Saturday, April 28, 2012

People Still Trust Local Government. The Feds, Not So Much

Politico had an interesting report on a poll.   The upshot of it is that Americans overwhelmingly no longer trust FedGov, though they still trust state and local government to about the same degree they have for years.   The decline in trust in Fedgov accelerated after 2002.

I have often maintained that all real power ought to be local.  When "your" Congressman messes up, it is not so easy to get a hold of him and demand change.   Your local JP or even a state rep., is much more accessible.   In addition, if your local government messes up enough, it is an easy matter to move to a new town or even county.    It's not so easy to escape bad policy that is nation-wide.

Friday, April 27, 2012

Stone County Massacre (GOP County Committee Purge)

At least six people have left the Stone County Republican Committee recently, including at least two who were officers of the committee at the time of their resignation and others who were past officers.   The reason?  They signed a petition to place Paul White on the ballot as an Independent for State Senate District 18 (or maybe 19).   White is a staunch limited-government conservative who ran for the seat last cycle as a Republican.   Sen. Missy Irvin beat him for the nomination last go round with what many perceived as help from the state GOP.   Irvin probably would not agree with the classification, but the resigning members believe her to be more of a big-government Republican.

In the intervening time, the state GOP raised the filing fee for a State Senate race from $4000 to an eye-popping $7,500.   That ought to keep out the Tea Party trash, right folks?   Plus, candidates who play ball with the establishment wind up getting their filing fee back and then some.  Candidates who lack the required, shall we say "moral flexibility" to play ball can wind up eating the filing fee.    

According to their testimonies, these (now) former Republican Committee members were contacted by Stone County Chairman Bill Smith and asked to sign a statement to rescind their signatures on the petition to place White on the ballot as an independent.   White read them a letter from 1st District Chairman Benny Speaks said that anyone who signed the petition for White could be removed from the Committee.  Smith later cited a rule which former member Donna Lancaster described as saying "anyone who did not back the Republican nominee that had been chosen by the Republican Party would have their names removed from the membership."   Insulted, the members resigned rather than sign the letter or wait for Smith to kick them off of the county Republican Committee.

I remember when I was a Republican, we used to look down on the Democrats' practice of having their people sign a "loyalty oath" to back every Democrat.    Now the Republicans have done them one better.   Although no one else has filed against her for the Republican nomination (who would given the history) technically she is not even officially the nominee until after May 23rd.

But that of course is just a technicality.   The people who resigned seemed to support White over Irwin, but signing the petition to place someone on the ballot in itself is not the same thing as saying that you will vote for them.   It just means you want some competition.  These days I find that the real disloyalty comes from the other direction.  It comes from the upper echelons of the Republican party towards its base who want smaller, less intrusive government.  Their disloyalty to the base is making some of the base restless.   That's why some of them want to see independent conservatives on the ballot as an option.  The root cause is that the party at the highest levels is not representing the things it claims to represent.   That's the root problem here, not the actions of these folks who are getting fed up.

  It's called blowback.  And trying to tamp down on dissent by taking a Soviet-Era position that anyone who does anything to allow anyone else on the ballot is a traitor who will be expelled from the party is only going to produce more blowback - such as the kind now occurring in Stone County.  I think you can still be for your party without taking the position that if it was up to you no one else would even be on the ballot! Again, it reminds me of Soviet-Era elections where the Communists were the only party on the ballot but they would go through with the pretense of an election just to show the world how beloved the party was.   How did that work out for them?


But the shock does not end there.   During a facebook discussion of the issue, Rep. David Meeks revealed that he favored the party position for committee officers and, depending on what the rule said, rank and file members as well! "As for signing the petition, If they are an officer of the committee, I would have to side with the party. If they were just a regular committee member, not sure. I would need to look at the rule they used." Meeks said.


