Okie Pundit

Hecox Withdraws from Race After DUI Revelations

February 8 2010 by Dr. Havel in OkiePundit, Oklahoma Politics, Uncategorized |No Comments

NewsOK is reporting that Matthew Hecox is withdrawing from the House District 44 Democrat primary just a day before he was set to appear in court on a charge stemming from his DUI arrest on New Year’s Eve.

Hecox cited “personal reasons” as the reason for his withdraw. The revelation that he was arrested for driving under the influence and that he only recently registered as a Democrat was first reported here on Okie Pundit. Numerous news organizations picked up the story, creating pressure on Hecox to explain himself or bow out.

With Hecox out, Emily Virgin and Isaiah McCaslin remain as the only two declared candidates in the race. Like Hecox, both are OU students.

Majority of Democrats View Socialism Positively

February 5 2010 by Dr. Havel in Political Ideology, Presidential politics |No Comments

Remember when Democrats and defenders of President Obama flipped out when Rush Limbaugh and other conservatives claimed Obama was a socialist? They said it was “hate speech” and motivated by racism. They and media outlets like MSNBC and CNN scoffed at the notion and ridiculed those who said it. Personally, I was glad to finally see so many liberals repulsed by the accusation of being associated with socialism–something they were full, proud defenders of not too long ago.

Well, without expounding on the veracity of the socialist claims against Mr. Obama, we now have information from Gallup that perhaps Obama’s defenders were protesting a little too much. Indeed, they were probably just recoiling because their messiah was under attack and felt the need to defend him, rather than because the accusations were false or disgraceful.

Yesterday Gallup Poll reported that a majority (53%) of Democrats have a “positive” view of socialism and 61% of liberals viewed socialism positively. This isn’t really a surprise to those of us who know the Democrat Party’s past, but it does make us wonder why they were so offended when their party’s leader was accused of holding views a majority of them view positively.

On a separate note, the poll showed 17% of Republicans viewed socialism positively, including 20% of conservatives. Who are these people? We’re willing to bet that those 17 and 20% don’t even know what Republicanism, conservatism, or socialism is. In all likelihood they’re probably just–to be blunt– idiots. How else to explain the contradiction? This just proves there is always a set number of fools in any ideology or party who will believe or say anything.

Dan Boren Votes to Increase National Debt Limit

February 4 2010 by Dr. Havel in Budget and taxes, Congress, Economy |1 Comment

Dan Boren, who fancies himself a fiscally conservative Democrat, just voted with his Democrat colleagues to raise the national debt limit by a record $1.9 trillion. If the raise in the limit passes the Senate, the Democrats will have raised the national debt ceiling to a staggering $14.3 trillion, which is close to 100% of our GDP and $45,000 per every person living in the United States.

37 Democrats voted “No.” All but three Republican members voted “No.” Those three were not present during the vote. The federal government now borrows 40 percent of every dollar it spends.

Democrat Bill To Teach Bible in Public Schools Advances

February 3 2010 by Dr. Havel in Education |No Comments

Democrat Senator Tom Ivester wants the Bible taught in public schools. And today his effort to make that a reality has passed one hurdle. The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Education approved Ivester’s bill that would allow schools to offer an elective course on the Bible. According to Ivester, the courses would focus on the historical context of the book.

My question is this: why would any Christian (or any religious person) want the Bible (or any holy book) taught in our public schools by teachers who are likely incompetent on the subject? This is a contradiction I’ve never understood from advocates of more religious instruction in our public schools. We recognize our public school system is an unmitigated failure in many respects, including teacher subject competency, yet we want them to provide instruction to our children on an important aspect of our culture we acknowledge few (if any) teachers would be competent to provide. Perhaps religious instruction is best left to the experts–in church.

Fruits of the Stimulus: Feds Revise Data to Show Additional 840,000 Jobs Lost

February 3 2010 by Dr. Havel in Economy |No Comments

This is interesting. Apparently the federal government is issuing a report “revising” the US employment data to show that 840,000 additional jobs have been lost, thereby revealing a dramatically worse labor environment than previously reported.

