KMOV Unsuprisingly Misrepresents McCaskill's Comments

KMOV, which enjoys running lazy hit pieces on defenseless food stamp recipients, claims they were "surprised" to find out that Senator Claire McCaskill disagreed with President Obama's position that unemployment benefits should be extended. What is not surprising, however, is that KMOV got the story completely wrong and failed to provide an accurate description of McCaskill's position. Here's what KMOV quoted McCaskill as saying:

MCCASKILL: I’m not for extending unemployment benefits any further. The payroll tax cut, I’m always for tax cuts for working folks, because I think that helps our consuming economy.

But, the Huffington Post's Arthur Delany, who unlike KMOV apparently knows enough about the issue to ask follow-up questions, found out that McCaskill actually agrees with the President's position:

Claire McCaskill actually DOES support keeping extended benefits, like Obama wants, her office says. She's against MORE weeks

Now I suppose it'd be easy to just claim that KMOV, being a TV news organization, is just too darn busy to understand the issues enough to accurately describe McCaskill's position, but on the other hand they have a long history of grinding an ideological axe, including:

The aforementioned hit pieces on food stamp recipients.

Ignoring rallies of 4,300+ union supporters while doting on the tea party.

Lazily attacking stimulus funds being used for important research.

Getting angry at Wash U students after they refused to pay $20,000 for abstinence lessons from Bristol Palin.

So I hope you'll forgive me for thinking that KMOV is now far beyond the point of deserving the benefit of the doubt.

Update: I called it correctly. KMOV got the story wrong:

McCaskill's office says additional context omitted from KMOV's report would show that she was responding to a question about giving the unemployed extra weeks of benefits. Her office said she supports preserving the existing extended benefits.

Also, they haven't issued a correction. Lame.

Wheel of Cuts at Emerson: No Takers at Lunchtime "Fundraiser" for Rep. Todd Akin

If you've read the St. Louis Post-Dispatch coverage of the Missouri Senate race, you've heard about the appalling letter from Emerson Electric Co. CEO David Farr to his employees, 'encouraging' them to give generously to the campaign coffers of Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO).

Since tonight is the night of the big fundraising shindig, it seemed like a great day to go to Emerson's Headquarters in North County and talk with workers there directly. As reported in Political Fix, CEO David Farr will be rewarding Emerson employees that write a hefty check to the Akin campaign ($5000 or more!) with an intimate dinner with the boss after the event.

When he wrote the letter, he may not have expected as much attention to the offer. But for a group of St. Louis activists, reading about it wasn't enough. This morning, they sent over a tongue-in-cheek invitation to Farr, offering to lend a helping hand to the collection efforts:

With 2010 earnings such as yours, it is understandable why you're so committed to putting Todd Akin in the U.S. Senate. His positions have reliably favored CEOs over the interests of middle class workers and the poor. CEOs and Wall Street bankers can sleep a little easier knowing that Todd Akin is in their corner, even if it means the vast majority of his constituents get left behind.

Many of your employees are probably busy this week getting their kids ready for back to school and may have run short of time before tonight's Ladue fundraiser. So to help ensure that as many Emerson workers as possible are able to chip in to Todd Akin's election war-chest, a group of volunteers will come by at lunch time to help personally collect funds for the Senate race.

A collection box was set up so that workers could donate their paychecks to Todd Akin, but there weren't any takers. Instead, workers on their lunch hour just stopped to take a flyer for more information. One put it this way: "I'll take your flyer but I'm not giving him my paycheck!" For Emerson employees concerned about a long record of policies that hurt middle-class workers, including Rep. Akin's outspoken support for Rep. Paul Ryan's plan to end Medicare, the group brought a special carnival game.

The "Wheel of Cuts" lets the player spin to select just one of the critical public services that would be slashed if Akin has his way. But just like in the Ryan budget, CEOs' pay are bonus spaces--Akin is, after all, working for the David Farr's of the world, not the middle- class voters of Missouri's Second District.

Greatest Hits of Debunked St. Louis Tea Party Conspiracies!

Andrew Breibart tweeted a link to a Big Government article about the "corruption he witnessed" while he was in St. Louis (and afraid to debate). The Big Government article is like a Greatest Hits of debunked St. Louis Tea Party conspiracy theories.

Here's a sampling:

• Kenneth Gladney case conspiracy? Debunked.
• UMSL promoting violence conspiracy? Debunked.
• Innocent Adam Sharp assaulted by UMSL prof? Debunked.
• Hilarious conspiracy of "Voter Fraud" after Ed Martin lost to Russ Carnahan? Debunked.
• Carnahan wind farm conspiracy? Debunked.
• Jake Zimmerman crony capitalism conspiracy? Nonsense.
• Firebombing? Never any evidence whatsoever.

