PRESIDENT BOREN GIVES ASKINS A JOB & IS THE RACE FOR THE NEXT HOUSE SPEAKER ABOUT OVER?

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
++ PRESIDENT BOREN GIVES ASKINS A JOB
++ IS THE RACE FOR THE NEXT HOUSE SPEAKER ABOUT OVER?

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING

Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, March 9th will be held at
Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. Our speaker this
Wednesday will be Avi Lipkin. Already several people have heard him
one or two times since last Friday as they realize what a wealth of
information he happens to be as well as being a top notch speaker. I
heard Avi last night and was again amazed at his grasp of world
history covering the past hundreds of years and how those historical
events effect the geo-political events of today. If you are wise, you
won’t want to miss a single opportunity to hear Avi. He is also well
stocked with his books, audio and DVD recordings. Folks that access
them will really begin to put the pieces of the puzzle of world events
together and thus have a since of what is really going on in the
world.

++ ANNOUNCEMENTS

* MONDAY EVENING - EDMOND AREA - In December of last year, one of
the Edmond boards or commissions held a public meeting to begin
implementing Edmond’s sustainability plan. Of the 200 who attended,
perhaps 140 were people who understood that the sustainability plans
were influenced by a non-governmental-organization (NGO) which goes by
the moniker ICLEI which is also affiliated with the United Nations.
Edmond is a dues paying member of ICLEI (OKC, Tulsa and Norman are the
other Oklahoma communities) which is dedicated to implementing the
UN’s Agenda 21, a plan to CONTROL virtually all lifestyle activities
throughout the world. That December meeting ground to a halt and the
City promised to have another meeting in which they would hear from
the public. Therefore, it is very important to have as many people as
possible attend this meeting TONIGHT. Anyone will be allowed to speak
for 3 to 5 minutes, though Edmond residents will have greater weight
with city officials. While passions are high on this issue, please
remember to be respectful while at the same time being firm and
resolute. The time will be from 6 to 8:00 p.m. and the location is the
Edmond Downtown Community Center (North of the Police Station).
Citizens all over the country are waking up to the UN’s Agenda 21
influence on their local communities and as such are rising up in
opposition. Some communities are abandoning this evil movement, it is
time for Edmond to do the same.

* TUESDAY EVENING - ADA AREA - The Ada Tea Party will have their
monthly meeting Tuesday evening starting at 6:30 p.m. with the
location being the industrial arts classroom as the Pontotoc Career
Tech Center. Speakers will be Pastor Paul Blair, State Insurance
Commissioner John Doak, Freshman State Representative Tom Newell and
Dr. Ed White. Representative Newell is a pastor in Seminole and also
teaches micro as well as macro economics at the college in Seminole.
It may turn out that Representative Newell will be the most
conservative lawmaker in a district with a heave Democrat majority. He
is very articulate, conservative and can sell folks on the ideas of
liberty and free enterprise. If you live within 40 or so miles of Ada,
you ought to make a special effort to attend these great meetings. I
am going to catch a ride with Paul and attend the this month’s meeting
myself.

* WEDNESDAY EVENING - OKC AREA - Windsor Hills Baptist Church
will host Avi Lipkin during their Wednesday evening service. I believe
the intended smear job on this church on the front page of the
Oklahoman’s February 27th edition, has probably hurt the church’s
image in the eye’s of the gullible little sycophants who worship at
the alter of the state’s largest newspaper.

However, Pastor Tom and I have both heard from readers with critical
thinking skills who recognized the article for what it was and those
folks have dismissed the intended tainting. Some have asked how they
might send their children to a valuable youth camp where they will
learn about the Bible as well as learn valuable skills with a firearm
and the safe handling of such. I am thankful I learned those skills in
Boy Scouts and Explorers as I was a member of the Troop 7
Sharpshooters Rifle Club in my younger years. I can only imagine how
much more valuable those lessons would be with quality Bible teaching
at the same time.

