Friday is the big day for the first annual OCPAC awards banquet. While it is too late to take advantage of the $5 discount, it is NOT too late to attend. The cost to attend for a dues paying member of OCPAC or any of their family members is $20 each and the cost to attend for a non dues paying member is $25. We will turn our final attendance number into our caterer by noon on Thursday. You may bring a check (to OCPAC CLUB) or cash to our meeting on Wednesday or put a check in the mail by Wednesday. However, we must have your name to be able to attend. Therefore, send me an e-mail that you are attending charliemeadows7@gmail.com or call (405) 348-9991 during the hours of 9:00 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. from now through Thursday at noon.
At this time we have about 150 reservations. There is parking all around the building, but please enter the main door on the West side of the church.
* The location will be the Fairview Baptist Church at the
intersection of Danforth and Sooner roads in Edmond (Danforth is 1 mile North of Second street & Sooner is 1 block West of I-35).
* A delicious BBQ dinner of ribs, chicken and brisket from Hickory
Chips Catering will be served from 6:30 until 7:30 p.m. on Friday evening, April 30th. The program starts at 7:30 p.m.
* Cowboy preacher, Guitarist and Singer, Rusty Vineyard will provide
entertainment.
* TV 9 morning and noon news anchor, Ed Murray will serve as our
Master of Ceremonies.
* Emoly West, Miss Edmond Libertyfest 2010 and second runner-up in
the Miss Oklahoma
contest last year will present the awards to Oklahoma’s outstanding lawmakers of 2009.
* Our keynote speaker will be the Reverend JESSE LEE PETERSON,
founder and director of
BOND (Brotherhood Organization of a New Destiny) www.bondinfo.org . Reverend Peterson
has agreed to waive his normal speakers fee, but an opportunity to contribute to Bond (a 501
C-3) will be available. Mark Shannon did a great interview with Jesse on Monday.
+ Lawmakers receiving one or more awards are Senators Randy Brogdon,
Gary Stanislawski
Anthony Sykes. Representatives are Mike Christian, Sally Kern, Jason Murphey, Mike
Reynolds, Mike Ritze, Paul Wesselhoft and John Wright. Also receiving awards are Josh
Bullard, headmaster of Christian Heritage Academy and Mark Shannon, KTOK radio talk
talk show host. There will even be a couple of surprise awards.
It is sure to be a fun evening of fellowship, entertainment, great food, an opportunity to recognize some of Oklahoma’s most conservative lawmakers and hear from a great speaker. Don’t miss this opportunity to attend.
Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Monday, April 26, 2010
JOHN WRIGHT ENDORSED FOR LT. GOVERNOR
++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
++ JOHN WRIGHT ENDORSED FOR LT. GOVERNOR
++ LIBERALS PIN REPUBLICANS IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE
++ WELCOME TO OCPAC AND MEMBERSHIP UP-DATE
++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday April 28th will be held at Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. Our speaker this week will be Mr. John Doak from Tulsa. Mr. Doak is the only Republican to announce so far for the State Insurance Commission position. One of the most important qualifications for that position is moral character and integrity as the commissioner has the ability to increase insurance rates when requested by insurance companies. Another issue will be his position on Christian groups such as Christian Medi-Share.
These are groups of free will association who make a commitment to pay each others catastrophic health expenses but are not an insurance company. Any of our members present who had their dues paid as of April14th will be given a ballot to vote to endorse Mr. Doak or make no endorsement.
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
+ OKC AREA - MONDAY EVENING - Oklahomans for Sovereignty and Free
Enterprise (OK-SAFE) will host Randal O’Toole, Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute. The location will be the Character Training Center, 520 West Main in downtown OKC. The time will be from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., there is no cost to attend. Mr. O’Toole is the author of: BEST- LAID PLANS, HOW GOVERNMENT PLANNING HARMS YOUR QUALITY OF LIFE, YOUR POCKETBOOK, & FUTURE, as well as a second book, GRIDLOCK - WHY WE’RE STUCK IN TRAFFIC AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT. The second book discusses how government attempts to do long-range, comprehensive planning inevitably does more harm than good by choking American cities with congestion, making housing markets more unaffordable, and sending the cost of government infrastructure skyrocketing.
Did you see the NEWS 9 story recently as well as articles in various papers about the millions of dollars of stimulus money being spent on green project experiments such a planter boxes on roof tops? That whole movement emanates out of the United Nations and is known as “sustainability”. MAPS 3, its Light Rail System and the move to a “New Urbanism” are all part of a “Central Planner’s” dream. Mr. O’Toole will present a side of the story that I predict you will never hear about in the Oklahoman or from Mayor Mick and the rest of the central planners.
+ EDMOND - 5 MONDAYS IN MAY - The Oklahoma Council of Public
Affairs (OCPA) is hosting their Spring Lecture Series starting, Monday evening May 3rd and running each Monday evening through the end of May. Sessions will begin at 6:00 p.m. in the Hardeman Auditorium on the Campus of Oklahoma Christian University, 2501 Memorial Road (about half way between I-35 and the Broadway Extension).
Giving the lectures will be OU history professor Dr. J. Rufus Fears.
Dr. Fears, a conservative professor and compelling speaker, has been selected by the students as professor of the year on 3 different occasions. His lecture series is titled: “The Founders’ Legacy of Freedom”. There is no cost to attend and this will be an excellent opportunity to increase your understanding of the ideas of our Founding Fathers. The May 3rd session is titled: “The Declaration of Independence and its meaning today”.
++ JOHN WRIGHT ENDORSED FOR LT. GOVERNOR
This past Wednesday, our dues paying members voted to endorse State Representative John Wright over State Senator Todd Lamb in the closest race so far this year. There were a large number of “no endorsement”
votes which caused our first run-off vote of the year. Some vote to make no endorsement because there isn’t that much difference between the candidates, couldn’t tell who was the best or perhaps they don’t like any of the candidates. Regardless of the reason, Representative Wright was chosen in a close run-off race. There wasn’t that much difference between them on their perspectives for the job.
I believe John Wright to be the more conservative candidate, but Senator Lamb certainly displays the persona of a salesman to promote the State of Oklahoma which is a major function for the Lt. Governor position. Both are good communicators, John’s style is thorough and methodical, while Todd’s style is forceful and full of charisma. While I believe either of them will make a good Lt. Governor, our members did select John Wright who now joins these other candidates endorsed by OCPAC. Randy Brogdon for Governor, Mark Costello for Labor Commissioner, Nathan Dahm for 1st District Congress, R.J. Harris for 4th District Congress and Kevin Calvey for 5th District Congress.
Congratulations to all of these fine candidates.
++ LIBERALS PIN REPUBLICANS IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE
I watched with amazement over the last few day as to how fast the liberals, with the aid of the main stream press, had the Republicans on their backs, yelling “calf rope” over the issue of militias.
Militias pre-date our nation and are the reason we don’t sip tea out of our saucers at 2 in the afternoon with our little pinkie’s extended while we chat with one another using a funny sounding form of proper English. Militias, regardless of how you want to define them, have been, are, and should continue to be an important part of the American experiment. Our founding fathers who put their names, their fortunes and their sacred honor on the line to obtain our liberty would be ashamed of us today as we slither under the rocks rather than be associated with the term “militia”.
Though I don’t use the militia word often, I gladly use the word when necessary, a word which is found in our U.S. Constitution. Let me suggest 4 definitions of Militias, all of which I support. Our founding fathers were very leery of a standing army (they supported a standing navy). But, they were also aware of the need to be able to quickly assemble forces for protection. Therefore, they called for a well regulated militia which could be federalized if the need arose.
Many states, including Oklahoma provide for such a militia which we will call the National Guard. Second, Oklahoma statutes also call for a state militia which we call the Oklahoma State Guard. This militia should be under the control of the Governor and or the state Adjutant General. A third realm of militias I would like to see and don’t believe is provided for by the state, would be a militia under the authority of the County Sheriff. The fourth form is an “unorganized militia” which is currently provided for in state statutes, but all of a sudden has become very controversial.
Just a little recent history, when Bill Clinton was President, the liberals were successful in passing the Brady Law, which was a significant step toward collecting fire-arms from the citizens of the U.S. The bill even had provision to force county sheriffs to comply with the law or face criminal prosecution.
The feds didn’t take the next step to start rounding up fire arms, I believe because of 2 reasons. First, there were a group of about 30 Democrats in the House they couldn’t count on to pass such radical and severe legislation. Second, unauthorized militias were popping up all over the country, including several here in Oklahoma. I believe there were hundreds of thousands, perhaps several million Americans who were willing to “DEFEND” themselves and their right to bear arms should federal agents begin to round up firearms. I believe the Clinton administration counted the cost to take the next step and backed down.