So yeah, great article, if you're someone who refuses to engage with reality.

St. Louis Fire Department to Award Russ Carnahan With Ceremonial Fire Helmet

Press Release:

(ST. LOUIS, MO) – To thank him for his efforts to help secure a federal grant that helped save 30 firefighters’ jobs, the St. Louis Fire Department will present a ceremonial firefighter’s helmet to U.S. Representative Russ Carnahan this Thursday, August 4, at 10:00 a.m. Central Time. This event officially recognizes Congressman Carnahan’s efforts, which were informally conveyed by members of the Firefighters’ Union Local 73 in May.

In April of this year, St. Louis was awarded a $3.2 million SAFER grant to rehire 30 firefighters who were laid off due to budget cuts. Carnahan worked with the Department of Homeland Security, which administers the grants, the City of St. Louis and local firefighters to help secure the grants.

The ceremonial fire helmet will be presented by Fire Chief Dennis Jenkerson on behalf of the department. Representative Carnahan and Chief Jenkerson will be available to members of the press after the presentation.

Breitbart Chickens Out of Debate, But Manages to Blame ACLU, SEIU, and AFL-CIO For His Gladney Conspiracy Theories

As expected, it turns out that all of Andrew Breitbart's blustery chest-thumpings and challenges to debate are nothing more than part of his circus act. When he was provided with ample opportunity to debate his smear campaigns against SEIU and UMSL, he ran away scared. Not only was Breitbart afraid to accept my debate challenge while he was in St. Louis, he was afraid to even respond, despite the fact that he received many Twitter and Facebook messages challenging him to debate. Honest debate is like holy water for Breitbart's vampires, so the fact that he ran away from having to actually discuss the evidence is not at all surprising.

However, while he was here, he did have time to go to a Cardinals game, visit the Lemp Mansion, and most interesting from my perspective, to claim that the ACLU, the White House, SEIU, and the AFL-CIO were all involved in a massive conspiracy against Kenneth Gladney that somehow slipped past the twelve jurors who found the SEIU members not-guilty of misdemeanor assault after only 40 minutes of deliberation. Oh, and he called St. Louis a "Godforsaken town" while Dana Loesch cheers and claps:



And with that it becomes pretty obvious why Breitbart won't debate the topic. His claims are so ridiculous they wouldn't hold up for 2 minutes in a real discussion. He doesn't have even the most basic understanding of what happened, yet he continues to spread lies about it. What do you even say about someone so diametrically opposed to all of the best characteristics of humanity (reason, honesty, courage, etc.)?

Ann Wagner Parties With Editor Who Ran Hit Piece On Ed Martin

As reported earlier, Andrew Breitbart's website Big Government uncharacteristically got involved in a Republican primary by running a hit piece on Ed Martin, Ann Wagner's opponent in the Missouri 2nd District Republican Primary. Last week, I asked the following about the hit piece:

Are [Big Government Editor] Mike Flynn and/or Dan Riehl exchanging favors with Ann Wagner? Why would they avoid their site's usual protocol to get involved in a Congressional primary fight in Missouri? It's worth noting that Riehl advocated for Ann Wagner on Big Government during the race for RNC chairs as well. Editor Flynn also spoke positively about her. Is there some reason they're intervening on her behalf rather than letting Missouri voters make up their own mind?

This question, I think, takes on additional significance considering that Ann Wagner proudly posted party pics of herself along with Big Government editor Mike Flynn and Andrew Breitbart outside of the so-called "Smart Girl Conference:"

They sure seem to be getting along swimmingly. But would Big Government editor Mike Flynn allow his site to be used as a weapon in Republian primaries based only on his personal relationships?

Ed Martin Says He Doesn't Believe Debates Should Be "Negotiated"

Yesterday, Ann Wagner's campaign put out a press release calling for 10 candidate forums between herself and Ed Martin. In response, Ed Martin said that he didn't think debates should be "negotiated between candidates:"

By accepting these invitations as they are offered, Ed seeks to honor the community leadership role of these organizations. Ed believes all such events hould be offered and scheduled by the organizations not “negotiated” by the candidates as suggested by Ambassador Wagner.

Ten debates seems to allow a pretty good opportunity for people to get to know the candidates. However, Ed Martin routinely accused Russ Carnahan of "skipping debates" that Carnahan hadn't agreed to, and now has been involved in a similar stunt with Wagner, leading to a reported shouting match. So I have to wonder if Martin refuses to agree to 10 debates because that would diminish his ability to use alleged invitations from friendly groups to claim that his opponent was afraid to debate with him.