I'm sorry, Jim

I have been shunned by the Jim Holt for Lt Gov campaign once again. I have received the run around from the Holt camp over repeated requests for a phone or e-mail interview and I think I know why. I may or may not have referred to Senator Holt as "Jesus Jim" on a hastily written and venomous, to be sure, blog comment on some other site. I am pretty sure, that is the reason for the repeated non answers from the Holt camp regarding my interview and I just want to say I'm sorry, Jim. Can't we just be friends? I do think you are crazy but that describes half my friends, so what do you say?

Stephen Colbert should put Jon Stewart On Notice

Here is a great piece on Colbert, thought you might like it!

http://hinessight.blogs.com/hinessight/2006/08/stephen_colbert.html

Asa's Hit and Run with Bush

By the grace of God, Boeing, and all that is holy, we got a visit from the sitting President of the United States today. Why, you ask, is he in beautiful West Little Rock today? Is he here to tell someone what to do with all those fucking trailers? Is he here to tell us that he is going to reinstate the funding he took from higher education? I know you'll be baffled to find out that neither is the case. He is here to raise campaign cash for the soon to be strapped Asa Hutchinson. With Bush's approval rating of 35% here in the state of Arkansas, the event was as closed door as possible with the main event going down in the huge mansion of former Razorback and NBA great, Joe Kleine. $500.00 per plate barbecue is not how I like to spend my afternoons but at least a few people did just that today. I am sure that all the ails of the world were best put on hold today so former NARC and part time douche bag, Asa Hutchinson, could afford to sling mud at Mike Beebe. On a more sinister note, Karl Rove was with the president today. I knew I felt the force of the dark side today, around lunch time. I don't know about you but the sight of Karl Rove just makes me sick. Enough....

If this event doesn't generate more cash than the Clinton fundraiser, Asa's done. Already lagging far behind in the money department, Asa can't withstand being doubled or tripled up by the Clinton gig that is soon to follow. I know there have been some wacky polls lately on this race but if you cut out all the suspect polls and average the rest, Beebe is still ahead 8 points. It is getting down to crunch time in this race and I don't think Asa can afford to continue losing in the money department and not get crushed in the ad blitz that is sure to come. Mark my words, if this event gets doubled up by the Clinton fundraiser, this one is OVER.

ArkFam cries foul about censorship!?!

For those of you who don't already know, ArkFam is the Christofascist website hosted by non-Arkansans about Arkansas politics. Let me begin by saying that I am all for free speech and I want these folks to be able to spew all the propaganda they can muster. I must, however, call them on the hypocrisy of railing against the Arktimes site for censorship when ArkFam has the same vile practice in play. I have personal experience with this since my posts are deleted from the log on a regular basis over at ArkFam, even the ones with no colorful language.
One of my favorite tactics of the ArkFam site, of late, is their tendency to use half of a news story or to just outright trick it up. They are prone to misquote, defame, lie, and just plain misrepresent the facts. All of this is fair game of course but I must point out the hypocrisy of a propaganda site calling a news site (however skewed it may be, they do post actual news) censors. I must be bored to even be writing a story about a group of people that are this irrelevant but I felt that someone should take them to task. They have been in quite a frenzy here lately with their trumped up stories, mostly centering around the secret conspiracy of homosexuals to take over the world. Not one of the writers or regulars over there has been able to explain to me where all the hate comes from. Maybe they were beaten as children or ridiculed in gym class or something. We will probably never know...

HERE IS THE LINK TO THEIR SITE:
http://www.arkfam.com

Pryor whores himself out for the Republican Party

Once again, Mark Pryor is doing the bidding of the Republican Party. This time around he is selling out the Democratic Party by supporting the loser of the Democratic primary in Connecticut instead of the rightful winner. I know that he and Joe Lieberman have been beltway buds for a few years but instead of doing the right thing, he is toeing the Republican party line with his unwavering support of Joe. Now Pryor has never been one of my favorite politicians because he has sold out the people of Arkansas on many occasions. Pryor was instrumental in allowing the most vile of big business conservatives, Sam Alito, to be elevated to the Supreme Court, he caved to Republicans on the bankruptcy bill that was written by and for the big credit card companies, and in the Terri Schaivo nonsense I will let Senator Pryor speak for himself "I support Congressional action taken over the weekend that allowed a federal judge to review the case of Terri Schiavo. The legislation offers an opportunity to gain additional perspective on the right way to proceed and ensures that every option was explored in coming to a final decision." Yes he actually supported a special session involving one person's right to die decision and a review of the case that had already been reviewed and re-reviewed. It is well known in the beltway that Pryor votes with the Republicans and more importantly with the president way too often to be considered an actual Democrat but what really irks me about this product of nepotism is his assertion that this is compromise. Compromise is when both sides give a little, capitulation is when you just cave in like Mark Pryor is so prone to do. Mark Pryor is a dangerous politician mostly because he is a stealth Republican. Bad for Arkansas and bad for America. Enjoy the next two years, Mark, because they will be your last.

