St. Louis Tea Party Blog Endorsed Ed Emery Because His Opponent Associates With "Liberal Democrat Lesbians" and "Black-Owned Newspapers"

From the 24th Rate Blog, endorsing far right-wing state senate candidate Ed Emery:

Conservative voters in the 31st District who may be "fuzzed" into confusion about whether Ed Emery, the endorsed conservative is a better candidate than Scott Largent may be interested to know that Largent has a uniquely close relationship with a liberal Democrat lesbian from St. Louis who boasted about this relationship in a black-owned City of St. Louis newspaper.  

 Why, exactly, would they be "interested to know" that?  Anyway, it was good enough for the St. Louis Tea Party.

Endorsements For Tuesday's Primary

My 1 and 1/2 cents (in order of which races I've been thinking about the most):

Russ Carnahan vs. Lacy Clay

I fought against Democrats selling out and giving away one of St. Louis's congressional seats.  After that happened, I argued that Carnahan should run in the 2nd District against Ann Wagner, even though it would be difficult.  But now that we have Clay vs Carnahan, I have to go with the person I think would be the best Congressman representing the 1st District.  I think Russ Carnahan would be a better congressman, for two primary reasons.  First, as I wrote previously, Carnahan had to withstand a lot of nasty, despicable personal attacks when he chose to do the hard work of fighting for healthcare and talking to constituents about it.  Clay, in a completely safe district with nothing to lose, could have advocated for healthcare reform without any risk, yet he did very little.  Second, when I've met with Carnahan, he was well-informed on the issues we were discussing but also willing to take new ideas into consideration.  The two meetings I've had with Clay as part of groups were really discouraging experiences.  I'm not going to get into why, because I think whatever happens Tuesday we should be uniting and working on important races in November.  But I think Carnahan would do a better job representing the district, and so I'm supporting him.

Missouri Senate District 5 : Jeanette Mott Oxford vs. Jamilah Nasheed vs. Robin Wright-Jones

Wait, why did St. Louis and the Democrats lose a congressional seat again? Oh yeah, because several "Democrats" in the state legislature sold out and sided with Republicans to overrule Jay Nixon's veto of Republican's dream map.  And one of the most bombastic and unapologetic of that group of sell-outs was Jamilah Nasheed.  I used to like Nasheed because she was an activist turned politician, but since she's been in office, in addition to giving Republicans an additional Congressional seat they can use to try to undermine President Obama while wrecking the country, she also threw liberal St. Louisans under the bus on a payday loan industry supporting bill and on the puppy mill cruelty bill rollback, she took donations from Republican House Leader Steve Tilley, and she worked with right-wing extremist Rex Sinquefield.  In fact, Fired Up Missouri recently reported that the right-wing Club for Growth, bankrolled almost entirely by Sinquefield, is now sending out mailers attacking Nasheed's opponents. There are enough Republicans bought by Rex in the state legislature; we don't need any more Democrats who are as well (especially since Sinquefield is pushing crazy ideas like abolishing the income tax in favor of a ultra-regressive huge sales tax).

I like both Robin Wright-Jones and Jeanette Mott Oxford and I think both are strong progressives.  However, it's my impression that Wright-Jones no longer has much of a chance of winning after getting some bad press over alleged ethics scandals.  So I support JMO, and honestly think that she's exactly the kind of progressive legislator St. Louis needs more of.

Missouri House District 79:  Michael Butler vs Martin Casas

I mentioned a good reason for voting against Nasheed is that she's worked with and is taking money from right-wing extremist Rex Sinquefield (by the way, I'm not sure if there is *anybody* who works with Rex *without* also taking his money).  That same logic provides a good reason for not voting for Martin Casas, who was paid by a Sinquefield group while apparently building up Rex's statewide email list.  I haven't really been making much noise about this, but since the St. Louis American brought up some of my previous points about Casas in a recent column, I guess I'm committed. Actually, though, my views haven't changed.  As I said above, I don't really trust politicians who are beholden to Sinquefield, and since the Missouri House and Senate are already so close to being a purely veto-proof majority for extremist Republicans, I think it's just too dangerous to put a Democrat in office who might owe some favors to Missouri's Koch Brother from Another Mother.  I endores Butler.

State Senate 13th District: Reddit Hudson vs. Gina Walsh 

My labor friends really like Walsh and I know she's a great candidate, but I really like Reddit Hudson. I got to meet him when he participated at a panel at my school, and as a former police officer who went on to work for the ACLU I think he's got a really interesting story.  He's also an excellent speaker. As I mentioned, some union friends are apparently worried that he doesn't sufficiently support labor unions, but the only evidence they produced in support of this claim was his quote in the Beacon:

Hudson contended that north St. Louis County’s influential labor community has “dictated the political process” for years. While emphasizing that he's pro-labor, Hudson said he opposes "a relatively small group of people dictating the political process to a majority community unchallenged.”

