The latest on Air Claire

Missouri's senior senator, Democrat Claire McCaskill, who you'll have the chance to vote out of office next November, recently admitted to improperly billing taxpayers for use of an airplane that she owned on political trips not government business.

Now it turns out that McCaskill - a former auditor - failed to pay $287,000.00 in personal property taxes on that very same plane.  (Link to story here.)

Is Claire a crook?  Or, best case scenario, she just can't keep track of "minor" things like taxes she owes.  After all, $287,000.00 is just pocket change for McCaskill.

Either way, does she really deserve to keep her job representing our state in Washington?

Crystal Ball says . . . Republicans take the House of Representatives in November and may take the Senate too!

Get out your crystal balls.  Not just any crystal balls, though, only the new "Crystal Ball" prediction from the "typically cautious [so says U.S. News & World Report] Larry Sabato, head of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics."  Sabato says that the GOP has a "good chance to win the House by picking up as many as 47 seats, net."  (Link to U.S. News report here.)  Republicans only need a gain of 40 for a majority.

Honestly, in my opinion, it would take massive complacency, fraud, or a big October/November surprise to  keep the House in Democrats' hands.

But the real news is in the Sabato's Senate predictions where, to gain control, Republicans need a net gain of 10 seats.  9 would split the Senate down the middle but vice president Joe Biden could break the tie in favor of the Democrats.  And gaining 10 seats when only 19 seats currently held by Democrats are up for election is a tall order but according to Sabato:

"In the Senate, we now believe the GOP will do a bit better than our long-time prediction of +7 seats.  Republicans have an outside shot at winning full control (+10), but are more likely to end up with +8 (or maybe +9, at which point it will be interesting to see how senators such as Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, and others react).  . . . The inescapable conclusion is that the Senate is on the bubble, with only a slight lean at Labor Day toward Democratic retention."


So, why should we care about Larry Sabato's Crystal Ball?  According to U.S. News, "Sabato has a near flawless record of accurate predictions."

Don't count any chickens yet.  Don't get complacent.  Don't start infighting.

Fuel up the GOP bandwagon and push for a Republican rout in November.

In Missouri, that means Roy Blunt!  Roy Blunt!  Roy Blunt!

For those of you reading from across the river in Illinois, it means Mark Kirk!  Mark Kirk!  Mark Kirk!

THE most important thing that you can do for your country in 2010 is vote Republican on November 2. I can't say that enough.

stltoday.com covering for Robin Carnahan?

Here's a link to the story.  Note that the story covers a blunder by the Missouri Secretary of State and the headline correctly lambasts the "error."  But, just who is the blundering, error-prone Secretary of State?  Don't look to the story, the answer isn't in there.  It is Robin Carnahan . . . the Democrat's candidate for U.S. Senate.  stltoday.com and its parent, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, apparently don't want to call attention to that fact . . . but I will . . .

Robin Carnahan's office made "a counting error" and "nearly left a qualified independent candidate for State Senate off the November ballot."

Proposition C . . . a message to Barack Obama and the Democrats

Missouri's Proposition C, purportedly allowing Missourians to "opt out" of Obamacare's mandatory healthcare coverage provisions, is passing with overwhelming numbers.  (Link here.)

Legally, that probably won't matter as federal law will preempt the new state law but that wasn't the point of Proposition C.  The point was to send a clear message to the advocates of the Democrats' healthcare "reform" package that was wheeled, dealed, and lied into law earlier this year.  Consider the message sent.

But, unfortunately, I doubt that the intended audience is listening.  How long has it been since the Democrats in Washington gave a [darn] about what us common folk out in the country thought?  Have they ever?  I don't see much evidence that Barack Obama, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi or their ilk are very concerned about what we think.

I am curious to see if the message gets through closer to home.  What will the Democrats' newly-minted nominee for the U.S. Senate say about Obamacare now that the voters she's courting have spoken with such a loud voice?

I'm curious but that's about all.  Robin Carnahan is an Obamite, through and through.  Whatever she says now, she'll be saying to get elected.  If elected, she'll be a rubber stamp for the Obama agenda.  (For fun, check out this link.)

