Senate Bill 89 Rubs Massage Therapists The Wrong Way (110% License Fee Increase!)

Arkansas Senate Bill 89 (SB89):

Most professionals i.e. Doctors, Nurses, Technicians etc. have a professional license renewed yearly with fees, Continuing Education classes and medical examinations that have to be accomplished before renewal.

Senate Bill 89 (SB89) is before Arkansas Legislation right now. The bill makes big changes to the way licenses are renewed and fees are paid for Licensed Massage Therapists in Arkansas. Also, there are changes in the ways of operating business for me and my colleagues.


SB89 Arkansas Senate Bill 89 In Numbers:
(2008 vs. 2009)


LISC. RENEWAL FEE:
$30/yr vs. $120/Bi-yearly

CONTINUING EDUCATION:
$120 yr vs. $420 Bi-yearly
(6HRS yr vs. 18HRS Bi-yearly)

TB TEST:
$5 yr vs. $10 Bi-yearly

****NEW FEES****
MASSAGE THERAPY CLINIC REGISTRATION FEE:
$75 YEARLY

QUICK CARD: (miniature license card)
$10 YEARLY

**other fees are changed in the new bill, but do not apply to license renewal**

In a nutshell,
FOR RENEWAL:
2008: $155.00/yr
2009: $635.00/Bi-yearly or $323/yr

This is a 110% INCREASE.

In this unstable economy, SB89 is unrealistic.
I have seen a slight drop in my business (3hrs less a month) and have colleagues across the state who have seen a significant drop in business over the last year due to the flailing economy. In our opinion, the fees should be LOWERED instead of being RAISED 110%.

I encourage all of my friends who are against this bill to call or email your Arkansas State Senator, or the Lead Sponsor of the bill Terry Smith and tell them you are against SB89. If you are out-of-state, grew up in Arkansas, or still have family roots in Arkansas, I encourage you to call as well. The bill goes before the board on Thursday, January 27th.

Thank you very much for your time and support!

-Michael R. Cary LMT

At Ease LMTC
1113 N. Madison Ave.
El Dorado, AR 71730
(870) 310-2344

Cigarette Tax (if passed) Will Likely Fund Abortions In Near Future

Cigarette Tax Bill Is Supposed to Raise $88 Million

Trauma Center Supposed to Cost $28 Million

There is Good Reason to Believe That Some of the Other $60 Million Will Fund Abortion & Contraceptives In the Near Future

According to Arkansas Democrat Gazette article Jan 27, the sponsor Gree Reep said the cigarette tax bill would raise $88 million a year. President Pro Tempore Bob Johnson, who supports the bill, said the trauma system would cost $28 million a year. http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/250694/

So where is the other $60 million going? Up to this point all I have heard talked about was the trauma center.

But according to the above article, the tax increase would go for “20 other health-related programs.” Beebe said he believes the money will help provide the "basic fundamentals of health care.... throughout the state to low-income people who use community health centers and other programs in the plan... It is a comprehensive package. “ (In Obama's plan universal health care is universal abortion coverage)

Why hasn’t this part of the cigarette tax been emphasized? Why have they basically sold the bill on the $28 million for the trauma center and not told us where the $60 million is going or talked abut the comprhensive health care program?

I think they don’t want us to know that this health care will include family planning and tax payer abortions as soon as Obama is able to get the Freedom of Choice Act passed. Obama told Planned Parenthood,” The first thing I'd do, as president, is sign the Freedom of Choice Act. That's the first thing that I'd do." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_Choice_Act and on You Tube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pf0XIRZSTt8

This Freedom of Choice Act which Obama co-sponsored in 2007 would “if passed, invalidate every restriction on an abortion before the stage of viability, in every state, even those previously found consistent with Roe v. Wade by the United States Supreme Court, such as parental notification laws, waiting periods, and the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act. It prohibits a federal, state, or local governmental entity from denying or interfering with a woman's right to exercise such choices; or discriminating against the exercise of those rights in the regulation or provision of benefits, facilities, services, or information. Provides that such prohibition shall apply retroactively. ““(emphasis addedd.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_Choice_Act With the Democratic Congress it appears Obama could get it passed.

For rest of article see this link: http://www.wpaag.org/Leg%2009%20-%20Cigarette%20tax%20will%20it%20fund%20abortions.htm or click on Wedneday below. Or if sent here, just scroll down

Tonight, Yours Truly On Internet Radio

Obviously I am not the 12th century Rabbi who wrote the original "The Guide for the Perplexed", but I understand his desire to help people reconcile their faith with the evidence from the natural world and the challenges of living in a faithless society.

Tonight at 10PM central: What kind of mind do you have? Dr. Don Eckard talks with the Guide about the classical mind and compares it to the way modern and post-modern minds approach life, society and one another.

Click here for the show page with the player on it and the call-in number (although I am not sure we will have time for calls tonight).

Tobacco Tax for Abortion and Contraceptives?

RED ALERT!
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The big dispute over the trauma center funding issue is whether to go with the Governor's plan which will tax tobacco to not only fund a trauma system but will also pursue unspecified additional Medicaid funding or go with the Garner Plan. Rep. Ed Garner has a plan that just builds the trauma system using re-directed existing revenue and fines on people who commit crimes that cause a traumatic injury. Those backing the Governor's plan have criticized Garner's bill as a "half-measure".

But what will the extra money from the tax increase be buying? In other words, what extra medicaid funding is in the works?

The Family Council has sent an email which includes a part of an interview with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that is most instructive. .......

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Stimulus: Promoting Birth Control, Not Self-Control

Exactly what kind of stimulus did Speaker Nancy Pelosi have in mind? That's a question more Americans are asking now that details are trickling in about the controversial $825 billion "economic recovery" package. As it stands, more than 10 percent of the proposal--$87 billion--would allow states to expand their "family planning" services through Medicaid. The country's recession is crippling families, and the Democrats' solution is spending billions of dollars on contraception? On yesterday's "This Week" program on ABC, George Stephanopoulos pressed Speaker Pelosi for an explanation.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Hundreds of millions of dollars to expand family planning services. How is that stimulus?
PELOSI: Well, the family planning services reduce cost... The states are in terrible fiscal budget crises now and part of what we do for children's health... [is] to help the states meet their financial needs... [O]ne of the initiatives you mentioned, the contraception, will reduce costs to the states and to the federal government.
STEPHANOPOULOS: So no apologies for that?
PELOSI: No apologies. No. We have to deal with the consequences of the downturn in our economy.

