GOV HENRY, AWAKE AND FLEXING HIS LIBERAL MUSCLES

+ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
+ ANNOUNCEMENTS
+ GOV HENRY, AWAKE AND FLEXING HIS LIBERAL MUSCLES
+ OCPAC MEMBERSHIP UPDATE


+ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING

Our speaker for this week’s meeting will be newly elected State
Senator Steve Russell (R-OKC & Mustang). Several weeks ago we had the
trial lawyer Mr. Ed Able speaking as to why we don’t need tort reform.
Senator Russell attended that meeting and I found out after the
meeting this was a major issue for his agenda. I then asked him to
give the other side of the issue sometime in the future and that will
be this Wednesday. However, he voted against the tort measure this
past week so we will find out his objections to the measure and what
needs to be done in regard to tort reform. I believe he surprised a
lot of people last week and he may surprise us this Wednesday with a
well thought out perspective on the subject.

+ ANNOUNCEMENTS

OKC AREA On Tuesday evening MAY 12th from 6:30 - 9:00 p.m. John
McManus, President of the John Birch Society and publisher of the New
American Magazine, will be the speaker at a dinner banquet in OKC. The
title of his talk will be AMERICA’S ECONOMIC MELTDOWN. During his
presentation he will clearly explain money, inflation, free market
economics and sound currency. The location is the Character First
Training Center, 520 West Main in downtown OKC. The cost to attend is
$20, however if you purchase your ticket by this Friday May 1st, it is
only $15. Make your check payable to Oklahoma Projects and mail to:
Oklahoma Projects, 415 West 15th street suite 2, Edmond, OK 73013. I
will also have tickets available at our OCPAC meeting this Wednesday.
For more information call (405) 348-9991.

Dave Ramsey recently held a nation wide simulcast about the economy.
During his talk it was reported he said, government bailouts and
stimulus packages are not the answer nor should Americans place their
hope in those efforts. He quipped that the Bush administration tried
to bail out “stupidity” and now the Obama administration is trying to
stimulate “stupidity.” On Tuesday evening May 12th Mr. McManus will
expose the root causes of our problems as well as lay out a course of
action needed to lead us out of this “stupidity” so we can re-
establish this nation’s economy on a sound footing. I urge folks to
attend this banquet if at all possible.

OKC AREA This Tuesday evening, April 28th the Oklahoma County
Republican Party will have a fundraiser in which they will feature
House Speaker Chris Benge (R-Tulsa). The time is from 5:45 to 7:30
p.m. and the location will be the Sportsman’s Country Club, 4100
Northwest 39th street. Hors d’oeuvres will be served and the cost to
attend will be $25 per person. For reservations or more details call
(405) 946-1494 or e-mail: chair@okcountygop.com.

I was told there will be an opportunity to ask questions of Speaker
Benge. I would love to attend but have a hospital board meeting that
evening, so maybe someone else could ask the following question for
me: Mr. Speaker, the citizens of Tulsa voted against taxing themselves
to build low water dams on the Arkansas River. Why do you now support
legislation to borrow $25 million for such a purpose and then have the
taxpayers from Oklahoma County and other parts of the state pay that
money back with interest when the citizens of Tulsa weren‘t willing to
pay for it in the first place?

+ GOV HENRY, AWAKE AND FLEXING HIS LIBERAL MUSCLES

In the e-mail I couldn’t figure out how to send out last week, I had
as 2 action items to call Governor Henry’s office and urge him to sign
the legislation banning EMBYRONIC stem cell research as well as sign
the legislation making a statement in support of the 10th Amendment to
the U.S. Constitution, often referred to as the “States Rights”
Amendment.

He ended up vetoing both of those bills. I believe both the House and
Senate will try to override the Governor’s veto on HJR 1003, the 10
Amendment issue, sometime this week. I expect there will be enough
votes in the House for the override, but maybe not in the Senate.
Please call your State Senator and ask that he or she vote to override
the Governor’s veto. The Senate switchboard is 1 800 865-6490 or (405)
524-0126.

On the issue of the embryonic stem cell research it is important to
understand what a bogus position I believe the Governor has taken as
well as the chambers of commerce. In recent years the state has pumped
tens of millions of taxpayer dollars into bio-medical research in an
effort to broaden our economy beyond that of the agriculture and oil
and gas industries. They are afraid a ban on this type of research
might tarnish an image they are trying to portray to the rest of the
nation. However, the image of this “emperor” has no clothes.

The Oklahoman also recently editorialized in favor of the Governor
vetoing the measure. The gist of the measure was that if HB 1326 were
signed into law it would send a message to the rest of the nation that
Oklahoma is backward and anti-science. The Oklahoman went on to
suggest that the legislature should stay out of these moral issues and
stick to (business).

Please consider this issue from two perspectives. First the moral
aspect. Every time we experiment with embryonic stem cells, an unborn
child has had to die. Pro life ethicists indicate a desire already by
some scientists for fresh embryonic stem cells rather than those that
have been frozen. If that were to be allowed it would lead to an
industry which would first, fertilize, then kill and then experiment.

Is it the duty of the legislature to determine the standards of
morality? I believe it is and suggest the explanation of that position
from a recent letter to the President of Notre Dame University by
Tulsa’s Tony Lauinger, who also happens to be the Vice President of
the National Right to Life organization. The letter is in opposition
to President Obama receiving an honorary degree from Notre Dame as
well as being invited to be the graduation speaker this year. The
excerpt from Tony’s letter is as follows:

“While claiming to separate politics from science, he (Obama and now
Governor Henry) has in fact separated science from ethics and has
brought the American government, for the first time in history, into
supporting direct destruction of innocent human life.”

