Oklahoma Conservative Political Action Committee

TAKE A STAND - NO MORE STATE DEBT! ++ OCPAC MEMBERSHIP UP-DATE

2011-12-28T08:33:00.001-06:00

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
++ TAKE A STAND - NO MORE STATE DEBT!
++ OCPAC MEMBERSHIP UP-DATE

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING

Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, December 28th will be held at
Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. Our primary speaker
for this Wednesday’s meeting is to be Steve Anderson, Budget director
for Governor Brownback in the state of Kansas. I wanted him to speak
about the budget accomplishments in Kansas and the fact that they have
their 10 year plan in process to eliminate their state income tax.
However, he sent me an e-mail indicating they have new numbers
available requiring an adjustment to the modeling and he therefore may
have to be in Kansas this Wednesday. He actually lives in Logan county
and commutes each week to Kansas. As of this writing, I haven’t been
able to verify if he will be with us.

Our other speaker will be Dr. Scott Lively, attorney, pastor and
international human rights consultant whose ministry for more than
twenty years has been opposing the homosexual political agenda around
the world www.defendthefamily.com. Dr. Lively’s specialty is training
pro-family advocates how to articulate the pro-family perspective in
both religious and non-religious terms. He has developed a textbook
that was the basis of a 50-city lecture tour of churches and
universities in Russia and the countries of the former Soviet Union in
2007, and a national pro-family campaign in Uganda in 2009. Following
the text book’s model, he stopped the government of Moldova from
adopting an anti-discrimination policy based upon “sexual orientation”
in March of this year. When he is not on the road, he and his wife run
an inner-city mission in Springfield Massachusetts with the goal of re-
Christianizing the downtrodden city and to restore it’s family-
centeredness through good works and evangelism, www.redemptiongate.org.
Scott has indicated that Springfield is the most broken-down city in
the most morally corrupt state in the union. If both of our speakers
make the meeting, we will keep Scott to about 10 minutes and give
Steve the rest of the meeting time.

++ ANNOUNCEMENTS

* WEDNESDAY EVENING - EDMOND AREA - Mr. Scott Lively, of whom I
just wrote about above, will be the guest speaker this Wednesday
evening, December 28th at Fairview Baptist church in Edmond. The
church is located on the corner of Sooner road and Danforth. Sooner is
one block West of I-35 and Danforth is one mile North of 2nd street in
Edmond. The meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. If we can only give Scott 10
minutes at OCPAC, this will be an opportunity to hear him out more
completely.

* NEW DOCUMENTARY - A NOBLE LIE is a newly produced full length
documentary about the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal
Building in Oklahoma City. The 2 hour documentary produced by FREE
MIND FILMS and directed by James Lane takes a fresh and in-depth look
at the circumstances surrounding the 1995 bombing. For more
information log on to:
www.ANobleLie.com.

++ TAKE A STAND - NO MORE STATE DEBT!

It looks like the state government will have several hundred million
more in tax revenues to appropriate this coming year than they had
last year. However, since the Governor and lawmakers failed to make
the necessary cuts in the budget earlier this year and chose to fund
the 500 million shortfall with mostly revenues that would be available
only one time, it will take nearly 500 million additional revenues to
fund government at the same level as last year.

However, the education industry, state employees as well as state
agencies are all turning in their wish lists for budget increases
which are “pie in the sky high”. In addition, the state has valid
capital improvement needs. The Capitol does need work, the state has
office buildings which have leaky roofs, a commitment has been made by
some to move the state medical examiner into new facilities in Edmond
and of course there is that pesky native American heritage center
along the Oklahoma river which just needs about 80 million dollars to
go along with the 80 million plus that has already been spent on the
project over the past years.

So what are the solutions some have suggested for these “pressing”
capital needs? Float new bonds, borrow that money, don’t wait until we
can pay for the improvements with new growth funds. Borrow it and pay
it out over many years in the future. Pay that interest, double the
costs of some of those projects, after all, the tax payers simply
aren’t smart enough to realize just how much more a projects costs
once they pay those bonds off with interest. Who knows, maybe our
buddies, the bond underwriters, will help us with contributions for
our next election cycle? Those thoughts represent the attitudes of
some in the legislature.

But wait folks, it doesn’t have to be this way. Even though the
lawmakers and Governor violate the intention of Oklahoma’s founding
fathers and go along with flawed State Supreme Court decisions which
have allowed for hundreds of millions in bonded indebtedness, this
wasteful foolishness doesn’t have to continue in this manner.

State Representative, and the next designated Speaker of the House,
T.W. Shannon (R-Lawton) had a bill passed this year to determine the
number of properties owned by the state. Expecting it to be around
4,500, everyone was surprised to learn the state owns about 9,000
properties. The continuation of that legislation is to categorize the
properties to determine which ones have little value or excessive
costs to maintain and then sell many of them to investors in the
private sector. Some of the proceeds could be used to fund these
capital needs or I believe Representative Shannon has proposed
creating an endowment out of the proceeds and then using the earnings
of the endowment to fund the maintenance of state properties. That
way, taxpayers will not always be harassed for evermore money in the
future.

Also, lawmakers could declare an emergency for the most critical needs
and use some of the 200 million that has been put back into the
state’s rainy day fund. Here is another novel idea. Why not make some
of the cuts in spending this year, especially those wasteful and
immoral tax credits, and use those savings for capital needs? If we
really wanted to be smart, we could eliminate all funding for so
called “pre-K education”, especially since there is no long term
benefit for those expenditures according to the vast body of
studies.

To stop this push for increased borrowing, citizens will have to make
it crystal clear to there state representative and state senator that
we don’t want to continue to deficit finance state government. Spend
what we have and no more!

Now, please pay close attention. Due to re-districting, many people in
the state of Oklahoma are going to have a different state senator and/
or a different state representative as your elected officials. Many
will also have different polling places, I believe 11,000 voters in
Logan county will vote at a different location. So please call your
COUNTY election board, give them your name and address and they can
tell you who your senator and representative happens to be as well as
where to vote. Once you have that information, write it down, put it
on your refrigerator, in your wallet, purse, or tattoo it on your
ankle. I don’t care how you save it, just save it, as you will need to
contact your elected officials at the Capitol during the session next
year. Citizens can have a significant influence toward good government
if we will just contact our lawmakers at the proper times next
year.

++ OCPAC MEMBERSHIP UP-DATE

We are going to finish 2011 with 230 dues paying members which is 13
more than the record of 217 set for a non-election year in 2009. We
also have the largest number of people in our history contributing on
a monthly basis by having us draft their checking accounts for either
$15 or $30 per month. The monthly drafts are raising about $600 per
month which is huge over a 2 year period of time as it produces nearly
$15,000. Personally, that is how I contribute as that $30 each month
is easy to afford. We have raised over $20,000 this year, though with
6 special elections we have invested over a fourth of that in these
special elections. So far we have won 1 and lost one and we have
contributed to 3 of the 4 to be determined on February 14th.

The good news is, there are many excellent candidates running for
office in next year’s election cycle. That is why your continued
support is so crucial. We are slowly helping to increase the level of
conservatism in state government.

Therefore, please pay close attention. Over the past couple of months,
several folks have already paid their dues for membership in 2012. In
addition, folks having their checking accounts drafted will have their
memberships automatically renewed. However memberships for everyone
else will expire this coming Saturday, December 31st.

Therefore, I want to invite our current members to renew their
memberships and for others to consider joining at this time. We have 3
levels of membership. The basic membership costs $50 per year. We have
the Elephant Provider level which is $180 per year or we can draft
your checking account for $15 per month (.50 cents a day). Our highest
level is the Elephant Provider and RINO Hunter level which is $360 per
year or we can draft your checking account for $30 per month ($1.00
per day). If you chose to join at a higher level through the checking
account drafts and later on for whatever reason want or need to stop,
simply send me an e-mail requesting the stop and it will be done.
Regardless of what level of membership people join OCPAC, their
support is sincerely appreciated. Please remember, OCPAC is an all
volunteer organization and no one earns any money for their efforts.
With very low overhead, almost all of the money you contribute goes to
support conservative candidates or is used to try and hold elected
officials accountable for the conservative rhetoric they espouse when
they want our support and votes. Information on how to join will
follow my sign off.

I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.

Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com

CONSERVATIVE’S CHRISTMAS - FALLIN & BERRESI’S LUMP OF COAL

2011-12-19T18:55:00.000-06:00

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
++ CONSERVATIVE’S CHRISTMAS - FALLIN & BERRESI’S LUMP OF COAL
++ TID BITS

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S AGENDA

Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, December 12th will be held at
Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. This Wednesday will
be the interview process for the candidates running in the special
election for Senate District 20. The district includes all of Pawnee,
Noble and Logan counties as well as the Western and Northern parts of
Kingfisher counties. Invitations were sent to the 4 Republican
candidates, Phil Berkenbile of Morrison as well as A.J. Griffin, Chris
Humphreys and Wayne Murphey, all of Guthrie. Mr. Humphreys and Murphey
will attend, while Mrs. Griffin indicated she would not attend. I have
urged her to re-consider and make every effort to come to the meeting.
However, something a little unusual occurred with Mr. Berkenbile. His
invitation letter came back to our P.O. Box as undeliverable. I
checked to see if I had sent it to the address he filled out when he
filed for office as was listed on the state election board’s web-site.
I had sent it to the proper address. Seems like every election cycle
one or more candidates fail to fill out their own address correctly,
usually failing to include their zip code. However, Mr. Berkenbile
included his zip code in this case.

I decided not to go the extra mile to urge him to come as he probably
would not come anyway. You see, I believe Mr. Berkenbile is not a real
conservative and his handlers know that he would probably not do well
at OCPAC if he did come. Why do I say such a thing?

He is the state director for Oklahoma’s Career Tech system. While the
system has its successes, it is grossly over-expensive for what it
delivers compared to what could be done through privately owned trade
schools. We could help students attend the trade schools through
scholarships and thus reduce some of the annually appropriated dollars
which go the Career Tech. In addition, we could then save huge amounts
of property tax dollars which are required to maintain and pay for the
multitude of government owned buildings. Trade schools in the private
sector pay for their own facilities, often times leasing space in
vacant shopping centers.

A couple of other reasons, I don’t believe he would do well is based
on his recent switch to the Republican party. Don’t get me wrong, we
want conservative Democrats to become Republicans. However, Mr.
Berkenbile has a long history of contributing to and supporting
Democrats. In addition, he vigorously opposed legislation earlier this
year to allow law abiding citizens with a concealed carry permit to
drive onto a career tech campus with their firearm locked in the
trunk. Previously, if you didn’t want to be a lawbreaker, you would
have to go home first and leave your firearm there before you could go
from work to take a class at a Career Tech campus.

One more thing, I don’t believe he will need a contribution from us. I
have been made privy to a shakedown letter sent to various lobbyists
in the state by State Representative Dale DeWitt (R-Braman) on behalf
of Berkenbile. DeWitt, through 9 years in the legislature, has a
lifetime conservative index score of a paltry 56, meaning only 7
Republican House members more liberal than DeWitt out of the 70
Republicans. DeWitt is also the House Majority leader so I believe he
is using his powerful position to really strong arm lobbyists to
contribute to “his personal friend”, Bill Berkenbile. Following is
the content of the shakedown letter:

“From the Desk of Dale DeWitt”

December 13, 2011

Dear …….?

“This is an unusual letter. Yes, I’m asking for money.

No, it’s not for me.

It’s not for another elected official. It’s not even for my caucus.

I’m writing to ask you to donate to a personal friend of mine, Phil
Berkenbile, who is running for the State Senate in the open seat to
replace another great friend, Senator David Myers.

I’ve known Phil for 32 years (We both have a background in Vo-Ag
education and our families are very close). But more important, I
know Phil to be a man of integrity and virtue. And we need people like
him in our government. As the statewide Director for Career Tech, Phil
has shown he can help run government more efficiently. And I know,
he’ll be a Senator whose door will always be open.

If you do not know Phil, I hope you will trust my judgment. I would
consider it a personal honor if you (and any of your friends) would
contribute to Phil based on my recommendation. in fact, I would like
you to send your contribution in the enclosed envelope so I can know
who I should personally thank for supporting my good friend, Phil
Berkenbile.

Phil is the type of person who has demonstrated he can work with all
Oklahomans in order to get great things accomplished for this state.
As director of Career Tech, Phil helped maintain THE BEST technical
education system in the nation during a time of tremendous budget
cuts. In doing so, he has engaged Republicans, Democrats, urbanites
and rural interests. Because of Phil’s willingness to reach across the
aisle and work with all Oklahomans, he is already being attacked by
some of the more extreme elements of our Republican Party. That’s why
I need your help.

This special election is only a few weeks away (the primary is on
Valentine’s Day -- February 14th). And, as you know it is not only
incumbents, but all candidates, who have limitations on their
fundraising once session begins. So Phil needs your contribution now.

Again, this is not your typical letter. Phil is a close friend of mine
-- and I want him to raise enough money to be successful. ……….. are a
key part of this. Please send your donation today.

Thank you in advance for your support,

Dale DeWitt

P.S. I really would appreciate your personal contribution, as well as
your help in raising money from others you know. The key race is the
Republican Primary, so I want you to contribute early. Please, use the
enclosed envelope today.

Not Printed at Taxpayer Expense Paid for by Phil Berkenbile for
Senate District 20, 2012”

Folks, by DeWitt insisting these lobbyists send the money to him
first, it just shows how a powerful Republican Majority leader intends
to really put the screws to the lobbyists. In my opinion, that is
exactly the kind of influence which has the potential to corrupt our
system as it almost hints of “pay to play”.

At least one of the candidates that will appear before us on Wednesday
has taken a pledge not to take any money or gifts from any lobbyists
or a PAC which employees a lobbyist. That is what we need more of in
government. But for that to ever succeed, people are going to have to
pull money out of their own pockets so that their elected officials
are responsive to them and not to the powerful special interests.

++ ANNOUNCEMENTS

* EDMOND AREA - TUESDAY EVENING - Tuesday evening, 7 until 8:30
p.m., I will continue training session 2 out of 4 which I began 2
weeks ago. The 4 week session will consist of the principles of good
government and the ideals of our founding fathers as well as the
political process, governing and the workings of the Republican party.
The main purpose of the sessions is to further develop members of the
Generation Joshua Project and other youth in their age range which is
from 11 to 19. Adults are invited to attend, but please allow the
young people to ask most of the questions. The location is Fairview
Baptist Church which is on the Southeast corner of Danforth and Sooner
Road in Edmond (Sooner road is about 1 block West of I-35 and Danforth
is 1 mile North of Edmond Road or 2nd Street). An outline and short
review of the first session will be available.

* FUTURE EVENT - January 20 and 21st will be the 3rd annual Clouds
over America seminar. I believe it may well be the most important
educational event of the year in Oklahoma for 2012. There will be 10
speakers running from Friday afternoon through noon on Saturday. As
soon as the flyer is printed I will share the full details of the
event. Please keep these dates open as it will be a very important
time for the good citizens in the culture war, seeking better
government.

++ CONSERVATIVE’S CHRISTMAS - FALLIN AND BERRESI’S LUMP OF COAL

Governor Mayr Fallin and State School Superintendent Janet Berresi had
so been lusting in hopes of receiving millions of dollars from the
bankrupt federal government to arrive just in time for Christmas
through the “Race to the Top” federal grant program for early
education.

However, like lumps of coal in their Christmas stockings, they
received word last week that Oklahoma would be left out in the cold
regarding their hopes for the funding. Knowledgeable conservatives
understand what a waste of taxpayer money these programs happen to be
as well as the potential for behavioral problems created in some
children who are herded into these peer dependent programs.
Conservative organizations such as Restore Oklahoma Public Education
(ROPE), The Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs (OCPA), Professional
Oklahoma Educators (POE) as well as many members of OCPAC are all
against this, Race to the Top program. Following are a couple of
editorials out of the December 15th edition of the Tulsa Beacon
Newspaper about early childhood education and the performance of Janet
Barresi:

“Barresi no conservative

It was announced to legislators this month that Joel Robinson,
assistant executive director (and chief lobbyist) for the Oklahoma
Education Association (OEA/NEA), has been hired to be State
Superintendent Janet Barresi’s new chief of staff, effective later
this month. This new hiring decision adds to the confusion about the
State Department of Education’s direction and, quite frankly, the move
is astounding.

We know that birds of a feather flock together and, as we’ve seen,
Barresi is not the conservative Republican she was elected to be.

Her recent decision to hire a new chief of staff from the top ranks of
the state affiliate of the most liberal teachers’ union in the nation
further confirms this fact. This move makes about as much sense as
Ronald Reagan asking Jimmy Carter to be his vice president.

Barresi’s actions show that authenticity is rare these days, but there
continues to be one true, conservative voice for educators:
Professional Oklahoma Educators (POE). With over 7,000 members across
the state, we will continue to move forward, undeterred by Barresi’s
actions, to achieve what is best for Oklahoma students and teachers.

Ginger Tinney, Norman
POE Executive Director”

The next editorial reflects the opinions of the Tulsa Beacon

“More ’nanny state’ nonsense

The motto of Tulsa Educare is: ’embrace, empower, evolve.’ That
reference to evolution alone would identify this as an attempt to
infuse secular humanism into our culture by indoctrinating some of our
youngest children.

Tulsa Educare, Inc. (TEI), Tulsa Public Schools (TPS) and George
Kaiser Family Foundation (GKFF) have teamed up to start a third
Educare school, which will open in August of next year.

Kaiser, the richest man in Oklahoma (thanks in part to the
government), is behind the funding of the 38,000-square-foot school
with 16 classrooms.

Of course, Mayor Dewey Bartlett and Oklahoma School Superintendent
Janet Barresi dutifully went to the groundbreaking along with the OEA
puppets from Tulsa Public Schools.

Liberals like to throw tons of money on an idea that sounds good (help
poor kids) but never work out the way they should.

Instead of boosting the nuclear family - the backbone of our culture -
these “progressives” would rather institutionalize the children of
poor people and “shield them” from the influence of parents and faith.

Study after study (at least one by Head Start) shows that kids that
get pushed into public education before age 5 wind up at the same
level in the second grade as those students who were allowed to be
children and were nurtured by their own parents.

So, while Tulsa Public Schools is closing school buildings it is
providing some funding for questionable education for kids under the
age 5.

Trying to indoctrinate preschoolers may give some liberals a warm
feeling but it won’t end poverty in Tulsa - not by a long shot.

For ROPE’s perspective on this issue link on to:
http://restoreoklahomapubliceducation.blogspot.com/2011/12/somewhere-over-rainbow.html

A week ago Wednesday, when Brandon Dutcher of OCPA, spoke at OCPAC, he
brought with him a packet showing the high cost of early childhood
education and a recent article out of the Wall Street Journal showing
the utter worthlessness of early childhood education. I believe it is
one of the biggest scams in America as well as Oklahoma. Eliminating
such in Oklahoma would save tens of millions of dollars, savings that
could go toward eliminating our state income tax and reducing the
corporate tax burden on businesses. Of course many of the large
corporations in Oklahoma support so called “early childhood education”
as they like for the taxpayers to pick up the day care tab for their
employees. I will have copies of the WSJ article at the meeting this
Wednesday.

++ TID BITS

+ WACO THE RULES OF ENGAGEMENT - I was up late recently watching Fox
News and The Animal Planet when just before going to bed I flipped
over to the documentary channel and noticed that, Waco The Rules of
Engagement documentary, was up next. It was produced by two former CNN
photojournalists and was nominated for an Academy Award for best
documentary of the year, probably in about 1994. I actually own a copy
in VHS format and we showed it at OCPAC over a 2 week time period many
years ago. As I watched about two thirds of it again, I just got angry
all over again at what appears to be the lies, cover-up and murder
committed by those in the FBI, the Delta Force of the military and
high ups in the so called “Justice Department.” If you have not seen
the documentary, may I suggest doing a google search of the
Documentary Channel to purchase it as it is now in DVD format. It is
riveting and very revealing. A sequel was also produced called, Waco A
Further Revelation, which is also excellent.

+ SENATOR LASTER SAYS NO MORE - State Senator Charlie Laster (D-
Shawnee) announced last week that he would not seek re-election next
year to serve the final 2 years in the Senate before term limits would
get him. He has a lifetime average of a 30 on the conservative index
and we should see an excellent opportunity to replace him with a
conservative Republican during next year’s election cycle. Ed Moore,
of the Prayer Force One Ministry announced, I believe it was back in
September that he would be a candidate for that seat. Mr. Moore served
one term in the Senate, probably back in the late 70’s or early 80s.
If elected I don’t believe his previous term would count toward his 12
years of eligibility. With it being an open seat, I am sure there will
be several that will run in both the Republican and Democrat
primaries.

+ MERRY CHRISTMAS - While we often struggle over public policy and
the people we elect to office to represent us in those struggles, let
us not forget the highest priority. That of course is our relationship
with our father God through his Son Jesus. While it is not likely that
Jesus was actually born on December 25th, it is the time our society
has chosen to celebrate His birth. With that in mind, please never
forget the real reason for this season. Have a wonderful and
meaningful Christmas.

I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.

Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com

SCOTT PRUITT - PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE

2011-12-13T09:40:00.001-06:00

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
++ SCOTT PRUITT - PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE
++ TIDBITS

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING

Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, December 14th will be held at
Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. Our meeting this
week will consist of interviewing the Republican candidates for the
special elections in House District #1 and House District #71. The
election will be held on February 14th of next year. Invited from H.D.
#1 is Joe Silk from Broken Bow (he has won the primary and his will be
the general election) and from H.D. 71 are candidates Evelyn Rogers,
Lydia D’Ross, Katie Henke, Gerald Lovoi, and Bonnie Huffines, all of
Tulsa. Candidate Janet Sullivan has withdrawn from the race and
Jacqualyn Moss’ candidacy is being protested as it is alleged that she
is still registered as a Democrat and has only lived in the district
for 6 weeks rather than the necessary 6 months as required by law.
Following the interview process, our members will vote and should we
decide to support a candidate in one or both of these districts, our
finance committee will make a contribution following the meeting. If
you are a voting member, please try to make this meeting.

++ ANNOUNCEMENTS

* TUESDAY EVENING - WARR ACRES AREA - The Change A Nation For
Christ organization will hold their monthly meeting this Tuesday
evening, December 13th at Victory Church, 4300 North McArthur in Warr
Acres. The meeting will take place in the “Commons” area on the West
end of the campus. The meeting is from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. with a light
meal served at 6:30. There is no charge for the meal, but donations to
help cover the cost are accepted. Speaking will be Mr. Ralph Bullard,
the former head master of Christian Heritage Academy in Del City. Mr.
Bullard will be speaking from his personal experiences about the
crucial connection between Christian education and God’s purpose for
America.

* WEDNESDAY NOON - TULSA AREA - The Tulsa Republican Men’s Club
will hold its monthly meeting, 12 noon on Wednesday, December 14th at
Siegi’s Restaurant, 81st street and Sheridan Road. Speaking will be
retired professor Charles Dyer who taught American federal government
at Tulsa Community College. We have had Professor Dyer speak at OCPAC
in the past and he recently spoke at the Northwest Republican Club in
OKC. He is an excellent speaker and really understands the serious
dangers associated with the invasion of illegal aliens.

* THURSDAY MORNING - DOWNTOWN OKC - The John Birch Society’s
Business and Professional Chapter will have their monthly meeting at
the Character Inn, 520 West Main in downtown OKC. Breakfast is served
at 7:15 and the speaker begins at about 7:40 a.m. Our speaker this
month will be Jonathan Small (CPA) of the influential Oklahoma Council
of Public Affairs (OCPA). Jonathan has put together a viable plan to
eliminate the personal income tax in the state of Oklahoma. Jonathan
spoke to OCPAC within the past year and following the meeting one of
our members came up to me to ask where in the world did I find a CPA
that was actually interesting to listen to? Jonathan is sharp and
inspiring at the same time. There are many forces, including the
Governor, that are beginning to speak of eliminating the personal
income tax as well as forces building to prevent such from occurring.
Please come to this meeting to be informed about the OCPA plan. The
fellowship before the meeting is always great, so grab a friend and
come on down. The Breakfast Buffet is only $6.00.

* SATURDAY AFTERNOON - OKC AREA - Supporters of Presidential
candidate Ron Paul are hosting a LIBERTEA Rally this Saturday,
December 17th on the South steps of the State Capitol. The event
begins at 1:00 p.m. with the featured speaker being Iraq war veteran,
Adam Kokesh. Also speaking will be Randy Brogdon, State Representative
Charles Key and Richard Engle. As far as I know this is the only
organized presidential campaign in the state. For more information log
on to www.RonPaulOK.com. I would suggest dressing warm, you may want
to watch the weather and bring an umbrella or rain gear as well as a
folding chair.

++ SCOTT PRUITT - PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE

Few people in Oklahoma saw the Scott Pruitt/Presidential debate live
as it occurred during the OU - OSU bedlam football game a week ago
Saturday. I finally got time to see it this past week and liked the
format as well as the way the Attorney Generals from the states of
Oklahoma, Florida and Virginia served as the moderators, asking the
hard questions. Much of the questioning centered on the relationship
between the federal government, the states and the people. The 3 AG’s
questioned the candidates one at a time, each for about 10 minutes.
There wasn’t much time wasted as they really got to it.

In Saturday’s edition of the Oklahoman, AG Scott Pruitt wrote an
excellent (let me say it again) excellent column about the forum.
Following are some of the more pertinent comments in the Oklahoman
from Oklahoma’s Attorney General Pruitt:

“I was able to ask candidates face-to-face what they would do to limit
the federal government and follow the law as prescribed by the
Constitution.” “Specifically, we worked to extract exactly how the
candidates would lead when competing liberty interests are at play.”
There is no greater issue today than the appropriate role of the
federal government. When an American government takes on
characteristics that elevate the state above the individual, it must
be vigorously opposed as a form of, or step toward, tyranny. It is
imperative that these candidates work to curtail government intrusion
and provide real conservative solutions to complex problems.” “Our
battles against the EPA and other rogue federal agencies aren’t about
a desire for dirtier air or zero regulation. They are about our right
as a state to control our own destiny and resist attempts by the
administration to ramrod a wish list of regulations through agency
heads instead of garnering approval from Congress.” Pruitt’s final
paragraph was very important as it went like this: “In the end, the
candidate who wants to get the nomination will not merely pledge
fidelity to advancing liberty. They must do the difficult work of
merging their talking points with AUTHENTIC, PRACTICAL (emphasis mine)
and conservative solutions.”

We could only hope the electorate nation wide was as up to speed
enough to make their decision on those points. As I have often said,
we don’t have so much of a problem with our system as we have a people
problem in America. Please remember, all elections first boil down to
the quality and character of the voters. If they are of high quality,
we will have good government. If not, we have what we have now. I will
try to schedule Scott some time in February and perhaps we can get him
to share his perspectives on the weaknesses and strengths of the
candidates at that time.

The AG from Florida asked Ron Paul his final question as follows: what
1 book would you recommend people to read. Ron Paul answered, beyond a
faith book (the Bible), I would recommend: THE LAW by Frederic
Bastiat. I certainly agreed with Ron on that as I have been saying for
a number of years now that THE LAW is the second most important book a
person should ever read, the Bible being the first.

As a point of interest, I did an hour long radio interview this past
Friday night with Kaye Beech and Howard Houchen. What were we talking
about? The book, THE LAW and the corresponding story about Davy
Crockett, titled: NOT YOURS TO GIVE. Their program is heard live
every Friday evening in 17 states including a FM station in OKC as
well as being on the internet. Few people know what a game changer
that book and short story have been in their influence upon the state
of Oklahoma. With well over 5,000 circulating around in Oklahoma over
the past 10 years and access to both of them over the internet, they
are convincing Oklahoman’s about the proper roll of government versus
the improper functions of government. You really owe it to yourselves
to access this information as it will change your life.

++ TIDBITS

* FOX NEWS PROMOTES IGNORANCE - This past week I was watching the
morning show on Fox News while eating a bowl of cereal. The
commentator had a guest on to give expert perspective on the battle
over extending the payroll tax reduction. The commentator asked the
guest, if the payroll tax reduction is not extended, what will the
federal government do with all that increase of funds? The answer from
the expert was “I DON’T KNOW?”

Give me a break! The only source of revenue for the Social Security
Trust Fund comes from the payroll tax, which should really be
considered as a retirement insurance premium, and the interest earned
from the past surpluses loaned out over many previous years. If the
payroll tax isn’t extended, those revenues will begin to flow back
into the SS Trust Fund, to be immediately used to pay benefits to
those drawing SS benefits. Even if those revenues began to once again
flow into the fund, they still would not be enough to meet next year’s
benefits pay outs.

Perhaps, the next time Fox News has a “tough” question, they might
reach out to find some overall wearing bumpkin for Oklahoma for a
substantive answer rather than asking some coat and tie wearing air
head from NEW YORK CITY!

* RESULTS FROM OKLAHOMA STRAW POLL - Credit Matt Pinnell with the
idea of Oklahoma conducting its first ever Presidential Straw Poll.
Please remember, straw polls are not scientific polls and as such are
more a reflection of the opinions of activists rather then the broader
electorate.

Like the Iowa straw poll, which brings in tons of money for the Iowa
Republican party, the Oklahoma straw poll was primarily a fund raiser.
I know they promoted it big time through the internet and I even
received a robo call from Lt. Gov Todd Lamb promoting the poll. I
wasn’t able to contact Matt today, and as such don’t know how many
participated, but I would expect it was a large number. At $5.00 per
vote, the party probably raised a good deal of money with the effort.

The results were released at the Herman Cain fund raiser a week ago
Monday night. Winning the straw poll was Ron Paul, with 46% of the
vote, Herman Cain 25%, Newt Gingrich 17%, Mitt Romney 6%, Senator
Inhofe’s pick, Rick Perry 3%, Michelle Bachmann 2%, Rick Santorum 1%
and the others less than 1%.

* THE DONALD TRUMP DEBATE - I for one really wanted to see the
debate hosted by Donald Trump, not because I am a fan of the Donald,
but because his main issue is our horrible trade deficit, especially
so with Communist China. This issue has barely been touched in the
myriad of other debates and I personally don’t believe the so called
“free trade” Republicans want to have to deal with this issue to any
depth.

No where is the truth of God’s Word more evident than when it says:
the borrower is subservient (or a slave) to the lender. With Communist
China holding over a Trillion dollars of our debt, it means that when
Premier chingchowpingpongball speaks, we listen!!! We have been in a
trade war with Communist China for many years, China understands that,
we don’t. It is much like when Osama Ben Ladin and the rest of the
radical Muslim world declared war on the U.S. many years ago. It
wasn’t until they took down the twin towers, that we realized they
were serious and even then as well as now we can’t bring ourselves to
properly identify our enemies.

Our trade deficit is one of the most important issues facing our
nation. It is a major factor causing our budget deficits and few
people understand its importance. I say bring on the debate.

I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday, Please don’t forget
the meeting I mentioned for this Thursday as Jonathan Small will lay
out a viable plan to totally eliminate Oklahoma’s personal income
tax.

Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com

THE MISGUIDED LIBERAL FAITH COMMUNITY!

2011-12-06T10:17:00.000-06:00

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
++ THE MISGUIDED LIBERAL FAITH COMMUNITY!

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING

Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, December 7th will be held at
Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. Our speaker this
week will be Brandon Dutcher, Vice President for Policy with the
Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs. Brandon is an excellent researcher
and presents information in a very logical and rational manner. I
believe he is concerned about the rush towards evermore government
sponsored daycare (excuse me, I meant to say early childhood
education) and as such he will be talking about “Empowering Oklahoma’s
Most Important Early Childhood Educators.” I will also have copies of
an article about the problems associated with government sponsored
early childhood education.

++ ANNOUNCEMENTS

* EDMOND OKC AREA - TUESDAY EVENING - Eight home school students,
associated with the Generation Joshua Project, presented their
activities to those attending our meeting last Wednesday and really
impressed our members. Not only were they inspiring, but they really
encouraged our members and friends that there are some of today’s
youth that are hungry to learn and motivated to make a difference in
today’s culture war. Following the meeting, I had a legenthy
conversation with Carson Banks. After our conversation, he contacted
most of the other young people and we have decided to do a fast track
presentation to better prepare and equip these interested young people
with a better understanding of government and the political process.

Therefore, I will be teaching a 4 session course on a wide range of
subjects toward those ends. The dates will be Tuesday evenings,
December 6th and 20th as well as January 3rd and 10th. The location
will be Fairview Baptist Church (Danforth and North Sooner Road) in
Edmond. The meetings will begin at 7:00 and end at 8:30 p.m. The age
range for the Generation Joshua Organization is from 11 to 19 years of
age. If you have a son or daughter in that age group that is
interested in a better understanding of government and the political
process, they would be welcome to attend. Those older than 19 or
adults may attend, but we want to try and keep the questions and
answers mostly to the younger age group.

* MOORE AREA - THURSDAY EVENING - The Sooner Republican Assembly
will meet at Earls Rib in Moore, 6:00 for dinner and 6:45 p.m. for the
speaker and program on Thursday evening, December 8th. The main
speaker will be Pastor Fred Greening. In addition they will be
conducting a silent auction with the funds raised going to the club
treasury.

* OKC AREA - FRIDAY EVENING - Last year several folks got
together for a course on survivor training. They will meet again this
Friday evening from 6:30 until 8:30 p.m. at the Northside Bible
Church, 1401 NW 100th street in Britton (the corner of NW 100th and
McKinley). The speaker will be a ham operator, talking about
communications and home security. There is no admission and they will
have plenty of seating. For more information call George Wallace at
(405) 818-2277.

* TULSA AREA - SATURDAY EVENING - As I mentioned in last week’s e-
mail, with the secularists gaining control of the annual Christmas
parade in Tulsa and turning it into a secular event, some of the local
Christians and conservatives have decided to start an new tradition by
hosting a CHRISTMAS parade which will honor the reason for the season.
Therefore, the Christmas parade will be held at the Tulsa Hills
Shopping Center, 71st street South and U.S. Highway 75. The parade
will start at 6:00 p.m.. So bundle up the kids and enjoy the parade.
For more information call (918) 583-2345.

* WARR ACRES - TUESDAY, DEC 13TH - The Change A Nation For Christ
organization will hold their monthly meeting one week from this
Tuesday at Victory Church, 4300 North McArthur in Warr Acres. The
meeting will take place in the “Commons” area which is on the West End
of the campus. The meeting is from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. with a light meal
served at 6:30. There is no charge for the meal, but a donation would
be welcome. Speaking will be Mr. Ralph Bullard, the former head master
of Christian Heritage Academy in Del City. Mr. Bullard will be
speaking from his personal experiences about the crucial connection
between Christian education and God’s purpose for America. For more
information contact Travis or Sue Votaw at
Travisue@votaw.org.

++ THE MISGUIDED LIBERAL FAITH COMMUNITY!

A couple of weeks back as reported in the Oklahoman, several liberal
Baptist groups gathered for the “New Baptist Covenant II” regional
meeting at St. John Missionary Baptist Church in OKC. The gathering
was started several years ago by former President Jimmy Carter. I
believe Carter, Al Gore and Bill Clinton are all the products of
liberal splits off of Biblical Baptist churches and as such are quite
different in their theology and world view.

Locally, one of their leaders is Dr. Bruce Prescott director of
Mainstream Oklahoma Baptists, in my opinion he is one of central
Oklahoma’s leading false prophets. Mainstream is the word they choose
for themselves, in my opinion they are anything but mainstream. These
groups of progressives are politically active and as such came up with
a supposed problem which they intend to address during next year’s
legislative session.

The senior pastor at St. John, the Rev. Major Jemison, said, “the
Christian community’s role is to speak up for the impoverished who
find themselves in a no-win situation with payday lenders.”

Payday lenders have popped up across Oklahoma over the past 10 years
or so. People with jobs can go into these loan offices and get an
advance before their next paycheck, that is, if they are willing to
pay a hefty interest rate on the advance. Depending on the amount of
the loan and how many days before their paycheck, the interest rate
could climb to 500% or more. That is not 5 times the paycheck, but say
$20 on a $200 loan figured over 7 or 10 days might figure up to that
percentage rate on an annualized basis.

