SHOCKING, ALARMING, GREATLY DISAPPOINTING—SOMETIME

                                       

“Today’s developments regarding Paul Bookout are shocking, alarming, and greatly disappointing.  This represents a very serious breach of the public’s trust.  It is sad that this type of behavior is all too common among Arkansas Democrats, who have controlled the state for the last 130 years.  We hope that our state’s leaders and the justice system will hold Senator Bookout Accountable, just as they have in the cases of Martha Shoffner and Hudson Hallum.”  David Ray Spokesman for the Republican Party of Arkansas  

 

“Today, I am calling on Treasurer Martha Shoffner to resign her office as Treasurer of the State of Arkansas.  While our justice system provides for her presumed innocence until proven guilt, the wrongful acts that are alleged are very serious in nature and are directly related to her official duties as State Treasurer.  The incompetence that has been uncovered, the criminal charges that are pending, and the distraction from her office that due process will involve make her unfit to continue in her service as State Treasurer.  For these reasons she should resign.”  Doyle Webb Chairman Arkansas Republican Party

 

Republican OUTRAGE at Democrats “shocking” “alarming” “greatly disappointing” conduct.

 

“DARR’S MILEAGE EXPENSES RULED IMPROPER IN AUDIT”---Headline Arkansas Democrat Gazette December 13, 2013.

 

This article states The Legislative Joint Audit Committee found Mark Darr, the Republican Lt. Governor since January 2011, improperly received $9,298.00 in state funds for mileage reimbursement between January 2011 and September 2013 and recommended he reimburse the state $9,298.00. 

 

Darr told reporters  “I apologize for any mistakes that I made or my office made” and said he would pay back the amount the auditors recommended as soon as possible.

 

Darr and the state Republican Party did not respond to the newspaper’s requests to respond to state Democratic Party Vince Insalaco’s statement that “Mark Darr’s blatant abuse of government resources is deplorable.”

 

The State Ethics Commision is currently investigating the ethics complaint Darr filed against himself on August 23, 2013 in which he acknowledged there were problems with his campaign finance reports  and the Commission is also investigating  two complaints filed against Darr by attorney Matt Campbell alleging Darr violated the state’s ethics laws.

 

The Legislative Joint Audit Committee found Darr filed a false claim against the State of Arkansas for travel expenses the first month he was in office and continued to file such claims for more than 2 ½ years and until he had improperly collected a total of $9,298.00 from the taxpayers of Arkansas which amount he promised to repay as soon as possible.  

 

A copy of the Legislative Joint Audit Committee’s report has been referred to Pulaski County Prosecuting Attorney, Larry Jegley.

 

Not one Republican has expressed OUTRAGE at Republican Darr’s conduct or found it “shocking” “alarming” “greatly disappointing” or a “serious breach of the public’s trust”  making him “unfit  to continue in his service as Lt. Governor.”

 

Why haven’t Republicans expressed the same OUTRAGE for Darr they expressed many times over a long period of time for the conduct of Bookout, Hallum and Shoffner?”

Could it be Republicans have one standard of conduct for Democrats and another for Republicans.

 

Stephen Meeks a two term Republican Arkansas legislator’s response to Darr’s  false claims for travel expense:  “lawmakers might look in the future at reimbursing constitutional officers for travel expenses from their home to Little Rock and back as well as lodging expenses.”

 

Is Meek’s OUTRAGE that Arkansas’s constitutional officers are not paid travel expense for driving their cars from their homes to the State Capitol and also paid their lodging expenses? 

 

Is paying more taxpayer dollars to Republican elected officials than Democrats were paid for 140 years a part of Meeks Republican plan of  “less government” “lower taxes”  for Arkansas?

 

Will Republicans at the next legislative session CHANGE THE LAW which for 140 years has made it illegal for Democrat to collect travel and lodging expenses and make it legal for Republican Darr to receive travel expenses when he drives his car from Rogers to Little Rock and pay his lodging expenses at the Embassy Suites?

 

*After this article was written but prior to being published the Arkansas Democrat Gazette on 12/19/13 did a follow up article on Darr’s ethics and regulations violations with this headline.  “2 AGREE PANEL STAFF HAS EVIDENCE DARR VIOLATED STATES ETHICHS RULES.” 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHRISTMAS 2008 CHRISTMAS 2013

 

To paraphrase Presidential Candidate Ronald Reagan are you better off at Christmas 2013 after President Obama a Democrat has been in the White House since January 2009—5 years, than you were at Christmas 2008 after President Bush a Republican had been in the White House from January 2001to January 2009—8 years.

 

Please match the following events with the president who was in the White House when those events occurred to arrive at an answer based on facts not political propaganda.                         

 

WARS IN IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN

From January 2001 to January 2009 over 170, 000 American soldiers were sent into combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.  The costs Americans paid for those wars:  more than 4,000  soldiers killed; more than 30,000 soldiers wounded;  4 to 6 trillion paid out in tax dollars.

 

During the period January 2009 to date:  the war in Iraq was ended-- the last American soldier left Iraq on December 18, 2011 -- 2013 will be the third year no U.S. combat soldiers spent Christmas in Iraq; leaders of the U.S., Afghanistan, NATO and 70 other nations agreed that all U.S. and NATO combat soldiers will be out of Afghanistan by the end of 2014 thus ending the longest war in America’s history.

 

JOBS

November 2013 203,000 non farm jobs per month being --ADDED.

November 2008 500,000 non farm jobs per month being--LOST.

 

TERRORISTS

During the period January 2001 to January 2009 Osama ben Laden and other terrorist leaders were planning attacks against the U.S and planned and carried out 4 attacks on the New York and Washington D.C. areas on September 11, 2001 killing over 2,900 Americans.

During the period January 2009 to date: not one terrorist attack has occurred on American soil; Osama ben Laden and most big name terrorist leaders were killed; a number of planned attacks against America were discovered and foiled.

THE ECONOMY IN GENERAL

Economists say America’s second greatest economic disaster occurred in the period January 2001 to January 2009.

 

Headlines and news stories From January 2009 to date:  America’s domestic oil production reached a 24 year HIGH while foreign oil imports reached a 17 year LOW; the Dow Jones Industrials more than doubled to 16,000; a Chinese company set up a manufacturing plant in Whitsett N.C; many American companies like Ford, GE, and Caterpillar are moving manufacturing plants from other countries back to America; the trade gap declined 22% and imports declined to $225.4 billion; household wealth grew $1.92 trillion to $773 trillion; car sales up 9% to 16.4 million; housing sales up 25.4% to 444,000 on an annul rate.

HEALTH CARE

During the period of January 2001 to January 2009 50 million Americans did not have health care insurance.

In 2010 the U.S adopted its first universal health care plan modeled after a successful Republican health care plan in Massachusetts which provides health insurance to more than 98% of its adults and more than 99% of its children at a lower premium and without raising taxes.

A DEMOCRATS CHRISTMAS BEDTIME STORY

 

Before radio and TV, entertainment in the Ozarks consisted of games such as horseshoe pitching and bucket lid sailing.  One of the most popular games was called-- politicking.  On Sunday afternoon the players would gather in the barnyard take a pitch fork and find a cow pattie of just the right consistency, stick the pitchfork in the cow pattie and throw it up against the side of the barn.  The player who could throw it the highest and make it stick the longest won.

 

Politicking rapidly became the most popular game in the Ozarks and spread to the entire State with local, county, regional and state tournaments being held on the 4^th of July and other national holidays.  Republicans became more skillful than Democrats at the game of politicking however they seldom were elected to public office at any level in Arkansas. Few people would admit they were a Republican and fewer would place their name as a candidate under Republican.   After many years of losing elections in Arkansas Republicans began applying the principles of the game of politicking—throw manure on your opponent -- and the rest is history.

 

The success of Ozark Republicans did not go unnoticed in the higher echelons of the Republican political world.   Political consultants like Lee Atwater and Karl Rove took the principle of throwing manure on Democrats to a new level and placed a Republican in the White House 20 of a recent 28 year period.

 

While the game politicking has been replaced in the Ozarks by electronic games Republicans expect to take control of all three branches of government in Arkansas in 2014 using skills they learned playing the game of politicking—throwing manure on Democrats.

 

Merry Christmas to all—including Republican politicians, writers and talking heads who will continue throwing manure on Democrats even though it is the season of “Peace On Earth Goodwill Toward men.”

 

Blog www.pauls-musings.blogspot.com

 

ATTACK  ATTACK  ATTACK

 

In the November 2008 presidential election many people believed the Republican attacks against Democrat candidate Obama were more personal and mean spirited than usual and these attacks became more personal and became more intense the day the American people elected Obama President.

 

The Republican attacks were continued in the Senate by Mitch McConnell and in the House by John Boehner who stated their number one priority was "to make President Obama a one term president."

 

The Republican attacks in the media were continued by Rush Limbaugh, and the Fox Republican hired guns of O'Reilly and Hannity who proclaimed "I hope President Obama fails." Individual Republicans also contributed their personal and bitter attacks against Obama.

 

In 2010 President Obama and a Congress controlled by Democrats signed into law the first health care law In America's history which was approved as the law of the land by the U.S Supreme Court and is called Obamacare.

 

Obamacare was modeled after a 2006 Republican health care plan in Massachusetts. A plan called Romneycare  because it was sponsored and signed into law by Republican Governor Mitt Romney.

 

According to a study by The Blue Cross Blue Shield Foundation Romneycare is successful from every standpoint. After Romneycare became law the number of adults with health insurance INCREASED to 98.1%, the number of children with health insurance INCREASED to 99.8, health insurance premiums were REDUCED as much as 40% and on average 18% to 20%, and  the number of businesses providing health insurance for their employees INCREASED to 70%.

 

For reasons known only to Republicans the 219 Republicans in Congress, 41 Senators and 178 Republicans House members voted 100% against a health care plan modeled after the successful  Republican Romneycare plan in Massachusetts and reversed 100 years of Republican support for universal health care.

 

President Nixon in his message to Congress on February 6, 1974 expressed Republican support  for health care in this language: "Three years ago I proposed a major health insurance program to Congress seeking to guarantee adequate financing of health care on a nationwide basis.”

 

In the 2012 Presidential election Republicans led by their Presidential nominee Mitt Romney, stepped up the intensity and bitterness of the attacks on President Obama and made repealing Obamacare the number one issue in the 2012 Presidential election.

 

In November 2012 the American people rejected Romney's run for the White House to repeal Obamacare and re-elected President Obama who promised to implement Obamacare

 

After losing their bid for the White House in the last two elections Republicans increased their personal and bitter attacks on President Obama and Obamacare by staging record numbers of filibusters, shutting down government 16 days at a cost of $24 billion to taxpayers, voting 42 times to repeal Obamacare at a cost of $55 million to taxpayers.

 

In October 2013 Republicans issued a 17 page handbook entitled “HOUSE REPUBLICAN PLAYBOOK”  This PLAYBOOK claims to be a one stop shop for continuing the attack on President Obama and Obamacare with examples of attack and showing a web page and telephone number where additional attack information and instructions may be obtained.

 

Cornelius Kelly, manager of a title insurance company, unsuccessful Conservative candidate for the Suffolk County New York Legislature made application for a family health insurance policy showing three (3) children.  Kelly and his wife Jennifer a medical doctor are parents of four (4) children.  For reasons known only to Corneilus Kelly he did not list one (1) child, an 18 months old daughter on the application.

 

On December 1, 2013 the New York Post newspaper broke the story about Kelly’s efforts to obtain a family plan health insurance policy with this headline “BABY NOT COVERED UNDER OBAMACARE FAMILY PLAN.” According to the post article Cornelius Kelly was advised his 18 months old daughter (the child omitted from his application) could not be covered under the family plan until she was 2 years old and he would be required to buy an additional policy with a premium as much as $369.31 a month.

 

On December 2, 2013 Kelly and his wife appeared on Fox and Friends TV Show hosted by Elizabeth Hasselbeck and later the same day appeared on the Sean Hannity Fox TV News Show

and repeated the Post story that children under two years of age were not included in the Obamacare family plan in New York.

 

John Boehner Republican Speaker of the House repeated the false and misleading Kelly story in a tweet.

 

CHILDREN UNDER TWO YEARS OF AGE IN NEW YORK ARE COVERED UNDER THE OBAMACARE FAMILY PLAN ACCORDING TO BILL SCHWARTZ AND OTHER OFFICIALS WITH THE NEW YORK DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH.

 

The Kelly’s false and misleading attack on Obamacare follows the plan suggested in the “HOUSE REPUBLICAN PLAYBOOK” on how to attack Obamacare.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LOWERING TAXES DOES NOT CREATE JOBS

 

On December 16, 2011 The Sun Times published my letter to the editor which was in part as follows:

 

“In the 2000 presidential election candidate Bush promised voters he would cut taxes which would stimulate the economy, create jobs, create a $5.6 trillion budget surplus and increase money for education, Social Security, Medicare and the military.  472,940 Arkansas, 5,730 Cleburne County residents trusted and voted for Bush…the Republican controlled Congress in 2001 passed the largest tax cut in history--$1.35 trillion, primarily benefiting the wealthiest one percent of Americans.

 

How many of the 5,730 Cleburne County Bush voters are willing to study what happened to the U.S. economy AFTER the Bush tax cut and provide readers factual answers, giving their source, for the following: Jobs-provide the name of one individual, corporation, business that took their savings from the Bush tax cut in 2001 and created one job in Heber Springs giving the business name, address, number of jobs created, and date opened…Same question for Cleburne County State of Arkansas, and U.S.”

 

No one has shown savings from the Bush tax cut produced ONE SINGLE JOB ANYWHERE although Republicans have had more than 700 days to do so. 

 

History shows Republican INCOME TAX REDUCTIONS:

 

Destroy jobs. During the last months Bush was in office jobs were being lost at a rate of over 500,000 a month and 1.9 million jobs were lost in the last 4 months of 2008, highest in U. S. history.

 

Creates economic disaster.  The greatest economic disaster in history occurred after Republican Hoover’s tax reduction and the second greatest economic disaster in history occurred after the Bush’s tax reductions.

 

Does not create a balanced budget.  Republican presidents have not produce a single balanced budget in the last 60 years.

 

Does not reduce the national debt.  Republican President Reagan RAISED the national debt ceiling 18 times and increased the national debt 300% THE GREATEST PERCENTAGE INCREASE IN U. S. HISTORY and Bush RAISED the national debt ceiling 8 times and increased the national debt 100% the second greatest percentage increase in history.  

 

Did not generate additional revenue to offset the tax cuts and produce the economic growth Republican’s promised.

 

 

Asa Hutchinson, Republican Candidate for Governor released his plan for “income tax reduction”  at a press conference November 12, 2013 and issued this statement:  “My number one priority as Governor will be job creation.  One way to spur job growth is through tax reduction….tax cuts are an effective method to spur economic growth and

create jobs”….

 

Asa’s press release sounded like a Bush campaign speech and contained the same promises made by Bush and all Republican candidates for the past 80 years.  This should not be a surprise because Asa served 5 years as one of Bush’s most trusted official. Administrator of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency and Under Secretary of the U.S Department of Homeland Security.

 

Asa during the 5 years you served as a Bush top assistant how often did you talk with the President and did you know what was going on in the Administration in which you were serving?

 

Asa did you know President Bush and the Republican controlled Congress PASSED THE GREATEST TAX CUT IN U. S. HISTORY?

 

Asa did you know the Bush Economic Advisement Council, Bush Treasury Secretary, Paul O’Neill opposed the tax cuts and  450 economists, including ten Nobel Prize laureate stated  “these tax cuts will reduce the capacity of the government to finance Social Security, Medicare, schools, health care, and basic research.”

 

Asa did President Bush ask for or did you give him your opinion on the greatest tax cut in history?  What was your opinion on the Bush tax cut before it was enacted into law and what is your opinion of the Bush tax cut now?

 

Asa do you know that following the Bush tax cuts 1.9 million jobs were lost in the last 4 months of the Bush Administration and the national debt doubled to $11.3 trillion, the housing market collapsed, there was a sub prime mortgage crisis, oil prices soared and the value of the dollar declined-- the second greatest economic disaster in U.S history?

 

Asa did President Bush ask for or did you give him your opinion on taking $700 billion taxpayer dollars to bail out Wall Street—TARP funds?   Was bailing out Wall Street with $700 billion in TARP funds a good idea?

 

If you vote Asa for Governor you are voting to bring the “income tax reduction” policies of  Republicans from Hoover to Bush to Arkansas and the $299.5 million surplus Democrat Governor Beebe has accumulated  will become a budget deficit and a Hoover Bush economic disaster will surely follow.

 

www.pauls-musings.blogspot.com