This is the funniest take on that:

President Obama to visit Warrensburg, Mo.

July 18, 2013 5:49 pm  •  By Nicholas J.C. Pistor

The White House announced that President Barack Obama will visit Warrensburg, Mo., for a speech on the economy.

[….]

Warrensburg is on the western side of Missouri, about 60 miles southeast of Kansas City.  Obama hasn’t visited St. Louis since 2011.

[emphasis added]

Seriously? Uh, the last time President Obama visited Warrensburg was, well, never.

Charlie Dooley, the current St. Louis County Executive, has had a very good month. 2014 is just around the corner. At the Missouri Ethics Commission:

C031260 06/03/2013 DOOLEY FOR ST LOUIS COUNTY U-Gas 895 Bolger Court Fenton MO 63026 6/3/2013 $5,640.00

C031260 06/20/2013 DOOLEY FOR ST LOUIS COUNTY William Stephen Maritz 10 Sunningdale Drive Saint Louis MO 63124 Maritz Chairman & CEO 6/19/2013 $10,000.00

C031260 06/20/2013 DOOLEY FOR ST LOUIS COUNTY Ameren Missouri P.O. Box 66892 Saint Louis MO 63166 6/20/2013 $10,000.00

C031260 06/29/2013 DOOLEY FOR ST LOUIS COUNTY Larry Chapman 1600 S. Brentwood Blvd Suite 770 St Louis MO 63144 Chapman Ventures LLC President 6/28/2013 $6,250.00

C031260 06/29/2013 DOOLEY FOR ST LOUIS COUNTY 3100 South LLC 1600 S. Brentwood Blvd Suite 770 St Louis MO 63144 6/28/2013 $12,500.00

C031260 07/01/2013 DOOLEY FOR ST LOUIS COUNTY Christina Chapman 108 South Rock Hill Road Webster Groves MO 63119 Self Homemaker 6/29/2013 $6,250.00

C031260 07/01/2013 DOOLEY FOR ST LOUIS COUNTY Sheraton Westport Plaza 900 Westport Plaza Saint Louis MO 63146 6/30/2013 $8,559.88

[emphasis added]

Today:

C031260 07/02/2013 DOOLEY FOR ST LOUIS COUNTY Rex Sinquefield 244 Bent Walnut Westphalia MO 65085 Self Retired 6/30/2013 $100,000.00

[emphasis added]

Bam!

Today, at the Missouri Ethics Commission:

C010201 05/06/2013 SLAY FOR MAYOR McCormack Baron Salazar Inc 720 Olive Suite 2500 St Louis MO 63101 5/6/2013 $10,000.00

[emphasis added]

Running for something? Or, it’s never to early to start raising cash for the next election.

Today, at the Missouri Ethics Commission:

C010201 02/15/2013 SLAY FOR MAYOR St. Louis Cardinals, LLC 700 Clark Street St Louis MO 63102 2/15/2013 $10,000.00

[emphasis added]

Nothing from the Royals?

Previously:

Campaign Finance: meet me in St. Louis (January 28, 2013)

This month, at the Missouri Ethics Commission, for the St. Louis mayoral race:

C010201 01/05/2013 SLAY FOR MAYOR Husch Blackwell LLP 190 Carondelet Plaza Suite 600 St Louis MO 63105 1/4/2013 $10,000.00

C010201 01/18/2013 SLAY FOR MAYOR Citizens to Elect Jamilah Nasheed 4710 Lee Ave. St Louis MO 63115 1/18/2013 $10,000.00

C010201 01/19/2013 SLAY FOR MAYOR Thompson Coburn LLP One US Bank Plaza St Louis MO 63101 1/18/2013 $10,000.00

C010201 01/19/2013 SLAY FOR MAYOR Missourians for Excellence in Goverment 6175 Westminster St Louis MO 63112 1/19/2013 $50,000.00

C010201 01/23/2013 SLAY FOR MAYOR Express Scripts, Inc. One Express Way St Louis MO 63121 1/23/2013 $10,000.00

C010201 01/25/2013 SLAY FOR MAYOR RightCHOICE Managed Care, Inc. P.O. Box 68086 Cincinnati OH 45206 1/24/2013 $10,000.00

[emphasis added]

C061656 01/15/2013 COMMITTEE TO ELECT REED International Association of Firefighters Local #73 PAC 4271 Delor Saint Louis MO 63116 1/13/2013 $10,000.00

C061656 01/27/2013 COMMITTEE TO ELECT REED GAUTHIER HOUGHTALING & WILLIAMS, LLP 3500 N. HULLEN STREET METAIRIE LA 70002 1/25/2013 $10,000.00

C061656 01/27/2013 COMMITTEE TO ELECT REED LAW OFFICE OF BERNARD L. CHARBONNET, JR. 365 CANAL STREET SUITE 1155 NEW ORLEANS LA 70130 1/25/2013 $10,000.00

C061656 01/27/2013 COMMITTEE TO ELECT REED MANNING ARCHITECTS, APAC 650 POYDRAS ST SUITE 1250 NEW ORLEANS LA 70130 1/25/2013 $10,000.00

C061656 01/27/2013 COMMITTEE TO ELECT REED ROBERT ROMANIK 23 TOWNE HALL ESTATES DR BELLEVILLE IL 62223 SELF RADIO STATION OWNER 1/27/2013 $10,000.00

[emphasis added]

Apparently $10,000.00 is the new $20.00.

