missouri

Congressman Steve Stockman has invited a rodeo clown to perform in Texas who was banned from the Missouri State Fair for mocking the President in what many believe was a modern day minstrel show. Bad company is par for Stockman who invited Ted Nugent to give a response to the President's 2012 State of the Union speech after he told Obama to "suck on my machine gun."

As Florida recently proved, self defense and gun laws can be tricky areas awash in shade after shade of gray. In Missouri, the court's attitude towards a man's defense of his property and a woman's defense of herself in the face of domestic abuse are striking — and worrisome. While it's not a one-to-one comparison, the similarities and differences are certainly obvious.

While conceding the destructive potential of climate change in her reaction to President Obama's plans to fight climate change, Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill echoed the same faux economic worries that she has cited in the past and that her colleague, Republican Senator Roy Blunt, put forward more forcefully yesterday.

Both Missouri houses have appointed panels to prepare Medicaid "reform" legislation for the 2014 session. Sadly, the so-called reforms could be almost as bad as going without Medicaid entirely.

Missouri Governor Jay Nixon vetoed the disastrous GOP tax cut bill HB253. Over a ten year period, the bill would have cut corporate income taxes from 6.25 percent to 3.5 percent, at a price tag of $800 million. The move keeps Missouri from following the potentially calamitous path set by neighboring Kansas — for now.

The 2013 agriculture bill that was passed in the Senate proposes a few modest but welcome cuts to programs subsidizing big agriculture, but it also insures that millions of the poorest Americans will once again struggle with hunger. Sadly, Democratic Senators like Missouri's Claire McCaskill voted for the bill.

A round-up of Monsanto's hold on Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO), capped off by last week's last minute submission to a completely unrelated bill that would provide the weed-killing, seed-engineering mega-company even more freedom to harm the environment and genetically alter America's food.

States began adopting laws criminalizing certain conduct of people living with HIV back in the late 1980s. Now, more than 30 states carry HIV-specific criminal statutes, laws that were passed in response to fear harvested in the early years of the epidemic.

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) is the latest politician to endorse marriage equality, just days before the Supreme Court will hear two landmark cases about the legality of gay marriage. She made her endorsement on Tumblr, just before a post about her husband's frittata.

One survives on ads targeted to promote high risk investment opportunities in precious metals, and one doesn't.