Today, at the Missouri Ethics Commission:

C031159 05/23/2013 MISSOURIANS FOR KOSTER Davis, Bethune & Jones, LLC 1100 Main Street Suite 2930 Kansas City MO 64105 5/22/2013 $25,000.00

C031159 05/23/2013 MISSOURIANS FOR KOSTER Carey & Danis, LLC 8235 Forsyth Boulevard Suite 1100 Saint Louis MO 63105 5/22/2013 $10,000.00

[emphasis added]

Both sides of the state, too.

Previously:

Campaign Finance: What’s your favorite number? (May 21, 2013)

Or maybe it’s just the barn.

Do you think the realtor had a chat with their client about staging the property?

Just asking.

Today the American Society of Civil gave Missouri’s infrastructure a grade of C-. These “report cards,” issued every four years, are an outgrowth of the Society’s efforts to draw attention to the vital issue of America’s failing infrastructure which, as an earlier report shows (Failure to Act: The Impact of Current Infrastructure Investment on America’s Economic Future), is a significant factor affecting economic growth and prosperity.

This report does not come as a surprise – Missouri hasn’t been doing too well in this area for some time and the Society’s 2009 report for the state, while nominally better in some areas, wasn’t much different. It would seem that the past few years of GOP stewardship of the statehouse in Jefferson City has not done much for the state’s infrastructure and the corresponding issues of economic growth. Nor is it difficult to understand why things have been deteriorating at the current rate. Just consider the risible response of House Speaker Tim Jones to the report:

In my mind, it gave me facts and figures to prove that what we were working on was meaningful and the right way to go,” Jones said. “We need to work on the electric issue, we need to work on highway funding, we need to work on our water, sewer and roadways in general.

Jones seems to be saying that the GOP’s heart was in the right place, but unfortunately, the brains involved just weren’t up to the task. They were on the right track, he implies, because they spent a little time considering a few issues that form an essential part of their charge as lawmakers – so no matter if they couldn’t manage to do anything. Speaker Jones thinks his only failure, one that he suggests is trivial, was that he couldn’t rally his feisty partisans to support his goals this year:

Funding infrastructure was one of the key goals of the recently-finished legislative session, and it could be on the agenda for next session, too.

In particular, Jones had hoped to  pass a one-cent sales tax to fund transportation. But that bill died in the Senate when John Lamping from Ladue filibustered the bill that his own party leader supported.

So let’s gauge Jone’s efforts. A modest goal – fix roads – and no result. I’m glad he feels good enough about his efforts to pat himself and his GOP colleagues on their metaphorical backs, although I’m a bit confused about how he can think of the legislative session that just finished as other than an abject failure.

I also have to say that I’m just as glad that the GOP response to infrastructure needs, a sales tax, has failed. Bear in mind that the same Jones who is touting a regressive sales tax to address a few selected infrastructure concerns, also supported a successful bill that would gradually cut already low individual taxes by .5%, phase in a 50% deduction for business income that is reported as personal income, and cut corporate taxes by 3% from 6.25% to 3.25%.

To summarize: the GOP response to infrastructure needs is make poor and middle class Missourians pay disproportionately for infrastructure essential to Missouri businesses via a sales tax. At the same time, one of their few successes, a so-called tax “reform” that the GOP pushed through both houses, would allow Jones and his pals to let those very businesses off the hook even more by cutting their already low income tax obligations to almost nothing. And of course, anybody but a Missouri Republican realizes that cutting state revenue this severely isn’t going to do anything for those outstanding infrastructure deficits.

Ironically, the only thing that stood in Jones’ way, at least in regard to the sales tax, were the ideological sensibilities and political fears of his GOP colleagues:

The sales tax idea went down in flames after lawmakers started to fret over the portrayal of the tax increase as the biggest in state history.

That’s tough campaign rhetoric to overcome.

What conclusion should we draw from the GOP reluctance to raise the revenue necessary to fulfill basic government functions such as providing the infrastructure essential to economic growth? I would suggest that, unless there’s a change in the makeup of the legislature, none of us hold our breath in expectation of a better report card four years down the road. I’m sure that the issue will, as Speaker Jones suggests, come up next year. I’m equally sure that the response will be just as befuddled and corruption-riddled as this year’s has been.

