Tuesday, November 13, 2018

The Best Justice you Can Buy


CAN YOU EXPECT A FAIR TRIAL IN OKLAHOMA, IT ACTUALLY DEPENDS ON YOUR ATTORNEY
THE WATCHMAN


Your chances off getting a fair trial in Oklahoma are only about 40%. That is a conclusion drawn by this Newsletter when you appear in front of any district judge. What drew our interest in this story was this article from the Conservative Alliance Pac. We took a hard look at this ourselves and found it to be a semi-truthful argument. We had issues about the way the numbers were presented. The site www.opensecrets.org presented them in as a single item for all judges. We choose to dig a little deeper into individual judicial districts and do a spot check.

Monday, October 29, 2018

Is SQ793 Good For Oklahomans?


STATE QUESTION 793
IS IT GOOD FOR OKLAHOMANS
THE WATCHMAN

What brought this to our attention was the many commercials in support of SQ 793 and the sparse commercials from those who0 are opposed to this State Question. There is a saying in politics that says always follow the money. That is what we did. With all the noise and commercials on this subject, we felt that the people needed to understand exactly what State Question 793 all is about.

The first article of interest we found from a Tulsa television station. The individual being interviewed was a practicing Optometrist. He does raise a few valid points to big box stores providing eye care. He claims that the Doctors would be under the supervision of the store and not the state. We found this to be untrue. The petition itself places the optometrist working in these establishment to rules and laws on sanitation as well as maintain a license.

The next article we found was from NewsOk. The question was endorsed by the Oklahoma Silver Legislators. They cited the convenience and lower prices for the individual customer. The convenience is nice, there is no guarantee that prices will be lower. We can't help but think of all the people who lost their jobs due to big box companies. You can't help but wonder how many individuals will lose their jobs because of this State Question.

Sunday, October 21, 2018

Race For Governor: Pat 3




THE RACE FOR GOVERNOR
PART 3
THE WATCHMAN


  We begin this story about Kevin Stitt and some of the background of the candidate. We fail to see how we ever went from the lesser of two evils to the lesser of three evils, but we have. We have a hard time accepting the best of candidates is none. We also have a hard time accepting a candidate for office that shows a definitive inclination to basically buy a political office. That just reeks at the foundations this country and this state were founded on. It's truly a shame that has become Oklahoma and Federal elections have stooped to such a low level.

  There were two items that brought the conclusion that this needed a story. The first is the race for governor and the second is this article. We urge you to open the link and read it for yourself. Can we truly trust the state in the hands of someone like this? We think not. Sadly, most people look only to see if they have an R, D or L to decide. Very few take a hard look at the candidates or check their backgrounds.

The Libertarian Governor Candidate



THE RACE FOR GOVERNORPART 2 THE LIBERTARIAN CANDIDATETHE WATCHMAN 

Never before has the establishment politicians and their friends had it so good. They control the invitations to debates and the news media. Because of the control they feel it's unimportant to invite the Libertarian candidate and one Democratic candidate makes jokes about him during a debate. This is tangible proof that we no longer have an unbiased news organization in this country. He and his supporters were just outside.

We started by going to his campaign web site here. Like most politicians today, he has failed to state which party he is running for. We went to his issues page and found several issues that most Oklahomans will agree with and some that most Oklahomans will not agree with. We feel that most Oklahomans would agree with his stance on Education, State Budget, Tax Incentives and his stance on Family Law and Child welfare.

Monday, October 1, 2018

Two 'Evils', But One Is Worse


THE RACE FOR GOVERNOR
A TRUE CHOICE BETWEEN THE LESSER OF TWO EVILS
THE WATCHMAN

It's getting tight in the race to become our next Governor. What drew us to this story was this article from the NON-DOC newsletter. The debate barely mentioned agriculture in our state and concentrated on education. Included was the discussion that Mr. Edmondson wanted to fix the formula that education gets while Mr. Stitt wants to raise teacher's pay. Both ideas are tax increases coming in the near future. The only mention of a
third-party candidate was as a joke by Mr. Edmondson. Needless to say, the third-party candidate wasn't at the debate.

We next found this article on Mr. Edmondson's campaign web site. It's an appeal to get people looking at his candidacy. First, there is no mention of what party he is running for. Secondly, we found the following on his web site. "Why he's running, Mr. the former Attorney General writes that he is running because the Oklahoma way is under attack by big corporations and the wealthy who have put their interest first at the expense of most Oklahoman's, I'm running to take on Wall Street, take on the powerful, take on our legislature, take on anyone – from either party that isn't putting the people of Oklahoma first. I've done it my whole life." He claims he wants to protect schools. Health care, seniors, working people and children, and bring back good jobs that benefit communities.

