++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
++ WHAT OBAMA, FALLIN, BARRESI, FORD & COODY HAVE IN COMMON?
++ TIDBITS
++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, October 17th will be held at
Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. Speaking this week
will be Brandon Dutcher, Vice President and Research Director for the
Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, Oklahoma’s conservative think
tank. Brandon will show a documentary recently produced by OCPA about
the Henry Scholarship legislation passed a couple of years ago. This
is a program that some of the government schools have been fighting
tooth and nail. You won’t want to miss this presentation.
If you were not at last week’s meeting, you really missed getting to
hear from Ward Connerly. I have heard him twice and am really
impressed by his gentle humility balanced with his determination to
promote the concept of individual responsibility. Log on to our web-
site and then click on the video tab and you can watch his
presentation:
www.oklahomacpac.com
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
* TUESDAY EVENING - TULSA AREA - The Tulsa Area Republican
Assembly will host their monthly meeting at the Golden Corral, 71st
and Mingo in Tulsa. Many will gather at 6:00 for dinner then the
formal part of the meeting will begin at 7:00 p.m. with State
Representative David Brumbaugh (R-Broken Arrow) speaking.
* THURSDAY EVENING - MOORE AREA - The Sooner Republican Assembly
will have their monthly meeting this Thursday, October 18th at Earl’s
Rib Palace in Moore. Folks will eat between 6 and 6:45 p.m. with the
formal part of the meeting beginning at 6:45. Kaye Beach (AxXIOM for
LIBERTY) will be speaking about the practice of swiping drivers
licenses at schools, stores, and other places in relation to the
nationalization of our drivers licenses as an international I.D. card.
This is an important issue, in fact Kaye has a privacy lawsuit in
motion on this subject.
* SATURDAY - OKC AREA - Concerned Women of America (America’s
largest women’s organization) is sponsoring the TAKE A STAND
conference which will be held from 8:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. at the
Church on The Rock, 1780 West Memorial Road in OKC. Speakers will
include U.S. Representative James Lankford, Oklahoma’s Attorney’s
General, Scott Pruitt, State Representatives Sally Kern and Charles
Key, Pastor and soon to be state representative Dan Fisher and author
Janice Ponds of Tulsa. As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, Janice
Ponds was confronted with information that caused her to begin to
think for herself. Her conclusion was that she had been lied to and
that as a Christian she could no longer remain a Democrat as their
party platform was just too opposite to the principles of God’s Word.
There is no cost to attend, however they are asking that people
register by e-mail at:
director@oklahoma.cwfa.org. If you fail to
register, walk-ins will still be welcome. This conference will promote
the need for Christians to get involved in public policy, become
informed voters and take a stand to turn this nation back toward the
principles that made us great.
++ WHAT OBAMA, FALLIN, BARRESI, FORD & COODY HAVE IN COMMON?
During the debate between Governor Romney and President Obama, the
President made the comment for the need to improve education and
specifically mentioned his “Race To The Top” program. It appears that
the Obama administration has Governor Mary Fallin, State Schools
Superintendent Janes Barresi, Senate Education Committee Chairman John
Ford and House Education Committee Chairwoman Ann Coody in the palm of
his hand as they all support Obama’s Race To The Top plan.
Fortunately, our applications to this program have been turned down so
far.
Even though conservative education experts such as Jenni White,
founder and executive director for Restore Oklahoma Public Education
(ROPE), along with others have tried to educate these Oklahoma
officials to the dangers of federal involvement in education, so far
it has been to no avail. Some lawmakers understand the problems, it
just doesn’t seem like leadership gets it.
I can’t say if their support for the program is because of the many
federal dollars that will flow into Oklahoma if we get approval for
the program; or if it is just because all of these gate keepers of
education foolishly believe that federal government involvement into
education will somehow be beneficial!
Unfortunately, this bunch also supports the “common core standards”
which is just another push by the federal government to control what
goes on in education and influence its outcomes.
Most Oklahomans believe that education is vitally important. However,
few folks understand the difference between education and
indoctrination. Few understand the difference between education and
job training. Few understand what the goals of education should be and
the necessary steps toward achieving those goals. Therefore, most
Oklahomans mistakenly support the government schools and the new
programs presented by the establishment to improve the dismal results
we receive from these schools. In other words, most Oklahoman’s are
enablers of the status quo, which is underperformance.
