24thState

Not Voting For Akin - Are You Kidding???

Sadly, too many Americans struggle annually to wisely select their choices for public office. This has consequences for all of us. The problem is partially to do with the media, and partially to do with the influence of big money in politics, but the biggest problem is the sorry state of civics education. We are pounded with slick ads designed by consultants who believe they need to deliver messages on a fourth grade level. The battles involve shiny things; who will give them out and who will take them away. I have heard about way too many Missourians who lean Republican, but are having trouble voting for Akin. This should settle that. Anyone who values liberty but cannot vote for Akin needs to sober up, look past the smoke, look at this one document and vote right!

The LIGIE Scale measures Congress by intervention in the economy. It is a product of an academic site I introduced to 24thState readers before called Voteview.com, that ranks every member of Congress in history. Limited Intervention of the Government in the Economy is the goal of their DW Nominate rankings and I agree that it is simply the best way to measure whether a member of Congress is working for you or working for the special interests. It specifically reveals which candidates are dictating how to live your life, which are rewarding special interests, and which truly are staying out of your way.

So all of this crap, and it is crap, about Akin being "scary" becomes ridiculous when you look at the plain old rankings. Like any great ranking system, there is predictability and there are surprises. For all the Paulites, take a bow, give us your "I told you so"s, Ron Paul sets the bar. Akin sets the bar for Missouri and Senator Roy Blunt is second among the Missouri delegates. Predictably, all of the Democrats are below the 50% mark, denoted in red, and McCaskill is below former Congressman Ike Skelton the famously "blue dog" Democrat.

Understand what this says. McCaskill's low rating shows that she is very quick to intervene in the economy and shove government into another aspect of your life whether that is government control over your healthcare, taxpayer funding for abortion or converting your tax dollars into tax credits for low income housing that her husband can make millions selling.

Democrats from Obama down, have presided over a pathetic performance in both domestic and foreign policy and with no credible product of their own to sell, have resorted to confusing voters by creating irrational fears about their opponents. Todd Akin, a victim of an unprecedented assault on his brand has been painted as a monster. It is little surprise that people who will pay $5 for a cup of coffee at Starbucks have been suckered by the ad campaign. Akin is as honest and scandal free as they come. He is a fierce patriot, loyal to God country and wife, who has put three sons through the U.S. Naval Academy, yet, he is scary. Really?

Instead of being suckered by a branding campaign that stuck vague adverbs into our heads we need to look at the data before reelecting McCaskill, a true statist who has never known a private sector job and whose husband has become very wealthy trading in government tax credits. The choice could not be more simple.

 

111th Congress Vote Ranking

Akin Versus McCaskill - The Opportunity You Created For Yourself

“I’ve spend a very good part of my life trying to build the Republican Party and I’m proud of that party and I think it has a very responsible role to play, especially in today’s world, particularly in an age of Obama and I think Todd Akin damages the Republican brand and I think he hurts the party in the minds of many people,” Jack Danforth, Former US Senator.

Full disclosure:

24thState took no position in the Republican Primary for U.S. Senate and for that matter, we took no position in the Democrat Primary either. We discussed the Primary in one piece, but were as stunned as most Missourians at his miraculous victory.

The Motto, "Show Me State" honors the common sense of Missouri voters who are not crowd followers, but people famous for judicious independence. So when the political world demanded we fire our guy, there were many local calls to do just that, but in time we calmed down collectively and settled in for an adult discussion. What really matters has a measure to do with control of the Senate, but everything to do with control of our republic. While we lost control of our country, our work created for us, a pivotal opportunity to gain it back.

Who took our Republic?

The Consultants. Americans are fed up with both parties and they have no idea why. While both parties have radically different platforms, the outcomes when one or the other controls differs far less. Bush 43 does TARP, Obama does "Stimulus". Bush thrills Big Pharma and Big Insurance with Medicare Part D, Obama does Obamacare and solar giveaways. The result is that the country is broke and a record high number of people are declaring independence from both parties. Is either party making a play to bring them in? Nope.

Both parties are corrupted by this, winning only when they are more skilled at convincing independents that the other party or the other guy from the other party is worse. Consider the abject failure that is Barack Obama. That a single literate American finds him worth voting for is testament to this. The entire Obama campaign is built on why women and "brown people" should fear Romney. Where is the ad saying, "Look at all the good I have done, don't you want more?" The best the occupant of the White House can say is "Give me a second chance."

