News Blog for social, fiscal & national security conservatives who believe in God, family & the USA. Upholding the rights granted by God & guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, traditional family values, "republican" principles / ideals, transparent & limited "smaller" government, free markets, lower taxes, due process of law, liberty & individual freedom. Content approval rests with the ARRA News Service Editor. Opinions are those of the authors. While varied positions are reported, beliefs & principles remain fixed. No revenue is generated for or by this "Blog" - no paid ads - no payments for articles.Fair Use Doctrine is posted & used. Blogger/Editor/Founder: Bill Smith, Ph.D. [aka: OzarkGuru & 2010 AFP National Blogger of the Year] Contact: editor@arranewsservice.com (Pub. Since July, 2006)Home PageFollow @arra
One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics
is that you end up being governed by your inferiors. -- Plato
(429-347 BC)
Friday, February 02, 2007
Governor Huckabee and Taxes: The Full Story
by Andrew Roth (Club for Growth):Washington – In his recent response to the Club for Growth’s presidential white paper on his gubernatorial record, Governor Huckabee touts his $80 million tax cut in 1997, but fails to explain the multiple tax hikes he signed or allowed to become law during the rest of his tenure, including a $377 million sales tax hike in 2004 (Los Angeles Times 02/07/04). By the end of his second full term, sales taxes in Arkansas were 37% higher than when Governor Huckabee took office in 1996. Motor fuel taxes and cigarette taxes were 16% and 103% higher respectively (American for Tax Reform 01/07/07). “This really isn’t very complicated,” said the Club’s President, Pat Toomey. “Taxes were higher when he left office than when he entered. On balance, that makes him a tax hiker.”
The governor also wildly exaggerates his record, claiming he cut taxes “nearly 100 times,” but the Arkansas Times demonstrates the absurdity of this claim: ... Read MoreFor the full Club for Growth report on Huckabee,click here for the printable PDF file. Tags:GOP, grocery tax, Mike Huckabee, presidential candidate, Republican, tax-cutsTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
by Donald Lambro The Washington Times: Sen. Mel Martinez of Florida, the Republican National Committee's new general chairman, wants Congress to pass an immigration bill this year that will include a guest-worker program with "earned citizenship" requirements for illegal aliens. Mr. Martinez, whose election encountered sharp opposition from some RNC members who think his support for giving illegal aliens a path to citizenship is a thinly veiled form of amnesty, said, "I don't support deporting these people because I don't believe that's a realistic approach." Read More Tags:guest worker program, illegal immigration, Mel MartinezTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
FAIR lays out legislative agenda for the 110th Congress
"No truly effective comprehensive immigration reform bill passed in the 109th Congress because the entire immigration debate was saddled by proposals to enact a mass amnesty and reward those who have broken the law.... It is critical that the 110th Congress take long overdue action to bring U.S. immigration policy in line with our national interests."Federation for American Immigration Reform Tags:FAIR, illegal immigration, immigration reformTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Document gives U.N. committee authority to dictate family policy.
Senate Democrats may be on the verge of resurrecting a treaty that could be used to require U.S. compliance with liberal policies, such as a right to abortion and legalization of prostitution. The treaty -- the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) -- was signed by President Carter in 1980, but was never ratified by the U.S. Senate and has been in limbo ever since. More than 180 countries have ratified the treaty, which established a United Nations committee to monitor participation in CEDAW .
"What happens is that each of these countries has to appear before a panel of 'experts' at the United Nations… to explain how they are implementing the treaty," said Austin Ruse, who heads the Washington, D.C., office of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute. The committee monitors everything from relationships between husbands and wives, to educational content in the schools, to employment and hiring practices --- even how many women are elected to local state and national offices.
Abortion is a key issue for the committee. "They have directed 37 countries to change their laws on abortion," Ruse said. "What we could easily see, if we ratify CEDAW, is pressure to strike down parental-notification laws, to strike down laws against partial-birth abortion, to strike down any regulation on abortion drugs ..."