Wow.  Depending on the rule, Meeks feels that regular committee members should be expelled from the party?  Remember this is not for endorsing another candidate, but just signing a petition saying "sure put them on the ballot."  So it seems.  But if that is not bad enough, he goes on to say something that truly astounded me, "I don't think it is asking too much to support the party candidate.  In most cases if you don't like the job the incumbent is doing, you run against them in the Primary. I agree that there is an issue with the filing fees.   This would be like if you worked for a natural gas company and they asked you not to sign the petition supporting the severance tax increase."   Meeks wrote.

Great guacamole!  Never mind how they rig the primaries and constantly tilt the field toward their favorites (how is Mitt Romney winning this thing?).   I don't think that analogy with the gas company could be more backwards.  The Party is not the "boss" of their members. At least they should not be. They don't pay the party members. It is really the other way around. The party should work for the members.

The analogy with the gas company would be better if some company sends their CUSTOMERS a demand. And I don't mean a demand they not sign a petition for a severance tax increase, I mean a demand that the customer not sign a petition that would permit other people to sell gas in the state, even if that customer has no intention of switching companies, they just want to be sure that everyone (even their company) is kept honest by free market competition.

CISPA Passes House with Four AYES from Arkansas

Artificial legal persons with lots of money called corporations wanted CISPA.   Real people, most of whom no longer have much money, either did not want CISPA or did not care about CISPA.   The result, CISPA is rammed through the house in a rush after adding provisions to make it even more ominous to real people.   Of course, all four of the corporate representatives who are sometimes alleged to represent the people of Arkansas voted for this bill

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

TARP Overseer Debunks Claims it has Been "Paid Back"

Of course TARP is just one of the outrageous programs that our bankster-captured government has to strip the American middle class of its wealth and transfer that wealth to a tiny parasite class that runs high finance.   I would say TARP was about the least egregious of the bailout programs that were ramped up in 2008.   That is why when you ask one of their (not our) representatives (such as Senators Boozman and Pryor) about the "bailouts", they will usually answer with "TARP", emphasizing the least morally indefensible program.

Well, it turns out their claims about TARP being paid back and the people making a profit on it were dead wrong.  Misinformation is about all the information we are getting from Washington these days.   I

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Five Surprising Facts About Government Survelliance in the USA

Five surprising facts about spying in the USA.   The spying measures that were alleged to be a RESPONSE to 9/11 were actually in place before 9/11.   The government heard of the terrorist's plans from their own mouths, but for some reason did not act on a large amount of intelligence information.  

More: Government surveillance programs are not tailored narrowly to focus on terrorists, but are instead designed to capture as much data as possible on all Americans.   Hey, if you are not doing something that the government doesn't like (such as complain about the government) then you should have nothing to worry about, right? And they are not just spying on us, they are using the information to try and develop ways to predict our behavior (paging the Dept. of PreCrime).   It's all in the link above folks.

Friday, April 20, 2012

Virginia NDAA Nullifaction Bill Becomes Law

The great state of Virginia has just passed a law forbidding certain state law enforcement agencies from cooperating in any way with federal efforts to detain American citizens without trial.  Such a law has become necessary because Republicrats voted to suspend four amendments from the Bill of Rights and gut habeas corpus when they passed the NDAA.  Obama Care is only a minor irritant to your liberties compared to the NDAA, yet people who are all in a huff over that idiotic legislation don't even understand that something much worse has been done to them with the NDAA.  We are one step away from a turn-key police state.

I congratulate the government of the state of Virgina for pursuing a policy of "rational de-linkage" from federal insanity.


Wednesday, April 18, 2012

As Predicted, Government Monopoly Lottery is a Mess

The Arktimes has a long and revealing report about the giant mess that is the Arkansas lottery.  In addition to other shady activities, it turns out that Ernie P. changed a key vendor contract in a way more favorable to the vendor to the tune of tens of millions of dollars just before he left.    The lottery commission did what government commissions typically do in situations like this- whatever they have to in order to avoid admitting to the public that they made a horrendous blunder.  Usually that involves sweeping whatever problems are found under the rug.