Monday, September 24, 2018

The Taxing Ways of Josh West


IT WAS JUST OVER A YEAR AGO THAT WE TRIED TO INFORM THE PUBLIC OF
THE DANGER IN THIS ALLEGED MAN
THE WATCHMAN


It would be nice if we didn't have to reveal our own legislators' transgressions. Unfortunately, this is not the case here. It was a little over a year ago that we informed the public about the individual soon to be mentioned here. As our mission is to tell the truth about our legislators' we started at the beginning again.

We started by going to his official web site which you can find here. There is nothing new here that wasn't available last year. If anything, it's more secretive about his personal life. He is a former Marine who is giving them a bad name for his current actions. He is serving his own interest instead of those that put him into office.

Monday, September 17, 2018

Where's the Money, Tom Dugger?



A CERTIFIED PUBLIC ACCOUNTANT IN THE SENATE
AND THEY COULDN'T FIGURE OUT WHERE TO SAVE MONEY.

WHAT A DISGRACE..


THE WATCHMAN

We'll start this report with a question. How do you tell if any elected official is working for the people, or for the donors who financed their campaign? The answer is always the same, you follow the money. You also must consider their voting record and who it benefits the most. Many of Oklahoma's elected officials in the House and Senate along with the representatives that are supposed to be representing us at the federal level always campaign as being Conservative, but their lies are on record by the way they vote.

Tonight, we are going to bring you the State Senator that has the worse voting record based on key issues that matter to Oklahoman's. The individual is Tom Dugger of Senate district 21, which covers Payne County.

Wednesday, September 12, 2018

Sen. Sharp's Inner RINO


SHILLING FOR THE UNIONSTHIS RINO NEEDS TO GO

THE WATCHMAN
If you want to know how corrupt an organization is, all you need to do is follow the money. We did that with Senator Ron Sharp. What we found is a conflict of interest between his duties that defy any explanation. Sure, people will say that he's a retired teacher whose knowledge of the field should be a benefit to the committee. If is integrity would allow him to work for the people of the state instead of the special interest groups, it would be. We found that his loyalties lay with the special interest groups.

We started by going to his official state web site. What we found has become common practice among state legislators. It contained no real information about the Senator that we didn't already know about him. All brag and no way to get an idea about the individual,

We next went to this site and were surprised to find that Wikipedia didn't have a single message of support for him. In fact, his page indicated the following "This biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification." This quote was dated 2015. This gives the appearance of hiding something. This man works for the people of Oklahoma. We find ourselves again asking the question of what is he hiding?

Wednesday, August 29, 2018

Race For Ag Took Nasty Turn


THE RACE FOR THE ATTORNEY GENERALS OFFICE
TAKES A NASTY TURN
THE WATCHMAN

Recent events in the Oklahoma GOP race for the office of the Attorney General have taken a nasty change of discourse recently. Name calling is just part of it. Claims by both individuals have painted their opponent as the worse possible choice to hold the office. We received in our mail on Wednesday, a flyer from both individuals. We looked to see if the claims made are accurate. The following story is what we found.

We started by going to the flyer's themselves. We compared the individual claims made for accuracy. We started by going to the Wikipedia page for each candidate. The page on Mr. Drummond we found to be accurate as to what he is indicating he's accomplished in his life. Then we looked at the AG Mike Hunter's page and found some omission's that raise a concern over his qualifications to be the State Attorney General.

The first was that there is little to no information to indicate he was a practicing attorney. It does state he was. He served in the state legislature from 1988 thru 1991. There is no indication of what he did between 1991 thru 1993. Once again, it's indicated he returned to a private practice. It must not have been a success because two years later he became the General Counsel for the Oklahoma State Corporation Commission between 1993 through 1994. There is no indication of his employment from 1994 until he went to work for Governor Fallin.

Monday, August 20, 2018

Our Secure Voting Machines?


 
HOW SECURE ARE OUR VOTING MACHINES?
THE WATCHMAN


As we are all well aware of the voting problem in the 2016 elections, we decided to investigate the security of voting machines and why the Republicans want photo identification before people vote. We were in shock about what we found. We have uncovered the reason that Democrats insist on not having voter identification. We believe it's the only way many Democrats remain in office.

