Arkansas Blog

According to that appraiser, the whole town of Prescott is worth only $840,000. Someone should call the County Assessor's office and verify that figure.

again you neophyte biz types miss the point. it is not about the comp real estate price in Prescott, it the comp for a small town pharmacy in south AR. compare apples to apples. ask around see what other small town pharmacies have sold for, I'm guessing Ross and his lawyers were smart enough to figure out a reasonable price before making the deal. Max, quit carping and call your buddy Percy Malone down in Arkadelphia, ask him about the deal. Percy is a pharmacist who has no love for Ross bet you will get a straight answer. betting dollars to donuts he will tell you the deal was a fair one. perceived scandal is provocative. straight talk is boring.

Could Moveon.org really be a third part, The Technocrats? it seems when one intereacts with folks, particularly the type and hype from LA, if they have a video recorder with them, suddenly their credentials have been heigthened XXX. I mean they go into a funk....strange as all get out! How do you deal with this taped mess?

Sit, Blue Dog, sit! Good, Blue Dog! Nice, Blue Dog! Now be a good little doggy and lie down and play dead! On second thought, lie down and stay dead! GOOD boy!

What gives here anyway? I grew up believing that the Democratic party was the "party of the people"! I was reminded of this again last weekend when I made a little pilgrimage to the FDR Library in Hyde Park, NY. President Roosevelt ushered regular people like you and I into the twentieth century. He brought electricity to the rural south! The middle class that we all now take for granted - which hadn't even existed prior to the New Deal - is now in serious danger of vanishing. Look around you. The signs - ominous and disturbing - are all there. The entire reason for the existence of the Loony Right Wing since 1964 has been to roll back the advantages gained by the New Deal and the civil rights movement. Do you think I'm being an alarmist? Fine. Just keep sending these Right Wing extremists and these Blue Dog Democrats to Washington and see what happens.

The Democrats are not going to distinguish their party by trying to sell themselves as Republican Lite. They're not going to turn America around by foolishly preserving the policies of the last thirty years. They need to educate their constituency by showing them the folly of their abhorrence of things "Left" and "Liberal". Three-quarters-of-a-century ago, American democracy was saved by a government that was decidedly left-of center in all but a few areas. It can happen again. But it's only going to happen if WEEDA PEEPOLE refuse to turn right at the next crossroad. It is only down the road.

http://www.tomdegan.blogspot.com

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY

Mr. Degan:
I don't live too far from Gashen, Ky and I grew up in Little Rock. There is no such a thing as a Democratic party, but rather there is a Party of Democracy, which as my late, great Uncle, born in Monticello, Arkansas and friend to many, ihncluding the late larry Obsitnik, who taught me photography, politics is best when there is a rotation of leadership. The two old parties are pretty much the same..and I ain't no Luddite. But if you look closely, both NY and Ky's outline points west, like two keys in a pond, pointing towards the "Ark". Thank God!

Mike Ross further demonstrates that he is *not* a real Democrat, unless he calls himself one in the tradition of "Justice" Jim Johnson (circa 1966), Dale Alford, and Bruce Bennett.

Somebody, in the DPA *please* find someone to run against Mike Ross in the 4th District Democratic Primary next year....If Blue Cross Ross is the 2010 Democratic nominee for 4th District Rep I'll vote Green, or leave the ballot blank, or write in "Mickey Mouse".

Perhaps DeLay will move to the 4th District....

Cafferty: Did you show that Tom DeLay video yet. That's just disturbing...

Blitzer: If you haven't seen it...

Cafferty: It's just disturbing. It's very disturbing.

Blitzer: It takes guts to do that.

Cafferty: It takes something. I'm not sure guts is it.

Blitzer: Wild thing, you make my heart sing.

Cafferty: When he goes to prison they can show that, like the dances and stuff to the general inmate population.

