24thState

Your Stimulus Dollars At Work In Missouri

This is how the State of Missouri has decided to use stimulus dollars. 

 

That's right.  The Secretary of State is hurting so bad for money, they had to go to the federal government to mail a package by UPS.  And that saved or created one job (not a Post Office job, mind you). 

To track Missouri stimulus expenses on your own, go to Map Your Taxes.

And if you want to see something really scary, check out how much of the stimulus was used to pay individual tax refunds.  Yep. The State of Missouri spent hundreds of millions of stimulus funds on tax refunds. 

I wouldn't want to be governor next year.

Acorn Equals SEIU Equals Missouri Progressive Vote

One of the more confusing things about ACORN and their affiliates is their constant switching of titles and companies and affiliates.  Just to be clear - they all share the same address, the same phone numbers, and the same people.

Mark from Keyboard Militia called me yesterday and said he was in the area, so he took some pictures for me of the ACORN office.

  This is the ACORN office in St Louis.  It is the former office of the now defunct ACORN housing office.  When you see this office, you should think about names like Ken McCoy, and Gwen Cogswell, and Glenn Burleigh, and Julie Terbrock.  These are ACORN employees, the first two of whom have strong disagreements with the national ACORN office. 

What's most important, is that you also see that SEIU Local 880 has their offices here.  This is a different organization than the one that employs Elston McCowan and Perry Molens.  SEIU Local 880 is the ACORN created union that is so much in the national news.

SEIU Local 880 was the organization with Dale Rathke as the treasurer.  Yep, the $1 million embezzlement scandal that prompted the ACORN 8 investigation.

And just for fun, let's show you a picture of HCAN contacts, the Obama administration led healthcare organizing coalition. 

As you can see, Julie Terbrock, the legislative liason for ACORN, is also listed as the contact for Missouri ProVote.  She's the Acting Program Director for ProVote. She worked in close coordination with Laura Egerdal on the Voter ID act, using the SEIU predictive dialer phone bank to drive phone calls to Republican legislators and convince them the "public" didn't want to show their license to vote.

And for that, Laura Egerdal was rewarded with the Director Of Communications position with the Secretary of State, despite having no experience for the job but that of SEIU/ProVote.  And just to top it off, Sara Howard, Russ Carnahan's new communications director, was involved with helping set up SEIU's phone bank, working with ACORN on the 2006 Minimum Wage/Elect Claire McCaskill program, and of course, Americans Coming Together, where she managed and Egerdal helped hire felons to go door to door registering fake voters.

I just thought the picture spoke so much more eloquently to the deep connections of ACORN/SEIU and the Carnahans.  While Glenn Burleigh may be out saying ACORN Housing isn't in Missouri (they shut it down in St Louis after some shady finances, but it's still in Kansas City), the rest of us know that the deep connections between ACORN, different SEIU branches, and Missouri Democrats still has a lot to be discovered.     

ACORN Betrayed By Russ Carnahan

The definition of an honest politician is one who when bought, stays bought.

 I guess we know that Russ Carnahan isn't an honest politician

 House votes to Defund ACORN 345-75. 

Missouri ACORN Claims Acorn Isn't In Missouri

Jo Mannies reports at the Beacon that Glenn Burleigh, the head organizer for St. Louis ACORN, claims there is no housing arm in Missouri.

However, a local spokesman for ACORN says that most of its operations in Missouri and many other states are not financed with federal money and would feel little effects from congressional attacks to cut off government money. The bulk of the local ACORN money is private aid from its members, said spokesman Glenn Burleigh.

The federal money in question, he said, goes to ACORN's housing arm, which does not have offices in Missouri. Burleigh noted that the errant workers in the video have been fired, and contended that GOP critics are primarily engaging in "political theater'' aimed at discrediting the group's efforts to help the poor. (italics mine)

(Update: - St Louis office is now closed, by KC office is still open)

um - Acorn Housing is in Missouri.  They're in St Louis, as a matter of fact.   Do a search for "4304 Manchester ave" and the Google Maps result it ACORN, with http://www.acornhousing.org as the link

 In addition, the St Louis Federal Reserve Bank has a program called, Learn Before You Leap for St Louis Homebuyers.  That link will take you to a pdf that identifies ACORN HOUSING on Manchester road as a place to get low-income housing assistance.

So, is Glen lying, or does he not know what is going on in his own state?

The real answer is ACORN officials have been out saying the federal cut off won't affect them, because that's the spin they want.  It will, and it does.

