Reminder for voters in Branson, St. Joseph & St. Louis City

Residents in three of Missouri's house districts have the opportunity to elect a new representative to the General Assembly this Tuesday.

For St. Joseph's District 27, Democrat Pat Conway faces Republican Jason Gregory. Conway is a lifelong resident of St. Joseph and is in his seventh term as county clerk. Gregory, also a lifelong resident of St. Joseph, is currently the Director of Business Development for Health Choices of Northwest Missouri. The vacancy occurred in September when Democrat Ed Wildberger was selected by Governor Jay Nixon to become Buchanan County's Recorder of Deeds.

In District 57, located in the western portion of St. Louis City, voters will choose between Democratic nominee Hope Whitehead and independent candidate Karla May. Whitehead, an attorney who once worked for the city prosecutor's office, edged May out for the Democratic nomination, despite coming under fire for owing delinquent property taxes, which she has since reconciled. Even if May wins, it is likely that she will caucus with the Democrats. This solidly Democratic seat became vacant following Talibdin El-Amin pleading guilty to a felony charge of accepting a bribe worth $2100 from a convenience store owner involved in a dispute with the city of St. Louis.

In District 62, which covers Branson in Taney County as well as much of southern Stone County, Republican Nita Jane Ayers opposes Libertarian Patty Tweedle. Ayers is a real estate agent in the Table Rock Lake area. Tweedle, according to a Missouri Libertarian Party news release, describes herself as a homemaker and former professional who has lived in Branson the past 15 years. The former occupant of the seat, Dennis Wood, resigned when he was appointed to fill a vacancy in the Stone County Commission.

Barring any unforeseen calamities in the next week, the only remaining vacancy will be District 56 in Lee's Summit. Republican Brian Yates announced in November that he was forgoing his last year in the House so that he could spend more time with his family.

Polls open Tuesday at 6 a.m. and will close at 7 p.m.

Campaign Web sites:

• Pat Conway (D-27)
  
• Jason Gregory (R-27)
  

Blair faces the barbie's flames about Baghdad and Bush Jr.

For over two months, the UK media have been glued to proceedings occurring in a meeting room at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, just west of the Houses of Parliament. During this time, five Privy Councillors have questioned, surveyed and grilled everyone involved in Tony Blair's cabinet at the time the UK, US, and other Coalition forces invaded Iraq in 2003, aiming to find if any actions taken were illegal or just plain dumb.

In a little under five hours, the former Prime Minister himself will go before the panel. Naturally, Blair's responses to the panel's questions (including a panelist who said five years ago that Blair & George W. Bush will one day be compared to Churchill & FDR) will make for a highly anticipated session, as audience passes were snatched up in a matter of minutes. Over the days leading up to Blair's appearance, members of his Cabinet and inner circle have provided evidence as to how and when Blair & Company made the decision to join the US in taking military action. (The BBC, which has aired the proceedings on their news channel with a one-minute delay, has a recap of all the proceedings here.)

One member of Blair's cabinet has yet to face questioning, and will do so within the next two months: his Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown. And since the inception of the inquiry, he's proven to be better at making waffles than even Eggo. Consistently bowing to pressure from opposition parties and even anti-war critics from his own backbenches, Brown first relented on his initial plans to not make public the inquiry's proceedings. Then, aiming to avoid more potential embarrassment before the elections he's dawdled on calling for almost three years, Brown made every effort to postpone his testimony until the next Parliament was seated.

But aside from Brown's trademark dawdling and backpedalling, tomorrow (er, later this morning) will mark the most critical day of the inquiry, as we'll hear from the Sage of Sedgefield, the architect of New Labour, and America's biggest quasi-socialist ally (who would have brown-nosed his way into a White House run by the staunchest of Libertarians) what exactly was going on in the months prior to every TV news network in the Western world showing grainy images of tanks rolling across miles of endless desert, as sketched out infamously by Geraldo Rivera.

Will Blair refute the claims of a member of his foreign corps that a deal was "signed in blood" with the Bush Administration almost six months prior to the invasion?
How will Blair explain warnings issued about there not being enough helicopters to support both operations in Iraq and Afghanistan?
What exactly will Blair say about the weapons dossier he released in September 2002, which has since been found to have contained glaring inaccuracies?

These answers will likely register in the mainstream American press, which has given their audiences no clue as to this inquiry even occurring.

Hitting the Century

That title is the only reference you're getting to this being The Missouri Expatriate's 100th post. On to business from southern Kansas City.

