…everything!

Representative Vicky Hartzler (r), via Twitter:

Rep. Vicky Hartzler ‏@RepHartzler

I support a visa suspension for citizens of Ebola-affected countries to protect Americans from further spread. [….] 2:27 PM – 17 Oct 2014

Some of the Twitter responses:

Cody Welton ‏@acoupstick

@RepHartzler based upon what? 2:54 PM – 17 Oct 2014

Dan Cowell ‏@dancowell

@acoupstick @RepHartzler Like most of her colleagues in the GOP she is fueled by fear, not science. Surely they can pray it away? 5:28 PM – 17 Oct 2014

And Representative Hartzler’s (r) press release:

Hartzler calls for visa restrictions in response to increasing Ebola risk in U.S.

Oct 17, 2014

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler (R-MO), today made the following statement in support of restricting international travel to citizens from affected countries into the United States due to the increasing risk of Ebola in the United States.

“Given the increasing nature of the Ebola threat to Americans, I believe suspending the issuance of visas to citizens from affected countries is necessary to contain the spread of the virus.  The current procedures are proving not to be sufficient to protect Americans from this deadly disease. Suspending the issuance of visas will help fight the threat of Ebola where it starts and ultimately protect American lives.”

Congresswoman Hartzler serves on the House Armed Services, Agriculture, and Budget Committees.

“…I believe suspending the issuance of visas to citizens from affected countries is necessary to contain the spread of the virus….”

Battle Over Ebola Travel Ban: Health Officials Call It a Big Mistake

By Amy Langfield and Ben Popken

There are reasons the U.S. hasn’t enacted a travel ban on countries where Ebola has broken out: It wouldn’t work and could actually make things worse, health officials say….

“….Now, if we were to put in place a travel ban or a visa ban, it would provide a direct incentive for individuals seeking to travel to the United States to go underground and to seek to evade this screening and to not be candid about their travel history in order to enter the country,” he said. “And that means it would be much harder for us to keep tabs on these individuals and make sure that they get the screening that’s needed to protect them and to protect, more importantly, the American public.”

Many health experts agree that a ban isn’t necessary.

“You’re not preventing the movement of the population anyway,” said Harvard epidemologist John Brownstein. “Many of these countries have very porous borders….”

Sure, but fear and ignorance trump science and facts in all days of the week ending in the letter “y”.

Previously:

GOP goes Ebola crazy (October 18, 2014)

Have some knowledge for (a late) lunch (October 18, 2014)

Sen. Roy Blunt (r): Why have a Surgeon General when you can perpetuate gridlock instead? (October 19, 2014)

And that would be a generous interpretation.

Previously:

Campaign Finance: Who is getting propped up this time? (October 3, 2014)

Campaign Finance: Now we know… (October 6, 2014)

Campaign Finance: But wait, there’s more… (October 12, 2014)

Others are noticing (October 17, 2014)

Campaign Finance: topping off the tank (October 17, 2014)

Hoover: Kent is a legacy, Otter. His brother was a ’59, Fred Dorfman.

Flounder: He said legacies usually get asked to pledge automatically.

Otter: Oh, well, usually. Unless the pledge in question turns out to be a real closet-case.

Otter, Boon: Like Fred.

Today, at the Missouri Ethics Commission, for the republican candidate in the 24th Senate District race:

C141179 10/19/2014 ASHCROFT FOR MISSOURI Missouri Senate Campaign Committee PO Box 754 Jefferson City MO 65102 10/17/2014 $250,000.00

[emphasis added]

The October quarterly campaign finance reports could explain the rather large amount:

C131081: Schupp For Senate

418 North Mosley Road Committee Type: Candidate

Creve Coeur Mo 63141 Party Affiliation: Democrat

[….] Established Date: 06/03/2013

  Termination Date:

Information Reported On: 2014 – October Quarterly Report

Beginning Money on Hand $502,951.07

Monetary Receipts + $243,202.50

Monetary Expenditures – $93,025.41

Contributions Made – $50,000.00

Other Disbursements – $0.00

Subtotal     $100,177.09

Ending Money On Hand   $603,128.16

[emphasis added]

C141179: Ashcroft For Missouri

12138 Mirror Lake Drive Committee Type: Candidate

St Louis Mo 63146 Party Affiliation: Republican

[….] Established Date: 04/04/2014

  Termination Date:

Information Reported On: 2014 – October Quarterly Report

Beginning Money on Hand $270,683.52

Monetary Receipts + $208,533.16

Monetary Expenditures – $12,764.40

Contributions Made – $0.00

Other Disbursements – $142.44

Subtotal     $195,626.32

Ending Money On Hand   $466,309.84

Nothings says “grassroots” like a single contribution check for $250,000.00.

