Pres 2012: The Santorum Sweep…Eww…
Feb 8, 2012 No Comments ›› ARDem
Last night, Santorum was all over the Midwest and Colorado…Okay, I just threw up in my mouth a little, so enough of that…
The GOP clown car continues on, with Rick Santorum, written off since his come from behind…Okay, I swear that one was unintentional, but it’s funny as hell so it’s going to stay!
Ahem…let me start again.
Last night, Rick Santorum having been lagging in the polls after failing to win a single state since his narrow Iowa victory was able to win three states last night in a major upset to the front runner, Mitt Romney. Colorado was especially a big loss as that was the only state last night that Romney expected to win. That said, just four years ago Romney won all three of these states, so the massive demise in support is pretty impressive. To give you an idea of how weak a frontrunner Romney is, he didn’t carry a single county in Missouri last night. That’s pretty sad. Now to be fair, Missouri was just a beauty contest last with no delegates rewarded. Don’t ask me why, ask the Missouri GOP. On top of that, turnout in the Republican races are down from four years ago, and it wasn’t too hot back then.
Now it’s hard to say what will happen with the clown car next. On paper, the coming competitions in Michigan (where his dad was governor) and Arizona (with a large Mormon population) should be safe for Romney. Then again, he did say we should let Detroit fail and Arizona Republicans are dramatically right leaning, so who knows. Santorum is apparently the conservative alternative now, but he has no money or real organization. Gingrich got destroyed last night, but I doubt his ego will let him quit, and who knows, he might still win some southern states. Ron Paul focused heavily on the caucus states but his cult like followers couldn’t deliver any victories to him, but I’m sure he’s not going away anytime soon. This is essentially starting to look like a race from the seventies or eighties, where there was a long drawn out process all the way to the convention. That could still happen. Or who knows, maybe Romney will finally lock this thing up in the next couple of months. Nothing in these primaries has made any sense or performed as expected, so who the hell knows.
One thing is clear. Santorum is too extreme and out of touch to be elected President. Newt Gingrich is too unlikeable and has too much baggage. Ron Paul is a nut with no appeal outside the Ron Paul cult. And Mitt Romney, he’s a chunk of plastic whose electability argument has gone out the window and who’s unfavorable ratings continue to climb. Between that and the handy work of Boehner’s Congress, Republicans are set up for a massive implosion nationally in 2012.
AR-02: Tim Griffin Keeps Pushing Keystone; Dripping With Oil Money
Feb 7, 2012 No Comments ›› ARDem
Greasy looking, ain’t he? There’s a reason (or reasons) for that. Tim Griffin has been sending out emails and pounding pretty heavy for the Keystone Pipeline on his facebook page. All our Republican representation in Arkansas is for the pipeline, but Griffin has been it’s most ardent supporter. And it’s no surprise. We highlighted a long time back that Griffin owed a good chunk of campaign cash to Congressman Joe Barton, the Republican Congressman who famously apologized to the CEO of BP following the slew of negative press the company rightfully earned for their negligence that lead to the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico two years ago. In 2010, the oil and gas industry donated $126,959 to Griffin’s campaign. So far in the 2012 cycle, they’ve set him up with $88,500 in corporate contributions.
To make it clear (again), the oil industry is basically bribing Griffin to:
- lie about the number of jobs the Keystone pipeline will actually create
- push a project that will not decrease our dependency on Middle Eastern oil
- and will benefit foreign corporations at the expense of American businesses, our energy security, and our environmental safety
What’s more, the company pushing for Keystone, TransCanada, has broken the law to try and get oil from the Canadian tar sands down to the Gulf of Mexico for export to foreign markets. However, considering Tim Felon’s past criminal activities, I doubt being the spokesman for criminal corporations will cause him to lose too much sleep.
AR-03: Aden On Guns
Feb 7, 2012 No Comments ›› ARDem
This picture is awesome.
That’s a pic taken for a piece on Ken and his second amendment stance. Not only does the picture look great, but it speaks volumes. You can’t run against guns in Arkansas. Everyone with half a brain knows that. Doesn’t mean we have to go overboard or throw our common sense out the window, but it’s a fact of life. Ken’s as solid a pro-gun Democrat as you could find of course, and an excellent visual like this will help convey that point.
