This afternoon, the Super Committee announced it had failed.  SHOCKING, I know. 

After months of hard work and intense deliberations, we have come to the conclusion today that it will not be possible to make any bipartisan agreement available to the public before the committee’s deadline.

Because of the failure to reach consensus on how to reduce the deficit, there are automatic cuts that go into effect, though there are a number of republicans who are already trying to get out of the corner they've painted themselves and the country into.

Anyway, moving on to the question of Why did the Super Committee Fail?, there's a truly simple answer: greed.

While Democrats had put painful cuts in critical programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security on the table, Republicans flat out refused to even consider eliminating the Bush Tax Cuts on the richest 2% of Americans to the tune of $800 billion.  Republicans continue protecting the rich while demanding that working families bear the brunt of the economic crisis. 

As mentioned earlier, there are already republicans posturing to try to roll back the automatic cuts in defense spending, but President Obama let them know this afternoon that trying to remake the rules after the fact is something he won't allow and vowed to veto any legislation republicans may send to him that would attempt just that.

This shouldn't need to be asked, but the present economic crisis and our leaders' reaction to it demands it:

Sen. Ron Richard, former Most Powerful Man in Missouri, explains why he's not running for lieutenant governor’s race to the Joplin Globe's Susan Redden: 

I’m pretty good at job creation and tax policy, and getting more jobs in the state certainly is on everyone’s mind...The last jobs bill that was passed was mine; I’m going to go with that I’m good at.

Politico's Dave Catanese, today: "Missouri Auditor Tom Schweich is seriously considering entering the race for governor, following Friday's decision by Lt.  Gov. Peter Kinder to step aside for the good of the party. Two Republican sources close to Schweich tell POLITICO that he is weighing the prospect of taking on Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon but wants to explore initial support and fundraising capability before a final decision is reached. One source said Schweich has already been approached by a group of "relevant, credible" GOP players in Missouri."

Faithful Fired Up! readers will no doubt recall this 2009 interview with Schweich, conducted by Catanese when he was still at KY3: 

Sinquefield and his lackeys have made Art Laffer's alleged expertise a centerpiece in their campaign to devastate Missouri's public systems and structures

Berger's Beat reacts to today's big story in the Columbia Tribune: 

When you’re the noted Reaganomics guru, Arthur Laffer, it must be humiliating when a reporter from a mid-sized Missouri newspaper busts you in the Sunday paper for using incorrect data to promote benefactor Rex Sinquefield’s viewpoint.  That’s just what [Columbia Tribune] statehouse bulldog Rudi Keller did this weekend.  Laffer and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) annually produce a jointly-branded report on “Economic Opportunity Outlook” of the states...

Keller did some digging and found Laffer overstated Missouri’s marginal personal income tax rate as 7 percent instead of the correct figure, 6 percent.  The result was to make Missouri rank worse than Tennessee. 

Temporary frontrunner "I am not a lobbyist" Newt Gingrich told a group at Harvard today that our child labor laws are archaic. He proposes firing union school janitors and hiring students to do those chores. Not sure if he starts in elementary school, middle school, or junior high. And no, Miss Liberty doesn't know if he has Jane Cunningham on speed dial, or if he has offered her the Number Two spot.

February 8, 2008: "Republican Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder dropped out of the Missouri governor's race Friday night barely two weeks after he entered it, declaring he instead will seek re-election."

November 18, 2011: "Missouri Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder (R) will announce Friday afternoon that he will not run for governor in 2012, but will instead seek re-election to his current post, according to sources familiar with his plans." 

Politico: "Missouri Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder will not run for governor in 2012, multiple Republican sources tell POLITICO...'He's flipped on a dime.  He made a seismic shift,' said one Republican with knowledge of Kinder's outreach."

As FiredUp! has detailed time and time again, Ed Martin is a serial liar, especially when it comes to Health Care Reform.  With each of his statements regarding the Affordable Care Act, Martin seems to ramp up his scare tactics about what it's going to do once it's implemented fully.  From death panels to rationing, Martin's been wrong all along, though that doesn't stop him from one upping himself yet again.

I suppose we shouldn't be too surprised with today's latest in Ed Martin Lies About Obamacare:

Just, FYI, Ed, next time you want to talk about Obamacare, here are some facts to start you off on the right foot:

The folks at Pelopidas and Let Voters Decide continue to insist that Tennessee is a "no income tax" state as part of their campaign for Rex Sinquefield's diastrous Everything Tax.  But the talking point just isn't true.  

Tennessee does have an individual income tax, as you can see at this Tennessee Department of Revenue page titled, "Individual Income Tax."  And regardless, Sinquefield isn't proposing a Tennessee-style tax system -- he's pushing a  far more radical and devastating proposal. 

