++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
++ HAS THE OKLAHOMAN IGNITED A WAR IN REPUBLICAN CAUCUS?
++ WILL CAIR SUIT OVER SHARIAH CREEP EVENTUALLY BACKFIRE?
++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, December 1st will be held at
Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. Our keynote speaker
for this Wednesday will be Adrienne O’Reilly, OSU student Chair and
the Oklahoma State Director of Students for Concealed Carry on Campus.
Also attending will be the national director for the movement, State
Senator Steve Russell, Representative Jason Murphy (who spoke to the
national press club on this issue in 08) and others will speak
briefly. This is an important issue to understand, hopefully folks
will make it a priority to attend.
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
* WEDNESDAY EVENING - NORMAN - Bott Broadcasting along with the
Oklahoma Family Policy Council are hosting an evening December 1st
with the popular author Dinesh D’Souza on the campus of Oklahoma
University. D’Souza’s lecture will be titled: The God Decision,
Delusion, Confusion or Truth? The location will be the Oklahoma
Memorial Union Ballroom, 900 Asp Avenue. The event begins at 8:00 p.m.
and is free to students, faculty and adults. Dinesh will take
questions from the audience following his lecture.
He will also make an appearance at the Credo House of Theology, 109
N.W. 142nd St, Suite B in Edmond starting at 3:00 p.m. I have met
D’Souza on two occasions and have heard him many times on radio. I
recently picked up his most recent book, The Roots of Obama’s Rage,
but have only had time to get it started. Don’t miss this opportunity
to hear one of America’s great intellects.
* THURSDAY EVENING - TULSA - This year’s UN sponsored Climate
Change conference will be held in Cancun, Mexico. To expose this
fraudulent event, Americans for Prosperity is holding its Hot Air Tour
this Thursday evening, December 2nd with former State Senator Randy
Brogdon speaking at the Hilton Tulsa Southern Hills (7900 South Lewis)
starting at 7:00 p.m. In addition, U.S. Senator Jim Inhofe will be in
Cancun speaking to folks back home via satellite. The cost is $10 to
attend which also includes a BBQ dinner. To register log on to
www.hotairtour.org and click on “Oklahoma.” It is during these UN
events that all sorts of anti-American evil is offered up which then
is spread throughout the states.
* FRIDAY EVENING - OKC - The annual Christmas Dinner and Auction
sponsored by the central Oklahoma chapters of the John Birch Society
will be held this Friday evening December 3rd, beginning at 6:30 p.m.
The location will be the Character Inn, 520 West Main in downtown OKC.
The cost to attend is $10 per person with dinner provided. Each family
should bring a quality auction item. Suggestions might be homemade
breads, pastries, jams, collectibles, time-share vacation
opportunities, sports tickets, art or items of interest. All proceeds
will fund our projects for 2011. I will serve as the auctioneer and
will again throw down a challenge. If someone is deemed by those
present to be dressed up in wilder Christmas garb than I have on, I
will pay for their dinner. To make it a contest, I will not wear my
full Santa costume this year. So a head count for food preparation can
be turned in, please call (405) 348- 9991 no later than 5:30 p.m. on
Wednesday the 1st for reservations.
* MUSTANG AREA - NOW THROUGH NEW YEAR’S EVENING - Richard and
Denise Engle are again hosting the Chisholm Ridge Ranch and Vineyard
Christmas Village drive through. This is a beautiful lighted drive
through with a message of the birth of Jesus. It is free to the public
and is located at 12417 South Mustang Road, overlooking the South
Canadian River Valley. More and more folks are making the Christmas
Village drive through an annual tradition with the Engle’s adding more
features each year. For more information call Richard Engle at (405)
640-9219.
++ HAS THE OKLAHOMAN IGNITED A WAR IN THE REPUBLICAN CAUCUS?
On Thanksgiving day, the above the fold article on the front page of
the Oklahoman by Michael McNutt was titled: SPEAKER-ELECT HOPES TO
KEEP GOP FOCUSED. The gist of the article with a few quotes from
Speaker-elect Kris Steele and Fred Morgan, State Chamber of Commerce
President, was that they didn’t want to legislature to get diverted to
“frivolous“ or “extreme” issues, but rather keep focused on economic
development issues.
Extreme and frivolous issues presented in the article were second
amendment issues, the illegal alien invasion, concern over biometric
identification and data base linking, RFID chips embedded in our
drivers licenses making English the official language, preventing
Sharia Law from being considered in Oklahoma Courts and etc.
In my opinion, the Oklahoman and elements in the State Chamber are a
part of what makes up the central planners who try to “rule” the State
of Oklahoma. The tone of the article was that Steele and other
Republican leaders are now doing the bidding of the Chamber. During
the recent showing of the documentary WAITING ON SUPERMAN, of which I
wrote about in last week’s e-mail, I walked up to Fred Morgan and told
him thanks for the good things the State Chamber does (like work to
defeat SQ 744) but I gladly stand against the chamber when they are
wrong! Fred’s response was, Charlie, that sounds like some of my board
members.
The suggestion that we need to stay focused because there isn’t time
for all these diversion is a straw man, a red herring. I didn’t
disagree with any of the priorities mentioned by Steele, but the truth
is there is time for all issues to be heard and decided upon, that is
if time is managed properly.
I believe the real issue is that the Oklahoman and the State Chamber
care primarily about the economy and Oklahoma’s perception or image
outside the state of Oklahoma. They are afraid when we pass bills like
mentioned about we might look like religious zealots or red necks.
They are afraid that Oklahoma might not look appealing to the limp
wristed or the liberal artsy fartsy, wine cheese and quassaaaant crowd
of whom they seek approval. I am not saying that the arts and
entertainment aren’t valuable as diversions in our lives because they
are, but they become problematic when their make-up is immoral or they
become obsessions and consume people.
Truth is, many of the Republican lawmakers are in office today because
they ran as conservatives on social, liberty and second amendment
issues. They ran as pro-life, pro-family conservatives who wouldn’t be
in office for Kris Steele to be Speaker today if they hadn’t made
these so called “diversions” the central focus of their campaigns.
In reality, many people are moving to Oklahoma or stay here because
they like the conservative nature and traditional values in our state.
They like the movement toward less government and the desire to see
more liberty for the people and more personal responsibility out of
people. Those attitudes and values translate into a huge plus for the
economic health of our state. The more Oklahoman’s honor what is
pleasing to God and reject what is not pleasing to Him, the more we
will be blessed and not cursed. I would much rather have the blessings
of God upon my life and our state than to have God’s hand turn against
us.
The article generated a strong response through a press release issued
later that day by Representative Randy Terrill (R-Moore). I haven’t
seen is published in the Oklahoman as yet, so I will publish it for
your viewing.
“Thu, Nov 25, 2010 at 7:04 PM”
“ Oklahoma Republicans won a historic victory in the most recent
election due in large part to our strong commitment to cracking down
on illegal immigration, protecting and advancing second amendment
rights, and passing pro-family legislation. However, recent statements
attributed to Speaker-elect Kris Steele in the Oklahoman have called
into question whether the agenda for the next legislature will be
consistent with the promises we Republicans have made to our
constituents on the doorsteps.
It is the role of the Speaker of the House of Representatives to
reflect the views of the House’s members, not to thwart them.
Accordingly, I hereby immediately call on Speaker-elect Steele to
clearly, publicly and unequivocally repudiate the comments attributed
to him in the Oklahoman and affirm that illegal immigration, second
amendment rights, and pro-family social legislation will not only be a
priority, but will be a central focus on the next legislature’s
agenda.
Otherwise, conservative members of the House Republican caucus should
take note that our new leadership intends to unilaterally break the
promises that we made to the public during our campaigns. This is a
monumental defining moment for who we are, as well as how and whether
we can or should continue to govern, as the majority party in
Oklahoma.”
The House Republicans will go to Bartlesville for a retreat December
6th and 7th to work on an agenda for this year’s session. I won’t go
into it here, but suffice it to say, not all is well within the
Republican House caucus.
++ WILL CAIR SUIT OVER SHARIA CREEP EVENTUALLY BACKFIRE?
Many Oklahoman’s are bothered by the suite filed by CAIR’s Executive
Director Nihad Awad to keep the election results, which will amend our
Constitution to forbid Sharia law from being considered in our courts,
from being certified.
Awad has found a liberal Federal Judge willing to go along with his
position at least thus far. However, on the 11th of this month
Investors Business Daily wrote a column titled: SHINING A LIGHT ON
SHARIAH CREEP. The first paragraph is as follows: “Islamofascism: The
Council on American-Islamic Relations may wish it never sued to
overturn an Oklahoma ban on Shariah law. Now the entire nation will
get to see it and other Islamists’ true anti-American colors.”
In the body of the article IBD calls out Awad as follows: “CAIR
Executive Director Nihad Awad is an Islamic supremacist who thinks
Muslims should run Washington: ’Who better can lead America than
Muslims?’”
The final sentence to the article is “Thanks to CAIR’s lawsuit, all
this can now be aired out for the public. I will have copies of this
article at our meeting on our free speech table for those attending to
take home and read.
One final note, Investors Business Daily is one of Americas leading
business publications. They are very supportive of Oklahoma’s recent
vote as they know how dangerous the threat of the creeping movement of
Shariah law is to the future of our nation and our economy. Hopefully,
the Oklahoman, Fred Morgan and the chambers boys won’t be satisfied
with being minor leaguers when it comes to having a vibrant economy.
Maybe they will get on page with a major league publication like IBD
and start supporting additional important legislation in Oklahoma.
I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.
Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
SPECIAL ELECTION FOR SENATE DISTRICT 47
++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
++ SPECIAL ELECTION FOR SENATE DISTRICT 47
++ WAITING ON SUPERMAN - THE DOCUMENTRY
++ 2 NOMINEES FOR THE JOSEPH GOEBBELS MEDIA AWARD
++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, November 24th will be held at
Italiano’t restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. Our speaker this
week will be Matt Pinnell, State Chariman of the Republican party.
When Gary Jones filed for the office of State Auditor and Inspector,
the Republican party’s State Committee elected Matt to serve out
Gary’s term in office. Matt will stand for election next spring at the
Republican State Convention. I have asked Matt to relate his vision
for the party, both in terms of electing even more Republicans, but I
also want him to talk about what is a conservative and what he might
think about the caucus system rather than a primary system or a blend
of both.
++ SPECIAL ELECTION FOR SENATE DISTRICT 47
With the successful election of Todd Lamb to the Lt. Governor’s post,
a special election will be required to fill Todd’s vacated senate
seat. Todd just informed Governor Henry that he would formally vacate
his senate seat on January 10th. That has allowed Governor Henry to
set in motion the filling period and the date for the primary election
and general election. Governor Henry has determined the filing period
will be December 13, 14 and the 15th. The primary election will be
held on January 11th and the general election, if there is one, will
be held on February the 8th. The OCPAC interview process will be held
on Wednesday, December 22nd.
So far, 4 Republicans have announced their intentions to run for the
seat. They are: Gregg Treat, (R-OKC) a former aide to then Lt.
Governor Mary Fallin, also Senator Tom Coburn and the man that headed
up the GOTV (Get Out The Vote) effort this year for the state
Republican party. Another candidate will be Carol Hefner (R-Edmond) a
speaker for at least 1 of the OKC tea party events, though she has
indicated she is not necessarily the tea party candidate. Steven
Dobbs, (R-OKC) a former Oklahoma City Councilman, and Kenny Goza an
attorney with an amazing success story are also running. Kenny went
from being passed around in foster homes to adoption, then the
military and then law school. Following law school he has opened law
offices in several of Oklahoma’s larger cities.
