Halter's Lies Refuted by Women's Prayer/Action Group

by Iris Stevens, teacher in Arkansas for 30 years

Halter sent out a press release (see below) which is pasted on Arkansas Times blog calling Senator Jim Halt the "King of the Whoppers" and listed so called "Six Whoppers from Jim Holt."

It just so happens that Halter himself told five lies in one of his whoppers (number 2 below) about the Women's Action Group and a Teacher Survey. I have first hand experience and was an integral party in both of these issues and have documentation to prove Halter is lying. (See Below)

Of course, everyone in Arkansas knows that honesty is a characteristic of Senator Jim Holt. Even the media that violently oppose him call him honest and have said he is too honest for his own good. Halter knows it is really hard for Holt to combat Halter's lies because Halter is a millionaire and can put out all kinds of advertisements, and the media won't call his hand on it because Halter is a liberal.

Three lies from Halter press release: "Holt cites a bogus study conducted by the Women's Prayer and Action Group." That partisan group apparently only received 30 comments to a teacher survey they sent out six years ago."

Truth 1: The cover letter sent out with the teacher survey that Halter calls bogus was signed by former Senator Peggy Jeffries, who served on the Senate Education Committee and later was appointed as a member of the State Board of Education by Governor Huckabee and was sent to 711 teachers from a number of schools in the state varying in size. See this link for
Summary of results.

Truth 2: There were 30 pages of comments, not 30 comments, as Halter said, with 90% of them negative toward the educational reforms. 80% of the answers on the survey were negative but 90% of the comments were. There were so many comments they had to be listed in three sections on the web. See this link for teacher comments.

Truth 3: The teacher survey was conducted six years ago. The Women's Prayer and Aciton Group (WPAAG) was not even begun until 2004 as verified in the "About Us" information at this link which has been posted there since the inception of the organization saying the organization began in 2004. I was in on the creation of the organization and attended the first meeting in 2004. The teacher survey was conducted six years ago according to Halter himself. See link.

Just so Halter can't say I am a bogus teacher, there was a story in Jonesboro Sun September 24,04 about an American Stars of Teaching award given to me, Iris Stevens, for increasing eighth grade scores by 22 percent in language. A USDOE representative came to my school to present it to me - one of its kind in the state.

For more lies on this issue by Halter and rest of article see this link.

SURVEY USA POLL RELEASED

Right on the heels of the Zogby poll that shows the Gubinatorial race close- 45.7 to 43 in favor of Attorney General Mike Beebe, Survey USA comes out with a poll that shows it 55-40 in favor of Mike Beebe. So is the race a virtual dead heat, or is Beebe running away with it?

I know the Survey USA people have been real nice about coming on here and defending their poll methodology, but the plain fact is either they are wrong or Zogby is wrong. It's them. If Beebe gets over 55% on election night, I'll eat a bug. On You-Tube.

Their summary of races is captioned as follows....

"For Governor, Democrat Mike Beebe beats Republican Asa Hutchinson, 55% to 40%. Since a SurveyUSA KTHV-TV poll 4 weeks ago, Beebe is unchanged and Hutchinson has gained 2 points. Beebe's lead has decreased from 17 to 15 points....... For Lieutenant Governor, Democrat Bill Halter beats Republican Jim Holt, 48% to 42%. 4 weeks ago, Halter led by 9; today he leads by 6. ........ For Secretary of State, incumbent Democrat Charlie Daniels beats Republican Jim Lagrone, 59% to 34%. 4 weeks ago, Daniels led by 24, now leads by 25. For Attorney General, Democrat Dustin McDaniel beats Republican Gunner DeLay 53% to 36%. 4 weeks ago, McDaniel led by 18, now leads by 17."

For more commentary, click THURSDAY below and scroll down

Beebe Makes The Big Mistake

As a young Ensign in the Navy I made the case to my instructor that my answers on an essay question deserved more points than he had given. He looked my answers over closely. "Well, you didn't make the "big mistake". By that I mean the kind that sends up a red flag that you really don't know what you are talking about."

"For example" he amplified, "If I had asked you a question about the civil war and you had said something about Robert E. Lee fighting on the side of the Union, that would be a clear sign that you really don't get it."

In the end, I earned a few more points. After all, I avoided the "big mistake" that would have showed that I lacked a fundamental grasp of the issues involved.

Attorney General Mike Beebe has made the "big mistake" on bonds. A mistake that shows he really lacks a fundamental grasp of what he is talking about.

(continued- click THURSDAY below and scroll down for rest of article, or if sent straight here just scroll down)

Paron and the Propagandist

Identifying Victims as Targets for Scorn

Marty Strange
Policy Director
Rural School and Community Trust

Published on line at http://blog.ruraledu.org/

September 27, 2006

Paul Greenberg’s been getting some mail. And he doesn’t like it.

The editorial page editor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette said in a Sunday editorial (September 24, 2006) that he had been sent about a “zillion” copies of an article appearing on this Blog (“Facts are stubborn things, Mr. Greenberg,” posted September 8, 2006).

The article chided Greenberg for not leveling with Arkansans about the facts surrounding the closing of Paron High School. Paron High was forced to close after it was annexed by neighboring Bryant School District. The excuse Bryant gave for the closure was that Paron allegedly was unable to teach all of the 38 courses Arkansas high schools are required to teach each year.

Our article recited a pile of facts about the good performance of Paron students and about the circumstances surrounding the school’s efforts to teach journalism, one of the 38 required courses. Those facts were repeated by many writers who sent letters to the editor as well as emails to the Democrat-Gazette editorial page.

(THIS ARTICLE RATES AS A "MUST READ". Please click "Thursday" below and scroll down for rest of article.)

Governor Huckabee Redefines Conservatism

Since I was fortunate enough to attend the "Washington Briefing" hosted by the American Family Association, Focus on the Family, and Tony Perkins, many people have asked my what I thought of the Governor's speech to that assembly.

Mike Huckabee is a magnificent public speaker. He was a better speaker than the other candidates. He is so much better than the current President that I cannot communicate the vastness of the difference without unintentionally denigrating the latter. He is better than anyone he is likely to face in his run for President on either side of the isle.

He had them laughing. He had them nodding. And a very very few, he had puzzled. Those were the ones listening closely.

"Oh what a great Governor you have, we are voting for him for President" a couple at our table said. I smiled and nodded and said nothing to disabuse them of their notions. But those of us who have been paying attention know what the man is selling. He is trying to re-define conservatism. And his new definition of "conservatism" sounds a lot like the old definition of statism.

(continued- click THURSDAY and scroll down for rest of article)

Governor's Race Poll That You Can Believe

The Wall Street Journal has released another Zogby Poll on the Governor's race. This one includes Green Party Candidate Jim Lendall but leaves out Independent Rod Bryan- who has more appeal that I at first gave him credit for. For poll results click HERE then click on the GOVERNOR tab at the top of the box.

The results are as follows...

Democrat Mike Beebe 45.7%
Republican Asa Hutchinson 43%
Green Jim Lendall 4%
Undecided? 6.3%

The margin of error was just over 4%.

McDaniel Caught Again

I just can't believe these guys. I mean the whole slate of Democratic nominees. And I say that as someone who is not a Republican and did not vote for Bush in 04 or Huckabee in 02. Anyone who does not like that can lump it. Neither of them was in danger of losing in Arkansas and neither earned my vote. And if they were in trouble in Arkansas, it was their doing not mine.

I say that to make clear that I am no GOP pom-pom wavier. Still, I don't hesitate to tell the people of Arkansas that they cannot trust this slate of Democratic State-wide candidates. It's a lie a day from these people. I am not talking about spin, I am talking about flat out lies. I am imploring, begging even, the people of this state to not be so foolish as to vote for this Democratic ticket of dishonest men.

Today's offender is Dustin McDaniel, candidate for Attorney General. This is the guy that the Democrats are giving the big build-up. This is the one that Clinton gave a special fundraiser for when he was in the state- Clinton did not even do that for Halter, who actually worked for him in a small way. Clinton only gave a special fundraiser for the top of the ticket guy (Beebe) and McDaniel. And you can't trust Dustin McDaniel. You just can't. McDaniel claimed he was not really involved in the suit against Remington arms, then DeLay put the documents up on the internet that proved McDaniel flat out lied to you. Now it has happened again.

(to read the DeLay press release that documents how Dustin McDaniel lied again please click WEDNESDAY below and scroll down, or if sent straight here just scroll down.)

The People of the Lie

Left image: Bill Clinton indignantly proclaiming his innocence while lying.
Right image: Bill Clinton indignantly proclaiming his innocence while lying.



