OKLAHOMA CONSTITUTIONAL ALLIANCE HAS VANISHED

++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
++  ANNOUNCEMENTS
++  CONGRATULATIONS ON DISCHARD PETITION
++  THE OKLAHOMAN, EVER MORE OUT OF STEP
++  OKLAHOMA CONSTITUTIONAL ALLIANCE HAS VANISHED


++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING

Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, March 23rd will be held at
Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. Our first speaker
this Wednesday will be Jake Parsons, an advocate for abandoning the
Electoral College and switching to a one man one vote popular
election. While I believe the legislation by Senator Rob Johnson (R-
Kingfisher) and Representative Don Armes (R-Lawton) is dead for this
session, Jake still wants to make his case for this change. Our main
speaker is to be Brian Alford, media spokesman for OG&E. I have asked
him to speak to the issue of the EPA rejecting Oklahoma’s plan to
slowly move away from electricity generated by coal. We will find out
what the options might be and how might a lawsuit by Attorney General
Scott Pruitt come into play. I have also asked him to discuss what
OG&E’s position on HB 1240 might be. That is legislation to establish
Oklahoma’s regulatory agencies such as the Department of Environmental
Quality (DEQ) and the Corporation Commission as the ultimate authority
when it comes to environmental issues. Committee Chairman Fred Jordan
(R-Tulsa) did not bring this legislation up for a vote this year. This
is a very serious issue, if not overturned, the federal EPA’s
regulations will cause a minimum and I do mean a minimum of a 15%
increase in electric utility rates for virtually every household and
business in Oklahoma. Don’t miss this meeting.

++  ANNOUNCEMENTS

*  LAST SATURDAY  -  BILL MAHER SLITHERED INTO OKLAHOMA  -  Sorry for
not informing the thousands who read the OCPAC e-mail about the visit
last Saturday night by Bill Maher, the second rate comic host of HBO’s
“Real Time with Bill Maher” show. The current issue of the Oklahoma
Gazette (I pronounce it Gay-Zette) has a cartoon likeness of Maher on
the front cover riding on the top of a tank looking like Michael
Dukakis when that goof-ball blew any chance he might have had in his
failed run for President, more years back than I want to remember.

The title on the cover of the Gazette is: Bill Maher invades a red
state. I am sure his visit thrilled and invigorated the tens of
thousands of liberal progressive Democrats in Oklahoma who are
surrounded by a million or so conservatives, but let us be real. The
only bombs Maher was likely to have thrown would be multiple rounds of
“F” bombs. I would suggest the lasting results of his invasion upon
red state Oklahoma will have about as much effect as the bursting of
an over-ripe puss pimple on a toads rear end. Not sorry I missed you
Bill as I decided to do something constructive like dipping muck out
of the bottom of my pond with a thimble rather than attend your
liberal love feast!

*  EDMOND AREA  -  THURSDAY EVENING  -  Reclaiming America for Christ
invites everyone to a special 3 day seminar on the ISLAMIZATION in
AMERICA. The location will be Fairview Baptist Church at the
intersection of North Sooner Road and Danforth in Edmond (one mile
North of 2nd street and one block West of I-35). The Thursday night
March 24th meeting will begin at 7:00 p.m. and will feature the
Oklahoma Premiere of the documentary SACRAFICED SURVIVORS: THE UNTOLD
STORY OF THE GROUND ZERO MOSQUE. This has been produced by the
Christian Action Network. The documentary will reveal those behind the
project, who is financing the mosques, and what is the significance of
the location.

On Friday evening March 25th at 7:00 p.m., a Counter Terrorism Summit
will begin with a couple of the Nation’s Leading Experts who will
explain how the Muslim Brotherhood and its affiliates have infiltrated
our government, military and society. You will have an opportunity to
learn what we must do to stop this problem.

The summit will end with Saturday’s program starting at 9:00 a.m. I
thought we were going to be able to have these 2 presenters at OCPAC
about 2 months ago, but that meeting had to be canceled due to
scheduling difficulties. I don’t know that their names will be
revealed as they are in a very sensitive position. There is no cost to
attend any of these meetings, but an offering will be taken up to help
defray costs. For more information call (405) 796-pray or log on to
www.ra4c.org.

