<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?><?xml-stylesheet href="http://www.blogger.com/styles/atom.css" type="text/css"?><feed xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom' xmlns:openSearch='http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearchrss/1.0/' xmlns:georss='http://www.georss.org/georss' xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431481429087105402</id><updated>2012-02-13T03:28:07.088-06:00</updated><title type='text'>Oklahoma Conservative Political Action Committee</title><subtitle type='html'>The News and Charlie's Views</subtitle><link rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#feed' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default?max-results=100'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/'/><link rel='hub' href='http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/'/><link rel='next' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default?start-index=101&amp;max-results=100'/><author><name>Charlie Meadows</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12159891905392720848</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='26' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_F_NJvphHJNU/S6DeHxvDM5I/AAAAAAAAADY/_8wLtI8on44/S220/charliesepia.jpg'/></author><generator version='7.00' uri='http://www.blogger.com'>Blogger</generator><openSearch:totalResults>186</openSearch:totalResults><openSearch:startIndex>1</openSearch:startIndex><openSearch:itemsPerPage>100</openSearch:itemsPerPage><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431481429087105402.post-7322409891564074655</id><published>2012-02-13T03:26:00.001-06:00</published><updated>2012-02-13T03:28:07.134-06:00</updated><title type='text'>CHARLIE’S PICKS  -  SPECIAL ELECTIONS, 2-14-12, VALINTINES DAY</title><content type='html'>As always, please accept that these are simply my opinions based on&lt;br /&gt;varying levels of research into the candidates. These are primarily&lt;br /&gt;for voters who are undecided as yet. Some may have information of&lt;br /&gt;which I am not aware and thus have a different opinion and that is&lt;br /&gt;just fine. This may be forwarded if you chose. If you do not receive&lt;br /&gt;the weekly e-mail from OCPAC and would like to, please send an e-mail&lt;br /&gt;to: charliemeadows7@gmail.com with the word add in the subject line&lt;br /&gt;and I will add you to our list. Your name will not be shared, loaned&lt;br /&gt;or sold to anyone.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Senate District 20,  WAYNE MURPHEY  -  The district includes all of&lt;br /&gt;Logan, Noble, Pawnee and most of Kingfisher Counties. There are 4&lt;br /&gt;candidates in this Republican primary. I have attended several&lt;br /&gt;candidate forums, asked questions and talked with all of them If I&lt;br /&gt;needed clarifications from them on the issues. The 2 conservatives in&lt;br /&gt;the race are Chris Humphries and Wayne Murphey, both of them are&lt;br /&gt;pastors and both of them are home school dads. However, Chris was&lt;br /&gt;unable to raise anywhere near the kind of money to be competitive and&lt;br /&gt;thus is NOT a viable candidate. Wayne Murphey is the ONLY viable&lt;br /&gt;conservative in this race. He received OCPAC’s endorsement, along with&lt;br /&gt;the endorsements from OK2A (Oklahoma’s effective 2nd Amendment&lt;br /&gt;organization) and I.R.O.N., Oklahoma’s leading organization trying to&lt;br /&gt;deal with the invasion of illegal aliens.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The other 2 candidates, Phil Berkenbile and A.J. Griffin are more&lt;br /&gt;moderate Republicans. Both of them are a little squishy when it comes&lt;br /&gt;to eliminating the state income tax, on 2nd Amendment issues,&lt;br /&gt;corporate welfare and both of them have taken significant&lt;br /&gt;contributions from lobbyists and unions. Berkenbile is the recipient&lt;br /&gt;of the strong arm letter sent to lobbyists from the powerful House&lt;br /&gt;majority leader, Dale DeWitt, a moderate in his own right. As I said&lt;br /&gt;in a previous e-mail, the strong arm letter had a hint of “pay to&lt;br /&gt;play” and the lobbyists took it serious as he raised nearly 3 and a&lt;br /&gt;half times (about 70K) the money that Wayne Murphey was able to raise.&lt;br /&gt;None the less, Wayne Murphey is the father of Jason Murphey,&lt;br /&gt;Oklahoma’s most conservative State Representative and as such the&lt;br /&gt;Murphey name is well liked in most parts of Logan County, which has&lt;br /&gt;the largest portion of Republican votes. I expect Mr. Murphey to win&lt;br /&gt;on Valentines day, my wife and I will both vote for Mr. Murphey.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Senate District 46,  JASON REESE  -  This district includes most of&lt;br /&gt;the North central part of OKC, downtown and parts of South central&lt;br /&gt;OKC. Jason Reese, while solid on the life issues and school choice,&lt;br /&gt;Jason is NOT a reliable conservative on most other issues. In my&lt;br /&gt;opinion, the members of OCPAC made a mistake when they voted about 2&lt;br /&gt;to 1 to endorse Reese. Our safety valve is that the finance committee&lt;br /&gt;determines the amount we give to those our members endorse. We gave&lt;br /&gt;him an all time low amount of $100. In talking with Jason, he kind of&lt;br /&gt;laughed and said, if elected, he might be the first person OCPAC&lt;br /&gt;endorsed and then possibly receive our RINO Award at a later date.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;While I believe he might be a negative influence in the Republican&lt;br /&gt;senate caucus as he is articulate, and while I personally like him, I&lt;br /&gt;only endorse him because of who he is running against. His Democrat&lt;br /&gt;opponent is Al McAffery, the most liberal Democrat in the House with a&lt;br /&gt;lifetime score of an 11 on the Oklahoma Constitution Newspaper’s&lt;br /&gt;Conservative Index. In addition, McAffery is not just a homosexual,&lt;br /&gt;but he is a flaming homosexual, working hard to advance the homosexual&lt;br /&gt;agenda. May I suggest Jason Reese as simply the better of the two&lt;br /&gt;candidates.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;House District 1,  JOE SILK  This district encompasses the far&lt;br /&gt;Southeast corner of Oklahoma with McCurtain county making up most of&lt;br /&gt;the district.  Joe won an impressive primary victory against 3 other&lt;br /&gt;Republican candidates, but it will get much tougher on Tuesday. The&lt;br /&gt;Republican who died in office last year was the first Republican to&lt;br /&gt;ever hold office from this district. With a 7 to 1 Democrat&lt;br /&gt;registration advantage, it will be very difficult to keep this seat,&lt;br /&gt;especially since 2 independent candidates will also be on the ballot.&lt;br /&gt;One of those independents is the daughter of the deceased Republican&lt;br /&gt;office holder.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Over the months I have had several conversations with Joe and found&lt;br /&gt;him to have excellent values, and core conservative instincts. He is a&lt;br /&gt;former missionary and a home school dad. He only woke up to state&lt;br /&gt;issues a couple of years ago, but is learning fast. He is very open to&lt;br /&gt;dialogue about ideology. If he can somehow eke out a victory, I&lt;br /&gt;believe he will soon be ranked in the top 10 most conservative members&lt;br /&gt;of the House. I strongly suggest a vote for Joe Silk.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;House District 71,  YOUR CHOICE  This district is in the Tulsa area. I&lt;br /&gt;believe there were 7 candidates who filed for this office. One was&lt;br /&gt;disqualified, and one withdrew. Three of the candidates came to OCPAC&lt;br /&gt;for the interview process, one didn’t bring a completed survey and was&lt;br /&gt;therefore not allowed to vie for our endorsement. Our members strongly&lt;br /&gt;voted to make no endorsement in that race as the 2 ladies which did&lt;br /&gt;appear were not very conservative. One of the candidates husband has&lt;br /&gt;been a member of OCPAC for some time and I expect his wife to win, but&lt;br /&gt;I hesitate to make an endorsement without being able to go over issues&lt;br /&gt;with her.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;OKC School Board district 4,  CRYSTAL HODGES  The following schools&lt;br /&gt;are located in this district:  Capitol Hill elementary, Edgmere&lt;br /&gt;Elementary, Eugene Field Elementary, Gatewood Elementary, Hawthorne&lt;br /&gt;Elementary, Sequoyah Elementary, Wilson Elementary (this is where I&lt;br /&gt;attended K and 1st grade), Classen School of Advanced Studies, Emerson&lt;br /&gt;High School, ASTEC Charter School, DOVE Charter, Independence High&lt;br /&gt;School Charter, Harding Charter School, as well as Taft Middle School&lt;br /&gt;and Northwest Classen Highschool.  All 3 candidates are registered as&lt;br /&gt;Republicans, though school board races are non-partisan. However,&lt;br /&gt;Patrick Gaines has a sign in his front yard, supporting the ultra-&lt;br /&gt;liberal homosexual Al McAffery and the other lady in the race has&lt;br /&gt;spoken highly of the liberal Democrat on her web page or face book&lt;br /&gt;postings, that is according to a reliable source. Crystal Hodges came&lt;br /&gt;to OCPAC and impressed our members with her intelligence, conservatism&lt;br /&gt;and passion to make a difference in the government schools, even&lt;br /&gt;thought she is a home school mom.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Guthrie School Board, Wards 1 &amp;amp; 7  TRAVIS SALLEE &amp;amp; SHARRON WATTS  -&lt;br /&gt;Anyone, living in the Guthrie School District, regardless if they are&lt;br /&gt;registered as a Republican, Independent or Democrat, may vote in this&lt;br /&gt;race. In addition you get to vote for the candidates in both wards 1 &amp;amp;&lt;br /&gt;7. Though these races are non-partisan, I believe membership in a&lt;br /&gt;particular party should be based on what the party stands for and as&lt;br /&gt;such it means a lot to me. The two incumbents are both Democrats,&lt;br /&gt;while both Sallee and Watts are Republicans. Both Republicans have&lt;br /&gt;insisted on carefully evaluating any proposed school bond proposition&lt;br /&gt;to make sure the funds are really needed as well as reasonable in&lt;br /&gt;their amount. In the past we have had irrational proposals offered to&lt;br /&gt;the Guthrie patrons, who have responded with resounding defeats of&lt;br /&gt;those bond proposals.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are probably many other school board elections, I simply don’t&lt;br /&gt;have the time to evaluate those other than the ones I have mentioned&lt;br /&gt;above.  May you vote with wisdom.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Thanks for your time and attention.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Charlie Meadows&lt;br /&gt;Charliemeadows7@gmail.com&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5431481429087105402-7322409891564074655?l=ocpacnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/feeds/7322409891564074655/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=5431481429087105402&amp;postID=7322409891564074655' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/7322409891564074655'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/7322409891564074655'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/2012/02/charlies-picks-special-elections-2-14.html' title='CHARLIE’S PICKS  -  SPECIAL ELECTIONS, 2-14-12, VALINTINES DAY'/><author><name>Charlie Meadows</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12159891905392720848</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='26' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_F_NJvphHJNU/S6DeHxvDM5I/AAAAAAAAADY/_8wLtI8on44/S220/charliesepia.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431481429087105402.post-8531985387424917504</id><published>2012-02-07T14:55:00.001-06:00</published><updated>2012-02-07T14:55:49.066-06:00</updated><title type='text'>MY PERSPECTIVE ON THE FIRST DAY AT THE CAPITOL ++  OCPAC PRESIDENTIAL STRAW POLL RESULTS</title><content type='html'>++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING&lt;br /&gt;++  ANNOUNCEMENTS&lt;br /&gt;++  MY PERSPECTIVE ON THE FIRST DAY AT THE CAPITOL&lt;br /&gt;++  OCPAC PRESIDENTIAL STRAW POLL RESULTS&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, February 8th will be held at&lt;br /&gt;Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. Our speaker this&lt;br /&gt;Wednesday will be Mr. Benjamin Domenech from Virginia. Mr. Domenech is&lt;br /&gt;managing editor of Health Care News and a research fellow at The&lt;br /&gt;Heartland Institute founded in Chicago in 1984. The institute’s&lt;br /&gt;mission is to discover, develop and promote free-market solutions to&lt;br /&gt;social and economic problems. Benjamin joined the Heartland Institute&lt;br /&gt;in 2009 after several years working and writing on national health&lt;br /&gt;care policy, beginning with a political appointment as speechwriter to&lt;br /&gt;U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson. In addition&lt;br /&gt;to his work with Heartland, Benjamin is currently editor of THE CITY,&lt;br /&gt;an academic journal of faith, politics, and culture, published by&lt;br /&gt;Houston Baptist University. I really look forward to meeting Benjamin&lt;br /&gt;and hope to pick his brain about the huge subject of healthcare. You&lt;br /&gt;won’t want to miss this meeting.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  ANNOUNCEMENTS&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  TUESDAY EVENING  -  GUTHRIE  -  OK2A (Oklahoma 2nd Amendment) will&lt;br /&gt;hold their monthly meeting for the Guthrie chapter, 7:00 p.m.,&lt;br /&gt;February 7th at the Patriot Industries Gun Store, 211 East Oklahoma&lt;br /&gt;Ave.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  THURSDAY MORNING  -  OKC AREA  -  Presidential candidate Rick&lt;br /&gt;Santorum will make an appearance at H&amp;amp;H Range in OKC on Thursday&lt;br /&gt;morning, February 9th at 9:00 a.m. H&amp;amp;H is located on the North side of&lt;br /&gt;I-40 about 2 blocks East of Meridian (400 S. Vermont). There is no&lt;br /&gt;charge to attend.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  THURSDAY AFTERNOON  -  TULSA AREA  -  Rick Santorum will also&lt;br /&gt;appear at the Mabee Center on the campus of ORU (7777 S. Lewis Ave) in&lt;br /&gt;Tulsa at 1:30 p.m. Again, there is no cost to attend. It is my&lt;br /&gt;understanding the Santorum campaign contacted Chairman Matt Pinell to&lt;br /&gt;inform him they wanted to come to Oklahoma. It should not be construed&lt;br /&gt;to be an endorsement by the Republican party as they will try to&lt;br /&gt;facilitate appearances for any of the contending candidates wanting to&lt;br /&gt;appear in Oklahoma.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  THURSDAY EVENING  -  ADA  -  OK2A will hold their monthly meeting&lt;br /&gt;for the Ada chapter, 6:30 p.m. February 9th at JD’s Café (911 N.&lt;br /&gt;Broadway). If you plan to eat, please arrive at least 30 minutes&lt;br /&gt;early.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  THURSDAY EVENING  -  STILLWATER  -  OK2A will hold their monthly&lt;br /&gt;meeting for the Stillwater chapter, 6:30 p.m. February 9th at Mexico&lt;br /&gt;Joe’s (311 E. Hall of Fame Ave.). Please arrive early if you plan to&lt;br /&gt;eat.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  THURSDAY EVENING  -  MOORE  -  The Sooner Republican Assembly will&lt;br /&gt;hold their monthly meeting at Earl’s Rib in Moore. The program will&lt;br /&gt;start at 6:45 but folks will gather at 6:00 p.m. if they want to eat.&lt;br /&gt;Cleveland County Sheriff Joe Lester will be the speaker. Visitors are&lt;br /&gt;welcome.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  MY PERSPECTIVE ON THE FIRST DAY AT THE CAPITOL&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  THE LEGISLATIVE PRAYER CAUCUS  -  I felt much better on Monday and&lt;br /&gt;arrived at the Capitol in plenty of time to participate in the&lt;br /&gt;formation of the Oklahoma Legislative Prayer Caucus. It was an&lt;br /&gt;impressive crowd that assembled in the Rotunda and an impressive&lt;br /&gt;number of lawmakers who have signed on the be a part of the Caucus. I&lt;br /&gt;was told by one of the organizers, they have started off with 76&lt;br /&gt;members which is 52% of those currently in the legislature.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As I watched the lawmakers who were gathered, both Democrats and&lt;br /&gt;Republicans, walk up to the microphone to introduce themselves before&lt;br /&gt;they signed the proclamation, it caused me to reflect.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Accepting the notion that they are all brothers and sisters in the&lt;br /&gt;Lord, I pondered as to why many of them are on opposite sides of many&lt;br /&gt;of the issues that are wrangled over at the Capitol, especially within&lt;br /&gt;the Republican party. I would suggest that God is not of a divided&lt;br /&gt;opinion on issues and that He has no confusion or vagueness about&lt;br /&gt;every problem faced by our leaders, so why the division between&lt;br /&gt;professing Christians?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Perhaps, the same question could be asked as to why we have so many&lt;br /&gt;different denominations or expressions of Christianity? Quite often&lt;br /&gt;those differences exist because of honest differences in&lt;br /&gt;interpretation or understanding of God’s Word. In addition, some&lt;br /&gt;adhere to a particular flavor of Christianity, not so much based as a&lt;br /&gt;result of a close personal examination of God’s Word, but more so out&lt;br /&gt;of family tradition. Then of course some may be ill motivated,&lt;br /&gt;participating for the purpose of personal gain, participating out of&lt;br /&gt;selfish ambition (James 3:13-16), or even worse motivated by anger as&lt;br /&gt;a result of rejecting a valid discipline brought to them at some point&lt;br /&gt;in time through other Christians.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Truth is, we professing Christians sometimes find ourselves serving&lt;br /&gt;God out of a divided heart. Loving God with half of our heart and&lt;br /&gt;loving the world with the other half of our heart. Sometimes our&lt;br /&gt;commitment toward Him is only in degrees and unfortunately, many of&lt;br /&gt;those professing to be his, have never taken the time or effort to&lt;br /&gt;read His Word with an open heart, prayerfully asking Him to reveal&lt;br /&gt;Himself to them through His Spirit. Bottom line, not much interest in&lt;br /&gt;developing a relationship with the God of all Creation.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There is a powerful scripture found in I John 1:5-7, for my purposes&lt;br /&gt;here a particular part of verse 7 which goes like this:  “but if we&lt;br /&gt;walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one&lt;br /&gt;another ….”. The word light is both a reference to God and a word used&lt;br /&gt;to describe our understanding of Him. As I said earlier God is not&lt;br /&gt;confused and he is not of a divided opinion on issues. He knows what&lt;br /&gt;is truth and what is good versus what is wrong or evil. The problem is&lt;br /&gt;with us. May I suggest, that when we are divided on issues, that is a&lt;br /&gt;result of us not walking in the same light as He is in the light. That&lt;br /&gt;could be the result of one person understanding God’s perspective on&lt;br /&gt;an issue and the other person not having that understanding. It could&lt;br /&gt;also be the result of neither of them having an understanding of God’s&lt;br /&gt;perspective on an issue. Again, true fellowship in Him occurs when 2&lt;br /&gt;or more people are all WALKING in the light of God’s understanding.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;One of the great problems in the Church today, is the failure of&lt;br /&gt;pastors to teach about God’s principles as to how they should apply to&lt;br /&gt;public policy. Many pastors will never, or rarely, touch those&lt;br /&gt;subjects. Some will, and do a good job, while others, such as Jeremiah&lt;br /&gt;Wright, or locally, Robin Myers, do so, but in my opinion fail to&lt;br /&gt;rightly divide the Word of God and thus teach great error. Regardless,&lt;br /&gt;these are the kinds of churches from which our lawmakers come.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;With all that said, I have a sincere hope that “IF” the members of&lt;br /&gt;Oklahoma’s Legislative Prayer Caucus will humbly come together in&lt;br /&gt;prayer, sincerely seeking God’s understanding, unity and direction, it&lt;br /&gt;will become a real difference maker. We should pray for this as these&lt;br /&gt;people in authority carry out their function as lawmakers for the&lt;br /&gt;State of Oklahoma.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If that will occur in true sincerity, who knows, that might even begin&lt;br /&gt;to cause them to seek God’s perspectives on the issues in which they&lt;br /&gt;must make decisions.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  GOVERNOR FALLIN’S ADDRESS  -  I got back from lunch in time to get&lt;br /&gt;a good seat to hear the Governor’s second state of the state address.&lt;br /&gt;Once all the pomp and ceremony ended and the Governor began, I must&lt;br /&gt;confess I got really sleepy and must of dozed off for a couple of&lt;br /&gt;moments, because when I perked back up, the Governor was going down a&lt;br /&gt;list of things in which she wanted to increase spending. I leaned over&lt;br /&gt;to a person next to me and asked if the Governor was a Democrat or&lt;br /&gt;Republican which certainly evoked a smile?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Then she began to get down to her ideas on reducing the size of&lt;br /&gt;government, increasing efficiencies and reducing taxes. Currently&lt;br /&gt;Oklahoma has a graduated tax system with 7 brackets. A person actually&lt;br /&gt;starts paying a minimal amount on the first dollar earned and then&lt;br /&gt;reaches the top tax bracket of 5.25% upon earning about $14,000. Our&lt;br /&gt;current system has a good number of exemptions, credits, carve outs&lt;br /&gt;and kick backs which can effect the amount of our overall tax burden.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Governor’s plan is to eliminate many of the exemptions, credits,&lt;br /&gt;carve outs and kick backs and replace them with a more simple plan,&lt;br /&gt;one with only 3 tax brackets, but based on a lower income tax rate.&lt;br /&gt;She wants couples making less than $30,000 ($15,000 for individuals)&lt;br /&gt;per year to pay no state income tax, those making from $30,000 to&lt;br /&gt;$70,000 ($35,000 for individuals) per year to pay 2.25 percent and&lt;br /&gt;those making above $70,000 (above $35,000 for individuals) per year to&lt;br /&gt;pay only 3.5%. In addition, she wants to see additional quarter point&lt;br /&gt;drops in the income tax rates based on any year there is a 5% or&lt;br /&gt;greater growth in tax revenues to the state. Under that scenario, in&lt;br /&gt;the best of conditions, it will take a minimum of 9 years to totally&lt;br /&gt;eliminate the income tax for those earning between 30 and 70 thousand&lt;br /&gt;a year and 14 years to totally eliminate the income tax for every&lt;br /&gt;Oklahoman. She wants her plan to take effect starting January 1st of&lt;br /&gt;next year (2013).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;While, this is much better than what we currently have, I would prefer&lt;br /&gt;a modification to this plan. With my wife retiring in less than 2&lt;br /&gt;months and my entering into semi-retirement as of January 1st of this&lt;br /&gt;year, we would fit in the category of paying no taxes starting next&lt;br /&gt;year and thus be at the maximum benefit level. However, I would be&lt;br /&gt;most willing to give up our maximum benefit for a better plan.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Here is my problem. The concept of a graduated income tax was crafted&lt;br /&gt;in a library in London England in 1848 by a man named Karl Marx. The&lt;br /&gt;concept of a flat rate plan is from God’s Word as expressed through&lt;br /&gt;the concept of tithing. The poor were to pay 10% of their first fruits&lt;br /&gt;(earnings), the middle class were to pay 10% and the wealthy were to&lt;br /&gt;pay 10%. In much of the national debate for tax reform, most&lt;br /&gt;conservatives are proposing a flat tax on our earnings or a national&lt;br /&gt;consumption tax (sales tax) known as THE FAIR TAX, which is also a&lt;br /&gt;flat tax, but on spending rather than on earnings.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;My problem is that the Governor continues to support a Marxist&lt;br /&gt;philosophy of a graduated income tax rather than the Biblical model of&lt;br /&gt;a flat tax. I would much rather see the rate reduced to the same level&lt;br /&gt;for everyone, perhaps that would be somewhere around 2.25%? Then&lt;br /&gt;strive to step it down under some kind of a formula.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Of course Democrats and other liberals will scream that the sky is&lt;br /&gt;falling and that the insensitive Republicans are trying to reduce the&lt;br /&gt;size of government on the backs of the poor and the middle class.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Truth is, the middle class will benefit from a lower tax burden and&lt;br /&gt;while the poor may at first have to pay a very small amount more, that&lt;br /&gt;is very important that they have to pay something. If not, we have the&lt;br /&gt;dangerous situation existing which is the opposite of our Founders&lt;br /&gt;when they were suffering from “taxation without representation.” That&lt;br /&gt;opposite and dangerous situation could best be described as&lt;br /&gt;“representation without taxation”. Under that scenario, people can&lt;br /&gt;vote to receive benefits from government (their neighbors’ money) and&lt;br /&gt;yet not have to pay for any of the costs of government.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In the long run, the poor will benefit when job growth occurs as a&lt;br /&gt;result of a better business environment develops. Also, when&lt;br /&gt;businesses have to compete for employees, wages also rise, which will&lt;br /&gt;also benefit the poor.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Exempting the poor from paying anything is an easier sell to the&lt;br /&gt;public, but it is Marxist in its ideology and thus morally wrong.&lt;br /&gt;Hopefully, through negotiations the final product will resemble a&lt;br /&gt;Biblical model rather than one designed by the Father of Communism,&lt;br /&gt;Karl Marx.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  OCPAC PRESIDENTIAL STRAW POLL RESULTS&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;First, I want to say a huge thanks to everyone that cast a vote in our&lt;br /&gt;Presidential straw poll. I respect everyone’s decision and thanks to&lt;br /&gt;so many of you for your kind words of encouragement toward me&lt;br /&gt;regarding my efforts and more particularly the things being&lt;br /&gt;accomplished by OCPAC.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;We conducted a straw poll last year and kept the percentage totals&lt;br /&gt;separated between those voting by e-mail and those voting at our&lt;br /&gt;meeting. Four years ago, Ron Paul won the straw poll at our meeting&lt;br /&gt;with about 45% of the vote, though we only allowed dues paying member&lt;br /&gt;to vote at that time.  Through the e-mails Ron Paul won with about 43%&lt;br /&gt;of the vote. I don’t remember the other totals, but Governor Huckabee&lt;br /&gt;came in second at our meeting and through the e-mails.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I will be a little more exact and specific for this year’s poll just&lt;br /&gt;completed:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Members casting ballots at our meeting gave Ron Paul 50%, Rick&lt;br /&gt;Santorum 36%, Mitt Romney 8% and Newt Gingrich 6%.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Non members casting ballots at our meeting gave Rick Santorum 39%, Ron&lt;br /&gt;Paul 22%, Mitt Romney 19% and Newt Gingrich 19%.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The total for everyone at our meeting was Rick Santorum at 38%, Ron&lt;br /&gt;Paul 36%, Mitt Romney at 14% and Newt Gingrich at 13%&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Now for those voting via e-mail:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Ron Paul won with 47% of the vote, Rick Santorum was at 34%, Newt&lt;br /&gt;Gingrich at 14% and Mitt Romney finished last with 6% of the vote.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If I add all votes cast, both from our meeting and on line, Ron Paul&lt;br /&gt;wins with 44% (very similar numbers to 4 years ago), Rick Santorum is&lt;br /&gt;second at 35%, Newt Gingrich at 13% and Mitt Romney at 8%.  I believe&lt;br /&gt;many of the Santorum people of today were probably Huckabee people of&lt;br /&gt;4 years ago.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The size of the sampling was based on 241 votes cast. Please remember,&lt;br /&gt;this is not a scientific poll, but rather a measure of the thinking of&lt;br /&gt;people who are more active and involved than the average voter. I&lt;br /&gt;expect the vote on the evening of March 6th in Oklahoma to possibly be&lt;br /&gt;quite different.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;One of the things I have said many times in the past is that elections&lt;br /&gt;are first about the quality and character of the voters and secondly&lt;br /&gt;about the candidates. I have also said that the majority usually (not&lt;br /&gt;always) makes the wrong decision on presidential and congressional&lt;br /&gt;elections! Why do I say that? It is fairly simple. If the majority had&lt;br /&gt;been making the correct decisions over the past several decades, then&lt;br /&gt;we would not have seen the decline in our nation and we would not be&lt;br /&gt;facing the very difficult problems we face today. I will take it one&lt;br /&gt;step farther. Should America re-elect President Obama this November, I&lt;br /&gt;believe America will have lost the ability to self govern itself, or&lt;br /&gt;at least, govern itself for good.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Now, there isn’t a snow ball’s chance in Hell that Obama will win in&lt;br /&gt;Oklahoma and probably the same can be said that there is no chance&lt;br /&gt;that he could lose in California, Illinois, or New York. If that turns&lt;br /&gt;out to be true, won’t it just go to show how different the ideology&lt;br /&gt;and values are that have been inculcated into the people in these&lt;br /&gt;different parts of America? I would say the division is deep, huge and&lt;br /&gt;it will be problematic to deal with in the future. If Obama is re-&lt;br /&gt;elected, folks better pray that the Republicans take control of the&lt;br /&gt;Senate in a rather large way and increase or at least hold on to their&lt;br /&gt;lead in the House.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This division is spiritual at its core. Oklahoma is what it is because&lt;br /&gt;we are a state were a large number of its citizens hold to some level&lt;br /&gt;of respect toward the God of the Bible. I am afraid, that too many of&lt;br /&gt;the people in the other states I mentioned serve a God of their own&lt;br /&gt;imaginations! Oh Lord God, please bring us to a place of repentance in&lt;br /&gt;our nation. Please start with your own people.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday. If you have not&lt;br /&gt;joined OCPAC as yet, please do so now. We finished January with 154&lt;br /&gt;dues paying members and already several have joined in February. We&lt;br /&gt;are running ahead of last year’s schedule. Instructions on how to join&lt;br /&gt;will follow my sign off.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Charlie Meadows&lt;br /&gt;Charliemeadows7@gmail.com&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5431481429087105402-8531985387424917504?l=ocpacnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/feeds/8531985387424917504/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=5431481429087105402&amp;postID=8531985387424917504' title='1 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/8531985387424917504'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/8531985387424917504'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/2012/02/my-perspective-on-first-day-at-capitol.html' title='MY PERSPECTIVE ON THE FIRST DAY AT THE CAPITOL ++  OCPAC PRESIDENTIAL STRAW POLL RESULTS'/><author><name>Charlie Meadows</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12159891905392720848</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='26' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_F_NJvphHJNU/S6DeHxvDM5I/AAAAAAAAADY/_8wLtI8on44/S220/charliesepia.jpg'/></author><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431481429087105402.post-3594968866538842891</id><published>2012-02-05T13:19:00.000-06:00</published><updated>2012-02-05T13:20:33.396-06:00</updated><title type='text'>Just a couple of quick announcements...</title><content type='html'>Just a couple of quick announcements&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;1) I plan on sending out the regular e-mail Tuesday morning. Sure&lt;br /&gt;would like to have more Presidential Straw Poll votes before I report&lt;br /&gt;the results next Tuesday. Therefore, if you haven’t already sent me an&lt;br /&gt;e-mail with your choice for President, or didn’t vote in person during&lt;br /&gt;last Wednesday’s meeting, please do so now. I will continue to tally&lt;br /&gt;the votes until midnight on Monday. Just send an e-mail with your&lt;br /&gt;choice for president to: charliemeadows7@gmail.com , you do not have&lt;br /&gt;to be a dues paying member to participate.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;2) Last year we had Lea Carawan, Executive Director of the National&lt;br /&gt;Prayer Caucus, speak at OCPAC about the many accomplishments in&lt;br /&gt;Washington toward stopping the censorship of the Christian influence&lt;br /&gt;upon the founding of our nation. We were informed that many states&lt;br /&gt;were forming state prayer caucuses where Christian lawmakers from both&lt;br /&gt;sides of the isle could gather for prayer to seek God’s help toward&lt;br /&gt;proper governance of each state. Many of the people participating&lt;br /&gt;understand that the core of our problems are spiritual in nature and&lt;br /&gt;the issues we wrangle over are actually the manifestations of that&lt;br /&gt;spiritual battle. With the first day of session beginning on Monday, a&lt;br /&gt;historic gathering will occur to start Oklahoma’s Legislative Prayer&lt;br /&gt;Caucus.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Therefore Christians are asked to gather at the Rotunda in the Capitol&lt;br /&gt;from 9:30 until 10:30 a.m. on Monday, February 6th for the following&lt;br /&gt;reasons:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;* To support the formation of the Oklahoma Legislative Prayer Caucus,&lt;br /&gt;a bi-partisan group of state legislators united to defend America’s&lt;br /&gt;right to trust in God&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;* Signing the Oklahoma Call to Prayer Proclamation&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;* Reaffirming our national motto: In God We Trust&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Also, don’t forget the 8th annual prayer gathering in the House and&lt;br /&gt;Senate chambers on Sunday afternoon from 2 until 4:00 p.m. Please park&lt;br /&gt;and enter on the West side of the Capitol. I have been really sick&lt;br /&gt;since last Wednesday evening and finally went to the Doctor Friday&lt;br /&gt;afternoon. Have felt some better on Saturday, but don’t know if I will&lt;br /&gt;try to get out on Sunday. This is an important time to sit in the&lt;br /&gt;chair of your own state Senator and House member to pray for them on&lt;br /&gt;the day before the session starts. I hope to make it, but time will&lt;br /&gt;tell.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Thanks for your time and attention.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Charlie Meadows&lt;br /&gt;charliemeadows7@gmail.com&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5431481429087105402-3594968866538842891?l=ocpacnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/feeds/3594968866538842891/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=5431481429087105402&amp;postID=3594968866538842891' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/3594968866538842891'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/3594968866538842891'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/2012/02/just-couple-of-quick-announcements.html' title='Just a couple of quick announcements...'/><author><name>Charlie Meadows</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12159891905392720848</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='26' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_F_NJvphHJNU/S6DeHxvDM5I/AAAAAAAAADY/_8wLtI8on44/S220/charliesepia.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431481429087105402.post-4257361220001921184</id><published>2012-02-01T08:41:00.003-06:00</published><updated>2012-02-01T13:09:17.562-06:00</updated><title type='text'>PRESIDENTIAL POLITICS ++  OCPAC MEMBERSHIP</title><content type='html'>&lt;p&gt;This posting is from January 24th.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING&lt;br /&gt;++  ANNOUNCEMENTS&lt;br /&gt;++  PRESIDENTIAL POLITICS&lt;br /&gt;++  OCPAC MEMBERSHIP&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, January 25th will be held at&lt;br /&gt;Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. Our first speaker is&lt;br /&gt;a mystery speaker and will take only about 5 minutes to share an&lt;br /&gt;important situation. Our main speaker will be Jenni White, founder and&lt;br /&gt;Executive Director of Reform Oklahoma Public Education (ROPE). In&lt;br /&gt;addition, I will make a proposal to our members for consideration to&lt;br /&gt;take OCPAC to a higher level. I will only be speaking in conceptual&lt;br /&gt;terms, we will probably vote on February 1st to change our by-laws,&lt;br /&gt;based on the discussion this Wednesday, feedback and our ability to&lt;br /&gt;fully think through what has to be done to bring it to a vote of our&lt;br /&gt;dues paying members. Don’t miss this week’s meeting as it, along with&lt;br /&gt;so many other meetings are always full of important and substantive&lt;br /&gt;information.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;++  ANNOUNCEMENTS&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;*  TUESDAY EVENING  -  EDMOND AREA  -  Our good friend Stuart Jolly,&lt;br /&gt;State Director of Americans For Prosperity, has organized and is&lt;br /&gt;sponsoring a forum regarding school choice. It will be tonight,&lt;br /&gt;January 24th from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the University of Central&lt;br /&gt;Oklahoma’s Constitution Hall, located in the Nigh Center in Edmond.&lt;br /&gt;Tickets are free, but it is preferred folks register at &lt;a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=D&amp;amp;q=www.putkidsfirst.com&amp;amp;usg=AFQjCNFSrMYl-7FqS1qSB6-0QhQSCcr5oA"&gt;www.putkidsfirst.com&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;On the panel tonight will be former Congressman J.C. Watts, State&lt;br /&gt;Senator Gary Stanislawski (R-Tulsa), State School Superintendent Dr.&lt;br /&gt;Janet Barresi, John Fund of the Wall Street Journal and Jeff Reed of&lt;br /&gt;the Friedman Foundation.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;*  FRIDAY EVENING  -  MOORE AREA  -  The Oklahoma City and Norman TEA&lt;br /&gt;PARTIES, along with KQCV radio (800 AM), are sponsoring a “Renovate&lt;br /&gt;Washington” event this Friday evening, January 27th at First Baptist&lt;br /&gt;Church of Moore (NE 27th &amp;amp; I-35). The featured speaker will be “Joe&lt;br /&gt;the Plumber”, famous for his confrontation in 2008 of then candidate&lt;br /&gt;Obama on the issue of redistribution of wealth. A banquet dinner&lt;br /&gt;begins at 6:00 p.m. and the open meeting begins at 7:15 p.m.  Tickets&lt;br /&gt;for the banquet are $17 and can be purchased by calling KQCV at&lt;br /&gt;521-0800. There is no charge for the open meeting. This should be a&lt;br /&gt;lot of fun and a big boost to the OKC and Norman tea parties.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;*  SATURDAY AFTERNOON  -  OKC AREA  -  Oklahomans for Sovereignty and&lt;br /&gt;Free Enterprise (OK-SAFE) is hosting a legislative training seminar&lt;br /&gt;this Friday afternoon from 1 to 5:00 p.m.  The location will be the&lt;br /&gt;Village Library, 10307 North Pennsylvania in OKC. The information&lt;br /&gt;presented by Amanda Teegarden is probably the best training a person&lt;br /&gt;can get when it comes to understanding the legislative process and how&lt;br /&gt;to be effective at citizen lobbying.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;++  PRESIDENTIAL POLITICS&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In my perspective on presidential politics last week, I indicated the&lt;br /&gt;belief that if Mitt Romney were to win in South Carolina, he would&lt;br /&gt;probably go on to win the nomination. Well, last week turned out to be&lt;br /&gt;a very bad week for Mitt. Not only did he find out that his previous&lt;br /&gt;razor thin win in Iowa was reversed to a win for Santorum, he was&lt;br /&gt;soundly defeated in South Carolina by Newt Gengrich.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;While I don’t trust what either of these two flip floppers say today,&lt;br /&gt;I have to admit, it would almost be worth paying admission to see a&lt;br /&gt;debate between Newt and President Obama. Newt is head and shoulders&lt;br /&gt;ahead of any of the candidates in this race when it comes to debating&lt;br /&gt;skills and the ability to relate information that connects both&lt;br /&gt;substantively and emotionally with the American people.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;During this primary process, Mitt has never been able to build much&lt;br /&gt;above that 25 or so percent of his base. During the process, several&lt;br /&gt;candidates have risen to or near the top, only to fall from that&lt;br /&gt;perch. Newt is the first one to rise to the top, fall like a rock and&lt;br /&gt;then ascend again to near the top. The next state up for grabs will be&lt;br /&gt;Florida. I believe if Mitt wins Florida, he will be the likely&lt;br /&gt;nominee. If on the other hand, Florida is won by Newt and that is&lt;br /&gt;likely, I believe he will be the likely nominee as he certainly has&lt;br /&gt;old MO (momentum) on his side right now. My prediction is based on&lt;br /&gt;human nature and how people respond to information and certain&lt;br /&gt;situations. Newt was flashy and easily won the two debates last week&lt;br /&gt;which is why he has risen to the top again.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Just remember, when Super Tuesday arrives in Oklahoma in March,&lt;br /&gt;regardless of what has happened in previous state primaries, your vote&lt;br /&gt;for the candidate you believe is trustworthy and would govern the best&lt;br /&gt;is the right thing to do. If your candidate loses, you did NOT waste&lt;br /&gt;your vote. You will have voted for the person you believed would make&lt;br /&gt;the best president. As I said in last week’s e-mail, I won’t go back&lt;br /&gt;through the reasoning right now, I will be voting for Ron Paul though&lt;br /&gt;I have some problems with three or four of his positions. There has&lt;br /&gt;not been a candidate in this race that doesn’t have weaknesses or&lt;br /&gt;isn’t errant on certain issues in my opinion.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;++  OCPAC MEMBERSHIP UP-DATE&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;My wife and I left shortly after the Clouds Over America conference&lt;br /&gt;last Saturday for one of our little mini trips to different&lt;br /&gt;communities in Oklahoma, this time to McAlester. Since we returned&lt;br /&gt;home Monday afternoon I have been so busy running around like a&lt;br /&gt;chicken without a head that I have not had time to get an exact count&lt;br /&gt;on membership. But based on the memberships that I received at last&lt;br /&gt;Wednesday’s meeting, those that came in the mail and several that were&lt;br /&gt;paid during the Clouds conference, I would expect we are now&lt;br /&gt;approaching 140 dues paying members which will probably break our all&lt;br /&gt;time record for this early in the year. I can’t thank folks enough for&lt;br /&gt;your confidence and support for what we are doing at OCPAC. If you&lt;br /&gt;have not joined as yet, please consider doing so as soon as possible.&lt;br /&gt;Instructions on how to join are below.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Charlie Meadows&lt;br /&gt;Charliemeado&lt;a target="_parent" href="http://groups.google.com/groups/unlock?_done=/group/ocpacupdate/browse_thread/thread/236de73afb746b0b&amp;amp;msg=9157ada457d80f91"&gt;...&lt;/a&gt;@gmail.com&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;To join OCPAC fill out the following and send your check to:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;OCPAC&lt;br /&gt;P.O. Box 2021&lt;br /&gt;Edmond, OK 73083&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Yes Charlie, I want to join OCPAC at one of the following levels:&lt;br /&gt;___Basic membership at $50 per year.&lt;br /&gt;Safari Club Membership:&lt;br /&gt;___Elephant Provider at ___$180 annual or ___$15 monthly&lt;br /&gt;___Elephant Provider &amp;amp; RINO Hunter, ___$360 annual or ___$30 monthly&lt;br /&gt;For monthly payments please send a voided check so we may draft your&lt;br /&gt;Checking account on a monthly basis. If you decide to discontinue&lt;br /&gt;monthly support, simply contact me and we will stop the withdrawal.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;        THE FOLLOWING IS REQUIRED BY STATE LAW !&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Print Name____________________________________________&lt;br /&gt;Address___________________City___________State____Zip_____&lt;br /&gt;Occupation____________________Employer_________________&lt;br /&gt;Date___________________Amount $_______________&lt;br /&gt;I have freely given from my own resources &amp;amp; have not been compensated&lt;br /&gt;for this contribution. (Corporate contributions not allowed by law!)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;Signature_____________________________________&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5431481429087105402-4257361220001921184?l=ocpacnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/feeds/4257361220001921184/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=5431481429087105402&amp;postID=4257361220001921184' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/4257361220001921184'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/4257361220001921184'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/2012/02/presidential-politics-ocpac-membership.html' title='PRESIDENTIAL POLITICS ++  OCPAC MEMBERSHIP'/><author><name>Charlie Meadows</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12159891905392720848</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='26' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_F_NJvphHJNU/S6DeHxvDM5I/AAAAAAAAADY/_8wLtI8on44/S220/charliesepia.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431481429087105402.post-7793026153306812153</id><published>2012-02-01T08:39:00.000-06:00</published><updated>2012-02-01T08:40:40.653-06:00</updated><title type='text'>HOME SCHOOL DEBATE AND SPEECH CONTEST ++  PRESIDENTIAL POLITICS</title><content type='html'>&lt;p&gt;This posting s from January 16th.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING&lt;br /&gt;++  ANNOUNCEMENTS&lt;br /&gt;++  HOME SCHOOL DEBATE AND SPEECH CONTEST&lt;br /&gt;++  PRESIDENTIAL POLITICS&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, January 18th will be held at&lt;br /&gt;Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln Blvd. in OKC. I am often&lt;br /&gt;asked if people may attend if they are not members? The answer is a&lt;br /&gt;resounding YES, as many of those attending are not dues paying&lt;br /&gt;members. Sometimes we even have enemies or spies attend. This&lt;br /&gt;Wednesday our speaker will be Mr. Mike LeMay, a talk radio show host&lt;br /&gt;at a Christian station in Green Bay Wisconsin. Mike is a Christian&lt;br /&gt;apologist and watchman on the wall for spiritual counterfeits. He will&lt;br /&gt;be speaking at the Clouds over America Conference about a 2 hour&lt;br /&gt;interview he did with President Obama’s most recent spiritual advisor.&lt;br /&gt;For our meeting he will be talking about the Fox Valley Conservative&lt;br /&gt;Forum and the attempt to re-call Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. I&lt;br /&gt;don’t think most people understand what an all out effort the left is&lt;br /&gt;making in Wisconsin to stop the loss of power by organized labor in&lt;br /&gt;America. They are in a political war beyond anything we have&lt;br /&gt;experienced in Oklahoma.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;++  ANNOUNCEMENTS&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;*  TUESDAY EVENING  -  OKC AREA  -  The OKC area chapter of Oklahoma&lt;br /&gt;2nd Amendment (OK2A) will meet this Tuesday evening, January 17th at&lt;br /&gt;H&amp;amp;H Gun Range (400 S. Vermont Suite 110) in OKC. The meeting will&lt;br /&gt;begin at 6:30 p.m. with the featured speaker being Dr. Tom Vineyard,&lt;br /&gt;pastor of Windsor Hills Baptist Church. While serving as a missionary&lt;br /&gt;in Africa, he was robbed and severely beaten at his home while unarmed&lt;br /&gt;and in the process of trying to protect his family. His story is a&lt;br /&gt;stark reminder of why we need to have the freedom to own and carry&lt;br /&gt;firearms to defend our homes and families. In addition, Sarah&lt;br /&gt;McKinley, the young mother from Blanchard who successfully defended&lt;br /&gt;herself and baby on New Year’s Eve by shooting and killing a drug&lt;br /&gt;enraged intruder will be in attendance to receive OK2A’s Courage&lt;br /&gt;Award. I have to be at a meeting in Guthrie, but sure wish I could be&lt;br /&gt;at this meeting to hear Tom and thank this young lady for her&lt;br /&gt;courageous actions.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;*  THURSDAY EVENING  -  MOORE AREA  -  The Sooner Republican Assembly&lt;br /&gt;will meet this Thursday evening at Earl’s Rib in Moore, with the&lt;br /&gt;dinner starting at 6 and the meeting beginning at 6:45 p.m.. They have&lt;br /&gt;invited all the mayoral and city council candidates in the Moore and&lt;br /&gt;Norman areas to speak about their up-coming races. Please bring any&lt;br /&gt;questions you may want to ask. This should be a great time to ask&lt;br /&gt;questions about their understanding of Agenda 21 and its front name,&lt;br /&gt;sustainability.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;*  FRIDAY AFTERNOON, EVENING &amp;amp; SATURDAY MORNING  -  CENTRAL OKLAHOMA&lt;br /&gt;-  Clouds Over America III will begin at 2:00 p.m. on Friday and run&lt;br /&gt;to 6:00 p.m. There will be a 30 minute break and then from 6:30 to&lt;br /&gt;7:30 a buffet dinner will be served. From 7:45 until 9:00 p.m. Dr.&lt;br /&gt;Paul Jehle of the Plymouth Rock Foundation will speak along with Mr.&lt;br /&gt;Art Thompson, CEO of the John Birch Society. Then the conference will&lt;br /&gt;resume on Saturday morning at 9:00 a.m. and continue until 12 noon.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The cost to attend the conference is $25 per person or $40 for a&lt;br /&gt;couple. Students may attend for $10. There is no charge for senior or&lt;br /&gt;full time pastors and their wives to attend. There is an additional&lt;br /&gt;charge of $25 per person to attend the evening banquet and hear the&lt;br /&gt;speakers. Senior or full time pastors and their wives attending for&lt;br /&gt;the first time may attend the banquet without charge. Pastors who have&lt;br /&gt;attended before may attend the banquet for only $10 and $10 for their&lt;br /&gt;wives. In addition, if senior or full time pastors live outside of&lt;br /&gt;Oklahoma County, lodging will be provided free. The deadline for&lt;br /&gt;reservations is Wednesday evening at 5:00 p.m. Pastors please call&lt;br /&gt;(405) 348-1745 on Tuesday or Wednesday. All others please call (405)&lt;br /&gt;348-9991 to RSVP. Again, there will be 11 speakers with this being the&lt;br /&gt;most substantive conference held in Oklahoma during 2012. Please make&lt;br /&gt;every effort to attend.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;++  HOME SCHOOL DEBATE AND SPEECH CONTEST&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I had the opportunity and privilege to be a judge this past Thursday&lt;br /&gt;and Friday evenings as well as Saturday morning for the Oklahoma-Texas&lt;br /&gt;regional qualifier round for a national home school speech and debate&lt;br /&gt;tournament. With somewhere over 200 students entered, it was an&lt;br /&gt;amazing experience.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Thursday evening I was judging biographical speeches. These speeches&lt;br /&gt;had a maximum time limit of 10 minutes with the speeches having to be&lt;br /&gt;prepared and memorized by the students. The first student did a 9&lt;br /&gt;minute speech about Karl Marx and the effects that his ideas have had&lt;br /&gt;upon the world over the past 160 years. I was particularly impressed&lt;br /&gt;as I would guess 7 out of 10 people 25 and under who were educated in&lt;br /&gt;the government schools have never heard of Marx, and then of the 3 who&lt;br /&gt;might have heard of him, they couldn’t tell you much about him. Don’t&lt;br /&gt;believe me? Start asking anyone you see 25 and under if they have ever&lt;br /&gt;heard of Marx. Other speeches were about Sigmund Freud, Al Capone, one&lt;br /&gt;young lady gave a compelling speech about her great grandfather who&lt;br /&gt;was a heavy bomber pilot in WW II.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;On Friday evening I was judging impromptu speeches which had a maximum&lt;br /&gt;time limit of 7 minutes. The young people were given a list of topics&lt;br /&gt;then they had 30 minutes to research and prepare a speech. They were&lt;br /&gt;allowed to use notes on a 3X5 index card, but no electronic devices.&lt;br /&gt;What were some of the topics chosen? One speech was about the question&lt;br /&gt;of whether or not Japan was decommissioning their nuclear power&lt;br /&gt;capabilities too quickly? Another was about Iran’s capabilities to&lt;br /&gt;prohibit the flow of crude out of the Arabian Sea? Then there was a&lt;br /&gt;speech about the possibilities of Iraq being able to prevent sectarian&lt;br /&gt;violence without outside help? This is just a sampling of the type of&lt;br /&gt;difficult speeches which had to be delivered. These kids did an&lt;br /&gt;incredible job.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Then on Saturday, I had a brief orientation for judging debates.&lt;br /&gt;Having never been a contestant or trained regarding formal debate&lt;br /&gt;contests, my only hope is that the team I didn’t pick as a winner were&lt;br /&gt;not thrown to the lions! Having been active in Toastmasters for about&lt;br /&gt;3 years, I was very comfortable judging speeches, but a formal debate&lt;br /&gt;was a challenge for me to accurately score such an event.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Bottom line, these young home schooled kids, I would guess they were&lt;br /&gt;between 12 and 18, were an outstanding example of the good job their&lt;br /&gt;parents are doing in the training-up of their children. Most of these&lt;br /&gt;young people will go on the accomplish a great deal in life and make&lt;br /&gt;outstanding parents and citizens. This was the first time this&lt;br /&gt;tournament has been held in Oklahoma. Several OCPAC members served as&lt;br /&gt;judges, if we are fortunate enough to have it in OKC again, I would&lt;br /&gt;suggest as many folks as possible serve as judges. It will give you&lt;br /&gt;real hope for the future.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;++  PRESIDENTIAL POLITICS&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;As this field shaped up several months ago, I said the only 3&lt;br /&gt;candidates I was considering for my vote were Michele Bachmann, Herman&lt;br /&gt;Cain or Ron Paul. I have had some level of disagreement with every&lt;br /&gt;person in the race.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;When a person has held office before and has a track record, I believe&lt;br /&gt;it is more important to examine how they have governed rather than to&lt;br /&gt;give priority to the words they as espousing now when they want our&lt;br /&gt;votes. I do recognize that people can change their opinions, but the&lt;br /&gt;principle of their past governance is generally more important.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I believe Mitt Romney, Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich are all&lt;br /&gt;politically expedient flip floppers with Newt being the king of the 3&lt;br /&gt;of them. I wouldn’t call Santorum a flip flopper, but rather a&lt;br /&gt;professional deal maker and compromiser. His endorsement for Arlen&lt;br /&gt;Spector (at first a Democrat, then a Republican &amp;amp; back to a Democrat),&lt;br /&gt;perhaps the most liberal Republican to ever serve in the Senate, is&lt;br /&gt;hard to forgive. At that time, Specter was in a close Republican&lt;br /&gt;primary race against a more conservative Pat Toomey (just elected to&lt;br /&gt;the Senate in 2010) when Santorum and then President George W. Bush&lt;br /&gt;publicly endorsed  Specter who eventually won the race. He stabbed&lt;br /&gt;Pennsylvania conservatives in the back and they couldn’t wait to throw&lt;br /&gt;him out in the next election. Santorum lost by 18 percentage points.&lt;br /&gt;For me, he is a person that would be very hard for me to trust, given&lt;br /&gt;his track record, though he is solid on social issues. I just can’t&lt;br /&gt;get too excited about John Huntsman, someone President Obama selected&lt;br /&gt;to be our Ambassador to China. I believe Gary Johnson has dropped out&lt;br /&gt;and is running as a Libertarian, which is where is probably needs to&lt;br /&gt;be.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Though people are telling me their thoughts, I can’t for the life of&lt;br /&gt;me understand why Michelle Bachmann sank like a rock after the Iowa&lt;br /&gt;straw poll. I liked Herman Cain regarding some issues, but became&lt;br /&gt;convinced he wasn’t up to the task, especially with his needing to&lt;br /&gt;frequently clarify himself and the people he selected caused a&lt;br /&gt;question in my mind about his abilities. The high powered attorney he&lt;br /&gt;hired to deal with all the sexual allegations didn’t do Herman any&lt;br /&gt;favors with me when his statement about the alleged multi year affair&lt;br /&gt;went something like this, “it was a consensual relationship and it is&lt;br /&gt;none of anyone’s business.” Sorry, wrong answer for me.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Therefore, through the process of elimination I am left with only one&lt;br /&gt;candidate and that is Ron Paul. I don’t necessarily disagree with his&lt;br /&gt;ideology of non-interventionism regarding foreign affairs. However, I&lt;br /&gt;don’t know how to get to that posture after intervening as the world’s&lt;br /&gt;policeman for the past 120 years or so. I don’t know how to unravel&lt;br /&gt;that web of entanglement overnight without giving encouragement to&lt;br /&gt;those who now hate us?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I would love for Ron Paul to be a U.S. Senator, but as the President&lt;br /&gt;and Commander in Chief, that concerns me. I also believe he&lt;br /&gt;underestimates the threat of Radical Islam, both here and abroad. In&lt;br /&gt;addition, his flip flop on illegal immigration really bothers me,&lt;br /&gt;especially his opposition to building a fence. I believe an effective&lt;br /&gt;fence along the full border with Mexico is one of the highest spending&lt;br /&gt;priorities in America. The funding should come out of our military&lt;br /&gt;budget. It is a higher priority than keeping troops in any nation&lt;br /&gt;anywhere else in the world. While it is technically true, that fences&lt;br /&gt;can keep people in as well as out, it is a silly argument as no one is&lt;br /&gt;suggesting people should not be able to travel outside the U.S.. I am&lt;br /&gt;also not so sure that Paul sees our trade deficit as the serious&lt;br /&gt;problem it is and I don’t know that he knows what to do about it. I&lt;br /&gt;was very disappointed the Donald Trump debate didn’t happen as I&lt;br /&gt;believe the trade issue would have been the focus of that debate. If&lt;br /&gt;we don’t fix that issue, we can’t have a REAL economic recovery.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;What I do like about Ron Paul is that I believe he and Bachmann are or&lt;br /&gt;were the only 2 candidates really committed to the kind of spending&lt;br /&gt;cuts needed to pull us back from the brink of the debt disaster.&lt;br /&gt;Though I believe both of them were wanting to get that done too&lt;br /&gt;quickly. I also appreciate his understanding of the evils of the&lt;br /&gt;Federal Reserve and his fight to eliminate it and replace it’s fiat&lt;br /&gt;federal reserve notes with gold and silver backed currency.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I also appreciate that he is probably the only candidate in the race&lt;br /&gt;that would work to get the U.S. out of the United Nations and the UN&lt;br /&gt;out of the United States. I also support his efforts to eliminate&lt;br /&gt;foreign aid, even to Israel. I personally am a supporter of Israel and&lt;br /&gt;believe in their right to live in the land that God gave to them,&lt;br /&gt;which is especially difficult when they are surrounded by irrational&lt;br /&gt;aggressors who want to see them destroyed.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;What most Americans who support Israel don’t understand it that the&lt;br /&gt;aid to Israel has been the leverage used by the United States to&lt;br /&gt;interfere and pull Israel back every time they have been on the verge&lt;br /&gt;of delivering a crushing blow to their aggressor neighbors. My idea of&lt;br /&gt;supporting Israel would be to sell them the military weapons they need&lt;br /&gt;and trade with them as much as possible. Also, there is nothing to&lt;br /&gt;keep Americans from sending financial aid to Israel through private&lt;br /&gt;efforts, but it should not be through our government.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Of course the strongest aspect of Ron Paul is his fight for liberty.&lt;br /&gt;He really understands what our founders fought for and why we must&lt;br /&gt;strive toward liberty over dependency. We must also lean toward&lt;br /&gt;prudent risk taking over the temptations to prohibit or severely limit&lt;br /&gt;risks in the name of safety or the illusions of peace. Ever increasing&lt;br /&gt;safety regulations are one of the greatest risks to our liberties as&lt;br /&gt;well as making us soft as a nation.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I guess you could say, I am willing to roll the dice on the things in&lt;br /&gt;which I disagree with Ron Paul in favor of supporting him on the&lt;br /&gt;things in which he is right. While the greatest need in our country is&lt;br /&gt;a Spiritual awakening toward Biblical Christianity, the manifestations&lt;br /&gt;of that need are our rotting culture and the growing tyranny of the&lt;br /&gt;state and more particularly the federal government.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;While Ron Paul may not be the best leader for a Spiritual awakening,&lt;br /&gt;he is the person willing to fight the tyranny of excessive and immoral&lt;br /&gt;government. I will be voting for Ron Paul, regardless of whether or&lt;br /&gt;not he has a chance to win! Many will disagree and that is fine with&lt;br /&gt;me. Citizens tend to make their minds up on a Presidential election&lt;br /&gt;based on their own research rather than the endorsements of others.&lt;br /&gt;That is because there is so much opportunity to evaluate a candidate&lt;br /&gt;on their own. If Romney wins in South Carolina, I believe he will&lt;br /&gt;probably be the Republican nominee, not that South Carolina does such&lt;br /&gt;a good job at picking the candidate, they don’t. Other than Ronald&lt;br /&gt;Reagan, they chose George H Bush, Bob Dole, George W Bush and John&lt;br /&gt;McCain. Other than Reagan, what a bunch of establishment Republican&lt;br /&gt;moderates.