There is an ongoing debate about whether we should have an Article V Constitutional Convention (CON CON) or not. Supporters like to call it a Convention of the States (COS) because it sounds less “federal” and the detractors call it a Constitutional Convention because they believe it more accurately describes what it actually is. 
  COS supporters believe that the only way to get any new Constitutional Amendments such as a balance budget amendment is to invoke an Article V Convention. They believe (rightly so) that Congress will never put budget restrictions on themselves. Nor will they ever have 2/3 majority in both houses to vote for a new amendment. So supporters of cos believe the people of the several states must take the initiative to do so. 
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  Those opposing a CON CON / COS believe that there is a real potential of a “runaway” convention. The reason for their skepticism of a CON CON is having historical knowledge of the first Convention of the States. It was in fact a runaway convention. All thirteen states were sent to the convention for one purpose; to amend the Articles of Confederation for the sole purpose to pay off the war debt to France. Although all the states had explicit language from their state legislatures describing their participation at the convention, things changed rather quickly and very dramatically. 

  From the very beginning of our country, Americans have wrestled with how best to govern ourselves within the framework of the Constitution. Do we want a strong federal government, or a weaker one? Do we want decisions made closer to home, or in a faraway capital? Does the Constitution itself mean what it says, or have interpretations over time stripped it of its original meaning?

  Republicans and Democrats in Congress and in the White House have agreed time and time again to keep spending more money we do not have to pay for things we do not need.

  Today our national debt exceeds $18 trillion which equates to more than $220,000 for a family of four. That's in excess of $30,000 more than the median home price in this country. In other words, Washington has saddled every family in the country with a debt far exceeding their own home before they've even gotten out of bed in the morning, and that's before we even get to the $127 trillion in unfunded liabilities that faces our children and grandchildren.

Last night the voters of the Great Northwest Oklahoma Region selected a republican nominee for senate district 27. The results held many surprises, especially when the internals are properly analyzed.
 
Travis Templin was the newcomer to elective politics and his message was a combination of Carolyn McLarty's stalwart GOP platform principles and a common sense awareness of the stagnancy in public education support.  McLarty & Templin combined for a majority of the votes. But neither of them are celebrating a win.

The only candidate with a resume in elective office was Casey Murdock. He largely ran against his own record, but his massive war chest and experienced political machine combined for just enough to claim the win when the last 15% of the votes were tabulated.

When the issue of state budgets were debated, both McLarty & Templin were adamant about the urgent need for rigorous performance audits and other oversight duties. That seems to be resounding well for any state elective office.

As voters from Northwest Oklahoma go to the polls, today; they may not realize that they are deciding the fate of representative democracy for their panhandle region.

 Rep. Casey Murdock is jumping at the chance to jump ship and join the other chamber of the legislature.  What he would leave in his wake is a forced vacancy for the region, in the House chamber.

  The Guymon Daily Herald has confirmed that the governor is refusing to call a special election for the would-be vacant seat. That would result in the panhandle having no representation until after the 2018 November general election.

The panhandle region has long believed that they are no longer listened to or advocated for. But when their own elected representative abandons them, the alienation takes on a new level of starkness.  Boise City residents live closer to the New Mexico Capitol than the Oklahoma Capitol.

  Travis Brauer was a key member of Governor Mary Fallin's staff for budget negotiations with the legislature. Last May, Travis Brauer was accused of making an 'up-skirt video' of a female while that woman was advocating at the state capitol budget committee meeting.  A court date of Dec. 20th has been set. 

  The case has been twice ordered to further pretrial conference. That often means that substantive negotiations are happening between the prosecution and the defense. Brauer's legal council has used the discovery privileges to study the evidence which the prosecution claims to have.

   The reason for the charges being obstruction-related instead of the actual allegation of creating the video, is that Brauer claims he no longer has the evidence. We wrote an article last summer about how he claims to have dropped the phone in the lake just a couple days before he had promised to surrender it to investigators at the capitol.

  Then Brauer claimed that he had a backup of the phone's data, on his laptop computer. Well, that backup showed more than Brauer might have wanted. It references some deletions made on the phone during the days leading up to the disappearance of the mobile device.

