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Thank you, Veterans!
"Greater love hath no man that this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." Whether bearing arms, supplying the front lines or supporting and serving stateside, whether draftee or volunteer, each uniformed American signed a blank check to lay down their life for their friends if called upon.
The spouses of warriors, without rank or recognition, may not have served in the military but they served the military by securing the home and waiting without assurances. They could not join the fight, but they shared the cost and often bore it alone.
God granted our liberty, but it is the United States military that must repeatedly defend it against tyrants and terrorists. There will always be those who crave power more than freedom, so there must always be a few who are willing to lay down their lives for their friends.
Thank you, veterans and those still serving at home and abroad, for being among those few. May the God of creation bless you and our exceptional country.
Points of Light
"Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father." Jesus Christ
President George H. W. Bush popularized the phrase "a thousand points of light" when speaking of organizations that work for a better America. I visited two such organizations in the past few weeks. Just last week (Sept. 25th), my wife and I attended the 25th anniversary celebration of Life Choices of Joplin. They also have a services location in Carthage and continue to grow and expand not just geographically but also in the demographics they serve. Their tag line is "choose to know," and their most fundamental outreach is assisting young people facing a sexual health crisis to be fully informed in order to make wise decisions.
Life Choices continues to assess the sexual health issues of our day and address them with medically accurate and age-appropriate curriculums. They work with teenagers throughout Jasper County to encourage healthy discussion between parents and teens. Unimaginable peer pressure, plus the youthful delusion of indestructibility, push teens toward risky behaviors that have life-long consequences. Be encouraged: Life Choices is helping students to overcome destructive pressure by empowering them with a stronger sense of who they are and what enduring rewards await those who make wise choices.
The tireless, selfless staff of Life Choices is seeing unparalleled success as they approach daily challenges with life affirming values. None can deny that because of their 25 years of service to the community, there are thousands of children alive today who would not be. Additionally, there are countless families intact and functioning today that would not exist were it not for Life Choices. Life Choices is more than a "point of light," it is more than a beacon; it truly "shines forth as the sun."
Another point of light I discovered recently in Cass County is the Ray-Pec Community Alliance whose mission is "to promote and support healthy communities across Raymore and Peculiar." They invited me to visit their site a few weeks ago during an open house for parents and the community. What an impressive beginning to a truly visionary mission! Their volunteers are skilled and enthusiastic; their physical facilities are top-notch and should be extremely inviting to youth who would like to build and cultivate genuine friendships in a safe and supervised environment.
The Ray-Pec Community Alliance was still inviting volunteers and donations when I visited, and I am sure they still are. You will be encouraged to go online and check out their website. You can find the schedule of events as well as a list of items they still need to "finish-out" the recreation and relaxation areas of their building. Our teens are continually bombarded with pressures to ignore moral absolutes and violate their God-given consciences. This group in Cass County refuses to take these lifestyle assaults lying down and are raising up a standard against it.
Two points of light: one celebrating 25 years, the other just stepping into the fray to ensure that young minds and bodies have an alternative option to the drugs, alcohol, and sexual deviancy of our day. If you agree that strong families and healthy communities are crucial to the future of our state, then I encourage you to somehow be involved in one or both of these heavenly oases. Don't miss the opportunity to help; you can add to the brightness. We cannot neglect the future; it is where we are headed.
Thank you for reading this legislative report. You can contact my office at (573) 751-2108 if you have any questions. Thank you and we welcome your prayers for the proper application of state government.
Priorities and Perspective
"Put your money where your mouth is." – This governor contrived for months to expand Medicaid and then cut dozens of budget items that would have had similar impacts.
Last Wednesday (Sept. 10) into early Thursday (Sept. 11) morning, the Missouri Senate and Missouri House each debated overriding legislation and budget line-items vetoed by the governor. By the end of the 2014 Veto Session, legislation had been overridden a record 57 times, many times with bipartisan support. Eight Senate bills, two House bills, and 47 budget line-item appropriation vetoes were successfully overridden.
It did not go unnoticed, and was openly discussed, that at the same time he was vetoing nearly 150 specific appropriations, some with no impact on general revenue and several that would provide expanded access to healthcare through programs such as ECHO (Expanding Access to Healthcare in Rural Areas), the governor had spent $550,000 just to fuel his new state-owned airplane that the auditor said was an unnecessary expenditure. It was reported that, just one month into the 2015 fiscal year, the governor's office has spent approximately $146,000 on out-of-state travel. The appropriation line-item veto overrides presented a clear contrast of priorities between the Legislature and the governor.
The line-item overrides included:
- Rape kits for children;
- Defibrillators for State Water Patrol boats;
- Alternatives to abortion services;
- Teach for America; and
- Funding for AP/Dual credit for low-income students.
It is likely the governor will ignore all 47 of the budget overrides and refuse to fund the items we overrode. There is little we can do to force him to fund items he refuses to fund unless we take him to court. The purest reading of his constitutional authority to exercise budget withholds is that they are authorized only if revenues fall short of budget demands, and they have not. We will watch to see how his office responds to our priorities.
The 10 legislative overrides included two pro-life bills, House Bill 1307 and HB 1132. House Bill 1307 changed the waiting period on abortions from 24 to 72 hours. The minority caucus was determined to stop the override of HB 1307 and filibustered. A previous question motion (rarely used) was required to stop the filibuster, and all but two majority party senators joined the PQ motion. The Senate then passed the bill on a party line vote. In winning the support of most of the caucus, one senator remarked that he would gladly PQ a debate to defend the life of his child, and he could do no less for someone else's. Reason and international evidence both suggest that after contemplation some mothers will decide not to kill their unborn child. I am convinced that because of this legislation we will get to watch babies grow into adulthood, who would otherwise be killed and not be given even an unmarked grave.
Senate bills that were overridden included Senate Bills 523, 593, 656, 727, 731, 829, 841, and 866. Vetoed bills go immediately into effect once voted out of both legislative bodies, so all 10 of the overridden bills are now Missouri law.
Searching for Lynn
I am writing this Capitol Report in hopes of helping find Lynn Messer, a 52-year-old mother and grandmother who has been missing for two weeks.
I have worked in the historic Capitol building for 12 years now. First as a representative and now as your Missouri senator for the 31st District. Since my first days at the Capitol, I have had the honor and privilege to know Kerry Messer and members of his family. For 30 years, Kerry Messer has been a fixture here at the Capitol. Kerry and his family have dedicated themselves to making Missouri a better place to live and work. His reputation among the Capitol community is one of integrity and perseverance as a voice for Missouri families on a wide range of policy issues. He is a respected man, doing respectable work.
No matter how much a lawmaker agrees or disagrees with Kerry at times, his motives and passion are never in question. Kerry loves the people of Missouri and he demonstrates that love through the way he works with us at the Capitol.
Kerry's wife, Lynn Messer, has been his biggest support through these last 30 years. His devotion to the work and ministry of his organization, Missouri Family Network, has only been possible through the sacrifices and support of Lynn, his wife of 34 years. As a result, we at the Capitol have a deep appreciation for Lynn Messer.
So it is with a heavy heart that I am asking you to please pray for Kerry and his family over the disappearance of his "bride."
Sometime during the night of July 7, prior to the morning of July 8, Lynn disappeared without a trace. Kerry and the Ste. Genevieve County Sheriff's Department have been conducting a massive search effort, but with no success to date.
Lynn did not take any personal belongings with her. She had recently injured her foot and the boot she had been ordered to wear was also found at the Messer home.
In the days since her disappearance, hundreds of volunteers and members of law enforcement have searched the Messer Farm in St. Genevieve as well as places that hold special memories for the Messer family. No one has given up hope.
Kerry has asked that you please visit the Facebook page, "Find Lynn Messer," located at www.facebook.com/findlynnmesser, to review the details associated with Lynn's disappearance and the search effort for her. From that page, you can download a missing person flyer with Lynn's photo and a description to share with others.
Thank you for reading this legislative report. You can contact my office at (573) 751-2108 if you have any questions. We welcome your prayers for the proper application of state government.
August Ballot Issues
First, my apologies for the long intermission between Capitol Reports, I hope to do better in the coming weeks. August 5 is the Missouri primary election, and there will be five issues for voters to decide. I support three of those issues and oppose two. The amendments are listed below, followed by brief descriptions of the reasons for my support or opposition.
- Guarantees farmers and ranchers the right to engage in their livelihoods, produce food for others
- Establishes the right to keep and bear arms, ammunition and accessories
- Increases state sales and use taxes for 10 years to fund transportation projects
- Creates new lottery ticket with profits going toward veterans' programs
- Protects electronic data from unreasonable searches and seizures
Amendment 1: I will vote YES.
