{"id":665,"date":"2007-12-10T22:43:00","date_gmt":"2007-12-10T22:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.arkansasfreedom.net\/?p=665"},"modified":"2007-12-10T22:43:00","modified_gmt":"2007-12-10T22:43:00","slug":"coincidence-beebe-reports-plane-usereveals-huckabees-abuse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/?p=665","title":{"rendered":"Coincidence? Beebe reports plane use\/reveals Huckabee’s abuse"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

 <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

December 10,
\n2007<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

On Nov. 27th<\/sup>
\nI filed an FOIA request to the Arkansas State Police to determine if a
\ncommercial license had been applied for and\/or obtained according to FAR-91 for
\nthe new King Air.  <\/span>I received information
\nDec. 6th<\/sup> that a commercial ticket had not been sought.  <\/span>In the same FOI, I requested detailed
\ninformation regarding Spanish language commercial produced for and used by the
\nState Police.  <\/span>At this point I will say
\nthat there are tens of thousands of dollars being spent on Spanish language
\ncommercials.<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Is it a
\ncoincidence that today, Dec. 10th<\/sup> a large story appeared in the
\nDemocrat-Gazette regarding Gov. Beebe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s trips (67) on the state plane made to
\ndifferent cities and towns in Arkansas and two out of state trips. <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Since this
\narticle appeared only days after I FOIed, it might lead one to the conclusion
\nthat Beebe wanted to head this FOIA off at the pass. <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

1.      <\/span><\/span><\/span>10 of the 67 trips could have been
\nmade in a state owned vehicle in about the same time or less than the airplane
\ncould have been pre-flighted, cleared for takeoff, etc.  <\/span>The estimated cost per hour is bare bones
\n$870. <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

2.      <\/span><\/span><\/span>I am not convinced that the flights
\nshown in today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Democrat article are the only flights made by Beebe in the new
\nKing.<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

3.      <\/span><\/span><\/span>I will FOIA the ASP for a copy of the
\nlog to see if the Governor has used it for his personal use. <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

As mentioned
\nabove, re: Spanish language commercials, print material, etc., I have FOIed 4
\nstate agencies and they are all spending tons of tax money on said advertising.<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Is the
\nEnglish language not the official language of Arkansas?  <\/span>State fiefdoms are thriving and making
\nabsolute fools of the citizens. <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Kindest
\nregards,<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Joe
\nMcCutchen<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

P.S.  <\/span>go to arkansasfreedom.net<\/a>
\nfor FOI requests\/results<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Also note in the news article
\nHuckabee\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s blatant misuse of the police airplane!!<\/o:p><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/o:p><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Beebe holds use of police plane to state\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s
\nneeds<\/o:p><\/span><\/h1>\n

No personal flights, he says<\/o:p><\/span><\/h2>\n

By Seth
\nBlomeley (Contact<\/a>)<\/o:p><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

LITTLE ROCK<\/span> \u00e2\u20ac\u201d Gov. Mike Beebe is using the state
\npolice airplane much less than his predecessor did, and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s costing
\ntaxpayers less money.<\/p>\n

Since taking office in January, Beebe took 63 flights, many on the new $4
\nmillion airplane bought in April.<\/p>\n

He took two out-of-state trips, each to a National Governors Association
\nconference.<\/p>\n

The flights totaled 76.4 flight hours, costing $68,775.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I told you we wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t use it for anything that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not state business,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\nBeebe said in an interview. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153And we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t use it when the weather is bad
\nbecause I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t like it. You can look at records at how we use it vis-a-vis how
\nit\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been used in the past. But we use it for getting around the state to do
\nthose things the people want us to do, to be in the local communities.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Beebe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s predecessor, former Gov. Mike Huckabee, spent nearly $600,000 in
\nstate money to use the Arkansas State Police airplane his last five years in
\noffice. His out-of-state trips on the plane reached a high in 2005 with 40,
\nincluding 16 visits to Washington.<\/p>\n

Huckabee wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t disclose the purpose of his flights, but Beebe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s office
\nprovided a list of what the governor did on each of his trips this year.<\/p>\n

They included trips across the state from Corning to Texarkana and from
\nBentonville to Monticello for economic development announcements, chamber of
\ncommerce meetings, local festivals, meetings and banquets.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The thing I think I hear over and over is the folks around the state say,
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u02dcYou\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not the governor of Little Rock,\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Beebe said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We want to see you in
\nMonticello, Crossett or Blytheville or Rogers or Texarkana, wherever. The
\nairplane lets you do that and be at the events you have to be at.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

