Sinquefield Flack Admits City/County Unificaiton Plan Is About Eliminating Earnings Tax

St. Louis Business Journals noted recently that "Republican strategist" Gregg Keller tweeted that he was in favor of the City/County unification plan proposed by right-wing millionare Rex Sinquefield's group Better Together STL because it would get rid of St. Louis's earning tax:

Earnings tax: gutted. City aldermanic system: gutted. Dozens of governmental entities: gutted. Hundreds of millions in annual governmental duplication: gutted. https://t.co/dpUp5TBNCi

— Gregg Keller (@RGreggKeller) December 30, 2018

What they didn't note, however, was that Keller is a member of the board of Rex's original right-wing think tank, the Show Me Institute. So it seems like he might have a pretty good idea of what the real intentions are behind this plan. And, of course, the earnings tax has long been a white whale for Rex, since wrecking the state economy of Kansas ceased to be amusing. And for anyone wondering just how much old Rex values independent thinking in those on his payroll, keep in mind that the muesum he bankrolls recently ran an exhibit titled, literally, "The Sinquefield Effect."

Rex Sinquefield Refers To International Master in Chess as "Some Blond"

The favorite right-wing millionare of the corporate wing of the St. Louis Democrats disgraced himself even more than usual last November by referring to Anna Rudolph, an International Master of chess, as "some blond" on the Today in Chess program. As was pointed out by many chess commentators, Rex himself has not achieved IM status.

Found it... pic.twitter.com/Ae8N0vbR2s

— Charlie the Chess Cat (@CharlieChessCat) November 11, 2018

It's just so strange that Rex engaged in such blatant sexism, since all of the St. Louis Rexocrats kept telling me that old man Rex is a committed libertarian who's, like, totally cool and compassionate on social issues even while he works tirelessly to defund state and city governments. It's almost as if he's just a typical old cranky conservative who figured out how that he can buy off unprincipled "Democrats" in order to get them to sell out the citizens of cities like St. Louis and Kansas City.

To Disincentivize Dishonesty, Planned Parenthood Should Sue

Right-wing activists released a video today dishonestly claiming that Planned Parenthood is "selling body parts" of aborted fetuses in violation of federal law. You can watch the dishonest video here and the full footage here. In the deliberately deceptive video, the video editors repeatedly refer to laws banning the sale of organs from aborted fetuses and refer to one of the undercover people as the "buyer," suggesting that they were planning a transaction with Planned Parenthood and started a twitter hashtag #ppsellsbabyparts.

However, in the full video, the faux "buyer" actually says, regarding the purpose of the meeting,  (2:27) "I wanna pick your brain..." which suggests an informal conversation rather than any plans for a transaction.  And at (4:22) the "buyer" says "I'd really like to connect with people who...they don't know that we're out there" which again clearly suggests that they are not asking Planned Parenthood to sell body parts. At no point in the video does the Planned Parenthood employee suggest that they are open to selling body parts.

Moreover, in the video, Dr. Nucatola of Planned Parenthood makes it very clear that Planned Parenthood providers are not going to be making money off of these procedures. Here's what she says at the 5:00 mark:

 Every provider has had patients who want to donate their tissue, and they absolutely want to accommodate them...they just want to do it in a way that is not perceived as 'this clinic is selling tissue. this clinic is making money off of this.' I know in the Planned Parenthood World, for example, they're very very sensitive to that and for an affiliate that's going to do that, they need to...some might do it for free...[but] they want to come to a number where it doesn't look like they're making money.  They want to come to a number that looks like it is a reasonable effort for the effort that is allotted on their part.

And during a longer conversation at the end (2:22:26-2:27:00 ), you can see that the phonies are trying to push payments, and Dr. Nucatola is giving them the message that aside from not losing money, the clinics will not do the procedures in exchange for money.  She says, at various times:

• 2:22:26: "At the end of the day, if you're going to take money out of the equation, which is what most affiliates are trying to do, how can we do this for you in the most beneficial way"
• 2:24:52 "Anything you can do to explain who's benefitting, the benevolence of what they're doing, I think that holds as much value as any cash prize." 
• 2:26:00 "Perhaps the difference is affiliates are looking to benefit in very different ways than just dollars and cents. Again, they're not going to do it in a way that costs them money. They want to break even. They want to be compensated for time and space and whatever impact that it has."

