The Truth In Arkansas Politics

John McCain, the early frontrunner has imploded. Fred Thompson, thought by many to be the Republican savior, had a very disappointing June fundraising total it will be announced tomorrow. Mitt Romney has the money, is leading in Iowa and New Hampshire, but faces many questions from the Republican base about his faith as a mormon. Rudy Giuliani, isn't making waves as he fights his liberal positions on key issues. Former Arkansas Governor, Mike Huckabee isn't raising enough money yet to compete on Super Tuesday.

So, we ask who will be our nominee? The Truth sees this election as possibly the most critcally important election of our lives. If Hillary or Obama were to become President, we would have the single most liberal President in the history of America.

A recent AP poll showed that more Republicans are supporting "None of the Above" than supporing the frontrunners. Will a strong showing in Iowa vault a relatively unknown candidate to the top tier or will we be split on our nominee?

Questions remain, but one thing is for certain: we MUST defeat Hillary in 2008!

Click here to meet the REAL Hillary Clinton!

“I saw a bumper ticker the other day that said, ‘Support our troops, not poor leadership.’ I agree.” (Sen. Tom Harkin press release, 9/7/06)

To recap here are a few items that the Department of Defense Authorization Act would do:

A 3.5 percent pay increase across-the-board for all service members and would guarantee a pay increase for members of the American Forces

$50 million for the Defense Health Program sustainment account for health care facilities, particularly at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

An increase in the authorized payment from $12,000 to $100,000 for Defense Department military personnel who die while working in a combat zone.

An additional $4.1 billion for Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicles.

To recap here is what Democrat Senators have said about the troops:

“We've all made a promise to our servicemen and women that while their away protecting us; we would be in Washington protecting them and their families. We should not let partisan judicial politics stop us from keeping that promise.” (Sen. Mark Pryor, Senate Democrat Conference Web site, accessed 7/19/07)

“Our first priority should be to ensure that the men and women who honorably serve our country are given the resources they need to succeed both on and off the battlefield.” (Sen. Dick Durbin’s Web site, accessed 7/19/07)

"As part of the Defense Authorization bill this week, I will introduce an amendment making it clear Congress will provide every dollar and every authority needed to build vehicles resistant to roadside bombs and shaped charges. As long as we have a single soldier in Iraq, we must do whatever it takes to provide them the best protection possible. This must be a national priority. (Sen. Joe Biden press release, 7/16/07)

“…it is extremely important to make sure our troops continue to know we support them. The president was right to commend the troops for their tremendous efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, but honoring them with words is not enough. It’s critical that our troops have the proper equipment they need to do their jobs.” (Sen. Jay Rockefeller press release, 1/20/04)

“As long as our nation's policies put them there, our troops should hear an unequivocal message from Congress that we support them.” (Sen. Carl Levin Washington Post Op-Ed, 6/21/07)

“We are here to say that, yes, we're going to fight hard for all of what government can do -- the needs that they [soldiers] have, the financial needs, whether it's health care needs, mental health care needs, equipment and everything.” (Sen. Mary Landrieu press conference, 7/11/07)
The first definition of patriotism is keeping faith with those who’ve worn the uniform of the United States of America. Our obligation is to keep faith with the men and women of the American military and their families-whether they are on active duty, in the National Guard or Reserves, or veterans. (Sen. John Kerry’s Web site, accessed 7/19/07)

We must ensure that our troops at home and abroad have the tools they need to protect freedom and democracy across the globe. I'm committed to working together to ensure our military and our men and women in uniform have what they need to do their jobs.” (Sen. Max Baucus’ Web site, accessed 7/19/07)

Yet when it came time to vote on legislation to increase troop pay, to increase money for military healthcare, to increase benefits for military widows and families, to increase the safety of our troops; Democrats staged a self-described stunt and when that failed to even impress their own liberal base, they throw a temper-tantrum and pulled the bill from the floor.

If Democrats really supported the troops they would call on their leadership to quit pandering to the left and pass legislation that actually does support our troops.

Support out troops, not poor leadership!!!

During the campaign, we brought you a series of Mike Beebe's cozy relationship with the utilities companies. At the same time he was supposed to be regulating them, he was receiving thousands of dollars in donations.

Once we brought attention to obvious conflict of interest, Beebe began backpeddaling. He even went as far as to say:

"My office is dedicated to protecting the rights of Arkansas consumers and ratepayers and will be vigilant in assuring that increases are kept to a minimum," Beebe said.

His office was committed to protecting consumers during the campaign.

Now that he is Lord Governor of Arkansas, his minions Paul Suskie at the PSC and Attorney General Dustin McDaniel approved a 3.4 percent rate increase for Arkansas Western Gas customers.

