Blanche and Boozman Should Have Abstained

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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!

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.