BOY WONDER MAYOR WANTS PROPERTY TAXES & TOM COLE WANTS YOUR INSURANCE TO GO UP

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
++ REPUBLICAN PRECINCT MEETINGS FEB 1ST.
++ BOY WONDER MAYOR WANTS PROPERTY TAXES
++ TOM COLE WANTS YOUR INSURANCE TO GO UP
++ COBURN SUCKERED INTO POLITICAL CORRECTNESS
++ TIDBITS

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING

Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, January 26th will be held at
Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. We will have some
brief information about the Saul Alinsky affiliated Oklahoma
Sponsoring Committee meeting this Friday evening at Taft Middle
School. Our main program will feature an explanation of the efforts
over the past several weeks by leaders of several organizations to
craft a list of items that those with a Judeo/Christian world view and
constitutionalists can agree upon to present to state lawmakers. There
are 15 items and a variety of people who will explain these positions
in 3 minute or less segments. Every one attending will have an
opportunity to sign a document with these 15 points listed. Following
the meeting several people will deliver these documents to Governor
Fallin’s Office as well as Senate President Pro-Tem Brian Bingman and
Speaker Steele’s offices. After hearing these points, if you chose to
sign, a pen will be available. However, if you have a favorite pen,
bring it. Also, sometime on Wednesday, I will put out another e-mail
with a link for people to go and view these positions to sign via the
internet. I suggest arriving as early as possible as I expect a large
crowd for this important meeting. We have invited the press to be able
to cover these issues ask questions of the leaders who put them
together.

++ ANNOUNCEMENTS

* TUESDAY EVENING - OKC AREA - Constitutional attorney Don Powers
will begin another of his Liberty and Freedom series classes starting
Tuesday evening January 25th from 7 until 8:30 p.m. The location will
be H&H Range which is Just East of Meridian Ave and on the North side
of I-40. The classes will be each Tuesday evening for 6 weeks through
March the 8th. The class will cover both the Declaration of
Independence and the U.S. Constitution and is free and open to the
public.

* THURSDAY EVENING - WARR ACRES - Constitutional attorney Don
Powers will start the same series of classes as mentioned above, but
these classes will be held on the last Thursday of each month,
starting this Thursday, January 27th at 7:00 p.m.. The monthly series
will finish on July 28th. The location for these classes will be at
Victory Church, 5719 Northwest 41st Street in Warr Acres. This is
being sponsored by the Change A Nation For Christ group at Victory
Church. This is a large facility with the location being the Victory
Youth Building.

* FRIDAY EVENING - SOUTH OKC - With the election of Senator Jim
Reynolds to the Cleveland County position of County Treasurer, he will
be sworn into office in July. A special election will occur to fill
his seat. So far, State Representative Paul Wesselhoft has announced
his intentions to run for that seat. Since he can not raise funds for
that race during session, he has scheduled a campaign kick-off
fundraiser for this Friday evening, January 28th from 6 until 8:00
p.m. at the Frontier State Bank location, I-35 and South 51st Street.
OCPAC by-laws will not allow us to get involved in the primary if
there is one. The Republican nominee will be eligible to appear before
us for the general election. This announcement should not be confused
as an endorsement for Representative Wesselhoft, I was just asked to
do this. If one or more additional Republicans decide to run for this
seat, I will also make an announcement for them if asked.

* ANNUAL WINTER BALL - OKC AREA - The Winter Ball was started 11
years ago and hosted by Emoly West along with others. Emoly, being
busy as Miss Oklahoma and with the Miss America pageant will not be
organizing this year’s ball. However, her mom Stephanie is doing so as
many families have come to enjoy the event. It will occur on February
18th, but next Monday, January 31st is the deadline for discount
admission. If you are interested in attending, log on to www.annualwinterball.org.

++ REPUBLICAN PRECINCT MEETINGS, FEB 1ST.

Republican party precinct meetings will be held across the state next
Tuesday, February 1st. Any registered Republican may attend these
meetings where precinct officers will be elected to serve in that
capacity for the next 2 years. In addition, any registered Republican
may submit a resolution as to what Republican’s are or should stand
for. If those in attendance vote in favor of the resolutions, they
then advance to the county convention for further consideration. Those
in attendance will also elect from among themselves delegates to the
county convention. In most cases, precinct attendees vote to go as an
open delegation, where anyone wanting to attend the county convention
may do so, but all votes at the county convention will be
fractionalized to reflect the allotted number of delegates from each
precinct. If you don’t know your precinct meeting location log on to:
http://www.myokgop.com/oklahoma. Sally Bell, Tulsa county chairman has
also published in the Tulsa Beacon a phone number for that
information, (918) 627-5702. It is really important that conservatives
get involved, to elect state officers, insure a conservative platform
and learn to link with one another.

++ BOY WONDER MAYOR WANTS PROPERTY TAX

About 3 years ago, 19 year old Republican John Tyler Hammons (sp?) was
elected as Mayor of Muskogee, one of Oklahoma’s 10 largest cities. He
had his 5 minutes of glory in the media and has since been re-elected.
This past Friday, mayors from across the state got together at the
State Capitol to in the inaugural “Congress of Mayors” event.