Via a post on DailyKos, I learned that Organizing for America (OFA) is encouraging those of us who are concerned by the growing evidence of potentially disastrous man-made climate change to confront climate change deniers in our congressional delegation:

Climate change is real, it’s caused largely by human activities, and it poses significant risks for our health. Some members of Congress disagree with this simple, scientifically proven fact. We need to work to curb climate change, and a big step is to raise our voices to change the conversation in Washington. Call these deniers out. Hold them accountable. Ask them if they will admit climate change is a problem.

To this end OFA is putting together a Web page, “Call Out the Climate Change Deniers,” that details and sources statements made by congressional deniers.

The Missouri denialist contingent as enumerated by OFA includes the following:

–Sen. Roy Blunt:

“There isn’t any real science to say we are altering the climate path of the earth.”[source]

–Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-4):

“Enjoying another beautiful global warming day in Missouri! Rep. Skelton and the UN Summit need to quit their dist. of wealth for a hoax.”[source]

–Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-3) (who began his Washington career with a dim-witted but all-out attack on climate science):

Luetkemeyer’s legislation would prohibit U.S. contributions to the IPCC, which is nothing more than a group of U.N. bureaucrats that supports man-made claims on global warming that many scientists disagree with…. Meanwhile, our very own Environmental Protection Agency recently reported that we are undergoing a period of worldwide cooling. [source]

The OFA page, a work in progress, is, however, incomplete when it comes to Missouri climate change offenders. As you can deduce from the information presented on the Web site, On the Issues, Sam Graves (R-6), Billy Long (R-7) and Ann Wagner (R-2) aren’t any better when it comes to climate issues – just quieter. They have consistently voted against regulating CO2 emissions while wholeheartedly supporting the fossil fuel industry, subsidies and all. Both Long and Wagner, for instance,  signed the Koch-funded Americans for Prosperity’s “No Climate Tax Pledge,” which states ” “I pledge to the taxpayers of my state, and to the American people, that I will oppose any legislation relating to climate change that includes a net increase in government revenue.”  Wagner has also gone on the record with the belief that cap-and-trade would have no impact on global temperatures.

According to the National Journal’s Coral Davenport, the willingness of so many legislators to do the bidding of big-bucks corporate donors in the fossil-fuel industries is beginning to grate on those conservatives who realize that the evidence for denialism is bogus:

Emanuel predicts that many more voters like him, people who think of themselves as conservative or independent but are turned off by what they see as a willful denial of science and facts, will also abandon the GOP, unless the party comes to an honest reckoning about global warming.

And a quiet, but growing, number of other Republicans fear the same thing. Already, deep fissures are emerging between, on one side, a base of ideological voters and lawmakers with strong ties to powerful tea-party groups and super PACs funded by the fossil-fuel industry who see climate change as a false threat concocted by liberals to justify greater government control; and on the other side, a quiet group of moderates, younger voters, and leading conservative intellectuals who fear that if Republicans continue to dismiss or deny climate change, the party will become irrelevant.

[…]

The goal of grassroots efforts is to persuade Republicans that they’ll be rewarded if they take a stand in support of climate action-and that they could doom their party to minority status if they don’t.

Consequently, it might very well be a good time for a strategy of confrontation such as that envisioned by the OFA. So your assignment, if you choose to accept it, is to get your representatives unequivocally on the record – phone any of them, write them and ask them if they believe that climate change is happening and that it is caused by human activity that we must change in order to stave off disaster. Be sure to let our cadre of climate change deniers know that we’ll do what can to insure that their days in Washington will be numbered if they persist. It also wouldn’t hurt if you could write letters to the editor of your local paper about your representative’s denialist beliefs. No matter what you do, we need to make it clear that addressing man-made climate change is an urgent priority and that the GOP cannot sweep it under a fossil-fuel industry funded rug any longer.

*Edited slightly for style and to add inadvertent omissions.

At the White House Petition site:

We petition the Obama Administration to:

Have Amy Bouzaglo Committed.

The owner of the Amy Baking Company in Scottsdale, AZ is obviously crazy. I think she should have a psychological evaluation and kept from interacting with the public.

Created: May 14, 2013

Issues: Human Rights, Job Creation, Small Business

Panem et circenses. Literally.

