Yes, that's right -- we'll be naming another set of honorary Captains of the All Arkie Army sometime tomorrow.

November 5 is the opening day of modern gun deer season here in Arkansas.
Many a hunting widow in the northwest part of the state are now enjoying the peace and quiet that they have been longing for for months, as eager boyfriends, husbands and sons head to the deer woods and join their buddies at deer camp.
There will be an estimated 300,000 hunters roaming around out there looking for a chance to bag a nice deer, and a lot of employers who will be wondering how so many got so sick and called in all at the same time.

The local doctors here haven't a clue.

I'm a transplant from the north and have lived here for over 20 years and every year it's the same, all these men out there exercising their 2nd amendment right to own firearms and hunt. A right that a lot of Americans are nervous about now that we've had a change of direction in the White House.

Well before anybody gets carried away about gun control in Washington D.C. I think there are a few things they should consider.
One thing is all those hunting widows that get a few weeks off to themselves with no one around to have to cleanup after and cook for.
Without those guns there wouldn't be any reason for those guys to go to the woods, that will play real well when the congressional elections come up.....
Out of the way stores and restaurants get a big boost from all those hungry hunters providing jobs in rural areas and contributing to the tax base.
Then there is all these guys in the deer camps.......sons, fathers and grandfathers, sitting around campfires at night shooting the breeze and telling stories that will be told over and over and added to as each generation passes and new ones return for their chance to bag a deer.

I'm not a hunter myself, never having been raised hunting, but I can relate to what deer season means to people in this state, it has a connection that goes back generations.

Hope no one messes with it.

"I guess I'll have to go try and find a real job now."

A few posts ago Willy says that he is convicted to pray for our new leaders and would leave it there about Obama!

Well, that is all well and good. But with that aside - there are a couple of things about this whole thing that really ticks Willy off.. and this is not about Obama, it is about our country and the election in general.

Today's local paper has a regional columnist who states that the nation and world now have a perception that the areas in this country who voted predominately republican - the red states on the Map - are White Racists! -

Let me tell you about Willy's white racist blood! - I do not care what color Obama's skin is - by the way my understanding is that his blood is as much white as it is black. What I do care about is and what I voted and what most of the people in the red states voted for was against what they perceived to be a pacifistic, liberal, inexperienced person who wanted to run our country.

Why does that make me a white racist. If it does then it appears that the rest of the country - the blue states are black racists - isn't racism the same regardless of what color it is prejudice against.

The second thing that ticks me off is the fact that their are reports in the public schools that the black children seem to be encouraged and are exercising the idea to flaunt their "blackness" because of Obama's victory.

I am not talking about a pride in their skin color. I am talking about a new racist type of attitude that they are now better than the whites. Yes, it is an attitude that in the 50's, 60's and 70's could be said was an attitude of the "white kids".

So instead of Obama's election bringing a country together, and making it a country where race and gender are not distinguished as being unequal, it seems to be having a negative affect.

Yes, change is being seen already! Change which is stepping us back to a country where the races fear each other and there may be even more racial unrest in our public schools.

Willy thought that racism was in the past. Not sure where we go to from here.

10-4 Willy

Oddly enough, one of the things that annoyed me the most about this week's election was the fact my fellow Arkansans decided that having a lottery is a good idea.

Our lieutenant governor, Bill Halter, has run around for the past couple of years swearing that a lottery financing college scholarships is just what this state needs. Here in Arkansas, we're 49th in the nation when it comes to the number of adults holding at least a bachelor's degree.

Halter estimates the lottery will bring in about $100 million a year for scholarships. About two-thirds of the people who turned out in the Natural State to vote on Tuesday agreed with Halter.

I've been firmly against the lottery for at least three reasons, all of which I'll torment you good people with right now.

It won't work

Holding a lottery to boost the number of adults with college degrees in this state is a terrible idea. We're 49th now and will remain 49th regardless of how many scholarships are handed out to students. The idea, of course, is that thriving economies rely on highly-educated people getting high paying jobs, thereby increasing the tax revenue the state and local communities collect. Also, people with money buy things and that benefits the economy as a whole.