Dick Morris said this about the FOX interview where Clinton vigorously defended his record with a number of false claims: "There he was on live television, the man those who have worked for him have come to know – the angry, sarcastic, snarling, self-righteous, bombastic bully, roused to a fever pitch. The truer the accusation, the greater the feigned indignation. "

Former CIA head Michael Scheuer: "the former president seems to be able to deny facts with impugnity. Bin Laden is alive today because Mr. Clinton, Mr. Sandy Berger, and Mr. Richard Clarke refused to kill him. That's the bottom line......the fact of the matter is that the Bush Administration had one chance that they botched, and the Clinton Administration had eight to ten chances that they refused to try."

(continued, click TUESDAY below and scroll down for rest of story, or if sent straight here just scroll down)

Questionaires-Gate: Read Beebe's Fine Print

Republican Gubinatorial Candidate Asa Hutchinson is a bit of a policy wonk. He likes talking about the nuts and bolts of issues. Some of his answers displease me. With others I am pleased with his principles, but frustrated that they don't go farther. And a fair number of his answers I agree with 100%. But the point is not whether I agree with him or not, the point is that he is leveling with me. I know what I am getting with Asa and so do you.

Not so Mike Beebe. He has been evasive throughout. A lot of politicians are, and one thing this race will be about is whether it pays for a candidate to run a transparent issues-based campaign or not. If Hutchinson loses the moderate swing vote to a candidate that is farther left than he is right, the lesson to politicos will be to stick with the shuck-and-jive routine that has been the SOP for candidates.

Beebe is as good at shuck-and-jive as Hutchinson is at transparentcy. Witness his response to Asa's challenge on questionaires. Asa said he had answered every candidate questionaire from an Arkansas-based group and he challenged Beebe to do the same and release the results simultaneously (since the Dems in this race have had a tendency to adopt the positions of the Republican candidates in the race when it suited them).

The answer came back thusly, "Democratic gubernatorial nominee Mike Beebe on Monday said he would make public his responses to any group's candidate questionnaires."

Now people are waiting all over the state for Beebe's answer to (for example) the Family Council's questionaire. Those people are about to get a lesson in shuck-and-jive. If you will look closely, Beebe never said he would answer the questionaires of EVERY Arkansas based group like Hutchinson did. He only said that he would release the answers to every questioniare that he DID answer. My conclusion is that answers to questionaires like the Familiy Councils, that will really smoke them out, will not be forth-coming from the Beebe campaign. We will see.

Senate Busts Budget Caps: Spending Up 9%

Federal spending in 2006 is set to rise 9%, the largest increase since 1990 and enough to earn Congress near failing grades from the Heritage Foundation’s third quarter report card. Most families facing steep new expenses would cut back on additional spending. However, the Senate is preparing to bust fiscal year (FY) 2007 discretionary spending caps by at least $32 billion....

The complete story is at this Human Events article.

Breath Taking News From the Governor

Breath-Taking News From the Governor
(A better title might be "Breath-taking incompetence from the governor)

Governor Huckabee just sent out an e-letter saying , "some startling statistics last year... took my breath away." The fact that these statistics were breath-taking to the governor made me catch my breath as well. You see, the Governor has, for 10 years, been pushing educational reforms (to the tune of $1 billion in just the last three years) but did not know what the college remediation and dropout rates were in Arkansas and the nation. He was shocked to learn that " twenty percent of Arkansas ninth graders do not stay in school until graduation …and more than 50 percent of Arkansas students who go straight to college require remedial courses in both math and English.” For Governor Huckabee's e-letter see this link:

And where did he learn these education facts? At the National Governors Association! Surely all he would have had to do was call up his own appointed ADE director day or night, and Ken James could have told him the state of education in Arkansas. The governor cited the national remediation rate at 42%, which, according to NCES, is the remediation rate for students beginning two-year colleges. NCES says the national rate of remediation among students going to four-year colleges is 28%.1 That is much less than the 51% rate in Arkansas, especially when one considers that Arkansas has been in school improvement mode since 1983!!

This governor, with help from his liberal democrat buddies, has pushed the tax burden in Arkansas up to 4th in the nation to expand the educational reforms, yet he did not even know the college remediation and dropout rates, two of the most basic education facts. See this link for how Arkansans now pay a greater percent of their income in total taxes than 46 other states. I wonder if that fact would take Gov. Huckabee's breath away and just where and when will he will learn about that shocking figure?

The governor apparently didn’t even bother to look at these important remediation and dropout facts as he was pushing all his reforms in order to see where we were when they were begun, so he could see if we have now made progress or not. It is totally astounding that the governor would say he didn't know these things. For rest of this article and even more astounding facts, see this link.

Huckabee Tries to Help a Snake

I suppose we have all heard the story of the person who saw a viper freezing and held it to their breast to save it. Once the snake warmed up, it bit the person. When the person asked why it did that after the human saved its life the snake said, "Because I'm a snake." Well, our governor found out the hard way that snakes don't appreciate help.

"The fact is, I don't agree with almost anything the feminists are about in terms of their agenda, but if we can work with the feminists to oppose pornography, the battering of women, or their exploitation, we should do it," Huckabee said.

And how did the feminists react to the olive branch? Well, other than saying they welcomed help with "domestic violence issues", they basically bit him.

(continued, click MONDAY below and scroll down for rest of article, or if sent straight here just scroll down)

Fresh From the Hate Fest

I had a really good time at the FRC convention in Washington this weekend. "The Washington Briefing" was sponsored by James Dobson's Family Research Council, Don Wildmon's "American Family Association", and Tony Perkins. The event has been described as a "hate fest" by those on the left.

I suppose everyone who is a caring person hates something. You either hate sin or you hate God. Really, I think what you choose to hate says more about you than simply pretending that you don't hate anything. All that says is that you are either a passionless blob who will come and go from this Earth leaving little impact or notice, or that you are lying to yourself.

The Bible says it best. Proverbs notes that "the reverent fear of the Lord includes the hatred of evil." Amen.

Better Get it in Writing!

Mike Beebe has been as slippery as a catfish in a jar of vaseline when it comes to laying out his positions. When he runs out of evasions, he adopts conservative positions that clash sharply with his record in the Senate. Check that, Beebe doesn't adopt conservative positions, he doesn't even foster-parent them. But he will pose with conservative positions in a photo op.

Weary of the evasions of his opponent, and frustrated by a media that shurgs off such behavior when done by a liberal, Asa Hutchinson issued a unique challenge to Beebe: let's do the surveys from organizations that outline our positions and release them at the same time.....

Click "Monday" below to read Hutchinson's Challenge to Beebe.

Democrats Not Done Consolidating

Rumors continue to leak out that the Democrats are not done consolidating rural schools. Reporter Doug Thompson this Sunday noted that rumours persist that Senator Jim Argue is going to introduce a bill that will raise the mandatory consolidation number from 350 to 800 students. In other words, no matter how good a job a school is doing, it would be closed down simply because it is small. Tiny Alpena, who dominates 7A schools at the regional science fair, would be closed while failing schools would remain open.

Doug Thompson noted that "A bill allowing covenant marriages of gay couples who are willing to be foster parents would get farther." We will see about that. The consolidators have taken the divide and conqueor approach. Tell the schools above 350 that they are only going after those below 350. Then once you get those schools absorbed, go after the ones with less than 800, knowing that those schools now have less allies because the ones under 350 are already gone. Once the ones under 800 are gone, go for those with less than 1500 as originally proposed. After that, county-wide school districts.

Thompson also gets to the real consolidation threat when he says, "While on the topic of schools, I should mention that building standards will close more schools than course requirements, salary gaps and consolidation conspiracy theories put together."

Look for the opponents of community control to try all those tactics and more to transfer control of your child's education from your home to Little Rock. The "set minimum number" idea is too brute force, people are wise to it now. So what they do now is that they add "requirements" that only mega schools costing mega bucks can meet. They then offer mega bucks- from your pocket- to schools who consolidate. They take your money and offer to give some of it back to you if you will transfer control of your child's education from your community to a place far off! Pretty nifty, eh? Or perhaps you can think of some other word for it.

Knowing What Lies to Tell

UPDATE: DUELING PRESS RELEASES, HIT COMMENTS BELOW TO FOLLOW THE FIREWORKS

In a previous article I told you about the National Democrat's five point plan to promote homosexual marriage. I also documented the plan that Arkansas Democrats, (Beebe, Halter, McDaniel) have to get elected in this state. It is a one-point plan, namely, LIE! They want to lie about who they are and what they stand for in order to fool the people of this God-fearing and conservative state into voting for the most secular and liberal ticket that the DPA has ever put forward. That is blunt, but there it is.

Normally, that would not be a laughing matter, but in Bill Halter's case, it is. Halter is the Democrat's nominee for Lt. Governor who has lived out of the state for the last 27 years and married his "partner" just as his campaign for office entered full swing. The man is so out of touch with the average voter in this state that he was running into a real problem: He didn't know what lies to tell. You see, Beebe knows the voters of Arkansas, not nearly as well as he knows the lobbiests of Arkansas, but well enough to know what positions to fake.

