At the White House petition site:

We petition the Obama Administration to:

Issue an Emancipation Proclamation for Corporations.

Corporations are people, and can even exercise religion. The ownership of a person, whether as a wholly owned subsidiary or through shares of stock, is called slavery. Slavery violates the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution.

The President must issue an Emancipation Proclamation for corporations, freeing these people from claims of ownership and declaring that all indicia of claimed ownership are illegal, valueless, null and void.

Created: Jul 04, 2014

Issues: Civil Rights and Liberties

Signatures needed by August 03, 2014 to reach goal of 100,000 99,845

Total signatures on this petition 155

Heh. Is this a great country, or what?

Previously:

Campaign Finance: A fast food industry association for the preservation of every chicken’s rights? (May 15, 2014)

What could they ever be up to?….

Today, at the Missouri Ethics Commission:

C141313 07/10/2014 FREE AND FAIR ELECTION FUND David Humphreys P O Box 4050 Joplin MO 64803 Tamco Owner 7/10/2014 $50,000.00

[emphasis added]

Any other guesses?

“…House Committee Substitute for Senate Substitute for Senate Bill No. 694 appears to be part of a coordinated effort by the payday loan industry to avoid more meaningful reform. This I cannot support…”

Governor Jay Nixon (D) vetoed SB 694 today. His veto message [pdf]:

Governor of Missouri

[….]

July 10, 2014

TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE OF THE STATE OF MISSOURI

Herewith I return to you House Committee Substitute for Senate Substitute for Senate Bill No. 694 entitles:

AN ACT

To repeal sections 408.500, 408.505, and 408. 506, RSMo, and to enact in lieu thereof three new sections relating to unsecured loans of five hundred dollars or less, with penalty provisions.

I disapprove of House Committee Substitute for Senate Substitute for Senate Bill No. 694. My reasons for disapproval are as follows:

House Committee Substitute for Senate Substitute for Senate Bill No. 694 provides false hope of true payday lending reform while in reality falling far short of the mark. This bill cannot be called meaningful reform and does not receive my approval.

Supporters point to the lower cap on interest this bill would impose, but allowing payday lenders to charge 912.5% for a 14-day loan is not true reform. Supporters point to the requirement that payday lenders offer extended payment plans, but in states where payday lenders are required to offer such plans they are seldom used by borrowers. Supporters point to the legislation’s requirement for payday lenders to comply with “restrictions and prohibitions applicable to creditors contained in the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act,” but the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act does not apply to creditors, which renders this requirement hollow. Supporters point to the prohibition on loan rollovers, but missing from the legislation is anything to address the unfortunately all-to-common situation where someone living paycheck-to-paycheck is offered multiple loans by multiple lenders at the same time or is encouraged to take out back-to-back loans from the same lender.

Although some may contend that House Committee Substitute for Senate Substitute for Senate Bill No. 694 is an improvement over the status quo, it fails to protect consumers and fails to prevent the cycle of debt that payday lending perpetuates. Instead House Committee Substitute for Senate Substitute for Senate Bill No. 694 appears to be part of a coordinated effort by the payday loan industry to avoid more meaningful reform. This I cannot support.

In accordance with the above stated reasons for disapproval, I am returning House Committee Substitute for Senate Substitute for Senate Bill No. 694 without my approval.

Respectfully submitted,

s/

Jeremiah W. (Jay) Nixon

Governor

912.5% interest on a 14 day loan? Are there really people on this planet who think that’s reasonable? Wow.

Today, via Twitter:

Tony Messenger ‏@tonymess

Every day @EdMartin4MO and @ToddAkin are in the news is a bad day for the @missourigop. 2:35 PM – 10 Jul 2014

Previously:

Bureau of Labor Statistics – June jobs report (July 3, 2014)

[….]

Representative Vicky Hartzler (r) has yet to take to Twitter to highlight the positive news:

We’re not holding our breath.

[….]

Heh. We’ll, Representative Hartzler (r) finally did comment yesterday via Twitter:

Rep. Vicky Hartzler ‏@RepHartzler

June jobs report sadly showed 49 out of the past 50 months more people DROPPED OUT of job search than found a job. 12% unemployment really. 6:46 AM – 9 Jul 2014

That’s a reference to U-6, a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics “alternative measure of labor utilization” which includes “Total unemployed, plus all marginally attached workers plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of all civilian labor force plus all marginally attached workers”. U-3, which is the “official unemployment rate”, is currently 6.1%.

