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Staffers on Capitol Hill were calling it the Louisiana Purchase. On the eve of Saturday's showdown in the Senate over health-care reform, Democratic leaders still hadn't secured the support of Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), one of the 60 votes needed to keep the legislation alive. The wavering lawmaker was offered a sweetener: at least $100 million in extra federal money for her home state. And so it came to pass that Landrieu walked onto the Senate floor midafternoon Saturday to announce her aye vote -- and to trumpet the financial "fix" she had arranged for Louisiana. "I am not going...

“Oh, I can’t think about this now! I’ll go crazy if I do! I’ll think about it tomorrow. But I must think about it. I must think about it. What is there to do? What is there that matters?” —Scarlett O’Hara, Gone With the Wind Like the calculating Southern belle in Margaret Mitchell’s classic novel, who endeavored to ignore the realities and consequences of war, Sen. Blanche Lincoln is bent on making the rest of us believe she is the most reluctant participant in the most epic of legislative wars. Lincoln, the last holdout, didn’t want to be on the...

In response to Senator Lincoln's decision to vote in favor of cloture, Governor Palin tweets the following: Not sure I can convince Sen. Lincoln to vote no - but will do everything in my pwr to convince my friends in Arkansas to vote against her.,/u>,/b> Senator Lincoln is up for re-election in Arkansas in 2010. Only 29% of Arkansans support Obama's healthcare plan.

Democrats on Saturday clinched the votes needed to advance the Senate's version of President Obama's health care overhaul to the floor for a historic debate scheduled to begin shortly after 8 p.m..

Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) said she’d deliver the deciding vote to push forward with a sweeping health reform plan in the Senate Saturday, ending days of speculation over whether President Barack Obama’s signature priority would proceed to the floor or suffer a debilitating blow. As with several centrists before her, Lincoln’s yes vote to start debate came wrapped in series of serious concerns about the current bill – and she said it would require major revisions before she could cast a similar vote in favor of final passage. "I'm prepared to vote against moving to the next stage of consideration...

it's done folks...

WASHINGTON — Chances are that Arkansas Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln won’t be sharing her big secrets with Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., anytime soon. Durbin, the Senate majority whip, spent Friday afternoon backtracking from comments that appeared to out Lincoln as a supporter of Saturday’s cloture motion aimed at advancing the Senate version of health-care reform to the floor. Lincoln and Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., are the only two voters yet to publicly declare their intentions for the motion.Durbin told reporters Friday that Lincoln has already made up her mind about the vote and conveyed her decision to Senate Majority Leader...

Yesterday, The Arkansas Hands-Off Healthcare Bus Tour went through Arkansas. Guest speakers included Dick Morris, Jim Miller of 60 Plus, Dr. Kathy Chenault, and Teresa Oakle. Here is some video footage of that event. More footage will come soon. http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-5433-Little-Rock-Immigration-Examiner~y2009m11d20-Healthcare-video--Events http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rho6J-7Jr6w http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skJGUUmVsRU Same video in case there are problems with youtube. http://keeparkansaslegal.blogspot.com/2009/11/hands-off-healthcare-video-footage.html Saturday November 21st. We will need as many Secure Arkansas Volunteers as possible for the Arkansas Razorbacks game. You can show up on your own or call 501-412-4063 to meet with other Secure Arkansas members. You will be called back within a few minutes. Sunday November 22nd The...

Trying to rain on Jolly St.Nick? The United States Post Office will not be forwarding letters to Santa at the North Pole this year. Other programs and private efforts go on, but some are questioning why the USPS is unwilling to forward letters to the North Poll where volunteers – not employees – respond to the kids with letters including sought-after North Pole postmarks on the letter.

The National Republican Congressional Committee is targeting three veteran Democrats who voted for the House version of the health care bill in a weeklong round of television ads that will begin airing on Thursday. The new 30-second spots hit Democratic Reps. Earl Pomeroy of North Dakota, Vic Snyder of Arkansas and John M. Spratt Jr. of South Carolina for their votes by using the words of fellow Democratic legislators who opposed the legislation. Among the statements the NRCC uses in it' new ad against Pomeroy is one released by the office of Rep. Dan Boren, D-Okla., when he announced he...

