Preferences no surprise

LITTLE ROCK — I’ll break 40 years of personal precedence today to tell readers how I plan to cast votes in some upcoming races on Nov. 2.

I’m sharing my preferences in several contests because we’re on the verge of the most crucial election of my lifetime. The outcome will decide whether government at every level will march in lockstep with the current Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid agendas and their ham handed tactics of attacking American institutions, even the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

As you’d expect, I’ll be casting my votes mostly in line with the candidates who hold traditionally conservative American values rather than those in step with the extreme leftist agendas.

In the 3rd Congressional District race, Rogers Mayor Steve Womack, with 30 years of military bearing, is an honorable and capable public servant whose demeanor quickly grows on you. He’d make a fine congressman from a district that for more than 40 years has voted conservative.

Big surprise: I prefer outgoing 3rd District Conressman John Boozman for the Senate. He’s been a diligent congressman who listens well and would be the kind of senator who’d best represent the will and needs of all Arkansans. Hey, he didn’t vote for Obamacare.

Mark Martin would make a first rate secretary of state, a critical position in honestly refereeing our state’s elections. He’s as far from the radical Obama agenda as a candidate can be. A former state representative, Martin says his wife’s endorsement is his favorite. Told you he’s smart.

I’m mighty partial to Joanna Taylor of Huntsville in the District 4, Division 7 contest for Circuit Court judge of Washington and Madison counties. She’s been a dependable, devoted and respected district judge in Madison County since 2005, having practiced law honorably for 15 years.

Mark Darr, a candidate for lieutenant governor, is anything but a professional politician or a good ole boy. He’s an honorable business and family man and a straight shooter, a sincere man who openly expresses his views about right to life, Godand our Constitution. Darr says he’d join other states in fighting all the bankrupting federal mandates being imposed on the states. Hooray! Finally.

My hands-down choice for an effective, non-partisan Supreme Court justice is Appeals Court Judge Karen Baker of Clinton. This diligent mother and 15-year jurist has repeatedly shown her ability to rule according to the law rather than what supporters or friends might prefer. Baker is a hard worker who would not legislate from the bench. I’ve been repulsedby the calculated smear campaign against her in recent weeks.

I’d be remiss not to look toward my hometown of Harrison and Mayor Pat Moles. The city’s never had a more dedicated chief executive. Despite profound handicaps suffered in Vietnam, he’s now completed two summers of trudging that hilly town of 13,000 citizens to personally ask each citizen for his vote. That’s how much he wants to keep effectively serving his constituents.

Unlikely hero

Not in wildest imaginings did I believe that Juan Williams, the liberal former commentator on taxpayer-funded National Public Radio as well as a FOX News contributor, would become my hero for freedom of speech and expression.

Yet that’s what happened Oct. 18 on the FOX News program, “The O’Reilly Factor.” Williams told host Bill O’Reilly: “I’m not a bigot. You know the kind of books I’ve written about the civil rights movement in this country. But when I get on the plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous.”

Williams then specifically warned O’Reilly against mislabeling all Muslims as “extremists.”

Yet two days later, the Council on American-Islamic Relations issued a press release asking NPR to take action against Williams. In it, CAIR’s national executive director, Nihad Awad, called Williams’ comments “irresponsible and inflammatory.” He also complained that media commentators who launch rhetorical attacks on Islam and Muslims normally do not suffer the professional consequences. He called on NPR to “address” Williams’ statements.

The following day, NPR publicly announced that Williams’ decade long contract had been canceled.

Wow. Williams was honestly expressing the same concerns that I believe are shared by most air-traveling Americans following terrorist-related actions in airplanes. He certainly wasn’t condemning a race or religion.

Vivian Schiller, the CEO at NPR since leaving The New York Times in 2008, claimed that Williams was fired because his statements had been “inconsistent with [NPR’s] editorial standards.” I read that as code for “You’ve been appearing on FOX News a little too often to suit us higher functioning erudites.” Schiller also demonstrated worse than rotten taste by suggesting that Williams might need to consult his psychiatrist. What stupefying arrogance.

To its credit, FOX immediately renewed Williams’ contract for some $2 million, his liberal views and all.

This unfounded act against such an unbiased pundit who was expressing his honest concerns tells me that it’s time to pull all tax funding from ultra-biased NPR. This station clearly believes that its employees must tout only the ultra-liberal views that its $1.8 million mega contributor George Soros condones.

As it is with FOX, NPR needs to make or break on its own merits and demerits.

Mike Masterson is opinion editor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette’s Northwest edition.