However, the same article points out that Hudson is opposed to anti-Union "Right to Work For Less" bills, and I think his comments were more about the process of selecting a representative than about the actual issues unions fight for.  I really don't think he would underestimate the value of unions to his constituents if he was elected.  I support Hudson but I think the 13th District will have a great senator no matter what happens on Tuesday.

Missouri House District 84: Mike Owens vs. Karla May vs Hope Whitehead

Owens is a former news reporter and the husband of alderwoman Lyda Krewson, and from what I've heard from people in that district, she's part of the St. Louis Democratic establishment and not especially progressive.  I'm all for political power couples, but not ones that are part of the whole conservative Democrat/media establishment status quo of St. Louis.

Karla May voted for the initial Republican map that gave away a U.S. Congressional District, but didn't vote for the veto override.  I'm not entirely sure what was going on, but Hope Whitehead is a safer bet.

Missouri Senate 1st District: Sue Schoemehl vs. Scott Sifton

Sifton is pro-choice, while Schoemehl is not. And I agree with the Post-Dispatch that Sifton's record of not taking lobbyist gifts gives him a great message against the lobbyists best friend Jim Lembke, one of the biggest extremists in the state senate.

Missouri House District 73: 

Doug Clemens is a great guy who fights for working people.  He's someone who is out on the streets supporting good causes, so I can't wait to see him in the state legislature.

Last but definitely not least: 

A special shout-out to Ferguson Democratic Committeewoman Patricia Bynes.  I don't actually know if anyone was crazy enough to run against her, but I know that I'd vote for Patricia in a heartbeat if I lived there.  If I had to guess, I'd say Patricia will have a long and productive political career ahead of her, so you might as well start following her on Twitter or Facebook now.

Update: A friend on facebook reminds me that in keeping with the rule "Vote against Democrats who shamefully gave away a St. Louis/Democratic U.S. House Seat," I should also endorse Ruth Ehresman over Penny Hubbard in House District 78.  She is absolutely correct on that.

Update #2: As Caleb Michael-Files points out on Facebook, supporting Mike Colona is a no-brainer in House District 80.  He's a great progressive.

Taking on Climate Change in Saint Louis

Last August over a thousand people were arrested in a 2-week long action outside the White House protesting the Keystone XL pipeline. Then in November over 10,000 people, myself included, made the symbolic act of forming a human chain around the White House to show our combined rejection of the pipeline. Fours days after that Obama announced that he would not be approving the pipeline plan he was presented with bringing about widespread and well-deserved euphoria. This was all very short-lived as a few weeks later Obama approved the southern leg of the pipeline, setting the stage for the entirety of its construction to move forward piecemeal. Tens of thousands of people began to reassess their tactics.

Take the pipeline as a line in the sand, something that a large segment of the population (you don’t get 10,000 people to Washington on one issue that often) understand the consequences of crossing. Many see the implications of not crossing that line: they know nearly everything in this industrialized society is brought to them by oil, they know how they were able to travel to DC in order to stop the monstrously destructive tar sands projects. Yet despite all this, they are willing to say “enough, we must stop this and move in a different direction.” Many of the tens of thousands of people will put their bodies and possibly their lives on the line to stop the Keystone XL pipeline from existing. They won’t do this because they are selfish, they will be doing it out of deep-seated love for this planet and everything that inhabits it. They’ll do it because they understand that if the pipeline isn’t stopped, we’ll be doing far more as a species than just shooting ourselves in the foot.

Missouri is currently facing droughts and record heat. Crops are being decimated causing the government to have to step in to assist. Over twenty-five people have died in the St. Louis-area from issues related to heat. These events are bound to become more common as we continuously “load the dice” when it comes to the climate.

Last summer, hundreds took the streets in Saint Louis for the Midwest Rising Convergence in order to make clear how local corporations are directly responsible for leading us to the edge when it comes to our climate. With the Convergence and the actions outside the White House, we witnessed an escalation for the climate movement. This summer, this escalation has continued. Just this past Saturday, Texas landowners and activists were trained in how to do soft and hard blockades, in preparation for the attempted building of the southern leg of Keystone XL. On the same day, over fifty people in West Virginia stopped mining for three hours on the Hobet Mine, the largest mountaintop removal mine in the county. They used soft blockades, hard blockades and tree sits, with a handful of people locking themselves to machinery. And then they faced intense scare tactics from Friends of Coal, purposeful ignorance from State Police and for one West Virginian-native, a bloody beating while in jail.

