Owners of Rival Car Company Don't Like Ford's Better Idea

The New York Times reports that officials from a rival car company don't like Ford's idea of putting communication centers in their new offerings. That would not be news, except that the owner of the rival car company is the US Government!

Ray LaHood, the secretary of transportation, is livid about the dashboard bells and whistles. When he saw a Ford ad with a bubbly young woman named Kelly using the new souped-up system to gab on the phone hands-free and not paying attention to the road, he called Alan Mulally, the president and C.E.O of Ford.

“I said to him, ‘That girl looks so distracted, it belies belief that this is what you want in terms of safety,’ ” LaHood told me. “Putting entertainment centers in automobiles does not contribute to safe driving. When you’re trying to update your Facebook or put out a tweet, it’s a distraction.”

He said he would compile his own statistics, meet with car executives and use the bully pulpit. “We’ll see what the auto companies can do voluntarily and what we need to do otherwise,” he said. “I don’t think drivers should be doing any of that.” "

Hey, Government Motors, you are getting out innovated by a private company. Is that a surprise? People are going to talk on their cells while on the road. I'd rather they do so with a communications device that is designed for safe driving hands-free operation. The whole event is another reason why government should not own businesses. They can legislate against their competitors innovations to the detriment of consumers.

Redistricting Wars Begin as Anticipated

Roby Brock outlines redistricting points of contention. Most of it is in line with what I was predicting back in January. The Republicans want minority-majority districts to concentrate the Democrat vote into fewer strongholds in order to tip the balance to Republicans everywhere else. Democrat leaders are resisting, except for some who are minorities.

I Felt It

Quake near Heber Springs. I felt it in north Benton County.

High Gas Prices By Design

What you are seeing at the gas pump these days are high prices by design. By that I mean that the policies of the federal government have guaranteed higher fuel prices are in our future. It was all completely foreseeable and entirely preventable. I can only conclude that they did not take steps to avoid it because they did not want to avoid it.

In 1977 then President Carter started up a new federal department, the Department of Energy. Its’ goal was to reduce our dependency on foreign oil, especially from nations who have demonstrated hostility towards us. At that time, roughly 45% of our oil supplies were from foreign nations. Over thirty years and hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars later, we now rely on foreign sources for over 60% of our oil.

Instead of reducing our dependency on foreign oil, they have focused on reducing our overall energy consumption. Pestering people about insulating their homes doesn’t do anything to reduce our dependency on foreign oil. In fact, heating oil doesn’t even come from the same set of crude oil molecules that make gasoline. Besides, even if they focused on reducing use of the gasoline part of crude oil, using less is only half of the equation. The other half of the equation is our own oil production- its way down and the Department of Energy doesn’t seem to have a problem with that.

While the talking heads assure you that this is needful because the United States is running out of oil, the truth is more complicated. The federal government won’t let oil companies get to the oil we have. For example, the Obama administration enacted a blanket ban on drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. The oil spill was the excuse, but expert after expert said that a blanket ban was not needed, and may even make the situation worse. The courts even ordered the administration to lift the ban, and they have defied the courts and continue to keep the ban in place!

Meanwhile, they are putting so much red tape in place that no one wants to build a new refinery here, and the ones that have them here already are looking to sell them- like Arkansas’ own Murphy Oil. And while we may not have that much traditional crude left, we have billions of barrels of oil sands and even more oil shale available. Enough to meet our oil needs for the next 1,000 years at the least. In fact, the United States is one of the top five countries in terms of oil sands, and is number one in oil shale. Add to that, coal can be liquefied and turned into oil. We are the coal king of the planet.

Canada already gets over half of its oil from oil sands. Several countries have viable oil shale refineries. During WWII, the Germans used coal liquefaction as their major source of gasoline. They did this with 1940s technology! Why can’t we do it now? We can. The government is just not interested in pursuing policies that would allow it to happen. In fact, they are getting in the way. For example, federal policy does not allow the government to buy oil from any oil production process that emits more greenhouse gases than conventional oil drilling. These other processes produce about 45% more C02.

The state-controlled media may try to blame Egypt or Libya or some other little foreign country for your troubles at the gas pump. Don’t believe it.

Tom Woods Alert! People Thinking Outside the Box!

....on nullification in Montana..and by extension the bill in our own legislature which would nullify federal gun laws. Woods is awesome, just give it a listen.

Lighting Strike on Capitol Dome

I have heard a report of a lighting strike on the capitol dome. There is even supposed to be a scorched spot. Nice of God to send the legislators a little reminder to do the right thing.

FOX News Argues in Court That They Don't Have to Tell Truth..

....and wins. It turns out that courts have decided that news media can legally and deliberately lie. Fox made no effort to dispute the fact that it was lying to the court. That's because courts don't like it when they get lied to. They only think it's OK when you get lied to.

In other stories, the NY Times gives another report on court action where FOX News boss Roger Ailes conspired to keep secret information that could have damaged the chances of Mayor Rudy Guiliani- if he had had any chances! Guiliani was the fake conservative that the establishment tried to sell the GOP voters on last time. Hannity for one gave him lots of gushing press. That effort was an epic fail. Who will be the new fake conservative? Looks like Mitt Romney from here.

Because No Other Prominent Republicans Will Do it....

Even Mike Huckabee seems to have a muted response to the administration's outrageous decision not to defend a spurious judicial over-ride of the Defense of Marriage Act. If any of my countrymen want to take a breath of fresh air and read how a real statesmen is supposed to respond to this situation, please see Ron Paul's condemnation of the decision.

Glenn Beck Ripping and Spinning Alex Jones Material

I had a friend tell me this for a year, but now Alex Jones has put together some documentation. Alex Jones of infowars.com breaks a lot of stories. The lamestream media ignores or dismisses Jones. Beck takes the same info and uses it for his programing.

Jones' major complaint is not that Beck takes his stories without attribution. Rather, he protests the spin that Beck puts on the same information. To Beck, all the conspiratorial plots come from the political left. In his view, Van Jones is a major player. Jones views him as a mid-level player for one side of the two-sided threat. Jones' point is that both major political parties have been captured by forces that are hostile to middle and working class Americans. Beck wants to make it a left-right thing. Jones sees it as a tyranny-liberty thing.

Another Issue Conservatives Have Little Representation On

Homosexuals using the power of the state to corrupt the meaning of "marriage". The link notes that the Republicans are very muted in their response to Resident Obama's decision not to contest the usurping judges who tossed out the Defense of Marriage Act.

Illegal Immigration, Education, Growth of government, foreign aid, endless war for corporate fun and profit, the Federal Reserve, and now homosexuals "marriage." Throw a few more on the list, I have to get to work. The point is, neither party really represents our interests on any of those big issues and a lot more besides.

Burlsworth and Pelley Right About ICLEI and Agenda 21

I have noticed that people who see farther ahead than most are often accused of hallucinating by those whose vision is not as great. So it is with Debbie Pelley and Jeannie Burlsworth of Secure Arkansas. They have tried to warn people that there is an integrated plan by well-funded people that will use environmentalism as a screen to alter the lives of average people for the worse. They warned us that this plan has a name - Agenda 21. They have warned that an outfit called ICLEI and how it suckers local governments into helping implement this plan.

Now we learn that Carroll County Maryland has become the first county to withdraw from ICLEI. This county was much further along in the "partnership" with ICLEI than the towns and cities around here, and the voters apparently did not like where it was heading. I wish our local governments, if they won't listen to Burlsworth and Pelley, perhaps they can quit their pretentious mocking of these two ladies long enough to consider the experience of those who went down the ICLEI path before them.

