We’re not the post racial country that the twits that make up the traditional media were blubbering about all last year. If you think we are “post racial”, you’re naive.

Race is still a problem in America today just as it always has been. That’s because it’s this country’s original sin-the economic system of the colonial period was based on pushing Native Americans off their land for European settlers to farm using slave labor brought from Africa, and that system persisted for decades to come. After the official end of slavery, not much really happened to substantially change things. There was still a slave labor system, called share cropping and prison labor that millions of African Americans were subjected to, and while we read in school that King gave his I Have A Dream speech, sang hymns, and everyone was equal after that the sanitized version simply has no bearing on reality. People fought and died for equality, and while they got it at the ballot box the efforts to ensure equality of opportunity ran up against staunch resistance. Efforts at real Affirmative Action programs have been under assault for years and busing efforts designed to desegregate public schools met with a backlash from white parents who thought the black children were going to eat their kids or something like that. So what’s happened is we’ve seen the majority (white people mostly of course) decide that the civil rights struggle was “won” and we could stick our heads in the sand. Anyone who raises the issue of race is “playing the race card” now and since everything is equal blacks, latinos, etc. must have something wrong with them.

Then a black man decided to run for President. Sure he was alright when he wasn’t going to beat Hillary, but then he started winning. Suddenly he was a secret Muslim with a Christian preacher who hated white people and he had a wife who hated America and he wasn’t good at bowling like “regular” Americans. Oh, and if he won he was going to initiate socialism and betray our country from within.

Want anymore proof that we’re not post racial? How about a bunch of crazy white people buying the gun stores out? Sure, I’ve got no proof that they were all white, but I’m betting there weren’t too many blacks, latinos, asians, or Native Americans arming themselves to the teeth out of fear of Obama. Then Obama nominated Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, a lady who’s really not too far out of the mainstream of judicial thought, and according to Pat Buchanan she’s “unqualified” despite having more courtroom experience than anyone selected for the job in a hundred years and according to Rush Limbaugh (who would wear a bed sheet with eye holes if he could find one that would cover his fat ass) calls her a racist because she said that a she hoped a wise Latina would reach a better decision than a white man who didn’t share her experiences.

Now, first things first, I’m a white guy, but I get what she’s saying, and a lot of people won’t like it when I say this. Most white people are oblivious when it comes to race-they just don’t get it. I’m sorry, that’s just the truth. Those of us that are white have no idea what it’s like to suffer discrimination, to hear from our parents and grandparents (much less to have lived through) what it was like to have white mobs drag you out of your house and string you up in a tree, usually accompanied by local law enforcement. There is not an epidemic of white males facing discrimination in education, the workplace, or in the penal system, regardless of what the critics of affirmative action programs seem to believe. And I’m sorry, but if a black girl or a brown girl or anyone else but a pretty, blond, white girl had disappeared in Aruba the national media wouldn’t have bothered covering it for a second. So yeah, women and minorites have a different perspective than the fat, rich, old white guys that dominate our political system and our country will be better off for everyone having people with those experiences in circles of power.

And speaking of minorities in power, when the President is asked a question by a reporter about an incident involving someone he knows well and the police, an incident that is representative of an epidemic we have in America with police officers overreacting when dealing with members of minority groups, often with violent endings, and he says that cooler heads should have prevailed on both sides, GET OVER IT. Just because he’s not being one of the “good blacks” and telling black folks how bad they are for not being responsible and working hard and all that stuff you’d like to say but are afraid to doesn’t mean he was attacking the police or that he hates white people are anything like that. It means he was telling the truth and speaking from his experiences that, shocker of shockers, come from a perspective that ain’t quite vanilla.

So no, the President is not racist. No, Sonia Sotomayor is not racist. But if you think they are or get mad about this little post, chances are that, yes, you are a racist.

Arkanas Blog has a great piece up on the good work the stimulus is doing here in Arkansas by enabling new police officers to be hired. In bad economic times people get desperate and the crime rate goes up, that’s a no brainer. So the stimulus that was supposed to be our highway to socialism is going towards ensuring law and order. Here’s the breakdown of what cities will be hiring new cops and how much money is going to be spent, but just remember kiddies, if you live in one of these communities be sure to tell your city officials you don’t want to be safe and secure if it means you have to benefit from that scary socialism:

City of Ward Police Department, 1 officer, $128,809
City of Cotton Plant, 1
officer, $64,981
City of Hot Springs, 2 officers, $321,522
Jonesboro
Police Department, 7 officers, $1,008,574
Lake Village Police Department, 1
officer, $110,664
Little Rock Police Department, 20 officers, $3,043,680
City of Madison, 1 officer, $84,972
Marianna Police Department, 1
officer, $94,808
City of Montrose, 1 officer, $94,797
Morrilton Police
Department, 1 officer, $144,378
Nashville Police Department, 1 officer,
$117,417
North Little Rock Police Department, 9 officers, $1,455,849
Osceola Police Department, 1 officer, $123,371
City of Pine Bluff, 7
officers, $1,013,656
Texarkana Police Department, 4 officers, $678,400
City of West Helena, 2 officers, $197,392

This would be funny if it wasn’t so damn stupid:

The Democratic senator from pro-gun Arkansas was nowhere to be seen on the
Senate floor during Wednesday’s showdown over a proposal, championed by the
National Rifle Association, that would have gutted state gun-control laws across
the nation.

After a morning of angry speeches, a vote was called at high
noon. Toward the end of the vote, Pryor entered the chamber through the back
door, took a few steps inside, flashed a thumbs-down to the clerk, and retreated
as fast and furtively as somebody dodging gunfire.

Several minutes
later, the Democrats had racked up more than enough votes to block the proposal.
“Are there any senators in the chamber wishing to vote or wishing to change
their vote?” the presiding officer inquired.

Pryor burst back in, this
time through a side door. “Mr. President!” he called out. “Mr. President!” He
stopped in the well to consult with Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), a gun-control
advocate who was keeping the whip sheet. Schumer gave Pryor a nod, and the
Arkansan — reassured that his vote was not needed to defeat the proposal –
changed his vote to an “aye.”

Now I understand Pryor having to kneel to the gun lobby, I really do. This is a southern, rural state afterall. I’m ok with “pro-gun” Democrats, though I wish someone would inject some commonsense into the debate. Still, you got to admit, this is just embarrassing. Not only is Pryor shown to be nothing but a coward, he also shows himself to be an absolute, bumbling idiot. So Mark, when you’re not showing that you lack any vertebrae whatsoever, could you work on not embarrassing Arkansas. People already have a negative image of Arkansans being, shall we say, a little less than bright. If you’re not careful, people might walk away from an encounter with you thinking their beliefs have been confirmed.

Alright, first let me excuse my absence by saying I’ve been busy. Nothing fancy. Just busy.

But that aside, I want to talk a little about the future of this site. Lately I’ve been corresponding with several different potential contributors for the future site I’m hoping to have up sometime in the near future. One of those contributors is an enthusiastic, devoted activist, Laura Packard, who’s doing work in the state for the AFL-CIO here in the state. (Correct me if I get anything wrong here Laura!)

For the most part, Laura will be focusing on labor issues. She’s already dropped me a line on the labor rally EFCA I mentioned a while back, pointing out that the event gained a lot of media attention. Again, this illustrates the point that there are progressive voices in this state and we can brake through the barrier of the conservative, business oriented establishment to affect change. When the new site is up, progressives will have an Arkansas blog on which to organize, post their thoughts in user diaries, and get information from great contributors like Laura. We’re going to shake up this state in a big way, and everyone that lives here will be better off for it.

Not that those of us from Arkansas didn’t already know this but it’s nice to see others catching a glimpse.

According to his Federal Election Commission report, Phillip raised just $17,000
and spent more than $56,000 during the second quarter.

His disbursements
include a $33,990 speaking fee for Huckabee, $600 for photography for the
Huckabee event, $438 for a lunch with Huckabee, $6,233 for a stage rental and
equipment (presumably for the Huckabee event), and a $2,350 facility rental fee
(also presumably for the Huckabee event).

In other words, Phillip spent
nearly $45,000 to raise less than $20,000 and took a major financial hit for the
Huckabee event.

Perhaps the most painful part is the fact that he was
forced to loan his campaign $50,000 in four installments after the event.

The purpose listed? A “Personal Loan from Les Phillip to cover general
campaign expenses and Mike Huckabee event expenses.”

Pitiful ain’t it. Word about this gets out around Republican circles and the donor/endorsement list for Mike’s 2012 campaign is going to shrivel up pretty fast. It’s really going to be funny to watch the nuts try to pick between Huckabee and Palin in the primaries as they’re basically the same person. All Mike needs is a whig and glasses. He’s got the self-indulgence down.

You know who could benefit the most of the healthcare reform that Congressman Ross is trying to derail? His contituents.

