++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
++ REFLECTIONS ON THE LANKFORD - SCARBOROUGH MEETING
++ U.S. CREDIT RISK - BUDGET CUTS - REBUILDING THE ECONOMY
++ TIDBITS
++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, April 24th will be held at
Italiano’s restaurant, normally addressed as 4801 North Lincoln in
OKC. However, out of respect for the majority of American Indians who
fought on the side of the South in the War for Southern Independence
(improperly called a civil war) I am going to take the liberty to
rename Lincoln Blvd for just one day and call it the JEFFERSON DAVIS
CONFEDERATE BLVD. How’s that for causing myself a lot of trouble right
from the start?
Our first Speaker this Wednesday will be a Washington attorney by the
name of Michael Hoehn (pronounced Hane). Mr. Hoehn is the Executive
Director of the Alliance For Vigilance, a non profit organization
designed, in part, to educate the public about the threat posed by
militant Islam. Michael will be presenting his full program at several
other locations, see announcements.
Occurring this Friday, Saturday and Sunday, April 29th through May
1st, the largest battle re-enactment in Oklahoma history will occur
between Northern and Southern re-enactors in what is now the state of
Oklahoma. The location will be at the Honey Springs battle field, just
a few miles North of Checotah. The first official shots to start the
war for Southern Independence occurred on April 12th, 1861 When the
South open fired upon Union troops stationed at Fort Sumter, South
Carolina. The battle of Honey Springs occurred on a rainy day, July
17th, 1863. The re-enactment has been moved to the above date to avoid
the extreme heat of July so more re-enactors and visitors can attend.
An expected 5,000 re-enactors will come to Oklahoma to participate
with additional thousands attending to watch and learn.
The year 2011 is the Sesquicentennial (150th) year to recognize and
remember the most bloody war to ever be fought by the citizens and
former citizens, of America. I wanted to have a program about this
issue, just before the historical re-enactment, so our main speaker
this week will be a pastor-evangelist-author from Elk City by the name
of Jerry Brewer.
While I personally believe slavery was a huge issue in the cause of
the war, there were many other issues in the complex situation which
led to the Southern States succeeding and the subsequent war that
ensued. Mr. Brewer will speak to many of those issues as well as some
of the fall-out caused by the Northern victory, some of which has
tremendous ramifications upon us to this very day. Please don’t miss
this meeting, the information will be sure to challenge some of our
thought processes and hopefully make people think deeply.
Hopefully we will see that slavery is still with us, it just has a
different manifestation to it today. Slavery to the tyranny of the
federal government as well as political correctness, the loss of
states rights and ultimately our liberties has made all of us slaves
to one degree or another.
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
MICHAEL HOEHN WILL PRESENT HIS FULL PROGRAM AT THE FOLLOWING:
* WEDNESDAY EVENING - Trinity Baptist Church in Yukon. I am not
sure of the time so you may want to call during business hours (405)
354-4839 for that information.
* THURSDAY EVENING - The Edmond Library, one block North of 2nd
street on Boulevard. The meeting will begin at 7:00 p.m.
* FRIDAY AT NOON - Michael will be speaking at the High Noon Club
located inside H&H Range, which is on the North side of I-40 and about
2 blocks East of Meridian.
++ REFLECTIONS ON THE LANKFORD - SCARBOROUGH MEETING
I want to say thanks to U.S. Representative James Lankford for coming
to speak at our meeting last Wednesday. I received a call from his
office last Monday informing me that he would have to leave at 12:30
sharp to catch the end of another luncheon regarding the bombing of
the Murah building. Fortunately we had Rick Scarborough (founder of
the national organization, Vision America) in town, so he began
speaking shortly after Congressman Lankford left.
FIRST, it is obvious that James is very bright, a fast study and
perhaps his strong point is an ability to grasp a situation and
communicate his understanding to others in such a way that can be
easily understood. Before taking questions he talked about the $38
billion budget cut which is part of this year’s budget which ends on
September 30th. Then his discussion shifted to explaining Congressman
Paul Ryan’s proposed budget reforms designed to make significant
reductions in spending as well as reform entitlements such as Social
Security and Medicare.
One of the provisions in Congressman Ryan’s bill is the proposed
Medicare reform which will see future (for people 55 and below)
Medicare costs shift from paying bills, to providing resources for
people to purchase insurance type coverage. The proposal has a
provision for “means testing”, or in other words, for wealthy people
to receive less resources and the poor to receive more resources.
During the brief Q&A time Mr. Scarborough raised his hand but we just
didn’t have time to get everyone’s questions in. As Rick began to
speak he told about a recent meeting where he and about 40 other
conservative leaders were invited to Washington by Speaker Boehner to
meet some of the new freshmen lawmakers. One of those new lawmakers
was Freshman Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) who Rick described as a
rising rock star. However, in Senator Rand’s brief presentation, he
lauded the prospects of means testing for a solution to the Medicare
problems.
Following the parade of new lawmakers, Rick posed a question to the
other leaders. He explained that means testing is classical Marxism
and asked the others in the room if it bothered them that “our
guys” (the conservatives) were the ones proposing and lauding that
idea? Only Joseph Farah, from World Net Daily spoke up and re-enforced
what Rick was saying. Rick said that most of the others in attendance
appeared to be like a deer in the headlights as such a thought.
Mr. Scarborough is absolutely correct about means testing being pure
Marxism. It is simply a different application, a little different but
much like unto the graduated income tax. Now please pay close
attention to what I am about to say. As few of those conservative
leaders seemed to understand that problem, can you imagine where the
majority of the American public is on this issue? America’s enemies
from within are already attacking the proposed changes, not because it
is classic Marxism, but because they want more socialism, more re-
distribution of wealth, more of one person using government to steal
from their neighbors, not less.
Those are the severe problems Congressmen Lankford and the Republicans
face in making changes when so many Americans are greedy and
unprincipled, ignorant of basic economics and business principles.
Many are completely ignorant of the impending financial danger
threatening this nation. They suck down information from liberals who
tell them things are fine, there are no problems, don’t listen to
“Republican” scare tactics and as such turn a deaf ear toward
information from conservatives.
That is why Robert Welch, founder of the John Birch Society, tried to
warn American’s when Medicare was being made law that it would someday
bring financial ruin upon our nation. He warned that socialized
medicine is the “archway” to converting our nation into a full blown
socialist state. There is a better way than socialized medicine, but
far too few people have a clue as to what that might be.
SECOND, one of the guests at our meeting brought up the situation
where it has recently been reported that General Electric (GE) made
billions in profits last year but paid no corporate income taxes. His
question to James was about what measures Congress might take to
correct that problem and perhaps, capture some of what was not paid?
James was quick to say that most people in the room understand that
corporations don’t pay taxes, but rather include the costs of taxes
into the prices of the goods or services they produce.
Let me caution conservatives to not let the flashy headlines in papers
or the talking heads on the boob-tube to get us off track. While at
first glance it seems unfair or unjust for such a BIG corporation to
get by without paying any corporate income tax, we must not fall for
the bait.
One change that America really needs to make is a policy change where
we actually put NO income taxes on businesses. In doing so, it will
lower the cost of doing business in America, make our goods and
services more competitive in a global market, bring jobs back to
America, improve our economy and in turn improve our annual deficit/
national debt problems. In the next section below, I am going to try
and label our major problems and what we need to do to correct the
economics problem.
++ U.S. CREDIT RISK - BUDGET CUTS - REBUILDING THE ECONOMY
Last week, Moody’s issued the U.S. a warning that they have changed
our outlook from positive to a place of risk. However, Moody’s kept
our bond rating at “triple A”, which in my opinion is a sham and
another example as to why our bond rating system has lost virtually
all credibility. You don’t place a triple A rating on any entity that
is bankrupt. It dawned on me about 5 to 7 years ago that America is
already bankrupt and what has occurred between then and now has only
made that bankrupt condition more evident.
Our good friend Russ Reinhardt recently asked for my definition of a
person or entity being bankrupt. My answer was, when there was no
valid expectation that a person or entity’s debt will ever be paid
back!
Therefore, let me ask you the readers, is there anyone out there who
really believes we will ever re-pay our $14.3 TRILLION (and rapidly
rising) national debt with anything other than freshly printed
dollars, worthless as they will be? I would say we have a 10% or less
chance of EVER paying that debt off. That is why I believe America is
bankrupt.
It is not that we can’t pay it off, it is likely to never happen
because it will be so very hard to get the American people to set a
reasonable course to accomplish such and then put up with the pain and
suffering to get it done. In the mean time, let me suggest that the
FORMERLY safest investments in the world (U.S. Government backed bonds
and securities) are no longer safe and ANY investments into such are
at your own risk, especially any long term U.S. government bonds or
securities.
One can never solve a problem until its cause is accurately recognized
and a viable plan is crafted, then the plan has to be implemented. I
did financial counseling for close to 20 years. Not investment
counseling, but budgeting and debt resolution help for people in
trouble. When it comes to financial problems, let me suggest there are
ONLY 3 possible solutions other than a bankruptcy judgment. 1) Bring
in a sufficient increase in income without increasing spending. 2)
Bring in the same amount of income, but cut a sufficient amount of
spending. 3) Do some combination of 1 and 2. It does not matter the
scale, it does not matter how small or large the problem, the answer
lies in one of those 3 solutions.
* IDENTIFYING AMERICA’S FOUR MAIN PROBLEMS
1) This will be hard for unbelievers and pragmatists to understand or
believe, but the number one problem in America today is that we have
broken our covenant with God which was first espoused within the
Mayflower Compact. Rather than having God’s hand of blessing upon us
today, I believe the sins of those who profess to be His and the
abandonment of the principles upon which this nation was founded has
now brought God’s discipline and judgment upon us. Even so, that
discipline is meant to cause us to repent rather than to totally
destroy us. Our utter destruction may soon come, but I am convinced
God is willing to give us more opportunity, if we will repent.
2) The primary and secondary schools in America are full of rot and
misinformation. They are not public, bur rather government schools,
under the influence of humanistic progressives, fascists and
socialists. Many private Christian schools are little more than the
same, but with some Bible reading or prayer. As far as the academic,
moral and spiritual condition of our government universities, they are
also full of rot. In addition, a good number of private centers of
higher education are little or no better. Especially many of the more
prestigious institutions of higher learning in the Northeast.
3) We have failed to secure our borders which has allowed for a
massive invasion of illegal aliens from many parts of the world. In
addition, our legal immigration policies have been too liberal,
allowing too many people, some from countries and cultures that make
assimilation very hard if not impossible, to immigrate to this country
without sufficient time to assimilate into society. We have allowed
for the balkanization of our country with many enclaves of sub-groups
who do not speak English and have no interest or intention of becoming
an American.
4) America is no longer business friendly or economically
responsible. We now have the highest corporate income tax of any
industrialized nation in the world with a top rate of 35%. Also,
regulations upon businesses are over the top and in addition, we have
a huge organized labor problem in America. Therefore, we have lost
thousands of businesses and millions of jobs to other countries. I
believe our economy is not likely to ever fully recover is we don’t
find a way to re-capture those businesses and jobs. We must re-capture
our lost manufacturing base for us to again become a wealth producing
nation.
THE FOLLOWING WILL BE A CLOSER LOOK AT NUMBER 4.
Right now, responsible citizens are more focused upon cutting the
budget than anything else. I was strongly in favor of a government
shutdown if the $60 billion dollar spending cuts weren’t agreed to by
Democrats. However, I am opposed to not extending the debt ceiling,
other than for a very short period of time and only then as bargaining
power to reduce more spending.
The reason is simple. Our economy has been propped up for the past 8
or 10 years with varying amounts of deficit spending. In the last 3
years the deficits has averaged over a Trillion dollars each year,
with last year being $1.65 Trillion alone. This year’s deficit will be
similar, which means if we shut off any additional borrowing then an
average of $140 billion each month will not be going into the
economy.
With the exception of what is spent overseas, virtually all of that
money ends up in the hands of the people in our nation. It ends up in
the hands of the poor, the middle class and the wealthy. Missing that
money for just one or two months will slow the economy and after just
a few months it will cause a severe recession or depression.
It is kind of like being in an airplane and you want to land. You can
come in at an angle to achieve what is called a soft landing or come
strait down with disastrous results. The later is swift and harsh, the
former takes time, skill and patience to accomplish.
This is very important to understand. At the same time we are trying
to reduce excess spending, we need to be looking at ways to create an
environment in which business can succeed, grow and employee ever more
people.
While the federal government is reducing its spending, it also needs
to have additional revenues come into the treasurery. Increasing taxes
might work for a while, but it is really risky for an economy just
recovering from a recession. Reducing taxes (while at the same time
increasing spending) has worked in the past to bring more revenues to
the treasury. While I do believe we should eliminate business taxes,
there does come a point at which reducing taxes will no longer
increase revenues going to Washington.
