Dear First Capitol News,
Like many informed and honest St. Charles residents, it was with deep outrage and profound disbelief that I absorbed the news of the 2007 election results. The fight to restore and maintain integrity in our city is not over, however, and it is gratifying to know that at least 5000 residents see Mayor York for the hypocritical, unchristian scoundrel that she is. Now is the time for continued action and unity, not apathy and complacency.
Some members of my own family were guilty of voting for York. My conversations with these family members, who are otherwise honest long-standing St. Charles residents, have given me some insight as to why, in this particular instance, the “Good Guys” lost the election (assuming, of course, that no further election fraud is discovered).
Mr. Tom Hughes purchased the election results through professional political means. Simply put, it was honest amateurs versus dishonest professional spin-doctors, and the professionals won. A lesson of American politics that we should now learn is this: Americans respect craftiness, the well played gambit, and the ability to change the rules to win the game. People also respect and recognize strength, even when it is wielded by evil. It is a fact that allowed Saddam Hussein and Adolf Hitler to gain power.
Gone (forever sadly) are the days when civil honest debates between God-fearing leaders resulted in a truly representative democracy. There are candidates and backroom dealers who believe that whatever you can steal in this world is okay. Honest leaders such as John Gieseke, Joe Koester, and Rory Riddler believe in the higher standard we all will eventually be judged by.
We, the honest residents of St. Charles, with our honest community leaders, can learn the lessons of politics and defeat TR Hughes and his band of bought-and-paid-for politicians. We can do so by honestly and candidly identifying our weaknesses, taking power out of our enemies’ strengths, and exploiting our enemies weaknesses. By playing politics with integrity and the intent to do good, we will demonstrate a strength that both our enemies and apathetic neighbors will come to respect. Active good government is the best deterrent to home builders (and mayors) with delusions of world domination.
What are our weaknesses? We have relied heavily on a single source of public information to get the message out. A minority of people have the time or inclination to read The First Capitol News. And some who do read doubt the information published by this fine publication. I have no doubt that York is guilty of the Express Scripts scandal, the Police Building behind-the-scenes buyout theft, the Election Printing-Paid-for-by-Tax-Dollars crime, the Recall-Election-Fraud indictment issue, and so on and so on. The majority of the voting public in this last election, however, do not seem to be aware of these transgressions. Additionally, this publication is suspect solely for the unique truthfulness it does not share in common with other newspapers. From the First Capitol News we hear the truth, unvarnished and unswayed by backroom politics. When the same truth is not heard from other newspapers, it is less convincing. Unfortunately, it was easy for the professionals employed by Hughes to dupe some St. Charles residents into ignoring the truth — by making the messager’s integrity suspect. They were able to characterize the FCN to some people as a one-person attempt to deceive the voters of St. Charles (ironic isn’t it?) into voting the way that person wanted through the use of biased, unfair written press. And yet they were frightened enough by the FCN to publish a last minute ‘Capitol News Extra” paper to confuse the issue (more will be said on this in listing our strengths).
What are our enemies strengths? Although financial disparity is an obvious advantage I will focus instead on the use of political action groups, most especially in name — such as Citizens for Responsible Government. The illusion of independence, consumer advocacy and protection leads the casual reader to accept the distortions and hogwash these yellow-press groups spew forth. The name sounds honest. Defensive correction of lies never achieves 100% — some voters will not get the message or believe it when a candidate defends himself against a lie. This is one of the reasons the “Good Guys” lost the election. The most successful way to discredit such a group is to create a counter organization with nearly the same name and publish material so obviously fictitious that the casual public associates the target organization with bold faced lies and tastelessness. This is an example of how deception is used to expose the truth.
What are our enemies weaknesses? Put concisely, the TRUTH concerning every action they have taken. Let us package this truth in an easier to absorb format. We need to become effective, efficient and inexpensive. Lets get the truth out in a way that everyone accepts and understands who the “Good Guys are” and most certainly who the “Bad Guys are”.
-Let’s print bumper stickers that have “YORK” with a circle around it and red line through the name. And also make one up for “HUGHES”.
-Let us create a monthly (or quarterly) newspaper called the “St. Charles Post-Dispatch” and make it resemble the Pulitzer giant to give credibility to our arguments (a casual viewer reading a citation in an election ad oftentimes will pick up ‘St. Charles‘ and assume it’s the journal, or ‘Post Dispatch’ and believe it’s the St. Louis variety). The truth works only when it is believed.
