ALLELUIA, AMTRAK MIGHT BE GOING AWAY!

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
++ ALLELUIA, AMTRAK MIGHT BE GOING AWAY!


++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING

Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, September 28th will be held at
Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. Our speaker this
week will be Darren Grant. Mr. Grant has a Masters degree in Science
Education from the graduate school at the Institute for Creation
Research in San Diego. Darren has taught in both government and
private schools. He also does a number of presentations on a wide
range of issues. One of which is on world views. He has asked me to
link to the following site and recommend our folks take a few minutes
to access it before he speaks:
http://www.worldviewweekend.com/test/register.php?testid=WORLDVIEW&groupreg=19684d78c.
Sorry, I couldn’t get it to light up as an url?

++ ANNOUNCEMENTS

* FRIDAY - The highly acclaimed new movie COURAGEOUS will make its
debut in theaters across America starting this Friday. It has been
produced by the same folks who did the very good Christian movies,
FACING THE GIANTS and FIREPROOF. Supporting these movies will ensure
more like them in the future.

* SUNDAY - This Sunday will be the 4th annual “Freedom Pulpit
Sunday” at churches across America where pastors realize the
importance of not only preaching the gospel, but also becoming
relevant in the culture war and then having a strong enough spine to
actually address the issues. In 2008, 33 pastors preached an election
sermon from their pulpits, then sent copies of their sermons to the
IRS, daring the agency to fine them or try to shut down their church.
Two of those pastors, Paul Blair of Fairview Baptist in Edmond and Dan
Fisher of Trinity Baptist in Yukon, were from Oklahoma. In 2009 there
were 84 pastors who participated, the number was up to 100 in 2010 and
an estimated 400 or more will participate in 2011. Standing behind any
pastor preaching such a sermon is the Alliance Defense Fund, a
Christian civil liberties legal defense organization, ready to take
any actions by the IRS all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Thus,
they are trying to challenge the unconstitutional Johnson amendment
which became a threat to a church’s tax exempt status.

++ ALLELUIA, AMTRAK MIGHT BE GOING AWAY

Just before I left for Reno, I heard a radio sound bite of Evan Stair
(sorry if I misspelled his name), an advocate for Amtrak and its
expansion, expressing concern that Republicans in Congress might ax
many of the Amtrak routes, including the route between OKC and Fort
Worth.

Then the Oklahoman ran an editorial last Thursday titled: “Loss of
Amtrak would hurt state’s quality of life”. In my opinion, it was a
rare moment of honesty about the inconsistencies of the value system
of the Oklahoman’s editorial positions. Discerning readers have
believed for some time now that the Oklahoman’s editorial page
operates under the worldview value system of situational ethics.

The editorial starts of by saying: “The Oklahoman supports the state
subsidy for Amtrak’s Heartland Flyer route. There, we’ve said it. A
newspaper that celebrates free markets and questions government
subsidies is inconsistent in supporting the Amtrak subsidy.”

Pardon me, in my opinion, the suggestion that the Oklahoman is
generally opposed to subsides is laughable. Just try to eliminate
Oklahoma’s Quality Jobs Act and see where they come down on subsidies
for businesses. How about trying to take away the 5.5% salary kickback
for a 15 year period of time from state coffers to the owners of the
OKC Thunder, one of which married into the Gaylord family which has
been the majority owners of the Oklahoman for nearly a hundred years.
If that occurred, I can just imagine the editorials about the need for
state lawmakers to keep their promises.

In the Oklahoman’s editorial they foolishly tried to make a comparison
between subsidizing Amtrack and building roads and bridges as well as
subsidizing airports through taxes beyond monies collected through
user fees. I am just as opposed to supporting the building of roads
and bridges by using borrowed dollars (Obama’s infrastructure plan) or
even collected tax dollars as I am of seeing our road and bridge user
fees siphoned off to be spent on other purposes.

Highway travel as well as air travel infrastructure costs should be
completely supported by user fees, not tax dollars. There are no user
fees associated with Amtrak. The meager price for a ticket to ride
Amtrak doesn’t even come close to paying for the operational expenses,
much less be considered a user fee to pay for its infrastructure
costs. Of course the number one problem with Amtrak is that it is a
government OWNED business, not a business owned in the free market.