But you know what I really like about it? Ken’s not dressed up in hunting gear, he’s not swinging a dead goose around, and he doesn’t look goofy doing this. He looks confident and, most importantly, genuine. This is not handled as some clumsey pander. It’s Ken Aden being Ken Aden and looking good doing it. There are a lot of Arkansans that are going to like this, and I bet a ton of third district voters for who this is their most important issue will be taking a good look at Ken soon enough.
Update: The print article framed this in a way that really didn’t come out in the way the Aden campaign had hoped according to campaign manager Jake Burris. Jake told me tonight by phone that they had actually wanted to contrast their position on guns with that of Mayor Bloomberg, as the pic above illustrates, as a pro-Second Amendment stance, which Ken is on the record taking. The pic speaks louder than the cherry picked article though and I imagine a few phone calls are going to be in the works tomorrow.
AR-01: Why Marvell Academy Matters
Feb 6, 2012 7 Comments ›› ARDem
It kind of got overshadowed last week with the horrible stuff that happened to Jake Burris’s cat up in Russellville, but the element of race crept into the AR-01 contest last week. As you might recall, someone asked AR-01 Democratic candidate Clark Hall on his facebook page what school he sent his children to and the comment was quickly deleted by the Hall campaign. It’s been established that Hall sent his children to Marvell Academy for reasons as of yet unexplained, which is probably the reason for the deletion. A friend of mine who isn’t from the Delta asked me why this mattered. Well, here’s a clip from a Time Magazine Article from 1969 that should explain it:
Now that the Supreme Court has decreed an immediate end to racial segregation in Southern public schools, many white resisters have only one place left to turn: private white “segregation academies.” In recent years, the South has blossomed with more than 200 such schools, which are set up for the sole purpose of excluding blacks. According to one recent estimate, at least 300,000 white students out of 7,400,000 now attend segregated private schools in eleven Southern states. By all the evidence, the new academies will increase that total fast.
Few of them are quite so openly redneck as the Marvell Academy, a private elementary school that opened last year in two frame houses in the Arkansas Delta town of Marvell (pop. 1,916). Declared the school’s founders, who are also members of the resurgent white Citizens’ Council: “Integration is the corruption of the true American heritage by alien concept and ideology.” More discreetly, most of the new private schools advertise “quality education,” a slogan appealing to the genuine fear of many Southern whites that a massive influx of black students into formerly white public schools will slow down learning.
That was some pretty revolting stuff even forty years ago, and as Hall is in his sixties I somehow doubt he was unaware of this, even if he was somehow able to remain oblivious to the fact that this is still the reality of how schools like Marvell Academy operate today. Check out the racial and ethnic demographics of Marvell Academy and Marvell’s public high school:
The private Marvell Academy is 99% white with 1% of their attendees being Asian or Pacific Islander. The public school however is 96% black, 6% white, with 1% labeled Hispanic. Meanwhile, 96% of the students at Marvell High are eligible for free or reduced lunch. Those are some pretty telling demographics that illuminate just how age old problems in Arkansas continue to fester.
If Hall has addressed this somewhere or released a statement on it to this point then it’s news to me. He needs to address it quick, because a lot of Democratic primary voters (the people who actually vote to decide the nominee rather than the party leaders handing him a crown) are going to be wanting an answer on why he would send his kids to this kind of school before they’re comfortable checking his name on the ballot. The longer he goes without addressing this, the more it looks like he’s got something to hide.
Effort To Get Toughter Ethics Laws On The Ballot
Feb 6, 2012 No Comments ›› ARDem
Yes! Finally, someone has started the process of taking the issue of ethics to the ballot in Arkansas! Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!!!
Here’s what the proposed initiative would do:
The final draft of the initiative is under review by lawyers and should be submitted to the attorney general within the month. Here are the probable major thrusts:
* WALMART RULE: At last, at last. The law would ban lobbyist spending on legislators. No more drinks. No more steaks. No more trips. If out-of-state junkets are useful to legislators, let them ask for public reimbursement and justify the expenses.
* REVOLVING DOOR: The one-year cooling-off period now in place before a legislator may walk into a fat job as a lobbyist? The law would make it FIVE.
