Homophobia has reared its ugly head in the Missouri House again in the form of HB 2051 which would "prohibit the discussion of sexual orientation in public school instruction, material, or extracurricular activity except in scientific instruction on human reproduction."

This sort of legislation is a direct attack on the LGBT community and the children and teens who identify as such.  Groups such as the Gay-Straight Alliance which are formed to offer support and understanding to teens in high school would likely be prohibited from being formed as they would be prohibited from "discussing sexual orientation in extracurricular activity."

PROMO Executive Director AJ Bockleman had this to say:

Let’s be clear. This bill, while clearly a flagrant violation of the First Amendment guarantee of Freedom of Speech, not only attempts to prohibit schools from even discussing gay and lesbian issues; it also aims to keep Gay-Straight Alliances from meeting on school grounds as approved extracurricular entities.

For the last several years, PROMO and our allies have worked to advance pro-lgbt legislation, and we are seeing steady, continuing success. Filing this bill is a desperate tactic by frightened, bigoted, cynical individuals who are terrified at the advancement the LGBT community has made in breaking down the barriers to full and equal treatment under the law. Why else would they file a bill so clearly out of step with the growing trend for fairness in this state when similar legislation filed in Tennessee last year led that state’s legislature to become the object of national ridicule?

As the Executive Director for PROMO, Missouri’s Statewide organization advocating for the LGBT community, it’s clear that this proposed bill does absolutely nothing to protect students. In some ways, however, these enemies of Freedom of Speech have done us a favor. By attempting to coerce teachers and students into making this core reality of our lives literally unspeakable, they have only proved why LGBT students need greater, better, and stronger protection in our schools.

Given the national conversation about bullying and the fact that gay teens and young adults have been committing suicide in large numbers after facing bullying in their schools and social circles, you would think that our leaders would try to create welcoming environments for kids, but this sort of legislation is the exact opposite.  HB 2051 would be bullying enshrined in Missouri law.

I highly doubt that the 20+ white men who have sponsored and cosponsored this attack have seen the documentary Bully which follows a number of children across the country who are bullied for different reasons, one of which is their sexuality, but it would behoove these bigots to take two hours out of their lives to watch it and understand what sort of impact this sort of moronic legislation could have on our children.

Here's the trailer:

The full text of the bill is after the jump.

Today in the St. Louis American:

[Dave] Spence had been complaining that peripheral issues about him that made no difference were getting all the media play. He was told that was a fact he would have to live with and address now, because misinformation has weight and power in electoral campaigns. To make a point about misinformation, the publisher asked the candidate, “Is Barack Obama a Muslim?”

Unbelievably, Spence said, “I don’t know.”

The rest of the article is a must read.  Click here for the whole, mortifying piece.

UPDATE, 5PM: Friends, after much, much more debate and with great thanks to my good friend Birfer Tim Jones for taking up our cause on the floor, HB 1637 was reconsidered and we successfully passed our bill to return the Show-Me State to the gold standard.  FREEDOM REIGNS!!

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Today, after much debate, freedom suffered a stinging defeat in the Missouri House.  Friends, the defeat of HB 1637, introduced by Rep. Paul Curtman (R-TeaParty) as the Missouri Sound Money Act of 2012, is a direct attack on our freedom to use gold and silver and revert to the Gold Standard!!

Never fear, my fellow Missourians, someday we will prevail in ensuring that we can revert to an antiquated view of monetary policy, enshrine Islamaphobic legislation into Missouri law, openly carry our guns anywhere no matter what, and ensure everyone knows that the Missouri General Assembly really, really, really hates Obamacare.

In the Missouri House today, the republican controlled chamber approved an amendment to HB 1890 which would make it increasingly difficult for physicians to provide women with the medical care they need and have a right to receive without government intervention.

From MDNnews:

The amendment, proposed by Rep. Andrew Koenig, R-St. Louis County, was approved 105-40 and would require doctors providing abortion-inducing drugs, such as mifepristone, to purchase between $1 and $3 million in medical malpractice insurance. It would also classify violations of this law as a Class D felony.

Prior to the amendment, the bill's original intent would only have been to require the Oversight Division of the Joint Committee on Legislative Research to analyze the fiscal impact of mandating coverage for treating cancer, eating disorders and infertility to health plans.

During the House debate, Rep. Tishaura Jones, D-St. Louis City, called the amendment "out of scope" and "shameful," saying the amendment's purpose did not align with the bill.

Jones said the bill, overall, would do a study to investigate the the impact of adding the components to health insurance coverage before taking action.

"Since we can't overturn Roe v. Wade, since the Supreme Court won't do it, then of course the state legislatures are going to introduce bills year after year after year to make it more difficult for a woman to make choices related to her body," Jones said.

Thanks to the moderator of MDNnews' twitter feed for ensuring they were brutally, if unintentionally, honest in describing the shamefulness of this amendment.

If you're still on the fence about whether or not there is a war on women, this should serve as yet another demonstration of the fact that republicans will stop at nothing to limit a woman's access to quality health care and the ability to make her own medical decisions privately with her physician.

