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Sowers announced his candidacy for the position currently held by Jo Ann Emerson, in early September 2009. He was born and raised in Rolla and educated there before attending Duke University. He worked as a combat engineer and later studied at the London School of Economics, earning a Masters of Science in Public Policy. He is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in government at the London School of Economics.
Sowers spent 11 years active duty and attained the rank of Major and is a Green Beret. He served as an assistant professor at West Point's Dept. of Social Sciences from 2006-2009 before announcing his candidacy for Representative for the 8th District.
Sowers' current Boots on the Ground initiative is taking him through the 28 Missouri counties of the 8th District over a 28 day period. His tour began in Washington County on Jan. 20 and will conclude in Phelps County on Feb. 16.
His current initiative, he says, stems from lessons learned during his military career.
"In the military I learned firsthand that nothing replaced boots on the ground experience. Boots on the Ground is about working, living and listening to hardworking people in each and every county. It will give me the chance to do what most of us hope other politicians would--close their mouths, and open their ears and eyes."
Sowers says he will highlight local industry and the diversity of businesses within the 8th District. While stressing the abundance of resources, Sowers says the 8th District is "the poorest in Missouri and one of the 10 poorest in the United States."
"One in every four children is born under the poverty line," Sowers claims, "and the median income for women is the lowest out of all 435 districts It is in the bottom 10-15 percent in terms of health and primary care facilities and access to education."
Sowers says that over the last few decades, the district has suffered as jobs have been lost, factories closed and farms have consolidated.
In a news release from Sowers' campaign manager, Jonathan Feifs, it was reported the candidate raised $179,127 during the fourth quarter of 2009. Ninety-eight percent of that amount, according to Feifs, consisted of contributions from individuals and not corporate entities.
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If this guy would add a dose or two of common sense to his resume, Emerson would go down like the rest of the pinheads arrogantly serving us. Regardless, I am sticking to the HOON House Cleaning pledge and he has my vote!
so this guy is saying we should break up farms, inact obama care, give every women a pay raise, and we need more welfare. just what i thought pure lib.
Um, why are you against giving women a pay raise? How the hell did anyone vote against the Lilly Ledbetter Equal Pay Act?
It's just bigotry, that's all it is. Women deserve to make as much as men, and I applaud Sowers for taking a stand for them in the district that ranks 435/435 for female pay.
"Sowers" from Rolla? I think I may have known his grandfather. Such a nice family.
im not against equal pay for women but it should not be handed to them just because they are women
Okay! Red Flags!!
1. London School of Economics? Hmmm! Checked it out on the internet. It is as about as socialist as you can get! http://www2.lse.ac.uk/home.aspx
2. Sowers' comments show evidence of socialism.
We DONOT need more socialists in the Congress of The United States! As much as I agree with Hoon's philosophy of a need for change, the answer is not Sowers. I will vote for and support Emerson's Republican opponent in the primary. If she wins, I'll vote for her Constitution Party opponent!
He does not have my vote.
I did not see anything in the article about breaking up farms, welfare, giving women raises etc. The inequality in wages are when a women gets less than a man for equal work. It's worse in this district than any other. He is not suggesting welfare, he's suggesting that people should be evaluated based on jobs done, regardless of sex, race etc. No women should be handed pay because they are women, only for doing equal work/pay that men have. That's only fair.
I looked at London School of Economics and it says "LSE is a specialist university with an international intake and a global reach. Its research and teaching span the full breadth of the social sciences, from economics, politics and law to sociology, anthropology, accounting and finance. Founded in 1895 by Beatrice and Sidney Webb, the School has an outstanding reputation for academic excellence. LSE has 15 Nobel prize winners. " Maybe you thought specialist was socialist. Didn't see anything there about Socialism.
But name calling like dismissing him for being a Socialist is just a label designed to anger voters. He is without question a patriot, a warrior, a 3rd generation Missourian, and a man on a mission to create jobs, which is what we need badly here and which we need to get ideas for.
"Sowers says that over the last few decades, the district has suffered as jobs have been lost, factories closed and farms have consolidated." if he thinks the district has suffered from farms being consolidated then the only way to change that is to force there break up or force them out of business
Farmers are mostly greedy and take every acre and add to their resume.
Sowers did not say "force there break up or force them out of business." Cdexter says that. Farms get consolidated because individual farmers sell out mostly because they can't make money at farming. His point is exactly that small farmers can't make a living anymore.
More proof Dexterite is an idiot. I wish any food you eat as a result of a farmer could be taken away from you. Would be fun to know you wet your bed on an empty stomach.
Sowers is a wackjob, will get trounced by Emerson who will lose once she faces anything other than a wackjob. Touting any school for its Nobel Peace Prizes would expose that institution as being Far Left and even Socialist thinking.