Abortion isn't the only issue the committee has spoken on. It also directed China to legalize prostitution -- even though the treaty condemns it. They directed Kyrgyzstan to legalize lesbianism," Ruse said. "They criticized Belarus for establishing Mother's Day because they said Mother's Day promotes 'a negative cultural stereotype.' They directed Libya to reinterpret the Koran to fall within committee guidelines. They criticized Ireland for allowing the Catholic Church to have too great a say in public policy." [Read More]Contact your senators!Contact your representatives!
Tags:abortion, CEDAW, civil unions, Equal Right Amendment, ERA, lesbian, prostitution, treatyTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Evidence of media bias: big three networks ignore March for Life but not 'Peace Surge'
LifeSiteNews.com Obviously, the networks believe some demonstrators are more newsworthy than others. It might just depend on whether the cause is liberal or conservative. On Monday, January 22, none of the networks sent a Washington reporter a few blocks down to the March for Life. CBS and NBC offered brief anchor snippets noting "both sides" of the abortion debate would protest on the anniversary of the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision, ignoring that one side brings tens of thousands to Washington, and the other side numbers in the tens. ABC did nothing . . . [Click for more]
Castle Doctrine Legislation Scheduled to be Heard on Thursday!
Important Second Amendment legislation (House Bill 1027) will heard in the Arkansas State House Judiciary Committee on Thursday, February 1 at 10:00 A.M. HB1027, the "Castle Doctrine" self-defense bill, simply states that if a criminal breaks into your home, your occupied vehicle or your place of business, the victim does not have a "duty to retreat." The bill also provides protection from criminal prosecution and civil litigation for those who defend themselves from criminal attack. AR State Representatives emails and other info are online!Please contact the below committee members and respectfully urge them to protect your right to self-defense by voting in favor of HB1027: Robert Jeffrey (D-7) 870-837-2446 - - - Mark Pate (D-49) 501-268-6900 Will Bond (D-44) 501-982-9081 Chris - - - Thyer (D-74) 870-932-2000 David Johnson (D-38) 501-372-6555 - - - John Paul Wells (D-84) 479-963-3227 Steve Harrelson (D-1) 870-772-5482 - - - Lamont Cornwell (D-28) 501-778-7327 Robert Moore (D-12) 870-877-9339 - - - Joan Cash (D-75) 870-886-6663 Earnest Brown (D-16) 870-534-6332 - - - Tommy Lee Baker (D-55) 870-563-8277 Kathy Webb (D-37) 501-412-6443 - - - Jon Woods (D-93) 479-200-3100 David Powers (D-3) 870-777-9822 - - - Jerry Brown (D-57) 870-238-3132 Tracy Pennartz (D-65) 479-285-4800 - - - Aaron Burkes (R-95) 479-877-0412 Charolette Wagner (D-77) 870-561-4600 - - - Steven Breedlove (D-67) 479-996-6040 Tags:Arkansas, gun rights, Castle Doctrine
by Walter E. Williams: Imprimis" is Hillsdale College's monthly publication that has over 1.25 million readers. It's Hillsdale's way of sharing the ideas of the many distinguished speakers invited to their campus. ... The January edition of "Imprimis" contains an important speech by former New Jersey Superior Court Judge Andrew P. Napolitano titled "Property Rights After the Kelo Decision." For those who haven't kept up, the Kelo decision is the 2005 U.S. Supreme Court 5-4 decision that upheld the city of New London, Connecticut's condemnation of the property of one private party so that another private party could use it to build an office facility . . . [Click for more] Tags:Kelo decision, property rights, Walter E. Williams
Talk Radio & Fox News - ways to find out what is true
(Photo - Col Smitty Harris, USAF, Retired)Chad Groening of Agape Press -- Jane Fonda, who many Vietnam-era veterans still call "Hanoi Jane,." was being "anti-American" when she marched against the Vietnam War in the 1970s, and she was exhibiting the same mindset over the weekend in Washington, according to a former 8-year Vietnam-era prisoner of war Retired Air Force Col. Smitty Harris ..., he doesn't think this past weekend's anti-war demonstration in Washington, DC, will have the same effect similar rallies had during his era. Col Harris identified that marches were "big news during the Vietnam era ... because people didn't have all the alternative ways of finding out what is true and what's not. So I don't think it's going to have a big effect." In fact, he says, it could even be counterproductive. Today, Harris points out, Americans have talk radio and media outlets like the Fox News Channel to hear the voices of those who do not agree with Jane Fonda's point of view. Read More Tags:Fox News, Hanoi Jane, Jane Fonda, protests, talk radio, warTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Bill to Prohibit State Agencies From Contracting With Businesses That Employ Illegals