In fact, just to underlie how willfully dishonest the "Center for Medical Progress" is being, both of the "buyers" acknowledge in the video that Planned Parenthood is not selling tissue.

• Buyer #1 (1:29:05): "I never see that. I don't look at it that way.  We're not selling tissue."
• Buyer #2 (1:29:29): "The researchers are paying for procurement...they're not buying a brain."

Gawker explains the covering of expenses in more detail:

Except that, as Planned Parenthood told The Hill, its affiliates “can legally receive reimbursement from a tissue donation procedure for the ‘additional expenses related tissue donation, which can vary based on individual circumstance,’ but it does not go to staff members or providers.” These “additional expenses” might be the $10-30 it costs to transport the tissue being donated, which Planned Parenthood notes is “standard across the medical field.” And no, the patient donating the tissue doesn’t receive any financial reimbursement either.

The "Center for Medical Progress," the group behind this video, was clearly being intentionally dishonest in implying that Planned Parenthood was "selling body parts" in violation of federal law.  Planned Parenthood should sue them for everything they're worth, and should find out through the process of discovery who else was involved in this dishonest campaign.  If our legal system is even remotely adequate, this type of nonsense should be punishable to an extent that makes it clear that these dishonest tactics are not worth it.

Right-Wing Bloggers Gloriously Prove They Have No Idea How Elections Work

We all know the tea party used to go to great lengths to exaggerate the size of crowds at their events.  But even so, they were at least capable of drawing something that could legitimately be called a crowd.  That no longer seems to be the case.  Mike Flynn, a co-founder of Breitbart, ran a "campaign" for disgraced Republican Congressman Aaron Schock's vacated seat, and one of his big events was a "Flags and Fun" rally featuring Jim Hoft in the same Quincy Illinois park that had hosted several large tea party events in the past.  This time around, they couldn't even draw 50 people:

What's more, the right-wing blogosphere went all in for Flynn.  Breitbart.com, of course, wrote numerous articles attacking his primary opponent LaHood (often, unsurprisingly, without noting the conflict of interest), but that was just the tip of the iceberg.  Many (most?) rightwing bloggers billed this as an epic battle between the "grassroots" and the establishment.  And guess what?  The establishment, aka LaHood, won the primary by over 40% of the vote.  It was an absolute landslide.  It was almost as if conservative bloggers were trying to prove that they are completely beholden to the whims of the establishment GOP.  When they're not being actively propped up by Americans for Prosperity, or Fox News, or the health insurance or coal industries, they really have no ability to make much of a difference in elections, even in deep red districts like Illinois 18.

What are they up to now? Gateway Pundit Edition

Remember Jim Hoft, aka Gateway Pundit, who has repeatedly promoted white supremacist websites including the Council of Conservative Citizens, especially for their "black on white" crime stories (even long after being called out by mainstream media outlets), who deletes comments from liberals at his website but leaves up comments calling black people the n-word, animals, and crackheads, and who claims that the NAACP are "the real racists."  What has he been up to?

Sadly, even in the wake of the horrific Charleston shootings perpetuated by a deranged racist, Hoft continues to allow his website to be a hub for internet racists.  Here is a sample of blatantly racist comments on The Gateway Pundit Facebook page *after* the shooting (there are plenty more from the week before as well):

WARNING: Offensive content below

 link

link 

 link

 link

 link

link

You'd like to think that there are life events that are so tragic, so momentous that they can get even people like Jim Hoft to stop for a moment and reconsider whether they really should be using their websites to flame white racal resentment.  Unfortunately, there's not much evidence to support that hope. 

Behold: A Burnsian Masterpiece!

