Via William Jacobson, Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) has opted to forgo the porked up Omnibus Spending bill in favor of a much more slimmed down continuing resolution.  The new measure would likely only fund the government for a few months allowing Republicans to control the overall shape of the remainder of the fiscal year ending Sept 30th.

Senator Reid’s published version of what happened is that he lost the support of Republicans who had previously announced that they would support the bill. If that is true, then this surely is a big win for conservative activists who put a lot of pressure on Republicans to oppose the massive increase in spending represented by this bill. Republicans now have the opportunity to really push for some sanity when it comes the size and scope of the government.

Robin Carnahan is clearly afraid of talking to radio hosts who will be less than coddling of her campaign. She has been avoiding going on one radio show in particular. KMOX host Mark Reardon has been trying to get the Senate Candidate onto his show for many months now.

After a while, when reasoned attempts at scheduling an interview fail, what else is one to do? Of course, you start mocking the candidate.

For those without video, this is from before the big Mizzou-OU game Saturday where the Tigers knocked off the #1 Sooners. Reardon and a crew showed up with signs mocking Carnahan for avoiding his show.

You would think that Carnahan would want to make sure that she is doing everything to make her voice heard in the final few days of this election push. Especially when KMOX is the biggest radio station in the state with a heavy listenership in the St. Louis metro area – an area that the Carnahan campaign must feel is essential if they even have a chance at overtaking Roy Blunt.

Given all of that, it does beg an important question:

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The writing is on the wall for Missouri Democrats. Their chances of winning the Senate seat currently held by Republican Kit Bond certainly qualify for the “slim to none” category. This was recognized by national Democrats with the recent decision to cancel much of their reserved air space for advertising.

A few weeks ago, Bill S had a great piece about Carnahan running an outdated “2006″ campaign.

Now, this week, Columbia Missourian editorialist George Kennedy heaps some damning praise on the Carnahan campaign:

With less than two weeks left before the election, my nomination for Worst Campaign by a Missouri Democrat goes to Robin Carnahan. Blessed with an honored political heritage and a vulnerable opponent, Ms. Carnahan has so far taken the low road and stuck to it. Her attacks on Congressman Roy Blunt have been mainly well founded, but I defy you to tell me much that she’s for, as opposed to who she’s against.

It seems the low road suits the Carnahan family all too well. See Erick’s piece from earlier today on how big brother Russ is trying to run on similar campaign.

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Far be it from me to not give credit where it is due. Unlike what I detailed last night in the inaugural edition of the Choice and Competition Death Watch, it should be pointed out that the new federal health care legislation did actually create a new choice in many states. A key piece of the legislation was the creation of a new set of high risk pools that would be administered by the states. Skipping the myriad of problems with administering and funding an initiative like this, it is granted that the health care legislation did create one new choice for many Americans. [Those keeping score at home will note that this is a net loss of three since I began tracking with the Choice and Competition Death Watch.]

The big problem is that almost nobody wants this choice.

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On the campaign trail and all through the first year of his administration, President Obama touted the benefits of his health care plan. One of the often repeated phrases that his legislation sought to increase choice and competition in the health market. Across the right it was widely predicted that the kind of legislation that the President was seeking would provide for just the opposite effect. We would in fact see a decrease in choice and competition.

We were right.

One doesn’t have to look much farther than a few key events of the past two weeks to see that the President’s pet legislation is having disastrous effects in the health care market.

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You can really tell that Russ Carnahan desperately wants to be seen as a smart man. Why else would he speak so forcefully about a topic without knowing much about it. That’s exactly what he did in his debate against Ed Martin.

Carnahan attempted to gain some political points against Martin by railing against Social Security privatization, tying his wisdom to the drop in the stock market during this recession. While doing so, Carnahan – apparently with a straight face – tried to claim that Social Security is “stable”. Yikes.

The crowd, as you can see in the video below, gave the Congressman a nice round of chuckles.

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On Tuesday, Missouri voters went to the polls. Among other things, the voters decided on Proposition C, a statute exempting Missouri from the individual mandate from Obamacare. By an overwhelming percentage, voters rejected Obamacare and passed Prop C (71.1 to 28.9). This ardent rejection of the individual mandate puts Missouri voters on par with then-Candidate Obama who, during the 2008 primary, attacked Sen Hillary Clinton’s health care plan because it contained an individual mandate.

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It’s the bad idea that just won’t die: the public option.