Black History Month- Two Uplifting Stories: Patriots on Watch

Listen here.

Mark gives accounts from the lives of two great black Americans. These accounts will uplift you, I don't care what color you are.

Bill to Keep Illegals from Public Benefits Dies in Committee

The bill went down 9-8, though sponsor Jon Hubbard watered down the bill in an effort to get votes. He and Gov. Mike Beebe had some testy words over it too.

Do I see eye-to-eye with Beebe on this bill? No. Does Beebe have a right to make his opposition to the bill known? Yes. As long as he is not promising state money in exchange for votes, he has the same right as anyone to let his feelings be known. My usual complaint with Beebe is that he talks both sides and does not make his true feelings known, except behind the scenes. And as the article points out, Beebe was actually less testy with Hubbard than former Republican Governor Mike Huckabee was with former State Senator Jim Holt when Holt introduced a similar bill in 2006. Huckabee got almost abusive in his ardor to keep tax monies flowing to "undocumented immigrants."

Nullification Legislation Comes to Arkansas: Patriots on Watch Radio

Listen Here.

A patriot is one who loves his country, but the government is not the country. We are. What makes security forces side with the people in an uprising? Also, the Firearms Freedom bill would nullify federal laws on gun ownership, if the guns were not used in interstate commerce. Plus, Montana bucks the Endangered Species Act.

Rep Bryan King Gets It: Firearms Freedom Act

Rep. Bryan King "Gets it." I was very impressed with the legal reasoning in his "firearms freedom act."

This was the same legal reasoning Wayne Fincher wanted to use, but Judge Jim Hendren would not allow him to present his constitutional defense at trial. Fincher is in prison as we speak. I stopped by the ruined shell of his self-styled "militia headquarters. The gutted building contained one striking feature. A giant wall of legal books. Fincher's mistake was in believing that the words on those pages would protect him, but that's not the way today's judiciary works. They honor power and bend the law accordingly.

Right Sizing Higher Ed

I notice the headline in the Rogers Morning News this Sunday. Northwest Arkansas Community College President Johnny Haney warned that the proposed capital gains tax cut could hurt higher education funding. Indeed it could, but when we already have more college graduates than we have jobs that really require college degrees, then maybe its time to boost business at the expense of higher education. I mean, do we really need higher ed funding to continue to increase when there are fewer and fewer jobs in the state for graduates to take?

At some point, hopefully things rebound and we find that there is a shortage of college graduates in some fields. Maybe THAT would be a more rational time to subsidize college. Right now, higher taxes are a bigger obstacle than lack of a college educated workforce in creating a business-friendly climate.

Justin Harris: Centerpoint Firestorm

If there are any aspiring young Machiavellis out there, the recent firestorm surrounding freshman state representative Justin Harris(R) Praire Grove, is an excellent example of how to conduct a character assassination. These are the tactics that the left routinely uses against conservative legislators, that's why there are so few who stick to their guns once in office.

The charges don't have to be true, they just have to have some molehill of fact on which to build a mountain of invective. Volume and repetition are more important than accuracy or context. Maliciousness over merit.

Observe for example, the coverage given by the Arkansas Times to allegations that Harris' day care gives state subsidized day care to illegal aliens. Harris is a key supporter of a bill that would prevent illegal aliens from getting tuition subsidies for college. Tolbert gives more even-handed coverage.

The crux of the complaint is that Harris wants to deny colleges taxpayer money for illegal aliens while his day care gets taxpayer money for "educating" pre-schoolers who are illegal aliens.

A lot of things could be said in response to this, but the first and best one is likely this: The allegations simply are not true. All that is really known is that out of over 100 children, 12 do not have social security numbers. Of those 12, my sources tell me that 11 are definitely citizens. They are still checking on the 12th.

It is not that unusual to have ten percent of preschoolers- some of them still infants, who do not have a social security number. This is especially so in a rural population. I didn't have one until I was 16 and ready to move beyond odd-jobs.

Remember these are pre-schoolers. Many of them are less than two years old. Even if their parents are illegal aliens, under current law (which I would like to change) if they are born here, they are citizens. How many illegal aliens sneak in with children of that tender age? Odds are good that every one of those preschoolers was born in the states, even if some of their parents were not.

The second thing to be said in response to the critics is that under current law it is illegal to exclude such children from programs like the one Harris runs even if they were here illegally. If Harris had excluded such children from his center, the Arktimes still would have been the first to jump him.

The third thing that can be said about this mess is that government has intervened in far too many areas. It drives business now. I doubt it is possible to run a day-care of any size without the government funding. Your competitors will take the money if you don't, and you will be pounded into dust.

If you are in the business, are you a hypocrite if you take the money yet still call for the funding to be cut? Nope. You are a hero. The government is everywhere. We all have to take their money, because they are the ones who have it right now. That does not mean that we believe they should have it. I sell to government institutions, yet I'd like to see their budget cut. Am I a hypocrite? No more than average. Just willing to vote against my own self interest to save the country from unsustainable government growth.

I cashed Bush's "stimulus" check, not because I believed he was doing the right thing, but because I knew that I would be called on to pay back the money he borrowed to send those checks whether I cashed it or not. I had to cash it to stay even. That's why socialism makes us all into liars, beggars and thieves. My leveraged participation does not make me sigh and resign myself to accepting it or what it does to me. It makes me despise the corrupting influence of socialism under any name even more.

No, I don't believe the government should be taxing my family, with a stay-at-home mom, to subsidize Harris' day care center for moms who work. I don't think the government should be taking sides in people's personal choices like that, and if they did take a side, it ought to be the pro-family way. I am sure he runs a fine day care, but I trust my wife more than I trust his daycare to raise my kids. But as long as Harris votes right, that's all I can ask.

The government has threaded itself into every aspect of life so much that its almost impossible to make a living without catering to them on some level. Almost everyone who wants to cut government is to some degree a "hypocrite" on that basis. Give me hypocrites any day who do business with government out of necessity but vote to change that necessity over the openly wicked who suck their living from the public treasury and vote to keep it that way.

Jonathan Chavez: A Test of a Just Society

Adam Smith : Mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent.

The editorial page of the Northwest Arkansas Section of the Sunday DemZetter- formerly the Morning News, draws our attention to the case of Jonathan Chavez. His parents brought him to America from Peru at the age of 14. They then overstayed their visas and remained in the country illegally.

The title of the article reads "Show Mercy to Student with Promise." They point to Chavez's talents and intellect, and even his devout Christianity, to help them make the case that the immigration laws in this case should be ignored.

This is too much. Can you imagine the DemGaz arguing that people should not be punished for any other class of crimes on the basis of their Christian faith? They spend reams of paper and barrels of ink blasting Christians, especially political ones, who take their faith seriously. Suddenly, its supposed to be some kind of "get out of jail free" card?

The headline is also illogical. If we should let Chavez stay on account of what a valuable citizen he would be, which seems to be the point they are making, then it would not be an act of "mercy" at all. It would be an act of self-interest. Are we supposed to let the smart, good-looking illegal aliens stay but boot out the plain and simple ones? What kind of justice is that?

I reject such inequality under the law as a disgraceful and inappropriate suggestion. The law should apply to the rich as well as the poor, to the handsome as well as the ugly, to the wise as well as the simple. All should be judged by the same standard under the law.

