++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
++ THE OKLAHOMA MAFIA - BREATHING FIRE & DESTRUCTION
++ GUY LIEBMANN, ANOTHER BIG GOV BORROW & SPEND REPUBLICAN
++ RAY HIBBARD’S RESPONSE TO LAST WEEK’S E-MAIL
++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, June 20th will be held at
Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. This will be our
final meeting before the elections and as such we have invited several
candidates to speak before our group. Corporation Commissioner Bob
Anthony is invited, Oklahoma County Commissioner candidate Gordon
Jenney will be with us (Brian Maugn, the incumbent, indicated he
wasn’t interested in coming) Charles Key and Salome Vaughn will be
with us regarding the Oklahoma County Court Clerk race. I just haven’t
had the time to locate the contact information for the other 2
candidates. If someone can help me out and invite them it will be most
appreciated, I will not have time on Monday or Tuesday. Thanks to
those who attended this past Saturday, we will release the
Conservative Index scores for everyone as soon as possible.
One more item, the Wednesday after the June 26th primary elections we
will devote some time to discussion about the elections and in
addition we will have an election to replace Richard Engle, our former
Vice President. I will be proposing we elect 3 different individuals
to serve as Vice Presidents. I would like to spread out those duties
to allow for more individuals to develop leadership talents. If you
are interested in serving, please let me know at
charliemeadows7@gmail.com. I have talked with 3 individuals so far and
2 of them have agreed to put their names up for consideration. We will
certainly take names from the floor, but I would really like to let
folks interested in serving know about some of my ideas, going
forward. So again, if you are interested in being one of the OCPAC
Vice Presidents, please contact me.
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
* TUESDAY EVENING - KONAWA AREA - The Konawa Tea Party will hold
their monthly meeting this Tuesday evening, 7:00 p.m. at the Walter
Wise Hut, 101 West 3rd St. in Konawa. Guest speakers will be Jennie
White with Restore Oklahoma Public Education (R.O.P.E.), State
Representative Todd Thomsen (R-Ada) and his challenger Cole Gallup for
the House District 25 seat and then Mike Sawyer with the John Birch
Society.
* THURSDAY EVENING - NORMAN AREA - The Norman Tea Party will hold
their monthly meeting this Thursday evening, 7:00 p.m. at the First
Assembly of God Church, 2500 East Lindsey, in Norman. They have
invited me to speak, I will be hitting hard, regarding the mess in
Washington and how our state government can help to get Washington
back on track. I will also be exposing what I believe to be the
Oklahoma mafia as well as how and why they are controlling our state.
* SATURDAY AFTERNOON - OKC AREA - Some time ago a group of very
conservative Catholics lay people began working to put together the
“Rally for Religious Liberty” which will be held at the Cox Convention
Center Arena from 1 until 4:00 p.m. this coming Saturday, June 23rd.
They have been working with the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City to
organize the ecumenical event to defend the religious liberties of all
expressions of Christianity in Oklahoma. Speakers will include
Archbishop Paul Coakley, our good friend Bill Federer, State Attorney
General Scott Pruitt, Frank Cargill, Superintendent of the Assemblies
of God, black robed regiment patriot pastor James Taylor of Norman and
a late confirm will be the producers of the famous video “Test of
Fire”. They will be present to unveil the premiere showing of the
Evangelical version of “Test of Fire.” Music will be provided by
Mountain Smoke. The event is free; however, a $10.00 donation is
suggested at the door. For more information log on to
http://www.
information contact Thomas G. Morris at tom@morris-ent.com.
In the same vein, I want to recommend a movie we saw a week ago
Saturday called “For Greater Glory”. The movie is based on the
historical events of 1926 when the secular government of Mexico, led
by the atheist President Plutarco Elias Calles, launched a nationwide
crackdown on the Catholic Church. To preserve religious liberty the
Catholics had to eventually mount an armed resistance toward the
Mexican government. The R rating on the movie is because of the
violence which goes along with any war, there was no cursing or
gratuitous sex scenes in the movie.
There are many parallels to today as our society is becoming more
hostile toward Christianity. As such it is a valuable movie to
hopefully wake up the Church in America so we can preserve our
religious liberties through the political processes so that we won’t
have to fight to keep from being roll over and be stepped on by a
government hostile to Christianity. Attitudes and policies of
President Obama‘s administration are a harbinger of the direction in
which we are sliding.
