I just read the Oct. 7 issue of the Arkansas Times letters section and noticed a letter from Mark Donaldson asking why Black Oak Arkansas was not included in the music poll winners.

In the interest of openness, let me say that I was the manager of Black Oak Arkansas from 1967-1979, their best years. It would also be fair for me to say that I no longer have a relationship with them. Jim Dandy is the first generation of his family to walk upright.

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Having said this, it is a gross oversight that they were not included in this list. BOA was the first rock band from Arkansas to enter the national record charts, sold a few million records and influenced such rockers as Aerosmith, Ozzy Osborne, Kiss, Van Halen’s David Lee Roth, and many others. BOA toured all over the world bringing Arkansas culture and music to the planet.

Under my direction, BOA also gave away over $1 million to various charities including Arkansas Children’s Hospital and cancer research; built a school in Oakland Ark.; helped day care centers; put air conditioning units into schools in Mountain Home, and raised tons of food for the poor people in Arkansas and Texas through concert charity events.

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Whoever compiled this list should get a history lesson.

PS: I also read a letter from Gail Carr about her concerns about President Obama, his birthplace etc. She also states that he can say he is a Christian but that his actions “raise a red flag.” I guess giving people health care is the devil’s work. Remember Gail, Jesus taught that if you do it unto the least of my brethren, you do it unto me.

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God must love ignorant and uninformed people because he seems to make so many of them.

God help us all.

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Butch Stone

Maumelle

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Voting for Elliott

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I support Joyce Elliott for Second District Congress. In review of one of her position websites, I find it not surprising to see Joyce advocating for various common sense conservative ways of stopping an out-of-control Congress.

I’ll take a candidate with Joyce’s credentials any day: a single parent, public school teacher, state representative and state senator who became involved in politics in order to genuinely make the world a better place for working men, women and their children. Someone with the education and experience to never forget who elected her to Congress.

 Compare her resume to Republican Tim Griffin’s resume. In the 2004 campaign he served as the hatchet man for Karl Rove in the political dirty tricks division of the Republican National Committee. This is how he earned his interim appointment as U.S. attorney for Eastern Arkansas. He earned it at the expense of Bud Cummins, who was initially described as being fired by the Department of Justice until it was evident that there was no justification for his dismissal. Griffin’s appointment was absolutely a political payoff for being the guy engaged in unethical conduct as a political lackey in the 2004 presidential election.

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Integrity can be defined as what you do when you think do one is watching. Thankfully someone was watching at the time, catching Tim Griffin earning his way into a plush political appointment that he wasn’t even qualified for.

So who do we really want to represent the Second Congressional District? A political hack who sold his soul to obtain a position of patronage? Or a representative of working people who won’t be bought or sold? Let’s not forget under whose watch the economy failed. Thankfully with Democratic Party direction, we are working our way out of this recession. We must eliminate tax breaks for those making over $250,000 a year and continue to reignite the economy by progressive, forward thinking initiatives rather than the same old tired policies that got us into this mess.

Stuart Douglas

Conway

Credit to Brummett

John Brummett’s recent column contained some reasonable and astute political analysis. It is encouraging that President Obama’s more dismal electoral results here in 2008 than John Kerry’s in 2004 was not due entirely to our racist attitudes, and he gives a good explanation of why that was the case. How Arkansas has resisted the regional and national trends away from the Democratic Party is a story unto itself. The Democratic Party has become the party of the east and left coasts, and the major metropolitan centers. We have resisted the trend because of our independent streak and the personalities of Dale Bumpers, the Pryors and Bill Clinton, and the relative weakness of the state Republican Party. Personality goes only so far and appears to have played itself out. Obama and the Democratic Congress have definitely accelerated the trend, which is coming home to roost for Sen. Blanche Lincoln, as it would have for Rep. Vic Snyder had he chosen to run for re-election. Sen. Mark Pryor will get the opportunity in 2012 to campaign on his vote in favor of Obamacare and see how well that plays with Arkansas voters. That will be a race to watch to see if the trend here is complete.

Michael J. Emerson

Little Rock

No fan of Dumas

There is a vast difference in an opinion piece and an empty show of opinions falsely stated as facts. Given that this distinction is generally drawn and taught in grade school, it’s difficult to understand how you could allow such a farce to come into print. In my mind, the blame has to lie with you as I hardly expect that Ernest Dumas recognizes the difference. I have no choice but to doubt the general intelligence of someone who follows a mini-lecture on rudimentary logic with a confused series of false rationale and gross over assumption.

Despite his faults, I suppose we can take solace in Ernest’s acute understanding of exactly what the Republican Party, and the president himself, are attempting to accomplish. That’s quite a feat, even for a political paragon.

In the future, Ernest would do well to avoid name calling and words like “nonsense.” I can personally assure him that several middle-income families in Arkansas will suffer immensely if these tax cuts expire. The liar (fraud) here is not the GOP.

If the Times continues to promote wild accusations and the ignorant, overly political tramps who discharge them, please mark the page with an appropriate warning. Something as simple as “Political Commentary” would normally suffice. However, in Ernest’s case, adding a “b” and “s” to his surname seems far more appropriate.

David Harper

Fort Smith

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