While it may be hard for this young man to understand the reason that justice demands that this young man go back to his homeland, I can see it helping him more than it hurts in the long run. He will probably wind up running some giant corporation's holdings in Peru and wind up a rich man. He may not even want to come back to the states once his 10 year waiting period is up. In the meantime, to show him "mercy" means that every job he gets here is a job lost by someone who followed the rules and is in this country legally.

The paper chides those who would show "rigidity" in enforcing the law. That lets you know how they view the law- as something that is binding on those out of favor with them but not to be applied to "the right people." To put it bluntly, they have a corrupt view of law. The law can only be applied justly when it is applied rigidly.

Given the paper's corrupt view of law, it is not surprising that they are also ignorant of our supreme law of the land, the Constitution. They claim that the Birthright Citizenship Act of 2011, which clarifies that children born in the US to illegal aliens are not citizens, is unconstitutional. In so doing they ignore the plain text and the intent of that text. "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, AND SUBJECT TO THE JURISDICTION THEREOF" become citizens. Sen. Howard M. Jacob was the author of this part of the 14th amendment, and he made it clear that he was referring to "full and complete" jurisdiction, not the children of illegal aliens. Courts have imposed their own view because Congress has not legislated Jacob's intent- until perhaps now.

Dem Gaz Seems Surprised At the "New" Mike Beebe

The Dem-Gaz editorial page is now expressing shock that when the chips are on the table Gov. Mike Beebe is pretty much an old-fashioned tax and spend big-government liberal.

The Real Mike Beebe, so different from the public image. But why do they feign surprise? They helped create the image/illusion. It is like Dr. Frankenstein expressing shock that the thing he created is a monster. Not that I am saying Mike Beebe is a monster (even if his position on abortion is monstrous). What I am saying is that he was not the pro-business centrist to conservative Democrat that the state's media, especially the DemGaz, made him out to be. His idea of being "pro-business" is to tax all business heavily except for the few which have gained his special favor. Those get subsidized.

DemGaz can be accurate, when the big-boys have money at stake, as in the article I linked to. The last five paragraphs just ask the question of whether or not the Department of Finance and Admin. correctly calculated how much the tax cuts proposed would really "cost" the state in revenue. We already know the answer and so should they- static models invariably overestimate state rev. losses from tax cuts.

One of the proposed cuts has to do with removing the retail sales taxes on energy used for manufacturing. Energy is never an end product, its always used to make something else. Retail sales tax for that? Doesn't even make sense for my home, much less a factory.

Montana, Oklahoma on Nullification, Interposition Band Wagon

Responsible state legislatures around the nation are increasingly taking measures to protect their populations from the potential impact of the madness coming out of Washington D.C. For example, the Oklahoma House just passed a bill authorizing the state to invest in its own gold and silver holdings. The precaution is being suggested because of fear that the federal government is going to destroy the dollar with reckless spending and over-printing. A stockpile of gold and silver would allow the state to have savings that would not evaporate if and when the dollar does. It could also form the basis of a new currency not subject to mass devaluation because it would be based on fixed units of precious metal.

Montana is going even farther, even though it is on an issue more limited in scope. The house just passed legislation nullifying the Endangered Species act as it applies to wolves in the state. Ranchers and families in the state seem to have tired of the idea that the federal government should be able to imprison them for defending themselves and their live stock from wolf predation.

The latter article cites unnamed critics who incorrectly claim that the effort is "unconstitutional since federal laws are supreme." The constitution actually says that the constitution is supreme, and that federal laws made pursuant to the constitution are supreme. Can someone find a place in the constitution where the federal government is authorized to tell citizens of the several states what animals they can and cannot hunt? If you can't, then the Endangered Species Act could not have been made "pursuant" to the constitution and therefore is not supreme over state law under that constitution.

Arkansas is quite behind the curve on this trend. Our long term strategy seems to be to try and suck up to the most indebted institution in human history in the hopes they will keep giving us money.

Corporatism Demonstrated in Drug Research

Corporatism, which some would say is very similar to garden-variety fascism, is on display with news that the U.S. Government will now fund pharmaceutical research. Natural news notes that, "The new government drug research center will operate under the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and be called the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences. Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, says he hopes Congress will increase funding of the center to at least $1 billion annually."

We are already the most medicated nation in human history, but I guess that the market is not producing enough new drugs for some people. Somehow we have to have the government fund drug research and then apparently hand the results over to Big Pharma. Taxpayers foot the bill for research, Big Pharma rakes in the profits from the medication- in many cases by getting government to make use of their vaccines "mandatory." That's corporatism at work. Corporations fund politicians, who in turn give taxpayer subsidies to the corporations, mandate the purchase of their products, and enact regulatory burdens to potential competitors. Where does the average citizen figure in with all this? They are merely tools for the "persons" who really matter, the corporations and the political class. Those two groups have a system which mutually fund one another from our pockets.

One might say that drug research is declining because the FDA makes it so hard to get a new drug to market. Maybe, but is the answer to a problem caused by government interventionism in the market supposed to be solved by more intervention on the other side of the equation? The answer is to make the FDA more like the patent office, which is self-funding. Their approval in this system would not be required to sell a drug, but it would be a selling point if a drug had it, and the approval could be tied to patent protections that a drug would enjoy if it had such approval.

FOX News Murdoch Lobbies Senate for "Immigrants"

By which he means ILLEGAL immigrants of course, even though he won't say it. Legal immigrants are treated well here.

In the link, he says FOX does not take an "anti-immigrant" line. So where do you get your media if you want the side that wants our immigration laws to be enforced and our border secured? Not ABCNBCCBSCNNMSNBCFOX. They are all part of the global corporate push for a world without restrictions on the flow of labor.

Why Every Republican Should Co-Sponsor HB1292, The Illegal Alien Bill

Representative Jon Hubbard filed HB1292, An Act To Prohibit Illegal Aliens From Receiving Any State Benefit Except In Instances of Emergency. Oringally it had four Co-sponsors: Deffenbaugh, Eubanks, Harris, Stubblefield. Following are several reasons why every Republican should sign on as a co-sponsor to this bill. If even most of the Republicans would become a co-sponsor, the media would not be able to marginalize any of them. [Since this was written on February 9, we have 34 sponsors of the bill. They won't be listed on the Arkansas Legislative website until bill is amended on Wednesday. ]

1. Arkansans are more united on this issue in not wanting to give benefits to illegal aliens than any other issue in Arkansas or the nation. Nationwide 89% of Republicans oppose benefits for illegal aliens.

§ In a KAIT-8 poll in 2010, 94% said they would vote for a state constitutional amendment to deny state social services to illegal immigrants. A similar poll in 2008 had the same results.
A Rasmussen Report poll shows an astounding 83% of Americans believe that illegal aliens should not have access to "government health care subsidies".

About 72 percent of voters said it's "very important" for "the government to improve its enforcement of the borders and reduce illegal immigration." The figure jumped to 89 percent among Republicans, while 65 percent of Democrats and 63 percent of unaffiliated voters believed enforcement is "very important." Rasmussen Poll
This is a winning issue for Republicans, and Republicans should take advantage of it.

2. Republican legislators have a responsibility to the conservatives who put them in office to co-sponsor this bill and make it a priority.