Amendment 1 is designed to constitutionally protect all Missouri farmers, ranging from the person with six steers in the back yard to mega operations with thousands of acres. There are liberal groups who oppose Amendment 1 and are trying to confuse the Farming Rights amendment. A concern over foreign ownership of Missouri farmland is a red herring because foreign ownership of Missouri farm land is capped by law at 1 percent and currently stands at .29 percent. One of these liberal groups is the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), which employs a former Missouri lieutenant governor. This is the same organization that nearly put the canine breeding industry out of business in Missouri with their Proposition B campaign. A few conservatives oppose Amendment 1 due to their concern about the possibility of inappropriate protections for GMO merchants. However, Senate legal staff has assured me that although Amendment 1 may affect the legal environment of GMO's, it does not impair the courts in the case of lawsuits.
Amendment 5: I will vote YES.
This amendment affirms the duty of elected officials to protect your right to keep and bear arms. It extends the right to keep and bear arms to include ammunition and related accessories for such arms. Given the imperial actions being taken in Washington, D.C., such legislative action is needed. This amendment does not prevent the legislature from limiting the rights of certain felons and certain individuals adjudicated as having a mental disorder.
Amendment 7: I will vote NO.
No one can deny the bad timing of this multi-billion dollar tax increase on Missourians, even though a small cadre of state senators was successful in negotiating the tax down from $8 billion to $6 billion over 10 years. Our roads are in need of maintenance, but my opposition is because of the refusal of this legislature to advance reforms that would allow increased competition to benefit Missouri taxpayers. The same legislators who are willing to impose $6 billion of new taxes on Missourians stand in firm opposition to labor reforms, tort reforms, regulatory reforms, and judicial reforms that would benefit taxpayers and businesses. If a tax increase is necessary, it should be the last resort, not the first choice. When the goals of special interest groups conflict with what is good for the taxpayer, why must the taxpayer always lose?
Amendment 8: I will vote NO.
We don't all agree on the significance of gambling or buying a lottery ticket. However, no one in business, law enforcement, the military, or banking would view gambling as a character asset. We already see billboards across the state inviting us to support education by buying lottery tickets; next it will be to support our veterans. Have we reached the point that we entrust the wellbeing of our veterans to dependency upon what has historically been considered a vice?
Amendment 9: I will vote YES.
Security of our persons and papers against unlawful search or seizure is recognized by our Constitution as an unalienable right. Amendment 9 simply clarifies that our digital-electronic "papers" enjoy the same protection. They will still be subject to lawful search, as with a warrant or court order, but not an unwarranted search.
I hope these views are helpful. More details and the statements from both advocates and opponents can be surveyed using the links in the table above.
Thank you for reading this legislative report. You can contact my office at (573) 751-2108 if you have any questions. We welcome your prayers for the proper application of state government.
Freedom is Worth the Fight
Someone recently remarked: Patriots have not suffered and died for a day on the calendar but for independence. On December 25th each year we don't celebrate December 25th; we celebrate Christmas, the coming of the Messiah in a stable. You don't celebrate a day on the calendar for your birthday; you celebrate your birthday on a day of the calendar. Today, as we celebrate, may we celebrate the birthday of America – the spirit, symbol, and confirmation of the power and compassion of a free people.
Liberty is more than a philosophy or an idea; it is a condition, whether personal or corporate. My personal liberty is a condition of the heart; it is the mind of Christ – a confidence in the God of creation and the eternal salvation He offers by the blood of His only begotten Son. Corporate liberty, on the other hand, is a political condition where the people are empowered above the king.
Writings about and by the Founding Fathers reveal they largely knew the personal liberty of a relationship with Jesus Christ. But their pledge to one another of their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor (reputations) was not for that which they had already attained but for that for which they longed – corporate liberty. Their profound pledge was the price they were willing to pay to secure the condition of liberty for a people: their families, neighbors, and posterity. This was to be a political liberty, the birth of a nation "conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal."
Ideas and philosophies are harmless even to tyrants until they initiate a change in condition. The Declaration of Independence did that; it birthed a nation! A people who were totally dependent on their government (King George) made independence their goal and told the king to keep his ships and provisions and protections at home. For the cause and condition of liberty, they would fend for themselves. They demanded a change in their condition, and the tyrant answered back with war.
Today let's celebrate the spirit, soul, and declaration of independence and not just a day on the calendar! Freedom is worth the fight, and independence is worth the price. Happy Independence Day, and God save the U.S.A.
"Let every student be plainly instructed, and earnestly pressed to consider well, the main end of his life studies is, to know God and Jesus Christ which is eternal life." – Harvard University Original Mission Statement, 1636
During this legislative session, as seen with passing both the student transfer bill and the Common Core bill, education was a top priority for the General Assembly. As the graduation season is upon us, many students will be preparing to head to college this fall.
During the session, we heard a higher education bill, which included performance funding – meaning that starting in 2016, a certain amount of state funding – based on performance – will be distributed, holding these schools accountable for the quality of education they provide. It is common for parents to be unaware of what their child is learning when they are away from home, but it is crucial that parents stay involved. In a recent report published by Phyllis Schlafly, she discusses the drastic shift on college campuses and the breakdown of traditional values among students. Schlafly makes some startling observations and passionate admonitions which are summarized below.
Before you send your child off to college, think for a moment about the quality of education you are getting for the $20,000-$50,000 a year. To get a glimpse into what your child will be learning, visit a university bookstore and browse through the required text books. Many of the history books give a one-sided perspective of the United States being a bully that is exploiting third-world nations and paints the Founders as racist slave owning elites who only declared their independence to preserve their own wealth and social status. Many text books describe big government as the only humane way in which a country can be ruled and claim that it is the duty of the government to provide for everyone, rather than protect their lives, liberty and property.
The problem is the way this information is being taught. If a student takes a history class in which they learn about Marxism, they may study and fulfill all of the requirements to pass without ever being challenged to think critically about the topic. For example, students learn about the ideas of Socialism and the basis on which it is built, but they seldom learn of the instances throughout history where this ideology has been tried and failed, from the pilgrims to Zimbabwe to the USSR. Schlafly's research points out that at Columbia Teachers College, students learn that non-Socialist societies are the root cause of all violence.
Today on many campuses, students are given the opportunity to take a variety of classes including those on gender studies, many of which teach that the traditional roles of male and female are learned behaviors which can be changed if the person so chooses. In Schlafly's report, she talks about a course at the University of Missouri-St. Louis that uses a textbook entitled Women's Voices, Feminist Visions. She states that this textbook explains to students that heterosexuality only exists because of socially imposed stereotypes and homophobia, and has nothing to do with nature or morality. It teaches students that the oppression of minority groups is one of many ways for the majority to keep its special privileges. Frequently those expressing their own belief in traditional values are condemned as being ignorant or unaccepting. Even at the simplest levels, students are kept from expressing traditional ideas.
The outcry for "equality," as opposed to exceptionalism on college campuses, has created a gross double standard. To teach traditional values or concepts is considered politically incorrect and students who want to live by these values find themselves persecuted. In Schlafly's article, she describes a situation at Rollins College in Florida which recently ruled that Christian student clubs, who require student officers to be Christian, are in violation of the school's "non-discrimination policy" and will not receive any university funds allotted to student organizations. Many often forget that most universities were founded as Christian learning institutions. Harvard's original motto was "Truth for Christ and the Church," and Yale University was originally founded to train Christian ministers. As you can see, today's universities have exponentially strayed from this idea.
For many students, college can be a time in which their faith and values are tested. It is important as parents to help your student select a college carefully and to arm them with the tools they need to remain strong in their beliefs and values. Education forms the future. We cannot leave the future of Missouri or this great nation in the hands of the amoral education elite. Parents must take charge, and that requires involvement-not just in K-12, but in every institution that either forms or conforms the minds of our children.
Thank you for reading this legislative report. You can contact my office at (573) 751-2108 if you have any questions. Thank you and we welcome your prayers for the proper application of state government.
Politics of Impeachment
"Little boldness is needed to assail the opinions and practices of notoriously wicked men; but to rebuke great and good men for their conduct, and to impeach their discernment, is the highest effort of moral courage."
