Saturday, April 28, 2012

Doors open at 6:00 PM, trivia starts at 7:00 PM

IBEW Local 1

5850 Elizabeth Ave.

Buy a table for $200.00 (8 players)

Sponsor a round $250.00

Purchase tickets at http://citydems.eventbrite.com

It just came to my attention that you will be fundraising for your Presidential campaign in St. Louis today. I just wanted to take a moment and welcome you to the great state of Missouri.

I know that you don’t make it to Missouri as much as you visit our neighbors to the north in the Hawkeye State, but you’ll see while you’re here that Missourians are some of the most hard-working and entrepreneurial folks in the entire country.

While we’re happy to have you in our state, we hope that you take some time to answer a few questions. It seems that unlike most people running for office, you are unwilling to answer questions from voters and the press, and your staff even claims that you’re not “ready” to appear on a Sunday show.

As a career candidate like you knows, fielding questions on your proposals and explaining your record are really a cornerstone of the political process. Unfortunately, it looks like the only questions you’ll be taking today are from donors, so we took the liberty of putting together a few questions we hope you’ll answer:

1) Last night Senate Republicans voted to raise taxes on nearly 160 million Americans just so millionaires and billionaires don’t have to pay their fair share. Why do you support raising taxes on middle-class Americans?

2) The President’s payroll tax cut would let the typical Missouri family keep an extra $1,520 of what they earn. Why do you think that $1,520 is nothing more than a “little band-aid” for middle-class families?

3) Your campaign says that you’re not “ready” to sit down for a Sunday show. If you’re not ready for a few tough interviews, what makes you think you’re ready to lead the country?

4) Reckless behavior on Wall Street led us to the brink of economic disaster in 2008, so why do you want to repeal the safeguards that protect America’s taxpayers and why do you want to let Wall Street write its own rules again?

5) In a recent interview, you refused to answer a question about what book you are reading – are you ready to stop dodging the simplest questions?

I look forward to your speedy reply and again, welcome to Missouri.

Sincerely,

Brian Wahby

Chairman

St. Louis City Democrats

The President and his national security team took a big risk when they snuck into Pakistan, without permission and under the cover of nightfall to kill America’s number one enemy.  It took nearly a year of intelligence gathering about bin Laden’s Abbottabad compound and careful planning to pull off this daring nighttime raid.  Hopefully this successful mission will put to bed the age old Republican talking point that Democrats are soft on defense issues and only Republican president’s can keep the American people safe.

The President called for unity in the wake of this big victory for America.  He invoked the sense of unity that existed in our country in the weeks and months following 9/11.  This time, that unity lasted for only a few short hours.  By Monday morning, the right wing talking heads and some of the leading Republican presidential candidates were praising former President Bush for making all this possible.  Some of them without any actual intelligence to support their position praised the “enhanced interrogation techniques” for providing information that led to Bin Laden’s death.

It pains these Republican Presidential candidates to see President Obama succeed.  They know that their chances of ever becoming President shrink every time the President and his team competently handle a crisis and clean up another one of the Bush Administration’s messes.  Their efforts to belittle the President’s accomplishments are backfiring and they are the ones the look petty.

Let’s look at a couple of examples from the past few weeks.  The President decided to put an end to the birther nonsense, which is nothing more than a veiled attempt to discredit America’s first black President, by releasing his “long form birth certificate.”  This won’t stop the conspiracy theorists, but it should at least silence the serious Republican presidential contenders.  I’m sure it will only silence them until they can devise another conspiracy to talk about President Obama’s race.

It’s no secret that our nation is facing a serious debt crisis that is a result of years of out of control spending by both parties and a shortfall in revenues thanks to the Bush Tax cuts.  The President and his team try to come up with real, grown up solutions to our nations debt crisis.  They recognize that continuing to cut taxes for the rich can’t solve this crisis and that entitlement programs really do need to be reformed.  Rather than responsibly deal with this crisis and work with the President, Republicans proposed a disingenuous plan to solve our nations debt crisis on the backs of the poor and elderly.  They proposed slashing Medicare and Medicaid to cut costs while at the same time giving more tax breaks to America’s richest one percent and to their corporate bosses.

Finally, last week a new jobs report was released that shows the American economy created 244,000 jobs during the month of April and that U.S. payrolls grew at the fastest rate in five years.  This is great news not just for President Obama but for the country as a whole.  Yet, Republicans continue to sing the same old song that they can do a better job fixing the economy by implementing the tired old economic policies that got us into this mess in the first place.

President Obama may never win the respect of the right-wingers, but he is winning the respect of independent voters and of America’s middle class.  Most Americans aren’t interested in hyper partisanship.  They are interested in having good jobs and a decent quality of life for themselves and their children.  They want a President and a Congress that simply get the job done.  I can’t speak for the Congress, but we have a real leader in President Obama who is making tough choices and working every day to make this country a better place.

Brian Wahby is Chairman of the St. Louis City Democrats and Missouri’s At-Large Member of the Democratic National Committee.

As you know, the legislature is dominated by Republicans, some who are truly interested in making Missouri a better place, and many that are more interested in making headlines and advancing their crazy right-wing agenda that does nothing to fix the problems in Missouri.  I’ve put together a wish list of legislative items that I hope the can be stopped dead in their tracks by the few remaining Democrats in the Senate and the rational Republicans in the House.

1.) Minimum Wage Repeal: The House defied the will of 76% of Missourians by voting to remove cost of living adjustments from the minimum wage.  Let’s hope this dies a swift death in the Senate.  People who are making less than $7.00 have enough trouble making ends meet and shouldn’t have to suffer anymore so big businesses can save a few bucks.