For his part, Romney is not promising anything great. His best appeal is that nothing could be worse than Obama. This is not genius political analysis, this is what 90% of Americans will admit over a beer. Put the average Tea Partier together with the average Occupier and one of the first things they would agree about is how terrible their own party is. The problem that both suffer and few can quantify is that both parties are controlled, utterly owned by consultants equally guilty of doing the bidding of a horrifyingly small group of people.

Who corrupted the parties?

Yes, the left has Soros and the right has the Koch Brothers. Both have a party structure in which Karl Rove and David Axelrod and a host of A- minus list consultants just below them get paid to foist their desires on the American people by wielding power over all of us with an iron fist. How?

Let's take Todd Akin for an example. Akin was a freshman Congressman in January of 2001 when Karl Rove was in the White House as the top "Advisor" and "Architect" of the Bush Presidency. As the big A..., Rove pressed Akin to vote for the aforementioned TARP, Medicare Part D, and a host of other un-American proposals that fly in the face of what our Founding Fathers expected the federal government to do. Mostly Akin went along, but on those bills and others, he told Rove "No".

True power means, no one tells you "no".

When you are in the majority party, you are expected by the Rove's of the world to subject yourself to his authority 100% of the time. Make no mistake, precisely like the college fraternity choice that almost every freshman has to make, every freshman politician must declare his or her tribe or no tribe at all. The choice brings certain benefits and handicaps. The universal truth is that if you want to rise in party leadership, or just drink at the party well, you must choose the party fraternity, eschewing all others for your tribe. Karl Rove is not the president of the fraternity or even the social chairman, he is the Sergeant At Arms, doling out favors, introductions to the elite major donors, and even reelection cash, or withholding all, from those who are not in the Fraternity. The Democrats are no different. Sadly, whether Rove or Axelrod is the Architect in the White House, they are agents for several of the same biggest donors?

So if you like Karl Rove, and his opinion matters to you, then do you like TARP, Medicare Part D, and massive deficits? You cannot separate these policies from Rove. He was the architect of them, pushing the Akins of the world to back them and then swearing to their political death when they withheld support.

Americans are so clueless about this game it is pathetic. Karl Rove, the Architect turned "Enforcer" never supported Akin yet with great drama he announces his withdrawal of support from Akin, support Akin never had in 11 years of being a "fellow" Republican, and the nation sheepishly takes the bait. The story line drafted by the A is that "Akin is too extreme." That works every time.

So what is extreme?

Ask yourself that question. Look at Akin's voting record compared to say, Jack Danforth's. Take any ranking on limited government and fidelity to the Constitution and Akin will win hands down. Let's start with giving the Panamanians the right to sell the Panama Canal to China. Do the same with the venerable Jim Talent or Roy Blunt. Take the rankings of groups who share your views and see who ranks higher. I dare you. "You have seen the enemy and he is you."

Akin happens to be a man who possesses what is among the most impeccable standard of personal integrity of any man to occupy a Congressional seat. He is so honest he is almost incapable of scandal. His kids are even perfect, homeschooled, accomplished, with three graduating from the Naval Academy. Most importantly, he is a man who has sworn allegiance to the American People's Fraternity, choosing his constituents over the Party Tribe.

Akin is a man who told Rove "No."

So all Missourians have a choice. We can talk about Akin in contrast to McCaskill who is in the Obama Fraternity and whose entire fortune was amassed off of government programs, who sticks taxpayers with the bills for her personal jet trips, but the issue is so much simpler than that.

The question for all Americans, even the Occupiers, is whether you are ready to take up your birthright as Americans and elect men and women, even of the opposite party, for the simple reason that they chose you over the Party tribes. Are you voting for Rove and Axelrod or are you voting for yourself?

Most importantly, Akin is a candidate of our making. Without the Tea Party independent movement, Akin might never have won his primary and would have had far less confidence to cobble together the critical mass of independent constituencies to win despite Rove. So you, the party independents created the Akin opportunity.

Finally, for those of you with that most odd propensity to put principal one notch behind the bandwagon desire to go with a winner, consider that Todd Akin has won two truly miraculous races including this primary. We at 24thState gave him zero chance. Yet he won. He has not lost an election since he first took office in 1992. His campaign style may be somewhat unorthodox, and it is no less so now.

The Akin campaign has taken on huge national appeal, with Rove, Axelrod and their allied Danforths and other elites choosing McCaskill and people from the American People tribe flooding into Missouri from all over the country for Akin. This week, Dr. Gina Loudon makes her second trip starting today, from her current home in San Diego to support Akin. She joins a list that includes Newt Gingrich, Mike Huckabee, Bay Buchannan and more. Most of all, Akin has an unblemished record of winning, he also has the "praying people". The Akin victory would create the first chink in the Rove-Axelrod armor.

