AL GORE DESERVES AWARD, BOONE PICKENS’ IDEAS DESERVE ATTENTION.

Members and friends of the Oklahoma Conservative Political Action Committee (OCPAC)

We meet for lunch every Wednesday, 12 noon at Italiano’s, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. Over the next 2 weeks we will invite the Republican Senate Candidates who will take on a Democrat in the November elections. Invited this week will be Patrick Miller, a Republican from Snow Oklahoma who is running for the seat currently held by Senator Jerry Ellis. Invited from Tecumseh will be Donald Rominger who is challenging Senator Charlie Laster of Shawnee. Also invited will be Gary Casey of Tulsa who is taking on Senator Tom Adelson, also of Tulsa.

– OCPAC NOW HAS A BLOG SITE!
– AL GORE DESERVES AWARD, BOONE PICKENS’ IDEAS DESERVE ATTENTION.
– NEW NAME FOR THE SONICS NBA TEAM MISSES THE MARK
– HAS SENATOR COBURN BECOME A HYPOCRITE?
– WHAT OTHERS SAY ABOUT OCPAC

– OCPAC NOW HAS A BLOG SITE!
Anyone that knows me well understands that bringing me into the world of technology is like dragging me up a sidewalk with two black heal marks all the way behind me. However, this past Wednesday I met with Randy and Sherri Allsbury (www.GetRealVideo.com) so they could share some of their innovative ideas with me. Among other things, springing out of the meeting, the Allsburys have created a blog for OCPAC with the main purpose being to make the OCPAC e-mail available to a much wider group of people than currently receive the weekly e-mail.

We have a domain name which is www.ocpac.info and there is also another address which is http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com. I am amazed at how quickly they have put this together and developed links to other organizations as well as web-sites for the candidates OCPAC has endorsed. Also, we will have a poll question each week, so log on and register your vote on the poll question. This week’s poll question is about the primary direction we should take in the development of energy to produce electricity. Should it be coal, natural gas, wind, solar or nuclear?

– AL GORE DESERVES AWARD, BOONE PICKENS’ IDEAS DESERVE ATTENTION.
A few days ago Al Gore, exalted leader of the “earth in the lurch crowd,” threw down the gauntlet and challenged America to switch to alternative energy sources (primarily wind and solar) in 10 years and to get completely off hydrocarbons for the production of electricity. For that suggestion, I believe he deserves another Nobel Peace Prize or perhaps the IDIOT OF THE YEAR AWARD. I consider both awards to be much the same, the only difference is the Nobel Peace Prize comes with some serious money. More on Gore’s lunatic idea in a minute.

On the other hand, if you have watched much TV or listened to radio this past week you have probably been informed of some of the ideas Boone Pickens has about an energy policy and the need to become independent of imported foreign oil. He was also featured on a segment of ABC’s Night Line program this past week. The basic gist of his ideas are to generate our electricity from wind and then use natural gas to power our vehicles.

I found the Night Line portrayal of a chummy relationship between Boone Pickens and the head of the ultra liberal Sierra Club to be unconvincing that somehow Pickens is now a dedicated and concerned environmentalist. According to Night Line, Pickens owns one of the world’s largest natural gas companies and he is currently building the largest wind generation facility in the U.S. Looks like big money for Pickens under the guise of environmentalism?

Somebody needs to tell the Sierra Club fellow that Pickens will still have to “drill” to get the gas out of the ground. Truth is Pickens stands to make tons of money off of gas and wind. I don’t have a problem with that as he is going to be producing vitally needed power from 2 different sources. However, there is one major problem with his suggestion and that is the need for adequate “base load” generation capacity. When the wind doesn’t blow, electricity can’t be produced.

Therefore, the utilities must have enough generation capacity to produce sufficient electricity during peak demand from “RELIABLE” power sources such as coal, gas or nuclear. I agree with Pickens that rather than producing electricity with natural gas, that commodity should be used to powers our vehicles which would then reduce the demand for oil. That would only leave coal and nuclear as options for electrical generation. While I favor both, the cost to build clean burning coal fired facilities is much less up front money and those generation plants can be built much quicker than a nuclear facility.

Picken’s ideas have some merit, Al Gore’s idea that we could completely switch from hydro-carbons to wind generation comes from someone who has a brain the size of a pin head. As I have said before, the CO2 produced from burning hydro-carbons is actually good for plant life and thus the environment. CO2 is not harmful and it is not a cause of global warming, which doesn’t exist, which is also why Al Gore is such a fraud.

– NEW NAME FOR THE SONICS NBA TEAM MISSES THE MARK
It appears the new name for the Sonics will be The Oklahoma City THUNDER! While it will have a great ring in the arena, I just believe it really misses the mark when it comes to representing the team. During the recent euphoria over the deal reached by the owners of the Sonics and the City of Seattle, it was stated that the owners were looking at massive losses for the team to stay in Seattle but there was a belief they could be profitable in OKC.

Therefore one must ask, how can you be profitable in a small market city which will have some $10 seats in the nose bleed sections of the Ford Center for “poor folks” and not be profitable in a city with 4 times the population base and a much higher average salary for its residents who could well afford to pay more for tickets? I believe the only answer is the super sweetheart deal the owners will get from the city of OKC as well as state taxpayers.

I am speculating that the millionaire and billionaire owners went to mayor Mick and the leadership in the legislature and told them what they wanted in the form of subsidies to make their bringing the team here such a sweetheart deal that they could make a profit off of their hobby. While we still don’t know all the details about such a deal at this time, another detail was unveiled this past week.