Of course this is bad news for President Obama and the Democrats whose stimulus package has decisively failed to stimulate anything but our national debt and government payroll. But this is even worse for the nation and the people currently seeking jobs. The nation is hurting right now and Mr. Obama and his party are focusing on raising taxes, increasing the federal payroll, and enacting a budget with an enormous $1.3 trillion deficit. One can only hope that the approaching reality of November 2010 will scare them out of their government-induced stupor.

Reuters: Middle Class Faces Tax Increases Under Obama

February 2 2010 by Dr. Havel in Uncategorized |1 Comment

Obama made many pledges on the campaign trail in 2008 and in the beginning stages of his presidency. These included prohibiting lobbyists from serving in his administration, enacting a net spending cut, closing Guantanamo Bay by January 2010, and open and transparent health care negotiations. All of those pledges have been violated. And now we can add another one to the list: Obama’s famous pledge to ensure the middle class will not see a tax increase during his administration.

Reuters explores a slew of upcoming tax increases set to hit America’s middle class and hit them hard. These so-called Backdoor tax increases include a jump in the personal income tax rate, an increase in the tax on dividends and capital gains, and the elimination of several tax credits and deductions lower income American can take advantage of.

With the economy showing signs of a nascent recovery, these tax increases have the potential to send us right back into a recession by killing jobs and investment in the economy. As has been noted many times on this site, Obama promised us an unemployment ceiling of 8% if Congress passed his Stimulus package. It’s now at 10% and shows no signs of abating. The budget deficit has skyrocketed and the national debt has increased to an all time high. Obama can break all the promises he wants, but if he expects Americans to trust him, he’ll have to keep at least one of his major pledges to the voters that helped elect him.

Gallup Shows Major Increases for GOP

February 2 2010 by Dr. Havel in Oklahoma Politics |No Comments

The Gallup Organization released their annual study of party affiliation by state and found the Democrats’ advantage slipping in all but a few states. Nationwide, Democrats accounted for 49% of registered voters, while Republicans accounted for 41%.

Democrat losses, and GOP gains, were strongest in Ohio, Hawaii, Louisiana, Wisconsin, Iowa, Montana, and Maine. Montana actually flipped from Democrat advantage to GOP advantage. In Oklahoma, the Democrats started 2009 with a 6 point advantage, but by the end of the year that had slipped dramatically to a 1 point advantage. According to information from the State Election Board, Democrat registration dropped below 1 million (999,855) for the first time and GOP registration shot up by more than 20,000 to 813,000.

Only seven states showed gains for Democrats. They were all modest, ranging from 1 to 4 points, and came mostly from solid GOP-voting states like Utah and Nebraska.

One major caveat: these numbers are based on registration, not actual voting patterns. For example, Gallup lists Oklahoma as being a “competitive” state due to the nearly even registration numbers, but no one believes that to be true. We haven’t voted for a Democrat presidential contender since Lyndon Johnson and our Congressional delegation is solidly and safely Republican. Gallup only arrives at this conclusion because Democrats still hold a party registration advantage, albeit an increasingly tigthening one. Thus, the competitive categorization is meaningless here. This applies to other states as well, such as Texas and Kansas.

Taking this into account, the GOP advantage is actually larger than what Gallup makes it out to be, as more conservative Democrats and Independents will vote for the GOP candidate.

County Republican Chairman Alleges Violation of Constitution

February 1 2010 by Dr. Havel in Good government, Oklahoma Politics |No Comments

Cleveland County Republican Party Chairman Bobby Cleveland is accusing state legislators of violating a Constitutional prohibition against giving public funds to private organizations.

On his blog, That’s Just Bob, Cleveland alleges that Republican leaders in the State Legislature are wrongly circumventing the law by appropriating state dollars to ACOG, which then takes that money and gives it to private companies and organizations such as the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas and the Jim Thorpe Association. If the state were to give these organizations the money directly, it would violate the state constitution. Cleveland believes their actions are similar to money laundering and asks why legislators are trying to hide the transactions through a third-party group.

Cleveland further alleges that certain legislators told him that Speaker Chris Benge threatened their committee assignments if they voted against the appropriations.