I don't want to you to think that these men started telling lies as a first resort. For the first year Beebe ran the campaign trying not to take any positions at all. The Hutchinson team forced him to abandon that strategy, so he then began to adopt positions- many of which are Hutchinson's! In the same way, Halter began by scoffing at Holt for his "extremism" before he began to realize that most Arkansas voters felt the same way Holt did. After that Halter STILL called Holt an extremist, even while he got busy adopting Holt's positions. So there is some consolation for die-hard Democrats- neither Beebe nor Halter lied as a first resort, they will only lie to you when the chips are down!

Anyway, back to Halter's problem. He had no idea what the people of this state wanted. He has not lived here in over two decades. So what he did was, he took his pile of money- mostly gotten from his own pockets and out-of-state donors- and took a series of polls to find out what he ought to believe. He spent $34,000 on them in August alone. Look for a new and improved Bill Halter to emerge. One who will tell you just what you want to hear.

Little Rock Under National Scrutiny

The citation of two homeschooled girls by Little Rock police was a topic covered in the American Family Association radio program AFA Report yesterday.

The legal arm of the American Family Association, the AFA Center for Law & Policy, is defending two homeschooled sisters who were charged with disorderly conduct for handing out gospel tracts in front of an abortion mill in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Sixteen-year-old Rachael Snow and her 20-year-old sister Talitha will have a hearing on the charges in two weeks. The home-schooled sisters were standing on a public sidewalk, offering tracts to women who were entering an abortion center in the Arkansas capital. Their conduct, according to the Little Rock Police Department, was "disorderly." Neither of the sisters had previously been cited or charged for a violation of the law.

[Continued]

A One Point Plan to Get Elected

The Democratic Party has initiated a 5 point plan to defeat ballot ammendments that would ban homosexuals from re-defining marriage. I will share the five points shortly. The main thing I want to talk about is the Democratic Candidates in Arkansas' One Point Plan to win the election: Lie.

That's right. Their plan is to misrepresent who they are and what they stand for. Once they are in office, they can then stand for the opposite of what they said, because if they lie when they campaign they will certainly lie when they rule.

In the AG race, Dustin McDaniel lied to Democrats in the primary in order to win it when he said that abortion should be a big issue, and then 48 hours later once he won the nomination he said it should not. He also lied about his role in the Remington Arms law suit. Just say whatever it takes to win. The establishment media won't call you on it- if you are a liberal.

For Lt. Governor, Halter sends out a fax saying his opponent opposes social security, among other lies. He claims his opponent is an extremist even as he adopts his positions one by one. At the debate the other night, all reports indicated that Democrats in the audience expressed shock when Halter came out and said he was against homosexual adoption and foster parenting and redefining marriage. "We have not heard that answer before" Jim Holt said, doubtless echoing the thoughts of many Democrats in the audience.

Now Halter has no record of anything except making lots of money at companies that lost a lot of money for their stockholders, but Mike Beebe has to be more nuanced. He runs commercials about what a huge tax cutter he is, and about how much he did to get the minimum wage raised. Now both he and Halter are champions of fighting illegal immigration! In explaining his abortion position, he would never say he was "pro-choice", but an exasperated John Brummett did it for him.

How can these men hope to get away with such blatant falsehoods? Easy, they know it is bad form for your opponent to call you a liar. It sounds ugly. The only one left to do the job is the establishment media. You have to be kidding! They will spend all their ink on one questionable statement by Republican Jim Lagrone that he has already owned up to rather than spend even a paragraph wondering if Beebe is being sincere when he tries to pass himself off as a tax cutter, or whether Halter, who sat on the boards of "gay friendly" companies, really wants to defy his party to protect marriage and children from the gay agenda.

I well remember in 04 when I stopped by Holt's office in the race against Lincoln. A reporter was going through every paper from his whole life. She had spent two days doing it. Holt showed them everything. They actually looked up his grades in high school! But wait, it gets better, they reported in the paper what courses he made bad grades in! From HIGH SCHOOL. That is the level of scrutiny a conservative can expect from them. Meanwhile, Blanche Lincoln was not even a resident of this state. She lived in Virginia with her husband and children. The address she gave as her "residence" was nothing of the sort. Did they report that? Of course not. Halter has not lived in Arkansas for 27 years before he jumped off the airplane and decided to run for Lt. Governor. Are they printing that? Of course not.

Click "Thursday" below for the Democrats five point plan to advance homosexuals redefinition of marriage.

With Liberals, You Can't Just Disagree On Methods

With liberals, you can't just disagree on methods. With them, if you don't agree with their huge government nanny-state solutions, then it MUST be because your intentions are bad. They are so self-absorbed that the idea that there can be honest differences of opinion on how to get to the same goal is unthinkable. If you disagree with their methods, it must be because you disagree with their good intentions. Conversely, their intentions should never be questioned, even though the things they advocate have consistently taken us further away from their avowed goals.

Education is the best example. Mike Beebe recently said,"The big difference between me and my opponent is the belief that students, wherever they are, should get a quality education."

Does anyone really believe that Hutchinson does not think that "students everywhere should get a quality education"? Could it be possible that there is simply a disagreement on how to get the GOAL of giving every child wherever they are a quality education? Not with a liberal. If you disagree with their methods, it has to be because your intentions are bad! Its total self-righteous baloney.

I don't cast dispersions on either of their motives. Both guys want every child to have a quality education where ever they are, Hutchinson thinks it is best done by helping rural schools adapt and Beebe thinks it is best done by centralizing the schools. One wants flexibility and the other wants bureaucratic compliance. Take your pick.

Now Bill Halter has done it in the Lt. Governor's race.

(continued- click WEDNESDAY below and scroll down for rest of article, or if sent straight here just scroll down.)

Conflict of Interest on College Bonds for Both Men

I watched the Gubinatorial debate online with great interest. The setting was magnificent. It was held on a college campus. The two candidates agreed to have their own debate excluding the other two candidates on the ballot, which they have a right to do. But the setting for the debate was the campus of a public university, supported with taxpayer dollars. That includes the dollars of those who support Lendall and Bryant.

I have to question the propriety of using public monies to promote only the campaigns of some taxpayer's supporters, but not others. The moderator, a Ms. Davis, dimissively said in passing that the other two candidates did not have the poll support to merit participation in the debate. If she was running a private entity, that is all well and good, but she isn't. The men she dismissed are helping to pay her salary and for that auditorium and it should not be her call.

In addition, I have gotten complaints from people outside the two major parties who have tried to secure signatures for ballot access on a public school university campus. School officials rebuffed them, then school officials host a massive televised debate with the two established parties. Isn't that government using its own resources to protect its own status quo? It seems the assets of the university system are at the disposal of some political entities but not regular citizens. Also, both Republicans and Democrats get use of University facilities on a regular basis for fundraising dinners. Do they pay the market rate?

What makes it particularly unsavory is that those same universities get their funding from the same political candidates and political parties that they are discriminating in favor of. For example, there is a massive bond issue coming up for higher education. They want to borrow $250 million for an ambitious list of captital improvements when we have a huge budget surplus and their facilities are already nicer than the homes of the taxpayers from who they desire to extract the money.

Mike Beebe and Asa Hutchinson are in the process of collecting largesse from the University System in the form of these exclusionary debates. Even as they are in the midst of the debates, reporters are going to ask them if they approve of the higher education bond issue that voters will be voting on November 7th. We must zealously guard against even the appereance of impropriety. Unless they oppose it, both men should recuse themselves, or take a noncommittal position on the issue rather than endorse the bonds. It is a clear conflict of interest.

Lynch May Have Been Right : Stacked Deck Debate

Radio personality Pat Lynch, after interviewing both men, said that in the Lt. Governor's race Bill Halter's best bet would be to avoid being seen in places where Jim Holt was. Maybe he should stick to electronic media.

According to reports we have heard from the debate last night, the cantankerous broadcaster Lynch was right. Holt walked into the most stacked deck I have ever heard of for a debate and still seems to have come out with the most chips.

The Lt. Governor's debate was held not in neutral territory but in Little Rock, which is Halter's home town, to the extent he has one in Arkansas. But more than that, it was held at the "Bill Clinton School of Public Service", run by partisan Democrat Skip Rutherford. But more than that, the general public was not invited. Holt was limited to taking 15 people into the room. The rest were Halter's people and law school students from the Clinton School of Law, Lyons College, and UALR- not exactly groups with a Republican bent. Questions would be taken from that left-leaning group and filtered by left-leaning newsman Don Elkins, who was the "moderator". Halter even got to stand on a platform, so that it would not be apparent that he is much shorter than Holt. The event was not televised. Even if Halter broke down in tears and admitted that Jim Holt was more qualified for the job we would never know it unless the handful of reporters there chose to tell us.

