Arkansas Blog

Congressman Mike Ross- bought and paid for by a big corporation (more than 170 stores in at least five states according to their web site). It's the American way.

Why dont he and his wife just take that money, a rather tidy sum for a pharmacy in that part of the world, and stop now, quit, begone, no more? when is it enough for these people, never?

if they had any sense they would see that eventually he/they will get into serious trouble over this, especially if he keeps blabbering and forcing the Times to make us look at his picture more days than not. Have mercy, please.

I dont understand this at all but it seems to never happen -- they got about a million dollars for a dinky little drugstore, so take it, pay your taxes on it, and get out of the public life and avoid questions and debates forever.

But does that ever happen? And why not? If i had that much money I would sure nuff quit work and just sorta go underground, not that anyone notices me since I am not a politician, thank the Lord. But he is digging his own grave, as the huckster would say, and he could stop now to avoid being tossed into it, couldnt he?

I didn't have any doubt why Ross was carrying the bucket for drug companies. This is politics as usual for us Arkies. We'll just stick our Pin-Heads back in the sand, and give it the usual "Oh Well".

It might just be me, but when I look at Ross' picture and imagine a slight green tint I can easily see The Grinch...or at least the Grinch's little dog.

When members see democrat leaders like Rangel lining their pockets and leaders like Pelosi doing nothing about it, should be be totally shocked if other dems like Ross do the same without fear?

Mike, you spell it W H O R E.

Life is good for those who the get trickled down on by the pharmaceuticals and insurance companies. The zillions they get from screwing the rest of us enable them to be very, very generous to their benefactors.

If I could do one thing to reign in our elected ones I'd snatch their super deluxe health-care plan and put them on the same health-care plans as the rest of us...better yet...force em to use the ER's as their health-care plan. They'd reign in the health-care barons as fast as they snatched money from ACORN.

We don't CARE about this stuff: it's de rigeuer for politicians UNTIL s.e.x is involved or maybe LOTS of money (see Duke Cunningham, Abramoff, et al). I'm with Americonio AND it'll not stop until corporate $ is out of politics and the media returns to independence. HINT: don't hold your hand on your ass until either of THOSE happen, you'll get a cramp!!

Unless there's a booty call in the mix, the rest of the time it's always about MONEY. Mike Ross is about MONEY. He sold out the sick people of Arkansas and the potential sick people of Arkansas when he became a card carrying member of the US Health Care Mafia. Here's what I don't understand.....if I worked at Bob's Grocery and the boss found out I was taking a bunch of money under the table or over the table from Hunts to push their ketchup, old Bob would fire my ass in a heartbeat. It has never been an American value to sell your services to anyone other than your direct boss and the company you work for.

Mike Ross doesn't work for the US Health Care Mafia, well, actually he does, he's just not supposed to. What good is Congress if every member is owned by corporate America? And it looks like they are. I have a daughter that appears to be very interested in politics, right now for all the right reasons. How do I break it to her that step one is to find a company or industry to sell herself to? Step 2 is to develop the ability to appear to be working for the little man, while actually serving your corporate owner 24-7. And somewhere in there she'll have to develop the ability to justify this double cross even if it means 18 to 45 thousand sick Americans will die each year so your corporate owner can keep their monopoly going.

Would I be a better father to use the purse strings to force her into cosmetology school, or encourage her to go into politics and hope she'll be the next Mr. Smith and not the next Mr. Ross? Right now she has all the right reasons in mind, but maybe Mike Ross was a starry-eyed kid at one time too......until someone got to him, until MONEY became his God and the Health Care Mafia became his master?

We know Mike Ross is a whore, so maybe our smartest move would be to start up a Mike Ross Fund and buy his services back? Strike that.....we need to start up a Arkansas Delegation to DC Fund and buy back the services of all 6 of the people we've sent to Congress. There are nearly 3 million of us, 10 dollars each and we'll own our Congressmen & women again. Think of this of this ADTD Fund as a giant insurance policy towards the day when a Congressman or woman from Arkansas will go to DC to work for us, not their corporate owners. Towards the day when someone from our state won't be a Mike Ross or Blanche Lincoln, but an Arkansas grown Mr. Smith. It's all about the MONEY, let's buy back our Congress one member at a time. I got 50 in the sugar bowl...who else is in?

It ain't about the crooks, it's about the voters.

When we start kickin' these rascals out, they will stop.

Yeh, and you and your little rag tag free weeklty and the two-faced arkanas democrats will endorce old mikey again and again for office. Keep up the good work mikey. Your a lifer in the U.S. House!

Thanks, you Democrats in Mike's district!

Next time, why not focus on screwing up your own part of this state and not inflicting your crooks on the entire nation?

Just a thought.

Your right to have the best politician money can buy ends when your guy screws the rest of us.

Your right to send someone to congress to work against your wishes ends when he starts working against ours.

Here's a nightmare of a thought. Mike Ross in the Governor's office.

For goodness sake! He sold a drug store they worked 14 years to build into a "good business".
Is Arkansas angry that a man is actually able to be prosperious? You think you can actually retire on a million dollars? Get a grip and stop trying to look for boogy men in your closets and Senate.
You want to worry about something, realize that we have had a disengenious president for 8 years and now we have one who could be worse. One couldn't talk with a teleprompter and one can't work without one. Very Educated, both of them.

Ole Ross has certainly come a long way since he got his start as Winston Bryant's secretary when Bryant was the Light Gov years ago huh? Arkansas truly is the Land of Opportunity--- FOR SOME.

