Another prominent, though less-talented, ass clown.

The people have spoken. By the most convincing margin ever in Ass Clown of the Week voting, this week’s title goes to Adam Sharp who came away with an astonishing 78 percent of the vote. 

So who is Sharp and why do so many folks consider him an ass hat of the nth degree? 

Sharp is the conservative blogger behind Sharp-Elbows.net who shoved a video camera in the face of Fox 2 reporter Charles Jaco while the latter covered a health-care rally downtown. Sharp later pressed charges when Jaco allegedly bumped into him. You can see a video of the incident — and hear Sharp’s definition of “tea bagging” — here.  

A teabagger AND an ass clown. That’s one talented guy.

Here are some photos from today’s first anniversary St. Louis Tea Party event on the steps between the Gateway Arch and the banks of the Mississippi. (Click on the thumbnails to view the full photograph.)

UPDATE: Sharp Elbows and Reboot Congress have more photos and video.

They’re going to Claire McCaskill’s office or something. I got a copy of one of their posters.

From Bloomberg news, via the STL Post-Dispatch:

Emerson CEO David Farr said that the U.S. government was hurting manufacturers with regulation and taxes and that his company would continue to focus on growth overseas. “Washington is doing everything in their manpower, capability, to destroy U.S. manufacturing,” Farr said Wednesday in Chicago at a Baird Industrial Outlook conference. “Cap and trade, medical reform, labor rules.”

UPDATE: You should read the comments on the article posted at stltoday.com. The economic illiteracy (and a fair share of regular illiteracy, too) is staggering.

The story is largely the same from state to state, though the increases are smaller in the few states that have already adopted the same mandates and regulations that Democrats want to impose on all states. For the average small employer in high-cost New York, for instance, premiums would only rise by 6%. But they’d shoot up by 94% for the same employer in Indianapolis, 91% in St. Louis and 53% in Milwaukee.

A family of four with average health in those same cities would all face cost increases of 122% buying insurance on the individual market. And it’s important to understand that these are merely the new costs created by ObamaCare—not including the natural increases in medical costs over time from new therapies and the like.

It’s a gorgeous day here today. Feels like Palo Alto. But because most of the time here it feels like St. Louis, I’d say today feels even better than northern California.