In spite of all that, initial reports indicate that Holt connected better with the room than Halter. If Halter cannot get a win over Holt in a format like that he had better go hide himself and stick to electronic media like Lynch suggested. One report I got said that even Holt felt comfortable about it afterwards. Believe me, Jim Holt is the kind of person who thinks he did terrible even after he did well. If he thinks he did well, then it was not that close.

Live Debate Thread

You can watch the Governor's Forum from a link at the top of this page. Or try here for a hot link,
The Lt. Governor's debate is being held behind closed doors, but if anyone was there we would welcome a report....

Comment away blog troopers....

Brummett Longs for the Good Old Days

In today's Brummett column he writes, "I hereby declare myself disgusted with the modern media of which I am a dinosaur."

The problem seems to be that people simply have other sources of news. Thanks to the miracles of modern technology, there are now more gates than the establishment has gate keepers. And what is leaking through those gates is forcing the old media to take notice.

Brummett longs for the days when hulking carnivorous liberal newsmen could sink their six-inch long teeth into the quivering bodies of helpless conservative candidates for office without the slightest fear that the nest of liberal candidate eggs that they were protecting would be raided.

Imagine their surprise when they returned to the nest to find that pesky little rat-like mammals had appeared. They called them bloggers and AM radio talk show hosts and candidate e-mail newsletters. They tried to stomp them, but these rodents were too nimble. They tried to ignore them, but their raids were too effective.

Brummett muses if it is futile to invoke "news judgement" anymore. If by "News Judgement" he means the liberal media's decisions to sit on relavent stories that could hurt liberals (like the NY Times example he cited) while giving front page coverage with nostrils flaring when the shoe is on the other foot, then I sure hope so. About time.

Yes, it is a new day. There will be and have been excesses. It does empower more people and that means more people will need to learn to respect common decency. There will be some things to sort out. I am for decency myself. Sometimes right-wing bloggers go too far (but that Democrats-want-homosexual-marriage commercial Brummett cites is NOT an example of that. If Beebe, Halter, et al don't want to be tagged with that then they need to loudly and forthrightly repudiate their party's efforts. What they are doing instead is hushing up and hoping nobody notices their mixed messages.).

Maybe we all need to rebuke one another when we go too far. I would be for that. I don't want intellectual debate to degenerate into an exchange of nasty grams. But let me tell you who has the LEAST right to complain about the lack of restraint and civility of the new media, that would be ole T-Rex himself, who racked up quite a string of killin's before those pesky little mammals showed up.

Lu Hardin Gets Dramatic on Higher Ed Bonds

Lu Hardin, President of the University of Central Arkansas who has enough of your money to give tuition breaks to illegal aliens in defiance and disrespect of the legislature, has made the pitch to John Brummett on why we need to vote to put ourselves millions more dollars in debt for higher education bonds. This despite the fact that our state is currently running a $700 million dollar surplus.

If Brummett is telling it right, Hardin actually told him that the very future of higher education was at stake in this bond election! His less hyperbolic partner, U of A President Alan Sugg, would only say "we really need the money".

Got that folks? The future of higher ed is at stake! You can't stop to think about it! Why its an emergency! Just give us money NOW NOW NOW!

Selling the bond issue sounds like a job for.....

Masterson Masterful, Part IV

Mike Masterson has done it again. If the establishment print media had more guys like him, I tell you frankly that blogs like this one would be out of a job. We can only exist because there is a side to most stories that the establishment media usually won't tell. Mike Masterson, and the seldom-heard from Dana Kelley are the exceptions to that rule.

First, before you read any of the other articles on this blog, click here and read Masterson's lastest powerful column (then please hit the back button and sample the many new offerings I have presented below).

Here is just one great quote from the article to whet your appetite....

"I do believe that there has come to exist a culture within my craft that edits out—no, shuns is a better word—the ideas, expressions and actions of certain groups and specific people who see reality differently from the way that editors or reporters believe they should. In other words, in the eyes of some of the purported gatekeepers of free speech in the news business, there are the favored ideas—those with which they agree—that get ample space, coverage and air time, and then there are the discarded."

Debatable Formats

Monday will see the debates for Governor and Lt. Governor respectively. I have doubts about the format for both.

For the Lt. Governors debate, I worry that Senator Jim Holt is being led into a trap. I have never seen a debate setting that is so slanted against one candidate. It will take place in Little Rock at the Bill Clinton School of Public Service, run by Clinton man Skip Rutherford. The questions will be submitted by the audience, which will be law school students from the Clinton School of Law, Lyons College, and UALR. It will not be open to the public, but will be packed with people from groups who tend to be far more secular, elitist, and liberal in their thinking than the average Arkansan.

So what about the debate moderator? That would be Don Elkins, who is a fair man and a likeable one, but he is also more secular and liberal than the average Arkansan. Even if he is trying to be fair, he will only have a choice of questions from a group that is slanted one way- and it is his own slant so he may not even see the bias that would be obvious to a Christian conservative. For example, will he get even one question about the Democrats five point plan to legitimize homosexual marriage? And if he gets it, will he think that it is one that needs to be asked?

Did team Holt get snookered on this one, or does Holt hold Democrat Bill Halter in such low regard that he is willing to debate him regardless of how stacked the deck is? Stay tuned.

The other issue is the Governor's debate. At least the Lite Gov. debate will be a true debate with a back-and-forth format. Mike Beebe and Asa Hutchinson will just have a forum- basically they will take turns giving short speeches. Beebe's team successfully excluded two other candidates for Governor, independent Rod Bryan who has been surprisingly good from the little I have seen of him, and Jim Lendall. Team Asa went along with it to get the debate. I think most of us would like to see at least one debate with all candidates on the ballot included. We are not going to get it. Nor are we going to get a true give-and-take debate where we can measure the mettle of the two men against one another. That is only happening in the Lite Gov debate, and it is not open to the public!

Makers of Fake Money Claim it is a Crime to Use Real Money

The fiat currency circulated by our government has lost 96% of its purchasing power in one life time. I can remember when bubble gum was 1 penny each. Now it is a nickel each. In terms of bubble gum, our currency has lost 80% of its purchasing power in my lifetime, and I am only in my 40's.

Our constituion says that no STATE shall coin money, nor shall they make any money legal tender (meaning you HAVE to accept it in trade) unless the money is of gold or silver. The Founders developed a strong dislike of unbacked paper currency, much like that which our government is now issuing. The Constitution says nothing about private groups being prohibited from coining money, which individuals can then use in trade of their own free will.

One group, the makers of Liberty Dollars, have done just that. They make coins containing silver, or give out certificates backed by silver sitting in a vault. Paul Harvey runs ads for them. There are millions of liberty dollars in circulation, and the feds don't like it. They claim the use of Liberty Dollars "is a crime", but don't get around to saying why it is a crime for people to barter using something of real value as a medium of exchange rather than the intrinsically worthless paper dollars that our government is filling the earth with.

If the government won't use an honest currency itself, you would think that the least it could do is let other people use an honest currency. But no, even that level of decency has departed from our ruling class in Washington.

Catholic Church Looking Better All the Time

Well, I'm not exactly thinking of converting, but I have never felt more brotherhood with the Catholic faith than I have since Pope Benedict took the helm.

The Moslems are always outraged about something. They are always demanding apoligies. They are a virtual grievence machine. This time it was because the Pope quoted someone from the 10th century (which is still 3 cenutries ahead of the mentality of most muslims right now). The quote was, "Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.”

To show how upset they are, Moslems are demonstrating around the world, shooting Christians in the back in Somalia, and fire-bombing churches in the West Bank. By their actions they prove the man the Pope was quoting to be correct. The Pope's office has since issued a conciliatory statement, but you can never grovel enough to please Islamofacists- or the NY Times. The paper that once ran the headline "God is Dead" has decreed that the Pope owes Muslims a big apology. I haven't figured out exactly how I'd respond to them in such a situation- except that it would be a three word response and the first word would be "kiss".

May God bless Pope Benedict for telling the truth. And that is all he is doing, he is speaking and not calling for violence or force against any person. I am convinced of this: The more the forces of Hell object, whether they be secular strongholds like the NY Times or heretical death cults like most forms of Islam, the better God likes it.

Ford Pushes Homosexual Agenda, Closes Plants

In one of the worst marketing moves since Disney, Ford Motor Company has made a corporate decision to help push the Homosexual Agenda. In retaliation, dozens of religious and civic groups have boycotted Ford. Conseravtive family people make up the bulk of Ford's domestic market. Not surprisingly, Ford's profits have collapsed since the start of the boycott.

