Shifty Behavior At Tourism Dept. Violates Statute

Tourism Department Admits to Breaking the Law

An excellent story showing how deep and prevalent the corruption is at the Capitol is Fox – 25's expose on the Tourism Department's illegal financial scheme. The agency admitted to paying bills and contracts out of a clearing account, instead of the general fund, escaping oversight by the auditors and contributing to the embezzlement of money from a state park. The director of the agency, Dick Dutton, claims he hid the embezzlement information from the commission that oversees the agency and of course himself to protect the criminal case against the embezzler. Dick has some explaining to do though because the embezzlement charges were filed last February....

Dick called it a failing in education rather than what it was, a systematic refusal to follow state law and agency policies. Dick claimed they were hiring an outside auditor, a hollow claim as had been asked about the allegations by Fox 25 and Dick told the reporters that "Your facts are wrong."

The Senator's Wife Bites!

Senator Ervin Yen's Wife Arrested for Assault and Battery Update

Senator Yen's wife Pamela Yen's arrest report,
right click to save picture and please share with others

We broke the story Monday night about State Senator Ervin Yen's wife being arrested on Assault and battery Charges in Del City. A STP supporter who just happens to be a Private Eye, helped obtain the arrest report confirming the alleged mental melt down. We aren't going to re plow that ground tonight but we do want to provide the arrest report as the media companies in the state have read the newsletter but have yet to report the arrest. Imagine that, must have family over for the weekend or something. (sarcasm alert)

We have tracked down other eye witnesses, one that contacted us after reading our Friday night special edition story. The confirmed 95% of the story from the arrest report and other eye witnesses, minor details different but they say ten eye witnesses will never agree on all details.

Massive Taxes Meet Massive Defeat

Massive Log Rolled Tax Bill Defeated at the Capitol

HB 1035 failed spectacularly at the Capitol this week, earning 55 yes votes to 44 no votes, far short of the votes required to meet the 75% margin required to pass a tax increase at the legislature. It did meet the minimum requirement to go on as a state question in 2018 however by then either other taxes will be raised or hopefully massive spending cuts will occur to trim down the budget deficit.

Out of that debate and vote came a wonderful photo from the Oklahoman, pictured above. Several websites re-posted the picture and produced entertaining comments from readers focusing on the facial expressions on the Republicans in the photo.

There is a wonderful snippet from the debate this week showing Rep. John Bennett arguing against the bill. Bennett, like Gary Richardson, advocates for doing a performance audit on all the state agencies before passing a dime of tax increases. Regular audits are like balancing the checkbook; performance audits dig into where the money is being spent, the inefficiencies and wasteful parts of the processes being delivered. The State Auditor is supposed to be auditing things but there are some agencies set up outside his jurisdiction. As an example the State Auditor can audit the AG office but not the Department of Human Services.

The Rage Of Mrs. Inman

Did She Really Take a Swing at Scott Inman?

Probably a half dozen witnesses have given us accounts of the now infamous Rep. Scott Inman/Mrs. Inman spat at the Capitol. Early reports alleged an enraged wife screaming at Rep. Scott Inman about a knocked up campaign manager among other things. And hey, scandals like this don't come along that often (okay, I lied about that) and you want to kind of drag things out as well as keep a good portion back to prevent these morons from suing you. That's right, we never spill all the beans so we have some insurance in case they even think about suing us.

But one of the more interesting things that was alleged was that Mrs. Inman actually took a swing with a fist at Romeo... un, Representative Inman. Some Senators said that you could hear the argument all the way to the end of the Senate hallway, vivid detail I am told.

The Bedlam Battle Of Corruption Goes To OU

Corruption at the Universities

Sooner Politics had a huge story out on corruption at the two state universities and no doubt the other smaller public universities are wasting millions of dollars per year giving scholarships and cash grants to out of state and foreign students, no doubt a lot of that money goes to illegal aliens as well.

That's right Oklahoma students and parents are being taxed to pay for foreign students and out of state students scholarships and cash money grants. And they compete for slots in these colleges with foreign and out of state students.

