State Rep Caught on Tape
Chad Stites, a state representative from Tulsa, has apologized for threatening and swearing at Tulsa city/county officials who ordered him to repair a burned duplex owned by his company. Representative Stites got caught when his threatening outbursts were recorded by the city workers he was trying to bully. Someone released the audiotapes to the media and Stites, who had denied he made any threats, had to "fess up". The taped conversations recorded Stites using profanity, threatening to retaliate against the workers with legislation and claiming his legislative post made him immune from code enforcement violations.

Stites', whose wife is a minister, later told the media he had not really denied making the threats, just that he had told reporters he "didn't recall making the statements. I never said I didn't make them," he said. Oklahomans may just wonder exactly what the Representative takes them for. We will see. Stites is running for re-election in his district. On November 5th the citizens have a chance to let him know if they think it is ok to abuse one's position as elected representative. The state Republican Party chairman has stated they will support Stites nonetheless.

What the citizenry doesn't know however, is just how common this type of behavior is from elected representatives. Anyone who knows a government employee knows how common it is for State Senators and Representatives and others to lean on or threaten state workers to bend or break the rules for them. The honorable bureaucrats who take their mission seriously and refuse to give in to the Legislators heavy-handed behavior are never recognized or rewarded for their integrity. Usually, they just lose their jobs.

It seems that President Bush came out swinging on Israel's destruction of Arafat's compound today. After the destruction was over the President told Sharon his actions "were not helpful". That, no doubt, will make Sharon shake in his boots. The Israeli military, great sports that they are, sent Arafat some clean underwear as a token of their esteem.

I actually spotted Steve Largent today, tooling around in his black SUV. He's working the powers hard. He needs to work the people harder. No one seems to know him.

Is there a full moon in Palestine tonight?

It's a beautiful full-moon evening in Oklahoma. The sky is clear, the temperature perfect, it's quiet. I can see the "man in the moon" from my window as I type out my thoughts. A fat spider crosses the moon man's face as it weaves a web across my window. What a perfect place to be.

It's not so perfect in many places around the world tonight. One of those places is at Palestinian leader Arafat's compound, or what's left of it. Israeli forces have been methodically blasting the compound into rubble this weekend. The Israeli press releases say they are looking for 20 wanted men that are supposedly in the compound but Israeli military leaders admit openly that the real objective is to force Arafat into exile. This is Ariel Sharon's stated wish as well. The Israelis cut off water to the compound and were even taking the air conditioners off of the one remaining building today. It's hard to feel too sorry for Arafat however. When he turned down Barak's offer to give the Palestinians 90% of what they wanted he assured Sharon's election a couple of years ago. Arafat's stupidity aside, what the Israelis are doing is nothing less than outrageous. As a democratic people they should be ashamed, not only of their leader's dishonesty, but what they have done to the Palestinian people in making them second-class citizens in their own homeland. Are they surprised that the Palestinians hate them so much? Here's one American that is pretty fed up with the cruelty and stupidity of both sides.

Ariel Sharon has been waiting for a call from President Bush, Colin Powell or Condi Rice - telling him to stop the transparent attempt to force Arafat into exile by making him homeless. No call has come. Sharon proceeds with the understanding that the Bush Administration condones his actions. President Bush may condone it but many, many people in America do not.

Muskogee Educators Crack Down on Finger Pointing and Saying "Kapow!"

As reported by the Tulsa World and Channel 6 News, a 12-year-old Creek Elementary School student was first expelled and then placed in school detention for 5 days for pointing his finger at other students and saying "kapow!" The child's mother complained to the school principal that her son's punishment was out of proportion with the crime. Muskogee school authorities defended their actions by explaining that they will not tolerate such indiscriminate "finger-play" in their schools. "You can't be too careful these days," said Bernice Hopley, a teacher at the school." "First they start pointing fingers and going "pow, pow" and the next thing you know they are mass murderers."

Idiotorial: The radioshow shockjocks are roasting the Muskogee authorities over the fire for overreacting to what some call innocent horseplay. What these "journalists" scoff at is America's serious need to secure the homeland. What the liberal media types aren't telling the public is that research has shown that what they consider mild horseplay often leads to bigger problems. Here are the facts:

Fact #1 Over 70 million people have tried pointing their fingers and saying "kapow!". Most finger pointers soon escalate to jabbing and use of the "evil eye". Indeed, for the vast majority of people, finger pointing is the first threatening act they try, a "gateway" to other threatening acts.

Fact #2 Finger pointing is the most popular threatening act in the United States today. Therefore, people who have used less popular forms of violence such as actually shooting people with real guns or stabbing people with real live knives, are likely to have first tried finger pointing.