So what is Ford's response? Do they stop sending their few remaining dollars to Homosexual Activists Groups in order to make peace with their customer base and regain market share? No, that would be the intelligent thing to do, but Ford executives have decided that a better course of action is to lay off 10,000 employees and close down two plants. The market has lost so much confidence in Ford that even an announcment of cost cutting of that magnitude could not help Ford. It's stock price continued to sink an additional 12% on the news.

(continued- click SATURDAY below and scroll down for rest of article)

Animal ID and Tracking Program Gets Puff Press, But Also Opposition

The National Animal Identification System, NAIS, is getting some very favorable press from the establishment media. Yet opposition to the plan from farmers and ranchers who don't want the feds to have 24/7 access to their land and records is growing. Yesterday the State Comptroller of neighboring Texas, Carole Strayhorn, came out in favor of scrapping the program in Texas. Strayhorn is an independent candidate for Governor. The program would tag and track the movement of all animals on a farm, probably using RFID tags and mounds of record keeping.

I meant to write about this before the details got hazy, but I remember that last week there was a one-sided article explaining all about how great this program was. For now, it is a "voluntary" program administered by the states. Unless we stop it, it is going to be about as "voluntary" as a Social Security Number in a few years.

The article talked about how the program was needed to fight disease, and that cattle with the trackng tags sold for 4-6 dollars more per hundred weight than those without. It also said the tags cost about $3.50, implying that this was the cost of the program.

All of that is highly misleading. The cattle with the tags were from well-known opperations who have top-notch stock. They were likely to sell for more than the other cows regardless of whether they participated in the program or not. It is highly misleading for the paper to suggest that sticking this tag in a scrawny cow's ear is going to increase it's value. It is also misleading for the paper to imply that the $3.50 tag is the whole cost of the program. Someone has to pay for the buearecrats that the ranchers must now report to. It is going to be either us or them. There are time costs associated with keeping records on all of the animal's movements and medical treatments. Someone has to pay for the computers that this information is fed into.

If the feds really plan to leave this program "voluntary", and it really does make ranchers money, we have a name for that- it is called a "Free Market Incentive". When there really is a "Free Market Incentive" to do something, the Free Market does it without a government program. So if all that is true, why not let a private company get in the animal tracking business- a service to which ranchers freely subscribe because it magically makes their beef worth more? So why is it not being done? The reason is simple, they don't intend to leave this a voluntary plan and a true accounting of the costs are going to show that it is more trouble than it is worth. But it will give big producers a competitive advantage over independent operators, and that is why the big boys are pushing it.

Do They Have Any Openings?

Federal bureaucrats have spent $1.7 billion on outrageous junkets, jetting to conferences about turtles in Greece, elephant training in Orlando and maritime issues in Fiji - all at taxpayers' expense, investigators found yesterday.

Spending on conferences spanning the globe has increased a whopping 14 percent a year.

"I think there are some highly questionable trips," fumed Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), who is probing the spending. "Can't we do better?"

The story is here.

Lt. Gov Race Gets National Radio and Press Coverage

This story was covered on national AFR radio at least six times Sept 15, 06. Excepts came from following article:

In Arkansas Lt. Governor's Race, GOP Contender Questions Opponent's Values
By Jim Brown September 14, 2006

(AgapePress) - The Republican candidate for the second-highest executive office in Arkansas says his Democratic opponent is hedging on the issues of same-sex "marriage" and homosexual adoption.

Democratic candidate for Arkansas lieutenant governor Bill Halter and State Party Chair Jason Willett have both said they oppose homosexual marriage and favor a ban against homosexual adoptions. But less than three weeks ago, the Arkansas Democratic Party eliminated language from its platform that affirmed marriage is between one man and one woman.

Now, Halter's opponent, State Senator Jim Holt, is asking the former Clinton administration official whether he supports the revised platform and the national Democratic Party's five-point plan to fight ballot measures banning homosexual marriage. Holt feels his political rival's position on these two issues may not be in synch with the will of the people of Arkansas. ...

Nor did Halter ever comment on whether the Arkansas Democratic Party was wrong to remove the traditional marriage plank from its platform, the Republican candidate notes. He says Halter "has never answered either one of these questions, and when we try to talk about it, the press will not report it."

Halter's latest equivocations on the issue of homosexual marriage do not mark the first time the Democrat politician's commitment to traditional family values has been called into question. During the Democratic primary, opponent Tim Woolridge accused Halter of profiting from pornography and online gambling because he sits on the board of a company that has done business with pornographic websites.

For rest of this story, see this link.

Free the Dog!

The "Bounty Hunter" Duane "Dog" Chapman and his two realty-show co-stars were arrested in Hawaii for laws they allegedly broke in Mexico while apprehending a rapist from a wealthy family. Our government is apparently going forward with the extradition to Mexico. It seems that after team Chapman bagged and shipped off a particulary slimey criminial (rapist and Max Factor hier Andrew Luster) the Mexican authorities retaliated by arresting them. Team Chapman skipped the country rather than show for trial.

While our goverment helps Mexico by arresting people who apprehend rapists, Mexico has ignored its extradition treaty with the United States since 2001. They argue that life sentences are too exterme a punishment for murder. As a result, thousands, that is right thousands, of Mexican nationals in this country illegally have killed people and then have escaped over the borders to Mexico. We know who they are, but the Mexican government will not assist us in getting them back for trial. Detail can be found here.

Can someone, anyone, explain to me why this administration acts so tough against some nations and then plays lap dog to the Mexican government?

Would ADE Director Ken James Article Qualify as Gov't. Propaganda?

Amazing "Academic Progress" ADE Director Ken James says, B U T

*Test Scores are 11 Percentile Points lower than in 1990 (a 22% decrease).
*College Remediation Rate is 51.6% (46.6% in 1995); National Average is 33% .
*Only Nine States Scored Lower Than Arkansas in 8th Grade Math on NAEP Test.
*US Dept of Educations says Arkansas Benchmark Tests May Be Too Easy
*Only 28% of AR students pass test on AP courses, while 59.4% pass nationawide
*Fordham Foundation Gives Arkansas an F on Standards Preparation for college.
*Educational Reforms Have Cost $1.4 BILLION which equals a 3% sales tax in AR

See details and documentation below:

Ken James, State Department of Education Commissioner, wrote a guest editorial, Sept 10, 06, for the Democrat Gazette. James said, “Never in this state have we been able to boast the academic progress we’ve experienced in the last few years. To be able to do so in such a short time is nothing short of amazing.” See this link for Ken James guest editorial: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/Perspective/166241/ 1

Read the following statements by Ken James and the following Facts and decide if his guest article would fit the description of propaganda?

To continue reading this article click September 14, below or go to this link or if sent here just scroll down

Incremental Responsible Health Plan Is No Fun

Asa Hutchinson has released his new health care plan. DON'T click on the link unless you are a policy wonk! It is not a flashy-whiz bang thing like Mike Beebe's idea to hand out $1,000 checks to every slacker in the state that wants to party on campus for a year. In fact, it is a pretty boring, standard best-practices kind of thing. It doesn't pretend that "your government will always take care of you". It pushes more responsibility back on the individual. A lot of it sounds like the government will be a clearing house for the best programs that are already out there rather than a provider of new programs.

At first glance I thought to myself, "How dull. This guy has got to learn how to get some warm fuzzies. This is policy wonk stuff."

But on further reflection, this is an honest plan. It is an honest plan because it respects the limits of what government can do. It will not dip into our pockets to create another socialized medicine nightmare. It is not flashy, and no special interest group stands to gain acccess to a huge amount of money as a result of this plan. It is not based on the delusion that a government program, if just run by people who are smart like we are, will assure people of good health regardless of the personal choices they make.

That is a plan that respects the voter. It is not a bribe to anyone. It is not revolutionary, but is an incremental roll-up-your-sleeves kind of thing. Some candidates find that stuff too unexciting for them to mess with.

Look, I want leaders who will take the heat and aggressively confront the establishment on the assualts to our culture and heritage, and I want dignified responsible leaders who will incrementally work to make life better -in a way that respects the limits of what government can do. The best would be for leaders who would do both. Is Asa that man? That is my prayer for him at least. Congratulations on a quiet, responsible plan Mr. Hutchinson.

Face It, Conservatives are the "RINOS" Now

A shocking reprot from William Greene, leader of the RightMarch PAC about how the Republican establishment is intervening in primaries to insure that the "moderate" (read "statist liberal") candidates win........


ALERT: I am angry. For the past few months, with your help, we've been working HARD on getting a liberal RINO (Republican In Name Only), Jim King, out of the Florida Senate, and replacing him with a REAL "Ronald Reagan" conservative Republican, Randall Terry.

It was a Republican primary, in a conservative district. All of our polling showed that the conservative candidate was ahead in the race, at least two-to-one. The voters in that district were obviously sick and tired of being represented by a FAKE Republican, and wanted a REAL one. And there wasn't even a Democrat running, so the winner of the primary would win the whole election.

