OK. Latest flag controversy. Rose City's favorite son, Jerry Jones, doesn't have a U.S. flag on permanent display INSIDE his stadium-to-end-all-stadiums -- Cowboy Stadium in Dallas. He's got them outside and they employ them plenty, as this photo attests. (That photo above from Cowboy stadium this summer' [...]
Over to you.
FIRE AFTERMATH: Fox 16 photo of Papa and Flo.
But please ... Give a word of thanks that my friend, Flo Cato, 85, and Papa, 94, her husband of 70 years, escaped from a fire that devastated their Southwest Little Rock home today. Channel 7's coverage pictured Flo' [...]
Brummett blogs about calls Arkansans got last night from live callers describing the awfulness of the Harry Reid-Nancy Pelosi health legislation and then asking the call recipients if they opposed it or not. Push polling taken to a new low, Brummett figures.
Another anecdote on this dishonest tactic, paid by either rich [...]
Hard to believe. Somebody hacked the Arkansas Rice Depot website and did all kinds of mischief.
It's fixed now, but Rice Depot may have missed some seasonal orders and has put out an alert and explanation on the bad luck.
[...]Every vote counts.
Gov. Mike Beebe appointed a special justice to the Supreme Court today to help decide the huge case in which the Hempstead Hunting Club is challenging the Public Service Commission's approval of a permit for a coal-burning power plant in Hempstead County. The state Court of Appeals [...]
Wendell Potter, a former CIGNA insurance executive who's traveling the country to talk about what's wrong with the health insurance system, visited Little Rock Monday.
He gave an interview to the liberal Blue Arkansas blog.
[...]Another columnist, Joe Conason, finds some misinformation issuing forth from U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln on health legislation. But he faults her mostly for drivel. Is she really the penny-pincher she portrays herself to be on health care? How does that square with needless wars? Or, ouch, big agriculture subsidies?
And [...]
We got a tip yesterday that Bridgette Frazier had left her job as legal counsel for the Arkansas lottery. Nobody wanted to say much. Ernestine Middleton, v.p. for administration, finally sent an e-mail saying Frazier had resigned and the job had not been posted so she couldn't answer a question' [...]
Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola has distributed his budget recommendations for next year. It's all pain, no gain, when you have to trim more than $6 million from current year spending.
Stodola would cut 51 jobs (real people, not elimination of vacancies) across the board, except for holding public safety jobs harmless.
He'd' [...]
FAMILY VALUES: a 2004 campaign photo for Jim Holt, who may run against Blanche Lincoln again.
Rumors are rising about a Jim Holt entry into the Republican primary for Senate, with several Republicans predicting it's a done deal. I'd think that would just about guarantee nobody wins the' [...]
Those angry old men who've been pounding U.S. Rep. Vic Snyder for endorsing health reform legislation are coming back in a $2 million ad campaign from the 60 Plus Association against U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln and other senators who deigned to allow debate on health legislation. It'll promote the falsehood [...]
Is a Bush administration resume a good thing for a political candidate? The Washington Independent discusses, beginning with cagemaster Tim Griffin. It doesn't mention his tearful address to a Clinton School audience that he was getting out of politics.
Tim Griffin’s re-entry into politics, said [former Bushie] Spakovsky, was a' [...]
Is it really as simple as David Brooks puts it today? That Congress faces a choice of universal health care (and, I'd add, saving millions of lives) or dynamic U.S. growth? (It is interesting, isn't it, that the politicians who most identify as "pro-life" are the strongest opponents of universal [...]
The massive class action litigation against Pfizer and Wyeth over hormone replacement therapy produced two more jury verdicts worth $100 million in Philadelphia this week.
The legal team on the case, which went to trial first in Little Rock, still includes workers in Little Rock. They provided this news release [...]
I take a half-hour off to pick up my daughter at the airport and I return to a mailbox full of zaniness. For example:
* Debbie Pelley, diehard NE Ark. wingnut, encourages true conservatives to hold off choosing a candidate in the Republican Senate primary. Jim Holt may be yet to reappear, [...]
No, wait. Make that "The Rising," a series on the Washington Post's political blog about rising politicians that most don't know but should.
Today it's Gov. Mike Beebe, Arkansas emperor for life but for term limits. (Could we repeal them?)
While Beebe seems to have no interest in national office (and, unlike' [...]
Arkansas Business reports that former Little Rock securities law shotshot/entrepreneur Gene Cauley got an 86-month federal prison sentence in New York today for wire fraud. And he's still almost $9 million short in making restitution to a client trust fund he tapped as his finances disintegrated.
[...]By golly, say what you will about South Carolina. They apparently have an ethics law and commission with some teeth. They've investigated and come up with a pile of ways in which Gov. Mark Sanford allegedly used official travel as a cover for some personal uses and tapped campaign' [...]
Secretary of State Charlie Daniels has proudly unveiled webpages devoted solely to Christmas observances at the Capitol -- tree trimming, choirs singing, holiday ornaments, even a map with an individual photo of each county Christmas tree ornament that will be hung on the state Christmas tree. [...]
A weekend roundup of crimes from the LRPD's Terry Hastings:
1) a man armed with a dumbbell failed in an attempted Sonic robbery Sunday morning.
2) a mass armed robbery Sunday night of a Razorback Pizza on Stagecoach Road left 16 victims, but no injuries;
3) a man was shot in the [...]
I'm reminded that the Pulaski County Quorum Court will vote tomorrow night on the 2010 budget. It will include a 4 percent pay raise for all county employees, beginning with members of the Quorum Court, just weeks after the Quorum Court granted itself and other county employees a 4 percent' [...]
It's vibrant in NW Ark.
* A new Rogers, Ark. blog is up and running. Top item currently is about a proposal to prohibit use of cell phones in school zones. How about everywhere in traffic?
* Thanks to Ozarks Unbound, I learned about The Dogood Letters. It's been [...]
Sen. Blanche Lincoln was for a public option health plan before she was so ringingly against it in her speech Saturday. Better clean up that website, Sen. Lincoln.
Again: Would Lincoln have voted for Medicare and Medicaid? Or is a public option as bad as she cracks it up to [...]
The Obama administration once had it right. Now it's listening to Wall Street. Or so says Paul Krugman, who thinks the U.S. needs more jobs stimulated by government spending, not to be spooked by phantom fears of rising interest rates.
But meanwhile, on Page 1 of the Times, is [...]
Conservative NY Times columnist Ross Douthat writes that both Mike Huckabee and Sarah Palin chose celebrity over proving serious political intentions after rising to prominence in campaign 2008. To their political detriment.
For Palin, the serious path required at least serving out her term as governor before returning to the [...]
Over to you.
Sunday news of note:
* Pulaski jail inmate steals van during transfer and escapes, shucks van and jail clothes a short while later.
* Channel 4 summary on yesterday's health clinic:
90% of the people had at least 3 life threatening illnesses. 7 were rushed by ambulance to the [...]
Nate Silver offers some statistical evidence to back up my thinking that Sen. Blanche Lincoln didn't help herself by ultimately positioning herself as THE decisive vote on health and the focus of national reporting and interest groups. He looks to Montana, where two leading Democratic politicians have supported health' [...]
Sen. Blanche Lincoln's decisive vote on opening the health legislation debate lands her photo and an article about her vote at the top of the New York Times' website this morning. Good or bad?
Republicans think bad.
As the final Democrat to reveal her position, Mrs. Lincoln helped Republicans define her' [...]
The so-called "religious" right is praying for an end to Barack Obama's time in office -- one way or another. If you see one of these items, the wearer or owner does not wish the president well.
Diana Butler Bass at Beliefnet explains that Psalm 109 is [...]
Both Maureen Dowd and Frank Rich have it right. Sneer and dismiss Sarah Palin -- and/or the sentiment she taps -- at your political peril. Dowd writes that President Obama could use some of Palin's visceral appeal.
Palin can be stupefyingly simplistic, but she seems dynamic. Obama is impressively [...]
Have at it.
Celebrate a Hog win with visions of even better in 2010. Schedule announced today. Tenn. Tech., Louisiana-Monroe and U Texas El Paso are what the late Kim Brazzel called the "chitlins" of the schedule. Monroe and LSU in Little Rock.
[...]ABOVE: Cancer patient with an abscessed tooth and no health insurance.
MORE FROM CLINIC: The Times' Leslie Newell Peacock captured this video.
PATIENT TO POLITICIANS: 'Stand in these lines. Talk to these people.'
A doctor friend, who served a stint in today's clinic, writes:
What type of event in downtown LR do you carry your' [...]
As predicted Sen. Blanche Lincoln won't kill health reform legislation yet. She'll vote to open debate on legislation. Here's her speech. She indicated, however, that she WILL vote to filibuster a bill that includes a government-administered health option. I hope she gets that chance. And I hope she pays if her' [...]
Lobby of Convention Center. Photo by Brian Chilson.
Just a half hour after the noon opening of the C.A.R.E. free clinic at the Statehouse Convention Center, 200 patients have signed in and more are lined up outside the door. Entering patients are being greeted with loud cheers and applause from [...]
Has it peaked? Maybe. But some are still predicting a third wave. The South specifically mentioned.
[...]
Some 1,500 uninsured people are expected to seek medical attention at a free mass clinic at the Statehouse Convention center from noon to 7 p.m. today.
It might be that, sometime during the clinic, Sen. Blanche Lincoln will cast a deciding vote on whether to let the Senate [...]
I forgot to open the line.
I went to a party for former Bill Clinton staffers tonight. Saw, among many blog readers, Charles Eddie Smith.
Drove past teabaggers (40 or so?) with candles outside Blanche Lincoln's office. As a Democratic employee of a.g. McDaniel noted about the day, you've got Republicans fighting like' [...]
North Little Rock Alderman Cary Gaines, who represents Ward 3, has resigned from the City Council. He confirmed to me last week that he faced federal investigation related to the indictment of an accused Cabot bookmaker and drug dealer who was also accused of trying to influence Gaines to steer city business [...]
Columnist Joe Conason, in Little Rock this week to follow Bill Clinton for a coming book, dipped into senatorial politics and found an incumbent U.S. Senator, Blanche Lincoln, looking weak rather than thoughtful. He found pressure from Lt. Gov. Bill Halter and a free health clinic and a not-thinly-veiled [...]
Rock Candy, our entertainment blog, has details on cancellation of Billy Joel/Elton John concert at Verizon Arena.
Says here that FBI is taking a look at a cop's Tasering of an Ozark girl, 10, who refused to take a shower.
Jordan Johnson tweets and twitpics that students at the Clinton School' [...]
State Supreme Court Justice Annabelle Clinton Imber has announced her retirement, creating a position for Gov. Mike Beebe to fill by appointment for a year until an election in 2010.
How's this for an intriguing candidate for that appointment -- Bill Bowen, retired lawyer, banker, gubernatorial chief of staff, UALR law school namesake?' [...]
Not all doctors are on the Republican bandwagon. One writes to me:
All the anti-reform 'no gub-mint' in health care Docs had ALL of their salary during their residency paid for by the Feds. If they hate the govenment so much, how 'bout they repay all that, with interest?
FYI,' [...]
Surprise. The Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce does not want debate to open on health care legislation in the Senate. It wants it killed dead, now. It is rallying troops to pressure Sens. Pryor and Lincoln to filibuster what is traditionally a routine procedure to open debate.
Pryor has already [...]