Still No Democrats in OK 5

February 1 2010 by Dr. Havel in Congress, Oklahoma Politics |No Comments

Via McCarville we see the latest campaign finance reports indicate a brewing primary battle with at least four well-funded candidates.

Mike Thompson has raised the most with $571,000. Following Thompson is Kevin Calvey with $419,000. James Lankford and Jeff Cloud had smaller, but still respectable receipts of $130,000 and $175,000 respectively.

All of the candidates are Republicans. Which still leaves us wondering, “Where are all the Democrats?” Time is ticking and Democrats still haven’t been able to find a credible challenger. Last we heard, rumors were that Jim Roth or Andrew Rice would jump in the race, but that seems unlikely now. Democrats stand little chance of taking District 5 in this political environment and neither Roth nor Rice want to add consecutive losses to their political resume.

Obama Admits Dem. Health Care Bill Will Not Let You Keep Your Doctor

February 1 2010 by Dr. Havel in Uncategorized |No Comments

During last week’s House Republican retreat, Obama made a stunning admission that the Democrat-proposed health care reform bill will not allow many people to keep their doctor or health care plan. This, of course, is a violation of the pledge Obama made multiple times when campaigning for the bill.

Anyone surprised?

Read it here.

The Oklahoman Reports on Okie Pundit Story: Sullivan and Aldridge Deny Contributions Affect Their Decision

January 30 2010 by Dr. Havel in Good government |No Comments

Story by Michael McNutt:

Contributions from executives affiliated with a company interested in buying the state’s workers’ compensation agency, as well as the firm’s political action committee, had no influence on a legislative task force which looked into selling it, the panel’s two co-chairmen said.

The contributions, which total $12,000 each to Sen. Cliff Aldridge and Rep. Dan Sullivan, were made two weeks before a company executive urged the task force to sell CompSource Oklahoma.

Ben Nelson: Show Me The Money

January 29 2010 by Dr. Havel in Uncategorized |No Comments

Tulsa World Picks Up Our Story, Doesn’t Credit Us

January 29 2010 by Dr. Havel in OkiePundit |No Comments

Via McCarville, we learn that the Tulsa World picked up our story on Dan Sullivan and Cliff Aldridge receiving questionable donations from an insurance company that will benefit from legislation Sullivan is carrying this year. Unfortunately, they didn’t credit us.

We’re not credit hogs, but we did do some substantial work to find the connections between the two legislators, NAICO, and NAICO’s subsidiaries, so recognition for that work would be nice. Over the past several years we’ve seen how local blogs must pick up slack for an increasingly incompetent mainstream media establishment. We’ve seen stories broken on McCarville, OKPNS, and other outlets that no one would have ever heard about if not for their work. Then media like the Tulsa World sweep in, run a story, and pretend like they found it all along. Oh well.

Here is the Tusla World story. Be sure to check out the comments section.

Four Senate Republicans Threaten to Join Democrats

January 27 2010 by Dr. Havel in Oklahoma Politics |1 Comment

The election to replace Glenn Coffee as the new Oklahoma Senate President Pro Tempore has been thrown into disarray by the threats of four Senate Republicans who are threatening to join the Democrats during the vote. The caucus vote is supposed to occur this coming Monday.

Senators Jim Reynolds, Harry Coates, Jonathan Nichols, and Steve Russell are angry with the caucus’s choice of their colleague Brian Bingman and have vowed to vote against him on the floor unless the election is delayed. Credible sources confirm Bingman has a substantial majority of Republican votes to become President Pro Temp and would be easily elected if the vote were held today.

The other candidates are Brian Crain, Cliff Aldridge, and Harry Coates. With the votes of Russell, Nichols, Reynolds, and himself, Coates has four votes in the caucus. Aldridge and Crain aren’t considered viable.

The sources confirm the four renegades are threatening to join with Democrats to elect Harry Coates President Pro Tempore. Coates has the support of Democrat Charlie Laster, who is likely working with his colleagues to gain support for Coates in the Democrat caucus. With Republicans controlling a 26-22 majority, the switch of the four senators would be enough to elect Coates as long as the Democrats agree to terms. The Democrat caucus is now salivating at the possibility of a Republican civil war and a return to a semblance of power.