- William Lloyd Garrison
A prior Capitol Report described Senate Joint Resolution 34, which would move impeachment trials back to the Missouri Senate. They were moved from the Senate to the Supreme Court in 1945. This past week, the House Judiciary Committee chairman announced that his committee would not pursue what it deemed "serious" impeachment charges filed against the governor in three separate bills. Hearings were completed the previous week on House Resolution 380,House Resolution 476 and House Resolution 923, all constructed to hold the governor accountable for violating his oath of office and the rights of the people. I was unable to attend the hearings, but a member of my staff attended and her remarks are summarized below.
The first articles of impeachment that were heard were those sponsored by Rep. Nick Marshall's House Resolution 380, dealing with the Executive Order 13-14 in which the governor unilaterally authorized same-sex couples to jointly file state tax returns as if they are married. Rep. Marshall's basis for filing the resolution was that the governor had disregarded Missouri's constitution and tax code. The charge was that he violated his duty by issuing his unconstitutional executive order.
Most members of the House Judiciary Committee are attorneys, so the line of questioning that followed was more aligned with a cross examination rather than a public hearing. The fact that Missouri attorneys are mandated members of the integrated bar may also have influenced the open hostility displayed. Some committee members suggested that this was simply a different interpretation of the law: Rep. Marshall's and the governor's. Rep. Marshall challenged the claim suggesting it was ludicrous to think that a governor, who had been attorney general for 16 years, could not correctly read Missouri's statutes and constitution.
Rep. Mike Moon's House Resolution 476 sought impeachment for neglect of duty – inexcusable delays in filling vacant assembly seats. Several seats have been left vacant due to resignations, appointments, etc., leaving an estimated 285,000 people without representation. That number has grown with the recent Public Service Commission appointment of Sen. Scott T. Rupp and the untimely death of Rep. Rory Ellinger. Some committee members showed their total misunderstanding of the purpose and process of impeachment by stating that claims of neglect were without legal merit because there is no clear definition of how long is too long.
The third articles of impeachment was filed by Rep. Rick Brattin and sought impeachment due to the governor's failure to protect the privacy rights of 163,000 Missourians when he allowed their CCW data to be given (on multiple occasions) to the federal government.
Rep. Brattin charged that the governor's neglect to hold members of his cabinet responsible constitutes an impeachable neglect of duty. Rep. Brattin was met with another cross-examination by the members of The Missouri Bar who are on the committee. They wanted examples of the laws being broken, once again demonstrating their confusion on impeachment. Rep. Brattin stated again and again that in failing to hold someone accountable for these illegal acts constitutes an impeachable offense.
The first witness called, Mr. Ron Calzone, presented the committee with 760 witness forms. Only five witness forms opposed the impeachment articles, three offered information without taking a position, and 752 were in support of impeachment. Mr. Calzone asked that the committee think less like lawyers and more like legislators with a duty to protect the rights and power of the people of Missouri. He reminded the committee through the Missouri Preamble that their power is on loan from the people and that the question before them was not whether or not to impeach the governor; the question was whether impeachment should be brought to the floor for debate by the General Assembly.
Another witness was a constituent of former Rep. Jason Smith of the 120th District, whose seat has been vacant for over 10 months. The witness had already gone to extraordinary lengths to gain representation in the Legislature. She had been the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit that was filed against the governor earlier this year in Cole County. After numerous letters, petitions, and her lawsuit, the governor has now scheduled a special election on Aug. 5, 2014. By that date, the seat will have been vacant for 14 months. With this being an extremely vital year in the Legislature, it is hard to justify why so many Missourians went without a voice.
The witness testified that in response to her lawsuit, the courts claimed the issue was political, and refused to issue an opinion. The House committee, on the other hand, was now taking the position that the impeachment charges belonged in the courts and shouldn't be considered in the Legislature. Where, she asked, was she to go? What remedy does she and other unrepresented Missourians have?
A Lawrence County Auxiliary volunteer testified that he and other volunteers were among those whose data was breached, prompting Rep. Brattin's articles of impeachment. He personified that example of a breach for which the committee members had asked. This 163,000 was no longer just a number but an individual whose privacy had been violated. This man and others had their data exposed and had no one to hold accountable.
The final witness, another constituent from the 120th District, posed several questions to the committee. He was from one of the unrepresented districts and asked the committee some tough questions. "How can it not bother you that we don't have representation? How can you say that this is not an impeachable offense?"
The House committee may be correct that these articles lack legal merit. That is because they are articles of impeachment, not criminal charges. They are part of the political process of impeachment. Their purpose is to hold the governor accountable for violating his constitutional duties, not necessarily the law. Impeachment cannot imprison or fine, only remove from office. The governor's constitutional responsibility to the people of Missouri is not a matter for the courts to decide! The committee's inability to look at the issue as elected officials, not as members of Missouri's integrated bar was a disservice to thousands of Missourians pleading for the Legislature's intercession. The official response issued last week is an indictment of those elected officials who refuse to take seriously their duty to their oath office by holding this governor to his.
Click here to read an article from the Kansas City Star about the decision not to pursue impeachment.
Thank you for reading this legislative report. You can contact my office at (573) 751-2108 if you have any questions. Thank you and we welcome your prayers for the proper application of state government.
Park the Plane
Since the Senate passed Senate Bill 509, the biggest story in state politics has been the governor's almost immediate decision and announcement to veto the legislation just as he did with last year's tax cut bill. However, this year's legislation is much different from last year's bill, but his reasons for a possible veto are largely the same.
He has made consistently false statements in the media and to countless citizens of this great state. It is unprofessional and deceptive to prey on the public when they've received limited information. And as a former attorney general, it is unlikely that the governor is confused about either the legislative intent or the language in Senate Bill 509.
The governor has said, among other things, that this legislation will eliminate income taxes for some Missourians who fall within certain tax brackets. Senate Bill 509 does not do this. The governor's interpretation of this law is wrong and it draws me to question if he is sincere in his concerns or if this is just politics.
Former Missouri Supreme Court Justice Judge Ray Price was asked for an opinion on the governor's claims, and he found them baseless. Nevertheless, the governor insists on flying around the state in his newest airplane purchased without legislative approval or oversight and misinforming the public.
With only two weeks of this legislative session left, there is a glaring void of input from the governor's office on important issues like the massive overhaul to the criminal code, Common Core, student transfers out of failing school districts, and not to mention balancing the budget. He is also facing three impeachment charges in the House that started as public hearings last week. These items surely demand the attention of the highest office holder in our state.
At the same time, the governor is railing against the approximately $620 million to stay in taxpayers' pockets rather than be redistributed to non-taxpayers, he wants the legislation to raise the sales taxes for both givers and takers by $700-$800 million to pay for the roads that cannot be repaired with a proposed $26 billion state budget.
It may be time to give politics a rest and focus on state policies that limit government and empower productive citizens; the fight for political power should be abandoned in favor of good public policy. "We the people" need to demand a government that protects individuals' opportunity and liberty. We still have the ballot box, as we can protect its integrity and employ its power. Let us insist that the governor park the plane and fulfill his oath of office at the ground level.
Thank you for reading this legislative report. You can contact my office at (573) 751-2108 if you have any questions. Thank you and we welcome your prayers for the proper application of state government.
Bring Missouri's Criminal Code to the 21st Century
Last week the Missouri Senate perfected and passed SB 491, a major update of Missouri's criminal code. Representative Chris Kelly, with whom I served in the Missouri House, has written an excellent account of the process and product encompassing SB 491 and HB 1371(the House version of SB 491).
The remarks that follow are either quotes from Rep. Kelly's letter or are summarized from them. Rep. Kelly's comments are needed when evaluating the process by which SB 491 and HB 1371 were developed and in assessing the content of the bills. The Missouri Bar has long advocated for a revision to our current criminal code, which hasn't seen a major revision in nearly 30 years.
The revision process began when The Missouri Bar appointed a committee to consider and recommend improvements to the current criminal code. The committee studied the issue for almost five years and sent it to the bar's board of directors, which approved it. At that point, the General Assembly was brought into the process to enact the work as a complete revision to the code. Subsequently, in 2012, Chairman Stanley Cox and Senator Minority Leader Jolie Justus, who are both attorneys, introduced the bill in both the House and the Senate. Understanding the extensiveness of the bills, they gave them time to settle with the General Assembly and did not pursue passage the first year the changes were introduced.
In 2013, the bills were reintroduced; the House broke the bill up into three parts divided among three subcommittees for reviews and the Senate embarked on a similar course of thorough review. As a ranking member on the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Kelly participated in the development of this legislation and has stated that he has never seen a bill so meticulously vetted, first by the bar over a five-year period and then by both the House and the Senate over three years. Both chairmen have avoided making substantive changes in criminal law, recognizing that the inclusion of substantive changes would greatly increase the possibility of unintended error.
