Not much snow yet, but close to an inch of sleet & ice. Roads have been slick since about 11:30 a.m. Heavy snow still on the way. If you ain't already home, go home.
And stay there.
I am now gainfully employed....or will be on Jan. 2nd.
WOO-HOO!
You're looking at (so to speak) the newest Benton Co. juvie PD.
I'm so excited!
Is Al Gore coming to town or sumpin? Here's our current forecast:
Brisk southerly winds ahead of the front will quickly shift to the north... blowing at about 20 mph with gusts to about 30 mph. Temperatures will fall 15 to 20 degrees within a few minutes after frontal passage. Temperatures will then continue to slowly fall during the remainder of the day.
But wait, there's more. We're also under a winter storm warning.
An Arctic cold front will bring sharply colder air to the area
today. Rain will develop across the area today and will begin to
change to freezing rain this evening... then eventually to sleet
and snow by Thursday. A strong upper level storm system will move
out of the southwest U.S. Across the area Thursday which will
enhance the snowfall across the area. Snow accumulations of
4 inches or more are possible in parts of northeast Oklahoma
and northwest Arkansas. However the variety of precipitation
types will make travel conditions hazardous before any snow occurs.
A Winter Storm Warning means significant amounts of snow...
sleet... and ice are expected. Strong winds are also possible.
This will make travel very hazardous or impossible.
Sounds like tomorrow will be a good day to stay home.
Let the MilkBreadEgg stampede begin!
Do you have any idea how difficult it is to custom-fit a costume to a big fat pug? A big fat pug who is ready to skip the fittings and just get on with proudly wearing his new clothes?
"Come back here you little fat bastard" was hissed here frequently this afternoon, I can tell you.
I'm almost finished, and will try to post some pics when I get done. Assuming I can get him to sit still long enough to take them.
Sheesh.
Don't tell anyone, but...
I may have a new job. Should know for sure in a week or so, but looks velly promising. As in tailor-made for me, PLUS the office is only a couple of blocks from our house. Can't beat that with a stick, as my dad would say.
Keep your fingers crossed.
Was this morning crazy or what? I had to break out my mad ninja skillz just to get a stupid Cabbage Patch doll.....and since I was the 1st one there (at 4 a.m.) & had been waiting about an hour, I WAS GETTING A STUPID CABBAGE PATCH DOLL FOR MY GRANDDAUGHTER NO MATTER HOW MANY WOMEN MOBBED THE PALLET. Doll boxes were flying everywhere, I shit you not. Mike said when the mob swarmed the pallet, I had this look on my face like "Holy shit what have I gotten myself into?"
I got one by crackies....but it was kinda scary. She better play with the damn thing. Then I made my way quickly throught the crowd and got everything else I'd gone for. As many thickets as I've slipped through hunting, I'm not going to let some little old crowd impede my progress.
We came home, ate breakfast and went back to stand in line 2 1/2 hrs. to get into another store. I scored a cartful of toys, but it was brutal. Unlike the previous store however, I had a shopping cart of death and I wasn't afraid to use it.
Hillbilly Ninja, HAI-YA y'all.
Here's wishing a Happy Turkey Day to you & yours!
We're having a quiet (I hope) non-traditional Thanksgiving this year. Mike's cooking smoked duck, and said something about stir-fry.....I've been teasing him about having "A Christmas Story" dinner. Should be yummy though.
The real marathon starts tomorrow with early a.m. Black Friday sales, then down to pick up WildChild (230 mile roundtrip), then down to my sister's Saturday (250 mile roundtrip), then taking WildChild home Sunday (another 230 miles). Whew!
Way too much car time.
If you're planning to drive I-40 this holiday weekend, you might want to leave a little early.
In what officials are calling the largest coordinated effort of its kind, state police from California to North Carolina will have troopers posted along every 10 miles of Interstate 40 as travelers hit the highway for the Thanksgiving holiday.
Troopers from all eight states along the 2,547-mile east-west corridor will participate in an effort, called I-40 Care Across America, to reduce the number of fatalities during the busiest travel period. The states participating in the program are California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee and North Carolina.
We travel a few miles of I-40 every time we go to pick up WildChild, and always drive the speed limit anyway because there's most always troopers around the weight station there watching for drug runners. And God bless them every one. (The troopers, not the drug runners.)
I hope they catch all they can haul.
Good news for bloggers:
Web sites that publish inflammatory information written by other parties cannot be sued for libel, the California Supreme Court ruled Monday.
