Arkansas Blog

Eliot Spitzer turned up on the new Morning Meeting show on MSNBC today. He wasn't bad, and guess his "rehab" is in full swing...
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Re: Johnny Tittle working for the Washington County TAX Collector.

You have no idea how many times Tittle and gang preached against taxes. Of course that's
because Tittle wasn't paying his.

So, in dire times where does a RW, fiscal conservative fundie turn? Towards a gubbermint paycheck of course.

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I was over the MJ media blitz twenty minutes after the announcement. But this is a great true story told by a friend of mine.

The Day Michael Jackson Beat the KKK (clicky)

Good evening!

I'm asking the group for recommendations of B&Bs in Eureka Springs. I'm planning on surprising my wife with a weekend up there in October as a late 20th wedding anniversary (she's always wanted to go to War Eagle.) We haven't stayed up there since 1993, and I'm looking for something better than Inn of the Ozarks. The place we stayed at in '93 has since closed.

Looking for non-smoking, and for rooms with synthetic pillows/comforters, not natural down (asthma.) I appreciate any help and guidance!

Thanks!

A look at 2016. Obama's backing of Honduran President Zelaya could be a look at what will happen here in the good old USA. Will Obama attempt to do the same when he will no longer be able to run for re-election? Will he try to go around the constitution and try to hold an election to allow him to run more than two terms? Or since everything is an emergency to him will he just call off the election of 2016? Remember those who claimed the Bush would do it?

Or maybe suggestions of B&Bs to AVOID might be better!

Thanks again!

Slinger, I know several.. give me a couple of days to gather some phone numbers for you.

Thanks, ES!

I would avoid the chiselin' Baker B&B

saywhat- that's funny! After all, it's Republicans who think only they have the answers to everything.

I don't how old/young you are, but some of us go back to when a crook (and I do mean garden variety crook!) named Richard Nixon was president. The hangman's noose was tightening around his neck, so he decided to fire the Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox. Problem was his Attorney General Elliot Richardson refused to do so as did Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus. Two good guys under great pressure did the right thing. Nixon then turned to Solicitor General Robert Bork (remember Bork who years later was rejected as a U.S. Supreme Court nominee and with good reason?). Bork carried out Nixon's firing of Cox, but it did neither Nixon or Bork any good.

It's Republicans who think so little of a document called the Constitution unless they can find a way to use it to further their anti-American goals.

History reveals a lot to those who remember it.

Slingerland:

I have stayed at, and really enjoyed the Cliff Cottage Inn. It was several years ago, though.

Do the clicky.

On my class blog that I run, the classmates got to jabbering about car trips "back in the days." One of the funnier ones was Betty's, one of our former cheerleaders:

"I am not a car person, but I blame my father, bless him. When we were little he would wake us up at 4am, throw us in the back seat in our PJ's and drive 14 hours straight to MawMaw's house in Alabama. (I think its a Southern man thing to see how fast you can get there - only sissies think it's about the journey.....)There was a cooler of food and drinks, so no stopping for meals. And if you had to pee and we were between gas stops, well....you got the Folger's coffee can! Really tricky tossing pee out the window at 60 miles/hr. Mom missed once....SO all this is to say that such early imprinting has forever left me shivering to think about road trips. In recent years, adding on my poor navigation skills, putting my husband and me together in a car with a map has nearly ruined a few vacations!"

Two Stories
BOTH TRUE - and worth reading!!!!

STORY NUMBER ONE

Many years ago, Al Capone virtually owned Chicago . Capone wasn't famous for anything heroic. He was notorious for enmeshing the windy city in everything from bootlegged booze and prostitution to murder.

Capone had a lawyer nicknamed "Easy Eddie." He was Capone's lawyer for a good reason. Eddie was very good! In fact, Eddie's skill at legal maneuvering kept Big Al out of jail for a long time.

To show his appreciation, Capone paid him very well. Not only was the money big, but Eddie got special dividends, as well. For instance, he and his family occupied a fenced-in mansion with live-in help and all of the conveniences of the day. The estate was so large that it filled an entire Chicago City block. Eddie lived the high life of the Chicago mob and gave little consideration to the atrocity that went on around him.

Eddie did have one soft spot, however. He had a son that he loved dearly. Eddie saw to it that his young son had clothes, cars, and a good education. Nothing was withheld. Price was no object. And, despite his involvement with organized crime, Eddie even tried to teach him right from wrong. Eddie wanted his son to be a better man than he was.

Yet, with all his wealth and influence, there were two things he couldn't give his son; he couldn't pass on a good name or a good example.

One day, Easy Eddie reached a difficult decision. Easy Eddie wanted to rectify wrongs he had done. He decided he would go to the authorities and tell the truth about Al "Scarface" Capone, clean up his tarnished name, and offer his son some semblance of integrity. To do this, he would have to testify against The Mob, and he knew that the cost would be great. But, he testified.

