++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
++ WHAT OBAMA, FALLIN, BARRESI, FORD & COODY HAVE IN COMMON?
++ TIDBITS
++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, October 17th will be held at
Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. Speaking this week
will be Brandon Dutcher, Vice President and Research Director for the
Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, Oklahoma’s conservative think
tank. Brandon will show a documentary recently produced by OCPA about
the Henry Scholarship legislation passed a couple of years ago. This
is a program that some of the government schools have been fighting
tooth and nail. You won’t want to miss this presentation.
If you were not at last week’s meeting, you really missed getting to
hear from Ward Connerly. I have heard him twice and am really
impressed by his gentle humility balanced with his determination to
promote the concept of individual responsibility. Log on to our web-
site and then click on the video tab and you can watch his
presentation: www.oklahomacpac.com
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
* TUESDAY EVENING - TULSA AREA - The Tulsa Area Republican
Assembly will host their monthly meeting at the Golden Corral, 71st
and Mingo in Tulsa. Many will gather at 6:00 for dinner then the
formal part of the meeting will begin at 7:00 p.m. with State
Representative David Brumbaugh (R-Broken Arrow) speaking.
* THURSDAY EVENING - MOORE AREA - The Sooner Republican Assembly
will have their monthly meeting this Thursday, October 18th at Earl’s
Rib Palace in Moore. Folks will eat between 6 and 6:45 p.m. with the
formal part of the meeting beginning at 6:45. Kaye Beach (AxXIOM for
LIBERTY) will be speaking about the practice of swiping drivers
licenses at schools, stores, and other places in relation to the
nationalization of our drivers licenses as an international I.D. card.
This is an important issue, in fact Kaye has a privacy lawsuit in
motion on this subject.
* SATURDAY - OKC AREA - Concerned Women of America (America’s
largest women’s organization) is sponsoring the TAKE A STAND
conference which will be held from 8:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. at the
Church on The Rock, 1780 West Memorial Road in OKC. Speakers will
include U.S. Representative James Lankford, Oklahoma’s Attorney’s
General, Scott Pruitt, State Representatives Sally Kern and Charles
Key, Pastor and soon to be state representative Dan Fisher and author
Janice Ponds of Tulsa. As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, Janice
Ponds was confronted with information that caused her to begin to
think for herself. Her conclusion was that she had been lied to and
that as a Christian she could no longer remain a Democrat as their
party platform was just too opposite to the principles of God’s Word.
There is no cost to attend, however they are asking that people
register by e-mail at: director@oklahoma.cwfa.org. If you fail to
register, walk-ins will still be welcome. This conference will promote
the need for Christians to get involved in public policy, become
informed voters and take a stand to turn this nation back toward the
principles that made us great.
++ WHAT OBAMA, FALLIN, BARRESI, FORD & COODY HAVE IN COMMON?
During the debate between Governor Romney and President Obama, the
President made the comment for the need to improve education and
specifically mentioned his “Race To The Top” program. It appears that
the Obama administration has Governor Mary Fallin, State Schools
Superintendent Janes Barresi, Senate Education Committee Chairman John
Ford and House Education Committee Chairwoman Ann Coody in the palm of
his hand as they all support Obama’s Race To The Top plan.
Fortunately, our applications to this program have been turned down so
far.
Even though conservative education experts such as Jenni White,
founder and executive director for Restore Oklahoma Public Education
(ROPE), along with others have tried to educate these Oklahoma
officials to the dangers of federal involvement in education, so far
it has been to no avail. Some lawmakers understand the problems, it
just doesn’t seem like leadership gets it.
I can’t say if their support for the program is because of the many
federal dollars that will flow into Oklahoma if we get approval for
the program; or if it is just because all of these gate keepers of
education foolishly believe that federal government involvement into
education will somehow be beneficial!
Unfortunately, this bunch also supports the “common core standards”
which is just another push by the federal government to control what
goes on in education and influence its outcomes.
Most Oklahomans believe that education is vitally important. However,
few folks understand the difference between education and
indoctrination. Few understand the difference between education and
job training. Few understand what the goals of education should be and
the necessary steps toward achieving those goals. Therefore, most
Oklahomans mistakenly support the government schools and the new
programs presented by the establishment to improve the dismal results
we receive from these schools. In other words, most Oklahoman’s are
enablers of the status quo, which is underperformance.