Representative Hartzler’s (r) tweet prompted a response:

hungryprof ‏@hungryprof

@RepHartzler The U-6 rate was 17% in 2009, it’s 12% now. 6:58 AM – 9 Jul 2014

Uh, we already knew that. Representative Hartzler (r) probably does, too. The spin manufactured through the republican party hierarchy probably doesn’t allow for acknowledging facts like that.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics provides easy access to historical data sets. The following graph shows the U-6 rate from January 2001 (when George W. Bush took office as President) through June of 2014. The red line indicates January 2009, when Barack Obama took office as President.

U-6 from January 2001 to present. Historical data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

One might note that the long term trend of U-6 during the Obama Administration is down. One might also note that there was an uptick during the first term of the George W. Bush administration and then a catastrophic rise at the end of the second term as the economy collapsed. The spin manufactured through the republican party hierarchy probably doesn’t allow for acknowledging facts like that.

Representative Hartzler (r) continued, via Twitter:

Rep. Vicky Hartzler ‏@RepHartzler

7 bad numbers in the June #JobsReport [….] 2:31 PM – 9 Jul 2014

This also prompted a reply (from someone else):

Cody Welton ‏@acoupstick 16h

.@RepHartzler Forbes has a bit of a different take: http://www.forbes.com/sites/sa… … 2:54 PM – 9 Jul 2014

Sigh. Regurgitating republican spin isn’t as easy as it used to be.

You’ve just got to love social media.

Yesterday, via the Missouri Ethics Commission, there’s even more money for the folks promoting a regressive tax on the ballot:

C131133 07/09/2014 MISSOURIANS FOR SAFE TRANSPORTATION & NEW JOBS INC Western MO & KS Laborers District Council 8500 Ward Parkway Suite 300 Kansas City MO 64114 7/8/2014 $100,000.00

[emphasis added]

C131133 07/09/2014 MISSOURIANS FOR SAFE TRANSPORTATION & NEW JOBS INC Missouri Automobile Dealers Association PO Box 1158 Jefferson City MO 65102 7/8/2014 $10,000.00

C131133 07/09/2014 MISSOURIANS FOR SAFE TRANSPORTATION & NEW JOBS INC Civic Progress Jefferson City Chamber of Commerce PO Box 776 Jefferson City MO 65102 7/8/2014 $10,000.00

C131133 07/09/2014 MISSOURIANS FOR SAFE TRANSPORTATION & NEW JOBS INC Opies Transport Inc. PO Box 89 Eldon MO 65026 7/9/2014 $8,000.00

C131133 07/09/2014 MISSOURIANS FOR SAFE TRANSPORTATION & NEW JOBS INC MO Truck PAC PO Box 89 Eldon MO 65026 7/9/2014 $27,500.00

C131133 07/09/2014 MISSOURIANS FOR SAFE TRANSPORTATION & NEW JOBS INC Fred Weber Inc. 2320 Creve Coeur Mill Road Maryland Heights MO 63043 7/9/2014 $25,000.00

C131133 07/09/2014 MISSOURIANS FOR SAFE TRANSPORTATION & NEW JOBS INC Trailiner Corp PO Box 5270 Springfield MO 65801 7/9/2014 $25,000.00

C131133 07/09/2014 MISSOURIANS FOR SAFE TRANSPORTATION & NEW JOBS INC Rudolph Farber 100 North Wood St Neosho MO 64850 Community Bank & Trust Chairman 7/9/2014 $10,000.00

[emphasis added]

The political consultant industrial complex and advertising sales people must be ecstatic…

Previously:

Campaign Finance: there is no end (July 7, 2014)

Campaign Finance: bedfellows – part 3 (July 4, 2014)

Campaign Finance: bedfellows – part 2 (July 2, 2014)

Campaign Finance: bedfellows (June 27, 2014)

Campaign Finance: “Your majesty, the special interests are regressive…” (June 27, 2014)

Campaign Finance: Prepare yourself for the ads… (June 24, 2014)

Campaign Finance: the dough keeps rolling in (June 22, 2014)

Campaign Finance: escalation (June 17, 2014)

Campaign Finance: What’s an increase in regressive taxes among friends anyway? (June 10, 2014)

Nix the sales tax: A question of fairness – and progessive identity (June 9, 2014)

