Tag Archives: Missouri

January 30, 2013 · 11:22 PM

An Emotional Call to Action on Gun Violence (TFC Evening Wrap-up)

What Gabby Said

Former Rep. Gabby Giffords was shot in the head two years ago this month in a shooting that also left six of her constituents dead, including a nine year-old girl. In the wake of the Newtown gun massacre, Giffords and her husband, Mark Kelly, founded Americans for Responsible Solutions, a group that “will encourage elected officials to stand up for solutions to prevent gun violence and protect responsible gun ownership.”

Today the Senate Senate Judiciary Committee, which is expected to begin formal work on a gun violence prevention bill in the next month, held a hearing that opened with a statement from Giffords. Giffords told the senators that “the time is now,” they “must act,” and must “be bold.”

Watch Giffords challenge senators to deal with America’s gun violence epidemic:

Giffords’ handwritten testimony:

BOTTOM LINE: Gabby Giffords is right. Americans are counting on our political leaders to summon the courage to take commonsense steps to address the gun violence epidemic that results in 33 Americans being murdered each and every day.

The Progress Report

The study the NRA’s top Washington lobbyist hopes you won’t actually look up.

Teenager who performed at the Inauguration last week was gunned down yesterday in Chicago.

Senator catches the NRA’s top Washington lobbyist in an epic flip-flop on background checks.

GOP senator: people need to arm themselves because GOP-forced budget cuts will mean fewer cops.

Missouri bill would force all first-graders to take NRA-sponsored gun class.

Communism, polygamy, and human cloning are more popular than NRA lobbyists’ position on gun violence.

Republican witness claims mothers need an AR-15 assault rifle to defend their children.

Meet the nine year-old girl who would likely still be alive today if high-capacity magazines were illegal.

Another shooting happened as the Senate held its hearing on gun violence.

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October 1, 2012 · 9:40 AM

Todd Akin in a ditch, still digging

Rachel Maddow Blog

Rep. Todd Akin, the right-wing U.S. Senate candidate in Missouri, made matters worse for himself last week when he complained about Sen. Claire McCaskill’s (D) capacity to be “ladylike.” It led the usually understated Chris Cillizza to marvel at Akin’s “devastatingly bad candidacy.”

It can, however, get worse.

In this undated clip, we see Akin fielding a question from a voter who asked about the congressman’s vote against the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. “Why do you think it is okay for a woman to be paid less for doing the same work as a man?” the audience member asked.

Ordinarily, the standard line from far-right officials is that women aren’t paid less than men, all evidence to the contrary notwithstanding. Akin, however, seemed to suggest wage discrimination simply isn’t a problem for government to address.

“I believe in free enterprise,” Akin said. “I don’t think the government should be telling people what you pay and what you don’t pay. I think it’s about freedom. If someone wants to hire somebody and they agree on a salary, that’s fine, however it wants to work. So, the government sticking its nose into all kinds of things has gotten us into huge trouble.”

In other words, we don’t need anti-discrimination laws at all. As far as this U.S. Senate candidate is concerned, if a woman takes a job and gets paid less than men doing the same work, it’s her fault — laws just aren’t necessary.

Unless Missouri Republicans have a plan to disenfranchise women between now and Election Day, I suspect there will be quite a gender gap in this race.

Incidentally, an Akin campaign consultant last week also compared Akin to cult leader David Koresh. It was apparently intended to be complimentary.

Update: How tarnished is Akin’s reputation at this point? Democrats have begun using him against other Republicans as far away from Missouri as New York.

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August 21, 2012 · 11:50 AM

Todd Akin: The man who said too much

Todd Akin: The man who said too much

I think David Axelrod was spot when he said that the Republican Establishment is not really upset with what Todd Akin said.  They are upset with Todd Akin for letting the proverbial “cat out of the bag”.

The GOP did not want to “broadcast” their true views during election season for fear of backlash from women and independents.

Salon

The Republican Party turned on Todd Akin because he made plain their creeping extremism and political strategy

When Missouri’s Republican candidate for the Senate said that  “legitimate rape” rarely causes pregnancy, not only was Todd Akin echoing the extreme anti-abortion positions held by many in his party, he was exemplifying the creeping extremism within the Republican Party on women’s issues and far more.  In the new, extremist Republican Party, Akin is not an aberration.  He is merely the latest canary in a coalmine of crazy.

