Jonesboro is growing and prosperous and it’s starting to make Bentonville look like a bastion of progressivity.

Jonesboro is home to Debbie Pelley, commander of the Black Helicopter Squadron, who finds a communist plot behind every mile of bicycle path. Voters there have swept out a cadre of plain vanilla conservative Democratic legislators in favor of Tea Party style reactionaries.

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And now, get a load of the City Council. It has put the brakes on a $30,000 grant to clean up blight because it doesn’t like the politics of the person who helps fund the organization. That dreadful New York Republican Michael Bloomberg is the financial angel behind the grantmaker, Cities of Service. Bloomberg is a supporter of abortion rights — currently legal in these United States. He also favors more gun safety legislation. The nutters, of course, want no limitations of any sort on guns.

But the money for Jonesboro has nothing to do with abortion or guns.

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Reports Talk Business:

Jonesboro grants director Heather Clements said the grant would be used to implement a program similar to one created in the north Jonesboro area.

That program, called the North Jonesboro Community Initiative, works on issues like community revitalization, clean-up of blighted areas as well as supporting economic growth.

No matter. The Bloomberg taint was too much for some Council members.

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“I can’t sell my soul for $30,000,” council member Gene Vance said. 


…Council member Chris Moore, who presided over the meeting due to Mayor Harold Perrin attending a mayors meeting in Austin, Texas, said he and Vance simply wanted more information about the group’s ties to Bloomberg.

Moore said he did not believe the “average citizen in Jonesboro” would support Bloomberg’s views on the issues and that the city should not accept funding from groups with any political ties.

If Gene Vance is so principled, he shouldn’t take tax money from liberal Democrats, either. And does he know that Helen Walton once was a major backer of Planned Parenthood? Best not take any filthy Walton money should it turn up in Jtown. I suppose money from the Kochs is OK, though. They only oppose a minimum wage, environmental regulation, taxes on rich people and other stuff like that. You want to sell your soul, take THEIR money.

Really, is Jonesboro this nuts? What do they know that Pittsburgh, Missoula, New Orleans, Chicago and a lot of other cities don’t know in taking money from Cities of Service? From the website:

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Cities of Service is a coalition of nearly 200 cities whose mayors are committed to using volunteer service to solve local pressing challenges. Many cities hire chief service officers to drive and increase the reach and impact of their efforts. From helping to decrease high school dropout rates to increasing energy efficiency in city buildings, coalition members work together, learn from each other, establish and replicate best practices to improve lives in their cities, across the United States, and around the world.

Terrible stuff. 

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