Salon.com > Missouri http://www.salon.com Wed, 19 Jun 2013 13:08:31 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Entire Midwest on tornado warning http://www.salon.com/2013/05/20/entire_midwest_put_on_tornado_warning/ http://www.salon.com/2013/05/20/entire_midwest_put_on_tornado_warning/#comments Mon, 20 May 2013 20:50:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13303804 According to warnings from the National Weather Service, the entire Midwest -- Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas and Texas -- can expect tornadoes on Monday afternoon. Following a tornado that killed two men in Oklahoma on Sunday, the entire Midwest is again on alert.

As USA Today reported Monday:

The weather service said it was tracking "a large and extremely dangerous tornado'' just west of Moore, Okla., which is south of Oklahoma City. The storm was moving to the northeast, and forecasters said they expected "large, destructive hail up to tennis ball size.''

... The five-state area is in the heart of a storm system hovering over the Plains and Midwest all the way to Minnesota ... More than 60 million Americans are at risk of severe storms Monday.

ABC News shows storm chasers spotting tornadoes forming in Oklahoma:

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/05/20/entire_midwest_put_on_tornado_warning/feed/ 7 Missouri advances bill to nullify federal gun laws http://www.salon.com/2013/05/09/missouri_advances_bill_to_nullify_federal_gun_laws/ http://www.salon.com/2013/05/09/missouri_advances_bill_to_nullify_federal_gun_laws/#comments Thu, 09 May 2013 21:07:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13294114 Missouri's state legislature has passed constitutionally questionable legislation to nullify federal gun laws, and make them unenforceable in the state.

The Missouri House passed the measure by a vote of 118-36, after the state Senate advanced it earlier this month. It now heads to the desk of Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat.

From the Associated Press:

In addition to declaring federal gun laws unenforceable, the bill would allow concealed weapons to be carried by designated school personnel in school buildings. It would allow appointed “protection officers” to carry concealed weapons as long as they have a valid permit and register with the state Department of Public Safety. The officers would also be required to complete a training course.

The bill would also allow people with a firearms permit to openly carry weapons less than 16 inches in length even in localities that prohibit open-carry of firearms.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/05/09/missouri_advances_bill_to_nullify_federal_gun_laws/feed/ 59 When gun control is a felony http://www.salon.com/2013/05/05/can_states_actually_ignore_federal_gun_laws_partner/ http://www.salon.com/2013/05/05/can_states_actually_ignore_federal_gun_laws_partner/#comments Sun, 05 May 2013 14:00:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13289096 ProPublica

In mid-April, Kansas passed a law asserting that federal gun regulations do not apply to guns made and owned in Kansas. Under the law, Kansans could manufacture and sell semi-automatic weapons in-state without a federal license or any federal oversight.

Kansas’ “Second Amendment Protection Act” backs up its states’ rights claims with a penalty aimed at federal agents: When dealing with “Made in Kansas” guns, any attempt to enforce federal law is now a felony. Bills similar to Kansas’ law have been introduced in at least 37 other states. An even broader bill is on the desk of Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell. That bill would exempt any gun owned by an Alaskan from federal regulation. In Missouri, a bill declaring federal gun laws “null and void” passed by an overwhelming majority in the state house, and is headed for debate in the senate.

Mobilizing the pre-Civil-War doctrine of “nullification,” these bills assert that Congress has overstepped its ability to regulate guns — and that states, not the Supreme Court, have the ultimate authority to decide whether a law is constitutional or not.

The head of the Kansas’s State Rifle Association, an affiliate of the National Rifle Association, says she put the bill together and found it a sponsor. While the NRA regularly lauds passages of states’ gun-rights laws, it stayed silent on Kansas’ law, and, so far, has kept a low profile on nullification. (The group did not respond to our requests for comment.)

Many observers see nullification bills as pure political theater, “the ultimate triumph of symbolism over substance,” as UCLA law Professor Adam Winkler put it.  He said he doubts the laws will ever be enforced, and, if they are, expects them to be struck down by the courts.