Who could have predicted that the Arkansas lottery would be such a cesspool of looting and corruption? Ahem.  Well, as it turns out I predicted it even as the proposal was on the ballot back in 2008.  But who listens to me?   I am just a right-wing extremist nutjob who makes crazy predictions - which later prove to be correct. But let's not get hung up on who later events actually proved to be right or wrong, let's focus on who the establishment media tells you is or isn't "credible."

Among other things I wrote in the above link, I noted:
Even if you are libertarian-leaning and see nothing wrong with consenting adults gambling, that is a separate issue from the idea of expanding the state by giving it a monopoly in the gambling business. That would make the state their own regulators. How often has that NOT gone bad? The government is already big enough, and there are already too few checks against its abuses. This state lottery proposal is the wrong way to legalize lotteries, even if you think that is a good idea.
That was just one aspect of why I thought the lottery proposal was poorly written and ought to be repealed. In another piece about the lottery I described how they should have done it:
 If they had really wanted to do this in a way that would minimize waste and looting they would have set down the rules for permitting private lotteries, then taxed the earnings and the winnings. That is a free market approach that will minimize waste and maximize returns, since the groups competing against one another to sell lottery tickets will have an incentive to trim their waste. Not so with a government monopoly with constitutional protections, regardless of how it is run.
Of course proponents hide behind the higher education scholarship money that this thing is supposed to bring in.   But we already had $53 million in surplus college scholarship money when the thing was started.  Higher education is over funded relative to the size of our state economy and pool of qualified students.

There is of course also a social and moral case to be made against a lottery.   In real trade we both win.  You would rather have my dollars and I would rather have your cheeseburger.   In gambling, for me to win, you have to lose.   But regardless of your views on that aspect of a lottery, putting the state in charge of it can only make the matter worse.   At least the state could be counted on to be an honest policeman and regulator of private lotteries.  When they are their own regulators, corruption is predictable.

As Predicted, a Coinage Debasement is in the Works

I have been predicting for two years now that the government will debase the nickel.  Here are several articles where I predict this is coming.   Once you understand the economic forces behind these events, such predictions are not difficult, the only variable is timing.    Two years ago, the prediction was made.  Now we see the legislation authorizing the immediate debasement of the nickel. 

Currently, the nickel is 25% nickel and 75% copper.   It costs more than a nickel to make a nickel. The root cause of this is the over-printing of dollars, but they want to cover the problem by stamping "nickles" out of steel.   They want to debase the coinage.    They did this in the 1960s when they quit using silver to make quarters, dimes, and half-dollars.  They have so debased the currency that those silver "half-dollars" from the early 1960s have a melt value of over $11 each.  

Thus they have debased the dollar to 1/22 of the value it had on the day I was born.     Therefore 95.5% of its value has been siphoned off in my lifetime.  This amounts to a hidden tax increase/ wealth transfer.   Who got the siphoned off wealth?  The government, and global banks and corporations closely associated with it.

In the 1980s they debased the penny.   Pennies after 1982 (and some in 82) are made of zinc rather than copper.     The nickel was the last coin they left honest, and now they seek to change that.  To add insult to injury, the bill contains a line which authorizes them to add coloration to the steel nickels so that they will look the same color as real nickels made of nickel.   

I don't want the debased currency to look like the undebased currency.   They should look different, because they are different.  And because if they continue their insanity, they may destroy the dollar.   If that happens, there may be an interim period in which we have to use coins for trade according to their melt value, not their face value.    The nickels that contain nickel will still be worth a nickel.  The steel nickels won't be.  By making them look the same, they will actually make it harder to use the coins honestly, but then that seems to be the government's trend lately.

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Not as Over as the Media Wants You to Believe

The drumbeat from the big media is that the race for the Republican nomination is over.    In doing so, they are not reporting news, they are attempting to alter outcomes.    Mitt Romney would not be the nominee without a billion dollars worth of free-to-him media pronouncements that he is the nominee, excessive coverage in the early debates, etc...

