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The phrase of the day, brought to you by the United States Senate, is: “It’s not personal.”
What it means: “It’s personal.”
Take the squabble between Sens. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and Ben Nelson (D-Neb.).
It started in October 2005, when Coburn went after a Nelson-requested earmark. In the course of that debate — ultimately won by Nelson — the two made a deal whereby Coburn would talk to Nelson whenever he publicly sought to cut one of the Nebraskan’s projects.
Nelson said he was shocked to discover that Coburn filed an amendment on July 13 to strip out a $7.5 million earmark for 21st Century Systems Inc. (21CSI), a Nebraska-based defense contractor, even though the former hadn’t yet made his case to leave the earmark alone.
When Nelson saw Coburn on the Senate floor July 18, he told Coburn, “I thought we had a deal!” Read more…
By James Beaty
Senior Editor
A court-appointed receiver in the lawsuit between former District 7 state Sen. Gene Stipe and his estranged business partner, Steve Phipps, has demanded that National Pet Products pay $310,000 in delinquent accounts to Phipps Enterprises, Inc.
“The deadline for a response has passed and lawsuits are being prepared to recover such substantial funds,” receiver Kraettli Q. Epperson said in documents filed at the Pittsburg County Courthouse.
National Pet Products is the dog food plant on the north side of McAlester built on property sold by Stipe, according to court documents and other records.
In his report, Epperson said Phipps Enterprises Inc. also owes a substantial amount of taxes.
Phipps Enterprises, Inc., is identified in court documents as the company owned by Stipe, of McAlester, and Phipps, who is from the Kiowa area. Read more…
Mayor Mick Cornett endorsed “The Declaration of North American Integration”
By Paul Joseph Watson
Ridiculing claims by the establishment media that the North American Union plan is a “conspiracy theory,” an activist has brought to light a document signed by the Mayor of Oklahoma City, which was also approved by 90 other officials, that endorses an economic and political integration of the U.S. with Canada and Mexico.
Jerome Corsi has the goods,
The endorsement by a major city mayor of a document described as “The Declaration of North American Integration” represents a long-term effort by local governments to bypass state and federal governments and work directly with Mexico and Canada to create agreements that integrate the continent below the radar screen, charges an activist.
Adam Rott, founder of watchdog blog Oklahoma Corridor Watch, brought to light the document signed by Mayor Mick Cornett. Read more…
Related:
Worldnet Daily: OKC mayor washes hands of North American Union: “It was a pretty stupid thing to get involved with”
From The Hill:
When Rep. Mary Fallin (R-Okla.) was in her 20s, she was an extra in a movie starring Molly Ringwald.
Fallin, 52, doesn’t remember the film’s title, but was also an extra in several other independent, “walk-by-type” movies and did some modeling, too.
The stylish blonde, with bangs and blue eyes, is still a knockout.
“I’m 5-foot-6, but I’m not going to tell you my weight,” Fallin said, giggling. Self-consciousness aside, Fallin is in great shape. She lifts weights, jogs on her treadmill and goes to the gym when she can. Read more…
By Jay Paul Gumm, D-Durant
Oklahoma law books contain a number of sections tucked away into thousands of pages which allow a specific group to assert their claim to the state treasury at the expense of the taxpayers.
This August a new law will take effect making it easier for one of those groups to take the people’s money. That law is known as the “Compete With Canada Film Act”.
Initially established in 2001, the act was touted as being cutting edge by those who supported it. The Oklahoma Senate claimed the act would be triple the highest incentive of any state in the country in providing cash incentives to Oklahoma’s film producers. The bill’s author said the law would produce results similar to the state getting a professional sports franchise.
The bill provided a 15% cash rebate on money spent in the state for film production to film makers. In other words, 15% of the film producer’s cost of doing business in Oklahoma would be paid for by the taxpayers. The bill also established a number of criteria that the film maker must meet in order to claim the rebate.
You are perhaps wondering why someone in the film industry would have any more right to force the taxpayers to pay 15% of their business costs than those who work in any other industry. Most small business owners would attest that they would benefit if the state were pay 15% of their cost of doing business.
Despite the passage of the legislation a significant number of rebates were not claimed.
Instead of seeing the program as a failure the rebate supporters started lobbying the legislature to set aside a sizable block of funding for the rebate. In supporting this action the director of the Oklahoma Film and Music Commission stated that four or five films were ready come into Oklahoma, and a $5 million expenditure would more than cover the expenses of the rebate money for those films.
A group known as “The Oklahoma Film Project” held a press conference saying they would announce a comprehensive plan to bring domestic and international filmmakers to Oklahoma if the legislature voted to better fund the 15% film incentive rebates.
In 2005 the legislature set aside $5 million of our taxpayer funds for the rebate. The money was placed on a first-come, first-serve basis for the expected flood of film makers who would want to claim the funds.
So, how many film makers claimed the rebate?
None! The $5 million of tax rebates have yet to be used! Not one dollar has been paid out.
At least the taxpayers’ costs appear to be limited to the bureaucracy involved in overseeing the failed program.
Once again, instead of acknowledging the program’s failure, the legislature approved Senate Bill 623 which goes into effect in August making it easier for the film industry to take the money by significantly lowering the criteria that they must meet to claim the rebate. For example, in the original law film makers had to spend at least $1.25 million in Oklahoma. Now, they only need to spend $300,000. The criteria that the subsidized film be part of a recognizable distribution agreement will be lifted in some cases and requirements that the film production company hire Oklahomans are lessened.
In arguing for the lessening of these restrictions the director of the Oklahoma film commission stated that Oklahoma should no longer try to focus on recruiting big name productions but should instead focus on “small independents.”
So for a third time those wanting taxpayers subsidies for film producers have a new opportunity to take our money. Hopefully the program will once again be unsuccessful and the legislature will take the common sense step of closing the program down.
It is immoral for big government to use it’s power to take from us through high taxes and fees so that it can give our money to other individuals and corporations.
Instead of picking and choosing who will succeed in the business world, Oklahoma’s leaders should be lowering taxes and regulations. This would enable everyone to have a greater opportunity for success.
By Matt Llewellyn, “The Patriot”
For our readers across the nation and around the world (yes, we have subscribers in Australia and Great Britain now) I am talking about our local Mayor for the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma, Kathy Taylor.
Mayor Taylor recently succeeded in her goal to spend $76,000,000.00 to move city hall to a new building, despite the fact that the current building in only 4 decades or so old. Sure, the old building needs extensive repairs, but, why were these repairs not being kept up with as they broke. Now I will be fair, I am sure previous Mayors allowed the building to decline in repair as well.
Now, correct me if I am wrong but if a restaurant fails to make required repairs are they not fined? If a home owner with children fails to keep their home safe and make needed repairs are they not brought up to everything short of the Supreme Court and accused of being everything but a child of God?
If you, citizen of Tulsa, own a home and fail to control the height of your lawn you will be fined by the city of Tulsa. I am not positive what the exact height is but let’s assume it’s around 12 inches just to be fair.
That paragraph represents written law, violation of the law and then penalty for breaking the law. Fairly easy concept right? If you break the law you are punished be it financially or by incarceration. Well, if you are a citizen that is. If you are an elected official you can allow the law to be broken under your authority and not be punished. Read more…
Posted by Katie Couric
Monday, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and Cardinal Roger Mahony agreed to the biggest settlement yet in a national scandal that has engufled the Catholic Church. It agreed to pay $660 million to over 500 alleged victims of clergy sex abuse.
It’s another sad chapter in a sad story for the Catholic Church in America, one that begin when the Boston abuse scandal was revealed in 2002. To put this in context, and get a better understanding of what it means and how the Church has coped with this crisis, we decided to pose this week’s 10 Questions to Frank Keating.
Keating is the former governor of Oklahoma who was appointed chairman of the National Review Board, a panel created by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to make sure churches are complying with new rules designed to prevent the abuse of children by priests and religious. His one-year term on the board was marked by controversy and sharp disagreements with some of the Church hierarchy — most notably, with the Archbishop of Los Angeles, Cardinal Mahony. Read more…
By Andrew Spioropoulos
EDMOND — Oklahoma’s lawsuit-reform debate sadly has revealed that honorable and well-meaning public officials like Gov. Brad Henry and Attorney General Drew Edmondson, when push comes to shove, side with the most reactionary elements of the trial bar.
But this year’s debate revealed a problem even more disturbing than opposition to legal reform. Edmondson has imported to Oklahoma a new model of the office of attorney general that is destructive both to the rule of law and to the welfare of the state. Read more…
By Robert Novak
WASHINGTON — When Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid picked up his ball and went home following his staged all-night session last week, he saved from possible embarrassment one of the least regular members of his Democratic caucus: Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska. Reform Republican Sen. Tom Coburn had ready a Defense authorization bill amendment to remove Nelson’s earmark funding a Nebraska-based company whose officials include Nelson’s son. Such an effort became impossible when Reid pulled down the bill.
When the Defense authorization bill came up last week, Coburn prepared amendments to eliminate the Nelson earmark and the most notorious earmark now pending in Congress: Rep. John Murtha’s proposed $23 million for the National Drug Intelligence Center in his Pennsylvania district. Reid’s game plan to satisfy anti-war activists with an all-night debate averted debate for now on these two earmarks. Read more…