(Portions of this post is crossposted on Dailykos. If you’re on Dailykos, please recommend and spread the word.)

Some updates on the tragic killing of a Dem campaign manager’s cat in Arkansas:

First, as many have inquired, the Russellville police have opened up an investigation. As far as assigning guilt or speculating who may have done it, even jokingly, let’s just let the police do their jobs on that point.

Secondly, there are some conservative trolls out therewho are suggesting in various threads that this is a hoax or even that Jake Burris (my friend) killed his own child’s cat. First, to those on the tubes suggesting this is a hoax, allow me to direct you to the pic of dead cat with the word ‘LIBERAL’ written on it. And let me assure you, I had the task of going through a series of gruesome pics to decide which was the least graphic. Not something I want to ever have to do again. Beyond that, I’ve talked to Jake several times over the last couple of days, and he’s watching his kids like a hawk and fearing for their safety. To suggest he would do something like this as a publicity stunt is lower than low.

Today the Humane Society announced they were offering an award for any information that could be provided on the case. Up to $2500 for information that leads to the identification, arrest, and conviction of the person or persons responsible.

Ken Aden, the congressional candidate Jake works for, was on CNN briefly this morning, talking about the situation. He’s handling this like a statesman, quickly stating that he does not believe his opponent or his campaign have anything to do with this and stressing that this does not represent his district.

At Blue Arkansas, we’re attempting to get a moneybomb off the ground for Ken’s campaign to show that this kind of intimidation and violence won’t work anywhere in America. Our efforts aren’t connected to the campaign-to this point I haven’t spoken to Ken or anyone else on his staff about this and they may not even be aware we’re doing it yet. This isn’t about politics as usual-it’s about taking a stand and showing we’re not putting up with this crap anymore. So please, contribute to Aden for Congress and send that message loud and clear.

That said, a couple of notes to the media outlits that have been contacting me the last day or two.  First, yes, please feel free to distribute the pic of the dead cat I posted on the blog.  It’s there for a reason-so no one can say that this is a hoax.  Secondly, I was informed by someone on the Aden campaign team that the cat’s name was Gato.

So that said, give ‘em one for Gato.

By now everyone reading this blog either knows or has an idea of what happened to Ken Aden’s campaign manager and his family Sunday night.  If not, you can either scroll down or click the link (warning: disturbing image) to learn the full story of the family cat slaughtered to send a chilling political message.  Well, that act of terrorism is our call to arms, metaphorically speaking of course.  Unlike the person or people who did this heinous act, we’re civilized, and we’re going to come together and show Ken Aden and his campaign an outpouring of support they’ll never forget.  What was done to Jake Burris’s family was an act of hatred and terrorism, an evil attempt to intimidate Jake, Ken, and all of us that would take a stand for progressive causes here in Arkansas and across the country.  Well, today I’m saying let’s show the sociopath that did this that all they’ve succeeded in doing was uniting us and energizing us like never before.  So today we’re putting out the call and starting a money bomb for the Aden for Congress campaign. Ken and his staff have no idea we’re doing this, but over the next couple of days we’re going to be asking you guys to chip in and show Ken and Jake Burris and their families that Arkansans, that Americans, will not stand for this.

Again, this was political terrorism, plain and simple.  A monster, a human monster, bashed the Burris family’s cat’s head in to the point that an eyeball was dangling from its socket, wrote the word “LIBERAL” on its body, and left it laying on the porch for Jake’s kids to find.  Ken showed himself to be a true statesman yesterday, jumping out in front of the passions and fears this incident raised and stood up for his opponent, Congressman Steve Womack, saying he was sure that his opponent and his campaign had nothing to do with it.  (Womack’s spokesman condemned the act.  Nothing directly from Womack yet.)  That said, some of the people on the other side weren’t so charitable.  A few of them in the Arkansas Blog threads and elsewhere suggested that Jake may have killed his own cat as a publicity stunt.  Think about that.  When I talked to Jake yesterday he was sitting at home watching his kids like a hawk, trying to make sure they were both safe and unaware of the reality of what had happened.  What kind of a person do you have to be to suggest that at a time like this?  What’s more, according to a lot of people from NWA who listen to KURM radio, Womack’s father cracked a joke about the cat not having nine lives, dismissed it as something that didn’t deserve any attention, and cracked that the only reason Aden was putting this out there was because he didn’t have the money for TV ads.  (To this point, we have not been able to offer hard proof of the many nasty things that have been alleged to be said by the elder Womack as near as I can tell he makes sure not to keep public recordings, but I don’t doubt the veracity of those stories for a second.)  This is what we’re up against.  It’s ugly and it has no place in our communities.  And it’s all the more reason to rally behind a man who has given his time and energy fighting hunger in Arkansas, worked to bring toys to kids who might not have had a Christmas otherwise, and has been trying to bring hope to a community facing horrific job losses.  That’s what this is about-hope versus fear and compassion versus hate, nothing less.

Ken said it better than I ever could yesterday:

“As a former combat soldier, I’ve seen the best of humanity and the worst of humanity. Whoever did this is definitely part of the worst of humanity,

Starting today, we’re going to show Ken and Jake and everyone else watching what the best of humanity can do.  So contribute to Aden for Congress and send a message loud and clear-we will not be intimidated, we will not back down, we will stand together, and we will overcome.

Update: There’s a dailykos diary advertising our efforts up. If you’re on dailykos, please recommend it.

