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Monthly Archives: May 2014

Truman Days 2014 in Kansas City – Friday night

31 Saturday May 2014

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

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Bill Hedge, Kansas City, missouri, Patty Johnson, Scott Sifton, Truman Days, Winston Apple

We’re covering the Jackson County Democratic Committee’s annual Truman Days celebration at the Holiday Inn Coco Key in Kansas City this weekend. On Friday night it’s an opportunity for candidates, their supporters, and activists to meet each other and talk about their campaigns and the political landscape in Missouri.

Winston Apple, a Democratic Party candidate in the 29th Legislative District.

Patty Johnson, the Democratic Party candidate in the 56th Legislative District.

Understandably there’s a strong presence from organized labor at Truman Days.

Getting a living wage is not a zero sum game.

Bill Hedge, a Democratic Party candidate in the 6th Congressional District.

State Senator Scott Sifton (D).

Proud to be union – and a veteran.

Jackson County Executive Mike Sanders (D).

This evening speakers at the Truman Days gala will include Representative Emanuel Cleaver, State Treasurer Clint Zweifel, Secretary of State Jason Kander, Attorney General Chris Koster, Governor Jay Nixon and keynote speaker, Representative Linda Sanchez.  

“…and that idiot vetoed an income tax cut…”

30 Friday May 2014

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Jay Nixon, missouri, Rex Sinquefield, right wingnuts, SB 509

Rex Sinquefield had a thing or two to say about Governor Jay Nixon at a Heritage Foundation event (starting at around the forty-six minute mark – via @ssnich):

Rex Sinquefield: ….You know, Kansas has three great things going for it. First of all, it has a great governor. We all agree with that, right? [applause] Secondly, it’s got a great tax policy. And thirdly, and most important, Missouri has an idiot for a governor. [laughter] Am I allowed to say that in public [laughter]?

[….]

So much for respectful discourse when it comes to public policy.

Not that we’ve ever been accused of subscribing to that philosophy.

Campaign Finance: confidence in early voting

30 Friday May 2014

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

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campaign finance, Early voting, initiative, missouri, Missouri Ethics Commission

Today, at the Missouri Ethics Commission:

131163 05/29/2014 MISSOURI EARLY VOTING FUND United Food & Commercial Workers Active Ballot Club 1775 K Street, NW Washington DC 20006 5/27/2014 $15,000.00

[emphasis added]

They believe. Some other folks don’t:

Sean Nicholson ‏@ssnich

This from @AxiomStrategies/@pelopidas is odd and amusing. http://bit.ly/1mFX7iL 12:47 PM – 28 May 2014

Heh.

Previously:

Early voting initiative petitions in Missouri (November 20, 2013)

Campaign Finance: momentum (March 2, 2014)

Campaign Finance: How about, “Make it an unassailable right?” (April 6, 2014)

Campaign Finance: oh, yeah, early voting (April 17, 2014)

Campaign Finance: Food fight!

29 Thursday May 2014

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

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campaign finance, farming, initiative, missouri, PAC, Right to Farm

Today, at the Missouri Ethics Commission:

C141005 05/28/2014 MISSOURI’S FOOD FOR AMERICA Thomas Smith 3100 Old Field Rd. Columbi MO 65203 Self Owner 5/28/2014 $25,000.00

[emphasis added]

What’s that all about?:

C141005: Missouri’s Food For America

Po Box 1714 Committee Type: Political Action

Jefferson City Mo 65101

(573) 588-7895 Established Date: 01/09/2014

[….]

Treasurer

Wes Shoemyer

[….]

It’s a PAC opposed to the “Right to Farm” constitutional amendment [pdf] on the November 2014 ballot.

Wes Shoemyer:

HSUS forms new Missouri Agriculture Council

February 03, 2014 6:00 am

JEFFERSON CITY – The Humane Society of the United States has formed an agriculture council made up of farmers, ranchers and conservationists.

The HSUS Missouri Agriculture Council will work to connect livestock producers who practice humane and sustainable agriculture with consumers seeking products that meet higher animal welfare standards, and will help other farmers transition to more humane animal management, HSUS says in a news release….

….Shoemyer said, “Over the last few decades farmers have been driven off of the land by industrialized agriculture and it has drained our rural economies. We need to reinvest in these communities by promoting independent farmers and sustainable agriculture, and I’m happy to work with the HSUS to do that.”