Despite every effort of both the media and the Republican establishment, Romney has averaged about 41% of the vote in contests so far.   And that is with all three of his "home states" (Mass., Mich, and New Hampshire) in the mix.  Because the anti-Romney vote has been split so many ways, Romney has the most delegates.   He will almost certainly have the most delegates at the Republican convention in August.  What is not assured is that he will have the majority of delegates that he needs to secure the nomination on the first ballot.   And if he does not, he is likely to lose the nomination to someone else.   Romney's support is broad, but not particularly deep.

The delegate counts from the big media are mostly fabrications based on the percentage of the vote in the primary.  But about a third of the states don't assign delegates that way, and its delegates that count.  To be a delegate, you have to go through a series of meetings and conventions.   A lot of Romney's support is not committed enough to go through that process.

 The truth is we still don't know what the exact delegate count will be, even from the Iowa delegation.  Remember Iowa voted first.   Still we will not know the true count until their state convention in June, and that's true of many states.  Every report we have so far though, indicates that though he finished third in the voting, Ron Paul is on track to win the most delegates from Iowa.  This is because his supporters not only voted, but were dedicated enough to hang around and get themselves elected as local delegates.   They kept working through the onerous process of county and district conventions even as supporters of other candidates stayed home.

I am now hearing reports all over the nation of Ron Paul supporters, or a "Conservative Unity" slate of Santorum and Paul supporters in an alliance, taking the most delegates at district conventions.    The state conventions in most cases have yet to be held, so we don't know the final numbers, but it looks like that the anti-Romney forces are finally (perhaps too late) coalescing.

 Remember that Romney typically gets from 41%-44% of the vote, and that with media, big bank, and establishment backing.   Without such backing there is absolutely nothing compelling in his resume or background to make him the nominee and I doubt he would even average double digits.    The anti-Romney vote, if it can come together, has both greater numbers and more enthusiasm than the Romney vote.

Realistically, if Florida is allowed to break the rules and give all of their delegates to Romney even though they should have been apportioned, Romney has around 600 delegates of the 1144 he needs to secure the nomination.   There are about 1,000 delegates yet to be voted on, so he needs to win an absolute majority of the remaining delegates to get over the top.

 The media is trying to call this thing as over before Texas votes, before California votes, and of course before we vote in Arkansas.    My best guess is that not only does Romney not have this thing locked up, there is about a 50% chance that he will not really lock it up until California votes in June.   There is a somewhat less than 50% chance that he will not lock it up even after California, but he will be rescued by the "superdelegates."    Those are party officials who are selected separately from grassroots voting.    If he needs to be pushed over the top by the superdelegates- there are about 150 of them, it will only highlight what a weak nominee he is.

There is a small but not tiny chance that he will not lock it up after California and either there will not be enough super-delegates to rescue him or they will choose not to.   My rough estimate is that there is about a 10% chance of this scenario happening.    In that case, the convention will be brokered.    I think the anti-Romeny folks are working toward that goal.    It is too late for anyone else but Romney to win the nomination on the first ballot, but it is not too late to stop Romney from winning it and giving someone else a chance on the second ballot.

Based on their past behavior, the closer the anti-Romney forces come to blocking him, the louder and more shrill I expect the corporate media to declare that the race is over.  Watch for that as a barometer of the blocker's success.

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Hate for the Tea Party in Fayetteville

Tough guy from the angry left yells at mother and children handing out fliers against a tax increase.

The Hidden Punitive Tax on My (and your) Widowed Aunt

I have had a chance to catch up with my dear Aunt D in Texas this past two weeks.   She lost her husband in 2010 after 54 years of marriage.   I wrote about his funeral and how times had changed and stayed the same here. They basically lived a life of responsible virtue.  They started with nothing when they got married, not even a car.   No one gave them anything, but after a life of service to others they wound up with a very nice home and a modest amount of savings.

