Tuesday, October 16, 2012

WHAT OBAMA, FALLIN, BARRESI, FORD & COODY HAVE IN COMMON?

++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
++  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@restoreokpubliceducation.com. This is important, I really hope
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

Monday, October 8, 2012

DO VOTERS IN TULSA HAVE A CANDIDATE WHO CAN HANDLE MONEY?

++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
++  ANNOUNCEMENTS
++  DO VOTERS IN TULSA HAVE A CANDIDATE WHO CAN HANDLE MONEY?
++  WHAT’S OBAMA, FALLIN, BARRESI, FORD & COODY HAVE IN COMMON?


++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING

Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, October 10th will be held at
Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. Our speaker this
week will be Mr. Ward Connerly, founder and President of the American
Civil Rights Institute, an organization dedicated to educating the
public about the need to move beyond race. More specifically, the need
to eliminate racial and gender preferences. Mr. Connerly’s
organization is behind State Question 759. Following Mr. Connerly’s
presentation and the question and answer session our members will vote
to determine if OCPAC will endorse this State Question.

Mr. Connerly is the author of Creating Equal: My Fight Against Race
Preferences and his new release Lessons from My Uncle James: Beyond
Skin Color to the Content of Our Character. One part memoir, one part
moral guide, Lessons from My Uncle James is a touching, funny and
ultimately a philosophical book about living a principled and
productive life regardless of skin color. Lessons illustrates how Mr.
Connerly arrived at the ethics that have guided his life and is a new
starting point for the discussion about character that America must
have in order to move beyond race for good. Mr. Connerly is another of
the high profile national figures that we have at OCPAC from time to
time, therefore, you will NOT want to miss this meeting!

++  ANNOUNCEMENTS

*  MONDAY EVENING  -  ADA AREA  -  The Ada Seminole Tea Party will
host their monthly meeting in a new venue, the Perfect Blend Coffee
House, 730 East Main in Ada, starting at 6:30 p.m.. The first speaker
will be Ward Connerly of whom I mentioned above and then I will be
speaking on what I believe to be the hideous agenda of the State
Chamber of Commerce. If you live in the area, make every effort to
come and hear Mr. Connerly as it is not often that a rural community
has the opportunity to hear a high profile conservative speaker such
as Mr. Connerly.

*  TUESDAY EVENING  -  MOORE AREA  -  Middle East expert Brigitte
Gabriel will be in Moore on Tuesday evening, 7:00 p.m. at First
Baptist Church, 301 Northeast 27th street (about 2 blocks East of I-35
on 27th street). Brigitte has a compelling story as she suffered at
the hands of the radical fundamentalist Muslims in Lebanon as a young
girl. She thoroughly understands the dangers of Sharia Law and the
attempts by many American Muslims to use it to take over the judicial
and governmental institutions in our nation.

*  WEDNESDAY AT NOON  -  TULSA AREA  -  The Tulsa County Republican
Men’s Club will host their monthly meeting, 12 noon, at the Hibachi
Grill on East 74th Place South and Memorial Drive. Speaking will be
former City Councilor Bill Christiansen who is running for Mayor to
replace the liberal Republican Mayor Bartlett. Christian will discuss
his opposition to Vision2, the $748 million dollar sales tax increase
that will be on the ballot this November 6th. The public is invited to
attend. The folks in Tulsa had better wake up and inform themselves on
this issue, this will be a great opportunity to do so.

*  WEDNESDAY EVENING  -  SKIATOOK  -  Brigitte Gabriel, of whom I
mentioned above, will be speaking in the Tulsa area at Immanuel
Baptist Church of Skiatook, 625 South Broadway Street. The meeting
begins at 7:00 p.m.

++  DO VOTERS IN TULSA HAVE A CANDIDATE WHO CAN HANDLE MONEY?

This past Monday, October 1st the Oklahoman ran an above the fold
front page article about the Republican and Democrat candidates for
the District 1 Congressional race having a large amount of student
loan debt owed to the federal government. The debt is described as in
a range between $100,000 to $250,000 dollars. I have done a little
investigation and found out that the Republican candidate Bridenstine,
owes near that lower amount and I don’t know about the Democrat Olson,
but the article went on to report that Olson also owes up to $150,000
dollars in private student loans . Both have 2 degrees. The article
also indicated Olson’s wife has a similar amount of debt. Bridenstine
is 37 and Olson is 35, both about the same age.

The point I want to make is the need to have a person in office who
has an attitude of abhorrence toward debt as well as an ability to
handle money and build wealth. One of my problems with Congressman
Sullivan was that as of the last reporting I saw he had a very low net
worth, which is not impressive for the amount of salary he makes and
the number of years he has made such a high salary (probably $150 to
$180 thousand a year for the over 10 plus years he has been in
office).

Olson reports a family income of $111,000 and indicates he and his
wife struggle under the debt load. Bridenstine makes $36,000. For
Bridenstine to be current on his bills with a wife and 3 children
tells me he can handle money and we can only hope the pressure from
the student debt has created a hatred toward debt.

We are continually told that people with college degrees make X number
of dollars more in their lifetime than those without a degree. That
may be true, however, prior to his death Paul Harvey cited a study
which showed that people who went to work right out of high school
started earning wealth right away, whereas college students often wait
a few years before they start to earn wealth. If those same students
acquired debt during college, by the time they paid off their debt and
with a shorter earning lifespan, in the end they will have acquired
little or no more discressionary dollars than those without a college
degree.

Bottom line, I believe a college or university degree is vastly
overrated. There are some professions such as engineering, medical,
law and perhaps a few others that the need for a degree is valid. Home
school moms and dads without a degree prove on a daily basis that
children can be educated to a higher academic, social and spiritual
level than those taught by degreed educators in our government
schools.

Following are some thoughts by syndicated columnist Malcolm Berko. Mr
Berko writes about investments and does so by way of a question and
answer format:

Question

“Dear Mr. Berko, I’m 30, make a good living as a plumber and have two
children ages 4 and 6 who are in preschool while my wife works part
time at Walmart. We want to provide for their college and need to know
how to invest $150 to $200 a month for their education. One financial
adviser recommended investing monthly in three mutuals that look very
good. Another, whose seminar we went to, recommended a complicated
life insurance policy that will have a high guaranteed value when the
children are ready for college. Another recommends small partnerships
in apartments, oil, shopping centers, natural gas wells, etc. And
another told us to invest in a diversified portfolio of good stocks
that we would invest in every month. The mutual sounds the best but we
don’t know how to make a decision. Please tell us what you would do.
CT in Gainesville, Fla.”

“Dear CT: I’d prefer you save that money for retirement rather than a
college degree for your kids. When you retire in 40 years (if you’re
able) I’m certain you’ll need every penny you can beg, borrow and
save, and even then, that won’t be enough. The retirement future for
most middle aged Americans is bleak, and it’s a colossal mess out
there.

It’s a daunting task to invest for a child’s college costs. You have a
12 year time frame until the kids are college ready, which isn’t
enough time for the magic of compounding to work. Our market has
morphed into a casino, whose embedded players have the scruples of a
gang of sociopaths.

Most investments purchased 10 years ago are worth less today, failures
of over-aggressive stock market greed. This money is dear to you, and
you can’t afford to have fewer dollars 12 years from now than you have
today. Saving $200 a month accumulates to $28,000 in a dozen years
(without interest), which is what the cost could be for a single year
of college.

Bank your savings in an interest account and know that all of it will
be there in 2024. This isn’t what you want to hear, but I don’t like
the risks I see in the coming 12 years.

Now, you need to look around you and ask why an employer a dozen years
from now would hire a graduate with a degree in history, sociology,
literature, political science, philosophy, art or music theory.

Employers I talk with recognize a student’s 4.0 grade average but also
recognize the culture of grade inflation and from past experience
doubt a student’s ability to learn on the job.

We’re not in the 70s, 80s, and 90s anymore. The economy and its need
for new skill sets is changing.

Many educators wear blinders or are too bumbling to recognize this
change. Those who do prefer the easy, armchair sinecure of the 20th
century and won’t change.

Most of today’s bachelor’s degrees aren’t worth a blue pig in a green
huckleberry patch and too few master’s degrees are worth more.

Forget the Madison Avenue media hype about the importance of a college
degree; rather, look at the facts.