So, if you hand out more scholarships, that will result in more Arkansas kids heading to college and they'll help the state's economy, right? Wrong. Horribly wrong, in fact.

The problem, see, isn't that Arkansas kids aren't heading off to college. The problem is that they tend to leave the state after they get their degrees. Why? We don't have enough jobs to keep people in the state.

Take my little brother, for example. There's a kid with an education that was heavily subsidized by the state of Arkansas. He graduated from the public schools system in the state and went to the University of Arkansas on a full scholarship. Yes, the state of Arkansas picked up his room and board, tuition and even paid for his books.

He graduated first in his class in chemical engineering from the UA and then earned his optometry degree in Chicago. He'd love to live in Arkansas, but he's in North Carolina. Why? He made over $100,000 his first year in practice in North Carolina, but the best job he could find in the Natural State was around $28,000 (not including some vague promise of maybe-possibly-perhaps a bonus at, like, some point in the future).

You're not going to get a highly educated fellow like that to stick around and work for less than 25 percent of what he'll get elsewhere. Also, let's not forget that we've got one of the better engineering schools in the country at the University of Arkansas and a lot of kids from this state attend it.

They graduate and then head off to places like Texas that have a lot of high-paying jobs for engineers -- career opportunities that are comparatively rare here.

What we're already doing, then, is subsidizing the education for students for the benefit of other states. This lottery amendment will only increase those subsidies. Until we do something in Arkansas to increase the number of jobs for the heavily-educated people we want to stay here, we will always have problems keeping those people in the state.

Of course, no one seems to want to talk about that problem as it's a complex and difficult issue to tackle. Politically, then, passing a lottery is a much easier task to tackle -- Bill Halter can run around for the rest of his days declaring that he did something to improve education in Arkansas. That will look great on his resume, a fact of which a young man who obviously wants to build a long career in politics is aware.

He'll benefit from the lottery amendment, then, probably more than the state's economy will.

Arkansas already has a surplus. Why give the state more money?

I hate the idea of putting a new tax in place when the state is running at a surplus. And, yes, a lottery is a tax.

Right now, Arkansas has a $250 million budget surplus. Why not use some of that to pay for scholarships? In the alternative, why not offset the revenue the lottery will bring by cutting the state sales tax?

The sales tax here is ridiculous -- state and local taxes here in Benton come to 8.5 percent. Other cities are running a tax of as high as 10.5 percent. Why? A little thing called the Futrell Amendment which states that the state's income tax can only be raised by the approval of three-fourths of both houses of the legislature.

In other words, it's almost impossible to raise income taxes in Arkansas, so the state has had to resort to other measures. The most popular of those is to boost sales taxes.

That has hurt a lot of cities in this state. Take Texarkana, for example. As the name implies, that city is split between Texas and Arkansas. The Texas side is booming and wealthy, whereas the Arkansas side isn't. Why? Let's say you live in Texarkana and want to buy a lawnmower. Are you going to buy it on the Arkansas side of town and pay sales taxes or save some money and drive to the Texas side?

The answer to that question is obvious and it's the same whether you're talking about lawnmowers, cigarettes or just about everything else.

If you're going to have a lottery and the state routinely collects surpluses, why not cut the sales tax and help out merchants in this state? The answer to that is simply -- once the government puts a tax in place, it almost never eliminates it.

Fungibility (how lottery revenues indirectly boost general budgets)

Lottery revenue is largely fungible -- the money that is spent on education prior to the lottery is often moved to the general budget, while the lottery revenue is spent on education. In other words, we'll not increase our scholarship fund by $100 million even if the very optimistic goal of $100 million is raised annually through the lottery.

In the current fiscal year, the state has budgeted $47.3 million for college scholarships. If things play out like they do in other states, then, the $100 million projected by Halter will pay for scholarships and that $47.3 million that's set aside for scholarships now will be added in the general budget. That's a net gain of $52.7 million in scholarships, thanks to the lottery. Not bad.

But what if Halter's projections are wrong? Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families estimates the lottery will generate $61.5 million in annual revenue, resulting in a net gain of $14.2 million. The state Department of Finance and Administration estimates annual lottery revenue of $55 million and that results in a net gain of $7.7 million.

