I have two knee replacements which contain titanium and plastic. The state Capitol entrances and the one I go through have metal detectors. I set them off each time I go through the detector. The TSA vigilantes never fail to vocally brace me with either a "Go back SIR!" or "Move over their Sir!" so that the Highway Patrolman who has the duty for the day can wand me. Sometimes they are polite, sometimes they treat me like the inmates that come to the Capitol building to haul trash and clean the toilets and move chairs and tables in or out of the Rotunda floors.
I made a mistake early on when I remarked to one of the women TSA staffers that "It must be the Viagra." Such a smartass, sexual comment put me in the class between potential terrorist and inmate cleaning man for about a year. Much to the joy of my fellow lobbists who got a kick out of the "rousting" I got just about every time I failed to "Step back Sir!" in a proper manner.
Those of you who come to the Capitol from time to time have the opportunity to observe the many celebrations, displays, vistors, from wigglies to oldsters, that come to the Capitol each day, set up the displays, wander about, maybe observe government in action, and get their picture taken with their Representative or Senator and the go home.
Most of these celebrations and displays and visits include food stuff. Cookies, veggies and dips, barbeque, peanut butter, all convieniently laid out on tables in the rotunda where the public is free to touch, cough on, sneeze on and fondle, then shake hands and pass germs from Altus to Afton, Idabel to Hooker and Durant to Ponca City and all points in between. The little kids are especially cute and potent because they can move faster, touch more surfaces and cough and sneeze, and in reality carry more germs, than the elderly.
Once they have deposited their germs, transmitted their germs and picked up the germs of others, they get back on their buses and into their cars and go home where they can then transmit and deposit their new germs into their homes and home towns and schools, quite possibly leaving a good batch of germs in the buses to be transmitted some more when they go to the basketball game the next day.
It is not co-incidetal that all of this takes place during the flu season either.
Now, the law enforcement folks and TSA have been trained and believe that terrorists wear turbans, explosive vests and have crazy eyes and carry other stuff in their baggy pants (thats why they wand you).
One day I asked "Do you ever wand the cookies or the veggies or the barbeque or the peanut butter?"
Well heck, You would have thought that I was the dumbest Okie around the way they looked at me. Meanwhile a group of wigglies got off the bus and came through the electonic gates. They were from Guymon, where pigs are slaughtered and hoof and mouth could be in the cookies and peanut butter, heading upstairs to meld with the kids from Idabel where chickens are slaughtered and evian flu could be in the vegies and peanuts.
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Sunday, March 4, 2007
Sardis Lake and the coming battle
Sardis Lake is in Southeast Oklahoma, near Wilburton, Talihina and Hartshorne. The Kiamichi mountains are to the south, the Jackfork mountains to the west and the Winding Stair mountains to the north and east. The lake was completed in 1983 at a cost of 38 million dollars and in 1984 the state part of that debt was 18 million dollars. The lake has been the subject of litigation since it's construction and the state debt is now 68 million dollars.
Sardis covers 14,360 acres and has 117 miles of shoreline and is a top bass fishing lake and beautiful to behold.
For years North Texas has been trying to buy the excess runoff of water but for years the excess runs into the Red River to the benefit of no one.
Locals are vehement about their rights to Sardis and now central Oklahoma towns and cities are vying for the opportunity to pipe water 140 miles in a five foot pipe at a cost of more than 310 million dollars their way. That is just for starters.
What promises to be a legal battle for our times is beginniong to take place. The issues: Law and the River, Water Marketing, Water Banks, Water Storage Rights, the Sardis water treatment plant, Water Disribution,States Rights and Tribal Rights.
We have everything here, Beauty, law and lawyers, politics, major construction projects, Indians and money, lots of money. Texas money, Oklahoma money, tribal money.
The most productive reading I have seen comes from http://cals.arizona.edu/AZWATER/arroyo/101com. This is all about the Colorado River and the rights of the various southwestern states to the water and the concerns that California would end up with it all.
IN 1922, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the law of prior appropriation applied regardless of state lines. I think what this means is that if an entity owns water or water rights and doen't use them, then someone else can buy those rights and use that water.
