Arkansas Blog

Unless I picked the wrong Tivo listing, Bill Moyer's last show shined a big light on earmarks. I think it's a new term for a very old practice. Like talking about what you did with your wife in bed last night, talking about earmarks makes it all sound pretty nasty. Any discussion of it sends up red flags all over the place. This is not the way America is supposed to work, I thought as I watched Moyers. No wonder we're sucking air! No wonder Don Young from Alaska was sucking up Fort Baptist Republican money from a great distance. We want I-49 or I-69, whatever it's called, to run thru Fort Baptist and our rich folks are willing to shower Don Young with money to get it. Though it hasn't really worked out for us yet.

A big north-south Interstate would just help Whirlpool and Rheem with moving to Mexico. Maybe we need to put up an electric fence rather than build a bigger road out of town. Anyway the folks on my click on my name link were the focus of Moyer's show and afterwards I spent a few sleepy minutes searching their database for Arkansas pork and before I grew tired of it.....like Brummett I didn't find anything to raise the eyebrows. Even Boozman's request for pork seemed OK with me. I'll admit I searched his name expecting to see a request for money in order to build a 6 story statue of George Bush next to the giant Jesus in Eureka Springs.....but nada.

The Democrats have done a good thing...passing legislation that requires the pork request to bear the name of the asker. Up until lately politicians could ask and get zillions and keep their name a secret. What kind of anti-American crap is that? No wonder we're broke all the time. I hope after the Democrats get all the Cheney-Bush folks packed off to prison they'll go work on this pork problem some more.

I know it's an old example, but sending 200 million of our tax dollars to build a bridge to nowhere in Alaska is my business and it's pretty damn important business too. Shining the light was invented for situations like this. Nothing in government except war plans should be secret and everyone benefits when they must sign their name to the dirty work they're proposing. Keep this up and we'll have good government a couple of hundred years down the road.

I think they should be eliminated, just as soon as we get our 140 acres in Madison County fitted out with a 15 acre pond, for schools to use as a nature study, of course. Sure we will grant a one lane road access to the $89,000 pond, and let schools (50 mi away) bus kids out there to study bugs and birds but no fishing allowed. It will be money well spent, teaching kids about all the bugs, somewhat closed eco-systems and a very reasonable cost to you guys. It will prevent erosion too.