More than 54 percent of bachelor’s degree holders under 25 are either
jobless or underemployed as wait staff, cabbies or telephone
solicitors. Universities care more about becoming bigger than getting
better.

This year, your University of Florida recently announced an increase
in funding for its athletic department to $99 million and a decrease
in funding for its computer science department.

Your boys can make a better living as butchers, electricians, diesel
or jet engine mechanics, welders and yes, plumbers. They can get a
better education about life as apprentices in these fields rather than
doing dope at frat parties or sitting through mindless classes given
by 50-year-old nerds who can’t make a living in the real world.

Tell your kids to join the Armed Services, learn a skill, learn what
they would like to do. Then when their hitch is up, have Uncle Sam pay
for their college education.”

I really wish Mr. Berko wouldn’t hold back with his opinions. Recently
we have seen reports about a nationwide effort to increase the number
of people with degrees. This idea is also being pushed in Oklahoma.
Why and who is behind this idea?

First off, it is the people who earn their living as college
professors, instructors, administrators or those who work in other
fields associated with these bastions of leftist indoctrination.

Secondly, some businesses have bought into the idea that the old sheep
skin is somehow a determinate as to a quality employee, rather than
the concept that a reasonably sharp person with a good work ethic can
learn to be as, if not more, productive than the person with the
degree.

Third, many in government have seen the stats that the person with the
degree earns a higher wage. Therefore they believe, if we can only get
more people making more money, paying more personal income and sales
taxes, that situation will result in more revenue flowing into the
government coffers.

Finally, parents have heard the mantra about the “necessity” of a
college degree and they project that onto their children as they grow
up. Therefore, many of those kids coming out of high school have been
programmed to think, think, think that college is the only way to go
and thus are scripted to give it a try. They have been told they will
never amount to much without a college degree and the peer pressure is
significant to go to college.

Certainly some are successful in college and some really need college
for their future field or profession. However, many others aren’t
suited for that experience and thus drop out and get on with their
lives in other ways. We just have to hope they are able to overcome
the negative vibes about not amounting to anything without a college
education. Some of them go on to own businesses and become multi-
millionaires. Others learn the honor of labor and earn a good living
for themselves and their families.

I simply offer these ideas so people will consider them before they
just automatically go down the prim-rose path that is being laid out
for them by the system.

One more thing, a few weeks back I re-published several columns by
State Representative Jason Murphy (R-Guthrie) about the high cost of
higher education and ways to beat those costs through the rapid growth
of technology. Following is an editorial from the October 5th edition
of the Oklahoman which does an excellent job of summing up
Representative Murphey’s columns:

“State colleges need to alter business model to expand”

“Twelve Oklahoma colleges and universities are part of a national
initiative to increase the number of degrees awarded over the next 14
years. This is a worthy goal. However, those touting the effort hinge
its success largely upon increasing taxpayer appropriations. There is
little discussion of using technology to increase efficiency and lower
costs while serving a larger group of students.

That’s disappointing because online learning is growing in the world
of higher education. L. Rafael Reif, president of Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, recently wrote in The Wall Street Journal of
that school’s venture into online education. Since last December,
150,000 people from 160 countries have signed up for MIT’s online
course content. Reif wrote, ’Online education holds the key to making
residential education better and less expensive even as it promises to
offer education to many millions more people.’ He believes providing
courses online for a small fee can ultimately boost the school’s on-
campus efforts as well.

In Texas, Gov. Rick Perry has called for tying 10 percent of a
university’s funding to graduation rates. Perry has also called for
universities to develop a $10,000 bachelor’s degree, a goal that nine
schools have embraced. According to its student newspaper, The
University of Texas-Arlington is collaborating with Tarrant County
College and local high schools to allow students to complete 24 credit
hours of dual-credit college courses during their junior and senior
years in high school, attend TCC and then UTA, reaping a bachelor’s
degree for $10,000 in the process.

If schools as prestigious as MIT can explore lower-cost online
learning, why can’t Oklahoma colleges? If a $10,000 degree is possible
in Texas, why not in Oklahoma? According to The Institute for College
Access and Success, 56 percent of Oklahoma students currently graduate
with an average of $20,708 in student loan debt.

Instead, Oklahoma college officials often seem focused on maintaining
the current system structure and associated revenues. In 2005, OU
suffered a public-relations embarrassment after requiring most
freshman students to live on campus, including those residing within
50 miles who were previously exempt from that mandate. The university
backed off after public outcry from students trying to save on college
expenses by living at home.

Oklahoma college officials note that state appropriations account for
a smaller percentage of their funding today than in 1980, but those
statistics are misleading. State colleges no longer require
legislative approval for tuition increases - something that didn’t
occur in the 1980s. Between 2003 and 2007, tuition and fees at
Oklahoma universities increased by more than 50 percent. Rates have
continued to climb since then. State appropriations can comprise a
smaller percentage of the total budget even when lawmakers increase
taxpayer funding.

Furthermore, in-state tuition and fees at OU in 1980 were $1,713
(adjusted for inflation). Today, they’re $7,340. At OSU, tuition and
fees jumped from an inflation-adjusted $1,677 to $7,441 today. That’s
an increase of more than 300 percent, after inflation, at both
schools.

The forces driving more students to obtain a college education to get
21st Century jobs also allow colleges to better control costs while
increasing enrollment and preserving quality. Other business models
have changed since Oklahoma statehood; there’s no reason our higher
education system can’t do the same.”

Again I believe that college is overrated. However, the day is coming
when people aren’t going to put up with $100,000 to $250,000 in
student loan debts to earn between $36 to $55 thousand a year. Change
is coming and folks would be wise to consider those changes.

++  WHAT’S OBAMA, FALLIN, BARRESI, FORD & COODY HAVE IN COMMON?

I have run out of time, so this will be the lead article in next
week’s e-mail.

I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.

Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

I’VE BEEN WARNING, THE STATE CHAMBER’S REAL AGENDA

++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
++  ANNOUNCEMENTS
++  I’VE BEEN WARNING, THE STATE CHAMBER’S REAL AGENDA
++  THE OKLAHOMAN, THE GOOD & THE UGLY
++  OCPAC MEMBERSHIP UP-DATE


++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING

Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, September 26th will be held at
Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. This will be our
final week for interviewing candidates and then next week we will vote
to determine which candidates we will support. In addition we will
also vote on some issues that will become positions that OCPAC
supports for the up-coming legislative session.

++  ANNOUNCEMENTS

*  TUESDAY EVENING (tonight)  -  BIXBY AREA  -  Americans for
Prosperity invites folks to attend a special Back to School movie
night to honor Dr. Milton Friedman. The event will be at the Starworld
20 Theater in Bixby, 10301 S. Memorial Dr. from 7 to 9:00 p.m. The
movie will be: School Choice Myth Busters. This film will put to rest
many of the myths used by school choice opponents. The movie is free
with popcorn and a soft drink included. Here is the catch, there is
seating for only 100 people so you “must” RSVP: http;//
mythbustersmovie.eventbrite.com/.  Following the movie there will be a
panel discussion. Guest Panelists will be State Education Board Member
Bill Price, Myth Busters movie producer James Price, Representative
Jason Nelson (R-OKC) and Mark Lee Cantrell.

*  THURSDAY EVENING  -  MOORE AREA  -  The Sooner Republican Assembly
will host their monthly meeting this Thursday evening at Earls Rib in
Moore. Folks are urged to gather for dinner at 6, with the speaker
beginning at 6:45 p.m. This month’s speaker will be Dr. James Taylor
(JT), founder of R.I.O.T. (Radical, Interesting, Odd but Timely). J.T.
is a conservative black minister who is also a member of the Black
Robed Regiment. He has also produced a DVD called: A PEBBLE IN YOUR
SHOE - WHY I AM A REPUBLICAN. I have known J.T. for some time now and
plan to have him speak at a future OCPAC meeting.

++  I’VE BEEN WARNING, THE STATE CHAMBER’S REAL AGENDA

I have been trying to warn folks that the State Chamber of Commerce in
on the road toward such political power as to control the state of
Oklahoma and its policies. Oklahomans for Sovereignty and Free
Enterprise www.oksafe.org posted part of a transcript on August 21st
of this year which came from recording Fred Morgan, executive director
of the Chamber and lobbyist Chad Warmington. They were speaking at a
“lunch time Legislative Wrap Up Meeting on Tuesday, July 17th of 2012,
at Northeastern State University, on the Broken Arrow Campus.

