24thState

St Louis Tea Party Anniversary Video Post

Several weeks back, I asked for pictures of the numerous Tea Party events in the last year.  I wanted the pictures that individuals thought best encapsulated their experience, and boy did we get some great ones.

If you've never been to a Tea Party, and don't know someone who has, you have a warped view of the people I've come to know.  Forget the media filter or the jealousy of the blogworld.  The people I know are warm, generous, full of life, optimistic about their personal lives, ready to help each other through life's struggles and enthusiastic about the thrill of the good times.  As a diverse group, we've celebrated, mourned the loss of loved ones, dealt with tragedy, and helped each other through times when it all seemed too much.

The Tea Party, in the St Louis version, is quintessentially American.  These folks, the ones I've come to know, have been political neophytes that stepped forward and made an impact on their local communities.  From school board and city council meetings to the more publicized blogs and rallies, a group of over 50 servants have stepped up and said they will move freedom forward in this generation.

The Tea Party movement is the awakening of a new class of political activist.  Citizens are injecting themselves into the political process to demand transparency, accountability, and fiscal sanity.  No matter your party, the focus on good and clean governance brought by the Tea Party groups is a positive thing.

In this video, I tried to celebrate those who have given of the sparse time we have on this blue sphere to ensure that the next generation understands the rewards and responsibilities of being a free citizen.  This isn't about making the next generation better off.  It's about transmitting the culture of civic responsibility that is a universal bedrock against the tyrant and the despot.

It is my hope that you see the St Louis Tea Party through the eyes of those who have been inside it. And for those who have given so much, I say only, "Thank you, for restoring my faith in the people."

This is the link for the HD Version.

St Louis Coffee Party Turns Out To Be Just Another Front For The Left

The coffee party is a fraud.  It's purpose is very clear - give those in the media the ability to run counter-stories to successful Tea Party gatherings, effectively cutting Tea Party media exposure in half.

The founder is OFA staff, and has been a part of left wing organizers for years.  The Facebook group is a top-down managed group that opens chapters in cities, identifies organizers, and broadcasts talking points.  From this, the Twitter #p2 crowd jumps in, yapping about civility and the need for intelligent discourse.

The first point is the obvious one.  Those who accuse the Tea Party of a lack of civility are a day late and a dollar short.  The manufactured media meme of Townhall rage didn't happen until the summer, and even then, it was the orders from Margarida Jorge on how to structure fake rallies that got people riled up.  Lock hundreds of people out of townhalls while you let union members in handicap entrances and you're not really setting yourself up for civil speech. Throw in violence and physical intimidation, and you'll get that the Tea Party members had every right to get angry.

For this so-called Coffee Party to come out now is simply an attempt at branding.  The SEIU funded Patriot Majority West was caught astroturfing websites attacking the Tea Party. The sad Clinton effort to identify Tea Party leaders and smear them was exposed.  Along comes Annabel Park, formerly of the New York Times, who gets a full length feature in the New York Times, and suddenly we're supposed to believe that the Coffee Party is made up of earnest people who think government is our friend?

Let's be clear.  No one really hates government in a free society. We hate assholes who use their elected positions to steal money from some groups and give them to others under the guise of social justice, environmental catastrophe, or some manufactured race war that benefits only race hustlers and community organizers.

I've shown the calmer side of the Tea Party, notably the August Townhall where SEIU staff members attacked a random vendor to send a message.  Outside of the planned violence and the rote cheers from leftists, real conversations were occuring.  

In addition, I personally called on numerous occasions for public debates from citizens, but got no takers.  Civil discussion is only allowed when the Left calls for it.

But let's not take my word for it. Founding Bloggers blows the lid off the civility argument of the St Louis Coffee party as reported by KSDK.  

Check out their screenshots.

Hmmm  - seems like a rather partisan atmosphere to hold a civil discussion.  But that's not all.  The stolen AP image, now called the iconic image of Obama, hangs from the walls, but so do bumper stickers that say Cheney Satan / '08.

yep - that's the kind of non-partisan, civil atmosphere I'd use to kick start my party.

Still, they say 40 people showed up.  That's not bad for a coffee house.  Of course, all it did was pull people from OFA.

An OFA meeting last week the Weber Branch of the St Louis library had no one show up.  That must have been pretty lonely for Erin McCann, who was going to tell everyone about the great strategies they had set up.  Maybe, and this is just a suggestion, maybe the left should focus all of their astroturfing operations into just one group, and have that group show up over and over to the same events, rather than coming up with a new group each and every time they want to pretend to have the public behind them.