* CORPORATE INFLUENCE: The initiative would make state campaign finance law parallel federal campaign finance law. The biggest difference — THE END OF CORPORATE CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS. In Arkansas, the corporate influence is even more pernicious because the same people can make maximum contributions under the names of multiple corporate shells.
* CITIZENS UNITED: The ballot measure would be styled as a non-binding vote of disapproval against the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that established corporate personhood in political spending.
If we can get this on the ballot, it will pass overwhelmingly. We just have to make sure it gets the signatures. For years the legislature has refused to take up any significant ethics reform. And no, that bullshit they trotted out last year doesn’t count. Last year in the face of overwhelming demand from both the right and the left in Arkansas and both parties let us down. Republicans offered window dressing. Democrats sat on their hands. The Chamber of Commerce and big corporations represented by it bought themselves a legislature, and we the people just don’t have the cash to compete.
So, if the legislature won’t police itself, let’s do as I’ve been saying we should for a long time and take this to the ballot. Let’s cram this reform down their throats.
How Do You Like Us Now?
Feb 2, 2012 2 Comments ›› ARDem
So I’ve been promising a new look for God knows how long on this site and, low and behold, it’s here! Personally, I think it looks great, and I’ve already gotten a ton of positive feed back on it. The credit of course goes to to our tech guy and my best friend for as long as I can remember, Matt, who’s a real wizard with computer stuff. This site wouldn’t even exist without Matt to show me the ropes and I’m really thankful that he puts up with me being such a Luddite.
Beyond the new, sleek and smooth design, the new look comes with some cool new features, most of which I’m going to have to take my time to figure out, including some great facebook related stuff that will help make the site more of what I always envisioned it becoming-a progressive Democratic community in Arkansas and a permanent part of the progressive infrastructure in this state.
So, stick with us, because we’ve got some more good stuff coming ya’lls way soon enough, and I think you’re going to like it.
A “$30 Billion Dollar Behemoth” versus the free-lunch child?
Feb 2, 2012 No Comments ›› LaVoix
Over 15,000 children are on the National Free Lunch Program in the Little Rock area, counting the 1100 in the UAMS Head Start program and those enrolled in the Little Rock School District, and these children are caught in an exploitative corporate deal of which the majority of parents are probably unaware. When news that the Comcast “Internet Essentials” program wasn’t working for these low-income families broke in Arkansas, comments on the press release in the Arkansas Times ranged from “redistribution” to “corporate welfare”. Before anyone starts screaming entitlements and redistribution on this website, we wish to remind everyone that the children and families that get the National Free Lunch Program did not go begging the FCC to cut this deal. The FCC “mandated” that Comcast provide the low-cost internet service! The Comcast/NBC merger boils down to corporate welfare by creation of a “$30 Billion Dollar Behemoth” in a deal that went down in January of 2011. Comcast now “controls not just how television shows and movies are made but how they are delivered to people’s homes.” Here is the services page for Comcast…look closely to see if it speaks of a $9.95 internet program or a $149 laptop?
Arkansas Times first broke the news of community organizations taking on the “$30 Billion Dollar Behemoth” on January 12, 2012. Click the date to see the video reaction of the Little Rock Comcast representative…January 12, 2012 when he was told that our low-income children weren’t able to access the Internet Essentials Program for various reasons. More then likely families couldn’t even find the website to get the phone number even if they had internet connection as the website is carefully excluded from the main Comcast website:
Wow! Note the $149.99 computer! Wow! Where are the computers coming from? According to the Comcast report:
“Discounted Computers: As part of Internet Essentials, Comcast has partnered with Dell and Acer to offer eligible families the opportunity to purchase a full-service, Internet-capable computer for under $150, substantially below retail. Working with our partners, including microsoft, we offer fully loaded computers with Internet Explorer and productivity software. We also provide the Norton™ security suite, a $160 value, at no additional charge to ensure that Internet Essentials users have a secure online experience.”
Razorback scat! Read on!
The actions of Local 100 United Labor Unions along with ACTION United, A Community Voice, Arkansas Community Organizations stirred up Comcast into a Shakespearean position of “protest too much”. Now that Comcast controls the media for millions of Americans, I want to remind folks of what was said in the Reuters story when this deal went through last year:
” The Philadelphia-based company hopes to take advantage of an evolving media world as viewing habits change and audiences expect to find their favorite entertainment on the TV set as well as the PC, tablet and smartphone.”