We asked our members to volunteer time with a new web-based phone bank system, to call voters in the district to support our candidate. Our members gladly volunteered, all over the country.

We asked our members to donate to the campaign, and to our PAC, to help the "underdog" challenger take on this long-serving liberal incumbent. Our members dug deep and contributed to the cause and the campaign.

Our PAC ran "independent expenditure" radio ads, dropped direct mail, and made "robo-calls" to likely voters in the district, supporting the conservative candidate.

I sent my only employee (we run lean around here!) down to Florida with his family for two weeks, to campaign during early voting in the district. Then I went down with all of my own family during election week, to work the polls too.

We should have won. But we didn't.

Why not?

Because the Republican Party came into the primary... and pushed hard for the LIBERAL incumbent.

In the last two weeks of the campaign, the state GOP kicked in $400,000 to support the LIBERAL.

The Republican governor held a press conference and endorsed the LIBERAL.

And then a secretive special interest group, backed by trial lawyers and homosexual activists, ran nasty negative television ads full of lies every hour, on the hour, and dropped tens of thousands of negative direct mail letters to GOP voters -- to the tune of $250,000.

All in all, REPUBLICAN leaders spent over ONE MILLION DOLLARS to stop our "Reagan conservative" candidate from winning, and to re-elect one of the most corrupt LIBERAL GOP politicians in the country.

And they won.

I am angry.

Are you?

(continued- click THURDSDAY below and scroll down for rest of story, or if sent straight here just scroll down)

Close Call in Benton County

Aaron Burke has won a state rep. seat here in conservative Benton county. Congratulations to him. His Democratic opponent has withdrawn from the race due to legal troubles related to cheating workers on wages (how about that party of the workin' man?) and possible trouble related to the hiring of illegal aliens. The Democrats are unable to find a substitute candidate at this stage of the race.

Burke now joins the more than 70% of the state legislative races that are unopposed. That in itself should be cause for concern. Not just to Republicans, or to Democrats, but to all of us. No one can make a rational case that this is a healthy situation, or that over 70% of the races are unopposed represents an electorate that is highly satisfied with the current two-party system. Instead, it is a reflection of the fact that the system is broken and desperately needs more competition.

Benton county is largely republican and so Burke was quite likely to have won in any case, but suppose by some tragedy it was Burke who had to withdraw? In that case it is very probable that the conservatives of Benton county would be represented by the liberal Democrat Robin Tummey. There were no other choices available. My point is that there should be. I look forward to the day when most seats are contested in November, hopefully by several people.

OK, We Will (Huckabee on "Guest Workers" Et Al)

In an article frighteningly entitled "Meet the Next President: Mike Huckabee" our absentee Governor made some interesting comments.

When it was noted that Huckabee risks alienating a significant segment of the Republican Party with his support for President Bush’s controversial guest-worker program, which would grant legal status to illegal aliens, he noted.....

“Yeah, I know, and I think it’s one of those things where if people are going to make a decision based on the emotion of that one issue, my attitude is then go ahead and write me off now,” he says. “Because if you don’t write me off on this one, you’ll find something else later on you’re just as mad about.”

OK, we will. My, from humble beginnings you really have progressed to elitist thinking. Benedict Arnold could have said the same thing about people getting "emotional" about "that one issue". Our anger is founded in reason Mr. Governor. You use the emotion as an excuse to avoid answering the legitimate, reasoned concerns that lie at the root of the emotions.

He also appeared to be rubbing his hands with glee at the possiblilty of a Republican meltdown in 06, thinking that it might help him personally, "“Will it be a wake-up call to our party, that we’re going to have to retool the message — not the principles — but the message?” Huckabee muses in an interview with The Examiner. “And will the party start looking for new voices, the ones that aren’t so already established? If so, then a guy like me may have a moment,...”

What a team player! As your steward for this flight, I remind you that the barf bags are located under your seat, and in the fold-down compartment in front of you.

Bigots Calling Christians Bigots

I don't know who did the UTUBE commerical that shows the Democratic Party does not share Arkansas Values, but the result is amazing.

Backers of homosexual marriage are on an aggresive campaign to change five thousand years of Western civilization by redefining marriage, and yet when normal people express a normal revulsion, the homosexual marriage advocates actually pass themselves off as the victims!

Let's grant for a moment that what you do in your own bedroom is your business, marriage is not only about what you do in your own bedroom, it is about what society gives its stamp of approval to. Your bedroom may be your business, but what I approve of is mine. Homosexual militiants are attempting to force societal acceptance of homosexual marriage on us against our will, and play the victims while doing it.

The Democratic party would love to help them out where they can, but whenever they get called on it they answer by juvenile name calling or changning the subject ("Why don't you focus on education?"). You know what, your ideas on education stink too, but we can have more than one opinion at a time. When you try to force your education ideas on us against our will, we will confront that. Right now, you are trying to force acceptance, even celebration, of homosexuality on us, so we are going to confront that.

Families, real families, are the best way to raise children. If a generation of children get messed up, the whole state will be messed up. Society honors real marriage because it is in its interests to do so. It is self-defense. Homosexual marriage, or civil unions, is not in the interests of society because of its inferiority in doing what families do for the state- birth, nuturing, and proper development of children. For that reason, the state has a vested interest in honoring real marriage and discouraging perversion that works contrary to these ends.

New Zogby Poll Shows Asa Closing and Within Margin of Error!

The same Zogby poll that last month has Mike Beebee up by 8.8% last month shows him up by only 3.3% in the poll concluded yesterday. That is well within the polls + or - 4% margin of error.

The poll can be found here. You will have to click on the GUBINATORIAL tab at the top and then scroll over Arkansas to get the result.

The poll shows Hutchinson with 43.3% and Mike Beebe with 46.6%. Zogby and Rasmussun polls both show this race within the margin of error. This blog has been noted in its criticism of the methodology used in other polls that have shown Hutchinson far behind. I told readers all along not to let those other polls psyche them out, but it is hard to follow that advice even for me without other polls to justify your hypothesis. Zogby and Rasmussen are two of the most trusted names in polling. Some of the important details of Zogby's methodology remain hidden. When you seek out answers about their methodology, they mostly talk about their track record, which has been outstanding.

Some of you are going to mention that I thought the Roby Brock poll had sound methodology and it showed Hutchinson down by 14. That is true, but it came right after Beebe spent one million dollars on TV ads within the same window that the last Zogby poll had Asa down by almost nine. They really were not that far apart. Since then news events and the routine of life have swamped the effects of those ads. What this seems to say is that the Beebe ads had little lasting effect. In fact according to Zogby's tracking data, this race is closer than at any time since March.

Five Years Later : What We Have Learned

I don't want to argue about whether the ABC special was "fair" to Bill Clinton or not. Nor do I wish to dispute the closeness of any ties that Saddam may have had to 9/11. Instead, on the anniversery of this infamous day, I would like tell you the three most important geo-political lessons I have learned....

1) Terror is a tactic used by an enemy, not an enemy itself. You can't win a "war on terror" any more than you can a "war on poverty". You can't win a war on terror, only a war against a government that used terror on you.

2) Islam is not a religion of peace. It is in violent aggressive conflict with its neighbors anywhere in the world it has the strength to do so, be those neighbors Christians, Jews, Hindus, Secularits, or other Muslims. Not all faiths are equally peaceful, and it is time we quit the PC pretensions that they are. I am not saying every strain of Islam is facist, but that there are things about the root of Islam that promote Islam-fascism, just as there are things about Christianity that have produced tecnological progress and personal freedom.

3) When the government of a nation sponsors terrorist attacks against us, we should kill the leaders of that nation. Once that is done, it is not our business to rebuild that country, or to make that country into a Constitutional Republic like America. Foreign leaders should know that if they attack us, they will be dead. We may not stick around to try to rebuild the country in our image, but they will still be dead. Not all people are ready for freedom. They will only use it to go mad with hatred and vengence. A strongman who is a little benevolent is the best you can hope for until they gain more virtue. We should not feel too proud about this, as we are also in danger of losing our freedoms through lack of virtue.

Please feel free to add your insights on a day that belongs to all of us.

GREEDY to Get Higher Ed. Bond Measure Passed

Administrators for most of the state's colleges and universities have joined together to form a new organization to help pass the November 7th bond measure for higher education.

Group spokesman and UCA President Lu Hardin said, "I am extremely pleased to announce the formation of the organization for Greater Revenues for Excellence in Education for Deserving Youth, or GREEDY. We will work towards the passage of this bond measure for the children of this state to get a better education."