1500 people at the original St Louis Tea Party, versus 40 people at a coffee shop filled with Barack Obama memorabilia.  Not an auspicious beginning.

I have no doubt there are some normal people who do wish for a return in civility.  They're not on the left here in St Louis, who for some reason harbor a deep-seated hatred of everything west and south of 170.  If the coffee party really wants to be something other than another lame attempt to increase the size of government, they can start determining what behavior they're going to call out on the left.

Until they do - they can expect some good press, but also undercover video showing the fake nature of their manufactured concern.

The Lie That Is The Metro Tax Advertising

I've now heard radio commercials and seen television commercials for the Metro Tax increase we're supposed to vote on in April, and can say with a straight face it's not truthful.

Some of us ride it, All of us need it.

How very clever, but that's not what we're voting on in April.

No matter how the vote goes, we will still have Metro.  People will still ride it to Cardinals games.  Wash U students and Wash U faculty and staff will still get free passes, and those who use Metro to get around currently are still going to have the services.

The increase in funding is to be used for expansion.  Note that nowhere in the advertising do they discuss extending the line.  No one talks about the fact that Metro has been losing money for years, long before the economic crisis hit. Metro is a money-losing operation.  If they wanted the money to shore up the program, they should say so.

But they don't.  They want to take money and expand it, leaving us even further in the red in the future.  It's like being underwater on a house, and then using a line of credit to add a garage.  It's insanity, and the purpose is to shovel more of our money to the people building the lines and those running the campaigns.

Who do you think pays for those commercials?  Who is paying for the phone bank? Why is SEIU MO/KS State Council, the political arm of SEIU, in the Greater St Louis Transit Alliance?

It's because this is about taking more of our money, and giving it to their pals.

If the Vote Yes on Proposition A people won't even bother to tell you the truth about why they want the money, how can we trust them to take care of the money when they get it.  The loss in Metro services that will occur when the stimulus funds runs out is still going to occur.  This tax won't fix it.  It will instead be siphoned off for $150 million a mile expansion.  That means they will have to come back to us in a few years, demanding more.

Educate yourself.

Did Brian Wahby Funnel $10,000 To Himself Through A Democratic Campaign Committee?

Exclusive: Live On Dana Radio right now.  Reference As first reported on 24thstate.com in all news reports.

I was looking through the campaign finance reports for the end of the year, and saw a startling report put out by the St. Louis City Dems for their end of year report.

In November of 2008, almost three weeks after President Obama's election, a Chicago businessman named Robert Wislow gave $10,000 to the Democratic Federal Campaign Committee, the PAC of the City Dems.  It's a large amount, and it's timing is strange, coming as it did after the election.

Robert Wislow is the CEO of US Equities.  He's a big Democratic donor from Chicago with ties to Rahm Emmanuel, Valerie Jarrett, Barack Obama, and...a former business partner of Tony Rezko.  Wislow was an early supporter of Obama, and the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce Chairman, and he's a friend of Mayor Daley in Chicago.  It's safe to say he's a Democratic whale.  He's spread his money around over the years, including donations to Emmanuel and Obama early in their careers, but his two largest donations by far came in 2008.  One was to the Obama Victory Fund. The other, was to Democratic Federal Campaign Committee of St Louis City.  Both were for $10,000.    So what is he doing giving money to St Louis Democrats?

  The end-of-year report gives us the answer.  One month after the check arrives from Wislow, the committee writes a check for exactly $10,000 to one Brian Wahby, the President of the City Dems, and a super-connected Democratic mover and shaker.  Wahby is big enough to own the coveted title of superdelegate for the DNC, and he is the at-large member for the DNC from Missouri.

So what does the document say?  It says Wahby was paid $10,000 to reimburse him for "election night party expenses."  That's a problem, because the itemization isn't particularly specific.  What were those expenses for?  $10,000 is a lot of money, and even if it was a deposit, why is it only paid off after a check in the exact same amount comes in from Chicago?

 Wahby will have to explain this.  He will need, in his hot little hand, a receipt for exactly $10,000, or a set of bills that add up to $10,000, and proof that he paid it back in 2008.

The mystery gets deeper, and more tragic, because the treasurer for the City Dems was none other than current State Senator Joe Keaveny, who replaced disgraced Senator Jeff Smith for lying about a campaign finance expenditure.  Now it's slightly, and I do mean slightly possible that this can be written off as a clerical error, but only if Wahby can produce a bill and a bank or credit card statement to the FEC.  There was a party at the Chase Park Plaza (in the Khorassan ballroom no less), but did Wahby put down a deposit of his own funds?  Was it a fixed fee?  Was it billed post-party?  Were there taxes involved?  Why are there no other expenses associated with the party?  