I recently saw the movie, DON’T BACK DOWN, a story about a teacher and
mother who both had children in a looser of a school with the teacher
also teaching at the school. The movie is based on a true story and
there are a lot of very good elements to the movie. It does a good job
of presenting many of the problems in government schools, regardless
of what state one might live in. However, much is left out of the
movie as far as providing real answers to the problem. While the movie
offers a directional change in leadership and control of schools, it
is short on any details as to what produces good education.
Everyone attending receives a book mark with information and a web-
site as to a national movement toward allowing for the solutions
presented in the movie. Recently there was an article in the Oklahoman
stating that State Senator David Holt (R-OKC) intends to introduce
legislation this next year to allow for citizens in Oklahoma to do
some of the same things presented in the movie.
I don’t believe people following a pattern presented in the movie will
do harm, other than take up time and perhaps disappoint others when
the reforms may not produce much better of an outcome than the current
government schools. Again, there are basic principles and values
necessary for quality education and if you fail to implement them, the
results will likely be deficient.
Bottom line, every Oklahoman should care about education whether or
not we have a child in school. Not only is the well being of children
at stake, but every tax payer is heavily burdened with having to pay
for the education industry in the state. I highly recommend folks
receiving the up-dates from ROPE. Why not send Jenni an e-mail and
asked to be added to the contact list for ROPE,
jenni@restoreokpubliceducation.com. This is important, I really hope
you will respond and help turn Oklahoma around in education rather
than just being an enabler of the current system which is badly
underperforming.
++ TIDBITS
* GOVERNOR FALLIN AN AIRHEAD? - For the second year in a row,
Governor Fallin has allowed herself to become a part of declaring
October 24th as Oklahoma UN day. Last year’s declaration was a bunch
of gibberish and mush, most likely written by some of the UN advocates
who live in Oklahoma. We can only hope she didn’t write such BS (blue
smoke-and-mirrors) for if she did, then she is totally ignorant of the
intended purpose for the UN by its founders and the overall harm it
has done or else she is un-American. I don’t believe it is the latter.
Mary, please don’t continue to be an airhead on this issue!
* GOVERNOR FALLIN SUPPORTING A LIBERAL DEMOCRAT? - State
Representative Wade Rousselot (D-Wagoner) has been using campaign
literature with a picture of himself and Governor Fallin together,
implying an endorsement from the Republican Governor. Representative
Rousselot is ranked as the 83rd most liberal lawmaker out of 101 in
the House based on the lifetime rankings in the Oklahoma
Constitution’s Conservative Index. So why is Governor Fallin allowing
her picture to be used to benefit this liberal Democrat, especially
when David Tackett, the Republican candidate running against the
incumbent Democrat, is a viable candidate and a conservative
Republican?
Could it be that Mr. Tackett, among other things, is a political
consultant and was helping in the campaigns of some of the
conservatives who challenged some of the more liberal Republican
incumbents during the primary races earlier this year? Could it be
that the State Chamber is mad at having to spend hundreds of thousands
of dollars trying to defend some of their bought and paid for
candidates and are thus pressuring Fallin to help Rousselot win this
race? Is this pay-back to David for using his skills to help
conservatives replace the more moderate to liberal Republicans in the
primaries?
Oklahomans for Liberty are asking Republicans to e-mail Governor
Fallin’s political director Denise Northrup at
denisenorthrup@cox.net
and ask her just who Governor Fallin is supporting in the HD 12 race?
This is serious for a Republican governor to allow herself to be used
to defeat a conservative Republican candidate.
* COMPARING OKLAHOMA AND KANSAS - Very interesting, during the
primary races, I believe it was 7 or 8 liberal Republican incumbents
that were thrown out of office in Kansas by Republican voters and
replaced by conservatives. Even the Senate President Pro-Tem was
defeated. However, in Oklahoma out of 7 or 8 races against incumbents
only 1 of the more liberal incumbents (Guy Liebmann) was defeated and
all the rest were re-elected, though most of the races were fairly
close. So what was the difference?
In Kansas, newly elected Governor Brownback, is a conservative and a
true leader. He came to office as a social and fiscal conservative
with a plan to reduce the size of government, eliminate the state
income tax and create a climate in which free market capitalism could
grow and flourish. Several entrenched establishment type Republicans
stood in the way of many of the reforms he wanted to enact. Therefore,
he actively campaigned to help the conservative challengers
successfully defeat the moderate to liberal Republican incumbents.
