What a difference two years can make. A lot of people are weighing in on the 51st Legislative District rematch between Dean Dohrman (r) and Gary Grigsby (D). We received this mail yesterday:
Paid for by The Committee to Protect Missouri Families.
[….]
The Warrensburg School Superintendent said the plan Dohrman voted for, “is something we don’t think is good for education.”
The UCM President said the plan Dohrman supported, “could disrupt funding for the University of central Missouri.” [….]
BUT DOHRMAN VOTED FOR IT ANYWAY.
Somehow republicans thought messing with the future of educational institutions in their districts wouldn’t be noticed around election time.
C141549: The Committee To Protect Mo Families Pac Fund
Po Box 39368 Committee Type: Political Action
St Louis Mo 63139
[….] Established Date: 10/06/2014
[….]
[emphasis added]
And they’re associated with the Carpenters’ District Council of Greater St. Louis and Vicinity. Working people. And they remember those votes on SB 509 which screwed working people, public education, public services, and public infrastructure. They’re using the mail to remind voters in the 51st Legislative District of those inconvenient facts. What a difference two years can make.
Is there anyone left on the planet who seriously believes that right wingnut republicans want people to have greater access to healthcare? Any twenty-something campaign consultant who shovels this mail is either delusional or a sociopath.
Yes, it’s the PAC with the blimp that confuses supporters of legalization:
The Rex Sinquefield funded PAC Grow Missouri’s moving billboard at
the University of Central Missouri’s Skyhaven Airport near Warrensburg [file photo].
Mailboxes in the 51st Legislative District are getting inundated with Dean Dohrman (r) campaign mail paid for by everybody but Dean Dohrman.
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 have to resort to mailers like these to prop him up.
This one is paid for by the Missouri republican party.
Uh, Dean Dohrman (r) ain’t no friend of educators or public education. Think for a moment about the delicious irony of the incumbent posing in front of the University of Central Missouri football stadium with young people wearing university gear after voting to screw the institution and its students in 2013, and again in the last session in 2014.
And for more delicious irony (or cluelessness, your choice) a mail piece paid for by a PAC largely funded by a right wingnut billionaire:
….Dean Dohrman listens to his constituents, not special interests!….
Rex Sinquefield 244 Bent Walnut Westphalia MO 65085 Retired 3/27/2014 $973,000.00
12. TOTAL ANONYMOUS CONTRIBUTIONS RECEIVED FROM PERSON GIVING $25 OR LESS $0.00
13. TOTAL MONETARY CONTRIBUTIONS RECEIVED FROM PERSONS GIVING $100 OR LESS $0.00
[emphasis added]
[….]
Rex Sinquefield’s campaign contribution to the Missouri Club for Growth as reported to the Missouri Ethics Commission in 2014
– compared to those of seventeen other individuals and one business entity. That tiny slice is everyone else.
[….]
Uh, one person with a lot of money spending that money for a specific political agenda is a special interest.
Wait a minute. The second piece was paid for by an “independent” entity as an “independent” expenditure. Why is the candidate’s clothing in the respective glamor shots in different mailings by different entities identical?:
Paid for by the Missouri republican party (left) and Missouri Club for Growth PAC (right).
The tie, the shirt, and the jacket are identical. The haircut is exactly the same, too. What are the odds?
Just asking. Maybe there are paparazzi prowling the 51st Legislative District capturing images of candidates while they stand around outside smiling in their suits. Nah.
And the next mailing, an attack piece paid for by the Missouri republican party, extolls the virtues of SB 509:
Here’s the thing for candidate Dean Dohrman (r), he can’t cheerily benefit from insipid mailings (with no substance) like the first piece paid for by the Missouri republican party and at the same time escape accepting responsibility for the nasty attack pieces on his behalf paid for by that same Missouri republican party – all mailed to the same households in the district.
Our household received this campaign piece in today’s mail:
Because Kansas is doing so well? Right.
Conservative candidates need your help to make Missouri’s Economy strong again. Liberals and special interests are relentlessly trying to make it harder to run a business; they want to raise taxes to fund government, create unnecessary red tape and drive up costs that slow success.* They are counting on low voter turnout to make it happen. It’s your civic duty to vote on November 4th.
Go tell it to Kansas.
Yeah, irony of ironies, they refer to the travesty that is SB 509.
And this is particularly rich (pun intended):
….WHAT ARE WE VOTING FOR?: [….] Greater Access to Healthcare….
Is there anyone left on the planet who seriously believes that right wingnut republicans want people to have greater access to healthcare? Any twenty-something campaign consultant who shovels this mail is either delusional or a sociopath.
Yes, it’s the PAC with the blimp that confuses supporters of legalization:
The Rex Sinquefield funded PAC Grow Missouri’s moving billboard at
the University of Central Missouri’s Skyhaven Airport near Warrensburg [file photo].
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.
Here’s 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:
Somebody has it backwards, but it’s Dean Dohrman (r).
Think about that for a moment.
Gary Grigsby, the Democratic Party candidate in the 51st Legislative District doesn’t presently serve in the Missouri General Assembly. Gary Grigsby has never served in the Missouri General Assembly. He does not nor has he ever had the ability to vote for or against a bill on the floor of the House.
Meanwhile, Dean Dohrman (r) spent his time in the General Assembly in Jefferson City voting against Sharia Law, voting against 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 this.