Shoemyer is a recipient of the American Farmer degree from FFA, a member of the National Farmers Organization, the Missouri Farmers Union, NEMO Grain Processors and the Ozark Mountain Pork Processing Plant….

Ah, a farmer involved in small farms.

Someone doesn’t like Wes Shoemyer:

MISSOURI FARMERS CALL OUT WES SHOEMYER’S HSUS FRONT GROUP

Jan. 22, 2014

Source: Missouri Farmers Care news release

Missouri Farmers Care questioned the legitimacy of “Missouri Food For America,” claiming the PAC, created by former politician Wes Shoemyer, is little more than a front for the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS).

“Constitutional Amendment 1, the Missouri Farming Rights Amendment, is a common-sense way to protect Missouri family farmers from those who want to destroy our way of life,” Nikodim continued. “So, it’s no surprise that HSUS, the number one threat to Missouri farmers, would create this Trojan Horse in an attempt to deceive voters and stop this essential effort.”

[….]

[emphasis added]

A press release.

Ah, someone is afflicting the comfortable and they react.

Food fight!

Here’s the resolution from 2013:

FIRST REGULAR SESSION

[TRULY AGREED TO AND FINALLY PASSED]

CONFERENCE COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE NO. 2 FOR

SENATE SUBSTITUTE FOR

HOUSE COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR

HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NOS. 11 & 7

97TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

0132H.05T        2013

JOINT RESOLUTION

Submitting to the qualified voters of Missouri, an amendment to article I of the Constitution of Missouri, and adopting one new section relating to the right to farm.

Be it resolved by the House of Representatives, the Senate concurring therein:

           That at the next general election to be held in the state of Missouri, on Tuesday next following the first Monday in November, 2014, or at a special election to be called by the governor for that purpose, there is hereby submitted to the qualified voters of this state, for adoption or rejection, the following amendment to article I of the Constitution of the state of Missouri:

           Section A. Article I, Constitution of Missouri, is amended by adding thereto one new section, to be known as section 35, to read as follows:

           Section 35. That agriculture which provides food, energy, health benefits, and security is the foundation and stabilizing force of Missouri’s economy. To protect this vital sector of Missouri’s economy, the right of farmers and ranchers to engage in farming and ranching practices shall be forever guaranteed in this state, subject to duly authorized powers, if any, conferred by article VI of the Constitution of Missouri.

           Section B. Pursuant to Chapter 116, RSMo, and other applicable constitutional provisions and laws of this state allowing the general assembly to adopt ballot language for the submission of a joint resolution to the voters of this state, the official ballot title of the amendment proposed in Section A shall be as follows:

“Shall the Missouri Constitution be amended to ensure that the right of Missouri citizens to engage in agricultural production and ranching practices shall not be infringed?”

[emphasis in original]

Really? There’s some sort of crisis?

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

Maybe it’s constitutional protection for concentrated animal feeding operations. You think?

Previously: Campaign Finance: $110,000.00 for something they really care about (January 3, 2014)

Campaign Finance: still need a much bigger boat

28 Wednesday May 2014

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

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campaign finance, education, initiative, missouri, Missouri Ethics Commission, MSTA, NEA, PAC, teachers

Previously: Campaign Finance: schooling (May 19, 2014)

Today, at the Missouri Ethics Commission:

141258 05/28/2014 COMMITTEE IN SUPPORT OF PUBLIC EDUCATORS Northwest MSTA Region 2911 Blackwell Road St Joseph MO 64506 5/28/2014 $15,000.00

[emphasis added]

Fancy that MSTA and Missouri NEA, working together.

It’s not nearly enough yet to weather the coming astroturf storm.

Доверяй, но проверяй

28 Wednesday May 2014

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

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flower, fly, missouri, spider

Heh.

Said the spider to the fly.

#YesAllWomen — Because it Happens to Every Woman

28 Wednesday May 2014

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

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By @BGinKC

The first time I experienced sexual violence, I didn’t tell anyone. The perpetrator was the uncle of one of my classmates and I was sixteen. I lived in a windswept farm town of less than 500 people, and I would have died of shame if anyone had known about the sex…the beating he gave me was secondary, I was less concerned about the bruises that I knew would heal than I was about the sex. I couldn’t un-fuck him. I really thought I was going to die that night and I couldn’t believe he let me out of the car to go pee. I didn’t go back to the car – I ran home – through back alleys and hiding behind shrubbery…knowing that every time I saw headlights it was him and if he saw movement he would know it was me. I was sobbing as I slipped in the back door and down the hallway to my bathroom. I ran a bath and I soaked, running the water out and fresh, hot water in at least three times before I got out and I never told anyone. Ever. The bruises healed and faded, the memory did not, and I eventually confronted him and realized just how pathetic and small he was. Raping a cheerleader in 1979 was the peak of his power – and I went on to lap him so many times at life that it’s hilarious to think about from the vantage point of 35 years out. The first thing I did when I got home was load the shotgun and keep it at arms length. I do know this all those years later – if he had come into my home that night or any other, I would have shot him dead.