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;Charlie Meadows&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5431481429087105402-7793026153306812153?l=ocpacnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/feeds/7793026153306812153/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=5431481429087105402&amp;postID=7793026153306812153' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/7793026153306812153'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/7793026153306812153'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/2012/02/home-school-debate-and-speech-contest.html' title='HOME SCHOOL DEBATE AND SPEECH CONTEST ++  PRESIDENTIAL POLITICS'/><author><name>Charlie Meadows</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12159891905392720848</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='26' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_F_NJvphHJNU/S6DeHxvDM5I/AAAAAAAAADY/_8wLtI8on44/S220/charliesepia.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431481429087105402.post-3415871277766906866</id><published>2012-02-01T08:34:00.002-06:00</published><updated>2012-02-01T08:38:22.758-06:00</updated><title type='text'>IS OKC MAYOR MICK CORNETT A POT SMOKER?</title><content type='html'>&lt;p&gt;I apologize, we got behind on Charlie's postings. this one is from January 9.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING&lt;br /&gt;++  ANNOUNCEMENTS&lt;br /&gt;++  IS OKC MAYOR MICK CORNETT A POT SMOKER?&lt;br /&gt;++  FREEDOM INDEX SCORES FOR OKLAHOMA’S CONGRESSMEN&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, January 11th will be held at&lt;br /&gt;Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. Our speaker this&lt;br /&gt;week will be Amanda Teegarden, research director for Oklahomans for&lt;br /&gt;Sovereignty and Free Enterprise &lt;a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=D&amp;amp;q=www.oksafe.org&amp;amp;usg=AFQjCNG1t8u1caZUo-W84z9t1kf6lKzT_A"&gt;www.oksafe.org&lt;/a&gt;. Amanda is probably one&lt;br /&gt;of the most knowledgeable persons in the State of Oklahoma on the&lt;br /&gt;health care insurance exchanges. Interim study meetings were held in&lt;br /&gt;various places around the state this past Summer on this issue which&lt;br /&gt;is a key part of Obama Care. Amanda will give us the lowdown on the&lt;br /&gt;issue and recommend a course of action. This could be a very hot issue&lt;br /&gt;during the legislative session which starts in early February.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;++  ANNOUNCEMENTS&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;January is going to be a busy month for meetings as everyone was&lt;br /&gt;holding off until after the holidays were over. There will be many&lt;br /&gt;more events toward the end of the month.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;*  MONDAY EVENING  -  EDMOND AREA  -  We are changing the final&lt;br /&gt;session I have been teaching on Government, politics and the&lt;br /&gt;Republican Party from Tuesday evening to tonight (Monday) with the&lt;br /&gt;location being Fairview Baptist Church in Edmond (intersection of&lt;br /&gt;Danforth and North Sooner Road). We will begin teaching at 6:00 p.m.&lt;br /&gt;and break at 7 for pizza and other refreshments. Re-convening at about&lt;br /&gt;7:45 we will finish up by no later than 9:00 p.m. This will be the&lt;br /&gt;final session in this series. Much of this meeting will be about&lt;br /&gt;campaigning and the workings of the Republican party.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;*  TUESDAY EVENING  -  ADA AREA  -  The Ada-Seminole Tea Party is&lt;br /&gt;resuming their monthly meetings following the holidays. There is a new&lt;br /&gt;location, 209 West Main St. (the chamber of commerce conference room),&lt;br /&gt;with the meeting will beginning at 6:30 p.m.. One speaker this month&lt;br /&gt;will be Glen Howard talking about the nation of Israel. I consider&lt;br /&gt;Glen one of Oklahma’s real experts on the Biblical perspective on the&lt;br /&gt;nation of Israel. The other speaker will be Dr. Steve Kern, talking&lt;br /&gt;about our Founding Documents and their Christian origins. If you have&lt;br /&gt;any questions, please call (405) 941-3381.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;*  THURSDAY EVENING  -  ADA AREA  -  The new Ada Chapter of Oklahoma&lt;br /&gt;2nd Amendment (OK2A) organization will meet this Thursday evening,&lt;br /&gt;6:30 p.m. at JD’s Café (911 N. Broadway) in Ada. The speaker will be&lt;br /&gt;Tim Gillespie, Director and Founder of OK2A. Tim will be talking about&lt;br /&gt;why the 2nd Amendment is the Lynchpin of the Bill of Rights. Please&lt;br /&gt;arrive early if you plan to eat dinner.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;*  THURSDAY EVENING  -  STILLWATER AREA  -  The new Stillwater Chapter&lt;br /&gt;of OK2A will meet this Thursday evening, 7:00 p.m. at Mexico Joe’s&lt;br /&gt;restaurant (311 East Hall of Fame Ave) in Stillwater. Speaking will be&lt;br /&gt;State Representative Steve Vaughn. He will explain the expansion of&lt;br /&gt;the “Make My Day Law” passed during the last session as well as give a&lt;br /&gt;preview of the upcoming session. Again, please arrive at least 30&lt;br /&gt;minutes early if you plan to eat.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;*  THURSDAY &amp;amp; FRIDAY DAYTIME  -  EDMOND AREA  -  A Counter Terrorism&lt;br /&gt;Conference, titled: UNDERSTANDING THE THREAT TO AMERICA, will be held&lt;br /&gt;from 8:30 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. on Thursday the 12th and Friday the&lt;br /&gt;13th of January at Fairview Baptist Church in Edmond (intersection of&lt;br /&gt;Danforth and North Sooner Road). The seminar will address the threat&lt;br /&gt;posed to the U.S. and Oklahoma by militant Islam and the Muslim&lt;br /&gt;Brotherhood. It is open to the leaders from law enforcement, military,&lt;br /&gt;government, religious and the business community. Cleet training worth&lt;br /&gt;15 credit hours is available, for more information log on to &lt;a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=D&amp;amp;q=www.ok.gov/CLEET&amp;amp;usg=AFQjCNHQxboxkDDfED9FVuMqiBzKMoz3Yg"&gt;www.ok.gov/CLEET&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;The speaker for day one will be John Guandolo, a former FBI&lt;br /&gt;Counterterrorism Agent. The speaker for day two will be Steve&lt;br /&gt;Coughlin, an Army Major who formerly briefed the Join Chiefs of Staff&lt;br /&gt;at the Pentagon. Lt. General (ret) William J. Boykin, former Deputy&lt;br /&gt;Undersecretary of Defense and retired Commanding General of the U.S.&lt;br /&gt;Army’s Delta Force, will make a special appearance on Friday&lt;br /&gt;afternoon. To register for the Law Enforcement Seminar contact Katy&lt;br /&gt;Toggas at ktog&lt;a target="_parent" href="http://groups.google.com/groups/unlock?_done=/group/ocpacupdate/browse_thread/thread/8082980a7b6ff827&amp;amp;msg=a68b2088e629330f"&gt;...&lt;/a&gt;@strategicengagement.org or call (202) 491-3795.  A&lt;br /&gt;$25 materials fee is required, payable at sign in. Box lunches are&lt;br /&gt;available for $8 each day. Lunch orders should be placed at the time&lt;br /&gt;of registration.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;*  SATURDAY  -  OKC AREA  -  Constitutional scholar Michael Badnarik&lt;br /&gt;will be conducting a seminar on the U.S. Constitution in the House&lt;br /&gt;Chamber at the State Capitol, Saturday, January 14th from 9:00 a.m.&lt;br /&gt;until 6:00 p.m. The presentation, titled: Introduction to the&lt;br /&gt;Constitution, is a fundamental explanation of the philosophy of&lt;br /&gt;Liberty. The cost to attend is $150 or 4 ounces of .999 fine silver.&lt;br /&gt;Everyone attending will receive an autographed copy of Michaels book&lt;br /&gt;dealing with the subject. For more information contact Kaye Beach at&lt;br /&gt;(405) 818-3224, lady ax&lt;a target="_parent" href="http://groups.google.com/groups/unlock?_done=/group/ocpacupdate/browse_thread/thread/8082980a7b6ff827&amp;amp;msg=a68b2088e629330f"&gt;...&lt;/a&gt;@yahoo.com or Howard Houchen at (580)&lt;br /&gt;317-5058, houchen2&lt;a target="_parent" href="http://groups.google.com/groups/unlock?_done=/group/ocpacupdate/browse_thread/thread/8082980a7b6ff827&amp;amp;msg=a68b2088e629330f"&gt;...&lt;/a&gt;@gmail.com.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;++  IS OKC MAYOR MICK CORNETT A POT SMOKER?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;There is an old saying to warn folks about the kind of people in which&lt;br /&gt;you might chose to associate. It goes something like this: “if you lie&lt;br /&gt;down with dogs, you are going to get fleas.” The edgy rock group known&lt;br /&gt;as The Flaming Lips have been honored by the Mayor and other civic&lt;br /&gt;leaders by naming a back street “ally” in Bricktown after them.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In my opinion they are a crude, vulgar, immoral bunch that evidently&lt;br /&gt;loves Communism so much that one of their members wore a tee-shirt&lt;br /&gt;with the Communist hammer and sickle on the front of it at the State&lt;br /&gt;Capitol a couple of years ago while they were receiving some kind of&lt;br /&gt;state recognition while Brad Henry was still governor.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;They have also been one of the acts for the past few years on “Opening&lt;br /&gt;Night”, the Oklahoma City celebration held every New Year’s Eve in&lt;br /&gt;downtown OKC. This year the group brought in OkoOno (forgive me if I&lt;br /&gt;misspell these names) the widow of the former Beatle, John Lenin.&lt;br /&gt;During the big performance, group leader Wayne Coyne outed his good&lt;br /&gt;friend, Mayor Mick Cornett, as a pot smoker who likes to smoke in his&lt;br /&gt;own home in the good old living room. If it hasn’t been taken off you&lt;br /&gt;tube as yet, check it out for yourself, it is really colorful. Hey&lt;br /&gt;Mayor Mick, with friends like Coyne, who needs enemies? &lt;a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=D&amp;amp;q=http://youtu.be/viVmswBZy-0&amp;amp;usg=AFQjCNF59xSh41H9UnjIDs-f8AaEBeKX9g"&gt;http://youtu.be/viVmswBZy-0&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;++  FREEDOM INDEX SCORES FOR OKLAHOMA’S CONGRESSMEN&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The New American Magazine, published by the John Birch Society, has&lt;br /&gt;just published the 2nd  of what will be four Freedom Index Score Cards&lt;br /&gt;during the current 2 year congressional term. If you can imagine such&lt;br /&gt;a notion, the Freedom Index uses the U.S. Constitution as the basis&lt;br /&gt;for the scoring. U.S. Representative John Sullivan is the highest&lt;br /&gt;scoring member of the Oklahoma delegation with an 80 for this score&lt;br /&gt;card to go along with his 90 on the first for an 85 average.&lt;br /&gt;Representative Lankford is the second highest scoring with an 80 to go&lt;br /&gt;along with a previous 80 for an average of an 80. Representatives Cole&lt;br /&gt;and Lucas each scored a 60 to go along with their previous 80s for an&lt;br /&gt;average of a 70. And then Oklahoma’s lone House Democrat, Dan Boren,&lt;br /&gt;scored a 50 on this index to go along with his previous 70 to earn an&lt;br /&gt;average of 60 which is one of the highest scoring Democrats in the&lt;br /&gt;nation.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Over in the Senate, Tom Coburn scored a 75 to go along with his&lt;br /&gt;previous 70 for a 72 average and Jim Inhofe scored a 70 to go along&lt;br /&gt;with his previous 70 for a 70 average. As a note of interest, Utah&lt;br /&gt;Senators Hatch and Lee are the most conservative with an accumulative&lt;br /&gt;score of 160, Kentucky’s Senators McConnell and Paul and South&lt;br /&gt;Carolina’s Senators Graham and DeMint came in tied for second with an&lt;br /&gt;accumulative 150, Alabama’s Senators Shelby and Sessions came in&lt;br /&gt;fourth with a 149 and Oklahoma’s two Senators came in fifth most&lt;br /&gt;conservative with an accumulative score of 142.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;You can probably check out all Congressional scores as well as the&lt;br /&gt;legislation used to determine the index by logging on to &lt;a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=D&amp;amp;q=www.JBS.ORG&amp;amp;usg=AFQjCNG3nKfcerabRlt2PXDMrHBhOD93YQ"&gt;www.JBS.ORG&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;and then following the links to the New American Magazine. I have the&lt;br /&gt;score card index in the hard copy of the magazine so I haven‘t checked&lt;br /&gt;it out on line.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;We have had 25 more folks pay dues to join OCPAC since last week’s e-&lt;br /&gt;mail. Please remember, unless your dues are being drafted from your&lt;br /&gt;checking accounts, your dues have expired as of the end of December&lt;br /&gt;and need to be renewed. A huge thanks for the confidence shown by so&lt;br /&gt;many who are renewing their memberships as well as those joining for&lt;br /&gt;the first time. To join, please follow the directions below.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;Charlie Meadows&lt;br /&gt;Charliemeado&lt;span style="text-decoration: underline;"&gt;ws7&lt;/span&gt;@gmail.com&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5431481429087105402-3415871277766906866?l=ocpacnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/feeds/3415871277766906866/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=5431481429087105402&amp;postID=3415871277766906866' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/3415871277766906866'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/3415871277766906866'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/2012/02/is-okc-mayor-mick-cornett-pot-smoker.html' title='IS OKC MAYOR MICK CORNETT A POT SMOKER?'/><author><name>Charlie Meadows</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12159891905392720848</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='26' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_F_NJvphHJNU/S6DeHxvDM5I/AAAAAAAAADY/_8wLtI8on44/S220/charliesepia.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431481429087105402.post-1170244260737176676</id><published>2011-12-28T08:33:00.001-06:00</published><updated>2011-12-28T08:33:28.639-06:00</updated><title type='text'>TAKE A STAND - NO MORE STATE DEBT! ++  OCPAC MEMBERSHIP UP-DATE</title><content type='html'>++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING&lt;br /&gt;++  ANNOUNCEMENTS&lt;br /&gt;++  TAKE A STAND - NO MORE STATE DEBT!&lt;br /&gt;++  OCPAC MEMBERSHIP UP-DATE&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, December 28th will be held at&lt;br /&gt;Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. Our primary speaker&lt;br /&gt;for this Wednesday’s meeting is to be Steve Anderson, Budget director&lt;br /&gt;for Governor Brownback in the state of Kansas. I wanted him to speak&lt;br /&gt;about the budget accomplishments in Kansas and the fact that they have&lt;br /&gt;their 10 year plan in process to eliminate their state income tax.&lt;br /&gt;However, he sent me an e-mail indicating they have new numbers&lt;br /&gt;available requiring an adjustment to the modeling and he therefore may&lt;br /&gt;have to be in Kansas this Wednesday. He actually lives in Logan county&lt;br /&gt;and commutes each week to Kansas. As of this writing, I haven’t been&lt;br /&gt;able to verify if he will be with us.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Our other speaker will be Dr. Scott Lively, attorney, pastor and&lt;br /&gt;international human rights consultant whose ministry for more than&lt;br /&gt;twenty years has been opposing the homosexual political agenda around&lt;br /&gt;the world www.defendthefamily.com. Dr. Lively’s specialty is training&lt;br /&gt;pro-family advocates how to articulate the pro-family perspective in&lt;br /&gt;both religious and non-religious terms. He has developed a textbook&lt;br /&gt;that was the basis of a 50-city lecture tour of churches and&lt;br /&gt;universities in Russia and the countries of the former Soviet Union in&lt;br /&gt;2007, and a national pro-family campaign in Uganda in 2009. Following&lt;br /&gt;the text book’s model, he stopped the government of Moldova from&lt;br /&gt;adopting an anti-discrimination policy based upon “sexual orientation”&lt;br /&gt;in March of this year. When he is not on the road, he and his wife run&lt;br /&gt;an inner-city mission in Springfield Massachusetts with the goal of re-&lt;br /&gt;Christianizing the downtrodden city and to restore it’s family-&lt;br /&gt;centeredness through good works and evangelism,  www.redemptiongate.org.&lt;br /&gt;Scott has indicated that Springfield is the most broken-down city in&lt;br /&gt;the most morally corrupt state in the union. If both of our speakers&lt;br /&gt;make the meeting, we will keep Scott to about 10 minutes and give&lt;br /&gt;Steve the rest of the meeting time.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  ANNOUNCEMENTS&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  WEDNESDAY EVENING  -  EDMOND AREA  -  Mr. Scott Lively, of whom I&lt;br /&gt;just wrote about above, will be the guest speaker this Wednesday&lt;br /&gt;evening, December 28th at Fairview Baptist church in Edmond. The&lt;br /&gt;church is located on the corner of Sooner road and Danforth. Sooner is&lt;br /&gt;one block West of I-35 and Danforth is one mile North of 2nd street in&lt;br /&gt;Edmond. The meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. If we can only give Scott 10&lt;br /&gt;minutes at OCPAC, this will be an opportunity to hear him out more&lt;br /&gt;completely.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  NEW DOCUMENTARY  -  A NOBLE LIE is a newly produced full length&lt;br /&gt;documentary about the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal&lt;br /&gt;Building in Oklahoma City. The 2 hour documentary produced by FREE&lt;br /&gt;MIND FILMS and directed by James Lane takes a fresh and in-depth look&lt;br /&gt;at the circumstances surrounding the 1995 bombing. For more&lt;br /&gt;information log on to:&lt;br /&gt;www.ANobleLie.com.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  TAKE A STAND -  NO MORE STATE DEBT!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It looks like the state government will have several hundred million&lt;br /&gt;more in tax revenues to appropriate this coming year than they had&lt;br /&gt;last year. However, since the Governor and lawmakers failed to make&lt;br /&gt;the necessary cuts in the budget earlier this year and chose to fund&lt;br /&gt;the 500 million shortfall with mostly revenues that would be available&lt;br /&gt;only one time, it will take nearly 500 million additional revenues to&lt;br /&gt;fund government at the same level as last year.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;However, the education industry, state employees as well as state&lt;br /&gt;agencies are all turning in their wish lists for budget increases&lt;br /&gt;which are “pie in the sky high”. In addition, the state has valid&lt;br /&gt;capital improvement needs. The Capitol does need work, the state has&lt;br /&gt;office buildings which have leaky roofs, a commitment has been made by&lt;br /&gt;some to move the state medical examiner into new facilities in Edmond&lt;br /&gt;and of course there is that pesky native American heritage center&lt;br /&gt;along the Oklahoma river which just needs about 80 million dollars to&lt;br /&gt;go along with the 80 million plus that has already been spent on the&lt;br /&gt;project over the past years.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So what are the solutions some have suggested for these “pressing”&lt;br /&gt;capital needs? Float new bonds, borrow that money, don’t wait until we&lt;br /&gt;can pay for the improvements with new growth funds. Borrow it and pay&lt;br /&gt;it out over many years in the future. Pay that interest, double the&lt;br /&gt;costs of some of those projects, after all, the tax payers simply&lt;br /&gt;aren’t smart enough to realize just how much more a projects costs&lt;br /&gt;once they pay those bonds off with interest. Who knows, maybe our&lt;br /&gt;buddies, the bond underwriters, will help us with contributions for&lt;br /&gt;our next election cycle? Those thoughts represent the attitudes of&lt;br /&gt;some in the legislature.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;But wait folks, it doesn’t have to be this way. Even though the&lt;br /&gt;lawmakers and Governor violate the intention of Oklahoma’s founding&lt;br /&gt;fathers and go along with flawed State Supreme Court decisions which&lt;br /&gt;have allowed for hundreds of millions in bonded indebtedness, this&lt;br /&gt;wasteful foolishness doesn’t have to continue in this manner.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;State Representative, and the next designated Speaker of the House,&lt;br /&gt;T.W. Shannon (R-Lawton) had a bill passed this year to determine the&lt;br /&gt;number of properties owned by the state. Expecting it to be around&lt;br /&gt;4,500, everyone was surprised to learn the state owns about 9,000&lt;br /&gt;properties. The continuation of that legislation is to categorize the&lt;br /&gt;properties to determine which ones have little value or excessive&lt;br /&gt;costs to maintain and then sell many of them to investors in the&lt;br /&gt;private sector. Some of the proceeds could be used to fund these&lt;br /&gt;capital needs or I believe Representative Shannon has proposed&lt;br /&gt;creating an endowment out of the proceeds and then using the earnings&lt;br /&gt;of the endowment to fund the maintenance of state properties. That&lt;br /&gt;way, taxpayers will not always be harassed for evermore money in the&lt;br /&gt;future.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Also, lawmakers could declare an emergency for the most critical needs&lt;br /&gt;and use some of the 200 million that has been put back into the&lt;br /&gt;state’s rainy day fund. Here is another novel idea. Why not make some&lt;br /&gt;of the cuts in spending this year, especially those wasteful and&lt;br /&gt;immoral tax credits, and use those savings for capital needs? If we&lt;br /&gt;really wanted to be smart, we could eliminate all funding for so&lt;br /&gt;called “pre-K education”, especially since there is no long term&lt;br /&gt;benefit for those expenditures according to the vast body of&lt;br /&gt;studies.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;To stop this push for increased borrowing, citizens will have to make&lt;br /&gt;it crystal clear to there state representative and state senator that&lt;br /&gt;we don’t want to continue to deficit finance state government. Spend&lt;br /&gt;what we have and no more!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Now, please pay close attention. Due to re-districting, many people in&lt;br /&gt;the state of Oklahoma are going to have a different state senator and/&lt;br /&gt;or a different state representative as your elected officials. Many&lt;br /&gt;will also have different polling places, I believe 11,000 voters in&lt;br /&gt;Logan county will vote at a different location. So please call your&lt;br /&gt;COUNTY election board, give them your name and address and they can&lt;br /&gt;tell you who your senator and representative happens to be as well as&lt;br /&gt;where to vote. Once you have that information, write it down, put it&lt;br /&gt;on your refrigerator, in your wallet, purse, or tattoo it on your&lt;br /&gt;ankle. I don’t care how you save it, just save it, as you will need to&lt;br /&gt;contact your elected officials at the Capitol during the session next&lt;br /&gt;year. Citizens can have a significant influence toward good government&lt;br /&gt;if we will just contact our lawmakers at the proper times next&lt;br /&gt;year.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  OCPAC MEMBERSHIP UP-DATE&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;We are going to finish 2011 with 230 dues paying members which is 13&lt;br /&gt;more than the record of 217 set for a non-election year in 2009. We&lt;br /&gt;also have the largest number of people in our history contributing on&lt;br /&gt;a monthly basis by having us draft their checking accounts for either&lt;br /&gt;$15 or $30 per month. The monthly drafts are raising about $600 per&lt;br /&gt;month which is huge over a 2 year period of time as it produces nearly&lt;br /&gt;$15,000. Personally, that is how I contribute as that $30 each month&lt;br /&gt;is easy to afford. We have raised over $20,000 this year, though with&lt;br /&gt;6 special elections we have invested over a fourth of that in these&lt;br /&gt;special elections. So far we have won 1 and lost one and we have&lt;br /&gt;contributed to 3 of the 4 to be determined on February 14th.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The good news is, there are many excellent candidates running for&lt;br /&gt;office in next year’s election cycle. That is why your continued&lt;br /&gt;support is so crucial. We are slowly helping to increase the level of&lt;br /&gt;conservatism in state government.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Therefore, please pay close attention. Over the past couple of months,&lt;br /&gt;several folks have already paid their dues for membership in 2012. In&lt;br /&gt;addition, folks having their checking accounts drafted will have their&lt;br /&gt;memberships automatically renewed. However memberships for everyone&lt;br /&gt;else will expire this coming Saturday, December 31st.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Therefore, I want to invite our current members to renew their&lt;br /&gt;memberships and for others to consider joining at this time. We have 3&lt;br /&gt;levels of membership. The basic membership costs $50 per year. We have&lt;br /&gt;the Elephant Provider level which is $180 per year or we can draft&lt;br /&gt;your checking account for $15 per month (.50 cents a day). Our highest&lt;br /&gt;level is the Elephant Provider and RINO Hunter level which is $360 per&lt;br /&gt;year or we can draft your checking account for $30 per month ($1.00&lt;br /&gt;per day). If you chose to join at a higher level through the checking&lt;br /&gt;account drafts and later on for whatever reason want or need to stop,&lt;br /&gt;simply send me an e-mail requesting the stop and it will be done.&lt;br /&gt;Regardless of what level of membership people join OCPAC, their&lt;br /&gt;support is sincerely appreciated. Please remember, OCPAC is an all&lt;br /&gt;volunteer organization and no one earns any money for their efforts.&lt;br /&gt;With very low overhead, almost all of the money you contribute goes to&lt;br /&gt;support conservative candidates or is used to try and hold elected&lt;br /&gt;officials accountable for the conservative rhetoric they espouse when&lt;br /&gt;they want our support and votes.  Information on how to join will&lt;br /&gt;follow my sign off.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Charlie Meadows&lt;br /&gt;Charliemeadows7@gmail.com&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5431481429087105402-1170244260737176676?l=ocpacnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/feeds/1170244260737176676/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=5431481429087105402&amp;postID=1170244260737176676' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/1170244260737176676'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/1170244260737176676'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/2011/12/take-stand-no-more-state-debt-ocpac.html' title='TAKE A STAND - NO MORE STATE DEBT! ++  OCPAC MEMBERSHIP UP-DATE'/><author><name>Charlie Meadows</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12159891905392720848</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='26' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_F_NJvphHJNU/S6DeHxvDM5I/AAAAAAAAADY/_8wLtI8on44/S220/charliesepia.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431481429087105402.post-2868909588720769558</id><published>2011-12-19T18:55:00.000-06:00</published><updated>2011-12-19T18:56:17.030-06:00</updated><title type='text'>CONSERVATIVE’S CHRISTMAS - FALLIN &amp; BERRESI’S LUMP OF COAL</title><content type='html'>++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING&lt;br /&gt;++  ANNOUNCEMENTS&lt;br /&gt;++  CONSERVATIVE’S CHRISTMAS - FALLIN &amp;amp; BERRESI’S LUMP OF COAL&lt;br /&gt;++  TID BITS&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S AGENDA&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, December 12th will be held at&lt;br /&gt;Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. This Wednesday will&lt;br /&gt;be the interview process for the candidates running in the special&lt;br /&gt;election for Senate District 20. The district includes all of Pawnee,&lt;br /&gt;Noble and Logan counties as well as the Western and Northern parts of&lt;br /&gt;Kingfisher counties. Invitations were sent to the 4 Republican&lt;br /&gt;candidates, Phil Berkenbile of Morrison as well as A.J. Griffin, Chris&lt;br /&gt;Humphreys and Wayne Murphey, all of Guthrie. Mr. Humphreys and Murphey&lt;br /&gt;will attend, while Mrs. Griffin indicated she would not attend. I have&lt;br /&gt;urged her to re-consider and make every effort to come to the meeting.&lt;br /&gt;However, something a little unusual occurred with Mr. Berkenbile. His&lt;br /&gt;invitation letter came back to our P.O. Box as undeliverable. I&lt;br /&gt;checked to see if I had sent it to the address he filled out when he&lt;br /&gt;filed for office as was listed on the state election board’s web-site.&lt;br /&gt;I had sent it to the proper address. Seems like every election cycle&lt;br /&gt;one or more candidates fail to fill out their own address correctly,&lt;br /&gt;usually failing to include their zip code. However, Mr. Berkenbile&lt;br /&gt;included his zip code in this case.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I decided not to go the extra mile to urge him to come as he probably&lt;br /&gt;would not come anyway. You see, I believe Mr. Berkenbile is not a real&lt;br /&gt;conservative and his handlers know that he would probably not do well&lt;br /&gt;at OCPAC if he did come. Why do I say such a thing?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;He is the state director for Oklahoma’s Career Tech system. While the&lt;br /&gt;system has its successes, it is grossly over-expensive for what it&lt;br /&gt;delivers compared to what could be done through privately owned trade&lt;br /&gt;schools. We could help students attend the trade schools through&lt;br /&gt;scholarships and thus reduce some of the annually appropriated dollars&lt;br /&gt;which go the Career Tech. In addition, we could then save huge amounts&lt;br /&gt;of property tax dollars which are required to maintain and pay for the&lt;br /&gt;multitude of government owned buildings. Trade schools in the private&lt;br /&gt;sector pay for their own facilities, often times leasing space in&lt;br /&gt;vacant shopping centers.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A couple of other reasons, I don’t believe he would do well is based&lt;br /&gt;on his recent switch to the Republican party. Don’t get me wrong, we&lt;br /&gt;want conservative Democrats to become Republicans. However, Mr.&lt;br /&gt;Berkenbile has a long history of contributing to and supporting&lt;br /&gt;Democrats. In addition, he vigorously opposed legislation earlier this&lt;br /&gt;year to allow law abiding citizens with a concealed carry permit to&lt;br /&gt;drive onto a career tech campus with their firearm locked in the&lt;br /&gt;trunk. Previously, if you didn’t want to be a lawbreaker, you would&lt;br /&gt;have to go home first and leave your firearm there before you could go&lt;br /&gt;from work to take a class at a Career Tech campus.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;One more thing, I don’t believe he will need a contribution from us. I&lt;br /&gt;have been made privy to a shakedown letter sent to various lobbyists&lt;br /&gt;in the state by State Representative Dale DeWitt (R-Braman) on behalf&lt;br /&gt;of Berkenbile. DeWitt, through 9 years in the legislature, has a&lt;br /&gt;lifetime conservative index score of a paltry 56, meaning only 7&lt;br /&gt;Republican House members more liberal than DeWitt out of the 70&lt;br /&gt;Republicans. DeWitt is also the House Majority leader so I believe he&lt;br /&gt;is using his powerful position to really strong arm lobbyists to&lt;br /&gt;contribute to “his personal friend”,  Bill Berkenbile. Following is&lt;br /&gt;the content of the shakedown letter:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;“From the Desk of Dale DeWitt”&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;December 13, 2011&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Dear …….?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;“This is an unusual letter. Yes, I’m asking for money.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;No, it’s not for me.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It’s not for another elected official. It’s not even for my caucus.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I’m writing to ask you to donate to a personal friend of mine, Phil&lt;br /&gt;Berkenbile, who is running for the State Senate in the open seat to&lt;br /&gt;replace another great friend, Senator David Myers.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I’ve known Phil for 32 years (We both have a background in Vo-Ag&lt;br /&gt;education and our families are very close).  But more important, I&lt;br /&gt;know Phil to be a man of integrity and virtue. And we need people like&lt;br /&gt;him in our government. As the statewide Director for Career Tech, Phil&lt;br /&gt;has shown he can help run government more efficiently. And I know,&lt;br /&gt;he’ll be a Senator whose door will always be open.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If you do not know Phil, I hope you will trust my judgment. I would&lt;br /&gt;consider it a personal honor if you (and any of your friends) would&lt;br /&gt;contribute to Phil based on my recommendation.  in fact, I would like&lt;br /&gt;you to send your contribution in the enclosed envelope so I can know&lt;br /&gt;who I should personally thank for supporting my good friend, Phil&lt;br /&gt;Berkenbile.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Phil is the type of person who has demonstrated he can work with all&lt;br /&gt;Oklahomans in order to get great things accomplished for this state.&lt;br /&gt;As director of Career Tech, Phil helped maintain THE BEST technical&lt;br /&gt;education system in the nation during a time of tremendous budget&lt;br /&gt;cuts. In doing so, he has engaged Republicans, Democrats, urbanites&lt;br /&gt;and rural interests. Because of Phil’s willingness to reach across the&lt;br /&gt;aisle and work with all Oklahomans, he is already being attacked by&lt;br /&gt;some of the more extreme elements of our Republican Party. That’s why&lt;br /&gt;I need your help.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This special election is only a few weeks away (the primary is on&lt;br /&gt;Valentine’s Day -- February 14th). And, as you know it is not only&lt;br /&gt;incumbents, but all candidates, who have limitations on their&lt;br /&gt;fundraising once session begins. So Phil needs your contribution now.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Again, this is not your typical letter. Phil is a close friend of mine&lt;br /&gt;-- and I want him to raise enough money to be successful.  ……….. are a&lt;br /&gt;key part of this. Please send your donation today.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Thank you in advance for your support,&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Dale DeWitt&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;P.S.  I really would appreciate your personal contribution, as well as&lt;br /&gt;your help in raising money from others you know. The key race is the&lt;br /&gt;Republican Primary, so I want you to contribute early. Please, use the&lt;br /&gt;enclosed envelope today.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Not Printed at Taxpayer Expense      Paid for by Phil Berkenbile for&lt;br /&gt;Senate District 20, 2012”&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Folks, by DeWitt insisting these lobbyists send the money to him&lt;br /&gt;first, it just shows how a powerful Republican Majority leader intends&lt;br /&gt;to really put the screws to the lobbyists. In my opinion, that is&lt;br /&gt;exactly the kind of influence which has the potential to corrupt our&lt;br /&gt;system as it almost hints of “pay to play”.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;At least one of the candidates that will appear before us on Wednesday&lt;br /&gt;has taken a pledge not to take any money or gifts from any lobbyists&lt;br /&gt;or a PAC which employees a lobbyist. That is what we need more of in&lt;br /&gt;government. But for that to ever succeed, people are going to have to&lt;br /&gt;pull money out of their own pockets so that their elected officials&lt;br /&gt;are responsive to them and not to the powerful special interests.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  ANNOUNCEMENTS&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  EDMOND AREA  -  TUESDAY EVENING  -  Tuesday evening, 7 until 8:30&lt;br /&gt;p.m., I will continue training session 2 out of 4 which I began 2&lt;br /&gt;weeks ago. The 4 week session will consist of the principles of good&lt;br /&gt;government and the ideals of our founding fathers as well as the&lt;br /&gt;political process, governing and the workings of the Republican party.&lt;br /&gt;The main purpose of the sessions is to further develop members of the&lt;br /&gt;Generation Joshua Project and other youth in their age range which is&lt;br /&gt;from 11 to 19. Adults are invited to attend, but please allow the&lt;br /&gt;young people to ask most of the questions. The location is Fairview&lt;br /&gt;Baptist Church which is on the Southeast corner of Danforth and Sooner&lt;br /&gt;Road in Edmond (Sooner road is about 1 block West of I-35 and Danforth&lt;br /&gt;is 1 mile North of Edmond Road or 2nd Street). An outline and short&lt;br /&gt;review of the first session will be available.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  FUTURE EVENT  -  January 20 and 21st will be the 3rd annual Clouds&lt;br /&gt;over America seminar. I believe it may well be the most important&lt;br /&gt;educational event of the year in Oklahoma for 2012. There will be 10&lt;br /&gt;speakers running from Friday afternoon through noon on Saturday. As&lt;br /&gt;soon as the flyer is printed I will share the full details of the&lt;br /&gt;event. Please keep these dates open as it will be a very important&lt;br /&gt;time for the good citizens in the culture war, seeking better&lt;br /&gt;government.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  CONSERVATIVE’S  CHRISTMAS - FALLIN AND BERRESI’S LUMP OF COAL&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Governor Mayr Fallin and State School Superintendent Janet Berresi had&lt;br /&gt;so been lusting in hopes of receiving millions of dollars from the&lt;br /&gt;bankrupt federal government to arrive just in time for Christmas&lt;br /&gt;through the “Race to the Top” federal grant program for early&lt;br /&gt;education.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;However, like lumps of coal in their Christmas stockings, they&lt;br /&gt;received word last week that Oklahoma would be left out in the cold&lt;br /&gt;regarding their hopes for the funding. Knowledgeable conservatives&lt;br /&gt;understand what a waste of taxpayer money these programs happen to be&lt;br /&gt;as well as the potential for behavioral problems created in some&lt;br /&gt;children who are herded into these peer dependent programs.&lt;br /&gt;Conservative organizations such as Restore Oklahoma Public Education&lt;br /&gt;(ROPE),  The Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs (OCPA), Professional&lt;br /&gt;Oklahoma Educators (POE) as well as many members of OCPAC are all&lt;br /&gt;against this, Race to the Top program. Following are a couple of&lt;br /&gt;editorials out of the December 15th edition of the Tulsa Beacon&lt;br /&gt;Newspaper about early childhood education and the performance of Janet&lt;br /&gt;Barresi:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;“Barresi no conservative&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It was announced to legislators this month that Joel Robinson,&lt;br /&gt;assistant executive director (and chief lobbyist) for the Oklahoma&lt;br /&gt;Education Association (OEA/NEA), has been hired to be State&lt;br /&gt;Superintendent Janet Barresi’s new chief of staff, effective later&lt;br /&gt;this month. This new hiring decision adds to the confusion about the&lt;br /&gt;State Department of Education’s direction and, quite frankly, the move&lt;br /&gt;is astounding.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;We know that birds of a feather flock together and, as we’ve seen,&lt;br /&gt;Barresi is not the conservative Republican she was elected to be.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Her recent decision to hire a new chief of staff from the top ranks of&lt;br /&gt;the state affiliate of the most liberal teachers’ union in the nation&lt;br /&gt;further confirms this fact. This move makes about as much sense as&lt;br /&gt;Ronald Reagan asking Jimmy Carter to be his vice president.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Barresi’s actions show that authenticity is rare these days, but there&lt;br /&gt;continues to be one true, conservative voice for educators:&lt;br /&gt;Professional Oklahoma Educators (POE). With over 7,000 members across&lt;br /&gt;the state, we will continue to move forward, undeterred by Barresi’s&lt;br /&gt;actions, to achieve what is best for Oklahoma students and teachers.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Ginger Tinney, Norman&lt;br /&gt;POE Executive Director”&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The next editorial reflects the opinions of the Tulsa Beacon&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;“More ’nanny state’ nonsense&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The motto of Tulsa Educare is: ’embrace, empower, evolve.’  That&lt;br /&gt;reference to evolution alone would identify this as an attempt to&lt;br /&gt;infuse secular humanism into our culture by indoctrinating some of our&lt;br /&gt;youngest children.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Tulsa Educare, Inc. (TEI), Tulsa Public Schools (TPS) and George&lt;br /&gt;Kaiser Family Foundation (GKFF) have teamed up to start a third&lt;br /&gt;Educare school, which will open in August of next year.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Kaiser, the richest man in Oklahoma (thanks in part to the&lt;br /&gt;government), is behind the funding of the 38,000-square-foot school&lt;br /&gt;with 16 classrooms.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Of course, Mayor Dewey Bartlett and Oklahoma School Superintendent&lt;br /&gt;Janet Barresi dutifully went to the groundbreaking along with the OEA&lt;br /&gt;puppets from Tulsa Public Schools.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Liberals like to throw tons of money on an idea that sounds good (help&lt;br /&gt;poor kids) but never work out the way they should.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Instead of boosting the nuclear family - the backbone of our culture -&lt;br /&gt;these “progressives” would rather institutionalize the children of&lt;br /&gt;poor people and “shield them” from the influence of parents and faith.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Study after study (at least one by Head Start) shows that kids that&lt;br /&gt;get pushed into public education before age 5 wind up at the same&lt;br /&gt;level in the second grade as those students who were allowed to be&lt;br /&gt;children and were nurtured by their own parents.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So, while Tulsa Public Schools is closing school buildings it is&lt;br /&gt;providing some funding for questionable education for kids under the&lt;br /&gt;age 5.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Trying to indoctrinate preschoolers may give some liberals a warm&lt;br /&gt;feeling but it won’t end poverty in Tulsa - not by a long shot.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;For ROPE’s perspective on this issue link on to:&lt;br /&gt;http://restoreoklahomapubliceducation.blogspot.com/2011/12/somewhere-over-rainbow.html&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A week ago Wednesday, when Brandon Dutcher of OCPA, spoke at OCPAC, he&lt;br /&gt;brought with him a packet showing the high cost of early childhood&lt;br /&gt;education and a recent article out of the Wall Street Journal showing&lt;br /&gt;the utter worthlessness of early childhood education. I believe it is&lt;br /&gt;one of the biggest scams in America as well as Oklahoma. Eliminating&lt;br /&gt;such in Oklahoma would save tens of millions of dollars, savings that&lt;br /&gt;could go toward eliminating our state income tax and reducing the&lt;br /&gt;corporate tax burden on businesses. Of course many of the large&lt;br /&gt;corporations in Oklahoma support so called “early childhood education”&lt;br /&gt;as they like for the taxpayers to pick up the day care tab for their&lt;br /&gt;employees. I will have copies of the WSJ article at the meeting this&lt;br /&gt;Wednesday.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  TID BITS&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;+ WACO THE RULES OF ENGAGEMENT  -  I was up late recently watching Fox&lt;br /&gt;News and The Animal Planet when just before going to bed I flipped&lt;br /&gt;over to the documentary channel and noticed that, Waco The Rules of&lt;br /&gt;Engagement documentary, was up next. It was produced by two former CNN&lt;br /&gt;photojournalists and was nominated for an Academy Award for best&lt;br /&gt;documentary of the year, probably in about 1994. I actually own a copy&lt;br /&gt;in VHS format and we showed it at OCPAC over a 2 week time period many&lt;br /&gt;years ago. As I watched about two thirds of it again, I just got angry&lt;br /&gt;all over again at what appears to be the lies, cover-up and murder&lt;br /&gt;committed by those in the FBI, the Delta Force of the military and&lt;br /&gt;high ups in the so called “Justice Department.” If you have not seen&lt;br /&gt;the documentary, may I suggest doing a google search of the&lt;br /&gt;Documentary Channel to purchase it as it is now in DVD format. It is&lt;br /&gt;riveting and very revealing. A sequel was also produced called, Waco A&lt;br /&gt;Further Revelation, which is also excellent.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;+  SENATOR LASTER SAYS NO MORE  -  State Senator Charlie Laster (D-&lt;br /&gt;Shawnee) announced last week that he would not seek re-election next&lt;br /&gt;year to serve the final 2 years in the Senate before term limits would&lt;br /&gt;get him. He has a lifetime average of a 30 on the conservative index&lt;br /&gt;and we should see an excellent opportunity to replace him with a&lt;br /&gt;conservative Republican during next year’s election cycle. Ed Moore,&lt;br /&gt;of the Prayer Force One Ministry announced, I believe it was back in&lt;br /&gt;September that he would be a candidate for that seat. Mr. Moore served&lt;br /&gt;one term in the Senate, probably back in the late 70’s or early 80s.&lt;br /&gt;If elected I don’t believe his previous term would count toward his 12&lt;br /&gt;years of eligibility. With it being an open seat, I am sure there will&lt;br /&gt;be several that will run in both the Republican and Democrat&lt;br /&gt;primaries.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;+  MERRY CHRISTMAS  -   While we often struggle over public policy and&lt;br /&gt;the people we elect to office to represent us in those struggles, let&lt;br /&gt;us not forget the highest priority. That of course is our relationship&lt;br /&gt;with our father God through his Son Jesus. While it is not likely that&lt;br /&gt;Jesus was actually born on December 25th, it is the time our society&lt;br /&gt;has chosen to celebrate His birth. With that in mind, please never&lt;br /&gt;forget the real reason for this season. Have a wonderful and&lt;br /&gt;meaningful Christmas.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Charlie Meadows&lt;br /&gt;Charliemeadows7@gmail.com&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5431481429087105402-2868909588720769558?l=ocpacnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/feeds/2868909588720769558/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=5431481429087105402&amp;postID=2868909588720769558' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/2868909588720769558'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/2868909588720769558'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/2011/12/conservatives-christmas-fallin-berresis.html' title='CONSERVATIVE’S CHRISTMAS - FALLIN &amp; BERRESI’S LUMP OF COAL'/><author><name>Charlie Meadows</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12159891905392720848</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='26' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_F_NJvphHJNU/S6DeHxvDM5I/AAAAAAAAADY/_8wLtI8on44/S220/charliesepia.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431481429087105402.post-2118804228459315166</id><published>2011-12-13T09:40:00.001-06:00</published><updated>2011-12-13T09:40:26.381-06:00</updated><title type='text'>SCOTT PRUITT - PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE</title><content type='html'>++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING&lt;br /&gt;++  ANNOUNCEMENTS&lt;br /&gt;++  SCOTT PRUITT - PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE&lt;br /&gt;++  TIDBITS&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, December 14th will be held at&lt;br /&gt;Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. Our meeting this&lt;br /&gt;week will consist of interviewing the Republican candidates for the&lt;br /&gt;special elections in House District #1 and House District #71. The&lt;br /&gt;election will be held on February 14th of next year. Invited from H.D.&lt;br /&gt;#1 is Joe Silk from Broken Bow (he has won the primary and his will be&lt;br /&gt;the general election) and from H.D. 71 are candidates Evelyn Rogers,&lt;br /&gt;Lydia D’Ross, Katie Henke, Gerald Lovoi, and Bonnie Huffines, all of&lt;br /&gt;Tulsa. Candidate Janet Sullivan has withdrawn from the race and&lt;br /&gt;Jacqualyn Moss’ candidacy is being protested as it is alleged that she&lt;br /&gt;is still registered as a Democrat and has only lived in the district&lt;br /&gt;for 6 weeks rather than the necessary 6 months as required by law.&lt;br /&gt;Following the interview process, our members will vote and should we&lt;br /&gt;decide to support a candidate in one or both of these districts, our&lt;br /&gt;finance committee will make a contribution following the meeting. If&lt;br /&gt;you are a voting member, please try to make this meeting.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  ANNOUNCEMENTS&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  TUESDAY EVENING  -  WARR ACRES AREA  -  The Change A Nation For&lt;br /&gt;Christ organization will hold their monthly meeting this Tuesday&lt;br /&gt;evening, December 13th at Victory Church, 4300 North McArthur in Warr&lt;br /&gt;Acres. The meeting will take place in the “Commons” area on the West&lt;br /&gt;end of the campus. The meeting is from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. with a light&lt;br /&gt;meal served at 6:30. There is no charge for the meal, but donations to&lt;br /&gt;help cover the cost are accepted. Speaking will be Mr. Ralph Bullard,&lt;br /&gt;the former head master of Christian Heritage Academy in Del City. Mr.&lt;br /&gt;Bullard will be speaking from his personal experiences about the&lt;br /&gt;crucial connection between Christian education and God’s purpose for&lt;br /&gt;America.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  WEDNESDAY NOON  -  TULSA AREA  -  The Tulsa Republican Men’s Club&lt;br /&gt;will hold its monthly meeting, 12 noon on Wednesday, December 14th at&lt;br /&gt;Siegi’s Restaurant, 81st street and Sheridan Road. Speaking will be&lt;br /&gt;retired professor Charles Dyer who taught American federal government&lt;br /&gt;at Tulsa Community College. We have had Professor Dyer speak at OCPAC&lt;br /&gt;in the past and he recently spoke at the Northwest Republican Club in&lt;br /&gt;OKC. He is an excellent speaker and really understands the serious&lt;br /&gt;dangers associated with the invasion of illegal aliens.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  THURSDAY MORNING  -  DOWNTOWN OKC  -  The John Birch Society’s&lt;br /&gt;Business and Professional Chapter will have their monthly meeting at&lt;br /&gt;the Character Inn, 520 West Main in downtown OKC. Breakfast is served&lt;br /&gt;at 7:15 and the speaker begins at about 7:40 a.m.  Our speaker this&lt;br /&gt;month will be Jonathan Small (CPA) of the influential Oklahoma Council&lt;br /&gt;of Public Affairs (OCPA). Jonathan has put together a viable plan to&lt;br /&gt;eliminate the personal income tax in the state of Oklahoma. Jonathan&lt;br /&gt;spoke to OCPAC within the past year and following the meeting one of&lt;br /&gt;our members came up to me to ask where in the world did I find a CPA&lt;br /&gt;that was actually interesting to listen to? Jonathan is sharp and&lt;br /&gt;inspiring at the same time. There are many forces, including the&lt;br /&gt;Governor, that are beginning to speak of eliminating the personal&lt;br /&gt;income tax as well as forces building to prevent such from occurring.&lt;br /&gt;Please come to this meeting to be informed about the OCPA plan. The&lt;br /&gt;fellowship before the meeting is always great, so grab a friend and&lt;br /&gt;come on down. The Breakfast Buffet is only $6.00.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  SATURDAY AFTERNOON  -  OKC AREA  -  Supporters of Presidential&lt;br /&gt;candidate Ron Paul are hosting a LIBERTEA Rally this Saturday,&lt;br /&gt;December 17th on the South steps of the State Capitol. The event&lt;br /&gt;begins at 1:00 p.m. with the featured speaker being Iraq war veteran,&lt;br /&gt;Adam Kokesh. Also speaking will be Randy Brogdon, State Representative&lt;br /&gt;Charles Key and Richard Engle. As far as I know this is the only&lt;br /&gt;organized presidential campaign in the state. For more information log&lt;br /&gt;on to www.RonPaulOK.com. I would suggest dressing warm, you may want&lt;br /&gt;to watch the weather and bring an umbrella or rain gear as well as a&lt;br /&gt;folding chair.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  SCOTT PRUITT - PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Few people in Oklahoma saw the Scott Pruitt/Presidential debate live&lt;br /&gt;as it occurred during the OU - OSU bedlam football game a week ago&lt;br /&gt;Saturday. I finally got time to see it this past week and liked the&lt;br /&gt;format as well as the way the Attorney Generals from the states of&lt;br /&gt;Oklahoma, Florida and Virginia served as the moderators, asking the&lt;br /&gt;hard questions. Much of the questioning centered on the relationship&lt;br /&gt;between the federal government, the states and the people. The 3 AG’s&lt;br /&gt;questioned the candidates one at a time, each for about 10 minutes.&lt;br /&gt;There wasn’t much time wasted as they really got to it.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In Saturday’s edition of the Oklahoman, AG Scott Pruitt wrote an&lt;br /&gt;excellent (let me say it again) excellent column about the forum.&lt;br /&gt;Following are some of the more pertinent comments in the Oklahoman&lt;br /&gt;from Oklahoma’s Attorney General Pruitt:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;“I was able to ask candidates face-to-face what they would do to limit&lt;br /&gt;the federal government and follow the law as prescribed by the&lt;br /&gt;Constitution.”    “Specifically, we worked to extract exactly how the&lt;br /&gt;candidates would lead when competing liberty interests are at play.”&lt;br /&gt;There is no greater issue today than the appropriate role of the&lt;br /&gt;federal government. When an American government takes on&lt;br /&gt;characteristics that elevate the state above the individual, it must&lt;br /&gt;be vigorously opposed as a form of, or step toward, tyranny. It is&lt;br /&gt;imperative that these candidates work to curtail government intrusion&lt;br /&gt;and provide real conservative solutions to complex problems.”    “Our&lt;br /&gt;battles against the EPA and other rogue federal agencies aren’t about&lt;br /&gt;a desire for dirtier air or zero regulation. They are about our right&lt;br /&gt;as a state to control our own destiny and resist attempts by the&lt;br /&gt;administration to ramrod a wish list of regulations through agency&lt;br /&gt;heads instead of garnering approval from Congress.”   Pruitt’s final&lt;br /&gt;paragraph was very important as it went like this:  “In the end, the&lt;br /&gt;candidate who wants to get the nomination will not merely pledge&lt;br /&gt;fidelity to advancing liberty. They must do the difficult work of&lt;br /&gt;merging their talking points with AUTHENTIC, PRACTICAL (emphasis mine)&lt;br /&gt;and conservative solutions.”&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;We could only hope the electorate nation wide was as up to speed&lt;br /&gt;enough to make their decision on those points. As I have often said,&lt;br /&gt;we don’t have so much of a problem with our system as we have a people&lt;br /&gt;problem in America. Please remember, all elections first boil down to&lt;br /&gt;the quality and character of the voters. If they are of high quality,&lt;br /&gt;we will have good government. If not, we have what we have now. I will&lt;br /&gt;try to schedule Scott some time in February and perhaps we can get him&lt;br /&gt;to share his perspectives on the weaknesses and strengths of the&lt;br /&gt;candidates at that time.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The AG from Florida asked Ron Paul his final question as follows: what&lt;br /&gt;1 book would you recommend people to read. Ron Paul answered, beyond a&lt;br /&gt;faith book (the Bible), I would recommend: THE LAW by Frederic&lt;br /&gt;Bastiat. I certainly agreed with Ron on that as I have been saying for&lt;br /&gt;a number of years now that THE LAW is the second most important book a&lt;br /&gt;person should ever read, the Bible being the first.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As a point of interest, I did an hour long radio interview this past&lt;br /&gt;Friday night with Kaye Beech and Howard Houchen. What were we talking&lt;br /&gt;about? The book, THE LAW and the corresponding story about Davy&lt;br /&gt;Crockett, titled:  NOT YOURS TO GIVE. Their program is heard live&lt;br /&gt;every Friday evening in 17 states including a FM station in OKC as&lt;br /&gt;well as being on the internet. Few people know what a game changer&lt;br /&gt;that book and short story have been in their influence upon the state&lt;br /&gt;of Oklahoma. With well over 5,000 circulating around in Oklahoma over&lt;br /&gt;the past 10 years and access to both of them over the internet, they&lt;br /&gt;are convincing Oklahoman’s about the proper roll of government versus&lt;br /&gt;the improper functions of government. You really owe it to yourselves&lt;br /&gt;to access this information as it will change your life.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  TIDBITS&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  FOX NEWS PROMOTES IGNORANCE  -  This past week I was watching the&lt;br /&gt;morning show on Fox News while eating a bowl of cereal. The&lt;br /&gt;commentator had a guest on to give expert perspective on the battle&lt;br /&gt;over extending the payroll tax reduction. The commentator asked the&lt;br /&gt;guest, if the payroll tax reduction is not extended, what will the&lt;br /&gt;federal government do with all that increase of funds? The answer from&lt;br /&gt;the expert was “I DON’T KNOW?”&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Give me a break! The only source of revenue for the Social Security&lt;br /&gt;Trust Fund comes from the payroll tax, which should really be&lt;br /&gt;considered as a retirement insurance premium, and the interest earned&lt;br /&gt;from the past surpluses loaned out over many previous years. If the&lt;br /&gt;payroll tax isn’t extended, those revenues will begin to flow back&lt;br /&gt;into the SS Trust Fund, to be immediately used to pay benefits to&lt;br /&gt;those drawing SS benefits. Even if those revenues began to once again&lt;br /&gt;flow into the fund, they still would not be enough to meet next year’s&lt;br /&gt;benefits pay outs.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Perhaps, the next time Fox News has a “tough” question, they might&lt;br /&gt;reach out to find some overall wearing bumpkin for Oklahoma for a&lt;br /&gt;substantive answer rather than asking some coat and tie wearing air&lt;br /&gt;head from NEW YORK CITY!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  RESULTS FROM OKLAHOMA STRAW POLL  -  Credit Matt Pinnell with the&lt;br /&gt;idea of Oklahoma conducting its first ever Presidential Straw Poll.&lt;br /&gt;Please remember, straw polls are not scientific polls and as such are&lt;br /&gt;more a reflection of the opinions of activists rather then the broader&lt;br /&gt;electorate.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Like the Iowa straw poll, which brings in tons of money for the Iowa&lt;br /&gt;Republican party, the Oklahoma straw poll was primarily a fund raiser.&lt;br /&gt;I know they promoted it big time through the internet and I even&lt;br /&gt;received a robo call from Lt. Gov Todd Lamb promoting the poll. I&lt;br /&gt;wasn’t able to contact Matt today, and as such don’t know how many&lt;br /&gt;participated, but I would expect it was a large number. At $5.00 per&lt;br /&gt;vote, the party probably raised a good deal of money with the effort.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The results were released at the Herman Cain fund raiser a week ago&lt;br /&gt;Monday night. Winning the straw poll was Ron Paul, with 46% of the&lt;br /&gt;vote, Herman Cain 25%, Newt Gingrich 17%, Mitt Romney 6%, Senator&lt;br /&gt;Inhofe’s pick, Rick Perry 3%, Michelle Bachmann 2%, Rick Santorum 1%&lt;br /&gt;and the others less than 1%.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  THE DONALD TRUMP DEBATE  -  I for one really wanted to see the&lt;br /&gt;debate hosted by Donald Trump, not because I am a fan of the Donald,&lt;br /&gt;but because his main issue is our horrible trade deficit, especially&lt;br /&gt;so with Communist China. This issue has barely been touched in the&lt;br /&gt;myriad of other debates and I personally don’t believe the so called&lt;br /&gt;“free trade” Republicans want to have to deal with this issue to any&lt;br /&gt;depth.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;No where is the truth of God’s Word more evident than when it says:&lt;br /&gt;the borrower is subservient (or a slave) to the lender. With Communist&lt;br /&gt;China holding over a Trillion dollars of our debt, it means that when&lt;br /&gt;Premier chingchowpingpongball speaks, we listen!!!  We have been in a&lt;br /&gt;trade war with Communist China for many years, China understands that,&lt;br /&gt;we don’t. It is much like when Osama Ben Ladin and the rest of the&lt;br /&gt;radical Muslim world declared war on the U.S. many years ago. It&lt;br /&gt;wasn’t until they took down the twin towers, that we realized they&lt;br /&gt;were serious and even then as well as now we can’t bring ourselves to&lt;br /&gt;properly identify our enemies.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Our trade deficit is one of the most important issues facing our&lt;br /&gt;nation. It is a major factor causing our budget deficits and few&lt;br /&gt;people understand its importance. I say bring on the debate.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday, Please don’t forget&lt;br /&gt;the meeting I mentioned for this Thursday as Jonathan Small will lay&lt;br /&gt;out a viable plan to totally eliminate Oklahoma’s personal income&lt;br /&gt;tax.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Charlie Meadows&lt;br /&gt;Charliemeadows7@gmail.com&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5431481429087105402-2118804228459315166?l=ocpacnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/feeds/2118804228459315166/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=5431481429087105402&amp;postID=2118804228459315166' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/2118804228459315166'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/2118804228459315166'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/2011/12/scott-pruitt-presidential-debate.html' title='SCOTT PRUITT - PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE'/><author><name>Charlie Meadows</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12159891905392720848</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='26' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_F_NJvphHJNU/S6DeHxvDM5I/AAAAAAAAADY/_8wLtI8on44/S220/charliesepia.