“The President’s vacuous, self-serving claim about ‘science’ is absurd
on its face. Does the name Josef Mengele ring a bell? Tuskegee? Steve
Chapman of the Chicago Tribune observes,” ‘science can tell us how to
build a nuclear weapon. But science can’t tell us whether we should
use it.” In the same way, there will always be some scientists in the
bio-medical research area who would stop at no limits if allowed to
experiment on humans.

The legislature regularly passes laws which define when we should do
something or not, what is acceptable and what is not. They set
penalties and rewards and in fact most of what they do is determine
the standards of Morality. The question is NOT whether or not the
legislature determines morality, the question is who’s morality will
they set? Will it be the morality of a Christian world view or that of
a humanist, pragmatic, socialist, communist, fascist, new age thinker
or some other world view? We can certainly debate as to whether or not
the legislature does a good or poor job in setting standards, but the
debate about determining the standards of morality should be a settled
issue.

The second reason to support legislation to prohibit embryonic stem
cell research is practical. While adult stem cell research, which
doesn’t require the destruction of life, has produced over 70
beneficial discoveries, embryonic has not produced any, though the
research has been going on for years. In fact, efforts so far have
been disastrous. Embryonic stem cell research has tied up many
scientists who could be using their skills toward more promising
discovery. It has consumed vast sums of taxpayer dollars (the private
sector no longer puts much into this research) which basically
provides jobs for researchers with little hope for positive discovery.
Just remember some researchers simply follow the money.

Two or three years ago the citizens of California voted to float 5
billion dollars in bonds for embryonic stem cell research. In light of
their current budget problems and heavy state indebtedness, I wonder
if today they wish they would have reversed that vote so they could
have avoided wasting all that money? If Biblical morality would have
been pre-eminent in their decision making, they would have never gone
down that road in the first place.

While the veto override passed in the House, it failed in the Senate.
Again, please call your State Senators at the above mentioned numbers
and ask them to support such a veto override when it comes up again.

Governor Henry has every right to veto these measures, though I
believe he is wrong in so doing. However, on a separate subject he has
indicated he will issue an executive order on Tuesday to declare a
song by The Flaming Lips as Oklahoma’s “official” rock song, even
though the legislature rejected such a measure. Do you realize, this
is the first time I ever remember an Oklahoma governor taking such
action.

According to the Oklahoman, band leader Wayne Coyne said “State House
members who rejected his band’s tune as official state rock song
represented a minority of ‘small-minded religious wacko’s’ unmindful
of the rights of the rational, reasonable Oklahomans.”

Hey, Mr. Coyne, do you realize, I along with perhaps a majority of
Oklahomans have a very different opinion than you about those brave
and principled legislators who may not be impressed with your group
and the crude language you throw around in public? That reportedly
happened during the dedication ceremony when OKC, in my opinion,
foolishly named an alley in Bricktown after your group? Do you realize
it was an ALLEY named after you and not a street? Do you realize some
folks may see you as having the morals of an ally cat by using that
kind of language in public?

Do you realize you and your group’s music may be a real turn-off to
the majority of Oklahomans, though we have no way of knowing as the
question has never presented itself on an official state ballot for a
vote of the people? Do you realize your on-line poll among rock and
roll groupies is not official, yet you want your song to receive an
official state designation? Do you realize that unless it appears on a
ballot at our precinct voting locations, the way we govern in Oklahoma
is through our elected representatives?

Do you not realize that Communists murdered over 100 million innocent
people during the 20th century and when your band member wore a shirt
with that symbol on it to the State Capitol it reflected on your band?
Do you realize symbols have meaning? Do you realize you might not
receive a warm loving reception if you entered a night club in
Northeast OKC or a church with black members and wore a shirt with KKK
and a picture of some men in white sheets with pointed hats on? Do you
realize you might not receive a warm reception if you entered a Jewish
Synagogue with a shirt that displayed a Nazi swastika and pictures of
piles of dead Jewish people who had been murdered by Hitler?

Do you realize that the rejection of your band’s song because of your
public use of the f word and your buddy wearing a shirt with the
Communist symbol on it may seem silly to you, but to decent,
principled and patriotic Oklahomans, whether they be Christian or
otherwise, it was the right thing to do.

Do you realize, the majority of Oklahoman’s might not have ever heard
the song in question or recognize it if they were to hear it today? Do
you realize, I am ashamed of Governor Henry and if I were in the
legislature, I would probably suggest a significant reduction in his
budget for next year as an important lesson regarding the usurping of
the legislative process.

I have an interesting idea. During the Republican state convention a
week ago, I met 2 CONSERVATIVE couples from New Hampshire who drove
down to attend our state convention and check out Oklahoma. Our
conservatism interests them and they are considering a move to
Oklahoma to be with more like minded people. I also met another couple
who moved to Tulsa a couple of years ago, primarily for the home-
schooling freedom.

How about a trade? Do you realize I wouldn’t lose a moment of sleep if
the Flaming Lips decided to move to New Hampshire, or New York or LA
and took all their name, fame, reputation and money with them. On the
other hand I am thrilled every time I meet people with high moral
standards who have decided to move to Oklahoma because of our
conservative or Christian values.

+ OCPAC MEMBERSHIP UPDATE

With just a few days left in the first one third of the year, we are
just 4 memberships short of tying our record of 153 for a non election
year. Again, I am so appreciative of folks willing to step forward and
make this a successful organization with your financial support.
During the past 5 election cycles (8 years) we have raised over
$100,000, contributed to 72 different candidates, with 35 of those
being elected to office. On average they are the most conservative in
the legislature. That also does not take into consideration our new
conservative incumbent protection fund which we implemented last year.
There were 8 incumbents who benefited from that fund. None of this
would have been possible without our members. Instructions for joining
follow my sing off. Thanks again for your support.

I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.

Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com