When asked by a reporter why voters would approve the same debt measure that they voted down in December, especially at a time when the budget is showing a $700 million dollar surplus, Hardin looked confused and said, "I said IT'S FOR THE CHILDREN." and displayed a smug grin. When the reporter raised his eyebrows after a few moments silence Hardin amplified, "FOR THE CHILDREN. Whoever says that phrase first is supposed to automatically win the argument, because anyone who raises any questions after that is obviously AGAINST THE CHILDREN, which is awful."

(to continue this SATIRE please click MONDAY below and scroll down, or if sent straight here just scroll down.)

Election Whitewash

Did you catch that story about the legislative committee to study to foul-ups in the primary elections? The democratic legislators gave a survey to every county clerk asking them questions about the procedure and where certain people may have messed up. They compiled the survey results and decided the company hired to update the machines, ES and S, was to blame.

Only one problem, no where on the survey was there a place for them to evaluate the performance of Secretary of State Charlie Daniels! Even though the county clerks are overwhelmingly democratic, the legislative whitewash committee was not taking any chances. They sent out surveys that asked all kinds of questions about performance- but not about Daniels' office. Then they assemble and hold a press conference where they say, "we have gotten reports from people on the ground and their input is that it was the company's fault".

Well, who hired the company? And why not give them the option of evaluating the Secretary of State's performance in that fisaso? The answer could be that they were not actually performing an investigation, they were performing a whitewash, for both Daniels and some county clerks.

CFAF Could End Lt. Governor's Race Right Now

The Coalition For Arkansas' Future is a mysterious 527 group that espouses conservative values and clean government. They seem to be especially keen in issues like preventing illegal aliens from getting public benefits like college scholarships, and preventing homosexuals from using the power of the state to gain access to young children through foster parenting or adoption. ArkFam for example, has copies of their latest mailers where they attack Democratic legislators for these two issues. The well-funded group also ran a slew of TV commericals.

But if that is what they really want, then why are they ignoring the candidate who is the champion on all of those issues? Sen. Jim Holt sponsored the bill to prevent homosexuals from using the power of the state to gain access to children. Sen. Holt also led the fight against making illegal aliens eligible for taxpayer funded college scholarships. He also sponsored a bill that would deny them those and other public benefits. Even his critics acknowledge he is a champion of clean government who has gained little to no personal wealth over his years of government service. There is not one candidate on the ballot that lines up more with the issues CFAF has expressed interest in than Holt.

So why haven't they done a mailer or commercials that would benefit Holt? The polls show that his race is closer than that of any other state-wide office. He has a compelling message that agrees with them and his opponent has glaring negatives that most Arkansans don't know about. Holt has everything he needs to win except money to get his message out. If they sent out a flyer outlining Democrat Bill Halter's positions on these issues vs. Holt's record the race would be over. Halter could not overcome it. CFAF would not even have to send it to the 3rd district, Holt is already up with 70% of the vote there. If they sent it to the 1st and 4th districts and all of the 2nd outside of Pulaski county that would be enough.

Halter's only chance is to use his personal wealth to buy media that will be used to paint a positive picture of him that is in no way related to his stand on most issues. Holt has no personal wealth to get the truth out. No monied special interests have bothered to "invest" in his campaign. The CFAF, whoever they are, could end the Lt. Governor's race right now by telling the truth about Holt and Halter. Are they going to do it? If not, why?

On A Pig-Guy Level

Brad Pitt- Creative Genius : AP Photo by Alex Brandon

Wow. You have to be impressed with the creative genius of actor/act-outer Brad Pitt, at least on a Pig-Guy level. He has been living with Actress/Act-outress Angelina Jolie for years. They have adopted children together and have just had their first child together, the bibically-named Shiloh. So that sounds like commitment, right? They asked Pitt if he was thinking about tying the knot with Jolie. His answer is a classic. Pig-Guys everywhere should take note:

"Angie and I will consider tying the knot when everyone else in the country who wants to be married is legally able," Pitt said!

Brilliant in its non-committal PC scumminess. Pig-Guys everywhere who are drinking free milk while deftly avoiding purchasing a cow can only grin in admiration. Of course, Pitt has been married before, as has Miss Jolie. She even wore a vial of Billy Bob Thornton's blood around her neck when she was married to him. Maybe Pitt just did not have the guts to say, "I will consider marrying her if she ever gets sane." He could not say that, so instead he is going to wait until Utah and South Carolina leglalize Homosexual "Marriage". Not just homosexual marriage, but whatever anyone wants be it animal, vegtable, or mineral. And of course, even if that happened he STILL left himself an out because he said they would "consider" getting married if that happened.

No pig-guy ever living with a beautiful head case ever came up with a more PC excuse to avoid the altar. Why, it makes him into a positive martyr.

Unfortunately, even the liberals are not buying it. I am going to cut and paste a few of their hilarious posts.

(click SATURDAY below and scroll down for rest of article, or if sent straight here just scroll down)

Holt Press Release - Democrat Leader Joins Holt Campaign

For Immediate Release September 6, 06

Polls look good and Wooldridge's Campaign Manager Throws His Support to Holt


Senator Holt's race is shaping up to be the closest in the state according to a recent poll which sampled twice the number of voters as former polls. The poll was announced by Roby Brock, host of Business Talk, and shows Senator Holt and Halter in a neck in neck race. The margin of error is just over 3 percent, and Halter had 44 percent and Holt 40 percent with 16 undecided.

http://www.fox16.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=50AEE8B2-B60C-430A-B505-122A20CC47D3

“Considering that we’re picking up supporters and leaders from the Democratic party, I feel very enthusiastic that we can make the gains necessary to win the race.” Holt said.

Dan Noble, former campaign manager for Senator Tim Wooldridge, said, “This election cycle I have chosen to volunteer for Senator Holt’s campaign and provide any assistance to his campaign in Little Rock and the surrounding areas. I still consider myself an Arkansas Conservative Democrat. Unfortunately, the Democratic nominee this year does not represent those beliefs. There are great differences between the two campaigns for Lt Governor, and I look forward in the following weeks to getting that message out to the people of Arkansas.”

Noble said, “This race is not just about serving the people of Arkansas by electing Senator Holt, a veteran who has devoted his life to serving his country and doing what is best for the people of this state. This race is also about showing why Holt’s opponent is not right for this office. Senator Holt’s opponent may have left this state over two decades ago with Arkansas values, but he returned a California Liberal and should not be given the opportunity to serve the people of Arkansas.

Sins of Omission

Bill Clinton came to town and raised a pile of money for the Democratic Party of Arkansas and for Democrat Mike Beebe. He raised a smaller pile for Dustin McDaniel. As far as we know, he said nothing and raised nothing for two other statewide races and we find that curious.

Clinton is still a popular man in this state. He has liabilities, but not as great as President Bush has right now. It is safe to assume that every candidate on the Democratic ticket wanted him to say nice things about them and attend a fundraiser for them. He didn't. He helped Mike Beebe, who is running against someone he would like to get even with, and Dustin McDaniel, who has a wealthy supporter who has also been a generous supporter of Bill Clinton. There is no word of him saying even one kind word about Bill Halter or Charlie Daniels, the candidates for Lt. Governor and Secretary of State respectively. I find that telling. Democrats tend to attach much more importance to such things than Republicans do. It is almost like the politboro over there, with people scrutinizing who stands closest to the Chairman at the May Day Parade.

Charlie Daniels worked for Clinton once. It did not end well. He resigned under pressure while Clinton was Governor, and at the time Clinton said Daniels made "the right decision" when he resigned. There are no signs of warmth between the two. It is safe to bet that Clinton did not want to risk any of his political capital on Charlie Daniels.

For Lt. Governor, Bill Halter also worked for Clinton, and yet Clinton appears to have snubbed him too. There has been a rumour that Clinton once said that he thought that Bill Halter was "delusional". Could this be another instance of Clinton knowing something most of us don't? Maybe it was another instance of a political candidate that Clinton did not want to risk any political capital on. Coming on top of Sen. Tim Wooldridge's (the runner-up in the demo primary for Lt. Gov.) campaign manager endorsing Republican Jim Holt, the Halter campaign has had a tough week.

Vote Holt: It'll Be Worth It Just For the Expression on Brummett's Face!

John Brummett wrote yet another article attacking Senator Jim Holt, the reformer's choice for Lt. Governor. The man practically makes a living off of Jim Holt.

The problem, from John Brummett's perspective, is that Holt may have too much crossover appeal. His article was entitled "Beebe-Holt" ticket. This is a prospect that he fears. He feels that Holt as Lt. Governor would be a "burden" on Beebe as Governor. For once we agree. Here is what liberal Arkansas Times columnist Max Brantley recently wrote about Mike Beebe: "This acknowledged master of the legislative process was at his zenith when Nick Wilson and Co. pushed a felonious get-rich-quick scheme through the legislature. Beebe and his best legislative friends signed off on key elements of the smelly legal services deal and related legislation, if not the hidden fraudulent specifics." Those schemes included taking taxpayer money that was meant to benefit disadvantaged children and distributing it to Wilson cronies.

