PROPERTY TAX ELECTIONS TODAY

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
++ OK’S CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION SHOULD VOTE NO
++ PROPERTY TAX ELECTIONS TODAY
++ LAST MONDAY, A HISTORIC EVENING OF SORTS
++ TID BITS



++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING

Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, December 15th will be held at
Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. Our speaker this
week will be Mrs. Jo Joyce. Jo will be talking about the Oklahoma
Sponsoring Committee (OSC), which according to Jo, is little more than
a front group for Saul Alinsky’s Industrial Area Foundation. When Mark
Shannon was on air, he kept his listeners up to speed on this
organization. Unfortunately, since his passing, we no longer have
LOCAL talk radio on air in the afternoons worth listening to.
Therefore, Jo will educate us on this organization as well as their
next efforts. In an e-mail she says: “The OSC is not content with
‘high jacking the social ministries of the church’. Now they are
infiltrating the public schools.” That statement reflects the fact
that the OSC is showing the film, “A COMMUNITY CONCERN” at Taft Middle
School on Friday, January 18th at 7:00 p.m.. This should be a very
educational and interesting meeting for us.

++ OK’S CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION SHOULD VOTE NO

The so called tax cut extension compromise between the Republicans and
President Obama is a horrible pot of witches brew that should be voted
down. Once defeated, better legislation should be the first order of
business passed out of the House early next year. Estate taxes are an
attack on private property right out of Karl Marx’s Communist
Manifesto. To raise them to 55% would mean many family owned farms
would have to be sold to corporate farming interests by family members
after mom and pop pass away. Many small businesses would have to be
sold or the doors closed by family members after the principle owners
pass away.

Just as bad is the two year reduction in payments into the social
security system. 2010 is the first year in a long time that the trust
fund has had to pay out more in benefits than it takes in through
payments. To reduce its revenue stream will put it far deeper into the
red. I am all for phasing out socialist security through a soft
landing approach (responsibly it would take 60 to 70 years and
everyone will suffer a small amount) but this idea has nothing to do
with such a plan and will simply add a tremendous amount to the
deficit and as such the national debt. This is just a gimmick to
borrow or print more money to flush into our system.

Then finally, any extension of unemployment benefits should be the
final extension and only a part of the package to get Democrat support
in the Senate for passage. It should be phased down in monthly amounts
toward the end of, perhaps 9 months, and paid for by spending cuts. No
other additional spending should occur. If we really want to get our
economy back on track, any tax cuts should be corporate and business
tax cuts. That will lower the cost of doing business in America and as
such create jobs.

++ PROPERTY TAX ELECTIONS TODAY

Property tax and municipal elections will be held across many parts of
the state today. Edmond wants 29 million, much of it for a new
swimming pool, and the Mid-Del school system wants an almost
unbelievable 190 million. The citizens are simply going to have to
decide if they want to spend that kind of money in uncertain times.
They are also going to have to consider if these new expenditures will
really do any good when it comes to school bonds? If the supporters of
these bond packages tell the citizens their property taxes will not
increase, please don’t necessarily believe them. If it is true, then
understand that a vote against such a proposal will produce a property
tax DECREASE if the measure fails.

++ LAST MONDAY EVENING, A HISTORIC TIME OF SORTS

This past Monday, somewhere between 75 to 80 citizen activists braved
the cold in Bartlesville to send a message to the Republican House
members. They were present for a retreat and caucus meeting on Tuesday
morning to determine their agenda for this year’s legislative session.
An even larger group of conservative activists attended a meeting in
Edmond that was billed as a public forum. These citizens were there to
express their opposition to Edmond’s sustainability programs, which
are an extension of the UN’s Agenda 21 Conference, intended to bring
unified land use controls and much more on a global basis. At the same
time, some members of the John Birch Society’s Lawton chapter attended
the city council meeting where they successfully challenged the city
council not to amend the city charter without a vote of the people as
is required by the document itself.

Here is why I believe this was a historic time of sorts. For the past
3 years Oklahoma citizens have been waking up to the problems in
America. They have been studying our U.S. Constitution, history and
learning the principles of good government. On last Monday evening,
these well informed citizens, moved beyond being just educated
learners to citizen activists. Even more importantly, they had to
divide their numbers to appear at 3 different locations at the same
time, and yes, they had enough numbers to make an impact at all three
of those locations. May I suggest the following analysis for the
Bartlesville and Edmond meetings.

