– AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
Our speaker this week will be Mr. Paul Jacob, President of Citizens in Charge, an organization headquartered in Lake Ridge, Virginia. Mr. Jacob will be speaking about what I believe are trumped-up charges by Oklahoma’s Attorney General Drew Edmondson, against the "Oklahoma Three." Mr. Jacob, along with 2 other folks, have been charged with criminal violations regarding one of our past petition efforts. Mr. Jacob believes Edmondson is seeking to frighten and intimidate citizens away from the initiative process that was designed to give us a check on our government. Mr. Jacob has indicated his intentions to meet Edmondson’s threat head-on by defeating his attack in court and restoring voice to the very process Edmondson seeks to silence. This case has received national attention and we are privileged to have Paul Jacob come and speak to us for a second time. For more information on this case before Wednesday’s meeting, log on to www.freepauljacob.com. In addition Mr. Jacob will be hosting a seminar this coming Saturday, titled: Reforming the Reform Process - How to Restore Oklahoma’s Voter Initiative. See the announcement section in this e-mail for time, location and the list of speakers. We will also recognize our veterans during our meeting this Wednesday in honor of Veterans Day which is Tuesday the 11th.
– ELECTION MUSINGS AND INFO
Oklahoma aside, it is clear a majority of the rest of the nation has lost its ability to elect good people, candidates who are capable of producing quality government. Our government schools have been remarkably successful in producing kids who are "dumbed down" to just the right amount while being indoctrinated into an un-American socialist/fascist agenda all at the same time. While most Oklahoman’s didn’t want to have anything to do with Obama, I don’t want to let Oklahoma Republicans completely off the hook as we voted for McCain in the primaries (ugh). Did anyone notice the recent article in the Oklahoman where Toby Keith announced he would be switching from the Democrat party to an independent? He became fed up with the vitriolic and intellectually dishonest attacks by Democrats throughout the campaign. In particular was his disgust in how Sarah Palin was treated. Of course since the election is over, some of the slime from within the McCain campaign are leaking (rumors, lies or truth ?) to the press in an attempt to blame Palin for the loss.
Personally, I really like Palin for her social conservatism, her communication skills, her courage, and her plain-spokenness and some of her ideological positions. While I sure don’t agree with some of her fiscal and foreign policy statements, I am not so sure we really know where she stands on some of those issues. After all, it was her duty as the VP candidate to support McCain’s positions and not stray too far out on her own.
I have an idea. We Okies ought to send a message to those snarky, arrogant Northeastern Republicans and the mainstream media types who so dislike Sarah Palin and have tried to destroy her. The message I am going to suggest would thank her for her hard work and extreme sacrifices during the campaign.
Here is my idea. Many people may have thought they were voting for John McCain and Sarah Palin, but they were not. In Oklahoma, those who voted for the Republican ticket were actually voting for 7 individuals known as "electors." They will attend the electoral college some time in the near future to cast their votes for the McCain/Palin choice. While they are pledged to vote For McCain, they actually can vote otherwise if they choose. It has happened before.
Therefore, I now give my permission as a citizen of Oklahoma for those electors to switch their vote from John McCain to Sarah Palin for President. Since McCain lost, it won’t matter other than to lower his vote count. But it would send a message that Oklahomans want someone more conservative than John McCain. It would say we want a person with strong Christian values and someone the establishment happens not to care for.
Congratulations to Dana Murphy for her victory over the sitting Oklahoma Corporation Commissioner Jim Roth, who was appointed to the position a little over a year and a half ago by Governor Henry. Even though the Oklahoman, the Tulsa World, the Edmond Sun, the Oklahoma Gazette and probably many more publications endorsed Roth and even though he raised about twice as much money as Dana Murphy (Dana spent nearly half of her money in the primary so she was outspent in the general election 4 to 1), Dana still managed a huge upset.
To that end a special thanks to the group, Mothers Organized for Moral Standards (M.O.M.S.) for their efforts to educate Oklahomans about Mr. Roth’s homosexual values and pose this question: Does Jim Roth represent your Oklahoma values? Oklahoma values always seem to be a part of election rhetoric. Of course anytime someone does that kind of an education effort and are willing to ask a question such as that, some people will answer yes and some will answer no.
In addition, a representative of M.O.M.S. asked if OCPAC members and friends could help to distribute any left over postcards for which they didn’t have the money to mail. To that end, many people helped to put several thousand postcards on vehicles in church parking lots on the two Sundays before the election. Some of the communities selected were Jones, Choctaw, Meeker, Seminole, Konawa, Shawnee, Tecumseh, Chandler, Stroud, Luther, Wellston, Seward, El Reno, Weatherford, Clinton, Chickasha, Anadarko, Lawton, Duncan, Wynewood, Pauls Valley, Purcell, Lexington, Ada, Broken Bow, Sallisaw, Manford, Terlton and a few other I probably missed or didn’t know about. A big thanks to everyone for your help.
