Huckabee and Giuliani tied in 2008 Republican race
Wed Dec 19, 2007 9:24am EST

DES MOINES, Iowa (Reuters) - Mike Huckabee has surged into a virtual tie with front-runner Rudy Giuliani in the national 2008 Republican presidential race two weeks before the first contest, according to a Reuters/Zogby poll released on Wednesday.
Huckabee, a former governor of Arkansas whose campaign has caught fire in recent weeks, wiped out an 18-point deficit in one month to pull within one point of Giuliani, 23 percent to 22 percent.
Among Democrats, Hillary Clinton's national advantage over second-place rival Barack Obama shrunk slightly to eight percentage points as the races for the White House tightened in both parties. Clinton had an 11-point edge last month.
The shifting numbers have changed the shape of a dynamic presidential race two weeks before Iowa on January 3 kicks off the state-by-state process of choosing candidates in each party for the November 2008 election. Read more at http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN1952159120071219

THE 12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS

Straight-No Chaser is a men's A Capella group from Indiana University. This You Tube video is great for the holidays. Click on the link and enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Fe11OlMiz8

COLE and the OMNIBUS!
For Immediate Release December 18th, 2007
Cole Statement on Omnibus Spending Bill

WASHINGTON – Yesterday Congressman Tom Cole (OK-04) made the following statement after voting against the behemoth, half-trillion dollar combined spending bill last night.
"When stacked up, this omnibus bill stands over a foot high on top of my desk," Congressman Cole said. "It is evident that this document, swollen with needless and wasteful spending, did not undergo adequate scrutiny in the legislative process. The bill was reported out of the Rules Committee less than 24 hours before it was voted on in the House. That is hardly enough time to consider one of the largest combined spending measures in our nation's history."
"In addition to what can be found in the bill, it is startling to discover what is not included. Remarkably, the leadership of the House saw fit to pass this legislation without providing vital funding to our troops who are serving on the frontlines in Iraq. Even with the progress that has been reported by General Petraeus and other military and civilian experts, the House leaders appear to be ignoring the needs of our troops fighting the War in Iraq. This is an irresponsible and unacceptable approach that I cannot in good conscience support." What's an OMNIBUS? This is the defination according to the C-SPAN website:

An OMNIBUS BILL packages together several measures into one or combines diverse subjects into a single bill. Examples are reconciliation bills, combined appropriations bills, and private relief and claims bills.

CORN PONE
by Steve Fair

Corn Pone: (pon), n bread made of corn meal: this word is used mainly in the South.
Websters New World Dictionary and Student Handbook

State Senator Kenneth Corn, (D-Poteau) has filed a bill that would give every high school graduate in Oklahoma two free years in higher education. Under Corn’s legislation, any Oklahoma high school graduate would be eligible to attend any of twelve two-year colleges or twenty-nine career techs located throughout the state free regardless how much their parents earn. Corn says, “it’s going to take bold action to dramatically increase the number of college graduates in Oklahoma.” Increasing the number of college graduates in the state is a worthy goal, but Corn’s proposal has a number of problems.

First, Corn’s proposal is not really new. It is already being done- in Oklahoma City and Tulsa. Beginning in the fall of 2007 semester, Oklahoma City Community College and Tulsa Community College started offering free tuition to children in their areas. The “Tulsa Achieves” program gives free tuition to any high school grad from Tulsa County. OCCC is doing the same thing for Oklahoma County. The program just started in the fall of 2007 and has been very successful. It’s been so good that some of the states four-year schools are saying the program is hurting their enrollment. Corn wants to roll the freebie program statewide. He estimates doing that would cost $20 million annually. The estimate appears to be low, since it cost over 2 million annually just in the TA program.

Another ongoing program available to low income household children is OHLAP (Oklahoma Higher Learning Access Program). OHLAP aka taxpayers provides free tuition for kids whose family household income is less than $50,000, but the free tuition comes with some serious academic requirements starting in eighth grade. The “Tulsa Achieves” program requires a kid only maintain a “C” average to get the free tuition. TA also requires the kids to do forty hours of community service.

