Oklahoma Independent Media Center

Follow the news of the housing protests in New Orleans on the following sites:

http://neworleans.indymedia.org/news/
http://www.defendneworleanspublichousing.org/
http://www.justiceforneworleans.org/

Guerrilla news video of 12/18/07 action:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fhyo9mk_Nxg

Reposted, with permission, from Okie Funk.

It has been a tough week here for sure.

Tragically, 23 deaths have been blamed on the ice storm that stunned Oklahoma this past week. At one point, more than 600,000 homes and businesses were without power, and thousands still remain in the dark.

Some Oklahomans shivered through the storm with blankets and candles while others headed to shelters. The damage to the local tree population here is incalculable. Once the thaw is complete, we will know more, but it appears the state has lost thousands of trees. Meanwhile, the state’s college students trudged through finals week under some of the worst weather conditions possible.

Overall, it appears the state’s emergency systems once again worked well during the storm, and no one can fault the utility companies in their immediate efforts to restore power. Crews came in from other states. These crews worked long hours in biting cold weather to get the job done.

But the ice storm raises at least three major issues for Oklahoma’s leaders, and the severity of this storm demand new initiatives and open-minded, intelligent thinking. Will there be discussion and action or will this recent storm quickly recede into Oklahoma weather lore?

Here are those issues:

OKLAHOMA CITY - Hundreds, including state legislators, gathered on the steps of the state Capitol Thursday, in solidarity with thousands in Jena, La. and around the country to show support for the "Jena 6".

AP story via KATC3 in Acadia

CNHI photos

The publisher of The Edmond Sun would describe himself and his paper as conservative. But last Sunday, Rick Barnes added his voice to that of many a liberal (and a growing number of his fellow conservatives) regarding the US military presence in Iraq: "Enough is enough — let’s pull out"

[...] We, as a country, have invested, or poured down a rat hole, more than $456 billion and for what? The Iraqi government is coming unraveled — Iraqi legislators are fleeing the sinking ship like rats; the Kurds are wanting to form a separate country and control the oil fields and we continue to offer up our sons and daughters as their life vests.

Pull our troops out, save American lives, leave every piece of non-sensitive equipment there and let them do with the equipment as they see fit. This may seem like pretty drastic measures, but no one else has come up with a better idea.

[...]

As a final note — Oklahoma’s portion of this misguided adventure is $6.8 billion and escalating at the rate of $3,111 per minute of every hour of every day. Minnesota had a tragic bridge collapse and reports indicate the bridges of this state are not in much better shape. Why not take a portion of the $6.8 billion and make improvements here? Enough is enough!

[...]

By Brian Beutler, Media Consortium. Posted August 14, 2007.

Oil companies know that gasoline expands at higher temperatures and has less volume at lower ones, but they've refused to upgrade gas stations with a simple tool that would adjust the price of gas according to its temperature.

It's probably intuitive to most people that the gasoline in their fuel tank expands in the heat -- just like doorframes and cookware and everything else on the planet. What's probably less intuitive is that, in the United States, this physical phenomenon pumps a nearly $2 billion annual windfall out of consumers' pockets and into oil company coffers, according to numerous calculations, including a recent House of Representatives study.

The North Carolina-based company Gilbarco Veeder-Root manufactures a device -- a temperature-sensitive chamber for fuel -- that, if affixed to gasoline pumps across the country, would return that money to consumers and help relieve some of our storied gas-price pressures. The device -- and others like it -- is simple, functional and, in fact, already in widespread use at gas stations all across Canada. Last month, Democratic presidential hopeful and Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich, chair of the Domestic Policy Subcommittee, held the second in a series of hearings to investigate why the technology has never made it into the American market.

[...]

the idea of correcting price for temperature has deep roots in the industry: oil companies have done so for gasoline wholesalers for nearly a century. The only ones in the North American energy chain who pay by volume rather than by energy value are U.S. consumers.

[Emphasis added. Continue reading from other press]

by Ron Jenkins
Associated Press August 17, 2007
published by the Journal Record

OKLAHOMA CITY – An Oklahoma City attorney filed an initiative petition on Thursday that seeks to amend the Oklahoma Constitution to impose term limits on some statewide elected officials.

James Dunn, chairman of the “Yes on Term Limits” organization, proposes a limit of two four-year terms for the offices of lieutenant governor, auditor and inspector, attorney general, treasurer, labor commissioner and superintendent of public instruction.

The group will have 90 days to collect 138,970 valid signatures on initiative petitions, representing 15 percent of the total votes cast for governor in the last general election in 2006.
The secretary of state’s office designated the plan as Initiative Petition 736 and proposed State Question 386.

[continue reading from Journal Record story]

MSNBC - Updated: 11:24 p.m. CT Aug 2, 2007

The following state bridges carry at least 10,000 vehicles a day and have been rated as either structurally deficient or functionally obsolete by inspectors, according to an MSNBC.com analysis of the National Bridge Inventory.

A structurally deficient bridge is closed or restricted to light vehicles because of its deteriorated structural components. While not necessarily unsafe, these bridges must have limits for speed and weight.

A functionally obsolete bridge has older design features and, while it is not unsafe for all vehicles, it cannot safely accommodate current traffic volumes, and vehicle sizes and weights.

See chart: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20099119

From the Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce web site:

Air Quality

The Central Oklahoma region is currently in compliance with all of the Federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) clean air standards. However, air quality has become a concern over the last year because the Central Oklahoma region is in danger of going into non-compliance with the federal clean air standards for ozone. Last summer, Central Oklahoma had several ozone readings that exceeded the federal standard. If these high ozone readings persist next summer, the region will likely go into non-attainment status.

A non-attainment status results in severe impediments to economic growth by placing restrictions on certain types of businesses. These restrictions discourage new businesses from locating in the region, and discourage existing businesses from expanding their operations.

The Oklahoman continues to beat the drum for ballot access reform in the state, and this times gives Ricard Winger, a hardworking activist who produces a national newsletter and website on the issue, a nice plug.

That the state's biggest newspaper, usually no friend of grassroots causes, has taken up this issue, is a welcome surprise to the state's small and struggling third parties.

Foiled again: Access reformers lose another round

IT ain't The Wall Street Journal, but a California newsletter has done for ballot access reform what the Journal has done for lawsuit reform. What Ballot Access News has done is expose Oklahoma as having the most restrictive ballot access laws in the nation.

Last month, the state Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal of a case challenging these laws. These include provisions that new political parties face extraordinary barriers in getting on the ballot.

Today's (6/2/07) Daily Oklahoman includes a guest editorial by Col. Katherine Scheirman, USAF (Ret.), identified as retired in 2006 after a 20-year career in the Air Force.

Her experienced and forceful statement is an important addition to the growing voices in Oklahoma against the war/occupation in Iraq.

Excerpt:

I met with Rep. Mary Fallin on Feb. 22 to discuss President Bush's plan for the military escalation ("surge”) in Iraq. During that meeting, I asked about projections for the numbers of additional casualties expected from Mr. Bush's plan. She told me she had heard nothing about casualty estimates. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had likewise testified to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in January that there were no casualty projections.