Is there anything more frustrating than being a progressive Democrat in Arkansas? Probably. But in my life these days it's driving me nuts. Apparently if you want to be a Congressman from Arkansas the key is to sign on as a Democrat. The primary field will be weak and uncrowded and a lot of money won't have to be wasted on those people. Calling yourself a "New Democrat" (code to distinguish yourself to Republicans as secretly one of them), and in that sorry tradition sell your self and your services to your most influential corporate contributors. Then, if you're faster on your feet and slicker than your opponents and most of the voters, you'll cruise to primary victory. You're home free if you keep the big money happy through the general by barking like a Blue Dog when you're begging for their bones. Once your in you're in for life if you follow the Four Arkansan Principles for Democratic Representatives: 1) Humor Democratic constituents by listening to them like their ideas and support matter. 2) Remember corporate interest is self-interest: Never vote the public's interest over business interests if it might inhibit the campaign largesse of K Street. 3) Never hesitate to defy the President, Democratic leadership, and the will of a national majority of voters when lobbyists for a profitable industry recommend it. If challenged on your position by the press or party faithful say you're "standing up for Arkansas values". 4) Never, ever, ever vote to increase taxes.

End corporate personhood or this country is doomed.

PVNasby, please go wash your hands with SOAP and use some Endust or Windex little towelettes to clean your mouse and keyboard, and then never, ever mention anything so horrendous as that again!

that would be pretty similar to my dog being governor, except my dog would be a million times better. he is honest -- if he thinks a man needs a good dog-biting, he bites him --- and he is not all about money.
also he has been neutered. maybe we should require all politicians to be spayed or neutered?

DBI, thats a tough call with your daughter. my son worked one summer as an intern in the A/G's office and the pay was great. he was in law school. Maybe she could do something like that - I dont know if they only let you stay a month or if he only stayed a month because he had some summer class scheduled in some Godforsaken location, Berlin i believe it was -- but she could see what goes on. From what he said, mostly nothing. very boring. But nice people and Im sure he learned something. Their consumer protection division has been a livesaver for me in one sticky situation, all done by email and fax, and they did all the hard part. i was very impressed. I know a lot of work and phone calls and letters, etc., went into that.

PVN, I hope you dont have any more stroke-inducing ideas like that one. Some of us around here are delicate, right jazzy? zelda? sister? cici? yes, we are flowers of the old south, sweet southern belles, and we cant abide talk like that. Normally we swoon. I'll go do so now because the dog is taking a nap anyway, in case he gets called upon to run for governor.

You better believe we're angry at Ross...and he deserves it. Not because he made a bunch of money, but because our elected ones, like Ross, are blatantly siding with the pharmaceuticals and insurance companies and selling out their own constituents. That he once made a bunch of money from 'pharmaceuticals' is revealingly poetic given the millions that pharmaceuticals/insurance lobbyists are now throwing at Congress. Like Pigs at a Trough...oink oink Ross.

I've yet to hear one of our elected representatives say that giving us what we wanted, health-care wise, was their top priority. Their number one concern is that our 'sainted' insurance industry not suffer at all...in fact they should be given a few extra billions just for allowing 'us' to be included in their plan. Then there's all the hand-wringing over money...which I use to listen to until the last eight years of money orgies made me eternally immune to their fiscal nuttiness. Then there's the concern over its affect on Obama's Presidency. We're not even last on their list...we're not on it.

I wonder if you folks caught Rachel Maddow's show tonight? She actually put on a Hog Hat in homage to us Razorbacks. I'm not sure if it was to demonstrate solidarity with us on the left who are shamed by dint of our geographic proximity, or was it ridicule of Ross and all the razor-bucks he made? hmm.

You gotta love Mike Ross and/or his illiterate staff. His release says: ... the annual return on investment is less than four percent. I would have made more during that time period if I had invested in a certificate of deposit (CD)." And then two sentences later the release reads: "The buyer ... bought a successful ... profitable pharmacy in my hometown."

So which is it, Mike? Worse than a CD return or a successful profitable pharmacy? You can't have it both ways. Course I guess a $1 annual net would constitute 'profitable' using a congressman's definition of the word.

Oh, and another question, Mike, if I may be so intrusive. When you say your old pharmacy returned "less than four percent" was that after you, your wife or any other family members had been paid anything? I ask because your release makes it sound like your wife worked as a pharmacist for free. Did she work for free or was she paid, and if so how much? And was the "less than four percent" return after paying her or other family members or yourself?

Just the truth, Mike, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Let us know, okay? We love that you are actually talking to real people and not just corporate lobbyists.

Ross is a full of shit Republican. Maybe he ran as a Democrat (like so many others in Arkansas) but he is a Republican.
With all the money he has, on a very serious note ------ why can't he find a hair stylist who can make him look less like a goofball?

There's another side of this story. Steve LaFrance. The guy threw money around Prescott(and is proposing to in Little Rock) like he's . . . well, like he's printing it.
Anyone remember drugstores 30 or 40 years ago? You took your prescription in and the pharmacist most likely had you in and out of the place in five minutes or so. Now USA Drugs ads brag about 15 minutes in and out -- usually. Wal Mart Pharmacy? (I know, bite my tongue.) Budget at least 30 minutes, probably a lot more. (Don't you just love to stand in line when you could barely drag yourself to the doctor's office in the first place?)
We're being taken, folks. Politicians, drug companies, pharmacists, doctors, hospitals, insurance companies, the list goes on.
Now I don't know about you, but I think my parents, aunts and uncles and grandparents were a lot healthier when they were my age than I'm supposed to be with all the drugs my doc pushes at me. Something is very wrong with this picture. (Especially the part where I see at least one drug rep at my (and my husband's) doctor's office every time we're in the waiting room. EVERY TIME. I kid you not.
Yep, I'd say somebody's printing money.