Barney Fisher

From the Missouri News Horizon: "An amendment that would require presidential candidates to present proof of natural born citizenship was trimmed from an omnibus election law reform bill. The amendment was removed, along with several others, by a joint conference committee in hopes that the final bill can pass by the end of the legislative session on Friday."

It's great to see reasonable people prevail on this matter, especially given the many birther and birther-curious legislators in the General Assembly.

During a Workforce Development Committee hearing today, Chairman Barney Fisher (R-Richards) took democracy into his own hands. The committee was getting ready to vote on Senate Bill 188, legislation sponsored by Sen. Brad Lager that would eliminate individual liability in employment discrimination cases and put limits on the amount of damages the employee is able to collect.

Rep. Stephen Webber (D-Columbia) offered an amendment to change commas to semicolons in one section to clarify that the caps on damages only applied to categories other than lost wages. After the explanation of the amendment, Fisher called for a voice vote.  All of the Democrats and some Republicans voted Aye. Only Fisher and Glen Klippenstein (R-Maysville) voted no -- but Fisher called the vote for the noes.

After a moment of stunned silence and gasps from the audience, Webber asked to appeal the call and have a role call vote on the amendment. Fisher looked at him and said succinctly, "No."

Minutes later, after another failed amendment attempt, Fischer voted the bill out without calling for more discussion. Rep. Kevin McManus (D-Kansas City) protested that he too wanted to offer an amendment. Fisher dismissed his request, and told him he would have to wait for floor debate. 

Rep. Barney Fisher (R-Richards), a man rarely acused of being a hippie librul, adds his name to the list of Republican leaders in the General Assembly who are unimpressed with the Jim Lembke-led filibuster that jeopardizes extended unemployment money for struggling families.

Lembke and three other Republican senators have stymied the bill by threatening to filibuster it. But most Republicans in the GOP-dominated Legislature support it. The House passed the bill easily, on a vote of 123-14 on Feb. 1.

Its sponsor, Rep. Barney Fisher, R-Nevada, said that while he understands Lembke's point, he also understands the needs of those who are out of work.

"Political philosophical standpoints make great discussions but they don't put food on the table," he said.

He noted that the state accepts millions in federal dollars for education, health care, highways and other projects, but senators aren't suggesting those funds be returned.

"I would admire them if they had the courage of their convictions and filed bills to send back every federal dollar, but to just do this is inappropriate," Fisher said.

Orly Taitz would be proud

The Missouri General Assembly continued its proud tradition today of teasing and supporting the completely insane right-wing conspiracy that President Barack Obama is actually a illegal Kenyan immigrant. 

As summarized by the Star's Jason Noble:

HOUSE BILL 283: RETURN OF THE BIRTHERS!

Questions apparently remain about President Barack Obama‘s citizenship and eligibility for the office he’s held for the last 25 months.

That was the clearest conclusion from this morning’s hearing on House Bill 283, which would require the Missouri Secretary of State to verify the citizenship of all presidential and vice presidential candidates appearing on the state’s ballots.

The News-Leader reports that bill sponsor Lyle Rowland  (R-Cedarcreek) couldn't say "how many times a non-citizen had been on the ballot as a presidential or vice presidential candidate."    A few weeks ago, Rowland told Politico that "we have problems with illegal immigrants. And if something were to happen where one of them became popular with the people, we need documents proving if they are a citizen."

Sadly, there is no space between the fringe and mainstream GOP on this issue in Missouri.  Majority Floor Leader Tim Jones and then-Rep. Cynthia Davis sued a certain president in 2009 with Orly Taitz, alleging that he was an illegal Kenyan immigrant who happened to become popular with the people. Sen. Roy Blunt may be the highest ranking birther-curious official in the country; he declared during his Senate campaign that birthers were asking "legitimate" questions about Obama's birth records, and scolded journalists in Southwest Missouri for lacking the "capacity to talk about that [Obama's citizenship] in a legitimate way."

Randy Turner speaks the truth in this week's column about Missouri Republicans' inability to move beyond conspiracy theories about Barack Obama's birth certificate: 

At a time when Missourians are suffering due to the continuing harmful effects of a downward-spiraling economy, the last thing we need to see is our legislators pandering to the extreme fringes of their constituency. Put Missourians back to work and put the birthers back under the baseboards where they belong.

This year's birther adventure comes in the form of HB 283, sponsored by Lyle Rowland (R-Cedarcreek) and co-sponsored by Mike Kelley (R-Lamar), Kevin Elmer (R-Nixa), Don Wells (R-Kwik Kash), Darrell Pollack (R-Lebanon), Don Phillips (R-Kimberling City), Shane Schoeller (R-Willard), Barney Fisher (R-Richards), Melissa Leach (R-Springfield), Stanley Cox (R-Sedalia), Tom Loehner (R-Koeltztown), Dave Hinson (R-St. Clair), Lindell Shumake (R-Hannibal), Jason Smith (R-Salem), Andrew Koenig (R-Winchester) and Diane Franklin (R-Camdenton).

For reasons I won't pretend to understand, twelve Republican state representatives voted against extended unemployment benefits yesterday (HB 1544).

