Left In Missouri

It seems like this bailout is going to cost a pretty penny to taxpayers.  Barney Frank, in a speech in front of a AARP group told the audience that assets will be held by the Feds so we can recoup some of the loss.  I say that is not enough.  We need to change corporate law that will punish those who profited due to their actions running these entities.  I’m not talking about mutual funds and retirement annuities.  I’m talking about these CEOs gold parachuting their way from responsibility.  In the old days, they used to jump out of buildings….without parachutes

This system needs to change.  Under the Bush Administration, not only did we lose the moral authority around the world, we now have lost our place as a financial authority.  Do other countries really want to follow our lead after this meltdown?

Like Kenny Hulshof new health plan, socializing the risks, while fat cats keep the profits is a recipe for failure.  This is not fiction, we only need to look at Wall St. to see how greed and arrogance can blind someone to economic realities.

Once again, a republican is trying ro skirt accountability to her citizens.  The Governor has now stated that she will not talk to investigators because it has been “tainted” by politics.  She says this despite a bipartisan committee of 2 Democrats and 3 Republicans.  This abuse of power and total disregard for the citizen legislature is very telling.  I hope by November she will be vetted out.  Between being part of Trooper-gate, throwing up a book banning trial balloon, or not knowing what the Bush doctrine was all about, i find this person wholly unqualified to be a vice-president.

Ms. Palin, stop flip-flopping on transparency.  You have been accused by more than one person of abusing your power, answer to your citizens.

Every four years, you see a reawakening of political fervor.  People are excited of the possibility of political change nationwide.  But I also hear and see a disturbing pattern when it comes to volunteers.  Volunteers are the lifeblood of any political campaign.  Their tireless hours canvassing, phone banking, etc is usually appreciated and celebrated.  While walking downtown, I stopped by the Judy Baker campaign headquarters , walked by the Nixon Columbia HQ, and then past the Obama HQ on 9th.  What I saw is that the Obama campaign had tons of people phone banking.  Maybe this was just a good day, I don’t know, but talking with someone from the Nixon campaign, it is really for hard for them to attract volunteers.  This is disturbing because Missourians should pay more attention to local and state wide races.  Missouri is predicted to lose a congressional seat after the 2010 census.  If Republicans control the state legislature, they will gerrymander the lines and we will lose a Democratic congressperson.  I am not saying that electing Obama is not very important, I just want to remind people that it is the down ticket candidates that affect your life the most.  For those who are volunteering for Obama, try to make some time for the down ticket candidates. :)  Here in Boone County:

Kelly Schultz for 21st Rep District

Judy Baker for Congress

201 N 10th Street Suite 102
(on Ash Street between 9th and 10th)
Columbia, MO 65201

Jay Nixon for Governor

Columbia Office
Phone: 573-442-6139

Chris Kelly for 24th District Rep

Mary Still for 25th District Rep

If anyone wants to add to this list, just leave a comment

Today Chuck Graham, state senator of the Mo 19th, announced he was going to challenge the veto that Gov. Matt Blunt had put onto the bill.  Blunt states it was riddled with problems.  The curators voted 7-1 to oppose giving the student curator the vote.  It had passed the state house and senate overwhelmingly and one would think it would override easily.  Not so fast.  The curators have quite a bit of power.  Are they worried that the student curator will vote to have a kegger party at the meetings?  Not quite.  They got their positions through their connections and to share more power would dilute theirs.  Graham needs 109 votes in the house and 23 in the senate to override Baby Blunts veto.  I hope the legislature sends a message to this lame duck governor that a little democracy is a good thing.  Graham is looking out for the best interest of MU, he always has, despite lies to the contrary.  MU is the flagship university of our state.  It needs many to navigate it through choppy waters.  The students face ever increasing tuition’s and mounting debt.  It is time that their monetary and intellectual investment in the university have a real voice on the Board of Curators

Edit:  Well I should of researched this better.  Ty for the comments.  This is what has been reported

http://www.snopes.com/politics/palin/bannedbooks.asp.

Anchorage Daily News:  Palin put the question to Wasilla librarian:  “What would you say if I asked you to remove some books from the collection”

Though what is below may be a hoax, this was a real quote from the Anchorage Daily News.  Still she did put the question to the librarian, question is…Why?

Note: Mary Ellen Baker did resign <http://www.pnla.org/quart/su99/alaska.htm> from her library director job in 1999.

Below is the hoax, notice that the Harry Potter books are listed, which were published after 1997

Here is the list of books Palin tried to have banned.

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
Blubber by Judy Blume
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
Canterbury Tales by Chaucer
Carrie by Stephen King
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Christine by Stephen King
Confessions by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Cujo by Stephen King
Curses, Hexes, and Spells by Daniel Cohen
Daddy’s Roommate by Michael Willhoite
Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Peck
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
Decameron by Boccaccio
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Fallen Angels by Walter Myers
Fanny Hill (Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure) by John Cleland
Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Forever by Judy Blume
Grendel by John Champlin Gardner
Halloween ABC by Eve Merriam
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Prizoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
………

List edited for brevity

A recent Survey USA poll of the Missouri 9th District showed Blaine Luetkemeyer with a lead over Judy Baker.

There are two good reasons not to put much stock in this new poll:

1. AUTOMATED POLLING. The first reason is that Survey USA is an automated poll that does not screen for actual voters and one that often produces wildly inaccurate results. The Associated Press does not report on automated polls because of these problems.

On the same day that the MO-09 Survey USA poll was released, Survey USA was taking some heat today for a poll in Alabama’s 2nd Congressional District where the Republican overperformed by 27 points compared to two independent telephone polls of the same race and where the Republican candidate even overperformed by 15 points compared to his own internal poll.

