Inhofe 'Outraged' By President's Action

Senator Jim Inhofe ripped President Bush today, saying, “I am outraged by the President’s announcement today that he will be using money from the massive $700 billion bailout to bailout U.S. automakers. Once again we have an Administration changing course regarding the implementation of the massive bailout without any input from Congress. This is exactly the reason I have been such an outspoken opponent of the bailout from the very beginning.

“I also opposed the $700 billion bailout because I knew that more than just the financial industry would soon be lining up to ask for government assistance. Congress considered legislation to assist the auto industry and it failed. By taking this action, these bailout funds are avoiding the necessary oversight the American people expect. I do not agree that the lack of a federal bailout will result in a disorderly bankruptcy of these companies. Chapter 11 of the US Code provides the structure for the substantial restructuring these companies need to take. Key among the steps is making their costs competitive with foreign automakers operating in the U.S.

“Now, as the Bush administration has waffled and changed course again on implementation of the massive bailout, many of my colleagues who initially voted for the $700 billion bailout have been expressing regret over their decision to hand over such a massive blank check with little oversight to the administration. They still have a chance at redemption by co-sponsoring my legislation, S. 3697, which freezes the bailout and gives back to the taxpayers their money that should never have been taken from them in the first place. Americans need to contact their Senators and tell them to co-sponsor my bill so that it is has the necessary support to be heard. Over the next few weeks I will be reaching out to my colleagues to ask them to sign on to my bill so we can stop this nonsense as soon as possible.”

Share |

Bush Honors Two, Raises McCain Dollars

Karen Stark of Oklahoma City and Major Dan Rooney of Broken Arrow walk from Air Force One with President Bush this morning at Tinker Air Force Base. Bush honored Stark for The Hugs Project, which provides neck coolers to troops, and Rooney for The Folds of Honor Foundation, which provides educational opportunities for families of military members killed or disabled in action. Bush later attended a meeting of business leaders and was the guest of honor at a fundraiser for the Republican National Committee and presidential nominee John McCain.

Share |

Bush To Honor OKC's Karen Stark

President Bush will present the President's Volunteer Service award to Karen Stark of Oklahoma City on Friday to honor her work on behalf of those serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, known as The Hugs Project.

Bush also will attend a private fundraiser for Republican presidential candidate John McCain and the Republican National Committee.

Bush will land at Tinker Air Force Base.

Stark's organization began providing handmade neck cooling ties, nicknamed "hugs," to military troops in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2004.

Share |

Quapaw Chairman Named To Federal Post

The chairman of the Quapaw Tribe in Oklahoma has been appointed by President Bush to a federal commission which advises on historic preservation efforts.

John Berrey will serve a four-year term on the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation.

Share |

Bush Plans Oklahoma Fundraising Trip

President Bush plans to travel to Oklahoma City to raise money for the Republican National Committee, it was announced today.

Bill Price, the GOP gubernatorial nominee in 1990 and a co-chairman of John McCain's presidential campaign effort in Oklahoma, says some of the money raised will go to the Republican Party's presidential nominee in key battleground states.

Price says Bush's visit is set for September 12th and will be held at a private residence in eastern Oklahoma City. It is a closed event.

Price says invitations are to be sent out this week. Tickets are $1,000. Those attending can have their picture taken with the president for $5,000. Those who raise or give $25,000 or more will meet briefly with the president.

Share |

Inhofe, Fallin Laud Offshore Drilling Action

Senator Jim Inhofe, ranking member of the Environment and Public Works Committee, and Congresswoman Mary Fallin today praised President Bush for lifting the executive ban on offshore drilling.

“President Bush is to be commended for taking a critical step to ensure increased domestic energy supply for America,” Inhofe said. “Democrats in Congress must stop blocking America’s access to the resources on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). With gas prices continuing to skyrocket, suffering Americans are demanding Congress allow more domestic energy production. Recent polling has shown 67 percent of the American people now support offshore drilling, with just 18 percent opposed. Congress should follow the President’s lead and lift the moratoriums on domestic energy exploration. Currently, 85 percent of the OCS --an estimated 19 billion barrels of recoverable oil -- is off limits. At today’s import levels, this is the equivalent of 35 years of imports from Saudi Arabia. No country on earth has exploration technology as advanced and environmentally sound as ours. Even so, Democrats oppose offshore production based upon misleading environmental grounds. Major spills from drilling and production platforms are nearly non-existent. Both Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, which were massive Category 5's, plowed through the heart of Gulf oil production just four weeks apart, yet no major spills occurred.”