We found this article from Newsweek. Yes, we are aware that they are a left leaning magazine. It would appear that this article is only left leaning. It doesn't try to blame either party, but it does include an admission by the manufacturer of certain voting machines that failed to include non-hackable software.

Sunday, July 22, 2018

Hoftmeister's Scandals

JOY HOFMEISTER AND
THE SCANDALED STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION
THE WATCHMAN


  To no one's surprise, the Superintendent of Education drew a few challengers for her seat and the potential of unseating her is still a real possibility. The scandal plagued Department of Education even at one time had the Superintendent charged with felony campaign finance regulations. That is not the only scandal that transpired during her administration. We would have been shocked if she didn't have a rival. As it currently stands, she faces a run-off election for her position in August.

  What brought our attention to this story was this article from the MusgokeePolitical.com site. After the criminal case against her was dismissed, she still received enough votes to face a run-off against a challenger. The charges, though dismissed at this time, are still under investigation by the Oklahoma County District Attorney's office.

Sunday, July 15, 2018

GOP Picks Worst Candidates


THE PRIMARY IS OVER, AND ONCE AGAIN
THE GOP HAS PICKED THE WORST CANDIDATES
THE WATCHMAN
The primary results are in and we know that a lot of candidates were disappointed at the returns. We would never have guessed the run-off election would be between a real estate executive with a shady pass and the former television reporter and former Mayor of Oklahoma City. We can only speculate as to why, and we are not in the business of speculating about elections.
We've already focused on one of the candidates and now we'll show you what information is available on former Mayor Mick Cornett. One candidate appears to buy the election with his ample wealth while the other candidate is running on having a fourteen-year history of a balanced budget. Well he's required to have a balanced budget. So are our legislators, but the never seem to have enough money in the coffers to balance it without loans and tax increases.
The first item we found was this article from the MusgokeeePolitical.com. There is a mention of the two remaining candidates having issues and we concur with the statement. We would encourage you to open the link and read it for yourself. It's a very informative article.

Monday, July 9, 2018

Pfeiffer Get's Exposed

INCUMBENT LEGISLATOR RUNS AS A CONSERVATIVE
YET HIS VOTING RECORD SAYS DIFFEREENT
THE WATCHMAN
It never fails to have Liberal Republicans run as Conservative during each election. We have again found another incumbent liberal Republican running for re-election in his district. We all know that politicians shade the truth on their about their true political believes, but we fail to see how anyone that votes for a tax hike can call themselves a Conservative. This is doubly troubling when a half billion in new taxes are placed on the backs of the working class when they leave tax credits to corporations practically untouched.

What started our interest in this report an article in the MusgokeePolitico.com. It seems that he is going to face a runoff in his campaign to keep his seat. All of his campaign literature is showing that he is claiming to be a conservative, yet he has voted to increase taxes that made it to the floor of the house over these last two years. It appears that he has it that the Republican Party is the party of lower taxes and less government. It also appears that he knows little about the states Constitution or chooses to ignore it. If he did, he would realize that him as well as all the elected officials in the state have been in violation of the Oklahoma State Constitution since 1994. That would make this and all other elected positions in the state illegitimate.

Monday, June 25, 2018

A Candidate who Doesn't Vote... Wants Your Vote


 
 A MAN WHO SELDOM VOTES
WANTS TO BE YOUR NEXT GOVERNOR
THE WATCHMAN

It's not often that we come across a candidate for office who fails to vote repeatedly. Those that fail to vote, not only those seeking office, have failed to let their voice be heard. We often wonder why these individuals fail to vote. By not voting they have failed to exercise their Constitutional right of a voice in the decision making for the state and the federal governments. Such is the case for one candidate for the office of Governor of Oklahoma.

What brought our attention to this problem was a piece of investigative journalism from the group Oklahomawatch.org. We encourage you to read the story at this link. It is a very well written article.

We next came across an article concerning campaign financial reports. When we last reported on his campaign we were unable to locate these reports. You can read the report in this article.

Monday, June 18, 2018

The Block Candidacy For Lt. Gov.


THERE IS A CANDIDATE FOR LT. GOVERNOR
That is Actually a Very Good Choice
THE WATCHMAN

 There are many times when a candidate runs for office that they are completely ignored. Today we bring you a textbook example of one such candidate. This gentleman has been ignored by most of the main stream media. We found only one blogger, two newspapers and one television station that have bothered to interview him. We will not make a recommendation for any candidate; however, his voice deserves to be heard.