Even with all of this review, no process guarantees absolute freedom from error. Therefore a substantial post passage review procedure was also constructed. First, the governor will conduct his normal due diligence and exercise his right to veto, should he find error. After it has been signed, the Supreme Court has agreed to send the bill to its Standing Committee on Criminal Procedure for review, allowing the Legislature the chance to make changes during veto session.
Finally, the Senate bill now contains an effective date of Jan. 1, 2017, and House Majority Leader John Diehl has suggested that the General Assembly could also call themselves into special session during veto session for the purpose of making any needed corrections.
In summary, after we pass the bill, the governor will review it, the court committee will study it, and the Legislature will have at least four chances to fix any errors that should emerge.
Rep. Kelly has said that he has seen many long and complex bills but has never seen one with this degree of initial vetting and post passage review. The General Assembly and The Missouri Bar and bench have done all that is reasonably possible to provide comfort to legislators and the governor.
All seem to agree that the criminal code is significantly outdated and unwieldy; reform is long overdue. One reason to pass a bill this session is because of the four people who know the most about the code revision-Chairman Cox, Chairman Dixon, Senate Minority Leader Justus and Rep. Kelly, three will not be returning. If we do not pass it this year, it almost certainly will not happen in the foreseeable future regardless of the need for reform.
Reasonable caution by the governor and legislators is prudent. The governor has offered a threat of a veto due to the large size of the bill. My opinion, which is shared by many senators, is the process as described above is as secure a process as can ever be expected. Any incremental improvements could easily be made in subsequent legislative sessions and do not provide a rational reason for a veto.
The Senate bill is currently in the House Judiciary Committee awaiting a hearing and the House bill is in the Senate Judiciary Committee awaiting a hearing. It is my hope that we will pass and the governor will sign either SB 491 or HB 1317 and bring Missouri's criminal code chapters into the 21st Century.


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Narrow your search
CNET editors choose and review the best thin and light laptops, notebooks, and ultrabooks.
We've rounded up a half dozen laptops, desktops, tablets and hybrids that showcase some of the amazing leaps -- and a few of the disappointments -- that the PC market delivered in 2014.
These portable PCs make excellent gifts, even if just for yourself.
It's a tablet. It's a laptop. It's arguably the best mobile-computing deal of the year. Plus: three bonus deals!
Ferrari unveils a new hybrid race car based on the exotic LaFerrari.
Link-Union's Link-U Hybrid SmartCam presents a promising alternative to server-based data plans, and any potential power-outage or Wi-Fi connectivity concerns.
Pricing not available
CNET's judges weighed in on the best cars we drove this year, picking the most advanced from an impressive field. In addition, check out the Car Tech 10, our awards for a variety of achievements in the automotive industry.
The 2014 Toyota Highlander Hybrid offers a serious increase in efficiency over the standard model without compromising its power, comfort, or parent-friendliness.
Mercedes does a hybrid for the buyer who can afford any price of fuel!
A new fan-less design and metal hinge make this the thinest, lightest Yoga yet.
With a large ecosystem of docks, keyboards, and covers, this 10-inch Windows 8 tablet can remake itself to suit your needs.

subset: commoncrawl


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active time5
total time5
Ingredients4 red capsicums, roasted, skinned and seeded
60ml cold pressed olive oil
1/2 cup walnuts
1 tablespoon Natvia - 100% natural sweetener (I love it!)
Cracked black pepper and salt, to taste
Vegetable crudites, for serving
PreparationProcess all ingredients (but only the oil) in a food processor until it comes together.
Adding the rest of oil, if required.
Serve with vegetable crudites.
my notes
recipe at a glance
main ingredients: Pepper
cuisine: Southwestern


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About Chris
Chris Brewer is the founder and director of gospel through shared experience – a conversation intended to change the way the Church thinks about and practices evangelism – as well as the editor and publisher of Art that Tells the Story.
The son of Baptist missionaries, Chris has lived in four countries and five states, but is most passionate about reaching his Jerusalem. Given this multi-cultural background, as well as his experience in the Church, academy and business worlds, Chris brings a unique perspective to the conversation.
Chris, his wife and two boys live near the East Sands in St. Andrews, Scotland where Chris is working on a Ph.D. in Divinity (Theology, Imagination and the Arts) with David Brown at the University of St. Andrews.


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Pedophiles are actively fighting for children to have the right to engage in sex with adults. They network in groups/forums to encourage the concept that it is not a mental helth issue but a sexual preference and are learning to accept their attractions to children and even engage in guilt free sex with them. Pedophiles in Canada will continue to exsist in great numbers, with freedom of speach and a protected identity. They will proceed to ignore the damage they do to children, they will continue to convince themselvs that the experience had a positive impact, they will continue to speak casually among themselvs online about encounters with children. They will continue to trade and collect illicit pictures of children engaging in sexual acts with adults. And they may even live next door to you.
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Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) criticized The Wall Street Journal editorial board member James Taranto's "bizarre and deeply out of touch understanding of sexual assault," following Taranto's claim that efforts to address the epidemic of sexual assault in the military constitutes a "war on men."
In a June 17 WSJ column, Taranto dismissed the epidemic of sexual assault in the military, claiming that Sen. McCaskill's efforts to address the growing problem contributed to a "war on men." McCaskill has blocked the promotion of Lt. Gen. Susan J. Helms, who ignored her legal advisors to overturn the ruling of an Air Force jury that found an officer guilty of sexual assault. Taranto blamed the victim of the assault for "recklessness" and claimed that McCaskill's work was an "effort to criminalize male sexuality."
McCaskill responded to Taranto on June 27 in an op-ed at the Daily Beast, writing that he has a "disregard for the severity of sexual assault" and highlighting his "bizarre and deeply out of touch understanding of sexual assault":
Mr. Taranto says that I'm involved in a crusade to "criminalize male sexuality." For decades, from my time as a courtroom prosecutor and throughout my career in public service, I have indeed done my best to criminalize violence. And I have never subscribed to Mr. Taranto's bizarre and deeply out of touch understanding of sexual assault as somehow being a two-way street between a victim and an assailant.
Mr. Taranto's arguments contribute to an environment that purposely places blame in all the wrong places, and has made the current culture and status quo an obstruction to sorely needed change.
My colleagues and I are fighting not to criminalize men, but to bring the cowards who commit sexual assault to justice. And our fight won't stop until we give the brave men and women of our military the resources and justice they deserve.
Wall Street Journal editorial board member James Taranto defended his recent column that dismissed the epidemic of sexual assault in the military as a "war on men." Taranto has a long history of making sexist remarks.
From the June 18 edition of WSJ Live's Opinion Journal Live:
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The Wall Street Journal's James Taranto dismissed the epidemic of sexual assault in the military, claiming that efforts to address the growing problem contributed to a "war on men" and an "effort to criminalize male sexuality."
In May, the Department of Defense released its "Annual Report on Sexual Assault in the Military," which found that up to 26,000 service members may have been the victim of some form of sexual assault last year, up from an estimated 19,000 in 2010. The report also found that 62 percent of victims who reported their assault faced retaliation as a result. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel responded to the report by calling the assaults "a despicable crime" that is "a threat to the safety and the welfare of our people," and General Martin Dempsey affirmed that sexual assaults constitute a "crisis" in the military.
In an effort to address this longstanding problem, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) has blocked the promotion of Lt. Gen. Susan J. Helms, who granted clemency to an officer found guilty of sexual assault, in an effort to obtain more information about why the officer was effectively pardoned. As The Washington Post reported, an Air Force jury found the officer guilty of sexually assaulting a female lieutenant in the back seat of a car, and sentenced him to 60 days behind bars, a loss of pay, and dismissal from the Air Force.
Helms' decision to effectively pardon the officer "ignored the recommendations of [her] legal advisers and overruled a jury's findings -- without publicly revealing why." The Post explained that McCaskill has not placed a permanent hold on the promotion, but is "blocking Helms's nomination until she receives more information about the general's decision."*
Taranto, a member of the Journal's editorial board, dismissed these facts to claim that McCaskill's effort to address the growing problem of sexual assault in the military was a "war on men" and a "political campaign" that showed "signs of becoming an effort to criminalize male sexuality." He also claimed that the female lieutenant who reported that she had been assaulted acted just as "recklessly" as the accused attacker, apparently by doing nothing more than getting into the same vehicle as him.
