Archive for Arkansas

Arkansas Republican Party newsletter suggests “walking up and shooting ” legislators if they “got too far out of line.”

gop newsletter

blablabla blah

Don’t read this right before bedtime, you might get nightmares. It’s densely printed conservative flatulence, a putrid stream of unhinged rambling lunacy in an April newsletter message from the Benton County (a very, very red county in northwest Arkansas) Republican Party, complete with misspellings.

It blasts Republican legislators who voted for a “private option” health care plan. I broke the tiny-typefaced paragraph up, because it was so packed with words that it was difficult to read:

Part of me feels that this betrayal deserves a quick implementation of my 2nd amendment rights to remove a threat domestic.  [...]

I don’t feel the same way about the Democrats as bullet backstops as I do about the Republicans who joined them. [...]

So what do we do?  While I believe that we as a party are done in Arkansas after this, if there is ANY hope of our survival, it is going to take not being forgiving.  Not only for past actions, but to show those who will come in the future that the cost of failure to do the thing they were elected to do will be significant.

We need to be making a point of this failure from this moment on.  We need to make a public statement from our groups that we no longer support those who turned on us, that we will NOT be working to their re-election, that we will be actively seeking replacements, and perhaps even working towards recall.

We as the Party have to stand up and say ‘no more – you were given a job, you campaigned on the promise to do this job, you had the ability to do this job, you had the votes each time to do this job, and yet for no legitimate reason you betrayed the trust put in you by the electorate and you are now completely and permanently politically finished.’

We need to let those who will come in the future to represent us that we are serious.  The 2nd amendment means nothing unless those in power believe you would have no problem simply walking up and shooting them if they got too far out of line and stopped responding as representatives.  It seems that we are unable to muster that belief in any of our representatives on a state or federal level, but we have to have something, something costly, something that they will fear that we will use if they step out of line If we can’t shoot them, we have to at least be firm in our threat to take immediate action against them politically, socially, and civically [sic] if they screw up on something this big.  Personally, I think a gun is quicker and more merciful, but hey, we can’t.

But we have to do something, we have to gain control of our representatives, if we don’t then what the hell are we doing as a party except having fundraiser dinners and meetings just to raise more money for future meetings and fundraisers, and giving money to empower and elect those who would betray us without having the control to keep them in line once we do?

There is more endless, teensy wordiness at the link.

Per TalkBusiness, several Republican lawmakers who voted for the private option called the remarks “shocking” and “scary.” They have a real flair for stating the obvious. The TB site also posted this update:

The Benton County Republican Committee issued a statement through their chairman Tim Summers.

“The letter was not approved and Mr. Nogy had no authority to submit it through the newsletter. As a committee, we respect the right of our legislators to vote based on their knowledge and feedback from the voters they represent.  We will discuss this issue further with our executive committee.”

So the letter was submitted wrongly, but the violent message was not an issue? Given the recent Newtown slaughter and so many other massacres, you’d think that there might be a little self-censorship, a modicum of sensitivity and thoughtfulness before inciting, or even suggesting, more violence, but no.

Fantasizing about shooting lawmakers as a solution if things don’t go their way, how patriotic and rational of them.

Second Amendment remedies come first, respect for life comes second. Nothing hypocritical about that.

right to life my ass pro life

Stupid Twitter Tricks, Gun Nut Edition

stupid twitter tricks

It’s time for today’s Stupid Twitter Tricks, gun nut edition, brought to you by Think Progress.

Seriously, this is about as stupid and insensitive as you can get. I’d express my outrage, but the replies to these tweets saved me the time and risk of lapsing into an unprintable rant.

Presenting Arkansas State Rep. Nate Bell (R):

tweet boston liberalsLink.

Here are a few of the replies that came his way:

  1. @CopyCurmudgeon @saberback @NateBell4AR let’s all agree to ignore “Ms” Bell and let “her” go polish her barrel while watching teebee.

  2. @janeroper I think @NateBell4AR is joking. Nobody is actually that stupid

  3. @NateBell4AR First things first: Bostonians don’t cower. This isn’t Arkansas.