I was a little surprised at how many people told me they were suckered
into shelling out $2.00 for the Sunday paper when they saw my picture
on the front page. I didn’t realize there were so many people who are
opposed to subscribing to the Oklahoman. I think it is important to be
informed, but I can also understand why many folks can no longer
tolerate what was once a conservative paper and has now become an ever
more self serving, liberal paper with all kinds of conflicts of
interest, though they still have a ways to go to equal the liberalism
of the Tulsa World.

* THURSDAY MORNING - OKC AREA - The Business and Professional
Chapter of the John Birch Society will host their monthly meeting at
the Character Inn, 520 West Main in downtown OKC. The buffet breakfast
($6.00) is served at 7:15 and the meeting begins about 7:40 a.m. Our
guest speaker this month will be Avi Lipkin, but he will not be in his
regular speaking format. We have asked him to simply do a question and
answer session. If there is anything you want to ask about radical
Islam and its influences on the middle East and what Israel must do to
survive, this is your opportunity. The fellowship before these
meetings begin is always great, so arrive early and bring your best
questions. We are usually finished by 8:20 or so, but you may leave
anytime your schedule demands.

++ PRESIDENT BOREN GIVES ASKINS A JOB

It was announced last week that former Lt. Governor Jari Askins has
been appointed by University of Oklahoma President David Boren to the
position of “ASSOCIATE” provost for external relations at the
University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. Please understand,
there is nothing illegal with this appointment and nothing unusual as
Oklahoma’s universities and colleges have for decades now become a
magnet for former Democrat lawmakers.

Along the same vein, former Governor Henry will probably become the
next President at UCO. He will be perfect in that position since the
main job of Oklahoma’s university presidents are to make sure the
professors are liberal and raise huge sums of money for their schools
from the state legislature and private sources as well.

My concern with the Askins appointment is whether the position was
created for her and isn’t really needed since she is just an
associate. The job is described as traveling to various groups to let
them know that we have a cancer treatment and a diabetes center at the
Health Sciences Center. If an associate is actually needed for that
purpose, I am sure a competent public relations person could be hired
for forty to fifty thousand dollars a year. However, President Boren
has hired Askins to serve in this capacity for the measly sum of
$115,000 per year, once again indicating the university’s wasteful
spending practices and the need to cut the Universities’ budget at an
even greater amount.

During the election, people got a glimpse of Askin’s wealth as she put
in well over a million dollars of her own personal finances in her
losing effort to win the governor’s race. I don’t believe she needs to
earn the money and forty or fifty thousand a year in salary would
probably be an insult to her dignity. However, this job may be very
valuable to her, especially if she has future political aspirations.
She will be able to travel the state and continue to build
relationships and contacts that will help her if she decides to run
for the U.S. Senate four years from now during Jim Inhof’s next
election cycle or six years from now when Senator Coburn’s seat will
be open as he has already said he will not seek re-election.

One of the things that made a huge difference for Mary Fallin in the
recent governor’s race is that she had 12 years as Lt. Governor to
travel the state building relationships and another 4 years as a U.S.
Representative which covered one fifth of the state’s population.
Whereas, Askins only had 4 years as Lt. Governor and the previous 12
years representing a house district, which covers only one hundredth
of the states population. I believe King David Boren has simply
appointed her to a politically attractive job with an excessive
salary.

++ IS THE RACE FOR THE NEXT HOUSE SPEAKER ABOUT OVER?

In the past I have written a couple of times about the process of
selecting the Speaker of the House. That process historically occurs
during the session in a non-election year, nearly 2 years before the
official selection will take place. I believe the time is right to
write about an effort I have been part of for several months now.

Two years ago Republican legislators elected Kris Steele (lifetime
conservative index score of 62) as the House Speaker-designate.
Because of their similar index scores, conservative legislators were
unable to clearly distinguish between Steele and Ken Miller (also with
a lifetime conservative index score of 62) and they split their votes
between the two candidates.

Steele appealed to several conservative legislators with a platform of
fairness and accessibility despite his moderate to liberal voting
record.