But McCaskill is not trying to re-litigate the case; she is trying to determine why Helms ignored her legal advisers and overturned a jury of five Air Force officers. As the Post explained, advocacy groups charge that "any decision to overrule a jury's verdict for no apparent reason has a powerful dampening effect," contributing to a culture in which the majority of sexual assaults in the military remain unreported.
The Department of Defense report on sexual assault found that while 26,000 service members said they were assaulted last year, only about 11 percent of those cases were reported. The findings listed several reasons why individuals did not report the assault to a military authority, including that they "did not want anyone to know," "felt uncomfortable making a report," and "thought they would not be believed." The report also noted that concerns about "negative scrutiny by others" keeps many victims from reporting their assaults.
Taranto's dismissal of the victim's accounts and his insistence that they were equally responsible for the reported assault is a form of victim-blaming -- the very type of stigmatization that the Department identified as encouraging victims to remain silent about their assault.
While speaking out against the growing epidemic of sexual assaults, Defense Secretary Hagel noted that the Department of Defense should "establish an environment of dignity and respect, where sexual assault is not tolerated, condoned or ignored." But Taranto's victim-blaming approach -- and insistence that efforts to address this growing problem are attacks on men and male sexuality -- is a perfect example of the rhetoric that contributes to the very culture and environment the DOD seeks to eliminate.
UPDATE: Taranto doubled down on his claim that the effort to reduce sexual assaults in the military is leading to a "war on men" on The Wall Street Journal's webshow Opinion Journal Live.
*Taranto also responded to Media Matters by noting Sen. McCaskill stated that she made her hold on Gen. Helms' promotion permanent on June 6. Media Matters regrets the error.
Right-wing media are increasingly and uniformly pushing the "personhood" position in their anti-choice attacks, an absolutist argument that equates fetuses with persons and goes beyond repealing Roe v. Wade to banning all abortions.
As recently as the 2012 presidential campaign, the GOP standard bearer claimed that although he opposed Roe v. Wade, he supported standard exceptions to abortion restrictions, and overturning 40 years of reproductive rights precedent would merely "return to the people and their elected representatives the decisions with regards to this important issue." This so-called moderate Republican position on "limits on abortion" was endorsed by prominent right-wing media figures such as Jennifer Rubin of The Washington Post, who assured her readers that "the GOP isn't waging a 'war on women'; it is waging a war on abortion on demand."
Now that the election is over, Rubin is following the lead of right-wing media and using convicted murderer Kermit Gosnell to attack extremely rare and mostly prohibited late-term abortions, by arguing a "baby is far more than a fetus" or a "a clump of cells" because "there's a lot of science out there that...allows us to save these children." From Rubin's appearance on the May 13 edition of Fox News' America Live:
We're talking about infants that if they would be operated on, for example, by a surgeon at 24 weeks, would likely survive. As you say, you can take sonogram, you can see them sucking their thumb, they respond to music, there's all sorts of indications that that baby is far more than a fetus, which is the way the pro-abortion lobby likes to refer to it. And I think this makes Americans confront that. The president doesn't want to talk about it. He goes out and talks to Planned Parenthood, and says I'm all with you folks, and those are the people who want abortion on demand for any reason, any place, any time.
I think one of the problems that the abortion lobby is having is the science. They say conservatives don't like science. Well, there's a lot of science out there that not only allows us to save these children but also allows you to see them. And to obtain an indication that this is something far more than just a clump of cells.
In falsely comparing Gosnell's killing of newborns with legal abortion, Rubin is making an important rhetorical shift that is being repeated elsewhere on Fox News. On May 14, Fox News co-host of The Five, Andrea Tantaros, did the same:
[Gosnell's conviction] gives the pro-life movement an argument against the pro-abortion movement, which is they continue to argue, argue, argue in favor of abortion. However, this court just said, you kill a baby outside the womb, it's murder. But what about a baby inside of the womb? That question has to be answered. And I think that this does give the pro-life movement some fuel for their fight.
Wall Street Journal online editorial page editor James Taranto ignored the thousands of hate crimes committed against minorities each year, misleadingly fixating on four allegedly falsified incidents to claim minority oppression "scarcely exists."
In a May 2 Journal post, Taranto focused on four incidents in which individuals allegedly falsely claimed they were the victims of hate crimes, and claimed that these "phony" accusations were "common, especially on college campuses." He concluded:
Oppression of minorities, and certainly of women, scarcely exists in America in the 21st century. Genuine hate crimes happen, but they are very rare. Few societies in history have offered more security to the previously downtrodden. But the presence of security only makes the need for identity and stimulation more pressing. Hate-crime hoaxes are an extreme way of meeting those needs.
Taranto's fixation on a small number of discredited cases hides the reality that hate crime in the United States is not as rare as he claims. According to the FBI's most recent data, law enforcement agencies reported thousands of hate crimes in 2011 alone:
- In 2011, 1,944 law enforcement agencies reported 6,222 hate crime incidents involving 7,254 offenses.
- There were 6,216 single-bias incidents that involved 7,240 offenses, 7,697 victims, and 5,724 offenders.
- The 6 multiple-bias incidents reported in 2011 involved 14 offenses, 16 victims, and 7 offenders.
These crimes included murder, rape, assault, intimidation, and destruction or theft of property. According to the data, most of the crimes were motivated by racial bias, followed by bias against sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity and national origin, and disability.
However, these numbers likely underestimate the true amount of hate crime in the United States. Business Insider explained that hate crimes are vastly under-reported to the FBI, as the data "is highly dependent on reports from local police, some of whom are better at reporting hate crimes than others."
Indeed, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, a subdivision of the U.S. Department of Justice, only 35 percent of hate crimes from 2007 to 2011 were reported to the police. Accounting for hate crimes not reported to authorities, the Bureau of Justice Statistics found that there were 181,190 violent hate crimes in 2011. An additional 13,200 violent hate crimes were motivated by gender bias, which the FBI does not track. The percentage of violent hate crimes that resulted in an arrest declined from 10 percent in 2003 - 2006 to 4 percent in 2007 - 2011.
Taranto's baseless dismissal of oppression is unsurprising given his history, including claiming that the "legal regime ... is highly indulgent of sexual-harassment allegations" and attacking the Voting Rights Act.
Wall Street Journal columnist James Taranto questioned the authenticity of a New York Times op-ed authored by former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords by claiming that the op-ed appeared online too quickly to have been written by someone "who has severe impairments of her motor and speech functions."
Giffords' April 18 op-ed was written in response to the failure of expanded background checks legislation. On January 8, 2011, Giffords was shot in the head during a constituent meeting in an attack that killed six and left 13 wounded.
Taranto's comments occurred on the April 19 edition of the National Rifle Association's news show, Cam & Company, where he said it was "odd" that the Times op-ed, which Taranto described as "Giffords' personal reaction as somebody who's been wounded by gun violence," was published approximately five hours after the Senate voted on background checks. Taranto cast doubt on the idea that Giffords had authored the piece, commenting, "So we are supposed to believe that somehow in less than five hours a woman who has severe impairments of her motor and speech functions was able to produce 900 publishable words and put in an appearance in the White House in the course of it."
From Cam & Company:
TARANTO: One fascinating thing about this is this piece was published no later than 9:03 PM on Wednesday evening, because that's when it first appears on the New York Times' Twitter feed. The last Senate vote on amendments to the gun bill was a bit after 6 [PM]. Giffords appeared at the White House at 5:35 [PM] when we saw that enraged rant by the president. The Manchin-Toomey [background check] provision was the first vote. That was at 4:04 PM. So if you read this piece it's presented as a cry from the heart, as Giffords' personal reaction as somebody who's been wounded by gun violence to the betrayal of these Senators. So we are supposed to believe that somehow in less than five hours a woman who has severe impairments of her motor and speech functions was able to produce 900 publishable words and put in an appearance in the White House in the course of it. So I think that's a little bit odd.
Taranto offers no evidence for his offensive insinuation that Giffords would not have been capable of authoring the piece herself. He also ignores the possibility that Giffords could have authored the op-ed ahead of time in expectation of the widely-predicted outcome - hardly an unusual practice.
The argument by conservative media that former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and other survivors of gun violence who supported a failed Senate compromise to expand background checks on firearms sales are "props" of the Obama administration is both hypocritically partisan and logically flawed.
