BARBIE SHATTERS THE GLASS CEILING

I just returned from Toy Story 3 and I have to tell you that in our day to day battle of politics, spin and outright manipulation of facts and truth it was a refreshing story.

As a mom who’s first born is college bound this fall the story hit close to home as well. As I sat there in the movie with my family I was happily entertained. Isn’t that why we go to the movies, to be entertained?

The story follows along the live toy theme of the previous two episodes but now the toys are facing Andy, their boy, leaving for college. Andy’s mom, evidently a conservative parent, let’s Andy know that he has until Friday (his departure day) to store, pack or trash all the belongings in his room. Given that he has to decide the fate of the Toys.

**Spoiler Alert**

Andy decides to take Woody, his favorite childhood toy, along with him to college while storing the rest of his toys in the attic. Through a series of mishaps the toys for storage end up in a “Stalag 13” type day care that has been commandeered by a dictatorial stuffed bear, who had an rough childhood and is destined to take it out on the rest of toy humanity.

As Andy’s toys are remanded to custody and forced to do time in a room full of abusive toddlers, they plan their escape. As fate would have it they are caught by the Hitler Bear and his army who threaten them with an awaiting trash pick-up if they don’t return to their appointed duty.

The best line in the whole movie comes from Barbie at this point who sternly pronounces “Leadership comes from the consent of the governed not from the threat of force!” BAM! I have never loved Barbie so much in my life~ how exciting that a children’s movie is not full of anthropomorphic rhetoric on top of tree hugging liberal drivel. FINALLY a new family flick that I don’t leave with the need to deprogram.

The entire story was filled with great life lessons of personal responsibility, charity, friendship and loyalty. Not to mention the unwavering pursuit of one’s own happiness derived from the journey of life through heartache, tribulation and overcoming.

Who knew all these years Barbie was a closet conservative and just needed to suffer under the oppression of an overstuffed tyrant to take a stand. Watch out Sarah Palin, Michele Bachman and Ann Coulter; Barbie has shattered the glass ceiling!!

Finally, Facts Over Fiction

I recently attended an event where David Barton of Wall Builders was the guest speaker. I can tell you that I came away from that meeting both encouraged and greatly annoyed. Encouraged because I finally had acquired some much-needed facts and annoyed because I had not done my own due diligence in educating myself on some of our nation’s fundamental truths.

I encourage you to head for this website and read for yourself the information that Dr. Barton has amassed fully documented facts of how our history has been “deconstructed.” His compelling presentation was chock-full of amazing information. One fact I found most interesting is one I can see repeating itself today. It is the way our Civil War actually began. Barton starts his page on this issue: Confronting Civil War Revisionism: Why the South Went To War:

The rewriting of history in any area is possible only if: (1) the public does not know enough about specific events to object when a wrong view is introduced; or (2) the discovery of previously unknown historical material brings to light new facts that require a correction of the previous view. However, historical revisionism – the rewriting “of an accepted, usually long-standing view… especially a revision of historical events and movements” ¹ – is successful only through the first means.

This is why I get annoyed, because even in my desire and passion to make real change, I have not done all that’s needed to truly know what I fight for today. His message and facts have convicted me, once again, to read and study even more.

Bartons’ research and documentation shows a much different picture than what I was taught in school and what, as an adult, I had read and considered (and assumed) to be truth. I was under the impression that the Civil War was between the North and the South over state’s rights and that the south was acting in an honorable way to preserve Stateism. I had read books, obviously with an agenda, that had presented this as fact in words (of course without proper documentation). As a Southerner, this helped ease my conscious that my forefathers had not been the bigoted slave owners perpetuated by a different history.

What I found out last week is that really neither account is true. Barton explains (and shows) how the war was actually initiated by the Southern Democrat states who wanted slavery to continue as it had. Congressional representatives from southern states bent on maintaining slavery just walked out of congress, packed their bags and went home to start the confederate states. The northern counterparts who also wanted to preserve slavery, decided to remain in the Congress and deal with a Republican majority who wanted slavery abolished. I’ll not go into the whole story here because I would love for you to take the prompting seriously to step up and begin to sincerely take responsibility for your own knowledge by checking it out at the above website.

Today, in one way, we are going through much the same battle, the ultra-liberal progressive arm of the Democrat party is twisting history, facts and events to lead people to believe that we are not who we all know we are: God fearing, freedom loving, free enterprise Americans who want government to get out of our lives rather than continuing to encroach on our liberties. Other Democrats aren’t extreme enough to suit their tastes.

Again we are at a cross roads in America will we sit idly by and watch as our heritage, our foundations and our futures are mangled by the “deconstruction” of those who will do whatever is required to gain and maintain power and control. Or will we once again rise to the call of our Maker and stand for Truth, Justice and Honor by knowing and understanding without equivocation who we are and how we got here?