"why the amount paid for his real property (other assets, including the ongoing business value of the drugstore, were valued separately) substantially exceeded its assessed value and the value estimated by a local real estate appraiser" -Max

The amount assigned to each is usually a point of negotiation between the buyer and seller. Ross would pay a different tax rate on the profit from the real property than he would the profit on the other assets (inventory, etc.). The balance is that USA would rather put a higher price on the other assets because they can be expensed or depreciated quickly, while the real property must be depreciated over a longer period of time. This negotiation is what should keep this tug-a-war balanced.

I also tend to think it's a stretch to link a sale several years ago to the current health care debate. Ross, as beneficiary of a pharmacy and a former employee of a drug company, was never likely to be anything but favorably disposed to the retail drug industry. His ready lease/purchase to the campaign finance bundlers of the insurance industry (and the pollution industry in the cap-and-trade debate) is far more problematic -- though a routine, if despicable, practice among members of Congress.
*******

Sounds like a perfect reason with several patterns,, deserving of scrutiny more so. Just because it's predictable doesn't mean it's not part of extended somewhat profitable or simply to cozy relationship with those who have similar special deadly interests.

Ross's actions are killing people... and charging the rest of us the highest prices in the world.. prices which are set to double. All potential motives for such egregious behavior must be explored. The problem with folks like Ross.. is they have received far to little scrutiny. 9-11 killed less than 3,000 people... Ross is protecting a system which robs us all... and kills 45,000 people a year by flat out denying folks care.

Whether these questions pan out as some sort of legal issue is not the only point... it's perfectly clear where his interests lie... and just how much looting and death he's willing to perpetuate in order to preserve his corporate keepers.

One of my fb friends is freaking out this morning. She ran out of money so she had to stop chemo. Thanks, Mike! And the rest of you conservative bastards.

Well, well Mr. Ross. Do you think Arkansans do not drive through Prescott?? Do you think some of us are not from that area?? Do you think we are so uneducated, stupid, backwoods that we are incapable of understanding a 'complex' real estate transaction??

You continue to insult!!! So let me return the favor. You call yourself a Democrat. You wouldn't know a Democrat if it bit your bloated fat cat backside!!! I know, I'm a REAL DEMOCRAT. You pretend to be angry your honor has been called into question. Sir, you have no honor.

Go back to Prescott with your big fat wallet and know the people of Arkansas consider you a traitor. Rename yourself Mike 'Benedict Arnold' Ross.

Please, Mike Ross ,has a personal life also ,just like if you had a Busness to sell, you would get as much as you can, give me a Break!, at least He has been trying to help us with the Health care , Keep focus, Mike on the Health Care, and Thank You for helping the Senior's.

"Do you think we are so uneducated, stupid, backwoods that we are incapable of understanding a 'complex' real estate transaction??"

He probably does, julian. You'll recall that he served in the Arkansas Senate with the inimitable Nick Wilson who said of his constituents back home in Pocahontas, "Hell, if it ain't on Hee Haw, they won't know anything I say or do."

HELP put the STAND WITH REAL DEMOCRATS ad, targeting Ms. Blank and this "Blue Dog Special" Ross (i.e. crook-du-jour), on during the Razorback game @ Alabama. I just sent them $25.

Click my blue name:

"Do you think we are so uneducated, stupid, backwoods that we are incapable of understanding a 'complex' real estate transaction?"

Uh, yes, Julian. We do and you nailed it.

Exhibit A: Miss Ruth Phillips' heartfelt, ignorant plea on Mike Ross' behalf.

"Please, Mike Ross ,has a personal life also ," -- verbatim, with Ms. Phillips' idiosyncratic punctuation and incoherent "logic." Jeffrey Dahmer had a personal life too. Mark Sanford. Attila the Hun. Bernie Madoff. EVERYBODY has a "personal life also," chipmunk. What's your point?

We're supposed to look the other way, no matter how shady, because everybody has "a personal life also?"