A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to JCAB

Legislation and Votes from This Week at the Special Session

After the first round of bills had been defeated or became irrelevant after the funding bill failed, a second round of legislation was filed in the House along with some Senate bills that weren't direct appropriations as the Senate is prohibited from filing money bills. Here are the last set of bills filed and defeated for the most part:

HB 1054

This is an extraordinary bill, the largest tax hike in Oklahoma history, that sets increased taxes on cigarettes, little cigars, chewing tobacco, low point beer, and motor fuels such as gas and diesel. This is the same tax that failed earlier in the week with an added Gross Production Tax (GPT). The proposed rate for GPT for wells was 4%, doubled from 2%, for the first 36 months at which time the production falls by 87% and the oil companies will be willing to pay the regular 7% GPT.

It places a new sales tax on cigarettes in addition to the existing state and federal excise taxes, a new sales tax at about 7.5 cents per cigarette or $1.50 per pack or $15.00 per carton. It places a new sales tax of 10% on chewing tobacco in addition to the excise taxes already paid and raises the little cigar taxes to the same rate as cigarettes which appears to mean the excise tax AND the new sales tax. The new money will go to the General Revenue Fund up until July 1^st 2018, then it is redirected to the Health Care Enhancement Fund. So after July 2018 the state can poor mouth and demand another revenue stream I suppose. Now remember, a State Question once removed the sales tax on cigarettes in exchange for quadrupling the excise taxes, which we were told would fix the long term funding forevermore.

The Week That Fiction Writers Couldn't Dream Up

Debacle at the Capitol

Special Session out of Control, House and Senate Leadership Looking like Fools

What a mess, but what a fine week for conservatives and liberty minded people. Democrats and Republican caught up in sex scandals, agencies admitting to breaking the law, Supreme Court overturning a big tax increase as unconstitutional, a deeply unpopular Senator's wife getting arrested and the word just now coming out, Speaker McCall cursing on camera after being embarrassed, and a boat load of bad legislation killed or driven back to committee.

You know, while reading these newsletters you might wonder what you could do to help. Simple, file for a House or Senate seat next April but even better, file for an Ethics Commission Account next week stating that you intend to run for one of those seats.

Nothing gets the RINOs and liberal's attention like being primaried. Instead of taking the kids to Disney World these crooks find themselves fighting for their jobs, kissing babies, kissing other things closer to the ground, spending their campaign money on expense and signs for the campaign instead of taking the family on that vacation using the money because you know, they did some fact finding or registered for some convention.

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Does this work? Read this one story from a guy who is challenging one of the rats and has already came out with his announcement. A single phone call to his existing rep and the fact that the rep already knew the guy was organizing and had filed an Ethics Commission report made a liberal state rep come to Jesus and vote against a huge tax increase.
And what are the requirements to be a state rep? House members must be 21 years of age (Senators must be 25 years of age) at the time of their election. During their terms of office, legislators must reside and be eligible to vote in their legislative districts. You should move into the district if possible so you aren't labeled a carpetbagger, simply changing your voter registration to your mom's house will do as long as you do intend on living there. Wink, wink....but you should live there of course.

Good Night Jon & Chris

Special Note:

Last week we were told by a mole inside House Leadership that they waited until we had published to send out the list of bills for Monday. We wanted to outlast House Leadership tonight and delay publication till they released their Agenda for tomorrow's legislative session but it is after ten thirty pm as we finish up the newsletter and the good guys need some sleep so we are going to publish without that info.

Okay Jon and Chris,  you win, send the agenda out please. It is safe now. Legislators are waiting up for it and calling me.

All the best to the wives and kids.  We need to have lunch soon.

Looking With Glee At A Primary Date

Maybe this will get them to listen for once...

Legislators, Listen Up

House and Senate Leadership is largely term limited out or nearly so and Mary Fallin leaves next November and as Trump has already rejected her for a post on his team she can only do one thing to provide for her own future: soak the taxpayers and carry water for the special interests who might hire her after she is out of a job.