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Governor Mike Beebe got the memo from the new White House. They mean to push contraceptives and abortion, which is what they normally mean when they use the euphemism "family planning". That is why he is pushing for more money than he really needs to fund the trauma system. He wants the rest to use to draw in matching federal funds for more access to abortion and contraceptives.

If your representative thinks that is what we need more of, then they should vote for Beebe's bill. If not, they should vote against it.

People, if I am wrong then those pushing Beebe's plan can fix it by inserting a simple line into the bill saying that no money raised can be used for medicaid matching funds if the purpose of those funds is for "family planning". Will they do it?

Garner Plan: Trauma Center Without A Tax Increase

Representative Ed Garner of Little Rock has a trauma system bill which eliminates the weaknesses in the plan Gov. Mike Beebe is pushing for.

Garner's plan would be funded by sending the first $50 of fines collected for offenses that induce medical trauma to fund a trauma system rather than to general revenues. It would add to it a small slice of the taxes already paid on insurance premiums to funding the trauma center rather than general revenues. Since the state currently has a budget surplus in excess of 100 million dollars, the 26 million dollars needed for the system should not impact current funding of government. Tie into the bill a $25 increase in the amount of fines in such instances, and general revenues likely won't take even that much of a hit.

Garner does the math to show that, despite rumors to the contrary, this bill will raise the cash needed to fund the system. It is also a very just policy because the ones who cause the trauma are paying for it.

Garner does the math to show that what Beebe is proposing to fund the system is a tax that will raise well over 100 million dollars. Part of that higher cost is to pay for the pork that Beebe is attaching to the bills in order to buy votes. The rest of it is an effort to get Federal matching funds for an expansion of health care. I for one would not count on the federal government, currently looking for ways to cut medicare spending, to be in the kind of fiscal health necessary to support those kinds of increases.

Garner responds to claims that his plan is a "half-measure" by going directly at one of the biggest weaknesses in the Beebe plan. "When you can't explain how you fund into the future what you start today, that is a real "half measure"." Garner says.

DeMillo Stays True to Form in Reporting On Beebe

************sycophant alert***********

Andrew DeMillo is to Governor Mike Beebe as Baghdad Bob was to Saddam Hussein. Please do not read this fawning "analysis" of the Governor's maneuver's on health care if you are prone to nausea or vomiting. It seems like DeMillo has a template where every Beebe budget story must start off with a idealized replay of Beebe's heroic decision to cut the grocery tax.

Here is my analysis of the Beebe trauma center plan: It is over-priced because it is laden with pork to buy off the 3/4th of the legislature needed to raise taxes. If it could be done without a tax increase, such as using funds from the Governor's "quick closing action fund", it could be done for about a quarter of the price Arkansans are going to pay for it.

It also taxes group "A" to pay for benefits to group "B", which is bad public policy. Smoking does cause health problems, but not trauma center health problems. Better to tax four-wheelers and dangerous industries if you want the payers and the benefiters of a government policy to be basically the same people, which is the fair way to do it.

Modern science could invent a pill in 2009 that would end almost all smoking by 2010. That would leave funding for the trauma center lacking. The problem with leaning on sin-taxes to fuel anything but tax cuts is that the government then has a vested interest in sin.

They should scrap Beebe's proposal and start from scratch, seeing if there is a way to find funding without a tax increase which requires a 3/4th majority vote. That's my analysis. If real analysis is what you want, you can get it here. If you want to read a newsletter from the Governor Mike Beebe fan club, check the state's print media under "DeMillo".

Sixty-Six AR House Mbrs. Voted to Commemorate Atheist Thomas Paine Day

"It is not a God, just and good, but a devil, under the name of God, that the Bible describes," Thomas Paine said.

Following are other quotes from Thomas Paine's greatest works, Rights of Man and The Age of Reason.

I don't know why Arkansas legislators would want to commemorate a day for an atheist man whose views are diametrically opposed to about 90% of Arkansans. I am sure some of those who voted for it were not aware of this aspect of Thomas Paine's life, but I can assure you that the sponsor, Lindsley Smith, was. (See the voting record below)

Lindsley Smith scored a zero percent on American Family Association of Arkansas ratings in 2005. (Lindsley Smith, Joyce Elliot, David Johnson, Sam Ledbeter and Linda Chesterfied were the only ones out of the 100 that scored a zero.) See this link for comparisons of all legislators in 2005 on family issues. http://www.wpaag.org/LegScoreSheetRepresentativesRankings05.htm

Thomas Paine Quotes (See link below where you can find these quotes)

"Of all the systems of religion that ever were invented, there is no more derogatory to the Almighty, more unedifying to man, more repugnant to reason and more contradictory to itself than this thing called Christianity." Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason

"I feel no need for any other faith than my faith in human beings." Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason

"All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit." Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason

"Belief in a cruel God makes a cruel man." Thomas Paine

"Is it not a species of blasphemy to call the New Testament revealed religion, when we see in it such contradictions and absurdities." Thomas Paine

"Of all the tyrannies that affect mankind, tyranny in religion is the worst." Thomas Paine

"Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness, with which more than half the bible is filled, it would seem more consistent that we called it the word of a demon than the Word of God. It is a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind." Thomas Paine patriot & political philosopher (1737 - 1809) See link below for this quote:

And just why is it important enough for Lindsley Smith to bring this bill to commemorate Thomas Paine day up again this year when it failed in the last legislative session? There are so many more important things to be dealt with. The paper reports Smith as saying Paine wasn't an atheist. I wonder how she interprets Paine's quotes above. One of our most liberal journalists, John Brummett, had this to say on his blog "I’m really into Thomas Paine. More on Rep. Lindsley Smith’s effort to nab him the day he deserves [Saturday]"

This bill is just designed to kick the can along in the war against Christ and Christians that is so common in our world today! Thomas Paine Day is also called Freethinkers Day. http://secularseasons.org/january/thomas_paine.html See this link for Freethinker philosophy: http://en.wikipedia.org:80/wiki/Joseph_Lewis

See this link to find the surce of Thomas Paine Quotes: http://www.wpaag.org/Leg%2009%20-%20AR%20House%20voted%20to%20honor%20athesist%20John%20Paine2.htm

For the names of legislators who voted for this bill and those who voted against it, see this link: http://www.arkleg.state.ar.us/assembly/2009/R/Pages/Votes.aspx?rcsnum=2257&votechamber=House

Arkansas Most Anti-Gun on Open Carry

Did you know that Arkansas is one of only six states to ban open carry? That is, you cannot go around with a gun in a holster as is commonly done in western tradition.