Fact #3: Finger pointers have lower achievement, more acceptance of deviant behavior, more aggression and poorer relationships with their parents. Finger pointing and saying "kapow!" correlates with higher rates of delinquency, arrests and failure in school. Dr. Gabriel Nemo of Columbia University states that throughout history, finger pointing has been associated with mental disturbances ranging from distorted perception to schizophrenia. According to Dr. Akira Watanabe, a specialist in violent behavior, "I have never found any other gesture, including the "OK" sign, which came close to the psychic damage caused by pointing and saying kapow". Babies born to mothers who used finger pointing during pregnancy developed health problems similar to drug users.

We at OkiePundit believe the Muskogee school authorities did the right thing by severely punishing the deviant elementary school thug and snipping the finger pointing in the bud before something even more serious happened.

New Religion Founded ... Just in Time
I've just created a new religion which I am tentatively calling biboism. It is based on the revealed thought of Burns Hargis. The name is tentative because I want to have a contest to see who can come up with the best name for the new religion. If this is going to be a religion to last a thousand years it's got to have a good name. There is a reason, after all, that the Christian religion has stood the test of time and Zoroastrianism didn't. I want it to be convincing as the objective is to qualify for some of the faith-based initiative grants that the Bush Administration is showering churches with.

We have to hurry though because the GOP's giving frenzy will hit a peak before the November elections. It may be another two years before we have a chance to rake in more free money. I'm thinking we can set up a recovery center for term-limited State Senators - probably in McAlester - and qualify for tons of the public's money under the Bush faith-based program. Sure, it was designed to help Christian and Jewish groups but they really can't deny those of us on the fringe. To deny us would put their whole program in jeopardy. The Evangelicals would rather toss a little our way than to risk losing their cash cow. The way I see it, when the Senators show up at our Recovery Center we can introduce them to the Word as they receive our help. Chances are they'll see that Bibo (the spirit name for Burns Hargis) is the way to salvation and our flock will soon be both cash rich and growing - all at taxpayers expense! So send in your suggestions for a name for our religion: Send to thehoot@keromail.com

Talk among businessmen in Oklahoma these days is about how former Congressman Steve Largent is taking his election for granted. Supporters of Largent are perplexed and frustrated with Largent's lack of visibility around the state. One supporter of Largent was overheard saying that the Largent campaign had told him not to worry, that they had plenty of money to buy up TV for his ads. They plan on winning the election with overwhelming media presence. The Largent campaign seems to be cocksure of their winning position but their supporters are nervous.

Meanwhile, everyone is dumfounded that Brad Henry won the Democratic nomination to run against Largent. The expectation was that Orza was going to win, partly because Orza had been 14% points ahead of Henry in the primary in August. Henry mounted an amazing come from behind effort and closed in the last few days. The last polls had not captured his move into the lead. Henry had attacked Orza for being in favor of right-to-work and against union issues. It seemed to work with the Democratic faithful but it is likely to backfire in the general election. Right-to-work, after all was passed by popular vote in an election earlier in 2002. He may have won the primary but lost the general election.

Of course this was the plan of the Daily Oklahoman, which endorsed Brad Henry. Anyone the least familiar with the Daily Oklahoman knows it is extremely Republican and anti-union. Talk among the knowing is that the Daily Oklahoman endorsed Henry over Orza because Gaylord (owner) expected that Henry would be much less likely to beat Largent than would Orza. Orza was pro-business, wealthy, moderate, and appealed even to Republicans (which he used to be). Such a man could beat Largent and the Daily Oklahoman wasn't going to let that happen. Largent has already met with and been blessed by Gaylord. Of course, for a newspaper to endorse a candidate because it believes he can be beat by your preference is unethical. Ethical concerns such as this have rarely troubled the fervently Christian power brokers at the Daily Oklahoman
however.

The campaign ads for a number of candidates in the primaries reached extreme depths of dirt in the last few days. Orza and Henry, candidates for the Democratic nomination for Governor, both engaged in last minute mud slinging. Walters and Boettcher, Democratic candidates for US Senate also slung a lot of mud. But the worst so far was a computerized telephone call from an unidentified male making accusations against a candidate named Cloud. The message on my voice mail said claimed that Cloud had been evicted from Little League games a couple of times in recent years. The caller concluded that Cloud would not be a good statesman because he can't control his temper. If this accusation is true it might be something worth discussing but to make such accusations the day before an election is reprehensible. Who did it?

