Shane Schoeller

I would hope that Peter Kinder, Shane Schoeller and their anti-worker ilk in the Missouri legislature would pause for a minute after reading the following article out of Wisconsin.  Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin has said that he SUPPORTS the prevailing wage and has NO INTENTION of pushing Right to Work for Less.

Got that?  It bears repeating: one of the nation's most extreme anti-worker politicians is opposed to Right to Work for Less and supports the prevailing wage.

Walker won't push Right-to-Work legislation

Right-to-work legislation continues to be a contentious issue around the country, particularly in Indiana.

But don't look for Gov. Scott Walker to raise the issue in Wisconsin, particularly after the bruising battle over collective bargaining and public-sector unions.

Cullen Werwie, Walker's spokesman, said the governor would not be introducing any right-to-work legislation in Wisconsin.

That's what Terrance E. McGowan, business manager of Operating Engineers Local 139, believes, too.[...]

McGowan said he spoke with Walker's campaign at the time to underscore that the union was in favor of prevailing wage laws and was opposed to right-to-work laws.

Even after Peter Kinder couldn't even get a second for his attack on working families at last week's Missouri Housing Development Commission hearing, some radical legislators in the Missouri House have decided that they will try to outright eliminate Missouri's prevailing wage.

If these right-wing legislators have their way, Missouri will no longer have a prevailing wage - at all, an attack that goes even further than Kinder's original proposal.  Rep. Bill White (R-Joplin) has introduced legislation that is being cosponsored by none other than Secretary of State wannabe Rep. Shane Schoeller (R-Willard). Additionally, Rep. Mike Kelley (R-Lamar), Rep. Rodney Schad (R-Versailles) and Rep. Charlie Davis (R-Webb City) have agreed to cosponsor this egregious attack on working families and their own constituents. 

The prevailing wage protects communities and workers from unscrupulous contractors low-balling bids on taxpayer-funded construction projects by setting wage rates to the local or prevailing standard, but Rep. White, Rep. Schoeller, Rep. Kelley, Rep. Schad, and Rep. Davis would obviously rather use the Joplin tornado and it's tragic aftermath as a pawn in an effort to pad the pockets of rich developers at the expense of workers' paychecks.

Previously, Rep. White has focused on the profits that developers would lose if Missouri keeps the prevailing wage, completely deaf to the fact that by eliminating the prevailing wage, you slash workers' paychecks.  Workers who will spend their pay in Joplin, stimulating the local economy and helping their community recover.  White's own words:

"The wage increases will mean a lower profit or lower quality or both.”

It should be noted that Rep. White's and Rep. Davis' own districts encompass a large swath of Joplin which was destroyed in this past summer's F5 tornado, and a significant number of their constituents have no doubt been hit hard by an economy that has been doubly hit by the recession as well as a natural disaster.

I'll reiterate what has been written previously, that if these heartless lawmakers were truly concerned with putting Joplin back together again, they'd stand opposed to any effort against the prevailing wage.  Unfortunately, it's obvious these radical legislators are more focused on ensuring that the rich can continue to profit, even at the expense of working families trying to rebuild their devastated community.

Fortunately, these sorts of attacks on Missouri's prevailing wage have been defeated in previous legislative sessions.  One can hope that this will be the case in 2012 and these reprehensible attacks on workers, their families and their wages will again never make it to the governor's desk.

Q: What do Lt. Gov Peter Kinder, Sen Pro Tem Rob Mayer and State Rep Shane Schoeller have in common?

A: Um, all of them are not running for Governor?

Well, that's true too, but moving on.

Unless you spent all day yesterday reading about Deidre Pujols or a certain $10,000 gaffe, you likely heard about the scathing editorial written about Schoeller and his colleagues jumping on the opportunity to undermine prevailing wage laws in rebuilding tornado-torn Joplin. But as the PD points out, this is not only downright mean - it's a little preplanned.

The Missouri legislature started pre-filing some of the legisation they're expected to consider come January 4, 2012.  If you're so inclined, you can head here for the House or here for the Senate for full lists of what's been filed so far.