Survey USA showed the Republican +17 while two other Independent polls showed the Republican -10 and even the Republican’s own poll showed him only +2.

That controversy is discussed here:

http://www.swingstateproject.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=2959

But even supposing that the automated poll didn’t favor the Republican by 15 to 27 points as happened in another congressional race, there is still reason not to take Luetkemeyer’s lead too seriously.

2. RALLY BUBBLE. It should also be noted that the poll was commissioned immediately following a huge rally in Missouri’s 9th District where Luetkemeyer shared a stage and got free speaking time and extensive free earned media time with John McCain at a national convention like atmosphere. John McCain and Sarah Palin were in Missouri’s 9th District at a 23,000 person rally (the largest of McCain’s campaign) that earned tons of free local media the day before the start of the two day Survey USA poll of MO-09. McCain, Palin, Bond, Hulshof, Luetkemeyer all shared the stage at the rally along with some Country Western singers.

Any poll held immediately after an all day infomercial for one side is likely to give a rally bubble just like the DNC and RNC give convention bumps.

I’d like to see Obama come to a baseball stadium with all the popular Democrats in Missouri and then have a poll immediately after that. Baker would surely have a double-digit lead in a poll under those conditions.

Given the favorable conditions of the local events on the ground at the time of this poll for Luetkemeyer, even if one could trust Survey USA results (and any poll that has undecideds at 2% in a race where both candidates have fairly low name recognition and where the Libertarian is polling in double digits probably has some significant flaws)…the rally bubble effect would be in full force.

Given all this, I think the earlier Momentum Analysis poll showing a dead heat is probably far closer to reality.

This race is sure to be one of the closest in the country and Judy Baker needs our support to win this close race. If you donate to Judy Baker via my ActBlue page on this website anytime between now and Monday September 8th at 10PM I will match all donations between now and Monday at 10PM up to $400.

You all know the feeling.  You’re in bed and then someone’s recorded voice posing as a candidate asked for your vote.  No “Paid for by” tag line, nothing.  To the culprit of this dastardly deed, an attempt to get you to believe that their opponent had called you 2 in the morning and that you would then vote for them.  Let us not forget the candidate bashing, followed exactly 10-12 minutes later by that candidate’s opponent.  Being the AG of Missouri, he can’t stop these calls from happening, but he can enforce the law that requires robo-callers to identify themselves.  During the last primary for the 9th US Congress, only Ken Jacob and Judy Baker attributed their calls.  All the others were drive-by calls, there only to injury and then anonymously scurry away into the void.

Robo callers are put on notice.  Campaigns, don’t be fooled by the inexpensive method of communication this represents.  It is campaign snake oil and you are better off calling with live people and sending direct mail.  Robo calls by any empirical standard that I can find, don’t work

While perusing the tubes of the Internets, I came across this article on the Politico site.  It seems that Palin’s 17 year old daughter Bristol is 5 months pregnant.  Barack Obama has said to the media to lay off “these kinds of stories”  Sorry Senator, the mother of this child is going to be a heartbeat away from the presidency and has been propped up as the epitome of the conservative woman.  The right-wing has been fighting sex education in school and has implied that when a teenage girl gets pregnant, it is somehow a moral failing of her upbringing or the product of “liberal policies”.  The extreme right-wing agenda of keeping kids ignorant of birth control options has not decreased unwanted teen pregnancy.  It is my job as a liberal blogger to point out the constant hypocrisy of the Republican right-wing and to make the public aware that their pandering to “family values” is just that…pandering

More and more, we are hearing the perverted exploits of Republicans nationally and here in Missouri.  I think it is time for Americans to stop and think what are leaders are doing, not what they are saying.

Edit:  the term “underage” refers to her being under 18.  The age of consent in Alaska is 16

Three years after the horror of Katrina, I come across this Missourian article about Missouri Task Force 1 going to the Republican National Convention.   Hurricane Gustav is threatening the Gulf region.  It is unbelievable that the RNC and FEMA would think that their convention has higher priority than the possible victims of a major hurricane.  If Gustav is anything like Katrina, the Gulf coast is going to need the experience of Missouri Task force 1 which deployed twice to the region after Katrina.  Again FEMA seems to be clueless to the impending danger.  Missouri task force is one of the three closest to the Louisiana coast, the mostly likely target of Gustav.  Texas and Tennessee are the other 2. Here is the Wiki:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FEMA_Urban_Search_and_Rescue_Task_Force#Task_Force_locations

Having them up north will leave a vulnerability in emergency and Search and Rescue response.  Bush/McCain can’t blame “Brownie” this time

Well, you saw this coming.  McCain spent most of the summer complaining about Obama’s inexperience in foreign policy.  So it is the height of hypocrisy that he would pick the Alaskan governor who has only 2 years of gubernatorial experience and was chairwoman of the state’s oil and gas regulatory board.  During one of her speeches  she refers to the glass ceiling like Hillary Clinton did, in hopes in getting support from disgruntled Hillary supporters.  If there are Hillary voters that are anti-gay, anti-choice, anti-affordable health care, and racist, then they are not what Hillary stands for and will dishonor her with their idiotic and unreasonable rage.  She is being touted as the hockey mom and will be able to engage in kitchen talk.  Unless your kitchen talk involves making Alaskan oil men rich, ignoring your own medical bills, and thinking that your net-loss in income power is a bunch of whining, then you know it’s just a bunch of GOP male bovine fecal matter.

She is not ready to be vice-president, much less president.  Let’s hope regular middle class Americans wake up from their political stupor and reject this ticket