There may be other Republicans who file, but due to the very short
time period, unless they already have a high name identification or a
huge pile of money they will be at a serious disadvantage as these
candidates are already working hard toward winning. So far no
Democrats have announced. This is a safe Republican seat and any
Democrat who files will become a sacrificial lamb. If no Democrat
files and the race would boil down to a Republican verses an
independent candidate, the independent might get 16 to 22 percent of
the vote. If a Democrat files, and an independent runs, the
independent might get 2 to 5 percent of the vote. We will soon know.
++ WAITING FOR SUPERMAN, THE DOCUMENTRAY
This past Thursday afternoon, I attended a special showing of the
documentary, Waiting For Superman, sponsored by the U.S. Chamber of
Commerce and hosted by the State Chamber of Commerce. The movie
chronicles the poor condition of education in America. It also had its
emotional pull as it chronicled the lives of 5 children locked into
inner city schools, often referred to by educators as low performing
drop out factories.
The basic solutions offered in the documentary to fix the problem were
better teachers and of course school choice. There are two basic
school choice options other than parents taking it on their own to pay
tuition for a private school or to home school. Those choices are
either a voucher plan or a school tax credit plan. I don’t believe
anyone is talking about a tax deduction plan. There is a group in
Oklahoma that I believe is called the Coalition for School Choice,
which is basically working toward the tax credit angle. I believe the
leader is Bill Price, a former U.S. Attorney and Republican candidate
for Governor in 1990. He was also the candidate I chose to support for
U.S. Representative in 1992, a race eventually won by Ernest Istook.
The special showing was the 3rd time in Oklahoma and well attended by
lawmakers as well as other movers and shakers and parties interested
in education. Following the showing there was a Q&A session with a
panel which included, Janet Barresi, the ultra liberal David Blatt,
Bill Price, Fred Morgan as moderator, the Principle of the OKC KIPP
school, the union boss for the AFT (American Federation of Teachers)
and a lady with the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs (OCPA). It was
shown in one of the large theaters at Quail Springs and was about 80%
full.
I sat next to Jenni White of ROPE (Reform Oklahoma Public Education)
and on the other side of me was a Superintendent of the largest school
district (it shall remain unnamed) in a rural county that is now down
to 10 school districts. I feverishly picked his brain before the
showing and during the Q&A session. He basically was in favor of any
change in the law that would make it easier to get rid of bad teachers
(they do exist) and wasn’t necessarily opposed to consolidation of
school administrations.
Our most interesting conversation was about school choice. I asked the
following line of questions. If some kind of school choice legislation
was passed which produced 2 or 3 private schools in your district
within 5 years after passage and you lost 10% of your students to
those schools, how would you cope with that knowing you would lose
funds, but would also have less students to educate? His answer was
that it would be very difficult as he probably couldn’t reduce the
number of teachers. I then suggested my public school experience had
me in classes that always had 32 to 36 students and I proposed the
education I received in the 50s and early 60s was better than the
education received today with much smaller class sizes. He agreed on
the quality of education, but said it was ingrained in the minds of
the public that smaller class sizes are better. He also agreed that
when it comes to lecture type classes, it would be much better to have
a child sit in a class of 150 or 300 before an inspiring teacher with
great communication skills rather than be in a class with 10 students
taught by a dunderhead.
Following the Q&A session, I approached a headmaster of a large
private school and related this conversation about class size. I was
told by this private school leader that student teacher ratio, or
class size, is an incredibly small factor in educational success.
Changing the thinking in the minds of Oklahomans on this issue will be
key to reducing the costs of education in Oklahoma. It will also be
key in putting more students before good teachers and getting rid of
bad teachers.
When H.B. 1017 was passed in 1990, it set class room size standards
and forced the state to hire an additional 3,500 teachers. I was
actually a regional coordinator at that time in the effort to overturn
that legislation. I spoke in several settings and was also on channel
9 news in opposition to the measure. It was then and still is my
contention that the only reason the unions supported 1017 was that the
additional teachers would make the education industry, controlled by
the unions, more wealthy and especially more politically powerful. I
said then that 1017 would not improve academic performance and it has
not.
There were a couple of things I did not like about the documentary.
First, there was no mention of the importance of spirituality in
education. I believe that teaching based on the foundations of the
Bible and its Judeo-Christian principles are the most important
component to a good education and more importantly a healthy society.
The best way to understand this is to view David Barton’s DVD, Four
Centuries of American Education. Second, it had this misleading
suggestion that it would be less costly to society to spend a little
more money on education rather than spending so much to incarcerate
large numbers of criminals.
While it is true, that many criminals are greatly lacking in
education, it is not because the education was not available to them.
People in prison are rebels and or have serious character flaws. By
kicking God out of the government schools and teaching from the
religious viewpoint of Darwinian humanism, we have greatly increased
the number of people in prison and many more need to be there, they
just haven’t arrived as yet. If education prevented crime, then tell
me why it is almost a weekly event that some teacher, principle,
superintendent, college professor or university president is arrested
and charged with some kind of crime. Remember, every one of those I
just mentioned is educated to at least a primary degree in a college
or university.
If Jesus Christ is not allowed in the government schools, then God
bless all those Christian teachers who go into those schools and try
to make a difference in spite of the bad curriculum and a system which
works against a good education. However, if I am a Christian parent, I
don’t want my children in those schools during their formative years.
This is the time parents should be working to establish a spiritual
foundation in their lives. To put those children in today‘s government
schools, means parents are playing Russian roulette with the
spiritual, moral and academic lives of their children. Some kids
survive, many don’t.
++ TWO NOMINEES FOR THE JOSEPH GOEBBELS MEDIA AWARD
Joseph Goebbels became Adolph Hitler’s propaganda minister in 1933 and
used his intelligence and speaking skills to shape the thinking of the
German people to participate in and create a horrible society. I would
suggest he was a change agent, cleverly working to change the mores,
values and thinking of society.
Therefore, I suggest we create an award for the media outlet which
best typifies a modern day change agent, working to change the
morality of Oklahomans. Perhaps this year we should call it the Joseph
Goebbels Propaganda Award for Sodomy. So far, I will announce two
nominees.
First, the Oklahoma Gazette (I pronounce it the Gay - Zette) for this
week’s cover story titled: MODERN OKLAHOMA FAMILY - NONTRADITIONAL IS
BECOMING MORE TRADITIONAL. The front cover features one prominate
white guy, his white partner and two young black children that one of
these homosexuals has adopted. Mixed racial adoptions is not an issue
with me or most Oklahomans, it certainly is not a sin in God’s eyes.
The problem is with the homosexual issue.
While the picture portrays the 2 men and 2 young boys as very happy
and well balanced, I am of the opinion that these 2 children are being
raised with a warped view of right and wrong and no matter how much
they may be loved or cared for by these 2 men, it will never find
acceptance by Christians who hold to Biblical standards. Government at
various levels, may some day with the propaganda help of publications
such as the Gazette, make marriage legal. Government has already made
it legal for a homosexual to adopt, but it will never be accepted by
God as anything other than sin, nor will it ever be acceptable to
Biblical Christians. This publication is on the stands until Wednesday
or Thursday. May I suggest picking up a copy and read the article for
yourselves to help you cast your vote. Then bring your copy of the
Gazette to the OCPAC meeting when you are finished with it as I will
deliver your used copies to a paper bin that sells paper to help fund
a Christian school that teachers a proper understanding of families.
Second, the November 2nd election day issue of The Journal Record had
its front page story titled: UNDER THE RAINBOW - IN OKLAHOMA, GLBT
CANDIDATES FACE FEAR, BIGOTRY AND SABOTAGE. If the Journal Record is
nothing more than a publication of commentaries, that is fine, but if
they want to be considered as a newspaper, it was one of the worst
cases of yellow journalism I have seen in a while.
The article was by M. Scott Carter. I believe he joined the Journal
Record some time back when he came from the very liberal Norman
Transcript. On the front cover is a picture of an official with the
homosexual organization, the Cimarron Alliance, a homosexual city
councilman from Norman and Brittany Novotny, the candidate recently
defeated by Sally Kern.
Here is why the article was propaganda and yellow journalism. These
three people and Jim Roth, the homosexual who was defeated 2 years ago
by Dana Murphy, were all quoted or their side of a story was told.
However, Sally Kern was mentioned in the paper, but in checking with
Sally she was never contacted for an interview to get her side of the
story. I was mentioned in the story, but I was never contacted for my
side of the story and though Dave Mehlhaff was not mentioned by name,
he was referred to in the story. I checked with Dave and again he was
never contacted to give his side of the story. Folks, that is one
sided propaganda, it is advocacy journalism, not news reporting.
When I wrote about Brittany having had the sex change operation and
suggested the result was a “confused it” channels 9 and 4 interviewed
Brittany and then contacted me for an interview to get my side of the
story. Michael McNutt with the Oklahoman contacted me, again to get my
side of the story, that is news reporting, not propaganda, not yellow
journalism. If you are writing a commentary, then there is no need to
contact a person, though it might be wise to do so, but if the Journal
Record wants to be recognized as a news organ, then it must use the
principles of good journalism and stop being a propaganda piece for
the homosexual agenda or perhaps other special interest groups. I will
post these 2 articles at our meeting, give them a read and cast your
vote at to which paper will earn the Joseph Goebbels award for
propaganda for sodomy.
One more thing along these lines. Two years ago, Sally’s opponent was
not homosexual, but was supported by the homosexual community. Sally
won that race with a 58 to 42 percent majority. This election cycle,
Sally’s opponent was an aggressive supporter of the homosexual agenda
and had undergone the sex change operation. Though Sally was probably
outspent 2 to 1, she won this year with a 66 to 34 percent margin of
victory.
One of the reasons the Democrat label is dying in Oklahoma is the
association with the homosexual community. Many Christian Democrats,
especially in rural Oklahoma, are leaving the party and becoming
Republicans who, for the most part, don’t hate homosexuals, they just
don’t approve of that sinful lifestyle. I will give credit to Brittany
for calling Sally and congratulating her on her victory. That is more
honorable than Jason Murphey’s former opponent, A.J. Jones who, to
this day, still has not contacted Jason Murphey to congratulate him on
his victory.
I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday and may everyone have
a blessed Thanksgiving.
Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com
++ SPECIAL ELECTION FOR SENATE DISTRICT 47
++ WAITING ON SUPERMAN - THE DOCUMENTRY
++ 2 NOMINEES FOR THE JOSEPH GOEBBELS MEDIA AWARD
++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, November 24th will be held at
Italiano’t restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. Our speaker this
week will be Matt Pinnell, State Chariman of the Republican party.
When Gary Jones filed for the office of State Auditor and Inspector,
the Republican party’s State Committee elected Matt to serve out
Gary’s term in office. Matt will stand for election next spring at the
Republican State Convention. I have asked Matt to relate his vision
for the party, both in terms of electing even more Republicans, but I
also want him to talk about what is a conservative and what he might
think about the caucus system rather than a primary system or a blend
of both.
++ SPECIAL ELECTION FOR SENATE DISTRICT 47
With the successful election of Todd Lamb to the Lt. Governor’s post,
a special election will be required to fill Todd’s vacated senate
seat. Todd just informed Governor Henry that he would formally vacate
his senate seat on January 10th. That has allowed Governor Henry to
set in motion the filling period and the date for the primary election
and general election. Governor Henry has determined the filing period
will be December 13, 14 and the 15th. The primary election will be
held on January 11th and the general election, if there is one, will
be held on February the 8th. The OCPAC interview process will be held
on Wednesday, December 22nd.
So far, 4 Republicans have announced their intentions to run for the
seat. They are: Gregg Treat, (R-OKC) a former aide to then Lt.
Governor Mary Fallin, also Senator Tom Coburn and the man that headed
up the GOTV (Get Out The Vote) effort this year for the state
Republican party. Another candidate will be Carol Hefner (R-Edmond) a
speaker for at least 1 of the OKC tea party events, though she has
indicated she is not necessarily the tea party candidate. Steven
Dobbs, (R-OKC) a former Oklahoma City Councilman, and Kenny Goza an
attorney with an amazing success story are also running. Kenny went
from being passed around in foster homes to adoption, then the
military and then law school. Following law school he has opened law
offices in several of Oklahoma’s larger cities.