Knowledge is power and readers are leaders. Please get accurately INFORMED, get actively ENGAGED and thereby actually EMPOWERED! I urge everyone to read what the Texan, Mr. Barton, has spent years documenting for all of us.

Those Pesky Numbers~

Throughout the 3^rd Congressional District race Mayor Steve Womack has touted his fiscally disciplined ways with the Roger’s city budget.

So it seemed fair to look at Rogers’ budget, available on line, and actually see if his words matched his actions. How has he handled the hard earned money of Rogers’ taxpayers?

Just a little bit of ciphering led me to believe that perhaps the Mayor embellished his record a tad.

For example, the Rogers’ Museum takes in about $6150 in revenue but operates on a budget of over $501,000? Salaries and benefits tally over $371,000 alone. In fact, museum employee’s salaries have increased over 75% since 2005.

If that were just one city budget I might overlook it. But there is more.

The recycling center, which I was sure would turn a small profit or perhaps operate more revenue neutral has projected sales of $150,000 for FY2010. However, the Recycling Center pays over $212,000 in salaries and benefits and has a total budget of $281,854 in FY2010 costing taxpayers $131,854.

Roger’s has an impressive Parks system which is projected to bring in $209,661 this year. Wow, that’s great. But hold on to your pocketbooks, the Park system pays out over $1.3 million dollars in salaries and benefits. The citizens of Rogers’ will spend $2.5 million dollars on their parks system in FY2010.

Surely, the program Mayor Womack would like to expand to other cities across the country, the Adult Wellness Center, at least breaks even. The AWC takes in an impressive $358,000. The gym pays out salaries and benefits of just over $335,000, but goes on to spend over $758,000. If memory serves me Roger’s Mayor promised that this program wouldn’t cost tax payers a dime because it would be paid with membership dues and run by volunteers. Maybe it will work differently on a national level because that is certainly not the case for taxpayers in the city of Rogers.

Mayor Womack boasted in a congressional debate that he has $19 million in taxpayer dollars held in reserves. Wouldn’t a true fiscal conservative set aside a reasonable amount in a rainy day fund and then think about how to return the excess taxes to tax payers?

And last but certainly not the least of worries is the hefty pay raise Rogers’ Mayor Womack has received during his tenure. It went from $43,216 when he took office to currently $115,003. It was reported by the Tolbert Report that a “normal inflationary increase during this time period would put it around $56,000.”

It seems Mayor Steve Womack’s budgeting principles are the same budgeting strategies fiscal conservatives are trying to alleviate in Washington D.C.

Tales of Two "Servants"

Here in the 3rd District on June 8th we will join together once again to choose who we will to send to Washington from this region to represent our interests and to a larger degree, the state of Arkansas. The two candidates vying in a run-off are Cecile Bledsoe and Steve Womack, both of Rogers. In vetting each candidate, I discovered distinct differences. I hope my findings in fact will aid in your decision making process.

After several personal conversations with each candidates and researching of their records, here’s what I discovered.

When speaking with State Senator Bledsoe on issues where we disagreed, she listened to my views. She understood my position and even admitted that she had learned some lessons. She seemed sincerely interested in building relationships and bringing people to the table. She also even asked if I’d be willing to put her in contact with others who shared my concerns.

On the other hand in a conversation with Roger Mayor Steve Womack, hoping to clarify his position on taxes and his pet project of Adult Wellness Centers, he seemed to me to be unwilling to listen. He actually became defensive, at one point saying: "I don't hear you coming up with any answers"

In this same conversation which occurred a week before he agreed to sign the “Americans for Tax Reform Pledge” from ATR, Mayor Womack told me and another person that he would not sign the pledge because he felt that “taxes needed to be on the table.” It was the same statement he had made in a public forum not long before this conversation. So it seemed clear this was his position. But then, about a week later, he signed the pledge saying, it had been his intention “all along to sign it on April 15th." But that also was the day when Dick Morris called him on the carpet at a Tea Party rally on the Fayetteville square for being the only candidate of eight in the race not to have already signed the no tax pledge. You can decide for yourself, considering the timing of all this and his previous denials of the pledge, how sincere his explanation was.

Additionally, in our discussion when asked why private sector business was not included in his concept of these wellness centers he said he did not include them because in his view government: “needed to have full control, to do the best job"
In conclusion Mayor Womack said to me and my companion, “I am sure I will not get your vote but that is okay I am comfortable with the supporters I already have.” So much for constituent service.

These conversations for me, reveal two very different people with vastly different approaches to the job as a congressman. One was willing – even eager - to listen and ask for even more critiques, to take personal responsibility for her own actions and all without being publicly shamed. She also made a solemn pledge to Arkansans to not make the mistakes again.

The other appeared to be border-line hostile to questions, unwilling to hold an open and objective dialogue and clearly not genuinely committed to hold the line on increasing taxes even higher than they are.