Progressives have been pushing a government run “option” to private health insurance as some sort of panacea over the last few years. Their vision is that a government that has shown itself to be second to none in cost over-runs and bloat will somehow magically be able to operate more effectively and efficiently than private sector insurance. Their claims are that this will finally bring choice and competition to the insurance market.

Hogwash.

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You can tell when someone has become so used to being a politician that they repeatedly let their mouth write checks that they know will bounce. Recently, local blogger dsm at Reboot Congress attended a Russ Carnahan (D-MO) town hall. Carnahan had a few “promises” that he wanted to make. His chief promise: His door will always be open. dsm decided to take him up on that promise.

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The opening statements of the trial of former Governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich (D-in case you forgot) started today.  In a sign that this truly will be one of the great spectator sports, Blagojevich’s attorneys have mounted an interesting defense of their client.

Blagojevich’s attorney, Sam Adam, argues in a motion filed this morning that the federal wiretaps that form the bulk of the government’s evidence are tapes of a politician engaged in political speech—and therefore untouchable under the First Amendment. “In this case, the defendant was engaged in political speech and expression,’’ argues the motion. “The government alleges that the political process in which he was engaged is criminal. This is a violation of the defendant’s rights of freedom of speech and expression afforded him under the United States Constitution.’’

Well, I guess by this logic every criminal act committed by a politician is covered.

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The state of Pennsylvania has a new commercial out for those who haven’t paid their taxes yet.  Just tell me this doesn’t creep you out a little.

Now, I don’t doubt for a minute that “Tom” is a fictitious person.  However, if he were not, the state of Pennsylvania just used tactics that debt collectors have been barred from using for over 30 years now via the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act of 1978(pdf) .  They publicly advertised his debt, revealed personal information to a third party and made some very thinly veiled threats.

Not only are these practices illegal, the industry has an association set up that helps advise agencies how to stay current in a changing world of compliance.  So, congratulations Pennsylvania.  You just stooped to tactics that even the bill collector frowns upon.

The first part of the title to this post is a very common phrase amongst conservative circles. In it’s simplest form, the phrase means that as long as we can improve the general economy we will improve the lot of everyone actively involved in the economy. Generally, this statement is true. A growing economy grows total compensation for workers at all levels. The phrase is incomplete though. You can’t artificially raise the tide. You’ll drown a lot of boats.

The Obama Administration is set to do just that. From Friday’s New York Times:

The Obama administration is planning to use the government’s enormous buying power to prod private companies to improve wages and benefits for millions of workers, according to White House officials and several interest groups briefed on the plan.

By altering how it awards $500 billion in contracts each year, the government would disqualify more companies with labor, environmental or other violations and give an edge to companies that offer better levels of pay, health coverage, pensions and other benefits, the officials said.

Because nearly one in four workers is employed by companies that have contracts with the federal government, administration officials see the plan as a way to shape social policy and lift more families into the middle class.

On it’s face, this sounds like a good move. Use your large bargaining power to raise wages for those jobs that fall under federal contracts. The problem is, you have to think about more than just the immediate consequences of your actions when you set economic policy.

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Jim Durbin, editor of 24thstate.com, has been all over a case involving ACORN, Project Vote and the National Voters Rights Act (NVRA).  You see, it seems that the Secretary of State’s office coordinated with Project Vote (one of ACORN’s many names) on a law suit against the state of Missouri that cost tax payers hundreds of thousands of dollars.  As part of Jim’s investigation, he filed a Sunshine request with the Secretary of State’s office seeking information into the number of people registered to vote through the Department of Social Services.  He’s trying to confirm the data that Project Vote has published in their own case study (PDF).  After several weeks with no response, Jim received this:

Does not have any documents?  Like Jim, I wonder how does this happen.  The Secretary of State’s office is responsible for all voter registrations.  The Department of Social Services had to turn over all of their registrations to the SOS.  These documents aren’t even two years old at this point.  Now, someone else can get into the legalities behind the SOS office not having the documents to prove that the state is in compliance with a law that it just lost a lawsuit over. I can only think of two possible reasons for the SOS office to not turn the documents over:

1. Incompetence: A highly likely outcome. {Just think about the actions of the SOS’s brother, Congressman Russ Carnahan).

2. They have something to hide.  What they are trying to hide, I can’t exactly be sure.  It certainly wouldn’t be the overly cozy relationship that Carnahan shares with ACORN.  That’s not exactly a secret.