-Let us cite council meetings and court room documents when impeaching the character of York, Hughes and her cronies (people give great credence to judicial proceedings — it’s law, not politics). Taking the newspaper out of the citation removes the ability of spin doctors to discredit it. How does a spin doctor discredit a televised council meeting?
-Let us create a political action committee called Citizens for Patti and put forth an ad showing a cartoon character named ‘Princess Patti’ sarcastically thanking the public for electing her mayor and for not being swayed by her many transgressions (which are then listed).
-Let’s put out another ad listing her many faults with the legend “undisputed” and “no comment” from Patti York (York’s defense against any charge leveled against her is simply to pretend it isn’t worth defending against — basically, the ‘it’s no big deal‘ defense...legally, it’s not effective. Politically it is).
-Let us also create a political action committee named “Christians for Ethical Government” and support our candidates with endorsements while declaring that no “Christian who believes in an ethical government” would vote for thieves like York. If York disputes the ad, she will look even more guilty.
-Another ad should have a cartoon of her ‘top cop’ holding the city administrator down on the ground at gunpoint, the legend reading “A slice of ‘little Chicago’ — public official held at gun point without legal cause by Mayor York’s ‘Top Cop’.” The follow up text concerning intimidation, police brutality and York’s desire to make this lunatic Chief of Police is obvious.
Hughes also had a backup plan for the mayoral election — take over the council. Even if the best candidate for mayor (Gieseke) had won, Hughes radical, self-serving agenda could still be pushed through. Therefore, as for council members who received financial support from TR Hughes, put out a single ad next election: “Who does blank work for? Millionaires or the Residents of this Ward?” and cite that Hughes donated money to a committee which promotes the candidate, ending with the axiom “money is the root of all evil”. Let Hughes and York become household words for corrupt government in the City of Saint Charles. We, the public, have a civic duty to make them be ashamed of themselves and all the evil they have done.
Finally, timing is everything. Had FCN withheld the charge that York promised to fire Chief Swope and most of the senior police staff until two days before the election, she would have been unable to respond (lie) in time to save her political neck (the infamous ‘Capital News Extra’‘). St. Charles is afraid of being without a Chief of Police, and Chief Swope’s ability and integrity has been a godsend (let’s let him know that we support him). York has been politically twisting things so that some people believe the council had been at fault for the 18 month vacancy in the Chief of Police position. But, as a political ad should remind us, “York is the Mayor — Who else should we hold accountable?”
I hope that we will learn the lessons of the last election and take back our city. With integrity, ingenuity and faith in God, we will do it.
Sincerely Yours,
Dr. JM Erwin, DC
Owner 370 Chiropractic
Robin Carnahan
Secretary of State
I am writing about an incident which occurred on Election Day and which makes me question how well our Election Commissioner’s office is being run. This incident did not affect the outcome of any election and so no candidate will report it; yet the election officials were apparently very confused, and it is surely important for all of us that our election officials are well trained and know what they doing when they are running the polls.
Here is what happened at the Ward 4 polling place at St. Robert’s Church on April 3rd.
About 2:30 Tuesday afternoon, my phone rang and a good friend of mine was on the line. He was very, very angry. He had been to the polls to vote and was told that he lived in St. Charles County and could not vote in the City even though he had a City voter registration card and valid identification. He told the officials that he paid taxes in the city and had voted at this polling place many times before, but they still would not let him vote in the City, though they did try to give him a Francis Howell ballot, which he refused because he said he knew where he lived.
He was so angry that I volunteered to call the Election Commissioner’s office for him. The office looked up his name and told me he was listed as an active city voter and he should go back to the polling place at St. Robert’s and vote. I relayed this information and thought the problem was solved. An hour later, however, my phone rang again. My friend had driven through the rain to the polls for the second time. This time he was told the Election Commissioner’s office had made a mistake and he still could not vote in the City. At no time during this process was he offered a provisional ballot.
We then followed up by calling the City Clerk who verified my friend’s residency and passed the information along to the Election Commissioner’s office. My friend made a third trip to the polling place, and this time he was allowed to vote. When he left, the judges were making a list of all the other voters they had either turned away or given the wrong ballot.
There is something very wrong with the way our Election Commissioner’s office is being run when it takes three trips to the polls, several calls to the Commissioner’s office, and a call to the City Clerk to determine if a voter is eligible to vote even though he has a valid voter registration card and valid identification. I admire my friend’s determination to cast his vote, but I have to wonder how many people either left without voting or voted the wrong ballot because of the confusion of the election officials.
