Mountain Musings

[BlueToTheBone]

I recently moved to the Boston Mountains in the Ozarks of Arkansas from the San Hedrin Mountains of the Coastal Range in California. We still look out on the tops of several mountain ridges but the towering peaks in the background have been replaced with the close up color and the sweetness of the abundant flowers and birds. I always just thought that people were basically the same everywhere; that we wanted to live in peace, love our families and to enjoy our earthly paradise.

Here in Arkansas we have lots of white churches with signs outside extolling people with bible verses. But inside the homes of our citizens in Arkansas, physical poverty is rampant! One out of every four of our children go to bed hungry, get up hungry and spend that day and the next day and the day after that, hungry. I pause to let that sink in. We let our children starve in this state. We rank 49th in the nation for caring for our children. Only Mississippi cares less for their children than the state of Arkansas. Somehow it seems that compassion and care are for show with all those little buildings painted white with mowed lawns;

We have a busy congressman representing our district. He hasn’t done a single thing to enrich the lives of ordinary Arkansans, he hasn’t introduced a single piece of jobs legislation, he doesn’t listen to any concerns of his constituents (he calls those “rants”,) he hangs up on those he doesn’t want to listen to; he shuns his military constituents’ real and immediate needs all the while strutting around and posing for pictures in his weekend warrior garb.

Instead of focusing on jobs and how to bring them to northwest Arkansas, our Republican Congressman, Steve Womack, is busy introducing bills to make English the official language and voting against affordable health care. For some reason, Steve Womack is so frightened by women’s ability to procreate that he spends much of his time trying to control them and their bodies. Last week the citizens of Mississippi voted down a horrifying bill that would make having a miscarriage a crime! Steve Womack is busy spending his time trying to make that law against women a federal law.

Our country is struggling with many problems. One is the massive debt caused by 2 un-funded wars; an un-funded prescription bill with MASSIVE give-aways to the insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies topped off with a tax cut to the largest corporations and richest 400 Americans all enacted during the Bush Administration. But Congressman Womack voted to bring our country to Its knees by voting against raising the debt ceiling limit which resulted in a down grade of our national credit, making our money woes greater. He voted against fixing our roads, bridges and schools all the while he votes to give tax breaks to his friends, the Waltons.

In light of the CBS 60 Minute bombshell story of the “business” of Congress, I wonder how much of his time he spends working to enrich himself at the expense of our lives. I wonder how much money Steve Womack has made from his stock tips in the halls of Congress? I’ll bet he’ll never tell.

When Steve Womack became a US Congressman in 2010, he signed a pledge to Grover Norquist (instead of to the constitution) that he wouldn’t raise taxes; of course he hasn’t on the 1%, but he has just co sponsored a bill to tax the internet. Steve loves those regressive taxes. It sounds so fair…everyone pays the same amount of tax for buying anything but of course if you make an annual $20,000 and have a family of 4; that impacts your budget for greater than if you make an annual $1,000,000 with that same family of 4.

But we don’t have to fall into despair. We have a choice; it will be a hard fought choice to be sure; but a challenger has emerged for Steve Womack and his backers, the Waltons. Ken Aden is our David against their Goliath; the Progressive Democrat against the Republican Mega Corporations and Republican Mega Greed.

We all know how the story ended last time so we know it can be done again.
www.Aden4Arkansas.com

[sinkingfeeling]

1. Welcome to DU and Arkansas. Eureka is a beautiful little town and I almost bought a house

there when I moved here in 1991. But, the drive down to Fayetteville each day proved to be too much and so I located here.

Mr. Womack was mayor of Rogers before becoming our replacement for Boozman. If you weren't here, you didn't witness how Womack took a town similar to Eureka and 'gave' it over to the raging developers. Maybe some enjoy the mess of shopping centers and fancy sub-divisions for Wal-Mart execs, but I'm so glad it didn't 'grow' here!

As much as I'd like to hope Ken Aden will win, it is almost statistically impossible. The last even close election for Congress was way back in 1992. We only lost it by about 4% instead of the 44% in 2010.

[Horseman]

2. Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics... Twain

Past elections can be revealing. The 2010 election was a farce. There was no real campaign. Yet, the Dem got 28%. In 2008, there was no opposition from the Dems at all. The Green candidate got somewhere around 22%. That was before Womack voted for the Ryan budget, tried to defund the teleprompter and now wants to institute sales taxes on internet sales. That was before he insulted Veterans by pooh-poohing his opponent's military record, which according to reports, includes a commendation from Womack himself; combat service in Iraq and Afghanistan; and a little thing that he earned the right to wear... a Green Beret. Couple that with a Congressional popularity rating somewhere South of Jeffry Dahmer; maybe, just maybe, a real Democrat with a decent campaign and decent funding could do the impossible and actually offer voters in the 3rd District a choice between a corporate whore and a candidate who actually cares about the people he would represent. Beebe's success in the 3rd shows that voters will vote for a Democrat they believe in, party be damned. Most voters in Arkansas are not registered anything... Womack has shown he is not qualified to be in a leadership role anywhere, so let's give the voters a choice and see what happens. He doesn't have to win every vote... just 51%.

I'm reminded of Jim Hightower in his 'Thieves in High Places' speech... quoting an organic farmer... "Those who say it cannot be done... should not be getting in the way of those who are doing it." It'll be tough and it'll be dirty... just the sort of job we send veteran paratroopers to do.

[Kind of Blue]

3. BTTB, I wish more people could

read this by posting it in GD to get more donations for Aden. Womack has really got to go. I'm so disgusted right now and will donate to the Aden campaign as often as possible.

[BlueToTheBone]

4. Thanks KOB!

I didn't think that would be the right place, but now that you suggest it...all my posts will go there. Womack has got to go! His last kick to the citizens about our food banks was horrifying!
http://www.carrollconews.com/blogs/1250/entry/44452
Volunteers from one of our local food shelves travelled to Washington DC recently to meet with Senator John Boozman and Congressman Steve Womack. The purpose of the visit was to provide our representatives with information about the operation of the Loaves and Fishes, Flint Street, Harvest Assembly, and Bethel food shelves.

Instead of listening to these volunteers, Congressman Womack lectured them. He said local charities and government needed to treat food shelf users like "a college kid who misused the family credit card. You need to cut up the card," he said. "You need to figure out how to fund these programs locally because the Federal government hasn't got any more money."

Steve Womack, like John Boozman by the way, supports a bill that would continue subsidies to corporate farms that report more than $1,500,000.00 in annual revenue. In Arkansas, these subsidies amount to about $10 billion dollars since 1995. Most farm workers working on these operations make so little in wages that they qualify for food stamps; Womack wants to cut funding for that program too.

I work at Loaves and Fishes, the Berryville food shelf, every Friday. This past Friday, November 4th, volunteers from First Christian Church Berryville served 56 families from Green Forest, Eureka Springs, Oak Grove, and Berryville. I did client intakes which involves checking eligibility. It is important that we make sure that people using the food shelf are authentically in need.
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