Even if he can procure some kind of receipt and proof he paid with his own money, Wahby is faced with the difficulty of explaining just how a donation came in from Wislow for the exact amount three weeks after the event.  Can Chicago businessman simply pay off the debts of campaigns, or more important, can they funnel $10,000 to an individual to pay off expenses? No.  No they can't.

Wahby is known for moving money around.   This Jake Wagman article from the Post Dispatch shows Wahby nonchalantly admitting he used the Missouri version of the St Louis Dems committee to pass money to Mayor Slay to the tune of $13,000.  But that was a campaign donation from a committee to a candidate.  It's quite another thing to solicit a donation or work up a pre-approved billing that runs from Brian Wahby through the Democratic Federal Campaign Committee back to a Chicago commercial real estate tycoon with business interests in St Louis. 

Wahby is a real mover and shaker in St Louis politics.  He is also a source of controversy because he runs roughshod over his friends and his enemies.  Get the popcorn.  He's got some splainin to do.  

Metro Tax Campaign Using SEIU Phone Bank For Support

update: To voice your opposition, head on over to stoptheprop.com or follow on twitter.com/bettertransit.

One of the advantages of sustained research time is being able to connect the dots between different organizations as they push issues onto the Missouri taxpayers.

The latest in scams is the Metro tax, which is yet another attempt to shuffle money to consultants and construction companies at the price of a sensible transportation policy.

I'll let other people talk about the tax, but I want to draw your attention to the people that are pushing this tax.

Brian Wahby - the City Dems

Joe Keaveney - State Senator (tied at the hip to Wahby)

InsteadofWar - that's right - the radical peace activist coalition that for someone reason thinks Metro tax money will help stop fighting, or something.

Sierra Club

MOPIRG

Jobs With Justice

Basically, every troll, goblin, newt, shrike, and mushroom cap leftist is on board, which can only mean they are getting paid, and are mobilizing because they know there's taxpayer money for them.

We saw this in Jefferson County with the 911 Dispatch.  SEIU members and Missouri ProVote were all over their elections, and sought to get council members elected who could shift taxpayer funds back to the progressive groups for activist campaigns.

And so now Jobs with Justice is asking for volunteers for their phone bank to try to drive attention to the Metro tax (which was defeated in November when it was half as much).

One has to ask why groups like InsteadofWar are supporting a Metro tax initiative.  The ANSWER (pun slightly intended) is that these groups are getting money to push it.

The phone bank is run by SEIU MO/KS State Council, the political arm of SEIU.  No doubt that the usual assorted groups of leftwing losers are seeking to make a little scratch, and a reward for sucking up to the county is cash donations.  Sadly, much of the money trail is going to be hidden - we won't be able to tell who is giving money and who is taking it, but we can be assured that if there is a phone bank, ACORN, SEIU, Missouri ProVote, JobsWithJustice, and the like are getting paid to push the tax.  This is how the siphoned off funds in Jefferson County.  The same cast of characters is at it again, seeking to add hundreds of millions of dollars to the budgets of politicians.

February Supplemental Invoice

Who wants to bet the dialing lists will be the same ones used in the fall election for Dooley?

Proof 24thState Gets Results In Gladney Charges

I forgot I had this, but I want to show you a screenshot of my sitemeter from November.  I had just made a silly video about Patricia Redington's office failing to file charges, and in it I dropped more than a few inside baseball hints about what was happening and who could bring pressure on Redington should she continue to ignore Kenneth's attack.

A few days later, the KMOX story broke, asking why no charges had been filed - and on November 24th, the day before Thanksgiving - all six people arrested the night of Carnahan's townhall were charged.  It's always been my opinion that the KMOX story is what drove the timeline.  That and the fact that the counselor's office was hoping no one would pay attention before a 4 day holiday.  But after looking at the sitemeter, I'm pretty sure it was my brilliant animation.  Check out the stlouisco.com address.  Keep in mind that the time is after page clicks.  Anything over 0:00 means someone was flipping through the site.

Of course, now everyone and their brother is playing with xtranormal, but you folks need to remember who was the pioneer.  And yes, there was the document Dana put out, showing that Redington's office acted within two days when she had the chance to press ludicrous assault charges against a Republican candidate for Congress.  I guess that could have some impact - seeing as it showed people that Redington's office could move fast when told to.

That's the real scandal here.  It's not that Redington's office did anything illegal - it's that they never treated a political beating as being of any importance.  That's a very dangerous thing to do - when citizens think the legal system is set only to favor those in power, their reaction throughout history is to take care of themselves.