Well since I was visiting around tax time, I helped her with her taxes.    It turns out they were not ones for playing the stock market.  And in their situation, who could blame them?    All she had besides a pitiful social security check was interest income from CDs.    That amount was also pitiful, because interest rates are extremely low.

The reason interest rates are extremely low is that the government and the federal reserve are putting their thumb (or maybe foot at this point) on the scales and intervening to keep rates far below what they would be if the free market were allowed to set interest rates without the manipulation of our wise rulers who know what's best for us in the Beltway.  

Washington has decided to punish savers who worked hard and responsibly laid some of their earnings aside.  It is not surprising that the most profligate ruling class in world history over-rides the free market (which is just the individual decisions of us all). It has deformed the economy to reward debtors (of which they are the biggest) at the expense of savers.  Unfortunately, this easy, low interest debt also had the bad effect of seducing too many of us into taking out too much debt.  When things slow down, we don't have access to a printing press like our deal leaders in the Capitol.

My aunt should be earning perhaps triple the amount of interest income she is now earning.   The low CD rates that my aunt, and your relatives with CDs as well, get for their money amounts to a hidden tax.  It would be the same as a 66% tax rate on CD interest income.  But as you will soon see, this hidden tax is only levied on our aged upper-middle class relatives, not the well-connected insiders on Wall-Street or K-Street.   Actually, they are the ones which most benefit from the government's decision to over-ride the free market.   In a way, my aunt is paying this hidden tax and the proceeds go right to the big banks.

You see their friends on Wall Street are getting (as opposed to earning) billions of dollars by borrowing money from the Federal Reserve at essentially zero interest, then taking that money and loaning it right back to our, or some other, government in the form of bonds.   Those bonds pay higher interest than the Fed is charging the banksters.    So all they have to do is borrow $100 million dollars at essentially no interest and buy Treasury bonds at 2.5% interest and they have "earned" $2.5 million dollars per year for the life of the loan!   A retarded chimpanzee could make money with that business plan.

A greedy retarded chimpanzee might decide to make even more money and use the money to buy Portuguese or Greek debt at a much higher interest rate.  That of course carries some risk of default, but our exalted leaders in their great wisdom have provided a way for their friends in the financial sector to shift that risk onto our backs rather than endure it themselves.  

You see, Chairman Bernake allows these gentleman to use the risky bonds they purchase as "collateral" for the original loan.   That way if they default, its on our books, not the banksters!   Are the bonds collateralized at a significant discount to reflect the risk of default (forcing the banks to come up with some portion of their good assets to back the loan)?   We don't know, all of these operations are kept secret from the American people.   Our role in this matter is simply to fund their decisions. 

I can only hope that as they feast on filet Mignon and $50 a glass wine at their favorite restaurant, these wise leaders decide that they have stolen enough from our aged relatives and decide to end this wealth siphoning operation.   Perhaps then my 90 year old aunt could afford to keep her thermostat below 80 during the Texas Summer.


Friday, April 13, 2012

GOP Bikini Model Staffer and Petrino



Well, it is referred to as a "Grand Old Party"

The Republican Party of Arkansas' staffer Alison Melder apparently sent 200 messages and images to former Arkansas Football Coach Bobby Petrino.   You can see some of the images at the Arktimes story on it.   Apparently, among her other accomplishments, she is a Bikini world champion.   The state GOP paid her around $1,700 last month alone for a part time job of "unspecified duties".    They might ought to consider specifying what those duties were, otherwise some with a less pure mind than myself might jump to unwarranted conclusions.

The next time the state Republican party sends you a letter asking for donations, remember the money will be put to good use.   Without your sacrificial giving, the state party could never do things like hiring outstanding young ladies like this one perform "unspecified duties" for Republicans in the state.

But let's zoom out a bit. Don't worry America.    You can still count on the two-party system to represent you.  There is no need to send them any sort of message, hold them accountable, or consider other options.   Please continue to outsource to them your responsibility to protect your liberties and vet your public "servants."   The global corporations which fund them both appreciate your non-attention.

