Take Action, because you can!

Good news and bad news. First the bad:
As most of you know, Al Franken became the 60th vote in the Senate. That means the Republican opposition to the Democrat oligarchy is virtually disarmed. Obama, Pelosi and Reid can now pass anything upon which the three of them agree. So expect the newly filibuster proof Democrats to get even more brazen than they have been already.

For instance, while many business lobbyists are pinning their hopes against passage of EFCA on more moderate Democrats like Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska, his staff pointed out to The Hill, that Nelson "abhors any kind of obstruction in the Senate". Not one Democrat Senator has committed to voting against the expected cloture motion.

The good:
Missouri is one of just 21 States in which voters have the right to petition their Government and change laws themselves.
The Missouri petiton drive to save the right to a secret ballot is in high gear. We have tipped the $100,000 raised mark and collected almost 40,000 signatures.
We still need your help.
Derek Grier has agreed to coordinate our statewide volunteer signature gathering effort. He can be reached at (314) 229-7232.

This is a great weekend to gather signatures. I can think of no better time than when people are at festivals celebrating our freedom, to ask them to sign a petition to guarantee their right to a secret ballot.

If you can help we can email you a downloadable petition and instructions that you can print at home.

Gina and I will be at the Taxpayer Tea Party at Rennick Park in Washington Missouri at 11am Saturday and will be looking for help there. Gina is a featured speaker and will be talking about SOS Ballot. Chesterfield is hosting an event Saturday at Chesterfield Mall.

Not surprising, union activists are harassing petition circulators. In a tactic called "blocking" the thug will approach a circulator and start a verbal battle to make sure no one wants to stop to sign and get into a fight. The thugs who want to intimidate people from signing a petition to preserve their right to a secret ballot are also arguing that workers should be stripped of their right to vote be secret ballot because we can trust union organizers not to intimidate people to join their union and pay dues for the privilege.

So if you see a thug at work harassing a pro-freedom petition circulator, why don't you jump right in, sign the petition (only once please) and then run interference on the thug and give him a piece of your freed0m-loving mind.

Meanwhile, have a great Independence Day weekend!

It takes one to know one.

This from Pravda. I guess I imagined the paper maybe died post-Glasnost. But there it is in a web2.0 World -- Online.

From Kruschev's favorite read:

"It must be said, that like the breaking of a great dam, the American decent into Marxism is happening with breath taking speed, against the back drop of a passive, hapless sheeple, excuse me dear reader, I meant people.

True, the situation has been well prepared on and off for the past century, especially the past twenty years. The initial testing grounds was conducted upon our Holy Russia and a bloody test it was. But we Russians would not just roll over and give up our freedoms and our souls, no matter how much money Wall Street poured into the fists of the Marxists.

Those lessons were taken and used to properly prepare the American populace for the surrender of their freedoms and souls, to the whims of their elites and betters.

First, the population was dumbed down through a politicized and substandard education system based on pop culture, rather then the classics. Americans know more about their favorite TV dramas then the drama in DC that directly affects their lives. They care more for their "right" to choke down a McDonalds burger or a BurgerKing burger than for their constitutional rights. Then they turn around and lecture us about our rights and about our "democracy". Pride blind the foolish.

Then their faith in God was destroyed, until their churches, all tens of thousands of different "branches and denominations" were for the most part little more then Sunday circuses and their televangelists and top protestant mega preachers were more then happy to sell out their souls and flocks to be on the "winning" side of one pseudo Marxist politician or another. Their flocks may complain, but when explained that they would be on the "winning" side, their flocks were ever so quick to reject Christ in hopes for earthly power. Even our Holy Orthodox churches are scandalously liberalized in America.

The final collapse has come with the election of Barack Obama. His speed in the past three months has been truly impressive. His spending and money printing has been a record setting, not just in America's short history but in the world. If this keeps up for more then another year, and there is no sign that it will not, America at best will resemble the Wiemar Republic and at worst Zimbabwe.

These past two weeks have been the most breath taking of all. First came the announcement of a planned redesign of the American Byzantine tax system, by the very thieves who used it to bankroll their thefts, loses and swindles of hundreds of billions of dollars. These make our Russian oligarchs look little more then ordinary street thugs, in comparison. Yes, the Americans have beat our own thieves in the shear volumes. Should we congratulate them?

Speak the truth and shame the devil on Pravda.ru forum"

This columnist's lament reminds me of the time when I was a teenager and the only one among my peers that did not drink alcohol. When I came home from a trip to Germany as an exchange student I was shocked by the reaction of a friend who had previously avoided me at the teenage parties where my sobriety particularly stuck out. I thought I could gain acceptance when I told him that I had a drink in Germany. His horrified reaction puzzled me. Then he explained. As long as I was sober, just one clean living teen, he had a conviction that what he was doing was wrong. So too, this columnist sees the lights fading in the "City on a Hill."