Winkler and others say nullification laws violate the Constitution, which makes federal law “the supreme law of the land … anything in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding.” Indeed, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder wrote a letter last week to Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, asserting that Kansas’ law is “unconstitutional.” (Brownback, who signed the bill into law, did not immediately respond to our requests for comment.)

But the growing number of such bills -- which have passed by large majorities in at least one chamber of seven state legislatures -- highlight the challenge gun control advocates face in their attempt to fight for gun regulation at the state level.

It also shows how nullification is fast becoming a mainstream option for state politicians. In Pennsylvania, 76 state legislators signed on to sponsor a measure that would invalidate any new federal ban of certain weapons or ammunition. The bill would impose a minimum penalty of one year in prison for federal agents who attempt to enforce any new law.

Supporters of nullification are not simply frustrated at what they see as congressional and presidential overreach. During a hearing about one of the nullification bills she had introduced, Tennessee State Sen. Mae Beavers called the Supreme Court a “dictatorship.”

“You think that the Supreme Court is the ultimate arbiter of any of these laws. I don’t believe that. I don’t believe it was ever granted the authority under the Constitution,” Beavers was quoted as saying in The Tennessean. (Reached by phone, she asked to comment later, then did not respond to further requests.)

The Supreme Court rejected nullification in 1958, after Southern states tried to use the concept to avoid desegregating public schools. “No state legislator or executive or judicial officer can war against the Constitution without violating his solemn oath to support it,” the Court ruled.

Winkler, the UCLA law professor, said that even though the nullification trend was likely to be ineffectual, “It represents a strong, powerful opposition to our government.”

The concept of nullification has had a resurgence since the beginning of President Obama’s administration. More than a dozen states have introduced bills to nullify Obamacare.

The Tenth Amendment Center, a group that advocates nullification as the solution to a range of policy issues, from marijuana legalization to Obamacare, publishes model gun nullification language. The center has little direct contact with state legislators, Michael Boldin, the center’s founder, said.

The roots of guns law nullification trace back nearly a decade.

In 2004, Montana gun rights activist Gary Marbut drafted a bill stating that any guns manufactured and retained in Montana are not part of interstate commerce, and thus are exempt from federal regulation. The bill failed twice, but it became law in 2009 after Republicans took control of the statehouse. By Marbut’s count, at least eight states soon enacted “clones” of the Montana law. (Those laws don’t go quite as far as the more recent nullification legislation. For instance, most of them don’t make it a crime to enforce federal law.)

The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms responded to the earlier laws with letters to local firearms dealers explaining that federal laws and regulations “continue to apply.”

The day the Montana law went into effect, Marbut filed a lawsuit in federal court asserting the right to manufacture weapons in the state without a federal license. The suit, now before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, has been backed by a large group of supporters, including Gun Owners of America, the Second Amendment Foundation, the Cato Institute, the Goldwater Institute, and a group of nine attorneys general, some of them from states that had passed their own versions of the Montana law.

Representatives of Goldwater and the Cato Institute said they see the case as not primarily about guns. Instead, they say, it’s meant to persuade the Supreme Court to rollback the Congress’ power to regulate commerce within a state.

“The likelihood of victory is low,” said Trevor Burrus, a research fellow at the Cato Institute’s Center for Constitutional Studies.

The latest set of bills — including Kansas’ new law — represent a far broader and more aggressive challenge to federal law. Even conservative organizations have been skeptical of the trend.

“A state law that criminalizes federal activity — I would oppose that as both imprudent and wrong,” Burrus said. The Cato Institute’s chairman wrote an op-ed this spring arguing this kind of nullification is invalid.

Goldwater Institute’s Nick Dranias, a constitutional expert, said the term “nullification” is sometimes applied to legitimate attempts to exert state sovereignty, “and sometimes it is essentially lawless civil disobedience.”

States should only pass laws challenging federal power "when there is a reasonable legal argument for sustaining them," he said. And the penalty for enforcing federal law in "hard cases" should be "a misdemeanor at most."

The Heritage Foundation, a conservative research group, released a “fact sheet” last year titled “Nullification: Unlawful and Unconstitutional.” (The fact sheet does not address guns in particular.)