May I suggest having more people pay taxes (nearly 50% of all adults
pay no income taxes) would be a wonderful way to increase the revenues
(remember we are to be reducing spending at the same time). If the
economy continues to improve and unemployment continues to drop, the
government will have more taxpayers. Another way to have more
taxpayers would be to scale back some of the EXEMPTIONS. Reducing
individual deductions, child tax credits, earned income tax credits
and etc. would mean more people would become taxpayers. Please don’t
anyone show your ignorance by telling me doing such would be a “tax
increase”. While reducing exemptions will increase the amount of tax
dollars going to Washington, that is not a tax increase if the rates
stay the same.
All of those ideas are inferior to one change which will solve many of
the problems we are facing. If we were to adopt the Fair Tax (it now
has the largest number of co-sponsors ever) it would make EVERYONE a
direct or indirect taxpayer. Because of the “pre-bate” the very poor
receive a check large enough to pay the taxes on necessities such a
food and clothing. The pre-bate is based on the number of people in a
household, not income, and as such the wealthy receive the same amount
of pre-bate based on the number of people in their household. That
makes it fair for all.
The Fair Tax is revenue neutral as it shifts taxation off of the
productive side of the economy and onto the consumptive side.
Businesses will not be taxed and as such that will allow for the cost
of producing goods and services to be reduced, thus making “American
made” more competitive on a global market. By no longer taxing
production (businesses), jobs and capitol will come rushing back into
America.
As an added bonus, by shifting to a national sales tax and dropping
all income taxes, businesses and people will no longer have to spend
money and waste time on compliance (it is estimated businesses spend
$300 to $500 billion in wasted overhead each year in just trying to
figure and comply with tax laws). This change will further reduce the
cost of producing goods and services. More jobs will mean more taxes
going into Washington and at the same time we will be reducing
spending. Therefore, we would then begin to move toward a balanced
budget.
Once we achieve a balanced budget, we then start working on paying
down our debt. Senator Coburn is taking flack for proposing some tax
increases. While I oppose all the plans currently on the table, I
would support increasing the Fair Tax by one or two cents once we get
the budget balanced and federal spending back into its Constitutional
functions. Of course that increase would have to be used ONLY for debt
reduction. As we reduce our debt, the amount of interest paid on our
debt would decrease and that would be another reduction in spending.
Once we eliminate our national debt, we could then begin to ratchet
down the level of the national sales taxes until it reaches an amount
required to support the federal government performing its proper
functions.
Switching to the Fair Tax solves a lot, but not all of our problems.
It’s main objectors are politicians who will lose a significant amount
of power and control over the people and lobbyists who will lose their
jobs.
Now, on to solving labor problems. When organized labor in the PRIVATE
sector becomes too effective at extorting money from business, those
jobs are destroyed. The business either ceases operations or it moves
to another nation. Look at some of the Oklahoma manufacturing jobs
lost over the past 20 years, General Motors, Zebco, Lucent, Gulf
Stream, Dayton Tire and the list goes on. They were all unionized
businesses. While I believe unions should be illegal in the public
sector, I do believe they should be legal in the private sector. Hear
is the problem, over the years Congress got involved and passed many
laws which put requirements on relations between management and labor.
Those laws strongly favor labor and as such have created a problem.
All laws regulating negotiations between labor and management should
be repealed. That way the term “bargaining in good faith” will be
relegated into the ash heap of history and labor and management can
then work out their differences on their own. Labor is vital to
business, but when labor thinks too highly of itself and its value to
management, then management needs to be free to replace its labor
force.
Now, for solving the problems of excessive regulations. Regulatory
agencies such as OSHA, EEOC, EPA, FISH AND WILDLIFE and others have
become real problems when common sense is thrown out the window and
legalistic bean counters impose oppressive and ridiculous regulations
upon businesses.
All of these agencies have come about to solve some kind of problem,
but often the solution becomes a bigger problem than the original
problem. The only solution I know is common sense and wisdom to be
used in citizen oversight boards which should be commissioned for an
appeals process to rule in cases where over regulation occurs. I do
believe reasonable regulations are needed in society and as such I am
open to other ideas.
However, not to recognize the problems with over regulation would be a
mistake toward creating a business friendly environment. One thing is
for sure, most of regulatory powers should come from the states and
not the federal government.
If we properly address these 3 areas, our economy will boom and our
prosperity will increase, not decrease.
++ TIDBITS
* WHY PAUL RYAN COMES TO OKLAHOMA AND WHAT HE DOES! - Paul Ryan is
married to Janna Little Ryan, Daughter of Dan Little who also happens
to be a law partner of Lynn Windel, the former Republican National
Committee man who did an excellent job representing Oklahoma for many
years at the RNC. Congressman Ryan comes a couple times each year to
visit the in-laws and experience some hunting, Oklahoma style.
However, the story doesn’t end with that. His father in law, Dan
Little was the brother of David Boren’s first wife (Janna) and as
such, the mother of Congressman Dan Boren. So Ryan’s wife and
Congressman Dan Boren are first cousins. Here is where it gets
interesting. Last year there were rumors that Paul Ryan, a member of
the National Republican Congressional Committee, somehow intervened to
keep the committee from supporting Charles Thompson, Boren’s
Republican opponent.
It is true the Committee didn’t get involved in that race, but it
could just as easily have been because Charles couldn’t raise a
minimum level of support (supposedly $100,000) on his own before they
would get involved. I don’t know if the rumors are valid or not, but
one thing is now evident.
Congressman Boren recently voted AGAINST Congressman Ryan’s proposed
budget, so going forward there should not be any reason for Ryan or
any other Republican to do anything other than hope to see Boren
defeated. Last year, the Republican party had candidates in every
state wide race and all but Senator Inhofe and Congressman Cole were
on the ballot. Next year, the party should focus on defeating Boren. I
hope Charles, who garnered 45% of the vote on virtually no funds, will
run again and if others also run, may the most conservative candidate
with the ability to be viable win the nomination. At that point,
Republicans need to focus on that race to make sure Boren doesn’t go
back to Washington.
* EAT MORE CHICKEN - CHICK FILET BUYCOT - While many Chick-Filet
stores are owned by a local franchise owner, the corporation was
founded by a gentleman by the name of Stuart Cathy. He is a dedicated
Christian and supports many pro-family organizations. His support of
traditional marriage has inflamed some of our nation’s radical
homosexuals. They are calling for a boycott of all Chick-Filet stores.
Therefore, the American Family Association (AFA) has organized a
BUYcot for Chick-Filet stores during the week of April 25th through
the 30th.
The AFA is asking Christians to have a meal or two this week at a
Chick-Filet and be sure to tell store employees how much you
appreciate their company taking a stand for moral values. The stores
make a concerted effort to employee Christians and they do a good job
of training so that employees are friendly to customers and efficient
at their jobs. Don’t bother trying to visit on a Sunday, they are
closed to honor the Lord and allow their employees to attend church
services on Sundays.
* ACTION ITEM - This is very important. Please contact your State
Representative immediately and ask him or her to vote NO on the
committee substitute to SB 602. If passed, the committee substitute
would eliminate run-off elections which is a very bad idea for the
citizens of Oklahoma.
You should know your state Representative by now and the contact
information. If not, log on to http://www.oklegislature.gov/ and look
for the words “Find My Legislator” at the bottom right corner of the
homepage. Enter your address information and hit the search button.
This will take you to another page, then scroll down to the bottom and
it will have your lawmaker’s contact information. If you want to call,
the House switch board is (405) 521-2711, just give the operator the
name of your lawmaker and you will be put through to the office.
* REPUBLICAN STATE CONVENTION - ONE WEEK FROM SATURDAY - This
year’s Republican state convention will be held in Oklahoma City on
Saturday, May the 7th. If you were not able to attend your precinct
meeting or county convention but would like to become a delegate to
the convention it may not be too late. Call your newly elected county
chairman who has the authority to allow you to attend. Ask if you can
become a delegate?
* ARTICLES IN THE OKLAHOMA GAZETTE - I was called last week by
Clifton Adcock for an interview about some of the struggles going on
in the Republican party and my perspective on this year’s legislative
performance. I don’t know if that article will run in this week’s
paper or not, but I was also contacted by the editor of the paper to
see if I would do an article in the point - counter point section of
the paper. I believe those two articles will run in this week’s issue
of the Gazette and yes, I still pronounce it the “Gay-Zette”. You can
pick them up at a favorite restaurant in the metro area if you want to
give it a read.
* OKC MAFIA ABOUT TO STRIKE AGAIN - Now that the Oklahoma City
Council elections are over, it appears that the “good ole boys” are
ready to get on with business as usual, but with a new twist. There is
a proposal to create a non-profit economic development group and have
the city turn much of their efforts over to that group. That way, the
non profit will not be subject to open records requests like the city
happens to be and thus deals can be made quietly and out of sight of
the public. Newly elected councilman, Dr. Ed Shadid, is threatening to
request an Attorney General’s opinion as to the legality of having a
non-profit organization with the ability to spend tax-payers money?
Hopefully that will stop their plans, as there probably is not enough
opposition on the council to keep some of city government from being
conducted in the back rooms.
I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.
Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Monday, April 18, 2011
LAST WEEK GOOD MARY FALLIN, THIS WEEK BAD MARY FALLIN
++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
++ OKLAHOMA LOST A PATRIOT - WYANE TAYLOR
++ LAST WEEK GOOD MARY FALLIN, THIS WEEK BAD MARY FALLIN
++ ATLAS SHRUGGED THE MOVIE
++ THE OKLAHOMAN-JERRY FENT AND COMM. DOAK
++ KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF OUR RUN-OFF ELECTIONS
++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, April 20th will be held at
Italino’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. Our speaker this week
will be U.S. Representative James Lankford. I wanted to wait to have
Congressman Lankford until he had been in Washington a few months so
he could share a good perspective of how he is relating in the
Capitol. I want to urge folks to arrive early to get a good seat. Our
new carpet should be installed and hopefully we will have our new
maximum seating available after doing some re-arranging. We should now
be able to seat close to 150 people which is about 25 more than
before. We will try have Rep. Lankford start speaking by 12:05 p.m. so
we can have as much time as possible for questions and answers. As a
particular point of interest, James has done a lot of work on the
budget proposed by Congressman Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin). Congressman
Ryan actually spends quite a bit of time in Oklahoma, can anyone tell
me why and what does he usually do when he is here?
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
* TUESDAY - ADA AREA - The Ada-Seminole area tea party will meet
Tuesday evening, 6:30 p.m. at the Pontotoc Technology Center in Ada.
The meet in the Industrial Arts Classroom. Pastor Dan Fisher will be
doing his “Black Robe Regiment” presentation followed by Keith
Shankle. Mr. Shankle will be doing a presentation about he Federal
Reserve and its ties to international finance and the promotion of
socialism. Much of his presentation comes from information found in
the definitive authority on the Fed, which is the book, Creature From
Jekyll Island. If you live within 40 or so miles of Ada, these
presentations will be well worth your time and effort to attend.
* TUESDAY - TULSA AREA - The Tulsa Area Republican Assembly will
hold their monthly meeting at the Golden Corral, 71st and Mingo Street
in Tulsa. Members and friends gather at 6 for dinner with the meeting
beginning at 7:00 p.m. The speaker will be Dr. John Swails, Director
of the Center for Israel and Middle East Studies at ORU. Dr. Swails
has taught classes on 20th Century Middle East, Radical Islam, Modern
Israel, World War I, II, the Holocaust, Church History, Historical
Geography of Bible Lands and Biblical Hebrew. This should be a most
interesting meeting to attend and you won’t even have to pay tuition
to profit from his knowledge.
* THURSDAY - OKC AREA - The Business and Professional chapter of
the John Birch Society will have their monthly breakfast meeting this
Thursday morning at the Character Inn, 520 West Main in downtown OKC.
The breakfast buffet is served at 7:15 and the speaker begins around
7:40 a.m. The speaker is not confirmed as yet, but the meetings are
always informative and the fellowship among conservatives and
constitutionalists is always great.
++ OKLAHOMA LOST ANOTHER PATRIOT - WAYNE TAYLOR
Late last week Wayne Taylor, President of Taylor Foam, went to be with
the Lord after a fairly short bout with an aggressive form of lung
cancer. Wayne was a lifetime member of the John Birch Society and a
consistent member of OCPAC. His oldest son Bryan is currently the
Mayor of Bethany. Wayne has supported many good conservatives over the
years and he will truly be missed by his family and friends. His
funeral will be today the 18th, 2:00 p.m. at Covenant Community
Church, 2250 N. Mustang Road in Yukon.