The disagreement arises partially due to issues surrounding Senate staff and the recent departure of Fred Morgan. We also know that Jim Reynolds is on the payroll of Harry Coates, which helps explain his intransigence.

The news of the four obstructionist Republican Senators is disappointing for Republicans and conservatives across the state who worked for years to finally win the State Senate. In many ways, this is the behavior you expect out of spoiled children. When they don’t get their way, they throw fits and threaten to run away. They either ignore the consequences of their action or are so myopic they can’t see them.

In this case, if Coates was elected with Democrat support, the Senate would once again be beholden to the Democrat caucus, which will be led by ultra-liberal Andrew Rice. Coates would have to follow the orders of Democrats or risk them withdrawing their support.

We have no horse in this race. We honestly don’t know much about Bingman or Coates, but we’re sure they’re both good people. We have been involved in politics for a long time. In that time, we’ve supported various Republican candidates in primaries. Some we’ve won and some we’ve lost. But not once did we throw a fit when our candidate lost and threaten to support the other side simply because we didn’t get our way.

Of course, for many of us, the involvement of Steve Russell and Jonathan Nichols in this plot is a major disappointment and embarrassment. They were elected in 2008 in the wave that finally brought an end to Democrat control of the State Senate and they are now placing that victory in jeopardy.

Word is both Russell and Nichols have their eyes set on higher office. If they maintain their obstructionist and, as others have put it, “treasonous” stance, they will surely see their hopes of higher office evaporate before their eyes.

Okie Pundit’s unsolicited advice: if you’ve lost, suck it up, boys. Stop acting like children.

Another take from OKPNS here.

Sullivan and Aldridge Under Increasing Scrutiny

January 27 2010 by Dr. Havel in Good government, OkiePundit, Oklahoma Politics, State Legislature |1 Comment

Yesterday represented the largest increase in web traffic to Okie Pundit we’ve seen since we took over in December. We received dozens of emails from people wanting more information and from some wanting to provide their own information. Several other Oklahoma political blogs picked up the Dan Sullivan and Cliff Aldridge campaign contribution story and we expect mainstream media outlets to run with it soon.

As our readers know, we are conservatives at Okie Pundit. But that doesn’t mean we won’t call out some of our Republican representatives who claim to be “common sense” conservatives when they author bills that expand government or act in unethical ways, as we believe Sullivan and Aldridge did. We are committed to good, limited government. We will continue investigating these claims and others precisely for that reason, even (especially) if it means people at the capitol are angry with us. Each time an elected official acts in a way that will erode public confidence in their government, that story needs to be told regardless of party or ideological belief.

When Republicans took control of the State House in 2004, a lot of good was accomplished and our state was better off after 100 years of Democrat neglect. But it appears some of our representatives are becoming increasingly complacent and reckless in their new majority power. That’s leading them to become the corrupt social engineers and big government cheerleaders that we thought we rid ourselves of from 2004-2008. Since Republicans took control of the legislature, we’ve seen everything from a ridiculous proposed ban on pitbulls, to absurdly expanding Quality Jobs tax credits to call center jobs, to legislation further prying into the private contracts and dealings of private citizens, and increasing government budget without tangible results (e.g., given the increase in education and health spending and bureaucracy, there is little evidence of commensurate increases in results). We’ve seen this before on the national level, and it doesn’t end well.

Even though we are a modest news and opinion outlet in the realm of established blogs, hopefully Okie Pundit can still help prevent some of the excesses that come with increasing government power.

PAY TO PLAY: Oklahoma Insurance Company Funnels Money to Chairmen of Task Force on Workers’ Comp

January 26 2010 by Dr. Havel in Good government, Oklahoma Politics, State Legislature |3 Comments

Okie Pundit is still receiving new information, but this is what we know at this time about contributions made to Representative Dan Sullivan, Assistant Majority Floor Leader, and Senator Cliff Aldridge.

Two Republican legislators accepted a total of $24,000 in campaign contributions over a period of three days in September from an insurance company that stands to gain financially from recommendations made by a task force that studied the possible privatization of Oklahoma’s workers’ compensation system. The Task force on Privatization of CompSource Oklahoma was studying whether to mutualize CompSource or sell it off to a private company.

Representative Dan Sullivan and Senator Cliff Aldridge, the two chairmen of the task force, each accepted $12,000 from the National American Insurance Company (NAICO) while the task force met. Though initially Sullivan and Aldridge ostensibly claimed they could not say whether mutualization or privatization was the best course, by the end of the task force meetings in December both were big proponents of selling the system to a private company. In fact, Sullivan recently filed House Bill 2662, legislation that would require the state to sell CompSource by December 31, 2011.

And suddenly NAICO has emerged as the leading candidate in the politically-charged battle to purchase CompSource.

We believe NAICO engaged in a coordinated effort to funnel money to Sullivan and Aldridge in order to influence the recommendations of the task force and pending legislation.

It appears NAICO used at least three different guises to make the campaign contributions in an effort to make them difficult to track. We know the contributions were given using different company names and political action committees, as well as from employees of the company who listed different company names on their contribution forms. According to his ethics report, Senator Aldridge received $12,000 for his campaign committee, Cliff Aldridge for Senate 2006. All of the contributions were accepted on the same day from the following groups and individuals:

Promoters of Private Enterprise, $5,000 maximum contribution, Sept. 25, 2009
Brent LaGere, Executive VP of Chandler USA Inc., $1,250, Sept. 25, 2009
Lance LaGere, Executive VP of Chandler USA Inc., $2,500, Sept. 25, 2009
Richard Evans, NAICO, $2,500, Sept. 25, 2009
Frank Gulley, VP NAICO, $750, Sept. 25, 2009

Representative Sullivan also accepted $12,000 to his Friends of Dan Sullivan 2010 campaign committee. These contributions were made on the same day from the following groups and individuals:

Promoters of Private Enterprise, $5,000 maximum contribution, Sept. 28, 2009
Brent LaGere, Executive VP of Chandler USA Inc., $1,250, Sept. 28, 2009
Gary LaGere, Sr. VP National American Life Insurance, $2,500, Sept. 28, 2009
Mark Paden, Executive Chandler USA Inc, $2,500, Sept. 28, 2009
Frank Gulley, VP NAICO, $750, Sept. 28, 2009

We see three different organizations listed here as the employers of the insurance-connected contributors who all just happened to contribute on the exact same day: Chandler USA Inc., NAICO, and National American Life Insurance. And then there is the political action committee, Promoters of Private Enterprise, who’s stated goal is to “promote private awareness of the benefits of freely developed enterprise.” Employees of NAICO interchangeably used “NAICO” and “National American Insurance Company” on the contribution forms, thus making it more difficult complete searches of the ethics reports. Frank Gulley also misspelled NAICO, listing his employer as MAICO. Furthermore, on two different contribution forms, Mark Paden, the Executive noted above, lists his employer as Chandler USA Inc. and National American Insurance Company.

Indeed, this is what really caught our attention: National American Insurance Company lists its address as 1010 Manvel Avenue, Chandler, OK.

Chandler USA Inc. lists its address as 1010 Manvel Avenue, Chandler, OK.

And Promoters of Private Enterprise, the political action committee that maxed out to Sullivan and Aldridge on the same day Chandler USA Inc and NAICO employees donated, lists its address as 1010 Manvel Avenue, Chandler, OK.

All of them are from the exact same address and appear to be run by the same family. While investigating, we also learned that employees of Chandler USA Inc. have NAICO email addresses. In addition to contributing directly to the candidates, Brent LaGere and Mark Paden (along with Tony Gulley) contributed over $10,000 to Promoters of Private Enterprise, which in turn gave the maximum contribution to Sullivan and Aldridge. Lance LaGere was one of the witnesses who appeared before the Task Force to testify in favor of selling the system.

So let’s be clear: there is no distinction between Chandler USA Inc., NAICO, and Promoters of Private Enterprise. They are all the same organization simply using different names and means to disguise their contribution patterns and influence those who have the power to drop current state assets into their pockets.

At OkiePundit, we favor the privatization of the workers’ compensation system because we believe it will be the most efficient system and we do not believe running such a system to be within the realm of state responsibilities. But we do not favor privatizing it through politically and financially duplicitous means, which is what appears to be going on right now.

This situation revives fears of Pay-to-Play at the State Capitol and implicates our entire campaign ethics system. What we have here is a form of bribery that has been done through the legal means of our campaign finance system. A private corporation effectively gave $24,000 to two legislators who had enormous power in deciding the fate of a state-owned system that is potentially very profitable for that corporation.

Why did Sullivan and Aldridge accept these campaign contributions from a company they knew would stand to profit from their decisions specifically related to the task force they were co-chairs of? Why did the company decide to make the contributions in the middle of the task force study? And why did they make the contributions when they knew one of their executives would be testifying about the matter before the task force?

We are still finding additional information, including information that connects Insurance Commissioner Kim Holland and Brad Henry’s brother-in-law to this story. As more details come in, we will keep you informed. This story will be updated as new information is added.

Breaking Story: House and Senate Republicans Implicated in Questionable Financial Dealings

January 25 2010 by Dr. Havel in Good government |No Comments

Breaking….Okie Pundit set to release information potentially implicating certain House and Senate Republicans in financial scandal and conflict of interest. Story will reveal how business is conducted at capitol. Stay tuned as OP verifies the information. More…

Story coming this afternoon. Involves member of House Republican leadership. More…

Story questioning campaign contributions to Rep. Dan Sullivan, Assistant Majority Floor Leader, and Senator Cliff Aldridge to be posted at 3:15 CST.

Amended Bill Imprisons Ministers; Not Conservative, Just Statist

January 25 2010 by Dr. Havel in Good government |No Comments

***We made a big mistake and attributed the bill to Rep. Jason Murphey from Guthrie. The shell bill is actually authored by Rep. Jason Nelson from OKC. We apologize to Mr. Murphey and regret our mistake. The post has been corrected to reflect the true author of the amendatory bill. Furthermore, according to Murphey, the bill is just a shell bill that changes one phrase and is to be used for something related to marriage later in session. We still believe the pertinent points of the post stand, especially in a House controlled by those who claim to be for limited government. Again, we apologize to Mr. Murphey.

According to this website, Rep. Jason Nelson is amending a bill that sends ministers of the Gospel who perform a marriage not recognized by the State of Oklahoma to the Department of Corrections. (Mr. Nelson is not the author of the original bill language–he is merely amending the existing statute). In other words, a minister is punished by a fine and prison time for performing a private religious ceremony intermarrying two same-sex couples.

Yes, friends, this is precisely the scourge we must take off our streets! For too long we have tolerated ministers of the Gospel doing what they believe is religiously right in their very own churches! If we don’t get these people off our streets, imagine the consequences.

Seriously: Not only is this law utterly stupid, it is clearly unconstitutional. Regardless of your views on gay marriage, conservatives should be repulsed by this unnecessary expansion of the state’s police power into religious institutions. Nothing about the statute is conservative. Like Sally Kern’s marriage bill, it is more focused on expanding the state than anything. It is a precursor for future expansions of government into arenas we previously thought completely private. This form of Statism has no place in the conservative movement or in our state legislature.

We know it’s an election year and some at the capitol are busy really pumping up their popularity among the anti-gay crowd, but this is absurd. Perhaps our representatives can spend their time on something more fruitful (pun intended) and, you know, within the state’s constitutional limitations. Here are a few suggestions: the budget, our failing education system, improving the economy, reducing state bureaucracy, or making the tax code fairer. Just pick one.

Quote of the Day: George Will on Liberalism

January 25 2010 by Dr. Havel in Uncategorized |No Comments

“The 2008 elections gave liberals the curse of opportunity, and they have used it to reveal themselves ruinously… The essence of contemporary liberalism is the illiberal conviction that Americans, in their comprehensive incompetence, need minute supervision by government, which liberals believe exists to spare citizens the torture of thinking and choosing.”

–George Will

M. Scott Carter, Call Your Office

January 23 2010 by Dr. Havel in Economy, Oklahoma |No Comments

Oklahoma’s unemployment rate falls. State adds 5,000 jobs to tie for 3rd best unemployment rate in the nation. Crash. And. Burn, Scott.