As we reported, Cole County Judge Patricia Joyce threw out the language for Rex Sinquefield's Everything Tax ballot initiative calling it "insufficient, unfair and prejudicial."

With that ruling and with a similar proposal to eliminate the income tax in Kansas expected to be far short of the necessary votes in their legislature, it looks like Sinquefield's latest attack on the good people of Missouri and Kansas is dead.

In the KCStar today:

Last week a judge threw out Missouri's analysis of a petition aimed at putting an income-for-sales tax swap on the November ballot, a potentially fatal blow for that effort. And in Kansas, lawmakers say the tax reform package they'll consider next week almost certainly will fall far short of the no-income-tax goal.

Ending the income tax turned out to be "a big elephant to swallow," said Travis Brown, a political consultant who has worked with anti-income tax forces in both states.

You'll of course excuse me while I giggle at the crocodile tears being shed by Sinquefield's lackey, Travis Brown, about the fact that it's clear that cooler heads have prevailed and that this attempt to blow monstrously large, billion dollar holes in state budgets which would force ever bigger cuts in the services provided to the hard working taxpayers has failed.

Just kidding. Wanted to make sure you saw Maddow's piece about economic populism in Missouri.

Earlier today, the Senate voted on the Buffett Rule which would have ensured that the ultra-rich in our country pay their fair share.  Named for billionaire investor Warren Buffett who, because of the tax policies enacted under the previous administration, pays a lower tax rate than his secretary, the Buffett Rule would only affect one in 500 Americans and raise over $47 billion in revenue which could be used for investment in our country's crumbling infrastructure by building roads and bridges and putting firefighters, teachers, nurses and other critical public servants back on the job.

But how did Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO) vote? With the 1% of course, allowing senate republicans to filibuster a piece of legislation that is supported by a whopping 72% of Americans.

Shame.

State Sen. Brian Nieves (R-Attack) has a message for you:

Friends, Fellow Citizens, Patriots, and all who care about the future of this Great Republic!! My "Missouri Civil Liberties Defense Act" is under attack!! I don't mind when my bills are fought against with Truth but SB676 is being lied about because those who oppose it know full and well that NOBODY will stand with them IF the Truth is told. The Senators who are Fillibustering the bill are out & out Lying and as you'll see in this short video, those who oppose it are using deception to support their position! Tell your Senator to help pass this bill and do what you can to get Senators Chappelle-Nadal and Justus to stop the Bare Faced, Out-n-Out LIES about this bill.

Unfortunately for Nieves, the bill he views as under attack is truly a waste of time and an attack on our constitution.  In short, SB 676 would prohibit foreign laws from being used in Missouri and American courts. But guess what? The US constitution already has a prohibition on the usage of foreign laws in American courts.  Not only that, but the legislation pushed by Nieves and his cohorts in other states such as Oklahoma, Tennessee, Florida, Louisiana, and Arizona are really just a nationally coordinated Islamaphobic attack.

Additionally, this sort of legislation has already been found to be unconstitutional in Oklahoma:

Appellants do not identify any actual problem the challenged amendment seeks to solve. Indeed, they admitted at the preliminary injunction hearing that they did not know of even a single instance where an Oklahoma court had applied Sharia law or used the legal precepts of other nations or cultures, let alone that such applications or uses had resulted in concrete problems in Oklahoma. See Awad, 754 F. Supp. 2d at 1308; Aplt. App. Vol. 1 at 67-68.

Given the lack of evidence of any concrete problem, any harm Appellants seek to remedy with the proposed amendment is speculative at best and cannot support a compelling interest.15 “To sacrifice First Amendment protections for so speculative a gain is not warranted . . . .” Columbia Broad. Sys., Inc. v. Democratic Nat’l Co., 412 U.S. 94, 127 (1973).

Instead of attacking the sensibilities of Missourians and wasting valuable time in Jefferson City pursuing unconstitutional legislation, Senator Nieves would be better served in focusing on the real issues at hand such as turning our economy around and creating jobs.

In a ruling yesterday, Cole County Judge Patricia Joyce couldn't have been more clear in what she thinks of Rex Sinquefield's ballot initiative which would eliminate Missouri's income tax and replace it with a sales tax. From the Columbia Tribune:

The ruling was especially hard on [Auditor Tom] Schweich. She called his analysis “insufficient, unfair and prejudicial.” Joyce said Schweich had based his description of the financial impact “solely on the biased and not credible analysis” of Lucas Tomicki, who worked for a consulting firm hired by Sinquefield’s campaign committee, Let Voters Decide.?

“Both Fiscal Note summaries are insufficient in that they fail to inform the reader what is certain to happen — a loss of $7.5 billion in state government revenue,” Joyce wrote. “There is no disagreement on this point and failing to disclose it makes the fiscal notes and summaries inadequate and unfair as a matter of law.”?

Schweich’s description had pegged the maximum loss of revenue at $1.5 billion and told voters that the measure could result in new revenue of up to $300 million.?