We took a bus and several personal vehicles from the OKC area and
arrived in Bartlesville just shortly after 5:00 p.m. Already there
were several from Bartlesville and those who had caravanned from the
Tulsa area. Very importantly, we had good press coverage from a
varitty of newspapers, TV, radio and blog coverage (google Ron Black’s
400 pound gorilla rant). You can also see a video from a 912 member
out of Tulsa, just click on to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADh_Y8d0quo.
Also, many of the lawmakers, especially the more conservative members
stopped on their way into the community center to visit, check out our
signs and shake hands with some of our folks.

With the decline in newspaper readership in recent years, the Tulsa
World and the Oklahoman sometimes share stories to cut down on the
number of reporters on the old payroll. The front page article in the
Oklahoman on Tuesday morning was by World reporter Randy Krehbiel. The
article was titled, “GOP dinner draws Republican protesters.”

The first 3 paragraphs of the article went like this: “The small man
in the Santa suit arrived by church bus, bringing not toys but a
bullhorn and a hand-lettered sign. He also brought a list, and it
will be checked far more than twice. That’s why many of the House
Republicans arriving for a dinner Monday evening at Bartlesville
Community Center made sure to tell this Santa they intended to be
very, very nice.

Further in the body of the article was the best word picture we could
hope for. The paragraph really portrayed the struggle between
Oklahoma’s elites who seem to care mostly about our image as far as
how we fare in the eyes of progressives in New York City, San
Francisco, Boston and etc. They also intend to make sure our economy
is strong and their pockets are lined with wealth. On the other side
of this struggle we have those well balanced conservative grassroots
activists, who love to see people obtain wealth fairly, through
inheritance or most especially hard work. But we are opposed
government owned businesses, corporate welfare or government created
advantages over competitors as a means to obtaining such wealth.

The paragraph went like this: “If the protesters outside the community
center symbolized one side of that struggle, the HIGH POWERED
LOBBYISTS (emphasis mine) dinning with the GOP caucus inside
symbolized the other.” I believe this word picture is what drives many
Oklahoman’s crazy to realize they vote for lawmakers to do one thing
when they get to the Capital, only to have their will subverted by
those shiny shoed lobbyists from the state chamber and other special
interests paying for the wine, cheese and caviar during the reception
and the steaks and lobster during the banquet (I don’t know what they
ate, I was gladly outside in the cold).

Of course that whole event occurred to encourage the Republican
lawmakers to be well rounded, not divided. We want them to come up
with free market solutions to create an environment conducive for
brilliant and hard working entrepreneurs to succeed. That will
stimulate our economy and create demand for more people to fill an
ever increasing number of jobs.

More people working will create more revenues for government and if
lawmakers will cut un-needed government programs, programs in which
government should not be involved and eliminate waste and
inefficiencies, then those new revenues will allow us to eliminate
business taxes and eventually the personal income tax. Those lower
costs for doing business in Oklahoma will just keep adding to the
number of jobs created in our state as we will become more competitive
in a national and global market place.

Implementing those ideas will not consume the whole legislative
session, in fact only a small part of the session. The rest of the
time, social and moral issues must be addressed to add to the value of
living in Oklahoma. Reports now public from certain sources such as
Ron Black’s blog as to what went on in the caucus meeting are
encouraging. Many of the issues, for which we care, such as
immigration reform, 10th Amendment, 2nd Amendment, defense of home
schooling rights, promotion of Judeo-Christian Values and a pledge to
ban any tax increases were all approved, though sometimes through
contentious debates, with Speaker elect Steele on one side and the
majority siding with the conservatives on the other side.

Perhaps one of the most bizarre debate occurred when Representative
Terrill wanted to include the phrase “To promote traditional Judeo-
Christian values” in the agenda. Speaker-elect Steele, a Methodist
minister, made a motion to strike that terminology and replace it with
a more vacuous phrase such as “Oklahoma values” or “traditional
values”. Representative Jeff Hickman (R-Dacoma, a former aide to King
David Boren with a lifetime conservative score of a 56) seconded the
motion. However, in the end, the majority voted with Terrill and the
conservatives and against Kris Steele. While these reports are
encouraging, we must trust but verify. The State Chamber also has
strong influences over the Senate, they will also have to be
encouraged to govern like conservative Republicans, not Democrats
dressed like elephants, but better known as RINOs.

