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Thursday, February 26, 2009
Oklahoma House Republicans... What are you doing!?!
Okay...As many of you may know, I'm not a very big fan of Republicans. I can however in most instances, at least tolerate them. Well my threshold has been broken and I now am completely angry.
Last year, while working at the Oklahoma House of Representatives, would get completely frustrated with the lack of well "give a shit-ness" from the the House Republicans just blew my mind. They were constantly pushing their ultra-conservative crazy agenda instead of addressing the real problems of Oklahoma. From what I hear from many friends, this year has become intensely worse, and in part because the Repubs have control of our Senate...
This year alone, the Republicans have passed out of the House a resolution, HR 1008, declaring no Gitmo detainees can live in Oklahoma after they are released. One of the Repubs had the audacity to say that anyone that voted against this resolution is un-patriotic. Well you can imagine the outrage from some of the Dems from this statement. My favorite House Dem and former employer, Rep. Ed Cannaday (D-Porum) definitely debated against this. He is a proud Army Vet and he let the Representative on the other side of the aisle know how he felt about this (Read Below)
"Having served my country as a part of the 25th Infantry in the Army, my community as an educator for over 30 years, and my district as a state representative, I was appalled when my colleagues stated that voting against this resolution would prove my lack of patriotism," Rep. Cannaday said.
"I believe that when our commander-in-chief asks us to serve, we serve - regardless of whether we agree with his politics. But this resolution implies we can pick and choose what responsibilities we have as a state to our national security. I find that unpatriotic."
In addition, Rep. Cannaday pointed out one paragraph in the resolution, which "requests that those currently detained at Guantanamo Bay not be relocated to any other state in the United States."
"This resolution purported to speak not just for Oklahoma, but for every state in the union. What arrogance must be required to claim that this body can speak for the entire nation!" added Rep. Cannaday. "Really, this resolution was political posturing of the worst kind - draped in the politics of fear and exclusion."
Another bill that was passed allows for a monument to the Ten Commandments to be placed on the state capitol grounds. This bill also had language s
aying that other religions can do the same. PLEASE someone put a monument to the Flying Spaghetti Monster on the capitol grounds!! I am a proud Christian, but is this legislation really needed??? I WANT A MONUMENT TO THE SPAGHETTI MONSTER!! That would really show them...
Just yesterday, they passed a resolution declaring a day in the state Ronald Reagan Day. Now while I respect the office of President and am sure Reagan was a great man, this just really angers me. Reagan was horrible for our economy and the American worker. I remember the day Ronald Reagan died (bless his soul), my father-in-law was not really mourning like the rest of the country. (Disclaimer: This sounds very insensitive, but is the truth and this will show how someones presidency can effect the normal American) Traditionally, the American flag is lowered to half staff because of a former President dying. Joe's dad did not participate in this and even said, "I want to go weld ten more feet of pole so my flag is even higher." Joe's dad was looking for work in the 80s and because of Reagan's failed economic policies he had a very difficult time. Luckily, he was able to secure a good union job with American Airlines in Tulsa, but with no help from Reagan's economic policies. Come on Republicans, when he was President, as said in Rep. Morrisette's floor substitute which conveniently was not given a chance to be read, unemployment rates in Oklahoma were through the roof. Not everyone loved Reagan and passing a resolution of this nature is just a pure waste of time and Oklahomans tax dollars.
Another crazy one yesterday, they passed a bill (HB 1595) which requires women in Oklahoma who want to get an abortion to report demographic information such as:
Age
Race
Marital status
Level of education
Previous miscarriages
Economic status
This information will go to a state Web site. Now, I'm from a small town and know that if I look on there and see someones demographic information that I recognize, I may infer that it is said person I know that obtained the abortion. Now while I would never judge someone, but there are many people that would. This is a complete invasion of privacy for all women in Oklahoma. I'm just appalled that this legislation passed through the house...