The idea of conservative Protestants and Catholics working together to
preserve religious liberties and address issues in the culture war is
not an attempt to see everyone come to a common understanding of God’s
word or a common understanding of tradition. I encourage pastors of
every Biblical expression of Christianity to preach God’s Word with
all the energy and passion within them according to their own
understanding in their own churches. But as one of our founding
fathers said right after they signed the Declaration of Independence,
“if we don’t hang together, we will all hang separately”.
* Glen Howard’s Senior World Radio program had Mr. Michael Shaw on
his program this Sunday morning. Of course Mr. Shaw is the expert
speaker from California on Agenda 21. I heard a little of his
presentation on the way to church and it was excellent. I urge folks
to listen to the full interview at: http://seniorworldradio.com/
++ THE OKLAHOMA MAFIA - BREATHING FIRE & DESTRUCTION
Over time I have lovingly referred to powerful people in OKC as the
Oklahoma City Mafia and in addition I have also suggested we have a
group of very powerful people across the state that I have also
referred to as the Oklahoma Mafia. This is just an opinion on my part
and I am not necessarily suggesting that they are a crime syndicate
usually associated with the word mafia. However, I believe they are a
group of very wealthy and powerful people or entities who use their
wealth to control what goes on in Oklahoma.
In last week’s e-mail, I suggested some of these very powerful people
see lawmakers as little more than people to control so that public
policy will be crafted to meet their needs or desires. I also said
that the stakes are high as many of these very powerful and wealthy
people are the recipients of millions of taxpayer dollars which they
use for their benefit.
I believe it was Thursday of last week that the Oklahoma mafia flexed
their muscle and started breathing fire through a group named, The
Coalition For Oklahoma’s Future. Six entities each contributed $50,000
to raise a total of $300,000 to be used by the CFOF to influence the
outcomes of at least 6 legislative races.
The six entities contributing to CFOF are Chesapeake Energy, the
Chickasaw Nation, the Rooney Holdings, Clay Bennett, Continental
Resources, The Williams Companies and Flintco Construction. I believe
Saturday’s Oklahoman reported they had spent over $90,000 on the Clark
Jolley - Paul Blair race. Other races they are spending money on are
for Senator Brian Crain of Tulsa (last year’s winner of OCPAC’s RINO
Award) and Representatives Todd Thomsen of Ada, Glen Mulready of
Tulsa, Elise Hall of OKC and Marian Cooksey of Edmond.
Now this group hired former Republican party chairman Chad Alexander
to craft the hatchet pieces to be used to try and destroy Paul Blair.
If you listen to radio or watch TV you have probably seen the ad
featuring a rather dark and shadowy Paul Blair with the explanation
that he violated state tax laws and had his corporations suspended. Um
um um that mean old negative Paul Blair sure must be a bad fellow, a
tax dodger, a cheat, that is, unless you are intellectually honest and
want to know the real truth?
What Paul did 20 years ago with a couple of businesses he tried
shortly after he returned from the NFL was simply close them down. He
ended them and as such he quit paying the franchise tax for the next
year’s operation which resulted in the corporations being de-listed.
The franchise tax was a tax going forward to remain in business, it
was not a tax owed on past activities. Not paying that tax is a very
normal method to close down a corporation. Funny thing, that tax
doesn’t exist today on small corporations and guess who is trying to
take credit for eliminating those old franchise taxes? None other than
Clark Jolley, Paul’s opponent.
Those twisted lies about Paul Blair, paid for by the Coalition For
Oklahoma’s Future, caused Paul to have to waste a day working with his
CPA to try and determine if there was any merit to the outlandish
lies? Following his a letter from his CPA issued during the afternoon
of last Thursday, June 14th:
“ Paul,
To the best of my knowledge, belief and recollection, the following
statements are true and accurate.
As your CPA since the mid 1980s, I have prepared all the required
income tax returns, franchise tax returns, and anything else required
to do business in the State of Oklahoma for you and the companies
which you have owned, operated, or been associated with.
I checked the websites of the Oklahoma Tax Commission and the Oklahoma
Secretary of State’s office. I searched for any delinquency filings,
missing reports/returns, suspended licenses to do business or any
other filings for any company associated with or owned by you. I did
not find a single instance of any delinquency filing, failure to file,
any wrong doing or anything inappropriate.