  Jordan Green of the Blackwell Journal-Tribune has an insightful research paper on the wasteful legacy of the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority. It's well worth reposting and sharing with every motorist who's forced to throw daily coins in the hopper.

Two leading opponents in the GOP Gubernatorial primary race are sounding off on the apparent failures of the Lieutenant Governor's oversight of the state Tourism Agency.
  Kevin Stitt, a mortgage broker executive in Tulsa, added his own charges this week. Former Federal Prosecutor, Gary Richardson, has long been very disappointed with the corruption concerns regarding how the Tourism Agency has handled taxpayer money. As Lt. Governor, Todd Lamb is charged with overseeing the agency.
Lamb has allowed the executive director to hire & fire his own auditors and attempt to squash the findings which were deeply troubling.
  Jamison Faught and Muskogee Politico have carried extensive coverage of the issue. It's well worth reading.
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Richardson Blames Lamb For Tourism Dept. Misdoings
Stitt hits Lamb on Tourism Dep't problems

​  It is deeply disappointing that the tourism oversight board did not acquire their own outside auditor and completely bypass the director whom an audit is designed to investigate.

  The sheer boldness of the request is perhaps dazzling. Rather than reforming the way Oklahomans are asked to pony up money to help wealthy families get cheap college, the regents want a nearly $400 million annual increase by 1919.
  Unlike the federal govt. which applies a means test for a FAFSA score which determines PAL grants, our Oklahoma Regents for Higher Ed. simply get about 1/7 of our annual budget given to them. Then they disperse that money so that govt. run colleges can cut the cost to every college student. This results in a predatory marketing scheme which seeks to close every private college in Oklahoma.  
  What's worse is that along with the struggling working poor who pay a state sales tax so that wealthy families can receive 16% of that confiscated tax money in the form of cheaper college tuition. 

​  The legislature would do better to apply a state grant to students which uses the FAFSA score as an indicator. It would have a sliding scale of assistance which phases out for wealthier families.  This would assure that the truly needy have an opportunity to break the circle of poverty. It would end the disgraceful enabling of wealthy families expecting welfare handouts. It gives our great private colleges an opportunity to compete fairly for students.

Oklahoma's Speaker of the House, Charles McCall(R-Atoka), expressed serious disappointment about Gov. Mary Fallin for breaking her word (lying) to the legislative leaders and the citizens of the state.

  “Once again, the governor has called us back into special session without a plan in place, which means more taxpayer dollars will be wasted," McCall said. "This additional special session could have been avoided if the governor had kept her word.”

McCall says the governor has exascerbated the problems "because the governor vetoed a compromise bill that would have funded our healthcare programs through the fiscal year without cutting those vital services."

  "Her veto has put those health care programs that Oklahomans rely on in a very precarious position and created uncertainty for health care providers and citizens," McCall said. "Had she signed the bill, as she promised the House and Senate she would do, these additional revenue issues could have been addressed during the upcoming regular session."

  Fallin is ordering the legislature into a 2nd special session on Dec. 18th & still not willing to tolerate any hint of austerity. We await the response of the leadership of the Senate & House.
  Fallin is ordering the legislature into a 2nd special session on Dec. 18th & still not willing to tolerate any hint of austerity. We await the response of the leadership of the Senate & House.

Here's the governor's press release.​

  “Discussions are continuing with legislators and Oklahomans in all types of professions from across the state on a long-term, predictable solution to fix our budget and fund core services,” said Fallin. “Budget plan estimates are being developed on various revenue proposals. Instead of waiting for final details, I wanted to give legislators enough notice as possible about when they should return to the Capitol.

“This will also give us time to get the latest revenue estimates for the upcoming 2019 fiscal year. A preliminary estimate of available funds for legislative appropriation will be available that week for the Dec. 20 meeting of the Board of Equalization. I am hopeful the estimate will show revenue growth for the 2019 fiscal year. But even if it does, there will be a need for additional revenue to address the combination of one-time funds currently in the budget, the current fiscal year shortfall from the loss of cigarette fee revenue, spending obligations for 2019, and money to give our teachers and state employees a much-needed pay raise. These items taken together will approach close to $800 million.