There is one fact that you can depend on always: Leadership will fight to the last drop of YOUR blood.

Next year is an election year. People's view of the legislature is at an all time low. Trump just crushed both the Democrats and the RINO Republicans in the November election because people are sick of rising taxes, special interests raping them, and the never ending excuses to why Republicans can't seem to follow their party platform and campaign promises.

You as a politician need to decide if you are willing to die on this hill, politically speaking. Do you betray the majority of the voters, both Democrat and Republican, or do you do the right thing and stop the tax increases and increased spending until the next session when you can focus on agency audits to find the waste in the existing state budget?

Polling Goes South On The Legislative Leadership

The Majority of Oklahomans

Oppose Tax Increases

A recent Sooner Poll shows strong bipartisan opposition to tax increases and pay increases. The poll showed 52.7% of Oklahomans opposed increases in fuel taxes with most of them strongly opposing the tax increase.

Another part of the poll measured the pulse of the people asking if the state government had sufficient funding with existing revenue sources or if the state should raise taxes. Nearly 50% of the responses were that the state had enough funding, 33.4% said we should raise taxes, and 17.3% were unsure.

The third question of the poll showed that the Legislature's standing with the public had slipped from 53.8% having an unfavorable opinion of the state legislature to 66.3% having an unfavorable opinion with 21.7% having a somewhat favorable opinion.

Inman's Sudden End

Was Democrat Minority Leader Scott Inman

done in by House Republican Leadership?

Did Scorched Earth Practices Impact Democrats as well as Conservatives?

The surprise announcement by Rep. Scott Inman this week caught a lot of people and legislators off guard and tongues are a wagging trying to make sense of why a gubernatorial candidate and high ranking leader of the Democrat Party would announce his end of year resignation and the abandonment of his gubernatorial campaign. However readers of the Sooner Tea Party newsletter were able to read or listen to Inman's resignation statement and understand why the guy bailed out in such haste.

Last January we ran a story asking why Inman had came out strong against the sex scandal involving Tulsa area Representative Dan Kirby only to fall silent a few days later. We saw other Democrats stepping up to press the attacks against the GOP but Inman was as quiet as a church mouse. The story laid out the rumors about Inman having an illicit affair with a campaign staffer or a staffer of an independent expenditure group and another story in the same issue covered the incestuous relationship between the so called "Lunch Bunch", a group of legislators that ate lunch together, specifically Josh Cockcroft, Randy Grau, and Elise Hall.

The Bizarre Crimes Of Mrs. Yen

Senator Ervin Yen's Wife Arrested for Assault and Battery

Massively unpopular State Senator Ervin Yen is about to make the news after his wife found herself cuffed and stuffed into the back of a Del City squad car earlier this month after creating a 30 minute long scene at a local estate sale that ended in an attempt to shoplift some flip flops and a take down by the business owner. During the melee Pamela Yen, wife of Senator Ervin Yen, bit the business owner not once, but twice, as she was being restrained at the scene of the crime till the police arrived.

The story began with a lead on Facebook, which lead to a Sooner Tea Party supporter who is also a private eye paying the Del City police department a visit and coming away with the arrest report for Pamela Mae Yen. The report covered the October 8^th 2017 arrest for Assault and Battery. The report says that the officer arrives on the scene to see a man holding a female subject on the ground. The man told the officer "She bit me and I finally gained control of her.". Which elicited Pam Yen to respond with "Yeah, I bit him." That was enough for said officer and Pam Yen was handcuffed and placed in the patrol car for a short ride to the station.

Ken Miller's Desperados & The Unclaimed Property Fund

Ken Miller's Desperadoes and the Unclaimed Property Fund

I remember months ago hearing about the State dipping into the Unclaimed property fund. I was totally disgusted. It seemed like such a cheesy act of desperation.

Then a friend of mine began telling me about a situation that he and his wife were experiencing right now. One that he was really upset about, and rightfully so. The lack of respect and professionalism towards someone who deserves nothing less made me want to make his story public.