My search did reveal certain companies have ceased to exist but that
was simply because the purpose for which the company was started no
longer existed. It is not unusual for companies to start or stop. It
happens every day. Furthermore, in no case was any business owned or
operated by you ever forced out of business by failing to comply with
all the rules and regulations of the State of Oklahoma or any other
regulatory agency.
All the businesses you have been associated with, owned and/or
operated have always paid their taxes.
And you have always filed and paid your personal taxes.
David F. Johnson”
Though few do so, perhaps a person should contact the Secretary of
State and tell them you are closing down a business? However, the
twisted story about Paul paid for by the what I believe are members of
the Oklahoma mafia are out there doing their harm, working to destroy
the good name and reputation of one of Oklahoma‘s most outstanding
individuals. At some time, possibly after a lawsuit has cleared his
name and long after the election is over, Paul Blair will have to ask,
now where do I now go to get my reputation back?
The entities and people behind these lies are Senator Clark Jolley’s
friends, though state law forbids any coordination between Clark and
his campaign staff with the people behind these ads. As of last Friday
morning, Senator Jolley knows these ads are lies and though he can’t
directly communicate with those behind them, he certainly can publicly
denounce them and urge for them to be discontinued. If he fails to do
such, I wouldn’t want to be Clark Jolley when he gets up in the
morning to wash his face. He might see his reflection in the mirror
and would it ever be something shameful to look upon.
If you remember nothing else about this race than this, it is about
the difference between Clark Jolley, a little puppet who has proven
his loyalty to the powerful as they know he will do their bidding
verses Paul Blair, a man they know they can’t control or make into a
puppet. Paul Blair has taken a pledge not to take anything from a
lobbyist. Clark Jolley is the product of the lobbyists and the
Oklahoma mafia.
++ GUY LIEBMAN, ANOTHER BIG GOV. BORROW & SPEND REPUBLICAN
A week ago Friday, State Representatives Guy Liebman, Marian Cooksey
and her opponent Bob Dani met for a candidate forum in Edmond. When
asked how they would pay for a new Medical Examiners facility Guy
Liebmann didn’t hesitate as he favores a bond issue to pay for the
facility.
As an explanation he gave an analogy similar to the foolishness
presented on the editorial page of the Oklahoman a few days earlier.
He suggested it wasn’t wrong or unusual to borrow money as he guessed
most of the people present had a mortgage on their homes so borrowing
money to build a new medical examiners office would make perfect
sense.
A shallow thinker like Rep Liebmann fails to consider the situation
state government is in with over $250 million in the Rainy Day Fund,
with another $350 expected to be deposited in the next few weeks, not
to mention the $150 million in the now defunct EDGE fund which could
have been used to build and equip a new Medical Examiners office.
Truth is Representative Liebmann, if a family has 17.8 times the cost
of a new home in savings, they don’t take out a loan to buy the new
home, they pay for it out of their savings. To do otherwise would be
foolish! Even with interest rates to buy a new home possibly as low as
3%, it is not likely they are earning more than 1% on their savings,
so again, they would lack good judgment if they took out a loan when
they had plenty of money in savings to take care of the need.
Bond underwriters are paid large fees not counting the interest costs
associated with the bonds. Many of these bond underwriters contribute
to lawmakers which may be the real reason we have so much state debt
even though we are supposed to have a balanced budget every year. We
currently spend about $220 million in interest payments to service our
state debt. If we had no state debt, that $220 million could build a
new ME’s office and fix the State Capitol as well as other buildings.
Other possible uses might go to roads and bridges or that would amount
to one fourth of the spending cut Governor Fallin sought to balance an
eight hundred million tax cut.
As I said before, Representative Liebmann is a big government borrow
and spend Republican. He lacks good sense and needs to be replaced
with the very sharp young businessman, Michael Turner.
++ RAY HIBBARD’S RESPONSE TO LAST WEEK’S E-MAIL
In last week’s e-mail, in an attempt to point out the accuracy of Paul
Blair’s statement that the Governor and the establishment were going
all out to defeat him, I related a story about a statement made by
Edmond Life and Leisure publisher Ray Hibbard.
I had indicated he had stood up in a meeting of about 30 of Edmond’s
leading businessmen and said that he had been contacted by a person
from Governor Fallin’s office expressing his need to get on board with
Senator Clark Jolley or the Tourism department would no longer
advertise in his paper.