Okay, my darling. Let's scratch that because it's meaningless, and move on. Maybe blind, meaningless "sincerity" gets a pass in Prescott.

"at least He has been trying to help us with the Health care , Keep focus, Mike on the Health Care, and Thank You for helping the Senior's."

More idiosyncratic punctuation, eccentric capitalization and misplaced apostrophes. Ms. Phillips doesn't know a plural from a possessive and couldn't tell you specifics of how Mike Ross is helping "with the Health care" if she swore on the Bible.

She'd spout sheep-like talking points and take great offense when her logical fallacies and educational weaknesses are pointed out.

She's the tea-bagging type, resentfully accusing those with enough education to know where to stick an apostrophe of being "elites."

EXACTLY like most of Mike Ross' constituency, as Julian nailed it.

But what the hey. Ruth Phillips has a "personal life" and I don't care how ignorant, right-wing and ill-educated a hick she is, I ADORE her and think she's swell for supporting Mike Ross.

Mike COUNTS on Arkansas' Ruth Phillips', after all. Without them he is nothing.

Mike Ross is bought and paid for. Mike Ross is AGAINST real health-insurance reform. Mike Ross is AGAINST the welfare of his constituents and FOR Mike Ross, right-winger Steve LaFrance and the Good-Ol'-Boy Golden Goose that lays the status-quo.

And there you have it, Razorbabies.

A snapshot of Mike Ross' soul.

>>Keep focus, Mike on the Health Care, and Thank You for helping the Senior's.
Posted by: Ruth Phillips<<

Ruth, pardon my asking, but what exactly has Mike Ross done for "Senior's" other than
make huge profit margins selling prescriptions to seniors?

.

I believe "Ruth" has left the building...
;>)

Isn't this just a sad state of affairs when we have to spend our time to investigate a member of Congress who swore an allegiance to uphold the Constitution and the laws of this country! We got Kadafi at at the UN looking like Bette Davis back from the grave and Amadinijhad doing to the US with his taunt that there was no Holocaust, what the Tea Baggers do to the US by screaming that Obama is not an American. And down here we have Mike Ross who looks as stupid and crooked as both of these foreign mad men.

If we're gonna investigate Ross, might as well throw in Lincoln, Pryor, Berry, Snyder & Boozman.....if the bad guys got to Ross, they got to the rest of them too. What kind of real estate have the others moved in the last couple of years? We know why Boozman hates health care reform, but why are the rest of our Democrats pulling a Mike Ross? Someone start digging in their financial records and we'll probably find their Stephen L. LaFrance Sr. too.

Hillary's vast rightwing conspiracy chickens are coming home to roost! Let the good people of Oklahoma, all 12 of them, start looking into the finances of Inhofe & Coburn and I bet they'll find a Big Pharma money trail like Mike Ross's. People are dying and these elected officials are cramming their pockets full of cash. INVESTIGATE THEM ALL!

Deeb, I don't include Vic Snyder with the other members of Arkansas's congressional delegation. Do I agree with all his votes? Nope, but in general I do. Remember, he had the courage to vote against the Iraq war at a time when that was very risky politically.

Ever since getting elected to Congress, Vic has done things that separate him from his peers. For one, he doesn't accept campaign contributions until 90 days or so before both primaries and general elections. Know any other member of Congress doing the same? That's almost like tying one arm behind your back re getting reelected. Seen any of his Rethug opponents do the same? I haven't.

Second, his campaign finances are reported to the dollar re income, assets, etc., not the meaningless ranges that campaign reports allow and that render them almost meaningless. I'm not aware of a single other member of Congress who is willing to be so open about his family's personal finances. Vic sets a high standard that his peers refuse to match. Too bad, because those of us who live in the 2nd District know far more about Vic's finances than you do about your representative's finances. That's to your disadvantage.

Is Vic perfect? Far from it, as are we all. But I think he tries to do the right thing for both his constituents and his country. That's all I ask.

