Obama's Green Jobs Czar Describes Himself as a Communist

Communist Green Jobs Czar’s Group Takes Aim at TV’s Glenn Beck

AUGUST 12TH, 2009 BY MATTHEW VADUM

The particularly unsavory left-wing pressure group Color of Change has an axe to grind with Glenn Beck — and it’s personal.

The extremist racial grievance group isn’t happy that Beck did several news packages on Van Jones, President Obama’s controversial green jobs czar who describes himself as a communist. (Green really is the new red.)

Jones is a founding board member of Color of Change, but Color of Change doesn’t want you to know that. Maybe having an avowed America-hating radical on the group’s board is bad public relations.

The group deleted references to Jones on its “about” page. That page used to say, “James Rucker and Van Jones came together in the wake of [Hurricane] Katrina to use the organizing power of the Internet to give Black Americans and our allies a renewed and strengthened political voice.”

But now it doesn’t.

The old page still exists in the Google cache. (The cache will eventually be cleared, so for safekeeping, I made a PDF of the page here.) The 501(c)(4) group’s 2006 and 2007 tax returns (IRS Form 990) show Jones as a director.

Jones was also on the board of the Apollo Alliance, a hard-left environmentalist group that is now running large chunks of the Obama administration. Beck pounded away at the Apollo Alliance and Jones on a recent show.

On its website, Color of Change invited people to sign a petition to spare the life of convicted multiple murder Stanley Tookie Williams. From the petition:

Stanley Tookie Williams has become a true asset to our community. As a co-founder of the Crips, Tookie created untold suffering and death. There is nothing romantic or glamorous about the kind of violence the Crips unleashed. But Williams has taken responsibility for the harm he’s done. And since then, he has saved the lives of countless young Black males. He will continue to do the same—but only if he’s allowed to live. It would be senseless for the State of California to kill a man who is working every day to stop the madness of gang violence.

Mass murderers don’t usually get clemency. Williams was executed in 2005.

The race-baiting conspiracy theorists of Color of Change appear to be enjoying some success in their campaign to convince advertisers to boycott the “Glenn Beck Program,” which airs at 5 p.m. Eastern time on weekdays.

The group’s co-founder James Rucker gloats in an op-ed at the Huffington Post that Progressive Insurance and several other advertisers have dropped Beck’s show since Color of Change started promoting a boycott. Of course it’s not all that surprising that Progressive Insurance dropped Beck. After all, the company was founded by left-wing philanthropist Peter B. Lewis.

Rucker is a former MoveOn.org organizer. He is also a co-founder of the Secretary of State Project, the group that helped to elect Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie. Ritchie, a former community organizer who has worked hand in hand with ACORN, helped set the stage for Sen. Al Franken (D-ACORN) to steal the 2008 Senate election in Minnesota.

(Hat tip as to the existence of the boycott: Jeff Poor @ NewsBusters)

Congesswoman Diane Watson [D] (CA) Praises Cuba & Castro

"They are spreading fear and they're trying to see that the first president who looks like me -- fails."

"People look at the United States as a country that has changed it's way and elected someone from Kenya and Kansas, I'll put it like that."

KABC’s Michael Linder was the only broadcast reporter at Thursday night’s town hall health care debate at Wade AME Church when Rep. Diane Watson [D] made some astonishing comments including claims that those opposed to health care reform are attempting to destroy a president “who looks like me.”

Later, Watson praised heath care in Fidel Castro’s Cuba — and, it seemed, the Cuban revolution itself. (TruthDetector: This Communist Congresswoman, mistakenly says that Che Guevara, NOT Castro led the Cuban revolution. Of course she doesn't know what she is talking about. Nothing worse than a misinformed commie Democrat)

The statements aired exclusively Thursday night on KABC’s The John Phillips Show.

SEIU and the “Persuasion of Power;” Update: St. Louis Thuggery on Tape

OBAMA'S Stormtroopers - The SEIU

By Michelle Malkin • August 6, 2009 11:44 PM

In May, I told you how the Service Employees International Union’s $61 million investment in Barack Obama paid off with cabinet appointments, executive orders, key personnel slots, and legislative goodies.

Now, the SEIU thugs are looking out for The Boss. In Tampa, Florida and St. Louis today, the Purple People turned out to give cover to members of Congress targeted by Tea Party activists and town hall protesters. For the first time, the town hall protests were marked by physical aggression. More on the St. Louis arrests of confrontational Obamacare activists here. (Just like Obama wanted: “In your face.”) This is no coincidence.

I’m excerpting a portion of my Culture of Corruption chapter on the SEIU. This is what you are up against.

***

EXCERPTED FROM Chapter 7, “SEIU: Look for the union label,” Culture of Corruption

“The persuasion of power”

Asked about his organizing philosophy, Andy Stern summed it up this way: “[W]e prefer to use the power of persuasion, but if that doesn’t work we use the persuasion of power.”

Stern and his shock troops have bullied companies from private equity firms to Burger King to food management company Aramark, who have resisted SEIU’s attempts to organizer their workers. The Purple People have organized aggressive protests and a “War on Greed” campaign to pound the employers into submission. One of the besieged targets, security provider Wackenhut Services, battled SEIU’s attempts to gain exclusive representation for its employees. The company already ten other unions representing its workers. Initially unbowed by a massive, malicious negative publicity campaign against them, Wackenhut blew the whistle:

The SEIU seeks membership growth through aggressive “corporate campaigns” that have a blunt message to employers, “Let us unionize your workforce or we will destroy your reputation.” This tactic has been used against a number of organizations to include Wal-Mart, Kaiser Permanente, Advocate Health Care, Catholic Healthcare West, and Sutter Health.

SEIU is attempting to coerce The Wackenhut Corporation and WSI to recognize it as the “exclusive” collective bargaining representative throughout Wackenhut. Wackenhut declined to enter into such an agreement. The SEIU responded with a corporate campaign that is intended to damage WSI’s reputation and relationships with our clients. Their campaign tactics include distributing misinformation, distortion and omission of fact through the media, conducting demonstrations in proximity of work sites in an effort to disrupt normal client operations, and aggressively attempting to intimidate or influence clients.

But after filing a racketeering lawsuit against the SEIU, a weary and drained Wackenhut entered into an agreement allowing its employees in nine cities to choose SEIU as its bargaining representative. Behold the “persuasion of power.”

Showing an appalling lack of concern for the well-being of its members, the SEIU upped the ante in a representation battle with the University of Miami in 2006. The union fought tooth and nail against a true, democratic unionizing election for campus janitors using a secure, federally monitored secret ballot. Stern personally escalated the dispute, joined the fasters, and demonized then-university president Donna Shalala (yes, that Donna Shalala of Clinton yore). She lashed back:

We are devastated that the union is risking the health and well-being of our students and the Unicco employees by sanctioning an activity as drastic as a hunger strike. Hunger strikes have never been used in this country to oppose an election.

We have urged both parties to continue daily discussions until this issue is resolved. A free election for or against unionization is a federal statutory right.

In the end, the SEIU relented to a federally monitored election. But at what price? Five SEIU members were hospitalized, one with a minor stroke. Wackenhut Corporation chief operating officer Paul Donahue, expressing sympathy for the University of Miami’s plight, saw the big picture:

The bullying, protesting, harassment, contrived events and demands will continue indefinitely because the union has millions of dollars in dues money from hard working janitors and other service workers which can be spent on ruining the reputation of businesses instead of bettering the lives of those workers that contributed.

Indeed, no one has felt the blunt force – and physical danger — of Stern’s “persuasion of power” more than workers themselves.

In Oakland, Stern and his Washington crew imposed a trusteeship on a 150,000-member local that had publicly opposed SEIU strong-arm tactics. The D.C.headquarters (knee deep in ethical mud) accused the local – known as SEIU United Healthcare Workers West (UHW West) – of financial malpractice and misconduct. The local fought back, charging the Beltway union leaders with manufacturing the allegations to retaliate and to distract from Washington mismanagement.

The UHW West president, Sal Rosselli, quit the SEIU Executive Board, and formed a new union in February 2009, which declared: “We’re tired of SEIU’s hostile tactics, threatening phone calls, their collusion with employers and governors like Blagojovich, and the corruption of Stern’s appointees like Local 6434 head Tyrone Freeman in Los Angeles, disgraced SEIU Executive Vice President Annelle Grajada, and the appointees who have just taken over what had been our local. We don’t trust them with our contracts, we don’t trust them with our dues—we just don’t trust them.”

In Philadelphia, Stern engineered the hostile takeover of a 150,000-member union representing garment and hospitality workers. Workers United had broken off from the national UNITE HERE union of 450,000 workers. Progressive New York Daily News columnist Juan Gonzalez, citing SEIU’s agreement with Workers United, called Stern “hellbent on using classic corporate raider tactics to bring a huge portion of the U.S. labor movement under his absolute control.” The pact included discounted member dues and legal and financial assistance to aid the breakaway group’s efforts to take control of the Amalgamated Bank, the nation’s only union-owned bank. One union official called the power grab “a breathtaking form of imperialism…”

Know your enemy.

***

Gateway Pundit has SEIU thuggery at a town hall meeting on tape. One SEIU member arrested in attack on Tea Party activist.