He sent me an e-mail with a different story and asked me to correct
what I had written. I spent Thursday checking with my sources and only
1 thought he had said the Tourism department. However, all clearly
remembered him saying something very similar to what I had written
about. One of them even jotted down a few notes which goes something
like this: Mr. Hibbard stood up and once he had made his first
statement he went on to say: I don’t give a rip if they advertise in
my paper or not, they aren’t going to intimidate this old fat boy.
I talked with Mr. Hibbard on Friday and will back off my statement
about the Tourism Department, but not on the rest of what I wrote as
my sources stand firm on what they heard. You will notice that even
Mr. Hibbard, in his e-mail to me, isn’t for sure what he said.
Following is his message to me:
“Mr. Meadows,
The information you included in this email regarding my statement at a
business meeting is incorrect. My recollection is that I had asked
Paul about how he was tracking. I am not sure if I said something
incorrectly or not that would have caused the confusion but let me say
this for you now:
I have never had any communication about the District 41 race with the
Governor of Oklahoma or anyone in her office. Period. On a side note,
I have been in the newspaper business 33 years and we always confirm
information we put out with a contact of the original source. I also
don’t believe I have ever received at any newspaper I was working for
paid advertising from the Oklahoma Tourism Department. If that is the
case, I sure need to have a talk with Brad Henry, Frank Keating, David
Walters and George Nigh. I knew those guys were holding out on me.
Please correct this at your earliest convenience. I like Paul and our
paper is in the process of trying to decide who to endorse in this
race. It is a tough decision for many reasons for us. A smarter
newspaper guy would probably not endorse either candidate. I am just
not that smart and will be endorsing someone in each of the races this
month. Should you have any questions please feel free to call me at my
office 340-3311. I don’t believe we know each other but I am sure you
do not want to have incorrect information in your communications with
your membership.
Ray Hibbard
Publisher
Edmond Life & Leisure”
I am not a betting man, but if I were I would put my money on Mr.
Hibbard endorsing Clark Jolley, Marian Cooksey (a former aide to Lt.
Governor Fallin) and Guy Liebmann. I believe those are the only
legislative candidates running for office within the Edmond city
limits.
I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday
Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
++ THE OKLAHOMA MAFIA - BREATHING FIRE & DESTRUCTION
++ GUY LIEBMANN, ANOTHER BIG GOV BORROW & SPEND REPUBLICAN
++ RAY HIBBARD’S RESPONSE TO LAST WEEK’S E-MAIL
++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, June 20th will be held at
Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. This will be our
final meeting before the elections and as such we have invited several
candidates to speak before our group. Corporation Commissioner Bob
Anthony is invited, Oklahoma County Commissioner candidate Gordon
Jenney will be with us (Brian Maugn, the incumbent, indicated he
wasn’t interested in coming) Charles Key and Salome Vaughn will be
with us regarding the Oklahoma County Court Clerk race. I just haven’t
had the time to locate the contact information for the other 2
candidates. If someone can help me out and invite them it will be most
appreciated, I will not have time on Monday or Tuesday. Thanks to
those who attended this past Saturday, we will release the
Conservative Index scores for everyone as soon as possible.
One more item, the Wednesday after the June 26th primary elections we
will devote some time to discussion about the elections and in
addition we will have an election to replace Richard Engle, our former
Vice President. I will be proposing we elect 3 different individuals
to serve as Vice Presidents. I would like to spread out those duties
to allow for more individuals to develop leadership talents. If you
are interested in serving, please let me know at
charliemeadows7@gmail.com. I have talked with 3 individuals so far and
2 of them have agreed to put their names up for consideration. We will
certainly take names from the floor, but I would really like to let
folks interested in serving know about some of my ideas, going
forward. So again, if you are interested in being one of the OCPAC
Vice Presidents, please contact me.
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
* TUESDAY EVENING - KONAWA AREA - The Konawa Tea Party will hold
their monthly meeting this Tuesday evening, 7:00 p.m. at the Walter
Wise Hut, 101 West 3rd St. in Konawa. Guest speakers will be Jennie
White with Restore Oklahoma Public Education (R.O.P.E.), State
Representative Todd Thomsen (R-Ada) and his challenger Cole Gallup for
the House District 25 seat and then Mike Sawyer with the John Birch
Society.
