Tough Week and Out of Red Bull - Masterson: I Picked the Wrong Week

Bill Smith, Editor: The following article by Laurie Lee Masterson sums up how a many Arkansas conservatives have felt this last week. At the end of her posts she leaves her phone number if you wish to learn how to be more involved. She can help you get involved in many different ways and she is an exceptional trainer. But I would be amiss not to add that I also am available to assist you. My email address is editor@arranewsservice.com.

Many people have said, "I can't do what you do and others do." Neither Laurie nor I are asking you to do what we do unless you wish to be doing this full time. But we will ask you to do at least "one thing" consistently and there are a lot of different ways that you can be active. Note, we are not soliciting money! [P.S., I'm not opposed to "tips" to help underwrite activism.]

There are lots of great groups you can associate with. Yes, none of them are perfect. But, as momma  would say, "If you join the perfect group, then it will no longer be perfect." We gotta love our moms.

Let's start with some simple stay at home ideas to get you warmed up doing something. Since you are reading this - thank you - then you can be an activist with little effort in seconds.

1. Comment on the articles. Your comments help us with the search engines and getting our messages out. The comments encourage us to keep plugging on! You do not have to give us your email or anything. Just click the comment link at the end of each article and complete the comment form. It would be nice to know your name or you can use your nom de plume. Mine is "Ozark Guru" - please don't use it :) All our comments are moderated to protect readers from those who seem to rant in 4 letter words against what ever we publish. But we read all and post 85% of all comments.
2. Subscribe to the blog and receive our posts by email. There is a link on the site. No ads and the no subscription -- it is free. Your email must be real and yours because you will be required to verify your subscription. Prevents hackers from signing up people. The process is automated. If you change your email address, just resubscribe. Also, if you use Google reader or follow site feeds, these are available.
3. Share articles with your friends. Make you self a list of 10, 25, 100 friends and send them the articles. The easiest way is if you subscribe to the ARRA News Service. You will receive one email a day with all the prior days posts (yes they are a day old). Just send this email on to your special list mentioned previously. Does this help share information - yes indeed!. One example, the secretary for a major military bikers group send his daily subscription to the ARRA News Service to the entire national membership.
4. Consider blogging: How would you like to try your hand at blogging without all the requirements of maintaining a site or blog. Well I have several blogs and depending on your interests, I would be willing to entertain you as contributor. You can even post initially in draft form so I can review and assist you with layout issues and add photos if needed. I can help fix anything, add photos and make it look even better. The point is you voice is getting out there. Also, if you have a blog and need help realigning it or assisting with the layout and tricks drop me a note. Note: I only assist with blogs that are inline with my beliefs and interests. No hobby or business blogs.
5. Letters to Editors are a great way to share your voice. Try it! Also, if you agree with our general principles and direction this site or other sites that you know that I write for or edit, email me a copy of your "letter to the editor" if the addresses issues in your state or the nation. Also, may use local issue items when they have a broader appeal to an audience outside of your community. If you are submitting your letter it to a local newspaper, let us know and we will hold it until your letter runs in the paper -- or doesn't run. Be sure to include all your contact info so we can verify that this is your letter. We also accept "Open Letters." Open Letters address situations or even public officials via the Internet and are meant to be read by the public. Open letters require that you be identified.

There are many many more ways to get involved from "getting" informed to being involved in various groups. You can even use FaceBook and Twitter to share you comments, opinions, and articles with others. I received the following article via a FaceBook from Laurie with her request to share it with you. Her article is packed with wit, satire, disappointments, and encouragement for the week.

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I Picked the Wrong Week...By Laurie Lee Masterson: I felt like Lloyd Bridges in Airplane, "I picked the wrong week to stop drinking"... Red Bull...


My youngest daughter, Hannah, and I spent this past week pacing the halls of the state Capitol trying to keep a pulse on what is going on with all the tax increases, tax cuts and new government regulations.

It started very late Monday night when news spread fast about Governor Beebe hoping to make Arkansas the Flagship for socialized healthcare by being the first state to fully implement Obamacare. (Read more...)