Previously:

Campaign Finance: polling, polling, polling… (September 24, 2014)

Campaign Finance: all in on the legacy (September 23, 2014)

Campaign Finance: supporting the legacy in $10,000.00 increments (September 5, 2014)

Campaign Finance: legacies (August 27, 2014)

“He said legacies usually get asked to pledge automatically.” (August 7, 2014)

Campaign Finance: all that money in the 24th Senate District republican primary (August 3, 2014)

Campaign Finance: 24th Senate District – July quarterly campaign finance reports (July 18, 2014)

Campaign Finance: end of quarter confidence in the 24th Senate District (July 3, 2014)

Campaign Finance: 24th Senate District – April quarterly campaign finance reports (April 19, 2014)

Campaign Finance: Friends of the family?  (April 11, 2014)

Campaign Finance: Make room for daddy? (April 7, 2014)

Campaign Finance: trying to catch up in the 24th Senate District (March 31, 2014)

Campaign Finance: Schupp (D) and Lamping (r) in the 24th Senate District – 4th quarter 2013 (January 15, 2014)

Campaign Finance: Schupp (D) and Lamping (r) in the 24th Senate District – 3rd quarter 2013 (October 21, 2013)

Senator Roy Blunt (r) [file photo].

After Blocking Surgeon General Nominee, Republican Blames Obama For Surgeon General Vacancy

by Adam Peck Posted on October 19, 2014 at 12:55 pm

It has been nearly a year since Vivek Murthy was nominated by President Obama to serve as the next Surgeon General, but thanks in large part to the gun lobby and their Republican allies in the Senate, there has yet to be any movement on his confirmation.

That vacancy has become a central focus in the last week as government officials and medical professionals try to calm the public about the spread of Ebola.

On Sunday, Meet the Press host Chuck Todd asked Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO) about the NRA’s role in blocking Murthy’s confirmation, but the Republican senator dismissed the question outright…

[….]

Shameless chutzpah.

Previously:

GOP goes Ebola crazy (October 18, 2014)

Have some knowledge for (a late) lunch (October 18, 2014)

If you think that the Ebola is coming to get you, read Blue Girl’s commonsensical response about how diseases are spread. Or take a look at this CNN debunking of the media and political hysteria-mongers. Or you can read Ezra Klein’s effort to quell the crazy in Vox. There’s lots of information out there if you want to avoid getting caught up in the Foxification of Ebola.

There are now three individuals who have contracted Ebola in the U.S. To give you a little perspective on the situation, Influenza kills about 36,000 people a year in the U.S. There’s no influenza travel ban, no quarantines, just the same old routine response every year. There are on average about 32,000 deaths in the U.S. from gun violence each year – yet the same politicians who want to close the borders or whatever because they think you’re dumb enough to think that will stop the spread of Ebola are often the very loudmouths opposing any common sense regulation of gun ownership. Go figure.

It’s not the absurdity of the media-promulgated Ebola panic, though, that concerns me the most, but the willingness of politicians to try to ride the panic into the midterm elections. On the PBS News Hour Michael Gerson, a conservative Republican, recently stated “that people who directly politicize this issue may well, in my view, be demonstrating their unfitness for office.” My hat’s off to this conservative who, without flinching, told us what we already mostly, sort of knew about almost the entirety of the Grand Old Party, the excesses of which he has often supported in the past. The political response to Ebola provides a convenient litmus test that tells us just who cares about Americans and who cares about wining no matter the cost.

And folks, most of the Missouri GOP delegation have failed the Gerson litmus test. Consider:

— Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, joining Senator Roy Blunt, Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-4) and Rep. Billy Long (R-7) in demanding travel restrictions, declared that, “Our nation’s leader and his administration cannot continue to sit back and hope the Ebola epidemic will simply go away.”

–Rep. Long notes that ” my constituents want to know why a travel ban has not been instituted and our borders have not been secured.” Couldn’t he study up a little and tell them why it’s a bad idea, act like a leader and help calm the growing panic rather than fan the flames while pointing his finger Obamaward?

— Rep. Hartzler claims that “the current procedures are proving not to be sufficient to protect Americans from this deadly disease.” Didn’t anyone tell her that only three people in the U.S. have the disease and, after some initial misfires, the situation is pretty much under control? If you didn’t know better, you might think she wanted us afraid.

If you want to know why a travel ban is a bad idea, read this article; the author notes that George Bush decided against a travel ban during the avian flue outbreak for the same reasons he cites. Ebola is not a serious problem in the U.S – it is a serious problem in Africa and if we want to keep it out of the U.S., that’s what we’ve got to tackle. Instead, those folks who’ve been most riled up about our first black president, are now riled up about how that president isn’t doing enough to keep those nasty black African diseases out of the U.S. You think there’s no racist angle? Consider Phyllis Schlafly comments which are straight from the Republican id:

Obama doesn’t want America to believe that we’re exceptional, […]. He wants us to be just like everybody else, and if Africa is suffering from Ebola, we ought to join the group and be suffering from it, too. That’s his attitude . […] Out of all the things he’s done, I think this thing of letting these diseased people into this country to infect our own people is just the most outrageous of all.

