The Iconoclast

Espero volver a verte el próximo año.

2011-02-03T19:30:00.001-06:00

R-E-S-P-E-C-T Authority or Else

2010-12-13T12:29:00.006-06:00

Benton County loves law and order. Last January, Bella Vista Officer Coleman Brackney shot and killed James Ahern after Ahern's car crashed. Brackney had been chasing Ahern for speeding before he shot Ahern six times, but his account of the incident was contradicted by the dash cam. Eventually, Brackney pled guilty to a misdemeanor for killing Ahern and was sentenced to 30 days in jail.

Now another video is making the rounds and letting the public see how Benton County Deputy Sheriff Dana Winn interrogated and arrested local citizen John Lewis. Mr. Lewis recorded the incident at his home that involved Winn demanding respect and arresting Lewis for "obstructing government operations."

The ACLU doesn't much like what it saw on the video, and Benton County residents don't much like the ACLU. This must make them uncomfortable. They will be even more uncomfortable after Mr. Lewis and his attorney, Doug Norwood, win a lawsuit and collect big damages for the violation of Mr. Lewis's constitutional rights.

Good Suit Greed Again

2010-12-13T11:50:00.003-06:00

There they go again. The unelected Northwest Arkansas Council of Corporations has another idea to make it easier for them to get you to pay for their projects, and they are going to get the legislature to give you the tax goose in January. Front Man Mike Malone says you will enjoy it.

Several years ago, the Corporate Council drafted and had the legislature pass a statute allowing Regional Mobility Authorities, then they got Benton and Washington County to form one, then they offered to let Front Man Mike Malone staff it for free and direct their business from inside the hen house. What they want first is a sales tax to pay $1.4 billion for the Bella Vista By-Pass and other pet projects.

What is slowing down this huge tax increase to fund their wish list is that each county must call for an election and each county must vote to increase your taxes. Under the Corporate Council's new scheme, they would get Front Man Mike Malone and the other corporate lobbyists to persuade the legislature to give them the power to get around those checks and balances. They want their captive Regional Mobility Authority to be able to call an election and do away with separate votes by each county.

This plan allows the Benton County interests to outvote the Washington County citizens and get us to pay for Benton County projects like the Bella Vista By-Pass, even if the majority of Washington County votes against it. It allows them to tax us to fund their Western Beltway, even if our local communities vote against it. It gives them a way around the opposition of certain local officials that are standing in their way.

There's not much you can do to stop this scam, but you should at least know what they're going to do to you.

Waltons' Arts Center

2010-12-03T16:01:00.003-06:00

The rich are different from you and me. They don't have to play by the rules, and they always get their way. If you believe that things are fair or that merit can ever beat money, you weren't paying attention at events in Fayetteville this week.

You will remember that the Walton Arts Center bought a survey that said they needed a 2,200 seat theater. Then they developed a very specific list of criteria that would determine the location of this new theater and asked for proposals. The University of Arkansas-City of Fayetteville proposal was far and away the best submitted among the 25 submitted. This week the WAC Facilities Committee and the WAC Board voted overwhelmingly to build the big theater in Bentonville at a site to be found later, those specific criteria be damned. City and University officials and local citizens were not even allowed to comment. Bullshit walked.

In fact, there was only one thing that determined the obsequious WAC Board's compliant decision -- what the billionaire Waltons wanted, where they wanted it, and how much money they might toss to transform the old Benton County Sale Barn into a palace for Broadway shows.

Here's what you can learn from this shameless charade and how you can start calling the shots about anything and everything in Northwest Arkansas, from playhouses to regional transportation infrastructure:

(1) Inherit billions of dollars;
(2) Invest a few million in an unaccountable private non-profit
(3) Hire a hand-picked over-paid flunky to run the organization
(4) Sponsor a slanted survey to feign interest in public opinion
(5) Fake the survey results and ignore the official criteria
(6) Make large campaign contributions to compliant politicians
(7) Spend your money however you want
(8) Be smug at the impotence of the unfunded opposition

This is the way things have always worked, and it would be naive to pretend otherwise. The unwashed should be thankful that the Waltons are spending money on the arts in Bentonville, a cultural wasteland that needs all the help it can get. I mean, they could have decided to build a bigger Christ of the Ozarks in Rogers to compete with the sacred projects of Gerald L. K. Smith.

To Serve and Protect

2010-11-26T09:40:00.004-06:00

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

2010-11-24T12:28:00.003-06:00

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

2010-11-24T11:45:00.003-06:00

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

2010-11-23T09:59:00.005-06:00

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

2010-11-04T12:49:00.002-05:00

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?

2010-11-02T09:35:00.002-05:00

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.

Graft or Greed?

2010-10-31T09:29:00.003-05:00

I am always amazed at the gall of some public officials lining their own pockets with public tax dollars. Some double dip on the city payroll, and some double dip from the state with fake retirements. This is all legal because aldermen, JPs, and state legislators don't have the courage to rock the boat and stop the looting of the public fisc by petty grifters. All legal but no shame.

Washington County Circuit Clerk Bette Stamps (D) is paid a salary of more than $80,000, which should be adequate compensation for public service. However, state law allows (but does not require) collection of additional fees for job related duties during foreclosure sales. Stamps pocketed $104,458 in fees, kept them for her personal benefit. That's so wrong. Stamps is unopposed for reelection, so expect this shady practice to continue for another two years. The state legislature and the quorum court have done nothing to stop it, and the circuit judges turn a blind eye to the practices of their clerk.

Stamps should resign, but she won't. Stamps should pay back the money into the county general fund, but she won't. Stamps should stop taking the money and deposit future fees in the county general fund, but she won't. Stamps should be defeated in 2012, and she will.

Pat O'Brien (D), who is the County Clerk and Circuit Clerk in Pulaski County, does not take the fees from foreclosures. O'Brien is running for Secretary of State this year, and his opponent is the King of Self-Serving Expense Accounts, Republican State Rep. Mark Martin. Rep. Martin bilks the state for more travel expenses than any other state legislator in northwestern Arkansas, but he doesn't stop there. According to official documents, Martin has been paying $1,300 a month in taxpayer fund for an office in Benton County, which is miles away from his district and his home in Prairie Grove. He claims he is using it as a legislative office, because the location is much more convenient. For whom?

Let's dump those who seek undue enrichment. Find an honest opponent for Circuit Clerk Stamps and vote her out in two years. Stop Mark Martin on Tuesday, before he gets his hands into the larger till at the state capitol, and elect Pat O'Brien as Secretary of State.

Benton County Does It Better

2010-10-30T15:26:00.004-05:00

Seldom would I speak well about anything behind the iron curtain of political reason, but the Benton County Election Commission has demonstrated that it has a far better understanding of the broader role of elections than does the Washington County Election Commission. Benton County Election Commission Chairman Bill Williams (D) didn't want to be bothered with informing the public or the media, saying that it would take too much time to give the public updated reports and that it would create an increased risk of error, but it's not like Benton County has any sterling record for accuracy. Those are the same excuses that the Washington County Commission offers for its policy of secrecy and keeping the information from the public until after most of them give up and go to bed around midnight.

Commissioners Bob Balfe (R) and E.J. Williams (D) stood up for the public interest and the people of Benton County. As Balfe explained, “It’s an efficiency and a timeliness issue. One of the foundations of our democracy is the right of the people to change their government. That’s something that has set us apart from the very beginning. We have to balance cost and efficiency with public confidence in the voting process. I think we should put in a process to have results coming out on an interim basis.”

The early voting total and overseas and absentee ballots totals will be reported as soon as possible after the polls close at 7:30 p.m. An updated report will be issued around 9:30 p.m., and a third update will be made around 11 p.m. Later, they will give the final uncertified vote totals as soon as they are complete, about the time that Washington County voters finally get some news about how their candidates fared on election day.

There is no reason why the Washington County Election Commission should shroud the process in secrecy. Local party officials should demand that their appointed members commit to keeping the public better informed about the results. Those are our votes, not the employees whose job it is to count and report them for us. Know what I mean, Chad?

Greed and Gratitude

2010-10-25T13:59:00.005-05:00

Do you remember last year when all of Fayetteville was so excited to help local couple Jared and Sarah Greer win a free TCBY franchise? Then there was a big celebration on the Fayetteville Square when it was announced that they had won the national competition. Mayor Lioneld Jordan was there to brag on them, and Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce President Steve Clark proclaimed, “This is great news for our city and our citizens." Local television stations and Hogville.net boasted, "Jared and Sarah Greer win the TCBY for Fayetteville!" The Greers told everyone they would open the new store near the University of Arkansas campus.

That was then. The Greers announced on October 13 that their 1,800 square foot TCBY store with 15 employees would be located at the Promenade Pointe Shopping Center in Rogers. Jared Greer said, "We feel this is the best real estate space in Northwest Arkansas for our needs.”

Jared Greed has a Masters in Business Administration from the Walmart School of Business at the University of Arkansas. Sarah Greed has a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the Walton School. They certainly learned well and taught Fayetteville a lesson.

Liberal Per Quod

2010-10-10T19:25:00.005-05:00

It is a stern reminder that Benton County is a strange and fearful place where reason and politics don't mix. Some woman named Stefani Buhajla, whom I have never heard of before this clarion warning, is raising the hue and cry, "Liberal Running for Mayor of Rogers." As unlikely as that is, Mrs. Buhajla's warning reveals much about what passes for political discourse in Benton County.

So, what is the evidence for this unlikely claim of a liberal sighting in Benton County? Or that Rogers Alderman Greg Hines is a liberal, other than admitting that he is a Methodist? One thing that seems to upset Mrs. Buhajla is that Greg Hines has actually been elected and served over 10 years on the Rogers City Council and 10 years in law enforcement, all the while avoiding being exposed as a liberal. Her damning data is "Mr. Hines has hired a political consulting firm called Markham Group to run his campaign. If you know anything about Markham Group you are now staring at your computer screen in disgust. Never heard of them? Check out their website at http://markhamgroup.com/ They are a left wing attack agency. A short trip to their website shows glowing support for Barack Obama and EEEEEEk!!!! Blanche Lincoln. FRIENDS!!! Do I have your attention???" Oh, he didn't hire Mrs. Buhajla as a consultant.

Mrs. Buhajla is a former intern for John Boozman who now claims to be a "political messaging strategist," whatever that is, but you might wish to think thrice before seeking her counsel. Her bona fides include lunch partner "with the legendary Laurie Masterson," an "event planner" for Americans for Prosperity, campaign manager for the wildly unsuccessful Mike Moore for Congress, political adviser to the also ran Randy Alexander for U.S. Senate, and other fringe candidate losers. She is now working to elect Tea Party Patriot Kurt Maddox of Gravette, who got beat in the Republican Congressional primary in May and moved to Rogers in July to run for Mayor. Maddox has also been endorsed by the Duggar brood of Springdale and some anti-abortion group, in addition to Mrs. Buhajla.

We'll see.

Last Chance for Blanche

2010-09-27T13:06:00.004-05:00

Blanche Lincoln will be in Northwest Arkansas for her Farewell Tour before going to work peddling influence for a high-priced lobbying outfit on K Street. Rumors are that she might actually show up in a venue that allows her constituents to ask questions and get some explanation for her bizarre voting record.

If so, I want to ask her how it put Arkansas first to:

Sponsor the deficit-inducing reduction of the estate tax for billionaires,

Sponsor the climate killing resolution to strip the EPA of its already limited powers,

Vote against the DREAM Act,

Vote against Pell Grants and student loan reform

Vote against repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell

Oppose the Public Option for citizens needing health care

Vote against majority rule when employees vote to have a union

Take millions in campaign cash from lobbyists and out of state corporate PACs

Support NAFTA and CAFTA to encourage the flight of American jobs

Continue to support unchecked the longest war in U.S. history

Vote for thousands of dollars in federal subsidies for John David Lindsey

Etc.

This could be your last chance to ask, and if you Don't Ask, she Won't Tell.

Cowbirds Polling Cowboys

2010-09-24T11:44:00.003-05:00

It's not like we weren't warned by an astute blogger. The Springdale Advertising and Promotion Commission has handed over another $12,000 to its main client, Perry Webb and the Traveling Cowbirds. The latest proposal is to pay a Conway company to do a poll of why people don't go to their annual Rodeo of the Ozarks anymore. Attendance this year was down 20% from 2006, drawing only 19,000 people over four days, which is about what a single Razorback basketball game would see back when they had a good team and a coach worth a damn.

Perry Webb says half of the calls will be made to Springdale residents to find out why they don't like it enough to attend and half to out of towners to see what it would take to get them to come and spend $100. If I get a call, I'm going to ask for one of those taxpayer funded family vacations to exotic foreign destinations like they give Randy and the Traveling Mullikens and certain selected Cowbirds.

Other options might be to send a group of Cowbirds to Spain and take a page from the Pamplona playbook, offering The Running of the Chickens. Or the Running of the Nudes from the local talent. Or they could sponsor the Lame Chicken Games. Or have Rubber Chicken lectures on Jones TV to promote their city. Or bring back Festherfest. Or have a Choke the Chicken contest sponsored by the Springdale Country Club. Perry and the Cowbirds are without bounds in finding ways to spend taxpayer money and call it economic development.

The New Jerusalem in Benton County

2010-09-21T20:26:00.003-05:00

Only in Arkansas, and only in Benton County. The Bella Vista City Council is meeting in special session on Friday to consider two important issues -- banning the construction of any mosque and ban the practice of Sharia law within the city limits.

The First Amendment has never been of much interest in Benton County, whether it is challenges to library books deemed dangerous or the right of association for employees wishing to bargain collectively. No doubt, banning all mosques will be supported overwhelmingly by the local residents and the pandering politicians, the constitution notwithstanding.

Now, making the practice of Sharia law unauthorized across the board is the real news. Who knew that the judges and lawyers up there were sneaking in Islamic legal principles to contend with the statutory code of Leviticus and the Ten Commandments. Best to nip that in the bud before the camel's nose gets on a slippery slope.

Bellavistian Kay Strickland sounded the jeremiad today, warning the embattled Christian majority that "America is being taken over from the inside out." She and co-crusader Bill Duncan will not sit by and lose the battle for the soul of Bella Vista. "I must do what I must do, I love America and I love Bella vista," she said.

You think this is a joke, like the politicians in Benton County. Nope. Well, yes, but it is true. To which we say, "مجنون باعتباره لون."

Sex and Salvation in Fort Smith

2010-09-11T15:05:00.005-05:00

In addition to having the second worst legislative delegation in Arkansas, Fort Smith also provides colorful examples of why its long regime of social, political, and cultural repression cannot stop the true spirit of its people, struggling to doff their chains and breathe free.

Just a couple of weeks ago, a Baptism celebration got a little out of hand when shots were fired and the disc jockey was pistol whipped. Fort Smith Police arrested and booked six young pilgrims on various charges including aggravated assault, curfew violations, marijuana possession and carrying a weapon. This one made CBS national news.

Then yesterday, we learned that Fort Smith Police arrested Darby Junior High School Principal Chris Rink and Darby Junior High Social Studies teacher Brian Rincon for solicitation to exchange their lunch money for sex with an undercover police officer in the 900 block of Rogers Avenue. Fail. Double Fail.

Thank goodness for the Bobby Hopper Tunnel, separating the Fort Smith flocks from the horny preachers and devout child molesters who regularly make the news in Benton County. It is ironic that both places will be voting this November to give everyone else a good dose of national and state candidates who embrace their peculiar family values.

Requium for SouthPass?

2010-09-04T13:42:00.005-05:00

It has been six long years since the City ignored the City Plan 2025 and was snookered into an another deal with developers on which the the citizens look like suckers, some of the same developers who were gifted with a $3.7 million TIF deal for a luxury hotel that morphed into a barren parking lot and who would be major campaign contributors to Dan Coody's reelection campaign. With only a City Council resolution authorizing him to negotiate, on September 7, 2004, former Mayor Dan Coody immediately signed a contract with SouthPass Development that had already been prepared and signed by John Nock. When the Council balked in November 2008, City Attorney Kit Williams told them that they had no choice but to approve the development and everything that Coody had promised. Subsequently, Coody waived some of the requirements for the developers, and the City went ahead to build infrastructure that was supposed to be a cost-share project with the developers.

All of the Planned Zoning District and permits for SouthPass were to expire on November 6, 2009, if the Phase One construction was not met. It wasn't. Neither did the developers deliver the required deeds for a 200-acre regional park and 10-acres with water tanks nor the $1 million for park development as required by the contract. All the City has gotten out of this deal has been a toxic landfill, hundreds of thousands of expense for new infrastructure, untold hours of staff time, and a well deserved repution for being a fool.

Thanks to documents released in response to a recent FOIA request, we now know even more. Two days before the permits expired, the developers requested a one-year extension until November 6, 2010. In response to the letter, the City asked for specific reasons for extending the PZD phasing deadlines and subsequent information regarding the timing of the release of the deeds required of the PZD conditions of approval. Since that time, the City has, on numerous occasions, deferred to the developers, property owners, bank representatives and/or attorneys representing the bank to allow additional time in order to negotiate the release of the deeds. It has become increasingly apparent that the lines of communication between the City and the development/ownership group have not been productive, as the City established four deadline commitments that have been extended or missed since these discussions began in November, 10 months ago.

On August 19, 2010, City Planning Director Jeremy Pate told the developers “that unless the deeds are delivered to the City of Fayetteville unencumbered, free and clear of any lien or mortgage and acceptable to the City of Fayetteville before Friday, August 27, at 12:00 pm local Fayetteville time, the request to extend the PZD approval for one year will be denied, to be effective on the same date and time.” That date has come and gone.