There may be other Republicans who file, but due to the very short
time period, unless they already have a high name identification or a
huge pile of money they will be at a serious disadvantage as these
candidates are already working hard toward winning. So far no
Democrats have announced. This is a safe Republican seat and any
Democrat who files will become a sacrificial lamb. If no Democrat
files and the race would boil down to a Republican verses an
independent candidate, the independent might get 16 to 22 percent of
the vote. If a Democrat files, and an independent runs, the
independent might get 2 to 5 percent of the vote. We will soon know.
++ WAITING FOR SUPERMAN, THE DOCUMENTRAY
This past Thursday afternoon, I attended a special showing of the
documentary, Waiting For Superman, sponsored by the U.S. Chamber of
Commerce and hosted by the State Chamber of Commerce. The movie
chronicles the poor condition of education in America. It also had its
emotional pull as it chronicled the lives of 5 children locked into
inner city schools, often referred to by educators as low performing
drop out factories.
The basic solutions offered in the documentary to fix the problem were
better teachers and of course school choice. There are two basic
school choice options other than parents taking it on their own to pay
tuition for a private school or to home school. Those choices are
either a voucher plan or a school tax credit plan. I don’t believe
anyone is talking about a tax deduction plan. There is a group in
Oklahoma that I believe is called the Coalition for School Choice,
which is basically working toward the tax credit angle. I believe the
leader is Bill Price, a former U.S. Attorney and Republican candidate
for Governor in 1990. He was also the candidate I chose to support for
U.S. Representative in 1992, a race eventually won by Ernest Istook.
The special showing was the 3rd time in Oklahoma and well attended by
lawmakers as well as other movers and shakers and parties interested
in education. Following the showing there was a Q&A session with a
panel which included, Janet Barresi, the ultra liberal David Blatt,
Bill Price, Fred Morgan as moderator, the Principle of the OKC KIPP
school, the union boss for the AFT (American Federation of Teachers)
and a lady with the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs (OCPA). It was
shown in one of the large theaters at Quail Springs and was about 80%
full.
I sat next to Jenni White of ROPE (Reform Oklahoma Public Education)
and on the other side of me was a Superintendent of the largest school
district (it shall remain unnamed) in a rural county that is now down
to 10 school districts. I feverishly picked his brain before the
showing and during the Q&A session. He basically was in favor of any
change in the law that would make it easier to get rid of bad teachers
(they do exist) and wasn’t necessarily opposed to consolidation of
school administrations.
Our most interesting conversation was about school choice. I asked the
following line of questions. If some kind of school choice legislation
was passed which produced 2 or 3 private schools in your district
within 5 years after passage and you lost 10% of your students to
those schools, how would you cope with that knowing you would lose
funds, but would also have less students to educate? His answer was
that it would be very difficult as he probably couldn’t reduce the
number of teachers. I then suggested my public school experience had
me in classes that always had 32 to 36 students and I proposed the
education I received in the 50s and early 60s was better than the
education received today with much smaller class sizes. He agreed on
the quality of education, but said it was ingrained in the minds of
the public that smaller class sizes are better. He also agreed that
when it comes to lecture type classes, it would be much better to have
a child sit in a class of 150 or 300 before an inspiring teacher with
great communication skills rather than be in a class with 10 students
taught by a dunderhead.
Following the Q&A session, I approached a headmaster of a large
private school and related this conversation about class size. I was
told by this private school leader that student teacher ratio, or
class size, is an incredibly small factor in educational success.
Changing the thinking in the minds of Oklahomans on this issue will be
key to reducing the costs of education in Oklahoma. It will also be
key in putting more students before good teachers and getting rid of
bad teachers.
When H.B. 1017 was passed in 1990, it set class room size standards
and forced the state to hire an additional 3,500 teachers. I was
actually a regional coordinator at that time in the effort to overturn
that legislation. I spoke in several settings and was also on channel
9 news in opposition to the measure. It was then and still is my
contention that the only reason the unions supported 1017 was that the
additional teachers would make the education industry, controlled by
the unions, more wealthy and especially more politically powerful. I
said then that 1017 would not improve academic performance and it has
not.
There were a couple of things I did not like about the documentary.
First, there was no mention of the importance of spirituality in
education. I believe that teaching based on the foundations of the
Bible and its Judeo-Christian principles are the most important
component to a good education and more importantly a healthy society.
The best way to understand this is to view David Barton’s DVD, Four
Centuries of American Education. Second, it had this misleading
suggestion that it would be less costly to society to spend a little
more money on education rather than spending so much to incarcerate
large numbers of criminals.
While it is true, that many criminals are greatly lacking in
education, it is not because the education was not available to them.
People in prison are rebels and or have serious character flaws. By
kicking God out of the government schools and teaching from the
religious viewpoint of Darwinian humanism, we have greatly increased
the number of people in prison and many more need to be there, they
just haven’t arrived as yet. If education prevented crime, then tell
me why it is almost a weekly event that some teacher, principle,
superintendent, college professor or university president is arrested
and charged with some kind of crime. Remember, every one of those I
just mentioned is educated to at least a primary degree in a college
or university.
If Jesus Christ is not allowed in the government schools, then God
bless all those Christian teachers who go into those schools and try
to make a difference in spite of the bad curriculum and a system which
works against a good education. However, if I am a Christian parent, I
don’t want my children in those schools during their formative years.
This is the time parents should be working to establish a spiritual
foundation in their lives. To put those children in today‘s government
schools, means parents are playing Russian roulette with the
spiritual, moral and academic lives of their children. Some kids
survive, many don’t.
++ TWO NOMINEES FOR THE JOSEPH GOEBBELS MEDIA AWARD
Joseph Goebbels became Adolph Hitler’s propaganda minister in 1933 and
used his intelligence and speaking skills to shape the thinking of the
German people to participate in and create a horrible society. I would
suggest he was a change agent, cleverly working to change the mores,
values and thinking of society.
Therefore, I suggest we create an award for the media outlet which
best typifies a modern day change agent, working to change the
morality of Oklahomans. Perhaps this year we should call it the Joseph
Goebbels Propaganda Award for Sodomy. So far, I will announce two
nominees.
First, the Oklahoma Gazette (I pronounce it the Gay - Zette) for this
week’s cover story titled: MODERN OKLAHOMA FAMILY - NONTRADITIONAL IS
BECOMING MORE TRADITIONAL. The front cover features one prominate
white guy, his white partner and two young black children that one of
these homosexuals has adopted. Mixed racial adoptions is not an issue
with me or most Oklahomans, it certainly is not a sin in God’s eyes.
The problem is with the homosexual issue.
While the picture portrays the 2 men and 2 young boys as very happy
and well balanced, I am of the opinion that these 2 children are being
raised with a warped view of right and wrong and no matter how much
they may be loved or cared for by these 2 men, it will never find
acceptance by Christians who hold to Biblical standards. Government at
various levels, may some day with the propaganda help of publications
such as the Gazette, make marriage legal. Government has already made
it legal for a homosexual to adopt, but it will never be accepted by
God as anything other than sin, nor will it ever be acceptable to
Biblical Christians. This publication is on the stands until Wednesday
or Thursday. May I suggest picking up a copy and read the article for
yourselves to help you cast your vote. Then bring your copy of the
Gazette to the OCPAC meeting when you are finished with it as I will
deliver your used copies to a paper bin that sells paper to help fund
a Christian school that teachers a proper understanding of families.
Second, the November 2nd election day issue of The Journal Record had
its front page story titled: UNDER THE RAINBOW - IN OKLAHOMA, GLBT
CANDIDATES FACE FEAR, BIGOTRY AND SABOTAGE. If the Journal Record is
nothing more than a publication of commentaries, that is fine, but if
they want to be considered as a newspaper, it was one of the worst
cases of yellow journalism I have seen in a while.
The article was by M. Scott Carter. I believe he joined the Journal
Record some time back when he came from the very liberal Norman
Transcript. On the front cover is a picture of an official with the
homosexual organization, the Cimarron Alliance, a homosexual city
councilman from Norman and Brittany Novotny, the candidate recently
defeated by Sally Kern.
Here is why the article was propaganda and yellow journalism. These
three people and Jim Roth, the homosexual who was defeated 2 years ago
by Dana Murphy, were all quoted or their side of a story was told.
However, Sally Kern was mentioned in the paper, but in checking with
Sally she was never contacted for an interview to get her side of the
story. I was mentioned in the story, but I was never contacted for my
side of the story and though Dave Mehlhaff was not mentioned by name,
he was referred to in the story. I checked with Dave and again he was
never contacted to give his side of the story. Folks, that is one
sided propaganda, it is advocacy journalism, not news reporting.
When I wrote about Brittany having had the sex change operation and
suggested the result was a “confused it” channels 9 and 4 interviewed
Brittany and then contacted me for an interview to get my side of the
story. Michael McNutt with the Oklahoman contacted me, again to get my
side of the story, that is news reporting, not propaganda, not yellow
journalism. If you are writing a commentary, then there is no need to
contact a person, though it might be wise to do so, but if the Journal
Record wants to be recognized as a news organ, then it must use the
principles of good journalism and stop being a propaganda piece for
the homosexual agenda or perhaps other special interest groups. I will
post these 2 articles at our meeting, give them a read and cast your
vote at to which paper will earn the Joseph Goebbels award for
propaganda for sodomy.
One more thing along these lines. Two years ago, Sally’s opponent was
not homosexual, but was supported by the homosexual community. Sally
won that race with a 58 to 42 percent majority. This election cycle,
Sally’s opponent was an aggressive supporter of the homosexual agenda
and had undergone the sex change operation. Though Sally was probably
outspent 2 to 1, she won this year with a 66 to 34 percent margin of
victory.
One of the reasons the Democrat label is dying in Oklahoma is the
association with the homosexual community. Many Christian Democrats,
especially in rural Oklahoma, are leaving the party and becoming
Republicans who, for the most part, don’t hate homosexuals, they just
don’t approve of that sinful lifestyle. I will give credit to Brittany
for calling Sally and congratulating her on her victory. That is more
honorable than Jason Murphey’s former opponent, A.J. Jones who, to
this day, still has not contacted Jason Murphey to congratulate him on
his victory.
I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday and may everyone have
a blessed Thanksgiving.
Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
COBURN AGAINST EARMARKS - INHOFE FOR THEM
++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
++ COBURN AGAINST EARMARKS - INHOFE FOR THEM
++ LANGFORD, SET THE TONE, MAKE IT CONSERVATIVE
++ FIRE MARSHALL SAFTEY FASCISTS PUSHING A BAD IDEA
++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, November 17th will be held at
Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. Speaking briefly
will be Tulsan, Janice Pounds. Mrs. Pounds was a black woman caught up
in the habit of voting straight party Democrat until something
happened in her life. She ended up writing the book: STEALING THE
MINDS OF AMERICA: A MUST FOR ALL TRUTH-SEAKERS WHO VOTE. Our main
speaker this week will be the Reverend Steven Craft who also happens
to be black. I heard Reverend Craft at the 50th anniversary
celebration of the founding of the Birch Society a couple of years ago
in Appleton Wisconsin. Of the 35 or so speakers during the 3 day
event, Mr. Craft was one of the most passionate and inspiring persons
I heard and I am really excited he will be our main speaker this
Wednesday. After earning a degree in Bible and Pastoral Counseling
from Central Bible College in Springfield Missouri, he then earned a
Masters of Divinity Degree from Harvard Divinity School. While his
conservative collogues were concerned about him going to Harvard, I
would suggest the people with the most regret today are the people who
were on the admissions committee as he survived the place and today is
a fire breathing conservative. Much of his time in ministry has been
spent as a chaplain in various prisons. One of the things he will talk
about is the rise of Islam in the prisons. Reverend Craft has also
authored a couple of books.