<p>Contact your Senators and let them know what you think!</p> <p>U.S. veterans or subsidies for United Nations (U.N.) bureaucracy.</p>

Called to a home to help control an "unruly child," an Ozark, Arkansas police officer was given permission by the girl's mother to a taser to subdue the child. According to 40/29 News the girl's father is outraged that the police would use a taser on such a young child. "I would like to say Ozark police Tased this little girl right here," the girl's father, Anthony Medlock, told 40/29 News. "Ten years old and [they] shot electricity through her body, and I want to know how the heck in God's green earth can they get away with this." According...

OZARK, Ark. — Ozark Police Chief Jim Noggle says one of his officers used a Taser on a 10-year-old girl who was combative when the officer tried to get the girl into a patrol car to be taken to a youth shelter. Noggle said Tuesday that officer Dustin Bradshaw went to the girl's home after her mother called police woman called police. According to a report filed by Bradshaw on Thursday, the officer found the girl on the floor of the house screaming and crying. She refused to follow her mother's instructions and the mother told Bradshaw to use his...

A 10-year-old Arkansas boy named Will Phillips has decided that he cannot in good conscience pledge allegiance to the flag as long as the country for which it stands refuses legal equality to its LGBT citizens. The West Fork School District fifth grade student clashed with a substitute teacher for his refusal to stand for the pledge, prompting a call to Will’s mother, Laura Phillips. When the principal acknowledged that Will has the right to refuse to say the pledge, Ms. Phillips asked that her son receive an apology — a request that the principal declined to honor. Laura Phillips...

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — A jury sentenced a man to life in prison Thursday for the beating death of a popular Arkansas television personality, sparing him the death penalty after hearing testimony about his rocky upbringing by an abusive, drug-addicted mother. Jurors deliberated less than three hours before recommending that Curtis Lavelle Vance, 29, be sentenced to life in prison without parole for the death of Anne Pressly. They also handed down a life sentence for rape, 20 years for burglary and 10 years for theft.Pressly, 26, was an anchor on KATV's "Daybreak" program and had a bit part in...

Will Phillips isn't like other boys his age. For one thing, he's smart. Scary smart. A student in the West Fork School District in Washington County, he skipped a grade this year, going directly from the third to the fifth. When his family goes for a drive, discussions are much more apt to be about Teddy Roosevelt and terraforming Mars than they are about Spongebob Squarepants and what's playing on Radio Disney. It was during one of those drives that the discussion turned to the pledge of allegiance and what it means. Laura Phillips is Will's mother. “Yes, my son...

Prosecutors rested their capital murder case against Curtis Lavelle Vance, 29, after testimony from the state's deputy medical examiner, who spoke about Pressly's final moments of consciousness. Vance, of Marianna, has pleaded not guilty to murder, rape and burglary. If convicted, he could face the death penalty. Dr. Stephen Erickson said an examination of Pressly's body after her death revealed that her face shattered "like an egg" during the attack. "I could feel crunchiness" while examining Pressly's face, he said. A photo he used showed her nose pushed to one side. Erickson said some type of object likely was used...

Former Nature editor Philip Ball once commented that ‘there is no assembly plant so delicate, versatile and adaptive as the cell” (1). Emeritus Professor Theodore Brown chose to wax metaphorical by likening the cell to a fully-fledged factory, with its own complex functional relationships and interactions akin to what we observe in our own manufacturing facilities (2). In recent years the seemingly intractable problem of explaining how the first cell came into existence through chance events, otherwise known as the ‘Chance Hypothesis’, has become more acute than ever as scientists have begun to realize that a minimum suite of functional...