City Attorney Kit Williams got involved with a series of memos between John Nock and himself. It appears that the City is sitting on two sets of deeds -- one from the SouthPass developers and one from Chambers Bank pending a deed from SouthPass in lieu of foreclosure. Williams extended the deadline yet again until September 9, because he says Nock says he is trying to get other financing to save his project and cough up the additional $1 million required by the contract. If that doesn't happen, Williams says he will file the deeds from Chambers Bank, but the agreement between Williams and J. R. Meeks of Chambers Bank specifically exempting the bank from "assuming any obligations of SouthPass under any previous agreements and between the City and SouthPass." That is, the City should not count on the promised cost-share expenses and the $1 million it was supposed to get under the contract with SouthPass.

Maybe this will all be over next week, or maybe Williams will cut a new deal granting yet another extension to keep this albatross hanging around our necks for another six years. I think, as Kenny Rogers told me, you need to know when to fold'em and when to walk away. Let's cut our losses and be done with this whole mess.

J. B. Hunt Gives $5 Million to Children's Hospital

2010-09-02T16:15:00.004-05:00

I was pleased to read this week that J.B. Hunt, the trucking firm in Lowell, announced a $5 million gift to Arkansas Children's Hospital toward construction of a new wing. “The hospital does such a wonderful job and plays an important role in the lives of J.B. Hunt employees and their families. We are pleased to be a part of helping expand their world-class facilities and making their services available to a larger number of people across all of Arkansas.”

That is admirable and deserves recognition and thanks, especially considering that neighboring corporations give money to less worthy endeavors. The owners of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, which has a major operation located in Lowell and holds a monopoly position in this region, is known for pouring money into "charter schools" that undermine the desegregation efforts of the Little Rock School District.

I have no doubt which one is really concerned about children.

God and Mayor at Springdale

2010-08-28T19:36:00.004-05:00

Springdale's Mayor Doug Sprouse pontificated on his position as mayor and told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette last week, "I have no doubt that I’m doing what God wants me to do." Such certainty of Divine purpose is widespread among the boastful politicians in Benton County, but Springdale is more like the land of Uz where it is rare to find a man so "righteous in his own eyes."

Sprouse said he is very aware of Springdale’s image — "that it’s rundown and dirty, backward and provincial, industrial and overrun by illegal aliens." I have heard many such things. Miserable comforters are ye all, but “we can’t let others define the truth for us,” he said. I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you: yea, who knoweth not such things as these? I am as one mocked of his neighbour."

This month, Chickenopolis was the only city in Northwest Arkansas to show yet another drop in sales tax revenue. Earlier this year, Standard & Poor's Rating Service downgraded the city's 2006 improvement bonds. So far this year, there have been 138 home foreclosures slated for auction in the city, compared with 102 in Rogers and 58 in Fayetteville. Despite these cold hard facts, Sprouse has ignored those realities, has kept a happy face, and has tried his best to improve the reputation of Springdale, which is "not that bad." He brought his own Weed Eater to a downtown cleanup event, and he sang the national anthem during the opening of the Marshallese Consulate. As the owner of Sprouse Upholstery, Inc. and a longtime Chamber member, he has continued to hand over taxpayer dollars and leave economic development and world travel to the Springdale Cowbirds. Sprouse even endorsed Republican Mark Darr for Lieutenant Governor against Senator Shane Broadway.

Mayor Sprouse said if it’s in God’s plan, he’ll seek re-election in 2012.

The Preacher and the Prostitute

2010-08-14T07:40:00.010-05:00

News finally appears in the local print media on the third day that Rev. Joshua Wisdom, 37, one of the pastors at The Church at Pinnacle Hills in Rogers, was among nine people arrested Wednesday for sexual solicitation during a sting operation aimed at customers of local escortitutes, according to Bentonville Police Chief James Allen.

We are told that everything happens for a reason according to God’s plan, but are we to believe that He planned an online sting operation to nab one of the Pompous Pharisees looking for illicit nookie? There must be another explanation for this sad event, and there is. Rev. Wisdom should get the Benton County taxpayers to hire Asa Hutchinson for $600 an hour to write a brief that goes something like this:

May it please the Court, the Pompous Pharisee desired him that he would eat with him. And Rev. Wisdom went into Ronnie’s house, and sat down to meat. And, behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that rev. Wisdom sat at meat in the Church of Ronnie at Pinnacle Hills , brought a tube of ointment, And stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment. Now when Ronnie’s loyal lieutenants saw it, Andy Wilson, the executive leader of ministry and operations at First Baptist Church of Springdale and The Church at Pinnacle Hills, spake “This man, if he were a better youth minister, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him: for she is a sinner. We are shocked at this news; however, we are looking to the Lord who provides us strength in the midst of a crisis, and we are demanding his immediate resignation.”

And Rev. Wisdom answering said unto him, Andy, I have somewhat to say unto thee. There were certain banks which had five debtors: John Nock, John David Lindsey, Brandon Barber, Hank Broyles, and Collins Haynes. And when they had foolishly spent the borrowed money and had nothing to pay, they either defaulted on loans or declared bankruptcy and were forgiven their debts. Tell me therefore, which of them will love the federal bankruptcy code the most? Which of them made off with more money than this troubled working girl? Who is the greater sinner?

And Wisdom turned to the woman, and said unto Andy, “Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house, thou gavest me no water for my feet: but she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. Thou gavest me no kiss: but this woman since the time I came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet. My head with oil thou didst not anoint: but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment. Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.”

And Rev. Wisdom said unto the undercover cop pretending to be prostitute, “Thy sins are forgiven. Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace.” However, Rev. Wisdom was not forgiven. The Church of Ronnie at Pinnacle Hills and First Baptist Church of Springdale didn’t buy his story about wanting to love the sinner while hating the sin, and they demanded his resignation, effective immediately. Bentonville Police Chief James Allen didn’t bite either, charging Rev. Wisdom with Sexual Solicitation, a Class B Misdemeanor. None of the morally bankrupt developers were charged with any crime for welching on their debts to the banks, but they might have been unable to read the notes they signed for multiple millions. Verily, this is a fundamental case of religious liberty, just as much as that self-ordained tree-sitting minister down in Fayetteville professing that selling mushrooms to undercover cops was a sacrament.

That should be enough for Rev. Wisdom to get off in Benton County.

Airport 2010

2010-08-13T17:01:00.004-05:00

Mel Bakersfeld: Joe, this is Mel. There's no more time. Stop all engines and get out. Repeat. Stop all engines.
Joe Patroni: I can't hear a thing. There's too much noise. Hold on. We're GOIN FOR BROKE!
Ray Boudreaux: Huh? Oh. Gee Whiz. Not me!

Once again, Ray Boudreaux, husband of City Council member Brenda Thiel and director of the Fayetteville Executive Jetport, is submitting an unbalanced budget. For next year, Boudreaux is projecting a $30,000 drop in revenue from this year, and he will ask Alderman Thiel and her colleagues to approve a budget deficit of $68,700. He says he expects the Council to approve his deficit budget without any questions or problems.

Director Boudreaux is on the payroll at about $90,000, accounting for more than 12% of the entire budget and 131% of the entire deficit. He is supposed to find high-rolling tenants to rent hanger space at the Jetport, but the facility continues to lose tenants to surrounding cities.

Bob Nickle, head of the Fayetteville Airport Board, says, “All we’ve got to do is get a tenant that can pay us a reasonable amount of money ... that really takes care of a whole bunch of this.” Bob didn't say who had failed to "get a tenant" and caused the deficit.

The Dog Days of Blogging

2010-08-09T14:45:00.003-05:00

Bloggers and those who leave comments seldom have anything nice to say about anyone or anything, but that's okay. No one wants to be thought the political equivalent of a sports writer and get accused of being a homer or sucking up to power, so complaining becomes an art form with criticism and sarcasm flow freely upon public institutions and public figures. Sometimes it appears to be jaundiced cynicism, and sometimes it appears deserved commentary meant to correct the errors and improve things for the polis.

There are signs that bloggers and their readers might not really care, much less be up to the real responsibility of government and public affairs. Take, for example, the two best news sources in Northwest Arkansas -- the Fayetteville Flyer and Ozarks Unbound. Both have recently provided information about openings on Fayetteville city boards and commissions, including those on Environmental Concerns and on Tree and Landscape. How many reader comments on the Flyer? None. How many reader comments on OU? Zip. What about the upcoming races for City Council? Ozarks Unbound has an informative article with zero comments, tied with nada on the Fayetteville Flyer article.

Does the dearth of reader response reflect a lack of interest in public service, or is actually getting involved not worth the time to comment? An article on chicken wings drew 23 comments on the Flyer, so that gives you some idea about their readers' relative hierarchy of interests. But it is not just the wired kids who seem disinterested in political involvement. The only contested race for county office this fall in Benton and Washington Counties is a race for Washington County Assessor, where seeking a sinecure is far more central than implementing ideology of government. Meh.

The Predator Is on the Prowl

2010-08-08T15:27:00.004-05:00

After sucking up every available federal dollar for the stillborn Bella Vista By-Pass and the Walmart HQ Driveway to I-540, the Northwest Arkansas Council is back again stealing crumbs from the poor. Mike Malone is the front man for this unelected group of rich corporate executives that has captured the Northwest Arkansas Regional Mobility Authority. This public body would have been an excellent vehicle to apply for light rail and mass transit funding; that is, until Malone and the Economic Ephors so generously offered to staff the organization and turn it into a convenient receptacle for their own pet projects.

The Advocates for Public Transit, an advisory board to Ozark Regional Transit, has decided to seek a 2011 election date for a 1/4 cent sales tax to support the undernourished public transit system serving Washington and Benton Counties. Then the board said it wanted the transit system to work with the Northwest Arkansas Regional Mobility Authority and the Northwest Arkansas Council on a sales tax election, which was all the opening that Malone and the Millionaires needed. Get the Vaseline, because they are coming back for more.

Malone and the captive Regional Mobility Authority want to raise the sales tax to get even more money for the Bella Vista By-Pass so that a certain retailer and the truckers will not have to pay up for a toll road. They want you to pay a sales tax for their bypass. Malone said he and the group might consider including something for the transit system -- if their tax passed and there was anything left.

To scare the Advocates for Mass Transit, they brought in an advertising slick to tell them how hard it would be to pass a sales tax without the backing of the Millionaires Club. One Randy Mullikin, owner of the Mullikin Agency and frequent world traveler courtesy of Springdale taxpayers funneled through the Springdale Chamber of Cowbirds, told the public transit supporters that it would require an advertising campaign costing exactly $158,900 to win an election.

Randy didn't mention how much of that might go into his pocket for creative, production, and commissions, but it would be more than any of my friends or I make in a year. He also didn't tell them what a bullshitter he was, because that's more than twice what Asa Hutchinson charged David Bisbee to prove he was illiterate, more than twice what Marilyn Edwards spent to get elected County Judge in 2008. He just made sure that the beggars would run to Malone for his "help" and that he would get his cut from the campaign.

Ozark Regional Transit will lose $750,000 in federal funding for operating expenses after this census report, and the paltry 1/4 cent sales tax could solve that problem and allow significant expansion of services. They deserve it, but there is not a chance of it passing if the greed of Mr. Malone and the Northwest Arkansas Council overwhelms the need of those who depend on public transportation for their livelihood and their lives.

Walton Arts Center Expansion

2010-08-03T10:06:00.004-05:00

Yesterday was the deadline for proposals related to the expansion plans for the Walton Arts Center. Here's the weak proposal from the Bentonville-Bella Vista Chamber of Commerce, and here's the even more insulting one from the Rogers-Lowell Chamber of Commerce. Then there is the poor one from the Springdale Chamber of Commerce that brags about the availability of billboards, but at least they tried, unlike the smug drivel submitted by Bentonville and Rogers. There were also numerous suggestions from people wanting to sell their real estate.

The joint proposal from the City of Fayetteville and the University of Arkansas is awesome. Totally awesome. It presents a thoughtful and detailed narrative instead of the glib representations from the other applicants. It addresses each issue and provides both specific plans and helpful designs. It includes funding mechanisms for parking decks and theaters. It throws in bigtime concerts in Bud Walton Arena and Razorback Stadium. No other proposal can touch it, and the others should slink away in shame. However, if you want to hear the opinions of local residents who don't like anything about the current Walton Arts Center or the joint proposal for expansion in Fayetteville, drop by to read the comments on the Fayetteville Flyer, here and here.

Will the Fayetteville-University proposal be accepted, or will the Walton Arts Center Board decide to build the huge theater expansion project in what one local leader dubbed "a big field in a dry county"? We will soon know. We will know soon whether Peter Lane and the WAC Board were seriously seeking strong proposals or running a charade as cover for decisions already made elsewhere. We will know whether it is called the Walton Arts Center because it honored the role of Helen and Sam Walton among the founding forces of the Fayetteville institution, or whether it is called that because the Walton Family Foundation can wield its checkbook and demand that it be built in Benton County.

Either way, the Fayetteville-University proposal smokes them all on merit. Congratulations to Mayor Jordan and Chancellor Gearhart on an excellent proposal.

Quote of the Day

2010-07-23T10:43:00.003-05:00

"We hope the council votes against something the chamber wants soon — just to show they still can."

- Editorial, Northwest Arkansas Times, July 23, 2010

Plush Perks for Politicians and Public Employees

2010-07-22T13:39:00.004-05:00

These are tough times for local government, because they are tough times for the economy. People without jobs cannot buy products and services, and the over-reliance on sales tax revenues to fund local government is generating less revenue than in past years. Much has been done to reduce expenses and attempt to maintain services, and most elected officials and public employees have been willing to continue with frozen salaries and reduced overtime pay. However, a few bad apples continue to draw deep from the public purse for their own convenience and act as if they are entitled to special treatment from the lowly taxpayers.

Some of our state's highrollers have been pinched lately when it became known that they were driving high-dollar vehicles for personal business at taxpayer expense. Some have since given up their state car, and others have started paying income tax on the benefit. House Speaker Robbie Wills told everyone to kiss his ass, that he was keeping the Tahoe and not paying back anything. In addition to state elected officials, more than 400 state employees have been paying taxes on the use of a state-owned vehicle to commute to and from work, get groceries, take the kids to school, and hundreds of other personal uses at taxpayer expense. How many state employees have personal vehicles provided by the taxpayers is unknown, but a lawsuit filed last week seeks to put an end to this practice.

The local media have shown little interest and devoted almost no effort to check on how many county and city officials and employees are getting these personal vehicles at taxpayer expense. It was reported last year that Washington County Judge Marilyn Edwards and her chief flunky, Dan Short, got brand new Dodge Durango SUVs as a $50,000 gift from county taxpayers. How many other county officials and county employees have personal use of county vehicles, and do they pay income tax on this freebie?

Neither Mayor Jordan nor Don Marr get city vehicles for personal use. One of Jordan's first moves was to decline the $500 a month car allowance that the former mayor got from taxpayers. None of the other elected officials -- City Clerk, City Attorney, or City Council -- have cars provided by the taxpayers. The question that remains unanswered is how many passenger vehicles does the city own, and how many of these are assigned to employees for their personal use? Let's have some answers. Let's have some open government disclosure about who the taxpayers are buying cars for and which employees are paying income tax on this luxury service in hard times. Do you think Ray Boudreaux has a car at the executive jetport that he used for courting the Councilwoman? Parking these little perks would be better than furloughing employees so the big shots can continue to cruise in style.

What about the other cities and counties? What do Steve Womack and David Bisbee drive? What about school district employees? What about the University of Arkansas and its holding company, the Athletic Department? How many administrators are getting the free ride whiles faculty and staff salaries are frozen for two years? Is David Gearhart's rig as nice as Jeff Long's or whoever is supposed to be the basketball coach? It's not like they couldn't afford to buy a car with those inflated salaries.

I don't get paid enough to ask these questions, which would require the effort of making a few phone calls and the patience to endure the everlasting run-around, and I have given up waiting on the Northwest Arkansas Times to act like a real newspaper. The Fayetteville Flyer and Ozarks Unbound have a clear field if they want it.

Gall and Greed of the Greasy

2010-07-22T11:24:00.005-05:00

Disgraced Republican Benton County Judge David Bisbee is once again trying to slop at the public trough and throw some taxpayer funds to defeated Republican gubernatorial candidate Asa Hutchinson. You'll recall that Bisbee was charged with feathering his own nest by rejecting a low bid for county work and hiring his own firm. An all-Republican Benton County jury acquitted him of three charges after he and his lawyer put on a defense claiming that Bisbee couldn't read or write, so he was ignorant of the ethics law that he voted for in the legislature and later ignored. The jury was hung on whether he was guilty of using his public office to advance the economic interest of Gary Wierman, his longtime associate at Valley Homes.

Now comes Bisbee asking the judge to order taxpayers to pay his lawyer fees! His main man, Asa Hutchinson, filed a sworn statement that his normal fee was $660 an hour, which is not bad for a man who voted against raising the minimum wage for common folks. Hutchinson says he gave Bisbee a cut rate of only $400 an hour for himself and $200 an hour for his son. The Arkansas Public Defender Commission pays private attorneys $90-$110 an hour when they are appointed to represent people facing the death penalty, but the Hutchinson defense team was billing at $775 an hour for misdemeanors. The bill came to $73,044.85, and Dave and Asa think that you should pay them.

If David Bisbee really thought that all defendants deserved equal justice in Benton County, he would have presented a county budget with funds to pay $400 an hour to the lawyers of all defendants who were acquitted or had charges dropped. It could be called the Doug Norwood Retirement Fund or something, but Bisbee didn't recommend a nickel for anyone else's legal fees. He just wants special treatment for himself, and he wants taxpayers to come up with $73,044.85 so he can pay his pal Asa for the illiteracy defense.

If Asa Hutchinson really thought that all defendants deserved to have their legal fees paid if they were not convicted or charged, he would have introduced an appropriation bill in Congress to pay millions to the lawyers who defended the Clintons during the six-year Whitewater witch hunt conducted by Kenneth Starr and the unsuccessful impeachment trial led my none other than Asa Hutchinson. But, he didn't. He just wants special treatment for himself, and he wants taxpayers to come up with $73,044.85 to pay him for the Bisbee illiteracy defense.

