Monster Tea Party in St. Louis on 9/12 (March to the Arch)

Chicago Tea Party's huge 9/12 Rally on Sunday in Morton Grove, IL promises to attract people from all around northern Illinois and even parts of Southern Wisconsin. But what if you're in the southern part of Illinois or over in Missouri? You should consider getting over to the "best Tea Party evah!" in St. Louis. It will begin at Noon at the Gateway Arch and end there at 4:00 p.m. They have absolutely incredible lineup of speakers and entertainers. For full information including directions, schedule and more visit www.recyclegovernment.org/stlouis. Note: There will be a "March to the Arch" at 11:00 a.m. Check stlouisteaparty.com/9-12-tea-party for last-minute updates.

Decharter East St. Louis???

That's what a reader suggests in her comment in response to yesterday's post, "CeaseFunding for CeaseFire?": The North Coast said... Tom, Blago could scarcely cut CeaseFire funding for St.Louis. St. Louis is in the state of Missouri (pronounced "misery"), outside his jurisdiction. This is Gov. Blunt's turf. I believe you mean East St. Louis, a place that has devolved to a ghetto village of fewer than 20,000 people, and that hasn't been able to pay its police or firefighters on a regular basis since 1970, when my family and I sat on the River Queen boat eating dinner and watched a 7-story warehouse go from having a little fire in the basement to being totally involved in flames before the E. St. Louis fire dept responded. I guess Blago figures it would be a better idea to fund what passes for the local police dept before funding useless groups like Ceasefire. However, a better idea would be to just de-charter East St. Louis and relocate its few remaining denizens either to other municipalities or to the state lockup, where most of them belong. We are talking about a place that doesn't even have street signs, and where buildings burn to the ground because the fire dept doesn't respond, because they haven't gotten their paychecks weekly and won't show for work until they do. To which I respond: Yes, of course. Saying "St. Louis, Illinois" is just easier. Few of us specify "South Beloit," but that is its proper name. Your otherwise interesting comment quickly devolved into a weird assumption that most residents of East St. Louis are criminals, and that the governor can ignore both the Illinois and U.S. constitutions. In writing that it would be a good idea "relocate its few remaining denizens either to other municipalities or to the state lockup, where most of them belong," you ignore the Constitution of the United States of America. Are you suggesting a massive use of eminent domain, to force the residents of East St. Louis (including property owners) to be relocated? The Soviet Union used that tactic successfully for decades. Thanks again for pointing out to us that Blagojevich's powers are limited to the State of Illinois. Now, had I written "St. Louis, Missouri," your point would have spurred me to write a correction.

Show Me State

Missouri is called the "show me state." Here's a partial explanation. "It’s wishing for too much, but it wouldn’t bother me in the least if both Bush and Cheney were impeached tomorrow and convicted by the Senate the next day, in order to make Nancy Pelosi the President," writes one blogger in St. Louis. "That way, we would have the enemy we can see instead of the enemy we can’t." See? St. Louis wants to be shown the enemy. Otherwise, apparently, they just can't see the enemy. "And with a Democrat in charge, membership in the Council of Conservative Citizens and the rest of the organizational right-wing would skyrocket." FULL POSTING at St. Louis CofCC blog... See? That oughta show them.

CeaseFunding for CeaseFire?

Is CeaseFire effective? Ask someone in St. Louis, where funding was cut by Gov. Blagojevich a while ago. Writes the blog St. Louis CofCC:

"There is an easy solution to stopping violent crime without a program that relies on state grants; in fact, it’s free — the city’s denizens should stop being violent. If they don’t, making them behave in the only fashion that has been demonstrated to work isn’t that expensive."

Agreed. Unfortunately, a lot of very stupid people live among us. They have stupid parents. This is acknowledged indirectly by CeaseFire itself, which feels a need to pepper bad neighborhoods with signs telling the criminally primitive to not shoot people. Incredible. Can you imagine signs telling people "Don't Jump Off of Buildings" or "Don't Stab People"?

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Illinois lawmakers have voted to re-instate an anti-crime program that was cut from East St. Louis and other communities last year by Gov. Rod Blagojevich. However, the Illinois House vote on Thursday to revive the scuttled CeaseFire program faces opposition in the Senate, where leaders have stood behind Blagojevich in his ongoing budget battle with lawmakers. FULL STORY...

Cincinnati Magazine looks at the difference between Chicago's CeaseFireand theirs. Seems theirs has not been as successful as ours. "The major difference between CeaseFire Cincinnati and CeaseFire Chicago," they write, "comes down to one thing: money. Until last month, Avondale’s program lacked the funding to hire any full-time outreach workers; instead, the Partnering Center employed just two part-timers. “The model argues that [outreach workers] are the biggest X factor,” Krings Barnes says. If those workers can’t spend any time discussing alternatives to crime with current and would-be criminals, the program will fail before it has a chance to take off."

RELATED:
Let CeaseFire fight -- chicagotribune.com
Ceasefires really just a bunch of duds?
* Where's Ceasefire Rogers Park?