Board Fires MFPD Employee (James K. Kornhardt) Facing Federal Charges

August 26, 2009 (Call Newspapers) - A Mehlville Fire Protection District employee in custody since December on federal murder-for-hire charges has been fired by the Board of Directors.

The Board of Directors voted unanimously last week to fire James K. Kornhardt of Dittmer, who was arrested Dec. 12 at the district's Firehouse No. 5 on Mueller Road in Green Park by agents of the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. (TruthDetector: We can't wait for an anguished letter from IAFF Local 1889's attorney, Rick Barry, demanding the Board to rehire Kornhardt or face another lawsuit for "wrongful termination". Kornhardt was a plaintiff in several lawsuits filed against the BOD and was also in charge of sticking a video camera in the faces of Board members during EVERY public MFPD meeting. Kornhardt has not appeared at work since his incarceration on Dec. 12, 2008)

Kornhardt, a Mehlville firefighter since 1992, was placed on unpaid administrative leave by the Board of Directors the day of his arrest.

At the time of his arrest, Kornhardt was vice president of Local 1889 of the International Association of Fire Fighters. His term as vice president ended Dec. 31. (TruthDetector: 2008 was a bad year for Local 1889's leaders. The president and secretary were terminated by the BOD for "violating MFPD's anti-harassment policy" and the vice-president was arrested and held without bail for his alleged involvement in a murder-for-hire plot by Federal authorities. These are the union leaders of YOUR fire district!)

In December, Kornhardt and Karen K. Coleman of Arnold were indicted by a federal grand jury on charges related to the murder of her husband, Danny Coleman, in October 1992. In April, Steven A. Mueller of Oakville, who ran unsuccessfully for the MFPD board in April 2005, was indicted by a federal grand jury in the murder-for-hire case. He is accused of assisting Kornhardt in Danny Coleman's murder, according to the indictment. (TruthDetector: Kornhardt's alleged accomplice in brutally beating Danny Coleman to death ACTUALLY RAN against Aaron Hilmer in 2005 for the MFPD Board. Local 1889 was very supportive of Mueller until they found out that he was functionally illiterate)

Mueller, Kornhardt and Karen Coleman have been indicted on one felony count of conspiracy to commit murder for hire and one felony count of murder for hire. All three have pleaded not guilty and are in federal custody.

Regarding the Aug. 20 vote to fire Kornhardt, Board of Directors Chairman Aaron Hilmer said, "In December, we had voted to suspend him without pay. Since that time, there have been many developments regarding Mr. Kornhardt and the board felt it prudent to sever his ties with the district on Thursday evening.'' (TruthDetector: We agree that it is time for the taxpayers to end their subsides to an alleged murderer who hasn't showed up for work in 9 months. Of course, we expect union threats demanding Kornhardt's reinstatement. After all, he was a paid official of Local 1889 just doing his "union activities")

Obama Raises 2010 Deficit Estimate to $1.5 Trillion

By Roger Runningen and Brian Faler

Aug. 25 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. unemployment will surge to 10 percent this year and the budget deficit will be $1.5 trillion next year, both higher than previous Obama administration forecasts because of a recession that was deeper and longer than expected, White House budget chief Peter Orszag said.

The Office of Management and Budget forecasts a weaker economic recovery than it saw in May as the gross domestic product shrinks 2.8 percent this year before expanding 2 percent next year, according to the administration’s mid-year economic review issued today. The Congressional Budget Office, in a separate assessment, forecast the economy will grow 2.8 percent next year. Both see the GDP expanding 3.8 percent in 2011.

“While the danger of the economy immediately falling into a deep recession has receded, the American economy is still in the midst of a serious economic downturn,” the White House report said. “The long-term deficit outlook remains daunting.”

The budget shortfall for 2010 would mark the second straight year of trillion-dollar deficits. Along with the unemployment numbers, the deficit may complicate President Barack Obama’s drive for his top domestic priority, overhauling the U.S. health care system.

“It throws a wrench in health-care reforms,” Maya MacGuineas, president of the bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, said in an interview. “No matter the specific numbers, they’re a constant reminder that we’re in bad, bad shape.”

Spending Caps

House Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio seized on the estimates to call for the Democrat-controlled Congress to impose “strict annual caps on federal spending.”

The health-care overhaul “is just the latest in a long line of expensive Democratic experiments that will add to the deficit, raise taxes on families and small businesses and cost more American jobs,” Boehner said in a statement.

The two budget agencies say the shortfall is being driven by the recession as outlays rise for unemployment compensation, food stamps or other programs meant to stabilize the economy rise and tax receipts fall.

Administration and congressional budget officials expect the unemployment rate, which was 9.4 percent last month, to keep rising. White House officials said the rate likely will rise to 10 percent by the end of 2009, averaging 9.3 percent for the entire year. It will worsen to a 9.8 percent average in 2010 instead of the 7.9 percent estimate in May.

The CBO report also estimates the 2009 jobless rate at 9.3 percent. It puts next year’s average at 10.2 percent.

Deficit Projections

The OMB raised its deficit projection for fiscal 2010, which begins Oct. 1, from the $1.26 trillion forecast in May, reflecting slower economic growth this year and next because of “the severity of the crisis in the U.S. and in our trading partners,” said Christina Romer, White House chief economist, who along with Orszag briefed reporters on the report.

The median estimate of 31 economists in a Bloomberg News survey completed Aug. 21 was for a fiscal year 2010 deficit of $1.3 trillion.

The outlook for the 2009 fiscal year is slightly better than the previous forecast. The government’s shortfall will peak this year at $1.58 trillion before narrowing over the next decade. That is less than the $1.84 trillion projected in May because budget officials were able to delete hundreds of billions of dollars that had been set aside for bank bailouts.

Last year’s deficit was $459 billion.

The CBO estimates the budget deficit will total $1.6 trillion this year, or 11.2 percent of the GDP, and $1.4 trillion in 2010.

Bailout Money

“The Obama White House deserves some credit for managing the financial situation so that the additional bailout wasn’t necessary,” said Stan Collender, a former budget analyst for the House and Senate budget committees.

Orszag said reining in the deficit is a “top priority” of the administration. He said the budget blueprint Obama submits to Congress in February will “include proposals to put the nation back on a fiscally sustainable path.” He declined to give specifics.

The OMB added almost $2 trillion to the 10-year deficit from its May forecast, to $9.05 trillion. The nonpartisan CBO’s long-range projection was $7.14 trillion. The difference stems from the CBO’s assumption that tax cuts enacted in 2001 and 2003 will expire on schedule in 2011. Obama has promised to keep the lower tax rates for middle-income Americans.

Market Reaction

“The market will view this as a very consensus-oriented forecast” and there won’t be any significant reaction, said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com in West Chester, Pennsylvania.

Zandi predicted Congress will pass a second “mini” stimulus bill next year of about $250 billion to aid jobless workers, state governments and home buyers. “The economy will be growing at an uncomfortably slow rate, not enough to bring down unemployment, and of course it’s an election year” for Congress, he said.

Orszag defended the trillion-dollar deficits during a recession and said they shouldn’t be used to block the administration’s health-care initiative. Revising the way the nation pays for medical care will help save money, he said.

“I know there are going to be some who say this report proves we can’t afford health reform,” Orszag said. “I think that has it backwards” because savings must be squeezed from the system.

Back to Growth

Even with economic conditions worse that originally forecast, Romer said “we do expect positive GDP growth by the end of this year” for the fourth quarter as the economy reaches “a turning point.”

“A return to employment growth will take longer,” Romer said, adding that the jobless rate likely will peak in the fourth quarter of this year.

Romer said the economic stimulus package probably is adding “between 2 and 3 percentage points” to economic growth in the second quarter of this year, blunting conditions that would have been worse. A report on the effect of the stimulus program is due to Congress next month, she said.

Inflation will remain subdued. Projections for the consumer price index show a contraction of 0.7 percent this year, a rise of 1.4 percent next year and 1.5 percent in 2011, Romer said.

The economic assumptions were compiled by the Council of Economic Advisers, Treasury Department and the Office of Management and Budget. The estimates reflect conditions as of early June.

To contact the reporters on this story: Roger Runningen in Washington at rrunningen@bloomberg.netBrian Faler in Washington at bfaler@bloomberg.net

Marine To Congressman Brian Baird : Stay AWAY From My Kids!

New Bizarre Twists in Clayton Bombing

Milton H. "Skip" Ohlsen had close political ties to Oakville Democrats Joan Barry and Micheal Ocello.

BY TONY MESSENGER

ROBERT PATRICK

and JAKE WAGMAN

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

Tuesday, Aug. 25 2009

A federal search warrant obtained by the Post-Dispatch connects a former Democratic campaign strategist to a Clayton bombing last year that seriously injured an attorney.

About two months after the October bombing, federal law enforcement officials searched the downtown loft of Milton H. "Skip" Ohlsen III, seeking "evidence related to the planning, execution, and/or cover-up of the bombing in Clayton, Missouri, on October 16, 2008." Ohlsen in recent weeks has been at the center of a swirling political scandal that is threatening the political careers of at least two Missouri Democratic legislators.

The Clayton bombing injured attorney John L. Gillis of the Armstrong Teasdale firm. But investigators now believe Gillis was not the intended target of the bomb that exploded next to his car in the parking garage at 190 Carondelet Plaza.

