24thState

Could It Really Happen Here?

Gateway Pundit was telling me about a conversation he had at the Democracy & Security International Conference in Prague a while back. He met a woman from Azerbaijan, a small country in the Russian orbit that hosts what we would call a soft dictatorship. 

When you speak out against the regime in Azerbaijan, they don't come to your house in the middle of the night and "disappear" you.  Instead, they go to your place of employment and lean on the owner to fire you.  Then they go to where your brother works, and they get him fired.  And his wife.  And your cousin.

The message is clear - you can speak your mind, but we will ruin you and put you out on the street. 

Now, I'm no Pollyanna.  That's the way things have worked for most of mankind's history, and even in the US, this kind of treatment has been the norm in corrupt locales throughout our history. What makes this country different is we hear a story about a government official using his or her power to ruin a family, and we know it's wrong. And we expect someone to do something about it.  That is one of the strengths of this country.  We expect a sense of fair play.

And that's why the Keith Gladney firing is a shot across the bow to all of us.  I've been warned over and over that daring to write this blog will make me a target. I've laughed it away - what are they going to do to me?  But I'm aware that not everyone is in this position.  I warned the Gladney's that putting your neck out is dangerous, but I honestly didn't believe a St Louis County government official could be as stupid as to actually act on the nastiest of impulses - to fire a man two days before Christmas for the crime of being the brother of a beating victim.

St Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley may or may not be involved, but he is responsible.  It is his department of health that is waging war on the Gladneys, and it is his political appointee that pulled the slow-down on the assault charges.  If the St Louis County Council is so corrupt that they allow retaliation against the family of beating victims, then every elected official in that government and every press organ that covers for them must be made to pay the price.

I'm no high priced political hack.  I can't send press releases to local news and newspapers and expect results like those generated by Bob Sweeney. But I am a St Louis County resident and an American citizen.  The country I live in will not allow corrupt politicians to destroy a family because they happened to stand between SEIU and their goal of healthcare.

I've looked into the details.  I've given my word to those who have run with the story that there is definitely something there.  Right now I'm working to help Keith and Kenneth get employed, because their family needs our help, but don't think this story is going away.

In the last year, this blog has been a refuge for those stories not told by the local press.  We've got several more stories of local and state corruption in the queue, and when all is said and done, we are going to do what we do best.

Defend the weak and innocent. Destroy evil in all of its monstrous forms. Crush the monsters that steal our land and rob our people.

We are Freedom's Voice.  2010 is upon us. Join the ranks of freedom loving people around the world and remind them that here, in this land, freedom is worth fighting for. 

Jefferson County Dispatch 911 Roundup

I'll be on the Dana show tonight to talk about the Jefferson County Dispatch 911 scandal.  it's fascinating to me that I provide in-depth documentation of the corruption in Jefferson County, and get no response, but using the highly payed consulting services of Democrat Ed Rhode can get Bob Sweeney press time on radio, television, and at the St Louis Post Dispatch.  I guess I made the mistake of doing the reporting, rather than paying a PR guy to mail my talking points to local media.

Someone call Tony Messenger - I've got a story for him! Here's a convenient research link - 14 documents on Scribd.com

Here are the roundup links. 

Funding ACORN AND SEIU Organizers with Jefferson County tax dollars. 

Paying off Democratic Party to Raise Taxes.

Did Bob Sweeney introduce Forefront to Jefferson County Dispatch 911?

Communist Glenn Burleigh's role in Jefferson County 911.

Bob Sweeney introduces Frontline Organizing to Big River Ambulance District. 

Forefront Organizing overbills Jefferson County Dispatch 911. 

Eight Questions To Ask JC Dispatch 911 board.

Forefront Organizing is Frontline Organizing Is POWER Union. 

Prepaid Invoices and Contract Negotiations with Bob Sweeney. 

Media Strategy: Personal Attacks and Fake Letters to the Editor. 

More Overbilling at Jefferson County Dispatch 911

There is more. It deals with the blatant violation of Ethics laws. It's just one or more posts, but it's in the hands of the media and state officials and legislators now.