We first learned of this individual from this article. Although not directly mentioned by name, it was an incentive to push us into looking at the fourth candidate. We were able to find a lot of good useful information on him.

The candidacy for the office of Lt. Governor was put into further detail in this article from the muskogeephoenix.com. You can read the article here. They have some good information on the candidate.

Monday, May 28, 2018

Kevin McDugle You're No Longer A Drill Instructor

KEVIN MCDUGLE, YOU'RE NO LONGER A DRILL INSTRUCTOR

THE WATCHMAN

It's not often that we report on two bad actors on the same subject. This is one of those times. Last week we presented a report on "Bullies in the House." This report will show you the tale of the accomplice to the first gentleman we talked about. He was mentioned in that report as well. In this case some of his military training was abused.


This started with this this report from the from the publication Non-Doc. The report would be correct or even avoided had these two Representatives done their homework. If this is indicative of their leadership skills while in the military, it's a very bad example presented.

Tuesday, May 8, 2018

Why The 'Teacher Pay' Tax Increase Was Unnecessary


 

 

 

 

WHY THE TAX INCREASE FOR THE

TEACHERS PAY WAS UNNECCESSARY

THE WATCHMAN

 

Recently we here in Oklahoma had the dishonor of watching our state legislature cave in to the demands of the various teacher's unions at the expense of the tax payer. This didn't have to happen. To the shame of the legislator's and the Governor they demanded a tax increase and bullied their way to get it. There was never any discussion about reforming the education system. We the People of this great state lost because the unions and the State Chamber of Commerce wanted this to happen. The common hard-working citizen had no choice in the matter.

 

This caused was pushed by the lame stream, we meant main stream media propaganda arm of the union. One of these decades we may see them return to honest reporting, but not in the near future. What peaked our interest in this story was this article by a small publication called Non-Doc. They are one of the few online papers in this state that does a very good job of investigative reporting. What we found to be most disturbing about this article was the teacher's since of betrayal that an initiative petition to overturn the tax increases was launched almost immediately. We can't help but wonder if they realize that this is a log rolled bill and probably would not stand against a court challenge. The mistake was made when they included the other state employees in the bill for a pay raise.

 

Now we would like for you to open and read this next article. This is a report on the findings of the Joint Task Force on Tax Credits. What it won't tell you is that up until the mid-1980's, the state was limited in it's ability to give tax credits. Tax credits were primarily issued by city and county governments. That was repealed. The state decided it knew better to the tune of $6.1 billion dollars. Some of that money was returned to the politicians in the form of campaign contributions. This is occurring even to this day.

 

Another group out there that does a good job at investigative reporting is OklahomaWatch.org. A good example of there work can be found in this article. This will show you how Oklahoma stood against the rest of the nation from 1969 through 2017. We were far from the National Average consistently. It is pointed out that great strides were made in the first decade of this century but have lacked progress for ten years. Do we feel they deserve a raise, yes. But along with their raise must come reforms. Our students deserve better.

 

Another item that we found was this article. For all of you who are under the impression that this strike was just something they recently planned, you are terribly wrong. The states largest teacher's union has been planning this strike since last summer. The torn and tattered out of date books they used that was eaten up by the media was staged. Yes, the union produced fake news.

 

Now we took he time to go back a couple of years, when the unions started agitating for a pay raise, and compared rhetoric to fact. At the time the rhetoric was always the same. Oklahoma is last in the nation in teacher's pay. Facts are hard to hide, and we feel the unions were hoping no one would look into the actual facts. We did, and we limited our review to states that shared a common border with Oklahoma. We began with state profiles and this is the State Profile for Arkansas.

 

We next found this State Profile for Kansas. We would hope that our elected officials or their staff would have taken the time to do this type of research.

 

We next found the State Profiles Page for Colorado.

 

Then we found this State Profiles Page for Louisiana and Missouri. This actually gives you a chance to view the differences between two states.

 

Then we found this State Profiles Page for New Mexico.

 

Then we found this State Profiles Page for Missouri.

 

Then we found this State Profiles Page for Oklahoma.

 

Then we found this State Profiles Page for Texas.

 

That tells you what the differences are between the states. As you can see there isn't much. Now we are going to dig into the real story of pay and see why Oklahoma Teacher's are in such a fit. You must remember that the figures you see here are an average of salaries for all the teachers within a state.

 

We started by going to this site for the state of Kansas. The average salary for a teacher at that time was $47,755 a year.

