CALVEY WINS ENDORSEMENT

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING

++ ANNOUNCEMENTS

++ GOOD NEWS & A SITUATION THAT MAKES ME MAD CALVEY WINS ENDORSEMENT

++ THE OKLAHOMAN, BETTER LATE THAN NEVER OCPAC MEMBERSHIP UP-DATE

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday,

March 31, 2010 will be held at Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. This week we will have 3 of the known candidates for the First Congressional District, which is basically Tulsa County.

Appearing will be Nathan Dahm, Fran Mo-Ghaddam and Kenneth Rice II.

Each candidate will have 4 minutes to speak and then undergo an intense question and answer session. In addition, U.S. Representative John Sullivan, the incumbent Congressman will send a letter of which I will distribute to our members, since he has a scheduling conflict and is unable to attend. He will not be eligible for our endorsement, but our voting members may be persuaded to vote for “NO” endorsement if the chose not to endorse one of the other candidates. This is all very important, though a U.S. Representative represents the people in a certain district, none the less, that person makes decisions that affect people in every state of the union.

++ ANNOUNCEMENTS

+ OKC AREA - This Wednesday, March 31st, U.S. Senator Tom Coburn

will conduct a town hall meeting from 2 until 3 p.m., at the Spring Lake Technology Center, 1900 Spring Lake Drive, in OKC. As always, I urge conservative to attend these meetings and ask questions that set a conservative tone during the Q&A time of the meeting. The location is only 2 or 3 miles from Italiano’s, so anyone wanting to attend following our OCPAC luncheon will have a short trip to the event.

+ TULSA AREA - This Friday April 2nd, OkForTea will be hosting a

rally which will include having the Tea Party Express bus arrive around 4:00 p.m. The tea party actually begins at 2:00 p.m and will include several speakers such as State Senator Randy Brodgon, also a candidate for Governor. The location will be the Tulsa Fair Grounds, which is at 4145 East 21st Street. It is important to attend these events so the Democrats don’t think they have whipped us into acting like a bunch of cowed dogs, running for cover with our tails tucked between our hind legs.

+ OKC AREA - Next Tuesday April 6th Mr. John McManus, President of

the John Birch Society, will be speaking at the Character Inn, 520 West Main in downtown OKC. The time is 7:30 p.m. with adult admission $10 and students $5. This is not a meal, so reservations are not necessary and tickets can be purchased at the door. The title of the talk is: STEALING THE AMERICAN DREAM - HOW ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION AFFECTS YOU!

This is a very serious matter as a week ago Sunday an estimated 200,000 marched in Washington, demanding, not asking for amnesty.

Though they were told to only bring American flags, many couldn’t restrain themselves as Mexican flags we abundant as well as flags from other counties. Along with that there were signs promoting “revolution” as well as pictures of the communist revolutionary Che Cavaro and other communist figures. Even if you understand the seriousness of this issue, grab a friend who doesn’t and come on down.

Now that the big hurdle for health care has been achieved, the Obama Administration will begin its push for amnesty for illegal aliens.

++ GOOD NEWS & A SITUATION THAT MAKES ME MAD!

The Demonrats in Washington have taken a giant step toward shoving their health care bill down the throats of Americans, though the majority of us did not want it. The good news is, legislation is progressing toward success to allow Oklahomans to amend our Constitution to allow any individual or business in Oklahoma to opt out of this federal health care legislation. There are actually two pieces of legislation moving through the process to allow us to vote on the matter. The Healthcare Freedom of Choice Act with the slightly better wording is HJR 1054, authored by Representatives Mike Ritze (R- Broken Arrow), Mike Reynolds (R-OKC) in the House, and Senator Randy Brogdon (R-Owasso) as the Senate sponsor of the legislation. The other similar legislation is by Senator Dan Newberry (R-Tulsa) in the Senate and Representative Mike Thompson (R-OKC) in the House.

Now please pay close attention to understand what makes me mad about this situation. The principle author of HJR 1054 is Representative Mike Ritze, also a medical doctor. Dr. Ritze has been working almost non stop on crafting and working towards passage of this legislation since last August. He has traveled out of state, met with a couple of lawmakers from other states and worked with ALEC (a national organization for conservative lawmakers) to craft what has become model legislation. I believe there are now 36 other states with similar legislation crafted upon this piece of legislation. Dr. Ritze has also spoken at and attended many 10th Amendment events as he is a huge advocate of pushing back against an out of control and unconstitutional federal government.

Then along comes Senator Newberry with his legislation and guess who his House sponsor happens to be? None other than Representative Mike Thompson, a candidate for the 5th CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT. If I were a betting man, I would speculate that Dr. Ritze’s bill will not be the one to pass, but rather the Newberry-Thompson bill.

There are a couple of reasons, first anyone with any political savvy and insider information would believe that House leadership does not care for Representative Reynolds and the same from Reynolds toward leadership. Since Reynolds is a co-author with Dr. Ritze, leadership will probably not allow HJR 1054 become the vehicle to carry this important matter.

However, I believe there is a more important reason leadership will not allow Dr. Ritze’s legislation to go all the way. House leadership has a key staff person who is a close friend of a key person in the campaign to elect Mike Thompson to the 5th Congressional district. I believe a decision has been made to allow Mike Thompson to get credit for passing the important health care freedom of choice legislation to help him win the 5th Congressional race.

I believe Representative Thompson is in desperate need of some important piece of legislation to show for his 6 years in the legislature and this is going to be the bill. He has in the past authored some important highway legislation, but he was just carrying legislation for state agencies, something anyone could have done, as ODOT and the roads and bridge contractors would supply the lobbyists to get that kind of legislation pushed through the legislature. It just makes me mad that Representatives Ritze, Reynolds and Senator Brogdon are not likely to get the credit for passage, though all of them are huge advocates of 10th Amendment issues and have really worked on this issue.

I could have written this e-mail on Thursday, March 11th, but it wouldn’t have been fair to Representative Thompson as he attended our meeting last week in an effort to win our endorsement. I personally like Mike Thompson and I don’t blame him for wanting to be the author of this legislation, he even referred to it last week at the meeting in his presentation. Believe me, I had to bite my tongue about what was going on so as not to influence the outcome of the vote.

I have brought this up so the readers will have an idea of how things work. Also, when you see or hear political commercials in the future by Mike Thompson about his efforts to pass this important legislation, you will have an idea of what went on behind the scenes.

++ CALVEY WINS ENDORSEMENT

This past Wednesday culminated our 2 week effort to interview the 6 Republican candidates running for the 5th Congressional District.