Eighty-nine percent of Republicans favor reducing illegal immigration.
§ Secure Arkansas gathered 78,000 signatures according to their records, and the Secretary of State confirmed the number submitted as 67,542 signatures, which would have been enough to satisfy the requirement for the initiative to become law (but not enough to meet the requirement for a constitutional amendment, the goal of the petition in 2010).
§ Republicans legislators, as our representatives, should not sit on the sidelines while citizens put in thousands and thousands of hours in labor (and money) to get a law passed limiting benefits for illegal aliens, especially when a large majority of both parties support such a law.
§ Senior legislators should support those freshman legislators who have the courage to sponsor these bills.

For several other reasons and bullet points see this link: http://www.wpaag.org/illegals%20-%20Hispanic%20population%20skyrockets%20in%20Arkansas.htm

Road to Ruin: Republican Calls for Tax Increase Vote for Highways

Rep. Johnathan Barnett (Siloam Springs), has called for a vote to get a new highway tax. The money would actually be used to pay off highway bonds, freeing up fuel tax dollars that are allocated to bond repayment to be used for new spending.

Barnett was on the Highway Commission under Gov. Mike Huckabee, so Highways are near and dear to his heart. Perhaps so dear that he has become tone deaf to the actual mood of his constituents. Tolbert has panned the proposal. Barnett and company may make the argument that they are not supporting a tax increase, but only giving people a chance to vote on a tax increase. I have a long memory my friends, so let me remind you that when we vote down a tax increase that the big boys favor, we often get asked to choose again until we make the choice that's right for them.

We also got to "choose again" in 2005, when we voted down (in a special election two weeks before Christmas) the original plan that Barnett's proposal is attempting get us out of. That time it had a provision that would let them keep us in debt without a vote. We voted it down and they came right back with one that was a one-time event. With unrelenting establishment media support, and support of both Asa Hutchinson and Mike Beebe, the bond issue passed. It borrowed against our state road tax stream for 25 years in the future in order to get a big pile of money in 05.

Well, the pols have blown through that wad, and our hands are tied for the next 20 years because much of our fuel tax money is committed to repaying the bonds. That's why Barnett wants a tax increase to pay them off. Friends, we tried to warn you. Here is Sen. Jim Holt (who this blog supported) about the highway bond ussue back then, "If we don’t commit those income streams to bond repayment, then we will have them available to improve roads on a pay-as-you-go basis.

If we take on this debt, our ability to deal with future unanticipated needs would be hampered, because the money due us for many years out would already be committed to re-paying the bonds."

Guess what folks, he is exactly right. And since I was his policy adviser at the time, I guess that means I was exactly right too. Here is what I said earlier when Huckabee originally pulled the same trick with our stream of federal road money.

"The Governor wants all that money to be spent by his own administration, tying the hands of any future ones. He had better spend wisely, correctly anticipating what highway improvements will be best for your twelve year old when they are in their thirties. They will be almost forty before they get a chance to spend any federal highway money on what they think the road priorities should be, because the Governor has spent it all for them now.

The current bunch we have in Little Rock, Democrats and Republicans alike, have never met a 25 year income stream that they did not want to spend in four years or less. They did it with the Tobacco settlement money, and they have done it again with our future Federal Highway dollars. "

The mess we are now in with our highways was completely forseeable, and entirely predictable- as proven by the fact that both Holt and I predicted it. Why trust the same people who got you into a mess to lead you out of it? Why listen to the people whose error led you into the mess? Doesn't it make more sense to start listening to the people who saw it coming and tried to warn you? Just asking.

Thirty-Four Sponsors of Illegal Alien HB1292 by Jon Hubbard

Twenty-Nine More Co-sponsors for HB1292, The Illegal Alien Bill, For a Total of 34 (Two More Senators joined in today.)

28 Republican Representatives Are Now Co-Sponsors and 15 Are Not; 4 Republican Senators Are Co-Sponsors and 12 Are NOT; Two Democrat Representatives Are Co-Sponsors

There is no other bill that would save us anything like the money this bill would save us!

For those of you who have co-sponsored we thank you very, very much. For you that haven't, what are you waiting for? The new census shows the Hispanic population in Arkansas is skyrocketing.

If you citizens haven't contacted your legislators, what are you waiting for?

To see the list of those that have co-sponsored the bill and their contact information, go to this link: http://www.wpaag.org/leg%20session%20-%2032%20sponsors%20of%20HB1292%20Hubbard%20bill.htm

Hispanic Population Skyrockets in Arkansas, New US Census

Below are bullet points (excerpts in exact words but rearranged some) from the story "2 counties' Hispanic population skyrockets" by Arkansas Democrat Gazette February 15, 2011.

§ SPRINGDALE — The Hispanic population of Benton and Washington counties has more than doubled over the past 10 years, according to U.S. Census data released Thursday. Each of those counties had more than 30,000 Hispanic residents in 2010.

§ While Benton and Washington counties had the most Hispanic people, other counties across the state also saw more people identifying with the ethnic group. In 2010, eight other counties - Yell, Washington, Benton, Bradley, Carroll, Sebastian, Johnson and Hempstead - had double-digit percentages of Hispanic residents.

§ Among cities, Springdale has the largest Hispanic population in the northwest region, with 24,692 residents. More than one-third of the city’s residents, or 35 percent, are Hispanic. The number of Hispanics living in Springdale jumped by 174 percent from 2000 to 2010.

§ “I don’t think that’s a surprise,” Mayor Doug Sprouse said. “I would love to see more Hispanics become involved in seeking elected office.” Sprouse said the city has benefited from the influx of people from other cultures. The city was a homogeneous white community when he was growing up there, the mayor said. “I have seen what a positive that is for our kids to grow up in a city that has that diversity,” Sprouse said.

§ “Probably more than 80 or 85 percent of those Hispanics are Mexican,” said Andres Chao, the Mexican consul for Arkansas. Chao, who is based in Little Rock, said he was not surprised by the census numbers. “We opened the consulate here in Arkansas in April 2007...because the population was growing really fast,” he said.

§ The number of Hispanics living in Benton County jumped by 155 percent from 2000 to 2010. The county now has 34,283 Hispanic residents, compared with 13,469 in 2000.

§ In Washington County, the Hispanic population grew by 143 percent over the same period, from 12,932 to 31,458.

§ Hispanics made up 186,050 of the state’s population in 2010, up from 86,866 a decade ago.

§ Pulaski County had the third-most with 22,168 Hispanic residents in 2010, up from 8,816 in 2000. Sebastian County followed with 15,445 Hispanic residents in 2010, up from 7,710 in 2000.

§ Hispanics account for 31 percent of the residents of Rogers, up from 19 percent in 2000. The total population in Rogers in 2010 was 55,964.

§ The number of Hispanics in Fayetteville increased by 68 percent to 4,725 in 2010. That’s 6.4 percent of the city’s total population of 73,580.

This is a crime, folks, and our Governor and legislators should be held responsible. Other states have passed strong laws limiting the benefits to illegal aliens; the illegal aliens from those states are fleeing to Arkansas. Some of our own Republicans won't even co-sponsor the HB1292 and HB1008, even those Republicans in the Northwest where the problem is the worst. Statistics indicate that only about 1/3 of foreign born people in Arkansas even apply for citizenship so we concede that 33% MAY be legal but the others 2/3 are not.

Redistricting Congress- Options take shape.

I wouldn't recommend it: A proposed redistricting map from Dave Wasserman which shows what redistricting of Congressional Districts would look like if the Democrat Party gets their way.
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Here is a map D. Wasserman drew with protection of incumbents in mind.

Government Shuts Down 84,000 Web Sites By Mistake

I guess they just need to practice until they get at good at it as Mubarak's team was. BTW, the sites were replaced with a note from the government falsely accusing the sites of being linked to child porn.