Luckily, cooler heads prevailed, and cooler temperatures prevailed.  We switched tactics to avoid these confrontations, but keep in mind that Patricia Redington treated the attack of a man no different than a slap.  The medical records of Gladney showing bruises and contusions on his body exist.  I hear from the RFT that D'Agrosa plans to plead not guilty take his clients to a jury trial. Extending the timeline helps the defendant's case.  When they finally get to trial, it will be over a year since the assault took place.

We have County Counselor Patricia Redington and County Prosecutor Bob McCulloch to thank for that.  If either of them had decided this was a serious case, they could have pushed the timeline forward. 

Both decided to let someone else handle it.  Both deserve to lose their jobs.  And both are going to have this incident remembered by the local Tea Party as long as they are in office.

St Louis Democrats Funded By Big Chicago Donor

Boy you can't make stuff up that is this much fun.

The CityDems decided to launch a Blunt attack site today.  The site is funded by the DEMOCRATIC FEDERAL CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE OF ST LOUIS CITY, which is the PAC of the Democratic City Central Committee.

 

The largest donor to the Democratic Federal Campaign Committee of St Louis City is one, ROBERT WISLOW, from Chicago, IL, who made his donation of $10,000 in November of 2008, after the election.  

Who is Robert Wislow?  Well, he's friends with Rahm Emanuel. They're connected through the After School Works program.  He's connected to Barack Obama - been a friend of his and a donor for at least a decade.  Why, he even served on the ill-fated Chicago 2016 Olympic committe.   And he's the former business partner of Antoin "Tony" Rezko.  In short - he's a mover and shaker in the Chicago political machine, and for some reason, he decides that the St Louis City Dems need $10,000 right after the election of Barack Obama.    

It's quite the donation to city politics.  Coming as it did after the election, one has to ask what it was for?  Who was getting paid?  What was the money used for?  And what could possibly lead a big Obama supporter connected to Chicago donor politics to give money to a sad little political organization in Missouri?  Was it someone's birthday?  Did a St Louis Young Dem marry a Wislow cousin?  Did Peter Glickert win an RFP for best fake racism charge?

Considering who they are - could the St Louis City Dems not get any money from St Louis?  Why do we have to go to Chicago to get partisan attack money?

Court Dates Moved In The Gladney Case

Tonight was supposed to be the preliminary hearing for the incidents outside Russ Carnahan Town Hall.  Six people were arrested, including at least two SEIU staff members who attacked Kenneth Gladney in front of witnesses.

It seems four of the six of them have lawyered up - resulting in the moving around of court dates.  Perry Molens and Elston McCowan are now going to plead guilty or not guilty on April 1st (It is quite the joke), while Cheryl Johnner has been moved to March 4th, and Javonne Spitz to March 25th.

I'm sitting on top of original video that could be passed to the county prosecutor, and I've called and left my number should he want it. It's rather strange that a counselor would count on YouTube videos and not original video that no one but those who shot it and myself have seen, but hey - I wouldn't have waited four months to press charges so what could I possibly know about swift application of the law?  I figure we'll wait to see what the prosecutor does, and what McCowan, Molens, Matthews, Johner, and Spitz say, and then release the video ourselves.  This has the added benefit that if we give video to the prosecutor, he has to share it with the defense.  If I hold onto it, they don't know what we have, and if witnesses for the defense lie, we'll be able to prove it.  I think 18 minutes of footage and over 100 photographs from the event ought to be enough to determine who was there and what they said. Don't you?

The reason this is going slow is two-fold.  If McCowan and Molens can get a plea deal, the distance from the event might mitigate outrage from the local community.  Fat chance of that.  If they go to trial, witness memory will be over a year old, and the high-powered defense attorney Paul D'Agrosa will be able to plant doubt in the minds of the jury, if there is one.

Of course - dragging this out has other risks. Mainly, Charlie Dooley is running for re-election, and if Bill Corrigan runs on an anti-corruption platform, Dooley is going to eventually have to answer questions as to why Pat Redington has treated the attack on Kenneth Gladney with so little regard.  The Post Dispatch may not ask those questions, but I'm pretty sure we can arrange for dozens of people to follow Dooley around to every campaign event this season with pictures of Kenneth Gladney.  The longer this goes on, the worse it gets - especially as St Louis County now has two Gladney issues to deal with - the wrongful termination of one brother and the beating of another.   

While SEIU might have managed to flex its local power and delay the trial, pushing the date out hasn't saved healthcare (thank you Massachusetts), and now they face the very real possibility of a Republican County Executive candidate looking into whether political appointees working for Charlie Dooley have acted in illegal and inappropriate manners.

