Why I’m Going to Make Sure Republicans Continue to Control the Missouri Legislature

I saw in the news this week that MO House Democrats voted Rep. Mike Talboy to be their leader next term. This means he’ll likely be House Minority Leader, but would probably be speaker if Democrats won enough seats to hold a majority of the House next term.

Earlier this year, the same Rep. Talboy tried to pass an amendment to the House’s omnibus health care bill that would make it a felony for Certified Professional Midwives to practice in Missouri, severely limiting options for women to give birth to their children outside a hospital environment.

Considering the fact that home birth is in many cases safer than giving birth in a hospital, Talboy can only be described as incompetent (trying to pass a law when he doesn’t know the facts) or corrupt (trying to pass a law even though he knows it’s not in Missourians’ best interest). Neither of these qualities sound like those of a good leader.

If you want support behind the safety of home births read these news articles (these are just a few recent ones):
Planned home births are safe, study says
Having baby at home seen as safe option
Rate of death low for home births
Study: Home birth with midwife as safe as hospital birth
Or you can just search the news for the latest on home birth.

Another important event in my life this week was the birth of my son Patrick on Tuesday. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that both Patrick & my wife Rebecca have received better care from our midwife & nurse at home than they would have gotten in a hospital. Anyone who would work to make it illegal for most midwives to practice in the state of Missouri, whether because of incompetence or corruption, has no business being Speaker of the House (or even House Minority Leader for that matter).
That’s why I’m making it my goal to help Republican Party candidates for MO state representative win as many competitive seats as possible.

 

Barack Obama on Health Care: Leadership vs. Defensiveness

President Barack Obama addressed Congress & the rest of the United States last night about an issue that nearly everyone agrees needs some sort of reform, American health care. The debate over what needs to be done has become a bit heated around the country, with most of the loudest criticism being directed at the President & his Democratic Party allies.

President Obama decided to address Congress & the nation on the issue in order to combat what he & many others call the spreading of disinformation & to give healthcare reform proposals the momentum they need to get through the House & Senate. This speech gave Obama a great opportunity to show leadership on one of the most important issues to Americans today.

The president missed that opportunity. Rather than standing up on behalf of the American people & asking Congress for a bill addressing the health care issues that need fixed the most, he stood up on behalf of the Democratic Party leadership in Congress & offered a defense for the bill they have put together. Rather than saying “the American people want access to affordable health insurance; send me a bill that makes that available”, he said “this bill will provide affordable health insurance; we should pass it”. While the difference may be subtle, it’s the difference between leadership & defensiveness.

The most talked about moment of the speech gives a great example of the difference:

When Rep. Wilson accuses the president of lying, Obama’s retort is a defensive & not very persuasive “That’s not true”. President Obama had the opportunity to tell Republicans “if you don’t think there are enough safeguards protecting tax dollars from going to those who are here illegally, draft an amendment that offers better protections; we must all work together to finally achieve health care reform that Americans have been waiting so long for.”

Of course, had Obama taken that tone of leadership rather than a tone of defensiveness throughout the speech, there would have been no chance for Rep. Wilson to accuse him of lying. Overall, this speech did little to quell the partisan bickering that has grown throughout the summer. This was a missed opportunity to show leadership, especially from a president looking “for an end to partisan politics”.

 

Experience Easter in 3-D!!!!!!!!11

I received this mailer from a local church about their upcoming Easter services (or should I say, Easter 3-D Experience!!!). If I hadn’t come across this as a real invitation piece, I would have thought it a hilarious parody of ridiculous contemporary church marketing gimmicks.

Forget two-dimensional Easter....

You can click on the picture for a hi-res image if you want to see more detail.

I guess truth really is stranger than fiction. For another goofy easter stunt, check this out.

 

NCAA Tournament Selection Committee

With the NCAA college basketball tournament starting today (one of my favorite annual events), I thought this would be a good time to share some thoughts on the selection process.

After the bracket was announced, Seth Davis asked one of the committee members about the trend (which continued this year) of fewer schools from small conferences getting at-large bids each year. The committeeman (who no doubt was coached in how to answer this question) replied that the committee looks at individual teams and not what conferences they are in to make selections.

My response: Well, maybe you should start!
The fact that fewer and fewer small conference teams are given at-large bids into the tournament each year when small conference teams that receive at-large bids win at a higher rate than “power conference” teams that receive at-large bids shows that the system is broken.

The problem is that the committe (by their own admission) isn’t consciously looking at what conference teams are in. It’s obvious that conference membership is affecting their decisions sub-consciously though. And when you don’t acknowledge your unconscious biases (consider the fact that the majority of these committe members work for “power conference” schools) then you can’t make sure they’re not affecting your decisions.

Actually, the best answer may not be to change the way the committe works. The best answer would probably be to change the committee itself. It’s time for the NCAA to look at changing the makeup of the committee away from athletic directors and conference chairmen in favor of some other panel, one that could better represent the game of basketball. They just might find that they can improve an already exciting tournament if they do.

 

Next round of Springfield City Council Candidate Info

I’ve begun working on getting information again for the upcoming city of Springfield general election for city council. I’ve decided to extend invitations to each of the candidates to sit down with myself and their opponent for a recorded debate-style discussion. A couple of candidates have already expressed interest in this type of interview, so I’m hoping to be able to get the first one done as early as next week.

Also some time next week, I plan to scour the web for more articles from other news sources to provide an even wider array of information to voters’ fingertips all right here in this one central location. If there’s a particular article or web page you think should be included and linked to from this resource, please leave a comment to this post letting me know where I can find the story.