Second, who is going to pay for this program? Corn says the program will cost $20 million per year, but that estimate is low. The answer is obvious- the taxpayers are going to be ones to foot the bill. Instead of Corn trying to give our money to people who didn’t work for it, why doesn’t he give it back to hard working Oklahomans? We certainly need some tax relief. Oklahomans pay a higher percent of our incomes in taxes than others in the region.

Thirdly, how does getting more of our children and education help the state? It certainly helps the child, but how does it help the state collectively? Based on last year’s data, seventy five percent of Oklahoma college graduates leave the state within five years of graduating from a state school. Why do they leave? They leave because there are no jobs in Oklahoma. Corn can thank his Democratic state legislative ancestors for creating a business environment that has Oklahomans earning $5,000 less per year than a Texan doing the same job.

Education- public and higher education- already receives a huge percentage of the Oklahoma budget and they are never satisfied. If one hundred percent of the state budget were allocated for education, the education lobby would still want more. Citizens and their leaders must recognize educating our children will not attract industry and jobs to the state. Reducing taxes, fixing our infrastructure, getting the lawyers out of workers comp, and tort reform will do much more to help our state than giving away college tuition. The teaching of personal responsibility and initiative to high schoolers instead of giving them something they didn't work for is much kinder and a wiser approach.

What Corn is really saying by proposing this NEW PROGRAM is there is twenty million of taxpayer dollars being taken from Oklahomans that is not needed by state government. Why doesn’t Ken do the moral and ethical thing and lead the charge to send me my money back?

What kind of message does this program send to the guy who just graduated from one of the two year schools, but now he has student loans to pay off? This is the Corn response “Too bad- you were too late.” What will really make the self starter/personal responsibility advocate feel better is when we tell him we are going to use his tax dollars to pay for the other guy’s tuition. Not good- I suspect.

Corn’s real motivation is not educating children. Ken is termed out in a couple of years and the rumor is that he is already planning his future. He’s looking at “higher” elective office. So Ken is trying to use our money to buy him some votes in the future. Not a bad strategy if you are only concerned with yourself, but Oklahomans shouldn’t let him get away with it. It’s our bread and not corn pone.

Why Ron Paul's Followers Will Cost Him the Election
Written byDave Nalle - Published December 14, 2007

I've written previously about some of the problems the Ron Paul campaign faces, but apparently my explanations were too subtle or people just chose not to pay attention. There is a large element of self-righteous fanaticism among Paul followers which seems to make them completely incapable of seeing that the powerful gale of enthusiasm which is driving the campaign may crash it hard on the rocks of reality if they don't do something.If they want to save the campaign, they need to get over their egotistical attachment to the idea that Paul's unimpeachable principles and honesty trump all other considerations, and face up to the fact that to win a party nomination you have to make some effort to play the game the way the party leaders–from the lowliest precinct workers to the national leadership–expect it to be played. Read more at:

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2007/12/14/033154.php

Rollins to serve as Huckabee’s national chairman
By Sam Youngman Posted 12/14/07 2:14 AM [ET]
December 14, 2007

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee scored a major victory Thursday when he secured the support of prominent GOP insider Ed Rollins, who will serve as national chairman of Huckabee’s campaign. Rollins, who has struggled with recent campaigns, was known as the campaign manager behind Ronald Reagan’s landslide reelection in 1984. Read more at:

http://thehill.com/campaign-2008/rollins-to-serve-as-huckabees-national-chairman-2007-12-14.html

THIS IS BIG! STEVE

HOW IS YOUR MONEY BEING SPENT?

The federal government has made it easier to find out where taxpayer dollars being spent as well as what Congressional District is benefiting from federal spending. (it even ranks the Cong. Districts from 1- 435) Taxpayers can see who the top 100 contractors with the federal government have been in the past seven years. Searches can be done on specific contractors and Congressman. Great site!

U.S. Senator Tom Coburn R- OK said that bloggers were the "key group" who helped spearhead this effort, and he said he hopes now that it is operational they will use the site to expose Congress. "I think this is going to be a wildfire," he said. Let's hope so. You can assess the site by clicking on the link below:

http://usaspending.gov/