Expect Texas to file a lawsuit soon and the Central Oklahoma bunch had better file something also. This is a lose, lose for Southeast Oklahoma legisltors because you can bet that the locals see that water, all of it, as theirs. If Texas gets the water, the Central Oklahoma bunch loses and Lake Hefner dries up. If the Central Oklahoma bunch wins you can bet that the Legislture, at some time in the future is going to be asked to foot major funding.
This issue, along with the Attorney Generals lawsuit against the poultry industry and the draught, ought to get Oklahoman's focused on our most precious asset. The waters of the state. Not only the existence of the water but the purity of it.
Sardis covers 14,360 acres and has 117 miles of shoreline and is a top bass fishing lake and beautiful to behold.
For years North Texas has been trying to buy the excess runoff of water but for years the excess runs into the Red River to the benefit of no one.
Locals are vehement about their rights to Sardis and now central Oklahoma towns and cities are vying for the opportunity to pipe water 140 miles in a five foot pipe at a cost of more than 310 million dollars their way. That is just for starters.
What promises to be a legal battle for our times is beginniong to take place. The issues: Law and the River, Water Marketing, Water Banks, Water Storage Rights, the Sardis water treatment plant, Water Disribution,States Rights and Tribal Rights.
We have everything here, Beauty, law and lawyers, politics, major construction projects, Indians and money, lots of money. Texas money, Oklahoma money, tribal money.
The most productive reading I have seen comes from http://cals.arizona.edu/AZWATER/arroyo/101com. This is all about the Colorado River and the rights of the various southwestern states to the water and the concerns that California would end up with it all.
IN 1922, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the law of prior appropriation applied regardless of state lines. I think what this means is that if an entity owns water or water rights and doen't use them, then someone else can buy those rights and use that water.
Expect Texas to file a lawsuit soon and the Central Oklahoma bunch had better file something also. This is a lose, lose for Southeast Oklahoma legisltors because you can bet that the locals see that water, all of it, as theirs. If Texas gets the water, the Central Oklahoma bunch loses and Lake Hefner dries up. If the Central Oklahoma bunch wins you can bet that the Legislture, at some time in the future is going to be asked to foot major funding.
This issue, along with the Attorney Generals lawsuit against the poultry industry and the draught, ought to get Oklahoman's focused on our most precious asset. The waters of the state. Not only the existence of the water but the purity of it.
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Scientific evidence and home on the range
On Wednesday, February 21st, 2007, the Rules Committee of the Oklahoma State Senate passed out a bill that defined "Animal Waste as non-hazardous." Without spending time on what is hazardous or non hazardous I want to spend a little time on the scientific evidence that was presented and how that evidence must have been perceived by the members of the committee in order to reach the conclusion that they did in order to vote the way they did.
One member of the committee, the only dissenting vote asked the author of the bill, a former extension agent of the land grant school if he had "scientific evidence that animal waste was non-toxic and non-hazardous?"
The answer was classic. "These animals eat those things coming out of the soil, it goes into their systems and comes out as nutrients that go back into the soil."
Visions of cattle munching on pristine pastures of nutrient rich green grasses, chickens pecking around Grandma's barnyard pecking up bits of hay and pebbles, worms and ants for protein, hogs eating apples and sorghum, goats eating neckerchiefs; all this comes to mind.
But that is not the way it happens to our food today. A little calf may spend some time before it is sent to the feedlot to be fattened by je ne nes quois and slaughtered by immigrants poorly paid. Chickens are fed stuff by Laotian farmers in Northeast Oklahoma to make their breasts and thighs and legs meatier and given something else to eat so that their bones are strong enough to help them stand while they eat. Dairy cattle are computerized so that the best producers get the most food the fastest so they can be turned back out to rest a bit an produce more milk. Don't know much about goats.
Agriculture interests would like to make you think that agriculture is the heart and soul of Oklahoma and it may be, but it is in the low twenties in gross state product and lower than that in taxes paid by any industry, on property or sales or whatever else people pay taxes on.
Clean water is the big loser here and Oklahoman's better WAKE UP. Why? Because a lot, maybe most of the bad part of those "good nutrients" going on the ground, phosphourous, arsenic, mercury, are going into the creeks,streams,rivers and lakes of Oklahoma.
As the drought continues and our famed "shore lines" shrink, water and water quality will suffer exponentially. Like oil in an engine, the less there is the hotter it gets and the faster it gets burned up. That is what is going to happen to our water.