 

Does Reboot Congress Have the Boot for McCaskill?

Missouri voters are a thougthfull lot. The "Show Me State" motto may not be as sexy as New Hampshire's "Live Free or Die" but it is incredibly descriptive of how most Missourians think. Like the Missouri Mule made famous world wide for unparallelled service in World War I, the Missouri voter will not be lead by cattle prod or a ring in the nose, but must be persuaded. This is why Senate races are almost always very tight contests and the McCaskill-Akin race is no exception. The latest investigation from Reboot Congress may hold the bad news the McCaskill campaign fears most.

The pathetically unloveable McCaskill has seen her fate rise and fall as Missouri voters get momentarily distracted by the latest "shiny object" only to return to their predictable Show Me State conservative opinions. It is almost sad to watch Missouri's senior senator try so hard to position herself as a moderate and yet be totally unable to get her popularity above 50%. Thus, she appeared to be very vulnerable until the famous Akin gaffe apeared to give her the critical opening she needed.

Two polls now show that Missouri voters are back to rejecting McCaskill (Examiner and KOMU). This must be of great concern to McCaskill, especially in light of the investigation by Reboot Congress. Do they have the shiny object that will turn out to be the silver bullet?

The Headline "Why Isn't Capstone Development Listed on MCCaskill's Financial Disclosure" seems to suggest that there may be much more. I have a feeling there is.

Bob Burns: One Candidate, Two Campaigns

While perusing the Missouri Ethics Commission's website Sunday evening, I noticed a couple of oddities about Bob Burns committee filings.

Burns is no stranger to criticism from this blog since, as a staffer for US Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO), he called Obamacare protestors Nazi brownshirts. Burns joined the Occupy protestors last fall in downtown St. Louis. Ironically for Burns, the leading Occupy group, Occupy Wall Street, was endorsed by the American Nazi Party. And now Burns wants the people of Missouri's 93rd state house district to elect him as their representative.

So what did I notice at the Missouri Ethics Commission? For starters, I noticed that Burns has five committees, two of which are active:

When I looked at the two committees, I noticed that one was for his race for the 93rd house district and the other was for the April 2013 election for the St. Louis Community College Board of Trustees. You may recall that Burns lost his 2012 bid for the Board of Trustees.

I also noticed that Burns failed to answer a question on his committee filings: "Do you have more than one candidate committee?" Here's a snapshot from the paperwork for the state house race which he filed in April of this year:

And here's a snapshot from his Board of Trustees candidate filing. This was filed in May of this year:

Did he just miss the question both times? Well, consider that when he filed in January of this year to run for the Board of Trustees--that's the election he lost last April--he didn't have any trouble answering that question:

Has he amended either his filing for the 93rd state house district or his bid for the board of trustees? It looks to me that in January he answered the question and then three and four months later, in April and May, he just skiped it despite the fact that he knew he'd be running as a candidate in multiple races. Why do that?

Be There: Missouri Senate Repub's Set 1st Debate

Lincoln Days 2012 in Kansas City, Feb. 18th

In announcing the event, David Cole, Chairman of the Missouri Republican Party says,  “Defeating Claire McCaskill is incredibly important for the future of our state and our nation—and we have three great candidates, any of whom would make an outstanding United States Senator.”  I agree with this statement wholeheartedly and will explain why, and why I believe every patriot who is able ought to be in Kansas City.

The GOP Lincoln Day convention rotates between St. Louis, Kansas City and Springfield.  For GOP party members and all conservative activists, this is the closest thing you will find to a CPAC in Missouri.  If you are not familiar with CPAC, you are not paying attention. This is a chance to meet the candidates, visit their display tables and furthermore, meet the other patriotic organizations and make life long friends.  If you talk about having an impact or are frustrated about our party being out of touch, then go touch it!

For this lifelong St. Louisan, the Kansas City location will always hold a special place.  The 2006 Lincoln Day event was the only time I held the stage as a statewide candidate.  More importantly, I was steeped in the emotion of knowing that a woman in Florida had made the monumental decision to put her new born baby up for adoption and in so doing, picked me and Gina to be the parents.  Occasions like that have a way of putting things into laser focused perspective.  So we raced from Kansas City to Florida and met our Sammy for the first time the day after the debate.