  Charles C Johnson Gawker Defamation Lawsuit by Milo Yiannopoulos

See also here and here.

I really hope James O'Keefe, like Johnson, will rely exclusively on his buddy Burns for legal advice.

What are they up to now? John Burns Edition

Remember John Burns, the guy who teamed up with James O'Keefe to falsely accuse Washington University of oppressing free speech, then tried to sabotage a marriage equality rally, then heroically lost a public transportation ballot initiative in humiliating fashion by claiming the Republican Mayor of Chesterfield personally ordered police to shut down a tea party protest, oh, and who helped O'Keefe come up with a plan to sexually humiliate a CNN reporter?

What's he been up to?

He's been lawyerin for Chuck C. Johnson, that's what!

The John Diehl Fiasco Was Not An Isolated Incident

Missouri House Speaker John Diehl resigned today after getting caught sexting with a 19-year old intern.  However, I think it's important to note that, at least according to quite a few people who have worked in Jefferson City, this is not an outlier in the Missouri Legislature.  Since I haven't seen this anywhere else, I thought it might be helpful to collect some examples of public comments made about this.

First, just to show this isn't a recent development, here's what Senator McCaskill wrote about her time as an intern back in 1974:

“It was the first time I experienced moments of being very uncomfortable as a young woman surrounded by lots of men,” McCaskill writes. “There were inappropriate things said to me and inappropriate behaviors that made me very uneasy.”

Part of her gopher activities included running errands to the upper floors of the Capitol:

“One day I ended up in the elevator with two older male legislators and one of their assistants. They began asking if I liked ‘to party’ and then tried to get me to come to one of their offices for some drinks. I felt trapped. For the rest of the internship, I took the stairs.”

In 2009, State Senator Joan Bray gave an impassioned speech during a fillibuster that pissed off many of her Republican colleagues.  Here's an excerpt:

I am sick of the disrespect for women who come to the Capitol defending a woman's legal right to choose an abortion.

I am sick that they're being treated dismissively and rudely.

I'm sick of the ethic around here that men are pro-life for their wives and pro-choice for their girlfriends.

In response to the Diehl story, one woman I know who was previously an intern in Jefferson City wrote on Facebook that "today's news does not surprise me at all."  Another woman with first hand experience wrote that Missouri Republicans have, "zero respect shown for young women," and added that she heard a male Missouri legislator call Bray a "c#nt" during her filibuster, causing two other male legislators to laugh.

Another commenter on Facebook mentioned that Rich Chrismer, when he was a Missouri Representative, commented to her that he had a "very good sex life" (without specifying with whom).  Chrismer recently settled a sexual harrasment lawsuit filed by three former workers in his capacity as the elections director of St. Charles County.

Of course there's the sordid tale of Rod Jetton who plead guilty of assault after "he struck a woman in the face and choked her before and during sex at her Sikeston, Mo., home in November 2009." 

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/news/government-politics/article20842023.html#storylink=cpy

Tony Messenger, in an excellent editorial about the Diehl episode and the broader disaster of the Missouri Legislature, mentioned an incident in which Diehl's predecessor Scott Muschany was busted having an affair with a Mid-Missouri woman and accused of forcing her 14 year old daughter to inappropriately touch him (he was found not guilty of the crime). 

And, so you don't think this is only Democrats claiming that there's a problem, former Republican State Senator John Lamping had the following comments about the Diehl story in the Kansas City Star:

Former Missouri state Sen. John Lamping, a Republican from suburban St. Louis, said the texts suggest an unacceptable political environment in the state Capitol.

“This epitomizes the culture in Jeff City,” he said. “This is what happens. … This is a high-profile, apparently well-documented circumstance, but it is not an isolated incident. It is standard procedure. It’s remarkable.”

And Lamping later said the following on Mark Reardon's radio show:

This epitomizes the behavior down there [in the capitol] and it's a bipartison set of behavior...A lot of people get into office and are very comfortable with what their status will be, and then...there's too many people who don't just go back to their homes at the end of the session and they're out and about and circumstances like this happen and they happen far too frequently, certainly, more than they ever should.