The purpose was to discuss the problems facing cities across Oklahoma
and try to come up with a legislative agenda to help city governments.
Muskogee Mayor Hammons was making the case that when people slow down
purchasing in his city, he then has problems funding city government,
including police and fire fighters. Therefore, he wanted to seek
legislation to allow cities to receive property tax revenues, which
not only are a fairly stable source of revenues, they have even risen
in many cases during this recession.

I am not an anarchist and therefore recognize the need for a proper
amount of government for which we must pay taxes or fees. Determining
that proper level of government is certainly open for debate and the
methods from which the various levels of government derive their
needed revenues are also an important subject of debate.

Here is why a big government RINO (Republican In Name Only) like
Hammons is infected with a greater love of government rather than
recognizing difficult fiscal realities for the taxpayers. When cities
suffer as a result of a slow down in the economy or a recession, it is
because the people are also suffering. When things are tough, people
have to make adjustments to get through difficult times. The taxpayers
should demand government make similar adjustments, not just look for
ways to produce new revenues for their budgets. Many times city
budgets are bloated with waste, duplication, inefficiencies and
expenditures on projects that are improper functions of government.

The one good thing about consumption (sales taxes) taxes and income
taxes is that both of those forms of taxation are sensitive to the
financial well being of the taxpayers. Those people who aren’t making
money don’t pay income taxes and if they aren’t spending money they
aren’t paying sales taxes. Thus government revenues become a
reflection of the financial well being of the taxpayers.

However, that is not the case for property owners. Property taxes are
far more isolated from the financial well being of the taxpayers,
unless there is a significant drop in the value of property and then
it may be difficult to get those property taxes dropped. An important
consideration is that a person who owns their home, should they lose
their job, or miss an extended amount of work due to accident or
sickness, their income will drop, but not so with their property taxes
as they usually only go up, up and up.

If you don’t earn or have money you simply won’t be paying income or
sales taxes, but if you don’t pay your property taxes, you will
eventually be evicted from your home, perhaps something you have paid
on for decades, and your home WILL BE SOLD at a sheriff’s sale.

The risk of people losing their home for not paying property taxes,
sometimes due to no reason on their part, is why the legislature must
not allow cities the opportunity to raise city revenue from property
taxes. That is why conservative Republicans can’t allow some big
government loving RINO like Hammons to ever be elected to a higher
office than that of mayor of Muskogee.

++ TOM COLE WANTS YOUR INSURANCE TO GO UP

Anyone who has read my e-mails for any length of time will know that I
am not a fan of Tom Cole. It isn’t personal, he just isn’t a true
conservative and he has been at the heart and soul of the big
government Republican establishment in the state of Oklahoma.

I will say, in recent months, Cole has sounded much more like a
conservative in his political rhetoric than in the past. However, in
recent days he commented about his desire to repeal Obama care but
find ways to keep some of the better parts of the measure. The one he
specifically referred to was the mandate to force insurance companies
to keep a policy holders’ children on the policy through the age of
26.

I recently read some of the key points to Obama care and almost every
new mandate increases the exposure (the potential to pay out
additional claims) for insurance companies. It shouldn’t take a rocket
scientist to realize that when an insurance company increases exposure
it will have to pay out additional claims and as such to remain
financially stable, they must, let me say it again, must raise rates
to compensate for those additional claims.

What Cole is proposing is a form of “fascist” capitalism. In that form
of capitalism, the government won’t own the business, but through
their dictatorial mandates they rule and regulate how a company
conducts its business. It is no wonder insurance companies have been
raising their rates, it is called survival in the face of a hostile
regulatory environment.

I am of the opinion, based on a good deal of accurate information that
the Obama administration will be quite content to see insurance
companies be forced to put ever higher burdens on their customers. The
eventual goal will be for the consumer to be under such a heavy weight
of costs that they will clamor for someone or something to solve that
problem. The most likely to respond to those public demands will be
government and as such the desire to replace private insurance with a
single payer system, also known as full blown socialized medicine.

I could care less if an insurance company decides to cover the
children of policy holders for an additional time after they turn 18.
However, as a consumer I don’t want to pay increased premiums to pay
for my neighbors adult children to be covered. Therefore, let the
insurance companies extend that coverage if they chose, but only as an
add on expense, the amount of which will be determined by the
insurance company and not by government.

++ COBURN SUCKERED INTO POLITICAL CORRECTNESS

A week ago Sunday, Senator Coburn was on the Sunday morning
program ,Face the Nation, regarding the hostile rhetoric surrounding
the shooting in Tucson. In the age of political correctness, now is
not the time to give in to the stylistic or symbolic calls for a more
loving atmosphere.