++ LAST WEEK GOOD MARY FALLIN, THIS WEEK BAD MARY FALLIN
Last week I suggested praise for Governor Fallin’s decision to disband
the Ethnic American Advisory Council and also her decision to not take
the federal dollars which would have tied us to Obama Care, though she
had to be brought to the later decision. Unfortunately it does not
appear that Governor Fallin will have much consistency regarding good
decision making.
First, I want to address a horrible appointment she has made as
revealed on Mike McCarville’s blog. Governor Fallin re-appointed the
liberal Democrat Pete Regan to the Transportation Commission. Regan is
not just any liberal Democrat, but a young rising star in the Democrat
party. Regan has been the chief of staff for Congressman Dan Boren and
according to McCarville, his other mentors include Daddy Boren,
President at OU, George Nigh, Mike Morgan, Brad Henry and yes, Mike
Turpin. Regan nearly defeated Jeri Askins 4 years ago in the Lt.
Governor’s race.
As McCarville writes: “There are those who say Regan is a Democrat-
candidate-for-governor-or-Congress-in-waiting. That could mean he’ll
face a Republican nominee in the future, using his background (and
appointment by Fallin) to boost his candidacy.”
Some responses are as follows: “Incredible” said a longtime Tulsa GOP
warhorse. “It’s almost an insult to us (Republicans) in Tulsa… what,
we’ve got no one qualified for that appointment?”
Another response: A bewildered Southern Oklahoma Republican who spent
hours campaigning for Fallin and who holds a party post in the county,
asked about the appointment, searched for words: “Surely Mary has a
good reason for this, but boy, it hurts.”
Of course Mary’s number one spin doctor Alex Weintz responded with:
“Regan is a highly-regarded member of the Transportation Commission:
Peter Regan is a well qualified applicant with deep ties to the Tulsa
community and a long record of service. Governor Fallin was looking
for the candidate she felt would be the most engaged and effective on
the transportation commission, and that person is Peter.” All I can
say about Mr. Weintz’s spin doctoring is blah blah blah.
Governor Fallin, if you want a conservative government, not only do
you have to root out liberal Democrats, but you have to be sure and
not appoint them to important positions in government. If you don’t
wake up to that fact, they will undermine conservatism. I wonder if
you really care about conservatism or do you understand what it is
beyond the superficial?
Sources have also told me Governor Fallin stated at a recent meeting
that we should not pass the bill to prohibit embryonic stem cell
research. She indicated it might not look good to people outside of
Oklahoma and thus give Oklahoma a harmful national image. That might
harm our ability to attract jobs and improve our economy. Too bad Mary
has chosen to parrot the blathering nabobs from the State Chamber of
Commerce along with the editorial page at the Oklahoman on this issue.
These folks, who get their panties in a wad over image rather than
substance evidently haven’t got the message as yet. Maybe they need to
watch a little more of Oprah’s programming. About a year and a half
ago, Oprah exclaimed hope about embryonic stem cell research while her
friend Dr. Oz was on the program. He had to break the bad news to her
and tell her it was a dead end. It had no hope, the hope was in adult
stem cell research, not embyronic.
If Mary would listen to pro-life advocates they have been saying the
same thing for a long time. Eight or so years ago the citizens of
California voted to pass bonded indebtedness to the tune of $5 BILLION
(if my memory serves me correctly) for the purpose of state subsidized
embryonic stem cell research.
As of today, there are no beneficial findings, but a couple of things
have occurred. First, California has paid to divert scientists and
researchers away from promising efforts to jobs that are likely to end
up in futility. Second, it has added to the California’s bankruptcy
problems. The financial woes in California couldn’t have happened to a
more deserving majority of people who would vote to borrow money for
this purpose.
This is just one more piece of evidence as to how much influence the
State Chamber has over the Governor. What that means is that Oklahoma
conservatives are going to have to spring to action over and over
again when the Chamber is wrong on issues. Unfortunately, unless more
people wake up and get a little more discernment, we will lose most of
those battles, because the Chamber’s bought and paid for Governor as
well as majority in the legislature are solidly entrenched.
++ ATLAS SHRUGGED THE MOVIE
First for the answer to last week’s question about the former Ayn Rand
devotee who used to be a sound money gold bug. As I posed the question
that person eventually found a high placement job which requires a
presidential appointment and Senate confirmation. I had a lot of
responses and quite a few got it correct. It was Alan Greenspan, the
immediate past Chairman of the Federal Reserve.
As of Sunday, the movie has grossed nearly 2 million dollars which is
considered very good for a limited release low budget production with
little or no paid advertising. It will continue to play through this
Thursday and then a decision will be made if it will continue on the
big screen. It was reported that the average attendance over opening
weekend was 6,000 for each of the 300 theaters in which it opened. The
Saturday showing when we went was almost full and reports indicated a
Friday evening showing at Quail Springs was packed. It was also
showing at the Warren in Moore.
There were a couple of semi-spicy bedroom scenes, but no nudity. No
doubt the movie represents the morality of Rand the author. Beyond
that, the movie exceeded my expectations for a low budget movie in
both production quality and acting.
Now to the good stuff. It was probably a little less than 50 years ago
that I read the book, but the movie really brought back memories. The
book had a huge impact on my thinking, which along with other
conservative influences started me down a conservative path in life.
That is probably why Hollywood liberals, movie critics, Democrats etc.
hate the movie and are very critical of it. They know the danger when
powerful conservative ideas are presented in story format with an
ability to shape the thinking of a reader or movie fan.
Perhaps one of the most important things to remember when reading the
book or watching the movie, is that Ayn Rand understood certain
aspects of human nature. She well understood there are always a
certain number of people who always look for an easy path in life. If
that means becoming a blood sucking leech, a cancer, a parasite, a
thief or what other name you want to think of, there are those in
society who are quite comfortable in their low moral conduct which
comes from their lousy character traits. In their own minds they can
justify almost anything they do, any form of thievery. God’s word
speaks of certain kinds of people who can sear their own consciences.
On the other hand, there are also the producers in life who sometimes
tolerate a lot of abuse before they finally fight back. They may fight
back hard or in some cases, when the odds are really stacked against
them, they simply fade away and quit producing. This is where we are
in America today and Ayn Rand had a great deal of foresight when she
wrote the book. I urge folks to see this movie as it does such a good
job of portraying the varied reactions of people when faced with
difficult odds.
++ THE OKLAHOMAN, JERRY FENT AND COMM. DOAK
Saturday’s edition of the Oklahoman had an editorial regarding Jerry
Fent questioning the constitutionality of Insurance Commissioner John
Doak moving his office to Tulsa. I believe Jerry is obviously correct
when he says the Oklahoma Constitution requires certain elected
officials (it would include the insurance commissioner) to keep “their
office, public records, books and papers at the seat of government.”
Now for the other side of the story. The insurance commission has
maintained an office in OKC and Tulsa for probably the past 20 years
or more. Commissioner Doak will continue to keep his office in OKC
with all the required constitutional requirements, as well as have an
office in Tulsa. With today’s modern technology, it is easy to keep an
office in OKC and have available what is also needed to do the job in
Tulsa at the same time. Mr. Doak is expanding the office in Tulsa but
also reducing the size of the OKC office. When it is all said and
done, the state will be leasing less total space than before and thus
cutting down on the overhead of the office. While Commissioner Doak
will be in the City as needed, his decision will also cut down on
overhead because of lower travel expenses.
Jerry hasn’t filed a lawsuit as yet and perhaps he is just sending a
warning shot across the bow of an elected official, should he really
get outside of the constitutional requirements. Hopefully he will talk
with Commissioner Doak to check these things out before he files a
lawsuit, time will tell.
++ KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF OUR RUN-OFF ELECTIONS
The federal government has set certain time requirements before
elections to allow for members of the military serving overseas to
have time to vote in their elections back home. As a result,
lawmakers, led by Gary Banz (R-MWC) have introduced legislation to
eliminate run-off elections. That is a VERY BAD idea.
There are untold numbers of people serving in office today as a result
of run-off elections. Governor Fallin is an example as she had to win
a run-off election when she first ran for Lt. Governor, Brad Henry is
another or else Vince Orza might have been the governor in place of
Henry. Without a run-off election, newly elected Senator Ralph Shorty
would not be in office, also in the recent non-partisan OKC city
council race, Dr. Shadid would not be office, though 62 percent of the
voters chose him over the leading candidate in the primary race.
The list just goes on and on. Any complaints about the costs of the
run-off elections are bogus to those who insist that taxpayers pay for
partisan primary elections, as elections are one of the most important
priorities for a government of self determination. If government wants
to save money, one solution would be to have the political parties
pay for their own primary elections or else chose their candidates
through political caucus meetings. Otherwise, Banz and others of his
ilk need to suck it up and fund elections before many of the improper
functions of government.
But an important part of the debate about primary elections is that
the people won’t have a final majority say in who serves without them.
Election schedules can be adjusted and any complaints about the costs
of elections are bogus. If you agree, please call or e-mail
Representative Gary Banz at (405) 557-7395 or garybanz@okhouse.gov and
tell him, NO WAY, to eliminating primary run-off elections. Contacting
your own representative and Senator will also be helpful.
I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday. For instructions on
how to join OCPAC, please see below.
Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
++ OKLAHOMA LOST A PATRIOT - WYANE TAYLOR
++ LAST WEEK GOOD MARY FALLIN, THIS WEEK BAD MARY FALLIN
++ ATLAS SHRUGGED THE MOVIE
++ THE OKLAHOMAN-JERRY FENT AND COMM. DOAK
++ KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF OUR RUN-OFF ELECTIONS
++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, April 20th will be held at
Italino’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. Our speaker this week
will be U.S. Representative James Lankford. I wanted to wait to have
Congressman Lankford until he had been in Washington a few months so
he could share a good perspective of how he is relating in the
Capitol. I want to urge folks to arrive early to get a good seat. Our
new carpet should be installed and hopefully we will have our new
maximum seating available after doing some re-arranging. We should now
be able to seat close to 150 people which is about 25 more than
before. We will try have Rep. Lankford start speaking by 12:05 p.m. so
we can have as much time as possible for questions and answers. As a
particular point of interest, James has done a lot of work on the
budget proposed by Congressman Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin). Congressman
Ryan actually spends quite a bit of time in Oklahoma, can anyone tell
me why and what does he usually do when he is here?
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
* TUESDAY - ADA AREA - The Ada-Seminole area tea party will meet
Tuesday evening, 6:30 p.m. at the Pontotoc Technology Center in Ada.
The meet in the Industrial Arts Classroom. Pastor Dan Fisher will be
doing his “Black Robe Regiment” presentation followed by Keith
Shankle. Mr. Shankle will be doing a presentation about he Federal
Reserve and its ties to international finance and the promotion of
socialism. Much of his presentation comes from information found in
the definitive authority on the Fed, which is the book, Creature From
Jekyll Island. If you live within 40 or so miles of Ada, these
presentations will be well worth your time and effort to attend.
* TUESDAY - TULSA AREA - The Tulsa Area Republican Assembly will
hold their monthly meeting at the Golden Corral, 71st and Mingo Street
in Tulsa. Members and friends gather at 6 for dinner with the meeting
beginning at 7:00 p.m. The speaker will be Dr. John Swails, Director
of the Center for Israel and Middle East Studies at ORU. Dr. Swails
has taught classes on 20th Century Middle East, Radical Islam, Modern
Israel, World War I, II, the Holocaust, Church History, Historical
Geography of Bible Lands and Biblical Hebrew. This should be a most
interesting meeting to attend and you won’t even have to pay tuition
to profit from his knowledge.
* THURSDAY - OKC AREA - The Business and Professional chapter of
the John Birch Society will have their monthly breakfast meeting this
Thursday morning at the Character Inn, 520 West Main in downtown OKC.
The breakfast buffet is served at 7:15 and the speaker begins around
7:40 a.m. The speaker is not confirmed as yet, but the meetings are
always informative and the fellowship among conservatives and
constitutionalists is always great.
++ OKLAHOMA LOST ANOTHER PATRIOT - WAYNE TAYLOR
Late last week Wayne Taylor, President of Taylor Foam, went to be with
the Lord after a fairly short bout with an aggressive form of lung
cancer. Wayne was a lifetime member of the John Birch Society and a
consistent member of OCPAC. His oldest son Bryan is currently the
Mayor of Bethany. Wayne has supported many good conservatives over the
years and he will truly be missed by his family and friends. His
funeral will be today the 18th, 2:00 p.m. at Covenant Community
Church, 2250 N. Mustang Road in Yukon.