One member of the committee, the only dissenting vote asked the author of the bill, a former extension agent of the land grant school if he had "scientific evidence that animal waste was non-toxic and non-hazardous?"
The answer was classic. "These animals eat those things coming out of the soil, it goes into their systems and comes out as nutrients that go back into the soil."
Visions of cattle munching on pristine pastures of nutrient rich green grasses, chickens pecking around Grandma's barnyard pecking up bits of hay and pebbles, worms and ants for protein, hogs eating apples and sorghum, goats eating neckerchiefs; all this comes to mind.
But that is not the way it happens to our food today. A little calf may spend some time before it is sent to the feedlot to be fattened by je ne nes quois and slaughtered by immigrants poorly paid. Chickens are fed stuff by Laotian farmers in Northeast Oklahoma to make their breasts and thighs and legs meatier and given something else to eat so that their bones are strong enough to help them stand while they eat. Dairy cattle are computerized so that the best producers get the most food the fastest so they can be turned back out to rest a bit an produce more milk. Don't know much about goats.
Agriculture interests would like to make you think that agriculture is the heart and soul of Oklahoma and it may be, but it is in the low twenties in gross state product and lower than that in taxes paid by any industry, on property or sales or whatever else people pay taxes on.
Clean water is the big loser here and Oklahoman's better WAKE UP. Why? Because a lot, maybe most of the bad part of those "good nutrients" going on the ground, phosphourous, arsenic, mercury, are going into the creeks,streams,rivers and lakes of Oklahoma.
As the drought continues and our famed "shore lines" shrink, water and water quality will suffer exponentially. Like oil in an engine, the less there is the hotter it gets and the faster it gets burned up. That is what is going to happen to our water.
Scientific evidence and home on the range
On Wednesday, February 21st, 2007, the Rules Committee of the Oklahoma State Senate passed out a bill that defined "Animal Waste as non-hazardous." Without spending time on what is hazardous or non hazardous I want to spend a little time on the scientific evidence that was presented and how that evidence must have been perceived by the members of the committee in order to reach the conclusion that they did in order to vote the way they did.
One member of the committee, the only dissenting vote asked the author of the bill, a former extension agent of the land grant school if he had "scientific evidence that animal waste was non-toxic and non-hazardous?"
The answer was classic. "These animals eat those things coming out of the soil, it goes into their systems and comes out as nutrients that go back into the soil."
Visions of cattle munching on pristine pastures of nutrient rich green grasses, chickens pecking around Grandma's barnyard pecking up bits of hay and pebbles, worms and ants for protein, hogs eating apples and sorghum, goats eating neckerchiefs; all this comes to mind.
But that is not the way it happens to our food today. A little calf may spend some time before it is sent to the feedlot to be fattened by je ne nes quois and slaughtered by immigrants poorly paid. Chickens are fed stuff by Laotian farmers in Northeast Oklahoma to make their breasts and thighs and legs meatier and given something else to eat so that their bones are strong enough to help them stand while they eat. Dairy cattle are computerized so that the best producers get the most food the fastest so they can be turned back out to rest a bit an produce more milk. Don't know much about goats.
Agriculture interests would like to make you think that agriculture is the heart and soul of Oklahoma and it may be, but it is in the low twenties in gross state product and lower than that in taxes paid by any industry, on property or sales or whatever else people pay taxes on.
Clean water is the big loser here and Oklahoman's better WAKE UP. Why? Because a lot, maybe most of the bad part of those "good nutrients" going on the ground, phosphourous, arsenic, mercury, are going into the creeks,streams,rivers and lakes of Oklahoma.
As the drought continues and our famed "shore lines" shrink, water and water quality will suffer exponentially. Like oil in an engine, the less there is the hotter it gets and the faster it gets burned up. That is what is going to happen to our water.
One member of the committee, the only dissenting vote asked the author of the bill, a former extension agent of the land grant school if he had "scientific evidence that animal waste was non-toxic and non-hazardous?"
The answer was classic. "These animals eat those things coming out of the soil, it goes into their systems and comes out as nutrients that go back into the soil."
