A Majestic Symbol of Progress for Oklahoma

Today, 16,000 people watched the dedication of the 155-foot-tall dome that finally completed the 85-year-old Oklahoma Capitol building. Anyone who has visited the pre-dome Capitol and seen the new domed Capitol can appreciate what a difference there is. The dome gives the seat of our state government a majesty that can serve to raise our expectations of what our state can be. We owe our appreciation to Governor Frank Keating for leading the effort to raise the private money to fund the dome. We also owe appreciation to all the donors that made it a reality. All but $1.8 million of the $21 million cost came from private citizens and corporations. For decades our Legislature didn't have the backbone or vision to fund the completion of the Capitol. So, again, someone else had to do what the Legislature should have done.

We can't blame the decades of waiting entirely on the Legislature however. There's been a plentiful supply of crabby, vision-less citizens that frothed at the mouth every time someone talked of finishing the Capitol with a dome. It's these vociferous nay-sayers that Legislators run from. I was having a conversation with one such woman recently when the topic of the Capitol building came up. She suddenly launched into an epitaph-laden explosion of spitting emotion over the use of tax monies to build a dome. How dare the Governor spend money on "his dome" instead of on schools. She wasn't interested in the facts about private funding I tried to tell her about. She cared nothing about the kind of symbolism that lifts a people to a higher level, gives them a point on which to hang their pride, and shows the world that we are proud of who we are.

The Dome is that.

State Agriculture Commissioner Helping Cockfighters to Thwart Citizens' Will

This cockfighting war in Oklahoma just keeps getting more and more bizarre. The Daily Oklahoman reports today that Dennis Howard, the Commissioner of Agriculture in Oklahoma, announced he was considering becoming involved in the cockfighters attempt to weaken the anti-cockfighting law that was overwhelmingly passed by the electorate last week. According to the article, Howard is considering using the legal staff at the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture to try to help the cockfighters overturn the new law by joining in the effort to get a Little Dixie judge to declare the law unconstitutional. A few days after the law passed in a statewide vote cockfighters succeeded in getting District Judge Willard Driesel of Idabel to issue an injunction against enforcement of the ban pending consideration of whether it was unconstitutional. Some have speculated that cockfighters are taking this action in far southeast Oklahoma where their base is strongest in an effort to remove the contest from media view as much as possible.

Dennis Howard was an early opponent of the anti-cockfighting campaign. According to the Tulsa World, Howard, a state employee, traveled to cockfighter meetings in 1999 to advise them on how to stop the Oklahoma Coalition Against Cockfighting's initiative petition drive. In an October 10, 1999 Tulsa World article Dennis Howard was quoted as saying:

"I gave them a lesson in Politics 101," Dennis Howard said, describing his presentation to cockfighters at the Oklahoma Gamefowl Breeders Association's annual meeting in McAlester. "I told them, `You need to pick an election date when you can win.' "

The World said that Howard advised the cockfighters to do everything they could to challenge the signature process and postpone the cockfighting measure to an election date other than the presidential election of 2000. Howard said that the bigger the election turnout by voters the worse their chances of winning were.

After the cockfighters failed in their attempt to have enough signatures disqualified from the initiative petition Howard put his state agency to work to assist the cockfighters. In a letter on state stationery dated September 7, 2000, and widely used by the cockfighters, Burke L. Healey, DVM and director of Howard's Animal Industry Services Division said:

"The gamefowl industry is significant to Oklahoma's economy. There are millions of dollars pumped into the state through the retail sales of gamefowl out of our state to other states and other countries... Understand that I promote agriculture commerce and the gamefowl industry is a large part of our economy. I truely hope it will continue in the future."

During the cockfighter's campaign to defeat State Question 687 (that banned cockfighting) they sited estimates from Howard's Department of Agriculture that the "gamefowl" (cockfighting) industry "pumps $105 million into Oklahoma". Proponents of SQ 687 demanded the substantiating data for the supposed Agriculture study but the Department of Agriculture was not forthcoming. The state's media were also unable to obtain any information to support the Department of Agriculture's reported figures.

The cockfighters took the Ag chief's advice and through court challenges were able to delay the vote until November 2002. The people of Oklahoma finally got their chance to tell the politicians what they wanted. By a margin of well over 100,000 votes Oklahomans let Dennis Howard and the Legislature know that they wanted cockfighting banned and they wanted it to be a felony to engage in cockfighting. After three-years of support of the secretive cockfighter/gambling network Howard is trying to step in in the guise of an objective state official.