I knew the incubation time for STDs so I stayed abstinent for a month and got checked at the monthly Planned Parenthood clinic. I think they had an inkling what had happened based on how I was acting and what I was asking for and why; but there was no rape crisis line to refer me to back then, and no counselors who specialize in treating the victims of sexual violence, so they tested me for STDs (the tests came back negative, thank the goddess) and sent me on my merry way to cope and recover as best I could.

And I did. I had an abusive boyfriend along the way, but I didn’t have him for long, when he said “You’ll never do better than me,” I decided to take that challenge.

I went on to college. I met my husband, I got married, had kids and had a career. And all along the way, I’ve been the object of unwanted sexual attention that has ranged from the unwanted, unwelcome comment that made me feel denigrated and devalued as a human being to the groping/pawing/pressing a whole body against/blocking the hallway between the ladies room and the bar where I left my friends. I actually look forward to the day it doesn’t, but Nana says there are still letches in the nursing home, so maybe I’ll be fending the bastards off forever.

The most blatant time was around my 19th birthday. My now-husband and I were staying in that weekend, studying for finals. We were drinking rum-and-Cokes and smoking weed in my dorm room, and I ran down to the pop machine in the lobby to get more soda. I was wearing my husband’s fatigue shirt from his previous hitch in the Air Force and a skimpy pair of stretchy, crushed velvet shorts. I remember being self conscious about the attire but rationalized that the dorm was empty anyway. The only person in the hallway put my mind at ease. It was a black guy, but one of the bookworm types, not a jock. I didn’t notice that he turned around and that he was behind me in the concession area and that he grabbed me – not a cheek, but right in the center, and he moaned, a deep, satisfied, gratified moan – as I bent over to get my sodas out of the machine. I snapped upright and the seven years of self defense that I had taken that should have allowed me to lay him out flew out the window. Instead, my blood ran cold and I stiffened. He took advantage of this opening and split.

I never saw him again and I kept my eyes open. Back then, just anyone could walk into a dorm during certain hours so maybe he didn’t even live there. Who knows?

The third time I avoided being a victim of violence. It was about 8:30 on a Sunday night and I was getting ready to take a shower. I had taken a 30-plus-mile bike ride, and had peeled off my jersey and sports bra, and come down the hallway to tell my husband that our infant son was asleep but I had a hunch he wasn’t going to stay that way, so please keep his ears open. I first got interested in what he was watching then the baby cried. I was sitting in my living room with my drapes closed nursing my baby and watching a documentary, topless. I felt that creepy someone-is-watching feeling and looked up at the gap at the edge of the window that the drapes didn’t quite cover and there was a young man masturbating. All my grandmother cared about was that I was topless – not that I was in my own living room, not that he was peeking in my windows and violating my privacy but that I was “giving him courage” by being topless.

So yes. It does happen to every woman. I’m nobody’s idea of a victim, and I have been the target of gender-based violence and sexual abuse.

There is your context. If I can be targeted, anyone can.

And that is the thing that is really scary. There are men out there who don’t care how smart I am, how good I am at my job, nothing will ever matter as much as the same achievement or accomplishment would if I was a man. In fact, there is a certain segment of the male – and female – population that is openly hostile to me because I’m both smart and pretty and I don’t feel like I need to hide either one. I don’t feel like men are entitled to special consideration just because they’re men and this sets some fellas back on their heels – an advantage I don’t squander when fate sees fit to offer me such an opportunity.

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve lost the ability to see the entertainment value in movies like Taken,a prime example of the “exploited-innocent-girl-saved-by-the-alpha-male-but-the-dirty-impure-whore-is-left-to-her-life-of-degradation-addiction-and-slavery” genre. My husband doesn’t like to watch movies or even old teevee shows with me any more. I yell things like “Women Aren’t Property, you Dickhead!” at characters that we know are going to do something horrible.