Visions of cattle munching on pristine pastures of nutrient rich green grasses, chickens pecking around Grandma's barnyard pecking up bits of hay and pebbles, worms and ants for protein, hogs eating apples and sorghum, goats eating neckerchiefs; all this comes to mind.
But that is not the way it happens to our food today. A little calf may spend some time before it is sent to the feedlot to be fattened by je ne nes quois and slaughtered by immigrants poorly paid. Chickens are fed stuff by Laotian farmers in Northeast Oklahoma to make their breasts and thighs and legs meatier and given something else to eat so that their bones are strong enough to help them stand while they eat. Dairy cattle are computerized so that the best producers get the most food the fastest so they can be turned back out to rest a bit an produce more milk. Don't know much about goats.
Agriculture interests would like to make you think that agriculture is the heart and soul of Oklahoma and it may be, but it is in the low twenties in gross state product and lower than that in taxes paid by any industry, on property or sales or whatever else people pay taxes on.
Clean water is the big loser here and Oklahoman's better WAKE UP. Why? Because a lot, maybe most of the bad part of those "good nutrients" going on the ground, phosphourous, arsenic, mercury, are going into the creeks,streams,rivers and lakes of Oklahoma.
As the drought continues and our famed "shore lines" shrink, water and water quality will suffer exponentially. Like oil in an engine, the less there is the hotter it gets and the faster it gets burned up. That is what is going to happen to our water.
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Empty Chairs (Kind of endowed)
I have had some feedback that some readers would like to make a comment to the blog but must sign up and sign in with Google (trap here). I know that there is a way around this without you going to the trouble of the sign up/sign in. I am working on this, but if you have suggestions please e-mail me at Wheatco@Cox.Net
Governor Brad Henry recommended that the Legislature authorize a bond issue of 75 million dollars to fund the "State Part" of endowed chairs at our colleges and universities. I asked the guys over at the Higher Regents "How many endowed chairs are there?" The rely was "About two hundred and forty." Thinking about those chairs I asked "Two hundred and forty endowed?" "Oh No," he replied."Two hundred and forty partially endowed chairs." The private money is there, the state money is not. That is why the Governor asked for more." "Where are these chairs sitting?" the idiot in me asked, knowing full well the answer would lead me into territory only a idiot would follow. "Well, the most of them are in the southern half."
"Does the North have some?" "Yeah, some." What about the others?" "Some."
Then I understood the brilliance behind the "Self-perpetuating endowed chair game."
Scene: A Person is talking to a Wealthy Person. "Walter, if you will give the U one million dollars we will call it the Walter Chair of Good Works in the Department of This and That and your name will live forever!" Chair experts will tell you that one million will only build about one-third of a real chair because no self-respecting chair sitter will accept todays yield on one million as a salary or whatever it is called in academe.
Wealthy Person donates the money for plaque. Pretty soon the Wealthy Person begins to ask "Is anybody sitting in my chair?" (I can't help to add thoughts of Papa Bear, Mama Bear and Baby Bear as in five million, four million, three million. "Not yet" replies A Person, "We need to go to the Legislature and the Governor for money to finish this chair. You sir, can help by calling all those legislators you have contributed to over the years and either demand or plead "Help me finish my Chair!"
Now logic may force some to wonder about the math here. 200+ chairs times one million equals(something) which is just sitting there (not in the chairs) earning something which goes for something else until the Legislature finishes the chairs.
Now, all of you who have rich friends who are thinking about their chair might want to ask them How is the chair coming? What color is it? Orange or Red or Green and White. Then you might ask, Who sits in your chair and what are they doing? Do you have a 'Chair Report' or just a report from from A Person?
Governor Brad Henry recommended that the Legislature authorize a bond issue of 75 million dollars to fund the "State Part" of endowed chairs at our colleges and universities. I asked the guys over at the Higher Regents "How many endowed chairs are there?" The rely was "About two hundred and forty." Thinking about those chairs I asked "Two hundred and forty endowed?" "Oh No," he replied."Two hundred and forty partially endowed chairs." The private money is there, the state money is not. That is why the Governor asked for more." "Where are these chairs sitting?" the idiot in me asked, knowing full well the answer would lead me into territory only a idiot would follow. "Well, the most of them are in the southern half."
"Does the North have some?" "Yeah, some." What about the others?" "Some."