Congratulations to Jeannie Burlsworth and Debbie Pelley

...for being so effective at limited-government grass roots activism that the left-of-Mao team at the Arkansas Times felt compelled to feature them prominently in a long cover story. Looks like you are in step three of Ghandi's maxim.

Operating Conservative Majority in Arkansas House

Tolbert has the account of the capital gains tax cut passing in the Arkansas House. The thing that fascinated me was the loosening of Gov. Beebe's iron-grip over the legislators. The sudden presence of a sizable Republican minority willing to buck the Governor has the effect of emboldening members of his own party into joining them in sort of an operational conservative coalition.

Of course tax cuts are easy. Spending cuts are what is hard. We will see who sticks with who when budget priorities are laid out. Still, as a person who believes in a strong legislature, I find it a very refreshing change that we have a legislature that is willing to stand up and express their own will. It is quite a change from the last group, who took what I considered outrageous disrespect from the Governor and Executive branch personnel.

Faux News Fakes CPAC Crowd Reaction

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UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE

FOX claims that using the old video was "an honest mistake." People in the business tell me that they find that hard to believe. I do too, because FOX has a clear and consistent pattern of dirty tricks against Ron Paul. Conservative American, don't buy the lie and slip back into a FOX induced conservative coma. Realize that what you are watching also has a globalist and neocon agenda.
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Faux News used video of last year's CPAC, where boos were as loud as cheers when Paul was announced as the winner, and represented to people that this was the current year's reaction to a Paul victory. Listen to the FAUX news report and then the real audio of this year's announcement and hear for yourself.

FAUX News is dishonest. You can't trust them just because they tell you what you want to hear once in a while. They are a false flag operation to keep conservatives from embracing what true conservatism is- limited government that results in liberty.

What Would Jesus Cut?: Patriots on Watch Net Radio

Listen Here.

Jim Wallis and his Sojourners Group have recently put out messages they call "What Would Jesus Cut?" In them, they make the case that Jesus would not cut social spending, but would instead fund it through cuts in the military. Mark turns to the scriptures to find out "What Would Jesus Cut?"

O'Brien Advises Pushing Left Harder

The people of Arkansas dodged a major bullet when they narrowly elected Mark Martin as Secretary of State over former Pulaski County Clerk Pat O'Brien. O'Brien was also Barack Obama's campaign manager in the state, and he shares the same view of transparency in government- he ordered numerous election records be destroyed just before he left office.

Now it turns out that O'Brien is chiding Democrats for not pushing left hard enough. It's all right here on the blue hog. It's crazy talk. Even Obama realizes now that he must feign toward the middle after the beating his side took in November. In a climate where the Democrats are losing ground furiously and will lose it worse after redistricting, O'Brien thinks the answer is to cram more unwanted leftism down our collective throat.

Adminsitration Proposes Winding Down Mortgage Giants

Will the US Government get out of the mortgage-backing business? Fannie Mae to be dissolved? That is one of three proposals put forth by the administration. Government get out of something that it has gotten into? I am about to faint.

South Carolina Bill Would Coin State Money

A Silver Eagle. The US Still Mints Some Real Money.
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A bill by a South Carolina State Senator would authorize the state to coin its own money. Sen. Bill Bright says this is needed because of the possibility of the collapse of the dollar. His view is that a back up plan is needed to protect people from economic chaos when the dollar goes down. The coins his legislation authorize would be of either silver or of gold.

Well, I think he is right about the dollar, and right about the need for an alternative. The problem is that the Constitution does not authorize the states to coin their own money. They can only choose to recognize or not recognize money coined by others- the US mint for example. I would suggest he re-tool his bill to authorize the state to recognize privately minted silver or gold bars or rounds which meet state requirements as "commodity based exchange" mechanisms which function like money.

Brummett Waxes Irrational On Judicial Pick

John Brummett is a big enough man to admit it when he makes a mistake. That is to his credit. He recently did so in a column concerning State Supreme Court Justice Courtney Henry.

He wrote: "I apologize to readers for having recommended Justice Henry’s election last year over John Fogleman. It was the second-worst endorsement I ever made, topped only by that of Mark Wilcox for secretary of state.

I did so only because Justice Henry was married into a prominent political family in Fayetteville for which I have great regard and respect. That she split the sheet with that family a few days after her election took away the only thing that commended her for the job. "

That says a lot right there. John Brummett does this for a living. He has been given a gigantic bully pulpit from which to influence elections. Here we get a critical look at his thinking. He picked Henry because of the family that she married into. On that basis, he elevated her above John Fogelman.

When even a professional opinionator like Brummett can't go any deeper than that on a state supreme court slot, it tells me there is a dearth of information on judicial candidates. And so there is. The way government is set up in this state, people can vote for judges, but it is a vote from ignorance. They are barred by a flawed "Judicial Code of Ethics" from telling anyone anything about their judicial philosophy that might help a voter determine who they should vote for. In the other state supreme court race, Judge Fox made an awful ruling that probably cost him the election, but normally when people vote for judges, they are shooting in the dark. The "Code of Ethics" should be reformed.

Notice I am not busting on John Brummett for endorsing Henry on the flimsy grounds of liking the family she married into. That would be easy points, but it would not be helpful. The truth is even a connected person like John Brummett who is paid to know about these things can't really know much about them the way the system is set up. The intent may be to keep judges from promising to rule a certain way, but the effect is to make elections next to meaningless because people are not informed voters.

So far you may be thinking that my title does not match the contents of the column. I have been fairly charitable to Brummett. Where does the irrationality come in? It is in his proposed "solution" to fix his error.

"This unfortunate episode enhances the argument that we should not popularly elect these justices. The Bar Association should screen and advance candidates and the governor should nominate them subject to state Senate confirmation. "

Now that's what I call waxing ignorant. That is the same process used for the Federal Supreme Court, and it is a proven failure at restraining the growth of the branches it is supposed to check and balance- the Executive Branch in particular. Such a system only worked when the upper chamber was appointed by the legislatures of each state as originally laid out by the Founders. That help insure that Judicial nominees would look after the interests of the states, and of the people, against federal encroachments. This was because the Senate that confirmed them was itself a creature of the states.

All of this changed with the 17th amendment in 1913. Direct election of Senators meant that they no longer had to look out for the interests of the states when confirming Judges. The federal courts have consistently let the rest of the federal government run over the states and the rest of us ever since.

His idea that bar association lawyers will produce more qualified nominees than Henry does not stand scrutiny. Elana Kagan is not a judge. She never sat behind the bench and never tried a single case. She had less judicial experience than Courtney Henry, yet somehow she wound up on the Supreme Court. If we are going to be idiotic about judicial qualifications, then at least let it be the idiocy of the whole people, not of a small group.

The only way to protect our liberties from judicial encroachment is an informed vote of the people themselves, who have to live under the effect of judicial rulings. Confining the selection process to some priestly caste further separates and alienates the governed from the governing. And Brummett himself is what passes for an expert here. HE was supposed to be the expert and he admits that he just picked her because of her in-laws. Clearly, the problem in judicial selection is not that people have a vote, but rather the barriers that exist to an informed vote. The "Judicial Code of Ethics" which throws up deliberate barriers to obtaining vital information about judicial candidates must be reformed.

Joke May Be on Ingram as Redistricting Looms

Rep. Keith Ingram (D-West Memphis) has proposed a Constitutional amendment to eliminate the office of Lieutenant Governor and Land Commissioner. Those offices are 2 of the 3 state-wide positions held by Republicans.