*  NORTHWEST OKC  -  FRIDAY EVENING & SATURDAY MORNING  -  March 25th
and 26th will see a Darwin vs. Design Conference in OKC. At this
special conference, leading national experts will explore the real-
world impact of Darwin’s ideas on our culture and highlight growing
scientific evidence that life and the universe are the products of
intelligent design. The location will be Crossings Community Church
14600 North Portland in OKC.

Friday’s meeting will be from 7 till 9:00 p.m.  with the first
presentation being, Darwin Day in America: Why the Debate over Darwin
Matters, by John G. West, PhD. The second presentation will be a
preview of Saturday by John G. West, Jay Richards, Michael Behe and
Casey Luskin. I believe these later two were in Ben Steins’ recent
movie on the subject. Saturday’s program will begin at 8:30 a.m. and
run until 12:30 p.m. Richards, Behe and Luskin will all be presenting
on Saturday. Registration is $5 per person. For tickets and more
information log on to www.crossingsokc.org?darwindesign. I would
suggest you challenge your skeptic friends to hear these brainiacks
discuss this issue.

*  MONDAY EVENING  -  MOORE  -  Elza Jones, spokesman for Oklahoma
district 4 of Americans For Fair Taxation will present an informative
meeting next Monday evening, March 28th at the Moore public library
(Northeast corner of I-35 and the 4th street exit). The meeting will
start at 7:00 p.m. and be held in meeting room B. While this federal
legislation is not crafted to deal with our overspending problem, it
is vitally important to help bring back manufacturing jobs to our
nation and reduce the power and control over the citizen behavior held
by politicians, through the tax code.

*  I have just returned from our week long trip to the Creation
Museum, Gettysburg and Shiloh. One of the more interesting events was
finding a DVD with rare footage of the “Civil War” veterans attending
the 50th anniversary of the war (1913) and the 75th anniversary
(1938). By the 75th anniversary we had sound with the black and white
movies and it was fascinating to hear them talk. Their average age at
the 75th was 92. This year is the 150th anniversary of the beginning
of the civil war and as such on April 30th and May 1st the Oklahoma
Historical Society will be co-sponsoring the largest re-enactment ever
in the state of Oklahoma. It will be on the location of the battle of
Honey Springs. There will be an estimated 5,000 re-enactors
participate. More on this in the future. As a point of interest, what
year did the last civil war veteran die, how old was he and was he a
confederate or union soldier?

++  CONGRATULATIONS ON DISCHARGE PETITION

With the new rules in place, it would take 68 signatures on a
discharge petition to go around a House committee chairman and bring a
piece of legislation to a direct vote on the floor. That is no small
task, but several dedicated conservative activists worked over a 3
week period of time to do just that this past week. Freshman
Representative John Bennett from Sallisaw was the author of a bill to
allow citizens to openly carry a firearm. Though leadership worked
hard to keep this from coming to a vote on the floor, it finally
happened late last Thursday evening.

However, Emily Virgin (D-Norman) offered an amendment which basically
limit’s that ability to the degree that the legislation is almost
worthless. Floor leader Dan Sullivan quickly took advantage of the
inexperience of Representative Bennett when he moved for Bennett to
accept the amendment, of which he did, not realizing the full effect
upon the legislation. I am not jumping on Bennett, but it is a lesson
we all need to understand. Being a conservative is a vital part of
good government. However, there is a “process” in which legislation
must proceed with many rules by which good or bad legislation can be
killed or passed. About the only time a freshman lawmaker during their
first year in office is really ready for the big time are those who
have worked as lobbyists or staffers at the Capitol before becoming a
lawmaker. This issue may not be finished this year, but you can be
sure it will be back next year if it isn’t properly resolved this
year.

++  THE OKLAHOMAN, EVER MORE OUT OF STEP

The Oklahoman never seems to run out of ink and paper when it comes to
their mantra against conservative social legislation. If they are not
jabbing conservatives like Sally Kern for her efforts to quickly fix
last year’s state question limiting our courts from being besieged by
Sharia or foreign laws, they are taking a swipe at the Edmond citizens
who opposed the United Nation’s Agenda 21 programs, loosely referred
to as sustainability issues.