Right-wing media are unable to acknowledge that President Obama's gun violence prevention agenda mirrors the priorities of gun violence survivors, who are not mere "props," to pass stronger gun laws. As Greg Sargent of The Washington Post notes, "the families want to stand with the President at events for a fairly obvious reason: Obama is fighting for the same things they want":
All of this aside, the "props" line is actually an insult to the families, posing as a defense of them. It implies that the families, in lobbying on these issues, are not thinking for themselves. In reality, the families want to stand with the President at events for a fairly obvious reason: Obama is fighting for the same things they want. Indeed, one of the family members, Mark Barden, who lost his son Daniel in the shooting, voluntarily stood with the president at the White House yesterday as Obama reacted to news of the Senate vote, and thanked Obama for his leadership. Needless to say, if Barden felt like he was being exploited or used as a prop, he wouldn't be thanking the president. [emphasis in original]
Logical flaws aside, those who would call Newtown families and other gun violence survivors "props" fail to acknowledge that presidents routinely evoke the experiences of victims in advocating for policies that would prevent future tragedies.
In 1991, former President Ronald Reagan evoked his own experience of being shot by a would-be assassin, as well as the experiences of others wounded in the 1981 attack in order to advocate for background checks on gun sales. In a New York Times op-ed Reagan wrote about his press secretary, Jim Brady, who was grievously wounded in the attack by a man who acquired a gun despite a lengthy history of serious mental illness. Brady would go on to lend his name to the legislation -- the Brady bill -- that mandated a background check for gun sales conducted by licensed dealers:
Wall Street Journal editorial board member James Taranto downplayed a new Kansas bill that significantly restricts reproductive rights and ignored the consequences of a "personhood" provision that declares life begins "at fertilization."
Writing in reference to articles by the Associated Press and Reuters that describe the "sweeping" Kansas bill, reported as "one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the nation," Taranto instead characterized the restrictions in the bill as "modest" and mocked reproductive rights advocates who are raising alarm about the bill's thinly-veiled "personhood" provision. From the WSJ editorial:
[A]bortion proponents are especially exercised about a provision "declaring that life begins 'at fertilization' "
Holly Weatherford, another ACLUer, frets that the stipulation could "be used as a tool of harassment."
Hey Holly, did you know the word "gullible" isn't in the dictionary? Just kidding, it's there, as we noted in October. You know what else is there? "Fertilization." Here's Merriam-Webster's definition 2(b), the relevant one for this discussion: "the process of union of two gametes whereby the somatic chromosome number is restored and the development of a new individual is initiated."
This is basic reproductive biology. The assertion that life begins at fertilization is a tautology. [Deputy director of the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project Talcott] Camp and Weatherford might as well be objecting to a legislative finding that A is A or 2+2=4 or a tautology is true by definition.
If your goal is to maximize sexual freedom, then it's expedient to answer the abortion question in the most permissive way possible. We suppose in that case simply defying science and logic, as Camp and Weatherford do, is a tempting shortcut. But when your position depends on denying a tautology, you may find it a difficult one to defend.
A Wall Street Journal op-ed acknowledged the constitutionality of race-conscious law, breaking from the traditional narrative of right-wing media that touts a non-existent "colorblind" Constitution, but incorrectly described the issues in a new Supreme Court case that will examine state bans on affirmative action.
In the case Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, the Supreme Court has decided to examine whether amendments to state constitutions that ban race-conscious equal opportunity programs violate the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution by impermissibly rigging a state's political process. Contrary to editorial board member James Taranto's description of the case in a recent WSJ op-ed, Schuette is not properly understood as "an opportunity to revist" the constitutionality of affirmative action in higher education admission policies.
Grutter v. Bollinger, which reaffirmed the permissible use of race-conscious admissions in furtherance of the educational benefits of diversity, is indeed at risk in the as-of-yet unreleased decision of Fisher v. University of Texas. Schuette, on the other hand, examines what political means of prohibiting race-conscious admissions are acceptable under the U.S. Constitution and what means unconstitutionally manipulate state political processes to the detriment of persons of color and others who support the use of race-conscious affirmative action.
Described as the crown jewel of civil rights law, the Voting Rights Act has been the target of right-wing misinformation for decades, and a parallel legal assault against its constitutionality will be argued before the Supreme Court in Shelby County v. Holder on February 27. The VRA, enacted to stem voter suppression on the basis of race in the South, contains a provision within it - Section 5 - which identifies the worst historical offenders and requires that election changes in those jurisdictions pass federal review. The current legal challenges to the VRA focus on Section 5, and are the continuation of the same discredited claims lodged against this anti-discrimination law since its inception.
The Wall Street Journal's James Taranto illogically claimed that recent comments from a National Urban League activist prove that voter ID laws do not suppress minority votes. Despite Taranto's defense of his flawed theory, research clearly indicates that voter ID laws target minority voters.
In his Wall Street Journal column, Taranto highlighted comments by Chanelle Hardy, a vice president at the National Urban League. According to Talking Points Memo, Hardy stated that Republican efforts to pass voter ID laws may have backfired by increasing enthusiasm among African American voters and increasing turnout. Taranto argued that Hardy's comments contradict claims from voter ID opponents that the laws restrict the rights of eligible minority voters.
Taranto's argument is absurd: an increase in voter enthusiasm in a specific group does not prove that other members of that group did not have their voting rights restricted. This claim is similar to one made in 2011 by Taranto's fellow voter ID proponent Hans von Spakowsky who argued at the time that high turnout in Georgia in 2008, following the passage of voter ID laws, proved that the legislation had no effect on voting rights. Justin Levitt, a professor at Loyola Law School, pointed out that von Spakowsky's logic was also flawed:
In a recent column, Wall Street Journal editorial board member James Taranto seized on a tribute to lifelong civil rights activist Lawrence Guyot written by the progressive Constitutional Accountability Center as an opportunity to attack the Voting Rights Act of 1965. But Taranto's criticism of the most effective anti-discrimination law in history ignores ample relevant history and case law.
Guyot passed away on November 22 at the age of 73. As a civil rights worker in the 1960s, he was beaten, jailed, and tortured for the voting rights and anti-segregation advocacy he undertook on behalf of African-Americans in Mississippi. In their tribute to Guyot, CAC noted that while current voter suppression is nowhere as violent as the tactics Guyot suffered, if unchecked by the Voting Rights Act, their effects still present discriminatory voting obstacles.
In his November 29 column, Taranto used CAC's Guyot obituary to attack Section 5 of the VRA, which Congress and federal courts have consistently reauthorized and utilized as essential for protecting the voting rights of millions of citizens who aren't white. Taranto also criticized the absence of extensive legal analysis in the obituary, complaining that it instead had "adjectives and adverbs," and more than one use of the word "iconic."
For a pair who work for something called the Constitutional Accountability Center, [Doug] Kendall and [Emily] Phelps don't have a lot to say about the constitution. Their defense of Section 5 is purely sentimental, with lots of intensifying adjectives and adverbs. Shelby County v. Holder, they exclaim, is "a monumentally important challenge to a key part of the Voting Rights Act, the iconic law for which for which [sic] Mr. Guyot shed blood."
Taranto, who cites a map and the Supreme Court brief for the Alabama county challenging the constitutionality of the VRA, focuses solely on the obituary to accuse CAC of not discussing the Constitution more in their tribute to Guyot. Yet Taranto fails to mention the extensive legal analyses and legal briefs CAC has written on the constitutionality of the VRA, all easily accessible on their website, as well as in other news outlets.
It is true that that CAC used the word "iconic" four times. It is also true that Taranto managed to write an entire column on the inappropriateness of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act without once using the words Jim Crow, and only referencing voter suppression in quotes. Discussion of these topics is crucial to any analysis of the VRA.
Throughout his column, Taranto questions why only certain areas must get approval for changes to their election practices under the VRA. The answer is simple: even with the passage of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution following the Civil War, states of the Old Confederacy in the South refused to recognize equal protection and voting rights for African-Americans, through Reconstruction to the late Jim Crow era. From the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights' 1971 introduction to the 1970 VRA amendments:
Despite these constitutional protections [of the Reconstruction amendments], blacks in the South were virtually disenfranchised from the end of the Reconstruction Period until 1965, and members of other minority groups have also frequently been denied the right to vote.
It was not until the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, however, that this right was extended to black people in the South in a meaningful way.
As Congress discovered more evidence of discrimination against racial, ethnic, and national origin minorities, more geographic areas were added to the scope of the VRA's anti-discrimination protections. Evidence of this discrimination can be shown by disproportionate effects or basic logic, which is why one appellate court recently found evidence of the former in South Carolina, and another appellate court utilized the latter to explain that if the predominant number of "young,...elderly and poor voters" affected by voter suppression in Texas are racial minorities, the VRA applies.