One last thing, many have e-mailed asking about the message on my hand
lettered sign. I blew up a picture of the Elephant on our membership
form to symbolize conservative Republicans and a picture of a RINO
which is actually a donkey with elephant ears pinned on the back of
the donkey ears and an elephant’s trunk attached to the end of the
donkeys nose to symbolize those who are really, Republicans In Name
Only. Next to the elephant picture, I had the words “elephants make
hay” a farming term meaning they are doing really well. Next to the
RINO picture I had the words: “RINOs deserve Lumps of Coal and
Reindeer Droppings in their Christmas Stockings.” That was Santa’s
Yule Tide greeting for all the Republican lawmakers. Each of them will
have to make their own minds up as to which animal they best
represent!

Now for the Edmond meeting on sustainability. Though a Democrat web-
site accused me of showing up to disrupt the meeting with bully
tactics, that didn’t happen as I was in Bartlesville, though with the
folks in Edmond in spirit. It is not unusual for the Dems to get such
things wrong. I did know that 15 or so people had met prior to the
meeting to discuss the event and prepare some handouts and as such I
mentioned the event in the special e-mail sent out on the 3rd. I
simply suggested to our readers that they would probably appreciate
others attending for support.

The police and the Edmond Sun reported about 200 in attendance, 4
times the expected number based on the number of chairs the organizers
first put out. It was billed as a public forum and when the attendees
found out the organizers didn’t want to discuss the issue, but rather
break down into small groups to come up with ideas for implementation,
that’s when things began to denigrate.

Those wanting a public forum didn’t want to participate in the little
game of ideas, knowing the proponents already know what they want to
do for the most part. Eventually, the meeting was adjourned with the
suggestion that they would have a public forum sometime in January.

While I have a Guthrie address, I actually live closer to Edmond and
in fact used to have an Edmond address where I currently live. For the
most part, I work, shop, eat, attend church and do business in Edmond.
I also was on the editorial board for the Edmond Sun, writing two
columns each month, for a little over a year, before the time burden
was just too great for me to continue. With all that said, I have some
strong opinions about the city and its governance.

Edmond is a clean city and an attractive city. While it is still a
university town and has been a bedroom community for OKC, it has
outgrown that distinction and transitioned into becoming a community
of its own. It has a lot of parks and plenty of shopping outlets and
restaurants for a city of its size (guessing about 80,000
people).

However, Edmond has its drawbacks. Number one has to be the traffic
congestion, exacerbated by the ever more busy railroad tracks which
run right up the middle of town with only 2 underpasses to allow
traffic to flow unhindered from East to West. The city of Edmond is
not very friendly toward businesses, but with such a large and
affluent consumer base, many businesses put up with the excessive
regulations and go ahead and jump through the hoops.

The city has suffered from an excessive amount of influence from the
greenies and has wasted untold tax payer dollars on art, public
transportation and planter boxes rather than middle turn lanes down
the center of some of its busiest streets. The city pays huge fees for
consultants to do studies and make recommendations, so much so that I
wonder whether or not there is anyone in city government capable of
making quality decisions about the direction and future of the city
without an expensive consultant or study.

Some of what is on the sustainability agenda is common sense and could
be accomplished through a more frugal attitude with taxpayer dollars
by city officials. Here is hoping that the number of people apposing
the UN having any kind of influence over citizens and property will
grow and be supported vigorously.

++ TIDBITS

* In the old Soviet Union, few things worked well so they operated on
the five year plan. Approximately every 5 years the people were so fed
up that they would about be ready to rise up in rebellion. At that
time the government would step in and demonize some bureaucrat, send
him off to another area or a gulag and bring in a new bureaucrat. They
would put a little window dressing on the program and the people would
calm down to see if the new changes would work. Of course they didn’t
improve to any degree and as such the people would become restless and
about to boil over during the next 5 years until the process was
repeated.

With that in mind, the Oklahoma City School Board took the BOLD step
last night to change the school calendar to something called year
round school. This window dressing has nothing to do with needed
reforms, will have little effect on learning and show virtually no
academic improvement. If the plan stays in place (other places have
tried this and then abandoned it) over the next 5 years, I predict
Carl Springer will be replaced by that time.