In a very unusual journalistic move, the Tulsa World on September 14th actually named the Daily Oklahoman in one of its editorials. The editorial, "Mudslinging", was a criticism of candidate Brad Henry for "smearing" candidate Vince Orza. Both are Democrats battling for their party's nomination for Governor. The World points out in their editorial that the "dirt" on Orza was actually dredged up by the Daily Oklahoman which had endorsed Brad Henry. The Daily Oklahoman is Oklahoma City's daily newspaper but its banner touts it as the "State's Newspaper". The Daily Oklahoman is much, much more conservative than the Tulsa World which tends toward moderation. Normally, the World refers to the Daily Oklahoman as the "newspaper down the turnpike" but this time the World named names.

Americans get beat up a lot in the foreign media so it's a relief when someone comes to our defense. A Leftist Briton has some kind words in this article in The Spectator.

It is a mild evening in Oklahoma. The weather has changed in the last couple of days. Rain and cooler temperatures, and autumn, have arrived. This is the best time of year in Oklahoma. To all of you Oklahoma expats around the world - wish you could see your home now.

No, the Cubans I discussed in yesterday's post were not caught yet. At least Fox News hasn't reported on their detention yet. I watched the news until 2 am last night but either Castro gave the Highway Patrol the slip or Homeland Security is keeping their arrest a secret. Wouldn't that be weird if "my" Cubans ended up detained at Guantanimo on Cuba?

I went to a diner near Route 66 today to watch and listen for scheming Middle Eastern types. If Eunice Stone can catch a virtual bevy of wrong-thinking Middle East-types in Georgia/Florida I figure if I hang out near an Interstate I could too! I want to heed the call of Attorney General Ashcroft to be the eyes and ears of the anti-terrorist police. I want to do something other than watch football games on TV. Afterall, the University of Oklahoma's game is not on free TV today. The turquoise and pink sign in front of the diner said "God Bless America!" I entered and asked the waitress to seat me in the non-smoking Arab section. "We don't have an Ay-rab section honey", she said as if she were weary of the question. "Do you have any dark people with mustaches I could sit near", I countered.

She seated me in a booth next to a man and woman who appeared, at least on the surface, to be Hispanic. I listened for some minutes but they were speaking in a foreign tongue - I think it was a Spanish-like language - perhaps Mexican or Cuban. Cuban! None of the pundits have thought of this angle yet. Not even Ashley Banfield has put her finger on the Castro - Osama connection yet. I had suspected the likelihood of a Cuba connection and had been chagrined when President Bush had omitted Havana from the Axis of Evil. Surely Jeb has filled him in? Now was my chance to close the loop by exposing Castro's involvement.

Peering over my menu and waving the meddlesome waitress away for the second time I spied what appeared to be a Cohiba-like tube protruding from the brown man's denim shirt pocket. He caught my eye. Whispering something in Cuban to the female agent accompanying him he shoved his fork into a slab of white gravy on his Melamar plate. She pulled a child agent in the booth closer to her and glanced nervously in my direction. They continued whispering to each other. By listening carefully I caught a few words. "...muy rara....bombachos.....terregosto...." "Bombachos!" I thought to myself. That sound like a bomb! I cursed myself for not taking a foreign language in highschool. As I leaned forward to try to hear better the child agent began to cry and point at me. "Darn!" "What am I gonna do now?", I thought. I bolted for the pay phone. "I've got to call the authorities before they get away." But before I could explain to the police operator the significance of the threat, I saw the Cuban agents scoot out the diner door. I hung up and followed them out. They got into a 1975 El Camino with a rust problem and drove off toward the East Coast. But not before I got their Texas license plate number and called the police back. Now I'm watching Fox News to see if they caught the Cubans on their way through Arkansas.

I met Gary Richardson for the first time this year and I'm still trying to figure him out. He is running for Oklahoma governor as an independent and, thanks to his ability to fund his on campaign startup with millions of his own, he has gotten further than any other independent in memory. But is he for real? Is he a cunning politician pulling at the populist heartstrings of Okies by playing to knee-jerk anti-authoritarians or his he an honest guy just telling the truth as he sees it? I don't know yet. When I met him my first impression was that he was practical but not an intellectual, concerned about Oklahoma but looking for the easy answers. He gave me his Plan to read, which I did. I'm still looking into the parts of his plan and will be reporting on what I find. Initially, I'm concerned that Richardson didn't do enough research before making decisions in his Plan. I see some sloppyness in his claims about the turnpikes and the state's economy. What I care about even more than what he believes in is how he arrives at his conclusions. Does he make snap decisions on important issues? Does he do his homework? Does he tell people what they want to hear? The worst type of Governor we could have is one that makes decisions without understanding the issues and the implications. I have no tolerance for sloppy research.