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431481429087105402.post-4893207834987218209</id><published>2011-12-06T10:17:00.000-06:00</published><updated>2011-12-06T10:18:14.809-06:00</updated><title type='text'>THE MISGUIDED LIBERAL FAITH COMMUNITY!</title><content type='html'>++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING&lt;br /&gt;++  ANNOUNCEMENTS&lt;br /&gt;++  THE MISGUIDED LIBERAL FAITH COMMUNITY!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, December 7th will be held at&lt;br /&gt;Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. Our speaker this&lt;br /&gt;week will be Brandon Dutcher, Vice President for Policy with the&lt;br /&gt;Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs. Brandon is an excellent researcher&lt;br /&gt;and presents information in a very logical and rational manner. I&lt;br /&gt;believe he is concerned about the rush towards evermore government&lt;br /&gt;sponsored daycare (excuse me, I meant to say early childhood&lt;br /&gt;education) and as such he will be talking about “Empowering Oklahoma’s&lt;br /&gt;Most Important Early Childhood Educators.” I will also have copies of&lt;br /&gt;an article about the problems associated with government sponsored&lt;br /&gt;early childhood education.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  ANNOUNCEMENTS&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  EDMOND OKC AREA  -  TUESDAY EVENING  -  Eight home school students,&lt;br /&gt;associated with the Generation Joshua Project, presented their&lt;br /&gt;activities to those attending our meeting last Wednesday and really&lt;br /&gt;impressed our members. Not only were they inspiring, but they really&lt;br /&gt;encouraged our members and friends that there are some of today’s&lt;br /&gt;youth that are hungry to learn and motivated to make a difference in&lt;br /&gt;today’s culture war. Following the meeting, I had a legenthy&lt;br /&gt;conversation with Carson Banks. After our conversation, he contacted&lt;br /&gt;most of the other young people and we have decided to do a fast track&lt;br /&gt;presentation to better prepare and equip these interested young people&lt;br /&gt;with a better understanding of government and the political process.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Therefore, I will be teaching a 4 session course on a wide range of&lt;br /&gt;subjects toward those ends. The dates will be Tuesday evenings,&lt;br /&gt;December 6th and 20th as well as January 3rd and 10th. The location&lt;br /&gt;will be Fairview Baptist Church (Danforth and North Sooner Road) in&lt;br /&gt;Edmond. The meetings will begin at 7:00 and end at 8:30 p.m. The age&lt;br /&gt;range for the Generation Joshua Organization is from 11 to 19 years of&lt;br /&gt;age. If you have a son or daughter in that age group that is&lt;br /&gt;interested in a better understanding of government and the political&lt;br /&gt;process, they would be welcome to attend. Those older than 19 or&lt;br /&gt;adults may attend, but we want to try and keep the questions and&lt;br /&gt;answers mostly to the younger age group.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  MOORE AREA  -  THURSDAY EVENING  -  The Sooner Republican Assembly&lt;br /&gt;will meet at Earls Rib in Moore, 6:00 for dinner and 6:45 p.m. for the&lt;br /&gt;speaker and program on Thursday evening, December 8th. The main&lt;br /&gt;speaker will be Pastor Fred Greening. In addition they will be&lt;br /&gt;conducting a silent auction with the funds raised going to the club&lt;br /&gt;treasury.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  OKC AREA  -  FRIDAY EVENING  -  Last year several folks got&lt;br /&gt;together for a course on survivor training. They will meet again this&lt;br /&gt;Friday evening from 6:30 until 8:30 p.m. at the Northside Bible&lt;br /&gt;Church, 1401 NW 100th street in Britton (the corner of NW 100th and&lt;br /&gt;McKinley). The speaker will be a ham operator, talking about&lt;br /&gt;communications and home security. There is no admission and they will&lt;br /&gt;have plenty of seating. For more information call George Wallace at&lt;br /&gt;(405) 818-2277.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  TULSA AREA  -  SATURDAY EVENING  -  As I mentioned in last week’s e-&lt;br /&gt;mail, with the secularists gaining control of the annual Christmas&lt;br /&gt;parade in Tulsa and turning it into a secular event, some of the local&lt;br /&gt;Christians and conservatives have decided to start an new tradition by&lt;br /&gt;hosting a CHRISTMAS parade which will honor the reason for the season.&lt;br /&gt;Therefore, the Christmas parade will be held at the Tulsa Hills&lt;br /&gt;Shopping Center, 71st street South and U.S. Highway 75. The parade&lt;br /&gt;will start at 6:00 p.m.. So bundle up the kids and enjoy the parade.&lt;br /&gt;For more information call (918) 583-2345.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  WARR ACRES  -  TUESDAY, DEC 13TH  -  The Change A Nation For Christ&lt;br /&gt;organization will hold their monthly meeting one week from this&lt;br /&gt;Tuesday at Victory Church, 4300 North McArthur in Warr Acres. The&lt;br /&gt;meeting will take place in the “Commons” area which is on the West End&lt;br /&gt;of the campus. The meeting is from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. with a light meal&lt;br /&gt;served at 6:30. There is no charge for the meal, but a donation would&lt;br /&gt;be welcome. Speaking will be Mr. Ralph Bullard, the former head master&lt;br /&gt;of Christian Heritage Academy in Del City. Mr. Bullard will be&lt;br /&gt;speaking from his personal experiences about the crucial connection&lt;br /&gt;between Christian education and God’s purpose for America. For more&lt;br /&gt;information contact Travis or Sue Votaw at&lt;br /&gt;Travisue@votaw.org.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  THE MISGUIDED LIBERAL FAITH COMMUNITY!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A couple of weeks back as reported in the Oklahoman, several liberal&lt;br /&gt;Baptist groups gathered for the “New Baptist Covenant II” regional&lt;br /&gt;meeting at St. John Missionary Baptist Church in OKC. The gathering&lt;br /&gt;was started several years ago by former President Jimmy Carter. I&lt;br /&gt;believe Carter, Al Gore and Bill Clinton are all the products of&lt;br /&gt;liberal splits off of Biblical Baptist churches and as such are quite&lt;br /&gt;different in their theology and world view.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Locally, one of their leaders is Dr. Bruce Prescott director of&lt;br /&gt;Mainstream Oklahoma Baptists, in my opinion he is one of central&lt;br /&gt;Oklahoma’s leading false prophets. Mainstream is the word they choose&lt;br /&gt;for themselves, in my opinion they are anything but mainstream. These&lt;br /&gt;groups of progressives are politically active and as such came up with&lt;br /&gt;a supposed problem which they intend to address during next year’s&lt;br /&gt;legislative session.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The senior pastor at St. John, the Rev. Major Jemison, said, “the&lt;br /&gt;Christian community’s role is to speak up for the impoverished who&lt;br /&gt;find themselves in a no-win situation with payday lenders.”&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Payday lenders have popped up across Oklahoma over the past 10 years&lt;br /&gt;or so. People with jobs can go into these loan offices and get an&lt;br /&gt;advance before their next paycheck, that is, if they are willing to&lt;br /&gt;pay a hefty interest rate on the advance. Depending on the amount of&lt;br /&gt;the loan and how many days before their paycheck, the interest rate&lt;br /&gt;could climb to 500% or more. That is not 5 times the paycheck, but say&lt;br /&gt;$20 on a $200 loan figured over 7 or 10 days might figure up to that&lt;br /&gt;percentage rate on an annualized basis.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Based on my 20 plus years of financial counseling (not investment&lt;br /&gt;counseling, but rather budgeting and debt resolution) I believe most&lt;br /&gt;of the people accessing these loans are poorly educated,&lt;br /&gt;undisciplined, not very bright and quite often they are in a jam. The&lt;br /&gt;hefty interest rates are posted on the door or window next to the door&lt;br /&gt;as well as listed several times throughout the businesses.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Most of these folks don’t bother to even look at the published&lt;br /&gt;interest rates or if they did, they wouldn’t be likely to understand,&lt;br /&gt;that they are the last people in the world that should be accessing&lt;br /&gt;these loans. All they are interested in is getting their hands on the&lt;br /&gt;cash now. Because they run behind with their bills and other uses for&lt;br /&gt;their money most of the time, shortly after their paycheck is issued,&lt;br /&gt;they are behind again and go back again for another advance. Over time&lt;br /&gt;the interest really adds up, money they need for expenses but they&lt;br /&gt;give it up for the immediate. Just remember, no one holds a gun to&lt;br /&gt;their head and makes them take out these loans. Usually their credit&lt;br /&gt;rating will be so bad that they can’t get a loan from traditional&lt;br /&gt;sources and at a reasonable interest rate. So what to do about this&lt;br /&gt;situation?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Dr. Prescott indicated he would like to see legislation reducing the&lt;br /&gt;interest rates. However, the rates are what they are because these&lt;br /&gt;loan companies are dealing with unstable and risky clients that&lt;br /&gt;probably have no where else to go for a short term loan. Some of these&lt;br /&gt;people have skipped on loans to the small consumer loan businesses&lt;br /&gt;which loan at lower rates. As well many of their friends and families&lt;br /&gt;will no longer loan them money for past failures to repay. So if&lt;br /&gt;Prescott gets his way and  causes government to interfere in the&lt;br /&gt;market place, will these loan companies go away? If so, will these&lt;br /&gt;desperate folks turn to crime to meet their immediate needs?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I have an idea for these liberal Progressives, why don’t they get off&lt;br /&gt;their high horses and do something for the benefit of these people and&lt;br /&gt;leave the government out of this. Why not produce a small placard&lt;br /&gt;explaining how detrimental these high interest loans are and stand&lt;br /&gt;outside the loan offices handing them to the people as they enter or&lt;br /&gt;exit. After making the case as to the harm resulting from these high&lt;br /&gt;interest loans, invite them to a dinner and budgeting class. Explain,&lt;br /&gt;there is a way to get off the merry-go-round of financial pressure.&lt;br /&gt;Urge them to come to a meeting, even feed them a meal to help convince&lt;br /&gt;them to come and make a real difference in their lives.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In all reality, most will be offended by the offers of help, but some&lt;br /&gt;may take them up on the offer. Those who reject the offers of help&lt;br /&gt;should be allowed to experience the fruit of their decision. At some&lt;br /&gt;point in time, they may hit bottom and finally reach out. Those&lt;br /&gt;choices are true liberty and true justice. In reality, Biblical&lt;br /&gt;Christians are more likely to reach out in this manner than the&lt;br /&gt;liberal progressives who seem to always want government to fix a&lt;br /&gt;perceived problem.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Charlie Meadows&lt;br /&gt;Charliemeadows7@gmail.com&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5431481429087105402-4893207834987218209?l=ocpacnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/feeds/4893207834987218209/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=5431481429087105402&amp;postID=4893207834987218209' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/4893207834987218209'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/4893207834987218209'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/2011/12/misguided-liberal-faith-community.html' title='THE MISGUIDED LIBERAL FAITH COMMUNITY!'/><author><name>Charlie Meadows</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12159891905392720848</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='26' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_F_NJvphHJNU/S6DeHxvDM5I/AAAAAAAAADY/_8wLtI8on44/S220/charliesepia.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431481429087105402.post-6158959778875625540</id><published>2011-11-29T08:28:00.001-06:00</published><updated>2011-11-29T08:28:54.841-06:00</updated><title type='text'>NEWT GINGRICH &amp; PRESIDENTIAL POLITICS ++  WILL REPUBLICANS SUPPORT DEPLETION OF SS TRUST FUND?</title><content type='html'>++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING&lt;br /&gt;++  ANNOUNCEMENTS&lt;br /&gt;++  NEWT GINGRICH &amp;amp; PRESIDENTIAL POLITICS&lt;br /&gt;++  WILL REPUBLICANS SUPPORT DEPLETION OF SS TRUST FUND?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, November 30th will be held at&lt;br /&gt;Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. We are going to call&lt;br /&gt;this week’s meeting, “Home School Wednesday” as we will have about 10&lt;br /&gt;home school students who have planned and will conduct our meeting. I&lt;br /&gt;think most all of these students are affiliated with the Generation&lt;br /&gt;Joshua Project. I am sure they will explain what that means and&lt;br /&gt;provide an excellent program. Several years ago we had about 8 to 15&lt;br /&gt;home school students attend nearly every Wednesday for a period of&lt;br /&gt;about 4 years. Their parents believed the weekly OCPAC meetings would&lt;br /&gt;provide the best civics education available as well additional&lt;br /&gt;information on a broad range of issues. We don’t see those students&lt;br /&gt;much anymore since they got busy with college and other objectives in&lt;br /&gt;life. We have turned our meetings over to home schoolers in the past&lt;br /&gt;and they have always done an excellent job of planning and conducting&lt;br /&gt;a meeting. I often hear conservatives say, “where are the young&lt;br /&gt;people?” You won’t have to go any further than our Wednesday meeting&lt;br /&gt;to see the hope for our future.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  ANNOUNCEMENTS&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  TUESDAY EVENING  -  OKC AREA  -  State Representative Charles Key&lt;br /&gt;(R-OKC) will host a campaign kick-off event for his effort to run for&lt;br /&gt;Oklahoma County Court Clerk. The fundraiser will be from 5:30 to 7:00&lt;br /&gt;p.m. at H&amp;amp;H Gun Range, 400 South Vermont Ave, Suite #100. Speaking on&lt;br /&gt;behalf of Charles will be Oklahoma House Speaker Designee, T.W.&lt;br /&gt;Shannon (R-Lawton). So grab your checkbook and come help Charles get&lt;br /&gt;started in this race. Not everyone can contribute the maximum of&lt;br /&gt;$5,000, but those smaller contributions of $20, $50 and a $100 really&lt;br /&gt;add up. I am sure Charles will be appreciative of any and all the help&lt;br /&gt;folks can contribute.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  FRIDAY EVENING  -  OKC AREA  -  The many chapters of the John Birch&lt;br /&gt;Society will host their annual Christmas dinner and fund raising&lt;br /&gt;auction this Friday evening (6:30 p.m.) at the Character Inn, 520 West&lt;br /&gt;Main in downtown OKC. The cost for the dinner is $10. Please bring one&lt;br /&gt;nice auction item per person or family and come join the fun. I will&lt;br /&gt;buy the dinner for 1 person, deemed by those in attendance, to have&lt;br /&gt;dressed more in the Christmas spirit than I. Good luck, I won’t be&lt;br /&gt;easy to beat!!!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  SATURDAY, DEC 3RD  -  STATE WIDE  -  The Fox News Cable Channel&lt;br /&gt;will host a presidential forum during the Mike Huckabee show which&lt;br /&gt;airs at 7:00 p.m. Central Standard Time. Oklahoma’s Attorney General,&lt;br /&gt;Scott Pruitt will be one of the 3 Attorney Generals to moderate the&lt;br /&gt;forum. Hopefully Scott will ask pertinent questions about federalism&lt;br /&gt;and states rights. Questions about the proper balance between the&lt;br /&gt;states and the federal government as well as limiting the&lt;br /&gt;jurisdictions of the federal judiciary. I am under no illusion that&lt;br /&gt;this important program will be able to compete with the entertainment&lt;br /&gt;of the bedlam game in Stillwater, but that is what those DVR’s are&lt;br /&gt;for. So record the program and watch it later.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  SATURDAY, DEC 10TH  -  TULSA AREA  -  For many years the city of&lt;br /&gt;Tulsa had a traditional Christmas parade. However, with the advent of&lt;br /&gt;secularists gaining control of the parade, they changed it to some&lt;br /&gt;kind of a nebulous “holiday parade”. U.S. Senator Jim Inhofe had&lt;br /&gt;participated in the parade for many years by riding on horseback.&lt;br /&gt;Because of the change, Senator Inhofe announced last year that he&lt;br /&gt;would not participate in the parade, nor will he this year.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As a result, several Christians and conservatives got together and&lt;br /&gt;planned to have a Christmas parade to once again honor Jesus as the&lt;br /&gt;reason for the season. Therefore, the Tulsa CHRISTMAS parade will&lt;br /&gt;occur Saturday evening, December 10th, starting at 6:00 p.m. The&lt;br /&gt;location will be the Tulsa Hills Shopping Center, 71st street South&lt;br /&gt;and U.S. highway 75. If you would like to help sponsor or volunteer in&lt;br /&gt;the effort, please call (918) 583-2345. If you can’t help, you may&lt;br /&gt;just want to attend and see the parade.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  NEWT GINGRICH &amp;amp; PRESIDENTIAL POLITICS&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Some of the reasons I so appreciate the John Birch Society (I have&lt;br /&gt;been a member since 1988) is their understanding of the importance of&lt;br /&gt;accurate history as well as what parts of history are important to&lt;br /&gt;understand. In addition, there is probably no organization better at&lt;br /&gt;discerning the enemies of Americanism, enemies that I would suggest&lt;br /&gt;are made up of individuals and/or organizations dedicated to&lt;br /&gt;destroying our national sovereignty and merging us into a global&lt;br /&gt;socialist state.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;About 2 years ago the Society discerned that the “establishment&lt;br /&gt;insiders” considered Newt Gingrich as one of their prime candidates to&lt;br /&gt;win the Republican nomination for president. As such, the Birch&lt;br /&gt;Society produced a 33 minute DVD called “The Real Newt Gingrich” to&lt;br /&gt;expose his long history of being wrong on issues and flip flopping&lt;br /&gt;when necessary. I will have those DVDs available at our meeting for&lt;br /&gt;people to take and view if they would like.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As recently as September, I believed Newt would not rise to the top,&lt;br /&gt;but the many debates have allowed Mr. slickster to display his&lt;br /&gt;intelligence and shine with is quick wit and grasp of issues and&lt;br /&gt;experience. It appears that large numbers have taken the bait and with&lt;br /&gt;the hook firmly set in their mouth he is reeling them in as they have&lt;br /&gt;propelled him to near the top of the race. It so reminds me of the&lt;br /&gt;2008 election cycle when we got down to the choice of the insider&lt;br /&gt;establishment’s John McCain or Mitt Romney to chose from for the&lt;br /&gt;Republican ticket or the insider establishment’s Barrack Obama or&lt;br /&gt;Hillary Clinton to chose from on the Democrat side.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This time it is looking like our choices are boiling down to choosing&lt;br /&gt;between the insider establishment’s choice of Mitt Romney or Newt&lt;br /&gt;Gingrich on the Republican side to go up against the insider&lt;br /&gt;establishment’s Barrack Obama, who is burning out and is not likely to&lt;br /&gt;win re-election. The other establishment candidates (they never get&lt;br /&gt;behind just one candidate or just one party), Jon Huntsman and Rick&lt;br /&gt;Perry either never got any traction or fizzled out over night.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Some weeks back I suggested the only 3 I would consider would be&lt;br /&gt;Michele Bachmann, Ron Paul or Herman Cain (Rick Santorum and the&lt;br /&gt;others never got out of the starting gate. For a variety of reasons I&lt;br /&gt;am about finished with Herman Cain, though I really liked his 999&lt;br /&gt;plan, especially since it was to be a bridge to The Fair Tax.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I know many will disagree with me on the presidential candidates and&lt;br /&gt;that is fine. In my entire 28 years or so of activism, a primary&lt;br /&gt;candidate I have supported has never won the nomination (I was just&lt;br /&gt;beginning to get involved in 84 when Reagan ran for re-election). Am I&lt;br /&gt;out of step with the easily manipulated majority? Absolutely! I may&lt;br /&gt;not be correct in my evaluations, but please remember, the majority is&lt;br /&gt;almost always wrong! If they weren’t wrong, then we wouldn’t be in the&lt;br /&gt;mess that we find ourselves in today.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  WILL REPUBLICANS SUPPORT DEPLETION OF SS TRUST FUND?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Some important information to understand. Anytime we are in a&lt;br /&gt;recession, all good little Keysian Economists always desire to infuse&lt;br /&gt;money into the economy to pump it up and get us out of difficult&lt;br /&gt;economic times. Those newly infused dollars in the hands of people&lt;br /&gt;usually cause them to buy more goods and services, thus putting more&lt;br /&gt;demand into the economy and as such people go to work to meet that new&lt;br /&gt;demand and thus the economy pulls out of a recession.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are a variety of ways to infuse money into the economy.&lt;br /&gt;Republicans like to do so through tax cuts. They like to say that&lt;br /&gt;people can spend their money better than government. While I agree&lt;br /&gt;with that notion, the following point needs to be understood by&lt;br /&gt;conservatives. A tax cut, WITHOUT a corresponding spending cut of the&lt;br /&gt;same amount or more, is simply a means to infuse money into our&lt;br /&gt;economy. Those circumstances are not likely to create real wealth, but&lt;br /&gt;rather additional revenues through inflation, which by definition is&lt;br /&gt;an expansion of the money supply.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Now a little history over the past 3 years. When President Obama&lt;br /&gt;gained power, along with strong Democrat majorities in the Congress,&lt;br /&gt;we were in a recession. One of the main efforts to infuse cash into&lt;br /&gt;the system resulted in the Congress of 2008, along with the support of&lt;br /&gt;the President, passing a law to create a tax rebate (kick back) of&lt;br /&gt;$400 dollars per working person for taxable years 2009 and 2010. Most&lt;br /&gt;people drawing a paycheck saw their paychecks adjusted to allow for&lt;br /&gt;that rebate to be figured in over a year’s time. Thus, everyone’s&lt;br /&gt;paycheck rose about $8 per week per working person or about $32 per&lt;br /&gt;month per working person.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;After the 2010 elections, the President and a lame duck congress,&lt;br /&gt;still controlled by Democrats, changed their strategy. They&lt;br /&gt;discontinued giving the tax credit which was tied to a person’s income&lt;br /&gt;tax obligation. That tax credit, (tax credits are actually government&lt;br /&gt;expenditures) along with massive new federal spending in other areas&lt;br /&gt;caused our annual deficit and also our national debt to rise&lt;br /&gt;dramatically.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;However, to keep the citizens paychecks from going down, for the&lt;br /&gt;taxable year of 2011, they decided to pass a law to reduce the amount&lt;br /&gt;of payroll taxes we pay. Though everyone paid $8 more in income taxes,&lt;br /&gt;the nearly 33% reduction in payroll taxes actually caused most&lt;br /&gt;individual’s paychecks to increase even more for 2011 than had&lt;br /&gt;occurred in 09 and 2010.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Here is the problem. What we call payroll taxes weren’t really&lt;br /&gt;intended to be a tax, but rather an insurance premium for the social&lt;br /&gt;security and medicare trust funds. Words have meanings and in our&lt;br /&gt;sloppiness we have been calling these FICA insurance premiums, taxes.&lt;br /&gt;FICA stands for the Federal Insurance Contribution Act. In other&lt;br /&gt;words, it was originally to be a stand alone old age retirement&lt;br /&gt;insurance fund and as such what we pay into that trust fund should&lt;br /&gt;better be understood to be insurance premiums rather than a tax.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In all but about 10 years since the existence of the FICA (social&lt;br /&gt;security) program (of 1933) the premiums have been greater than the&lt;br /&gt;pay-outs, thus creating a surplus for most of the existence of the&lt;br /&gt;program. Congress has borrowed those surpluses by creating both short&lt;br /&gt;term and long term interest bearing bonds. Congress has never failed&lt;br /&gt;(so far) to pay those bonds back, so anytime you hear someone say&lt;br /&gt;congress has stolen the funds, you are listening to an ignorant&lt;br /&gt;person, because Congress has never stolen a penny of those funds. What&lt;br /&gt;Congress has failed to do is keep the Trust Fund actuarially sound.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In the taxable year of 2010, the surpluses dried up and the FICA Trust&lt;br /&gt;Fund began to operate in the red again. As such, Congress had to&lt;br /&gt;borrow money from other sources to pay back some of the bonds so&lt;br /&gt;social security benefits wouldn’t have to be reduced. Of course&lt;br /&gt;borrowing from other sources to pay back some of the bonds, caused our&lt;br /&gt;national debt to rise.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;With the system beginning to operate in the red in 2010, it was simply&lt;br /&gt;crazy for Obama and the Democrats to allow people a 33% reduction in&lt;br /&gt;what they paid into the Trust fund. It was insane, that is unless the&lt;br /&gt;Democrats were wanting to set up the incoming Republicans for future&lt;br /&gt;problems in the eyes of an economically ignorant American public who&lt;br /&gt;has little understanding of budgeting and keeping stand alone trust&lt;br /&gt;funds actuarially sound. In addition, I suspect Obama would like to&lt;br /&gt;destroy the free standing trust fund and cause people to rely upon the&lt;br /&gt;general fund to pay for their future benefits.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Here is the dilemma for the Republicans. The 33% reduction in what we&lt;br /&gt;pay in FICA premiums is set to expire on December 31st. Will&lt;br /&gt;Republicans provide some responsible LEADERSHIP and refuse to continue&lt;br /&gt;those reductions (Obama actually proposed the 33% cut be increased to&lt;br /&gt;50% for what working people pay and a 50% reduction in what employers&lt;br /&gt;pay up to a certain amount) or will they continue the reductions and&lt;br /&gt;thus cause the fund to be depleted? By not restoring these insurance&lt;br /&gt;premiums into the system, the Republicans will be just as guilty as&lt;br /&gt;the Democrats in hastening the day premiums will have to be raised&lt;br /&gt;above their current levels or else benefits will have to be reduced.&lt;br /&gt;If Republicans refuse to do what is right, the 2033 date for a&lt;br /&gt;collision will be moved up to the very near future. I wonder if&lt;br /&gt;Americans will act like Europeans when their benefits are reduced by&lt;br /&gt;30 to 35 percent?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;On the other hand, if Republicans do the responsible thing and&lt;br /&gt;discontinue the cuts, the average family will see their monthly&lt;br /&gt;paycheck decrease by about $80 per month. That is why it is a dilemma&lt;br /&gt;for the Republicans. Would taking that $80 per month out of paychecks&lt;br /&gt;to put back into the trust fund weaken the economy? Probably! That is&lt;br /&gt;why it is so difficult to cut spending when we are printing or&lt;br /&gt;borrowing about 1.6 Trillion per year more than the federal government&lt;br /&gt;takes in in revenues. Those borrowed or printed dollars are propping&lt;br /&gt;up our economy which is already struggling. That is why cutting&lt;br /&gt;spending without recapturing our manufacturing base and expanding our&lt;br /&gt;energy sector to provide more jobs for Americans is very difficult and&lt;br /&gt;risky.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I don’t think Republicans understand this much better than do&lt;br /&gt;Democrats. Further reductions in taxes on individuals will do little&lt;br /&gt;to improve our economy. Reducing taxes on businesses is vital and one&lt;br /&gt;of several necessary steps to re-capturing our manufacturing base in&lt;br /&gt;America.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Charlie Meadows&lt;br /&gt;Charliemeadows7@gmail.com&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5431481429087105402-6158959778875625540?l=ocpacnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/feeds/6158959778875625540/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=5431481429087105402&amp;postID=6158959778875625540' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/6158959778875625540'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/6158959778875625540'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/2011/11/newt-gingrich-presidential-politics.html' title='NEWT GINGRICH &amp; PRESIDENTIAL POLITICS ++  WILL REPUBLICANS SUPPORT DEPLETION OF SS TRUST FUND?'/><author><name>Charlie Meadows</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12159891905392720848</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='26' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_F_NJvphHJNU/S6DeHxvDM5I/AAAAAAAAADY/_8wLtI8on44/S220/charliesepia.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431481429087105402.post-5782929637874286224</id><published>2011-11-22T08:32:00.001-06:00</published><updated>2011-11-22T08:32:25.003-06:00</updated><title type='text'>ANNOUNCMENTS INTO THE FUTURE ++  TEA PARTIES HERE AND ELSEWHERE</title><content type='html'>++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING&lt;br /&gt;++  ANNOUNCMENTS INTO THE FUTURE&lt;br /&gt;++  TEA PARTIES HERE AND ELSEWHERE&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;By my calculation, this will be the 21 time in a row that we will be&lt;br /&gt;meeting on the Wednesday before a Thanksgiving day. We usually have a&lt;br /&gt;good crowd as many are off work or perhaps they have family or friends&lt;br /&gt;coming in and they bring them to our meeting. Our 12 noon luncheon for&lt;br /&gt;Wednesday, November 23rd will be held at Italiano’s restaurant, 4801&lt;br /&gt;North Lincoln in OKC. Paul Blair, my pastor at Fairview Baptist in&lt;br /&gt;Edmond will have a few comments and make an important announcement.&lt;br /&gt;Our main speaker will be Dr. G. Thomas Sharp of Noble Oklahoma. In my&lt;br /&gt;65 years I have had the privilege to meet a lot of very intelligent&lt;br /&gt;individuals that have done an excellent job of developing their&lt;br /&gt;intellect and communication skills. I interviewed Dr. Sharp on my&lt;br /&gt;radio program in 2001 and he was just fascinating. He sure upset Ben&lt;br /&gt;Odem and his liberal (excuse me, “progressive” friends) who had a&lt;br /&gt;program which followed mine. Dr. Sharp can speak on many subjects, but&lt;br /&gt;I have asked him to at least discuss some of the very interesting&lt;br /&gt;things that occurred with the eruption of Mt. St. Helens and what&lt;br /&gt;happened to Spirit Lake and other parts of the Mountain. Dr. Sharp has&lt;br /&gt;a large collection of dinosaur skeletons which will soon be displayed&lt;br /&gt;in a permanent home on I-35 just South of the Dallas Ft. Worth area.&lt;br /&gt;Don’t miss this meeting.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  ANNOUNCMENTS INTO THE FUTURE&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  TUESDAY, NOV 29TH  -  OKC AREA  -  State Representative Charles Key&lt;br /&gt;(R-OKC) will host a campaign kick-off event for his effort to run for&lt;br /&gt;Oklahoma County Court Clerk. The fundraiser will be from 5:30 to 7:00&lt;br /&gt;p.m. at H&amp;amp;H Gun Range, 400 South Vermont Ave, Suite # 110. Speaking on&lt;br /&gt;behalf of Charles in his effort will be Oklahoma House Speaker&lt;br /&gt;Designee, T.W. Shannon (R-Lawton). The public is welcome, so grab your&lt;br /&gt;checkbook and come help Charles get started in this race, even if you&lt;br /&gt;can only contribute a small amount of funds for his effort.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  FRIDAY, DECEMBER 2ND  -  OKC AREA  -  The state wide chapters of&lt;br /&gt;the John Birch Society will host their annual Christmas dinner and&lt;br /&gt;auction at the Character Inn, 520 West Main Street in downtown OKC.&lt;br /&gt;Not sure, but I believe the dinner starts at 6:00 p.m. and costs $10&lt;br /&gt;for the meal. Please bring one nice auction item per person or family&lt;br /&gt;and come join the fun. As always, if there is one person in attendance&lt;br /&gt;with a flashier Christmas tie and etc. on than I will be&lt;br /&gt;wearing, I will pay for their dinner. Good luck!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  Monday, December 5th  -  OKC AREA  -  The Oklahoma State Republican&lt;br /&gt;Party has invited all the Republican candidates for office to come to&lt;br /&gt;Oklahoma so people can get to know them better. They also use the&lt;br /&gt;occasion for a fund raiser for the party. Mitt Romney has already been&lt;br /&gt;here and the next to come will be Herman Cain. The time will be 6:30&lt;br /&gt;p.m. with the location being the Oklahoma City Marriott, 3233&lt;br /&gt;Northwest Expressway in OKC. The Republican Party is not endorsing&lt;br /&gt;anyone, it is simply a fundraiser and an opportunity for folks to meet&lt;br /&gt;the candidates. The cost to attend is $20.12 per person. We are asked&lt;br /&gt;to register online to Emily@okgop.com or call (405) 528-3501 by&lt;br /&gt;December 3rd.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  TEA PARTIES, HERE AND ELSEWHERE&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I am beginning to hear a lot of people wonder what ever happened to&lt;br /&gt;the Tea Parties which began to fire up about 2 and a half years ago.&lt;br /&gt;First let me say, the Tea Party groups in rural Oklahoma are still&lt;br /&gt;around and busy. However, in our two largest cities, they no longer&lt;br /&gt;exist, as least not as large rallies with clever signs. Many of the&lt;br /&gt;people really determined to make a difference have gotten involved in&lt;br /&gt;organizations such at the 912 groups, OCPAC, OK-SAFE, the John Birch&lt;br /&gt;Society and others.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As far as Oklahoma is concerned, I believe they had only a minimal&lt;br /&gt;effect on the 2010 elections. When it came to our congressional&lt;br /&gt;delegation, their influence was only felt in the second district,&lt;br /&gt;where the under funded Republican received about 45% of the vote&lt;br /&gt;against the well known incumbent David Boren with all the money in the&lt;br /&gt;world and a district with a strong Democrat majority. Boren, realizing&lt;br /&gt;a better funded candidate would come after him in 2012 and it being a&lt;br /&gt;presidential election cycle with higher Republican turnout, has&lt;br /&gt;decided to retire rather than experience the likely hood of an&lt;br /&gt;embarrassing defeat.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Since the rest of Oklahoma’s delegation had opposed President Obama’s&lt;br /&gt;agenda and they were of the opposing party, it was hard to get people&lt;br /&gt;upset with what was happening in Washington to the point they were&lt;br /&gt;willing to toss them out of office.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The only other place the tea parties had much effect was in the&lt;br /&gt;Republican primary for governor. In all my years of activism, the&lt;br /&gt;conservative grass roots had only been able to garner about 40% of the&lt;br /&gt;vote against the Republican establishment candidate for statewide&lt;br /&gt;races. I am talking about past races where we had candidates such as&lt;br /&gt;Mike Fair, Jerry Pierce and Jerry Brown running for governor or Tim&lt;br /&gt;Green for attorney general.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The one exception was when Dr. Tom Coburn destroyed Kirk Humphries for&lt;br /&gt;U.S. Senate. That was mainly because Dr. Coburn has his own unique&lt;br /&gt;qualities, which appealed to some of the establishment voters, and&lt;br /&gt;then there was Bob Anthony out there acting like “Jack the&lt;br /&gt;Ripper” (that was Kirk Humphries’s description of Bob) banging away at&lt;br /&gt;Kirk’s liberalism which allowed Dr. Tom to triangulate above the war&lt;br /&gt;between Kirk and Bob.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;However, in the Republican governor’s race, Randy Brogdon became the&lt;br /&gt;darling of the tea parties, so Brogdon and the other two Republican&lt;br /&gt;candidates were able to garner over 45% of the vote against one of the&lt;br /&gt;highest profile establishment candidates in history. I believe you can&lt;br /&gt;credit the tea parties with that additional 5% of the vote in that&lt;br /&gt;race.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Otherwise, the tea parties probably had enough additional effect to&lt;br /&gt;help the Republican’s pick up several new seats in the legislature,&lt;br /&gt;particularly in the Southeast quarter of the state.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I believe the awareness ginned up by the tea parties along with better&lt;br /&gt;voter education will continue to have a positive effect for some time&lt;br /&gt;to come. That will be especially true in rural Oklahoma if they remain&lt;br /&gt;active. Their key to success is that they have become more like an&lt;br /&gt;organization with an agenda and strategy to achieve their agenda&lt;br /&gt;rather than an event or gathering like the large crowds of the big&lt;br /&gt;city tea parties.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;One other thing about the tea parties in the big cities. They live or&lt;br /&gt;die based on the help from talk radio. With the passing of Mark&lt;br /&gt;Shannon, OKC no longer has a voice able to stir up the emotions of the&lt;br /&gt;populace to get a decent turn out. The Egg Man is a boring 3rd rate&lt;br /&gt;comedian, incapable of serious talk radio and certainly too shallow to&lt;br /&gt;provide any kind of leadership for tea parties. The only reason I know&lt;br /&gt;he is still on air is because I have to listen to his program teasers&lt;br /&gt;throughout the day while listening to KTOK’s syndicated line-up. When&lt;br /&gt;the clock strikes 4:00 and until 7:00 p.m. I begin to listen to Neal&lt;br /&gt;Bortze on 1520 AM, Paul Blair on 800 AM, Shawn Hannity on 740 AM out&lt;br /&gt;of Tulsa, or and investment program on 960 AM out of Enid. Try any of&lt;br /&gt;these programs as they are all superior to the Egg Man!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I have said all this to talk about our guest last week Scott Hennen&lt;br /&gt;and his involvement with the tea parties in North and South Dakota as&lt;br /&gt;well as Minnesota. Before the tea party movement, North Dakota had&lt;br /&gt;been represented in Washington by Democrats for nearly 3 decades, even&lt;br /&gt;though the state voted for Republicans for President.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;President Obama’s agenda stirred the wrath of the citizens in ND so&lt;br /&gt;much that they turned out 1500 people to a tea party in Fargo, a town&lt;br /&gt;of only 100,000. Proportionally that would be a larger turnout than&lt;br /&gt;any tea party in either of our 2 larger cities.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The 2 Democrat Senators began to have town hall meetings in barns or&lt;br /&gt;fire stations in very small communities so they could say they were&lt;br /&gt;meeting with the folks, but avoiding the larger cities and thus hoping&lt;br /&gt;to avoid embarrassing moments. Scott would go to these small&lt;br /&gt;communities and broadcast from a local coffee shop, urging people to&lt;br /&gt;come and pick up sheets with the top 20 questions to ask their&lt;br /&gt;Senators. These fire stations and barns would be packed and the people&lt;br /&gt;were so well informed that the Senators couldn’t pull the wool over&lt;br /&gt;their eyes.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Therefore, the Senator up for re-election announced he would not run&lt;br /&gt;again and he was replaced by a Republican, though he doesn’t appear to&lt;br /&gt;be very conservative according to his score of a 50 on the Freedom&lt;br /&gt;Index in the New American magazine. Their 9 term U.S. Representative,&lt;br /&gt;Earl Pomeroy, would not attend town hall meetings and was defeated by&lt;br /&gt;10 percentage points. The Republican who defeated him scored an 80,&lt;br /&gt;the same as our Republicans in Oklahoma. Their loan remaining Democrat&lt;br /&gt;Senator has announced that he will not seek re-election next year and&lt;br /&gt;according to Scott, he is sure to be replaced by the sitting&lt;br /&gt;Republican Governor.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Let me suggest that in states that still have fairly conservative&lt;br /&gt;values, a liberal Democrat’s days will be numbered if there is an&lt;br /&gt;active tea party movement. Also, to take that a step farther, liberal&lt;br /&gt;Democrats or in some cases liberal Republicans will insure that the&lt;br /&gt;tea parties will stay active. Therefore locations, conditions and talk&lt;br /&gt;radio will determine the activities and vigor of tea parties.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Charlie Meadows&lt;br /&gt;Charliemeadows7@gmail.com&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5431481429087105402-5782929637874286224?l=ocpacnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/feeds/5782929637874286224/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=5431481429087105402&amp;postID=5782929637874286224' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/5782929637874286224'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/5782929637874286224'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/2011/11/announcments-into-future-tea-parties.html' title='ANNOUNCMENTS INTO THE FUTURE ++  TEA PARTIES HERE AND ELSEWHERE'/><author><name>Charlie Meadows</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12159891905392720848</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='26' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_F_NJvphHJNU/S6DeHxvDM5I/AAAAAAAAADY/_8wLtI8on44/S220/charliesepia.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431481429087105402.post-8905440186894231226</id><published>2011-11-09T10:58:00.001-06:00</published><updated>2011-11-09T10:58:44.768-06:00</updated><title type='text'>CITY OF TULSA &amp; SPECIAL ELECTION IN McCURTAIN CO. ++  BORROW MORE MONEY OR PAY AS WE GO?</title><content type='html'>++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING&lt;br /&gt;++  ANNOUNCEMENTS&lt;br /&gt;++  CITY OF TULSA &amp;amp; SPECIAL ELECTION IN McCURTAIN CO.&lt;br /&gt;++  BORROW MORE MONEY OR PAY AS WE GO?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, November 9th will honor all active&lt;br /&gt;duty, reserves and military veterans. Our speakers this week will be&lt;br /&gt;veterans of World War II, the last war we fought that was properly&lt;br /&gt;declared according to our U.S. Constitution. At the height of the war&lt;br /&gt;we had around 16 million men in uniform as well as many women who&lt;br /&gt;served as WACS or WAVES. With the youngest of those veterans being&lt;br /&gt;around 84 to 85, we are losing those who served at a rapid rate so it&lt;br /&gt;is important that we honor them while we can. I have asked our&lt;br /&gt;speakers to start with where they were when they heard about Perl&lt;br /&gt;Harbor, what did they think, and then go on from there.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  ANNOUNCEMENTS&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  WEDNESDAY  -  TULSA AREA  -  The Tulsa Republican Men’s Club will&lt;br /&gt;have their monthly meeting on Wednesday the 9th, 12 noon,  at Siegi’s&lt;br /&gt;Sausage Factory, and Restaurant, 81st street and Sheridan Road. They&lt;br /&gt;will also host WW II Veterans. Ladies are welcome to attend these&lt;br /&gt;meetings.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  THURSDAY  -  MOORE AREA  -  The Sooner Republican Assembly will&lt;br /&gt;meet at Earl’s Rib in Moore, 6:45 p.m. on Thursday the 10th. Special&lt;br /&gt;guest will be Paul Maus candidate for H.D. 20. This is a newly created&lt;br /&gt;district as a result of re-districting. H.D. 20 is currently held by&lt;br /&gt;Paul Roan of Tishomingo, but he will be term limited out after next&lt;br /&gt;year’s session and the district shifts up toward the Moore area, where&lt;br /&gt;Republicans are expected to pick up this seat. The keynote speaker&lt;br /&gt;will be Jack Moore, a retired attorney. Jack will be speaking on The&lt;br /&gt;Truth About Islam.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  THURSDAY  -  DUNCAN AREA  -  On Thursday, November 10th, the&lt;br /&gt;Stephens County Republican Party will stage a mock debate featuring&lt;br /&gt;local Republicans portraying eight GOP presidential candidates. The&lt;br /&gt;surrogates have researched the candidates positions and will try to&lt;br /&gt;give an accurate presentation for their candidate. The candidates will&lt;br /&gt;be asked probing questions by a three person panel who will be&lt;br /&gt;portraying members of the national media. This should be informative&lt;br /&gt;as well as entertaining. The debate will be held at the Red river&lt;br /&gt;Technology Center in Duncan (in the Seminar Room) beginning at 7:00&lt;br /&gt;p.m. There is no admission, if you need further information contact&lt;br /&gt;Steve Fair at (580) 252-6284 or okgop@aol.com&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  SATURDAY  -  OKC AREA  -  Radio talk show host and minister Glen&lt;br /&gt;Howard along with The Judeo-Christian Fellowship of OKC, will host a&lt;br /&gt;timely update on recent events in Israel and the Middle East.  A&lt;br /&gt;buffet breakfast will be available at the Biltmore Hotel (North of&lt;br /&gt;I-40 on Meridian) beginning at 8:30 a.m. followed by a presentation on&lt;br /&gt;the Biblical basis for the support of Israel by Glen Howard of Senior&lt;br /&gt;World Radio (heard at 10:00 a.m. Sundays on 1000 AM). At 10:00 a.m.&lt;br /&gt;this Saturday Avi Lipkin will be speaking to those in attendence via&lt;br /&gt;Skype for an update on the current events in the Middle East. There is&lt;br /&gt;no cost other than the breakfast buffet, but it would be very helpful&lt;br /&gt;to have an idea of how many plan to come. Therefore, please contact&lt;br /&gt;Glen with that information at (405) 760-4536 or ghoward@jcfokc.org.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  TULSA CITY ELECTIONS &amp;amp; SPECIAL ELECTION IN McCURTAIN CO.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Today, November 8th voters in the Tulsa City Limits will go to the&lt;br /&gt;polls to vote on several of the city council seats as well as several&lt;br /&gt;changes to the city charter. I highly recommend logging on to the&lt;br /&gt;Tulsa Beacon Newspaper’s web-sit for their take on these elections, if&lt;br /&gt;you don’t take that paper. By the way, I believe the Tulsa Beacon (a&lt;br /&gt;weekly) and the Oklahoma Constitution (a quarterly) are the two best&lt;br /&gt;newspapers in the state. I urge all conservatives to subscribe as it&lt;br /&gt;is just $35 per year for the Beacon for those in Tulsa County ($40 for&lt;br /&gt;all others) and the Oklahoma Constitution is just $12 per year.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;With the passing of Rusty Farley (R-Haworth) this past Summer, we are&lt;br /&gt;just now getting around to a special primary election on November 8th&lt;br /&gt;to fill his vacated seat. The Democrats have 2 in their primary and&lt;br /&gt;the Republicans have 4 candidates. There will be NO primary runoff for&lt;br /&gt;the Republicans. Therefore, the Republican candidate with the largest&lt;br /&gt;number of votes will be the candidate to face the Democrat candidate&lt;br /&gt;along with 2 independent candidates. If you live in the district&lt;br /&gt;(Idabel, Broken Bow, etc) please do your research and vote as I expect&lt;br /&gt;that less than 800 will vote in the Republican primary. I have only&lt;br /&gt;had contact with Joe Silk, but hesitate to give an unqualified&lt;br /&gt;endorsement for Joe since I just don’t know anything about the other&lt;br /&gt;Republicans. Joe is a serious Christian who spent many years on the&lt;br /&gt;mission field and home schooled his children. He currently manages&lt;br /&gt;vacation cabins (it is a huge business in the area since so many&lt;br /&gt;Texans love to come to this beautiful area) and also operates a bed&lt;br /&gt;and breakfast. Again though, please do your own research. We will&lt;br /&gt;invite the winner to OCPAC for our interview process in the near&lt;br /&gt;future.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  BORROW MORE MONEY OR PAY AS WE GO?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There was an interesting article in the Oklahoman on October 25th&lt;br /&gt;titled “Bond proposals face resistance.” The gist of the article was&lt;br /&gt;that Oklahoma is facing capital improvement needs approaching nearly 1&lt;br /&gt;billion dollars, yet many lawmakers, especially in the House are&lt;br /&gt;resistant towards passing additional bonded indebtedness.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The article lists serious needs such as crumbling masonry at the State&lt;br /&gt;Capitol, buildings with mold problems, a need for a new medical&lt;br /&gt;examiners office and etc.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;However, the article goes on to quote State Representative Jason&lt;br /&gt;Murphy as follows: “ ‘There’s a reason that you’ve seen the number of&lt;br /&gt;approved bond issuances drop off in the last few years,’ said Rep.&lt;br /&gt;Jason Murphy (R-Guthrie), who considers himself among those with a&lt;br /&gt;strong distaste for taking on additional taxpayer-backed debt.&lt;br /&gt;‘Especially with all the freshmen elected in 2010 - voting for&lt;br /&gt;indebtedness isn’t politically acceptable in a lot of areas in&lt;br /&gt;Oklahoma now.’”&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I would suggest Representative Murphey knows what he is talking about.&lt;br /&gt;In 2004 the District 31 seat he now occupies was open and Murphey lost&lt;br /&gt;a close primary race to Dale Depew. That was the year that Republicans&lt;br /&gt;gained control of the House and as such leadership gave Depew the task&lt;br /&gt;of finding ways to fix many of these on-going repair needs.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If my memory serves me correctly, Depew suggested a 150 million dollar&lt;br /&gt;bond issue. Murphey seized upon the issue, making Depew out to be a&lt;br /&gt;big spender with a poor sense of priorities (the state budget was&lt;br /&gt;running sizeable surpluses of new tax dollars) and exposed Depew to&lt;br /&gt;the voters. We voters tossed Depew out and Murphey has served for the&lt;br /&gt;past 5 years now, working to cut the size of government, lower taxes&lt;br /&gt;and improve the valid services, which is what nearly all Republicans&lt;br /&gt;tell the voters they are going to do when they seek our votes.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The article stated that during the 2011 session, the Senate approved&lt;br /&gt;more than 100 million in bonded indebtedness for purposes such as a&lt;br /&gt;new Veterans Affairs office, a new medical examiners office and money&lt;br /&gt;to finish the American Indian Museum (the state has already spent 65&lt;br /&gt;million on the museum, much of it through bonded indebtedness). The&lt;br /&gt;article lamented that none of those bond proposals were even&lt;br /&gt;considered in the House.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;State Representative Earl Sears, Chairman of the House Appropriations&lt;br /&gt;Committee said that a transportation bond proposal only passed by 1&lt;br /&gt;vote in the House, even though it had been pre-approved by the Senate&lt;br /&gt;and the Governors office.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Of all the issues considered by the members of OCPAC to be used for&lt;br /&gt;this year’s Conservative Index published in the Oklahoma Constitution&lt;br /&gt;Newspaper, that bond issue received the largest number of votes. It&lt;br /&gt;was such a bad deal.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The State Constitution does not allow the legislature to borrow money&lt;br /&gt;for the general fund to make up the annual budget. Therefore, Governor&lt;br /&gt;Fallin and the big spending Republicans in leadership devised a clever&lt;br /&gt;scheme to get around that wise prohibition. As such, the legislature&lt;br /&gt;dipped into the state transportation department’s road and bridge&lt;br /&gt;funds and took 100 million dollars out for the general fund to balance&lt;br /&gt;the budget. The transportation bond mentioned above, which passed by 1&lt;br /&gt;vote, was for $70 million and was used to replace all but $30 million&lt;br /&gt;they raided from the department of transportation. Sadly, once the&lt;br /&gt;bond underwriter fees and interest is paid, it may cost the taxpayers&lt;br /&gt;nearly double the 70 million dollars to get 70 million dollars to use&lt;br /&gt;for roads and bridges.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Representative Sears indicated he has compiled a survey listing all&lt;br /&gt;types of issues, with plans to send to every House member to see what&lt;br /&gt;projects they would support using bond issues to fund? One item on the&lt;br /&gt;survey will be endowed chairs at government run universities. Folks,&lt;br /&gt;borrowing money to fund endowed chairs is insanity, even if it draws&lt;br /&gt;matching money from the private sector.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The article along with an editorial in the Oklahoman a few days later&lt;br /&gt;indicated the state debt level is low and the state could easily float&lt;br /&gt;another 300 million dollars in bonds without risking our credit&lt;br /&gt;rating.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;My question is, why would we want to do such a foolish thing? Why not&lt;br /&gt;pay as we go and save the hundreds of millions in bond underwriter&lt;br /&gt;fees and interest? It is all a matter of priorities. State revenues&lt;br /&gt;have been increasing for the past year and we even put over 200&lt;br /&gt;million dollars into the rainy day fund after the session ended this&lt;br /&gt;year.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;How about using some of these new surplus revenues along with further&lt;br /&gt;reductions in wasteful government spending and improved efficiencies&lt;br /&gt;to pay for these needed capital improvements? Of course state&lt;br /&gt;employees and teachers will be screaming to get their hands on these&lt;br /&gt;new revenues, but they need to be patient as neglected capital&lt;br /&gt;improvement items need to receive some attention.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The state commission that sets the salary for the members of the&lt;br /&gt;legislature just voted not to give a raise the state lawmakers for at&lt;br /&gt;least 2 more years. It has been 14 years since lawmakers have had a&lt;br /&gt;raise, so part time teachers who make an average $6000 dollars a year&lt;br /&gt;more than lawmakers and full time state employees who average about&lt;br /&gt;$3000 dollars a year less than our part time lawmakers, surely can&lt;br /&gt;wait another year or two for a raise. In all reality, while some&lt;br /&gt;lawmakers put in a minimal amount of time, other lawmakers put in more&lt;br /&gt;time than teachers or state employees.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Bottom line, I read an article several years ago about a community&lt;br /&gt;back east that was deeply in debt and anytime a need arose they had to&lt;br /&gt;borrow more money to meet the need. One city councilman persuaded his&lt;br /&gt;fellow members to stop that wasteful cycle and use taxpayer dollars&lt;br /&gt;wisely. They went to the public and asked for a sales tax increase,&lt;br /&gt;with all new revenues from the tax increase to be used to get out of&lt;br /&gt;debt. The public agreed and after about 5 years they were out of debt,&lt;br /&gt;the sales tax went away, the council began to set aside revenues from&lt;br /&gt;the existing tax base for future needs which were paid for with cash.&lt;br /&gt;After some time, that should also allow for the existing tax base to&lt;br /&gt;be lowered and yet, vital services should be taken care of.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;That is a definition of good government and something the state of&lt;br /&gt;Oklahoma should strive for. We do not need to borrow one additional&lt;br /&gt;penny if we will simply limit government to its proper functions, do a&lt;br /&gt;good job of prioritizing and stop wasting taxpayer dollars on wasteful&lt;br /&gt;bond fees and interest.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Charlie Meadows&lt;br /&gt;Charliemeadows7@gmail.com&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;To join OCPAC fill out the following and send your check to:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;OCPAC&lt;br /&gt;P.O. Box 2021&lt;br /&gt;Edmond, OK 73083&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Yes Charlie, I want to join OCPAC at one of the following levels:&lt;br /&gt;___Basic membership at $50 per year.&lt;br /&gt;Safari Club Membership:&lt;br /&gt;___Elephant Provider at ___$180 annual or ___$15 monthly&lt;br /&gt;___Elephant Provider &amp;amp; RINO Hunter, ___$360 annual or ___$30 monthly&lt;br /&gt;For monthly payments please send a voided check so we may draft your&lt;br /&gt;Checking account on a monthly basis. If you decide to discontinue&lt;br /&gt;monthly support, simply contact me and we will stop the withdrawal.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;    THE FOLLOWING IS REQUIRED BY STATE LAW !&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Print Name____________________________________________&lt;br /&gt;Address___________________City___________State____Zip_____&lt;br /&gt;Occupation____________________Employer_________________&lt;br /&gt;Date___________________Amount $_______________&lt;br /&gt;I have freely given from my own resources &amp;amp; have not been compensated&lt;br /&gt;for this contribution. (Corporate contributions not allowed by law!)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Signature_____________________________________&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5431481429087105402-8905440186894231226?l=ocpacnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/feeds/8905440186894231226/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=5431481429087105402&amp;postID=8905440186894231226' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/8905440186894231226'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/8905440186894231226'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/2011/11/city-of-tulsa-special-election-in.html' title='CITY OF TULSA &amp; SPECIAL ELECTION IN McCURTAIN CO. ++  BORROW MORE MONEY OR PAY AS WE GO?'/><author><name>Charlie Meadows</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12159891905392720848</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='26' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_F_NJvphHJNU/S6DeHxvDM5I/AAAAAAAAADY/_8wLtI8on44/S220/charliesepia.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431481429087105402.post-8455031857424279413</id><published>2011-11-01T08:57:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2011-11-01T08:58:11.720-05:00</updated><title type='text'>KYLE LOVELESS ANNOUNCES FOR SENATE ++  ARTICLES ON FREE TRADE AND IMPROVING OUR ECONOMY</title><content type='html'>++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING&lt;br /&gt;++  ANNOUNCEMENTS&lt;br /&gt;++  TWO MORE DAYS FOR MEMBERSHIP MATCHES&lt;br /&gt;++  KYLE LOVELESS ANNOUNCES FOR SENATE&lt;br /&gt;++  ARTICLES ON FREE TRADE AND IMPROVING OUR ECONOMY&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, November 2nd will be held at&lt;br /&gt;Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. Our speaker this&lt;br /&gt;week from Chicago will be Mr. James Lansberry, Vice President of&lt;br /&gt;Samaritan Ministries. Samaritan Ministries is an organized effort to&lt;br /&gt;help facilitate Christians sharing the health care costs of other&lt;br /&gt;Christians. It is NOT health care insurance, but rather an alternative&lt;br /&gt;to such. While I have about decided to go with this organization in&lt;br /&gt;lieu of Medicare, the majority of its members are younger folks, often&lt;br /&gt;times pastors and their families as well as the families of&lt;br /&gt;homeschoolers and self employed folks.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I called State Insurance Commissioner John Doak to invite him to our&lt;br /&gt;meeting. He has to be in Washington for a conference, but is fairly&lt;br /&gt;familiar with the organization and is in favor of people having this&lt;br /&gt;option for their health care needs. He indicated he would send former&lt;br /&gt;Senator Randy Brogdon to one of the meetings to meet Mr. Landsberry&lt;br /&gt;and see what he has to say. On an asside, Commissioner Doak shared&lt;br /&gt;with me that he would be finished visiting all 77 counties by mid-&lt;br /&gt;November and planned to visit all 77 counties at least once a year in&lt;br /&gt;the future.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Just to give an idea of what a family of 4 or MORE would be looking at&lt;br /&gt;in costs for their health care needs as a member of SM, they would NOT&lt;br /&gt;pay more than $340 per month. In addition, should they have a health&lt;br /&gt;care need of more than $300 and up to $250,000, there would be no co-&lt;br /&gt;pays to meet such a need. It is an interesting concept, with&lt;br /&gt;organizations such as this specifically exempted from what we call the&lt;br /&gt;Obamacare legislation passed nearly 2 years ago. If you are not able&lt;br /&gt;to attend our meeting, Mr. Landsberry will also be speaking at Trinity&lt;br /&gt;Baptist Church in Yukon (South of I-40 about a mile on Garth Brooks&lt;br /&gt;Blvd) this Wednesday evening, starting at 6:30 p.m.. You owe it to&lt;br /&gt;yourself to check this out as you could save a lot of money and the&lt;br /&gt;benefit of having other Christians praying for you during a time of&lt;br /&gt;need, might be more valuable than any money saved.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  ANNOUNCEMENTS&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  THURSDAY MORNING  -  TULSA AREA  -  One of the hot topics this last&lt;br /&gt;year during the legislative session was about health care exchanges.&lt;br /&gt;Under grassroots pressure, Governor Fallin and Speaker Steele agreed&lt;br /&gt;to send over $50 million dollars in federal seed money that had been&lt;br /&gt;intended for these exchanges, back to the federal government. Rather&lt;br /&gt;than pass our own version of such, legislators agreed to have several&lt;br /&gt;public meeting across the state before next year’s session is started.&lt;br /&gt;It is my understanding that all options are on the table, including a&lt;br /&gt;complete refusal of the idea. Therefore, if you live in the Tulsa&lt;br /&gt;area, please attend this meeting Thursday morning, 9:00 a.m. at the&lt;br /&gt;Tulsa Technology Center, Riverside campus.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  THURSDAY EVENING  -  OKC AREA  -  Last Wednesday, Tyler Roberts,&lt;br /&gt;Chairman of Young Conservatives of Oklahoma came to our meeting to&lt;br /&gt;invite folks to a special meeting this Thursday evening, 6:00 p.m. in&lt;br /&gt;the Auditorium on the campus of Langston University‘s, Oklahoma City&lt;br /&gt;Campus. That is just a few blocks South of Italiano’s on Lincoln blvd.