In other words, the proliferation of militias served as a kind of saber rattling to back the feds off.
During that time we had two different meetings at OCPAC where leaders of those groups spoke. They were not recruitment meetings, but rather for the purpose of information. OCPAC actually believes in and practices FREE SPEECH whether we agree or disagree with or speaker or their agenda.
Even as recent as a year ago, talk of a militia would have been no big deal or only slightly controversial. I well remember one Wednesday morning last Summer just before our meeting, while listening to talk radio, information was made public that the State of Missouri had issued a warning that people who were concerned about the Constitution, the Second Amendment, were pro-life, home schooled their children, voted for Ron Paul or Chuck Baldwin for President, that those kind of people were considered to be potential domestic terrorists.
Folks, you better wake up, ideas have consequences and those proclamations were very dangerous, even though officials in Missouri later backed off under a barrage of criticism. Two hours after hearing the information I was standing before the members of OCPAC relaying such information when I suggested it was time to again begin forming militias. I suggested two key components to the formation of a militia. One, no person should be allowed to join who was a white supremacists and second, no one should be allowed to be a member who was not a registered voter and had not voted in at least one of the past two general elections.
Standing there taking notes was the Oklahoman reporter Michael McNutt.
If my memory serves me correctly, the article in the Oklahoman the next day didn’t have a word about my suggestions that it was time to begin forming militias. So what is the big deal? Real simple, in early March of this year the feds moved to arrest about 10 people in Michigan and Indiana for allegedly being members of the Hutaree militia in Michigan. I believe they were “charged” (remember, we are supposed to be innocent until proven guilty) with conspiracy to commit sedition and plans to kill members of law enforcement.
I was suspicious of the validity of the charges from the moment I heard them. However, if they are really bad guys plotting to “INITIATE” the killing of law enforcement personal, then they should be taken off the streets. According to a Wall Street Journal article, it was suggested that the feds had an insider in the group. The question is, was the insider an “informant” (gathering and relaying
information) or an “agent provocateur” (someone who gains trust then leads a group into trouble by incremental suggestions toward crime and evil). If the latter, then that is the definition of “entrapment” and may put a case against the accused in jeopardy.
Regardless, the feds and the liberal media have now found a word “militia” which has just attained the status of radio active. All of a sudden, the image in the minds of most Americans regarding militias is that of crazies playing soldier, and making plans to kill cops and attack the federal government. Adolph Hitler’s minister of propaganda and disinformation, Gerbils, would have been proud and amazed at such a coup.
Now fast forward from March when that occurred to the tea parties. For a year now the liberal leftists, aided by their allies in the liberal main stream media, have been throwing a variety of mud balls at those attending tea parties to see if anything sticks. Now, with a newly demonized word, “militias”, the object was to suggest those attending tea parties were similar to the dangerous crazies in Michigan.
Enter, an Associated Press reporter. The reporter asked Senator Brogdon if he could interview him for a story on tea parties.
According to Senator Brogdon, question after question kept referring to militias. Brogdon told him several times he had no plans to start or support a militia. However, if a reporter keeps re-framing a question he might finally get a sound bite that could be used to write an inflammatory story. Maybe a question like, I know you aren’t supporting a militia, but if we did have one and had a severe ice storm or riots in the streets, then couldn’t a militia be helpful in those kinds of situations? Of course the obvious answer might be, yes, a militia would be a good deal in such a situation. Never mind you had just said on numerous times you weren’t trying to organize a militia.
Senator Brogdon has called on the AP reporter to release the full interview so his comments can be made known in their proper context.
Don’t hold your breath.
It was even worse for Representative Charles Key, the same reporter came by for an interview and wrote an article which, according to Charles Key, was horribly wrong. The next day after the story ran the same reporter came by Representative Key’s office and apologized with a statement that sometimes when a story is edited it makes some mistakes. They did another interview which was taped and Representative Key thought there would be an accurate retraction.
There wasn’t and now Representative Key is calling for the taped interview to be made public or for the reporter to be fired. Again, don’t hold your breath.
Now, to my point as to how the Republicans were pinned to the mat in record time. Right after the story broke, Republican party Chair, Gary Jones must have put on some depends before he went before the press to throw Representative Key under the bus. Calling for him to leave the Republican party and suggesting anyone affiliated with militias weren’t welcome in the Republican party. Hum, I don’t remember that being a part of our platform or in our party rules.
Jones has a brand to protect, but his emotional knee jerk reaction played right into the hands of the liberals wanting to demonize the tea party folks.
Senator Steve Russell also played into their hands. Senator Russell is a good Senator and is going to be an even better Senator with time, but he got snookered in this case. I agree that any plans to get aggressive and initiate an action against the federal government would be foolish.
However, militias, especially the unorganized types or those controlled by a county sheriff should only be defensive. The definitive issue of concern would be the round-up of citizen’s firearms. That was also the issue in 1775 when the British troops left Boston and marched to Concord to capture a stash of arms from the colonists.
Our members should remember the DVD we played last summer titled:
INNOSENCE BETRAYED by Aaron Zelman, founder of Jews for the Preservation of firearms. The point of the documentary was that in the
8 major genocides of the past century, two actions occurred before each genocide. First it was gun registration, then second it was gun confiscation. Americans must never never never allow the government to confiscate our fire arms. Throughout history, more people have been killed by their own governments than have died fighting a foreign enemy as a soldier for their own country.
Another Republican playing into the hands of the liberals was state Labor Commission candidate Jason Reese. Even though he claimed that his press release was not related to his campaign, it appeared to be an attempt to get some kind of support for his failing candidacy which is going no-where fast. Reese is a moderate Republican who from the earliest of days was a huge cheer leader for John McCain for President. Probably because McCain was such an advocate for amnesty for illegal aliens. Reese was a huge opponent of HB 1804, the legislation to deal with illegal aliens on a state level brought about by the federal government’s refusal to secure our borders.
However, the most disappointing action of all came last Thursday when the House Republicans voted to amend SB 2018 on a vote of 98 to 1. Wes Hillard (D-Sulpher) successfully stopped legislation to protect pastors and Christians from being persecuted by hate crimes legislation. He did so by abandoning a deal made with Judiciary Chairman Rex Duncan to allow the bill to be heard in committee when he turned the authorship of the legislation over to Representative Mike Shelton (D-OKC). Shelton is a huge proponent of hate crimes legislation.
Shelton, deserves the title, King of the Republicans as he out maneuvered them Thursday with an amendment making it illegal to join an unauthorized militia or the Ku Klux Klan. The original bill actually increased the penalty for aiding or soliciting gang membership and created a new law against committing an offense as a condition for gang membership.
What I am about to say is going to be difficult for some to swallow. I think it is tragic that there has been such a break-down in families and values in our culture that we have violent gangs. I also have no use for the KKK. However, until a crime is committed by a gang member or a KKK member, I don’t see how any thinking person who is aware of the double edged sword effect of preventive legislation could make a law against free will association in an organization. If we start down that road, where does it end? All you have to do is watch a few Glen Beck shows and I could think of any number of organizations on the left that I would want to criminalize. On the flip side, liberals could probably think of any number of conservative organizations they would like to criminalize, especially militias, then tea party gatherings and don’t forget groups like OCPAC and the various Republican clubs and so on.
Representative Shelton and his buddy Jason Reese both alluded to Timothy McVeigh as the example of a militia member. If my memory serves me correctly McVeigh may have been a member of a militia in Ohio, but if so, he had been kicked out for some reason or another.
Certainly what he did in blowing up the Murah building was not an operation of a militia. People make false statements like that and then others just run with them as if they are the truth, when in fact they are not. King Shelton must be feeling like a mighty important man as he has the Republicans right in the palm of his hand. That legislation really needs to be killed when it goes back to the Senate, other than the part with punishment for committing some kind of a crime as a requirement to join a gang.
Bottom line, my suggestions that we need to form militias were just that, a suggestion. I have not made an attempt to make that happen.
Because of my age and lack of military experience (1 year of ROTC in
college) I would probably not join a militia if one or more were started, though I would be supportive of them if they were worthy. I am in communication with a variety of lawmakers in both houses and I have not heard a word about a move to create militias before all this noise started. I am not a leader in any of the tea party organizations, though I know many of the leaders. I can say I have not heard of efforts for the tea parties to create militias. Four to six weeks ago, I was interviewed by the same AP reporter and don’t remember any questions about the formation of militias, which makes me think he is receiving pressure from above to make a story happen.
