Yahoo Blocking Emails?

Yahoo is blocking certain emails. 

None of the Yahoo account holders on the OK-SAFE contact list received the January 10, 2011 OK-SAFE email.  (All the newsletters sent to Yahoo email addresses “bounced” and were not delivered to the intended recipient.)  Most of these Yahoo email contacts did not receive the second attempt at sending this email sent a few days later.

The subject line of the January 10, 2011 OK-SAFE email was “Political Doublespeak; Party Elections; Training Reminders”.   Upon  realizing that none of the Yahoo contacts received this email, we contacted Yahoo’s Help option twice.  To date we have received no response from Yahoo.

On the chance that Yahoo was blocking the word “Political” in the subject line, we altered the subject line by eliminating the word “Political” and re-sent it.  Only a portion of these edited emails were successfuly delivered – all the rest were again bounced by Yahoo.

This is the follow-up email we received 1/25/2011 from Ratepoint (our newsletter email service) regarding the Yahoo bounces:

“Sorry for the late reply. I saw you left a message with our answering service. We, along with much of the industry, are experiencing issues delivering emails to Yahoo inboxes.  My understanding is that they are heavily re-evaluating their spam management, and in the meantime are blocking more email than normal.

Many Yahoo addresses will bounce, many will be delivered to the junk folder, and some will make it to the inbox succesfully.

This is our main focus right now, and our inbox deliverability is increasing to Yahoo a bit each day.  Though we can’t be sure, I’d hope for things to be closer to normal within a couple weeks.  Thanks for your patience.

Lindsay Bertrand”

In the meantime, OK-SAFE will post their newsletter on the blog and OK-SAFE website (which is being re-modeled at this time) to help those with Yahoo acounts to have access to the Newsletter/Action Alerts. 

 We apologize for this frustrating problem.

UPDATE: 2011 Oklahoma Legislature Files 2229 – Bills. Now it’s 2234!

Sure glad the Republican led Oklahoma legislature is serious about “smaller, smarter government”.

Between the OK House and Senate 2229  2234 (five more bills introduced since this post was initially published) bills have been filed: 1217 by the House, and 1012 by the Senate.  The deadline for filing was Thursday, January 20, 2011 and apparently all 101 House members and 48 Senators made the deadline.

A preliminary glance does not reveal many repealer bills.  Too bad for us.

The 2011 Oklahoma Legislative session begins on Monday, February 7, 2011.

Better start reading. 

Begin by reading every bill your own elected official has submitted.  (You can search for bill by Author by clicking Tools, then Edit, then enter the key search word – either the subject or author.  Your search word will be highlighted.)

Shell bills are those bills with a bill number and author, a brief description and little else.  These are waiting for language to be added later.   Look for all bills creating NEW LAW.  Then read the amendatory language bills. 

Pay particular attention to Title 47 Motor Vehicles, Title 62 Public Finance,  Title 68 Revenue and Taxation, and Title 74 State Government.

Then call your elected official and start asking questions about those specific bills.

Oklahoma Legislature website:  www.lsb.state.ok.us/  Click Text of Measures to find the introduced House and Senate bills.

Oklahoma House: 1-800-522-8502, 1-405-521-2711

Oklahoma Senate: 1-800-865-6490, 1-405-524-0126

Read those bills; make those calls. Let’s make 2011 the year of Citizen Involvement in the Legislative Process.

OK-SAFE Training Sessions – Tulsa

The Oklahoma Legislative Session begins on Monday, February 7, 2011, runs for 16 weeks, and ends on May 27, 2011.

Building on last year’s citizen training, OK-SAFE will be conducting 2 training sessions entitled Citizen Involvement in the Legislative Process. (NOTE: The OKC session was conducted 1/15/2011.)

These meetings are subject-specific, and graduated by level of ability and interest. 

Attendees are encouraged to bring their own computers, note-taking material, and refreshments as these are working meetings.

• Date: Saturday, January 22, 2011
• Time: 9:00 am – 12:30 pm
• Location: The HQ Building, 1008-B N. Hickory Ave., Broken Arrow, OK.    

Preliminary Agenda is detailed below.

1st Hour –

• Introductory – The Basics. 1) Overview of the OK Legislative Process; 2) Identifying your legislator; 3) Contact information and lists; 4) Writing emails; 5) Making the OK Legislature and OSCN websites your home pages.

2nd Hour – 

• Intermediate -Building on Hour 1. 1) The legislative process, including interim studies, introduced bills;  bill committee assignments; 2) The committee process; when to advocate for a bill; 3) Creating group email lists for House and Senate committees; 4) Understanding the role of Speaker/ Pro-Temp, Floor Leader, and Whips.  