The reason that non-Southern areas remain uncovered by Section 5 of the VRA despite recent evidence of similar voter suppression is also unexplained in Taranto's column. States uncovered by the VRA do indeed engage in the same discriminatory tactics that have been overwhelmingly rejected in the courts. The answer to this omission is not complicated: it was difficult enough to pass the 2006 reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act during a Republican presidency, and as evidenced by current Republican obstruction, updating the VRA to cover additional areas has become increasingly unlikely.
Taranto was correct that CAC's obituary of Guyot did not go into a detailed legal analysis of whether the reauthorization of the VRA in 2006 was appropriate. If he wants to see their legal analyses, however, he can read the briefs they have filed in the case or he could read any of the many blogs and articles they have written on the issue. From the CAC's Text & History:
To anyone who takes the Constitution's text seriously, there are glaring holes in the conservative constitutional attack on the Voting Rights Act. Shelby County's primary argument is that the Act's preclearance requirement is outdated and unnecessary, given changes in Alabama (where Shelby County is located) and elsewhere, but the Constitution, in fact, assigns to Congress the job of deciding how to enforce the Constitution's ban on racial discrimination in voting.
It is certainly true that the coverage formula relies on decades-old data that has less relevance today. But, as the D.C. Circuit concluded, the formula was always less important than the jurisdictions it covered. Going all the way back to 1965, "Congress identified the jurisdictions it sought to cover - those for which it had 'evidence of actual voting discrimination' - and then worked backward, reverse-engineering a formula to cover those jurisdictions." And, as the record described by Judge Bates and Judge Tatel in Shelby County shows, these jurisdictions continue to be the worst offenders, consistently refusing to live up to the Constitution's promise of a multi-racial democracy.
John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou, hosts of Los Angeles radio show The John & Ken Show, were suspended by KFI-AM on Thursday after referring to the late Whitney Houston as a "crack ho" and wondering why her death "took this long" during their February 14 broadcast. Listen:
Wall Street Journal columnist James Taranto joined the onslaught of conservative media figures downplaying or dismissing sexual harassment allegations against Herman Cain as "meaningless" or not "a real thing." Fox News has repeatedly hosted guests to talk down the allegations and push the claim that "so many" sexual harassment cases may be "frivolous."
In his latest Wall Street Journal column, Taranto suggested that the women making the allegations against Cain "took advantage of a legal regime that ... is highly indulgent of sexual-harassment allegations." Taranto concluded by calling for "a rebalancing of the burden of proof in sexual-harassment cases."
From his November 3 column titled, "Who Smeared Herman Cain?":
With virtually no facts available, a fair-minded person cannot possibly draw any conclusions from these stories. Maybe Cain behaved badly. Maybe the women were unhappy in their jobs and took advantage of a legal regime that -- especially in the wake of the furor over Anita Hill's unsubstantiated accusations of ribaldry against Clarence Thomas -- is highly indulgent of sexual-harassment allegations. Maybe the real story is something in between and involves elements of misunderstanding.
It seems to us, however, that the original Politico report is a pretty poor excuse for journalism. Of the six questions a reporter is supposed to answer, Politico told us only where and when -- at the National Restaurant Association in the 1990s. Politico withheld information about who (both the accusers and its sources) and either didn't know or didn't say what, why and how.
Journalists have confidentiality agreements of their own, which they strike with sources in exchange for information -- but in this case there wasn't enough information to make a real story. That is in part because of a practice of also concealing the identities of women who make any kind of sexual allegations against men, a custom originally intended to protect rape victims.
The latter assumption presupposes the sexual innocence of women -- a paternalistic assumption that dates back to an era in which women were also held accountable through social shaming to standards of sexual innocence. If women in such disputes enjoy a presumption of innocence that is nearly impossible to rebut -- "I believe Anita Hill" -- that amounts to a presumption of guilt against any accused man.
At least Hill was an identifiable person making specific accusations. With the Cain stories, we are asked to presume he is guilty even though we don't know what he is accused of or by whom. Anyone who believes in the American ideal of equality before the law should consider it a travesty.
None of this is to say that Herman Cain is the best available candidate to be president of the United States. We can think of several reasons why he may not be. His "9-9-9" plan is great fodder for Twitter humor (Did you hear Herman Cain has a plan to adopt three cats?) but does not strike us as a serious economic proposal. He seems proud to know little about foreign policy. And while his business experience is a plus, he has even less governing experience than Barack Obama did four years ago.
A consequentialist Cain skeptic might argue that it would be a good thing for the country if Cain's campaign fell apart even if by unjust means. We can't agree with that. If a rival campaign is behind this, it would be better if voter revulsion at such tactics sank that campaign -- and eventually prompted a rebalancing of the burden of proof in sexual-harassment cases.
More than 11,000 sexual harassment charges were filed last year. About 16 percent of those were made by men, according to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.


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What is your favorite Drury memory?
What advice would you give a new Drury student?
How has your liberal arts education helped you?
"Take hold of the chances and don't look back."
When Joel Thomas talks about his time as a student at Drury, he recalls the social activities and friendships made there with a sly grin that suggests he truly enjoyed the experiences to their fullest potential. But dig a little deeper, and you'll find that Joel himself has since been surprised by just how much the academic preparation he received at Drury has helped in his career. As an architecture student, Joel says he didn't fully appreciate the liberal arts foundation he received at the time. But now, it's that liberal learning that has helped him in a career that now has him serving as a Project Manager with Bates & Associates.
"I believe the liberal arts education helped round me out as a citizen and professional," Joel says. "It has allowed me to be able to adapt when meeting people of different creeds and cultures. In short, the liberal arts education gives you a foundation to handle a vast array of social situations."
Memories to Last a Lifetime
When he graduated in 2006, Joel had a host of memories from his college days under his belt. But Drury's influence on his memories would continue well after graduation. That's because it was at Drury that Joel met his closest friends - a group of guys who've had fun, laughed, and been a part of each other's most notable moments, including serving as groomsmen in Joel's wedding.
And Joel's wife? He met her at Drury as well, in a move that he cites as his favorite memory from his years on Drury Lane.
"A group of us guys decided we were going to be the founding members of the 'super fans' for the women's volleyball team and came into the game with full body paint and posters," Joel recalls. "I mainly decided to become a 'super fan' because it got me a foot in the door and an icebreaker to approach the woman who eventually became my wife, and who I proposed to at Drury."
Engaging in New Learning Opportunities
As a student, Joel says he was really much more interested in the classes and opportunities that were directly related to his career goals in architecture. Looking back, though, he realizes just how much the general education and prerequisite courses have benefitted him since graduation. "
"Although at the time I felt like some of prerequisite classes and liberal arts classes were more of a burden than benefit, in the end I'm glad that I was forced to engage myself into those learning situations," he says. "Looking back now, I wish I'd taken some of those classes more seriously and engulfed myself deeper in what was being taught, because the social and extracurricular experiences I had at Drury were incomparable. The tight nit social circle that Drury promotes campus wide, along with all the events and activities they provide throughout your years make it easy for one to immerse themselves into the school experience and find lifelong friends."
That combination of academic, social and extracurricular adds up to a college experience that could only be found at Drury, and Joel leaves new students with some advice based on that experience:
"Drury gives you many opportunities to experience and develop your academic, professional and personal life….so take hold of the chances and don't look back."
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R's of Repentance
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on
Steps of repentance. A good visual for the girls to stick inside their scriptures to understand the steps of repentance.
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John Bushman Seminary Documents
1 Comment
Awesome! Thanks for sharing!
Submitted by Jenny Smith on
Awesome! Thanks for sharing!


text:
Titmouse AnimationTwitter Statistics
Tracking since December 12, 2008
We Make Cartoons; China Il, KSK, Metalocalypse, Superjail!, Turbo F.A.S.T., GI Joe:Resolute, Freaknik the Musical & more! Founded by Chris & Shannon Prynoski.
You are on Titmouse Animation's Twitter stats page
We track these Twitter stats since December 12, 2008 . You can see how many followers Titmouse Animation lost or gained and what the prediction is for tomorrow or the next 15 days, together with all kinds of other stats like rank compared to all Twitter users, tweets etc.
Why don't you give it a try and compare Titmouse Animation to yourself ? Or if you are Titmouse Animation get even more feature rich & up-to-date stats with Premium & Pro Twitter Stats.
Twitter Counter is the #1 Twitter stats site powered by Twitter. It all started in June 12, 2008 and we grew rather rapidly because of our Twitter Counter badge. The button is a nice small image that shows your visitors how many followers you have on Twitter. Within a year the button was on many many blogs around the world and we displayed more than 100 million buttons in one month. We track follower stats for over 94 million users now.