This heightened level of conflict is scary. I was in West Virginia last weekend and when the gun shots went off near our campsite, I was not feeling particularly brave. However, there is a benefit to bringing conflict into the open, to forcing a level conversation that has not been had in this country about what climate change means for our futures. At the end of the day, those gun shots were nowhere close to enough to scare people away from Appalachia because we all have intense moral clarity on why we were there: to fight for the health and well-being of the people of Appalachia, the mountains that surround them and the climate that impacts us all. Conflict is an inherent component of social movements; it is individuals unwavering belief in what is right in the face of the Bull Connors or the KKK that forces others to choose a side and pushes them to action.

In St. Louis, we do not have coal mining or oil drilling or gas fracking. We do have a tar sands pipeline, trains and barges running through our city that transport coal, and refineries and corporations - many of the most important corporations. We have the headquarters that make the decisions on how to mine, where to ship, how much to pay their workers and who to lobby.

Because we do our organizing work locally we know that Saint Louisans are increasingly worried about climate change. Extreme weather such as we are facing now forces us to contemplate all manner of future scenarios, both for the well being of our planet and the people that inhabit it. We know that people are looking for ways to empower themselves in order to leave a healthy planet for future generations (and quite possibly even their own).

We invite everyone to a community discussion on ways to fight back against the causes of global warming this Thursday, 6 PM, at Central Reform Congregation (5020 Waterman Blvd., St. Louis, MO 63108). We are confident that working together we have the power to create the just and sustainable world that we so desperately need.

See you in the future,
Arielle & Chris
Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment (MORE) and Mud Lab

For more info please contact:
info@mudlabstl.org
314-862-2249

The 1st District Infighting You Didn't Hear About

Progressives who, like me, are slightly dispirited by the nasty fighting going on between Representative Carnahan and Representative Clay in the 1st District Democratic Primary might be interested to know that the other side (the one that has no chance of winning whatsoever) has also been busy stabbing each other in the back in a nasty primary election between Republicans Martin Baker and Robyn Hamlin.

One caveat before I go further: most of the info I'll be posting is from "Gateway Grassrootser" Jen Ennenbach's blog and, as a general rule, you shouldn't believe anything Ennenbach says unless you have independent verification.  But Martin Baker is posting Ennenbach's blogs on his campaign facebook page, and if he takes her seriously, well then....

Anyway, here are the gory details.

First, the tea party got mad because Hamlin referred to Martin Baker as "the establishment candidate." Ennenbach responded by posting a screenshot from "Kill the Clairebear" Scott Boston and saying that Hamlin was not actually a Republican, but a Libertarian.   Baker was desperately trying to get Hamlin to debate, and according to Ennenbach, Hamlin responded by saying that Baker needed to pay his child support, a claim that Ennenbach disputes:

Baker, again, contacted Hamlin, seeking a response to which Hamlin not only stated that Baker would need thousands of dollars to promote the event, but that the money would be better spent by Baker dealing with his child support legal matters.

Ennenbach says Baker's ex-wife disputes the charges.  But she encouraged people to look it up on Casenet!  According to Ennenbach, Hamlin also brought up allegations of Baker not paying the rent:

But this isn’t the first time Hamlin has attempted to smear Baker, only to have it fly back in her face. In 2010, Hamlin accused Baker of defaulting on payments to his landlord. What actually happened? Baker had moved out of the property ahead of schedule and had to work out payments to the property owner. At question was whether the remaining rent was to come out of Baker’s security deposit, or if the deposit would be returned in full and he would issue remaining contracted payments on the due dates.
This issue was settled between Baker and his former landlord.

Ennenbach also claimed that Hamlin accepted an invitation to a debate, then retracted.  She claims that a Baker staffer has screenshots, although I haven't seen them.

Now at this point, you might think that Hamlin was the one engaging in all of the dirty tactics.  But Ennenbach being Ennenbach, she had to drag it down even further by posting a letter from a "friend" calling Hamlin a "sloppy, unkempt, bag lady:"

Here is what popped up in my inbox first thing this morning:
Has anyone in the GOP ever actually met Hamlin?
I’d like to say ‘not to be rude’… but… I’m actually all for being rude when it’s the best way to express what’s true – she looks like a friggin’ bag lady!
She & Martin both came to the After-Party tonight. Martin, as usual, was neat, clean & professional looking; she, looked like a sloppy, unkempt, bag lady.

Then, to top it off, Ennenbach wrote another post acting offended that Hamlin's campaign was deleting her facebook comments just because she used her blog to call Hamlin a "bag lady."  This prompted a response from Hamlin's campaign claiming that Ennenbach was deleting their comments.

So anyway, next time you get discouraged seeing Carnahan and Clay fighting over a Congressional seat, just remember that Republicans in the district are doing the same fighting over nothing.

