He Looks so Sweet

It's so hard just to let him sleep. He looks so cute I want to pick him up and cuddle him.


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Gunner Delay, Illegal Immigration Tour

Continuing with the Jim Holt and Gunner Delay illegal immigration tour. Gunner discusses using the Attorney General's office to fight illegal immigration.

Jim Holt, Illegal Immigration Tour

Jim Holt and Gunner Delay have joined together on the issue on illegal immigration. They have made several stops around the state. I managed to be at their stop in Springdale. Jim Holt started off discussing Senate Bill 206.

Asa Hutchinson & Mike Beebe, The 3nd Debate

This debate was heated! Ouch, it was really hot. Yikes, they both were on the attack! Asa's agenda was to show that as governor he was going to show leadership. He started and closed talking about leadership.

The hot issues; education, illegal immigration and the grocery tax. Most of what they said has been what they have presented before. Mike Beebe said that there will be no more consolidation of schools. Asa said that was unlikely since the bureaucracy that closed schools will still be in place. Beebe ranted about how it was going to be impossible for Asa to eliminate the grocery tax. The constraints of the budget won't allow it. I think the budget conditions will never be right for Beebe to cut the grocery tax let alone eliminate it. Beebe attacked the federal government on illegal immigration, the catch and release program. Asa has offered ideas on illegal immigration, unlike "blaming others" Beebe. Asa is doing what some other states are, coming up with solutions and not relying on the federal government.

I sort of enjoyed this debate. I already knew their positions on issues. It was entertaining to hear them attack each other's positions, especially Beebe. I swear, a couple of times, it sound like he was foaming at the mouth. While that will encourage his strong supporters it might not go over well with those still undecided or wavering. For all of Beebe's ripping Asa, the winner was Asa Hutchinson!

Republican, Need a Vacation?

David Sanders said that

This week the Republican Governor's Association announced it would pay for airfare and a hotel stay for Republican volunteers willing to go to Arkansas and work on behalf of Asa Hutchinson's gubernatorial campaign.

Now why would the RGA be doing that? After all recent report polls have Beebe leading Asa by double digits. Is it possible that those polls are wrong?

Phil Musser, the RGA's executive director, believes that wishful thinking has gotten the best of the Democrats and some in the media. "Those who have been eager to write Asa Hutchinson's political eulogy are extremely mistaken," Musser said, claiming that the contest for governor is very close and one that Hutchinson should win.
He indicated that he had seen internal tracking polls that placed Beebe well under 50 percent.

This is the first time I've seen any internal numbers. Beebe under 50%, Wow! I don't think Beebe will be gaining either. I think his shifty stance on the grocery tax and gay foster/adoption haven't endeared him with Arkansans.

Part of [Max] Brantley's post:

"We told you that Beebe would say whatever is required. Whether it be on gay people. (Hey, Mike, if marriage is so sacred, well, you know the rest of the question ... )

That shows that even liberals are tiring of Beebe's flip-flopping.

Then there's his stance on illegal immigration, "it's the Federal's responsibility". Even Bill Halter said that Asa had some ideas on illegal immigration that was worth exploring. Ouch, and that from a fellow Democrat.

GOP, Losing the House and/or Senate?

Will the GOP lose either the House or the Senate? It seems to be the favorite guessing game now, trying to figure out if they lose and is so how much. Where did the GOP lose their support? Glenn Reynolds has posted a partial list of why he believes the GOP is losing. I don't really agree with most of his list (people's memory are short), I agree with his listing of immigration.

4. Immigration: Another unforced error. The national security constituency once again lost faith in the Administration. You can't talk about secure borders when the borders are porous. The Administration also failed to make a strong clear argument for immigration, outsourcing that to the Wall Street Journal, which did its best but couldn't do the President's job. Again, the White House's position on immigration was defensible in the abstract, but favoring easy immigration is one thing, favoring easy illegal immigration is another.

This issue just didn't disappoint the GOP base, it infuriated it. It just made it worse when the Bush administration dug in it's heels and ignored the base. The House didn't redeem the GOP by staying strong on the issue. The whole thing just fizzled and all we got was a little bitty fence.
One thing that I think should be included was the President's handling of the war between Israel and Hezbollah. One wonders if the President is getting soft on the war on Terror.
So, is it going to really all that bad if the Democrats win? It's not likely they'll get a lot of legislation passed because both the House and Senate will be almost equally divided. At most, the Democrats will be involved in tons of investigations and committees trying to impeach President Bush. It'll be very uncomfortable for Bush and make everyone else disgusted with their antics.
Michael Barone has commented on what the Democrats would do.

And what are the new ideas that Democrats are campaigning on? They've had a hard time coming up with a list. At the top, usually, is raising the minimum wage.
As for the macroeconomy, the Democrats offer few policies except to refuse to extend the Bush tax cuts, which in important cases don't expire till 2010. On foreign policy, their stands tend to be incoherent: We should be more multilateral in Iraq and less multilateral on North Korea. "Redeployment" of troops from Iraq to Okinawa (John Murtha) or Kuwait (Hillary Clinton).

The President isn't going to allow "redeployment" and if the Democrats try to cut money for defense they're going to get screams from the American people. Democrats can't be strong on protecting America if they cut funds to defense. In the long run, two years of Democrat control could sour people so that by 2008 they ready to give the GOP back control along with the White House. These next two years could be very interesting and exciting.

Bows and the Afternoon Sunlight

It's getting cold here, we have a freeze warning tonight.

Bows was just sitting there enjoying the warmth of the sunlight.

It's amazing how different the colors look when shot from different directions.

Ah, yes! She is our little queen.



More at Friday Ark and Carnival of the Cats

Jim Holt, AETN Debate

Ohh, Ouch! This is really painful! Bill Halter did a better job in the debate of getting his message across. OK, I know other Republicans won't like that but that is what I saw. Bill Halter got the Democrat message across, we need big government programs (teachers salaries, pre-kindergarten, schools of excellence) for which Arkansas taxpayers need to pay for. Bill did get in the phase-out grocery tax (political code for "Hell, No we won't cut taxes") Is this what Arkansans want?
Jim Holt did well in discussing students not staying in Arkansas because of our high taxes. He did a good job in bringing in his endorsements. His endorsements showed that he is supported by the everyday, average Arkansan. He, however, spent too much time defending himself. I think instead of being defensive he should have stated what he stood for. He could have turn his "No Man" to positives. Yes on lower taxes, yes on less government, yes on strong on illegal immigration, yea on more business in Arkansas, yes on protecting property rights. I think you get the picture.

Another Joins the Nuclear Klub

Ahh, Gee Whiz! Now a blogger has gone off the deep end like Kim Jong-il. They have announce that their nuclear fireworks are better than NORK's and is now demanding concessions. Their demands are

The aim of the Iowahawk nuclear fireworks program is clear: to contribute to defending the peace and stability all about the blogosphere, and the area around it, if the blogosphere knows what is good for it. And what is good for blogosphere is also clear: more linky-linky for Iowahawk

These guys are have blatenly shown pictures of their highly advance weapons system. UN officials has expressed grave concern and sent them a very stern letter of warning. France has already surrendered. Somehow, someway it's all Bush's fault and it's evil plot by Karl Rove to take control of the blogosphere. We must do what our glorious previous Leader ,Clinton, has done and give them what they demand.

Mark Foley vs Harry Reid

The Democrats should have been very careful about jumping all over the Republicans about Mark Foley's inappropriate e-mails. They should have just accepted Foley's resignation and not demanded Dennis Hastert's head as well. Captain Ed has the full story on Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid's financial improprieties.

Now we have the Democratic caucus leader dodging disclosures and failing to disclose $800,000 in profits from a project on which he partnered with a lawyer suspected of connections to organized crime and a bribery scandal. And let's not forget Reid's connections to Jack Abramoff, whom Democrats tried mightily to use as a poster boy for Republican-only graft:

While the Republican's have their skeletons rattling around in closets, the Democrats have theirs. The Republicans have dealt with Foley. Will the Democrats do the same with Senator Reid? Will we see Senator Reid resign? Probably not, which will show the differences between the parties. The voters will take notice too.

Karl Rove, Arkansas Republican Fundraiser

Boy, was this a great event! I had great time! I, of course, managed to get a few video clips of Karl Rove speaking. Enjoy!

