Happy Birthday, Oklahoma!

Happy 102nd Birthday, Oklahoma!

Charter Review Committee - First Meeting Tomorrow

The Muskogee City Council, acting as the Charter Review Committee, will be holding their first meeting on the city charter tomorrow evening at 5:30pm.

The meetings for the committee are set for the first and third Tuesdays of every month, after the Public Works and Finance committee meeting in the Council Chambers at City Hall, but no earlier than 5:30pm, in order to encourage as much public participation as possible.

Each meeting is to last for about one hour. The plan is to address one or two articles from the charter per session. The review will start at the very beginning, and include the entire charter, a sticking point from previous attempts.

All City Council meetings (regular meetings and committee meetings) are televised on Suddenlink cable Channel 14. The current City Charter may be viewed here (titled "Part I Charter of the City of Muskogee, Oklahoma).

Sarah Palin and Media Bias, Yet Again

The Muskogee Phoenix ran excerpts from a larger article from the Associated Press that was an all-out Democratic Party hit piece masquerading as journalism in today's newspaper. The occasion, and the familiar target? A "fact-check" on 'Going Rogue', the soon-to-be-released book by former Alaska Governor and 2008 Republican Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

The Phoenix never posts AP newswire stories (also known as 'opinion') on their website, so here it is, with notes from Yours Truly whenever I couldn't hold it in anymore. Again, this is an excerpt from an even larger article by Calvin Woodward of the AP.

Sarah Palin's book goes rogue on some facts

Sarah Palin's new book reprises familiar claims from the 2008 presidential campaign that haven't become any truer over time.

Ignoring substantial parts of her record if not the facts, she depicts herself as a frugal traveler on the taxpayer's dime, a reformer without ties to powerful interests and a politician roguishly indifferent to high ambition.

Palin goes adrift, at times, on more contemporary issues, too. She criticizes President Barack Obama for pushing through a bailout package that actually was achieved by his Republican predecessor George W. Bush — a package she seemed to support at the time.

A look at some of her statements in "Going Rogue," obtained by The Associated Press in advance of its release Tuesday:

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PALIN: Says she made frugality a point when traveling on state business as Alaska governor, asking "only" for reasonably priced rooms and not "often" going for the "high-end, robe-and-slippers" hotels.

THE FACTS: Although travel records indicate she usually opted for less-pricey hotels while governor, Palin and daughter Bristol stayed five days and four nights at the $707.29-per-night Essex House luxury hotel.

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PALIN: Boasts that she ran her campaign for governor on small donations, mostly from first-time givers, and turned back large checks from big donors if her campaign perceived a conflict of interest.

THE FACTS: Of the roughly $1.3 million she raised for her primary and general election campaigns for governor, more than half came from people and political action committees giving at least $500, according to an AP analysis of her campaign finance reports. The maximum that individual donors could give was $1,000; $2,000 for a PAC.

Of the rest, about $76,000 came from Republican Party committees.

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PALIN: Rails against taxpayer-financed bailouts, which she attributes to Obama. She recounts telling daughter Bristol that to succeed in business, "you'll have to be brave enough to fail."

THE FACTS: Palin is blurring the lines between Obama's stimulus plan — a $787 billion package of tax cuts, state aid, social programs and government contracts — and the federal bailout that Republican presidential candidate John McCain voted for and President George W. Bush signed.

Palin's views on bailouts appeared to evolve as McCain's vice presidential running mate. In September 2008, she said "taxpayers cannot be looked to as the bailout, as the solution, to the problems on Wall Street." A week later, she said "ultimately what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the health care reform that is needed to help shore up our economy."

During the vice presidential debate in October, Palin praised McCain for being "instrumental in bringing folks together" to pass the $700 billion bailout. After that, she said "it is a time of crisis and government did have to step in."

[MP: Of course, as the VP, you really can't criticize your own running mate. Their are restrictions and protocols placed on people in those circumstances.]

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PALIN: Says Ronald Reagan faced an even worse recession than the one that appears to be ending now, and "showed us how to get out of one. If you want real job growth, cut capital gains taxes and slay the death tax once and for all."

THE FACTS: The estate tax, which some call the death tax, was not repealed under Reagan and capital gains taxes are lower now than when Reagan was president. [MP: yeah, but they were even higher in Reagan's time]

Economists overwhelmingly say the current recession is far worse. The recession Reagan faced lasted for 16 months; this one is in its 23rd month.

The "article" gets even worse, but the Phoenix remarkably did not include it in the newspaper.

This piece of Democratic propaganda is passed off as journalism these days? I've come to expect extreme left-wing bias from the media, but this really surpassed my expectations. Since when did the AP do book review hit-pieces on conservative leaders?