Republican Rick Green's Bill HB1024 (Prohibit State Agencies From Contracting With Businesses That Employ Illegals) will be brought before the Senate this week. The bill needed 11 of the 20 member committee to get out of House committee. It received 8 votes. After grassroots effort the bill passed out of the committee and passed the house with an overwhelming majority. Some people think it might have more trouble getting through the Senate. Will you please email all senators and ask them to vote for HB1024, the bill that prohibits state agencies from contracting with businesses that employ illegal aliens. Also please call the Senate switchboard at this number 501-682-2902 and leave a message for your senator to vote for HB1024, the bill that prohibits state agencies from contracting with businesses that employ illegal aliens. A list of all senators and districts can be found at this link: http://www.wpaag.org/AddressesArSenate.htm Tags:Arkansas, employing illegals, illegal immigration
Committee approved the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act
This afternoon, by a vote of 19-2, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee approved the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (S.358) without altering the legislative language in the bill to ensure the protection of prenatal children (and, therefore, their parents). Please urge Senators to be sure that this bill is changed so as not to neglect these children and their parents prior to final passage of the bill on the Senate Floor. Tags:Arkansas, Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act
GOP Blocks Congress Members' Cost-of-Living Increase
By Randy Hall - CNSNews.com: After being pounded by Democrats last year for accepting pay increases while not boosting the minimum wage, Republican congressmen Tuesday returned the favor by preventing an annual 1.7 percent cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) from taking effect this year." There will be no COLA adjustment," House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) said Tuesday after GOP members of Congress, led by House Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-MO), promised to block the annual $2,800 pay hike.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) "ran their own ads attacking [Republican] members on this," Blunt explained. "Because of that, their members are going to suffer in terms of not being able to have a COLA." Blunt said that Democrats broke the agreement after last year's pay raise-related vote had already taken place. As a result, federal lawmakers' salaries will stay at $165,200 for the year instead of receiving - an increase of $2,800. Tags:congress, Congressional payTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Anti-War Protestors Spray Paint Graffiti on Capitol Steps
During an anti-war demonstration, protesters were "allowed" by Capitol police to spray paint graffiti on part of the west front steps of the United States Capitol building. NO ARRESTS! The March for Right for Life earlier this month had hundreds of thousands - what if they had spray painted graffiti on the US Capital steps? I am sure someone would have been arrested. The problem of bullies is not only schools but also in the members of this demonstration. Free Speech does not extend to spray painting graffiti on the Capitol and other government property.
Below is a report by FRC Radio correspondent Bethanie Swendsen reports from the Capital grounds:
FRC has uncovered more shocking details about the anti-war march in Washington this past weekend. For such a small crowd, the demonstrators were an interesting bunch of people - everything from actors and anarchists to the members of Congress who marched alongside them, including: Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) and Reps. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), Maxine Waters (D-CA), Jerry Nadler (D-NY), and House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers (D-MI). Also addressing the crowd from his prison cell was convicted cop-killer Mumia Abu Jamal. After talking to members of the Capitol Hill police, FRC discovered that one reason the officers held back from confronting one batch of protestors was because the anarchists threatened the officers with bottles of human urine. Additional damage done to both city and personal property includes a news truck pelted with rocks and spray-painted street signs. READ MORE Take Action: Ask Congress - Are Left-Wing Vandals Above the Law? Tags:anti-war protestors, FRC, graffiti, US CapitolTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Join other upset Republicans by signing the NRSC Pledge. At the web site TheNRSCPledge.com more than 31,150 people signed the pledge of non-support for individual senators and the NRSC at the time of this blog posting. With hundreds of othr bloggers joining this numbe will grow.