Letting “these diseased people” in? Once again. Three people have contracted Ebola in the U.S. The lines of transmission are clear and the situation is under control. And even if more cases occur, we have the wherewithal to deal with them. Nevertheless, no matter how foolish, the media hounds will bay, Republicans will follow the scent of blood, and chances are, just enough Democrats, fearful of being left out when the spoils are divvied up come November, will join the chase and we’ll end up with a travel ban as ill-considered as the Aids/HIV travel ban we recently rescinded.

Still another disingenuous piece of campaign mail on behalf of Dean Dohrman (r), the incumbent republican in the 51st Legislative District –  received today and paid for by the Missouri republican party:

Uh, the only groups which can raise our taxes are elected bodies. You know, like the Missouri General Assembly.

Uh, job growth is up in Missouri. It’s not so good in Kansas. You know, the state with the radical right wingnuts in control. Projection, it’s not just for movie theaters.

Who really is fighting to take away our constitutional rights? You know, like maybe equal protection under the law? Just asking.

Gary Grigsby (D) runs a small business, he raised a family, he has worked as a teacher, he served his country as a Marine, he volunteers for Missouri Boys State, he announces for the band at the University of Central Missouri. That’s radical values?

The Missouri republican party is nuts or full of crazy people or run by twenty something morons or all of the above.

Gary Grigsby (D), the Democratic Party candidate in the 51st Legislative District, in rehearsal

this morning as the band announcer for homecoming at the University of Central Missouri.

Meanwhile, Dean Dohrman (r) spent his time in the General Assembly in Jefferson City voting to prevent an imaginary implementation of Sharia Law, voting to stop a right wingnut paranoid fantasy concocted out of the ether in the form of Agenda 21, and voting for nullification (which was settled 150 years ago). Nope, nothing on jobs.

Dean Dohrman (r) did vote to screw education (and the University of Central Missouri) in his district. School Boards across the state opposed that ill conceived cut to public education for the benefit of the wealthiest few.

Dean Dohrman (r) did vote to allow the state to intrude on an individual’s medical decisions.

With no record of legitimate legislative achievement to speak of Dean Dohrman’s (r) benefactors in the Missouri republican party have to resort to mailers like these.

Previously:

Dean Dohrman (r) thinks your stoopit (October 10, 2014)

Dean Dohrman (r) thinks your stoopit – part 2 (October 16, 2014)

The annual University of Central Missouri homecoming parade took place in Warrensburg today. In election years local (and sometimes statewide) politicians walk the parade and greet people along the route. The lineup for the parade starts at around 7:30 a.m. Almost everyone is waiting in place by the time the parade starts at 9:00 a.m., though the politicians usually don’t step off into the parade route until around 10:00 a.m. The wait gives those in the parade an opportunity to converse, talk, visit, schmooze, or whatever you want to call it.

This morning before the parade started Representative Vicky Hartzler (r) met Randy Huggins’ grandson for the first time.

Representative Vicky Hartzler (r) in the University of Central Missouri homecoming parade in Warrensburg this morning.

Over five years ago then candidate Vicky Hartzler (r) held a health care town hall in Warrensburg:

A health care story (September 3, 2009)

[….]

SMP: And, and you’ve told your story in a variety of, of places. Last week you attended a, another forum for, in this area. Could you tell me about that?

Randy Huggins:…Last Thursday I went to a health care information forum, I guess you could call it, Vicki Hartzler [a declared Republican candidate for the 4th Congressional District seat] held here. And she had concerns about the legislation and she had things that she liked about the legislation. Then she said she had solutions. The solution that she offered for the pre-existing condition my grandson had was, she offered to bring the family a, a hot meal. [pause] We’re hungry, but that’s not gonna help his heart, so.

SMP: And so, do you, do you feel some frustration when, when dealing with this, you know, the subject of health care reform and when you feel like people give you solutions that really aren’t solutions?

Randy Huggins: Absolutely it’s frustrating. [pause] I, I just, I don’t understand where they’re coming from. Why they can’t see the need to fix, the system’s broken. And they don’t see any need to fix it or to change it in any way. Just….

[….]

Randy Huggins and his grandson after the homecoming parade in Warrensburg – October 18, 2014.

Randy Huggins informed us that he approached Representative Hartzler (r) this morning and introduced his grandson to her. She was pleasant in her response and probably wasn’t yet making the connection.

He then told her this was the grandson who had the congenital heart defect for which his daughter’s health insurance denied coverage because they considered it a preexisting condition. He added that this was the grandson for which she had suggested people could bring a hot meal to the family to help out. He told us that she was somewhat rattled and responded about the propriety of making it political.