I am amazed that a state that is supposed to be as pro-2nd amendment as this one makes it a crime for me, a man who has lived almost 50 years without being a criminal, to simply walk around with a holstered firearm. What part of "keep and BEAR arms" do they not understand? Ok, that is in the federal constitution, but we are supposed to be more in favor of gun rights than the average state in the union.

Representative Mark Martin of Prairie Grove has filed a bill to reverse this travesty.

Illegal Alien Problem - Unemployment for Blacks Higher than Hispanics

Illegal Alien Employment Increasing Unemployment of Citizens

$10 million Unemployed – A Record Number since World War II

Unemployment for Black Citizens Higher Than Hispanics

According to Lou Dobs's program January 9, 09, there are ten million people now unemployed in our nation. There are more black citizens unemployed than Hispanics (many of whom are illegal aliens). Isn't it time that we pass some laws to prevent illegal Hispanics from being employed in Arkansas so our own citizens can be employed.

Not only should our legal citizens have the right to these jobs, but unemployment is costing our state a great deal of money, and Welfare will be even more expensive when the unemployed can't find new jobs. And while our state is paying for the unemployment and new welfare, it is also paying high costs in health care and benefits for the illegal aliens. Our state can't afford that.

According to Lou Dobbs on CNN, overall national unemployment of Hispanics is 9.5 percent but overall unemployment for blacks it is 12 percent. The unemployment rate for Hispanic youth is 22% but for African American youth it is 28%; for whites it is 17%. Hispanics are taking many of the jobs from African Americans, and the high overall youth unemployment rate is partly the result of illegal aliens taking many of the jobs that the youths have formerly held. (For transcript of Lou Dobss program on this issue, see this link: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0901/09/ldt.01.html

Citizens in rural areas say their youth had formerly had jobs in planting and harvesting crops that are now done by illegal aliens. Numerous restaurants employ illegal aliens where youths could work. These jobs often provide the necessary funds for college for these young people (young people whose parents can no longer afford the high cost of college). And everyone knows we have one of the lowest college graduatuation rates in the nation.

Any law that could be passed to prevent our state from becoming a sanctuary for illegal aliens would be a PROFITABLE one.

88% Support Bill Sample Immigration Bill

In a recent (Jan 15-18) Little Rock TV poll, 88% said they supported the main elements of Arkansas Representative Bill Sample's immigration bill (HB1093). Following are the question and answers copied from their site. Find this poll at this link. http://arkansasmatters.com/content/poll/?poll_id=2081 If you check the list of other polls on this TV station, you will find no other such disparity in those polls. Note also the results of another poll by a Jonesboro TV last summer which revealed that 95% of the respondents would support denying benefits to illegal aliens.

"Your Opinion
Immigration Bill

An immigration bill being discussed at the legislature would create a division within state police to investigate fraudulent documents. It would require public employers to use a status verification system to ensure workers hired are here legally. And it would also require contractors to hold out the maximum amount of state taxes on independent contractors if he or she fails to provide employment authorization. Would you support denying government benefits to illegal aliens.
Yes ( 87.3%)
No (11.7%)"

KAIT TV Jonesboro Survey/ 95% Would Deny Benefits To Illegal Immigrants
July, 2008

"Region 8 Responds
Per the Arkansas ballot initiative, would you vote to deny illegal immigrants government benefits?
Yes
No
Thank you for participating in our poll. Here are the results so far.
Yes
95%
No
5%"

Tramatic Increase In Costs for Trauma Center

The proposed trauma system in the state is a perfect example of why government should do as little as possible. Having a trauma system in the state is probably a good idea. We may even get some of the money back in the form of reduced insurance premiums and saved lives. But how much does it cost and where will it come from?

First they were saying it would cost 26 million dollars to get it started. But now, thanks to the magic power of government to increase costs, magnify waste, and generate inefficiency it appears that the start up cost has already ballooned to over 80 million dollars for 26 million dollars of trauma system. A usually reliable source says that difference in cost is in the amount of pork the Governor is promising to legislators in order to buy their votes for the system.

So that is democracy in action. The free market would get you 26 million dollars of trauma system for 26 million dollars, with costs born primarily by those who benefit from it. Democratic sausage-making gets you 26 million dollars of trauma system for 82 million dollars, and the costs will be shifted to some group who is a convenient target rather than a beneficiary of the system. This time it is smokers. Next time it might be left-handed coon hunters with hair on their knuckles. Heck, they may need to switch to them to pay for THIS bill if modern science produces a pill which breaks nicotine addiction and significantly reduces smoking.

This is what a government-as-organized-plunder philosophy has brought us to. Each interest group teams with the government to search for a less influential group to stick with the costs for its pet project. It is a constant search for people to loot. That means each group of people must lobby government to protect itself from being the next victim. We spend less and less time making our own fortune by serving others through real production and spend more and more of it fending off attacks by government on us and organizing attacks with government on the pockets of others.

Your's Truly Launches Webcast Radio Show

Have you ever wondered what your humble blogger sounds like? You have a chance to find out.

Tuesday the 20th at 10:00PM Central Time, squeeze here. Even though it is billed as a "current events" show we are going to look beyond the headlines of the day (we don't want to talk about the inauguration for example) to discuss more underlying problems and solutions for our times.

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I don't know how much time I will have to take calls, but it will be a feature of the program.

By the Content of Their Character

MLK did not wish that we would not be judged, that is New Age silliness, but that the criteria for judgment for men would be the content of their character.

It makes a lot of sense. We went wrong when we stopped holding up judging people by their character as the ideal to strive for. What replaced it was moral-free approval based on fame or fortune alone.

Quid Pro Quo in Benton County?

