Oh, wait…

The current retail price of gasoline in west central Missouri:

Twitter doesn’t tell us so.

Previously:

We’re on an express elevator to…going down (October 14, 2013)

Water is wet (October 9, 2013)

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r): we don’t need no stinkin’ objective reality (January 21, 2012)

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r): not especially prescient (January 9, 2013)

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r): strange silence, still (December 19, 2012)

Quick, blame Obama! – part 3 – trickle down (December 8, 2012)

Quick, blame Obama! – part 2 (December 5, 2012)

Quick, blame Obama! (December 1, 2012)

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r): make it stop… (November 18, 2012)

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r): the price keeps dropping and we’re running out of gas puns (November 15, 2012)

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r): on an express elevator… (November 12, 2012)

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r): wait, wait, don’t tell me (November 8, 2012)

Vicky Hartzler (r): it’s so quiet when the price keeps dropping (October 31, 2012)

Vicky Hartzler (r): What’s that? Did you say something? Apparently not. (October 29, 2012)

Vicky Hartzler (r): the sound of silence (October 23, 2012)

The past, the gas, and isms (September 24, 2012)

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r): let’s pass the gas – part 2 (June 6, 2012)

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r): let’s pass the gas (May 27, 2012)

Fall in west central Missouri.

In 1994, then U.S. Senate candidate John Ashcroft walked in the homecoming parade in Warrensburg. At the time, as a candidate, he repeatedly avoided expressing any opinion on Amendment 7, which was on the November ballot and which would have had devastating economic impact on institutions like the university. The crowd at the parade knew this. And they were going to let him know something else. John Ashcroft was loudly and continually heckled by individuals over the entire parade route.

The sole republican entry in the parade. Apparently there were no elephants available to pull the wagon.

Irony. Cue the regular commenter.

Via Twitter today, from Representative Vicky Hartzler (r):

Rep. Vicky Hartzler ‏@RepHartzler

Beautiful day for Homecoming at MU and UCM! Go Tigers! Good luck, Mules! 10:04 AM – 26 Oct 13

During “off” years in the election cycle fewer politicians participate in the populist tradition of walking in a college homecoming parade. ‘Tis the season, and since it’s an off year, not too many politicians participated in today’s parade in Warrensburg. Representative Vicky Hartzler (r) didn’t walk in the University of Central Missouri parade (as far as I could tell). We haven’t heard from anyone who saw her at the University of Missouri homecoming parade in Columbia (not that we checked with any diligence). We suspect if she did she would have posted a cheery blurb with a picture via Twitter.

Do you think if Representative Hartzler (r) had walked in the University of Central Missouri parade she would have heard from constituents who weren’t happy about her vote to keep the government shut down? You betcha.

Interestingly, Representatives Denny Hoskins (r) and Representative Dean Dohrman (r), who voted to screw the University of Central Missouri, didn’t walking in today’s parade either.

Do you think if Representatives Hoskins (r) and Dohrman (r) had walked in the parade they would have heard from constituents who were unhappy about their lack of support for the welfare of the university? You betcha.

If you heckle a politician in a parade and they’re not there to hear it because they were busy making potato soup, brats and chocolate sheet cake, will they notice your displeasure?

Gary Grigsby (D), a candidate for the 51st Legislative District did walk in today’s parade. He was greeted warmly by individuals in the crowd.

Gary Grigsby, the Democratic Party candidate in the 51st Legislative District.

Enthusiastic party identification by legislative candidates is rare these days.

Consultants tell candidates to not place their party identification on their signs. It becomes a self fulfilling prophecy then, doesn’t it?

Previously:

Campaign Finance: Grigsby (D) and Dohrman (r) in the 51st Legislative District – 3rd Quarter 2013 (October 16, 2013)

Walking (and driving) in a homecoming parade… (October 13, 2012)

Nice day for a parade… (October 23, 2010)

Homecoming in Warrensburg (October 25, 2008)

After the Jefferson City GOP posse failed to override Governor Nixon’ veto of HB253, the monumentally bad GOP tax “reform,” I wrote about the fact that as long as the makeup of the legislature stays the same, there’s just too much momentum of the folding green variety behind the idea of a rich man’s tax cut to let it go gently into that good night:

