Hank Waters rehashes Peter Kinder's many missteps and sees Jay Nixon's reelection as a safe bet in 2012:

As a nonpartisan who cares not a whit about Kinder’s visits to the strip club, I do see trouble on the horizon for his gubernatorial chances — or for any other Republican. If you want about as safe a bet as one can get in the political casino, put your money on Nixon in 2012.

When asked about his willingness to work with the President on a jobs plan, Billy Long dismissed the need for a job creation plan and proceeded to make up at least one word.

President Barack Obama next week is to unveil a new jobs plan. Long said the nation “doesn’t need a jobs project. We need to make it easier for American companies to do business.

“Now, we over-regulate, over-tax-ate and over-litigate.”

I guess Billy Long is taking partisanship gamesmanship as far as it will go, but only at the expense of unemployed Missourians.

It is not just the Post-Dispatch questioning State Audtior Tom Schweich's lawsuit against Governor Jay Nixon for withholding funds to pay for disaster relief efforts in Joplin and other areas. Today, the Joplin Globe has expressed doubts about Schweich's timing and motives. 

(Schweich) told the Globe that his lawsuit will not hurt Joplin. He said the money is there and available through other avenues. In fact, he doesn’t think withholding money for other needs in the state will even be necessary.

Now it will be up to the courts to decide if Nixon has overstepped the authority that comes with being governor.

We doubt the people who lived in the 7,000 homes destroyed by the tornado are going to care. We doubt the 545 business owners who are trying to get up and running are going to care.

It may turn out that Schweich is right about the process the governor used to find money to pay for Joplin’s disaster relief.

But his timing couldn’t be more wrong.

The Commission on Wartime Spending, originally proposed in a bill sponsored by Senator Claire McCaskill and Senator Jim Webb, has identified at least $60 billion in wasteful spending in Iraq and Afghanistan.  

Politico reported that the waste can be attributed to poor planning, ineffective oversight of contractors and payments to warlords and insurgents.

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) wrote in a statement emailed Tuesday to the AP that “it is disgusting to think that nearly a third of the billions and billions we spent on contracting was wasted or used for fraud.”

The commission also stated that the $60 billion figure could grow as maintenance costs take precedence over reconstruction.

What seems to be the most troubling part is that hundreds of millions dollars from the American government may have made it's way to insurgent groups like the Taliban. 

The Associated Press reported earlier this month that U.S. military authorities in Kabul have estimated that $360 million in U.S. tax dollars has ended up in the hands of people the American-led coalition has spent nearly a decade battling: the Taliban, criminals and power brokers with ties to both. The military said that only a small percentage of the $360 million has been garnered by the Taliban and insurgent groups. Most of the money was lost to profiteering, bribery and extortion by criminals and power brokers.

Although politicians of all political persuasions often talk about rooting out waste and fraud, it is good to see that every once and a while they actually succeed. 

State Rep. Eric Burlison unknowingly provided the best slogan for Kinder's apology tour. Maybe it can be painted on the side of a bus for him: 

"He's not a saint, but nobody really is a saint, right?"

On a Kansas City radio show, Sarah Steelman suggested that she would defund the Environmental Protection Agency, signed into law by that leftwing hippie Richard Nixon, if given the chance. 

Steelman told KCMO’s Greg Knapp that she would defund the EPA to avoid new regulations:

“I would defund EPA. I would cut those…I would cut their budget so they could no longer do those things.”

Maybe Steelman would like it more if the United States took a more laissez-faire approach to regulating pollution like China. Or we could just go back to the early years of the EPA before clean air and water laws had made a significant impact.

via MoveOn.org

A new report from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office suggests that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is responsible from up to 2.9 million people currently having jobs. 

A new Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report estimates that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) increased the number of people employed by between 1.0 million and 2.9 million jobs as of June.

In other words, between 1.0 million and 2.9 million people employed in June owed their jobs to the Recovery Act. This estimate, by Congress' non-partisan economic and budget analysts, is more comprehensive than the 550,000 jobs that ARRA recipients reported in July, CBO explains.

UPDATE: Tony Messenger did issue an apology...to first year law students coming off of benders. 

So, it seems State Auditor Tom Schweich called a press conference to demand an apology from the Post-Dispatch for today's editorial about his lawsuit to slow down recovery funds for Joplin. 

Here is St. Louis Post Dispatch Editorial Writer Tony Messenger's reaction:

And here is exsclusive footage of Tom Schweich upon hearing about his chances for getting a retraction: 

In an interview with KCMO this morning, Sarah Steelman supported zeroing out the capital gains tax and lowering the corporate income tax rate.

That’s right, Sarah Steelman wants lower taxes for corporations and the wealthy in addition to creating a balanced budget. Oh, and don’t forget that she is hesitant about any cuts to Medicare that have been proposed. All those things sound possible, right? 

Listen to her interview with KCMO's Greg Knapp here:

Steelman’s support for lower taxes for the wealthy comes after successful businessmen like Warren Buffett and Henry Bloch have called for the wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share of taxes. Bloch, a self-proclaimed Republican, wrote an Op-Ed for the Kansas City Star reiterating those points.

