I went to the State Capitol today, with some of the veterans from the Norman Veterans Center, to lobby for no cuts to veterans’ centers and hospitals in Oklahoma. In recent years their budget has been cut 14%, and it looks bad for this year. This means that they won’t have enough nurses and others to help them in their most [critical] time of need. We ran into Sen. Al McAffrey just after he’d been sworn in! Of course he’ll support the veterans!

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To learn more and find out what you can do, go to http://okpolicy.org/files/what-you-can-do.pdf

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Press release from House of Representatives:

Lawmakers Vote to Address State Building Maintenance

OKLAHOMA CITY – Legislation approved by a House committee today authorizes the sale of unneeded state properties and directs that the money generated will then be used to maintain other buildings.

“This is an issue of basic stewardship,” said state Rep. T.W. Shannon, R-Lawton. “For too long, the state has failed to maintain its assets, and when money has been spent on maintenance it has been allocated in a haphazard fashion. This legislation requires better management practices, allowing us to liquidate unneeded properties to pay for the maintenance of those that continue to serve a public purpose.”

House Bill 2262, by Shannon, creates a Maintenance of State Buildings Revolving Fund, which will receive the revenue generated by proceeds from the sale of state-owned properties (both land and buildings). Money in the fund would then be used to maintain and repair other state properties and buildings.

In addition, the bill requires that the state’s Long Range Capital Plan include an index ranking state buildings based on maintenance needs. Money in the Maintenance of State Buildings Revolving Fund would be allocated to projects based on those with greatest need.

“We’re applying common-sense business practices to the management of state properties,” Shannon said. “Instead of basing funding on the political influence of individual agencies, spending decisions will be based on actual maintenance needs.”

House Bill 2262 builds on the Oklahoma State Government Asset Reduction and Cost Savings Program, a measure that Shannon shepherded into law last year. That legislation required the Director of the Department of Central Services to identify 5 percent of the most underutilized state-owned properties on a yearly basis with an eye toward liquidating them.

There are now more than 9,000 state-owned properties, according to the most recent estimates.

“Building a comprehensive inventory is just the first step in this process,” Shannon said. “Now we have to prioritize facilities based on their value to core functions, liquidate those that have outlived their usefulness, and use the money generated to address maintenance needs in other buildings. This plan will help pay for the upkeep of facilities that remain vital without increasing state spending or taxes.”

House Bill 2262 passed out of the House Appropriations and Budget Committee. It will now go to the floor of the Oklahoma House of Representatives.

Yellow barricades block Capitol steps behind protest in October 2011

Some state buildings, including the Capitol, are in such a state of disrepair that they are literally falling apart. The south steps of the Capitol have been cordoned off due to the danger of falling stone.

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The panel voted 13-0 to approve an alternative pushed by the pharmaceutical industry that would connect Oklahoma to a multistate electronic tracking and blocking registry. That measure, offered by Rep. David Derby, R-Owasso, would also reduce the amount of pseudoephedrine that an Oklahoman could purchase in one month to 7.2 grams, about 30 days worth of medicine for allergy sufferers.

Derby’s measure goes to the full House for consideration.

“This is the most responsible approach to controlling the access to pseudoephedrine without impeding access to people with legitimate needs,” Derby said.

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7:30 p.m. Wednesday February 29, 2012
Petree Recital Hall, Kirkpatrick Fine Arts Center
NW 25th St. and Blackwelder Ave.

The event is part of OCU’s Distinguished Speakers Series.

Doors open at 6:30. Free and open to the public. A book signing will be held following the speech with book available from Full Circle Bookstore.

Harvard Professor and author of Justice: What’s the Right Thing To Do? Michael Sandel challenges us to examine the moral and ethical assumptions underlying our debated political and social issues. The Washington Post called him “perhaps the most prominent college professor in America,” and Kirkus Reviews described him as “the professor we all wish we had.”

A professor of political philosophy at Harvard for 30 years, Sandel’s wildly popular course, “Justice,” has enrolled over 15,000 students and was the first Harvard course to be made freely available online and on public television. In his New York Times bestseller, Justice, Sandel examines the meaning of justice and a range of topics, from government bailouts to immigration reform, taking readers on a journey of moral and political reflection “to figure out what they think and why.” Publishers Weekly called it “erudite, conversational and deeply humane… truly transformative reading.” Democracy: A Journal of Ideas said, “Justice…showcases the thinking on public morality that has made him one of the most sought-after lecturers in the world.”

Sandel served on the President’s Council on Bioethics from 2002-2005, appointed by the president to examine the ethical implications of new biomedical technologies. In his book, The Case Against Perfection: Ethics in the Age of Genetic Engineering, he examines the moral quandaries related to the quest to perfect ourselves and our children. Booklist said “an illuminating ethical analysis of stem-cell research concludes this stellar work of public philosophy.”

Sandel’s other books include Liberalism and the Limits of Justice; Democracy’s Discontent; and Public Philosophy: Essays on Morality in Politics. His work has been translated into 15 languages.

A recipient of the Harvard-Radcliffe Phi Beta Kappa Teaching Prize, Sandel was recognized by the American Political Science Association for a career of excellence in teaching. He has been a visiting professor at the Sorbonne (Paris), delivered the Tanner Lectures on Human Values at Oxford University, and delivered the BBC Reith Lectures, broadcasted worldwide. In 2010, China Newsweek named him the most influential foreign figure of the year in China.

