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Sarah Palin Stumps for Sarah Steelman Pt2

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“The campaign believes that the RV does not constitute campaign materials, but we will remove the sticker just to be cautious.” –Brunner Press Secretary John Sutter

Wentzville Patch:

According to the Marine Corps Trademark and Licensing Program, using the branch’s logo as the Brunner campaign has with a small logo on the rear of a campaign bus, could be considered a problem.

I’m running for a political office and am a former Marine. Can I use Marine Corps trademarks on my campaign materials?

No, you may not use the official Marine Corps Seal, Eagle, Globe and Anchor (EGA), or any other USMC insignia or trademark in this manner, since it might create the impression that your candidacy is endorsed by or affiliated with the USMC in some way, or that the USMC has chosen your candidacy over other candidates. You are more than welcome, to simply and accurately state that you are a Marine Corps veteran, that’s fine, that’s a fact. But using the EGA which is a trademark of the USMC, and protected by Federal law (please see 10 USC 7881) is something you may not do. This is consistent with the Marine Corps Uniform Regulations which clearly states that the wearing of the uniform in a political context is strictly prohibited. Please see Section 11002(1)(a)(2) and (3) of the Marine Corps Uniform Regulations.

Related:

STL Beacon: County leaders assess impact of trash ruling

Brunner ‘Friend’ Charlie Dooley Has STL County Taxpayers on Hook for Million$$$$

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The New York Times reports today, “A rising number of manufacturers are canceling new investments and putting off new hires because they fear paralysis in Washington will force hundreds of billions in tax increases and budget cuts in January, undermining economic growth in the coming months. Executives at companies making everything from electrical components and power systems to automotive parts say the fiscal stalemate is prompting them to pull back now, rather than wait for a possible resolution to the deadlock on Capitol Hill.”

Of course, Republicans have been pushing to alleviate this uncertainty by extending all the current tax rates for another year. Senate Democrats had an opportunity to do that, but they voted it down, preferring to impose tax hikes in January on many job creators instead.

The Times notes, “[M]ore diversified companies like Hubbell Inc. in Shelton, Conn., have begun to hunker down as well. Hubbell, a maker of electrical products, has canceled several million dollars’ worth of equipment orders and delayed long-planned factory upgrades in the last few months, said Timothy H. Powers, the company’s chief executive. It has also held off hiring workers for about 100 positions that would otherwise have been filled, he said. ‘The fiscal cliff is the primary driver of uncertainty, and a person in my position is going to make a decision to postpone hiring and investments,’ Mr. Powers said. ‘We can see it in our order patterns, and customers are delaying. We don’t have to get to the edge of the cliff before the damage is done.’ The worries come amid broader fears that the economy is losing momentum — the annual rate of economic growth in the second quarter fell to 1.5 percent from 2 percent in the first quarter, and 4.1 percent in the last quarter of 2011. On Thursday, the Commerce Department reported that factory orders unexpectedly fell 0.5 percent in June from the previous month, while data on the labor market released Friday showed job creation still falling short of the level needed to bring down the unemployment rate.”

Further, “More than 40 percent of companies surveyed by Morgan Stanley in July cited the fiscal cliff as a major reason for their spending restraint, [Vincent Reinhart, chief United States economist at Morgan Stanley] said. He expects that portion to rise when the poll is repeated this month. . . . With many Fortune 500 companies now setting budgets and planning for 2013, chief executives say they cannot afford to hope for the best. Wall Street is also paying more attention: over the last few weeks, chief executives of companies like Honeywell, U.P.S. and Eaton all cited the uncertainty as a threat to earnings in the second half of 2012. ‘We’re in economic purgatory,’ said Alexander M. Cutler, the chief executive of Eaton, a big Ohio maker of industrial equipment like drive trains and electrical and hydraulic systems. ‘In the nondefense, nongovernment sectors, that’s where the caution is creeping in. We’re seeing it when we talk to dealers, distributors and users.’”

Related:

Rasmussen Reports: Just 14% Think Today’s Children Will Be Better Off Than Their Parents

Examiner.com: Recovery? What recovery?

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We’re going to make a prediction here. If Dave Spence is the Republican nominee for governor, his race against Nixon in the fall will make Nixon’s race against Kenny Hulshof in 2008 look like a nail biter. No offense to Mr. Spence, but his name needs to be nowhere near or on a ballot for office. It’s been one embarrassing gaffe after another. He’s clearly unprepared and unqualified for the office he seeks.

Riverfront Times:

The spot opens on a shuttered industrial building with Spence’s voiceover: “After 65 years, this business shut its doors last year,” followed by the on-screen words: “McHenry Truck Equipment: Closed in 2011.” Spence continues: “It’s the same all over Missouri. Small businesses are struggling to stay afloat with Jay Nixon in charge.” Well, maybe, maybe not.