". . . I also tend to think it's a stretch to link a sale several years ago to the current health care debate. . . ."

Maybe y'all do, but what is more indicative of whether it is a stretch or not is Ross' own quick response and rapid attempted refutation of the Pro Publica/Politico articles.

Why did these blog postings require a more rapid, vehement and detailed response than the questions of his own "constituents?"

Whether y'all agree or not, Ross' response indicates a heightened sensitivity and desire to quickly ensure any appearance of ethical abiguity, collusion or favoritism is eradicated/ Perhaps, because heightened scrutiny could lead to exposure of other problems?

SP, I admit that in the past Vic has been my favorite Arkansas Congressman, but he's letting us down now by keeping his lip zipped. He surely can't be a Blue Cross Democrat with his life and voting record...but mum is the word Vic's mumming at this critical moment.

All these folks we're making rich sending to Congress and not a hero in the bunch....0 for 6. I spent weeks expecting Snyder to dart out of the pack and make a moderate stand for health care reform with a public option. With the public option even the richest Walton will see a reduction in the cost of their health insurance a few years from now.

20 or 30 years ago every tire store in Fort Baptist suddenly started closing at noon on Saturdays. In the years before 24-7 mega-Wal-Marts, if you had a blow-out and no spare at 2 pm on Saturday, you were SOL until 8 am on Monday morning...didn't matter if you were just racing thru to get to Ma's bedside before she died......1 minute after 12 on Saturday and you're only chance for another tire was going door to door offering cash to people riding on the same size tire. Well....we lived thru it and being tireless is not my point.

Every tire store in FS got together and made a pack, none of them would make or lose money after 12 pm on Saturday. Many years ago the giant health insurance companies decided to pull the same trick as the tire dealers here. They banded together to drive up their rates by becoming clones of each other. In effect a giant monopoly that goose-stepped in unison. By operating as one unit, they could deny coverage to people with pre-existing conditions. Go to Blue Cross and they show you the door, go to Cigna and they show you the door, go to Humana....same thing. Get old and high risk, have a corn removed and be dropped.....shop till you drop granny.....you won't find anyone that will sell you health insurance.....better be old enough for Medicare or SOL again.

Back to the Waltons...the kids can combine all their money and start their own health insurance company and be dead broke by Christmas.....Big Health Insurance will snuff them before the paint gets dry on the sign. The only entity on earth big enough to stand up to the Health Insurance Mafia is the US Government.....maybe. With so many Benedict Arnold Rosses, Pryors, Lincolns, Berrys, Boozmans & Snyders....that's no sure deal. But if we can get a public option the stranglehold on the currently sick and the future sick will be broken.

In the last couple of years we've found out that our car makers are not number 1 any more. Our health care system is 37th, or was in 2000. Cuba has free health care and free college. Norway will send you on a 6 week vacation to Spain if you look a mite peckish, Europeans have an average of 6 weeks vacation per year, name brand prescription drugs can be purchased in Mexico for less than half what we're paying, and on and on and on......COULD it be...that Americans don't realize the difference between us and the rest of the world is that our rich are expecting too much profit? That our rich are making too much profit? Obviously all the perks I just listed that many other countries enjoy must be possible because the rich of those countries are satisfied with much less profit per year.

Look at the hundred million dollar salaries on Wall Street, not just a couple of big named people...but hundreds were making that kind of dough each year and are starting to make it again. Do the rich in other parts of the world make that much? When all the profits of a company go to the top 10 people, it leaves peanuts for the working folks. To every action there is always an equal and opposite reaction, Einstein said, though I doubt he was talking about A.I.G. If the few suck up all the money, the reaction is the many have very little to spread around. So we're number 1? Really? So Arkansas is perennially 48th? But we've spawned Wal-Mart, JB Hunt, Tyson, and many other richest of the rich.

Can anyone really doubt our delegation to DC is bought and paid for? Baa Baa....sheep!