Okiedoke announces 2008 Okie Blog awards

Nominations are being accepted January 1st thru the 20th in multiple categories. Go forth and nominate those Okie bloggers you feel deserve the honor.

Thanks to the good folks at Blue Oklahoma

for promoting this humble blogger's post about chain restaurants to the front page.

I'll be totally honest here. I mock this state ruthlessly, and I do it quite often. And sometimes Oklahoma deserves to be mocked ruthlessly.

However, I will say this. For all its faults, its political stupidity, its religious extremism, its sterile suburban sprawl, its terrible roads, and all the rest of it, Tulsa really is a pretty easy and comfortable place to live. There are a lot of good people here, doing good things, leading good lives. The fact is that no matter how far I travel from this city, it'll always be the place where I was born and have spent quite a bit of my life, and as such it'll always feel like home.

So to you Progressive Okies fighting the good fight against seemingly insurmountable odds, I wish you nothing but the best, and I'll be keeping my eye on you when I'm in Oregon.

I'll be making some changes to this blog's layout when I move to Oregon in about a month, and of course I'll ask the editor of BNN to move me to the Oregon page, but I plan to continue blogging about Oklahoma issues from time to time. Stay tuned.

The Other Debate: Rice vs. Inhofe

Tulsa viewers: Tune in to KJRH Channel 2 (9 on Cox) at 5:15pm tonight for live coverage of the only debate between the fightin' Andrew Rice and Jim "Jack" Inhofe. KJRH will also have live streaming coverage on its website.

OKC viewers: you can catch the debate on the web.

Andrew Rice comes out against bailout bill

This is what Rice had to say:

Rice said that, as U.S. Senator, he would only support a plan that includes: Meaningful oversight; a Stake for Taxpayers; and Hard Limits on Executive Compensation. Unfortunately, the final version of the bill that was released to the public Sunday does little to limit executive compensation for firms accepting a taxpayer bailout. In fact, the primary effect may be merely to decrease the amount such companies can deduct from their taxes for executive pay from $1 million to $500,000. Furthermore, the bill does nothing to fix the broken system that allowed abusive and reckless loans, an explosion of risky investments and poorly understood financial instruments, and other excesses.

Message to Jay Matlock

Mr. Matlock:

You seem pretty determined to cram my mailbox full of big one-page flyers demanding that I vote for you for State House. Alright then, here are a few questions:

1) I had to search really, really, really hard to find your party affiliation. Way down under the address label, it says "Paid for by the Republican State House Committee." Why are you so afraid of calling yourself a Republican?

2) On your website, your candidate photo shows you not wearing a flag pin. Why do you hate America?

3) One of the strengths that you trumpet on your flyer is your experience as a "financial advisor." Why did you destroy our economy?

Something occurs to me.

Those of you complaining about the BNN influential blog ranking system and claiming consternation over this humble blog's high ratings should consider this.

If this blog isn't "influential" in the Oklahoma blogosphere, then why is it that so many of you have posted articles criticizing me, applauding me, or saying that I should burn in the fires of the Inquisition? (That's just a sample!)

Surely, if this blog were so completely non-influential in Oklahoma politics, then nobody would post about it. Yet some folks just can't shut up about me. To my mind, that means I'm doing a least a little bit of influencing - even if I'm just influencing people to write angry posts about what an evil demonic perverted heathen I am.

Makes you think, doesn't it?

Also, on another note.

I hate to break it to you, but the following types of people do live in Oklahoma:

1) Gay people
2) Jews
3) Gay Jews
4) Liberals
5) Left-handed people
6) Gay left-handed Jewish liberals

Tulsa Airport getting privacy invasion scanner

Tulsa Airport is going to get one of those machines that creates a 3d naked image of you that is beamed to an offsite security screener. Your face is blurred, but they can see your bits quite clearly.

If you're not happy about random people seeing all your bits, and you think that this is a bridge too far in the name of "security," you might contact the airport authorities.

http://www.tulsaairports.com/index.cfm?id=8

The ACLU has a page explaining the problem and showing a picture of what these machines can see:

http://www.aclu.org/privacy/35506res20080603.html

BNN Alert- Miscategorized Blogs

Attention bloggers! If you've been incorrectly assigned a category - ie. if you're a liberal and you've been put in the conservative bin, or vice versa, please let me know, and I'll fix it. Additionally, if you haven't been assigned a category and wish to be assigned one, please let me know. You will know if you've been assigned a category if your blog displays when you filter the list of blogs by "liberal" or "conservative."

So far, "liberal" and "conservative" are the only two categories we have. If you have any ideas for other categories we might want to implement, let me know, and I'll consider it.