Would you ever see a similar piece done on Barack Obama, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, or some other liberal politician or author? Hmmm... I wonder...

The Conservative View: What's The Difference?

This week's Conservative View, by Adair County Commissioner Russell Turner.

The Conservative View
by Russell Turner

What's The Difference?

One of the great things about this country has always been freedom. I have always cherished the freedoms that our founding fathers sacrificed so much for. We can be serious or foolish if that is our desire as long as we are not harming someone else. We have the ability to eat as much food as we want even though it may not be the healthiest kind. The right of self determination is something that far too many people have forgotten or may not have learned in the first place. Recently the US House of Representatives passed the much publicized House health care measure by a vote of 220-215.

While some people may cheer the idea of universal health care that will be free to everyone, there are provisions in the bill that should be of concern to all Americans. Under sections 7201 and 7203 Americans who don't maintain acceptable health insurance coverage and who choose not to pay a fine/tax of up to 2.5% of income are subject to fines of up to $250,000 and imprisonment of up to five years. Our prisons are bursting at the seams already, but I can bet that our government will find room for someone that doesn’t want to have some kind of socialistic health care system forced upon them. The hard working Americans that keep this country going love their freedom and enjoy accomplishing something with their life. Being in prison is a total waste of anyone’s time, if this bill passes the Senate the hard working Americans will have to accept a loss of freedom to stay out of the pen.

When you look at it in another perspective, if the whole idea of this legislation is to provide health care are we any different that the people locked up in our prison system. Out here in the everyday world we will be losing freedom but we will have health care. In the prison the inmates will lose freedom but they will have health care. The only difference is the prison inmate will have a little less freedom but we are both prisoners of the government. When House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was asked where in the Constitution Congress is authorized to force Americans to buy insurance or imprison them, her response was “ARE YOU SERIOUS”. If we Americans don’t wake up and fight to preserve our freedoms, how long will it be until we are imprisoned for eating foods that some government bureaucrat thinks is unhealthy.

Russell Turner is right on, as usual.

If you wish to contact Russell Turner, or want to subscribe to his email loop, email him at rdrepublican@windstream.net.

Veterans Day - Congressional Heroes

I wasn't able to get this ready to post on Veterans Day, so here it is a bit late.

There are three veterans in Congress that I want to highlight for you. These individuals have compelling stories to tell about their military experiences that fit right in with the Veterans Day spirit.

Without further ado, here are three American Heroes in Congress.

Sen. John McCain (R, Arizona) - Vietnam War veteran and POW. US Navy.

Much has been said about John McCain and his military experiences. Most of you already know his story. Here it is, taken from Wikipedia (for my sake!).

McCain entered the Navy during the Vietnam War. On July 29, 1967 McCain was injured when a bomb eploded onboard his aircraft carrier, getting struck in the legs and chest by shrapnel. On October 26, 1967, McCain was flying his twenty-third mission, he was shot down over Hanoi. His plane went into a vertical inverted spin. Bailing out upside down at high speed, the force of the ejection fractured McCain's right arm in three places, his left arm, and his right leg at the knee, and knocked him unconscious. McCain nearly drowned after parachuting into a Hanoi Lake. A Vietnamese mob pulled him from the water and attacked him. His left shoulder was crushed with the butt of a rifle and he was bayoneted in his left foot and abdominal area. He was then transported to the "Hanoi Hilton".

McCain was beaten upon entering the "Hanoi Hilton". Only when the North Vietnamese discovered that his father was a top admiral did they give him medical care. McCain gave the North Vietnamese his ship's name, squadron's name, and the attack's intended target. Further coerced to give future targets, he named cities that had already been bombed, and responding to demands for the names of his squadron's members, he supplied instead the names of the Green Bay Packers' offensive line. McCain spent six weeks in the hospital, receiving marginal care in a dirty, wet environment. A prolonged attempt to set the fractures on his right arm, done without anesthetic, was unsuccessful; he received an operation on his broken leg but no treatment for his broken left arm.

Now having lost fifty pounds, in a chest cast, covered in grime and eyes full of fever, and with his hair turned white, in early December 1967 McCain was sent to a prisoner-of-war camp on the outskirts of Hanoi nicknamed "the Plantation". In March 1968, McCain was put into solitary confinement, where he remained for two years. In mid-June, Major Bai, commander of the North Vietnamese prison camp system, offered McCain a chance to return home early. The North Vietnamese wanted to score a worldwide propaganda coup by appearing merciful, and also wanted to show other POWs that members of the elite like McCain were willing to be treated preferentially. McCain turned down the offer of release, due to the POWs' "first in, first out" interpretation of the U.S. Code of Conduct: he would only accept the offer if every man captured before him was released as well.