Based on my 20 plus years of financial counseling (not investment
counseling, but rather budgeting and debt resolution) I believe most
of the people accessing these loans are poorly educated,
undisciplined, not very bright and quite often they are in a jam. The
hefty interest rates are posted on the door or window next to the door
as well as listed several times throughout the businesses.

Most of these folks don’t bother to even look at the published
interest rates or if they did, they wouldn’t be likely to understand,
that they are the last people in the world that should be accessing
these loans. All they are interested in is getting their hands on the
cash now. Because they run behind with their bills and other uses for
their money most of the time, shortly after their paycheck is issued,
they are behind again and go back again for another advance. Over time
the interest really adds up, money they need for expenses but they
give it up for the immediate. Just remember, no one holds a gun to
their head and makes them take out these loans. Usually their credit
rating will be so bad that they can’t get a loan from traditional
sources and at a reasonable interest rate. So what to do about this
situation?

Dr. Prescott indicated he would like to see legislation reducing the
interest rates. However, the rates are what they are because these
loan companies are dealing with unstable and risky clients that
probably have no where else to go for a short term loan. Some of these
people have skipped on loans to the small consumer loan businesses
which loan at lower rates. As well many of their friends and families
will no longer loan them money for past failures to repay. So if
Prescott gets his way and causes government to interfere in the
market place, will these loan companies go away? If so, will these
desperate folks turn to crime to meet their immediate needs?

I have an idea for these liberal Progressives, why don’t they get off
their high horses and do something for the benefit of these people and
leave the government out of this. Why not produce a small placard
explaining how detrimental these high interest loans are and stand
outside the loan offices handing them to the people as they enter or
exit. After making the case as to the harm resulting from these high
interest loans, invite them to a dinner and budgeting class. Explain,
there is a way to get off the merry-go-round of financial pressure.
Urge them to come to a meeting, even feed them a meal to help convince
them to come and make a real difference in their lives.

In all reality, most will be offended by the offers of help, but some
may take them up on the offer. Those who reject the offers of help
should be allowed to experience the fruit of their decision. At some
point in time, they may hit bottom and finally reach out. Those
choices are true liberty and true justice. In reality, Biblical
Christians are more likely to reach out in this manner than the
liberal progressives who seem to always want government to fix a
perceived problem.

I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.

Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com

NEWT GINGRICH & PRESIDENTIAL POLITICS ++ WILL REPUBLICANS SUPPORT DEPLETION OF SS TRUST FUND?

2011-11-29T08:28:00.001-06:00

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
++ NEWT GINGRICH & PRESIDENTIAL POLITICS
++ WILL REPUBLICANS SUPPORT DEPLETION OF SS TRUST FUND?

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING

Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, November 30th will be held at
Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. We are going to call
this week’s meeting, “Home School Wednesday” as we will have about 10
home school students who have planned and will conduct our meeting. I
think most all of these students are affiliated with the Generation
Joshua Project. I am sure they will explain what that means and
provide an excellent program. Several years ago we had about 8 to 15
home school students attend nearly every Wednesday for a period of
about 4 years. Their parents believed the weekly OCPAC meetings would
provide the best civics education available as well additional
information on a broad range of issues. We don’t see those students
much anymore since they got busy with college and other objectives in
life. We have turned our meetings over to home schoolers in the past
and they have always done an excellent job of planning and conducting
a meeting. I often hear conservatives say, “where are the young
people?” You won’t have to go any further than our Wednesday meeting
to see the hope for our future.

++ ANNOUNCEMENTS

* TUESDAY EVENING - OKC AREA - State Representative Charles Key
(R-OKC) will host a campaign kick-off event for his effort to run for
Oklahoma County Court Clerk. The fundraiser will be from 5:30 to 7:00
p.m. at H&H Gun Range, 400 South Vermont Ave, Suite #100. Speaking on
behalf of Charles will be Oklahoma House Speaker Designee, T.W.
Shannon (R-Lawton). So grab your checkbook and come help Charles get
started in this race. Not everyone can contribute the maximum of
$5,000, but those smaller contributions of $20, $50 and a $100 really
add up. I am sure Charles will be appreciative of any and all the help
folks can contribute.

* FRIDAY EVENING - OKC AREA - The many chapters of the John Birch
Society will host their annual Christmas dinner and fund raising
auction this Friday evening (6:30 p.m.) at the Character Inn, 520 West
Main in downtown OKC. The cost for the dinner is $10. Please bring one
nice auction item per person or family and come join the fun. I will
buy the dinner for 1 person, deemed by those in attendance, to have
dressed more in the Christmas spirit than I. Good luck, I won’t be
easy to beat!!!

* SATURDAY, DEC 3RD - STATE WIDE - The Fox News Cable Channel
will host a presidential forum during the Mike Huckabee show which
airs at 7:00 p.m. Central Standard Time. Oklahoma’s Attorney General,
Scott Pruitt will be one of the 3 Attorney Generals to moderate the
forum. Hopefully Scott will ask pertinent questions about federalism
and states rights. Questions about the proper balance between the
states and the federal government as well as limiting the
jurisdictions of the federal judiciary. I am under no illusion that
this important program will be able to compete with the entertainment
of the bedlam game in Stillwater, but that is what those DVR’s are
for. So record the program and watch it later.

* SATURDAY, DEC 10TH - TULSA AREA - For many years the city of
Tulsa had a traditional Christmas parade. However, with the advent of
secularists gaining control of the parade, they changed it to some
kind of a nebulous “holiday parade”. U.S. Senator Jim Inhofe had
participated in the parade for many years by riding on horseback.
Because of the change, Senator Inhofe announced last year that he
would not participate in the parade, nor will he this year.

As a result, several Christians and conservatives got together and
planned to have a Christmas parade to once again honor Jesus as the
reason for the season. Therefore, the Tulsa CHRISTMAS parade will
occur Saturday evening, December 10th, starting at 6:00 p.m. The
location will be the Tulsa Hills Shopping Center, 71st street South
and U.S. highway 75. If you would like to help sponsor or volunteer in
the effort, please call (918) 583-2345. If you can’t help, you may
just want to attend and see the parade.

++ NEWT GINGRICH & PRESIDENTIAL POLITICS

Some of the reasons I so appreciate the John Birch Society (I have
been a member since 1988) is their understanding of the importance of
accurate history as well as what parts of history are important to
understand. In addition, there is probably no organization better at
discerning the enemies of Americanism, enemies that I would suggest
are made up of individuals and/or organizations dedicated to
destroying our national sovereignty and merging us into a global
socialist state.

About 2 years ago the Society discerned that the “establishment
insiders” considered Newt Gingrich as one of their prime candidates to
win the Republican nomination for president. As such, the Birch
Society produced a 33 minute DVD called “The Real Newt Gingrich” to
expose his long history of being wrong on issues and flip flopping
when necessary. I will have those DVDs available at our meeting for
people to take and view if they would like.

As recently as September, I believed Newt would not rise to the top,
but the many debates have allowed Mr. slickster to display his
intelligence and shine with is quick wit and grasp of issues and
experience. It appears that large numbers have taken the bait and with
the hook firmly set in their mouth he is reeling them in as they have
propelled him to near the top of the race. It so reminds me of the
2008 election cycle when we got down to the choice of the insider
establishment’s John McCain or Mitt Romney to chose from for the
Republican ticket or the insider establishment’s Barrack Obama or
Hillary Clinton to chose from on the Democrat side.

This time it is looking like our choices are boiling down to choosing
between the insider establishment’s choice of Mitt Romney or Newt
Gingrich on the Republican side to go up against the insider
establishment’s Barrack Obama, who is burning out and is not likely to
win re-election. The other establishment candidates (they never get
behind just one candidate or just one party), Jon Huntsman and Rick
Perry either never got any traction or fizzled out over night.

Some weeks back I suggested the only 3 I would consider would be
Michele Bachmann, Ron Paul or Herman Cain (Rick Santorum and the
others never got out of the starting gate. For a variety of reasons I
am about finished with Herman Cain, though I really liked his 999
plan, especially since it was to be a bridge to The Fair Tax.

I know many will disagree with me on the presidential candidates and
that is fine. In my entire 28 years or so of activism, a primary
candidate I have supported has never won the nomination (I was just
beginning to get involved in 84 when Reagan ran for re-election). Am I
out of step with the easily manipulated majority? Absolutely! I may
not be correct in my evaluations, but please remember, the majority is
almost always wrong! If they weren’t wrong, then we wouldn’t be in the
mess that we find ourselves in today.

++ WILL REPUBLICANS SUPPORT DEPLETION OF SS TRUST FUND?

Some important information to understand. Anytime we are in a
recession, all good little Keysian Economists always desire to infuse
money into the economy to pump it up and get us out of difficult
economic times. Those newly infused dollars in the hands of people
usually cause them to buy more goods and services, thus putting more
demand into the economy and as such people go to work to meet that new
demand and thus the economy pulls out of a recession.

There are a variety of ways to infuse money into the economy.
Republicans like to do so through tax cuts. They like to say that
people can spend their money better than government. While I agree
with that notion, the following point needs to be understood by
conservatives. A tax cut, WITHOUT a corresponding spending cut of the
same amount or more, is simply a means to infuse money into our
economy. Those circumstances are not likely to create real wealth, but
rather additional revenues through inflation, which by definition is
an expansion of the money supply.

Now a little history over the past 3 years. When President Obama
gained power, along with strong Democrat majorities in the Congress,
we were in a recession. One of the main efforts to infuse cash into
the system resulted in the Congress of 2008, along with the support of
the President, passing a law to create a tax rebate (kick back) of
$400 dollars per working person for taxable years 2009 and 2010. Most
people drawing a paycheck saw their paychecks adjusted to allow for
that rebate to be figured in over a year’s time. Thus, everyone’s
paycheck rose about $8 per week per working person or about $32 per
month per working person.

After the 2010 elections, the President and a lame duck congress,
still controlled by Democrats, changed their strategy. They
discontinued giving the tax credit which was tied to a person’s income
tax obligation. That tax credit, (tax credits are actually government
expenditures) along with massive new federal spending in other areas
caused our annual deficit and also our national debt to rise
dramatically.

However, to keep the citizens paychecks from going down, for the
taxable year of 2011, they decided to pass a law to reduce the amount
of payroll taxes we pay. Though everyone paid $8 more in income taxes,
the nearly 33% reduction in payroll taxes actually caused most
individual’s paychecks to increase even more for 2011 than had
occurred in 09 and 2010.

Here is the problem. What we call payroll taxes weren’t really
intended to be a tax, but rather an insurance premium for the social
security and medicare trust funds. Words have meanings and in our
sloppiness we have been calling these FICA insurance premiums, taxes.
FICA stands for the Federal Insurance Contribution Act. In other
words, it was originally to be a stand alone old age retirement
insurance fund and as such what we pay into that trust fund should
better be understood to be insurance premiums rather than a tax.

In all but about 10 years since the existence of the FICA (social
security) program (of 1933) the premiums have been greater than the
pay-outs, thus creating a surplus for most of the existence of the
program. Congress has borrowed those surpluses by creating both short
term and long term interest bearing bonds. Congress has never failed
(so far) to pay those bonds back, so anytime you hear someone say
congress has stolen the funds, you are listening to an ignorant
person, because Congress has never stolen a penny of those funds. What
Congress has failed to do is keep the Trust Fund actuarially sound.

In the taxable year of 2010, the surpluses dried up and the FICA Trust
Fund began to operate in the red again. As such, Congress had to
borrow money from other sources to pay back some of the bonds so
social security benefits wouldn’t have to be reduced. Of course
borrowing from other sources to pay back some of the bonds, caused our
national debt to rise.

With the system beginning to operate in the red in 2010, it was simply
crazy for Obama and the Democrats to allow people a 33% reduction in
what they paid into the Trust fund. It was insane, that is unless the
Democrats were wanting to set up the incoming Republicans for future
problems in the eyes of an economically ignorant American public who
has little understanding of budgeting and keeping stand alone trust
funds actuarially sound. In addition, I suspect Obama would like to
destroy the free standing trust fund and cause people to rely upon the
general fund to pay for their future benefits.

Here is the dilemma for the Republicans. The 33% reduction in what we
pay in FICA premiums is set to expire on December 31st. Will
Republicans provide some responsible LEADERSHIP and refuse to continue
those reductions (Obama actually proposed the 33% cut be increased to
50% for what working people pay and a 50% reduction in what employers
pay up to a certain amount) or will they continue the reductions and
thus cause the fund to be depleted? By not restoring these insurance
premiums into the system, the Republicans will be just as guilty as
the Democrats in hastening the day premiums will have to be raised
above their current levels or else benefits will have to be reduced.
If Republicans refuse to do what is right, the 2033 date for a
collision will be moved up to the very near future. I wonder if
Americans will act like Europeans when their benefits are reduced by
30 to 35 percent?

On the other hand, if Republicans do the responsible thing and
discontinue the cuts, the average family will see their monthly
paycheck decrease by about $80 per month. That is why it is a dilemma
for the Republicans. Would taking that $80 per month out of paychecks
to put back into the trust fund weaken the economy? Probably! That is
why it is so difficult to cut spending when we are printing or
borrowing about 1.6 Trillion per year more than the federal government
takes in in revenues. Those borrowed or printed dollars are propping
up our economy which is already struggling. That is why cutting
spending without recapturing our manufacturing base and expanding our
energy sector to provide more jobs for Americans is very difficult and
risky.

I don’t think Republicans understand this much better than do
Democrats. Further reductions in taxes on individuals will do little
to improve our economy. Reducing taxes on businesses is vital and one
of several necessary steps to re-capturing our manufacturing base in
America.

I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.

Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com

ANNOUNCMENTS INTO THE FUTURE ++ TEA PARTIES HERE AND ELSEWHERE

2011-11-22T08:32:00.001-06:00

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
++ ANNOUNCMENTS INTO THE FUTURE
++ TEA PARTIES HERE AND ELSEWHERE

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING

By my calculation, this will be the 21 time in a row that we will be
meeting on the Wednesday before a Thanksgiving day. We usually have a
good crowd as many are off work or perhaps they have family or friends
coming in and they bring them to our meeting. Our 12 noon luncheon for
Wednesday, November 23rd will be held at Italiano’s restaurant, 4801
North Lincoln in OKC. Paul Blair, my pastor at Fairview Baptist in
Edmond will have a few comments and make an important announcement.
Our main speaker will be Dr. G. Thomas Sharp of Noble Oklahoma. In my
65 years I have had the privilege to meet a lot of very intelligent
individuals that have done an excellent job of developing their
intellect and communication skills. I interviewed Dr. Sharp on my
radio program in 2001 and he was just fascinating. He sure upset Ben
Odem and his liberal (excuse me, “progressive” friends) who had a
program which followed mine. Dr. Sharp can speak on many subjects, but
I have asked him to at least discuss some of the very interesting
things that occurred with the eruption of Mt. St. Helens and what
happened to Spirit Lake and other parts of the Mountain. Dr. Sharp has
a large collection of dinosaur skeletons which will soon be displayed
in a permanent home on I-35 just South of the Dallas Ft. Worth area.
Don’t miss this meeting.

++ ANNOUNCMENTS INTO THE FUTURE

* TUESDAY, NOV 29TH - OKC AREA - State Representative Charles Key
(R-OKC) will host a campaign kick-off event for his effort to run for
Oklahoma County Court Clerk. The fundraiser will be from 5:30 to 7:00
p.m. at H&H Gun Range, 400 South Vermont Ave, Suite # 110. Speaking on
behalf of Charles in his effort will be Oklahoma House Speaker
Designee, T.W. Shannon (R-Lawton). The public is welcome, so grab your
checkbook and come help Charles get started in this race, even if you
can only contribute a small amount of funds for his effort.

* FRIDAY, DECEMBER 2ND - OKC AREA - The state wide chapters of
the John Birch Society will host their annual Christmas dinner and
auction at the Character Inn, 520 West Main Street in downtown OKC.
Not sure, but I believe the dinner starts at 6:00 p.m. and costs $10
for the meal. Please bring one nice auction item per person or family
and come join the fun. As always, if there is one person in attendance
with a flashier Christmas tie and etc. on than I will be
wearing, I will pay for their dinner. Good luck!

* Monday, December 5th - OKC AREA - The Oklahoma State Republican
Party has invited all the Republican candidates for office to come to
Oklahoma so people can get to know them better. They also use the
occasion for a fund raiser for the party. Mitt Romney has already been
here and the next to come will be Herman Cain. The time will be 6:30
p.m. with the location being the Oklahoma City Marriott, 3233
Northwest Expressway in OKC. The Republican Party is not endorsing
anyone, it is simply a fundraiser and an opportunity for folks to meet
the candidates. The cost to attend is $20.12 per person. We are asked
to register online to Emily@okgop.com or call (405) 528-3501 by
December 3rd.

++ TEA PARTIES, HERE AND ELSEWHERE

I am beginning to hear a lot of people wonder what ever happened to
the Tea Parties which began to fire up about 2 and a half years ago.
First let me say, the Tea Party groups in rural Oklahoma are still
around and busy. However, in our two largest cities, they no longer
exist, as least not as large rallies with clever signs. Many of the
people really determined to make a difference have gotten involved in
organizations such at the 912 groups, OCPAC, OK-SAFE, the John Birch
Society and others.

As far as Oklahoma is concerned, I believe they had only a minimal
effect on the 2010 elections. When it came to our congressional
delegation, their influence was only felt in the second district,
where the under funded Republican received about 45% of the vote
against the well known incumbent David Boren with all the money in the
world and a district with a strong Democrat majority. Boren, realizing
a better funded candidate would come after him in 2012 and it being a
presidential election cycle with higher Republican turnout, has
decided to retire rather than experience the likely hood of an
embarrassing defeat.

Since the rest of Oklahoma’s delegation had opposed President Obama’s
agenda and they were of the opposing party, it was hard to get people
upset with what was happening in Washington to the point they were
willing to toss them out of office.

The only other place the tea parties had much effect was in the
Republican primary for governor. In all my years of activism, the
conservative grass roots had only been able to garner about 40% of the
vote against the Republican establishment candidate for statewide
races. I am talking about past races where we had candidates such as
Mike Fair, Jerry Pierce and Jerry Brown running for governor or Tim
Green for attorney general.

The one exception was when Dr. Tom Coburn destroyed Kirk Humphries for
U.S. Senate. That was mainly because Dr. Coburn has his own unique
qualities, which appealed to some of the establishment voters, and
then there was Bob Anthony out there acting like “Jack the
Ripper” (that was Kirk Humphries’s description of Bob) banging away at
Kirk’s liberalism which allowed Dr. Tom to triangulate above the war
between Kirk and Bob.

However, in the Republican governor’s race, Randy Brogdon became the
darling of the tea parties, so Brogdon and the other two Republican
candidates were able to garner over 45% of the vote against one of the
highest profile establishment candidates in history. I believe you can
credit the tea parties with that additional 5% of the vote in that
race.

Otherwise, the tea parties probably had enough additional effect to
help the Republican’s pick up several new seats in the legislature,
particularly in the Southeast quarter of the state.

I believe the awareness ginned up by the tea parties along with better
voter education will continue to have a positive effect for some time
to come. That will be especially true in rural Oklahoma if they remain
active. Their key to success is that they have become more like an
organization with an agenda and strategy to achieve their agenda
rather than an event or gathering like the large crowds of the big
city tea parties.

One other thing about the tea parties in the big cities. They live or
die based on the help from talk radio. With the passing of Mark
Shannon, OKC no longer has a voice able to stir up the emotions of the
populace to get a decent turn out. The Egg Man is a boring 3rd rate
comedian, incapable of serious talk radio and certainly too shallow to
provide any kind of leadership for tea parties. The only reason I know
he is still on air is because I have to listen to his program teasers
throughout the day while listening to KTOK’s syndicated line-up. When
the clock strikes 4:00 and until 7:00 p.m. I begin to listen to Neal
Bortze on 1520 AM, Paul Blair on 800 AM, Shawn Hannity on 740 AM out
of Tulsa, or and investment program on 960 AM out of Enid. Try any of
these programs as they are all superior to the Egg Man!

I have said all this to talk about our guest last week Scott Hennen
and his involvement with the tea parties in North and South Dakota as
well as Minnesota. Before the tea party movement, North Dakota had
been represented in Washington by Democrats for nearly 3 decades, even
though the state voted for Republicans for President.

President Obama’s agenda stirred the wrath of the citizens in ND so
much that they turned out 1500 people to a tea party in Fargo, a town
of only 100,000. Proportionally that would be a larger turnout than
any tea party in either of our 2 larger cities.

The 2 Democrat Senators began to have town hall meetings in barns or
fire stations in very small communities so they could say they were
meeting with the folks, but avoiding the larger cities and thus hoping
to avoid embarrassing moments. Scott would go to these small
communities and broadcast from a local coffee shop, urging people to
come and pick up sheets with the top 20 questions to ask their
Senators. These fire stations and barns would be packed and the people
were so well informed that the Senators couldn’t pull the wool over
their eyes.

Therefore, the Senator up for re-election announced he would not run
again and he was replaced by a Republican, though he doesn’t appear to
be very conservative according to his score of a 50 on the Freedom
Index in the New American magazine. Their 9 term U.S. Representative,
Earl Pomeroy, would not attend town hall meetings and was defeated by
10 percentage points. The Republican who defeated him scored an 80,
the same as our Republicans in Oklahoma. Their loan remaining Democrat
Senator has announced that he will not seek re-election next year and
according to Scott, he is sure to be replaced by the sitting
Republican Governor.

Let me suggest that in states that still have fairly conservative
values, a liberal Democrat’s days will be numbered if there is an
active tea party movement. Also, to take that a step farther, liberal
Democrats or in some cases liberal Republicans will insure that the
tea parties will stay active. Therefore locations, conditions and talk
radio will determine the activities and vigor of tea parties.

I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.

Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com

CITY OF TULSA & SPECIAL ELECTION IN McCURTAIN CO. ++ BORROW MORE MONEY OR PAY AS WE GO?

2011-11-09T10:58:00.001-06:00

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
++ CITY OF TULSA & SPECIAL ELECTION IN McCURTAIN CO.
++ BORROW MORE MONEY OR PAY AS WE GO?

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING

Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, November 9th will honor all active
duty, reserves and military veterans. Our speakers this week will be
veterans of World War II, the last war we fought that was properly
declared according to our U.S. Constitution. At the height of the war
we had around 16 million men in uniform as well as many women who
served as WACS or WAVES. With the youngest of those veterans being
around 84 to 85, we are losing those who served at a rapid rate so it
is important that we honor them while we can. I have asked our
speakers to start with where they were when they heard about Perl
Harbor, what did they think, and then go on from there.

++ ANNOUNCEMENTS

* WEDNESDAY - TULSA AREA - The Tulsa Republican Men’s Club will
have their monthly meeting on Wednesday the 9th, 12 noon, at Siegi’s
Sausage Factory, and Restaurant, 81st street and Sheridan Road. They
will also host WW II Veterans. Ladies are welcome to attend these
meetings.

* THURSDAY - MOORE AREA - The Sooner Republican Assembly will
meet at Earl’s Rib in Moore, 6:45 p.m. on Thursday the 10th. Special
guest will be Paul Maus candidate for H.D. 20. This is a newly created
district as a result of re-districting. H.D. 20 is currently held by
Paul Roan of Tishomingo, but he will be term limited out after next
year’s session and the district shifts up toward the Moore area, where
Republicans are expected to pick up this seat. The keynote speaker
will be Jack Moore, a retired attorney. Jack will be speaking on The
Truth About Islam.

* THURSDAY - DUNCAN AREA - On Thursday, November 10th, the
Stephens County Republican Party will stage a mock debate featuring
local Republicans portraying eight GOP presidential candidates. The
surrogates have researched the candidates positions and will try to
give an accurate presentation for their candidate. The candidates will
be asked probing questions by a three person panel who will be
portraying members of the national media. This should be informative
as well as entertaining. The debate will be held at the Red river
Technology Center in Duncan (in the Seminar Room) beginning at 7:00
p.m. There is no admission, if you need further information contact
Steve Fair at (580) 252-6284 or okgop@aol.com

* SATURDAY - OKC AREA - Radio talk show host and minister Glen
Howard along with The Judeo-Christian Fellowship of OKC, will host a
timely update on recent events in Israel and the Middle East. A
buffet breakfast will be available at the Biltmore Hotel (North of
I-40 on Meridian) beginning at 8:30 a.m. followed by a presentation on
the Biblical basis for the support of Israel by Glen Howard of Senior
World Radio (heard at 10:00 a.m. Sundays on 1000 AM). At 10:00 a.m.
this Saturday Avi Lipkin will be speaking to those in attendence via
Skype for an update on the current events in the Middle East. There is
no cost other than the breakfast buffet, but it would be very helpful
to have an idea of how many plan to come. Therefore, please contact
Glen with that information at (405) 760-4536 or ghoward@jcfokc.org.

++ TULSA CITY ELECTIONS & SPECIAL ELECTION IN McCURTAIN CO.

Today, November 8th voters in the Tulsa City Limits will go to the
polls to vote on several of the city council seats as well as several
changes to the city charter. I highly recommend logging on to the
Tulsa Beacon Newspaper’s web-sit for their take on these elections, if
you don’t take that paper. By the way, I believe the Tulsa Beacon (a
weekly) and the Oklahoma Constitution (a quarterly) are the two best
newspapers in the state. I urge all conservatives to subscribe as it
is just $35 per year for the Beacon for those in Tulsa County ($40 for
all others) and the Oklahoma Constitution is just $12 per year.

With the passing of Rusty Farley (R-Haworth) this past Summer, we are
just now getting around to a special primary election on November 8th
to fill his vacated seat. The Democrats have 2 in their primary and
the Republicans have 4 candidates. There will be NO primary runoff for
the Republicans. Therefore, the Republican candidate with the largest
number of votes will be the candidate to face the Democrat candidate
along with 2 independent candidates. If you live in the district
(Idabel, Broken Bow, etc) please do your research and vote as I expect
that less than 800 will vote in the Republican primary. I have only
had contact with Joe Silk, but hesitate to give an unqualified
endorsement for Joe since I just don’t know anything about the other
Republicans. Joe is a serious Christian who spent many years on the
mission field and home schooled his children. He currently manages
vacation cabins (it is a huge business in the area since so many
Texans love to come to this beautiful area) and also operates a bed
and breakfast. Again though, please do your own research. We will
invite the winner to OCPAC for our interview process in the near
future.

++ BORROW MORE MONEY OR PAY AS WE GO?

There was an interesting article in the Oklahoman on October 25th
titled “Bond proposals face resistance.” The gist of the article was
that Oklahoma is facing capital improvement needs approaching nearly 1
billion dollars, yet many lawmakers, especially in the House are
resistant towards passing additional bonded indebtedness.

The article lists serious needs such as crumbling masonry at the State
Capitol, buildings with mold problems, a need for a new medical
examiners office and etc.

However, the article goes on to quote State Representative Jason
Murphy as follows: “ ‘There’s a reason that you’ve seen the number of
approved bond issuances drop off in the last few years,’ said Rep.
Jason Murphy (R-Guthrie), who considers himself among those with a
strong distaste for taking on additional taxpayer-backed debt.
‘Especially with all the freshmen elected in 2010 - voting for
indebtedness isn’t politically acceptable in a lot of areas in
Oklahoma now.’”

I would suggest Representative Murphey knows what he is talking about.
In 2004 the District 31 seat he now occupies was open and Murphey lost
a close primary race to Dale Depew. That was the year that Republicans
gained control of the House and as such leadership gave Depew the task
of finding ways to fix many of these on-going repair needs.

If my memory serves me correctly, Depew suggested a 150 million dollar
bond issue. Murphey seized upon the issue, making Depew out to be a
big spender with a poor sense of priorities (the state budget was
running sizeable surpluses of new tax dollars) and exposed Depew to
the voters. We voters tossed Depew out and Murphey has served for the
past 5 years now, working to cut the size of government, lower taxes
and improve the valid services, which is what nearly all Republicans
tell the voters they are going to do when they seek our votes.

The article stated that during the 2011 session, the Senate approved
more than 100 million in bonded indebtedness for purposes such as a
new Veterans Affairs office, a new medical examiners office and money
to finish the American Indian Museum (the state has already spent 65
million on the museum, much of it through bonded indebtedness). The
article lamented that none of those bond proposals were even
considered in the House.

State Representative Earl Sears, Chairman of the House Appropriations
Committee said that a transportation bond proposal only passed by 1
vote in the House, even though it had been pre-approved by the Senate
and the Governors office.

Of all the issues considered by the members of OCPAC to be used for
this year’s Conservative Index published in the Oklahoma Constitution
Newspaper, that bond issue received the largest number of votes. It
was such a bad deal.

The State Constitution does not allow the legislature to borrow money
for the general fund to make up the annual budget. Therefore, Governor
Fallin and the big spending Republicans in leadership devised a clever
scheme to get around that wise prohibition. As such, the legislature
dipped into the state transportation department’s road and bridge
funds and took 100 million dollars out for the general fund to balance
the budget. The transportation bond mentioned above, which passed by 1
vote, was for $70 million and was used to replace all but $30 million
they raided from the department of transportation. Sadly, once the
bond underwriter fees and interest is paid, it may cost the taxpayers
nearly double the 70 million dollars to get 70 million dollars to use
for roads and bridges.

Representative Sears indicated he has compiled a survey listing all
types of issues, with plans to send to every House member to see what
projects they would support using bond issues to fund? One item on the
survey will be endowed chairs at government run universities. Folks,
borrowing money to fund endowed chairs is insanity, even if it draws
matching money from the private sector.

The article along with an editorial in the Oklahoman a few days later
indicated the state debt level is low and the state could easily float
another 300 million dollars in bonds without risking our credit
rating.

My question is, why would we want to do such a foolish thing? Why not
pay as we go and save the hundreds of millions in bond underwriter
fees and interest? It is all a matter of priorities. State revenues
have been increasing for the past year and we even put over 200
million dollars into the rainy day fund after the session ended this
year.

How about using some of these new surplus revenues along with further
reductions in wasteful government spending and improved efficiencies
to pay for these needed capital improvements? Of course state
employees and teachers will be screaming to get their hands on these
new revenues, but they need to be patient as neglected capital
improvement items need to receive some attention.

The state commission that sets the salary for the members of the
legislature just voted not to give a raise the state lawmakers for at
least 2 more years. It has been 14 years since lawmakers have had a
raise, so part time teachers who make an average $6000 dollars a year
more than lawmakers and full time state employees who average about
$3000 dollars a year less than our part time lawmakers, surely can
wait another year or two for a raise. In all reality, while some
lawmakers put in a minimal amount of time, other lawmakers put in more
time than teachers or state employees.

Bottom line, I read an article several years ago about a community
back east that was deeply in debt and anytime a need arose they had to
borrow more money to meet the need. One city councilman persuaded his
fellow members to stop that wasteful cycle and use taxpayer dollars
wisely. They went to the public and asked for a sales tax increase,
with all new revenues from the tax increase to be used to get out of
debt. The public agreed and after about 5 years they were out of debt,
the sales tax went away, the council began to set aside revenues from
the existing tax base for future needs which were paid for with cash.
After some time, that should also allow for the existing tax base to
be lowered and yet, vital services should be taken care of.

That is a definition of good government and something the state of
Oklahoma should strive for. We do not need to borrow one additional
penny if we will simply limit government to its proper functions, do a
good job of prioritizing and stop wasting taxpayer dollars on wasteful
bond fees and interest.

I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday

Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com

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KYLE LOVELESS ANNOUNCES FOR SENATE ++ ARTICLES ON FREE TRADE AND IMPROVING OUR ECONOMY

2011-11-01T08:57:00.000-05:00

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
++ TWO MORE DAYS FOR MEMBERSHIP MATCHES
++ KYLE LOVELESS ANNOUNCES FOR SENATE
++ ARTICLES ON FREE TRADE AND IMPROVING OUR ECONOMY

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING

Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, November 2nd will be held at
Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. Our speaker this
week from Chicago will be Mr. James Lansberry, Vice President of
Samaritan Ministries. Samaritan Ministries is an organized effort to
help facilitate Christians sharing the health care costs of other
Christians. It is NOT health care insurance, but rather an alternative
to such. While I have about decided to go with this organization in
lieu of Medicare, the majority of its members are younger folks, often
times pastors and their families as well as the families of
homeschoolers and self employed folks.

I called State Insurance Commissioner John Doak to invite him to our
meeting. He has to be in Washington for a conference, but is fairly
familiar with the organization and is in favor of people having this
option for their health care needs. He indicated he would send former
Senator Randy Brogdon to one of the meetings to meet Mr. Landsberry
and see what he has to say. On an asside, Commissioner Doak shared
with me that he would be finished visiting all 77 counties by mid-
November and planned to visit all 77 counties at least once a year in
the future.

Just to give an idea of what a family of 4 or MORE would be looking at
in costs for their health care needs as a member of SM, they would NOT
pay more than $340 per month. In addition, should they have a health
care need of more than $300 and up to $250,000, there would be no co-
pays to meet such a need. It is an interesting concept, with
organizations such as this specifically exempted from what we call the
Obamacare legislation passed nearly 2 years ago. If you are not able
to attend our meeting, Mr. Landsberry will also be speaking at Trinity
Baptist Church in Yukon (South of I-40 about a mile on Garth Brooks
Blvd) this Wednesday evening, starting at 6:30 p.m.. You owe it to
yourself to check this out as you could save a lot of money and the
benefit of having other Christians praying for you during a time of
need, might be more valuable than any money saved.

++ ANNOUNCEMENTS

* THURSDAY MORNING - TULSA AREA - One of the hot topics this last
year during the legislative session was about health care exchanges.
Under grassroots pressure, Governor Fallin and Speaker Steele agreed
to send over $50 million dollars in federal seed money that had been
intended for these exchanges, back to the federal government. Rather
than pass our own version of such, legislators agreed to have several
public meeting across the state before next year’s session is started.
It is my understanding that all options are on the table, including a
complete refusal of the idea. Therefore, if you live in the Tulsa
area, please attend this meeting Thursday morning, 9:00 a.m. at the
Tulsa Technology Center, Riverside campus.

* THURSDAY EVENING - OKC AREA - Last Wednesday, Tyler Roberts,
Chairman of Young Conservatives of Oklahoma came to our meeting to
invite folks to a special meeting this Thursday evening, 6:00 p.m. in
the Auditorium on the campus of Langston University‘s, Oklahoma City
Campus. That is just a few blocks South of Italiano’s on Lincoln blvd.
The campus shares the facility with the Oklahoma County Election
Board. Speaking will be Mr. Bob Bowdon, a filmmaker who produced and
directed THE CARTEL. I believe he was also involved in the making of
WAITING ON SUPERMAN. In addition a Mr. Larry Sands will also be
speaking. He is the Director of the California Teachers Empowerment
Network. I believe it is an organization similar to the Oklahoma
Professional Educators Association, which is a conservative
alternative to the liberal OEA-NEA unions. The meeting is free and
open to the public.

++ TWO MORE DAYS FOR MEMBERSHIP MATCHES

We have extended the deadline to join OCPAC to this Wednesday, so an
additional $50 can be contributed for each person who joins by
Wednesday. Please bring cash, check or money order to our meeting this
Wednesday or follow the instructions on how to join by mail following
my sign off. Please make sure any checks are dated by Wednesday,
November 2nd.

Over the past several months I have been meeting, visiting by phone or
exchanging e-mails with several candidates or potential candidates who
are gearing up for next year’s election. Some of these candidates are
strong and very conservative. We need to raise as much money as
possible to help these outstanding candidates have the resources to
win their elections. There may be more that file, but a least one
excellent candidate has announced that he will work to defeat Senator
Brian Crain (R-Tulsa), winner of this year’s RINO (Republican In Name
Only) award given out by OCPAC.