He began to tell me how he had just the discovered that his deceased father had unclaimed property of a substantial amount. He went in person to claim it with all of the needed information. He even included his military papers. The Treasurer's office was satisfied , but wanted a change of address because they were moving. He gave them the new address before he left. Weeks went by and nothing.

Legislative Schizophrenia

The Teacher Tax and

Legislative Schizophrenia

Remember SQ 779 in 2016? The teachers suffered a massive defeat despite outspending the anti SQ 799 forces by 7 to 8 times and the ballot measure still lost 59.4 to 40.6. Now the legislature in all its wisdom is trying to pass even higher taxes in order to fund a teacher raise that the voters rejected less than one year ago.

We are told that 11 am on Tuesday is scheduled for the first vote, the entire package of increased taxes, new taxes, and massive spending is said to be scheduled for Wednesday. We knew about the private discussions about the deal Sunday night and were told that House and Senate leadership was waiting till after the weekly newsletter was published to tell the rest of the House of Representatives. We chose to keep our powder dry and run a special edition.

If everything passes? Four months of increased revenue if the Emergency Clause vote fails, immediate tax increases if the Emergency Clause votes passes. McCall's leadership team believe they can count on 54 Republican votes and would need at least 22 Democrat votes to force a super-majority vote on a tax increase. Democrats are saying that the maximum number of cross over Democrat votes will be around 12 if Minority Leader Scott Inman's discipline fails. Some Democrat House members are saying there will be few if any cross over votes.

Would you Get A Raise With These Performance Numbers?

And the Legislators Want

to Give Teachers a Raise?

  Stupid is as stupid does so when someone pulls out the old "Thank a teacher that you can read or write" if you dare question the quality of the state's teachers consider the latest Tulsa Public School test scores.

  An excellent article written by David Van of Sooner Politics lays out the dismal failure of the Oklahoma education system when only 21% of the Tenth grade students are proficient or above proficient in basic education subjects. Yet every speech or news story about politics always brings up the desire to raise teacher pay.

  Any other industry that was failing massively would be driven out of business yet such is the poison we call government that we are worried about being noncompetitive with neighboring states and losing teachers. In fact, ought we not be encouraging the current crop of teachers to leave given these test scores? Perhaps weeding out the teachers that are motivated by money is best and finding teachers that teach for the love of teaching is the answer. I am sure that classroom discipline needs addressed but given the quality of education in Oklahoma who can argue that a pay raise is warranted?

Konawa Tea Party:-Tuesday Night Meeting: - 'Governor's Session', With Al Gerhart

Konawa Tea Party

(4th) Tuesday October 24, 2017 7:00 - 9:00 PM

Kennedy Library - The Dougan Room

Konawa School, 701 W South Street

Invited Speakers:

Al Gerhart - Special Session !

(The Governor's Session)!

Don Spencer - Progress 2A

Carol Bush Steps In It, Again

Just in time for Halloween

Go as the Ugliest Woman in Oklahoma

Carol Bush Steps in it Again

If you are liked and respected you can get away with a lot. Then there are the Carol Bush type characters that tend to draw negative attention simply because they aren't respected or liked. Such was the case last week when Bush drew the ire of fellow Republicans for outing the caucus vote totals on the initial straw polls done at the Republican Caucus back at the start of the special session.

The Sooner Tea Party had already outed the totals the Sunday after the straw polls, none of the tax increases drew more than 47 votes and if every Republican voted for the tax increases at least four Democrats would be needed so the straw polls were indicative of House leadership failure as well as an indication that enough conservative Republicans remained to block the increased taxes. But a third party outing the vote totals and having an insider caucus member blab in public about the vote totals are two different things. Several House members voiced their concern and disgust at the breech of good sense and responsibility as well as House leadership giving a reserved but obviously stern statement.