Will they do their jobs?  Or do they need a press release first?

Is Saint Louis County Retaliating Against The Gladney Family?

I was going to write a nice Christmas post about being with family, and taking some time off until the New Year, when just as I was about to leave - a phone call came in.

Keith Gladney, the brother to SEIU beating victim Kenneth Gladney, was terminated from his job with the St Louis County Department of Health. Just one month ago, Keith spoke to KMOX reporter Kevin Killeen about the delay by the county in approaching his brother's case.  Was this a clear case of retaliatory, Chicago-style politics?

The circumstances are very fishy.  Gladney's supervisor was not there, but instead a South County Supervisor was brought in.  The termination charges were never communicated to Mr. Gladney when they supposedly occurred, and the manner in which he was fired, and the reasons behind it would make many an employment lawyer clap their hands in glee.

Among the people not clapping are the Gladney family, who have had one son beaten for standing between SEIU staff members and their goal of this healthcare bill, and now another son who seems to have been targeted for daring to speak out against the injustice done to his brother.  Two days before Christmas, in an manner inconsistent with traditional protocols, Keith was fired.  No severance - no two weeks.  And the worst part?  The Gladneys aren't even political.  They're bystanders uninvolved with these issues who have made the mistake of daring to stand up for themselves. 

There are details that back these very strong statements up, but considering the manner in which the Gladney beating case was handled, I'm going to let the Gladney family address them in the appropriate manner.

This cannot stand.  In this case, someone in St Louis County government overplayed their hand.  Badly.

  

Jane Hamsher Says Kill The Bill, And We Agree!

This is Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake, writing about her desire to kill the bill. 

I went on Ed Shultz last night, and Fox deliberately today after yesterday’s hubub. It scares the bejesus out of the DC establishment of both parties to think that the left and right might align against the corporate interests that dominate the massive giveaways that keep happening no matter who’s in power.

That's something I can get behind.  Corporate Welfare killed the Republican party in the last few elections.  It undercuts the entire reasoning behind voting for a self-professed limited government party.  If Republicans can't be counted on to not give giant amounts of cash away to corporations, then the party should be left in the dustbin of history with the rest of the statists.

As for Hamsher, who is a very liberal blogger - her desire to kill the bill is a principled one, and her decision to attack the bill brings to mind the reason why healthcare reform has so thoroughly trashed the approval ratings of Obama and the Democrats.

If the Democrats truly believed they had a long-term sustainable majority and a mandate to drive the country to the left, they wouldn't have to hide bills, play parliamentary games, take votes in the middle of the night, and insert insane manager amendments that voluntarily cede future Congressional oversight to a panel of bureaucrats.

They would have taken bite-sized chunks of the their agenda and passed it to media fanfare, keeping their president's approval high and forestalling a tidal wave of defeats in 2010.  If the country approved, they would have the means to enact their agenda over a period of a decade, showing proper respect for the laws, precedents, and counterweights to majority rule that our republic holds dear.

But they didn't.  They have acted like thieves in the night, emboldened by a press afraid to criticize the messiah president, and now they face outright revolution from a populace that will not lay down freedom so cheaply. 

Kill the bill.  Eliminate corporate welfare.  Govern effectively.  Follow the rules.  If Democrats truly believe in their agenda, they will back down.  If they are children stomping their feet and hoping not to get caught, then they will find that Leviathan is nothing compared to the will of the American people.

Signs To Bring To McCaskill Protest Tomorrow

Despair.com reads like a manual on our current Senate Democrats.

This one seems to be about Claire McCaskill, but it probably makes more sense for Robin, Russ, and Tom Carnahan. 

Anybody want to order a desktopper for our least favorite sellouts?

Let me ask you this - is it possible to become a Democratic Senator from Missouri without having family members who get rich off government subsidies?  Is that some line you have to fill out to get Lindell fundraisers?