Said Fallin: “I applaud the President’s decision. It is obvious that one immediate solution to rising energy prices is to find and develop more domestic oil and gas reserves. Modern technologies have made offshore drilling safer and cleaner than ever before. We must move aggressively to open those offshore areas that were off limits for far too long. Unfortunately, those in control of Congress still refuse to allow us to vote on lifting congressional bans on additional exploration and development. I will continue to work with like-minded colleagues from both parties who understand the economic realities and who are determined to craft a sensible energy policy that will tap domestic oil and gas reserves while we move ahead on all fronts in conserving and in developing alternative energy sources. Hopefully this decision by the President will inject some common sense into the debate in Washington.”

Share |

Sooner Poll: 'Exceptional Approval' For Governor Brad Henry, Not So For Bush

From Sooner Poll ~ Although a majority of Oklahomans feel that America is headed in the right direction, many are not confident of the national or state economy; Governor Brad Henry received exceptional approval; rural residents are six times more likely to say that the Oklahoma economy is depressed.

SoonerPoll.com, a public opinion research firm in Oklahoma City, conducted the telephone poll of 664 registered voters and non-registered Oklahoma residents April 24-May 15. The poll’s margin of error was 3.8% and results were weighted by MSA, political label and sex.

Elected Officials Approval: In this report, official approval and economic evaluation are analyzed.

The following sections break down results to questions of approval for President George W. Bush, Governor Brad Henry, Senator Jim Inhofe and Senator Tom Coburn. Answers for Bush approval were on a 7-point scale and answers for the Governor and two Senators are simply approve or disapprove.

Bush ended the study with an approval (total) rating of 43% with 20.3% of the total sample strongly approving and 44.1% strongly disapproving, likewise
70.5% for Henry, 51.6% for Inhofe and 58.3% for Coburn.

To read the entire survey, go to http://soonerpoll.com/pdfs/LikelyVoter_Report1_Toplines.pdf.

Share |

Terrill: Cauthron's Ruling Undermined

A judicial ruling to halt implementation of the private employer provisions of House Bill 1804, the state's omnibus anti-illegal immigration law, was undermined this week by a presidential executive order, state Rep. Randy Terrill noted today.

"It was clear from the very beginning that Judge Cauthron's ruling was inconsistent with recent decisions in other similar cases, most notably in Missouri and Arizona," said Terrill, a Moore Republican who authored House Bill 1804.

"Now Present Bush's executive order makes it obvious the judge's ruling was wrong and should be overturned."

Last week, Judge Robin Cauthron issued a ruling that prevents implementation of the private employer provisions of House Bill 1804. Those provisions would have required employers contracting with the state government to verify that their employees are not illegal aliens by using a simple federal database (E-Verify), allowed Oklahoma citizens to sue an employer who fired them while retaining an illegal alien to perform the same job, and required businesses to check the citizenship status of independent contractors.

In that ruling, Cauthron claimed "federal law prohibits use of the Status Verification Systems to verify employment eligibility."

That claim was contradicted this week by President George W.Bush when he issued Executive Order 12829, which requires anyone contracting with the federal government to use the E-verify system.

Bush's order stated, "It is the policy of the executive branch to enforce fully the immigration laws of the United States, including the detection and removal of illegal aliens and the imposition of legal sanctions against employers that hire illegal aliens" and noted that E-verify "provides the best available means to confirm the identity and work eligibility of all employees that join the Federal workforce."

"Judge Cauthron claimed federal law does not allow the use of E-Verify to ensure an employee is a legal citizen or resident of the United States, but now President Bush has ordered federal officials to use the system for that explicit purpose," Terrill said. "It's clear the judge's decision was based on an incorrect reading of the law."

Terrill noted that other complaints of House Bill 1804 opponents are also falling apart.

Although business groups claim E-Verify is burdensome for employers, Stewart Baker, an assistant secretary for policy at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, recently wrote, "In fact, it's a bit less burdensome than ordering books for the first time from Amazon.com."