The Taxpayer Watchdog's Watchdog

I cannot imagine a much greater honor than to be eulogized in the National Review. That is a well-deserved honor befitting great men such as Richard Nadler. I knew him as a critic of politicians, one who challenged all of us to look closer at our core values as they related to the real role of government. In fact, he was the man who bestowed upon me one of my greatest honors, one which he did in fitting Nadleresque style. He gave me the title "Taxpayer Watchdog."

From the National Review:

National Review’s Ramesh Ponnuru on Richard Nadler

NRO:

I just learned that one of my oldest and dearest friends, Rich Nadler, died this morning at his home in Kansas City. Rich was many things: a high-school dropout, an autodidact, a traveling jazz musician, an ex-communist, the publisher of the late, great K.C. Jones, a hilarious movie reviewer, the head of the Missouri Taxpayers Watchdog Association, and a sometime contributor to National Review and, lately, the Corner. In the last years of his life he was, above all, a devout orthodox Jew and a devoted husband to Barbara.

He gave me my start in journalism and constantly encouraged me, even as we came to disagree on some matters. He was one of the most brilliant men I have ever known. Now there are a hundred things I won’t be able to talk or argue with him about. R.I.P.

I received a phone call on Summer morning from a somewhat gleeful constituent. On the line was Lloyd Sloan, also a brilliant thinker along the lines of Richard Nadler. Together they made the toughest critics of politicians. They had completed the task of analyzing the voting records of the 88th General Assembly in Jefferson City, Missouri as a function of the Missouri Taxpayer Watchdog Association. Lloyd was kind of proud of the fact that the winner was his own State Rep. - yours truly. While I was honored indeed, the glory was doused in cold water when Lloyd told me, "Yeah, you got the best score in Jefferson City, but you still flunked."

Robin Hood - Renegade, Socialist or Tax Protester?

"He robbed from the rich and gave to the poor"
Oh, Really?
In the famous tale, the friend to all, defender of the defenseless, man of honor; Robin Hood reserves his lawless exploits for sacking the Sheriff of Nottingham. Why would the honorable man commit a crime or any act of injustice? The answer is in the question. A man of honor would not commit an act of injustice.

While much of the story is disputed, we know that his prime target is the Sheriff of Nottingham who is taxing everyone into near starvation. He is doing so under the limited authority of Prince John, the evil brother of King Richard the Lion Heart. King Richard, the legitimate ruler is away on the Crusades and Prince John contrives the story that he is raising taxes to pay the ransom to free King Richard. In truth, he is raising the taxes to overthrow his brother and take the throne.

So Robin Hood, loyal to God, Country and his fellow man, was acting in a legitimate manner, under authority, when he took action in protest against the unjust taxation by an illegitimate authority for an illegitimate purpose. Robin Hood was not a renegade or a socialist, he was a tax protester.

So it is today. The leftist propagandists who do have an answer for the non-partisan, fiscal prudence, anti-spending calls of the tax payer tea parties of 2009 are in full spin mode, attacking the messenger and twisting the message. Honor today is found in the peaceful protests of activists who know that the authorities (however loathsome) are legitimate but the policies are wrong. They know they cannot take up arms so they take up signs, blow horns and blogs. So while defamed daily by the leftist media, the tea party protesters are in very good company.

Conservatives are Pathetic Protestors…Until... A Tribute on Taxpayer Tea Party Day

http://stlouisteaparty.com/

We at the Taxpayer Tea Parties are taxpayers – not welfare cheats – not tax dodgers
We believe that you render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s
We resent that Caesar went on a wild spending spree and stuck our children w/ the tab.
We know that confiscatory tax burdens drive away jobs.
We know that the major corporations who leave cities, who left St. Louis City, like Southwestern Bell, now AT&T, left when Governor Carnahan passed the biggest tax hike in state history.
We can only be dismissed at the ignoramus’ peril.
We voted in Republicans who raised spending, we voted in Democrats who spent worse. We learned.
We shake our heads at pundits who want to dismiss us the usual tax protestors.
We view as dangerous, the apologists who refuse to acknowledge the problem.
We are rising up now because our very republic is at stake.
We are shocked that the $55 trillion social security and Medicaid debt already “earned”, obligates each of us to $185,000.
We are issuing a demand for politicians to show the guts to either cut spending or raise taxes to meet the level of their spending.
We believe sticking this debt on our children is the height of immorality and cowardice.
We are taking a stand now in defense of our children.
We are conservatives which means we actually have children.

Burning up an Election

It is axiomatic that government wants to grow. Knowing that people are loathe to see their taxes raised, government workers' often unionize to see that whenever public dollars are spent, more of those dollars go to pay and benefits of the workers than to actual services. To do this, they support and oppose candidates for their governing boards. One public union, in a curious locale has quietly created perhaps the tightest lock on a board in the country, and has taken opposition to their opponents to an entire new level.

