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President Obama: health care reform - blogger conference call

Michael Bersin — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 23:24:06 GMT

Blue Girl and I took part in a conference call for bloggers on health care reform with President Obama and senior members of his staff late this afternoon. The President made a brief opening statement and then took questions from those on the call. The President's staff continued after he left the call. The transcript of President Obama's opening remarks: Operator:....We have the President of...

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McCaskill on the Horns of a Dilemma

WillyK — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 19:03:02 GMT

The Guardian's Michael Tomasky, has an interesting take on the problem facing Democratic moderates, with whom he classifies Missouri's Claire McCaskill: These Democrats, from red or just-barely blue states, are by longstanding habit terrified of associating themselves with anything that is remotely associated with a tax or an expanded government. This is well known. What's less well known is...

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The healthcare battle looms large

--Blue Girl — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 18:55:34 GMT

Crossposted from They Gave Us a Republic. Michael and I will both be on the conference call with the President and his senior aides a little later this afternoon, and we will be tweeting during the call. My feed is here and Michael's is here. ***** Republicans like Jim DeMint might want healthcare to be Obama's Waterloo, and indeed it will probably be somebody's - either his or...

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What Do Roy Blunt's People Want With Us?

Clark — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 14:53:00 GMT

At a May meeting between some of the frontpagers, Michael showed us some methods of looking at who is visiting the site on a daily basis. One of the examples, picked at random, happened to be a company called New Media Strategies, based in Northern Virginia. The name intrigued me, so I poked around to see who these guys were. New Media Strategies is a media firm specializing in online brand...

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Is Ed Martin Really Going to Run?

Clark — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 13:34:10 GMT

According to Dave Drebes, Ed Martin, former chief of staff for Republican Governor Matt Blunt and head of the ineffective anti-Obama corporate front group American Issues Project, is seriously considering running against incumbent Russ Carnahan in Missouri's 3rd District. I believe Ed is close to Dave, and Ed wrote a column for Dave's Arch City Chronicle back when it was available as a free...

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Akin and Emerson Involved in Pay-for-Play Scandal?

WillyK — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 23:22:46 GMT

Last spring there was a small flurry in the news about the pay-for-play activities of the Washington D.C. Lobbying firm, PMA (Paul Magliochetti and Associates) Group. As a result of a continuing FBI investigation into allegations of fraud and bribery, "including reimbursing employees for campaign contributions made to congressional members who supported PMA Group interests," the firm...

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Why is ACES Important?

WillyK — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 04:32:20 GMT

As Hotflash has already reported, Gene Karpinski, president of the League of Conservation Voters was in St. Louis yesterday and took the time to meet with some local bloggers. Mr. Karpinski, as you might expect, has a sophisticated understanding of environmental issues as well as their political ramifications, so it was especially enlightening to get his take on why the American Clean...

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It's definitely time to convene another panel on blogger ethics. Is tomorrow soon enough for you?

Michael Bersin — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 02:33:49 GMT

The Charleston, South Carolina Post and Courier has 570 pages of material [pdf] from around the time of Governor Mark Sanford's trip to Argentina supplied to the newspaper in response to a public records request to the governor's office. Via TPM. On June 24, 2009 David Gregory at NBC e-mailed Joel Sawyer, Communications Director for South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford. Here is a series from...

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Health Care Reform: President Obama pushes back

Michael Bersin — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 21:22:41 GMT

Steve Benen at Washington Monthly: July 18, 2009 NOT BACKING DOWN ...Obama, in other words, is pushing back. When one might expect him to start walking back expectations, he's playing a little hardball. Good. Blue Girl at They gave us a republic...: I love it when President Obama gets his Professor on... Sat Jul 18, 2009 at 13:22:24 PM CDT ...It was simply exquisite, listening to him take...

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Campaign Finance - July 2009: Alexia Norris (D) in the 30th Legislative District

Michael Bersin — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 17:51:35 GMT

The 30th Legislative District in Platte County, northwest of Kansas City (Legislative District map detail via the Missouri House of Representatives). In the 2008 general election republican incumbent Jason Brown bested Democratic challenger Mary Anne Baier in the 30th Legislative District taking 62.8% of the vote while significantly outspending his opponent. Brown is term limited out for 2010...

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Getting ACES passed

hotflash — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 16:31:05 GMT

Gene Karpinski, president of the League of Conservation Voters, was in St. Louis for a conference on Friday and met with a few bloggers to talk about the energy bill that the Senate is about to consider. He's been lobbying on environmental issues for thirty years, and he says that though the American Clean Energy and Security (ACES) bill is not perfect, it is absolutely essential that Congress...

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Blaine's brain is lame.

hotflash — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 14:32:15 GMT

Blaine Luetkemeyer is trying to make lemonade out of being mocked by the P-D editorial Thursday for his dingbat notions on climate change. He sent a fundraising letter to constituents: Will you help me by contributing to our campaign and show the liberal St. Louis Post Dispatch they are WRONG? I don't know how much cash that may have netted him, but it definitely earned him a rejoinder from the...

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Johnson County Democratic Club on Thursday evening

Michael Bersin — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 21:24:14 GMT

On Thursday evening the Johnson County Democratic Club held a meeting and social gathering at the Montserrat Winery east of Warrenburg. Approximately fifty Democratic Party activists were in attendance. Johnson County Democratic Central Committee Chair Jane Van Sant (standing, upper right) addresses club members. Democratic Club President Gary Grigsby (standing, upper right) presiding. The...

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Squatter stakes out Jay Nixon's Twitter account

Clark — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 06:17:11 GMT

Tony Messenger finally figured out that the Jay Nixon everyone has been including in their tweets (@JayNixon) was not in fact the Governor of Missouri or a member of his staff. Tidbit of the day: The former Twitterer who used @JayNixon was not Gov. Jay Nixon or his staff. Twitter has suspended the account. about 9 hours ago from TweetDeck I thought it was curious that Chad Livengood,...

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The Brain in Blaine

hotflash — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 21:53:12 GMT

Kudos to the Post-Dispatch for its Thursday editorial about "Just Blaine Wrong on climate change" Luetkemeyer. The representative from the ninth district, an embarrassment to the state of Missouri in the U.S. Congress, claims that the Nobel prize winning U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change produces "junk science". The editorial writers accuse Luetkemeyer of "trumpet[ing] his ignorance"...

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