KARN Newsradio
Reaction Blog |
| For discussion of shows, hosts, and topics on KARN Newsradio 102.9 FM / 920 AM in Little Rock, AR. This blog was created for you, the listeners, to react to us. Free speech and debate is encouraged, and all we ask is that we keep it cordial and clean. And remember, the thoughts and opinion posts to this blog belong to the individual host, producer, or reporter. They do not necessarily reflect the views of the management of KARN-AM/FM or Citadel Broadcasting. |
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| Senate contacts |
| Thursday, February 26, 2009 |
Here are the email address for some of the members of the Senate State Agencies and Govt'l affairs committee. Please contact them and ask them not to let HB1339 out of committee.
Gilbert Baker - bakerg@arkleg.state.ar.us Steve Bryles - bryless@arkleg.state.ar.us Kim Hendren - hendrenk@arkleg.state.ar.us Bill Prithard - prithardb@arkleg.state.ar.us Bobby Glover - cnhc@juno.com
YIL
Dave |
posted by Dave Elswick @ 5:13 PM   |
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| Just for Pat Lynch |
| Wednesday, February 25, 2009 |
I offer this small piece from the MSM to prove to Pat Lynch that what the President says and does has a direct impact on the Stock Market. Tuesday night on channel 4 Lynch said he didn't believe that the Stock Market numbers reflected in any way on the new President. Wrong as usual Pat. Pat should follow what my Dad use to say to me, "better to let people think you're ignorant then for you to open your mouth and prove it, because you don't know what you're talking about."
YIL
Dave |
| posted by Dave Elswick @ 1:54 PM |
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| Interesting reading from the AP |
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An article from the AP who, believe it or not, questions some of the Presidents speech last night. I think the some members of the MSM might have begun seeing that the Emperor might not be wearing any clothes. I can only hope.
YIL
Dave |
| posted by Dave Elswick @ 11:17 AM |
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| Wednesday show |
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Today's show features:
2:35-3pm State Rep Jon Woods on HCR 1011 concerning Arkansas invoking the 10th amendment.
3pm-4 perhaps longer American Taxpayers Union
We'll also talk about the Presidents Speech |
| posted by Dave Elswick @ 10:51 AM |
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| Tuesday on the Elswick Show |
| Monday, February 23, 2009 |
Here's what's up on Tuesday's show
2:35 tenative the sponsor of HB 1339 which would eradicate the electoral college for Arkansas
3pm State Rep Wood concerning state sovereignty
4pm Tim Griffen.....will he run against Senator Lincoln?
5pm open phone your thoughts. |
| posted by Dave Elswick @ 11:36 PM |
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| Tom Woods |
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Great interview today with Tom Woods author of Meltdown. This is a MUST read if you want to understand what's happening with the stimulus plan, the bank bailout etc. If you missed the interview or perhaps want to share it, we'll have it here on karnnewsradio.com in the next day under the podcast head. Tom's web site is tomwoods.com. Here's the article he talked about on the show today. Great reading.
YIL
Dave |
| posted by Dave Elswick @ 11:11 PM |
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| What's up Monday for Elswick |
| Sunday, February 22, 2009 |
Here's who will appear Monday on the Elswick Show.
2:35-3pm Kirsten Swinson of Celebrity Attractions
3-4pm Tom Wood NYT best selling author talk about his book Meltdown, which explains why capitalism didn't fail govt intervention did and the economy tanked.
4-5:30pm Grant Exton, Executive Director of the Arkansas Concealed Carry Association talks about where we are with various bills dealing with 2nd amendment rights in the General Assembly.
Talk to ya Monday...
YIL
Dave |
| posted by Dave Elswick @ 7:25 PM |
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| Senator Coburn speech |
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This is making the rounds and should be read it will take a few moments but is worth your time.
Senator (R-OK) Tom Coburn' speech ,"We are going in exactly the wrong direction". We ought to be standing on the principles that made this country great. There ought to be a review of every program in the Federal Government that is not effective, that is not efficient, that is wasteful or fraudulent, and we ought to get rid of it right now. We ought to say, Gone, to be able to pay for a real stimulus plan that might, in fact, have some impact.
I would be remiss if I didn't remind everybody that next week we are going to hear from the Obama administration wanting another $500 billion. Outside of this, they are going to want another $500 billion to handle the banking system. Still not fixing the real disease-the pneumonia-we are going to treat the fever or treat the cough, but we are not going to treat the real disease. Until we treat the real disease, this is pure waste. It is worse than pure waste. It is morally reprehensible, because it steals the future of the next two generations.
I am going to wind up here and finish, but I wanted to spend some time to make sure the American people know what is in this bill. I think once they know what is in this bill, they are going to reject it out of hand. Let me read for my colleagues some of the things that are in this bill. The biggest earmark in history is in this bill. There is $2 billion in this bill to build a coal plant with zero emissions. That would be great, maybe, if we had the technology, but the greatest brains in the world sitting at MIT say we don't have the technology yet to do that. Why would we build a $2 billion powerplant we don't have the technology for that we know will come back and ask for another $2 billion and another $2 billion and another $2 billion when we could build a demonstration project that might cost $150 million or $200 million? There is nothing wrong with having coal-fired plants that don't produce pollution; I am not against that. Even the Washington Post said the technology isn't there. It is a boondoggle. Why would we do that?