Seriously, the elections this November matter - a great deal.  Missouri needs Roy Blunt.  America needs Roy Blunt.

I can't say it enough.  And I'll be saying it often for the next three months.

How's that "hope" and "change" working out for Macon, Missouri?

Barack Obama will be in Macon, Missouri, tomorrow.  It will be a photo-op where the president pretends to be listening to real people from the rural community in the northeastern part of the state.  Pretend, of course, is the key to that sentence.  Roy Blunt is actually listening to real people from Macon.  Here are a few of them:



It seems pretty clear that Obama's "hope" and "change" isn't helping Main Street as promised.  In fact, it is hurting.  Now isn't the time to send the liberals another vote in the U.S. Senate.

A ban on red light cameras in Missouri . . . it is closer than you might think.

The Missouri Senate, by a 23-8 vote, passed an amendment to a transportation bill today banning red light traffic cameras anywhere in the state.  (Link to story here.)  The bill isn't final yet, though, and still faces legislative hurdles.  But, if the bill becomes law, it would be a victory for freedom, privacy, and the Constitution.

Kudos to Senator Jim Lembke (R-St. Louis) for sponsoring the amendment.  Keep up the fight!

True or False: No one is above the law.

False.  Missouri's governor, Democrat Jay Nixon, apparently believes that he is above the law.  Nixon recently signed a bill into law and then, immediately, declared that he wouldn't follow it.  (Link to story here.)

Governor, you're wrong.  Here's my call to Attorney General Chris Koster (another Democrat, at least I think he's a Democrat this month) to sue.

Blood samples without a warrant . . . are they kidding?

The Missouri House of Representatives, by a wide margin, has passed a bill "to crack down on Missouri's drunken drivers."  (Link to story here.)  

Well, who could be against "cracking down" on drunk drivers?  I'm not.  By all means, "crack down."

But wait a minute.  The devil is usually in the details.  What does "crack down" mean?  Well, in this case, according to the official summary of the bill, it means 19 different things.  Some of them are good and some innocuous.  On the other hand, the bill "allows a blood sample to be extracted without consent and without a warrant from any person suspected of operating a motor vehicle in an intoxicated condition if the person has refused to submit to a chemical test."

If this bill becomes law, it would mean that the police would have the right to have you strapped down, stuck with a needle, and bled without your consent and without having a judge review the facts of your arrest and sign off on a warrant beforehand.  All this in the name of being tough on drunk driving.  A Show-Me style police state?  Do we really want that?

Representative Mike Colona (D-St. Louis) was one of 28 votes against the bill and against 123 in favor.  Colona is a liberal Democrat and I suspect that we disagree on nearly everything but he's right on the money this time, calling the passed bill "an end run around the rights guaranteed in the Fourth and Fifth Amendments."

I understand the motivation of the supporters of this bill.  They must be frustrated that individual drunken drivers can refuse breathalyzers and blood tests and avoid prosecution for their offenses.  It takes to long, I'm sure they would say, to get a warrant.  The driver could sober up.

But the problem shouldn't be solved by trampling the Constitution.  No, the problem should be resolved by expediting the warrant process.  If the police have probable cause to genuinely believe that a driver was drunk, and that driver refused to provide a sample for chemical analysis, it should be possible to have a judge on call to review a legitimate request for a warrant and issue one if the circumstances call for it.

If there is a problem, it is with the warrant PROCESS, not with the warrant REQUIREMENT.

This is an example of good people, with good motivations, using the wrong means to reach their laudable goals.  But this bill must be stopped in the Missouri Senate.

Anybody going to see Barack Obama tomorrow? Not you. Not me. And not Robin Carnahan.

President Obama will be delivering a speech tomorrow afternoon at St. Charles High School.  But will he be facing a crowd of typical Missourians?  A representative sample?

No way.  Typical Missourians would boo Obama off the stage.  A representative sample would be overwhelmingly against Obamacare.