As we focus on the critical nature of this cycle, beating Obama may be the top priority, but gaining a Republican majority in the Senate is a very close second.  There is reason for optimism that we can do that without taking out Senator McCaskill, but the odds are slim if we fail.  Remember, McCaskill is the one who talks blue dog, but found Hilary too conservative, favoring instead the extreme leftist Obama in her party's primary.  Never forget that.

This may surprise some, but of all of the candidates for Senate, I have known Sarah Steelman the longest.  I first met her in 1991, when I was the president of the Capitol Area Young Republicans and her husband, David was on the steps of the Missouri Supreme Court building announcing his bid for Attorney General.  I had the pleasure of serving in the Senate with Sarah Steelman beginning 10 years later. She  is an outside the box thinker who made major marks pushing for government integrity and broadening the state's sunshine laws.  She takes an economist's view of government as did Reagan.

I have known Congressman Akin the best.  He and I commuted to Jefferson City together many times as State Represntatives.  I consider him a friend and mentor.  He is a true patriot who loves this country as much as amyone.  I wish he was more of a fighter than a bomb thrower, but he is pretty good at both when he wants to be.  He will ocasionally cast a vote that bothers me, but I never doubt his integrity.  Home schooling six kids and sending three through the Naval Academy to become warriors for our nation is no small feat and shows priority balance.

I do not know John Brunner, and that may be my biggest complaint about him.  Through all my years of activism and 14 years holding office in the city he and I shared, I do not recall meeting him.  He will tell you he was busy building his business.  Fine, but the son of the patriot Jack Brunner who was very active, should appreciate why primary races and getting involved is so important.

For those conservatives wondering about John Brunner, I can tell you this.  His father picked me to be a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1996.  I turned down the trip to San Diego and the chance of a lifetime because I was not as far right as Jack Brunner who was requesting that I serve as a delegate for Pat Buchanon. I was a Phil Gramm guy.  You can make your own conjecture about John, but the son of Jack cannot be all bad.  Moreover, while he was largely absent from politics, Brunner did build one heck of a business, while Claire McCaskill was building her politician resume'.

You will also have a chance to meet that Indian Southern gentleman, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal.  Seeing someone with that ethnicity speak with an accent closer to that of Haley Barbour than the average Missourian should be worth the trip.  Plus, I imagine he will have some inside scoop on how the POTUS mishandled and politicized the BP Oil Spill.

For additional details or to register, please visit www.mogop.org/lincolndays.

McCaskill Redux

Just in case anyone forgot where Claire McCaskill stands:

Former Claire McCaskill Staffer, Bob Burns, Occupies St. Louis

Last Saturday the Post Dispatch reported on the Occupy St. Louis march downtown. Their featured photograph, shows none other than former Senator Claire McCaskill staffer, Bob Burns. Burns gained a bit of notoriety when he called Tea Partiers "brown shirts":

That bit of hate speech got Burns disciplined by McCaskill. Now, Burns is marching under the "CLASSWAR" banner. That speaks volumes about the politics of the people Senator McCaskill brings into her office. While McCaskill puts on the airs of a moderate, she surrounds herself with radicals like Burns.

Less than a week after Bob Burns marched with the St. Louis Occupants, the flagship Occupy protest has received an ironic endorsement from none other than the American Nazi Party:

The American Nazi Party has officially backed the Occupiers in a statement on its website. The ANP, which also calls itself a National Socialist party, writes that the Occupy Wall Street movement is “TAYLOR [sic] MADE for National Socialists,” and urges its members to join in. “Produce some flyers EXPLAINING the 'JEW BANKER' influence—DON’T wear anything marking you as an ‘evil racist’—and GET OUT THERE and SPREAD the WORD!”

If Burns is their to accept the endorsement, we'll let you know!

h/t: Ed.

St. Louis Tea Party Responds to Jimmy Hoffa's Call for Violence

Late last night I blogged about a (former?) McCaskill staffer who is now calling for leftists to smear Tea Partiers and conservatives as violent. Today Jimmy Hoffa seemed to call for violence while introducing President Obama in Detriot. The St. Louis Tea Party has responded with this press release:

Subject: St. Louis Tea Party Coaliton Statement on Jimmy Hoffa’s Labor Day Remarks

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

St. Louis, MO-- The St. Louis Tea Party Coalition regrets the unfortunate call to violence by Teamster president Jimmy Hoffa. We believe that the political process--not terrorist tactics--will restore American exceptionalism. We expect the men and women of the Teamsters to do the right thing and remove Mr. Hoffa from office.