My wife wanted to know what is happening concerning this Islamic terrorist. I googled him and could only find stories from back in June. I did a Wikipedia search and got this - The 2009 Little Rock recruiting office shooting was an incident on June 1, 2009 in which an assailant opened fire on a United States military recruiting office in Little Rock, Arkansas. Private William Long of Conway, Arkansas was killed and Private Quinton Ezeagwula, 18, of Jacksonville, Arkansas was wounded.Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, an American who had converted to Islam and was previously known as Carlos Bledsoe, became the...

Live Threads of the Healthcare Debate that could be voted on this weekend. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2380972/posts?q=1&;page=251 http://www.c-span.org/Watch/C-SPAN_wm.aspx Different reports are coming in about what some of the Arkansas Representatives will do. John Boozeman is a solid NO vote. Rep Berry has "concerns regarding how the plan is paid for", but Obamacare is often changed to give the apperance of not costing as much. Mike Ross has expressed concern over public option, but that is also not a definite NO. According to David Meeks, Rep Snyder's office had said that he wouldn't for a bill that "funds abortion", however Obamacare supporters had claimed...

The plan to attack the Fort Dix Army Base in New Jersey this year, they wanted to "kill as many soldiers as possible!" Five Muslim immigrants accused of scheming to massacre U.S. soldiers at Fort Dix were convicted of conspiracy Monday in a case that tested the FBI's post-Sept. 11 strategy of infiltrating and breaking up terrorist plots in their earliest stages. The men could get life in prison when they are sentenced in April. The five, who lived in and around Philadelphia for years, were found guilty of conspiring to kill U.S. military personnel. But they were acquitted of...

Man charged in soldier's death seeks trial delayPosted: October 27, 2009 - 12:40pm LITTLE ROCK (AP) — Attorneys for the man charged with capital murder of an Army soldier at a Little Rock recruiting station are asking for a delay in the start of his trial. Lawyers for 24-year-old Abdulhakim Muhammad say in a motion filed last week that they need more time to go through evidence in the case. The current trial date is Feb. 15. Muhammad was born Carlos Bledsoe. He's charged in the June shooting death of 23-year-old Pvt. William Long of Conway and in the wounding...

While roaming the grounds of the US Capitol yesterday, Kristinn Taylor obtained a list of possible democrat defectors of the now infamous “Healthcare” bill. Kristinn was asked to post this list of wobbly democrats on FreeRepublic in an effort to mobilize our forces and overwhelm these members with phone calls and e-mails asking them to vote NO on the socialization of our healthcare. We also learned that Nancy Pelosi had just scheduled the vote for tomorrow; Saturday, November 7, 2009 at 6:00 PM. For all those who were unable to answer the call to surround the Capitol yesterday, here is...

Trying to find out if any Arkansas women are driving to DC for the Thursday showdown??? If you are driving or flying please let me know I am trying to figure out how to go. Thank you I live 30 miles outside Little Rock Arkansas

August 8, 2006 These are the Blue Dog democrats to pound on obamacare Part #1 Jason Altmire (PA-4) Aliquippa Office 2110 McLean St. Aliquippa, PA 15001 ph: 724-378-0928 fx: 724-378-6171 Natrona Heights Office 2124 Freeport Road Natrona Heights, PA 15065 ph: 724-226-1304 fx: 724-226-1308 Washington DC Office 332 Cannon HOB Washington, DC 20515 ph: 202-225-2565 fx: 202-226-2274 Satellite Offices Cranberry Township Office Cranberry Township Municipal Building 2525 Rochester Road Cranberry Township, PA 16066-6499 1:30 pm to 5:00 pm - First and Third Thursdays of every month Ellwood City Office Ellwood City Municipal Building Lawrence Avenue Ellwood City, PA 16117 2:00...

Research 2000, in conjunction with the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, has polled the Arkansas Senate race. The good news for Blanche Lincoln is that she leads her opponents; she leads Gilbert Baker 41%-39% and she leads Curtis Coleman 43%-38%. The bad news is that I follow Senate races like Kirstie Alley follows the Swiss Made Fudge catalog, and I still have to look up who Gilbert Baker and Curtis Coleman are (the answer, according to Politics1, is "state senate minority leader" and "Republican activist"). Senators who have trouble getting to 40%, let alone 50%, against completely unknown opponents don't last...