However, just days after taking office, Steele made his now infamous
comments about social issues in the Oklahoman and then personally
opposed Judeo-Christian values language being included in the caucus
platform. I believe that shocked many of the serious Christian members
of the House caucus.

It became suspect as to whether or not conservative legislation would
continue to have a difficult time in being heard or at worst, if
leadership’s opposition to really good legislation would be
intensified. The recently passed committee hearing deadline confirmed
our fears. Even items which were advanced under previous
administrations such a the important prohibition against Radio
Frequency Identification Devices (RFID) to be implanted in our drivers
licenses and bill to allow for open carry have been killed in
committee.

Following the article in the Oklahoman and the caucus meeting in
Bartlesville, several conservative legislators decided that they were
not going to make the same mistake again. An effort was launched to
seek out and support the most conservative candidate for speaker that
could garner enough support to win the race for Speaker-designate.
That candidate would need to earn the votes of the conservative
legislators by demonstrating a conservative voting record.

At the time, conventional wisdom dictated that two of current Speaker
Steele’s lieutenants, Jeff Hickman (lifetime conservative index score
of 56) and Dan Sullivan (lifetime conservative index score of 61) were
the odds-on-favorite to succeed Steele.

Because of their low conservative index ratings, neither of these
candidates appealed to many of the conservative members. Making
matters worse, a possible conservative contender such as former
Representative Rex Duncan (lifetime conservative score of 87) left the
legislature last year to become a district attorney.

Therefore, with the encouragement of several House conservatives,
Lawton Representative T.W. Shannon (lifetime conservative score of 72)
was approached and has agreed to step up and challenge Representative
Jeff Hickman (it looks like Representative Sullivan has now dropped
off the radar screen). It is believed that T.W. Shannon is the most
conservative candidate in the House who can beat Representative Jeff
Hickman, a perennial RINO nominee. One of my biggest concerning
Hickman becoming the next speaker is that he was an aid to OU
President David Boren before he ran for the legislature. Most
conservatives believe President Boren is the single most influential
person in the state. If Hickman were to be elected as Speaker, I
believe we might need to drop the word President in front of Boren’s
name and start calling him KING David as his influence would surly
increase.

Since Representative Shannon has agreed to run for the speakers
position, he has been successful at securing support from a host of
House members and is expected to reach the needed number of votes
necessary to secure the position any day now, if he hasn’t already
done so as I write this.

No doubt Representative Shannon will receive almost immediate nation-
wide attention due to the fact that he may be the first Black-American
Indian Republican in the nation to serve as Speaker of the House.
However, that is a side issue and Representative Shannon will need to
brush off any distractions which might come along as a result of who
he is, for his real challenge will be to find that harmony which will
produce good government with the balance of social and economic
issues.

I recently had dinner with T.W. and as a conservative he has made it
clear that he supports key 2nd amendment issues. He has actually co-
sponsored proposals such as campus carry and open carry.
Representative Shannon also signed the recent discharge petition to
allow legislation for open carry to be heard on the floor and by-pass
the hostile committee Chairman Sue Tibbs, who seems to fight any
significant advancement of 2nd Amendment legislation. Representative
Shannon has personally ensured me that he will allow the voice of
conservatives to be heard and will loosen the grip with which
leadership has quashed conservative proposals.

Representative Shannon is not the most conservative lawmaker in the
House that has a chance to win. There will be times we may disagree,
but I sincerely believe he is the most conservative lawmaker that can
be elected as the next Speaker and I am convinced he will be more fair
toward conservatives when it comes to having conservative legislation
have fair consideration.

I do not believe conservatives will need to resort to discharge
petitions under the leadership of Speaker Shannon. The conservative
index has proven itself to be an accurate tool for determining the
true values of legislators and T.W.’s conservative index score speaks
for itself. I want to urge the grassroots conservatives in Oklahoma to
be supportive of Representative Shannon and lets try to advance
Oklahoma with a more conservative agenda.

I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.

Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com