  4. @NateBell4AR You’re like the gestalt of an overflowing toilet and a bag of dicks.

  5. @NateBell4AR We don’t need machine guns. We have police officers who are putting themselves in harm’s way to keep us safe. You?

  6. Human garbage. MT @NateBell4AR I wonder how many Boston liberals spent the night cowering in their homes wishing they had an AR-15

  7. @danigrrl @NateBell4AR Bacon and beer. Is it too early for beer? Could really use a drink after the past 12 hours. #watertown

  8. @tomecurran Yeah and I still can..what do you know about “AR 15′s”. That they are scary?? Sorry about the spelling mistakes. No editor!

  9. @mama2fluffs @NateBell4AR Hell no. Reprehensible people should be held responsible for their actions, and being a woman is not an insult.

  10. @neocMatt @NateBell4AR Oh my goodness, how I’d love a beer right now. Have to settle with tea. #Watertown

  11. @NateBell4AR So they can shoot a guy loaded with a bomb? That seems like not the best move in the situation.

  12. @JeanTerranova I know, I know. We’re staying strong, though.

  13. @maggieserota It warms my heart that my deeply sarcastic tweet about awful human @NateBell4AR is quickly approaching 400 retweets.

  14. That didn’t take long. “@NateBell4AR:…how many BOS liberals spent the night cowering…wishing they had an AR-15 w/hi-capacity magazine?”

  15. @maggieserota maggie how many Arkansans you think are cowering in their homes wishing they had MA’s schools and obesity rates? @NateBell4AR

  16. @NateBell4AR Boston liberal here. Seriously? You just tweeted this. I can tell you that we never felt this way.

  17. .@NateBell4AR Breathtaking douchebaggery.

  18. @NateBell4AR I’m saddened by pitting people against each other that this tweet generated rather than a rational, educated discussion.

  19. @NateBell4AR Dear Heartless Gun Nut: Please keep making Heartless Gun Nut statements. Thanks, the USA.

Follow the link for more replies. But, hey, he apologized. Not for what he said, but for when he said it. Via Facebook:

I would like to apologize to the people of Boston & Massachusetts for the poor timing of my tweet earlier this morning. As a staunch and unwavering supporter of the individual right to self defense, I expressed my point of view without thinking of its effect on those still in time of crisis. In hindsight, given the ongoing tragedy that is still unfolding, I regret the poor choice of timing. Please know that my thoughts and prayers were with the people of Boston overnight and will continue as they recover from this tragedy.

There now, all better.

And now for the sequel from none other than– wait for it– Herman Cain’s Cain TV account!

tweet cain guns boston This reply will suffice:

Georgia Liberal@Georgia_Liberal:

@CainTV No.

What I will not write about today

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Sometimes I get so frustrated and/or disheartened and/or annoyed by some of the news stories of the day that I can’t bring myself to write about them. Here are a few recent reports that made my blood pressure hit the roof. I am avoiding delving into them at length out of concern for my physical and mental health.

Actually, I did write about one of them: Gun background check plan fails in Senate 54-46. Here are statements from NRA, Mayors Against Illegal Guns and VIDEO: #Newtown parent, Obama on failure to pass gun violence law: “Gun lobby & its allies willfully lied about the bill.”

Here are the others that drove me to drink:

See what I mean? So who’s up for a couple of Margs or a trough of wine?

soon to be a drunk mess

Asa Hutchinson, former GOP congressman who led NRA School Task Force, is running for governor of Arkansas

lawrence o'donnell asa hutchinson

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Lawrence O’Donnell:

I am looking at the members now. RBT Solutions is a company, there are 13 members of your task force, five of them work for that same company. Another company that is not listed on here, six people are affiliated with, command consulting group. RBT Solutions is actually in the business, isn’t it, of training school security officers? They would make money, a lot of money, if these recommendations that they voted for on your task force were actually carried out?

Asa:

Well, I doubt that. they’re actually — they do work primarily for overseas military is my understanding.