A coalition of Missouri legislators also circulated a petition today stating the following:

Dozens of talented and hard-working young people serve as interns in the Missouri Capitol each year, and they play an important role in legislative operations.  We must ensure them a safe environment to work and learn free from the inappropriate attentions of elected officials.

With all of that smoke, I think we can be pretty sure there's a fire.  Hopefully, the Diehl incident provides the necessary spark to reform the frat culture of the Missouri Legislature.  People, even hypocritical Bible-thumpers, should be allowed to do whatever they want in their free time as long as they're not hurting anyone else.  But when they create an atmosphere that systematically demeans and devalues women, the situation needs to change.

James O'Keefe Caught in the Act

Good segment on Chris Hayes exposing James O'Keefe's dishonest editing:



This isn't a surprise for those of us who paid attention, but it is a particularly nice example.

And why is this relevant for St. Louis?  The local tea party fever that came and went (but which still has a pernicious influence on politics) was based in large part on emulation of the dishonest tactics employed by Breitbart and O'Keefe.  Any immoral action was justified as long as it was in service of their "WAR".

MIssouri DESE Posts Story Suggesting Nicastro Unilaterally Made Decision On Contoversial Consultant

@MOEducation, the Twitter feed for the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) posted a link today to a story by a Kansas City group called "Do The Right Thing For Kids:"

The post was full of the usual, "if caring about children is wrong, I don't wanna be right" fluff of Nicastro defenders that steadfastly avoids the actual issues at the heart of the controversy, but what was especially strange is that it included the following passage:

So according to this account, Nicastro "hire[d], in her judgment, the best consultant." That's funny, because I thought that the consultant was supposed to be determined by the scores of four separate evaluators who graded the different proposals according to different criteria like "cost" and "personnel".  The State Board President Peter Herschend said the process was "open and competitive." Of course, there are many reasons for questioning whether that evaluation process was rigged from the start, but I'm a little surprised that DESE would tweet out a story that openly states Nicastro made the decision herself given that they were claiming it was a fair process determined by a scoring system.  You would think they would at least offer some correction or note stating that the story incorrectly described the process.

Unless, of course, Nicastro really did unilaterally make the decision.

Tea Party's Star Gladney Witness Found Guilty of Fraud, Blames Gay And Pro-Abortion Activists

Remember when tea partiers were completely humiliated during their fabricated story about evil "union thugs" brutally beating a guy selling tea party merchandise?  One of the tea party's alleged "witnesses" of the "brutal beating" was Harris Himes, a Montana pastor oddly attending a St. Louis political event who told conflicting stories about what he saw.  After a jury took less than an hour to reach a not guilty verdict for the "union thugs," Himes sent a letter to Gateway Pundit Jim Hoft, one of the primary pushers of the fabricated story, declaring that the trial was a "miscarriage of justice."

So yeah, about that guy:

A Ravalli County jury found Hamilton pastor Harris Himes guilty on three felony counts of securities fraud Friday...

The charges followed a yearlong investigation by the state Office of the Commissioner of Securities and Insurance on accusations that Himes and another pastor, James “Jeb” Bryant, promised a Hamilton man a large return on $150,000 of his inheritance for his investment in the Mexican-based building materials company Duratherm Building Systems.

The man told the jury this week that he was surprised when he traveled to Mexico to find the factory was nothing more than an empty agricultural shed.

Oh, and guess who he previously blamed the charges on:

Himes went on to claim that gay and pro-abortion activists may be behind the charges against him and co-defendant James "Jeb" Bryant, another self-proclaimed pastor.

Himes seems like quite a guy.  He's the perfect spokesperson for Jim Hoft's right-wing victimization fantasies.