“As I travel across the state I see signs of positive economic activity, and I believe the future looks bright for the state,” the governor said. “However, I expect any additional growth in revenue coming to the state treasury will not be enough to put us on the stable foundation we want to see and give teachers a raise. In recent years, we have patched over our problems by using one-time money that, in effect, borrows from Peter to pay Paul. We know we still have a budget hole for this fiscal year of about $111 million from the loss of cigarette fee revenue that will result in cuts that the Health Care Authority will need to make starting January 1 and the Department of Human Services by February 1 if we don’t identify more funding.

“Before the session begins, I intend to make specific recommendations on how we can balance the budget and meet our immediate needs. I’ll be working with legislative leaders and others with the goal of having at least the outline of an agreement ready for legislators later this month.”

The governor last month vetoed most of the revised budget bill approved by legislators in the special session. She kept intact parts of the bill that temporarily preserved funding for key health and human services until lawmakers return in another special session to approve long-term funding solutions.

She vetoed all but five of the 170 sections contained in the budget measure, saying it did not provide a long-term solution to the re-occurring budget deficits experienced by the state the past three years. The current 2018 fiscal year budget includes $509 million of one-time funds and future obligations of at least $180 million not included in the 2018 fiscal year budget, which combined results in a starting deficit of almost $700 million for the 2019 fiscal year.

  An Oklahoma cop faces 2nd degree murder charges after he repeatedly shot & killed a suicidal young man. Dustin Pigeon was standing in a grassy area near his home, holding a lighter and a bottle of lighter fluid. Rather than taking the lighter away, the cop decided to shoot & kill the man.
  The Oklahoman spoke with family of the deceased.

District Attorney, David Prater explains the prosecution:
“From what we saw in the body cams, we saw what was and wasn’t factual,” Prater said.
  Pigeon followed the officers’ demands until slightly dropping his arms, which is when prosecutors said Sweeney fired his gun five times, hitting and killing Pigeon.

  The legendary Jerry Fent is back in the Supreme Court building, this week. He's challenging yet another act of the Oklahoma legislature.
  His latest case challenges the loose policies of the Fallin Administration and the legislature which is allowing the practices.

Ronald Reagan said fifty years ago;
"The closest thing to immortality in this world, is a govt. program."
 That's especially true in Oklahoma govt.  In 1982, Ronald Reagan came to Oklahoma and addressed a joint session of the Oklahoma Legislature.  the chamber was filled with Democrat legislators, but they were truer to Reagan's fiscal conservatism than the Republicans who fill the capitol, today.
  In fact, today's Republican state govt. is trying to institute more of Bernie Sanders' spending propensities than those Reagan stood for.

  One senior member of the House is publishing his manifesto on what a real conservative state budget would look like.  Jason Murphey has been devoted to a fiscal consistency that Oklahoma desperately needs more of. Sadly, he has just one more year of service to Oklahoma, before his 12 year term limit.
​   Jason Murphey posted six stark examples of the kind of budget he would advocate. We're reposting it, in it's entirety for the readers.

​  The growing list of conservative endorsements are coming in for Carolyn McLarty, for Senate District 27.

​  Jamison Faught of Muskogee Politico said;

​My Endorsement:
  "There is no better statement of Republican values than a vote for Dr. Carolyn McLarty, on Dec. 12th.
  9 Northwest counties will have that exclusive opportunity to stand with Carolyn McLarty for the future success of the great northwestern Oklahoma.
  Join Former Governor Frank Keating, Dr. Tom Coburn, and the 2016 OKGOP State Convention, who voted for Dr. Carolyn McLarty." - David Van Risseghem - publisher, Sooner Politics

  Thirty years after the US Govt. first began taking aggressive steps to impact the AIDS virus, very little has changed in the demographics of who is impacted. Here's a study by the Center For Disease Control..

Source: Singh S et al. (CDC). HIV incidence, prevalence, and undiagnosed infections in men who have sex with men. Presentation at Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, 2017, Seattle, WA.
* Includes infections attributed to male-to-male sexual contact and injection drug use.

This info was compiled by the Center For Disease Control.