In Oklahoma, newly elected Governor Fallin is not really all that
conservative and even though she proposed a plan to eliminate our
state income taxes, she proved inept at leading as her ideas stalled
through the legislative process. In addition, she worked hard to keep
the Chamber’s chosen lawmakers in office so she supported the more
liberal to moderate Republicans and thus worked against the
conservatives. There is quite a difference going on between Oklahoma
and Kansas and I like much of what Kansas is doing.
* THE REAL PROBLEM WITH AMERICA - Sunday’s edition of the Oklahoman
featured brief interviews with several Oklahomans regarding the
following question: Who will you vote for in November? The answers
proved how insightful the author of the following quote happens to be,
though the authorship is debated. I will go with Alexander Fraizer
Titler, also known as Lord Woodhousley. He is supposed to have said
the following in 1770, just 6 years before we signed the Declaration
of Independence: “A democracy (today we function more like a
democracy than a republic) can not exist as a permanent form of
government. It will only exist until the people realize they can vote
themselves a largess (social benefits) from the public treasury. From
that time on, they will vote for the politician who promises them the
greatest amount of social benefits and that society will ALWAYS
collapse due to fiscal irresponsibility”.
Lenin once said, socialized medicine will always be the “gateway” to
full blown socialism. Now lets look at what some of the people
interviewed had to say: Amir, a restaurant owner from Edmond said he
would vote for Obama, because of health care. Amir’s wife has MS.
Its important that we have affordable healthcare.
How about Clendon from Mustang who said: “Undicided” It appears that
he wants the conflict between Republicans and Democrats resolved. Hey
Clendon, hopefully the days of middle mush compromise which always
allows us to slide to the left are over. Hopefully the polarized lines
between liberalism and conservatism are clearly defined and more
Americans will be persuaded toward the superiority of liberty and
conservatism. If so, that philosophy will rise and provide quality
leadership. If not, we are doomed!
Continuing on, Bill from Edmond will again vote for Obama as he says
he’s all for health care, he’s all for planned parenthood and he has a
favorable opinion of unions. Bill and Amir prove that there are a
sprinkling of liberals who live in Edmond.
The main one I want to focus on is Carolyn, a 21 years old student
from Dallas. She plans on voting for Obama and gives the following
reason: TOP ISSUE? “Education and social reform. The economy’s
ridiculously important, but currently, where I’m at as a person,
social changes like gay marriage and women’s issues and funding for
the arts, because I’m a college student and an arts major so a lot of
Romney’s plans would cut my funding.”
There is so much I could say about Carolyn, but to keep it in context
about Mr. Titler’s predictions of the collapse of a democracy let me
comment about personal greed and how it affects our decisions. It
appears that Carolyn, like so many others will determine who they vote
for based on how it will affect themselves personally rather than on
what is morally right and according to the principles of good
government. That is a huge problem in America.
As an example, I believe the Fair Tax, if implemented would be the
most positive thing we could do to improve our economy and it also
treats everyone with equal fairness in its application. If there is a
group in America that might benefit less under the fair tax than the
current system, it might be retired Americans. My wife is recently
retired and I am semi-retired. However, I would never even consider
how such a change would affect us personally to determine my support
or opposition to change that would be beneficial for America and
morally fair to all going forward.
I hope Romney is elected and I especially hope he will eliminate any
federal funding for the arts at the level for which Carolyn may be
speaking. Am I against art? Absolutely not, I just believe art is such
an item of personal preference that it should stand on its own two
feet. Let the market support the arts, not government. If Carolyn is
good at her venue of art and works hard she will succeed in the
marketplace, if not, she needs to meet the real world and do something
else.
I wonder how folks like Amir, Bill and Carolyn would react if they
knew that some people view them as thieves as they seek to use the
power of government to take their neighbor’s private property (hard
earned money) to redistribute to themselves and others for their
social benefits? I believe these are the kind of people who are
demanding the fiscal destruction of America. These aren’t American
patriots, I believe they are neo-American patriots, patriots to a new
kind of America, an America where “hope and change” abounds, an
America moving “forward” toward its destruction.
