Have at it, give us your best captions. Note: Bill Clinton’s look is priceless!

Mike Turpen pictures courtesy of the “Inside the Beltway” blog.

Chris Casteel: “Definitely looks like Turpen took this one with the former president himself.”

T. Boone Pickens talks about energy on the Talk Radio News Radio Row at the DNC Convention.

Daily Kos: T. Boone Pickens’ Fancy Sales Pitch

“Devilstower and I just went to a talk here at the DNC featuring T. Boone Pickens. Everyone was under the impression that the event would involve an actual discussion (as in, a Q & A session, like nearly all of the other Big Tent special topic sessions). We had a really energetic live blog thread going, where all of you were submitting questions.

Sorry, guys. Apparently, the whole thing was just a sales pitch. T. Boone hightailed it out of there before anyone could even raise their hand.”

From RedState.com:

“For two days RedState has been at the Democrat Convention trying to find American flags. Sure when the television cameras come on for prime time network coverage, the Democrats have been passing out flags like candy. But when the prime time lights are not on, and for the entire time Tuesday night, including during prime time, there have been no American flags: not in the crowd, not on stage, not in the hallways — nowhere. Well, we finally found some American flags. They were in the trash.” Read more…

From Politico.com

“In spite of the fact that I might disagree ideological or politically, I think it’s helpful for my daughter. My 8-year-old daughter asked me during my second term, when we were getting sworn in, she asked me, ‘Daddy, do you have women congressmen?’ So, I think there is a psychological benefit.

It is good to see an African-American nominee for major political party. Now it’s not going to shock us as much. No more than to see the female reporter or black quarterback or black Republican or the Hispanic head coach.” - J.C. Watts, former Oklahoma Republican congressman from 1995 to 2003

Gary Casey is challenging a Henry favorite, Senator Tom Adelson.  The Tulsa Beacon clearly makes the contrast between conservative candidate and liberal incumbent.

“I believe life begins at conception,” Casey said. “I believe this position can be defended scientifically far more effectively than the pro-abortion position that life begins at birth.”

“I believe that the state of Oklahoma has a responsibility to enforce the laws currently on the books in regards to immigration,” Casey said. “I support HB 1804. I believe that immigrants should go through the proper channels and obey our laws.  Read the full story at TulsaBeacon.com.

Related:  Gary Casey bio on FreePeople.com

An announcement from the Department of Commerce answers this question.  You’ve just got to be proud to be an Oklahoman when you read that we are gaining jobs from Mexican manufacturing!

From the Oklahoma Department of Commerce website:

2008 Location and Investment Examples
To date, several key locations and investments have occurred across Oklahoma.

AAA broke ground August 21 on a new operations center in Oklahoma City. About 825 employees will be hired for the new center, which is scheduled for completion in late 2009.

Hyatt hired 300 people at its new finance and accounting shared service center in Moore. The new jobs bring a $6 million payroll to central Oklahoma.

Mexico’s Sigma-Alimentos recently opened its first U.S. manufacturing facility in Seminole. The operation at full capacity will employ 400 people.

Related: Tiger Trucks Manufacture Chinese Design in Oklahoma

Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee on the Rush Limbaugh Show today discussing Sen. McCain’s possible VP picks: (via My Take blog)

“He may throw the long ball and pick somebody like a Frank Keating, somebody that hadn’t even been talked about because everybody’s focused on a handful of names and, you know, McCain just might shock the daylights out of all of us.”

Open Door Policy - August 26, 2008

On Tuesday, I had the opportunity to hold an interim study on tuition and fee increases within our university system in Oklahoma. Due to time constraints, it was broken into two meetings, the second of which will conclude next Tuesday at the Capitol at 11 A.M. should you wish to attend.

It was stated by staff from the State Regents that 236,000 students are currently enrolled in the higher education system in Oklahoma. Numbers given by them show the amount for appropriations for financial aid is roughly $91 million for FY 2009, which comes out of our $7 billion budget. Roughly half the state budget currently goes to educational programs. This was an area the committee certainly felt needed to be addressed. We also saw that veterans and military personnel in combat situations are often affected by income caps placed on Oklahoma’s Promise qualifications. Oklahoma’s Promise is the program used to fund state assistance to students with income needs and who meet certain academic requirements. This was amended this past legislature to fund these scholarships before any other program can be given state dollars. We will be reviewing this since only tuition can be covered through this and no fees are allowed to be paid from this program.

Another event I had the opportunity to attend was the wrap-up breakfast of the Oklahoma State School Board Association and Cooperative Council of Oklahoma School Administration. Read more…

Convincing the People to Pay More Money

By Rep. Jason Murphey

How can you tell the difference between those politicians who have sold out and bought into the “government as usual” status-quo, and the elected officials who remain representatives of the people? During past columns, I have described two of the criteria that I have formed, based on observing the political process. In my next two columns, I would like to explain the third, and I believe most important, criteria that best defines the difference between these two groups.

In recent years, local, state and federal government has placed a heavy burden of taxation on the people in Oklahoma. You might think that having all of these financial resources would mean that the government would not ever have to ask the people for more funding.

In the free market, the consumer rewards those businesses that do a good job by buying their products. Businesses are thus rewarded for having the best products at the lowest possible prices. And those who work in the business world are forced to work hard and perform well for their consumers. If they stop working hard, the result will be that consumers will stop buying their products and those businesses will cease to exist.

In the government world, those who run the government do not have to react to free market forces. Consumers (we, the people) are forced to use government services no matter what the quality is — and we are also forced to pay the bill. Even if the government does not perform to our satisfaction, it will still exist; and rarely does the price of government go down. Read more…

By Dick Pryor

As a journalist, I understand a lot of what is going on in the production and news decisions involved in covering the conventions. I know the network news operations grudgingly devote air time to what they consider highly-choreographed “infomercials.” They think politics is a turn-off for many. The nets want to showcase their anchor, reporting and commentary talent and produce “compelling” television that will hold viewers and develop audiences for their day-to-day programming.

The irony is that the nets gladly devote time for what amounts to a large extent to “infomercials” for their on-air capabilities, personnel and programs, while ignoring much of the content of the convention. In so doing, they diminish the relevance of the conventions, and then complain that the conventions are irrelevant.

Don’t get me wrong. Some of the discussion is enlightening, some is important, some may even be compelling. But, in the “new media” environment of the Internet and “citizen journalism,” “unfiltered” news is becoming more and more important to consumers, with journalists reporting on events and supplementing their reports with meaningful information (on-air and on-line), so that viewers can make up their own minds and become better citizens. THAT is the new reality of media “public service” and news in the digital world. Read more…

Mike Turpen picture courtesy of the “Inside the Beltway” blog.

We love it when our readers give us suggestions for stories. A reader today did even better, they gave us a suggestion and wrote us copy to boot. We invite our readers to leave their own caption for this photo.

“Using the wads of cash his buddy WAD Edmondson gave him for doing virtually nothing in the phony tobacco lawsuit scam, Mike Turpen has bought his way into favor with the white wine sipping crowd in Oklahoma City.

The liberal brown nosing plaintiff’s lawyer, an enemy of the 1^st Amendment, stopped his pursuit of frivolous lawsuits and tanking his formerly-respectable television show long enough to frighten readers of the city paper. Pucker up, buttercup!”