Earlier, when confronted with the obvious fact that the override effort might fail, Speaker Tim Jones had been emphatic that he wasn’t going to let this failure derail his goal, declaring that in such a case “income tax cuts will be a big priority next year.” […] As for the bill’s chief sponsor, Rex Sinquefield,  the $2.4 million dollars the billionaire spent promoting HB253 can easily be written off as a down payment; a first gambit in a game in which he plans to wear down the resistance with a combination of big spending and persistence. Nor, I suspect, will the Missouri Chamber of Commerce let Speaker Jones down when he revives his signature initiative …

I have to say that it gives me no pleasure  to be proven right so soon. Today in the Kansas City Star we learn that a task force put together by State Republican Party Chair Ed Martin and former state Rep. Shane Schoeller has authored a white paper intended to act as a “starting point for further conversations” about how to get the goodies that HB253 promised the Republicans’ rich patrons. And, if you thought HB253 was a disaster in the making, the point from which Missouri Republicans intend to start their latest reform effort is bleak in the extreme:

Recommendation one was to eliminate the corporate income tax and pay for it by erasing many state tax credits.

Calling the corporate income tax “inefficient and burdensome,” the committee said wiping out the tax was “one of the most promising ways to energize Missouri’s underachieving economy.”

In suggesting that Missouri consider eliminating the income tax, the committee said the sales tax should be broadened by wiping out the more than 400 exemptions now included in the tax code.

The panel also said that while the income tax is in place, the General Assembly should reduce the number of tax brackets and include new deductions to encourage savings and simplify the law.

We’ve been here before. Several times, if memory serves me right. Didn’t a guy named Sinquefield try to get something like this – you know, no income tax and lots of sales tax – on the ballot a couple of years ago?

Missouri Republicans probably ought to think long and hard before they go galloping into this minefield. During last year’s forray into GOP-style tax reform, Kansas was held up as the model that Missouri should emulate precisely because it had jumped off the same ideological cliff tax-wise, and our intrepid Republicans were keen to follow in spite of the obvious problems afflicting that state in the wake of the decision to eliminate the income tax. There’s now new evidence that if our Republican legislators are really concerned about the plight of families that are “falling behind,” the Kansas route may not be the way to go.

In fact, it is fair to conclude that recent polling shows that similar families in Kansas aren’t too happy with what GOP Governor Sam Brownback’s tax reform has done for their state. Two polls released Thursday indicate that if the election were held today, Governor Brownback would most likely become ex-governor Brownback poste haste. SurveyUSA has his approval/disapproval numbers at 34/59, while the Fort Hays State University’s Docking Institute of Public Affairs’ 2013 Kansas Speaks survey has his approval/disapproval at 35/42. And this is in a redder than thou red state.

I suppose it’s too much to hope that the GOP geniuses in the state legislators would take to heart indications emanating from Kansas that those who promote this rich-man’s tax voodoo aren’t going to fare too well in the long run. If they aren’t convinced by the damage that Brownback and his GOP collaborators have done to Kansas’ credit rating, physical, educational and social infrastructure, perhaps self-interest might do the trick. Or not.

The money keeps pouring in for the campaign promoting the health research tax on the November ballot in Jackson County. Today, at the Missouri Ethics Commission:

C131107 10/25/2013 COMMITTEE FOR RESEARCH TREATMENTS AND CURES St Lukes Foundation 4225 Baltimore Ave Kansas City MO 64111 10/25/2013 $20,000.00

C131107 10/25/2013 COMMITTEE FOR RESEARCH TREATMENTS AND CURES The Civic Council of Greater Kansas City 1200 Main Suite 230 Kansas City MO 64105 10/25/2013 $100,000.00

C131107 10/25/2013 COMMITTEE FOR RESEARCH TREATMENTS AND CURES St Lukes Foundation 4225 Baltimore Kansas City MO 64111 10/25/2013 $20,000.00

C131107 10/25/2013 COMMITTEE FOR RESEARCH TREATMENTS AND CURES The Civic Council of Greater Kansas City 1200 Main Suite 230 Kansas City MO 64105 10/25/2013 $100,000.00

[emphasis added]

Maybe someone hit “enter” twice. That’s gotta be it.

