Oklahoma politicians are being driven by national and global interests and ignoring the interests of Oklahomans.   

Oklahoma politicians are ignoring the difference between big business (like Devon) and most local businesses (like those on main streets). As a result they are supporting big-business-Republican ideas (limits on: access to Courts, collective bargaining rights, voter initiatives, etc.), and they are getting a lot of money for doing so.

Oklahomans are ignoring the difference between big enviros (like Al Gore and RFK Jr.) and regular folks concerned about health and safety (like the folks in Bokoshe). As a result, they are ignoring the legitimate health and safety concerns of their own constituents and getting a lot of money for doing so.

Oklahomans must take back Oklahoma politics.

Local businesses and regular folks can demand answers to the hard questions such as:  

1.       Why don’t you stop using my taxes to give handouts to big business?  In particular: why does AES a multinational energy company gets a $10 per ton subsidy (tax credits) for burning coal in Oklahoma? 

2.       Why don’t you stop letting big business destroy my land? In particular: why, after AES burns the subsidized coal, is it permitted to  dump the ash so that it blows onto the neighboring land and town?

3.       Why don't you stop big business from taking my land? In particular: why is a Canadian company able to take land by force (eminent domain) to build a pipeline to carry Canadian bitumen from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico?

It is time to recognize and to say loudly that the interests of Oklahomans can not be served by politicians who serve big business, big enviro, big oil, big ag, big Democrat or big Republican. Oklahoma needs politicians who are leaders and not just followers of national and global interests.

At one time, President George W. Bush envisioned a cure for America's addiction to foreign oil. His vision was faulty, and he  invited an foreign invasion of the Great Plains. In 2011, United States citizens are being forced off their land for the benefit of foreign countries and foreign based multinational corporations. The change of Presidential administrations has not brought change to the Great Plains and this invasion continues.    

Addiction to Subsidised Foreign Oil   

Daily, 15 to 20 ships filled with middle eastern oil go from the Persian Gulf through the strait of Hormuz, a narrow channel separating Iran from the Arabian Peninsula. Iranian land based anti-ship missiles could halt the ships carrying nearly a third of world's oil shipments. Iran does not fire because United States citizens fund and serve in a massive military. 

This subsidy of blood and treasure enables multinational energy corporations to buy oil from middle eastern dictators who, like kings of the middle ages, take whatever they want from their subjects. At the expense of their people, dictators enrich themselves, build their police forces and subdue their citizens for so long as the oil lasts. 

After purchasing the oil from dictators and being escorted through the strait of Hormuz by US military might, the multinational energy companies sell to the highest bidder. They claim that the prices are set by supply and demand in the free market, but there is nothing free about the process that supplies middle eastern oil.  

Like cheap food, subsidised foreign oil has made the United States fat and weak. The United States, once the breadbasket of the world, is now a net importer of food.  Countries that once relied upon food from the United States, now import oil and export food. We can't feed ourselves -- as individuals or as a nation. To keep ourselves fed and secure, we depend on subsidised foreign oil.  

Due to this absurd arrangement, multinational energy companies are reaping enormous profits while US citizens and US governments go broke in the world's greatest economic crisis in generations. 

Shift the Addiction: Move the Strait of Hormuz to the United States

In wake of 9-11, President Bush implemented two bold plans but without adequate consideration of the consequences. First, he envisioned noble wars of liberation in Afghanistan and Iraq that would stabilise the region and decrease the cost of getting oil peacefully through the strait of Hormuz. He was wrong. Now, to insure the flow of oil, the United States is trying to rebuilding two nations that do not want to be rebuilt by the US. The subsidy for foreign oil is greater than ever. 

Second, President Bush envisioned buying fuel, called bitumen, from Canada, our friendly neighbour to the north. He pushed for approval of a bitumen pipeline to be built by TransCanada, a multinational energy corporation headquartered in Alberta. Bush's vision was  wrong again. 

TransCanada wants to build the Keystone XL, a 36 inch pipeline to carry 900,000 barrels of bitumen each day from Canada through the Great Plains to the Gulf of Mexico where it can be sold to the highest bidder. Chinese government owned companies have already invested billions to acquire production facilities and pipelines in Canada. If built, the Keystone XL pipeline would be the only way to move Chinese bitumen produced in Canada to a sea port. As the US craves oil moving through the strait of Hormuz, China craves bitumen flowing through the Great Plains in the Keystone XL Pipeline. What will the Chinese do to the United States to insure the peaceful flow of bitumen through the Great Plains? The Bush vision of bitumen from our friendly neighbours to the north was wrong. The Obama administration seems unable to see.   