Nothing to fear—yet Gene Lyons Nobody should be surprised to see the nation’s esteemed celebrity news media align with FOX News against the White House, although even a cynical observer like me found the unanimity mildly shocking. Don’t they remember what journalism was supposed to be? Supposedly, the press regulates its own behavior. In reality, that’s been a joke for two decades. “Claiming the moral authority of a code of professional ethics it idealizes in the abstract but repudiates in practice,” I wrote in 2003, “today’s Washington press corps has grown as decadent and self-protective as any politician or interest...

<p>A 2-year-old boy died after a chained-up pit-bull terrier in a neighbor’s backyard attacked him Wednesday morning in Prescott, police said.</p> <p>The boy and his 3-year-old brother wandered out of their home about 9 a.m. and made their way into an unfenced yard two houses away where two dogs were chained up, police said.</p>

We need to start blasting all his phones, emails , twitter account, facebooks, and writing to the newspapers. Even if you don't live in his state you need to still be active on them and tell them no business in Louisiana if Landrieu votes in favor of Obama's reckless Obamacare and cap n trade. Offices 355 Dirksen Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510 (202) 224-4843 Fax (202) 228-1371 912 West Fourth Street Little Rock, AR 72201 (501) 375-2993 Fax (501) 375-7064 Toll Free 1-800-352-9364 To contact http://lincoln.senate.gov/contact/index.cfm Follow link to the rest of article http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474977872371

We need to start blasting all his phones, emails , twitter account, facebooks, and writing to the newspapers. Even if you don't live in his state you need to still be active on them and tell them no business in Louisiana if Landrieu votes in favor of Obama's reckless Obamacare and cap n trade. Offices Little Rock Office The River Market 500 Clinton Ave Suite 401 Little Rock, AR 72201 Phone: (501) 324-6336 Fax: (501) 324-5320 Toll Free from AR: (877) 259-9602 Washington, D.C. Office 255 Dirksen Senate Office Building Washington, D.C. 20510 Phone: (202) 224-2353 Fax: (202) 228-0908 http://pryor.senate.gov/contact/...

Brigitte Gabriel, founder & president of ACT! for America, will discuss the threat of Islamic terrorism here and around the world at the First Assembly Of God Church, 8650 Walnut Grove Road, Cordova, TN 38018. The presentation is free and open to the public. BRIGITTE GABRIEL, the founder and President of ACT! for America (www.actforamerica.org), is a US-based journalist and news producer who started her career as an anchor for World News, an evening Arabic news program. As a terrorism expert, Brigitte Gabriel travels widely and speaks regularly on topics related to the Middle East. She has addressed audiences at...

War without end Gene Lyons One of the enduring oddities of American foreign policy debate is that asking the most obvious questions is all but forbidden. For example, how does Afghanistan pose a threat to the United States? Certainly not in any military sense. The impoverished, largely illiterate Afghans have no army apart from the one U.S. and NATO forces, with very limited success, are trying to train, no air force, no navy, no offensive military capacity whatsoever. From the U.S. perspective, Afghanistan is the absolute end of the earth. Indeed, it’s not a nation at all. The idea that...

Cited on a variety of Internet shops like The AtlanticWire, Newser and Lara Ebke’s Red State Eclectic yesterday was a quote from Matt Lewis, writer, blogger and commentator from Alexandria, Va. He writes in Politics Daily: “If recent elections are any guide, the Republicans' heads will tell them to choose Mitt Romney. Their hearts whisper something else. Is ‘Sarah’ the name of this siren song?” W. McCahill at Newser says: “No matter what kind of gains Republicans make in the midterm elections next year, it’s going to be tough to unseat President Obama — and that’s why the GOP is...