St. Louis Public Radio Story on the Nicastro Scandal

Dale Singer has a nice story up at the newly merged St. Louis Public Radio/Beacon site on the Nicastro controversy.  There's a lot in there, so please read the whole thing, but here are a few highlights:

Senator Maria Chappelle-Nadal says that Nicastro has not been honest during her time at DESE:

“My total issue,” she said, “has been her not being transparent and telling the truth. She tells school board members one thing and she tells senators and representatives something else. Since I serve in both capacities, I’m hearing both sides.”

Specifically, Chappelle-Nadal complained that when Normandy absorbed the Wellston school district in 2010, she was told that the district would not lose accreditation for at least three years. The district lost accreditation two years later, leading to the student transfers that have resulted in serious financial problems and questions about whether the district can survive.

“When you make a commitment,” Chappelle-Nadal said, “you stick to your commitment. The one thing I will never ever ever ever tolerate is an administrator who misrepresents the truth and makes misstatements and outright lies.

It doesn't look like the controversy is going away any time soon.  The Kansas City School District filed suit to prevent the state's breakup of their school district, stating that Nicastro has been working "covertly to orchestrate a breakup of (the district) into charter schools."

And Tom Schweich has asked for documents to investigate Nicastro's decision to change wording on DESE's cost estimate (or lack thereof).  There are reasons, however, to be skeptical about the chances of Schweich taking any action that would negatively impact Sinqeufield's agenda. Many reasons.

Mike Jones, a senior policy adviser to Charlie Dooley and the vice president of the state board of education, had a jaw-dropping quote:

“But the process of making the sausage is a different issue. I’m big on accountability. I think transparency is fairly overrated. Transparency is a liberal fetish. It’s way overemphasized.”

 His full quote is a little more nuanced and contains some interesting observations:

“On one side you have the education reform establishment. There is a small group of people who want it to work for all children, then there are two other groups: libertarians, who live in a fantasy world and don’t believe in public education, and corporate interests, who see education as a cash cow.

“Then you have the education establishment. They are genuinely concerned about the education of kids, except they collectively seem to lack the will to fundamentally change the way we deliver public education. They have lost the moral high ground.”

It sounds like Jones is thoughtful about this issue, but I have a feeling the transparency quote is not going to go over very well and will lead to future headaches.

Finally, I wanted to make sure to flag this important tidbit:

Sinquefield has declined repeated requests for an interview on his stand on education issues.

Rex spends millions to bend state policy to his will, relying on slick advertising campaigns and predetermined "reports" from stink tanks rather than comprehensive, honest debate.  So it figures that he would not want to answer questions about his true views.  

The Usual Suspects Say Open and Transparent Government is Overrated

Republican Jay Barnes wrote a blog post claiming that the Nicastro scandal wasn't really a scandal because, I guess, unions are bad, and they have secret bad motives.  How exactly the claim that unions are big meanies gets Nicastro off the hook for pushing for a no bid contract and then rigging the process is left unexplained, but that didn't stop Rex Sinquefeld's favorite Democrats from declaring that the Republican's post was a vindication of Nicastro.

Martin Casas, of course, declared that the Nicastro scandal "is a total farce:"

(note the "favorite" by the director of one of Sinquefield's front groups)

And Robbyn Wahby linked to the post saying that it revealed "the full story:"

Wahby, however, is a member of CEE-Trust, so it's not exactly surprising that she's a fan of rigged processes that get CEE-Trust lucrative contracts:

Not surprising. But worth noting.  And twenty years from now, if school privatization has gone bonkers and the schools are still a mess, it will be worth remembering.

Every Nicastro Story Should Include These Details

The Kansas City schools scandal with Missouri Education Commissioner Chris Nicastro is worse than it is being portrayed in many media outlets.  Not only did Nicastro originally try for a no-bid contract to CEE-Trust and promise a job to a guy before the job was even created, but it's pretty clear that the process that was ultimately selected was rigged to ensure CEE-T would be chosen.  Below are a few relevant details from the original Kansas City Star story that don't seem to make it into many of the subsequent reports.