Late last week, a post went up on Clark Hall’s facebook page:

The offending post was quickly removed and the poster responded by posting the same message again in multiple threads:

Clark, did your children go to a segregationist academy or a public school?  Both Marvell Academy and Desoto Academy were founded under the guidance of the white supremacist Citizen’s Council.

Those posts were again deleted and I’m guessing the commenter was banned as he hasn’t reappeared on the page.  And here is where I launch into my usual rant about politicians censoring their facebook pages.  Usually I find myself complaining about Republicans like Rick Crawford, but I have never held Democrats to a different standard and I’m not about to start.  We the people-Democrats, Republicans, Independent, and of whatever background or ideological stripe-have the right and the responsibility to hold our representative’s feet to the fire and it’s nothing short of political cowardice to censor your facebook page in this way.  I’m not inclined to listen to the “they all do it” argument either.  First off, it’s a poor argument in the first place, and secondly, it’s not true-last year both Bill Halter and, to her credit, Blanche Lincoln, let all kinds of stuff be said about them on their facebook pages, and that is how it should be.

More importantly, this is a legitimate question that deserves an answer.  Well Max Brantley answered that one for us:

Already at play in this race is the perennial Delta issue of race. Hall is being questioned from some liberal quarters about the fact that his children have attended private schools — Marvell Academy and Desoto School in West Helena — rather than the overwhelmingly black public schools in Marvell.

Marvell Academy was founded as a result of federal enforcement of desegregation in the mid-1960s and it is one of the segregation academies of the era that continues to associate for athletic purposes with an association of Mississippi private schools. The private school is virtually all white. Marvell public schools, in which Hall’s wife has taught, are about 10 percent white. Hall was mayor of Marvell, which is about two-thirds black, before he was elected to the legislature.

Again, this is all legitimate stuff.  These kinds of associations are a big part of why the late Stanley Reed faced such opposition to being named UofA President and again, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander.  And speaking from personal experience I can maintain that these types of schools in the Delta still work as an escape from blacks for white students whose parents can afford it.  I am very sad to say I have family members who took that route and amongst kin they made no secret of why they did so.

So now Clark Hall owes an explanation.  This is a matter of values, and rather than running from it or letting his campaign staffers ban critics from his facebook page he ought to stand up and address it.

Oh and one more thing.  Before Republicans think this is something they can latch on to, allow me to remind them of this picture of Rick Crawford palling around with a white supremacist that Republicans knowingly elevated to a leadership position…

Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

State Rep. Jon Woods, who’s seeking a Senate seat this year, has other weighty matters on his plate. From his Facebook page:
If your interested in Time Travel or a fan of Albert Einstein please clear out this Friday at 400pm. I’ve asked the U of A to fly down Theoretical Physicist Dr. Ronald Mallett from the University of Connecticut to give a colloquium Friday 400pm Room 133 in the Physics Building followed by a book signing. Dr. Mallett has been on the history channel, discovery and CNN about his time machine theories. We are looking at building the worlds first time machine on campus in Fayetteville using lasers to twist space. In the science community it is called “frame dragging”. Watch this link below [above] to get better understanding.

But wait a minute, wait a minute!  That’s not the best part!  Check out the response from University of Arkansas’s Charlie Allison, managing editor in the office of university relations-

I am assured that the physics department is not building a time-travel machine. Tongue firmly in cheek: The only time machine built recently on campus is the clock installed in the south tower of Old Main in 2005 to celebrate the success of our Campaign for the Twenty-First Century. That clock appears to work just fine in its measurement of our movement through the space-time continuum. We do not appear to need another time machine at this time.

However, physicists who get together are apt to talk about things like time machines and time travel, both in theoretical terms as they relate to the theory of relativity and in applied ways that might test that theory. I wouldn’t be surprised if that conversation happens at this lecture, too.

Wood’s response came a few days after all this came out:

I asked the Physics Department if they would consider Dr. Mallett to be part of the Physics Department’s lecture series for the semester. They agreed and flew him down. My posting of the subject was to generate more public interest in physics, nanotechnology, quantum mechanics and Einstein’s general theory of of relativity. “Time Machine” was used as the hook to draw interest. It was a fun week.

Yeah I bet it was fun.  Woods is locked in a tight primary race with Senator Bill Pritchard, himself a bit of a nut, and either one will face Diana Gonzalez Worthen, one of the best state senate recruits on our side running in a district that is potentially competitive.  But hey, if it goes sour for him I’m sure Woods could fix everything with his DeLorean.

This post includes a graphic picture.  It is included here not for shock value, but to show just how heinous some people can be.

Last night, I got the most chilling phone call I have ever received.  It was Jake Burris, Ken Aden’s campaign manager.  Last night, Jake and his four kids had come back to their Russellville home.  As they were getting out of the car, one of his children discovered their family cat dead on the front porch.  One side of the animal’s head had been bashed in and an eyeball was hanging out of its socket.  But there was something even more horrifying to be found on the corpse.

Written across the animal’s fur in black marker was the word “LIBERAL“.

This is terrorism.  There’s no other word for it.  A police report has been filed.  Jake said the kids seem to be handling it okay.  The one that discovered the cat was too young to be able to read and Jake had quickly gotten the others into the house before they saw it.  Pope County is an insanely conservative area and the Aden campaign has been shaking things up even there and it looks like another right wing sociopath with a taste for violence has come crawling out of the woodwork in response.  I asked Aden for a comment on the record:

“This is sickening.  To kill a child’s pet…I’m at a loss for words…I’ve seen the best and the worst of humanity, but this is something else.”

