Yesterday, at a townhall in Sedalia, Missouri's Fourth District Representative, Republican Vicky Hartzler, joined the Birther Caucus saying she has "a lot of doubts" about the authenticity of President Obama's birth certificate.

If Rep. Vicky Hartzler is in search of proof, I'd direct her here to the President's long form birth certificate which has been available for some time in an effort to put the issue to rest.  Instead, it's obvious that instead of focusing on the economy, creating jobs and other issues important to people in Missouri's Fourth District and across the nation, Hartzler prefers to push a debunked myth regarding the President's citizenship.  The full quote is below:

"You know I have a lot of doubts about all [Obama's birth certificate]....I don’t understand why he didn’t show that right away." When asked to clarify her doubts during press availability after the event, Hartzler said: “I have doubts that it is really his real birth certificate, and I think a lot of Americans do, but they claim it is, so we are just going to go with that.”

Game on: Mizzou basketball star Kim English tweeted an endorsement of Linda Rallo in House District 89 last night. Rallo is running against incumbent Rep. John Diehl this summer. 

State Rep. Donna Lichtenegger (R-Jackson) shares the photo below on Facebook.  This is unacceptable on every level given the type of hate is spews and violence it encourages.  Assault and Battery = Attitude Adjustment? In what situation?  Absolutely none.  Same sex marriage = Legalized Perversion?  Really?!

Given that Lichtenegger posted this on at least Rep. Anne Zerr, Rep. Charlie Davis, and House Majority Leader Tim Jones' Facebook pages, it's clear she was pretty excited about sharing this with all her buddies.

And lest we forget, this isn't the first time Lichtenegger has posted something controversial on her page.  During her first month of being a State Representative, she exitedly posted about how much she loves lobbyists and all the free food and gifts she gets in doing her job as an elected official.

When are Republican leaders in Missouri going to call on their members to stop pushing this kind of hatred in the Show-Me State? I call on Speaker Steven Tilley and Majority Leader Jones to actively repudiate this sort of behavior and denounce Lichtenneger's actions and the hate she and others are promulgating.

"Brunner’s campaign criticized Steelman for even courting legislative endorsements in the first place."

They're getting desperate, what can I say?

Jacob Fenston, reporter for KBIA, was chatting up some people with petitions. They claimed to be advocates for capping Payday Lending interest rates, but were actually trying to illegalize any such limit.Who were these women? I wonder if anyone in Missourians for Equal Credit Opportunity (our favorite out-of-state banker front group) knows them...

From KBIA:

While Missourians for Equal Credit Opportunity is fighting to defeat the 36 percent cap, it is supporting two other initiatives with strikingly similar language, but that would have no effect on the industry.

Activists say it's a tactic to confuse voters.

I found two women gathering signatures for these initiatives recently in Columbia. I didn't tell them right away that I was a reporter, but asked what they were gathering signatures for.

"It's to allow voters to be able to decide whether or not they want a cap put on payday loans. It's an initiative to get on the ballot so we can vote on it."

"What's the payday loan cap?" I asked.

"Right now it's at 41, they want to put it at 36," she said.

She made it sound like I would be signing up for capping interest rates on payday loans. But the petition she showed me would instead amend the state constitution banning any such interest rate cap. When I told them I was a reporter and asked who they were working for, they said they couldn't talk to the press.

Do you want a state contract? Do you have lots and lots of money to burn? Well Rep. Chrissy Sommer (R-St. Charles), Rep. Anne Zerr (R-St. Charles) and republicans in the Missouri legsilature have a deal for you!

If HB 2076 (Establishes a preference in governmental contracts for person who contribute to alternatives to abortion services) were to become law, you could ensure that in the bidding process you would receive a bidding preference of up to 5 points if you toss a bunch of money at "alternatives to abortion agency or to the alternatives to abortion support fund."

Not only that, but you don't even have to send the money to them before you get the contract, you can just say you're going to and then after you get the contract, you have 12 months to send it.  So take those profits you're going to get from a taxpayer funded state contract and send 'em on over to the anti-choicers at a pregnancy resource center, places notorious for refusing to be forthright about their true agenda of misleading women about their reproductive choices.

Just as an example, say you're a contractor in Joplin and you want to get a state contract to help rebuild a damaged portion of a state highway - a contract that has nothing to do with human reproduction in any way, shape, or form - you would be given 5 bonus bid points if you give 10% of the cost of the contract to one of these alternative agencies.

How many more pieces of legislation are there going to be that don't address the budget crisis our state faces and instead force the ideological preferences of the right-wing fringe on others?

John Brunner is a hypocrite.  This weekend, the News-Leader reported on Brunner's alleged opposition to special tax breaks while continuing to support special tax breaks for oil companies. 

It gets worse.  Today, a new ad from American Bridge highlights Brunner's hypocrisy when it comes to special tax favors for private companies. Brunner is criticizing the "picking winners and losers," now that he's a Senate candidate, but only after availing himself to special treatments for years at Vi-Jon.