While every candidate received some votes, former State Representative Kevin Calvey was picked by our voting members to receive our endorsement. I was a little surprised that he won without a run-off ballot. Kevin has a great grasp on the issues, is well read and has really developed his intellect. On top of that he is aggressive and not afraid to take a stand on the tough issues. He really came across as conservative and with a keen understanding of the Constitution.

With that said, I thought 2 or 3 of the other candidates did very well in the interview process. It is really too bad some of these fine Oklahoma candidates couldn’t replace some of the liberal lawmakers in the other states.

By receiving our endorsement, Kevin Calvey now joins Mark Costello, labor commissioner candidate, as the second person to receive our endorsement for a state wide or Congressional race. Congratulations to both Kevin and Mark as our interview process is not easy.

++ THE OKLAHOMAN, BETTER LATE THAN NEVER

Finally, this past Friday and only 2 weeks after the fact the Oklahoman finally printed a story on the front page of a secondary section of the paper about Moshe Tal’s court case victory over former OKC City Attorney Bill Burkett. There was no mention of the date of the verdict, probably since they weren’t exactly “Johnny on the spot”

with breaking news. Of course the old saying is “better late than never.” They reported that Burkett will seek an appeal. We will see how that news is reported.

++ OCPAC MEMBERSHIP UP-DATE

As of last Wednesday, we are very close to having 160 dues paying members so far this year. Starting now through the end of April we will have a matching membership challenge. For every new member, whether at the $50 basic level or the Elephant Provider ($180) or the Elephant Provider and RINO Hunter ($360) level, your dues will be matched by an additional $50 contribution. So far I have $500 dollars for the challenge, but will try to find another $1500 to make a target of $2000 for the match. We really appreciate the support from so many people from all over the state of Oklahoma. We have even added a third member from out of state. Thanks to our friends in Colorado, Michigan and now Mississippi for helping us make Oklahoma a more conservative state.

I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.

Charlie Meadows

Charliemeadows7@gmail.com

HEALTH CARE PASSES, WHAT NEXT?

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK'S MEETING

++ ANNOUNCEMENTS

++ HEALTH CARE PASSES, WHAT NEXT?

++ STILL WAITING ON THE OKLAHOMAN???

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK'S MEETING

Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, March 24th will be held at Italiano's restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln Blvd. in OKC. This week we will interview the final 3 candidates for the 5th Congressional district. Coming this week will be State Representative Mike Thompson, from OKC, former State Representative Kevin Calvey from Del City and the former Director of the Falls Creek youth and adult event facility, James Lankford. Last week we had Shane Jett, Rick Flanigan and Johnny Roy to round out the 6 Republican candidates for the U.S.

Representative seat. At this time independent candidate Clark Duffe has announced, and today former Republican activist, now turned Democrat, Tom Guild announced his run for the seat. He may as well, I believe he is used to losing as he did so twice as a Republican candidate for Corporation Commission 20 or more years ago. Please get to the meeting early if possible as we will start right at 12 noon, following the interview our dues paying members as of March 10 and who are present will vote to endorse one of these candidates or vote to make no endorsement.

++ ANNOUNCEMENTS

+ TUESDAY MARCH 23rd - OKC/YUKON AREA - Reclaiming Oklahoma for

Christ and Oklahomans Against CAIR Hate (OACH) will sponsor a rally and educational event to inform and expose people about the pro Muslim organization Council on American and Islamic Relations (CAIR). I believe CAIR is little more than a front group for some of the radical elements of Islam.

The time of the event will be at 6:30 p.m. and the location is Trinity Baptist Church in Yukon. The church is located about one half mile South of I-40 on the East side of Garth Brooks Blvd (600 North Cemetery Rd.). Among the evening's events, Martin Mawyer, founder of Christian Action Network, will be speaking about his organization's work in exposing other aspects of the radical Islamic threat in the United States. Premiering at the event will be the group's new film, "ISLAM RISING: GEERT WILDERS' WARNING TO AMERICA." There is no charge to attend, so grab a friend, attend and get educated.

As a point of interest, CAIR just had their 4th annual fund raising banquet at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum this past Saturday evening. Several high profile Democrats such as Oklahoma's Attorney General Drew Edmondson and Representative Richard Morrissette were scheduled to attend, but there has been so much criticism of CAIR in the media lately that perhaps that was the reason they decided to scatter and not attend.

+ MARCH 31st - OKC AREA - The Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs

(OCPA) will host their main fundraiser of the year, called their 2010 Citizenship Dinner. The speaker this year will be U.S. Representative Paul Ryan from the first Congressional District of Wisconsin. Ryan is considered to have the best grip on the numbers regarding President Obama and the Democrats health care bill of any elected official in the U.S. House. His continual efforts to set the record straight on the numbers have given Obama and his fellow partners in crime fits.

I actually got to meet Ryan this past fall at the GOP Bedlam Bash fund raiser down in Norman. He is very personable and I was most impressed with his talk that night. I checked out his score on the New American Magazine's Freedom Index and so far this session he has scored a 90 and a 100 for a 95 average which is excellent. Sullivan has an 81 average, Boren a 25, Lucas an 85, Fallin a 90 and bringing up the rear as normal for a Republican in Oklahoma, Tom Cole has a 75. In the Senate Inhofe has a 90 and Coburn a 100.

Congressman Ryan is an avid Hunter and as such spends a lot of time in Oklahoma hunting, especially since he married an Oklahoma girl from the Southern part of the state. He is being mentioned as a possible VP candidate or even a Presidential candidate by some. Regardless of whether or not he runs for one of those positions he is being seen as one of the new leaders in the Republican party. He is an excellent speaker.

I will not announce this meeting again, so if you want to attend, please contact Sandra Leaver at (405) 602-1667. The location will be the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, one week from this Wednesday. The cost to attend is $125. We are very fortunate to have a conservative think tank of the quality of OCPA and they deserve the support of conservatives through fund raisers such as this.

+ THE FOLLOWING ARE BRIEF NOTES ABOUT FUTURE EVENTS

LAWTON AREA - This Saturday evening March 27th the Comanche County GOP will have their annual BarB-Q fundraiser starting at 6:00 p.m. The location will be Worley Center, Room 300 in the Great Plains Technology Center. The cost is $20 per person. For reservations call

(580) 357-1116.

OKC AREA - Tuesday April 6th, John McManus, President of the John Birch Society will be speaking at the Character First Center about illegal immigration, the next push by Obama and his fellow crooks in Washington.

OKC AREA - Wednesday evening, April 14th and Thursday April 15th, during the day there will be tea parties at the State Capitol.

OKC AREA - OCPAC will have its first ever awards banquet on Friday evening April 30th. This is intended to be a fun event and we hope as many members and friends from around the state as possible will attend. I will send out a special e-mail with the details in the next couple of days.

++ HEALTH CARE PASSES WHAT NEXT?