Along with Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan, Akin was an original co-sponsor of the “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act” — which, originally, narrowed the federal definition of rape to restrict the ability of women and girls to use Medicaid dollars and tax-exempt health spending accounts to terminate pregnancies resulting from rape. Akin has since said he “misspoke” in his “legitimate rape” remarks, but the legislation he and Paul Ryan sponsored similarly re-labeled rape as “forcible rape” — creepily suggesting there are other, more acceptable versions. What’s more creepy? These are not fringe opinions expressed by powerless lunatics at teeny right-wing organizations. These are the opinions of over 200 Republican members of Congress, one of whom is the party’s candidate for the United States Senate in Missouri and one of whom is the party’s candidate for Vice President.

Yes, the Republican establishment is condemning Akin’s remarks and distancing itself from his candidacy. But let’s be clear: Akin is only guilty of saying out loud what many Republican leaders think and legislate on the basis of.   Talking Points Memo has detailed other Republican leaders throughout the years who have questioned that rape can lead to pregnancy and prominent Republican leaders like Mike Huckabee and  Bobby Jindal oppose abortions under all circumstances, including rape. Both will be speaking at the Republican National Convention next week. Moreover, the many Republicans pushing back against Akin seem more concerned with preserving the dignity of the Republican Party than protecting the dignity and rights of women who have been raped.

Continue reading here…

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August 17, 2012 · 9:24 PM

GOP Senate Candidate Suggests The Voting Rights Act Of 1965 Should Be Overturned

Think Progress

Rep. Todd Akin, the GOP’s candidate for U.S. Senate in Missouri, suggested in an interview that it was time to “look at or overturn” the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Asked directly if seminal federal civil rights legislation that prohibits discriminatory voting procedures needed to be modified or scrapped, Akin said that states — not the federal government — should set voting rules. According to Akin, elections “have historically always been a state thing” and that’s a “good principle.”

Fired Up Missouri has the video from St. Louis Fox 2

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 prohibits the states from implementing voting procedures that “discriminate on the basis of race, color or membership in a language minority group.” The law built on the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which “prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin in programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance.”

Akin has a reputation for extreme views on a variety of topics.

Fox 2 is scheduled to release more of their interview with Akin on Sunday.

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June 12, 2012 · 7:58 AM

KKK seeks to ‘Adopt-A-Highway’ in Georgia

Ku Klux Klan (KKK) members at 2009 rally (Flickr/Arete13)

I would say “only in Georgia”, but it happened in another state as well…

The Raw Story

The state of Georgia is in a bind after a local Ku Klux Klan (KKK) group filed a request to join the state’s Adopt-A-Highway program.

Records obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution show that the International Keystone Knights of the KKK in Union County has applied to “adopt” one mile of Route 515, located in the Appalachian Mountains near North Carolina. The state would be forced to give the group official recognition in the form of road signs bearing their name and other benefits in return for cleaning up litter on the stretch of highway.

A spokesperson for the Georgia Department of Transportation told Raw Story that he was aware of the request but could not say more.

The state of Missouri in 1999 argued that they could bar a KKK group from participating in the Adopt-A-Highway program without violating their First Amendment rights. With the help of the American Civil Liberties Union, the group eventually won after the state’s case was dismissed by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Officials from the Georgia Department of Transportation were meeting with lawyers in the state attorney general’s office on Monday to decide how to proceed. In the end, the state could be forced to include the white supremacist group or end the program altogether.

Continue reading here…

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May 26, 2012 · 7:54 PM

West Wing Week: 5/25/2012 or “We Are Not Meant to Walk This Road Alone”

The White House

This week, the President announced a major new initiative on food security, hosted the G8 and NATO summits, gave the commencement addresses in Joplin, Missouri and at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, and traveled to Iowa to urge Congress to act on the “To Do List,” invest in clean energy, and extend the Production Tax Credit that has bipartisan support.

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February 10, 2012 · 4:52 PM

Romney’s CPAC Speech Has An Epic Stagecraft Fail

TPM2012

The awkward elements of Mitt Romney’s speech at CPAC Friday began even before the GOP frontrunner opened his mouth.

Like all the high-profile speakers before him, Romney delivered his address from the CPAC main stage at a Marriot hotel in Washington, DC. That means he stood behind a pair of teleprompters and in front of a pair of fake Grecian columns.

Just the other night, when he was giving his address amid the defeats in Missouri, Minnesota and Colorado, Romney took a shot at the man he’s trying to oust from the White House for – well – using teleprompters and standing in front of fake columns. Here’s part of the transcript from Romney’s Colorado speech on February 7):

Three years ago, Barack Obama came to Colorado to accept his Party’s nomination. He rented out a huge stadium. He hauled in some Styrofoam Greek columns and two giant screens to set the mood. On that big stage in Denver, he made some even bigger promises.

At either side of Romney while he spoke at CPAC?   Two giant screens. Of course, all the other speakers had appeared with the same stagecraft, but they hadn’t just recently attacked President Obama for using that exact set-up.