++ KYLE LOVELESS ANNOUNCES FOR SENATE

Speaking of candidates, this past Wednesday Kyle Loveless came to our
meeting to announce that he would be seeking the seat that Senator
Russell will vacate after next year’s session. Kyle received OCPAC’s
endorsement during the 2008 election cycle, but lost to Steve Russell
in the run-off elections. Even thought he won our support in 2008, he
will have to compete against any other Republican candidates who throw
their hats in the ring for next year’s elections. We congratulate Kyle
on his decision to run again.

++ ARTICLES ON FREE TRADE AND IMPROVING OUR ECONOMY

The cover article in the September 19th edition of the New American
Magazine (publication of the John Birch Society) was titled FREE TRADE
- In Theory and Practice. It was simply outstanding. For years I have
looked for ways to explain how the “so called” free traders in our
nation (most of them are Republicans) have promoted policies which
have harmed our economy which cause our trade deficit to increase.
They love to quote Adam Smith, author of: THE WEALTH OF NATIONS but
they only partially quote him. While Adam Smith was the authority on
free trade, he also made exceptions to such to preserve a nation. This
excellent article explains to exceptions, defines what free trade
really is and what it is not. I ordered a case of the magazines and
will have them available for a suggested donation of one dollar each.

In the Oklahoman this past week was an article by State Representative
Tom Newell (R-Seminole) about the need to eliminate the state income
tax to stimulate our economy. Tom is one of the bright new freshmen in
the legislature who ranked 8th most conservative out of the 70
Republican lawmakers. Tom is a pastor of a church in Seminole and
before being elected was also a professor of economics at the college
in Seminole. As such he seems to also be taking the lead on trying to
get a handle on the run-away costs surrounding our government colleges
and universities. I will try to have copies of his article along with
the magazine mentioned above available for the folks attending our
meeting.

I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.

Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com

FUTURE TAX AND SPENDING CHANGES IN OKLAHOMA ++ OCPAC MEMBERSHIP UP-DATE & CHALLENGE

2011-10-25T10:49:00.001-05:00

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
++ FUTURE TAX AND SPENDING CHANGES IN OKLAHOMA
++ OCPAC MEMBERSHIP UP-DATE & CHALLENGE

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING

Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, October 26th will be held at
Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. Over the years we
have had many candidates for the legislature come to an OCPAC meeting
and say they were going to reduce the size of state government,
eliminate waste, duplication and inefficiencies. We used to have a
member that would ask for some concrete example of how they would
accomplish such an achievement? Usually, there would be little
substance within their answers. Our speaker this week will be State
Representative Jason Murphy (R-Guthrie). Representative Murphey has
been one of the leaders in the legislature to bring about government
modernization as well as greater transparency to our government
functions and processes. We have never considered a bill regarding
government modernization for the conservative index, as we have tried
to be careful that any savings were real and not just pie in the sky.
Jason will explain the effects of his efforts over the past 3 years or
so. In the end, we will be looking for a reduction in the cost of
government, a reduction in the number of state employees and where
feasible, consolidation of government agencies. We want to see if
there is a real benefit for the taxpayers of the State of Oklahoma.
Don’t miss this important meeting and bring your best questions. If
this computer geek (a geek is a nerd with a social life) tries to pull
any wool over our eyes, we want to catch it.

++ ANNOUNCEMENTS

* TUESDAY EVENING - KONAWA AREA - The Konawa Tea Party will
gather for their monthly meeting, Tuesday evening, October 25th, 7:00
p.m at the American Legion Hut, 101 West 3rd street in Konawa (it is
on highway 39, just East of the Assembly of God Church. Pastor Dan
Fisher of Trinity Baptist Church (Yukon) and I will both be speaking.
Without Paul Blair around, Dan started to pick on me as soon as he
found out we would both be speaking. Having seen this guy in action
before, I know to stay out in front of him. Therefore, I have
suggested it would not matter who would speak first. If it was me, I
would tone it down so people would not get up and leave 5 minutes into
his talk because of boredom. However, should Dan go first, I have
suggested I could wake the audience up once I got started. Actually,
beside the dog and pony show between Dan and I, there will be some
really important content presented. If you live anywhere in the area,
please attend so you can meet some the other conservatives in the
effort to make Oklahoma a better place to live.

* FRIDAY EVENING - OKC AREA - Folks are invited to an evening
with Phyllis Schlafly, Founder and President of Eagle Forum, one of
America’s top conservative organizations since 1972. The location will
be the Gaylord University Center (2501 E. Memorial Rd, Edmond) on the
campus of Oklahoma Christian University. The dinner and meeting will
start at 7:00 p.m., but there is a Special Student Only Reception
which begins at 5 and a Private Reception for Sponsors at 6:00 p.m.
Now, here is the deal, they need a head count to order the food, by
today, Tuesday, October 25th. Therefore, everyone intending to go to
this event will need to contact Bunny Chambers today at (405) 721-2891
or by e-mail okeagle@eagleforum.org. High School and College students
get in for $10, but I am not sure what the price will be for adults
since we are past the early bird discount time. Please contact Bunny
for that information, but do so today.

* SATURDAY EVENING - OKC - I have mentioned in the last couple of
e-mails about the John Birch Society’s first recognition banquet and
Patriot Celebration which will be this Saturday evening, 6:00 p.m. at
the Character Center, 524 West Main in Downtown OKC (This is just a
couple of blocks West of the new Devon Tower). I contacted Bob Donohoo
yesterday morning as last Friday was the reservation deadline.
However, he has ordered 3 or 4 extra dinners for anyone who
procrastinated but still wants to attend. Therefore, if you haven’t
made your reservations as yet, you might give Bob a call at (405)
436-5412 to see if there are any openings still available. The cost is
$15 per person. This will be a fun evening and a great time for
fellowship.

++ FUTURE TAX AND SPENDING CHANGES IN OKLAHOMA

A few weeks back, Governor Fallin stated an intention to totally
eliminate our state income tax. Over the past several weeks, State
Representative David Dank, Chairman of the State Task Force for the
study of State Tax Credits and Economic Incentives has been trying to
lift the veil of darkness surrounding a myriad of tax credits and
other incentive plans in the state which mostly amount to corporate
welfare. Yesterday, in the news, State Treasurer Ken Miller stated
that with a change in the component of state government and a move to
more conservatism, we should start to see more significant tax reforms
in the future. I believe that means tax reductions.

Please understand, there is a difference between a tax deduction or
tax exemption and a tax credit. Tax deductions and exemptions are what
government decides not take from a taxpayer or a business entity. On
the other hand, a tax credit, a government grant or government subsidy
are always a government expenditure.

Tax credits were designed to work as an incentive for a person or
business to spend a certain amount of money, then when tax time comes
each year on or before April 15th, the government will send a check
for a certain amount of money, or reduce a tax obligation if any
exists, back to the person or entity. Tax credit schemes were designed
to be rebate (kickback) programs, much like when we buy cell phone for
a hundred dollars, then send in a rebate form and the phone company
sends us a check for $50 to reduce what we paid for the phone.

A transferable tax credit has a little different twist. As with the
Great Plains Airlines debacle, the investors in the start up airline
company didn’t first spend millions of dollars then apply to some
“economic development” program sponsored by the State of Oklahoma for
$27 million in tax credits. Once it was determined that they would be
eligible for the tax credits, they simply sold those tax credits (I
believe most of them were purchased by Bank of Oklahoma) for perhaps
90 cents on the dollar. That way, the new start up airline had “up
front” money to start the business. Then when tax time occurred, BOK
turned in the tax credits which had been transferred to them by Great
Plains Airlines for the $27 million and in turn made a profit of 10%
in less than a year. Of course it was a very risky investment which
failed and as such “state” taxpayers lost $27 million dollars.

In an Oklahoman article on October 13th, Representative Dank is quoted
as saying: “We have reviewed enough of these tax credits so far to
know that the controls and safeguards in place are often a joke.” “In
many cases, they are almost nonexistent.”

In an additional article, it was reported that the state issued $275
million in tax credits over the past 3 years under just two incentive
programs. The article went on to say the programs created 1428 jobs
from 2007 through 2009, which means the state spent $192,000 for each
job created.

I would suggest that most of those jobs, if they continue to exist,
will not produce enough tax dollars to the state to repay the $192,000
in fifty to a hundred years. What a deal!

Ultimately, we are probably going to see many of these programs done
away with and none too soon. These programs do not allow for free
market economics, but rather central planning, crony capitalism and
all sorts of corruption for the well connected.

What Oklahoma’s goal should be is to have such an efficient
government, relegated only to the proper functions of government, so
that we can eliminate all corporate, franchise, capital gains and
personal income taxes. That in itself would create the best
environment in America for businesses to locate here. Doing away with
the costs of all of these economic development tax credit schemes
would go a long way toward reducing spending to such a degree that we
could start lowering many of these taxes I just mentioned.

++ OCPAC MEMBERSHIP UP-DATE & CHALLENGE

We are currently at 225 dues paying members which is 8 more than the
217 record we set in 2009, the most recent non-election year. I have
secured $500 to be used to match another 10 dues paying members
through the end of October. If you simply have not joined OCPAC so far
this year, now is the time to do so. Those dues are the money we
invest in candidates from all over the state to change the face of
Oklahoma. No one affiliated with OCPAC receives a salary or commission
for the work we do and our expenses are at a bare minimum. Therefore,
almost every dollar of your dues will go to elect conservatives or try
to hold them accountable once they are in office. Please consider
joining today. Instructions on how to join are below.

I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.

Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com

ANNOUNCEMENTS ++ PERSPECTIVE ON THE “OCCUPY” MOVEMENT ++ TIDBITS

2011-10-12T06:09:00.000-05:00

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
++ PERSPECTIVE ON THE “OCCUPY” MOVEMENT
++ TIDBITS

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING

Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, October 12th will be held at
Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. Our speaker this
week will be Dr. Gary Crossland. Gary has authored several books
including his masterful work, THE MERGED GOSPELS. He is a former
college and seminary instructor, is a Greek Translator and Gary has
traveled extensively throughout Israel, leading tours and doing film
documentaries. He is currently working on a number of projects,
including a documentary about the Jewishness of Jesus, two interactive
e-Books, a fictional novel, a computer game and comic books, all about
Israel and the life of Jesus.

I have also asked Gary to comment about the PASSAGES exhibit currently
showing at the Oklahoma City Arts Center. Speaking of such, my wife,
dad and I went to see the PASSAGES presentation this past Sunday
afternoon. The crowd was a little too large for the exhibit so it made
it difficult to experience its full flavor. It will end next Sunday,
October 16th to move on to its next location. If you have not seen it
as yet, the time is now (go during a weekday if possible) as it may
never return to OKC, home of its first display. It’s permanent home is
destined to be Washington DC, where it is expected to have 2 million
visitors each year. Don’t miss this Wednesday’s meeting, it is sure to
be most interesting.

++ ANNOUNCEMENTS

SATURDAY, OCT 29TH - OKC - Oklahoma members of the John Birch
Society will hold their first semi-annual Patriot Recognition Program.
The Master of Ceremony will be Glen Howard, JBS Field Coordinator Mike
Sawyer will share the humorous side of activism and of course we will
have a super-charged mystery speaker. The location is the Character
Inn, 520 West Main Street in downtown OKC. The time is from 6:00 until
9:00 p.m., business attire is recommended. The cost is $15 per person
and reservations are required by October 21st. Make checks payable and
send payment to: Oklahoma Projects, 415 West 15th #2, Edmond, Ok
73013. This will be a fun evening, please feel free to bring a friend.
For additional information, contact Bob Donohoo at (405) 436-5412.

++ PERSPECTIVE ON THE “OCCUPY” MOVEMENT

The occupy Wall Street demonstration started a little over 3 weeks ago
in NYC and now has fellow traveler groups popping up in other cities,
including OKC and Tulsa. These demonstrations, have communist finger
prints all over them, much like the Communist inspired Viet Nam war
protests of the 60s and early 70s. Orchestrating will probably be the
likes of Van Jones, Bill Ayres and etc. aided by the re-named Acorn
groups, labor unions and most likely funding from George Soros.
However, the vast majority of those attending the protests will be
what the Communists describe as “useful idiots”. I have listened to as
many of these folks as possible and would suggest the term educated
idiots would also be appropriate.

Many of these university students and college age kids are little more
than the fruit of anti-American curriculum in our secondary schools
(see the DVD, America’s Censored Heritage) and the socialist dogma of
Marxist professors in our colleges and universities. Those attending
the demonstrations are basically anti-free market capitalists who
believe in socialist and fascist capitalism though they are largely
ignorant of their beliefs.

In Dallas this past weekend the occupy movement had a demonstration of
about 500. Please don’t confuse them with the End The Fed group,
organized by Alex Jones, who were demonstrating in front of the
Federal Reserve Branch in Dallas. The occupy movement kids are
anarchist, Marxist capitalists, whereas the Ron Paul, End the Fed
demonstrators are some of the purist free market capitalists in
America.

In virtually all countries taken over by the Communists (at their
height it was around 55) their strategy was similar. Identify or
create societal problems, exaggerate those problems out of proportion
to reality, join with others to bring down the existing order, then
quickly move to the forefront to control the future government. That
same strategy is in play right now, but it has always had a difficult
time as long as there is a large middle class to resist its BS (blue
smoke) and lies.

Most of those attending come for a variety of reasons, are very
ignorant about how wealth is created and live in a stupor of
confusion. They do recognize some valid problems, but don’t have a
clue as to how to solve them, nor a recognition that some problems
can’t and never will be solved. While I don’t like the power large
corporations have over government officials to direct corporate
welfare toward themselves, hating job producers is like shooting one’s
self in the foot.

Though it has been difficult to determine the majority theme of the
protestors, it appears most of them and their efforts are motivated by
what they perceive as wealth disparity. They are angry that some
people are wealthy and others are poor. Fueled by the rhetoric of
President Obama and other Democrats continual clamoring for the
wealthy to pay their “fair share”. The fruit of this continual
bombardment of wealth-envy dogma is a large group of young people
hating prosperous people. That leads the “have nots” to a desire to
take wealth for themselves and other “poor” people through government
wealth re-distribution legislation or in some cases other means if
necessary. These are Obama’s, Pelosi’s and other radical leftist’s
kind of people who are showing up at these demonstrations.

This movement has a serious degree of danger, as part of the strategy
of the enemies of America is to see our society break down into riots,
chaos and revolution. If these demonstrations continue to grow in
numbers, it would only take a spark and we would see situations in
America much like we have seen in France, Greece, and England over the
past couple of years. Hopefully, the middle class in America will not
let it get out of hand like has occurred in Egypt, Libya and other
parts of the Arab world.

It is important that Christians view these situations from a Biblical
World Veiw. First let me suggest we recognize there are valid
grievances and problems in our society. However, those problems are a
result of abandoning Biblical principles and as such, non Biblical
answers will not solve those problems. As I have written in the past,
God equates fairness in matters such as taxation through application,
not how taxes effect a person. As an example, at tithe of 10% was to
be applied to the wealthy, the middle class and the poor. It is Karl
Marx’s idea to have the wealthy pay a higher percent and the poor to
pay nothing. Whose ideology are Christians going to hold to?

Jesus, talking to his disciples said: “the poor will ALWAYS be with
you”. Mankind will never ever, ever, ever wipe out poverty. People who
think otherwise make Jesus out to be a liar and exalt their own
opinion above the truth spoken in God‘s Word. Christians should help
the helpless, but realize that most people with problems are in their
situations as a result of rebellion toward God and the many poor
decisions they have made, usually throughout their whole life.

As a Christian, I am always seeking ways to appeal to people with
problems with the kind of truth that can change their lives. If that
counsel is Godly and good and if the people will respond to it, they
will become prosperous and their problems in life will fade. However,
if good counsel is rejected, people with problems will continue to
wallow in their misery. The choice rests with them. In the same way,
appealing to these protesters with the kind of truth that will dispel
their confusion and help them to put together the big picture of how
wealth is created may convert the teachable. But not all are
teachable, thus the old adage, “to continually bail a fool out of his
problems is to populate the world with fools”.

++ TIDBITS

* LAST WEEK’S MEETING

Last week Peter LeBarbara did an outstanding job of exposing the
homosexual agenda, its effect upon the Biblical model of the family
and how destructive and expensive that agenda is to our culture. Peter
had high praise for State Representative Sally Kern for her public
stand on this important issue and the fact that she didn’t cave under
the enormous pressure applied by the homosexual community. Peter said
it is rare for public officials to stand under such pressure and as
such most public officials avoid the controversy or cave to its
agenda.

Peter, spoke highly of Sally’s book, THE STONING OF SALLY KERN and
suggested everyone read it. Sally has been busy speaking and doing
interviews every since the book was published this past Spring. If you
know of a church or civic group that would like to hear Sally’s
compelling story, just give her a call as I am sure she would be
willing to share her story. She can be reached at her office (405)
557-7348.

* FREEDOM PULPUT SUNDAY

One week ago Sunday was the 4th annual Freedom Pulpit Sunday, a time
each year where pastors with backbone preach an election or civics
sermon. The first year we had 33 pastors from across the nation
participate, the next year it was 84 pastors, the third year it was
100 and one week ago Sunday 532 pastors reported they had preached
such a sermon. Some of the churches are small, but at least one mega-
church with 20 thousand members participated. This is a growing
movement that will make a difference in America in the days to come.

I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.

Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com

CHARLIE’S PICKS

2011-10-10T09:23:00.001-05:00

CHARLIE’S PICKS

Those subscribing to these e-mails know that before important
elections, I send out the infamous Charlie’s Picks, which are simply
my opinions about the elections. Some folks simply haven’t taken the
time to evaluate candidates or issues and are looking for the thoughts
of others. Some have made their mind up based on certain information
which may disagree with my opinions and that is fine. These are simply
my opinions. Following are opinions about 3 elections on Tuesday,
October 11th, 2011.

* SENATE DISTRICT 43 - GREG CHILDERS - This is the general
election to fill the vacated seat recently held by State Senator Jim
Reynolds (R-Del City). The location of the district includes much of
Del City, parts of South OKC and parts of Moore. This has been a high
priority race for Oklahoma Democrats as they desperately need a take-
away victory over the Republicans since they have taken such a beating
at the ballot box over the past 3 or 4 election cycles.

The Democrats first supported a liberal Republican in hopes to take
Greg out in the Republican primary. She worked hard and they even had
a private eye following Greg in hopes of finding something they could
use against him. Some Republicans fell for the bait, but Greg
prevailed in the primary. It has been amusing at the opposition to
Greg by some Republicans, mainly based on speculation. I spent quite a
bit of time getting to know Greg and had him come to OCPAC for our
interview process without announcing his appearance (couldn’t take a
chance on the Dems recording some of his answers to use against him in
the general election). Our members overwhelmingly voted to support
Greg. Greg is simply a citizen concerned about the direction America
is taking and decided to run for office to try to make Oklahoma and
America a better place in which to live. Greg is not a person who has
fully developed a conservative ideology, but he is loves to read, has
conservative instincts, and as such has the potential to be a very
good Senator.

* EDMOND TAX VOTE - VOTE NO - Edmond really needs a new public
safety center and as such tried to pass a bond issue a couple of years
ago, but it met with defeat. At that time, the project was too large,
too expensive, to be built in the wrong location and it was to be paid
for with a property tax increase. This time, the project has been
scaled back, is less costly, is to be built in an acceptable location
and will be paid for with a sales tax increase, rather than a property
tax increase. I believe every one of those perspectives is correct,
that is assuming you need a tax increase to do the project. However, I
do NOT believe the tax increase is needed for the project. Edmond is a
beautiful city with a large sales tax base. Its main downside is very
serious traffic congestion. My problem with the governance of Edmond
is poor prioritization of tax funds, I will give 3 examples.

1) Edmond has chosen to widen several streets as boulevards with
wasteful planter boxes in the middle rather than the needed pragmatism
of center turn lanes. This causes street construction to increase in
time and money as the more labor intensive as the amount of curbing
doubles for boulevards. Then you have the high cost of installing
grass, trees or plants for the middle of the streets. Perhaps the
biggest concern is the continual high cost of maintenance for these
planter boxes. In addition, in some cases you can’t make a left turn
into or out of business drives, thus making autos go to the next stop
light, trip the left turn arrow which stops the oncoming free flow of
traffic so that autos can double back to visit a favored business. A
more pragmatic approach to city streets could save money which could
be used for this important project, not to mention improve traffic
flow. Edmond’s attractiveness should come from the sides of its
streets, not from the middle of its streets.

2) For years now, Edmond has used tax dollars to purchase bronze art
statues to erect at various locations around town. Some of this art
work is beautiful and some of it is coyote ugly. In a conservative
free market economy, art work is not a proper function of government,
especially since people’s art tastes are so different. If people want
bronze art pieces all over town they should provide such with private
dollars, not tax dollars. Those tax dollars should have been saved to
be used for a new public safety center.

3) Public transportation is not a proper function of government in a
free market society. If there is a community in Oklahoma that does not
need public transportation, it is Edmond. For years Edmond contracted
with COPTA to provide rubber wheeled trolley cars called the Eddy.
They were dubbed the “Empty Eddy” as most of the time you would see
them running around town empty as they added to traffic congestion.
When Obama and the Democrats passed the $800 billion stimulus plan,
Edmond jumped on the grant wagon to obtain over half a million dollars
from the bankrupt federal government to purchase 5 new buses. Then
Edmond dumped COPTA and hired a Texas company to run the new system.
In an attempt to improve rider ship and thus justify having a public
transportation system, Edmond decided not to charge riders but to
simply eat the operational costs for the system. Rider ship is up
since it is free. But just think, Edmond taxpayers are now forced to
pay for the bus rides to take people to downtown OKC to work and spend
money rather than to have that handful of people pay for their own
transportation to and from work.

The three quarters of a million or more each year wasted on the
operational expenses for the public transportation system, along with
some other savings and a modest amount of new growth money would be
sufficient to pay for a new public safety center. Edmond citizens will
have to decide as to whether or not they want to continue with
wasteful spending government or demand the proper prioritization of
public funds. Though it is likely to pass, those are the reasons I
would vote NO as I believe a tax increase in not needed for the high
priority project.

There is an additional item on the ballot to allow the city to access
over 7 million dollars they have in a slush fund to be borrowed for
projects such as this to cut down on bond underwriting fees. Voters
should say YES to this issue, whether the sales tax vote passes or
not.

On the plus side, Logan County has just sold their hospital and
clinics and will soon have the county sales tax drop by three quarters
of a penny. In about 3 more years the Logan County jail bonds will be
paid off and the sales tax will be reduced another three quarters of a
penny. Both of these reductions will put Guthrie’s sales tax lower
than that of Edmond should this tax increase pass. That will certainly
cause some conservatives who live between the two cities to chose to
shop and dine more so in Guthrie rather than Edmond as well as keep
Guthrie shoppers at home.

* OWASSO - VOTE NO - The economic development central planners
types in Owasso are asking citizens to increase their property taxes
for more frills for the city of Owasso. Tulsa County Republican
Chairman and Owasso resident J.B. Alexander is leading a coalition of
residents to oppose yet another tax increase. The economic development
person sent Mr. Alexander a threatening e-mail, then profusely
apologized when the police investigated. He basically said he had
become depressed at the thought of his young child having to grow up
in Owasso without adequate parks and etc. Give me a break, Owasso is
not a community without parks. It really doesn’t take a village to
raise children, just some valuable parent time and children will have
a chance to do well growing up as individuals, not as collectivists.

There are more elections, these are the only 3 I will comment on. This
week’s regular e-mail will go out tomorrow morning.

Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com

WILL CORP COMMISSION DOUBLE OUR UNIVERSAL SERVICE TAX? ++ REYNOLDS SPECULATES ON OK TAX DOLLARS GOING TO SOLYNDRA?

2011-10-03T09:09:00.001-05:00

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
++ FUTURE EVENTS
++ WILL CORP COMMISSION DOUBLE OUR UNIVERSAL SERVICE TAX?
++ REYNOLDS SPECULATES ON OK TAX DOLLARS GOING TO SOLYNDRA?

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING

Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, October 5th will be held at
Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. Our primary speaker
this Wednesday, will be Peter LaBarbera, Executive Director of
American’s for Truth About Homosexuality. I believe Mr. LaBarbera is
headquartered out of Chicago. He is probably the nations foremost
authority on the homosexual agenda and how that agenda threatens the
Biblical model of a family as well as its destructive implications to
our society. Mr. LaBarbera is considered public enemy number ONE to
the militant homosexual community in America. While the church is
slowly winning the abortion and creation battles, it is losing the
homosexual issue. Come find out why. Also, I am trying to contact Dana
Murphy, Chairman of the Corporation Commission to ask her to come and
explain the reasons for a possible doubling of the Oklahoma universal
user tax that we pay on our phone bills. More on that later in this e-
mail.

++ ANNOUNCEMENTS

* THURSDAY EVENING - BLANCHARD AREA - The Oklahoma Liberty Tea
Party Meeting will be held on Thursday evening, October 6th at 7:00
p.m. The location is the American Legion Building, 103 South Main
street in downtown Blanchard. I will be speaking that evening and
encourage folks in the area who are not a member of this local tea
party to attend to get to know other activists in your area. I will
talk briefly about the positive changes in Oklahoma over the past 20
years as Oklahoma has changed from being a blue state to one of the
reddest states in America. I will then discuss what needs to be done
going forward.

* SATURDAY EVENING - CHICKASHA AREA - The Grady County TEA Party
will have TEA with the Duke, Saturday, October 8th at the Grady County
Fairgrounds in Chickasha. “The Duke” is a John Wayne impersonator who
looks like, talks, like and walks like John Wayne. He will present a
patriotic program. There will be food, the Duke and a western dance.
Tickets are $15, for more information contact Mark at (405) 314-4730
or Joyce at (405) 320-0028.

++ FUTURE EVENTS

* Our good friend John Michener wanted me to announce the upcoming
training sessions associated with the organization Justice For All.
John is a regional director for JFA and is doing an excellent job. He
describes the mission of JFA as to train thousands to make abortion
unthinkable for millions, one person at a time. The JFA training
includes:

- The problem and opportunity for Christians surrounding abortion.
- How to be wise ambassadors for Christ with Knowledge, Wisdom &
Humility
- Making the biological and philosophical cases for life
- Tackling the hard questions (rape, life & health of the mother)
- Seeing the opportunity for evangelism in every conversation

Following are the training opportunities:

October 16th, Baptist Collegiate Ministry, 400 East Main street in
Edmond. Lunch at 12:30 p.m. seminar from 1 - 5:30 p.m.

October 23rd, Eagle Heights Baptist Church, 2617 North Jardot Road,
Stillwater. Lunch at 12:30 p.m. seminar from 1 - 5:30 p.m.

The corresponding outreach days are:

University of Central Oklahoma, Edmond, on Tuesday and Wednesday,
October 18th and 19th.

Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, on Thursday and Friday, October
27th and 28th.

If you want to do more than wring your hands or just pray about the
abortion tragedy, this is a wonderful opportunity to learn how to
engage pro-choice people and be able to turn the hearts of some away
from the slaughter of the unborn. JFA is being very effective on
college campuses across America. For more information, contact John
Michener at john.Michener@alumni.oc.edu.

* Our meeting for November 2nd will feature the Vice President of
Samaritan Ministries. While this is not an insurance company, this is
a Christian health cost sharing ministry. Hopefully Obama Care will be
repealed either through the courts or by Congress after next year’s
elections. If not, ministries such as this are actually exempted in
the legislation. Not only does this program provide help to families
for major medical expenses, it costs less per month than insurance.
This is also a free market alternative to Medicare, which of course is
nearing bankruptcy and will only get worse with time. Mark this date
on your calendar and tell your friends, you owe it to yourself to
check this out.

++ WILL CORP COMMISSION DOUBLE OUR UNIVERSAL SERVICE TAX?

Just this past week, Corporation Commissioners Dana Murphy and Jeff
Cloud (Bob Anthony wasn’t at the meeting) voted to consider this
coming Tuesday (October 4th), a day to vote to nearly double the
Oklahoma Universal Service Fund tax. If it passes, it is estimated to
raise close to $50 million annually in additional revenues. There are
a couple of issues at stake, but the most important to understand, is
that the proposal would raise the tax on wireless phone users with the
proceeds being used to subsidize the service for people with land
lines.

I have an idea, if a rate increase is really needed, then why not
raise the rates ONLY on the folks using land lines and leave the
wireless phone service customers with no greater burden than they
currently have to bare?

This process needs to be slowed down, to determine if the need is
real, if AT&T is behind this at the expense of its competitors and why
wireless phone users should be asked to bare the cost for others? If
you agree, please call Dana Murphy’s office at (405) 521-2267, Jeff
Cloud (405) 521-2264 and Bob Anthony at (405) 521-2261. Your calls
need to be made today, Monday, or we may be had before we know what
has hit us!

Are these commissioners acting like limited government Republicans,
holding companies to efficiency and free market principles, or are
they acting like big government Democrats helping out a powerful
special interest buddy? Please make your calls today.

++ REYNOLDS SPECULATES ON OK TAX DOLLARS GOING TO SOLYNDRA?

In less you live in a cave and are devoid of news information, you
know by now of the growing potential scandal involving one of
President Obama’s pet green projects, the solar energy company called
Solyndra.

Not only did the federal government back the company with $539 million
in federal loan guarantees, but private investors sunk around a
billion dollars into the company. The largest among the private
investors was the family foundation of Oklahoma’s wealthiest man,
George Kaiser. Mr. Kaiser is the CEO and Chairman of the Board of Bank
of Oklahoma and the principle owner of Kaiser-Francis Oil Company out
of Tulsa.

A little over 2 weeks ago State Representative Mike Reynolds issued a
press release that to my knowledge the Tulsa Beacon Newspaper was the
only one to run it. They actually turned it into a front page story in
last week’s paper. I thought I would re-publish the press release in
its entirety:

“OKLAHOMA CITY - Even as the FBI investigates the now-bankrupt
Solyndra, state Rep. Mike Reynolds is concerned Oklahoma tax credits
may have benefited the controversial failed solar-power company, based
on state records.

Touted by the Obama administration as a model of green energy
enterprise, California-based Solyndra was a high-profile recipient of
a $539 million federal loan guarantee. Today, only two years after its
start-up, the company is the center of law-enforcement scrutiny,
ethics concerns and congressional oversight demands.

Reynolds noted that Argonaut Ventures (identified as Oklahoman George
Kaiser’s firm by ABC News), has been named as the largest shareholder
in Solyndra in news reports.

At the same time, Kaiser is a recipient of state tax credits in
Oklahoma. Public records show Kaiser received nearly $30 million in
tax credits in 2007 and 2008 for venture capital investment.

Unfortunately, lawmakers cannot learn what specific ventures benefited
from those tax policies.

An examination of reports about venture capital tax credit usage from
the Oklahoma Tax Commission reveals a business entity with a name
similar to Argonaut Ventures. Reynolds said it is reasonable to
question whether tax credits available to that entity were somehow
involved in the transactions with Solyndra.

‘There is very little transparency in the oversight of state tax
credit programs and, as a result, we cannot learn all specific
investments supported by those tax credits, we can only learn who
received the tax credit,’ said Reynolds, R-Oklahoma City. ’However,
since Argonaut Ventures had been identified as a major investor in
Solyndra, it is fair to ask if any Oklahoma tax credits were used to
support Solyndra either directly or indirectly. Oklahoma taxpayers
have the right to know if their money was used to support an out-of-
state business that is now the center of legal and ethical concerns.’

Members of the Task Force on State Tax Credits and Economic Incentives
have been reviewing Oklahoma’s tax credit programs this summer to
determine if they need to be revised or even abolished. The group
recently learned that millions of dollars in investments supported by
Oklahoma tax credits have benefited out-of-state companies in spite of
the fact that the programs were meant to fund job creation in
Oklahoma.

Task force members have also been troubled by the lack of transparency
in many programs, noting companies receiving millions in tax credits
do not have to provide significant information on those transactions
to the taxpayers who fund them.”

We should thank Reynolds for his efforts to bring this to light,
though we may never be able to find out if Oklahoma tax payer dollars
went to support this California based company. This just goes to show
how important transparency is for good government. State
Representative David Dank has been diligently searching for answers
regarding tax credits. My only problem with Governor Fallin and
Representative Dank’s approach to these tax credits is the desire to
determine which ones work and which ones don’t. They want to keep the
former and dump the later.

The true free market approach would be to dump them all and the money
saved could then translate to a reduction or elimination in Oklahoma’s
corporate and or personal income taxes. Doing so would cause us to
eliminate one form of business incentive, but by reducing or
eliminating these taxes, that becomes a business incentive in and of
themselves. I believe it unlikely a tax credit program can exist
without having some level of corruption or “good ole boy” cronyism.

It may take a long time to unravel the many schemes politicians in
both political parties have crafted over the years to take care of
their favored constituents, special interests or perhaps big donors.
Free market conservatives must continually press for reforms that will
rid our state of crony capitalism.

I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.

Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com

ALLELUIA, AMTRAK MIGHT BE GOING AWAY!

2011-09-28T06:46:00.000-05:00

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

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING

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

++ ANNOUNCEMENTS

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

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

++ ALLELUIA, AMTRAK MIGHT BE GOING AWAY

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.

Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com

ANNOUNCEMENTS

2011-09-06T09:49:00.000-05:00

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

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING

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

++ ANNOUNCEMENTS

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

++ TID-BITS

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

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

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

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

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

I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.

Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com

AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING ++ PERSONAL NOTE

2011-08-30T07:19:00.000-05:00

Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, August 31st will be held at
Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. Our main speaker
this week will be a lady from Washington D.C. by the name of Lea
Carawan. Lea is the Executive Director of the Congressional Prayer
Caucus Foundation. Not only will she inform us of the activities of
the foundation, but she will also inform us of the possible activities
in the states.

In addition, I will also try to have a speaker from California at our
meeting to tell us about the recent raid on the Rawsom Food Co-
operative by government agents in a paramilitary operation. Not only
did the government agents confiscate the food inventories of the co-
op, they also confiscated their financial resources. Many Americans
are blindly passing through life unconscious of things going on around
them. They don’t realize that quite a few of the finest, liberty
loving Americans live their lives to varying degrees, off the “grid”
so to speak. It seems that drinking raw milk and buying naturally
grown foods that are produced like my grandmother used to do, is
totally unacceptable to today’s food fascists who want to control
every aspect of our lives.

++ PERSONAL NOTE

Following this year’s legislative session I have had the desire to
pull back to some degree from the pace of activism and take care of
some projects around my home and small farm. Some of these projects I
have neglected for the past 7 years because of my very busy schedule.
I have had a modicum of success in pulling back, but am now up against
some deadlines before we get to winter. The storm that came through 3
weeks ago which totaled my barn as well as took down trees and broke
many branches just added to the chores to be done. Therefore, at least
through the end of September, I will put the agenda for each week’s
meeting in the e-mails and forego “MOST” of the extra announcements
and commentary. Thanks for understanding.

I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.

Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com

AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING

2011-08-23T09:11:00.001-05:00

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING

I must keep this short. Once I got my tractor and chain saw out of the
repair shop I have been very busy cleaning up storm debris.

Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, August 24th will be held at
Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. Last January we had
Sarah ****** scheduled to speak and it turned out to be a day in which
we had a snow storm. We had to change locations at the last minute as
our restaurant was closed and therefore only a small crowd was able to
attend. Sarah is doing missionary work in China with a focus on pro-
life efforts. Sarah has just recently returned from China since she
was with us in January. Also speaking will be a man that has been
doing kind of a free lance missionary work in China for several years.
I am not going to use his name so as to not cause him trouble in the
future.

++ ANNOUNCEMENTS

* TUESDAY EVENING - ADA AREA - The Ada/Seminole area tea party
will have their monthly meeting tonight, 6:00 p.m. in the Industrial
Arts Classroom on the campus of the Career Tech Center in Ada.
Speaking tonight will be Oklahoma’s Attorney General, Scott Pruitt and
Oklahoma State Representative Sally Kern. These meetings are well
attended and I urge folks within a 50 miles radius to attend if at all
possible.