Share |

Bush Disapproval Rating Hits Record High

A CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey indicates that 71 percent of the American public disapprove of how George W. Bush is handling his job as president, the highest disapproval percentage on record.

"No president has ever had a higher disapproval rating in any CNN or Gallup Poll; in fact, this is the first time that any president's disapproval rating has cracked the 70 percent mark," said Keating Holland, CNN's polling director.

"Bush's approval rating, which stands at 28 percent in our new poll, remains better than the all-time lows set by Harry Truman and Richard Nixon [22 percent and 24 percent, respectively], but even those two presidents never got a disapproval rating in the 70s," Holland said. "The previous all-time record in CNN or Gallup polling was set by Truman, 67 percent disapproval in January 1952."

Share |

Bush Disapproval Rating Hits Record High

President Bush has set a record he'd presumably prefer to avoid: the highest disapproval rating of any president in the 70-year history of the Gallup Poll.

In a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll taken Friday through Sunday, 28 percent of Americans approve of the job Bush is doing; 69 percent disapprove.

The approval rating matches the low point of his presidency, and the disapproval sets a new high for any president since Franklin Roosevelt.

The previous record of 67 percent was reached by Harry Truman in January 1952, when the United States was enmeshed in the Korean War.

Share |

Bush Approves Major Disaster Declaration

President Bush today granted Governor Henry’s request for a major disaster declaration for seven Oklahoma counties impacted by last week’s ice storm.

Henry noted that more counties will be added to the declaration as damage assessment surveys continue across the state.

Henry praised President Bush for granting the December 15 request: “This public assistance approved by the President will help cities, towns and counties in their response and recovery efforts,” the Governor said. “Hundreds of thousands of Oklahomans know all too well that the ice storm was of historic proportions. Federal assistance is deserved and needed for numerous communities throughout our state, and I am grateful to the President for his quick response.”

The declaration means public assistance will be available for expenses related to infrastructure damage including roads, bridges and public facilities, as well as the costs of debris removal.

Counties now covered are Cleveland, Lincoln, Mayes, Oklahoma, Pottawatomie, Tulsa and Wagoner.

Henry noted that more counties will be added upon the completion of ongoing damage assessments. He said Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management officials are also continuing surveys to build the state’s anticipated request to the President for Individual Assistance. Residents and business owners who have uninsured ice storm damages are urged to call the toll-free Oklahoma Damage Assessment Hotline (866) 560-7584 between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. daily.

Images courtesy the Tulsa World, The Oklahoman.

Share |

Former Bush Press Secretary Says He Was Misled

From www.foxnews.com ~ Former White House press secretary Scott McClellan is lashing out at the Bush administration, claiming in his new book that the White House intentionally misled him concerning the CIA leak case and that President Bush was involved in his passing along "false information" to the press.

Share |

White House Ceremony Notes Centennial

Today, an Oklahoma delegation was hosted by The White House in celebration of Oklahoma's Centennial. A proclamation signed by President Bush in honor of Oklahoma's Centennial was presented on his behalf. Blake Wade, Executive Director of the Oklahoma Centennial Commission, served as master of ceremonies and Mark A. Stansberry served as event chairman. Congressman Tom Cole, Frank Lucas, and Congresswoman Mary Fallin made remarks. Staff members were present from all of Oklahoma's Congressional Delegation.

Share |

Fox News: Bush, Congress Find Little Favor

Voters are displeased with both the president and Congress, according to the latest FOX News poll reported at http://www.foxnews.com/ today.

A 55 percent majority of Americans disapprove of President Bush’s job performance while 35 percent approve and the most frequently mentioned reason is the Iraq war; 45 percent of those unhappy with Bush blame the war.

Congress gets an even worse rating: 25 percent approve, 54 percent disapprove.

After Iraq, the most common reason is that the president is generally “doing a bad job” (19 percent). A handful of voters say they disapprove because they disagree with Bush on the issues (7 percent), they don’t like him (6 percent) and that he doesn’t care about average people (5 percent).

Click here to view full results of the poll (pdf)

Of those that approve of Bush, 40 percent say it’s because he’s “doing a good job” overall, 17 percent mention the job he is doing “fighting terrorism,” 9 percent say they agree with him on the issues and 8 percent approve because he is honest.