Then I understood the brilliance behind the "Self-perpetuating endowed chair game."
Scene: A Person is talking to a Wealthy Person. "Walter, if you will give the U one million dollars we will call it the Walter Chair of Good Works in the Department of This and That and your name will live forever!" Chair experts will tell you that one million will only build about one-third of a real chair because no self-respecting chair sitter will accept todays yield on one million as a salary or whatever it is called in academe.
Wealthy Person donates the money for plaque. Pretty soon the Wealthy Person begins to ask "Is anybody sitting in my chair?" (I can't help to add thoughts of Papa Bear, Mama Bear and Baby Bear as in five million, four million, three million. "Not yet" replies A Person, "We need to go to the Legislature and the Governor for money to finish this chair. You sir, can help by calling all those legislators you have contributed to over the years and either demand or plead "Help me finish my Chair!"
Now logic may force some to wonder about the math here. 200+ chairs times one million equals(something) which is just sitting there (not in the chairs) earning something which goes for something else until the Legislature finishes the chairs.
Now, all of you who have rich friends who are thinking about their chair might want to ask them How is the chair coming? What color is it? Orange or Red or Green and White. Then you might ask, Who sits in your chair and what are they doing? Do you have a 'Chair Report' or just a report from from A Person?
Saturday, February 10, 2007
Week One at the Capitol, Process and Progress?
The Senate.
If you go to www.oksenate.gov, the senate home page and if you scroll all the way down you can click on the full text of the Power Sharing Agreement between the twenty-four democrats and the twenty-four republicans. Right away we have problems. My Webster's defines power as: "possession of control, authority or influence over others." Here is how this control, authority and influence worked this week. The Pro Tempores, democrat and republican, are co-equal as are the Co-Majority Leaders. The Leaderships are supposed make co-agreements and co-decisions. One of the early session duties of the Leaderships is the assignment of bills. Under the PSA, if there is no agreement by Leaderships, the bill automatically goes to the Rules Committee, which is also co-chaired by a democrat and a republican. It looks like loss of control, authority and influence to me.
A controversial bill, almost by definition, is a bill that cannot be agreed upon. As a result, all controversial bills are now headed to the Senate Rules Committee, Co-chaired by two freshmen senators.
Picture an old car with one steering wheel in the middle, two sets of gas and brake pedals and a driver on both sides, each co-driver pushing or pulling on the steering wheel, the old careening back and forth across the center line, in and out of the ditches, knocking down fences, scattering other cars and pedestrians, making the chickens fly and the dogs bark, until finally coming to a wheezing stop in a pile of trash cans. Its Laurel and Hardy time!
I imagine that Leaderships will be busy next week reassigning bills to the appropriate committees. Once again the PSA controls. Each Standing Committee has co-equal, co-chairs. If they can't agree on the addition of a bill to the agenda, there is an appeals process back to the Leaderships, who were not able to agree on the bill in the first place. Each co-chair has the power to add three bills to the agenda without the agreement of his or her co. These are called silver bullets. Maybe the second ride will be straighter and less bumpy, or aybe there will only be six bills heard in each committee!
The House.
Last session the Republicans learned that it was a lot easier to honk the horn than it was to drive the truck. They are learning to drive but they are not there yet. Back in the advent of computers, one of my old Arkansas legislator friends was lamenting the tech changes and he said "You know when that all gets in a computer, its there! I'd rather have a front page with some signatures, a seal and some ribbons and then add the other pages later." Well, it's all "There" now in the House. It has gone paperless. Each member has his or her own laptop and reads all bills by scrolling. There is now, a large computer screen in the House lobby where you can watch the progress on the floor electronically.
They do use paper in the committees, but once the bill is passed, it goes back into electronic state with any amendments made in committee. Those who live by computer also die by computer. The House computer has gone down at least once and no one could find out anything for a while. I remember former Speaker Dan Draper, after he started lobbying, using an exacto knife to change wording in a bill so that the Conference Committee Report "Looked" right but had his changes. I suppose a competent hacker will have the same opportunity and I doubt that all they will do is change "May" to Shall."
