Arkansas Blog

Should this come to pass, and it will, I fervently hope the trolls on this blog will switch from their 10 years of making excuses for Huckabee's sheer greed and efforts of self aggrandizement.

Their time will be better spent monitoring the new Democratic office holders and making sure they do the job they were elected to do. I will be even more disappointed and mad if Beebe, Halter, McDaniel and Woody Anderson turn out to be goofballs or crooks.

My true aim is not to see every office filled with Democrats. It's to see every office filled with honest, intelligent people who earn their pay and do a good job for the citizens of this state. If they want to be stars, let them quit and go to Hollywood. If they want to get rich let them quit and join the Mafia or become lobbyists.

Corruption, dirty tricks and stupidity have about killed our nation and has kept Arkansas in 49th spot. For my whole life the slogan, Land of Opportunity has been a big lie except for a chosen few, Wal-Mart, Tyson and so on. Ain't nothing 49th about them and so it should be for anyone else who has a good idea and is willing to work long and hard.

Good governing isn't rocket science, but it takes good brains, a real commitment and a lot of honesty. We must throw off the practice of side deals, under the table deals and a willingness to place personal enrichment ahead of enriching the state.

Hopefully Beebe, Halter, McDaniel and Anderson will focus on their jobs, enjoy the honor of high political office within the state of Arkansas and think that is enough. If we had a run of good politicians maybe we wouldn't need term limits to protect us from little Caesars.

What is the opinion of the AT Blog contributors to Asa's commercial that is a rip-off of a monster.com commercial. Asa's commercial has kids making vicious comments about politicians in general and about Mike Beebe in particular. My impression was that it will backfire because he uses kids to make a nasty attack on Beebe. Is this the right thing to do, Asa, hiding behind children? What do others think?

What do others think?

Posted by: Pavel

I think it's wrong to use minor/children for a political race or office TV AD ,i see it as child abuse. those young children don't know what there talking about , its just GOP rude/crudeness . typical GOP .republicans ,wrong ,wrong, wrong !

This latest commercial of Asa's is a continuation of the Republican Party's slide into degradation. Have you seen an election in recent memory where the Republican candidate and the party itself have not tried to outdo themselves to see who can be the most cutthroat, rude, and vicious?

I remember the campaign of two years ago in South Arkansas where the Republican challenger, Mark Smith ran one of the most low-life, dirty campaigns folks there had ever seen in his attempt to unseat incumbent State Senator Gene Jeffress. Jeffress, to his credit, refused to be drawn into the mud with Smith and won going away. He even beat Smith in Smith's hometown of El Dorado.

Folks, it just doesn't match up. The Republicans want to put on the persona of being good Christians, while, in reality, they make wonderful minions of Satan himself.

"Having the political upper hand in state capitals has enabled Republicans to draw congressional districts that are more favorable to their party's candidates, notably in Texas and Georgia."

OK, I'll admit I haven't been paying much attention since I took a government class back in the dark ages, but as I recall, gerrymandering is (or was) illegal. I did follow the Texas situation a few years ago and still have a question: when did it become legal?
And no, you may not take this as a desire for rethuglicans to remain in power. Down with rethuglicans!

Generally speaking, political gerrymandering has been ruled OK by the SCT if the political benefit is "a" reason for the redistricting rather than "the" reason. Racial gerrymandering has generally been less aproved of, although it has been more readily accepted when used to create majority-minority districts.

Is A$a's use of minors to do the dirty work any different from Mark Foley's use of minors?

Oh Lord, save me from the party of FAMILY VALUES!
_

I would love to see gerrymandering done away with, but I have a great deal of trouble conceiving a way to insure the pols and lobbyist don't use their databases to set-up safe districts. After the last six years, I don't even think the judiciary can be trusted to be fair and non-partisan. Look at the Supremes interference in Florida in 2000.

Even the idea of the UN or foreign monitors would be succeptable to bribery or other inducements and both the major parties have a tremendous primer from the abuses of the last twelve years.

But i would love to support an idea that does do away with gerrymandered safe districts.

Also to be fair, does anyone remember the famous ad where the little girl plays with a flower suddenly superimposed with a flash and mushroom cloud? I think it was an LBJ negative ad on Goldwater.

While it didn't use children to voice the dirt slingin' it still was utilizing the image of a child to throw the dirt.

So LBJ and Asa must be cut from the same cloth.

I remember that ad.

What we need is clean elections, with public financing available. I watched on NOW the other night about how in Arizona (I think that was the state) they have publically financed elections that have changed how things are done. It sounds like a very good deal, since the politicians are not obligated to anyone to vote a certain way.

If you get a chance to watch it, please do. It made a lot of sense and may go a very long way toward solving the corruption problems.