I recently saw the movie, DON’T BACK DOWN, a story about a teacher and
mother who both had children in a looser of a school with the teacher
also teaching at the school. The movie is based on a true story and
there are a lot of very good elements to the movie. It does a good job
of presenting many of the problems in government schools, regardless
of what state one might live in. However, much is left out of the
movie as far as providing real answers to the problem. While the movie
offers a directional change in leadership and control of schools, it
is short on any details as to what produces good education.
Everyone attending receives a book mark with information and a web-
site as to a national movement toward allowing for the solutions
presented in the movie. Recently there was an article in the Oklahoman
stating that State Senator David Holt (R-OKC) intends to introduce
legislation this next year to allow for citizens in Oklahoma to do
some of the same things presented in the movie.
I don’t believe people following a pattern presented in the movie will
do harm, other than take up time and perhaps disappoint others when
the reforms may not produce much better of an outcome than the current
government schools. Again, there are basic principles and values
necessary for quality education and if you fail to implement them, the
results will likely be deficient.
Bottom line, every Oklahoman should care about education whether or
not we have a child in school. Not only is the well being of children
at stake, but every tax payer is heavily burdened with having to pay
for the education industry in the state. I highly recommend folks
receiving the up-dates from ROPE. Why not send Jenni an e-mail and
asked to be added to the contact list for ROPE,
jenni@
you will respond and help turn Oklahoma around in education rather
than just being an enabler of the current system which is badly
underperforming.
++ TIDBITS
* GOVERNOR FALLIN AN AIRHEAD? - For the second year in a row,
Governor Fallin has allowed herself to become a part of declaring
October 24th as Oklahoma UN day. Last year’s declaration was a bunch
of gibberish and mush, most likely written by some of the UN advocates
who live in Oklahoma. We can only hope she didn’t write such BS (blue
smoke-and-mirrors) for if she did, then she is totally ignorant of the
intended purpose for the UN by its founders and the overall harm it
has done or else she is un-American. I don’t believe it is the latter.
Mary, please don’t continue to be an airhead on this issue!
* GOVERNOR FALLIN SUPPORTING A LIBERAL DEMOCRAT? - State
Representative Wade Rousselot (D-Wagoner) has been using campaign
literature with a picture of himself and Governor Fallin together,
implying an endorsement from the Republican Governor. Representative
Rousselot is ranked as the 83rd most liberal lawmaker out of 101 in
the House based on the lifetime rankings in the Oklahoma
Constitution’s Conservative Index. So why is Governor Fallin allowing
her picture to be used to benefit this liberal Democrat, especially
when David Tackett, the Republican candidate running against the
incumbent Democrat, is a viable candidate and a conservative
Republican?
Could it be that Mr. Tackett, among other things, is a political
consultant and was helping in the campaigns of some of the
conservatives who challenged some of the more liberal Republican
incumbents during the primary races earlier this year? Could it be
that the State Chamber is mad at having to spend hundreds of thousands
of dollars trying to defend some of their bought and paid for
candidates and are thus pressuring Fallin to help Rousselot win this
race? Is this pay-back to David for using his skills to help
conservatives replace the more moderate to liberal Republicans in the
primaries?
Oklahomans for Liberty are asking Republicans to e-mail Governor
Fallin’s political director Denise Northrup at denisenorthrup@cox.net
and ask her just who Governor Fallin is supporting in the HD 12 race?
This is serious for a Republican governor to allow herself to be used
to defeat a conservative Republican candidate.
* COMPARING OKLAHOMA AND KANSAS - Very interesting, during the
primary races, I believe it was 7 or 8 liberal Republican incumbents
that were thrown out of office in Kansas by Republican voters and
replaced by conservatives. Even the Senate President Pro-Tem was
defeated. However, in Oklahoma out of 7 or 8 races against incumbents
only 1 of the more liberal incumbents (Guy Liebmann) was defeated and
all the rest were re-elected, though most of the races were fairly
close. So what was the difference?
In Kansas, newly elected Governor Brownback, is a conservative and a
true leader. He came to office as a social and fiscal conservative
with a plan to reduce the size of government, eliminate the state
income tax and create a climate in which free market capitalism could
grow and flourish. Several entrenched establishment type Republicans
stood in the way of many of the reforms he wanted to enact. Therefore,
he actively campaigned to help the conservative challengers
successfully defeat the moderate to liberal Republican incumbents.