Here is what it will do. It will put more pressure on families to
squeeze in their Summer vacation time and more importantly, high
school kids will have less time to work summer jobs to learn some job
skills, discipline and what it means to interface with the public in
general rather than just their peers. It will also hurt some seasonal
businesses and tourism which rely on students and teachers for labor.

* This past Saturday morning about 60 leaders and activists from
around the state gathered to discuss how legislative leadership kills
good legislation. Identified during that meeting was a systemic
problem which allows for nearly dictatorial power by leadership rather
than elected lawmakers being allowed to offer and have their
legislation heard. Under the current system, lawmakers have a real
problem representing the ideas of the people who elected them. As such
some ideas to reform they system wee discussed and will be fleshed out
and fine tuned in the next few weeks.

To understand what a problem this is creating, I have obtained
permission to reprint a couple of e-mails I received from a couple of
Tulsa activists. I don’t mind accurate labels being attached to
people, but I think some of the name calling is not that effective.
However, please see the level of anger over this issue of dictatorial
power as it is used by leadership.

“I am Dave Bell, Precinct 25 Chairman for Republican Party that is in
House District 77. Eric Proctor is my State representative. I do not
intend to help the GOP to find someone to replace or run against him.
He is a Democrat but he is honest and that is more then I can say for
all the State’s GOP leadership. I also intend to help him get
reelected if that is his call, he has all my support. My humble advice
is remove Eric from the GOP hit list now before your lose more people
now then you are going to later when people find out how crooked the
GOP leaders truly are in Oklahoma. Most Sincerely.”
Dave Bell
Precinct 25 Chariman
Billie Bell
Co-Chair.

Following is a response from another Republican activist. Both of
these men are retired troopers.

“I agree Dave. Eric Proctor is way better than ANY of the liberal
Chamber-pimped RINO maggot scumbags that attempt to call themselves
members of the Party of Reagan. The GOP can leave Eric alone and focus
on the incestuous scum that are now on their next attempt to trash our
RIGHTS like they did last year.

In my opinion, it is now Open Season on this cesspool of
unConstitutional basTERDS that are attempting to sell us out AGAIN
like ‘Insurance salesman’ Benge, Tad the Nad, Party Pooper Pam
Peterson, Okla Gun Control czar Sue Tibbs, and Sex-crazed cradle-
robbing Sullivan did.

The Day of Reckoning Cometh dude!!!”

Dan Howard

The reference to Sullivan is the alleged affair he had sometime after
being elected to office which produced a bitter divorce from his wife.
He recently re-married and they are soon expecting a child, though I
don’t know if this is the woman with whom he is alleged to have had
the affair. Many people make bad decisions or mistakes and we should
always hope they get things turned around and do better. However, it
is surprising to me that Speaker-elect Steele, a Methodist minister,
would appoint someone with such recent moral problems as floor leader?

* In a related subject over the past 2 years I have began to see how
leadership passes down the baton to leadership much like what exists
and of course it is not the conservatives that get into leadership.

Quite possibly the race for the next Speaker is already on or will be
very soon. In 2008, DURING the session, (you know when lawmakers are
so busy with improving the economy that they don’t have time for
anything else) I was asked to meet, first with Ken Miller and then
with Kris Steele to hear them out as to why each of them would make
the best next Speaker. I decided not to get involved in that contest
as each of their scores on the Conservative Index were much the same
and therefore I didn’t see much of an ideological difference between
the two of them. The race begins when one of the possible new Speaker
candidates begins to distribute and collect pledge cards from their
fellow members (the newly elected freshmen are prized catches). Two
years ago, Kris Steele won that race and Ken Miller decided to run for
State Treasurer with its paycheck nearly 3 times the size of a State
Representative and he would therefore not have to sit under the
victor.

Sources, tell me the two most likely establishment candidates wanting
to replace Steele are Dan Sullivan, Steele’s appointment for the floor
leaders position and Jeff Hickman, Steele’s appointment as Speaker Pro-
Tem. Neither of these fellows are conservative with Sullivan’s
lifetime Conservative Index score of a 62, same as Kris Steele’s
score, and Hickman has a lifetime average of a paltry 56. Hopefully,
conservatives have their eye on the ball and are looking for someone
more conservative that can win and provide a more conservative style
of leadership.

I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.

Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com