2.) Holding Unemployment Benefits Hostage: St. Louis’ very own Sen. Jim Lembke is blocking a bill that would allow $81 million in Federal unemployment benefits.  The deadline to accept these benefits is approaching fast and if they aren’t accepted nearly 23,000 out of work Missourians won’t receive unemployment benefits in April.  Senator Lembke claims he’s sending a message to his colleagues in Washington but in reality, he’s just using unemployed Missourians as political pawns to advance his out of touch agenda in the Senate.

3.) Repeal Child Labor Laws: Senator Jane Cunningham wants to repeal Missouri’s child labor laws.  Seriously.  This would allow children as young as 12 years old to work full time in Missouri.  Senator Cunningham’s bill already made Missouri easy fodder for the late night comedians once this session.  Let’s hope this bill dies a quiet death.

4.) Weaken Employment Discrimination Laws: The House recently passed a bill that would make it easier for employers to fire employees because of their sexual orientation.  The bill is pending in the Senate.

5.) Banning Sharia Law in MO Courts: The nearly 100 cosponsors of this bill should be embarrassed.  The House actually took the time to debate and pass a bill banning Sharia Law from being applied in Missouri Courts.  There is not a single instance in which Sharia law has ever been applied by a judge in Missouri and there is no indication that it ever would be applied.  A similar law passed in Oklahoma was declared unconstitutional by a Federal judge.  Hopefully this bill never makes it that far.

The few Democrats remaining in the legislature will be busy trying to stop not only these bills, but also a host of others that I have not mentioned.  Tell your legislators to keep fighting for working Missourians and encourage them to do everything in their power to stop these bills from reaching Governor Nixon’s desk.  In the unlikely event that a number of these do reach the Governor’s desk, I know he’ll do the right thing and veto every single one of them.

Finally, let’s hope that certain members of the Senate come to their senses over Spring Break and return control of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department to the citizens of St. Louis City.  Sixty Eight percent of St. Louisans want control local control of their police department. It’s time to reverse an outdated 150-year-old law.

Brian Wahby is Chairman of the St. Louis City Democrats and Missouri’s At-Large Member of the Democratic National Committee.

This spirited support was lead by our political and civic leaders from both sides of the river, many of whom whole-heartedly joined the Host Committee.  We would not have come this far without the great support of Mayor Francis Slay, Governor Jay Nixon, Senator Claire McCaskill, County Executive Charlie Dooley, Senator Dick Durbin, our bi-state Congressional Delegation.

Joining our effort were business and labor leaders including David Farr of Emerson and Civic Progress, Mike DeCola of Mississippi Minerals and the Regional Business Council, Bob Soutier of the St Louis Labor Council, Gerry Feldhaus and Jeff Aboussie of the St. Louis Building Trades Council, Nancy Cross of SEIU.  To all of these great St. Louis leaders: Thanks for your leadership and commitment to St. Louis.

Of course there are many people to thank and in the coming days we will attempt to reach out to you, but we also want to recognize here the extraordinary efforts, commitment and leadership of Kitty Ratcliffe and her staff at the Convention and Visitors Commission.  We are truly blessed to have such a dedicated and talented group of people working to sell our region as a premier location for tourists, meetings and conventions.

Again thanks to all of you who helped.  St. Louis was a serious contender throughout this process, and we should be proud of our collective efforts.  You proved that no league is too big for St. Louis.  It is at times like this that I like to read the following quote from one of my favorite Republicans, Teddy Roosevelt:
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

Thanks for allowing me the great honor to have lead this effort. Remember, 2016 is only 5 short years away.

Sincerely,

Brian Wahby

Chairman

St. Louis City Democrats

President of the Board of Alderman

- Lewis E. Reed

Alderman Ward 2

- Dionne Flowers

Alderman Ward 4

- Samuel Moore

Alderman Ward 6

- Kacie Starr Triplett

- Bradford Kessler

Alderman Ward 8

- Stephen James Conway

Alderman Ward 10

- Joseph [Joe] Vollmer

Alderman Ward 12

- Larry Arnowitz

Alderman Ward 14

- Carol Howard

Alderman Ward 16

- Donna Baringer

- Gus Mantia

- Marian0 V. Favazza

Alderman Ward 18

- Terry Kennedy

Alderman Ward 20

- Craig Schmid

- Rod Yeager

- Shannon J. McGinn

Alderman Ward 22

- Jeffrey L. Boyd

Alderman Ward 24

- Mike Hathaway

- William [Bill] Waterhouse

- Tom Bauer

- Martin B. Fischer

Alderman Ward 26

- Frank A. Williamson

Alderman Ward 28

- Lyda Krewson

Courtesy of www.democrats.org

Video Courtesy of the DNC.

St. Louis submitted its bid on 21 May, along with several other cities.  St. Louis is a strong contender for the Convention, given the region’s central location and unique attributes as a family-friendly and diverse city capable of hosting the 50,000 delegates, press and other visitors in 2012.

If successful, St. Louis will enjoy a significant economic benefit from the Convention.  In 2008, the Convention boosted Denver’s regional economy by $266 million.  For comparison, the 2009 MLB All-Star Game boosted the St. Louis economy by some $60 million.

The DNC’s Technical Advisory Group (TAG) will conduct site visits to each finalist city this summer.

“I’m proud St. Louis got short-listed,” said St. Louis Mayor Francis G. Slay.  “We demonstrated we are a first-class city capable of holding an event of this magnitude.”

The community can follow the St. Louis bid online and sign up to help at stl2012.org, via Twitter @stldnc2012 and on Facebook at facebook.com/stldnc2012.