Previously:

Campaign Finance: not quite plural (August 22, 2013)

Campaign Finance: make it an even $50,000.00 (August 28, 2013)

Campaign Finance: counter volley (August 30, 2012)

Campaign Finance: a citizen keeps contributing (September 3, 2013)

We’re big enough to take care of ourselves (September 4, 2013)

Campaign Finance: Wham! (September 4, 2013)

Campaign Finance: Wham! again (September 6, 2013)

Campaign Finance: Wham! and again (September 7, 2013)

Campaign Finance: it looks like a contribution, only smaller (September 11, 2013)

Campaign Finance: trying to do something (September 17, 2013)

Campaign Finance: and still (September 19, 2013)

Campaign Finance: now that’s what you call research money (September 27, 2013)

Campaign Finance: definitely not holding anything back (October 2, 2013)

Campaign Finance: dueling interests (October 13, 2013)

Campaign Finance: Jackson County health care tax home stretch (October 19, 2013)

Campaign Finance: Jackson County health care tax home stretch, part 2 (October 20, 2013)

Campaign Finance: Jackson County health care tax home stretch, part 3 (October 20, 2013)

Campaign Finance: Jackson County health care tax home stretch, part 4 (October 22, 2013)

Campaign Finance: a last minute, big money player (October 23, 2013)

Campaign Finance: Jackson County health care tax home stretch, part 5 (October 24, 2013)

Fall in west central Missouri.

…by a really large contribution from a single source.

Today, at the Missouri Ethics Commission:

C131023 10/25/2013 MISSOURIANS FOR EQUAL CREDIT OPPORTUNITY Missourians for Responsible Government P O Box 45571 Kansas City MO 64171 10/24/2013 $395,000.00

[emphasis added]

Imagine all the work if the had to raise that amount of money ten dollars at a time. Efficiency.

Previously:

Campaign Finance: big bucks for a payday loan PAC (August 20, 2011)

Campaign Finance: Isn’t that interest(ing)? (August 24, 2011)

Campaign Finance: Payday loans get the big bucks, again (September 27, 2011)

Campaign Finance: Payday loans get the big bucks, again – part 2 (November 10, 2011)

Campaign Finance: the payday loan campaign contribution broken record continues… (January 6, 2012)

Campaign Finance: if your name was Payday Loans you’d be in the money (March 2, 2012)

Campaign Finance: pouring even more money into defending payday loans (March 22, 2012)

Campaign Finance: Orwell would be so proud (April 12, 2012)

Campaign Finance: Orwell would be so proud – part 2 (April 23, 2012)

Campaign Finance: payday loans – all in (April 25, 2012)

Campaign Finance: another payday loan jackpot (June 11, 2012)

Campaign Finance: don’t rinse, repeat (July 27, 2012)

Really.

Previously:

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r): the black helicopters will be dropping microchip infested toasters on us (April 8, 2012)

At the Great Orange Satan:

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r): birtherism and Chinese microchips spying on us through our toasters (April 8, 2012)

And:

Meet Your Wingnut Congresscritter: Vicky Hartzler (May 29, 2013)

Today, from Charles P. Pierce at Esquire:

Mr. President? The Mail Train From Crazytown Is In

By Charles P. Pierce at 5:30PM

[….]

….Wow.

Santa Bentivolo, Jim (Dumber Than Inhofe and Coburn Combined) Bridenstine, Market Stabilizer Yoho, Freedom Fries Jones, Insane The Greater Gohmert, Pit Of Hell Broun, Amazing Grace Southerland, Chinese Microchips Hartzler, Insane The Lesser Bachmann, and on and on. How did the House clerk ever find enough crayons….

[emphasis added]

This, in reference to a letter signed by thirty-two members of the House teabagger caucus “calling on President Obama to ask for Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius’s resignation.”

Heh.

The money keeps pouring in for the campaigns working both sides of the health research tax on the November ballot in Jackson County. Today, at the Missouri Ethics Commission:

C131113 10/24/2013 CITIZENS FOR RESPONSIBLE RESEARCH Brad Bradshaw 1904 S. Shady Hill Lane Springfield MO 65809 physician and attorney 10/24/2013 $8,300.00

[emphasis added]

That was from the opponent.

