THE CORRUPTING INFLUENCE OF GOVERNMENT LARGESS

+ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
+ VICTORIES FOR 10TH AMENDMENT AND CON-CON ISSUES
+ RESOLUTION OPPOSING UN CONFERENCE ON RIGHTS OF CHILD PASSES
+ SHAME ON SENATOR JONATHAN NICHOLS (R-NORMAN)
+ Dr Steve Kern’s View of the Coming Social Order After Obama’s First
100 Days
+ THE CORRUPTING INFLUENCE OF GOVERNMENT LARGESS
+ ON THE REPUBLICAN SIDE THE POLITICAL RACES ARE TAKING SHAPE
+ MEMBERSHIP UPDATE


+ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING

+ According to an amendment to our State Constitution, the legislature
must adjourn by 5:00 p.m. on the final Friday in the month of May.
That date would be May 29th. However, leadership is trying to finish
the people’s business by the end of this week. Therefore, I have asked
numerous first year lawmakers to come and take about 5 minutes each to
relate their experience as a first year lawmaker. I didn’t invite all
the freshmen as I simply ran out of time.

The following Senators have agreed to come, Gary Stanisloski (R-
Tulsa), Bryce Marlatt (R-Woodward) and Dan Newberry (R-Tulsa). In the
House, the following have been invited and most have committed to
come: Mike Christian (R-OKC), Lewis Moore (R-Arcadia), Jason Nelson (R-
OKC), Charles Ortega (R-Altus), Leslie Osborn, (R-Tuttle) and Mike
Ritze (R-Broken Arrow). I have asked each of them to take about 5
minutes to relate their experience as a first year legislator. Of
particular interest, might be their most important piece of
legislation and how it fared through the legislative process. There is
a condition to all of this. They may have to work through lunch, if so
we will show a DVD for our program.

+ VICTORIES FOR 10TH AMENDMENT AND CON-CON ISSUES

A House Joint Resolution (HJR) reminding the federal government of the
10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and its establishment of the
rights of the states was passed by the legislature and then vetoed by
the Governor. So Representative Charles Key came back with a House
Concurrent Resolution (HCR) which doesn’t require the Governors
signature and it passed in both chambers of the legislature.

Senator Brogdon was the author of a Senate Joint Resolution (SJR) to
rescind all of Oklahoma’s previous calls for a constitutional
convention. It finally made its way through the legislature and the
Governor signed it into law this past week. Great job by Charles Key
and Randy Brogdon as well as the many lawmakers who supported these
moves.

+ RESOLUTION OPPOSING UN CONFERENCE ON RIGHTS OF CHILD PASSES

A few weeks back we had Terri Feland speak to us at an OCPAC meeting
about the evils of the UN’s Conference on the Rights of the Child
treaty. Until a few weeks ago, Terri was a very uncommon grandmother
living a very common life in Norman Oklahoma. When she found out about
the evils of this treaty, she went into action. She made sure all our
Republican Congressmen were educated and on board in opposition to
this treaty. She is continuing to “communicate” with Congressman Dan
Boren’s office, who is acting like a leaderless little boy wandering
in the woods, not knowing what to do with such an evil, family
destroying concept. I left a message this week with one of his
staffers to have him call me, so we could discuss what might be his
problem in not taking a position on this important issue. No call as
yet from Congressman Boren.

Besides her efforts with our Congressional delegation, she asked
Michael Farris and his legal staff at the Home School Legal Defense
Fund (HSLDF) to craft a model resolution which could be used by any
state to express a state’s opposition to this treaty. This past week,
Representative Sally Kern (R-OKC) and Senator Dan Newberry (R-Tulsa)
successfully moved that resolution through the legislature. Once
again, Oklahoma is taking the lead in passing pro-family protection
issues through the legislature. There are several other states working
on similar measures, but Oklahoma was the first to pass such. That is
what I call leadership. Kudos to Representative Sally Kern, Senator
Dan Newberry and Terri Feland for stepping up to the plate and making
a difference.

My final point on this issue, political woe to the 27 Democrats and 1
Republican, Doug Cox (R-Grove) for voting against such a measure. Just
remember, Representative Cox was last year’s RINO (Republican In Name
Only) award winner and looks like he wants the award again this year.
A principled conservative, pro-family and pro-life Republican in his
district really needs to step up to the plate and run against him next
year. I personally believe he is none of the above.

+ SHAME ON SENATOR JONAHTAN NICHOLS (R-NORMAN)

Through out history there has always been a degree of tension between
people who want liberty and their government who seems to always grasp
for more control over its citizens. One of the great challenges for
our framers was to craft a government with enough power to protect us
from foreign invasion as well as from wrongful actions among
ourselves. On the one hand, we needed a government that was under the
control of the people to the degree that it doesn’t become
oppressive.

Today we live in a high tech society so the desire of government and
its various branches of ENFORCERS will be the ability to know as much
about the citizens as possible as well as an ability to know where
those citizens are at all times and to be able to track them. Can
anyone say control?