The legislation sponsored by Rep. Barney Fisher (R-Richards) passed 143-12, and will allow more than 62,000 Missourians to receive extended unemployment benefit, and not cost the state a dime.

Jason Brown, birther Cynthia Davis, birther Ed Emery, Doug Ervin, birther Tim Jones, Andrew Koenig, Will Kraus, Mike Leara, Brian Nieves, Mark Parkinson, Tom Self and Bryan Stevenson all opposed the extension.

The crazy for-profit birthermercial we mentioned last week did indeed air on KSPR last week. The general manager for KY3, Inc. (which runs KSPR) said "the opinions of this particular program may be a minority of our viewers, but certainly I think this group has the right to express themselves. I don't think it's libelous in any fashion."

In his story, Catanese said the conspiracy theorists "may be a fringe movement," and the post on the story at The Turner Report described the birthers as the "lunatic fringe." While I certainly agree that the birthers' accusations are pure lunacy, it's important to remember that the alleged "fringe" includes a disturbing number of high-ranking leaders in the Missouri Republican Party.  

One of the happier moments of Friday's madness was the legislature's decision to enable more out-of-work Missourians to collect unemployment benefits, and for a longer period. Facing 25-year-high unemployment numbers, the about-face from legislative leaders didn't come a moment too soon. 

Under the legislation passed Friday, unemployed workers can collect additional weeks of benefits when the state unemployment rate exceeds 6.5% through December, and workers can also receive benefits if they lose their jobs due to a "compelling family reason." The state is eligible for $133 million in federal stimulus money to fund the benefits.

The legislature's change of heart is particularly interesting because of the vociferous opposition from Lt. Governor Peter Kinder to any kind of extension or expansion of unemployment benefits with federal recovery dollars. Kinder, you may recall, even described the stimulus money for said benefits as a "bribe."

The Missouri House Veterans Committee voted 6-5 yesterday against a proposal by Rep. Stephen Webber (D-Columbia) that would pay deployed state employees the difference between their regular pay and their military pay

Committee Chairman David Day (R-Dixon) opposed the bill because it would single out those on active military duty for "special treatment."

I have a real concern with separating out one relatively small segment and saying, "We’re going to give you this special safety net that we’re not going to provide anyone else."

If any segment of the population is undeserving of special treatment, it's those self-absorbed nogoodnicks on active duty. At least they kept the special treatment for deployed politicians intact.

Rep. Robert Cooper has withdrawn his constitutional amendment calling for the state to inspect Barack Obama's birth certificate.  As far as I know, he hasn't actually acknowledged that Obama is a legitimate President yet, but at least he's give up on writing the conspiracy theory into our constitution.

For now, anyway.

Hat tip to ShowMeProgress.com for noticing the change.

It appears that Rep. Cynthia Davis wants to join Rep. Timothy Jones as a plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging Barack Obama's citizenship.

Davis and Jones subscribe to a right-wing conspiracy theory alleging that Obama is actually an Indonesian man named Barry Soetoro (no joke). Right-wing Republicans have been obsessed with Obama's birth certificate and citizenship for a long time, but their half-baked ideas have been shot down again and again. (A great summary of the Birther movement and the embarrassment they're causing the Republican Party can be found here on Politico.com.)

A new constitutional amendment from House Republicans, ostensibly written to protect voters from fraud, is actually a vehicle for the Capitol Crazies to peddle fraudulent conspiracy theories about President Obama.

Rep. Robert Cooper's Voter ID proposal includes language that would require the Missouri Secretary of State to request the official birth certificate of presidential candidates to independently verify their authenticity.  And not just future candidates -- Cooper wants the Secretary of State to independently verify the citizenship status of every previous presidential candidate.

Of course, Cooper and his 15 co-sponsors only really care about the birth certificate of one presidential candidate: Barack Obama.  Right-wing Republicans have been obsessed with Obama's birth certificate and citizenship for months, but their half-baked ideas keep geting shot down again and again and again. The facts haven't slowed them down yet, though, and Cooper is hoping to make Missouri the first state to actually write the insanity into our constitution.

Here are the key parts of Cooper's proposed bill:

The secretary of state shall determine that each person is qualified for the office he or she seeks, according to the law, before placing his or her name on the ballot.

For candidates who are required by the Constitution of the United States to be natural born citizens, the secretary of state shall request an official copy of the candidate’s birth certificate.

Other certifications, such as a certificate of live birth, shall not be accepted.

Should any candidate fail to provide an official birth certificate within thirty days of the request by the secretary of state, his or her name shall not be placed on the ballot.

The secretary of state shall verify the qualifications of any elected officeholder who was previously placed on a Missouri ballot. Should any elected officeholder fail to provide the required documentation or birth certificate within thirty days of the request by the secretary of state, the secretary of state shall turn the matter over to the attorney general who shall within twenty days file suit to obtain the required documentation.

This is obviously targeted at the Presidency -- it's the only office to require natural born citizenship. And while Barack Obama has provided an official, certified copy of his birth certificate, it's been tough to satisfy these fringe groups with the facts.