The editorial continued as such: “Restoration of Amtrak service to
Oklahoma and the few communities served by the Heartland Flyer has
been good for the state’s image (I would suggest the Oklahoman’s lust
for approval “image” by the elitists in San Francisco, Chicago, NYC,
Boston, etc. is at the heart of their support for such a loser as the
Heartland Flyer).” They went on to say: “But it didn’t come without a
price - or an admittedly inconsistent position from free - market
enthusiasts such as The Oklahoman.” (I almost fell out of my chair
laughing so hard at the thought of The Oklahoman being such a champion
of free markets. The next part of the editorial will be their efforts
to justify their inconsistency by quoting poets and psychobabblers)
The editorial continues by saying: “a foolish consistency,” Ralph
Waldo Emerson wrote, ’is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by
little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a
great soul has simply nothing to do.’ Carl Jung said, ’One cannot live
without inconsistency.’” The editorial finished with “We can live
without Amtrak, but its loss would be a blow to the quality of life in
Oklahoma.”

I would suggest losing Amtrak would not be a blow to our quality of
life. We currently take 2 million a year from state taxpayers to
foolishly subsidize the Heartland flyer so more Oklahomans can go to
Texas to spend money than Texans come to spend money in Oklahoma.

We could use that 2 million subsidy to cut corporate or personal
income taxes and make life better in Oklahoma. In addition, cutting
the federal subsidy to Amtrak is vital to reduce our deficit spending
and try to save this nation. When Ronald Reagan was President, his
budget director David Stockton, tried to eliminate Amtrak and found
little support. He proclaimed, if congress couldn’t cut out such an
easy item as Amtrak, how would they ever cut the more difficult items
in the budget.

It is time for Amtrak to die in any market in which the ticket
revenues fail to pay the full costs of operational expenses as well as
infrastructure costs. Failure to do so would be the blow to the
quality of life in Oklahoma as well as America.

I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.

Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com

ANNOUNCEMENTS

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
++ TID-BITS


++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING

Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, September 7th will be held at
Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. Our main purpose for
this week’s meeting will be to debate changing our by-laws regarding
our RINO (Republican In Name Only) nominations for the purposes of who
we support in a primary election. We need to change this from a 2 year
average score to the first year’s score of a session. With
interference from the federal government, the state moved up the
filing date and primary elections. The new dates will not allow us to
consider a 2 year average for primary election purposes. I have been
trying to get a lady with a very interesting story to come speak to
us, but have not secured a commitment as yet. If I am unsuccessful for
this Wednesday, we will may view a fairly new DVD put out by the John
Birch Society regarding the invasion of illegal aliens.

++ ANNOUNCEMENTS

* TUESDAY EVENING - OKC - Tonight, OKC City Councilman, Dr. Ed
Shadid will host a meeting which will feature virtually every agency
leader in OKC. Though Dr. Shadid is too smart to use the term
sustainability or suggest the meeting is about the goals of Agenda 21,
it certainly looks like such. This meeting will ramp up the attacks
upon “urban sprawl”. While I supported Dr. Shadid in his recent run
for the council and am glad he is in office, this is the agenda he
supports in which he is dangerous. Remember, I said he was a liberal
as became evident when he ran against Representative David Dank in the
2010 election cycle. According to Oklahoma law, he had to file as an
Independent, but he made no bones about associating himself with
either the Green Party or perhaps it was the Natural Law Party. Both
parties are very liberal and infected with extreme environmentalism.

People in the “sustainability movement” which is affiliated with the
U.N.’s Agenda 21 objectives, hate “urban sprawl.” This bunch of
“central planners” want people to live “stacked and packed” rather
than in suburbs or on acreages such as where I live. They want people
to live in downtown areas. They want people to live up and up, not out
in the hinter lands.

Much of what is going on in downtown OKC are the objectives of the
sustainability movement. The parks, bike paths, narrower streets to be
more pedestrian friendly, light rail, loft apartments, and
entertainment venues are designed to keep people out of automobiles
and in a close nit location. Of course massive amounts of tax dollars
are funneled into downtown while other parts of the city have to fight
for every available penny of the city’s budget.

Speaking will be Blair Humphreys, OKC City Manager Jim Couch,
Councilman Ed Shadid, Russell Claus representing OKC’s Comprehensive
Plan, Chief Bryant of the fire department, Police Chief Bill Citty,
Rick Cain representing Public Transit, Marsha Slaughter about city
utilities, Eric Wenger from public works and Bob Tener with code
enforcement.

The meeting will be held at the OKC Marriott in the Grand Ballroom,
3233 NW Expressway. It is tonight, September 6th at 6:30 p.m. Look for
developers and builders to be demonized at this meeting. Bottom line,
the vast majority of people want to live where they want to live,
whether that is downtown or in the suburbs. If conservatives don’t
stand up for liberty, these central planners will institute policies
which will greatly restrict where people can live as well as how they
live in the future.