Instead, as the Post-Dispatch first reported Monday evening on STLtoday.com, authorities suspect the bomb was intended for Richard J. Eisen, a former Husch Blackwell Sanders attorney. Eisen has led legal battles against Ohlsen and had an office in the Clayton building that was bombed.

Eisen, now an attorney at Growe, Eisen, Karlen, Eilerts & Ruth, LLC, represented Ohlsen's ex-wife, Michelle, in a divorce that was filed in December 2007. He also represented a Maryland Heights man who obtained a temporary restraining order against Ohlsen.

Eisen and Gillis had similar cars — both owned an Acura TL — and they parked one floor apart in the garage, near the Ritz-Carlton Hotel.

Eisen, a former president of the St. Louis County Bar Association, said Monday that authorities had not told him that he was the intended target of the bombing. "I can tell you that no member of any law enforcement agency has ever indicated that to me," he said.

The Clayton bombing has been one of the area's most prominent unsolved cases. Police had sought the public's help by releasing a security video showing a man carrying balloons and a package into the parking garage and later leaving without them. He was hooded and wearing a bright poncho, and his face was obscured by the balloons. They said they believed the bomb was in the package.

Ohlsen was arrested on federal fraud and firearms charges on Dec. 18, 2008, in an unrelated case, according to federal court records.

FBI agents searched Ohlsen's downtown loft twice after that, documents show. On Friday, Dec. 19, 2008, they showed up looking for firearms, bullets and financial documents. They returned on Dec. 22, seeking evidence relating to the Clayton bombing, according to court documents obtained by the Post-Dispatch.

It is not unusual for investigators to obtain a new search warrant to cover items spotted during a search but not covered by the original warrant, to prevent a defense lawyer from challenging them in court.

Ohlsen's attorney, Paul D'Agrosa, declined to comment on any connection between his client and the bombing investigation.

Authorities have never indicated publicly whether they have a suspect in the case. John Gillies, head of the St. Louis FBI office, declined to comment Monday on Ohlsen or the search warrant. When asked about the bombing investigation, Gillies said, "The investigation continues." (Gillies is unrelated to attorney Gillis.)

Jeff Fulton, assistant special agent in charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, also declined to comment.

ADVERSARIAL RELATIONSHIP

The investigation of Ohlsen centers largely on his adversarial relationship with clients of Eisen.

Eisen represented Ohlsen's ex-wife in their acrimonious divorce, which included allegations of infidelity, theft and abuse.

"He's unpredictable, he's quick to anger," Michelle Ohlsen said in a March 2008 deposition.

In the same deposition, Michelle says that her husband admitted he was having an affair while she was pregnant with their second child.

Skip Ohlsen also was charged with stealing an airplane that had been awarded to his wife in the divorce proceedings.

Another of Eisen's clients was Joel Hollenbeck, 32, of Maryland Heights, who said he has feared Ohlsen ever since he first talked to him on the phone in November 2007. That's when he found out Ohlsen was dating his estranged wife and spending time around his child.

"He said he was going to take everything away from me," Hollenbeck said.

In early 2008, Hollenbeck started a website about Ohlsen that included links to some of Ohlsen's criminal records.

"I thought he needed to be exposed," Hollenbeck said.

According to court records, in July 2008 — three months before the Clayton bombing — Eisen helped Hollenbeck obtain a temporary restraining order against Ohlsen, keeping him away from Hollenbeck's daughter. At the time, Ohlsen was dating Kimberlee Hawley, whom Hollenbeck was in the process of divorcing.

Hollenbeck said federal law enforcement officials have told him that during a search of Ohlsen's apartment they found fake IDs in Hollenbeck's name with Ohlsen's picture on them.

There also is an indication that Ohlsen, who was known for having high-end video and audio recording equipment, kept a collection of recordings, according to the search warrants. It is unclear whether those were of a political or personal nature.

In the Dec. 22 search of Ohlsen's apartment, FBI agents were looking for evidence related to the bombing, according to court documents obtained by the Post-Dispatch.

Agents also were looking for false IDs, police equipment, airline tickets, "evidence of surveillance of people or places," a poster board or other items with information "about people potentially adverse to Ohlsen" and photos, videos and other recordings.

According to the documents, agents seized computer equipment, "digital media CDs," digital videotapes, financial documents, airline documents, a poster board with names and pictures, a body bag, and an EMS badge.

But one resident interviewed by the Post-Dispatch said that someone moved items out of Ohlsen's apartment between the searches. The resident requested anonymity due to the nature of the allegations against Ohlsen.

POLITICAL CONNECTIONS

Ohlsen, 37, is the former Democratic operative involved in the federal investigation into the failed 2004 congressional campaign of Jeff Smith. Both Smith, now a state senator from St. Louis, and Steve Brown, a state representative from Clayton, have been involved in that federal inquiry, according to state government sources.

The FBI has said it will neither confirm nor deny an investigation involving Smith's 2004 run for Congress against eventual winner Russ Carnahan. During that race, Carnahan filed a Federal Elections Commission complaint alleging the campaigns of Smith and Joan Barry skirted federal law by helping produce anonymous fliers that were critical of Carnahan.

FEC investigators implicated Ohlsen as responsible for the fliers. Ohlsen told investigators he had numerous connections to the Smith campaign.

It's unclear what the connection is — if any — between Smith's investigation and the various investigations into Ohlsen. D'Agrosa, Ohlsen's attorney, has said his client is not cooperating with authorities.

Ohlsen's political consulting career was short-lived but reached to the top levels of the Missouri Democratic Party. He was introduced to party leaders by Nick Robinson, a political director for the United Auto Workers, and he ended up developing relationships with Gov. Bob Holden and Lt. Gov. Joe Maxwell.

Democrats remember him as bold and brash, and bragging about his high-end video equipment. He did work in 2004 and 2005 for future senators Maida Coleman, Wes Shoemyer and Frank Barnitz, each time receiving payment to one of his companies, either Studio O Productions or Democratic Strategy Group.

Locally, he did political work for Mehlville school board member Mike Ocello, a strip club manager whose campaign was helped by video showing an opponent stealing a campaign sign. In 2005 and 2006, Ohlsen pushed Coleman's candidacy for auditor while she paid him about $12,000 for consulting work.

Ohlsen is scheduled to be sentenced on the mortgage and firearms charges in September.

Meanwhile, bombing victim Gillis, now 70, said Monday he was doing "reasonably well" after receiving a series of skin grafts to treat burns caused by the bombing.

"I had heard a rumor there was a car similar to mine … and that guy may have been the target," Gillis said in a brief interview. "I never heard his name."

Gillis said he has spoken to law enforcement a few times since the incident, but told a reporter Monday that "you've told me as much as they have."

Patrick O'Connell and David Hunn of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.

Obama Snares Palin, Media in Wide Blame-Game Net

Commentary by Caroline Baum

Aug. 19 (Bloomberg) -- When the political winds shift -- when a party is voted out of power or a policy is panned by the public -- Washington turns to its favorite pastime: the blame game.

And so it is with President Barack Obama, who tripped on his sprint to the health-care-reform finish line. Voters, it seems, want to understand a little more about what ObamaCare will mean for them, what it will do to the doctor-patient relationship, and what it will cost future generations in higher taxes and, yes, rationed supply.

Rather than examine the public’s concerns, the plans’ inconsistencies or the sheer irresponsibility of trying to ram something this big and complicated through Congress without a small-scale trial, the Obama administration is pointing fingers. Lots of them. Most of the targets are just plain silly.

1. Conservative groups

When liberal activists, including trade unions, Acorn and MoveOn.org, protested against anything and everything President George W. Bush said or did, it was called grassroots democracy.

When conservative groups encourage supporters to attend town hall meetings and make their sentiments known to their congressmen, it’s un-American, disruptive and the work of right- wing extremists.

Madame Hypocrite

Where was House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, when President George W. Bush was being compared to Adolf Hitler and the Nazis? She was a “fan of disrupters” in those days, as she told anti-war protesters at a January 2006 town hall meeting in San Francisco. Pelosi only developed a thin skin (too much plastic surgery?) when the Democrats took control of the executive and legislative branches of government.

The effort to blame right-wing groups is transparent. If my feedback on a recent column is indicative of the political persuasion and demographic distribution of the protesters, these are ordinary Americans energized by the debate, frustrated at not having a voice and motivated to exercise their right of free speech. Attempts to smear opponents and shut down debate are, well, un-American.

2. Insurance Companies

Garnering support for health-insurance reform by demonizing insurance companies is a cheap shot, albeit one that resonates with the public. After all, these are the faceless bureaucrats who deny or pay claims in a seemingly arbitrary manner and refuse or cancel coverage if you cost them too much money.

Stubborn Facts

Facts are stubborn things, this White House is quick to remind us. And in this case, the facts don’t support the vilification.

If insurance companies were gouging the public, the evidence would show up in one of two places, according to Graef Crystal, a compensation expert in Santa Rosa, California, and occasional Bloomberg News columnist: excessive executive pay or excessive returns to shareholders.

His analysis of five major health insurers shows just the opposite: below-market pay and below-market shareholder returns.

“There’s no case here for undue enrichment of shareholders” or over-compensating CEOs, Crystal finds.