That shouldn’t be surprise though. We’ve got a ton of uninsured and underinsured folks here in Arkansas, a ton of them in Ross’s district. Yet Ross continues to be a roadblock. Why? Well, here’s a pretty good guess:

An array of politically powerful interests in Arkansas oppose the House bill.
Blue Cross Blue Shield, the dominant insurer with 75 percent of the state
market, adamantly objects to a proposed government-run plan to compete with
private insurers. The Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce, representing nearly
1,200 companies and groups that employ a quarter of the state’s workforce,
strongly opposes this so-called public option and another feature requiring
employers to provide coverage to workers or pay a penalty equal to 8 percent of
their payrolls.

And that sums it up. It’s about the money interests, the people that really drive Arkansas politics and what can only be described as the modern plantation economy. As David Sirota (who apparently read the same article) so eloquently put it:

What’s really going on is this: “Blue Dogs” and “conservative Democrats” tend to
represent swing states and districts – that is, states and districts that are
among the very few that aren’t gerrymandered and therefore actually play host to
competitive elections. Because of this, their re-election races tend to be
especially expensive, which means these politicians have to raise a shit-ton of
cash for television ads. How, pray tell, do career politicians raise a shit-ton
of cash? They trade their votes and legislative maneuvers for corporate campaign
money, most of it coming from special interests in Washington who have little to
no grassroots support/connection to the politician’s state/district. The
special-interest, D.C.-centric nature of these bribes is only enhanced by the
fact that many of the “Blue Dog” and “conservative Democratic” districts/states
are rather poor, meaning the money-sucking politicians are all but compelled to
rely on out-of-state cash for their warchests.

All of this creates a
closed circuit that serves the status quo. A “conservative Democratic”
politician from a swing state needs to raise millions to finance a competitive
campaign. There’s not a lot of loose money lying around the district,
considering the recession and the destitution of the very kind of district the
“conservative Democrat” comes from. So the “conservative Democrat” ends up
relying on money from D.C. special interests like, say, health insurers -
interests that are largely hated in the “conservative Democrat’s” state and have
little grassroots connection to the state. That money then buys House and Senate
votes that prevent stuff like health care reform that would most benefit the
constituents of economically struggling states like the “conservative
Democrat’s” state.

In the end, because of this kind of transaction, the
state remains destitute, and the politician remains in office, keeps raising
out-of-state cash, and keeps insisting with a shit-eating grin that it’s crazy -
just crazy! – for anyone to think their votes could be influenced by millions of
dollars. Meanwhile, the cycle starts right over on whatever new economic issue
is coming down the pike – all while the fuckstick Villagers in D.C. use
euphemisms like “conservative Democrats” and “moderate districts” to explain it
all away with an absurd storyline that insists because a politician comes from a
state that likes guns, loves Jesus and/or hates gay people, he has to oppose
health care reform.

Like I said, nicely put. But you know what I think sums it up even better? The personal stories:

Rep. Mike Ross, who grew up in this tiny town of 3,600, represents residents
like 62-year-old Sandy Barham, a restaurant owner with a heart ailment who can’t
afford health insurance for herself or her employees.

“I can’t tell you
the stress of living on the edge, just wondering, ‘Am I going to get sick?’” she
said in an interview at the Broadway Railroad Café, where fried catfish with
hush puppies is a popular feature. “I feel embarrassed, almost, when I go to the
doctors and tell them I don’t have insurance.”

Many people in and around
this economically depressed town can’t afford insurance, even as the battered
economy has made it harder for employers to provide coverage for workers.
They’re looking to Washington for help, and Ross, a conservative Democrat with a
strong voice in the debate over health care legislation, says he’s on their
side.

These are the people that Ross is hurting. These are the people that he is betraying in order to line his pocket book. You know, I usually try to be a little more tactful than Mr. Sirota (who I still love reading), but tonight I feel like letting my hair down. People like Ross don’t have a soul. They go around giving their good-ol boy routine to the unsuspecting saps they plan on taking advantage of, get their votes, then go to Washington and take bribe after bribe (called contributions) and vote to royally screw up the lives of every single one of their constituents EXCEPT for those that make over 100,000 a year or so. Ross might have good intentions. All the people like him might be decent people. But good people can do bad things, and what Ross is doing is down right evil.

Not really a shocker for those of us that live here.