Two of the state administers working with Nicastro to create the original "memorandum of understanding" (ie no bid contract), were on the panel that "scored" the different bids:

State administrators Margie Vandeven and Robin Coffman, who emails showed had helped craft the original memorandum of understanding with CEE-Trust, were two of four evaluators who scored the bids.

With those two scoring, CEE-Trust won the evaluation process by a single point, after a competitor that cost 1/3 the price of CEE-Trust received ridiculously low scores on a category that is normally their strong suit:

CEE-Trust edged the closest competitor — Community Training and Assistance Center, known as CTAC — by a single point, 70 to 69.

CTAC, because its bid of $124,700 was less than one-third of CEE-Trust’s $385,000 bid, earned the maximum 45 points under the major category of cost.

CEE-Trust earned the maximum 45 points under the other major heading, “Experience, reliability and expertise of personnel.”

CTAC received only 20 points for its personnel despite a proposal that described a 34-year history of assisting school systems in 40 states. 

Here's what the executive director of the company that lost the bid by a point had to say:

"That’s a section (personnel qualifications) that we usually knock out of the water,” said CTAC executive director William Slotnik, who had not been aware of the details of the scoring until he was reached by The Star.

No one could look at this with clear eyes and not have alarm bells go off.  So though I agree with the group of Missouri Democrats calling for Nicastro to resign, I think the other part of their request is probably even more important:

In addition, we are asking the State Board of Education to open an internal investigation into potential bid-rigging by Dr. Nicastro to ensure that an education department contract was granted to an organization she favors, despite the fact that its bid was more than three times more costly to taxpayers than the bid of the next closest competitor.

This process needs to be investigated, transparently and by an independent entity. It's sad that the president of the state education commission, Republican Peter Herschend, so far has shown no interest in transparency or openness, and has not even discussed the possibility of investigation.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/12/07/4677672/emails-detail-a-hidden-plan-for.html#storylink=cp

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/12/07/4677672/emails-detail-a-hidden-plan-for.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/12/07/4677672/emails-detail-a-hidden-plan-for.html#storylink=cpy

Chris Nicastro Redux

Another scandal for the Missouri Commissioner of Education.

Strange. I seem to remember Rex Sinquefield's front group CEAM actively rooting for the failure of the Kansas City public schools as well.

Larry Conners Update

This was a while ago, but in case you missed it, Larry Conners lost a lawsuit.

Then he lost it again.

I predict he will lose many such lawsuits.

State Education Commissioner Helps Right-Wing Front Group Write Evasive Ballot Language

Here's a November 21 statement from the Missouri NEA site:

(Jefferson City, MO) Today education leaders from the American Federation of Teachers, Missouri National Education Association and the Missouri State Teachers Association issued the following joint statement regarding press reports of Education Commissioner Chris Nicastro’s covert conversations with Rex Sinquefield lobbyist Kate Casas. 

“As educators we are disturbed by Commissioner Nicastro’s covert communication with a registered lobbyist, her potential disregard of open meetings law, and the circumvention of input from anyone involved in the day-to-day operations of public schools. 

Published reports indicate Commissioner Nicastro actively assisted a special interest lobbyist in crafting language for an amendment to the Missouri Constitution and ordering DESE staff not to post items to the State Board of Education’s public agenda. Nicastro assured special interest groups the fiscal note outlining the financial impact would be favorable.

The professional staff at DESE developed language that disclosed the potential significant costs to local districts. However, Nicastro chose to personally override her financial experts at the expense of taxpayers. 

Government officials have a duty to act in an open and transparent manner for the benefit of the citizens of the state of Missouri – Commissioner Nicastro’s actions fall short of that duty.”

More soon.

Sinquefield Spokesperson Not Sure If Sinquefield Has Opinion On Sinquefield-Funded Project

From a recent Beacon article:

Better Together executive director Nancy Rice said last week that she hasn't talked to Sinquefield about the new organization.

Better Together is funded by the Missouri Council for a Better Environment (MCBE).  Nancy Rice is the media contact person for MCBE, a group previously funded exclusively by Sinquefield.  She's a spokesperson for Sinquefield.  She works for his lobbying group. Sinquefield was reported in August to be working on this project.