What pledge says: If the United States Senate passes a resolution, non-binding or otherwise, that criticizes the commitment of additional troops to Iraq that General Petraeus has asked for and that the president has pledged, and if the Senate does so after the testimony of General Petraeus on January 23 that such a resolution will be an encouragement to the enemy, I will not contribute to any Republican senator who voted for the resolution. Further, if any Republican senator who votes for such a resolution is a candidate for re-election in 2008, I will not contribute to the National Republican Senatorial Committee unless the Chairman of that Committee, Senator Ensign, commits in writing that none of the funds of the NRSC will go to support the re-election of any senator supporting the non-binding resolution. Read More and Consider Siging the pledge! Tags:Arkansas Republican Assembly, GOP, NRSCTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Ballistics data don't support charge against border agents
Investigator: U.S. attorney twisted evidence to fit case – 'guilty of malicious prosecution'
WorldNetDaily: Ballistics reports, used in the trial of Ignacio Ramos, one of two Border Patrol agents convicted of shooting fleeing drug dealer Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila, do not support the prosecution's claim the bullet was fired from Ramos' gun, according to documents provided to WorldNetDaily from Andy Ramirez, chairman of the Friends of the Border Patrol.
Despite the conclusion of a laboratory criminalist that he could not conclusively link the bullet removed from Aldrete-Davila with Ramos' service weapon, a Department of Homeland Security agent swore, in an affidavit of complaint filed against Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean, that Aldrete-Davila was hit by a round fired by Ramos . . . [Click for more] See also: Uproar over border agents to get White House review Tags:border guards, Ignacio Ramos, illegal immigrationTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
CNSNews.com: Taking a swipe at politicians who already have declared plans to run for president in 2008, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said on Saturday that he would decide in September whether to seek the Republican nomination. Gingrich promised conservatives gathered at a conference in Washington that he would make a decision "around Labor Day." "I think this whole process is stupid," he told the National Review Institute's Conservative Summit, referring to the fact that presidential campaigns are being launched almost two years before the election . . . [Click for more] Tags:Arkansas Republican Assembly, Newt Gingrich, presidential candidateTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
The Baxter Bulletin: LITTLE ROCK — The Arkansas Legislature focused on tax cuts Monday, with Mountain Home congressmen Rep. Johnny Key and Sen. Shawn Womack filing bills to reduce retiree income taxes while Gov. Mike Beebe's grocery tax cut cleared a Senate committee. Womack and Key filed identical bills in the House and Senate that would reduce taxes to retirees by increasing their exemption from retirement benefits from $6,000 to $10,000.
Eight senators and 16 representatives co-sponsored the bills benefiting retirees. Key said in a statement to The Bulletin that he and Womack have worked for years to boost the exemption for retirees. "If this tax cut is enacted, not only will it benefit retirees currently living in the Twin Lakes area, it will also make Arkansas more appealing for new retirees looking to relocate here," Key said. The tax exemption is part of a proposed alternative to Beebe's planned grocery tax cut, according to the statement. [Read More] Tags:Arkansas, GOP, Republican, tax-cuts
From The Democratic Leadership Council website: "A successful opposition must oppose and propose, and do both well," they say. "Democrats in Congress have an obligation to stand firm against the Republicans whenever they're wrong, which is all too often. At the same time, however, we have an obligation to ourselves and to the future to suggest a clear alternative path for the country to follow."