In a report that will surprise few of Bush’s critics on the issue, the Centres
for Disease Control says years of falling rates of teenage pregnancies and
sexually transmitted disease infections under previous administrations were
reversed or stalled in the Bush years. According to the CDC, birth rates among
teenagers aged 15 or older had been in decline since 1991 but are up sharply in
more than half of American states since 2005. The study also revealed that the
number of teenage females with syphilis has risen by nearly half after a
significant decrease while a two-decade fall in the gonorrhea infection rate is
being reversed. The number of Aids cases in adolescent boys has nearly doubled.

The CDC says that southern states, where there is often the greatest
emphasis on abstinence and religion, tend to have the highest rates of teenage
pregnancy and STDs.

So there we have it. All the focus on purity and holiness and keeping it zipped is a load of manure. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m a Christian (though admittedly an unorthodox one) and I firmly believe that teenagers shouldn’t be out having sex and that their first time should be, preferably, with someone they’re in love with after taking all the responsible precautions. But the evidence clearly shows that abstinence education doesn’t work and is, in fact, counter productive. Human beings are, like all the creatures God saw fit do bless (or curse) with genitals sexual creatures by nature. If sex wasn’t a huge and incredibly important part of our species’ existence it wouldn’t saturate every aspect of our culture from literature, to mustic, to movies and theater, to themes in theology and mythology, to, yes, our politics. There’s no changing that, no matter what we do. That said, sex education is not, contrary to its detractor’s ranting, encouraging kids to have sex or any such nonsense. It’s about responsibility and education. People who are knowledgable, who understand what they are doing, usually don’t abuse that knowledge. As the numbers indicate, that kind of irresponsibility is the mark of the ignorant.

So, instead of sweeping this problem under the rug like we’re so good at in the South, why not address the problem honestly and maturely? Or is that hoping for too much?

Check this idiocy out. Since the presidential campaign, President Obama has been accused by a bunch of lunatics of being a citizen of Kenya. Supposedly, there’s an elaborate coverup to hide his birth certificate or some nonsense like that, blah blah blah. What’s worse, the usual GOP opportunists are pandering to their base’s insanity, filing lawsuits and legislation designed to placate the flying monkeys. Now, normally I’m not a Chris Matthews fan, but he handles this dribble pretty nicely. So, to sum it up, Barack Obama was born in the United States, Hawaii specifically, after it became a state. There is a birth certificate. That’s what you call a…what is it again?…oh yeah, a FACT. But wingnuts don’t do well with facts. Facts threaten their world view, inform them that the world is a lot older than six thousand years, that gay marriage won’t destroy western civilization, that evolution is real, that Mr. Obama isn’t a secret Muslim, that Iraq didn’t have WMDs, that the Bushies did torture, etc. See, the thing with never having to pay attention to the facts is that you can believe whatever the hell you want and not be constrained by that silly thing those of us that live in the real world call REALITY.

But there’s a darker dimension to this. Let’s not kid ourselves here. If this were someone named John McCain, or Sarah Palin, or Hillary Clinton, no one would be doing this. But it’s not just a name. I’d wager a pretty penny that if Bill Richardson were in Obama’s shoes the same nutjobs would be wanting his birth certificate to prove he was born in Mexico. It’s about race, pure and simple. The black man named Barack Hussein Obama threatens these pitiful little people’s miserable existence because they’re scared that the terrifying black people are going to take over and eat them or some other foolishness.

So…what are the implications for democracy when a huge part of the electorate are this loony? Can a representative democracy survive when boneheads like these are foaming at the mouth and the spineless worms in the Republican party are kissing their feet? I like to think that most people have more sense than these numbskulls and that most people aren’t this damn stupid. I’m pretty sure I’m right. But still, this kind of batshittery isn’t good for our country, so if you encounter anyone parroting this garbage please tell them just how stupid and pitiful they are. For your country.

It’s pitiful when the biggest threat to healthcare reform, the signature program for a new, popular, Democratic president, something that will benefit millions of Americans, is being threatened by a chickenshit so-called Democrat that cares more about big insurance companies and HMOs then he does his own constituents.

Now, of course Ross doesn’t see it that way:

As for his south Arkansas, 4th District constituents? “They get it,” Ross said.
“They want us to slow down and get it right and actually have time to read the
bills we’re voting on.”

Funny. I don’t remember Ross claiming his constituents wanted him to slow down and read into things more when he was voting for the PATRIOT Act or supporting the war in Iraq, but I digress. Then again, Ross’s constituents aren’t really the voters of his district, they’re the corporations and big money donors that line his pocket. But wait! According to Ross he and his friends in the Blue Dog Coalition are the biggest enemies of the special interests fighting this bill alongside them!