* ATLAS SHRUGGED THE MOVIE - Part 2 of the movie based on the 3
part book, Atlas Shrugged opened in theaters nation wide last Friday.
I haven’t had time to see it as yet but will as soon as possible. I
would suggest the movie will show what will happen if folks like Amir,
Bill and Carolyn control the future of America. Just remember, the
author of Atlas Shrugged was an atheist and as such determined her own
standard of morality, which was Godless and immoral. However, she
really understood the principles of socialism and how they destroy the
mentality and viability of a nation.
I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.
Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com
++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
++ I’VE BEEN WARNING, THE STATE CHAMBER’S REAL AGENDA
++ THE OKLAHOMAN, THE GOOD & THE UGLY
++ OCPAC MEMBERSHIP UP-DATE
++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, September 26th will be held at
Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. This will be our
final week for interviewing candidates and then next week we will vote
to determine which candidates we will support. In addition we will
also vote on some issues that will become positions that OCPAC
supports for the up-coming legislative session.
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
* TUESDAY EVENING (tonight) - BIXBY AREA - Americans for
Prosperity invites folks to attend a special Back to School movie
night to honor Dr. Milton Friedman. The event will be at the Starworld
20 Theater in Bixby, 10301 S. Memorial Dr. from 7 to 9:00 p.m. The
movie will be: School Choice Myth Busters. This film will put to rest
many of the myths used by school choice opponents. The movie is free
with popcorn and a soft drink included. Here is the catch, there is
seating for only 100 people so you “must” RSVP: http;//
mythbustersmovie.eventbrite.com/. Following the movie there will be a
panel discussion. Guest Panelists will be State Education Board Member
Bill Price, Myth Busters movie producer James Price, Representative
Jason Nelson (R-OKC) and Mark Lee Cantrell.
* THURSDAY EVENING - MOORE AREA - The Sooner Republican Assembly
will host their monthly meeting this Thursday evening at Earls Rib in
Moore. Folks are urged to gather for dinner at 6, with the speaker
beginning at 6:45 p.m. This month’s speaker will be Dr. James Taylor
(JT), founder of R.I.O.T. (Radical, Interesting, Odd but Timely). J.T.
is a conservative black minister who is also a member of the Black
Robed Regiment. He has also produced a DVD called: A PEBBLE IN YOUR
SHOE - WHY I AM A REPUBLICAN. I have known J.T. for some time now and
plan to have him speak at a future OCPAC meeting.
++ I’VE BEEN WARNING, THE STATE CHAMBER’S REAL AGENDA
I have been trying to warn folks that the State Chamber of Commerce in
on the road toward such political power as to control the state of
Oklahoma and its policies. Oklahomans for Sovereignty and Free
Enterprise www.oksafe.org posted part of a transcript on August 21st
of this year which came from recording Fred Morgan, executive director
of the Chamber and lobbyist Chad Warmington. They were speaking at a
“lunch time Legislative Wrap Up Meeting on Tuesday, July 17th of 2012,
at Northeastern State University, on the Broken Arrow Campus.
According to OKSAFE’s web-site: “Both Morgan and Warmington make
statements that left little doubt as to the Chamber’s intentions,
revealing what most in the grassroots already knew - that the Chamber
is an agenda-driven institution, single-minded in its’ efforts to
advance corporate interests only, operating virtually without
conscious and with little or no regard to principle when it comes to
policy issues.” (I might suggest labeling that as being pragmatic
without morality) “They want what business wants. Period.”
“These Chamber representatives admit they actively find, recruit, and
run the campaigns of those candidates who will vote the way the
Chamber wants them to once elected. They call these their ‘pro-
business’ candidates. (For those out there who think there is a chance
your Chamber-supported candidate will actually represent the interests
of their home district, please understand - it doesn’t work that
way.)”
“Fred Morgan, a former legislator/lobbyist, took over as Director of
the State Chamber a couple of years ago.
Morgan stated that before he came, “…we really weren’t very
politically engaged. But we know that in order to [unclear] that … we
know we need to be engaged and we need to be involved in the political
level as well. So we have engaged very heavily at the political
level. It’s a lot easier to lobby a legislator who shares your ideas,
and your goals, and who knows something about business. And Chad is
going to go through a lot of the projects, kind of sum up our
political projects.”