Do we see a “Faux News” propaganda machine in the making or is this just a case of using “free-lunch children” as a way to capitalism’s finest day? Comcast isn’t just taking advantage of viewing habits. They are stacking and have been stacking the deck on both sides of the political divide for years. Even before the Citizens United ruling, Comcast PAC feathered their abilities to negotiate their “behemoth” by contributing to both sides of the aisle in D.C. Check their donations at Open Secrets and you’ll find some Arkansas names listed in Congress. We’ll just wait to see who is getting greased like a stuck pig in this situation.
Latest update in the Arkansas Times with a reprint of of the press release from Local 100 United Labor Unions and their community allies below:
Local 100 and Community Allies Slam Comcast’s Lack of Effort on Digital Divide!
In response to Local 100 United Labor Unions and our community partners ACTION United, Arkansas Community Organizations, A Community Voice, ACORN International, and others and direct actions and meetings in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Houston, Little Rock and Shreveport over the past 2 weeks, Comcast this week issued a report about the first five months of the Internet Essentials Program. The report claims to be satisfied that nationally more than 40,000 of the 3,000,000 people that Comcast had declared eligible were enrolled in the program, according to their unaudited or witnessed surveys.
The results reported by Comcast are very disappointing: slightly over 2000 in Harris County; not even 450 in Philadelphia where Comcast is headquartered: slightly more than 1000 in all of Louisiana; and so few in Arkansas the number was not included in the “Launch Report” issued by VP David Cohen. Surveys done by ACTION United in Philadelphia found not one family enrolled out of over 100 contacted. A similar survey conducted among eligible Head Start workers and HISD workers also produced no enrollments in over 100 surveyed by Local 100 in Houston.
Meetings with Comcast representatives in Philadelphia, Houston, and elsewhere have been very disappointing because Comcast has up until this report resisted any demands for transparency or accountability, insisting that there were no numerical goals despite the coalition’s entreaties that Comcast set specific benchmarks and work with community partners to reach substantive performance goals to lower the digital divide. In a 9-point program the coalition has been demanding for months that Comcast lower the barriers and obstacles to participation and stop using “internet essentials” as a marketing program and begin implementing a serious program get access to lower income families. The coalition was in fact pleased that Comcast announced some reforms of the program including an expansion of the number of eligible families past just free school lunch eligible.
In calls to enroll families to Comcast’s program this week, Local 100 has continued to find almost total resistance. Calls to 713 numbers are answered in Florida. Callers are told the $9.95 program for access does not exist. When inquiring about the $150 computers, callers are routed to Dell Computer in Austin, which informed several families that Comcast had cancelled the program and that only $400 computers are available! Furthermore, Comcast and its suppliers are insisting that all payments for computers be made in cash or on credit (?!?) cards by lower income families rather than through their Comcast building.
Local 100 and its allies are demanding a wholesale overhaul because the program, especially its outreach largely through overtaxed schools, who are hardly in the business of selling Comcast services, are feeble and inadequate. Meanwhile Cohen for Comcast insisted this
week that the company still did not need goals for the program but instead wanted applause for taking some initiative.
Cohen’s spin for Comcast does not align with the facts or history. The Internet Essentials program was required by the 2011 Memorandum Opinion and Order from the FCC regarding the merger of Comcast and NBC Universal. In the agreement, FCC requires that Comcast “substantially increase broadband adoption in low income homes throughout Comcast’s service area” (pg. 143).
It raises red flags for the coalition that the program has no goals and without any metrics to measure success, they can claim at every step they are successful without making substantial strides to close the digital divide. David Cohen claims that Comcast’s “goal is to do better,” but in the absence of clear goals, the program has no teeth and is merely a commitment to PR rather than digital inclusion. Local 100 and its allies are assisting families unable to access the program in filing formal complaints with the FCC for Comcast’s “deceptive advertising” of the program without a real program in evidence.