The Democrats can't be seen with real people these days.  They have to be hand-picked props.  To ensure an enthusiastic response and an artificial photo-op or sound-bite of cheering throngs, Obama's speech is by invitation only.  (Link to story here.)

But even though she's an enthusiastic supporter of Obama's, Robin Carnahan, the Democrats' U.S. Senate nominee-in-waiting, won't be seen with him.  Nope.  Even though I begged her to appear with her party's president and sink her campaign (link here), she didn't take the bait.  Instead, Carnahan will be in Washington, D.C. tomorrow.  (Link here.)

That's too bad.  So I'll try one more time . . . Please Robin.  Pretty please.  Change your plans and stand up with your guy.

Caller: Missouri forces fabricated reports on "stimulus" jobs

Minutes ago on KMOX, I was listening to the Rush Limbaugh Show in my car before stopping for lunch.  I caught a conversation between Limbaugh and a caller who chose to remain anonymous.  The caller identified himself as the superintendent of a Missouri school district that through the state's funding formula received money from the federal "stimulus" plan.  In the Fall of 2009, Missouri officials required this superintendent to complete a report stating the number of jobs created with or saved by the federal funds provided.  The district had not hired any additional personnel and had not planned to lay anyone off before receiving them money so, being an honest man, the superintendent reported to the state that no jobs had been created and no jobs had been saved.  A few days after submitting the accurate report, a state official contacted the superintendent and informed him that he was not allowed to report zeros.  Instead, he was ordered to submit a new report claiming that jobs were created or saved with "stimulus" money.  Not wanting to bite the hand that feeds his district, the superintendent complied and submitted a fabricated, false report.

As Rush commented, if it happened once, we can bet that it happened on many, many such reports.  (Is there an investigative journalist in the state?)

Do not believe any of the government figures on jobs created or saved.  They are fictional.

The truth is that the "stimulus" plan was an abject failure.  It failed to stimulate the economy and failed to hold down the unemployment rate, as the Democrats, including the president, claimed it would.  The only thing that it succeeded in doing is creating a massive political slush fund and driving up the national debt at a rate and to heights never seen before.

And unless they're stopped, the Democrats are ready to do it again.  Keep the pressure on and throw the bums out of office as soon as you get the chance.

Freeze Legislators' Expense Allowances? Absolutely!

How many Missourians know that their elected representatives, on top of a $35,915.00 annual salary for a part-time job, are paid an additional $87.20 per day for expenses while the General Assembly is in session?  And how many know that that per diem is going up to $103.20 per day?

Very few, I'm sure.

With the economy in the tank and the legislature looking to cut the state's budget, it makes sense to freeze the legislators' expense allowance or even (heaven forbid!) roll it back a bit.

Kudos to Columbia Senator Kurt Schaefer for proposing a freeze.  (Link to Political Fix  story here.)

Missouri Representative quits A.M.A. over Obamacare

Nathan Phillips at Missouri Today News reports that Dr. Rob Schaff, a Republican State Representative from St. Joseph has quit the American Medical Association because it has "ignored the best interests of patients, opting to protect the special interests" by endorsing Harry Reid's version of Obamacare.  (Direct link to story here.)  Rep. Schaff is urging his colleagues to quit too.  Here's hoping they listen.

An interesting line in a Post puff piece on Claire McCaskill

Bill Lambrecht wrote a fluff story about Senator Claire McCaskill in today's Post-Dispatch.  (Link here.)  It isn't much of a read - mostly talking about how she's taking on waste and standing up to her own party and being a conservative (ha!) Democrat in Washington - but buried within the piece is this quotation from McCaskill:

"It's OK if I don't get re-elected.  I've just kind of decided that, hey, I'm just going to do this, and Missouri's hard, so there's a chance, you know that I won't get re-elected.  And if I don't, that's OK.  It's not the end of the world."

That's interesting Senator.  Allow me to translate for your constituents - what that means is . . . "though you elected me in a representative capacity, I don't really give a flying you-know-what about your opinion.  I'm going to do whatever I want even if Missourians disagree with me by the boatload."