If you take the time to mosey on through the list of what's been filed in the House, you'll find this gem, HB 1046, filed by Lyle Rowland of the 143rd district in Southwest Missouri.

HOUSE BILL NO. 1046
96TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Requires proof of identity and proof of United States citizenship for the office of President and Vice President to be submitted with the other required certification documents to the Secretary of State

Such certification shall provide verifiable evidence of identity and of proof of status as a natural born citizen of the United States for each nominee and the origins of such evidence. Such evidence shall be in the form of the most complete record of birth available by the controlling legal authority at the time of the nominee's birth.

It would seem that sheer insanity and birtherism is alive and well in the Missouri legislature.  No word yet on whether Speker-to-be Birther Tim Jones has endorsed this piece of legislation.

Update: It should be noted that last year's version of the Birther Bill was cosponsored by Shane Schoeller who is wants to be Missouri's next Secretary of Birthers State.

You're not going to believe this, but I have it good authority that Republican Photo ID bills have absolutely nothing to do with their stated purpose (i.e. fraud), and are entirely about skewing elections in favor of Republicans by creating hurdles for otherwise eligible voters to cast ballots. 

The Joplin Globe, however, takes SOS candidate Shane Schoeller at his word when he says he's super duper concerned with fraud he can't find, but reaches the same conclusion: Schoeller's photo ID bill is bad news, and disenfranchises Missourians.  From a new editorial: 

[Schoeller's proposal] would go a long way to further disenfranchise voters.

Voter ID has been a contentious subject in Missouri. The state Supreme Court struck down a photo ID law in 2006, ruling that it infringed on the fundamental right to vote granted by the Missouri Constitution...

If Missouri legislators can show us instances of voter fraud in our own state, then we would gladly review our position. Until then, we don’t think photo ID should be implemented.

Video of Speaker Steve Tilley speaking this afternoon after the House adjourned, via Jason Rosenbaum. 

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.

Roy Blunt going full birther in 2009

The National Journal has a story today featuring GOP consultants begging DC reporters to believe that the birther nonsense their party has fostered as a political strategy for years now is just a "sideshow" that no "responsible Republican" has been talking about. 

I suppose it all depends on how you define "responsible." Long before Donald Trump cynically decided to talk about Barack Obama's citizenship as a way to generate ridiculous amounts of media attention and boost his poll numbers with GOP primary votes, ostensibly "responsible" Republicans in Washington, Missouri and every other state worked to nurture doubts and lies about the President's citizenship. 

Here in the Show-Me State, Roy Blunt, Majority Leader/Future Speker Tim Jones and a long list of other GOP state legislators have all been a part of this garbage -- with almost no condemnation or attention from mainstream media voices.  Just last week, the Missouri Birther Caucus added language to a omnibus elections bill championed by GOP Speaker Pro Tem Shane Schoeller, Jason Smith (R-Salem), Lyle Rowland  (R-Cedarcreek), Mike Kelley (R-Lamar), Kevin Elmer (R-Nixa), Don Wells (R-Kwik Kash), Darrell Pollack (R-Lebanon), Don Phillips (R-Kimberling City), 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), Andrew Koenig (R-Winchester) and Diane Franklin (R-Camdenton) to keep the conspiracy drumpbeat alive.

So if GOP consultants and elites are willing to say that Blunt, Jones and the rest of the bunch have been irresponsible, I'll be happy to agree.  But if the reasonable public is being asked to accept some pre-2012 spin that this is just a "fringe" conspiracy theory that doesn't have wide acceptance with allegedly mainstream Republicans, then fahgettaboudit.

----------------------

In completely unrelated news: "Forty-five percent of registered Republicans think Obama was born outside the U.S., 33 percent believe he was and 22 percent don't know, per the results of a CBS News/New York Times survey."

Kurt Bahr is bored with actual issues and legislation already

Representatives Kurt Bahr (R-St. Charles), Andrew Koenig (R-Winchester), Shane Schoeller (R-Willard), Melissa Leach (R-Springfield), Kathie Conway (R-St. Charles) and Thomas Long (R-Battlefield) are sponsoring legislation (HB1010) to make it a crime -- a crime!-- when any federal or state employee "enforces or attempts to enforces" any part of the federal health care reform law. 