* THURSDAY EVENING - NORMAN AREA - The Norman Tea Party will hold
their monthly meeting this Thursday evening, 7:00 p.m. at the First
Assembly of God Church, 2500 East Lindsey, in Norman. They have
invited me to speak, I will be hitting hard, regarding the mess in
Washington and how our state government can help to get Washington
back on track. I will also be exposing what I believe to be the
Oklahoma mafia as well as how and why they are controlling our state.
* SATURDAY AFTERNOON - OKC AREA - Some time ago a group of very
conservative Catholics lay people began working to put together the
“Rally for Religious Liberty” which will be held at the Cox Convention
Center Arena from 1 until 4:00 p.m. this coming Saturday, June 23rd.
They have been working with the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City to
organize the ecumenical event to defend the religious liberties of all
expressions of Christianity in Oklahoma. Speakers will include
Archbishop Paul Coakley, our good friend Bill Federer, State Attorney
General Scott Pruitt, Frank Cargill, Superintendent of the Assemblies
of God, black robed regiment patriot pastor James Taylor of Norman and
a late confirm will be the producers of the famous video “Test of
Fire”. They will be present to unveil the premiere showing of the
Evangelical version of “Test of Fire.” Music will be provided by
Mountain Smoke. The event is free; however, a $10.00 donation is
suggested at the door. For more information log on to
http://www.
information contact Thomas G. Morris at tom@morris-ent.com.
In the same vein, I want to recommend a movie we saw a week ago
Saturday called “For Greater Glory”. The movie is based on the
historical events of 1926 when the secular government of Mexico, led
by the atheist President Plutarco Elias Calles, launched a nationwide
crackdown on the Catholic Church. To preserve religious liberty the
Catholics had to eventually mount an armed resistance toward the
Mexican government. The R rating on the movie is because of the
violence which goes along with any war, there was no cursing or
gratuitous sex scenes in the movie.
There are many parallels to today as our society is becoming more
hostile toward Christianity. As such it is a valuable movie to
hopefully wake up the Church in America so we can preserve our
religious liberties through the political processes so that we won’t
have to fight to keep from being roll over and be stepped on by a
government hostile to Christianity. Attitudes and policies of
President Obama‘s administration are a harbinger of the direction in
which we are sliding.
The idea of conservative Protestants and Catholics working together to
preserve religious liberties and address issues in the culture war is
not an attempt to see everyone come to a common understanding of God’s
word or a common understanding of tradition. I encourage pastors of
every Biblical expression of Christianity to preach God’s Word with
all the energy and passion within them according to their own
understanding in their own churches. But as one of our founding
fathers said right after they signed the Declaration of Independence,
“if we don’t hang together, we will all hang separately”.
* Glen Howard’s Senior World Radio program had Mr. Michael Shaw on
his program this Sunday morning. Of course Mr. Shaw is the expert
speaker from California on Agenda 21. I heard a little of his
presentation on the way to church and it was excellent. I urge folks
to listen to the full interview at: http://seniorworldradio.com/
++ THE OKLAHOMA MAFIA - BREATHING FIRE & DESTRUCTION
Over time I have lovingly referred to powerful people in OKC as the
Oklahoma City Mafia and in addition I have also suggested we have a
group of very powerful people across the state that I have also
referred to as the Oklahoma Mafia. This is just an opinion on my part
and I am not necessarily suggesting that they are a crime syndicate
usually associated with the word mafia. However, I believe they are a
group of very wealthy and powerful people or entities who use their
wealth to control what goes on in Oklahoma.
In last week’s e-mail, I suggested some of these very powerful people
see lawmakers as little more than people to control so that public
policy will be crafted to meet their needs or desires. I also said
that the stakes are high as many of these very powerful and wealthy
people are the recipients of millions of taxpayer dollars which they
use for their benefit.
I believe it was Thursday of last week that the Oklahoma mafia flexed
their muscle and started breathing fire through a group named, The
Coalition For Oklahoma’s Future. Six entities each contributed $50,000
to raise a total of $300,000 to be used by the CFOF to influence the
outcomes of at least 6 legislative races.
The six entities contributing to CFOF are Chesapeake Energy, the
Chickasaw Nation, the Rooney Holdings, Clay Bennett, Continental
Resources, The Williams Companies and Flintco Construction. I believe
Saturday’s Oklahoman reported they had spent over $90,000 on the Clark
Jolley - Paul Blair race. Other races they are spending money on are
for Senator Brian Crain of Tulsa (last year’s winner of OCPAC’s RINO
Award) and Representatives Todd Thomsen of Ada, Glen Mulready of
Tulsa, Elise Hall of OKC and Marian Cooksey of Edmond.
