Domesticating the Tea Party (UPDATED)

The grassroots continue to bloom with "Vote No on Prop A" signs as the signs of the Tea Party movement move to the curbside in St Louis county. Please email photos of your sign to me: dsm012-at-gmail-d0t-com.

Nick, a high school student who will be voting in his first election on April 6th, leads the way on Prop A.

Citizens concerned about higher taxes, like Nick in the video above, have ramped up their efforts to stop the metro tax increase. Their message: Vote No on Prop A. This ballot issue goes to a vote on Tuesday, April 6th. An off year, Spring vote usually sees very low turnout; however, the Tea Party activism of the last year has raised awareness of local issues and may make a difference on Tuesday. Yes, next Tuesday.

Bringing the Tea Party "Brand" to the Front Lawn

The effort to stop the sales tax increase has energized conservatives; however, the lack of funding for the Stop the Prop effort has required tax conscious county residents to innovate. No money means no yard signs. As illustrated above, some county residents are bringing the flavor of Tea Party-style signs home to their front yard.

Several members of the St Louis area As A Mom have pitched in. One of them created a flyer. Go get it, print several copies, cut the sheets in half (there are two copies of the flyer per page), and hand them out. A phone tree is in the works. You can help the effort simply by calling friends and relatives in St Louis county and asking them to vote no on Prop A on April 6th.

There's also an effort underway to get more homemade yard signs like the one above. As details about that effort are hammered out, I'll post more here. If you have any sign ideas, please leave them in the comments!

Stop Prop A

SpikeStL shot the video above at this past Saturday's StopTheProp rally. The StopTheProp team is working to prevent a half cent sales tax increase in St Louis and, indirectly, a quarter cent increase in the city. The sales tax created by Prop A would go to increase the sunk costs of St Louis's lightrail system. The St Louis Tea Party's Jon Burns was there to rally the crowd as was Bill Hennessy. Hennessy had this recent post about the man behind the "Vote No on Prop A" effort:

Today’s St. Louis Post-Dispatch delivers a magnificent portrait of John Burns, the taxpayer’s champion. Buy two copies of the paper: one to read, one to give away. In Ken Leiser’s story, you’ll learn about a man of character—something severely lacking in our society—who’s championed the fight against an irresponsible tax hike for an unaccountable agency.

I’ll leave the rest of the story to the able keystrokes of Mr. Leiser. But I must finish with this: if there’s some way to buy stock in John Burns, do it. When you combine intelligence, integrity, and tirelessness in one man, you have the stuff stars are made of.

Here's a portrait I shot of Burns at the gulag protest last fall:

Protesting Russ Carnahan

The St Louis Tea Party organized last minute rallies outside of Russ Carnahan's (D-MO) office on Manchester as well as his home in south St Louis city. There's video at both of those links.

US Senate Candidate Forum

Numerous patriot groups around Missouri worked sponsored a forum of the candidates running for the US Senate in Missouri. Video to follow later this week. Michelle at www.ATraditionalLifeLived.com live streamed the event.

Patriot Leadership Meeting

Americans for Prosperity sponsored a Patriot Leadership Meeting in Jefferson City, MO. About twenty-five people attended the meeting which focussed on grassroots organization and networking across Missouri. There were several conservative bloggers there, including (email me if I missed anyone!):

• Americans for Prosperity
• A Traditional Life Lived
• Andrea's Blog
• Breaking out of the American Box
• Franklin County Patriots
• I Heard the People Say

Operation Dem Rescue

The non-partisan St. Louis Tea Party promises to support democrats who vote NO on health control: "Yesterday the St. Louis Tea Party launched Operation Dem Rescue, an initiative to give support to Democrats who are standing against President Obama and his health control government grab. The President has said that he will not campaign for, or otherwise help, Democrats who refuse to vote “yes” on the health control bill."

Concerns over the Environment Fall Across the Board

Gallup reports that concerns about many environmental issues are at a 20-year-low: "Americans are less worried about each of eight specific environmental problems than they were a year ago, and on all but global warming and maintenance of the nation's fresh water supply, concern is the lowest Gallup has measured."

Demon Pass

Deem And Pass! Deem’n Pass!! Demon Pass!!!: "If the Constitution is a living, breathing document, as liberals like to say, then why are they trying to smother it?" And, is the Demon Pass the Satanic equivalent of a Hail Mary? Probably not since I expect the Democrats to pay a heavy price at the ballot box if this goes through.

Congratulations to Erick Erickson and CNN

Erick Erickson of RedState has been tapped for a position at CNN:

Prominent conservative commentator and RedState.com editor Erick Erickson will join CNN as a political contributor, it was announced today by Sam Feist, CNN political director and vice president of Washington-based programming. Erickson will appear weeknights on John King, USA, which launches Monday, March 22, as well as provide perspective and commentary to other programs across the network.