Above all else, we as people should not be so knee-jerk quick to support or oppose something when we first hear it, but rather be thinking people. Not jerked around by the liberal press who is continually shaping public opinion and setting the agenda for Republicans rather than just reporting the news.
++ WELCOME TO OCPAC AND MEMBERSHIP UP-DATE
I have finally entered several hundred names acquired at the tea parties on April 14th and 15th. Just a brief bit of information about us. Sometime in 1991 Tim Green and I started having lunch together on Wednesdays. Eventually others began to join us and our numbers began to grow. We eventually became a debating society, having a lot of fun talking about issues and learning how to defend positions as well as challenge one another without being offensive.
About 12 years ago, I proposed that debating societies have a lot of fun but accomplish little to nothing. We agreed to form a Political Action Committee with the following mission statement: “To promote and support constitutionalists in government who oppose expansive government while at the same time promote liberty, free market economics and Judeo-Christian values. Over the past 19 years we have missed meeting only one Wednesday.
During the past 5 election cycles we have raised about $100,000 dollars through the dues paid by our members with the basic membership being $50 and two higher levels of membership at $180 or $360 for a calendar year. During the past 5 election cycles we have contributed to 72 candidates for office and 36 of them have been elected. Based on their scores in the Oklahoma Constitution Newspaper’s Conservative Index, they tend to be the most conservative lawmakers in the state.
We now have around 3,500 people who receive this e-mail directly, a following on the OCPAC blog and many people who have the e-mail forwarded to them by friends. To the 300 or so new folks who signed up at the tea parties, welcome to the e-mail list and please come to a luncheon any time you have an opportunity.
For those who have been receiving our e-mails for some time now and know what OCPAC stands for, I want to invite you to join our organization if you have not done so as yet. We are now past 200 dues paying members as the close of April approaches. Our all time record for membership was last year at 217 dues paying members and I fully expect to exceed that this year. We are an all volunteer organization with no one receiving any salary for their efforts. If you want to see Oklahoma become a more conservative state, please consider joining us.
Currently we have some donors agreeing to contribute $50 for everyone joining through the 15th of May (I just acquired an additional donor to put up another $1,000 as we went past our original $1300 for 26 new members). Instructions to join will follow my sign off.
I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.
Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
++ JOHN WRIGHT ENDORSED FOR LT. GOVERNOR
++ LIBERALS PIN REPUBLICANS IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE
++ WELCOME TO OCPAC AND MEMBERSHIP UP-DATE
++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday April 28th will be held at Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. Our speaker this week will be Mr. John Doak from Tulsa. Mr. Doak is the only Republican to announce so far for the State Insurance Commission position. One of the most important qualifications for that position is moral character and integrity as the commissioner has the ability to increase insurance rates when requested by insurance companies. Another issue will be his position on Christian groups such as Christian Medi-Share.
These are groups of free will association who make a commitment to pay each others catastrophic health expenses but are not an insurance company. Any of our members present who had their dues paid as of April14th will be given a ballot to vote to endorse Mr. Doak or make no endorsement.
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
+ OKC AREA - MONDAY EVENING - Oklahomans for Sovereignty and Free
Enterprise (OK-SAFE) will host Randal O’Toole, Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute. The location will be the Character Training Center, 520 West Main in downtown OKC. The time will be from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., there is no cost to attend. Mr. O’Toole is the author of: BEST- LAID PLANS, HOW GOVERNMENT PLANNING HARMS YOUR QUALITY OF LIFE, YOUR POCKETBOOK, & FUTURE, as well as a second book, GRIDLOCK - WHY WE’RE STUCK IN TRAFFIC AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT. The second book discusses how government attempts to do long-range, comprehensive planning inevitably does more harm than good by choking American cities with congestion, making housing markets more unaffordable, and sending the cost of government infrastructure skyrocketing.
Did you see the NEWS 9 story recently as well as articles in various papers about the millions of dollars of stimulus money being spent on green project experiments such a planter boxes on roof tops? That whole movement emanates out of the United Nations and is known as “sustainability”. MAPS 3, its Light Rail System and the move to a “New Urbanism” are all part of a “Central Planner’s” dream. Mr. O’Toole will present a side of the story that I predict you will never hear about in the Oklahoman or from Mayor Mick and the rest of the central planners.
+ EDMOND - 5 MONDAYS IN MAY - The Oklahoma Council of Public
Affairs (OCPA) is hosting their Spring Lecture Series starting, Monday evening May 3rd and running each Monday evening through the end of May. Sessions will begin at 6:00 p.m. in the Hardeman Auditorium on the Campus of Oklahoma Christian University, 2501 Memorial Road (about half way between I-35 and the Broadway Extension).
Giving the lectures will be OU history professor Dr. J. Rufus Fears.
Dr. Fears, a conservative professor and compelling speaker, has been selected by the students as professor of the year on 3 different occasions. His lecture series is titled: “The Founders’ Legacy of Freedom”. There is no cost to attend and this will be an excellent opportunity to increase your understanding of the ideas of our Founding Fathers. The May 3rd session is titled: “The Declaration of Independence and its meaning today”.
++ JOHN WRIGHT ENDORSED FOR LT. GOVERNOR
This past Wednesday, our dues paying members voted to endorse State Representative John Wright over State Senator Todd Lamb in the closest race so far this year. There were a large number of “no endorsement”
votes which caused our first run-off vote of the year. Some vote to make no endorsement because there isn’t that much difference between the candidates, couldn’t tell who was the best or perhaps they don’t like any of the candidates. Regardless of the reason, Representative Wright was chosen in a close run-off race. There wasn’t that much difference between them on their perspectives for the job.
I believe John Wright to be the more conservative candidate, but Senator Lamb certainly displays the persona of a salesman to promote the State of Oklahoma which is a major function for the Lt. Governor position. Both are good communicators, John’s style is thorough and methodical, while Todd’s style is forceful and full of charisma. While I believe either of them will make a good Lt. Governor, our members did select John Wright who now joins these other candidates endorsed by OCPAC. Randy Brogdon for Governor, Mark Costello for Labor Commissioner, Nathan Dahm for 1st District Congress, R.J. Harris for 4th District Congress and Kevin Calvey for 5th District Congress.
Congratulations to all of these fine candidates.
++ LIBERALS PIN REPUBLICANS IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE
I watched with amazement over the last few day as to how fast the liberals, with the aid of the main stream press, had the Republicans on their backs, yelling “calf rope” over the issue of militias.
Militias pre-date our nation and are the reason we don’t sip tea out of our saucers at 2 in the afternoon with our little pinkie’s extended while we chat with one another using a funny sounding form of proper English. Militias, regardless of how you want to define them, have been, are, and should continue to be an important part of the American experiment. Our founding fathers who put their names, their fortunes and their sacred honor on the line to obtain our liberty would be ashamed of us today as we slither under the rocks rather than be associated with the term “militia”.
Though I don’t use the militia word often, I gladly use the word when necessary, a word which is found in our U.S. Constitution. Let me suggest 4 definitions of Militias, all of which I support. Our founding fathers were very leery of a standing army (they supported a standing navy). But, they were also aware of the need to be able to quickly assemble forces for protection. Therefore, they called for a well regulated militia which could be federalized if the need arose.
Many states, including Oklahoma provide for such a militia which we will call the National Guard. Second, Oklahoma statutes also call for a state militia which we call the Oklahoma State Guard. This militia should be under the control of the Governor and or the state Adjutant General. A third realm of militias I would like to see and don’t believe is provided for by the state, would be a militia under the authority of the County Sheriff. The fourth form is an “unorganized militia” which is currently provided for in state statutes, but all of a sudden has become very controversial.
Just a little recent history, when Bill Clinton was President, the liberals were successful in passing the Brady Law, which was a significant step toward collecting fire-arms from the citizens of the U.S. The bill even had provision to force county sheriffs to comply with the law or face criminal prosecution.
The feds didn’t take the next step to start rounding up fire arms, I believe because of 2 reasons. First, there were a group of about 30 Democrats in the House they couldn’t count on to pass such radical and severe legislation. Second, unauthorized militias were popping up all over the country, including several here in Oklahoma. I believe there were hundreds of thousands, perhaps several million Americans who were willing to “DEFEND” themselves and their right to bear arms should federal agents begin to round up firearms. I believe the Clinton administration counted the cost to take the next step and backed down.
In other words, the proliferation of militias served as a kind of saber rattling to back the feds off.
During that time we had two different meetings at OCPAC where leaders of those groups spoke. They were not recruitment meetings, but rather for the purpose of information. OCPAC actually believes in and practices FREE SPEECH whether we agree or disagree with or speaker or their agenda.