Earlier today at their annual school retreat, the Hickman Mills School Board voted by an 8-1 margin to reorganize their secondary schools to better reflect the changing population of the district. That is, their decreasing population and tax revenue. At the heart of this reorganization is the consolidation of Hickman Mills and Ruskin high schools.

Indeed this is an end result of population changes in this area: initially the home school district for Harry Truman, the area sprouted up during the initial waves of urban sprawl. Not even the Ruskin Heights twister of 1957 would impede its growth, as evenutally it became home to the once-bustling Bannister Mall. Sam Walton would use the district as a testbed for his ideas in retailing, first opening a Ben Franklin there in 1956, six years before the first Wal-Mart, and then the ill-fated Hypermart in the late 80s. But as populations moved further south, into Johnson and Cass counties plus districts in eastern Jackson County, Bannister deteriorated beyond operability, and so did the area's reputation. Repeated efforts to revitalize it, including plans to build a major soccer complex for the Wizards, have floundered.

So now the district's left with a loss of 1500 students over the past 10 years, with a city struggling to come up with a viable plan and sticking with it. As a result, consolidation from two high schools and two middle schools, but instead a structure that's done a certain district in the Northland wonders the past 20 years. Next month, the board will decide which among their four secondary school buildings—Ruskin and Hickman Mills, plus Ervin and Smith-Hale middle schools—will serve as their grades 6 & 7 middle school, their 8 & 9 junior high, and their grades 10-12 high school.

While it will be unfortunate for one neighborhood's alma mater to close, and for as many as 60 secondary teachers to have to find work elsewhere, this can become the reorganization needed to rejuvenate the potential of the district's students. (I must say that I speak as someone who attended that "certain district in the Northland", and during my studies in education theory found that Liberty's secondary school structure was considered one of the most effective at dealing with issues involving adolescents, both academically and personally.) If Hickman Mills can tighten their belts and provide adequate class sizes and attention to their students, both in terms of academics and personal development, they can pull this off. If they are able to retain enough staff to deal with problems before they fester and devolve into potentially violent incidents, they will see improvements that can bring people back into the district and bring about the economic revitalization they're needing.

Most of all, if they can weather the emotional storm over a neighborhood losing their school and convince effective parents that they can and will pull this off, this will prove beneficial in the long run for one of Kansas City's oldest school systems.

Best wishes to everyone in Hickman Mills during what is a trying time in their district's history.

Yes, I'm noticing the patterns

As I'm getting everything sorted on my first full day back in the terra cognita of Northern Missouri, I'm keeping up with the Republican responses to Governor Nixon's State of the State address, which he began delivering as my flight was touching down at KCI. And I've noticed two things that are worrying me:

1. There are two responses, each being utilized by more than one state legislator. One is a prose version of the formal response delivered by Lt. Governor Peter Kinder, the other is a more condensed response. Already I've uploaded two missives which are near-identical repeats either.
   
   And yes, that's how it's going to be. Missives from Missouri desires to publish every weekly column and news release, and to do so with each legislator's full knowledge of it rather than invoking the Sunshine Law. If they're same, it's the legislators' prerogative, just as it is your prerogative to cast a vote for them or someone else.
   
2. Numbers of missives being published are disproportionately Republican. Again, it's just how it goes. Simply, more GOP reps & senators have availed themselves of the opportunity to have their missives published on Missives from Missouri than their Democratic counterparts. Ideally, I'd like 100% participation from both sides of the aisle.

Meanwhile, it's too quiet here. Could use a station for a high-speed train service. And some chicken jalfrezi. And two from the top and four from anywhere else to reach a target of 629.

On the bright side, I'm not going to cost Missouri a congressional district!

Again, this post is rigged to go up at about the time my flight into KCI should be crossing the border into Missouri. Again, "should be" because of the risk of snow, and the TSA freaking out about posts timed to coincide with flights overhead.

This particular post (the second of two) is set to go up at this time because, from this point on barring a job opportunity out of state (or leaching off my younger brother at his pad in JoCo), The Missouri Expatriate is now officially a repatriate. And with two months to spare before the upcoming Decennial Census.

As early as 2005, when I spent hours plugging numbers into an Excel spreadsheet for a series of stories I wanted to set 40 years in the future, I came to a harrowing realization that Missouri, the great American bellwether (or weathervane), wasn't gaining enough population to retain their nine Congressional districts. Since then, stories have floated around about whether Missouri was on track to lose that ninth seat or not. In 2006, Census calculations showed that Missouri was projected to be four positions shy of retaining its ninth seat. That calculation was reaffirmed three years later. My concern about this was heightened to the point that when a bill granting the District of Columbia a voting representative and Utah an extra rep, I petitioned senators Bond and McCaskill to support it for the sole reason that it would increase the likelihood of Missouri keeping its nine seats.