In all of our surveys, outreach was identified as one of the biggest barriers to receiving the program. Comcast’s report cites low digital literacy and acknowledgement of relevancy of internet as a huge barrier to enrollment. We believe that comprehensive active outreach, as opposed to passive flyers, haphazardly distributed through school children, is essential to increased enrollment. We are concerned that the first recipients are often the low-hanging fruit and families who are most responsive to opportunities. Comcast’s claims its plan moving forward is to work more closely with local community organizations, libraries, school districts and faith-based organizations. By relying on our cash-strapped community institutions, Comcast is putting the real work of the program on institutions that are struggling to provide essential services to our communities in these tough economic times without accepting its own responsibility in the community or its promises and enrichments won through the FCC process federally.
The coalition has been pushing Comcast to adopt goals of up to 50% access in the next three years and certainly no less than 25% access of eligible low income families. Comcast has continued to respond that it is unwilling to set goals. In Philadelphia for example even 20% would add 30,000 families. In Harris County the number would be more than double at even 20%. The current Comcast effort is simply unacceptable.
Local 100 United Labor Unions, ACTION United, A Community Voice, Arkansas Community Organizations and other allies across the country call on Comcast to set real goals and make them matter.
I must ask this question of our readers. Is this a case of exploitation by Comcast using the image of the low-income child on the National Free Lunch Program to get the FCC to approve their “$30 Billion Dollar Behemoth”? Bloggers are a curious, nosy breed and those at the Blue Arkansas Blog like to see justice served….so here is the suggestion of action. If you are a parent or guardian of a child that is on the reduced lunch or National Free Lunch Program, or know a neighbor or family member that is…check out the requirements.
1. Child is on the National Free Lunch Program (or reduced lunch according to Comcast press release).
2. Family home does not have Comcast “internet” services” and has not had it for at least 90 days.
3. Family does not currently owe Comcast any unpaid balances or prior debt.
Get them to call or you call the Internet Essentials number of 1-855-846-8376 to request an application.
Then have them call or you call Dell to inquire about the $149.99 laptop computer that was advertised on Internet Essentials website: 1-800-289-3355. If Dell tells them they are no longer available or that they cost more then the $149…contact one of the two numbers below to file an FCC complaint for false advertising:
Arkansas Community Organizations: 501-376-7151
Local 100 United Labor Unions Arkansas Office: 501-801-0563
UPDATE: A call to Dell Computer has us in a circle…Dell workers are now claiming that we must call Comcast to get the computer! …and if you hook up the internet service you will then receive a voucher in the mail to call in and make a purchase of a netbook! Sight unseen computer purchase over the phone for a refurbished that you don’t get to see before you buy! What a rip! A new netbook can be had for roughly $179.00! and Comcast wants low-income customers to buy a refurbished for $149.99! (That is if they have a spare $149.99) Here is the latest phone number to try: 1-888-710-4156 Let us know if anyone in the Little Rock area ever gets the package!
AR-01: On Anniversary of Lilly Ledbetter Signing, Latanich Endorses Paycheck Fairness Act
Feb 2, 2012 1 Comment ›› ARDem
Three years ago, President Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, a significant step in securing equal pay for women in the work place. However, there’s still work to be done:
Though the law expanded the legal remedies available to women who have been victims of discriminatory pay, little has been done to address the pay gap that exists between male and female employees. Since the Equal Pay Act of 1963 was signed into law, the pay gap has closed at less than half-a-cent per year. That trend is continuing, as the pay gap barely closed from 2009 to 2010.
Women made 77 percent of men’s earnings in 2009, the year the law passed. In 2010, that was virtually unchanged, as women’s wages rose to 77.4 percent of men’s. The gap is even larger for African Americans and Latinos: black women made 67.5 percent of all men’s earnings in 2009, while Latino women made 57.7 percent. In 2010, those figures ticked up to 67.7 percent and 58.7 percent, respectively.
Well, Gary Latanich, the economist turned politician in AR-01, announced in an op-ed released on the anniversary of the bill’s signing that we can and should do better and, sharing the personal story of his niece to put a human face on the problem, endorsed the Paycheck Fairness Act.