As reported at Big Government, AHC gets grants from the federal government, then funnels that money to ACORN activism and political work.  Glenn claims he gets no direct federal money, and that's true, but with 300 subsidiaries and access to SEIU/PROVOTE/AFCSME and others, the result is ACORN the political branch feeds off funds the government gives their charity arms.

A perfect example is the 2006 minimum wage battle in Missouri.  SEIU, led by Sara Howard, helped fund the measure, and used ACORN to man the petition drives.  Those petition drives were then combined with Project Victory 2006, the McCaskill GOV operation.  The money was for minimum wage, but the result was voter registration and direct pleas to help McCaskill.

Mannies made a typical mistake.  She listened to a left wing political activist and took him at his word.  Me, I used Google, because I don't trust left wing political activists.

UPDATE 1:45 p.m.: This blog says ACORN Housing shut its office and fled St Louis, a few weeks after Mayor Slay congratulated them on doing such a good job.   It also says a St Louis ACORN board member asked where all the money went.

That said, there is an ACORN Housing in Kansas City.  You can find them on the AcornHousing.org site.

ACORN Housing Corp

6301 Rockhill Road, suite 201

Kansas City, MO 64131

816-444-0804

I took the step of calling them.  They said the St Louis office closed, but the Kansas City office is open.

To find out what happened to the St Louis office, I called the number of the office on Manchester.  That is now the Acorn Community Organizing office, but no one picked up the extension.  But do you know who is listed as having the number?  Julie Terbrock - of ACORN (and of ProVote), who is listed as the contact for HCAN.  Apparently, ACORN Housing in St Louis was only here a short time - enough to get $100,000 from the city to file for 24 mortgages.  Wait, what?

Cap And Trade Is A Tax, Pure And Simple

I really can't believe that people like Sean and Clark are as dense as they pretend.  Part of the problem is based on an appeal to authority - lefty bloggers tend to believe if it's written in the New York Times, or comes from CAP, or Think Progress, that it's the truth.  They set aside their critical thinking faculties and let other people do the work, because they're not really interested in debate - they're interested in shutting everyone else up by pretending we're stupid.

Case in point:  Cap and Trade.   Clark argues in my comments, and Nicholson argues on the Carnahan family blog that Cap and Trade only costs a postage stamp a month because the money is returned.  They actually believe that taking hundreds of billions of dollars out of the economy each year, and then "returning" it to the public proves that Cap and Trade is basically budget neutral.  The argument was first aired by John Reilly of MIT, whose study on a cap and trade system showed a tremendous cost to the average consumer.  Reilly said that in an economic sense, there was no cost, since consumers received benefits for the money taken from them.

Arguing in that same manner, you could say that you don't actually pay any income tax, because you derive a benefit from the taxes you pay (a stable government). Raising property taxes have no economic impact because you get more money spent on schools, or firetrucks, or pensions for municipal workers.  Raising sales taxes has no economic impact because you get more street lights.  Raising gas taxes has no economic impact because you get more orange barrels.

It's a pathetic argument, but folks like Clark and Sean cling to it because someone smarter they them says it's true.  There is no nuance - the argument claims money taken from your pocket doesn't hurt you because you get something in return.  But it's not a tax, it's a regulatory fee to the government.

This kind of sophistry would be cute in a three year old asking for a cookie, but when bloggers attempt to use this kind of logic to insult their political opponents, you can safely write them off as "useful idiots."  Unable to grasp even the basic tenets of logic and reason, they simply parrot what they read from political groups.

CBS news covers this story, by the way.  They get the Environmental Defense Fund to come up with a quote you'll recognize.

Even if a 100 percent auction was a live legislative proposal, which it's not, that math ignores the redistribution of revenue back to consumers. It only looks at one side of the balance sheet. It would only be true if you think the Administration was going to pile all the cash on the White House lawn and set it on fire.

This quote comes almost directly from the argument of John Reilly, who believes the only way that the federal government can waste your money is to burn it on the front lawn of the White House.  Using his logic, no money taken from you is ever wasted.  No money taken from you has an economic impact.  No tax cuts or tax increases ever have any impact. 

As I said - I don't believe they are this stupid.  Instead, I think they are desperately insecure people who want very badly for the rest of the world to think they are smart.  They parrot what they hear because it makes them feel like a part of something bigger, something important.  And as their hopes and dreams are crushed by economic realities, expect them to get nastier and nastier.