"I just unlocked the 6-month graphs on Twitter Counter.
Find out more http://twittercounter.com/pages/you via @TheCounter #paidwithatweet"


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I can't say that I always knew this is what I would be doing…or even how much I would love doing what I now get to call my job. However, when I look back over my story and how I got here it makes so much sense. I may not have known what was going on but man I'm glad the Lord did…
The facts: I lived most of my life in North Carolina. I went to college in the Appalachian mountains for two years trying to figure out how to make something out of all the things I love.. Two years in, the Lord totally hijacked my plan and I ended up on a hip hop dance tour which landed me in Kansas City where I spent 4 and a half amazing years. I took a journey through a discipleship school which changed my life and then came full circle to finish college with a degree in Photography in Kansas City. There are so many fun details that made up this season… people that are a part of the foundations of who I am, classes and professors whose fingerprints are still all over my work now, and memories that make me weep with thankfulness over a God who knows me so well that He would give me the story that is my life.
I was introduced to my husband in 2007 on a double blind date set up by two of our best friends. It was honestly love at first sight and six short months later we were engaged! It took another 9 months for us to plan our wedding, for me to finish school, and for us to finally live in the same city. My sweet husband Robby is the reason I live in Norman, Oklahoma. And even though I knew little to nothing about it before I met him- I love our life and this town. There are no words for how much this man has changed my life… how extravagantly he loves me and how thankful I am that the Lord knew me so well as to create Robert Edward Denbow. This is the part of the story that I am in complete shock to get to call my own. My marriage is the thing I feel most called to, and my husband is my earthly joy.
I started shooting weddings while in school in Kansas City, but it wasn't until Robby and I got married that we created our own "legitimate" photography business. Two years in, Holli and I found each other in our church community and started dreaming over what it would look like to join up. It was an idea born from a desire to love each other well not only in community but also in business… The journey has been remarkable- attempting to create a working world after the values in which we want to do friendship and raise families. It is an unbelievable gift to get to work with women I love. Women that are continually challenging me with the way they live their lives, supporting me in my work, and journeying with me through all the seasons of life.
a few randoms… there isn't much i love doing more than creating a space and an atmosphere which mostly means in my home. i could spend every waking minute with a buddy and never need space. i live for conversations. i work on a treat system… motivating myself with special drinks and sweets. i am inherently a procrastinator, and find the things i care about most get pushed off till the last minute because i am so afraid to ruin the perfect picture in my head and pressure is the best thing i've found to get me over it. i will never have enough dresses. and i LOVE to sleep… although nearly impossible with a newborn baby ;)


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3 Golden Rules of Successful Women
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How Working Women Should Find Their Way Forward
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text: Protect the iPad and avoid razards and prevents dirt too... So good and I recommend for all users from Apple iPad mini. It is a great equipment to maintain your iPad always clean and safe. Shines like a bronze powder and it is a bit difficult to put because if a bit of dust the screen protector get bubbles ... Read more


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Offering Only Pure Green Coffee Bean Extract
If you managed to get this far you are probably asking the question, will green coffee bean extract work for me and exactly how does it work? We will shortly explain however first you need to be made aware that all green coffee is not made the same. It is a fact that various companies use additives and fillers to their capsules that makes their product impure, therefor having a significantly less of a chance of working. The goal here is to lose weight and when companies put unnatural ingredients in thier products it becomes very decivious. You can take a quick relief and a deep breathe because our product does not contain any additional additives or fillers whatsoever and contains only pure and genuine green coffee bean extract. In addition, a lot of companies do not concern themselves with the proper dosage for this product to see results.
How does Green Coffee Bean Extract Work?
Pure green coffee bean extract contains a natural occuring compound called chlorogenic acid. In brief, chlorogenic acid is known to inhibit the production of glucose in the liver. We all know that glucose (sugar) turns to fat in the human body so if there is less of it, than your body will naturally target the next best thing to provide energy. The next best thing is fat cells. This is how and why this product is so interesting. You might be asking yourself than why doesn't just drinking regular coffee help you lose weight? Well the answer is pretty concise. Coffee beans used to brew liquid coffee are ultimately roasted which destroys the chlorogenic acid content. Without chlorogenic acid to be processed by the liver, the fat-burning capacity of the green coffee bean is lost.
Made in the United States
All green coffee extract provided from Green Coffee Inc. is made right here in the United States in a FDA registered and cGMP certified labratory. The only ingredients in our product is all natural green coffee bean extract and all natural vegetable capsules. Be very careful of other companies that don't meet this criteria because they could be providing low quality green coffee extract that is unregulated and mixed in with additional fillers or binders that provide no effect and less chlorogenic acid than required.
Clinical Studies Involving the Green Coffee Bean and Chlorogenic Acid
One of the more prominent studies of the green coffee bean was published in the Diabetes, Metabolic Syndrome and Obesity journal. This study used only 400mg capsules of green coffe bean extract with GCA which contains 50% chlorogenic acid. The results concluded that participants lost on average 17 pounds each, 10.5% of their body weight and amazingly over 16% of their total body fat only over a 12 week period. These results were mentioned on the Dr. Oz show on television which can be viewed in our video above. This publication can be read by clicking here


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Add our configurator to ease complex product purchases online
Our Blueprint for Magento suite enhances the quotation capability of this eCommerce platform. Our product configurator with its powerful rules and calculation engine enables your clients to quickly and easily request detailed quotations and make purchases online.
Our Blueprint for Magento suite enhances the quotation capability of this eCommerce platform. Our product configurator with its powerful rules and calculation engine enables your clients to quickly and easily request detailed quotations and make purchases online.
The Blueprint platform ensures rapid deployment as well as complete flexibility to customise to the specific requirements of the most demanding product lines. A snap shot of the Blueprint functionality for use on an eCommerce platform is listed below.
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Guide clients in the correct selection of product options and variations. Dynamic forms are used to limit the user to the relevant selection criteria based upon previous decisions made by customers during the process. On-line help and guidance is provided to the buyer to avoid any confusion.
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Your prices, costs and margins will always be correctly calculated every time preventing loss making jobs. With our powerful rules and calculation engine even the most complex calculations and rules can be relied upon to generate accurate quotes and orders.
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Product Details and Configuration Screen
The configuration screen is shown in a iframe below the product detail
Cart / Checkout
Products are stored in the cart for check out and payment using standard Magento features
Contact us to learn how Magento designers and users are reducing their cost of sale and providing secure and intuitive buying experiences for their customers


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Tax Refund Options
File Online
What's Trending
I can't believe that it's
time for Halloween again! I'm reminded every time I step into a retail store,
get on my Facebook page, or drive by yards filled with carved pumpkins. I love
this time of year. I mean … what other day can I dress up in a ridiculous
costume and get away with it?
I guess it's time to dust
off the costumes sitting in the back of my closet … including the ones from five
years ago. My days of dressing up for Halloween are far from over, but this
year, I have decided to take a different approach to ensure that my closet
doesn't bust at the seams from all of those leftover costumes.
As tax time nears, how
cool would it be to take advantage of some holiday deductions?
Here are a few things
that you can do this Halloween to get prepared for tax time and bring a smile
to the face of others:
If you're unsure about
what you can donate, see your tax
preparer for advice.
Don't let old costumes or
taxes frighten you this Halloween. Stop by your local
Liberty Tax to see a professional or call 1-877-at-Liberty to find an
office near you.


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What does BRAVE mean in Community?
This page is about the meanings of the acronym/abbreviation/shorthand BRAVE in the field in general and in the Community terminology in particular.
Be Ready Against Violence Everywhere
Find a translation for BRAVE in other languages:
Select another language:
What does BRAVE mean?
- brave(adj.)
- possessing or exhibiting courage or courageous endurance.
Discuss this BRAVE abbreviation with the community:
Use the citation below to add this abbreviation to your bibliography:
"BRAVE." Abbreviations.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2014. Web. 22 Dec. 2014. <http://www.abbreviations.com/term/108189>.
BRAVE also stands for:
- Baxley's Recognition Award For Volunteering Excellence
- Boeing Robotic Air Vehicle
- Bradford Reducing Anger and Violent Emotions
- Brampton RiverHawks Anti Violence Education
- bravery
... and 2 more »
Nearby & related abbreviations:
Alternative search:
- Search Be Ready Against Violence Everywhere on Amazon.com
- Search Be Ready Against Violence Everywhere on Google