Roy Temple's blog

DNC Chairman Howard Dean today announced the selection of the Blogger Corps for the Democratic National Convention.  Fired Up Missouri was chosen to represent the Show Me State.

As part of the Democratic National Convention Committee's (DNCC) commitment to engaging a broad spectrum of audiences in the 2008 Democratic National Convention experience using new technology and other creative means, Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairman Howard Dean today announced the blogs selected to participate in the DemConvention State Blogger Corps during the four-day event in August.  Governor Dean notified the blogs selected via an online video message available at www.DemConvention.com.

Fired Up is pleased to participate in this exciting endeavor.

If you have ideas about how Fired Up can make the coverage of the convention the most interesting for our readers, share them via the tipline.

Who knew?  Apparently, The Source is still an active blog.  I long ago stopped checking it, but a friend of mine pointed out that Jeff Roe wrote another of his screeds attacking me today.

I normally wouldn't bother to comment, as I treasure Jeff's disdain for me as a testament to my good character.

However, his comments today are worthy of a response.  In his most recent post, he refers to "Roy Temple and his henchmen." 

That is way out of line.  Henchmen?  Really?

That is profoundly unfair. 

I have been amused by the recent handwringing by certain members of the so-called mainstream media about the grave perils that face our state because certain bloggers choose to use pseudonyms rather than post under their own names.

The beginning for all such bloviating is the apparently required point that anyone who blogs under a pseudonym inherently lacks credibility because they "will not attach their name to their writings." 

Too often, political journalists think they have written a balanced story as long as they have gotten a snarky quote from "both sides" and don't feel any obligation to present any insight into the objective reality of the situation. 

Allies of Governor Matt Blunt are bankrolling a campaign to "Swift Boat" Missouri's Non-Partisan Court Plan and replace it with a system where politicians pick judges.  And they have enlisted in that effort a PR firm that specializes in hatchet jobs just like the one they are currently committing on Missouri's Non-Partisan Court plan.

Today, Tim Scheiderer of CRC Public Relations spent part of his day trying to push around an editorial that his firm placed in today's Wall Street Journal. (It's a regurgitation of GOP talking points, so I won't bother linking to it.)

Anyway, since he made a personal appeal to me via email to blog about it, I decided to go ahead and write this post.  (Note to the geniuses that are paying their very high fees--Please keep spending your money on this type of cracker-jack PR judgment.)

No doubt, the folks behind this effort are hoping Missouri ends up with a system where the Chamber of Commerce bankrolls Supreme Court campaigns and elects judges who will ensure that the interests of average citizens will no longer get a hearing in Missouri courts. (That's how they do it in Texas, and those campaigns made fellows like Karl Rove, and political consultants like him, very rich.)

Most of you are probably thinking, but who is CRC Public Relations? I've never heard of them.  Are they in Jefferson City, or St. Louis or where?  Nope, wrong time zone.  It turns out that the brain trust in charge of doing in Missouri's Non-Partisan Court Plan isn't based in Missouri at all.  Instead, they're in Alexandria, VA.

And here's the best part.  This is the same firm that was in charge of doing PR for the Swift Boat Veterans For Truth.

So Tim, you're right, this is a great topic for me to post about.  But somehow, I doubt this is what you had in mind.

As Carol Burnett used to sing at the end of her show, "I'm so glad we had this time, together." After two years of political commentary, today will be Fired Up's last day of publication.

When we started, we set a goal of holding the Blunt Administration up to public scrutiny, to holding them accountable, and when appropriate, holding them up to public ridicule.

The recent absurdity of Team Blunt's behavior has made it nearly impossible to write commentary that is any more outrageous than their actual behavior.

We think it's been of value to point out their corruption in the fee office matter, the way they mishandled the Fred Ferrell matter, or the way they decided to sell MOHELA for $50,000 in contributions from Goldman Sachs. But once the Chief of Staff starts issuing 8 press releases in 10 days, how can we possible embarrass them any more than they are already embarrassing themselves?

http://dfalink.com/event.php?id=17117

Below are comments by former Vice President Walter Mondale on Senator Tom Eagleton:

Tom Eagleton was one of the most important public men of our time. Brilliant, gutsy, funny, serious, loyal, progressive, and impatient, he was a central figure in our nation's high tide of civic reform and social justice. If you wonder whether it is possible for a public official to be honest, caring and selfless and worthy of your trust, just look at the life of Tom Eagleton; Tom was that way every day of his life.  Story Continued »

Missouri's first woman Lt. Governor, Harriett Woods has died after a long battle with leukemia. Woods was also twice the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate from Missouri.

I last saw Harriett in Washington, DC on the day Claire McCaskill was sworn in as the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate from Missouri, and Nancy Pelosi was sworn in as the first woman Speaker of the U.S. House. Despite the obvious toll the leukemia had taken on Harriett, she was absolutely beaming.

CNN's Anderson Cooper had Senator Kit Bond on last night for State of the Union reaction. Anderson gave a shout out to the Columbia Daily Tribune and pinned Bond down on his, "I was against the surge before I was for the surge" contortions.

Also, Bond proposed breaking America's promise to seniors by means-testing Medicare.

Watch it here.

The ongoing feud between bloggers over the bet between Governors Ted Kulongoski and Matt Blunt over the outcome of the Sun Bowl continued to spiral out of control after a blog-posting by the Columbia Daily Tribune inspired yet another round of attacks from the "Loaded Orygun."

Though by the end of their latest rant, Loaded Orygun was showing signs that they might ultimately "cut and run" in their support of the "Beavers."

When Senator Rob Mayer decided to criticize Attorney General Jay Nixon for his recent remarks at the dedication of a homeless shelter, he probably didn't realize that his own response would reinforce Nixon's original point.

Apparently Mayer was offended by Nixon saying:

"Too often there are those who say they have Christian values," Nixon said in his remarks at the dedication of the center, a homeless shelter. "Too often they talk the talk but they don't walk the walk.

 Story Continued »

The latest effort by the killers of hope in Missouri, namely Senator Matt Bartle and Rep. Jim Lembke, to ignore the will of the people and impose their own alternative view of reality has already drawn national attention.

Check out this piece from the Center for American Progress.

Normally, betting between politicians over sporting events is a rather civilized affair, with little political consequence for either side, but Governor Ted Kulongoski is drawing fire for his recent bet with Governor Matt Blunt.

The controversy seems to have settled in around two key issues.

1.) That Kulongoski, a Mizzou alum--both undergrad and law, is betting against his own alma mater, and

2.) That Blunt's offer for a Missouri loss is somehow inadequate.

Missouri education groups took the extraordinary step today of opposing Governor Blunt's recent appointment of an anti-public school advocate to the State Board of Education.

It's bad enough that pro-public school groups were forced to take this step, but there's an even more shocking aspect to this appointment. The anti-public school group--The Friedman Foundation--paid thousands of dollars to have their ally appointed to the State Board.

Last December, the Friedman Foundation hired Andy Blunt to secure the appointment of Donayle E. Whitmore-Smith to the Board of Education. Whitmore-Smith is a favorite of the Friedman Foundation. She was featured in their publication in Februrary of 2005.