* THURSDAY EVENING - OKC AREA - Oklahoma City’s ultra liberals,
folks I believe fall into that category such as Nathaniel Batchelder,
Director of the Peace House and Dr. Robin Meyers, pastor of Mayflower
Congregational Church, are hosting a hard core “sustainability”
meeting this Thursday evening. The meeting will be held in the Bishop
Angie Smith Chapel at OCU (Oklahoma City University) starting at 7:00
p.m. The location of the University is NW 23rd and Blackwelder. Look
for global warming disinformation as well as social justice propaganda
and blatherings about war and peace.

* SATURDAY - PONCA CITY - The Oklahoma Second Amendment (OK2A)
organization is hosting a fundraiser at State Representative Steve
Vaughn’s Buffalo Waller Ranch this coming Saturday from 10 a.m. until
5:00 p.m. The event will feature a barbeque, legislative awards, Guest
Speaker Larry Pratt, the national director of Gun Owners of America
(the no-compromise 2nd amendment organization), skeet shooting and air-
soft competition and lots of door prizes, including a DPMS M4 donated
by H&H range in OKC. For more information and reservations contact
OK2A at www.ok2a.com or info@ok2a.org, or call (918) 844-4243. This
should be a lot of fun and an opportunity to support a great
organization as well as possibly win a great firearm. Tickets are $30
for an adult and only $8 for children 11 years and under.

* SATURDAY - CRESCENT AREA - There will be an excellent
presentation about the sustainability movement and its effect upon
farmers and our food supply. The meeting will be this Saturday evening
at 7:30 p.m. The location is the Crescent American Legion Hall. The
power point presentation will be about 45 minutes long and then there
will be time for questions and answers. I have seen this presentation
twice and it is very informative.

* SUNDAY - OKC AREA - This will be the 10 anniversary of the
attack upon the World Trade Center. Some of you may know that my wife
and I flew over New York City less than 24 hours before the planes
took down the Twin Towers as we were on our way to Amherst Mass. While
there we attended a special select board (city council) meeting and
got embroiled in a local controversy about flying American flags in
the town. My picture ended up on the front page of the third largest
paper in the state. It is a serious story and I have had the
opportunity to tell it in several churches over the years. This Sunday
I will be sharing it with the folks at Legacy Church which meets in an
old school building located at 4800 North Independence in OKC. The
service starts at 10:45 a.m.. How ironic, as a point of interest, the
church sets just South of a fairly new Muslim Mosque. If you would
like to hear this story and be challenged to be salt and light in our
culture, you are welcome to attend.

++ TID-BITS

* State Labor Commissioner Mark Costello recently announced his goal
to see legislation created this year to have state payroll officials
stop extracting union dues from the paychecks of state employees. One
of the things I like about Commissioner Costello is his desire to
reduce state expenditures as well as to make sure state employees are
performing proper state functions and not spending time on the
business of others. This proposal would save taxpayer money and keep
the state out of the collecting business for the unions. Great idea
Mark, let the unions bare the expense of collecting their dues, and
not the taxpayers.

* Times are still a changing on the political scene. The 2nd
Congressional District, mostly Southeastern Oklahoma and East of Tulsa
up to Kansas is considered to be a Democrat stronghold. The only 2
Republicans to ever hold this seat are former U.S. Representative Tom
Coburn and Wes Watkins who had held it for many years as a Democrat
before he switched to the Republican party.

The seat is currently held by the only Democrat U.S. Representative
from Oklahoma, Dan Boren. Boren announced he would not seek re-
election and the scramble has ensued for his successor. Former
Congressman Brad Carson gave up the seat to run against Tom Coburn 7
years ago. He quickly announced he would run for the office then
dropped out. Former State Senator, Kenny Corn of Poteau announced he
would run then announced he was dropping out. The Democrats don’t have
an announced candidate as yet, though a former district attorney from
Pittsburg County is expected to announce, but he has little name
recognition. Meanwhile, 6 Republicans are lining up for the race.
Where have all the Democrats gone?

* In addition, there will be a special election in the near future to
fill the seat recently vacated by the passing of State Representative
Rusty Farley. This seat represents McCurtain County, a stronghold for
the Democrats and also part of the 2nd Congressional District. Farley
was the only Republican to ever win this seat and only the 2nd
Republican to ever file for this seat, at least as far back as memory
can serve.

Filing period for this special election was a couple of weeks back and
surprise, surprise, 4 Republicans filed and only 2 Democrats along
with 2 independents, one of whom is Farley’s 28 year old daughter. It
will be difficult for Republicans to hold this seat, especially since
there are 2 independent candidates, but the remarkable thing is how
many Republicans are running. Meanwhile, the 2 Democrats are typical
for a rural area. One is a retired school principle and the other is a
retired school superintendent. Those are the kind of people who have
served as Democrats over the past 100 years, who have caused education
to be so expensive and so ineffective over the years.

I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.

Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com