I'm glad to see CNN expand their political coverage to include a contributor trusted by the right. Best wishes to them an Erickson!

John Thune (R-SD) joins Ed Martin (R) at McArthur's Bakery

Sen John Thune (R-SD) joined Ed Martin and David McArthur at McArthur's Bakery in south St Louis county on Monday. The Senator was in town to help promote Martin's campaign against Congressman Russ Carnahan (D-MO) in Missouri's Third Congressional District.

Monday's Metro Tax Debate in Clayton

About a hundred people attended a debate in Clayton moderate by Joan Berkman about the proposed half-cent Metro sales tax (Prop A). The debate was sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce and pitted Prop A supporter John Nations (www.AdvanceStLouis.com) against Prop A opponent John Burns (www.StopTheProp.com). (Full disclosure: I am an unpaid volunteer with the StopTheProp.com effort.)

The Healthcare War

I just downloaded the healthcare reconciliation bill. All 2,309 pages come in a convenient PDF file name: 03.15.2010_reconciliation2010.pdf. I chuckled at the Ides of March adorning that bill—a day in ancient times dedicated to the god of war, Mars.

Sir Robin Carnahan

On Wednesday, Glenn Reynolds gave a couple nods to the St Louis Tea Party Juggernaut. He linked to Washington Times piece about Missouri Democrats that avoided the Obama visit:

Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan, the all-but-certain Democratic nominee for the Senate seat being vacated by Republican Sen. Christopher S. "Kit" Bond, was "already locked in" to meetings in Washington, D.C., on Wall Street financial reforms, said her spokesman, Linden Zakula, who downplayed her absence for Mr. Obama's visit to St. Charles, just outside St. Louis.

There were other Democrat politicians and siblings of Robin Carnahan who skipped the Presidential visit, but the irony here is that Missouri's Secretary of State has accused GOP Senate hopeful, Roy Blunt, of spending too much time in DC. The President comes to Missouri and she jets off to that swamp on the Potomac. He's a political pariah and she knows it. I think Monty Python wrote a song about Sir Robin Carnahan...

On Saturday, 3/20, in Jefferson City, there will be a US Senate candidate forum that includes eight of the nine GOP candidates—Roy Blunt is a maybe—and one of the two Democrat candidates. Sir Robin Carnahan has declined the invitation.

If you are a traveling minstrel who'd like to make a few bucks, on March 20th go to the Truman Hotel between 2PM and 6:30PM. And here's your song sheet [with only a few minor edits]:

Brave Sir Robin ran away.
Bravely ran away, away!
When danger reared its ugly head,
[She] bravely turned [her] tail and fled.
Yes, brave Sir Robin turned about
And gallantly [she] chickened out.
Bravely taking to [her] feet
[She] beat a very brave retreat,
Bravest of the brave, Sir Robin!


[She] is packing it in and packing it up
And sneaking away and buggering up
And chickening out and pissing off home,
Yes, bravely [she] is throwing in the sponge...

Once More Into the Breach

The usual suspects all have coverage of the evening event. Pictures above from Keyboard Militia. Sharp's got pictures and video of the Patriots Protest. POedPatriot has several posts:

• 2,500 People Greet the President in Protest in Down Town St. Louis
• Pictures of the Tea Party Protest in St. Louis 3/10/10
• Liberal Attempts to Start Trouble at Tea Party

Dana was there. And the GatewayPundit reports that the opposition was driven off. I'm sure more video will be coming out today.

God Bless America from the Todd Akin Rally

Akin and Obama Photos (St Charles, MO)

More to follow when I get a chance... My posts to twitpic didn't go through this morning. I didn't realize that until I got home. You'll see some additional pictures there now.

Silence Broken

Life got a little busy last Friday, so I haven't posted anything. Sorry about that...

Wednesday's the big day. President Obama will be in town. There's a morning rally hosted by Todd Akin (R-MO). The President will speak at St Charles High School. And Claire McCaskill will host the President at a fundraiser. The St Louis Tea Party will be covering these events. GatewayPundit will have a lot of coverage. Dana's now on air from 2-4 CST, so you can listen to her or check DanaRadio.

My live coverage will be limited to tweeting. I should have some photos from the morning rally posted by noon on TwitPic.

A Million Two Discouraged Workers

Unemployment
Probably the greatest labor saving device in the history of the nation
Is the present Administration.
— Ogden Nash

The key quote from the BLS underscores the President's strategy of reducing the unemployment rate by discouraging workers:

Among the marginally attached, there were 1.2 million discouraged workers in February, up by 473,000 from a year earlier. (The data are not seasonally adjusted.) Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them. The remaining 1.3 million persons marginally attached to the labor force had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey for reasons such as school attendance or family responsibilities.

