Okie Funk 2007 Review Part I

(It has been a mixed year for progressives in Oklahoma, but the fight continues. In this post, you will find excerpts from Okie Funk blogs published from January to June in 2007. The next blog will feature posts from the rest of the year. Here’s wishing you a great 2008.)

Oklahoma Creationists Try Textbook Trick

As predicted, the Oklahoma creationist movement is back this year in the state legislature.
Anti-evolution bills attacking the scientific method, the foundation of modern medicine, have a fair to decent chance of passing because the legislature is dominated by neoconservatives, whose bills are most often based on ideology or cultural wedge issues.

Want better health care and wages? Want to make sure your children have decent jobs here? Don’t ask a Republican. All you’re going to get from the Oklahoma GOP (and even some supposed Democrats) these days is pathetic, religious-driven legislation that makes the state one of the biggest laughingstocks in the nation. Yeah, right, it always helps to be known as a place of ignorance and intolerance when you’re trying to create economic development.

We can only hope this neoconservative strategy of activating the conservative, uneducated masses through cultural wedges has almost run its course here in Oklahoma. People are now waking up throughout the country. But will it happen here?

January 18, 2007

Cargill’s Petty Politics

Oklahoma House Speaker Lance Cargill’s petty move to ban a Norman legislator from serving on an important committee that is vital to his district shows again how Republicans consistently put politics above people in the state.

Cargill (R-Harrah) has denied a request by state Rep. Wallace Collins (D-Norman) to serve on the mental health subcommittee. Collins’ House District 45 is home to Griffin Memorial Hospital, a mental health facility. Traditionally, legislators from the district serve on mental health committees, according to Collins, who has complained publicly about Cargill's action.

But this doesn’t matter to Cargill, of course. Collins beat Thad Balkman, a religious extremist who wants to force Oklahomans to live under his narrow-minded views, for the House seat last November.

So here’s the kicker: Cargill and Balkman, two slick buddies, are operating the mysterious 100 Ideas initiative, which will not reveal its funding because government is secret in Oklahoma these days. The initiative seems designed to further Cargill’s and Balkman’s political careers and bolster the GOP chances to further dominate the Lege in years to come.

So Cargill and the Oklahoma power structure reward the religious fanatic and election loser Balkman but won’t even let Collins serve on a significant committee for his district. Collins won the election. Balkman lost. Essentially, it means secret individuals or corporations operate the political landscape here, not voters in Norman or elsewhere. What else is new?

Here’s an idea for your secret He-Man Woman Haters Club and its 100 big shot ideers, Cargill: Give Democracy a chance. Put Collins on the committee.

February 13, 2007

Terrill The Terrible

The bill states, “The State of Oklahoma finds that illegal immigration is causing economic hardship and lawlessness in this state and that illegal immigration is encouraged by public agencies within this state that provide public benefits without verifying immigration status.”

Those are lies. Undocumented workers (the key word here is “workers”) contribute to economy here and the vast majority of them are decent, hard-working people. They are here only because they want better lives for themselves and families. Terrill, who represents the Moore area, says illegal immigration costs the state $200 million a year. But how much do they actually add to the local economy? In addition, no public agencies here are actively encouraging illegal immigration. That’s absurd. They are merely dealing with a major federal problem just like other states.

The Republicans have failed on a national level to do anything about the growing numbers of undocumented workers in this country so Terrill and his GOP comrades say they are taking things in their own hands.

March 1, 2007

Impoverished Women Attacked By Anti-Abortion Bill

The bill is one of many anti-abortion bills introduced in the legislature this session. Will Gov. Brad Henry sign the bill? He signed four anti-abortion bills last year, of course, but if he wants to veto this bill he will have the medical community on his side. The Oklahoma State Medical Association opposes the bill.

Oklahoma is fast becoming a state with some of the strictest abortion laws in the nation.

But the larger view about the abortion issue in Oklahoma is this: Those women with the financial resources can always leave the state and obtain a discreet, safe abortion. For impoverished women, especially those with health problems, this could be problematic. This law could force some Oklahoma women to seek out back-alley abortions.

Our state government is openly attacking poor women. What else is new, right? If you’re rich, you can fly to California to get an abortion. If you’re poor, you probably don’t even have the money to travel to nearby states.

April 4, 2007

Head Lunatic

On the same day The Daily Oklahoman editorial page argued Gov. Brad Henry should veto state Rep. Randy “The Terrible” Terrill’s draconian illegal immigration bill, it carried a story about how U.S. Senator Jim Inhofe wants similar strict actions on a federal level.

The newspaper has consistently supported Inhofe despite the senator’s outlandish and bizarre statements about global warming, the Iraq occupation, and individual rights, and now it seems to contradict itself. The Inhofe story, of course carried no refutation or opposing views of the senator’s claims and supposedly it’s “news” not an endorsement. But did The Oklahoman interview anyone in the state who would argue against the tyrant Inhofe? No. We’re not allowed to speak in the state’s largest newspaper. Inhofe, meanwhile, gets to use the newspaper as his free, personal public relations firm.

May 5, 2007

Coburn Supports DDT Interests

Inhofe and Coburn are the tools of big corporations, which are damaging the environment and making our food supply unsafe. The state’s corporate media, especially Daily Oklahoman reporter Chris Casteel, who is a Washington bigwig “correspondent” (a big joke since he really writes editorials), allow the two politicians to consistently lie to Oklahomans without offering dissenting views. (Some media insiders say Casteel is under strict orders issued by Executive Editor Ed Kelley to give the gay-bashing Coburn and Inhofe positive coverage despite their lies, contradictions and rhetorical gaffes. The somber Kelley, for example, appeared recently in a personal video lauding bigot Coburn as a Senator. What type of metropolitan newspaper editor would take the personal time to kiss the tushy of one of the weirdest right-wing Senators in the history of the United States?)

June 2, 2007