Personally, I like that I’m hearing the U word from President Obama with regards to Syria. How about a UN Peace Keeping and humanitarian mission like we did in Haiti in the 90s? We did some good work there. The blue helmets were not out armed and it wasn’t a meager effort, the NGOs were secure and did their jobs efficiently and without fear, and the population — most of whom just wanted to live their lives and feed their children — once they realized that peace was, indeed, possible, became the Peace Keepers’ best ally.
It doesn’t make sense to me that we would “punish” Assad for killing about a thousand people with chemical weapons by killing a few thousand innocent Syrians with traditional weapons.
You want to know how to win the so-called war on terror? Stop behaving like a bull in a China shop with the rest of the world, because newsflash, warhawk assholes (90% of whom dodged the draft when it was their turn) that is the behavior that creates terrorists.
We have immense power. It’s time we start using it for good instead of evil.
Narrator: You know, here’s the thing, Governor Rick Perry’s ads about HB 253 sound pretty good.
Texas Governor Rick Perry (r): This is Texas Governor Rick Perry.
Narrator: If you don’t happen to know anything about what HB 253 actually does. You see, it’s the GOP tax scheme that would give the favored few a tax cut of twelve hundred bucks a year. And the average Missourian? Their tax cut would only be enough to pay for a Big Mac.
As Governor [Jay] Nixon’s [D] pointed out, it would make devastating cuts to our schools and to mental health services. And it would even raise the tax on prescription drugs.
And the worst part? Is Governor Perry’s running ads trying to steal Missouri Jobs.
Texas Governor Rick Perry (r): Because Missouri families and businesses know Texas is a great place to live and work.
Narrator: Maybe Governor Perry gets by with silliness like this in Texas.
[Texas has a lower graduation rate than Missouri.]
After all, he doesn’t take very good care of his schools.
But I’ve got bad news for Governor Perry. Missourians are too smart to fall for his nonsense.
[emphasis in original]
That left a mark. Heh.
It just goes to show, you don’t bring an idiot to a knife fight.
….If you’re the only one (so far) contributing to the political action committee and you’re the treasurer, too, does the plural in the committee title really work? Just asking.
Today, at the Missouri Ethics Commission, for the PAC opposing the Health Research Tax on the November ballot in Jackson County:
C131113 08/28/2013 CITIZENS FOR RESPONSIBLE RESEARCH Brad Bradshaw 1904 S Shady Hill Lane Springfield MO 65809 Physician and Lawyer 8/27/2013 $17,000.00
[emphasis added]
$50,000.00 is certainly a big number, but it still ain’t chess.
Freedomworks, one of those astroturf groups birthed by the Koch billions, wants good little Tea Partiers to lobby their Representatives to shut down the government. Or defund Obamacare. Whichever happens first.
Of course, nobody’s going to defund Obamacare. A majority of us elected President Obama partly on the basis of his promise to reform healthcare delivery. He did. His reform is now the law of the land and it’ll stay that way. Which means that the GOPers supporting this drive are simply aiming to shut down the government. The strategy is simple:
The Continuing Resolution (CR) that allows funding for the federal government expires on September 30th and must be renewed in order for the doors to stay open in Washington. The CR is the best chance we will get to withdraw funds from ObamaCare. This can be done by attaching bills by Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) or Congressman Tom Graves (R-GA) to the CR, which will totally defund ObamaCare.
But for the Cruz/Graves effort to have teeth, Republicans in both chambers of Congress must all be committed to absolutely refusing to vote for any spending bill that contains funding for ObamaCare. Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) and Congressman Mark Meadows (R-NC) are leading the charge to get their colleagues to commit to this approach, by putting their signatures to a letter affirming that they will refuse to vote for a CR that contains ObamaCare funding.
Actually, shutting down the government wouldn’t actually do much of anything to affect Obamacare, but it would affect lots of Americans in very unpleasant ways. While the exact consequences are hard to predict, there’s no doubt they would be unpleasant in the extreme. When the GOP last tried this in 1995-96 numerous services were impacted:
–Over 1,000,000 federal employees were sent home during the combined 1995-96 shutdowns. Major federal work force furloughs occurred in of the Department of Education, the Department of Veteran Affairs, Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Social Security Administration, to name a few.
–National museums and monuments closed down, resulting in an estimated loss of 2 million visitors.
–368 National Park Service sites also closed, losing 7 million visitors and around $14.2 million per day in tourism revenue.
–20,000-30,000 foreign visa applications per day went unprocessed, as did an estimated total of 200,000 U.S. passport applications.
–Health, welfare, finance, and travel services for veterans were restricted.
–New Medicare applicants were turned away, and new patients at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Center were not accepted.
–Furloughs at the Centers for Disease Control resulted in limited information regarding the spread of contagious diseases.
–Over 3,500 bankruptcy cases were suspended.
–Federal agencies managing over 20% over the total number of government contracts were affected.
The total cost to the taxpayer for the 1995-96 shutdowns was $1.25 billion. This sum reflects the straight-up government costs; there would have been additional costs incurred in the private sector by government contractors as well as ripple effects elsewhere in the economy. A steep price tag to achieve little or nothing, especially given that the GOPers pushing this idea harp constantly about wasteful government spending. Nor should you forget that this stunt would be enacted against the backdrop of economic harm already effected by the GOP sequester.
Now just let me add that not even Republicans are united behind this exercise in wild-eyed, radical stupidity. The consensus of opinion right now is that the GOP can’t muster a united majority to support the shut-down. Nor do the defund Obamacare extremists have public support. A new poll out today shows that 57% of Americans oppose defunding Obamacare. This gives you an idea about how really special our Missouri Republicans are.