We eliminated tonight a $246 million payback for the large movie studios in Hollywood . We are going to spend $88 million to study whether we ought to buy a new ice breaker for the Coast Guard. You know what. The Coast Guard needs a new ice breaker. Why do we need to spend $88 million? They have two ice breakers now that they could retrofit and fix and come up with equivalent to what they needed to and not spend the $1 billion they are going to come back and ask for, for another ice breaker, so why would we spend $88 million doing that?
We are going to spend $448 million to build the Department of Homeland Security a new building. We have $1.3 trillion worth of empty buildings right now, and because it has been blocked in Congress we can't sell them, we can't raze them, we can't do anything, but we are going to spend money on a new building here in Washington . We are going to spend another $248 million for new furniture for that building; a quarter of a billion dollars for new furniture. What about the furniture the Department of Homeland Security has now? These are tough times. Should we be buying new furniture? How about using what we have? That is what a family would do. They would use what they have. They wouldn't go out and spend $248 million on furniture. How about buying $600 million worth of hybrid vehicles? Do you know what I would say? Right now times are tough; I would rather Americans have new cars than Federal employees have new cars. What is wrong with the cars we have? Dumping $600 million worth of used vehicles on the used vehicle market right now is one of the worst things we could do. Instead, we are going to spend $600 million buying new cars for Federal employees.There is $400 million in here to prevent STDs. I have a lot of experience on that. I have delivered 4,000 babies. We don't need to spend $400 million on STDs. What we need to do is properly educate about the infection rates and the effectiveness of methods of prevention. That doesn't take a penny more. You can write that on one piece of paper and teach every kid in this country, but we don't need to spend $400 million on it. It is not a priority.
How about $1.4 billion for rural waste disposal programs? That might even be somewhat stimulative. New sewers. That might create jobs. How about $150 million for a Smithsonian museum? Tell me how that helps get us out of a recession. Tell me how that is a priority. Would the average American think that is a priority that we ought to be mortgaging our kids' future to spend another $150 million at the Smithsonian?
How about $1 billion for the 2010 census? So everybody knows, the census is so poorly managed that the census this year is going to cost twice-in 2010 is going to cost twice what it cost 10 years ago, and we wasted $800 million on a contract because it was no-bid that didn't perform. Nobody got fired, no competitive bidding, and we blew $800 million.
We have $75 million for smoking cessation activities, which probably is a great idea, but we just passed a bill-the SCHIP bill-that we need to get 21 million more Americans smoking to be able to pay for that bill. That doesn't make sense.
How about $200 million for public computer centers at community colleges? Since when is a community college in my State a recipient of Federal largesse? Is that our responsibility? I mean, did we talk with Dell and Hewlett-Packard and say, How do we make you all do better? Is there not a market force that could make that better? Will we actually buy on a true competitive bid? No, because there is nothing that requires competitive bidding in anything in this bill. There is nothing that requires it. It is one of the things President Obama said he was going to mandate at the Federal Government, but there is no competitive bidding in this bill at all.
We have $10 million to inspect canals in urban areas. Well, that will put 10 or 15 people to work. Is that a priority for us right now? There is $6 billion to turn Federal buildings into green buildings. That is a priority, versus somebody getting a job outside of Washington , a job that actually produces something, that actually increases wealth? How about $500 million for State and local fire stations? Where do you find in the Constitution us paying for local fire stations within our realm of prerogatives? None of it is competitively bid-not a grant program. Next is $1.2 billion for youth activities. Who does that employ? What does that mean? How about $88 million for renovating the public health service building? You know, if we could sell half of the $1.3 trillion worth of properties we have, we could take care of every Federal building requirement and backlog we have. Then there's $412 million for CDC buildings and property. We spent billions on a new center and headquarters for CDC. Is that a priority? Building another Government building instead of-if we are going to spend $412 million on building buildings, let's build one that will produce something, one that will give us something. How about $850 million for that most ``efficient'' Amtrak that hasn't made any money since 1976 and continues to have $2 billion or $3 billion a year in subsidies? Here is one of my favorites: $75 million to construct a new ``security training'' facility for State Department security officers, and we have four other facilities already available to train them. But it is not theirs. They want theirs. By the way, it is going to be in West Virginia . I wonder how that got there. So we are going to build a new training facility that duplicates four others that we already have that could easily do what we need to do. But because we have a stimulus package, we are going to add in oink pork. How about $200 million in funding for a lease-not buying, but a lease of alternative energy vehicles on military installations? We are going to bail out the States on Medicaid. Total all of the health programs in this, and we are going to transfer $150 billion out of the private sector and we are going to move it to the Federal Government. You talk about backdooring national health care. Henry Waxman has to be smiling big today. He wants