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
* TUESDAY EVENING - TULSA AREA - The Tulsa Area Republican
Assembly will meet for dinner at 6 and then the meeting will begin at
7:00 p.m.. The location will be the Golden Corral, on 71st Street and
Mingo, just west of Highway 169. Speaking will be Tulsa City Auditor,
Preston Doerflinger. The main topic will be the KPMG audit, its
results and implementation to make Tulsa government more efficient and
cost effective.
* WEDNESDAY EVENING - EDMOND - Reverend Craft will be the speaker
for the Wednesday evening service at Fairview Baptist Church, Sooner
Road and Danforth (Danforth is one mile North of 2nd street and 1
block West of I-35 in Edmond). Starting at 6:45 p.m. Reverend Craft
will do a power point presentation titled Morality and Freedom. If you
are not able to hear him on Wednesday at OCPAC, this will be a great
opportunity, come if you can.
* THURSDAY NOON - STATE CAPITOL - There was consideration of
calling a press conference regarding the decision handed down by the
federal judge, Vickie Miles LaGrange regarding SQ 755. Since the first
ruling was more about standing and not necessarily the merits of the
issue, a decision has been made to wait until a substantive decision
is made a few days hence before any kind of press conference will be
held. I believe it is hoped that Judge LaGrange will adjudicate this
issue based on the historical importance of consistency regarding the
rule of law.
The American judicial system, founded on Judeo/Christian principles,
has delivered the best just system of justice in the world, at least
to the degree if was executed by intellectually honest men and women
who sit on the bench as well as occupy our juries. That great standard
of right and wrong delivers the maximum amount of Liberty for people
of different persuasions and yet still sets reasonable standards to
keep order in society.
It would be to our great detriment to see inferior ideas from
international law pollute our system. In addition, it would be
devastating to allow any single or multiple groups of people, with a
particular religion or ideology, declare they didn’t have to obey the
laws of the land, because they believed their religious, or
ideological ways were superior. In that arrogance, they would ignore
our system of laws and justice and set their own system up to follow
and obey.
I am hoping that Judge LaGrange has an understanding or a remembrance,
of the paramount importance in creating civil law that applies to all
without special exceptions. Hopefully, she will remember the days she
was a lawmaker and what it would have meant for her to make a law,
only to see a group of people declare they would not obey it in favor
of their opinion as to what should be the law of the land.
* THURSDAY MORNING - OKC - The Business and Professional Chapter
of the John Birch Society will hold their monthly meeting at the
Character Inn, 520 West Main in downtown OKC. Breakfast is served at
7:15 (breakfast buffet $6.00) and the meeting will begin about 7:40
a.m.. The guest speaker will be Mrs. Janice Ponds, author of the book:
STEALING THE MINDS OF AMERICA: A MUST FOR ALL TRUTH SEEKERS WHO VOTE.
The book directly addresses the issue of the history of blacks and
their involvement in the political process in America. When Janice
began to do the research related to the book, she was absolutely
amazed at what she learned. “I clearly saw patterns of events that
have led to what I call the ’idolatry of race’ as it relates to blacks
and the Democrat Party.” Mrs. Ponds will have books available at both
OCPAC and this meeting. She has also included a CD, which is a musical
tribute to our troops, in each book.
++ COBURN AGAINST EARMARKS, INHOFE FOR THEM
A battle has been brewing for some time between Oklahoma’s two
conservative U.S. Senators. It is expected to heat up, perhaps today
or on Wednesday as Senator Coburn has been on a multi-year campaign to
eliminate such and Senator Inhofe is a huge fan of them. Inhofe claims
earmarks are such a small amount, that they are not that important.
Let me suggest 3 really important reasons to permanently eliminate
them. 1) Of the many problems facing America, overspending, huge
annual deficits and massive national debt is as big a problem as any.
Americans must have an “attitude” change, they must understand that
the federal government (which is broke) is not some Olympic size
swimming pool full of money and anytime someone wants some, all the
have to do is get their congressmen to get a bucket and dip some out
for them. Sixteen billion is not chump change, except it is small in
the overall 3 plus Trillion dollars in spending from Washington each
year. There is a secular proverb that states “if you watch your
pennies, your dollars will take care of themselves.” Caring about
little things, will change our attitudes to help us make those more
important decisions later on.
In Songs of Solomon 2:15, there is an interesting scripture that
indicates: it is the little foxes that spoil the vines. I served as a
financial counselor for over 20 years. Not investment counseling, but
budgeting, debt resolution and how to handle money. In case after
case, it was those soft drinks at a convenience store or drive in, or
that snack, or weekly bowling etc. which sucked tight dollars away
from high priority expenses such as house or car payments and
utilities. Getting people to see the importance of small items was
half the battle to get them conditioned to make good decisions on the
larger issues.
2) Earmarks are often used to gain support for controversial
legislation, such as the health care legislation. In many cases
earmarks are little more than “bribes” and that fosters corruption. In
addition, some lawmakers will sellout the interest of his district to
help another lawmaker out in a “bring home the pork” jam in hopes that
someday the favor will be paid back. That concept of scratch my back
and I will scratch your makes for bloated government.
3) it’s the “spending stupid.” Lawmakers like Senator Inhofe or
Representative Cole (he also justifies earmarks) are just going to
have to face the fact that to save America from its overspending, we
have to start cutting the spending and start now. Every effort must be
given to reducing spending at the federal level. Lawmakers must see
this as a new day and time to get tough. If they don’t then even
people like Inhofe need to be replaced when his next election cycle
comes up.
++ LANKFORD, SET THE TONE, MAKE IT CONSERVATIVE
Congressman James Lankford is in Washington this week for freshman
orientation with 80 or so of the newly elected U.S. Representatives.
Hopefully, that group will understand the importance of joining
together to keep Republican leadership on track with a conservative
ideology. At the same time, they need to use their superior numbers to
stop and ROLL BACK the leftist agenda of the liberal Democrats.
Many are worried about what the Democrats might try to push through in
this “lame duck” congressional session before the old guard is
officially changed out with the new majority. It is time to play hard
ball against the evil proposals of the Democrats.
Republican leadership, pushed by these new freshmen, must lay down the
gauntlet. Democrats must be told, if they are successful in pushing
through amnesty, cap and trade, tax increases, etc. then once the
Republicans take control of the House, Democrat pet agencies such as
Department of Education, EPA, Arts Council etc. will be de-funded or
at least see their funding dramatically cut. Business as usual is not
acceptable, it is time for lawmakers to become salesmen to the public.
They must convey the gravity of our financial picture to their
constituents and convince them why dramatic and painful changes must
be made to right our sinking ship.
++ FIRE MARSHAL - SEFETY FASCISTS - BAD IDEA
The national fire marshal’s association is behind the idea of
mandating that all new home construction must have fire suppression
sprinklers installed. Currently, the city of Oklahoma City is
considering such a proposal. My only problem with this idea and what
puts it into the realm of fascism is the word MANDATE.
That option already exists and has for many years. Let me issues a
challenge to the Oklahoman, the Oklahoma Gazette (I pronounce it Gay-
Zette), The Journal Record, in my opinion Oklahoma’s most recent entry
as a propaganda piece for the homosexual community (see Nov 2nd front
page story) or anyone else who has the time. Contact every person in
the state fire marshals office, all the fire chief’s and captains in
central Oklahoma, Mayor Cornet and all of the members of the Council
and ask them if they have a sprinkler system in their homes? If I were
a betting man, I would lay odds that few if any of them have those
expensive systems in their homes. Ask this question of the Mayor and
Council members, of any ordinance they might pass to require such,
would they first require themselves to retrofit their own homes?
One of the things that makes Oklahoma an attractive place to live is
the low cost of housing and thus low cost of living. One of the
reasons why Boeing is moving 500 high paying jobs out of California to
Oklahoma is the low cost of living. However, fascist ordinances such
as requiring sprinkler systems in new homes will quickly evaporate
that advantage over other states as it will cause a significant
increase in the cost of new housing.
One more thing. Don’t think you will save on your insurance because
you have one of these systems in your home. I was talking with one of
Oklahoma’s leading home builders and found out your homeowners
insurance will go up, not down. The reason, the risk of water damage
from leaks, breaks or mal-functions from these pressured up systems if
significantly more risk for an insurance company than the risk of
fire. In a world of rational choices, if you are paranoid that a smoke
alarm is not enough protection for you and your family, by all means
put one of these systems in your home, but don’t mandate such. If you
live in the city of OKC and you don’t want this to happen, you need to
call the mayor’s office and your personal city council person to stop
it before it becomes law.
I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.
Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
++ COBURN AGAINST EARMARKS - INHOFE FOR THEM
++ LANGFORD, SET THE TONE, MAKE IT CONSERVATIVE
++ FIRE MARSHALL SAFTEY FASCISTS PUSHING A BAD IDEA
++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, November 17th will be held at
Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. Speaking briefly
will be Tulsan, Janice Pounds. Mrs. Pounds was a black woman caught up
in the habit of voting straight party Democrat until something
happened in her life. She ended up writing the book: STEALING THE
MINDS OF AMERICA: A MUST FOR ALL TRUTH-SEAKERS WHO VOTE. Our main
speaker this week will be the Reverend Steven Craft who also happens
to be black. I heard Reverend Craft at the 50th anniversary
celebration of the founding of the Birch Society a couple of years ago
in Appleton Wisconsin. Of the 35 or so speakers during the 3 day
event, Mr. Craft was one of the most passionate and inspiring persons
I heard and I am really excited he will be our main speaker this
Wednesday. After earning a degree in Bible and Pastoral Counseling
from Central Bible College in Springfield Missouri, he then earned a
Masters of Divinity Degree from Harvard Divinity School. While his
conservative collogues were concerned about him going to Harvard, I
would suggest the people with the most regret today are the people who
were on the admissions committee as he survived the place and today is
a fire breathing conservative. Much of his time in ministry has been
spent as a chaplain in various prisons. One of the things he will talk
about is the rise of Islam in the prisons. Reverend Craft has also
authored a couple of books.
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
* TUESDAY EVENING - TULSA AREA - The Tulsa Area Republican
Assembly will meet for dinner at 6 and then the meeting will begin at
7:00 p.m.. The location will be the Golden Corral, on 71st Street and
Mingo, just west of Highway 169. Speaking will be Tulsa City Auditor,
Preston Doerflinger. The main topic will be the KPMG audit, its
results and implementation to make Tulsa government more efficient and
cost effective.
* WEDNESDAY EVENING - EDMOND - Reverend Craft will be the speaker
for the Wednesday evening service at Fairview Baptist Church, Sooner
Road and Danforth (Danforth is one mile North of 2nd street and 1
block West of I-35 in Edmond). Starting at 6:45 p.m. Reverend Craft
will do a power point presentation titled Morality and Freedom. If you
are not able to hear him on Wednesday at OCPAC, this will be a great
opportunity, come if you can.
* THURSDAY NOON - STATE CAPITOL - There was consideration of
calling a press conference regarding the decision handed down by the
federal judge, Vickie Miles LaGrange regarding SQ 755. Since the first
ruling was more about standing and not necessarily the merits of the
issue, a decision has been made to wait until a substantive decision
is made a few days hence before any kind of press conference will be
held. I believe it is hoped that Judge LaGrange will adjudicate this
issue based on the historical importance of consistency regarding the
rule of law.
The American judicial system, founded on Judeo/Christian principles,
has delivered the best just system of justice in the world, at least
to the degree if was executed by intellectually honest men and women
who sit on the bench as well as occupy our juries. That great standard
of right and wrong delivers the maximum amount of Liberty for people
of different persuasions and yet still sets reasonable standards to
keep order in society.