The Montana activist whose helped inspired the nullification movement Kansas is also a bit skeptical. While he simply chose to challenge the federal government’s commerce power, Kansas is “bucking federal power more generally,” he said.

“I think, maybe tactically, they may have gone a little further than they needed to,” Marbut said.

Though he supports the principles behind the Kansas law, “I don’t know how much of that they can uphold when it gets to the courts.”

But Marbut hopes that the rapid spread of gun law nullification bills across the country will encourage the Supreme Court to hear his case.

“I see the tide moving our way,” Marbut said. “I think the Supreme Court has figured out that the people of America are gathering their torches and pitchforks and it’s time to settle things down by reeling in the federal giant.”

A spokeswoman for Alaska Gov. Parnell, who has not either approved or vetoed the state’s nullification bill, said last month that “he is supportive of it.” But, she added, “The bill (as with all bills that pass) is currently undergoing a thorough review by the Department of Law.”

In Kansas, Patricia Stoneking, the president of Kansas State Rifle Association, said she was recommending that Kansans not start manufacturing guns under the new law until its legal status has been clarified.

Even if Kansas’ law ends up being struck down in court, “We actually are not going to roll over and play dead and say, ‘Oh, no, shame on us,’” Stoneking said. “The fight will not be over.”

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/05/05/can_states_actually_ignore_federal_gun_laws_partner/feed/ 30 House GOPer: My constituents love the sequester http://www.salon.com/2013/05/01/house_goper_my_constituents_love_the_sequester/ http://www.salon.com/2013/05/01/house_goper_my_constituents_love_the_sequester/#comments Wed, 01 May 2013 20:26:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13286931 Rep. Billy Long, a Republican from Missouri, boasted on Monday that his constituents can't get enough of the sequester, and tell him that they want more of it. "The people that I've talked to seem to be doing well," he told KOLR10 News. "In fact, when I go out in restaurants here in town, people come up to me. They want to see more sequestration, not less."

"So I think that's different than it could be in some parts of the country, but we haven't seen any measurable effect here at all," he added.

A new poll from CBS News shows that 69 percent of Americans don't believe the sequester has impacted them. That may be because the cuts have been very specific and localized, and particularly affected low-income communities.

On the other hand, Congress did take urgent steps to rectify the part of sequestration that was being felt by wealthier people: FAA furloughs, which were causing flight delays.

 

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/05/01/house_goper_my_constituents_love_the_sequester/feed/ 25 Todd Akin: I’ve relived “legitimate rape” comments “many, many times” http://www.salon.com/2013/04/26/todd_akin_ive_relived_legitimate_rape_comments_many_many_times/ http://www.salon.com/2013/04/26/todd_akin_ive_relived_legitimate_rape_comments_many_many_times/#comments Fri, 26 Apr 2013 13:05:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13282713 In an interview with KSDK-TV Thursday night, Todd Akin addressed his infamous "legitimate rape" comments, saying that "I've relived that moment many, many times."

"Of course you regret it," he said in the interview. "You think, what it would have been like if I hadn't done that."

Akin also took the opportunity to make a dig at Karl Rove, whose Super PAC American Crossroads launched a new project to make sure that another candidate like Akin doesn't win the Republican primary, only to prove unelectable in the general election. "Karl Rove has made himself an expert," Akin said. "I think I lost one race. He managed to lose about 12 of them in one night."

Watch:

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/04/26/todd_akin_ive_relived_legitimate_rape_comments_many_many_times/feed/ 3 Missouri state senator rips constituent’s facial hair http://www.salon.com/2013/04/16/missouri_state_senator_hurls_insults_at_constituent_via_email/ http://www.salon.com/2013/04/16/missouri_state_senator_hurls_insults_at_constituent_via_email/#comments Tue, 16 Apr 2013 19:02:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13272804 Though his mission was simple enough -- to unsubscribe from Missouri state Sen. Brian Nieves' distribution list -- Missouri resident Bart Cohn ended up trolling the senator. Hard. And succeeded.

The Daily Riverfront Times has published an email exchange between Cohn and Nieves -- two adult men -- that begins with Cohn rudely but simply asking to be removed from the distribution list: "Take me off your mailing list. Freak."