The pipeline stretches across 1,300 miles of land, nearly all of it rural in Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. The route is easily observable on the ground and from the air. It is buried only 48 inches deep and can be reached with a manual post-hole digger in minutes. Building such a pipeline does not solve any problem, but it does make the Great Plains a vulnerable strategic target for those who would disrupt the global flow of fossil fuels. This pipeline does not cure our addiction to foreign oil; it simply moves the strait of Hormuz to the Great Plains.    

The Canadian/Chinese Invasion 

The bitumen pipeline will only be possible if United States governments permit force to be used against its own citizens. Landowners from Montana to Texas and all the states in between have refused to sell land to TransCanada to build this pipeline. TransCanada intimidated many citizens by threatening to invoke the power of eminent domain  --  the power of government to take land for public use. TransCanada has made good on its threat and has sued to take land by force from United States citizens. A multinational energy corporation from Canada is forcing U.S. citizens off their land to transport Canadian bitumen -- some of it owned by the Chinese government -- to the Gulf of Mexico. The Great Plains are being invaded to build an strategic industrial corridor serving foreign countries and multinational energy corporations.        

Republicans are supposed to detest EPA’s interference in the free market, but Okla. Congressman John Sullivan wants to keep EPA restrictions on gasoline. Sullivan wants to keep ethanol blends out of the market and he  opposes EPA’s plan to “increase the amount of allowable ethanol content in gasoline to 15% (E15).”

This is disturbing. A cornerstone of Republican ideology is the free market. Yet Mr. Sullivan rejects freedom in order to keep us dependent upon fossil fuels.  A key fundamental Republican concept is being undermined. Why is it happening? Is it because the fossil fuel industry is afraid of competition and it will do anything to keep us hooked on fossil fuels. Mr. Sullivan’s position suggests that even the Republican’s commitment to the free market can be sacrificed for big oil.   

via PRNewswire, Feb 16, 2011

WASHINGTON, Feb. 16, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NPRA, the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association, was one of 15 organizations signing a letter to the leadership of the U.S. House of Representatives today supporting a measure by Rep. John Sullivan (R-Okla.) that would bar the Environmental Protection Agency from using federal funds to cover EPA costs involved with increasing the amount of ethanol in gasoline from the current 10 percent to 15 percent.

SOURCE National Petrochemical & Refiners Association  http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/15-groups-seek-to-bar-epa-funding-for-e15-116350214.html

The 23rd Annual Sovereignty Symposium is June 2 and 3 at the Skirvin Hotel in Oklahoma City. This year's title is "As Long as the Grass Grows and the Rivers Flow." From the title "sovereignty" appears to be an "Indian thing." I really haven't understood it, but lately "cowboys" have been talking about sovereignty, and I am beginning to understand. 

This presentation was for an environmental organization's planning meeting. It is about the courageous actions by people in and around Bokoshe (pop. 450) where the State of Oklahoma has permitted a fly ash dump to operate illegally for more than seven years. It is a call for immediate action by individuals.  

Earl Hatley tells of a Cherokee prophecy that one day the whites will come to the Cherokee for help because Cherokee have retain the wisdom of ages past. I don’t think the Oklahoma poultry lawsuit is the fulfilment of that prophecy, but it may be time for the whites, or at least the State of Oklahoma, to go to the Cherokee for help.

The National Animal Identification System (NAIS) would have gathered and introduced a huge amount of new data into the food supply chain.  Data is very valuable in any supply chain and would certainly be valuable to food. USDA had the power and resources of the US government and support of multinational corporations that dominate the U.S. meat market. Under these circumstances, getting data into the food supply chain should have been like shooting fish in a barrel.  Instead it was an amazing failure. Why?

Frequently, I hear two types of news related to food. One item reports that agricultural giants are using their market power to further industrialize production of crops and animals. The other item reports that farmers, consumers and small businesses are attempting to build alternative food supply chains because they believe the industrial model is damaging to health, food safety, rural communities, workers and the environment. Are these two parts of our food system on a collision course? Is it necessary that one must win and the other lose?

Oklahoma Department of Agriculture Food and Forestry (ODAFF) announced on June 24, 2009 that it would force youth exhibitors at livestock shows to sign up for a "voluntary" National Animal Identification System (NAIS).  Oklahoma farmers have decided not to "volunteer" for NAIS, so ODAFF has decided to force their children to "volunteer" for them. 

Attorney General Drew Edmondson is running for Governor of Oklahoma.  He is a democrat.  I am a Republican. I support Drew Edmondson for Governor because he is doing more to protect private property rights than any other public official.