It would be to our great detriment to see inferior ideas from
international law pollute our system. In addition, it would be
devastating to allow any single or multiple groups of people, with a
particular religion or ideology, declare they didn’t have to obey the
laws of the land, because they believed their religious, or
ideological ways were superior. In that arrogance, they would ignore
our system of laws and justice and set their own system up to follow
and obey.
I am hoping that Judge LaGrange has an understanding or a remembrance,
of the paramount importance in creating civil law that applies to all
without special exceptions. Hopefully, she will remember the days she
was a lawmaker and what it would have meant for her to make a law,
only to see a group of people declare they would not obey it in favor
of their opinion as to what should be the law of the land.
* THURSDAY MORNING - OKC - The Business and Professional Chapter
of the John Birch Society will hold their monthly meeting at the
Character Inn, 520 West Main in downtown OKC. Breakfast is served at
7:15 (breakfast buffet $6.00) and the meeting will begin about 7:40
a.m.. The guest speaker will be Mrs. Janice Ponds, author of the book:
STEALING THE MINDS OF AMERICA: A MUST FOR ALL TRUTH SEEKERS WHO VOTE.
The book directly addresses the issue of the history of blacks and
their involvement in the political process in America. When Janice
began to do the research related to the book, she was absolutely
amazed at what she learned. “I clearly saw patterns of events that
have led to what I call the ’idolatry of race’ as it relates to blacks
and the Democrat Party.” Mrs. Ponds will have books available at both
OCPAC and this meeting. She has also included a CD, which is a musical
tribute to our troops, in each book.
++ COBURN AGAINST EARMARKS, INHOFE FOR THEM
A battle has been brewing for some time between Oklahoma’s two
conservative U.S. Senators. It is expected to heat up, perhaps today
or on Wednesday as Senator Coburn has been on a multi-year campaign to
eliminate such and Senator Inhofe is a huge fan of them. Inhofe claims
earmarks are such a small amount, that they are not that important.
Let me suggest 3 really important reasons to permanently eliminate
them. 1) Of the many problems facing America, overspending, huge
annual deficits and massive national debt is as big a problem as any.
Americans must have an “attitude” change, they must understand that
the federal government (which is broke) is not some Olympic size
swimming pool full of money and anytime someone wants some, all the
have to do is get their congressmen to get a bucket and dip some out
for them. Sixteen billion is not chump change, except it is small in
the overall 3 plus Trillion dollars in spending from Washington each
year. There is a secular proverb that states “if you watch your
pennies, your dollars will take care of themselves.” Caring about
little things, will change our attitudes to help us make those more
important decisions later on.
In Songs of Solomon 2:15, there is an interesting scripture that
indicates: it is the little foxes that spoil the vines. I served as a
financial counselor for over 20 years. Not investment counseling, but
budgeting, debt resolution and how to handle money. In case after
case, it was those soft drinks at a convenience store or drive in, or
that snack, or weekly bowling etc. which sucked tight dollars away
from high priority expenses such as house or car payments and
utilities. Getting people to see the importance of small items was
half the battle to get them conditioned to make good decisions on the
larger issues.
2) Earmarks are often used to gain support for controversial
legislation, such as the health care legislation. In many cases
earmarks are little more than “bribes” and that fosters corruption. In
addition, some lawmakers will sellout the interest of his district to
help another lawmaker out in a “bring home the pork” jam in hopes that
someday the favor will be paid back. That concept of scratch my back
and I will scratch your makes for bloated government.
3) it’s the “spending stupid.” Lawmakers like Senator Inhofe or
Representative Cole (he also justifies earmarks) are just going to
have to face the fact that to save America from its overspending, we
have to start cutting the spending and start now. Every effort must be
given to reducing spending at the federal level. Lawmakers must see
this as a new day and time to get tough. If they don’t then even
people like Inhofe need to be replaced when his next election cycle
comes up.
++ LANKFORD, SET THE TONE, MAKE IT CONSERVATIVE
Congressman James Lankford is in Washington this week for freshman
orientation with 80 or so of the newly elected U.S. Representatives.
Hopefully, that group will understand the importance of joining
together to keep Republican leadership on track with a conservative
ideology. At the same time, they need to use their superior numbers to
stop and ROLL BACK the leftist agenda of the liberal Democrats.
Many are worried about what the Democrats might try to push through in
this “lame duck” congressional session before the old guard is
officially changed out with the new majority. It is time to play hard
ball against the evil proposals of the Democrats.
Republican leadership, pushed by these new freshmen, must lay down the
gauntlet. Democrats must be told, if they are successful in pushing
through amnesty, cap and trade, tax increases, etc. then once the
Republicans take control of the House, Democrat pet agencies such as
Department of Education, EPA, Arts Council etc. will be de-funded or
at least see their funding dramatically cut. Business as usual is not
acceptable, it is time for lawmakers to become salesmen to the public.
They must convey the gravity of our financial picture to their
constituents and convince them why dramatic and painful changes must
be made to right our sinking ship.
++ FIRE MARSHAL - SEFETY FASCISTS - BAD IDEA
The national fire marshal’s association is behind the idea of
mandating that all new home construction must have fire suppression
sprinklers installed. Currently, the city of Oklahoma City is
considering such a proposal. My only problem with this idea and what
puts it into the realm of fascism is the word MANDATE.
That option already exists and has for many years. Let me issues a
challenge to the Oklahoman, the Oklahoma Gazette (I pronounce it Gay-
Zette), The Journal Record, in my opinion Oklahoma’s most recent entry
as a propaganda piece for the homosexual community (see Nov 2nd front
page story) or anyone else who has the time. Contact every person in
the state fire marshals office, all the fire chief’s and captains in
central Oklahoma, Mayor Cornet and all of the members of the Council
and ask them if they have a sprinkler system in their homes? If I were
a betting man, I would lay odds that few if any of them have those
expensive systems in their homes. Ask this question of the Mayor and
Council members, of any ordinance they might pass to require such,
would they first require themselves to retrofit their own homes?
One of the things that makes Oklahoma an attractive place to live is
the low cost of housing and thus low cost of living. One of the
reasons why Boeing is moving 500 high paying jobs out of California to
Oklahoma is the low cost of living. However, fascist ordinances such
as requiring sprinkler systems in new homes will quickly evaporate
that advantage over other states as it will cause a significant
increase in the cost of new housing.
One more thing. Don’t think you will save on your insurance because
you have one of these systems in your home. I was talking with one of
Oklahoma’s leading home builders and found out your homeowners
insurance will go up, not down. The reason, the risk of water damage
from leaks, breaks or mal-functions from these pressured up systems if
significantly more risk for an insurance company than the risk of
fire. In a world of rational choices, if you are paranoid that a smoke
alarm is not enough protection for you and your family, by all means
put one of these systems in your home, but don’t mandate such. If you
live in the city of OKC and you don’t want this to happen, you need to
call the mayor’s office and your personal city council person to stop
it before it becomes law.
I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.
Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
INFORMATION ABOUT AND WELCOME TO OCPAC
++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
++ INFORMATION ABOUT AND WELCOME TO OCPAC
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
++ REPUBLICAN LEGISLATIVE LEADERS
++ MEMBERS OF CAIR FILE SUIT TO STOP SQ 755
++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, November 10th will be held at
Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. The first order of
business will be the recognition of all veterans, as well as guard,
reserves or active duty members of our military. Following that
presentation, Pastor Dan Fisher of Trinity Baptist Church in Yukon
will present his special program on the feared Black Robed Regiment.
He does a combination of role playing and a power point presentation.
I believe he will have some copies of this presentation available on
DVD, if you would like to purchase one to share with your pastor or
other Christians. Come learn about the vital part these patriot
pastors played in throwing off the bonds of tyranny from the British
Crown, both leading up to and during our war of Independence. We are
very thankful that the restaurant has installed another speaker so the
people near the door to our room can hear. In addition, Pastor Dan is
going to bring two 50 inch flat screens to set up for better viewing.
Don’t miss this meeting, especially if you are a member of the
Presbyterian Church.
++ INFORMATION ABOUT AND WELCOME TO OCPAC
We have around 1,000 more people directly receiving the weekly OCPAC e-
mails than were receiving it during the first of the year. On behalf
of our organizational officers and our members, I want to welcome all
the new folks to our e-mail list. Almost 400 of these new folks have
been added over the past few weeks which now brings our total to
nearly 4,200. I thought it would be good to give a little information
about our organization.
Something over 19 years ago, Tim Green and I began to have lunch each
Wednesday, in an effort to elect him as the next Chairman of
Oklahoma’s Republican party. Invariably our conversations would boil
down to a discussion of issues and fellowship. After several weeks, I
suggested we invite others to join us. With time our numbers grew and
we developed into a debating society. As we grew past 15 to 20
attending each Wednesday, we began to have more of a speaker format
for the meetings. After about 7 years, I proposed we form a club and
political action committee (PAC) with an agenda and strategy to obtain
our goals. That was agreeable and thus the formation of OCPAC.
Christmas day has fallen on a Wednesday only 1 time in the past 19
years, which is the only Wednesday we have not met in all those
years.
Our mission statement is as follows: “To promote and support
constitutionalists in government who oppose expansive government while
at the same time promote liberty, free market economics and Judeo-
Christian standards.” Unlike many PACs, which primarily function as a
lobbyist supporting a special interest agenda, OCPAC is a general
interest PAC with no paid workers or lobbyists. We are also a club
which meets EVERY Wednesday and have a lot fun while learning. Please
feel welcome to attend.
During the 2000 election cycle, we raised $4,000 and split it evenly
between 4 different candidates, 3 of which won their elections. For
the 2002 election cycle we raised $8,400, then in 2004 it jumped to
$24,000. For the 2006 election cycle we raised $31,000, then $33,000
for the 2008 election cycle. Through those first 5 election cycles, we
contributed a total of $100,000 to 72 different candidates, 37 of
which won their races. I don’t have the final figures as yet, but it
looks like we raised over $43,000 for this election cycle. While we
were just below 50% during the primary races, we had 19 candidates we
supported on the ballot this past Tuesday night, 16 of those
candidates won their races.
That $43,000 war chest came from the dues paying members who support
our efforts. We set an all time record number of 217 dues paying
members in 2009, only to be outdone in 2010 with 287 dues paying
members. Our dues paying members live all over the state. Many have
caught the vision, that regardless of where they live or if they are
ever able to attend our meetings, supporting OCPAC helps to make
Oklahoma a more conservative state. We have closed down our
memberships for 2010, so anyone wanting to join now will have their
dues applied to the 2011 membership year. Following my sign off at the
end of this week’s e-mail, will be instructions on how to join. Once
again, thanks to everyone for making this organization an effective
force for conservatism in Oklahoma.
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
* TUESDAY MORNING - TULSA AREA - The brother and best friend of
State Senator Randy Brogdon passed away this past Thursday evening.
Duane Brogdon was pastor of Hope Worship Center Assembly of God Church
in Tulsa. The funeral service will be held at Woodlake Assembly of God
Church, 7100 East 31st street in Tulsa. The time is 10:00 a.m. on
Tuesday, November 9th. Please keep the Brogdon family in your prayers
as this is always a difficult time.
* TUESDAY - NATIONAL - I was asked to write a story for The New
American Magazine On Line, regarding the elections and political
landscape in Oklahoma. It was a challenge to write as a news or
analysis of the news story rather than a commentary in which I usually
write. If you would like to check it out, log on to www.jbs.org and
then find the link to the New American.