As with Internet comments, most people sending comments to a d-list don't expect a direct response from the owner. But in Cohn's case, that's exactly what he got. The comment bugged Nieves enough to respond personally:

Who are you? Is there something wrong with you? Are you incapable of communicating in a way that common, decent people do?

Tell me this, how did you ever even get on MY Distribution list?

Cohn responded, saying, "Remove me from your list. I despise you."

Nieves responded within two hours, calling Cohn a "troll." The emails devolved from there, initiating an increasingly rapid back-and-forth between someone who has little to lose and someone who potentially has a lot to lose:

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/04/16/missouri_state_senator_hurls_insults_at_constituent_via_email/feed/ 11 Who snuck in the Monsanto Protection Act? http://www.salon.com/2013/04/05/who_snuck_in_the_monsanto_protection_act/ http://www.salon.com/2013/04/05/who_snuck_in_the_monsanto_protection_act/#comments Fri, 05 Apr 2013 12:25:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13262514 Anger at the so-called Monsanto Protection Act -- a biotech rider that protects genetically modified seeds from litigation in the face of health risks -- has been directed at numerous parties in Congress and the White House for allowing the provision to be voted and signed into law. But the party responsible for anonymously introducing the rider into the broad, unrelated spending bill had not been identified until now.

As Mother Jones' Tom Philpott notes, the senator responsible is Missouri Republican Roy Blunt -- famed friend of Big Agrigulture on Capitol Hill. Blunt even told Politico's David Rogers that he "worked with" Monsanto to craft the rider (rendering the moniker "Monsanto Protection Act" all the more appropriate). Philpott notes:

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/04/05/who_snuck_in_the_monsanto_protection_act/feed/ 44 GOP’s dumb California-bashing http://www.salon.com/2013/03/26/gops_inane_war_on_california/ http://www.salon.com/2013/03/26/gops_inane_war_on_california/#comments Tue, 26 Mar 2013 12:45:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13251947 As a columnist, I receive email every day from readers across this great country. Not surprisingly, some of these letters are angry missives frothing with apocalyptic rhetoric and dire warnings. Of late, no matter the controversy of the day nor what specific issue I happen to be writing about, these particular screeds (often in response to liberal successes) have been repeating a singular message: liberals, progressives, socialists, communists, hippies and other alleged undesirables are trying to "turn America into California."

No doubt, you've probably caught this or a similar phrase in your Web surfing, your email box and your casual discussions. It is the conversation-ender du jour. Don't like the election results and the policies that follow? Deride them as proof America is "becoming California." Don't like a bill moving through your legislature? Cite it as more evidence your state is "turning into California." Don't like what Congress is doing on any given day? Write a screed bewailing America "turning into California."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/03/26/gops_inane_war_on_california/feed/ 196 Dem Sen. Mark Warner now supports gay marriage http://www.salon.com/2013/03/25/dem_senator_mark_warner_now_supports_gay_marriage/ http://www.salon.com/2013/03/25/dem_senator_mark_warner_now_supports_gay_marriage/#comments Mon, 25 Mar 2013 21:20:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13251515 Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., announced on his Facebook page that after some "evolving," he now officially supports gay marriage.

"I support marriage equality because it is the fair and right thing to do," he wrote. "Like many Virginians and Americans, my views on gay marriage have evolved, and this is the inevitable extension of my efforts to promote equality and opportunity for everyone."

Chris Geidner from BuzzFeed points out that though Warner signed on to a March 1 brief urging the Supreme Court to strike down DOMA, his office would not explicitly express support for same-sex marriage at the time.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/03/25/dem_senator_mark_warner_now_supports_gay_marriage/feed/ 2 Court blocks Missouri law countering contraception mandate http://www.salon.com/2013/03/18/court_blocks_missouri_law_countering_contraception_mandate/ http://www.salon.com/2013/03/18/court_blocks_missouri_law_countering_contraception_mandate/#comments Mon, 18 Mar 2013 19:57:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13244810 The fight continues over the contraception mandate in Obamacare, with a federal judge blocking a Missouri law that would have forced insurance companies to provide a way for employers or individuals to opt out of policies that require contraception coverage.