On Sunday, the Democrats in the House rammed one of the worst pieces of legislation in our nation's history through the House. BUT, it doesn't have to be the end of the world just yet. If the good people of this country will stay involved we can reverse this evil piece of legislation. If we don't give up there is an underlying current of Constitutionalists building that may cause a backlash against the Marxists and liberal progressives that will last for many years to come.

If we can get a new breed of Republicans elected to office in sufficient numbers, they can use the same tactics as the Democrats to reverse this legislation and thus not require a 60 vote super majority in the Senate to break a filibuster. They can then move to dismantle this socialist take over of health care.

If conservative Republicans are elected to power in the House, they will not have to fund this law. The Constitution calls for all spending and taxation bills to originate in the House.

A conservative Republican President could overturn any parts of the agenda that were implemented through a Presidential directive or executive order.

Perhaps the most important issue, is the Oklahoma Health Care Freedom of Choice Act. There are 2 versions of this legislation moving through the legislature to create a 10th Amendment push back against Obama and the Democrat's health care legislation. I prefer the legislation by Ritze and Reynolds in the House and Brogdon in the Senate. If it finishes the course, we will vote next November to amend our State Constitution to exempt any Oklahoma citizen or business from being forced to participate in the federal health care plan.

Today, Monday, I heard Speaker Chris Benge on radio challenge Attorney General Drew Edmondson to bring a lawsuit against the health care measure passed yesterday by the Democrats in Washington. Speaker Benge criticized the heavy handedness of the federal government on this issue. I agree with Benge whole heartedly, though pardon me if I suspect that Benge's motives may not be totally pure. There is little doubt that he is trying to put Edmondson on the spot by pressuring him to oppose the national agenda of the Democrats, Edmondson's own political party. The relatively small number of people in Oklahoma who support this boondoggle are Democrats, so Edmondson, running for Governor runs the risk of making some of his Democrat base mad if he files the suit.

The reason I am skeptical about Speaker Benge's motives is that he and Floor Leader Tad Jones (R-Claremore) refused to allow Sally Kern's legislation to be heard on the floor that would protect Oklahoma businesses and individuals from the possibility of 20 to 100 percent increases in their electric utility rates. On the other hand, in last Friday's edition of the Oklahoman, there was this following brief news

article:

"STATE HOPES TO OPPOSE EPA RULING"

"Oklahoma is one of a dozen states seeking permission to challenge an Environmental Protection Agency finding that could potentially cripple economic development in the state. Attorney General Drew Edmondson said Thursday. The states are seeking to join a pending federal case that challenges an EPA finding which sets in motion the regulation of greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, under the Clean Air Act.

Edmondson said he is concerned businesses will be financially unable to comply with the ruling,."

There you have it, Speaker Benge and Tad Jones aren't willing to protect the citizens of Oklahoma from the heavy handed actions of the federal government on this critical issue, but Drew Edmondson is. I point this out for folks to see, that in Oklahoma the Democrats aren't the problem, the problem happens to be with those moderate Republicans, often referred to as RINOs, (Republicans In Name Only).

Now please pay close attention to what I am about to say. The solution is not to turn control of state government over to the Democrats like the people of America did over the past two election cycles regarding the federal government. Not only was that not strategic thinking, it was stupid. It is also not the time to form a third party or run a whole slate of independent candidates. It IS time to become an informed electorate, discerning the difference between a true limited government conservative Republican verses a moderate, left leaning or liberal RINO Republican. That is what we need to be doing at this time and make sure we elect the RIGHT kind of Republicans to office. I would suggest other strategies are wasted efforts and helpful to the liberal Democrats.

++ STILL WAITING ON THE OKLAHOMAN???

In last week's e-mail I mentioned that Moshe Tal received a measure of justice as a Tulsa jury ruled in his favor regarding a legal battle between Mr. Tal and former OKC city attorney Bill Burkett. Mr. Tal issued a press release about the decision to the Oklahoman and other news sources in the state. Unless I missed it, the Oklahoman hasn't printed a word one about the outcome of the trial. On the other hand, if my memory serves me correctly, when Mr. Tal would lose a case in the courts here in OKC the Oklahoman would have those stories on the front page. Could it be the Oklahoman is practicing selective journalism? Where is the transparency and openness? Is this what is called censorship by omission?

I happen to believe the Oklahoman and many of the most powerful people in Oklahoma City really dislike Moshe Tal. I believe one of the reasons for such dislike is that Mr. Tal exposed the good old boy network and corruption that exists in OKC better than anyone thought possible. I believe Moshe Tal is one of the most honorable people I have ever met and I wish him well at all he does.

I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday

Charlie Meadows

Charliemeadows7@gmail.com

THE RANDY BROGDON SHOW?

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S M,EETING

++ ANNOUNCEMENT

++ LEGISLATIVE UP-DATE

++ GOVERNOR’S RACE ACCORDING TO RASMUSSEN GLEN BECK, SARAH PALIN AND

++ THE RANDY BROGDON SHOW?

++ CENSUS TIME, WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO?

++ MOSHE TAL WINS IN COURT, A MEASURE OF JUSTICE INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW

++ TO JOIN OCPAC

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING

A big thanks to Corporation Commissioner Dana Murphy for agreeing to be re-scheduled to a later date. Many of you may know that this past Friday State Representative Shane Jett announced he would run for the 5th Congressional District and not seek re-election to the State Legislature. I had the 5 previously known Republican candidates scheduled for the 24th, but with 6 in the race that is too many to try and interview at one meeting. Therefore we will split the 5th district into the next 2 Wednesdays. Coming this week will be businessman Rick Flanigan from Bethany, Dr. Johnny Roy from Edmond and Representative Shane Jett from Tecumseh. I have called James Lankford, Representative Mike Thompson and Kevin Calvey to ask them not to attend this week’s meeting and thus hear the questions asked in advance of their appearance. We want to be as fair as possible to all the candidates.

Each candidate will be allowed 4 minutes to speak then they will answer about 4 questions from me, then the rest of the questions will come from the audience. I suggest arriving early to get a good seat as there is a lot of interest in this race since we are located right in the middle of this congressional seat.

++ ANNOUNCEMENT

+ TULSA AREA - Tuesday evening March 16th the Tulsa Area Republican

Assembly will have their monthly meeting at the Golden Corral, 71st street and Mingo. Folks will begin to gather for dinner at 6 and the program will begin at 7:00 p.m. The speakers will be State Senator Todd Lamb and State Representative John Wright, they are the Republican candidates for Lt. Governor. As an extra, those in attendance will be able to hear from Randy Bright, architect and Tulsa Beacon columnist who will give a short up-date on the PlaniTulsa. That presentation will be from 6:45 until 7:00.

