Kirkwood Mediation Agreement

Yesterday at the Kirkwood City Council meeting there was a presentation of a mediation agreement between Kirkwood and the Meacham Park (a mainly black section of Kirkwood) residents. This agreement was facilitated by the U.S. Department Of Justice. The meetings between the two parties were held in secret. After the presentation a resolution was passed putting the agreement into effect.

I have three thoughts on this.

One, why is the DOJ involved? Aren't they supposed to be in charge of administering justice when a crime is committed? As far as I'm concerned, racial prejudice is not a crime. And I'm not even saying there was any racial prejudice, except maybe for Harriet Patton, president of the Meacham Park Neighborhood Improvement Association, who discussed a program to give every home in Meacham Park a computer with internet access - something that was never suggested for poorer white folks in Kirkwood. Anyhow, it just seems idiotic to me that the DOJ had anything to do with this.

Secondly, why the secrecy about what was discussed in the meetings? If this is a real issue, don't people need to hear the discussion? Don't we need more than just a phony agreement whose only purpose is to make the city of Kirkwood look good? "Ooh, look what we did! We passed an Agreement! No more shootings at council meetings. Hooray! We're so great!"

Thirdly, (and this seems to me to be actually the most important issue) the resolution putting this agreement into effect was never properly voted on. To become a bill, a resolution must have a first reading, then a vote to table 'til the next meeting where it has a second reading and is voted on again. If it then passes, it is law. This resolution has only had ONE READING! Therefore it is not law! If it is not law, what is the purpose?

On a side note, Meacham Park was originally an unincorporated community. It was annexed by Kirkwood in 1991. In my opinion, Kirkwood wanted to reap the tax benefits from building a shopping center on Meacham Park land. This could only be accomplished by annexing Meacham Park. Be that as it may, the TIF money from the shopping center was supposed to be used for home improvements in the Meacham Park area. After being used for poor quality improvements and going to waste, the TIF money was depleted in 2005. Kirkwood annexed Meacham Park only to use them and they have successfully accomplished that. This "Mediation Agreement" means nothing and will do nothing.


The Mediation Agreement

History of Meacham Park

Ed Martin Healthcare Townhall Videos - Pt. 2

Ok, so here's some more of the videos from Ed Martin's Townhall meeting last week.













That's it for today. If I have the time later this week or next week I'll maybe write something on my opinion of Scott Brown being elected yesterday and what that means for this November election.

Ed Martin Healthcare Townhall Videos Pt. 1

Here are some of the opening videos from the townhall meeting. I will try and have the others up by tomorrow. I've been having trouble getting them to upload.

A Capitalist Dilemma

I was at the Kirkwood city council meeting this past thursday. They had a proposal for building gas pumps at the Kirkwood Shop N Save they were considering. Shop N Save wanted to build gas pumps as a "service to the community." There was much opposition to the proposal from Kirkwood residents who were afraid this would affect their property values. There are also already 5 gas stations within a 1 mile stretch on the part of Manchester road. 2 still in business and 3 that recently went out of business.

I had mixed feelings on this issue. My inner capitalist was saying, "Let them build, if they go out of business in two weeks that's their problem. Don't let the government interfere."

But at the same time there was another little voice, "This is a local government, not the Feds. Local governments should have more power than federal. If they want to regulate business, (and the citizens obviously want them to or they wouldn't be here) let them."

Ultimately the council voted it down 4-3. There was much discussion, but I noticed the council members against the measure seemed much more concerned about Kirkwood residents than the members who were for the proposal.

I'm still confused as to whether that is a legitimate function of local governments or if they were out of line to be trying to regulate a business in the community. Any thoughts?

Chris Dodd Drops Out

I woke up this morning to the news Chris Dodd was not going to run for re-election in Connecticut. Made me happy for two reasons. One, Dodd is a stinkin' liberal and supports enlarging the federal government. Two, I think it gives Peter Schiff, a great supporter of personal liberty, a lot better shot at the seat.

Here's a video from the AP about Dodd not running for re-election.




Now, some people apparently think that since Dodd was not all that popular in Connecticut that it will be easier for whoever runs on the Democratic ticket to win now that Dodd is gone. Which could be true if that person still got the money from the Democratic Party and lobbyists that Dodd got. However, Schiff has been doing very well as far as fundraising goes. My opinion? It'll be a close race either way.

Here's a couple of videos about Peter Schiff.






Whether Peter Schiff wins or not, I suppose it's still good the Chris Dodd will be gone.

Will Missouri Opt Out Of A Federal Healthcare Plan?

So, I learned yesterday that there is a movement in the Missouri House and Senate to pass an amendment to the Missouri constitution which would opt the state out of any healthcare plan the feds pass. If this bill passes the House and Senate it would then go to the ballot to be voted on by the people. If it passed at the ballot box, it would then become a constitutional amendment.

I got so excited when I heard about this bill. Finally, our Missouri government is standing up for you and me. Instead of sitting down and taking whatever the federal government tries to force on us, they are standing up for personal liberty and state's rights.

It looks like this bill has a good chance of passing the House and at least a fair chance of passing the Senate. If we can get that far, then it's just a matter of getting the word out to the people. I'm fairly confident that as long as people know what this bill would do, they will, for the most part, wholeheartedly support it.

Here are a few of my past videos from youtube...

Sorry, this one somehow lost the first 30 seconds during upload. Just skip forward a bit.

Check out my youtube channel for more videos.

http://www.youtube.com/user/relpoh

Don't Tread On St. Louis

Welcome to Don't Tread On St. Louis.

Obviously since this is my first post, I am still working on getting links, videos and other miscellany (is that even a word?) up.

I am a liberty-minded individual who is concerned with the direction this country is headed. My concern extends from the federal level all the way down to the state and local level. My focus with this blog as far as events go, will be mostly local. However, I also intend to write opinion pieces which will be on sometimes local, sometimes national issues.

I also usually try to capture video of any Tea Party events, town hall meetings or liberty rallies I attend. I will post those here as they happen.