AD FROM THE SNYDER DEMOCRAT

click on image to enlargeA group calling themselves the Kiowa County Citizens for Economic Development are running ads in the Snyder and Hobart papers quoting Jimmy Cooper, the former CFO of Halliburton and former President of the Duncan Area Economic Development Foundation. Mr. Cooper’s ability to present Oklahoma and particularly Stephens County in a positive light as head of the DAEDF is well known. His success in recruiting industry is admirable, but the information being distributed by the KCCED is simply not true. Cooper claims the passage of Liquor by the drink is the reason Duncan and Stephens County has attracted industry and grown as a community.

I can assure you that Stephens County having Liquor by the Drink was not a deciding factor in the location of the Family Dollar distribution center or the Pre-paid Legal call center to Duncan. The outstanding work force, centralized geographic location, and taxpayer funded tax incentives were the main factors in their decision. As to Cooper’s statement that “restaurants, hotels and large industries insist upon location in Liquor by the Drink counties,” there is no evidence to support such a statement. Population and demographics are the primary factors restaurants and hotels consider when building facilities- not liquor by the drink. By the way, Duncan and Stephens County (which has four times the population of Kiowa County) have no chain restaurants that traditionally serve liquor; Cooper’s claim that expanding liquor consumption will attract chain restaurants is completely false. It hasn’t happened in Stephens County or Logan County- both counties with Liquor by the Drink and both with significant higher populations than Kiowa County.

Expansion of liquor consumption is never a positive move- either economically or morally. It’s just common sense. If restaurants are allowed to serve drinks, the number of drivers on the road who have been drinking will increase. That will lead to more alcohol related accidents. The expansion of liquor consumption will ultimately hurt families and cost government because of the increase in social ills. It’s just common sense. Cooper is a private citizen who has a right to get involved in a Liquor by the Drink drive or any other issue or campaign in another county, but when he uses his former title to add creditability to his claims, he crosses the line.

Weekly Opinion/Editorial

BIDEN A LOOSE CANNON!
by Steve Fair

Barack Obama has tapped Senator Joe Biden, D- Delaware, to be his running mate. Biden, 66, is a lawyer who was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1973. Biden’s first wife and an infant daughter were killed in a car wreck right after he was elected to the Senate. He has two sons from that marriage. The sons were hurt in the wreck, but recovered completely. He considered resigning from the Senate to care for his sons, but was talked out of it. When he was elected, he was only thirty and one of the youngest Senators to have ever been elected in U.S. history. Both of his sons are now grown and are lawyers.

Biden married Jill Jacobs in 1977. They have one daughter. Jill is an English professor. In his six terms in the Senate, Biden has never been seriously challenged at the polls in Delaware. Biden is a Roman Catholic with middle-class roots and at least some tie to the possibly-in-play state of Pennsylvania, all of which likely played into his selection as Barack Obama’s running mate. Senator Biden has twice run as a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, in 1988 and again this year.

Biden serves as Chairman of the powerful committee on Foreign Relations. According to the committee’s website, it is one of the oldest in the Senate, dating back to 1816. It has oversight over the foreign policy agencies of the U.S. government, including the State Department, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, and the Peace Corps. The Committee reviews and considers all diplomatic nominations and international treaties, as well as legislation relating to U.S. foreign policy.

But Biden is a loose cannon and his problem is his mouth. He set off a firestorm during the primary when he said about Obama, “he is an articulate, bright and clean African-American.” Black Americans were outraged. Instead of apologizing, Biden went into his characteristic “explanation” mode. After a week of enduring continual criticism, he relented and apologized.

Biden loves to talk. Many Americans first encountered Joe Biden during the high-profile hearings on Supreme Court nominees Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas. He would ask for three more minutes from the Chairman of the committee and speak for forty-five without a breath. Americans just wanted him to shut up. His rambling questioning was redONEITt and meaningless.

The reputation for Biden’s inability to control his tongue came up at the first 2008 Democratic Presidential primary debate. When asked if he could discipline himself and control his tongue, Joe gave a one-word answer, “Yes" which was met with laughter, because he then began a long outpouring of explanation, reflection, analysis, and counterfactuals as to how he would do it.