++ LAST WEEK GOOD MARY FALLIN, THIS WEEK BAD MARY FALLIN
Last week I suggested praise for Governor Fallin’s decision to disband
the Ethnic American Advisory Council and also her decision to not take
the federal dollars which would have tied us to Obama Care, though she
had to be brought to the later decision. Unfortunately it does not
appear that Governor Fallin will have much consistency regarding good
decision making.
First, I want to address a horrible appointment she has made as
revealed on Mike McCarville’s blog. Governor Fallin re-appointed the
liberal Democrat Pete Regan to the Transportation Commission. Regan is
not just any liberal Democrat, but a young rising star in the Democrat
party. Regan has been the chief of staff for Congressman Dan Boren and
according to McCarville, his other mentors include Daddy Boren,
President at OU, George Nigh, Mike Morgan, Brad Henry and yes, Mike
Turpin. Regan nearly defeated Jeri Askins 4 years ago in the Lt.
Governor’s race.
As McCarville writes: “There are those who say Regan is a Democrat-
candidate-for-governor-or-Congress-in-waiting. That could mean he’ll
face a Republican nominee in the future, using his background (and
appointment by Fallin) to boost his candidacy.”
Some responses are as follows: “Incredible” said a longtime Tulsa GOP
warhorse. “It’s almost an insult to us (Republicans) in Tulsa… what,
we’ve got no one qualified for that appointment?”
Another response: A bewildered Southern Oklahoma Republican who spent
hours campaigning for Fallin and who holds a party post in the county,
asked about the appointment, searched for words: “Surely Mary has a
good reason for this, but boy, it hurts.”
Of course Mary’s number one spin doctor Alex Weintz responded with:
“Regan is a highly-regarded member of the Transportation Commission:
Peter Regan is a well qualified applicant with deep ties to the Tulsa
community and a long record of service. Governor Fallin was looking
for the candidate she felt would be the most engaged and effective on
the transportation commission, and that person is Peter.” All I can
say about Mr. Weintz’s spin doctoring is blah blah blah.
Governor Fallin, if you want a conservative government, not only do
you have to root out liberal Democrats, but you have to be sure and
not appoint them to important positions in government. If you don’t
wake up to that fact, they will undermine conservatism. I wonder if
you really care about conservatism or do you understand what it is
beyond the superficial?
Sources have also told me Governor Fallin stated at a recent meeting
that we should not pass the bill to prohibit embryonic stem cell
research. She indicated it might not look good to people outside of
Oklahoma and thus give Oklahoma a harmful national image. That might
harm our ability to attract jobs and improve our economy. Too bad Mary
has chosen to parrot the blathering nabobs from the State Chamber of
Commerce along with the editorial page at the Oklahoman on this issue.
These folks, who get their panties in a wad over image rather than
substance evidently haven’t got the message as yet. Maybe they need to
watch a little more of Oprah’s programming. About a year and a half
ago, Oprah exclaimed hope about embryonic stem cell research while her
friend Dr. Oz was on the program. He had to break the bad news to her
and tell her it was a dead end. It had no hope, the hope was in adult
stem cell research, not embyronic.
If Mary would listen to pro-life advocates they have been saying the
same thing for a long time. Eight or so years ago the citizens of
California voted to pass bonded indebtedness to the tune of $5 BILLION
(if my memory serves me correctly) for the purpose of state subsidized
embryonic stem cell research.
As of today, there are no beneficial findings, but a couple of things
have occurred. First, California has paid to divert scientists and
researchers away from promising efforts to jobs that are likely to end
up in futility. Second, it has added to the California’s bankruptcy
problems. The financial woes in California couldn’t have happened to a
more deserving majority of people who would vote to borrow money for
this purpose.
This is just one more piece of evidence as to how much influence the
State Chamber has over the Governor. What that means is that Oklahoma
conservatives are going to have to spring to action over and over
again when the Chamber is wrong on issues. Unfortunately, unless more
people wake up and get a little more discernment, we will lose most of
those battles, because the Chamber’s bought and paid for Governor as
well as majority in the legislature are solidly entrenched.
++ ATLAS SHRUGGED THE MOVIE
First for the answer to last week’s question about the former Ayn Rand
devotee who used to be a sound money gold bug. As I posed the question
that person eventually found a high placement job which requires a
presidential appointment and Senate confirmation. I had a lot of
responses and quite a few got it correct. It was Alan Greenspan, the
immediate past Chairman of the Federal Reserve.
As of Sunday, the movie has grossed nearly 2 million dollars which is
considered very good for a limited release low budget production with
little or no paid advertising. It will continue to play through this
Thursday and then a decision will be made if it will continue on the
big screen. It was reported that the average attendance over opening
weekend was 6,000 for each of the 300 theaters in which it opened. The
Saturday showing when we went was almost full and reports indicated a
Friday evening showing at Quail Springs was packed. It was also
showing at the Warren in Moore.
There were a couple of semi-spicy bedroom scenes, but no nudity. No
doubt the movie represents the morality of Rand the author. Beyond
that, the movie exceeded my expectations for a low budget movie in
both production quality and acting.
Now to the good stuff. It was probably a little less than 50 years ago
that I read the book, but the movie really brought back memories. The
book had a huge impact on my thinking, which along with other
conservative influences started me down a conservative path in life.
That is probably why Hollywood liberals, movie critics, Democrats etc.
hate the movie and are very critical of it. They know the danger when
powerful conservative ideas are presented in story format with an
ability to shape the thinking of a reader or movie fan.
Perhaps one of the most important things to remember when reading the
book or watching the movie, is that Ayn Rand understood certain
aspects of human nature. She well understood there are always a
certain number of people who always look for an easy path in life. If
that means becoming a blood sucking leech, a cancer, a parasite, a
thief or what other name you want to think of, there are those in
society who are quite comfortable in their low moral conduct which
comes from their lousy character traits. In their own minds they can
justify almost anything they do, any form of thievery. God’s word
speaks of certain kinds of people who can sear their own consciences.
On the other hand, there are also the producers in life who sometimes
tolerate a lot of abuse before they finally fight back. They may fight
back hard or in some cases, when the odds are really stacked against
them, they simply fade away and quit producing. This is where we are
in America today and Ayn Rand had a great deal of foresight when she
wrote the book. I urge folks to see this movie as it does such a good
job of portraying the varied reactions of people when faced with
difficult odds.
++ THE OKLAHOMAN, JERRY FENT AND COMM. DOAK
Saturday’s edition of the Oklahoman had an editorial regarding Jerry
Fent questioning the constitutionality of Insurance Commissioner John
Doak moving his office to Tulsa. I believe Jerry is obviously correct
when he says the Oklahoma Constitution requires certain elected
officials (it would include the insurance commissioner) to keep “their
office, public records, books and papers at the seat of government.”
Now for the other side of the story. The insurance commission has
maintained an office in OKC and Tulsa for probably the past 20 years
or more. Commissioner Doak will continue to keep his office in OKC
with all the required constitutional requirements, as well as have an
office in Tulsa. With today’s modern technology, it is easy to keep an
office in OKC and have available what is also needed to do the job in
Tulsa at the same time. Mr. Doak is expanding the office in Tulsa but
also reducing the size of the OKC office. When it is all said and
done, the state will be leasing less total space than before and thus
cutting down on the overhead of the office. While Commissioner Doak
will be in the City as needed, his decision will also cut down on
overhead because of lower travel expenses.
Jerry hasn’t filed a lawsuit as yet and perhaps he is just sending a
warning shot across the bow of an elected official, should he really
get outside of the constitutional requirements. Hopefully he will talk
with Commissioner Doak to check these things out before he files a
lawsuit, time will tell.
++ KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF OUR RUN-OFF ELECTIONS
The federal government has set certain time requirements before
elections to allow for members of the military serving overseas to
have time to vote in their elections back home. As a result,
lawmakers, led by Gary Banz (R-MWC) have introduced legislation to
eliminate run-off elections. That is a VERY BAD idea.
There are untold numbers of people serving in office today as a result
of run-off elections. Governor Fallin is an example as she had to win
a run-off election when she first ran for Lt. Governor, Brad Henry is
another or else Vince Orza might have been the governor in place of
Henry. Without a run-off election, newly elected Senator Ralph Shorty
would not be in office, also in the recent non-partisan OKC city
council race, Dr. Shadid would not be office, though 62 percent of the
voters chose him over the leading candidate in the primary race.
The list just goes on and on. Any complaints about the costs of the
run-off elections are bogus to those who insist that taxpayers pay for
partisan primary elections, as elections are one of the most important
priorities for a government of self determination. If government wants
to save money, one solution would be to have the political parties
pay for their own primary elections or else chose their candidates
through political caucus meetings. Otherwise, Banz and others of his
ilk need to suck it up and fund elections before many of the improper
functions of government.
But an important part of the debate about primary elections is that
the people won’t have a final majority say in who serves without them.
Election schedules can be adjusted and any complaints about the costs
of elections are bogus. If you agree, please call or e-mail
Representative Gary Banz at (405) 557-7395 or garybanz@okhouse.gov and
tell him, NO WAY, to eliminating primary run-off elections. Contacting
your own representative and Senator will also be helpful.
I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday. For instructions on
how to join OCPAC, please see below.
Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com
Friday, April 15, 2011
Governor Fallin, Speaker Steele and President Pro-Tem Brian Bingman held a joint press conference to announce...
Yesterday, may just turn out to have been a great day for the citizens
of Oklahoma. Governor Fallin, Speaker Steele and President Pro-Tem
Brian Bingman held a joint press conference to announce that they have
all agreed not to take the $54 million early innovator grant from the
federal government which was offered through Obama Care. In addition,
Insurance Commissioner John Doak announced his office would be
returning $1 million his predecessor had taken from the Obama Care
legislation. I am not sure, but by doing so, I believe the State of
Oklahoma has now severed all funds taken from the feds regarding Obama
Care.
Now for some of the story that has been unfolding over several weeks.
Previously, Governor Fallin and Speaker Steele have been in favor of
taking the federal dollars, believing it was necessary to create an
insurance exchange on our own to keep the federal government from
coming into Oklahoma and creating an exchange to foist upon us in the
absence of our own plan.
The first effort was HB 2130, which passed the House with 51 votes out
of a possible 101. When the bill arrived at the Senate, President Pro-
Tem Bingman surprised the Governor and Speaker Steele when he
announced the Senate would not hear the bill based upon grave concern
that in doing so, Oklahoma would likely to be wed to Obama Care. The
next day, Governor Fallin released a statement that it would become a
point of negotiations. As a result, I mentioned in the an OCPAC e-mail
the need to be wary and watch for future efforts to slip the language
in another piece of legislation.
At that time I began to communicate with several Senators and found
out that Senate leadership was truly and firmly set against taking any
of this money. They really meant it when they said they did not intend
to take any of this money. Jonathan Small from the Oklahoma Council of
Public Affairs did an excellent job of educating Senate leaders toward
understanding that if they took the money, that without doubt,
Oklahoma would be wed to Obama Care. Ok-Safe both lobbied legislators
and educated the grass roots citizens about HB 2130 which caused a lot
of bottom us pressure against taking this money.
Once it was understood that taking the money would commit us to Obama
Care, Senator Bill Brown (R-Tulsa) worked to create legislation which
he believed might keep the feds off our back, and allow us to create
something that might be beneficial for the consumers and businesses in
Oklahoma at the same time. However, grass roots conservatives,
suspicious of the true intent of the legislation, applied enough
pressure to narrowly kill that legislation in committee.
Fortunately, Senate leadership didn’t give up and drove negotiations
with the Governor and House leaders to craft the legislation that was
announced at the joint press conference on Thursday, April 14th.
Following is a quote from President Pro-Tem Bingman: “This private
enterprise network not only offers the people of Oklahoma more options
when buying insurance, it will serve as a defensive strategy that
protects Oklahoma from the federal health care law. This is Oklahoma’s
solution and federalism at work. Our plan is based on the principals
of the free market: it will not limit participation, it will increase
competition among private plans and offer consumers the ability to
shop for their best option.”
I don’t believe the proposed legislation has a bill number assigned as
yet, but sources tell me the Governor and legislative leaders have all
agreed to the language. The legislation starts out with the
statement: “The purpose of this act is to allow Oklahoma to establish
and operate its own Health Insurance Private Enterprise Network to
facilitate access to health insurance and enhance competition in the
individual and small employer health insurance markets.” Sources told
me about 85% of this bill is modeled after the Utah Plan with the
other 15% providing even greater protection from the feds as well as
more free market strengths.
There will be a trust created with a seven member board formed to
govern the network. One member will be an elected official, in this
case the Insurance Commissioner, who at this time happens to be John
Doak. The Commissioner will also serve as the Chairman of the Board.
