When in Rome.....

The Conservative View

by Russell Turner

I have often heard the old expression, “when in Rome, do as the Romans do”. I believe that statement to be one of respect. When I visit someone and observe how they conduct their business, I often remind myself that how they do things is their business and not mine. Unless asked, I don’t try to convert them to fit into my personal belief system. Most countries would take a very dim view at someone from another country protesting and carrying the flag of another country within their borders.

We Americans are a tolerant people to other people’s values and beliefs. I recently read some comments from our founding fathers concerning the allowing of other people from different cultures into our country.

In 1820 Alexander Hamilton wrote, "The United States have already felt the evils of incorporating a large number of foreigners into their national mass; by promoting in different classes different predilections in favor of particular foreign nations, and antipathies against others, it has served very much to divide the community and to distract our councils. It has been often likely to compromise the interests of our own country in favor of another. The permanent effect of such a policy will be, that in times of great public danger there will be always a numerous body of men, of whom there may be just grounds of distrust; the suspicion alone will weaken the strength of the nation, but their force may be actually employed in assisting an invader."

While we Americans can be tolerant, we need to remember that the values our country was founded upon are just as important as those of any other country. It is strange that no other country in the world is as tolerant to other people’s beliefs to the extent that it degrades our own heritage.

If the people in Rome were so tolerant of other cultures and allowed their values to be replaced, their city would no longer be Rome. Whenever you hear of blanket amnesty we need to remember the words of Alexander Hamilton,
"To admit foreigners indiscriminately to the rights of citizens the moment they put foot in our country would be nothing less than to admit the Grecian horse into the citadel of our liberty and sovereignty."

Over the past weeks the state of Arizona has taken much abuse for merely wanting to know who is coming into their house, maybe the current administration needs to read the words of the men who actually founded this country.

Russell Turner lives in Stillwell, OK and for years has writen a weekly article for several area newspapers under by-line...The Conservative View.

FILING OPENED TODAY!

Filing to run for office opened today across Oklahoma for all elective offices. It will continue until 5:00pm on Wednesday June 9.

Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their city ~ county ~ state ~ Nation! Throw YOUR hat in the ring!

Property Owners want to VOTE! NO 5% annual increase!

One of the hottest issues with voters is the automatic 5% property tax increase Oklahoma property owners face each year! Sen. Jim Reynolds held a press conference on Tuesday, April 27, and is asking for HELP from voters to gain a floor vote on Senate Joint Resolution 5, the property tax cap that he has pressed in recent years! [reduction from 5% to 3%]. The State Senate has approved this bill and Reynolds has ask that House Speaker, Chris Benge, R-Tulsa, let the bill be heard by the House of Representatives. Benge has not agreed to let this bill be heard.

The Grapevine would encourage all who have interest/concern in this bill to contact Speaker Benge, Senator Reynolds, along with your area Legislator. Voters need to read a copy of the bill. Voters want ALL properties included as in original State Question, not just applying to a homestead [only].

Now, the Legislature could place this question [directly] on ballot [state question] for the people to vote with no signature required by the Governor; OR..... it could be passed through the Legislature and appears any veto by the Governor could be over ridden by the Legislature. Seems problem is.....Legislature (House) doesn't want to address this issue. Why? No doubt the teachers union lobbies hard against any reduction in this tax.

It's an election year. Voters need to ask the candidates where they stand on this issue. Property owners need relief NOW!

Senator Jim Reynolds: (405) 521-5522; reynolds@oksenate.gov
Speaker Chris Benge: (405) 557-7340; chrisbenge@okhouse.gov

PLAY as you PAY!

TAXES and VOTING
Walter E. Williams

According to the Tax Policy Center, a Washington, D.C., research organization, nearly half of U.S. households will pay no federal income taxes for 2009. That's up from the Tax Foundation's 2006 estimate that 41 percent of the American population, or 121 million Americans, were completely outside the federal income tax system. These Americans pay no federal income tax either because their incomes are too low or they have higher income but credits, deductions and exemptions that relieve them of tax liability. This lack of income tax liability stands in stark contrast to the top 10 percent of earners, those households earning an average of $366,400 in 2006, who paid about 73 percent of federal income taxes. The top 25 percent paid 86 percent. The bottom 50 percent of taxpayers paid less than 4 percent of federal income taxes collected.

Let's not dwell on the fairness of such an arrangement for financing the activities of the federal government. Instead, let's ask what kind of incentives and results such an arrangement produces and ask ourselves whether these results are good for our country. That's a question to be asked whether or not one has federal income tax liabilities. Having 121 million Americans completely outside the federal income tax system, it's like throwing chum to political sharks. These Americans become a natural spending constituency for big-spending politicians. After all, if you have no income tax liability, how much do you care about deficits, how much Congress spends and the level of taxation?

Political calls for tax cuts and spending restraints have little appeal. Survey polls revealed this. According to The Harris Poll taken in June 2003, 51 percent of Democrats thought the tax cuts enacted by Congress were a bad thing while 16 percent of Republicans thought so. Among Democrats, 67 percent thought the tax cuts were unfair while 32 percent of Republicans thought so. When asked whether the $350-billion tax cut package will help your family finances, 59 percent of those surveyed said no and 35 percent said yes. Tax cuts to many Americans mean just one thing: They pose a threat to the federal handouts they receive.

Here's my perhaps politically incorrect question: If one has no financial stake in our country, how much of a say-so should he have in its management? Let's put it another way: I do not own stock, and hence have no financial stake, in Ford Motor Company. Do you think I should have voting rights or any say-so in the management of the company? I'm guessing that the average sane person's answer is no.

You say, "Williams, just where are you heading with this?" I'm not proposing that we take voting rights away from those who do not pay taxes. What I'm suggesting is that every American gets one vote in every federal election, plus another vote for each $20,000 he pays in federal taxes. With such a system, there'd be a modicum of linkage between one's financial stake in our country and his decision-making right. Of course, unequal voting power could be reduced by legislating lower taxes.

This is not a far-out idea. The founders worried about it. James Madison's concern about class warfare between the rich and the poor led him to favor the House of Representatives being elected by the people at large and the Senate elected by property owners. He said, "It is nevertheless certain, that there are various ways in which the rich may oppress the poor; in which property may oppress liberty; and that the world is filled with examples. It is necessary that the poor should have a defense against the danger. On the other hand, the danger to the holders of property cannot be disguised, if they be undefended against a majority without property."

"I Thought"...... vs Reality

People who expected change from President O. had this in mind.....one in every garage!



As 'big brother', set-us-back-100 years, policy takes shape this is what the President and Congress have in mind for you. Enjoy, it gets great milage, few green house emmissions! And, if push comes to shove....you can eat it! Can Mercedes do that?

"..longest wet kiss....".

"I mean, since this thing (Obamacare) passed last weekend, we have seen the longest wet kiss in political history given to the Obama administration by the liberal media elite, and every day that goes by, it gets sloppier."

~ Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour

'WE' Know What Works....

A crowd of 6,000+ were in Tulsa to hear Glen Beck and Sarah Palin on March 13.

"The funny thing is that Washington wants all of us to think this (healthcare reform package) is just way over our heads and all of this is just way too complicated for all of us to understand. But everyday Americans know better.
And we’re not taking it anymore.
We’re not believing everything the ‘lamestream’ media is spewing at us, and that the White House wants to twist and pivot around … We know better, because we know real history, and we know what works.”
~ Sarah Palin

STOP SQ 744

Oklahomans For Responsible Government has taken its fight against State Question 744 up a notch with the purchase of an ad on The McCarville Report Online and Mark Shannon.com seeking petition signers.

Those who click on the ad are taken to www.STOP744.com an online resource to help defeat State Question 744 on the Oklahoma ballot this November! (scroll down, link on right of this page).

SQ 744 is a proposal by the Oklahoma Education Association (OEA) that would force the state to spend nearly a billion dollars more on education by cutting all other state agencies or raise your taxes by the same amount.

SQ 744 will be on the November 2010 ballot.

The MOTHER of All Bail-outs To Come!

The Mother of All Bail-outs To Come!
Opinion/editorial by J.C. Watts Jr.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal - 2/28/10

I'm all for bipartisan agreements that make sense. However, when I look at what is unfolding in Congress in the name of bipartisanship on banking reform, it makes me extremely nervous.

Here we go again. Sens. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., and Bob Corker, R-Tenn., are working on bipartisan legislation to revamp the regulatory structure of the financial services industry. The House passed Rep. Barney Frank's version Dec. 11. The bill from Frank, D-Mass., would create a controversial Consumer Financial Protection Agency and codify a permanent bailout authority for the federal government.

The big question for Americans who hate bailouts is whether the Senate will follow the House's lead and grant the Federal Reserve the statutory authority to bail out individuals, partnerships or corporations to the tune of $4 trillion.

On Page 506 of the House-passed bill, which is titled the "Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act" is the following language: The amounts made available under this subsection shall not exceed $4,000,000,000,000.
This so-called "reform" and "consumer protection" legislation authorizes a $4 trillion bailout fund for Wall Street. That is more money than President Obama's 2011 budget ($3.8 trillion), the gross domestic product of Germany ($3.7 trillion), and between five and six times the amount of the Troubled Assets Relief Program. A majority of House members actually voted for a bill containing $4 trillion in new bailout authority. You just can't make this stuff up. It is really in the bill.

David Reilly, a columnist for Bloomberg News, said the bill "authorizes Federal Reserve banks to provide as much as $4 trillion in emergency funding the next time Wall Street crashes. So much for 'no-more-bailouts' talk. That is more than twice what the Federal Reserve pumped into markets last year. The size of the fund makes the deal-making in the Senate's health care bill look minuscule."

Current law allows the Federal Reserve to open the lending window in "unusual and exigent circumstances." According to the Congressional Research Service, this authority had been used in the past to authorize entities created by the Federal Reserve's Bear Stearns merger and bailout of AIG. Nowhere near $4 trillion has been committed under existing authority.An explicit authority would be created under the Frank approach to financial services reform to allow the Federal Reserve to make $4 trillion in commitments in unusual and exigent circumstances.

This provides the Federal Reserve with more authority to bail out failing industries without the need for getting the prior consent of Congress. The words "unusual" and "exigent" are vague and ambiguous enough to give the Federal Reserve sweeping new bailout authorities to dispense massive commitments to private and public entities.

Here's how it would work: The Fed would have to make a written determination that a "liquidity event exists that could destabilize the financial system" with a vote of two-thirds of the members of the Financial Oversight Council. The next step would be to secure the written consent of the secretary of the treasury as another condition to the commitment of monies, and the president would have to certify that an emergency exists. The Fed then would authorize a Federal Reserve bank to make a commitment in consideration for "notes, drafts, and bills of exchange" consistent with the order from the Fed, Treasury and the president. The House and Senate would be notified of the action by the Fed. There is a requirement that the secretary of the treasury believes that the funds will be paid back.

I remind you these are all the same entities who were asleep at the wheel in oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, allowing them to run amok. There is a provision for a joint resolution of congressional disapproval, but the commencing of any resolution would not happen until after the commitment of funds had already been made. It is unlikely that members of Congress would be able to unravel any action.

The Senate has the power to run away from this new bailout authority or to embrace it when senators debate financial services reform legislation. The direction that Dodd and Corker take in negotiations on this important issue will have severe ramifications for government policy on the proper role of the Federal Reserve to prop up failing companies in times of crisis.

If this bill passes the Senate with bailout authority intact and gets one step closer to the president's desk, then voters will be mad at yet another abuse of the taxpayers' dollars. The idea of a small and limited government is inconsistent with the idea that the Federal Reserve should have $4 trillion more in bailout authority.
-posted Fair and Biased

Phone Gall!

For once 'we' agree with TW:

Editorial - Tulsa World
February 24, 2010
World Editorial writers

Phone Gall!
When the Corporation Commission started out on plans to make all long-distance phone calls inside the state of Oklahoma toll-free, we were dubious. Someone, somewhere would end up paying the bill, we said.

Forgive us for pointing out that we were right.

The commission's staff has come up with a plan to pay for the "free" calls and has revised it, upping the ante. Sure enough, the plan amounts to a cost shift. Instead of people paying for their own calls, the plan would have everyone who uses a phone — including cell phone customers who already have toll-free long distance — pick up the costs.

The current scheme is to add more than $3 to the monthly phone bill of every telephone user in the state — that's more than 7 million phones, including land-lines and cell phones.

And exactly what is the benefit?
Not very much if you live in Tulsa, which already has one of the largest toll-free calling areas in the nation.

The primary beneficiary would be land-line telephone users in the remote parts of the state. They would be able to call friends and business associates in Oklahoma City and Tulsa or anywhere else for free.

Strike that. It's not free, it's just that everyone else would end up paying for it.

The toll-free calling scheme is a waste of time for the commission and a bad deal for most telephone users in Oklahoma. Someone disconnect this line before it goes any farther.

Copyright © 2010, World Publishing Co. All rights reserved

If you would like to 'reach out and touch' the Commissioners on this new tax:

Jeff Cloud, Commissioner (405) 521-2264
Bob Anthony, Commissioner (405) 521-2261
Dana Murphy, Commissioner (405) 521-2267

Coakley 'croaks' as Republican Scott Brown streaks to Victory!

Republican Scott Brown Wins BIG in Massachusetts!

Like the shot heard round the world,* and once again from the cradle of Liberty....today, Americans fired a 'vote' that will, like that shot of old, be heard round the world.
Today Americans started a Revolution that this time will not be won at Concord or Bunker Hill, but will be won at the ballot box.

Voters today in Massachusetts started 'for real' the taking back of America! It wasn't this party against that party; it was the coming together of Americans who used their precious vote to make it clear they are fed up. In just a short few months, 'change' that was touted during campaigns turned out to be NOT change for the better, but change for the worse!

Voters today issued a referendum on the current direction our country is being dragged. Voters stated loud and clear they do not like, nor want, government takeover of every facet of their life; no government intrusion into their personal medical problems - government deciding if and when medications and treatment can be administered; their hard earned tax dollars being used for bribes and sweetheart deals for the 'buddies' and 'privileged few'; massive trillions of dollars of debt that will be impossible to pay; debt and creeping socialist policies that will stifle business, deteriorate the fabric of society and the way of life for hard working Americans; crippling tax increases that will prevent Americans from being able to adequately provide for their families and their futures. Today, voters said NO...this is NOT the American way!

Massachusetts has fired the first 'shot' in the battle that will bring Americans out in droves across our Nation to join the battle this November and next. Other Americans will use their vote to echo Massachusetts in that we will not allow our blood bought liberties, our freedoms, our way of life to be taken away by those who have become greedy with power, arrogant, self-serving, turning a deaf ear to the electorate they swore an oath to represent!

Follow Massachusetts America! They have just reminded us.......It IS government of the people, by the people, and for the people.

gjw aka Grapevine

*Opening stanza of Ralph Waldo Emerson's 'Concord Hymn', written 1837, and came to refer to the beginning of the American Revolution!

Global Warming ~ Global Freezing! HOAX!

Jan. 10, 2010

To the Editor:

The past few days here in Oklahoma has felt like sitting on a glacier edge on the north side of Nome. Not to mention the Christmas eve blizzard. Citizens of the US have been told that ‘global warming’ is their fault. We are told that we need to quit using freon, hair dryers, combustible engines, letting cows fart, and 1000's of other products and resources. We need to change our habits, our activities, and our life styles, to stave off global warming and it’s catastrophic effects!

Now, I need these same ‘greenies’, the environmental ‘experts’, to tell me/us what to do to stave off this ‘global freezing’. If we can influence global warming, obviously we can do something about the freezing too!

Appears the 'experts' need to start with Alaska and Canada as that seems to be where this frigid air is originating! Those areas must be using products and living lifestyles that are horribly wrong!

I need answers asap as I am almost out of gas, wood, coal, and other heat producing products needed to keep me from freezing to death!
Oh, btw…all those items are on the government’s hit list too!

gjw aka Grapevine
printed w/slight editing - Oklahoman Jan. 13.

Meanwhile:

Rolling Stone lived up to its liberal reputation in the current issue, which features a cover story on global warming titled "You Idiots!" and names Senator Jim Inhofe as one of the "planet's worst enemies.''

Inhofe's response: "My first response was I should have been No. 1, not No. 7," said Inhofe, the most vocal global-warming skeptic in Congress who has generated worldwide news coverage of his views. "I am serious about that. I have spent now literally years on this thing, and it has been a long, involved thing.''

Although the magazine did not actually rank its "Climate Killers" by number, it does appear Warren Buffett, the legendary investor from Nebraska who is one of the richest people in the nation, took the top spot.

PLUS - Don't miss syndicated columnist Walter Williams latest article: 'Global Warming is a Religion'.Read at: www.townhall.com

Charisma NO Match for Fear! America Weak!

America hasn't been this weak since the Carter years. President Obama's freshman-year foreign policy was the worst in living memory. At the dawn of 2010, the United States finds itself noticeably weaker in international affairs than it was when Mr. Obama took office, and there are no signs of improvement in the year ahead.

Mr. Obama was elected with almost no national security experience, but he counted on two principle sources of leverage on the world stage: his personal charisma and the fact that he was not George W. Bush.

The year began with much swagger and self-assurance, but the result was a foreign policy with the naive enthusiasm of someone who once may have taken a graduate seminar in international relations...

The world is a tough neighborhood. Mr. Bush was not loved, but he was feared, which Machiavelli advises is a more durable position. Mr. Obama has sought only to be loved, but in the process has disappointed America's allies and encouraged our adversaries.

The world has the measure of the man in the White House, and he doesn't measure up to the task at hand. Unless he shows a stronger hand, Mr. Obama will continue to increasingly follow global events rather than lead them.

-Editorial, The Washington Times via ElephantPride

ENOUGH! 5% Increase needs to be Re-VOTED!

Citizens want to VOTE.....again!

Oklahoma property owners are running out of money and becoming increasingly irked at an unfair annual 5% property tax increase. Talk among voters is escalating and support is forming to pursue an initiative petition to repeal or roll-back the law if the Legislature refuses to address the problem.

The bill (State Question 676) - written by and for, the school establishment - was not well understood when citizens voted on it in 1996. Because the people voted for this, people will have to vote again to make changes.

While the bill was intended to have 5% as a 'cap', most counties now use it as 'mandate' to make the 5% increase in your property tax bill each year. Counties were also encouraged by an opinion from the AG's office.
(Have you noticed, when it's an AG opinion the money-takers like, they use it...if they don't like, it's out! It is after all....just an opinion - no weight of law!)
Another 'problem' with this current law is that not all counties administer the bill the same!

In Oklahoma’s two largest counties, property taxes are up over 35% in just five years. "This (property tax) is the fastest-growing tax in the state," said State Representative Russ Roach, (D- Tulsa). Roach said the law is intended to allow growth counties to raise property taxes up to 5 percent a year instead of a mandated 5 percent. "What was intended to be a tax increase ceiling has instead become an annual tax increase floor," Roach said.

Contact YOUR Legislator to see where they stand on this annual tax INCREASE and tell them you want to VOTE....again! The Legislature CAN put this on ballot for the people to vote! The Govs signature NOT required!
Even with budget 'shortfall'....NEVER a wrong time to do the right thing!

btw....we want to vote on relief for ALL properties - just like original SQ - not just homestead!