LILLY LEDBETTER THREE YEARS LATER: WE CAN STILL DO BETTER
Last Sunday, January 29th 2012, was the three year anniversary of Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, the first piece of legislation that President Obama signed into law. It was named after a woman who had worked almost 20 years as a supervisor for Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company only to find as she neared retirement that she was not only paid less than her male colleagues, but her pay raises were also less than her male counterparts. The Supreme Court eventually ruled against her citing the fact that she did not file suit within 180 days of her first pay check, an impossibility given that Goodyear had a policy forbidding employees from discussing their wages. The new law says that workers have 180 days to file discrimination charges after each paycheck. In essence, there is no statute of limitations on failing an equal pay discrimination law suit.
While this is a good first step it does not go nearly far enough. For an example of what still needs to be done consider my niece. After receiving a letter confirming her employment at a specific wage rate, she moved from Wisconsin to the Memphis area. Within a few months she noticed that the agreed upon wage-rate had been lowered. Upon inquiring, she was told that wage reduction was the result of her having mentioned the original wage to a fellow worker even though she was never told that by doing so would be a violation of company policy.
What we now need is a bill that puts the weight of the law behind legislation designed to protect against wage discrimination. Specifically, we need to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act. From my perspective, the most important provision of the proposed legislation is that it would end the Paycheck Catch-22 by prohibiting retaliation against employees who inquire about or reveal wage practices and existing wage rates currently being paid. Allowing employees to file suit for discrimination is meaningless if information about possible discrimination is unavailable or can only be obtained at the risk of harassment or termination.
We need to level the playing field when it comes to employers and employees. And while it is true that we live in a world where the concept of “employment at will” is commonly accepted, it is also true that a no-holds-bar “employment at will” approach is harmful to all, and that includes the economy. All aspects of life have morals, customs, and laws designed to place limits on behavior; the labor market should be no exception. It was Martin Luther King who said that “Laws won’t change peoples hearts, but at least they can constrain the heartless”.
Gary Latanich
Candidate for Democratic Nomination 1st District US Congress
For more information about Gary and his plans for Arkansas see: www.garylatanich.com & facebook.com/garylatanich
Kudos to Latanich for stepping up on the issue and being a voice for equality and fundamental fairness. What say you to women in the workplace Clark Hall? And you Congressman Crawford?
McDaniel On Child Poverty
Feb 2, 2012 No Comments ›› ARDem
AG Dustin McDaniel has a great little piece on Huffington Post talking about the problem of child poverty and how attorney generals can address it. It’s a pretty good read, and it shows McDaniel at his best I think:
My office in downtown Little Rock is located directly across the street from an elementary school. Each morning, I watch the eager, smiling faces of children not much younger than my own kids ready to begin another school day. But many of their innocent smiles hide the truth: More than one in every four Arkansas children comes from a household in poverty. Some among them didn’t have breakfast before leaving home. Others may have trouble in class because they spent the night shivering in an unheated home.
In Arkansas, 28 percent of all children live in poverty. Among all the statistics I read, this is one that reminds me of our deepest obligations to our fellow man. Poverty wrestles hope out of the hands of our children. I believe it is our responsibility as today’s leaders to fight to give that hope back to the leaders of tomorrow.
As an active voice among my colleagues nationally, I know that state Attorneys General are uniquely positioned in the efforts to help and protect children. We know that high-quality education is essential for children to emerge from poverty, and that in our state, there exists a significant achievement gap between middle- and low-income students.
***
I am committed to helping our most at-risk children. As a result, I have built an outstanding relationship between my office and groups that are working to make life better. Attorneys General in their consumer advocacy positions help those that do not have the resources to help themselves. We do so by pursuing those who take advantage of our states’ consumers. Often, that litigation results in financial recoveries on behalf of Arkansans. I am proud to have dedicated some of that money to aid in the fight against child poverty.
Last year, our office addressed the State’s widespread hunger with a targeted distribution of $425,000 to Arkansas food banks. A 2010 study indicated that Arkansas children had the highest risk of food insecurity, that is, a lack of access to nutritional food, in the nation. The distribution made by our office was recovered from a settlement with a food company regarding that company’s marketing practices. The money helped to sustain the state’s food banks in a year when those organizations were significantly affected by the economic downturn.