From the Associated Press:

U.S. District Judge Audrey Fleissig cited a provision in the U.S. Constitution declaring that federal laws take precedence over contradictory state laws.

Missouri's Republican-led Legislature overrode the veto of Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon last September to enact a law that appeared to be the first in the nation to directly rebut the Obama administration's contraception policy. The Missouri law required insurers to issue policies without contraception coverage if individuals or employers objected because of religious or moral beliefs.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/03/18/court_blocks_missouri_law_countering_contraception_mandate/feed/ 7 Missouri pot activism finds unusual ally: A veteran cop http://www.salon.com/2013/03/14/missouri_pot_activism_finds_unusual_ally_a_veteran_cop/ http://www.salon.com/2013/03/14/missouri_pot_activism_finds_unusual_ally_a_veteran_cop/#comments Thu, 14 Mar 2013 20:16:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13229420 Given the national epidemic of marijuana arrests disproportionately targeting young black and brown men, cops rarely appear favorably in marijuana reform stories. One veteran officer in Missouri has, however, struck out against the grain. As the local Fox affiliate reported:

Sergeant Gary Wiegert has been a city cop for 32 years. He’s twice been president of the St. Louis Police Officer’s Association. His other part-time job is as a lobbyist in Jefferson City. One of his clients is the St. Louis Tea Party. Another, is a group called Show-Me Cannibis Regulation, which is trying to decriminalize marijuana in Missouri.

Wiegart's police department have not reacted well to his position on pot. "Sergeant Wiegert is not representing the department. His comments are his own and not what is expected of our officers,” the department chief said in a statement, explaining why the department was blocking Wiegart speaking to the media. Now, according to St. Louis Today, Wiegart has filed suit against the department for "allegedly stifling his pro-pot politicking."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/03/14/missouri_pot_activism_finds_unusual_ally_a_veteran_cop/feed/ 9 Missouri GOPer uses gun control legislation as target practice http://www.salon.com/2013/02/19/missouri_goper_uses_gun_control_legislation_as_target_practice/ http://www.salon.com/2013/02/19/missouri_goper_uses_gun_control_legislation_as_target_practice/#comments Tue, 19 Feb 2013 19:50:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13205543 The gun control debate in Missouri has taken a turn for the extreme, with one state legislator literally using gun control legislation as target practice, and another making it a felony to propose gun control measures in the first place.

State Rep. Eric Burlison, a Republican, posted a Joe Manchin-like video Monday called "2nd Amendment puts holes in HB 545," referring to an assault weapons ban proposed by Democratic state Rep. Rory Ellinger. In the video, Burlison goes to a shooting range to ask people what they think of the bill. In one exchange, he asks a man with a rifle his opinion, and the man responds: "It's a great bill ... It's great target practice." Burlison agrees.

Here's the video, via the Riverfront Times. The legislation-shooting comes around the 2-minute mark:

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/02/19/missouri_goper_uses_gun_control_legislation_as_target_practice/feed/ 15 Argument over Newtown leads to shooting in Wentzville barber shop http://www.salon.com/2012/12/20/argument_over_newtown_leads_to_shooting_in_wentzville_barber_shop/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/20/argument_over_newtown_leads_to_shooting_in_wentzville_barber_shop/#comments Thu, 20 Dec 2012 13:36:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13150699 WENTZVILLE, Mo. (AP) - A Wentzville man is jailed after allegedly becoming agitated during a barber shop discussion of the Newtown, Conn., shooting and allegedly shooting in the direction of a patron.

Assault, armed criminal action and unlawful possession of a weapon charges were filed against 57-year-old Lester Davis of Wentzville following the shooting Tuesday at All Cuts Barber Shop in Wentzville.

A patron made the comment that the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School made him want to kill the suspect. For unknown reasons, police say Davis took the comment as a threat and asked, “You want to murder me?”

Davis then allegedly went to his car, retrieved a pistol and fired three times in the customer’s direction. No one was hurt.