Is Senator Pryor setting HIMSELF up for defeat?

I believe the answer is yes. It is obvious that the war in Iraq could easily drag on for another 10 years and with Senator Pryor's next election coming up in 2 years and a strong majority of the public already doubting our occupation of Iraq, the anti-war sentiment will be even stronger in '08 than it is now. The enablers of the failed Bush policy will start falling like a house of cards this fall and the voters will cast out the rest of these cronies in '08, after 5 years of getting nowhere in Iraq. This morning Senator Pryor cast his lot with Joe Lieberman (I) and the rest of the Bush enablers in Congress and has forever tied himself to the undying support of a war that has been mishandled from the outset. I believe Pryor's fate will be similar to that of Lieberman. I am currently prepping a list of potential Democratic candidates to take down Pryor in the Democratic primary of '08. Look out Mark, you might want to save that war chest for your own problems here in Arkansas. It is really a shame that Mark didn't turn out to be half the man that his father was. What a disappointment.

Lieberman bitch slapped by constituents

In a race that probably foreshadows events to come, Joe Lieberman, 18 year incumbent senator from CT, was defeated in his primary by Ned Lamont, a man who was virtually unknown just a few short months ago. Does this defeat have any ramifications for Arkansas' two ultra conservative Democratic Senators? I am sure Pryor and Lincoln will have to at least take stock of some of the waffling they have done over the last few years and Pryor might be re-thinking his position of supporting Lieberman as an independent. I have a feeling that many incumbents will take their rightful places in the HISTORY of politics this November.

Let's talk about sex

"Let's talk about sex" should be the theme for the christian right ( I used lower case to emphasize that these people are neither Christian nor correct) because they are obsessed with it. With all the problems in the state of Arkansas, all the so called conservatives want to talk about is gay sex and the harm it does to them and to children. We have not one but two wars that we are in the process of losing, I paid $3.60 for diesel the other day, Arkansas is hemorrhaging good jobs, Real dollar salaries are at a 50 year low for the state, we are at or near the bottom in most measurable education standards, civil liberties are fast becoming a thing of the past, we have a congress that does nothing for real working people and a president that can't even spell work, yet all these fearmongers want to talk about is how gay couples adopting unwanted children is threatening the very fabric of our society! Who really cares about this issue? Except maybe the unwanted kids that are going to be screwed once again by the religious zealots. If these people really cared about these kids they would be lined up right now trying to adopt several of them. Instead, what they are doing for these kids is using them as political pawns for their own selfish and greedy power play. I am sick and tired of the self riotousness of these so-called Christians and I am daring to put it down in print. I am saying come after me and come after my party because when the real history is written, these folks will be on the wrong side just like they were in the 60's. I keep hearing the argument that the repubs in Arkansas are consistent on the issues. If I have learned anything in this world it is that consistency doesn't mean shit if you are consistently WRONG. I really would like to know where the hatred comes from in these people because this issue of gay couples adopting children does not affect them in the least. As I have stated, they DON'T CARE about these kids all they care about is gay bashing, in whatever arena they can. These Christofacists should keep in mind that history never smiles on bigotry. For all of you people that are on the fence just remember, the man that waves the flag the hardest is usually the traitor....

New contributors

I am looking to add new contributors to this site with diverse opinions and excellent writing skills.