Gov. Jay Nixon: “…This tax hike is neither a fair nor fiscally responsible solution…” (June 2, 2014)

Captain Jean-Luc Picard:…We’ve made too many compromises already, too many retreats. They invade our space and we fall back. They assimilate entire worlds and we fall back. Not again. The line must be drawn here. This far, no further. And I will make them pay for what they’ve done…

Today, at the Missouri Ethics Commission:

C141258 07/09/2014 COMMITTEE IN SUPPORT OF PUBLIC EDUCATION MO Legislative Impact Committee PO Box 458 Columbia MO 65205 7/9/2014 $60,100.00

C141258 07/09/2014 COMMITTEE IN SUPPORT OF PUBLIC EDUCATION MO National Education Association 1810 E Elm Street Jefferson City MO 65107 7/9/2014 $500,000.00

[emphasis added]

And pay they will.

C141258: Committee In Support Of Public Education

Po Box 458 Committee Type: Campaign

Columbia Mo 65205

[….] Established Date: 04/17/2014

[….]

Ballot Measures Election Date Subject Support/Oppose

2014-024 Relating To Teacher Performance Evaluation Systems 11/04/2014 Shall The Missouri Constitution Be Amended To Require Teachers To Be Evaluated By A Standards Based Performance Evaluation System Oppose

[emphasis added]

The right wingnut assault on public education will never end.

Ed Martin (r) is upset about ads and other media used in the Mississippi republican senate primary runoff election:

Missouri GOP head seeks party probe of Mississippi ads alleging racism

By Sean Sullivan and Karen Tumulty July 8 at 7:30 PM

The head of the Missouri Republican Party on Tuesday asked Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus to appoint a task force to investigate what he called “racially divisive ads and robocalls” critical of state Sen. Chris McDaniel in the Republican runoff for U.S. Senate in Mississippi, marking the latest instance of lingering intra-party discord following Sen. Thad Cochran’s narrow victory over McDaniel last month.

Missouri GOP Chairman Ed Martin e-mailed letters to Priebus and RNC members Tuesday afternoon expressing concerns….

Ads and robocalls. Interesting.

“…Today in Missouri, as wll as Oklahoma, Indiana, and two other states, corporate agriculture is trying to put their guarantee to farm in state constitutions…” – former Missouri Lieutenant Governor Joe Maxwell.

Yesterday, at the Missouri Ethics Commission:

C101457 07/08/2014 MISSOURI FARMERS CARE Missouri Egg Council, Inc. 1000 W. Nifong Blvd Bldg 5 Columbia MO 65203 7/7/2014 $10,000.00

C101457 07/08/2014 MISSOURI FARMERS CARE FCS Financial 1934 E. Miller Jefferson City MO 65101 7/8/2014 $30,000.00

[emphasis added]

It must be nice that someone cares, in $10,000.00 increments.

Previously:

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

Campaign Finance: Food fight! (May 28, 2014)

Campaign Finance: Because, across Missouri, family farms are being supplanted by… (June 24, 2014)

Campaign Finance: as if yard signs were actually a cash crop for actual farmers… (June 28, 2014)

Utilizing the First Amendment to challenge our oppressive corporate overlords… (July 2, 2014)

Joe Maxwell – “No” on Amendment No. 1 (July 8, 2014)

The past two days, at the Missouri Ethics Commission, for the republican candidate for State Treasurer with the instant campaign:

C071320 07/07/2014 SCHMITT FOR MISSOURI Lodging Hospitality Management 111 Westport Plaza, Ste 500 St Louis MO 63146 7/7/2014 $10,000.00

C071320 07/07/2014 SCHMITT FOR MISSOURI Doug Albrecht 16 Upper Ladue Rd St Louis MO 63124 Bodley Group Executive 7/7/2014 $25,000.00

C071320 07/08/2014 SCHMITT FOR MISSOURI Hollingsworth Interiors 230 McDonald Pl Webster Groves MO 63119 7/8/2014 $5,001.00

C071320 07/08/2014 SCHMITT FOR MISSOURI Friends of Tilley P.O. Box 555 Perryville MO 63775 7/8/2014 $25,000.00

[emphasis added]

Gee, what’s a small dollar donor to do? Or are there any? Just asking.

Previously:

Campaign Finance: there are friends, and then there are “friends” (July 4, 2014)