Which, among other reasons, is why Rep Ed Garner chose to not run HB1002, Capital Gains Tax Cut on Wednesday (will run next Wednesday), to allow the focus to be on Sen. Missy Irvin's bill SB 709, a bill that would have required state agencies to document the expenses they incur to implement the federal health law. That committee meeting (IMHO) was an embarrassment to the system and to our state. (Read why...

Thursday brought the "Internet Tax" bill that flew threw the Senate 26-7, meaning many thought-to-be conservatives voted YES to this tax increase. (Read more...)

But Friday was the clincher. I was truly feeling the depths of Mr. Bridges' sentiments as I scoured the Capitol for the nearest Red Bull vendor.

Yesterday morning bright and early the "Shale Tax" bill was heard in the House Insurance and Commerce Committee. (scratching my head) One might think that it would be heard by the House Revenue and Tax Committee. Oh wait the House Revenue and Tax Committee is majority Republican....

This meeting was the Coup de grace'of back room politics.

(this is a true ;parenthetical& moment ...My brain just did a flash to Tony Soprano saying " I'm in the waste management business. Everybody immediately assumes you're mobbed up. It's a stereotype. And it's offensive... There is no Mafia.") I'm not sure why that scene just popped into my head, let's continue.

The "Shale Tax" meeting was packed. The media reported 250 but I can tell you if there was one, there were 400. The word was spreading fast that Speaker Moore was considering not running the bill because he felt he did not have the votes, even in this stacked committee, to get a do pass; plus the size of the turn out (and I am not speaking of the number of people).

But he ultimately did and it was quite the show. Don't take my word for it, watch it for your self here http://arkansas-house.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=393

I was slinging the Red Bull back one after the other around the time the House convened at 10 am, anxiously awaiting the floor vote on HB1902, another bill Speaker Moore supports, the "Diesel Tax" bill, that would raise the price of diesel fuel on Arkansans an additional .05/gal over the rest of the nation. (Read more...)

In case you haven't heard the diesel tax passed through the Arkansas house 67-24. Once again legislators Arkansans thought they could trust to protect us from additional taxation and government regulations voted to increase the cost of diesel fuel on us by .05/gal.

Don't be fooled by any rhetoric you hear them justifying it about putting it to a vote of the people, Horse Feathers!, we sent them there with a CLEAR message in November, NO MORE TAXES.

Not only that but with that vote the said yes to spending millions of tax payer dollars to do it. See the powers that be recognize you can't let a good crisis go to waste, when thousands of Arkansans are dying everyday because of lack of good roads and safe bridges. We must implement this tax NOW by holding a SPECIAL ELECTION, which will cost more than 1million tax payer dollars (some estimates I have gotten over the last 24 hours say $2million) EACH time.

I say each time because unbeknownst, evidently, to several who voted for this tax increase, the language in the bill provides that the Governor can run "subsequent" elections if the proposition fails as many times as it takes to pass and as often as every six months (page 10 staring line 7 http://www.arkleg.state.ar.us/assembly/2011/2011R/Bills/HB1902.pdf)

We also know that there will be an "education" campaign from our illustrious protectors, to ensure that every Arkansan knows the urgency that is before us with regards to our roads.

Watch the House vote here~http://arkansas-house.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=394

Friends, I know you are busy, tired and perhaps feel unable to make a difference. But that is simply not true. If not for the people who have engaged in the past two years all of this stuff would have already been implemented with not a single hiccup. We have been able to shine the light on what has been going on now for decades right under our noses, and we ARE MAKING a& difference.

Regardless of what you have been told the government is still run of, by and for the people. The people just need assert their power by the means afforded us in our system, IT WORKS! We just need to work it.

What you can do~

1. Spread this information FAR AND WIDE, make sure those in your spheres of influence know what is going on, it affects their families too.
2. Find out who your elected officials are and COMMUNICATE with them. Let them know you willing to do the work it takes to come alongside them so they CAN represent YOU according to your beliefs and values
3. Read and investigate. What episode of Glee is more important than the future of your children and the families in our communities.
4. Ask questions. Tons of questions
5. GET INFORMED AND ENGAGED~

If you need help and want a little more direction, call me 501-258-6353, the more people we have seriously involved the faster we get our state on the right track and the more we secure the futures of the next generation.

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