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National Initiative and Referendum Expert’s Statement Before Trial for Violating Petition Laws
(Oklahoma City, OK)…Paul Jacob, President of Citizens in Charge released the following statement before his preliminary hearing on felony charges of violating the state’s statute requiring petition circulators to be residents of Oklahoma:
“Today, Attorney General Drew Edmondson continues his attack on the right to petition one’s government. We are innocent. We sought to understand and to fully comply with the letter of the law. Indeed, those running the petition drive were advised by state officials and followed that advice.
Furthermore, the very statute being used to prosecute us is being challenged as unconstitutional. In recent months, statutes similar to Oklahoma’s have been struck down as unconstitutional by two federal circuit courts – the Sixth and Ninth Circuits – in unanimous decisions.
Make no mistake: We are here today facing 10 years in prison because we worked for an issue adamantly opposed by the rich and powerful in Oklahoma. The goal of this prosecution is to threaten us and scare Oklahomans away from the initiative process, which gives citizens their best opportunity for real reform.
But we will not be bullied out of our rights as Americans. We will fight this vicious, politically-motivated assault, and we will prevail.”
Citizens in Charge works with activists, legislators, media, opinion leaders and voters to protect the initiative & referendum process where it exists in 24 states and to expand the process to the 26 states where voters currently lack the initiative.
Related:
WSJ Editorial: Oklahoma’s Most Wanted
Townhall.com: We, the Oklahoma 3
Louis Gray, former publisher of the Native American Times of Oklahoma, discusses his work with the recent Obama campaign.
From Examiner.com
It’s funny how conservative someone is until they become a lobbyist! Then unfortunately, they become like all the other parasites scrambling to feed at the public trough! Read more…
Why do Democrat politicians always look so silly when the pose for photo ops at places their touring? Lt. Governor Jari Askins – who looks cold and ready to get the hell out of there -follows in the fine tradition of losers John Kerry and Michael Dukakis.
Giving Special Interests The Power To Take Your Property
By Rep. Jason Murphey
In the past, I have written about the possibility of the expansion of the Trans-Texas Corridor into Oklahoma and described why it is important that we not allow foreign-owned companies to control Oklahoma roads.
The example of the foreign-owned Texas toll road is one example of this type of abuse. However, this is not the only example of Texas allowing privately owned interests to operate much like the government in order to make a profit.
Over the past few years, a wealthy Texas businessman decided to incur the risk of investing in a product that he believes will be in great demand in the future. That product is water. The businessman formed a corporation known as Mesa Water and acquired water rights in a large aquifer in the Texas panhandle and tried to market this water to the nearby city of Amarillo. Read more…
My interim study last week provided a great deal of information regarding our elections process in Oklahoma. There were very few problems at the polls and the provisional ballots are currently being reviewed for authenticity and will be included in the totals, even though none can possibly change outcomes on the elections. Thank you to those of you that voted and helped make this election turnout just short of a state record. Read more…
Senator Jay Paul Gumm, D-Durant, was the guest on the Sunday, Nov. 16, 2008 edition of KXII’s First News Forum, a public affairs program hosted by Charlie Haldeman. The senator answered questions on a host of subjects including the election results, priorities for the Oklahoma Legislature in 2008 and the change in legislative leadership. This is the opening segment.
Hat tip:senatorgumm
Local Gasoline price in St. Louis (9/16/08)
As what is customary in the public/crisis relations business, news you want to keep low key is provided to the press on a late Friday afternoon - usually after 2pm. This is about when we learned that former Oklahoma Corporation Commissioner Denise Bode was trading the chief con meister job at the Clean Skies Foundation for a similar position with the American Wind Energy Association. No doubt a tool of wind entrepreneur T. Boone Pickens. Read more: (WSJ: Pickens’s Investors Ask for Exit)
With the fall of natural gas prices; Aubrey McClendon’s Chesapeake Energy holdings liquidated due to margin calls; and with cutbacks in “non essential expenditures,” the handwriting was plainly on the wall that the CSF gig for Bode was just about up. We got to hand it to these people, they are nothing but tenacious. T. Boone was on NBC’s Meet the Press yesterday still pitching his “plan,” even with gasoline at prices we haven’t seen in over a year!
What is it about “the will of the people” that homosexuals and their radical supporters don’t understand? The people of California spoke clearly on November 4th – with overwhelming support from African Americans and Hispanics – that they don’t want traditional marriage redefined, especially by unaccountable and unelected judges.
Related:
Peace Arena:
The quote of the day goes to the Red Stater blog. In what usually happens in any type of subjective ranking system, many blogs are overlooked, and many are overrated and ignored. We too wondered how the Oklahoma Political News Service, which is consistently number one in the BlogNet News rankings every week -except for when we miss a day of posting – wasn’t considered for this list.
We guess their criteria for a good political blog is posting plenty of press releases, and cutting and pasting excerpts from national publications and the state’s two major newspapers. It’s funny, because a certain McBlogger told me a couple of years ago that he didn’t link to me because I didn’t have enough original material!
For the record, OKPNS had the McClendon/Roth tree farm story two weeks before a certain McBlogger ran with it. My source sent me the information during the death of my close friend and I just didn’t have the focus or energy to write it up. The source stayed patient until they finally told me that if I couldn’t post it soon, they would have to send it to another blogger. That’s the truth, we have no reason to lie.
Congratulations to the Mcblogger for this well deserved honor!
Rob McClendon shares his views on the presidential election.
Hat tip: OklahomaHorizonTV
Related:
Peace Arena: Oklahoma election post mortemsOklahoma Voice of Reason: What a GOP majority means for choice…