Arkansas Blog

If the federal government is going to bankroll enterprises like Exoxemis, perhaps they should demand the same claim on future profits that a venture capitalist would demand.

Is that the company Stephens bought from Jennings Osborne?

How about we quit trying to steal oil, quit bombing, shooting, torturing, occupying innocents in countries where we are not welcome and they never threatened us in any way.. That will wipe out the wound contamination problem without ever a need for a bandage.. How much stock or other investments does Mr Stephens have in conflict with his lil R&D project? Is he invested in weaponry of any kind which may cause him to profit more when treating wounds?

Let's see here.....against providing poor kids with health care, for corporate handouts. Yep. Fiscal conservatives really have it all figured out. Trickle-down economics will never go away, will it?

I realize that earmarks like the one for Exoxemisis are chicken feed in a $471 billion defense budget, but when you add them up and multiply them by similar earmarked "projects" in the other states, you're soon talking about very big bucks. Frankly, I question the "return on the dollar" of not only the Exoxemisis project, but also some of the other Arkansas earmarks. Among them:

$6 million to several companies to design and manufacture two prototypes of a lighter and more mobile field hospital, with final assembly to be at the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co.'s Russellville facility IF the Army selects the company's prototype.

$3.2 million to Arkansas State University and Florida A&M University for research and development of technologies to detect improvised explosive devices.

$3 million for a study of the health and safety risks of the element vanadium, used to strengthen steel, by the Strategic Minerals Corp.'s Hot Springs plant.

$2.5 million for production of the Profiler meteorological measuring set, a suite of computers and meteorological sensors used by the Arkansas National Guard to ensure first-round accuracy of supporting fire.

$2.5 million to the University of Arkansas to develop nanoscale sensors to monitor exposure to bacteria, viruses and biological weapons (a nanometer is one-billionth of a meter).

$2 million to Arkansas State University to develop technologies to detect ultra-low concentrations of explosives and hazardous chemical agents.

$1.6 million to Arkansas State University to continue development of technologies to detect chemical or biological threats before they hurt troops or civilians.

$1.6 million to Space Photonics of Fayetteville to develop products that improve the performance, reliability and security of space communications.

$1.2 million to the University of Arkansas at Little Rock to develop an aircraft de-icing system that uses a combination of nanostructures and electrical charges (a nanostructure, be it a wire, a rod or a dot, is smaller than 100 nanometers).

$1 million to Visions Technologies of Rogers to develop video equipment to monitor and protect naval vessels.

At the end of the day, what are the chances (really) that all this tax-payer "research" will pay off when it comes to strengthening the military?

Nice collection of pork you dug up, durango. Wouldn't it be great if all those projects were actually used to change our energy policy. Americas entrepreneurial spirit is just crying out to be called into action on the energy solutions we need.

Thanks go out to Sens. Pryor and Lincoln for helping poor little Stevie get on the government tit. With Dems like them, who needs Repubs?

Excellent post Durango.. Dick Bennett did a little study for a few years. He discovered the Military Industrial Complex is so designed that any Senator and most U.S. Reps cannot cut the Defense Appropriations Bill without hurting their respective states.
by LWood

Oh yea, and that piddlin $1.6 million could turn into hundreds of millions should the wound decontamination treatment prove successful. Think of all the hospital induced infections that could be cured, thousands of them per week.

Curing hospital induced wound infections? Maybe. Maybe not. But a constant and absolute regimen of handwashing and tie and floppy sleeve jettisoning, to say nothing of banning all comers from the clean linen closet -- around here if you ask for a blanket, you're told to help yourself -- would do wonders right now in terms of not spreading them.

Mighty Max gets a two-fer. Cheap shot a rich guy and the military all around veterans' day.

What else is new? A poor southern state that rails against federal taxation,
and then lives off the tax dollars from more prosperous states.