Those of us earning more than $250,000 a year are very fortunate. We have an obligation to help our nation overcome this challenge. While I don’t look forward to paying more taxes, it must be done. And it’s a small price to pay for living in this wonderful country. Responsible change that promotes good public policy and tax fairness is to be welcomed.

You know an editorial is going to be worth the read when it describes State Auditor Tom Schweich’s lawsuit against Governor Jay Nixon as “a typical attempt at blatant partisanship wrapped up in legal arguments weaker than a first-year law student's paper written after an all-night bender.” 

The Post-Dispatch didn’t pull any punches in its assessment of Tom Schweich’s lawsuit against Jay Nixon. Schweich is arguing that the budget withholds, intended to aid Joplin’s tornado recovery, are damaging to his office’s own budget.

The editorial also notes that Schweich was the only statewide elected official to get increased funding for his office – a $300,000 increase to be specific.

State funding for disaster recovery has become much more important because of Republicans like Eric Cantor with stubborn stances on federal funds for recovery and the fact that FEMA is now really spread thin. This move by Schweich risks putting Joplin’s recovery efforts in the unstable hands of the United States Congress.

In an email, Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder is urging supporters to stick with him through the stripper saga that has dogged his potential campaign for Governor for the last several weeks.

Specifically, he asks supporters to decide for themselves and not let the media or "powerbrokers" decide for them:  

Before I make my final decision, I want the chance to earn your trust so together we make the difference you deserve. Together we can chart a course to win in November 2012. Without your support I cannot succeed, and I will not run if I cannot win. The decision should reside in your hands, not a few powerbrokers or the media.  If I were not a real threat to their politics as usual and out of control spending, they would not be attacking me so viciously and falsely.

This email comes after Missouri Republican Party executive director Lloyd Smith sent a different email to prominent Missouri Republicans parroting posts from Andrew Breitbart’s Big Government blog – posts which included misinformation that has been denied and debunked.

For those interested, read the full email from Kinder after the break.

Midwest Voices details the services rendered by Jeff Roe's Axiom Strategies in defense of 1,950 percent  APR on payday loans.

Last week it paid $86,000 to Axiom Strategies, the company owed by Kansas City campaign guru Jeff Roe, for duties such as strategic campaign oversight ($15,000); strategic communications ($16,000); regional operations management ($25,000); and Website design ($9,500).

Earlier this year, the payday loan industry founded a political action committee called Missourians for Equal Credit Opportunity. Records filed with the Missouri Ethics Commission show the committee was terminated last week, and a balance of $107,000 was transferred to a campaign committee of the same name.

In the aftermath of the devastating tornado in Joplin, House Majority Whip Eric Cantor created controversy and unrest when he said federal money to aid the recovery in Joplin wouldn’t come without corresponding cuts.

Specifically he said: 

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said Monday that if Congress passes an emergency spending bill to help Missouri’s tornado victims, the extra money will have to be cut from somewhere else.

“If there is support for a supplemental, it would be accompanied by support for having pay-fors to that supplemental,” Mr. Cantor, Virginia Republican, told reporters at the Capitol. The term “pay-fors” is used by lawmakers to signal cuts or tax increases used to pay for new spending.

Now, Cantor’s home state of Virginia is suffering after Hurricane Irene caused damage up and down the east coast, and he says the same test applies – money for hurricane relief has to be offset by spending cuts.

Cantor told Fox News that while “we’re going to find the money,” “we’re just going to need to make sure that there are savings elsewhere to do so.”

This news also comes as money for the Joplin recovery is shifted to aid in the recovery from Hurricane Irene.

The Missouri Budget Project put at a new report on the most recent versions of the Mega Sales Tax proposals pushed by Rex Sinquefield. Specifically, the report notes that these proposals do not attempt to require the new taxes to be revenue neutral, which could cost the state $2.4 billion dollars in general revenue.

Unlike the previous versions, these proposals do not even attempt to be revenue neutral. The Missouri Budget Project’s initial estimate is that the new sales tax structure will result in a shortfall of at least $2.4 billion in general revenue.  Total general revenue is currently a little over $7 billion.  A shortfall this great will require deep cuts in K-12 education, higher education, health and mental health, and the services that serve as the foundation of our economy and result in a safe and healthy environment.

They also note that there are many purchases exempt from the Mega Sales Tax. Maybe everyone should just concede that this is a terrible idea instead of appeasing industries and groups opposed to the tax by exempting certain purchases -- making the damage it would do to state funding even worse.

State Senator Jane Cunningham's law prohibiting forms of teacher/student communication on Facebook and other social media sites was dealt two very significant blows today.  

Cole County Circuit Court Judge John Beetem issued an order blocking the provision from going into effect. 

In his ruling, Beetem called the breadth of the social-media restrictions in the bill "staggering."

He noted that the law -- as written -- would prohibit communication between family members and their teacher parents on social media. Moreover, evidence produced at a preliminary hearing found that social media is often the primary method for teachers to communicate with students. Beetem found that enforcement of such a restriction would have a "chilling effect on speech."

And the AP reported that Governor Jay Nixon called for the General Assembly to repeal the social media provision during the special legislative session slated for September 6th.