In the last two years, we’ve also directed support to Save The Children, an international organization with a mission to improve the lives of poverty-stricken children. Save The Children serves thousands of Arkansas students with in-school and after-school programs that focus on literacy, nutrition and physical activity in some of the most impoverished areas of our State. We are proud to be one of the first three states to benefit from Save The Children’s new state-by-state model.
Attorneys General can also fight the scourge of child poverty through advocacy on the state and federal level. As a member of the national law enforcement organization, “Fight Crime: Invest In Kids,” we advocate for lawmakers to direct resources toward fighting poverty. The organization of law enforcement officials from across the country recognizes the link between poverty and crime. A study by the Journal of the American Medical Association indicated that the behavioral disorders in children most closely linked to juvenile crime decreased by 40 percent when the incomes of their parents rose above the poverty level.
Arkansas Democrats Outflank Republicans On Fiscal Session
Feb 2, 2012 No Comments ›› ARDem
Perhaps Arkansas Democrats have finally figured out how to manage themselves in this new era in Arkansas politics. They’ve gotten out there as one unit and managed to define the goals of the fiscal session in their terms and effectively boxed in the Republicans by doing so. Their message:
* Keep the Fiscal session within the scope of its purpose — fiscal matters only — as was intended by the people of Arkansas.
* Keep the state budget within our means without raising taxes.
* Aim to keep the session on pace to adjourn on time or early and not waste taxpayer dollars.
* Work in a bipartisan manner to avoid the gridlock and grandstanding of Washington.
* Weigh all matters not only on their fiscal impact to the state and the taxpayer, but also on their economic impact to small business owners and industry throughout the state.
Republicans are now in a tough position-if they bring the antics to the fiscal session that they brought to last year’s regular session they’re going to fall right into the Democrats’ framing. They’ll set themselves up as childish obstructionists who can’t govern. If they try to cooperate, Democrats will still have stolen the show and won the messaging by setting the agenda. It’s win-win for Arkansas Dems, and that’s always a nice situation to be in.
Komen For The Cure Puts Right Wing Politics Before Women’s Health
Feb 1, 2012 No Comments ›› ARDem
For the record, this is what Planned Parenthood actually does:
Well despite these facts the Susan 
G. Komen for the Cure Foundation caved to right wing pressure and has announced it was severing its ties to Planned Parenthood and ending hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants to the organization that would have gone to cancer screening and prevention. The decision has created a huge backlash against the organization nationally and has prompted some dissension in the organization’s ranks, with the affiliate in Arkansas calling for a reversal of the decision.
This is the end result of lying about women’s health for the sake of a radical anti-choice agenda. Seriously, to all the “pro-lifers” out there…how many dead women is defunding Planned Parenthood worth to you?
For those of us who care about facts and about the lives of the women who will be impacted by this and other casualties in the GOP’s War on Women, there’s a petition sponsored by MoveOn telling Komen to reestablish the funding. Hopefully Komen will do so, else they’re going to see their reputation for leading the fight against cancer permanently ruined.
Update: Komen’s official statement on this is that Planned Parenthood is under investigation by Congress. However, they are a corporate partner with Bank of America which is also being investigated.
The Truth About Keystone
Feb 1, 2012 No Comments ›› ARDem
Republicans, desperate for an issue to bash the President with and one that will make them look like they actually care about creating jobs, have latched onto the Keystone Pipeline and made it their mantra. It’s all they really want to talk about these days and it’s serving nicely as their shield to hide behind when they’re doing things like holding up the payroll tax cut for working and middle class Americans. Just about all of them are beating the Keystone drum, Tim Griffin most notably in Arkansas but the rest of the GOPer crowd has joined in, all with a ton of misinformation.
So let’s set a few things straight.
First, contrary to Republican claims, Keystone isn’t a jobs creator. The promises from the GOP and the Canadian company pushing it, TransCanada, have been wildly inflated with independent estimates suggesting 1,400 temporary jobs would be the most the project would create in the U.S.:
What’s more, the project, which will merely ship foreign oil from Canada to foreign buyers, will not decrease imports from the Middle East and will in fact undermine America’s energy security. What’s more, if there’s an accident, we’re stuck with the environmental and economic issues it will create, something that even Republicans in Nebraska’s government (which the pipeline would run through) are freaking out about. So with all these downsides and so few good points, why have Republicans latched onto this issue again?
