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,
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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.