* WEDNESDAY EVENING - STATE CAPITOL - The Stand with Israel event
will occur this Wednesday on the South steps of the State Capitol,
starting at 7:00 p.m. This is in conjunction with Glen Beck’s Stand
for Courage event going on in Jerusalem this week. Please bring your
lawn chair. The organizers have set up a big screen measuring 137
inches for viewing. There will be several elected officials speaking
at the event.

This past Thursday, I attended a briefing with a person from the
Israeli office in Houston. It looks like the Palestinians will go to
the U.N. General Assembly on September 20th where it is believed they
will have enough votes to force the creation of a new nation for the
so called “Palestinians” by carving up the tiny nation of Israel.
Please remember, in the Middle East area, Israel posses about 1% of
the land mass, with the Arabs already possessing the other 99 percent.
Should the U.N. resolution go forward, things could get really dicey
in Israel as this will not be a negotiated agreement and no boundaries
are currently defined in the motion which is expected to be presented.
Israel’s back is against the sea and they can’t afford to give up any
more as long as the people wanting to take more of their land have as
their desire to wipe Israel off the face of the earth.

I know of one church in Guthrie that is also participating in the Glen
Beck event. It is Community Church, located on the Northwest corner of
the interchange of I-35 and Seward Road, just South of Guthrie. They
are starting their meeting with some preliminaries at 6:00 p.m.

* THURSDAY EVENING - WARR ACRES - Jenni White, founder of Restore
Oklahoma Public Information (ROPE), will present her information about
the dangers of the Core Curriculum Standards during the Change a
Nation for Christ meeting this Thursday at Victory Church in Warr
Acres. The meeting will be held in the South Building and starts at
7:00 p.m. The church is located at approximately 43rd and North
MacArthur in Warr Acres.

* SATURDAY MORNING - OKC - The Republican State Committee is
meeting this Saturday morning, 10:00 a.m., on the campus of Mid
America Christian University, 3500 S.W. 119th street. State Chairman
Matt Pinnell is proposing a couple of rule changes. It is always a
challenge to get a Quorum present to change a rule as the state
committee is a very large body. It consists of the County Chairman,
Vice-Chairman, the State Committee Man and the State Committee Woman
from each county as well as every Republican state and federal
lawmaker.

Many times the outlaying counties are not represented or are
underrepresented. I would urge folks that are delegates to attend. I
also urge those reading this e-mail to contact your Republican
representatives to see if they plan to attend and if not, ask them for
their proxy so you can attend in their absence. If you don’t know the
contact information for your county officials, call the Republican
State Headquarters for that information (405) 528-3501.

I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.

Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com

TOP 20 MOST DANGEROUS - VIEWED FROM THE LEFT

2011-08-16T08:55:00.002-05:00

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
++ COMMENTS ON LAST WEEK’S MEETING
++ TOP 20 MOST DANGEROUS - VIEWED FROM THE LEFT
++ WEALTHY COULD PAY MORE - WOULDN’T IT BE FAIR?

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING

Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, August 17th will be held at
Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. Our speakers this
week will be Bill Shappard and James Davenport of Sooner Polling. They
will explain the ins and outs of polling, how it is done, who pays for
it, how the wording is determined and how close to accurate polls
might happen to be. You might be surprised to know how a business or
organization could become part of a bundle for a poll and it not cost
all that much to get a read on the public.

++ ANNOUNCEMENTS

* TUESDAY - OKC AREA - Congressman James Lankford will hold a
town hall meeting tonight at the Francis Tuttle Technology Center
(Portland Campus) 3500 NW 150th street in OKC, from 6 until 7:30 p.m.

* TUESDAY - TULSA AREA - U.S. Senator Tom Coburn will hold a town
hall meeting tonight at 6:00 p.m. The location is the Tulsa Community
College - Southeast Campus in the Van Trease Performing Arts Center
for Education, 10300 East 81st street.

* THURSDAY - SHAWNEE AREA - Congressman James Lankford will hold
a town hall meeting at the CPN Cultural Heritage Center in the North
Reunion Hall, 1702 South Gordon Cooper Drive in Shawnee from 6 to 7:30
p.m.

* THURSDAY - OKC AREA - U.S. Senator Tom Coburn will host a town
hall meeting at the Oklahoma City Community College, Union rooms 1, 2
& 3, 7777 South May Avenue. The meeting will begin at 6:00 p.m.

* THURSDAY - LAWTON AREA - Congressman Tom Cole will host a town
hall meeting, 5:30 p.m. in the CETES Center on the campus of Cameron
University.

* We are just a little over a week away from the Stand with Israel
rally to be held at the State Capitol in OKC on Wednesday, August 24th
from 7 until 10 p.m. I believe this will be a live satellite feed from
Jerusalem in conjunction with Glenn Beck’s Restoring Courage event.
For more information, log on to www.oklahomaunited.com.

++ COMMENTS ON LAST WEEK’S MEETING

This past Wednesday, Dr. Scott Carroll presented one of the most
interesting and compelling programs we have ever had at an OCPAC
meeting. Perhaps I am just a sucker for show and tell, but the 10 or
so Biblical artifacts Mr. Carroll brought to the meeting were
fascinating, not to mention they were valued in the millions of
dollars.

Included was the oldest known parchment of the writings of the Apostle
of Paul. It was part of the 10th chapter of the book of First
Corinthians. Dr. Carroll brought a tablet, about the size and shape of
a calzone sandwich which looked to be fired in a kiln or cured in the
sun. When looked upon at the correct angle, it had deep inscriptions
waiting to be translated to a modern language. The Green’s have the
largest number of these tablets of any collection in the world, many
still waiting to be deciphered. Another artifact involved monks
writing on a material and then at a later date writing over the top of
the original. Through precise technology the wording from each of the
time periods can be separated and clearly understood. Another was a
manuscript recently purchased at a world famous auction. The wording
couldn’t be deciphered with the human eye. However, when originally
written, the ink pen left ridges on the parchment. Through technology,
the ridges can be seen, bringing about the complete content of these
ancient manuscripts.

While a relationship with Jesus the Christ must be based on belief,
trust and faith, Dr. Carroll’s whole life work is about data and the
story it tells. Our good friend Dr. Yeagley was present and asked a
piercing question. Many may not know one of Dr. Yeagley’s 5 degrees is
from the school of divinity at Yale University. Dr. Yeagley’s
perspective was that many of the professors at Yale use the data to
destroy the faith of the students and only by the grace of God did he
survive those studies. Dr. Carroll defended the data by suggesting the
data is not the problem, but rather the misuse of data, through
misinterpretation rather than letting it say what it says. Dr.
Carroll’s perspective was that not only do the thousands of Biblical
artifacts verify and reinforce the veracity of the Bible, but also
many non Christian contemporaries add to the Bible’s veracity through
their historical accounts.

If you weren’t able to attend, the much larger collection will be on
display until October 16th at which time it will move to another city,
perhaps to never again return to OKC. The Greens have now put together
the largest collection of Biblical Artifacts in the world and its
value is nearing priceless. It has such rare artifacts, that Dr.
Carroll suggested we will see charter planes loaded with Hebrew
scholars coming to OKC to study some of the materials in the
collection. The collection will eventually have a permanent home in
Washington D.C. where an expected 2 million people a year will view
it. It is called “Passages” and is on display seven days a week at the
Oklahoma City Art Museum in downtown OKC. I hope to see it within the
next couple of weeks. I urge folks not to miss this special event
while it is in Oklahoma.

++ TOP 20 MOST DANGEROUS - VIEWED FROM THE LEFT

On August 5th a liberal blog released their list of the 20 most
dangerous people in America. To view it, log on to www.thechristianleft.org.
They called it “The Enemies Within: The 20 Most Dangerous
Conservatives and their Organizations.” As a point of interest, we
have had 3 of these “dangerous” folks speak at OCPAC over the years,
one of whom very recently. As a trivia question, can you pick out the
three? Send me their names at, charliemeadows7@gmail.com. Following
is their list in order.

1) Roger Ailes, President of Fox News.
2) The Koch Brothers, of Koch Industries of Wichita.
3) Dick Army of Freedom Works.
4) Tom Donohue, President of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
5) Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council.
6) Pat Robertson, founder of the Christian Coalition.
7) Edwin Feulner, President of the Heritage Foundation.
8) Art Thompson, CEO of the John Birch Society.
9) Rupert Murdock of News Corp.
10) Grover Norquist, Americans for Tax Reform.
11) David Bossie, of Citizens United.
12) Tim LaHaye & Ken Cribb of Council for National Policy.
13) Steve J. Law of American Crossroads.
14) James Dobson of Family Talk Radio.
15) Phyllis Schlafly, founder of Eagle Forum.
16) David Keene of the American Conservative Union.
17) Tim Wildmon of the American Family Association.
18) David Barton of Wallbuilders Ministries.
19) Noble Ellington of the American Legislative Exchange Council
(ALEC).
20) Edward Crane of the Cato Institute.

++ WEALTHY COULD PAY MORE - WOULDN’T IT BE FAIR?

If you listen to President Obama, other elected Democrats or liberal
callers on talk radio, one can quickly understand their agenda is for
the “rich” or wealthy to pay more in taxes, or in other words, “their
fair share”. Conservatives are quick to point out that the wealthy
already pay their fair share and usually quote some numbers about the
wealthiest 10 percent of income earners already paying 70 percent of
all taxes. My numbers may be off, but for the point I want to make
they don’t have to be exact.

To those less than wealthy liberals, the ones who have been
indoctrinated to hate the rich and envy their wealth, it doesn’t
matter that the wealthy already pay a greater share of taxes than the
rest of Americans. All they can see through their hate filled world
view is that the wealthy have more than they do and therefore could
and should pay more.

So my question is, they certainly could pay more, so why wouldn’t that
be fair? What I am about to say is really for Christians for the most
part. As a Christian, who is it that determines right from wrong? Who
is it that determines what is fair? Is it not our Heavenly Father
through His Word? Of course it is and that is why we have a struggle
today between competing world views. There are several competing world
views, but for this discussion, lets just say the main competition in
America is between a Judeo/Christian world view and a secularist or
humanist world view.

The secular world view believes in a heavy progressive tax burden. In
other words, the more a person has, or more particularly makes, the
more as a percentage that person should have to pay. That idea, at
least in a modern context, comes from the writings of Karl Marx and
can be found as plank #2 of the Communist Manifesto.

Over the years, I can’t tell you how many Oklahoma lawmakers and
candidates have espoused the idea of the wealthy paying more. Even
U.S. Senator Tom Coburn’s “back to black” manifesto, a proposal for
America to quit its spending in the red and get back into the black
has many elements of the wealthy paying more through “means testing”.

What I want to do is to challenge Christians to think Biblically. To
develop a Biblical world view and turn from a Marxist or secularist
world view. God’s covenant with Israel (Old Testament) was that his
people should pay 10% of their first fruits (a tithe) to take care of
the needs and duties of the nation of Israel.

I don’t want to get into an argument as to whether or not the tithe
applies to Christianity as some believe it does and some otherwise.
However, my understanding of God’s word is that it is an excellent
example to follow and I would suggest Christians should be willing to
give their all in their service to the Lord Jesus (obviously God
provides for us, usually through our labors, the money we need for our
necessities and more than just the necessities). The heart of a true
Christian should lead us to be giving individuals. There are some
people that God simply gives an ability to generate great wealth. He
instructs those people to be generous.

To better understand this lets look at the earnings of three different
people though first a Christian world view and then through the
Marxist world view. From the perspective of 10% of a persons earnings,
person number 1 will make $1,000 per month and pay $100 dollars in
taxes, thus leaving that person $900 to live on. Person number 2 will
make $10,000 per month and will pay $1,000 in taxes leaving him $9,000
to live on. Person number 3 will make $100,000 per month and will pay
$10,000 in taxes, leaving that person $90,000 to live on. This would
be fair in the Eyes of God as He equates fairness as to how the rules
are applied. Fairness in the eyes of God is not based on the effect
upon a person or the need of a person.

It should not take a rocket scientist to realize that person number 2
will have more opportunities than number 1 and person number 3 will
have more opportunities the persons number 1 or 2. There is nothing
wrong with this system, it is not evil, it is fair.

Now lets look at the possible outcomes for these 3 persons through the
eyes of the Marxist world view. Most likely person number 1 will be
exempt from paying any taxes and thus have their entire $1,000 to live
on. Person number 2 will probably have to pay a 30% tax rate and thus
pay $3,000 in taxes leaving $7,000 per month to live on. Now for the
really heavy weight of a progressive income tax. Person number 3 will
have to pay 80%, (past tax rates have actually been higher than this,
though loop holes allowed for high income earners to keep more of
their money) thus having to pay $80,000 a month in taxes and thus
leaving them $20,000 per month to live on.

Today, liberals say it is not fair for person number 3 to keep $20,000
each month when person number 1 only has $1,000 to keep and spend.
Therefore, they want to take even more (they are already taking
$80,000 each month) of person number 3’s earnings from him and then re-
distribute (give) even more of person number 3’s earnings to person
number 1.

What liberals don’t realize is that the wealthy do one or two things
with their wealth. They either spend it or invest it (even putting it
in a bank becomes the capital others borrow to use for their needs,
desires or business financing). When a wealthy person builds a 3
million dollar home and has to pay a $30,000 per month mortgage, it
provides work for contractors who make $10,000 per month (person
number 2) who in turn provide jobs for craftsmen who make $5,000 per
month right on down to person number 1 (an apprentice to the
craftsman) who makes $1,000 per month.

When person number 3 realizes people hate him for his success and want
to take ever larger amounts from him, at some point in time he may
decide to quietly tell them to “go to hell”. He might do this in
several different ways. He might just slowly wind his business down or
simply close it down and live on his savings. Perhaps he might move it
to another country where he will be treated better. He may sell the
business and move to a different country taking his capital with him.
The point is, wealthy people have the resources to make these
decisions and carry them out.

Rather than hating the successful, God’s Word tells us to mourn with
those who mourn and rejoice with those who rejoice. If people inherit
or earn their wealth honorably, then we should rejoice at their
success, not hate or become envious of them.

Perhaps the most important Biblical perspective on this issue is found
in the parable of the talents, found in the 25th chapter of Matthew.
The parable explains that a certain Lord of some servants was going on
a journey and summoned his servants. He gave 5 talents to one servant
with the most skills, 2 talents to another servant and 1 talent to his
servant with the least skills. After the Master had been gone a long
time he returned to settle with his servants. The one he had given 5
talents to had put them to work and produced 5 more talents. The
Master told him good and well done faithful servant and because of
your faithfulness I will make you a ruler over many things. The one He
had given 2 talents to had put them to work and produced 2 more,
another good and well done from the Master and he put this servant in
charge of many things. The servant he had given 1 talent to was
paralyzed with fear and as such took his talent and buried it in the
ground. When he tried to return his talent to his Master, he was told
by his Master that he was wicked and lazy and should have at least put
it in the bank to draw interest. The Master then called for servants
to take the one talent away from this wicked servant and give it to
the servant who had 10 talents. Then the Master fired the servant and
drove him off his property and into the wilderness.

May I suggest that the talents represent the giftings and capabilities
that God puts in every man. We do not all have the same level of
talents, some more and some less. The teaching of the parable is that
God rewards faithfulness and productivity and will never ask a person
to produce more than he has the talent to produce. In addition, the
parable also teaches that God actually punishes those who are
unproductive and unfaithful.

If you want to know what is wrong with America from an economic
standpoint, you have to look no farther than this parable. Since we
started the welfare state in the 1930s, we have turned God’s economic
principles upside down. Using the Karl Marx model of a heavy graduated
income tax, the more productive a person the more we punish them by
taking ever more of the fruit of their productivity. We then take a
productive person’s wealth and give it to the un-productive.

America has been able to get away with this violation of God’s
economic principles for a long time, but the Master is returning to
America and is about to set things in order. Because America has
violated these Biblical principles for such a long time, we have
created a large class of people who are of weak character, as well as
being sniveling, whiny butt, dependents. As the welfare state begins
to shut down, as it must, they will scream and clamor. Some will turn
to violence, much like we see in certain places in Europe.

America is not exempt from violence as we are now beginning to see
flash mobs in places like Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco and at
the Wisconsin state fair. Whether these flash mobs are motivated by
racial hatred or wealth envy or both, it doesn’t really matter. What
we are beginning to see is the predictable fruit of a welfare state
coming to an end. The turbulence in the economy and the decline of
America has more to do than anyone might think with our violating the
simple principles set forth in the parable of the talents.

Violating these principles is the number one reason we are over 14
trillion in debt, with untold trillions in unfunded liabilities for
the future. It is why America is bankrupt. Though it is possible to
turn this around, it is not likely given so many of our citizens have
been indoctrinated through the government schools to value socialism
and ignore God and His principles.

America needs another great awakening, but that will only come about
when its pastors, priests and rabbis understand these truths and get
the courage to teach them to their congregations. This will be
difficult as so many churches today have become seeker friendly
churches, feeding their congregations a pink, puff and piffle marsh
mellow diet rather than the solid truths that will mature people. The
clergy is failing to teach people to become like the faithful servants
in the parable of the talents. We need to pray that God will stir the
hearts of the pastors to be filled with courage and pray that the
people will want to know the reality of the Master and His ways.

I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.

Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com

REFLECTIONS ON THE WASHINGTON BUDGET DEAL

2011-08-02T17:26:00.000-05:00

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
++ REFLECTIONS ON THE WASHINGTON BUDGET DEAL
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
++ SPECIAL SENATE ELECTION, AUGUST 9TH
++ WILL DAN BOREN RESIGN?
++ OCPAC MEMBERSHIP UP-DATE

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING

Before I get to our agenda, please let me say I am not trying to be
unfriendly, but I don’t sign up to be friends on Linkiden or other
similar offers. I get multiple invitations daily, which is simply too
time consuming for me to fill out the responses. Thanks for
understanding.

Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, August 3rd will be held at
Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. Our first speaker
will be Tracey Montgomery, Oklahoma State Coordinator for www.parentalrights.org.
She will explain this organizations belief in the necessity of a
amendment to the U.S. Constitution to protect the rights of parents in
regard to their own children.

Our main speaker this Wednesday will be Jenni White, as she continues
her work to alert Oklahomans about the dangers of Federal intervention
into Education. Jennie will explain the pitfalls of the “Core
Curriculum Standards” and why we don’t want to be selected into the
federal government’s “Race To The Top” program. Try to arrive early as
I will start our program at 12 sharp as we have a lot to cover this
Wednesday.

++ REFLECTIONS ON THE WASHINGTON BUDGET DEAL

I am disappointed in Oklahoma’s four Republican U.S. Representatives
for voting for the final version of the budget reform/debt ceiling
legislation. I am not all that surprised by Cole, Lucas and Sullivan
as they have a long track record of getting in line with leadership. I
had hoped for more out of Lankford, but it is what it is.

If the legislation passed was all that was out there, I might have
voted for it as it is a little better than what we have now. However,
there is the Connie Mack (R-Florida) plan which is far better and very
sellable to the public. A plan that doesn’t allow spending to rise
above 2011 levels and then cuts across the board (if Congress can’t
prioritize a 1% cut) 1% each year for 8 years to achieve a balanced
budget.

That was a plan worth supporting and then refusing to raise the debt
ceiling should the Democrats refuse to pass it in the Senate. Should
the Democrats refuse, there would be a nation wide noticeable hit to
programs and paychecks, but at least then the public would really
concentrate on what is going on. At that time all Republicans should
have a unified voice, explaining the simple, cut one penny out of
every dollar, plan and urge Americans to contact the Democrats to
demand they support the plan!

The time to start correcting our past miss deeds, which will be
painful, is now. At least Oklahoma has two experienced conservatives
in our Congressional delegation that understand the pitiful value in
the inferior plan that will be passed and as such will vote against it
in the Senate. Senators Inhofe and Coburn deserve a huge thanks from
the citizens of Oklahoma.

++ SPECIAL SENATE ELECTION, AUGUST 9TH

State Senator Jim Reynolds was elected as the Cleveland County
Treasurer last November, but didn’t take office until July 1st. His
vacated seat requires a special election for the current area which is
much of Del City and a good part of South OKC. The election will be
one week from today, on Tuesday, August 9th.

Our by-laws do not allow OCPAC to get involved in this primary because
it is not considered a “safe” Republican seat. However, the eventual
winner of the Republican primary will be eligible to appear before our
members and they will vote to determine if we support that candidate.

As a point of interest, I was reading the Demokie web site and noticed
their take on this race. The administrator of the web-site had
obtained campaign literature from each of the 2 Republican candidates
and posted that literature on the web-site for anyone to read. This is
what “STAMP THE ROOSTER” had to say about one of the Republican
candidates: “Sounds like this Theresa Nelson would make a fine
Democrat.” They don’t get things right very often on this web-site,
but this time I have to agree with Stamp The Rooster as Theresa Nelson
is anything but a conservative Republican.

Someone on the web-site posted that the other Republican candidate,
Greg Childers was the establishment candidate. They couldn’t be
further from wrong. The establishment didn’t field a candidate as they
thought State Representative Paul Wesselhoft would be the easy winner
in the race and keep the seat for the Republicans. However, Paul filed
for office and then dropped out of the race before the candidates were
certified.

State Senator Ralph Shortey brought Mr. Childers to an OCPAC meeting a
few weeks back. Anyone who knows anything about the Republican party
knows that Ralph Shortey is anything but an establishment Republican
and will only support candidates that will not simply bow down to the
establishment. In my opinion, Greg Childers is by far the more
conservative candidate. That is just my opinion and is not an official
endorsement from OCPAC.

++ ANNOUNCEMENTS

* EDMOND AREA - Attorney Don Powers, considered a Constitutional
expert, has been writing a weekly column for about a year now in the
Edmond Sun. He has moved his column over to the Edmond Life and
Leisure Newspaper which may be obtained at many businesses in Edmond.
Pick up a paper and check out his columns as they are very
informative. His recent column on the “general welfare” clause as well
as many of his columns on State sovereignty and the 10th amendment
were excellent. Don also teaches classes on the Constitution all over
the metro area.

* EDMOND AREA - Just a heads up, on Tuesday, August 9th there will
be a town hall meeting, 7:00 p.m. at the Edmond Community Center, 28
East Main. There are a large group of citizens who would like to see
Edmond governed locally and wean their community off the influences of
the United Nations, the Obama administration’s interferences in
Education and the possible problems with the new President at UCO. It
seems the new President is a former employee of the United Nations,
who worked to create a Palestinian State. He also has expressed his
admiration for the organization CAIR (Center for American and Islamic
Relations). It turns out that CAIR got lucky when the Obama
administration took over as Eric Holder determined not to prosecute
the other conspirators (CAIR) in the Holy Lands Foundation trial as
members of that organization were convicted of supporting terrorism
through Hamas.

* STATE CAPITOL - AUGUST 24TH - In conjunction with Glen Beck’s
event in Israel, a group in Oklahoma will have a STAND with ISRAEL
rally at the State Capitol from 7 until 10:00 p.m.. For more
information log on to www.oklahomaunited.com.

++ WILL DAN BOREN RESIGN?

Sources have told me Boren decided to announce he would not run for re-
election so he could be appointed to the Presidency of Northeastern
State University at Tahlequah. If true, I would further speculate his
desire for that position to gain enough experience to be appointed as
President of the University of Oklahoma once daddy Boren decides to
retire. Further speculation is that Dan Boren will resign his
Congressional seat when he is picked as President which may then
require a special election to fill his vacated seat.

There are several Republicans already working in that race. State
Representative George Faught was the first to announce. Former State
Representative Wayne Pettigrew of Edmond is campaigning and Mr.
Mullins of Mullins Plumbing is also in the race. I believe he is the
first to file his papers with the Federal Election Commission. With a
hundred thousand of his own money to go along with a hundred thousand
he has raised from contributors he has already raised twice the amount
Dr. Charles Thompson was able to amass for his bid in 2010.

Dr. Thompson may also join the race as well as others. If a special
election does occur and the time frame is shortened, a candidate with
adequate finances usually has an advantage. Regardless, all the
Republican candidates will have an opportunity to appear at an OCPAC
meeting. Our dues paying members will vote to endorse the best
candidate if that can be determined.

++ OCPAC MEMBERSHIP UP-DATE

At the end of July we had 221 dues paying members and have raised over
$18,000. Our old record for a non election year was 217 dues paying
members. The largest number of members come from OKC, with Edmond in
second place. However, OCPAC is truly a statewide organization with
dues paying members spread out all over the state.

I thought I would list other communities in Oklahoma with dues paying
members, in no particular order: Tulsa, Broken Arrow, Broken Bow,
Piedmont, Nichols Hills, Owasso, Norman, Ponca City, Newalla, Mustang,
Yukon, Muskogee, Jones, Guthrie, Purcell, Tuttle, Choctaw, Midwest
City, Newkirk, Bristow, Cleveland, Lawton, Alva, Duncan, Konawa,
Moore, Tecumseh, Shawnee, Weatherford, Shawnee, Meridian, Seminole,
Hooker, Harrah and Blanchard. In addition, we have at least one dues
paying member from each of the following states, Texas, Michigan,
Virginia, Mississippi, and Wyoming.

Truth is, many of these members in out laying areas may never or
seldom ever be able to attend one of our meetings. However, they have
caught the vision of what we are trying to do by supporting good
candidates from anyplace in the state as well as trying to hold them
accountable once they are elected. They know their dues provide the
funds for our war chest to get the job done.

If you have considered joining OCPAC, but just haven’t done so as yet,
please consider doing so now. Help us make Oklahoma the most
conservative state in the nation. Instructions on how to join will
follow my sign off. I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.

Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com

Speaker John Boehner’s plan is simply un- acceptable.

2011-07-28T09:00:00.001-05:00

URGENT MATTER - Folks, Speaker John Boehner’s plan is simply un-
acceptable. In round one it ONLY cuts 7 Billion in spending. The only
good deal about his plan is that the debt limit is short term, meaning
they will have to deal with this again early next year. Round two is
nothing more at this time than pie in the sky and another example of
kicking the can down the road, rather than dealing with a serious
problem right now.

If you know how to read between the lines, both Speaker Boehner and
Paul Ryan have revealed their real intentions for the future when they
said something like: the baby boomers are coming of age with huge
increased pressure on social security and medicare and we have an
obligation to these folks.

What that means is they will NOT be willing to fight for and force
fiscal responsibility upon the federal government. Truth is, the only
responsibility they have to the grey panthers (I will soon be 65) is
to make sure the 2 plus Trillion dollars in IOUs to the social
security trust fund is paid back. Beyond that they have no
responsibility to social security, other than to make sure the trust
fund is actuarially sound. The ONLY way to do that is to raise the
amount working people pay in to the fund or cut benefits and of course
the third option would be to do a combination of both. One way to cut
benefits would be to raise the age of early retirement from 62 to 64
and the age of full retirement which is currently 66 for people my age
and 67 for younger people to 68 and 69. In addition, reducing some of
the disability coverage’s would be an option.

But people like Boehner are too fearful of the voters and unwilling to
take the risk of convincing a largely self centered and economically
ignorant American public on the risks of an eventual economic melt
down if we don’t quit borrowing ever more money.

U.S. Representative Connie Mack (R-Florida) has a plan to cap current
spending and if congress can’t prioritize spending cuts, there will be
an automatic spending cut of 1% a year. It will take 7 years to
balance the budget with that plan. That is a reasonable plan that
truly causes us all to share in the pain it will take to get our
budget in balance.

Bottom line, we must call our U.S. Representatives and urge them not
to support Speaker Boehner’s plan. I will be sorely disappointed in
Representative James Lankford if he supports Speaker Boehner’s plan as
I believed he is a person of strong resolve. If he caves, it will show
just how quickly he has become co-opted by the establishment.

YOU NEED TO CALL TODAY, ASAP

John Sullivan (202) 225-2211, Dan Boren (202) 225-2701, Frank Lucas
(202) 225-5565, Tom Cole (202) 225-6165 and James Lankford (202)
225-2132.

Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com

COBURN’S BUDGET & COBURN ON WASTE ++ THE TRUTH ABOUT SOCIAL SECURITY & DEBT CEILING

2011-07-26T09:58:00.000-05:00

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
++ RE-CLAIMING AMERICA FOR CHRIST - THURSDAY & FRIDAY
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
++ COBURN’S BUDGET & COBURN ON WASTE
++ THE TRUTH ABOUT SOCIAL SECURITY & DEBT CEILING

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING

Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, July 27th will be held at
Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. This past March we
had Avi Lipkin as a speaker giving us some of his inside information
regarding the turmoil in the Middle East and more particularly Egypt.
He will be with us again this Wednesday and hopefully will give us the
inside skinny regarding our bombing invasion of Libya and what is
going on in Syria. Mr. Lipkin is a past advisor to several Prime
Ministers and was the spokesman for the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).
Today his wife serves as the official translator of Arab broadcasts
into Hebrew. Mr. Lipkin is a captivating speaker and has authored
several books which hopefully will be available for those in
attendance.

++ RE-CLAIMING AMERICA FOR CHRIST - THURSDAY & FRIDAY

* LOCATION - First Baptist Church in Moore, just East of I-35 at
the NE 27th street exit.

* TIMES - Thursday, first session begins at 6:15 p.m. and lasts
until 10:00 p.m. Friday, first session begins at 1:30 p.m. until
5:00 p.m. There will be a one hour break for dinner, then the final
session will begin at 6:15 p.m. and the conference will end at 10:00
p.m.

* SPEAKERS - Keynote speakers are: Dr. Bob Cornuke, President
of The Bible Archaeology, Search & Exploration Institute. Dr. Cornuke
is a Biblical investigator, international explorer and author of eight
books. He has participated in over thirty expeditions around the world
searching for lost locations described in the Bible. These journeys
include searching for Mount Sinai in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, looking
for the remains of Noah’s Ark in Turkey and researching ancient
Assyrian and Babylonian flood accounts in Iran. He has followed
ancient accounts of the Ark of the Covenant from Israel to Egypt and
across the Ethiopian highlands.

Dr. G. Thomas Sharp, President of Creation Research Institute. Dr.
Sharp is sometimes referred to as Oklahoma’s best kept secret as he
headquarters out of Noble Oklahoma. Dr. Sharp has achieved national
and international recognition as a Christian educator, religious
leader, businessman and author. He will do 3 presentations, one on the
Icons of Evolution, another on Mt. Saint Helens and the final one on
Dinosaurs and the Bible.

Pastor Dan fisher will do a presentation on the Black Robed Regiment,
which is about the influences of the pastors during our founding era.
He has up-dated his DVD presentation on the subject and should have
them available at the conference. Pastor Paul Blair, Director of
Reclaiming America for Christ, will do a presentation on America’s
Christian Heritage. I believe there will be some DVD presentations on
this subject available at the Conference.

Other speakers include Matt Barber with the Liberty Council, a
Christian civil liberties organization. State Representative Sally
Kern will speak as well as Jenni White, founder and director of ROPE
(Restore Oklahoma Public Education). From the political side, freshman
U.S. Representative James Lankford will speak along with newly elected
State Attorney General Scott Pruitt.

Please note, there is no cost to attend, however a love offering will
be taken to defer expenses. OCPAC will have a table at the conference
and I could use a couple of volunteers, especially since I may have to
attend a special board meeting on Thursday or Friday at the hospital
in which I serve as a trustee. If you can help, please send me an e-
mail at charliemeadows7@gmail.com

++ ANNOUNCEMENTS

Following are the times and locations for other appearances for Avi
Lipkin while in Oklahoma for this trip.

* Wednesday evening, July 27th, First Baptist Church of Nicoma Park,
6:00 p.m. contact Pastor Mark Walters

* Thursday, July 28th, Grove Ok Tea Party, Cyndi McArtor
patriot@getamericaback.com.

* Friday, July 29th High Noon Club meeting at 12 noon at H&H Range in
OKC.

* Sunday, July 31st First Baptist Church of Moore 6:00 p.m. (I-35 and
NE 27th street in Moore)

* Wednesday, August 3rd, at 7:00 p.m., Chisholm Creek Baptist
Church, 17600 N. Western in OKC.

++ COBURN’S BUDGET & COBURN ON WASTE

This past week, U. S. Senator Tom Coburn exposed more waste in
government spending. He specifically named Amtrak, one of my pet
peeves. There is not a market for passenger rail service anywhere in
Oklahoma. If there were it would be provided by private companies, not
the government. One of OKC’s mass transit advocates was on KTOK news
yesterday expressing concern over the next transit funding legislation
which is currently stalled in congress. He is afraid the feds won’t
pump millions of dollars into OKC’s next boondogle, the new light rail
system to be built in downtown OKC as a result of MAPS III passage. My
fear is the opposite. I am concerned that congress will fail to
eliminate such programs. Even if it was a good idea, and it isn’t, it
still needs to be eliminated as America is no longer a wealthy nation,
we are broke and deeply in debt and on the verge of bankruptcy.

The other government waste mentioned by Senator Coburn was in regard
to the millions of dollars spent in Oklahoma on wild horse programs.
What I am about to say will get me in trouble with a lot of people.
Over the past 30 or so years America has developed a group of people
who are basically Westernized Hindu’s. They no longer have the proper
perspective that animals should be treated as utilitarian, but they
have become so emotionally attached to animals that they treat them as
equals or superior to humans.

Just one manifestation of this unhealthy relationship occurred 5 or 6
years ago when this powerful group successfully got congress to pass
legislation to eliminate all horse slaughterhouses in America. These
animal worshippers want to make sure people feed, water and care for
their horses until they pass on to heaven of natural causes (some very
carnally minded folks actually believe animals have a soul and will be
in heaven). Some of the results of this legislation have been a larger
number of neglected horses, a drop in the price of horses and millions
of taxpayer dollars spent to care for wild horses. If you need to
dispose of a horse today, it must be shipped (at extra cost) to Mexico
for slaughter where the meat can be used for dog food or other
purposes.

Now for Senator Coburn’s budget proposal. For 20 years I did financial
counseling (budget and debt resolution, not investment counseling)
where I taught people there are only 3 possible solutions to financial
problems. 1) Bring in the same amount of money and spend less. 2)
Bring in more money and spend the same. 3) Do a combination of the
first two. By the way, these principles apply to an individual,
corporation or a government.

The conservative Republicans are basically calling for number one as a
solution, the Democrats are just simply liars, deceivers and
ideologically the reason we are in trouble. Senator Coburn’s plan
comes from the number 3 solution. Overall, I like Senator Coburn’s
plan better than that of Paul Ryan’s plan as Coburn’s lays out a path
to balance the budget in 10 years and I believe it takes 28 years for
Ryan’s plan.

Where Coburn’s plan gets into trouble with some conservatives is that
is calls for increasing revenues, however, I don’t believe it calls
for tax increases. Please remember, words have meanings. Tax
deductions, tax credits, tax cuts or increases, etc. are all different
terms to represent different actions. Most of Coburn’s revenue
increases comes from eliminating or reducing tax deductions or
exemptions. While I might not agree with all of the specific
exemptions, I do favor that method if we foolishly insist on keeping
an income tax rather than switching to a national consumption tax,
known as The Fair Tax.

Why would I agree with eliminating some exemptions? We have a huge
problem in America in that 48 or so percent of working Americans pay
NO federal income taxes at all, none, zilch, nada (virtually everyone
pays social security taxes but those are different from income
taxes).

Many of these non payers are beneficiaries of tax dollars and vote for
representatives to give them ever more benefits. However, since they
don’t pay income taxes, they don’t experience the true cost of
government. It is what I call REPRESENTATION WITHOUT TAXATION which is
the flip side of NO TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION which of course
was one of the 27 reasons we broke from England in our war of
independence. One is as bad as the other.