A Capital Gains Tax

Capitol Gains Tax

One of the silver bullets being considered for a tax deal is the Capitol Gains Tax, which is taxing the increase in value of things like stocks, real estate, other assets that appreciate in value as time goes by. Yes, there are stock increases that happen that outstrip inflation, IPOs come to mind. And like most of the other tax credits that have put the state budget in a hole, the intial Capitol Gains Tax exemption was passed by the Democrats back in 2004.

On the face of it one would think that it hits only the rich but the middle class pay most of the Capitol Gains Tax in general but the wealthy do benefit more from this particlur tax exemption with around 18,000 Oklahomans using the tax avoidance deduction compared to the hundreds of thousands that use Earned Income Credit. In looking at it it can be difficult to determine which side to be on. One one hand the upper income citizens are evading the taxes. On the other hand it is really a tax on inflation, the lose of value of the U.S. dollar due to the feds printing more money and creating digital cash, driving down the value of the dollar and increasing the dollar value of the assets. Government creates the inflation and also profits from the increased taxes on the assets through the Capitol Gains Tax.

Lankford's True Colors: Amnesty Ochestration

Lankford Shows his True Colors in Illegal Alien Amnesty Legislation

  Lankford drank the koolade as soon as he got to D.C. but his latest blunder is enormous. This story tells it better and tells it plainer than we would.

  Anyone stupid enough to file a bill legalizing millions of illegal aliens deserves to be beaten in a primary in Oklahoma and it is past time that Lankford gets sent back to being a church camp director.

Chaos At the Capitol & Botox Overdose

Chaos at the Capitol

Are the Imbeciles in Charge Finally listening?

One thing became clear last week was that budget negotiations, AKA raising taxes, had hit the wall. First Minority Leader Scott Inman makes a fool out of himself by doing a press conference stating that he and the Republian leaders had struck a deal only to have RINO Fallin herself cut him off at the knees hours later. Poor Fallin, facial features partially frozen probably due to a botched botox treatment, responded with her own press conference stating that chaos reined and no budget deal had been struck.

RINO House members, including some freshmen who had been massive disappointment in the regular session have taken to Facebook proclaiming their opposition to tax increases after voting for a billion dollars in the regular session. It is finally sinking in; the voters might just throw them out on their ears in June of 2018 if they don't come to their senses and hold the line on new and increased taxation.

Beyond The Black Robes: The Tulsa Republican Men's Luncheon

 Tulsa County

Republican Men's Club

 Our guests this month is...

Beyond the black robe series. "Here comes Da Judges"

please welcome...District Judge Doug Drummond Chief Judge of the Criminal Division Criminal Felony Docket F,

District Judge Sharon Holmes Criminal Felony Docket D,

and District Judge William D. LaFortune Criminal Felony Docket B

This month we will have our monthly meeting with our Judge series: Beyond the black robe with Doug Drummond, Sharon Holmes, and William D. LaFortune! We wil be learning and understanding who they are and what they do...stay tuned for more District Judges in the future!  All of these Judges have had a few years on the bench now and it will be a very interesting time learning about their careers and what goes into being a Judge.

Wednesday

October 11th, 2017

 Where: Oklahoma Joes

6175 E 61st St, Tulsa, OK

When: 11:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

October 11th, 2017

Lunch is purchased in the meeting room and are only $13, drink, tax, and tip (pay when you check in at our table in the meeting room)

Mary Has A Little Lamb...

A Stolen Poem

  Yeah, you didn't know were were that cultured here at STP, did you? Well this little gem showed up on Sooner Politics on Facebook and with a few words added it was perfect to describe Todd Lamb's role the last eight years and the next eight if we are unlucky enough to have that many stupid voters. But the poem was funny so enjoy:

Mary had a little Lamb
To keep the status quo
Vote for him in the primary
And watch your taxes grow..

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Political Donations For Porn

Political Donations for Porn Videos

Only in Oklahoma would you see a Republican embarrass himself by reporting payments to online porn video websites. Jason Reese, running for the Randy McDaniel House District 83 seat in 2018, managed to cause an uproar last week when he filed a report with the State Ethics Commission that detailed payments allegedly for porn videos. Thankfully the video in question was a young wife needing discipline, a bit of S & M going on including a bit of binding and gagging according to the online blog that outed the story.

