Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Tuesday topics
The line is open. Closing out:
* RECOMMENDED READING: Robert Johnston recommends a moving article on a homeless veteran of the war in Afghanistan, published a while back in the New York Times. The vet is wary of being seen in Silicon Valley with the gear of the homeless. He sure better not try Main Street in Little Rock, judging by our mayor and U.S. Rep. Tim Griffin's feelings about location of a VA center there to serve vets. The boondocks are good enough for our warriors, Tiny Tim says.
* SURVEY SAYS THINGS LOOKING UP FOR OBAMA: Here's the full rundown of latest NBC/Wall Street Journal poll. All the trend lines point in the right direction for President Obama and Democrats generally, if only modestly. Mitt Romney's win in Florida aside, the poll still shows Newt Gingrich preferred by the largest number of primary voters. I don't know what could be better news for Democrats than that.
* NOTHING GOOD EVER CAME FROM 'HUFFING AIR DUSTER': KAIT reports fatal stabbing of Jonesboro man found with his hands tied. This follows a confusing evening of drinking and huffing.
* PITCHING IN FOR A HOG: Cliff Lee, the baseball player, and former Hog baseball coach Norm DeBriyn are hosting a fund-raiser Feb. 9 at Doe's for former teammate Bart Hester, an extreme right-winger challenging Rep. Tim Summers for a Senate seat in Benton County drawn to help Summers by Gov. Mike Beebe. All you need to know about Hester outside of baseball is that Grover Norquist wrote his playbook and controls his vote.
* ENJOY A CUP AT STARBUCKS: Meanwhile, though one pressure group succeeded in crippling support for breast cancer screenings at Planned Parenthood, another group has failed to coerce Starbucks into dropping its support for marriage equality in Washington.
* STOP THE PRESSES: The Hot Springs Sentinel-Record has joined the growing list of Arkansas and American newspapers that are shutting down their printing presses. The HSR is to be being printed at owner Walter Hussman's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette facility in Little Rock. This means earlier deadlines for Hot Springs news.
Posted by Max Brantley on | Permalink | Comments (21)
Abortion Susan G. Komen cutting off Planned Parenthood
- Brian Chilson
- RACE FOR THE CURE: A hugely popular Little Rock event might experience fallout from sponsor's decison to end of support for Planned Parenthood.
The anti-abortionists have won a victory over women. Their pressure and relentless attacks from Republicans in Congress have prompted the Susan G. Komen for the Cure charity to quietly end grants to Planned Parenthood for breast cancer screening and similar services.
Some women, believe it or not, support family planning, affordable health screening for women and the other comprehensive services, yes, even morning-after pills for rape victims and abortion, offered by Planned Parenthood. The article about the decision quotes several of them.
No wonder Komen isn't trumpeting the news, which could take a little of the bloom off the organization's popularity. It should. Here's a statement from Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, which serves Arkansas and which provided 23,000 breast cancer screenings last year.
“As a leading reproductive health care provider in our community, more than 23,000 women relied on Planned Parenthood of the Heartland for breast exams last year,” said Planned Parenthood of the Heartland President and CEO Jill June. “These women are deeply alarmed that the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation appears to have succumbed to political pressure from a vocal minority.”Planned Parenthood of the Heartland was in the process of applying for grants for breast health care when notified of the Komen Foundation’s decision. Planned Parenthood is deeply concerned about the troubling precedent of putting politics before women’s health.
“In these tough economic times, more women than ever need access to essential health care services like lifesaving breast cancer screenings. Politics should never get in the way of a woman’s ability to access health care,” said June.
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Economy Spending cuts will harm economy
The Congressional Budget Office's latest report says fiscal austerity measures will harm the economy. Talking Points Memo summarizes.
You don't cut your way out of a recession, in other words.
Don't tell it to Tiny Tim and the rest of the Republican cohort who believe tax cuts for millionaires and the end of important government programs are the only paths to prosperity — for the 1 percent.
Which reminds me of a fine article on a similar topic in Vanity Fair, by Joseph Stiglitz, who writes about how government spending cured an earlier depression.
Of four major service sectors—finance, real estate, health, and education—the first two were bloated before the current crisis set in. The other two, health and education, have traditionally received heavy government support. But government austerity at every level—that is, the slashing of budgets in the face of recession—has hit education especially hard, just as it has decimated the government sector as a whole. Nearly 700,000 state- and local-government jobs have disappeared during the past four years, mirroring what happened in the Depression. As in 1937, deficit hawks today call for balanced budgets and more and more cutbacks. Instead of pushing forward a structural transition that is inevitable—instead of investing in the right kinds of human capital, technology, and infrastructure, which will eventually pull us where we need to be—the government is holding back. Current strategies can have only one outcome: they will ensure that the Long Slump will be longer and deeper than it ever needed to be.
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Arkansas Politics Democrats set agenda for fiscal session
The Arkansas Democratic Party has shown some welcome signs that it understands the need to match the Republican messaging onslaught. Case in point today was a news conference by legislative leaders on Democrats' agenda for the coming legislative session. The bullet points:
* Keep the Fiscal session within the scope of its purpose — fiscal matters only — as was intended by the people of Arkansas.* Keep the state budget within our means without raising taxes.
* Aim to keep the session on pace to adjourn on time or early and not waste taxpayer dollars.
* Work in a bipartisan manner to avoid the gridlock and grandstanding of Washington.
* Weigh all matters not only on their fiscal impact to the state and the taxpayer, but also on their economic impact to small business owners and industry throughout the state.
Is that a no-tax pledge? Does that mean there will be no solution for the gaps in fire coverage said to have been caused by layoffs at the Forestry Commission? Does that mean the truckers will get to keep their unearned sales tax exemption on truck and trailer purchases?
Does it mean no legislator will sneak through a special pleader little ol' handout bill? Prefilings already include at least one.
Bottom line: Obey the Constitution (balanced budget/30-day session) and go home without bickering.
The Republicans are messaging, too, of course. As they scream about a loss of firefighting protection, they essentially dare Democrats to pass a tax to cover the expense. They double-dog dare Democrats (unnecessarily, I should add) to roll back the improvident peanut gallery tax cuts passed in the last legislative session. And, of course, they inject fear of Obamacare, not wanting to let a day go by without reminding Arkansas voters of the black foreigner in the White House.
Can the Republicans resist throwing a legislative stink bomb? Like blocking the Blind School budget or similar?
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Business Arkansas aims for edamame dominance
I liked this sentence in 40/29's coverage of the event:
Officials are hopeful that in a few short years Arkansas will be the edamame capital of the United States.
Move over, Popeye.
Edamame is the immature soybean, processed and often marketed as a healthy snack food.
Posted by Max Brantley on | Permalink | Comments (8)
Arkansas Politics Financial disclosures going on-line
Today's the deadline for Arkansas elected officials to file statements of financial interest. They are filed on paper with the secretary of state, which has already posted those from several state constitutional officers on-line. Others will filter in. The link is to a page that allows searches for all.
Unfortunately for prying eyes, the state's reporting requirements are badly out of date. Income and holdings are reported in two categories — more than $1,000 and more than $12,500, so it's impossible to make conclude much from them.
Gov. Mike Beebe, for example, reports income of more than $1,000 each from one bank and one securities firm and more than $12,500 each from two banks and one security firm. How much more than an aggregate minimum income of $39,500 does he receive? No way of knowing.
Beebe further lists 13 certificates of deposit or municipal bond holdings worth more than $12,500 each, plus another worth more than $1,000, or a minimum value of $163,500 in aggregate. Given low CD and bond yields these days and what we know of the minimum earnings the governor has reported, I'd guess an aggregate value 15 times greater than that. Or up.
Beebe reported no free gifts during the year. His bowl game jaunts, courtesy of UA and ASU, occurred in 2012. Look for them next year.
Posted by Max Brantley on | Permalink | Comments (2)
Police beat Former Baptist minister to be paroled on sex crime
David Koon wrote a cover story for us about this case. He victimized scores of boys over a couple of decades at the First Baptist Church of Benton. There was an outpouring of support for him when he was arrested and many asked for leniency on account of his age, health, dangers to child molesters in prison and his good works.
He received a 10-year sentence in August 2009. He won't be released until arrangements are made for him to be accepted as a parolee in another state. Another stipulation today by the parole board was that, should he ever return to Arkansas, he cannot live within 50 miles of Saline County.
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Presidential politics Republicans' choice: champions of 'Obamacare'
Rick Santorum is right, for once, Ernie Dumas writes this week.
He says the race for the Republican nomination is boiling down to two candidates — Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich — who can't very well use "Obamacare" against the president. They are solidly on record in support of the same — even more draconian, if you are inclined that way on the issue — health care solutions.
Read on:
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Arkansas Politics Who killed the cat? 3rd District controversy continues
Absent a solid development in finding the killer, I'm inclined to move on past the slaying of a cat belonging to a campaign worker for Ken Aden, the Democratic candidate for 3rd District Congress. It was mutilated and the killer scrawled the word "liberal" on the cat's body.
But Republican Rep. Steve Womack's father Kermit DID have to go on his right-wing talk show in Russellville last week and insinuate the killing was a publicity gimmick by the underfunded Aden campaign. A snippet here:
Under the circumstances, you can forgive Aden for issuing a news release terming Womack's remarks "offensive" and "disgusting" and asking for an apology.
UPDATE: Kermit Womack told NWAOnline that he had nothing to apologize for because he made no direct accusation. No, he only said a desperate campaign would come up with tricks to get attention. The insinuation is clear. And, today, he described the event as "non-news." Tell that to a cat lover. Time for Kermit to STFU, as reader Quapaw suggested, but history indicates that isn't going to happen.
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Taxes Trust the truck lobby?
Call me cynical. Idle talk from the truck lobby about maybe, possibly, if-the-creek-don't-rise supporting an unspecified diesel tax increase next year (free beer tomorrow) strikes me first as a ploy to further work against repeal of the truck/trailer total sales tax exemption set to go into effect July 1. It was supposed to be a companion measure to voter passage of a diesel tax increase, but the election was scrapped because of expected failure. Truckers first said they wanted to keep the sales tax break anyway, but an uproar forced a grudging agreement to voice support for repeal.
But the giveback can't happen without legislative action and rules severely restrict anything but budget work in the coming fiscal session.
The sizable Republican legislative contingent has already made clear its enmity toward anything that could be called a tax increase (this technically wouldn't be an increase; repealing the exemption would only stop implementation of a planned cut). But between election year anti-tax fervor and the difficulty in repealing the tax giveaway without an extraordinary majority vote in the fiscal session, the truckers are well positioned to see the giveaway take effect in July 1 as scheduled. That should be an outrage to other taxpayers unable to pull disappearing tax tricks on the legislature. But, if they can oil the waters by promising a proposed diesel increase effort of some amount some time in the great by and by, it might make the something-for-nothing deal go down a little easier.
Perhaps this is unfair. Perhaps we should trust the good intentions of the truck lobby, which is single-handedly responsible for destroying interstates at a rate faster than taxpayers can rebuild them, even though we keep borrowing money to do it.
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Monday, January 30, 2012
Monday night line
It's open. Some final items:
* DOUBLE SHOOTING IN ALEXANDER: Two people are "not in good shape" after shooting at Lindsey and Violet in Alexander, Fox 16 says.
* MOST WANTED NO MORE: Archie Barfield, sought in an Arkansas child rape case since 2008, has been arrested in Georgia, Fox 16 reports.
* CHARTER TEACHER UNIONIZE: Now there's a headline to chill a Walton, Hussman, Stephens or school reform lackey at the University of Walton in Fayetteville. But it happened. Teachers at a New York charter school voted to unionize after a bitter fight that included the firing of a pregnant teacher/organizer.
* LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD FOR BILL CLINTON: Former President Bill Clinton will be in Little Rock Saturday to be honored by the Jewish Federation of Arkansas with its Tikkun Olam award for lifetime achievement. The event is at 6:30 p.m. at the Peabody Hotel. The definition of Tikkun Olam, says the Federation, is increasing the well-being of humankind by "repairing the world and helping those in need." Clinton is to be recognized for being a "strong advocate for the state of Israel and for justice for all people." Twelve others will be honored at the dinner, which will mark the organization's centennial.
* TINY TIM'S TAKE: Did U.S. Rep. Tim Griffin get some motion picture cash for sponsoring the Internet-killing legislation that lobby wanted passed? You know he did. And Walton money. And he's getting lots of cash and support from allies of Paul Ryan, the architect of the budget to kill Medicare as we know it Social Security and other important functions of government.
* REP. BARRY HYDE SETTLES ETHICS COMPLAINT: The North Little Rock legislator, who's seeking a Senate seat this year, agreed he'd made mistakes in campaign finance reporting for 2010 and paid a $150 fine in a settlement with the state Ethics Commission. The commission found no basis to Republican Party complaints about misspending of campaign money, BTW.
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Police beat Archeologist: dig today didn't uncover grave of Glasgow
The archeologist who helped oversee a dig today in the field off Highway 161 where a Faulkner County Jail inmate claimed Little Rock businessman John Glasgow is buried said that today's dig into three locations in the field pinpointed as the best possible locations for a grave turned up only two ancient American Indian sites and buried pieces of more modern metal.
more info on the jump...
Posted by David Koon on | Permalink | Comments (11)
Environment Republicans have a new pipeline strategy
The Republican talking point factory has constructed a new message machine around the Keystone pipeline. Here's an outline of the next congressional thrust to put President Obama in a corner on the issue. U.S. Rep. Tim Griffin — who doesn't care who it pollutes and who, including Nebraska Republicans, oppose it — is already making social media mileage of the GOP plan.
Careful study isn't necessary for those bent on political messaging, I know. Still, you might find this report on the issue enlightening. The vaunted western route to ship to China is no certainty in Canada. People there care about their environment, believe it or not. Even if an alternate route is approved it would still require pipe. It's worth remembering when Tiny Tim begins his barrage of talking points about the temporary layoff of 60 part-time workers (in a workforce of hundreds) at the Welspun plant in Little Rock.
I point you again to the Cornell study that has debunked the exaggerated job claims on this project, including claims of domestic jobs for steel and pipe production. For example:
It therefore seems likely that the rest of the pipe needed for KXL will probably be manufactured in Welspun’s Indian plants and then shipped to the U.S for final processing (double jointing and coating) or manufactured in Welspun’s Arkansas plant, which imports raw coiled steel and other production inputs (notably from India and South Korea.)These arrangements allow TransCanada to state that “approximately 75% of the pipe for the US portion of the proposed project would be purchased from North American pipe manufacturing facilities.” This claim is misleading
on two levels. Firstly, it is possible to purchase from a North American facility, but this does not necessarily mean that the steel was produced in those facilities. Secondly, the jobs created in Canada-while important to the Canadian economy—should not then be pitched as “American jobs” to the media and the American public.
Dr. No Boozman is on the case, with a news release that includes the erroneous statement that the steel for the pipeline was produced in Arkansas.
I talked with Dave Delie, president of the Welspun plant in Little Rock, and he confirmed for me that they're producing no steel and primarily using steel from foreign sources. He said about 500 people remain at work in Little Rock. They are completing the order for the Keystone pipeline and working on another TransCanada project. All the Keystone pipe has been made, but it still must be coated, he said. Some 60 part-time workers remain laid off, but will be called back to work when it's time to ship the pipe. That time will come sooner or later, Delie said, because TransCanada has bought the pipe regardless of the outcome of the route debate in the U.S. It would take 60 people about a year's worth of work to ship the 500 miles of pipe already made. They are not permanent employees, but hired as needed. The problem for Welspun is that the end of the U.S. route, even with an alternate Canadian route, will reduce the amount of pipe TransCanada needs, Delie said. So the excess pipe will either reduce TransCanada's needs on other projects or force it to sell the surplus on the open market and create a low-cost competitor for Welspun. Should that happen, Delie said, he wouldn't call the 60 back to work but would use production workers in the shipping process. By the way: An alternate route in the U.S. to avoid a sensitive aquifer in Nebraska would add 40 miles to the project and, thus, more work for Little Rock.
Posted by Max Brantley on | Permalink | Comments (6)
Two killed in U.S. 65 crash in Chicot County
Two Hot Springs Village residents were killed and two others from Hot Springs Village were injured Sunday afternoon when their car ran off U.S. Highway 65 in Chicot County.
State Police said the dead were John Thyfault, 80 and Lois Thyfault, 78, both passengers in a car driven by Edward Levy, 72. Levy and Sharon Levy, 63, were both hospitalized.
The police said the car was northbound about 2:45 p.m. when it veered off the road and hit a concrete divider, then went back across the northbound lanes, drove through a guard rail and into a ditch, where the 2003 Olds spun around before hitting a tree. Only Edward Levy was wearing a seatbelt.
Posted by Max Brantley on | Permalink | Comments (5)
Arkansas Politics Clark Hall touts money raising
Rep. Clark Hall, a Democratic candidate for 1st District Congress, reports raising more money than incumbent Republican Rep. Rick Crawford in the 4th quarter.
Money is critical, sure. But:
NO Republican, repeat NO Republican, will lack for money, whether it is in the candidate's own campaign account or from an independent committee with unlimited money to fire anonymously with whatever messaging/lie/distortion is necessary to carve up a Democratic challenger. Independent money was critical in Crawford's first victory. Democrat Chad Causey out-raised Crawford by a small amount, but $1.3 million in independent attack advertising rained down on Causey.
UPDATE: Though Republicans were responsible for most of the independent spending two years ago, both sides can play the game. Here's news of a Super PAC prepared to spend $3 million to defeat 10 Tea Party members of Congress. Sadly, none is an Arkansas congressman, though their voting records are essentially identical. Which reminds me: Anybody else heard that Rep. Steve Womack is distancing himself a bit from the Tea Party segment of the 3rd District Republican base?
Posted by Max Brantley on | Permalink | Comments (11)
Event Calendar
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Re: Hurst fined again by bar committee for late filing
Hahaha. Partisanship invalidates opinions? This, coming from folks that are actually talking about supporting Q…
- on May 25, 2012
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Re: Two LR cops busted in federal marijuana sting
Of course you're right, MarcKyle 1964. Yet, as I responded to my new friend Verla…
- on May 25, 2012
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Re: Riverfest eve open line UPDATE
dbi--True, but sad. When I paid $190. for a year of the D-G, it hurt…
- on May 25, 2012
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Police close the Occupy Little Rock camp, perhaps the last Occupy encampment on public land.
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200-300 votes not counted in Lonoke County
May 24, 2012Winners of more than half a dozen races could change when missing votes are added. fox16.com /more/ -
Two LR police officers arrested on federal drug charges
May 24, 2012Two Little Rock police officers were arrested Thursday on federal drug charges, accusing them of helping possess and distribute 1,400 pounds of marijuana. fox16.com /more/
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