++ LEGISLATIVE UP-DATE

Last week was the deadline for bills to be heard in each chamber if they were going to be able to move forward to the opposite chamber for consideration. I do want to thank House leadership for allowing the Health Care Freedom of Choice bill to come up for a vote before the full House and their commitment to see such legislation pass. There were also some other pieces of good legislation that moved forward, but I am disappointed that the Oklahoma Environmental Authority legislation by Representative Kern was not allowed to be heard. After a little more research I will convey in a future e-mail why I believe the legislation was not allowed to be voted upon. The reality is this, if Oklahoma residents and businesses experience increased costs for their electric services because of phony “environmental concerns” then the blame for such will rest squarely upon the shoulders of Representative Tad Jones, Speaker Benge and perhaps the rest of the leadership team. The passage of that legislation would have protected Oklahoman’s from such foolishness.

++ GOVERNOR’S RACE ACCORDING TO RASMUSSEN

A few days ago the nationally known pollster released his findings on how Republican and Democrat candidates would fare in several different states if the election were held on the polling day. Oklahoma was one of the states he polled and the results pointed toward the possibility of a very good year for Republicans in Oklahoma.

It would not be news to any of the activists in Oklahoma that U.S.

Representative Mary Fallin has an early lead as she polled at 51% compared to 37% for Jari Askins and 36% for Drew Edmondson. However the more telling story is how well State Senator Randy Brogdon does up against the 2 Democrats. Senator Brogdon polled at 42% against Edmondson’s 41% and 39% to 42% for Askins, a virtual tie with each of them. This is impressive since Fallin, Edmondson and Askins have all run and won state wide races and this is the first state wide race for Brogdon.

While Rasmussen didn’t poll the primary candidates pitted against each other, it appears as though Brogdon has made up a lot of ground and is closing what started off as a huge gap in name recognition. I believe both of these primaries will be very close by the time the election arrives in late July.

++ GLEN BECK, SARAH PALIN AND THE RANDY BROGDON SHOW?

First a big thanks to Richard and Denise Engle as well as John Williams for helping with the OCPAC table at the big event in Tulsa last Saturday. There were an estimated 6,000 people who laid down a few bucks to attend the big show and at times we were inundated with people accessing our literature.

As an exhibitor, we arrived earlier than most and were greeted by a plethora of Brogdon for Governor signs outside the arena and swarms of Brogdon volunteers at the entrances willing to dispense Brogdon stick on patches. While it wasn’t too surprising to see no presence for Robert Hubbard, a late entry in the race, I was shocked to see no presence for Mary Fallin. You have 6,000 people from all over the state, probably half or more newly awakened and concerned with elections and the Fallin campaign was ABSENT! What a huge mistake or is it that she just doesn’t have any grass roots volunteers, at least in the Tulsa area?

A couple of weeks back I suggested Fallin’s decision to serve in Congress and run for Governor at the same time would hurt her with the grass roots activists. This is especially true since Brogdon has been on a torrid pace meeting with the grass roots Republicans since he announced a little less than a year ago. I was immediately contacted by the Fallin campaign and informed that Mary has been working very hard. I am convinced she has, but it is with small groups and financial supporters from years gone by and to a much lesser degree with the “activists”, people who will talk to their friends and neighbors, turn out to events, knock doors, make phone calls and such.

Following the event the Tulsa 912 group hosted a party at a nearby bar and grill, so we dropped in for an hour. It turned out to be a Brogdon rally, during which time I was introduced to a lady who owns a business in the OKC area who had never heard of Brogdon before, but was now excited by his candidacy. When that kind of grass roots activism ignites it overcomes the value of the big money that the more establishment candidates are able to amass. If nothing else, Saturday really confirmed to me that Senator Brogdon has really has the support of the majority of activists in the state.

I do want to express one word of caution for Republicans in Oklahoma.

When you have such a large number of passionate volunteers, especially with today’s technological capabilities, there are bound to be some over zealous activists who will dredge up old newspaper articles with allegations about then Lt. Governor Fallin. I would suggest that information to be irrelevant as it was some time ago during a difficult time in Mary’s life. I believe several years ago she turned a new page in her life and has moved on past that time.

This race should be about the ideological differences between the candidates, the strategy as to how to govern, the passion and courage of the candidates and whether or not the candidates will make the correct decisions for the benefit of the citizens rather than the benefit of some large contributors who may put self interests ahead of the benefit of all the citizens. That is why it is so important for the candidates to appear at forums where the citizens can ask questions and evaluate those differences.

Make no mistake, I am disappointed that the Fallin campaign has not responded as yet to appear before the members of OCPAC in a timely manner. I am keeping Wednesday, April 21 open as a deadline for Mary to attend before we move on to other races. When I started scheduling, they had their choice of any Wednesday from the middle of February until close to filing date. Most likely would be during the congressional bread for Presidents day or the Easter break. I just don’t believe there was a willingness to appear.

++ CENSUS TIME, WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO?

I have received a lot of e-mails regarding the census as the forms have been arriving in the mail. The U.S. Constitution requires that the census be taken every 10 years for the purpose of determining how many U.S. Representatives each state will have. It is very important to be counted, as I would much rather have as many representatives from Oklahoma as possible rather than see states like New York have ever more representation. Most people are concerned with all the intrusive questions which go beyond the number of people who live in your home. Just remember, information is very important to central planning fascists, which is much the system of government of which we have now become.

If you chose not to completely fill out the form, you may want to include a cover letter stating you will provide no more information so as to discourage a census worker from coming to your door looking for more information. I believe it HIGHLY unlikely for a person to be fined for not filling out the form completely and if there were to be a fine, I believe it would be very small. You will have to decide just how much you want to push back toward the feds beyond providing the number of people in your home. It might just be good 10th Amendment training.

++ MOSHE TAL WINS IN COURT, A MEASURE OF JUSTICE

Shortly before the MAPS III vote we had Moshe Tal come and speak about how he had been abused by the city of OKC starting shortly after the time of the original MAPS I vote. If I remember correctly Mr. Tal formed the group, Taxpayers for Honest Government, which included several members of OCPAC. I believe they were unsuccessfully sued by then Municipal Counselor William Burkett. Mr. Burkett was counter sued by Mr. Tal and for several years Mr. Tal lost in local courts. However he appealed to the State Supreme Court who basically ruled that he could not get a fair trial in OKC so they moved the venue to Tulsa.

After 4 days of testimony, a jury found Mr. Burkett guilty of acting in reckless disregard of the law and acting intentionally and with malice toward others. The jury awarded Mr. Tal approximately $27,000 in damages and punitive damages of an additional $50,000. According to Mr. Tal, following the trial some in the jury said they hoped verdicts such as this would send a message to officials letting them know that they are not above the law. Moshe Tal should be honored for standing up for what is right and not caving in to the sometimes tyrannical actions of government.

++ INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO JOIN OCPAC

If you would like to join OCPAC, there is a form you need to fill out.

The form will follow my sign off. I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.

Charlie Meadows

Charliemeadows7@gmail.com

SENATORS BUNNING AND COBURN

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING

++ ANNOUNCEMENTS

++ SENATORS BUNNING AND COBURN

++ TIDBITS

++ OCPAC MEMBERSHIP

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING

Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, March 10th will be held at Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. We will have a very busy meeting this Wednesday with Tim Gillespie up first. He will present the 12 guage shotgun to the person who won the recent drawing, as well as give us an up-date about the games Representative Sue Tibbs is playing concerning the open carry law that many of us want passed.

Also, he will announce a great opportunity to attend a workshop and build your own AK-47 for a good deal less than the retail cost. Second we will have one of our State Senator’s Executive Assistants (EA) and one of our state Representative’s Legislative Assistants (LA) give us a brief presentation on a new web-site they have created on how to access information about transparency in government. Then our main speaker will be Mr. Robert Gomez, Msgt, USAF (RET). Mr. Gomez is the President of the Oklahoma Chapter of the group OATH KEEPERS. Mr. Gomez is also one of the National Board Members for the national organization of OATH KEEPERS. Last week we started interviewing candidates, if you attended you know that Mark Costello won our endorsement, surprisingly without a run-off vote. I had a candidate who needed to re-schedule away from this week, so we are having these others for our program. Don’t miss this meeting as it will be most informative.

++ ANNOUNCEMENTS

+ OKC AREA - Starting this Tuesday, March 9th and continuing every

Tuesday through April 13, H&H Gun Range will host a class to study the U.S. Constitution. The class will be taught by Don M. Powers of the Powers law firm in Edmond. The class material is from the book “The 5000 Year Leap, by W. Cleon Skousen. Dr. Skousen was one of the founders of the National Center for Constitutional Studies. The times are from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. and will be structured as both a lecture and discussion. The end result for a person who attends the entire program is a deeper appreciation for the Constitution and the need to preserve our Liberty through re-establishing the Constitution as the guide for American government. There is no charge for the program, but seating is limited. It is suggested to arrive at the gun range 30 minutes early if possible.

+ OKC AREA - The Business and Professional chapter of the John

Birch Society will have their monthly meeting at the Character First Training Center 520 West Main in downtown OKC. Breakfast is served starting at 7:15 and the meeting will begin at 7:45 a.m.. The guest speaker this month will be State Representative Sally Kern, speaking on the progress of this years legislative session. Representative Kern also recently attended the Education Policy Conference in St. Louis and is the contact for Oklahoma with David Barton’s Wallbuilders Organization. She is a wealth of information about a lot of different subjects.

+ TULSA AREA - The Tulsa County Republican Club will have their

monthly luncheon meeting at 12 noon on Wednesday, March 10th. The speakers will be Ted King from Rogers County speaking on the rise of the Nanny State and Howard Pidcock, candidate for House District 68 which will soon to be vacated by House Speaker Chris Benge. The location of the noon luncheon is the Hong Kong Restaurant, 7315 South Memorial Drive. The public, including women are welcome. For more information contact Gary Casey at 918 855-5908 or Bob McDowell at 481-1050.

+ TULSA AREA - Glen Beck and Sarah Palin will be speaking during

the day on Saturday the 13th. I will be manning an OCPAC table along with some other volunteers in the exhibit hall outside the arena where Beck and Palin will be speaking. If you attend the event, please stop by and say hello. By the way, Beck’s program last Friday on the state of education in America was another outstanding show. I just can’t say enough about the value of much of the information he is bringing to the table at this time. If you have satellite or cable, give him a try and see if I am overstating the program’s value.

++ SENATORS BUNNING AND COBURN

For the last couple of weeks many Americans were in a tizzy over Kentucky’s Republican Senator Jim Bunning holding up highway funding and, horror of all horrors, yet another extension of unemployment benefits. Under the pay as you go plan recently put in place by the Democrats, Congress is not supposed to spend additional monies without cutting some other expenditures equal to the amount of the new spending.

Under the unanimous consent rule, bills don’t have to be debated if there is 100% consent to the legislation. If however just one Senator objects, the bill can’t move forward under that procedure. Bunning held up the legislation for several days, before a lack of support from fellow Republicans, and sob stories finally beat him into submission. The Democrats were grand standing with sob stories about hardships on the unemployed so finally Bunning caved on the issue.

Truth is, for a long time now I have been saying that America can’t work its way out of the hole created by decades of overspending by Congress without some level of PAIN! I have also stated that the longer we wait to clean up or mess, the more painful the fix will be.

Therefore, anything we do to restore financial responsibility will be painful to someone, but it is a must that we begin to correct our past ills. Lawmakers in Washington need to communicate that truth to the citizens and then make the hard decisions. That is the definition of leadership

Many people may not know that Senator Coburn is holding up legislation which would send foreign aid to the African Nation of Uganda. Senator Coburn has an increasing crowd of liberal protestors showing up in front of his OKC office to try and pressure him to allow the legislation to go forward. Many of these protestors are from out of State. I would suggest they resemble a “rent a mob crowd” probably being funded by some leftist special interest group. Both Inhoff and Coburn favor the legislation, but Coburn won’t allow the piece to be heard without cutting the same amount of spending somewhere else in the Budget.

While I thank Senator Coburn for not bowing to pressure, he has indicated his opposition will be removed if spending cuts are found. I believe the proper opposition toward the spending should be based upon the Constitution. I just can’t find a place in the Constitutions where this kind of foreign aid is a proper function of the federal government? The money to help the Ugandan’s should come form private sources, not the federal government, especially since the federal government is already bankrupt.

++ TIDBITS

+ BOREN AND HIS CFR BUDDIES It appears that OU President David Boren

is up to his old tricks again of indoctrinating students into the ideas of globalism. Boren is one of the few Oklahoman’s who was and perhaps still is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).

On Monday of this week, through his President’s Associates events, he sponsored current CIA Director Leon Panetta and former national security advisors Zbigniew Brzezinski and Brent Scowcroft, to speak at the University of Oklahoma’s Foreign Policy Conference, “A New Kind of

Leadership: America and the Rise of the Rest.” All three of these buddies of Boren are members of the CFR. This past Summer we showed a DVD about America’s one world global socialist crowd. The DVD by Patrick Woods of the August Review, exposed Brzezinski as one of the most significant architects in America who has been working toward the goal of destroying our national sovereignty and merging us into a one world global socialist government. Could it be that the euphoria over football and other sports at OU is the pabulum necessary to keep us shoveling money into a University which then indoctrinates our students and community into anti-Americanism?