Claire McCaskill Votes To Pay The DaneGeld

If you're the kind of family that likes to discuss politics, Claire McCaskill and the Senate Democrats have dropped a bunkerbuster on your Christmas meal.

With Ben Nelson taking the Medicaid payoff to be the 60th cloture vote, all pretenses of good government or integrity have been swept away, and the Democratic Party exposed for what they are - an elitist bunch driven only by a grasping desire for power, willing to sell off any and all principles for partisan politics.

There is no defense of the Medicaid buyout.  To win 60 votes, Senate Democrats had to exempt an entire state from paying its share of Medicaid taxes.

In Missouri, Governor Matt Blunt was viciously attacked for cutting Medicaid to save the state budget. In voting for cloture, Senator McCaskill has voted to have Missourians pay both for our poor, and those of Nebraska. 

There is no defense. The Congress now maintains that bribery to drive legislation on a purely partisan vote is acceptable.  The Democrats will regret this.  In addition to sweeping a number of their rotten ilk out of office, they will find that every legislative decision from here on out comes at a price.  What Senator in the Democratic Caucus can now afford to vote their conscience, where there is taxpayer money to be had?

Harry Reid, I've some Kipling verses for you.  

And that is called paying the Dane-geld;
But we’ve proved it again and again,
That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld
You never get rid of the Dane.

The mask is off.  McCaskill voted for a bill that taxes us for years before giving benefits, and then counts that as deficit neutral.  She voted for a plan that doesn't cover Congress.  And she voted to give North Dakota your money because their senator would bribe us.

Is there anyone willing to defend her?  Of course not.  What she has done is to betray us all.  No quarter.  2012 can't come soon enough.

Gladney Case Moving Forward

We haven't written much on the Gladney case because the counselor's office has been moving forward, interviewing witnesses, sorting through information, and that was the goal all along.

While there are quite a few issues that still need to be cleared up between Redington and McCulloch on who has jurisdiction and whether charges can be brought that are more serious - we're going to keep our powder dry for the moment.  

But in light of Andrew Breitbart's efforts to bring this story to life, I figured I'd give you a sneak preview of a script that's being pitched to Hollywood right now.   

AndyStern: You want answers?
AndrewBreitbart: I think I'm entitled to them.
Stern: You want answers?
Breitbart: I want the truth!
Stern: You can't handle the truth! Son, we live in a political world that runs on money.   And that money has to be paid for by someone. Who's gonna do it? You? Maybe your precious Tea Partiers? I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You weep for Kenneth Gladney and you curse SEIU. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know: that Gladney's beating, while tragic, made this union stronger. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, will bring us single payer healthcare...You don't want the truth. Because deep down, in places you don't talk about at parties, you want me on that picket line.  You need me on that picket line.

We use words like brotherhood, equality, social justice...we use these words as the backbone of a lie for a greater good. You use them as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the work of the government employees I organize, then questions the manner in which I organize them! I'd rather you just said thank you and went on your way. Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a card check and start handing over dues on the first of the month. Either way, I don't give a damn what you think you're entitled to!

Breitbart: Did you order the code purple?
Stern: (quietly) I did the job you sent me to do.
Breitbart: Did you order the code purple?
Stern: You're g-damn right I did!!

The idea came from this Big Government post, where photographic evidence of Perry Molens changing into his  SEIU colors before attacking Kenneth Gladney was never fully explained.

 

More Overbilling At Jefferson County Dispatch 911

The initial proposal for Jefferson County 911 called for $6800 in phone fees - including the use of the SEIU dialer and the possible need for paid callers should there not be enough volunteers.  This information comes directly from the head of Forefront Organizing himself, Mike Dalton, who lists some pretty reasonable fees for the use of the dialer.

Forefront Duties Nov 1

Forefront Duties Nov 2

Here is the email exchange between Paul Mayer and Mike Dalton.  If you add the use of the dialer, you see $3200 for the dialer, and $3600 for four dialers to make 60 hours worth of calls.  There is also the clear recognition that a Vote Yes campaign is substantially different than an educational campaign.  Both this email and those from the attorney Bob Sweeney are clear - they know the law.  Later actions would show they simply chose to ignore the law as they crossed from education into advocacy.