Now this group hired former Republican party chairman Chad Alexander
to craft the hatchet pieces to be used to try and destroy Paul Blair.
If you listen to radio or watch TV you have probably seen the ad
featuring a rather dark and shadowy Paul Blair with the explanation
that he violated state tax laws and had his corporations suspended. Um
um um that mean old negative Paul Blair sure must be a bad fellow, a
tax dodger, a cheat, that is, unless you are intellectually honest and
want to know the real truth?
What Paul did 20 years ago with a couple of businesses he tried
shortly after he returned from the NFL was simply close them down. He
ended them and as such he quit paying the franchise tax for the next
year’s operation which resulted in the corporations being de-listed.
The franchise tax was a tax going forward to remain in business, it
was not a tax owed on past activities. Not paying that tax is a very
normal method to close down a corporation. Funny thing, that tax
doesn’t exist today on small corporations and guess who is trying to
take credit for eliminating those old franchise taxes? None other than
Clark Jolley, Paul’s opponent.
Those twisted lies about Paul Blair, paid for by the Coalition For
Oklahoma’s Future, caused Paul to have to waste a day working with his
CPA to try and determine if there was any merit to the outlandish
lies? Following his a letter from his CPA issued during the afternoon
of last Thursday, June 14th:
“ Paul,
To the best of my knowledge, belief and recollection, the following
statements are true and accurate.
As your CPA since the mid 1980s, I have prepared all the required
income tax returns, franchise tax returns, and anything else required
to do business in the State of Oklahoma for you and the companies
which you have owned, operated, or been associated with.
I checked the websites of the Oklahoma Tax Commission and the Oklahoma
Secretary of State’s office. I searched for any delinquency filings,
missing reports/returns, suspended licenses to do business or any
other filings for any company associated with or owned by you. I did
not find a single instance of any delinquency filing, failure to file,
any wrong doing or anything inappropriate.
My search did reveal certain companies have ceased to exist but that
was simply because the purpose for which the company was started no
longer existed. It is not unusual for companies to start or stop. It
happens every day. Furthermore, in no case was any business owned or
operated by you ever forced out of business by failing to comply with
all the rules and regulations of the State of Oklahoma or any other
regulatory agency.
All the businesses you have been associated with, owned and/or
operated have always paid their taxes.
And you have always filed and paid your personal taxes.
David F. Johnson”
Though few do so, perhaps a person should contact the Secretary of
State and tell them you are closing down a business? However, the
twisted story about Paul paid for by the what I believe are members of
the Oklahoma mafia are out there doing their harm, working to destroy
the good name and reputation of one of Oklahoma‘s most outstanding
individuals. At some time, possibly after a lawsuit has cleared his
name and long after the election is over, Paul Blair will have to ask,
now where do I now go to get my reputation back?
The entities and people behind these lies are Senator Clark Jolley’s
friends, though state law forbids any coordination between Clark and
his campaign staff with the people behind these ads. As of last Friday
morning, Senator Jolley knows these ads are lies and though he can’t
directly communicate with those behind them, he certainly can publicly
denounce them and urge for them to be discontinued. If he fails to do
such, I wouldn’t want to be Clark Jolley when he gets up in the
morning to wash his face. He might see his reflection in the mirror
and would it ever be something shameful to look upon.
If you remember nothing else about this race than this, it is about
the difference between Clark Jolley, a little puppet who has proven
his loyalty to the powerful as they know he will do their bidding
verses Paul Blair, a man they know they can’t control or make into a
puppet. Paul Blair has taken a pledge not to take anything from a
lobbyist. Clark Jolley is the product of the lobbyists and the
Oklahoma mafia.
++ GUY LIEBMAN, ANOTHER BIG GOV. BORROW & SPEND REPUBLICAN
A week ago Friday, State Representatives Guy Liebman, Marian Cooksey
and her opponent Bob Dani met for a candidate forum in Edmond. When
asked how they would pay for a new Medical Examiners facility Guy
Liebmann didn’t hesitate as he favores a bond issue to pay for the
facility.