Contact me through: robsarkanstar@hotmail.com

thanks,

rob_star

Republican Party hijacked by morons

Anyone with any common sense and even a rudimentary understanding of economics knows that the economy needs to be tweaked occasionally by raising or lowering taxes. The Republican Party has been hijacked by extremists in the social arena but more importantly by economists of the crazy variety. It doesn't matter to these people what the question is, the answer is always the same: Lower taxes, lower taxes, lower taxes. With the minimum wage at a 50 year low in Real dollars the Republican Party tried last week to hijack the paltry raise in the minimum wage (that would not have brought it up to the 1955 Real dollar rate) by adding an amendment to give the wealthiest .1 % of Americans in the investor class (i.e. don't work) a huge tax break. They like to talk about redistribution of wealth quite a bit so let me tell you something. If these people aren't helping to pay the bill then you and I will end up paying it and since we are borrowing all this money we will have to pay it back with interest. It borders on treason to give tax breaks by borrowing money from the communists so we can line the pockets of the ultra wealthy and their worthless children. Here in Arkansas we have a man running for governor that has taken advantage of every tax break that his buddy in the White House has given him and always advocates more tax breaks. Asa Hutchinson and company will continue to take my state and my nation on a collision course with bankruptcy if we don't stop them now. The Bush Administration has taken his party and the country so far to the right that Republicans from twenty years ago would never recognize their party. If anyone in their midst even thinks about looking at both sides of an argument they are forever branded a liberal in today's GOP. Ronald Reagan raised the FICA tax, George Bush the first raised taxes, and I will finish this thought with a quote from Richard M. Nixon from the first Nixon-Kennedy debate. The question was asked, and I am paraphrasing, how to balance the federal budget after the previous four years of unheard of deficits (a couple billion dollars-ha ha).Nixon's response:MR. NIXON. Yes. I think what Mr. Novins was referring to was not one of Senator Kennedy's speeches, but the Democratic platform, which did mention cutting the national debt.I think, too, that it should be pointed out that, of course, it is not possible, particularly under the proposals that Senator Kennedy has advocated either to cut the national debt or to reduce taxes. As a matter of fact, it will be necessary to raise taxes. Now, with that being said by Dick, I think my point has been proven for me. Nixon and the rest of the aforementioned conservatives would be labeled as liberals in today's Republican Party. If I had time I could go in to all sorts of wacky liberal ideas that Nixon had, like more funding for social programs, gasp! Taxes need to be lowered sometimes and they need to be raised sometimes. We are currently living in a period of record deficits and a national debt approaching $9,000,000,000,000 while we are in the middle of two wars and about to start another one. Let me ask you this, is there any circumstance under which these folks WOULD advocate a tax raise? I seriously doubt it. Is it going to take the complete collapse of the dollar or possibly another depression, I'd like to know. We can't pay for the stuff we are buying so we borrow money from the Red Chinese communists and the despotic dictatorship of Saudi Arabia yet the people over at ArkFam.facism are calling Mike Huckabee a liberal and at the same time advocating what amounts to welfare for the richest Americans. How VERY un-American of them to do so. We aren't giving these people tax refunds, what we are really doing is borrowing money from our children to give it to already wealthy Americans, if I can even call them Americans, so they can sock it away in trust funds for their children who will never have to work and probably never will. Maybe they will see the error of their judgment in the bread line or at the soup kitchen but of course it will be too late then. We have to stop these clowns before they ruin what is left of our democracy.

McDaniel takes heat

As I suspected, the smear machine has already started churning out garbage. Arkansas Attorney General candidate, Gunner Delay (R), has posted all 58 pages of a lawsuit that his opponent, Dustin McDaniel, was involved with in the late 90's. The suit was filed by McDaniel's law firm, which was headed by his father, suing Remington Arms after the Jonesboro, AR school shootings. Although the paperwork posted on Delay's site has several signatures of Dustin McDaniel, it is not clear yet as to the extent the AG candidate was involved in the litigation. McDaniel contends that he performed limited work on the case and was later completely removed from the litigation at his own behest. Even though Delay and his ilk have implied that this lawsuit is tantamount to McDaniel wanting to go door to door and take everyone's guns away, I will withhold judgment until the entire picture is clear. I have spoken with several people who have hunted with McDaniel so I am certain he is not anti-gun and I doubt very seriously that he is wanting to water down the second amendment to our glorious Constitution. I really hope that the good people of Arkansas have the intelligence to see this for what it really is: A smear campaign on the reputation of Rep. McDaniel designed to close the 15 point hole that Delay finds himself in. This is only the beginning of the onslaught and I for one am curious as to what the next attack will be. Maybe Delay will release a statement sometime next week to the tune of "according to sources inside the Jonesboro Police Department, where McDaniel was employed for a time, he was on several occasions caught being civil to known homosexuals."