The Republicans have a maverick in their midst and are being sorely tested. On Thursday, this representative decided to try to amend each of the hundreds of appropriation bills being considered for Third Reading and passage to the Senate. Each amendment failed by 90 something to 1 but took up at least three or four minutes simply because of the legislative process. Three or four minutes times all the bills on the agenda meant a late Thursday departure for home. The Leadership finally allowed the guy to debate one bill on principal. He is going to cause trouble all session long so I am going to name him "Hairball." It will be up to you figure out who "Hairball" is.
The deadline for moving bills out of the Committee in the House of origin is February 22nd in the Senate but March 8th in the House. That is a two week lag in time. This means that the Senate will have to wait a while to get all the House bills while Senate passed bills languish in House Committee as the House works to get all of its bills out and over to the Senate.It will be a while before we get to this point but should provide plenty of fodder.
If you go to www.oksenate.gov, the senate home page and if you scroll all the way down you can click on the full text of the Power Sharing Agreement between the twenty-four democrats and the twenty-four republicans. Right away we have problems. My Webster's defines power as: "possession of control, authority or influence over others." Here is how this control, authority and influence worked this week. The Pro Tempores, democrat and republican, are co-equal as are the Co-Majority Leaders. The Leaderships are supposed make co-agreements and co-decisions. One of the early session duties of the Leaderships is the assignment of bills. Under the PSA, if there is no agreement by Leaderships, the bill automatically goes to the Rules Committee, which is also co-chaired by a democrat and a republican. It looks like loss of control, authority and influence to me.
A controversial bill, almost by definition, is a bill that cannot be agreed upon. As a result, all controversial bills are now headed to the Senate Rules Committee, Co-chaired by two freshmen senators.
Picture an old car with one steering wheel in the middle, two sets of gas and brake pedals and a driver on both sides, each co-driver pushing or pulling on the steering wheel, the old careening back and forth across the center line, in and out of the ditches, knocking down fences, scattering other cars and pedestrians, making the chickens fly and the dogs bark, until finally coming to a wheezing stop in a pile of trash cans. Its Laurel and Hardy time!
I imagine that Leaderships will be busy next week reassigning bills to the appropriate committees. Once again the PSA controls. Each Standing Committee has co-equal, co-chairs. If they can't agree on the addition of a bill to the agenda, there is an appeals process back to the Leaderships, who were not able to agree on the bill in the first place. Each co-chair has the power to add three bills to the agenda without the agreement of his or her co. These are called silver bullets. Maybe the second ride will be straighter and less bumpy, or aybe there will only be six bills heard in each committee!
The House.
Last session the Republicans learned that it was a lot easier to honk the horn than it was to drive the truck. They are learning to drive but they are not there yet. Back in the advent of computers, one of my old Arkansas legislator friends was lamenting the tech changes and he said "You know when that all gets in a computer, its there! I'd rather have a front page with some signatures, a seal and some ribbons and then add the other pages later." Well, it's all "There" now in the House. It has gone paperless. Each member has his or her own laptop and reads all bills by scrolling. There is now, a large computer screen in the House lobby where you can watch the progress on the floor electronically.
They do use paper in the committees, but once the bill is passed, it goes back into electronic state with any amendments made in committee. Those who live by computer also die by computer. The House computer has gone down at least once and no one could find out anything for a while. I remember former Speaker Dan Draper, after he started lobbying, using an exacto knife to change wording in a bill so that the Conference Committee Report "Looked" right but had his changes. I suppose a competent hacker will have the same opportunity and I doubt that all they will do is change "May" to Shall."
The Republicans have a maverick in their midst and are being sorely tested. On Thursday, this representative decided to try to amend each of the hundreds of appropriation bills being considered for Third Reading and passage to the Senate. Each amendment failed by 90 something to 1 but took up at least three or four minutes simply because of the legislative process. Three or four minutes times all the bills on the agenda meant a late Thursday departure for home. The Leadership finally allowed the guy to debate one bill on principal. He is going to cause trouble all session long so I am going to name him "Hairball." It will be up to you figure out who "Hairball" is.
The deadline for moving bills out of the Committee in the House of origin is February 22nd in the Senate but March 8th in the House. That is a two week lag in time. This means that the Senate will have to wait a while to get all the House bills while Senate passed bills languish in House Committee as the House works to get all of its bills out and over to the Senate.It will be a while before we get to this point but should provide plenty of fodder.
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