Health care needs a major overhaul, but that’s no reason to make scapegoats out of insurance companies.

3. The Media

I couldn’t believe my ears when I heard Obama point the finger at the media at his town hall meeting last week in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

Fishing Expedition

The president, defending the White House’s fishing expedition for “fishy” e-mails on health-insurance reform (suspended this week by popular demand), blamed the media for “distorting what’s taken place.”

Is this the same media that was in the pocket for candidate Obama and waltzed us through the honeymoon? If Bush had been as reliant on his teleprompter as Obama, or said “Cinco de Cuatro” when he meant “Cuatro de Mayo,” the press would have been all over him for being inept.

Sorry, Mr. President, you have no idea what it means for the media to distort what’s taken place. The long-gone Bush administration is getting more negative press than you are.

4. Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin, the recently retired governor of Alaska, 2008 Republican vice-presidential candidate and Democrat’s favorite whipping boy (or girl), created a stir with a reference to death panels on Facebook. Palin said she didn’t want her parents or Down-Syndrome baby to “have to stand in front of Obama’s ‘death panel’ so his bureaucrats can decide” what kind of medical care should be allocated to these less productive members of society.

Blame the Democrats

This is the same Sarah Palin whose foreign policy experience was summed up during the campaign by her ability “to see Russia from land here in Alaska.” This is the same Sarah Palin credited with changing the terms of the debate? C’mon. That’s too laughable to address.

Besides, there’s a kernel of truth in what she said. Like all goods and services, medical care is a scarce resource that must be rationed. The only question is how: by the market (price) or by government mandate.

If government is doing the rationing, what exactly will bureaucrats use to determine who gets what care and who doesn’t?

Opposition to fast-track health-insurance reform is coming from Obama’s own party. Senator Kent Conrad, Democrat of North Dakota and one of six Finance Committee members involved in bipartisan negotiations, said on Fox News Sunday that the goal is to “get this right,” not meet some “specific timetable.”

He said the Senate lacks enough votes to pass a bill with a public option. “To continue to chase that rabbit, I think, is just a wasted effort.”

There’s always room for one more -- the Democrats -- on Obama’s blame-game list.

(Caroline Baum, author of “Just What I Said,” is a Bloomberg News columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.)

Insurance-Premium Regulation in Health Care Bill Rewards Bad Behavior, Penalizes Good

Friday, August 21, 2009

By Matt Cover

(CNSNews.com) – Provisions in both the House and Senate versions of Democrats' health care proposals bar insurance companies from tying health insurance premiums to unhealthy behavior, and that could drive up health care costs and reward unhealthy behavior such as smoking and drug abuse.

Bills in both the House and Senate limit insurance companies’ ability to adjust their premiums based on three criteria: age, geographic location, and family structure.

“The premium rate charged…shall not vary except as follows: (1) By age…(2) By area…(3) By family enrollment (such as variations within categories and compositions of families),” the House version states.

The Senate version, as passed by the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, includes all of the House’s conditions and adds one extra: the actual value of the services each plan provides.

“With respect to the premium rate charged by a health insurance issuer…(1) such rate shall vary only by – (A) family structure; (B) community rating area [geographic location]; (C) the actuarial value of the [health] benefit; (D) age,” the Senate bill says.

The Senate version goes on to specify which criteria insurance companies cannot use to adjust their premiums, including “health status-related factors” and “claims history,” meaning insurance companies cannot adjust premiums based on health-related behavior such as smoking or eating habits, or a person’s past claims – for things like drug rehabilitation or sexually transmitted diseases.

“(2) such rates shall not vary by health status-related factors such as gender, class of business, claims experience, or any other factor not described in paragraph (1).”

Both the House and Senate provisions mean that insurance companies cannot take any health-related factors into account when setting premium rates, meaning that someone in excellent health would pay the same rate as a life-long smoker or drug user for the same health coverage.

High-cost diseases such as obesity, heart disease, and diabetes cannot be used to determine premiums, if Congress passes either version of health reform. This means that the costs of treating these diseases would be born largely by healthy American taxpayers, because the government will be subsidizing health insurance for those who cannot afford it.

Obesity, which accounted for 9.1 percent of all health care spending in 1998, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) – costing nearly $92.6 billion – affected nearly 72 million people in 2006.

Diabetes, another costly disease directly related to lifestyle choices and health behavior, affected 24 million in 2008, according to the CDC. That’s an increase of nearly 3 million people since 2006, the CDC said, the same year the disease killed approximately 72,000 people.

Heart disease, which killed over 800,000 people in 2006, according to the CDC, affects about 80 million Americans and is primarily caused by poor diet and lack of exercise over a lifetime.

The fact that insurers cannot base premiums on the costs of treating these and other behavior-related diseases amounts to government price controls, said Michael Cannon, director of health policy at the libertarian Cato Institute.

“It allows you to shift the costs of your bad behaviors onto other people,” Cannon told CNSNews.com. “Those restrictions are a price control and like all price controls they do not change the economic reality that underlies market prices. All they do is hide that underlying reality from producers and consumers.”

These provisions will cause people to respond in potentially harmful ways, Cannon said, because they will continue acting in ways that increase health costs rather than reduce them, causing insurance companies to try everything they can to avoid providing coverage.

“People will still respond to that underlying reality, but they will do so in harmful ways,” he said. “If you have two or three chronic conditions, what are you going to do? You’re going to go get the most generous plan you can get because you’re going to want to get as big a subsidy as you can.”

“What’s an insurance company going to do?” said Cannon. “They’re going to do whatever they can to avoid you. They’re going to avoid you like the plague, and if they can’t avoid you, they’re going to do whatever they can to get you off their rolls.”

Cannon said that if this provision survives congressional negotiations, it will mean even worse treatment for the sick, not better, because insurance companies will be unable to cover the costs of treating unhealthy people.

“If you think insurance [companies] try to avoid the sick now, and provide lousy service to the sick now, just wait until they can’t charge an actuarially fair premium,” he said. “Then they’re really going to start avoiding the sick.”

Cannon said that thousands of years of history show that such price controls do not work, arguing that there is no way Obama can get around that.

“Four thousand years of human history shows that price controls fail,” said Cannon. “Four thousand years of human history show that price controls are a disaster. What does President Obama know that four thousand years of human history do not?”

The Axis of Idiots

Too bad we don't have folks on Capitol Hill willing to speak out like this. J..D. Pendry is a retired Marine Sergeant Major who writes for Random House. He is eloquent, and as taught by the Marines, he seldom beats around the bush..

Jimmy Carter, you are the father of the Islamic Nazi movement. You threw the Shah under the bus, welcomed the Ayatollah home, and then lacked the spine to confront the terrorists when they took our embassy and our people hostage. You're the runner-in-chief.

Bill Clinton, you played ring around the Lewinsky while the terrorists were at war with us. You got us into a fight with them in Somalia and then you ran from it. Your weak-willed responses to the USS Cole and the First Trade Center Bombing and Our Embassy Bombings emboldened the killers. Each time you failed to respond adequately, they grew bolder, until 9/11/2001.

John Kerry, dishonesty is your most prominent attribute. You lied about American Soldiers in Vietnam Your military service, like your life, is more fiction than fact. You've accused our military of terrorizing women and children in Iraq . You called Iraq the wrong war, wrong place, wrong time, the same words you used to describe Vietnam . You're a fake. You want to run from Iraq and abandon the Iraqis to murderers just as you did to the Vietnamese. Iraq , like Vietnam , is another war that you were for, before you were against it.

John Murtha, you said our military was broken. You said we can't win militarily in Iraq. You accused United States Marines of cold-blooded murder without proof and said we should redeploy to Okinawa. Okinawa, John? And the Democrats call you their military expert! Are you sure you didn't suffer a traumatic brain injury while you were off building your war hero resume? You're a sad, pitiable, corrupt and washed up politician. You're not a Marine, sir. You wouldn't amount to a good pimple on a real Marine's butt. You're a phony and a disgrace. Run away, John .

Dick Durbin, you accused our Soldiers at Guantanamo of being Nazis, tenders of Soviet style gulags and as bad as the regime of Pol Pot , who murdered two million of his own people after your party abandoned Southeast Asia to the Communists. Now you want to abandon the Iraqis to the same fate. History was not a good teacher for you, was it? Lord help us! See Dick run.

Ted Kennedy, for days on end you held poster-sized pictures from Abu Ghraib in front of any available television camera. Al Jazeera quoted you saying that Iraqi's torture chambers were open under new management. Did you see the news, Teddy? The Islamic Nazis demonstrated another beheading for you. If you truly supported our troops, you'd show the world poster-sized pictures of that atrocity and demand the annihilation of it. Your legislation stripping support from the South Vietnamese led to a communist victory there. You're a bloated, drunken fool bent on repeating the same historical blunder that turned freedom-seeking people over to homicidal, genocidal maniacs. To paraphrase John Murtha, all while sitting on your wide, gin-soaked rear-end in Washington.

Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Carl Levin, Barbara Boxer, Diane Feinstein, Russ Feingold, Hillary Clinton, Pat Leahy, Barack Obama, Chuck Schumer, the Hollywood Leftist morons, et al, ad nauseam: Every time you stand in front of television cameras and broadcast to the Islamic Nazis that we went to war because our President lied, that the war is wrong and our Soldiers are torturers, that we should leave Iraq, you give the Islamic butchers - the same ones that tortured and mutilated American Soldiers - cause to think that we'll run away again, and all they have to do is hang on a little longer. It is inevitable that we, the infidels , will have to defeat the Islamic jihadists. Better to do it now on their turf, than later on ours after they have gained both strength and momentum.

American news media, the New York Times particularly: Each time you publish stories about national defense secrets and our intelligence gathering methods, you become one united with the sub-human pieces of camel dung that torture and mutilate the bodies of American Soldiers. You can't strike up the courage to publish cartoons, but you can help Al Qaeda destroy my country. Actually, you are more dangerous to us than Al Qaeda is. Think about that each time you face Mecca to admire your Pulitzer.

You are America 's 'AXIS OF IDIOTS.' Your Collective Stupidity will destroy us. Self-serving politics and terrorist-abetting news scoops are more important to you than our national security or the lives of innocent civilians and Soldiers. It bothers you that defending ourselves gets in the way of your elitist sport of politics and your ignorant editorializing. There is as much blood on your hands as is on the hands of murdering terrorists. Don't ever doubt that. Your frolics will only serve to extend this war as they extended Vietnam . If you want our Soldiers home as you claim, knock off the crap and try supporting your country ahead of supporting your silly political aims and aiding our enemies.

Yes, I'm questioning your patriotism. Your loyalty ends with self. I'm also questioning why you're stealing air that decent Americans could be breathing. You don't deserve the protection of our men and women in uniform. You need to run away from this war, this country. Leave the war to the people who have the will to see it through and the country to people who are willing to defend it.

Our country has two enemies: Those who want to destroy us from the outside and those who attempt it

from within.

Semper Fi,

J. D. Pendry - Sergeant Major, USMC, Retired

Public Option Not Optional for Obama

August 17, 2009

by David Limbaugh

As I write this, I don't know whether President Barack Obama and his Democrats will end up pretending to abandon the public option aspect of Obamacare, but I do know that if they do, it will only be a matter of time before they resurrect it because that's where their heart is.

That's why, among other reasons, neither Blue Dog Democrats who oppose socialized medicine nor Republicans should consider compromising with left-wing Democrats to pass a bill. If they do, Obama will eventually -- and probably sooner than you think -- achieve his goal of nationalized health care.

Don't think I'm advocating Republican obstructionism. I would like nothing more than for conservative congressmen to quarterback real market reforms to the health care system. But if you understand liberals at all, you know that they'll never agree to market-based solutions for ideological reasons and because an expanding dependency class is their most essential power source.

Just watch conservatives propose an expansion of health savings accounts or an eradication of coverage mandates, including those prohibiting crossing state lines to buy health insurance, or tort reform or changing the tax code to eliminate the incentive for employer-provided health insurance and see what happens.

Obama will be all over state-run TV telling Americans that uncompassionate conservatives are going "Katrina" on the poor again. Democrats are the true obstructionists because they'll stop, at any cost, the only reforms that could reduce health care costs without rationing, creating waiting lines, or decreasing choice and quality of care.

If Republican legislators succumb to their political addiction to compromise for the sake of getting something passed, no matter how odious, they'll be laying out the red carpet of inevitability for socialized care. Once government gets its foot in the door, more government control is unavoidable.

But we needn't quibble over images in a crystal ball. We have Obama's statements of intent on the matter, as well as those of former DNC Chairman Howard Dean, who is back to popping off again in the foot-shooting spirit of Vice President Joe Biden.

Notwithstanding the coordinated state-run media campaign denying it, Obama has made his goal of socialized medicine clear -- in his recorded comments from 2003, his presidential campaign rhetoric, and his virtual endorsement of the public-option-infested House plan. Howard Dean, for his part, has been on TV hawking his health care "reform" book and unable to resist the puerile pleasure of revealing his insider knowledge.

In 2003, while belittling the United States for not providing universal health insurance despite our being "the wealthiest country in the history of the world," Obama unequivocally stated that he was "a proponent of a single-payer universal health care program." During the 2008 presidential campaign, he again endorsed the "public option." These statements were not taken out of context despite Linda Douglass' transparently lame denials.

Indeed, Obama's entire health care effort has been centered on the public option -- which ultimately, by the way, would not be an option at all, but the endgame. It's the private aspects of his scheme that are illusory. That Obama has us debating whether he supports the public option -- the most indispensable part of his entire agenda -- instead of his fraudulent support for the private option is evidence of his consummate skills as an Alinskyite propagandist.

Every politically literate person understands that government-run health care is what we're fighting about. That's what the legitimate town hall protestors are up in arms about, and that's what the phony, ACORN-y, Astro-agitators who have been bused in by Obama are beating people up over. So spare us the insult of denying it.

Even if Obama is forced to abandon the public option temporarily, it will probably be mere semantic abandonment. The CATO Institute's Michael Tanner argues that the compromise plan being considered by six members of the Senate Finance Committee would eliminate the public option in name only. A health insurance co-op plan, he says, is just another name for government-run health insurance.

But Howard Dean revealed a more cynical Democratic strategy, which would obviate the co-op charade. Howard Dean told MSNBC's Joe Scarborough that the Senate's removal of the public option is a ploy to get the bill through the Senate and then have the public option reinserted at the reconciliation stage, where it would only require 50 votes, not a supermajority. Dean admitted that "the president knows very well that you aren't really going to have health care reform without a public option. But he also knows he has to get this out of the Senate."

Blue Dogs and wavering Republicans better not fall for Obama's calculated canard that these nationwide grass-roots protests are contrived and make the mistake of going forward with an apparently watered-down plan that would lead to socialized health care. They'd be out on their ears in 2010. I have to believe that.

Sen. Jeff Smith Literally the Talk of the Town -- and the State Capitol

By Jo Mannies, Beacon Political Reporter

Updated 11:30 p.m. Sat., Aug. 15: Tony Messenger at Political Fix has more detail on the federal investigation that appears to have ensnared state Sen. Jeff Smith, D-St. Louis. And so do we. But first... As we first recounted earlier -- Posted 2:40 p.m. Fri., Aug. 14: The political world in St. Louis and Jefferson City is abuzz today over state Sen. Jeff Smith's political future -- and what may or may not be happening to the St. Louis Democrat. A deluge of reports from activists and officials in both parties, from Washington to City Hall, has Smith resigning for various alleged reasons. Such a departure would be a stunning end to a promising political career that spawned an award-winning documentary a few years ago about his unsuccessful 2004 bid for Congress. But so far, much of the dire talk has turned out to be bogus. Although Smith isn't returning calls, and his state office in the Capitol is dark, a spokeswoman for state Senate President Pro Tem Charlie Shields says that, as of 2:30 p.m., no resignation has been turned in. Because the Legislature is in recess, a resignation letter would first be turned in to Gov. Jay Nixon; so far, there is no such letter, a Nixon spokesman said. Smith was spotted in the state Capitol earlier this week, igniting some talk about furniture and other items moved out of his office. However, Shields' staff says that activity was prompted by a water leak in the ceiling, caused by the Capitol's aging pipes. Much of the more serious speculation swirls around a complaint filed with the Federal Election Commission by now-U.S. Rep. Russ Carnahan's campaign after the 2004 congressional election, which Smith narrowly lost. Carnahan's complaint had dealt with joint campaign activity by Smith and then-fellow candidate Joan Barry, a former state legislator from south St. Louis. The three were among 10 Democrats who sought the seat being vacated by retiring Rep. Richard A. Gephardt, who earlier that year dropped his bid for the White House. (TruthDetector: Jeff Smith was also active in the 2008 campaign of Joan Barry for state senate in District 1. Barry was narrowly defeated by Jim Lembke) However, a spokeswoman with the FEC said today that the complaint had been resolved in 2007, with an official notice coming out a year ago. Missouri sources in both parties say, however, that a problem may have arisen over what Smith did or did not tell a federal investigator in connection with that case. But a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's office said this afternoon that there has been no indictment of "anyone by that name," referring to Smith. UPDATE -- for those seeking more detail involving that FEC case: The dispute before the FEC centered on disparaging campaign literature distributed by Barry and Smith at a joint press conference before the August 2004 Democratic primary, in which both questioned Carnahan's voting and attendance record while a state legislator. There also were some postcards making similar allegations that were sent to thousands of 3rd District residents. Carnahan's campaign, in essence, accused the two rivals of failing to report their expenses for the fliers and postcards. The FEC's investigative was exhaustive and lasted several years. Those interested in reading all the documents and reports can click here. In essence, investigators determined that the postcards were linked to to Milton Ohlsen III, a sometime political operative and unsuccessful ultimate-fight promoter (the Riverfront Times did a generally critical story on him in January 2008.) (TruthDetector: Ohlsen was also a close business associate of current Mehlville school board member and strip club mogul Micheal Ocello. Ocello and his strip club associates were large contributors to Joan Barry's 2008 senate campaign. Isn't it great that the moguls of porn and felons like Ohlsen have a commanding influence in South County Democratic politics AND the Mehlville School District?) Ohlsen told investigators that his contacts had been people with ties to the Smith campaign. However, after interviewing the people named by Ohlsen, the FEC general counsel reported in late 2007 that investigators found Ohlsen "lacking in credibility when compared with evidence obtained from other witnesses and documents." Ohlsen alleged that he had been paid $13,000 from someone with ties to Smith's campaign, but he provided investigators with no proof of those payments (which the Smith campaign denied, and which never appeared on any campaign reports.) In any case, a key point of the FEC probe is that there are legal problems only if the anti-Carnahan postcards were tied to his rivals' campaigns, who didn't report any expenses related to them. An individual could send out the postcards, and violate no laws, because the material didn't call for the reader to vote FOR someone. In the end, the Barry campaign was faulted the most by the FEC, (pertaining to the literature given to reporters at the news conference) but no fines or punishment were imposed. As for Smith, the findings issued in late 2007 concluded that there was "no reason to believe'' that his campaign had violated any campaign laws. However, several sources had told the Beacon on Friday that Smith had reported that he had been questioned again about that 2004 case in recent months. Ohlsen, meanwhile, is in serious federal trouble on unrelated matters. (TruthDetector: As this case unfolds, it will be very interesting what ties are uncovered between Jeff Smith, Joan Barry, Micheal Ocello and his close associate, felon Skip Ohlsen. According to our sources there is much more to come!) --- Any legal troubles for Smith stemming from that 2004 race would be ironic, since that contest also sparked his political career. When he first launched his bid, Smith was an adjunct political science instructor and doctoral student who was little known off the Washington University campus. He had a strong following among students, who helped Smith build a huge grassroots operation that was particularly significant in the city of St. Louis and St. Louis County. (Carnahan was outpolled by Smith in both areas, but won by snagging more votes in Jefferson and Ste. Genevieve counties.) Smith's failed 2004 quest was chronicled in the documentary, "Can Mr. Smith Get to Washington Anymore?" by Frank Popper, which ended up winning numerous film festival awards and was among the final dozen or so films in the running for an Academy Award a couple years ago. (Full disclosure: this reporter covered that 2004 contest and ended up in the movie.) Smith won a bid for the state Senate in 2006, and since then has quickly become a major player among the Democratic minority. Last session, he received much of the credit for preserving the state's historic tax credit program that has helped spawned redevelopment in the city of St. Louis. Just a few weeks ago, Smith held his 4th annual 3-on-3 Basketball Tournament at Fairgrounds Park. Hundreds attended the popular event.

