by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist
William Rivers Pitt has become my favorite political journalist. His articles on U.S. politics and economic policies are always spot on, and he is one helluva good writer. Mr. Pitt's work can be found at www.truthout.org where he posts every two weeks or so - and for those unfamiliar with Truthout.org, you need to stop by and get acquainted with the work of Pitt and all of the other columnists who contribute to that most excellent site.
Mr. Pitt had a new article posted today entitled "Staring at Empty Pages" where he credited the Occupy Movement with having an impact on President Obama's State of the Union speech. Toward the end of that piece, Pitt referenced a political story out of Arkansas that was new to me. It seems that earlier this week, on the same night that Gabby Giffords resigned from Congress, the campaign manager for a Democratic Congressional candidate returned to his home in Russellville, Arkansas, with his four children in tow, and discovered the corpse of the family cat on the front porch. Someone had smashed in the cat's skull and painted the word "liberal" across its body.
The campaign manager, Jacob Burris, has been working for his candidate, Ken Aden, for several months. As near as can be determined, the cat had no role in the campaign, and likely had no political philosophy or agenda, but was simply the children's pet.
William Rivers Pitt stated in his article that a "talk show host" for Arkansas radio station KURM, one Kermit Womack, has been releasing the addresses of political opponents he doesn't like over the air. Pitt added:
Yes, if I were Mr. Burris I would be fearing for the safety of my family. In fact, if I were anyone on the list of people whose home addresses were spewed out over radio station KURM, I would be very, very afraid. That is a tactic that the so-called "Right to Life" movement has used to intimidate doctors and women's health care providers for several years now- and it is shameless! It is also terrorism.
But, as Paul Harvey used to say, here's the rest of the story.
I am from that area and have listened to radio station KURM out of Rogers, Arkansas - so I decided to see what the local press had to say about the incident. Kermit Womack is not only a talk show host on KURM, he also owns the radio station. Not only that, but (and this is a great big "but") he is the father of Congressman Steve Womack of Arkansas's third district - the man that Ken Aden is trying to unseat!
Stay tuned. There just has to be more coming on this story!
Citizen Journalist
William Rivers Pitt has become my favorite political journalist. His articles on U.S. politics and economic policies are always spot on, and he is one helluva good writer. Mr. Pitt's work can be found at www.truthout.org where he posts every two weeks or so - and for those unfamiliar with Truthout.org, you need to stop by and get acquainted with the work of Pitt and all of the other columnists who contribute to that most excellent site.
Mr. Pitt had a new article posted today entitled "Staring at Empty Pages" where he credited the Occupy Movement with having an impact on President Obama's State of the Union speech. Toward the end of that piece, Pitt referenced a political story out of Arkansas that was new to me. It seems that earlier this week, on the same night that Gabby Giffords resigned from Congress, the campaign manager for a Democratic Congressional candidate returned to his home in Russellville, Arkansas, with his four children in tow, and discovered the corpse of the family cat on the front porch. Someone had smashed in the cat's skull and painted the word "liberal" across its body.
The campaign manager, Jacob Burris, has been working for his candidate, Ken Aden, for several months. As near as can be determined, the cat had no role in the campaign, and likely had no political philosophy or agenda, but was simply the children's pet.
William Rivers Pitt stated in his article that a "talk show host" for Arkansas radio station KURM, one Kermit Womack, has been releasing the addresses of political opponents he doesn't like over the air. Pitt added:
"While no firm, direct link has been established, it can be assumed that someone decided to take violent action after the location of Mr. Burris' home went out over the air. It was a cat, this time...but given the gruesome nature of the act, Mr. Burris must correctly be wondering if it could have been one of his children."
Yes, if I were Mr. Burris I would be fearing for the safety of my family. In fact, if I were anyone on the list of people whose home addresses were spewed out over radio station KURM, I would be very, very afraid. That is a tactic that the so-called "Right to Life" movement has used to intimidate doctors and women's health care providers for several years now- and it is shameless! It is also terrorism.
But, as Paul Harvey used to say, here's the rest of the story.
I am from that area and have listened to radio station KURM out of Rogers, Arkansas - so I decided to see what the local press had to say about the incident. Kermit Womack is not only a talk show host on KURM, he also owns the radio station. Not only that, but (and this is a great big "but") he is the father of Congressman Steve Womack of Arkansas's third district - the man that Ken Aden is trying to unseat!
Stay tuned. There just has to be more coming on this story!
1 comment:
Right on, Rock. Truthout is one of the best out there.
I'm also a big fan of TomDispatch,AlterNet and, especially RollingStone. Matt Taibbi made his bones cutting through the mess that is the toxic mortgage mess and has continued with outstanding coverage of OWS.
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