The Plan features five goals:
1. A New Social Contract: What You Can Do for Your Country, and What Your Country Can Do for You. - Citizen Service. We need a new patriotism that brings out the patriot in all of us by establishing, for the first time, an ethic of universal citizen service. All Americans between the ages of 18 and 25 should be asked to serve their country by going through three months of basic civil defense training and community service. This is not a draft -- nor is it military. Young people will be trained not as soldiers, but simply as citizens who understand their responsibilities in the event of natural disaster, epidemic, or terrorist attack. ... - Universal College Access. We must make a college degree as universal as a high school diploma. ... - Universal Retirement Savings. An aging society cannot afford to keep saving less and risking more. We need new means to create wealth. Employers should be required to offer 401(k)'s, and workers will be enrolled unless they choose otherwise. ... - Universal Children's Health Care. We need to cut the cost of health care so that every business can afford it, and every child in America at last can get it. ... 2. Fiscal Responsibility and Ending Corporate Welfare. We can only achieve universal service, college, pensions, and children's health care if we're willing to cut and invest to pay for them. The place to start is by ending corporate welfare and the hack-ridden government that fuels it. 3. Tax Reform to Help Those Who Aren't Wealthy Build Wealth. We propose a tax reform plan that makes sure no middle-class family with an income of under $100,000 will ever have to pay an effective income tax rate of more than 10 percent. ... and a universal pension that replaces the current hodgepodge of 16 existing IRA-type accounts. 4. A New Strategy to Win the War on Terror. ... should reform and strengthen multilateral institutions ... 5. A Hybrid Economy that Cuts America's Gasoline Use in Half. ... Read More -------------------------- Editorial Note: It is always good to know what the opposition is proposing. But it might prove useful when reading the word "Universal" to substitute the words "Social Government Control" or "Meaningless" and the DNC Plan may reflect their true plan. Tags:Democrat, DNC plan, Blueprint, 2007
Amendment targets federal contractors hiring illegals
by Jim Brown, Agape Press: The Senate has passed an amendment to its minimum wage bill that seeks to curb the growing problem of federal contractors employing illegal aliens, but the Alabama Senator who sponsored the measure believes more needs to be done.
The U.S. Senate has passed an amendment to its minimum wage bill that seeks to curb the growing problem of federal contractors employing illegal aliens. Thursday the Senate approved by a 94-0 vote an amendment sponsored by Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL). This amendment would ban federal contractors from government work for up to 10 years if they are caught hiring illegal aliens. [Read More] Tags:illegal immigration, minimum wageTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
RenewAmerica Forum: The latest threat to Americans' freedom of speech is under consideration in Congress in the form of the "Media Ownership Reform Act"-- sponsored by Democratic Congressman Maurice Hinchey. The bill would reinstate the old Fairness Doctrine, an FCC regulation that existed from 1949 to 1987.
The Fairness Doctrine enabled liberals to monopolize the radio airwaves by requiring broadcasters to air "both sides" of important issues. Since the liberal media at the time already controlled our nation's information systems, this meant that challenges to that dominance had to be "balanced" with the liberal perspective--multiplying the influence of the liberal ideology . . . [Click for more] Previous 1/19/07 post: The Un-Fairness Doctrine by David Limbaugh Tags:fairness doctrine, FCC, free speech, Media Ownership Reform Act, talk radioTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Fmr Gov. Mike Huckabee Announces Presidential Candidacy on Meet the Press
Today on Meet the Press:MR. RUSSERT: Are you running for president of the United States?
GOV. HUCKABEE: Tim, tomorrow I’ll be filing papers to launch an exploratory committee, and yes, I’ll be out there. MR. RUSSERT: Why?
GOV. HUCKABEE: I think America needs positive, optimistic leadership to kind of turn this country around, to see a revival of our national soul, and to reclaim a sense of, of the greatness of this country that we love, and also to help bring people together to find a practical solution to a lot of the issues that people really worry about when they sit around the dinner table and talk at night. Read Full Transcript Tags:GOP, Mike Huckabee, announcement, 2008 Election, presidential candidate, RepublicanTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
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by Andrew Roth (Club for Growth): Washington – In his recent response to the Club for Growth’s presidential white paper on his gubernatorial record, Governor Huckabee touts his $80 million tax cut in 1997, but fails to explain the multiple tax hikes he signed or allowed to become law during the rest of his tenure, including a $377 million sales tax hike in 2004 (Los Angeles Times 02/07/04). By the end of his second full term, sales taxes in Arkansas were 37% higher than when Governor Huckabee took office in 1996. Motor fuel taxes and cigarette taxes were 16% and 103% higher respectively (American for Tax Reform 01/07/07). “This really isn’t very complicated,” said the Club’s President, Pat Toomey. “Taxes were higher when he left office than when he entered. On balance, that makes him a tax hiker.”