According to OKSAFE’s web-site:  “Both Morgan and Warmington make
statements that left little doubt as to the Chamber’s intentions,
revealing what most in the grassroots already knew - that the Chamber
is an agenda-driven institution, single-minded in its’ efforts to
advance corporate interests only, operating virtually without
conscious and with little or no regard to principle when it comes to
policy issues.” (I might suggest labeling that as being pragmatic
without morality) “They want what business wants. Period.”

“These Chamber representatives admit they actively find, recruit, and
run the campaigns of those candidates who will vote the way the
Chamber wants them to once elected. They call these their ‘pro-
business’ candidates. (For those out there who think there is a chance
your Chamber-supported candidate will actually represent the interests
of their home district, please understand - it doesn’t work that
way.)”

“Fred Morgan, a former legislator/lobbyist, took over as Director of
the State Chamber a couple of years ago.

Morgan stated that before he came, “…we really weren’t very
politically engaged. But we know that in order to [unclear] that … we
know we need to be engaged and we need to be involved in the political
level as well. So we have engaged very heavily at the political
level.  It’s a lot easier to lobby a legislator who shares your ideas,
and your goals, and who knows something about business. And Chad is
going to go through a lot of the projects, kind of sum up our
political projects.”

According to Ok-SAFE, “The Chamber doesn’t want to waste a lot of time
working with legislators who may not agree with them, so they’ve
decided it’s better to pick and run their own guys.  This is called
‘being politically engaged in the process.’”

“Warmington admits, ’So we run campaigns, essentially, out of one side
of our shop.’ His power point presentation detailed the State
Chamber’s recent activities and projects on which they are focused.

Some of those activities include:

* Finding and recruiting candidates to run for office, regardless of
party affiliation
* Running campaigns, including mail pieces - positive for their pro-
business ’friends,’ and negative for their opponents, called either
’anti-business’ or ’trial lawyers’ - and radio and phone calls (live).
* Educating the candidates once elected so they’ll vote the right way,
called ’pro-business’
*Partnering with the Research Institute for Economic Development, or
RIED, a 20-year old special interest group, to rank legislators.  The
annual RIED Report claims to score legislators on ’business, jobs, and
economic development’, but the criteria used to rank them is virtually
unavailable.
* The use of The Political Intelligence Report, a subscription
information site to provide ’intelligence’ to their members.  The
Intelligence Report is also used to encourage or discourage campaign
contributions, among other things.
* The creation of ’We Are Watching Them’ website, for tracking votes
and detailing a ’top offenders’ list of legislators who don’t vote the
way the Chamber wants them to vote.
*  The creation of the Oklahoma Civil Justice Council, an evaluation
system to criticize judges who render decisions that the Chamber’s
corporate members don’t agree with. The criteria is based on whether
the judge’s decision ’expanded or contracted’ liability for
businesses.  This recently-created Council has been criticized by Rep.
John Bennett, a conservative legislator, who pointed out that judges
are supposed to be impartial.  Bennett in turn is being targeted by
the State Chamber for being ’anti-business.’”

OKSAFE goes on to say:  “Warmington was quite enthusiastic over the
Chamber’s agenda - and without conscious, it seems, when it comes to
how the Chamber conducts campaigns for their chosen candidates. He
never once mentioned the character assassination the Chamber engaged
in while ’defending’ their ’pro-business friends’ during the recent
elections. Think this didn’t happen? Just ask Pastor Paul Blair of
Edmond, OK who ran against the Chamber’s buddy Senator Clark Jolley,
or Kevin McDugle of Tulsa who took on the progressive Senator Brian
Crain in the primary elections this year. The State Chamber
demonstrated they have no scruples when it comes to getting what they
want - and removing obstacles that get in their way.” Both the audio
and transcript of that meeting are available on the OKSAFE web-site.

Following are some Chamber Meeting Quotes:

“This ain’t your granddaddy’s State Chamber.” “… we have engaged very
heavily at the political level.”

“What we decided is that we couldn’t just wait and hope and pray that
good legislators showed up at the Capitol… so we run campaigns,
essentially, out of one side of our shop… we don’t care what party
you’re from,…”

“We have our legislative agenda…. [A]nd if they’re voting against the
legislation the business community wants they you’re, you get a bad
score…”

“How do I get off your list?” And I said, “It’s very easy, just kinda
vote your way off the list… if you vote the right way, you’ll get off
the list.”

“I mean, we absolutely helped switch votes.”

“Oklahoma Civil Justice Council is not directly related to the
Legislature, it’s another project we wanted to point out. We’re doing
the same thing with Judges and we’ve caught a little bit of heat for
it. It’s a brand new project that Fred uh, has, uh, been spearheading…
And we’re going to do the same job of evaluation system on Judges and
all we’re going to judge Judges on are, do they expand or contract
liability for businesses…?”

“But part of the problem is we spend all of our time to recruit good
business candidates, we get them elected, we get them educated, we get
them to vote the right way on a bill, and then the bill goes to the
Supreme Court and gets struck down… we’ve got some work to do making
sure that the business community…understand who these Judges are…”
“Representative Bennett came out and criticized us for having the gall
to evaluate judges…”

“ So, again, this is the, the RIED Score, many of you have seen it. It
lists who got what… so again, we go back to party affiliation, we
don’t care what party you’re from - we just care that you’re voting
for business.”

Now folks this next quote, I believe from Chad, is the most revealing
of them all:  “Uh, and for us, you know, political guys, you know, a
lot of times we, you know, the legislature spends a lot of time
talking about things that just don’t matter - I mean, they want to
talk about tax cuts and all that stuff… So we’re going to have to
figure out… how to help, uh, refocus maybe the legislators’ attention
on things that are actually going to create jobs, versus worrying
about tax cuts and tax credits and stuff like that.”

Between all the “uhs”, “you knows” and “I means” if you need any help
reading between the lines may I suggest the following: First off look
at the arrogance, how their attitude toward lawmakers is like subjects
to control, to pull their strings and make them dance when the Chamber
plays the music. Secondly, going back to TABOR (TAxpayers Bill Of
Rights) as well as other efforts to reduce the cost of government to
the taxpayer, I have noticed it is often the very wealthy, the State
Chamber types, who are opposed to such efforts. In fact, often times
you will find this same crowd involved in efforts to raise taxes or
fees such as the effort a few years back to increase the fee we pay
when we purchase a gallon of gas or diesel, so additional monies could
be used to re-build more roads and bridges (With the take over by the
Republicans, that is now occurring without a fee or tax increase, much
to the chagrin of Tulsa’s David Blatt and the leftist think thank he
heads up).

Why does this bunch oppose tax cuts and often times support tax or fee
increases? I believe it is primarily because of their view on
economics. Regardless of what they say, I don’t believe they are
really supporters of “free market capitalism”. Their ideology leans
more toward a belief in “fascist capitalism” and or “socialist
capitalism.” Socialist capitalism is where the government owns
businesses such as the Reed Center in MWC and its adjoining hotel and
restaurant, or the water park in Edmond, as well as the Chesapeake
Energy Arena and the Thunder’s practice facility in OKC (before the
taxpayers built the $19 million practice facility near Britton Road
and the Broadway extension which is leased for $100,000 per year which
will take 190 years for OKC to re-coup its investment, the Thunder had
its own practice facility on North Lincoln which they owned for about
3 or 4 million dollars) all owned by the city of OKC and leased
through sweet-heart deals to those who use them.

Under fascist capitalism, the government doesn’t own businesses, they
just favor or control them through regulations, subsidies, grants, tax
credits or other kick-back schemes as well as determining who gets the
approved opportunities and locations for their businesses. These are
primarily re-distribution of wealth schemes, often times re-
distributing the wealth of the middle class to the very wealthy. Free
market capitalism struggles to survive against this un-fair
competition.

Bottom line, if you are going to give away a lot of money to
businesses (hundreds of millions of dollars each year) you can NOT
allow your tax base to get too low. You must keep it sufficiently high
to have enough money to give away. This system is highly immoral and
it is a system that also may facilitate the less than the best to rise
to the top as well as creating animosities between the citizens and
competitors in business.