Eleanor McCune
Dear Editor,
The April 1st (fools) “Extra” edition is great! What a Crock of Stuff you managed to pack into it! Great writing! I haven’t laughed that hard in a long time...
Hold on.
“Paid for by Voters for Good Government, William Clark Hardin, IV, Treasurer”??
Hey! It wasn’t you guys turning a joke after all.
THEY DID IT TO THEMSELVES!
What a Crock.
Wm G.
St. Charles City Resident who looks forward to, at the polls, answering Mr. Keilty’s insult to my daughter. Neither she or I will vote for you.
Tony,
You should start your next issue on a theme of “Imitation is the sincerest form
of flattery”. You could go on with how Patti’s hatchet men knew that residents
look to the FCN for the truth, so to get people to believe any of their spin,
They had to try to fool people into believing they were reading the FCN. If it
didn’t look like the FCN, nobody would have picked it up.—
Jerry Haferkamp
Dear Editor,
As a regular voter in Saint Charles, I did my research before this election and found John Gieseke to be the best candidate for mayor in the city. After I read his article in the FCN about AT&T coming into Saint Charles,
(http://firstcapitolnews.blogspot.com/2007/02/councilman-john-gieseke-speaks-out-on.html) that sealed the deal for me. I also read his website and saw that he was endorsed by CWA Local 6320, which has just voted to merge with my own Local 6310 in the past months. I was dead set on getting John Gieseke elected with my vote.
I had emailed John and asked that a sign be put up in my yard, and to my surprise, he himself showed up the next day to place the sign and ask any questions that I had. We spoke about my job at AT&T and the video franchising that was about to happen.
I received all of the slanderous junk mail like everyone else in the city, and appreciated how John ran a clean campaign. Then on Friday, March 31st, I received the attached memo from Local 6310 President Tony Ellebracht. I was thrown off balance, but not being one to let my Union dictate who I should vote for when I had done my own research, I still voted for John.
I wanted to send along this information, and I welcome any responses.
Sincerely
Joshua Weiss
Ward 7
Editor’s note
The memo told the members to vote for York because of Gieseke’s ties with Charter. This was not true because Gieseke had no ties with Charter.
Dear Editor,
I think it is time someone reminds Wayne Oetting of the Saint Charles School District Mission Statement. “…Our mission is to provide the care, leadership and instructional skills necessary to ensure that effective learning occurs for each child…Each person should be treated with dignity…We value all members of our learning community and demonstrate honesty, respect, and trust…All Voices should be heard in the decision making process…We base decisions on the best interest of the students…We allocate our resources in a conscientious manner consistent with our principals and goals”. Does any of that sound familiar to you Wayne Oetting or do you only allocate OUR resources in a manner consistent with Your principles and goals.
I want to remind Wayne Oetting that the School Board’s survey in 2005 showed an overwhelming majority of the taxpayers wanted to keep our elementary schools open; Wayne Oetting has always insisted they should be shut down. The School Board’s “Option’s Plans” (Option #4 to be specific) shows that this district will only SAVE 1.59 million dollars by closing down Benton and Blackhurst and reconfiguring the middle schools, but our board seemed to think the taxpayers should PAY 6.5 million dollars to keep them open.
Although it has been established that kicking the Non-resident children out of our schools certainly does not SAVE the district $200,000, Wayne Oetting still keeps trying to convince us that it COSTS “something”. Perhaps that “something” you refer to is the lives of those poor kids Wayne Oetting, or is it the integrity of our entire district you wanted to sacrifice.
At the March 8th meeting Wayne Oetting said he didn’t feel it was necessary for the Board to meet in April, because Wayne Oetting doesn’t like it when the Board questions decisions (like using the same number of buses next year even though they will be busing a lot more kids a whole lot farther).
Wayne Oetting is the one that COSTS this district. Wayne Oetting is costing this district it’s schools, teachers, children, and integrity because Wayne Oetting does NOT listen to anyone except Wayne Oetting. If Wayne Oetting doesn’t want to show up at the April Meeting of the School Board, then I suggest Wayne Oetting do the taxpayers the biggest favor of all and never show up again.
Jim DuMontelle
To the Editor,
The minimum wage getting hijacked by the Republicans is the final straw. The Republican party should be run out of politics, people should be Revolting. The votes of the American people mean nothing anymore.
What is it going to take to get our country to wake up to the take-over happening Right before our very eyes. courtesy of bushco. Something needs to be done.
The downfall of America is upon us, think that it is not. Remember you read this today And see where we are in about 5 years, when the damage in place now; effects us then.
Steve Belosi Lake St. Louis, Mo.