Today, at the Missouri Ethics Commission:

C111150 05/21/2013 FRIENDS OF TOM SCHWEICH William Holekamp 5 Barclay Woods St Louis MO 63124 Holekamp Capital Owner 5/21/2013 $10,000.00

[emphasis added]

Numerology, anyone?

Via Twitter:

Elizabeth Crisp ‏@elizabethcrisp

After threatening to resign over failure to pass bills, Rep Grisamore has changed his mind […] #MOleg 2:10 PM – 21 May 13

Eli Yokley ‏@eyokley

#Fail RT @elizabethcrisp: After threatening to resign over failure to pass bills, Grisamore has changed his mind [….] 2:24 PM – 21 May 13

Heh.

“….the greatest integrative force in this country has been our public education system. The greatest integrative value developing part of this country has been our education system. And we need to strengthen that. As a new demography comes in there has to be a touchstone, an American touchstone that translates and brings to that accommodation who we are as a nation, what our values are, and what it means to be an American. I learned that in school, I learned it from my family. And we cannot rob the next two or three generations of the opportunity in our school system to become fully empowered and American like the rest of us. [applause]….”

Previously:

That’s Liza with a Z, not Lisa with an S… (May 18, 2013)

Truman Days in Jackson County – 2013 (May 18, 2013)

Truman Days 2013 – Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D) – Breakfast Keynote – May 18, 2013 (May 19, 2013)

Truman Days 2013 – Attorney General Chris Koster – May 18, 2013 (May 20, 2013)

Arizona Congressman Raul Grijalva (D) was the keynote speaker at the Jackson County Democratic Committee’s Truman Days dinner in Kansas City on Saturday night.

Representative Raul Grijalva (D) was the keynote speaker at the Jackson County Democratic Committee’s

annual Truman Days dinner in Kansas City on May 18, 2013.

Part 1:

Part 2:

“… I go, you know, Pops, why with the union, you know? And I’m speaking more for myself. Why do I have to come? But he took it as a question directed at him, like I do at the union. And I think that’s been kind of a guiding principle since he said that. He said to me, you know…on the job they can work me like a dog. But with the union they have to treat me like a man. [applause, cheers]… “

“….Social change is not neatly packaged into four and eight year increments.  The fact that, the, the fact that Jolie Justus moved the mountain is proof that mountains can be moved….”

Previously:

That’s Liza with a Z, not Lisa with an S… (May 18, 2013)

Truman Days in Jackson County – 2013 (May 18, 2013)

Truman Days 2013 – Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D) – Breakfast Keynote – May 18, 2013 (May 19, 2013)

Attorney General Chris Koster (D) at the annual Truman Days dinner sponsored by the

Jackson County Democratic Committee in Kansas City on May 18, 2013.

Attorney General Chris Koster (D) spoke at the Jackson County Democratic Committee’s Truman Days dinner in Kansas City on Saturday night. He spoke on Senator Jolie Justus (D) and the Missouri Nondiscrimination Act:

Attorney General Chris Koster (D):  [on cell phone] Are you there? All right.

So, when I learned that, uh, Senator [Jolie] Justus was not gonna be in attendance tonight because she is on her way to, I think, Turkey,  I stepped outside and I called her and I said, Oh my gosh, where are you, my speech is about you. [laughter] And, uh, so with the help of Jeremy LaFaver, uh, we called Jolie and Jolie is right there. The telephone is one, she can hear us. [laughter] So, good evening, it’s, it’s great to be [cheers, applause]…

First of all, it’s great to be back with Kansas City’s Democrats. Uh, where are my Cass County people? [cheers] All right. An unheralded minority. [laughter]

Well, another legislative session is behind us, has come and gone. And it is my ninth, believe it or not, in Jefferson City. And over time you learn the rhythms of the legislative session. First, what happens is that it appears that the world is going to come to an end as we know it. [laughter] Threats and compromises lead to frustration. But occasional victories do occur. And then, mercifully, at six p.m. on the first Friday after the second Monday in May, it all suddenly stops. We’d all shake hands and shake our heads, we’d go home to different town across this great state, and in the days that followed we asked ourselves whether Missouri is a better place for our efforts.

