To Serve and Protect

The Springdale City Council stepped up this week and protected the people from not being able to drink more alcohol before driving home. Declaring an "emergency to exist," they unanimously amended the City Code to allow bars to stay open three hours longer and serve beer, wine, and mixed drinks until 2:00 a.m., even on Sunday, because it was "necessary to preserve the health, safety, and welfare of the citizens of Springdale."

Was this ordinance necessary to prevent a dehydration pandemic with an epicenter in Springdale? Was the Council influenced by campaign contributions from Drunks Against Mad Mothers? Was it an effort to balance the city budget with increased DWI fines and ambulance charges? No, they said, it came to their attention that local barkeeps were at a competitive disadvantage in selling alcohol, having last call at 11:00 p.m., while Fayetteville dram sellers could continue purveying their potions until 2:00 a.m.

No doubt, this will make drinking in Springdale comparable to drinking in Fayetteville. This should be welcome news for all the drunks who don't like paid parking on Dickson Street. They can now punish Fayetteville merchants and find a Springdale dive more to their liking with free parking and far fewer people.

Fatty Hackers on South Thompson Avenue -- It's the New Dickson Street!

Asshat of the Week

Timothy Adam, the same guy who harassed UA graduate student Banan al-Daraiseh at the Mullins Library last month because she was wearing a hijab, was issued a criminal trespass warning last week and banned from the campus library. On Monday night, he ignored the ban and returned to the scene of the crime. This time he was arrested and booked for criminal trespass, disorderly conduct, and resisting arrest.

In the earlier incident, Adam yelled at al-Daraiseh as she stood at the library entrance on October 8th, “There’s no place for you in America. There’s no place for Sharia. Go back to Sudan.” When she asked him whether she was bothering him, Adam shouted, “Yes you’re bothering me – the way you’re dressing is bothering me.” She declined to pursue harassment charges against Adam for the October outrage.

Trial is set for December 13th in Fayetteville District Court.

Opting Out at XNA

Today is National Opt Out Day, a movement to refuse the full body scans at some airports and request the foreplay of an Enhanced Pat Down with a Happy Ending. Where this happens to any considerable extent, it will cause even more delays, long lines, and angry passengers, which is the point. Americans tolerated the loss of travel flasks and nail clippers, but they finally have had enough of the rude bullies between the ticket counters and the gate.

Walmart's XNA Airport in Bentonville is not on the A-List to get the Nekkid Picture Machines, despite the constant Level Orange Terrorist Threats advised at the landing strip in a cow pasture. They will find other ways to make flying more inconvenient, but you can still request the fondling if you want a little Pat Down before boarding. You can also let the TSA know how it feels to be scrotum-scanned by using your X-Ray Specs to check out their unattended packages.

Elections as Cultural Dipsticks

There are a couple of municipal runoff elections that will tell us something about the mental faculties, meanness factors, and motivation levels of area residents. It will probably be after midnight before the Benton and Washington county election commissions report the light vote, but the results will be reflections of the civic culture of Springdale and Rogers. Greenland and Farmington each have council seats in play, but who really cares? Not the voters, apparently, as less than 60 people have voted early in Washington County.

The Ward 3 seat in Springdale, due to an archaic system of political control, is elected by voters citywide. Stagecoach Mogul Ray Dotson is making yet another bid for public office after having been rejected in the mayor's race in 2008, and he is opposed by Brad Burns, a real estate peddler once ranked by Arkansas Business as the 16th top producing residential agent in all of Springdale. Neither appear to be visionaries, so the choice for Springdale's powers that be are between former Alderman Dotson or former real estate guy, between gaudy flash and gray flannel.

In Rogers, Tea Party Kurt Maddox of Gravette, having lost in the GOP congressional primary, now wants to be mayor. Jim Bob Duggar, former Springdale legislator and recent Fayetteville parade marshall, has endorsed him. He was also endorsed in a mystery letter, and he sent a campaign mailer pretending that he was endorsed by current mayor Steve Womack, who denies it. The other candidate is Greg Hines, who once ran for County Judge, a Benton County employee who has served on the City Council for twelve years. He says he will keep up the Womack tradition. His opponents say he is a damned Democrat, or worse, a liberal. The results will provide some benchmark on the success of the Pod People in taking over Rogers and erasing the cranial hard drives of its original residents, a struggle that has been ongoing since Daisy manufacturing fled the unions of Michigan and landed in low-wage Rogers 52 years ago.

In neither race will Hispanic voters have much influence, nor will they until registration and turnout begin to reflect the size of the population.

Let's Be Blunt

While progressive Eureka Springs voters were enacting a bow hunting ordinance for deer within the city limits, Berryville citizens reelected Mayor Tim McKinney by a vote of 585-483, smoking challenger Jason Williams. Mayor McKinney is a drug court graduate who was a resident of south Fayetteville for 15 days last year.

Who Is Getting In Your Wallet?

No surprise here, but the monied interests are behind the proposed constitutional amendments to raise interest rates and generate fees for bond lawyers and counting houses. Proposed Amendments No. 2 and No. 3 will be like manna from the poor, should they fool the voters today, and it looks like that's about to happen.

Just so you know, here's the contribution report for one of the front groups trying to foist the amendments upon the borrowing and taxpaying class. Oil companies and big Little Rock law firms, and $15,000 from the state Chamber of Commerce. Locally, something calling itself the NWA Chamber of Commerce with a Post Office Box in Springdale kicked in $10,000 for the scheme. There were no reported contributions from local churches or social service workers.

The most enthusiastic donor was Car Mart of Bentonville. The corporation ponied up $100,000 for the amendments. They can recover that quickly by charging 17% interest on clunkers for hourly wage workers needing to cruise around Bella Vista on that new bypass that has sucked up all the transportation funding in the region.

Go ahead and vote for your own financial ruin. It is what they want you to do.