OCPAC supported 22 candidates during this election cycle. Thirteen were elected to office for a 59% average. Over the past 5 election cycles we have now supported 72 different candidates with 35 of them having been elected to office. The members of OCPAC are not interested in just supporting someone who has a sure chance of winning. We are looking for people who are conservative with a reasonable chance of winning. Over the years we have taken some chances on candidates who were a long shot. Some of them have won and some have not. Of those that have won, they tend to be at the tope on the conservative index.
The members of OCPAC can be pleased with our efforts as I believe we are helping to move Oklahoma toward a more conservative state.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
– TULSA AREA –
Tuesday, November 11th U.S. Senator Tom Coburn will speak to the Republican Women’s Club of Tulsa at an 11:30 a.m. luncheon. The location will be the Holiday Inn Select at I-44 and Yale Ave. The meeting is open to the public and the cost is $12. For reservations call (918) 742-8822 or online, tulsarwc@cox.net.
– Wednesday, November 12th The Tulsa County Republican Mens Club will meet at 12 noon for the program with lunch earlier. The location will be the China King Restaurant, 1330 East 71st Street. The program will feature candidates from the recent election as well as lawmakers who will discuss the up-coming legislative session. For more information contact Bob McDowell at (918) 481-1051.
– OKC AREA –
Wednesday morning, November 12th will be the regular monthly meeting for the Business and Professional chapter of the John Birch Society. The location will be the Character First Training Center, 520 West Main in downtown OKC. Breakfast is served at 7:00 a.m. with the meeting beginning at 7:30. I have been asked to present a perspective on the recent elections and where we go from here.
– This Saturday morning, November the 15th, will be the conference I mentioned in the Agenda paragraph titled: Reforming the Reform Process
- How to Restore Oklahoma’s Voter Initiative. It will begin at 8:30 a.m. and last until noon. The location will be the Renaissance Oklahoma City Convention Center Hotel, 10 North Broadway in downtown OKC. There is no cost to attend.
Speakers will include State Senator Randy Brogdon (R-Owasso), City Sentinel Managing Editor Patrick McGuigan, former Republican candidate for governor, Bob Sullivan from Tulsa, Brandon Dutcher with the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs (OCPA), OCU law professor Andrew Spiropolous and former U.S. Senator and Democratic Presidential Candidate Mike Gravel. I urge folks to attend this seminar if at all possible as the ability to succeed in a petition drive so that citizens may be allowed to vote on an issue is at risk. That is unless the petition is about a subject the establishment is in approval.
– COMMENTS ABOUT LAST WEEK’S MEETING
I first want to thank Speaker Chris Benge and soon to be Senate President Pro-Tem Glen Coffee for taking the time on such an important day (first day after the election) to be our speakers at our OCPAC meeting. Senator Coffee has attended several OCPAC meetings over the years, but this was a first for Speaker Benge. We had some interesting discussion on "corporate welfare" an area that many members of OCPAC oppose and these two leaders have supported on some occasions.
Speaker Benge related information about a national meeting of state legislators he had attended where the discussion was why don’t we all quit corporate welfare, yet no one wanted to be the first to start.
Senator Coffee related the difficulties with various ideological differences from within the Republican ranks and his efforts to find that common ground to be able to move the best legislation forward as possible.
In my estimation, one of the great challenges for conservatives is to convince the people and business community in the state of Oklahoma about the superiority of free enterprise which would then not be burdened with heavy taxation or excessive regulations. To remove all business taxes and minimize regulations is economic incentive within itself.
Another challenge is to help people see that corporate welfare is actually redistribution of wealth, or in other words a certain level of socialism and is thus immoral. I would suggest that all re- distribution of wealth is immoral and is not the same thing as funding the proper functions of government. If the citizens of Oklahoma understand that issue as well as a majority of lawmakers, then Oklahoma will lead the way to restoring an economic system based on free markets and the entrepreneurial spirit. Just remember, when we remove business taxes and eliminate excessive regulations, we reduce the cost of producing goods and services. Thus we make anything produced in Oklahoma more competitive in the national and global economies.
There were actually 3 articles in last Thursday’s Oklahoman related to our meeting. The first two, on page 2, were reports on the comments by Speaker Benge and Senator Coffee. Then on page 5 there was a good article by Michael McNutt about our meeting. I want to comment on two points.
The article started off by implying I didn’t want to ruin the atmosphere by talking about the presidential election. The reason is fairly simple. While I sometimes comment about national politics and we sometimes have programs related to such, the main thrust of OCPAC is state government. In addition, Oklahoma’s performance for the Presidential election was easily predictable and the same held true for all the Congressional seats. It was a good observation by McNutt and while there was plenty of discussion about the national elections among our members and friends before the meeting started, I didn’t want to burn precious time with such discussion at our meeting.
The other thing I want to correct was the mention in the early part of the article about our "monthly" meeting. Just so no one is confused, our meetings are weekly, not monthly. Toward the end of the article when describing OCPAC, Mr. McNutt did mention we have met every Wednesday except once for the past 17 years. I will try to remember to bring the article and tape it on the wall for anyone wanting to read if you didn’t see it in the Oklahoman.
I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.
Charlie Meadows
charliemeadows@peoplepc.com
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