"The jury is still out on evolution.”

Rep. Rick Brattin (R-Harrisonville)

ABC News: Candidate Hides the ‘Home’ in Home Economics Degree

We already know that the Everything Tax is bad for Missouri.  If Rex Sinquefield and his lackeys manage to get the proposal on the ballot and and if worst case scenario it passes it would levy a tax on services not currently taxed as well as increase the tax rate of a number of other services.  This is, of course, in addition to the fact that it would hike taxes on everyday grocery bills to 10%, and would cause nearly 33% of general revenue to disappear out of the state budget, further harming schools, public safety and other critical services all Missourians depend on.

But back to the services that would be taxed under the Everything Tax:

Veterinary and pet care services: Whenever you take Fluffy to the vet for her annual check up, you'd better be able to fork over 10% more than you do now to ensure she can get her rabies vacination.

Leisure and Recreation Sports Training and Lessons: Do you sign John and Jane up for swimming lessons every summer?  10% Everything Tax. Golf lessons?  Taxed!

Motor Vehicle Maintenance and Repair: Prepare to see your oil change price go up 10% every 3,000 miles.

Pretty much speaks for itself.

This past summer, Rep Akin failed time and time again to meet with constituents concerned about his votes on Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

Yesterday, Akin and fellow wannabe Senator Sarah Steelman had their first formal debate. Third man in John Brunner was "unable" to attend.

You can listen to the hour-long debate here. 

Highlights from the coverage:

If a 28 year old man without health insurance gets cancer, Steelman sure "hopes somebody takes care of him".

Also, for the first time in modern history, a Conservative has used the analogy that health insurance is "just like car insurance", which would probably make the folks over at Fox news cringe.

On taxes, Steelman's platform seems a bit confusing typical (emphasis added):

"What I think we need to do is close loopholes, broaden the base and push the income tax rate down as far as we possibly can, both on individual and corporate (taxes) because we're not competitive worldwide," said Steelman, adding she would also favor cutting capital gains taxes.

In today's Post-Dispatch: 

Last year, after yet another Missouri legislative session came and went without decreasing the interest rates that payday loan companies can charge their clients, a group of religious and civic organizations filed a state ballot initiative to bring sanity to the marketplace.

Missouri is one of the nation's most powerful magnets for payday loan companies. Its notoriously weak laws allow profiteers to prey on the working poor by charging effective annual interest rates of up 1,980 percent.

The payday loan companies and their cousins in the consumer credit industry want to keep that gravy train running on time.

They've created two campaign committees with hundreds of thousands of dollars — most of it given secretly — to fight off a ballot measure that is nearly identical to the one Congress passed to limit the ability of payday loan companies to bankrupt our nation's servicemen and women.

Dave Spence, candidate for Governor, on January 10: 

[Spence] acknowledged that the description of his degree on the campaign's website may be misleading — "If you want me to change it, I will," Spence said Monday — but as of Tuesday afternoon, the biography section was unchanged. 

And then Dave Spence's campaign for Governor insists on making the situation worse, on January 11: 

“The website was accurate,” a campaign official said in an email to PoliticMo.

Out of the goodness of their hearts, the Missouri Democratic Party put together a compilation of last night's teevee news coverage of Dave Spence's dishonest education claims.  

While governor wannabe Dave Spence continues to lie on his website about his educational background - as of 9:00AM this morning he has yet to correct his biography - his opponent in the republican race for the nomination, Bill Randles, has released all of the records pertaining to his bachelors, masters, and law degrees.

At least one of the republicans is trying to be marginally truthful.  That said, I wonder what conservative republican Missourians will think about the fact that Randles was a classmate at Harvard Law of our esteemed marxist-socialist-fascist President Obama.  Eek.

Dave Spence wants to be governor of Missouri.  Dave Spence wants you to believe that he didn't use a single penny of the $42 million bailout his bank received and never returned to taxpayers.  Dave Spence also wants you to believe he has a degree in Economics from the University of Missouri.

Well, Dave Spence has been lying: on Spence's OWN WEBSITE, he lists that he attended the University of Missouri-Columbia and earned a degree in economics.  But that's a lie.  Dave Spence earned a degree in HOME economics:

Let's define economics and home economics for Mr Spence:

economics

home economics

A marked difference, I'd say.

Dave Spence, what say you?  Is home economics actually economics because I don't see a lot of similarities and I'm a little confused, could you clarify?  Please?

Or better yet, just stop lying about your past.

via @caitleg

2012's "I voted for it before I voted against it."