Gary Johnson lost his entire New Hampshire staff this week when they resigned en masse. Who knew he was still running?

Today, Herman Cain said at a New Hampshire campaign event, “We need a leader, not a reader.” Comforting to know he has the job specs down.

Texas is a safe haven for predatory lenders where APR can be 1100%. Governor Perry, who has received over $200,000 from the Industry over the last decade, appointed William J. White, an executive at Cash America International, to a seat on the Texas Finance Commission. He now serves as Chairman of the Commission that protects Texas consumers. Sort of makes Kwik Cash Don Wells look like an amateur. Foxes guarding the hen house is nothing new in DC. Governor Goodhair will feel right at home.

Disliked frontrunner Romney apparently managed to leave the Massachusetts Governor’s office with most of his records. According to the Boston Globe, his aides bought 17 hard drives, and the remaining computers were replaced and the server was wiped clean. Now this is a practice someone could market for a tidy sum!

Well, we now know why unregistered lobbyist Newt Gingrich could afford such a big line of credit at Tiffany’s. 

Last week, new GOP gubernatorial candidate Dave Spence told the Associated Press he didn't "recall any details about" the decision of Reliance Bancshares' board, on which he served, to not repay TARP funds:

In February, the company announced it would stop making the $2.2 million annual dividend it was supposed to pay to the U.S. Treasury on the $42 million it received under the Troubled Asset Relief program. Spence said he doesn't recall any details about that decision, but he said the federal bank bailout program helped avoid a potential economic disaster by providing banks with "extra cushion of capital."

He changed his tune in a major way in an interview with PoliticMo earlier this week -- “I resigned from the bank board over this issue,” he decided. And in a longer conversation with the Beacon, Spence has now decide that TARP was a bad idea to begin with. "I don't support it and I wish it had never had to be used," he tells Jo Mannies. 

Did you know that our Kenyan Usurper was behind yesterday's Occupy Wall Street actions in New York? Some dude who works for Fox News does, and Speaker-Elect Tim Jones does too.   

"President Obama organized this community of thugs," Todd Starnes and Jones say.

Which states have the most smokers? Missouri is actually tied with 5 other southern and mid-western states for the number two spot. With our desire to always be last or first, guess we'll be rushing to the top! Maybe we can get Cain's Smoking Manto be the smokesperson, and if we win that race, and if we quit having the lowest cigarette tax in the nation, we could capitalize on having the most smokers.

After votes by Congress to block the President’s jobs plan, and on the eve of the Super Committee’s recommendations to enact more job-killing budget cuts, unemployed workers, community organizations, union workers and local residents will declare an “Economic Emergency for the 99%” on this afternoon with Occupy St. Louis and Occupy Kansas City.  

Participants in both protests and marches will call on Congress to create jobs, stop cuts, and make Wall Street banks pay.

Follow the action on Twitter at #N17 and #N17STL. 

The demonstrations are part of a national day of protests at decaying bridges on November 17 against policies that have enriched the 1% and impoverished the 99%. People nationwide will gather at bridges and other sites in need of infrastructure investments like repairs to demand that America be put back to work now.  Protestors will call on Congress to invest in our communities to create jobs as well as stop the cuts to critical social service programs like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

From this week's Political EYE in the St. Louis American

The tipping factor already has started to tip. According to reliable, disgruntled Republican sources, a powerful Republican operative who favors state Sen. Brad Lager was the one who turned Tilley’s toxic source(s) against him to scare him out of the lieutenant governor’s race. The EYE was told this before Lager declared he had entered the LG race, which gives the report some credence. The same source said this same operative was suspected within the party of turning up trouble for current Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder in his still undeclared bid for governor. This suggests the Missouri Republican Party has started to come apart at its center, with a free-for-all fight for power starting to get underway.

As soon you stop laughing about this Dave Drebes post, encourage every person you want out of office to adopt this strategy and go all-in on the Everything Tax. 

After being left for dead by pundits like me, what’s the path for LG Peter Kinder to become Gov. Peter Kinder? According to one Republican it’s just stay afloat and ride the waves.

By his estimate the Rex Sinquefield fair tax effort will create a tidal wave of money in Missouri, up to $30 million. It may well become the defining issue of the cycle.

Can Kinder position himself atop that wave and ride it to the governor’s mansion?

h/t JohnCombest.com 

Shorter John Brunner: I don't have the foggiest idea what I'd do to help make affordable health care more accessible to working Missourians. 

This Q&A with the Hannibal Courier-Post is just painful.