And look who else has been propping up Dean Dohrman’s (r) campaign recently (via the Missouri Ethics Commission):
C111221 10/13/2014 COMMITTEE TO ELECT DEAN DOHRMAN STATE REPRESENTATIVE House Republican Campaign Committee PO Box 1313 Jefferson City MO 65102 10/13/2014 $26,804.66
C111221 10/16/2014 COMMITTEE TO ELECT DEAN DOHRMAN STATE REPRESENTATIVE Realtors Political Action Committee-Missouri PO Box 30635 Columbia MO 65205 10/15/2014 $14,797.30
The only Christmas cheer in my office comes from @AxiomStrategies Christmas card, which was addressed to @tonymess but I opened anyway. 11:38 AM – 19 Dec 13
“…And keep in mind that when I left Washington, uh, almost two weeks ago Congress had sent thirteen bills to the President’s desk. The smallest number in the history of the republic. And most of those were naming post offices. [laughter, applause] That’s hardly postal reform. [laughter]…”
Representative Emanuel Cleaver (D) addressing the National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association
convention in St. Louis, Missouri on August 13, 2013.
Yesterday we attended the National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association (NRLCA) 109th Annual Convention in St. Louis. Speakers for the general session included Jacqueline Krage Strako, Vice President, Area Operations, Great Lakes Area for the United States Postal Service (USPS) and Representative Emanuel Cleaver (D). Ms. Krage Strako gave an enlightening presentation on the present and future of the USPS.
The NRLCA is understandably interested in the future of the USPS. They are understandably concerned with the future of six day delivery [pdf]:
….Saturday mail delivery is an important communication and marketing tool used by millions of citizens and mailers across the country, especially in rural areas. The NRLCA believes the USPS did not adequately consider the effect of eliminating Saturday mail delivery in rural and remote areas. The elimination of Saturday mail delivery would place financial hardships on the tens of millions of rural Americans who own small businesses. In addition, a large number of elderly and disadvantaged constituents live in rural America. Their livelihoods and quality of life depend on receiving mail six days a week.
….The PAEA forces the USPS to pre-fund their future retiree health benefits, a 75 year obligation, in only ten years. This unique requirement has resulted in roughly 80 percent of the USPS financial losses over the last six years. Currently, the USPS is the only government agency or private company mandated by law to pre-fund their future retirees’ health benefits….
Representative Emanuel Cleaver’s (D) address, Part 1:
Part 2:
“…Why should we weaken the best system in the world? [applause, cheers] And so, in addition to the glaring sun of Summer, the wicked winds of winter, and the constant threat from Fido’s fangs [laughter] postal workers must now contend with a confused and combative Congress….”
“…We can change things. And what, one of the things we need to do is make sure that the public understands what’s going on. We need to talk to people. Convince people. What people do is they get up in the morning, they turn on the radio or the television and listen to, uh, whatever ideology they already believe in. And then this, when you hear people saying these Federal workers, uh, their, their insurance is putting you in trouble, their pensions are driving the country, uh, uh, into a hole. And there are a lot of people who get up, uh, every morning and they believe that stuff.
I sat in a room with a member of Congress who stood up in front of a, a group of rural, uh, of residents from Missouri and said, you know, uh, I’m against, uh, the food stamp program because they’re giving food stamps to, uh, prisoners, people who are in prison. Look, I’m a dumb Methodist preacher [laughter] and even I [laughter] can come to conclude that if you give food stamps to somebody in prison do you, do you then drive them to Safeway? [laughter, applause] Hmmm. [laughter] Uh, and yet, and when you go home, just talk to somebody, some of the people. They’ll, yeah, their, their giving them to prisoners. I mean, it makes no sense, but they spread that kind of thing. I mean, it, it makes no sense. And the same thing holds true with, with what’s going on with rural, uh, letter carriers. Most of the things that people believe they, they don’t even add up. And the only way we’re going to get the message out is, is, the corrective message out, is us…”
It would be an understatement to say that representative Cleaver’s address was a hit with the membership of the NRLCA.
After Representative Cleaver spoke and as he stepped off the platform he was greeted and thanked by NRLCA members at every step as he made his way out of the hall.
Given the traffic spike over the Missouri State Fair rodeo story we’re experiencing a relative deluge of mail. As of this morning, by rough count, it’s somewhere around four messages, not counting media requests. Heh.
These messages get sent to us in aggregate when a certain number have piled up or when a long period of time has passed, whichever comes first.
Our most erudite critic, so far:
At some point, you liberals have to realize that conservatives in America really don’t like Obama, and we don’t have to like Obama. It’s a rodeo clown. Get over it.
“At some point, you liberals have to realize that conservatives in America really don’t like Obama…”
We knew that already. Uh, do you speak for all conservatives? Just asking.
“…we don’t have to like Obama…”
We knew that. We’ve mentioned this a lot. You can check our archives.
“…It’s a rodeo clown…”
We knew that. We even ran a photo.
“…Get over it…”
President Obama won reelection in 2012 without ACORN. Get over it.
By Annie-Rose Strasser on Mar 22, 2013 at 10:45 am
….In 2006, Congress passed the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, mandating that the USPS front the money for 75 years of employee pensions – a requirement no other public or private institution faces.
In trying to scrape up money for the pensions of kids who haven’t even graduated high school yet, the USPS has spiraled into near-bankruptcy. Without the pension requirement, a July 2012 analysis showed, the USPS would have a $1.5 billion surplus. Instead, it’s billions of dollars in the red.
Dropping Saturday delivery was supposed to be its way of trying to fight these congressionally-imposed deficits. But yesterday, Congress rejected the five-day proposal, roundly agreeing that the USPS must keep its service at six days a week, even though it can hardly afford to do so….
