June 10, 2007

On The Cover

Ten Best & Ten Worst: 2007 Legislative Performances

By Frosty Troy

Despite an unexpected windfall of $200 million, the 2007 Legislature didn’t use the money to pay its bills or address some of the neediest of Oklahomans. It cut taxes another $74 million a year.

What’s Inside

Frosty’s Notebook: CareerTech

By Frosty Troy

Politicians give lip service to the idea that retraining can give laid-off workers a second, better chance in a global economy.

Missed Opportunities On Ethics Reform

The year of openness and accountability in state government didn’t extend to at least one key area: ethics.

Open Letter: Governor Was Wrong On Immigration Bill

By Colin T. Bent

Dear Governor: Sometimes we make horrible mistakes in our daily lives and your action in signing HB 1804 is one of those times in your life. You have just turned a large segment of the population into criminals.

Scholarship Reform Wins By Big Margin

Legislation that ensures continued funding of a state scholarship program will benefit Oklahoma for years, state Rep. Joe Dorman, D-Rush Springs, says.

Medicare Applicants Are Being Swindled

The insurance industry may not have known who Kim Holland was in April, but by May the Oklahoma Insurance Commissioner was the national prime mover in exposing insurers preying on Medicare applicants nationwide.

Coburn’s Strange Parallel Universe

By Richard L. Fricker

To understand how the United States got itself into its current fix, it’s helpful to understand that the American Right and its powerful media apparatus have created a kind of parallel universe that has its own internal logic that sort of make sense even if the “reality” isn’t exactly real.

Pension Problems Finally Addressed

State lawmakers voted to take a major step to stabilize all major state retirement systems this year by eliminating unfunded mandates.

Big Tax Cuts Could Backfire

Gov. Brad Henry and a majority of legislators in both parties responded to a short-term revenue surge in 2005 and 2006 by enacting deep and permanent cuts [$700 million] to the state income tax, leaving the state’s budget in a precarious situation.

Congress Schemes To Skirt Constitution

By Danny M. Adkison

Enron tried an end-run. You saw what happened to them. Some in our government today are also seeking end-runs. Two such instances were in the news recently.

Books

Let’s Just Call It ‘Democratic Action’

By Alvena Bieri

Reading Ralph Young’s “Dissent in America: The Voices That Shaped a Nation” is like taking a lively course in American history.

Public Forum

To Bush, Constitution Is Considered Dead

By Sheila Samples

Preceding generations had every reason to believe those following them would step into the breach and continue the vigil over this nation’s Constitutional freedoms and, if necessary, fight to preserve them. We blew it.

Old Glory’s Beauty Belies Sad Memorial Day

By Edwin E. Vineyard

Looking out my front window on a dismal Memorial Day, I saw a beautiful sight. It was my flag, blowing freely in the morning breeze.

Observations

Who Won?

Speaker Lance Cargill has taken credit for everything but the Second Coming and we’re sure that will happen in his second year as Republican leader of the Oklahoma House.

Pathetic

In all the years we have covered the state Capitol, we have seldom encountered a more mindless, partisan member in either party than Sen. Kathleen Wilcoxson, R-OKC.

Not Again!

You are probably as tired of reading about the Bush Administration corruption as we are in telling you about it – but we’re about the only regular source in Oklahoma.

Dare Them

Next time you hear one of those preening state “leaders” say they put public education first, tell the nitwit to prove it