There will only be one bureaucrat on the board and that will always be
the Secretary of Health and Human services. While it makes since for
the Secretary to be on the board, I am leary of Terry Cline, a
dedicated liberal, but that is who Governor Fallin chose as her
Secretary of HHS. I speculate he may have been the source of bad
advice early on to persuade her to want to take the federal dollars?
Besides these two, the Governor will appoint one person representing
health insurance carriers, one person representing health care
providers and one person representing employer groups. The speaker
will appoint one person who will represent consumers and the Senate
President Pro-Tem will appoint one person that is an insurance agent
or broker.
The language specifically states: “Funding for the Network shall come
from state and private sources.” I believe we must guard against the
legislature passing any kind of a bond issue for funding purposes. If
they can’t find a few dollars to get this started or find funding from
private sources, then the Network will just be slow to develop.
Some of the wording in the bill is a follows: To “Promote a
competitive, patient-centered, market based health insurance system
that includes a defined-contribution health insurance alternative for
employer-sponsored coverage which includes an aggregate premium
system; Encourage health insurance carriers to collaborate with
medical providers to offer health insurance coverage that provides
consumers quality care delivered in the most cost-effective manner;”
Other language says: “The Network shall not: Exercise regulatory
authority over any entity; Discriminate against any qualified health
insurance carrier willing to participate in the network; or Supplant
any marketplace outside the Network.
Privacy concerns are also addressed as follows: “All personal
information generated through the purchase of any policy purchased
through the Network shall remain confidential between the insurer and
the insured.
One final part, that I like is as follows: “The provisions of this
act shall be subject to legislative review and renewal no later than
May 25, 2014. That is the year Obama Care has determined the states
must be in compliance. This legislation is two fold, one it will
create something similar to an insurance hub, but it is not coupled
with Obama Care, it is our own plan. Two, a major purposes of this
plan is to buy time to allow for a different President to be elected
and different control of the U.S. Senate. If that occurs, it will be
imperative for new leadership to KILL Obama Care. If that is
successful, the Network can be reviewed by the legislature to see if
it is beneficial for the consumers and businesses as is expected and
thus be continued, or it can be eliminated. Activists will have to be
alert to the performance of this plan by the time it is evaluated.
I do believe there will be some in the grass roots that will oppose
even this effort, wanting absolutely nothing done in this regard.
However, doing nothing is not an option amongst the lawmakers as they
see it too important to by time and keep the feds from forcing
something upon the citizens of Oklahoma. I concur that this is the
responsible action for the Governor and legislature and as such I
congratulate them. However, the grass roots must always be vigilant
and determine if this network turns out to be beneficial or
problematic. We must also watch for any amendments which might harm
the intents of the legislation as it proceeds through the process.
Thanks for your time and attention.
Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com
of Oklahoma. Governor Fallin, Speaker Steele and President Pro-Tem
Brian Bingman held a joint press conference to announce that they have
all agreed not to take the $54 million early innovator grant from the
federal government which was offered through Obama Care. In addition,
Insurance Commissioner John Doak announced his office would be
returning $1 million his predecessor had taken from the Obama Care
legislation. I am not sure, but by doing so, I believe the State of
Oklahoma has now severed all funds taken from the feds regarding Obama
Care.
Now for some of the story that has been unfolding over several weeks.
Previously, Governor Fallin and Speaker Steele have been in favor of
taking the federal dollars, believing it was necessary to create an
insurance exchange on our own to keep the federal government from
coming into Oklahoma and creating an exchange to foist upon us in the
absence of our own plan.
The first effort was HB 2130, which passed the House with 51 votes out
of a possible 101. When the bill arrived at the Senate, President Pro-
Tem Bingman surprised the Governor and Speaker Steele when he
announced the Senate would not hear the bill based upon grave concern
that in doing so, Oklahoma would likely to be wed to Obama Care. The
next day, Governor Fallin released a statement that it would become a
point of negotiations. As a result, I mentioned in the an OCPAC e-mail
the need to be wary and watch for future efforts to slip the language
in another piece of legislation.
At that time I began to communicate with several Senators and found
out that Senate leadership was truly and firmly set against taking any
of this money. They really meant it when they said they did not intend
to take any of this money. Jonathan Small from the Oklahoma Council of
Public Affairs did an excellent job of educating Senate leaders toward
understanding that if they took the money, that without doubt,
Oklahoma would be wed to Obama Care. Ok-Safe both lobbied legislators
and educated the grass roots citizens about HB 2130 which caused a lot
of bottom us pressure against taking this money.
Once it was understood that taking the money would commit us to Obama
Care, Senator Bill Brown (R-Tulsa) worked to create legislation which
he believed might keep the feds off our back, and allow us to create
something that might be beneficial for the consumers and businesses in
Oklahoma at the same time. However, grass roots conservatives,
suspicious of the true intent of the legislation, applied enough
pressure to narrowly kill that legislation in committee.
Fortunately, Senate leadership didn’t give up and drove negotiations
with the Governor and House leaders to craft the legislation that was
announced at the joint press conference on Thursday, April 14th.
Following is a quote from President Pro-Tem Bingman: “This private
enterprise network not only offers the people of Oklahoma more options
when buying insurance, it will serve as a defensive strategy that
protects Oklahoma from the federal health care law. This is Oklahoma’s
solution and federalism at work. Our plan is based on the principals
of the free market: it will not limit participation, it will increase
competition among private plans and offer consumers the ability to
shop for their best option.”
I don’t believe the proposed legislation has a bill number assigned as
yet, but sources tell me the Governor and legislative leaders have all
agreed to the language. The legislation starts out with the
statement: “The purpose of this act is to allow Oklahoma to establish
and operate its own Health Insurance Private Enterprise Network to
facilitate access to health insurance and enhance competition in the
individual and small employer health insurance markets.” Sources told
me about 85% of this bill is modeled after the Utah Plan with the
other 15% providing even greater protection from the feds as well as
more free market strengths.
There will be a trust created with a seven member board formed to
govern the network. One member will be an elected official, in this
case the Insurance Commissioner, who at this time happens to be John
Doak. The Commissioner will also serve as the Chairman of the Board.
There will only be one bureaucrat on the board and that will always be
the Secretary of Health and Human services. While it makes since for
the Secretary to be on the board, I am leary of Terry Cline, a
dedicated liberal, but that is who Governor Fallin chose as her
Secretary of HHS. I speculate he may have been the source of bad
advice early on to persuade her to want to take the federal dollars?
Besides these two, the Governor will appoint one person representing
health insurance carriers, one person representing health care
providers and one person representing employer groups. The speaker
will appoint one person who will represent consumers and the Senate
President Pro-Tem will appoint one person that is an insurance agent
or broker.
The language specifically states: “Funding for the Network shall come
from state and private sources.” I believe we must guard against the
legislature passing any kind of a bond issue for funding purposes. If
they can’t find a few dollars to get this started or find funding from
private sources, then the Network will just be slow to develop.
Some of the wording in the bill is a follows: To “Promote a
competitive, patient-centered, market based health insurance system
that includes a defined-contribution health insurance alternative for
employer-sponsored coverage which includes an aggregate premium
system; Encourage health insurance carriers to collaborate with
medical providers to offer health insurance coverage that provides
consumers quality care delivered in the most cost-effective manner;”
Other language says: “The Network shall not: Exercise regulatory
authority over any entity; Discriminate against any qualified health
insurance carrier willing to participate in the network; or Supplant
any marketplace outside the Network.
Privacy concerns are also addressed as follows: “All personal
information generated through the purchase of any policy purchased
through the Network shall remain confidential between the insurer and
the insured.
One final part, that I like is as follows: “The provisions of this
act shall be subject to legislative review and renewal no later than
May 25, 2014. That is the year Obama Care has determined the states
must be in compliance. This legislation is two fold, one it will
create something similar to an insurance hub, but it is not coupled
with Obama Care, it is our own plan. Two, a major purposes of this
plan is to buy time to allow for a different President to be elected
and different control of the U.S. Senate. If that occurs, it will be
imperative for new leadership to KILL Obama Care. If that is
successful, the Network can be reviewed by the legislature to see if
it is beneficial for the consumers and businesses as is expected and
thus be continued, or it can be eliminated. Activists will have to be
alert to the performance of this plan by the time it is evaluated.
I do believe there will be some in the grass roots that will oppose
even this effort, wanting absolutely nothing done in this regard.
However, doing nothing is not an option amongst the lawmakers as they
see it too important to by time and keep the feds from forcing
something upon the citizens of Oklahoma. I concur that this is the
responsible action for the Governor and legislature and as such I
congratulate them. However, the grass roots must always be vigilant
and determine if this network turns out to be beneficial or
problematic. We must also watch for any amendments which might harm
the intents of the legislation as it proceeds through the process.
Thanks for your time and attention.
Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
...THANKS TO GOVERNOR FALLIN
++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
++ THANKS TO GOVERNOR FALLIN
++ TIDBITS
++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, April 13th will be held at
Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. Our speakers this
week will be Neil McCaleb of Edmond, representing the Chickasaw Tribe
and Brian McClain of Durant, representing the Choctaw Tribe. They will
each give their tribe’s perspectives regarding water rights in
Oklahoma. I have actually had this meeting planned for several weeks
and was surprised to see today’s (April 11) Oklahoman with an above
the fold front page article about these two tribes threatening to sue
over the Sardis lake deal between the State of Oklahoma and OKC.
This Fall, the long awaited Oklahoma Comprehensive Water Plan is
expected to be released from the Oklahoma Water Resources Board. Even
though there are several efforts already under way to control water in
Oklahoma, those efforts will probably increase after that report is
released. As a point of interest, for the most part, the same amount
of water exists on the earth at all times. We do not have a global
water shortage, we have plenty of water. What we have are distribution
problems. How do you get water, a staple of life, to where it is
needed and when it is needed at a reasonable price? That is the
problem.
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
* WEDNESDAY - OKC AREA - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) will be hosting 2 public comment hearings regarding regional
haze which effects the Wichita Wildlife Refuge. located to the North
and West of Lawton. The OKC location for the hearings will be at the
Metro Technology Springlake Campus, 1900 Springlake Drive. The
meetings will be held in the Business Conference Center’s meeting
rooms H and I. One of the meetings will be from 4 until 6:00 p.m. and
the second meeting will be from 7 until 9:00 p.m. This is your chance
to express your opinions to representatives of the EPA regarding their
possible mandates which could cost almost every Oklahoma household and
business a 15% to 35% rate increase regarding their electric
utilities. I hope folks will show up in droves to express their
opinions on this matter. If reasonable conservatives fail to show up,
a handful of environmentalists and global warming freaks will show up
and dominate the message in the wrong direction.
* THURSDAY - TULSA AREA - The EPA will also be holding their
public comment hearings in the Tulsa area at the Tulsa Technology
Riverside Campus, 801 East 91st Street. The meeting will be in the
Auditorium at the Alliance Conference Center. The times are from 4:00
until 6:00 p.m. and 7:00 until 9:00 p.m. I urge our readers in the
Tulsa area to attend these public hearings. A good question to ask is
how do those miniscule particles of coal residue fight their way
against the prevailing winds to create haze over the wildlife refuge
which is about 200 miles to the Southwest of the Tulsa-Muskogee area?
* SATURDAY AFTERNOON - OKC AREA - The famous book, Atlas
Shrugged, by Russian born author Ayan Rand is now being made into a 3
part movie. Part one will make its OKC premier this Saturday
afternoon, 4:50 p.m.. It will be shown at the Quail Springs Mall
Theaters. Rand understood the differences between a productive society
where people take pride in their best efforts and a society of low
producing leaches, where people destroy productivity and drive. This
book was and still is very prophetic as far as seeing America spiral
into decline.
One word of caution. While Rand’s somewhat libertarian ideas really
hit home in fiscal policies and their effects upon human nature, her
atheism led her to become a depraved and empty woman near the end of
her life. There is a movie about her life (don‘t remember its name),
which does a great job in portraying her life’s futility without God.
I must warn folks, that movie really deserves its “R” rating.
Here is a trivia question. What powerful person, appointed by the
President and confirmed by the U.S. Senate was a former Ayan Rand
disciple and advocate of sound money (a gold bug)? Today, this person
is anything but a sound money advocate.
++ THANKS TO GOVERNOR FALLIN
Last week I asked folks to call Governor Fallin’s office and request
her to live up to a pre-election campaign promise to dissolve former
Governor Henry’s Ethnic American Advisory Council. As I stated, my
opinion was that this group was little more than a front for the plans
of the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas’ efforts to help accomplish the
Islamization of Oklahoma.