In Oklahoma, newly elected Governor Fallin is not really all that
conservative and even though she proposed a plan to eliminate our
state income taxes, she proved inept at leading as her ideas stalled
through the legislative process. In addition, she worked hard to keep
the Chamber’s chosen lawmakers in office so she supported the more
liberal to moderate Republicans and thus worked against the
conservatives. There is quite a difference going on between Oklahoma
and Kansas and I like much of what Kansas is doing.
* THE REAL PROBLEM WITH AMERICA - Sunday’s edition of the Oklahoman
featured brief interviews with several Oklahomans regarding the
following question: Who will you vote for in November? The answers
proved how insightful the author of the following quote happens to be,
though the authorship is debated. I will go with Alexander Fraizer
Titler, also known as Lord Woodhousley. He is supposed to have said
the following in 1770, just 6 years before we signed the Declaration
of Independence: “A democracy (today we function more like a
democracy than a republic) can not exist as a permanent form of
government. It will only exist until the people realize they can vote
themselves a largess (social benefits) from the public treasury. From
that time on, they will vote for the politician who promises them the
greatest amount of social benefits and that society will ALWAYS
collapse due to fiscal irresponsibility”.
Lenin once said, socialized medicine will always be the “gateway” to
full blown socialism. Now lets look at what some of the people
interviewed had to say: Amir, a restaurant owner from Edmond said he
would vote for Obama, because of health care. Amir’s wife has MS.
Its important that we have affordable healthcare.
How about Clendon from Mustang who said: “Undicided” It appears that
he wants the conflict between Republicans and Democrats resolved. Hey
Clendon, hopefully the days of middle mush compromise which always
allows us to slide to the left are over. Hopefully the polarized lines
between liberalism and conservatism are clearly defined and more
Americans will be persuaded toward the superiority of liberty and
conservatism. If so, that philosophy will rise and provide quality
leadership. If not, we are doomed!
Continuing on, Bill from Edmond will again vote for Obama as he says
he’s all for health care, he’s all for planned parenthood and he has a
favorable opinion of unions. Bill and Amir prove that there are a
sprinkling of liberals who live in Edmond.
The main one I want to focus on is Carolyn, a 21 years old student
from Dallas. She plans on voting for Obama and gives the following
reason: TOP ISSUE? “Education and social reform. The economy’s
ridiculously important, but currently, where I’m at as a person,
social changes like gay marriage and women’s issues and funding for
the arts, because I’m a college student and an arts major so a lot of
Romney’s plans would cut my funding.”
There is so much I could say about Carolyn, but to keep it in context
about Mr. Titler’s predictions of the collapse of a democracy let me
comment about personal greed and how it affects our decisions. It
appears that Carolyn, like so many others will determine who they vote
for based on how it will affect themselves personally rather than on
what is morally right and according to the principles of good
government. That is a huge problem in America.
As an example, I believe the Fair Tax, if implemented would be the
most positive thing we could do to improve our economy and it also
treats everyone with equal fairness in its application. If there is a
group in America that might benefit less under the fair tax than the
current system, it might be retired Americans. My wife is recently
retired and I am semi-retired. However, I would never even consider
how such a change would affect us personally to determine my support
or opposition to change that would be beneficial for America and
morally fair to all going forward.
I hope Romney is elected and I especially hope he will eliminate any
federal funding for the arts at the level for which Carolyn may be
speaking. Am I against art? Absolutely not, I just believe art is such
an item of personal preference that it should stand on its own two
feet. Let the market support the arts, not government. If Carolyn is
good at her venue of art and works hard she will succeed in the
marketplace, if not, she needs to meet the real world and do something
else.
I wonder how folks like Amir, Bill and Carolyn would react if they
knew that some people view them as thieves as they seek to use the
power of government to take their neighbor’s private property (hard
earned money) to redistribute to themselves and others for their
social benefits? I believe these are the kind of people who are
demanding the fiscal destruction of America. These aren’t American
patriots, I believe they are neo-American patriots, patriots to a new
kind of America, an America where “hope and change” abounds, an
America moving “forward” toward its destruction.
* ATLAS SHRUGGED THE MOVIE - Part 2 of the movie based on the 3
part book, Atlas Shrugged opened in theaters nation wide last Friday.
I haven’t had time to see it as yet but will as soon as possible. I
would suggest the movie will show what will happen if folks like Amir,
Bill and Carolyn control the future of America. Just remember, the
author of Atlas Shrugged was an atheist and as such determined her own
standard of morality, which was Godless and immoral. However, she
really understood the principles of socialism and how they destroy the
mentality and viability of a nation.
I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.
Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com