Wackjob has no chance
Emerson is an arrogant pinhead and makes the same amount of money as her pinheaded friends in Congress. I say cut her pay and theirs equally regardless of whether they have boobs or not.
Women whining are the same as Jessie and Al and people who raise hell in WalMarts whining about race. They just want a reason to whine.
Hoon, obviously I am a woman. From personal experience, I know there are times that women are NOT treated equally in the workforce. It is getting better than it was back in the '70's when I came into my first job, but there is still a problem...however, I don't whine over it. Some do, and I agree with your statement comparing those who do with the likes of Jesse and Al, et al. In fact, I try not to whine about anything any more..it really doesn't work for me. I'm reminded of when I first moved down here and had joined a martial arts class. After being there for awhile, one of the guys in class (I was the only female at the time) told me I "was pretty good for a girl"...really got me to thinking and I realized I didn't want to be "pretty good for a girl"..I just wanted to be good and not stereotyped in that way..since then I don't strive to settle for "for a girl" in any aspect of my life. Hope that makes sense.
I really enjoy the boots on the ground part. I've had my boots on the ground here in the 8th district for 33 years running my ranch, hunting, milking cows, going to the coffee shop, Farm meetings, School board meetings, Church on Sunday's.
I have run a business here for 33 years. I'm glad Mr. Sowers can get out to see what we have been dealing with here for years trying to make a living with big out of control government and high taxes and being regulated to death here in the 8th district.
Mr. Sowers is right, it is hard to raise money here in the 8th district. People here are hurting bad! My friends are not rich, they are strapped with financial problems people from outside the district don't understand.
We've got to stop electing people that have no private sector experience!! Mr. Sowers, Mrs. Emerson, and Obama have never run a private business as far as I know.
It would be hard to learn much about the Missouri hobnobbing with the big shots in San Francisco and New York. I guess that is where he learned to support Obamacare and taxpayer funded abortions. Way to go Tommy, you might want to get out a little more on those issues, they don't fly too good here in the real world.
Let's see, a big spending, wall street bailout/ Cash for Clunker RINO Republican, a big city, Council of Foreign Relations globalist Democrat, or a constitutional,conservative, pro life, pro gun Rancher from Raymondville that has been fighting big government for years. [NAIS, property rights, out of control regulations, Big spending Republican's and out of touch, freedom destroying leadership wherever it is found.] Who will the voters want to represent them?
Both parties have been destroying our freedoms! Time to take back the Republican party and our country from the out of touch elite! Hey Tommy and Jo Ann, why don't you READ the constitition!
I represent the God, Guns, and Guts wing of the Republican party.
Join the grassroots Revolution!
Bob Parker
For Congress in 2010
Missouri's 8th District
www.electbobparker.com
Take America Back!
Sorry to hear you're bothered by the bed-wetting problem, you are so familiar with this.
What I'm saying is these poor farmers who have 4000 acres and lose money but can't wait to grab another 1000 acres to lose more money. Buncha whiners.
Bob Parker, you have my vote!! I want a bumpersticker and yard sign as soon as you get them out!
Richard D. Swift
505 Hickory Hills Dr
Dexter MO 63841
WOW, God, guns, guts, what a deal.
It doesn't take guts to demonize the efforts to pass health care and it doesn't take guts to say government sponsored abortions are at issue. Check out http://www.kff.org/healthreform/sidebysi... to see the comparisons and you will see that abortion is nowhere. This is just rhetoric to scare people. It takes guts to try to get health care with a pre-existing condition. It takes guts to get into the health care system, streamline it and make it work without consuming the entire economy. It takes guts to fix Medicare before it goes broke. It takes guts to sit down together, regardless of beliefs, and work on the many issues we are facing.
What we need is to keep healthcare the same as it is today and let the insurance companies raise rates at 20% a year. Then, you will see what bankrupting the U.S. is all about.
Also, I don't think it is 'whining' to voice your concerns over constitutional rights. However, the right wingers like Swift and Hoon don't give a **** about the constitution so I see where they may think it is whining'.
Most folks will find it hard to be critical of Sowers with a background of attending Rolla, Duke, being an Army Major and Green Beret, and teaching at West Point. Only Hoon could come up with the term 'wackjob' for him. That being said, Ms. Emerson has done a decent job as a rep. and will probably be re-elected easily.
Hard to argue with someone as smart as Josie. I mean since when was Insurance meant to pay for something after the fact? I don't carry insurance, I break my arm, I call the insurance company while they are setting my arm and ask for insurance so they can pay for my pre-existing condition (broken arm)? Or I go today and find out I have cancer, then go home and call to take out a cancer policy to cover my pre-existing condition (cancer)? Really...is that how it is suppose to work?