There was no mention of the number of "green jobs" created, saved, or discouraged in the report.

FOIA, Green Jobs, and Climategate

Readers of this blog know that I expect the Climategate scandal to damage the re-election campaigns of anyone that's put too much political stock in environmental issues. Russ Carnahan (D-MO) has significant support from the green jobs lobby and he put $90 million tax dollars into his brother's windfarm. Now comes news that George Soros and other Washington lobbyists will try to paper over problems with wind energy: "After two studies refuted President Barack Obama’s assertions regarding the success of Spain’s and Denmark’s wind energy programs, a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request reveals the Department of Energy turned to George Soros and to wind industry lobbyists to attack the studies."

The FOIA generated sunlight has only just begun to illuminate green job corruption. I'm sure someone has already compiled a list of email addresses from Climategate, looked for addresses ending in .gov, and formulated a few FOIA requests of their own. The results, if any, of those requests will continue to break over the coming months.

Dan Riehl's Declaration

The Instapundit said he's never seen Dan Riehl this angry; however, Dan's conclusion is relatively tame: "Reconciliation for this disaster of a destructive health care bill I doubt anyone on the Hill can fully define means all out war. The only question remaining is, whose side are you on?" Read the whole thing.

Bob Corker Sellout

BigGovernment reported The Bob Corker (R-TN) Bailout Sellout [emphasis added]:

Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) has snatched defeat from the jaws of victory with his complete capitulation and total surrender on the Financial Services bill. The bill, passed by the House with a $4 trillion bailout provision, making bailouts the permanent policy of the United States government, was on it’s last legs until Corker came to the rescue. Now the Washington Post and other are reporting that Corker and ethically-challenged, retiring Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) are on the verge of a deal to breathe life back into the regulatory and bailout scheme.

It looks like some Republicans still haven't learned that "too big to fail" is exactly two words too long. We need to build a country where every business is a small business, where the creative destruction of the market place is a tolerable difficulty that spawns new innovation, and where the politically powerful can no longer aggregate the public's money in the coffers of their future campaign contributors.

Update: Now ABC is reporting that George Soros is endorsing a new "consumer" protection agency:

"We need a consumer protection agency, and we need it very urgently because there is political outcry about the injustice of the current situation," [George] Soros said at a Roosevelt Institute conference in New York.

Senate Banking Committee Christopher Dodd has been trying to bridge a gap with Republicans, who oppose an independent consumer protection agency, and discussed with Republican Senator Bob Corker the possibility of making the agency a division of the Federal Reserve.

"The bureaucracy is expanding to support the expanding bureaucracy," as someone once said. Let's review the agencies charged with oversight of our financial institutions:

1. Congress (House and Senate)
2. US Treasury
3. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)
4. Federal Reserve ("The Fed")
5. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC)
6. Security and Exchange Commission (SEC)
7. Bureau of the Public Debt (I bet they're busy these days!)
8. Community Development Financial Institution Fund (CDFI)
9. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN)
10. Federal Inspectors General
11. Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS)
12. National Credit Union Administration (NCUA)
13. Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
14. Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity (FHEO)
15. Federal Housing Administration (FHA)
16. Fannie Mae
17. Freddie Mac
18. Ginnie Mae

These bureaucracies exist to absorb blame from the political class—#1 on the list above. A "consumer protection agency" would be no different. To better understand this general problem, read the Practical Rule of Bureaucracies.

White House Stifles Dissent

Saw this on Instapundit: "DAVID ALL: Visualize data to win political debates." I watched the video at the link and tried to post a video response. As the image above indicates, the White House does not appreciate video feedback. The point of my response is that the Obama "recovery" depends on jobs created, saved and discouraged. Here it is:

Open Source: the New Thought Crime

From the UK's Guardian: When using open source makes you an enemy of the state:

[Andres] Guadamuz has done some digging and discovered that an influential lobby group is asking the US government to basically consider open source as the equivalent of piracy - or even worse.
...
...it seems astonishing to me that anyone should imply that simply recommending open source products - products that can be more easily tailored without infringing licensing rules - "undermines" anything.

I'm astonished as well. I'd like to see governments put more emphasis on developing and using open source software.

Gateway to Liberty

One of the things I've enjoyed watching over the past year is the forging of new leaders. In early February, Kelly Owens stepped up to lead a new non-partisan group committed to keeping an eye on St Louis city politics. That group, Gateway to Liberty, held its first meeting in early February. The video report above captures some of the highlights from that meeting.

If you are a city resident and would like to be more active in city politics, please attend the next meeting of Gateway to Liberty this coming Saturday (3/6/10) from 9:30AM to noon at the Kingshighway branch of the St Louis City Library. That's at the intersection of Kingshighway and Vandeventer.