The Frank Plan?

Several weeks ago, Mehlville Board of Education member Karl Frank, Jr. humbly expounded on his 2005 program outlining his "priorities" for the district entitled "The Frank Plan" in a letter to the Oakville Call.

Frank wrote: "My No. 1 priority, as written in the plan was, "Classroom Teachers: ... Our children cannot learn without the best and brightest teachers enlightening them … and we must pay them, and pay them well. Not just on par with the other districts in our area, but above and beyond."

Frankly, we think the "Frank Plan" is a carbon copy of the "NEA PLAN". For many years we have been told by the greedy and militant teacher's unions that the only way we could achieve academic excellence is to pay teachers exorbitant amounts of money. We have also been told by the current elected officials of the Mehlville school board and the extremely expensive COMPASS "community engagement process"that "teachers salaries must rise to the top 25% in St. Louis County" to achieve academic excellence. (TruthDetector: The COMPASS boondoggle is managed by UNICOM-ARC, a PR firm of "community organizers" that works mostly for unions and is owned by the publisher of the St. Louis Labor Tribune, millionaire Ed Finkelstein)

The top paying school district in St. Louis County is Clayton which pays an average teacher's salary of $65,682 working 1095 hours a year (almost $60 an hour). The average teacher's salary in Missouri is $45,027 ($41.12 an hour). The Mehlville teacher averages $51,505 ($47.04 an hour). Yet for all of the generous salaries Mehlville residents pay their teachers, it is never enough for them. In a time of recession and economic uncertainty, Mehlville taxpayers can count on their teachers receiving a 6% raise this year. However, we are not getting our money's worth when it comes to End-Of-Course exams.

Current Mehlville superintendent Terry Noble's former school district of De Soto, neighboring Lindbergh and St. Charles County's Francis Howell were the ONLY districts (besides the gold-plated Clayton district) to place in the top-10 of ALL THREE CATEGORIES (English II, Algebra I and Biology) in these important exams. (see above chart)

According to "The Frank Plan", higher salaries for teachers create better educational outcomes. Perhaps Mr. Frank would explain WHY lowly De Soto (with teacher's salaries that average only $49,257 a year) completely eclipsed Mehlville academically even though Mehlville teachers EARN MORE than De Soto teachers.

The South County Truth Spot strongly supports the End-Of-Course exams and No Child Left Behind. These reforms and the academic accountability that No Child created has forced public schools to produce. The Mehlville School District must make an all-out effort to IMPROVE it's academic product by returning to the basics and eliminating unneeded elective programs that siphon away essential resources from the mission of measurable improvements in student performance. If the De Soto schools can do a much better job than Mehlville with lower personnel costs than Mehlville, perhaps it is time for Karl Frank, Jr. to return to the drawing board.

Schoemehl to Seek District 1 Senate Seat in 2012

Oakville Rep. Sue Schoemehl (who is term limited in 2010) has amended her campaign committee to seek the State Senate seat in District 1. This seat is currently held by Sen. Jim Lembke who won the seat in a very tight race with former state rep Joan Barry last November.

The South County Truth Spot believes that Schoemehl is a 100% wholly owned subsidiary of the St. Louis union bosses. Schoemehl is also in the pocket of Phil & Joan Barry who recruited her to replace Joan when she was termed out as a state rep.

Not only will Schoemehl enjoy the support of the big local and out-of-town unions, she will be pumped by the Mehlville teacher's union headed by Kommissar, Komrade Kay Kappos (KKKK) and the corrupt Mehlville firefighter's union IAFF LOCAL 1889 who is once again SUEING the fire district.

However, we predict that due to Jim Lembke's unquenchable zeal for personally going door-to-door and meeting the voters, he will easily prevail against a big government socialist like Schoemehl. Schoemehl will rally the union robots in her grassroots voter contact, but we doubt that she will overtake Lembke's efforts in contacting the voters herself.

We think that due to the continuing efforts of the BO administration to cram socialism and unionism down our throats, 2010 will be a very good year for the GOP nationally and locally. We don't think a union shill like Sue Schoemehl will have much success convincing voters to back her efforts to divert MORE of YOUR tax dollars to the big labor bosses and their cronies. (TruthDetector: Can anyone name ONE MAJOR ACCOMPLISHMENT of Sue Schoemehl's 8-year tenure as state representative in the 100th District? We can't)

Ronald Reagan Speaks Out Against Socialized Medicine

From the 1961 Operation Coffee Cup Campaign against Socialized Medicine as proposed by the Democrats, then a private citizen Ronald Reagan Speaks out against socialized medicine. There is no video .

Analysis: Press Largely Ignored Incendiary Rhetoric at Bush Protest

News outlets that are focusing on the incendiary rhetoric of conservatives outside President Obama's town hall meeting Tuesday ignored the incendiary rhetoric -- and even violence -- of liberals outside an appearance by former President George W. Bush in 2002.

By Bill Sammon

FOXNews.com

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

News outlets that are focusing on the incendiary rhetoric of conservatives outside President Obama's town hall meeting Tuesday ignored the incendiary rhetoric -- and even violence -- of liberals outside an appearance by former President George W. Bush in 2002.

When Bush visited Portland, Ore., for a fundraiser, protesters stalked his motorcade, assailed his limousine and stoned a car containing his advisers. Chanting "Bush is a terrorist!", the demonstrators bullied passers-by, including gay softball players and a wheelchair-bound grandfather with multiple sclerosis.

One protester even brandished a sign that seemed to advocate Bush's assassination. The man held a large photo of Bush that had been doctored to show a gun barrel pressed against his temple.

"BUSH: WANTED, DEAD OR ALIVE," read the placard, which had an X over the word "ALIVE."

Another poster showed Bush's face with the words: "F--- YOU, MOTHERF---ER!"

A third sign urged motorists to "HONK IF YOU HATE BUSH." A fourth declared: "CHRISTIAN FASCISM," with a swastika in place of the letter S in each word.

Although reporters from numerous national news organizations were traveling with Bush and witnessed the protest, none reported that protesters were shrieking at Republican donors epithets like "Slut!" "Whore!" and "Fascists!"

Frank Dulcich, president and CEO of Pacific Seafood Group, had a cup of liquid thrown into his face, and then was surrounded by a group of menacing protesters, including several who wore masks. Donald Tykeson, 75, who had multiple sclerosis and was confined to a wheelchair, was blocked by a thug who threatened him.

Protesters slashed the tires of several state patrol cruisers and leapt onto an occupied police car, slamming the hood and blocking the windshield with placards. A female police officer was knocked to the street by advancing protesters, badly injuring her wrist.

The angry protest grew so violent that the Secret Service was forced to take the highly unusual step of using a backup route for Bush's motorcade because the primary route had been compromised by protesters, one of whom pounded his fist on the president's moving limousine.