Oklahoma already collects DNA samples from convicted felons of which I
don’t have a problem. However, Senator Jonathan Nichols, a former
prosecutor, was determined to expand legislation to allow people
convicted of certain misdemeanors to also be forced to give up a DNA
sample.

When privacy advocates and liberty lovers opposed such legislation,
they were told this would only be for people CONVICTED, not just
charged, violent offences. If that is all Senator Nichols legislation
would do, it would be cautiously ok with it but concerned that an
incremental advancement of government control was on the move. What
more will they want next year and the year after that? Will they want
all convicted of misdemeanors forced to surrender their DNA? Will
lawmakers decide some day, it will just simply be easier to collect
samples from everyone, especially at the time of birth?

I can see the justification now, just see how much safer people will
be once we have these new tools. But why stop there, a little radio
frequency identification device (RFID), a chip actually, inserted
under our skin would really make it easier to find lost children or
locate suspected government protestors or even real criminal suspects.
I hope you can understand what a slippery slope this kind of
legislation may become.

Back to SB 1102, as I said I could live with it if it only applied to
violent crime and also illegal aliens of which it does. I don’t
believe illegal aliens should have rights other than humane treatment
before we send them home, or if in the case of a violent crime, they
deserve a fair trial and punishment rather than being sent home.

But then I saw a list of misdemeanors and the anger began to rise up
within me. One that was listed was “possession of a controlled
substance - schedule IV.” Excuse me, where is the violence in this
allegation? Another one was “outraging public decency.” Can anyone
define that for me? Would a person traveling along a highway and
getting sick or simply having to be relieved fall into such a charge?
I didn’t see any violence in that situation. Of course the ones that
really burn me are “unlawfully carrying a firearm”, “illegal
transportation of a firearm” or “discharging a firearm.” You could do
any of the 3 of these without a hint of violence involved.

Nichols is an attorney so what part of the Second Amendment wording
“the RIGHT of the people to keep and BARE arms, shall not be
infringed.” does he not understand? Regarding this perspective,
Senator Nichols and the others who voted for this measure are going
the wrong direction. They should be working to expand gun rights, not
to restrict them more than already exist. Why should it be a crime for
a law abiding citizen to carry a concealed firearm without a permit?
If that is not a right, but a privilege demanding a permit from
government then what good is the Second Amendment? When you are forced
to get the permit, then the surveillance state has just increased and
a little more liberty has been lost.

I am not anti-law enforcement, but there is no limit to the tools law
enforcement would like to have. If the Governor signs this
legislation, I am sure it will help to solve some unsolved crimes but
the cost will be a little more privacy lost and liberty reduced. I
believe Senator Nichols has prostituted himself to law enforcement and
as such he will be the latest nominee for the legislator whore of the
year award. I also hope this becomes a conservative index vote. I
would urge folks to call the Governor and ask him to veto SB 1102 if
you understand the importance of this issue. His number is (405)
521-2342 or 800 865-6490.

+ Dr. Steve Kern’s View of the Coming Social Order After Obama’s First
100 Days

The main stream liberal press fawned over President Obama and many in
the conservative movement had their particular criticisms of the
President. However, I found Pastor Steve Kern’s missive more important
as it is a reflection upon a society that elected Obama. It reads as
follows:

“Our society has become so enamored by celebrity status and personal
charisma that style has overtaken substance and utopian dreams squelch
principled realism. Truth is whatever the powers that be weave on
their philosophical fantasy loom and those who disagree forfeit their
right to be tolerated. The work ethic disintegrates into an ever
widening throat of entitlement rights like clear water swirls down the
drain only to be absorbed into a cesspool of septic poison. Ownership
and personal independence has been redefined as selfish greed forced
over those who have been victimized by their industrious prosperity.
The theme of this growing social order will certainly be, ‘For you
have the poor always with you…’ while good becomes evil and evil
becomes good. As government becomes the answer to everything, the
individual will dissolve into nothing. All that will matter is who has
the power as despots come and go, keeping beggars on their leash with
minds numbed by indoctrination drugs designed to make men godless
fools. The kool-aid has already been drunk. In time its poison will do
its work. When the foundations are weakened, how will righteousness
stand?”

+ THE CORRUPTING INFLUENCE OF GOVERNMENT LARGESS

Besides flushing newly printed currency into our economy with the hope
that people will spend it, create demand for more goods and thus
create more jobs, there is another insidious goal of giving dollars
away. It is to condition people to turning to government for help in
time of need, make them dependent and especially dull them to any
concept of re-distributing wealth as being immoral. Without a moral
compass, intelligent people will find a way to work the largess system
to their benefit, even though they were never needy, but quite capable
of improving their lot on their own.

As a case in point, I was recently visiting with a young lady, a
Christian who had also been home schooled. Though young, she has
already purchased a home, with a mortgage of course, and is soon to be
married. Under Obama and the Democrats in Congress there is this huge
$8,000 pot of largesse in the form of a tax credit for first time home
buyers who can qualify to get their hands on it.