Both Ken and Jake though made it clear that they weren’t going to back down on the campaign trail, both agreeing that caving to this kind of behavior would only make things worse.

“I’ve got a gun and I know how to use it.”, Jake said.  “If I have to protect my kids I’ll do it without hesitation.”

This happened the same night that Gabby Giffords, the survivor of a heinous act of violence, announced she was resigning from Congress.  To think of something happening here like what happened in Arizona, the possibility of that happening to Ken or to someone on his campaign team, is frightening beyond belief.  This is how serial killers start off after all, torturing and killing animals.  Someone who would do this to a cat is not to far from doing it to a person.

There’s no doubting this was political.  There’s no doubting it’s another hideous example of right wing terrorism.  Personally I would hope that leaders on the right-Steve Womack, the Arkansas Republican Party, etc.-would step up and condemn this as strongly as possible.  I would also hope that Steve Womack’s father, owner of a local radio station, would stop giving out the names, phone numbers, and addresses of members of the Aden team or anyone else for that matter on his radio program when ranting about Aden.  The elder Womack has done that several times and Aden’s former press secretary got a death threat in the mail soon after her name was mentioned on the program.  Clearly there is someone out there that doesn’t need anymore of that kind of information, much less inspiration to act on their hatred.  I also hope that the Aden campaign will do whatever they can to up the security at some of their events, for the time being at least.  Aden has said he’s going to put out a press release on the matter soon, and we’ll be following this and any developments related to it closely.

That said, our thoughts and prayers are with the Burris family.  Jake Burris is a great guy, and he and his kids shouldn’t have to be dealing with this.

Update: I have been trying to update the blog on this for awhile now but the insane amount of traffic this is getting had crashed the site.  This is now national news and it’s getting picked up seemingly everywhere.  Our analytics on this today are off the charts, dwarfing every story that came before it in a big way.  This is huge stuff, but part of me is a little miffed that the press couldn’t pay half as much attention to the good stuff Ken has done-the toy drive for foster kids, the resume building workshop, the stellar campaign in general.  But what’s the saying? If it bleeds it leads?  Anyway, Womack’s campaign manager Beau Walker put out a strong statement on this today, to their credit and Aden put out a press release dealing with the facts of the matter and stuck up for Womack and his campaign against the finger pointing.  Both statements follow:

KEN ADEN NEWS RELEASE

RUSSELLVILLE—On the heels of a weekend of positive news coverage for the campaign of Democratic Congressional candidate Ken Aden, Aden’s campaign manager returned home to find his family pet slaughtered, with the word “liberal” painted on the animal’s corpse.
The Russellville Police Department is investigating, and a report will be made to the Federal Bureau of Investigation Monday morning.

Jacob Burris, who has served as Aden’s campaign manager since late October, arrived home with his family Sunday evening, and his four children discovered the gruesome scene as they exited the family vehicle to enter their home.

The family pet, an adult, mixed-breed Siamese cat, had one side of its head bashed in to the point the cat’s eyeball was barely hanging from its socket. The perpetrators scrawled “liberal” across the cat’s body and left it on the doorstep of Burris’ house.

“To kill a child’s pet is just unconscionable,” Aden said Monday morning. “As a former combat soldier, I’ve seen the best of humanity and the worst of humanity. Whoever did this is definitely part of the worst of humanity,” he said.

“It is one thing to engage in civil political discourse, and for Republicans and Democrats to disagree with each other, which is an expected part of the political process. Taking it to this level is beyond unacceptable,” Aden said.

While the campaign between Aden and incumbent Congressman Steve Womack has heated up in recent months, Aden said they did not believe the Womack campaign to be responsible. “Although we have certainly disagreed and engaged in a great deal of civil discourse, I do not believe in any way that Congressman Womack or his campaign had anything to do with this incident,” Aden said. He noted that, before Christmas, KRUM Radio, a station owned by Womack’s father, actually promoted a toy drive held by Aden’s campaign for children in the Third District. “We suspect this is the action of a rogue individual or group of individuals who are the type of folks that stoop to the lowest common denominator instead of engaging in civil political discourse,” Aden said. “It is unfortunate this has occurred, and we will await the results of the police and federal investigations,” Aden said.

WOMACK CAMPAIGN STATEMENT

The thought of brutalizing any animal to make a political statement, no matter what that statement is, is beyond any standard of decency,” he told The Huffington Post. “The person or people, if there was more than one, who are responsible — they definitely need to be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law. There should be no tolerance in our political discussion here in this nation for this kind of behavior.”

Steve Womack’s fundraising for the last quarter raised some eyebrows:

U.S. Rep. Steve Womack raised less than $100,000 for his re-election campaign during the last quarter of 2011.

Womack, R-Rogers, raised most of the fourth-quarter contributions from industry-backed political action committees, according to a year-end report his campaign filed Thursday with the Federal Election Commission.

Womack took in at least $78,000 from PACs including those representing Cargill, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Cox Enterprises, Arkansas Best, Tyson Foods, Best Buy, Boeing and AT&T.

About two dozen individuals, most from Arkansas, contributed nearly $12,000 during the quarter, according to the report.