I fail to see the entertainment value, of any sort, in the women-as-property meme. It’s played out. When we live in a world where 276 Nigerian schoolgirls are kidnapped because they had the audacity to get a western education and someone like Elliott Rodger can legally buy multiple assault weapons and gun down six people in cold blooded rage because he wasn’t getting any.

Pardon me, I need a moment to compose my thoughts about that…WHAT THE FUCK??? AM I MISSING SOMETHING??? Girls don’t owe him – or any other guy – pussy.

It doesn’t matter what you drive, what cologne you wear, where you work, what your major is, whether you have PC/Android or Apple products whether or not you play guitar (okay, that one matters) or what you spent for dinner. She doesn’t owe you her body.

Jesus. Who do you think you are, anyway, that you are so fucking important that mere material wealth on your part is to be reciprocated with a woman’s body?

Fuck you.

I mean that. Sincerely and with all my heart.

Campaign Finance: having a good day

27 Tuesday May 2014

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

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2014, 2016, campaign finance, Catherine Hanaway, governor, missouri, State Auditor, Tom Schweich

Okay, so maybe it’s not so much a slow news day. Today, State Auditor Tom Schweich (r) has a good day at the Missouri Ethics Commission:

C111150 05/27/2014 FRIENDS OF TOM SCHWEICH Jesse Bodine 50 Creekwood Lane Ladue MO 63124 Retired Bodine Aluminum Inc. 5/27/2014 $25,000.00

C111150 05/27/2014 FRIENDS OF TOM SCHWEICH Mary Ann Rothberg 145 Central Park West New York NY 10023 Homemaker 5/27/2014 $5,100.00

[emphasis added]

Not that he needs to spend it on his 2014 campaign.

Previously:

Campaign Finance: This probably qualifies as an oxymoron… (May 22, 2014)

Campaign Finance: steady as it goes (May 21, 2014)

Campaign Finance: the money will always be there (May 5, 2014)

Campaign Finance: the not yet official gubernatorial candidates (April 20, 2014)

Campaign Finance: Give us a break, it’s probably gonna be a slow news day.

27 Tuesday May 2014

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

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campaign finance, Jason Kander, missouri, Missouri Ethics Commission, Secretary of State

Today, at the Missouri Ethics Commission, for Secretary of State Jason Kander (D):

C071012 05/27/2014 KANDER FOR MISSOURI Ann Wyckoff 49 NW Cherry Loop Shoreline WA 98177 Self Employed Community Volunteer 5/26/2014 $10,000.00

[emphasis added]

That, and 2016 isn’t that far away.

White House Petition: all others pay cash

26 Monday May 2014

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

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Tags

Petition, religion, war on christmas, White House

In the United States Constitution:

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof….

A new petition at the White House site:

We petition the Obama Administration to:

Keep The Words, “IN GOD WE TRUST” On All American Currency

America is a God-fearing Christian nation; it is now and always has been. I encourage all true Americans to stand up and do what is right. These kind of changes must be stopped before Obama does more damage. This is a stepping stone in the wrong direction and will only lead to much worse things. We have already lost Christmas in this country, soon we could lose our churches and Bibles too. It is a slippery slope my friends. This administration must be stopped at all costs. Keep the words ‘In God We Trust’ on all American currency!

Created: May 23, 2014

Issues: Budget and Taxes, Civil Rights and Liberties, Economy

Signatures needed by June 22, 2014 to reach goal of 100,000 99,780

Total signatures on this petition 220

[emphasis added]

“…I encourage all true Americans to stand up and do what is right…”

Apparently no true Scotsman puts sugar on his porridge either.

A persecution complex with sides of paranoia and entitlement. Fancy that.

Previously:

HB 1425: Merry Chrismahanakwanzukah (January 11, 2010)

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

A skirmish in the war on the holiday season in small town Missouri (December 17, 2010)

HB 198: Merry Chrismahanakwanzukah redux (January 19, 2011)

HB 424: Merry Chrismahanakwanzukah – this time, with more feeling (February 8, 2011)

HB 1109: because the contrived right wingnut “War on [the holiday season]” supersedes any sense (December 27, 2011)

Because we can’t wait for the 4th of July and the Summer Solstice is just too icky (July 15, 2013)

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r): a triumphant victor against the War on Christmas ™ (December 11, 2013)

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