappelle-Nadal

LR Number: 0769

Last Action: 1/9/2013 – S First Read–SB 124-Chappelle-Nadal

Effective Date: August 28, 2013

Current Bill Summary

SB 124 – This act creates the offense of failing to stop illegal firearm possession. A person commits the offense if he or she is the parent or guardian of a child under the age of 18, he or she knows the child possesses a firearm in violation of the law, and he or she fails to stop the possession or report it to law enforcement.

The offense is a Class A misdemeanor unless death or injury results from the firearm possession in which case it is a Class D felony.

This act also creates the offense of negligent storage of a firearm. A parent or guardian of a child under the age of 18 commits the offense by recklessly storing or leaving a firearm in a manner that is likely to result in the child accessing the firearm if the child obtains access to the firearm and unlawfully carries it to school, kills or injures another person with it, or commits a crime with it.

A firearm that is in a secure location or locked is not considered to be recklessly stored or left in a manner likely to result in the child accessing the firearm.

The offense is a Class A misdemeanor unless the child kills or injures another person in which case it is a Class D felony.

The parent or guardian of a child injured or killed by a firearm may only be prosecuted for negligent storage of a firearm if he or she was grossly negligent.

This act requires a parent or guardian to notify a school district, or the governing body of a private or charter school, that he or she owns a firearm within 30 days of enrolling the child in school or becoming the owner of a firearm.

The written notification only needs to include the names of the parent and any child attending the school and the fact that the parent owns a firearm.

A person only needs to send one written notification if he or she has multiple children attending the school or becomes the owner of additional firearms. Any time a new child is enrolled in a school the parent or guardian must send an updated notification with the new child’s name.

Failure to notify the school under this act is an infraction, punishable by a fine of up to $100. If a person is found guilty of negligent storage of a firearm and has failed to notify the school of firearm ownership, the person must be fined $1,000 in addition to any other penalties authorized by law.

[….]

Things could get complicated if the parent is an armed teacher…

The Missouri General Assembly is back in session. We get more tenther drivel on the first day.

The laugh is on you, Missouri.

Is anyone surprised?:

SB 119 Creates the State Sovereighnty [sic] Commission

Sponsor: Emery

LR Number: 0545S.02I

Last Action: 1/9/2013 – S First Read–SB 119-Emery

Effective Date: August 28, 2013

Current Bill Summary

SB 119 – This act creates the State Sovereignty Commission. The role of the commission shall be to identify federal legislation that infringes on Missouri’s sovereignty, make recommendations to the General Assembly regarding state legislation that would preserve the principles of the Tenth Amendment of the United States Constitution, conduct inquiries with Missouri Congressional members regarding votes cast on federal legislation which may affect Missouri’s sovereignty, and refer cases to the Attorney General when the federal government requires the state or a state officer to enact or enforce provisions of federal law outside Congress’ enumerated powers.

The Commission shall consist of seven members appointed by the various branches of government. The members shall serve two-year terms.

[….]

Because jobs are so important.

The legislative session started today. The folks in control are up to their usual tenther antics:

FIRST REGULAR SESSION

HOUSE BILL NO. 137

97TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

INTRODUCED BY REPRESENTATIVES HINSON (Sponsor), MILLER, ROWLAND, LICHTENEGGER AND BAHR (Co-sponsors).

0656H.01I.          D. ADAM CRUMBLISS, Chief Clerk

AN ACT

To amend chapter 1, RSMo, by adding thereto one new section relating to state implementation of federal programs.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the state of Missouri, as follows:

           Section A. Chapter 1, RSMo, is amended by adding thereto one new section, to be known as section 1.380, to read as follows:

           1.380. 1. No state agency shall administer, implement, or expand any federal program before obtaining approval from the general assembly.

           2. For the purposes of this section, “state agency” shall mean any department, division, board, commission, office or other agency of the state of Missouri.

•

[emphasis in original]

So, the Missouri General Assembly will get to approve individual student loans? Just asking.