Now, the young lady has already bought a home so she doesn’t qualify.
However, her fiance has never purchased a home so he plans to purchase
the home from her before they are married so he will qualify for the
$8,000 then when they are married they will live in the home they were
going to live in anyway. After being married they will get their
$8,000 tax credit from the government to be able to spend any way they
want. Nothing illegal, just a way to take $8,000 from their neighbors
without having to ask those neighbors for it.

I asked the young lady if she thought is was “ok” to steal this money
from the rest of us and her reply was absolutely. I asked if she even
had a twinge of guilt for taking our money and she said, not a bit. I
am not so sure she had really given thought to the reality of the
situation, which of course is that she and her future husband will be
participating in “legalized plunder” as described by Fredrick Bastiat
in his classic work, THE LAW. To me, it is sad to see home schooled
Christians being part of the problem, rather than having the
convictions to stand up for what is right. Giving away other people’s
money is truly a corrupting influence. Even more sad, their children
will have a staggering debt to wrestle with, as caused by their
parents.

+ ON THE REPUBLICAN SIDE, THE POLITICAL RACES ARE TAKING SHAPE

On Saturday evening my wife and I along with our family from Lawton
attended the 5th annual Stevens County fish fry in Duncan. This was a
fund raiser for the Stevens County Republican party. Some would
suggest they have one of the most energized and effective county
parties in the state and judging from a turn out of over 400 with both
a silent and live auction, they just might be correct.

While Stevens County has a high Democrat registration advantage, they
have elected a very conservative State Representative in Dennis
Johnson to the House and a very conservative State Senator in Anthony
Sykes. All of this has been done in the back yard of the Democrat Lt.
Governor Jari Askins also the only announced Democrat candidate for
Governor. It is expected that current Democrat Attorney General Drew
Edmondson will also be a candidate for Governor.

The campaigns for state wide office are beginning to gear up as a
statewide race is a huge effort.
They conducted a straw poll that night which of course is not
scientific, but an indicator as to where more active Republicans are
siding on the candidates. It is looking like Former Congressman J.C.
Watts may jump into the race. He won the straw poll as would be
expected as he represented Stevens County during the 8 years he was in
Congress. Watts had 74 votes, Congresswoman Fallin garnered 68 votes
and the surprise of the evening would have to be the 44 votes received
by State Senator Randy Brogdon from the opposite side of the state.
There were 40 undecided votes. I was told by a person from Comanche
County (Lawton) that Congresswoman Fallin had recently only beaten
Senator Brogdon by 1 vote in a similar straw poll and I am not sure
J.C. Watts was on the ballot. If anyone can verify this and fill me in
on the details, please do so.

For Lt. Governor, State Senator Todd Lamb (R-OKC) was on the ballot
along with State Representatives Colby Schwartz (R-Yukon) and John
Wright (R-Broken Arrow) I didn’t catch the numbers for those 3 names
but the overwhelming victor for that race was “undecided.” I would
suggest all of these numbers are very fluid at this time.

Also attending was attorney Ryan Leonard, from OKC, and a candidate
for Attorney General as well as Jason Reese, also from OKC and an
announced candidate for State Labor Commissioner. So far I am not
aware of candidates for Insurance Commissioner, State Treasurer or
State Auditor. It is expected Corporation Commissioner Dana Murphy,
who was recently elected in a special election, will be the odds on
favorite for re-election to that spot. I believe there is a candidate
for State Superintendent of schools but she was not present to my
knowledge.

Relationships are very important in life, but when it comes to the
political process and the selection as to who will serve in positions
of government, I believe we make a huge mistake when we base our
decisions on relationships first. I believe we would be far better off
if we made our decisions based on a candidate’s ideology, personal
character, past performance (most of us have little knowledge of their
performance) their consistency and then our relationship with them.
The purpose of political campaigns are to discover that information.
Political campaigns should be about substantive differences between
candidates first and our personal friendships further down the
list.

I thought it was a great event with only one exception. At an official
Republican event, I believe it unfair to allow the Congressman for the
district, Tom Cole, to speak and not give equal time to an announced
Republican challenger. Certainly a district’s Congressman has every
right to speak, but once there is an announced challenger, they should
be given equal opportunity at official Republican meetings. Just one
more reason I support Congressional term limits, because of the huge
advantage afforded incumbents when it comes to the election process.

+ MEMBERSHIP UPDATE

We are just one member short of reaching our full amount for our
matching membership challenge. Beside the record breaking number of
people becoming dues paying members of OCPAC our e-mail list is
constantly enlarging. About 7 to 10 new names are being added each
week. If you know someone who would like to receive the weekly e-mail,
ask them then send me their name and e-mail address. Also, many people
have it forwarded to themselves from someone else. Sometimes there is
a time sensitive issue involved, so may I suggest sending me an e-mail
requesting to be put on our list to receive it directly. I never sell,
loan or give your name or e-mail to another from our list. My e-mail
address is below and instructions on joining OCPAC follow my address.

I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday

Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com