Oklahoma
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9:06 a.m.
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Arnold Hamilton, editor of The Oklahoma Observer , published an excellent article last week about the lack of interest among legislators to become part of a No Gifts List. The list, which was created by Common Cause Oklahoma, allows legislators to vow they won’t accept gifts from people trying to influence legislation. So far, according to Hamilton’s article, only two legislators have si...
Okie Funk - Tue 11:49 a.m. - 6 clicks 
Arnold Hamilton, editor of The Oklahoma Observer , published an excellent article last week about the lack of interest among legislators to become part of a No Gifts List. The list, which was created by Common Cause Oklahoma, allows legislators to vow they won't accept gifts from people trying to influence legislation. So far, according to Hamilton's article, only two legislators have signe...
Blue Oklahoma - Tue 11:49 a.m. - 8 clicks
State Sen. Andrew Rice wants to make it safer for bicyclists in the state. Last week, Rice, an Oklahoma City Democrat, announced he plans to introduce legislation next session that will help to protect bicyclists. The idea for the proposed bill was prompted by the recent deaths of Oklahoma bicyclists in accidents, Rice said. Rice, pictured right, also pointed out that bicycle accidents ...
Blue Oklahoma - Sun 12:25 p.m. - 11 clicks
T he Republicans like to whine about wasted stimulus money . It's all pork barrel projects and silliness, they insist. Oklahoma's two GOP senators, Jim Inhofe and Tom Coburn , are prime examples of this tendency. There is another side to the story , of course, good projects the GOP doesn't want to talk about. Some stimulus projects are quite reasonable, helping deserving people (suc...
Alternative Tulsa - Thu 2:23 p.m. - 16 clicks
State Rep. Sally Kern (R-Oklahoma City) continues to attack the gay community here. Her Democratic opponent in this year's election is Brittany Novotny, who wants to focus on job creation and education. Here is Novotny's website . ...
Blue Oklahoma - Thu 12:45 p.m. - 14 clicks
M ary Fallin seems determined to drive up her negatives . Why else would she bring Mississippi Gov. Haley (Big Boy) Barbour to Tulsa for a private fundraising event? Rep. Fallin, the Republican Party nominee for governor, ought to be connecting to ordinary Oklahoma voters. Instead, she turned up at a private event (no common folks allowed) in Tulsa with Barbour, former GOP Natio...
Alternative Tulsa - Aug 25 - 9 clicks
Here's an item that didn't get much attention in the local media last week: As part of the Affordable Care Act, Oklahoma will receive $1 million from the federal government to monitor health insurance premium increases to determine if they are excessive. If insurance companies are seeking "unreasonable rates" here, then the state could use the money to take action against them, ac...
Blue Oklahoma - Aug 24 - 6 clicks
No, it's the Republicans who are mostly using fear-mongering as part of a regimented political calculation this election season, not Democrats. So remind The Oklahoman editorial writers, who support politicians such as U.S. Sen. Coburn, whose predictions of future financial insolvency for the nation are about as lacking in facts and logic as you can get. The newspaper, in an incredible ac...
Blue Oklahoma - Aug 22 - 8 clicks
O ne of the dimmest bulbs in the conservative firmament is coming to T-town. Yes, Sooner fans, none other that Saint Sarah of Alaska , Sarah Palin, former half-term governor, will be in Tulsa soon as a speaker for an Oklahoma conservative "think" tank (using "think" in the loosest possible sense). With Palin as the big draw, you know these folks are less interested in working policy soluti...
Alternative Tulsa - Aug 22 - 9 clicks
T he highly paranoid, largely delusional conspiracy crowd is out there—in Oklahoma and many other places, still foaming at the mouth about secret concentration camps, black helicopters and a slew of other whacked-out anti-government fantasies. This would be comical, except that many of these folks are true believers , enabled by loose talk on Internet, talk radio and Fox News (Glenn Beck s...
Alternative Tulsa - Aug 20 - 5 clicks
A h, Dr. Tom Coburn. Our own principled conservative senator , who would never do anything remotely disingenuous. Oh, wait. He's a politician —just like the rest of the gang. Of course he plays politics and grandstands, especially when it suits his purpose. A Washington Post columnist has nailed Dr. Tom for his less-than-serious ideas about the D.C. area Metro system. Dr. Tom thinks no ...
Alternative Tulsa - Aug 19 - 2 clicks
U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn is back in the state scaring his town hall crowds with partisan and extremist claims about the current federal budget deficit. According to the Tulsa World , Coburn, Oklahoma's junior Republican Senator, told an audience in Checotah today that the nation is nearing a "tipping point" when it comes to its financial solvency. Coburn, the newspaper reported, argues the natio...
Blue Oklahoma - Aug 19 - 3 clicks
T im Schoelen and his Oklahoma-based beer are winning praise in the craft-brewing world. As reported in today's Tulsa World , Schoelen's Mustang Brewing Company is proving popular in the Sooner state. In fact, Schoelen's Washita Wheat won a silver medal at the World Beer Championships in July. Mustang beer is available in Tulsa at McNellie's, Kilkenny's, Joe Mama's and the Fox & Ho...
Alternative Tulsa - Aug 18
H eadline of the Day, courtesy of USA Today: Two Sarah Palin picks go down to defeat Editor's note : Palin has endorsed Mary Fallin in the race for Oklahoma governor. Hmmm… ...
Alternative Tulsa - Aug 18 - 2 clicks
L et's call it the Inhofe Institute of Junk Science —a way to recognize the head-in-the-sand ideas of Tulsa's very own apostle of bogus science. Apparently, other Republicans also ignore science in favor of fantasy. Thus we get erroneous climate information from a Wisconsin Republican Ron Johnson , who is running for the U.S. senate. Johnson claims that sunspots are the so...
Alternative Tulsa - Aug 17
The latest reminder how intellectually bankrupt the conservative movement remains in this country are the tributes written about journalist and once-avowed racist James Kilpatrick, an Oklahoma City native, who died recently. In its obituary, The New York Times mentioned this about Kilpatrick: At times, Mr. Kilpatrick went beyond constitutional arguments. In 1963, he drafted an article f...
Blue Oklahoma - Aug 17
A new post on the Oklahoma Policy Institute blog looks at SQ 746, the ballot measure that would require Oklahoma voters to show identification to cast a vote. Our bottom line: In an editorial , the Oklahoman concedes that "voter fraud has never been much of a problem", but endorses SQ 746, on these grounds: read more ...
Oklahoma Citizen - Aug 16 - 2 clicks
One of the Native American tribes in Oklahoma is the "Absentee Shawnee" tribe. They were absent from the Northwest Indian wars that followed the revolutionary war. Among the... ...
Mainstream Baptist - Aug 13 - 2 clicks
R ep. Mary Fallin is the Republican candidate for governor. In this very Red State, Fallin ought to be a shoo-in come November. But Fallin's ideology— go as far right as possible —is problematic, as a Tulsa World editorial pointed out the other day. In an editorial, the World noted that Fallin turned the promise of new federal aid—money that will help Oklahoma—into a campaign issue. Fa...
Alternative Tulsa - Aug 12
Joshua Jantz, the long-shot Republican candidate facing state Sen. Andrew Rice in the Senate 46 District race, is using religious rhetoric again in his campaign material. As some of you may remember, Jantz ran against Rice in 2006. Rice, the Democratic nominee for the seat, which is in Oklahoma City, won 70 percent of the vote that year by the landslide margin of 7,342 to 3,217. As part ...
Blue Oklahoma - Aug 12
A march to show support for soldier Bradley Manning will be held tonight (Thursday, Aug. 12) at 8 p.m. near the state Capitol. Those who would like to march should gather before the march at Lincoln and 16th Street. Manning, an Oklahoman native, has been accused of leaking Afghanistan War documents and is currently being held at a military prison. One of the groups sponsoring the march, Ok...
Blue Oklahoma - Aug 12
Brittany Novotny, who is challenging state Rep. Sally Kern for her House seat this election year, has published an intelligent and important open letter to the legislator, which should be read thoroughly by voters in District 84. Kern, as most Oklahomans know, is infamous nationally for her anti-gay crusade. She once claimed homosexuality is a bigger threat to this country to terrorism . Ke...
Blue Oklahoma - Aug 10 - 2 clicks
The anti-education agenda of some Oklahoma leaders can't get more apparent than last week when U.S. Rep. Mary Fallin, the Republican nominee for governor, and U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn explained their opposition to a federal bill that would provide emergency funding to the nation's schools. According to recent media reports over the last several weeks, hundreds of Oklahoma teachers face layoffs thi...
Blue Oklahoma - Aug 8 - 3 clicks
The Oklahoman continues to deal in rhetorical demonization and deceit in its obsessive opposition to State Question 744 , a proposed constitutional measure that if passed in November would simply fund state schools at the regional average. No one can get a fair sense of what SQ 744 is about on the newspaper's editorial page or in its news columns. At this point, The Oklahoman has fo...
Blue Oklahoma - Aug 4 - 3 clicks
Oklahoma Republicans and local political pundits have been confidently predicting a GOP win in the U.S. Congressional Fifth District this year. The GOP runoff over the seat now held by gubernatorial candidate U.S. Rep. Mary Fallin is between former state legislator Kevin Calvey and political newcomer James Lankford, who won the most votes in the race. The third-place winner, state Rep. Mike Th...
Blue Oklahoma - Aug 3 - 2 clicks
(Be sure to look at the videos in the comments section of this post.) The Oklahoman editorial page, which serves as chief, local cheerleader for U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe and his global-warming-is-a-hoax claim, published a commentary Saturday that essentially refuted people who draw on one season of extreme hot or cold weather to make a claim about climate change. I wonder why the editorial wr...
Blue Oklahoma - Aug 1 - 3 clicks
(Oklahoma, which leads the nation in female incarceration, needs corrections reform. Read DocHoc's commentary this week in the Oklahoma Gazette .) It's vitally important that Lt. Gov. Jari Askins becomes Oklahoma's next governor so she can provide crucial political balance as Republicans retain or increase majorities in the legislature this year. Askins, who won the Democratic primary ...
Blue Oklahoma - Jul 29 - 4 clicks
Politico published a recent post about U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn, who has apparently turned over emails to federal investigators probing the fallout from U.S. Sen. John Ensign's extramarital affair. Here's the post , the gist of which is that Coburn is now going to fully cooperate with investigators in the scandal. Coburn was a former roommate of Ensign and apparently knew about the affair, ...
Blue Oklahoma - Jul 27 - 3 clicks
Oklahomans should support State Question 774, a constitutional amendment on the November ballot that, if approved, would increase per-pupil funding to the regional average. The amendment is a long-sighted and game-changing approach to solve the systemic problem of inadequate education funding in Oklahoma, which ranks 49th in the nation and dead last in a seven-state region in per-pupil spendin...
Blue Oklahoma - Jul 25 - 3 clicks
BP Gulf well cap works so far. Obama Fixed Gulf Oil Leak Dan Boren has remained mum . ...
PhotoTune - Jul 17 - 3 clicks