On a side note: When I post to Sinister and I don't mention BlogNetNews, I am posting as myself, not as the editor of BNN Oklahoma. As I have previously stated, my own political views are quite separate from my duties as BNN Oklahoma editor.

I had hoped my post regarding Sally Kern would elicit a more civilized response...

But sadly no. Here's my response to Bill Kumpe's bloviating, asinine, and hate-filled screed, in which he simultaneously accused me of using hate-speech, and then, with the same breath, called me an ignorant, depraved pervert. That kind of doublethink is simply breathtaking.

Thus, here is my response to Mr. Kumpe:

I had hoped that my post would elicit a more civilized response from its readers, but clearly you're much more interested in calling me a depraved, ignorant pervert than in having an actual, rational discussion.

So be it. You can mask your hatred and homophobia in whatever religious texts give you the most comfort, but you're still a bigoted, ignorant, and sad excuse for a human being.

All that the gay community wants is the right to be left alone to live our lives in peace. That's all we want. We don't want to force you to have sex with us. We don't want to come over to your house and have sex on the floor and force you to watch us do it. We don't even want to call you and tell you we're having sex. So why is it your business whether, when, and how we have sex in the privacy of our own lives?

Moreover, how is it your business whether we have the right to get married? Despite your bloviating about religiously based common law, we are a nation based on religious freedom and the rights of the individual. Therefore, it should, again, be none of your business whether I want to marry my life partner.

The bottom line is this.

All we want, all we've EVER wanted, is for people like you, sanctimonious, self-righteous, ignorant, fearful, homophobic theocrats, to leave us the hell alone and let us live our lives in peace.

Kisses,

Sinister

I don't understand why Kumpe and his theofascist friends are so utterly obsessed with what I do in my bedroom, and what rights my partner and I have to live together as equal partners, as spouses, just like a straight couple does.

Don't we have more pressing issues happening in the world? Calling me a pervert isn't going to lower the price of gas, stop the war in Iraq, or get anyone relief from foreclosure. Railing against marriage equality isn't going to give healthcare to anyone, fix unemployment, or rebuild our nation's infrastructure.

So my message is this, and it has always been this.

LEAVE US ALONE! GO FIGHT FOR STUFF THAT ACTUALLY MATTERS!

Please, Rep. Kern, leave us out of it.

Sally Kern has said that she is a "warrior for Judeo-Christian values."

Please, Rep. Kern, leave us out of your hate crusade.

First of all, there is no such thing as "Judeo-Christian values." That's a phrase made up by certain Christians who want to feel better about thrusting their supposed moral superiority on the world. They throw "Judeo" into their "values" so as not to seem exclusivist. The truth is that the phrase "Judeo-Christian Values" is code for homophobia and religious discrimination.

Unlike Rep. Kern and her theofascist ilk, most Jews believe that God created all people equal, and that no one religion or ideology has a monopoly on the truth. Most Jews believe that our most important task is to repair the world, to make it a better, fairer, more beautiful place for our children and our grandchildren.

More specifically, the Reform Jewish movement was ordaining gay and lesbian clergy and supporting the repeal of sodomy laws as early as the 1970s, and came out in favor of civil marriage equality in 1996. The Conservative Jewish movement is moving in the same direction, voting to ordain gay clergy in the early 2000s. It's only certain sects of Orthodox Judaism that still cling to an anachronistic and insular view of morality and reject GLBT equality.

Thus, if Rep. Kern wants to talk about "Judeo-Christian" values, and then preach hate and religious superiority, she's going to have to contend with those of us in the "Judeo" side of that who find her views abhorrent and dangerous.

BNN Notice - Inactive Blogs

I just purged two more inactive blogs from the BlogNetNews Oklahoma feed. There are a couple of blogs that are right on the edge of the 3 month cutoff. If you want to continue being a part of BNN, please post something.

Latest poll shows Obama trailing badly in Oklahoma (as expected)

Obama isn't going to win Oklahoma in November.

But there is something happening here.

In 2004, I saw very few Kerry bumper stickers and yard signs around town. Maybe a handful.

Recently, however, I'm seeing Obama bumper stickers and yard signs everywhere. I can think of two possible reasons for this. The first reason is probably more likely: I'm spending most of my time in Midtown, which can kind of be thought of as Tulsa's "liberal oasis." The second reason, which would be really something, is that Obama is getting more traction here than the polls show.

Again, I'm leaning towards the first reason. I don't see much visible support for Obama when I go down to South Tulsa. But if Obama is gaining more traction in Tulsa than the polls show, then that's a pretty significant thing, and it bodes well for down-ticket races, especially Georgianna Oliver's race against John Sullivan. If Obama can energize enough Dems in District 1 to go to the polls, Oliver might just have a shot. Obama might even help Andrew Rice, who is also trailing in the polls.