He said it allows him to be in multiple places the same day. He cited a
\nrecent day visiting Rogers, Hot Springs and Monticello.<\/p>\n

Beebe and the state police advocated for a new airplane during the 2007
\nlegislative session. They said the old plane, with 2,900 flight hours logged,
\nneeded too much repair so that buying a new one made sense. The Legislature
\nagreed to fund the purchase.<\/p>\n

The last time the state police bought a plane was in 1997, when it acquired
\na 1982 King Air 200 turboprop twin-engine. It was a 10-seater that cost the
\nstate $1.4 million.<\/p>\n

That plane was traded in as part of the $4 million deal with King Air to get
\na newer version of the same model. It was bought as a demonstration 2007 model
\nthat has about 200 hours on it.<\/p>\n

It took a while for Beebe to settle on a policy for the use of the plane.<\/p>\n

During the 2006 gubernatorial race, he said if elected he would reimburse
\nthe state police in a way similar to presidents\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 reimbursing the federal
\ngovernment for use of Air Force One when on political trips.<\/p>\n

But in May when unveiling the new plane, Beebe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s office and state police
\nsaid the Federal Aviation Administration wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t allow reimbursements. That
\nwould require a different license that would include state police spending more
\nmoney to meet additional federal rules, they said.<\/p>\n

An FAA spokesman, however, later said that exemptions could be granted.<\/p>\n

The governor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s office then considered finding a different way to reimburse
\nthe state but later abandoned those plans, saying Beebe wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t use the plane
\nfor personal or political trips.<\/p>\n

Matt DeCample, a spokesman for Beebe, pointed to a June 1 trip to Northwest
\nArkansas as an example of how careful Beebe is about using the plane.<\/p>\n

Beebe flew on the plane to Fayetteville for a chamber of commerce luncheon
\nand planned to attend the Benton County Bean Supper in Little Flock that night.<\/p>\n

DeCample said Beebe sent the plane back to Little Rock without him because
\nhe didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to appear that he was using the plane to attend the supper,
\nwhich is a political event.<\/p>\n

Beebe returned to Little Rock by a state police vehicle the next day,
\nDeCample said.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think he believes that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not to use that plane unless something
\nabsolutely necessary as part of his job as governor,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Bill Gwatney of
\nLittle Rock, chairman of the state Democratic Party. Gwatney served with Beebe
\nin the state Senate.<\/p>\n

Huckabee, who is running for the Republican nomination for president, used
\nstate police aircraft to attend events such as the 2004 Republican National
\nConvention in New York City, several political stops in New Hampshire in 2005,
\nand several visits to his house on Lake Greeson in Pike County.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We have a governor [Beebe] who wants to be governor and only wants to be
\ngovernor,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Gwatney said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pretty clear some of [Huckabee\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s] plane
\nusage was directly related to going outside the state and making a name for
\nhimself.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Alice Stewart, a spokesman for Huckabee, didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t return messages last week.<\/p>\n

Last year, Huckabee said he had a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153clean conscience\u00e2\u20ac\u009d on his use of the
\nairplane because he didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t take trips on state aircraft for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153purely political\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\nor \u00e2\u20ac\u0153nefarious\u00e2\u20ac\u009d purposes or for a random \u00e2\u20ac\u0153ride somewhere.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Huckabee was chairman of the governors association from July 2005 to July
\n2006 and some of his trips were related to that. Huckabee, who wrote a
\nweight-loss book, gave numerous speeches around the country on health.<\/p>\n

Beebe also differs from Huckabee regarding state-funded commercial flights.<\/p>\n

According to the Department of Finance and Administration, the state has
\npurchased no commercial airline tickets for Beebe or first lady Ginger Beebe.<\/p>\n

Last year, the state spent $1,380 on plane tickets for Huckabee and $2,748
\nfor former first lady Janet Huckabee, including a $633 ticket to Puerto Rico
\nfor Janet Huckabee.<\/p>\n

This article was published <\/span><\/span>Monday, December 10, 2007<\/span><\/strong>.<\/span><\/span> <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Arkansas, Pages 7, 9 on 12\/10\/2007<\/o:p><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  December 10, 2007 On Nov. 27th I filed an FOIA request to the Arkansas State Police to determine if a commercial license had been applied for and\/or obtained according to FAR-91 for the new King Air.  I received information Dec. 6th that a commercial ticket had not been sought.  In the same FOI, I … Continue reading Coincidence? Beebe reports plane use\/reveals Huckabee’s abuse<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,17,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-beebe-continues-the-corruption-legacy","category-huckabee-shameful-record","category-state-government-offenses"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}