Update:

But wait, there’s more.

C061656 01/28/2013 COMMITTEE TO ELECT REED ETI, INC. 365 CANAL STREET SUITE 2425 NEW ORLEANS LA 70130 1/26/2013 $5,001.00

[emphasis added]

Mitt Romney will be in St. Louis tomorrow. He’ll be speaking at 12:15 at Production Products, a military contractor in North County. He’ll attend a fundraiser in Clayton later, but one assumes that he will be using the earlier campaign stop to attempt to symbolically kiss-up to the assuredly small number of Latinos who might consider voting for a representative of the (brown) immigrant-allergic GOP. Productions Products is an Hispanic-owned business, a fact that is surely no accident.

I won’t be able to attend this event, but I am assuming that folks will attempt to translate his covert, GOP base-directed dog whistles into plain English for those of us who won’t be there. At his June 1 fundraiser at the exclusive, Balboa Bay Club in Orange County, California, this demanding job was undertaken by the Orange County branch of Billionaires for Romney. The Richie Rich guys and gals made sure that Romney’s message was rendered down to its essence into bromides like “tax our poor,” and “poor people get a clue, democracy is not for you.” We can only hope that like-minded folks do such an impressive job for us Missourians. If anyone reading this should happen to mosey over to Production Products at 12:00 tomorrow, please feel free to report back here.

I case you wonder why it’s important that somebody parse Mitt’s words for us, this AFL-CIO video which analyses Romney’s intentions – and how they stack up to those of Barack Obama – may be just the ticket:

In case you’re interested in the billionaires who weren’t out doing yeoman’s duty in Orange County, but the ones who want to buy the election for Mitt, take a look at this Rolling Stone article. It names names. Specifically, the names and profiles of sixteen billionaires who have ponied up a million dollars (or more) each to put Mitt in the White House.

And if this doesn’t worry you, consider yesterday’s gubernatorial recall election in Wisconsin. Scott Walker outspent the Democratic challenger 7 to 1. He hung on to his job thanks to some of the same 1 percenters who are going to bat for Romney. Big money has really come into its own, and unless you’re rich, rich, rich and very corrupt, you need to be very afraid.

At 4:15 Wednesday morning, Lt. Tim Sachs of the St. Louis police force approached the thirty plus Occupy STLers in their sleeping bags and told them that they had ten minutes to start packing up and leave Kiener Plaza or they would be issued summonses.  Within 6-8 minutes, at least 20 cop cars and 3 paddy wagons pulled up and 30 or more police officers piled out of them. The Occupy STLers were having a general assembly to discuss their options, but the police put an end to that, pouring into the the plaza and telling the occupiers to get their stuff on the sidewalk now.

The protesters began breaking down their camp. Matt Hanley, who was in charge of the food, saw to it that their supplies were taken to a nearby van. Of the 30-40 occupiers, some went to the sidewalk to avoid getting a summons for being on park property after curfew. Others stayed in the plaza and received summonses.

By 4:45, the police were gone. Some of the protesters were sweeping up. Hanley noted that someone with an official position for the St. Louis parks had dropped by on Tuesday and mentioned that the occupiers had Kiener Plaza cleaner than he had ever seen it.

Occupy STLers were pumped after the cops were gone. Kiener Plaza hasn’t seen the last of them.

I’ll have pictures and video of all the activity as the protesters get them to me. Some media arrived while the police were there, so look for segments on the local news. I’ll cover the press conference at 10:00 this morning.

Update:At 4:30 Wednesday morning, with cop cars surrounding them, the Occupy STL folk were pumped about their mission.

I stopped by Kiener Plaza in downtown St. Louis Monday and talked to a few of the new residents there. They’re organized: got tents set up and have received plenty of food donations; have tarps ready for the first rain so that everything they own won’t end up soaked and moldy; meet as a group to decide on community policies and plan events. Monday, for example, they coordinated with a group of Wash. U. students to protest the Keystone Pipeline Project. 150-200 people showed up outside the Renaissance Hotel where Obama would be, urging him to veto the project. Wednesday at 4:00, they’re coordinating with MORE to protest at the Bank of America at Eighth and Market. They will demand that Bad for America take responsibility for the damage it has caused to our neighborhoods because of foreclosures.

As for their community policies, they are being scrupulous about following the rules and being model citizens. Despite the roar of the waterfall, they don’t use bullhorns at their meetings because that would require a $300 permit. Another example: they want to leave the plaza cleaner than they found it. Bill Stough dropped by and handed Carmalene Jackson a broom and dustpan.

The word the protesters had as of Monday afternoon, though, was that sometime Monday night the police would be citing them for staying on the city property.

Spotted near the rally in St. Louis on Friday.

Health Care For All – Jobs With Justice

Previously:

Definitely not a teabagger… (June 18, 2011)

Probably not a teabagger… (June 14, 2011)

Still around, and will be in 2012 (June 3, 2011)

Still around, and will be in 2012 – part 2 (June 6, 2011)

Still around, and will be in 2012 – part 3 (June 11, 2011)

You can always tell a teabagger by the cut of their bumper stickers (June 1, 2011)

You can always tell a teabagger by the cut of their bumper stickers, part 2 (June 4, 2011)

You can always tell a teabagger by the cut of their bumper stickers, part 3 (June 5, 2011)