The joke may well be on him. Redistricting data is coming online now and I can tell you that it is real bad news for Arkansas Democrats. The parts of the state where they are strong are dying. They are collapsing in on themselves. The areas of the state that are vibrant and growing are all Republican areas. The possible exception is Pulaski County which has managed decent growth because it is the seat of state government- one sure growth industry even in troubled times.

Many Republican state house districts had 38,000, or even over 40,000, persons in them. The districts that lost people were the most Democrat voting areas of the state. Many of them, perhaps even the majority, had only 25,000 voters or less. The average state house district will contain about 29,000 voters. Much of NWA and the conservative counties which surround Pulaski county will get 150%-175% of the representation that they now have. The south and the delta will lose seats- maybe even Ingram's seat. How ironic that a man who puts forth a partisan plan to eliminate the offices held by the opposing party seats in a chair that may be consolidated away.

Conservatives have a winning philosophy - let's leave aside for a minute the debate about whether the GOP will ever actually deliver what voters think they are getting when they vote for them. The old ways are an absolute disastrous failure. The communities who cling to them are dying. In order to change their fate, they first have to change what they believe.

Faux News is Pathetic. They Function as Flase Flag Operation to Herd Sheep

Today the results of the Conservative Political Action Committee straw poll was announced. While the event has taken some hits of late for their inclusion of the homosexual activists group GOProud, they are still the biggest conservative political event of the season.

The thing is, Ron Paul was going to win the CPAC straw poll, and FAUX News knew it. Their solution? Saturate the airways with their own poll, that did not even mention Ron Paul as one of the options. Their "FAUX" poll was also structured so as to make each candidate's support look as large as possible. Instead of asking "Who do you support for President", they asked "Who do you think would make a good President?" and then started listing names. The total for the poll was 231%, because many respondents thought more than one person on the list would "make a good President."

Mitt Romney was at the top of their loaded poll which left Ron Paul off the list. Meanwhile, Paul was busy beating Romney at CPAC 30% to 23% percent. Paul was the winner at CPAC, but FAUX does not want the sheeple to pay any attention to someone who is a real threat to the crooked system that is robbing the middle class and turning our children into debt slaves.

FAUX news is a false flag operation designed to herd people away from candidates who will really represent their interests. The top owner of FAUX is an Australian with significant business interests in Communist China and whose second biggest individual owner is a Muslim and Saudi Prince. Who are they to tell Americans who their acceptable choices for President are?

Trust Me Legislators, I'm an Expert: Patriots on Watch Radio

Listen here.

Legislators trust expert witnesses to help them make decisions on legislation- unfortunately their expertise is in getting in your pockets and restricting your freedom. Plus: Who squandered the stimulus money and why are we being railroaded? Pension fund liabilities another reason why the elites are determined to destroy the dollar.

Macro Evolution is False Part Two Thousand Four Hundred and Thirteen

I noticed that the science daily website had an article up which dethroned a group of "primitive" marine worms as a potential ancestor of us all.

"Acoelomorphs were reclassified in the1990's as an early branch of evolution -- the crucial link between the very simplest animals such as sponges and jellyfish and the rest of the animal kingdom including humans, starfish, insects and molluscs.

Now, in research published online February 9 in Nature, an international team led by scientists from UCL (University College London) and the Université de Montréal have shown that neither type of worm is an early branch of evolution. They show that both groups descended from the same ancestor that gave rise to the complex groups of animals that includes vertebrates and starfish. This implies that the worms have in effect 'evolved backwards' into much simpler looking organisms."

Once again a creature that was once supposed to be a "link" between other groups turns out not to be. And notice that the "ancestor that gave rise to complex groups" is now not named. It used to be the worms in question here, but further evaluation of the genetic evidence falsified that hypothesis. The supposed common ancestor remains theoretical.

To my observation, this is what invariably happens when scientists test the hypothesis that some creature belongs to a group which is the direct ancestor of two or more other groups. They invariably find that it is only another "sister" group. That holds true at the phylum and class levels. When you get to family and below, the same techniques sometimes, even often at the genus level, find a connection. The obvious conclusion of that data is that while there is sometimes horizontal evolution within about the family level, the various phylums, classes, and perhaps even orders of life do not have a common ancestor. Too bad their naturalistic worldview does not allow scientists to accept the evidence from their own studies.

Did the creature "evolve backwards" and lose complexity? I dunno, and neither do they really. It's an assumption they are making because they are assuming evolution to be true. But even if it did, losing information is not going to prove macroevolution. You can't go from bacteria to man by losing information. You need a way to gain it, and at a rate consistent with the changes we see in the fossil record, to prove macroevolution.

Global warming is only the 2nd greatest hoax of our time.

House Committee Rejects Open Carry Bill

Fear the government which fears you armed. Or "the government which does not trust its citizens with arms is itself unworthy of trust"- I believe that was Jefferson, the founder of the party whose members in the state legislature do not trust you to go about armed without a paid permit from them.

What Would Jesus Cut?

Sojourners is a “faith-based” organization. It was started up by “Emergent Church” leader Jim Wallis. Recently Sojourners released a letter about their spending priorities for the Federal government called “What Would Jesus Cut?”

In their own words, “We can’t move backwards on programs proven to work: international aid targeted at empowering women; vaccines and bed nets combating deadly diseases; school lunch programs and early childhood education that give poor children the opportunity to thrive; tax credits that reward work and help stabilize families. These are dollars we can’t afford not to invest.”

They attempt to bolster their position by saying, “The biblical prophets make clear that a nation’s righteousness is ultimately determined not by its GNP or military might -- but by how it treats its most vulnerable people. Jesus says our love for him will be demonstrated by how we treat the “least of these.” Their position is that Jesus would cut the defense budget, not these programs.

So what would Jesus cut? I believe that the answer is “everything.” He’d cut our “defense” budget, and He’d cut each and every program they list. He’d be in favor of letting people keep as much of what they earned as possible, then encourage them to give, of their own free will rather than government coercion, what they could to help the less fortunate. And I am very convinced that whatever “social programs” and “international aid” He might allow to be publicly funded, it would be an amount that would be paid for with current revenues. Using debt even to “do good” is grossly unjust to the next generation.

continued on the jump...

List of Referred Amendments Filed

Tolbert has a list up. One of them was to eliminate 2/3 state wide offices held by Republicans!

Ark. Senate Bill 97 Up for Committee Vote

Cecile Bledsoe's SB 97, which would ban our judiciary from considering foreign law in their rulings, is up for an important committee hearing. Here is her message about this bill...

On February 23, 2011, the Senate Judiciary Committee meets at 10:00 AM. An attorney for the Center for Security Policy in Washington will be present to testify for the bill. We need this bill to pass out of the committee because we feel that there is a good chance it will pass on the Senate floor. This is a very important bill that will strengthen the Arkansas Constitution resulting in better protection of Arkansas citizens. We need to continue to let the committee members know of our support of SB 97. The main criticisms of the bill were:

1. It would adversely affect business contracts between Arkansas companies and foreign countries. An amendment is being added that will exclude businesses altogether from the bill, thus reconfirming that it is a non-issue for businesses.

2. The bill is not needed because Arkansas law already deals with the issue of foreign laws in our state. Examples will be given to show that indeed foreign law is being considered in Arkansas and other states. The main point of this concern is that when a foreign law conflicts with the Arkansas Constitution then the Constitution will be upheld.