* TUESDAY EVENING - EL RENO AREA - Elza Jones, Oklahoma district
4 director of Americans For Fair Taxation will be presenting
information about the FAIR TAX, which is a flat rate national
consumption tax. The location will be the El Reno Uptown/Downtown
Center, 115 East Russell. The meeting will be on the second floor
(handicap accessible) and start at 7:00 p.m. The Fair Tax is not
intended to deal with overspending, but rather weaken the control of
politicians over citizens through an income tax code. It also would so
improve the cost of doing business in America, that would be a major
boost to the way we do business in America and it would really allow
for the improvement of our economy. On top of that, it is a fair
application to all citizens, whether a person is poor, middle class or
wealthy. I really urge the folks in that area to attend this meeting
to learn about this important reform for America.
* WEDNESDAY EVENING - OKC AREA - The author, journalist and
spokesman for the Israeli Defense Forces, Mr. Avi Lipkin will be
speaking at Destiny Christian Church, 3801 S.E. 29th which might be in
Del City, starting at 6:00 p.m.. The meeting is free and open to the
public.
When I had my morning drive radio program during the second half of
2001, one of my final guests was this Israeli author, then known by
the pen name of Victor Mordecai. Mr. Lipkin wrote a book in 1997 in
which he mentioned 3 different times that radical Muslims intended to
fly airliners into the world trade center buildings. How did he know?
His wife works in the “eyes and ears” department of Israeli
intelligence, where they monitor every Muslim publication and speech
made in the Muslim world. In other words, they said they were going to
do it, so anyone who had an ear to hear may not have known of the
actual time, but they knew of the objective.
About 4 years ago, he taught a 12 hour seminar at Fairview Baptist
Church in Edmond, where I learned so much about the history of the
Religion of Islam as well as its tenets. It is imperative that
American citizens wake up to the growing threat of Islam from within
our nation. The Islamization of America is already well under way,
wake up Oklahomans, I urge folks to attend if they are not already
well versed on this subject.
* ANYTIME - A few weeks ago I joined Howard Houchen in Paris Texas
to tape two TV shows for a new program called, The New Road to
Liberty. The show is hosted by Howard, as he is working to educate and
challenge viewers about the superiority of liberty. It was a lot of
fun and the program which talked about OCPAC and what is going on in
Oklahoma can be viewed commercial free at www.newroadtoliberty.com. If
you have time, check it out.
++ REPUBLICAN LEGISLATIVE LEADERS
I truly want to thank Speaker elect Kris Steele and President Pro-Tem
Brian Bingman for speaking at our meeting last Wednesday as they are
both really busy at this time of the year. It was apparent that there
is a conservatism gap between these legislative leaders and many of
the members of OCPAC.
However, I thought the answer to the question about the possibility of
eliminating early childhood education was one of the brighter hopes
from these legislative leaders. The question asked was, if it could be
proven or if strong evidence exists that early childhood education has
no long term value, then would you become a leader in an effort to
close down wasted and expensive efforts? Both men expressed support
for these programs, but Senator Bingman indicated he would look at the
evidence, but it would have to be significant. I thought
Representative Steele’s response was even better. He indicated it was
his duty to find out the truth on issues which would benefit the
people of Oklahoma. I will get that evidence to them as soon as
possible.
Another interesting exchange occurred when Senator Bingman stated we
have to correct the problem of our children taking an 8th grade exams
and we find out they can’t read. He said they should learn to read by
the end of the 3rd grade, so that they can read to learn the rest of
their lives. I took the opportunity to ask Mr. Ralph Bullard, former
headmaster of a large Christian school in Del City with a North campus
at Fairview Baptist in Edmond, how many students in his school could
not read by the end of the 3rd grade and thus receive social
promotions? His answer was all of them can read by the end of the 3rd
grade.
The answer is rather simple. First, Christian Heritage Academy has and
maintains discipline in their private school, which is not always the
case in the government schools. Second, they use the proper method for
teaching reading at CHA while most of the government schools do not.
The latest name, of which I am aware, of the Chinese pictographic
method used in the government schools to teach reading is called
“whole language.” Studies have shown that the teaching of reading
improperly for the English language will doom about 20 to 35% of all
children to functional illiteracy. That knowledge has been available
for a long time and the government schools, for the most part,
continue to refuse to correct that problem.
One hope should be that our new leaders will not make across the board
cuts in the state budget during these lean times. Hopefully, they will
do significant prioritizing and eliminate immoral or wasteful
programs, not temporarily, but on a permanament basis.
Here are just a few ideas, first, eliminate early childhood education
which will save the state as well as local property tax payers a lot
of money. We should use those savings to reduce the state corporate
and or personal income taxes. That will lower the cost of doing
business in Oklahoma which in turn will improve our economy and
provide more jobs.
Second, eliminate all spending on Amtrak’s Heartland Flyer. There is
not a MARKET for passenger rail service, if there were, BNSF or some
other private sector entity would provide such. In this case, the term
MARKET would be defined as enough people willing to spend enough of
their OWN money to purchase a ticket (estimated cost, $400 per ticket,
round trip OKC to Ft Worth) to ride the train. For a market to work,
the cost of the ticket would have to be enough so the operators would
be able to cover all expenses, and then make a profit.
Even worse than the immoral subsidy, these brilliant Oklahoma
lawmakers passed a law to keep the Flyer going so Oklahomans can get
on the train to go to Texas to spend their money. It is my contention
that there are more Oklahomans who go to Texas to spend money than
there are Texans who come here to spend money.
With “economic development” genius such as that, it is no wonder we
have had such debacles as Great Plains Airlines and the space ship
project, just 2 examples of lawmakers giving away tens of millions of
dollars to high risk businesses which ended up in bankruptcy. The bad
thing about the Heartland Flyer, it is 2 or 3 million each year that
will just go on year after year unless lawmakers admit their mistake
and stop it. Unfortunately, there is a push to extend it past OKC on
into Kansas.
They could also end the subsidy to the OETA. I like some of the
programming on OETA and will support it on a monthly basis if it ever
gets off the government teat. In today’s vast world of options on TV,
the last thing we need is for a government owned station. These are
just a few examples of cuts that could be made to balance the budget,
there are many others.
++ MEMBERS OF CAIR FILE SUIT TO STOP SQ 755
During the debate leading up to the elections, non Muslims who were
against state question 755 indicated that the measure to prohibit
Sharia or international law from being used in Oklahoma courts just
wasn’t necessary. Members of the Muslim community had a different
reason. They played the part of a victim of rejection and an object of
hate as their reason.
With the ballots barely counted, some of the members of CAIR (Council
on American and Islamic Relations) filed suit in federal court to stop
the measure before the state election board certified the question as
passing (it received a 70% majority vote). The very action from
members of CAIR just goes to show how foolish people were who didn’t
think the measure was necessary. If Muslims never intended to bring
Sharia law to Oklahoma, they would not mind the amendment to our
constitution.
Few people realize that Islam is the only religion that I know of that
actually teaches their followers from their “holy book” to lie and
deceive their non Muslim neighbors when they are in the minority. So
what is the real agenda of these devoted Muslims that populate CAIR?
Maybe a quote from Omar Ahmad, one of the co-founders of CAIR would
help us understand their goals. On July 4th, 1998, the San Ramon
Valley Herald quotes him as saying: “Muslims (are) not to separate or
assimilate to American society, but instead to deliver Islam’s
message… to stay in America without melting into it… Islam isn’t in
America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant. The
Koran should be the highest authority in America and Islam the only
accepted religion on earth.”
If you are a Christian, Jew or member of any other religion,
unfortunately, a powerful element of the Muslim community in America
has declared war on your religion and on American culture. This nation
and its legal system was founded upon Judeo Christian principles. If
you are an American patriot, you must stand against the agenda of
these devoted Muslims. If you are a Christian, you must share with
them the hopelessness of their religion and its flawed beginnings on
the one hand. On the other hand you must resist their agenda at the
ballot box, in the business world and in our judicial system. Again,
please try to hear Avi Lipkim of whom I spoke in the announcements.
I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.
Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com
++ INFORMATION ABOUT AND WELCOME TO OCPAC
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
++ REPUBLICAN LEGISLATIVE LEADERS
++ MEMBERS OF CAIR FILE SUIT TO STOP SQ 755
++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, November 10th will be held at
Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. The first order of
business will be the recognition of all veterans, as well as guard,
reserves or active duty members of our military. Following that
presentation, Pastor Dan Fisher of Trinity Baptist Church in Yukon
will present his special program on the feared Black Robed Regiment.
He does a combination of role playing and a power point presentation.
I believe he will have some copies of this presentation available on
DVD, if you would like to purchase one to share with your pastor or
other Christians. Come learn about the vital part these patriot
pastors played in throwing off the bonds of tyranny from the British
Crown, both leading up to and during our war of Independence. We are
very thankful that the restaurant has installed another speaker so the
people near the door to our room can hear. In addition, Pastor Dan is
going to bring two 50 inch flat screens to set up for better viewing.
Don’t miss this meeting, especially if you are a member of the
Presbyterian Church.
++ INFORMATION ABOUT AND WELCOME TO OCPAC
We have around 1,000 more people directly receiving the weekly OCPAC e-
mails than were receiving it during the first of the year. On behalf
of our organizational officers and our members, I want to welcome all
the new folks to our e-mail list. Almost 400 of these new folks have
been added over the past few weeks which now brings our total to
nearly 4,200. I thought it would be good to give a little information
about our organization.
Something over 19 years ago, Tim Green and I began to have lunch each
Wednesday, in an effort to elect him as the next Chairman of
Oklahoma’s Republican party. Invariably our conversations would boil
down to a discussion of issues and fellowship. After several weeks, I
suggested we invite others to join us. With time our numbers grew and
we developed into a debating society. As we grew past 15 to 20
attending each Wednesday, we began to have more of a speaker format
for the meetings. After about 7 years, I proposed we form a club and
political action committee (PAC) with an agenda and strategy to obtain
our goals. That was agreeable and thus the formation of OCPAC.
Christmas day has fallen on a Wednesday only 1 time in the past 19
years, which is the only Wednesday we have not met in all those
years.
Our mission statement is as follows: “To promote and support
constitutionalists in government who oppose expansive government while
at the same time promote liberty, free market economics and Judeo-
Christian standards.” Unlike many PACs, which primarily function as a
lobbyist supporting a special interest agenda, OCPAC is a general
interest PAC with no paid workers or lobbyists. We are also a club
which meets EVERY Wednesday and have a lot fun while learning. Please
feel welcome to attend.
During the 2000 election cycle, we raised $4,000 and split it evenly
between 4 different candidates, 3 of which won their elections. For
the 2002 election cycle we raised $8,400, then in 2004 it jumped to
$24,000. For the 2006 election cycle we raised $31,000, then $33,000
for the 2008 election cycle. Through those first 5 election cycles, we
contributed a total of $100,000 to 72 different candidates, 37 of
which won their races. I don’t have the final figures as yet, but it
looks like we raised over $43,000 for this election cycle. While we
were just below 50% during the primary races, we had 19 candidates we
supported on the ballot this past Tuesday night, 16 of those
candidates won their races.
That $43,000 war chest came from the dues paying members who support
our efforts. We set an all time record number of 217 dues paying
members in 2009, only to be outdone in 2010 with 287 dues paying
members. Our dues paying members live all over the state. Many have
caught the vision, that regardless of where they live or if they are
ever able to attend our meetings, supporting OCPAC helps to make
Oklahoma a more conservative state. We have closed down our
memberships for 2010, so anyone wanting to join now will have their
dues applied to the 2011 membership year. Following my sign off at the
end of this week’s e-mail, will be instructions on how to join. Once
again, thanks to everyone for making this organization an effective
force for conservatism in Oklahoma.
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
* TUESDAY MORNING - TULSA AREA - The brother and best friend of
State Senator Randy Brogdon passed away this past Thursday evening.
Duane Brogdon was pastor of Hope Worship Center Assembly of God Church
in Tulsa. The funeral service will be held at Woodlake Assembly of God
Church, 7100 East 31st street in Tulsa. The time is 10:00 a.m. on
Tuesday, November 9th. Please keep the Brogdon family in your prayers
as this is always a difficult time.