We all want a vibrant economy, good jobs and professions for ourselves
and our children as well as an appealing place for good people in
other states to migrate to Oklahoma. Therefore, the question is, do we
try to have a free market environment with a low tax base and minimal
regulations or do we keep a high tax base with a lot of regulations
where government, not the market is picking the winners and losers? I
believe the State Chamber’s philosophy’s is the latter, after all,
they like helping their buddies and themselves other peoples money.

With all that said, we were recently approached by the State Chamber
and asked to help with passage of State Question 766, an effort to
prevent a tax on businesses, harmful to businesses. The Chamber is
right on this one and when they are right, we will join hands with
them, but when they are wrong, we will oppose them.

++  THE OKLAHOMAN, THE GOOD & THE UGLY

Over the past few weeks I have been suggesting that the Oklahoman has
been returning to its more conservative history on the editorial
page.  Actually they have been writing a lot of good columns, but
recently they really messed up. Yes, I was on vacation for 15 days,
but I eventually get caught up with the 5 newspapers I read and low
and behold, September 1st was a very ugly day for the Oklahoman’s
editorial page. The editorial in question is not long. I will put my
opinion comments in italics and in parenthesis.

“Election Message”

Taking advantage of President Barack Osama’s  “you didn’t build that”
comment, Republicans repeatedly highlighted entrepreneurs and the
reality of achieving the American dream during the party’s national
convention. The national GOP clearly wants to be seen as a defender of
free markets and the ability of one man or woman with an idea to
succeed.  Locally, Republican voters endorsed that message by electing
Mark McBride to a state House seat in Moore. McBride, who owns a
roofing and construction business, replaces state Rep. randy Terrill,
a Republican known for anti-business obsessions.

(First off, I am very glad Mark McBride won his race, he was also
backed by OCPAC. However, in all the years I have known Randy Terrill,
which is before he was even in the legislature, I have never known him
to have any anti-business ideas, much less anti-business obsessions.
If my memory serves me correctly, Randy was a major force in
eliminating some of the franchise taxes on small businesses and a huge
supporter of the reductions in the state income tax rates, both pro
business efforts. I suspect what the Oklahoman is talking about were
Randy’s efforts to pass HB 1804, the legislation to deal with the
invasion of illegal aliens into our state.

If the Oklahoman thinks it is pro-business to risk radically changing
our culture, eventually creating sufficient numbers of minority voters
nation wide to make sure Democrats like Obama will eventually be un-
beatable, if they are willing to sacrifice our national sovereignty
for cheap labor, then they are some sick puppies. None of those three
serious issues are pro-business in the long run and that doesn’t even
take into account the stressrd on our jobs for citizens, health care,
education, welfare or jail and prison systems that we have to deal
with today).

McBride’s runoff opponent was backed by the Sooner Tea Party, a
splinter group that (unlike the national tea party movement) tends to
view individuals’ business success as suspect or worse.

(The Sooner Tea Party probably attaches itself to candidates in many
cases without being asked and since they are a splinter group, why
even bring them up? They are ineffective and more likely to be the
kiss of death for a candidate rather than a help. I have no use for
the Sooner Tea Party or its leader Al Gerhart, but I will say this, Al
is a hard working small businessman that I have never known to be
against business success as long as those achieving success did so
according to the principles of the free market and did not break the
law to achieve their success).

McBrides win is a victory for free-market viewpoints in the Oklahoma
GOP, and a rebuke to the Occupy Wall Street-style hysteria some sought
to embed in Republican circles.”

(I am sorry, but that statement is foolish on its face. In the past I
have stated my belief that Mark’s opponent wasn’t in control of her
emotions sufficiently to be a good lawmaker. As wild as her attacks
were at some times, she wasn’t anywhere near to promoting the extreme
leftist ideas of the Occupy movement. Among all the occupy movement
stooges in Oklahoma, I doubt you could find a single person in that
effort registered as a Republican.

Randy Terrill’s political fortunes, as far as holding office again,
have probably been irreparably harmed. But, he has done much more for
the State of Oklahoma and its citizens that deserves honor than he has
done that deserves ridicule. This editorial by the Oklahoman was off
base and over the top in my opinion. Hopefully they will avoid this
kind of tripe in the future and get back to writing quality
editorials).

++  OCPAC MEMBERSHIP UP-DATE

As of last Wednesday, OCPAC has 242 dues paying members which is ahead
of last year’s membership of 217. The largest number of memberships
come from OKC, with Edmond a close second and then Tulsa is in 3rd
place. For your interest the following is a list of other towns or
cities across Oklahoma with dues paying members, they are not in any
order: Moore, Holdenville, Blanchard, Shawnee, Harrah, Calvin, Konawa,
Hooker, Seminole, Jones, Norman, Meridian, Midwest City, Duncan,
Broken Bow, Broken Arrow, Del City, Guthrie, Yukon, Ponca City,
Stratford, Alva, Lawton, Mustang, Luther, Choctaw, Newkirk,
Bartlesville, Ada, Purcell, Warr Acres, Owasso, Nichols Hills, Macomb,
Wyandotte, Sapulpa, Newcastle and Arapaho.

As you can see, we have members from the Southeast to the Panhandle
and from the Northeast to the Southwest as well as many points in-
between. OCPAC is truly a statewide organization with dues paying
members from all over that state, many of whom can seldom if ever
attend our meetings, but they know we support quality candidates from
all over the state in our effort to make Oklahoma a more conservative
state.

One of the reasons for such support, it that none of your
contributions are eaten up by staff as we are all volunteer, and very
little is spent on overhead. Yet we do the hard work of trying to
ferret out the true conservatives from the moderates or even RINO’s.
Unless you are willing to do that work for yourself, may I suggest
your support for conservatism through OCPAC. If you have not joined
OCPAC for this year, please consider doing so by Wednesday the 3rd of
October. After our members present at our meeting vote to determine
which candidates we have been interviewing are to receive our support,
we will get checks out to them with haste so they have the time to
plan on how to best use that money. Instructions on how to join are
below.

I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.

Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com

Monday, September 17, 2012

PROFILING ARABS AND MUSLIMS ++ THE PASSING OF RUSS REINHARDT, DEFINITON OF A PATRIOT

++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
++  ANNOUNCEMENTS
++  PROFILING ARABS AND MUSLIMS
++  THE PASSING OF RUSS REINHARDT, DEFINITON OF A PATRIOT


++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING

Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, September 19th will be held at
Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. We have invited 6
candidates (some do not come) to our meeting this Wednesday as we
continue interviewing candidates for the state legislature. We will
have one more week for interviews and then on October 3rd our dues
paying members as of September 19 who attend the meeting on the 3rd
will vote to determine which of the candidates we have been
interviewing will receive our support.

++  ANNOUNCEMENTS

*  MONDAY EVENING  -  HOLDENVILLE AREA  -  I will be speaking at a
meeting of the Hughes County Republican party in Holdenville, Monday
evening, September 17th, 6:00 p.m. at the First United Bank. I want to
invite folks in the area who receive this e-mail to come and introduce
themselves to me, I really enjoy getting to meet you. Because
September 17th is Constitution Day, I will be handing out a copy of
the Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution, Bill of Rights and
the remaining amendments to the Constitution to everyone in
attendance.

*  FRIDAY AT NOON  -  OKC AREA  -  The High Noon club will continue
its celebration of the Constitution this Friday, September 21 as they
welcome their speaker Charles Knight, founder of “The 57th Patriot”
alliance. The mission of the 57th Patriot is to promote an
understanding of the Founding Documents. The guiding purpose is to
Restore - Recover - Rebuild:  Restore the Constitutional Republic,
Recover our Founder’s Principles, and Rebuild America’s Excellence.
The 57th Patriot’s focus is on the Declaration of Independence,
viewing it as the “mission statement” of our Republic. The meeting
starts at 12 noon and is located at H&H Range, 400 South Vermont,
Suite 110 in OKC.

*  FRIDAY EVENING  -  NORMAN AREA  -  The Norman Tea Party will
sponsor a global intelligence briefing titled: What’s Really Happening
in the World, at the First Assembly of God Church, 2500 E. Lindsey
Street, starting at 7:30 p.m.  Speaking will be Mr. Herb Meyer, host
and producer of the DVD, The Siege of Western Civilization, which
outlines the threats to our security, our economy and our culture. His
DVD has become an international best seller.