Former State Senator Dave Bisbee is now the County Judge for Benton County. To win, he had to get past a run-off with former JP Bill Adams. I have a friend who was a staunch Bill Adams supporter. Right after election night they called to get my input. I said that Adams should call the other three candidates in the race who did not make the runoff and reach out to them.

Two days later, I learned that all three endorsed Bisbee. My friend called me and said that Bisbee all promised them something, and mentioned jobs in particular. At the time, I did not put much stock in the report because I did not see how they could know such a thing, and if they did I thought that it would be so brazen that Bisbee would never do it.

Well, events have since supported my source's story. Bisbee has chosen David Glass, one of the defeated candidates who endorsed him, to a plum position with the county. The main thrust of the story was reported in the paper, but I wanted to add some background here. The paper reported that the lady who would be working directly under Glass tendered her resignation in protest of the appointment.

It looked very impressive when all three defeated primary opponents endorsed Bisbee, it may have been the difference in that election. The rumours that this was nothing more than Quid Pro Quo look more credible by the hour.

Fannie and Freddie Give to Homosexual Activists Before Collapse

ABCNBCCBSCNNMSNBCFOX won't tell you, so leave it people outside the corporate media establishment to break the story.

"Their largest single gifts came in the last year — just months before both companies collapsed and were taken over by the government.

Freddie Mac gave more than $20,000 to the 2008 fundraising gala of the Washington, D.C., chapter of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG-DC). Fannie Mae gave between $10,000 - $19,000 to the same event.

According to its records, the Freddie Mac Foundation gave over $125,000 to gay-activist groups since 2005. The Fannie Mae Foundation donated about $80,000 to these groups over the last decade."

They also gave more than $40,000 to the belligerent homosexual Congressman Barney Frank in the form of campaign donations. Frank heads the Congressional Committee charged with "oversight" of the two institutions, and resisted what few calls for reform were issued by the Bush administration and others.

Whistle-Blower Out at UCA

Read it and weep. The trustee who blew the whistle on Lou Hardin is out, Beebe puts his own guy in, on the UCA board.

Beebe to Ledge "All or Nothing"

The Arkansas Legislature as seen by Governor Mike Beebe after a fine afternoon's walk through the muddy, manure strewn fields.
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Governor Mike Beebe has told the legislature through his spokesman that it is "all or nothing" on his multi-faceted health care plan. Increasingly, legislators are being treated as irrelevant, on both the state and federal levels.

This is the exact opposite of the way that our system is supposed to work. The legislature is supposed to be the most powerful branch of government, and the executive exists to carry out or "execute" the will of the legislature. Now we have executives telling the legislative branch what laws they can pass. We have Bush using "signing statements" to circumvent the clear intent of legislation that has been passed, so this is not a party-specific problem- It's a sign of the times. And the ledge has been getting run over by the judiciary, even in things that are clearly under the purview of the ledge like spending levels, for years.

We are increasingly drifting towards authoritarianism on both the state and national levels. Dissent, even among the legislative branch on policy, is made increasingly more difficult. Even communist governments had rubber-stamp legislatures to give a cover to dictators. Iraq under Saddam had a legislature. Having a legislature is no protection of the liberties of the people unless they actually perform the job of a legislature. They are the ones who are supposed to make the rules. Can significant bills that don't start out as a submission from the executive branch still get passed into law ?

Obama's Massive Welfare Increases Called Tax Cuts

According to an article in New York Post January 6, 09, Barack Obama's stimulus package will likely take the form of so called "tax cuts" for 95 percent of all Americans. However, the majority of American voters would pay no federal income taxes but would be paid money from the government instead.

"Almost all of the 68 million tax filers in the country's bottom economic half would get a check from Washington at tax times. Some would be among the 22 million who get money from the Earned Income Tax Credit (EIC). Others would get a $500 check through the Child Tax Credit – and all would get funds through the new Obama tax credit" the article notes.

Thus Obama's stimulus package tax cut would basically be another huge deceptive step toward redistribution of wealth (socialism) in our country and "would transform the majority of voters from taxpayers into tax eaters – and leave an increasingly small minority to pay the bill….Taxpayers would be politically helpless and the tax-eating majority would have free reign to impose any levies it wished. "

The article notes that "Welfare would no longer be only for the poor – the majority of the voters would depend on government handouts. This very system is what makes European social democracies so resistant to change…For the economically well off, it could effectively become taxation without representation – which, as the founders of our nation warned, leads to tyranny."

The top twenty-five percent of taxpayers in the US pay 85% of the federal income tax and the bottom fifty percent pay only 3%. In 1980 the bottom fifty percent paid 7%; under Obama's new plan the bottom fifty percent would pay less than nothing!

Obama's plan will probably pull in more votes for the Democrats; but unfortunately his plan will finish destroying our economy. A few rich people will never be able to fund all the programs the Democrats are pushing for the masses.

Read the entire article in the Post at this link: http://www.nypost.com/seven/01062009/postopinion/opedcolumnists/tyranny_of_the_tax_exempt_147343.htm

Immigration Bill Up

Is bill hb0093 to address the illegal immigration issue "radioactive"? At least one influential legislator thinks so. *******************************************

Here is a link to the bill by Representative Sample. It takes a bit to load as it is a large PDF file. The bill is up for debate in the house judiciary committee today. I read it. Its a good bill and ought to pass. It won't because the ones that would be in favor of it are the working class and middle class who are tired of seeing their wages eroded and their neighborhoods being turned into third world slums. The ones that will fight the bill tooth and nail are the servants of the moneyed interests. They want an infinite supply of unskilled labor to hold down the wages they pay people to work the capital they own. They like getting their lawns manicured for $35. Mexican peasants know how to genuflect and grovel before their "betters" in a way that the "uppity" American middle and working classes (used to freedom and equality) don't. Hence, the elites would like us replaced.

To help give you some idea of the stress sending millions of primarily young single males from a culture that does not understand that your 12 year old daughter is off limits can cause, KATV reports that they are short of Spanish-speaking translators for the state's sex offender program. I assure you that under a Moore administration, no such shortage of translators would ever occur. We may have to increase rope production however.

While our rulers expect you to respect all of the new laws they put on you, they want the laws that they disfavor to be ignored. That would include laws about immigration.

Keep Arkansas Legal plans a rally at the capitol tomorrow.