Now look at the February invoice.  Note the modest amount for phone calls.  40 hours for 4 stations.  

Forefront Organizing FeburaryInvoice

Now here is the February supplemental.  Note the wide disparity between what was charged and what was explained by Mike Dalton.  The actual total was much higher, and when you break down the invoices, what you see is once again the prepayment of services that don't seem to have been rendered according to how they were invoiced.

February Supplemental Invoice

First, we see that the $52.00 an hour is upgraded to $70.00, and an additional $18.00 is added to make up for what appears to be poor invoicing a month earlier.  But where did the $70/hr come from?  It seems to be the price for a 10 station dialer.  Add all of the stations together and you have 145 hours of dialing in February.  From those 145 hours, 10 stations total, we see that a total of 1,450 hours of phone calls were supposedly made in February at the price of over $10,000.That comes to over $10,000 paid to SEIU simply for using the phone bank in St Louis.  But there's a problem.  Because the phone bank is in St Louis, they can't get volunteers from Jefferson County to make the trek up to SEIU, which means they have to pay for the callers as well.  The second invoice for February also shows Callers invoiced at $15.00 an hour for 500 hours.  That's an additional $7500 charged to Jefferson County Dispatch soley because Forefront/POWER had to use the SEIU phone dialer.

That's a grand dialer of $17,650, almost $11,000 more than agreed upon in the original emails between Mike Dalton and Paul Mayer.  But did these calls even get done?  500 hours of callers, but 1,450 hours of call time leaves a lot of time paid for but not used.  And in the emails, the difficulty in getting volunteers is addressed - which means they didn't come up with 950 man hours of volunteer time.  And all of this paid in February - prior to the work being done.  I look forward to the explanation of whether Brenda Shular or the board took any time to look at these invoices, or to check up on the work that was done.  

Questions Still Left?

I think the biggest question was if was anyone paying attention at Jefferson County Dispatch, or if this project was simply freewheeling spending on political friends.  It certainly was negotiated poorly, inspected not at all, and then managed with the bare minumum of oversight.  No one made sure the invoices were correct, and that work was performed as agreed, which means the board was voting blindly on tens of thousands of dollars each month.  From reading through the several hundred documents I have, I can tell you Forefront was perpetually missing deadlines, changing due dates, missing meetings, and at one point, had his resources tied up in the St Louis mayoral races rather than actually working on the campaign they were paid so handsomely to organize. 

At the very least, this is a typical example of shoddy government.  I expect a visit from the Auditor's office ought to shine enough light to embarrass those involved and hopefully show the voters just how little their money is valued.  But there is another explanation.  The money in the invoices was never intended to be carefully watched.  This looks and smells a lot like one of those deals where those who are connected to the government purse are handed over taxpayer dollars for dubious purposes with the expectation that no one is looking.

They counted on the citizens of Jefferson County to be passive. They counted wrong.  

Jefferson County 911 Media Strategy: Fake Letters To The Editors And Personal Attacks

Glenn Burleigh, the communist who heads Missouri ACORN, has been identified as the media consultant for the Jefferson County Dispatch 911 campaign.  Glenn's work with Jefferson County elections (he assisted SEIU member Mike Frame's campaign) was part of a targeted strategy from the Missouri ProVote board to put progressives in office.  Burleigh's expertise is an interesting choice, but it showcases how the desire for revenue outpaced all questions of honest campaigning at the Jefferson County Dispatch.

On February 26, 2008, editor Pat Martin ran a story in the Leader on the use of taxpayer funds to run the 911 campaign.  Martin was not opposed to the issue, but he was disturbed with the use of funds to pay an outside agency to campaign, and he brought up the issue of using capital funds to pay for what appeared to be an advocacy campaign instead of an educational campaign.

Jefferson County Dispatch didn't like it - not one bit.  In fact, De Soto Rural Fire Protection Chief Paul Mayer had this to say.