Gary Richardson, former Republican, started out with Paula Unruh, Republican consultant, as his campaign manager. That didn't last long before she had either quit or was dismissed. What happened?

Vince Orza (former Republican running as a Democrat for governor) has been aggressively bashing Governor Keating in his debate appearances. Orza has attacked Keating for poor management of the economy among other things. Keating has been consistently pro-business and has been more active in promoting the state and its business environment than any governor in memory. Orza won't win any points bashing Keating on economic development. Orza will need those Republican votes if he gets past the primary next week. Bad move Vince.

I tried the new hamburger at Burger King today. Not good. Tastes like chicken. Still, it's better than those greaselogs they serve at Carl's Jr.

j

On KRMG radio in Tulsa this morning Governor Keating was interviewed by John Erling about his work in straightening out the Catholic Church and their problems with priests who sexually abuse children. The Governor has come under attack by some of the leaders in the Catholic Church for his statements that Catholics who feel their local leaders are brushing these problems under the rug should "vote with their feet" and go to another parrish or diocese. If I'm getting the nomenclature wrong please understand that Catholicism is a mystery to me. I was impressed with Keating's common sense approach and his gutsy outspokenness about his church. By voting with their feet and giving their donations to another Catholic Church the believers are hitting the evil-doers where it hurts most, in their pocketbook. If there is a hell however, these evil priests will have more to worry about.

The Governor went on to quote Steve Emmerson, author of American Jihad, as an authority on radical Islamic terrorists. I wouldn't put much credibility in anything Mr. Emmerson says, Governor. I wasted money buying his book and getting his autograph at a talk Emmerson gave in Oklahoma earlier this year. Emmerson was not objective. He was rabidly anti-Arab and anti-Palistinian. I immediately suspected him of being on Israel's payroll. He criticized America for not supporting Israel's incursions into Palistinian areas and flatly stated that if America were to give in to Palistinian demands it would make absolutely no difference in the degree of Palistinian violence against Israel. I do not believe this for one minute. While the Palistinians are justified in their opposition to Israel's occupation of Palistine they are not justified in their terrorist attacks on civilians. Not only is that immoral, it's stupid. If Arafat were to use Ghandi's methods the world would be behind the Palistinians 98%. But the US has been very one-sided in our support of Israel and I can understand why Arabs are upset with this unbalanced treatment of the Middle East situation. If we were to be fair and evenhanded in our dealings with the Israelis and the Palistinians it would eventually change Arab views. It would, moreover, be the right thing to do.

The Arab and Islamic world has over-reacted however. Polls of Arab nations consistently show that the citizenry have quite bizarre views about America. It amazes me how a plurality of Arabs could actually say they believe that the 9-11 terror attacks were orchestrated by Israel to incite American hatred of Arabs. They actually believe the story widely circulated, that Jews knew about the impending attacks and stayed away from the World Trade Center on 9-11. How gullible can you be? Are the believers of this story really that insane? They are, but can you blame them that much when the Arab/Islamic media and religious leaders tell them to believe such nuttiness? The Arabs should question their leaders credibility and we should question Emmerson's credibility too.

The weekend looked like it was going to be a down until the OU football team pulled off a win over Alabama in the last couple of minutes of the game on Saturday. OU had let Alabama come back from 21 down to take a 1-point lead. It looked bad but with a minute or two to go OU piled on 10 points. This was good because when OU loses, there's a rash of shootings, domestic violence, and car crashes as disappointed Sooner fans work out their frustrations. Fortunately, OU hardly ever loses. I love Oklahoma and the OU football games are the only bigtime TV event where Oklahomans can see their team crush other states. Of course, the best of all times are those very frequent defeats of hapless Texas teams. They outlawed armed border skermishes so football's all we have.

Dropped in at St. Louis Bread Company today for soup. What odd folks they have at their 15th Street location in Tulsa! They took their sweet time about helping me. The manager asked me how my day was but then stood there behind the cash register and did nothing. After a minute he told a guy to mop the floor and the kid told him it wasn't his area. The manager did nothing. No wonder these people can't make a baguette that even remotely resembles the real French thing. Hey, SLBC! If you can't really make a baguette don't call it a baguette! Call it an "Oversized and Tasteless Bread Thingee that Hardens in 30-minutes".