Scientific Interference Continues

In a long overdue concession to science, the
Food and Drug Administration could finally, grudgingly, be ready to allow an emergency contraceptive to be sold without a doctor's prescription.
Scientists long ago concluded that the "morning-after pill," marketed as Plan B, is both effective and safe enough to be sold over the counter without restriction. Seventy leading medical and public health groups have told the agency so for years. The pill lowers the risk of pregnancy by nearly 90% when taken within 72 hours of sex and could cut in half the nation's 3 million unintended pregnancies each year.
But rather than follow the medical evidence, as it is mandated to do, FDA has catered to groups that believe, without convincing evidence, that Plan B promotes teen promiscuity and causes abortions. Even some ardent abortion foes reject the latter claim.
Now the rules might be about to change. FDA announced Monday that it's willing to consider making Plan B available over the counter, on request, to women 18 and older.
The reason for the shift is no mystery. Acting FDA chief Andrew von Eschenbach is up for Senate confirmation, and an FDA spokesman acknowledged that von Eschenbach didn't want to spend Tuesday's hearing defending FDA's prior actions.

In related matters, the new HPV vaccine for women was recently approved by the FDA after much opposition by the religious right. Opponents of the vaccine argued, similarly to the morning after pill, that it would promote promiscuity in teens. So they would rather continue teaching abstinence instead of letting science better the lives of young women and save thousands of lives each year. For more on the vaccine and how it works, click on the link to The National Cancer Institute's press release.

http://www.cancer.gov/newscenter/pressreleases/HPVStatement

Is Howard Dean really the man to lead the charge?

Howard Dean: Bold visionary or crazy, run at the mouth trot line sinker for the Democratic Party? As a rally the troops kind of guy who can solidify the fervor of the left, Howard Dean found his calling but as leader of the Democratic Party he is hindering more than he is helping, as my father would say. The way the electorate in this country is split, especially in the electoral college, there is not much room for error in the political climate of late. Democrats cannot win national elections without winning some of the southern states and Dean is what we would call here in Arkansas, a damned Yankee. Ideas aside, Dean just rubs southerners the wrong way sometimes (well all the time) and that is not an attribute that the Dems can or should accept as they try to take back the House and Senate this fall. Forget about the White House in '08 if this guy plays a major role in the campaign process.

Arkansans lulled by artificial economic outlook

The Bush economy, while obviously stagnant to working Americans, is actually much worse than it looks. The economy is being bolstered, somewhat, by artificially holding down inflation with the Fed. Once the interest rates are corrected inflation will take over and we will see just how far into a recession we have really sunk. It's hard for ordinary Americans to understand the workings of macroeconomics (hell, most economists don't fully understand it) but when your average working man realizes that his dollar doesn't buy nearly what it did the year before he WILL understand that. Soon, we will see double digit inflation along with $5.00 per gallon gasoline. I am just wondering, at what point the average "joes" will wake up and start paying attention? Does anyone remember the 70's? If you don't, get ready to see a repeat with stagflation and gas lines. I don't mean to sound grim but the truth is very disturbing and if we don't take a stand now I see this recession we are in turning ugly. Arkansans cannot afford to lose more family farms and homes to the banks but I guess maybe that will start waking folks up.

Calling conditions in Iraq "an absolute replay of Vietnam," Sen. Chuck Hagel said Friday that the Pentagon is making a mistake by beefing up American forces in Iraq. U.S. soldiers have become "easy targets" in a country that has descended into "absolute anarchy," the Nebraska Republican and Vietnam combat veteran said in an interview with The World-Herald. Hagel previously has likened the war in Iraq to Vietnam, but Friday's comments drew a stronger connection. They followed a speech on the Middle East that Hagel delivered at the Brookings Institution. Folks, when Bush loses Chuck Hagel's support of the Iraqi occupation then who should he turn to? Maybe Barbara or Darth Cheney will keep steadfast support for his stay the course policy. 3 and 1/2 years of war is creeping closer to the entirety of the U.S. portion of WWII, which by the way, had a better plan than "stay the course." Not only are we bogged down in a quagmire in Iraq, but we are also slowly but surely losing all of the support amongst the civilian population of the aforementioned country (if you can even call it a country). We are destroying the fabric of our Army and Marine Corps by re-deploying combat troops for their 2nd, 3rd, and in some cases 4th tours of duty. What if North Korea, knowing our trigger pullers are stretched so thin, decides to test the paltry 37,000 troops we have stationed at the DMZ? I know George Bush doesn't have the answer to that question or any other as far as I have observed.

Paul Eells, the voice of the Razorbacks

Paul, we will miss you and things will never be the same without you. I heard about the tragic death of Paul Eells this morning and it made me weep like a child. I never knew he meant so much until the very moment I found out he was gone. Every thrilling moment I have ever had as a Razorback football fan has come with Paul's authoritative, "Touchdown-Arkansas." There will be others to follow in his footsteps but no one will be able to fill his shoes. What a shitty way to start the season, with the only voice I have ever known, gone forever.