Here are two tweets about what is happening in Iraq.

First, Pope Francis:

Pope Francis @Pontifex     ·  (8/16/14)    

Let us not forget the cry of Christians and all vulnerable populations in Iraq.

Now Representative Hartzler:

Rep. Vicky Hartzler(8/9/14)

Glad the Administration is finally pushing back on the ISIS butchers & sending aid to the Iraqi Christians who had to flee for their lives.

I wonder which statement comes closer to what real Christians think about the events in Iraq.

Jon Stewart just had the director of Rich Hill, a documentary about a town in Bates County.

Given the poverty in the town, Stewart was appalled that the Congress woman representing the town voted to cut SNAP funding.

Here is the movie’s web site.

Today, the leftwing blogsphere has a leaked memo to House Republicans on how they should represent themselves in August:

They are Fighting Washington for You.

I recommend looking at to see how much of the suggestions are followed by our members of Congress.

Here is the key paragraph for how they are to represent themselves (from the suggestion op-ed letter that they should send out):

Washington is out of control.

But every day I serve in Congress, I work to fight Washington. I’m fighting Washington to spur economic growth and create more jobs. I’m fighting Washington to hold government accountable to taxpayers. I’m working to dismantle ObamaCare and makeAmerica energy independent. I’m working to cut wasteful spending, expand educational opportunities, and rein in red tape. I’m fighting Washington for you.

Remember that line: Fighting Washington for you.

I look forward to reading how that farm bill Hartzler voted for is fighting Washington for the 4th District.

The only thing that is missing is the powerpoint that Hartzler always has to remind her what she needs to say at these forums.

Seems like Standard & Poors has amplified what it meant by the “political dysfunction” that led it to downgrade the U.S. bond rating from AAA to AA status. From the beginning S&P was pretty specific that much of the problem was the GOP speech impediment that prohibits the use of the words “revenue” or “taxes.” Today, a S&P spokesperson added:

[P]eople in the political arena were even talking about a potential default,” said Joydeep Mukherji, senior directior at S&P. “That a country even has such voices, albeit a minority, is something notable,” he added. “This kind of rhetoric is not common amongst AAA sovereigns.

In other words, all that blather about how default would be no big thing spooked the ratings agency – which, in turn, seems to have spooked the stock market. With this in mind, I ask you to stroll down memory lane and take a look at what some of Missouri’s GOP political leaders were saying at the height of the furor.

Todd Akin (R-2) wagged his metaphorical finger in our faces and declared that default “would shock us as a nation into saying that we really have to deal with this problem,” and “experience what it is like to live within our means.”  I guess we now know that it wouldn’t have been that spiffy after all, but at least Akin got part of his wish. He and his buddies did manage to inflict some wounds on our financial well-being.

Billy Long, that profound financial prognosticator, dismissed the whole issue of default as so much ado about nothing:

Let the date come and go, … That’s going to be on the president,” Long said. “There is money there. He can pay what he wants to pay, and if he doesn’t pay, that’s his bluff.

Based on this tweet, which Michael Bersin has dissected here at SMP, one has to believe that Vicky Hartzler just didn’t read S&P’s statement about why they downgraded the our bond rating or that she missed the good parts:

S&P’s decision to downgrade our credit rating is no surprise: the debt ceiling package wasn’t big enough–one reason I voted ‘no’.

Now what I want to know is who among these folks will conveniently forget what he or she said about default and/or the causes of the S&P downgrade, and who will keep on pretending that S&P has validated the GOP narrative à la Vicky Hartzler?

ADDENDUM:  In regard to the those who welcomed default (via Steve Benen):

A senior administration official said those who simply choose not to believe any of the warnings, “These are the kinds of people who get eaten by bears.

Eaten by bears? We should be so lucky. Here in Missouri we send them to Washington D.C. to make laws.

Received a mailing from the Hartzler campaign this morning that surprised me. Well, the mailing didn’t, but the apparent message did. A picture of a newborn baby with this phrase printed on the pic, “Only one candidate will protect life from the very beginning…” followed by “Vicky Hartzler.” This seems to be telling me that she believes life begins at birth. The Missouri Republican State Committee sure knows how to get a message out.