Fetgatter Is The Pariah of Oklahoma

 The Man That Should be the Pariah of Oklahoma

Scott Fetgatter

(*this is a story from Sooner Politics's David Van)

Some say Oklahoma's political struggles aren't so much left vs right; but little guy vs big. That axiom was never so poignant than in Thursday's massive ideological battle to resist a recall of the constitutional protections that taxpayers rely on.

House republican Leadership sought out a freshman rural member to push forward the recall. Scott Fetgatter filed the bill and even sought to amend it on the floor. The House Speaker Pro Tem desperately wanted this battle, but when floor debate was organized, all the House Republican leadership headed for the doors, leaving Fetgatter alone as the only one arguing for the bill.

Mike Hunter Sabotages A Teacher Pay Raise

March 18^th 2017 Newsletter

How an Un-Elected Little Weasel Torpedoes

a Teacher Pay Raise

to Help Fallin Divert $100,000,000.00

per Year from Education

  Acting Attorney General Mike Hunter, and we say "acting" as he has never been elected to the post, was appointed by Mary Fallin after former A.G. Scott Pruitt wandered off to Washington D.C.. to run the EPA. Hunter has been a career politician, running for office twice, once winning a House seat, the other losing to Drew Edmondson in a race for the A.G. Office. Hunter appears to have spent some time in private practice but must have found the real world difficult as he constantly returned to public sector work .

  The A.G. Office has a long standing prohibition on issuing opinions on pending legislation as that would be meddling in the legislative affairs. After all that isn't their mission. The office can answer questions from legislators on other matters and does frequently, publishing a book of the opinions set out each year, a book kept in most legislative offices. And on their own A.G. website you will see this in the FAQ section:

R.O.P.E. Exposes Teachers' Lies

STP Not the Only Organization Bucking the Teacher Union

STP is one of only a few groups putting out a weekly newsletter and the only group that has a massive email list and tracking pixels that report back on who opens their copy, what time, what day, and the number of opens all in graphical form. Tracking who clicks on what links included in the story and counting the number of times a particular newsletter is opened by the list member tells us a lot. We might see 50 opens of a particular newsletter, likely one or two by the recipient, the rest of the opens are from people they forwarded the newsletter to, and even then the pixel system records about one third of the opens due to limitations of the system.

That is important because yes we print the dirt and have fun doing it, but the larger purpose is to educate the legislators that open the newsletter. Voters or activists aren't our target, the legislators are our target when we write a story. But it is invigorating to see other groups picking up the pressure on the teachers unions and growing stronger and more effective as they abandon the traditional relationship model of lobbying. ROPE is one of those groups that has become far more effective in recent years by pushing back instead of going along.

Last week the ladies at ROPE did a good story on fact checking the lies put out by the teachers and their unions. Well worth the time to read and they support pretty much what we have been saying for years; not a taxation problem but a spending problem.

The Men Who Share Some Blame In An Infant's Death

D.A. David Prater

       

       These are Some of the Men Responsible for the Brutal Death of an Infant

  Thursday morning we all awoke to the story of the murder and corpse desecration of an infant, the child being the reason for an Amber Alert earlier in the week. Victor Minjarez was arrested and booked on the two counts of murder and desecrating a human corpse after he was found on Wednesday afternoon.

  On February 23^rd the mother of the 7 month old baby had filed a VPO, which led to the Amber Alert over a February 19^th domestic disturbance at the 1500 block of Lake crest Drive. Minjarez had take the baby after attacking the woman, then sending messages stating that the mother would never see the child again. Minjarez gave an improbable story of a baby sleeping next to a heater next to a mattress, blisters on the child's face, and the baby passing away with him not knowing what to do. Minjarez then claimed he had wrapped the body in a blanket, placed inside two trash bags, and dumped the body in a trash can outside his home. Minjarez admitted that he didn't call the police or 911 because he was wanted by the police for a failure to appear in court case. A week later, after Minjarez's arrest the body was found in the same trash can.

OKC Tea Party Leader Becomes Fugitive From Law

 Man on the Run

  Political activist Toby Pedford came on the scene in 2009 during the Tea Party emergence. Pedford was a frequent speaker at the Oklahoma City Tea Party events and the John Birch Society events, and has lately attached himself to the Dan Fisher gubernatorial campaign. Pedford was the rare black Tea Party activist, but he quickly let it be known that he wasn't the religious type, joking at one event that he was the token pagan speaker, and once the picture of Pedford and the two twin sister p*rn stars surfaced, well, we all realized that Pedford was not gonna run for office anytime soon.

  Pedford earned a reputation for playing loose with the truth as well, having an appreciation for the ladies, and didn't play well with others, but it was a shock to many to find out this week that Toby Pedford had become a man on the run from law enforcement after disappearing from the scene of an accident on the Broadway Extension/235 in the construction zone.

The Decline of OCPAC

 

OCPAC a Shadow of its Past Influence?

  Last month we reported on the difficulty that OCPAC found itself in, unable to sell enough tickets to fund its annual award dinner due to a lack of support after their endorsement of radical abolitionist Dan Fisher for governor. The initial awards banquet was "postponed" allegedly because several of the awardees had scheduling conflicts... on a Friday night...right...

  OCPAC announced this week that the awards will be given on Tuesday April 3^rd at 7:30 at an event center at 5201 N. Lincoln Blvd, OKC, no dinner or banquet, just a short presentation followed by a gubernatorial candidate forum, both of which are free and open to the public.

  A once influential organization is hitting bottom and it is sad to see. First the founder and main leader Charlie Meadows runs into a buzz saw of criticism over a newsletter that even he said that would result in calls of bigotism and racism, followed by a quick "retirement" which was couched in the terms of "elevating Meadows" into a chairman emeritus position, no doubt to avoid admitting that the retirement was a bit too late, followed by a fairly nondescript successor who was as boring as watching paint dry but who also didn't offend and alienate as many Oklahomans.

Oklahoma Starting Teacher Pay Exceeds Closest Neighbors

March 11^th 2017 Newsletter 

Guess Which State has the

Lowest Starting Teacher Pay?

Texas, Oklahoma, or Arkansas?

If you listen to the thugs holding press conferences threatening to strike Oklahoma has the lowest starting pay in the region. But the old saying is so true; figures don't lie but liars can figure. In fact Oklahoma has the highest starting minimum salary between the three states:

 Texas starts teachers off at $28,080 per year.

Arkansas starts teachers off at $31,000 per year

Oklahoma starts teachers off at $31,600.00 per year.

That of course is the minimum, many teachers make more. The state however merely sets the minimum salary to prevent local school boards from taking advantage of teachers, the school boards and districts negotiate with the individual teacher to determine their pay and there is no limit on what a teacher can be paid as long as the school can raise the money in taxes.

So if the local school board and superintendent is in charge of pay rates for teachers, why are the teachers attempting to extort money from the legislature?

Simply, because they know that raising local tax rates to pay for their own pay isn't going to be popular or even possible in many low income districts.