The Tulsa World is after US Senate candidate Tom Boettcher now. The headline in the Tulsa World today was "Boettcher Admits Lawsuit!" "U.S. Senate candidate Tom Boettcher, who previously could not recall being involved in any lawsuits, acknowledged Thursday a $70,000 legal judgment against him and his company in 1980. When pressed about a handful of smaller civil suits filed in the mid-1990s against a second company he co-owned and ran in Maryland, Boettcher continued to insist he knew nothing of those financial problems." Ok, I bet the Walters campaign helped dig up this info but my question is, so what? A businessman's business goes under, lawsuits are filed, judgement is made, bills are paid. Is it a crime to fail in business? Is it a crime to forget what happened 22 years ago? I hope not because I'd sure be guilty. We all would. But you say, isn't this fair turnabout on Boettcher who has made his entire campaign about a small mistake the Walters campaign made with contributions 10 years ago? It's not fair to Boettcher. But Boettcher hasn't been fair to Walters either.

With today's complicated campaign contribution regs and laws do you know how easy it is to make an innocent mistake? As more and more of us are learning, it's hard to stay out of trouble these days. My drivers license expired a few months ago and I didn't realize it. After all, the Oklahoma Tax Commission stopped sending people a reminder when their license is up for renewal every few years. So I was driving illegally for months! I could have been tossed in the pokey (that's Okie for jail). So David Walters campaign goofed up and let some guy make a contribution over the $5,000 limit. Hey, it can happen to good people. Lawsuits and failed businesses happen to good people too. So, Tulsa World, you are trying to make a big issue out of next to nothing. Still, I agree with the World on one matter, Boettcher should drop out of the runoff and get behind Walters and beat Inhofe.

Got another flyer in the mail from a political candidate that tells me I should vote for her because she believes in "faith and family". So who is against families? When is the last time we elected someone running on an anti-family platform? The "faith" word is the code for "I'm a Christian. Vote for me." I take extreme offense at the insertion of religion into campaigns. To use religion to appeal for votes goes against the tenants of most religions. If it doesn't it should. If I were of a God-like nature I'd be ticked off at those trying to ride my coat tails into elective office. Of course, this ploy only pays off if the candidate is in the majority religion. While I bet we have elected agnostics to office in Oklahoma I don't think they let their true beliefs be known to the voters. Telling voters in Oklahoma that one leans toward Buddhism has never gotten anyone elected here. Best keep that kind of honesty close to the vest. Cause in Oklahoma 52% of the voters are Christian and 42% know they better pretend to be Christian. The other 6% are not yet Christians.

I go to church every week because my wife told me she'd divorce me and take the children if I didn't get saved. She believes in family values so much she's willing to destroy the family on principle. So, I pretended to be saved. I can pretend very well but even I couldn't quite make it to pretend to be "born again". After all, agnostics have some principles you know.

A friend of mine from an Asian country sent me an e-mail to tell me she thinks the US is boring and she doesn't like living in Oklahoma. I was tempted to tell her she was more than welcome to get her butt out of Oklahoma and the US pronto but I think I'll cool off before I reply. What is it with these Philistines who live in someone's country and have the nerve to tell its residents how much they hate living there? I've lived places before that I didn't like but I didn't rub my dislike in the faces of those who called the place home! How rude can you get? The USA boring? You've got to be kidding.

The election season is upon us. The two most interesting races in Oklahoma this fall are for governor and U.S. Senate. A former Congressman and football star named Steve Largent is the Repub candidate for Governor. The Demos in a runoff are Vince Orza, pasta magnate, and Brad Henry, a longtime politician no one seems to know much about yet. There's a wildcard independent named Gary Richardson who is really a Repub but decided he didn't want to run against a football star so decided to use his millions gained as a lawyer to buy his way into the Governor's mansion. The Demos and Repubs are trying to figure out who Richardson will cost votes. Talk on the street is that country Richardson will cost quarterback Largent the Governorship. Richardson is a Repub in independent clothes. His knee-jerk populism appeals to the uneducated boobs which, according to my scientific polls, constitute 65% of registered Repubs and 72% of registered Demos in Oklahoma. Independents in the Sooner State complain that Richardson is giving them a bad name and have encouraged him to leave the non-party.

The real fight will be between Congressman Jim "Attila the Hun" Inhofe (Repub) and former Governor David Walters (Demo). Jim and David are famous for down and dirty campaigns so this one should be a rumble on the grasslands. Inhofe has his good points but who doesn't. He's bought and paid for by the gun nuts and the cockfighters. Jim is as extreme a far-right dude as they come. Walters, a moderate, had his troubles with a campaign law infraction when he was Governor in the early 90s. He pleaded gulity. Despite that I would take him over Inhofe any day. Inhofe is guilty of embarrassing Oklahomans with his nutty extremism. I mean what kind of goober defends cockfighters?