And, for the folks promoting the tax:

C131107 10/24/2013 COMMITTEE FOR RESEARCH TREATMENTS AND CURES Tension Envelope Corporation 819 E 19th St Kansas City MO 64108 10/24/2013 $10,000.00

C131107 10/24/2013 COMMITTEE FOR RESEARCH TREATMENTS AND CURES The Health Alliance of Midamerica 7015 College Blvd Suite 150 Overland Park KS 66211 10/24/2013 $10,000.00

C131107 10/24/2013 COMMITTEE FOR RESEARCH TREATMENTS AND CURES Blue Cross Blue Shield Kansas City P O Box 419169 Kansas City MO 64141 10/24/2013 $7,500.00

C131107 10/24/2013 COMMITTEE FOR RESEARCH TREATMENTS AND CURES Kansas City Chiefs Football Club One Arrowhead Drive Kansas City MO 64129 10/24/2013 $10,000.00

[emphasis added]

That’s an interesting mix.

Previously:

Campaign Finance: not quite plural (August 22, 2013)

Campaign Finance: make it an even $50,000.00 (August 28, 2013)

Campaign Finance: counter volley (August 30, 2012)

Campaign Finance: a citizen keeps contributing (September 3, 2013)

We’re big enough to take care of ourselves (September 4, 2013)

Campaign Finance: Wham! (September 4, 2013)

Campaign Finance: Wham! again (September 6, 2013)

Campaign Finance: Wham! and again (September 7, 2013)

Campaign Finance: it looks like a contribution, only smaller (September 11, 2013)

Campaign Finance: trying to do something (September 17, 2013)

Campaign Finance: and still (September 19, 2013)

Campaign Finance: now that’s what you call research money (September 27, 2013)

Campaign Finance: definitely not holding anything back (October 2, 2013)

Campaign Finance: dueling interests (October 13, 2013)

Campaign Finance: Jackson County health care tax home stretch (October 19, 2013)

Campaign Finance: Jackson County health care tax home stretch, part 2 (October 20, 2013)

Campaign Finance: Jackson County health care tax home stretch, part 3 (October 20, 2013)

Campaign Finance: Jackson County health care tax home stretch, part 4 (October 22, 2013)

Campaign Finance: a last minute, big money player (October 23, 2013)

Ah, campaign finance in Missouri. No holds barred.

Today, at the Missouri Ethics Commission:

C131151 10/23/2013 CITIZENS FOR FAIRNESS Government Policies Foundation 1025 Winchester Kansas City MO 64126 10/21/2013 $196,000.00

[emphasis added]

That’s getting close to chess playing territory.

It’s a brand spanking new committee:

C131151: Citizens For Fairness

Po Box 5824 Committee Type: Campaign

Kansas City Mo 64171

[….] Established Date: 10/23/2013

[….]

Ballot Measures Election Date Subject Support/Oppose

Question 1 11/05/2013 20-Year Half-Cent Sales Tax To Recruit Top Medical Researches To Kansas City Area Hospitals/Jackson County Oppose

[emphasis added]

Ah, they’re against the health research tax on the November ballot in Jackson County.

And, there’s a newly incorporated Government Policies Foundation (9/17/2013) with the same address as the big bucks contributor. A 501(c)(4).

So, who’s funding the 501(c)(4)? Just asking.

Campaign finance transparency, thy name is mud.

Previously:

Campaign Finance: not quite plural (August 22, 2013)

Campaign Finance: make it an even $50,000.00 (August 28, 2013)

Campaign Finance: counter volley (August 30, 2012)

Campaign Finance: a citizen keeps contributing (September 3, 2013)

We’re big enough to take care of ourselves (September 4, 2013)

Campaign Finance: Wham! (September 4, 2013)

Campaign Finance: Wham! again (September 6, 2013)

Campaign Finance: Wham! and again (September 7, 2013)

Campaign Finance: it looks like a contribution, only smaller (September 11, 2013)

Campaign Finance: trying to do something (September 17, 2013)

Campaign Finance: and still (September 19, 2013)

Campaign Finance: now that’s what you call research money (September 27, 2013)

Campaign Finance: definitely not holding anything back (October 2, 2013)

Campaign Finance: dueling interests (October 13, 2013)

Campaign Finance: Jackson County health care tax home stretch (October 19, 2013)

Campaign Finance: Jackson County health care tax home stretch, part 2 (October 20, 2013)

Campaign Finance: Jackson County health care tax home stretch, part 3 (October 20, 2013)