A member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Council on Foreign Relations, Sandel is a graduate of Brandeis and received his doctorate from Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. His next book, an April 2012 release, is What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets.

“Professor Sandel’s visit to Seoul was a marvelous success. The response to his visit was simply overwhelming. He was like a rock star! Some 4,500 audiences packed the auditorium for his public lecture. It was the biggest auditorium in Seoul and I’m sure had we had a bigger one, we would have filled that, too.”- The ASAN Institute for Policy Studies

Free and open to the public.
Seating is limited.
For more information, call 405.208.4956

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Who: Everyone’s Invited!  Please bring your friends.

When: Wednesday, February 29 at 5:30 p.m.

Where: Belle Isle Brewery, 50 Penn Place, Oklahoma City

With the Senate currently trying to override the will of the administration using legislative loopholes, and Oklahoma Senator Jim Inhofe leading the charge, it is more important than ever that we stand together in opposition to this pipeline!

• Cornell University and numerous independent economists have evaluated the pipeline proposal and assert that the pipeline’s supporters are massively inflating their numbers.
• The pipeline would put Oklahoma citizens’ health and Oklahoma property owners’ land at risk to benefit a foreign oil company.
• Tar sands oil is the dirtiest oil on earth and this project, if approved, would place our children’s future in jeopardy.

So, join us as we celebrate the administration’s support and stand up to big oil and their many supporters.

Please take a moment to RSVP and let us know you’ll be able to make it!

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I went downtown this evening to join some activists who were protesting Newt Gingrich, who was speaking in the same building Mitt Romney had been in before.

It was cold and windy, but we had signs that read GIVE NEWT THE BOOT and NO NEWT IS GOOD NEWT, etc. And we had one another and the press came and we kept the Republicans from parking in our lot so they had to walk a long way and it was fun.

But then a man came with a big sign that said CHORUS, and he asked us to join him across the street to sing “Your Cheating Heart.”  He had a woman named Chelsea with him who streamed the whole thing on the Internet.  Most of us didn’t go because they thought we’d get arrested, but I said I didn’t care if I did because I thought it would make a great news story.  So I went and a few others,and we joined 4 young soldiers who were Ron Paul supporters.  It was interesting to see what was going on inside, and we waited (warm) until a policeman who heard we were going to sing said we should go downstairs into the lobby because it ‘s a private building, so we did but it was all open and as soon as they finished the national anthem we sang real loud, off key and all, and then as we were leaving the band started to play the same song.  (???)  Guess they decided it was just a good old country boy song and if they went along no one would get the message.  (???)  Anyway, we laughed and laughed while we walked back across the street and told all the rest what a good time we had.

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In this MegaVote for Oklahoma’s 5th Congressional District:

Recent Congressional Votes -
* Senate: Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act
* House: Protecting Investment in Oil Shale the Next Generation of Environmental, Energy, and Resource Security Act
* House: Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act

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1)   One-day workshop “The Transformative Power of Compassion”
Saturday, February 25, 2012 from 9:30 am to 5:00 pm
(All levels of experience are welcome)
Early Bird Registration Deadline is this Wednesday (2/22)

2)   Weekend Workshop:
GROWING AUTHENTIC INTIMATE RELATIONSHIPS:
Intimacy, Sex, and Compassionate Communication
with Intuitive Coach and
Compassionate Communication Trainer
Emilah Dawn DeToro
Friday Evening, Saturday, Sunday, March 9-11, 2012
(We’re requesting that participants have some NVC experience).

EARLY BIRD REGISTRATION DEADLINE IS THIS FRIDAY

3)   8-Week Intermediate Class Series “The Dance of Communication”
Begins on Tuesdays, March 27, 2012 in OKC

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Just before Thanksgiving, about 50 Baptists of varying stripes gathered at a predominantly African-American church in northeast Oklahoma City to learn about an economic plague quietly devastating the state’s teetering middle class and poor: payday lending. What they learned was disturbing — the average payday loan borrower in Oklahoma paid the equivalent of a whopping 349% annual percentage rate on a 14-day loan in 2010. “People are just absolutely dumbfounded that this is legal,” says Dr. Bruce Prescott, executive director of Mainstream Oklahoma Baptists. The clergy and laity at the meeting vowed to crusade against the legalized usury, urging the Oklahoma Legislature to impose limits on what can be charged. What they and their legislative allies know, however, is that the alternative financial industry has real power at the Capitol, not least because of generous campaign contributions over the last decade.

For the full story, see ‘Payday Mayday — Preying On The Poor’ on the cover of the Feb. 25th Oklahoma Observer, now available on-line for digital subscribers at www.okobserver.net/current-issue/.

Other stories in the issue include an op-ed by Observer founder Frosty Troy on the religious right’s attack on birth control, an investigation by Foster Kamer on the the decision by OK’s attorney general Scott Pruitt to opt out of the mortgage settlement that 49 other state AGs signed and a review (so far of the 2012 Oklahoma legislature by Eli Reshef.

The Observer is published twice monthly and in addition to news, provides a forum for a wide range of liberal opinion.

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