ACLU Halts Suit On Initiated Act 1

The ACLU sues people constantly for the smallest of imagined infractions. Despite an intense hunt for victims, the ACLU was unable to find any. They are dropping their suit against initiated Act 1 once AG McDaniel's office made a point that they don't have someone with standing to sue. In Artimes reasoning, protecting children is "anti-child", but when even the ACLU doesn't sue you, then you don't deserve to be sued.

Senator Johnson Says Close Down the Zoo

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NOTE: I do NOT, repeat NOT mean that Senator Bob Johnson wants to suspend the state legislature. He refers to the LITERAL Little Rock Zoo.
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The Senator said a lot of things concerning spending all of that money that the state has not "earned" yet by conning rubes into buying lottery tickets. The craziest? He complained about "three strikes" legislation that put "simple drug offenders" in jail. He thought it would be better to pay to send them to college or trade school! And this is one of the most powerful legislators!

If all he is doing is looking at the cost of scholarships vs. the cost of incarceration I respectfully suggest that he is grossly over-simplifying the numbers. If you let repeat drug-offenders out they are STILL going to be a burden on society with health care costs, with killing people behind the wheel while high costs, with personal habits and attitudes which make them unemployable in a professional capacity even AFTER you dump the tech school money on them.

The Senator probably knows this, he is just trying to get as much of the loot for "his block" as he can, and that includes the trade schools and big business. Big business benefits because they are shifting what used to be their training costs onto the backs of taxpayers and lotto suckers.

PS- I disagree with him about the zoo too.

The New York Times is Dead

The paper that was infamous for printing an article which suggested that "God is Dead" is now in its death throes. Much of the staff may not even know this yet, but the end of the New York Times in anything like its current form is coming perhaps as soon as May. I am sympathetic toward those on the staff who will lose their jobs in this brutal looters economy, even if I disagree with them on every public issue.

That said, the Times is part of a media establishment which has done much to ruin the fabric of this nation. I react to its impending death much the same way I would react to the hanging of a vicious killer, sad for his family and that his soul will be lost to God forever, but relieved he is no longer around to destroy. Much of the secular-statist approach from the print media in this country is from local columnists who are NY Times "wannabees". They ape the hyper secular-statist views of their guiding media light. Perhaps its final end will cause some to pause and reflect on the soundness of their premises.

For those of you curious about the "God is dead" reference, it happened 42 years ago (Readers of "Life, The Universe, and Everything will recognize that 42 is the "ultimate answer to the ultimate question")about to the day. The Times gave favorable space to a strange religious ritual called "Your God is Dead" which declared in part.....

He died in the darkness of your image
He died because he grew ill from your dreams of salvation
He died because you held his hand too tightly
God is Dead

New York Times, Jan 9, 1966, pg. 146

Forty-two years of living and meditation since that time have convinced me more than ever that my God is still more alive and real than I am. It is instead the Times itself that is dead. Mark Finkelstein has the details over at News Busters. The bottom line is that they are not profitable, but have 1 billion dollars in debt that has been reduced to junk bond status. $400 hundred million of it comes due in May and the Times can't raise it by any conventional means in this climate. Most likely outcome: selling off its assets to pay off most of its debt or sale to someone like Rupert Murdoch (which would be another kind of tragedy).

Amusing Leftist Complaints About Ethics

The Arktimes is critical of legislators who say that we don't need ethics reform. They grouse that legislators get lobbied and then write bills favorable to a special interest, said special interest then gives them a job once their time in the ledge is through. AG Dustin McDaniel wants a one year cooling off period on such shennanigans. The legislators say such a period is not needed.

I am always amused when leftists find that their pro-abortion politicians are corrupt and unethical. What did they expect? WHY would you trust a pro-abortion politician? They are willing to trade away the rights of the most innocent and defenseless among us for political advantage. Why does the leftist expect such people to act against their own self-interest on ethics? Compared to taking that scalpel and slicing a child's head off in the womb, taking a job with a firm you were "willing to work with" as a legislator is a trivial matter.

Oh yeah, about the number of legislators who are "pro-life"- there are a lot less of them than you can count by claims of such. Pro-life is as pro-life does and they have done little to nothing. I don't say you can trust every politician who claims to be pro-life. For many of them it is simply a pleasant lie told to themselves and their constituents- the time to act on their pro-life "convictions" is NEVER. And you may not be able to trust even some of those who really are pro-life, because of their judgment on other issues. But if you have a lick of sense and one eye you have to KNOW that a politician who admits right up front that he or she is willing to trade away the rights of the most innocent and helpless among us for political advantage cannot be trusted to do the right thing at crunch time.

This is an example of a population that is ensnared in too much personal corruption in their own lives getting outraged when they see corruption in their elected officials. They need to be realistic. Their politicians lie to them because many if not most of the people in our popular culture want to be lied to and get extremely angry with people who attempt to tell them the truth. Those politicians would not be in office if they told those people the truth, that my corruption is simply a reflection of yours.

You Can't Even Ask About It, Even on Your Own Dime

This is the ad that CNBC, MSNBC, Headline News, CNN and Fox refused to run. Now you can't even buy time with your own money to question why Barack Obama refuses to release a copy of his original birth certificate, or college records, or explain how he could travel to Pakistan at a time when U.S. citizens were denied travel to the country.

This is about the ninth or tenth reference I have made to Obama's eligibility for office. You may wonder why I do it considering the weight of the establishment media is determined to suppress information about the issue and label anyone who wants to know the facts as a "kook". The reason I do it is not to stop him from becoming President. He is going to assume the office and even the facts won't stop him. The people who have sworn to uphold the Constitution are afraid to keep their oath if doing so requires standing in front of this freight-train that is Obama-mania.

But facts are stubborn things, even more stubborn than popular adoration is fickle. Right now, Obama is up. One day, he will be down. Perhaps in that day people will have more of an apatite for the facts. Mark well now these who are oathbreakers. Don't be fooled into letting the global media pump one of them up to be the next Obama.

The Office of the Lt. Governor

I meant to remark on the rating some east-coasters gave to Lt. Governor Bill Halter. They judged him to be the most influential man in the state. This on the strength of his bully-pulpit use of the LtGov's office to pass the lottery amendment.