Within the year, Easy Eddie's life ended in a blaze of gunfire on a lonely Chicago Street . But in his eyes, he had given his son the greatest gift he had to offer, at the greatest price he could ever pay Police removed from his pockets a rosary, a crucifix, a religious medallion, and a poem clipped from a magazine.

The poem read:

"The clock of life is wound but once, and no man has the power to tell just when the hands will stop, at late or early hour. Now is the only time you own. Live, love, toil with a will. Place no faith in time. For the clock may soon be still."

STORY NUMBER TWO

World War II produced many heroes. One such man was Lieutenant Commander Butch O'Hare. He was a fighter pilot assigned to the aircraft carrier Lexington in the South Pacific.

One day his entire squadron was sent on a mission. After he was airborne, he looked at his fuel gauge and realized that someone had forgotten to top off his fuel tank. He would not have enough fuel to complete his mission and get back to his ship. His flight leader told him to return to the carrier. Reluctantly, he dropped out of formation and headed back to the fleet.

As he was returning to the mother ship, he saw something that turned his blood cold; a squadron of Japanese aircraft was speeding its way toward the American fleet.

The American fighters were gone on a sortie, and the fleet was all but defenseless. He couldn't reach his squadron and bring them back in time to save the fleet. Nor could he warn the fleet of the approaching danger. There was only one thing to do. He must somehow divert them from the fleet.

Laying aside all thoughts of personal safety, he dove into the formation of Japanese planes. Wing-mounted 50 caliber's blazed as he charged in, attacking one surprised enemy plane and then another. Butch wove in and out of the now broken formation and fired at as many planes as possible until all his ammunition was finally spent. Undaunted, he continued the assault. He dove at the planes, trying to clip a wing or tail in hopes of damaging as many enemy planes as possible, rendering them unfit to fly.

Finally, the exasperated Japanese squadron took off in another direction. Deeply relieved, Butch O'Hare and his tattered fighter limped back to the carrier

Upon arrival, he reported in and related the event surrounding his return. The film from the gun-camera mounted on his plane told the tale. It showed the extent of Butch's daring attempt to protect his fleet. He had, in fact, destroyed five enemy aircraft.

This took place on February 20, 1942 , and for that action Butch became the Navy's first Ace of W.W.II, and the first Naval Aviator to win the Congressional Medal of Honor.

A year later Butch was killed in aerial combat at the age of 29. His home town would not allow the memory of this WW II hero to fade, and today, O'Hare Airport in Chicago is named in tribute to the courage of this great man.

So, the next time you find yourself at O'Hare International, give some thought to visiting Butch's memorial displaying his statue and his Medal of Honor. It's located between Terminals 1 and 2.

SO WHAT DO THESE TWO STORIES HAVE TO DO WITH EACH OTHER?

Butch O'Hare was "Easy Eddie's" son.

True story Catfish. He grew up in Oak Park, IL. A suburb of Chicago on the west side. My Mom and Dad lived there after the War. Big Mafia Mansions there all with big rock walls for protection. My Dad said many times that it felt like the safest neighborhood he ever lived in.

Goof, it's semi-true. See Snopes.

Slingerland, I had great luck with the Daffodil Cottage (it's part of a property group up there... link on bluename). I stayed in the Blue Willow Suite... at the time I was pregnant and had been dealing with all sorts of uncomfortable, but there I was in pretty good shape. They also do requests for breakfast, which is always a big deal for me, since I can't do the bacon or sausage or such. I know it sounds strange, but though it was rather warm outside during the day I was ever so thankful for the dual control electric blanket and the fridge (juice was ever my friend at that point). Nice folks, too -- though there are some members of staff that could talk your ear off.

Nice story, Catfish. But what is your point?
Can we draw the comparison, say, if George Bush was to go to the authorities and admit all the nasty, criminal things that his boss, Dick Cheney, had committed during their eight year crime spree. Would his daughters then be so impressed by his belated integrity that they would join the military, go to Iraq, and 'accomplish the mission' that their father failed?
Hell, if that were the case, Barbara and Jenna would deserve to have a whole damn town named after them. Maybe Crawford would volunteer.

Catfish, those were wonderful stories. Im just going to believe that they are true and enjoy them. thank you!

Arkansas News Bureau quotes Hooks as saying "They are making interesting attempts to try to turn this into some sort of a class issue between Arkansans and a multimillion-dollar corporation. I think (it) is a little bit hilarious," Indeed, hilarious if not highly offensive to any self-respecting Arkansawyer.
Hooks also pointed out that SWEPCO promised that they wouldn't use the ill-conceived construction scheme as an argument for approval of the plant in the future. Riiight. I suppose they didn't think the decision to construct the plant would have any bearing at all.

Have we had enough Bush-era tactics that spell disaster yet? This corporation is pulling from the Bush playbook alright. This plant's construction is like a signing statement in that it has disregard for what the deliberative body has concluded. It's like building bases in the middle east while you deny that the decision to invade Iraq has been made. It's like submitting a budget to congress that does not have a cent of expenditure for Iraq in it, while the taxpayers you submitted your budget before are already on the line for the $92 billion bill of elective war expenditure.

So next time they send their Choad down here we should tell him what we think about his apparent disregard for our intelligence.

Thanks, ES, Cammack and Kat! It's been over three years since Patricia and I have been able to get away for a mini-vacation. Work, our own business, kids... sigh...

For me, the issue is asthma. I can't be around tobacco smoke or bird down. I'm also allergic to cheese, sour cream, etc... mold-cultured milk products, so I have to watch what I eat. (Then again, it wouldn't hurt me to drop a few pounds...)

I'll call these two B&Bs tomorrow and see what's available. It will be the weekend of War Eagle arts/crafts fair. My wife will be IN HEAVEN! (I'll endure for her sake...)

Thanks again!

I'm asking the group for recommendations of B&Bs in Eureka Springs.
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There is always a "Jacuzzi Room" at the Crescent Hotel. That time of year, it would be nice sitting outside on the upper balcony having a drink. The Sunday brunch is also quite nice.

I think HardHeadedWoman summed it up nicely. I worry about people whose only heroes are dead and usually die violently. There are a million true stories of WWII heroes alive and dead and I'm thankful for everyone of them. We had little choice but to fight WWII. But since then our warring has all been down hill. 4317 US troops have died in Iraq and the only good reason I can come up with is they died following orders. Giving up your life in a war no one can figure out why you're in, for a victory no one can name seems like a horrible waste to me.

Until Catfish brought him his little stories, war hasn't been mentioned on this blog in a while. We're all too busy worry about our money to worry about a couple of wars that keep grinding up our young people and enriching the war profiteers. Enriching is the key word here. Below is a 2005 list of the top 5 companies and what they hauled in from the government that year.

Parsons Corporation of Pasadena, CA ($5.3 billion); Fluor Corporation of Aliso Viejo, CA ($3.75 billion); Washington Group International of Boise, ID ($3.1 billion); Shaw Group of Baton Rouge, LA ($3 billion); Bechtel Corporation of San Francisco, CA ($2.8 billion); Perini Corporation of Framingham, MA ($2.5 billion); and Contrack International, Inc. of Arlington, VA ($2.3 billion)

There are dozens if not hundreds of companies many who make your toasters and garden tractors who also will cry crocodile tears when the twin wars we can't win come to an end when the billionaires get tired of making more billions. This list misses KBR that made 16 billion off the government between 2004 and 2006. In fact...why not go see for yourself why war is a fantastic business if you're not a soldier or an enemy (we've given them too many names to keep track of) or an innocent family that gets in the way of a US bomb. Click on my name, read em and weep. And keep in mind this is old news, I can't find what we've spent from 2007 to today.

To bed, but first, Catfish, here's the facts at blue name from Snopes. Good call, kizzy.

Republicans just hate the internet and facts.

I just have to think this lifelong desire to mix facts and fiction has to come from the Christian religion. Once you get used to making up a story to suit your own narrow purposes....you just can't stop.

A big 'AMEN' to that, DBI.

I kiss your ring, DBI.

18 years in Iraq (we never left since desert storm).. and remember we were promised a Democratic Kuwait and Iraq way back then. Ha! Longer than that in Afghanistan, truth be told.. we taught the taliban fighters, and armed them, against the Soviets in the 80's. We were bombing cell phone towers in Afghanistan a day or two before 9-11.

Longest most expensive ' $$ wars in our history'.. and nothing good can come of it... i don't even think it's what any of the powers that be are after (good). Seems like endless chaos is the best stalemate our neo nuts can get... but not enough calm from those millions of lives we've destroyed in order to steal their resources.

All based on lies with no clearly defined mission ( 5 different Af missions in the last 6 months, all tossed, we are working on a new one now). No end in sight.

For all my smokin' Razorbabies . . . I give you the PACT Act of 2009 (S. 1147). You haven't seen this on the front pages because of, well, Ed and Farrah and Michael and stuff . . . but this bill has already passed the House.

Basically, it outlaws "mailing" of tobacco products. Which means lawful American addicts can no longer avoid extortionist taxes by ordering cigarettes via phone or online from nice Indians.