 

We next went to this site for New Mexico. The average salary for a teacher at that time was $47,163.

 

We next went to this site for the state of Texas. The average salary for a teacher at that time was $51,890.

 

Then we found this site from the State of Oklahoma. Once you get to this site you are able to download the salary of all the current educators and administrative staff. Have fun.

 

Then we found this site for the Oklahoma teachers. Their average salary for a teacher at that time was $45,276. Regrettably there are working couples in Oklahoma that don't earn that much.

 

Then we found the site for Louisiana Teachers' Salaries. They made at the time an average of $49,745 a year.

 

Then we found the site for the Arkansas Teacher's average pay. At the time they made an average of $48,218 a year.

 

Then we can't forget Missouri. We found this site on Missouri's Teacher's pay. This indicates that the average teacher's ay in Missouri was $47,957.

 

It doesn't take a math wizard to see that Oklahoma teachers are some of the lowest paid educators in the area. These averages don't tell the entire story. These averages don't indicate what the starting salary is by state nor do they indicate the highest salary by state. The biggest item these averages fail to reflect for the state of Oklahoma is the cause for the lack of adequate funding for raises and the lack of appropriate standards for eligibility to become a teacher. We shall address both here shortly.

 

We can say that the lobbyist did their jobs well this year. The way we know this is by this article we found. This is from the Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce. If you will open the link and look under the section titled "Legislative Agenda for 2018" you will find that they are more about politics than business.

 

Then we found this devastating article. As parents frustratingly try to understand why their children cannot succeed in school or why they fail to maintain a job or can't read or write they have no knowledge that daily they are sending their most precious children to an education system that only requires a teacher maintain a 2.5 percent grade point average while attending college. We know that there are some highly educated and well-meaning educators out there who did better than a 2.5 percent grade point average in college, but the Department of Education needs to stop forcing mandated test on these students, so the teachers can do what they've been trained to do and that is teach. The minimum grade point average to become a teacher needs to be raised. Our children deserve better.

 

When we found this article we weren't really surprised. The scandal plagued government led by Governor Fallin has even made a stop at the State Department of Education. The individuals involved may have been cleared, but the involvement took their eye off the mission long enough to bring the end to quality education in Oklahoma. What a disgrace.

 

Then we found this article. This is something that we feel everyone was fully aware of. Spending per student can actually very from district to district. Although useful information, it fails to fill a gap in what is essentially a very real need of the state's ad districts. The funds used to collect this information could have been better spent in budget reduction or school grants.

 

We also found this report from the OkPolicy.org. This report is typical of a government that fails to properly manage the available funds. Our legislators would much rather give tax breaks to their corporate campaign backers than to educate our children properly. That puts the welfare of our children and our state at risk. Just think how far $6.1 billion dollars a year would go in restoring roads and fixing the infrastructure of this state. Just imagine how much improvement could be made to our education system.

 

Then there is this article. This is one that is a must read. It indicates that after analyzing a report, the report failed to include any state, county or city generated revenue to the schools. Quoting the article "Further, the report, from a progressive or liberal-leaning group based in the nation's capital, listed Oklahoma as having made the steepest reductions in state spending on public schools." We're not saying that there was a little bias in the report, but the article does indicate an increase in state spending on public education each year.

 

Then a very interesting question was raised by the OkPolicy.org. With the veto petition going on, should it make the ballot in November, will the pay raise for the teachers be delayed? We don't honestly know. We believe it will be held back however the funds for each teacher would be held in an escrow account and should the initiative fail, they would receive back pay.

 

As has been typical with our Governor and Legislature, they have once again opened their mouths and inserted their feet. We found this report where the Governor signed the tax bill she's been wanting for her entire term in office. Unfortunately, it may also face a legal challenge as it covers two different subjects. Not only does it give a pay raise to the teachers, but to save time they included other state employees in the bill. It's what is referred to as log rolling. It is also against the Constitution of the State of Oklahoma. Just so the legislature could go home three weeks early.

 

In conclusion there are several options that we as citizens can take. The first is already out there, the veto initiative, which we support. The second is the court challenge which we support. We also support a primary challenge to any candidate that voted for this ignorant piece of legislation. We would also support an initiative for a state question raising the requirement for approval of a tax or fee increase to 85 percent. We would support lowering the term limits. We would support a petition for a state question that would give the citizens the right to recall their elected officials. No longer can we afford to let them run rough shod over us. It's time we put some fear of the people back into the government.