During the Reagan administration, Herb served as Special Assistant to
the Director of Central Intelligence and Vice Chairman of the CIA’s
National Intelligence Council. In these positions, he managed
production of the U.S. National Intelligence Estimates and other top
secret projections for the President and his national security
advisers. Herb is widely credited with being the first senior U.S.
Government official to forecast the collapse of the Soviet Union -- a
forecast for which he later was awarded the U.S. National Intelligence
Distinguished Service Medal, which is the Intelligence Communities’
highest honor.

Herb’s essays on Intelligence and Politics have been published in The
Wall Street Journal, National Review Online, Policy Review and The
American Thinker. He is the author of two new eBooks:  How to Analyze
Information - A Step-by-Step Guide to Life’s Most Vital Skill, and The
Cure for Poverty, which explains how the Free Market works and how
entrepreneurs create jobs. Herb is a frequent guest on leading
television and radio talk shows.

I strongly suspect he is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations
(CFR). Therefore, it will be most interesting to hear his views on
what is going on in the world today and what might be some of his
proposed solutions for actions to be taken by the U.S. government.

++  PROFILING ARABS AND MUSLIMS

WARNING !  If you are opposed to profiling, stereotyping, being
excessively tolerant or offended by verbiage that wouldn’t meet the
criteria for being politically correct, you might not want to read
this section of this week’s e-mail. Because I fully intend to be
offensive in these areas as I practice our American tradition and
constitutional right to speak my opinions freely.

I was probably first introduced to middle eastern folks while at OSU
in the middle to late 60s. Many of the foreign students on campus at
that time were from Iran (Iranian’s are Persian rather than Arab). As
time has gone on I have met many people from the middle east and have
traveled to Jordan as well as Israel. While in Jerusalem, we were
invited to the home of a wealthy Arab-Muslim businessman and his
brother for a wonderful dinner.  During the 80’s I used to attend
international meetings every Friday evening at OCU until the time we
moved to Logan county where I got too busy to continue to attend.

At those international meetings we met many middle eastern students,
most of which were adults who were studying at the FAA center at Will
Rogers World Airport. For about a year and a half Linda and I took it
upon ourselves to show many of these students aspects of life in
Oklahoma. We took these students to rodeos, baseball games, Indian
City USA, Frontier City and many other places. Some of those I
remember the best from the middle east were from Libya, Egypt, Syria
and Saudi Arabia.

I have said all that to say that over time I have been an observer of
Arabs, Persians and Muslims and in recent years have studied their
violent history and religion. However, I don’t want to suggest I am an
expert who fully understands the middle eastern mind. But through my
observations I have come to some conclusions.

Anytime you speak of profiling or stereotyping people you run the risk
of being labeled a racist, trust me, I don’t care, that doesn’t bother
me. Anytime you speak of a people as a group or in generalities there
will always be those exceptions to the rule. With that in mind, let me
say my observations of many Arab people leave me to believe that they
have a tendency to be highly excitable, emotional and irrational. If
you add the religion of Islam to that mix, it tends to exaggerate
those descriptions.

Islam is one of the world’s great religions by the measure of the
large number of adherents to it. However, I don’t believe Islam, in
its substance, is a great religion. I once heard a speaker describe it
as not being a religion at all but rather a mental illness.

In our world of political correctness, some people who don’t want to
be considered as insensitive to other people’s religion, have a
problem with the radical elements of Islam and tend to strongly insist
there is a difference between radical Islam and Muslim moderates.
While that is a distinction to be considered, just remember, the
religion of Islam produces its radicals. In fact I have often said the
major problem with Islam are its fundamentalists, where the major
problem with Christianity are its moderates or a lack of
fundamentalists.

The many violent events over the past few days over the supposedly
offensive DVD which supposedly denigrates Islam (I haven’t seen it and
could care less what is in it) goes toward proving my observations
about many Arabs and Muslims.

Therefore, I have come to the conclusion that for the most part Arab
nations or nations with a majority of Muslims are incapable of self
government. As a result, they will always be governed by a strong
handed dictator or a strong handed religious leader whether or not
those leaders are in power through the dangerous form of government
known as a “democracy” or some other means. The form of government
they are incapable of having is a constitutional republic, a form of
government that will govern a populace with sufficient control to
maintain order while at the same time allowing for the maximum amount
of liberty.

Therefore, in my opinion, all our efforts since 9-11-2001 to help
establish a self government style of government in nations like Iraq
and Afghanistan have been and will continue to be futile! I am now of
the opinion that we probably should have gone into Afghanistan after
those who attacked us with punishing force, eliminate Osama Ben Laden
and his network and then have left the country in whatever kind of
rubble that we caused as we returned home.

I do believe there is a day coming when we will pull out of that
region and when we do we will find that all of our efforts to help
them form self government will have gone for naught. The goal of Islam
for world domination is a serious threat to world peace as well as a
serious threat to the United States. I believe it is a threat to our
nation from without as well as from within our nation.

Twice before in world history Islam has been stopped from their goal
of world domination by being defeated on the battle field and that is
probably the way it will have to be done this time if their goals are
to again be stopped. However, they will not be stopped by trying to
help them establish self government for they are not capable of that
form of government. Then, on the other hand, should the people of
America re-elect President Obama, I question whether or not we are any
longer capable of self government?

++  THE PASSING OF RUSS REINHARDT, DEFINITION OF A PATRIOT

This past Thursday night, Russ Reinhardt, one of my best friends and
in many ways a mentor to me, passed away in Little Rock Arkansas.
Almost 6 years ago Russ was diagnosed with bone cancer and lived more
than twice the time Doctors expected for him to live. There will be a
memorial service for him this Saturday, September 22nd, 1:30 p.m. at
Fairview Baptist Church in Edmond (the Southeast corner of Sooner Road
and Danforth).

I first met Russ and Debra about 18 years ago while he was teaching a
Constitution class at Henderson Hill Baptist Church in Edmond. Not too
long after that Russ and Deb moved to Salida Colorado and built their
dream home in the mountains. Even though they have lived out of state
over the past 15 or so years, Russ has always been a faithful member
of OCPAC ever since its inception.

I will be doing the eulogy to him during Saturday’s memorial service
so I am not going to go into a lot of detail here. However, I do want
to say there was a time he was a dedicated liberal, but as so often,
when a person has a truly dramatic born again experience and begins to
read God’s Word, that person’s world view changes and they become a
constitutional conservative.

Russ had a great analytical mind, a passion to serve God and a love
for the principles that this nation was founded upon. Part of his
service to God was by being a cultural warrior to try and return this
nation and its people to those founding principles.

Russ had been a very successful businessman and was able to retire at
about age 50. In his retirement years he put his time and resources
into efforts he believed in and they were always very patriotic. I am
going to miss him a great deal. If you were to look in a dictionary at
the word patriot, it would be appropriate to have a picture of Russ
next to the definition.

Speaking of Patriotism, Linda and I saw the movie THE LAST OUNCE OF
COURAGE this past Friday night. It was great, very moving and it
certainly inspires courage. My friend Russ would have loved this
movie. He won’t be able to see it, but the rest of can as it opened in
about 1500 movie theaters this weekend. It should have done well
enough at the box office to stay in theaters for several weeks. I urge
folks to make every effort to go and see this movie, contemplate its
message and then ask God how you might best respond to its message.

I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.

Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com

Monday, August 20, 2012

BURN BANS, DO THEY WORK & 85% OF BURNED HOMES NOT INSURED

++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
++  JASON MURPHEY, PART 3 ON HIGHER ED & ITS COSTS
++  BURN BANS, DO THEY WORK & 85% OF BURNED HOMES NOT INSURED.
++  ANNOUNCEMENTS
++  OCPAC MEMBERSHIP UP-DATE

++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING

Our 12 noon meeting for Wednesday, August 22nd will be held at
Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. We will have several
items on our agenda for this week’s meeting. A representative for the
soon to be released film, LAST OUNCE OF COURAGE will talk to us about
the film and play a trailer for us on our TV system. It is due to open
in theaters on September 14th. Our main speaker will be Oklahoma
County Sheriff candidate, Darrell Sorrels. In addition, OCPAC Vice
President Bob Donohoo will discuss our accountability efforts toward
incumbent lawmakers.