Lawrence:

So is it your understanding no one is involved in the task force that’s involved with any company that would in any way profit from the recommendation made by this report if it was carried out nationally?

Asa:

I don’t think so.

Lawrence:

And how much were you and the task force members paid for this work?

Asa:

Well, we’re not going to provide you with a line by line.

Lawrence:

Why wouldn’t you do that, congressman?

Asa:

Because it is none of your business, primarily.

Lawrence:

If you’re submitting a report to be evaluated as an independent report, and you’re being paid by the people who you are giving the report to, the credibility of the report rests on a lot of things, including that payment relationship. So I would like to ask you, how much did the National Rifle Association pay you individually to do this, and are they still paying you?

Asa:

Lawrence, let me tell you, I compiled this group of experts to provide the report. Have you read the 252 page report?

Lawrence:

Yes, I have, it is right here on my desk. If there’s any page you want to refer to, I am happy to go straight to it.

That man, Asa Hutchinson, the one in the video who was interviewed by Lawrence O’Donnell, has now announced that he is running for governor of Arkansas:

(CNN) Asa Hutchinson, the former Republican congressman who helmed the National Rifle Association’s task force on school safety, said Wednesday he was formally jumping into the race for Arkansas governor.

 tweet asa hutchinson run for gov

Link

I wonder how much it will cost the NRA to buy his election.

Current Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe beat him in 2006.

You remember Asa, right? He was one of the managers (prosecutors) during the Senate impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton in 1998.

VIDEO snarkitude: “Exxon has revolutionized the way fuel gets to YOU! We’ll pump that s*** right down your driveway.”

oil spills via andy cobb exxon

Chris Hayes covered yet another toxic oil mess in this video: Arkansas pipeline rupture foreshadows devastating environmental impact, but Exxon won’t pay taxes to cleanup fund.

MSNBC:

Three days after an Exxon pipeline in Central Arkansas burst and soaked the town of Mayflower in thousands of barrels of crude oil, the cleanup is ongoing. At last count, 12,000 barrels of tar sands oil and water have been dumped on the small town.

So it goes without saying that my buddy Andy Cobb was all over it. He produces videos o’ snarkitude like nobody else. Watch, laugh, enjoy…

exxon oil andy cobb

“Exxon has revolutionized the way fuel gets to YOU! We’ll pump that s*** right down your driveway.”

“Wherever you’re going, we’re already there.”

Andy did it again. That. Was. Awesome.

exxon oil andy cobb 2

Via HeavyCrudeVideo:

America’s oil industry is terribly misunderstood. When a lot of people hear “364 pipeline spills in 2012″ they think it’s a big mess, like a nearly realized advent calendar of crap. What they fail to see is a revolutionary energy distribution system about to achieve NATIONWIDE COVERAGE.

And remember, that’s not just gas or oil flowing through the streets of Arkansas–it’s dilbit, the thick toxic hydrocarbon stew produced by tarsands. So roam wherever, and take your energy source with you! That s–t is sticky as hell, it’s not like you’re going to be able to get it off.

http://insideclimatenews.org/news/201…

Writer/Director: Andy Cobb
http://www.twitter.com/andycobb
Producer: Mike Damanskis
Production Assistant: Ric Rosario

Music by Kevin MacLeod & LP
Thank you to The Second City and Mark Bade

Obama Hints at Approval of Keystone XL Pipeline at SF Fundraiser, Blames Middle Class Priorities

tar sands oil handful

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Yesterday I posted a video: AR pipeline rupture foreshadows devastating environmental impact, but Exxon won’t pay taxes to cleanup fund, and before that I covered the lunacy of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline (scroll) over and over again.

As you can see from the Maddow Show video above, so did Rachel. Please watch the entire segment, and then call or write your Congress members and the White House.

And with that, your Daily Dose of BuzzFlash at Truthout, via my pal Mark Karlin:

While President Obama didn’t address the Keystone XL Pipeline directly at a San Francisco fundraiser on Wednesday, he did give a hint that political reality – or his perception of it — will compel him to approve it. 