A huge thanks to Governor Fallin, as she followed through and
dispensed with the organization. Hopefully, this will make it just a
little harder for the radical Muslims to carry out their agenda. I
gave out a web-site to view the video called Multicultural France and
some indicated it didn’t work. Here is a different address, hopefully
it will work this time as it is very important to view:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3YQANdvvbY.
++ TIDBITS
* Congratulations to Dr. Shadid in his stunning victory over the OKC
Mafia’s candidate Charlie Swinton. With a 62% victory margin, it
probably didn’t take long for OKC Mayor Mick Cornett to see the
handwriting on the wall and beat a path over to Dr. Shadid’s watch
night party to tell folks what a great person was chosen by the voters
to serve the residents of Ward 2. Yeh, right Mick, we new you were
pulling for Dr. Shadid from way before the polls were closed. While
Dr. Shadid is a liberal, I believe him to be honorable in his opinions
and trust that he will stay true to his promise to make city
government open as well as oppose the many corporate welfare schemes
that favor the good old boys in OKC at the expense of the free market.
* Voters in Canadian County narrowly turned down a plan last Tuesday
to divert less than a third of the .35 cents sales tax which currently
supports the juvenile criminals in Canadian county. The purpose of the
one tenth of a cent sales tax would have gone toward building a new
jail. Voters have twice turned down a tax increase to build a new jail
and are currently wasting huge sums of money to pay to house prisoners
in other county jails.
* In a very close vote with national ramifications, it appears that
the voters in Wisconsin have chosen to re-elect the conservative
Supreme Court Justice for another 10 year term. For weeks the labor
unions in Wisconsin and neighboring states have protested and rallied
to stop the efforts to roll back some of their excessive powers they
have received through collective bargaining contracts. While the state
was flooded with volunteers and huge sums of money, they still
couldn’t win a victory to stop the Wisconsin Governor and Republican
led legislature from institution sound fiscal policies and bring
corrective measures to the unions and their buddies that have caused
the problems.
* A huge disappointment. Last Friday, while driving home from
Purcell, I heard a news cast that State Representative Sally Kern’s
legislation to prevent foreign law from being used in Oklahoma courts
has been killed for this year’s session. As you may remember, last
year the citizens of Oklahoma voted to amend our State Constitution to
prevent Oklahoma courts from using Sharia or foreign law. Before the
state question could be certified by the election secretary, the
Muslims filed a lawsuit against the measure to stop it in its tracks
and a liberal federal judge sided with the Muslims. That amendment is
now awaiting a ruling from the 10th circuit court of appeals in
Denver.
The news cast indicated that Senator Anthony Sykes (R-Moore) decided
not to hear the legislation and thus killed it. I called Senator Sykes
over the weekend and talked with him as to why he decided not to hear
the bill, especially since he was the Senate author of the bill.
He is of the opinion, that to pass a lesser bill in the legislature AT
THIS TIME would weaken the court case regarding the state question
that is now in the courts. I agree, that to get a positive ruling on
the state question that amends our constitution would put Oklahoma in
a stronger position to fend off future court challenges, than simply
passing case law which is what Representative Kern’s bill happens to
be. My disappointment is over the belief that a bill passed now would
give Oklahomans cover against any kind of foreign law being used in
our courts until we could resolve the amendment issue. While I am
disappointed, I believe it to be best to wait until the courts
decide.
* Some in the Muslim community held a press conference yesterday to
express their opposition to Representative Kern’s legislation against
foreign law being used in our courts. The Muslims claimed that such a
law was an expression of bigotry and also anti-business. May I say
BALDERDASH and PIFFLE to those ideas. There is not an ounce of bigotry
in Representative Kern’s legislation and as far as anti-business, it
is about time to put that fairy tale to rest forever.
If a foreign entity wants to do business in America, they usually form
an American branch of their company or corporation and then do
business according to the laws of our land. It is much the same way
when American companies do business in foreign countries, they do so
under the laws of that nation.
Let me spell it out plain and simple. In my opinion, this local bunch
of Muslims opposing the patriotic efforts of Americans are nothing
more than a bunch of slick deceivers. I believe the only limits to
their false allegations are their imaginations on their part and the
gullibility of those who listen to them on our part. If these people
had no desire to see the cultural and political aspects of Sharia Law
implemented into our courts, they would never, never, never oppose our
state question or Representative Kern’s legislation. But because they
work so fervently to see these protective laws blocked, I must assume
they actually want Sharia Law instituted into our state and nation.
* A couple of weeks back I asked if anyone knew who and when the last
veteran to die who fought in what is commonly called the civil war?
Steve Byas came the closest to getting the answer correct. The
veteran’s name was Walter Williams, a confederate soldier from Texas
who fought under General Hood, also from Texas. Mr. Williams died in
1959 at the age of 117. The video I mentioned showed footage of his
112th birthday party and his body lying in state in 1959.
I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday. If you have not
joined OCPAC as yet, please consider doing so at this time.
Instructions follow my sign off.
Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
++ THANKS TO GOVERNOR FALLIN
++ TIDBITS
++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, April 13th will be held at
Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. Our speakers this
week will be Neil McCaleb of Edmond, representing the Chickasaw Tribe
and Brian McClain of Durant, representing the Choctaw Tribe. They will
each give their tribe’s perspectives regarding water rights in
Oklahoma. I have actually had this meeting planned for several weeks
and was surprised to see today’s (April 11) Oklahoman with an above
the fold front page article about these two tribes threatening to sue
over the Sardis lake deal between the State of Oklahoma and OKC.
This Fall, the long awaited Oklahoma Comprehensive Water Plan is
expected to be released from the Oklahoma Water Resources Board. Even
though there are several efforts already under way to control water in
Oklahoma, those efforts will probably increase after that report is
released. As a point of interest, for the most part, the same amount
of water exists on the earth at all times. We do not have a global
water shortage, we have plenty of water. What we have are distribution
problems. How do you get water, a staple of life, to where it is
needed and when it is needed at a reasonable price? That is the
problem.
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
* WEDNESDAY - OKC AREA - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) will be hosting 2 public comment hearings regarding regional
haze which effects the Wichita Wildlife Refuge. located to the North
and West of Lawton. The OKC location for the hearings will be at the
Metro Technology Springlake Campus, 1900 Springlake Drive. The
meetings will be held in the Business Conference Center’s meeting
rooms H and I. One of the meetings will be from 4 until 6:00 p.m. and
the second meeting will be from 7 until 9:00 p.m. This is your chance
to express your opinions to representatives of the EPA regarding their
possible mandates which could cost almost every Oklahoma household and
business a 15% to 35% rate increase regarding their electric
utilities. I hope folks will show up in droves to express their
opinions on this matter. If reasonable conservatives fail to show up,
a handful of environmentalists and global warming freaks will show up
and dominate the message in the wrong direction.
* THURSDAY - TULSA AREA - The EPA will also be holding their
public comment hearings in the Tulsa area at the Tulsa Technology
Riverside Campus, 801 East 91st Street. The meeting will be in the
Auditorium at the Alliance Conference Center. The times are from 4:00
until 6:00 p.m. and 7:00 until 9:00 p.m. I urge our readers in the
Tulsa area to attend these public hearings. A good question to ask is
how do those miniscule particles of coal residue fight their way
against the prevailing winds to create haze over the wildlife refuge
which is about 200 miles to the Southwest of the Tulsa-Muskogee area?
* SATURDAY AFTERNOON - OKC AREA - The famous book, Atlas
Shrugged, by Russian born author Ayan Rand is now being made into a 3
part movie. Part one will make its OKC premier this Saturday
afternoon, 4:50 p.m.. It will be shown at the Quail Springs Mall
Theaters. Rand understood the differences between a productive society
where people take pride in their best efforts and a society of low
producing leaches, where people destroy productivity and drive. This
book was and still is very prophetic as far as seeing America spiral
into decline.
One word of caution. While Rand’s somewhat libertarian ideas really
hit home in fiscal policies and their effects upon human nature, her
atheism led her to become a depraved and empty woman near the end of
her life. There is a movie about her life (don‘t remember its name),
which does a great job in portraying her life’s futility without God.
I must warn folks, that movie really deserves its “R” rating.
Here is a trivia question. What powerful person, appointed by the
President and confirmed by the U.S. Senate was a former Ayan Rand
disciple and advocate of sound money (a gold bug)? Today, this person
is anything but a sound money advocate.
++ THANKS TO GOVERNOR FALLIN
Last week I asked folks to call Governor Fallin’s office and request
her to live up to a pre-election campaign promise to dissolve former
Governor Henry’s Ethnic American Advisory Council. As I stated, my
opinion was that this group was little more than a front for the plans
of the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas’ efforts to help accomplish the
Islamization of Oklahoma.
A huge thanks to Governor Fallin, as she followed through and
dispensed with the organization. Hopefully, this will make it just a
little harder for the radical Muslims to carry out their agenda. I
gave out a web-site to view the video called Multicultural France and
some indicated it didn’t work. Here is a different address, hopefully
it will work this time as it is very important to view:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3YQANdvvbY.
++ TIDBITS
* Congratulations to Dr. Shadid in his stunning victory over the OKC
Mafia’s candidate Charlie Swinton. With a 62% victory margin, it
probably didn’t take long for OKC Mayor Mick Cornett to see the
handwriting on the wall and beat a path over to Dr. Shadid’s watch
night party to tell folks what a great person was chosen by the voters
to serve the residents of Ward 2. Yeh, right Mick, we new you were
pulling for Dr. Shadid from way before the polls were closed. While
Dr. Shadid is a liberal, I believe him to be honorable in his opinions
and trust that he will stay true to his promise to make city
government open as well as oppose the many corporate welfare schemes
that favor the good old boys in OKC at the expense of the free market.
* Voters in Canadian County narrowly turned down a plan last Tuesday
to divert less than a third of the .35 cents sales tax which currently
supports the juvenile criminals in Canadian county. The purpose of the
one tenth of a cent sales tax would have gone toward building a new
jail. Voters have twice turned down a tax increase to build a new jail
and are currently wasting huge sums of money to pay to house prisoners
in other county jails.
* In a very close vote with national ramifications, it appears that
the voters in Wisconsin have chosen to re-elect the conservative
Supreme Court Justice for another 10 year term. For weeks the labor
unions in Wisconsin and neighboring states have protested and rallied
to stop the efforts to roll back some of their excessive powers they
have received through collective bargaining contracts. While the state
was flooded with volunteers and huge sums of money, they still
couldn’t win a victory to stop the Wisconsin Governor and Republican
led legislature from institution sound fiscal policies and bring
corrective measures to the unions and their buddies that have caused
the problems.
* A huge disappointment. Last Friday, while driving home from
Purcell, I heard a news cast that State Representative Sally Kern’s
legislation to prevent foreign law from being used in Oklahoma courts
has been killed for this year’s session. As you may remember, last
year the citizens of Oklahoma voted to amend our State Constitution to
prevent Oklahoma courts from using Sharia or foreign law. Before the
state question could be certified by the election secretary, the
Muslims filed a lawsuit against the measure to stop it in its tracks
and a liberal federal judge sided with the Muslims. That amendment is
now awaiting a ruling from the 10th circuit court of appeals in
Denver.
The news cast indicated that Senator Anthony Sykes (R-Moore) decided
not to hear the legislation and thus killed it. I called Senator Sykes
over the weekend and talked with him as to why he decided not to hear
the bill, especially since he was the Senate author of the bill.
He is of the opinion, that to pass a lesser bill in the legislature AT
THIS TIME would weaken the court case regarding the state question
that is now in the courts. I agree, that to get a positive ruling on
the state question that amends our constitution would put Oklahoma in
a stronger position to fend off future court challenges, than simply
passing case law which is what Representative Kern’s bill happens to
be. My disappointment is over the belief that a bill passed now would
give Oklahomans cover against any kind of foreign law being used in
our courts until we could resolve the amendment issue. While I am
disappointed, I believe it to be best to wait until the courts
decide.
* Some in the Muslim community held a press conference yesterday to
express their opposition to Representative Kern’s legislation against
foreign law being used in our courts. The Muslims claimed that such a
law was an expression of bigotry and also anti-business. May I say
BALDERDASH and PIFFLE to those ideas. There is not an ounce of bigotry
in Representative Kern’s legislation and as far as anti-business, it
is about time to put that fairy tale to rest forever.
If a foreign entity wants to do business in America, they usually form
an American branch of their company or corporation and then do
business according to the laws of our land. It is much the same way
when American companies do business in foreign countries, they do so
under the laws of that nation.