If the Department of Finance and Administration is right, then, we will have agreed to add $47.3 million to the general budget all for a net gain of $7.7 million in new scholarships. And, remember, we'll be adding that money to a state treasury that routinely yields a surplus. That's a great deal for the state government, but not such a good one for us taxpayers, is it?

Of course, Halter's projections may be right, but I tend to trust the ones from the Department of Finance and Administration. The Department is full of people who collect taxes and know the ins and outs of them in Arkansas. Halter worked in the Bill Clinton administration. You could trust Clinton about as far as you could throw him, and I suspect the same is true of his lackeys.

I won't get into the obvious morality issues and the fact that lotteries tend to soak up what little excess income the poor have. but I will say that we need to make sure that we resist any other forms of gambling in the state.

Yes, we've got a horse track (Oaklawn) in Hot Springs and dog races (Southland Greyhound Park) in the Delta, but those have been around for years. I sure as hell don't want to see people getting excited about casinos in Arkansas.

Ever been to Tunica, Miss.? You've got casinos all over the place and the area is just seedy, cheap and nasty. We don't need that kind of nonsense here in Arkansas.


Not bored yet? Click right here to read The Hawg's plan to fix the Republican Party!



Technorati Profile. Yes, getting listed on Technorati!

In Kenya, new born babies are now being given the name Barack Obama, after his historic win in the U.S. presidential race.

Dozens of baby boys have already been named Barack Obama, while girls are being named after the wife of Barack, Michelle.

We all know that Obama's father was born and grew up in a village near the city of Kisumu. The Kenyans regarded Obama as a hero.

These past few days, more than half of babies born in some hospitals were named after the Presidential elect U.S. leader.

The Kenyans declared a national holiday when Barack Obama won.

They want their babies to be named after the U.S. leader to inspire them to achieve graet things for their babies.

by Norma White
October 21, 2008

Each presidential candidate is giving his rendition of the changes he wants for America.

Here are a few that I believe all Americans want.

• Limit Congress from serving more than two terms. That is all that presidents are allowed.

• Stop Congress from voting for their own raises. How did that ever get started?

• Stop paying for lawmakers' high-priced insurance premiums. After all, they are only part-time employees. They might pass some law changes on the insurance companies, if they had to find one.

• Stop paying lawmakers their full salary after serving just one term, or at retirement. We need to get rid of that pension plan; they've let other companies get rid of theirs. You were lucky to get 40 to 50 percent of your salary after working somewhere for 35 years, but they get 100 percent.

• Make Congress pay into the Social Security system. They make laws for it. If they spent some of their own money, they might be interested in making it solvent.

• Stop handing out aid to illegal aliens. If we did, then Medicaid and the food stamp program would have enough money to aid the aged and the poor.

• Secure our borders.

• Stop allowing babies born to illegal aliens in the United States automatic U.S. citizenship.

• Stop the abuse of our benevolent welfare system. We feed children free meals three times a day until they are 17. Churches give away good, clean clothes. Companies buy and donate school supplies. Emergency rooms provide health care at taxpayer expense and the food stamp program is buying food at home. What are parents doing for their children?

• Have a computer program that cross checks Social Security numbers with fingerprints to stop fraud on many fronts. Use it on voter registration, too.

• Stop bailing out mortgage companies and banks that give loans to people who cannot afford them.

• Stop companies from paying CEOs and other executives outrageous salaries and bonuses while doing away with workers' pensions.

• Stop all unnecessary spending so we will have the money for our nation's security, and to help needy and elderly Americans.

• Stop permitting anyone to have a photo with their face covered on driver's licenses.
  

Fifty nine million, seventy five thousand, nine hundred thirty voters are disappointed today, including me.

The overwhelming reason people voted for Obama is because of the current state of the economy. They linked John McCain with President Bush and they wanted change.

In his acceptance speech at Grant Park, President-elect Obama said, "It's been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this date in this election at this defining moment change has come to America."

President-elect Barack Obama is a great speech giver. We'll see if he's a good president.

Time will tell.

My old boss, Michael Tilley, sent me an e-mail a little bit ago stating a new Internet-based publication, called The City Wire, has been launched.