I believe more than at any other juncture, we need and expect servant leaders not leaders who expect to be served. Arrogance in any public servant is not a pretty or endearing sight. I’ll be doing a follow-up posting on their records.

Just food for thought based in personal observations and experiences~

Masterson Predictions Arkansas Primary

These are just our predictions- nothing more, nothing less~

Senate
Lincoln Halter D.C. Morrison 10%...........runoff
Boozman - Holt runoff

Lt Gov
Darr wins

SOS
O’brien

Congress
1st Dist- Crawford squeaks by Smith
Have no idea on the Dem ticket
2nd Dist- Griffin wins
Elliot- Wills ...... runoff
3rd Dist-Womack and Moore in runoff

4th Dist- Gallas wins by small margin 51%


Supreme Court Seats
Baker wins....
Fogelman wins

Circuit Court Seats
Gary Carson wins…
Beth Bryan wins

Laurie's (first) Most Excellent Exit Poll~

I awoke this morning feeling supercharged for the events of the day. After doing my usual do-de-do’s like checking emails, updating twitter and Facebook, Mike and I piled in the car and headed off to vote at a fire station not far from the house.

I was immediately energized by the dealings. Being an “introvert” I only knew 50 percent of the people at the polls. Right after making our penciled little circles on paper ballots we decided to find some breakfast and write down our predictions about the candidates on our ballots, which I’ll share in the next post. Then I got the bright idea to do my own unscientific exit poll! Why not? I wanted to be out amongst the action and the people. I wanted to share in the spirit of the process after waiting for so many months.

I got home and quickly formulated the questions for my poll~ The fundamental idea was to see how many people I might find who wanted to become more informed and engaged. And I was really surprised by what I found.

I visited 5 voting locations within a 25 mile radius over 3.5 hours, wanting to get the largest random pool of people for Laurie’s first Most Excellent Exit Poll. The individual questions and results are posted below. But here’s what I found. Forty percent were at least 51 years old. The next largest age group at 25 percent was between 30 and 40. Over 45 percent of those I surveyed said they spent “several hours” gathering and researching information before voting while 30 percent said they spent just over an hour. Then 68 percent said they shared the information they had gathered with others (primarily a spouse or relative).

And here was a bit of a shocker, One hundred percent of the people who voted ( I believe that means EVERY single one of them) answered “No” to the question: “Are you happy with the current state of politics in America?” (Perhaps not much of a shocking surprise there). BUT, asked if they would want to become more involved to help change things 60 percent said NO! That was discouraging.

As a matter of fact, at the first two places I stopped to question folks, that number was also 100 percent. I was, ummmm, I have no words. Friends, it strikes me that our biggest problem is one of apathy. For those of us who understand how crucial it is that we all become engaged in the process of electing our leaders, it falls incumbent on us to make sure we are attracting others, and sharing with them, the absolute urgency in 2010 of becoming an engaged citizen, rather than an endangered servant~

Age	Percentage
18-29	18.00%
30-40	25.00%
41-50	18.00%
51>	40.00%
Time Spent Vetting
<>	25.00%
> 1 hr	30.00%
Several hrs	45.00%
Source of Info
Friends/Family	3.00%
Web	15.00%
ADS	5.00%
Organizations	0.00%
All Above	77.00%
Discuss Info with others
Yes	68.00%
No	32.00%
Happy with current state of politics in America
Yes	0.00%
No	100.00%
Voting Record
Always	80.00%
Sometimes	18.00%
1st time	2.00%
Want to be more involved
Yes	40.00%
No	60.00%

The Morning After?

Well, here we are just a little over 24 hours from the results of tons of primaries across the nation as they close the polls and report the results.

Wonder what will happen to all the candidates that have been expounding around the nation on their credentials, patriotism and how hard they want to work for us once the primary vote is counted?

The way I understand it there’s only one “winner” per party, unless of course there’s a run-off election. That having been said there are around 30 candidates who will not be moving toward the November general election just from the U.S Senate and Congressional races in Arkansas alone. When we begin counting non-winners in the other races such as Supreme Court, Circuit Courts, Arkansas Representative seats, etc. we should be well over 100 concerned Arkansans that have said they recognize our many serious problems and have ideas for fixing them.

Taking this a step further to include all the staff and volunteers in each of these campaigns, folks who have been so intently focused on these important issues over the past few months I’d daresay we might be up to almost 1000 Arkansans.

On Wednesday, May 19^th I challenge all those who have been so passionately involved in wanting to set things straight within our systems by being a public servant to become a servant leader. Will you still be interested in helping make Arkansas and its citizens a better place with your time, money and energy even after the whoopla and excitement of a campaign has died?

I would say that with 1000 fully engaged, committed citizens, Arkansas is poised to make epic change to affect the nation!