The ruling in favor of free online expression was a victory for a San Diego woman who was sued by two doctors for posting an allegedly libelous e-mail on two Web sites.
.....
In reversing an appellate court's decision, the state Supreme Court ruled that the Communications Decency Act of 1996 provides broad immunity from defamation lawsuits for people who publish information on the Internet that was gathered from another source.
The case, Barrett, et al. v. Rosenthal, which the news services don't bother to link to, can be read here. Go read it for yourself, it's actually fairly well written.
The interesting dicta for us is found on p. 29:
We note that in cases where an individual’s role as operator of a Web site raised a question as to whether he was a “service provider� or a “user,� the courts found it unnecessary to resolve the issue because the statute confers immunity on both.
Good to know we don't have to try & determine if someone's comment is libelous, especially for those of us who moderate comments. Which I do on occasion, though I rarely have to except for comment spam. But there's been a few times when I didn't publish someone's comment because of its content. A recent 9/11 conspiracy comment springs to mind, a long-winded rehashing of some of the most ridiculous drivel I've ever read....which of course you, dear reader, didn't have to endure because I keel it before it grow mon. It fell into that category of 'get your own blog cuz you're not wasting my bandwidth with that crap' automatic deletion & blocking of the author. And he can't sue me cuz Congress said so, so HA! That only happens rarely, but it does happen.
Not to any of you, of course. Y'all have better manners.
Don't miss the Bentonville Christmas Parade on Dec. 2 at 11 a.m. I have it on very good authority that Christopher Robin and his pal, Winnie-the-Pug, will be walking in the parade, along with their 2 'handlers'.....one of which will be me.
Should be fun, or at least interesting.
Sen. Edwards may like to bash Wal-Mart to his union buddies, but whom does the Senator call when he wants a PlayStation3?
Yeah. Go read and be amazed at the hypocrisy.
Around here it's the deer that are in rut, not the people.
If that ain't against the law, it should be.....as well as being grounds for automatic involuntary commitment.
Nasty.
The illegals problem has reached a tipping point in Rogers, and their mayor is trying to find a solution.
Of the 57 arrests for delivery or intent to deliver drugs in Rogers since the first of 2005, 43 were Hispanic and 25 were illegal immigrants, according to statistics gathered by Mayor Steve Womack on Wednesday.
His first solution was to propose a Hazelton ordinance, which has been put on hold pending the outcome of the Hazelton lawsuit. Now he's trying to get ICE 287(g) training for Rogers' police force. Which is a good idea cuz those poor 2 ICE agents who cover NW Arkansas need all the help they can get.
A recent road rage shooting illustrates our problem:
After a 2000 arrest in Salinas, Calif., Camacho was deported back to Mexico, officials from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement say. But by 2003 Camacho was living in Northwest Arkansas.......
After deportation, Camacho returned to the United States and settled in Northwest Arkansas working as a day laborer. Rogers police encountered him almost a dozen times between 2003 to 2006. He was a suspect in a rape case that wasn't pursued. He was convicted of driving while intoxicated, third-degree battery, criminal mischief and three times of not having a driver's license. He had speeding tickets -- one for driving between 46 and 50 mph over the speed limit.
Once, he was stopped for playing "unnecessarily loud" music in his vehicle and claimed to be a member of a "South 18th Street" gang, police said.
None of these arrests, or resulting checks with the Arkansas Crime Information Center, flagged Camacho as having been deported or being illegal.
Then there's the more recent incident which provided the proverbial straw:
Camacho's tale is mirrored by Jose and Ricardo Mora, subjects of recent news stories about an accidental shooting of a Rogers undercover narcotics officer. Immigration officials claim the brothers were deported in 2000, but local police encountered the men since then. They are now in the Benton County Jail facing felony drug charges from an October drug raid.
All this has brought the inevitable charges of racism and discrimination, but seriously. Is it racist if a large percentage of arrests are of illegal Hispanics who are committing crimes?
I don't think it is.
What I've seen in the last 5 years or so is a large influx of Hispanic gang-bangers and drug runners who are preying on the decent, hardworking families who live here....regardless of the families' race, color or creed. And we don't want them here. We have enough homegrown ones. At least the non-illegal criminals get sent to prison. The illegals get deported and are right back in a few months or weeks.
And it's pretty plain that the federal government, for whatever reason, isn't going to spend the money necessary to stop it.
I didn't think this was worth mentioning, but since it's now hit Best of the Web AND Fark, here you go.
