News (page 3)

Follow the Money: Political Contributions Are Akin to Political Influence

There is much dialogue and debate surrounding the Unconstitutional Missouri Law concerning unlimited campaign contributions.

Former Missouri Legislature, and creator of the Missouri Ethics Commission, Doug Harpool has even gone so far as to condemn fellow Democrats who have accepted illegal $1,000 contributions from special interests.

Although there is a lot of talk and posturing on this issue, local media outlets have thus far failed to report to their readers and viewers who exactly has taken this funny money.

I have a very new phone number. People who had the number before must have been Repugs. 

This afternoon at 4:00 my phone rang. When I answered they said Congressman Roy Blunt was on the line with a conference call..

I listen to his prepared remarks then they took calls from all his district. When they would say Springfield I hoped it would be me. I was going to ask about the children's health he will vote against this week. I wanted to ask about Iraq also. 

I believe the questions were prepared. Everyone asked a different silly question 

One man from Clever said he thought the reasons people are losing their home was gas prices. He said that to make a living they have to drive long distances to their jobs. He mentioned he heard on the radio today that gas went to 87.00 a barrel. He mention the high profit the oil company was making. He said something to be done. 

For the last few years, the baseball field at Grant Beach Park was not what you would call great. The infield was overgrown with grass, and the entire field had weeds. Even the bleachers that once housed onlookers had been removed.

Now, thanks to a community wide effort and the Springfield/Greene County Park Board, the field at the park is the envy of a lot of people.

"It just looks great," Anita Kuhns, vice president of the Grant Beach Neighborhood Association said. "Seeing the new field was quite a site after seeing all the grass for so many years. Now there is actual dirt, lines, bases, benches, and dugouts. It is really a wonderful site."

The new field at Grant Beach Park was unveiled during the Northwest Springfield Neighborhood Softball Blowout Bonanza on September 30. The event was sponsored by the Community Free Press, St. John's Clinic-West Kearney, the Parks Department, Real People for Real Change, Z106.7, and the Grant Beach Neighborhood Association. It was organized by two people from the community who saw a need for a new field and decided to do something about it.

I am so pissed. My healthcare lady just left. 

Ellen is a Christian Like I. We live not push it. 

She told me yesterday the agency she works with had what is refer to in-house meeting. The meeting was held at Broadway Baptist on Republic Road. 

She said she could not believe it. They were pushing Matt Blunt. This is a business meeting, which I believe is against the law. 

She said they sang religious songs and prayed at the end. She said she had a lady seated next to her and was laughing that this was ending up being a business/religious meeting. 

If I did not like my girl I would change agencies. 

"Obama said he would vote for a Peruvian trade agreement next week, in response to a question from a man in Londonderry, NH who called NAFTA and CAFTA a disaster for American workers. He said he supported the trade agreement with Peru because it contained the labor and environmental standards sought by groups like the AFL-CIO, despite the voter's protests to the contrary. He also affirmed his support for free trade."

The voter's "protests to the contrary" are exactly right. The AFL-CIO does not support the bill expanding NAFTA into Peru, and the much-trumpeted labor/environmental standards leave enforcement up to the Bush administration, rather than empowering third parties to enforce them (like corporations have the power to enforce investor rights provisions in these same trade agreements). Leaving enforcement to the Bush administration - or any administration - is the biggest loophole possible. It is precisely why corporate lobbyists have bragged to reporters that the standards are not enforceable.

Obama is the first presidential candidate to officially declare his/her support for the NAFTA expansion moving through the Congress. His announcement is not necessarily surprising, considering he was the keynote speaker at the launch of the Hamilton Project - a Wall Street front group working to drive a wedge between Democrats and organized labor on globalization issues. His announcement comes just days after a Wall Street Journal poll found strong bipartisan opposition to lobbyist-written NAFTA-style trade policies.

Trade has been known to be a huge issue in Iowa (remember Dick Gephardt in 1988), so this announcement could very well ripple through the 2008 primary.

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