Davis turned himself in and is jailed on $400,000 bond.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/20/argument_over_newtown_leads_to_shooting_in_wentzville_barber_shop/feed/ 20 Todd Akin’s last hurrah: A way around the DADT repeal http://www.salon.com/2012/12/18/todd_akins_last_hurrah_a_way_around_the_dadt_repeal/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/18/todd_akins_last_hurrah_a_way_around_the_dadt_repeal/#comments Tue, 18 Dec 2012 22:19:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13148917 Todd "legitimate rape" Akin will not be returning to Congress next year, but he may go out with a bang if his push for a way around the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" gets more traction.

Akin added a provision to the 2013 National Defense Authorization Act that would create a "conscience clause" for members of the military, essentially allowing them to cite their religious beliefs as cover for discriminating against gay and lesbian service members.

Akin's proposal was passed by the House in May with the rest of the NDAA, but it was dropped out of the Senate's version of the bill, which passed earlier this month. But now the bill is back in conference, and Republicans are reportedly pushing to put Akin's amendment back in.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Rep. Buck McKeon, R-Calif., both of whom vehemently opposed the DADT repeal, are negotiating the conference, and are "pushing pretty hard" to get Akin's provision back in, according to a House Democratic aide, who spoke with Mother Jones.

Adam Serwer of Mother Jones reports:

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/18/todd_akins_last_hurrah_a_way_around_the_dadt_repeal/feed/ 17 Powerball jackpot winners in Arizona and Missouri http://www.salon.com/2012/11/29/powerball_jackpot_winners_in_arizona_and_missouri/ http://www.salon.com/2012/11/29/powerball_jackpot_winners_in_arizona_and_missouri/#comments Thu, 29 Nov 2012 16:43:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13110216 KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Two lucky ticket holders - one in Arizona and another in Missouri - are waking up Thursday to new lives as multimillionaires after the largest Powerball jackpot drawing ever.

Powerball officials said two tickets matched all six numbers to win the record $587.5 million jackpot. The numbers drawn for Wednesday night, for the second-highest jackpot in U.S. lottery history, are 5, 16, 22, 23, 29. The Powerball is 6.

It was not clear whether the winning tickets belonged to individuals or were purchased by groups.

One of the winning tickets was sold at a Trex Mart convenience store in Dearborn, Mo., about 35 miles north of Kansas City, the state lottery commission said in a news release.

Earlier Thursday, Missouri Lottery spokesman Gary Gonder said he was on his way to the store that sold that ticket to assist with the expected onslaught of media attention. That store will be awarded $50,000 for selling the winning ticket.

It did not appear Wednesday's big winner had yet come forward.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/11/29/powerball_jackpot_winners_in_arizona_and_missouri/feed/ 1 Worse than the Tea Party http://www.salon.com/2012/11/19/republicans_problems_are_bigger_than_the_tea_party/ http://www.salon.com/2012/11/19/republicans_problems_are_bigger_than_the_tea_party/#comments Mon, 19 Nov 2012 17:16:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13102842 The American Prospect If there was anything Republicans should have been surprised about in this month’s elections, it was their rout in the Senate. Not only did they lose races against vulnerable Democratic incumbents in GOP leaning states—Missouri, Florida, and Montana, for instance—but they also lost almost every competitive open race and failed to hold a vacant one in Indiana.

Politico reports that GOP leaders are working to prevent a repeat of this scenario by exerting more control over the nomination process. Republicans believe that they would have done better had they kept politicians like Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock out of the picture. The goal for the next four years is to erase the Tea Party-versus-Washington narrative that has made it difficult to get establishment Republicans through the primary process:

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/11/19/republicans_problems_are_bigger_than_the_tea_party/feed/ 38 Akin gets mysterious influx of campaign money http://www.salon.com/2012/11/02/akin_gets_mysterious_influx_of_campaign_money/ http://www.salon.com/2012/11/02/akin_gets_mysterious_influx_of_campaign_money/#comments Fri, 02 Nov 2012 16:58:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13060734 With just a few days left in the campaign, Todd Akin is pouring money into a series of ad buys in Missouri, with the help of a surge of cash from the Missouri Republican Party. But there is some speculation that a chunk of that money came from national Republicans, who previously backed away from supporting Akin after his "legitimate rape" comments.