These games are silly.  Just stop.

Déjà Vu: Casas Confused About The Group He's Working For, Again

A long while back, I reported on how St. Louis "Democrats" were being paid off by extreme right-wing ideologue Rex Sinquefield to work on the ballot initiative restoring local control of the police department to St. Louis.  As I've said many times, I support local control, and in fact worked with the groups who had been pushing for local control long before it occurred to the St. Louis establishment that it might be a politically useful campaign. However, I had concerns about the way the campaign was being run as a PR campaign for Rex Sinquefield and anti-tax groups around the state.

Specifically, I was critical of one of Sinquefield's group's primary beneficiaries, Martin Casas, who repeatedly claimed to be clueless about the operation he was working on.  Casas wrote an article for Vital Voice asking people to sign a petition for United for Missouri, a right-wing group run by Sinquefield's employee Carl Bearden, who among many other things:

Voted to ban the existence of gay/straight student alliances in Missouri.

Was a co-sponsor of HB885 in 2004, which would "Prohibit public institutions or any entity receiving state funds from adopting discrimination policies that exceed state and federal protections against discrimination."

Voted in favor of placing a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage in Missouri on the 2004 ballot.

So Casas wrote an article for St. Louis's premier LGBT news source asking people to hand their contact information over to a dude categorically opposed to equal rights.  And to make it worse, rather than just being honest about it, when I asked Casas about who was handling the emails from the petition, he responded by claiming: "I have no idea! I'm working on #LocalControl!" The idea that Casas, a failed candidate for state office, had been contracted to get signatures to an online petition without having any idea of what would be done with the signatures is pretty ridiculous, even for him.

So now we have a new Sinquefield-backed initiative, described by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch way back in August, created to "study" various aspects of City and County services. Again, I personally think the City and County should be merged.  But like the Post-Dispatch editorial board, I think this discussion should be transparent and honest, rather than opaque and deceptive.  However, rather than being honest, the group, staffed by Rex's previous campaign operatives, is pretending to be unconnected to Rex Sinquefield.

So for starters, let's just be clear that the Twitter feed for the group, Better Together St. Louis, is run by Martin Casas.  With his usual stealth, Casas managed to tweet and post on facebook an identical post using his personal account and Better Together simultaneously, demonstrating that he's running both.

But what's really amazing is that Casas is again acting clueless about Rex Sinquefield's involvement in the group.  During a Twitter conversation, Casas initially said that Sinquefield wasn't involved in funding the group, then said he "didn't know" after it was pointed out that Sinquefeld was previously the only funder of the group, MCBE (Missouri Council for a Better Economy) that paid for "A Better St. Louis":

So Casas, for the second time, gets very confused when he's asked about whether he's working for a Sinquefield group and in what capacity. Of course, in the grand scheme of things, Casas is pretty irrelevant to whatever policy outcomes might occur.  Yet this whole approach is suggestive of a broader disdain for the public from the group.  Rather than simply being up front about Sinquefield's involvement, the effort so far has been designed, rather sloppily I might add, to act as though Rex has nothing to do with it, though he clearly has been involved in the planning and financing of the plan for a long time.  And if they can't just admit that he's a key part of the effort, what else are they trying to hide?  And more importantly, as the Kansas City Star's Yael Aboulhalkah asked, "What's in it for Rex?"

St. Louis Journalism Review

Gotta say, I don't really understand what the Gateway Journalism Review takes itself to be doing.  If you call yourself a "Journalism Review" and say in the mission statement that you aim for the public to have the "most credible, fair media possible," then shouldn't you be among the first to call out charlatans and grifters, rather than the last? Maybe write stories when someone is dishonest on CNN, rather than at teh Blaze?  It's not really providing any accountability if you only call out a media personality a full year after every thinking person stopped taking the person seriously.

But yeah, don't get your news from the Blaze.  Can't argue with that.