Even as recent as a year ago, talk of a militia would have been no big deal or only slightly controversial. I well remember one Wednesday morning last Summer just before our meeting, while listening to talk radio, information was made public that the State of Missouri had issued a warning that people who were concerned about the Constitution, the Second Amendment, were pro-life, home schooled their children, voted for Ron Paul or Chuck Baldwin for President, that those kind of people were considered to be potential domestic terrorists.
Folks, you better wake up, ideas have consequences and those proclamations were very dangerous, even though officials in Missouri later backed off under a barrage of criticism. Two hours after hearing the information I was standing before the members of OCPAC relaying such information when I suggested it was time to again begin forming militias. I suggested two key components to the formation of a militia. One, no person should be allowed to join who was a white supremacists and second, no one should be allowed to be a member who was not a registered voter and had not voted in at least one of the past two general elections.
Standing there taking notes was the Oklahoman reporter Michael McNutt.
If my memory serves me correctly, the article in the Oklahoman the next day didn’t have a word about my suggestions that it was time to begin forming militias. So what is the big deal? Real simple, in early March of this year the feds moved to arrest about 10 people in Michigan and Indiana for allegedly being members of the Hutaree militia in Michigan. I believe they were “charged” (remember, we are supposed to be innocent until proven guilty) with conspiracy to commit sedition and plans to kill members of law enforcement.
I was suspicious of the validity of the charges from the moment I heard them. However, if they are really bad guys plotting to “INITIATE” the killing of law enforcement personal, then they should be taken off the streets. According to a Wall Street Journal article, it was suggested that the feds had an insider in the group. The question is, was the insider an “informant” (gathering and relaying
information) or an “agent provocateur” (someone who gains trust then leads a group into trouble by incremental suggestions toward crime and evil). If the latter, then that is the definition of “entrapment” and may put a case against the accused in jeopardy.
Regardless, the feds and the liberal media have now found a word “militia” which has just attained the status of radio active. All of a sudden, the image in the minds of most Americans regarding militias is that of crazies playing soldier, and making plans to kill cops and attack the federal government. Adolph Hitler’s minister of propaganda and disinformation, Gerbils, would have been proud and amazed at such a coup.
Now fast forward from March when that occurred to the tea parties. For a year now the liberal leftists, aided by their allies in the liberal main stream media, have been throwing a variety of mud balls at those attending tea parties to see if anything sticks. Now, with a newly demonized word, “militias”, the object was to suggest those attending tea parties were similar to the dangerous crazies in Michigan.
Enter, an Associated Press reporter. The reporter asked Senator Brogdon if he could interview him for a story on tea parties.
According to Senator Brogdon, question after question kept referring to militias. Brogdon told him several times he had no plans to start or support a militia. However, if a reporter keeps re-framing a question he might finally get a sound bite that could be used to write an inflammatory story. Maybe a question like, I know you aren’t supporting a militia, but if we did have one and had a severe ice storm or riots in the streets, then couldn’t a militia be helpful in those kinds of situations? Of course the obvious answer might be, yes, a militia would be a good deal in such a situation. Never mind you had just said on numerous times you weren’t trying to organize a militia.
Senator Brogdon has called on the AP reporter to release the full interview so his comments can be made known in their proper context.
Don’t hold your breath.
It was even worse for Representative Charles Key, the same reporter came by for an interview and wrote an article which, according to Charles Key, was horribly wrong. The next day after the story ran the same reporter came by Representative Key’s office and apologized with a statement that sometimes when a story is edited it makes some mistakes. They did another interview which was taped and Representative Key thought there would be an accurate retraction.
There wasn’t and now Representative Key is calling for the taped interview to be made public or for the reporter to be fired. Again, don’t hold your breath.
Now, to my point as to how the Republicans were pinned to the mat in record time. Right after the story broke, Republican party Chair, Gary Jones must have put on some depends before he went before the press to throw Representative Key under the bus. Calling for him to leave the Republican party and suggesting anyone affiliated with militias weren’t welcome in the Republican party. Hum, I don’t remember that being a part of our platform or in our party rules.
Jones has a brand to protect, but his emotional knee jerk reaction played right into the hands of the liberals wanting to demonize the tea party folks.
Senator Steve Russell also played into their hands. Senator Russell is a good Senator and is going to be an even better Senator with time, but he got snookered in this case. I agree that any plans to get aggressive and initiate an action against the federal government would be foolish.
However, militias, especially the unorganized types or those controlled by a county sheriff should only be defensive. The definitive issue of concern would be the round-up of citizen’s firearms. That was also the issue in 1775 when the British troops left Boston and marched to Concord to capture a stash of arms from the colonists.
Our members should remember the DVD we played last summer titled:
INNOSENCE BETRAYED by Aaron Zelman, founder of Jews for the Preservation of firearms. The point of the documentary was that in the
8 major genocides of the past century, two actions occurred before each genocide. First it was gun registration, then second it was gun confiscation. Americans must never never never allow the government to confiscate our fire arms. Throughout history, more people have been killed by their own governments than have died fighting a foreign enemy as a soldier for their own country.
Another Republican playing into the hands of the liberals was state Labor Commission candidate Jason Reese. Even though he claimed that his press release was not related to his campaign, it appeared to be an attempt to get some kind of support for his failing candidacy which is going no-where fast. Reese is a moderate Republican who from the earliest of days was a huge cheer leader for John McCain for President. Probably because McCain was such an advocate for amnesty for illegal aliens. Reese was a huge opponent of HB 1804, the legislation to deal with illegal aliens on a state level brought about by the federal government’s refusal to secure our borders.
However, the most disappointing action of all came last Thursday when the House Republicans voted to amend SB 2018 on a vote of 98 to 1. Wes Hillard (D-Sulpher) successfully stopped legislation to protect pastors and Christians from being persecuted by hate crimes legislation. He did so by abandoning a deal made with Judiciary Chairman Rex Duncan to allow the bill to be heard in committee when he turned the authorship of the legislation over to Representative Mike Shelton (D-OKC). Shelton is a huge proponent of hate crimes legislation.
Shelton, deserves the title, King of the Republicans as he out maneuvered them Thursday with an amendment making it illegal to join an unauthorized militia or the Ku Klux Klan. The original bill actually increased the penalty for aiding or soliciting gang membership and created a new law against committing an offense as a condition for gang membership.
What I am about to say is going to be difficult for some to swallow. I think it is tragic that there has been such a break-down in families and values in our culture that we have violent gangs. I also have no use for the KKK. However, until a crime is committed by a gang member or a KKK member, I don’t see how any thinking person who is aware of the double edged sword effect of preventive legislation could make a law against free will association in an organization. If we start down that road, where does it end? All you have to do is watch a few Glen Beck shows and I could think of any number of organizations on the left that I would want to criminalize. On the flip side, liberals could probably think of any number of conservative organizations they would like to criminalize, especially militias, then tea party gatherings and don’t forget groups like OCPAC and the various Republican clubs and so on.
Representative Shelton and his buddy Jason Reese both alluded to Timothy McVeigh as the example of a militia member. If my memory serves me correctly McVeigh may have been a member of a militia in Ohio, but if so, he had been kicked out for some reason or another.
Certainly what he did in blowing up the Murah building was not an operation of a militia. People make false statements like that and then others just run with them as if they are the truth, when in fact they are not. King Shelton must be feeling like a mighty important man as he has the Republicans right in the palm of his hand. That legislation really needs to be killed when it goes back to the Senate, other than the part with punishment for committing some kind of a crime as a requirement to join a gang.
Bottom line, my suggestions that we need to form militias were just that, a suggestion. I have not made an attempt to make that happen.
Because of my age and lack of military experience (1 year of ROTC in
college) I would probably not join a militia if one or more were started, though I would be supportive of them if they were worthy. I am in communication with a variety of lawmakers in both houses and I have not heard a word about a move to create militias before all this noise started. I am not a leader in any of the tea party organizations, though I know many of the leaders. I can say I have not heard of efforts for the tea parties to create militias. Four to six weeks ago, I was interviewed by the same AP reporter and don’t remember any questions about the formation of militias, which makes me think he is receiving pressure from above to make a story happen.
Above all else, we as people should not be so knee-jerk quick to support or oppose something when we first hear it, but rather be thinking people. Not jerked around by the liberal press who is continually shaping public opinion and setting the agenda for Republicans rather than just reporting the news.
++ WELCOME TO OCPAC AND MEMBERSHIP UP-DATE
I have finally entered several hundred names acquired at the tea parties on April 14th and 15th. Just a brief bit of information about us. Sometime in 1991 Tim Green and I started having lunch together on Wednesdays. Eventually others began to join us and our numbers began to grow. We eventually became a debating society, having a lot of fun talking about issues and learning how to defend positions as well as challenge one another without being offensive.