But Spence should probably find a better example to make his case: McHenry Truck Equipment did indeed close its doors in 2011 — in order to move to its new location only four miles away, still within the city of St. Louis. As of yesterday, it was still open for business.

It’s conceivable that a Spence staffer saw that the business had been administratively dissolved, then wrongly inferred that it had shut down forever. But Spence himself should know better: The exact same thing happened to his own company.  In February 1995, Alpha Plastics was administratively dissolved for failure to file an annual report, only to be reinstated several months later. Read more…

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Typical liberal. Do as I say, not what I do. The hypocrisy meter is off the scale on this one! This is too rich! Mr. French is calling for Black unity next Tuesday at the polls while he supports a white school choice, Rex Sinquefield supported candidate. Really???? Mr. Casas’ opponent Michael Butler has the support of the American Federated Teachers union (he actually substitutes in the St. Louis city school district) and he has been a legislative aide to a state representative and a state senator. But as an old and dear friend from the ‘hood used to say, “I guess white folks’ ice is colder.”

St. Louis American:

If African Americans in North St. Louis don’t start paying attention, they may wake up the day after election day to find that they no longer have black representation in Congress, in the Missouri Senate or in the state House. This is a fact that I don’t think is being reported or discussed enough – in either the black or the progressive community. Which leads me to another disturbing observation.

As I drive around the city, particularly in the central corridor and south, I have noticed more than a few yards with signs showing support for both Russ Carnahan for Congress and Jeanette Mott Oxford for state Senate. That is a troubling message – especially from white progressives, who are usually allies of the black community. If that yard sign combination became reality in August, it would mean for the first time in 40 years that St. Louis would have no African-American representation in Congress or the state Senate.

Add to that: many of the candidates for the various state House districts that include North St. Louis are from affluent neighborhoods in South St. Louis. That means that for North St. Louis African Americans, there would also be no representation in the state House.  This would be a giant step backwards. Read more…

Related:

Jamilah, “Lil’ Niecey” Nasheed Completes the Trifecta

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A misguided and costly decision by an arrogant regime hell bent on repaying its cronies has St. Louis County taxpayers on the hook for millions of dollars to three local trash haulers.

St. Louis Beacon

The Missouri Supreme Court ruled that three haulers are entitled to damages because St. Louis County followed improper procedures when it established trash districts And while St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley argued the ruling could have been worse and the trash-district plan saved county residents money, others say the entire situation was completely avoidable.

The case stems from the county’s decision in 2008 to divide unincorporated St. Louis County into trash-collection districts that each went to the lowest trash-hauler bidder. Three haulers – American Eagle Waste Industries, Meridian Waste Services and Waste Management of Missouri – sued after they were ousted after failing to win the initial district contracts. The haulers argued that the changeover violated a state law requiring two years notice.

Jane Dueker, an attorney with Stinson Morrison Hecker who represented the haulers, said the outcome is effectively the worst-case scenario for county residents. People in unincorporated areas of the county, she said, will have to pay for trash service and the damages. And residents who pay for their trash service through their municipalities will also have to cover the costs. The biggest question, Dueker said, is why the county didn’t wait to implement the program.

“What most people do when the legislature passes the law, they sue and say ‘Hey, does this apply to us? We’re a charter county,’” Dueker said. “And they didn’t do that. They just kept going. And they were going to implement this no matter what. And now taxpayers are going to have to foot the bill.” “Which is not what the companies wanted,” she added. “It would have just been better to just leave us alone and follow the law. This is not good thing for anybody. This is the worst of all results.”

“It was a good policy. It was a right thing to do. And I don’t apologize for it. Because it kept money in our citizens’ pocket, that’s my job,” he added later. “The process is still in place. It still goes on. We have the authority to do it. What they were talking about was the process, not the authority. So we did the right thing for the right reasons.” Read more…

Wait a minute? A $1.2 million dollar judgement that could have been easily avoided is keeping “money in our citizen’s pockets?” Is this  what Mr. Brunner’s $3k donation to Mr. Dooley -a week before the election– got us? A clearly incompetent leader who is terrible at math!

Related:

Ed Martin to Charlie Dooley: Open the Bidding Process

Quote of the Day: Former Temporiti Trash Client “Becoming Closer and Closer to a Monopoly All the Time”

Quote of the Day: Dooley Consiglieri: “I Have Never Told a Client that I Have Charlie’s Ear”

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Politico reports, “The Obama administration’s requirement that nearly all insurance plans provide contraceptives without a co-pay begins Wednesday, giving Democrats a new talking point about the benefits of the [health care] law and Republicans a new hook to repeal the whole thing. On Capitol Hill Tuesday, Democrats talked up the law’s benefits for women’s health with a bigger sales blitz than they’ve used for the health care law in a long time — including floor speeches by top Senate Democrats and a news conference with Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. . . . Senate Republicans, who once railed that the contraceptives requirement violated the religious freedoms of Catholics who oppose them, instead used the new rule to try once again to repeal the entire law.