Eliminating or reducing some exemptions will cause more people to
become taxpayers, which is a good thing. On the other hand, it will
also cause some who already pay taxes to pay more and that may not be
a good thing. As an example, Senator Coburn calls for eliminating the
home mortgage interest deduction beyond a certain amount (I believe it
was $500,000) and on second homes as well as eliminating the interest
deduction on equity lines of credit loans. My wife and I go long form
on our taxes and use our home interest as a deduction. Our interest
deduction is no where near a half million, we don’t have a second
home, but we do have an equity line of credit loan for our first and
only mortgage. If I were to lose that deduction, I will pay more in
taxes.

The point we as conservatives know, it that the amount of money
flowing into Washington is not the real problem. The REAL problem is
the spending as there is no limit as to what liberals in Washington
will spend if we allow them. If we can get spending under control, I
would be willing to pay more in taxes to reduce our national debt, but
then and only then when we get spending under control.

Another problem with Senator Coburn’s plan is a call to cut highway
and bridge funding. I don’t believe he really wants to cut back on
improving our roads, but it is more the result of taking a trust fund
and making it a part of the budget and thus a target for budget cuts.
Trust accounts should always be stand alone fee supported entities and
never be considered as a part of the budget. We have the same problem
in Oklahoma where we fail to understand the difference between a fee
and a tax and frequently mix those two systems.

The Federal Highway Trust Fund should simply work on the basis of
money in, money out. Where does the money come from? Every time we
purchase a gallon of gasoline or diesel, approximately 18 cents goes
to the federal trust fund, while the states also have about the same
amount that go into state coffers. This money should never be used for
anything other than roads and bridges (about 30% is diverted to mass
transit, Amtrak, bike and jogging trails and highway beautification
projects. Governor Keating tried to get these dollars for the dome on
the State Capitol, suggesting the dome could be seen from the
Centennial Expressway and would thus beautify the highway).

When you do fee based government, if properly managed fees go up if
they are insufficient or down if they are excessive. The highway trust
fund is shaky because of abuse and mismanagement from liberals in
Washington.

Unless, cut cap and balance can be spread out over at least 5 or 10
years, Senator Coburn’s plan is the best thing to be offered thus far.

++ THE TRUTH ABOUT SOCIAL SECURITY & DEBT CEILING

President Obama said if the debt ceiling isn’t extended he wasn’t sure
social security checks would go out in August. Let me establish where
I stand on my opinion of the President. He is a pathological liar, a
skilled deceiver of the naïve and acts like a slithering snake who
speaks with forked tongue. On the other hand, the 2 Republican
Congressmen (I didn’t know who they were) who stood behind a
microphone and stated that social security had over 2 TRILLION in its
trust fund were also liars.

For many years now the social security revenues going to the trust
fund were more than required for payments. Each year those excess
revenues were taken by Congress to be spent on other funds, but they
weren’t stolen. Congress, took the money and put an IOU in the fund to
someday be paid back with interest. So far, every time one of those
IOU’s has come due, it has been paid back, though with newly borrowed
money. Today, there are over 2 TRILLION dollars in IOU’s in the social
security trust fund, but no actual money.

It was thought that the trust fund would break even as far as the
amount coming in and the amount going out in about 2016. From that
point on it would operate in the red, with the government no longer
being able to borrow from the fund, but instead they would have to
begin to pay those IOUs back. It was anticipated paying back the IOUs
would keep Social Security operating at full benefits until about
2035. At that time, either higher amounts would have to be paid by
working people or the benefits would have to be reduced. It was
suggested that people drawing social security would see their benefits
reduced by about 30%.

However, because of the recession and a larger number of baby boomers
than expected taking early retirement, the fund actually started
operating in the red last year in 2010. Then something really bizarre
occurred. During the first 2 years of Obama’s reign, in an attempt to
stimulate the economy, the federal government paid out up to $400 in
tax credits for every working person. Rather than continue with that
failed idea, Obama and the lame duck congress decided to allow working
people to keep more money in their own pockets by reducing the amount
we pay into social security for this year. In other words, he reduced
the amount of money going into the social security trust fund, when it
was already operating in the red??? To my knowledge, this is the first
time that has occurred.

So far that has worked this year because congress has simply borrowed
or printed (all printed dollars become a loan) enough to pay off the
necessary IOUs in the Social Security Trust Fund so that the benefits
aren’t reduced. However, we are now looking at the debt ceiling not
being extended. If that occurs, Congress will not be able to borrow to
pay back those IOUs.

Bottom line, the best figures I can come up with suggest that when
August arrives next week, social security benefits to be paid out will
total about $24 billion dollars, but expected revenues coming into the
social security trust fund will only total about $17 billion. If they
can’t borrow more money, where are they going to get the money to keep
the benefits at the full amount? The checks will go out, but possibly
at a reduced amount.

My numbers may not be exact, but they are in the ball park. The
federal government was expected to spend about $285 billion dollars in
August, but total revenues flowing into the treasury would only be
about $170 billion. Some conservatives are suggesting we live only on
our means. They say, we should fully fund the military, fully fund the
debt payments so we don’t default and fully fund Social Security. We
could do that, but the cuts to everywhere else would be dramatic,
deep, severe and in my opinion throw us into a severe recession or
depression. Again, because this economy has been propped up with
borrowed and printed money for some time now, to lose those props will
have dire consequences.

I am in favor of these cuts in spending, but they must be done over
time. More importantly, we must create an environment in American were
the free market can thrive to create private sector jobs that produce
needed products and services. These new jobs are a necessity to reduce
the unemployment rate and provide a place for people to work who are
going to lose their current jobs because of federal government cut
backs. By increasing the number of private sector jobs, additional
revenues will flow into the federal government. Again, the number one
thing GOVERNMENT can do to create an environment for the free market
to succeed is to eliminate our current tax code and switch to the Fair
Tax. Unfortunately, that idea isn’t even a part of the dialogue going
on in Washington, though it is as important as the debate over cutting
spending.

I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.

Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com

AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING

2011-07-19T08:29:00.001-05:00

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
++ SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING

Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, July 20th will be held at
Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. I am really excited
to have Mr. Art Thompson as our speaker this Wednesday. Mr. Thompson
is the CEO of the John Birch Society. He lives in Appleton Wisconsin,
which is the location of the home offices of the Birch Society. I
joined the Society in 1988 and during that time there have probably
been 4 or 5 different CEOs. I personally believe Mr. Thompson is the
best since I have been in the Society. He has a tremendous grasp of
history and speaks with a lot of authority or gravitas.

As a keen observer of the struggles at the Wisconsin State Capitol
this year, Mr. Thompson will give of his perspective on the
undercurrents involved in the struggle in Wisconsin. Currently, there
are recall elections in process for both Republican and Democrat
lawmakers and perhaps the Governor. I will also ask him to give an
overview of the activities of the Birch Society and some of its many
activities.

Speaking of the Birch Society, their newly revamped web-site is up and
running, check it out at www.jbs.org and see what you find informative
and valuable. Remember, there are many sources of good information
today, but the question is, what to you do with good information? The
reason I have such high regard for the Birch Society is that it
disseminates excellent information, but more than that, it is an
organization in every state with field staff and a strategy to return
this nation to its Americanist ideals.

Of special interest on the web-site is the newly created FREEDOM
PROJECT. Over the past 2 or 3 years we have been developing an on-line
curriculum for home school children or for whole families to use.
Grades 9 through 12 are now ready to use and at only $35 per course,
it is very reasonable. There are over 100 conservative,
constitutionalist scholars that are contributing to the creation of
the curriculum, all of whom have masters or doctorate degrees. The
mission of the FREEDOM PROJECT is to empower Americans to understand,
enjoy and preserve the freedom and moral responsibility embodied in
America’s founding principles.

++ SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

This year’s Reclaiming America for Christ Conference, which is one
week from this Thursday and Friday, has had a location change. It
seems with the drought and low water pressure at Trinity in Yukon,
there was concern about trying to flush toilets over a 2 day period
with large crowds. Therefore, the conference has been re-located to
First Baptist Church in Moore. This a larger sanctuary and will seat
more folks. Take the NE 27th Street exit and go one block East of
I-35. The actual address is 301 NE 27th street in Moore, you can
easily see the church from I-35. I will have more on the speakers in
next week’s e-mail.

I need to keep this short as I am covered up with home projects which
have been neglected for some time now. I look forward to seeing
everyone this Wednesday.

Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com

WINNERS FOR THIS YEAR’S LEGISLATIVE SESSION

2011-07-18T08:01:00.004-05:00

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
++ WINNERS FOR THIS YEAR’S LEGISLATIVE SESSION
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
++ BUDGET TALKS IN WASHINGTON

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING

Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, July 13th will be held at
Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. By the time we
showed the video by Paul Harvey last week, only a handful of people
were still present. Therefore, we will show this 12 minute video first
then get on with the program. Our main speaker this week will be State
Representative Sally Kern. Her book, THE STONING OF SALLY KERN - THE
LIBERAL ATTACK ON CHRISTIAN CONSERVATISM, AND WHY WE MUST TAKE A STAND
is now available. The book has been some time in the making as I read
the first version a couple of years ago. I am now reading the expanded
and published version. It is an excellent picture of how the radical
homosexual community works to destroy good people, and make an example
to others. They work to create fear in the hearts of anyone with a
voice who might rise up and disagree with their agenda. It may
surprise some as to why Sally dedicated her book to the Homosexual
community, among others. However, she will share what can happen when
a person caught up in the prison of the homosexual lifestyle can look
at a stoning with intellectual honesty and make a rational decision.
Sally will have some books available and will be glad to sign them for
those purchasing one.

++ WINNERS FOR THIS YEAR’S LEGISLATIVE SESSION

Last Wednesday, with a fair amount of debate, our voting members made
their selections for the best and the worst in the legislature.
Following are the results. We congratulate those who performed above
average and deserve recognition for their good work.

* STATE SENATE

Lawmaker of the year award goes to: Steve Russell (R-OKC) session
score 90, lifetime 77.

Lawmaker of the year runner-up goes to: Anthony Sykes (R-Moore)
session 90, lifetime 92.

Freshman lawmaker of the year goes to: Josh Brecheen (R-Colgate)
session 80, lifetime 80.

Freshman lawmaker runner-up goes to: Greg Treat (R-OKC) session 80,
lifetime 80.

The RINO award goes to: Brian Crain (RINO - Tulsa) session 40,
lifetime 60.

The RINO runner-up goes to: James Halligan (RINO-Stillwater) session
50, lifetime 50.

* STATE HOUSE

Lawmaker of the year award goes to: Jason Murphy (R-Guthrie) session
score 100, lifetime 100.

Lawmaker of the year runner-up goes to: Mike Ritze (R-Broken Arrow)
session 93, lifetime 93.

Freshman lawmaker of the year goes to: David Brumbaugh (R-Broken
Arrow) session 90, lifetime 90.

Freshman runner-up goes to: Josh Cockroft (R-Tecumseh) session score
83, lifetime 83.

The RINO award goes to: Weldon Watson (RINO-TULSA) session score 53,
lifetime 53.

The RINO runner-up goes to: Dustin Roberts (RINO-Durant) session score
43, lifetime 43.

There were also 3 Democrat lawmakers who scored high enough to be
considered for a DINO (Democrat In Name Only) award. The winners were:

The DINO of the year award goes to Wes Hilliard (D-Sulphur) session
score 66, lifetime 42.

The DINO runner-up goes to R.C. Pruitt (D-Antlers) session score 60,
lifetime 49.

++ ANNOUNCEMENTS

* TUESDAY EVENING - ADA AREA - The Ada, Seminole tea party will
meet Tuesday evening, 6:30 p.m. in the Industrial Arts Classroom on
the campus of the Ada Technology Center in Ada. Speaking this month
will be Oklahoma’s Lt. Governor, Todd Lamb and Oklahoma’s State
Auditor and Inspector, Gary Jones.

* TUESDAY EVENING - TULSA AREA - The Republican Assembly will
host Labor Commissioner Mark Costello, this Tuesday evening at the
Furr’s Buffet in the Farm Shopping Center, East 51st street and South
Sheridan Ave. Members and visitors will gather at 6 for dinner with
the meeting starting at 7:00 p.m.. The meeting will adjourn at 8.

* THURSDAY EVENING - CLINTON AREA - The Western Oklahoma tea
party will host their monthly meeting this month in Clinton at the
Montana Mike’s restaurant, which is at exit #65 on I-40. Folks gather
at 6 for dinner with the meeting beginning at 7:00 p.m.. I will be the
speaker this month talking about the necessity for every generation to
fight for freedom. The members of this tea party alternate each month
between Weatherford, Clinton and Elk City. If you live in Western
Oklahoma, come on out and meet these conservatives who are making a
difference.

* THURSDAY EVENING - TULSA AREA - The Tulsa area chapter of OK2A
(Oklahoma 2nd Amendment) will have their monthly meeting, 6:30 p.m. in
Uncle Buck’s Grill, located inside the Bass Pro store, 101 Bass Pro
Drive, Broken Arrow. The program will include a presentation by Kaye
Beach about RFID chips in your driver’s licenses and Agenda 21. While
these are not directly related to the 2nd Amendment, they will impact
our freedom in general and eventually may impact our gun rights.

* THURSDAY EVENING - MOORE AREA - The Sooner Republican Assembly
will have their monthly meeting, at Earls Rib in Moore. Members and
guests will gather at 6 for dinner, with the meeting beginning at 6:45
p.m. Speaking this month will be pastor Fred Greening of the Goldsby
First Baptist Church. Pastor Greening has organized many trips to
Israel and will give a first hand report regarding the turmoil in the
Middle East.

* THURSDAY AND FRIDAY - JULY 28TH AND 29TH. These are the times for
the 6th annual Reclaiming America (Oklahoma) For Christ Conference.
The events begin Thursday evening 6:15 and run until 10:00 p.m. Then
the Conference will re-convene on Friday the 29th with the afternoon
sessions beginning at 1:30 and go until 5:00 pm, then the evening
sessions will resume at 6:15 with the conference finishing at 10:00
p.m. The location is Trinity Baptist Church, one mile South of I-40
and Garth Brooks Boulevard (on the East side). Next week I will go
into more depth regarding the speakers. This is just 2 weeks off from
this Thursday and Friday. We packed the place out last year and this
year’s speakers are going to be excellent.

++ BUDGET TALKS IN WASHINGTON

With the deadline looming for when the government runs out of
manipulations to keep going until the last days before we reach the
debt ceiling of $13.4 Trillion dollars, it looks like the President
and Congressional leaders are close to reaching a deal. I am on the
record in opposition to trying to balance the budget through spending
cuts in the next budget year. I believe this would risk a severe
economic jolt and likely cause a much more serious recession that the
one we recently experienced. I believe the Republicans in Washington
know this and will not let it happen as they would clearly be blamed
for such a recession.

Remember, the federal government is spending $1.6 Trillion more in a
year than it takes in from revenues. Where is the vast majority of
that $1.6 Trillion deficit spent? Right here in the U.S. of A. That
$1.6 Trillion of borrowed or newly printed dollars has been propping
up our economy, and without it diffusing throughout the economy, many
more jobs will be lost and the problems associated with higher
unemployment will exacerbate.

That is why changing policies to improve our business CLIMATE in
America is as important as talks about cutting spending. The single
most important thing that can be done to increase private sector jobs
is to switch to the Fair Tax. That will reduce the cost of doing
business in America, making our products much more competitive on a
global market as well as make everyone a taxpayer, which should
increase revenues to the federal government. Besides making all
current Americans taxpayers, the fair tax will increase jobs, putting
the unemployed back to work, thus creating even more taxpayers.

With that said, what citizens much watch out for in any kind of budget
deal is an extension of the debt limit today and supposed spending
cuts taking place somewhere down the line in a 10 year deficit
reduction promise. We should look for at least $300 billion in
spending cuts for the coming fiscal year. Then we should look for an
additional $300 billion in spending cuts for each successive year for
the next 5 years. Aside from certain variables, that would basically
eliminate our deficit over the next 5 years.

But even that soft landing approach will not work, if we don’t see
many of our manufacturing jobs come back to the United States. Sadly,
a couple of weeks ago Franklin Electric, the former Little Giant Pump
Company, announced they would be moving much of their work force out
of OKC and to a facility in Mexico. That is unfortunate, but with high
corporate taxes, excessive business regulations and problems with
organized labor, many companies keep moving their production
facilities out of America and in to other nations.

I am not going to speculate as to what the final deal will be between
the President and Congressional leaders as those details will probably
be evident in the near future. If the deal is unsatisfactory, we will
need to contact our Congressmen and tell them to send a message to
leadership that they need to go back to work and come up with a better
plan.

I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.

Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com

LAWMAKER RANKINGS FOR 2011 SESSION

2011-07-05T08:11:00.001-05:00

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
++ LAWMAKER RANKINGS FOR 2011 SESSION

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING

Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, July 6th will be held at
Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. The main focus of
our meeting this week will be to determine the outstanding lawmakers
in both the Senate and House as well as the winner of this year’s RINO
(Republican In Name Only) awards. We will have a time of debate on the
prospective winners where anyone can have input. Then our dues paying
members present at the meeting will vote for the winners of our
various awards. If we finish this business in time we will show the 12
minute video about the signing of the Declaration of Independence,
THEY PLEDGED THEIR LIVES, THEIR FORTUNES AND THEIR SACRED HONOR,
narrated by Paul Harvey.

++ LAWMAKER RANKINGS FOR 2011 SESSION

Following will be the rankings of Senate Republicans, with the most
conservative first and then on down to the most liberal. Following
each name and then the town or city in which they live, will be 2
numbers. The first number is their score on the Oklahoma Constitution
Newspaper’s Conservative Index for the 2011 session which adjourned in
May of this year. The second number will represent their average score
for however many years they have been in the legislature. We put a
little more emphasis on this year’s score as it reflects how they are
governing in recent times. As a point of interest, once a lawmaker has
been in office 4 years or more, their session score does not vary much
from their lifetime score. Each year there are 10 key votes which make
up the index. A lawmaker gets 10 points for each conservative vote, no
points for a liberal vote and an unearned 3 points for each vote they
missed.

1) Anthony Sykes (Moore) 90 - 92

2) Steve Russell (OKC) 90 - 77

3) Bill Brown (Broken Arrow) 80 - 82

4) Josh Brecheen (Coalgate) 80 - 80 (freshman)

4) Kim David (Porter) 80 - 80 (freshman)

4) Greg Treat (Edmond) 80 - 80 (freshman)

7) Gary Stanislawski (Tulsa) 80 - 77

8) Clark Jolley (Edmond) 80 - 68

9) Ralph Shortey (OKC) 73 - 73 (freshman)

9) Frank Simpson (Ardmore) 73 - 73 (freshman)

11) Jim Reynolds (OKC) 73 - 72

12) Mike Mazzei (Bixby) 73 - 67

13) Brian Bingman (Sapulpa) 73 - 61

14) Dan Newberry (Tulsa) 70 - 70

15) Mike Schultz (Altus) 70 - 69

16) Byrce Marlett (Woodward) 70 - 67

17) Jonathan Nichols (Norman) 70 - 65

18) John Ford (Bartlesville) 70 - 63

18) Ron Justice (Chickasha) 70 - 63

20) Patrick Anderson (Enid) 70 - 59

21) Cliff Aldridge (Choctaw) 66 - 75

22) Rick Brinkley (Owasso) 63 - 63 (freshman)

22) David Myers (Ponca City) 63 - 63

24) Rob Johnson (Kingfisher) 63 - 60

25) Cliff Branan (OKC) 60 - 65

26) Mark Allen (Spiro) 60 - 60 (freshman)

26)) David Holt (OKC) 60 - 60 (freshman)

28) Don Barrington (Lawton) 60 - 58

All names below are RINO nominees

29) Eddie Fields (Wynona) 50 - 55

30) Jim Halligan (Stillwater) 50 - 55

31) Brian Crain (Tulsa) 40 - 60

32) Harry Coates (Seminole) 33 - 45

Following are the scores for the Democrats. Please note, the 2 highest
scoring Senate Democrats either tie or score higher than 3 time RINO
winner Harry Coates. Eighteen House Democrats score higher than
Coates, a philanderer and an embarrassment to the Oklahoma Republican
party.

1) Jerry Ellis (Valliant) 40 - 33

2) Susan Paddack (Ada) 33 - 39

3) Earl Garrison (Muskogee) 30 - 33

4) Sean Burrage (Claremore) 30 - 32

5) Randy Bass (Lawton) 30 - 29

6) Charles Wyrick (Fairland) 30 - 23

7) Richard LeBlance (Hartshorne) 30 - 19

8) Charlie Laster (Shawnee) 26 - 30

9) Tom Adelson (Tulsa) 26 - 24

10) Tom Ivester (Sayre) 23 - 41

11) John Sparks (Norman) 23 - 25

12) Jim Wilson (Tahlequah) 20 - 15

13) Roger Ballenger (Okmulgee) 13 - 19

14) Judy E. McIntyre (Tulsa) 10 - 16

14) Andrew Rice (OKC) 10 - 16

16) Connie Johnson (OKC) 10 - 13

Following are the State House Republicans

1) Jason Murphey (Guthrie) 100 - 100

2) Mike Ritze (Broken Arrow) 93 - 96

3) Sally Kern (OKC) 90 - 93

3) P. Wesselhoft (Moore) 90 - 93

5) D. Brumbaugh (Broken Arrow) 90 - 90 (freshman)

6) Mike Reynolds (OKC) 83 - 95

7) Josh Cockroft (McLoud) 83 - 83 (freshman)

8) Tom Newell (Seminole) 80 - 80 (freshman)

8) Steve Vaughn (Ponca City) 80 - 80 (freshman)

10) David Derby (Owasso) 80 - 77

11) J. Trebilcock (Broken Arrow) 80 - 66

12) Charles Key (OKC) 76 - 82

13) Randy Terrill (Moore) 76 - 79

14) Todd Russ (Cordell) 76 - 73

15) George Faught (Muskogee) 73 - 73

15) Aaron Stiles (Norman) 73 - 73 (freshman)

17) Mark McCullough (Sapulpa) 73 - 71

18) Colby Schwartz (Yukon) 70 - 76

19) Randy McDaniel (Edmond) 70 - 74

20) Louis Moore (Arcadia) 70 - 73

21) T. W. Shannon (Lawton) 70 - 72

22) Pam Peterson (Tulsa) 70 - 71

23) Dennis Casey (Morrison) 70 - 70 (freshman)

23) Rusty Farley (Haworth) 70 - 70 (freshman, he passed away on
July 4th)

23) Randy Grau (Edmond) 70 - 70 (freshman)

23) Corey Holland (Marlow) 70 - 70

23) Glen Mulready (Tulsa) 70 - 70 (freshman)

23) Jason Nelson (OKC) 70 - 70

23) Sean Roberts (Hominy) 70 - 70 (freshman)

30) Mike Sanders (Kingfisher) 70 - 68

31) Sue Tibbs (Tulsa) 70 - 67

32) Fred Jordan (Jenks) 70 - 64

32) Scott Martin (Norman) 70 - 64

34) Kris Steele (Shawnee) 70 - 63

35) Gus Blackwell (Goodwell) 70 - 60

35) Ann Coody (Lawton) 70 - 60

35) Earl Sears (Bartlesville) 70 - 60

35) Harold Wright (Weatherford) 70 - 60

39) Lisa Billy (Purcell) 70 - 57

40) Don Armes (Faxon) 70 - 55

41) Phil Richardson (Minco) 70 - 53

42) David Dank (OKC) 66 - 68

43) Charles Ortega (Altus) 66 - 67

44) Dan Kirby (Tulsa) 66 - 59

45) Marian Cooksey (Edmond) 63 - 72

46) Elise Hall (OKC) 63 - 63 (freshman)

46) Marty Quinn (Claremore) 63 - 63 (freshman)

48) Guy Liebman (OKC) 63 - 61

48) Pat Ownbey (Ardmore) 63 - 61

48) Dan Sullivan (Tulsa) 63 - 61

51) Dale DeWitt (Braman) 63 - 56

52) Dennis Johnson (Duncan) 60 - 76

53) Steve Martin (Bartlesville) 60 - 64

54) Skye McNiel (Bristow) 60 - 61

55) Jadine Nolan (Sand Springs) 60 - 60 (freshman)

56) Mike Jackson (Enid) 60 - 58

57) Jeff Hickman (Fairview) 60 - 57

Names below this line are this year’s RINO nominees.

58) Mike Christian (OKC) 59 - 73

59) Gary Banz (MWC) 56 - 68

60) Ron Peters (Tulsa) 56 - 59

61) John Bennett (Sallisaw) 56 - 56 (freshman)

62) Charlie Joyner (MWC) 53 - 65

63) Weldon Watson (Tulsa) 53 - 53

64) Doug Cox (Grove) 52 - 45

65) Lee Denney (Cushing) 50 - 54

66) Tommy Hardin (Madill) 50 - 50 (freshman)

67) Todd Thomsen (Ada) 49 - 61

68) John Enns (Enid) 48 - 62 (was very sick, missed a large part
of session)

69) Leslie Osborne (Tuttle) 48 - 57 (missed 6 votes - ???)

70) Dustin Roberts (Durant) 43 - 43 (freshman)

Below are the scores for the House Democrats

1) Wes Hilliard (Sulphur) 66 - 42

2) R.C. Pruitt (Antlers) 60 - 49

3) Joe Dorman (Rush Springs) 60 - 39

4) Rebecca Hamilton (OKC) 56 - 38

5) Eric Proctor (Tulsa) 53 - 47

6. Brian Renegar (McAlester) 46 - 40

7) Seneca Scott (Tulsa) 46 - 29

8) Donnie Condit (McAlester) 43 - 43 (freshman)

8) Scott Inman (OKC) 43 - 43

8) James Lockhart (Heavener) 43 - 43 (freshman)

11) Larry Glen (Miami) 43 - 34

12) Jerry McPeak (Warner) 42 - 33

13) Ed Canady (Porum) 40 - 26

14) Mike Brown (Ft. Gibson) 39 - 45

15) Steve Kouplen (Beggs) 39 - 41

16) Jerry Shoemake (Morris) 36 - 33

17) Chuck Hoskins (Vanita) 36 - 23

18) Anastasia Pittman (OKC) 36 - 19

19) R. Morrissette (OKC) 33 - 45

20) Purcy Walker (Elk City) 33 - 35

21) William Four killer (Stillwell) 33 - 33 (freshman)

22) Wade Rousselot (Waggoner) 33 - 31

23) Danny Morgan (Prague) 32 - 31

24) Mike Shelton (OKC) 29 - 22

25) Al McAffrey (OKC) 29 - 11

26) Emily Virgin (Norman) 23 - 23 (freshman)

26) Cory Williams (Stillwater) 23 - 23

28) Jeanie McDaniel (Tulsa) 23 - 16

29) Jabar Shumate (Tulsa) 22 - 30

30) Ben Sherrer (Chouteau) 20 - 40

31) Paul Roan (Tishomingo) 16 - 19

The Oklahoma Constitution Newspaper is the only entity in the State
that has a conservative index and they have been publishing it for 33
years. To understand the essence of the bills picked for this year’s
conservative index and how your personal lawmaker voted on each issue
(or missed the vote), please consider subscribing to this quarterly
Newspaper. Besides being the conservative voice in Oklahoma since
1979, the paper is chock full of articles and news tidbits, all for
$12 per year. To subscribe, please send a check to the Oklahoma
Constitution, P.O. Box 53482, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73152. Please do
so right away as the Summer edition will be published and sent in the
mail within the next couple of weeks.

I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.

Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com

AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING

2011-06-27T07:21:00.001-05:00

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING

Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, June 29th will be held at
Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. Speaking briefly
this week will be Peter Hodges. He recently attended the political
event in Minneapolis Minnesota. Peter is one of the conservative
Catholics working to get the local Oklahoma Sponsoring Committee (with
links to Saul Alinsky) out of the local Catholic parishes. We may have
some speakers at OCPAC in the future as a result of contacts made by
Peter while in Minnesota. Our main speaker will be Lori Coats,
director for Oklahoma’s Agri-tourism for that part of Oklahoma west of
I-35. So you don’t know anything about Agri-tourism? Well that is
exactly the reason for having Lori come to explain, what it is, where
its located and how to participate. She will have about a 30 minute
power point presentation and enough hand-outs for everyone in
attendance.

++ ANNOUNCEMENTS

* MONDAY EVENING - OKLAHOMA COUNTY - Come meet Darrell Sorrels,
possibly the next County Sheriff for Oklahoma County. Many folks
believe Democrat Sheriff John Wetsel has been in office long enough
and possibly Republican Darrell Sorrels will be just the man to
replace the existing Sheriff. The meeting will be held Monday evening
June 27th, at the Edmond Library (10 South Boulevard) from 6:30 to
8:00 p.m.

Darrell has served the citizens in Oklahoma County as a professional
law-enforcement officer for over 20 years. He is currently a special
deputy for the U.S. Marshal Service. He has earned an Advanced Law
Enforcement Certification with the State of Oklahoma and is currently
a state certified law enforcement instructor. Darrell is a devoted
husband, father, grandfather and perhaps more important, a serious
Christian. Darrell attends First Southern Baptist Church in Del City
and calls himself a Constitutional Conservative Christian.

Following is his pledge to the voters: “I am committed to the citizens
and taxpayers of Oklahoma County to reduce government spending. I am
led to serve as a conservative voice for the citizens and a proactive
leader in law enforcement. I will keep my word to uphold, defend,
protect, preserve, and obey the Constitution of the United States of
America. The founders of America pledged their lives, their fortunes,
and their sacred honor to establish liberty here in the USA. To keep
it, we the people must do likewise. To ensure the trust of our
citizens, we must train our law enforcement professionals in Character
First and Police Dynamics.”

For further information e-mail darrell.sorrels@att.net of call (405)
942-0262. I have gotten to know Darrell over the past several months
and believe he would be an exceptional Sheriff. Please take some time
to attend Monday evening to meet Darrell and make your own decision.

* TUESDAY EVENING - KONAWA - A new tea party has started meeting
in Konawa which is in the Southeastern part of Seminole County, near
the Pottawattamie county line. The location will be the American
Legion Hall in Konawa with the times being from 7:00 until 9:00 p.m.
Speaking at this month’s meeting will be Tony Lauinger, head of
Oklahomans For Life. Tony is also on the board of the National Right
To Life organization. Also speaking will be freshman State Senator
Ralph Shortey. Senator Shortey will be speaking about his experience
in the legislature this year, all that happened and things that he
learned. For the folks in this area, please get out and support these
developing tea parties, they are making a difference in the rural
areas of Oklahoma.

I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.

Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com

TAX RE-STRUCTURE, GREAT NEWS, MAYBE

2011-06-21T09:55:00.000-05:00

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
++ TAX RE-STRUCTURE, GREAT NEWS, MAYBE
++ HB 1804 GETS APPROVAL OF STATE SUPREME COURT
++ OCPAC MEMBERSHIP UP-DATE

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING

Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, June 22nd will be held at
Italiano’ restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. This week the owners
of the Oklahoma Constitution Newspaper will present to our members the
final bills for consideration to make up this year’s Conservative
Index. All of our dues paying members as of 06-08-11 and who are
present at our meeting will be given a ballot to vote for the most
important bills to be used in this year’s index. Our debate on the
bills presented to us will center around those bills that are the most
significant to be used. This will be the 33rd year for the
Conservative Index. Our members have served as somewhat of a focus
group to determine the most important ones for the past 12 to 14
years.

++ ANNOUNCEMENTS

* TUESDAY EVENING - TULSA AREA - Tuesday evening, June 21st the
Tulsa Area Republican Assembly will have Mayor Dewey Bartlett as their
speaker. The location is the Golden Corral, 71st street and Mingo,
with folks gathering at 6 for dinner and the formal meeting will begin
at 7:00 p.m.. The club recently had a speaker that wanted to oust
Mayor Bartlett. During this meeting the Mayor will have a chance to
tell of any positive changes and make a case for his efforts.

* TUESDAY MORNING - OKC AREA - I mentioned in last week’s e-mail
the lawsuit filed by Oklahoma’s taxpayer watch-dog, Jerry Fent. Mr.
Fent is suing Mary Fallin, Governor of the State of Oklahoma, et al,
over the unconstitutional diversion of funds intended for roads and
bridges to other uses. Oral arguments will be presented to a Referee
in the State Supreme Court Chamber at the Capitol this Thursday, June
21st at 10:30 a.m.

Republicans need their hands slapped for continuing the same kind of
shell games played by the Democrats when they were in power. I know
its late notice, but if you care about good government and have some
time this Today, please attend this meeting to show support for Mr.
Fent and the Constitutional governance of Oklahoma.

* THURSDAY EVENING - OKC & EDMOND - Members of the group
Governing Edmond Locally (GEL) will meet, 7:00 p.m., at Molly Jenkins’
conference room, 10802 Quail Plaza Dr. in OKC. This group has done an
excellent job of educating citizens as well as folks in authority
regarding the U.N.’s Agenda 21 and its sustainability movement. If you
want to educate yourself on this issue and make a difference, please
attend this meeting. This past Wednesday Glen Beck did a program on
this issue which will give a huge boost to groups like GEL.

* JULY 28TH & 29TH - CENTRAL OKLAHOMA - This is the first
announcement regarding this Year’s Reclaiming America for Christ
Conference to be held on the above dates at Trinity Baptist Church in
Yukon. Session #1 will be from 6:15 until 10:00 p.m. on Thursday night
the 28th. Session #2 will be held Friday afternoon the 29th from 1:30
p.m. until 5:00 p.m. and session #3 will be held from 6:15 until 10:00
p.m.

Keynote speakers this year will be Dr. Bob Cornuke, President of the
Bible Archaeology, Search & Exploration (BASE) Institute and Dr. G.
Thomas Sharp, President of Creation Research Institute. Also speaking
this year will be pastor Dan Fisher, pastor Paul Blair, Matt Barber of
the Liberty Counsel legal ministry, Congressman James Lankford,
Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, Oklahoma State Representative
Sally Kern and Jenni White, President of Restore Oklahoma Public
Education (ROPE).

Please put this on your calendar for now. I will give more details as
time gets closer. I believe this will be the 6th year for these
outstanding conferences. They have come a long way from the first year
with a couple hundred in attendance to last year’s conference of over
3,000. There is no charge to attend, but a love offering will be
taken. For more information log on to www.ra4c.org or call (405) 796-
PRAY.

Let me urge folks to download a flyer from the web-site to give to
your pastor and others. The only chance America has to return to its
greatness is for a revival within the Christian church, where its
pastors preach a Biblical gospel and lead their congregations into the
knowledge and action in the cultural war of which we are embroiled.

++ TAX RE-STRUCTURE, GREAT NEWS, MAYBE

State Representative David Dank is working on re-structuring our tax
system and this past week Governor Fallin, while in Lawton, announced
her desire to eliminate the personal income tax and through re-
structure still have the ability to fund the proper functions of
government. When pressed by a reporter, she indicated she didn’t know
how to accomplish that task but was committed to it.

Let me suggest, we ought to set a goal of what kind of economy we want
in Oklahoma, and then set a strategy to accomplish such. One important
principle to understand is the concept that there are two sides of an
economy from which government derives its needed revenues. First there
is the production side of the economy with government getting revenues
by taxing corporate income, personal income, capitol gains and any
kind of taxes or fees on businesses, such as a franchise tax. Second,
there is the consumption side of the economy with government getting
revenues from sales taxes, or fees on activities.

There is an old adage that says: “whatever you tax, you get less of
it.” With that in mind, it would be foolish to tax the production side
of our economy as we don’t want less production of products and
services, as growth in those areas create jobs and higher wages.

Therefore, state government (and federal as well) need to derive their
NECESSARY revenues from the consumptive side our economy. There are 2
different ways to eliminate all personal and corporate income taxes,
as well as other business taxes. We could take the former Governor
Frank Keating approach which was very unpopular at the time, where
Frank wanted to shift taxation from production side of the economy to
the consumption side by expanding sales taxes to services, such as
your barber, hair stylist, attorney services, window cleaning
services, plumber, electrician and so on. Of course the trade off was
that we would no longer have a state or corporate income tax. His goal
was to be revenue neutral.