Congressman Udall from Colorado suggested lawmaker not sit segregated
by political party but rather sit together to show a more civilized
nature of bi-partisanship during the State of the Union address by
President Obama. Coburn took the bait and agreed to sit with Senator
Chuck Schumer, a Senator thoroughly infected with AIDS (Aquired
Intellectual Dishonesty Syndrome).

Here is hoping Senator Coburn doesn’t get caught on camera holding
hands with Schumer during their date night at the big speech. But if
they do, hopefully the Oklahoman will publish the picture in
Wednesday’s paper. That way, I can paste it up on our display board at
our meeting place, right next to the picture last year with Senator
Coburn and President Obama hugging each other following the speech. I
am not suggesting lawmakers should act hostile toward each other, but
the collegial attitudes, especially in the senate, have led to untold
compromises in past years.

We are in a war for the future of our country and I want our front
line warriors to see the opposition for what they are, a danger to the
well being of our nation, not someone to cuddle with and hold
hands.

++ TIDBITS

* We have a volunteer that up-dates the OCPAC blog each time an e-
mail goes out. He just sent me an interesting breakdown as to where
people come from that viewed the e-mail over a month’s time, from
December 19th through January 17th. Following are the number of page
views by country. The United States 1,155, the Netherlands 189,
Germany 98, Russia 57, France 36, The Ukraine 29, The United Kingdom
24, Slovenia 21, Moldova 14 and Latvia 11. In the world of the
internet, I for one have a hard time realizing what reach can occur.
By the way, we are now above 4,200 that receive the e-mail directly.
Most of those are in Oklahoma and God is the only one who knows how
far those get forwarded.

* Speaker Steele asked that the multi-million dollar contract to
build a new juvenile facility in Ada be held up until it can be
determined if the contract actually represents what the state asked
for? Kudos to Steele, as it sure appears what the state asked for is
not what is about to be built. The controversy has swirled around
Senator Harry Coates’ involvement in the deal and an adulterous affair
he had with a lobbyist representing the company that won the bid to
operate the facility. Senator Coates (R-Seminole), has said all along
that nothing was done improperly and urged the new Attorney General to
look into the situation with a fresh set of eyes.

I received in the mail this past week a letter from a constituent of
Senator Coates. The first part had a copy of a letter sent to Senate
President Pro-Tem Bingman (R-Sapulpa) and others calling for the
Senate to discipline Senator Coates. He even cites a provision in the
State Constitution which declares adultery to be a felony offense for
those holding office. He has also asked me to list his contact
information so other citizens who live in the district that are
embarrassed by the behavior of Coates can get together to organize a
petition drive to ask for his resignation. His name is Bob Godwin and
his phone number is (405) 396-8842. His e-mail address is
emsgodwin@yahoo.com. If more people acted like Mr. Godwin, much of the
corruption and immorality in government would be cleaned up.

* Last week I asked if anyone knew of any children in Oklahoma were
suffering from hunger, since Governor Fallin fell into the trap of
some people who want to be seen as an important savior of the
children. They claim a ridiculous number, 1 out of 4 children, to be
going hungry in Oklahoma. I had several funny responses like one, well
to do reader, that claimed his 3 children go to bed each night hungry
because they are teenagers. However, the following response was a sad
picture of an excessive welfare state, which produces meaningless
statistics that are thrown around all the time:

“ Hi Charlie
We met last May 6 in <&^*-+> while you were campaigning for Randy
Brogdon. I just wanted to let you know that I know for a fact that 1
in 4 children in this state are NOT hungry! I taught school in OKCPS
for over 8 years and found that most all of the children were on a
free or reduced lunch program. They get free BREAKFAST AND LUNCH AT
SCHOOL. How then, is 1 in 4 hungry? I watched over 1200 students eat
lunch each day as I had ‘lunch duty’ and watched 80% to 90% of the
food served THROWN IN THE TRASH each and every day. It was disgusting
to see so much wasted food and wasted taxpayer dollars just tossed
out. They made the children take a carton of milk even if they didn’t
want it. Those also got thrown out. I do not believe for one second
that there are hungry children in this state unless they have parents
that are totally unaware or uncaring of their needs. That is not a
need for more ‘welfare’ but, a need for more/better parenting!!!
Sincerely,

Mrs. *$)^#@_+*&
Professional Educator”

* Representative David Derby (R-Owasso) has introduced legislation HB
1289 to move more funding into the classrooms. Now there are some good
things in this bill but this is a mantra that we hear from time to
time and I don’t thing very many people, even those who use the lingo
can define what that means. Certainly teacher pay is the major part of
that, along with books, classroom equipment and supplies. But what
about heat and cooling costs? What about building repairs and
janitorial supplies and costs? How about bus transportation costs and
the maintenance costs associated with the outdoor classrooms known at
tennis courts, football fields, soccer, baseball fields and etc. I
believe most taxpayers would be shocked at what is considered to be
classroom expenses and those might vary from one school district to
another. Regardless, a lack of money in the classroom is not the root
problem with education and making this a center piece of education
reform will just be another effort in futility.

I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday

Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com