    ~The FReeper Canteen Presents~ Road Trip: Pine Bluff Arsenal, ArkansasThe Pine Bluff Arsenal (PBA) is a United States Army installation located in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. PBA is one of the six Army installations in the United States which stores chemical weapons. PBA supplies specialized production, storage, maintenance and distribution of readiness products, and delivers technical services to the Armed Forces and Homeland Security. PBA also designs, manufactures and refurbishes smoke, riot control, and incendiary munitions, as well as chemical/biological defense operations items. It serves as a technology center for illuminating and infrared munitions and is also the...

More info: http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local-beat/Cal-ISO-Declares-Power-Emergency-64172852.html

(snip) Mike Huckabee and Tim Pawlenty — both potential 2012 presidential contenders — urged restraint. "There will be an outcry from those on the right who will say that Obama's nomination, made two weeks into his Presidency, is impossible to justify, but I think such an outcry will sound like right-wing whining," Huckabee said in a statement. "The better response is simply to allow those on the left to explain what he did in his first two weeks as President that merited such recognition." Pawlenty, speaking on NPR, said there "will be some people who are saying 'Was it based...

Army Col. Conrad Reynolds is one of several Republicans vying to take on Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D) for Arkansas’ Senate seat in 2010. Reynolds’ campaign issued a press release last week blasting Lincoln for a vote, and among those who received it was Greg Chance, the news director of an NPR affiliate based at Arkansas State University. It seems Chance attempted to forward the e-mail to Katie Laning Niebaum, Lincoln’s Washington-based communications director. In his forward, which HOH obtained, Chance mocked the press release and even the campaign’s logo, which features the Army colonel insignia. “There was another one from...

Your tax dollars at work . . . Forwarding a press release from a GOP Senate candidate to his Dem opponent, an NPR News Director called the Republican a "nimrod." Roll Call's "Heard on the Hill" column has the [subscription-required] story, which it describes as "another tale of e-mail forwarding gone wrong" [emphasis added]: Army Col. Conrad Reynolds is one of several Republicans vying to take on Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D) for Arkansas’ Senate seat in 2010. Reynolds’ campaign issued a press release last week blasting Lincoln for a vote, and among those who received it was Greg Chance, the...

Guard Offices To CloseBy Hicham Raache Times Record Tuesday, October 6, 2009 8:37 AM CDT Arkansas Army National Guard recruiting offices across the area and throughout the state will close today as a precautionary measure for National Day of Resistance against Military Recruiters. Although the Times Record did not learn of any planned local protests in correspondence with the resistance effort, which is promoted on a Facebook page as lasting from midnight to noon today, Guard recruiting offices will be closed to ensure the safety of recruiters and guard members at the offices. Other Stories Of Interest “They are shutting...

Army Col. Conrad Reynolds is one of several Republicans vying to take on Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D) for Arkansas’ Senate seat in 2010. Reynolds’ campaign issued a press release last week blasting Lincoln for a vote, and among those who received it was Greg Chance, the news director of an NPR affiliate based at Arkansas State University. It seems Chance attempted to forward the e-mail to Katie Laning Niebaum, Lincoln’s Washington-based communications director. In his forward, which HOH obtained, Chance mocked the press release and even the campaign’s logo, which features the Army colonel insignia. “There was another one from...

Little Rock Police are looking into the death of a local attorney who made headlines earlier in his career. According to a police report, William C. "Bill" McArthur, 71, was found dead outside his apartment Saturday night in the Shadow Lake Apartment complex at 13111 West Markham Street. The police report lists the incident as an unattended death. In the 80s and 90s McArthur's name was often in the news in regards to the Mary Lee Orsini case. McArthur defended Orsini after her arrest for the murder of her husband Ron Orsini. A Pulaski County jury found her not guilty....