I’d say that Jim needs some help finding out.  So, here is the contact information for the Missouri Secretary of State’s office:

Office of the Secretary of State
State Capitol, Room 208 or State Information Center, 600 W Main
Jefferson City, MO 65101

(573) 751-4936 [ SOS Information ]
SOSmain@sos.mo.gov

If you continue to get stonewalled, just like Jim, maybe we might want to look at filing a complaint with the State Attorney General (PDF).

Local blogger Adam Sharp, the man behind Sharp Elbows STL, attended a recent HCAN rally. Adam has a pretty good history of getting some quality footage at these events (check out his archives). This rally was no different.

Adam arrived on the scene expecting to find his normal HCAN craziness. What he got was even better. Local “reporter” Charles Jaco (of KTVI Fox 2 and KTRS 550 AM) was in attendance. Some of you may remember Jaco from his stellar (:snicker:) reporting on the Gulf War:

Well, Jaco has continued his quality work. For the past year, he has been insulting anyone who attends a Tea Party protest with the sexual term “teabagger”.  Jaco has had it pointed out to him multiple times that he is slurring people by using that term.  Has that stopped him? No.  Have complaints to his employers worked? No.

Adam decided that this was his chance to confront Jaco about the term.  Apparently Jaco doesn’t like being questioned:

I’m really not sure how Jaco thinks he can get away with lying about knowing the meaning of the term he uses. Any journalist worth his weight would have researched the meaning of a word before using it.

Stay classy Jaco.

Update: There is now even a Cause on Facebook: Dump Charles Jaco! They’ve provided some contact information for Jaco’s two employers:

FOX 2 KTVI
2250 Ball Drive
Saint Louis, MO 63146
Main Station Phone: 314-213-2222
Assignment Desk Phone: 314-213-7831
Newsroom E-mail: ktvinews@tvstl.com

KTRS-Am 550
638 Westport Plz
Saint Louis, MO 63146-3106
Fred Zielonko
Station Manager
+1.314.453.5500
fredz@ktrs.com

By now, everyone is aware of the lucrative payoff that Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson (D) received to vote for the Senate health care bill.  Despite mounting evidence to the contrary, Nelson insisted that every state would get the kickback and he would make sure that happened (as Brian Faughnan reported a few weeks ago).  Needless to say, Nelson’s kickback, when expanded to all 50 states would become very expensive.

Thanks to Paul Ryan (R-WI), we don’t have to wonder how expensive it will be.  He asked the CBO to estimate the costs of this expansion.  The following document is the response Rep. Ryan received.

CBO Analysis Nebraska Deal .

As you can see, this expansion of the program to all 50 states would result in an increase of the cost of the bill of $35.3 billion.  {This would wipe out a healthy chunk of the CBO estimated budget deficit reduction of $130 billion.}

As Philip Klein points out in The American Spectator, the cost of the bill is yet again hidden by creative accounting.  Much like with the rest of the bill (which has 7 years of benefits spread over 10 years of taxes) the expanded Cornhusker kickback only represents three years of cost increases spread over 10 years.  This means that the true cost of the kickback won’t really be felt until the second 10 year period.

If Nelson is correct, and every state has access to this kickback, then the good Senator can rightly be accused of selling his soul for the fiscal ruin of his country.

h/t to John Goodman for the letter.

Cross-posted at my personal blog.

Oh what a tangled web we weave,
When first we practise to deceive.
~ Sir Walter Scott

SEIU thug Elston McCowan just can’t seem to keep his story straight.

As 24thstate.com’s Jim Durbin points out, Reverend Elston McCowan is having some consistency issues with his version of the events on the night of Congressman Carnahan’s health care town hall.  His original story of that night’s events come from a St. Louis Post-Dispatch article published on August 8th.

But Elston McCowan, an SEIU staffer, said Gladney was actually an instigator. McCowan accused Gladney of attacking him as he walked to his car. McCowan said he suffered a dislocated shoulder.

“Out of nowhere, the guy just assaults me,” said McCowan, 47, of St. Louis.

McCowan’s quote makes it clear that he was jumped by Kenneth Gladney.  This wording makes it clear that there was absolutely no interaction between the two before the altercation.  If only McCowan would have stuck to this story.

After much backlash (and probably a lot of coaching from the SEIU), McCowan is changing his story.  His new version of events appears in, wait for it, Links: The International Journal of Socialist Renewal.