So in closing, the House Republicans are at it again. Session has been going for less than a month and they have already seriously made me mad like 20 times already. I will not lie, I'm not surprised. We have to create change in Oklahoma because these people are seriously wasting time up at the Capitol.
Last year, while working at the Oklahoma House of Representatives, would get completely frustrated with the lack of well "give a shit-ness" from the the House Republicans just blew my mind. They were constantly pushing their ultra-conservative crazy agenda instead of addressing the real problems of Oklahoma. From what I hear from many friends, this year has become intensely worse, and in part because the Repubs have control of our Senate...
This year alone, the Republicans have passed out of the House a resolution, HR 1008, declaring no Gitmo detainees can live in Oklahoma after they are released. One of the Repubs had the audacity to say that anyone that voted against this resolution is un-patriotic. Well you can imagine the outrage from some of the Dems from this statement. My favorite House Dem and former employer, Rep. Ed Cannaday (D-Porum) definitely debated against this. He is a proud Army Vet and he let the Representative on the other side of the aisle know how he felt about this (Read Below)
"Having served my country as a part of the 25th Infantry in the Army, my community as an educator for over 30 years, and my district as a state representative, I was appalled when my colleagues stated that voting against this resolution would prove my lack of patriotism," Rep. Cannaday said.
"I believe that when our commander-in-chief asks us to serve, we serve - regardless of whether we agree with his politics. But this resolution implies we can pick and choose what responsibilities we have as a state to our national security. I find that unpatriotic."
In addition, Rep. Cannaday pointed out one paragraph in the resolution, which "requests that those currently detained at Guantanamo Bay not be relocated to any other state in the United States."
"This resolution purported to speak not just for Oklahoma, but for every state in the union. What arrogance must be required to claim that this body can speak for the entire nation!" added Rep. Cannaday. "Really, this resolution was political posturing of the worst kind - draped in the politics of fear and exclusion."
Another bill that was passed allows for a monument to the Ten Commandments to be placed on the state capitol grounds. This bill also had language s
aying that other religions can do the same. PLEASE someone put a monument to the Flying Spaghetti Monster on the capitol grounds!! I am a proud Christian, but is this legislation really needed??? I WANT A MONUMENT TO THE SPAGHETTI MONSTER!! That would really show them...Just yesterday, they passed a resolution declaring a day in the state Ronald Reagan Day. Now while I respect the office of President and am sure Reagan was a great man, this just really angers me. Reagan was horrible for our economy and the American worker. I remember the day Ronald Reagan died (bless his soul), my father-in-law was not really mourning like the rest of the country. (Disclaimer: This sounds very insensitive, but is the truth and this will show how someones presidency can effect the normal American) Traditionally, the American flag is lowered to half staff because of a former President dying. Joe's dad did not participate in this and even said, "I want to go weld ten more feet of pole so my flag is even higher." Joe's dad was looking for work in the 80s and because of Reagan's failed economic policies he had a very difficult time. Luckily, he was able to secure a good union job with American Airlines in Tulsa, but with no help from Reagan's economic policies. Come on Republicans, when he was President, as said in Rep. Morrisette's floor substitute which conveniently was not given a chance to be read, unemployment rates in Oklahoma were through the roof. Not everyone loved Reagan and passing a resolution of this nature is just a pure waste of time and Oklahomans tax dollars.
Another crazy one yesterday, they passed a bill (HB 1595) which requires women in Oklahoma who want to get an abortion to report demographic information such as:
Age
Race
Marital status
Level of education
Previous miscarriages
Economic status
This information will go to a state Web site. Now, I'm from a small town and know that if I look on there and see someones demographic information that I recognize, I may infer that it is said person I know that obtained the abortion. Now while I would never judge someone, but there are many people that would. This is a complete invasion of privacy for all women in Oklahoma. I'm just appalled that this legislation passed through the house...