Let me spell it out plain and simple. In my opinion, this local bunch
of Muslims opposing the patriotic efforts of Americans are nothing
more than a bunch of slick deceivers. I believe the only limits to
their false allegations are their imaginations on their part and the
gullibility of those who listen to them on our part. If these people
had no desire to see the cultural and political aspects of Sharia Law
implemented into our courts, they would never, never, never oppose our
state question or Representative Kern’s legislation. But because they
work so fervently to see these protective laws blocked, I must assume
they actually want Sharia Law instituted into our state and nation.
* A couple of weeks back I asked if anyone knew who and when the last
veteran to die who fought in what is commonly called the civil war?
Steve Byas came the closest to getting the answer correct. The
veteran’s name was Walter Williams, a confederate soldier from Texas
who fought under General Hood, also from Texas. Mr. Williams died in
1959 at the age of 117. The video I mentioned showed footage of his
112th birthday party and his body lying in state in 1959.
I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday. If you have not
joined OCPAC as yet, please consider doing so at this time.
Instructions follow my sign off.
Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com
Monday, April 4, 2011
CHARLIE’S PICKS & ANNOUNCEMENT ++ GOVERNOR FALLIN - ACTION ITEM ++ CONGRESS AND THE FEDERAL BUDGET
++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
++ CHARLIE’S PICKS & ANNOUNCEMENT
++ GOVERNOR FALLIN - ACTION ITEM
++ CONGRESS AND THE FEDERAL BUDGET
++ OCPAC MEMBERSHIP
++ TIDBITS
++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, April 6th will be held at
Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. Our unconfirmed
speaker for this Wednesday will be Jerry Bohnen, long time
investigative reporter and director of the news department for KTOK
radio. Jerry did excellent work reporting on the OKC Bombing and the
subsequent weeks, months and years of the controversy that followed.
He will discuss that subject as well as the principles a news reporter
should adhere to versus the broader latitude in which an opinion
commentator may function.
++ CHARLIE’S PICKS & ANNOUNCEMENT
* OKC WARD 2 SEAT - DR. ED SHADID - To remind everyone, these are
my opinions, they do not necessarily represent the viewpoints of the
members of OCPAC. Just prior to the March 1st primary election when
analyzing this ward 2 seat, I said Dr. Shadid and Charlie Swinton were
the 2 people not to vote for in this race and left it up to the voters
to choose between the other 4 other candidates. I expected these 2
candidates would be the leading contenders and as it happened they are
in a run-off to be decided this Tuesday, April 5th.
About 3 hours after my e-mail went out recommending folks not to vote
for either of these candidates, I received a call from Dr. Shadid. We
had a very good talk that lasted for at least an hour or more. Dr.
Shadid is an independent. Make no mistake, he is also a liberal, but
so is the Democrat Charlie Swinton. In fact I have access to an audio
recording of Swinton telling a group of liberal Democrats that he is a
yellow dog Democrat. In Friday’s Oklahoman, certainly no surprise,
they endorsed Swinton, basically saying his experience gives him the
edge over the, “2 good candidates.” Of course my thought is the
Oklahoman must be jumping for joy with 2 liberals running.
Bottom line, Swinton is the beneficiary of tens if not hundreds of
thousands of dollars in campaign help from OKC’s central planners, or
as I have recently dubbed them, the Oklahoma City Mafia. For the most
part, Dr. Shadid has funded his own campaign, not wanting money from
PACs or special interests. He has asked that independent groups not
expend independent campaign funds on his behalf. I am supporting him
because he does not believe in the good ole boy corporate welfare
schemes that are so prevalent in OKC. I believe he will expose those
back room deals and be a voice that will speak up when necessary and
not just push that green button on the Council horseshoe every time
the OKC Mafia wants something done.
I also believe Swinton should not be trusted. In May of 2004 he
testified before a State Legislative Commission investigating then
Insurance Commissioner Carrol Fisher who was later convicted on
charges of bribery. Swinton, a Senior Vice President and lobbyist for
BankFirst, facilitated a gift from the bank of an ice machine for
Fisher’s office valued at over $3500. Swinton nor the Bank were ever
charged because the deal was approved by central services, but I
believe it just shows how well he knows the ropes of how to go along
to get along.
To justify his taking the many thousands of dollars in campaign
contributions he has said he can’t self fund his campaign like Dr.
Shadid. In my opinion, a Senior Vice President of BankFirst and a
lobbyist, married to a district judge, and with an extra 20 years of
earning power over Dr. Shadid should be able to write a check to fund
his campaign if he chose. If not, then he may not be the kind of
person you would want to serve making decisions over a government the
size of OKC. I think he is dishonest in his rhetoric as he has
continually misrepresented Dr. Shadid’s positions on Maps 3 even
though he has to know the truth. I imagine these decisions come from a
Republican consulting firm which is whoring out their talents to the
liberal Swinton. Ultimately Swinton is responsible for these
misrepresentations.
* EDMOND SCHOOL BOARD RACE - ANN CAMERON - I believe it is the Ward
1 run-off race where my pick was Mike Blaylock who just missed the run-
off by 21 votes. The other most conservative candidate in the race was
Ann Cameron of whom Mike gladly endorsed.
* EDMOND CITY COUNCIL RACES - YOUR CHOICE - No matter where you
live in the city you will be able to vote for the candidate of your
choice in each of the two wards. I have read a great deal on these
candidates and others have spent time with most of them and the
possibilities are not good. I couldn’t endorse any of them.
* CANADIAN COUNTY JAIL ISSUE - VOTE YES - A blue ribbon panel,
chaired by pastor Dan Fisher, looked at ways to fund a new jail and
came up with a viable way to get it done without a tax increase.
Currently a .35 cents county wide sales tax goes to support a facility
for criminal juveniles. Canadian county had the largest percentage of
populations growth of any county in the state and as such the tax
revenues have really flowed into county coffers. In fact they intend
to pay off the juvenile center’s debt by the first of the year and
years early. As such, the center is deemed to be able to give up a
third of their revenues to fund the new jail. This is brilliant,
getting a necessary job done without a tax increase.
* ONE TO WATCH - The citizens of Wisconsin will go to the polls on
Tuesday to select Supreme Court Justices. The union thugs in Wisconsin
are working feverishly to get their puppets elected to the Supreme
Court and defeat any conservatives running for positions on the court.
This will be somewhat of a public opinion test in the “fiscal
responsibility war” in this battle ground state, though many citizens
don’t always do a good job of knowing how one issue relates to
another. If conservatives win, conservatives nationally will push
forward, if they lose, some will get weak kneed. That is why it is
important that conservatives never go to sleep. Our enemies never
do.
* For those out there that have been wanting to see the Truth
Project, it is now being shown at the Northside Bible Church, 1401
Northwest 100th (McKinley and NW 100st). Lesson #1 was shown last
week, but lesson #2 will begin Monday evening at 6:30. This will run
for the next 12 weeks to get all 13 lessons finished. I really suggest
people making every effort to view these powerful programs if at all
possible.
++ GOVERNOR FALLIN - ACTION ITEM
While governor, Brad Henry formed the Governor’s Ethnic American
Advisory Council. That group met a couple of weeks ago and was found
to represent people from about 25 Middle Eastern countries. I believe
the members of this council are for the most part a front for the
activities for the Muslim Brotherhood or CAIR, which is an un-indicted
conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation trail and convictions of that
organization’s efforts to funnel money to the terrorist organization
HAMAS.
As we learned at the recent counter-terrorism conference, the strategy
of many Muslims in this country is to become an advisor to elected
officials and promote multi-culturalism. I believe Governor Fallin
will have to decide this week to either disband this council or keep
it in place.
Please call and or e-mail the Governor’s office and urge her to
dissolve the GOVERNOR’S ETHNIC AMERICAN ADVISORY COUNCIL. The
Governor’s office number is (405) 521-2342. This is important as Mary
promised an OCPAC member before the election that disbanding this
group would be one of her first actions. However, in a recent story in
the Oklahoman she indicated she hadn’t decided as yet what she would
do.
Please view this important you tube called Multicultural France
http://www.youtube.com/embed/A3YQANdwbY. You will see what destruction
the multicultural experiment has done to Europe. If the advances of
Islam aren’t stopped in this nation the results will be the same here.
As a point of interest, our speakers at the recent counter terrorism
conference were invited to Great Britton to speak on these issues
regarding Islam. They contacted General Jerry Boinkin (sp?) to see if
he wanted to go. It was his opinion that England was too far gone so
he didn’t want to waste valuable time. The belief is that the Britts
are so weak kneed and politically correct that they will have no
stomach for the kind of violence necessary to take their nation back
from the hordes of Muslims that now populate their nation. These men
believe it will only be time before England is firmly under the
control of Sharia Law and the Muslims. In my opinion, that is why we
must stop the advance of Sharia Law in America through political
efforts before it might ever come to a day that it would break down
into violence.
++ CONGRESS AND THE FEDERAL BUDGET
We are nearing the next deadline to approve a budget with at least $61
Billion in spending cuts or have a partial shut down of the
government. This is a budget for the remainder of the current year,
which ends this September 30th. I have suggested this is probably a
good amount in mid year with much larger cuts in next year’s budget.
However, the Democrats have absolutely NO intentions to responsibly
reduce our massive amount of deficit spending, so Republicans must
have the courage to step up to the plate, do what is right and
convince the American public of their decisions.
Returning this nation to fiscal responsibility will be painful and
many who will feel the most pain are the blood sucking leaches who
have allowed themselves to become DEPENDENT on government for their
well being. This not only includes those on welfare, but also people
and entities who live on the government teat for functions and
programs which are unconstitutional. In addition, many on Social
Security, and Medicare (the entitlement programs) will eventually have
to see their benefits reduced to a level that is actuarially sound,
retirement ages increased or new revenues come into the system to keep
these programs from failing, but those battles should come at a later
time.
One of the ways the Republican controlled House of Representatives can
win the public opinion war is to send pieces of the budget to the
Senate rather than a complete budget which would require the Senate to
take it or leave it. The Republicans should send a bill with funding
for Social Security and Medicare. They can send a separate bill to
fund the Military, then send bills with severe cuts for the EPA, the
U.S. Department of Education, The Department of Energy, title 10
funding, and other wasteful or unconstitutional give away plans. If
the Democrats won’t support these important pieces of legislation,
then the Republicans can hold up the bill in front of the cameras of
the mainstream media and say we funded these programs and the
Democrats wouldn’t pass those bills. That strategy will win in the
public opinion wars.
++ OCPAC MEMBERSHIP UP-DATE
As of March 31st we now have 182 dues paying members. We have broken a
membership record of some kind every year since our beginnings 13
years ago. The target to break the 2009 record, the last non-election
year, will be a membership number that is more than 217. With the
first quarter finished, we are now 36 dues paying members away from
breaking that record.
I want to urge those reading the OCPAC e-mails to consider joining if
you have not done so as of yet. As I have stated in the past, more of
our funds will now shift to accountability efforts as we really don’t
need a larger number of Republicans in the legislature. What is now
needed are better quality Republicans. Redistricting will present some
important opportunities to change out some of the stogy establishment
Republicans who consistently rank on the RINO nominee list. To do
that, we will need a large campaign war chest. All I can say is thanks
for all the support over the years. It is not time to shrink back, but
time to press ahead as there is still more to do in Oklahoma.
Information on how to join will follow my sign off.
++ TIDBITS
* Last week Senate President Pro-Tem Brian Bingman (R-Sapulpa)
announced the legislation to create the insurance exchanges will not
be heard this year as his concern was that taking the $54 million
federal government dollars the Governor wants, might be used to compel
us to take part in Obama Care. I agree with the Senator, and thank him
for his sentiments.
However, I would have much preferred the legislation be heard and
defeated in committee. There are two reasons. First, in the spirit of
hearing every bill, I just don’t like it when leadership can make that
kind of decision. The other reason is that Governor Fallin brushed it
off and stated that the legislation will become a part of the
bargaining process between the legislature and the Governor’s office.
If it would have been heard and defeated, it would be dead for the
rest of the session and by the rules not able to be brought up again.
Conservatives are absolutely going to need to watch closely to keep it
from sneaking back in through some other means.
* Saturday before last, the conservatives ruled at the Tulsa County
convention. The convention passed a strong resolution to require
Republicans be responsive to conservative standards or suffer censure.
Mr. Burdick, an old friend from the McGovernite wing of the party,
argued we need to be working against Democrats rather than going after
Republicans. There was a day that was true, when we were in a
minority. However, if the Republicans were actually as conservative as
they say when they want our votes and money, they would govern within
reasonable bounds of conservatism and the Democrats who are in such
small minorities would be irrelevant. Sorry Don, its time for
Republicans to clean up their own house rather than worrying about
irrelevant Democrats.
* During the primary elections I kept saying that Randy Brogdon was
the game changer and Mary Fallin was the establishment candidate who
would nibble around the edges of change but not be the real
conservative. I don’t want to just keep harping on that race, but I do
think it is important to point out decisions she makes to prove my
point.