These Benton County Republicans are against spending public funds for an HIV Clinic, wastewater treatment, public health care, or unemployment benefits for those who have lost their jobs. They have no problem with spending your tax dollars to line their own pockets at $400 an hour or to pay their personal bills of more than $73,000. Shame has left the building. The local Teabaggers don't seem to have any problem with this, so maybe the relatively sane few in Benton County shouldn't either.

Boozman, Wall Street, and Main Street

2010-07-21T19:55:00.004-05:00

Congressman John Boozman (R-Rogers) voted two years ago for using taxpayer money to bailout of the Big Banks that had made foolish decisions and lost billions of dollars. Boozman supported this George Bush scheme to help Wall Street CEOs keep their bonuses and estates in the Hamptons. He didn't raise taxes to cover the cost, he just loaded it on the national debt for our grandchildren to pay. Now he says the nation shouldn't extend unemployment benefits to 16,000 Arkansas citizens who lost their jobs and can't find work, because that would increase the deficit he created for the bank bailout.

On June 30, Boozman again stood up for the Wall Street bankers, fighting all additional financial regulation of shady banking practices and trying to kill any consumer protection measures when he voted against the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act that was signed into law today. Under this legislation, about 650 former customers of Arkansas National Bank Financial at Rogers will receive checks from the FDIC, retroactively covering the loss of their personal savings up to $250,000 due to poor management decisions by ANB officers and board members that led to huge losses and closing of the bank.

Boozman opposed protection for the life savings of small depositors in Arkansas, but he was all for bailing out the Wall Street bankers. Why is that? Take a look at his campaign contributors for the last ten years, and you'll see who he represents. Unless you coughed up big bucks, it is not you. If there's another explanation, I'd love to hear it.

Tim is Waiting for You in the Cyber Crib

2010-07-15T13:09:00.003-05:00

Dear Sheriff Fife,

Time and again, you have convinced us that your presence in office will continue to interfere with workplace harmony and public dignity. One way to eliminate a public disruption/distraction problem is to replace the person or persons who have caused the problem. One way to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of an organization is to elect people who will be able to do a better job or will be able to do the same job without making our county look like a bunch of repressed hillbillies living in 17th century Salem. These are political decisions. We will have other choices for the Sheriff’s position in two years. We have decided to replace you with an employee who will not ignore the harassment complaints of female employees, fire female employees for non-workplace activities, and generally make our top county law enforcement officer look like the love child of Barney Fife and the Church Lady. We are choosing to elect a person who we believe will better our ability to get our legitimate government work done -- in a manner that is both effective and efficient -- without any more harmful national publicity like you brought to our county last year when a female defendant was locked in a closet and forgotten for four days

PS. Get off the computer. Stop checking and rechecking Jessi's pictures.

Rogers Among the Chosen Few

2010-07-12T10:41:00.004-05:00

Rogers has been named to the CNN.Money Top Ten Best Small Towns, just behind Fishers, Indiana, and Ames, Iowa. They say that being located next door to Walmartville gives it a relatively cosmopolitan feel. The article, however, warns, "Not all is picture perfect: Rogers does contain some rundown areas. Though Wal-Mart has had layoffs in recent years, the jobless rate here remains low."

Rogers is the only Arkansas town in the Top 100 this year. For the last two years, Bloomberg Businessweek has named Springdale as the best small town in which to raise your kids. Local real estate agent Judy Luna says that will teach the snobs in Fayetteville.

Nothing yet posted on the Rogers Blog, but keep checking.

What Boozman Did to Us Last Week

2010-07-05T12:00:00.003-05:00

It undermines one's faith in the republic when a Congressman openly ignores his constituents to blindly follow John Boner down the economic rabbit hole. Last week, Congressman John Boozman (R-Walmart Puppet) did just that on two major bills in the House. His disregard for both the welfare and wishes of Northwest Arkansas voters cannot be dismissed as ignorance. It has come to be a harmful mixture of hubris and malice that leads him to flip off even those who voted for him.

Exhibit A. In 2008, John Boozman voted for billions on Bush's bailout of the huge Wall Street Ponzi Banks that plunged the nation's economy into crisis. On Wednesday, he voted against any additional federal regulations of those same financial bandits. The bill, which passed over his opposition, created a federal consumer protection agency, allows oversight of the speculative commodities market, gives stockholders an advisory role on those sweet executive compensation packages, and providing greater transparency of financial shenanigans. Funding comes from ending the Troubled Assets Relief Program bank bailout corporate welfare program that Boozman supports.

Exhibit B. On Thursday, Boozman voted against H.R. 4899, a supplemental appropriation bill that will provide $13 billion in mandatory funding for Vietnam veterans exposed to Agent Orange, $162 million for the Gulf Coast oil spill disaster, $10 billion for an Education Jobs Fund to help save 140,000 education jobs for the next school year, funding for Pell Grants, summer youth jobs, border security, innovative technology energy loans, and emergency food assistance. It is funded by $23.5 billion in offsets, including $11.7 billion in rescissions from other programs that no longer require the funding.

Boozman believes his own polls showing him with a landslide 30% lead over Blanche Lincoln and knows that voters don't care enough to check his horrendous voting record. However, when you have an opportunity, ask our local Congressional nominees Steve Womack (R-Rogers) and David Whitaker (D-Fayetteville) how they would have voted on these two bills. I'd like to know if we will continue to have a 3rd District representative who votes repeatedly against our interests, or if we might get our country back from the bankers and boners who have owned the bozo.

"When the going gets weird . . ."

2010-06-17T10:27:00.007-05:00

Tomorrow they are having the Fifth Annual Paranormal Explorations Transformation Conference 2010 in Benton County. It is certainly a target-rich environment and an excellent choice for such a gathering. Paranormal Mayor Womack should be the Keynote Speaker and take full credit for hosting this signature event in his city.

This is the place to be if you want to explore UFOs, Nostradamus, Birthers, Republicans, and Tabaash Salaam Mahyam, channeled from Sumeria in 5,000 BC. Nothing unusual, really.

Ignorance of the law IS an Excuse

2010-06-06T14:08:00.004-05:00

They used to tell us that ignorance of the law is no excuse, but, like many other things, Benton County has stood that maxim on its head. County Judge David Bisbee, who ignored a low bid and did county work with his own construction company, said he had not read the ethics law he was charged with violating -- even though he voted for it as a State Senator. That at least seems like more scienter than most common criminals are assumed have.

This is the same David Bisbee who as a legislator blamed Governor Jim Guy Tucker for grade inflation and social promotion of unqualified students in the public schools. “The parents think their schools are doing a good job until their kid gets ready to go to college and then they say, ‘Well, I guess little Johnny or little Suzy doesn’t test very well,’” Bisbee said. “Every parent out there believes their kid doesn’t test very well. We know that’s not true.” Bisbee didn't do well on his credibility test, either.

Bisbee claimed under oath he can neither read nor write, which explains much about his tenure as Chairman of the Legislative Joint Budget Committee, but since when is that an excuse for breaking the law, especially in Benton County. This is the home of English Only Everything with no quarter for those who cannot read nor speak it. Okay, I admit it, they do cut some slack for the Teabaggers on spelling.

Bisbee's defense is even better than the Twinkie Defense, and former Congressman, Impeachment Manager, and Homeland Security Drug Czar Asa Hutchinson presented it to the Benton County jury with a straight face. I had a flashback to the defense crafted by Charles King, attorney for Pro-Bowl former UA football player Gary Anderson, who had no problem with reading a playbook but apparently had enough difficulty reading his $1.375 million contract with the Tampa Bay Bandits that he was able to get out of it and sign a better one with the San Diego Chargers. So much for that UA education.

Vicki Ronald, director of the Literary Council of Benton County, says there are an estimated 30,000 functionally illiterate adults in Benton County, based on state’s percentage of illiteracy. I'd say that sounds a little high, considering that the voter turnout for the Republican Primary was only about 23,000.

Election Time

2010-05-17T10:52:00.003-05:00

We earlier presented our endorsements in the Republican Primary races for U.S. Senate and Third District Congress. Today we offer up a glimpse of what our ballot will look like tomorrow when we waltz into the polling place and vote in the Democratic Primary and the so-called Non-Partisan Judicial Election. How you vote is your own business. And no matter what they say, you can still bitch if you don't vote, but it just feels more righteous if you did.

DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY:

BILL HALTER for UNITED STATES SENATOR

GREG LEDING for STATE REPRESENTATIVE

PAT O'BRIEN for SECRETARY OF STATE

JUDICIAL ELECTIONS:

TIM FOX for SUPREME COURT (Pos. 6)

JOHN FOGLEMAN for SUPREME COURT (Pos. 3)

BETH STOREY BRYAN for CIRCUIT JUDGE (Div 5)

STEVE ZEGA for CIRCUIT JUDGE (Div 7)

LOCAL ORDINANCE:

FOR ORDINANCE ON CITY PARKS. This proposed ordinance will not raise the current Parks Hotel, Motel and Restaurant tax nor have any effect other than to establish a special city fund in which Parks HMR revenue could be used for the development, construction and maintenance of city parks.

Fayetteville's State Representative Race

2010-05-07T09:58:00.004-05:00

The only local Democratic Primary race in town is that between Greg Leding and Bill Ramsey to replace State Representative Lindsley Smith and represent Fayetteville's House District 92, which includes Dickson Street and the University of Arkansas. You can check out the candidate websites linked above to see how they are presenting themselves, and the League of Women Voters conducted interviews that are available online.

Here is the Northwest Arkansas Times overview of the race. I kept hoping that the Fayetteville Flyer would run those cool personal and political interviews like they did for the mayor's race in 2008, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen. Anyway, you'll have to look a bit further to see what the public thinks of them. Birds of a Feather Analytics are sometimes helpful in getting beyond the images created by the ad agencies.

Using the convenient Ballot Bucks website created by the folks at Ozarks Unbound and snooping around the online media outlets, here are the candidate composites that emerge for the two candidates. You can make your own choice about which one you think will represent your interests and our community in the state legislature.

BILL RAMSEY

Endorsements
Northwest Arkansas Times
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Contributions:
Arkansas Oil Marketers Association PAC
Arkansas Bankers Association PAC
Southwestern Electric Power Company PAC
Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce PAC
Don Tyson
Dr. Bobby New
Jim Lindsey

GREG LEDING

Endorsements:
Arkansas Education Association
Arkansas Sierra Club
Northwest Arkansas Labor Council

Contributions:
Representative Lindsley Smith
Senator Sue Madison
Representative Monty Davenport
Susana O'Daniel
Dr. Hershey Garner
Karon Reese

Endorsements in Republican Primaries

2010-05-03T11:27:00.003-05:00

There are lots of people running for the Republican nomination for federal office, but there are few quality candidates from which to choose. It is almost by default that we offer these as the best of the lot.

John Boozman for U.S. Senate. He is more sane than Jim Holt or Gilbert Baker, one of whom might make a run-off with Boozman. We know that Boozman votes and talks the right wing party line, but he seldom goes beyond those marching orders to make up stuff to get attention. He is a tool of Walmart and the monied interests, and he cares not for the average voter in Arkansas. In other words, a typical Republican.

Cecile Bledsoe for Congress, 3rd District. Again, all of the Republican candidates swallow the party line and can be counted to vote as the Whip tells them. Bledsoe would be better than Steve Womack or Gunner DeLay, because she is a nice person and generally unoffensive. Womack or DeLay would be sure to embarrass us with their loose lips as well as their voting records, so we go for the safer alternative.

Bad Day in Benton County

2010-04-22T14:13:00.002-05:00

The front page today has two stories from Benton County, related to position on the page and on the political spectrum. Benton County Judge David Bisbee was charged with five counts of ethics violations related to three separate incidents. Bisbee offered no comment, but it looks like he was just following the Republican Party line of running government like a business -- his own or maybe Enron. Lots of self-dealing, corner-cutting, and ethics-winking by the developer-politician. The Prosecuting Attorney is preparing a petition to remove Bisbee from office; Bisbee says he ain't going nowhere and is running for re-election in that little one-party fiefdom.

Just down the road, Pinnacle Point Properties, LLC, already way behind on paying $700,00 in local property taxes, has filed for bankruptcy. Lined up to take another hit to their capital accounts are Metropolitan National Bank of Little Rock ($34.9 million) and Chambers Bank of Danville ($6.65 million). Chambers Bank is also sucking air in the John Lindsey bankruptcy deal. Bill Schwyhart is the man behind the curtain here. Last year, he was slapped with a $27 million foreclosure suit by Bank of America on other properties, and was involved in litigation, and the year before that he was sued by widow Johnelle Hunt, a former partner in a $30 million air charter deal.

In 2008, Schwyhart invested $13,900 in the campaign coffers of Mike Huckabee, John Boozman, Jim Inhofe, Mitch McConnell, John McCain, and the Republican Party of Arkansas. Back in 2004, he dumped $18,300 on Bush-Cheney, John Boozman, Ernest Istook, Kit Bond, and Marvin Parks. Less than 5% of his generosity went to Democrats, and that was a single wasted contribution to Dick Gephardt.

John Boozman should consider hiring Bisbee and Schwyhart as campaign consultants and economic advisors. He owes them something for their past support.

Astroturf Politics from Another Planet

2010-04-18T17:10:00.005-05:00

There is a bunch of wingnuts calling themselves Secure Arkansas and claiming to be "a grassroots organization" dedicated to making damn sure that no Mexicans get anything but a raw deal in Arkansas. The Third District coordinators are Jack and Jan Lea in Rogers. Dawn Harpell of Bella Vista, Kevin Connor of Rogers, and Joyce Loftis of Bentonville are the Benton County cell coordinators, and the Washington County klavern is headed up by Teabaggers Christine Keller and Jim Laubler. The Madison County bunker is staffed by Linda Vandiver, owner of the Faubus Motel that hoisted the Confederate Battle Flag after Obama's victory.

If you ever had any notion that this gaggle was mainstream, let their own Tea Party Straw Poll of over 1,000 people who attended their rallies this week clear your mind. In the Governor's race, they voted 94% for Jim Keet to Mike Beebe's 6%. In the Lt. Governor's race, Democrat Shane Broadway also got 6%. I would be willing to wager the farm that both Beebe and Broadway waltz into office with clear majorities among the more sane voters in the general election. Their little poll also had Republican Mark Martin of Prairie Grove thumping Democrat Pat O'Brien by 95% to 3%. For Land Commissioner, Republican John Thurston, whom I've never heard of before, getting 98% and Democrat Monty Davenport getting less that 1%. Attorney General Dustin McDaniel was given a 95% disapproval rating.

The Third District Congressional race is another example of the disconnect with reality. Among those running in the Republican Primary, the Secure Teabaggers favored Bernie Skoch and Mike Moore tied at 23% each, while Rogers Mayor and Mexican Hunter Steve Womack had only 3%. In the Fourth District, Mike Ross was favored by 4%. No Democratic cendidate in the Second District broke 1%. It was about the same story in the First District with Republican Rick Crawford picked by 81% to 17% for Republican Princella Smith.

The ranking of United States Senate candidates was the only surprise, with Bailout John Boozman leading with 27%, just ahead of Jim Holt at 23%. None of the Democrats broke the 1% barrier.

I can think of nothing clever to say that would be any funnier than the raw numbers in this poll.

A&P Requests Revealed

2010-04-18T09:58:00.003-05:00

Thanks to the good journalistic work of the Fayetteville Flyer, we now know which local groups have applied for this round of funding from the Fayetteville Advertising and Promotion Commission. Thirteen groups requested $260,869 for projects ranging from $1,000 for Puppets in the Park to a whopping $62,000 for the 540 Film Festival.

Too bad that the Commission blew most of their cash wad last fall, because they have only $31,000 left for this round, and the film festival wants twice that much. Poor budgeting at best, but all of Allyson's insider deals were at the trough last fall and had to be fed first. The Walton Arts Center, never shy, is back again asking for $25,000 for Beauty and the Beast, and TheatreSquared is again wanting another $15,000 on top of their previous funding. Now, I like TheatreSquared productions, but I have seen no evidence that their productions draw many tourist dollars to Fayetteville.

The most reader comment at the Fayetteville Flyer has been a raging back and forth about the $10,000 request by All OUT June for some kind of GLBT parade and festival. Some don't think it is appropriate to fund such a celebration, as opposed to, say, $20,000 for Babes and Bling Bikers. The worst application, in my opinion, is $36,612 for the Washington County Fair. Someone should take a look and see how many overnight guests booked rooms in town for the county fair last year and how much sales tax the carnival rides and cotton candy vendors paid to the city.

The Commissioners need to get control of the A&P staff and start being more cognizant that there are two funding cycles. They should also be more sensitive to the conflicts of interests that abound when A&P employees are on boards of groups that seem to get full funding while everyone else gets a rain check. They did take one baby step for mankind when they adopted a policy that commissioners had to bid on insider contracts; they should have been prohibited outright, but that would be asking too much of Bob Davis who continues to milk the goose.

Arrogance and Plunder -- In Secret Yet Again.

2010-04-12T07:31:00.006-05:00

About a month ago, we had a good discussion here about the secrecy that abounds at the Fayetteville Advertising and Promotion Commission. Chairman Tim Freeman posted several comments promising to make its operations more transparent and accountable. Nice words, and a new section was put up on the A&P website. Nice words, but nothing else has changed. Nice words, but we are still being kept in the dark.

The A&P Commission meets today to dole out grant funds. There is no notice of that on the website, which only says it meets at 2:00 p.m. on the second Monday at the Town Center. I've heard a rumor that they are meeting somewhere else, but, if so, that is not information the Commission staff has shared on its website. Even more disturbing is that there is no listing of which groups applied for A&P Grants, and there is no information about which ones the Commission staff is recommending for funding at what level. How convenient for a cabal that wishes to do its work in secret. How unacceptable.

If a citizen wanted to show up today and comment or voice support or opposition, it would be difficult to do so, despite Chairman Freeman's Nice Words and Empty Promises. You would have to know where the A&P Commission is meeting. You would have to know what is on the agenda. You would have to have a crystal ball or be well connected with someone on the staff, because, like the A&P Commission, the local excuse for a newspaper has again failed to do its job of informing the public. Otherwise, unless you check out the Fayetteville Flyer for the new meeting place and the agenda, you are SOL. Again.

The Nature of Socialism in the Ozarks

2010-04-02T06:58:00.005-05:00

No, I'm not talking about Medicare, public libraries, free parking on Dickson Street, farm subsidies for Jim Lindsey, management training programs for a Chinese flea market, or home delivery of junk mail. This is real, and it is costing taxpayers $2.4 million. Not a single Republican candidate for Congress has called a press conference to denounce it or to urge their flock to chain themselves to the fence in protest. The Teabaggers who oppose all millages for public schools have made n'airy a peep nor a misspelled sign against this one.

R&P Electroplating of Fayetteville operated a metal plating facility from 1974 to 1997 in the industrial area on the banks of the White River. The company illegally dumped cyanide and heavy metals into the Fayetteville sewer system and severely damaged the city's sewer treatment plant. That cost Fayetteville taxpayers $21,000 in repairs.

The business owners walked away from the site in 1997, leaving the abandoned facility full of cyanide, acid plating solutions, solvents, acids, caustic soda beads and soda ash, oils, spent solutions and sludge. In 1999, 42,081 gallons of liquid waste and 410,200 pounds of solid and sludge waste were removed under an emergency order from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Then it just sat there for years as environmental reports documenting the hazards piled up on the shelf. A few years ago under a previous city administration a proposal was floated to make it a city park with a playground. Obviously a bad idea, and it went nowhere.

Yesterday, the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality announced public funding for a $2.4 million contract with Southern Environmental Management and Specialties Inc. of Baton Rouge to clean up the abandoned industrial site on Pump Station Road. The taxpayers will foot the bill to clean up the mess left by a private corporation that reaped profits and degraded the environment for more than 20 years. Still to come is the multi-million dollar cleanup of the toxic dump at SouthPass that a former mayor rushed to get for the citizens of Fayetteville.

Everyone seems to think it is alright to bailout banks with toxic assets and businesses that leave their toxic chemicals, but it is horrible to provide a public option for those who cannot afford private Blue Cross health insurance rates. The only consistency in all of this seems to be that socialism for the rich is fine, but public assistance for the less fortunate is terrible.

Political Cretin Science like Kudzu

2010-03-28T12:03:00.004-05:00

The big idea to improve Arkansas public education back in March 1981 was passage of Act 590, mandating the teaching of “Creation Science” in any public school classroom where evolutionary biology was mentioned. This offended almost everyone except a few zealots and was quickly declared unconstitutional. How did such an embarrassing travesty come to pass?

Wendell Bird of San Diego’s Institute for Creation Research helped write a draft for a state act mandating the teaching of creationism alongside evolutionary theory that ended up in the hands of State Senator James Holsted of North Little Rock, who introduced the bill into the Arkansas Senate, where it passed without hearings on March 13, 1981. The House of Representatives held no hearings either, debating the bill for only fifteen minutes before passing it by a vote of 69–18, with the support of Rep. Bill Ramsey of Prairie Grove. Governor Frank White signed it into law on March 19, 1981. After a vigorous and very expensive defense by Attorney General Steve Clark, the bogus bill was declared unconstitutional on January 5, 1982.

You'd a thunk the legislature would catch on about the constitution, but no. In 2005, Rep. Mark Martin of Prairie Grove tried the same stunt with a different name, introducing a bill to require the teaching of "Intelligent Design" in the public schools of Arkansas, although his own children do not attend the public schools. That ruse has also been discredited and declared unconstitutional.

Here we are in 2010, and they are still with us. Bill Ramsey, the former state representative from Prairie Grove who supported the Creation Science bill, is running to represent Fayetteville and the University of Arkansas campus in the legislature. He says he has some "innovative ways to address our educational concerns." I'll bet. Mark Martin, the current state representative from Prairie Grove who introduced the the Intelligent Design bill, is the Republican nominee for Secretary of State. If elected, he will certainly have some zealous ideas for the intelligent design of state legislative districts in Arkansas.

Of course, it's just a theory.

Lincoln and Boozman Say NO to NWA Students

2010-03-20T08:29:00.003-05:00

It cannot be the cost of the health insurance reform bill, because the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office report this week shows that the legislation will actually reduce the federal deficit by $138 billion over the next decade. Yet, Senator Blanche Lincoln and Congressman John Boozman, the Tweedledum and Tweedledumber politicians with our vote, both say they will vote NO on the budget reconciliation proposal that requires only a simple majority to pass. It is expected to pass in the House tomorrow and in the Senate next week.

They will also be voting against provisions to reform the student loan program, increase the amount of Pell Grants to low-income students, and fund job training programs at NorthWest Arkansas Community College. First, the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act saves $61 billion by instituting direct loans to students instead of letting the banks skim off and charge large fees for processing the funds. Second, it adds $36 billion to Pell Grants at $5,550 per year for tuition. This is a huge impact locally, where NWACC had a 9.6% increase in students receiving Pell Grants last year that averaged only $1,738.

Even more disappointing is that Lincoln and Boozman will be voting against the $2.5 million that Arkansas is guaranteed to receive for job training programs and that NWACC is planning to use for jobs in the health care profession. Working with the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation to prepare competitive grant applications, Arkansas community colleges could receive even more job training funds from the $500 million appropriation.

Why? Boozman will vote NO, because he and the Republicans always vote no on everything. Lincoln will vote no, because she cares more about bank profits than affordable college education and job training. She also thinks she will get the votes of the Teabaggers and other Republicans if she continues to vote with them against health insurance reform. That we are represented by such tools is a shame for which Arkansas voters can only blame themselves.

Laurie Masterson Endorses Blanche Lincoln

2010-03-17T15:08:00.004-05:00

Laurie Taylor Masterson, erstwhile bookbanner and wife of propagandist Mike Masterson, caught her breath today and took a short break from screeching about "Obama's radical agenda" and trying to get SFret Jim all fired up about the socialistic plot to build a new high school in Elkins. It appears that the Iconoclast has the scoop on this, because it is not yet moving on the wires or the internets.

Laurie Masterson endorsed Senator Blank Lincoln. She urged her Teabagger brigade to abandon Jim Holt's Senate campaign and General Skotch's race for Congress and to crossover to vote in the Democratic Primary. “MoveOn.org is funneling millions of $$ to Bill Halter, along with other very liberal organizations," she informed her Facebook Friends, then issued the clarion directive, "It will be incumbent on the ppl of Arkansas to make sure that our voters know he SUPPORTS - Cap and Trade, Governement [sic] Healthcare, Unionization of the state and government intervention on all levels.~ Please have these conversations with your friends, family and neighbors. And VOTE May 18th!!!”

Now, I could be wrong on this. She could have been urging her cult followers to vote for D. C. Morrison. She has done stranger things.

Fine, Laurie, if you want to send the nutters in to get a Democratic ballot and try to stop Lt. Governor Halter. Bring it on. But be prepared for your gaggle to be arrested when they try to vote in the Republican runoffs for Jesus Jim Holt and Steve Womack. It is a crime to vote in one party's primary and another's runoff.

The Teabagger Travel Title Goes to ....

2010-03-15T08:37:00.005-05:00

Senator Mark Pryor (Liebermantarian -AR) and Congressman Vic Snyder (D-AR2) took no overseas trips at taxpayer expense last year. Neither did Senator Blanche Lincoln (Bought Waffler -AR). The Arkansas King of Foreign Junkets was Congressman John Boozman (R-Pinnacle Gated Compound), who says he is against wasteful spending but had no problem loading up his wife on a military airplane for free round-trip airfare to Edinburgh, Scotland, and drawing $3,623.81 in undocumented expenses from the taxpayers for those four days.

Boozman also took a Valentine's weekend trip to Brussells, Belgium, to study how to have better relations with Russia, although he and Mike Ross (BigPharm-AR4) claimed they were trying to get our allies to send more troops to Afghanistan. Boozman said it was a busy schedule, but he was also able to work in side trips to Austria, France, and Germany and pocket $2,880.55 in unitemized "expenses" and run up $6,472.08 for his share of "incidentals."

Grand Slam. According to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, based on official documents, "In April, Boozman traveled through Germany to Africa and the Middle East, with stops in Afghanistan, Cape Verde, Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Ghana, Qatar and Rwanda. The trip was paid for by taxpayers, out of an account reserved for members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee." He said he was conducting an audit of some foreign aid program that the State Department auditors must not have been able to handle. According to Air Force documents, it costs $4,821 per hour for a C-40 Transport used to shuttle Congressmen on these extended foreign junkets, so Boozman's per diem payments totaling $2,812.37 for the eight-day trip were a drop in the deficit bucket.

Nice work, John. We are so happy that you and your wife could see the world at taxpayer expense, even in tough economic times that you say made you vote against transportation projects, expanded health care, and job training programs for the common people here in Northwest Arkansas.

Arrogance and Plunder Commission

2010-03-07T16:44:00.004-06:00

The Fayetteville Advertising and Promotion Commission meets tomorrow, in case you didn't know, and you probably didn't. I am sure that you have no idea what is on the agenda, even if you were somehow able to find a copy of it. Here's why I am certain of that.

Back in November, just before the A&P Commission funded two more biker events in Fayetteville and a bunch of UA sporting events that were going to happen even without funding from the limited A&P tax dollars, I tried to inform myself about what was going on. I wrote to the City Clerk, who informed me that the City did not have access to A&P Commission records, budgets, or agendas. I spent hours online trying to find the November agenda and the budget that was going to be approved at the meeting. Nada.

Then I heard from Chairman Tim Freeman, who told me, "We don't put our agenda on our website, which is experiencefayetteville.com, because it is primarily geared toward tourists and folks from out of town." If I wanted to see the agenda, he said, “Just go up to the office and get it on your lunch break or something.”

Finally, I did get a copy of the Agenda from Marilyn Heifner, the Executive Director. I had a false hope that this was the beginning of something new in the way of public access and accountability, because she promised, "We are currently working on our website to be able to include agendas, HMR statistics, etc. " Well, that was four months ago, and there is still no A&P Commission agenda, no minutes, and no budget information online. I wonder who is "currently working on" their website, how much they are being paid by the hour, who they are related to, and when we might expect them to be finished.

Not that it really matters, because the Agenda offers very little information to the public, certainly not enough to decide whether it is worth burning vacation time to attend the A&P Commission meetings that are inconveniently scheduled during weekday work hours. For example, at the November meeting, the A&P Commissioners approved all of the grants for the next year. The agenda I was provided gave no hint about who had applied, how much they requested, or what staff was recommending for funding. It merely said, “III. Special project requests – funding distribution.”

Only that night did I learn by reading Ozarks Unbound who were the Lucky Chosen Ones who were on "a laundry list of recipients who were awarded $182,850 today by the Fayetteville Advertising and Promotion Committee." If I had known these were on the agenda, I would have shown up and squawked, and I don't think I would have been alone.

The entire enterprise stinks. It is rife with nepotism and self-dealing. The budget and the agendas are squirreled away in some filing cabinet and not available online in the second decade of the 21st Century. Even more troublesome is the poor advertising of grant availability and deadlines. This allows the Commission and its staff to then hide behind the excuse that no one applied except their friends and organizations that certain staff members sit on their boards.

It is called insider trading, but none of it is illegal in Fayetteville. If the City Council would get serious about conflict of interest ordinances that hold the A&P Commissioners and staff to the same standards as City officials and staff, that would be welcome, and it would be far more effective than me whining on this blog or a three-hour public bitchfest after the fact.

Candidate Questionnaire

2010-03-04T18:14:00.004-06:00

When the candidates for Congress, Senate, or any other office start talking about "economic development" and "creating jobs," as they are sure to do, ask them, "What kind of car do you drive?" If anyone knows what kind of wheels these ambitious office seekers are sporting, feel free to answer for them.

The Blameless Bankrupt

2010-02-23T16:16:00.003-06:00

A thread started below about the Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing of John David Lindsey has been taken up by a couple of local blogs. Check out the report on the Fayettevillage Voice and the more biting commentary of Roger's Arkansas. Neither seem to be buying the bullshit of Lindsey or his father, Jim Lindsey, that the boy is a blameless victim of the fates. That's what happens when the highrollers get rolled. No more sympathy for young Master Lindsey than for Brandon Barber, Dirk Van Veen, Hank Broyles, or John Nock.

I can't tell enough about it to make any contribution, but I'll be watching for the numbers when the shell filing gets some real numbers next month. Somebody's about to get a half-billion dollar financial enema.

If anyone has any solid information or even uninformed opinions, the comments section is all yours.

We Don't Need No Stinking Ethics

2010-02-21T21:10:00.004-06:00

The Arkansas Ethics Commission will conduct a 2-hour training session in Fayetteville on March 12 for political candidates and other persons subject to the state’s laws on campaign finance and disclosure. They should have plenty of customers among our politicians who are generally unfamiliar with ethics laws and such, but they find much comfort in claiming ignorance as a convenient excuse.

Benton County Judge David Bisbee could learn that it is unethical to reject a low bid and throw the money to your own construction company to remodel offices in the courthouse. Representative Mark Martin could learn how to stop lying about being a good steward of the taxpayers' money while pocketing more than $56,000 in expense accounts, the highest among Northwest Arkansas legislators. Congressman John Boozman could learn to stop claiming credit for federal grants that he voted against.

Fayetteville Alderman Matthew Petty could learn not to steal someone's tricycle and wreck it. Alderman Robert Rhoads could learn to file his financial ethics forms on time and before reporters start asking questions. Alderman Brenda Thiel could learn to recuse from voting on her boyfriend's $90,000 salary. A&P Commissioner Bob Davis could learn that it is unethical to get a no-bid contract to sell insurance to the A&P Commission. A&P Director Marilyn Heifner could learn not to hire family members without advertising the position.

Perry Webb and the Springdale Cowbirds could learn to pay their taxes and stop using public funds for exotic junkets and expensive personal items. UA coaches could learn not to take money (aka kickbacks) for endorsing various brands of equipment and requiring the student athletes to wear the logos.

None of these people will show up for the training.

Republican Wastrels

2010-02-14T10:49:00.005-06:00

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette has a good story this morning about which legislators have grubbed the most money for expenses during the last year. Each legislator in Northwest Arkansas gets $18,000 for office expenses and a little over $15,000 in per diem and mileage for the regular session, so the base rate would be about $33,000. The lowest amount drawn among the 135 legislators was $1,081 by Senator David Johnson (D-Little Rock) member who doesn't have to drive down I-540 to get to the capitol.

Twenty legislators billed the state for more than $50,000 in expenses. For all the campaign rhetoric about being good stewards of the taxpayers' money, the biggest spenders in Northwest Arkansas are our right-wing Washington County Republicans, two of whom ranked in the Top Ten percentage among the 135 legislator travel expense accounts, along with Benton County's Senator Kim Hendren (R-Gravette). Representative Mark Martin (R-Prairie Grove) raked in $56,290 in reimbursements and ranked Number 4 in expenses among all 135 legislators. Close behind, at Number 9 in the House was Jon Woods (R-Springdale) with $51,949.

Representative Martin is a candidate for the Republican nomination for Secretary of State. His campaign website doesn't say anything about his lavish spending habits or his wingnut voting record, but it does have a link where you can send him some of your money and cut out the middleman. Senator Hendren says he is running for United States Senator, and on his campaign website his first promise is "I will oppose Washington’s reckless spending." He doesn't mention that he ranked Number 3 in expense requests out the of 35 members in the Arkansas Senate.

Fayetteville's Senator Sue Madison (D) and Representative Lindsley Smith (D) received lower reimbrusement expenses than all of their local Republican colleagues.

Here is the full rundown of expense accounts for our Northwest Arkansas delegation.

SENATE
Kim Hendren (R) $50,522
Bill Pritchard (R) $47,519
Cecile Bledsoe (R) $45,529
Sue Madison (D) $42,597

HOUSE
Mark Martin (R-Prairie Grove) $56,290
Jon Woods (R-Springdale) $51,949
Jim House (D-Fayetteville) $48,414
Uvalde Lindsey (D-Fayetteville) $45,625
Donna Hutchinson (R-Bella Vista) $42,661
Mary Lou Slinkard (R-Gravette) $42,542
Jonathan Barnett (R-Siloam Springs) $41,855
Les Carnine (R-Rogers) $39,967
Debra Hobbs (R-Rogers) $39,451
Tim Summers (R-Bentonville) $37,828
Duncan Baird (R-Lowell) $36,856
Lindsley Smith (D-Fayetteville) $35,729

Lincoln Sees "Dirty Dozen" as Badge of Honor

2010-01-29T06:41:00.007-06:00

The League of Conservation Voters this week named Senator Blanche Lincoln (R-Waffler) on their 2010 list of the "Dirty Dozen" most anti-environmental members of Congress seeking reelection after she signed on to co-sponsor the "Dirty Air Act" resolution offered by Alaska Republican Senator Murkowski. “Instead of embracing a comprehensive clean energy and climate bill that creates jobs, reduces carbon pollution and increases energy independence, Senator Lincoln has decided to cast her lot with Big Oil and other corporate polluters who oppose transitioning to a clean energy economy,” said Gene Karpinski, LCV President.

Lincoln responds that she has an outstanding voting record on environmental issues, although she has a career LCV score of only 49%. She has taken more than $1 million in campaign cash from Big Oil and other energy interests, with oil and gas companies being among the top five contributors to her campaign this cycle, and that should more than offset any effective opposition from the poorly funded environmental organization.

In a press release from her campaign office, Lincoln slammed the League of Conservation Voters as "a Washington-based, liberal environmental group," as she boasted, “Threats from extremist groups from outside our state tell me I’m doing something right for Arkansas.” That statement was followed by quotes from Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce President Randy Zook and Arkansas Farm Bureau President Randy Veach expressing their appreciation for her opposition to EPA authority to enforce the Clean Air Act to regulate greenhouse gases, which they usually deny exist.

Blanche knows that there are more polluters than environmental voters in Arkansas, and she thinks she can get Republican corporate types to vote for her instead of a genuine Republican candidate. She is also very well aware that she has received much more money from Chamber of Commerce and Farm Bureau members than from local environmental groups, so you know who gets the lump of coal. Expect more of the same from the woman who replaced Dale Bumpers (100% LCV in 1997 & 1998) in the United States Senate -- and weep.

Chickenopolis Cowbirds

2010-01-28T19:05:00.004-06:00

Sometime while we were on vacation in Branson, the FOI Springdale website became FOI Springdale Blog. It is a prime example of why local Cowbirds need to be held accountable. In this case, we get a good picture of what is going on in every Chamber of Commerce that is nurtured with tax dollars by local governments that have the impossible dream of new jobs and the fateful fiction that Cowbirds can make those happen.

In most instances, only the Chamber officers and employees know about the wasteful and self-indulgent spending sprees. The Springdale Cowbirds were so arrogant that they just dumped the taxpayers' hundred thousand dollars plus into the same slush account they used for entertaining themselves and their friends. We wrote about it here a few times, but FOI Springdale does it so much better.

Enjoy the revelations while you can. Perry Webb learned his lesson and will keep the public funds in a separate account, making sure that all of his other questionable expenses and personal travel splurges remain hidden from citizens making Freedom of Information requests. What he will not be able to hide any longer, if anyone bothers to do the math, is what a poor investment the city council and the advertising and promotion commission have made and continue to make. It is a very poor return on their investment of taxpayers hard earned money.

Job Openings in Washington

2010-01-28T17:40:00.006-06:00

The death rattle of Senator Blanche Lincoln's pith-poorly orchestrated campaign for reelection has sent a few ripples into the Third Congressional District. Her astronomical unfavorable ratings, combined with bone-headed votes and public statements that almost seem designed to alienate the Democratic party base, make her look like easy pickings for a serious challenger and within the realm of probability for opponents that normally would not be taken seriously.

The sad new for Democrats is that she will be their nominee, despite her disdain for the President and the party platform. Lt. Governor Bill Halter could have taken her out in a primary, but that was not to be. Governor Beebe and the party establishment have been in the tank for Lincoln forever and have shunned Halter at every opportunity. Now, with Congressman Vic Snyder retiring, a discount ticket to Washington is available for purchase, and Halter will likely make a bid. More later on what that would mean for a Lt. Governor contest and why anyone with good sense would possibly want the job.

The impact on local political doings comes from our own Republican Robot, John Boozman, looking at an easy shot for a six-year term in the Senate, a real attraction for a fellow who does not appear to enjoy having to campaign and make conversation with ordinary voters. He will first have to get by a primary with a dozen other mediocre candidates and probably a run-off with State Senator Gilbert Baker. Some think real estate tycoon, apartment slumlord, and farm subsidy welfare king Jim Lindsey will buy his way in, but I am not among them.

Boozman's candidacy would open the floodgates of pent up political ambition among every obnoxious little twit who ever sought public office in Benton County. First among them will be Rogers Mayor Steve Womack, who will be unable to resist spoiling his inner demagogue and reporting the true feelings of his corporate sponsors. It is also possible that State Senator Kim Hendren, failed gubernatorial candidate and father of a failed Congressional candidate, will retreat from the Senate race and take a shot at the AR3 slot, fueled by his personal fortune from an out of state car dealership. Retired General and Teabagger Bernard Skoch is already announced and should stay. Asa Hutchinson, a Loser in races for Benton County JP and U.S. Senate and Governor and Attorney General, would like to move back to Arkansas and be back in the only office he ever won, but he will decide against having to defend his sorry record on the federal dole.

On the Democratic side, Fayetteville attorney David Whitaker appears to have a clear field for a run. A couple of years ago, Don Nelms made some noise about running as an independent, but friends report that he is too happy and very comfortable pursuing his dreams in Newton County to make another campaign. That should give Whitaker some relief, as he can spend the next seven months raising money while his opponents will be spending the next four months spending their own money and wondering why the party faithful are putting out only for Senate candidates.

Green Party candidate Abel Tomlinson will likely be distracted by his own foray into the judicial branch instead of the legislative campaign. I think some guy in Rogers is running as an independent, but I can't remember his name, and that's just as well.

That's all I know, but I warn you against getting your hopes up that the citizens will have much say in the outcome. Just sit back and see who Walmart buys and elects to be their new puppet. That should be clear in late April when the quarterly purchase orders are reported to the Federal Election Commission.

Benign Neglect 2009

2009-12-31T15:07:00.003-06:00

The Little Rock media, both social and unsocial, have taken stock of the state of our state for 2009. Northwest Arkansas got off easy, probably because the metropolitan Punditry of Pulaski find us easy to ignore in their view of the world, but we can be thankful whatever the reason.

Longtime political observer and cultural critic Bob Lancaster's 2009 Best and Worst of Arkansas in the current issue of the Arkansas Times let's us off easy, at least as easy as one can when mentioning Chickendale. "Business Week magazine said in November that Springdale was the best town in Arkansas for raising children. Maybe so. At least Springdale police don't taser 10-year-old girls." The rest of us up here? We are not worthy.

Blake Rutherford's Think Tank offered an assessment of the Best and Worst of 2009 Politics and Blogging. In the only nod to our little corner of the state, he did give the Most Notorious Arkansas Political Figure award to Benton County's State Senator Kim Hendren. Hendren's national media attention from his unapologetic characterization of U.S. Senator Charles Schumer as "that Jew" would be hard to top.

Never fear, my friends. We will get much more attention in the Worst rankings of the 2010 retrospectives. It is an election year.

Evnironmental Scorecard

2009-12-30T23:27:00.003-06:00

A group called Environment America, a federation of of state-based, citizen-funded environmental advocacy organizations, has issued its roll call analysis of U.S. Senate and House voting records on environmental issues. They think that the voters give a damn how elected officials vote, so this is part of its campaign "to pass legislation in Congress to repower our economy with clean energy and cut global warming pollution."

Our delegation got three As, two Bs, and one F. On 15 key environmental votes, detailed in the report, Environment America found that 184 of the 535 national legislators voted pro-environment 100% of the time. Three from Arkansas had perfect records: Congressman Snyder, Senator Lincoln, and Senator Pryor. Two others, Congressman Ross and Congressman Berry, scored 87%, voting right on 14 of 15 issues.

Then there was the Congressman from the Green Valley of Northwest Arkansas, John Boozman, who voted wrong on 11 of 15 roll calls. All those eco-freaks in the Sierra Club did not scare our guy, who is not the least bit ashamed that he voted against the environment. He is proud to have the worst record and is only embarrassed because his score of 27% was too high for his corporate contributors.

If you are one of those inconsequential environmentalists, you can waste some more of your time and wallow in your political impotence by reading the full report.

Jim Holt Ready to Rumble

2009-12-24T08:20:00.003-06:00

Fans and followers of Jim Holt are throwing a fund-raising party in Fort Smith next week. It is your chance to get in on the ground floor of the 2010 Jim Holt for U.S. Senate campaign by writing a fat check. If enough people believe in him and make a love offering, then the race is on. His handlers point out that Holt got 44% against Lincoln six years ago, before she managed to upset so many voters on the left and right.

If hard times have made tightwads of the faithful, then Jim will be looking to take back his old State Senate seat now held by Bill Pritchard of Elkins. There are more Republican primary votes in Springdale than in the rest of the district.

New Blogger on the Block

2009-12-22T10:33:00.002-06:00

I have whined for years that Benton County was a target-rich environment that deserved its own blogs for commentary on the politics of that province. Fortunately, Rogers now has a very good one in Roger's Arkansas. It combines wit, insight, good writing in complete sentences, and it does not appear to be on retainer by either the Chamber or Wal-Mart.

Now, if only Siloam Springs got the blogging it deserved.

Friday's Gone

2009-12-19T16:28:00.003-06:00

I read on the Fayetteville Flyer that T.G.I.Friday closed last week, and there is a vigorous and somewhat interesting discussion among readers in the comments section. Whatever your opinion of the restaurant, it sucks that about a hundred minimum wage and sub-minimum wage workers found themselves unemployed just before Christmas. Let us hope that they were paid the wages due, unlike what often happens to employees when some place like Osegueras closes and employees get stiffed for back wages.

I didn't ever eat at T.G.I.Friday during its four year life in Fayetteville, and I am not sure exactly where it was. I think it was somewhere over the rainbow, out in that field behind Kohl's, in that maze of restaurants that come and go. It must be close to the former Fuddruckers that closed up shop two years ago, when the manager said there were too many restaurants out there. Bill Ramsey said the business failed because the Fayetteville sign ordinance kept our city from looking more like Springdale, so T.G.I.Friday might have survived with a bigger sign that you could see all the way from the Wilson Spring Audubon Nature Center.

I don't know.

Blanche Declares War on Christmas

2009-12-18T13:45:00.003-06:00

Fox News told us about The War on Christmas, but we didn't think Senator Blanche Lincoln would be a willing conscript. It is like something fron The X-mas Files. Today she used her official United States Senate email account to wish everyone Happy Holidays. "As you gather together to celebrate with your family this holiday, I encourage you to embrace the spirit of the season," she wrote cautiously, closing with the generic wish "from my family to yours, have a joyous holiday and a very happy New Year."

She hedged with a conifer and a carol in her video message, but she couldn't bring herself to say the "C-word." Is this some nefarious message, designed by a K Street Consultant, to make a play for the Arkansas swing voters among Jews, Muslims, Vegans, and Freethinkers? Is it her usual waffle on this issue as all others? Why bother abusing the taxpayer funded email system with such a dull message?

Wait until Jim Holt gets ahold of this. Her gutting health care reform and telling people to go volunteer at charity clinics during "the season" will get a pass, but not this heresy.

Does Dr. NO Have a Jobs Plan?

2009-12-17T11:57:00.004-06:00

Last night, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Jobs for Main Street Act (H.R. 2847), which appropriates $154 billion to create and save jobs. No new revenue or deficit spending required, because it’s totally paid for with leftover bank bailout funds. It actually cuts taxes for 16 million families through the Child Tax Credit.

The legislation provides funding for highway and local mass transit projects, construction and repairing schools and low-income housing, and jobs for teachers, police and firefighters. It provides job training programs and extends recovery act initiatives to help small businesses create jobs. There are also provisions for lifeline unemployment and health care and food aid to those who have lost their jobs during this recession.

The vote was 217-212. Congressman John Boozman voted against it. We are still waiting for Nero's plan to rescue the economy and put people back to work.

Boozman Bows to the Big Banks

2009-12-12T08:21:00.004-06:00

Congressman John Boozman (R-Stephens, Inc.) has sold us out again. Yesterday he voted against HR 4173, the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009, which would place controls on the irresponsibe Wall Street financial giants that gambled on risky loans and complex financial products, seeking short-term profits and big bonuses with little regard for long-term economic consequences, and would bring new transparency and accountability to the nation's financial markets.

The legislations would also consolidate existing regulatory efforts into a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency, with the authority to put an end to misleading and dishonest practices of banks and institutions that market financial products like credit and debit cards; mortgage, auto and payday loans. Boozman didn't like that either, because the special interest lobbyists told him it would stifle the banking industry. He seems to think his constituents prefer to be victimized by mysterious fees, changing terms, pages and pages of fine print, and risky schemes that threaten our entire economy.

Boozman swallowed the phony arguments of the Wall Street bankers and voted to kill financial reform, choosing to leave American consumers and our economy vulnerable to another meltdown. Fortunately, his vote was unimportant and wasn't needed for passage of the bill.

Calling Out the Con-Sultans

2009-12-08T09:37:00.005-06:00

Brian Kisida of the Mid-Riffs blog has a good shot and clean kill on the waste of money on high-dollar, no-bid consulting contracts to out-of-state consultants. His immediate target was the Fayetteville School District for a $36,000 focus group experience much like an earlier one done for the Rogers School District. The strength of the piece is that it goes beyond the blog's usual carping about all things related to public education to get at the bigger picture of waste.

One wonders what those of us here in Northwest Arkansas have done to deserve so much attention from charlatans lately. …The latest sum of money the community will be parting with–$36,000 to be exact–is going to pay Phi Delta Kappa for conducting a curriculum audit of the Fayetteville School District. Like Eva Klein & Associates did for Fayetteville (for $150,000), Phi Delta Kappa came into town for a few days and held focus groups with community members to hear their ideas. ...

I don’t know exactly why organizations pay money to outside consultants, like when the city paid Eva Klein & Associates to tell us that the University was one of our strengths, and that the perception that Fayetteville was anti-business was one of our weaknesses. Don’t we already elect and pay people to think about these things and have a vision for what we need to do? So why are they sub-contracting out their duties?

Good questions, we think, but maybe that's because we've been saying the same thing for years. The Eva Klein deal was just the worst of the lot, but everyone knew that from the start. It frittered away more than four times the amount of the school district's contract, and the local media treated that publicly-financed campaign stunt like it was something legit.

Quick, without peeking, can you name one single thing that the City got from Eva Klein that we didn't already know? Didn't think so. But, maybe the City learned one thing from that slick squandering, since the new administration seems to have sharply curtailed such foolishness.

Reefer Madness

2009-12-05T10:44:00.005-06:00

I have spent the last few days defending the Fayetteville Police Department's judgment, and then they go and do something like this. Big picture in the Northwest Arkansas Times today with Captain Kenny Yates showing off the take in a marijuana bust in Fayetteville, as if that has anything to do with protecting the public from serious crime or injury. More people have died this year from careless drivers at crosswalks in our city than from selling or smoking weed, yet who gets sent to jail?.

Fayetteville Police and the 4th Judicial District Drug Task Force seem to go for the easy picking of dope smokers while the real dangers of methamphetamine manufacturing appear to go virtually ignored and unchecked. These boys who like their toys. Helicopters, Tasers, and night goggles come to mind as what happens when agencies get too much funding and have too much time on their hands. It is like an addiction.

It is also a huge waste of tax dollars. As I have noted before, the City is set to spend $475, 562 for a Drug Enforcement Program that is expected to produce only $12,000 in fines and forfeitures. That's no way to run a city. Greenland and Johnson make far more than that on their speed trap operations. Admittedly, some of this huge inefficient budget comes from a federal grant, but we are still dumping in $233,000 in city general revenues for a failed War on Drugs started under a previous mayor. Let's take a pass on the federal funds and save our money.

Let's also get a grip on what crimes should be priorities for enforcement in a time of limited financial resources. Our constabulary should be allowed to focus on serious offenses instead of being diverted by suits taking federal money for frills.

Boozman for the Billionaires

2009-12-03T16:53:00.004-06:00

Congressman John Boozman (R-Stepinfetch) today tried to give a big Christmas present to the billionaire Walton heirs. He was the only member of the Arkansas delegation voting to kill the estate tax on billionaires, which passed anyway today by 225-200.

HR 4154, the Permanent Estate Tax Relief for Families, Farmers, and Small Businesses Act of 2009, would exempt estates up to $3.5 million per individual and $7 million for married couples. That would exempt you and me, but it wasn't good enough for John Boozman. The four Waltons have inherited wealth of over $17 billion each, and he has consistently voted for all legislation to reduce their share of federal taxes.

Squabble in Siloam

2009-12-03T11:30:00.003-06:00

I know it is too easy, but Siloam Springs keeps dishing up those softballs that beg for batting, and it has been more than a year since Fayetteville city council meetings have been so...colorful. Last night the Board of Directors got into a fuss over the budget, and Director Mark Long tried to make a motion while Mayor David Allen was still speaking in support of funding the Main Street Program. Then, called down by the City Attorney, Long made a motion to adjourn, which died for lack of a second. Director Long then stormed out of the meeting. He doesn't play well with others.

After the dust up, the Directors approved a budget with funding for a few select non-profit groups they believed most worthy, including $8,000 to the Lion's Club for "flag replacement." Found less deserving and getting no funds from the City were the Main Street Program, the Adult Development Center, Sager Creek Arts Center, and St. Francis Clinic of Siloam Springs.

That is a fair reflection of community values in Siloam Springs, a Taliban staging area for nocturnal incursions into West Siloam Springs.

Wasteland of Tax Dollars

2009-12-02T11:37:00.004-06:00

The scam to get the City of Fayetteville to create a Tax Increment Finance District should not be soon forgotten, and the 2010 City Budget provides a reminder of the fleecing the taxpayers are still taking. We were told that spending $3.7 million in TIF bond funds to acquire property and demolish the Mountain Inn then selling the land to developers for a song was a great idea. They promised to build a big $24 million hotel and parking deck, and, despite pleas for caution from local citizens, former city officials pushed it on the longshot dream that increased property taxes would pay off the bonds.

It didn't work out that way. The City did its part, taking on millions in debt and handing over the deed to the developers. Because the contract signed by the City didn't require the developers to actually build anything, we now have an eyesore pay parking lot instead of a luxury hotel. The revenue from the parking fees goes to the developers, because they own the land. All of that new property tax revenue that we were told would be generated to pay off the bonds? That didn't happen either.

Part of the budget difficulties faced by the City today is a direct result of this financial folly. For 2009, the expenses of the TIF bond service exceed income by more than $5,700. For next year, the city's taxpayers are looking eating another loss on the projected deficit of $5,780 in the TIF Bond Fund (2010 Proposed Budget, p. 72).

The bitter irony that compounds the injury is that the vacant Mountain Inn generated $5,600 per year in tax revenue, and John Nock gets published as a deadbeat because he didn't pay his personal or real property taxes. And it is not just the money. Drive the newly completed College Avenue from Maple to Rock, and see the only section that has no trees, sidewalks, or decorative street lights.

Cop Killer

2009-12-01T23:03:00.005-06:00

Former Governor Mike Huckabee today said the focus should not be on him and lashed out at those who have criticized him for for commuting the 108-year sentence of Maurice Clemmons, the now-deceased suspect in the murders of four Washington police officers last weekend. He did not say who should be blamed for making him commute the sentence in 2000 and set Clemmons free to kill. It wasn't the Prosecuting Attorney, who opposed it.

It was another colossal mistake in judgment by Huckabee, just like the 1997 release of Wayne Dumond, who went on to again rape and murder. During the 2008 campaign, Huckabee tried to downplay his role in turning Dumond loose, blaming it on his hand picked parole board and former Governor Jim Guy Tucker.

This time, Huckabee is telling us it was a failure of the criminal justice system. Yes, Clemmons would still be in prison if Governor Huckabee hadn't failed to use good judgment by letting him out. The guy never could take responsibility for his actions and own up to his mistakes.

Meanwhile, the Huckster is traveling across the south selling and signing his latest book. It is already on the New York Times best seller list.

Of Taxes and Trust

2009-11-24T11:17:00.007-06:00

No one likes to pay taxes, but everyone knows that paying our property taxes is essential to support the public schools, the library, fire and police services, and general operation of city and county government. Most of us are willing to pay our fair share. That is what makes it particularly shameful when those who benefit most from these services don't meet their obligations, and those who are always asking for special treatment and public funding for private profit deserve a heap of scorn.

Among the delinquent deadbeats who have not paid past due personal property taxes are John C. Nock ($467.41), Nock Developments ($278.20), and Nock Investments ($679.34).

Among the delinquent deadbeats that have not paid past due real property taxes are John C and Jill Nock ($4,013.20) on that swanky home on Forest Heights, then there is a long list of delinquent properties owned by Ball Plaza Holdings LLC ($44,084.80) Nock Investments ($26,771.65), Nock Homes LLC ($5,081.80) Nock-Broyles Land Development LLC ($3,062.19), One East Center LLC ($24,882), Metro District Partners LLC, and who knows what other properties behind the invisible shield of creatively named and structured Limited Liability Corporations.

That’s well over $100,000 in delinquent property taxes that should be going to the Fayetteville Public Schools, the Fayetteville Public Library, and local government operations. And, it is one more reason that TIF Districts are a bad idea when even those benefiting from the bond proceeds won’t pay their property taxes.

From the list of criminal warrants on the Fayetteville Police Department site, it looks like John Nock has other problems besides being a tax deadbeat. And, by the way, where's that deed to the 200-acre park at Southpass?

Poor Folks, Profits, Police, and Politicians

2009-11-22T19:19:00.006-06:00

Well, well, well. The local politicians and the retail liquor cartel are at it again. This time they were flushed out by applications to sell beer and small vineyard specialty wines at three local Walmart stores. State Senator Sue Madison was, of course, right in the middle of it, and Fayetteville Police Chief Greg Tabor expressed his usual rote opposition to any and all alcohol sales. Some preachers also wrote letters against the permits. Alderman Bobby Ferrell wrote a letter supporting the permits. Mayor Lioneld Jordan and the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce took no position.

The Iconoclast is no fan of Walmart, but we would have granted all three permits. The Arkansas Alcoholic Beverage Control Board approved the permits for the Walmart Supercenter on Joyce and for the Walmart Neighborhood Market on Crossover, but they denied the permit for the Walmart Supercenter on Martin Luther King Boulevard in the low income part of town. Only the action to deny this third permit deserves much attention.

ABC Director Michael Langley offered the excuse that the board denied the MLK Walmart permit based on availability, traffic, and crime concerns. Okay, let's dissect this bullshit. Availability - the huge Crossover Liquor is just across the street from the WM Family Market, much closer than any competing outlet for the MLK Walmart. Traffic - way more cars all day long at the Joyce/Mall Avenue Supercenter, not that traffic count should have any connection to package sales because there is no demonstrated connection to DUI. Crime - they sell handguns at the MLK Supercenter for Gawdsakes, and more people are killed by bullets than being attacked with beer bottles.

The fact situation is pretty much the same for all three permit applications. The only real differences between the MLK location and the other two are social class and income levels in the neighborhoods. The ABC Board denied the permit for the location most convenient for working stiffs.

Now what was Sue Madison's dog in this hunt? In the past, she opposed retail liquor permits for Sam's Club in Springdale and Macadoodle's in Springdale, the last of which was supposed to be some insane screed about how many Benton County residents had shopped at their store just across the state line. You know, the store right there next to her colleague State Senator Kim Hendren's car lot.

The real reason is because she was doing the bidding for a certain liquor retailer that has a multi-permit monopoly on liquor stores in Springdale, not even in her district, and Madison was trying to keep him from having any price competition. This time she appears to be trying to stifle price competition in Fayetteville. Why stop with liquor sales, Senator? Every new retail business will be in competition with existing businesses, so get out there and oppose all new retail businesses in your district. That would make as much sense as your constant shilling for the liquor store owners.

Boozman Against Protecting Medicare Access

2009-11-21T01:33:00.005-06:00

This week, Congressman John Boozman (R-Pinnacle Gated Country Club) was the only member from Arkansas to vote against the Medicare Physician Payment Reform Act of 2009, which protects seniors' access to their doctor, promotes primary care, and offers incentives for doctors to provide patients with higher quality and more efficient care. He voted NO, although it was endorsed by the AARP, the Military Officers Association of America, and the American Medical Association.

The Medicare reforms passed by 243-183. Boozman issued a press release that said he wanted to increase payments to physicians by 2% every year; however, he offered no tax increase to pay for the expenditures and claimed that he was against increasing the deficit to pay for it. That leaves only two options, cutting Medicare or increasing the charges to seniors. Boozman wasn't clear on which he favored, just that he was against whatever anyone else proposed.

John Boozman doesn't care, because he can get his health care at Walter Reed Army Medical Center or from the special clinic for Congress called Office of the Attending Physician, both heavily subsidized by the taxpayers in his district.

On the same day, Boozman cast your vote AGAINST against adding segments of the Molalla River in Oregon to the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System. His influence and increasing irrelevancy is made clear by the overwhelming passage of the bill by 292-133.

Razorback Recruiting

2009-11-21T00:48:00.002-06:00

It appears that it will be a short season for the Razorback basketball team. With half the scholarship players gone or absent for academic and extracurricular reasons, the vacancies are being filled by a golfer and a redshirt football player. We need to do some serious recruiting if the Razorbacks want to be competitive in the SEC next year.

The 30-point blowout loss to Louisville on national television was painful. Having Appalachian State take us to overtime was a bad omen for winning many SEC games this season. We need to do some serious recruiting if the Razorbacks want to be competitive in the SEC next year.

I'm just saying....

Dubious Distinction

2009-11-19T12:14:00.004-06:00

It is amusing that Business Week magazine chose Springdale, home of the Traveling Cowbirds, as the Best Place to Raise Your Kids in Arkansas, then used photoshopped artwork of a young girl on Dickson Street to illustrate the article. That is the kind of embarrassing thing that happens when you rank places by some arbitrary criteria without ever visiting the location or talking with people who know.

More telling about the core values of Business Week is that Fayetteville is ranked Number Two and Rogers is ranked Number Three. It was not disclosed, but I imagine Siloam Springs, Centerton, Bentonville, Johnson, Lowell, Farmington, and Greenland round out the Top Ten. Northwest Arkansas is the home of Rich White Republicans, the kind who read Business Week and put stock in whatever it declares to be good. I mean, did you really think they would choose Pine Bluff or Little Rock, more colorful places that voted for Barack Obama?

Sheriff's Shenanigans

2009-11-15T08:18:00.004-06:00

Since we missed it in the Stephens-Hussman Media Conglomerate and Print Monopoly "serving" Northwest Arkansas, you can thank Christopher Spencer and Ozarks Unbound for the good work in providing information about the federal lawsuit filed Thursday by two female deputies against Washington County Sheriff Tim Holder, Major Rick Hoyt, and former Captain Randy Osborn for sexual harassment, hostile work environment, and retaliation.

"Wife swapping parties that nearly led to a fight among deputies. Jail staff luridly watching female inmates undress. An obscene and disgusting story that circulated for years around the Washington County Detention Center. A captain who talked openly about his female subordinates’ breasts." That's the lede in the story headlined, "Good old boys gone bad? WashCo sheriff turned a blind eye to sexually hostile work place, suit alleges." if you want more, there is a link to the full complaint with lurid details.

By the way, what's the status on the sexual harassment charges allegedly filed by Elizabeth Mann against former Fayetteville Fire Chief Tony Johnson and his subordinates? Has anyone seen a copy of that complaint?

The Cowbirds of Summer

2009-11-08T13:33:00.006-06:00

Perry Webb and the Springdale Cowbirds love them some high living in the Skybox at Arvest Ballpark. You could argue that they are spending a ton of money on "catering" in an effort to make the ballpark profitable, since they led the campaign for the tax to subsidize the enterprise. Or, you could argue that they are blowing Chamber dues and Springdale "economic development" funds to have a grand time with their friends.

A quick review of the American Express bills that Perry Webb ran up for "food and beverages" in the Cowbird's Skybox during the 2008 season, courtesy of SpringdaleFOI, will give you enough of an idea that you can decide for yourself whether it was wise spending of taxpayer dollars. Let's start with the bill for $393 for "food and beverages" attributed to entertaining the First Baptist Church. It is not clear what the church has to do with economic development, but the real question is why the Cowbirds entertained only Ronnie Floyd's flock and left every other church of every denomination in town to buy their own peanuts in the cheap seats?

The largest single night catering expense was $1,425 on April 22 for entertaining guests from "WM," which rhymes with a big box retailer or a garbage company, followed closely by a $1,300 tab for Cargill snackers on July 25. Someone named Shinall made two trips to the Cowbird Skybox for a total bill of $1,762. Walker Brothers were feted guests on four different occasions that tallied a total of $2,526, and Dr. Whitaker DDS was invited three times and rang up $1,977 in expenses. Dent-a-Med made three trips around the bases for $1,344. Springdale Liquor, Hewitt, and Turnbow had a combined catering bill of over $1,000 for two games, but Waste Management was identified on two days for $1,779.

There are other big ticket expenses for entertaining the A&P Commission and City Council, public trustees who gave $177,000 in co-mingled tax dollars to the Cowbirds. The Rodeo promoters and the school board also got cut in on the catering orgy. Many of the catering expenditures don't list any business as the beneficiary of the catering, but there were no Hispanic names on the published guest list. However, six different games identify Perry Webb as the king of the skybox for a day, just another untaxed bonus for all the jobs he brought to Springdale last year as Sam's Club was heading south.

Did the Springdale City Council know this is how Perry Webb and the Cowbirds were spending the taxpayers' money for economic development? Did they even bother to ask before appropriating another round for 2009? What does Mayor Doug Sprouse have to say about all of this? That might depend on whether he got to watch a game or two with Perry this season.

Who Does Boozman Represent?

2009-11-06T14:02:00.005-06:00

Congressman John Boozman (R-Teabagger) just figured out that the 2010 General Election is about a year away, so his staff has been flooding the media with "news" about his voting record of late. They seemed to have overlooked his position on one very important bill that was enacted last week, H.R. 2996, a major appropriation bill that passed the Senate 72-28 and passed the House 247-178. As usual, our loser Congressman, John Boozman, voted with the losing side.

This bill was the appropriation for the Department of the Interior, environment, and related agencies, and it was supported by every other Arkansas member of the House and Senate. Yet, Boozman took his orders and stood strong, voting against the Conference Report last week, just as he had against the original bill when it was passed the House 254-173 last June. In neither case has Boozman explained this bizarre vote to his constituents.

The charitable explanation is that Congressman Boozman is a values voter; that is, he votes against stuff he doesn't like. In this case, he voted against even a dime for the National Wildlife Refuge fund and wildlife conservation grants to the State of Arkansas; against state assistance from the Land and Water Conservation Fund; and against oil spill research.

Mr. Boozman also voted against funds to carry out the Compacts of Free Association for the Marshall Islands population in Springdale and against any money for the Indian Health Service. He voted against allowing proceeds of any visitor fees at Pearl Harbor to be used for constructing of the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument in Hawaii. He voted against any federal funding for the National Forest Service and the Arkansas Forestry Commission programs. Not a nickel, my friend.

Boozman also voted down all funding for operation of the Environmental Protection Agency, including the Hazardous Substance Superfund and the Leaking Underground Storage Tank Trust Fund. For good measure he also voted to nix for the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. Procedurally, he vote against allowing the Agricultural Research Service to support the operation of pilot plants and facilities in bringing technologies necessary for the development and commercialization of new biobased products to the point of practical application.

That's not all, folks. Congressman Boozman voted against all funding for the Smithsonian Institution, including for carrying out activities under the Civil Rights History Project Act of 2009; the National Gallery of Art; the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts; the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars; the National Endowment for the Arts; the National Endowment for the Humanities; and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

As a final display of compassion, Boozman voted against authorizing the departments in awarding a federal contract to give consideration to local contractors who are from economically disadvantaged rural communities and who provide employment and training for dislocated and displaced workers. That would be us.

If you like that, then vote to re-elect the dipstick.

Don't Bank on It

2009-11-05T10:00:00.004-06:00

We all remember the failure of Arkansas National Bank in Bentonville, and its closure in 2008 by the Comptroller of the Currency for unsafe and unsound banking practices, mostly in the real estate portfolio. Now, Metropolitan National Bank announced its fourth straight quarterly loss ($54.8 million in 2009), much of which is blamed on problem real estate lending in Northwest Arkansas, evidenced by the foreclosures on bad loans filed against Gary Combs, Bob Gaddy Trust, and Dirk Van Veen and his Risky Heights partners.

Bloggers who know far more about the banking situation that I do have expressed concerns about the future of Metropolitan National Bank, because it is "short $20 million in equity capital and also seriously short of the needed reserves to cover its growing delinquent loan portfolio. ...The bank’s problem loan-to-asset ratio is 116 percent. The benchmark for failed banks is roughly 100 percent." This is an issue of public concern, because the bank took $25 million in TARP funds in the final days of the Bush Administration, and the taxpayers have an interest in getting it back.

The Banktracker Investigative Reporting Workshop provides important information about the "troubled asset ratio" of local financial institutions that you won't read in the newly merged Stephens-Hussman Media Conglomerate and Print Monopoly "serving" Northwest Arkansas. "While [the TAR] is not an official FDIC statistic, nor is it intended as a definitive predictor of the likelihood of bank failure, the troubled asset ratio apparently is a strong indicator of severe stress inside a bank because it shows the bank's ability to withstand loan losses. Of the 92 banks that have failed so far this year, 84 had troubled asset ratios of 100 percent or greater in the final quarter they reported data before they closed."

Let's take a look at the "troubled asset ratio" of other Northwest Arkansas banks as of June 30, 2009. Keep in mind that the national average is 13.0.

Parkway Bank (Rogers) 132.5
Pinnacle Bank (Rogers) 83.7
Legacy National Bank (Springdale) 78.9
Bank of Gravette 57.7
Bank of Fayetteville 43.5
Simmons First Bank of NWA 34.2
Arvest Bank 28.9
Decatur State Bank 28.3
Signature Bank of Arkansas (Fayetteville) 25.9 *
United Bank (Springdale) 24.0
National Average for all banks 13.0
Bank of Arkansas (Fayetteville) 12.7

Signature Bank is owned in part by White River Bankshares, which received $16.8 million in TARP funds.

Bank of Rogers had a troubled asset ratio of 56.3 in June 2008, before it merger with FNB of Fort Smith, which has a 30.6 ratio in June 2009.

Current data for Chambers Bank of North Arkansas was not available. Holding company Chambers Bankshares received $19.8 million in TARP funds.

Last Friday, nine U.S. banks were officially declared insolvent by the FDIC, bringing the total this year to 115 banks. Here's hoping that the local economy improves. If not, be glad that the federal government has socialized the losses and will cover your loss due to bank failure up to $250,000 per account per bank.

Walmart: Stop Reading. Be Quiet.

2009-11-04T10:38:00.003-06:00

No one should be surprised that Walmart brought pressure, through the respectable members of the library trustees, to squelch an author talking about her book, Boom Town, in the public libraries of Benton County. It is not even especially surprising that the local librarians in Rogers and Bentonville ignored their professional responsibility and caved in to the corporate overlords of the shire.

Likewise, the exemplary response of the Fayetteville Public Library in hosting the author and promoting the event reminds us why Fayetteville is a special place, an island of reason in a sea of ignorance and a beacon of hope for individuality in a vast wasteland of conformity. Heck, Mayor Jordan even pimped the event on his Facebook page, and Ozarks Unbound offered up a review of the book, coverage of the public event, and an audio version of author Marjorie Rosen's lecture.

While you won't find it announced on the University of Arkansas website or listed on the Daily Events Calendar, Rosen also will be discussing her book on the Fayetteville campus this afternoon at 3:30 in the student union. It is sponsored by the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences and the Multi-Cultural Center, two academic outposts that Walmart has no use for and has not yet bothered to buy and control to the extent that they have captured the business school and the education department.

The Chicken that Laid the Golden Egg

2009-11-02T16:12:00.006-06:00

A little more than two years ago, we told you about the "working vacation" at Mt. Magazine Lodge, a new resort with hot tubs and an indoor pool, where Chickendale Cowbird 'business leaders" told local city officials what they wanted in addition to the $177,000 slush fund from the taxpayers. In October 2007, we wrote:

The Springdale Chamber of Commerce is sponsoring a three-day obedience school designed to help their city officials set appropriate goals. Springdale elected officials, school administrators, and city department heads are a captive audience for the so-called business leaders, who are holed up away from public view at beautiful Mount Magazine State Park Lodge in Logan County to get together on what the business community expects and how the city can deliver.

At that time, we said it wasn't clear who was picking up the tab for this fun get-away, but we noted that it was "sponsored by undisclosed construction companies, banks, food processors, engineers, and architects." What we didn't know then but know now is that the Chickendale Cowbirds spent $16,497.21 for a Texas outfit called 9G to "facilitate" the discussions and $23,911.64 at the resort for two nights' "lodging." This from an account co-mingled with city funds that were supposed to be for "economic development" and "promoting Springdale."

That is a sweet deal for someone, or a lot of someones, considering that the most expensive suite in peak season is only $209 a night, including, "Fireplace, River Valley View, Satellite Television, 2 balconies, living area with separate bedroom, king size bed, jacuzzi, telephone, coffee pot, microwave, in-room safe, high-speed internet, iron & ironing board, refrigerator." That doesn't include the mini-bar.

Why didn't they have this big party at the Springdale Holiday Inn & Convention Center, so the Cowbirds and their captive elected officials and city employees could sleep in their own beds, and keep the money in the local economy? Maybe because they would have been distracted by local citizens asking what was going on, listening to the discussions, and having some input from ordinary citizens who weren't on the Cowbird A-List? Yes.

Chickendale Cowbirds Chowdown

2009-11-01T10:15:00.005-06:00

Thanks very much, once again, to citizen watchdog Anita Davis and SpringdaleFOI for letting the public see how Perry Webb and the Chichendale Cowbirds are blowing the cash handed over to them for "economic development" by the taxpayers of Springdale. One of the previously unaccountable slush funds worth reviewing is the bill for their dining expenses, and it ain't chickenfeed.

They have meticulously documented more than $120,000 for fine dining and adult beverages, down to and including a receipt for $1.92 at the Blimpie Cart in the Atlanta airport, but we will have to wait for the details of expenses and alleged business guests who woofed down $70,512 at the Springdale Country Club, well over half of the outlays. The individual receipts are being reviewed and will be released for public viewing soon.

Either to make it appear that they were spending money with city businesses or because they were ignorant about the city limits, the Cowbirds claimed that they spent $100 at the Venesian Inn in Springdale. but that hardly compares with the $2,204 they lavished on themselves at Luigi's in Washington DC. They also supported the local economic engine Cracker Barrel, the envy of Bill Ramsey, to the tune of $45.31 in business meals, but that was less than half of the $101.95 they sloshed down for economic development one afternoon at the Claddagh Irish Pub in Middleton, Wisconsin.

The AQ Chicken House had a collective haul of $1,291 over three years, but that was less than a single evening's tab of $1,297 at Cafe 42 in Little Rock. The Cowbirds invested $3,208 in steaks and swill at the Ruth's Chris Steak House on DuPont Circle in Washington, DC, but to show they were able to graze with the common people, they spent $3,559 at Jim's Razorback Pizza and $3,223 at McBride Distributing in Fayetteville.

I have to wonder how the average working stiff in Chickendale would feel about this if it were ever fully covered or even briefly mentioned in the Moron News. Those working on the line for the federal minimum wage would have to work 129 days to earn enough to pay the $7,495 catering bill at Mark Henry's Catering Unlimited LLC.

Budget Tricks and Treats

2009-10-31T10:31:00.009-05:00

Fayetteville Mayor Lioneld Jordan and the City Council are spending Halloween morning going over the proposed budget for 2010. According to an article in the Springdale News, it looks like they will be dipping into the reserve funds to make ends meet. That's what the city's saving account is for, maintaining services during hard economic times, after making all possible cuts in expenses.

Jordan has frozen salaries, cut 13 positions, and trimmed some other obvious fat marbled up from the previous administration, reducing the general fund expenses by more than $3 million from the 2009 budget. Somethings he can't do anything about, such as the anticipated $5,780 annual loss on the $3.7 million TIF Parking Lot that Dan Coody, John Nock, Kit Williams, Rob Sharp, and the Cowbirds promised us was going to be a fine hotel generating huge revenues, so we're stuck with that for the next 20-something years or so.

I know our city officials probably don't read this blog, but I think I have found some additional savings that should be considered. If you agree, please suggest that the mayor and your aldermen think on these things.

1. The proposed Parks and Recreation budget has a $373,000 outlay for Regional Park Development. That's what Connie Edmonston wants to spend on her SouthPark Soccer Palace next year. Since the City doesn't even have the deed to that land and is unlikely to get it anytime soon, lets nix that expense and transfer it to general revenue or parks maintenance. Connie can spend that $1 million the developers owe the city before squirreling away more tax dollars.

2. The City is set to spend $475, 562 for a Drug Enforcement Program that is expected to produce only $12,000 in fines and forfeitures. That's no way to run a city. Greenland and Johnson make far more than that on their speed trap operations. Admittedly, some of this huge inefficient budget comes from a federal grant, but we are still dumping in $233,000 in city general revenues for a failed War on Drugs started under a previous mayor. Let's take a pass on the federal funds and save our money.

3. The Executive Jetport. Forget about the utter worthlessnes of Director Ray Boudreaux for a moment and just look at the enterprise. Revenues are projected to drop $370,000 next year, and they are anticipating an operating loss of $51,200 not counting depreciation on the facility. A realistic treatment of depreciation would increase the projected annual loss by $1,531,000, which is not good. Now, facing such dismal prospects, the 2010 budget proposes to increase administrative costs by $73,000 over the current year. That's like giving bonuses to AIG executives. At least hold steady on administrative costs, and that's a paper savings of $73,000.

4. Did you know that the City is planning on giving $6,000 to the Ozarks Military Museum again next year? Did you even know that there was a military museum in Fayetteville? In hard economic times, how can Jordan and the City Council think it essential to piss away $6,000 for an obscure outfit that glamorizes war? It is not much, but that's $6,000 that could be saved or better spent on expanding the national cemetery.

5. My kids like the Boys and Girls Club, but I was surprised to learn that we are spending $57,600 from general revenues and another $147,750 from the parks budget for a total of more than $205,000 a year for a non-profit group out west of I-540. Maybe it is worth it, but what exactly is the city getting for our money? Is that an essential service? Whatever, it is more than the entire city budget for the Yvonne Richardson Center that serves a different population in a different part of town. How about cutting $20,000 from the gift to the Boys Club. That would make the two youth centers more equal, even if separate, save the taxpayers $20,000, and save the administration some white guilt.

6. Finally, we are giving $36,937 to the Northwest Arkansas Regional Planning Commission. What do we get for that? Not very damn much, and, remember, this is the group that voted to spend $750,000 to study a "western beltway" from West Fork to Wal-Mart and opposes spending a dime to study the feasibility of a light rail system. Let's cut our contribution to that nest of bureaucrats by $35,000 and let them get their funding where they get their orders -- the Northwest Arkansas Council of Corporations and Wealthy Business Executives.

So, there is an annual savings of $740,000 without breaking a sweat or dropping any essential public services. My advice is worth what you pay for it, so you are also savings a big wad of cash that would have gone for a no-bid contract to an out of state consultant under a previous city administration.

Body Count

2009-10-30T08:13:00.003-05:00

The merger of WEHCO Media, Inc. and Stephens Media, Inc. is in full force, marking, if not the end of newspapers, the end of competing efforts to gather the news and competing ideas on the editorial page. Like most corporate mergers it is about market share and profits, not about delivering an improved product. Employees are merely costs to be controlled, not people to be nurtured and respected. Many have been fired, and you can see the names on the wall at Ozarks Unbound. Many of them are my friends, so perhaps I have difficulty in offering any objective analysis of why some were fired while others remained on the corporate payroll. My heartfelt condolences to the journalists and their families.

"A proud look, a lying tongue..."

2009-10-29T09:58:00.007-05:00

Some politicians are quick to proclaim their piety, "that they may be seen of men," and "that they may have glory of men." This seems particularly true the closer we get to election time, but it is starting earlier this year. It is also becoming clear that certain politicians will tell you one thing and then vote just the opposite, thinking that their public words speak louder than their hidden deeds or that you just won't know.

In 2008, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich started an online petition calling on Congress to portray “the centrality of our Creator in the founding of America” inside the visitor center. This month, Congressman John Boozman (R-Hypocrite) is telling us loudly how he has "been supportive of the correct portrayal of America’s religious history in the newly-constructed Capitol Visitor Center." That history would be about the Republican-controlled Congress adding "under God" to the pledge in 1954 and changing the national motto to "In God We Trust" in 1956.

Mr. Boozman wants us to know that he is "a member of the Congressional Prayer Caucus," and he tells us that he worked to make sure that "In God We Trust" and the Pledge of Allegiance were engraved on the new Capitol Visitors Center in Washington, D.C. Boozman goes on and on about how he signed onto a letter to the Architect of the Capitol expressing concern that the motto and pledge were not in the plans. He also says that last June he voted for a Resolution "directing the AOC to engrave the national motto and Pledge of Allegiance in the Capitol Visitor Center."

What Mr. Boozman fails to tell his constituents, confident that the corporate media in Northwest Arkansas would not report it and that the voters are too dumb to notice, is that he voted AGAINST funding for engraving the motto and pledge, included in the appropriation bill of $22.4 million for expenses for operation of the Capitol Visitor Center. Actually, he voted against it TWICE, first on June 19 and again on September 25.

Boozman has been bearing false witness. Will it go unpunished at the ballot box?

Behind the Cowbird Curtain

2009-10-25T09:16:00.006-05:00

We have commented before about the secret spending and self-serving slush funds of the Chickendale Cowbirds. If you want to know more and examine the evidence against them, there is a new website in town making public the Chamber's internal documents that show lavish spending on domestic travel and foreign vacations totalling more than $280,500.

Springdale FOI lays it out. You can see the ten single-spaced pages of records documenting travel spending on everything from exotic cruises and Bahama getaways to a $17.50 carwash for Rhonda Hughes' personal car, although the bulk of receipts do not specify who made the purchases or benefited from them. For example, there is a payment of $1,440 to the Ritz Carlton on Amelia Island, and $1,333 to the Biltmore at Coral Gables, neither of which indicated who was living large. Other receipts are more mysterious, like the $754 Hunting Lodge for Heath Ward, the $1,250 to American Airlines for "Unknown S'dale Chamber," a $144 bill at Sam's Town for Ashley Gardner, and $500 to Christian Life Cathedral's Youth Minister Joshua Foliart for "?" (Really, it says "?") the same weekend as Ashley's Sam's Town expenses.

Perry and Rebecca Webb appear to rank high among couples doing the most traveling on Chamber funds. They had important Chickendale Cowbird business that included a $1,700 bill at the Adolphus Hotel, the Ski Train in Colorado, and numerous trips to Florida. Brian and Melonie Moore hauled in an $8,600 trip to Polynesia for something that Perry Webb approved.

Randall and Sandra Mulliken appear to be the King and Queen of Cowbird Travel Couples. They got a trip to Los Cabos, Mexico, one to Oyster Bay for $3,600, and Joshua, Justin, and Kelsey Mulliken went with them on another junket. Randall got over $4,000 expenses covered for himself and an undisclosed companion to Kona, Hawaii, more than $3,350 for a Royal Caribbean cruise to Barcelona, Spain, and about $3,600 for something in Amsterdam.

There is not much there about what, if anything, Perry Webb and his Merry Band of Babbitts and Bandits have done to create new jobs or save existing ones in Springdale. That's supposedly why the City pays the Chamber $177,000 a year for economic development. You would think it would mean jobs for someone other than travel agents.

Maybe no one ever asks, when you see that Mayor Jerry van Hoose got a $1,494 vacation at Jackson Hole, Wyoming, paid for by the Cowbirds from those same funds. We did not say it was a kickback, just a paid vacation from a vendor to a public official. The distinction would be up to a prosecutor.

More to come....

Skoch on the Rocks?

2009-10-16T10:36:00.005-05:00

The Fayettevillage Voice has a nice post today about where John Boozman's getting his campaign cash, scooping the local media and lazy bloggers. In an attempt to recover, I'll take a peek at the FEC report filed by Bernard Kurt "Bernie" Skoch, Boozman's opponent in the upcoming Republican Primary in May. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette mentioned his totals and that he had contributed $1,238 to his own campaign, but that's about the depth of the Mainstream Corporate Media effort to seek and share.

Skoch received a total of $11,969 in contributions and has $8,101 cash on hand. By comparison, Boodler Boozman has raked in $195,256 from his grateful benefactors and is sitting on $305,856 in his petty cash drawer. There are other differences as well. More than half of Boozman's contributions come from corporate political action committees like Wal-mart, Arvest, Tyson's, Entergy, real estate groups, and bankers who are living large, but Bernie Skoch has not taken a dime from the PACs. Maybe they didn't offer him a swig of the addictive elixir, but still he has clean hands on that account.

Boozman contributions from individuals shows him the witting tool of rich doctors and a couple of lawyers. Skoch is more diversified. Patsy Wootton of Springdale is his sugar momma, reporting in at $2,400 so far. Other contributors include Robert Barton of Rogers ($1,000), Patricia McClintock of West Fork ($500), Springdale Lawyer William Varner ($498), Bella Vista Real Estate Saleswoman Kay Strickland ($250), Walter Van Horn of Fayetteville ($250), and Deborah Quinn of Fayetteville ($213).

It is safe to say that Boozman can outspend Skoch and will. If there is to be an upset, it will be because the retired general from Elkins can mobilize active support from veterans and Teabaggers to overcome Boozman's corporate sponsors and their obedient employees in the 12-county district. Looks like a very long shot.

Constitutional Ignorance in West Fork

2009-10-11T12:32:00.005-05:00

Will Phillips, a 10-year-old fifth grader at West Fork Middle School, has taken a courageous stand for his beliefs, and it landed him in the principal's office after an argument with a substitute teacher over his refusal to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. Young Master Will balked at saying “with liberty and justice for all,” because he didn't think there was equality for everyone. Imagine the insolence of refusing to say what you are told by the authority of the state and a substitute teacher!

The idea of compelling school children to salute the flag and repeat the Pledge of Allegiance was declared unconstitutional in 1943. You would think that, even in West Fork, a substitute teacher would have known about that and caught on after three score and six years. Instead, she told Will that his mother and grandmother would want him to stand and pledge. He replied, "With all due respect, you can go jump off a bridge." That does seem like all respect due to such a teacher, but it earned him a trip to the principal's office, an order to apologize to the teacher, and an additional research assignment on the pledge of allegiance.

If anyone is owed an apology, it is Will Phillips. He was exercising a well-established First Amendment right and was jerked around for doing so. The West Fork School Board, the middle school principal, and all of the teachers should be given an additional research assignment to read the United States Supreme Court decision in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette.

It is no excuse, as principal Becky Ramsey said, "Any school where I’ve ever been in Arkansas, they say the Pledge of Allegiance first period,” but at least she admitted, "We cannot mandate that every child says the pledge." The Supreme Court said more eloquently:

If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein. …We think the action of the local authorities in compelling the flag salute and pledge transcends constitutional limitations on their power and invades the sphere of intellect and spirit which it is the purpose of the First Amendment to our Constitution to reserve from all official control.

That's the lesson that Will Phillips was trying to teach the teacher.

Whither the Double Dippers?

2009-10-08T09:02:00.004-05:00

You probably remember the big scam that Lincoln School Superintendent Frank Holman pulled earlier this year. He retired on June 30th, saying that there were health issues with family members. Then in August, he was rehired by the school board at his old salary of about $100,000. Holman explained that he had "retired" to take advantage of a teacher retirement law loophole that allowed him to leave the district for 30 days and draw retirement. The loophole was tightened by the legislature this year, but not in time to stop people like Holman who arranged to get rehired and draw a big salary while also draining the state retirement fund meant for retired teachers.

There are more than 2,000 people in Arkansas who have faked retirement to start drawing benefits then went back to work at big salaries. Their friends in high places have so far prevented their names being released, and most of them are not as proud of scamming the system as Frank Holman and the Lincoln School Board members seem to be.

What we do know, however, is where the Devious Double Dippers worked when they "retired" and where they now work while drawing salaries and retirement pay. Here is what we know about local double dippers.

This is where 161 of them worked when they "retired" and started drawing retirement payments:

Rogers School District - 60
Springdale School District - 22
Bentonville School District - 14
Lincoln School District - 14
Farmington School District - 11
Boston Mountain Coop - 10
West Fork School District - 9
Siloam Springs School District - 9
Elkin School District - 4
Greenland School District - 4
Pea Ridge School District - 3
Gravette School District - 1

Here's where 140 of the "retirees" have been hired and now are drawing both salaries and retirement benefits:

University of Arkansas - 31
NWACC -31
Northwest Technical Institute - 22
Boston Mountain Coop - 13
NWA Academy of Fine Arts - 11
Haas Hall Academy - 11
Benton County School of Arts - 10
Pea Ridge School District - 7
Decatur School District - 2
Bentonville School District - 1
Lincoln School District - 1

In addition to the sucking of assets by the double dippers, the Arkansas Teacher Retirement System's investments fell by more than $2 billion last fiscal year. Hopefully, the market will improve and the new law will limit the number of fake retirements, making sure that Arkansas school teachers who really retire will get the benefits they deserve.

Blanche and Boozman Should Have Abstained

2009-10-05T10:18:00.013-05:00

Last week, Blanche Lincoln was the deciding vote when the Senate Finance Committee voted 12-11 to approve an amendment to provide millions of dollars to fund abstinence-only sex education programs. The amendment, sponsored by Senator Orin Hatch (R-UT), would allocate $50 million per year for such programs through 2014. Federal bureaucrats do not conduct these no-nookie programs; the government gives the money to local non-profit groups to spend, despite documented evidence that the programs spread inaccurate information and are proven ineffective. That is, they do not work.

One such purveyor of abstinence-only hokum is a Lowell-based outfit called Reality Check. It claims to work with John Brown University, Northwest Arkansas Community College, the Boys and Girls Club, First Tee, Youth Bridge, Springdale School District, and the Rogers School District to share its message of birth control by just saying no to sex. Despite spending millions of dollars on this message, Arkansas ranks fourth in the nation in the number of teen births per capita. It ignores the fact that contraception works. Reality Check is a subsidiary of Tree of Life Preventative Health Maintenance, Inc., a faith-based organization that, according to its website, works under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Here's one reason that Reality Check's services might not work. Tobias Patrick Lyons, a former employee of the private nonprofit, was arrested Friday for sexual indecency with a child after he admitted texting a 14-year-old girl to ask for sex and asking another minor female to send him nude photographs of herself, which she sent to his cell phone. He is facing up to six years in prison for a Class D felony.

Just two years ago, our local Congressman John Boozman (R-Dark Ages) said, “I am a strong supporter of abstinence education, and I am glad to see Reality Check taking a leadership role in providing this type of learning to our youth, This money represents an investment in the future of our children and in the ‘positive life choices’ that are part of Reality Check’s mission.”

Senator Lincoln and Congressman Boozman should think on these things whenever they go spouting off about how lucky we are that they funneled $532,509 of our tax dollars in a grant to Reality Check of Lowell for programs that not only don't work but make matters worse.

If Farm Subsidies Were Public Health Care Options

2009-10-01T16:56:00.005-05:00

LITTLE ROCK - U.S. Senator Blanche Lincoln, Chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, said today she opposes the farm subsidy program because it would be too expensive.

“For some in my caucus, when they talk about a farm subsidy program they’re talking about another entitlement program, and we can’t afford that right now as a nation,” Lincoln said in a speech to the Elder Law Task Force at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

Lincoln has said previously she would support whatever farm subsidy program worked, but she indicated Tuesday that a plan including an expensive, government-funded, corporate welfare subsidy program would not get her vote.

“I’m not going to vote for a bill that’s not deficit-neutral, and I’m not going to vote for a bill that doesn’t do something about curbing the cost in the out years, because it would be pointless … I would not support a solely government-funded farm subsidy program. We can’t afford that,” Lincoln told reporters before her speech. "I have also pledged that farm subsidies will not add to our deficit over the next decade - and I mean it."

“One of our biggest concerns is that it doesn’t need to be a government plan that usurps that ability to compete in the marketplace, which I’m concerned that a totally government-run farm subsidy program would do,” she said. “The private agribusiness corporations are walking away with all the assets, and the government ends up holding all the risk.”

Our Prevaricator on the Potomac

2009-09-29T10:51:00.005-05:00

Congressman John Boozman (R-False Witness) is at it again, trying to take credit for federal funding to local projects when he voted against the funds. Today, the fabulist sent out a press release praising himself for announcing a $570,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation to the University of Arkansas, providing funds for facility and equipment upgrades to increase efficiency and security including solar power, meet Americans with Disabilities Act requirements, build a solar energy bus wash, and make improvements allowing for use of bio-diesel.

Boozman said, “These advancements reinforce Fayetteville’s commitment to create an environmentally friendly city.” He didn't say why he voted against the stimulus funds that could help make this possible. His opposition and votes against funding could be one reason that Arkansas didn't get a penny of the $100 million in Economic Recovery Act funding released last week for 43 transit agencies that are pursuing cutting-edge environmental technologies to help reduce global warming, lessen America's dependence on oil, and create green jobs.

Does Boozman think his constituents are so stupid they don't catch on to his deceptions, or is he so stupid that he doesn't grasp the connection between appropriations and grants?

Banned Books Week

2009-09-28T11:54:00.006-05:00

Banned Books Week is an annual event, sponsored by the American Library Association, celebrating the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment. It highlights the benefits of free and open access to information while drawing attention to the harms of censorship by spotlighting actual or attempted bannings of books across the United States. Intellectual freedom—the freedom to access information and express ideas, even if the information and ideas might be considered unorthodox or unpopular—provides the foundation for Banned Books Week.

The Fayetteville Public Library is celebrating the freedom to read this week by hosting a daily bag lunch discussion of several books that have been banned in the past. Today it is East of Eden by John Steinbeck. The schedule for the rest of the week is Tuesday, Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo; Wednesday, Ordinary People by Judith Guest; Thursday, The Giver by Lois Lowry; and Friday, Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov.

Haven't yet heard any complaints from Laurie Masterson and the Teabaggers. Back before she was leading the local outcry against a new high school and everything Obama, even before she divorced her husband and married Mike Masterson, Laurie Taylor was the queen of book censorship hereabouts. During the summer of 2005, she submitted complaints against at least 54 books in the school libraries that she found objectionable but said she had a total of 70 "lewd and lascivious" books on her list that she wanted cloistered. These nasty books, she claimed, were "raw, unadulterated sex, biased sexual rhetoric and instructional sexual pandering to children."

At first, Laurie Taylor won a small victory. A required review committee (composed of a central office administrator, a building administrator, a media specialist, two classroom teachers, and two parents) held to the 1986 school policy that "It is the duty of the schools to provide a wide range of materials on all levels of difficulty, with diversity of appeal and presentation of different points of view." Superintendent Bobby New agreed with Taylor's challenge of three books and to her delight overrode the review committee, which she called "sad and pathetic." The school board first supported then reversed New's decision by a narrow 4-3 vote. Laura Underwood, Chris Bell, and Howard Hamilton supported the position of New and Taylor that the books should be restricted.

The battle continued all summer and into the next school year. Laurie Taylor was supported by State Senator Jim Holt of Springdale and Jonesboro's Debbie Pelley of the Arkansas Family Council Action Committee. Johnny Tittle, tax dodger and right-wing radio ranter from Elkins, was there for her, and Mike Masterson wrote seven different editorial coulmns praising Laurie as "selfless and noble" and applauding her various positions to restrict library books. Lots of heat but very little light.

The matter was resolved when Judge Rudy Moore, the School Board attorney, told the Fayetteville board that Federal Judge Jimm Hendren -- who had recently ruled that the Cedarville School District violated the First Amendment and ordered the return of banned Harry Potter books to the shelf -- would likely decide any case involving Fayetteville. With the precedent firmly established, the screwy idea of putting school library books on restricted access would be legally indefensible.

Don't get too smug. Mike and Laurie Masterson are still around. The book banners will always be with us.

The Outlaw Terry Hayes

2009-09-26T12:44:00.007-05:00

I have been following the case of Terry Hayes for months, and it just gets curiouser and curiouser. Hayes has never been popular, because of the unacceptable ways that he operated Terry's Towing, a predatory towing operation in Fayetteville, but many private parking lot owners continued to use his services. Hayes was a repeat felon with convictions for sexual abuse, failing to register as a sex offender, theft and multiple assault and battery convictions, but that didn't seem to matter to the lot owners who employed him. The state regulatory board is pretty much a joke, almost always taking the side of the operators and following the towing association members on the board.

Despite a ton of evidence that Hayes was a flight risk, he has been out of jail on $15,000 bond since his arrest in January for holding a gun to his son's head and threatening to kill him while the boy's stepmother listened on the telephone. Hayes was convicted this week for aggravated assault on a family member, terroristic threatening, first-degree endangering the welfare of a minor, and possession of a firearm by a felon. He was sentenced to 55 years and $45,000 in fines, but after his conviction he had strolled away from the courthouse unmolested by the bailiff, Sheriff's Deputies, or his attorney Jim Rose III.

Washington County Circuit Judge William Storey first set Hayes’ bond at $7,500 last January, before Hayes was accused of violating the conditions of his bond by calling and threatening his son and trying to run. After he was captured by U.S. Marshalls in Van Buren, his bail was set by Washington County Detention Center Judicial Officer Ray Reynolds at $1 million. At a bond hearing requested by Hayes' attorney, Judge Storey lowered the bond to only $15,000, over the objection of Washington County Deputy Prosecutor Bill Jones who wanted to keep Hayes behind bars. Finally, after his escape this week, Hayes bond now has been set at $500,000, but it doesn't do much good after the cow is out of the barn.

Washington County Sheriff Tim Helder said, “I believe the only way this could have been avoided would have been if he’d been remanded to custody." I think it might have been avoided if Helder's deputies had kept a close eye on Hayes at the courthouse, but they are not known for paying attention to defendants, even those locked in a holding room for four days without food or toilet facilities. Judge Storey, who set the laughably low bond, invoked an artful dodge and refused to discuss the Hayes case, citing some unidentified ethics laws as a reason not to explain his actions.

Now it's up to Sam Gerard.

UPDATE (10/13): Yes, they caught Tow Truck Terry hiding out in Gravette, of all places. Today, he got 40 years in the state slammer and a fine of $45,000. Whether he is allowed to take flight for a third time, we shall see.

UA Hall of Famous Rich White Guys

2009-09-25T08:32:00.006-05:00

The Wal-Mart College of Business invites you to drive to Little Rock, put on a tux, and pay $150 to attend a dinner honoring four rich white guys, two of whom are the former jocks Jim Lindsey and Jerry Jones. These fellows will be inducted into something called the Arkansas Business Hall of Fame that is actually a bunch of plaques in the lobby of the Donrey Center for Enterprise Development at the Wal-Mart College in Fayetteville. They are being honored for making a lot of money, with the hope that they will give some of it to Walton University,

Honoring four rich white guys has become a tradition at Wal-Mart College, as all four honorees for the Hall of Fame have been rich white guys in 10 of the 12 years it has been in existence. That's fitting, considering that being a rich white guy seems to be a qualification for serving on the University's Board of Trustees. Not among those being honored this year, since they are unlikely to be making large donations to the Walton University, are previously wealthy white guys Ben Israel, Tom Terminella, Tracy Hoskins, Gary Combs, John Nock, Brandon Barber, or Jeff Collins.

I guess it is alright for the University to continue to honor the rich white guys in their little Arkansas Business Hall of Fame plaque collection and an annual black tie banquet. However, to set an example and give more than lip service to the institution's supposed commitment to diversity, they should consider establishing separate but equal halls of fame for outstanding women, minorities, and exploited employees.

Boozman Bot

2009-09-24T19:20:00.004-05:00

Congress finally completed action on the bill to fund the legislative branch for next year and avoid shutting down Congress next Thursday. H.R. 2918 passed the House back on June 19 by a vote of 232-178. Congressman John Boozman (R-Robot) voted against it then, and he opposed it again yesterday when the House ordered the previous question and defeated the Republican motion to instruct conferees.

Why would Boozman vote against the appropriation for the legislative branch? What was so awful in the bill that caused him to oppose it? Why did he vote against Section 101 that required any unspent money from a Member's office account to be used for federal deficit reduction? Why did he vote against operational expenses for the Capitol Police, the Congressional Budget Office, and the Library of Congress? Why did he vote against the "Books for the Blind and Physically Handicapped" program? Why did he vote against Section 1202 to engrave the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag and the National Motto of "In God We Trust" in the Capitol Visitor Center?

Now we will see if John Boozman really has the courage of his convictions and his vote. If so, he will surely refuse all salary and staff expenses after September 30th.

Cowbird Cabana Commissioners

2009-09-23T12:37:00.004-05:00

Every year for several years now, the Springdale City Council pays the Springdale Chamber of Cowbirds $100,000 from the general fund, $60,000 from the advertising and promotion fund, and $17,000 from the industrial development account. The Cowbirds are supposed to be doing economic development for the city, but they take this government handout and co-mingle it with other funds, then spend the money however they want with no strings attached.

Alderman Kathy Jaycox proposed that the Cowbirds would have to have submit quarterly reports on the services they were providing to the city and include an itemized list of expenditures, then the city would reimburse them for eligible expenses. That idea went nowhere with the captive Springdale City Council, a majority of whom are members of the Chamber of Commerce.

After that, Anita Davis filed a Freedom of Information Act request and discovered a rather curious pattern. During the last three years, the City has given the Cowbirds $531,000 to build their local economy. During that same period, the Cowbirds spent $306,175 on travel and $144,388 on dining, for a total of $450,563. Other than travel agencies, it doesn't appear that local business are getting much benefit from the city's investment, but others certainly are.

Cowbird Executive Board Chairman Brian Moore got a honeymoon trip to Tahiti in 2006, and another excursion to Istanbul, Turkey, in 2007. He said these gifts were "commissions" for his volunteer work for the Cowbirds. Other exotic adventures paid by the Cowbirds included trips to Spain, Mexico, Hawaii, New York, California, Miami, and the Bahamas.

Perry Webb, who had previous been caught avoiding property taxes on the Chamber offices, said, "We're not doing anything wrong." John Lea, a former chairman of the Chamber's executive board, said, “We have nothing to hide and not a damned thing to apologize for. When [Anita Davis] challenged the integrity of the chamber, she challenged the integrity of a lot of people.”

Yep, he got that right.

David Whitaker's Next Move?

2009-09-22T10:45:00.006-05:00

I didn't think much about it when I saw on the City of Fayetteville's website last week that it was advertising for a new Assistant City Attorney. I mused to someone that maybe David Whitaker was frustrated working for Kit Williams, but I was sure that Robin Mero would catch on in a week or two and maybe file a stack of Freedom of Information requests to have the city's clerks do her research for her. Sure enough, today we get a Page One story that Whitaker has resigned, and it was played bigger by the Northwest Arkansas Times than the hiring yesterday of Shawna Thorup as Director of the Fayetteville Public Library.

Mero's story is one of those surface attempts at journalism that throws in a few facts but never gets to the important stuff. We do learn that Mr. Whitaker has been Assistant City Attorney for just over eight years, that he is a University of Arkansas law school grad, that he is an U.S. Air Force veteran, and that he was Director of the Washington County Domestic Violence Taskforce under Prosecutor Terry Jones. It is a nice resume, but why is this a story?

The article also mentions that Mr. Whitaker is Chairman of the Washington County Democratic Committee and state chair of the Democratic Veterans Caucus. That information, along with his comment that he wants to seek a new opportunity in public service, should be an obvious clue to a cub reporter that the game is afoot. He wouldn't resign from a good job to run for city or county office, not even one of the open judgeships.

Something big is about to happen here. Either David Whitaker is in line for a federal appointment or a major state position, or he is getting ready to make a run for the Democratic nomination for Congress or U.S. Senate. That's the story that the Times reporter missed.

Good News for UA Students!

2009-09-20T11:36:00.004-05:00

The House of Representatives last week passed H. R. 3221, a student loan reform bill that would simplify the federally guaranteed student loan system, save an estimated $87 billion over 10 years and use that money saved to increase financial aid to low-income students, improve community colleges, and raise standards for early childhood education. There's already another recent law that forgives part or all of the debt for college graduates who go into careers in public service.

The new legislation is rather simple and makes lots of sense, even though the bankers and their loyal stooges in Congress don't like it. If this becomes law, no longer will the federal government be doling out the funds to private banks holding toxic assets and giving big bonuses to executives who made bad decisions. The new Stafford and Perkins Direct Loans cut out the middleman and the guaranteed profits to banks and, instead, get the money directly to students at 5% interest. The bill also expands and authorizes full funding for direct Pell Grants to students.

The bill passed by a vote of 253-171. Congressman John Boozman (R-Arvest) voted against it.

Jet Set Says "Thanks, Suckers"

2009-09-18T16:48:00.003-05:00

I have long been of the opinion that the Fayetteville Corporate Executive Jetport in Greenland is a shameless boondoggle and have said so here. Those who disagree always say that Airport Director Ray Boudreaux is a good songster at Rotary and that he is good at getting grants from the Federal Aviation Administration to fancy up the place around those empty hangers for the convenience of private jet owners and a couple of corporations that are behind on the rent. The Fayettevillage Voice recently noted that Ray wants another $23 million from you for his playpen.

It is very nice for the handful of corporate executives who use the publicly financed facility. Theirs is "a world of ease and tranquility unknown to airline passengers who endure long trips to airports, costly parking, slow security screening, packed airplanes and delayed flights." Think about the last time you had to fly somewhere and how much fun that was. You could avoid all that if you owned your own jet and had the taxpayers building you a convenient jetport.

What I never knew until last week is that I have been wedging my tired body into cramped economy class and suffering the other indignities of flying out of XNA -- and paying for Ray's jetport for the rich and famous. The $15 billion in grants that have been handed out to general-aviation airports from the federal Airport Improvement Program -- more than $2.1 billion this year -- is financed by federal taxes on every commercial airplane ticket sold in the United States. These can add as much as 15% to the cost of your flight to see your sick granny, maybe $60 on a roundtrip ticket, to keep $90K Ray's jetset buddies happy at Drake Field and thousands of other dinky airports like it as far away as Springdale and Rogers.

They appreciate your generosity and toast you with champagne.

Phenotypical Political Profiling

2009-09-16T18:00:00.005-05:00

Congressman John Boozman (R-Pinnacle Gated Community) has a colorful moral compass that spins with the situation, giving a new meaning to the term political race. Nowhere has this been more evident than in his righteous enforcement of morals and manners among his colleagues in the House of Representatives.

Last year, the Republicans bypassed the House Ethics Committee to bring a Resolution of Censure against Congressman Charles Rangel, Democrat of New York, who just happens to be black. One of the nefarious actions that offended the sensibilities of the GOP moralists was the fact, which Rangel readily confessed, that he had written letters on his legislative stationery to various corporations and foundations asking for contributions to the City College of New York, an inner city educational institution in his district. The Republicans said this "dishonored himself and brought discredit to the House." The House tabled Resolution 1396 by an overwhelming vote of 254-138, but John Boozman was among the strident minority wanting to sanction Rangel for such a breach of honor.

Last week, Boozman's fellow Southern Republican Joe Wilson (R-Ft. Sumpter) yelled out during the President's Health Care Address to a Join Session of Congress, "You lie!!!" Wilson happens to be white, and the President happens to be black. The House leadership brought forward Resolution 744 that found Wilson's outburst to be "a breach of decorum" that "degraded the proceedings," and expressed disapproval of the behavior. Although the Resolution passed by 240-179, our John Boozman disagreed and voted NO.

Interesting, it is, that a black colleague's fundraising letter for a college would demand censure from John Boy, but a white colleague's televised tantrum against a black President gets a pass from the Third District's moral arbiter. Some might think that Boozman has a double standard, and others might conclude that he is a racist. We are still waiting for an explanation from Boozman to explicate his fine syntactic analysis of his mysterious moral code.