a single-payer Government-run health care system. We are going to move another $150 billion to the Federal Government from the private sector. We are going to eliminate fees on loans from the Small Business Administration. You know what that does? That pushes productive capital to unproductive projects. It is exactly the wrong thing to do. Then there is $160 million to the Job Corps Program-but not for jobs and not to put more people in the Job Corps but to construct or repair buildings. We are going to spend $524 million for information technology upgrades that the Appropriations Committee claims will create 388 jobs. If you do the math on that, that is $1.5 million a job. Don't you love the efficiency of Washington thinking? We are going to create $79 billion in additional money for the States, a ``slush fund,'' to bail out States and provide millions of dollars for education costs. How many of you think that will ever go away? Once the State education programs get $79 billion over 2 years, do you think that will ever go away? The cry and hue of taking our money away-even though it was a stimulus and supposed to be limited, it will never go away. So we will continue putting that forward until our kids have grandkids of their own. There is about $47 billion for a variety of energy programs that are primarily focused on renewable energy. I am fine with spending that. But we ought to get something for it. There ought to be metrics. There are no metrics. It is pie in the sky, saying we will throw some money at it. Let me conclude by saying we are at a seminal moment in our country. We will either start living within the confines of realism and responsibility or we will blow it and we will create the downfall of the greatest Nation that ever lived. This bill is the start of that downfall. To abandon a market-oriented society and transfer it to a Soviet-style, government-centered, bureaucratic-run and mandated program, that is the thing that will put the stake in the heart of freedom in this country. I hope the American people know what is in this bill. I am doing everything I can to make sure they know. But more important, I hope somebody is listening who will treat the ``pneumonia'' we are faced with today, which is the housing and mortgage markets. It doesn't matter how much money we spend in this bill. It is doomed to failure unless we fix that problem first. Failing that, we will go down in history as the Congress that undermined the future and vitality of this country. Let it not be so. |
| posted by Dave Elswick @ 7:21 PM |
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| Dr. Betsy McCaughey |
| Wednesday, February 11, 2009 |
When you call your legislator here's the three things to mention...
1. this is an invasion of my privacy
2. this is rationing of health care
3. this will pentalize my family doctor for treating me
Number to call 202-224-3121 |
| posted by Dave Elswick @ 4:14 PM |
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| Dr. Delk |
| Monday, February 9, 2009 |
The meeting with Dr. Delk will take place at 6pm at the Reynolds Center for Aging. You need a reservation but it's free of charge. Call 501-526-6990 Ext 1133. My thanks to Dr. Delk for talking to us on my show.
YIL
Dave |
| posted by Dave Elswick @ 5:31 PM |
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| Fairness Doctrine |
| Friday, February 6, 2009 |
You have got to view this video of a conversation between Bill Press (a liberal talk show host) and Sen. Stabenow, D-MI. First let me point out a couple of things. Air America left the airwaves in the cities the host mentioned because it WASN'T making ANY MONEY. People own radio stations to MAKE money not to LOSE money. The ratings of those stations was below horrid.
I'm not dismayed that the wife (that's the Senator Stabenow) of the man behind Air America would want it to succeed. If you are a liberal find NPR, they talk from your point of view all the time, however remember that the only way they stay in business is from the infusion of tax money they get every year and from their small band of listeners donating cash. Radio in the REAL market place has to sell ads to raise their revenue.
This is a perfect example of people with ideas that only a slight minority agree with, wanting the government to force stations to waste their money to put ideas out in the marketplace that no one wants to hear, thus causing the stations to lose revenue.
YIL
Dave |
| posted by Dave Elswick @ 9:48 AM |
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| Hey it's only 18 BILLION PLUS |
| Wednesday, February 4, 2009 |
On my show from the Capitol Tuesday I began talking about the real cost of government here in the state of Arkansas. In the past I've only talked about how much money there is in the general revenue. Here's a power point presentation done by the Bureau of Legislative Affairs at the Capitol. Look closely where it says The Budget Process (warning what you will see next may make you vomit or even perhaps cause your heart to seize up. I take no responsibility from this point forward), the cost of government in Arkansas is 18 Billion dollars. That's right 18 billion. Oh that doesn't include what you pay in property taxes for your schools, nor does it include the sales taxes you are paying to your county or city where you live. I'm working on those numbers for you.
My question for you is simple....why isn't 18+ Billion dollars enough. Why must the power brokers need more of your and my money? Could it be it's for them to solidify their power and positions? I don't know about you but I'm sick of politicians saying it's for a "good cause" or "for the children." We have over 18 billion dollars going to "good causes" and "the children."
Here's a 'good cause' for the Governor, the Representatives and State Senators. MY FAMILY AND MY CHILDREN. I work hard, so do you. Perhaps (don't hold your breathe) the politicians could let us have OUR money to take care of OUR families instead of taking OUR money to supposedly help everyone else.
YIL
Dave |
| posted by Dave Elswick @ 10:15 AM |
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