In late August 1968, a program of vigorous torture methods began on McCain. The North Vietnamese used rope bindings to put him into prolonged, painful positions and severely beat him every two hours, all while he was suffering from dysentery. His right leg was reinjured, his ribs were cracked, some teeth were broken at the gumline, and his left arm was re-fractured. After four days of this, McCain signed and taped an anti-American propaganda "confession". He used stilted Communist jargon and ungrammatical language to signal that the statement was forced. McCain was haunted then and since with the belief that he had dishonored his country, his family, his comrades and himself by his statement, but as he later wrote, "I had learned what we all learned over there: Every man has his breaking point. I had reached mine." Two weeks later his captors tried to force him to sign a second statement; his will to resist restored, he refused. He sometimes received two to three beatings per week because of his continued resistance; the sustained mistreatment went on for over a year. McCain refused to meet with various anti-Vietnam War peace groups coming to Hanoi, not wanting to give either them or the North Vietnamese a propaganda victory based on his connection to his father.

Altogether, McCain was held as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam for five and a half years, nearly five of them after his refusal to accept the out-of-sequence repatriation offer. His wartime injuries left him permanently incapable of raising either arm more than 80 degrees . For his actions as a POW, McCain was awarded the Silver Star, the Legion of Merit, three more instances of the Bronze Star, another instance of the Navy Commendation Medal, and the Purple Heart.

Whether you agree with his politics or not, John McCain is an American hero.

Rep. Sam Johnson (R, TX) - Korean War veteran, Vietnam War veteran and POW. USAF.

Sam Johnson is the least-well known of the three gentlemen that I am highlighting, but his story is every bit as real as the others. The following is taken from his congressional website (edited for brevity).

Johnson flew 62 combat missions during the Korean War, scoring one MiG fighter kill, one probable and one damaged. After Korea, he flew the solo and slot positions for the world-renowned Air Force Thunderbirds precision flying demonstration team in the F-100 Super Sabre.

In the Vietnam War during his second tour of duty, Johnson flew his 25th combat mission on April 16, 1966. Shot down at dusk over North Vietnam, Johnson suffered a broken right arm, dislocated left shoulder and a broken back. It was these injuries that the enemy captors would use in their constant efforts to glean information from Johnson.

Johnson spent nearly seven years as a prisoner of war, 42 months in solitary confinement. Forced into solitary when his captors labeled him a “die-hard,” Johnson committed 374 names to memory from tapping a special code on the prison wall. “We were all trying to memorize names in case anybody got out,” Johnson remembers.

While held in the infamous Hanoi Hilton, Johnson spent 72 days in leg stocks. A day after that torture ended, his captors forced him into leg irons for 2 ½ years. Weighing 200 lbs when shot down, an emaciated Johnson got down to an estimated 120 lbs while barely surviving on the occasional “meal” of weeds from the river, pig fat, white rice, or pumpkin soup.

Fellow POW Capt. James Mulligan, USN (Ret.) recalled the day Johnson was allowed to return to a joint cell. He walked into the room with the two other detained American officers, “stood at attention with tears in his eyes, and said simply, ‘Lieutenant Colonel Sam Johnson reporting for duty, sir’…after he had not talked to or directly been with an American for three and a half years.”

Whether you agree with his politics or not, Sam Johnson is an American hero.

Sen. Daniel Inouye (D, HI) - World War II veteran. US Army.

As you can tell from the above picture, Sen. Inouye does not have a right arm.

You see, Inouye was a soldier in the all Japanese-American 442nd Regimental Combat Team, the most highly-decorated unit in Army history. Since Americans of Japanese descent were suspected of Axis sympathies (many were held in internment camps), members of the 442nd often volunteered for suicide missions in the European theater to prove how American they were. The following is again from Wikipedia.

In 1943, when the U.S. Army dropped its ban on Japanese-Americans, Inouye curtailed his premedical studies at the University of Hawaii and enlisted in the Army. Inouye was promoted to the rank of sergeant within his first year, and he was given the role of platoon leader. He served in Italy in 1944 during the Rome-Arno Campaign before he was shifted to the Vosges Mountains region of France, where he spent two weeks searching for the Lost Battalion, a Texas battalion that was surrounded by German forces. He was promoted to the rank of second lieutenant for his actions there. At one point while leading an attack a shot struck him in the chest directly above his heart, but the bullet was stopped by the two silver dollars he happened to have stacked in his shirt pocket. He continued to carry the coins throughout the war in his shirt pocket as good luck charms.