About 12 years ago, I proposed that debating societies have a lot of fun but accomplish little to nothing. We agreed to form a Political Action Committee with the following mission statement: “To promote and support constitutionalists in government who oppose expansive government while at the same time promote liberty, free market economics and Judeo-Christian values. Over the past 19 years we have missed meeting only one Wednesday.
During the past 5 election cycles we have raised about $100,000 dollars through the dues paid by our members with the basic membership being $50 and two higher levels of membership at $180 or $360 for a calendar year. During the past 5 election cycles we have contributed to 72 candidates for office and 36 of them have been elected. Based on their scores in the Oklahoma Constitution Newspaper’s Conservative Index, they tend to be the most conservative lawmakers in the state.
We now have around 3,500 people who receive this e-mail directly, a following on the OCPAC blog and many people who have the e-mail forwarded to them by friends. To the 300 or so new folks who signed up at the tea parties, welcome to the e-mail list and please come to a luncheon any time you have an opportunity.
For those who have been receiving our e-mails for some time now and know what OCPAC stands for, I want to invite you to join our organization if you have not done so as yet. We are now past 200 dues paying members as the close of April approaches. Our all time record for membership was last year at 217 dues paying members and I fully expect to exceed that this year. We are an all volunteer organization with no one receiving any salary for their efforts. If you want to see Oklahoma become a more conservative state, please consider joining us.
Currently we have some donors agreeing to contribute $50 for everyone joining through the 15th of May (I just acquired an additional donor to put up another $1,000 as we went past our original $1300 for 26 new members). Instructions to join will follow my sign off.
I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.
Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
SENATOR BROGDON WINS OCPAC ENDORSEMENT FOR GOV.
++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
++ SENATOR BROGDON WINS OCPAC ENDORSEMENT FOR GOV.
++ YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK IN HIGHER EDUCATION
++APRIL 19TH AN IMPORTANT DATE IN HISTORY OCPAC MEMBERSHIP INCREASES
++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
This week’s meeting will be the interview process for the Lt. Governor candidates. State Senator Todd Lamb (R-OKC) and State Representative John Wright (R-Broken Arrow) are the two candidates. Anyone having their dues paid as of April 7th and present at our meeting will be given a ballot to vote for one of these candidates or vote to make no endorsement. As with so many of these different races, the duties of the various offices differ and therefore we try to look for an understanding of the qualifications and ideas of the various candidates to see if they are a match with the office they are seeking.
++ SENATOR BROGDON WINS OCPAC ENDORSEMENT FOR GOV.
Following the interview process last week our members voted to endorse State Senator Randy Brogdon as our choice for Governor. Piedmont businessman Robert Hubbard and Mr. Roger Jackson are both passionate candidates with their own reasons for running. Mr. Hubbard has a sense of humor as he presented me with a banner featuring RUMBLE the BISON, mascot for the OKC Thunder. I had to defend myself by reminding folks I was never against the NBA team coming to OKC, I just didn’t like the WAY it was brought here. I have displayed it with great pleasure right behind the door to my office. Thanks again Mr. Hubbard.
By the way, another candidate entered the race today. It almost always happens that a “Johnny come lately” will enter a high profile statewide race. Truth is, if these high profile candidates don’t already have a high degree of name identity, an ability to raise a lot of money or a huge movement of grassroots volunteers, they will be less likely to win a statewide race than for a snowball to survive in the hottest part of hell! Just trying to be brutally honest.
The candidates that are the most likely contenders for the Republican primary nomination are Senator Randy Brogdon and U.S. Representative Mary Fallin. I believe this race is tightening up and we will likely see some of the supporters for each of these candidates begin to ratchet up the dialogue, either supporting their candidate or suggesting reasons for voters to not vote for the opponent.
Please let me suggest this is not a contest between good and evil, it is a contest between good and better. As an example, Mary spent 4 years as a State Representative for North central OKC. During her time as a state representative her Oklahoma Constitution Newspaper’s Conservative Index score for 1991 was a 70, in 92 it was a 60, in 93 it was a 30 and in 94 it was a 76. Those average out to a lifetime score of a 59. That is just under the line to be nominated for a RINO (Republican In Name Only) and just 2 points below being acceptable. On the other hand, the score for Senator Brogdon in 2003 was a 90, in 04 it was an 80, in 05 it was 100, in 06 it was 93, in 07 he scored 100, in 08 another 100 and in 2009 he scored a 90 which averages out to be a lifetime score of 93 for the seven complete years he has served in the legislature.
Regardless of political ads and literature which will surely claim that Mary is conservative, the record clearly shows Senator Brogdon to be significantly more conservative than Mary, though Senator Brogdon isn’t perfect. The main difference in this race will be Senator Randy Brogdon on the one hand, a true conservative, a game changer and a person who will be a threat to the status quo, or Mary Fallin, the Republican establishment’s pick, someone, who if elected will pick around the edges, make a few changes, but be a governor who will not likely lead the way to substantive reforms in state government. This is a real choice for voters between good and better, maybe much better. The better is definitely Senator Brogdon.
++ YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK IN HIGHER EDUCATION
I had a student at the University of Central Oklahoma (UCO) send me some information about AN INTERDISCIPLINARY SYMPOSIUM ON SOCIALIST THOUGHT to be held on campus from 3:30 to 5:00 p.m. each day this week, room 117 in the
Monday, April 19 - Dr. Mark Silcox: Socialism and Human Values Tuesday, April 20 - Dr. John Springer: Theorizing Ideology: Marx, Gramsci and Althusser
Wed., April 21st - Dr. Jeff Plaks: The ABCs of Marxism
Thur., April 22nd - Dr. Kenny Brown:
Socialist Roots
Friday, April 23rd - Dr. Rudi Nollert: Walter Benjamin: Marx and
the Messianic
Following is much of the letter sent to me from the student, it should be a challenge to us:
“Hi Charlie,
Thanks for responding to my email. I hope that you can get this information out. I have no idea what the symposium will consist of exactly. From googling each of the professors, it is pretty clear they are all liberals, progressives if not socialists. I just cannot believe that this is simply an objective sharing of information without an agenda. Since I have not been involved in the university system over the last number of years, I don’t know if this is something new or if it has been blatantly going on for some time.
Obviously, there have been socialist groups on campus and I do defend their right to be there. My biggest concern is that there is no fair and balanced argument on campus. There is no real discourse among a group of people who have been spoon fed this information for years. It seems particularly offensive to me now when we are having a hard time getting information on our founding document and our founding fathers taught in schools (Because Senator Ford “R-Bartlesville” doesn‘t want to mandate that teaching in secondary education - my words). Why is this not a symposium about that?
I am like so many others who have sat back and been oblivious to what is going on in our teaching institutions and I am ashamed. I am also like so many others who have been hesitant to speak out for fear that someone will label me crazy or paranoid. Even now, I sit here and wonder if I am making a big deal out of nothing but my gut tells me that I am not. I see this as one of the many seeds of an insidious cancer that they have planted and expect it to grow. They water it every day in class rooms around the country, on the internet, and on alphabet TV…..
I know that I have not been the best citizen over the years. I took for granted what God has given to me….to all of us. I realized a couple of years ago that voting is just not enough. I had been complacent while people like you have not. I do hope that people will consider going to this meeting, even if it is only for one day out of the five. Like the tea parties, numbers of like minded people mean something very tangible. Intelligent discourse is needed. I am not an expert in the complexities of the government and the various governmental systems, but I am learning. However, I am willing to engage. As I told you, I will be going and I intend to take notes so that I can share the information. I don’t want us to be holding on by our fingernails while the slippery slope is getting steeper…”
Folks, I really appreciate this student’s confession about being complacent in the past, but a commitment to make a difference in the future. That is our challenge and what we need is just a few thousand more people like this student to get involved and turn things around in
+ UCO NOT THE ONLY PROBLEM CAMPUS
A couple of weeks ago OU professor Dr. David Deming, a true conservative, sent me the following editorial he wrote.
“The invitation extended to Doris Kearns Goodwin to speak at this year’s commencement is a mistake and should be withdrawn. The plan to present Goodwin with an honorary degree should also be rescinded.
Goodwin is a serial plagiarist. Her plagiarism was first documented in
2002 by the Weekly Standard. The Standard discovered that Goodwin used material from other authors in ‘dozens’ of instances without attribution or placing words in quotes. Forced to defend herself, Goodwin admitted ‘I failed to provide quotation marks for phrases I had taken verbatim.’ That’s plagiarism. It is also academic misconduct of the type for which many students at this University have been punished, and rightfully so. As long ago as 1988 Goodwin was sued by author Lynne McTaggart for ‘massive and pervasive’ copyright infringement. She had to pay a significant amount of money to McTaggart to settle that lawsuit out of court. The Los Angeles Times found that Goodwin’s book, ‘No Ordinary Time,’ contained ‘nearly three dozen instances where phrases and sentences…resembled the words of other authors.”