As an explanation he gave an analogy similar to the foolishness
presented on the editorial page of the Oklahoman a few days earlier.
He suggested it wasn’t wrong or unusual to borrow money as he guessed
most of the people present had a mortgage on their homes so borrowing
money to build a new medical examiners office would make perfect
sense.
A shallow thinker like Rep Liebmann fails to consider the situation
state government is in with over $250 million in the Rainy Day Fund,
with another $350 expected to be deposited in the next few weeks, not
to mention the $150 million in the now defunct EDGE fund which could
have been used to build and equip a new Medical Examiners office.
Truth is Representative Liebmann, if a family has 17.8 times the cost
of a new home in savings, they don’t take out a loan to buy the new
home, they pay for it out of their savings. To do otherwise would be
foolish! Even with interest rates to buy a new home possibly as low as
3%, it is not likely they are earning more than 1% on their savings,
so again, they would lack good judgment if they took out a loan when
they had plenty of money in savings to take care of the need.
Bond underwriters are paid large fees not counting the interest costs
associated with the bonds. Many of these bond underwriters contribute
to lawmakers which may be the real reason we have so much state debt
even though we are supposed to have a balanced budget every year. We
currently spend about $220 million in interest payments to service our
state debt. If we had no state debt, that $220 million could build a
new ME’s office and fix the State Capitol as well as other buildings.
Other possible uses might go to roads and bridges or that would amount
to one fourth of the spending cut Governor Fallin sought to balance an
eight hundred million tax cut.
As I said before, Representative Liebmann is a big government borrow
and spend Republican. He lacks good sense and needs to be replaced
with the very sharp young businessman, Michael Turner.
++ RAY HIBBARD’S RESPONSE TO LAST WEEK’S E-MAIL
In last week’s e-mail, in an attempt to point out the accuracy of Paul
Blair’s statement that the Governor and the establishment were going
all out to defeat him, I related a story about a statement made by
Edmond Life and Leisure publisher Ray Hibbard.
I had indicated he had stood up in a meeting of about 30 of Edmond’s
leading businessmen and said that he had been contacted by a person
from Governor Fallin’s office expressing his need to get on board with
Senator Clark Jolley or the Tourism department would no longer
advertise in his paper.
He sent me an e-mail with a different story and asked me to correct
what I had written. I spent Thursday checking with my sources and only
1 thought he had said the Tourism department. However, all clearly
remembered him saying something very similar to what I had written
about. One of them even jotted down a few notes which goes something
like this: Mr. Hibbard stood up and once he had made his first
statement he went on to say: I don’t give a rip if they advertise in
my paper or not, they aren’t going to intimidate this old fat boy.
I talked with Mr. Hibbard on Friday and will back off my statement
about the Tourism Department, but not on the rest of what I wrote as
my sources stand firm on what they heard. You will notice that even
Mr. Hibbard, in his e-mail to me, isn’t for sure what he said.
Following is his message to me:
“Mr. Meadows,
The information you included in this email regarding my statement at a
business meeting is incorrect. My recollection is that I had asked
Paul about how he was tracking. I am not sure if I said something
incorrectly or not that would have caused the confusion but let me say
this for you now:
I have never had any communication about the District 41 race with the
Governor of Oklahoma or anyone in her office. Period. On a side note,
I have been in the newspaper business 33 years and we always confirm
information we put out with a contact of the original source. I also
don’t believe I have ever received at any newspaper I was working for
paid advertising from the Oklahoma Tourism Department. If that is the
case, I sure need to have a talk with Brad Henry, Frank Keating, David
Walters and George Nigh. I knew those guys were holding out on me.
Please correct this at your earliest convenience. I like Paul and our
paper is in the process of trying to decide who to endorse in this
race. It is a tough decision for many reasons for us. A smarter
newspaper guy would probably not endorse either candidate. I am just
not that smart and will be endorsing someone in each of the races this
month. Should you have any questions please feel free to call me at my
office 340-3311. I don’t believe we know each other but I am sure you
do not want to have incorrect information in your communications with
your membership.
Ray Hibbard
Publisher
Edmond Life & Leisure”
I am not a betting man, but if I were I would put my money on Mr.
Hibbard endorsing Clark Jolley, Marian Cooksey (a former aide to Lt.
Governor Fallin) and Guy Liebmann. I believe those are the only
legislative candidates running for office within the Edmond city
limits.
I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday
Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment