Corruption and the Missouri State Legislature

As our local NPR station, KCUR, recently reported on air and on it's website, "A national study of risk of corruption by the Center for Public Integrity docks Missouri for being one of only four states without any limits on campaign contributions."

That this passed, that the Republicans in Jefferson City passed this, a couple years ago is still repugnant and disgusting. That it's still the way our government is goes against everything true democracy is about.

We need to change this. We need to change this back. There need to be campaign contribution limits here in Missouri--that is, if we don't do away with them entirely, in the best-case scenario.

Having no campaign contribution limits in the state and now, due to the US Supreme Court's Citizen's United ruling, in the entire nation, makes your and my influence and vote miniscule while the wealthy and corporations are freed to buy our legislators, their legislation, our laws and so, ultimately, our government. It's "all them, all the time."

A few people running for offices right now are committed to changing this, to reinstating campaign contributin limits in our state.

The first is Jason Kander, running for Secretary of State.

Besides supporting this smart, badly needed legislation, he has worked for more ethics in our state government overall, is for shrinking state government and other excellent causes and issues. You can learn more about him here: http://www.jasonkander.com/ and here: http://house.mo.gov/member.aspx?district=044

Another candidate running for office right now that has Missouri state government ethics in her campaign and political sites is Susan Montee.

You can learn more about Ms. Montee, her positions and goals here: http://susanmontee.com/ and here: http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2010/07/19/voters-guide-susan-montee/ and finally, here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Montee

Finally, Kevin Morgan is running for the Missouri House of Representatives in the 38th District.

He also supports campaign contribution limits, among his other issues. You can learn more of him here: http://www.kevinmorgan.com/ and here: http://midwestdemocracy.com/candidates/kevin-morgan/

These people need your support. They need our support. They need our votes, this November in the election.

We need far better and stronger ethics laws and support from our legislators and so, our government and for all of us, not just those with the big money to throw around.

Links: http://kcur.org/post/campaign-contribution-limits-big-donors-find-way

http://www.stateintegrity.org/campaign_financing_policies

http://www.stateintegrity.org/your_state

http://www.stateintegrity.org/missouri

Another American calling for shorter election campaigns

Hopefully this will catch on

Ms. Keli Goff, author, commentator & contributing editor to The Huffington Post, from TheLoop21.com from her column at The Huffington Post yesterday:

Maybe this is one issue where our country -- which I still consider the greatest in the world -- should consider taking a cue from our cousins across the pond. The duration of England's last round of elections? One month. That's right, one whole month. Four weeks for candidates to get their message out to voters, and that month included substantially fewer debates and television advertisements than we are bombarded with in this country. (Although that may have something to do with the country's restrictions on the influence of outside political groups in fundraising and political advertising, another area where we lag behind our allies.)


Shorter election campaigns and campaign finance reform.


Maybe one day, eh?


Link to original post:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/keli-goff/what-england-can-teach-us_b_804112.html

The real problem here is unlimited corporate money buying our elections

Forget the small issue here. The real issue, the big issue, the big concern for the country and for our politics and government and functioning society is that, with the Supreme Court's ruling this year, corporations can, right now, give unlimited money to any campaign they want, skewing the democratic political process in this country. Your vote just got a whole lot smaller, folks.

Great Value for the Money

You wanna hear great value?

You wanna hear money well spent?

You wanna hear about a great return on investment?

Look no farther than our own goverment.

The same government that has $2000.00 toilets--or whatever--is able to get a whole lot out of very little, really, but not in a good way.

In our newspaper today, it told of Representative John Murtha, from Southwestern Pennsylvania, getting a mere $30,000.00 from DRS Technologies, a military equipment company.

And for this paltry $30,000.00 investment from DRS--which is also tax-decuctible, keep in mind--what did Rep. Murtha get for DRS? Why, $30 million in earmarks from our goverment.

Is this a great country or what?

Check this out:

"The House committee alone has 23,438 earmark requests before it, so many that its website for accepting requests froze up and the deadline for receiving them had to be extended."

So much for the Democrats cleaning up government, right?

Is it any wonder firms line up to hand out $2,000.00 here and $10,000.00 there for their own representative? For thousands of dollars in contributions, companies get back millions from their government representative and government. Read: you and me.

Oh, yeah. It's a sweet deal all right. And it's repeated again and again in the halls of our governments.

President Eisenhower warned us of the "military-industrial complex". Sure. And we heard it. Ralph Nader has been warning us for years.

But have we really done anything about it?