Occasionally there are legislative accomplishments that end with important laws, and front page stories in the Kansas City Star, and bill signings in the Governor’s office, and conversations in barber shops across Missouri about how much better off or worse off we are because of those damn politicians. [laughter]  But there are other kinds of legislative accomplishments that go largely unnoticed. They end with no new law being passed, no entry in the statute books, or water cooler debate. And while historically and culturally important, they are, none the less, completely missed by this morning’s [Kansas City] Star and nearly every other news outlet in Missouri. Yet because of these unnoticed accomplishments we ask, when we ask ourselves whether Missouri is a better place for our efforts our answer is a resounding yes.

I swear to you on the twenty years of my life that I have dedicated to this profession one of those largely unnoticed acts that ranks among the most impressive legislative accomplishments that I have ever seen occurred last night just before dinner. And I want to take a minute with you tonight to respect it. Last night at five forty-five p.m.  with fifteen minutes left in the legislative, legislative session of two thousand and thirteen Senator Jolie Justus passed the Missouri Nondiscrimination Act. [applause, cheers] It was an attempt to make it illegal to fire someone simply because they are gay, to make it illegal to refuse to rent a hotel room to someone simply because they are gay. She passed it through the floor of the Missouri Senate. Unfortunately there was not time left to pass it through the House floor on the other side of the Capitol and so it did not become law. But the fact that here, in our home of Missouri, such a measure was taken up in an overwhelmingly Republican Senate and passed by a vote of nineteen to eleven is deserving of extraordinary respect and recognition.  The vote itself has been years in the making. And the efforts of Senator Joan Bray should not go unrecognized tonight. [applause]

The Missouri Nondiscrimination Act, or MONA as it is called, has been filed every year for over a decade. For many years the legislature would not even give it a committee hearing. Then, about five years ago the Senate and the House began giving the bill committee hearings, but never considered it, passing it, never considered passing it out of committee or bringing it to the floor.

Last night in the Missouri Senate was the first time that MONA was ever given serous floor time in either chamber, the first time it was ever given a recorded vote in either chamber, and the first time it was ever passed in either chamber.  Every Democrat in the Senate voted in favor of it.  And so to Senators [applause]… And so to Senators Justus, Chappelle-Nadal, Curls, Holsman, Keaveny, LeVota, McKenna, Nasheed, Sifton and Walsh we say thank you. [applause, cheers]  And to nine Republicans, Senators Dempsey, Kehoe, Parson, Pearce, Romine, Sater, Schaaf, Silvey and Wallingford we say thank you as well. [applause]

The importance of human relationships in politics never ever ceases to awe me. If you look at the seating chart of the floor of the Missouri Senate you will notice that Republican Senators Sater, Pierce, Wallingford and Dempsey all sit in close proximity to Senator Justus. And as someone who spent four years on that floor I can attest to you that the respect and cooperation that comes from mere proximity is strong.

Other stories of bipartisan relationships are every bit as important but will not ever be found in the recorded vote. Senator Ed Emery, an opponent of the bill who could have ended the bill’s chances with the shortest filibusters allowed the measure to be brought to a vote.  Senator Ron Richard, the majority floor leader and an opponent of the bill, twice gave the bill valuable floor time on the last critical day of session.  And Senator Brad Lager, another opponent of the bill, allowed his own bill, his own piece of legislation, to be overlaid with Senator Justus’ substitute language so that a measure to grant equality in hiring and housing could be given a chance.

All of these things, seen and unseen, happened because of Senator Jolie Justus and the other members of the Democratic caucus, because of the relationships that they have forged, and ultimately, because of the inherent dignity of their cause.

The Democratic caucus teases me sometimes because as an old timer and an alumnus of the Missouri Senate I place undue emphasis on each of them referring to one another in, at least in formal settings and public settings, by their formal, formal titles. They are Senators. They should refer to one another as such.  They represent the hopes and aspirations of hundreds of thousands of people. And yesterday afternoon under the leadership of an extraordinary woman they lived up to the titles we have given them.