Senator Cecile Bledsoe

Unfunded Pension Liabilities

Many states are in serious financial trouble because of their lavish and underfunded pension plans for government employees. Our plans are fairly generous, and we have a large number of public employees relative to our population size compared with other states.

Most of the trouble is in the teacher retirement plan pension fund and the pension fund for state employees. Our annual state budget is about $4.5 billion dollars. These two pension plans are underfunded by a total of $20 billion dollars. The Teacher's pension is only 46% funded, leaving a liability of $14 billion. The public employee's plan is 48% funded, with a shortfall of $6 billion.

Remember that our state Constitution forbids our office holders from loading debt on the people without a vote of the people agreeing to take on that debt. Despite this, we find ourselves owing over four times the entire annual budget of the state to teachers and state employees.

Put Ben Bernake's Face on the Coming New Nickel: Patriots on Watch Radio

Click here to listen.

Replacing Thomas Jefferson with Ben Bernake on the new nickel? It would only be right, for why, listen on..... Plus, Judge Napolitano gets it on the so-called Patriot Act, why can't Washington? The secret is in the definition of a patriot.

We are Being Rail-roaded

We have 1.5 trillion dollar annual deficits, but the Obama administration is proposing a further $53 billion dollar subsidy of high speed passenger rail. This is part of a continuing pattern of the ruling class. They seemed determined to herd us all into cities and take away our freedom of movement. This is done by lavishly subsidizing the failing large cities at the expense of rural areas, and by doing the same with mass transit while passing laws and pursuing policies which continuously make car ownership and gasoline harder to afford. They are also pushing "food safety" measure which will add burdensome regulations that will drive many small farmers out of business, further eroding rural and small town America.

Where the Players Come From (College Football that is)

A chart shows which states produce the most division one signees.

Put Ben Bernake's Face on the Coming New Nickel

Replacing Thomas Jefferson with Ben Bernake on the new nickel? It would only be right, for why, read on....
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Note: There is a specific call to action at the end of this report.

The term "melt value" is a measure of how much value a coin has in terms of its metal content. If it were melted and sold as metal, what would that metal be worth? As our government uses the printing press to create ever more debt-based currency it siphons the value out of existing currency- such as that in your paychecks or bank accounts. This is the hidden tax of inflation at work.

I have in my drawer a silver dollar from the 1940s. It contains 0.77 of an ounce of silver. The silver in the coin is worth far more the face amount (over $22). At the time it was minted, the face value of the coin was greater than its melt value. This is supposed to be the normal situation for coins. They finally had to quit making dollars out of silver, because people were incentivised to melt them down and hoard them rather than spend them at face value.

As the banksters got the printing presses rolling, the dollar sank so low that it could not uphold its silver standard. In the 1980s, the same thing happened to pennies. Their face value fell beneath their melt value, so people started melting them. The government made it illegal to do so, but economics are above the law. Finally, in 1983, they quit making pennies from copper and since then the "copper" penny has been made of almost all zinc. It has kept the same form, so it is difficult to tell the "real" penny from the "cheap" one. You could look at the date, or after a while you will notice that the zinc pennies have a slightly different hue. A penny now has a melt value of 3 cents.

The same thing is about to happen to the nickel. This coin is currently 25% nickel and 75% copper. It has a melt value of over 7 cents and climbing. Mark my words, the content of the nickel is about to be debased. I have not heard of any pending legislation, but the laws of economics will soon demand it. I am concerned that they will handle it the same deceptive way they did with the penny- leave it looking the same even though its content is very different.

There is a not-remote possibility that we will see a sudden and dramatic collapse in the value of Federal Reserve notes. In such a circumstance, much of what we consider normal economic activity will be altered. It will be impossible to save money in Federal Reserve Notes as they become an increasingly leaky "store of value." Gold, silver, nickel, and copper will retain value and so people will increasingly turn to them in order to protect savings.

In such a circumstance, people will turn to the real value of coinage in order to store value and perhaps in order to make trades. People will not have dollar bills saved up. That would be foolish. Dollar bills will be spent as soon as they are gotten in order to avoid being penalized with a loss of buying power. A nickel in 1913 has as much buying power as a dollar does now. Suppose the same thing happens again, only this time in months instead of decades? I can see a situation where gold is used for large transactions, silver is used for regular ones, and coins still made of nickel and copper are used for change- at their melt value, not their face value.

The US Government will throw up every fair and unfair obstacle in an attempt to prop up its failing currency. One barrier they can put up to make it harder for people to use coins at melt value is by cheapening the content of the coin while retaining the same look to the coin. They already did this with the penny. They have taken the first steps toward doing this with the nickel. Have you notice how many different nickels have been issued over the last few years?

My proposal is very simple. I hope that Dr. Ron Paul helps make it happen. Any change in the content of the nickel should be accompanied by noticeable changes in its appearance. People should be able to easily tell the debased nickels from the many nickels which contain their original metals. It should not be nickel in color. Thomas Jefferson and Monticello should not be on it. Maybe Ben Bernake should be on the coming debased nickel, in recognition of his powerful role in necessitating it's cheapening.

Horizontal Gene Transfer Getting Embarrassingly Complicated for MacroEvolution

A suite of 23 genes has apparently been "transferred" directly from one fungus to another. Bacteria are known to swap genes, and have a known method to do so. For higher organisms, they can only guess how some of these gene transfers occurred. They need a mechanism though, because humans have dozens if not hundreds of genes which sponges and below also posses, but are not possessed by anything between mammal and sponge. That's a perplexing problem to explain by evolutionary means. No worries though, if you read the link you will see that they did not even try to find an explanatory mechanism (in other words, how it could be done). They just assume that since the genes have jumped, that evolution must have done it!

Obama Administration Defies the Courts. I Like it.

Resident Obama's Interior Secretary Ken Salazar Don't Need No Stinkin' Court Opinion. As a matter of fact, he is openly thumbing his nose at them when it comes to the drilling ban in the Gulf of Mexico.
Read the full details here.

I like it. Not because of what it is doing to our nation in the short run. I think it is hurting Americans in the pocketbook and with job-creation. Rather, I like the precedent. The Federal Judiciary has become a near-tyrannical oligarchy which disregards the constitution whenever it suits them and occasionally protects us from the rest of the federal government just often enough to keep most Americans unaware of its true effect.

If the Republic can be restored, I suspect that America will have to elect a President who refuses to enforce some of the Court's most over-reaching decisions. So far, the Executive has only bucked the court when the court tried (not very often) to limit the executive's power over the people. What I want is a President who will refuse to use the Executive power of the federal government to enforce the capricious and unconstitutional edicts of the court against the states, and the people.

Of Course We Did, and So Did Everyone Else

The Arkansas Times asks if the state squandered it's share of the "federal stimulus money". Of course we did. Everyone did. That's what people do with "free" money from others. They don't spend it as wisely as they would their own. Even if they wanted to, they would not spend it as efficiently as the market because none of us are as smart as all of us. When government puts it's thumb on the scales, it leads to a misallocation of resources.

Their complaint was that the money was used for new road construction rather than maintenance of existing infrastructure and mass transit. I am with them on the first point. Our Highway Commission system is horribly flawed, is holding Arkansas back, and ought to be scrapped. One thing it does wrong is set up a situation where each commissioner wants his or her pet projects to go through before their term expires. That leads to a situation that favors new construction over much needed maintenance. They system promotes building new roads when we can't even take care of all of the ones we have now.