Fact Check: Rep. Clay Did Not "Stand Up To The Tea Party" More Than Rep. Carnahan

I've mostly been trying to stay quiet about the 1st Congressional District Democratic primary between Lacy Clay and Russ Carnahan, but I have to take issue with one thing.  I don't claim to be an expert in much, but one thing I think I can legitimately say I'm an expert in is is the subject of the St. Louis Tea Party and who "stood up to them."  While a lot of safe St. Louis Democratic politicians stayed quiet as the tea party was busy making up ridiculous lies, engaging in disturbing antics like burning effigies and carrying a coffin to a politician's house, and executing James O'Keefe-style smear campaigns against local institutions, myself and other activists were taking on the lies and pushing for the passage of President Obama's monumental health care reform.  As a result of criticizing the tea party, tea partiers have pestered my employers, accused me of "libel" and "copyright infringement" and all manner of other stupid charges, claimed I was secretly being paid by liberal organizations, and even seriously suggested that I was abused as a child.  So, yes, I do claim authority on the matter of the local tea party.

And what's gotten me irked is Congressman Lacy Clay's suggestion that he "stood up to the tea party" and that Congressman Carnahan is "linked" to the tea party. As someone who was paying close attention, I can say that Clay was depressingly quiet about many of the tea party's nasty tactics, and as far as I know never took a stand in the tea party's attacks on local people or institutions.  What makes it worse is that it would have been easy for Clay to take a stand; it's not like he was going to lose an election in his district for criticizing the tea party.

To be fair, this behavior was hardly limited to Clay.  Mayor Slay also was in an incredibly safe St. Louis voting area with a perfect bully pulpit, and he also largely remained on the sidelines for the fights over healthcare reform.  In retrospect, it really was amazing how unwilling many St. Louis Democrats were to call out clearly dishonest and extremist tactics while activists were doing most of the heavy lifting.

But there was one area where Clay deserves special criticism, and Carnahan special praise, and that is Carnahan's willingness to hold townhall meetings to defend healthcare reform.  A big reason Carnahan was targeted with effigy-burnings, coffins carried to his personal home, being stalked at movie showings, etc., was that he had the guts, in a somewhat dangerous district, to hold townhall meetings and engage his constituents on the issue.  The tea party savagely attacked Carnahan, but he still was willing to be out there and defend his reasoning.  On the other hand Clay, in as safe of a Democratic district as you could ever ask for, did next to nothing to fight the tea party messaging in the St. Louis area.  Carnahan was on the front lines, while Clay sat back and let him do all the work of trying to persuade people.

So I'm not sure how much I want to get involved in the 1st district primary bickering, but I couldn't bite my lip on this one.  Lacy Clay may have voted the right way, but like many St. Louis politicians, he did anything but "stand up to the tea party."

Gateway Pundit Angry About the Government Assisting the Elderly and Sick During a Heatwave

While he's not attacking people who died of cancer or getting angry at the idea of Joplin residents working together, birther Jim "Gateway Pundit" Hoft also likes to get angry at the government saving people's lives by providing cheap air conditioning units to the elderly and sick.  Media Matters has the story.

Gateway Pundit Jim Hoft Attacks Woman Whose Sister Died of Cancer

Birther and horrible person Jim "Gateway Pundit" Hoft attacked a woman who recently thanked President Obama through tears for passing the Affordable Health Care Act and told him her sister died of cancer after not being able to afford health insurance.  Politico reported the original story:

After Obama's speech in Sandusky, he encountered a sobbing Stephanie Miller, who later told reporters about her encounter with Obama.
"I thanked him for the getting the Affordable Health Act passed," Miller said, referring to the health care overhaul the Supreme Court upheld last week.
Miller said her sister passed away from colon cancer four years ago — partly because she could not purchase health insurance. 
"Even after she was diagnosed with cancer, she was told her income was too high for Medicaid," Miller said.

Then creepy Hoft wrote about the event with the following headline: "Oh Brother. Sobbing Ohio Woman at Obama Campaign Stop Just Happens to Be 'Obama's Best Fan' "

This disgraceful behavior actually isn't a first for Hoft.  Two years ago, he attacked tireless St. Louis activist Melanie Shouse immediately after Melanie passed away from cancer after not being able to afford preventative care.  In the days following Melanie's death, Hoft wrote: 

It’s just too bad this woman didn’t call St. Anthony’s Hospital in St. Louis. They offer free breast exams to women who are in need of assistance. I suppose that’s Bush’s fault, too.

And:

There really is nothing they won’t do or say to get this nationalized health care bill rammed through Congress.

Nothing is beneath these people.


h/t Eric Boehlert.