Carnahan Spokesman Sara Howard Caught Scrubbing Her Past

Russ Carnahan decided to hire Sara Howard, a longtime SEIU staff member as his director of communications shortly before his Townhall on Aging.  He announced it on August 5th, and the townhall was August 6th.   That townhall marked a turning point nationally, as SEIU, ACORN, OFA, HCA, and other liberal groups started sending large groups of counter protestors to protect their pet politicians.  That townhall was also where SEIU staff members Perry Molens and Elston McCowan were arrested after assaulting Kenneth Gladney.

Dana Loesch posts up the LinkedIn profile of Sara Howard, but something is missing.  That same profile, since last month, has been scrubbed.  The original profile listed Walmart Watch, the SEIU funded project that spent several years attacking Walmart as one of her roles.  That listing is no longer there.

I can see why.  Walmart Watch worked in close coordination with ACORN, using ACORN's community organizers to picket Walmart locations while the SEIU branch attacked them digitally and with press releases.  Interesting that Sara scrubbed that from her profile just recently.  Sadly, I did not take screenshots, as who would have believed she was ashamed of ACORN?

Also missing is Howard's time as the Missouri spokesman for ACT (Americans Coming Together), a pro-Kerry progressive voting group that was fined a massive $775,000 for federal campaign finance violations, including taking illegal donations from SEIU.

What did SEIU/ACT do with the money?  In Missouri, they hired felons, including those listed as murderers and rapists, to go door to door registering voters.  You might remember the name because Laura Egerdal, the Director of Communications for Robin Carnahan, was a former SEIU employee who in 2004 posted the jobs for Americans Coming Together, as reported by Gateway Pundit earlier this year.  So now you have two SEIU employees closely affiliated with an organization that illegally gathered millions of dollars and spent it on hiring felons to go door to door gathering registrations.

That's a resume maker for Carnahan campaigns. 

So why Howard and why now?  Russ was having an awful summer, and so he reached out to his friends and sister and asked for help.  Sara is married to Robin's campaign spokesperson, who also is the spokesperson for Tom Carnahan.  They now keep it in the family, and can spread information back and forth.

Don't be confused by the letters.  SEIU/ACORN/ProVote/AFCSME/SEIU Missouri Kansas Council are all fruits of the same poisoned tree.  Seeing as the Post Dispatch has refused to report or discuss how these union groups have perverted Missouri Democratic politicians, it will once again be up to citizens to provide the proof.

Treasury Department Says Cap And Trade Will Cost Us $200 Billion A Year

Blaine Luetkemeyer can breathe easier.   Despite the paranoid ravings of the Carnahan family pet blogger, it turns out that even the Obama administration knows that Cap and Trade is really a giant tax on Americans.

Sure, it took a Freedom of Information Act to get the story, and no, you're not going to see this in the New York Times, but CEI asked for and received internal documents discussing cap and trade as way to raise money.

A memo prepared by Judson Jaffe, who works in the Treasury's Office of Environment and Energy, referenced President Obama's remarks on energy policy in his State of the Union Address and said, given the president's plan to auction emissions allowances, "a cap-and-trade program could generate federal receipts on the order of $100 to $200 billion annually."

It's not really a question.  The government is planning on raising hundreds of billions of dollars to trade carbon credits, and the money has to go to someone.  Call it a tax, a fee, or a carbon credit, and it all amounts to the same thing - Washington takes your money, and then decides who gets it.

It's just nice to know that people inside the US Treasury are looking at the bill realistically.  

Go On Brush Them ACORNs Off

Brush Them ACORNs Off from Jim Durbin on Vimeo.

For more on the story, you have to head over to Andrew Breitbart's Big Government, where a third set of videos was released today.

9/12 Quincy Tea Party Wrap-Up

I've got photos and video myself, but so much has been taken, it makes sense to instead link to those wh've already done such a good job.

Reboot Congress

Traditional Life Lived

Keyboard Militia

The Dana Show

Gateway Pundit

Sharp Elbows

Missouri Political News Service

The St Louis Tea Party speakers were incredible, and Quincy was a great town.  I used to live across the river, and hadn't been back since 1985 or so.  A huge thanks to the Quincy Tea Party folks and their amazing organizational abilities and just plain good natures.

Here's a Flickr show from Keyboard Militia if you want to see more pictures - a lot more pictures.

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Never Forget

Rare home video footage of 9-11.