“This university cannot prosecute students for plagiarism and simultaneously honor a notorious plagiarist. There must be a consistent and fair standard of integrity, and Goodwin’s invitation should be quickly withdrawn.”
David Deming
Associate Professor of Arts & Sciences
Bottom line folks, when you have liberal University Presidents like David Boren and Roger Webb, you will have a plethora of liberal and socialist influences on campus, always trying to negate conservatism and promote a situational ethics value system. I don’t believe you would find a smidgen of these leftist professor’s ideas on good private college campuses such as Oklahoma Wesleyan in
To really rub salt into the wounds of the
When private universities want to expand, improve their facilities or endow chairs, they have to get the funds from alumni, donors or increased tuition. I believe it should be the same way with the government owned and operated universities and personally is offends me to no end that we the taxpayers have to pay ever more of our hard earned dollars to hire or retain liberal elitist professors such as fill the ranks of our government schools. Professors who do little more than incubate young liberals to come out of these institutions and be Oklahoma‘s future leftists.
On the opinion page of Sunday’s Oklahoman, David Boren, Oklahoma’s leftist in chief had a column titled: Fighting for our future. While Boren extols the virtues of the U.S. having 80 to 90 percent of the world’s greatest universities and in the past 5 years we have produced 30 Nobel Prizes in science and technology to China’s only 1, he also says something that shows the foolishness of his desire to throw ever more money down the rat hole of government schools.
He says that “China’s and India’s economies may soon equal our own and they have 10 times our population.” He goes on to say that: “Our share of the world’s wealth has declined by a record-breaking 8 percent in less than 10 years!” So of course Boren’s desire is for us to throw more money into higher, as well as primary and secondary education.
Hum, let me see, we already have the great universities and almost all the Nobel Prize winners but we are losing to our competitors 8% of the world’s wealth? How did that happen with our great universities and all the educated brain power we have here? Could it be that our great institutions of education are not saving us, not making us competitive? Could America’s educational system be the problem today and not the solution to the problem? Could it be that there are others issues that are far more important to turn our decline around than getting the old sheep’s skin?
Boren thinks the key is a major investment into education. I must respectfully disagree and suggest we turn our backs upon the economic ideas of socialism and fascism and return to an effective free enterprise form of capitalism, not taxing our corporations and small businesses, institute the Fair Tax and reduce every possible regulation on businesses. We would then see the cost of producing goods and services in Oklahoma and America drop dramatically and thus make everything produced here become more competitive and thus have a better chance to reverse the wealth drain out of America.
Just think, those bright lights in the Republican party at the Capitol are funding the next generation of liberals who will vote to throw them out of office and replace them with liberals like represent the two left coasts in America. God deliver us from such thoughtless Republicans and help us elect real conservatives.
++ APRIL 19TH AND IMPORTANT DAY IN HISTORY
It was April 19th just a few years before the bombing of the Murah building that President Clinton’s Attorney General, Janet Reno, ordered the FBI to make the final assault on the Branch Dividian compound in Waco Texas. That infamous action killed over 70 people, many of them were women and children.
Did, that dreadful action cause an even worse re-action on April 19th of 1995 when Timothy McVeigh (and others?) decided to punish the federal government by blowing up the Murah building, with many women and children also being killed in that tragedy. I believe that is a much more likely scenario than the one that former President Clinton suggests that it was the rhetoric of right wing radio hosts that caused McVeigh and others to go off the deep end to commit such a tragedy.
There was a nationally known museum expert in town yesterday, who made the statement that the Murah bombing museum here in OKC is the most important museum in America on April 19th. I of course disagree. You see, it was April 19th, 1775 when the British left Boston and marched, first to Lexington where they fired upon 4 of the colonists standing in the middle of the Lexington green, before they were to proceed on to Concord to round up the guns the Colonists had stored away.
Things didn’t work out so well for the British troops that day as they got into a fight with the MILITIA who refused to give up their guns and then refused to fight a conventional battle. They rather sniped at the Brittish from each flank, picking them off all the way back to Boston. It was the shot that was fired that was heard all around the world. It was the trigger which eventually led to the independence of the colonists and the formation of our nation.
While the bombing of the Murah building is an important historical event, especially to Oklahomans, the importance of the local museum on this day pales in comparison to the importance of what happened on April 19th 1775 on the road from Concord to Boston. I have been to the museum in Concord and the one between Concord and Lexington. Though they are not as large or as expensive as the museum in OKC, they are the most important museums in our nation on any given April 19th. I will have more to say next week about the “M” word. Of course, if I can shake the political correctness off my mind, I will return to using the word Militia rather than to refer to it as the “M“ word.
++ OCPAC MEMBERSHIP INCREASES
People are taking advantage of our matching membership challenge through the end of this month as we now have over 180 dues paying members. We also have another family request that we draft their checking account for $30 each month as they have joined at our highest level, The Elephant Provider and RINO Hunter club. That puts us over $500 per month being drafted from our members checking accounts, which is over $6,000 per year. That is huge and so helpful.
That is the way I support OCPAC, which is convenient and at either $15 or $30 per month is not that expensive. Regardless, if people join at our base amount of $50 per year or one of the higher levels, every contribution is really appreciated. One of the confidences you can have by contributing to OCPAC is the fact that we are an all volunteer organization. Therefore a significant percentage of the money you contribute isn’t going to salaries as is the case of other PACs or the Republican party, but rather to the campaigns of conservative candidates or our accountability efforts.
The amount of money OCPAC has been able to amass for each election cycle has grown over previous years. That is simply due to the confidence in OCPAC from the readers of these e-mails and the people who attend our meetings. On behalf of all the officers, I just want to say thank you. If you have not joined as yet and want to do so, please print out the form below and send it along with a check to our P.O.
Box.
I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.
Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com
Friday, April 9, 2010
Special
This is a special post announce the first ever annual OCPAC awards banquet to be held on Friday evening, April 30th. Last year our members voted to up-date our by-laws and one of the changes we made was to have an annual awards banquet.
One of the reasons to have an evening meeting is that we have a lot of members and friends locally as well as those who live outside the metro area that have very little opportunity to attend one of our weekly luncheons.
Therefore, we wanted these annual banquets to be about awards, fellowship, entertainment, fun and of course have an excellent speaker. So please pay close attention to the details:
* The location will be
of Danforth and Sooner roads in
* A delicious BBQ dinner from Hickory Chips Catering will be served
from 6:30 until 7:30 p.m. on Friday evening, April 30th (mark it on your calendar now).
* Cowboy preacher, Guitarist and Singer, Rusty Vineyard will provide
entertainment.
* TV 9 morning and noon news anchor, Ed Murry will serve as our
Master of Ceremonies.
* Emoly West, Miss Edmond Libertyfest 2010 and second runner-up in
the Miss Oklahoma
contest last year will present the awards to
* Our keynote speaker will be the Reverend JESSE LEE PETERSON
founder and director of
BOND (Brotherhood Organization of a New Destiny) www.bondinfo.org . Reverend Peterson
has agreed to waive his normal speakers fee, but an opportunity to contribute will be made
available.
The cost to attend is $15 for dues paying members of OCPAC and $20 for our friends who are not dues paying members. ($15 admission is available for immediate family of our members) These prices are good until April 22nd. After the 22nd all prices increase by $5. So send you check in now.
To attend, please send the names of all attending along with the appropriate amount, made out to OCPAC CLUB, to the following address:
OCPAC,
I hope you will set this as a priority and come join the fun. If you are not currently a dues paying member and have considered joining, this would be a great time to join and get the discount on the admission to the banquet. On top of that, we have some generous donors who have agreed to donate $50 to OCPAC for every member we sign up at any level of membership, now through April 30th. Therefore, your membership will be matched up to $50 which really helps in our fundraising efforts.
To join OCPAC fill out the following and send a SEPARATE check to:
OCPAC
Yes Charlie, I want to join OCPAC at one of the following levels:
___Basic membership at $50 per year.
Safari Club Membership:
___Elephant Provider at ___$180 annual or ___$15 monthly ___Elephant Provider & RINO Hunter, ___$360 annual or ___$30 monthly For monthly payments please send a voided check so we may draft your Checking account on a monthly basis. If you decide to discontinue monthly support, simply contact me and we will stop the withdrawal.