The term-limited governor leaves office in January, and friends of Janet Huckabee created the registries at Dillard's and Target stores to help facilitate their transition to private life, Huckabee spokeswoman Alice Stewart said Friday.
The Huckabees purchased a 7,000-square-foot home in North Little Rock this year.
So what's all the hubbub, bub?
Arkansas law prohibits public servants from accepting any gift worth more than $100, unless the gift is conferred "on account of a bona fide personal, professional or business relationship" independent of the recipient's official status.
"Items costing more than $100, which are given to public servants to show appreciation for their efforts (i.e., to reward them for doing their job) or to reward them for past or future action, are prohibited under this rule," the law states.
There's an exception for wedding gifts. So? Well, the 'friends' registered the Huckabees on the wedding registries at Tar-jey and Dillards. So of course this is some big ethical scandal because they were apparently trying to circumvent the ethics rules.
Now I don't care for our Gov., but I think there's a much simpler explanation. Dillard's and Tar-jey don't have a 'housewarming' registry, as far as I know. Just wedding or baby registries. I'm guessing 'housewarming' seemed closer to 'wedding' than 'baby'.
IMHO, for what it's worth.
Oh and btw, that sobbing sound you hear emanating from Little Rock is our Gov. kissing his presidential aspirations goodbye.
What are friends for?
Folks down in Johnson County have been seeing a strange animal.
Some people say it's a cross between a wild dog and coyote, but others say there's an air of mystery surrounding the animal. Some even think it has characteristics of a Chupacabra, an animal from a Hispanic legend.
Judging from the photo, I'd say it's a dead dog with a bad case of mange. A dog that wants to suck your blood BWAHAHAHA.
Or more likely eat your chickens anyway.
Looks like Benton Co. has a final vote count, after three tries.....one of which appeared to show an 83% voter turnout (it was actually about 50%) and a few towns in which every man, woman, child and dog voted.
Now before you start in about the new electronic voting machines, the errors were mostly caused by.....humans.
On election night, two errors occurred simultaneously, McCarthy said. The first error was a computer glitch caused when the county's information services department tried to send a live feed of results to an election watch party at the Clarion Hotel in Bentonville. That glitch caused votes to be deleted as new results were entered six precincts at a time.
The second error caused vote totals to soar as temporary election workers failed to reset the machines that tabulate the paper ballots. Because they failed to reset the machines, some precincts were counted more than once, McCarthy said.
Oopsie.
The election commission is satisfied that they've finally gotten the correct results, though some candidates may ask for a hand recount in the close races.
Can't say that I blame them.
Rain changing to snow predicted for tomorrow. Let's all panic together now shall we? AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!! Mike suggested last night that we call BloodSpite and see if he & the missus wanted to hop in their 4WD & join us in a frantic grocery store run for MilkBreadEggs.
Actually I may have to do that (make a store run I mean) cuz me & Smokey are almost out of half & half, and WildChild drank all the milk over the weekend. You'd be surprised how much food a 47 inch 50lb 5 yr. old growing boy can pack away.
Mike, who's taking some use 'em or lose 'em vacation days this week, finished winterizing the house yesterday, so we're all set.
LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW.
Now this is downright depressing.
Donald H. Rumsfeld is stepping down as defense secretary and former CIA Director Robert Gates will be nominated to take his place.
Now who'll tell us about the things we don't know which we didn't know that we didn't know? Gates?
Hardly likely. Sheesh.
And now for something completely different.
Plus Kitty! Pet at your own risk.
Don't say I didn't warn you.
Looks like I can stop worrying about my son's March deployment. All terrorists worldwide will now stop their quest for destruction of the infidels, and instead become vegans who raise fluffy bunnies. [/s]
Seriously though, regardless of the outcome, wasn't it great to once again witness a reasonably peaceful transfer of power? I think it was. I'd rather not think about what this means for national security.
The one bright spot of the day was Lieberman's victory over Lamont. After the shabby way he'd been treated, now he's a potential swing vote in the Senate.
Priceless.
The only prediction I feel reasonably confident in making is that one side or the other will be crying in their beer by tomorrow night. Hope it's not us cuz.....I don't much like beer.
Haven't heard any horror stories of any major local problems with voting. I did hear how the other day someone had totally screwed up one of the new electronic voting machine somehow, and was indignantly insisting that he didn't have fat fingers and he didn't know why the tech had said that.
Hehe.