&lt;br /&gt;The campus shares the facility with the Oklahoma County Election&lt;br /&gt;Board. Speaking will be Mr. Bob Bowdon, a filmmaker who produced and&lt;br /&gt;directed THE CARTEL. I believe he was also involved in the making of&lt;br /&gt;WAITING ON SUPERMAN. In addition a Mr. Larry Sands will also be&lt;br /&gt;speaking. He is the Director of the California Teachers Empowerment&lt;br /&gt;Network. I believe it is an organization similar to the Oklahoma&lt;br /&gt;Professional Educators Association, which is a conservative&lt;br /&gt;alternative to the liberal OEA-NEA unions. The meeting is free and&lt;br /&gt;open to the public.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  TWO MORE DAYS FOR MEMBERSHIP MATCHES&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;We have extended the deadline to join OCPAC to this Wednesday, so an&lt;br /&gt;additional $50 can be  contributed for each person who joins by&lt;br /&gt;Wednesday. Please bring cash, check or money order to our meeting this&lt;br /&gt;Wednesday or follow the instructions on how to join by mail following&lt;br /&gt;my sign off. Please make sure any checks are dated by Wednesday,&lt;br /&gt;November 2nd.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Over the past several months I have been meeting, visiting by phone or&lt;br /&gt;exchanging e-mails with several candidates or potential candidates who&lt;br /&gt;are gearing up for next year’s election. Some of these candidates are&lt;br /&gt;strong and very conservative. We need to raise as much money as&lt;br /&gt;possible to help these outstanding candidates have the resources to&lt;br /&gt;win their elections. There may be more that file, but a least one&lt;br /&gt;excellent candidate has announced that he will work to defeat Senator&lt;br /&gt;Brian Crain (R-Tulsa), winner of this year’s RINO (Republican In Name&lt;br /&gt;Only) award given out by OCPAC.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  KYLE LOVELESS ANNOUNCES FOR SENATE&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Speaking of candidates, this past Wednesday Kyle Loveless came to our&lt;br /&gt;meeting to announce that he would be seeking the seat that Senator&lt;br /&gt;Russell will vacate after next year’s session. Kyle received OCPAC’s&lt;br /&gt;endorsement during the 2008 election cycle, but lost to Steve Russell&lt;br /&gt;in the run-off elections. Even thought he won our support in 2008, he&lt;br /&gt;will have to compete against any other Republican candidates who throw&lt;br /&gt;their hats in the ring for next year’s elections. We congratulate Kyle&lt;br /&gt;on his decision to run again.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  ARTICLES ON FREE TRADE AND IMPROVING OUR ECONOMY&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The cover article in the September 19th edition of the New American&lt;br /&gt;Magazine (publication of the John Birch Society) was titled FREE TRADE&lt;br /&gt;- In Theory and Practice. It was simply outstanding. For years I have&lt;br /&gt;looked for ways to explain how the “so called” free traders in our&lt;br /&gt;nation (most of them are Republicans) have promoted policies which&lt;br /&gt;have harmed our economy which cause our trade deficit to increase.&lt;br /&gt;They love to quote Adam Smith, author of: THE WEALTH OF NATIONS but&lt;br /&gt;they only partially quote him. While Adam Smith was the authority on&lt;br /&gt;free trade, he also made exceptions to such to preserve a nation. This&lt;br /&gt;excellent article explains to exceptions, defines what free trade&lt;br /&gt;really is and what it is not. I ordered a case of the magazines and&lt;br /&gt;will have them available for a suggested donation of one dollar each.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In the Oklahoman this past week was an article by State Representative&lt;br /&gt;Tom Newell (R-Seminole) about the need to eliminate the state income&lt;br /&gt;tax to stimulate our economy. Tom is one of the bright new freshmen in&lt;br /&gt;the legislature who ranked 8th most conservative out of the 70&lt;br /&gt;Republican lawmakers. Tom is a pastor of a church in Seminole and&lt;br /&gt;before being elected was also a professor of economics at the college&lt;br /&gt;in Seminole. As such he seems to also be taking the lead on trying to&lt;br /&gt;get a handle on the run-away costs surrounding our government colleges&lt;br /&gt;and universities. I will try to have copies of his article along with&lt;br /&gt;the magazine mentioned above available for the folks attending our&lt;br /&gt;meeting.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Charlie Meadows&lt;br /&gt;Charliemeadows7@gmail.com&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5431481429087105402-8455031857424279413?l=ocpacnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/feeds/8455031857424279413/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=5431481429087105402&amp;postID=8455031857424279413' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/8455031857424279413'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/8455031857424279413'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/2011/11/kyle-loveless-announces-for-senate.html' title='KYLE LOVELESS ANNOUNCES FOR SENATE ++  ARTICLES ON FREE TRADE AND IMPROVING OUR ECONOMY'/><author><name>Charlie Meadows</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12159891905392720848</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='26' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_F_NJvphHJNU/S6DeHxvDM5I/AAAAAAAAADY/_8wLtI8on44/S220/charliesepia.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431481429087105402.post-8863431369167346981</id><published>2011-10-25T10:49:00.001-05:00</published><updated>2011-10-25T10:49:25.387-05:00</updated><title type='text'>FUTURE TAX AND SPENDING CHANGES IN OKLAHOMA ++  OCPAC MEMBERSHIP UP-DATE &amp; CHALLENGE</title><content type='html'>++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING&lt;br /&gt;++  ANNOUNCEMENTS&lt;br /&gt;++  FUTURE TAX AND SPENDING CHANGES IN OKLAHOMA&lt;br /&gt;++  OCPAC MEMBERSHIP UP-DATE &amp;amp; CHALLENGE&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, October 26th will be held at&lt;br /&gt;Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. Over the years we&lt;br /&gt;have had many candidates for the legislature come to an OCPAC meeting&lt;br /&gt;and say they were going to reduce the size of state government,&lt;br /&gt;eliminate waste, duplication and inefficiencies. We used to have a&lt;br /&gt;member that would ask for some concrete example of how they would&lt;br /&gt;accomplish such an achievement? Usually, there would be little&lt;br /&gt;substance within their answers. Our speaker this week will be State&lt;br /&gt;Representative Jason Murphy (R-Guthrie). Representative Murphey has&lt;br /&gt;been one of the leaders in the legislature to bring about government&lt;br /&gt;modernization as well as greater transparency to our government&lt;br /&gt;functions and processes. We have never considered a bill regarding&lt;br /&gt;government modernization for the conservative index, as we have tried&lt;br /&gt;to be careful that any savings were real and not just pie in the sky.&lt;br /&gt;Jason will explain the effects of his efforts over the past 3 years or&lt;br /&gt;so. In the end, we will be looking for a reduction in the cost of&lt;br /&gt;government, a reduction in the number of state employees and where&lt;br /&gt;feasible, consolidation of government agencies. We want to see if&lt;br /&gt;there is a real benefit for the taxpayers of the State of Oklahoma.&lt;br /&gt;Don’t miss this important meeting and bring your best questions. If&lt;br /&gt;this computer geek (a geek is a nerd with a social life) tries to pull&lt;br /&gt;any wool over our eyes, we want to catch it.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  ANNOUNCEMENTS&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  TUESDAY EVENING  -  KONAWA AREA  -  The Konawa Tea Party will&lt;br /&gt;gather for their monthly meeting, Tuesday evening, October 25th, 7:00&lt;br /&gt;p.m at the American Legion Hut, 101 West 3rd street in Konawa (it is&lt;br /&gt;on highway 39, just East of the Assembly of God Church. Pastor Dan&lt;br /&gt;Fisher of Trinity Baptist Church (Yukon) and I will both be speaking.&lt;br /&gt;Without Paul Blair around, Dan started to pick on me as soon as he&lt;br /&gt;found out we would both be speaking. Having seen this guy in action&lt;br /&gt;before, I know to stay out in front of him. Therefore, I have&lt;br /&gt;suggested it would not matter who would speak first. If it was me, I&lt;br /&gt;would tone it down so people would not get up and leave 5 minutes into&lt;br /&gt;his talk because of boredom. However, should Dan go first, I have&lt;br /&gt;suggested I could wake the audience up once I got started. Actually,&lt;br /&gt;beside the dog and pony show between Dan and I, there will be some&lt;br /&gt;really important content presented. If you live anywhere in the area,&lt;br /&gt;please attend so you can meet some the other conservatives in the&lt;br /&gt;effort to make Oklahoma a better place to live.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  FRIDAY EVENING  -  OKC AREA  -  Folks are invited to an evening&lt;br /&gt;with Phyllis Schlafly, Founder and President of Eagle Forum, one of&lt;br /&gt;America’s top conservative organizations since 1972. The location will&lt;br /&gt;be the Gaylord University Center (2501 E. Memorial Rd, Edmond) on the&lt;br /&gt;campus of Oklahoma Christian University. The dinner and meeting will&lt;br /&gt;start at 7:00 p.m., but there is a Special Student Only Reception&lt;br /&gt;which begins at 5 and a Private Reception for Sponsors at 6:00 p.m.&lt;br /&gt;Now, here is the deal, they need a head count to order the food, by&lt;br /&gt;today, Tuesday, October 25th. Therefore, everyone intending to go to&lt;br /&gt;this event will need to contact Bunny Chambers today at (405) 721-2891&lt;br /&gt;or by e-mail okeagle@eagleforum.org. High School and College students&lt;br /&gt;get in for $10, but I am not sure what the price will be for adults&lt;br /&gt;since we are past the early bird discount time. Please contact Bunny&lt;br /&gt;for that information, but do so today.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  SATURDAY EVENING  -  OKC  -  I have mentioned in the last couple of&lt;br /&gt;e-mails about the John Birch Society’s first recognition banquet and&lt;br /&gt;Patriot Celebration which will be this Saturday evening, 6:00 p.m. at&lt;br /&gt;the Character Center, 524 West Main in Downtown OKC (This is just a&lt;br /&gt;couple of blocks West of the new Devon Tower). I contacted Bob Donohoo&lt;br /&gt;yesterday morning as last Friday was the reservation deadline.&lt;br /&gt;However, he has ordered 3 or 4 extra dinners for anyone who&lt;br /&gt;procrastinated but still wants to attend. Therefore, if you haven’t&lt;br /&gt;made your reservations as yet, you might give Bob a call at (405)&lt;br /&gt;436-5412 to see if there are any openings still available. The cost is&lt;br /&gt;$15 per person. This will be a fun evening and a great time for&lt;br /&gt;fellowship.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  FUTURE TAX AND SPENDING CHANGES IN OKLAHOMA&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A few weeks back, Governor Fallin stated an intention to totally&lt;br /&gt;eliminate our state income tax. Over the past several weeks, State&lt;br /&gt;Representative David Dank, Chairman of the State Task Force for the&lt;br /&gt;study of State Tax Credits and Economic Incentives has been trying to&lt;br /&gt;lift the veil of darkness surrounding a myriad of tax credits and&lt;br /&gt;other incentive plans in the state which mostly amount to corporate&lt;br /&gt;welfare. Yesterday, in the news, State Treasurer Ken Miller stated&lt;br /&gt;that with a change in the component of state government and a move to&lt;br /&gt;more conservatism, we should start to see more significant tax reforms&lt;br /&gt;in the future. I believe that means tax reductions.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Please understand, there is a difference between a tax deduction or&lt;br /&gt;tax exemption and a tax credit. Tax deductions and exemptions are what&lt;br /&gt;government decides not take from a taxpayer or a business entity. On&lt;br /&gt;the other hand, a tax credit, a government grant or government subsidy&lt;br /&gt;are always a government expenditure.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Tax credits were designed to work as an incentive for a person or&lt;br /&gt;business to spend a certain amount of money, then when tax time comes&lt;br /&gt;each year on or before April 15th, the government will send a check&lt;br /&gt;for a certain amount of money, or reduce a tax obligation if any&lt;br /&gt;exists, back to the person or entity. Tax credit schemes were designed&lt;br /&gt;to be rebate (kickback) programs, much like when we buy cell phone for&lt;br /&gt;a hundred dollars, then send in a rebate form and the phone company&lt;br /&gt;sends us a check for $50 to reduce what we paid for the phone.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A transferable tax credit has a little different twist. As with the&lt;br /&gt;Great Plains Airlines debacle, the investors in the start up airline&lt;br /&gt;company didn’t first spend millions of dollars then apply to some&lt;br /&gt;“economic development” program sponsored by the State of Oklahoma for&lt;br /&gt;$27 million in tax credits. Once it was determined that they would be&lt;br /&gt;eligible for the tax credits, they simply sold those tax credits (I&lt;br /&gt;believe most of them were purchased by Bank of Oklahoma) for perhaps&lt;br /&gt;90 cents on the dollar. That way, the new start up airline had “up&lt;br /&gt;front” money to start the business. Then when tax time occurred, BOK&lt;br /&gt;turned in the tax credits which had been transferred to them by Great&lt;br /&gt;Plains Airlines for the $27 million and in turn made a profit of 10%&lt;br /&gt;in less than a year. Of course it was a very risky investment which&lt;br /&gt;failed and as such “state” taxpayers lost $27 million dollars.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In an Oklahoman article on October 13th, Representative Dank is quoted&lt;br /&gt;as saying: “We have reviewed enough of these tax credits so far to&lt;br /&gt;know that the controls and safeguards in place are often a joke.” “In&lt;br /&gt;many cases, they are almost nonexistent.”&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In an additional article, it was reported that the state issued $275&lt;br /&gt;million in tax credits over the past 3 years under just two incentive&lt;br /&gt;programs. The article went on to say the programs created 1428 jobs&lt;br /&gt;from 2007 through 2009, which means the state spent $192,000 for each&lt;br /&gt;job created.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I would suggest that most of those jobs, if they continue to exist,&lt;br /&gt;will not produce enough tax dollars to the state to repay the $192,000&lt;br /&gt;in fifty to a hundred years. What a deal!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Ultimately, we are probably going to see many of these programs done&lt;br /&gt;away with and none too soon. These programs do not allow for free&lt;br /&gt;market economics, but rather central planning, crony capitalism and&lt;br /&gt;all sorts of corruption for the well connected.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;What Oklahoma’s goal should be is to have such an efficient&lt;br /&gt;government, relegated only to the proper functions of government, so&lt;br /&gt;that we can eliminate all corporate, franchise, capital gains and&lt;br /&gt;personal income taxes. That in itself would create the best&lt;br /&gt;environment in America for businesses to locate here. Doing away with&lt;br /&gt;the costs of all of these economic development tax credit schemes&lt;br /&gt;would go a long way toward reducing spending to such a degree that we&lt;br /&gt;could start lowering many of these taxes I just mentioned.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  OCPAC MEMBERSHIP UP-DATE &amp;amp; CHALLENGE&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;We are currently at 225 dues paying members which is 8 more than the&lt;br /&gt;217 record we set in 2009, the most recent non-election year. I have&lt;br /&gt;secured $500 to be used to match another 10 dues paying members&lt;br /&gt;through the end of October. If you simply have not joined OCPAC so far&lt;br /&gt;this year, now is the time to do so. Those dues are the money we&lt;br /&gt;invest in candidates from all over the state to change the face of&lt;br /&gt;Oklahoma. No one affiliated with OCPAC receives a salary or commission&lt;br /&gt;for the work we do and our expenses are at a bare minimum. Therefore,&lt;br /&gt;almost every dollar of your dues will go to elect conservatives or try&lt;br /&gt;to hold them accountable once they are in office. Please consider&lt;br /&gt;joining today. Instructions on how to join are below.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Charlie Meadows&lt;br /&gt;Charliemeadows7@gmail.com&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5431481429087105402-8863431369167346981?l=ocpacnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/feeds/8863431369167346981/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=5431481429087105402&amp;postID=8863431369167346981' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/8863431369167346981'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/8863431369167346981'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/2011/10/future-tax-and-spending-changes-in.html' title='FUTURE TAX AND SPENDING CHANGES IN OKLAHOMA ++  OCPAC MEMBERSHIP UP-DATE &amp; CHALLENGE'/><author><name>Charlie Meadows</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12159891905392720848</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='26' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_F_NJvphHJNU/S6DeHxvDM5I/AAAAAAAAADY/_8wLtI8on44/S220/charliesepia.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431481429087105402.post-2390809713375861370</id><published>2011-10-12T06:09:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2011-10-12T06:10:50.231-05:00</updated><title type='text'>ANNOUNCEMENTS ++  PERSPECTIVE ON THE “OCCUPY” MOVEMENT ++  TIDBITS</title><content type='html'>++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING&lt;br /&gt;++  ANNOUNCEMENTS&lt;br /&gt;++  PERSPECTIVE ON THE “OCCUPY” MOVEMENT&lt;br /&gt;++  TIDBITS&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, October 12th will be held at&lt;br /&gt;Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. Our speaker this&lt;br /&gt;week will be Dr. Gary Crossland. Gary has authored several books&lt;br /&gt;including his masterful work, THE MERGED GOSPELS. He is a former&lt;br /&gt;college and seminary instructor, is a Greek Translator and Gary has&lt;br /&gt;traveled extensively throughout Israel, leading tours and doing film&lt;br /&gt;documentaries. He is currently working on a number of projects,&lt;br /&gt;including a documentary about the Jewishness of Jesus, two interactive&lt;br /&gt;e-Books, a fictional novel, a computer game and comic books, all about&lt;br /&gt;Israel and the life of Jesus.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I have also asked Gary to comment about the PASSAGES exhibit currently&lt;br /&gt;showing at the Oklahoma City Arts Center. Speaking of such, my wife,&lt;br /&gt;dad and I went to see the PASSAGES presentation this past Sunday&lt;br /&gt;afternoon. The crowd was a little too large for the exhibit so it made&lt;br /&gt;it difficult to experience its full flavor. It will end next Sunday,&lt;br /&gt;October 16th to move on to its next location. If you have not seen it&lt;br /&gt;as yet, the time is now (go during a weekday if possible) as it may&lt;br /&gt;never return to OKC, home of its first display. It’s permanent home is&lt;br /&gt;destined to be Washington DC, where it is expected to have 2 million&lt;br /&gt;visitors each year. Don’t miss this Wednesday’s meeting, it is sure to&lt;br /&gt;be most interesting.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  ANNOUNCEMENTS&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;SATURDAY, OCT 29TH  -  OKC  -  Oklahoma members of the John Birch&lt;br /&gt;Society will hold their first semi-annual Patriot Recognition Program.&lt;br /&gt;The Master of Ceremony will be Glen Howard, JBS Field Coordinator Mike&lt;br /&gt;Sawyer will share the humorous side of activism and of course we will&lt;br /&gt;have a super-charged mystery speaker. The location is the Character&lt;br /&gt;Inn, 520 West Main Street in downtown OKC. The time is from 6:00 until&lt;br /&gt;9:00 p.m., business attire is recommended. The cost is $15 per person&lt;br /&gt;and reservations are required by October 21st. Make checks payable and&lt;br /&gt;send payment to: Oklahoma Projects, 415 West 15th #2, Edmond, Ok&lt;br /&gt;73013. This will be a fun evening, please feel free to bring a friend.&lt;br /&gt;For additional information, contact Bob Donohoo at (405) 436-5412.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  PERSPECTIVE ON THE “OCCUPY” MOVEMENT&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The occupy Wall Street demonstration started a little over 3 weeks ago&lt;br /&gt;in NYC and now has fellow traveler groups popping up in other cities,&lt;br /&gt;including OKC and Tulsa. These demonstrations, have communist finger&lt;br /&gt;prints all over them, much like the Communist inspired Viet Nam war&lt;br /&gt;protests of the 60s and early 70s. Orchestrating will probably be the&lt;br /&gt;likes of Van Jones, Bill Ayres and etc. aided by the re-named Acorn&lt;br /&gt;groups, labor unions and  most likely funding from George Soros.&lt;br /&gt;However, the vast majority of those attending the protests will be&lt;br /&gt;what the Communists describe as “useful idiots”. I have listened to as&lt;br /&gt;many of these folks as possible and would suggest the term educated&lt;br /&gt;idiots would also be appropriate.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Many of these university students and college age kids are little more&lt;br /&gt;than the fruit of anti-American curriculum in our secondary schools&lt;br /&gt;(see the DVD, America’s Censored Heritage) and the socialist dogma of&lt;br /&gt;Marxist professors in our colleges and universities. Those attending&lt;br /&gt;the demonstrations are basically anti-free market capitalists who&lt;br /&gt;believe in socialist and fascist capitalism though they are largely&lt;br /&gt;ignorant of their beliefs.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In Dallas this past weekend the occupy movement had a demonstration of&lt;br /&gt;about 500. Please don’t confuse them with the End The Fed group,&lt;br /&gt;organized by Alex Jones, who were demonstrating in front of the&lt;br /&gt;Federal Reserve Branch in Dallas. The occupy movement kids are&lt;br /&gt;anarchist, Marxist capitalists, whereas the Ron Paul, End the Fed&lt;br /&gt;demonstrators are some of the purist free market capitalists in&lt;br /&gt;America.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In virtually all countries taken over by the Communists (at their&lt;br /&gt;height it was around 55) their strategy was similar. Identify or&lt;br /&gt;create societal problems, exaggerate those problems out of proportion&lt;br /&gt;to reality, join with others to bring down the existing order, then&lt;br /&gt;quickly move to the forefront to control the future government. That&lt;br /&gt;same strategy is in play right now, but it has always had a difficult&lt;br /&gt;time as long as there is a large middle class to resist its BS (blue&lt;br /&gt;smoke) and lies.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Most of those attending come for a variety of reasons, are very&lt;br /&gt;ignorant about how wealth is created and live in a stupor of&lt;br /&gt;confusion. They do recognize some valid problems, but don’t have a&lt;br /&gt;clue as to how to solve them, nor a recognition that some problems&lt;br /&gt;can’t and never will be solved. While I don’t like the power large&lt;br /&gt;corporations have over government officials to direct corporate&lt;br /&gt;welfare toward themselves, hating job producers is like shooting one’s&lt;br /&gt;self in the foot.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Though it has been difficult to determine the majority theme of the&lt;br /&gt;protestors, it appears most of them and their efforts are motivated by&lt;br /&gt;what they perceive as wealth disparity. They are angry that some&lt;br /&gt;people are wealthy and others are poor. Fueled by the rhetoric of&lt;br /&gt;President Obama and other Democrats continual clamoring for the&lt;br /&gt;wealthy to pay their “fair share”. The fruit of this continual&lt;br /&gt;bombardment of wealth-envy dogma is a large group of young people&lt;br /&gt;hating prosperous people. That leads the “have nots” to a desire to&lt;br /&gt;take wealth for themselves and other “poor” people through government&lt;br /&gt;wealth re-distribution legislation or in some cases other means if&lt;br /&gt;necessary. These are Obama’s, Pelosi’s and other radical leftist’s&lt;br /&gt;kind of people who are showing up at these demonstrations.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This movement has a serious degree of danger, as part of the strategy&lt;br /&gt;of the enemies of America is to see our society break down into riots,&lt;br /&gt;chaos and revolution. If these demonstrations continue to grow in&lt;br /&gt;numbers, it would only take a spark and we would see situations in&lt;br /&gt;America much like we have seen in France, Greece, and England over the&lt;br /&gt;past couple of years. Hopefully, the middle class in America will not&lt;br /&gt;let it get out of hand like has occurred in Egypt, Libya and other&lt;br /&gt;parts of the Arab world.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It is important that Christians view these situations from a Biblical&lt;br /&gt;World Veiw. First let me suggest we recognize there are valid&lt;br /&gt;grievances and problems in our society. However, those problems are a&lt;br /&gt;result of abandoning Biblical principles and as such, non Biblical&lt;br /&gt;answers will not solve those problems. As I have written in the past,&lt;br /&gt;God equates fairness in matters such as taxation through application,&lt;br /&gt;not how taxes effect a person. As an example, at tithe of 10% was to&lt;br /&gt;be applied to the wealthy, the middle class and the poor. It is Karl&lt;br /&gt;Marx’s idea to have the wealthy pay a higher percent and the poor to&lt;br /&gt;pay nothing. Whose ideology are Christians going to hold to?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Jesus, talking to his disciples said: “the poor will ALWAYS be with&lt;br /&gt;you”. Mankind will never ever, ever, ever wipe out poverty. People who&lt;br /&gt;think otherwise make Jesus out to be a liar and exalt their own&lt;br /&gt;opinion above the truth spoken in God‘s Word. Christians should help&lt;br /&gt;the helpless, but realize that most people with problems are in their&lt;br /&gt;situations as a result of rebellion toward God and the many poor&lt;br /&gt;decisions they have made, usually throughout their whole life.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As a Christian, I am always seeking ways to appeal to people with&lt;br /&gt;problems with the kind of truth that can change their lives. If that&lt;br /&gt;counsel is Godly and good and if the people will respond to it, they&lt;br /&gt;will become prosperous and their problems in life will fade. However,&lt;br /&gt;if good counsel is rejected, people with problems will continue to&lt;br /&gt;wallow in their misery. The choice rests with them. In the same way,&lt;br /&gt;appealing to these protesters with the kind of truth that will dispel&lt;br /&gt;their confusion and help them to put together the big picture of how&lt;br /&gt;wealth is created may convert the teachable. But not all are&lt;br /&gt;teachable, thus the old adage, “to continually bail a fool out of his&lt;br /&gt;problems is to populate the world with fools”.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  TIDBITS&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  LAST WEEK’S MEETING&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Last week Peter LeBarbara did an outstanding job of exposing the&lt;br /&gt;homosexual agenda, its effect upon the Biblical model of the family&lt;br /&gt;and how destructive and expensive that agenda is to our culture. Peter&lt;br /&gt;had high praise for State Representative Sally Kern for her public&lt;br /&gt;stand on this important issue and the fact that she didn’t cave under&lt;br /&gt;the enormous pressure applied by the homosexual community. Peter said&lt;br /&gt;it is rare for public officials to stand under such pressure and as&lt;br /&gt;such most public officials avoid the controversy or cave to its&lt;br /&gt;agenda.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Peter, spoke highly of Sally’s book, THE STONING OF SALLY KERN and&lt;br /&gt;suggested everyone read it. Sally has been busy speaking and doing&lt;br /&gt;interviews every since the book was published this past Spring. If you&lt;br /&gt;know of a church or civic group that would like to hear Sally’s&lt;br /&gt;compelling story, just give her a call as I am sure she would be&lt;br /&gt;willing to share her story. She can be reached at her office (405)&lt;br /&gt;557-7348.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  FREEDOM PULPUT SUNDAY&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;One week ago Sunday was the 4th annual Freedom Pulpit Sunday, a time&lt;br /&gt;each year where pastors with backbone preach an election or civics&lt;br /&gt;sermon. The first year we had 33 pastors from across the nation&lt;br /&gt;participate, the next year it was 84 pastors, the third year it was&lt;br /&gt;100 and one week ago Sunday 532 pastors reported they had preached&lt;br /&gt;such a sermon. Some of the churches are small, but at least one mega-&lt;br /&gt;church with 20 thousand members participated. This is a growing&lt;br /&gt;movement that will make a difference in America in the days to come.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Charlie Meadows&lt;br /&gt;Charliemeadows7@gmail.com&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5431481429087105402-2390809713375861370?l=ocpacnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/feeds/2390809713375861370/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=5431481429087105402&amp;postID=2390809713375861370' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/2390809713375861370'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/2390809713375861370'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/2011/10/announcements-perspective-on-occupy_12.html' title='ANNOUNCEMENTS ++  PERSPECTIVE ON THE “OCCUPY” MOVEMENT ++  TIDBITS'/><author><name>Charlie Meadows</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12159891905392720848</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='26' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_F_NJvphHJNU/S6DeHxvDM5I/AAAAAAAAADY/_8wLtI8on44/S220/charliesepia.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431481429087105402.post-5163242119927625677</id><published>2011-10-10T09:23:00.001-05:00</published><updated>2011-10-10T09:23:50.649-05:00</updated><title type='text'>CHARLIE’S PICKS</title><content type='html'>CHARLIE’S PICKS&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Those subscribing to these e-mails know that before important&lt;br /&gt;elections, I send out the infamous Charlie’s Picks, which are simply&lt;br /&gt;my opinions about the elections. Some folks simply haven’t taken the&lt;br /&gt;time to evaluate candidates or issues and are looking for the thoughts&lt;br /&gt;of others. Some have made their mind up based on certain information&lt;br /&gt;which may disagree with my opinions and that is fine. These are simply&lt;br /&gt;my opinions. Following are opinions about 3 elections on Tuesday,&lt;br /&gt;October 11th, 2011.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  SENATE DISTRICT 43  -  GREG CHILDERS  -  This is the general&lt;br /&gt;election to fill the vacated seat recently held by State Senator Jim&lt;br /&gt;Reynolds (R-Del City). The location of the district includes much of&lt;br /&gt;Del City, parts of South OKC and parts of Moore. This has been a high&lt;br /&gt;priority race for Oklahoma Democrats as they desperately need a take-&lt;br /&gt;away victory over the Republicans since they have taken such a beating&lt;br /&gt;at the ballot box over the past 3 or 4 election cycles.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Democrats first supported a liberal Republican in hopes to take&lt;br /&gt;Greg out in the Republican primary. She worked hard and they even had&lt;br /&gt;a private eye following Greg in hopes of finding something they could&lt;br /&gt;use against him. Some Republicans fell for the bait, but Greg&lt;br /&gt;prevailed in the primary. It has been amusing at the opposition to&lt;br /&gt;Greg by some Republicans, mainly based on speculation. I spent quite a&lt;br /&gt;bit of time getting to know Greg and had him come to OCPAC for our&lt;br /&gt;interview process without announcing his appearance (couldn’t take a&lt;br /&gt;chance on the Dems recording some of his answers to use against him in&lt;br /&gt;the general election). Our members overwhelmingly voted to support&lt;br /&gt;Greg. Greg is simply a citizen concerned about the direction America&lt;br /&gt;is taking and decided to run for office to try to make Oklahoma and&lt;br /&gt;America a better place in which to live. Greg is not a person who has&lt;br /&gt;fully developed a conservative ideology, but he is loves to read, has&lt;br /&gt;conservative instincts, and as such has the potential to be a very&lt;br /&gt;good Senator.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  EDMOND TAX VOTE  -  VOTE NO  -  Edmond really needs a new public&lt;br /&gt;safety center and as such tried to pass a bond issue a couple of years&lt;br /&gt;ago, but it met with defeat. At that time, the project was too large,&lt;br /&gt;too expensive, to be built in the wrong location and it was to be paid&lt;br /&gt;for with a property tax increase. This time, the project has been&lt;br /&gt;scaled back, is less costly, is to be built in an acceptable location&lt;br /&gt;and will be paid for with a sales tax increase, rather than a property&lt;br /&gt;tax increase. I believe every one of those perspectives is correct,&lt;br /&gt;that is assuming you need a tax increase to do the project. However, I&lt;br /&gt;do NOT believe the tax increase is needed for the project. Edmond is a&lt;br /&gt;beautiful city with a large sales tax base. Its main downside is very&lt;br /&gt;serious traffic congestion. My problem with the governance of Edmond&lt;br /&gt;is poor prioritization of tax funds, I will give 3 examples.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;1) Edmond has chosen to widen several streets as boulevards with&lt;br /&gt;wasteful planter boxes in the middle rather than the needed pragmatism&lt;br /&gt;of center turn lanes. This causes street construction to increase in&lt;br /&gt;time and money as the more labor intensive as the amount of curbing&lt;br /&gt;doubles for boulevards. Then you have the high cost of installing&lt;br /&gt;grass, trees or plants for the middle of the streets. Perhaps the&lt;br /&gt;biggest concern is the continual high cost of maintenance for these&lt;br /&gt;planter boxes. In addition, in some cases you can’t make a left turn&lt;br /&gt;into or out of business drives, thus making autos go to the next stop&lt;br /&gt;light, trip the left turn arrow which stops the oncoming free flow of&lt;br /&gt;traffic so that autos can double back to visit a favored business. A&lt;br /&gt;more pragmatic approach to city streets could save money which could&lt;br /&gt;be used for this important project, not to mention improve traffic&lt;br /&gt;flow. Edmond’s attractiveness should come from the sides of its&lt;br /&gt;streets, not from the middle of its streets.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;2) For years now, Edmond has used tax dollars to purchase bronze art&lt;br /&gt;statues to erect at various locations around town. Some of this art&lt;br /&gt;work is beautiful and some of it is coyote ugly. In a conservative&lt;br /&gt;free market economy, art work is not a proper function of government,&lt;br /&gt;especially since people’s art tastes are so different. If people want&lt;br /&gt;bronze art pieces all over town they should provide such with private&lt;br /&gt;dollars, not tax dollars. Those tax dollars should have been saved to&lt;br /&gt;be used for a new public safety center.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;3) Public transportation is not a proper function of government in a&lt;br /&gt;free market society. If there is a community in Oklahoma that does not&lt;br /&gt;need public transportation, it is Edmond. For years Edmond contracted&lt;br /&gt;with COPTA to provide rubber wheeled trolley cars called the Eddy.&lt;br /&gt;They were dubbed the “Empty Eddy” as most of the time you would see&lt;br /&gt;them running around town empty as they added to traffic congestion.&lt;br /&gt;When Obama and the Democrats passed the $800 billion stimulus plan,&lt;br /&gt;Edmond jumped on the grant wagon to obtain over half a million dollars&lt;br /&gt;from the bankrupt federal government to purchase 5 new buses. Then&lt;br /&gt;Edmond dumped COPTA and hired a Texas company to run the new system.&lt;br /&gt;In an attempt to improve rider ship and thus justify having a public&lt;br /&gt;transportation system, Edmond decided not to charge riders but to&lt;br /&gt;simply eat the operational costs for the system. Rider ship is up&lt;br /&gt;since it is free. But just think, Edmond taxpayers are now forced to&lt;br /&gt;pay for the bus rides to take people to downtown OKC to work and spend&lt;br /&gt;money rather than to have that handful of people pay for their own&lt;br /&gt;transportation to and from work.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The three quarters of a million or more each year wasted on the&lt;br /&gt;operational expenses for the public transportation system, along with&lt;br /&gt;some other savings and a modest amount of new growth money would be&lt;br /&gt;sufficient to pay for a new public safety center. Edmond citizens will&lt;br /&gt;have to decide as to whether or not they want to continue with&lt;br /&gt;wasteful spending government or demand the proper prioritization of&lt;br /&gt;public funds. Though it is likely to pass, those are the reasons I&lt;br /&gt;would vote NO as I believe a tax increase in not needed for the high&lt;br /&gt;priority project.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There is an additional item on the ballot to allow the city to access&lt;br /&gt;over 7 million dollars they have in a slush fund to be borrowed for&lt;br /&gt;projects such as this to cut down on bond underwriting fees. Voters&lt;br /&gt;should say YES to this issue, whether the sales tax vote passes or&lt;br /&gt;not.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;On the plus side, Logan County has just sold their hospital and&lt;br /&gt;clinics and will soon have the county sales tax drop by three quarters&lt;br /&gt;of a penny. In about 3 more years the Logan County jail bonds will be&lt;br /&gt;paid off and the sales tax will be reduced another three quarters of a&lt;br /&gt;penny. Both of these reductions will put Guthrie’s sales tax lower&lt;br /&gt;than that of Edmond should this tax increase pass. That will certainly&lt;br /&gt;cause some conservatives who live between the two cities to chose to&lt;br /&gt;shop and dine more so in Guthrie rather than Edmond as well as keep&lt;br /&gt;Guthrie shoppers at home.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  OWASSO  -  VOTE NO  -  The economic development central planners&lt;br /&gt;types in Owasso are asking citizens to increase their property taxes&lt;br /&gt;for more frills for the city of Owasso. Tulsa County Republican&lt;br /&gt;Chairman and Owasso resident J.B. Alexander is leading a coalition of&lt;br /&gt;residents to oppose yet another tax increase. The economic development&lt;br /&gt;person sent Mr. Alexander a threatening e-mail, then profusely&lt;br /&gt;apologized when the police investigated. He basically said he had&lt;br /&gt;become depressed at the thought of his young child having to grow up&lt;br /&gt;in Owasso without adequate parks and etc. Give me a break, Owasso is&lt;br /&gt;not a community without parks. It really doesn’t take a village to&lt;br /&gt;raise children, just some valuable parent time and children will have&lt;br /&gt;a chance to do well growing up as individuals, not as collectivists.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are more elections, these are the only 3 I will comment on. This&lt;br /&gt;week’s regular e-mail will go out tomorrow morning.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Charlie Meadows&lt;br /&gt;Charliemeadows7@gmail.com&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5431481429087105402-5163242119927625677?l=ocpacnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/feeds/5163242119927625677/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=5431481429087105402&amp;postID=5163242119927625677' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/5163242119927625677'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/5163242119927625677'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/2011/10/charlies-picks.html' title='CHARLIE’S PICKS'/><author><name>Charlie Meadows</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12159891905392720848</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='26' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_F_NJvphHJNU/S6DeHxvDM5I/AAAAAAAAADY/_8wLtI8on44/S220/charliesepia.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431481429087105402.post-3068968125295265942</id><published>2011-10-03T09:09:00.001-05:00</published><updated>2011-10-03T09:09:56.165-05:00</updated><title type='text'>WILL CORP COMMISSION DOUBLE OUR UNIVERSAL SERVICE TAX? ++  REYNOLDS SPECULATES ON OK TAX DOLLARS GOING TO SOLYNDRA?</title><content type='html'>++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING&lt;br /&gt;++  ANNOUNCEMENTS&lt;br /&gt;++  FUTURE EVENTS&lt;br /&gt;++  WILL CORP COMMISSION DOUBLE OUR UNIVERSAL SERVICE TAX?&lt;br /&gt;++  REYNOLDS SPECULATES ON OK TAX DOLLARS GOING TO SOLYNDRA?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, October 5th will be held at&lt;br /&gt;Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. Our primary speaker&lt;br /&gt;this Wednesday, will be Peter LaBarbera, Executive Director of&lt;br /&gt;American’s for Truth About Homosexuality. I believe Mr. LaBarbera is&lt;br /&gt;headquartered out of Chicago. He is probably the nations foremost&lt;br /&gt;authority on the homosexual agenda and how that agenda threatens the&lt;br /&gt;Biblical model of a family as well as its destructive implications to&lt;br /&gt;our society. Mr. LaBarbera is considered public enemy number ONE to&lt;br /&gt;the militant homosexual community in America. While the church is&lt;br /&gt;slowly winning the abortion and creation battles, it is losing the&lt;br /&gt;homosexual issue. Come find out why. Also, I am trying to contact Dana&lt;br /&gt;Murphy, Chairman of the Corporation Commission to ask her to come and&lt;br /&gt;explain the reasons for a possible doubling of the Oklahoma universal&lt;br /&gt;user tax that we pay on our phone bills. More on that later in this e-&lt;br /&gt;mail.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  ANNOUNCEMENTS&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  THURSDAY EVENING  -  BLANCHARD AREA  -  The Oklahoma Liberty Tea&lt;br /&gt;Party Meeting will be held on Thursday evening, October 6th at 7:00&lt;br /&gt;p.m. The location is the American Legion Building, 103 South Main&lt;br /&gt;street in downtown Blanchard. I will be speaking that evening and&lt;br /&gt;encourage folks in the area who are not a member of this local tea&lt;br /&gt;party to attend to get to know other activists in your area. I will&lt;br /&gt;talk briefly about the positive changes in Oklahoma over the past 20&lt;br /&gt;years as Oklahoma has changed from being a blue state to one of the&lt;br /&gt;reddest states in America. I will then discuss what needs to be done&lt;br /&gt;going forward.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  SATURDAY EVENING  -  CHICKASHA AREA  -  The Grady County TEA Party&lt;br /&gt;will have TEA with the Duke, Saturday, October 8th at the Grady County&lt;br /&gt;Fairgrounds in Chickasha. “The Duke” is a John Wayne impersonator who&lt;br /&gt;looks like, talks, like and walks like John Wayne. He will present a&lt;br /&gt;patriotic program. There will be food, the Duke and a western dance.&lt;br /&gt;Tickets are $15, for more information contact Mark at (405) 314-4730&lt;br /&gt;or Joyce at (405) 320-0028.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  FUTURE EVENTS&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  Our good friend John Michener wanted me to announce the upcoming&lt;br /&gt;training sessions associated with the organization Justice For All.&lt;br /&gt;John is a regional director for JFA and is doing an excellent job. He&lt;br /&gt;describes the mission of JFA as to train thousands to make abortion&lt;br /&gt;unthinkable for millions, one person at a time. The JFA training&lt;br /&gt;includes:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;- The problem and opportunity for Christians surrounding abortion.&lt;br /&gt;- How to be wise ambassadors for Christ with Knowledge, Wisdom &amp;amp;&lt;br /&gt;Humility&lt;br /&gt;- Making the biological and philosophical cases for life&lt;br /&gt;- Tackling the hard questions (rape, life &amp;amp; health of the mother)&lt;br /&gt;- Seeing the opportunity for evangelism in every conversation&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Following are the training opportunities:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;October 16th, Baptist Collegiate Ministry, 400 East Main street in&lt;br /&gt;Edmond. Lunch at 12:30 p.m. seminar from 1 - 5:30 p.m.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;October 23rd, Eagle Heights Baptist Church, 2617 North Jardot Road,&lt;br /&gt;Stillwater. Lunch at 12:30 p.m. seminar from 1 - 5:30 p.m.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The corresponding outreach days are:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;University of Central Oklahoma, Edmond, on Tuesday and Wednesday,&lt;br /&gt;October 18th and 19th.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, on Thursday and Friday, October&lt;br /&gt;27th and 28th.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If you want to do more than wring your hands or just pray about the&lt;br /&gt;abortion tragedy, this is a wonderful opportunity to learn how to&lt;br /&gt;engage pro-choice people and be able to turn the hearts of some away&lt;br /&gt;from the slaughter of the unborn. JFA is being very effective on&lt;br /&gt;college campuses across America. For more information, contact John&lt;br /&gt;Michener at john.Michener@alumni.oc.edu.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  Our meeting for November 2nd will feature the Vice President of&lt;br /&gt;Samaritan Ministries. While this is not an insurance company, this is&lt;br /&gt;a Christian health cost sharing ministry. Hopefully Obama Care will be&lt;br /&gt;repealed either through the courts or by Congress after next year’s&lt;br /&gt;elections. If not, ministries such as this are actually exempted in&lt;br /&gt;the legislation. Not only does this program provide help to families&lt;br /&gt;for major medical expenses, it costs less per month than insurance.&lt;br /&gt;This is also a free market alternative to Medicare, which of course is&lt;br /&gt;nearing bankruptcy and will only get worse with time. Mark this date&lt;br /&gt;on your calendar and tell your friends, you owe it to yourself to&lt;br /&gt;check this out.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  WILL CORP COMMISSION DOUBLE OUR UNIVERSAL SERVICE TAX?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Just this past week, Corporation Commissioners Dana Murphy and Jeff&lt;br /&gt;Cloud (Bob Anthony wasn’t at the meeting) voted to consider this&lt;br /&gt;coming Tuesday (October 4th), a day to vote to nearly double the&lt;br /&gt;Oklahoma Universal Service Fund tax. If it passes, it is estimated to&lt;br /&gt;raise close to $50 million annually in additional revenues. There are&lt;br /&gt;a couple of issues at stake, but the most important to understand, is&lt;br /&gt;that the proposal would raise the tax on wireless phone users with the&lt;br /&gt;proceeds being used to subsidize the service for people with land&lt;br /&gt;lines.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I have an idea, if a rate increase is really needed, then why not&lt;br /&gt;raise the rates ONLY on the folks using land lines and leave the&lt;br /&gt;wireless phone service customers with no greater burden than they&lt;br /&gt;currently have to bare?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This process needs to be slowed down, to determine if the need is&lt;br /&gt;real, if AT&amp;amp;T is behind this at the expense of its competitors and why&lt;br /&gt;wireless phone users should be asked to bare the cost for others? If&lt;br /&gt;you agree, please call Dana Murphy’s office at (405) 521-2267, Jeff&lt;br /&gt;Cloud (405) 521-2264 and Bob Anthony at (405) 521-2261. Your calls&lt;br /&gt;need to be made today, Monday, or we may be had before we know what&lt;br /&gt;has hit us!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Are these commissioners acting like limited government Republicans,&lt;br /&gt;holding companies to efficiency and free market principles, or are&lt;br /&gt;they acting like big government Democrats helping out a powerful&lt;br /&gt;special interest buddy? Please make your calls today.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  REYNOLDS SPECULATES ON OK TAX DOLLARS GOING TO SOLYNDRA?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In less you live in a cave and are devoid of news information, you&lt;br /&gt;know by now of the growing potential scandal involving one of&lt;br /&gt;President Obama’s pet green projects, the solar energy company called&lt;br /&gt;Solyndra.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Not only did the federal government back the company with $539 million&lt;br /&gt;in federal loan guarantees, but private investors sunk around a&lt;br /&gt;billion dollars into the company. The largest among the private&lt;br /&gt;investors was the family foundation of Oklahoma’s wealthiest man,&lt;br /&gt;George Kaiser. Mr. Kaiser is the CEO and Chairman of the Board of Bank&lt;br /&gt;of Oklahoma and the principle owner of Kaiser-Francis Oil Company out&lt;br /&gt;of Tulsa.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A little over 2 weeks ago State Representative Mike Reynolds issued a&lt;br /&gt;press release that to my knowledge the Tulsa Beacon Newspaper was the&lt;br /&gt;only one to run it. They actually turned it into a front page story in&lt;br /&gt;last week’s paper. I thought I would re-publish the press release in&lt;br /&gt;its entirety:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;“OKLAHOMA CITY - Even as the FBI investigates the now-bankrupt&lt;br /&gt;Solyndra, state Rep. Mike Reynolds is concerned Oklahoma tax credits&lt;br /&gt;may have benefited the controversial failed solar-power company, based&lt;br /&gt;on state records.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Touted by the Obama administration as a model of green energy&lt;br /&gt;enterprise, California-based Solyndra was a high-profile recipient of&lt;br /&gt;a $539 million federal loan guarantee. Today, only two years after its&lt;br /&gt;start-up, the company is the center of law-enforcement scrutiny,&lt;br /&gt;ethics concerns and congressional oversight demands.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Reynolds noted that Argonaut Ventures (identified as Oklahoman George&lt;br /&gt;Kaiser’s firm by ABC News), has been named as the largest shareholder&lt;br /&gt;in Solyndra in news reports.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;At the same time, Kaiser is a recipient of state tax credits in&lt;br /&gt;Oklahoma. Public records show Kaiser received nearly $30 million in&lt;br /&gt;tax credits in 2007 and 2008 for venture capital investment.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Unfortunately, lawmakers cannot learn what specific ventures benefited&lt;br /&gt;from those tax policies.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;An examination of reports about venture capital tax credit usage from&lt;br /&gt;the Oklahoma Tax Commission reveals a business entity with a name&lt;br /&gt;similar to Argonaut Ventures. Reynolds said it is reasonable to&lt;br /&gt;question whether tax credits available to that entity were somehow&lt;br /&gt;involved in the transactions with Solyndra.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;‘There is very little transparency in the oversight of state tax&lt;br /&gt;credit programs and, as a result, we cannot learn all specific&lt;br /&gt;investments supported by those tax credits, we can only learn who&lt;br /&gt;received the tax credit,’ said Reynolds, R-Oklahoma City. ’However,&lt;br /&gt;since Argonaut Ventures had been identified as a major investor in&lt;br /&gt;Solyndra, it is fair to ask if any Oklahoma tax credits were used to&lt;br /&gt;support Solyndra either directly or indirectly. Oklahoma taxpayers&lt;br /&gt;have the right to know if their money was used to support an out-of-&lt;br /&gt;state business that is now the center of legal and ethical concerns.’&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Members of the Task Force on State Tax Credits and Economic Incentives&lt;br /&gt;have been reviewing Oklahoma’s tax credit programs this summer to&lt;br /&gt;determine if they need to be revised or even abolished. The group&lt;br /&gt;recently learned that millions of dollars in investments supported by&lt;br /&gt;Oklahoma tax credits have benefited out-of-state companies in spite of&lt;br /&gt;the fact that the programs were meant to fund job creation in&lt;br /&gt;Oklahoma.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Task force members have also been troubled by the lack of transparency&lt;br /&gt;in many programs, noting companies receiving millions in tax credits&lt;br /&gt;do not have to provide significant information on those transactions&lt;br /&gt;to the taxpayers who fund them.”&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;We should thank Reynolds for his efforts to bring this to light,&lt;br /&gt;though we may never be able to find out if Oklahoma tax payer dollars&lt;br /&gt;went to support this California based company. This just goes to show&lt;br /&gt;how important transparency is for good government. State&lt;br /&gt;Representative David Dank has been diligently searching for answers&lt;br /&gt;regarding tax credits. My only problem with Governor Fallin and&lt;br /&gt;Representative Dank’s approach to these tax credits is the desire to&lt;br /&gt;determine which ones work and which ones don’t. They want to keep the&lt;br /&gt;former and dump the later.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The true free market approach would be to dump them all and the money&lt;br /&gt;saved could then translate to a reduction or elimination in Oklahoma’s&lt;br /&gt;corporate and or personal income taxes. Doing so would cause us to&lt;br /&gt;eliminate one form of business incentive, but by reducing or&lt;br /&gt;eliminating these taxes, that becomes a business incentive in and of&lt;br /&gt;themselves. I believe it unlikely a tax credit program can exist&lt;br /&gt;without having some level of corruption or “good ole boy” cronyism.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It may take a long time to unravel the many schemes politicians in&lt;br /&gt;both political parties have crafted over the years to take care of&lt;br /&gt;their favored constituents, special interests or perhaps big donors.&lt;br /&gt;Free market conservatives must continually press for reforms that will&lt;br /&gt;rid our state of crony capitalism.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Charlie Meadows&lt;br /&gt;Charliemeadows7@gmail.com&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5431481429087105402-3068968125295265942?l=ocpacnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/feeds/3068968125295265942/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=5431481429087105402&amp;postID=3068968125295265942' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/3068968125295265942'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/3068968125295265942'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/2011/10/will-corp-commission-double-our.html' title='WILL CORP COMMISSION DOUBLE OUR UNIVERSAL SERVICE TAX? ++  REYNOLDS SPECULATES ON OK TAX DOLLARS GOING TO SOLYNDRA?'/><author><name>Charlie Meadows</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12159891905392720848</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='26' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_F_NJvphHJNU/S6DeHxvDM5I/AAAAAAAAADY/_8wLtI8on44/S220/charliesepia.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431481429087105402.post-4977572313762736352</id><published>2011-09-28T06:46:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2011-09-28T06:47:16.326-05:00</updated><title type='text'>ALLELUIA, AMTRAK MIGHT BE GOING AWAY!</title><content type='html'>++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING&lt;br /&gt;++  ANNOUNCEMENTS&lt;br /&gt;++  ALLELUIA, AMTRAK MIGHT BE GOING AWAY!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, September 28th will be held at&lt;br /&gt;Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. Our speaker this&lt;br /&gt;week will be Darren Grant. Mr. Grant has a Masters degree in Science&lt;br /&gt;Education from the graduate school at the Institute for Creation&lt;br /&gt;Research in San Diego. Darren has taught in both government and&lt;br /&gt;private schools. He also does a number of presentations on a wide&lt;br /&gt;range of issues. One of which is on world views. He has asked me to&lt;br /&gt;link to the following site and recommend our folks take a few minutes&lt;br /&gt;to access it before he speaks:&lt;br /&gt;http://www.worldviewweekend.com/test/register.php?testid=WORLDVIEW&amp;amp;groupreg=19684d78c.&lt;br /&gt;Sorry, I couldn’t get it to light up as an url?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  ANNOUNCEMENTS&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  FRIDAY  -  The highly acclaimed new movie COURAGEOUS will make its&lt;br /&gt;debut in theaters across America starting this Friday. It has been&lt;br /&gt;produced by the same folks who did the very good Christian movies,&lt;br /&gt;FACING THE GIANTS and FIREPROOF. Supporting these movies will ensure&lt;br /&gt;more like them in the future.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  SUNDAY  -  This Sunday will be the 4th annual “Freedom Pulpit&lt;br /&gt;Sunday” at churches across America where pastors realize the&lt;br /&gt;importance of not only preaching the gospel, but also becoming&lt;br /&gt;relevant in the culture war and then having a strong enough spine to&lt;br /&gt;actually address the issues. In 2008, 33 pastors preached an election&lt;br /&gt;sermon from their pulpits, then sent copies of their sermons to the&lt;br /&gt;IRS, daring the agency to fine them or try to shut down their church.&lt;br /&gt;Two of those pastors, Paul Blair of Fairview Baptist in Edmond and Dan&lt;br /&gt;Fisher of Trinity Baptist in Yukon, were from Oklahoma. In 2009 there&lt;br /&gt;were 84 pastors who participated, the number was up to 100 in 2010 and&lt;br /&gt;an estimated 400 or more will participate in 2011. Standing behind any&lt;br /&gt;pastor preaching such a sermon is the Alliance Defense Fund, a&lt;br /&gt;Christian civil liberties legal defense organization, ready to take&lt;br /&gt;any actions by the IRS all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Thus,&lt;br /&gt;they are trying to challenge the unconstitutional Johnson amendment&lt;br /&gt;which became a threat to a church’s tax exempt status.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  ALLELUIA, AMTRAK MIGHT BE GOING AWAY&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Just before I left for Reno, I heard a radio sound bite of Evan Stair&lt;br /&gt;(sorry if I misspelled his name), an advocate for Amtrak and its&lt;br /&gt;expansion, expressing concern that Republicans in Congress might ax&lt;br /&gt;many of the Amtrak routes, including the route between OKC and Fort&lt;br /&gt;Worth.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Then the Oklahoman ran an editorial last Thursday titled: “Loss of&lt;br /&gt;Amtrak would hurt state’s quality of life”. In my opinion, it was a&lt;br /&gt;rare moment of honesty about the inconsistencies of the  value system&lt;br /&gt;of the Oklahoman’s editorial positions. Discerning readers have&lt;br /&gt;believed for some time now that the Oklahoman’s editorial page&lt;br /&gt;operates under the worldview value system of situational ethics.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The editorial starts of by saying: “The Oklahoman supports the state&lt;br /&gt;subsidy for Amtrak’s Heartland Flyer route. There, we’ve said it. A&lt;br /&gt;newspaper that celebrates free markets and questions government&lt;br /&gt;subsidies is inconsistent in supporting the Amtrak subsidy.”&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Pardon me, in my opinion, the suggestion that the Oklahoman is&lt;br /&gt;generally opposed to subsides is laughable. Just try to eliminate&lt;br /&gt;Oklahoma’s Quality Jobs Act and see where they come down on subsidies&lt;br /&gt;for businesses. How about trying to take away the 5.5% salary kickback&lt;br /&gt;for a 15 year period of time from state coffers to the owners of the&lt;br /&gt;OKC Thunder, one of which married into the Gaylord family which has&lt;br /&gt;been the majority owners of the Oklahoman for nearly a hundred years.&lt;br /&gt;If that occurred, I can just imagine the editorials about the need for&lt;br /&gt;state lawmakers to keep their promises.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In the Oklahoman’s editorial they foolishly tried to make a comparison&lt;br /&gt;between subsidizing Amtrack and building roads and bridges as well as&lt;br /&gt;subsidizing airports through taxes beyond monies collected through&lt;br /&gt;user fees. I am just as opposed to supporting the building of roads&lt;br /&gt;and bridges by using borrowed dollars (Obama’s infrastructure plan) or&lt;br /&gt;even collected tax dollars as I am of seeing our road and bridge user&lt;br /&gt;fees siphoned off to be spent on other purposes.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Highway travel as well as air travel infrastructure costs should be&lt;br /&gt;completely supported by user fees, not tax dollars. There are no user&lt;br /&gt;fees associated with Amtrak. The meager price for a ticket to ride&lt;br /&gt;Amtrak doesn’t even come close to paying for the operational expenses,&lt;br /&gt;much less be considered a user fee to pay for its infrastructure&lt;br /&gt;costs. Of course the number one problem with Amtrak is that it is a&lt;br /&gt;government OWNED business, not a business owned in the free market.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The editorial continued as such:  “Restoration of Amtrak service to&lt;br /&gt;Oklahoma and the few communities served by the Heartland Flyer has&lt;br /&gt;been good for the state’s image (I would suggest the Oklahoman’s lust&lt;br /&gt;for approval  “image” by the elitists in San Francisco, Chicago, NYC,&lt;br /&gt;Boston, etc. is at the heart of their support for such a loser as the&lt;br /&gt;Heartland Flyer).” They went on to say:  “But it didn’t come without a&lt;br /&gt;price - or an admittedly inconsistent position from free - market&lt;br /&gt;enthusiasts such as The Oklahoman.” (I almost fell out of my chair&lt;br /&gt;laughing so hard at the thought of The Oklahoman being such a champion&lt;br /&gt;of free markets. The next part of the editorial will be their efforts&lt;br /&gt;to justify their inconsistency by quoting poets and psychobabblers)&lt;br /&gt;The editorial continues by saying:  “a foolish consistency,” Ralph&lt;br /&gt;Waldo Emerson wrote, ’is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by&lt;br /&gt;little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a&lt;br /&gt;great soul has simply nothing to do.’ Carl Jung said, ’One cannot live&lt;br /&gt;without inconsistency.’” The editorial finished with  “We can live&lt;br /&gt;without Amtrak, but its loss would be a blow to the quality of life in&lt;br /&gt;Oklahoma.”&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I would suggest losing Amtrak would not be a blow to our quality of&lt;br /&gt;life. We currently take 2 million a year from state taxpayers to&lt;br /&gt;foolishly subsidize the Heartland flyer so more Oklahomans can go to&lt;br /&gt;Texas to spend money than Texans come to spend money in Oklahoma.