Wildcat...please do not use Swift and HOON in the same sentence. And yes...going to Duke and Rolla and West Point doesn't disqualify you from being a wackjob, which Sowers will prove to be when you get to know him.
Termite, you smell like a wet diaper and you know little about the common farmer. So at what point are you a small farmer just trying to keep your farm in the family and barely making ends meet?
I say raise the debt ceiling, quadruple the deficit, read terrorists their miranda rights and try them in US courts, hire 40+ lobbyists to be apart of your cabinet, and wake up a grass roots common sense movement that will be the number one reason more pinheads than ever get hit in the *** by the door on the way out in November.
You buy insurance to make sure that broken arm or cancer is taken care of when it happens. If you are over 55, not working in a place that has insurance, and have any condition, you can't buy insurance at any price. If you lose your jobs, you lose Cobra benefits after 18 months, then what? What if you are 22 and have a back injury in a car accident? Goodbye ever getting insurance. Insurance should be available and affordable to the common person regardless. When (and if) you make it to 65, you get Medicare for which you pay a premium and for which you paid for throughout your working career. If you happen to get that broken arm or cancer without insurance, then go to an ER and pray they will take care of you. That's the status of health care today.
I'll be in Dexter on Feb. 20th speaking at the Lincoln days event there.
If you prefer a constitutional government over a socialist one, come over and join me.
Bob Parker
www.electbobparker.com
How dare you call someone who supports redistribution of wealth and government run healthcare a socialist! And to think people like you label our idiot in chief a name like that. After all, he spent more of his adult life studying Marxist theory!
Thanks for enlightening us Josie. The wacks who are further left than you have a pre-existing condition more like the one I described above....
If you don't mind sharing, how do you think we should pay for healthcare?
restated:
How do you propose we pay for healthcare reform plans such as ObamaPelosiCare?
The majority of people over 50 have pre-existing conditions (hypertension, high cholesteral at a minimum). Anybody who has a chronic illness, had surgery for just about anything, has illnesses that requires medication, or even a live organ donor has pre-existing condition. These people cannot buy insurance at any cost. If insurance companies won't sell the insurance then we need a change. It's okay to add a premium for pre-existing conditions, but to offer nothing is wrong.
The first (and quick) step to pay is to change Medicare Advantage to pay equal to Medicare. This would save $250B right away. We need to do this whether the rest passes or not. It pays 25% more for every treatment than Medicare subsidized by current Medicare recipients. Medicare Adv. pays for extras like eyeglasses and gym but falls down when it comes to paying for expensive procedures like outpatient chemotherapy.
The next step is to completely revamp how the payment process works and pay for improvement in conditions and not payment for quantity of treatments.
And the third step is to eliminate duplication through automation, not repeating tests from place to place or day to day.
Healthcare is going to chew up our whole economy if we don't start fixing it. Estimates are that $1 in $5 spend in 2020 will be spent on healthcare.
So we can sit back and call people names or we can sit down and try to work together to solve these problems.
Name a government program that is efficient and works within a budget? Yep, these are the pinheaded idiots I want fixing the problems.
So if you've had a surgery, have hypertension, asthma (chronic illness), take medicine you can't get any insurance? Interesting.
Didn't see anything about tort reform, which has not one negative unless you are supported by trial lawyers and saves a good chunk.
Didn't see anything about allowing people to cross state lines so that these companies ALL must compete with each other.
Wouldn't brag on Medicare/Medicaid too much....bankrupt!
Can't wait til 2020, Bret Favre will be MVP and Healthcare will only cost me $1!
I'm just showing areas that would take large chunks out of the cost of Medicare/Medicaid. Tort Reform is a good idea but it only affects 1% of the overall bill. I like crossing state lines.
If you are on Medicare you can go to any provider in any state that takes Medicare and that's a big plus. If you have VA you can go to any VA Center, clinic etc. If you have Medicaid you can go to any provider in a bordering state that agrees to take you.
Medicare is pretty efficient. The overhead (administratve) is around 8% where the overhead for private insurance is 20-25%. Those are the people who spend lots of time on the phone to try to deny coverage.
The problem is we have a huge number of baby boomers who will qualify for Medicare next year. 76 million American babies were born between 1946 and 1960. These people will come off private insurance and go into Medicare. They have paid all their working lives into Medicare.
I guess we can all wait until we are on Medicare and do nothing and that will bankrupt the system.
This is what I find funny about people: 1) When Bush/Cheney were in office everybody was screaming they were fascist, 2) Obama is now in office and everybody is screaming he is a socialist 3) Not only do they scream that he is a socialist but they systematically compare him to both Hitler and Lenin/Marx which under any understanding of politics and history is impossible. Just thought I would share. hahaha I love reading your all's posts. It gives me a chuckle.