Representative Vicky Hartzler (r) and the republican party made it political in 2009. She continues to make it political and makes the consequences of losing health care very real for millions of Americans ever time she votes to dismantle the Affordable Care Act. This morning Representative Vicky Hartzler (r) had to face just one story in that reality.

Previously:

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (r): the Affordable Care Act and what repeal really means to one family (July 13, 2012)

What is it about Republicans. Seems like I’ve been reading accounts of numerous GOP incumbents who are unwilling to debate their opponents in the upcoming midterms. Here in Missouri neither Rep. Billy Long (R-7) or Rep. Ann Wagner (R-2) will agree to meet their challengers in front of an audience that would, presumably, include media reporting on how well they managed to defend their performance in Congress as well as their lock-step support of GOP policies. Both seem to be conveniently unavailable to attend any of the traditional debates sponsored by the League of Women Voters (in Long’s case, co-sponsored with the Missouri State University’s Center for Community Engagement).

Wagner’s more pressing commitment, which conflicts with the debate scheduled on October 22, consists of campaigning for the Republican candidate in Northern Virginia. Evidently, Wagner’s status as an up-and-coming member of the GOP House leadership doesn’t leave her enough time to stand up before her constituents and deal with their bread-and-butter issues in a forum where there might be some push-back. One is hard put to view her potential absence at the candidates’ debate as anything more than strategic, however, since, according to a spokesperson for the League, Wagner can’t seem to find any other time on her calendar to meet with her challengers, Democrat Arthur Lieber and Libertarian Bill Slantz. She wants us to believe that she’s just too busy being important elsehwere to stand up and take responsibility for her part in the past two years.

Billy Long, though, has gone Wagner one better. He’s not only refused to debate his Democratic challenger, Jim Evans, and the Libertarian Kevin Craig, but, as of last Wednesday at least, his campaign staff were unwilling or unable to let anyone in on Long’s whereabouts or the timing and locations of any potential campaign events. But not to worry. According to a Long staffer, he will be “out and about meeting with people in the district.”

Wagner seems to be offering a similar “walking” defense (like walking pneumonia perhaps, manifesting silently?). Her staff person noted that “Ann has been walking neighborhoods and meeting with voters across the district, […] the people of the Second District know they can talk to Ann when she is out in [sic] about in their neighborhoods, visiting local businesses, at church or other community events.” I’m Wagner’s constituent, and she has yet to appear at my door, or in my supermarket, or at any community events I’ve attended. And I wouldn’t want to make book on such encounters, were they to take place, resulting in a substantial exchange. In my experience, candidate walkabouts rarely waste much time on anyone who doesn’t seem to be a sure thing.

Which is why I would love to hear from any undecided voters or Democrats out there. How many have managed to meet and greet either of these perambulating candidates? Did they entertain your questions seriously? Or did you get the glad-hand along with a vague and dismissive response to anything even slightly confrontational? Wouldn’t it be good for folks who think they know what these individuals stand for to hear them defend their positions in a real give-and-take with the other side? What are Wagner and Long really afraid of?

The answer is, of course, that there are many reasons for these candidates to skip the debates. Would you want to justify your support for last fall’s government shutdown which cost the taxpayers billions for no reason except to indulge a fit of Tea Party pique – an event for which Wagner served as one of the chief GOP cheerleaders. Both she and Long might have to explain why they went along with the endless votes to repeal Obamacare while 7.3 million individuals now have insurance thanks to its provisions. Or they could try to explain why they were so willing to support the Ryan budget and its efforts to privatize Medicare and cut Social Security benefits. Questions about all those “achievements” and many, many more might be raised in a debate with informed and articulate challengers.

And then there are those issues specific to each candidate. Billy Long, for instance might be asked about how he managed to spend about $100,000 from his campaign kitty over the last year mostly to finance meals in pricey restaurants. Or he might perhaps be called to task for trying to demagogue the topic of Ebola while doing nothing to take responsibility for voting for Republican cuts to the U.S. public health health and health research agencies that bear the brunt of protecting us from epidemics like ebola.

As for Wagner, she might not want to have to deal with questions about how she justifies pushing long discredited information about how abortion can cause breast cancer. This is especially relevant, since it seems likely that Wagner’s rising star in the GOP hinges on wishful thinking about her ability to make the mostly older, white, male party more palatable to women.

So, all in all, there’s probably no mystery about why Republicans don’t want to face the music in an open venue. Many commentators have noted the GOP tendency to lie outright when confronted with past positions they now wish to disavow (see Colorado’s Cory Gardner and his “personhood” disavowals), or the consequences of past positions that it isn’t politic to disavow (see Bownback’s defense of his Kansas tax cuts). But damm! It’s  hard to lie in a situation where your opponent, God forbid, might lay the facts out right in front of you.

Edited slightly for clarity.