Our goal at OCPAC is not necessarily an ever larger majority of
Republicans in the legislature, now our goal has shifted to electing
the highest quality of Republican lawmakers as possible. If that means
challenging liberal lawmakers such as Guy Liebmann and others then so
be it. Of course we hope for the highest quality of candidate as
possible, candidates who have sound conservative principles and will
go on to stand up for moral issues as well as work to see that we have
a business friendly environment where entrepreneurial genius can rise
to the top and succeed. Under that scenario, there will be a greater
demand for labor, which will in turn cause the wages for employees to
increase. That will benefit Oklahoma as a state and everyone wanting
to benefit from that positive economic environment will have that
opportunity.

Just a reminder, to see any of our meetings we have recorded and put
on you tube, just log on to our new web-site at: www.oklahomacpac.com
.  Once on the home page, click on the video tab and all of the
meetings we have recorded are easily accessed.

++  JASON MURPHEY, PART 3 ON HIGHER ED & ITS COSTS

State Representative Jason Murphy (R-Guthrie) has been writing a
series of columns on the high cost of higher education, its causes and
what can be done to bring those costs down. Warning, these articles
are not politically correct, nor are they sensitive to the feelings of
the profiteers of higher ed. The title of this article is:  “Popping
the higher ed bubble”

“I have found it interesting that it has taken so long for technology
to bend the cost curve for Oklahoma higher education entities. Just as
in many other areas of the business world, Oklahoma universities
should have developed the ability to provide effective administration
with far fewer people due to advances in technology. In the free
market this is cutting overhead and driving down costs in so many
areas. These savings offset many of the inflationary pressures such as
increased health costs.

However, in Oklahoma, higher education as a whole hasn’t realized
these savings and as I have described in the past two columns, has
grown spending far faster than inflation. This means the higher ed
experience is in a bubble. It is drastically overpriced and will face
a day of reckoning.

Just as the housing bubble was propped up by lose monetary policy and
debt, the higher ed bubble is also fueled by debt. The federal
government feeds the bubble by making it so easy for students to incur
thousands of dollars of debt. Too many students don’t act like logical
free market participants who demand the best product at the lowest
possible price. Instead, they take the free money from the government
and take on a debt that will haunt them for years to come. In fact, as
a whole, Americans owe about $900 billion in student loan debt.

This unsustainable set of bad policies must come to an end--and they
will!

In his 2011 state of the state address, Texas Gov. Rick Perry called
for the creation of $10,000 four-year bachelor degree programs. His
effort initially was opposed by some within the Texas higher education
community, but students at multiple Texas universities are obtaining
their degrees for less than $10,000 today. In fact, students at Texas
A&M San Antonio can secure an information technology degree with an
emphasis on cyber security for $9,700. Those who hold this degree
typically get paid between $16 and $40 per hour and likely will start
their jobs with little student loan debt hanging over their heads.

Perry wanted Texas universities to provide the $10K degree by
leveraging web-based instruction, creating innovative teaching
techniques and establishing aggressive efficiency measures. Online
coursework clearly offers one of the foremost tools for driving down
cost.

Ironically, just last week, Oklahoma State Rep Pat Ownbey circulated a
letter from one of his constituents showing that they were paying
$1,025.52 for just one online course from the University of Oklahoma.
Of that amount, $389.90 was the cost of tuition and the rest was fees.
Even though this student may never set foot on campus during the
duration of the course, for just one course he will pay more than a
tenth the cost of getting an entire degree at Texas A&M San Antonio.

The higher education bubble has started to burst in Texas. In
Oklahoma, even when some of our higher education institutions are
using technology to deliver a service, they are still gouging the
student. It’s not supposed to work that way. Technology is supposed to
drive down the cost of education.

A key component of the plan obviously orients around web-based
coursework. The University of Oklahoma’s current online education
model is completely backwards. The university should shift cost away
from online course offerings because online students don’t use campus
services. They cost far less to serve.

By failing to lead the way in offering reduced cost online access,
local universities risk failing to establish market share in higher
education venues of the future.”

If anyone has a comment for Representative Murphey, he can be reached
via e-mail at Jason.murphey@okhouse.gov, on Facebook at facebook.com/
JasonMurphey and Twitter.com/JWMurphey.

I have been republishing these columns because I believe the cost and
value of higher ed is one of the biggest shams being perpetuated on
the citizens of Oklahoma. If you have read my opinions for any length
of time I often refer to education in general as the “education
industry” because it is actually a business. It is really more about
the power and wealth of those who make their living under the guise of
educating, mostly young people, than it is about actually educating
those same clients. That of course not to say that there aren’t many
dedicated teachers, because there are, they are just caught up in a
troubled system.

I will not hold myself out to be an expert on education, but the study
of the industry and what actually is necessary for peopled to be
educated has been a focus of study for me for the past 25 plus years.
I have a rather large section of my personal library dedicated to
books about education, written by many of America’s leading critics of
our modern “education system”.

++  BURN BANS, DO THEY WORK & 85% OF BURNED HOMES NOT INSURED?

Recently the general manager of ABC’s KOCO 5 News station in OKC
offered an editorial opinion about the need to pass more laws making
it easier to pass burn bans and stiffer penalties  for those who break
those laws. One of the problems with any tragedy, is there is always
someone, maybe many, who immediately jump on the bandwagon for
government to come to the rescue and solve the problem. While I might
not have a problem with increasing the punishment for causing damaging
fires, I suggest we really look at the value of a burn ban.

Before the horrible wild fires broke out in Cleveland and Oklahoma
counties, those counties had already had a burn ban in effect for
several weeks. On the morning of the afternoon that the fires broke
out, Governor Fallin issued a statewide burn ban and then that
afternoon all hell broke lose. Please do not misunderstand me, I am
not trying to suggest or imply that Governor Fallin is at fault. What
I am trying to say is think, think, think, did any of the burn bans
prevent these fires? Of course not, most fires are set by arsonists,
low life smokers who don’t want their cigarette butts in their
vehicles so they toss them out a window (no amount of burn bans will
prevent them from doing this) lightening strikes or industrial
accidents.

There is a certain segment of the population that never watches a news
cast, never reads a newspaper or never listens to anything on radio
other than some form of pop culture. They don’t pay attention to the
rules and for the most part they don’t obey the rules. You can
announce all the burn bans you want and it won’t mean a thing to these
folks.

While watching the news the other night I was shocked and had to
reverse the TV and listen again as the report said that 85 percent of
all the homes burned or destroyed were not insured! I visited with a
person at the insurance commission and was told the number was
correct. It was suggested that many of the burned homes were mobile
homes or older homes that are paid for or have been in a family for
more than one generation and passed down.

In many cases these homes are in heavily wooded areas and covered by
rural fire departments which generally have a high (in this case a
higher number is worse) ISO rating. Therefore, the cost of insurance
to value being insured is much higher than in a larger city with full
time firefighters and fire hydrants well spread out over a particular
area.

Then I remembered about 25 years ago when my wife and I lived in a
mobile home in Southern Logan county with heavy woods all around us.
We paid the home off and made a conscience decision to self insure.

Our premium at the time was about $500 per year with a $1,000
deductible and the coverage value was for about $15,000. Therefore, we
took $1,500 (1 years premium and one year’s deductible as insurance
coverage is for one years at a time) and put that money into an escrow
account. I knew our greatest risk was in the early years, but if we
had no claim in 10 years then we would fully have the money to replace
the value based on our insurance policy. After about 4 years we moved
into a small home about a mile away and rented out our mobile home. At
that time I took out a policy for rental property and of course the
rent easily took care of that cost. We then had the four years of
savings ($6,000) to do with as we chose.

Point is, all insurance is a gamble. Insurance companies “expose”
themselves to the risk of a substantial payout and in turn we pay a
premium for that exposure. If those that lost their homes without
insurance were disciplined and self insured, they won’t be totally
without resources. If on the other hand that was not the case, they
will be faced with starting over again which will be much easier on
young people than those that are older. Even with that all said, that
does not mean that they do not have needs and people of charity will
certainly help to some degree in those needs.