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Iranian Terrorists Training in Nevada

Reports Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Seymour Hersh...

And OUR GOVERNMENT is the one training them.  What's that all about?

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Koch Bros. Cato Takeover Averted, But at What Cost?

It appears that the CATO Institute came perilously close to a Koch Brothers takeover.   They had to resort to some heavy-handed tactics to stifle the move.   Judge Napolitano objects to the tactics in this complaint....

The America of the Old Testament

Our corrupt ruling class and their tools in the media continue to beat the drums for war against Iran.   The same media that the people don't believe makes the case for starting a war against Iran, and somehow, we believe them on that one.    

Even if we recognize global Islamofascism as a legitimate threat, the move makes no sense.   Iran is the heart of Shia Islam.   Most Moslems are Sunni.   If Iran is taken out, the Sunni faction of Islam, which includes all those who harmed us on 9/11, can unite Islam.   We NEED a strong Shia Iran to serve as a counter-weight to rising Sunni Islamic fundamentalism.   

Do the 'tards in the state department really believe that once Shia Islam is toppled they can control Sunni Islam just because the Saudi Royal family is in their hip pockets?     Our policy of trying to rebuild Islamic societies in our image is bloody, expensive, and a failure.  How do you deal with crazy people in your life? Do you make it a policy to avoid them where possible or do you go out of your way to interject yourself into their affairs?  Exactly.

If we were not between them, the Shia and Sunni Muslims would go back to killing one another, just as they have done for centuries.   Only our military occupation of Muslim lands directs their rage our way.  Switzerland is rich and free, but Muslims never bomb them- because they mind their own business.  In the name of protecting us, our freedoms are being stripped away by the government.   If they hated us for being free, they should hate us a lot less now.

But if any Islamic nation had a legitimate reason to hate the United States, it would be Iran.     We backed the plot to topple their democratically elected government in 1953 and impose a brutal dictator on them (the Shah).    They threw him off in the late 70's, but within a few years were attacked by our then-ally Iraq.   We funded and armed Saddam Hussein during his long, bloody, unprovoked war against Iran.    Despite this, for some reason, the Iranian people did not seem to hate us to the degree on might expect.    The 911 attackers were from our Sunni "allies" Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

Yet here we are, with our ruling class trying to stir us up into a frenzy against them.   It's sad.   The old name for Iran is Persia, because the Persians were the leading Aryan tribe.  Iran means "land of the Aryans."   Persia was like the United States of the Old Testament in so many ways.   For one thing, it was not one of the earlier nations.   It rose up after Egypt and Babylon.   Like us, it rose to be the superpower of the world in its day.   Like us, the defining trait of its people was a willingness to adopt things from other cultures.   It was a very open, melting pot type society given the time.   And like us, it was beneficent in conquest compared to those which came before it.  

One of the nations it conquered was Israel.    The Old Testament contains the account of these events.  And the picture which it paints is one of a Persia that is very favorable to Israel.    Indeed, the command to rebuild the temple came from the Persian King Cyrus, and he funded the project.   The biggest opposition was not the Iranian people, but the locals!    Persia wound up being a blessing to Israel.

All of that is why I call Iran (or Persia as it was known then) "the America of the Old Testament."     I believe starting a war with them would be a mistake.   It is not our way to start wars, just finish them.  But we are like Persia in another way as well.   Over time, their ruling class became drunk with power and detached from reality.    They began wars of conquest against the Greeks, and they over-reached.   Our ruling class appears to be in a similar condition.


Tuesday, April 10, 2012

19 Big Stories the Talking Heads Are Not Talking About

American media has to be the biggest establishment lap dogs this side of North Korea.   Increasingly, I have found myself turning to the UK media, and even sometimes Russian media, to find coverage of important stories in my own country.    The blogosphere helps by amplifying coverage of these sources that are otherwise hard to find.   I want to do my part to get America beyond a corporate media which distracts rather than informs, and rather than attacking corruption in the status quo, prefers to attack those who point out the corruption (if they don't ignore them).  

With that in mind, here are 19 big stories that have been under reported.

Monday, April 09, 2012

The Non-Evolution of Ancient Redwoods

Yes I know this is not related to anything Arkansas specific, but I did teach science for many years and macroevolution is the biggest scientific hoax of modern times.   This article, without meaning to, provides another data point to support that claim.  Basically, they found a way to extract DNA from 50 million year old remains of Redwood trees.    What they found was essentially no evolution occurred within that time.   In the same period of time that they claim some shrew-like creature evolved into Albert Einstein.    Why such stasis among these redwoods while mammals allegedly underwent waves of rapid genetic and morphological change?

This example is far from unique.   It has been observed in insects or just about any other life form we can get ancient DNA from.    The old ones have DNA that looks a whole lot like the current ones.   So where is the evolution?

Saturday, April 07, 2012

Authoritarian Environmentalism

Just so the unbelieving might realize that my associates at Secure Arkansas are right even about claims that might seem, where we are here in middle America, outlandish, here is the UK Daily Mail Report on Authoritarian Environmentalism.   People and groups that our media consider serious and credible have it as a policy goal to stack the population up into cities and as a matter of policy make rural life more difficult.  Believe it.

Friday, April 06, 2012

He's Got to Go

The Razorback's football program has been one of the biggest Drama Queens in college football.   Now, Petrino adds to the "Jersey Shore" factor of our esteemed program.   Yet it seems for some residents of this state, as long as he keeps winning they don't care if the football coach at the state's flagship university is sleazy.    I believe that view is misguided in terms of both morality and utility.   He won't keep winning people.   It's over and the sooner we cut him loose the quicker we can get over the short term pain.

Look, I understand that there is a difference between someone's personal life and how someone performs at work.   I do hold that over time though, if someone is sleazy enough in their private life it will bleed over and affect there work.   But even if Petrino is short of that level of sleaze, this guy is not selling shoes at the mall.   He has a very high-profile, multi-million dollar, public position.   In a position of public trust, your personal life is a public matter.   Especially when its one where coaches from other states are recruiting against you to high school players and their parents.

And while I am on that, Petrino put his mistress on the payroll at his department last month.   That's another reason why this "its his personal life not his professional life" does not apply in this case.   He made it a professional matter when he put her in charge of administrating the Razorback football recruiting program.

In February I wrote that while the Hogs have done very well on the gridiron, if they didn't start recruiting better then the football program was about to fall off a cliff.  Here is that analysis.  In the wake of the weak recruiting effort, Petrino responds by putting his mistress in charge of administering the football recruiting program.   Look, there is no doubt the guy can coach, but lot's of guys can coach for three million dollars a year.   He can't recruit very well and this will only make the problem worse.   How does he go into living rooms and insure mommas that he will take care of their boy?  How does he maintain discipline, order, and moral authority over 85 testosterone laden football players?

The first link I gave noted that coaches were still using the way he left the Atlanta Falcons four years ago against him.   Now, he has given them much more potent and current ammo.    It's time to cut our losses folks.

Thursday, April 05, 2012

GOP Lawmaker Allows Obamacare Contracts to Go Forward Without Review

Rep. Jonathan Barnett (R) Highway Commission, may have just allowed Obamacare to be implemented in Arkansas, but hey we all make "mistakes."

Rep. Johnathan Barnett (R) Siloam Springs (who is a prominently featured in our Worst Ten Legislators list) helped move contracts for implementing Obamacare in Arkansas forward without review by an important legislative subcommittee this week.    Here are the details.

Barnett claims that he made the motion "by mistake" and that there would be another chance for another body to review the contracts to implement Obamacare's insurance exchanges in Arkansas on April 20th.   Maybe, but it is also possible that the Governor has some backroom deal cut with some Republican legislator so that when that April 20th meeting comes along they "accidentally" move Obamacare forward again.