Well, for starters, the forty four Republican senators pushing the Keystone bill in the Senate a combined 22.3 million dollars in campaign contributions. Our own John Boozman was a party to this legalized bribery, having netted $141,952 from big oil to do their bidding. What’s more, Speaker John Boehner apparently has a financial stake in the pipeline:
Environmentalists note that in December 2010, according to Boehner’s financial disclosure forms, he invested $10,000 to $50,000 each in seven firms that had a stake in Canada’s oil sands, the region that produces the oil the pipeline would transport. The firms include six oil companies — BP, Canadian Natural Resources, Chevron, Conoco Phillips, Devon Energy and Exxon — along with Emerson Electric, which has a contract to provide the digital automation for the first phase of a $9.4 billion Horizon Oil Sands Project in Canada.
Bill McKibben, a climate activist and co-founder of the group 350.org, wrote in an e-mail that Boehner has received more than $1 million from fossil-fuel companies, “and now we find out that he’s got extensive personal investments in companies dependent on tarsands oil.”
“He was willing to shut down the government in part to prevent enough time for serious environmental review,” McKibben added. “In any other facet of our public life . . . this whole list taken together would be seen for the gross conflict of interest that it is.”
Boehner spokesman Michael Steel said in an interview that an investment adviser chooses Boehner’s financial investments. “He doesn’t have any control over day-to-day trades, so there’s no conflict of interest on this or any other investment,” Steel said of the speaker, adding that when it comes to the upcoming decision on Keystone XL, “We hope the president will do the right thing and approve the permit, and create American jobs.”
Perhaps that trust is near sighted as opposed to being totally blind?
But there’s more. Apparently TransCanada has been involved in some law breaking in order to get this done and Republicans are now essentially working as agents for a corrupt foreign company.
So, the next time you hear Republicans going on about Keystone, point out that Republicans are advocating for a foreign company on a project with huge risks that won’t create the jobs they’re promising or provide a bit of energy security. Oh, and if they complain about Obama hurting the oil and gas industries, point out that oil and gas jobs have expanded by 75,000 under Obama, far more than would be created by Keystone.
AR-03: The Nastiness Of Daddy Womack
Feb 1, 2012 1 Comment ›› ARDem
For some time I’ve had third district readers, acquaintances, and friends telling me about some of the nasty stuff to be heard on Steve Womack’s father’s radio station voiced by Daddy Womack himself. Well I had been inclined to ignore it…the station has a very small number of listeners and I’m hesitant to give a hate radio host any more attention than they already have. Still, this is Congressman Womack’s father we’re talking about, and when he suggests that the killing of Jake Burris’s cat was a hoax I think that’s pretty inflammatory and deserves some attention.
“I would say that when your campaign is short of funds and you don’t have the money to go out and buy legitimate advertising you gotta resort to tricks. You gotta resort to creative usage…”
You can listen to the audio here. Apparently, this was all a trick…Can’t say I’m all that surprised. This is an idea that a lot of right wing clowns on blog threads have been promoting. One even showed up in this thread ranting about how this was a common tactic for “liberal jews.” FYI, we don’t ban too many people around here…to date, I’ve only banned three people (not counting spammers and including the anti-Semite in question) in the last two years. I’m pretty lenient, but saying shit like that will get you the boot. Still, it’s a bit surprising to hear it coming from someone so close to the Congressman as his father and more stunning to see that the man has the audacity to say he never made such an accusation when the audio has already been put out there! Just unbelievable…
To Congressman Womack’s credit, his staff got out there and condemned this pretty quick. (Nothing directly from the Congressman near as I can tell.) My advice to them though is to go muzzle the elder Womack or else he’s going to quickly become an albatross for his son’s campaign.
Shop At Starbucks Because Nate Bell Said Not To
Feb 1, 2012 No Comments ›› ARDem
I think I’m going to Starbucks today…
Anyone want to join me there for a cup of coffee? We can all sit down, wake up, and discuss how we’re going to run the bigots out of the legislature.
AR-03: This Congressman Bought To You Buy These Corporate Sponsors
Jan 31, 2012 1 Comment ›› ARDem
Sums it up nicely I think.