Fortunately, the recent (as of one month ago) projections from the Census have Missouri retaining its ninth seat. Meaning that in spite of our state taking a strong stand against illegal immigration, same-sex unions, and overzealous property developers aiming to bypass county zoning ordinances with little to no regard for their neighbors, Missourians should still have nine reps to threaten with pitchforks if they don't vote a certain way.

Just remember that when the Census form arrives in your mailbox in March, fill it out accurately and send it back promptly.

Personal note: yes, I do acknowledge that it appears very disingenuous that 17 hours after saying goodbye to my (can't believe I'm calling her this) ex, I'm raving about my participating in the Census. Yes, I'm hurting, I'm wounded, my pocketbook isn't exactly in tip-top shape, but as Eric Idle once sang: "Always look on the bright side of life." (content advisory: language) So that's what I'm doing.

Repatriation

At the time this post goes public, I should be 12 hours away from setting foot again on Missouri soil. I'd like to say "will be", but for all we know, I might be snowed in on the M25, or there might be a rather lengthy customs and border interrogation waiting for me at O'Hare.

At this time, I'd like to disclose to the readers of this blog that my wife and I have made the mutual yet painful decision to separate. After giving it a go and trying out life in a foreign country, unfortunately we were unable to make it work. I do consider this a most unfortunate event, and I still value her as a friend. But in the course of my eight months in the UK, we faced a series of setbacks and conflicts that ultimately brought us to the realisation that we were simply incompatible.

It has taken me awhile to accept this, but sad to say I have done so and am moving on. In some respects, though, I haven't. For all we know, right now I could be balling my eyes out so obnoxiously that I'm preventing my plane for Chicago from leaving the gate area. (Of course, with travel security precautions heightened to their highest levels in three years, this post being automatically set to come up whilst I'm over County Roscommon will probably ring a few alarm bells in some corner offices at MI5 and/or the NSA.) I have had two weeks of packing and reflecting in the Folkestone Downs to come to terms with this and prepare to move on, back to terra cognita.

Not only will I miss the good times I shared with the Misses, but I'll definitely miss the Kentish countryside. Kent is truly the Garden of England, an area of steep, rolling hills, filled with woods, grazing pastures, and farmlands, even more pristine with all the snow that's descended on us the past month. And it's all connected by public footpaths and bridleways that would take lifetimes to traverse completely. Probably because I'd have to stop at every pub along the way, order a pint of ale & a packet of crisps or a warm meal, look around at the character and history engrained into the place, and move on after a good laugh or two. Yeah, I'll miss that too.

And believe it or not, I'll miss the food. Yes, a lot has been said about English food being bland and boring. From now on, anyone who says that gets a spoonful of Colman's Mustard jammed in their mouth. Tell me that's bland and boring! While recipes of English mustard have made their way to the States, several food items that I have enjoyed eating in the UK haven't caught on. Chicken Tikka Masala, Yorkshire puddings, squash, back bacon (which is a lot larger & juicier than American bacon made from pork bellies), cooking with extra virgin olive oil: all edibles that I will miss & seek to replicate once I set foot back in the land of Gates' Bar-B-Q, Taco Bueno, Mountain Dew, crab rangoon and deep-fried Twinkies. At least I've left behind a sensational barbecue sauce recipe.

And as wonderful it will be to be running this blog and Missives from Missouri from Missouri, I'll find it most unfortunate that I won't be in the UK when the next general election takes place. I was really looking forward to witnessing first-hand a monumental election, where for the first time since 1945 at least one out of every five seats in the House of Commons will be open. But alas, I will do so again from the transatlantic sidelines, spending a future Thursday evening staring at David Dimbleby & crew for hours simulcast on C-Span.

I will miss this nation. Even if Westminster needs to empower voters with a recall and the Hancock Amendment impressed on them to curtail government overspending, England is a wonderful country and one that I hope to visit again and very often. And even if I never leave the US again, I will remain the Missouri Expatriate, with eight months exposure of driving on the left side, merchandise labelled in 20 different languages (and priced in Sterling, Euros, Swiss francs, Czech koruna, and Polish zloty), and scenic views of the English Channel on my back. An experience that, in spite of the damage my pocketbook and résumé took, I am glad to have undertaken.