Tilley was the business editor when I worked for The Morning News, a publication based in Springdale that covered news in Northwest Arkansas. He was also the business editor of the publication's sister paper, The Times-Record in Fort Smith. Both papers are owned by Stephens Media, which controls quite a few papers here in Arkansas.

Stephens Media has been laying off a lot of people this year. It seems that the current economic climate is as rough on the newspaper business as it is on other industries.

Tilley is the editor of the aforementioned City Wire and the publication is focused on news from the Fort Smith and River Valley areas of the state. I'm going to keep an eye on that publication and I hope some of you will, too.

ARTIST - WEEN
SONG - PUSH TH' LITTLE DAISIES

Saturday is my son's 22nd birthday. He loved this song when he was little and I do too. So this one is for him and is perfect.....so weird and wacky....but endearing too (at least to me).

Bear in mind this was recorded by a guy in a shack in West Virginia who played guitar, handled percussion and sang -- all at the same time. That's rock n' roll, kids.

Yes, folks, the time is on us to pick some bloggers to honor.

I put up a post about that a few days ago and you can read all about it by clicking right here.

In short, we've got three nominations and two of them have been seconded. So, I invite all members of the All Arkie Army to have a look at the aforementioned post, second the nominations there (if you want) or nominate some bloggers that you believe are exceptional.

And, no, The Hawg isn't going to talk about tonight's election. All that's left to say is "dammit" and point that at both Barack Obama and the blasted neocons that hijacked the Republican Party and paved the way for four years of Obama's polite totalitarianism. So be it.

My main rant about this mess is posted right here (it's the second part of my post about a note I received from IHOP).

There's really nothing left to say. I really do need to find a new political party.

ARTIST - ARCADIA
SONG - ELECTION DAY

(Yeah right!)

Now, don't laugh -- the struggling Arkansas Razorbacks may yet remain bowl eligible.

Yes, the Hogs have been terrible this year, but here's the deal -- if the Razorbacks win two of their next three games, the team will be bowl eligible at 6-6. Yeah, so what if the Hogs will only have a 3-4 record in the SEC if the team manages to win two of it's next three games?

The chances are good they'll go bowling and, in this state, that's often good enough. Should they make it to a bowl, then fans will love new head coach Bobby Petrino. For awhile, at least.

There's no guarantee that this team will capture those two wins, of course, but that goal is not out of reach. Remaining on the Hogs' schedule are South Carolina (6-3 overall, 3-3 in the SEC), Mississippi State (3-6, 1-4) and LSU (6-2, 3-2). The Hogs, of course, are currently 4-5 overall and 1-4 in the SEC.

Of those three games, Mississippi State and South Carolina are away games and LSU comes to Little Rock to play the Hogs on the day after Thanksgiving. Arkansas should be able to beat Mississippi State, has a shot against South Carolina and will likely struggle against LSU.

Now, there's been a lot of talk about the Hogs' victory over the Tulsa Golden Hurricanes on Saturday. After all, the team was ranked #19 in the nation, thanks to offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn's hot rod offense that has propelled the team to 8 straight wins.

Here's something to keep in mind, however -- Tulsa isn't in a BCS conference. Yes, Tulsa led the country in total offense and points scored, but the team did that by beating the tar out of the likes of North Texas, Central Arkansas, Rice and New Mexico. Those teams aren't exactly powerhouses, kids.

That's not to take a thing away from Tulsa, of course. The team has done extremely well this year, but it hasn't really been tested this year. The first truly major test for Tulsa came against Arkansas, an SEC team, and the Golden Hurricanes failed.

Still, Arkansas fans have reason to be encouraged. Tulsa was favored in that game and the Hogs defied expectations. Also, they beat a team with an offense coordinated by Gus Malzahn. We're familiar here in Arkansas -- Malzahn was brought in a couple of years ago to retool the Arkansas offense and was largely shut down by former head coach Houston Nutt.

We have a lot of respect for Malzahn here in Arkansas. Beating a team with his whiz-bang offense in place is something to like, indeed.

Also, this is the first game this year in which running back Michael Smith wasn't the focus of the offense. Smith was held to a mere 67 yards rushing while much maligned quarterback Casey Dick passed for an impressive 385 yards.