“We want to take on the insurance companies more than others in our party,”

I’d say “Don’t make me laugh.”, but it’s really not funny. And what, pray tell, does Ross want done???

As Energy and Commerce continues to mark up the bill, Ross said, the Blue Dogs
are preparing to offer as many as two dozen amendments.

One of their
specific ideas making the bill more affordable? “We want to squeeze every ounce
of waste out of the current system,” he said. Obama himself, Ross said, has
identified that as a major route for paying for reform as well.

Another
of their ideas, the Blue Dog said, is to lower the subsidies provided to
families to acquire health insurance. Currently, he said, the main House bill
would subsidize families with incomes at 400 percent of the poverty level or
about $88,000. Lowering that subsidy to just 300 percent of poverty, or about
$66,000, “would save billions” as well as take care of nearly all his 4th
District constituents.

Okay, those ideas have some merit, though I don’t see the point of being a pain in the ass when you yourself admit that the people you’re fighting are in agreement with you. But what about the public option?

As for a public option, Ross said the Blue Dogs want to “take on the insurance
companies” by threatening them with a public option if the cross certain
“triggers,” such as continuing to exclude or penalize Americans with
pre-existing conditions.

Typical. More lines in the sand that always get crossed. Earth to Ross, insurance companies have done that and will continue to do it and if they can’t screw people over one way to make a profit they’ll find others. The only sensible answer is a public option to compete in the market and force them to design a better product.

Anyway, the bottom line to the good people of the fourth district: You don’t have a representative. These guys do.

While the lion’s share of the attention devoted to the judiciary is focused on Judge Sotomayor (and rightfully so of course) it’s important to remember that we have an election for the state Supreme Court coming up and while two candidates have been in the running a third looks to join them:

Add a third candidate to the race for Supreme Court to fill former Justice Tom
Glaze’s seat. It was filled in the interim after his retirement by Elana Wills,
who cannot run for the job.

The latest candidate is Appeals Court Judge
Karen Baker of Conway, who notes in her announcement her authorship of the
recent opinion reversing the PSC approval of a permit to build a caol-fired
power plant in Hempstead County.

Now of course, this is Arkansas where judges are stupidly forbidden to actually say anything substantial that, I don’t know, voters might want to hear before they cast such an important vote and thus result to talking about their family, where they grew up, and not much beyond that. Still, the candidates for this one all have records that give us an idea what kind of judges they’d be.

With regards to Baker, I don’t know much about her, but from that little bit on Arkansas Blog she certainly seems like an impressive candidate that would make sound rulings. Judge Courtney Henry also has an impressive biography, but there’s no indication as to what her presence on the Court might mean because she’s got no record, as far as I’ve seen, to give us any indication on what her thinking’s like. Her list of supporters is no help, with endorsements from the likes of former Congressman John Paul Hammersmidt to Senator Mary Anne Salmon, a Republican and Democrat with not much in common. On the other hand, at least one wingnut doesn’t seem to trust her, but I’ve heard from other sources that she has referred to herself as a conservative. If I had to place a bet I’d wager she’s a conservative Democrat like Lincoln and Ross, but that’s just a hunch so take it with a grain of salt.

One of the candidates however is a known quantity, Circuit Judge John Fogleman, the deputy prosecutor in the notorious West Memphis Three case. Considering how badly that case was handled and is still handled today, I’m not about to cast a vote for Fogleman. He doesn’t have the moral character to be a judge.

So, to me at least, Baker’s prospective candidacy looks promising. At least there’s a record to look at, like her ruling against the coal plant. Remember, the judiciary is important, its where we go for justice and an important check on the other branches of government that fail us so often here in Arkansas. I’m still going to watch this closely before I make a definate decision, but I’m leaning towards Baker now and saying hell no to Fogleman for sure.

Ok, first Kim Hendren, one of the clowns vying for Lincoln’s seat, got in trouble for calling New York senator Chuck Schumer “that Jew.” Now he’s in hot water for calling a federal judge “that new minority judge.” To be fair though, Hendren’s explanation (that he was pointing to Judge Bryan Miller as a minority judge that was fit to serve on the bench) is good if it’s sincere. Lincoln and Pryor haven’t exactly been good when it comes to minority issues, especially recommending qualified minorities to President Obama for federal judgeships. They’ve got room for improvement, but my advice to Hendren is avoid any sentence where he refers to someone with a phrase starting with “that…”

Okay, tell me how this is not class warfare.