Legislative sessions are gearing up all over the country.  In Indiana, the first thing radical republicans took aim at were rights of workers, immediately attempting to pass a Right to Work for Less bill; and here in Missouri we have a number of different versions of Right to Work for Less which have already been filed in addition to other egregious attacks on workers like Kinder's and other radicals' attempt to eliminate the Prevailing Wage.  Of course there were last year's fights in Wisconsin over collective bargaining and Ohio's defeat of Senate Bill 5 which would have eliminated a significant number of workers' rights.

This past weekend, the New York Times had an excellent, must-read article regarding Right to Work for Less, striking at the heart of the issue of these sorts of attacks on workers: bad economics and cynical politics.

Attacking workers and their rights isn't about jobs, it's not about boosting the economy, it's not about solving the budget issues our states face.  No.  Attacking workers and attempting to pass bills like Right to Work for Less, Paycheck Deception and an elimination or suspension of the Prevailing Wage is about politics and silencing workers in the political arena.

Continuing Assault on Unions

Along with their shameful campaign to curb the collective bargaining rights of public sector workers in Wisconsin and Ohio last year, Republicans in statehouses around the country are taking aim at private sector unions. [...]

Many Republican leaders are adopting model legislation proposed by the American Legislative Exchange Council, a national corporate-financed conservative organization that is also assisting the Republican push to require voter identification cards to suppress the vote of minorities, young people and other constituencies that tend to favor the Democratic Party.

There is little doubt that politics is also behind the Republicans’ push for right-to-work laws: they see an opportunity to further weaken unions, which are far more likely to support Democrats — as well as health care reform and a higher minimum wage — by slashing their funding and their donating power.

The G.O.P. and its allies, like the Chamber of Commerce and brethren organizations, are trotting out the charge that unions reduce economic growth and jobs. [...]

Unionized workers earn more and get more generous benefits. In 2010, wages of workers in unionized manufacturing companies in Indiana were 16 percent higher than in nonunion plants. One study concluded that the decline in unionization since the 1970s is responsible for one-fifth to one-third of the growth in inequality in this country. Voters, unionized or not, should recognize the new “right to work” push for what it is: bad economics and cynical politics.

Emphasis added.

Via The Plum Line: "Reuters published a blockbuster story today on GS Technologies, a steel mill in Kansas City that was acquired by Bain Capital, leading to the layoffs of some 750 workers. In this case, the workers lost promised severance pay and health insurance; their pension benefits were slashed. and a federal government insurance agency had to bail out the company’s pension plan — even as Bain raked in millions and millions of dollars in profits. Now a man who says he worked at the plant for 34 years — a self-described conservative — is speaking out about Romney. Glen Patrick Wells, who lives in Peculiar, Missouri, agreed to appear in a new MoveOn.org video in order to speak out about what the layoffs did to the surrounding community. He excoriated Romney for his role in the deal. Wells appears in the new video with his friend, Donny Box, who appeared in an earlier MoveOn ad, and Wells is the one in the green cap:

A really effective new ad from Newt Gingrich's Super PAC: 

Ted Kennedy's campaign made similar arguments in his 1994 campaign against Mitt Romney. Here are a few ads from Kennedy ...

This morning from Missourinet: "A fourth candidate and second state senator is joining the Republican race for Lieutenant Governor.  State Senator Lu Ann [Ridgeway of Smithville served ten years in the House before serving her two terms in the Senate."

The Saturday panelette was a bit tame. Diane Sawyer did her best to get some fireworks started, but even she got bored after a while. Flip Flopper Romney pretty much got a pass. There weren’t many highlights. You gotta love Suits Santorum repeatedly saying “when I left the Senate.” Does he think no one remembers that his opponent won by the largest margin of victory for a Senate challenger in 2006?

Newt seems to be surrounded by liars. Paul was his target on Saturday. I have noticed Callista wearing the three strand pearl necklace. I thought that was a first lady prerogative. Maybe she thinks it’s now or never.

The war on religion is replacing the war on Christmas. Newt is incensed at the anti Catholic bias, and Perry is ready to go after the anti religion folks as soon as he sends troops back to Eyerack.

Marriage and who can do it was another hot topic. Miss Liberty just loves it when Newtie talks about the sanctity of marriage.

When asked where they would be if not in new Hampshire having such an edifying debate, Perry said he would be on the shooting range (doesn’t he get enough practice while jogging?), Cranky Ron Paul would be reading economic tracts, Huntsman would be on the phone with his naval sons (small dig at Mitt’s 5 sons who don’t serve), Newt would be watching the basketball championship game (since that’s not til March, I suspect Newtie isn’t really a sportie), and Mitt and Suits would be watching football. As an aside, Miss Liberty is curious as to why we are still playing bowl games. What happened to the traditional big New Year’s Day blow out?