Citizens may rightly be asking if Dennis Howard (e-mail at: dennis.howard@gov.state.ok.us) has used state funds to support the much-disdained cockfighters' association in their efforts to keep Oklahomans from voting on the controversial issue and to distribute misleading information designed to support the cockfighting side. The media should now be asking why Howard wants to use the state's resources to try to overturn a resounding vote of the people to ban this third-world bloodsport in Oklahoma. Perhaps its time for the State Auditor and Inspector to look into whether Howard has inappropriately utilized state resources?

Thanks to J. Casey for contributing the above.

Partisans Take Over TV

I can't stand to turn on any of the news programs because all they talk about is what the President and Republicans did right and what the Democrats did wrong and who is in control. Party politics are the bane of democracy. There is hope however. More and more Americans are becoming independents and are voting for individuals and their stands on issues rather than for parties. This is generally good news. I qualify my statement with Gary Richardson in mind.

Jesse Ventura turned out better than I anticipated. It was refreshing to hear him say things that other politicians are too dishonest to say. It was great to see him walk out of the memorial service for Senator Wellstone when some of the Democrats turned it into a crass political rally. The Democrats paid for their base behavior when a Republican won the Senate race in Minnesota.

Now the Republican right controls the presidency, the Senate and the House. We will pay for this I'm sure.

Anyone want to guess how much we paid to get Russia, China and France to sign on to the United Nations' resolution on Iraq? I would guess a minimum of $10 billion - most of it to Russia.

Who's in the Cabinet?

The Daily Oklahoman today says that State Senator Dave Herbert and Senator Brooks Douglass are rumored to be in the running for the state Secretary of Commerce slot on Gov-elect Henry's cabinet. A radio station in Oklahoma City also said Steve Largent was under consideration as Commerce Secretary. Let's hope Brad Henry chooses wisely and does not surround himself with neophytes and political hacks. Many a governor has injured his standing because he did not seek out relevant experience for these jobs. Many a well-meaning and well-scrubbed 20 or 30-something political groupie have led their governor into a political morass. Just because one has been a state senator does not mean he/she has the relevant experience to manage a large state agency. Former Senator Brooks Douglas would be a poor choice for any position of responsibility in the Henry Cabinet or at any state agency. The Senator has a reputation at the Capitol for irresponsibility and a penchant for skipping important meetings at a whim. Largent would be a dramatic demonstration of inclusiveness by the Governor-elect.

I sense that someone is writing a $500,000 check


Sunday night I was skimming the cable channels when I happened across TBN, the Trinity Broadcasting Network, a Christian TV network. An attractive woman was gesticulating wildly at the camera and telling me that she knew I had $84 ready to give to the Lord and all I had to do was walk to the phone and call. Her style was mesmerizing. She rocked forwards and backwards into the camera lens, her long-nailed fingers wrapped around a large mike. Her arms moved with the smooth flow and rhythm of a Balinese dancer. Tall, thin and blond she was unlike any TV evangelist I had ever seen. Words flowed from between her lips in a non-stop stream begging me to give to the Lord via TBN. She promised that I'd realize a ten-fold increase as a result of my giving. In the background a couple of young men, one black, one white, mouthed inaudible words - of praise I assume.

Then I noticed another lady in the background. She had the biggest hair I've ever seen on a head. To know what that means you've got to know that I've been to a Jehovah's Witnesses convention AND to an Andy Williams performance. This lady still had the biggest hair I've ever seen. And more dark eye shadow than Tammy Faye Baker. I'd seen her on TV before. I think she is a co-founder of TBN. Five minutes of this was interesting but I moved on to other things.

A half-hour later I surf back to TBN and the tall blonde is still going non-stop. She's telling me that she senses that someone listening is going to give $500,000 today. Well now I'm sure she's not talking to me. Wait! Now she says she senses someone who is going to give $5,000. She's headed downmarket. I switch it off before we make a connection. This is dangerous stuff. She's good.

Brad Henry's Picks and State Chamber woes

The Capitol is abuzz with rumors of who will be in Governor-Elect Henry's cabinet. The most often heard version is that Senators Kelly Haney, Dave Herbert, and Brooks Douglas will be on the cabinet. Some say that Kelly Haney, who ran against Brad Henry for the Democrat nomination for Governor, will be Secretary of Commerce. Given Haney's experience in financing that would be a good move. Haney impressed many with his positive campaign.

The State Chamber is running scared. It was no secret that the State Chamber was close to Largent and fearful of trial lawyer-supported Henry. The State Chamber was a leader in the successful effort to bring Right-to-Work to Oklahoma earlier this year. The unions, which supported Henry, have it out for the State Chamber now and are expecting Henry to put the State Chamber in the doghouse. Relations between the State Chamber and Legislative Democrats was already so bad that most Democrat candidates refused to respond to the Chambers' voter surveys this fall.