Whenever someone points out that the wealthiest among us aren’t pulling their weight or paying their fair share, or suggests that those at the top could afford to pay a little more in taxes than they are for the better of everyone, conservatives/Republicans whine about “class warfare” or “scary socialism”. But presenting crude stereotypes of working people and telling out right lies about a bill that will help working people and their families, that’s not class warfare, that’s the American way! Like secession and preemptive war and torture and bigotry etc.

Just back from my birthday in St. Louis. Nice hotel. Saw the arch. Went to the zoo and got to pet stingrays. Followed my boyfriend off to see Kathy Griffin. And had some fun at Six Flags before a storm broke. Great weekend.

Brummett compares Bill Halter’s and Dustin McDaniel’s accomplishments, with a focus on McDaniel pushing the animal cruelty bill through. That’s a big accomplishment and a very good thing for us animal lovers and the cats, dogs, and horses it protects. It makes me lean more towards McDaniel for the distant guv race, but I’m still not sold just yet…

The Young Republicans have elected a bigot to lead them into the 21st century and the era of the first black president. Same old party.

Can we just put Cheney on trial already? Pretty please?

Are you listening Blanche? How about you Pryor?

I’m all for high-speed rail.

Give this a good read.

Or just this one little part if you prefer:

But Dr. Snyder remains hesitant about a public plan and is emphatic that it
must preserve patient choice and pay for itself. He said he had positive
experiences with Medicaid, however, calling it his practice’s “most efficient
payer.”

“It’s not a deal breaker for me either way,” he said of the public plan. “I
don’t know why it’s resonating so much with Democrats.”

Now, measured response here…My first reaction to this was to yell “THIS IS BULLSHIT!” at the top of my lungs, but then I thought about it a bit. Snyder has a well deserved record as the most liberal of the Arkansas delegation, he deserves props for that. But to say that the public option isn’t “a deal breaker for [him] either way” just shows a real disconnect. With the cost of healthcare skyrocketing while almost 50 million people don’t have health insurance and the insurance companies offer products that are, unless you’re loaded, crap, a public option offers the best hope of forcing real competition in the market and providing the best help to so many people in need (especially when a single-payer system can’t get through a Congress that’s the private property of the insurance companies, HMOs, the AMA, etc). If Snyder doesn’t get that I’d love to hear him offer a better plan. Now, to be fair to Snyder, he’s generally a good vote, ESPECIALLY by Arkansas standards, but at this critical point in time with so many problems facing us and so much that needs to be done, generally good isn’t good enough. Snyder’s safe, no matter what anyone thinks. Even in a tight race, Pulaski County will pull him through. But this quote doesn’t smell of “moderation”. It smells of cluelessness. Like I said, Snyder is usually good and I appreciate that, and I want him to do better, that’s the point of us liberals/progressives pushing and making an effort. So, if you’re in his district, give him a call. Now sure, he’ll be a reliable vote whatever gets offered up, but he needs to hear that a bill without a public plan IS A DEAL BREAKER.

Arkansas Blog has done a great job keeping us informed on the Arkansas prison scandal with all the details of prisoner escapes, inmates laying in their own feces, and massive turnover rates. Beebe’s feet dragging on the issue has been especially revolting and it’s truly a sad day when I find myself agreeing with Asa on much anything. The bottomline is that an independent review is needed, and Larry Norris, the prison director, needs to be fired for gross mismanagement of one of the most important aspects of state government. What astounds me is that our legislature, the most part-time, half-assed, do-nothing legislature in the country has the nerve to act surprised by any of this, and from the way at least one of them is talking it sounds like our representatives are going to do their usual bit of sound and fury before doing nothing. But you know what scares me? This quote from Norris:

“I’m just a servant of the people, trying to do the Lord’s work,” Norris
said at one point during the hearing.

Give me a fucking break.

That said, let’s try to put this whole mess into a larger context. Prison abuse and mismanagement aren’t new things or isolated incidents in the U.S. and it’s certainly not new to Arkansas. It’s all part of that get tough on crime mentality that wins plenty of votes but doesn’t really do anything to fix the problem of crime. Now we’ve got an opportunity to do something about that in Arkansas, but as usual the powers that be (Beebe, McDaniel, the legislature, etc.) don’t have the vision, intestinal fortitude, or, frankly, enough concern, to follow through. Right now, the only guy that seems to be making any sense is my old hometown’s state senator:

Sen. Jim Luker said that this was a good time for the legislature
to take an inward look at themselves and think about how much funding is
set aside for state correctional facilities.

Now if we can just get beyond the tip of the iceberg….