+ SCOTT PRUITT TO RUN FOR ATTORNEY GENERAL After many months of

consideration, former State Senator and Lt. Governor candidate Scott Pruitt has decided to become a candidate for Attorney General. In most cases it is getting a little late to enter a state wide race. However, Pruitt, from Tulsa and now a businessman in OKC has a fair amount of name recognition already in place and the ability to raise a good deal of money quickly. He joins Ryan Leonard who announced during the Republican state convention last year and State Senator Clark Jolly who if getting his campaign geared up with speaking events. This will be one of Oklahoma’s most important elections on this year’s ballot.

We look forward to the 3 of these candidates appearing before the OCPAC members in the near future.

+ BROGDON ENDORSED BY GOA State Senator Randy Brogdon (R-Owasso)

received a huge endorsement from Gun Owners of America, the no compromise Second Amendment advocates working to protect our rights to own and bear arms. They based their endorsement on Senator Brogdon’s unwavering support of the Second Amendment and his leadership in 10th Amendment issues. Congratulations to Senator Brogdon.

+ CUDOS TO THE OKLAHOMAN The last two weeks I have jumped on the

Oklahoma for a couple of reasons, one of which was their attack upon State Representative Charles Key. To their credit they published a response from Representative Key, of which I will post at our meeting this Wednesday.

+ CHA WINS AGAIN Christian Heritage Academy, with its main campus

located in Del City and its North campus located at Fairview Baptist Church in Edmond, has won the state championship for the 3rd year in a row in Mock Trial competition. CHA has made the state finals more than any other school in the state. Perhaps even more significant is that there are no size groupings in the Mock Trial competition, so all schools of all sizes compete against each other. The CHA students will now represent Oklahoma in the national finals in Philadelphia on May 6th. Congratulations and God’s speed to those talented students.

++ OCPAC MEMBERSHIP UP-DATE

Memberships continue to pour in from all parts of the state. In fact we even have two dues paying members from out of state. One lives in Colorado and the other in Michigan. Both of these fellows have been involved with OCPAC from its conception and believe in our efforts. I want to extend an invitation for Oklahomas to continue to expand our membership. Your dues are what allows us to support truly conservative candidates for office and attempt to hold the RINOs (Republicans In Name Only) accountable for the conservative rhetoric they speak when they want our votes. Please see below for instructions on joining.

I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.

Charlie Meadows

Charliemeadows7@gmail.com

URGENT ACTION ITEM

Your phone calls to the State Capitol are needed on Monday or Tuesday, preferably Monday.

First, the most important bill. Your in-action may allow for your electric utility bills to increase by a minimum of 20%. This past Wednesday at 10:00 p.m. on Oklahoma City’s CBS affiliate, Channel 9 News, they had a feature story about the haze over the Wichita Wildlife Refuge near Lawton. I wrote about this issue in last Monday night’s e-mail.

Here is the situation. The federal Environmental Protection Authority

(EPA) is about to require PSO to spend $700 million dollars and OG&E to spend $1 BILLION dollars to install expensive environmental equipment to solve a problem neither of them causes. In fact a problem that can be debated as to how much is natural and how much is man made and what happens in Texas (not Oklahoma) that may cause that problem.

In the news story a spokesman for OG&E indicated if the new regulations were IMPOSED, it would cause a 20% rate hike for all customers, both residential and business. This past week, a Vice President for OG&E told a small group of company employees it could even cause rates to double.

These utilities are working with Oklahoma’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to work out a compromise with the EPA which may lessen the increased costs to Oklahoma’s consumers and businesses, a least for a few years. In other words the DEQ and Oklahoma’s utilities are on their bended knees, licking the boots of the bureaucratic royalty at the federal EPA, begging them to have mercy on we poor little Okies.

IT DOES NOT HAVE TO BE THIS WAY! State Representative Sally Kern has authored HB 3219 which would establish Oklahoma’s DEQ and the Corporation Commission as the final authority regarding environmental issues. This would place the EPA in an submissive position to Oklahoma and allow us to trump President Obama’s radical environmental agenda.

The legislation passed out of committee, but sources have told me that Republican LEADERSHIP in the House does not intend to allow it to be heard on the floor this week! The deadline for bills to be heard so they can move over to the Senate is this Thursday.

In this case the front man holding up this legislation is State Representative Tad Jones (R-Claremore) who currently serves as the House Floor Leader. Representative Jones is also running for State Labor Commissioner. If he prevents this bill from being heard which could prevent utility bills from increasing for the vast majority of Oklahomans, he can fold up his election campaign right now because he is going to suffer a humiliating defeat in the primaries. However, he may just be the “stop it man” for Speaker Benge and the other members of the Republican leadership team in the House? It doesn’t matter because he is part of that leadership team. Either way, the following action is needed. Please call and e-mail, especially call these two people at the Capitol:

Call State Representative Tad Jones’ office at (405) 557- 7380 tadjones@okhouse.gov .

Call Speaker Chris Benge’s office at (405) 557-7444 chrisbenge@okhouse.gov .

Tell them you want HB 3219, the Oklahoma Environmental Authority Act, to advance to the floor for a vote of the entire House. Ask them if they are willing to allow this bill to be heard? I have promised in the past that I would never ask you to make calls if it were not important, this is very important.

+ THE SECOND BUT LESS IMPORTANT ISSUE

HB 3108, again by Representative Sally Kern has passed out of committee, but sources tell me leadership doesn’t want this legislation to be heard on the floor before the full House.

This bill would correct some of the improper bleeding of funds out of the teacher retirement system. It appears that in 1986 the Democrats, then fully in control in the legislature, hid some Easter egg benefits deeply in the basket of some piece of legislation.

The outcome of the legislation was to allow a teacher to leave government employment and go to work for a union such as the OEA. Even though no longer employed as a government teacher, and now that they would be working for a private entity, state taxpayers were to continue to pay into their retirement fund.

In addition their number of years in service were to continue and their retirement would be based upon their pay in the union, which would probably be much higher than that of a teacher. They deserve their retirement from the time they were employed as a teacher or perhaps a principle, but when they leave government employment and go to work for a private entity, the tax payers should no longer be paying into their retirement. Especially since the actuaries are off base since contributions being paid in are not able to keep up with the amounts being paid out. This is just one more reason Oklahoma’s teacher retirement system is among the worst in the nation and at risk of not being able to meet its future obligations.

Again, please call Tad Jones office at (405) 557- 7380 or tadjones@okhouse.gov as well as Speaker Chris Benge’s office at (405)

557-7444 or chrisbenge@okhouse.gov .

