Franklin County Democrats

So what’s Republican Sen. Brian Nieves so worked up about these days? Is it the fact that two of the counties in his district rank among the unhealthiest in the state? Is it that, of the 114 counties in Missouri, Franklin County is the 5th most polluted and Ameren Missouri’s coal-fired power plant in Labadie is the second worst mercury polluter in the nation. Perhaps it’s that Missouri now ranks number one in job loss? Nope. None of those things.

Of all the things that there are for a state Senator to get righteously pissed off about the thing that has Nieves seething white hot with anger is his belief that parking for the press at the state capitol is too convenient. So meter maid, Brian Nieves, has introduced groundbreaking legislation that aims to do something about this travesty of injustice.

Sweet Jesus. Is this the best we can do in District 26?

This is pretty sick.

JEFFERSON CITY — Orange stickers with an image of rifle crosshairs were found Tuesday on the office doors of several Democratic state senators, prompting an investigation by Missouri Capitol Police, Senate Administrator Jim Howerton said.

“We are taking all the precautions we can,” Howerton said.

One similar sticker was found on the nameplate outside the door of state Rep. Scott Dieckhaus, R-Washington. He was the only Republican and the only House member who found one of the stickers.

The stickers were on the doors of all four Democratic women in the Senate — Jolie Justus and Kiki Curls, both of Kansas City, and Maria Chapelle-Nadal and Robin Wright-Jones, both of St. Louis, Justus said.

“If anyone thinks this was a prank, it is not a prank,” Justus said after discussing the discovery of the stickers on the Senate floor. “You don’t joke about someone’s personal safety.”

A sticker also was found on the door of Sen. Victor Callahan, D-Kansas City and the Democrats’ floor leader.

In light of the fact that Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords has been all over the news lately regarding her miraculous comeback from gun shot wounds she received to the head a year ago this is especially creepy. Not sure why Dieckhaus would be targeted along with five Democratic state senators. Very curious to know what that’s all about. Stay tuned.

A key line in SB592: “Currently, under the Missouri Human Rights Act (MHRA), a practice is unlawful when the protected trait is a contributing factor in the decision to discriminate. This act changes that standard to a motivating factor standard.”

This seems that it would require workers to prove that discrimination was a “motivating factor” in wrongful termination cases, instead of the current lesser standard of a contributing factor. The measure also would limit the court damages that could be recovered and would give courts a new framework for deciding cases without a jury trial.

Fines for Schools: Is that all the Senate can do to fund education for our children? True, a penny saved… but, really?

continue reading…

On May 11, I and others stopped by Sen. Brian Nieves’ (R-26) office in the capitol to talk about educational issues and newly proposed bills pertaining to education in Missouri.  Instead, I personally received twenty minutes of Mr. Nieves shouting at the top of his lungs, his very own “hip-hop” scatological rant.  It was a tour-de-force of three word epithets from “you fucking prick”, to “you fucking pussy”, to “you piece of fuck”, etc. and other vitriolic variations that would make the most seasoned sailor blush.

What I experienced in Mr. Nieves’ office was a grown man acting like a playground bully.  This from an elected official, who is addressed as The Honorable Senator, is a disgrace to the office he represents.  Regardless of the delusional paranoia he has regarding a letter to the editor that was published in a local paper, this is no way for a sitting senator to be conducting himself in front of constituents or his staff.

I spoke with the Capitol Police and the Senate Pro-Temp Sen. Mayer, and expressed my disdain of Mr. Nieves’s behavior, and asked if there was a process for a police complaint or a Senate Ethics Committee. Sadly, there isn’t.  Sen. Mayer said the only recourse is, “you all voted him in, now you’ll have to vote him out.”

The mission and vision statement of the Capitol Police Force, states:

Our mission is to serve the seat of government by creating a protected environment in a manner that respects the rights of all persons: And, to ensure safe conditions exist for state officials to fulfill their oath of office to all Missourians.

I emphasized and highlighted the “rights of all persons” because persons, i.e. voters, should also be treated with honesty, respect and courtesy when visiting their legislators in the state capitol.

Our local radio “shock-jock” who represents the 26th Senate District should read the Capitol Police’s mission statement. Hopefully, we will elect someone next time who can fulfill their oath of office and “respect the rights of all persons.”

Finally, something we agree on:

“In the Senate, the architects gave certain protections for the minority. Minority is protected in the Senate with the ability to give a filibuster,” he added. “Now, in recent years the minority party in Senate has begun to use the filibuster willy-nilly – it has become a culture where the minority party has overstepped its power, the reason we have allowed this to be the case is because the Republican Party has not had the fortitude to say, ‘If you’re going to threaten a filibuster, then you have to actually conduct it.’

“That flies in face of what our Founding Fathers had in mind – we should protect minority in the proper way that the Senate was set up to function,” Nieves added. “They should be given the ability to exercise the right to filibuster in the Senate, but Republican majority has to, not with bad attitude, say ‘Go ahead.’ When they are done we can continue moving on – we won’t just instantly fold and compromise because of a threat of a filibuster.”

And why stop with the State Senate? Let’s have the same reforms in the U.S. Senate rules too. The GOP earned its moniker of “The Party of No” during the last two years for its legendary abuse of the filibuster. In fact, the constant threat of it is probably the single biggest reason the health care reform bill ended up as weak as it has. Without the Senate Republicans threatening to “filibuster willy-nilly” we may have gotten a public option and the Federal mandate would have been nixed. Instead, we got a watered-down law that mostly benefits private insurers by forcing millions to buy health insurance from them — thanks in part to a “tyranny of the minority.”

Republicans have a 26-8 majority over Democrats in the State Senate and a 106-57 majority over Democrats in the House. They have a clear mandate of the People. Let them govern without restraint and let voters hold them accountable at the ballot box for their actions. If they make a mess of things (and I’m counting on it) they can’t point fingers at Democrats.

By the same token, when Democrats are in the majority, the same rules should apply.