One thing it shows you is just how little some east-coasters know about Arkansas. The Lt. Governor is hardly the most influential man in the state, but an honest appraisal would put him solidly in the top twenty. There is just no denying that he did what he set out to do on the lottery, and THAT shows just how little some political opinion writers in this state know about Arkansas.

I ask you to recall (and I will not mention names, they know who they are and so do many of you) what certain pundits wrote and said about the office of the Lt. Governor when it looked like Senator Jim Holt had a fair chance to win it. They said words to the effect that the office was unimportant, inconsequential even. Some even opined that we should do away with the office! From here, it all looked like part of a fail-safe plan to isolate the office holder by slighting the office itself.

As it turned out, the Democrats poured late money into Halter's campaign by running ads which implied that Jim Holt was going to cut off old people's social security if he was elected Lt. Governor and a bunch of other outrageous lies designed to scare ignorant people into pulling the lever for the Democrat. The establishment media naturally refused to call BS on the ads and the Republican party countered this by doing absolutely nothing. Halter wins.

Suddenly, the office of Lt. Governor is consequential again. Why, he may even be the most influential man in the state on account of his use of that big ole' bully pulpit.

Why do I write all of this? Because I am a big student of history. I am big on not being fooled twice by the same tricks. Because I want you to remember, and apply the lessons learned. A state-wide platform with little day-to-day responsibility in ordinary circumstances is far from worthless. It's what one makes of it.

Is the Trans-Texas Corridor Really Dead?

A year ago, political hacks were calling Congressman Ron Paul and others "nuts" for warning about plots for a NAFTA superhighway. They started out denying any such beast was in the works, even as plans for the southern-U.S. leg of the project were underway. Yesterday, less than a year after the hacks called those warning the public "nuts" for believing such a system was in the works, officials from the state of Texas proclaimed that the project was "dead". Widespread opposition to the "Trans-Texas corridor" killed the project- or so they say.

So the "nuts" were correct. And they got the warnings out in time to stop the scheme. The plan of the schemers seems to have been to continue to lie about the existence and goals of the project for as long as possible, counting on a barrage of propaganda to intimidate people into shutting up until the project was so far along that it would be too late to stop it. Usually such a plan works. In the words of Chesterton.....

The wisest thing in the world is to cry out before you are hurt. It is no good to cry out after you are hurt; especially after you are mortally hurt. People talk about the impatience of the populace; but sound historians know that most tyrannies have been possible because men moved too late. It is often essential to resist a tyranny before it exists. It is no answer to say, with a distant optimism, that the scheme is only in the air. A blow from a hatchet can only be parried while it is in the air.- G.K. Chesterton

But is the project really dead? All we have is the word of some of the same people who lied to us about it the first time. The Texas Department of Transportation still wants to continue the environmental impact studies it was doing for the project, and does not want the state law authorizing it to be repealed.

My guess, they will change the name to throw the public off their trail, and maybe break it down into a series of "local projects" that they will connect together when the time is right. That is only my guess of their intentions, but the imploding economy might stop the thing even if citizen action does not.

The Brummett Delusion

John Brummett modestly entitles his latest column "The Gospel of John". In it he opens by taking a few oblique shots at bloggers which implies that they can quote each other as experts and thus get a viewpoint out that is not necessarily backed by fact.

Yes they can John. You should know because it is what you and your associates have been doing for decades. What has changed is that now people outside the centralized media club have a chance to counter your viewpoints that are not necessarily backed by fact.

An example is in your "gospel of John" column where you write, "On global warming, or climate change, this seems to be the prevailing science: Empirical data says that, yes, the Earth's climate is changing, indeed warming."

Well, in the super-long run I guess it has been warming since the last ice age ended, but the four best world-wide temperature measurements show that Earth's temperatures have not increased since 1998!

That's right folks, even though the media has spent the last decade trying to stir you into a panic so that you will vote your elites more power and money to "fix it", the actual climate itself refused to cooperate. It is not at all clear that the temperatures of the 1970s and 80s (or even 1770s)represent some kind of natural ideal that we should try to force the planet to maintain.

By the way, measurements from space probes confirmed warming on the surface of Mars during the same time period temperatures on Earth were rising. This is a pretty good clue that the recent warming is primarily a result of solar, not human, activity. The sun is now entering a phase where solar output will slightly decrease, called the Maunder minimum. That spells a couple of decades of cold weather unless our carbon emissions really do make a difference, only most will count it a positive difference.

There are serious environmental issues that we need to address. This focus on global warming (re-packaged as "climate change" because they realized they could stir you up no matter which way temperatures went) could distract from this environmental issues that really matter, like clean water.

Brummett then feigns modesty as a ploy saying "I am not a scientist, leave me out of the science". He then tries to tell all of the "right-wingers" that they don't need to listen to him, they need to listen to John McCain! McCain said we should worry about global warming too!

So is John McCain a scientist? No, he is neither scientist nor conservative so it is crazy for Brummett to ask "right-wingers" to defer to scientists and then name John McCain as the person they should listen to. Should we listen to him on immigration too? Every conservative I know either held their nose or did not vote for the man. As someone who taught earth-science for 11 years I am probably the most qualified pundit in the state on this issue, and at least I am linking you to facts, not making bald (and false) assertions about what temperatures are doing.

But recent examples of "The Brummett Delusion" go beyond his column. Just two days ago I wrote "John Brummett once again displays the vast gap between how he sees himself and how others see him". THEN, as if to prove that I have a secret X-man power to control his keyboard, he spits out his "Gospel of John" column AND makes a blog post so outrageously delusional that someone must of gotten a hold of him and made him pull it. It disappeared off the net soon after he posted it, but The Arkansas Project's David Kinkade found it.

In the post, Gospel John Brummett writes, "Let’s face it, at risk to modesty: Brantley and I dominate the Arkansas punditry, me in pragmatic moderation and Max in unyielding liberalism.". As I said, Gospel John sees himself one way, most people see him another. I don't know anyone who considers Brummett a "pragmatic moderate". He is a statist liberal who is hired to stifle dissent even from idealistic liberals and can be counted on to attack conservatives and small-government libertarians with gratuitous insult and contempt. He even spreads some of that over to his colleagues in the print media at the other paper.