All the while, angry demonstrators brandished signs with incendiary rhetoric, such as "9/11 - YOU LET IT HAPPEN, SHRUB," and "BUSH: BASTARD CHILD OF THE SUPREME COURT." One sign read: "IMPEACH THE COURT-APPOINTED JUNTA AND THE FASCIST, EGOMANIACAL, BLOOD-SWILLING BEAST!"

Yet none of these signs were cited in the national media's coverage of the event. By contrast, the press focused extensively on over-the-top signs held by Obama critics at the president's town hall event held Tuesday in New Hampshire.

The lead story in Wednesday's Washington Post, for example, is headlined: "Obama Faces 'Scare Tactics' Head-On."

"As the president spoke, demonstrators outside held posters declaring him a socialist and dubbing him 'Obamahdinejad,' in reference to Iran's president," the Post reported. "People screamed into bullhorns to protest a bigger government role in health care. 'Nobama Deathcare!' one sign read. A young girl held up a sign that said: 'Obama Lies, Grandma Dies.' Images of a protester wearing what appeared to be a gun were shown on television."

On Sunday, The New York Times reported that a Democratic congressman discovered that "an opponent of health care reform hanged him in effigy" and was confronted by "200 angry conservatives." The article lamented "increasingly ugly scenes of partisan screaming matches, scuffles, threats and even arrests."

No such coverage was given to the Portland protest of Bush by The New York Times or the Washington Post, which witnessed the protest.

Bill Sammon is vice president of news and the Washington managing editor of FOX News Channel.

White House Denies Collecting Names of Opponents of Health Legislation

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

(CNSNews.com) – The Obama administration denied it is keeping an enemies list although it has asked citizens to report any “disinformation” about health care they come across to the White House.

Last Wednesday, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) sent a letter to the White House expressing concern about why the White House would want information on opponents of its health care plan.

“I am not aware of any precedent for a president asking American citizens to report their fellow citizens to the White House for pure political speech that is deemed ‘fishy’ or otherwise inimical to the White House’s political interests,” Cornyn wrote.

On Thursday, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said the program was simply about correcting misinformation.

“Nobody is collecting names,” Gibbs said. “A lot of misinformation is out there. Some of it I think has been spread purposely. We have used on many occasions the Web site to debunk things that are simply not true. We ask people that have questions about health care and if what they’re hearing about [seems inaccurate]. And we’ll let them know if that isn’t true.”

When another reporter asked specifically what are the goals of getting information, Gibbs repeated that it was simply a matter of getting the truth out about the health care reform legislation under consideration in Congress and supported by President Barack Obama – a plan that would establish a public health care option to compete with private insurers and mandate that employers provide health care coverage.

“The particular goal is to get misinformation and clarify for everybody what the misinformation is,” Gibbs said. “I hope that isn’t new. It doesn’t seem to be. … The White House seeking to correct misinformation.”

In a blog posting Tuesday, the White House asked citizens to report “fishy” information about opponents of the health care legislation.

“There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care,” wrote Macon Phillips, director of New Media for the White House in a blog posting.

“These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain e-mails or through casual conversation. Since we can’t keep track of all of them here at the White House, we’re asking for your help. If you get an e-mail or see something on the Web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.”

Phillips also wrote, “Scary chain e-mails and videos are starting to percolate on the Internet, breathlessly claiming, for example, to ‘uncover’ the truth about the presidents health insurance reform position.”

The White House request for flagging opposition to the health care plan was alarming to Cornyn who wrote to President Obama asking him to “cease this program immediately.”

“By requesting that citizens send ‘fishy’ e-mails to the White House, it is inevitable that the names, e-mail addresses, IP addresses and private speech of U.S. citizens will be reported to the White House,” Cornyn’s letter said. “You should not be surprised that these actions taken by your White House staff raise the specter of a data collection program. As Congress debates health care reform and other critical policy matters, citizen engagement must not be chilled by fear of government monitoring the exercise of free speech rights.”

Comments by Obama have circulated through the Internet. In a 2003 speech posted on the Internet, Obama said, “I happen to be a proponent of a single-payer universal health care plan.”

“But as all of you know, we may not get there immediately, because first we've got to take back the White House, and we've got take back the Senate, and we've got to take back the House,” Obama said.

Cornyn wanted to know how restating what the president said six years ago, when he was an Illinois state legislator, was disinformation. He also asked the White House to explain how they “intend to use the names, e-mail addresses, IP addresses, and identities of citizens reported to have engaged in ‘fishy’ speech?”

Cornyn also wanted to know if the White House would notify citizens who were reported for “fishy” speech, and, “What action do you intend to take against citizens who have been reported for engaging in ‘fishy’ speech?”

“I can only imagine the level of justifiable outrage had your predecessor asked Americans to forward e-mails critical of his policies to the White House,” Cornyn wrote. “I suspect that you would have been leading the charge in condemning such a program – and I would have been at your side denouncing such heavy-handed government action."

Call the Tune: Union Makes Poor Choice in Selection of Messenger

MIKE ANTHONY

Executive Editor - Call Newspapers

August 05, 2009 - We have to admit we were surprised to see an International Association of Fire Fighters official present negotiation proposals to the Mehlville Fire Protection District Board of Directors last week on behalf of union employees. (TruthDetector: We were also surprised, but we presume that Local 1889's ineffective president, Nick Fahs, doesn't have the cahones to confront the Board himself, so he most likely thought that Wooly the Bully would get the Board's attention. Wooly DID achieve the Board's notice, however not in the manner that Fahs hoped for)

That official was Mark Woolbright, a captain with the Pattonville Fire Protection District and 2nd District vice president of the IAFF. That's really surprising because Mr. Woolbright hasn't exactly been an advocate for Mehlville residents. (TruthDetector: Wooly Bully was a big shot for Local 2665 before his consecration as IAFF VP. Local 2665 has fought the fire district reformers in South County for many years and have tried mightily to impede their progress - to no avail)

When Rep. Walt Bivins, R-Oakville, introduced legislation last year that sought to give the MFPD board the legal authority to place a tax-rate decrease measure before voters, three people testified against that proposal during a hearing before the Local Government Committee of the Missouri House. (TruthDetector: Mark Woolbright is typical of ALL public-sector union chieftains. They have to keep raising the taxes of the unfortunate taxpayers to finance their members' unbelievably high levels of monetary compensation, pension contributions and lifetime family medical coverage for their "fraternal" clan. The MFPD's attempt to CUT TAXES is an anathema to everything the union bosses want to force down the public's throats)

Mr. Woolbright, then serving as legislative affairs director of the Missouri State Council of Fire Fighters, was one of the three who testified against Rep. Bivins' legislation. (TruthDetector: The Missouri State Council of Fire Fighters bankrolled professional union hothead, Dennis "Jaw Breaker" Skelton's lawsuit against Aaron & Co. to remove Propositions I & 2 (tax-decreases) from the April 2009 ballot. Wooly wants higher taxes for us all so that HE looks good to all of his slavish adherents)

Despite Mr. Woolbright's efforts and the efforts of the Missouri State Council of Fire Fighters to block legislation permitting tax-rate-decrease measures to be placed on the ballot, MFPD residents overwhelmingly approved two such proposals in April. (TruthDetector: Wooly and the IAFF's embrace of the allegedly mafia-connected "Jaw Breaker" (see above) confirms our postulation that the IAFF is a corrupt operation from top to bottom)

Mr. Woolbright also is the same IAFF official who issued a news release last December criticizing MFPD Board of Directors Chairman Aaron Hilmer for comments Mr. Hilmer made after a Mehlville firefighter then serving as Local 1889 vice president was arrested on federal murder-for-hire charges. (TruthDetector: It is amazing to us that Mehlville's Local 1889 had their union's president and secretary TERMINATED for harassing another union member on the job AND their vice president taken away in handcuffs from the firehouse (by the FBI) for allegedly BEATING SOMEONE TO DEATH FOR MONEY. Corrupt? We report, you decide)

Mr. Woolbright's release referred to "unenlightened, self-serving comments'' made by Mr. Hilmer.

"... Those remarks are offensive to the law-abiding firefighters of the Mehlville Fire Protection District, and only serve to erode the confidence the citizens of the district have in their first responders," Mr. Woolbright stated in the release. "While Mr. Hilmer has made remarks to a number of reporters, he has prohibited employees of the Mehlville Fire Protection District from discussing the issue with the media.'' (TruthDetector: More LIES from the IAFF. Are you surprised?)

At the time, Mr. Hilmer told the Call the allegation he had prohibited district employees from discussing the issue with the media was "absolutely untrue."

Despite Local 1889's poor choice of a messenger, we hope the MFPD board will give the union's negotiation proposals all the consideration they deserve. (TruthDetector: These proposals from the unsavory folks at the IAFF DESERVE NO CONSIDERATION! The MFPD BOD has hopefully sent them into the abyss of the recycling bin)

IAFF Official Presents Negotiation Proposals to Mehlville Directors

MIKE ANTHONY

Executive Editor - Call Newspapers

August 05, 2009 - A pay increase for all employees and capping the pay differential for fire/medics are among negotiation proposals submitted to the Mehlville Fire Protection District Board of Directors last week by union employees.