Biden also has some creditability issues. When he was running for President in 1988, he was accused of plagiarizing a speech given by a British chap. Neil Kinnock, who was then head of the British Labour Party, gave a speech which included the lines: "Why am I the first Kinnock in a thousand generations to be able to get to university? Then pointing to his wife in the audience, he continued: Why is Glenys the first woman in her family in a thousand generations to be able to get to university? Was it because all our predecessors were thick?" Biden gave almost the same speech- with an American twist- at a campaign stop and the Dukakis campaign secretly made a video showcasing the Biden/Kinnock comparison and distributed it to news outlets.

It was also discovered that, while law student at Syracuse Law School, Biden had plagiarized a law review article. Though the then-dean of the law school, as well as Biden's former professor, played down the incident of plagiarism, they did find Biden drew "chunks of heavy legal prose directly from" the article in question. Biden said it was inadvertent due to his not knowing the proper rules of citation, and Biden was permitted to retake the course after receiving a grade of F, which was subsequently dropped from his record. Biden quitely withdrew from the Presidential race shortly thereafter.

Perhaps that’s why Obama choose Biden. They share the penchant for plagiarism. In a November 2007 campaign speech, Obama used the exact same words that Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick had used 18 months before without crediting the Guv. The line was, “I am not asking anybody to take a chance on me. I’m asking you to take a chance on your own aspirations.” The Clinton campaign pointed out Obama had used Patrick’s line, but Obama just dismissed it as a mistake.

Plagiarizing seem like a small thing to most Americans but those who engage in it reveal one of two things about themselves- an unwillingness to credit others intellectual work or a dishonest spirit. Neither are acceptable traits for the highest office in the land. If the Democrat responses in the debates sound familiar, it may because the lines may have been used before.

CONSTITUTIONAL SCHOLAR OBAMA

QUESTIONS LEGALITY OF SLAVERY BAN

by Ann Coluter-August 20, 2008

This week, Barack Obama's challenge is to select a running mate who's young, hip, and whose accomplishments in life don't overshadow Obama's. Allow me to suggest Kevin Federline. Read more at: http://anncoulter.com/

Now on the Hallmark aisle:

Gay marriage cards

By Sarah Skidmore, AP Business Writer

Hallmark, seeing a new market after California ruling, rolls out gay marriage greeting cards
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- Most states don't recognize gay marriage -- but now Hallmark does.
The nation's largest greeting card company is rolling out same-sex wedding cards -- featuring two tuxedos, overlapping hearts or intertwined flowers, with best wishes inside. "Two hearts. One promise," one says. Read more at http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080821/gay_wedding_cards.html?.v=8

The Hall family of Kansas City own Hallmark Corporation. The company was founded by Joyce C. Hall, a Methodist preacher's son- who liked to be called J.C. Coincidentally, one of J.C. Hall's favorite sayings was "Good taste is good business." Guess that taste and religious conviction skipped a few generations. Here is the link for the bio for Joyce Hall- very interesting. Steve

http://www.nndb.com/people/270/000164775/

COBURN TO SPEAK AT NATIONAL CONVENTION!

It is being reported that Senator Tom Coburn will be speaking on Tuesday night at the National GOP Convention. Coburn introduced Senator McCain at the CPAC conference earlier this year, some believe Coburn's support was a key reason McCain got the nomination. More information as it becomes available.

University Shields Obama Records from Press

By Mark Impomeni

The University of Illinois at Chicago finds itself in the middle of a growing controversy over the records of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, which it maintains at its Richard J. Daley Library. Sen. Barack Obama served on the Annenberg board of directors from 1995 until the project ended in 2001, spending three years as its first chairman. It was on the broad of the Annenberg Challenge where Sen. Obama served with the notorious former head of the 1960's radical group, William Ayers. The Annenberg Challenge was founded by Ayers and was responsible for administering a private grant of nearly $50 million to Chicago public schools. Read more at:

http://news.aol.com/political-machine/2008/08/21/university-shields-obama-records-from-press/?icid=100214839x1208027194x1200434029

THE BUCK STOPS HERE!

President Harry Truman

THAT'S ABOVE MY PAY GRADE!
Wanna be President Barack Obama

THE DEMOCRATS HAVE COME A LONG WAY IN SIXTY YEARS!