Is the Tobacco Settlement Settled?

THE TOBACCO SETTLEMENT: IS IT BEING USED APPROPRIATLY

the Watchman

Since 2001 the citizens of Oklahoma have lived under a voter approved Tobacco Settlement Endowment Fund that has proven itself to be cumbersome and untrustworthy. They have failed to keep up with the advances in smoking cessation and have failed to maintain the growth of their agency. They've outraged the citizens of the state by offering exorbitant salaries to top executives that even the Governor had to deny. It's leadership and board is stuffed with political cronies that are out to put their mark in the History books. They have placed people on the board that have helped them politically and have intentionally snubbed the voice of the Common Citizen. It is well past time that this agency and the way it is ran receives an overhaul.

Not By A Long Shot!

DID THE SEXUAL HARASSMENT CASE END WITH THE RESIGNATION OF THE REPRESENTATIVE INVOLVED?
 NOT BY A LONG SHOT!

The Watchman

*Editors note:  This story is a bit dated as it was written a month ago and updated for the second accusations against Kirby.  However it serves as a great recap to remind everyone of the basics of the scandal so we are publishing it.

  Well folks our legislature has managed to make Oklahoma the laughing stock of the nation again. If you were to believe the story being told, the offending legislator knew nothing of the settlement. We find that hard to swallow. Not only is that hard to believe, but a now out of office term limited individual is claiming responsibility for the cover-up. It gets worse from this point. Not only did they cover it up, but they used tax payers dollars to do so. Considering the way the government just blows through money these days we feel confident that they didn't think a mere forty-four thousand five hundred dollars ($44,500.00) would be missed. Well it was. We feel confident in saying there isn't a school district out there that wouldn't have enjoyed that money so they could hire an additional teacher.

  We began our research by going to the offender official web site at www.ok.gov here Representative Dan Kirby - Oklahoma House of Representatives . There was nothing out of the ordinary here except that he listed two daughters but no wife. We are sure he has his reasons and won't pry into them as they have no bearing on this article.

Another Form of Attacking Christians (Rep. Carol Bush)

Another Form of Attacking Christians Rep. Bush

By the Watchman

Why is it that we seem to repeatedly have trouble with candidates and elected officials from the Tulsa area? We certainly hope it's not like what's going on in Creek County. There one person decides whether or not you can run for office. We know that Tulsa has a strong GOP presence and party apparatus. So why didn't this candidate, now elected Representative get properly vetted? Who dropped the ball? Does the vetting of candidates need to be turned over to a professional group within the party appointed by the State Chair? All we can say is something must be done. There are far too many Democrats in Republican Clothing coming from the Northeastern part of the state for this to be a fluke.

We started by going to her web site at www.ok.com here Representative Carol Bush - Oklahoma House of Representatives. Taking into consideration that she has not even had a chance to update her information, we can say there was limited to almost no useful information on her web page. This actually did not come as a surprise to us.

In an undated interview on the tulsavoice.com she was the epitome of pride, arrogance and braggadocio. She was over confident since she was talking with a longtime friend in the interview. She probably was of the opinion that he would leave some of her more obnoxious remarks out. That must be why he's not working for the lame stream media. He didn't.  That must have come as a surprise to her. She does appear to be a failed business woman, but then how much business can a surf shop in Tulsa, Oklahoma do. We would call it a bad business decision. She worked for the Tulsa Crime Commission, but little to nothing has been done about the high crime rate. She worked for the Health Department for a period of time where her one big accomplishment was getting soda machines out of the schools. Now she managed to get herself elected by hiding her true colors throughout the campaign. Nice job of vetting candidate's people.

Taxpayer Money Used To Pay A Drunk's Salary

Taxpayer Money used to Pay a Drunk's Salary

By the Watchman

  What is it about our politicians continuing to make our state look like a bunch of fools? Have they lost their moral compass or is it they just don't care what people think. Why isn't his driver's license been suspended? Why hasn't he been in jail? Why this man is even allowed to be in control of our states money? There has to be a reason somewhere. We the citizens of Oklahoma are being a disservice by having this man holding the position.

Preston Doerflinger. - Photo credit, the Lost Ogle. 

  What brought our attention to this story was this article  Sooner Politics.org. This article was dated November 7, 2016. We saw that he was back in court again only this time it was on two counts. He had been charged with speeding and failure to provide proof of insurance. We find it hard to believe that an individual with his salary cannot afford to maintain insurance on a vehicle. We were unable to locate any information as to whether or not his vehicle was impounded during this stop. This article also gave credit to a report from The Lost Ogle, so we went there to see what we could find.

  Our search for the report of The Lost Ogle on this incident produced this Mary Fallin's right-hand man is in trouble… again | The Lost Ogle. This report, dated June 22, 2016, is one that we urge you to open the link and read. It spells out in plain English what having money and friends in high places can get you. The man was arrested on a Driving Under the Influence charge in Oklahoma City in January of 2015. To quote the Lost Ogle "Because he's not poor or a minority, has friends in very high places and can afford an attorney, the charges were eventually reduced to a speeding ticket as part of a plea deal. "He had several other catches in the plea deal. He was required to go through assessment and treatment, attend DUI school and AA. He was also required to maintain a clean driving record. He has failed to do so on several of these items.

Death of a Veteran but where are the Criminal Charges?

Death of a Veteran but where are the Criminal Charges?

By the Watchman

  We in this nation are fully aware of the mistreatment of our Veterans that have been going on for the last few years. These tales of not being able to get in to see a doctor too late to cure an illness have often ended in the death of an individual far before his or her time was due. We've always blamed it on the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. It was logical because that was where the whistle blowers were coming from. Oklahoma's news channels failed to report on the local delays in getting appointments. They didn't want to upset the citizens of the state.

  What if you were to find out that there has been a death due to neglect by a state agency? What would be your reaction? We ask that for one simple reason. The Oklahoma Department of Veterans Affairs runs several facilities in our state and they are failing those that need the care. The list of the facilities the run is found here Oklahoma Department of Veterans Affairs. The facility in question is in Talihina. The care this Veteran received harkens back to the treatments given to the wounded in the dark ages.

Senator or Lobbyist?

By the Watchman

What is it about educated people that they seem to lack the one vital element that truly makes them intelligent? That one element is common sense. In all appearances Senator Yen is ignoring the medical evidence out there in favor of lobbying for the vaccine industry. It appears that he has taken up his effort to force vaccinations on children in the State of Oklahoma once again in the upcoming legislative session. In case you haven't noticed Senator, there are far graver problems to address this year than placing our children under the communist rule of vaccination.

As is our custom we began our research by going to his home page at www.ok.gov here Oklahoma State Senate - Senators. As is common with the Senators in Oklahoma, they give you as little information as possible. We do know that he was born in Taipei, Taiwan in 1954. We do recognize the politically harrowing times between Taiwan and China that existed at those times and we fully understand their legal immigration to the United States while he was a child. He has done well for himself.

Buying your Way into Leadership

 THE WATCHMAN: 

  Many of you have read this newsletter and have seen us report that Oklahoma is the most corrupt state in the union. This last election cycle proved it beyond the shadow of a doubt. A little known position in the House is House pro-tem. This season the seat was bought by a candidate by giving donations to other candidates in the amount of $500.00 for their vote for him to fill the position. We call that bribery. Both offering and accepting such a bribe, even if it's called a campaign donation, is a crime. In short we have a bunch of criminals running the Oklahoma House of Representatives.

We published a story last week that Representative Harold Wright actually gave campaign donations to his two competitors for the seat of Pro-Tem. That's what got us interested into investigating this story.