Ask them to advance HB 3108 to stop the bleeding from the teacher retirement fund because as a taxpayer you don’t want to pay ever more money into this fund when some of it is being spent improperly. If you want to e-mail about both of these issues that is fine, but pleas call as that is most important. Please don’t mix the issues in your phone calls. Make two calls even if you call about one then hang up and call again about the other issue.

Thanks for your help, you do make a difference and we are nearing an important deadline.

Charlie Meadows

Charliemeadows7@gmail.com

OKC MAYOR’S RACE

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING

++ ELECTIONS ON TUESDAY, MARCH 2ND

++ ANNOUNCEMENTS

++ ACTION ITEM

++ REPRESENTATIVE STEELE’S RESPONSE

++ HELPING THE OKLAHOMAN UNDERSTAND GOOD GOVERNMENT

++ OCPAC MEMBERSHIP UP-DATE

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING

Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, March 3rd will be held at Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. This Wednesday, we begin the process of interviewing candidates for state wide and congressional races. This week’s meeting will feature the 3 Republican candidates for the State Labor Commissioner’s office. Brenda Renau had held that seat for 12 years before losing it to a former Democrat lawmaker 4 years ago. This is a seat that labor unions have wanted to control, so it is important that the Labor Commissioner, understands the job, is fair minded and not controlled by labor unions or big business for that matter. The candidates are in order of their announcing for this office, Jason Reese, an attorney, State Representative Tad Jones, and businessman Mark Costello. Please try to arrive early as we will start our meeting at 12:05 sharp and move into the interview process quickly. All of those having their dues paid as of February 17th (2 weeks prior to any vote) will be given a ballot.

Depending on the vote of our members, we will either endorse one of these candidates or vote to make no endorsement in this race.

++ ELECTIONS ON TUESDAY, MARCH 2ND

I want to address only 2 elections, though there are more in the state. These comments are my own and do not represent an official position of OCPAC. These are just my thoughts, you may have a different opinion and that is fine.

+ TULSA SCHOOL DISTRICT - Any registered voter who lives in the

Tulsa Public School district is being asked to vote for a $354 million dollar school bond. If the voters approve this more than one third of a billion dollar property tax increase then they need their heads examined by a shrink as loony tune as they are. This will be a huge burden on people in a depressed economy as property taxes pay no attention to the prosperity of those upon whom these taxes are assessed. It is more than twice the size of any previous TPS bond issue and reportedly the largest in state history. A good deal of this money will be wasted on early childhood education facilities. Wasted because these programs don’t produce positive long term benefits for our children as they progress through the system. VOTE NO on this bond increase and require the TPS to come back with a reasonable bond issue for only the most pressing needs.

+ OKC MAYOR’S RACE - Mayor Mick Cornett will face Steve Hunt in his

second re-election bid since winning a special election 6 years ago to fill the seat then vacated by then Mayor Kirk Humphrey who ran in a losing effort to replace Don Nickels.

Anyone who knows me well or follows my e-mails will surely know that I don’t care much for Mick Cornett as I believe he is little more than a useful front man for the local central planners who see the various levels of government as little more than useful entities to help them achieve their wants and desires.

Therefore, I would be most willing to see Mayor Mick replaced as long as the replacement was an improvement. I guess there are many ways to define what an improvement would be, but with Mr. Hunt, I am not so sure he would be an improvement.

Here are my concerns. The first time I met Steve Hunt was at a press conference called by Paul Jacob. Mr. Jacob is an advocate of people having access to referendums or the petition process to redress their government. He had been involved with the Tax Payer Bill of Rights

(TABOR) petition as well as a petition to tighten up the loose ends of our eminent domain laws. Oklahoma’s Attorney General Drew Edmondson had filed criminal charges against Mr Jacob and two others in what I believe was an attempt to make an example out of them for trying to put some clamps on the ability of government to grow and abuse people.

During the time Mr. Jacob was speaking Steve Hunt tried to crash the press conference by yelling at the top of his lungs about something he claimed Mr. Jacob had done to him in years past. Fortunately several people held their signs up and moved in front of Mr. Hunt to keep him from further interruptions. After the press conference was over I went up to him while he was being interview by one of the local TV stations and told him I believed he was a horse’s “rear” for what he tried to do. I told him he had a right to the interview with the reporter but he had no right to interrupt Mr. Jacob. He suggested we drop our differences and work together to defeat the corporate welfare program for the 5 millionaires and billionaires who then owned the Sonics, now the OKC Thunder.

In recent days he has had some air and press time. I have to believe he is trying to sound like a perfectly reasonable fellow who would make a good mayor for OKC. However, he sounds to me more like someone lacking in sound economic principles and a commitment to obligations.

Don’t get me wrong, I was against MAPS III for a variety of reasons, most of which was that some of the projects should be done by the private sector and that some of the other projects would cost the city more than they would directly generate in revenues or even generate in ancillary revenues to the city.

While there is no guarantee that a new convention center will be successful, it is the one project that stands the best chance of bringing a large increase of revenues to the city and Mr. Hunt wants to try and shelve that project. If Mr. Hunt was running for any seat on the council other than Brian Walters’ seat, I would take a chance and endorse him. But he is running for Mayor, the face of the city and I am afraid he might be a huge embarrassment to the citizens of OKC in that capacity. Therefore, the choice is yours, if I lived in the city I would find it a most difficult decision.

++ ANNOUNCEMENTS

+ TULSA AREA - This Thursday evening, March 4th, Oklahomans For

Sovereignty and Free Enterprise (OK-SAFE) will hold their monthly action forum meeting. The time will be 6:45 to 8:15 p.m. at the Hardesty Regional Library, 93rd and South Memorial in Tulsa. The speaker will be Kenneth Rice II talking about Constitutional economics. OK-SAFE is an excellent organization and I urge people in the Tulsa area to get involved and participate.

++ ACTION ITEM

There is a really bad idea being proposed at the Corporation Commission. If approved by the commissioners, it would make all long distance calls made within the state of Oklahoma toll free from land lines. However, to make up for lost long distance revenues the proposal is to add yet another fee to all phone services, especially noteworthy would be to cell phone users. That’s right, the hair brain idea would have cell phone users paying for the long distance phone calls for people who have land lines. This is just another immoral re- distribution of wealth scheme. Commissioner Dana Murphy is against the proposal. Please call the other two Commissioners and tell them to oppose this measure. The office number for Jeff Cloud is (405)

521-2264 and the number for Bob Anthony is (405) 521-2261. If people with land lines want free long distance calling they need to pay more for their basic service, not use the sword of government to take money from cell phone users to subsidize their land line service.