THE FOLLOWING IS REQUIRED BY STATE LAW !
Print Name____________________________________________
Address___________________City___________State____Zip_____
Occupation____________________Employer_________________
Date___________________Amount $_______________ I have freely given from my own resources & have not been compensated for this contribution. (Corporate contributions not allowed by law!)
Signature_____________________________________
Please make sure a check to join OCPAC is made out to OCPAC and please send a separate check made out to OCPAC CLUB for the cost to attend the banquet. We must keep these monies separate.
One more item, we want our current dues paying members to VOTE to determine the winner of a new award, the OCPAC Moral High Ground award. I will list three scenarios as A, B & C. Please return an e- mail to me at charliemeadows7@gmail.com with your choice for this award.
A) This person put a deposit on one of the spiffed up electric golf carts that masqueraded as an electric car during the time that government subsidies were available to virtually make them free. When challenged that they were taking money from their neighbors or by getting the rebates, their tax dollars weren’t being used to pay their share of the cost of government, they decided to cancel their order, even though it meant losing their down payment.
B) This person took their family for a ride on Amtrack. While speaking about how reasonable it was to ride the train, they were reminded it was reasonable because their neighbors were having to strongly subsidize the cost of their tickets. The reminder of such a situation, caused the person to rent a van for the return trip, so as not to force their neighbors to subsidize their fun.
C) It was suggested to this person that their company could save some money by canceling their current health care insurance policies for their employees and switch to Health Source
Those are the 3 examples of people deciding to do what is good, moral and right, even though it cost them personally. Again, if you are a dues paying member, vote for one of the above 3 people and e-mail your vote to me at:
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com
Thank you for your time and attention, and come join the fun on April 30th.
Monday, April 5, 2010
PROTECTING CHRISTIANS FROM HATE CRIMES
++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
++ ACTION ITEM
++ PROTECTING CHRISTIANS FROM HATE CRIMES TULSA BEACON NEWSPAPER -
++ SETTING THE PACE OCPAC MEMBERSHIP UP-DATE
++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday April 7th will be held at Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. The restaurant is exactly 2 miles North of the Capitol building on the West side of Lincoln. We will interview the 2 Republican challengers to incumbent Congressman Tom Cole of the 4th Congressional District. Attending will be R.J. Harris of Norman and Jeff Pritchard of Mustang. All dues paying members as of March 24th who are in attendance will be given a ballot to vote for one of these two candidates or vote not to make an endorsement. Last week our members voted to endorse Nathan Dahm with 52% of the vote. Kenneth Rice and “no endorsement” each received 24% of the vote. That was the closest vote so far this year as far as needing a run-off. We want to congratulate Nathan Dahm for his strong showing during our interview process. Though many Republicans in the district want to see Representative John Sullivan replaced, it will be a difficult task as John has good political skills and is voting very conservative at this time.
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
+ MONDAY - OKC AREA - A new group is forming called BREAK FREE
FOR LUNCH (B.F.F.L.). This is a Christian lunch group that will meet each Monday at the Character Inn Conference Center 520 W. Main in downtown OKC. The meeting is from 12 noon until 12:50 p.m. with the food line opening at 11:30 a.m. Lunch for this first meeting is free if you call (405) 526-0001 or go on line at www.breakfreeforlunch.com . The thrust for the group is that the Bible is not an irrelevant or outdated manuscript. The Bible is an ageless, life-shattering message full of principles that apply directly to your life, work and business. These truths, when applied to your life and work, hold the POWER to forever alter you and the level of success you can enjoy.
The featured topic for Monday, April 5th will be, CONDUCTING BUSINESS WORRY & ANXIETY FREE. The speaker will be Dr. Herman Reece, DDS. Dr.
Reece is a metro director of Christian Business Men Connection OKC, a division of CBMC/USA and CBMCI, an international ministry to the Marketplace. Dr. Reece worked as an oral maxillofacial surgeon for 25 years before becoming a metro director with CBMC. On top of that, if my memory serves me correctly he surgically removed my 4 impacted wisdom teeth around 1970 just in case anyone cares. Bottom line, this will be a weekly luncheon to meet fellow believers who want to live out their faith in the work place as well as the other areas of life.
If you can’t make it this Monday, try it next week.
+ MONDAY - GUTHRIE - Senator Coburn will host a town hall meeting
at City Hall from 3 until 4:00 p.m. I urge conservatives to attend and petition for conservative issues during the question and answer time.
Coburn deserves thanks for holding up an extension of unemployment benefits if congress isn’t willing to cut spending somewhere else rather than just keep tacking more dollars on to our national debt.
Liberals say it isn’t compassionate to stop these welfare benefits as it causes people to suffer. Truth is, these benefits have already been extended for almost 2 years. It really is time for some people to get a job at a fast food restaurant or cleaning rooms at a hotel etc. if that is all that is available.
One of the news programs interviewed a lady in Stroud that was tearing up at the thought of these benefits not being extended. Her husband was injured in an industrial accident and lost a good job. They had 4 kids, 2 or 3 of which looked old enough to work, perhaps at the busy McDonalds on the Turnpike near the Stroud exit. Perhaps she should work or work a couple of jobs until they can get on their feet again.
Does this sound hard and uncompassionate?
May I suggest any of these financial problems today will pale in comparison to the hardships that will exist when our economy collapses due the unbearable weight of debt brought on by decades of fiscal irresponsibility. I have been saying for a long time that the longer we wait to begin to deal with our lack of fiscal responsibilities, the more painful it will be. The time to start is NOW. Any future help these folks receive, should come from the private sector who might be willing to help out on the CONDITION that every reasonable effort is already being made by the members of this family to solve their own problems. Senator Coburn, please don’t cave in, stand your ground on the tough issues.
+ TUESDAY - OKC AREA - Mr. John McManus, President of the John
Birch Society will be in OKC, at the Character Inn Conference Center, 520 West Main this Tuesday evening starting at 7:30 p.m. He is on a national speaking tour with the topic: Stealing The American Dream - How Illegal Immigration Affects You! American citizens need to be concerned about the effects of illegal immigration and amnesty on jobs, taxes, health care, border security, voter fraud, and the national debt.
Mr. McManus will reveal how illegal immigration affects you and your family in all of these ways, then present constitutional solutions to these problems. Come find out how you can play a vital role in solving the problem of illegal immigration and blocking any new amnesty legislation. The cost at the door for adults is $10 and $5 for students. Advanced reservations are not required.
+ THURSDAY - MOORE AREA - The Sooner Republican Assembly meeting
will be held Thursday evening, 6:00 p.m. at Earls Rib Palace in Moore (call 329-6041 for location). The main speaker will be Peter Rudy with Oklahomans For Responsible Government www.ofrg.org . He will be speaking on State Question 744 which will be on the ballot in November. This is the most dangerous state question ever to be voted on in the State of Oklahoma. It MUST MUST MUST be defeated. If it passes, it would bankrupt the state of Oklahoma and give control of state government to the teacher unions. There is a web site set up for its defeat www.stop744.com , please check it out.
In addition to the speaker, at the end of the meeting they have a bully pulpit where a person can get on the agenda to speak for a minute or so about different subjects. When you arrive, check with John Greening to be on the bully pulpit.
+ THURSDAY - THE VILLAGE (okc area) - Oklahomans for Sovereignty
and Free Enterprise www.ok-safe.org will have their monthly meeting for central Oklahoma. The location is the Village Library, 10307 North Penn with the meeting time from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. The subject matter covered this month will be a review of the Legislature’s performance and a review of the House Limited Government Vote Summary. There is no charge to attend.
++ ACTION ITEM
One of the important 10th Amendment and privacy issue pieces of legislation this year is HB 2569 also known as legislation to protect us from having radio frequency identification CHIPS implanted into our drivers licenses. Representative Wesselhoft is the House author and Senator Dan Newberry is the Senate sponsor. The bill has passed the House and is over in the Senate and expected to pass into law.
However, along comes a former Republican State Representative Jim Dunlap, now a lobbyist for HID Global, the company wanting the contract to implant these chips into our drivers licenses. He is wanting to amend the bill to allow for a choice in this matter. I would normally be in favor of a choice, but not in this case. This represents the “camel’s nose under the tent” as the old saying goes, first the nose, then the hump and then the whole camel is in the tent with you. Janet Napolitano, the head of homeland security is already on record saying she wants it mandated for all drivers licenses to have this tracking devise implanted into them.