About five years ago, I was at Black Tie, which is a gay and lesbian dinner held every year in Springfield, Missouri. And one of the things in my opinion that makes Black Tie sort of a unique event is that, unlike the HRC annual dinner in St. Louis or even the Victory Fund brunch here in Kansas City, which are both LGBT events, the Black Tie dinner has a surprisingly high number of straight attendees every year from the general community, and the business community and even actually from the religious community. Which when you consider that the dinner is held in Springfield, Missouri [laughter], I think actually breaks down stereotypes, certain stereotypes, in a very positive way.

Anyway, here’s what struck me about this dinner five years ago. About half way through the night the master of ceremonies of the event asked everyone who was gay in the room to stand, which is how I knew that there were a lot of straight people in the room. [laughter] And then the MC asked all the people who were standing to give what essentially became a standing ovation to all of the straight allies who were there sharing the dinner with them that night. And it really, it really hit me. And it’s something that I’ve remembered in kind of profound way for the last five years, which is this concept of straight allies and the fact that I, along with all of other people who were there that night, were being thanked for being one of them.  First of all, not that’s its really that important, I really appreciated being thanked.  Second, this term straight ally made me realize, maybe for the first time, that I was being thanked by the LGBT community for being more than an attendee, more than a sympathizer or a friend, I was being thanked for being something called a straight ally. And that gratitude, that acknowledgement that our effort as straight allies is a critical component to this progress, which was an important moment for me as a person, I suppose also as a political figure too, but more importantly for me as a person.

Jolie Justus has been a Senator on behalf of the State of Missouri for seven years.  She is a woman in an institution that is predominantly male. She is gay in a legislative body that is thirty three thirty-fourths straight. [laughter]  She is the first openly gay member of the Missouri Senate. What happened last night is evidence that sometimes the most impressive legislative work is the quiet and slow procession of a river that over time can move shorelines of prejudice. What happened last night was the result of woman’s grace and patience and gentle advocacy that was so subtle that few even knew over those seven years that it was occurring.  What happened last night was that for the first time straight allies, many of whom were Republicans, came out of their straight ally closets and were counted when they did not have to be.  [applause]

As though we needed another example of the bad and unintended consequences of term limits we can add this to the mounting litany, profound social change does not occur on a legislative calendar.  Social change is not neatly packaged into four and eight year increments. The fact that, the, the fact that Jolie Justus moved the mountain is proof that mountains can be moved.  The fact that term limits may rob this woman of a chance to complete our journey together, that we are more likely to lose our way without her than with her, is just the one hundredth reason why this term limits law should change. [applause]

But that is for another day.  For tonight let me just say that Senator Jolie Justus, in her seven years of representing us, has given Democrats and Missourians a reason to believe that our government can work.

Thank you. [applause]

That’s the kind of speech a governor makes.

Previously:

That’s Liza with a Z, not Lisa with an S… (May 18, 2013)

Truman Days in Jackson County – 2013 (May 18, 2013)

“….The United State of America, arguably the greatest empire ever to exist on this planet, hasn’t had a budget in four years. No energy policy whatsoever. No jobs bill whatsoever.  We still have seven point five unemployment, thirteen point three, Black, and thirteen point one Latino. Unemployment. And we’re voting on the Affordable Care Act. The week before the big deal was helium. Helium. I’m for kids and the balloons, but [laughter] we, we got major issues. We don’t even have an agricultural or, or farm bill after the worst drought since the dust bowl. No, no, no farm bill. And we’re voting on the Affordable Care Act….”

We’ve been covering the Jackson County Democratic Committee’s annual Truman Days celebration at the Holiday Inn Coco Key in Kansas City this weekend. Representative Emanuel Cleaver (D) was the Keynote speaker for the Saturday morning breakfast.

Representative Emanuel Cleaver (D) at Truman Days in Kansas City – May 18, 2013.

Part 1:

“….We probably lost Texas either for the last time, uh, or we may, they refocus and they may have one more chance at it. And it’s, it’s gonna be blue [cheers, applause]. And that is why they are, are so ignorant about. I saw one of my colleagues as I was sitting off, yesterday, uh, waiting, uh, to be picked up to go to the airport. And he’s on the floor, uh, talking about immigration. He’s from Iowa, uh, Congressman, uh, King. And, uh, and I’m thinking I want to take this and send it to everybody in Texas, Arizona, New Mexico….”

Part 2:

Part 3: