Observerscope
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2007
Dart: To lobbyists screaming about the new Ethics Commission rule limiting an organization to $300 per year in meals, gifts, etc. Commissioner John Raley is right, there should be no gifts at all.
GOP House Speaker Lance Cargill and Senate Co-Leader Glen
Coffee would have devastated a patient's ability to sue for malpractice,
according to the insurance company
operated by the Oklahoma Medical Association. Gov. Brad Henry vetoed it.
Laurel: To the Oklahoma Corporation Commission for killing the proposed coal-fired plant. The last thing Oklahoma needs is damage to its remarkable clean air. We may need such plants someday – but not now.
How hard is it to pick up a telephone and dial the Oklahoma Ethics Commission? The Claremore Daily Progress and the Ponca City News editorial writers had never bothered to read the proposed ethics rule on gifts. Reception treats and eats, etc., are exempted.
Laurel: To Britian's foremost polling firm, ORB, for a survey showing Iraq's civilian death toll exceeds one million. Four million have been dislocated, including two million who have fled the country.
Wow! Sen. Don Barrington, R-Lawton, says he will propose legislation to include school supplies in the sales tax holiday law. What, no more wedding dresses?
Dart: To the Edmond Sun for printing a fallacious attack on teachers written by [!] a policy analyst for the far right John Locke Foundation. Sorry journalism – typical of the Sun.
Sinclair's OKC Fox Channel 25 has been sued by the feds, alleging discrimination against Reporter Phyllis Williams, paid less than other reporters for the same work.
Laurel: To KWTV Channel 9 in OKC for a good job of investigative reporting involving illegal Republican campaign donations in the '04 and '06 elections. Ex-Speaker Todd Hiett pointed the finger at Speaker Lance Cargill who he appointed to head the GOP PAC.
The Pope has given a backhand to George W. Bush, issuing a statement that prisons "should not be centers for torture and other degrading forms of punishment..."
Dart: To the majority on the Department of Consumer Credit governing board, clearly in the pocket of mortgage brokers. The department's leader, Donald Hardin, has resigned in disgust.
Republican Congressman Tom Cole plastered his district with a fancy mailing claiming that Democrats are trying to slash Medicare services for seniors. That is flatly false.
Laurel: To the Oklahoma Banking Board, calling for stronger
oversight of the mortgage brokerage business – a week after Director
Donald Hardin quit in disgust at the
Department of Consumer Credit for the same reason.
Dart: To those answering a poll for Cole, Hargrave & Snodgrass saying they would take money from education to finance repair of bad bridges and roads. How about rescinding more than $600 million in tax cuts the past three years?
Think America doesn't have a runaway gang problem? Los Angeles is reporting that over the past decade more than 450,000 juveniles have been arrested. Oklahoma has an estimated 8,000 gang members.
Laurel: To Oklahoma State University for declaring OSU a virtually smoke-free campus. Smokers will have to use smoking facilities. Second-hand smoke is extremely dangerous.
The Americans United Oklahoma chapter is battling attempts by legislative fundamentalists and opportunists to meld religion and government in Oklahoma. Main proponent is GOP Speaker Lance Cargill.
Dart: To the Dally Disappointment, most corrupt business in Oklahoma, flying its true colors in calling for unlimited state lobby spending so corporations can continue buying influence.
Back to school this year includes one in four adults and
children – 50 million students in 95,000 public schools, 3,200 charter
schools, 4,300 degree-granting colleges and 1.1 mil-
lion home schooled.
Laurel: To Education Week for revealing the Merit Pay mess in Texas where there was no funding for 600 schools that qualified.
A Muskogee federal grand jury operating behind closed doors, cheered when a witness, Chris Clark, said he was not on a vendetta, “I just want the truth to be told."
Dart: To Oklahoma higher education institutions for not
being one of 28 states sharing mental health records with the FBI.
May 2007
Laurel: To Haofei Wei, student at the Math & Science high school, named to the United States Physics Olympiad Team for the second year.
Joe Oberg, the U.S. Education Department researcher who
blew the whistle on colleges cheating students out of millions of dollars
on their loans, has been vindicated. He was told to "work on something
else" but refused.
Dart: To Bush for trying to continue his abstinence-only funding, a demonstrated
failure. Ohio is the latest of seven states to turn down the money in
favor of telling kids the truth.
Laurel: To the U.S. Justice Department, nailing Tulsa's Sinclair Refinery for $5.5 million in fines and community service for dumping oil and grease wastewater into the Arkansas River.
The U.S. House wisely handed Bush a well-deserved defeat by killing his faith-based initiative to allow Head Start programs to discriminate in hiring on the basis of religion.
Dart: To those who say absolutely no gun regulations are needed. A total of 101,413 children have been killed by guns since 1980 – particularly black children. [Children's Defense Fund]
Two troubling reports are on our desk. First, Oklahoma is one of 15 states failing to provide adequate legal protection for abused and neglected children. Second, Oklahoma is 26th out of 44 nations in child mortality rates. But taxes are cut again.
Dart: To ExxonMobil, claiming it is for a clean environment while quietly funneling $1.6 million to the American Enterprise Institute to subvert global warming.
Dart: To car dealers who are charging African-Americans an average 7% on new car loans compared to an average 5% for whites. On used cars, they average 15% – far more than any other race. [Federal Reserve Survey]