But whether he is tethered to the ground of reality or floating free in the ether, he does for some reason have a big platform from which to shower the less discerning members of our population with distortions. I tell myself that this is why he must be contained, but maybe I just read his stuff for the same reason the eye is drawn to a train wreck. Watching it is horrible and unedifying, but it certainly is a spectacle.

Oklahoma's Edmonson Prosecutes Petitioners

Why does Oklahoma AG Edmondson want to send this man to prison for ten years?
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Here in Arkansas we are very familiar with Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson. He is suing Arkansas on the basis that our industries dump water in our rivers that lead to Oklahoma, which causes the water to not meet THEIR standards of quality (not ours). Because I like clean water, and I think people should clean up their own mess, I was willing to give Edmondson the benefit of a doubt for quite a while. I am being inched toward the position that he is doing it as part of a financial shake-down rather than true environmental concerns, and his actions in the Jacobs case only serve to further cast him in a negative light.

Here is the story from Jacob's perspective via this link...
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"A leader in the fight to bring government back in the hands of the people on every level, Paul Jacob is being prosecuted on political grounds by the Attorney General of Oklahoma, Drew Edmondson.

Paul's "crime?" Working with Oklahomans in Action and a professional signature gathering firm that hired people, who moved to Oklahoma and became legal residents so that they could abide by a state statute requiring their residency.

Despite the fact that the Oklahoma statute requiring signature gatherers to be state residents violates US Supreme Court rulings--in Meyer v. Grant, for example, the court ruled that a government cannot “reduce the available pool” of people to assist citizens in communicating with their fellow citizens and petitioning their government--Paul and his colleagues followed the law as explained to them by state officials.

Now, because signature gatherers later planned to move out of Oklahoma, Jacob is being prosecuted...and politically persecuted by an attorney general who seeks to quash the citizens' involvement in government.

And the icing on the cake is that AG Edmondson wants to put Paul in jail for up to 10 years!

Help us to help Paul and stand up for our constitutional right to petition our government! Help us reach 100,000 strong for Paul Jacob and the constitutional rights! "

Thomas Paine, John Brummett, and Arkansas "Freethinkers"

Some members of Arkansas "Free Thinker" Societies celebrating a Winter Solstice. What they want to be free of thinking about is the knowledge of God. In order for that to happen, you of course, need to shut up about Him outside the confines of your own home (and maybe even there).
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There he goes again. John Brummett once again displays the vast gap between how he sees himself and how others see him in the column "Intolerant of Free Thought, Who, US?". Here is a guy who is basically a paid character assassin for the print establishment, whose job is to bully the population into "not going there" on a number of issues and political candidates, chiding the Arkansas legislature for being "intolerant". His whole career has been as a media enforcer against ideas and against candidates whose positions on issues are outside the bounds that the establishment is willing to tolerate!

Now that he has a blog that allows comments, I'd mosey on over there and call him on it in his own "house", except that I notice that his blog is floundering with essentially no public comments on any articles despite the huge platform he has to pump it. If anyone starts using his blog as an information watering hole, maybe I'll bother. In the meantime, I don't know if he even has the 10K unique visitors a month that this little-old hobby blog draws (even if 8.5K a month are just here for the stuff about the Duggars!)

In this particular article, Brummett chides the legislature for their refusal to create a "Thomas Paine Day". The bill to do so was sponsored by perhaps the most radical leftist in the Arkansas legislature (Lindsley Smith). Rep. Sid Rosenbaum turned back the Thomas Paine day measure in the last session, by reading quotes from Paine himself. Smith wants to bring the bill back, as she does with the ERA amendment.

My wife noticed that this is the way things work, when the left gets beaten on a bill, they bring it back again and again until it passes. Alleged conservative legislators mostly act like they are afraid to introduce a bill, and when they finally do and lose, they shrug their shoulders and give up. That needs to change, and we can help make it change by giving the good guys the media cover that the left has to encourage them to keep plugging.

At any rate, Brummett lists some of Paine's beliefs and asked what is so unreasonable about them. "His own church is his own mind" Brummett writes. On the surface that may sound a lot like the "every man is his own high priest" doctrine of the Baptists, but there is a huge difference. The Baptist doctrine means that even though the scriptures are binding, it is up to each person to figure out how to live them out. Paine acknowledges no scripture. The Baptist doctrine makes every man his own high priest in the service of God, Paine's doctrine makes every man out to be his own god.

There are many men and women in U.S. History that we could honor. Paine is used today as an icon of a group which styles themselves "Freethinkers". While they are free to believe how they wish, I concur with our legislators that neither they nor their icon Paine are worthy of special honors from the state.

The "freethinkers" are not a group of well-meaning philosophers- they are people who are extremely antagonistic to God and virtually every person who worships God. Here is the "Quote of the Moment" on their website......

"A man who eats another man, we call insane. A man who eats his god, we call a Christian." --Adapted from a quote of Claude A.
Helvetius, 1715-1771, French philosopher and encyclopedist

If you visit the site, there is a lot more provocative, antagonistic stuff to be read. While they have a right to hold all of these views, they are offensive to the vast majority of taxpayers in this state, and the ledge has better things to do than dither about whether their icon should be given special honor.

Why What They Are Doing Can't Work

Karl Denninger does an excellent job of explaining the big picture of what has been happening economically over the last seven (or more) years, and why these proposals for more of the same CANNOT work.

New Head of EU Doubts Man-Made Global Warming

There has been a big brouhaha in the state recently about global warming. Some from the left, like Max Brantley and John Brummett, keep beating the propaganda drum with words to the effect that there is no real controversy, that the only credible opinion one can have on the issue is to agree that man-made global warming is real and is a serious threat to our well-being.

No sooner are such insinuations made than it turns out that the new head of the European Union, Vaclav Klaus, agrees with the doubters! Klaus is the President of the Czech Republic, and has rotated into the EU Presidency after the end of French President Sarkozy's term. The EU is a block of nations with a population of 350 million literate, civilized people- adjectives which could also be used to describe Klaus. If skepticism about global warming is such a crank view, how could the leader of such a significant block of the world's educated people strongly hold that opinion? Or how could any of the distinguished scientists who met at a recent doubters conference in Florida hold such views? Here is a 10 minute video segment from Glen Beck where he lists some details and interviews Klaus. Impressive.

Of course, the EU liberals don't like THIS KIND of "diversity" any more than ours do- they are in a frenzy about Klaus.