This re-structuring would allow businesses to lower the price of their
goods, thus making them more competitive in a national and global
market place. A lower cost of doing business in Oklahoma would
encourage more businesses to locate here or current businesses to
expand their operations as well as stay in Oklahoma rather then re-
locate to Texas (just last week we had another business located in
Tulsa, announce they would be moving to Dallas). Please remember,
businesses consider taxes as overhead and they build the cost of that
overhead into their pricing, thus it is the consumers who pay those
taxes. While this revenue neutral tax shift would be better than what
we have now, there is a better way.

The best way to accomplish the re-structure is to reduce government
spending and broaden the tax base by re-examining some of the sales
tax exemptions granted by the legislature in recent years. When
reducing the size and cost of government, there is a temptation to use
those savings for other programs or an expansion of existing programs.
The goal must be to use the savings as an off-set for the purpose of
reducing income and business taxes.

Areas to cut government spending would be on many of the business
subsidy programs, such as Oklahoma’s Quality Jobs Act and the
Governor’s new closing fund (while it was created this year, it has no
money in it as yet). In the competition for new businesses, we would
lose this incentive, but gain another by removing corporate taxes,
franchise taxes, personal income taxes and capitol gains taxes. I
would remove these taxes in this order for maximum benefit to creating
an environment for businesses to flourish in Oklahoma.

Over the past several years, the legislature has continued to add to
the number of things exempted from sales taxes. Every sales tax
exemption makes it more difficult to cut income taxes as government
must get its necessary revenues from some where. Without looking at
the complete list of recent sales tax exemptions, I would only keep 2.
I would keep the sales tax exemption on prescription drugs (some of
these are really expensive and many have a challenge in affording the
drug, let alone with a huge sales tax added on. I would also keep the
sales tax exemption on tickets for national championship or regional
tournaments held in Oklahoma. If a sales tax is the determining factor
as to where such are played, we will make up any lost money on tickets
with greater spending in our restaurants, motels and general shopping.

On the other hand, I would repeal the sales tax exemption on the sale
of tickets for professional sporting events (such as tickets to
Thunder games) and keep the sales tax on groceries. For the very poor,
this is just about the only direct tax they pay and it is very
important for them to keep some skin in the game. In addition, with
growth in the economy more people will be working, spending money and
thus paying additional sales taxes. Should the oil and gas industry
increased the production in the state, more gross production taxes (a
type of consumer tax) will increase the flow of revenues to
government. Those increased funds should be used for repairs to state
property and salary increases when and where needed.

I would suggest a comprehensive plan is vital. Hopefully
Representative Dank and other will craft a good overall plan.

++ HB 1804 GETS APPROVAL OF STATE SUPREME COURT

Congratulations to Representative Randy Terrill (R-Moore) as this past
week the State Supreme Court up-held the majority of the content of
H.B. 1804 (the law passed 3 or 4 years ago to deal with the problems
created by illegal aliens). Terrill was the brilliant author of the
legislation which is complex and thorough. The one part they did
declare went too far was the presumption that illegals would be a
flight risk and therefore they would be automatically denied bond. I
believe they are a flight risk and every illegal alien that flees and
commits another crime will be upon the judge that sets bond as well as
the State Supreme Court Justices.

There is more to be done legislatively on the issue of illegal aliens.
Hopefully Terrill, Senator Shortey and others can have future success
in those efforts. Probably the most important need now is for law
enforcement to actually enforce the laws already on the books in this
regard.

++ OCPAC MEMBERSHIP UP-DATE

We had 9 new memberships come in over the past week. That now brings
our total for the year to 217 dues paying members. I bring this up as
we are now tied with our all time record for memberships in a non-
election year. This is how we build our war chest to elect
conservative candidates, support conservative lawmakers in their re-
election bids and hold those RINOs accountable. To join, please fill
out the information below and mail it to us with your check or money
order. Thanks so much to everyone for your support.

I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.

Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com

BOREN HAD ENOUGH, SENATE SPECIAL ELECTION BEGINS NOW

2011-06-14T09:39:00.000-05:00

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
++ JERRY FENT FILES LAWSUIT - UNCONSTITUTIONAL SPENDING
++ BOREN HAD ENOUGH, SENATE SPECIAL ELECTION BEGINS NOW

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING

Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, June 15th will be held at
Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. This Wednesday will
be our first part of a two Wednesday effort to help establish this
year’s Conservative Index, published by the Oklahoma Constitution
Newspaper. It is primarily a 3 part process. Shortly before session
ended, and invitation was hand delivered to every Republican lawmaker
with an invitation to participate in creating the Conservative Index
for this year’s session. They were instructed to suggest bills that
were reflective of a conservative or liberal position and send them to
the Newspapers office no later than June 1st. Next they were invited
to attend this Wednesday’s meeting to debate as to whether bills that
were submitted are actually a reflection of a liberal or conservative
vote. Following this Wednesday’s debate, the newspaper’s editors will
remove any bills that fail to be a good example, then next Wednesday,
June 22nd, they will bring the final bills to us for our dues paying
members to vote as to the 10 most important votes which should make up
the Conservative Index. I believe we have 25 bills to consider this
Wednesday. In reality, there were many very good bills that will not
be considered as they didn’t get a hearing or perhaps they got a vote
in only the House or Senate and weren’t voted on in both chambers. We
have had as many as 15 lawmakers attend in the past. This meeting is
always very educational for our members and lawmakers get a good read
on the thinking of the grassroots conservatives.

++ ANNOUNCEMENTS

* TUESDAY AFTERNOON - OKC AREA - Our good friend Jennie White,
founder of: Restore Oklahoma Public Education (ROPE) will host a
press conference, 1:00 p.m. in Room 419A at the State Capitol. Jennie
has done a great deal of research on the federal government’s “Common
Core Curriculum Standards and found them to be little more than a
rehash of the Outcome-Based Education model originally described by
the self-avowed Socialist/Humanist John Dewey and others of his ilk.
So much so, Jennie suggests the Common Core Curriculum Standards are
little more than an “introduction to Marxism 101. If you can attend
this presentation to support Jenni, please try to do so. I am not
sure, but I don’t believe Janet Barresi is up to speed on this issue
as yet.

* TUESDAY EVENING - ADA AREA - The Seminole-Ada Tea Party will
hold their monthly meeting in the Industrial Arts Classroom on the
Career Tech campus in Ada. The meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. The first
speaker will be Dr. Earl Taylor speaking about the 28 principles of
good government which is the basis of the book the 5000 Year Leap.
Following Dr. Taylor will be State Representative Tom Newell (R-
Seminole) who will field questions about this year’s legislative
session. Then the keynote speaker will be Jenni White, explaining the
dangers of the Marxist like Common Core Curriculum Standards. If you
live anywhere within 40 to 50 miles of Ada, this is well worth your
time and effort to attend.

++ JERRY FENT FILES LAWSUIT - UNCONSTITUTIONAL SPENDING

Just before the session ended, I explained the shell game in which
legislative leaders and the Governor intended to engage so they could
borrow money for funding the budget rather than cutting additional
waste, fluff or improper functions of government. The shell game was a
plan to rob $100 million in transportation department dollars to use
for other purposes, then borrow $70 million in bonded indebtedness to
repay that amount of the $100 million robbed from the department.

Last Wednesday, Oklahoma’s top taxpayer watchdog, Jerry Fent, filed a
lawsuit naming Governor Fallin and other state leaders. Fent indicates
the State Constitution expressly says “no tax levied and collected for
one purpose shall ever be devoted to another purpose.” His lawsuit
claims that revenue raised by the sale of gasoline and diesel fuel in
the state is dedicated to roads and bridges. Fent believes that once
the public realizes that monies paid for roads and bridges are going
to be siphoned off to other uses, that very public is going to be
outraged and I would say, rightly so. While $70 million will be put
back into the roads and bridges fund through bonded indebtedness, $30
million will not be replaced.

I believe that vote will be one of the 10 issues to make up this
year’s conservative index and would suggest unless the Supremes can
demonstrate why the Constitution shouldn’t be followed, those Justices
disagreeing with Fent should be booted out during next year’s
retention ballot during the general election. Oral arguments are set
to be heard by a Supreme Court referee on June 21st. Outraged citizens
should pack the courtroom on that date to show their concern. I will
try to have the time of the hearing published in next week’s e-mail.

++ BOREN HAD ENOUGH, SENATE SPECIAL ELECTION BEGINS NOW

Last week U.S. Representative Dan Boren announced he will not seek re-
election next year, but will finish out his term. On the Democrat
side, Brad Carson who formerly held this seat announced he was
interested in returning to Congress. He vacated the seat when he ran
for the U.S. Senate, but was defeated by Tom Coburn.

On the Republican side, State Representative George Faught (R-
Muskogee) quickly announced an interest in running. Faught could be a
strong candidate as he has proven an ability to win in Muskogee which
is the largest city in the district. Dr. Charles Thompson was the
nominee during the 2010 elections and though he was outspent by Boren
nearly 18 to 1, he still garnered close to 44% of the vote.

With proper backing, the eventual Republican candidate will have an
excellent chance of picking up this seat. This once seemingly
impenetrable Democrat district has been trending toward the Republican
party, as many of the legislative seats in the district are now in the
hands of Republican lawmakers.

Filing period will be Monday through Wednesday of this week for the
State Senate District 43 seat which has been held for the past 11
years by Jim Reynolds. Last November, Reynolds ran for Cleveland
County Treasurer and won that election. However, he will take office
next month and therefore was able to serve in the Senate for this
year’s session.

State Representative Paul Wesselhoft (R-Moore) has planned to run for
this seat for some time and therefore filed for the office yesterday.
However, redistricting has created a small problem for Paul should he
win. This seat is up for re-election next year, but under
redistricting, by 2 blocks, Paul will not live in this senate seat
next year, so he will have to run for a different Senate unless he is
able to move.

This seat is not a given for the Republicans. I believe Reynolds is
the first Republican to hold the seat and he nearly lost the election
in 2008. In a bit of a fluke, his opponent was named David Boren, of
course it wasn’t David Boren the President of OU, but another fellow
with the same name. About 10 days out of the election, hundreds of
thousands of dollars, most from out of state, poured into an effort to
elect Boren and it almost worked. It was close enough that the Boren
backers paid for a recount.

I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.

Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com

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IN MEMORY OF BOB TONEY

2011-06-08T23:43:00.000-05:00

++ IN MEMORY OF BOB TONEY
++ AMERICAN CHRISTIAN HERITAGE TOUR

++ IN MEMORY OF BOB TONEY

Over the weekend I began to receive e-mails that our friend Bob Toney
was in need of blood due to open heart surgery. Unfortunately, Bob
passed away sometime on Sunday. Before I share some important
information about Bob as a patriot and Christian, let me give the
details for his funeral.

His central Oklahoma service will be tomorrow, June 9th, 10:00 a.m. in
the auditorium at Christian Heritage Academy, 4400 Southeast 27th
street in Del City. There will also be a graveside service at 2:00
p.m. in Weatherford, Oklahoma at the Plainview Cemetery. In lieu of
flowers the family has requested that donations be made to the
Christian Heritage Academy Athletic Program/Student Aid (Christian
Heritage Academy, 4400 S.E. 27th, Del City, Ok 73115)

What I am about to say about Bob (and others) I wanted to write in
regard to the recent Memorial Day holiday, but I just couldn’t get it
out in time. However, with Bob’s passing, I am going to say it now.

Memorial day is a time we honor those who have given their lives in
the service of our country, primarily through military service. We
frequently hear about the sacrifices those men and women have made to
preserve our freedoms. I do not want to diminish those memories one
fraction, though many of our service men and women have sometimes
given their lives more out of obedience or obligation to the service
of our country rather than really fighting for our freedoms.

Certainly WW 2 was an all out national effort to beat the forces of
aggression and freedom oppressing tyranny so that we might remain
free. While the advance of Communism was always, and still is, a
threat to our future liberty, unfortunately the Korean and Vietnam
wars were influenced and orchrastrated too much by organizations such
as the U.N. and SETO as well as an intention by our own government,
not to win. I would suggest wars in Somalia, Kosovo, and now Libya
consume the resources of our nation and the loss of American lives.
However, I have grave concern as to any real American interest in
those wars, especially any risk to our freedoms.

All of those who have served honorably in an American uniform and died
as a result of the call of our country are deserving of respect,
thanks and memorializing. However, I want to speak of another kind of
warrior, one who prior to his passing expended his time, effort, life
and resources in a form of warfare that truly is for our liberties.
People like Bob Toney, who understood the definition of true
patriotism and gave of himself in the culture war, a battle for the
hearts and minds of Americans as well as promoting the ideals of our
founding fathers.

Growing up, Bob played football, wrestled and excelled in baseball. He
led the OSU Cowboys to a runner up finish in the College World Series
in 1996 and was unanimously named as the Series All Star 3rd baseman.
Bob signed with the Atlanta Braves and played 6 years of professional
baseball. Later on he coached neighborhood baseball and softball teams
then he originated the Christian Heritage Academy High School team. He
went on to lead that team to multiple state championships. In very
recent years Bob opened his office in Del City for numerous sessions
on Activism through the John Birch Society as well as leadership
training for members of the Society. Once Bob saw the quality and
value of THE TRUTH PROJECT, produced by Focus on The Family, Bob
traveled the state introducing churches to this superb 13 hour DVD
presentation.

Bottom line, Bob Toney has gone on the be with the Lord. He should be
remembered along with other patriots who expended their lives and
sacrificed in the eternal fight for Liberty. Bob joins others who have
gone on before him like Robert Welch, Leon Skousen, Gary Allen, and on
a more local level, folks like Jack Edens, Joe Russell, Vincent
Roshager, Tom Ragsdale, Bill Stemmons, Tim Pope and many others that
slip my mind and are too numerous to list. I don’t want to take one
thing away from our men and women in uniform that have given their
lives, but I believe people like Bob Toney and many others are just as
deserving of honor and respect, though most people have been unaware
of their sacrifices.

Bob was given over 100 units of blood, and though he has passed on,
the burden of paying for that blood will fall upon his family, unless
his friends will donate in his name. I gave today after the OCPAC
meeting and all of his information is in the Oklahoma Blood Institute
donor system. If you would like to do something in his memory, please
consider a contribution to the Christian Heritage Athletic Program/
Student Aid that I mentioned above.

++ AMERICAN CHRISTIAN HERITAGE TOUR

The Ralph Bullard Heritage Foundation is sponsoring an American
Christian Heritage Tour from September 13th through the 20th of this
year. My wife and I were able to go on this tour 4 years ago, and I
can say without a doubt it is the finest trip I have ever taken, even
more memorable the our trip to Israel in 1980.

The tour director will be CHA’s Secondary Headmaster, Mr. David Holmes
who has directed 30 of these tours in past years. Assisting will be
Ralph Bullard and on site you will benefit from the guidance of Dr.
Paul Jehle, the leading Pilgrim historian in America today.

The primary areas for the tour will be Plymouth and Boston, rich in
the founding and history of this nation. You will be introduced to
first generation history and the many sites of our earliest times. The
information you learn will be free from the errors of revisionist
history. History will come alive like never before.

On a really good note, the tour is actually a couple of hundred
dollars less per person than 4 years ago. There is only room for 44
people, so please check out the information if you have any hope or
intention of going. Log on to www.cha.org/heritage-tour.html to view
the information and check out the costs and details. In addition, you
may call (405) 672-1787 and ask for Ralph Bullard for more information
or e-mail him at: rbullard@cha.org.

Thanks for your time and attention.

Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com

BIG BROTHER - AN ATTITUDE - AN ENEMY OF LIBERTY

2011-06-06T09:47:00.000-05:00

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
++ COMPARING OREGON AND OKLAHOMA
++ BIG BROTHER - AN ATTITUDE - AN ENEMY OF LIBERTY

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING

Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, June 8th will be held at
Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. Our speaker this
week will be Oklahoma’s senior U.S. Representative Frank Lucas.
Congressman Lucas is the first Oklahoman to be the Chairman of the
Powerful House Agriculture Committee. This will be our first time to
have Congressman Lucas. He currently represents the geographically
largest House District in the State of Oklahoma. During his town hall
meetings he is always good to take questions and I expect he will do
the same at OCPAC. I am very concerned about our involvement in Libya
as well as concerned that Republicans haven’t got the message as yet
about cutting spending. As an example, this past week they started
work on next year’s budget by passing legislation to fund the budget
for homeland defense. The 40 billion passed is only a 1 billion cut
from last year’s funding. Besides funding FEMA which will probably
soon shell out money to subsidize the installation of storm shelters
or safe rooms (an unconstitutional expenditure for the bankrupt
federal government) there are also millions of dollars for grants to
LOCAL fire and police departments. The later are certainly proper
functions of local governments, but not the federal government. While
James Lankford represents Oklahoma county, Frank Lucas represents the
neighboring counties of Logan and Canadian as well as points North and
West of those counties. Don’t miss this important meeting.

++ ANNOUNCEMENTS

* THURSDAY EVENING - TULSA AREA - The Oklahoma Second Amendment
organization (OK2A) will have their Tulsa area monthly meeting this
Thursday evening 7:00 p.m. at the Bass Pro Shop, 101 Bass Pro Drive in
Broken Arrow. The topic of discussion will be disaster preparedness.
There are many different types of disasters for which to be prepared.

* THURSDAY EVENING - EDMOND AREA - American Majority will conduct
another candidate training seminar, 6 to 8:30 p.m. at the Edmond
library, 10 South Blvd. If you have ever considered running for office
or helping a friend to do so, this will be important training.
Reservations are not required but a head count would be helpful.
Please call Seth at (405) 639-8896 for more information.

++ COMPARING OREGON AND OKLAHOMA

I just wanted to share a few thoughts about my recent trip to Oregon.
The Southeastern part of Oregon looks a great deal like parts of the
Texas panhandle, but much of the rest of the state is lush with
greenery, mountains, rivers and waterfalls. I believe Oregon’s
populations is a few hundred thousand more than Oklahoma, though the
land mass is about the same.

While there, Oregon’s unemployment rate just dropped below 10% which
is a little above the national average and about twice the rate for
Oklahoma. Tourism is a huge business, but agriculture and the lumber
business face an ever increasing degree of difficulty with so many
animal rights and greenies exerting influence on the state government.
A major problem is that Oregon has no sales taxes, thus they must get
their government revenues from property and state income taxes. By
taxing the production side of the economy, rather than the consumption
side of the economy, it puts businesses at a disadvantage in the
production of goods when competing both nationally as well as
internationally.

As a point of interest, Oregon is the only state I know of the has a
law to PROHIBIT citizens from pumping their own gas when they go to
fill up their car or truck. I doubt the lawmakers believe the citizens
of Oregon are too stupid to know how to fill their own vehicles, but
rather see such a law as a means to employee more people. Of course
when you make laws to create unnecessary jobs (make work jobs) you
again raise costs and lower productivity. Fuel was 30 cents a gallon
more expensive than Oklahoma. Not all of that increased cost is
because of the labor involved, as I would guess the state fuel fee
(tax) is probably higher than the 17 cents per gallon we pay in
Oklahoma.

Oregon also has a state minimum wage law which at about $8.65 per
hour, is a dollar or more higher than the national average. What kind
of effect does that have on the citizens? While in New Mexico and
Kansas we stopped at a Dairy Queen and I had a mushroom and swiss
burger at $3.35 in each place. However, the same burger cost $4.35 at
a Dairy Queen in Oregon. That higher minimum wage requirement causes
any thing produced or any service effected by employees paid a minimum
wage to cost more and thus raises the cost of living and the cost of
products produced there. That is bad for the economy, increases
unemployment and again causes Oregon businesses to be less competitive
on a national and international basis.

Another area of concern is zoning. Every square inch of Oregon is
zoned except land which is owned by the State or Federal governments.
This is an excessive amount of fascism which really robs people’s
liberty. As an example, when our niece and husband were first married
they wanted to purchase a mobile home and move it on to my brother and
sister in law’s 80 acre farm. However, it was not zoned for multi-
family uses so they were denied. Where was the farm? Five miles
outside of a small town of 600 people and 30 miles from Klamath Falls,
a city about the same size of Enid. The farm was on the side of a
mountain on a seldom traveled road, but not zoned for multi-family
dwellings?

Some of these little things add up and make a beautiful place that
would normally be a great place to live and prosper, a little more
difficult to succeed. On a bright note. I was able to attend and speak
at the weekly tea party meeting in Klamath Falls. They had about 75 in
attendance and they meet every Tuesday. I was very well received and
they cleaned me out of the bag of books and DVDs I took on the trip.
They seemed like solid patriots and are currently going through the
5000 year leap, studying the 28 principles necessary for liberty. They
had successfully elected their candidate for a county commissioner
seat, a gentleman who was already familiar with the book THE LAW by
Frederick Bastiat and the Davy Crockett story titled, NOT YOUR’S TO
GIVE.

++ BIG BROTHER - AN ATTITUDE - AN ENEMY OF LIBERTY

A week ago Sunday, State Representatives Richard Morrissette (D-South
OKC) and Colby Swartz (R-Yukon) were doing their dog and pony show on
Channel 9, usually before most people have to leave for church. With
the recent death and destruction done by the tornados, the question
was asked if government should require citizens to install storm
shelters or safe rooms?

Thankfully, Colby Swartz said it should not be a requirement, but the
big mouth Morrissette, saw it differently. He was all for such
requirements and pointed back to how many lives have been saved as a
result of government requiring people to wear seat belts.

No doubt in my mind that lives have been saved as a result of people
wearing seat belts in vehicles, or helmets when riding motorcycles.
However, the real question is, do we want government acting like our
big brother and requiring such? If government can determine what is
good for us and what is not and then use it’s power of the sword to
require certain behaviors from us, where does it stop? Who knows, as
it is an attitude, a mind set that government should get out of its
proper roll of protecting one person from the harmful actions of
others to the roll of protecting us from ourselves.

If people accept the attitude that it is ok for government to make
laws on behavior other than clearly moral issues such as prostitution,
drugs and etc, then you have government telling us what activities are
good and what is bad, what to eat and how much to eat and the list can
go on and on. Next might be a prohibition on rodeo activities, skate
boarding, hang gliding, snow skiing and other sports that have a high
degree of danger.

Recently law enforcement agencies announced through an article in the
paper that there would be an all out push over the Memorial day
weekend to ticket people who weren’t wearing their seat belts. The
article indicated Oklahomans now have a higher compliance with seat
belt laws than the national average, but that wasn’t good enough. The
article included an interview with Governor Fallin, who extolled the
virtues of our ranking, but then went on to say we’ve got more to do
on this issue. How sad to see a Republican, pushing for more big
brother compliance with such laws.

How did we get to this place with seat belt laws and who was pushing
for such? None other than the federal government. At some point in
time (probably in the 70s) the federal government MANDATED auto makers
install seat belts in autos, then eventually trucks. Then in the early
80’s the federal government declared that if 75 percent of the states
were to pass mandatory seat belt laws, they would not mandate auto
makers having to install air bags in autos. Oklahoma quickly complied
with the mandate for autos only, folks in pick-ups didn’t have to wear
seat belts and there was no fine for people in cars not wearing them.
It was also not a primary offence, meaning law enforcement could not
stop you for not wearing a seat belt. It was only to be a secondary
offence.
Other states quickly complied with the feds and the goal of over 75
percent of the states was quickly reached. Of course that didn’t
matter to the feds as they soon mandated autos be equipped with air
bags. 1995 was the last year pickups were made before air bags were
mandated in them.

In 1990 Oklahoma expanded its mandatory seat belt laws to also include
pickups and trucks. Next came a $20 fine and then eventually the law
was changed for non-compliance to become a primary offence, meaning
you could be stopped for not wearing a seat belt.

Please DO NOT MISUNDERSTAND ME, this is not a debate about whether or
not a person is safer wearing seat belts or riding a motorcycle with a
helmet, THEY ARE. The debate is about government forcing us to do so.
If you believe that is ok, then you believe in fascism and you believe
in stateism. When our founding father pledged their fortunes, the
lives and their sacred honor, to throw off the shackles of England,
they didn’t do so to eventually see our government become much more
oppressive than England. They sacrificed all they had for LIBERTY.

We should respect that and not develop an attitude that big brother
can make laws to protect us from ourselves. If not, get your pocket
books out, for you will soon be forced to install storm shelters in
your homes and places of business, and next will be sprinkler systems
in your homes and the list will go on and on from there because there
will always be some bureaucrat sitting around trying to think of new
ways to make people safer from themselves.

I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.

Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com

I WAS WRONG

2011-05-31T08:59:00.001-05:00

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
++ I WAS WRONG
++ STRONGLY DISAGREE WITH COMMISSIONER DOAK
++ SCORE CARD FOR THIS YEAR’S LEGISLATIVE SESSION
++ SHOCK AT THE OUTCOME OF THE EARSLAND TRIAL
++ OCPAC MEMBERSHIP UP-DATE

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING

Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, June 1st will be held at
Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. Our speaker this
week will be newly elected Labor Commissioner, Mark Costello. The
previous commissioner was imbalanced in his approach as he favored
organized labor. Commissioner Costello has worked to reduce the
regulatory costs to do business in Oklahoma, as well as meet the needs
of working Oklahomans. We look forward to hearing about changes to the
office since the election.

My apologies for failing to get last week’s e-mail out. After
returning a week ago Sunday from an 11 day trip to Oregon for a family
reunion, I quickly wrote a short e-mail, added a few names to our list
then forgot to send the e-mail out before I began to sort through the
5 to 6 hundred new e-mails gathered in my in-box while I was away. Our
crowd was down to about 75 last week and I owe our speaker Jonathan
Small of the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs (OCPA) along with
those who may have come if they had known of our program an apology.
Jonathan is another of those bright young home school students. He is
a CPA, has worked for the state office of management and budget, and
is today responsible for OCPA policy regarding Oklahoma’s budget
issues. Jonathan was very informative last week. He basically said
things were improved under Republican control of government, but
things could be improved a great deal more from where they are now.

++ I WAS WRONG

I received quite a few responses regarding my position toward
legislation to create a health insurance exchange. The session ended
without creating any kind of a health insurance exchange which
surprised me as I was convinced we were going to get some kind of
legislation passed in this regard. That is where I was wrong. Having
been convinced to the contrary, I gladly endorsed the senate
alternative which rejected the 54 million in federal dollars and left
it up to the private sector or the state to create an alternative.

Some folks were mad that we would have to spend state tax dollars
rather than the federal monies. However, sources told me, the
intention was to spend whatever was necessary from the tobacco
settlement fund. That is money extorted from tobacco companies and by
law the earnings must be spent toward tobacco cessation or health care
issues. I am not sure those funds would meet the requirements to set
up a health care insurance exchange?

Other folks were mad that the federal tax dollars we paid to
Washington would not come back to Oklahoma, but go to some other
state. In reality, none of that 54 million coming from the feds were
tax dollars sent to Washington. All of what we send to Washington is
already spoken for, the 54 million would be borrowed or newly printed
money, which becomes what we call deficit spending.

In talking with several senators, I was assured they were not going to
take the federal dollars and the senate alternative had certain
safeguards and a sunset clause. I was told that what was trying to be
accomplished through the alternative was to create something that
would satisfy the feds and hopefully buy some time to allow for the
lawsuits to stop Obamacare or hopefully have an election outcome next
year that would allow for the dismantling of the horrific legislation.

However, in talking with Representative Key and the folks with OK-
SAFE, they remained opposed, saying the rejection of the $54 million
was not the most important issue, but rather the creation of any kind
of an exchange would be crucial to the implementation of Obamacare.

Therefore, I reproduced Representative Key’s letter to the editor (it
was published in the Oklahoman a couple of days later) and suggested
to OCPAC readers, if they wanted this stopped, they were going to have
to contact their lawmakers and tell them no to this legislation.

Much to my surprise, nothing was done. Leadership has called for
hearings to take place before next year’s session with Senator
Stanislawski and Representative Mulready, both from the Tulsa area,
responsible for conducting that effort. I particularily like the
statement in this regard from Senator Stanislawski, when he said
everything is on the table, including totally rejecting the creation
of an exchange. I will try to keep folks posted in regard to the times
and locations for these hearings.

++ STRONGLY DISAGREE WITH COMMISSIONER DOAK

Following the outbreak of tornados last Tuesday, Commissioner John
Doak was quoted in the paper as saying incentives were needed to
encourage people to build safe rooms or underground storm shelters.
One of the incentives suggested would be tax credits.

Sorry commissioner Doak, but that is not a proper function of
government to take money from one taxpayer against their will and give
it to their neighbor for that neighbors benefit, I don’t care how good
the purpose might be. The situation I just described would refer to
the neighbor who didn’t pay taxes at all or a tax amount that was less
than the tax credit. If the tax credit was less than the tax
obligation of the neighbor, that would mean he got some of his tax
dollars back to use for his benefit and left it up to the rest of the
tax payers to fund government.

Besides such a redistribution scheme being morally wrong, it is not
needed. According to an interview with several people in the business,
the phones are ringing off the wall with people wanting some kind of a
storm shelter. That is called the free market working and no
government intervention is needed. I have had two of my customers ask
for referrals as it has now become a higher priority for their family.
I can’t tell you how many people I know who take cruises, have
swimming pools or experience many of life’s luxuries and don’t have a
storm shelter, it just isn’t a priority with them.

In reality, they will probably go through life never needing one, but
in the event that occasion should occur, they can trust their fate to
the collectivist efforts like going to a school with hundreds of
others and their smelly pets. Another very reasonable response,
employed by many last Tuesday, was to get in their car and drive two
or three miles in a right angle to the storm’s path and wait for it to
go by.

My wife and I built a home about 7 years ago and spent an extra $4,000
for a safe room. We made that choice and didn’t need any kind of
government incentives. Had they have been available, and they were
shortly after we built, we still would not have applied as it is
morally wrong to take from or neighbors or be allowed to spend our tax
obligation upon ourselves and let our neighbors fund the proper
functions of government.

++ SCORE CARD FOR THIS YEAR’S LEGISLATIVE SESSION

There were many good pieces of legislation passed this year and a lot
of bad legislation that didn’t get passed. If the Democrats held the
governor’s office or one or both of the bodies in the legislature, I
would grade this year’s performance with a B+ or perhaps an A-.
However, the legislature and governor’s office are all in the hands of
the Republicans and as such I must give this year’s session a D+ or
perhaps a C-, based upon how much more could have been done with such
a strong majority.

If conservatives were in a majority and not just Republicans, we could
have reduced the size of government a great deal more, cut taxes, got
worker comp reform done rather than lawyer comp reform, passed better
legislation regarding labor unions, better legislation regarding
retirement fund reforms, illegal alien legislation, better second
amendment legislation, and on and on. Just remember, when Republicans
are in control and they aren’t true conservatives, they simply nibble
around the edges, they aren’t game changers.

Meanwhile, in Kansas with a conservative governor, they eliminated
government funding for government owned TV, the arts council and
embarked on an 8 year plan to eliminate their income tax. If they are
successful, I wonder what our tax will be in 8 years with Texas to our
South and Kansas to our North, neither with and income tax?

++ SHOCK AT THE OUTCOME OF THE EARSLAND TRIAL

Many seemed to be shocked and outraged at the guilty verdict of murder
in the first degree for Jerome Earsland, the pharmacist who shot and
killed a robber. I was also shocked, but not at the outcome. Based on
the evidence of the robber being unconscious but still alive 45
seconds after he was first shot, a fair minded jury could have handed
down no other verdict than guilty after Earsland walked up to the
unconscious robber and shot him 5 more times when he was obviously no
longer a threat.

I was shocked that a fair minded jury could be found, a jury that
would look at the facts and make a judgment according to the law. A
jury that would not be swayed by their emotions, but base their
verdict on a rational examination of the evidence. I say that because
before the trial and after, talk radio has been aflame with EMOTIONAL
opinions by people who didn’t care about the law or the evidence. They
didn’t think a man going about his business until a couple of thugs
walked in to commit a robbery should deserve punishment for defending
himself.

With that I agree, but unfortunately Earsland went beyond defending
himself and decided to become a judge, jury and executioner. If in the
initial shooting he had pumped 15 shots into the robber that would
have been fine, but you don’t shoot him then come back later and shoot
him again, when he is on the floor, on his back, and unconscious with
his hands open and his palms up.

Earsland further complicated his problems when he fabricated one lie
after another. Had he confessed that he was just so angry that he came
back and shot him 5 more times to make sure he was dead, I might go
for some degree of leniency in his punishment. However, I believe he
knew the law and knew he had done wrong and immediately began to
fabricate his story to cover up for what he had done. Therefore, I
won’t be signing any kind of petition for leniency, though others can
if they chose. Justice was done in this case, much to my surprise.

++ OCPAC MEMBERSHIP UP-DATE

As May comes to a close, we now have 202 dues paying members for this
year. That is just 15 short of our record for a non election year. If
you have not joined as yet, please consider doing so. We are scheduled
to vote for the top ten issues for this year’s conservative index on
June 22nd. Then a week or two after that vote we will select this
year’s outstanding lawmakers as well as vote for this year’s winner of
the RINO award in both the Senate and House.

To be eligible to vote you must be a dues paying member 2 weeks prior
to any vote and you must be present at our meeting. As of the end of
April, we had raised just under $15,000 for the year. Besides
supporting good candidates for the legislature, as soon as the
conservative scores are out, we will determine which of the RINO house
and senate members we will target. Once that is determined, we will
begin an education campaign to Republican voters in their districts.

Remember, we don’t need more Republicans in the legislature. We
already have super majorities in both houses. What we need are better
quality Republicans and that has always been our objective. To join
please fill out the information below and send it in with your check.

I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.

Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com

WATCH AND ACT AS SESSION NEARS AN END

2011-05-10T08:34:00.002-05:00

++ WELCOME TO NEW READERS
++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
++ ANNOUNCEMENT
++ RACE HUSTLERS WIN, PLAYED SPEAKER STEELE LIKE A DRUM
++ WATCH AND ACT AS SESSION NEARS AN END

++ WELCOME TO NEW READERS

I want to welcome all the new readers who signed up to receive our
weekly e-mails. It was great getting to meet many new folks at the
State Republican Convention this past Saturday, and have so many sign
up to receive our weekly e-mails.

Just a few facts about OCPAC. From 1991 until 1997 a group of men and
eventually women were meeting every Wednesday for lunch in what
became a debating society. Since debating societies have a lot of fun,
but accomplish little to nothing, we formed a political action
committee (PAC) a little over 13 years ago. At that time we had as our
goal to elect more conservatives to the state legislature.

Since that time we have raised nearly $144,000 to contribute to 92
candidates, with 51 of them being elected to office. With the
exception of just a few of those which have been elected to office,
the majority have turned out to be the most conservative elected
officials in the state. We do our best through our survey and
interview process to ferret out the liberal Republicans (RINOs) from
the real conservatives.

Though we have met at a variety of restaurants over the years, we have
only missed meeting one Wednesday in our 20 year history. We are
currently meeting every Wednesday at Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North
Lincoln in OKC. The restaurant is exact ally 2 miles North of the
state capitol. You are invited to attend our meetings as your schedule
permits.

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING

Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday May 11th will be held at Italiano’s
restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. Our speaker this week will be
our newly elected Attorney General, Scott Pruitt. I expect General
Pruitt’s term in office will show several very different perspectives
on the law than his Democrat predecessor. Following his talk, there
will be time for questions and answers. Don’t miss this meeting.

++ ANNOUNCEMENT

* TUESDAY EVENING - ADA AREA - The Ada-Seminole tea party
organization will have their monthly meeting, 6:30 p.m. at the
Pontotoc Technology Center in the Industrial Arts Classroom, 601 West
33rd in Ada. The first speaker will be Miki Booth, talking about the
many obstructions and cover-ups thrown at researchers trying to find
the truth regarding President Obama’s place of birth. Miki and her
family used to live in Hawaii before moving to Oklahoma. The second
speaker will be Amanda Teegarden, with Oklahomans for Sovereignty and
Free Enterprise (OK-SAFE). Amanda will be educating those attending at
to what really goes on at the State Capitol and how to successfully
communicate with your personal lawmakers.

++ RACE HUSTLERS WIN, PLAYED SPEAKER STEELE LIKE A DRUM

Last week I wrote a fairly extensive section regarding the Sally Kern
dust up and the race baiting pimps who were attacking her. As usual,
the race baiters chased many other Republicans into the closet of fear
and silence, as they were terrified of being labeled a racist.

This past Monday, Representative Sally Kern stood in the well at the
Capitol and expressed a sincere apology as well as asking forgiveness
for what she perceived as some kind of wrongful choice of words during
her previous floor debate.

Now for the inside scoop, based on some of my sources. Three
Democrats, Jabar Shumate, “race baiter” Mike Shelton and freshman
lawmaker from the liberal reaches of Norman, Emily Virgin all had a
meeting in Speaker Steel’s office. Sources indicate Steele made the
following deal with the Democrats. Shelton would move to reprimand
Representative Kern. Steele was to pressure Kern to immediately ask
for a unanimous consent to the motion, the gavel would drop and it
would all be in the past.

Evidently Steele hasn’t learned that when you lie down with dogs, you
are likely to get fleas. Once the motion was made and Kern called for
unanimous consent, a Democrat objected, before the gavel dropped. Then
there was a call for a recorded vote, with the result that Kern was
thrown under the bus by Steele and Steele was double crossed by the
devil, excuse me, I mean the Democrats. Now with a recorded vote,
future Democrat candidates will have a couple of issues they can twist
so that in future races they can defeat the 13 Republicans who voted
against the reprimand.

Just another day in the political warfare at the Capitol. Hopefully,
Steele will finally learn not to make deals with the devil if you
don’t have to do so. I don’t necessarily blame Republicans who voted
for the reprimand as Kern asked them to do so. I am especially pleased
with the lawmakers who voted against the reprimand and hopefully
Representative Kern will learn to ask forgiveness when she actually
does something wrong, which wasn’t the case this time.

I want to thank the Oklahoman for printing the following 2 letters to
the editor which were in defense of Kern who is often the object of
hate and scorn from some of the most intellectually dishonest and
unreasonable folks in Oklahoma. Saturday, May 7th Your Views:

“The other Sally

I disagree with most of Sally Kern’s viewpoints. As an abortion
rights, pro-immigration Republican and a member of the Unitarian
Church, I have 180-degree-different views. However, I know something
most people don’t know about Kern. About 10 years ago, as I purchased
and remodeled homes on NW 10, I became acquainted with the compassion
and commitment the Kerns have made to this community and specifically
to those who need help the most. Every day, year after year, I’ve seen
the Kerns spend their lives helping people of every color-mostly women-
start over.

I don’t agree with the Kerns on most of their beliefs, but if I were
starting a new community, they are among the first people I would
invite. Sally’s expression of her observations in such an unfortunate,
generalizing manner, and the equally generalizing manner, and the
equally generalizing reactionary demonizing of her, illustrate the
difficulty we have in discussing how to live up to our nation’s
promise of equal opportunity for all and reciprocal responsibility of
all.

I’d like to see reasoned debate about how to live up to our ideals and
promises, a debate that doesn’t degenerate into an unproductive,
holier-than-thou yelling match. Perhaps we should try to accept people
for what they really contribute. When will we realize that others
don’t have to believe exactly as we do to be valued and respected and
to make this world better?

Jack L. Werner, Oklahoma City”

“HER ONLY SIN

In response to E. Anne Hall (Your Views, May 2): Millions of white
male Americans have been victimized by racial and gender quotas for
more than 40 years. State Rep. Sally Kern told the truth about
affirmative action. If I lived in Kern’s district, I’d vote to keep
her in public office. I’m a Republican who isn’t ashamed of Kern but
rather proud of her for taking unpopular stands against America’s
corrupt culture.

Since Hall said she can’t tolerate people of Kern’s ‘ilk,’ I suppose
she means other Republicans in the Legislature since Senate Joint
Resolution 15 passed along party lines. Hall should join the
Democratic Party since it speaks for her and the Republican Party does
not. Kern’s only sin was to anger the racial and gender equality gods
of the politically correct equality masses.

Robert Godwin, Jones”

++ WATCH & ACT AS SESSION NEARS AN END

As we near the end of the session, citizens must be on the alert
toward last minute shenanigans from members of the legislature and the
Governor’s office. A week ago Wednesday a Senator came to our OCPAC
meeting with information that a member of the Governor’s staff along
with several other players were planning on a meeting in Tulsa to
discuss implementation of the alternative “Health Insurance Private
Enterprise Network”. That is the Senate alternative to the Obama Care
“Health Exchange” which was to be provided for by a $54 million dollar
early innovator grant from the bankrupt federal government.

The Senator was frustrated as the meeting was actually intended to
plan the implementation of the “Obama Care” program and thus violate
the good faith bargaining that had occurred between the Governor’s
office, and legislative leaders. As soon as our meeting was over we
began contacting some of the concerned activists in the Tulsa area. A
short time later, I received a call from the Senator to inform me that
the meeting had been canceled.

Now please pay close attention. A few weeks ago I came out in support
of the Senate alternative which would reject the federal dollars and
create and Oklahoma plan which had a possible sunset provision which
would be reviewed no later than the last week in May of 2014. Let me
make it clear, I would rather create NO plan of ANY KIND this session,
but I supported the Senate alternative because I don’t believe the
Governor has the courage or will to stand up against the federal
government. Nor do I sense a will among legislative leaders to simply
pass legislation to “opt out” of any kind of health insurance
exchange. That is why I supported the alternative.

However, our friends at Oklahomans for Sovereignty and Free Enterprise
www.ok-safe.org indicate that rejecting the federal dollars aren’t
nearly as important as the plan itself. It is their belief that any
kind of health insurance exchange or network is still the vital cog in
the wheel for Obama Care. Please check out their web site listed above
for their perspective on this subject.

In addition, Representative Charles Key (R-OKC) has submitted the
following column to the Oklahoman for publication. I will publish it
here:

“ObamaCare: Alive and Well in Oklahoma?

The overwhelming passage of SQ 756 this past November, left Oklahomans
thinking that our state opted out of Obamacare. Unfortunately, that
would be wrong. Likewise, most Oklahomans probably think passage of SQ
756 sent a strong message to state officials that they opposed
Obamacare and wanted no part of it. Unfortunately, that would also be
wrong.

A cornerstone of Obamacare is the mandate directing all states
establish a “health exchange” (HE). (Creative names for HE’s such as
HUBS or Enterprise are being used to make them more palatable.)
Without the establishment of HE’s Obamacare cannot be implemented.
Legislative leaders and the Governor have been pushing to establish a
HE and accept a $54 million federal grant. Recently, because of public
pressure and opposition by some conservative legislators, the Governor
reversed herself on the acceptance of the $54 million grant. Rejecting
the federal money is good, but the worst part of the proposal, the HE,
is still being pushed by the Governor and legislative leaders.

I believe this is the most important issue we face this year and
possibly in a generation for three reasons. First, it establishes the
cornerstone of Obamacare that makes it possible to move to a single
payer system controlled by Washington. Second, it will fundamentally
change our political system allowing the federal government total
control over all health care. Thirdly, it further changes what we
think the federal government’s legal role and authority is over us as
individuals and states and indoctrinates a new generation to believe
that the federal government is the final authority in all things.

I have been asked many times why the Governor and legislative leaders
are pushing for complying with this mandate. They claim we must
implement an HE or Washington will force it’s version on us. But this
doesn’t make sense because we are creating the HE because of their
mandate. Furthermore, Obamacare gives the federal government full
authority to change anything a state establishes so there are no
guarantees states can control the final outcome. Another reason given
by the Governor and legislators is that “we need to have a seat at the
table.” This accomplishes little to nothing when Washington controls
the agenda and we effectively accede to that control. Also, they say
this is the best we can do while lawsuits run their course.

But, once this system is in place, it will be practically impossible
to undo the hundreds of new agencies and layers of bureaucracy. Milton
Friedman once said, ’nothing is so permanent as a temporary government
program.’

Finally, it’s implied that the free market isn’t working and that the
insurance industry hasn’t provided HE’s for consumers. The truth is
the industry already does provide excellent options for consumers. Go
online and you’ll find any insurance coverage you desire or just look
in the yellow pages. Health care continually goes up primarily,
because of government mandates and excessive regulation. Obamacare is
a violation of Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution and we should
use our constitutional authority to prohibit it from being implemented
in Oklahoma.

State Representative Charles Key” (Key is Chairman of the House
Insurance Committee.)

Bottom line. While I am still thrilled that the Governor and
legislative leaders chose not to accept the $54 million federal grant.
I NOW believe the alternative must also be stopped. The only way that
will happen is a massive outpouring from the public to their personal
lawmakers. The majority of delegates at the Republican State
Convention this past Saturday made it clear they want nothing done to
create an exchange or network. Republican lawmakers should have heard
them loud and clear. But that message must be reinforced by the
public. Contact your personal State Senator and Representative as well
as Governor Fallin and tell them to grow a backbone and say NO to any
kind of a health care exchange or network. Just say NO!

I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.

Charlie Meadows

Charliemeadows7@gmail.com

CONGRATS ON KILLING OSAMA BIN LAUDIN & MY ONLY DISAGREEMENT WITH REP SALLY KERN

2011-05-02T12:07:00.001-05:00

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
++ ATTEND THE STATE CONVENTION
++ MY ONLY DISAGREEMENT WITH REP SALLY KERN
++ CONGRATS ON KILLING OSAMA BIN LAUDIN
++ OCPAC MEMBERSHIP UP-DATE

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING

Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, May 4th will be held at Italiano’s
restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. The first part of our program
will feature Ms. Miki Booth. Miki and her husband moved to Oklahoma
from Hawaii not too many years ago. Her husband and son were both born
in the same hospital as was President Obama, that is assuming he was
actually born in that hospital. If President Obama was actually born
in that hospital, his birth would be sandwiched in between the birth
of her husband and son.

With Donald Trump fueling the fires of speculations about the
President’s birth place and a book on the subject by New York Times
best selling author, Dr. Jerome Corsi, due to come out this month I
had planned on having Miki come and give her reasons for believing
President Obama was not telling the truth about his place of birth and
as such his CONSTITUTIONAL credentials to hold the office of President
might be in question.

Well, President Obama released his “long form” birth certificate this
past week and that should put all speculation to rest wouldn’t you
say? Hold on there, not so fast, Miki may make the case this Wednesday
that his “so called” long form has a problem. It may have to do with
problems relating to the name of the hospital on his long form and the
name of the hospital before and after a merger, which occurred after
Obama’s supposed birth in the hospital. Miki has spoken all over the
nation on this issue and will have copies of all these certificates to
make her case.

The second part of our program will feature a tribute to Mark Shannon,
former KTOK afternoon radio talk show host who passed away about a
year ago. Representatives of the OKC Tea Party called me a couple of
weeks ago to see about doing something in Mark’s name for his honor
and remembrance. After some discussion it was determined we would have
3 or 4 folks say a few words about Mark at our meeting and then take
up a collection for a memorial in his name.

The decision was made to collect money to move along the progress of
installing the Ten Commandments Monument on the North side of the
State Capitol. Legislation was passed in 2009 to erect a Ten
Commandments monument at the Capitol. In that legislation was a
prohibition for any tax dollars to be spent on the monument or on the
costs for its erection and display.

State Representative Mike Ritze (R-Broken Arrow) was the House author
of the legislation and as such his family agreed to pay the estimated
cost of $10,000 for the monument itself. It has been crafted and is
now in storage, waiting for the funds to erect the base, lighting and
a sidewalk extension to the monument. An architect volunteered to
drawn up the plans for these additional items and those plans have
been approved by the Capitol Preservation Commission. The estimated
cost for materials and labor is $13,000.

A contractor in the Northeastern part of the state volunteered to
perform the labor, but perhaps it might be easier and we could get the
project done quicker if a local contractor might volunteer to do the
job. The contractor will have to comply with safety requirements and a
pre-construction meeting will be necessary with the construction and
properties division at the capitol before actual construction may
begin.

It has been suggested that the money we might raise could be used for
the stone pavers or perhaps a stone or masonry bench donated in Mark’s
name so people might sit and reflect upon the historical significance
of the Ten Commandments monument. The bench idea would have to go back
to the Preservation Commission for an amended plan approval.

I don’t want people to feel pressured to contribute, but any size
contribution will be sincerely appreciated. Please make a check out to
he OKC Tea Party with the name Mark Shannon on the memo line of the
check. You can bring the contribution, cash or check, to our meeting
or mail it in. If you want to mail it, please send it to the OKC TEA
PARTY, P.O. Box 94851, Oklahoma City, Ok 73143.

Perhaps Mark’s last outdoor event was broadcasting on the North side
of the capitol during one of the tea party gatherings. It would be
most fitting to honor his patriotism with a memorial in his name and
the added plus would be to expedite the erection of the Ten
Commandments monument at the same time.

++ ATTEND THE STATE CONVENTION

If you were not able to attend precinct meetings or your county
convention, you may still be able to become a delegate to the state
convention which will be held this coming Saturday, May 7th. I talked
with Matt Jackson (Oklahoma County Chairman) last Saturday and he said
to contact him right away. His phone number is (405) 650-6674. Tulsa
County Chair is J.B. Alexander and his number is (918) 810-9149.
Contact information for Logan County Chairman Rick Moore is
Richard.moore@kofc.org. All county chairmen have the authority to
allow you to become a delegate. Call now to attend to make a
difference in the direction of the party.

++ MY ONLY DISAGREEMENT WITH REP SALLY KERN

This past Wednesday evening, State Representative Sally Kern walked
into a buzz saw. It was like a lamb taking a stroll through a valley
only to be set upon by hordes of ravenousness and vicious wolves.

Up for consideration was legislation to allow Oklahoma voters to
decide next year to amend our State Constitution to prohibit the
practice of affirmative action. Liberals were strongly opposed to the
measure as they objected by using irrelevant statistics such as high
incarceration rates among black Oklahomans and lower wages for working
women.

Representative Kern rose to debate on behalf of the measure. I have
obtained a transcript of her debate and would say she could have done
a better job of expressing her arguments. I will also say there have
been countless times after speaking to a group or simply with
individuals that upon reflection, I wish something I had said could
have been phrased differently, most human beings would say the same
thing if they are honest.

There were two main points of contention. In her effort to tear down
the myth that women are somehow discriminated against in pay compared
to men she inadvertently said: “You see women usually don’t want to
work as hard as a man…”. If you have seen or heard that on any news
broadcast and that is all you heard on the subject, that news outlet
is dishonest and is trying to drum up sensationalism, because in just
the next few words, Sally corrected her wording on the floor and went
on.

What Kern was trying to say was that a study by Dr. Warren Farrell
showed that when all variables were taken into account, women actually
make more than men for the same work performance. What are those
variables? Things like full time versus part time, hours worked,
experience, work hazards willingness to commute long distances and
etc. The point Sally was trying to make on working hard is that once
women start having children, they are more likely to interrupt a
career to stay home with the children or work part time to spend as
much time as possible dividing duties between work and being the
homemaker. Men tend to be more willing to focus on career advancement
and make certain sacrifices on the home front. Kern was not degrading
women or suggesting they don’t work as hard as men. Anyone who
understands how much work it takes to be a successful homemaker is
wise and to do that as well as work outside the home is very hard
work.

The other point of contention and the one that caused the race baiting
wolves to descend upon Sally was her honest attempt to tear down the
myth that black people have high incarceration rates, simply because
of the color of their skin. Sally dared to suggest that perhaps it had
more to do with character, personal initiative, drive, hard work and a
willingness to pay the price. She suggested these problems show up
early in school with an unwillingness to work hard and learn. Drawing
upon her 20 year career as a teacher, Sally said the following: “I
taught school for 20 years and I saw a lot of people of color who
didn’t want to work as hard, they wanted it given to them. Matter of
fact I had one student that said, ’I don’t need to study, you know
why? The government’s gonna take care of me.’”

That little bit of TRUTH that Sally spoke caused the race hustling
pimps in Oklahoma to descend upon her like my suggested wolves upon a
lamb scenario. As a result of the pressure, Sally issued an apology
which is my only point of contention with what was done. She took care
of the misspoken words about women not wanting to work hard
immediately in her floor debate. However, the next day she issued an
apology to those she offended which is where I differ with her. I
think it would have been fine to issue a clarification, but not an
apology.

I know Sally well and she doesn’t have a racist bone in her body.
Let’s be honest folks. Anytime we speak of race or groupings of
peoples in any regard, we are talking about anomalies, trends or
averages which give certain groupings a reputation for certain
characteristics. Intellectually honest people will always know there
will be exceptions to the trends and examples. So when we talk about
groupings of people, we are NEVER talking about everyone in that
grouping. We may not even be talking about the majority of people in a
grouping. However, we talk about a grouping because there is a large
enough anomaly to distinguish a difference or reputation.

For example, if accurate statistics were to suggest that only 10% of
white people live in poverty while 30% of black people live in
poverty, that is a notable difference. If statistics show that 70% of
black children live in a single parent home while only 30% of white
children are in single parent homes, that is also notable. If
statistics show Asian children outperform all other racial groupings
in school, that is a notable difference. I could go on and on with
such examples, we see them all the time. The problems begin to
manifest when we try to come up with the reasons for the differences.

Let me suggest, that there are way too many black folks who would
rather blame others for many of the problems black people in America
face rather than take much, if any personal responsibility for those
problems. When I say “way too many” I am not saying all, I may not
even be saying a majority, but I am saying way too many.

The moment I, as a white person, say such a thing I might immediately
be descended upon and labeled as a racist and bigot by race hustling
pimps like Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and locals like Representative
Mike Shelton or perhaps leaders of local NAACP groups.

You see, according to my friend the Reverend Jesse Lee Peterson, a
black minister, white people aren’t supposed to be part of the
dialogue regarding racial issues. It is to be a one way conversation.
Race hustling black leaders empower themselves and become famous and
or wealthy by telling black folks their problems are a result of the
“evil whitey suppressing them.” These black leaders hold themselves
out to black folks as saviors and leaders to stop white people from
holding black folks back. As they spew their hatred and venom it
builds horrible attitudes into the minds and hearts of black people
who buy into their poison. Those attitudes become the most destructive
force in their personal lives.

I wrote an article in the Oklahoma Constitution Newspaper in 2001 in
which I suggested back in that day that few white people tolerate
racism. Most white people don’t want to hear racist jokes and people
who refer to black people as “niggers” (shock and horrors, I used the
dreaded word) are disrespected and shunned. However, I suggested that
racism was alive and well in that day as it still is today, and that
it would mostly be found in the black community.

Most white people today want there to be closure to the hurts and
sadness of racism which occurred in our past history. Most white
people want the best for black Americans. I personally look forward to
the reality and substance of the dream as espoused by Martin Luther
King Jr. when he said he looked forward to a day when men could be
judged by the content of their character rather than the color of
their skin.

To get to that point in time, black people must realize that
opportunities exist and most white people want black people to succeed
and prosper, as long as they do so on their own initiative and by
working hard. I for one am opposed to trying to make that happen
through favoritisms created by court decisions or through laws. Thus
my opposition to affirmative action laws.

What has occurred in the past, is in the past. To continue to dwell on
the past, other than for historical references, is harmful to black
people in the present. They must seize their opportunities through
hard work and upon their own merits. Life is not easy and there is
certainly competition for opportunities, so black people must press on
and not get discouraged when they encounter difficulties.

To help accomplish the desired successes, I would suggest fleeing from
the poison of anyone who teaches black people to blame others for
their problems. Abandon the race hustlers like Jackson, Sharpton and
Representative Mike Shelton. Build relationships with people who will
encourage you, abandon black churches if the preacher teaches you to
blame others.

The church President Obama selected to attend for Easter Sunday is
pastored by what I believe to be a race hustling black pastor. One
who, on Resurrection Sunday, preached a sermon describing today’s
modern day Jim Crow types as one who didn’t need to wear white sheets,
but rather they came dressed in pinstripe suits and were under the
cover of talk radio and Fox News. If black people feed off of that
type of venom, they are being poisoned. Their hearts will be filled
with hate and their attitudes we be corrupted.

Unfortunately, Speaker Steele threw Sally under the bus when he stated
publicly that he disagreed with Sally and was glad to know that she
was producing an apology. Hey Kris, just what exactly did Sally say on
the floor in which you disagree that she didn’t correct during her
debate? Why don’t you man up and spell it out for us in detail so we
can determine if you are part of the problem or part of the solution?

I was also disappointed in State Chairman Matt Pinnell when he said:
“The GOP strongly disagreed with Rep. Kern’s comments, and we are
pleased that she quickly apologized for them.”
I haven’t talked with Matt, but I wonder if he has even read the
transcript of what she said?

The Reverend Jesse Lee Peterson would likely describe Pinnell’s
statement as a knee jerk reaction just before he runs and hides in the
closet of cowardice and silence in hopes that he won’t have the racist
label thrown at him or at the Republican party of which he is a
spokesman.

I believe Matt has done a good job so far as Chairman, but he needs to
understand his statement will not dissuade the race hustlers from
throwing the racist label at the Republican party, they do it all the
time, no matter how many apologies and no matter how many statements
to the contrary.

We all must learn to recognize racism when it truly exists and condemn
it, but on the other hand, never throw someone under the bus when they
have been accused by the race hustlers and they have done nothing to
deserve such an accusation. We must all start calling these race
hustling pimps out and expose them for what they are. Only then do we
have a chance for the healing to occur and allow people of all races
to get along and live together in harmony and peace.

++ CONGRATS ON KILLING OSAMA BIN LADEN

News broke Sunday evening that elite U.S. fighting forces had dropped
into Pakistan at a compound in which Osama Bin Laden was holed up. He
was shot and killed and his body was whisked away, back to Afghanistan
for undeniable DNA evidence that the body was who it was supposed to
be.

It has been almost 10 years that he has been wanted dead or alive.
Congratulations to those brave forces who carried out the mission. In
addition, President Obama deserves praise for having the courage to
order this high risk mission, once intelligence had confirmed the
target and a strategy was developed to perform the task. Good job Mr.
President, I rarely agree with anything you do or stand fo.

++ OCPAC MEMBERSHIP UP-DATE

As April came to an end, our dues paying membership now stands at 193,
just 24 shy of tying our record non-election year membership of 217
dues paying members during the year 2009. It is truly a blessing to
have gained the respect of people to contribute to this organization
without me having to spend countless hours trying to raise funds or
paying a large commission to have it done professionally. Your
willingness to support OCPAC allows us to make a conservative
difference in this state without having to burn up valuable resources
in time and money having to try and raise money. Thanks again. One of
my real rewards in serving in this organization is getting to know so
many fine people, true patriots. Please consider joining. Instructions
on how to join are just a few lines below.

I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.

Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmil.com

REFLECTIONS ON THE LANKFORD - SCARBOROUGH MEETING

2011-04-26T10:36:00.000-05:00

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
++ REFLECTIONS ON THE LANKFORD - SCARBOROUGH MEETING
++ U.S. CREDIT RISK - BUDGET CUTS - REBUILDING THE ECONOMY
++ TIDBITS

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING

Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, April 24th will be held at
Italiano’s restaurant, normally addressed as 4801 North Lincoln in
OKC. However, out of respect for the majority of American Indians who
fought on the side of the South in the War for Southern Independence
(improperly called a civil war) I am going to take the liberty to
rename Lincoln Blvd for just one day and call it the JEFFERSON DAVIS
CONFEDERATE BLVD. How’s that for causing myself a lot of trouble right
from the start?

Our first Speaker this Wednesday will be a Washington attorney by the
name of Michael Hoehn (pronounced Hane). Mr. Hoehn is the Executive
Director of the Alliance For Vigilance, a non profit organization
designed, in part, to educate the public about the threat posed by
militant Islam. Michael will be presenting his full program at several
other locations, see announcements.

Occurring this Friday, Saturday and Sunday, April 29th through May
1st, the largest battle re-enactment in Oklahoma history will occur
between Northern and Southern re-enactors in what is now the state of
Oklahoma. The location will be at the Honey Springs battle field, just
a few miles North of Checotah. The first official shots to start the
war for Southern Independence occurred on April 12th, 1861 When the
South open fired upon Union troops stationed at Fort Sumter, South
Carolina. The battle of Honey Springs occurred on a rainy day, July
17th, 1863. The re-enactment has been moved to the above date to avoid
the extreme heat of July so more re-enactors and visitors can attend.
An expected 5,000 re-enactors will come to Oklahoma to participate
with additional thousands attending to watch and learn.

The year 2011 is the Sesquicentennial (150th) year to recognize and
remember the most bloody war to ever be fought by the citizens and
former citizens, of America. I wanted to have a program about this
issue, just before the historical re-enactment, so our main speaker
this week will be a pastor-evangelist-author from Elk City by the name
of Jerry Brewer.

While I personally believe slavery was a huge issue in the cause of
the war, there were many other issues in the complex situation which
led to the Southern States succeeding and the subsequent war that
ensued. Mr. Brewer will speak to many of those issues as well as some
of the fall-out caused by the Northern victory, some of which has
tremendous ramifications upon us to this very day. Please don’t miss
this meeting, the information will be sure to challenge some of our
thought processes and hopefully make people think deeply.

Hopefully we will see that slavery is still with us, it just has a
different manifestation to it today. Slavery to the tyranny of the
federal government as well as political correctness, the loss of
states rights and ultimately our liberties has made all of us slaves
to one degree or another.

++ ANNOUNCEMENTS

MICHAEL HOEHN WILL PRESENT HIS FULL PROGRAM AT THE FOLLOWING:

* WEDNESDAY EVENING - Trinity Baptist Church in Yukon. I am not
sure of the time so you may want to call during business hours (405)
354-4839 for that information.

* THURSDAY EVENING - The Edmond Library, one block North of 2nd
street on Boulevard. The meeting will begin at 7:00 p.m.

* FRIDAY AT NOON - Michael will be speaking at the High Noon Club
located inside H&H Range, which is on the North side of I-40 and about
2 blocks East of Meridian.

++ REFLECTIONS ON THE LANKFORD - SCARBOROUGH MEETING

I want to say thanks to U.S. Representative James Lankford for coming
to speak at our meeting last Wednesday. I received a call from his
office last Monday informing me that he would have to leave at 12:30
sharp to catch the end of another luncheon regarding the bombing of
the Murah building. Fortunately we had Rick Scarborough (founder of
the national organization, Vision America) in town, so he began
speaking shortly after Congressman Lankford left.

FIRST, it is obvious that James is very bright, a fast study and
perhaps his strong point is an ability to grasp a situation and
communicate his understanding to others in such a way that can be
easily understood. Before taking questions he talked about the $38
billion budget cut which is part of this year’s budget which ends on
September 30th. Then his discussion shifted to explaining Congressman
Paul Ryan’s proposed budget reforms designed to make significant
reductions in spending as well as reform entitlements such as Social
Security and Medicare.

One of the provisions in Congressman Ryan’s bill is the proposed
Medicare reform which will see future (for people 55 and below)
Medicare costs shift from paying bills, to providing resources for
people to purchase insurance type coverage. The proposal has a
provision for “means testing”, or in other words, for wealthy people
to receive less resources and the poor to receive more resources.

During the brief Q&A time Mr. Scarborough raised his hand but we just
didn’t have time to get everyone’s questions in. As Rick began to
speak he told about a recent meeting where he and about 40 other
conservative leaders were invited to Washington by Speaker Boehner to
meet some of the new freshmen lawmakers. One of those new lawmakers
was Freshman Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) who Rick described as a
rising rock star. However, in Senator Rand’s brief presentation, he
lauded the prospects of means testing for a solution to the Medicare
problems.

Following the parade of new lawmakers, Rick posed a question to the
other leaders. He explained that means testing is classical Marxism
and asked the others in the room if it bothered them that “our
guys” (the conservatives) were the ones proposing and lauding that
idea? Only Joseph Farah, from World Net Daily spoke up and re-enforced
what Rick was saying. Rick said that most of the others in attendance
appeared to be like a deer in the headlights as such a thought.

Mr. Scarborough is absolutely correct about means testing being pure
Marxism. It is simply a different application, a little different but
much like unto the graduated income tax. Now please pay close
attention to what I am about to say. As few of those conservative
leaders seemed to understand that problem, can you imagine where the
majority of the American public is on this issue? America’s enemies
from within are already attacking the proposed changes, not because it
is classic Marxism, but because they want more socialism, more re-
distribution of wealth, more of one person using government to steal
from their neighbors, not less.

Those are the severe problems Congressmen Lankford and the Republicans
face in making changes when so many Americans are greedy and
unprincipled, ignorant of basic economics and business principles.
Many are completely ignorant of the impending financial danger
threatening this nation. They suck down information from liberals who
tell them things are fine, there are no problems, don’t listen to
“Republican” scare tactics and as such turn a deaf ear toward
information from conservatives.

That is why Robert Welch, founder of the John Birch Society, tried to
warn American’s when Medicare was being made law that it would someday
bring financial ruin upon our nation. He warned that socialized
medicine is the “archway” to converting our nation into a full blown
socialist state. There is a better way than socialized medicine, but
far too few people have a clue as to what that might be.

SECOND, one of the guests at our meeting brought up the situation
where it has recently been reported that General Electric (GE) made
billions in profits last year but paid no corporate income taxes. His
question to James was about what measures Congress might take to
correct that problem and perhaps, capture some of what was not paid?
James was quick to say that most people in the room understand that
corporations don’t pay taxes, but rather include the costs of taxes
into the prices of the goods or services they produce.

Let me caution conservatives to not let the flashy headlines in papers
or the talking heads on the boob-tube to get us off track. While at
first glance it seems unfair or unjust for such a BIG corporation to
get by without paying any corporate income tax, we must not fall for
the bait.

One change that America really needs to make is a policy change where
we actually put NO income taxes on businesses. In doing so, it will
lower the cost of doing business in America, make our goods and
services more competitive in a global market, bring jobs back to
America, improve our economy and in turn improve our annual deficit/
national debt problems. In the next section below, I am going to try
and label our major problems and what we need to do to correct the
economics problem.

++ U.S. CREDIT RISK - BUDGET CUTS - REBUILDING THE ECONOMY

Last week, Moody’s issued the U.S. a warning that they have changed
our outlook from positive to a place of risk. However, Moody’s kept
our bond rating at “triple A”, which in my opinion is a sham and
another example as to why our bond rating system has lost virtually
all credibility. You don’t place a triple A rating on any entity that
is bankrupt. It dawned on me about 5 to 7 years ago that America is
already bankrupt and what has occurred between then and now has only
made that bankrupt condition more evident.

Our good friend Russ Reinhardt recently asked for my definition of a
person or entity being bankrupt. My answer was, when there was no
valid expectation that a person or entity’s debt will ever be paid
back!

Therefore, let me ask you the readers, is there anyone out there who
really believes we will ever re-pay our $14.3 TRILLION (and rapidly
rising) national debt with anything other than freshly printed
dollars, worthless as they will be? I would say we have a 10% or less
chance of EVER paying that debt off. That is why I believe America is
bankrupt.

It is not that we can’t pay it off, it is likely to never happen
because it will be so very hard to get the American people to set a
reasonable course to accomplish such and then put up with the pain and
suffering to get it done. In the mean time, let me suggest that the
FORMERLY safest investments in the world (U.S. Government backed bonds
and securities) are no longer safe and ANY investments into such are
at your own risk, especially any long term U.S. government bonds or
securities.

One can never solve a problem until its cause is accurately recognized
and a viable plan is crafted, then the plan has to be implemented. I
did financial counseling for close to 20 years. Not investment
counseling, but budgeting and debt resolution help for people in
trouble. When it comes to financial problems, let me suggest there are
ONLY 3 possible solutions other than a bankruptcy judgment. 1) Bring
in a sufficient increase in income without increasing spending. 2)
Bring in the same amount of income, but cut a sufficient amount of
spending. 3) Do some combination of 1 and 2. It does not matter the
scale, it does not matter how small or large the problem, the answer
lies in one of those 3 solutions.

* IDENTIFYING AMERICA’S FOUR MAIN PROBLEMS

1) This will be hard for unbelievers and pragmatists to understand or
believe, but the number one problem in America today is that we have
broken our covenant with God which was first espoused within the
Mayflower Compact. Rather than having God’s hand of blessing upon us
today, I believe the sins of those who profess to be His and the
abandonment of the principles upon which this nation was founded has
now brought God’s discipline and judgment upon us. Even so, that
discipline is meant to cause us to repent rather than to totally
destroy us. Our utter destruction may soon come, but I am convinced
God is willing to give us more opportunity, if we will repent.

2) The primary and secondary schools in America are full of rot and
misinformation. They are not public, bur rather government schools,
under the influence of humanistic progressives, fascists and
socialists. Many private Christian schools are little more than the
same, but with some Bible reading or prayer. As far as the academic,
moral and spiritual condition of our government universities, they are
also full of rot. In addition, a good number of private centers of
higher education are little or no better. Especially many of the more
prestigious institutions of higher learning in the Northeast.

3) We have failed to secure our borders which has allowed for a
massive invasion of illegal aliens from many parts of the world. In
addition, our legal immigration policies have been too liberal,
allowing too many people, some from countries and cultures that make
assimilation very hard if not impossible, to immigrate to this country
without sufficient time to assimilate into society. We have allowed
for the balkanization of our country with many enclaves of sub-groups
who do not speak English and have no interest or intention of becoming
an American.

4) America is no longer business friendly or economically
responsible. We now have the highest corporate income tax of any
industrialized nation in the world with a top rate of 35%. Also,
regulations upon businesses are over the top and in addition, we have
a huge organized labor problem in America. Therefore, we have lost
thousands of businesses and millions of jobs to other countries. I
believe our economy is not likely to ever fully recover is we don’t
find a way to re-capture those businesses and jobs. We must re-capture
our lost manufacturing base for us to again become a wealth producing
nation.

THE FOLLOWING WILL BE A CLOSER LOOK AT NUMBER 4.

Right now, responsible citizens are more focused upon cutting the
budget than anything else. I was strongly in favor of a government
shutdown if the $60 billion dollar spending cuts weren’t agreed to by
Democrats. However, I am opposed to not extending the debt ceiling,
other than for a very short period of time and only then as bargaining
power to reduce more spending.

The reason is simple. Our economy has been propped up for the past 8
or 10 years with varying amounts of deficit spending. In the last 3
years the deficits has averaged over a Trillion dollars each year,
with last year being $1.65 Trillion alone. This year’s deficit will be
similar, which means if we shut off any additional borrowing then an
average of $140 billion each month will not be going into the
economy.

With the exception of what is spent overseas, virtually all of that
money ends up in the hands of the people in our nation. It ends up in
the hands of the poor, the middle class and the wealthy. Missing that
money for just one or two months will slow the economy and after just
a few months it will cause a severe recession or depression.

It is kind of like being in an airplane and you want to land. You can
come in at an angle to achieve what is called a soft landing or come
strait down with disastrous results. The later is swift and harsh, the
former takes time, skill and patience to accomplish.

This is very important to understand. At the same time we are trying
to reduce excess spending, we need to be looking at ways to create an
environment in which business can succeed, grow and employee ever more
people.

While the federal government is reducing its spending, it also needs
to have additional revenues come into the treasurery. Increasing taxes
might work for a while, but it is really risky for an economy just
recovering from a recession. Reducing taxes (while at the same time
increasing spending) has worked in the past to bring more revenues to
the treasury. While I do believe we should eliminate business taxes,
there does come a point at which reducing taxes will no longer
increase revenues going to Washington.

May I suggest having more people pay taxes (nearly 50% of all adults
pay no income taxes) would be a wonderful way to increase the revenues
(remember we are to be reducing spending at the same time). If the
economy continues to improve and unemployment continues to drop, the
government will have more taxpayers. Another way to have more
taxpayers would be to scale back some of the EXEMPTIONS. Reducing
individual deductions, child tax credits, earned income tax credits
and etc. would mean more people would become taxpayers. Please don’t
anyone show your ignorance by telling me doing such would be a “tax
increase”. While reducing exemptions will increase the amount of tax
dollars going to Washington, that is not a tax increase if the rates
stay the same.

All of those ideas are inferior to one change which will solve many of
the problems we are facing. If we were to adopt the Fair Tax (it now
has the largest number of co-sponsors ever) it would make EVERYONE a
direct or indirect taxpayer. Because of the “pre-bate” the very poor
receive a check large enough to pay the taxes on necessities such a
food and clothing. The pre-bate is based on the number of people in a
household, not income, and as such the wealthy receive the same amount
of pre-bate based on the number of people in their household. That
makes it fair for all.

The Fair Tax is revenue neutral as it shifts taxation off of the
productive side of the economy and onto the consumptive side.
Businesses will not be taxed and as such that will allow for the cost
of producing goods and services to be reduced, thus making “American
made” more competitive on a global market. By no longer taxing
production (businesses), jobs and capitol will come rushing back into
America.

As an added bonus, by shifting to a national sales tax and dropping
all income taxes, businesses and people will no longer have to spend
money and waste time on compliance (it is estimated businesses spend
$300 to $500 billion in wasted overhead each year in just trying to
figure and comply with tax laws). This change will further reduce the
cost of producing goods and services. More jobs will mean more taxes
going into Washington and at the same time we will be reducing
spending. Therefore, we would then begin to move toward a balanced
budget.

Once we achieve a balanced budget, we then start working on paying
down our debt. Senator Coburn is taking flack for proposing some tax
increases. While I oppose all the plans currently on the table, I
would support increasing the Fair Tax by one or two cents once we get
the budget balanced and federal spending back into its Constitutional
functions. Of course that increase would have to be used ONLY for debt
reduction. As we reduce our debt, the amount of interest paid on our
debt would decrease and that would be another reduction in spending.
Once we eliminate our national debt, we could then begin to ratchet
down the level of the national sales taxes until it reaches an amount
required to support the federal government performing its proper
functions.

Switching to the Fair Tax solves a lot, but not all of our problems.
It’s main objectors are politicians who will lose a significant amount
of power and control over the people and lobbyists who will lose their
jobs.

Now, on to solving labor problems. When organized labor in the PRIVATE
sector becomes too effective at extorting money from business, those
jobs are destroyed. The business either ceases operations or it moves
to another nation. Look at some of the Oklahoma manufacturing jobs
lost over the past 20 years, General Motors, Zebco, Lucent, Gulf
Stream, Dayton Tire and the list goes on. They were all unionized
businesses. While I believe unions should be illegal in the public
sector, I do believe they should be legal in the private sector. Hear
is the problem, over the years Congress got involved and passed many
laws which put requirements on relations between management and labor.
Those laws strongly favor labor and as such have created a problem.

All laws regulating negotiations between labor and management should
be repealed. That way the term “bargaining in good faith” will be
relegated into the ash heap of history and labor and management can
then work out their differences on their own. Labor is vital to
business, but when labor thinks too highly of itself and its value to
management, then management needs to be free to replace its labor
force.

Now, for solving the problems of excessive regulations. Regulatory
agencies such as OSHA, EEOC, EPA, FISH AND WILDLIFE and others have
become real problems when common sense is thrown out the window and
legalistic bean counters impose oppressive and ridiculous regulations
upon businesses.

All of these agencies have come about to solve some kind of problem,
but often the solution becomes a bigger problem than the original
problem. The only solution I know is common sense and wisdom to be
used in citizen oversight boards which should be commissioned for an
appeals process to rule in cases where over regulation occurs. I do
believe reasonable regulations are needed in society and as such I am
open to other ideas.

However, not to recognize the problems with over regulation would be a
mistake toward creating a business friendly environment. One thing is
for sure, most of regulatory powers should come from the states and
not the federal government.

If we properly address these 3 areas, our economy will boom and our
prosperity will increase, not decrease.

++ TIDBITS

* WHY PAUL RYAN COMES TO OKLAHOMA AND WHAT HE DOES! - Paul Ryan is
married to Janna Little Ryan, Daughter of Dan Little who also happens
to be a law partner of Lynn Windel, the former Republican National
Committee man who did an excellent job representing Oklahoma for many
years at the RNC. Congressman Ryan comes a couple times each year to
visit the in-laws and experience some hunting, Oklahoma style.

However, the story doesn’t end with that. His father in law, Dan
Little was the brother of David Boren’s first wife (Janna) and as
such, the mother of Congressman Dan Boren. So Ryan’s wife and
Congressman Dan Boren are first cousins. Here is where it gets
interesting. Last year there were rumors that Paul Ryan, a member of
the National Republican Congressional Committee, somehow intervened to
keep the committee from supporting Charles Thompson, Boren’s
Republican opponent.

It is true the Committee didn’t get involved in that race, but it
could just as easily have been because Charles couldn’t raise a
minimum level of support (supposedly $100,000) on his own before they
would get involved. I don’t know if the rumors are valid or not, but
one thing is now evident.

Congressman Boren recently voted AGAINST Congressman Ryan’s proposed
budget, so going forward there should not be any reason for Ryan or
any other Republican to do anything other than hope to see Boren
defeated. Last year, the Republican party had candidates in every
state wide race and all but Senator Inhofe and Congressman Cole were
on the ballot. Next year, the party should focus on defeating Boren. I
hope Charles, who garnered 45% of the vote on virtually no funds, will
run again and if others also run, may the most conservative candidate
with the ability to be viable win the nomination. At that point,
Republicans need to focus on that race to make sure Boren doesn’t go
back to Washington.

* EAT MORE CHICKEN - CHICK FILET BUYCOT - While many Chick-Filet
stores are owned by a local franchise owner, the corporation was
founded by a gentleman by the name of Stuart Cathy. He is a dedicated
Christian and supports many pro-family organizations. His support of
traditional marriage has inflamed some of our nation’s radical
homosexuals. They are calling for a boycott of all Chick-Filet stores.
Therefore, the American Family Association (AFA) has organized a
BUYcot for Chick-Filet stores during the week of April 25th through
the 30th.

The AFA is asking Christians to have a meal or two this week at a
Chick-Filet and be sure to tell store employees how much you
appreciate their company taking a stand for moral values. The stores
make a concerted effort to employee Christians and they do a good job
of training so that employees are friendly to customers and efficient
at their jobs. Don’t bother trying to visit on a Sunday, they are
closed to honor the Lord and allow their employees to attend church
services on Sundays.

* ACTION ITEM - This is very important. Please contact your State
Representative immediately and ask him or her to vote NO on the
committee substitute to SB 602. If passed, the committee substitute
would eliminate run-off elections which is a very bad idea for the
citizens of Oklahoma.

You should know your state Representative by now and the contact
information. If not, log on to http://www.oklegislature.gov/ and look
for the words “Find My Legislator” at the bottom right corner of the
homepage. Enter your address information and hit the search button.
This will take you to another page, then scroll down to the bottom and
it will have your lawmaker’s contact information. If you want to call,
the House switch board is (405) 521-2711, just give the operator the
name of your lawmaker and you will be put through to the office.

* REPUBLICAN STATE CONVENTION - ONE WEEK FROM SATURDAY - This
year’s Republican state convention will be held in Oklahoma City on
Saturday, May the 7th. If you were not able to attend your precinct
meeting or county convention but would like to become a delegate to
the convention it may not be too late. Call your newly elected county
chairman who has the authority to allow you to attend. Ask if you can
become a delegate?

* ARTICLES IN THE OKLAHOMA GAZETTE - I was called last week by
Clifton Adcock for an interview about some of the struggles going on
in the Republican party and my perspective on this year’s legislative
performance. I don’t know if that article will run in this week’s
paper or not, but I was also contacted by the editor of the paper to
see if I would do an article in the point - counter point section of
the paper. I believe those two articles will run in this week’s issue
of the Gazette and yes, I still pronounce it the “Gay-Zette”. You can
pick them up at a favorite restaurant in the metro area if you want to
give it a read.

* OKC MAFIA ABOUT TO STRIKE AGAIN - Now that the Oklahoma City
Council elections are over, it appears that the “good ole boys” are
ready to get on with business as usual, but with a new twist. There is
a proposal to create a non-profit economic development group and have
the city turn much of their efforts over to that group. That way, the
non profit will not be subject to open records requests like the city
happens to be and thus deals can be made quietly and out of sight of
the public. Newly elected councilman, Dr. Ed Shadid, is threatening to
request an Attorney General’s opinion as to the legality of having a
non-profit organization with the ability to spend tax-payers money?
Hopefully that will stop their plans, as there probably is not enough
opposition on the council to keep some of city government from being
conducted in the back rooms.

I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.

Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com

LAST WEEK GOOD MARY FALLIN, THIS WEEK BAD MARY FALLIN

2011-04-18T10:01:00.000-05:00

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
++ OKLAHOMA LOST A PATRIOT - WYANE TAYLOR
++ LAST WEEK GOOD MARY FALLIN, THIS WEEK BAD MARY FALLIN
++ ATLAS SHRUGGED THE MOVIE
++ THE OKLAHOMAN-JERRY FENT AND COMM. DOAK
++ KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF OUR RUN-OFF ELECTIONS

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING

Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, April 20th will be held at
Italino’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. Our speaker this week
will be U.S. Representative James Lankford. I wanted to wait to have
Congressman Lankford until he had been in Washington a few months so
he could share a good perspective of how he is relating in the
Capitol. I want to urge folks to arrive early to get a good seat. Our
new carpet should be installed and hopefully we will have our new
maximum seating available after doing some re-arranging. We should now
be able to seat close to 150 people which is about 25 more than
before. We will try have Rep. Lankford start speaking by 12:05 p.m. so
we can have as much time as possible for questions and answers. As a
particular point of interest, James has done a lot of work on the
budget proposed by Congressman Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin). Congressman
Ryan actually spends quite a bit of time in Oklahoma, can anyone tell
me why and what does he usually do when he is here?

++ ANNOUNCEMENTS

* TUESDAY - ADA AREA - The Ada-Seminole area tea party will meet
Tuesday evening, 6:30 p.m. at the Pontotoc Technology Center in Ada.
The meet in the Industrial Arts Classroom. Pastor Dan Fisher will be
doing his “Black Robe Regiment” presentation followed by Keith
Shankle. Mr. Shankle will be doing a presentation about he Federal
Reserve and its ties to international finance and the promotion of
socialism. Much of his presentation comes from information found in
the definitive authority on the Fed, which is the book, Creature From
Jekyll Island. If you live within 40 or so miles of Ada, these
presentations will be well worth your time and effort to attend.

* TUESDAY - TULSA AREA - The Tulsa Area Republican Assembly will
hold their monthly meeting at the Golden Corral, 71st and Mingo Street
in Tulsa. Members and friends gather at 6 for dinner with the meeting
beginning at 7:00 p.m. The speaker will be Dr. John Swails, Director
of the Center for Israel and Middle East Studies at ORU. Dr. Swails
has taught classes on 20th Century Middle East, Radical Islam, Modern
Israel, World War I, II, the Holocaust, Church History, Historical
Geography of Bible Lands and Biblical Hebrew. This should be a most
interesting meeting to attend and you won’t even have to pay tuition
to profit from his knowledge.

* THURSDAY - OKC AREA - The Business and Professional chapter of
the John Birch Society will have their monthly breakfast meeting this
Thursday morning at the Character Inn, 520 West Main in downtown OKC.
The breakfast buffet is served at 7:15 and the speaker begins around
7:40 a.m. The speaker is not confirmed as yet, but the meetings are
always informative and the fellowship among conservatives and
constitutionalists is always great.

++ OKLAHOMA LOST ANOTHER PATRIOT - WAYNE TAYLOR

Late last week Wayne Taylor, President of Taylor Foam, went to be with
the Lord after a fairly short bout with an aggressive form of lung
cancer. Wayne was a lifetime member of the John Birch Society and a
consistent member of OCPAC. His oldest son Bryan is currently the
Mayor of Bethany. Wayne has supported many good conservatives over the
years and he will truly be missed by his family and friends. His
funeral will be today the 18th, 2:00 p.m. at Covenant Community
Church, 2250 N. Mustang Road in Yukon.

++ LAST WEEK GOOD MARY FALLIN, THIS WEEK BAD MARY FALLIN

Last week I suggested praise for Governor Fallin’s decision to disband
the Ethnic American Advisory Council and also her decision to not take
the federal dollars which would have tied us to Obama Care, though she
had to be brought to the later decision. Unfortunately it does not
appear that Governor Fallin will have much consistency regarding good
decision making.

First, I want to address a horrible appointment she has made as
revealed on Mike McCarville’s blog. Governor Fallin re-appointed the
liberal Democrat Pete Regan to the Transportation Commission. Regan is
not just any liberal Democrat, but a young rising star in the Democrat
party. Regan has been the chief of staff for Congressman Dan Boren and
according to McCarville, his other mentors include Daddy Boren,
President at OU, George Nigh, Mike Morgan, Brad Henry and yes, Mike
Turpin. Regan nearly defeated Jeri Askins 4 years ago in the Lt.
Governor’s race.

As McCarville writes: “There are those who say Regan is a Democrat-
candidate-for-governor-or-Congress-in-waiting. That could mean he’ll
face a Republican nominee in the future, using his background (and
appointment by Fallin) to boost his candidacy.”

Some responses are as follows: “Incredible” said a longtime Tulsa GOP
warhorse. “It’s almost an insult to us (Republicans) in Tulsa… what,
we’ve got no one qualified for that appointment?”

Another response: A bewildered Southern Oklahoma Republican who spent
hours campaigning for Fallin and who holds a party post in the county,
asked about the appointment, searched for words: “Surely Mary has a
good reason for this, but boy, it hurts.”

Of course Mary’s number one spin doctor Alex Weintz responded with:
“Regan is a highly-regarded member of the Transportation Commission:
Peter Regan is a well qualified applicant with deep ties to the Tulsa
community and a long record of service. Governor Fallin was looking
for the candidate she felt would be the most engaged and effective on
the transportation commission, and that person is Peter.” All I can
say about Mr. Weintz’s spin doctoring is blah blah blah.

Governor Fallin, if you want a conservative government, not only do
you have to root out liberal Democrats, but you have to be sure and
not appoint them to important positions in government. If you don’t
wake up to that fact, they will undermine conservatism. I wonder if
you really care about conservatism or do you understand what it is
beyond the superficial?

Sources have also told me Governor Fallin stated at a recent meeting
that we should not pass the bill to prohibit embryonic stem cell
research. She indicated it might not look good to people outside of
Oklahoma and thus give Oklahoma a harmful national image. That might
harm our ability to attract jobs and improve our economy. Too bad Mary
has chosen to parrot the blathering nabobs from the State Chamber of
Commerce along with the editorial page at the Oklahoman on this issue.

These folks, who get their panties in a wad over image rather than
substance evidently haven’t got the message as yet. Maybe they need to
watch a little more of Oprah’s programming. About a year and a half
ago, Oprah exclaimed hope about embryonic stem cell research while her
friend Dr. Oz was on the program. He had to break the bad news to her
and tell her it was a dead end. It had no hope, the hope was in adult
stem cell research, not embyronic.

If Mary would listen to pro-life advocates they have been saying the
same thing for a long time. Eight or so years ago the citizens of
California voted to pass bonded indebtedness to the tune of $5 BILLION
(if my memory serves me correctly) for the purpose of state subsidized
embryonic stem cell research.

As of today, there are no beneficial findings, but a couple of things
have occurred. First, California has paid to divert scientists and
researchers away from promising efforts to jobs that are likely to end
up in futility. Second, it has added to the California’s bankruptcy
problems. The financial woes in California couldn’t have happened to a
more deserving majority of people who would vote to borrow money for
this purpose.

This is just one more piece of evidence as to how much influence the
State Chamber has over the Governor. What that means is that Oklahoma
conservatives are going to have to spring to action over and over
again when the Chamber is wrong on issues. Unfortunately, unless more
people wake up and get a little more discernment, we will lose most of
those battles, because the Chamber’s bought and paid for Governor as
well as majority in the legislature are solidly entrenched.

++ ATLAS SHRUGGED THE MOVIE

First for the answer to last week’s question about the former Ayn Rand
devotee who used to be a sound money gold bug. As I posed the question
that person eventually found a high placement job which requires a
presidential appointment and Senate confirmation. I had a lot of
responses and quite a few got it correct. It was Alan Greenspan, the
immediate past Chairman of the Federal Reserve.

As of Sunday, the movie has grossed nearly 2 million dollars which is
considered very good for a limited release low budget production with
little or no paid advertising. It will continue to play through this
Thursday and then a decision will be made if it will continue on the
big screen. It was reported that the average attendance over opening
weekend was 6,000 for each of the 300 theaters in which it opened. The
Saturday showing when we went was almost full and reports indicated a
Friday evening showing at Quail Springs was packed. It was also
showing at the Warren in Moore.

There were a couple of semi-spicy bedroom scenes, but no nudity. No
doubt the movie represents the morality of Rand the author. Beyond
that, the movie exceeded my expectations for a low budget movie in
both production quality and acting.

Now to the good stuff. It was probably a little less than 50 years ago
that I read the book, but the movie really brought back memories. The
book had a huge impact on my thinking, which along with other
conservative influences started me down a conservative path in life.
That is probably why Hollywood liberals, movie critics, Democrats etc.
hate the movie and are very critical of it. They know the danger when
powerful conservative ideas are presented in story format with an
ability to shape the thinking of a reader or movie fan.

Perhaps one of the most important things to remember when reading the
book or watching the movie, is that Ayn Rand understood certain
aspects of human nature. She well understood there are always a
certain number of people who always look for an easy path in life. If
that means becoming a blood sucking leech, a cancer, a parasite, a
thief or what other name you want to think of, there are those in
society who are quite comfortable in their low moral conduct which
comes from their lousy character traits. In their own minds they can
justify almost anything they do, any form of thievery. God’s word
speaks of certain kinds of people who can sear their own consciences.

On the other hand, there are also the producers in life who sometimes
tolerate a lot of abuse before they finally fight back. They may fight
back hard or in some cases, when the odds are really stacked against
them, they simply fade away and quit producing. This is where we are
in America today and Ayn Rand had a great deal of foresight when she
wrote the book. I urge folks to see this movie as it does such a good
job of portraying the varied reactions of people when faced with
difficult odds.

++ THE OKLAHOMAN, JERRY FENT AND COMM. DOAK

Saturday’s edition of the Oklahoman had an editorial regarding Jerry
Fent questioning the constitutionality of Insurance Commissioner John
Doak moving his office to Tulsa. I believe Jerry is obviously correct
when he says the Oklahoma Constitution requires certain elected
officials (it would include the insurance commissioner) to keep “their
office, public records, books and papers at the seat of government.”

Now for the other side of the story. The insurance commission has
maintained an office in OKC and Tulsa for probably the past 20 years
or more. Commissioner Doak will continue to keep his office in OKC
with all the required constitutional requirements, as well as have an
office in Tulsa. With today’s modern technology, it is easy to keep an
office in OKC and have available what is also needed to do the job in
Tulsa at the same time. Mr. Doak is expanding the office in Tulsa but
also reducing the size of the OKC office. When it is all said and
done, the state will be leasing less total space than before and thus
cutting down on the overhead of the office. While Commissioner Doak
will be in the City as needed, his decision will also cut down on
overhead because of lower travel expenses.

Jerry hasn’t filed a lawsuit as yet and perhaps he is just sending a
warning shot across the bow of an elected official, should he really
get outside of the constitutional requirements. Hopefully he will talk
with Commissioner Doak to check these things out before he files a
lawsuit, time will tell.

++ KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF OUR RUN-OFF ELECTIONS

The federal government has set certain time requirements before
elections to allow for members of the military serving overseas to
have time to vote in their elections back home. As a result,
lawmakers, led by Gary Banz (R-MWC) have introduced legislation to
eliminate run-off elections. That is a VERY BAD idea.

There are untold numbers of people serving in office today as a result
of run-off elections. Governor Fallin is an example as she had to win
a run-off election when she first ran for Lt. Governor, Brad Henry is
another or else Vince Orza might have been the governor in place of
Henry. Without a run-off election, newly elected Senator Ralph Shorty
would not be in office, also in the recent non-partisan OKC city
council race, Dr. Shadid would not be office, though 62 percent of the
voters chose him over the leading candidate in the primary race.

The list just goes on and on. Any complaints about the costs of the
run-off elections are bogus to those who insist that taxpayers pay for
partisan primary elections, as elections are one of the most important
priorities for a government of self determination. If government wants
to save money, one solution would be to have the political parties
pay for their own primary elections or else chose their candidates
through political caucus meetings. Otherwise, Banz and others of his
ilk need to suck it up and fund elections before many of the improper
functions of government.

But an important part of the debate about primary elections is that
the people won’t have a final majority say in who serves without them.
Election schedules can be adjusted and any complaints about the costs
of elections are bogus. If you agree, please call or e-mail
Representative Gary Banz at (405) 557-7395 or garybanz@okhouse.gov and
tell him, NO WAY, to eliminating primary run-off elections. Contacting
your own representative and Senator will also be helpful.

I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday. For instructions on
how to join OCPAC, please see below.

Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com

Governor Fallin, Speaker Steele and President Pro-Tem Brian Bingman held a joint press conference to announce...

2011-04-15T13:22:00.001-05:00

Yesterday, may just turn out to have been a great day for the citizens
of Oklahoma. Governor Fallin, Speaker Steele and President Pro-Tem
Brian Bingman held a joint press conference to announce that they have
all agreed not to take the $54 million early innovator grant from the
federal government which was offered through Obama Care. In addition,
Insurance Commissioner John Doak announced his office would be
returning $1 million his predecessor had taken from the Obama Care
legislation. I am not sure, but by doing so, I believe the State of
Oklahoma has now severed all funds taken from the feds regarding Obama
Care.

Now for some of the story that has been unfolding over several weeks.
Previously, Governor Fallin and Speaker Steele have been in favor of
taking the federal dollars, believing it was necessary to create an
insurance exchange on our own to keep the federal government from
coming into Oklahoma and creating an exchange to foist upon us in the
absence of our own plan.

The first effort was HB 2130, which passed the House with 51 votes out
of a possible 101. When the bill arrived at the Senate, President Pro-
Tem Bingman surprised the Governor and Speaker Steele when he
announced the Senate would not hear the bill based upon grave concern
that in doing so, Oklahoma would likely to be wed to Obama Care. The
next day, Governor Fallin released a statement that it would become a
point of negotiations. As a result, I mentioned in the an OCPAC e-mail
the need to be wary and watch for future efforts to slip the language
in another piece of legislation.

At that time I began to communicate with several Senators and found
out that Senate leadership was truly and firmly set against taking any
of this money. They really meant it when they said they did not intend
to take any of this money. Jonathan Small from the Oklahoma Council of
Public Affairs did an excellent job of educating Senate leaders toward
understanding that if they took the money, that without doubt,
Oklahoma would be wed to Obama Care. Ok-Safe both lobbied legislators
and educated the grass roots citizens about HB 2130 which caused a lot
of bottom us pressure against taking this money.

Once it was understood that taking the money would commit us to Obama
Care, Senator Bill Brown (R-Tulsa) worked to create legislation which
he believed might keep the feds off our back, and allow us to create
something that might be beneficial for the consumers and businesses in
Oklahoma at the same time. However, grass roots conservatives,
suspicious of the true intent of the legislation, applied enough
pressure to narrowly kill that legislation in committee.

Fortunately, Senate leadership didn’t give up and drove negotiations
with the Governor and House leaders to craft the legislation that was
announced at the joint press conference on Thursday, April 14th.
Following is a quote from President Pro-Tem Bingman: “This private
enterprise network not only offers the people of Oklahoma more options
when buying insurance, it will serve as a defensive strategy that
protects Oklahoma from the federal health care law. This is Oklahoma’s
solution and federalism at work. Our plan is based on the principals
of the free market: it will not limit participation, it will increase
competition among private plans and offer consumers the ability to
shop for their best option.”

I don’t believe the proposed legislation has a bill number assigned as
yet, but sources tell me the Governor and legislative leaders have all
agreed to the language. The legislation starts out with the
statement: “The purpose of this act is to allow Oklahoma to establish
and operate its own Health Insurance Private Enterprise Network to
facilitate access to health insurance and enhance competition in the
individual and small employer health insurance markets.” Sources told
me about 85% of this bill is modeled after the Utah Plan with the
other 15% providing even greater protection from the feds as well as
more free market strengths.

There will be a trust created with a seven member board formed to
govern the network. One member will be an elected official, in this
case the Insurance Commissioner, who at this time happens to be John
Doak. The Commissioner will also serve as the Chairman of the Board.
There will only be one bureaucrat on the board and that will always be
the Secretary of Health and Human services. While it makes since for
the Secretary to be on the board, I am leary of Terry Cline, a
dedicated liberal, but that is who Governor Fallin chose as her
Secretary of HHS. I speculate he may have been the source of bad
advice early on to persuade her to want to take the federal dollars?

Besides these two, the Governor will appoint one person representing
health insurance carriers, one person representing health care
providers and one person representing employer groups. The speaker
will appoint one person who will represent consumers and the Senate
President Pro-Tem will appoint one person that is an insurance agent
or broker.

The language specifically states: “Funding for the Network shall come
from state and private sources.” I believe we must guard against the
legislature passing any kind of a bond issue for funding purposes. If
they can’t find a few dollars to get this started or find funding from
private sources, then the Network will just be slow to develop.

Some of the wording in the bill is a follows: To “Promote a
competitive, patient-centered, market based health insurance system
that includes a defined-contribution health insurance alternative for
employer-sponsored coverage which includes an aggregate premium
system; Encourage health insurance carriers to collaborate with
medical providers to offer health insurance coverage that provides
consumers quality care delivered in the most cost-effective manner;”

Other language says: “The Network shall not: Exercise regulatory
authority over any entity; Discriminate against any qualified health
insurance carrier willing to participate in the network; or Supplant
any marketplace outside the Network.

Privacy concerns are also addressed as follows: “All personal
information generated through the purchase of any policy purchased
through the Network shall remain confidential between the insurer and
the insured.

One final part, that I like is as follows: “The provisions of this
act shall be subject to legislative review and renewal no later than
May 25, 2014. That is the year Obama Care has determined the states
must be in compliance. This legislation is two fold, one it will
create something similar to an insurance hub, but it is not coupled
with Obama Care, it is our own plan. Two, a major purposes of this
plan is to buy time to allow for a different President to be elected
and different control of the U.S. Senate. If that occurs, it will be
imperative for new leadership to KILL Obama Care. If that is
successful, the Network can be reviewed by the legislature to see if
it is beneficial for the consumers and businesses as is expected and
thus be continued, or it can be eliminated. Activists will have to be
alert to the performance of this plan by the time it is evaluated.

I do believe there will be some in the grass roots that will oppose
even this effort, wanting absolutely nothing done in this regard.
However, doing nothing is not an option amongst the lawmakers as they
see it too important to by time and keep the feds from forcing
something upon the citizens of Oklahoma. I concur that this is the
responsible action for the Governor and legislature and as such I
congratulate them. However, the grass roots must always be vigilant
and determine if this network turns out to be beneficial or
problematic. We must also watch for any amendments which might harm
the intents of the legislation as it proceeds through the process.

Thanks for your time and attention.

Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com

...THANKS TO GOVERNOR FALLIN

2011-04-12T08:08:00.002-05:00

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
++ THANKS TO GOVERNOR FALLIN
++ TIDBITS

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING

Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, April 13th will be held at
Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. Our speakers this
week will be Neil McCaleb of Edmond, representing the Chickasaw Tribe
and Brian McClain of Durant, representing the Choctaw Tribe. They will
each give their tribe’s perspectives regarding water rights in
Oklahoma. I have actually had this meeting planned for several weeks
and was surprised to see today’s (April 11) Oklahoman with an above
the fold front page article about these two tribes threatening to sue
over the Sardis lake deal between the State of Oklahoma and OKC.

This Fall, the long awaited Oklahoma Comprehensive Water Plan is
expected to be released from the Oklahoma Water Resources Board. Even
though there are several efforts already under way to control water in
Oklahoma, those efforts will probably increase after that report is
released. As a point of interest, for the most part, the same amount
of water exists on the earth at all times. We do not have a global
water shortage, we have plenty of water. What we have are distribution
problems. How do you get water, a staple of life, to where it is
needed and when it is needed at a reasonable price? That is the
problem.

++ ANNOUNCEMENTS

* WEDNESDAY - OKC AREA - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) will be hosting 2 public comment hearings regarding regional
haze which effects the Wichita Wildlife Refuge. located to the North
and West of Lawton. The OKC location for the hearings will be at the
Metro Technology Springlake Campus, 1900 Springlake Drive. The
meetings will be held in the Business Conference Center’s meeting
rooms H and I. One of the meetings will be from 4 until 6:00 p.m. and
the second meeting will be from 7 until 9:00 p.m. This is your chance
to express your opinions to representatives of the EPA regarding their
possible mandates which could cost almost every Oklahoma household and
business a 15% to 35% rate increase regarding their electric
utilities. I hope folks will show up in droves to express their
opinions on this matter. If reasonable conservatives fail to show up,
a handful of environmentalists and global warming freaks will show up
and dominate the message in the wrong direction.

* THURSDAY - TULSA AREA - The EPA will also be holding their
public comment hearings in the Tulsa area at the Tulsa Technology
Riverside Campus, 801 East 91st Street. The meeting will be in the
Auditorium at the Alliance Conference Center. The times are from 4:00
until 6:00 p.m. and 7:00 until 9:00 p.m. I urge our readers in the
Tulsa area to attend these public hearings. A good question to ask is
how do those miniscule particles of coal residue fight their way
against the prevailing winds to create haze over the wildlife refuge
which is about 200 miles to the Southwest of the Tulsa-Muskogee area?

* SATURDAY AFTERNOON - OKC AREA - The famous book, Atlas
Shrugged, by Russian born author Ayan Rand is now being made into a 3
part movie. Part one will make its OKC premier this Saturday
afternoon, 4:50 p.m.. It will be shown at the Quail Springs Mall
Theaters. Rand understood the differences between a productive society
where people take pride in their best efforts and a society of low
producing leaches, where people destroy productivity and drive. This
book was and still is very prophetic as far as seeing America spiral
into decline.

One word of caution. While Rand’s somewhat libertarian ideas really
hit home in fiscal policies and their effects upon human nature, her
atheism led her to become a depraved and empty woman near the end of
her life. There is a movie about her life (don‘t remember its name),
which does a great job in portraying her life’s futility without God.
I must warn folks, that movie really deserves its “R” rating.

Here is a trivia question. What powerful person, appointed by the
President and confirmed by the U.S. Senate was a former Ayan Rand
disciple and advocate of sound money (a gold bug)? Today, this person
is anything but a sound money advocate.

++ THANKS TO GOVERNOR FALLIN

Last week I asked folks to call Governor Fallin’s office and request
her to live up to a pre-election campaign promise to dissolve former
Governor Henry’s Ethnic American Advisory Council. As I stated, my
opinion was that this group was little more than a front for the plans
of the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas’ efforts to help accomplish the
Islamization of Oklahoma.

A huge thanks to Governor Fallin, as she followed through and
dispensed with the organization. Hopefully, this will make it just a
little harder for the radical Muslims to carry out their agenda. I
gave out a web-site to view the video called Multicultural France and
some indicated it didn’t work. Here is a different address, hopefully
it will work this time as it is very important to view:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3YQANdvvbY.

++ TIDBITS

* Congratulations to Dr. Shadid in his stunning victory over the OKC
Mafia’s candidate Charlie Swinton. With a 62% victory margin, it
probably didn’t take long for OKC Mayor Mick Cornett to see the
handwriting on the wall and beat a path over to Dr. Shadid’s watch
night party to tell folks what a great person was chosen by the voters
to serve the residents of Ward 2. Yeh, right Mick, we new you were
pulling for Dr. Shadid from way before the polls were closed. While
Dr. Shadid is a liberal, I believe him to be honorable in his opinions
and trust that he will stay true to his promise to make city
government open as well as oppose the many corporate welfare schemes
that favor the good old boys in OKC at the expense of the free market.

* Voters in Canadian County narrowly turned down a plan last Tuesday
to divert less than a third of the .35 cents sales tax which currently
supports the juvenile criminals in Canadian county. The purpose of the
one tenth of a cent sales tax would have gone toward building a new
jail. Voters have twice turned down a tax increase to build a new jail
and are currently wasting huge sums of money to pay to house prisoners
in other county jails.

* In a very close vote with national ramifications, it appears that
the voters in Wisconsin have chosen to re-elect the conservative
Supreme Court Justice for another 10 year term. For weeks the labor
unions in Wisconsin and neighboring states have protested and rallied
to stop the efforts to roll back some of their excessive powers they
have received through collective bargaining contracts. While the state
was flooded with volunteers and huge sums of money, they still
couldn’t win a victory to stop the Wisconsin Governor and Republican
led legislature from institution sound fiscal policies and bring
corrective measures to the unions and their buddies that have caused
the problems.

* A huge disappointment. Last Friday, while driving home from
Purcell, I heard a news cast that State Representative Sally Kern’s
legislation to prevent foreign law from being used in Oklahoma courts
has been killed for this year’s session. As you may remember, last
year the citizens of Oklahoma voted to amend our State Constitution to
prevent Oklahoma courts from using Sharia or foreign law. Before the
state question could be certified by the election secretary, the
Muslims filed a lawsuit against the measure to stop it in its tracks
and a liberal federal judge sided with the Muslims. That amendment is
now awaiting a ruling from the 10th circuit court of appeals in
Denver.

The news cast indicated that Senator Anthony Sykes (R-Moore) decided
not to hear the legislation and thus killed it. I called Senator Sykes
over the weekend and talked with him as to why he decided not to hear
the bill, especially since he was the Senate author of the bill.

He is of the opinion, that to pass a lesser bill in the legislature AT
THIS TIME would weaken the court case regarding the state question
that is now in the courts. I agree, that to get a positive ruling on
the state question that amends our constitution would put Oklahoma in
a stronger position to fend off future court challenges, than simply
passing case law which is what Representative Kern’s bill happens to
be. My disappointment is over the belief that a bill passed now would
give Oklahomans cover against any kind of foreign law being used in
our courts until we could resolve the amendment issue. While I am
disappointed, I believe it to be best to wait until the courts
decide.

* Some in the Muslim community held a press conference yesterday to
express their opposition to Representative Kern’s legislation against
foreign law being used in our courts. The Muslims claimed that such a
law was an expression of bigotry and also anti-business. May I say
BALDERDASH and PIFFLE to those ideas. There is not an ounce of bigotry
in Representative Kern’s legislation and as far as anti-business, it
is about time to put that fairy tale to rest forever.

If a foreign entity wants to do business in America, they usually form
an American branch of their company or corporation and then do
business according to the laws of our land. It is much the same way
when American companies do business in foreign countries, they do so
under the laws of that nation.

Let me spell it out plain and simple. In my opinion, this local bunch
of Muslims opposing the patriotic efforts of Americans are nothing
more than a bunch of slick deceivers. I believe the only limits to
their false allegations are their imaginations on their part and the
gullibility of those who listen to them on our part. If these people
had no desire to see the cultural and political aspects of Sharia Law
implemented into our courts, they would never, never, never oppose our
state question or Representative Kern’s legislation. But because they
work so fervently to see these protective laws blocked, I must assume
they actually want Sharia Law instituted into our state and nation.

* A couple of weeks back I asked if anyone knew who and when the last
veteran to die who fought in what is commonly called the civil war?
Steve Byas came the closest to getting the answer correct. The
veteran’s name was Walter Williams, a confederate soldier from Texas
who fought under General Hood, also from Texas. Mr. Williams died in
1959 at the age of 117. The video I mentioned showed footage of his
112th birthday party and his body lying in state in 1959.

I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday. If you have not
joined OCPAC as yet, please consider doing so at this time.
Instructions follow my sign off.

Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com