Fayetteville, Voting Problems

This is soooo funny. On the day that Charlie Daniels is debating Jim Lagrone about the oh so minor election glitches, the Northwest Arkansas Times runs two articles about election problems in Fayetteville.

Thefirst reports

There were 2, 457 ballots cast in both annexation elections, but poll workers reported 2, 333 voters participated.

Burrow said that while they will recount the ballots, they may never fully reconcile the differences in totals. The results of the vote will remain preliminary until certified, which will likely be a week from Friday, he said.

Doesn't that scare you! They may never figure out why there's a difference in the counts. Excuse meee! But we have a big problem here! There were only a couple of thousand votes cast! What is going to happen Nov 7th when tens of thousands votes are cast? One big bloody mess!

The discrepancies were found after election workers encountered problems with voting machines, which required having to purchase a flash memory card because the one provided by the company that supplies the machines would not work.

Those damn machines again! Those freaking machines aren't working! Why are we still using them?
The next article repeats

According to John Logan Burrow, election commission chairman, the final results as of Tuesday's count were 1, 274 votes for Delap and 706 votes for Jeanie Hill, the other candidate in the runoff.
However, according to the records, there were 2, 270 ballots cast, a difference of about 290.
There were also some problems with the Fayetteville annexation election, where the number of ballots cast exceeded the number of recorded voters.

You know, you may not agree with Jim Lagrone, you may not like that he's a Republican, you may not like that he's a preacher. However, he's knows and acknowleges that there are big problems with counting votes in Arkansas. Jim Lagrone is determined to correct that. Charlie Daniels is in the corner crying like a baby, that it's everyone else's fault.

UPDATE:
A report today said the problem has been resolved.

According to [John]Burrow, in one election there were more voters than ballots and, in another, more ballots than voters.
“ When transferring the early and absentee votes into the grand total, we slipped up and either doubled or omitted those numbers, ” he said. “ It’s a misstep we’ve had problems with in the past; we’ve tried to be vigilant, but sometimes it crops up again. ”

Jim Lagrone, AETN Debate

I'm listening to the Secretary of State debate on AETN. Jim Lagrone is throwing out fact after fact on how elections are being done in Arkansas. Charlie Daniels is fumbling all over the place trying to deny that there are any problems. He's defending ES&S to the hilt. Boy, ES&S sure got their money's worth from Daniels. Rebecca Tyson has accused Jim Lagrone of having a negative campaign. She challenged how he can do that since he's a preacher. Jim responded that he was telling the truth, which is not negative and telling the truth is part of the Christian character. This panel is hostile against Jim, but he's handled it very well.

Jim did a very good job in showing that he knew the facts, he's talked with the local election officials, and he's very concerned about the votes of Arkansans. Daniels was defensive, trying to blame everyone else for the voter problems. I'm not sure who he's insulting when he says we're still getting use to the system. We poor, stupid voters, or the computer illiterate election workers, or the fumbling county election officials or the company, ES&S. Everyone is to blame expect Charlie Daniels. The hallmark of bad bureaucrat and poor leader.

Nov 7th Elections

From NWANews
Secretary of State Charlie Daniels, who is running for re-election, has known since before the May 23rd elections that there were problems with ES&S. It's apparent that he's not been doing anything to correct the problems.

With just one month to go before the Nov. 7 general election, wrinkles in the state's relationship with the company supplying most of Arkansas' voting equipment still are being ironed out, the first gathering in recent memory of county election officials showed on Friday.

With less than a month to go, one would figure that the problems would be corrected by now. After all, Daniels has had 5 months to get it fixed.

While sipping coffee and juice in a packed conference room, local officials voiced their complaints about Election Systems & Software's customer service and technical support. They also questioned the secretary of state's office staff about changes in election law and procedure since a federal voting law went into effect this year.

Charlie Daniels is a very incompetent bureaucrat. He may try to blame ES&S all he wants, but he decided use them. Even when his own selection committee voted against using ES&S.

Arkansas County Election Commissioner Janie Long also complained about unfriendly customer service representatives at Election Systems & Software. She said in an interview during a break in the meeting that the company had botched the preparation of her county's ballots, and that a company worker wouldn't return her phone calls.

Long also said that the independent contractors Election Systems & Software had hired to support her county were unfamiliar with Arkansas election law.

It doesn't sound like the Nov 7th elections are going to be running smoothly. I attended a poll worker training meeting and a GOP leader said that they were expecting problems. He said that since this is going to be a very close race they were anticipating challenges to the votes. Is Arkansas going to have an election marked by litigation and allegations of incompetent administration or outright tampering? Will Arkansas have it's own Florida-style election melt-down?

Arkansas' Budget Surplus

Baxter Bulletin
Lawmakers are starting the budget process with a $721 million surplus to play with.

Both major party candidates are already eyeing portions of the surplus for various proposals and have suggested different ways to eliminate the state's 6-cent tax on groceries.

I'm betting a lot of people are looking at the surplus and are putting their grubby little hands in for a piece of the pie.

Legislative leaders say they're going to be cautious about the surplus, which could already be whittled away by a series of requests from state agency heads.

Yeah, we know what this means. Legislators are going to make sure that as little as possible is returned to the taxpayers, if at all.

Democratic Party nominee Mike Beebe has said he wants to phase out the [grocery]tax over time and tie its elimination to state revenue growth, while Republican Asa Hutchinson says there's enough money in the surplus to eliminate the tax immediately

At least there is one candidate (Asa) that is saying that Arkansas taxpayers are going to get a tax break. Beebe, who speaks with divided tongue, appears to have no intention to eliminating the grocery tax. If he truly intended to cut the grocery tax he'd leave out the "tie its elimination to state revenue growth." The state revenue growth will never reach a level that Beebe would cut the grocery tax.

What did Rep. Jim Kolbe Know?

James Taranto makes a point about Mark Foley's inappropriate Internet exchanges that I thought interesting. Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.) confirmed that a former page showed the him Internet messages that had made the youth feel uncomfortable. Kolbe is the only GOP House member to acknowledee that he is gay.

When we first read those emails, we found them odd and a bit creepy. But it occurs to us that if a 50-year-old man sent a 16-year-old girl an email asking her to send a picture of herself, that would have set off loud alarm bells and brightly flashing lights. We know how the mind of a heterosexual man works, being in possession of one, and when a guy asks a gal he barely knows for a picture, it means that he has a sexual or romantic interest in her. When a guy asks another guy for a picture, what does it mean?

When reading the messenges I thought that they were the normal locker room stuff that boy and men usually say. I've sat in on some of the "good old boy's" disscusions and boy, they often get really raunchy.

When we stop to think about it, probably the same thing, but it wasn't obvious to us because it simply isn't part of our experience. We suspect the same was true of Hastert and other House leaders. Kolbe, on the other hand, because he is gay, probably understood better what Foley was up to and that it wasn't good.

That is good possibility. If that is so, then Kolbe should have taken the time to educate Hastert and other House leaders on how preditory homosexuals work.

Saturday, Women's Health

I spent most of today at the Speaking of Women's Health conference in Springdale. Wow! I've got a big bag full of free goodies to go through tonight. The stuff must total over a hundred dollars. One of the things Wal-Mart gave away was a $10 gift card. I spent that right away! This year I finally won a prize! Three days worth of kennel boarding. No time limit either, so I'm able to use if for next years professional conference. Good speakers, music, food and free goodies. It's been a good day!

Trixie

Trixie was kind enough to pose for me. She is absolutely gorgeous and the little stinker knows it.


There's a whole lot more at Friday Ark and Carnival of the Dogs

Eli on the Porch

I caught Eli lying out in the sun on the porch. I'm still trying to figure out what he's doing with his body. It definitely must be a cat thing.

There's a whole lot more at Friday Ark and Carnival of the Cats

Asa Hutchinson's Bus Tour

Boy, did Asa's bus tour look like it was going to be fun. Too bad I have to work. Asa emphasized the differences between him and Beebe on the grocery tax, rural schools, health care and immigration. Asa chided Beebe on the state hiring of illegals.

Asa said he was aware there was already a law against it. He intended to see that it was enforced. He also dismissed Beebe's assertion that state troopers were too busy to help with immigration enforcement.


The Hometown Channel 40/29 had a poll going and it appears that Asa is the winner of last night's debate! If the Hutchinson campaign keeps working hard and keeps pushing Beebe on the issues, Asa has a really good chance of winning.