++ REPRESENTATIVE STEELE’S RESPONSE

In last week’s e-mail I had a section urging State Representative Kris Steele to beware of fascists. I received a call from Representative Steele about 2:00 p.m. on the same day the e-mail went out to explain his legislation and to assure me he would not vote for legislation to mandate private property owners from being able to have a restaurant with a smoking area or prohibit smoking in a bar or club.

He informed me that several years ago there were 122 restaurants across the state that chose to spend money to section off a special smoking area with a separate ventilation system from the system that served the non-smoking areas of the restaurant. Since that time several of those restaurant owners had expressed an opinion that they wished they had simply become non-smoking facilities.

Therefore Representative Steele is sponsoring legislation to pay for half the cost, less depreciation, that the restaurant owners had originally spent to segregate their facilities to now become non smoking facilities. Where I was wrong is that the monies to used to help pay for the conversion does not come from the taxpayers as I had suggested, but rather from interest earned from the tobacco settlement fund. This would legally fit into the limited uses for those funds.

While I don’t believe there should have ever been a tobacco settlement fund in the first place, it does exist this would be a proper use of that money. Again, this does not mandate anything, it is simply an option for those restaurant owners to make the switch today.

++ HELPING THE OKLAHOMAN UNDERSTAND GOOD GOVERNMENT

In last week’s e-mail I suggested the Oklahoman really practiced hypocrisy. Based on a couple of editorials this past week, my I suggest they really need help in recognizing good legislation from bad.

Last Tuesday, the Oklahoman ran an editorial titled “Off Key: Lawmaker wishes state stood alone.” Of course they started off by dredging up some of their tired old attacks upon Representative Charles Key before they labeled those of us who are concerned about the States Rights issues as being “extremists.” Coming from the Oklahoman’s editorial page I take that with a grain of salt and a badge of honor. I really want to thank Senate President Pro-Tem Glen Coffee for his public pronouncements about the validity of debate on at least the health care aspect of these 10th Amendment issues. His statement was something like: The federal government has thumbed their noses at the states so it is proper for this debate to be going on at the state level.

Of the many “states rights” pieces of legislation introduced this year they aren’t necessarily random, but rather intended to work together.

In a recent article in the Oklahoma Gazette about the Health Care Freedom of Choice legislation by Representative Mike Ritze (R-Broken Arrow), the article ended with input between two attorneys giving their opinions about the constitutionality of some of these measures.

One attorney seemed to believe the states might succeed if they were ready to risk losing federal dollars. That is why Representative Key’s legislation to first impound federal taxes collected by the state is so important. Under certain circumstances those dollars might not be sent to the feds, which would mitigate the effect of funds not being sent back to the state.

In another editorial I believe the Oklahoman took a gentle swipe at legislation by Representative Ritze to remove sales taxes from the purchase of gold and silver coins or ingots. Unfortunately, leadership seems to be so bent toward preventing any tax cuts that the bill never got a chance to be heard.

Several years ago when the Democrat led legislature passed legislation to put sales taxs on gold and silver it killed the coin shows other than a couple of small collector shows. No longer do traders and investors come to Oklahoma, paying ancillary sales taxes on hotel rooms, on meals and other items. Now Oklahomans have to leave the state for those shows, spending their dollars elsewhere. I talked with one local dealer that just before the end of the year, sent one of his friends to Houston because the fellow wanted to purchase a hundred thousand dollars worth of gold and silver. The Oklahoma sales tax would have cost him another $9,000 if he were to purchase here. A person can buy a lot of gold or silver for that $9,000 in Texas where they don’t charge sales tax on those items.

Since gold and silver are the basis of real money, removing sales taxes from money solves a moral problem as well as in the long run the ancillary taxes might just bring more revenues to the state by having shows here again than the state receives from the pittance collected from a decimated industry.

One of the really big 10th Amendment issues was authored by Representative Sally Kern, known as the Oklahoma Environmental Authority Act. The legislation establishes that Oklahoma’s Department of Environmental Quality and the State Corporation have authority over the federal EPA when it comes to water and air quality as well as the oil and gas industry. Without such authority Oklahoma is at the mercy of the tyrannical EPA who may require companies such as OG&E to install up to 1 billion dollars in equipment on their coal fired generation plants.

One of the reasons given was to improve air quality over the Wichita Wildlife Refuge just west of Lawton. To show what fraud and lunacy exists in the EPA ask yourself this question: where is the closest Oklahoma coal burning power plant in proximity to the refuge? How about Ponca City, about 200 miles to the North Northeast of the refuge or perhaps the Muskogee plant, probably 250 to the Northeast of Lawton. Can anyone answer how those evil coal fired plants pollute the air over the refuge since the prevailing winds in Oklahoma are out of the South or once in a while out of the North West?

I would suggest such 10 Amendment legislation would prevent Oklahoma’s utility companies from being forced to waste hundreds of millions of dollars to solve a problem which has for the most part already been solved. Preventing Oklahoma companies from having to waste dollars helps to keep down the costs of energy in Oklahoma which is good for consumers and good for businesses in Oklahoma. Hopefully the Oklahoman may someday understand the value of these 10th Amendment issues.

One more thing as the Oklahoman took another swipe at Representative Randy Terrill as he has legislation to require government schools to classify every student as either a citizen, a legal immigrant or an illegal alien. This again is a 10th Amendment issue as the federal government refuses to secure our borders. Knowing to costs of educating illegal alien children in our schools is important to understanding the enormous costs to have these people living in our state and nation.

Speaking of costs related to illegal aliens, the Oklahoman had a news story about an arrest of an alleged drug kingpin being arrested in Caddo County. Law enforcement claims he is the largest dealer in the county and if convicted will spend a long time in prison before being deported. The news article indicated he has already been deported 4 times in the past. As you can see, deporting without having the borders sealed is costly and ineffective. I don’t know that you could say this Mexican national was doing a job American’s won’t do, but I believe you could say he was doing the job better than any American, that is, if he is truly the drug king pin of the county.

All, I can say is the genie is out of the bottle and the 10th Amendment / States Rights issues and they aren’t likely to go away anytime soon. The Oklahoman would do good to re-think their slamming of some of Oklahoma’s finest lawmakers such as Charles Key and the high quality citizens in Oklahoma that love liberty and believe the federal government has grown way too large, way to intrusive, way too expensive and way way too tyrannical.

++ OCPAC MEMBERSHIP UP-DATE

As the month of February draws to a close we are at 141 dues paying members in just 2 months. The support is so appreciated. There will be a lot of important races this year all over the State. The dues we collect and donate to the conservatives we spot during our interview process, sometimes makes the difference between victory or defeat in these important races. If you have not joined as yet, please consider doing so. We are slowly helping to make Oklahoma a more conservative state. Information as to how to join will follow my sign off.

I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.

Charlie Meadows

Charliemeadows7@gmail.com