BNN Alert - New Blog - T-Town Tommy

Please welcome T-Town Tommy, a Libertarian blog.

We don't currently have a Libertarian category on BNN Oklahoma. However, if more of you want to be labeled as Libertarians, please e-mail me, and if I have enough of a response, I'll create a Libertarian category.

Congrats to Andrew Rice and Georgianna Oliver

CD1 now has a decent candidate to try to oust John Sullivan, who is a real right-wing asshat, and I'm excited about Rice's chances to oust another real right-wing asshat, Jim Inhofe.

Full election results up top.

I voted.

For those who haven't voted yet, here is the election guide that I posted yesterday.

I decided to vote for Mark Manley for Congress, because, for once, I wanted to vote for principle over politics, which I did not do in the Presidential primary. I'm pretty confident, though I'm not entirely sure of this, that Georgianna Oliver will win this primary handily, and she's doubtless the best candidate to face Sullivan in November. However, Manley's grassroots cred appeals to me, so I threw him some support.

I also voted for Andrew Rice. You should, too.

Approximate countdown to Portland

It is 214 days, 14 hours, 57 minutes and 2 seconds until Sunday, March 1, 2009

Every day that it approaches 100 degrees, I just have to look at this countdown clock...

Have I mentioned that I hate Oklahoma summers?

Tulsans, vote tomorrow.

Get out and vote tomorrow!

Here's the League of Women Voters election guide.

Here are the links to the two candidates for US Congress, Oklahoma District 1:

Georgianna Oliver

Mark Manley

Oliver is positioning herself as a centrist and she has a lot of money to spend. Manley's campaign is a grassroots effort from the anti-war crowd.

I'm not making an official endorsement in this primary. Oliver may be better positioned to beat Sullivan, but I like a lot of Manley's politics. I'm not sure who I'm going to vote for in this race, but I will absolutely endorse the winner of this primary.

For US Senate, I am endorsing Andrew Rice, and I encourage every registered Democrat in Oklahoma to get out and vote for him. Rice's campaign is a real chance to unseat one of the most reactionary members of the US Senate, Jim Inhofe. Not only can we unseat a bad Republican, but we can replace him with a really good progressive Democrat, someone who will actually care about his constituents and solving real problems.

I'm not making any endorsements in local/state legislative races.

Oklahoma ranks 2nd in nation for deficient bridges

More than 5,000 bridges in the state are considered deficient. Pennsylvania's more than 8,000 deficient bridges earned it the top spot on the list. The status of deficient means the bridges are not unsafe but are so deteriorated that they must be closely monitored and inspected or repaired.

The report said it will take billions to fix the 12 percent of the nation's 600,000 bridges that are rated structurally deficient by the Federal Highway Administration.

Like I keep saying, we need a big Federal program to fix our crumbling national infrastructure. Our highways, bridges, and levees are all deteriorating at an alarming rate. Such a program will also create jobs during a difficult economic period - which can't be a bad thing. Of course, the Bush crime family won't touch it, so doubtless more lives will be put at risk driving over unsafe bridges or living in flood zones with levees teetering on the brink of collapse.

BlogNetNews Oklahoma Editor: Will I be objective?

Here's how I'm going to operate as Oklahoma editor of BNN.

1) I will be objective in evaluating blogs for inclusion, be they rabidly conservative or frothingly liberal.

2) The only criteria for inclusion are as follows: your posts must be at least somewhat coherent, and your blog must have been active (meaning, regular posts) for at least 30 days.

3) No blog may be removed from BNN for any reason except for inactivity (about 3 months without a post). No matter how much I dislike a particular blog's point of view, I will not delete it.

I freely admit to a left-wing bias in my own politics, but when I took on the task of being editor, it was because, as a civil libertarian, I believe in promoting free expression.

It is, therefore, somewhat fitting that the first blog to seek admission after I became editor was a very conservative blog, one with whose politics I will likely disagree strongly.

Thus, to the conservative Oklahoma bloggers who are part of BNN or want to be a part of BNN, please be assured that I will exercise my duty as editor in an unbiased manner, because, were a conservative blogger to be named editor, I would expect no less.

This does not mean that as a private blogger I will stop criticizing right-wingers when they say something stupid. It's just that I won't stop them from saying it.

BNN Oklahoma - New Blog

Attention Oklahoma bloggers: A new blog has been added to the BlogNetNews feed.

Please welcome The Byrns Report, a conservative blog written by a Missionary Baptist Minister.