National Guard

In case you missed this nugget in all the news about the sale of St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch, John and Cindy McCain are the Big Winners in the foreign takeover of our favorite hometown beer brewer.

From the Wall Street Journal:

"Mrs. McCain’s company owns between $2.5 million to $5 million in Anheuser stock..."

Yesterday, Matt Blunt activiated the State's Emergency Response Center to deal with expected flooding on the Missouri River.  No doubt a critical component of any response plan is the mobilization of the Missouri National Guard.

Yet across the border in Kansas, the Governor has been forced to hire contractor to assist with the Greenburg tornado disaster because much of the manpower and equipment of the Kansas National Guard is... in Iraq.  

Are we at risk for the same situation in Missouri? 

No doubt Matt Blunt will have some reassuring words about how Iraqi deployment of our National Guard troops  and equipment makes Missourians safer.

  Before I begin my critique of Ike Skelton’s address, I think I should inform the reader of a certain amount of animus I hold toward the speaker. After being informed of this, you may find my admitted hostility toward the guest of honor at Tuesdays assembly to be sufficient grounds for dismissing my account out of hand.

A little under a year ago, I and an number of residents of Ike’s Congressional District decided to contact our congressman to determine his position on the administration’s proposed preemptive nuclear strike on Iran. After doing a fairly extensive search of Representative Skelton’s statements and his website we decided to request a clarification of his position on the matter. Long story short, we ended up being completely stonewalled by our representative who refused to respond in any appropriate way to our concerns. We wasted a great deal of time, paper and pixels on our attempt to communicate with a completely unresponsive politician and I remain resentful to this day that he put us through such a fool’s mission.

If you don't plan to go to the Ritz Carlton to hang out with President Bush tomorrow night, you might consider dropping by this event:

Support our National Guardsmen & Guardswomen!

Join Veterans supporting Claire McCaskill and other community leaders for an evening dedicated to and benefiting the Missourians who put their lives on the line to make a stronger America and a safer Missouri.

Help raise money for the Missouri Military Family Relief Fund, a non-profit organization which assists National Guardsmen / Women and their families. 

Come enjoy dinner, hear the stories of some of Missouri’s bravest and learn what you can do to help Missouri’s Guardsmen and Women.

June 28, 2006, 5:30-8:30pm
Wild Acres Park
10400 Midland Boulevard
Overland, MO 63114

(At the intersection of Midland & Ashby, the entrance is on Ashby)

Suggested minimum donation of $5

For more information, please contact:
Jeremy Kazzaz at the McCaskill for U.S. Senate Office
(314) 918-8683
jkazzaz [at] claireonline [dot] com

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The Blunt Administration has pulled the plug on its Official Homeland Security Website after Fired Up Missouri called it out for failing to keep the site current.

Visitors to the Missouri's Homeland Security website are now greeted with an "under construction" banner.

Rather than remedying the problem by updating the site, the Blunt Administration has made the problem worse.  Now, dozens of federal, state and local emergency preparedness websites link to an internet dead-end.

The saddest words of tongue and pen from the horrific Bush/Cheney legacy may well turn out to have been the “imp-LIE-d” connection of Saddam with the events of 9-11.  Here is a Letter to The Editor of our own Red State Rag: The Jefferson City News Tribune:

Back in May, the Defense Department announced its plan to move the 131st Air Guard Wing out of state.  This critical homeland security unit was put on the UniGroup moving van because Matt Blunt and Jim Talent sat on their hands and let the Bush Administration have its way with Missouri jobs and security.

On Wednesday, Democrats in the Missouri House, lead by Representative Jeff Harris, announced a plan to improve state disaster preparedness.  Called the Secure Missouri Plan, the initiative would ensure that "Missouri can quickly and effectively respond in the event of a natural disaster or domestic terrorism."

The plan is producing results before it has even been introduced.

Since Wednesday, the Blunt Administration has been scrambling to play catch-up with the Dems.  On Friday, the Blunt Administration acknowledged short-comings and announced that it would develop a new state catastrophic disaster plan.  Here is an excerpt from Post-Dispatch coverage of the admission:

In the stillness of the debate not raging about the closure of the 135th Fighter Wing (Missouri Air Guard) at the St. Louis airport, what is also unknown is the fate of the US Navy & Marine Corps Reserve Centet co-located on the 135th's base. Hundres of Navy and Marine Corps reservists will be moving somewhere -- perhaps across the river into Illinois where Scott AFB is thriving and growing. Along with those reservists dozens more full-time military, civilians, and their families will also be moving, most likely OUT of the Great and Sovereign State of Missouri.

The economic impact? Hundreds of hotel rooms every weekend, dozens of airline flights in and out of Lambert each month, dozens of rental cars staying parked and fewer gallons of gasoline being purchased, fewer and fewer restaurant meals, and fewer trips to movies, malls, and entertainment. And what of the jobs in these sectors affected by the abandonment of Missouri by her Republican Senators, highly-placed Republican Congressional "leaders," and the Boy Guv, himself a former drilling Navy reservist?  Maybe this is an issue too complicated or too distant for the K-Street faction to worry about.

Jim Talent has announced that he won't even try to challenge the elimination of 2,000+ defense department jobs in Missouri.

His stunningly pathetic excuse: he fears looking "weak" if he loses the fight.

By way of the Associated Press, here is his explanation for why he would rather run than fight:

The New York Times is featuring a story about Attorney General Jay Nixon's efforts to crack down on hurricane relief scams on the internet.