Here's one thing that Claire McCaskill and I agree on.  It certainly is OK if she doesn't get reelected.

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree

In the late 1980's, I spent some time in Jefferson City.  Elbert Walton, Jr. was serving in the Missouri House of Representatives at the time.  During a debate over legislative pay raises, Walton took the floor to explain why he would vote to raise his own pay.  He said that he would rather his constituents think that he was greedy than think he was stupid.

Walton's daughter, Rochelle Walton Gray (D-Black Jack), now serves in the Missouri House.  According to this story from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Ms. Gray is "pushing two bills" in the General Assembly that would directly benefit her father.

Maybe she would rather her constituents think that she is corrupt than think she is stupid.

The two faces of Claire McCaskill

In August, in Missouri, Senator Claire McCaskill promised that she would vote against any healthcare bill that included federal funding for abortion.  (Link here.)

Today, in Washington, Senator Claire McCaskill voted with her pro-abortion party leadership to table her fellow Democrat, Ben Nelson's amendment that would have prohibited the use of federal funds for abortion.  (Link here.)

From this point forward (if it wasn't obvious already) your state's junior senator is a party hack.  And if you're foolish enough to believe a word she says, well, you're a fool.

The time is now to hold Senator Claire McCaskill to her word. Please e-mail her now and urge her to keep her promise.

On August 11, 2009, Senator Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) promised attendees at a town hall meeting in Hillsboro that she would not support a healthcare "reform" bill that included federal funding for abortions.  (Link here.)

Senator Harry Reid's healthcare "reform" bill includes federal funding for abortions.  (Link here.)

That bill will be the subject of a G.O.P. let filibuster and a vote to close debate has been set for a vote tomorrow evening (8:00 p.m., 7:00 central).  (Link here.)

The time is NOW for Missourians to remind Sen. McCaskill of her town hall promise.

PLEASE LINK HERE TO SEND McCASKILL AN E-MAIL.

Please remind her that if she fails to keep her word, Missourians will remember at the polls in 2012.

Emanuel Cleaver's Big Idea

Kansas City Congressman Emanuel Cleaver, a Democrat, has a "brilliant" idea.  He wants to declare next Wednesday as "Complaint Free Wednesday."  (Link to story here.)

I'll tell you what Congressman Cleaver . . . if you, Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, all your other liberal friends in Washington, and America's enemies around the world agree to give me nothing to complain about Wednesday, I won't complain that day.  But a silly gesture like "Complaint Free Wednesday" can't silence your critics . . . not when the country hangs in the balance.

Robin Carnahan's ties to ACORN spotlighted in GOP ad

Early voting . . . a bad idea resurfaces

Jo Mannies at the St. Louis Beacon reports that an initiative petition has surfaced to allow Missourians to vote before election day.  (Link here.)  Missouri already allows voters with reason to cast absentee ballots but this proposal would allow anybody to vote early with or without a reason, good, bad, or indifferent.

There are reasons for Election DAY.  Here are just a few that come quickly to mind . . .

First and foremost, the campaigns don't end until election day.  Every election year we find out more and more about candidates for public office in the days before the vote takes place.

Second, the chance of fraud rises with early voting.  Common sense and logistics tells us that much.  Without Santa-like powers, it would be much more difficult to travel from place to place, state to state, poll to poll, casting multiple ballots in a single day, than over whatever time period early voting was allowed.  Is it any wonder that St. Louis City Democrats (Mayor Francis Slay) advocate early voting?

Third, early voting allows the votes of folks who, may they rest in peace, are no longer citizens of the United States but of the Great Beyond to be counted in elections.  For example, link here.  Maybe I'm cold and unfeeling but shouldn't elections be decided by the living?

Another St. Louis Democrat going to jail

Last month saw State Senator Jeff Smith and Representative Steve Brown plead guilty to corruption charges.  (Link here.)  

Today Representative T.D. El-Amin plead guilty to federal bribery charges.  (Link here.)

What might happen at the end of October?

Will any Democrats be left when the Missouri legislature reopens in January?