The Ford Center will be enlarged and re-modeled, at taxpayer expense, partly to provide permanent corporate office space inside the facility itself. An arrangement I believe to be quite unusual in and of itself. However, since those offices won’t be ready for perhaps a couple of years, the team owners are looking for top of the line office space in downtown OKC to serve as temporary corporate headquarters. Nothing unusual there, until we found out this past week that the city will pay the rent for the temporary office space until the permanent space is available. That’s right, the taxpayers will be paying for the first class temporary office space rather than the owners.

Add that to the $20 million dollar practice facility that the city will provide for the owners who, out of the goodness of their hearts, are willing to pay $100,000 per year for using (at that low lease rate, it will take OKC 200 years to recoup their investment) and you begin to see the definition of a sweetheart deal.

On top of that, at the state level, all of the players, coaches and office personal will pay income taxes into state coffers, just like everyone else who pays Oklahoma state income taxes. However, the state will then rebate back to the OWNERS 5.5% of their total payroll to help out with their profit margin. Estimated to be about $4 million per year at current salary levels. In addition, they will get that corporate welfare (tax credit) for the next 15 years.

Put it all together and the name should be the Oklahoma City SUBSIDIES, or the SWEETHEART DEALERS, or perhaps the OKC PROFITEERS. The last one almost sounds like it would represent a bunch of conniving, manipulating and thieving pirates. As time goes on I believe we will find out more that adds up to an even greater sweetheart deal. Don’t get me wrong, I am not opposed to the team coming to the city, for moral reasons I am opposed to all corporate welfare, because by its very nature, it is nothing more than a re-distribution of wealth scheme, a degree of socialist capitalism or in other words, legalized plunder. Hey, another idea, the OKC PLUNDERERS.

– HAS SENATOR COBURN BECOME A HYPOCRITE?
One can only imagine how disappointed I was to find out that Senator Coburn voted to spend $50 billion American taxpayer dollars around the world in a “global war on AIDS.” According to an editorial in today’s (7.21.08) Oklahoman titled, Making a difference - Global AIDS program is money well spent, the paper quoted Coburn as saying: “This is by far the only true foreign policy program that’s working.”

What I want to know is, since when did the effectiveness of a global welfare program become the validation for our involvement? Where is all of his rhetoric about deficit spending and saddling our kids with an unbearable debt load? Where do you get the constitutional authority to spend that money all over the world Senator Coburn? What is the difference in this and the earmarks (some of which are for proper government functions) you are always telling everyone you are so concerned about? Too bad he didn’t read or couldn’t understand the little book we gave him about Davy Crockett, when Congressman Crockett came to a realization that the taxpayer dollars he voted to spend in situations such as this, really was not his money to give away in the first place.

After the most recent change in congressional districts, I attended the first town hall meeting in Guthrie held by Frank Lucas since Logan County is now in his district. I had an opportunity to ask 2 questions of the large audience before I asked the first question of Congressman Lucas. First question to the audience: how many of you would like to see your taxes raised so our government could send (then $15 billion) to Africa to fight AIDS? Not a single hand went up. I then asked, how many of you want to see the federal government borrow $15 billion and saddle your children and grand children with more debt so we can send $15 billion to Africa to fight AIDS? Again, not a hand went up. Of course my final question was to Congressman Lucas as to why he had voted to send $15 billion to Africa to fight AIDS, especially since his constituents didn’t want him to do so?

At this point Congressman Lucas’ answer is irrelevant, but similar questions should be directed to Senator Coburn like I have suggested above. The Oklahoman, with its ever more liberal editorial page suggested, “Bush deserves credit for a visionary idea, one where the WEALTH OF AMERICA could be brought to bear on a global crisis.” Has the editorial page at the Oklahoman gone nuts? Tell me what is visionary about spending other peoples money?

And what do they mean by the Wealth of America? Someone needs to inform them that with our nation debt now exceeding $9 TRILLION dollars, we really aren’t wealthy any more. We just have a lot of inflated paper currency floating around. The financial condition of America is similar to a corporation that has filed for a chapter 11 re-organization bankruptcy. The only difference is, in the corporate world they only get to do that one time. With the federal government, we just keep filing for a re-organization every time we raise the debt ceiling and the debt load just keeps getting heavier and heavier.

If there is anyone out there who wants to have your taxes raised or money borrowed to send $50 billion around the world for a so called “effective program,” please send me an e-mail and let me know who you are. But be warned, I will ask you how much of your own money you have already or are willing to send on your own. I have already sent money on my own to a ministry and I darn sure DO NOT want my tax dollars going there, probably to be spent through some UN program.

– WHAT OTHERS SAY ABOUT OCPAC
With so many people on the OCPAC e-mail list I end up on a fair number of e-mail forwarding lists. I was recently surprised and humbled to have this e-mail forwarded to me. It says:

If you think who runs the state is important, and are looking for a genuinely CONSERVATIVE organization, who are true stewards of any contributions they receive, then you will want to support Candidates through OCPAC.

They support only those candidates who actually VOTE the way they campaign. Smaller government, no money to abortion providers, no government facilities to abortion providers, a TRUE balanced budget (unlike what was just passed in the OK legislature) Support 1804.

We have a great opportunity to replace “term limited” RINOs with the real thing and Charlie Meadows is faithful to follow their daily activities and hold them accountable. Freedom isn’t free, and it is important that we give where our gift will give us LIBERTY - we feel we get the most for our money by contributing and belonging to OCPAC. Hope you will join us! Roland and B.J. Benbow (these folks are from Tulsa)

Their opinions of OCPAC are at least our goals and what we strive to accomplish. It is also my desire to earn that kind of respect from all the folks who read the OCPAC e-mails. I would like to urge others who have not joined as yet to do so now by becoming a member. The instructions to join follow my sign off.

I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.

Charlie Meadows
charliemeadows@peoplepc.com