Another Democratic senator may be at-risk in 2010. Arkansas' Blanche Lambert Lincoln trails all four of her leading Republican challengers in the first Rasmussen Reports Election 2010 survey in the state. Lincoln fails to get 50% of the vote in any of the match-ups, and any incumbent who falls short of that level is considered vulnerable. In three of the match-ups, however, she is virtually tied with the challengers at this

A seventh Republican may soon announce his intention to compete for a chance to unseat unpopular incumbent Democratic Senator Blanche Lincoln in Arkansas next year. A Daily Kos/Research 2000 poll finds that only 43 percent of Arkansans view Senator Blanche Lincoln's performance favorably, while 49 percent deem it unfavorable. Her support among Democrats stands at 66 percent and has dropped among Independents to 39 percent. She has been facing criticism from both the right and the left. Conservatives dislike her support of a greater government role in healthcare and her votes in favor of federal bailouts of private industry, while...

Reported by: Kevin Holmes Email: kholmes@myeyewitnessnews.com Last Update: 9/23 11:33 pm JERICHO, AR – He was shot by an officer. Now arrest warrants have been issued for the Former Fire Chief in Jericho, Arkansas. Meanwhile, the officer who shot him is patrolling the streets. Investigators say Don Payne was shot inside Jericho City Hall after he confronted a judge over a parking ticket. MyEywitnessNews.com caught up with Don Payne more than a week after the warrants were issued. He was on his front porch. “I’m sitting right here just waiting. I’m not a fugitive. I’m a person that works for...

Officials in one Northwest Arkansas elementary school says people across the nation and Canada are calling them, angry about a You Tube video that shows the students singing a song about President Obama. But they say it's all a case of mistaken identity. Bernice Young Elementary School in Springdale has been taking angry calls from all over the country from people upset about a You Tube video of B. Bernice Young school kids singing about President Barack Obama. There's only one problem: it wasn't the Springdale Bernice Young students doing the singing. The song went something like this: "Red, yellow,...

Editor's note: The following column is not appropriate reading material for children. It is not for squeamish adults. It contains graphic details of a heinous crime. In the news business, you've got to have a strong stomach. It's like being a cop. You get to see the darkest side of a dark world. And what you see, hear and read is often unforgettable – and not in a good way. The case of 13-year-old Jesse Dirkhising continues to haunt me since I first wrote about it 10 years ago – before anyone else in the national press. The details of...

Continued concerns about Chinese products being sold in the U.S. now include poultry. Arkansas Senator Mark Pryor was recognized in Washington today for his work on an agriculture appropriations bill that focuses on the use of appropriated funds from the Department of Agriculture for potential imports of poultry products from China. "Food safety and trade are not mutually exclusive, and are in fact very important to the economy of Arkansas. We can have both as long as the USDA can do its job of policing imports to make sure they meet our food safety standards. Our agreement enables the government...

Three days after winning the presidential poll in Washington during a convention of Christian conservatives, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is backing away from committing himself to another run for the presidency. Huckabee was in Texarkana Tuesday to support Prissy Hickerson for state representative. “It’s too early to jump into the shark-infested waters right now. I enjoy what I’m doing now and I will consider it in a year or a year and a half,” Huckabee said. “I would rather be successful now in framing issues in the media than being a candidate who couldn’t take...

Thamail Morgan took the kickoff and headed up the field. He was at the 20 ... 30 ... 40 He had been avoiding, dodging or just simply running through tacklers on the way. Football always had come easily for Morgan. This game was no different. By the time he hit midfield, only open space was ahead of him. The two-time Arkansas all-state selection was headed for a touchdown. 40 ... 30 ... 20 He glanced at the clock and saw the final seconds ticking away. He realized his team, Cave City, was on the way to a victory over Yellville-Summit,...

Pregnancies like hers have been called one in a million. But a Fort Smith woman and her husband are the exception. 5NEWS has the story of a local couple who was surprised to learn they were having two babies, but that was just the beginning. The Grovenberg's had been praying for a baby. But Julia and Todd didn't want to try fertility treatment, so instead they were considering adoption. When Julia became pregnant, they were thrilled, but the news that came next nearly knocked them off their feet. The Fort Smith couple knew they were pregnant when they went for...