Free #Job fair this Thurs in Lebanon. RT if you or a friend is a job seeker. Let’s get #MO back to work! [….] 2:31 PM – 26 Aug 13
And this priceless reply:
Not Sure @adr3n 9h
@RepHartzler override Nixon’s veto of hb436 so we can get some long term manufacturing jobs!! 6:54 PM – 26 Aug 13
On so many levels…
The pseudonym says it all. HB 436 is the gun/federal nullification bill passed by the Missouri General Assembly this past legislative session which was then vetoed by Governor Jay Nixon (D). Uh, members of the U.S. House of Representatives don’t get to participate in the Missouri General Assembly veto session.
Today Rep. Marsha Haefner (R-095) expressed her concerns about the over-burdened and under-staffed Department of Social Services (DSS). More exactly, she expressed outrage that the DSS was devoting resources to register its clients to vote:
“I had no idea that that was the function of Missouri (Dept. of) Social Services,” Haefner said. “We are paying state employees, who are having a problem getting their paperwork so we can get reimbursed from the federal government, we’re paying them on our nickel to register voters.”
Perhaps if Rep. Haefner had been paying attention to the issue back in 2009, she might have remembered a successful suit that was brought against the DSS precisely because it was not fulfilling its legal obligation under the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) to assist its clients to register to vote – and that many counties were, in fact, obstructing registration through actions such as failing to maintain adequate supplies of voter registration forms and not turning in registration forms that had been filled out. As the Acting DSS Director Brian Kincade noted, Missouri must comply with the federal law and “not registering voters is not an option.”
The intent of the NVRA is to make it easier for citizens to exercise their right to vote. Surely Rep. Haefner must agree that it is important to facilitate voting for everyone, especially for those who might experience difficulties getting information about, or access to voter registration. Missouri benefits when its citizens are heard in Washington and when their true interests are represented – and quibbling about whose nickel is involved is a stupid waste of time. We get what we pay for, though political representation for all is priceless.
An easy way to deal with the problems of the DSS would be to allocate sufficient funds for its staff to carry out all their duties in a timely fashion. That would mean raising revenue which would require real tax reform – and by tax reform I don’t mean corporate giveaways like SB253. Instead, Rep. Haefner, during her campaign in 2012, went on the record with a solution that involves that good old GOP standby, downsizing the client population:
… We must work on developing systems that do not provide incentives to remain dependent. There has to be a reasonable path to eliminate the need for state and federal assistance.
God forbid that folks in need who get kicked off public assistance might vote – they just might kick out the politicians who think that government does too much for those on the bottom and not enough for the one percent.
“….the University of Central Missouri and public education and the rest of the State of Missouri could not withstand fulfilling all the responsibilities that you fulfill every day and lose this much support and us sustain the requirements of what it takes to build a future….”
The constituents of Representative Denny Hoskins (r), the Speaker Pro Tem-elect of the Missouri House, know who he sold out for that leadership position.
Dr. Chuck Ambrose, President of the University of Central Missouri, spoke about the impact of a veto override of HB 253 on the institution.
Dr. Chuck Ambrose, President of the University of Central Missouri, speaking in Warrensburg
on the “State of the University” – July 26, 2013.
“….I do think it’s really important to note, that all the things that we are doing, to be as efficient and effective as you’ve been, there is a limit….”
The transcript:
[….]
President Chuck Ambrose, University of Central Missouri: ….But there are storm clouds, right, that, uh, have not left us. Matter of fact, uh, this would be the third consecutive fiscal year that we’ve entered in to thinking about where we are and where we can go. And, and certainly, the consideration, this lists the Senate bill, but now the House bill [HB 253] that will be considered, uh, most likely, uh, in veto session. Uh, at some estimates, could disrupt the state revenue, uh, and this is more the best case, by six hundred million dollars. At worst case, uh, it could disrupt funding for the University of Central Missouri and all of the other state agencies by one point two billion dollars.
Uh, and, I want to give specific appreciation, uh, because we have a strong board, uh, who supports us, uh, and engages in those things that are most important. Uh, but on Friday, uh, our board President, [Marvin] “Bunky” Wright, uh, made certain that both the Senate and House delegates here on our local district knew that the University of Central Missouri and public education and the rest of the State of Missouri could not withstand fulfilling all the responsibilities that you fulfill every day and lose this much support and us sustain the requirements of what it takes to build a future. And, uh, Governor Wright, I, I want to thank you, uh, for that because [applause] I was [inaudible].
And let me just say, he said it in a way that was very clear. Uh, I probably would have batted around a bit. Uh, but, uh, I do think it’s really important to note, that all the things that we are doing, to be as efficient and effective as you’ve been, there is a limit. Uh, and the consideration [veto override vote on HB 253] that’s moving forward here in the next couple weeks and, and happens at September the, uh, eleventh and twelfth in Jefferson City, uh, could be, uh, a, as the Governor [Jay Nixon] has indicated to me, debilitating for the momentum that we have currently if we lose that much revenue.
And, so, uh, needless to say, uh, and, and I would like to, to make this a very firm transition point in our thinking, uh, institutional decision making today, uh, has gotten to be quite simple. Matter of fact, the number of decisions, uh, it takes to drive this institution forward are basically these: How many students do we have? How much are they not, not only how much can they pay, but how much are they willing to pay? How much is the state going to provide us in state appropriations? How much is our health care going to cost? And after those decisions, some of which, which we have no control over whatsoever, how much money do we have left to help us do what we do every day and care for those in our community?….
[….]
Who in their right mind would vote to cripple one of the largest employers and productive public institution in their own district?