Governor Fallin recently named a new person to the Board of Regents
for the University of Oklahoma. It was none other than Clay Bennett,
point man for the ownership team of the OKC Thunder basket ball team.
Bennett married into the Gaylord family, principle owners of the
Oklahoman. In my opinion, the Gaylords and President Boren have had a
fetish with each other for many years, so it is a perfect
establishment pick on Governor Fallin’s part.
I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.
Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com
++ CHARLIE’S PICKS & ANNOUNCEMENT
++ GOVERNOR FALLIN - ACTION ITEM
++ CONGRESS AND THE FEDERAL BUDGET
++ OCPAC MEMBERSHIP
++ TIDBITS
++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, April 6th will be held at
Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. Our unconfirmed
speaker for this Wednesday will be Jerry Bohnen, long time
investigative reporter and director of the news department for KTOK
radio. Jerry did excellent work reporting on the OKC Bombing and the
subsequent weeks, months and years of the controversy that followed.
He will discuss that subject as well as the principles a news reporter
should adhere to versus the broader latitude in which an opinion
commentator may function.
++ CHARLIE’S PICKS & ANNOUNCEMENT
* OKC WARD 2 SEAT - DR. ED SHADID - To remind everyone, these are
my opinions, they do not necessarily represent the viewpoints of the
members of OCPAC. Just prior to the March 1st primary election when
analyzing this ward 2 seat, I said Dr. Shadid and Charlie Swinton were
the 2 people not to vote for in this race and left it up to the voters
to choose between the other 4 other candidates. I expected these 2
candidates would be the leading contenders and as it happened they are
in a run-off to be decided this Tuesday, April 5th.
About 3 hours after my e-mail went out recommending folks not to vote
for either of these candidates, I received a call from Dr. Shadid. We
had a very good talk that lasted for at least an hour or more. Dr.
Shadid is an independent. Make no mistake, he is also a liberal, but
so is the Democrat Charlie Swinton. In fact I have access to an audio
recording of Swinton telling a group of liberal Democrats that he is a
yellow dog Democrat. In Friday’s Oklahoman, certainly no surprise,
they endorsed Swinton, basically saying his experience gives him the
edge over the, “2 good candidates.” Of course my thought is the
Oklahoman must be jumping for joy with 2 liberals running.
Bottom line, Swinton is the beneficiary of tens if not hundreds of
thousands of dollars in campaign help from OKC’s central planners, or
as I have recently dubbed them, the Oklahoma City Mafia. For the most
part, Dr. Shadid has funded his own campaign, not wanting money from
PACs or special interests. He has asked that independent groups not
expend independent campaign funds on his behalf. I am supporting him
because he does not believe in the good ole boy corporate welfare
schemes that are so prevalent in OKC. I believe he will expose those
back room deals and be a voice that will speak up when necessary and
not just push that green button on the Council horseshoe every time
the OKC Mafia wants something done.
I also believe Swinton should not be trusted. In May of 2004 he
testified before a State Legislative Commission investigating then
Insurance Commissioner Carrol Fisher who was later convicted on
charges of bribery. Swinton, a Senior Vice President and lobbyist for
BankFirst, facilitated a gift from the bank of an ice machine for
Fisher’s office valued at over $3500. Swinton nor the Bank were ever
charged because the deal was approved by central services, but I
believe it just shows how well he knows the ropes of how to go along
to get along.
To justify his taking the many thousands of dollars in campaign
contributions he has said he can’t self fund his campaign like Dr.
Shadid. In my opinion, a Senior Vice President of BankFirst and a
lobbyist, married to a district judge, and with an extra 20 years of
earning power over Dr. Shadid should be able to write a check to fund
his campaign if he chose. If not, then he may not be the kind of
person you would want to serve making decisions over a government the
size of OKC. I think he is dishonest in his rhetoric as he has
continually misrepresented Dr. Shadid’s positions on Maps 3 even
though he has to know the truth. I imagine these decisions come from a
Republican consulting firm which is whoring out their talents to the
liberal Swinton. Ultimately Swinton is responsible for these
misrepresentations.
* EDMOND SCHOOL BOARD RACE - ANN CAMERON - I believe it is the Ward
1 run-off race where my pick was Mike Blaylock who just missed the run-
off by 21 votes. The other most conservative candidate in the race was
Ann Cameron of whom Mike gladly endorsed.
* EDMOND CITY COUNCIL RACES - YOUR CHOICE - No matter where you
live in the city you will be able to vote for the candidate of your
choice in each of the two wards. I have read a great deal on these
candidates and others have spent time with most of them and the
possibilities are not good. I couldn’t endorse any of them.
* CANADIAN COUNTY JAIL ISSUE - VOTE YES - A blue ribbon panel,
chaired by pastor Dan Fisher, looked at ways to fund a new jail and
came up with a viable way to get it done without a tax increase.
Currently a .35 cents county wide sales tax goes to support a facility
for criminal juveniles. Canadian county had the largest percentage of
populations growth of any county in the state and as such the tax
revenues have really flowed into county coffers. In fact they intend
to pay off the juvenile center’s debt by the first of the year and
years early. As such, the center is deemed to be able to give up a
third of their revenues to fund the new jail. This is brilliant,
getting a necessary job done without a tax increase.
* ONE TO WATCH - The citizens of Wisconsin will go to the polls on
Tuesday to select Supreme Court Justices. The union thugs in Wisconsin
are working feverishly to get their puppets elected to the Supreme
Court and defeat any conservatives running for positions on the court.
This will be somewhat of a public opinion test in the “fiscal
responsibility war” in this battle ground state, though many citizens
don’t always do a good job of knowing how one issue relates to
another. If conservatives win, conservatives nationally will push
forward, if they lose, some will get weak kneed. That is why it is
important that conservatives never go to sleep. Our enemies never
do.
* For those out there that have been wanting to see the Truth
Project, it is now being shown at the Northside Bible Church, 1401
Northwest 100th (McKinley and NW 100st). Lesson #1 was shown last
week, but lesson #2 will begin Monday evening at 6:30. This will run
for the next 12 weeks to get all 13 lessons finished. I really suggest
people making every effort to view these powerful programs if at all
possible.
++ GOVERNOR FALLIN - ACTION ITEM
While governor, Brad Henry formed the Governor’s Ethnic American
Advisory Council. That group met a couple of weeks ago and was found
to represent people from about 25 Middle Eastern countries. I believe
the members of this council are for the most part a front for the
activities for the Muslim Brotherhood or CAIR, which is an un-indicted
conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation trail and convictions of that
organization’s efforts to funnel money to the terrorist organization
HAMAS.
As we learned at the recent counter-terrorism conference, the strategy
of many Muslims in this country is to become an advisor to elected
officials and promote multi-culturalism. I believe Governor Fallin
will have to decide this week to either disband this council or keep
it in place.
Please call and or e-mail the Governor’s office and urge her to
dissolve the GOVERNOR’S ETHNIC AMERICAN ADVISORY COUNCIL. The
Governor’s office number is (405) 521-2342. This is important as Mary
promised an OCPAC member before the election that disbanding this
group would be one of her first actions. However, in a recent story in
the Oklahoman she indicated she hadn’t decided as yet what she would
do.
Please view this important you tube called Multicultural France
http://www.youtube.com/embed/A3YQANdwbY. You will see what destruction
the multicultural experiment has done to Europe. If the advances of
Islam aren’t stopped in this nation the results will be the same here.
As a point of interest, our speakers at the recent counter terrorism
conference were invited to Great Britton to speak on these issues
regarding Islam. They contacted General Jerry Boinkin (sp?) to see if
he wanted to go. It was his opinion that England was too far gone so
he didn’t want to waste valuable time. The belief is that the Britts
are so weak kneed and politically correct that they will have no
stomach for the kind of violence necessary to take their nation back
from the hordes of Muslims that now populate their nation. These men
believe it will only be time before England is firmly under the
control of Sharia Law and the Muslims. In my opinion, that is why we
must stop the advance of Sharia Law in America through political
efforts before it might ever come to a day that it would break down
into violence.
++ CONGRESS AND THE FEDERAL BUDGET
We are nearing the next deadline to approve a budget with at least $61
Billion in spending cuts or have a partial shut down of the
government. This is a budget for the remainder of the current year,
which ends this September 30th. I have suggested this is probably a
good amount in mid year with much larger cuts in next year’s budget.
However, the Democrats have absolutely NO intentions to responsibly
reduce our massive amount of deficit spending, so Republicans must
have the courage to step up to the plate, do what is right and
convince the American public of their decisions.
Returning this nation to fiscal responsibility will be painful and
many who will feel the most pain are the blood sucking leaches who
have allowed themselves to become DEPENDENT on government for their
well being. This not only includes those on welfare, but also people
and entities who live on the government teat for functions and
programs which are unconstitutional. In addition, many on Social
Security, and Medicare (the entitlement programs) will eventually have
to see their benefits reduced to a level that is actuarially sound,
retirement ages increased or new revenues come into the system to keep
these programs from failing, but those battles should come at a later
time.
One of the ways the Republican controlled House of Representatives can
win the public opinion war is to send pieces of the budget to the
Senate rather than a complete budget which would require the Senate to
take it or leave it. The Republicans should send a bill with funding
for Social Security and Medicare. They can send a separate bill to
fund the Military, then send bills with severe cuts for the EPA, the
U.S. Department of Education, The Department of Energy, title 10
funding, and other wasteful or unconstitutional give away plans. If
the Democrats won’t support these important pieces of legislation,
then the Republicans can hold up the bill in front of the cameras of
the mainstream media and say we funded these programs and the
Democrats wouldn’t pass those bills. That strategy will win in the
public opinion wars.
++ OCPAC MEMBERSHIP UP-DATE
As of March 31st we now have 182 dues paying members. We have broken a
membership record of some kind every year since our beginnings 13
years ago. The target to break the 2009 record, the last non-election
year, will be a membership number that is more than 217. With the
first quarter finished, we are now 36 dues paying members away from
breaking that record.
I want to urge those reading the OCPAC e-mails to consider joining if
you have not done so as of yet. As I have stated in the past, more of
our funds will now shift to accountability efforts as we really don’t
need a larger number of Republicans in the legislature. What is now
needed are better quality Republicans. Redistricting will present some
important opportunities to change out some of the stogy establishment
Republicans who consistently rank on the RINO nominee list. To do
that, we will need a large campaign war chest. All I can say is thanks
for all the support over the years. It is not time to shrink back, but
time to press ahead as there is still more to do in Oklahoma.
Information on how to join will follow my sign off.
++ TIDBITS
* Last week Senate President Pro-Tem Brian Bingman (R-Sapulpa)
announced the legislation to create the insurance exchanges will not
be heard this year as his concern was that taking the $54 million
federal government dollars the Governor wants, might be used to compel
us to take part in Obama Care. I agree with the Senator, and thank him
for his sentiments.
However, I would have much preferred the legislation be heard and
defeated in committee. There are two reasons. First, in the spirit of
hearing every bill, I just don’t like it when leadership can make that
kind of decision. The other reason is that Governor Fallin brushed it
off and stated that the legislation will become a part of the
bargaining process between the legislature and the Governor’s office.
If it would have been heard and defeated, it would be dead for the
rest of the session and by the rules not able to be brought up again.
Conservatives are absolutely going to need to watch closely to keep it
from sneaking back in through some other means.
* Saturday before last, the conservatives ruled at the Tulsa County
convention. The convention passed a strong resolution to require
Republicans be responsive to conservative standards or suffer censure.
Mr. Burdick, an old friend from the McGovernite wing of the party,
argued we need to be working against Democrats rather than going after
Republicans. There was a day that was true, when we were in a
minority. However, if the Republicans were actually as conservative as
they say when they want our votes and money, they would govern within
reasonable bounds of conservatism and the Democrats who are in such
small minorities would be irrelevant. Sorry Don, its time for
Republicans to clean up their own house rather than worrying about
irrelevant Democrats.
* During the primary elections I kept saying that Randy Brogdon was
the game changer and Mary Fallin was the establishment candidate who
would nibble around the edges of change but not be the real
conservative. I don’t want to just keep harping on that race, but I do
think it is important to point out decisions she makes to prove my
point.
Governor Fallin recently named a new person to the Board of Regents
for the University of Oklahoma. It was none other than Clay Bennett,
point man for the ownership team of the OKC Thunder basket ball team.
Bennett married into the Gaylord family, principle owners of the
Oklahoman. In my opinion, the Gaylords and President Boren have had a
fetish with each other for many years, so it is a perfect
establishment pick on Governor Fallin’s part.
I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.
Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com
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