++  ANNOUNCEMENTS

*  MONDAY EVENING  -  MOORE AREA  -  U.S. Senator Tom Coburn will host
a town hall meeting, 6:00 p.m. Monday August 20th at the Brand Senior
Citizens Center, 501 East Main in Moore. I always urge conservatives
to attend these meetings and try and ask the first question to set the
tone of a meeting. Otherwise, those who nurse on the government teat
are the ones that show up and continually ask for more government
largess. Coburn may have copies of his new book, THE DEBT BOMB
available for those wanting to purchase one.

*  MONDAY EVENING  -  CLAREMORE AREA  -  Oklahoma 2nd Amendment (OK2A)
is bringing Larry Pratt, the national director of Gun Owners of
America (the no compromise defender of the 2nd amendment), to Oklahoma
for appearances on both Monday and Tuesday. Monday’s appearance will
be at the JM Davis Gun Museum, 330 N JM Davis Blvd in Claremore at
6:00 p.m.

*  TUESDAY AFTERNOON  -  McALESTER AREA  -  Larry Pratt will be
speaking at 12 noon at The Meeting Place 104 East Choctaw Ave in
McAlester. Lunch will be available for purchase.

*  TUESDAY EVENING  -  OKC AREA  -  Larry Pratt will be speaking at
the H&H Gun Range in OKC at 6:30 p.m. The location is 400 S Vermont
Ave, Suite 110.

*  TUESDAY EVENING  -  TULSA AREA  -  The Tulsa Area Republican
Assembly (TARA) will host their monthly meeting, Tuesday August 21st,
6 for dinner and 7:00 p.m. for the speaker. The location will be the
Golden Corral on 71st street and Mingo in Tulsa. Speaking will be Jim
Bridenstine, Republican nominee for Oklahoma’s first Congressional
district.

++  OCPAC MEMBERSHIP UP-DATE

With half of August over we are a little over half way in membership
dues toward meeting the full match of $1,500 by the end of August. We
need to raise about $600 more dollars which would be 12 memberships at
the base membership of $50 or one or two memberships at the $180 or
$360 level will really help us meet the matching challenge.

We are now at 237 dues paying members for this year which is exactly
20 more memberships than last year at 217. We are interviewing some
very good candidates for office and we want to be able to help the
ones our members select with as large a contribution as possible. I
would say OCPAC is as effective of a place as possible to contribute
to candidates as very little of your dues are consumed in overhead and
we do our best to ferret out the true conservatives from those who are
not. A candidate appearing at OCPAC is not a guarantee for our
support. During the primary season there were at least 4 that appeared
that did not garner our support and there will be those coming before
us now that will not receive our support.

With the help of conservatives from all over the state, we are slowly
making a positive difference. I want to thank everyone who has already
joined and urge others who have considered joining to do so now.
Instructions on how to join are below.

You won’t want to miss this week’s meeting.

Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com

Monday, August 6, 2012

IS PRESIDENT BOREN CRYING ALL THE WAY TO THE BANK?

++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
++  URGENT - TIME SENSITIVE - HELP NEEDED
++  THE OKLAHOMAN, IMPROVING, BUT HAS A WAY TO GO
++  IS PRESIDENT BOREN CRYING ALL THE WAY TO THE BANK?
++  ANNOUNCEMENTS
++  OCPAC MEMBERSHIP UP-DATE

++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING

Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, August 8th will be held at
Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. Our program for this
Wednesday will be back to interviewing Republican candidates for the
state legislature who will be on the ballot in November. Invited to
appear this week are Bobby Cleveland, Slaughterville, Jason Smalley,
Stroud, Willard Linzy, OKC and Arthur Hulbert of Fort Gibson (Mr.
Hulbert has re-scheduled for the 14th). In addition, our dues paying
members as of July 25th who are present at our meeting will vote to
determine if we will endorse George Faught in his run-off race for the
2nd Congressional race. This would be an endorsement only as we do not
contribute in federal races.

Speaking of Representative Faught, we recorded our meeting last week
and that program is up on you tube. We also have a different web-site
address which is easier to access. Once you log on to www.oklahomacpac.com
you simply click on the video tab and all of our meetings which we
have recorded are easily accessed. If you want to see the George
Faught meeting it will be the first one in line and then Trevor Loudon
will be the next one in line. If you have not seen Mr. Louden’s
program as yet, you are missing some very important information.

++  URGENT - TIME SENSITIVE - HELP NEEDED

Many have seen Pastor Dan Fisher’s presentation of the Black Robed
Regiment which starts out with Dan dressed with a Clergy robe on as he
role plays the famous Pastor Muhlenberg of the War of Independence
era. At the end his Sunday sermon, Pastor Muhlenberg takes off his
black robe and reveals his continental army officers uniform
underneath and then tells his congregation that this is a time for war
and leads over 300 of the men of his congregation off to war.

A Christian Hollywood producer has recently become aware of Dan’s DVD
of the event and is very interested in producing either a documentary
or movie based on the information in Dan’s DVD. As such, the producer
is moving very fast and wants to bring a professional film crew to the
small church at old Fort Reno, just West of El Reno to produce a
trailer, which could be used to sell the idea to a major studio for a
high quality documentary or perhaps a movie.

Therefore, Dan needs a few folks dressed in clothing which at least
reflects clothing worn in the early days of Oklahoma, late 1800s. If a
movie is ever to be made, certainly a costume director will make sure
the clothing worn is of the 1776 era, but for now, early Oklahoma
prairie clothing will be fine. The setting will be in a church, and
needed are men and women of all ages and a few children. If you have
clothing that will work and can be at old Fort Reno on Tuesday
morning, I believe at 10:00 a.m., then please contact Dan and let him
know you can help. There will be no speaking parts at this time,
especially needed are some men, young to older. Contact Dan at:
dan@trinityyukon.com.

++  THE OKLAHOMAN, IMPROVING, BUT HAS A WAY TO GO

I recently expressed the thought that the Oklahoman’s editorial page
is transitioning back toward its more conservative roots and I still
stick by that idea. In fact, this past Monday, the lead editorial
titled: “Fewer carve-outs could boost state’s economy” could have been
written by me. The editorial brought up so many of the positions we
have stated at OCPAC over the years when it comes to the struggle of
how to best stimulate the economy. I will have the editorial at this
week’s OCPAC meeting for folks to read.

During the primary election period Pastor Paul Blair was hit hard by
Senator Clark Jolley’s political hit men for his 7 words: “are
aerospace jobs more important than yours?”. These professional hatchet
men who specialize in truly negative campaigning, claimed those words
were proof that Paul Blair promoted class envy and yada yada yada.
Yet, the Oklahoman ended the mentioned editorial by basically raising
the same question that Paul was addressing and that is, why does
government pick and choose the winners and losers rather than create
an environment where all businesses can succeed? Paul was never
against aerospace jobs, he just simply supports free market economics
rather than an Eastern European styled central planned economy.

The Oklahoman has also done a great job of exposing the increased
budget for the Oklahoma Youth Expo which went from a traditional
$125,000 per year appropriation to over $2 million for this year. The
Oklahoman had decried the process of the behind closed doors planning
with House and Senate leadership, who work out deals with the
Governor’s office in secrecy and then expect lawmakers to support what
is presented to them. Now the House and Senate leadership and
Governor’s office are all pointing fingers at each other since they
have been caught with their hands in the cookie jar. Under public
pressure, nobody seems to remember who requested the increase which
will benefit an organization directed by a big time Republican
donor.

On the other hand, as with all times of transition, there may be times
when the Oklahoman comes up short on doing a good job on its editorial
page. I would suggest that was the case on Friday, July 27th with
their editorial: “Background check: Runoff voters should scrutinize
candidates”. One of the races they high-lighted was the Shawnee race
between Ed Moore, endorsed by OCPAC, and Ron Sharp, endorsed by the
State Chamber of Commerce which, in my opinion, is the leading
organization promoting an economy based on central planning which
tends to pick  and chose the winners and losers when it comes to
business opportunities.

In the editorial they pointed out 3 problems with Ed Moore, only one
of which I believe was relevant, except that it was 28 years ago when
Ed was in the Senate and in his last year missed a lot of votes and
had a lot of absences. Of course something that happened 28 years ago
is not relevant for today as people can change and I am confident Ed
will never use such bad judgment again if elected to another term in
the Senate. Of course the Oklahoman didn’t mention that Ed was the
most conservative Senator in the legislature during the first 3 years
of his term and even received an award by the Oklahoma Constitution
Newspaper for being the best Republican in the Senate.