Though a non-smoker myself, I hate seeing do-gooders stamp out perfectly legal vices, deprive our long-beleaguered original Americans of much needed income for the Res, leech hundreds of millions from the Postal Service (who'll respond by raising prices on stamps), rob the health-care industry of billions by vastly reducing revenues from treating smoking-related illness, geometrically increase profits for the Big Tobacco lobby, etc.

My entire life is based on selfless public service, so the link at clicky 'splains it all and links to Blanche and Mark for your input.

The government's become the Mafia -- pushing a powerful if legal drug and eliminating competition so it can continue dictating kickbacks as "taxes."

Solution? Criminalize tobacco like marijuana. Then illegal cigarettes will require but a local phone call and immediately available for pickup at your convenience.

You're welcome.

NB, the funniest line your shill for the tobacco industry entails is, "rob the health-care industry of billions by vastly reducing revenues from treating smoking-related illness".
As for your selfless public service, thank you very much. I'm glad to see making sense or actual facts don't get in your way. Can't let the tooth fairies get away w all the BS.

You are, however, close to the right track in your suggestion for tobacco. But we need to recognize the industry is selling nicotine and the actual tobacco at this point is almost coincidental in the U.S. Note the that both Philip Morris and RJR have gotten big time into the oral nicotine market. And one of the endgame strategies suggested is in fact to reclassify nicotine to what it was in '96.

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Place_nicotine_under_the_Controlled_Substances_Act

All of this is obscured now by the abysmal bill just passed limiting the FDA's authority enough to regulate tobacco, without eliminating nicotine. This, if not larger, is as big a success for the tobacco industry, especially PM, as the MSA was.

But thanks for the chuckle anyway. Rob the health care industry? That's great.

I'm an early to bed, early to rise person, so just read the Butch O'Hare comments.

Catfish Eater, kizzy, Sound Policy: The story is no less powerful if Butch's father was a selfish so-and-so with no concern for his son. It's more powerful. Good people somehow can emerge from really bad families, just as flowers grow among weeds. I've often wondered why this phenomenon wasn't studied more often, how strong, ethical, kind children surmounted Dickensian childhoods of abuse and deprivation or parents who were the opposite of strong, ethical and kind. Apparently, Butch O'Hare broke the cycle. Do you all know just how hard that is? I suspect some of you do. And Deathyinches and HardHeadedWoman: I, too, wish his self-sacrifice hadn't come in the midst of war, but that doesn't make it any less remarkable, or honorable.

As long as Obama keeps almost 100,000 troops toiling in Iraq to keep Monkeyboy's based-on-lies war going, it'll be proof that no matter how many Republican myths are debunked, no matter how unpopular their hypocritical policies are...they're still running circles around us/our horrid Dems.

We can't afford to keep offering free policing to Iraq/much of the world. (And, I'd argue that if a 'stable' Iraq is so crucial to our survival/security, there's something horribly wrong with us.) Why is it OK, even necessary, for us to shoulder the burden of free policing while most of those protected countries offer their citizens services, like universal healthcare, that we're told we can't afford?? The only answer that makes sense to me is that we're sacrificing healthcare/livable-wages so that our wealthy can be the wealthiest; and that much of our populace is brainwashed enough to believe that it's better to shoot for a million-to-one-shot chance at being a billionaire than it is to shoot for a fair/livable wage/and healthcare for the masses. Dumb Americans, in other words. Bring on the lottery.

And...why in hell does Madoff's wife get to keep 2.5 million? If we fuck-up our finances (without any illegality/fraud) we get to keep a 'reasonably' priced home...period. On never mind...Lu Hardin, after cheating/lying UCA into the toilet, gets a million and a lifetime of state-paid healthcare, too. (HEALTHCARE UNTIL THE NEXT JOB IS A LIFETIME!)

There's NO sane/productive reason to criminalize marijuana...much less deprive sick folks of a god-given herb that gives them ANY relief. Just like we'll get going on solar/wind energy when the oil companies figure out how to take away their free status, we'll change marijuana laws when the DC bosses (pharmaceuticals) figure out how to profit off our home gardens.

I didn't like Michael Jackson when he was paying parents to sleep with their little boys, but after the seemingly year-long cable news orgy over his death I'm convinced we are a country of ignorant sheep who use the celebrity of others to mask the uninsured drudgery of their obviously sad lives. Just a fraction of the time spent standing around somewhere waiting for a CNN camera to ask you your brilliant opinion of the man 'who changed the world' (puke...and puke again) might get us closer to universal healthcare...or any number of worthwhile causes.

BRILLIANT, Z!! "Logic and reason only affect those who are NOT part of the problem." --Edwin Friedman

OR: "People and nations behave wisely - once they have exhausted all other possibilities!" --Abba Eben
!

Sometimes, you really wonder.