This rate hike is expected to generate over $5 million in revenues for the energy company. Not a bad investment for Arkansas Western Gas. Give a few thousand dollars worth of political campaign contributions and receive a $5 million payout on the other end.

Arkansas residents should be outraged of the back room politics surrounding this rate hike. With fuel prices at an all-time high, why are our politicians helping gas companies get richer as hard working Arkansans struggle to pay the bills?

Mike Beebe, Paul Suskie and Dustin McDaniel have a lot to answer for on this one...

Developing...

During the lead up to the 2006 elections we warned our readers that the Democrats were full of hate and rhetoric, but weak on alternatives. They ran a campaign of hate-speech and yet offered no substance. We have always maintained that if the Democrats are so against Republican policies, offer an alternative.

The Washington Post
March 17, 1992, Tuesday, Final Edition

Clinton's Wife Finds She's Become Issue;
Arkansas Lawyer Denies Impropriety but Vows to Rethink Her Role
Dan Balz, Edward Walsh, Washington Post Staff Writers

On the sidewalk outside the Busy Bee restaurant this morning, Hillary Clinton stood surrounded by reporters -- defiant, feisty and, she said, confused.

Through two months of adversity this winter, she never flinched, defending her husband in the face of charges of infidelity and evading the draft. Juggling career, family and political ambition, she seemed to embody a new generation of political spouse. But today she seemed unsure of herself as she answered questions about her role as a partner in Arkansas's biggest law firm and denied that she had benefited from the fact that her husband Bill is the state's governor.

"I must say that the events of the last week have certainly raised a lot of questions . . . for me, and I haven't sat down and focused on it," she told a reporter who had asked her if she would practice law if her husband were elected president. "Right now I'm a little confused about what the rules are."

Last summer, as her husband was in the final stages of deciding whether he would run for president, the 44-year-old Yale Law School graduate acknowledged in an interview that the American people might not be ready for a woman who had her own high-powered career. She had been studying Marilyn Quayle, she said, like herself a lawyer, but one who had never practiced -- in deference to her husband's political career. That seemed unacceptable to her.

On Sunday night, the "new generation" woman and her career became issues in the campaign when former California governor Edmund G. "Jerry" Brown Jr. accused Clinton during a televised debate of funneling state business to his wife's law firm. Clinton angrily denied it. Today, on the eve of the Illinois and Michigan primaries, Brown not only did not let up on the charges, but accused the Democratic front-runner of "hiding behind his wife" in defending himself against charges of "bush-league cronyism."

"Just like Nixon, he brought out Pat and talked about the cloth coat," Brown said in Hamtramck, Mich., referring to Richard M. Nixon's legendary 1952 "Checkers" speech in which he cited his wife while fending off charges of impropriety.

"It's a diversion. There's only one issue here: It's Mr. Clinton and his electability and what we are going to do about this scandal-a-week."

The Arkansas governor returned the fire as he moved on from Chicago to appearances in several Michigan cities, dismissing Brown's charges as "absolutely false" and a "typical thing to say [by] a person who doesn't respect the fact that women can have their own world and do their own jobs."

"When Governor Brown attacked my wife . . . I thought he should have been ashamed of himself and that's why I stood up for her," Clinton told students at Wayne Memorial High School near Detroit. "If he does it again, I'll stick it to him again."

Brown based his accusation Sunday on a story published that day in The Washington Post. The story described the relationship between the Rose law firm where Hillary Clinton works and the Arkansas state government, including the firm's lucrative work as bond counsel for state agencies, and its representation of private business clients who are regulated by the state. The story did not suggest that Clinton had personally directed any state business to the firm.

Bill Clinton said "it was really insulting and . . . unfair" that Brown had "misrepresented the Washington Post article." Hillary Clinton described the former governor, more in sorrow than anger, as "sort of desperate and sad."

Her aides were tugging on her to leave, to join her husband and the voters, safely behind the flimsy rope line that forms the barrier between candidate and press. But she stood and talked.

"Every time Bill Clinton gets ahead, the people who are running against him attack him," she said, "and I think that's because the issues of this campaign really will cause changes in this country . . . . I know what's happening because I'm out there, and I don't think a lot of the people who are making decisions and forming opinions and running against my husband understand what's at stake."

Hillary Clinton said the dispute over her professional life in Little Rock "is the sort of thing that happens to women who have their own careers." Asked if there was an appearance of impropriety in the law firm's relationship with the state government, she replied -- the defiant feminist -- with a comment that caused aides to shudder:

"I suppose I could have stayed home, baked cookies and had teas, but what I decided was to fulfill my profession, which I entered before my husband was in public life."

Moments later, she was the more politically correct voice of professional women. "You know," she said, "the work that I've done as a professional, as a public advocate, has been aimed in part to assure that women can make the choices that they should make -- whether it's full-time career, full-time motherhood, some combination, depending upon what stage of life they are at -- and I think that is still difficult for people to understand right now, that it is a generational change."

But what clearly bothered her as she stood on the sidewalk in the cold air was the suggestion of impropriety, both because of her involvement as a lawyer for a savings and loan owned by someone she and her husband owned property with and more broadly because of her partnership in the Rose law firm.

Hillary Clinton has said in the past that she did not represent clients before the state government and that she has made it a habit of declining her share of the firm's fees from such cases.

"As far as I know I'm the only lawyer related to a public official that I'm aware of in the country who had actively practiced law who has never even shared in a penny of state funds that have ever gone to my firm," she said. "I thought that was above and beyond the call . . . . From my perspective I've done what I thought at the time was absolutely appropriate and beyond what I thought anybody else had done that I was aware of. So I'm going to have to really think through what the rules are, because right now I'm confused."

And then, lest anyone think the controversy would slow her down, she added, "But I put all that on the back burner anyway. I'm in this campaign full time . . . because I really care about the issues that are confronting people and I want to help solve those anyway."

Staff writer E.J. Dionne Jr. in Michigan contributed to this report.

Recently, Mark Pryor proposed legislation calling on the FCC to investigate BPL, or broadband over powerlines, a new technology that would make internet readily available to anyone who has electric power in their homes. This innovative technology would reduce the cost of high speed internet and make it accessible to rural places like the Mississippi delta region.

However, our good Senator is trying to snarl this new technology by calling for, what else, an investigation into its "intereference" and "safety." He wants us to believe that he is looking out for Arkansans, which is so far from the truth.

In fact, the National Association of Amateur Radio applauded Pryor and Ross for proposing this bill in both the House and Senate.

A deeper analysis shows, however, that three of Pryor's largest contributors in 2006 alone were communications interests who stand to lose money should the BPL option become readily available.

In 2006 alone Pryor received $15,800 from Bell South Corp, $15,000 from Communications Workers of America and $14,500 from AT&T.

BellSouth Corp
One of the so-called “Baby Bells,” the four companies that provide regional phone service across the country, BellSouth operates in nine southern states, including Florida, Georgia and Mississippi. BellSouth has also teamed up with another regional phone company, SBC Communications, to create Cingular Wireless, the No. 2 mobile phone company in the nation. BellSouth is also trying to expand into the high-speed Internet market and, together with the other Baby Bells, is lobbying Congress to lift regulations that make it harder for them to offer DSL service.

Communications Workers of America Communications
Workers of America represents 740,000 workers in telecommunications, broadcasting, journalism and other fields. The union’s members work for companies such as AT&T, General Electric and many of the nation’s top newspapers and broadcast stations. The union lobbies on a number of workplace issues, including health benefits, social security and prescription drug coverage. The union has also been a strong supporter of proposals to lift federal regulations and allow regional telephone companies to enter the long-distance market and offer high-speed Internet access.

AT&T Inc
After being broken up in the mid-1980s in a landmark antitrust case, this telecommunications icon re-formed in 2005, and became the nation’s largest phone company when SBC Communications bought AT&T Corp. for $16 billion. As SBC, the company led the fight to allow the Baby Bells to enter the long-distance market, where they hope to offer profitable broadband Internet services. Cable and telecom companies have been fighting over the issue for several years and recent legislation in the House would allow national cable franchises to be awarded to the telecoms. The cable industry complains this would allow telecoms to unfairly cherry-pick rich suburbs. The telecoms say that allowing states to issue all television licenses will drive down rates for consumers and add hundreds of channel choices. AT&T now has more than 49 million access lines in service. Cingular, which bought AT&T Wireless for $14 billion in 2004 and was part of SBC, is now in AT&T’s fold. Cingular is the leading US wireless carrier, with more than 54 million subscribers. And AT&T’s growth continues. In 2006, AT&T agreed to buy southern Baby Bell BellSouth in a deal valued at more than $65 billion.

The real issue here is that the telephone companies want to corner the market in terms of offering high speed internet. They see Broadband over Power Lines as a direct and cheaper competitor and are attempting to use the regulatory process to limit their competition.

Sound familiar?

Shouldn't Mark Pryor be encouraging competition so that Internet costs go down? Shouldn't he support any effort to bring Internet to rural Arkansas? Or have we come to expect Pryor to sell out to corporate campaign contributors?