"I understand there are supposed to be 3,000 of those yard signs.  I would rather solicit donations and have the committee buy them so we didn't have to put "Paid for by Jefferson County 911" on the sign given the beating we just took from Rat Martin.  Do you have a breakdown on the billing on how much Forefront has figured for the signs"

Attack on Pat Martin

First, let me clear something up.  His name is Pat Martin, not Rat Martin.  When you first look at the email, you think it may be a typo.  But then you look at a keyboard, and you realize that "p" and "r" are just about as far apart as they could be. It's deliberate.  Casual insults on an interoffice email are simply forwarded without comment because a journalist caught them using taxpayer money for political purposes.  

Note that they don't claim Martin is wrong - Mayer even says he wants to change the way they pay for signs because he doesn't want to take more heat.  That's why they filed for a new committee called Citizen's for Proposition 9-1-1 on Friday, February 27, 2009. This committee was supposed to take donations to pay for signs.  But they didn't. The April invoice for Forefront includes $4,502.83 for signs, and of course, the time labor, travel, van rental, and gas charges to deliver the signs, totaling several thousand more dollars. Recognizing they had moved from education to advocacy using the Capital improvements fund, Mayer discusses making changes - but ultimately continues to use taxpayer dollars to fund an advocacy campaign (yard signs are advocacy - not education).

But it doesn't stop there. Forefront Organizing recognized that Martin's editorial was a danger.  Their response, was to write up a couple of Letters to the Editor, and ask Brenda Shular to find people "not offically connected to 911" who would sign their names to the letters, and forward them to the Leader.  

Fake Letters to the Jefferson News-Leader

So now the taxpayers of Jefferson County are having their money spent to write fake letters to the editor.  I don't care how good of a lawyer Bob Sweeney is - explaining how fake letters are educational isn't possible in any courtroom I've heard of.  What this shows is a complete lack of respect for voters and for the press.  I fully expect to see this brought up at the next Board meeting. 

Post Dispatch Editorial Board Covers For Russ Carnahan, Again

I was checking the site stats and noticed a link back to an editorial by the Post Dispatch on Senator Baucus trying to get his girlfriend a cushy job.  The editorial rightfully calls out Baucus for his abuse of power, and rolls the story into a general attack on government privilege.

And then they roll over and ask for their belly to be scratched by the Carnahans, again.  

The editorial board references this New York Times article on the loophole legislators use to get free travel from lobbyists. 

And they completely ignore that Congressman Russ Carnahan, (D-St Louis Media) is the third worst offender on the chart attached to the story, and the only mention of a Missouri politician in the article.

The editorial board finds time to link four non-Missouri Republican sex scandals  to their editorial, but fail to address the one Missouri congressman actually on the list, and the $81,175 spent on Rubberstamp Russ.

Might we also add that Russ Carnahan has never put out any statements that explain why he is taking this travel, or what he learned, or bothered to tell anyone whether or not he spent the per diem for each trip, or if he kept it as free money.

I don't expect the Post Dispatch to turn into some conservative bastion of thought in their editorial pages, but is it too much to ask that they actually take a look at how Missouri politicians are serving us?

Update: Oh man, I thought the story looked familiar. The second link the Post Dispatch uses to complain about $13 million in taxpayer funded travel also includes the tidbit that Russ Carnahan was on that trip, too.

So now we have two blatant instances where Russ Carnahan's name should be front and center, but it was conveniently left out by the board.

Now maybe you can say that the Post Dispatch Editorial board made a mistake.  Perhaps they just missed the chart.  Either way, I have a solution.  This blog, 24thstate, reported on the story a full day before the Post Dispatch did.  I caught the chart and posted it. I also reported on the Missouri link to the Wall Street Journal article.  In the future, to avoid embarrassment, and to save research time, just click on that RSS feed button on the right. 

By the way - I hear there's some pretty good information about a taxpayer scandal in Jefferson County.  Tell the story, and you might win yourself another one of those watchdog awards.