From the bill as proposed:

4. Any official, agent, or employee of the United States government or any employee of a corporation providing services to the United States government that enforces or attempts to enforce an act, order, law, statute, rule, or regulation of the government of the United States in violation of this section is guilty of a class D felony.

5. Any public officer or employee of this state that enforces or attempts to enforce an act, order, law, statute, rule, or regulation of the government of the United States in violation of this section is guilty of a class A misdemeanor.

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).

Over at the conservative RiteOn blog, conservative activist and website founder Chuck MacNab writes about a meeting at the offices of Sen. Jim Lembke he says he attended on Saturday.  According to MacNab, Lembke was joined by Sen. Jane Cunningham and representatives of numerous other conservative organizations and campaigns to focus on three goals for the 2010 elections.

A dedicated group of experienced conservative leaders met for about 4 hours in State Senator Jim Lembke's office in St. Louis Saturday morning, January 9. RiteOn observed a common view and single mindedness among these area leaders that, if allowed to mature, could spell big trouble for RINOS and liberals and impact the status of many who currently believe they control the Republican Party.

Three objectives emerged from the meeting:

- To replace non-conservative candidates and office holders with conservatives in the August Primary elections.

- To make certain a conservative candidate wins in the General election in November.

- To support conservative sponsored ballot issues and to defeat those issues the group opposes.

Rep. Sue Allen: "I don’t know how my name got on [Jetton's client] list. He wasn't consulting with my campaign."

Rep. Shane Shoeller: Last night, Schoeller said, "If the allegations are true, he will have no place in my campaign...The allegations are serious and I'm taking it seriously." This afternoon, Schoeller said he "severed all ties" with Jetton's firm and its employees.

Speaker Ron Richard: "The allegations against former Speaker Jetton are extremely serious. I feel very sad for each of the families that have been affected. Right now, it is important to let the prosecutors, judge and jury begin their work to determine whether the charges are accurate. If the allegations prove to be true, Jetton should be prepared to accept the full legal and other consequences of his actions."

Sen. Rob Mayer is "shocked and disappointed," and says he hasn't paid Jetton any money since early this year. 

A partial list:

• Senator Jason Crowell
• Senator Luann Ridgeway
• Majority Floor Leader Steve Tilley
• Senator Rob Mayer
• Majority Whip Brian Nieves
• Rep. Sue Allen
• Rep. Tim Jones
• Rep. Shelley Keeney
• Rep. Rob Schaaf
• Rep. Shane Schoeller
• Rep. Rick Stream
• Rep. Dwight Scharnhors
• Rep. Don Ruzicka
• Mattie Ransom for Liberty School Board
• Jeff Moore for Liberty City Council

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.  

Once upon a time, Rep. Bob Dixon wanted a series of hearings to retread information we already knew about MIAC's controversial Modern Militia report. Speaker Ron Richard acquiesced, and Dixon convened a hearing in June.  At that hearing, Dixon promised future grandstanding in Springfield, St. Louis and Kansas City, and wanted to schedule those hearings ASAP.

What happened?

Don't Dixon, Jim Guest, Shane Schoeller and Jim Viebrock want to be on teevee again interrogating Highway Patrol officers?  Didn't Peter Kinder think the MIAC report needed a full investigation?

Are Freedom and Justice on vacation? 

Reflecting on the brewing hatred between Jeff Roe and Rod Jetton, this morning's story on Shane Schoeller's desire to be Speaker Pro Tem is especially interesting.  As we understand it from Capitol sources, Steven Tilley, Schoeller and Tim Jones have no real opposition for the top three GOP slots in the House -- and all three answer directly to Jetton.

Does this mean that Roe is ceding all power in the House to Jetton?  Or are the Roe-bots simply laying low, until the time is right to mount a challenge? 

(Say, when Tim Jones embarasses himself for the 345th time.)

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.