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;We could use that 2 million subsidy to cut corporate or personal&lt;br /&gt;income taxes and make life better in Oklahoma. In addition, cutting&lt;br /&gt;the federal subsidy to Amtrak is vital to reduce our deficit spending&lt;br /&gt;and try to save this nation. When Ronald Reagan was President, his&lt;br /&gt;budget director David Stockton, tried to eliminate Amtrak and found&lt;br /&gt;little support. He proclaimed, if congress couldn’t cut out such an&lt;br /&gt;easy item as Amtrak, how would they ever cut the more difficult items&lt;br /&gt;in the budget.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It is time for Amtrak to die in any market in which the ticket&lt;br /&gt;revenues fail to pay the full costs of operational expenses as well as&lt;br /&gt;infrastructure costs. Failure to do so would be the blow to the&lt;br /&gt;quality of life in Oklahoma as well as America.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Charlie Meadows&lt;br /&gt;Charliemeadows7@gmail.com&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5431481429087105402-4977572313762736352?l=ocpacnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/feeds/4977572313762736352/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=5431481429087105402&amp;postID=4977572313762736352' title='1 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/4977572313762736352'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/4977572313762736352'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/2011/09/alleluia-amtrak-might-be-going-away.html' title='ALLELUIA, AMTRAK MIGHT BE GOING AWAY!'/><author><name>Charlie Meadows</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12159891905392720848</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='26' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_F_NJvphHJNU/S6DeHxvDM5I/AAAAAAAAADY/_8wLtI8on44/S220/charliesepia.jpg'/></author><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431481429087105402.post-4018793800010053560</id><published>2011-09-06T09:49:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2011-09-06T09:50:05.887-05:00</updated><title type='text'>ANNOUNCEMENTS</title><content type='html'>++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING&lt;br /&gt;++  ANNOUNCEMENTS&lt;br /&gt;++  TID-BITS&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, September 7th will be held at&lt;br /&gt;Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. Our main purpose for&lt;br /&gt;this week’s meeting will be to debate changing our by-laws regarding&lt;br /&gt;our RINO (Republican In Name Only) nominations for the purposes of who&lt;br /&gt;we support in a primary election. We need to change this from a 2 year&lt;br /&gt;average score to the first year’s score of a session. With&lt;br /&gt;interference from the federal government, the state moved up the&lt;br /&gt;filing date and primary elections. The new dates will not allow us to&lt;br /&gt;consider a 2 year average for primary election purposes. I have been&lt;br /&gt;trying to get a lady with a very interesting story to come speak to&lt;br /&gt;us, but have not secured a commitment as yet. If I am unsuccessful for&lt;br /&gt;this Wednesday, we will may view a fairly new DVD put out by the John&lt;br /&gt;Birch Society regarding the invasion of illegal aliens.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  ANNOUNCEMENTS&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  TUESDAY EVENING  -  OKC  -  Tonight, OKC City Councilman, Dr. Ed&lt;br /&gt;Shadid will host a meeting which will feature virtually every agency&lt;br /&gt;leader in OKC. Though Dr. Shadid is too smart to use the term&lt;br /&gt;sustainability or suggest the meeting is about the goals of Agenda 21,&lt;br /&gt;it certainly looks like such. This meeting will ramp up the attacks&lt;br /&gt;upon “urban sprawl”. While I supported Dr. Shadid in his recent run&lt;br /&gt;for the council and am glad he is in office, this is the agenda he&lt;br /&gt;supports in which he is dangerous. Remember, I said he was a liberal&lt;br /&gt;as became evident when he ran against Representative David Dank in the&lt;br /&gt;2010 election cycle. According to Oklahoma law, he had to file as an&lt;br /&gt;Independent, but he made no bones about associating himself with&lt;br /&gt;either the Green Party or perhaps it was the Natural Law Party. Both&lt;br /&gt;parties are very liberal and infected with extreme environmentalism.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;People in the “sustainability movement” which is affiliated with the&lt;br /&gt;U.N.’s Agenda 21 objectives, hate “urban sprawl.” This bunch of&lt;br /&gt;“central planners” want people to live “stacked and packed” rather&lt;br /&gt;than in suburbs or on acreages such as where I live. They want people&lt;br /&gt;to live in downtown areas. They want people to live up and up, not out&lt;br /&gt;in the hinter lands.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Much of what is going on in downtown OKC are the objectives of the&lt;br /&gt;sustainability movement. The parks, bike paths, narrower streets to be&lt;br /&gt;more pedestrian friendly, light rail, loft apartments, and&lt;br /&gt;entertainment venues are designed to keep people out of automobiles&lt;br /&gt;and in a close nit location. Of course massive amounts of tax dollars&lt;br /&gt;are funneled into downtown while other parts of the city have to fight&lt;br /&gt;for every available penny of the city’s budget.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Speaking will be Blair Humphreys, OKC City Manager Jim Couch,&lt;br /&gt;Councilman Ed Shadid, Russell Claus representing OKC’s Comprehensive&lt;br /&gt;Plan, Chief Bryant of the fire department, Police Chief Bill Citty,&lt;br /&gt;Rick Cain representing Public Transit, Marsha Slaughter about city&lt;br /&gt;utilities, Eric Wenger from public works and Bob Tener with code&lt;br /&gt;enforcement.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The meeting will be held at the OKC Marriott in the Grand Ballroom,&lt;br /&gt;3233 NW Expressway. It is tonight, September 6th at 6:30 p.m. Look for&lt;br /&gt;developers and builders to be demonized at this meeting. Bottom line,&lt;br /&gt;the vast majority of people want to live where they want to live,&lt;br /&gt;whether that is downtown or in the suburbs. If conservatives don’t&lt;br /&gt;stand up for liberty, these central planners will institute policies&lt;br /&gt;which will greatly restrict where people can live as well as how they&lt;br /&gt;live in the future.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  THURSDAY EVENING  -  OKC AREA  -  Oklahoma City’s ultra liberals,&lt;br /&gt;folks I believe fall into that category such as Nathaniel Batchelder,&lt;br /&gt;Director of the Peace House and Dr. Robin Meyers, pastor of Mayflower&lt;br /&gt;Congregational Church, are hosting a hard core “sustainability”&lt;br /&gt;meeting this Thursday evening. The meeting will be held in the Bishop&lt;br /&gt;Angie Smith Chapel at OCU (Oklahoma City University) starting at 7:00&lt;br /&gt;p.m. The location of the University is NW 23rd and Blackwelder. Look&lt;br /&gt;for global warming disinformation as well as social justice propaganda&lt;br /&gt;and blatherings about war and peace.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  SATURDAY  -  PONCA CITY  -  The Oklahoma Second Amendment (OK2A)&lt;br /&gt;organization is hosting a fundraiser at State Representative Steve&lt;br /&gt;Vaughn’s Buffalo Waller Ranch this coming Saturday from 10 a.m. until&lt;br /&gt;5:00 p.m. The event will feature a barbeque, legislative awards, Guest&lt;br /&gt;Speaker Larry Pratt, the national director of Gun Owners of America&lt;br /&gt;(the no-compromise 2nd amendment organization), skeet shooting and air-&lt;br /&gt;soft competition and lots of door prizes, including a DPMS M4 donated&lt;br /&gt;by H&amp;amp;H range in OKC. For more information and reservations contact&lt;br /&gt;OK2A at www.ok2a.com or info@ok2a.org, or call (918) 844-4243. This&lt;br /&gt;should be a lot of fun and an opportunity to support a great&lt;br /&gt;organization as well as possibly win a great firearm. Tickets are $30&lt;br /&gt;for an adult and only $8 for children 11 years and under.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  SATURDAY  -  CRESCENT AREA  -  There will be an excellent&lt;br /&gt;presentation about the sustainability movement and its effect upon&lt;br /&gt;farmers and our food supply. The meeting will be this Saturday evening&lt;br /&gt;at 7:30 p.m. The location is the Crescent American Legion Hall. The&lt;br /&gt;power point presentation will be about 45 minutes long and then there&lt;br /&gt;will be time for questions and answers. I have seen this presentation&lt;br /&gt;twice and it is very informative.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  SUNDAY  -  OKC AREA  -  This will be the 10 anniversary of the&lt;br /&gt;attack upon the World Trade Center. Some of you may know that my wife&lt;br /&gt;and I flew over New York City less than 24 hours before the planes&lt;br /&gt;took down the Twin Towers as we were on our way to Amherst Mass. While&lt;br /&gt;there we attended a special select board (city council) meeting and&lt;br /&gt;got embroiled in a local controversy about flying American flags in&lt;br /&gt;the town. My picture ended up on the front page of the third largest&lt;br /&gt;paper in the state. It is a serious story and I have had the&lt;br /&gt;opportunity to tell it in several churches over the years. This Sunday&lt;br /&gt;I will be sharing it with the folks at Legacy Church which meets in an&lt;br /&gt;old school building located at 4800 North Independence in OKC. The&lt;br /&gt;service starts at 10:45 a.m.. How ironic, as a point of interest, the&lt;br /&gt;church sets just South of a fairly new Muslim Mosque. If you would&lt;br /&gt;like to hear this story and be challenged to be salt and light in our&lt;br /&gt;culture, you are welcome to attend.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  TID-BITS&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  State Labor Commissioner Mark Costello recently announced his goal&lt;br /&gt;to see legislation created this year to have state payroll officials&lt;br /&gt;stop extracting union dues from the paychecks of state employees. One&lt;br /&gt;of the things I like about Commissioner Costello is his desire to&lt;br /&gt;reduce state expenditures as well as to make sure state employees are&lt;br /&gt;performing proper state functions and not spending time on the&lt;br /&gt;business of others. This proposal would save taxpayer money and keep&lt;br /&gt;the state out of the collecting business for the unions. Great idea&lt;br /&gt;Mark, let the unions bare the expense of collecting their dues, and&lt;br /&gt;not the taxpayers.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  Times are still a changing on the political scene. The 2nd&lt;br /&gt;Congressional District, mostly Southeastern Oklahoma and East of Tulsa&lt;br /&gt;up to Kansas is considered to be a Democrat stronghold. The only 2&lt;br /&gt;Republicans to ever hold this seat are former U.S. Representative Tom&lt;br /&gt;Coburn and Wes Watkins who had held it for many years as a Democrat&lt;br /&gt;before he switched to the Republican party.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The seat is currently held by the only Democrat U.S. Representative&lt;br /&gt;from Oklahoma, Dan Boren. Boren announced he would not seek re-&lt;br /&gt;election and the scramble has ensued for his successor. Former&lt;br /&gt;Congressman Brad Carson gave up the seat to run against Tom Coburn 7&lt;br /&gt;years ago. He quickly announced he would run for the office then&lt;br /&gt;dropped out. Former State Senator, Kenny Corn of Poteau announced he&lt;br /&gt;would run then announced he was dropping out. The Democrats don’t have&lt;br /&gt;an announced candidate as yet, though a former district attorney from&lt;br /&gt;Pittsburg County is expected to announce, but he has little name&lt;br /&gt;recognition. Meanwhile, 6 Republicans are lining up for the race.&lt;br /&gt;Where have all the Democrats gone?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  In addition, there will be a special election in the near future to&lt;br /&gt;fill the seat recently vacated by the passing of State Representative&lt;br /&gt;Rusty Farley. This seat represents McCurtain County, a stronghold for&lt;br /&gt;the Democrats and also part of the 2nd Congressional District. Farley&lt;br /&gt;was the only Republican to ever win this seat and only the 2nd&lt;br /&gt;Republican to ever file for this seat, at least as far back as memory&lt;br /&gt;can serve.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Filing period for this special election was a couple of weeks back and&lt;br /&gt;surprise, surprise, 4 Republicans filed and only 2 Democrats along&lt;br /&gt;with 2 independents, one of whom is Farley’s 28 year old daughter. It&lt;br /&gt;will be difficult for Republicans to hold this seat, especially since&lt;br /&gt;there are 2 independent candidates, but the remarkable thing is how&lt;br /&gt;many Republicans are running. Meanwhile, the 2 Democrats are typical&lt;br /&gt;for a rural area. One is a retired school principle and the other is a&lt;br /&gt;retired school superintendent. Those are the kind of people who have&lt;br /&gt;served as Democrats over the past 100 years, who have caused education&lt;br /&gt;to be so expensive and so ineffective over the years.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Charlie Meadows&lt;br /&gt;Charliemeadows7@gmail.com&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5431481429087105402-4018793800010053560?l=ocpacnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/feeds/4018793800010053560/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=5431481429087105402&amp;postID=4018793800010053560' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/4018793800010053560'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/4018793800010053560'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/2011/09/announcements.html' title='ANNOUNCEMENTS'/><author><name>Charlie Meadows</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12159891905392720848</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='26' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_F_NJvphHJNU/S6DeHxvDM5I/AAAAAAAAADY/_8wLtI8on44/S220/charliesepia.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431481429087105402.post-1961008031100785144</id><published>2011-08-30T07:19:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2011-08-30T07:20:08.462-05:00</updated><title type='text'>AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING ++  PERSONAL NOTE</title><content type='html'>Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, August 31st will be held at&lt;br /&gt;Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. Our main speaker&lt;br /&gt;this week will be a lady from Washington D.C. by the name of Lea&lt;br /&gt;Carawan. Lea is the Executive Director of the Congressional Prayer&lt;br /&gt;Caucus Foundation. Not only will she inform us of the activities of&lt;br /&gt;the foundation, but she will also inform us of the possible activities&lt;br /&gt;in the states.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In addition, I will also try to have a speaker from California at our&lt;br /&gt;meeting to tell us about the recent raid on the Rawsom Food Co-&lt;br /&gt;operative by government agents in a paramilitary operation. Not only&lt;br /&gt;did the government agents confiscate the food inventories of the co-&lt;br /&gt;op, they also confiscated their financial resources. Many Americans&lt;br /&gt;are blindly passing through life unconscious of things going on around&lt;br /&gt;them. They don’t realize that quite a few of the finest, liberty&lt;br /&gt;loving Americans live their lives to varying degrees, off the “grid”&lt;br /&gt;so to speak. It seems that drinking raw milk and buying naturally&lt;br /&gt;grown foods that are produced like my grandmother used to do, is&lt;br /&gt;totally unacceptable to today’s food fascists who want to control&lt;br /&gt;every aspect of our lives.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  PERSONAL NOTE&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Following this year’s legislative session I have had the desire to&lt;br /&gt;pull back to some degree from the pace of activism and take care of&lt;br /&gt;some projects around my home and small farm. Some of these projects I&lt;br /&gt;have neglected for the past 7 years because of my very busy schedule.&lt;br /&gt;I have had a modicum of success in pulling back, but am now up against&lt;br /&gt;some deadlines before we get to winter. The storm that came through 3&lt;br /&gt;weeks ago which totaled my barn as well as took down trees and broke&lt;br /&gt;many branches just added to the chores to be done. Therefore, at least&lt;br /&gt;through the end of September, I will put the agenda for each week’s&lt;br /&gt;meeting in the e-mails and forego “MOST” of the extra announcements&lt;br /&gt;and commentary. Thanks for understanding.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Charlie Meadows&lt;br /&gt;Charliemeadows7@gmail.com&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5431481429087105402-1961008031100785144?l=ocpacnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/feeds/1961008031100785144/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=5431481429087105402&amp;postID=1961008031100785144' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/1961008031100785144'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/1961008031100785144'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/2011/08/agenda-for-this-weeks-meeting-personal.html' title='AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING ++  PERSONAL NOTE'/><author><name>Charlie Meadows</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12159891905392720848</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='26' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_F_NJvphHJNU/S6DeHxvDM5I/AAAAAAAAADY/_8wLtI8on44/S220/charliesepia.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431481429087105402.post-7609949234934110681</id><published>2011-08-23T09:11:00.001-05:00</published><updated>2011-08-23T09:11:19.015-05:00</updated><title type='text'>AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING</title><content type='html'>++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING&lt;br /&gt;++  ANNOUNCEMENTS&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I must keep this short. Once I got my tractor and chain saw out of the&lt;br /&gt;repair shop I have been very busy cleaning up storm debris.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, August 24th will be held at&lt;br /&gt;Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. Last January we had&lt;br /&gt;Sarah ****** scheduled to speak and it turned out to be a day in which&lt;br /&gt;we had a snow storm. We had to change locations at the last minute as&lt;br /&gt;our restaurant was closed and therefore only a small crowd was able to&lt;br /&gt;attend. Sarah is doing missionary work in China with a focus on pro-&lt;br /&gt;life efforts. Sarah has just recently returned from China since she&lt;br /&gt;was with us in January. Also speaking will be a man that has been&lt;br /&gt;doing kind of a free lance missionary work in China for several years.&lt;br /&gt;I am not going to use his name so as to not cause him trouble in the&lt;br /&gt;future.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  ANNOUNCEMENTS&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  TUESDAY EVENING  -  ADA AREA  -  The Ada/Seminole area tea party&lt;br /&gt;will have their monthly meeting tonight, 6:00 p.m. in the Industrial&lt;br /&gt;Arts Classroom on the campus of the Career Tech Center in Ada.&lt;br /&gt;Speaking tonight will be Oklahoma’s Attorney General, Scott Pruitt and&lt;br /&gt;Oklahoma State Representative Sally Kern. These meetings are well&lt;br /&gt;attended and I urge folks within a 50 miles radius to attend if at all&lt;br /&gt;possible.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  WEDNESDAY EVENING  -  STATE CAPITOL  -  The Stand with Israel event&lt;br /&gt;will occur this Wednesday on the South steps of the State Capitol,&lt;br /&gt;starting at 7:00 p.m. This is in conjunction with Glen Beck’s Stand&lt;br /&gt;for Courage event going on in Jerusalem this week. Please bring your&lt;br /&gt;lawn chair. The organizers have set up a big screen measuring 137&lt;br /&gt;inches for viewing. There will be several elected officials speaking&lt;br /&gt;at the event.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This past Thursday, I attended a briefing with a person from the&lt;br /&gt;Israeli office in Houston. It looks like the Palestinians will go to&lt;br /&gt;the U.N. General Assembly on September 20th where it is believed they&lt;br /&gt;will have enough votes to force the creation of a new nation for the&lt;br /&gt;so called “Palestinians” by carving up the tiny nation of Israel.&lt;br /&gt;Please remember, in the Middle East area, Israel posses about 1% of&lt;br /&gt;the land mass, with the Arabs already possessing the other 99 percent.&lt;br /&gt;Should the U.N. resolution go forward, things could get really dicey&lt;br /&gt;in Israel as this will not be a negotiated agreement and no boundaries&lt;br /&gt;are currently defined in the motion which is expected to be presented.&lt;br /&gt;Israel’s back is against the sea and they can’t afford to give up any&lt;br /&gt;more as long as the people wanting to take more of their land have as&lt;br /&gt;their desire to wipe Israel off the face of the earth.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I know of one church in Guthrie that is also participating in the Glen&lt;br /&gt;Beck event. It is Community Church, located on the Northwest corner of&lt;br /&gt;the interchange of I-35 and Seward Road, just South of Guthrie. They&lt;br /&gt;are starting their meeting with some preliminaries at 6:00 p.m.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  THURSDAY EVENING  -  WARR ACRES  -  Jenni White, founder of Restore&lt;br /&gt;Oklahoma Public Information (ROPE), will present her information about&lt;br /&gt;the dangers of the Core Curriculum Standards during the Change a&lt;br /&gt;Nation for Christ meeting this Thursday at Victory Church in Warr&lt;br /&gt;Acres. The meeting will be held in the South Building and starts at&lt;br /&gt;7:00 p.m. The church is located at approximately 43rd and North&lt;br /&gt;MacArthur in Warr Acres.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*   SATURDAY MORNING  -  OKC  -  The Republican State Committee is&lt;br /&gt;meeting this Saturday morning, 10:00 a.m., on the campus of Mid&lt;br /&gt;America Christian University, 3500 S.W. 119th street. State Chairman&lt;br /&gt;Matt Pinnell is proposing a couple of rule changes. It is always a&lt;br /&gt;challenge to get a Quorum present to change a rule as the state&lt;br /&gt;committee is a very large body. It consists of the County Chairman,&lt;br /&gt;Vice-Chairman, the State Committee Man and the State Committee Woman&lt;br /&gt;from each county as well as every Republican state and federal&lt;br /&gt;lawmaker.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Many times the outlaying counties are not represented or are&lt;br /&gt;underrepresented. I would urge folks that are delegates to attend. I&lt;br /&gt;also urge those reading this e-mail to contact your Republican&lt;br /&gt;representatives to see if they plan to attend and if not, ask them for&lt;br /&gt;their proxy so you can attend in their absence. If you don’t know the&lt;br /&gt;contact information for your county officials, call the Republican&lt;br /&gt;State Headquarters for that information (405) 528-3501.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Charlie Meadows&lt;br /&gt;Charliemeadows7@gmail.com&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5431481429087105402-7609949234934110681?l=ocpacnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/feeds/7609949234934110681/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=5431481429087105402&amp;postID=7609949234934110681' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/7609949234934110681'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/7609949234934110681'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/2011/08/agenda-for-this-weeks-meeting.html' title='AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING'/><author><name>Charlie Meadows</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12159891905392720848</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='26' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_F_NJvphHJNU/S6DeHxvDM5I/AAAAAAAAADY/_8wLtI8on44/S220/charliesepia.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431481429087105402.post-5468174758607431832</id><published>2011-08-16T08:55:00.002-05:00</published><updated>2011-08-16T08:58:33.108-05:00</updated><title type='text'>TOP 20 MOST DANGEROUS - VIEWED FROM THE LEFT</title><content type='html'>           &lt;style&gt;@font-face {   font-family: "Arial"; }@font-face {   font-family: "Cambria"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 10pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }a:link, span.MsoHyperlink { color: blue; text-decoration: underline; }a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed { color: purple; text-decoration: underline; }pre { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 10pt; font-family: Courier; }span.HTMLPreformattedChar { font-family: Courier; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; }&lt;/style&gt;     &lt;p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:85%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"&gt;++&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING&lt;br /&gt;++&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;ANNOUNCEMENTS&lt;br /&gt;++&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;COMMENTS ON LAST WEEK’S MEETING&lt;br /&gt;++&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;TOP 20 MOST DANGEROUS - VIEWED FROM THE LEFT&lt;br /&gt;++&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;WEALTHY COULD PAY MORE - WOULDN’T IT BE FAIR?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, August 17th will be held at&lt;br /&gt;Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. Our speakers this&lt;br /&gt;week will be Bill Shappard and James Davenport of Sooner Polling. They&lt;br /&gt;will explain the ins and outs of polling, how it is done, who pays for&lt;br /&gt;it, how the wording is determined and how close to accurate polls&lt;br /&gt;might happen to be. You might be surprised to know how a business or&lt;br /&gt;organization could become part of a bundle for a poll and it not cost&lt;br /&gt;all that much to get a read on the public.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;ANNOUNCEMENTS&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;TUESDAY&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;-&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;OKC AREA&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;-&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;Congressman James Lankford will hold a&lt;br /&gt;town hall meeting tonight at the Francis Tuttle Technology Center&lt;br /&gt;(Portland Campus) 3500 NW 150th street in OKC, from 6 until 7:30 p.m.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;TUESDAY&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;-&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;TULSA AREA&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;-&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;U.S. Senator Tom Coburn will hold a town&lt;br /&gt;hall meeting tonight at 6:00 p.m. The location is the Tulsa Community&lt;br /&gt;College - Southeast Campus in the Van Trease Performing Arts Center&lt;br /&gt;for Education, 10300 East 81st street.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;THURSDAY&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;-&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;SHAWNEE AREA&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;-&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;Congressman James Lankford will hold&lt;br /&gt;a town hall meeting at the CPN Cultural Heritage Center in the North&lt;br /&gt;Reunion Hall, 1702 South Gordon Cooper Drive in Shawnee from 6 to 7:30&lt;br /&gt;p.m.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;THURSDAY&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;-&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;OKC AREA&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;-&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;U.S. Senator Tom Coburn will host a town&lt;br /&gt;hall meeting at the Oklahoma City Community College, Union rooms 1, 2&lt;br /&gt;&amp;amp; 3, 7777 South May Avenue. The meeting will begin at 6:00 p.m.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;THURSDAY&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;-&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;LAWTON&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;AREA&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;-&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;Congressman Tom Cole will host a town&lt;br /&gt;hall meeting, 5:30 p.m. in the CETES Center on the campus of Cameron&lt;br /&gt;University.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;We are just a little over a week away from the Stand with Israel&lt;br /&gt;rally to be held at the State Capitol in OKC on Wednesday, August 24th&lt;br /&gt;from 7 until 10 p.m. I believe this will be a live satellite feed from&lt;br /&gt;Jerusalem in conjunction with Glenn Beck’s Restoring Courage event.&lt;br /&gt;For more information, log on to www.oklahomaunited.com.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;COMMENTS ON LAST WEEK’S MEETING&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This past Wednesday, Dr. Scott Carroll presented one of the most&lt;br /&gt;interesting and compelling programs we have ever had at an OCPAC&lt;br /&gt;meeting. Perhaps I am just a sucker for show and tell, but the 10 or&lt;br /&gt;so Biblical artifacts Mr. Carroll brought to the meeting were&lt;br /&gt;fascinating, not to mention they were valued in the millions of&lt;br /&gt;dollars.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Included was the oldest known parchment of the writings of the Apostle&lt;br /&gt;of Paul. It was part of the 10th chapter of the book of First&lt;br /&gt;Corinthians. Dr. Carroll brought a tablet, about the size and shape of&lt;br /&gt;a calzone sandwich which looked to be fired in a kiln or cured in the&lt;br /&gt;sun. When looked upon at the correct angle, it had deep inscriptions&lt;br /&gt;waiting to be translated to a modern language. The Green’s have the&lt;br /&gt;largest number of these tablets of any collection in the world, many&lt;br /&gt;still waiting to be deciphered. Another artifact involved monks&lt;br /&gt;writing on a material and then at a later date writing over the top of&lt;br /&gt;the original. Through precise technology the wording from each of the&lt;br /&gt;time periods can be separated and clearly understood. Another was a&lt;br /&gt;manuscript recently purchased at a world famous auction. The wording&lt;br /&gt;couldn’t be deciphered with the human eye. However, when originally&lt;br /&gt;written, the ink pen left ridges on the parchment. Through technology,&lt;br /&gt;the ridges can be seen, bringing about the complete content of these&lt;br /&gt;ancient manuscripts.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;While a relationship with Jesus the Christ must be based on belief,&lt;br /&gt;trust and faith, Dr. Carroll’s whole life work is about data and the&lt;br /&gt;story it tells. Our good friend Dr. Yeagley was present and asked a&lt;br /&gt;piercing question. Many may not know one of Dr. Yeagley’s 5 degrees is&lt;br /&gt;from the school of divinity at Yale University. Dr. Yeagley’s&lt;br /&gt;perspective was that many of the professors at Yale use the data to&lt;br /&gt;destroy the faith of the students and only by the grace of God did he&lt;br /&gt;survive those studies. Dr. Carroll defended the data by suggesting the&lt;br /&gt;data is not the problem, but rather the misuse of data, through&lt;br /&gt;misinterpretation rather than letting it say what it says. Dr.&lt;br /&gt;Carroll’s perspective was that not only do the thousands of Biblical&lt;br /&gt;artifacts verify and reinforce the veracity of the Bible, but also&lt;br /&gt;many non Christian contemporaries add to the Bible’s veracity through&lt;br /&gt;their historical accounts.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If you weren’t able to attend, the much larger collection will be on&lt;br /&gt;display until October 16th at which time it will move to another city,&lt;br /&gt;perhaps to never again return to OKC. The Greens have now put together&lt;br /&gt;the largest collection of Biblical Artifacts in the world and its&lt;br /&gt;value is nearing priceless. It has such rare artifacts, that Dr.&lt;br /&gt;Carroll suggested we will see charter planes loaded with Hebrew&lt;br /&gt;scholars coming to OKC to study some of the materials in the&lt;br /&gt;collection. The collection will eventually have a permanent home in&lt;br /&gt;Washington D.C. where an expected 2 million people a year will view&lt;br /&gt;it. It is called “Passages” and is on display seven days a week at the&lt;br /&gt;Oklahoma City Art Museum in downtown OKC. I hope to see it within the&lt;br /&gt;next couple of weeks. I urge folks not to miss this special event&lt;br /&gt;while it is in Oklahoma.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;TOP 20 MOST DANGEROUS - VIEWED FROM THE LEFT&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;On August 5th a liberal blog released their list of the 20 most&lt;br /&gt;dangerous people in America. To view it, log on to www.thechristianleft.org.&lt;br /&gt;They called it “The Enemies Within: The 20 Most Dangerous&lt;br /&gt;Conservatives and their Organizations.” As a point of interest, we&lt;br /&gt;have had 3 of these “dangerous” folks speak at OCPAC over the years,&lt;br /&gt;one of whom very recently. As a trivia question, can you pick out the&lt;br /&gt;three? Send me their names at, &lt;a href="http://thebestportals.com/webmail/src/compose.php?send_to=charliemeadows7%40gmail.com"&gt;charliemeadows7@gmail.com&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;Following&lt;br /&gt;is their list in order.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;1)&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;Roger Ailes, President of Fox News.&lt;br /&gt;2)&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;The Koch Brothers, of Koch Industries of Wichita.&lt;br /&gt;3)&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;Dick Army of Freedom Works.&lt;br /&gt;4)&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;Tom Donohue, President of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.&lt;br /&gt;5)&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council.&lt;br /&gt;6)&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;Pat Robertson, founder of the Christian Coalition.&lt;br /&gt;7)&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;Edwin Feulner, President of the Heritage Foundation.&lt;br /&gt;8)&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;Art Thompson, CEO of the John Birch Society.&lt;br /&gt;9)&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;Rupert Murdock of News Corp.&lt;br /&gt;10) Grover Norquist, Americans for Tax Reform.&lt;br /&gt;11) David Bossie, of Citizens United.&lt;br /&gt;12) Tim LaHaye &amp;amp; Ken Cribb of Council for National Policy.&lt;br /&gt;13) Steve J. Law of American Crossroads.&lt;br /&gt;14) James Dobson of Family Talk Radio.&lt;br /&gt;15) Phyllis Schlafly, founder of Eagle Forum.&lt;br /&gt;16) David Keene of the American Conservative Union.&lt;br /&gt;17) Tim Wildmon of the American Family Association.&lt;br /&gt;18) David Barton of Wallbuilders Ministries.&lt;br /&gt;19) Noble Ellington of the American Legislative Exchange Council&lt;br /&gt;(ALEC).&lt;br /&gt;20) Edward Crane of the Cato Institute.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;WEALTHY COULD PAY MORE - WOULDN’T IT BE FAIR?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If you listen to President Obama, other elected Democrats or liberal&lt;br /&gt;callers on talk radio, one can quickly understand their agenda is for&lt;br /&gt;the “rich” or wealthy to pay more in taxes, or in other words, “their&lt;br /&gt;fair share”. Conservatives are quick to point out that the wealthy&lt;br /&gt;already pay their fair share and usually quote some numbers about the&lt;br /&gt;wealthiest 10 percent of income earners already paying 70 percent of&lt;br /&gt;all taxes. My numbers may be off, but for the point I want to make&lt;br /&gt;they don’t have to be exact.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;To those less than wealthy liberals, the ones who have been&lt;br /&gt;indoctrinated to hate the rich and envy their wealth, it doesn’t&lt;br /&gt;matter that the wealthy already pay a greater share of taxes than the&lt;br /&gt;rest of Americans. All they can see through their hate filled world&lt;br /&gt;view is that the wealthy have more than they do and therefore could&lt;br /&gt;and should pay more.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So my question is, they certainly could pay more, so why wouldn’t that&lt;br /&gt;be fair? What I am about to say is really for Christians for the most&lt;br /&gt;part. As a Christian, who is it that determines right from wrong? Who&lt;br /&gt;is it that determines what is fair? Is it not our Heavenly Father&lt;br /&gt;through His Word? Of course it is and that is why we have a struggle&lt;br /&gt;today between competing world views. There are several competing world&lt;br /&gt;views, but for this discussion, lets just say the main competition in&lt;br /&gt;America is between a Judeo/Christian world view and a secularist or&lt;br /&gt;humanist world view.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The secular world view believes in a heavy progressive tax burden. In&lt;br /&gt;other words, the more a person has, or more particularly makes, the&lt;br /&gt;more as a percentage that person should have to pay. That idea, at&lt;br /&gt;least in a modern context, comes from the writings of Karl Marx and&lt;br /&gt;can be found as plank #2 of the Communist Manifesto.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Over the years, I can’t tell you how many Oklahoma lawmakers and&lt;br /&gt;candidates have espoused the idea of the wealthy paying more. Even&lt;br /&gt;U.S. Senator Tom Coburn’s “back to black” manifesto, a proposal for&lt;br /&gt;America to quit its spending in the red and get back into the black&lt;br /&gt;has many elements of the wealthy paying more through “means testing”.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;What I want to do is to challenge Christians to think Biblically. To&lt;br /&gt;develop a Biblical world view and turn from a Marxist or secularist&lt;br /&gt;world view. God’s covenant with Israel (Old Testament) was that his&lt;br /&gt;people should pay 10% of their first fruits (a tithe) to take care of&lt;br /&gt;the needs and duties of the nation of Israel.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I don’t want to get into an argument as to whether or not the tithe&lt;br /&gt;applies to Christianity as some believe it does and some otherwise.&lt;br /&gt;However, my understanding of God’s word is that it is an excellent&lt;br /&gt;example to follow and I would suggest Christians should be willing to&lt;br /&gt;give their all in their service to the Lord Jesus (obviously God&lt;br /&gt;provides for us, usually through our labors, the money we need for our&lt;br /&gt;necessities and more than just the necessities). The heart of a true&lt;br /&gt;Christian should lead us to be giving individuals. There are some&lt;br /&gt;people that God simply gives an ability to generate great wealth. He&lt;br /&gt;instructs those people to be generous.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;To better understand this lets look at the earnings of three different&lt;br /&gt;people though first a Christian world view and then through the&lt;br /&gt;Marxist world view. From the perspective of 10% of a persons earnings,&lt;br /&gt;person number 1 will make $1,000 per month and pay $100 dollars in&lt;br /&gt;taxes, thus leaving that person $900 to live on. Person number 2 will&lt;br /&gt;make $10,000 per month and will pay $1,000 in taxes leaving him $9,000&lt;br /&gt;to live on. Person number 3 will make $100,000 per month and will pay&lt;br /&gt;$10,000 in taxes, leaving that person $90,000 to live on. This would&lt;br /&gt;be fair in the Eyes of God as He equates fairness as to how the rules&lt;br /&gt;are applied. Fairness in the eyes of God is not based on the effect&lt;br /&gt;upon a person or the need of a person.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It should not take a rocket scientist to realize that person number 2&lt;br /&gt;will have more opportunities than number 1 and person number 3 will&lt;br /&gt;have more opportunities the persons number 1 or 2. There is nothing&lt;br /&gt;wrong with this system, it is not evil, it is fair.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Now lets look at the possible outcomes for these 3 persons through the&lt;br /&gt;eyes of the Marxist world view.&lt;span style=""&gt;  &lt;/span&gt;Most likely person number 1 will be&lt;br /&gt;exempt from paying any taxes and thus have their entire $1,000 to live&lt;br /&gt;on. Person number 2 will probably have to pay a 30% tax rate and thus&lt;br /&gt;pay $3,000 in taxes leaving $7,000 per month to live on. Now for the&lt;br /&gt;really heavy weight of a progressive income tax. Person number 3 will&lt;br /&gt;have to pay 80%, (past tax rates have actually been higher than this,&lt;br /&gt;though loop holes allowed for high income earners to keep more of&lt;br /&gt;their money) thus having to pay $80,000 a month in taxes and thus&lt;br /&gt;leaving them $20,000 per month to live on.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Today, liberals say it is not fair for person number 3 to keep $20,000&lt;br /&gt;each month when person number 1 only has $1,000 to keep and spend.&lt;br /&gt;Therefore, they want to take even more (they are already taking&lt;br /&gt;$80,000 each month) of person number 3’s earnings from him and then re-&lt;br /&gt;distribute (give) even more of person number 3’s earnings to person&lt;br /&gt;number 1.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;What liberals don’t realize is that the wealthy do one or two things&lt;br /&gt;with their wealth. They either spend it or invest it (even putting it&lt;br /&gt;in a bank becomes the capital others borrow to use for their needs,&lt;br /&gt;desires or business financing). When a wealthy person builds a 3&lt;br /&gt;million dollar home and has to pay a $30,000 per month mortgage, it&lt;br /&gt;provides work for contractors who make $10,000 per month (person&lt;br /&gt;number 2) who in turn provide jobs for craftsmen who make $5,000 per&lt;br /&gt;month right on down to person number 1 (an apprentice to the&lt;br /&gt;craftsman) who makes $1,000 per month.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;When person number 3 realizes people hate him for his success and want&lt;br /&gt;to take ever larger amounts from him, at some point in time he may&lt;br /&gt;decide to quietly tell them to “go to hell”. He might do this in&lt;br /&gt;several different ways. He might just slowly wind his business down or&lt;br /&gt;simply close it down and live on his savings. Perhaps he might move it&lt;br /&gt;to another country where he will be treated better. He may sell the&lt;br /&gt;business and move to a different country taking his capital with him.&lt;br /&gt;The point is, wealthy people have the resources to make these&lt;br /&gt;decisions and carry them out.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Rather than hating the successful, God’s Word tells us to mourn with&lt;br /&gt;those who mourn and rejoice with those who rejoice. If people inherit&lt;br /&gt;or earn their wealth honorably, then we should rejoice at their&lt;br /&gt;success, not hate or become envious of them.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Perhaps the most important Biblical perspective on this issue is found&lt;br /&gt;in the parable of the talents, found in the 25th chapter of Matthew.&lt;br /&gt;The parable explains that a certain Lord of some servants was going on&lt;br /&gt;a journey and summoned his servants. He gave 5 talents to one servant&lt;br /&gt;with the most skills, 2 talents to another servant and 1 talent to his&lt;br /&gt;servant with the least skills. After the Master had been gone a long&lt;br /&gt;time he returned to settle with his servants. The one he had given 5&lt;br /&gt;talents to had put them to work and produced 5 more talents. The&lt;br /&gt;Master told him good and well done faithful servant and because of&lt;br /&gt;your faithfulness I will make you a ruler over many things. The one He&lt;br /&gt;had given 2 talents to had put them to work and produced 2 more,&lt;br /&gt;another good and well done from the Master and he put this servant in&lt;br /&gt;charge of many things. The servant he had given 1 talent to was&lt;br /&gt;paralyzed with fear and as such took his talent and buried it in the&lt;br /&gt;ground. When he tried to return his talent to his Master, he was told&lt;br /&gt;by his Master that he was wicked and lazy and should have at least put&lt;br /&gt;it in the bank to draw interest. The Master then called for servants&lt;br /&gt;to take the one talent away from this wicked servant and give it to&lt;br /&gt;the servant who had 10 talents. Then the Master fired the servant and&lt;br /&gt;drove him off his property and into the wilderness.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;May I suggest that the talents represent the giftings and capabilities&lt;br /&gt;that God puts in every man. We do not all have the same level of&lt;br /&gt;talents, some more and some less. The teaching of the parable is that&lt;br /&gt;God rewards faithfulness and productivity and will never ask a person&lt;br /&gt;to produce more than he has the talent to produce. In addition, the&lt;br /&gt;parable also teaches that God actually punishes those who are&lt;br /&gt;unproductive and unfaithful.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If you want to know what is wrong with America from an economic&lt;br /&gt;standpoint, you have to look no farther than this parable. Since we&lt;br /&gt;started the welfare state in the 1930s, we have turned God’s economic&lt;br /&gt;principles upside down. Using the Karl Marx model of a heavy graduated&lt;br /&gt;income tax, the more productive a person the more we punish them by&lt;br /&gt;taking ever more of the fruit of their productivity. We then take a&lt;br /&gt;productive person’s wealth and give it to the un-productive.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;America has been able to get away with this violation of God’s&lt;br /&gt;economic principles for a long time, but the Master is returning to&lt;br /&gt;America and is about to set things in order. Because America has&lt;br /&gt;violated these Biblical principles for such a long time, we have&lt;br /&gt;created a large class of people who are of weak character, as well as&lt;br /&gt;being sniveling, whiny butt, dependents. As the welfare state begins&lt;br /&gt;to shut down, as it must, they will scream and clamor. Some will turn&lt;br /&gt;to violence, much like we see in certain places in Europe.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;America is not exempt from violence as we are now beginning to see&lt;br /&gt;flash mobs in places like Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco and at&lt;br /&gt;the Wisconsin state fair. Whether these flash mobs are motivated by&lt;br /&gt;racial hatred or wealth envy or both, it doesn’t really matter. What&lt;br /&gt;we are beginning to see is the predictable fruit of a welfare state&lt;br /&gt;coming to an end. The turbulence in the economy and the decline of&lt;br /&gt;America has more to do than anyone might think with our violating the&lt;br /&gt;simple principles set forth in the parable of the talents.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Violating these principles is the number one reason we are over 14&lt;br /&gt;trillion in debt, with untold trillions in unfunded liabilities for&lt;br /&gt;the future. It is why America is bankrupt. Though it is possible to&lt;br /&gt;turn this around, it is not likely given so many of our citizens have&lt;br /&gt;been indoctrinated through the government schools to value socialism&lt;br /&gt;and ignore God and His principles.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;America needs another great awakening, but that will only come about&lt;br /&gt;when its pastors, priests and rabbis understand these truths and get&lt;br /&gt;the courage to teach them to their congregations. This will be&lt;br /&gt;difficult as so many churches today have become seeker friendly&lt;br /&gt;churches, feeding their congregations a pink, puff and piffle marsh&lt;br /&gt;mellow diet rather than the solid truths that will mature people. The&lt;br /&gt;clergy is failing to teach people to become like the faithful servants&lt;br /&gt;in the parable of the talents. We need to pray that God will stir the&lt;br /&gt;hearts of the pastors to be filled with courage and pray that the&lt;br /&gt;people will want to know the reality of the Master and His ways.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Charlie Meadows&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://thebestportals.com/webmail/src/compose.php?send_to=Charliemeadows7%40gmail.com"&gt;Charliemeadows7@gmail.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:85%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: Arial;"&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;   &lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5431481429087105402-5468174758607431832?l=ocpacnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/feeds/5468174758607431832/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=5431481429087105402&amp;postID=5468174758607431832' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/5468174758607431832'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/5468174758607431832'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/2011/08/top-20-most-dangerous-viewed-from-left.html' title='TOP 20 MOST DANGEROUS - VIEWED FROM THE LEFT'/><author><name>Charlie Meadows</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12159891905392720848</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='26' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_F_NJvphHJNU/S6DeHxvDM5I/AAAAAAAAADY/_8wLtI8on44/S220/charliesepia.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431481429087105402.post-8757199366324735129</id><published>2011-08-02T17:26:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2011-08-02T17:27:17.886-05:00</updated><title type='text'>REFLECTIONS ON THE WASHINGTON BUDGET DEAL</title><content type='html'>++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING&lt;br /&gt;++  REFLECTIONS ON THE WASHINGTON BUDGET DEAL&lt;br /&gt;++  ANNOUNCEMENTS&lt;br /&gt;++  SPECIAL SENATE ELECTION, AUGUST 9TH&lt;br /&gt;++  WILL DAN BOREN RESIGN?&lt;br /&gt;++  OCPAC MEMBERSHIP UP-DATE&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Before I get to our agenda, please let me say I am not trying to be&lt;br /&gt;unfriendly, but I don’t sign up to be friends on Linkiden or other&lt;br /&gt;similar offers. I get multiple invitations daily, which is simply too&lt;br /&gt;time consuming for me to fill out the responses. Thanks for&lt;br /&gt;understanding.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, August 3rd will be held at&lt;br /&gt;Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. Our first speaker&lt;br /&gt;will be Tracey Montgomery, Oklahoma State Coordinator for www.parentalrights.org.&lt;br /&gt;She will explain this organizations belief in the necessity of a&lt;br /&gt;amendment to the U.S. Constitution to protect the rights of parents in&lt;br /&gt;regard to their own children.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Our main speaker this Wednesday will be Jenni White, as she continues&lt;br /&gt;her work to alert Oklahomans about the dangers of Federal intervention&lt;br /&gt;into Education. Jennie will explain the pitfalls of the “Core&lt;br /&gt;Curriculum Standards” and why we don’t want to be selected into the&lt;br /&gt;federal government’s “Race To The Top” program. Try to arrive early as&lt;br /&gt;I will start our program at 12 sharp as we have a lot to cover this&lt;br /&gt;Wednesday.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  REFLECTIONS ON THE WASHINGTON BUDGET DEAL&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I am disappointed in Oklahoma’s four Republican U.S. Representatives&lt;br /&gt;for voting for the final version of the budget reform/debt ceiling&lt;br /&gt;legislation. I am not all that surprised by Cole, Lucas and Sullivan&lt;br /&gt;as they have a long track record of getting in line with leadership. I&lt;br /&gt;had hoped for more out of Lankford, but it is what it is.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If the legislation passed was all that was out there, I might have&lt;br /&gt;voted for it as it is a little better than what we have now. However,&lt;br /&gt;there is the Connie Mack (R-Florida) plan which is far better and very&lt;br /&gt;sellable to the public. A plan that doesn’t allow spending to rise&lt;br /&gt;above 2011 levels and then cuts across the board (if Congress can’t&lt;br /&gt;prioritize a 1% cut) 1% each year for 8 years to achieve a balanced&lt;br /&gt;budget.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;That was a plan worth supporting and then refusing to raise the debt&lt;br /&gt;ceiling should the Democrats refuse to pass it in the Senate. Should&lt;br /&gt;the Democrats refuse, there would be a nation wide noticeable hit to&lt;br /&gt;programs and paychecks, but at least then the public would really&lt;br /&gt;concentrate on what is going on. At that time all Republicans should&lt;br /&gt;have a unified voice, explaining the simple, cut one penny out of&lt;br /&gt;every dollar, plan and urge Americans to contact the Democrats to&lt;br /&gt;demand they support the plan!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The time to start correcting our past miss deeds, which will be&lt;br /&gt;painful, is now. At least Oklahoma has two experienced conservatives&lt;br /&gt;in our Congressional delegation that understand the pitiful value in&lt;br /&gt;the inferior plan that will be passed and as such will vote against it&lt;br /&gt;in the Senate. Senators Inhofe and Coburn deserve a huge thanks from&lt;br /&gt;the citizens of Oklahoma.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  SPECIAL SENATE ELECTION, AUGUST 9TH&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;State Senator Jim Reynolds was elected as the Cleveland County&lt;br /&gt;Treasurer last November, but didn’t take office until July 1st. His&lt;br /&gt;vacated seat requires a special election for the current area which is&lt;br /&gt;much of Del City and a good part of South OKC. The election will be&lt;br /&gt;one week from today, on Tuesday, August 9th.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Our by-laws do not allow OCPAC to get involved in this primary because&lt;br /&gt;it is not considered a “safe” Republican seat. However, the eventual&lt;br /&gt;winner of the Republican primary will be eligible to appear before our&lt;br /&gt;members and they will vote to determine if we support that candidate.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As a point of interest, I was reading the Demokie web site and noticed&lt;br /&gt;their take on this race. The administrator of the web-site had&lt;br /&gt;obtained campaign literature from each of the 2 Republican candidates&lt;br /&gt;and posted that literature on the web-site for anyone to read. This is&lt;br /&gt;what “STAMP THE ROOSTER” had to say about one of the Republican&lt;br /&gt;candidates: “Sounds like this Theresa Nelson would make a fine&lt;br /&gt;Democrat.” They don’t get things right very often on this web-site,&lt;br /&gt;but this time I have to agree with Stamp The Rooster as Theresa Nelson&lt;br /&gt;is anything but a conservative Republican.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Someone on the web-site posted that the other Republican candidate,&lt;br /&gt;Greg Childers was the establishment candidate. They couldn’t be&lt;br /&gt;further from wrong. The establishment didn’t field a candidate as they&lt;br /&gt;thought State Representative Paul Wesselhoft would be the easy winner&lt;br /&gt;in the race and keep the seat for the Republicans. However, Paul filed&lt;br /&gt;for office and then dropped out of the race before the candidates were&lt;br /&gt;certified.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;State Senator Ralph Shortey brought Mr. Childers to an OCPAC meeting a&lt;br /&gt;few weeks back. Anyone who knows anything about the Republican party&lt;br /&gt;knows that Ralph Shortey is anything but an establishment Republican&lt;br /&gt;and will only support candidates that will not simply bow down to the&lt;br /&gt;establishment. In my opinion, Greg Childers is by far the more&lt;br /&gt;conservative candidate. That is just my opinion and is not an official&lt;br /&gt;endorsement from OCPAC.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  ANNOUNCEMENTS&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  EDMOND AREA  -  Attorney Don Powers, considered a Constitutional&lt;br /&gt;expert, has been writing a weekly column for about a year now in the&lt;br /&gt;Edmond Sun. He has moved his column over to the Edmond Life and&lt;br /&gt;Leisure Newspaper which may be obtained at many businesses in Edmond.&lt;br /&gt;Pick up a paper and check out his columns as they are very&lt;br /&gt;informative. His recent column on the “general welfare” clause as well&lt;br /&gt;as many of his columns on State sovereignty and the 10th amendment&lt;br /&gt;were excellent. Don also teaches classes on the Constitution all over&lt;br /&gt;the metro area.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  EDMOND AREA  -  Just a heads up, on Tuesday, August 9th there will&lt;br /&gt;be a town hall meeting, 7:00 p.m. at the Edmond Community Center, 28&lt;br /&gt;East Main. There are a large group of citizens who would like to see&lt;br /&gt;Edmond governed locally and wean their community off the influences of&lt;br /&gt;the United Nations, the Obama administration’s interferences in&lt;br /&gt;Education and the possible problems with the new President at UCO. It&lt;br /&gt;seems the new President is a former employee of the United Nations,&lt;br /&gt;who worked to create a Palestinian State. He also has expressed his&lt;br /&gt;admiration for the organization CAIR (Center for American and Islamic&lt;br /&gt;Relations). It turns out that CAIR got lucky when the Obama&lt;br /&gt;administration took over as Eric Holder determined not to prosecute&lt;br /&gt;the other conspirators (CAIR) in the Holy Lands Foundation trial as&lt;br /&gt;members of that organization were convicted of supporting terrorism&lt;br /&gt;through Hamas.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  STATE CAPITOL  -  AUGUST 24TH  -  In conjunction with Glen Beck’s&lt;br /&gt;event in Israel, a group in Oklahoma will have a STAND with ISRAEL&lt;br /&gt;rally at the State Capitol from 7 until 10:00 p.m.. For more&lt;br /&gt;information log on to www.oklahomaunited.com.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  WILL DAN BOREN RESIGN?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Sources have told me Boren decided to announce he would not run for re-&lt;br /&gt;election so he could be appointed to the Presidency of Northeastern&lt;br /&gt;State University at Tahlequah. If true, I would further speculate his&lt;br /&gt;desire for that position to gain enough experience to be appointed as&lt;br /&gt;President of the University of Oklahoma once daddy Boren decides to&lt;br /&gt;retire. Further speculation is that Dan Boren will resign his&lt;br /&gt;Congressional seat when he is picked as President which may then&lt;br /&gt;require a special election to fill his vacated seat.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There are several Republicans already working in that race. State&lt;br /&gt;Representative George Faught was the first to announce. Former State&lt;br /&gt;Representative Wayne Pettigrew of Edmond is campaigning and Mr.&lt;br /&gt;Mullins of Mullins Plumbing is also in the race. I believe he is the&lt;br /&gt;first to file his papers with the Federal Election Commission. With a&lt;br /&gt;hundred thousand of his own money to go along with a hundred thousand&lt;br /&gt;he has raised from contributors he has already raised twice the amount&lt;br /&gt;Dr. Charles Thompson was able to amass for his bid in 2010.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Dr. Thompson may also join the race as well as others. If a special&lt;br /&gt;election does occur and the time frame is shortened, a candidate with&lt;br /&gt;adequate finances usually has an advantage. Regardless, all the&lt;br /&gt;Republican candidates will have an opportunity to appear at an OCPAC&lt;br /&gt;meeting. Our dues paying members will vote to endorse the best&lt;br /&gt;candidate if that can be determined.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  OCPAC MEMBERSHIP UP-DATE&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;At the end of July we had 221 dues paying members and have raised over&lt;br /&gt;$18,000. Our old record for a non election year was 217 dues paying&lt;br /&gt;members. The largest number of members come from OKC, with Edmond in&lt;br /&gt;second place. However, OCPAC is truly a statewide organization with&lt;br /&gt;dues paying members spread out all over the state.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I thought I would list other communities in Oklahoma with dues paying&lt;br /&gt;members, in no particular order: Tulsa, Broken Arrow, Broken Bow,&lt;br /&gt;Piedmont, Nichols Hills, Owasso, Norman, Ponca City, Newalla, Mustang,&lt;br /&gt;Yukon, Muskogee, Jones, Guthrie, Purcell, Tuttle, Choctaw, Midwest&lt;br /&gt;City, Newkirk, Bristow, Cleveland, Lawton, Alva, Duncan, Konawa,&lt;br /&gt;Moore, Tecumseh, Shawnee, Weatherford, Shawnee, Meridian, Seminole,&lt;br /&gt;Hooker, Harrah and Blanchard. In addition, we have at least one dues&lt;br /&gt;paying member from each of the following states, Texas, Michigan,&lt;br /&gt;Virginia, Mississippi, and Wyoming.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Truth is, many of these members in out laying areas may never or&lt;br /&gt;seldom ever be able to attend one of our meetings. However, they have&lt;br /&gt;caught the vision of what we are trying to do by supporting good&lt;br /&gt;candidates from anyplace in the state as well as trying to hold them&lt;br /&gt;accountable once they are elected. They know their dues provide the&lt;br /&gt;funds for our war chest to get the job done.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If you have considered joining OCPAC, but just haven’t done so as yet,&lt;br /&gt;please consider doing so now. Help us make Oklahoma the most&lt;br /&gt;conservative state in the nation. Instructions on how to join will&lt;br /&gt;follow my sign off. I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Charlie Meadows&lt;br /&gt;Charliemeadows7@gmail.com&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5431481429087105402-8757199366324735129?l=ocpacnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/feeds/8757199366324735129/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=5431481429087105402&amp;postID=8757199366324735129' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/8757199366324735129'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/8757199366324735129'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/2011/08/reflections-on-washington-budget-deal.html' title='REFLECTIONS ON THE WASHINGTON BUDGET DEAL'/><author><name>Charlie Meadows</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12159891905392720848</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='26' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_F_NJvphHJNU/S6DeHxvDM5I/AAAAAAAAADY/_8wLtI8on44/S220/charliesepia.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431481429087105402.post-98159938058887514</id><published>2011-07-28T09:00:00.001-05:00</published><updated>2011-07-28T09:00:39.265-05:00</updated><title type='text'>Speaker John Boehner’s plan is simply un- acceptable.</title><content type='html'>URGENT MATTER  -  Folks, Speaker John Boehner’s plan is simply un-&lt;br /&gt;acceptable. In round one it ONLY cuts 7 Billion in spending. The only&lt;br /&gt;good deal about his plan is that the debt limit is short term, meaning&lt;br /&gt;they will have to deal with this again early next year. Round two is&lt;br /&gt;nothing more at this time than pie in the sky and another example of&lt;br /&gt;kicking the can down the road, rather than dealing with a serious&lt;br /&gt;problem right now.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If you know how to read between the lines, both Speaker Boehner and&lt;br /&gt;Paul Ryan have revealed their real intentions for the future when they&lt;br /&gt;said something like: the baby boomers are coming of age with huge&lt;br /&gt;increased pressure on social security and medicare and we have an&lt;br /&gt;obligation to these folks.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;What that means is they will NOT be willing to fight for and force&lt;br /&gt;fiscal responsibility upon the federal government. Truth is, the only&lt;br /&gt;responsibility they have to the grey panthers (I will soon be 65) is&lt;br /&gt;to make sure the 2 plus Trillion dollars in IOUs to the social&lt;br /&gt;security trust fund is paid back. Beyond that they have no&lt;br /&gt;responsibility to social security, other than to make sure the trust&lt;br /&gt;fund is actuarially sound. The ONLY way to do that is to raise the&lt;br /&gt;amount working people pay in to the fund or cut benefits and of course&lt;br /&gt;the third option would be to do a combination of both. One way to cut&lt;br /&gt;benefits would be to raise the age of early retirement from 62 to 64&lt;br /&gt;and the age of full retirement which is currently 66 for people my age&lt;br /&gt;and 67 for younger people to 68 and 69. In addition, reducing some of&lt;br /&gt;the disability coverage’s would be an option.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;But people like Boehner are too fearful of the voters and unwilling to&lt;br /&gt;take the risk of convincing a largely self centered and economically&lt;br /&gt;ignorant American public on the risks of an eventual economic melt&lt;br /&gt;down if we don’t quit borrowing ever more money.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;U.S. Representative Connie Mack (R-Florida) has a plan to cap current&lt;br /&gt;spending and if congress can’t prioritize spending cuts, there will be&lt;br /&gt;an automatic spending cut of 1% a year. It will take 7 years to&lt;br /&gt;balance the budget with that plan. That is a reasonable plan that&lt;br /&gt;truly causes us all to share in the pain it will take to get our&lt;br /&gt;budget in balance.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Bottom line, we must call our U.S. Representatives and urge them not&lt;br /&gt;to support Speaker Boehner’s plan. I will be sorely disappointed in&lt;br /&gt;Representative James Lankford if he supports Speaker Boehner’s plan as&lt;br /&gt;I believed he is a person of strong resolve. If he caves, it will show&lt;br /&gt;just how quickly he has become co-opted by the establishment.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;YOU NEED TO CALL TODAY, ASAP&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;John Sullivan (202) 225-2211, Dan Boren (202) 225-2701, Frank Lucas&lt;br /&gt;(202) 225-5565, Tom Cole (202) 225-6165 and James Lankford (202)&lt;br /&gt;225-2132.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Charlie Meadows&lt;br /&gt;Charliemeadows7@gmail.com&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5431481429087105402-98159938058887514?l=ocpacnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/feeds/98159938058887514/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=5431481429087105402&amp;postID=98159938058887514' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/98159938058887514'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/98159938058887514'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/2011/07/speaker-john-boehners-plan-is-simply-un.html' title='Speaker John Boehner’s plan is simply un- acceptable.'/><author><name>Charlie Meadows</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12159891905392720848</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='26' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_F_NJvphHJNU/S6DeHxvDM5I/AAAAAAAAADY/_8wLtI8on44/S220/charliesepia.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431481429087105402.post-562032204150712293</id><published>2011-07-26T09:58:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2011-07-26T09:59:11.243-05:00</updated><title type='text'>COBURN’S BUDGET &amp; COBURN ON WASTE ++  THE TRUTH ABOUT SOCIAL SECURITY &amp; DEBT CEILING</title><content type='html'>++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING&lt;br /&gt;++  RE-CLAIMING AMERICA FOR CHRIST - THURSDAY &amp;amp; FRIDAY&lt;br /&gt;++  ANNOUNCEMENTS&lt;br /&gt;++  COBURN’S BUDGET &amp;amp; COBURN ON WASTE&lt;br /&gt;++  THE TRUTH ABOUT SOCIAL SECURITY &amp;amp; DEBT CEILING&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, July 27th will be held at&lt;br /&gt;Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. This past March we&lt;br /&gt;had Avi Lipkin as a speaker giving us some of his inside information&lt;br /&gt;regarding the turmoil in the Middle East and more particularly Egypt.&lt;br /&gt;He will be with us again this Wednesday and hopefully will give us the&lt;br /&gt;inside skinny regarding our bombing invasion of Libya and what is&lt;br /&gt;going on in Syria. Mr. Lipkin is a past advisor to several Prime&lt;br /&gt;Ministers and was the spokesman for the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).&lt;br /&gt;Today his wife serves as the official translator of Arab broadcasts&lt;br /&gt;into Hebrew. Mr. Lipkin is a captivating speaker and has authored&lt;br /&gt;several books which hopefully will be available for those in&lt;br /&gt;attendance.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  RE-CLAIMING AMERICA FOR CHRIST - THURSDAY &amp;amp; FRIDAY&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  LOCATION  -  First Baptist Church in Moore, just East of I-35 at&lt;br /&gt;the NE 27th street exit.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  TIMES  -  Thursday, first session begins at 6:15 p.m. and lasts&lt;br /&gt;until 10:00 p.m.   Friday, first session begins at 1:30 p.m. until&lt;br /&gt;5:00 p.m. There will be a one hour break for dinner, then the final&lt;br /&gt;session will begin at 6:15 p.m. and the conference will end at 10:00&lt;br /&gt;p.m.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  SPEAKERS  -  Keynote speakers are:     Dr. Bob Cornuke, President&lt;br /&gt;of The Bible Archaeology, Search &amp;amp; Exploration Institute. Dr. Cornuke&lt;br /&gt;is a Biblical investigator, international explorer and author of eight&lt;br /&gt;books. He has participated in over thirty expeditions around the world&lt;br /&gt;searching for lost locations described in the Bible. These journeys&lt;br /&gt;include searching for Mount Sinai in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, looking&lt;br /&gt;for the remains of Noah’s Ark in Turkey and researching ancient&lt;br /&gt;Assyrian and Babylonian flood accounts in Iran. He has followed&lt;br /&gt;ancient accounts of the Ark of the Covenant from Israel to Egypt and&lt;br /&gt;across the Ethiopian highlands.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Dr. G. Thomas Sharp, President of Creation Research Institute.  Dr.&lt;br /&gt;Sharp is sometimes referred to as Oklahoma’s best kept secret as he&lt;br /&gt;headquarters out of Noble Oklahoma. Dr. Sharp has achieved national&lt;br /&gt;and international recognition  as a Christian educator, religious&lt;br /&gt;leader, businessman and author. He will do 3 presentations, one on the&lt;br /&gt;Icons of Evolution, another on Mt. Saint Helens and the final one on&lt;br /&gt;Dinosaurs and the Bible.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Pastor Dan fisher will do a presentation on the Black Robed Regiment,&lt;br /&gt;which is about the influences of the pastors during our founding era.&lt;br /&gt;He has up-dated his DVD presentation on the subject and should have&lt;br /&gt;them available at the conference. Pastor Paul Blair, Director of&lt;br /&gt;Reclaiming America for Christ, will do a presentation on America’s&lt;br /&gt;Christian Heritage. I believe there will be some DVD presentations on&lt;br /&gt;this subject available at the Conference.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Other speakers include Matt Barber with the Liberty Council, a&lt;br /&gt;Christian civil liberties organization. State Representative Sally&lt;br /&gt;Kern will speak as well as Jenni White, founder and director of ROPE&lt;br /&gt;(Restore Oklahoma Public Education). From the political side, freshman&lt;br /&gt;U.S. Representative James Lankford will speak along with newly elected&lt;br /&gt;State Attorney General Scott Pruitt.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Please note, there is no cost to attend, however a love offering will&lt;br /&gt;be taken to defer expenses. OCPAC will have a table at the conference&lt;br /&gt;and I could use a couple of volunteers, especially since I may have to&lt;br /&gt;attend a special board meeting on Thursday or Friday at the hospital&lt;br /&gt;in which I serve as a trustee. If you can help, please send me an e-&lt;br /&gt;mail at charliemeadows7@gmail.com&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  ANNOUNCEMENTS&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Following are the times and locations for other appearances for Avi&lt;br /&gt;Lipkin while in Oklahoma for this trip.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  Wednesday evening, July 27th, First Baptist Church of Nicoma Park,&lt;br /&gt;6:00 p.m. contact Pastor Mark Walters&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  Thursday, July 28th, Grove Ok Tea Party, Cyndi McArtor&lt;br /&gt;patriot@getamericaback.com.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  Friday, July 29th High Noon Club meeting at 12 noon at H&amp;amp;H Range in&lt;br /&gt;OKC.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  Sunday, July 31st First Baptist Church of Moore 6:00 p.m. (I-35 and&lt;br /&gt;NE 27th street in Moore)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  Wednesday,  August 3rd, at 7:00 p.m., Chisholm Creek Baptist&lt;br /&gt;Church, 17600 N. Western in OKC.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  COBURN’S BUDGET &amp;amp; COBURN ON WASTE&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This past week, U. S. Senator Tom Coburn exposed more waste in&lt;br /&gt;government spending. He specifically named Amtrak, one of my pet&lt;br /&gt;peeves. There is not a market for passenger rail service anywhere in&lt;br /&gt;Oklahoma. If there were it would be provided by private companies, not&lt;br /&gt;the government. One of OKC’s mass transit advocates was on KTOK news&lt;br /&gt;yesterday expressing concern over the next transit funding legislation&lt;br /&gt;which is currently stalled in congress. He is afraid the feds won’t&lt;br /&gt;pump millions of dollars into OKC’s next boondogle, the new light rail&lt;br /&gt;system to be built in downtown OKC as a result of MAPS III passage. My&lt;br /&gt;fear is the opposite. I am concerned that congress will fail to&lt;br /&gt;eliminate such programs. Even if it was a good idea, and it isn’t, it&lt;br /&gt;still needs to be eliminated as America is no longer a wealthy nation,&lt;br /&gt;we are broke and deeply in debt and on the verge of bankruptcy.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The other government waste mentioned by Senator Coburn was in regard&lt;br /&gt;to the millions of dollars spent in Oklahoma on wild horse programs.&lt;br /&gt;What I am about to say will get me in trouble with a lot of people.&lt;br /&gt;Over the past 30 or so years America has developed a group of people&lt;br /&gt;who are basically Westernized Hindu’s. They no longer have the proper&lt;br /&gt;perspective that animals should be treated as utilitarian, but they&lt;br /&gt;have become so emotionally attached to animals that they treat them as&lt;br /&gt;equals or superior to humans.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Just one manifestation of this unhealthy relationship occurred 5 or 6&lt;br /&gt;years ago when this powerful group successfully got congress to pass&lt;br /&gt;legislation to eliminate all horse slaughterhouses in America. These&lt;br /&gt;animal worshippers want to make sure people feed, water and care for&lt;br /&gt;their horses until they pass on to heaven of natural causes (some very&lt;br /&gt;carnally minded folks actually believe animals have a soul and will be&lt;br /&gt;in heaven). Some of the results of this legislation have been a larger&lt;br /&gt;number of neglected horses, a drop in the price of horses and millions&lt;br /&gt;of taxpayer dollars spent to care for wild horses. If you need to&lt;br /&gt;dispose of a horse today, it must be shipped (at extra cost) to Mexico&lt;br /&gt;for slaughter where the meat can be used for dog food or other&lt;br /&gt;purposes.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Now for Senator Coburn’s budget proposal. For 20 years I did financial&lt;br /&gt;counseling (budget and debt resolution, not investment counseling)&lt;br /&gt;where I taught people there are only 3 possible solutions to financial&lt;br /&gt;problems. 1) Bring in the same amount of money and spend less. 2)&lt;br /&gt;Bring in more money and spend the same. 3) Do a combination of the&lt;br /&gt;first two. By the way, these principles apply to an individual,&lt;br /&gt;corporation or a government.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The conservative Republicans are basically calling for number one as a&lt;br /&gt;solution, the Democrats are just simply liars, deceivers and&lt;br /&gt;ideologically the reason we are in trouble. Senator Coburn’s plan&lt;br /&gt;comes from the number 3 solution. Overall, I like Senator Coburn’s&lt;br /&gt;plan better than that of Paul Ryan’s plan as Coburn’s lays out a path&lt;br /&gt;to balance the budget in 10 years and I believe it takes 28 years for&lt;br /&gt;Ryan’s plan.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Where Coburn’s plan gets into trouble with some conservatives is that&lt;br /&gt;is calls for increasing revenues, however, I don’t believe it calls&lt;br /&gt;for tax increases. Please remember, words have meanings. Tax&lt;br /&gt;deductions, tax credits, tax cuts or increases, etc. are all different&lt;br /&gt;terms to represent different actions. Most of Coburn’s revenue&lt;br /&gt;increases comes from eliminating or reducing tax deductions or&lt;br /&gt;exemptions. While I might not agree with all of the specific&lt;br /&gt;exemptions, I do favor that method if we foolishly insist on keeping&lt;br /&gt;an income tax rather than switching to a national consumption tax,&lt;br /&gt;known as The Fair Tax.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Why would I agree with eliminating some exemptions? We have a huge&lt;br /&gt;problem in America in that 48 or so percent of working Americans pay&lt;br /&gt;NO federal income taxes at all, none, zilch, nada (virtually everyone&lt;br /&gt;pays social security taxes but those are different from income&lt;br /&gt;taxes).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Many of these non payers are beneficiaries of tax dollars and vote for&lt;br /&gt;representatives to give them ever more benefits. However, since they&lt;br /&gt;don’t pay income taxes, they don’t experience the true cost of&lt;br /&gt;government. It is what I call REPRESENTATION WITHOUT TAXATION which is&lt;br /&gt;the flip side of NO TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION which of course&lt;br /&gt;was one of the 27 reasons we broke from England in our war of&lt;br /&gt;independence. One is as bad as the other.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Eliminating or reducing some exemptions will cause more people to&lt;br /&gt;become taxpayers, which is a good thing. On the other hand, it will&lt;br /&gt;also cause some who already pay taxes to pay more and that may not be&lt;br /&gt;a good thing. As an example, Senator Coburn calls for eliminating the&lt;br /&gt;home mortgage interest deduction beyond a certain amount (I believe it&lt;br /&gt;was $500,000) and on second homes as well as eliminating the interest&lt;br /&gt;deduction on equity lines of credit loans. My wife and I go long form&lt;br /&gt;on our taxes and use our home interest as a deduction. Our interest&lt;br /&gt;deduction is no where near a half million, we don’t have a second&lt;br /&gt;home, but we do have an equity line of credit loan for our first and&lt;br /&gt;only mortgage. If I were to lose that deduction, I will pay more in&lt;br /&gt;taxes.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The point we as conservatives know, it that the amount of money&lt;br /&gt;flowing into Washington is not the real problem. The REAL problem is&lt;br /&gt;the spending as there is no limit as to what liberals in Washington&lt;br /&gt;will spend if we allow them. If we can get spending under control, I&lt;br /&gt;would be willing to pay more in taxes to reduce our national debt, but&lt;br /&gt;then and only then when we get spending under control.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Another problem with Senator Coburn’s plan is a call to cut highway&lt;br /&gt;and bridge funding. I don’t believe he really wants to cut back on&lt;br /&gt;improving our roads, but it is more the result of taking a trust fund&lt;br /&gt;and making it a part of the budget and thus a target for budget cuts.&lt;br /&gt;Trust accounts should always be stand alone fee supported entities and&lt;br /&gt;never be considered as a part of the budget. We have the same problem&lt;br /&gt;in Oklahoma where we fail to understand the difference between a fee&lt;br /&gt;and a tax and frequently mix those two systems.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Federal Highway Trust Fund should simply work on the basis of&lt;br /&gt;money in, money out. Where does the money come from? Every time we&lt;br /&gt;purchase a gallon of gasoline or diesel, approximately 18 cents goes&lt;br /&gt;to the federal trust fund, while the states also have about the same&lt;br /&gt;amount that go into state coffers. This money should never be used for&lt;br /&gt;anything other than roads and bridges (about 30% is diverted to mass&lt;br /&gt;transit, Amtrak, bike and jogging trails and highway beautification&lt;br /&gt;projects. Governor Keating tried to get these dollars for the dome on&lt;br /&gt;the State Capitol, suggesting the dome could be seen from the&lt;br /&gt;Centennial Expressway and would thus beautify the highway).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;When you do fee based government, if properly managed fees go up if&lt;br /&gt;they are insufficient or down if they are excessive. The highway trust&lt;br /&gt;fund is shaky because of abuse and mismanagement from liberals in&lt;br /&gt;Washington.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Unless, cut cap and balance can be spread out over at least 5 or 10&lt;br /&gt;years, Senator Coburn’s plan is the best thing to be offered thus far.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  THE TRUTH ABOUT SOCIAL SECURITY &amp;amp; DEBT CEILING&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;President Obama said if the debt ceiling isn’t extended he wasn’t sure&lt;br /&gt;social security checks would go out in August. Let me establish where&lt;br /&gt;I stand on my opinion of the President. He is a pathological liar, a&lt;br /&gt;skilled deceiver of the naïve and acts like a slithering snake who&lt;br /&gt;speaks with forked tongue. On the other hand, the 2 Republican&lt;br /&gt;Congressmen (I didn’t know who they were) who stood  behind a&lt;br /&gt;microphone and stated that social security had over 2 TRILLION in its&lt;br /&gt;trust fund were also liars.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;For many years now the social security revenues going to the trust&lt;br /&gt;fund were more than required for payments. Each year those excess&lt;br /&gt;revenues were taken by Congress to be spent on other funds, but they&lt;br /&gt;weren’t stolen. Congress, took the money and put an IOU in the fund to&lt;br /&gt;someday be paid back with interest. So far, every time one of those&lt;br /&gt;IOU’s has come due, it has been paid back, though with newly borrowed&lt;br /&gt;money. Today, there are over 2 TRILLION dollars in IOU’s in the social&lt;br /&gt;security trust fund, but no actual money.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It was thought that the trust fund would break even as far as the&lt;br /&gt;amount coming in and the amount going out in about 2016. From that&lt;br /&gt;point on it would operate in the red, with the government no longer&lt;br /&gt;being able to borrow from the fund, but instead they would have to&lt;br /&gt;begin to pay those IOUs back. It was anticipated paying back the IOUs&lt;br /&gt;would keep Social Security operating at full benefits until about&lt;br /&gt;2035. At that time, either higher amounts would have to be paid by&lt;br /&gt;working people or the benefits would have to be reduced. It was&lt;br /&gt;suggested that people drawing social security would see their benefits&lt;br /&gt;reduced by about 30%.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;However, because of the recession and a larger number of baby boomers&lt;br /&gt;than expected taking early retirement, the fund actually started&lt;br /&gt;operating in the red last year in 2010. Then something really bizarre&lt;br /&gt;occurred. During the first 2 years of Obama’s reign, in an attempt to&lt;br /&gt;stimulate the economy, the federal government paid out up to $400 in&lt;br /&gt;tax credits for every working person. Rather than continue with that&lt;br /&gt;failed idea, Obama and the lame duck congress decided to allow working&lt;br /&gt;people to keep more money in their own pockets by reducing the amount&lt;br /&gt;we pay into social security for this year. In other words, he reduced&lt;br /&gt;the amount of money going into the social security trust fund, when it&lt;br /&gt;was already operating in the red??? To my knowledge, this is the first&lt;br /&gt;time that has occurred.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So far that has worked this year because congress has simply borrowed&lt;br /&gt;or printed (all printed dollars become a loan) enough to pay off the&lt;br /&gt;necessary IOUs in the Social Security Trust Fund so that the benefits&lt;br /&gt;aren’t reduced. However, we are now looking at the debt ceiling not&lt;br /&gt;being extended. If that occurs, Congress will not be able to borrow to&lt;br /&gt;pay back those IOUs.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Bottom line, the best figures I can come up with suggest that when&lt;br /&gt;August arrives next week, social security benefits to be paid out will&lt;br /&gt;total about $24 billion dollars, but expected revenues coming into the&lt;br /&gt;social security trust fund  will only total about $17 billion. If they&lt;br /&gt;can’t borrow more money, where are they going to get the money to keep&lt;br /&gt;the benefits at the full amount? The checks will go out, but possibly&lt;br /&gt;at a reduced amount.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;My numbers may not be exact, but they are in the ball park. The&lt;br /&gt;federal government was expected to spend about $285 billion dollars in&lt;br /&gt;August, but total revenues flowing into the treasury would only be&lt;br /&gt;about $170 billion. Some conservatives are suggesting we live only on&lt;br /&gt;our means. They say, we should fully fund the military, fully fund the&lt;br /&gt;debt payments so we don’t default and fully fund Social Security. We&lt;br /&gt;could do that, but the cuts to everywhere else would be dramatic,&lt;br /&gt;deep, severe and in my opinion throw us into a severe recession or&lt;br /&gt;depression. Again, because this economy has been propped up with&lt;br /&gt;borrowed and printed money for some time now, to lose those props will&lt;br /&gt;have dire consequences.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I am in favor of these cuts in spending, but they must be done over&lt;br /&gt;time. More importantly, we must create an environment in American were&lt;br /&gt;the free market can thrive to create private sector jobs that produce&lt;br /&gt;needed products and services. These new jobs are a necessity to reduce&lt;br /&gt;the unemployment rate and provide a place for people to work who are&lt;br /&gt;going to lose their current jobs because of federal government cut&lt;br /&gt;backs. By increasing the number of private sector jobs, additional&lt;br /&gt;revenues will flow into the federal government. Again, the number one&lt;br /&gt;thing GOVERNMENT can do to create an environment for the free market&lt;br /&gt;to succeed is to eliminate our current tax code and switch to the Fair&lt;br /&gt;Tax. Unfortunately, that idea isn’t even a part of the dialogue going&lt;br /&gt;on in Washington, though it is as important as the debate over cutting&lt;br /&gt;spending.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Charlie Meadows&lt;br /&gt;Charliemeadows7@gmail.com&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5431481429087105402-562032204150712293?l=ocpacnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/feeds/562032204150712293/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=5431481429087105402&amp;postID=562032204150712293' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/562032204150712293'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/562032204150712293'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/2011/07/coburns-budget-coburn-on-waste-truth.html' title='COBURN’S BUDGET &amp; COBURN ON WASTE ++  THE TRUTH ABOUT SOCIAL SECURITY &amp; DEBT CEILING'/><author><name>Charlie Meadows</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12159891905392720848</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='26' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_F_NJvphHJNU/S6DeHxvDM5I/AAAAAAAAADY/_8wLtI8on44/S220/charliesepia.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431481429087105402.post-3463925651342164703</id><published>2011-07-19T08:29:00.001-05:00</published><updated>2011-07-19T08:29:52.316-05:00</updated><title type='text'>AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING</title><content type='html'>++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING&lt;br /&gt;++  SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, July 20th will be held at&lt;br /&gt;Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. I am really excited&lt;br /&gt;to have Mr. Art Thompson as our speaker this Wednesday. Mr. Thompson&lt;br /&gt;is the CEO of the John Birch Society. He lives in Appleton Wisconsin,&lt;br /&gt;which is the location of the home offices of the Birch Society. I&lt;br /&gt;joined the Society in 1988 and during that time there have probably&lt;br /&gt;been 4 or 5 different CEOs. I personally believe Mr. Thompson is the&lt;br /&gt;best since I have been in the Society. He has a tremendous grasp of&lt;br /&gt;history and speaks with a lot of authority or gravitas.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As a keen observer of the struggles at the Wisconsin State Capitol&lt;br /&gt;this year, Mr. Thompson will give of his perspective on the&lt;br /&gt;undercurrents involved in the struggle in Wisconsin. Currently, there&lt;br /&gt;are recall elections in process for both Republican and Democrat&lt;br /&gt;lawmakers and perhaps the Governor. I will also ask him to give an&lt;br /&gt;overview of the activities of the Birch Society and some of its many&lt;br /&gt;activities.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Speaking of the Birch Society, their newly revamped web-site is up and&lt;br /&gt;running, check it out at www.jbs.org and see what you find informative&lt;br /&gt;and valuable. Remember, there are many sources of good information&lt;br /&gt;today, but the question is, what to you do with good information? The&lt;br /&gt;reason I have such high regard for the Birch Society is that it&lt;br /&gt;disseminates excellent information, but more than that, it is an&lt;br /&gt;organization in every state with field staff and a strategy to return&lt;br /&gt;this nation to its Americanist ideals.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Of special interest on the web-site is the newly created FREEDOM&lt;br /&gt;PROJECT. Over the past 2 or 3 years we have been developing an on-line&lt;br /&gt;curriculum for home school children or for whole families to use.&lt;br /&gt;Grades 9 through 12 are now ready to use and at only $35 per course,&lt;br /&gt;it is very reasonable. There are over 100 conservative,&lt;br /&gt;constitutionalist scholars that are contributing to the creation of&lt;br /&gt;the curriculum, all of whom have masters or doctorate degrees. The&lt;br /&gt;mission of the FREEDOM PROJECT is to empower Americans to understand,&lt;br /&gt;enjoy and preserve the freedom and moral responsibility embodied in&lt;br /&gt;America’s founding principles.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This year’s Reclaiming America for Christ Conference, which is one&lt;br /&gt;week from this Thursday and Friday, has had a location change. It&lt;br /&gt;seems with the drought and low water pressure at Trinity in Yukon,&lt;br /&gt;there was concern about trying to flush toilets over a 2 day period&lt;br /&gt;with large crowds. Therefore, the conference has been re-located to&lt;br /&gt;First Baptist Church in Moore. This a larger sanctuary and will seat&lt;br /&gt;more folks. Take the NE 27th Street exit and go one block East of&lt;br /&gt;I-35. The actual address is 301 NE 27th street in Moore, you can&lt;br /&gt;easily see the church from I-35. I will have more on the speakers in&lt;br /&gt;next week’s e-mail.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I need to keep this short as I am covered up with home projects which&lt;br /&gt;have been neglected for some time now. I look forward to seeing&lt;br /&gt;everyone this Wednesday.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Charlie Meadows&lt;br /&gt;Charliemeadows7@gmail.com&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5431481429087105402-3463925651342164703?l=ocpacnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/feeds/3463925651342164703/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=5431481429087105402&amp;postID=3463925651342164703' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/3463925651342164703'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/3463925651342164703'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/2011/07/agenda-for-this-weeks-meeting.html' title='AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING'/><author><name>Charlie Meadows</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12159891905392720848</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='26' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_F_NJvphHJNU/S6DeHxvDM5I/AAAAAAAAADY/_8wLtI8on44/S220/charliesepia.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431481429087105402.post-3274606282427495740</id><published>2011-07-18T08:01:00.004-05:00</published><updated>2011-07-18T08:03:37.894-05:00</updated><title type='text'>WINNERS FOR THIS YEAR’S LEGISLATIVE SESSION</title><content type='html'>++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING&lt;br /&gt;++  WINNERS FOR THIS YEAR’S LEGISLATIVE SESSION&lt;br /&gt;++  ANNOUNCEMENTS&lt;br /&gt;++  BUDGET TALKS IN WASHINGTON&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, July 13th will be held at&lt;br /&gt;Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. By the time we&lt;br /&gt;showed the video by Paul Harvey last week, only a handful of people&lt;br /&gt;were still present. Therefore, we will show this 12 minute video first&lt;br /&gt;then get on with the program. Our main speaker this week will be State&lt;br /&gt;Representative Sally Kern. Her book, THE STONING OF SALLY KERN - THE&lt;br /&gt;LIBERAL ATTACK ON CHRISTIAN CONSERVATISM, AND WHY WE MUST TAKE A STAND&lt;br /&gt;is now available. The book has been some time in the making as I read&lt;br /&gt;the first version a couple of years ago. I am now reading the expanded&lt;br /&gt;and published version. It is an excellent picture of how the radical&lt;br /&gt;homosexual community works to destroy good people, and make an example&lt;br /&gt;to others. They work to create fear in the hearts of anyone with a&lt;br /&gt;voice who might rise up and disagree with their agenda. It may&lt;br /&gt;surprise some as to why Sally dedicated her book to the Homosexual&lt;br /&gt;community, among others. However, she will share what can happen when&lt;br /&gt;a person caught up in the prison of the homosexual lifestyle can look&lt;br /&gt;at a stoning with intellectual honesty and make a rational decision.&lt;br /&gt;Sally will have some books available and will be glad to sign them for&lt;br /&gt;those purchasing one.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  WINNERS FOR THIS YEAR’S LEGISLATIVE SESSION&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Last Wednesday, with a fair amount of debate, our voting members made&lt;br /&gt;their selections for the best and the worst in the legislature.&lt;br /&gt;Following are the results. We congratulate those who performed above&lt;br /&gt;average and deserve recognition for their good work.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  STATE SENATE&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Lawmaker of the year award goes to:  Steve Russell (R-OKC) session&lt;br /&gt;score 90, lifetime 77.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Lawmaker of the year runner-up goes to:  Anthony Sykes (R-Moore)&lt;br /&gt;session 90, lifetime 92.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Freshman lawmaker of the year goes to: Josh Brecheen (R-Colgate)&lt;br /&gt;session 80, lifetime 80.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Freshman lawmaker runner-up goes to: Greg Treat (R-OKC) session 80,&lt;br /&gt;lifetime 80.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The RINO award goes to: Brian Crain (RINO - Tulsa) session 40,&lt;br /&gt;lifetime 60.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The RINO runner-up goes to: James Halligan (RINO-Stillwater) session&lt;br /&gt;50, lifetime 50.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  STATE HOUSE&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Lawmaker of the year award goes to: Jason Murphy (R-Guthrie) session&lt;br /&gt;score 100, lifetime 100.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Lawmaker of the year runner-up goes to: Mike Ritze (R-Broken Arrow)&lt;br /&gt;session 93, lifetime 93.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Freshman lawmaker of the year goes to: David Brumbaugh (R-Broken&lt;br /&gt;Arrow) session 90, lifetime 90.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Freshman runner-up goes to: Josh Cockroft (R-Tecumseh) session score&lt;br /&gt;83, lifetime 83.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The RINO award goes to: Weldon Watson (RINO-TULSA) session score 53,&lt;br /&gt;lifetime 53.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The RINO runner-up goes to: Dustin Roberts (RINO-Durant) session score&lt;br /&gt;43, lifetime 43.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There were also 3 Democrat lawmakers who scored high enough to be&lt;br /&gt;considered for a DINO (Democrat In Name Only) award. The winners were:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The DINO of the year award goes to Wes Hilliard (D-Sulphur) session&lt;br /&gt;score 66, lifetime 42.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The DINO runner-up goes to R.C. Pruitt (D-Antlers) session score 60,&lt;br /&gt;lifetime 49.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  ANNOUNCEMENTS&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  TUESDAY EVENING  -  ADA AREA  -  The Ada, Seminole tea party will&lt;br /&gt;meet Tuesday evening, 6:30 p.m. in the Industrial Arts Classroom on&lt;br /&gt;the campus of the Ada Technology Center in Ada. Speaking this month&lt;br /&gt;will be Oklahoma’s Lt. Governor, Todd Lamb and Oklahoma’s State&lt;br /&gt;Auditor and Inspector, Gary Jones.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  TUESDAY EVENING  -  TULSA AREA  -  The Republican Assembly will&lt;br /&gt;host Labor Commissioner Mark Costello, this Tuesday evening at the&lt;br /&gt;Furr’s Buffet in the Farm Shopping Center, East 51st street and South&lt;br /&gt;Sheridan Ave. Members and visitors will gather at 6 for dinner with&lt;br /&gt;the meeting starting at 7:00 p.m.. The meeting will adjourn at 8.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  THURSDAY EVENING  -  CLINTON AREA  -  The Western Oklahoma tea&lt;br /&gt;party will host their monthly meeting this month in Clinton at the&lt;br /&gt;Montana Mike’s restaurant, which is at exit #65 on I-40. Folks gather&lt;br /&gt;at 6 for dinner with the meeting beginning at 7:00 p.m.. I will be the&lt;br /&gt;speaker this month talking about the necessity for every generation to&lt;br /&gt;fight for freedom. The members of this tea party alternate each month&lt;br /&gt;between Weatherford, Clinton and Elk City. If you live in Western&lt;br /&gt;Oklahoma, come on out and meet these conservatives who are making a&lt;br /&gt;difference.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  THURSDAY EVENING  -  TULSA AREA  -  The Tulsa area chapter of OK2A&lt;br /&gt;(Oklahoma 2nd Amendment) will have their monthly meeting, 6:30 p.m. in&lt;br /&gt;Uncle Buck’s Grill, located inside the Bass Pro store, 101 Bass Pro&lt;br /&gt;Drive, Broken Arrow. The program will include a presentation by Kaye&lt;br /&gt;Beach about RFID chips in your driver’s licenses and Agenda 21. While&lt;br /&gt;these are not directly related to the 2nd Amendment, they will impact&lt;br /&gt;our freedom in general and eventually may impact our gun rights.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  THURSDAY EVENING  -  MOORE AREA  -  The Sooner Republican Assembly&lt;br /&gt;will have their monthly meeting, at Earls Rib in Moore. Members and&lt;br /&gt;guests will gather at 6 for dinner, with the meeting beginning at 6:45&lt;br /&gt;p.m. Speaking this month will be pastor Fred Greening of the Goldsby&lt;br /&gt;First Baptist Church. Pastor Greening has organized many trips to&lt;br /&gt;Israel and will give a first hand report regarding the turmoil in the&lt;br /&gt;Middle East.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  THURSDAY AND FRIDAY - JULY 28TH AND 29TH.  These are the times for&lt;br /&gt;the 6th annual Reclaiming America (Oklahoma) For Christ Conference.&lt;br /&gt;The events begin Thursday evening 6:15 and run until 10:00 p.m. Then&lt;br /&gt;the Conference will re-convene on Friday the 29th with the afternoon&lt;br /&gt;sessions beginning at 1:30 and go until 5:00 pm, then the evening&lt;br /&gt;sessions will resume at 6:15 with the conference finishing at 10:00&lt;br /&gt;p.m. The location is Trinity Baptist Church, one mile South of I-40&lt;br /&gt;and Garth Brooks Boulevard (on the East side). Next week I will go&lt;br /&gt;into more depth regarding the speakers. This is just 2 weeks off from&lt;br /&gt;this Thursday and Friday. We packed the place out last year and this&lt;br /&gt;year’s speakers are going to be excellent.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  BUDGET TALKS IN WASHINGTON&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;With the deadline looming for when the government runs out of&lt;br /&gt;manipulations to keep going until the last days before we reach the&lt;br /&gt;debt ceiling of  $13.4 Trillion dollars, it looks like the President&lt;br /&gt;and Congressional leaders are close to reaching a deal. I am on the&lt;br /&gt;record in opposition to trying to balance the budget through spending&lt;br /&gt;cuts in the next budget year. I believe this would risk a severe&lt;br /&gt;economic jolt and likely cause a much more serious recession that the&lt;br /&gt;one we recently experienced. I believe the Republicans in Washington&lt;br /&gt;know this and will not let it happen as they would clearly be blamed&lt;br /&gt;for such a recession.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Remember, the federal government is spending $1.6 Trillion more in a&lt;br /&gt;year than it takes in from revenues. Where is the vast majority of&lt;br /&gt;that $1.6 Trillion deficit spent? Right here in the U.S. of A. That&lt;br /&gt;$1.6 Trillion of borrowed or newly printed dollars has been propping&lt;br /&gt;up our economy, and without it diffusing throughout the economy, many&lt;br /&gt;more jobs will be lost and the problems associated with higher&lt;br /&gt;unemployment will exacerbate.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;That is why changing policies to improve our business CLIMATE in&lt;br /&gt;America is as important as talks about cutting spending. The single&lt;br /&gt;most important thing that can be done to increase private sector jobs&lt;br /&gt;is to switch to the Fair Tax. That will reduce the cost of doing&lt;br /&gt;business in America, making our products much more competitive on a&lt;br /&gt;global market as well as make everyone a taxpayer, which should&lt;br /&gt;increase revenues to the federal government. Besides making all&lt;br /&gt;current Americans taxpayers, the fair tax will increase jobs, putting&lt;br /&gt;the unemployed back to work, thus creating even more taxpayers.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;With that said, what citizens much watch out for in any kind of budget&lt;br /&gt;deal is an extension of the debt limit today and supposed spending&lt;br /&gt;cuts taking place somewhere down the line in a 10 year deficit&lt;br /&gt;reduction promise. We should look for at least  $300 billion in&lt;br /&gt;spending cuts for the coming fiscal year. Then we should look for an&lt;br /&gt;additional $300 billion in spending cuts for each successive year for&lt;br /&gt;the next 5 years. Aside from certain variables, that would basically&lt;br /&gt;eliminate our deficit over the next 5 years.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;But even that soft landing approach will not work, if we don’t see&lt;br /&gt;many of our manufacturing jobs come back to the United States. Sadly,&lt;br /&gt;a couple of weeks ago Franklin Electric, the former Little Giant Pump&lt;br /&gt;Company, announced they would be moving much of their work force out&lt;br /&gt;of OKC and to a facility in Mexico. That is unfortunate, but with high&lt;br /&gt;corporate taxes, excessive business regulations and problems with&lt;br /&gt;organized labor, many companies keep moving their production&lt;br /&gt;facilities out of America and in to other nations.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I am not going to speculate as to what the final deal will be between&lt;br /&gt;the President and Congressional leaders as those details will probably&lt;br /&gt;be evident in the near future. If the deal is unsatisfactory, we will&lt;br /&gt;need to contact our Congressmen and tell them to send a message to&lt;br /&gt;leadership that they need to go back to work and come up with a better&lt;br /&gt;plan.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Charlie Meadows&lt;br /&gt;Charliemeadows7@gmail.com&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5431481429087105402-3274606282427495740?l=ocpacnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/feeds/3274606282427495740/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=5431481429087105402&amp;postID=3274606282427495740' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/3274606282427495740'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/3274606282427495740'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/2011/07/winners-for-this-years-legislative.html' title='WINNERS FOR THIS YEAR’S LEGISLATIVE SESSION'/><author><name>Charlie Meadows</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12159891905392720848</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='26' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_F_NJvphHJNU/S6DeHxvDM5I/AAAAAAAAADY/_8wLtI8on44/S220/charliesepia.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431481429087105402.post-971425270794215844</id><published>2011-07-05T08:11:00.001-05:00</published><updated>2011-07-05T08:17:16.282-05:00</updated><title type='text'>LAWMAKER RANKINGS FOR 2011 SESSION</title><content type='html'>&lt;span style="font-size:85%;"&gt;++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING&lt;br /&gt;++ LAWMAKER RANKINGS FOR 2011 SESSION&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, July 6th will be held at&lt;br /&gt;Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. The main focus of&lt;br /&gt;our meeting this week will be to determine the outstanding lawmakers&lt;br /&gt;in both the Senate and House as well as the winner of this year’s RINO&lt;br /&gt;(Republican In Name Only) awards. We will have a time of debate on the&lt;br /&gt;prospective winners where anyone can have input. Then our dues paying&lt;br /&gt;members present at the meeting will vote for the winners of our&lt;br /&gt;various awards. If we finish this business in time we will show the 12&lt;br /&gt;minute video about the signing of the Declaration of Independence,&lt;br /&gt;THEY PLEDGED THEIR LIVES, THEIR FORTUNES AND THEIR SACRED HONOR,&lt;br /&gt;narrated by Paul Harvey.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++ LAWMAKER RANKINGS FOR 2011 SESSION&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Following will be the rankings of Senate Republicans, with the most&lt;br /&gt;conservative first and then on down to the most liberal. Following&lt;br /&gt;each name and then the town or city in which they live, will be 2&lt;br /&gt;numbers. The first number is their score on the Oklahoma Constitution&lt;br /&gt;Newspaper’s Conservative Index for the 2011 session which adjourned in&lt;br /&gt;May of this year. The second number will represent their average score&lt;br /&gt;for however many years they have been in the legislature. We put a&lt;br /&gt;little more emphasis on this year’s score as it reflects how they are&lt;br /&gt;governing in recent times. As a point of interest, once a lawmaker has&lt;br /&gt;been in office 4 years or more, their session score does not vary much&lt;br /&gt;from their lifetime score. Each year there are 10 key votes which make&lt;br /&gt;up the index. A lawmaker gets 10 points for each conservative vote, no&lt;br /&gt;points for a liberal vote and an unearned 3 points for each vote they&lt;br /&gt;missed.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;1) Anthony Sykes (Moore) 90 - 92&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;2) Steve Russell (OKC) 90 - 77&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;3) Bill Brown (Broken Arrow) 80 - 82&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;4) Josh Brecheen (Coalgate) 80 - 80 (freshman)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;4) Kim David (Porter) 80 - 80 (freshman)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;4) Greg Treat (Edmond) 80 - 80 (freshman)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;7) Gary Stanislawski (Tulsa) 80 - 77&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;8) Clark Jolley (Edmond) 80 - 68&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;9) Ralph Shortey (OKC) 73 - 73 (freshman)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;9) Frank Simpson (Ardmore) 73 - 73 (freshman)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;11) Jim Reynolds (OKC) 73 - 72&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;12) Mike Mazzei (Bixby) 73 - 67&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;13) Brian Bingman (Sapulpa) 73 - 61&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;14) Dan Newberry (Tulsa) 70 - 70&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;15) Mike Schultz (Altus) 70 - 69&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;16) Byrce Marlett (Woodward) 70 - 67&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;17) Jonathan Nichols (Norman) 70 - 65&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;18) John Ford (Bartlesville) 70 - 63&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;18) Ron Justice (Chickasha) 70 - 63&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;20) Patrick Anderson (Enid) 70 - 59&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;21) Cliff Aldridge (Choctaw) 66 - 75&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;22) Rick Brinkley (Owasso) 63 - 63 (freshman)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;22) David Myers (Ponca City) 63 - 63&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;24) Rob Johnson (Kingfisher) 63 - 60&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;25) Cliff Branan (OKC) 60 - 65&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;26) Mark Allen (Spiro) 60 - 60 (freshman)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;26)) David Holt (OKC) 60 - 60 (freshman)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;28) Don Barrington (Lawton) 60 - 58&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;All names below are RINO nominees&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;29) Eddie Fields (Wynona) 50 - 55&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;30) Jim Halligan (Stillwater) 50 - 55&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;31) Brian Crain (Tulsa) 40 - 60&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;32) Harry Coates (Seminole) 33 - 45&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Following are the scores for the Democrats. Please note, the 2 highest&lt;br /&gt;scoring Senate Democrats either tie or score higher than 3 time RINO&lt;br /&gt;winner Harry Coates. Eighteen House Democrats score higher than&lt;br /&gt;Coates, a philanderer and an embarrassment to the Oklahoma Republican&lt;br /&gt;party.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;1) Jerry Ellis (Valliant) 40 - 33&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;2) Susan Paddack (Ada) 33 - 39&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;3) Earl Garrison (Muskogee) 30 - 33&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;4) Sean Burrage (Claremore) 30 - 32&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;5) Randy Bass (Lawton) 30 - 29&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;6) Charles Wyrick (Fairland) 30 - 23&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;7) Richard LeBlance (Hartshorne) 30 - 19&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;8) Charlie Laster (Shawnee) 26 - 30&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;9) Tom Adelson (Tulsa) 26 - 24&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;10) Tom Ivester (Sayre) 23 - 41&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;11) John Sparks (Norman) 23 - 25&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;12) Jim Wilson (Tahlequah) 20 - 15&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;13) Roger Ballenger (Okmulgee) 13 - 19&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;14) Judy E. McIntyre (Tulsa) 10 - 16&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;14) Andrew Rice (OKC) 10 - 16&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;16) Connie Johnson (OKC) 10 - 13&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Following are the State House Republicans&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;1) Jason Murphey (Guthrie) 100 - 100&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;2) Mike Ritze (Broken Arrow) 93 - 96&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;3) Sally Kern (OKC) 90 - 93&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;3) P. Wesselhoft (Moore) 90 - 93&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;5) D. Brumbaugh (Broken Arrow) 90 - 90 (freshman)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;6) Mike Reynolds (OKC) 83 - 95&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;7) Josh Cockroft (McLoud) 83 - 83 (freshman)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;8) Tom Newell (Seminole) 80 - 80 (freshman)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;8) Steve Vaughn (Ponca City) 80 - 80 (freshman)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;10) David Derby (Owasso) 80 - 77&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;11) J. Trebilcock (Broken Arrow) 80 - 66&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;12) Charles Key (OKC) 76 - 82&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;13) Randy Terrill (Moore) 76 - 79&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;14) Todd Russ (Cordell) 76 - 73&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;15) George Faught (Muskogee) 73 - 73&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;15) Aaron Stiles (Norman) 73 - 73 (freshman)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;17) Mark McCullough (Sapulpa) 73 - 71&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;18) Colby Schwartz (Yukon) 70 - 76&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;19) Randy McDaniel (Edmond) 70 - 74&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;20) Louis Moore (Arcadia) 70 - 73&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;21) T. W. Shannon (Lawton) 70 - 72&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;22) Pam Peterson (Tulsa) 70 - 71&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;23) Dennis Casey (Morrison) 70 - 70 (freshman)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;23) Rusty Farley (Haworth) 70 - 70 (freshman, he passed away on&lt;br /&gt;July 4th)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;23) Randy Grau (Edmond) 70 - 70 (freshman)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;23) Corey Holland (Marlow) 70 - 70&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;23) Glen Mulready (Tulsa) 70 - 70 (freshman)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;23) Jason Nelson (OKC) 70 - 70&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;23) Sean Roberts (Hominy) 70 - 70 (freshman)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;30) Mike Sanders (Kingfisher) 70 - 68&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;31) Sue Tibbs (Tulsa) 70 - 67&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;32) Fred Jordan (Jenks) 70 - 64&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;32) Scott Martin (Norman) 70 - 64&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;34) Kris Steele (Shawnee) 70 - 63&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;35) Gus Blackwell (Goodwell) 70 - 60&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;35) Ann Coody (Lawton) 70 - 60&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;35) Earl Sears (Bartlesville) 70 - 60&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;35) Harold Wright (Weatherford) 70 - 60&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;39) Lisa Billy (Purcell) 70 - 57&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;40) Don Armes (Faxon) 70 - 55&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;41) Phil Richardson (Minco) 70 - 53&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;42) David Dank (OKC) 66 - 68&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;43) Charles Ortega (Altus) 66 - 67&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;44) Dan Kirby (Tulsa) 66 - 59&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;45) Marian Cooksey (Edmond) 63 - 72&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;46) Elise Hall (OKC) 63 - 63 (freshman)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;46) Marty Quinn (Claremore) 63 - 63 (freshman)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;48) Guy Liebman (OKC) 63 - 61&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;48) Pat Ownbey (Ardmore) 63 - 61&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;48) Dan Sullivan (Tulsa) 63 - 61&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;51) Dale DeWitt (Braman) 63 - 56&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;52) Dennis Johnson (Duncan) 60 - 76&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;53) Steve Martin (Bartlesville) 60 - 64&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;54) Skye McNiel (Bristow) 60 - 61&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;55) Jadine Nolan (Sand Springs) 60 - 60 (freshman)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;56) Mike Jackson (Enid) 60 - 58&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;57) Jeff Hickman (Fairview) 60 - 57&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Names below this line are this year’s RINO nominees.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;58) Mike Christian (OKC) 59 - 73&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;59) Gary Banz (MWC) 56 - 68&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;60) Ron Peters (Tulsa) 56 - 59&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;61) John Bennett (Sallisaw) 56 - 56 (freshman)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;62) Charlie Joyner (MWC) 53 - 65&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;63) Weldon Watson (Tulsa) 53 - 53&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;64) Doug Cox (Grove) 52 - 45&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;65) Lee Denney (Cushing) 50 - 54&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;66) Tommy Hardin (Madill) 50 - 50 (freshman)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;67) Todd Thomsen (Ada) 49 - 61&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;68) John Enns (Enid) 48 - 62 (was very sick, missed a large part&lt;br /&gt;of session)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;69) Leslie Osborne (Tuttle) 48 - 57 (missed 6 votes - ???)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;70) Dustin Roberts (Durant) 43 - 43 (freshman)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Below are the scores for the House Democrats&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;1) Wes Hilliard (Sulphur) 66 - 42&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;2) R.C. Pruitt (Antlers) 60 - 49&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;3) Joe Dorman (Rush Springs) 60 - 39&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;4) Rebecca Hamilton (OKC) 56 - 38&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;5) Eric Proctor (Tulsa) 53 - 47&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;6. Brian Renegar (McAlester) 46 - 40&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;7) Seneca Scott (Tulsa) 46 - 29&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;8) Donnie Condit (McAlester) 43 - 43 (freshman)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;8) Scott Inman (OKC) 43 - 43&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;8) James Lockhart (Heavener) 43 - 43 (freshman)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;11) Larry Glen (Miami) 43 - 34&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;12) Jerry McPeak (Warner) 42 - 33&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;13) Ed Canady (Porum) 40 - 26&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;14) Mike Brown (Ft. Gibson) 39 - 45&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;15) Steve Kouplen (Beggs) 39 - 41&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;16) Jerry Shoemake (Morris) 36 - 33&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;17) Chuck Hoskins (Vanita) 36 - 23&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;18) Anastasia Pittman (OKC) 36 - 19&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;19) R. Morrissette (OKC) 33 - 45&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;20) Purcy Walker (Elk City) 33 - 35&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;21) William Four killer (Stillwell) 33 - 33 (freshman)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;22) Wade Rousselot (Waggoner) 33 - 31&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;23) Danny Morgan (Prague) 32 - 31&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;24) Mike Shelton (OKC) 29 - 22&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;25) Al McAffrey (OKC) 29 - 11&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;26) Emily Virgin (Norman) 23 - 23 (freshman)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;26) Cory Williams (Stillwater) 23 - 23&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;28) Jeanie McDaniel (Tulsa) 23 - 16&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;29) Jabar Shumate (Tulsa) 22 - 30&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;30) Ben Sherrer (Chouteau) 20 - 40&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;31) Paul Roan (Tishomingo) 16 - 19&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Oklahoma Constitution Newspaper is the only entity in the State&lt;br /&gt;that has a conservative index and they have been publishing it for 33&lt;br /&gt;years. To understand the essence of the bills picked for this year’s&lt;br /&gt;conservative index and how your personal lawmaker voted on each issue&lt;br /&gt;(or missed the vote), please consider subscribing to this quarterly&lt;br /&gt;Newspaper. Besides being the conservative voice in Oklahoma since&lt;br /&gt;1979, the paper is chock full of articles and news tidbits, all for&lt;br /&gt;$12 per year. To subscribe, please send a check to the Oklahoma&lt;br /&gt;Constitution, P.O. Box 53482, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73152. Please do&lt;br /&gt;so right away as the Summer edition will be published and sent in the&lt;br /&gt;mail within the next couple of weeks.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Charlie Meadows&lt;br /&gt;Charliemeadows7@gmail&lt;/span&gt;.&lt;span style="font-size:85%;"&gt;com&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5431481429087105402-971425270794215844?l=ocpacnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/feeds/971425270794215844/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=5431481429087105402&amp;postID=971425270794215844' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/971425270794215844'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/971425270794215844'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/2011/07/lawmaker-rankings-for-2011-session.html' title='LAWMAKER RANKINGS FOR 2011 SESSION'/><author><name>Charlie Meadows</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12159891905392720848</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='26' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_F_NJvphHJNU/S6DeHxvDM5I/AAAAAAAAADY/_8wLtI8on44/S220/charliesepia.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431481429087105402.post-2191656928742319207</id><published>2011-06-27T07:21:00.001-05:00</published><updated>2011-06-27T07:21:29.246-05:00</updated><title type='text'>AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING</title><content type='html'>++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING&lt;br /&gt;++  ANNOUNCEMENTS&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, June 29th will be held at&lt;br /&gt;Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. Speaking briefly&lt;br /&gt;this week will be Peter Hodges. He recently attended the political&lt;br /&gt;event in Minneapolis Minnesota. Peter is one of the conservative&lt;br /&gt;Catholics working to get the local Oklahoma Sponsoring Committee (with&lt;br /&gt;links to Saul Alinsky) out of the local Catholic parishes. We may have&lt;br /&gt;some speakers at OCPAC in the future as a result of contacts made by&lt;br /&gt;Peter while in Minnesota. Our main speaker will be Lori Coats,&lt;br /&gt;director for Oklahoma’s Agri-tourism for that part of Oklahoma west of&lt;br /&gt;I-35. So you don’t know anything about Agri-tourism? Well that is&lt;br /&gt;exactly the reason for having Lori come to explain, what it is, where&lt;br /&gt;its located and how to participate. She will have about a 30 minute&lt;br /&gt;power point presentation and enough hand-outs for everyone in&lt;br /&gt;attendance.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  ANNOUNCEMENTS&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  MONDAY EVENING  -  OKLAHOMA COUNTY  -  Come meet Darrell Sorrels,&lt;br /&gt;possibly the next County Sheriff for Oklahoma County. Many folks&lt;br /&gt;believe Democrat Sheriff John Wetsel has been in office long enough&lt;br /&gt;and possibly Republican Darrell Sorrels will be just the man to&lt;br /&gt;replace the existing Sheriff. The meeting will be held Monday evening&lt;br /&gt;June 27th, at the Edmond Library (10 South Boulevard) from 6:30 to&lt;br /&gt;8:00 p.m.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Darrell has served the citizens in Oklahoma County as a professional&lt;br /&gt;law-enforcement officer for over 20 years. He is currently a special&lt;br /&gt;deputy for the U.S. Marshal Service. He has earned an Advanced Law&lt;br /&gt;Enforcement Certification with the State of Oklahoma and is currently&lt;br /&gt;a state certified law enforcement instructor. Darrell is a devoted&lt;br /&gt;husband, father, grandfather and perhaps more important, a serious&lt;br /&gt;Christian. Darrell attends First Southern Baptist Church in Del City&lt;br /&gt;and calls himself a Constitutional Conservative Christian.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Following is his pledge to the voters: “I am committed to the citizens&lt;br /&gt;and taxpayers of Oklahoma County to reduce government spending. I am&lt;br /&gt;led to serve as a conservative voice for the citizens and a proactive&lt;br /&gt;leader in law enforcement. I will keep my word to uphold, defend,&lt;br /&gt;protect, preserve, and obey the Constitution of the United States of&lt;br /&gt;America. The founders of America pledged their lives, their fortunes,&lt;br /&gt;and their sacred honor to establish liberty here in the USA. To keep&lt;br /&gt;it, we the people must do likewise. To ensure the trust of our&lt;br /&gt;citizens, we must train our law enforcement professionals in Character&lt;br /&gt;First and Police Dynamics.”&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;For further information e-mail darrell.sorrels@att.net of call (405)&lt;br /&gt;942-0262. I have gotten to know Darrell over the past several months&lt;br /&gt;and believe he would be an exceptional Sheriff. Please take some time&lt;br /&gt;to attend Monday evening to meet Darrell and make your own decision.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  TUESDAY EVENING  -  KONAWA  -  A new tea party has started meeting&lt;br /&gt;in Konawa which is in the Southeastern part of Seminole County, near&lt;br /&gt;the Pottawattamie county line. The location will be the American&lt;br /&gt;Legion Hall in Konawa with the times being from 7:00 until 9:00 p.m.&lt;br /&gt;Speaking at this month’s meeting will be Tony Lauinger, head of&lt;br /&gt;Oklahomans For Life. Tony is also on the board of the National Right&lt;br /&gt;To Life organization. Also speaking will be freshman State Senator&lt;br /&gt;Ralph Shortey. Senator Shortey will be speaking about his experience&lt;br /&gt;in the legislature this year, all that happened and things that he&lt;br /&gt;learned. For the folks in this area, please get out and support these&lt;br /&gt;developing tea parties, they are making a difference in the rural&lt;br /&gt;areas of Oklahoma.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Charlie Meadows&lt;br /&gt;Charliemeadows7@gmail.com&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5431481429087105402-2191656928742319207?l=ocpacnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/feeds/2191656928742319207/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=5431481429087105402&amp;postID=2191656928742319207' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/2191656928742319207'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/2191656928742319207'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/2011/06/agenda-for-this-weeks-meeting.html' title='AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING'/><author><name>Charlie Meadows</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12159891905392720848</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='26' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_F_NJvphHJNU/S6DeHxvDM5I/AAAAAAAAADY/_8wLtI8on44/S220/charliesepia.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431481429087105402.post-6733568131649408984</id><published>2011-06-21T09:55:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2011-06-21T09:56:00.702-05:00</updated><title type='text'>TAX RE-STRUCTURE, GREAT NEWS, MAYBE</title><content type='html'>++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING&lt;br /&gt;++  ANNOUNCEMENTS&lt;br /&gt;++  TAX RE-STRUCTURE, GREAT NEWS, MAYBE&lt;br /&gt;++  HB 1804 GETS APPROVAL OF STATE SUPREME COURT&lt;br /&gt;++  OCPAC MEMBERSHIP UP-DATE&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, June 22nd will be held at&lt;br /&gt;Italiano’ restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. This week the owners&lt;br /&gt;of the Oklahoma Constitution Newspaper will present to our members the&lt;br /&gt;final bills for consideration to make up this year’s Conservative&lt;br /&gt;Index. All of our dues paying members as of 06-08-11 and who are&lt;br /&gt;present at our meeting will be given a ballot to vote for the most&lt;br /&gt;important bills to be used in this year’s index. Our debate on the&lt;br /&gt;bills presented to us will center around those bills that are the most&lt;br /&gt;significant to be used. This will be the 33rd year for the&lt;br /&gt;Conservative Index. Our members have served as somewhat of a focus&lt;br /&gt;group to determine the most important ones for the past 12 to 14&lt;br /&gt;years.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  ANNOUNCEMENTS&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  TUESDAY EVENING  -  TULSA AREA  -  Tuesday evening, June 21st the&lt;br /&gt;Tulsa Area Republican Assembly will have Mayor Dewey Bartlett as their&lt;br /&gt;speaker. The location is the Golden Corral, 71st street and Mingo,&lt;br /&gt;with folks gathering at 6 for dinner and the formal meeting will begin&lt;br /&gt;at 7:00 p.m.. The club recently had a speaker that wanted to oust&lt;br /&gt;Mayor Bartlett. During this meeting the Mayor will have a chance to&lt;br /&gt;tell of any positive changes and make a case for his efforts.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  TUESDAY MORNING  -  OKC AREA  -  I mentioned in last week’s e-mail&lt;br /&gt;the lawsuit filed by Oklahoma’s taxpayer watch-dog, Jerry Fent. Mr.&lt;br /&gt;Fent is suing Mary Fallin, Governor of the State of Oklahoma, et al,&lt;br /&gt;over the unconstitutional diversion of funds intended for roads and&lt;br /&gt;bridges to other uses. Oral arguments will be presented to a Referee&lt;br /&gt;in the State Supreme Court Chamber at the Capitol this Thursday, June&lt;br /&gt;21st at 10:30 a.m.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Republicans need their hands slapped for continuing the same kind of&lt;br /&gt;shell games played by the Democrats when they were in power. I know&lt;br /&gt;its late notice, but if you care about good government and have some&lt;br /&gt;time this Today, please attend this meeting to show support for Mr.&lt;br /&gt;Fent and the Constitutional governance of Oklahoma.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  THURSDAY EVENING  -  OKC &amp;amp; EDMOND  -  Members of the group&lt;br /&gt;Governing Edmond Locally (GEL) will meet, 7:00 p.m., at Molly Jenkins’&lt;br /&gt;conference room, 10802 Quail Plaza Dr. in OKC. This group has done an&lt;br /&gt;excellent job of educating citizens as well as folks in authority&lt;br /&gt;regarding the U.N.’s Agenda 21 and its sustainability movement. If you&lt;br /&gt;want to educate yourself on this issue and make a difference, please&lt;br /&gt;attend this meeting. This past Wednesday Glen Beck did a program on&lt;br /&gt;this issue which will give a huge boost to groups like GEL.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  JULY 28TH &amp;amp; 29TH  -  CENTRAL OKLAHOMA  -  This is the first&lt;br /&gt;announcement regarding this Year’s Reclaiming America for Christ&lt;br /&gt;Conference to be held on the above dates at Trinity Baptist Church in&lt;br /&gt;Yukon. Session #1 will be from 6:15 until 10:00 p.m. on Thursday night&lt;br /&gt;the 28th. Session #2 will be held Friday afternoon the 29th from 1:30&lt;br /&gt;p.m. until 5:00 p.m. and session #3 will be held from 6:15 until 10:00&lt;br /&gt;p.m.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Keynote speakers this year will be Dr. Bob Cornuke, President of the&lt;br /&gt;Bible Archaeology, Search &amp;amp; Exploration (BASE) Institute and Dr. G.&lt;br /&gt;Thomas Sharp, President of Creation Research Institute. Also speaking&lt;br /&gt;this year will be pastor Dan Fisher, pastor Paul Blair, Matt Barber of&lt;br /&gt;the Liberty Counsel legal ministry, Congressman James Lankford,&lt;br /&gt;Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, Oklahoma State Representative&lt;br /&gt;Sally Kern and Jenni White, President of Restore Oklahoma Public&lt;br /&gt;Education (ROPE).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Please put this on your calendar for now. I will give more details as&lt;br /&gt;time gets closer. I believe this will be the 6th year for these&lt;br /&gt;outstanding conferences. They have come a long way from the first year&lt;br /&gt;with a couple hundred in attendance to last year’s conference of over&lt;br /&gt;3,000. There is no charge to attend, but a love offering will be&lt;br /&gt;taken. For more information log on to www.ra4c.org or call (405) 796-&lt;br /&gt;PRAY.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Let me urge folks to download a flyer from the web-site to give to&lt;br /&gt;your pastor and others. The only chance America has to return to its&lt;br /&gt;greatness is for a revival within the Christian church, where its&lt;br /&gt;pastors preach a Biblical gospel and lead their congregations into the&lt;br /&gt;knowledge and action in the cultural war of which we are embroiled.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  TAX RE-STRUCTURE, GREAT NEWS, MAYBE&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;State Representative David Dank is working on re-structuring our tax&lt;br /&gt;system and this past week Governor Fallin, while in Lawton, announced&lt;br /&gt;her desire to eliminate the personal income tax and through re-&lt;br /&gt;structure still have the ability to fund the proper functions of&lt;br /&gt;government. When pressed by a reporter, she indicated she didn’t know&lt;br /&gt;how to accomplish that task but was committed to it.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Let me suggest, we ought to set a goal of what kind of economy we want&lt;br /&gt;in Oklahoma, and then set a strategy to accomplish such. One important&lt;br /&gt;principle to understand is the concept that there are two sides of an&lt;br /&gt;economy from which government derives its needed revenues. First there&lt;br /&gt;is the production side of the economy with government getting revenues&lt;br /&gt;by taxing corporate income, personal income, capitol gains and any&lt;br /&gt;kind of taxes or fees on businesses, such as a franchise tax. Second,&lt;br /&gt;there is the consumption side of the economy with government getting&lt;br /&gt;revenues from sales taxes, or fees on activities.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There is an old adage that says: “whatever you tax, you get less of&lt;br /&gt;it.” With that in mind, it would be foolish to tax the production side&lt;br /&gt;of our economy as we don’t want less production of products and&lt;br /&gt;services, as growth in those areas create jobs and higher wages.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Therefore, state government (and federal as well) need to derive their&lt;br /&gt;NECESSARY revenues from the consumptive side our economy. There are 2&lt;br /&gt;different ways to eliminate all personal and corporate income taxes,&lt;br /&gt;as well as other business taxes. We could take the former Governor&lt;br /&gt;Frank Keating approach which was very unpopular at the time, where&lt;br /&gt;Frank wanted to shift taxation from production side of the economy to&lt;br /&gt;the consumption side by expanding sales taxes to services, such as&lt;br /&gt;your barber, hair stylist, attorney services, window cleaning&lt;br /&gt;services, plumber, electrician and so on. Of course the trade off was&lt;br /&gt;that we would no longer have a state or corporate income tax. His goal&lt;br /&gt;was to be revenue neutral.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This re-structuring would allow businesses to lower the price of their&lt;br /&gt;goods, thus making them more competitive in a national and global&lt;br /&gt;market place. A lower cost of doing business in Oklahoma would&lt;br /&gt;encourage more businesses to locate here or current businesses to&lt;br /&gt;expand their operations as well as stay in Oklahoma rather then re-&lt;br /&gt;locate to Texas (just last week we had another business located in&lt;br /&gt;Tulsa, announce they would be moving to Dallas). Please remember,&lt;br /&gt;businesses consider taxes as overhead and they build the cost of that&lt;br /&gt;overhead into their pricing, thus it is the consumers who pay those&lt;br /&gt;taxes. While this revenue neutral tax shift would be better than what&lt;br /&gt;we have now, there is a better way.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The best way to accomplish the re-structure is to reduce government&lt;br /&gt;spending and broaden the tax base by re-examining some of the sales&lt;br /&gt;tax exemptions granted by the legislature in recent years. When&lt;br /&gt;reducing the size and cost of government, there is a temptation to use&lt;br /&gt;those savings for other programs or an expansion of existing programs.&lt;br /&gt;The goal must be to use the savings as an off-set for the purpose of&lt;br /&gt;reducing income and business taxes.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Areas to cut government spending would be on many of the business&lt;br /&gt;subsidy programs, such as Oklahoma’s Quality Jobs Act and the&lt;br /&gt;Governor’s new closing fund (while it was created this year, it has no&lt;br /&gt;money in it as yet). In the competition for new businesses, we would&lt;br /&gt;lose this incentive, but gain another by removing corporate taxes,&lt;br /&gt;franchise taxes, personal income taxes and capitol gains taxes. I&lt;br /&gt;would remove these taxes in this order for maximum benefit to creating&lt;br /&gt;an environment for businesses to flourish in Oklahoma.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Over the past several years, the legislature has continued to add to&lt;br /&gt;the number of things exempted from sales taxes. Every sales tax&lt;br /&gt;exemption makes it more difficult to cut income taxes as government&lt;br /&gt;must get its necessary revenues from some where. Without looking at&lt;br /&gt;the complete list of recent sales tax exemptions, I would only keep 2.&lt;br /&gt;I would keep the sales tax exemption on prescription drugs (some of&lt;br /&gt;these are really expensive and many have a challenge in affording the&lt;br /&gt;drug, let alone with a huge sales tax added on. I would also keep the&lt;br /&gt;sales tax exemption on tickets for national championship or regional&lt;br /&gt;tournaments held in Oklahoma. If a sales tax is the determining factor&lt;br /&gt;as to where such are played, we will make up any lost money on tickets&lt;br /&gt;with greater spending in our restaurants, motels and general shopping.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;On the other hand, I would repeal the sales tax exemption on the sale&lt;br /&gt;of tickets for professional sporting events (such as tickets to&lt;br /&gt;Thunder games) and keep the sales tax on groceries. For the very poor,&lt;br /&gt;this is just about the only direct tax they pay and it is very&lt;br /&gt;important for them to keep some skin in the game. In addition, with&lt;br /&gt;growth in the economy more people will be working, spending money and&lt;br /&gt;thus paying additional sales taxes. Should the oil and gas industry&lt;br /&gt;increased the production in the state, more gross production taxes (a&lt;br /&gt;type of consumer tax) will increase the flow of revenues to&lt;br /&gt;government. Those increased funds should be used for repairs to state&lt;br /&gt;property and salary increases when and where needed.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I would suggest a comprehensive plan is vital. Hopefully&lt;br /&gt;Representative Dank and other will craft a good overall plan.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  HB 1804 GETS APPROVAL OF STATE SUPREME COURT&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Congratulations to Representative Randy Terrill (R-Moore) as this past&lt;br /&gt;week the State Supreme Court up-held the majority of the content of&lt;br /&gt;H.B. 1804 (the law passed 3 or 4 years ago to deal with the problems&lt;br /&gt;created by illegal aliens). Terrill was the brilliant author of the&lt;br /&gt;legislation which is complex and thorough. The one part they did&lt;br /&gt;declare went too far was the presumption that illegals would be a&lt;br /&gt;flight risk and therefore they would be automatically denied bond. I&lt;br /&gt;believe they are a flight risk and every illegal alien that flees and&lt;br /&gt;commits another crime will be upon the judge that sets bond as well as&lt;br /&gt;the State Supreme Court Justices.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There is more to be done legislatively on the issue of illegal aliens.&lt;br /&gt;Hopefully Terrill, Senator Shortey and others can have future success&lt;br /&gt;in those efforts. Probably the most important need now is for law&lt;br /&gt;enforcement to actually enforce the laws already on the books in this&lt;br /&gt;regard.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  OCPAC MEMBERSHIP UP-DATE&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;We had 9 new memberships come in over the past week. That now brings&lt;br /&gt;our total for the year to 217 dues paying members. I bring this up as&lt;br /&gt;we are now tied with our all time record for memberships in a non-&lt;br /&gt;election year. This is how we build our war chest to elect&lt;br /&gt;conservative candidates, support conservative lawmakers in their re-&lt;br /&gt;election bids and hold those RINOs accountable. To join, please fill&lt;br /&gt;out the information below and mail it to us with your check or money&lt;br /&gt;order. Thanks so much to everyone for your support.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Charlie Meadows&lt;br /&gt;Charliemeadows7@gmail.com&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5431481429087105402-6733568131649408984?l=ocpacnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/feeds/6733568131649408984/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=5431481429087105402&amp;postID=6733568131649408984' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/6733568131649408984'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/6733568131649408984'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/2011/06/tax-re-structure-great-news-maybe.html' title='TAX RE-STRUCTURE, GREAT NEWS, MAYBE'/><author><name>Charlie Meadows</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12159891905392720848</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='26' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_F_NJvphHJNU/S6DeHxvDM5I/AAAAAAAAADY/_8wLtI8on44/S220/charliesepia.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431481429087105402.post-2532723608558786317</id><published>2011-06-14T09:39:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2011-06-14T09:40:25.382-05:00</updated><title type='text'>BOREN HAD ENOUGH, SENATE SPECIAL ELECTION BEGINS NOW</title><content type='html'>++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING&lt;br /&gt;++  ANNOUNCEMENTS&lt;br /&gt;++  JERRY FENT FILES LAWSUIT - UNCONSTITUTIONAL SPENDING&lt;br /&gt;++  BOREN HAD ENOUGH, SENATE SPECIAL ELECTION BEGINS NOW&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, June 15th will be held at&lt;br /&gt;Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. This Wednesday will&lt;br /&gt;be our first part of a two Wednesday effort to help establish this&lt;br /&gt;year’s Conservative Index, published by the Oklahoma Constitution&lt;br /&gt;Newspaper. It is primarily a 3 part process. Shortly before session&lt;br /&gt;ended, and invitation was hand delivered to every Republican lawmaker&lt;br /&gt;with an invitation to participate in creating the Conservative Index&lt;br /&gt;for this year’s session. They were instructed to suggest bills that&lt;br /&gt;were reflective of a conservative or liberal position and send them to&lt;br /&gt;the Newspapers office no later than June 1st. Next they were invited&lt;br /&gt;to attend this Wednesday’s meeting to debate as to whether bills that&lt;br /&gt;were submitted are actually a reflection of a liberal or conservative&lt;br /&gt;vote. Following this Wednesday’s debate, the newspaper’s editors will&lt;br /&gt;remove any bills that fail to be a good example, then next Wednesday,&lt;br /&gt;June 22nd, they will bring the final bills to us for our dues paying&lt;br /&gt;members to vote as to the 10 most important votes which should make up&lt;br /&gt;the Conservative Index. I believe we have 25 bills to consider this&lt;br /&gt;Wednesday. In reality, there were many very good bills that will not&lt;br /&gt;be considered as they didn’t get a hearing or perhaps they got a vote&lt;br /&gt;in only the House or Senate and weren’t voted on in both chambers. We&lt;br /&gt;have had as many as 15 lawmakers attend in the past. This meeting is&lt;br /&gt;always very educational for our members and lawmakers get a good read&lt;br /&gt;on the thinking of the grassroots conservatives.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  ANNOUNCEMENTS&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  TUESDAY AFTERNOON  -  OKC AREA  -  Our good friend Jennie White,&lt;br /&gt;founder of:  Restore Oklahoma Public Education (ROPE) will host a&lt;br /&gt;press conference, 1:00 p.m. in Room 419A at the State Capitol. Jennie&lt;br /&gt;has done a great deal of research on the federal government’s “Common&lt;br /&gt;Core Curriculum Standards and found them to be little more than a&lt;br /&gt;rehash of the Outcome-Based Education model originally described by&lt;br /&gt;the self-avowed Socialist/Humanist John Dewey and others of his ilk.&lt;br /&gt;So much so, Jennie suggests the Common Core Curriculum Standards are&lt;br /&gt;little more than an “introduction to Marxism 101. If you can attend&lt;br /&gt;this presentation to support Jenni, please try to do so. I am not&lt;br /&gt;sure, but I don’t believe Janet Barresi is up to speed on this issue&lt;br /&gt;as yet.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  TUESDAY EVENING  -  ADA AREA  -  The Seminole-Ada Tea Party will&lt;br /&gt;hold their monthly meeting in the Industrial Arts Classroom on the&lt;br /&gt;Career Tech campus in Ada. The meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. The first&lt;br /&gt;speaker will be Dr. Earl Taylor speaking about the 28 principles of&lt;br /&gt;good government which is the basis of the book the 5000 Year Leap.&lt;br /&gt;Following Dr. Taylor will be State Representative Tom Newell (R-&lt;br /&gt;Seminole) who will field questions about this year’s legislative&lt;br /&gt;session. Then the keynote speaker will be Jenni White, explaining the&lt;br /&gt;dangers of the Marxist like Common Core Curriculum Standards. If you&lt;br /&gt;live anywhere within 40 to 50 miles of Ada, this is well worth your&lt;br /&gt;time and effort to attend.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  JERRY FENT FILES LAWSUIT - UNCONSTITUTIONAL SPENDING&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Just before the session ended, I explained the shell game in which&lt;br /&gt;legislative leaders and the Governor intended to engage so they could&lt;br /&gt;borrow money for funding the budget rather than cutting additional&lt;br /&gt;waste, fluff or improper functions of government. The shell game was a&lt;br /&gt;plan to rob $100 million in transportation department dollars to use&lt;br /&gt;for other purposes, then borrow $70 million in bonded indebtedness to&lt;br /&gt;repay that amount of the $100 million robbed from the department.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Last Wednesday, Oklahoma’s top taxpayer watchdog, Jerry Fent, filed a&lt;br /&gt;lawsuit naming Governor Fallin and other state leaders. Fent indicates&lt;br /&gt;the State Constitution expressly says “no tax levied and collected for&lt;br /&gt;one purpose shall ever be devoted to another purpose.” His lawsuit&lt;br /&gt;claims that revenue raised by the sale of gasoline and diesel fuel in&lt;br /&gt;the state is dedicated to roads and bridges. Fent believes that once&lt;br /&gt;the public realizes that monies paid for roads and bridges are going&lt;br /&gt;to be siphoned off to other uses, that very public is going to be&lt;br /&gt;outraged and I would say, rightly so. While $70 million will be put&lt;br /&gt;back into the roads and bridges fund through bonded indebtedness, $30&lt;br /&gt;million will not be replaced.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I believe that vote will be one of the 10 issues to make up this&lt;br /&gt;year’s conservative index and would suggest unless the Supremes can&lt;br /&gt;demonstrate why the Constitution shouldn’t be followed, those Justices&lt;br /&gt;disagreeing with Fent should be booted out during next year’s&lt;br /&gt;retention ballot during the general election. Oral arguments are set&lt;br /&gt;to be heard by a Supreme Court referee on June 21st. Outraged citizens&lt;br /&gt;should pack the courtroom on that date to show their concern. I will&lt;br /&gt;try to have the time of the hearing published in next week’s e-mail.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  BOREN HAD ENOUGH, SENATE SPECIAL ELECTION BEGINS NOW&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Last week U.S. Representative Dan Boren announced he will not seek re-&lt;br /&gt;election next year, but will finish out his term. On the Democrat&lt;br /&gt;side, Brad Carson who formerly held this seat announced he was&lt;br /&gt;interested in returning to Congress. He vacated the seat when he ran&lt;br /&gt;for the U.S. Senate, but was defeated by Tom Coburn.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;On the Republican side, State Representative George Faught (R-&lt;br /&gt;Muskogee) quickly announced an interest in running. Faught could be a&lt;br /&gt;strong candidate as he has proven an ability to win in Muskogee which&lt;br /&gt;is the largest city in the district. Dr. Charles Thompson was the&lt;br /&gt;nominee during the 2010 elections and though he was outspent by Boren&lt;br /&gt;nearly 18 to 1, he still garnered close to 44% of the vote.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;With proper backing, the eventual Republican candidate will have an&lt;br /&gt;excellent chance of picking up this seat. This once seemingly&lt;br /&gt;impenetrable Democrat district has been trending toward the Republican&lt;br /&gt;party, as many of the legislative seats in the district are now in the&lt;br /&gt;hands of Republican lawmakers.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Filing period will be Monday through Wednesday of this week for the&lt;br /&gt;State Senate District 43 seat which has been held for the past 11&lt;br /&gt;years by Jim Reynolds. Last November, Reynolds ran for Cleveland&lt;br /&gt;County Treasurer and won that election. However, he will take office&lt;br /&gt;next month and therefore was able to serve in the Senate for this&lt;br /&gt;year’s session.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;State Representative Paul Wesselhoft (R-Moore) has planned to run for&lt;br /&gt;this seat for some time and therefore filed for the office yesterday.&lt;br /&gt;However, redistricting has created a small problem for Paul should he&lt;br /&gt;win. This seat is up for re-election next year, but under&lt;br /&gt;redistricting, by 2 blocks, Paul will not live in this senate seat&lt;br /&gt;next year, so he will have to run for a different Senate unless he is&lt;br /&gt;able to move.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This seat is not a given for the Republicans. I believe Reynolds is&lt;br /&gt;the first Republican to hold the seat and he nearly lost the election&lt;br /&gt;in 2008. In a bit of a fluke, his opponent was named David Boren, of&lt;br /&gt;course it wasn’t David Boren the President of OU, but another fellow&lt;br /&gt;with the same name. About 10 days out of the election, hundreds of&lt;br /&gt;thousands of dollars, most from out of state, poured into an effort to&lt;br /&gt;elect Boren and it almost worked. It was close enough that the Boren&lt;br /&gt;backers paid for a recount.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Charlie Meadows&lt;br /&gt;Charliemeadows7@gmail.com&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;To join OCPAC fill out the following and send your check to:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;OCPAC&lt;br /&gt;P.O. Box 2021&lt;br /&gt;Edmond, OK 73083&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Yes Charlie, I want to join OCPAC at one of the following levels:&lt;br /&gt;___Basic membership at $50 per year.&lt;br /&gt;Safari Club Membership:&lt;br /&gt;___Elephant Provider at ___$180 annual or ___$15 monthly&lt;br /&gt;___Elephant Provider &amp;amp; RINO Hunter, ___$360 annual or ___$30 monthly&lt;br /&gt;For monthly payments please send a voided check so we may draft your&lt;br /&gt;Checking account on a monthly basis. If you decide to discontinue&lt;br /&gt;monthly support, simply contact me and we will stop the withdrawal.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;    THE FOLLOWING IS REQUIRED BY STATE LAW !&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Print Name____________________________________________&lt;br /&gt;Address___________________City___________State____Zip_____&lt;br /&gt;Occupation____________________Employer_________________&lt;br /&gt;Date___________________Amount $_______________&lt;br /&gt;I have freely given from my own resources &amp;amp; have not been compensated&lt;br /&gt;for this contribution. (Corporate contributions not allowed by law!)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Signature_____________________________________&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5431481429087105402-2532723608558786317?l=ocpacnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/feeds/2532723608558786317/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=5431481429087105402&amp;postID=2532723608558786317' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/2532723608558786317'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/2532723608558786317'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/2011/06/boren-had-enough-senate-special.html' title='BOREN HAD ENOUGH, SENATE SPECIAL ELECTION BEGINS NOW'/><author><name>Charlie Meadows</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12159891905392720848</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='26' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_F_NJvphHJNU/S6DeHxvDM5I/AAAAAAAAADY/_8wLtI8on44/S220/charliesepia.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431481429087105402.post-8313462692312514104</id><published>2011-06-08T23:43:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2011-06-08T23:44:57.488-05:00</updated><title type='text'>IN MEMORY OF BOB TONEY</title><content type='html'>++  IN MEMORY OF BOB TONEY&lt;br /&gt;++  AMERICAN CHRISTIAN HERITAGE TOUR&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  IN MEMORY OF BOB TONEY&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Over the weekend I began to receive e-mails that our friend Bob Toney&lt;br /&gt;was in need of blood due to open heart surgery. Unfortunately, Bob&lt;br /&gt;passed away sometime on Sunday. Before I share some important&lt;br /&gt;information about Bob as a patriot and Christian, let me give the&lt;br /&gt;details for his funeral.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;His central Oklahoma service will be tomorrow, June 9th, 10:00 a.m. in&lt;br /&gt;the auditorium at Christian Heritage Academy, 4400 Southeast 27th&lt;br /&gt;street in Del City. There will also be a graveside service at 2:00&lt;br /&gt;p.m. in Weatherford, Oklahoma at the Plainview Cemetery. In lieu of&lt;br /&gt;flowers the family has requested that donations be made to the&lt;br /&gt;Christian Heritage Academy Athletic Program/Student Aid (Christian&lt;br /&gt;Heritage Academy, 4400 S.E. 27th, Del City, Ok 73115)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;What I am about to say about Bob (and others) I wanted to write in&lt;br /&gt;regard to the recent Memorial Day holiday, but I just couldn’t get it&lt;br /&gt;out in time. However, with Bob’s passing, I am going to say it now.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Memorial day is a time we honor those who have given their lives in&lt;br /&gt;the service of our country, primarily through military service. We&lt;br /&gt;frequently hear about the sacrifices those men and women have made to&lt;br /&gt;preserve our freedoms. I do not want to diminish those memories one&lt;br /&gt;fraction, though many of our service men and women have sometimes&lt;br /&gt;given their lives more out of obedience or obligation to the service&lt;br /&gt;of our country rather than really fighting for our freedoms.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Certainly WW 2 was an all out national effort to beat the forces of&lt;br /&gt;aggression and freedom oppressing tyranny so that we might remain&lt;br /&gt;free. While the advance of Communism was always, and still is, a&lt;br /&gt;threat to our future liberty, unfortunately the Korean and Vietnam&lt;br /&gt;wars were influenced and orchrastrated too much by organizations such&lt;br /&gt;as the U.N. and SETO as well as an intention by our own government,&lt;br /&gt;not to win. I would suggest wars in Somalia, Kosovo, and now Libya&lt;br /&gt;consume the resources of our nation and the loss of American lives.&lt;br /&gt;However, I have grave concern as to any real American interest in&lt;br /&gt;those wars, especially any risk to our freedoms.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;All of those who have served honorably in an American uniform and died&lt;br /&gt;as a result of the call of our country are deserving of respect,&lt;br /&gt;thanks and memorializing. However, I want to speak of another kind of&lt;br /&gt;warrior, one who prior to his passing expended his time, effort, life&lt;br /&gt;and resources in a form of warfare that truly is for our liberties.&lt;br /&gt;People like Bob Toney, who understood the definition of true&lt;br /&gt;patriotism and gave of himself in the culture war, a battle for the&lt;br /&gt;hearts and minds of Americans as well as promoting the ideals of our&lt;br /&gt;founding fathers.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Growing up, Bob played football, wrestled and excelled in baseball. He&lt;br /&gt;led the OSU Cowboys to a runner up finish in the College World Series&lt;br /&gt;in 1996 and was unanimously named as the Series All Star 3rd baseman.&lt;br /&gt;Bob signed with the Atlanta Braves and played 6 years of professional&lt;br /&gt;baseball. Later on he coached neighborhood baseball and softball teams&lt;br /&gt;then he originated the Christian Heritage Academy High School team. He&lt;br /&gt;went on to lead that team to multiple state championships. In very&lt;br /&gt;recent years Bob opened his office in Del City for numerous sessions&lt;br /&gt;on Activism through the John Birch Society as well as leadership&lt;br /&gt;training for members of the Society. Once Bob saw the quality and&lt;br /&gt;value of THE TRUTH PROJECT, produced by Focus on The Family, Bob&lt;br /&gt;traveled the state introducing churches to this superb 13 hour DVD&lt;br /&gt;presentation.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Bottom line, Bob Toney has gone on the be with the Lord. He should be&lt;br /&gt;remembered along with other patriots who expended their lives and&lt;br /&gt;sacrificed in the eternal fight for Liberty. Bob joins others who have&lt;br /&gt;gone on before him like Robert Welch, Leon Skousen, Gary Allen, and on&lt;br /&gt;a more local level, folks like Jack Edens, Joe Russell, Vincent&lt;br /&gt;Roshager, Tom Ragsdale, Bill Stemmons, Tim Pope and many others that&lt;br /&gt;slip my mind and are too numerous to list. I don’t want to take one&lt;br /&gt;thing away from our men and women in uniform that have given their&lt;br /&gt;lives, but I believe people like Bob Toney and many others are just as&lt;br /&gt;deserving of honor and respect, though most people have been unaware&lt;br /&gt;of their sacrifices.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Bob was given over 100 units of blood, and though he has passed on,&lt;br /&gt;the burden of paying for that blood will fall upon his family, unless&lt;br /&gt;his friends will donate in his name. I gave today after the OCPAC&lt;br /&gt;meeting and all of his information is in the Oklahoma Blood Institute&lt;br /&gt;donor system. If you would like to do something in his memory, please&lt;br /&gt;consider a contribution to the Christian Heritage Athletic Program/&lt;br /&gt;Student Aid that I mentioned above.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  AMERICAN CHRISTIAN HERITAGE TOUR&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Ralph Bullard Heritage Foundation is sponsoring an American&lt;br /&gt;Christian Heritage Tour from September 13th through the 20th of this&lt;br /&gt;year. My wife and I were able to go on this tour 4 years ago, and I&lt;br /&gt;can say without a doubt it is the finest trip I have ever taken, even&lt;br /&gt;more memorable the our trip to Israel in 1980.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The tour director will be CHA’s Secondary Headmaster, Mr. David Holmes&lt;br /&gt;who has directed 30 of these tours in past years. Assisting will be&lt;br /&gt;Ralph Bullard and on site you will benefit from the guidance of Dr.&lt;br /&gt;Paul Jehle, the leading Pilgrim historian in America today.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The primary areas for the tour will be Plymouth and Boston, rich in&lt;br /&gt;the founding and history of this nation. You will be introduced to&lt;br /&gt;first generation history and the many sites of our earliest times. The&lt;br /&gt;information you learn will be free from the errors of revisionist&lt;br /&gt;history. History will come alive like never before.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;On a really good note, the tour is actually a couple of hundred&lt;br /&gt;dollars less per person than 4 years ago. There is only room for 44&lt;br /&gt;people, so please check out the information if you have any hope or&lt;br /&gt;intention of going. Log on to www.cha.org/heritage-tour.html to view&lt;br /&gt;the information and check out the costs and details. In addition, you&lt;br /&gt;may call (405) 672-1787 and ask for Ralph Bullard for more information&lt;br /&gt;or e-mail him at: rbullard@cha.org.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Thanks for your time and attention.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Charlie Meadows&lt;br /&gt;Charliemeadows7@gmail.com&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5431481429087105402-8313462692312514104?l=ocpacnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/feeds/8313462692312514104/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=5431481429087105402&amp;postID=8313462692312514104' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/8313462692312514104'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/8313462692312514104'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/2011/06/in-memory-of-bob-toney.html' title='IN MEMORY OF BOB TONEY'/><author><name>Charlie Meadows</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12159891905392720848</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='26' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_F_NJvphHJNU/S6DeHxvDM5I/AAAAAAAAADY/_8wLtI8on44/S220/charliesepia.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431481429087105402.post-5430645079964140446</id><published>2011-06-06T09:47:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2011-06-06T09:48:18.996-05:00</updated><title type='text'>BIG BROTHER - AN ATTITUDE - AN ENEMY OF LIBERTY</title><content type='html'>++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING&lt;br /&gt;++  ANNOUNCEMENTS&lt;br /&gt;++  COMPARING OREGON AND OKLAHOMA&lt;br /&gt;++  BIG BROTHER - AN ATTITUDE - AN ENEMY OF LIBERTY&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, June 8th will be held at&lt;br /&gt;Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. Our speaker this&lt;br /&gt;week will be Oklahoma’s senior U.S. Representative Frank Lucas.&lt;br /&gt;Congressman Lucas is the first Oklahoman to be the Chairman of the&lt;br /&gt;Powerful House Agriculture Committee. This will be our first time to&lt;br /&gt;have Congressman Lucas. He currently represents the geographically&lt;br /&gt;largest House District in the State of Oklahoma. During his town hall&lt;br /&gt;meetings he is always good to take questions and I expect he will do&lt;br /&gt;the same at OCPAC. I am very concerned about our involvement in Libya&lt;br /&gt;as well as concerned that Republicans haven’t got the message as yet&lt;br /&gt;about cutting spending. As an example, this past week they started&lt;br /&gt;work on next year’s budget by passing legislation to fund the budget&lt;br /&gt;for homeland defense. The 40 billion passed is only a 1 billion cut&lt;br /&gt;from last year’s funding. Besides funding FEMA which will probably&lt;br /&gt;soon shell out money to subsidize the installation of storm shelters&lt;br /&gt;or safe rooms (an unconstitutional expenditure for the bankrupt&lt;br /&gt;federal government) there are also millions of dollars for grants to&lt;br /&gt;LOCAL fire and police departments. The later are certainly proper&lt;br /&gt;functions of local governments, but not the federal government. While&lt;br /&gt;James Lankford represents Oklahoma county, Frank Lucas represents the&lt;br /&gt;neighboring counties of Logan and Canadian as well as points North and&lt;br /&gt;West of those counties. Don’t miss this important meeting.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  ANNOUNCEMENTS&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  THURSDAY EVENING  -  TULSA AREA  -  The Oklahoma Second Amendment&lt;br /&gt;organization (OK2A) will have their Tulsa area monthly meeting this&lt;br /&gt;Thursday evening 7:00 p.m. at the Bass Pro Shop, 101 Bass Pro Drive in&lt;br /&gt;Broken Arrow. The topic of discussion will be disaster preparedness.&lt;br /&gt;There are many different types of disasters for which to be prepared.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  THURSDAY EVENING  -  EDMOND AREA  -  American Majority will conduct&lt;br /&gt;another candidate training seminar, 6 to 8:30 p.m. at the Edmond&lt;br /&gt;library, 10 South Blvd. If you have ever considered running for office&lt;br /&gt;or helping a friend to do so, this will be important training.&lt;br /&gt;Reservations are not required but a head count would be helpful.&lt;br /&gt;Please call Seth at (405) 639-8896 for more information.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  COMPARING OREGON AND OKLAHOMA&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I just wanted to share a few thoughts about my recent trip to Oregon.&lt;br /&gt;The Southeastern part of Oregon looks a great deal like parts of the&lt;br /&gt;Texas panhandle, but much of the rest of the state is lush with&lt;br /&gt;greenery, mountains, rivers and waterfalls. I believe Oregon’s&lt;br /&gt;populations is a few hundred thousand more than Oklahoma, though the&lt;br /&gt;land mass is about the same.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;While there, Oregon’s unemployment rate just dropped below 10% which&lt;br /&gt;is a little above the national average and about twice the rate for&lt;br /&gt;Oklahoma. Tourism is a huge business, but agriculture and the lumber&lt;br /&gt;business face an ever increasing degree of difficulty with so many&lt;br /&gt;animal rights and greenies exerting influence on the state government.&lt;br /&gt;A major problem is that Oregon has no sales taxes, thus they must get&lt;br /&gt;their government revenues from property and state income taxes. By&lt;br /&gt;taxing the production side of the economy, rather than the consumption&lt;br /&gt;side of the economy, it puts businesses at a disadvantage in the&lt;br /&gt;production of goods when competing both nationally as well as&lt;br /&gt;internationally.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As a point of interest, Oregon is the only state I know of the has a&lt;br /&gt;law to PROHIBIT citizens from pumping their own gas when they go to&lt;br /&gt;fill up their car or truck. I doubt the lawmakers believe the citizens&lt;br /&gt;of Oregon are too stupid to know how to fill their own vehicles, but&lt;br /&gt;rather see such a law as a means to employee more people. Of course&lt;br /&gt;when you make laws to create unnecessary jobs (make work jobs) you&lt;br /&gt;again raise costs and lower productivity. Fuel was 30 cents a gallon&lt;br /&gt;more expensive than Oklahoma. Not all of that increased cost is&lt;br /&gt;because of the labor involved, as I would guess the state fuel fee&lt;br /&gt;(tax) is probably higher than the 17 cents per gallon we pay in&lt;br /&gt;Oklahoma.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Oregon also has a state minimum wage law which at about $8.65 per&lt;br /&gt;hour, is a dollar or more higher than the national average. What kind&lt;br /&gt;of effect does that have on the citizens? While in New Mexico and&lt;br /&gt;Kansas we stopped at a Dairy Queen and I had a mushroom and swiss&lt;br /&gt;burger at $3.35 in each place. However, the same burger cost $4.35 at&lt;br /&gt;a Dairy Queen in Oregon. That higher minimum wage requirement causes&lt;br /&gt;any thing produced or any service effected by employees paid a minimum&lt;br /&gt;wage to cost more and thus raises the cost of living and the cost of&lt;br /&gt;products produced there. That is bad for the economy, increases&lt;br /&gt;unemployment and again causes Oregon businesses to be less competitive&lt;br /&gt;on a national and international basis.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Another area of concern is zoning. Every square inch of Oregon is&lt;br /&gt;zoned except land which is owned by the State or Federal governments.&lt;br /&gt;This is an excessive amount of fascism which really robs people’s&lt;br /&gt;liberty. As an example, when our niece and husband were first married&lt;br /&gt;they wanted to purchase a mobile home and move it on to my brother and&lt;br /&gt;sister in law’s 80 acre farm. However, it was not zoned for multi-&lt;br /&gt;family uses so they were denied. Where was the farm? Five miles&lt;br /&gt;outside of a small town of 600 people and 30 miles from Klamath Falls,&lt;br /&gt;a city about the same size of Enid. The farm was on the side of a&lt;br /&gt;mountain on a seldom traveled road, but not zoned for multi-family&lt;br /&gt;dwellings?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Some of these little things add up and make a beautiful place that&lt;br /&gt;would normally be a great place to live and prosper, a little more&lt;br /&gt;difficult to succeed. On a bright note. I was able to attend and speak&lt;br /&gt;at the weekly tea party meeting in Klamath Falls. They had about 75 in&lt;br /&gt;attendance and they meet every Tuesday. I was very well received and&lt;br /&gt;they cleaned me out of the bag of books and DVDs I took on the trip.&lt;br /&gt;They seemed like solid patriots and are currently going through the&lt;br /&gt;5000 year leap, studying the 28 principles necessary for liberty. They&lt;br /&gt;had successfully elected their candidate for a county commissioner&lt;br /&gt;seat, a gentleman who was already familiar with the book THE LAW by&lt;br /&gt;Frederick Bastiat and the Davy Crockett story titled, NOT YOUR’S TO&lt;br /&gt;GIVE.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  BIG BROTHER - AN ATTITUDE - AN ENEMY OF LIBERTY&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A week ago Sunday, State Representatives Richard Morrissette (D-South&lt;br /&gt;OKC) and Colby Swartz (R-Yukon) were doing their dog and pony show on&lt;br /&gt;Channel 9, usually before most people have to leave for church. With&lt;br /&gt;the recent death and destruction done by the tornados, the question&lt;br /&gt;was asked if government should require citizens to install storm&lt;br /&gt;shelters or safe rooms?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Thankfully, Colby Swartz said it should not be a requirement, but the&lt;br /&gt;big mouth Morrissette, saw it differently. He was all for such&lt;br /&gt;requirements and pointed back to how many lives have been saved as a&lt;br /&gt;result of government requiring people to wear seat belts.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;No doubt in my mind that lives have been saved as a result of people&lt;br /&gt;wearing seat belts in vehicles, or helmets when riding motorcycles.&lt;br /&gt;However, the real question is, do we want government acting like our&lt;br /&gt;big brother and requiring such? If government can determine what is&lt;br /&gt;good for us and what is not and then use it’s power of the sword to&lt;br /&gt;require certain behaviors from us, where does it stop? Who knows, as&lt;br /&gt;it is an attitude, a mind set that government should get out of its&lt;br /&gt;proper roll of protecting one person from the harmful actions of&lt;br /&gt;others to the roll of protecting us from ourselves.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If people accept the attitude that it is ok for government to make&lt;br /&gt;laws on behavior other than clearly moral issues such as prostitution,&lt;br /&gt;drugs and etc, then you have government telling us what activities are&lt;br /&gt;good and what is bad, what to eat and how much to eat and the list can&lt;br /&gt;go on and on. Next might be a prohibition on rodeo activities, skate&lt;br /&gt;boarding, hang gliding, snow skiing and other sports that have a high&lt;br /&gt;degree of danger.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Recently law enforcement agencies announced through an article in the&lt;br /&gt;paper that there would be an all out push over the Memorial day&lt;br /&gt;weekend to ticket people who weren’t wearing their seat belts. The&lt;br /&gt;article indicated Oklahomans now have a higher compliance with seat&lt;br /&gt;belt laws than the national average, but that wasn’t good enough. The&lt;br /&gt;article included an interview with Governor Fallin, who extolled the&lt;br /&gt;virtues of our ranking, but then went on to say we’ve got more to do&lt;br /&gt;on this issue. How sad to see a Republican, pushing for more big&lt;br /&gt;brother compliance with such laws.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;How did we get to this place with seat belt laws and who was pushing&lt;br /&gt;for such? None other than the federal government. At some point in&lt;br /&gt;time (probably in the 70s) the federal government MANDATED auto makers&lt;br /&gt;install seat belts in autos, then eventually trucks. Then in the early&lt;br /&gt;80’s the federal government declared that if 75 percent of the states&lt;br /&gt;were to pass mandatory seat belt laws, they would not mandate auto&lt;br /&gt;makers having to install air bags in autos. Oklahoma quickly complied&lt;br /&gt;with the mandate for autos only, folks in pick-ups didn’t have to wear&lt;br /&gt;seat belts and there was no fine for people in cars not wearing them.&lt;br /&gt;It was also not a primary offence, meaning law enforcement could not&lt;br /&gt;stop you for not wearing a seat belt. It was only to be a secondary&lt;br /&gt;offence.&lt;br /&gt;Other states quickly complied with the feds and the goal of over 75&lt;br /&gt;percent of the states was quickly reached. Of course that didn’t&lt;br /&gt;matter to the feds as they soon mandated autos be equipped with air&lt;br /&gt;bags. 1995 was the last year pickups were made before air bags were&lt;br /&gt;mandated in them.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In 1990 Oklahoma expanded its mandatory seat belt laws to also include&lt;br /&gt;pickups and trucks. Next came a $20 fine and then eventually the law&lt;br /&gt;was changed for non-compliance to become a primary offence, meaning&lt;br /&gt;you could be stopped for not wearing a seat belt.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Please DO NOT MISUNDERSTAND ME, this is not a debate about whether or&lt;br /&gt;not a person is safer wearing seat belts or riding a motorcycle with a&lt;br /&gt;helmet, THEY ARE. The debate is about government forcing us to do so.&lt;br /&gt;If you believe that is ok, then you believe in fascism and you believe&lt;br /&gt;in stateism. When our founding father pledged their fortunes, the&lt;br /&gt;lives and their sacred honor, to throw off the shackles of England,&lt;br /&gt;they didn’t do so to eventually see our government become much more&lt;br /&gt;oppressive than England. They sacrificed all they had for LIBERTY.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;We should respect that and not develop an attitude that big brother&lt;br /&gt;can make laws to protect us from ourselves. If not, get your pocket&lt;br /&gt;books out, for you will soon be forced to install storm shelters in&lt;br /&gt;your homes and places of business, and next will be sprinkler systems&lt;br /&gt;in your homes and the list will go on and on from there because there&lt;br /&gt;will always be some bureaucrat sitting around trying to think of new&lt;br /&gt;ways to make people safer from themselves.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Charlie Meadows&lt;br /&gt;Charliemeadows7@gmail.com&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5431481429087105402-5430645079964140446?l=ocpacnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/feeds/5430645079964140446/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=5431481429087105402&amp;postID=5430645079964140446' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/5430645079964140446'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/5430645079964140446'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/2011/06/big-brother-attitude-enemy-of-liberty.html' title='BIG BROTHER - AN ATTITUDE - AN ENEMY OF LIBERTY'/><author><name>Charlie Meadows</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12159891905392720848</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='26' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_F_NJvphHJNU/S6DeHxvDM5I/AAAAAAAAADY/_8wLtI8on44/S220/charliesepia.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431481429087105402.post-7269645757024421357</id><published>2011-05-31T08:59:00.001-05:00</published><updated>2011-05-31T08:59:40.935-05:00</updated><title type='text'>I WAS WRONG</title><content type='html'>++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING&lt;br /&gt;++  I WAS WRONG&lt;br /&gt;++  STRONGLY DISAGREE WITH COMMISSIONER DOAK&lt;br /&gt;++  SCORE CARD FOR THIS YEAR’S LEGISLATIVE SESSION&lt;br /&gt;++  SHOCK AT THE OUTCOME OF THE EARSLAND TRIAL&lt;br /&gt;++  OCPAC MEMBERSHIP UP-DATE&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, June 1st will be held at&lt;br /&gt;Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. Our speaker this&lt;br /&gt;week will be newly elected Labor Commissioner, Mark Costello. The&lt;br /&gt;previous commissioner was imbalanced in his approach as he favored&lt;br /&gt;organized labor. Commissioner Costello has worked to reduce the&lt;br /&gt;regulatory costs to do business in Oklahoma, as well as meet the needs&lt;br /&gt;of working Oklahomans. We look forward to hearing about changes to the&lt;br /&gt;office since the election.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;My apologies for failing to get last week’s e-mail out. After&lt;br /&gt;returning a week ago Sunday from an 11 day trip to Oregon for a family&lt;br /&gt;reunion, I quickly wrote a short e-mail, added a few names to our list&lt;br /&gt;then forgot to send the e-mail out before I began to sort through the&lt;br /&gt;5 to 6 hundred new e-mails gathered in my in-box while I was away. Our&lt;br /&gt;crowd was down to about 75 last week and I owe our speaker Jonathan&lt;br /&gt;Small of the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs (OCPA) along with&lt;br /&gt;those who may have come if they had known of our program an apology.&lt;br /&gt;Jonathan is another of those bright young home school students. He is&lt;br /&gt;a CPA, has worked for the state office of management and budget, and&lt;br /&gt;is today responsible for OCPA policy regarding Oklahoma’s budget&lt;br /&gt;issues. Jonathan was very informative last week. He basically said&lt;br /&gt;things were improved under Republican control of government, but&lt;br /&gt;things could be improved a great deal more from where they are now.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  I WAS WRONG&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I received quite a few responses regarding my position toward&lt;br /&gt;legislation to create a health insurance exchange. The session ended&lt;br /&gt;without creating any kind of a health insurance exchange which&lt;br /&gt;surprised me as I was convinced we were going to get some kind of&lt;br /&gt;legislation passed in this regard. That is where I was wrong. Having&lt;br /&gt;been convinced to the contrary, I gladly endorsed the senate&lt;br /&gt;alternative which rejected the 54 million in federal dollars and left&lt;br /&gt;it up to the private sector or the state to create an alternative.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Some folks were mad that we would have to spend state tax dollars&lt;br /&gt;rather than the federal monies. However, sources told me, the&lt;br /&gt;intention was to spend whatever was necessary from the tobacco&lt;br /&gt;settlement fund. That is money extorted from tobacco companies and by&lt;br /&gt;law the earnings must be spent toward tobacco cessation or health care&lt;br /&gt;issues. I am not sure those funds would meet the requirements to set&lt;br /&gt;up a health care insurance exchange?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Other folks were mad that the federal tax dollars we paid to&lt;br /&gt;Washington would not come back to Oklahoma, but go to some other&lt;br /&gt;state. In reality, none of that 54 million coming from the feds were&lt;br /&gt;tax dollars sent to Washington. All of what we send to Washington is&lt;br /&gt;already spoken for, the 54 million would be borrowed or newly printed&lt;br /&gt;money, which becomes what we call deficit spending.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In talking with several senators, I was assured they were not going to&lt;br /&gt;take the federal dollars and the senate alternative had certain&lt;br /&gt;safeguards and a sunset clause. I was told that what was trying to be&lt;br /&gt;accomplished through the alternative was to create something that&lt;br /&gt;would satisfy the feds and hopefully buy some time to allow for the&lt;br /&gt;lawsuits to stop Obamacare or hopefully have an election outcome next&lt;br /&gt;year that would allow for the dismantling of the horrific legislation.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;However, in talking with Representative Key and the folks with OK-&lt;br /&gt;SAFE, they remained opposed, saying the rejection of the $54 million&lt;br /&gt;was not the most important issue, but rather the creation of any kind&lt;br /&gt;of an exchange would be crucial to the implementation of Obamacare.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Therefore, I reproduced Representative Key’s letter to the editor (it&lt;br /&gt;was published in the Oklahoman a couple of days later) and suggested&lt;br /&gt;to OCPAC readers, if they wanted this stopped, they were going to have&lt;br /&gt;to contact their lawmakers and tell them no to this legislation.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Much to my surprise, nothing was done. Leadership has called for&lt;br /&gt;hearings to take place before next year’s session with Senator&lt;br /&gt;Stanislawski and Representative Mulready, both from the Tulsa area,&lt;br /&gt;responsible for conducting that effort. I particularily like the&lt;br /&gt;statement in this regard from Senator Stanislawski, when he said&lt;br /&gt;everything is on the table, including totally rejecting the creation&lt;br /&gt;of an exchange. I will try to keep folks posted in regard to the times&lt;br /&gt;and locations for these hearings.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  STRONGLY DISAGREE WITH COMMISSIONER DOAK&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Following the outbreak of tornados last Tuesday, Commissioner John&lt;br /&gt;Doak was quoted in the paper as saying incentives were needed to&lt;br /&gt;encourage people to build safe rooms or underground storm shelters.&lt;br /&gt;One of the incentives suggested would be tax credits.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Sorry commissioner Doak, but that is not a proper function of&lt;br /&gt;government to take money from one taxpayer against their will and give&lt;br /&gt;it to their neighbor for that neighbors benefit, I don’t care how good&lt;br /&gt;the purpose might be. The situation I just described would refer to&lt;br /&gt;the neighbor who didn’t pay taxes at all or a tax amount that was less&lt;br /&gt;than the tax credit. If the tax credit was less than the tax&lt;br /&gt;obligation of the neighbor, that would mean he got some of his tax&lt;br /&gt;dollars back to use for his benefit and left it up to the rest of the&lt;br /&gt;tax payers to fund government.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Besides such a redistribution scheme being morally wrong, it is not&lt;br /&gt;needed. According to an interview with several people in the business,&lt;br /&gt;the phones are ringing off the wall with people wanting some kind of a&lt;br /&gt;storm shelter. That is called the free market working and no&lt;br /&gt;government intervention is needed. I have had two of my customers ask&lt;br /&gt;for referrals as it has now become a higher priority for their family.&lt;br /&gt;I can’t tell you how many people I know who take cruises, have&lt;br /&gt;swimming pools or experience many of life’s luxuries and don’t have a&lt;br /&gt;storm shelter, it just isn’t a priority with them.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In reality, they will probably go through life never needing one, but&lt;br /&gt;in the event that occasion should occur, they can trust their fate to&lt;br /&gt;the collectivist efforts like going to a school with hundreds of&lt;br /&gt;others and their smelly pets. Another very reasonable response,&lt;br /&gt;employed by many last Tuesday, was to get in their car and drive two&lt;br /&gt;or three miles in a right angle to the storm’s path and wait for it to&lt;br /&gt;go by.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;My wife and I built a home about 7 years ago and spent an extra $4,000&lt;br /&gt;for a safe room. We made that choice and didn’t need any kind of&lt;br /&gt;government incentives. Had they have been available, and they were&lt;br /&gt;shortly after we built, we still would not have applied as it is&lt;br /&gt;morally wrong to take from or neighbors or be allowed to spend our tax&lt;br /&gt;obligation upon ourselves and let our neighbors fund the proper&lt;br /&gt;functions of government.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  SCORE CARD FOR THIS YEAR’S LEGISLATIVE SESSION&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There were many good pieces of legislation passed this year and a lot&lt;br /&gt;of bad legislation that didn’t get passed. If the Democrats held the&lt;br /&gt;governor’s office or one or both of the bodies in the legislature, I&lt;br /&gt;would grade this year’s performance with a B+ or perhaps an A-.&lt;br /&gt;However, the legislature and governor’s office are all in the hands of&lt;br /&gt;the Republicans and as such I must give this year’s session a D+ or&lt;br /&gt;perhaps a C-, based upon how much more could have been done with such&lt;br /&gt;a strong majority.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If conservatives were in a majority and not just Republicans, we could&lt;br /&gt;have reduced the size of government a great deal more, cut taxes, got&lt;br /&gt;worker comp reform done rather than lawyer comp reform, passed better&lt;br /&gt;legislation regarding labor unions, better legislation regarding&lt;br /&gt;retirement fund reforms, illegal alien legislation, better second&lt;br /&gt;amendment legislation, and on and on. Just remember, when Republicans&lt;br /&gt;are in control and they aren’t true conservatives, they simply nibble&lt;br /&gt;around the edges, they aren’t game changers.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Meanwhile, in Kansas with a conservative governor, they eliminated&lt;br /&gt;government funding for government owned TV, the arts council and&lt;br /&gt;embarked on an 8 year plan to eliminate their income tax. If they are&lt;br /&gt;successful, I wonder what our tax will be in 8 years with Texas to our&lt;br /&gt;South and Kansas to our North, neither with and income tax?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  SHOCK AT THE OUTCOME OF THE EARSLAND TRIAL&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Many seemed to be shocked and outraged at the guilty verdict of murder&lt;br /&gt;in the first degree for Jerome Earsland, the pharmacist who shot and&lt;br /&gt;killed a robber. I was also shocked, but not at the outcome. Based on&lt;br /&gt;the evidence of the robber being unconscious but still alive 45&lt;br /&gt;seconds after he was first shot, a fair minded jury could have handed&lt;br /&gt;down no other verdict than guilty after Earsland walked up to the&lt;br /&gt;unconscious robber and shot him 5 more times when he was obviously no&lt;br /&gt;longer a threat.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I was shocked that a fair minded jury could be found, a jury that&lt;br /&gt;would look at the facts and make a judgment according to the law. A&lt;br /&gt;jury that would not be swayed by their emotions, but base their&lt;br /&gt;verdict on a rational examination of the evidence. I say that because&lt;br /&gt;before the trial and after, talk radio has been aflame with EMOTIONAL&lt;br /&gt;opinions by people who didn’t care about the law or the evidence. They&lt;br /&gt;didn’t think a man going about his business until a couple of thugs&lt;br /&gt;walked in to commit a robbery should deserve punishment for defending&lt;br /&gt;himself.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;With that I agree, but unfortunately Earsland went beyond defending&lt;br /&gt;himself and decided to become a judge, jury and executioner. If in the&lt;br /&gt;initial shooting he had pumped 15 shots into the robber that would&lt;br /&gt;have been fine, but you don’t shoot him then come back later and shoot&lt;br /&gt;him again, when he is on the floor, on his back, and unconscious with&lt;br /&gt;his hands open and his palms up.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Earsland further complicated his problems when he fabricated one lie&lt;br /&gt;after another. Had he confessed that he was just so angry that he came&lt;br /&gt;back and shot him 5 more times to make sure he was dead, I might go&lt;br /&gt;for some degree of leniency in his punishment. However, I believe he&lt;br /&gt;knew the law and knew he had done wrong and immediately began to&lt;br /&gt;fabricate his story to cover up for what he had done. Therefore, I&lt;br /&gt;won’t be signing any kind of petition for leniency, though others can&lt;br /&gt;if they chose. Justice was done in this case, much to my surprise.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  OCPAC MEMBERSHIP UP-DATE&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As May comes to a close, we now have 202 dues paying members for this&lt;br /&gt;year. That is just 15 short of our record for a non election year. If&lt;br /&gt;you have not joined as yet, please consider doing so. We are scheduled&lt;br /&gt;to vote for the top ten issues for this year’s conservative index on&lt;br /&gt;June 22nd. Then a week or two after that vote we will select this&lt;br /&gt;year’s outstanding lawmakers as well as vote for this year’s winner of&lt;br /&gt;the RINO award in both the Senate and House.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;To be eligible to vote you must be a dues paying member 2 weeks prior&lt;br /&gt;to any vote and you must be present at our meeting. As of the end of&lt;br /&gt;April, we had raised just under $15,000 for the year. Besides&lt;br /&gt;supporting good candidates for the legislature, as soon as the&lt;br /&gt;conservative scores are out, we will determine which of the RINO house&lt;br /&gt;and senate members we will target. Once that is determined, we will&lt;br /&gt;begin an education campaign to Republican voters in their districts.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Remember, we don’t need more Republicans in the legislature. We&lt;br /&gt;already have super majorities in both houses. What we need are better&lt;br /&gt;quality Republicans and that has always been our objective. To join&lt;br /&gt;please fill out the information below and send it in with your check.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Charlie Meadows&lt;br /&gt;Charliemeadows7@gmail.com&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5431481429087105402-7269645757024421357?l=ocpacnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/feeds/7269645757024421357/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=5431481429087105402&amp;postID=7269645757024421357' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/7269645757024421357'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/7269645757024421357'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/2011/05/i-was-wrong.html' title='I WAS WRONG'/><author><name>Charlie Meadows</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12159891905392720848</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='26' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_F_NJvphHJNU/S6DeHxvDM5I/AAAAAAAAADY/_8wLtI8on44/S220/charliesepia.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431481429087105402.post-8428750849252850625</id><published>2011-05-10T08:34:00.002-05:00</published><updated>2011-05-10T08:39:21.741-05:00</updated><title type='text'>WATCH AND ACT AS SESSION NEARS AN END</title><content type='html'>++  WELCOME TO NEW READERS&lt;br /&gt;++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING&lt;br /&gt;++  ANNOUNCEMENT&lt;br /&gt;++  RACE HUSTLERS WIN, PLAYED SPEAKER STEELE LIKE A DRUM&lt;br /&gt;++  WATCH AND ACT AS SESSION NEARS AN END&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  WELCOME TO NEW READERS&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I want to welcome all the new readers who signed up to receive our&lt;br /&gt;weekly e-mails. It was great getting to meet many new folks at the&lt;br /&gt;State Republican Convention this past Saturday, and have so many sign&lt;br /&gt;up to receive our weekly e-mails.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Just a few facts about OCPAC. From 1991 until 1997 a group of men and&lt;br /&gt;eventually women  were meeting every Wednesday for lunch in what&lt;br /&gt;became a debating society. Since debating societies have a lot of fun,&lt;br /&gt;but accomplish little to nothing, we formed a political action&lt;br /&gt;committee (PAC) a little over 13 years ago. At that time we had as our&lt;br /&gt;goal to elect more conservatives to the state legislature.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Since that time we have raised nearly $144,000 to contribute to 92&lt;br /&gt;candidates, with 51 of them being elected to office. With the&lt;br /&gt;exception of just a few of those which have been elected to office,&lt;br /&gt;the majority have turned out to be the most conservative elected&lt;br /&gt;officials in the state. We do our best through our survey and&lt;br /&gt;interview process to ferret out the liberal Republicans (RINOs) from&lt;br /&gt;the real conservatives.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Though we have met at a variety of restaurants over the years, we have&lt;br /&gt;only missed meeting one Wednesday in our 20 year history. We are&lt;br /&gt;currently meeting every Wednesday at Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North&lt;br /&gt;Lincoln in OKC. The restaurant is exact ally 2 miles North of the&lt;br /&gt;state capitol. You are invited to attend our meetings as your schedule&lt;br /&gt;permits.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday May 11th will be held at Italiano’s&lt;br /&gt;restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. Our speaker this week will be&lt;br /&gt;our newly elected Attorney General, Scott Pruitt. I expect General&lt;br /&gt;Pruitt’s term in office will show several very different perspectives&lt;br /&gt;on the law than his Democrat predecessor. Following his talk, there&lt;br /&gt;will be time for questions and answers. Don’t miss this meeting.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  ANNOUNCEMENT&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  TUESDAY EVENING  -  ADA AREA  -  The Ada-Seminole tea party&lt;br /&gt;organization will have their monthly meeting, 6:30 p.m. at the&lt;br /&gt;Pontotoc Technology Center in the Industrial Arts Classroom, 601 West&lt;br /&gt;33rd in Ada. The first speaker will be Miki Booth, talking about the&lt;br /&gt;many obstructions and cover-ups thrown at researchers trying to find&lt;br /&gt;the truth regarding President Obama’s place of birth. Miki and her&lt;br /&gt;family used to live in Hawaii before moving to Oklahoma.   The second&lt;br /&gt;speaker will be Amanda Teegarden, with Oklahomans for Sovereignty and&lt;br /&gt;Free Enterprise (OK-SAFE). Amanda will be educating those attending at&lt;br /&gt;to what really goes on at the State Capitol and how to successfully&lt;br /&gt;communicate with your personal lawmakers.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  RACE HUSTLERS WIN, PLAYED SPEAKER STEELE LIKE A DRUM&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Last week I wrote a fairly extensive section regarding the Sally Kern&lt;br /&gt;dust up and the race baiting pimps who were attacking her. As usual,&lt;br /&gt;the race baiters chased many other Republicans into the closet of fear&lt;br /&gt;and silence, as they were terrified of being labeled a racist.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This past Monday, Representative Sally Kern stood in the well at the&lt;br /&gt;Capitol and expressed a sincere apology as well as asking forgiveness&lt;br /&gt;for what she perceived as some kind of wrongful choice of words during&lt;br /&gt;her previous floor debate.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Now for the inside scoop, based on some of my sources. Three&lt;br /&gt;Democrats, Jabar Shumate, “race baiter” Mike Shelton and freshman&lt;br /&gt;lawmaker from the liberal reaches of Norman, Emily Virgin all had a&lt;br /&gt;meeting in Speaker Steel’s office. Sources indicate Steele made the&lt;br /&gt;following deal with the Democrats. Shelton would move to reprimand&lt;br /&gt;Representative Kern. Steele was to pressure Kern to immediately ask&lt;br /&gt;for a unanimous consent to the motion, the gavel would drop and it&lt;br /&gt;would all be in the past.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Evidently Steele hasn’t learned that when you lie down with dogs, you&lt;br /&gt;are likely to get fleas. Once the motion was made and Kern called for&lt;br /&gt;unanimous consent, a Democrat objected, before the gavel dropped. Then&lt;br /&gt;there was a call for a recorded vote, with the result that Kern was&lt;br /&gt;thrown under the bus by Steele and Steele was double crossed by the&lt;br /&gt;devil, excuse me, I mean the Democrats. Now with a recorded vote,&lt;br /&gt;future Democrat candidates will have a couple of issues they can twist&lt;br /&gt;so that in future races they can defeat the 13 Republicans who voted&lt;br /&gt;against the reprimand.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Just another day in the political warfare at the Capitol. Hopefully,&lt;br /&gt;Steele will finally learn not to make deals with the devil if you&lt;br /&gt;don’t have to do so. I don’t necessarily blame Republicans who voted&lt;br /&gt;for the reprimand as Kern asked them to do so. I am especially pleased&lt;br /&gt;with the lawmakers who voted against the reprimand and hopefully&lt;br /&gt;Representative Kern will learn to ask forgiveness when she actually&lt;br /&gt;does something wrong, which wasn’t the case this time.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I want to thank the Oklahoman for printing the following 2 letters to&lt;br /&gt;the editor which were in defense of Kern who is often the object of&lt;br /&gt;hate and scorn from some of the most intellectually dishonest and&lt;br /&gt;unreasonable folks in Oklahoma.  Saturday, May 7th Your Views:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;“The other Sally&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I disagree with most of Sally Kern’s viewpoints. As an abortion&lt;br /&gt;rights, pro-immigration Republican and a member of the Unitarian&lt;br /&gt;Church, I have 180-degree-different views. However, I know something&lt;br /&gt;most people don’t know about Kern. About 10 years ago, as I purchased&lt;br /&gt;and remodeled homes on NW 10, I became acquainted with the compassion&lt;br /&gt;and commitment the Kerns have made to this community and specifically&lt;br /&gt;to those who need help the most. Every day, year after year, I’ve seen&lt;br /&gt;the Kerns spend their lives helping people of every color-mostly women-&lt;br /&gt;start over.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I don’t agree with the Kerns on most of their beliefs, but if I were&lt;br /&gt;starting a new community, they are among the first people I would&lt;br /&gt;invite. Sally’s expression of her observations in such an unfortunate,&lt;br /&gt;generalizing manner, and the equally generalizing manner, and the&lt;br /&gt;equally generalizing reactionary demonizing of her, illustrate the&lt;br /&gt;difficulty we have in discussing how to live up to our nation’s&lt;br /&gt;promise of equal opportunity for all and reciprocal responsibility of&lt;br /&gt;all.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I’d like to see reasoned debate about how to live up to our ideals and&lt;br /&gt;promises, a debate that doesn’t degenerate into an unproductive,&lt;br /&gt;holier-than-thou yelling match. Perhaps we should try to accept people&lt;br /&gt;for what they really contribute. When will we realize that others&lt;br /&gt;don’t have to believe exactly as we do to be valued and respected and&lt;br /&gt;to make this world better?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Jack L. Werner, Oklahoma City”&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;“HER ONLY SIN&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In response to E. Anne Hall (Your Views, May 2):  Millions of white&lt;br /&gt;male Americans have been victimized by racial and gender quotas for&lt;br /&gt;more than 40 years. State Rep. Sally Kern told the truth about&lt;br /&gt;affirmative action. If I lived in Kern’s district, I’d vote to keep&lt;br /&gt;her in public office. I’m a Republican who isn’t ashamed of Kern but&lt;br /&gt;rather proud of her for taking unpopular stands against America’s&lt;br /&gt;corrupt culture.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Since Hall said she can’t tolerate people of Kern’s ‘ilk,’ I suppose&lt;br /&gt;she means other Republicans in the Legislature since Senate Joint&lt;br /&gt;Resolution 15 passed along party lines. Hall should join the&lt;br /&gt;Democratic Party since it speaks for her and the Republican Party does&lt;br /&gt;not. Kern’s only sin was to anger the racial and gender equality gods&lt;br /&gt;of the politically correct equality masses.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Robert Godwin, Jones”&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  WATCH &amp;amp; ACT AS SESSION NEARS AN END&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As we near the end of the session, citizens must be on the alert&lt;br /&gt;toward last minute shenanigans from members of the legislature and the&lt;br /&gt;Governor’s office. A week ago Wednesday a Senator came to our OCPAC&lt;br /&gt;meeting with information that a member of the Governor’s staff along&lt;br /&gt;with several other players were planning on a meeting in Tulsa to&lt;br /&gt;discuss implementation of the alternative “Health Insurance Private&lt;br /&gt;Enterprise Network”. That is the Senate alternative to the Obama Care&lt;br /&gt;“Health Exchange” which was to be provided for by a $54 million dollar&lt;br /&gt;early innovator grant from the bankrupt federal government.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Senator was frustrated as the meeting was actually intended to&lt;br /&gt;plan the implementation of the “Obama Care” program and thus violate&lt;br /&gt;the good faith bargaining that had occurred between the Governor’s&lt;br /&gt;office, and legislative leaders. As soon as our meeting was over we&lt;br /&gt;began contacting some of the concerned activists in the Tulsa area. A&lt;br /&gt;short time later, I received a call from the Senator to inform me that&lt;br /&gt;the meeting had been canceled.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Now please pay close attention. A few weeks ago I came out in support&lt;br /&gt;of the Senate alternative which would reject the federal dollars and&lt;br /&gt;create and Oklahoma plan which had a possible sunset provision which&lt;br /&gt;would be reviewed no later than the last week in May of 2014. Let me&lt;br /&gt;make it clear, I would rather create NO plan of ANY KIND this session,&lt;br /&gt;but I supported the Senate alternative because I don’t believe the&lt;br /&gt;Governor has the courage or will to stand up against the federal&lt;br /&gt;government. Nor do I sense a will among legislative leaders to simply&lt;br /&gt;pass legislation to “opt out” of any kind of health insurance&lt;br /&gt;exchange. That is why I supported the alternative.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;However, our friends at Oklahomans for Sovereignty and Free Enterprise&lt;br /&gt;www.ok-safe.org indicate that rejecting the federal dollars aren’t&lt;br /&gt;nearly as important as the plan itself. It is their belief that any&lt;br /&gt;kind of health insurance exchange or network is still the vital cog in&lt;br /&gt;the wheel for Obama Care. Please check out their web site listed above&lt;br /&gt;for their perspective on this subject.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In addition, Representative Charles Key (R-OKC) has submitted the&lt;br /&gt;following column to the Oklahoman for publication. I will publish it&lt;br /&gt;here:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;“ObamaCare: Alive and Well in Oklahoma?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The overwhelming passage of SQ 756 this past November, left Oklahomans&lt;br /&gt;thinking that our state opted out of Obamacare. Unfortunately, that&lt;br /&gt;would be wrong. Likewise, most Oklahomans probably think passage of SQ&lt;br /&gt;756 sent a strong message to state officials that they opposed&lt;br /&gt;Obamacare and wanted no part of it. Unfortunately, that would also be&lt;br /&gt;wrong.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A cornerstone of Obamacare is the mandate directing all states&lt;br /&gt;establish a “health exchange” (HE). (Creative names for HE’s such as&lt;br /&gt;HUBS or Enterprise are being used to make them more palatable.)&lt;br /&gt;Without the establishment of HE’s Obamacare cannot be implemented.&lt;br /&gt;Legislative leaders and the Governor have been pushing to establish a&lt;br /&gt;HE and accept a $54 million federal grant. Recently, because of public&lt;br /&gt;pressure and opposition by some conservative legislators, the Governor&lt;br /&gt;reversed herself on the acceptance of the $54 million grant. Rejecting&lt;br /&gt;the federal money is good, but the worst part of the proposal, the HE,&lt;br /&gt;is still being pushed by the Governor and legislative leaders.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I believe this is the most important issue we face this year and&lt;br /&gt;possibly in a generation for three reasons. First, it establishes the&lt;br /&gt;cornerstone of Obamacare that makes it possible to move to a single&lt;br /&gt;payer system controlled by Washington. Second, it will fundamentally&lt;br /&gt;change our political system allowing the federal government total&lt;br /&gt;control over all health care. Thirdly, it further changes what we&lt;br /&gt;think the federal government’s legal role and authority is over us as&lt;br /&gt;individuals and states and indoctrinates a new generation to believe&lt;br /&gt;that the federal government is the final authority in all things.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I have been asked many times why the Governor and legislative leaders&lt;br /&gt;are pushing for complying with this mandate. They claim we must&lt;br /&gt;implement an HE or Washington will force it’s version on us. But this&lt;br /&gt;doesn’t make sense because we are creating the HE because of their&lt;br /&gt;mandate. Furthermore, Obamacare gives the federal government full&lt;br /&gt;authority to change anything a state establishes so there are no&lt;br /&gt;guarantees states can control the final outcome. Another reason given&lt;br /&gt;by the Governor and legislators is that “we need to have a seat at the&lt;br /&gt;table.” This accomplishes little to nothing when Washington controls&lt;br /&gt;the agenda and we effectively accede to that control. Also, they say&lt;br /&gt;this is the best we can do while lawsuits run their course.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;But, once this system is in place, it will be practically impossible&lt;br /&gt;to undo the hundreds of new agencies and layers of bureaucracy. Milton&lt;br /&gt;Friedman once said, ’nothing is so permanent as a temporary government&lt;br /&gt;program.’&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Finally, it’s implied that the free market isn’t working and that the&lt;br /&gt;insurance industry hasn’t provided HE’s for consumers. The truth is&lt;br /&gt;the industry already does provide excellent options for consumers. Go&lt;br /&gt;online and you’ll find any insurance coverage you desire or just look&lt;br /&gt;in the yellow pages. Health care continually goes up primarily,&lt;br /&gt;because of government mandates and excessive regulation. Obamacare is&lt;br /&gt;a violation of Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution and we should&lt;br /&gt;use our constitutional authority to prohibit it from being implemented&lt;br /&gt;in Oklahoma.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;State Representative Charles Key” (Key is Chairman of the House&lt;br /&gt;Insurance Committee.)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Bottom line. While I am still thrilled that the Governor and&lt;br /&gt;legislative leaders chose not to accept the $54 million federal grant.&lt;br /&gt;I NOW believe the alternative must also be stopped. The only way that&lt;br /&gt;will happen is a massive outpouring from the public to their personal&lt;br /&gt;lawmakers. The majority of delegates at the Republican State&lt;br /&gt;Convention this past Saturday made it clear they want nothing done to&lt;br /&gt;create an exchange or network. Republican lawmakers should have heard&lt;br /&gt;them loud and clear. But that message must be reinforced by the&lt;br /&gt;public. Contact your personal State Senator and Representative as well&lt;br /&gt;as Governor Fallin and tell them to grow a backbone and say NO to any&lt;br /&gt;kind of a health care exchange or network. Just say NO!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Charlie Meadows&lt;a href="http://www.blogger.com/charliemeadows7@gmail.com"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;          &lt;style&gt;@font-face {   font-family: "Cambria"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 10pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }a:link, span.MsoHyperlink { color: blue; text-decoration: underline; }a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed { color: purple; text-decoration: underline; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; }&lt;/style&gt;     &lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;a href="mailto:Charliemeadows7@gmail.com"&gt;Charliemeadows7@gmail.com&lt;/a&gt; &lt;span style=""&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.blogger.com/charliemeadows7@gmail.com"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5431481429087105402-8428750849252850625?l=ocpacnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/feeds/8428750849252850625/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=5431481429087105402&amp;postID=8428750849252850625' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/8428750849252850625'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/8428750849252850625'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/2011/05/watch-and-act-as-session-nears-end.html' title='WATCH AND ACT AS SESSION NEARS AN END'/><author><name>Charlie Meadows</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12159891905392720848</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='26' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_F_NJvphHJNU/S6DeHxvDM5I/AAAAAAAAADY/_8wLtI8on44/S220/charliesepia.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431481429087105402.post-6944942757370902930</id><published>2011-05-02T12:07:00.001-05:00</published><updated>2011-05-02T12:07:49.128-05:00</updated><title type='text'>CONGRATS ON KILLING OSAMA BIN LAUDIN &amp; MY ONLY DISAGREEMENT WITH REP SALLY KERN</title><content type='html'>++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING&lt;br /&gt;++  ATTEND THE STATE CONVENTION&lt;br /&gt;++  MY ONLY DISAGREEMENT WITH REP SALLY KERN&lt;br /&gt;++  CONGRATS ON KILLING OSAMA BIN LAUDIN&lt;br /&gt;++  OCPAC MEMBERSHIP UP-DATE&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, May 4th will be held at Italiano’s&lt;br /&gt;restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. The first part of our program&lt;br /&gt;will feature Ms. Miki Booth. Miki and her husband moved to Oklahoma&lt;br /&gt;from Hawaii not too many years ago. Her husband and son were both born&lt;br /&gt;in the same hospital as was President Obama, that is assuming he was&lt;br /&gt;actually born in that hospital. If President Obama was actually born&lt;br /&gt;in that hospital, his birth would be sandwiched in between the birth&lt;br /&gt;of her husband and son.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;With Donald Trump fueling the fires of speculations about the&lt;br /&gt;President’s birth place and a book on the subject by New York Times&lt;br /&gt;best selling author, Dr. Jerome Corsi, due to come out this month  I&lt;br /&gt;had planned on having Miki come and give her reasons for believing&lt;br /&gt;President Obama was not telling the truth about his place of birth and&lt;br /&gt;as such his CONSTITUTIONAL credentials to hold the office of President&lt;br /&gt;might be in question.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Well, President Obama released his “long form” birth certificate this&lt;br /&gt;past week and that should put all speculation to rest wouldn’t you&lt;br /&gt;say? Hold on there, not so fast, Miki may make the case this Wednesday&lt;br /&gt;that his “so called” long form has a problem. It may have to do with&lt;br /&gt;problems relating to the name of the hospital on his long form and the&lt;br /&gt;name of the hospital before and after a merger, which occurred after&lt;br /&gt;Obama’s supposed birth in the hospital. Miki has spoken all over the&lt;br /&gt;nation on this issue and will have copies of all these certificates to&lt;br /&gt;make her case.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The second part of our program will feature a tribute to Mark Shannon,&lt;br /&gt;former KTOK afternoon radio talk show host who passed away about a&lt;br /&gt;year ago. Representatives of the OKC Tea Party called me a couple of&lt;br /&gt;weeks ago to see about doing something in Mark’s name for his honor&lt;br /&gt;and remembrance. After some discussion it was determined we would have&lt;br /&gt;3 or 4 folks say a few words about Mark at our meeting and then take&lt;br /&gt;up a collection for a memorial in his name.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The decision was made to collect money to move along the progress of&lt;br /&gt;installing the Ten Commandments Monument on the North side of the&lt;br /&gt;State Capitol. Legislation was passed in 2009 to erect a Ten&lt;br /&gt;Commandments monument at the Capitol. In that legislation was a&lt;br /&gt;prohibition for any tax dollars to be spent on the monument or on the&lt;br /&gt;costs for its erection and display.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;State Representative Mike Ritze (R-Broken Arrow) was the House author&lt;br /&gt;of the legislation and as such his family agreed to pay the estimated&lt;br /&gt;cost of $10,000 for the monument itself. It has been crafted and is&lt;br /&gt;now in storage, waiting for the funds to erect the base, lighting and&lt;br /&gt;a sidewalk extension to the monument. An architect volunteered to&lt;br /&gt;drawn up the plans for these additional items and those plans have&lt;br /&gt;been approved by the Capitol Preservation Commission. The estimated&lt;br /&gt;cost for materials and labor is $13,000.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;A contractor in the Northeastern part of the state volunteered to&lt;br /&gt;perform the labor, but perhaps it might be easier and we could get the&lt;br /&gt;project done quicker if a local contractor might volunteer to do the&lt;br /&gt;job. The contractor will have to comply with safety requirements and a&lt;br /&gt;pre-construction meeting will be necessary with the construction and&lt;br /&gt;properties division at the capitol before actual construction may&lt;br /&gt;begin.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It has been suggested that the money we might raise could be used for&lt;br /&gt;the stone pavers or perhaps a stone or masonry bench donated in Mark’s&lt;br /&gt;name so people might sit and reflect upon the historical significance&lt;br /&gt;of the Ten Commandments monument. The bench idea would have to go back&lt;br /&gt;to the Preservation Commission for an amended plan approval.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I don’t want people to feel pressured to contribute, but any size&lt;br /&gt;contribution will be sincerely appreciated. Please make a check out to&lt;br /&gt;he OKC Tea Party with the name Mark Shannon on the memo line of the&lt;br /&gt;check. You can bring the contribution, cash or check, to our meeting&lt;br /&gt;or mail it in. If you want to mail it, please send it to the OKC TEA&lt;br /&gt;PARTY, P.O. Box 94851, Oklahoma City, Ok 73143.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Perhaps Mark’s last outdoor event was broadcasting on the North side&lt;br /&gt;of the capitol during one of the tea party gatherings. It would be&lt;br /&gt;most fitting to honor his patriotism with a memorial in his name and&lt;br /&gt;the added plus would be to expedite the erection of the Ten&lt;br /&gt;Commandments monument at the same time.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  ATTEND THE STATE CONVENTION&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If you were not able to attend precinct meetings or your county&lt;br /&gt;convention, you may still be able to become a delegate to the state&lt;br /&gt;convention which will be held this coming Saturday, May 7th. I talked&lt;br /&gt;with Matt Jackson (Oklahoma County Chairman) last Saturday and he said&lt;br /&gt;to contact him right away. His phone number is (405) 650-6674. Tulsa&lt;br /&gt;County Chair is J.B. Alexander and his number is (918) 810-9149.&lt;br /&gt;Contact information for Logan County Chairman Rick Moore is&lt;br /&gt;Richard.moore@kofc.org. All county chairmen have the authority to&lt;br /&gt;allow you to become a delegate. Call now to attend to make a&lt;br /&gt;difference in the direction of the party.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  MY ONLY DISAGREEMENT WITH REP SALLY KERN&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This past Wednesday evening, State Representative Sally Kern walked&lt;br /&gt;into a buzz saw. It was like a lamb taking a stroll through a valley&lt;br /&gt;only to be set upon by hordes of ravenousness and vicious wolves.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Up for consideration was legislation to allow Oklahoma voters to&lt;br /&gt;decide next year to amend our State Constitution to prohibit the&lt;br /&gt;practice of affirmative action. Liberals were strongly opposed to the&lt;br /&gt;measure as they objected by using irrelevant statistics such as high&lt;br /&gt;incarceration rates among black Oklahomans and lower wages for working&lt;br /&gt;women.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Representative Kern rose to debate on behalf of the measure. I have&lt;br /&gt;obtained a transcript of her debate and would say she could have done&lt;br /&gt;a better job of expressing her arguments. I will also say there have&lt;br /&gt;been countless times after speaking to a group or simply with&lt;br /&gt;individuals that upon reflection, I wish something I had said could&lt;br /&gt;have been phrased differently, most human beings would say the same&lt;br /&gt;thing if they are honest.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There were two main points of contention. In her effort to tear down&lt;br /&gt;the myth that women are somehow discriminated against in pay compared&lt;br /&gt;to men she inadvertently said: “You see women usually don’t want to&lt;br /&gt;work as hard as a man…”. If you have seen or heard that on any news&lt;br /&gt;broadcast and that is all you heard on the subject, that news outlet&lt;br /&gt;is dishonest and is trying to drum up sensationalism, because in just&lt;br /&gt;the next few words, Sally corrected her wording on the floor and went&lt;br /&gt;on.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;What Kern was trying to say was that a study by Dr. Warren Farrell&lt;br /&gt;showed that when all variables were taken into account, women actually&lt;br /&gt;make more than men for the same work performance. What are those&lt;br /&gt;variables? Things like full time versus part time, hours worked,&lt;br /&gt;experience, work hazards willingness to commute long distances and&lt;br /&gt;etc. The point Sally was trying to make on working hard is that once&lt;br /&gt;women start having children, they are more likely to interrupt a&lt;br /&gt;career to stay home with the children or work part time to spend as&lt;br /&gt;much time as possible dividing duties between work and being the&lt;br /&gt;homemaker. Men tend to be more willing to focus on career advancement&lt;br /&gt;and make certain sacrifices on the home front. Kern was not degrading&lt;br /&gt;women or suggesting they don’t work as hard as men. Anyone who&lt;br /&gt;understands how much work it takes to be a successful homemaker is&lt;br /&gt;wise and to do that as well as work outside the home is very hard&lt;br /&gt;work.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The other point of contention and the one that caused the race baiting&lt;br /&gt;wolves to descend upon Sally was her honest attempt to tear down the&lt;br /&gt;myth that black people have high incarceration rates, simply because&lt;br /&gt;of the color of their skin. Sally dared to suggest that perhaps it had&lt;br /&gt;more to do with character, personal initiative, drive, hard work and a&lt;br /&gt;willingness to pay the price. She suggested these problems show up&lt;br /&gt;early in school with an unwillingness to work hard and learn. Drawing&lt;br /&gt;upon her 20 year career as a teacher, Sally said the following: “I&lt;br /&gt;taught school for 20 years and I saw a lot of people of color who&lt;br /&gt;didn’t want to work as hard, they wanted it given to them. Matter of&lt;br /&gt;fact I had one student that said, ’I don’t need to study, you know&lt;br /&gt;why? The government’s gonna take care of me.’”&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;That little bit of TRUTH that Sally spoke caused the race hustling&lt;br /&gt;pimps in Oklahoma to descend upon her like my suggested wolves upon a&lt;br /&gt;lamb scenario. As a result of the pressure, Sally issued an apology&lt;br /&gt;which is my only point of contention with what was done. She took care&lt;br /&gt;of the misspoken words about women not wanting to work hard&lt;br /&gt;immediately in her floor debate. However, the next day she issued an&lt;br /&gt;apology to those she offended which is where I differ with her. I&lt;br /&gt;think it would have been fine to issue a clarification, but not an&lt;br /&gt;apology.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I know Sally well and she doesn’t have a racist bone in her body.&lt;br /&gt;Let’s be honest folks. Anytime we speak of race or groupings of&lt;br /&gt;peoples in any regard, we are talking about anomalies, trends or&lt;br /&gt;averages which give certain groupings a reputation for certain&lt;br /&gt;characteristics. Intellectually honest people will always know there&lt;br /&gt;will be exceptions to the trends and examples. So when we talk about&lt;br /&gt;groupings of people, we are NEVER talking about everyone in that&lt;br /&gt;grouping. We may not even be talking about the majority of people in a&lt;br /&gt;grouping. However, we talk about a grouping because there is a large&lt;br /&gt;enough anomaly to distinguish a difference or reputation.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;For example, if accurate statistics were to suggest that only 10% of&lt;br /&gt;white people live in poverty while 30% of black people live in&lt;br /&gt;poverty, that is a notable difference. If statistics show that 70% of&lt;br /&gt;black children live in a single parent home while only 30% of white&lt;br /&gt;children are in single parent homes, that is also notable. If&lt;br /&gt;statistics show Asian children outperform all other racial groupings&lt;br /&gt;in school, that is a notable difference. I could go on and on with&lt;br /&gt;such examples, we see them all the time. The problems begin to&lt;br /&gt;manifest when we try to come up with the reasons for the differences.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Let me suggest, that there are way too many black folks who would&lt;br /&gt;rather blame others for many of the problems black people in America&lt;br /&gt;face rather than take much, if any personal responsibility for those&lt;br /&gt;problems. When I say “way too many” I am not saying all, I may not&lt;br /&gt;even be saying a majority, but I am saying way too many.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The moment I, as a white person, say such a thing I might immediately&lt;br /&gt;be descended upon and labeled as a racist and bigot by race hustling&lt;br /&gt;pimps like Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and locals like Representative&lt;br /&gt;Mike Shelton or perhaps leaders of local NAACP groups.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;You see, according to my friend the Reverend Jesse Lee Peterson, a&lt;br /&gt;black minister, white people aren’t supposed to be part of the&lt;br /&gt;dialogue regarding racial issues. It is to be a one way conversation.&lt;br /&gt;Race hustling black leaders empower themselves and become famous and&lt;br /&gt;or wealthy by telling black folks their problems are a result of the&lt;br /&gt;“evil whitey suppressing them.” These black leaders hold themselves&lt;br /&gt;out to black folks as saviors and leaders to stop white people from&lt;br /&gt;holding black folks back. As they spew their hatred and venom it&lt;br /&gt;builds horrible attitudes into the minds and hearts of black people&lt;br /&gt;who buy into their poison. Those attitudes become the most destructive&lt;br /&gt;force in their personal lives.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I wrote an article in the Oklahoma Constitution Newspaper in 2001 in&lt;br /&gt;which I suggested back in that day that few white people tolerate&lt;br /&gt;racism. Most white people don’t want to hear racist jokes and people&lt;br /&gt;who refer to black people as “niggers” (shock and horrors, I used the&lt;br /&gt;dreaded word) are disrespected and shunned. However, I suggested that&lt;br /&gt;racism was alive and well in that day as it still is today, and that&lt;br /&gt;it would mostly be found in the black community.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Most white people today want there to be closure to the hurts and&lt;br /&gt;sadness of racism which occurred in our past history. Most white&lt;br /&gt;people want the best for black Americans. I personally look forward to&lt;br /&gt;the reality and substance of the dream as espoused by Martin Luther&lt;br /&gt;King Jr. when he said he looked forward to a day when men could be&lt;br /&gt;judged by the content of their character rather than the color of&lt;br /&gt;their skin.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;To get to that point in time, black people must realize that&lt;br /&gt;opportunities exist and most white people want black people to succeed&lt;br /&gt;and prosper, as long as they do so on their own initiative and by&lt;br /&gt;working hard. I for one am opposed to trying to make that happen&lt;br /&gt;through favoritisms created by court decisions or through laws. Thus&lt;br /&gt;my opposition to affirmative action laws.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;What has occurred in the past, is in the past. To continue to dwell on&lt;br /&gt;the past, other than for historical references, is harmful to black&lt;br /&gt;people in the present. They must seize their opportunities through&lt;br /&gt;hard work and upon their own merits. Life is not easy and there is&lt;br /&gt;certainly competition for opportunities, so black people must press on&lt;br /&gt;and not get discouraged when they encounter difficulties.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;To help accomplish the desired successes, I would suggest fleeing from&lt;br /&gt;the poison of anyone  who teaches black people to blame others for&lt;br /&gt;their problems. Abandon the race hustlers like Jackson, Sharpton and&lt;br /&gt;Representative Mike Shelton. Build relationships with people who will&lt;br /&gt;encourage you, abandon black churches if the preacher teaches you to&lt;br /&gt;blame others.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The church President Obama selected to attend for Easter Sunday is&lt;br /&gt;pastored by what I believe to be a  race hustling black pastor. One&lt;br /&gt;who, on Resurrection Sunday, preached a sermon describing today’s&lt;br /&gt;modern day Jim Crow types as one who didn’t need to wear white sheets,&lt;br /&gt;but rather they came dressed in pinstripe suits and were under the&lt;br /&gt;cover of talk radio and Fox News. If black people feed off of that&lt;br /&gt;type of venom, they are being poisoned. Their hearts will be filled&lt;br /&gt;with hate and their attitudes we be corrupted.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Unfortunately, Speaker Steele threw Sally under the bus when he stated&lt;br /&gt;publicly that he disagreed with Sally and was glad to know that she&lt;br /&gt;was producing an apology. Hey Kris, just what exactly did Sally say on&lt;br /&gt;the floor in which you disagree that she didn’t correct during her&lt;br /&gt;debate? Why don’t you man up and spell it out for us in detail so we&lt;br /&gt;can determine if you are part of the problem or part of the solution?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I was also disappointed in State Chairman Matt Pinnell when he said:&lt;br /&gt;“The GOP strongly disagreed with Rep. Kern’s comments, and we are&lt;br /&gt;pleased that she quickly apologized for them.”&lt;br /&gt;I haven’t talked with Matt, but I wonder if he has even read the&lt;br /&gt;transcript of what she said?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Reverend Jesse Lee Peterson would likely describe Pinnell’s&lt;br /&gt;statement as a knee jerk reaction just before he runs and hides in the&lt;br /&gt;closet of cowardice and silence in hopes that he won’t have the racist&lt;br /&gt;label thrown at him or at the Republican party of which he is a&lt;br /&gt;spokesman.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I believe Matt has done a good job so far as Chairman, but he needs to&lt;br /&gt;understand his statement will not dissuade the race hustlers from&lt;br /&gt;throwing the racist label at the Republican party, they do it all the&lt;br /&gt;time, no matter how many apologies and no matter how many statements&lt;br /&gt;to the contrary.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;We all must learn to recognize racism when it truly exists and condemn&lt;br /&gt;it, but on the other hand, never throw someone under the bus when they&lt;br /&gt;have been accused by the race hustlers and they have done nothing to&lt;br /&gt;deserve such an accusation. We must all start calling these race&lt;br /&gt;hustling pimps out and expose them for what they are. Only then do we&lt;br /&gt;have a chance for the healing to occur and allow people of all races&lt;br /&gt;to get along and live together in harmony and peace.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  CONGRATS ON KILLING OSAMA BIN LADEN&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;News broke Sunday evening that elite U.S. fighting forces had dropped&lt;br /&gt;into Pakistan at a compound in which Osama Bin Laden was holed up. He&lt;br /&gt;was shot and killed and his body was whisked away, back to Afghanistan&lt;br /&gt;for undeniable DNA evidence that the body was who it was supposed to&lt;br /&gt;be.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It has been almost 10 years that he has been wanted dead or alive.&lt;br /&gt;Congratulations to those brave forces who carried out the mission. In&lt;br /&gt;addition, President Obama deserves praise for having the courage to&lt;br /&gt;order this high risk mission, once intelligence had confirmed the&lt;br /&gt;target and a strategy was developed to perform the task. Good job Mr.&lt;br /&gt;President, I rarely agree with anything you do or stand fo.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  OCPAC MEMBERSHIP UP-DATE&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As April came to an end, our dues paying membership now stands at 193,&lt;br /&gt;just 24 shy of tying  our record non-election year membership of 217&lt;br /&gt;dues paying members during the year 2009. It is truly a blessing to&lt;br /&gt;have gained the respect of people to contribute to this organization&lt;br /&gt;without me having to spend countless hours trying to raise funds or&lt;br /&gt;paying a large commission to have it done professionally. Your&lt;br /&gt;willingness to support OCPAC allows us to make a conservative&lt;br /&gt;difference in this state without having to burn up valuable resources&lt;br /&gt;in time and money having to try and raise money. Thanks again. One of&lt;br /&gt;my real rewards in serving in this organization is getting to know so&lt;br /&gt;many fine people, true patriots. Please consider joining. Instructions&lt;br /&gt;on how to join are just a few lines below.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Charlie Meadows&lt;br /&gt;Charliemeadows7@gmil.com&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5431481429087105402-6944942757370902930?l=ocpacnews.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/feeds/6944942757370902930/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=5431481429087105402&amp;postID=6944942757370902930' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/6944942757370902930'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5431481429087105402/posts/default/6944942757370902930'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://ocpacnews.blogspot.com/2011/05/congrats-on-killing-osama-bin-laudin-my.html' title='CONGRATS ON KILLING OSAMA BIN LAUDIN &amp; MY ONLY DISAGREEMENT WITH REP SALLY KERN'/><author><name>Charlie Meadows</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/12159891905392720848</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='26' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_F_NJvphHJNU/S6DeHxvDM5I/AAAAAAAAADY/_8wLtI8on44/S220/charliesepia.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5431481429087105402.post-2692692686741418907</id><published>2011-04-26T10:36:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2011-04-26T10:37:19.759-05:00</updated><title type='text'>REFLECTIONS ON THE LANKFORD - SCARBOROUGH MEETING</title><content type='html'>++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING&lt;br /&gt;++  ANNOUNCEMENTS&lt;br /&gt;++  REFLECTIONS ON THE LANKFORD - SCARBOROUGH MEETING&lt;br /&gt;++  U.S. CREDIT RISK - BUDGET CUTS  -  REBUILDING THE ECONOMY&lt;br /&gt;++  TIDBITS&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, April 24th will be held at&lt;br /&gt;Italiano’s restaurant, normally addressed as 4801 North Lincoln in&lt;br /&gt;OKC. However, out of respect for the majority of American Indians who&lt;br /&gt;fought on the side of the South in the War for Southern Independence&lt;br /&gt;(improperly called a civil war) I am going to take the liberty to&lt;br /&gt;rename Lincoln Blvd for just one day and call it the JEFFERSON DAVIS&lt;br /&gt;CONFEDERATE BLVD. How’s that for causing myself a lot of trouble right&lt;br /&gt;from the start?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Our first Speaker this Wednesday will be a Washington attorney by the&lt;br /&gt;name of Michael Hoehn (pronounced Hane). Mr. Hoehn is the Executive&lt;br /&gt;Director of the Alliance For Vigilance, a non profit organization&lt;br /&gt;designed, in part, to educate the public about the threat posed by&lt;br /&gt;militant Islam. Michael will be presenting his full program at several&lt;br /&gt;other locations, see announcements.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Occurring this Friday, Saturday and Sunday, April 29th through May&lt;br /&gt;1st, the largest battle re-enactment in Oklahoma history will occur&lt;br /&gt;between Northern and Southern re-enactors in what is now the state of&lt;br /&gt;Oklahoma. The location will be at the Honey Springs battle field, just&lt;br /&gt;a few miles North of Checotah. The first official shots to start the&lt;br /&gt;war for Southern Independence occurred on April 12th, 1861 When the&lt;br /&gt;South open fired upon Union troops stationed at Fort Sumter, South&lt;br /&gt;Carolina. The battle of Honey Springs occurred on a rainy day, July&lt;br /&gt;17th, 1863. The re-enactment has been moved to the above date to avoid&lt;br /&gt;the extreme heat of July so more re-enactors and visitors can attend.&lt;br /&gt;An expected 5,000 re-enactors will come to Oklahoma to participate&lt;br /&gt;with additional thousands attending to watch and learn.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The year 2011 is the Sesquicentennial (150th) year to recognize and&lt;br /&gt;remember the most bloody war to ever be fought by the citizens and&lt;br /&gt;former citizens, of America. I wanted to have a program about this&lt;br /&gt;issue, just before the historical re-enactment, so our main speaker&lt;br /&gt;this week will be a pastor-evangelist-author from Elk City by the name&lt;br /&gt;of Jerry Brewer.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;While I personally believe slavery was a huge issue in the cause of&lt;br /&gt;the war, there were many other issues in the complex situation which&lt;br /&gt;led to the Southern States succeeding and the subsequent war that&lt;br /&gt;ensued. Mr. Brewer will speak to many of those issues as well as some&lt;br /&gt;of the fall-out caused by the Northern victory, some of which has&lt;br /&gt;tremendous ramifications upon us to this very day. Please don’t miss&lt;br /&gt;this meeting, the information will be sure to challenge some of our&lt;br /&gt;thought processes and hopefully make people think deeply.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Hopefully we will see that slavery is still with us, it just has a&lt;br /&gt;different manifestation to it today. Slavery to the tyranny of the&lt;br /&gt;federal government as well as political correctness, the loss of&lt;br /&gt;states rights and ultimately our liberties has made all of us slaves&lt;br /&gt;to one degree or another.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  ANNOUNCEMENTS&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;MICHAEL HOEHN WILL PRESENT HIS FULL PROGRAM AT THE FOLLOWING:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  WEDNESDAY EVENING  -  Trinity Baptist Church in Yukon. I am not&lt;br /&gt;sure of the time so you may want to call during business hours (405)&lt;br /&gt;354-4839 for that information.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  THURSDAY EVENING  -  The Edmond Library, one block North of 2nd&lt;br /&gt;street on Boulevard. The meeting will begin at 7:00 p.m.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;*  FRIDAY AT NOON  -  Michael will be speaking at the High Noon Club&lt;br /&gt;located inside H&amp;amp;H Range, which is on the North side of I-40 and about&lt;br /&gt;2 blocks East of Meridian.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  REFLECTIONS ON THE LANKFORD - SCARBOROUGH MEETING&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I want to say thanks to U.S. Representative James Lankford for coming&lt;br /&gt;to speak at our meeting last Wednesday. I received a call from his&lt;br /&gt;office last Monday informing me that he would have to leave at 12:30&lt;br /&gt;sharp to catch the end of another luncheon regarding the bombing of&lt;br /&gt;the Murah building. Fortunately we had Rick Scarborough (founder of&lt;br /&gt;the national organization, Vision America) in town, so he began&lt;br /&gt;speaking shortly after Congressman Lankford left.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;FIRST, it is obvious that James is very bright, a fast study and&lt;br /&gt;perhaps his strong point is an ability to grasp a situation and&lt;br /&gt;communicate his understanding to others in such a way that can be&lt;br /&gt;easily understood. Before taking questions he talked about the $38&lt;br /&gt;billion budget cut which is part of this year’s budget which ends on&lt;br /&gt;September 30th. Then his discussion shifted to explaining Congressman&lt;br /&gt;Paul Ryan’s proposed budget reforms designed to make significant&lt;br /&gt;reductions in spending as well as reform entitlements such as Social&lt;br /&gt;Security and Medicare.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;One of the provisions in Congressman Ryan’s bill is the proposed&lt;br /&gt;Medicare reform which will see future (for people 55 and below)&lt;br /&gt;Medicare costs shift from paying bills, to providing resources for&lt;br /&gt;people to purchase insurance type coverage. The proposal has a&lt;br /&gt;provision for “means testing”, or in other words, for wealthy people&lt;br /&gt;to receive less resources and the poor to receive more resources.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;During the brief Q&amp;amp;A time Mr. Scarborough raised his hand but we just&lt;br /&gt;didn’t have time to get everyone’s questions in. As Rick began to&lt;br /&gt;speak he told about a recent meeting where he and about 40 other&lt;br /&gt;conservative leaders were invited to Washington by Speaker Boehner to&lt;br /&gt;meet some of the new freshmen lawmakers. One of those new lawmakers&lt;br /&gt;was Freshman Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) who Rick described as a&lt;br /&gt;rising rock star. However, in Senator Rand’s brief presentation, he&lt;br /&gt;lauded the prospects of means testing for a solution to the Medicare&lt;br /&gt;problems.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Following the parade of new lawmakers, Rick posed a question to the&lt;br /&gt;other leaders. He explained that means testing is classical Marxism&lt;br /&gt;and asked the others in the room if it bothered them that “our&lt;br /&gt;guys” (the conservatives) were the ones proposing and lauding that&lt;br /&gt;idea? Only Joseph Farah, from World Net Daily spoke up and re-enforced&lt;br /&gt;what Rick was saying. Rick said that most of the others in attendance&lt;br /&gt;appeared to be like a deer in the headlights as such a thought.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Mr. Scarborough is absolutely correct about means testing being pure&lt;br /&gt;Marxism. It is simply a different application, a little different but&lt;br /&gt;much like unto the graduated income tax. Now please pay close&lt;br /&gt;attention to what I am about to say. As few of those conservative&lt;br /&gt;leaders seemed to understand that problem, can you imagine where the&lt;br /&gt;majority of the American public is on this issue? America’s enemies&lt;br /&gt;from within are already attacking the proposed changes, not because it&lt;br /&gt;is classic Marxism, but because they want more socialism, more re-&lt;br /&gt;distribution of wealth, more of one person using government to steal&lt;br /&gt;from their neighbors, not less.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Those are the severe problems Congressmen Lankford and the Republicans&lt;br /&gt;face in making changes when so many Americans are greedy and&lt;br /&gt;unprincipled, ignorant of basic economics and business principles.&lt;br /&gt;Many are completely ignorant of the impending financial danger&lt;br /&gt;threatening this nation. They suck down information from liberals who&lt;br /&gt;tell them things are fine, there are no problems, don’t listen to&lt;br /&gt;“Republican” scare tactics and as such turn a deaf ear toward&lt;br /&gt;information from conservatives.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;That is why Robert Welch, founder of the John Birch Society, tried to&lt;br /&gt;warn American’s when Medicare was being made law that it would someday&lt;br /&gt;bring financial ruin upon our nation. He warned that socialized&lt;br /&gt;medicine is the “archway” to converting our nation into a full blown&lt;br /&gt;socialist state. There is a better way than socialized medicine, but&lt;br /&gt;far too few people have a clue as to what that might be.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;SECOND, one of the guests at our meeting brought up the situation&lt;br /&gt;where it has recently been reported that General Electric (GE) made&lt;br /&gt;billions in profits last year but paid no corporate income taxes. His&lt;br /&gt;question to James was about what measures Congress might take to&lt;br /&gt;correct that problem and perhaps, capture some of what was not paid?&lt;br /&gt;James was quick to say that most people in the room understand that&lt;br /&gt;corporations don’t pay taxes, but rather include the costs of taxes&lt;br /&gt;into the prices of the goods or services they produce.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Let me caution conservatives to not let the flashy headlines in papers&lt;br /&gt;or the talking heads on the boob-tube to get us off track. While at&lt;br /&gt;first glance it seems unfair or unjust for such a BIG corporation to&lt;br /&gt;get by without paying any corporate income tax, we must not fall for&lt;br /&gt;the bait.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;One change that America really needs to make is a policy change where&lt;br /&gt;we actually put NO income taxes on businesses. In doing so, it will&lt;br /&gt;lower the cost of doing business in America, make our goods and&lt;br /&gt;services more competitive in a global market, bring jobs back to&lt;br /&gt;America, improve our economy and in turn improve our annual deficit/&lt;br /&gt;national debt problems. In the next section below, I am going to try&lt;br /&gt;and label our major problems and what we need to do to correct the&lt;br /&gt;economics problem.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;++  U.S. CREDIT RISK - BUDGET CUTS - REBUILDING THE ECONOMY&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Last week, Moody’s issued the U.S. a warning that they have changed&lt;br /&gt;our outlook from positive to a place of risk. However, Moody’s kept&lt;br /&gt;our bond rating at “triple A”, which in my opinion is a sham and&lt;br /&gt;another example as to why our bond rating system has lost virtually&lt;br /&gt;all credibility. You don’t place a triple A rating on any entity that&lt;br /&gt;is bankrupt. It dawned on me about 5 to 7 years ago that America is&lt;br /&gt;already bankrupt and what has occurred between then and now has only&lt;br /&gt;made that bankrupt condition more evident.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Our good friend Russ Reinhardt recently asked for my definition of a&lt;br /&gt;person or entity being bankrupt. My answer was, when there was no&lt;br /&gt;valid expectation that a person or entity’s debt will ever be paid&lt;br /&gt;back!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Therefore, let me ask you the readers, is there anyone out there who&lt;br /&gt;really believes we will ever re-pay our $14.3 TRILLION (and rapidly&lt;br /&gt;rising) national debt with anything other than freshly printed&lt;br /&gt;dollars, worthless as they will be? I would say we have a 10% or less&lt;br /&gt;chance of EVER paying that debt off. That is why I believe America is&lt;br /&gt;bankrupt.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It is not that we can’t pay it off, it is likely to never happen&lt;br /&gt;because it will be so very hard to get the American people to set a&lt;br /&gt;reasonable course to accomplish such and then put up with the pain and&lt;br /&gt;suffering to get it done. In the mean time, let me suggest that the&lt;br /&gt;FORMERLY safest investments in the world (U.S. Government backed bonds&lt;br /&gt;and securities) are no longer safe and ANY investments into such are&lt;br /&gt;at your own risk, especially any long term U.S. government bonds or&lt;br /&gt;securities.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;One can never solve a problem until its cause is accurately recognized&lt;br /&gt;and a viable plan is crafted, then the plan has to be implemented. I&lt;br /&gt;did financial counseling for close to 20 years. Not investment&lt;br /&gt;counseling, but budgeting and debt resolution help for people in&lt;br /&gt;trouble. When it comes to financial problems, let me suggest there are&lt;br /&gt;ONLY 3 possible solutions other than a bankruptcy judgment. 1) Bring&lt;br /&gt;in a sufficient increase in income without increasing spending. 2)&lt;br /&gt;Bring in the same amount of income, but cut a sufficient amount of&lt;br /&gt;spending. 3) Do some combination of 1 and 2.  It does not matter the&lt;br /&gt;scale, it does not matter how small or large the problem, the answer&lt;br /&gt;lies in one of those 3 solutions.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;* IDENTIFYING AMERICA’S FOUR MAIN PROBLEMS&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;1) This will be hard for unbelievers and pragmatists to understand or&lt;br /&gt;believe, but the number one problem in America today is that we have&lt;br /&gt;broken our covenant with God which was first espoused within the&lt;br /&gt;Mayflower Compact. Rather than having God’s hand of blessing upon us&lt;br /&gt;today, I believe the sins of those who profess to be His and the&lt;br /&gt;abandonment of the principles upon which this nation was founded has&lt;br /&gt;now brought God’s discipline and judgment upon us. Even so, that&lt;br /&gt;discipline is meant to cause us to repent rather than to totally&lt;br /&gt;destroy us. Our utter destruction may soon come, but I am convinced&lt;br /&gt;God is willing to give us more opportunity, if we will repent.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;2) The primary and secondary schools in America are full of rot and&lt;br /&gt;misinformation. They are not public, bur rather government schools,&lt;br /&gt;under the influence of humanistic progressives, fascists and&lt;br /&gt;socialists. Many private Christian schools are little more than the&lt;br /&gt;same, but with some Bible reading or prayer. As far as the academic,&lt;br /&gt;moral and spiritual condition of our government universities, they are&lt;br /&gt;also full of rot. In addition, a good number of private centers of&lt;br /&gt;higher education are little or no better. Especially many of the more&lt;br /&gt;prestigious institutions of higher learning in the Northeast.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;3)  We have failed to secure our borders which has allowed for a&lt;br /&gt;massive invasion of illegal aliens from many parts of the world. In&lt;br /&gt;addition, our legal immigration policies have been too liberal,&lt;br /&gt;allowing too many people, some from countries and cultures that make&lt;br /&gt;assimilation very hard if not impossible, to immigrate to this country&lt;br /&gt;without sufficient time to assimilate into society. We have allowed&lt;br /&gt;for the balkanization of our country with many enclaves of sub-groups&lt;br /&gt;who do not speak English and have no interest or intention of becoming&lt;br /&gt;an American.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;4)  America is no longer business friendly or economically&lt;br /&gt;responsible. We now have the highest corporate income tax of any&lt;br /&gt;industrialized nation in the world with a top rate of 35%. Also,&lt;br /&gt;regulations upon businesses are over the top and in addition, we have&lt;br /&gt;a huge organized labor problem in America. Therefore, we have lost&lt;br /&gt;thousands of businesses and millions of jobs to other countries. I&lt;br /&gt;believe our economy is not likely to ever fully recover is we don’t&lt;br /&gt;find a way to re-capture those businesses and jobs. We must re-capture&lt;br /&gt;our lost manufacturing base for us to again become a wealth producing&lt;br /&gt;nation.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;THE FOLLOWING WILL BE A CLOSER LOOK AT NUMBER 4.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Right now, responsible citizens are more focused upon cutting the&lt;br /&gt;budget than anything else. I was strongly in favor of a government&lt;br /&gt;shutdown if the $60 billion dollar spending cuts weren’t agreed to by&lt;br /&gt;Democrats. However, I am opposed to not extending the debt ceiling,&lt;br /&gt;other than for a very short period of time and only then as bargaining&lt;br /&gt;power to reduce more spending.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The reason is simple. Our economy has been propped up for the past 8&lt;br /&gt;or 10 years with varying amounts of deficit spending. In the last 3&lt;br /&gt;years the deficits has averaged over a Trillion dollars each year,&lt;br /&gt;with last year being $1.65 Trillion alone. This year’s deficit will be&lt;br /&gt;similar, which means if we shut off any additional borrowing then an&lt;br /&gt;average of $140 billion each month will not be going into the&lt;br /&gt;economy.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;With the exception of what is spent overseas, virtually all of that&lt;br /&gt;money ends up in the hands of the people in our nation. It ends up in&lt;br /&gt;the hands of the poor, the middle class and 