Furthermore, Alex Tejada has struggled all year, but he hit for three field goals on Saturday. Maybe his slump was over (I shouldn't say that because it may just jinx him -- oh well). The special teams looked pretty good on Saturday, too, resulting in Dennis Johnson's 96-yard kickoff return for a touchdown.

The defense was still awful, sadly, allowing 528 yards in offense and missing tackles regularly. Well, they're young yet and will (hopefully) improve by next year.

At the end of the day, Arkansas won 30-23 and got one step closer to appearing in a bowl game. For now, that's good enough.

Meanwhile, here in Benton...

My beloved Benton Panthers still stink. They went to El Dorado and got stomped, 19-57. The defense is still terrible and the offense is anemic at best and completely incompetent at worst. The defense, just last week, gave up all kinds of yards and big plays this season to J.A. Fair, a team that hasn't won a game all year.

The loss to El Dorado dropped Benton to 1-5 in the 6A South and 2-7 overall. Fortunately, 3-6 Watson Chapel comes to Benton for the Panthers' final home game. Benton may win that one and my dad and I are heading out on Thursday (yes, Thursday instead of Friday this week -- not sure why) to watch that one.

Benton has a shot to win against Watson Chapel, not that it matters. There's still an outside chance for Benton to get in the playoffs because 6 of the 8 teams on the 6A South will head to the playoffs.

J.A. Fair is dead last in the conference, and Benton could move up from 7th place and enter the playoffs. I won't go through all the scenarios that would allow for that as I doubt anyone cares. Besides, the Panthers are so rotten this year that they don't deserve to go to the playoffs (don't yell at me -- the Panthers' quarterback was on television saying as much just the other day). It's been a long season for the players and they deserve the reach the merciful end of it.

I absolutely hate daylight savings time.

Fortunately, we went back to standard time just this morning. That's a good thing as I've always had trouble adjusting to that daylight savings time junk.

It just feels "off" for it to be light outside until about 8:30 p.m. in the summer and I hate waking up and getting ready to go to work when it's still dark.

And, yes, I'm well aware that daylight savings time is supposed to cut down on energy use and give people more sun for leisure activities. Frankly, I don't give a damn about any of that. All I know is that I feel like I'm in the twilight zone for about a month after we switch to daylight savings time and don't care for that feeling one bit.

And, of course, we've got George W. Bush to blame for the moronic idea of extending daylight savings time by four weeks every year. Thanks Bush.

Now, I don't blame Bush for the struggling housing market (the foolish lending practices the government, uh, "encouraged" banks to put in place started with Jimmy Carter way on back in 1977) or the awful economy we're stuck with now.

I'll even go so far to say that Bush, as rotten as he is, was still a better choice than Al Gore (he's bordering on insane if not already a permanent resident of CrazyTown) or John Kerry (who views the nation as being made up of the Northeast, the West Coast and a bunch of knuckle-dragging morons in between).

Still, Bush has managed to irritate most people here in the U.S. in the past eight years. Extending daylight savings time was enough to annoy me.

That and the bankruptcy reform nonsense that was bought and paid for by the credit card companies. Bush signed that awful bit of legislation without blinking.

At any rate, I need to find out if there's a movement to put an end to daylight savings time. If such a thing exists, I'll gladly join it.

A Reminder

Yes, we at the All Arkie Army are taking nominations in hopes of honoring some great bloggers out there by naming them captains of the All Arkie Army. Read all about it by clicking right here.

Remember -- you don't have to be an Arkansan to be named an honorary captain of this fine blog. We just choose to honor some bloggers out there we like.

So I call on my fellow All Arkie Army members to send in some nominations by clicking the above link and mentioning some quality bloggers in the comment section.

Want more nonsense? Visit The Natural State Hawg!

The number of Faulkner County residents who have early voted in the November 4th national election has far surpassed any previous early voting record, according to County Clerk Melinda Reynolds.

Reynolds said said as of Saturday, 18,231 Faulkner County residents had voted early. She said the previous record for early votong was 9,200 in the 2004 presidential election. More than 37,000 voters voted in that election, she said.

The last day of early voting will be Monday, November 3rd, from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

On Election Day, the polls will be open from 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.