(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Anti-woke warrior Sarah Sanders bans words - meanwhile Arkansas is worse than you thought [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-10-21 What did Sarah Sanders count as a win this week? On Thursday, AR Governor Sarah Sanders banned words from the state’s lexicon. She used her executive authority to immeasurably improve citizens' lives by forbidding terms like "pregnant person" and "chestfeeding" in state government documents. "Pregnant woman" and "breastfeeding" will be the rule. Realizing that some people might wonder why this was a priority, Sanders explained her rationale: "Some on the left will accuse us of being nitpicky, that Arkansas should just lay down and accept the cultural revolution without complaint. I say it's the exact opposite. It's the left that decided that woman is a dirty word. It's the left that decided we needed to toss out basic biology and basic grammar along with it." Good for her. Too often, politicians pledge something and then fail to deliver. Sanders promised to be petty. And by God, she was. Now, she may wish to tackle some other issues facing the state. Anatomy of a floundering state If you were to grade states on a curb, Arkansas would be sitting in the corner, wearing a dunce cap and staring at the wall. Custom and good manners demand that every state is referred to as "The Great State of __________ (fill in the blank).” Call it runaway political correctness. The reality is that, for many states, being called "great" is essentially a participation trophy. Some are better than others. And a few states consistently bring up the rear in every metric. How does Arkansas rate? (Note: in all the following rankings, #1 is the best, and #50 is the worst.) If the economy is the lifeblood of a state, then Arkansas has clogged arteries. The state ranks #48 in per capita GDP and #47 in median household income . If Sanders and the rest of the Republicans dominating the state government had a workable plan to improve the state economy to match the national average, the median Arkansan household would get a $17,189 pay raise (2021 dollars). Do not hold your breath — she is distracted. The state is #48 in educational attainment , #47 in life expectancy , #45 in obesity , and #47 in violent crime . It is #43 in STD rate . #50 in teenage pregnancy . And #47 in divorce . To show I am not cherry-picking the data, here are some wins. Arkansas is #7 in illegal drug use and #3 in alcohol consumption . Sadly, it is #44 in smoking . Was Sanders trying to distract from the attempted coverup in ‘podiumgate’? Depending on your political philosophy, Sanders is either a corrupt politician in a world of hurt — or the victim of a tempest-in-a-teapot smear by radical un-American socialists with an agenda. It all started with a lectern. Will this lectern bring down a Governor? First, here are the undisputed facts. The taxpayers of Arkansas bought a $19,000 lectern for Sanders. Initially, there was curiosity about how the podium could cost that much. Then, what might have been a bit of profiteering turned out to be a potential cesspool of personal gain at public expense, the falsification of government documents, and a naked attempt to cover up the corruption with changes to the state’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) rules. In June, Arkansas blogger Matthew Campbell requested public records relating to Sander’s security and travel expenses. The Governor's office denied most of his requests. The state told him the documents were confidential because they could include sensitive details that published would jeopardize Sanders’s security. Campbell then filed a lawsuit on Sept. 6, claiming violations of the state’s FOIA. Two days later, on Sept. 8, Sanders called for a special session of the state legislature to cut income taxes, ban vaccine mandates for state employees, and change the state’s FOIA to significantly curtail what Arkansans could know about the Governor’s travel arrangements. Why now? The request was so radical even some Republicans called the FOIA change an “ assault on our republic .” Campbell responded by posting some of the info he had received. Included was a payment of $19,029.25 to Beckett Productions LLC. Further digging revealed it was money for a “Falcon-style” lectern. Except Falcon lecterns cost over $12,000 less than that. When asked why it was so expensive, Sanders said it came equipped with “a number of features.” She did not say what they were. On Sept. 14, the Republican Party of Arkansas reimbursed the state for the full amount of the invoice. On Sept.15, Campbell received a copy of the invoice the state had paid. On it was a handwritten note saying “to be reimbursed.” Newly released public records show that someone had added the note to the invoice three months after the lectern’s purchase — and after Campbell requested the records related to its payment. Also in September, a whistleblower — a former state agency employee — alleged that the Governor’s office had altered public records. An attorney representing the whistleblower said his client has “more than a dozen documents” showing the lectern purchase “violated every rule” in Arkansas’s purchasing manual. The whistleblower also claims that management had directed state employees to alert the governor’s office about incoming FOIA requests. Worse, the owner of Beckett Productions LLC is Virginia Beckett, a close friend of Sanders. It was an odd purchase as the company has no experience in retailing furniture. Then Sanders and Beckett were seen partying in Paris shortly after the company received the cash. Sanders was ostensibly on a trade trip for the state. Who bought the drinks? Reacting to her obvious favors-for-friends at taxpayer expense, Sanders did what every conservative politician caught with a friend’s hand in the cookie jar did. She blamed liberals. And called the event, “nothing more than a manufactured controversy by left-wing activists to distract from the bold conservative reforms the legislature has passed and the governor has signed into law and is effectively implementing in Arkansas.” It was such shameless humbuggery that even some Arkansan Republicans called bullshit. State Sen. Jimmy Hickey (R) demanded an audit of the lectern purchase — and a review of any records relating to the governor’s security and travel expenses that the state's new FOIA rules had retroactively shielded from public view. Good luck, Sarah. But heaven forbid someone says “pregnant person.” [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/10/21/2200849/-Anti-woke-warrior-Sarah-Sanders-bans-words-meanwhile-Arkansas-is-worse-than-you-thought?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/