Polls don't close here for another 2 hrs., so results won't be coming in for a while. The governor's race is the only one I'm very interested in....and the usual indicators are mixed. Beebe raised more money and lead in the polls. I think Hutchinson is taller, but neither of them have good hair. Beebe's a Little Rock politician, Hutchinson is a NWA homeboy. Old school political machine vs. new economic powerhouse. The result should be interesting.
Gah, I hate waiting.
The polls will be opening soon, so if you haven't already GO VOTE. As my dad used to say, off your ass & on your feet, outta the shade & in the heat. Though there's not much of that here this morning, more like a rilly heavy fog.
Lots of us have already voted, they're talking a record turnout for the early vote, an estimated 10% as of yesterday. Here in Benton County, a little over 14,000 early votes have been cast out of about 96,000 registered voters. Pretty amazing for a non-presidential race.
Like I said when I had a jury come back in under 30 minutes, that's either really good or really bad. After all, like my jury, it could be an indication that voters made up their minds early in the races. Or it could just be that voters like the convenience of the early vote.
Guess we'll find out tonight.
Over the past few days I've seen a lot of hoopla over a supposed military editorial calling for Rumsfeld's resignation. Headlines breathlessly proclaimed stuff like MILITARY CALLS FOR RUMSFELD'S REMOVAL.
Actually, it would be more accurate to say GANNETT-OWNED NEWSPAPERS CALL FOR RUMSFELD'S REMOVAL....which is, of course, not the military at all.
Remember, GIYF**.
**Google Is Your Friend
In case you haven't seen it yet, here's the NYT article everyone's buzzing about this morning. (Link via Drudge) Apparently the WMD R&D that was OK-fine for the Iraqis to have is too dangerous to post on the web because....wait for it.....someone could use it to make WMDs.
Logic has never been a liberal strength.
I've never bought the whole 'Saddam didn't really have any WMDs, his scientists were just faking it with smoke and mirrors' thing either. I mean really. If you were a scientist working for a fanatical dictator, would you really try to blow happy sunshine smoke up his butt about weapon development? When you knew if he found out, the nicest thing that might happen to you AND your family was you'd be fed into a wood chipper feetfirst? I think not.
That, my friend, is highly illogical.
Just like this latest 'outrage'. I swear, it's almost funny sometimes the things liberals will rush to print if they're told it's anti-Bush.
Or it would be if it weren't kinda sad. But then useful idiots always are.
A little over 98,000 voters have already voted, as of yesterday. Add at least 2 more as of today, plus the 15 or so in line in front of us....and the 20 or so in line I saw as we left.
Now I can sit back & laugh at all the nasty campaign ads that have started running on all the local tv stations. Not that I haven't already been doing that, but anyway.
For the first time ever, I tried to vote a straight ticket. And just couldn't. There were a few Republicans I just couldn't bring myself to vote for *cough*Holt*cough*. I was undecided on our mayor's race until I saw this yesterday. I refuse to vote for any candidate who supports an outdoor smoking ban.
That's just ignorant.
Kerry's apologized. Sorta.
"I sincerely regret that my words were misinterpreted to wrongly imply anything negative about those in uniform and I personally apologize to any service member, family member or American who was offended," Kerry said in a statement.
Hmmm, let's run that through the ol' translator:
I'm sorry you were too stupid to understand what I really meant and thereby got all offended.
Or how about: I didn't do anything wrong and you're stupid for thinking I did.
Because that's what those kind of 'apologies' really mean.
If Dear John rilly wants to "personally apologize" to family members of servicemen, he can show up on my doorstep, say around 6 a.m.
We'll talk.
Plz sit down & STFU.
Thx,
DNC
Guess he got the memo.
In case you haven't seen it, you can watch John Kerry lay waste, in a manner reminiscent of Ghenjis Khan, to the DNC's chances of regaining Congress here.
Now, not being a Yale man myself, at first blush his now infamous statement seems to be calling my son, neighbors & friends stupid. Which he probably does think, but surely couldn't be foolish enough to say publicly.
On second read, he appears to be telling young people to stay in college to avoid military service. Hello? New century here. No draft, Mr. Stuck-in-the-60s.
But, according to the esteemed Senator, neither of these was what he was saying at all. Here's what he really said: Bush is stupid.
Oh, that old dead horse again. *yawn*
He goes on to say, sorta, that he would never insult our troops. Is that so, Sen. Winter Soldier? Or should that be Sen. Selective Memory?
One thing that is crystal clear is no one needs a Rovian October Surprise when Kerry's around.
What a maroon.