Continue reading…

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February 9, 2012 · 4:13 AM

Holy Rick Santorum, Batman!

As usual, Mario Piperni pegs yet another conservative!

Mario Piperni

No two ways about it, Rick Santorum had a good night. Not only did he sweep Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri but he also got off the best line of the night.

“I don’t stand here to claim to be the conservative alternative to Mitt Romney. I stand here to be the conservative alternative to Barack Obama.”

A slap to the side of the head of Romney while pushing him aside and casting himself as the one and only true conservative who has the creds to take on the Kenyan guy – and he did it with a single sentence. Impressive.

Is there more to this Santorum fellow than any of us give him credit for?

Not really. He’s still the bigoted, narrow-minded, gay-bashing, religious zealot you always knew him to be. The only reason people are still talking about Santorum at this stage of a Republican primary is that he’s fortunate enough to be running at a time when the GOP decided to put on a clown show instead of a true presidential nomination race where thinking adults articulate intelligent ideas based on strong conservative ideals.

Instead, the GOP has offered the likes of Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, Herman Cain, Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich who have embarrassed themselves and insulted the intelligence of Americans with…

  • Wanting to do away with the minimum wage. (Bachmann)
  • Wanting to build a 20 foot high electrified fence at the border that would kill Mexicans attempting to cross it. (Cain)
  • Wanting to eliminate Dept. of Education/Energy/Health and Human Services, the Federal Aviation Administration, IRS and implement a $1 trillion budget cut in the first year. (Paul)
  • Wanting to deregulate the oil industry further because the Gulf oil spill was simply an “act of God”. (Perry)
  • Wanting to colonize the moon. (Gingrich)

You could fill pages with stuff like this. Whatever world Republican candidates are hoping to make better, it sure as hell isn’t the one we’re living in.

And into this field of misfits, loons, pretenders and grifters comes a Rick Santorum whose main appeal is to social conservatives who agree with Santorum that:

“Many of the Christian faith have said, well, that’s okay, contraception is okay. It’s not okay. It’s a license to do things in a sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be.”

Fear not. Rick Santorum will not be the Republican nominee. While he may be the anti-Romney flavor of the week, he lacks the the organization and money to take on Mitt Romney nationwide. He also lacks the support of the Republican establishment which is putting its money on Romney. They understand that selling Romney to the masses in a general election will not be an easy task but selling a hardcore crazy evangelical like Rick Santorum would be an impossible task.

Enjoy the moment, Rick, as fleeting as it may be.

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May 30, 2011 · 5:35 AM

Obama Visits Joplin, MO (Video)

 

After a long trip overseas, President Obama wasted no time meeting his obligation as “comforter-in-chief” visiting the people and the city of Joplin, MO after a series of devastating tornadoes hit the area last week…

Huffington Post

Face to face with the legions of homeless and the bereaved, President Barack Obama on Sunday toured the apocalyptic landscape left by Missouri’s killer tornado, consoled the community and committed the government to helping rebuild shattered lives.

Obama said survivors of the disaster in Joplin are showing the world how to come together, and he pledged that the nation, as he put it, “will be with you every step of the way.”

Obama spoke at a memorial service for victims on Sunday. He said it’s impossible to know when or why such devastation strikes. But he praised neighbors for helping each other at great risk to themselves. He said there are heroes “around us all the time.”

“This is not just your tragedy. This is a national tragedy, and that means there will be a national response,” Obama said.

Air Force One flew over a massive swath of brown as far as the eye could see – a landscape of flattened houses and stripped trees – on its approach to Joplin. Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon and others greeted him on the tarmac before they set out for their first stop, a walking tour of a destroyed neighborhood. A memorial service punctuated a day of remembrance one week after the disaster.

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May 24, 2011 · 5:56 PM

GOP: NO DISASTER RELIEF WITHOUT BUDGET CUTS

“The disaster aid package would be financed by a $1.5 billion cut from a loan program to encourage the production of fuel-effic­ient vehicles.”

Well that’s a nice neat way of kissing the oil industries ass and kicking  the people of Joplin, Mo. to the curb!

The Huffington Post

In the aftermath of Sunday’s devastating tornado in Joplin, Mo., a key House panel has approved a $1 billion aid package to make sure federal disaster relief accounts don’t run out before the end of the budget year in September.

The Appropriations panel approved the measure by voice vote as an amendment to a measure funding the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other Department of Homeland Security programs for the 2012 fiscal year beginning Oct. 1.

The disaster aid package would be financed by a $1.5 billion cut from a loan program to encourage the production of fuel-efficient vehicles. That means the new spending wouldn’t add to out-of-control budget deficits.

Continue reading…

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