If "Governor Beebe" ever tried any cheesewhiz like that again while Holt was Lt. Governor you can bet your last dollar that Holt would become a "burden" to him. A big burden. There are a lot of insiders around the capitol with crooked and half-crooked schemes to transfer public money from your pockets to theirs, and they all find Holt a "burden" too. That is why they don't give Holt any money while they give Beebe boatloads of it.

(warning- I am about to go to "nuclear rant" mode. If you click the button labeled THURSDAY below and then scroll down to read the rest of the article, I am not responsible for any monitors that melt from the resulting intense heat. I advise you use lead shielding to keep radioactivity to safe levels. If you were sent straight here then just scroll down.)

Huckabee Congratulates Donors for Expanding Gambling in Arkansas

The Arktimes has the sickening story.

Excerpt: "Note that congratulations were bestowed by Gov. Mike Huckabee, an avowed gambling opponent, who didn't even wait the statutory five days to announce that he would not veto the narrowly passed 2005 legislation that cleared the decks for video poker and blackjack and slot machine-type wagering at Oaklawn and Southland. (Incidentally, this legislation guarantees wide gambling options for any Indian tribes able to clear federal regulatory hurdles to open a casino in Arkansas, our nominal constitutional prohibition on gambling notwithstanding.)

The Cellas took care of Huckabee before Hot Springs. Their investment company made a $10,000 contribution to his presidential exploratory PAC several months ago. Er, excuse us. We meant his PAC to encourage healthier living in America"

Wooldridge's Campaign Manager Supports Jim Holt

Dan Noble, former campaign manager for Senator Tim Wooldridge, said, “This election cycle I have chosen to volunteer for Senator Holt’s campaign and provide any assistance to his campaign in Little Rock and the surrounding areas. I still consider myself an Arkansas Conservative Democrat. Unfortunately, the Democratic nominee this year does not represent those beliefs.

[Full Article]

CP Arkansas Disaffiliates

The Constitution Party of Arkansas has disaffiliated from the national Constitution Party as of August 25th, 2006.

Our resolution of disaffiliation has been posted on the CP Arkansas website, www.cparkansas.org

Due to the reasons outlined in the resolution, we have decided that it's time we move on. We remain the "Constitution Party of Arkansas" for the moment. We will be affiliating with a new national party in the near future, and we fully intend on acquiring ballot access for the 2008 elections. Stay tuned...

Holt Press Release - How do Halter and Willet feel about their party's war on marriage.

Senator Jim Holt Press Release

Released Sept 5, 06

Subject: The Democratic National Party's 5-point plan to work with homosexuals to implement gay marriage. Arkansas Dem Party removed marriage between man and woman plank from platform – How do Halter and Willett feel about this?

Democratic National Committee (DNC) spokesperson, Damien LaVera, revealed the Democratic National Committee’s 5-point plan to work with homosexuals to implement gay marriage across the nation. This is s fact that would interest at least 75% of the people who voted against gay marriage in Arkansas. The Washington Blade, a homosexual advocate publication, summarized these five points in an article July 14, 06, and reported that the DNC "assisted a gay group in Illinois with its efforts to block an anti-gay marriage amendment from going before voters in November."
http://www.washingtonblade.com/2006/7-14/news/national/dnc.cfm

(continued- click WEDNESDAY below and scroll down for rest of article, or if sent straight here just scroll down)

Beebe Unveils New Higher Ed Plan

Well, OK, in the first phase it would just be to "low-income" Arkansans. But the money would come from your pockets to those "students" with no strings attached. If they graduated from an Arkansas High School, even if just barely, and any school would take them, then they get the money, regardless of their academic performance. I call it the "Animal House" Scholarship Plan. Can anyone possibly think of a more worthy use of the people's money?
Your tax dollars at work under Gen. Beebe's plan.


(I have not yet begun to rant! If you want to read more, click WEDNESDAY below and scroll down, or if sent straight here then just scroll down)

Highly Debatable

It seems that the two major party candidates for Governor have come up with a side deal to meet each other in three events that could be described as "candidate forums" rather than debates. There will be no rebuttals or counterpoints, the candidates will just take turns giving short- or in the case of the opening statements not so short- speeches. The agreement prevents either man from attending any other candidate forum, such as the AETN debate that will offer a chair to Green Party Candidate Jim Lendall or Independent Rod Bryan.

Many are wondering if team Beebe didn't out-negotiate team Hutchinson on this one. The answer is, shall we say, highly debatable. The low-risk format seems geared for mistake avoidance rather than testing each man's mettle. To me that is a sign that the handlers for each man trust themselves to shape message more than they trust their candidate in a real verbal joust. While some of that is natural- people in this business like control- you really ought to have confidence in your guy's ability to go head to head with the opposition.

(Continued- click WEDNESDAY below and scroll down for rest of article, or if sent straight here just scroll down)

Lou Dobbs: Voters Won't Tolerate "Axis of Amnesty"

Dobbs is the only one on CNN worth listening to IMHO. His article is here. It reports the good news that voter registration has not increased in areas where illegal aliens held their marches two months ago and declared "today we march, tomorrow we vote." Dobbs says that Congress has put off any action on illegal immigration untill after the election because they know that anything which even sounds like it might be amnesty will cost congressmen their jobs.

I also think that the economy is slowing down, and since most of the illegals have no real committment to this country, in a tough recession a lot of them will just drift away.

Biggest Poll Yet From Roby Brock

Roby Brock (host of Business Talk) has announced the results of the biggest poll yet on the top three races on the ballot. Over 1000 likely voters were interviewed and the methodology for this one was transparent and rock solid (except it somewhat under-represents the 3rd district). This is in contrast to some recent polls that used a smaller sample size and questionable or undefined polling methods (note: SURVEY USA has cleared up many of the questions I had about their methods).

The result is that there is not much good news for Republicans, but here are the results...

Ballot Question 1 (College Bonds that have been roundly critisized on this board)

Yes: 31%
No : 40%
Undecided: 29%

Governor

Hutchinson: 34%
Beebe : 48%
Lendall : 1%
Bryan : 0%
Undecided : 17%

Lt. Governor

Halter : 44%
Holt : 40%
Undecided: 16% THIS RACE IS WITHIN THE 3.1% margin of error

Attorney General

McDaniel : 51%
DeLay : 37%
Undecided : 12%

Arrows Away

John Brummett- because he gave me the idea for this, and because when you're John, you don't have to be writing very well to be writing better.
Mike Beebe because the early-run positive ads seemed to have bumped him up some, though not as much as some polls are showing.
Asa Hutchinson- has begun the home stretch within striking range and with a full campaign chest, but he is going to have to work hard to find rural conservatives to make up for some insider republicans (read political-class crooked opportunists) who are backing Beebe.
Jim Lendall- beat Beebe and Daniels in court and got on the ballot. Now he has to translate that into campaign momentum. His surprise obstacle is an establishment media that won't put him in their polls or press for his inclusion in debates.
Rod Bryan- I have not expected much from him, and he has met my expectations.
Jim Holt- he is the closest in the polls of any statewide Republican and has been preiscent on a couple of important issues, but will he get the money he needs to win down the stretch?
Bill "Hollywood" Halter, fresh in from the west coast and ready to be the 'boss of us'. Even Brummett says the guy is frightening. Though Brummett is frightend by Holt even more, most of the state does not share John Brummett's phobia concerning Holt, nor do they share Halter's views- views so left that the Green Party actually choose not to run anyone for this race.
Dustin McDaniel- down in comparison to the absurd build-up Brummett gives him, and down because he looked Arkansans right in the eye and misreprented himself over his role in the Remington arms suit. Brummett actually wrote that McDaniel didn't sue Remington, because he was just the lawyer, but it was actually just his clients that sued Remington! Now that is Clintonizing at its best, technically correct but deceptive in every other sense of the word.
Gunner DeLay - the fundraising is improving and he seems to have weathered the counter attack- the IRS had a dispute with him but no penalities or fines were ever assessed- from the McDaniel camp. He has some good ideas, but does he have the time and resources to make his case before Nov. 7th?
Charlie Daniels- his performance is a "down arrow" but so far the general public has shown little signs of noticing or caring. He dodged a silver bullet when he decided not to appeal the Green case- a move that would have once again disenfranchised Arkansas' military personel serving overseas.
Jim LaGrone- not down for being there to make sure Daniels dared not appeal the ruling and once again disenfranchise our military voters overseas. Not up, because he needs to translate his energy and competence into poll movement.
Houston Nutt - for the shoddy way he treated Robert Johnson. The young man did a credible job against a tough USC team.