At the home of a pro-green, anti Keystone XL Pipeline billionaire, Obama set up an excuse for approval:

He said, “The politics of this are tough.”

“[T]he thing that I’m going to have to try to work to persuade the American people a little more convincingly on is this notion that there’s a contradiction between our economy and our environment is just a false choice,” Obama said at a San Francisco fundraiser.

“If we invest now, we will create jobs, we will create entire new industries; other countries will be looking to catch up, they will be looking to import what we do,” Obama said at one of two fundraisers supporting Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee efforts to retake the House next year.

Obama’s remarks came at the home of billionaire Tom Steyer, a major supporter of green energy and climate initiatives who is planning to play an active role in the 2014 elections.

Obama said earth’s temperature probably isn’t the “number one concern” for workers who haven’t seen a raise in a decade; have an underwater mortgage; are spending $40 to fill their gas tank, can’t afford a hybrid car, and face other challenges.

The remarks of the president didn’t mention Keystone, but given the recent State Department Report — written with input from pipeline consultants — that gave the project a green light, Obama appears to be preparing even a billionaire opponent for the inevitable: approval of the southern leg of the Keystone XL Pipeline because of “the politics.” [...]

Oddly, Obama called for Congress and others to educate the middle class and America about climate change, but except for some remarks in his recent State of the Union, the president himself has done little to dispel the myths about the so-called positive aspects of the pipeline.

For example, it will only create a few thousand short-term jobs more or less.  Furthermore, the tar sand extraction process in Canada is what will cause the devastating impact on carbon release, not the pipeline itself.  It is the Keystone XL Pipeline that will facilitate, at a lower transportation cost, the transfer of this heavy oil to Houston thus making it profitable to proceed with its environmentally disastrous production. Furthermore, the oil is not directed at lowering US gas prices.  It will be sold on the world spot market to the highest bidders, whoever will provide the biggest profits to the oil companies.

Yesterday, BuzzFlash at Truthout posted the commentary: “President Obama: If ‘XL Pipeline Is Harmless to Environment’ as Your State Department Claims, Then Explain Exxon-Mobil’s Tar Sands Pipeline Rupture-Evacuation in Arkansas”

Please read the entire post here.

maddow oil tar sands

VIDEO: AR pipeline rupture foreshadows devastating environmental impact, but Exxon won’t pay taxes to cleanup fund

oil spill tar sands arkansas

exxon ad

MSNBC’s All In with Chris Hayes started out with a bang, or in this case, a toxic gush. Thank you Chris, for this reporting in your very first segment on your premier show:

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350.org executive director May Boeve:

Tar sands oil has the highest carbon content of any oil that we know of. And right now, the spill we’re seeing in Arkansas is a devastating problem. And the real shocker about it … is that this pipeline carries one tenth of what the proposed Keystone XL pipeline would carry.”

MSNBC:

Three days after an Exxon pipeline in Central Arkansas burst and soaked the town of Mayflower in thousands of barrels of crude oil, the cleanup is ongoing. At last count, 12,000 barrels of tar sands oil and water have been dumped on the small town.

To repeat, there is a Keystone XL tar sands pipeline fight exploding (behind the scenes) because way too many of our elected officials are woefully shortsighted. The tar sands pipeline would bring the dirtiest oil on earth through America, it would create very few long term jobs, gas prices would increase, dependence on foreign oil would not lessen, and Bill McKibben and NASA’s Jim Hansen both warn that it would be “essentially game over for the climate” if this crackpot project gets the go-ahead.

This on top of the recent Shell oil rig disaster continues to make us wonder what it would take to open some eyes of fossil fuel devotees, especially in light of a new poll showing nearly half in the U.S. say the government should do more to protect environment.

exxon

Apparently, none of this matters to Exxon, though. Think Progress:

A technicality has spared Exxon from having to pay any money into the fund that will be covering most of the clean up costs of its Arkansas pipeline spill.

And don’t get me started about BP bragging about how they’ve helped the gulf coast. But hey! They’re committed to America and tourism is up!

bp adBP we care