On April 21, 1945, Inouye was grievously wounded while leading an assault on a heavily-defended ridge called near Terenzo called Colle Musatello. The ridge served as a strongpoint along the strip of German fortifications known as the Gothic Line, which represented the last and most dogged line of German defensive works in Italy. As he led his platoon in a flanking maneuver, three German machine guns opened fire from covered positions just 40 yards away, pinning his men to the ground. Inouye stood up to attack and was shot in the stomach; ignoring his wound, he proceeded to attack and destroy the first machine gun nest with hand grenades and fire from his M1 Thompson submachine gun. After being informed of the severity of his wound by his platoon sergeant, he refused treatment and rallied his men for an attack on the second machine gun position, which he also successfully destroyed before collapsing from blood loss.

As his squad distracted the third machine gunner, Inouye crawled toward the final bunker, eventually drawing within 10 yards. As he raised himself up and cocked his arm to throw his last grenade into the fighting position, a German inside fired a rifle grenade that struck him on the right elbow, severing most of his arm and leaving the primed grenade reflexively "clenched in a fist that suddenly didn't belong to me anymore". Inouye's horrified soldiers moved to his aid, but he shouted for them to keep back out of fear his severed fist would involuntarily relax and drop the grenade. As the German inside the bunker reloaded his rifle, Inouye managed to successfully pry the live grenade from his useless right hand and transfer it to his left. As the German aimed his rifle to finish him off, Inouye managed at last to toss the grenade off-hand into the bunker and destroy it. He stumbled to his feet and continued forward, silencing the last German resistance with a one-handed burst from his Thompson before being wounded in the leg and tumbling unconscious to the bottom of the ridge. When he awoke to see the concerned men of his platoon hovering over him, his only comment before being carried away was to gruffly order them return to their positions, since, as he pointed out, "nobody had called off the war".

The remainder of Inouye's mutilated right arm was later amputated at a field hospital without proper anesthesia, as he had been given too much morphine at an aid station and it was feared any more would lower his blood pressure enough to kill him. Inouye was initially awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his bravery in this action, with the award later being upgraded to the Medal of Honor (alongside 21 other Nisei servicemen who served in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and were believed to have been denied proper recognition of their bravery due to their race).

While recovering from WWII wounds and the amputation of his right forearm from the grenade wound (mentioned above) at Percy Jones Army Hospital, Inouye met future Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole, then a fellow patient. Dole mentioned to Inouye that after the war he planned to go to Congress; Inouye beat him there by a few years. The two have remained lifelong friends. In 2003, the hospital was renamed the Hart-Dole-Inouye Federal Center in honor of the two WWII veterans and another U.S. Senator and fellow WWII veteran who had stayed in the hospital, Philip Hart.

Whether you agree with his politics or not, Daniel Inouye is an American hero.


And then finally, I end with this poem, which has been passed around so much that nobody really knows who the author is (often attributed to one Father Dennis Edward O'Brien, of the USMC):

It is the soldier, not the reporter,
who has given us freedom of the press.

It is the soldier, not the poet,
who has given us freedom of speech.

It is the soldier, not the campus organizer,
who has given us the freedom to demonstrate.

It is the soldier, not the lawyer,
who has given us the right to a fair trial.

It is the soldier,
who salutes the flag,
who serves under the flag,
and whose coffin is draped by the flag,
who allows the protester to burn the flag.

Veterans Day 2009

Today is a day set aside to remember those who have served our nation in the military to protect our freedoms. Without their sacrifice, America would not the nation it is today. Thank you, veterans.

America; the land of the free, because of the brave.

(special thanks to Keith Whitfield on Flickr for these pictures from the Fort Gibson National Cemetery)

20th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall

Today marks the 20th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall.

A large ceremony was held at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, the same location as President Ronald Reagan's famous "Tear down this Wall" speech.

Many dignitaries attended the event. Geman Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Sarkozy, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Russian President Medvedev, former Polish President Lech Walesa, former Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, and leaders from the rest of Europe. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was also present.

Noticably absent was President Barack Obama (who normally would have been happy to go speak in Europe...). He sent a video message with Hillary, instead (On a side note, why does everything he talks about always have to go back to him? Watch at 1:45 of the video link to see what I mean).

Also of note was how Mikhail Gorbachev was praised, who was greeted by cheers of "Gorby!" Chancellor Merkel said to Gorbachev that "You made this possible." No mention of Ronald Reagan.

So, since it wasn't said by the Germans, the Brits, the French, the Russians (or former Soviets), our own Secretary of State, or our own President, allow me: President Reagan, thank you. The Berlin Wall wouldn't have fallen without your resolute leadership and determination.

In honor of Ronald Reagan, I present you with a video that gives me goosebumps, even though I wasn't even alive at the time.



Boy, could we use another of him...