In a previous post, I not only listed some key evidence against global warming, but also show how the issue can actually undermine the parts of the environmental movement that we really do need to be vibrant and effective.

So Obviously Ineligible that the Court is Afraid to Look

The case is open and shut- if any court had the moral courage to hear the case. Barack Obama is not a natural born citizen of the United States as defined by law and is thus constitutionally ineligible for the office of President. The soon-to-be Emperor is about to take the throne buck naked and most everyone is afraid to look at the plain language of the law for the sake of a man. This is a dark hour for the Republic.

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From Forseti on PAPUNDIT on what the Constitution says about the courts tackling this issue......

"What about the United States Supreme Court? The first paragraph of their own website makes the following promise to the American People - “As the final arbiter of the law, the Court is charged with ensuring the American people the promise of equal justice under law and, thereby, also functions as guardian and interpreter of the Constitution.”

If the Court has this duty to function as guardian and interpreter of the Constitution, then when must it act to qualify the President elect? Before, during or after the election? Should it be barred from deciding this issue because of timing, i.e, the candidate has already won the election, so it’s too late? Perhaps we should turn to the 20th Amendment for guidance.

“If, at the time fixed for the beginning of the term of the President, the President elect shall have died, the Vice President elect shall become President. If a President shall not have been chosen before the time fixed for the beginning of his term, or if the President elect shall have failed to qualify, then the Vice President elect shall act as President until a President shall have qualified; and the Congress may by law provide for the case wherein neither a President elect nor a Vice President elect shall have qualified, declaring who shall then act as President, or the manner in which one who is to act shall be selected, and such person shall act accordingly until a President or Vice President shall have qualified.”

Section 3 of the 20th Amendment does allow for the possibility that a President elect might not qualify. The language of the Amendment suggests that the qualification period can come between the period when the candidate wins the election and when he is sworn in. As the guardian and interpreter of the Constitution, it’s arguable that the Court must scrutinize the President-elect’s natural born citizen evidence during this time period. If the Court, instead, turns a blind eye to it, then just who will be the judge of “if the President elect shall have failed to qualify,…?” Furthermore, what will be the fate of the Constitution, the Court, and the country if it is later discovered that Mr. Obama is not a natural born citizen? Will every treaty, law, military act become void ab initio? Will the nation be launched into a state of civil unrest and unyielding division? "

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Watch the video, there is simply no doubt that Obama is not a "natural born" citizen. He likely is a "naturalized" citizen- a citizen by law who nevertheless has circumstances of birth which raise questions about one's undivided loyalty to the United States. Such citizens are constitutionally barred from the Presidency.

Shivering in Fear of Global Warming

I am sitting here in my humble cottage deciding if we want to sit here shivering in the cold all day or turn the heat up so that I get a humongous bill at the end of the month. Perhaps this is effecting my ability to write objectively on the topic of global warming. Recent events in the blogosphere of the state (Ark Times, Arkansas Project etc) have compelled me to throw in my eighty billion dollars worth (I value my own opinion, but I will concede that this is not YET the market rate).

Meanwhile, the state of the nation is precarious at best. With all of the real troubles we are facing, it seems that our friends on the left want to get all riled up against a phantom menace. Columnist David Sanders published a column which decried attempts to enact an agenda to prevent global warming in Arkansas. The Arktimes has a source that claims Sanders just sent out what someone handed him. But of course the agenda of the "Arkansas" group to prevent global warming sounds like the agenda of groups from other states too- both sides are getting talking points from central sources.

I want you to know that I am writing this one myself, and I think the important thing here is not whether X got their ideas from Y, but rather are those ideas correct? I believe that there are legitimate environmental issues that we need to band together to work on- especially protecting our water supplies. The thing is, global warming is not one of them. It is instead ruining the credibility of the environmental movement as a whole. If I were conspiratorial I would say that big polluters were funding these people, because it misdirects the energy of the environmental movement away from the real villains and sends it on a wild goose chase. Then, once it becomes even clearer that man-made global warming is no threat the credibility of the environmental movement is destroyed. Industry will have an even freer hand to cost-shift by dumping their pollutants and letting the rest of us deal with it.

You are being used, my leftist friends. The earth's average temperatures have not increased since 1998! Space probes sent to Mars and a moon of Saturn respectively reported temperature increases at the same time Earth had its warming spell- indicating we humans are not doing much of the "damage". That's even if it is "damage". Earth has been warmer in the past than it is now, and life not only survived, but thrived. A small increase in temperatures may help extend growing seasons and reduce the amount of energy we consume to stay warm.

The Earth has also been cooler in the past. Scientists tell us that there was once a mile-thick ice sheet all the way down to Chicago (long before there was a Chicago of course). Sure some glaciers are retreating, the trend is that they have been retreating for the last 11,000 years! Now we learn that the sun is about to enter a quiet phase called the Maunder minimum. You can expect average temperatures to drop for several decades, just as they increased for a few decades when the sun was more active.

Global warming will happen someday, as the sun ages it will increase energy output until it swells into a red giant and burns the earth to a cinder. That day is far off and there is nothing we can do about it now and it won't be a result of our actions anyway. It will jut be a non-eternal universe doing what it does. What is eternal are the souls of your neighbors who are temporarily here with you in this temporary universe. Focus on stopping local polluters from trashing your neighbor's environment. Quit being a tool for the bad guys with this misdirection and at the same time expand your coalition. Hey, even a conservative doesn't like some company throwing tons of chicken droppings in his water table.

That's my opinion and advice on the matter. That and 80 billion dollars can buy you an insider taxpayer-subsidized executive bailout.

Most Loved Book of 2008: "Revolution, A Manifesto

[U]nder the predominance of interventionist ideas, a political
career is open only to men who identify themselves with the
interests of a pressure group. . . . Service to the short-run interests
of a pressure group is not conducive to the development of those
qualities which make a great statesman. Statesmanship is invariably long-run policy; pressure groups do not bother about the
long-run.1

1 Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, Scholar’s Edition (Auburn, Alabama: Mises Institute, 1998), p. 866.

Congressman Ron Paul is a statesmen in a town filled with political careerists. His book, Revolution, A Manifesto, has been named by Amazon as its most loved book of the year.

Congratulations to Dr. Paul, and a happy 2009 to all.