I wonder just how big government should become to satisfy people like Dunlap, or is he just whoring his lobbyists talents for a paycheck? I believe it was Dunlap who pressured Senator Brogdon to back off of his efforts to get the State of Oklahoma to opt out of the Federal Government’s REAL ID program about 3 years ago. Thankfully, Senator Brogdon didn’t back down and we passed that legislation, along with many other states which caused that big government program to be NULLIFIED.
Please call Senator Newberry’s office and ask him to advance HB 2569 without the choice amendment. Since there is no fiscal impact, he can request it to go straight to the floor and not go through conference.
Senator Newberry’s direct office number is (405) 521-5600 or you can call toll free at 1 (800) 865-6490 and ask to be connected to Senator Newberry’s office. His actions will indicate whether or not Newberry will become a warrior for the grass-roots conservatives, or whether or not he will be an easy mark for big government lobbyists.
++ PROTECTING CHRISTIANS FROM HATE CRIMES
Please understand what hate crimes legislation is really all about. It is an attempt to make criminal what a person thinks in their heart or the words they speak with their mouth or happen to write. The groups advocating for hate crimes have been racial minorities, homosexuals and of course white liberals and progressives. The main thrust today is to apply hate crimes toward homosexuality. Advocates use the death of the homosexual Mathew Sheppard as the martyred poster boy proving the need for hate crimes legislation to apply toward homosexuals.
Never mind that Mathew Sheppard, of Casper Wyoming, wasn’t beaten to death for his homosexuality, but rather the motive was robbery by two guys spaced out on drugs for several days. Regardless, it was a horrible crime, of which they were convicted and received harsh punishment from the State of Wyoming. The only time hate crimes come into play other than real crimes with real punishments is regarding speech, and supposed intent.
In Europe, Canada and to a lesser degree in the U.S., hate crimes are aimed primarily at pastors who expose the sin of homosexuality. They have also been used when a Caucasian has engaged in an argument or disagreement with a person of a racial minority.
When pastors, Christians or Caucasians are penalized in these cases it sends a strong message for these people to keep their mouths shut.
Cautious or perhaps cowardly pastors, Christians and others learn to keep their thoughts to themselves for fear of problems. When that occurs, racial minorities, homosexuals and liberals are emboldened to become even more aggressive toward screaming racism or hate crimes even when no racism or real crime has occurred.
A recent example of such foolish implications occurred in the State Senate when Senator Brogdon was debating on behalf of his Health Care Freedom of Choice Act. During the debate he made a statement something like, the federal government has no more business telling us where to get our health care from than where to eat fried chicken. The ultra liberal Senator Tom Adelson (D-Tulsa) jumped on Senator Brogdon, trying to imply he was using a racial stereotype about black folks and fried chicken and then the obvious attempt to imply his opposition to federal health care was because President Obama is black. That wasn’t enough, as sources tell me that Adelson went over to the black caucus in the House and urged them to see Brogdon’s comments as racist and really make an issue of it. The whole issue is silly and humorous, as long as one doesn’t mind being falsely labeled or implied that you are a racist, when you really don’t have a racist bone in your body.
At the beginning of session State Senator Steve Russell (R-OKC &
Mustang) introduced legislation to protect Christians and especially Pastors from federal hate crimes legislation which has now been passed in Washington. Last week, America’s most radical TV talk show host, Keith Oberman, dubbed Senator Russell as the worst person in America and referred to him as one of the religious nut cases in Oklahoma.
Oberman ought to be glad the thought police haven’t come for him as yet because there is plenty of evidence he has a lot of hate in his heart toward Christians, especially in Oklahoma.
Then, I believe on Wednesday of last week the homosexual community lobbied the legislature and one of the news channels interviewed a homosexual that was beaten up, according to him, because he is gay. In his own pathetic way, he explained why hate crimes should be applied to homosexuality. Truth is, if he was an innocent victim, laws are already in place to punish those who assaulted him. Hate crime laws would not have protected him from the beating any more than existing laws.
Senator Russell’s legislation had some problems with wording that have now been worked out with law enforcement and the District Attorneys.
In the difficulties of getting legislation passed, Senator Russell had to borrow a shell bill (SB 1965) from another Senator to keep the legislation moving. That Senator had secured State Representative Wes Hilliard (D-Sulphur) to be the house sponsor for the shell bill that now had language Hilliard didn’t want to sponsor. I talked with Hilliard last Thursday and he indicated (Republican House leadership) didn’t want the legislation to go forward. Wanting to wash his hands of the hot potato, he gave up his sponsorship to State Representative Mike Shelton, (D-OKC) which is an obvious attempt to kill the bill as Shelton may be the biggest proponent of anyone in the legislature for hate crimes legislation.
Now is the time to get Senator Russell’s legislation passed, not only to protect pastors and Christians from the thought police, but to be another push back against an out of control federal government. I will attempt to find out if leadership really is opposed to this legislation or if they support it. Once we find a target, I will let everyone know who to contact to get this legislation moving again.
++ TULSA BEACON NEWSPAPER - SETTING THE PACE
Anyone reading my e-mails for any length of time know my preference toward the Tulsa Beacon being the best weekly newspaper in the state.
Though it can’t cover the daily news like the Oklahoman or Tulsa World, the stories it brings to print are some of the most important in the state and the syndicated and local editorials and columns are by far better than either of the two larger newspapers in the state.
Two years ago almost no one was talking about states rights, 10th Amendment issues or the states nullification movement. The Tulsa Beacon is aflame with this information and providing leadership regarding the states rights movement which is on the verge of becoming a ground swell movement.
As an example, the above the fold front page of the April 1 issue has articles about Coburn, Brogdon and Mike Ritze and their efforts to push back against an out of control federal government. Below the fold was an article about a State House candidate who had a concrete example of how the federal government hurts small businesses and causes jobs to be driven off shore rather than help to create an environment for business success. The other article was about how the federal take over of the student loan program, which was contained in the federal health care legislation, would become a risk to private and Christian colleges. The article drew heavily from the expertise of Dr. Everett Piper, President of Oklahoma Wesleyan University.
Then inside the paper were columns titled “USA needs a constitutional reawakening” by Dr. Walter Williams, “Heading for a European welfare state” by Mona Charen, “The beginning of the rebirth of freedom” by David Limbaugh, “Increased immigration is growing the Democrat Party”
by Pat Buchanan, “Obama has a grudge against America” by David Limbaugh, and “Separatism and secessionism are under discussion” also by Pat Buchanan.
Then local columns were, “It takes guts to stand up to Washington” by Senator Randy Brogdon, “It’s time to limit the size of government” by Brandon Dutcher, “Now to the next Round” by Dan Keating. Following is an excerpt from Keating’s article: “As the Investor’s Business Daily article entitled, ’Liberty or Debt,’ stated, ’the second coming of King George III seeks to impose the leftist mandate of national health insurance on the unwilling American people, the states are once again in revolt. This time they’re unwilling to be colonies of an imperial federal government determined to spend and tax us into bankruptcy while treating the Constitution as if it were bird cage liner’…”.
Then there was the article “States’ rights issues” by Robert McDowell and “Stop the growth of the federal government” by Guthrie State Representative Jason Murphey.
I only mentioned about half the columns in the paper as there are many more excellent ones to read on a broader range of issues. I highly recommend the paper and wouldn’t be without it and yes, I do pay for my subscription which is only $35 dollars per year if you live in Tulsa County and $40 for those of us who live outside of Tulsa County.
To subscribe contact Charles Biggs at (918) 523-4425 or log on to www.tulsabeacon.com.
While the Beacon is in the lead on the 10th Amendment issues, perhaps the Oklahoman is catching on. The secondary editorial in Sunday’s paper was titled: Powerful wave building against Washington’s reach.
The last paragraph of the editorial was as follows: “Obama, Waxman and other liberal Democrats haven’t acknowledged it, but there’s a powerful wave building outside Washington against its spending, its reach, its arrogance. Woe to those who continue looking the other way.”
That wave is building and if the citizens are ready to do more than just see the Republicans in charge again so things can return to the way they were, we are on the verge of something big in Oklahoma as well as America. What we must hope for is a desire to learn of the ideas of our founding fathers and the economic principles of free enterprise which made this nation great and prosperous as well as the necessity of Christian morality to a free society. By returning to those ideas we can reverse America’s decline in almost any measurement one would want to use.
++ OCPAC MEMBERSHIP UPDATE
Memberships continue to come in. Now through the end of April we are under a matching membership challenge. For every new member, we have a donor willing to contribute $50. This is a great time to join and please remember, there are no salaries associated with OCPAC as we are all volunteers. Therefore, unlike so many other PACs, almost all of your dues are used to elect conservative candidates to office or to try and hold them accountable for the conservative rhetoric they espouse when they want our votes. To join, please fill out the form below.
I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.
Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)