However, the thing that most disturbed me about the Oklahoman’s
editorial was when it said: “In 1992, a preacher accused Moore of
stealing a mailing list from his organization to use for Moore’s
fundraising efforts.” While it is true that a well known TV preacher
did accuse Ed of stealing his donor list, if the Oklahoman would have
done a better job of researching what happened they might have found
out that an Oklahoma County judge threw out the testimonies of a
couple of preachers, then the TV preacher withdrew the complaint and
re-filed the charges in Cleveland County. There a judge presiding over
case number CJ-1990-2014 denied the TV preacher’s restraining motion
with the following:

CM: PARTIES APPEAR FOR HEARING 4-11-91. TESTIMONY HEARD & MATTER TAKEN…
(PDH)  PARTIES APPEAR FOR HEARING 4-11-91. TESTIMONY HEARD & MATTER
TAKEN UNDER ADVISEMENT. HAVING FULLY REVIEWED THE DOCUMENTS PRESENTED
AND REVIEWED THE TRIAL TESTIMONY THE COURT FINDS AS FOLLOWS:

1. PLAINTIFF’S REQUEST FOR INJUNCTION IS DENIED.
2. PLANTIFF’S REQUEST FOR DAMAGES IS ALSO DENIED.  (PDH.

The TV preacher subsequently filed a motion for reconsideration on
5-6-91, which was also denied on 5-9-91 as the record shows.

The point is, had the Oklahoman actually taken the time to contact Ed
Moore for his response to the allegations or done the research on
their own, they should not have even mentioned those allegations. I
believe they simply relied on old press releases or campaign materials
Ed’s opponents used against him 20 to 28 years ago. Ed Moore has a
history of being a conservative lawmaker who didn’t go along to get
along, even within the Republican party. When we had our interview
process for that senate seat, Ed’s survey was excellent and his
performance was outstanding, far better than his opponent. Ed should
be elected to this seat and deserves the support of non-establishment
conservatives and the general Republican electorate.

++  IS PRESIDENT BOREN CRYING ALL THE WAY TO THE BANK?

Recently OU President David Boren (often referred to as King David at
the legislature) has been acting like a whiney butt cry baby as he has
expressed the dire situation of higher education having an ever
smaller percentage of its operating income coming form state
appropriated funds.

However, State Representative Jason Murphy (R-Guthrie) has a little
different take on the big picture reality of the situation. Following
is a copy of one of Representative Murphey’s weekly e-mails on the
subject which was also printed in the Edmond Sun as well as the
Guthrie News Leader:

7-17-12,  “Higher education spending continues to skyrocket

The Oklahoma Regents of Higher Education recently approved a new round
of tuition increases including about an 8 percent increase at UCO.

You may have noticed that those who are supporting these increases are
asserting that higher education revenues originating from appropriated
tax dollars have declined, thus justifying the increases. They point
to the University of Oklahoma budget and say that in 1980, 38 percent
of OU’s budget came from appropriations while today, just 18 percent
originates from appropriations.

It is true that appropriated tax dollars make up a significantly less
percentage of higher ed budgets than in past years. But there is much
more to this statistic that those who favor tuition increases probably
aren’t saying.

Consider the following fiscal data from the 2001-11 time period.
During this time the amount of your taxpayer dollars appropriated each
year to higher ed increased from $816 million to $945 million. In both
cases this figure represented 15 percent of total state
appropriations.  Appropriations increased and higher education’s share
of the appropriated money did not decrease! Actually, payments to
higher education from the state’s governmental activities fund
increased from $835 million to more than $1 billion.

So if appropriations actually increased, why did the percentage of the
universities’ budgets originating from appropriations drop?

During the 2001-11 time frame, spending by higher ed increased from
$2.2 billion to just under $4.1 billion. Total net assets (accounting
for massive amounts of depreciation) increased from $1.9 billion to
$5.8 billion. Expenditure per student served increased from about
$10,000 per student in 2001 to about $16,000 per student in 2011.

The amount of debt increased from $293 million to $1.2 billion.
Interestingly, higher ed now has more debt on the books than even the
Turnpike Authority. In 2001, the authority owed $1.3 billion and at
the end of FY 2011, they owed just more than $1 billion. The amount of
higher ed incurred capital lease liability was at $64 million in 2001
and now stands just shy of $1 billion.

This massive increase in spending has fueled an extensive bureaucracy.
In fact, there are now an estimated 32,000 full-time positions within
the higher ed system. To put this into perspective, consider that the
remainder of state government agencies contain about 37,000 positions.
With our modernization and streamlining efforts, I expect the day is
soon approaching when higher ed will have more employees than all of
state government.

Where did the money come from for all of this extra spending if it was
not appropriated?

A few years ago the Legislature gave away its power to stop tuition
increases to the Regents of Higher Education. This huge mistake has
resulted in significant tuition increases just about each and every
year. This, combined with fees and fines and perhaps federal funding,
have driven up budgets, thus making them much less reliant on
appropriated dollars.

It is especially ironic for higher ed to now blame the Legislature for
the tuition increase by erroneously claiming the Legislature has
failed to fund higher ed.

Those who point to the ratio of appropriations to budget are
camouflaging a massive expansion within the higher education
bureaucracy that I believe is mostly unmatched anywhere in state
government. Worse, they are justifying the fact that the burden for
paying for this expansion has been placed on the backs of Oklahoma
students who must go deeper into debt to pay for their education.

The legislature should reclaim the ability to stop these increases.
The regents clearly do not have the will to put a stop to the out-of-
control tuition hikes. Next week, I intend to describe some of the
constructive and common-sense solutions to cut costs and bring an end
to these increases.”

If my memory serves me correctly, Republicans passed legislation to
take that control back, but Governor Henry vetoed the legislation.
Taking that control back during next year’s legislative session should
be a high priority for state government which is fully controlled by a
Republican majority. However, that may be more difficult than appears,
simply because “King David” wields significant power in the halls of
the marble pork pen at 23rd and North Lincoln regardless of which
party is in control. Time will tell. One other thing on the subject of
higher ed. It is the most important area of state government that
needs a strong dose of openness and accountability. Will the
Republicans step up to the plate and get that done next year?

++  ANNOUNCEMENTS

*  WEDNESDAY  -  TULSA AREA  -  The Tulsa County Republican Men’s Club
will host their monthly luncheon on Wednesday August 8th, 12 noon, at
the Hibachi Grill Restaurant, 7425 South Memorial Drive in Tulsa.
Speaking will be Jim Bridenstine, Republican nominee for the 1st
Congressional district and Pat Key, candidate for Tulsa County Clerk.
Key faces fellow Republican Dean Martin in the Republican runoff on
August 28th. The public is invited, if you need more information call
acting President Bob McDowell at (918) 451-1051.

*  FRIDAY & SATURDAY  -  DURANT AREA  -  Fairview Baptist Church in
Durant, Oklahoma is sponsoring, The Patriots Conference - Reclaiming
America’s Christian and Constitutional Heritage. The location will be
Fairview Baptist Church at 1200 West University Blvd in Durant. The
times will be on Friday August 10th from 6:30 until 9:30 p.m. and then
on Saturday, August 11th from 8:30 a.m. until 12 noon.

Among others, speaking will be Former Texas District Judge Rene Diaz,
a national speaker for David Barton’s Wall Builders, a pro-family
organization that presents America’s forgotten history and heroes,
with an emphasis on our religious, moral, and constitutional heritage.
Also speaking will be Paul Blair, former offensive tackle for OSU and
then the Chicago Bears, now of the Bott Radio Network; Reclaiming
America for Christ and Pastor of Fairview Baptist Church of Edmond. In
addition, State Representative Sally Kern (R-OKC & Bethany) who
authored the book, “The Stoning of Sally Kern” will also be speaking.
For more information log on to: www.fairviewdurant.com or call (580)
924.2148.

++  OCPAC MEMBERSHIP UP-DATE

In last week’s e-mail I mentioned a dollar for dollar matching
challenge through the end of August. Over a third of that money has
already come in as of last Wednesday. I want to urge folks to step up
to the plate and join OCPAC now so we have adequate funds to support
those quality candidates we find that will be going into the November
elections. Instructions on how to join will be just below, following
my sign off.

I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.

Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com