According to Ok-SAFE, “The Chamber doesn’t want to waste a lot of time
working with legislators who may not agree with them, so they’ve
decided it’s better to pick and run their own guys. This is called
‘being politically engaged in the process.’”
“Warmington admits, ’So we run campaigns, essentially, out of one side
of our shop.’ His power point presentation detailed the State
Chamber’s recent activities and projects on which they are focused.
Some of those activities include:
* Finding and recruiting candidates to run for office, regardless of
party affiliation
* Running campaigns, including mail pieces - positive for their pro-
business ’friends,’ and negative for their opponents, called either
’anti-business’ or ’trial lawyers’ - and radio and phone calls (live).
* Educating the candidates once elected so they’ll vote the right way,
called ’pro-business’
*Partnering with the Research Institute for Economic Development, or
RIED, a 20-year old special interest group, to rank legislators. The
annual RIED Report claims to score legislators on ’business, jobs, and
economic development’, but the criteria used to rank them is virtually
unavailable.
* The use of The Political Intelligence Report, a subscription
information site to provide ’intelligence’ to their members. The
Intelligence Report is also used to encourage or discourage campaign
contributions, among other things.
* The creation of ’We Are Watching Them’ website, for tracking votes
and detailing a ’top offenders’ list of legislators who don’t vote the
way the Chamber wants them to vote.
* The creation of the Oklahoma Civil Justice Council, an evaluation
system to criticize judges who render decisions that the Chamber’s
corporate members don’t agree with. The criteria is based on whether
the judge’s decision ’expanded or contracted’ liability for
businesses. This recently-created Council has been criticized by Rep.
John Bennett, a conservative legislator, who pointed out that judges
are supposed to be impartial. Bennett in turn is being targeted by
the State Chamber for being ’anti-business.’”
OKSAFE goes on to say: “Warmington was quite enthusiastic over the
Chamber’s agenda - and without conscious, it seems, when it comes to
how the Chamber conducts campaigns for their chosen candidates. He
never once mentioned the character assassination the Chamber engaged
in while ’defending’ their ’pro-business friends’ during the recent
elections. Think this didn’t happen? Just ask Pastor Paul Blair of
Edmond, OK who ran against the Chamber’s buddy Senator Clark Jolley,
or Kevin McDugle of Tulsa who took on the progressive Senator Brian
Crain in the primary elections this year. The State Chamber
demonstrated they have no scruples when it comes to getting what they
want - and removing obstacles that get in their way.” Both the audio
and transcript of that meeting are available on the OKSAFE web-site.
Following are some Chamber Meeting Quotes:
“This ain’t your granddaddy’s State Chamber.” “… we have engaged very
heavily at the political level.”
“What we decided is that we couldn’t just wait and hope and pray that
good legislators showed up at the Capitol… so we run campaigns,
essentially, out of one side of our shop… we don’t care what party
you’re from,…”
“We have our legislative agenda…. [A]nd if they’re voting against the
legislation the business community wants they you’re, you get a bad
score…”
“How do I get off your list?” And I said, “It’s very easy, just kinda
vote your way off the list… if you vote the right way, you’ll get off
the list.”
“I mean, we absolutely helped switch votes.”
“Oklahoma Civil Justice Council is not directly related to the
Legislature, it’s another project we wanted to point out. We’re doing
the same thing with Judges and we’ve caught a little bit of heat for
it. It’s a brand new project that Fred uh, has, uh, been spearheading…
And we’re going to do the same job of evaluation system on Judges and
all we’re going to judge Judges on are, do they expand or contract
liability for businesses…?”
“But part of the problem is we spend all of our time to recruit good
business candidates, we get them elected, we get them educated, we get
them to vote the right way on a bill, and then the bill goes to the
Supreme Court and gets struck down… we’ve got some work to do making
sure that the business community…understand who these Judges are…”
“Representative Bennett came out and criticized us for having the gall
to evaluate judges…”
“ So, again, this is the, the RIED Score, many of you have seen it. It
lists who got what… so again, we go back to party affiliation, we
don’t care what party you’re from - we just care that you’re voting
for business.”
Now folks this next quote, I believe from Chad, is the most revealing
of them all: “Uh, and for us, you know, political guys, you know, a
lot of times we, you know, the legislature spends a lot of time
talking about things that just don’t matter - I mean, they want to
talk about tax cuts and all that stuff… So we’re going to have to
figure out… how to help, uh, refocus maybe the legislators’ attention
on things that are actually going to create jobs, versus worrying
about tax cuts and tax credits and stuff like that.”
Between all the “uhs”, “you knows” and “I means” if you need any help
reading between the lines may I suggest the following: First off look
at the arrogance, how their attitude toward lawmakers is like subjects
to control, to pull their strings and make them dance when the Chamber
plays the music. Secondly, going back to TABOR (TAxpayers Bill Of
Rights) as well as other efforts to reduce the cost of government to
the taxpayer, I have noticed it is often the very wealthy, the State
Chamber types, who are opposed to such efforts. In fact, often times
you will find this same crowd involved in efforts to raise taxes or
fees such as the effort a few years back to increase the fee we pay
when we purchase a gallon of gas or diesel, so additional monies could
be used to re-build more roads and bridges (With the take over by the
Republicans, that is now occurring without a fee or tax increase, much
to the chagrin of Tulsa’s David Blatt and the leftist think thank he
heads up).
Why does this bunch oppose tax cuts and often times support tax or fee
increases? I believe it is primarily because of their view on
economics. Regardless of what they say, I don’t believe they are
really supporters of “free market capitalism”. Their ideology leans
more toward a belief in “fascist capitalism” and or “socialist
capitalism.” Socialist capitalism is where the government owns
businesses such as the Reed Center in MWC and its adjoining hotel and
restaurant, or the water park in Edmond, as well as the Chesapeake
Energy Arena and the Thunder’s practice facility in OKC (before the
taxpayers built the $19 million practice facility near Britton Road
and the Broadway extension which is leased for $100,000 per year which
will take 190 years for OKC to re-coup its investment, the Thunder had
its own practice facility on North Lincoln which they owned for about
3 or 4 million dollars) all owned by the city of OKC and leased
through sweet-heart deals to those who use them.
Under fascist capitalism, the government doesn’t own businesses, they
just favor or control them through regulations, subsidies, grants, tax
credits or other kick-back schemes as well as determining who gets the
approved opportunities and locations for their businesses. These are
primarily re-distribution of wealth schemes, often times re-
distributing the wealth of the middle class to the very wealthy. Free
market capitalism struggles to survive against this un-fair
competition.
Bottom line, if you are going to give away a lot of money to
businesses (hundreds of millions of dollars each year) you can NOT
allow your tax base to get too low. You must keep it sufficiently high
to have enough money to give away. This system is highly immoral and
it is a system that also may facilitate the less than the best to rise
to the top as well as creating animosities between the citizens and
competitors in business.
We all want a vibrant economy, good jobs and professions for ourselves
and our children as well as an appealing place for good people in
other states to migrate to Oklahoma. Therefore, the question is, do we
try to have a free market environment with a low tax base and minimal
regulations or do we keep a high tax base with a lot of regulations
where government, not the market is picking the winners and losers? I
believe the State Chamber’s philosophy’s is the latter, after all,
they like helping their buddies and themselves other peoples money.
With all that said, we were recently approached by the State Chamber
and asked to help with passage of State Question 766, an effort to
prevent a tax on businesses, harmful to businesses. The Chamber is
right on this one and when they are right, we will join hands with
them, but when they are wrong, we will oppose them.
++ THE OKLAHOMAN, THE GOOD & THE UGLY
Over the past few weeks I have been suggesting that the Oklahoman has
been returning to its more conservative history on the editorial
page. Actually they have been writing a lot of good columns, but
recently they really messed up. Yes, I was on vacation for 15 days,
but I eventually get caught up with the 5 newspapers I read and low
and behold, September 1st was a very ugly day for the Oklahoman’s
editorial page. The editorial in question is not long. I will put my
opinion comments in italics and in parenthesis.
“Election Message”
Taking advantage of President Barack Osama’s “you didn’t build that”
comment, Republicans repeatedly highlighted entrepreneurs and the
reality of achieving the American dream during the party’s national
convention. The national GOP clearly wants to be seen as a defender of
free markets and the ability of one man or woman with an idea to
succeed. Locally, Republican voters endorsed that message by electing
Mark McBride to a state House seat in Moore. McBride, who owns a
roofing and construction business, replaces state Rep. randy Terrill,
a Republican known for anti-business obsessions.
(First off, I am very glad Mark McBride won his race, he was also
backed by OCPAC. However, in all the years I have known Randy Terrill,
which is before he was even in the legislature, I have never known him
to have any anti-business ideas, much less anti-business obsessions.
If my memory serves me correctly, Randy was a major force in
eliminating some of the franchise taxes on small businesses and a huge
supporter of the reductions in the state income tax rates, both pro
business efforts. I suspect what the Oklahoman is talking about were
Randy’s efforts to pass HB 1804, the legislation to deal with the
invasion of illegal aliens into our state.
If the Oklahoman thinks it is pro-business to risk radically changing
our culture, eventually creating sufficient numbers of minority voters
nation wide to make sure Democrats like Obama will eventually be un-
beatable, if they are willing to sacrifice our national sovereignty
for cheap labor, then they are some sick puppies. None of those three
serious issues are pro-business in the long run and that doesn’t even
take into account the stressrd on our jobs for citizens, health care,
education, welfare or jail and prison systems that we have to deal
with today).
McBride’s runoff opponent was backed by the Sooner Tea Party, a
splinter group that (unlike the national tea party movement) tends to
view individuals’ business success as suspect or worse.
(The Sooner Tea Party probably attaches itself to candidates in many
cases without being asked and since they are a splinter group, why
even bring them up? They are ineffective and more likely to be the
kiss of death for a candidate rather than a help. I have no use for
the Sooner Tea Party or its leader Al Gerhart, but I will say this, Al
is a hard working small businessman that I have never known to be
against business success as long as those achieving success did so
according to the principles of the free market and did not break the
law to achieve their success).
McBrides win is a victory for free-market viewpoints in the Oklahoma
GOP, and a rebuke to the Occupy Wall Street-style hysteria some sought
to embed in Republican circles.”
(I am sorry, but that statement is foolish on its face. In the past I
have stated my belief that Mark’s opponent wasn’t in control of her
emotions sufficiently to be a good lawmaker. As wild as her attacks
were at some times, she wasn’t anywhere near to promoting the extreme
leftist ideas of the Occupy movement. Among all the occupy movement
stooges in Oklahoma, I doubt you could find a single person in that
effort registered as a Republican.
Randy Terrill’s political fortunes, as far as holding office again,
have probably been irreparably harmed. But, he has done much more for
the State of Oklahoma and its citizens that deserves honor than he has
done that deserves ridicule. This editorial by the Oklahoman was off
base and over the top in my opinion. Hopefully they will avoid this
kind of tripe in the future and get back to writing quality
editorials).
++ OCPAC MEMBERSHIP UP-DATE
As of last Wednesday, OCPAC has 242 dues paying members which is ahead
of last year’s membership of 217. The largest number of memberships
come from OKC, with Edmond a close second and then Tulsa is in 3rd
place. For your interest the following is a list of other towns or
cities across Oklahoma with dues paying members, they are not in any
order: Moore, Holdenville, Blanchard, Shawnee, Harrah, Calvin, Konawa,
Hooker, Seminole, Jones, Norman, Meridian, Midwest City, Duncan,
Broken Bow, Broken Arrow, Del City, Guthrie, Yukon, Ponca City,
Stratford, Alva, Lawton, Mustang, Luther, Choctaw, Newkirk,
Bartlesville, Ada, Purcell, Warr Acres, Owasso, Nichols Hills, Macomb,
Wyandotte, Sapulpa, Newcastle and Arapaho.
As you can see, we have members from the Southeast to the Panhandle
and from the Northeast to the Southwest as well as many points in-
between. OCPAC is truly a statewide organization with dues paying
members from all over that state, many of whom can seldom if ever
attend our meetings, but they know we support quality candidates from
all over the state in our effort to make Oklahoma a more conservative
state.
One of the reasons for such support, it that none of your
contributions are eaten up by staff as we are all volunteer, and very
little is spent on overhead. Yet we do the hard work of trying to
ferret out the true conservatives from the moderates or even RINO’s.
Unless you are willing to do that work for yourself, may I suggest
your support for conservatism through OCPAC. If you have not joined
OCPAC for this year, please consider doing so by Wednesday the 3rd of
October. After our members present at our meeting vote to determine
which candidates we have been interviewing are to receive our support,
we will get checks out to them with haste so they have the time to
plan on how to best use that money. Instructions on how to join are
below.
I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.
Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com