Less than 100k…almost all of it from corporate PACs…only about 24 individual donations totaling almost…just almost…12K.  And think, that was before he got to screaming his head off at his constituents.  How many individuals do you think are going to open up their wallets after that?  Now of course no one doubts Womack will have the money to run this race, but this highlights the way corporations have taken over our political system.  I had it confirmed directly that Ken Aden raised $9,000 in the third quarter, all from individuals, meaning that if corporate PACs didn’t come into play Womack would have raised less than 3,000 dollars more than his competitor.  What’s more, it’s starting to look like Aden’s fundraising is picking up a bit this quarter.  It’s hard to read the tea leaves, but Aden is going at this nonstop, steadily chipping away at the perception that this isn’t a winnable race this year and at some point soon I bet that starts paying off in a big way.  Interestingly, one of Aden’s contributions came from none other than Steve Womack’s father, though in a round about way:

Ken Aden, a Democrat running in the 3rd Congressional District, received a small campaign contribution check Thursday night that brought a smile to his face.

The check was for $7.90 — only a sliver of the $9,000 Aden said he has raised — but the source of the money had the 33-year-old candidate from Russellville beaming in a photograph of him with the contributor, George Lyne, 60, of Lowell. The photo was snapped at a Democratic campaign event in the Springdale AQ Chicken House.

Lyne won the money Jan. 9 by correctly answering a trivia question on KURM AM-790. The Rogers radio station, owned by the family of Republican Rep. Steve Womack, awards trivia contest winners a check for $7.90, matching the station’s number on the radio dial.

Lyne, who said he and his wife already have contributed about $100 to Aden, thought it would be fitting to hand the Democrat money won from a Womack radio station.

Reportedly, when Lyne informed Daddy Womack of who he wanted the check made out to the old man about lost it.  Here’s the photo of Ken accepting the check:

Gotta love that!  But hey, if Steve Womack’s daddy can send Ken some cash (albeit begrudgingly) I’m sure you can find it in your heart and wallet to give a great candidate like Ken ten bucks on ActBlue…

We have officially reached a new level of stupidity…

I want to be coldly analytical, not moralize, here. I want to tell you what Mr. Gingrich’s behavior could mean for the country, not for the future of his current marriage. So, here’s what one interested in making America stronger can reasonably conclude—psychologically—from Mr. Gingrich’s behavior during his three marriages:

1) Three women have met Mr. Gingrich and been so moved by his emotional energy and intellect that they decided they wanted to spend the rest of their lives with him.

2) Two of these women felt this way even though Mr. Gingrich was already married.

3 ) One of them felt this way even though Mr. Gingrich was already married for the second time, was not exactly her equal in the looks department and had a wife (Marianne) who wanted to make his life without her as painful as possible.

Conclusion: When three women want to sign on for life with a man who is now running for president, I worry more about whether we’ll be clamoring for a third Gingrich term, not whether we’ll want to let him go after one.

4) Two women—Mr. Gingrich’s first two wives—have sat down with him while he delivered to them incredibly painful truths: that he no longer loved them as he did before, that he had fallen in love with other women and that he needed to follow his heart, despite the great price he would pay financially and the risk he would be taking with his reputation.

Conclusion: I can only hope Mr. Gingrich will be as direct and unsparing with the Congress, the American people and our allies. If this nation must now move with conviction in the direction of its heart, Newt Gingrich is obviously no stranger to that journey.

…

…

…

I really can’t think of anything to add to that…

A little earlier this month I sat down to interview Dr. Gary Latanich, one of the two Democrats vying for the first district race.  Now before I go any further let me make a few things clear.  I have also reached out to the Clark Hall campaign about doing an interview and they couldn’t work me in earlier this month.  I had hoped to be able to release both videos at the same time, but as that clearly isn’t happening there’s no point on sitting on the Latanich interview any longer.  My schedule is hectic, but the offer to do such an interview will remain available if the Hall campaign wants to take it.

The interview took place at Latanich’s house, and you can hear his family carrying on their daily life while trying to tip toe around us.  But it was still a good interview.  Latanich is very smart and has a nice sense of humor about himself.  Being an economist, he of course knows the ins and outs of a great deal of issues.  When I sat down with him though he still had a tendency to ramble, though I have seen him at an event since then and noticed that he is toning that down.  He’s definitely a progressive when it comes to the domestic and economic issues we discussed, and the people who are writing his campaign off may well be making a mistake.  Between his military background, his personality, and some of the positions he took, he’s going to prove to be a candidate who’s a little stronger than many are expecting.  He’s got some work to do to get there, but I really am disappointed to see the coalescing around Hall that we have.  Let the voters have their primary and let’s stop anointing candidates as a party.

Anyway, in the video Latanich came out for a jobs bill, the payroll tax cut, against privatizing social security and the Ryan Plan, stuck up for the Affordable Care Act, and demonstrated a knowledge of agricultural markets, economic problems, and the budget that’s going to be pretty hard for either Hall or Crawford to match if he can condense it. And as a bonus for progressives he ruled out caucusing with the Blue Dogs.

Latanich has made some noise of late challenging Hall to a debate. Hall can’t duck that forever, and there are already a few folks out there who are offering to host it. This will have to happen, and if I were Hall I wouldn’t go too long before agreeing to one. You can only say that “you won’t get into policy matters” and avoid agreeing to debate for so long before voters get turned off.  And more importantly, the voters deserve the chance to hear what both candidates have to say.

Wow, I take a week off to get some work done and what everything goes down at once.

First, Rick Perry nearly started an international incident with his stupidity and then dropped out of the race, endorsing Newt Gingrich.

Gingrich seems to be surging as a candidate, but his second wife had some fun little details about their marriage that, even after knowing all we already did about him and his lack of morals, still had jaws dropping across the county.

Then Mr. Gingrich got asked about this in the debate and was offended!  How dare they ask him about his personal business…I mean it’s not like he’s being a hypocrite or anything...

Meanwhile, the man who would seem to be the frontrunner at the moment is getting all kinds of free advice on how to turn his failing campaign around from the GOP.  But hey, if Romney can’t beat a weak candidate like Gingrich, how the hell is he going to fare against President Obama in the general?

Oh and speaking of President Obama, let me go ahead and say it now…Four more years!

Let’s take a trip down memory lane:

John Sampier first noticed his community’s changing complexion on a balmy autumn day on the soccer field in 1994. The then mayor of Rogers, Ark., asked a coach if the Latino players gracefully kicking the ball around were a traveling team. No, the coach replied. They were the mayor’s newest constituents. Drawn to jobs in the nearby poultry plants, immigrants were beginning to flock to Rogers, a town nestled in the heart of the Ozarks that was 98 percent white in 1990. It was an astonishing sight for Sampier, 54, who had never before met a Latino. His response: to form Arkansas’s first Hispanic soccer league. The players were so thrilled that they invited him to their first awards banquet. When he addressed them in Spanish, they went wild, chanting, “¡Viva el alcalde!” (“Long live the mayor!”).

Not long after his day at the soccer field, Sampier hired Al Lopez as his special consultant. A big teddy bear of a guy from Puerto Rico, Lopez was a musician known as Papa Rap and an adviser at Rogers High School who had been working to bring the Anglo and Latino kids together. Now Lopez was asked to do the same in the community at large. When a white resident would call city hall, horrified that her Mexican neighbors were slaughtering a goat in the yard, he would dash off to soothe tempers. Sampier and Lopez became fast friends–downing Coronas on Friday evenings as they contemplated how to keep their small town stitched together.

That was then. Today the threads seem to be fraying. In the 1998 election, Sampier, who had been mayor for 18 years, lost to Steve Womack, a lieutenant colonel in the Army National Guard who pledged to get tough on illegal immigrants. “If you’re coming to America illegally,” he declared in his campaign, “you don’t want to come to Rogers.” A year later the Immigration and Naturalization Service had two agents temporarily housed in the Rogers Police Department. And in March that collaboration–and the alleged abuses it generated–prompted the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) to file a class-action suit against the city and the police for racial profiling. As Lopez sometimes wonders: “What happened here, man?”

Womack’s anti-immigrant fervor is well documented with even the former President George W. Bush balking at his approach.  After riding a nativist backlash to change into office, Womack quickly instituted changes very reminiscent of much darker times in the South.

The year Womack was elected, the INS arrived in the area. First, Rep. Asa Hutchinson–the local congressman whom Morris had presented with a petition signed by 2,800 people calling for a crackdown on illegal immigration–cut the ribbon on an INS office in nearby Ft. Smith. Then in late 1999 more INS agents appeared–members of newly created “quick-response teams” designed to patrol hot spots in the Midwest and South. Until their office was completed late last year in Fayetteville–just down the highway from Rogers–two of the agents worked out of the Rogers Police Department, sometimes riding along with officers. Initially, some of the cops “were ignorant of our laws,” says Rod Reyes, supervisory special agent at the INS–laws that bar local police from immigration enforcement. “They thought, ‘We’re gonna go out and round ‘em up for you’.” His reply: “If you start doing that, all of us are gonna get fired.”

Almost immediately after INS agents moved into the police department early last year, complaints from Latinos began streaming in–stories of traffic stops that became fishing expeditions as cops sought proof of legal residency. One driver the police might have wished to avoid: Donna Hutchinson, who’s part Native American and the former sister-in-law of Asa Hutchinson. “The only reason for stopping me was to check my license and make sure I’m supposed to be here,” she told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. By last summer, the pastors at St. Vincent de Paul Church noticed that formerly overcrowded services now had rows of empty pews. Hispanic churchgoers, they heard, were afraid to leave their homes.

And yes, that is THE Donna Hutchinson who became a state representative.  Don’t feel too sorry for her being a victim of prejudice and racial profiling though as she obviously didn’t learn anything from it-targeting Latinos, gays, and black-gays all in the last session.  But enough about that.

Since then, the Latino population in NWA has continued to grow dramatically, so much so that the population shift was taken into account during redistricting.  Womack hasn’t been alone in working to alienate Latinos from voting Republican though, the whole party has embraced an anti-immigrant platform that is bad policy at best and racist at worst and is succeeding in driving Latino voters into the Democratic ranks in droves.  And they won’t stop either.  It’s like a drug for them and they’re going to keep getting their fix until they’ve totally alienated what is now the largest and fastest growing minority group in the nation.

Arkansas Democrats, meanwhile, seem to be moving in the right direction when it comes to reaching out to Arkansas Latinos.  Democrats in Womack’s corner of the state have reached out to the new community.  Ken Aden has made Latino outreach a focus of his campaign, as have a number of state house candidates, such as Edwin Sugg, running in what could be a competitive House District 88 that has a substantial Latino population.  In fact, Democrats have recruited a candidate who could be the first Latina elected to the state legislature, Diana Gonzalez Worthen.  That’s not to say that the old guard is totally on board.  No one is going to forget or forgive Mark Pryor’s work against the DREAM Act, or Mike Ross standing up for Arizona’s racial profiling, but the party is making a lot of progress despite the lack of help from those two nimrods.  The Democratic Party has always been supposed to be the home for ordinary people of all stripes and walks of life.  We’re the party of the people, all people, and the party that will guarantee a seat at the table for Latino Arkansans.  The other party though continues to elevate the likes of Steve Womack and the rest of the anti-Latino crowd (oh excuse me, they’re only “anti-illegal immigrant” they assure us…yeah right), some of which are far more rabid than Womack himself.  That’s okay though, they can keep showing their true colors and we’ll keep reaching out, and we’ll see how this works out.

This is an embarrassment.

About the fact that there is a liquor store nearby the Main Street location, a point made by Stodola and several in the audience: Dr. McClain said that if she had her druthers, no, she wouldn’t operate a clinic by liquor store. But the fact is that there are liquor stores everywhere, and noted that there is an AA chapter near the location. She became emotional when she said that veterans help each other. “It touches your heart. If they see somebody in need crossing the street [to buy liquor] they will grab their arm” and keep them away.

Frank Smith, an Army veteran who served in Germany, talked to the group about how the clinic had helped him with a substance abuse problem, worked with him to get into school, helped him work out fine repayments and so forth. He said he’d been clean since April and was saving his earnings.

But a doctor in the audience said she’d had experience treating veterans with psychiatric problems and had been bitten, urinated on, had feces thrown at her and had been purposely been stuck with needles by such patients. Allowing a clinic that treats such patients in the Quapaw Quarter neighborhood was an “unnecessary risk.”

Joe Fox, who owns Community Bakery across I-630 from the old Cook Jeep facility, said he’s dealt with the homeless for years and said he’d like the VA clinic to stay open during business hours so that when he has to ask a customer to leave, they can go to the clinic.

Along with safety concerns, economic ones were raised as well. One woman said she’d been looking at property on Main for a small business but was no longer, thanks to the announcement of the clinic.

In his remarks, Stodola said the city would be glad to work with the VA to find another place; he said the fact that the VA hadn’t planned to open until 2013 meant there was time to continue a search for a new place.

But Dr. Estella Morris, who heads up the VA’s homeless program, said the VA had been trying for years to find new space for the clinic and had run into opposition from the city every time. That’s why VA hospital administrators directed the clinic to go the formal route this time: To put out advertisements in the newspaper seeking proposals from interested property owners. (Two were made; the other proposal, from the owners of the Donaghey Building, was rejected). Stodola, criticized for not being on top of the VA’s move, griped that “An RFP is not the same as going out and finding a location” with the city’s knowledge. Dr. Margie Scott, VA chief of staff, apologized to Stodola for not meeting with him about the RFP.

I put the emphasis on some of the parts that jumped out at me.  This is of course all about the homeless vet center that Mayor Mark Stodola and a few other powers that be in Little Rock have been working against.  Stodola claims he’s been kept in the dark about the matter which Max Brantley points out is either a total lie or is a sign that the good mayor isn’t doing his job as information on this was available to city officials for quite some time.  Stodola seems to think that the fact that this center would be near a liquor store is a problem, never mind the fact that this is a center that would help treat substance abuse and that there’s an A.A. center nearby.  You know, treating alcoholics is kind of the point with these things, or part of it at least.

But let’s be honest with ourselves here.  This isn’t about moving the clinic.  This isn’t about worries that homeless vets who gave everything for their country and then got treated like yesterdays garbage by the same people whose freedoms they defended might drown their sorrows in booze.  (Wouldn’t you?)  It’s about something much worse.  Mayor Stodola has been pitiful on issues of poverty and homelessness in Little Rock.  The homeless, you see, are bad for business, and that’s what Stodola has always been about-business.  And these folks that showed up wringing their hands over these god awful veterans who are going to ruin the neighborhood?  To them I say please move to another country because you are all a disgrace to this one.  These people ya’ll are so afraid of signed up to protect you over seas and lost their homes, their work, their families, their health, and their minds because they were willing to go through hell and back for these people overseas and then they come home and find those same people are going to treat them like shit.  Seriously, the people that are up in arms in this should really get the hell out of America and move to Iran…and take Mayor Stodola with them.

Oh, and kudos to Brantley and the folks at the Arkansas Times.  At least someone in Little Rock is standing up for veterans in need.

You know, I used to want these folks to just go away.  But not anymore!  Now I hope this shit goes on forever because this is just too funny!!!  I mean, first it was a community center that was really a U.N. plot to take over the world…then it was flouride in the water…now it’s the Humane Society!  (Which you can donate to here by the way.)  I mean really, the Humane Society, of all things, is trying to take our liberty from us according to Secure Arkansas!  Lol!!!  Remember how the Republicans pandered to these lunatics last year and the year before last?  Bah ha ha ha ha ha ha!  Read the email in full, and enjoy a damn good laugh:

Humane Society of the

United States (HSUS) Action Alert

An organization was established in 1954 to provide care for dogs and cats. This organization is known as The Humane Society of the United States. As with everything, it seems, change has been going on unbeknownst to us. They started out as an animal welfare group and have switched to an animal rights group.

The HSUS plays on our heart strings, asking for donations to help take care of animals, saying they are being treated cruelly. By whose standards? We realize there are animals that are not treated properly and corrections need to be made, but we don’t believe the HSUS should have the authority to decide which animals are or aren’t being treated properly.

Did you know that the HSUS doesn’t own animal shelters and that the monies they take in do NOT go to these shelters? Verify this for yourself with the shelters in your area. Ask them how much support they get from the HSUS. You will be surprised to learn the help they obtain comes from people and businesses in the community where they are located, and not HSUS.

Over the years, rural America has developed into cities and has gotten away from its roots in regards to animal husbandry or the care of animals. These changes have come at a price we didn’t realize.

We are in a crisis and it is urgent that the people of this country realize the changes that have been coming. We stand to lose our food supply and our constitutional rights to own our pets without the threat of government stepping in to set the standards for all of us to follow.

HSUS has been very busy at all government levels recruiting support for this agenda. They have managed to get laws in place that lead us all to believe that no one treats animals well. Their agenda, as a special interest group, is to do away with animal agriculture, pet ownership, and the freedom of choice to eat meat, eggs, cheese or drink milk.

We don’t want the government to mandate our choice of foods to eat and we don’t think you do either. Animal activists like the HSUS don’t want us to have rodeos, circuses, zoos, hunting, fishing or medical cures for diseases (using animals to develop these cures).

We must work together to inform and educate the general public, especially those living in urban areas, (it seems more so in the cities in regards to animal husbandry) or we are going to lose our constitutional rights of freedom of choice. We don’t believe the city folks that have not been around farms or that have pets understand the full implications of the HSUS agenda.

If we let the HSUS succeed, there will be farms lost (jobs), pet suppliers lost (jobs), and pet food manufactures lost (jobs) etc. All of the jobs lost will trickle down and affect the grocery stores, department stores, the tax base, utilities, etc. with more jobs lost. You get the idea. They don’t care! It’s all about their agenda, not the people that are affected by their agenda.

Wayne Pacelle, President of HSUS, has been quoted stating that he doesn’t care if another dog or cat is born and “We have no problem with the extinction of domestic animals.” John Paul Goodwin, an HSUS coordinator and previously of the Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade, stated, “My goal is the abolition of all animal agriculture.” In HSUS eyes, there isn’t anyone who takes good enough care of their pets or farm animals. THEY want the policing rights to tell you how to do that and they are accomplishing that through lobbying our legislators, using the monies they take in for the “care of animals in shelters.”

We must band together and re-educate as to what they are all about. They have been making these gradual changes for years. We don’t have that long or we will lose.

One good website to check out is www.humanewatch.org. There are agriculture websites to go to that can provide good information. The Future Farmers of America, in your schools, can inform you about HSUS. They have infiltrated the schools in the cities with propaganda (using slick booklets and videos) that animals are not property. They are preying on the children in schools because they are at a young age and easily influenced. The HSUS thinks that animals should have the right to sue us.

It’s very important for us to share this information about the HSUS and their true agenda with everyone we know. We need to be ready to fight for OUR animals and OUR rights to own them and care for them. We need to become involved in exposing the HSUS by notifying our congressmen in Washington, and our legislators in Little Rock, many of whom are unaware of HSUS’s true agenda. It’s important for us to act NOW to stop the HSUS’s efforts against us and our animals.

Please join animal owners across the nation in informing our US Congressmen about the HSUS and demanding action be taken against the HSUS agenda. Time is of the essence with this session of Congress. Take the few minutes NOW that will help protect your Constitutional rights.

Here are three items that need your attention:

1. Following is a link to the White House petition asking the government to look into HSUS lobbying and hold them accountable under the 1995 Lobbying Disclosure Act. https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions#%21/petition/investigate-humane-society-united-states-non-compliance-lobbying-disclosure-act-1995/42RtSR6W

2. There is also a Call to Action by Frank Losey to be copied and sent to your individual congressmen, asking them to hold HSUS accountable for their lobbying.

http://thecavalrygroup.blogspot.com/2011/12/december-call-to-action-by-frank-losey.html

3. Here’s another petition directed to Mark W. Everson, Commissioner, Internal Revenue Service, urging the United States Treasury Department to cancel the tax-exempt status currently extended to the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and its affiliated organizations under Section 501© of the U. S. Treasury code. http://www.petitiononline.com/4377qba1/petition.html

Securing the Blessings of Liberty,

SecureArkansas@gmail.com

SecureArkansasNetwork.org

Yeah, yeah, I know, we’ve technically been pulling for Ken Aden since he got in this race….oh okay there’s been no technically to it.  But let’s face it, this guy is awesome.  Whatever “it” is in politics, he’s got it.  I mean how can you not like a guy who goes out of his way to bring toys to foster kids and sets up resume building workshops and job fairs in communities hit by job losses.  For that matter, how could any real Democrat not get behind a candidate that stands up for Democratic values, isn’t afraid of a tough fight, and is actually running an assertive campaign?  So we’re making it official.  There’s not likely to be an opponent that steps up in the primary here, and even if there was we’d still be backing Ken.  He’s earned our support, and if he keeps running the kind of campaign he is, it’s not impossible that he could actually pull this off.

Again, this is a tough race and we’re under no illusions here.  But Democrats that are writing off this district are doing a great disservice to the party.  It’s the fastest growing area of the state and as the first and fourth districts dwindle in population Democrats are going to have to start running aggressive ground games there to be competitive statewide.  Think about it-Shane Broadway and Pat O’Brien were winning until the results from NWA started ticking in.  If we can’t start winning the Latinos and new voters in that district over now, how are we going to fare in 2014 when everything statewide is up for grabs?  Aden’s made voter registration a big part of his campaign, and that’s going to be important for the future of the party.  More importantly, he’s already started going door to door in January (remember, Democrats in Arkansas rarely do this and if they do it tends to be after August…which of course is a stupid mistake) and started talking with people one on one, and that’s important both for his chances and for the down ballot ticket as I can think of few better faces to put on the party than Ken’s.  It’s not totally out of the realm of possibility that Ken could win this either.  Seems like every time Womack opens his mouth he shoots himself in the foot, and he’s quickly proving to be very unlikeable.  I’ve had my beefs with Griffin and Crawford, but even they know how to keep their tempers and be nice to irate constituents.  Womack seems to find such behavior to be beneath him, and that’s a turn off to most voters regardless of their political stripes.  And hey, even if Aden doesn’t win this, he’s making sure Womack keeps showing that unbecoming side and voicing his opinion on positions that are going to make him unelectable statewide.  Besides that, Bill Clinton (the man a lot of people are comparing Ken to of late) didn’t win his first race here, but it still propelled his political career…

So, that said, there is one thing that worries me about this race.  Fundraising.  Ken doesn’t come from a wealthy family-to say he comes from humble roots would be an understatement.  He doesn’t have a lot of money or a lot of wealthy connections.  He’s a middle class guy, and he’s not from the political establishment or the blue blood clique in Fayetteville, so he’s going to need all the help in that area we can give him.  So we’ve officially added him to our ActBlue page, and we’re again encouraging you to give what you can, as much as you can.  This is a politician who is not owned by corporations and never will be.  Ken puts people first, so let’s show Steve Womack what people power can do.

Some things never change:

The 2012 Republican candidates are largely in lockstep when it comes to economic policy, wanting to give huge tax cuts to the rich and corporations while doing next to nothing to boost consumer demand or help the middle class and the unemployed who have been battered by the Great Recession. In fact, according to an analysis by Citizens for Tax Justice, the average tax cuts received by the richest 1 percent of Americans under the Republican plans would be 270 times as large as the cut received by the middle class:

The share of tax cuts going to the richest one percent of Americans under these plans would range from over a third to almost half. The average tax cuts received by the richest one percent would be up to 270 times as large as the average tax cut received by middle-income Americans.

Here’s the graph, provided by Thinkprogress:

As it stands, it looks like all the possible “Not Romneys” have proven too incompetent to win this thing, so it looks like Romney will be the nominee after all.  Thinkprogress takes a closer look at his plan, and finds that it will be far more massive than even the enormous Bush Tax Cuts were:

As we’ve been noting, Mitt Romney’s economic plan calls for a massive tax cut for the rich, even while the plan would likely result in a tax increase on millions of middle class families. And as it turns out, Romney’s tax cuts for the rich would dwarf even those put in place by George W. Bush in 2001 and 2003, as Center for American Progress Director of Tax and Budget Policy Michael Linden noted:

Republican presidential candidate Romney’s plan for federal taxation begins with a hefty portion of Bush-era tax policy: Permanently extend all the tax cuts passed in 2001 and 2003, including those that mainly benefit the extremely wealthy. Then Romney layers on a heaping batch of new tax cuts for the rich, including a full repeal of the estate tax—which is currently paid by only the richest 0.14 percent of estates—and a massive corporate tax cut.

The result is a tax code that asks even less of the rich than George W. Bush’s did.

These kinds of plans show us that the Republican candidates, including the nominee apparent, aren’t going to do a thing for ordinary Arkansans like you and me.  They aren’t the least bit concerned about the deficit, all protests to the contrary aside.  And they sure aren’t concerned about fixing the economy or addressing the rampant income inequality in America.  After all, as Mitt Romney says, if you’re concerned about putting food on the table, paying your bills, and sending your kids to college, you’re just envious of people like him. Just ignore that shrinking middle-class. It’s class warfare if you don’t.

The press release from the ACO (Arkansas Community Organizers) went out last night:

Community and Labor Organizations Demand that Comcast Follow FCC Agreement

To Hold Protest Outside Comcast HQ in Little Rock

Little Rock – Members of Arkansas Community Organizations and United Labor Unions Local 100 will put out flyers and hold signs outside Comcast Cable company’s service center at 2714 S. Shackleford in Little Rock at Noon on Thursday, January 12. Both organizations serve low-income and working families in Arkansas. As part of an agreement with the FCC over the acquisition of NBC Universal, Comcast is supposed to offer low cost internet and low cost computers to families with children enrolled in the federal school lunch program in Little Rock public schools. Yet when parents inquire about the service, they are given the run around.

The two organizations are working with groups in other cities to put pressure on the company and the FCC to implement the agreement. Computers and internet access have become as essential to families as phone service. Computer skills and knowledge of the internet are an important part of a 21^st century education. Many low-income families cannot afford a computer or internet service and left behind as a result of “digital divide.”

“When I received information from my school about the new Comcast program, I was excited,” said Little Rock resident Marthella Johnson. “I called the 800 number and was told I would receive an application in the mail. That was back in August. I still have not received the application.”