Trying to be open minded about all of this leads us to think that perhaps the House needs bound and gagged and spanked so maybe Mr. Reese might be an asset to the Republican Caucus. Now if the woman in the video was named Mary Fallin then the guy might win in a landslide after this last round of tax increase demands from the wicked witch of NW 23^rd and Lincoln.

Richardson Puts 'Skin In The Game' To Secure Oklahoma's Future

Richardson Campaign Adds One Million Dollars to War Chest

Gubernatorial candidate Gary Richardson has plenty of excellent reasons why people are going to choose him to represent the Republican Party in the 2018 Governors race but he just added one million more reasons, a huge self contribution to his own campaign. Gary sent out a press release about the investment and had the following to say

"I refuse to be beholden to the special interest groups that have poured millions into the governor's race," Richardson said. The people of Oklahoma are my only special interest group. To often, we get politicians who are looking to further their career and only see the office of governor as the next notch on their belt," Richardson said. "I can honestly say that I don't need the job, I'm not looking for a career in politics, and I can't be bought by the lobbyists and special interest groups."

That alone won't ensure his success, he needs a lot of small donations from across the state so be sure and find his website and donate. Gary served as the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Oklahoma in Muskogee from 1981-1984, appointed by President Ronald Reagan. Richardson also is a founding member of the law firm, Richardson, Richardson, and Boudreau.

The Puzzling Case of Dan Fisher's Video Views

The Puzzling Case of Dan Fisher's Video Views

We've talked about this before, exaggerated claims of video views by gubernatorial candidate Dan Fisher hoping that an adult would step up and bring it to their attention and stop the deception. However a few weeks ago the John Birch Society was at it again, sending out this email from OCPAC:

"John Michener
To Oklahoma Conservative Political Action Committee
Sep 19 at 11:31 AM

Dan Fisher's campaign for Governor of Oklahoma has been wildly successful thus far. Last week Dan launched a six-minute video explaining his first campaign platform plank, which is to Abolish Abortion. The video has had 124,000 views."

Yet as the article picture shows the actual views on the very link that OCPAC used in their newsletter shows only 3,000 views, a far cry from 124,000 views that they claim. Early on in political races the campaigns might try to gin up some hysteria and claim momentum but it can backfire on the campaign when people can tell you are telling obvious lies.

Lankford Betrays Working Oklahomans

Lankford Betrays Working Oklahomans

Lankford has never been a Tea Party kind of legislator despite our allowing him to speak at at least one of our rallies. The guy is a Christian fundamentalist and hardly conservative. Yet he went overboard last week with his support of amnesty for the DACA recipients under the Obama program that Trump announced he was ending in six months. While admitting that you don't give away citizens because of an illegal act Lankford went on to author an amnesty bill with North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis. Here is the main language of the bill:

(1) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other provision of law and except as otherwise provided in this Act, the Secretary may cancel the removal of an alien who is inadmissible or deportable from the 13 United States and grant the alien conditional permanent resident status under this Act, if the alien—

Caucus Talk: We Dodged A Bullet This Week

We Dodged a Bullet this Week

It was looking pretty grim as of last Sunday, Mary Fallin was threatening veto of any cost cutting or waste reduction bills and demanding new and increased taxes be placed upon Oklahomans. House leadership was parroting the same line as were the syphilitic bastards over in the Senate. The Senate had filed dozens of bills and the House piled nearly another 150 bills on top, just under 200 bills total, most were blank appropriation bills or tax increase bills, with a few cost cutting bills, all of which were filed by individuals not leadership in either chamber.

The vast majority were blank appropriations bills, filed by leadership so that they had a bill to ad a new tax to or to increase a tax. Then there were ones like SJR 1 filed by Senator Bice which allows ad valorem or property taxes to be used for payroll at schools. Once the teachers unions and tax hogs break that seal look for sky high property tax increases.