As always - the best bet is to come clean.  Sadly, most of the people involved still don't understand that covering up a crime is just as bad in the public eye as committing one.

And hanging over all of this is St Louis County Attorney Bob McCulloch, who threw County Counselor Pat Redington under the bus last fall.  McCulloch always had the authority to investigage this case, but he deferred to Redington.  What Bob doesn't know, is that Redington returned the favor - making the claim that more serious charges would have to be the decision of Bob McCulloch.  Which one is lying?

From The Arch To Massachusetts

I don't even remember where I heard about the first St Louis Tea Party.  I knew of Dana, but didn't know much about her politics.  I'd never heard of some guy named Hennessy.  All I knew was the stimulus bill was a huge payoff, unnecessary, and it represented the wrong way in American politics.

So I heard about the Tea Party and headed on down to Arch.  I was alone at the time - while I had work to do - going down was something I figured I needed to do - so I took my phone, tweeted some pictures, and stood in the cold.  I counted the crowd, and said there were 1500 people there.  My method is published in the post.  I shook hands with Ed Martin and Shamed Dogan, met a couple of videographers, and then went home and published.  

We of course didn't know what it meant at the time, but the people who showed at that event, and the subsequent rallies at Kiener, Washington, the healthcare townhalls, D.C., and Quincy would have an enormous effect on the country's direction. Obama's ratings recorded the biggest drop for any president in their first year.  The Democratic legislature was stymied in its attempt to pass healthcare by the August recess, and now, six months later, finds itself scrambling and maybe about to lose the 41st Senate seat (in frakking Massachusetts of all places).  The media is in complete meltdown mode, pants down and mask off as an irresponsible and unreliable purveyor of spin. 

Whatever happens today and tomorrow, and in the next year, I just wanted to say thank you to all of the folks who organized, attended, and supported the authentic Tea Party events in Missouri and across the nation.

On each day, you stood up and boldy proclaimed that you were free citizens, not cowed subjects. You reminded the Beltway crowd that elections are just part of a representative democracy, and in this country, men and women are free to assemble and petition the government for a redress of their grievances.

I'm going to predict that 2010 is the year the Carnahan name is finally removed from the Missouri body politic, and I believe Ike Skelton has seen the end of his legislative days as well.  I think it will be a very good year for Republicans nationally, but it won't count for anything if we elect a bunch of big state Republicans that are fine with a massive government as long as they are in charge.

We face a very rocky decade.  We need men and women of principle who will make the tough choices to make us solvent and break the dependency of corporate and private welfare.  We need legislators who serve because it is their duty, and not their meal ticket.  We need health care reform that addresses the real problems, and not a single payer in sheep clothing union and donor payoff bill written in secret and passed with bribes. And most of all, we need people who are willing to call out corruption in government at all levels, no matter the party, and no matter the risk to their career.  Breaking the Democratic party is not the point if we replace it with a Republican party that gives our money to a different set of thieves.

If 2009 was the year of the Republican resurgence, then 2011 needs to be the rebirth of the Democratic Party as the party of fiscally responsible liberals who hold Republicans to the promises of country first.  We need two strong parties who respect our laws and institutions.  But in the end, we the people need to recognize that no political party is made of angels.

It is our duty to watch them, and to hold them to account.  We have slumbered enough.  The centre can hold, as long as patriots like those who stood shoulder to shoulder with me in the cold last February are willing to serve as the guardians of the Republic and our constitution.  Thank you for having me in your ranks.  Let's watch what happens tonight, and no matter the outcome, let's get ready to go to work tomorrow.

Gladney News

It's been a truly magnificent day for the Gladney family.

The court cases for the six people arrested outside the Russ Carnahan townhall is scheduled for January 21, 2010.  The county counselor will have originally sourced video and photographs that are not in the public domain to assist in those prosecutions.  While the actual case will probably be moved many months into the future, the charges themselves won't be hidden from the public any longer. 

One of the Gladney brothers has received and accepted a job offer, and the other is very close to being employed as well.  Thank you to all of those who helped and who provided leads, encouragement, and prayers.

One-half of the needed Documents from the county have been identified and procured.  These represent a key piece of evidence in the firing of Keith Gladney.  The final piece has been identified.  It exists, and cannot be erased.  That should be authorized within the week. The person in charge of releasing that information will have no choice but to release it.

While we're still disappointed that Bob McCulloch never took up the Gladney case as felony assault, we're confident the evidence  presented will be more than enough to secure justice for the Gladney brothers.

It's been a good week - a welcome ending to what three weeks ago seemed a crippling blow to an innocent family.