The national telephone poll was conducted for FOX News by Opinion Dynamics Corp. among 900 registered voters from October 23-24. The poll has a 3-point error margin.

Among the president’s party faithful, his approval rating is now fairly consistently below 70 percent; 68 percent approve today, down from 81 percent this time last year (immediately before the midterm election, October 24-25, 2006).

Bush’s approval rating rarely gets into the teens among Democrats these days; currently 12 percent give a thumbs-up as do 26 percent of independents. Fully 81 percent of Democrats and 63 percent of independents disapprove of the job the president is doing.

“Bush’s ratings just don’t move very much,” comments Opinion Dynamics Chairman John Gorman. "He has a core of Republican supporters who keep him from plunging too much. Democrats are pretty much critical and the week-to-week differences come primarily from independents that move back and forth.”

The war in Iraq remains the number one issue for Americans; 36 percent identify it as the most important problem facing the country, followed by health care at 12 percent and the economy at 11 percent.

Despite the president’s low performance ratings, a slim 53 percent majority say he is still a powerful player in Washington considering the failure of the Democratic Congress to override Bush’s recent health care bill veto. Some 35 percent think he is a lame duck president.

More than 7 of 10 Republicans (73 percent) think Bush is still powerful compared to 40 percent of Democrats.

Turning to Congress, the poll shows that even fewer Americans are satisfied with lawmakers than with the president. Some 25 percent say they approve of the job Congress is doing while more than twice as many — 54 percent — disapprove.

A 58 percent majority of Republicans disapprove of the Democratically-controlled Congress, as do 57 percent of independents and 48 percent of Democrats.

Furthermore, 45 percent of voters say the country would be better off throwing out most members of Congress and starting over with new people. Of course that seems to apply mainly to someone else’s representative, because 50 percent think their own representative deserves to be re-elected.

Share |

California Democrat Sinks To Rhetorical Low; Says Bush Wants Heads Blown Off For His 'Amusement'

This

Man

Is

Nuts

California Democratic Congressman Pete Stark is stark, raving mad. View his incredible, in-poor-taste, indecent and offensive on-the-floor remarks here: http://breitbart.tv/html/6912.html

Share |

Bush Approval Rating Plummets

President Bush's approval rating in Oklahoma has plummeted, SurveyUSA found in a statewide poll conducted for KFOR-TV in Oklahoma City.

Just 39 percent now approve, while 59 percent disapprove, the poll found.

Among Republicans, Bush won approval from 73 percent, while 26 percent disapprove. Among Democrats, only 19 percent approve, with 78 percent disapproving. Among Independents, 33 percent approve, 64 percent disapprove.

Share |

Noted Quote: Bush On The Oval Office View

“It’s different being a candidate and being the president. No matter who the president is, no matter what party, when they (presidential candidates) sit here in the Oval Office and seriously consider the effect of a vacuum being created in the Middle East, particularly one trying to be created by al Qaeda, they will then begin to understand the need to continue to support the young democracy (in Iraq).”

Share |

Poll Finds Low Approval For Bush, Congress

President Bush and the U.S. Congress registered record-low approval ratings in a Reuters/Zogby poll released today, and a new monthly index measuring the mood of Americans dipped slightly on deepening worries about the economy. Only 29 percent of Americans gave Bush a positive grade for his job performance, below his worst Zogby poll mark of 30 percent in March. A paltry 11 percent rated Congress positively, beating the previous low of 14 percent in July.

Share |

Three Counties Get Federal Disaster Designation

Residents in Blaine, Caddo and Kingfisher counties have been approved for individual federal disaster assistance after last weekend's severe weather and flooding, Governor Brad Henry announced Friday.

The disaster declaration by President Bush makes residents eligible for federal assistance with housing repairs, temporary housing, low-interest loans and other programs.

The storm, which killed six people, damaged nearly 500 homes in the three counties. Of those homes, 42 were destroyed and 192 sustained major damage, officials have said.

Share |

Oklahoma Tribal Leaders Witness Bush Bill Signing

Leaders of 5 Oklahoma Indian tribes were on hand as President Bush signed a bill to reauthorize a program which encourages home ownership among American Indians. Read the full story by clicking on the headline in our news ticker on the right side of this page.

Share |