Chesterfield Missouri is a solidly upper middle class municipality in suburban St. Louis County with a media family income well over six figures. While one might expect their "Monarch Fire District" firefighters to make a good living, you would probably not expect their pay and benefits package to outstrip their patrons. The pay and benefits package for an individual firefighter is over $112,000 after five years. How did they do this? They have managed to win every single election over the last twenty years. As the affluent area prospered, they prospered. Rather than new equipment or new buildings, they demanded more pay and benefits, like a health insurance plan with plastic surgery benefits. Then it happened. A board member turned on them. In fact, every board member who turned on them was turned out of office, except one. They made sure he paid.

At a press conference today, an angry resident will reveal some startling documents. The firefighter's union needed a scandal. They created one with an audit of the health plan. Making bogus charges of criminal misconduct they called for the resignation the two citizen board members who opposed them; a doctor and a businessman who they had originally endorsed for office. The documents make reference to an investigative reporter as "in play" and reveal a complex plot to so harass the elected office holders as to "secure (their) resignations".

All told, the union has spent over $60,000 on the audit, over $70,000 taking out the last board member, and has so well-funded their current candidate that she is running ads on network TV running as a "taxpayer advocate" and, ironicly making reference to her opponents' pilot union membership. The plot appears to have worked. The physician, although fully exonerated has chosen not to run for a second term.

The legal bills to defend the board members from the audit and the criminal allegations has cost taxpayers upwards of $200,0000. The board in its fiduciary role, has sued the union's pr company in order to recover those tax dollars. The documents to be revealed today came from that discover process.

Stay tuned.

MONARCH RESIDENTS FOR RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Herman Kriegshauser
Phone: 314-223-4555
Email: herman63005@yahoo.com

UNION PLOT TO “SECURE RESIGNATIONS” OF OFFICE HOLDERS
Legal Exhibits Prove Residents’ Suspicions

CHESTERFIELD, MO March 24, 2009 – Herman Kriegshauser, member of the Monarch Fire Protection District Citizen’s Advisory Committee and 42 year resident, will hold a press conference at 11:00 a.m. on Wednesday, March 25 at Chesterfield City Hall (690 Chesterfield Parkway West, Chesterfield, MO) to present documentation that Monarch Firefighters and Paramedics conspired to subvert the electoral process by creating a campaign designed to force two well-respected elected officials to resign in order for the Union to take control of the Monarch Fire Protection District Board of Directors. This effort, which Mr. Kriegshauser recently uncovered, appears to have begun in December 2007 and it continues today.

Mr. Kriegshauser, who retired from his family’s funeral home business, came across this information as a result of a Sunshine Law request to see the Fire District’s files pertaining to a lawsuit it filed against Independent Insurance Auditing Service. The documents detail how the Monarch Firefighters and Paramedics Union hired a public relations firm and created a plan with a stated written objective to “Secure Resignations of Gans and Terschluse” (refers to Board President Richard Gans and Secretary Dr. David Terschluse).

Mr. Kriegshauser brought the documents to Board President, Rick Gans attention. Mr. Gans was aware the public relations firm was deposed as a part of the lawsuit, but he was appalled at what was contained in the documents. Gans said, “while I suspected all along that the Union was engaged in an effort to take control of the Board, I had no idea how far they went by hiring a professional P.R. firm to phantom write the Citizen’s Comments that were being delivered during Board meetings, or the Letters to the Editor that were supposedly written by concerned taxpayers. They clearly crossed the line”. Gans went on to say that Monarch firefighters and paramedics are among the highest paid in the country, yet they seem unsatisfied with current wages and benefits that exceed $100,000 for most and $140,000 for some. “At a time when the economy is suffering and tax dollars are so precious, the audacity of this Union to continue its efforts for double digit increases is absurd”.

Mr. Kriegshauser will provide copies of the documentation to those who attend the Press Conference on March 25. Additional information about Monarch Fire District wages and benefits may be found on the District’s official website at www.monarchfpd.org.

###

Fiscal Conservative Misnomer

On the stimulus-voting-sellout republicans: Can we all finally agree that the moniker "fiscal conservative" is an obtuse misnomer? Certainly Senators Snowe, Collins and Specter would describe themselves as "fiscally conservative" and socially moderate. Now the "moderates" have shown what "moderate" realy means; RINO (Republican In Name Only). Clearly, there is not an ounce of "conservative" in any of these self-described "fiscal conservatives."

Through history, certainly since President Reagan made it cool to be conservative, one would be hard pressed to find a "radical" social conservative (another misapplied label, think about it) voting with the Democrat majority for huge new spending increases. No folks, when the heat is on and we are betrayed by our party, the ones doing the betraying are going to be from the left flank.

Certainly, anyone calling themselves "conservative" while voting to borrow $600 billion from their grandchildren to spend on welfare expansion today ought to be ashamed.