“On Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell offered an amendment to repeal the law to a cybersecurity bill under debate in the Senate this week. ‘Given the fact that our friends on the other side are going to focus on that bill this particular week, it might be a good idea to have a vote on it,’ McConnell said. It didn’t get very far, though. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid called the effort ‘ridiculous,’ indicating Republicans aren’t likely to get a vote on it.”

In other words, Democrats want to crow about the new Obamacare mandates, including those that violate religious liberties by forcing religious institutions to purchase health plans that include contraceptive coverage, but they aren’t willing to vote to defend these mandates. If Democrats are so proud of Obamacare and the new government mandates that begin this week, why won’t they vote again to uphold them

Rasmussen Reports: 62% Think Health Law Likely to Cause Some Companies to Drop Employee Coverage

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Hat tip: politichickstv

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The New York Times reports today, “The United States economy grew by a tepid 1.5 percent annual rate in the second quarter, losing the momentum it had appeared to be gaining earlier this year, the government reported Friday. Growth was curbed as consumers limited new spending and as business investment slowed in the face of a global slowdown and a stronger dollar. . . . A slowdown in household spending was the primary damper on growth, as consumers increased their savings rate, a sign of increased uncertainty about the future.”

And the AP writes, “U.S. economic growth slowed to an annual rate of just 1.5 percent from April through June, as Americans cut back sharply on spending. The weaker growth adds to worries that the economy could be stalling three years after the recession ended. . . . Growth at or below 2 percent isn’t enough to lower the unemployment rate, which was 8.2 percent last month. And most economists don’t expect growth to pick up much in the second half of the year. Europe’s financial crisis and a looming budget crisis in the U.S. are expected to slow business investment further. ‘The main take away from today’s report, the specifics aside, is that the U.S. economy is barely growing,’ said Dan Greenhaus, chief economic strategist at BTIG LLC. ‘Along with a reduction in the actual amount of money companies were able to make, it’s no wonder the unemployment rate cannot move lower.’”

The tepid GDP numbers today only serve to highlight how misguided Senate Democrats’ vote yesterday to raise taxes on nearly a million small businesses was. Fifty-one Democrats voted to raise taxes, despite President Obama’s warning when he signed a full extension of current tax rates two years ago that automatic tax increases on every American “would have been a blow to our economy just as we’re climbing out of a devastating recession.”

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When Obamacare was passed, Claire and the Democrats promised that healthcare costs would go down:

McCaskill: “We Passed A Bill That I Think Over The Long Haul, That I Think Will Bring Down The Deficit And Bring Down Health Care Costs.”

“McCaskill Said The [Health Care] Bill Is Not Perfect But Will ‘Vastly Improve The Current Realities Of Health Care In Our Country’ By Stabilizing Health Care Costs, Making Insurance More Affordable And Available To Most Americans And By Reducing The Deficit Over 20 Years.”

Conservatives and a person smarter than a fifth grader knew these promises were bogus. We have learned that the total cost of the healthcare bill has risen from $940 billion to nearly $1.75 trillion. Since this unpopular monstrosity was passed, healthcare costs have risen by 9 percent and the average premium has risen by $1,300 and could rise even further according to today’s Congressional Budget Office report:

The additional enrollees [i.e., those previously projected to enroll in Medicaid, but who will now receive Exchange subsidies in light of the Court’s ruling] are likely to spend more on health care, on average, than those previously expected to purchase insurance through the exchanges because people with lower income generally have somewhat poorer health.  As a result, CBO and JCT now estimate that the premiums for health insurance offered through the exchanges, along with premiums in the individual market, will be 2 percent higher than those estimated in March 2012.

Remarkably, even the media is reporting it:

BLOOMBERG:  “The average cost of a family policy climbed 9 percent in 2011 to $15,073, according to a poll of 2,088 private companies and state and local government agencies by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation in Menlo Park, California, and the Chicago- based American Hospital Association’s Health Research and Educational Trust.”

WALL STREET JOURNAL:  “[In 2011], the health-insurance premiums employers pay rose sharply this year, with the average annual cost of family coverage passing the $15,000 mark for the first time, according to a major survey.”

WALL STREET JOURNAL: “The average annual family premium for 2011 was $15,073, up from $13,770 last year.”

Related:

“Conservative Republican” Brunner Donated 3K to Charlie Dooley – 1 Week Before 2010 Election

Charlie Dooley Calls Obamacare Protestors “Nothing But Haters”

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