* TUESDAY - NATIONAL - I was asked to write a story for The New
American Magazine On Line, regarding the elections and political
landscape in Oklahoma. It was a challenge to write as a news or
analysis of the news story rather than a commentary in which I usually
write. If you would like to check it out, log on to www.jbs.org and
then find the link to the New American.
* TUESDAY EVENING - EL RENO AREA - Elza Jones, Oklahoma district
4 director of Americans For Fair Taxation will be presenting
information about the FAIR TAX, which is a flat rate national
consumption tax. The location will be the El Reno Uptown/Downtown
Center, 115 East Russell. The meeting will be on the second floor
(handicap accessible) and start at 7:00 p.m. The Fair Tax is not
intended to deal with overspending, but rather weaken the control of
politicians over citizens through an income tax code. It also would so
improve the cost of doing business in America, that would be a major
boost to the way we do business in America and it would really allow
for the improvement of our economy. On top of that, it is a fair
application to all citizens, whether a person is poor, middle class or
wealthy. I really urge the folks in that area to attend this meeting
to learn about this important reform for America.
* WEDNESDAY EVENING - OKC AREA - The author, journalist and
spokesman for the Israeli Defense Forces, Mr. Avi Lipkin will be
speaking at Destiny Christian Church, 3801 S.E. 29th which might be in
Del City, starting at 6:00 p.m.. The meeting is free and open to the
public.
When I had my morning drive radio program during the second half of
2001, one of my final guests was this Israeli author, then known by
the pen name of Victor Mordecai. Mr. Lipkin wrote a book in 1997 in
which he mentioned 3 different times that radical Muslims intended to
fly airliners into the world trade center buildings. How did he know?
His wife works in the “eyes and ears” department of Israeli
intelligence, where they monitor every Muslim publication and speech
made in the Muslim world. In other words, they said they were going to
do it, so anyone who had an ear to hear may not have known of the
actual time, but they knew of the objective.
About 4 years ago, he taught a 12 hour seminar at Fairview Baptist
Church in Edmond, where I learned so much about the history of the
Religion of Islam as well as its tenets. It is imperative that
American citizens wake up to the growing threat of Islam from within
our nation. The Islamization of America is already well under way,
wake up Oklahomans, I urge folks to attend if they are not already
well versed on this subject.
* ANYTIME - A few weeks ago I joined Howard Houchen in Paris Texas
to tape two TV shows for a new program called, The New Road to
Liberty. The show is hosted by Howard, as he is working to educate and
challenge viewers about the superiority of liberty. It was a lot of
fun and the program which talked about OCPAC and what is going on in
Oklahoma can be viewed commercial free at www.newroadtoliberty.com. If
you have time, check it out.
++ REPUBLICAN LEGISLATIVE LEADERS
I truly want to thank Speaker elect Kris Steele and President Pro-Tem
Brian Bingman for speaking at our meeting last Wednesday as they are
both really busy at this time of the year. It was apparent that there
is a conservatism gap between these legislative leaders and many of
the members of OCPAC.
However, I thought the answer to the question about the possibility of
eliminating early childhood education was one of the brighter hopes
from these legislative leaders. The question asked was, if it could be
proven or if strong evidence exists that early childhood education has
no long term value, then would you become a leader in an effort to
close down wasted and expensive efforts? Both men expressed support
for these programs, but Senator Bingman indicated he would look at the
evidence, but it would have to be significant. I thought
Representative Steele’s response was even better. He indicated it was
his duty to find out the truth on issues which would benefit the
people of Oklahoma. I will get that evidence to them as soon as
possible.
Another interesting exchange occurred when Senator Bingman stated we
have to correct the problem of our children taking an 8th grade exams
and we find out they can’t read. He said they should learn to read by
the end of the 3rd grade, so that they can read to learn the rest of
their lives. I took the opportunity to ask Mr. Ralph Bullard, former
headmaster of a large Christian school in Del City with a North campus
at Fairview Baptist in Edmond, how many students in his school could
not read by the end of the 3rd grade and thus receive social
promotions? His answer was all of them can read by the end of the 3rd
grade.
The answer is rather simple. First, Christian Heritage Academy has and
maintains discipline in their private school, which is not always the
case in the government schools. Second, they use the proper method for
teaching reading at CHA while most of the government schools do not.
The latest name, of which I am aware, of the Chinese pictographic
method used in the government schools to teach reading is called
“whole language.” Studies have shown that the teaching of reading
improperly for the English language will doom about 20 to 35% of all
children to functional illiteracy. That knowledge has been available
for a long time and the government schools, for the most part,
continue to refuse to correct that problem.
One hope should be that our new leaders will not make across the board
cuts in the state budget during these lean times. Hopefully, they will
do significant prioritizing and eliminate immoral or wasteful
programs, not temporarily, but on a permanament basis.
Here are just a few ideas, first, eliminate early childhood education
which will save the state as well as local property tax payers a lot
of money. We should use those savings to reduce the state corporate
and or personal income taxes. That will lower the cost of doing
business in Oklahoma which in turn will improve our economy and
provide more jobs.
Second, eliminate all spending on Amtrak’s Heartland Flyer. There is
not a MARKET for passenger rail service, if there were, BNSF or some
other private sector entity would provide such. In this case, the term
MARKET would be defined as enough people willing to spend enough of
their OWN money to purchase a ticket (estimated cost, $400 per ticket,
round trip OKC to Ft Worth) to ride the train. For a market to work,
the cost of the ticket would have to be enough so the operators would
be able to cover all expenses, and then make a profit.
Even worse than the immoral subsidy, these brilliant Oklahoma
lawmakers passed a law to keep the Flyer going so Oklahomans can get
on the train to go to Texas to spend their money. It is my contention
that there are more Oklahomans who go to Texas to spend money than
there are Texans who come here to spend money.
With “economic development” genius such as that, it is no wonder we
have had such debacles as Great Plains Airlines and the space ship
project, just 2 examples of lawmakers giving away tens of millions of
dollars to high risk businesses which ended up in bankruptcy. The bad
thing about the Heartland Flyer, it is 2 or 3 million each year that
will just go on year after year unless lawmakers admit their mistake
and stop it. Unfortunately, there is a push to extend it past OKC on
into Kansas.
They could also end the subsidy to the OETA. I like some of the
programming on OETA and will support it on a monthly basis if it ever
gets off the government teat. In today’s vast world of options on TV,
the last thing we need is for a government owned station. These are
just a few examples of cuts that could be made to balance the budget,
there are many others.
++ MEMBERS OF CAIR FILE SUIT TO STOP SQ 755
During the debate leading up to the elections, non Muslims who were
against state question 755 indicated that the measure to prohibit
Sharia or international law from being used in Oklahoma courts just
wasn’t necessary. Members of the Muslim community had a different
reason. They played the part of a victim of rejection and an object of
hate as their reason.
With the ballots barely counted, some of the members of CAIR (Council
on American and Islamic Relations) filed suit in federal court to stop
the measure before the state election board certified the question as
passing (it received a 70% majority vote). The very action from
members of CAIR just goes to show how foolish people were who didn’t
think the measure was necessary. If Muslims never intended to bring
Sharia law to Oklahoma, they would not mind the amendment to our
constitution.
Few people realize that Islam is the only religion that I know of that
actually teaches their followers from their “holy book” to lie and
deceive their non Muslim neighbors when they are in the minority. So
what is the real agenda of these devoted Muslims that populate CAIR?
Maybe a quote from Omar Ahmad, one of the co-founders of CAIR would
help us understand their goals. On July 4th, 1998, the San Ramon
Valley Herald quotes him as saying: “Muslims (are) not to separate or
assimilate to American society, but instead to deliver Islam’s
message… to stay in America without melting into it… Islam isn’t in
America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant. The
Koran should be the highest authority in America and Islam the only
accepted religion on earth.”
If you are a Christian, Jew or member of any other religion,
unfortunately, a powerful element of the Muslim community in America
has declared war on your religion and on American culture. This nation
and its legal system was founded upon Judeo Christian principles. If
you are an American patriot, you must stand against the agenda of
these devoted Muslims. If you are a Christian, you must share with
them the hopelessness of their religion and its flawed beginnings on
the one hand. On the other hand you must resist their agenda at the
ballot box, in the business world and in our judicial system. Again,
please try to hear Avi Lipkim of whom I spoke in the announcements.
I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.
Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Quick point...
Just a quick point of interest, we will also have Senator Brian
Bingman (R-Sapulpa) as a speaker this Wednesday in addition to House
Speaker designate Kris Steele. While it is not a done deal, Senator
Bingman is the odds on most likely Senator to become the next Senate
President Pro-Tem. It will be most interesting to get his insight
along with that of Representative Steel’s regarding the elections and
just what Oklahoma government might look like over the next 1 to 5
years.
I am frequently asked if non members of OCPAC may attend our meetings?
The answer is YES. The location is Italiano’s Restaurant, 4801 North
Lincoln in OKC. We have a special arrangement with the management. You
may have 3 pieces of pizza and all the salad you want to eat “OR” your
choice of pasta and choice of topping and all the salad you want to
eat, with water to drink for $9.00 or $10.00 with a soft drink, tea or
coffee. These prices include tax and tip. In addition, you may order
off the menu if you chose.
See you Wednesday.
Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com
Bingman (R-Sapulpa) as a speaker this Wednesday in addition to House
Speaker designate Kris Steele. While it is not a done deal, Senator
Bingman is the odds on most likely Senator to become the next Senate
President Pro-Tem. It will be most interesting to get his insight
along with that of Representative Steel’s regarding the elections and
just what Oklahoma government might look like over the next 1 to 5
years.
I am frequently asked if non members of OCPAC may attend our meetings?
The answer is YES. The location is Italiano’s Restaurant, 4801 North
Lincoln in OKC. We have a special arrangement with the management. You
may have 3 pieces of pizza and all the salad you want to eat “OR” your
choice of pasta and choice of topping and all the salad you want to
eat, with water to drink for $9.00 or $10.00 with a soft drink, tea or
coffee. These prices include tax and tip. In addition, you may order
off the menu if you chose.
See you Wednesday.
Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com
Monday, November 1, 2010
ELECTION PREDICTIONS
++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
++ STATE TREASURER - KEN MILLER OR THE DEMOCRAT?
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
++ ELECTION PREDICTIONS
++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, November 3rd will be held at
Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. This will be the
first day after the election and our Speaker this Wednesday will be
State Representative Kris Steele (R-Shawnee). Representative Steele is
the House Speaker designate and almost certain to be the next Speaker
of the House in Oklahoma. I have asked Representative Steele to give
us some insight regarding the outcome of the elections as well as some
information about the challenges as well as opportunities for the up-
coming session.
In 2008 and 2006 we had both the Speaker of the House and the Senate
President Pro-Tem come to our meeting to give us some perspective as
to what had happened and would they expected would happen. However,
the Senate Republicans are having a little trouble deciding who their
next President Pro-Tem will be.
The decision for Kris Steele as the next House Speaker was made in the
Republican caucus during session in 2009. However, at least 3 or so
Senate Republicans were willing to vote for Harry Coates (RINO-
Seminole) who had made a deal with all the Senate Democrats. That
would give Coates the victory over Brian Bingman (R-Sapulpa), so a
decision was made to wait until after the elections of tomorrow to see
if the numbers would be strong enough to unite enough Republican
senators to win the position without any influence from the
Democrats.
I believe Senator Coates’ personal problems caused him to drop out of
the race, but now Senator Brian Crain (R-Tulsa) is back in the race,
so there is still not a numerical winner at this time. Therefore, we
still don’t know who might be the next Senate President Pro-Tem.