Sally Kern’s legislation was passed overwhelmingly late last Thursday
evening, much to the chagrin of many in the Muslim community. Unlike
the state question that Oklahomans overwhelmingly voted for last
November, only to see a liberal federal judge put it on hold before
the vote could be certified, this legislation doesn’t directly refer
to Sharia Law and thus takes the religious freedom issue out of the
equation. If however the “political” part of Sharia Law tries to
impose its rules and regulations in our courts, this law would prevent
such.

Muslims who say there is not a need for such a law because they would
never want to see Constitutional law replaced with Sharia Law, are in
my opinion, a bunch of lying and deceiving rats. If they have no such
intentions, they should not oppose such a fine law. I hope citizens
are aware that Islam’s holy book, the Koran, teaches Muslims to
deceive their neighbors when they are in a minority. However, once
they gain power, they are to rule according to Islam.

Our activist friend Ferlin has formed an Edmond tea party and produced
a commercial to run on the local Fox TV station regarding Edmond‘s
city council and their closeness with the sustainability movement.
There are two city council seats which will be decided on April 5th,
so citizens need to find out where these 4 candidates stand on this
issue. I believe Edmond citizens beyond the ward boundaries will be
allowed to vote in that election. That means any Edmond citizen, no
matter where you live, can vote on the candidates of your choice. To
view the commercial log on to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAZK7q6D69Q.
In the mean time it appears to me that the Oklahoman is becoming ever
more out of step with its conservative base of readership. If recent
lay-offs at the Oklahoman are a result of declining readership and
thus a loss of revenues, then they have no one to blame but
themselves.

++  OKLAHOMA CONSTITUTIONAL ALLIANCE HAS VANISHED

A little over a year ago somewhere around 30 groups came together to
form the Oklahoma Constitutional Alliance to try and work together
toward better government. I knew this would be a monumental task to
make it effective as you have groups with different causes and of
course there are those pesky personalities of leaders who have to get
along together.

It didn’t take long before American’s For Prosperity withdrew, then OK-
SAFE. Over the past years additional groups have pulled out. I was
told that Al Gerhart recently kicked OCPAC out of the group, but he
didn’t return my phone call yesterday to verify such. If so, that is
fine and the reason isn’t important as OCPAC hasn’t provided any
support for some time now. I did see that the large Tulsa Tea Party,
OKforTea, pulled out within the past week. I am assuming the Sooner
Tea Party run by Al Gerhart is about all that is left of the OCA.

I will say that Mr. Gerhart works very hard at pushing his agenda,
though sources at the Capitol have told me he has ruined his
reputation among the vast majority of lawmakers and has thus
marginalized himself.

In a recent e-mail he put out he opposed the idea of T.W. Shannon
becoming the next Speaker of the House since his lifetime conservative
index score is a 72 rather than someone with a higher score. Hey Al,
why don’t you name a person you think should be the next Speaker? The
moment you do, that person will move to the back of the list, just
because of your endorsement.

I do want to address one mess he has created. It appears anytime a
lawmaker votes against a bill he supports he labels them a RINO
(Republican In Name Only). Trust me folks, there is not a lawmaker at
the Capitol who won’t eventually vote for or against a bill that any
of us will differ on. To eventually call everyone a RINO cheapens the
meaning of the label.

While the term RINO is a national label, on a local level, the members
of OCPAC have tried to establish as objective a standard as possible
to accurately define those Republicans who are basically conservative
from those who are basically liberal. We have not insisted on
ideological purity, but rather set a bar for a point of reference.
Based on a lawmakers score’s in the Oklahoma Constitution Newspaper’s
Conservative Index, any lawmaker in the first session of a legislative
term must score a 60 or above to be exempted from the RINO “nominee”
list. In the second session of a legislative term, or in other words
during an election year, they will need to have a two year average of
a 61 or above to avoid the RINO “nominee” list. Of course anyone with
a lifetime average of a 61 or below will fall into that consistently
liberal level known as a RINO.

Many of those former members of the OCA are working together in a much
more loosely organized group without a spokesman for the group as a
whole. This is probably a better arrangement. Conservatives with
different interests need to work together as much as possible and we
have done a better job of doing so than in most states. However, it is
a free process and anyone can step forward and participate, even if
they don’t get along well with others.

I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.

Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com