Walking outside, McCowan saw Gladney selling buttons of Obama in blackface and Obama smoking weed. Feeling insulted, McCowan asked why a black man would be hawking material denigrating the first black president as he pointed to one of the buttons.

“When I pointed at the button, Gladney slapped my hand. So I told him not to hit me and pointed at it again and repeated my question. He smacked my hand even harder, hit me several times and pushed me down. As I went down, I grabbed him by reflex to break my fall. I hit my shoulder and something popped. I lost consciousness for a moment but soon realised that Gladney continued to hit me.

“Another SEIU guy, Perry Molens, came over and told Gladney, ‘He’s a minister and won’t fight back. He can’t see out of one eye. Stop hitting him!’. When Gladney kept on, Perry tried to get him off of me and threw a punch in the process.

“I don’t know why Gladney had an attorney on hand, but his attorney came over yelling ‘You two attacked him!’. Gladney went off to find cops and told them to arrest us. The cops wouldn’t listen to us and did what the Tea Party people told them to do. They arrested me, Perry, a newspaper reporter and three supporters of healthcare reform.”

This is a decidedly different story.  No longer is McCowan claiming that Gladney attacked him out of nowhere.  He now says that the dispute was over buttons of Obama in blackface and smoking pot.  It is a seemingly small change in the story, but if McCowan is willing to lie about how this we know he is certainly willing to lie about who the instigator was.

Here’s the other problem: No one can prove that these buttons exist.  Here are the six buttons that Gladney attorney David Brown says Gladney was selling (via same 24thstate.com posting)

Not one of those even has Obama pictured in it.

Jim put out a challenge: Find a picture of the buttons that McCowan was supposedly questioning.  A blogger by the name of Adam at St. Louis Activist Blog claimed to find the conclusive evidence.  He’s got a screen cap of a button with Obama in it that was on the board of another one of the button sellers (apparently another black conservative who was selling buttons for Gladney attorney David Brown The owner of this board is David Brown himself.  He runs a business on the side selling merchandise at political events.  He sold some of his buttons to Gladney.).

This is Adam’s conclusive evidence that a button of Obama smoking weed existed.  The problem is that the picture shows nothing of the sort.  In fact, I’m betting that most people here on RedState have probably seen the source image for this button several times.

Now, I will grant that I am one of the biggest squares around.  Even I can tell that this is not a picture of Barack Obama smoking pot.  It’s just your average, every day cancer stick (AKA tobacco cigarette).  I guess I could give a certain amount of leeway given the replacing of the word HOPE with DOPE why one would make this mistake considering that you really can’t see the difference on a low-resolution image taken from a YouTube video.  You would think that someone would make sure their evidence was air tight before going to print with it. {Oh, and Andy.  I’ve got a screen cap of your post.  Don’t try to send it down the memory hole.}

While it is true that Andy has shown that more than six buttons were for sale, there is still no evidence to support McCowan’s assertion.  He has already told two different versions of what happened that night.  How many more does he have to tell before he finally admits the truth?

Then again, McCowan isn’t the only one lying from that night.

Note: Corrected information comes from a follow-up post by Jim on 24thstate.com.

Cross-posted at my personal blog.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch wrote a very dishonest op-ed ["Defending the Indefensible"] attacking what they call “opponents of health reform”.  Here is my response that I left for them on their web site:

This is Elston McCowan.

Elston K. McCowan is a former organizer – now the Public Service Director of SEIU Local 2000 – and board member of the Walbridge Community Education Center, and is a Baptist minister, has been a community organizer for more than 23 years, and now, he is running for Mayor of the City of St. Louis under the banner of the Green Party of St. Louis.

[ed: This was from before the election.  McCowan is now a former nominee of the Green Party.]

All of that sounds wonderful, doesn’t it?  Well, except for the position with the SEIU and the whole Green Party thing (think Cynthia McKinney).

The problem with McCowan is that he is something more.  McCowan is a thug.

You’ve actually seen McCowan before.  He was in a video that has been played on just about every blog on the right, mentioned on countless radio programs and has even seen play on cable news.  The video sparked the protest that I attended on Saturday outside of the SEIU office here in St. Louis.  See if you recognize him now.

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Those were the words of Kenneth Gladney.  These words however were spoken by his lawyer since Gladney was under heavy medication as a result of the beating he took at the hands of SEIU thugs.

If you can’t see the video it is of a speech by St. Louis Tea Party’s Bill Hennessey and the attorney for Kenneth Gladney.

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