Making it more complicated, 3 Senate Republicans are currently running
for other offices, Todd Lamb (R-OKC) for Lt. Governor, Jonathan
Nichols (R-Norman) for Cleveland County Judge and Jim Reynolds (R-OKC)
for Cleveland County Treasurer. If they win on Tuesday, there will
have to be special elections to fill all those seats. The same would
be the case if Susan Paddack (D-Ada) would beat Janet Barresi, please
Lord don’t let that happen. On top of that, rumor has it, one or more
Republican Senators may resign to take a post in the Fallin
administration, so it could be some time before we know who the next
Senate Pro-Tem may be.
The elections for both the House Speaker and Senate President Pro-Tem
actually occur on the first day of the session, but the Majority party
normally has a unified selection made in their caucus before the
session begins so the election on the first day of the session is just
a formality.
This is really important as communications with the leadership in the
other body and the Governor’s office should have been going on for
some time as well as committee chairmanships and bill assignments
should have already been done. In addition, the minority party also
selects their leadership before the session begins, though neither
body of the legislature votes on minority leadership. This is an
interesting situation, as I don’t know of a similar quandary in the
past.
++ STATE TREASURER, KEN MILLER OR THE DEMOCRAT
In “Charlie’s Picks” which went out last Friday morning, I didn’t make
a recommendation, as I expressed some of my disappointments with
Republican Ken Miller. My indication was that I would either leave my
ballot blank or vote for the Democrat in that race.
A little later that morning, I received a call from Ken with a very
valid question. Charlie, would you be willing to trust the handling of
billions of state tax dollars to a person who has a long history of
financial mismanagement, especially since the office of Treasurer
requires financial competence and a high degree of public trust? I
asked Ken to send me his opposition research and asked him why he
hadn’t made that information public. He said he didn’t have the money
to run, what is often referred to as negative ads. The following is
what he sent me.
Tulsa County records show Mr. Covert had state tax liens filed in
1981, 84, 85, 86 and in 87 he defaulted on his mortgage and the
property was ordered to be sold in a Sheriff’s sale for repayment to
debtors. He had 12 more claims, liens or judgments filed from 1987
through 2008. Also, his CPA certificate was revoked in September of
1989 until August of 1993 and it was again suspended from October 1997
to August 2001.
In addition, Mr. Covert lost a Wisconsin home to foreclosure in 2003.
Also, he delivered a letter to members of the Capitol press office in
which he admitted that he once stole $15,000 from an insurance company
and that he chose not to repay $14,000 in credit card debt, believing
his action to be justified because he felt the company had harassed
him.
This kind of information is why what is sometimes called “negative
campaigning” or “mud slinging” is actually the most positively
important information needed by voters. Therefore, not only could I
not vote for the Democrat, I can’t even leave my ballot blank and
allow Mr. Covert to slither into office. I will be casting my vote for
KEN MILLER for treasurer with my nose firmly pinched. Oklahoma
Republicans chose poorly when they chose Ken Miller over Owen Laughlin
in the primaries, but I will take Ken any day over Mr. Covert.
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
* THURSDAY EVINING - OKC AREA - The newly formed central
Oklahoma chapter of the Oklahoma Second Amendment Association (OK2a)
will hold their monthly meeting this Thursday evening, 7:00 p.m. at
H&H Gun Range. The range is located on the service road on the North
side of I-40 and a couple of blocks East of Meridian (400 South
Vermont, suite 110). Please arrive by 6:30 if you want to order dinner
from the 4U Café located inside H&H.
The meeting will include a discussion of recent 2nd Amendment court
decisions led by constitutional attorney Don Powers and a workshop on
different ways to conceal carry. For more information, call (918)
844-4243 or email director@ok2a.org .
* SATURDAY MORNING - MUSTANG AREA - The fairly new bridge
spanning the South Canadian River South of Mustang on Mustang Road or
Highway 4 will be dedicated to the memory of former State
Representative Tim Pope who worked tirelessly to get the bridge built.
The naming ceremony will be held at 11:30 a.m. at the bridge. The
dedication ceremony will include comments by his family members and
select friends and constituents. The public is invited.
++ ELECTION PREDICTIONS
I am way behind on reading the Oklahoman, but some months back I
predicted they would endorse 3 Democrats. Kim Holland for Insurance
Commissioner, Steve Burrage for Auditor and Dan Boren for 2nd District
Congress. I have been right on the first 2, I just haven’t seen if
they have taken a position on the Boren vs. Thompson race.
I believe the Republicans will sweep the statewide offices with the
possible exceptions of Janet Barresi for school superintendent and
Gary Jones for auditor. I think they will both win, but I believe they
will be close races.
I have said from before the primaries, if Fallin is our candidate, she
will win with somewhere between 58 to 61 percent of the vote. I
thought if Brogdon was the nominee, he would win with 53 to 57 percent
of the vote.
I believe state question 744 will lose with 63 or more percent of the
vote going against it.
I believe the state senate Republicans will pick up 2 to 5 additional
seats and the state house Republicans may pick up from 4 to 7
additional seats.
If you agreed with my perspective that 3 state questions should be
defeated (744, 754 and 757) there is an easy way to vote on them. The
back side of the ballot will be filled with the state questions in 3
columns from top to bottom. The “NO” votes would be top left, top
right and bottom right. All the rest would get a yes vote.
I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.
Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com
++ STATE TREASURER - KEN MILLER OR THE DEMOCRAT?
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
++ ELECTION PREDICTIONS
++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, November 3rd will be held at
Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. This will be the
first day after the election and our Speaker this Wednesday will be
State Representative Kris Steele (R-Shawnee). Representative Steele is
the House Speaker designate and almost certain to be the next Speaker
of the House in Oklahoma. I have asked Representative Steele to give
us some insight regarding the outcome of the elections as well as some
information about the challenges as well as opportunities for the up-
coming session.
In 2008 and 2006 we had both the Speaker of the House and the Senate
President Pro-Tem come to our meeting to give us some perspective as
to what had happened and would they expected would happen. However,
the Senate Republicans are having a little trouble deciding who their
next President Pro-Tem will be.
The decision for Kris Steele as the next House Speaker was made in the
Republican caucus during session in 2009. However, at least 3 or so
Senate Republicans were willing to vote for Harry Coates (RINO-
Seminole) who had made a deal with all the Senate Democrats. That
would give Coates the victory over Brian Bingman (R-Sapulpa), so a
decision was made to wait until after the elections of tomorrow to see
if the numbers would be strong enough to unite enough Republican
senators to win the position without any influence from the
Democrats.
I believe Senator Coates’ personal problems caused him to drop out of
the race, but now Senator Brian Crain (R-Tulsa) is back in the race,
so there is still not a numerical winner at this time. Therefore, we
still don’t know who might be the next Senate President Pro-Tem.
Making it more complicated, 3 Senate Republicans are currently running
for other offices, Todd Lamb (R-OKC) for Lt. Governor, Jonathan
Nichols (R-Norman) for Cleveland County Judge and Jim Reynolds (R-OKC)
for Cleveland County Treasurer. If they win on Tuesday, there will
have to be special elections to fill all those seats. The same would
be the case if Susan Paddack (D-Ada) would beat Janet Barresi, please
Lord don’t let that happen. On top of that, rumor has it, one or more
Republican Senators may resign to take a post in the Fallin
administration, so it could be some time before we know who the next
Senate Pro-Tem may be.
The elections for both the House Speaker and Senate President Pro-Tem
actually occur on the first day of the session, but the Majority party
normally has a unified selection made in their caucus before the
session begins so the election on the first day of the session is just
a formality.
This is really important as communications with the leadership in the
other body and the Governor’s office should have been going on for
some time as well as committee chairmanships and bill assignments
should have already been done. In addition, the minority party also
selects their leadership before the session begins, though neither
body of the legislature votes on minority leadership. This is an
interesting situation, as I don’t know of a similar quandary in the
past.
++ STATE TREASURER, KEN MILLER OR THE DEMOCRAT
In “Charlie’s Picks” which went out last Friday morning, I didn’t make
a recommendation, as I expressed some of my disappointments with
Republican Ken Miller. My indication was that I would either leave my
ballot blank or vote for the Democrat in that race.
A little later that morning, I received a call from Ken with a very
valid question. Charlie, would you be willing to trust the handling of
billions of state tax dollars to a person who has a long history of
financial mismanagement, especially since the office of Treasurer
requires financial competence and a high degree of public trust? I
asked Ken to send me his opposition research and asked him why he
hadn’t made that information public. He said he didn’t have the money
to run, what is often referred to as negative ads. The following is
what he sent me.
Tulsa County records show Mr. Covert had state tax liens filed in
1981, 84, 85, 86 and in 87 he defaulted on his mortgage and the
property was ordered to be sold in a Sheriff’s sale for repayment to
debtors. He had 12 more claims, liens or judgments filed from 1987
through 2008. Also, his CPA certificate was revoked in September of
1989 until August of 1993 and it was again suspended from October 1997
to August 2001.
In addition, Mr. Covert lost a Wisconsin home to foreclosure in 2003.
Also, he delivered a letter to members of the Capitol press office in
which he admitted that he once stole $15,000 from an insurance company
and that he chose not to repay $14,000 in credit card debt, believing
his action to be justified because he felt the company had harassed
him.
This kind of information is why what is sometimes called “negative
campaigning” or “mud slinging” is actually the most positively
important information needed by voters. Therefore, not only could I
not vote for the Democrat, I can’t even leave my ballot blank and
allow Mr. Covert to slither into office. I will be casting my vote for
KEN MILLER for treasurer with my nose firmly pinched. Oklahoma
Republicans chose poorly when they chose Ken Miller over Owen Laughlin
in the primaries, but I will take Ken any day over Mr. Covert.
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
* THURSDAY EVINING - OKC AREA - The newly formed central
Oklahoma chapter of the Oklahoma Second Amendment Association (OK2a)
will hold their monthly meeting this Thursday evening, 7:00 p.m. at
H&H Gun Range. The range is located on the service road on the North
side of I-40 and a couple of blocks East of Meridian (400 South
Vermont, suite 110). Please arrive by 6:30 if you want to order dinner
from the 4U Café located inside H&H.
The meeting will include a discussion of recent 2nd Amendment court
decisions led by constitutional attorney Don Powers and a workshop on
different ways to conceal carry. For more information, call (918)
844-4243 or email director@ok2a.org .
* SATURDAY MORNING - MUSTANG AREA - The fairly new bridge
spanning the South Canadian River South of Mustang on Mustang Road or
Highway 4 will be dedicated to the memory of former State
Representative Tim Pope who worked tirelessly to get the bridge built.
The naming ceremony will be held at 11:30 a.m. at the bridge. The
dedication ceremony will include comments by his family members and
select friends and constituents. The public is invited.
++ ELECTION PREDICTIONS
I am way behind on reading the Oklahoman, but some months back I
predicted they would endorse 3 Democrats. Kim Holland for Insurance
Commissioner, Steve Burrage for Auditor and Dan Boren for 2nd District
Congress. I have been right on the first 2, I just haven’t seen if
they have taken a position on the Boren vs. Thompson race.
I believe the Republicans will sweep the statewide offices with the
possible exceptions of Janet Barresi for school superintendent and
Gary Jones for auditor. I think they will both win, but I believe they
will be close races.
I have said from before the primaries, if Fallin is our candidate, she
will win with somewhere between 58 to 61 percent of the vote. I
thought if Brogdon was the nominee, he would win with 53 to 57 percent
of the vote.
I believe state question 744 will lose with 63 or more percent of the
vote going against it.
I believe the state senate Republicans will pick up 2 to 5 additional
seats and the state house Republicans may pick up from 4 to 7
additional seats.
If you agreed with my perspective that 3 state questions should be
defeated (744, 754 and 757) there is an easy way to vote on them. The
back side of the ballot will be filled with the state questions in 3
columns from top to bottom. The “NO” votes would be top left, top
right and bottom right. All the rest would get a yes vote.
I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.
Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com
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