On Labor Day, in remarks introducing the President of the United States, Hoffa effectively declared civil war on citizens who support the Tea Party movement, saying, “The war on workers, and you see it everywhere, it [sic] is the Tea Party . . .President Obama, this is your army. We are ready to march. Let’s take these son of a bitches [sic] out . . .”

“This is sad,” said St. Louis Tea Party Coalition co-founder Bill Hennessy. “We went through this in August 2009 with [AFL-CIO President John] Sweeney’s letter to the rank-and-file to ‘get in their faces,’ and the White House told supporters to punch us back twice as hard. By contrast, we’ve held dozens of peaceful events. We just wish people like Hoffa would let us exercise the First Amendment in peace and safety.” 

In sharp contrast to Hoffa’s call to violence, St. Louis Tea Party Coalition is launching its 12-month “The After Party” campaign on September 15 at 7:00 pm at Crowne Plaza Hotel in Clayton.  The stated purpose of The After Party is to restore the human fabric of society. For more information about 

The After Party visit http://stlouisteaparty.com/category/the-after-party/.

###

 

 

Disciplined McCaskill Staffer Bob Burns Leading Another Charge To Smear Tea Party As Violent Thugs And Terrorists

Letters to the editor are a long-standing tradition for the American newspaper.  The voice of the common man is shaped as citizens wishing to air their own views write in, giving the newspaper a community feel and ensuring the voice of the people is heard.  The value of those letters has declined as the growth of talk radio and blogs gave new avenues of expression to the public, but in smaller communities, and to some extent even in the city newspapers, a letter to the editor is considered more authentic and more powerful.

For that reason, the Progressive Left, doing the bidding of Claire McCaskill, has decided to poison the well of public opinion with propaganda.  Unable to muster actual passion from the community, the Left has decided to use violent imagery from fake letter writing campaigns to sway newspaper readers.  In a meeting sponsored by MOPAG, Senator McCaskill:

...pretty much begged us to get letters in the papers in the collar counties, the counties that ring K.C. and St. Louis. She wanted that because those counties have such large numbers of swing voters and because people actually read those small local papers

McCaskill is asking MOPAG to write letters to the editor on behalf of her campaign.  Note she isn’t doing anything to lead the public to spontaneously write these letters.  She’s simply asking her minions to do the work.  That makes sense, as Bob Burns, the (former?) McCaskill staffer who called the Tea Party Nazi Brownshirts is a leader of MOPAG (Missouri Progressive Action Group).  And like the good lemmings they are, the fine members of MOPAG, led by Willy Kessler (Willy K), have created a zombie army of letter writers to get their names in the paper. The link above continues:

Image from Talk To Me Johnnie

The committee now has eight writers. They need at least ten, but think what they could do with twenty. If you have a knack for letter writing, consider joining them. You'll get the talking points to make the process easier. And you'll know that you're helping convince persuadable voters that our side has the values they agree with.

Care to know what those talking points are for September?

• GOP are “thugs” working for the wealthy; “enforcers” for the mega-rich, lots of mafia comparisons are possible.
• GOP as terrorists; hostage metaphors are good since they are already prevalent; we should always reinforce the image.
• The Republican downgrade or Tea Party downgrade.
• GOP as tricksters – Tea Party dupes is a related image.

That is some striking language.  Letter writers are supposed to reinforce an image of the GOP as thugs working for the wealthy.  They are terrorists, and should be called hostage-takers, because the image links the Tea Party to violent mobs.  We’re not surprised that Bob Burns is still out there trying to telling Missouri progressives that the Tea Party and Republicans are fascist thugs.  We are a little concerned that Claire McCaskill continues to use his services when he so clearly meant what he said.  If you remember, McCaskill suspended Bob Burns over his remarks and publicly apologized to this blog and the Tea Party for his words. That she would apologize, but then have him lead the letter writing campaign using similar violent language is not only disturbing, but also disingenuous.

These are her words*:

"I'm embarrassed. I apologize. The words used by a member of my staff were wrong and do not reflect my opinion. I respect the right of every Missourian to express their opinion, and calling them names for using their First Amendment rights is flat wrong. The staff member who made this mistake will be disciplined," McCaskill said.

If McCaskill was embarrassed by Burns’ remarks in June of 2010, why is she recruiting him to write letters using the same violent rhetoric in 2011?

* Snapshot of McCaskill email:

 

 

Legislator: America's Greatest Moments Occurred in the Legislature

Senator Claire McCaskill said:

"You look back at history, and America's brightest moments usually happened around a table of compromise."

Really, Senator?  When I look back at history, I think of America's brightest moments as things like the following: