Ingratitude
Republicans are an ungrateful lot. Though Arkansas routinely votes Republican in national races, the party maligns the state at every opportunity.
Agents of the infamous Koch brothers, big Republican money men from Kansas, are flooding Arkansas with letters and television ads promoting Republican candidates, saying that only these can lift the state from the sorry condition in which it now abides. The insults from the Koch group, called Americans for Prosperity, are reminiscent of those the Bushes, I and II, heaped on Arkansans. "The lowest of the low," George H.W. Bush called us at a Republican national convention. Shamefully, the Republican delegates from Arkansas did not walk out.
Gov. Mike Beebe has refuted the Koch machine's trashing of his home state. He cites statistics showing that Arkansas is not a high-tax state, as the Kochs claim, and that taxes have been further reduced since Beebe succeeded a Republican governor. He notes that the recession that cost jobs in Arkansas and every other state was a product of Wall Street, where Republicans rule, and he says it's ironic that the Kochs should be talking about Arkansas job losses after they closed a plywood plant in Crossett that employed 700 Arkansans. (Where the Kochs allow jobs to exist, it is at the lowest possible wage.) Arkansas's unemployment rate is still below the national average, Beebe observed.
Arkansas has made moderate progress under Beebe. But even he will be unable to stop the relapse if Republicans gain a majority in the legislature. It's crucial they do not.
Speaking of Mike Beebe, Koch Brothers
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Martha Shoffner resigns as Arkansas state treasurer
May 21, 2013Martha Shoffner, facing federal prosecution in a kickback case, has resigned as Arkansas State treasurer. /more/
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Chris Thyer: Informant in Shoffner case will eventually be identified
May 20, 2013David Koon reports from the news conference this afternoon by U.S. Attorney Chris Thyer of the Eastern District of Arkansas, who brought the charge against state Treasurer Martha Shoffner, and Western District U.S. Attorney Conner Eldridge, who buttressed the message that the feds are looking for corruption statewide. /more/
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TGIF line is open
May 3, 2013It's Friday. You're on. /more/
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Which one?
May 2, 2013The city of Beebe or Mike Beebe? It's not an easy question. They're both from White County, both have their merits, and their advocates. The town has gained fame for its dead birds; the man as a competent and moderate governor, perhaps the last of his kind. /more/
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How the private option flipped the Medicaid expansion debate
May 2, 2013It took a group of clever and obstinate young Republican legislators who refused to go along with Medicaid expansion but weren't ready to close the door on other ideas. They helped force a crafty veteran Democratic governor who was eager to go forward with expansion to consider alternative approaches. Throw in tireless and creative state health officials who happened to have a cozy relationship with their federal It took a group of clever and obstinate young Republican legislators who refused to go along with Medicaid expansion but weren’t ready to close the door on other ideas. They helped force a crafty veteran Democratic governor who was eager to go forward with expansion to consider alternative approaches. Throw in tireless and creative state health officials who happened to have a cozy relationship with their federal counterparts. Probably some luck. And, among everyone involved, it took a slightly crazy, seemingly unjustified optimism that somehow a solution was possible. /more/
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Now the Kochs target newspapers
April 21, 2013The billionaire Koch brothers have a massive imprint, from energy to forest products to multi-tentacled political front groups including the likes of Americans for Prosperity, important in the Republican takeover of the Arkansas legislature. /more/
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Obamacare rules
April 18, 2013At press time, a Senate vote was still up in the air, but the thinking was that senators would join the House in its momentous approval Tuesday of Medicaid expansion by a 77-23 vote. /more/
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Gubernatorial campaign underway: Ross spotted with liberals
April 13, 2013I meant to mention earlier that I'd heard one announced and two unannounced candidates for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination were pressing flesh at a fund-raising dinner last week in Little Rock. /more/
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Medicaid expansion: The Kochs call in their chits
April 7, 2013A momentous week lies ahead. Against all odds, a significant Republican caucus has developed for moving ahead with Medicaid expansion in Arkansas. /more/
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Swine stampede
April 4, 2013Though needed, it came tragically too late. Legislation to curb feral hogs was approved by the House of Representatives last week, but not before Senate Republicans had already overridden Governor Beebe's veto of a bill prohibiting voting without photo identification. /more/
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Kindness permitted
Arkansas has an opportunity to progress still further by approving the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Act, which will be on the general-election ballot.
- Oct 3, 2012
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For Obama
If it's true that united we stand and divided we fall, America will come crashing down should Mitt Romney be elected president. He's already declared half the citizenry worthless, and said that as president, he'll concern himself only with the others. All those deemed unworthy of Romney's attention are low- and middle-income Americans, people who, unlike Romney himself, had no rich father's shoulders to stand on. These are the people who most need a friend in the White House. Romney promises the back of his hand.
- Oct 10, 2012
Latest in Editorials
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Misquoted
There's embarrassment in the young gubernatorial campaign of state Rep. Debra Hobbs of Rogers. Announcing her candidacy last week, Representative Hobbs said "I feel like this is what God wants me to do." But sources close to God say that He gave her no encouragement and was at most indifferent to her campaign.
- May 23, 2013
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Say goodbye
It's kind of piling on, admittedly, but we feel compelled to join the call for state Treasurer Martha Shoffner to resign. Awkwardly compelled, that is. She has not yet been convicted of the criminal charges filed against her, and that's an important point. The presumption of innocence has not been repealed.
- May 23, 2013
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Listen, UA
Any public-university trustees considering merger of their tax-supported teaching hospital with a Catholic hospital should ponder these wise words from Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
- May 16, 2013
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Event Calendar
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Re: Syrian war: Iraq redux
Well-researched and well-reasoned column. I emailed the President urging him not to interfere in Syria…
- on May 25, 2013
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Re: The crash of Martha Shoffner
Now, Maxine, if Martha Shoffner were a Republican, you know you wouldn't be sad about…
- on May 24, 2013
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Re: Say goodbye
Because Dustin McDaniel is a law abiding SOS? How dare he speak out after his…
- on May 24, 2013
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