So in closing, the House Republicans are at it again. Session has been going for less than a month and they have already seriously made me mad like 20 times already. I will not lie, I'm not surprised. We have to create change in Oklahoma because these people are seriously wasting time up at the Capitol.
Monday, February 23, 2009
YDA NYC
Arrived back in the district last night from a fun-filled and successful weekend at the Young Democrats of America Winter Conference in New York City. It was
overall a blast and as usual, a great time with great friends.
Friday evening, I arrived much later than everyone else. I didn't get to NYC until 1am-ish, but this was still enough time to have a great time with everyone. I took the BoltBus from DC. This was overall a good experience (especially for only costing $30 round trip!). I did have an interesting experience with the guy sitting in front of me on the bus. I was just looking out my window enjoying the trip until I saw something very disturbing from the reflection of his computer. He was watching porn...like crazy ridiculous porn...on the bus! He did not seem to care at all!! He didn't look like a weirdo, but I guess you can't judge a book by its cover. Seriously though, who does that!?!?
After I finally arrived, a bit scarred from the random porn experience, I met up with my usual YDA crew. They had just come back from eating in Little Italy at La Mela. They had rave reviews and brought me leftovers... They were fab... We then went to a little sushi/karaoke bar and sang our hearts away while drinking overpriced drinks in a tiny room with about 100 of our closest YDA friends... Good times! The night was topped off with Dan and I deciding it would be fun to go get pizza and go to Times Square at 4am. This was totally a good idea at the time...not such a good idea at 8am the next morning when I had to get up...
Saturday was a day full of meetings and excitement. I made it to the 9am Rural Caucus meeting . June O'Neill was the speaker and she was fabulous. She is the chair of the New York State Democratic Party and is from upstate NY about 18 miles from Canada. Basically the way she described where she was from, it is the middle of nowhere. It was great to get her perspective on rural issues and I think its fabulous a typically "urban" state has someone from a rural area running the Democratic Party. She was great and kudos to the Rural Caucus for having her speak!
I made it to the Resolutions Committee and they passed a few resolutions supporting EFCA, Repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," honoring President Obama, and a few others. I'm very happy that YDA is going on record supporting all of these causes. As a progressive youth organization, we definitely
need to state our positions.
After Resolutions was the fabulous Communications and Outreach Committee Meeting. I am the South-Central Region Appointee. We have not really done much with this committee and if anyone knows how important communications is to me, this has been very frustrating. What could have been a useless meeting, actually turned into a very productive discussion about the direction our organization needs to go with communications. We definitely need someone to take the initiative to see these ideas through. I am expecting great things in the future for this committee and hope to see it flourish as an asset to the organization.
After all the business...we headed down to my favorite pizza place in town, Lombardi's in Soho, to partake in a fabulous lunch. It was fabulous as I expected...
Saturday evening, we ate at Ariana Afghan Kabob. I have never eaten Afghan food and was quite nervous that I would not like it. I couldn't have been more wrong. This was SOOOOO yummy and the atmosphere was fun too. It was cute little local restaurant and we had a hilarious waiter. It was a blast!
After dinner, we went to the Crystal and Rod party at the Dream Hotel. They reserved the penthouse bar thing and it was fabulous. We were on top of this roof with a great view of Times Square. It was totally swanky and everybody that is anybody was there!
Sunday was General Session and this is going to need a post all on its own... I left feeling like it was productive though. We ate at Empanada Mama's afterwards and it was so yummy. I've never had empanadas except the kind that you can get at Taco Bell. After we ate, I met up with Carrie and Elaine, old friends from my OU days at a cute little coffee shop on the Upper East Side. It was so New York. It was great to see them and catch up. I do wish the weather would have been nicer yesterday though because I was really wanting to hit up some shopping down in Soho. It was just so nasty, rainy, and cold.
Overall, it was a great weekend. My YDA friends are like family to me so it was great to catch up with everyone. We ate well, had a great time, and also got down to business. Hopefully Houston will happen so I can see everyone soon!
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