The New York Times reports:

"Nearly a million of those dollars on television ad buys are coming from Mr. Akin’s campaign, while the rest is from outside groups, and there is speculation that organizations that previously distanced themselves from the six-term Congressman could be behind some of the new spending.

The Missouri Republican Party coordinated with the Akin campaign for a $387,000 ad buy, a spokesman for Mr. Akin said, while the campaign itself made a $300,000 purchase two days ago. The spokesman, Rick Tyler, said the Akin campaign planned to make another $600,000 ad buy on Thursday."

At the end of October, the state GOP had $375,000, indicating that it might have gotten some additional help from outside donors.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee has repeatedly declined to comment about whether it's paying for the ads, though the RNC said it wasn't them.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/11/02/akin_gets_mysterious_influx_of_campaign_money/feed/ 1 Akin defended militias in wake of Oklahoma City bombing http://www.salon.com/2012/10/31/akin_defended_militias_in_wake_of_okc_bombing/ http://www.salon.com/2012/10/31/akin_defended_militias_in_wake_of_okc_bombing/#comments Wed, 31 Oct 2012 23:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13059118 Missouri GOP Senate candidate Todd Akin not only wrote a letter praising a right-wing paramilitary group in the 1990s, but he defended the militia movement to the media and “checked out” the local group, a newly unearthed news report shows. And he did all this the month after the Oklahoma City bombing,  perpetrated by militia movement sympathizer Timothy McVeigh.

In the wake of the April, 19 1995, bombing that left 168 people dead, the Springfield (Missouri) News-Leader published a front page article on the militia movement and then-Democratic Gov. Mel Carnahan’s concern that the paramilitary activists could be a threat. The story, which has gone unnoticed in the years since, quotes then-state Rep. Todd Akin defending the movement and saying that he met with its leader and "checked out the unit." Here's the relevant portion from the News-Leader story, published on May 5:

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/10/31/akin_defended_militias_in_wake_of_okc_bombing/feed/ 11 Akin pushed narrow definition of child abuse http://www.salon.com/2012/10/31/akin_pushed_to_narrow_definition_of_child_abuse/ http://www.salon.com/2012/10/31/akin_pushed_to_narrow_definition_of_child_abuse/#comments Wed, 31 Oct 2012 20:40:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13058831 When he was a member of the Missouri House of Representatives, Todd Akin fought against a bill that would have tightened laws against child abuse, arguing that the bill “needed a more restrictive definition of abuse” to prevent abuses of the law.

Right Wing Watch flags that in 1992, Akin opposed the bill, which would have established a "'statewide child abuse review board' and tighten[ed] the standard for proving child abuse from 'reason to suspect' to 'credible evidence.'"

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported at the time:

"Akin said he was concerned that ‘the department could come into your home and if your kid had just fallen off his bike and skinned his knee…take your kid away.’ Akin also said that with a loose definition of abuse, neighbors might use child-abuse reports ‘as a tool to harass, a way to get even with’ someone they dislike."

The editorial board of the Post-Dispatch slammed Akin's opposition to the bill, saying that he "resorts to extreme and unlikely examples to bolster his case."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/10/31/akin_pushed_to_narrow_definition_of_child_abuse/feed/ 10 Akin’s 10 weirdest moments http://www.salon.com/2012/10/26/ten_weirdest_things_akin_has_said/ http://www.salon.com/2012/10/26/ten_weirdest_things_akin_has_said/#comments Fri, 26 Oct 2012 17:01:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13053873 AlterNet Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin is known for some wacky antics. In the 1980s, Akin was arrested at least three times at antiabortion protests, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch recently reported.

And Akin also reportedly has ties to "one of the most radical antiabortion activists of the 1990s" and a right-wing militia in Missouri, according to Salon. Akin has ties with Tim Dreste, formerly of the 1st Missouri Volunteers militia, and who is also "one of the most infamous antiabortion activists in the state, known for threatening abortion doctors," according to the Salon report.

But while Akin’s antics are bad, his rhetoric is even worse. The most infamous of Akin's comments came during the summer. During a televised interview, Akin responded to a question about abortion by saying, "if it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”

There's plenty more comments where that came from.

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