On the second point I find myself relieved to be back in disagreement with the extreme leftists over at the Arktimes. The government seems determined to subsidize mass transit at the expense of people owning their own vehicles. Why not let the market determine the mix of mass transit vs. private conveyance? I see a tendency to want to herd people into cities at the expense of rural areas, and herd people into mass transit where they are completely dependent on others for mobility rather than free to travel as they please.

Egypt May Not Be What Media Portrays

I have heard many accounts like the one shown in this photograph, where Egypt's Coptic Christians surround Muslim protesters at prayer time in order to protect them from attacks. Also, after the Muslim Brotherhood bombed a church, the Muslims attended the next Christian service to use themselves as human shields.

The Coptic Christian Church was founded in Ethiopia and can trace its roots back to the Book of Acts, where the Apostle Phillip preaches the gospel to, and baptizes, a member of the Ethiopian Royal Court. About 10% of Egypt's population is Coptic Christian. They are routinely treated as 2nd class citizens.

Some people are warning us that the inevitable result of the collapse of the Mubarack government will be an Egypt run by the Muslim Brotherhood. Based on the reports I am getting from the undernet, I don't believe that.

Tolbert Piece Shows How Legislators are Repeatedly Duped

"Trust Me Legislators, I'm An Expert!"

Jason Tolbert has a piece up which is a perfect example of how "experts" with an ax to grind use scare scare tactics to buffalo legislators out of voting for bills that they would otherwise be inclined to vote for. In this case it was a SB113 by Cecil Bledsoe that would have made sure Arkansas taxpayers would not be footing the bill for abortions under the new health care fiasco, unless the life of the mother were in danger.

The conveniently handy "expert" from the industry reported to the committee that he had a "survey" from the industry which indicated that the sky would fall if this bill passed. Well, maybe not that bad, but that there would be negative consequences unforeseen by the bill's backers. The scare tactic worked.

Later Tolbert finds out that this "survey" was of ONE COMPANY! Now if it was Arkansas Blue Cross then that might mean something, as they are the 800 pound gorilla in the business. But the one firm was Qual Choice. Not only do they represent somewhere around just 10% of the market (7.3% in 2001), but they are heavily weighted toward public-sector employees rather than being representative of the whole market.

For more details of how it worked in this instance, please see the Tolbert article. My contribution is to point out that this was not a one-time occurrence. This happens on a regular basis in our legislature. Any reformers that you elect will not just have to fight against the left-leaning legislators, they will have to fight against an "expert" system that greatly outnumbers them and has shown a willingness to use ill-founded disaster scenarios to scare legislators out of voting for common-sense legislation that their constituents would want and that they themselves would otherwise be inclined to vote for.

This system is dominated by special interests and those who favor big government and centralized control. The bureaucrats who run the departments all want more power, control, and money. Some of them will say just about anything to the legislators to keep them from voting for good ideas that put their department out. Tolbert reports on one little example, but the problem is pervasive and ongoing.

Right now, the "experts" know that the legislators are only part timers who are term-limited. They know that for the most part, they can buffalo them. On the few occasions they catch on, there are no consequences. That has to change if the system is to change. The only thing that is going to fix it is economics- make the costs of misleading the legislature so high that there is a disincentive to do it.

Hundreds Gather to Protest Global Warming

- credit Greg Vaughn-

Howse Takes on Rockfellers, World Religion, and Glenn Beck

World View Weekend host Brannon Howse, who was in Rogers this weekend, has some very strong writing in the online magazine "Worldview Weekend Digest." He provides documentation that global elites like the Rockefellers were attempting to foist a one-world religion on America in order to advance one world government. He also calls out Glenn Beck as an "informed" Mormon and universalist. Without animus toward him, I also find Beck to be a very odd icon for the Christian right in America. Of course, that may be more of a reflection of the size of the microphone globalist Ruppert Murdoch has given him rather than a function of the CR choosing in the market among candidates for their spokespersons people who worked their way up the ladder in the traditional way.

I recommend the article.

Bledsoe's Pro-Life Bill Gets Hostile Amendment

Tolbert has the details on how SB113 got gutted. The amendment would basically mean that taxpayers would still be paying for abortions in all of the situations in which they are currently paying for abortions.

Mitch Mustian Arrested

For selling prescription narcotics. The arrest comes days before he was going to try out at a pro-football camp.

Rand Paul of Kentucky: First Speech from Senate Floor

Our neighbors from Kentucky have elected quite a Senator. I can't even imagine Sen. John Boozman or Mark Pryor making this speech.

Council of Concerned Citizens Story May Have Another Side

Tolbert has a story he got from Blue Dog on prominent Republican John Casteel and his "ties" to a "white supremacist group."

I have not talked to Casteel, but I have crossed paths with the CCC about a decade ago. Let me tell you something, they are sneaky. Based on what I know about them, I could very easily believe that Casteel "attended a board meeting" and "bought an ad in their newsletter" without knowing about their racist agenda.

Back when I was trying to get the Constitution Party some traction, I heard about this group "Council of Concerned Citizens." They invited me to attend one of their "board meetings." I think there are very few of them. Maybe they are all on "the board" and every meeting is a "board meeting."

Anyway, I went there and made my case. They took my picture shaking hands with them like I was a big shot or somebody. Now I see that they were just trying to get as many people as they could tarred by association with them. Looks like Casteel got tarred. But the thing is, they gave no hint of their racist leanings. They passed themselves off as a "conservative group."

Later on I asked specifically about their issues and what they are concerned about. They gave me this video about some sort of school or institute in Europe. In the whole video, something like an hour long, there was only one sentence in it about race. That sentence stuck out like a sore thumb. It did not fit at all with the rest of the production. It was something like "This policy is a threat to the white race." This was not an exact quote but it was along those lines. That was the first indication I had that these guys might be racists. And again, I had to ask them and watch their rather dull hour long video to get that hint. They were not up front with it. Even after the video, it was kind of like "I need to ask them about this because they may not know there is a sentence in this material that seems racist."


Anyway, it was a while before I got around to seeing them again, and I can't even remember if that question was on my mind, but I got the answer. Billy Roper and a few of his openly White Supremacist buddies showed up. They started with the racist stuff and we got into a civil but pointed debate about race. The "board" of the CCC just sat there grinning like possums. I remember being upset that they did not take sides, but their body language suggested to me that they like some of the stuff they were hearing, whereas my folks were alarmed and off-put by it.

That was the last time I met with the those "Concerned Citizens", but I think you get my point. They don't tell you who they are before they draw you into a politically embarrassing situation. If Roper and the skinheads had not shown up at that meeting, they might have come up with some story and still not presented themselves as who they were. I can easily seen how Casteel could have been drawn in, and it does not mean that he is a racist. It just means that those guys are sneaky.

Genesis 1 Day-Age Intepretation : Patriots on Watch Net Radio

Listen Here

Mark talks about the scriptural evidence for the idea that the Creation Days in Genesis Chapter One were long periods of time rather than a 24 hour day.

Thomas Woods Answers All Objections on Nullification

The man is a genius. They simply cannot rebut him on the facts or the history. I expect them to rachet up the effort to destroy him personally, since they can't dispute with him on even terms.

The Arkansas Traveller

It's Attorney General Dustin McDaniel. McDaniel took $27,000 worth of trips paid for by interest groups. Most of the money came from the left-leaning Aspen group, ironically for trips to Asia.

On the bright side, Arkansas taxpayers were not footing the bill. The downside? Probably that commies reprogrammed his brain like some kinds of "Manchurian Candidate" thingy.