Mark Woolbright, a captain with the Pattonville Fire Protection District and 2nd District vice president of the International Association of Fire Fighters, presented 21 proposals for negotiations to the Board of Directors on behalf of IAFF Local 1889. (TruthDetector: Mark Woobright is employed at the MOST CORRUPT fire district in St. Louis County. Several years ago, Pattonville's union (IAFF Local 2665) ILLEGALLY awarded CASH PAYMENTS to the district's Board of Directors as a GIFT for doing EVERYTHING THE UNION WANTED! Also, members of Pattonville racially harassed the district's only African-American employee culminating in the vandalism of his brand new truck by union honchos who scratched the word "nigg.." into the paint. Now Woolbright is going to dictate to a Board which is the MODEL OF REFORM in this county? We think not)

Besides proposing a pay increase for all employees and capping the pay differential for fire/medics at the current amount of $4,000 per year, Local 1889 wants to discuss increasing the number of vacation days, adding two personal days per year, upgrading the district's long-term disability policy and having the Board of Directors consider some type of matching funds for retirement contributions. (TruthDetector: As we asked before: Is Mark Woolbright smoking crack? Mr. Big-Shot union boss wants the taxpayers of MFPD to match the 100% taxpayer-funded pension contributions awarded to MFPD employees with another 100% taxpayer-funded pension contribution to match it? Wooly should be appointed to the Obama administration for his fine-honed ability to SPEND OUR MONEY to reward his political cronies and collect more dues for the IAFF. This is INSANE!!!)

Woolbright, accompanied by Local 1889 President Nick Fahs, presented the negotiation proposals to the board during a period for public comment. Fahs did not address the board. (TruthDetector: Fahs is as impotent as the union he heads. Woolbright was supposed to "shock" the BOD with his mere presence. We think Aaron Hilmer has already placed these stupid union dictums in the trash can!)

"... What we have this evening is some things, some items for your consideration and we're not asking for any decisions to be made this evening, but we would like to ... give this to you and at some point hopefully get a response back to where we could sit down and discuss some of the items that we feel would ... be effective in terms of the overall operations here with the department,'' Woolbright said. (TruthDetector: News flash for Wooly Bully: You wasted your time attending this meeting. The BOD will not "talk" to a corrupt quasi-criminal bunch like the IAFF. Especially when this union is harassing them by dragging the Board, Chief Officers and their friends into 6 to 8 hour depositions every day)

"Again, we're not asking for anything this evening other than your attention to these items that we're submitting and we look forward to sitting down with you in the real near future and see if we can work through some of these ...,'' he added. (TruthDetector: Wooly the Bully: You are living in a fantasy land!)

Board Chairman Aaron Hilmer told the Call he was surprised by the timing of the proposals being submitted to the board.

"... Quite honestly, I was kind of surprised at the whole timing of this. The board's not considering any changes at the district, so I was just kind of surprised that this all got dropped on us,'' he said. (TruthDetector: In other words, FORGET IT!)

But regarding the proposals submitted by Local 1889, Hilmer said, "I'm sure the Board of Directors will review these and if they have any questions or wish to follow up, we will then contact Mr. Woolbright and take it from there.'' (TruthDetector: Nicely put. Don't call us, we'll call you!)

The board chairman said he has not had the opportunity yet to thoroughly review Local 1889's proposals.

"... Certainly, I haven't had time to review it myself and I don't want to speak for the other two board members, though I know both of them are knee deep in preparing for another lawsuit that's been filed by the firefighters' union — the same one who dropped a big want list on our lap,'' Hilmer said. (TruthDetector: The BOD has been sequestered in meaningless depositions that are attempting to "prove" that disgraced former employees Bob Strinni and Jeri Fleschert were fired NOT because they stole a fellow union member's cell phone and used the contents to harass him at work, but because of their "union activities" of harassing fellow union employees. Oddly enough, the IAFF has employed high-powered and expensive Washington D.C. lawyers to manufacture a "wrongful termination" case that ignores the facts completely. The depositions are simply an avenue in which Bob Strinni can legally harass and interrogate the parties HE HOLDS RESPONSIBLE for his complete downfall and report the responses to his union cronies still employed at MFPD. (We even know their names since they are openly bragging about it) We hope you are having fun Bob, but you are GOING TO LOSE!)

Board Treasurer Bonnie Stegman and Secretary Ed Ryan currently are preparing for depositions in a federal lawsuit filed last year by the IAFF on behalf of two former district employees, Hilmer said.

Bob Strinni, a firefighter and president of Local 1889 of the International Association of Fire Fighters, and Jeri Fleschert, a paramedic and secretary of the Local 1889 Executive Board, were fired by the Board of Directors in June 2008 for what Mehlville officials termed a violation of the district's anti-harassment policy.

Strinni had been employed by the district since February 1994 while Fleschert had been employed by Mehlville since August 1985.

The lawsuit filed by the IAFF contends Strinni and Fleschert were fired by the Board of Directors for their union leadership activities. (TruthDetector: The South County community is fair-minded. If the harassment of fellow union members are legitimate "union activities", perhaps Tony Soprano is the TRUE ROLE MODEL for high union officials. We just need MORE CORRUPTION like Wooly Bully's Pattonville FPD and the union will be happy)

Though Hilmer has not yet had a chance to thoroughly review Local 1889's negotiation proposals, the cap of the pay differential for fire/medics stood out, he said.

Noting he was speaking for himself and not the board, Hilmer said, "This goes against everything we've done there. The fire/medic pay differential is an integral part of creating and maintaining a premier, progressive department that Mehlville is becoming ... We have changed from a government bureaucracy to a meritocracy where a person's achievements, education and worth will take them further, and, if anything, I think this differential will be increasing in the near future. The chances of this proposal passing are slim to none, and slim just left the building.'' (TruthDetector: We agree! These proposals are SO DUMB, we doubt that Board members got past the first page!)

Since taking office in April 2005, Hilmer and Stegman have focused on hiring only firefighter/paramedics to improve service to district residents.

In October 2005, Chief Jim Silvernail initiated the advanced life-support pumper program in which the district's pumpers provide advanced life support, or ALS, instead of just basic life support for medical emergencies.

For 2009, the board has set a goal of having a paramedic on each piece of district apparatus on a full-time basis.

Hilmer also questioned why Local 1889 had Woolbright present the proposals to the board.

"Mr. Woolbright, I thought he was an odd choice. The last time I heard from Mr. Woolbright, he was blathering some nonsense regarding the then-vice president of (Local) 1889 who was indicted on federal murder-for-hire charges,'' he said. "I was surprised they drug out someone with such little credibility to speak to the board.' (TruthDetector: Again, Wooly the Bully is employed by the most corrupt and TOTALLY UNION-CONTROLLED fire district in the Metro area. He has no credibility and even less moral turpitude. He needs to crawl back under his rock and remain there)

Pay Your Teachers Well

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

AUGUST 3, 2009

Their children’s hell will slowly go by.

The conflicting interests of teachers unions and students is an underreported education story, so we thought we’d highlight two recent stories in Baltimore and New York City that illustrate the problem.

The Ujima Village Academy is one of the best public schools in Baltimore and all of Maryland. Students at the charter middle school are primarily low-income minorities; 98% are black and 84% qualify for free or reduced-price school meals. Yet Ujima Village students regularly outperform the top-flight suburban schools on state tests. In 2006, 2007 and 2008, Ujima Village students earned the highest eighth-grade math scores in Maryland. Started in 2002, the school has met or exceeded state academic standards every year—a rarity in a city that boasts one of the lowest-performing school districts in the country.

Ujima Village is part of the KIPP network of charter schools, which now extends to 19 states and Washington, D.C. KIPP excels at raising academic achievement among disadvantaged children who often arrive two or three grade-levels behind in reading and math. KIPP educators cite longer school days and a longer school year as crucial to their success. At KIPP schools, kids start as early as 7:30 a.m., stay as late as 5 p.m., and attend school every other Saturday and three weeks in the summer.

However, Maryland’s charter law requires teachers to be part of the union. And the Baltimore Teachers Union is demanding that the charter school pay its teachers 33% more than other city teachers, an amount that the school says it can’t afford. Ujima Village teachers are already paid 18% above the union salary scale, reflecting the extra hours they work. To meet the union demands, the school recently told the Baltimore Sun that it has staggered staff starting times, shortened the school day, canceled Saturday classes and laid off staffers who worked with struggling students. For teachers unions, this outcome is a victory; how it affects the quality of public education in Baltimore is beside the point.

Meanwhile, in New York City, some public schools have raised money from parents to hire teaching assistants. Last year, the United Federation of Teachers filed a grievance about the hiring, and city education officials recently ordered an end to the practice. “It’s hurting our union members,” said a UFT spokesman, even though it’s helping kids and saving taxpayers money. The aides typically earned from $12 to $15 an hour. Their unionized equivalents cost as much as $23 an hour, plus benefits.

“School administrators said that hiring union members not only would cost more, but would also probably bring in people with less experience,” reported the New York Times. Many of the teaching assistants hired directly by schools had graduate degrees in education and state teaching licenses, while the typical unionized aide lacks a four-year degree.

The actions of the teachers unions in both Baltimore and New York make sense from their perspective. Unions exist to advance the interests of their members. The problem is that unions present themselves as student advocates while pushing education policies that work for their members even if they leave kids worse off. Until school choice puts more money and power in the hands of parents, public education will continue to put teachers ahead of students.

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