For now: it's the figurative Parent's Basement. Once I get through border controls at O'Hare.

Saturday Night and I'm thumbing through my passport

I got my paperwork back earlier this week, and I'm sorted out for the time being.

For the 70 percent of Americans that don't have a passport, they're missing out on not only the opportunity to tour the world, but also some inspirational words printed on the top of each page. I figure I'd quote them below and encourage everyone reading to reflect on them.

• "O say does that star spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave." –Francis Scott Key
  
• "…and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth." –Abraham Lincoln
  
• "We the People Of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." –The Preamble
  
• "The principle of free governments adheres to the American soil. It is bedded in it, immovable as its mountains." –Daniel Webster
  
• "Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair." –George Washington
  
• "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." –from the Declaration of Independence
  
• "We have a great dream. It started way back in 1776, and God grant that America will be true to her dream." –Martin Luther King, Jr.
  
• "Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and success of liberty." –John F. Kennedy
  
• "This is a new nation, based on a mighty continent, of boundless possibilities." –Theodore Roosevelt
  
• "Whatever America hopes to bring to pass in the world must first come to pass in the heart of America." –Dwight D. Eisenhower
  
• "For this is what America is all about. It is the uncrossed desert and the unclimbed ridge. It is the star that is not reached and the harvest sleeping in the unplowed ground. Is our world gone? We say 'Farewell.' Is a new world coming? We welcome it – and we will bend it to the hopes of man." –Lyndon B. Johnson
  
• "May God continue the unity of our country as the railroad united the two great oceans of the world." –inscribed on the Golden Spike, ceremonially installed on 10 May 1869 at Promontory Point, Utah
  
• "We send thanks to all the Animal life in the world. They have many things to teach us as people. We are glad they are still here and we hope it will always be so." –Mohawk version of the Thanksgiving Address.
  
• "The cause of freedom is not the cause of a race or sect, a party of a class – it is the cause of humankind, the very birthright of humanity." –Anna Julia Cooper
  
• "Every generation has the obligation to free men's minds for a look at new worlds . . . to look out from a higher plateau than the last generation." –Ellison S. Onizuka

Cupcake-Gate 2010: Shuffling might not appese Sinn Féin

Owing to the title of my last post on the tense political situation in Northern Ireland, I am henceforth declaring this scandal to be known as Cupcake-Gate. (Where have you gone, 'Geordie' Georgie Best? all Ulster turns their lonely eyes to you, woo woo woo.)

Peter Robinson will take a six-week leave from his post as First Minister so he can patch things up with his wife Iris and refute charges that he covered up her improper expenses.

Robinson, who was facing calls to resign from his leadership roles at both Stormont and Westminster, where he leads the nine Democratic Unionists, made the announcement today on the first day of business in the new year. Although the DUP tossed Mrs. Robinson from their ranks after her admitting to an affair with a 19-year-old entrepreneur in 2008, its leadership declared 100 percent support for Mr. Robinson's role as party leader. (This does include the blessing of the Rev. Ian Paisley.)

While Robinson takes time off to salvage his political career, the enterprise minister Arlene Foster will assume the duties of First Minister. Foster will have to hold steadfast against threats from Sinn Féin to pull out of the power sharing agreement that has kept Stormont in operation in 2007.

Their threats, however, stem from the issue of whether Stormont should assuming policing and judicial duties from Westminster, an issue over which the DUP and Sinn Féin have tussled since Stormont regained devolved autonomy. Even as dissident republicans are blamed for bombing the patrol car of a Catholic police officer, the issue over how soon Northern Ireland should control its own forces threatens the stability of the government. With Foster being the DUP's third First Minister, Sinn Féin would need to visit their GP if they couldn't smell weakness and instability.

If Sinn Féin's Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness were to resign in protest, or had Mr. Robinson been ousted, then both figures would have been ousted per the peace deal. If the two parties don't agree to resolve the issue, then Stormont is dissolved, and Westminster's Secretary for Northern Ireland Affairs will either need to set a new election date (which will wind up being one month before the general election) or recommend that the Prime Minister re-impose direct rule of Northern Ireland from London. This just might creep into the general election, resulting in Plaid Cymru and the SNP gaining a bloody shirt to wave toward their fellow nationalists.

For Stormont to survive, a true desire to work beyond union/republican, Protestant/Catholic divides must take place. If that happens, then the ultimate peace has been achieved. If not, look out Brussels.