3rd Hour –

• Advanced – Taking off the Rose-Colored Glasses. 1) How to read a bill with understand; which OK titles of law to examine; 2) Understanding political doublespeak, i.e, smaller, smarter government, small business, advanced, quality job, knowledge-based economy; 3) The Quality Jobs Program Act; PrimeWIN; OSU-UML, the ‘contract verifier’ for OK; 4) Tax incentives/earmarks; who is benefiting from the passage of legislation.

These meetings are free and open to the public; however, we are asking for a small donation to cover the cost of printed material and room rental. 

Psalm 118: 8,9 – “It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in man; It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in princes.”

Political Doublespeak – Buyer Beware

Marketing 101: Nothing happens until something is sold.

A lot of marketing in hopes of selling occurred during the 2010 election cycle in Oklahoma.  That marketing involved plenty of speeches using positive, desirable, familiar words and catch-phrases, and ideas folks could rally around and embrace.  People bought those words and ideas.

Upon hearing a familiar word or phrase, most folks assume that a specific word or phrase means what it means in the general sense; that it means what they understand it to mean.  For instance, most folks assume that “securing the border” means protecting and defending our country’s borders against invasion; it implies the federal government is limiting access, putting up a fence, etc.

In reality, “securing the border” means the addition and utilization of ISR technology – intelligence gathering, installation and usage of surveillance  technology, and reconnaissance – so the government can watch who’s entering illegally, for the financial benefit of defense contractors.   (While the border patrol agents get bean-bag  rounds to use against real bullets.) 

Securing the border doesn’t actually mean putting up a fence or stopping the invasion of our country at the border.  “Securing our border” is political doublespeak.

Politicians, much like products at the store,  are packaged, marketed and sold during an election. This marketing includes the use of specific talking points during speeches, easy sound bites, and  repeated TV commercials professionally produced by expensive advertising companies. 

This marketing includes the use of appealing, hopeful, familiar words and phrases during a campaign.

The public assumes the meaning of the words and phrases (the political doublespeak), believes the marketing, and buys the product by casting a vote for that politician.  

Noted below are a few words and phrases heard during the recent political campaigns in Oklahoma; their assumed meaning; and the political reality. 

Political reality demands  “Buyer Beware”. 

Word	Assumed Meaning	Real/Political Meaning
Advanced	Forward; progressive; implies ‘better’	Refers to technology developed by/for the Dept. of Defense morphed into commercial use
Career	Means of earning a living; a profession, chosen by the individual	Entry level job in a government-approved service industry; planned via soviet-styled S-T-W education system
Knowledge-based Economy	Economy employing knowledgeable, well-educated people and practices	Economy based on the acquisition and analysis of information, utilizing technology; data driven
Quality Jobs	Excellent, high wage, long-term jobs	Industry-specific, temporary, low-wage, entry-level jobs in Enterprise/HUB Zones; dependent on tax incentives
Small Business	A locally-owned small business started by an individual with the his own money	SBA approved business– i.e. “minority” or “veteran-owned,” located in an Enterprise/HUB Zone – given preferential treatment, undermining free enterprise
Reduce the cost-driversof doing business	Applies to all businesses; minimizes restrictive permitting, fees, zoning, regulations, etc.	Applies to select businesses only; includes tax credits/incentives, TIF districts, and elimination of competition
Smaller, smarter government	Defunding/cessations of un-enumerated activities and agencies	Public-Private Partnerships; increased use of technology; outsourcing some functions
Create more jobs	Government gets out of the way-free enterprise system allowed to work	Directing funds (earmarks) to specific businesses; “Quality jobs” legislation that favors them; tax incentives
Government needs to be run more like a business	Government operating in an orderly manner, not wasting taxpayers’ money, while still operating within its’ proper authority and respecting the God-given rights of the individual; operates as a sovereign entity with a constitution, with separate but equal Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches.Gov’t. does not function as a business.	Government operates from a business plan, focusing on revenue generation, cost savings, and efficiencies. Functions of government are viewed as services; services to the public are considered a business process & commoditized. May lead to outsourcing government services referred to as “business processes” to “eliminate waste, create efficiencies, and reduce fragmentation.”Citizens viewed as an asset or liability; are charged for using services.

The Precinct: The Most Powerful Office. Get Involved – Elections 2/1/2011!

OK-SAFE, Inc. – By request we are re-posting a blog item from early in 2011.  We have updated the dates from 2011 to those for 2013.

It is still true – the precinct in the most powerful office in the party – will you be there?

Oklahoma – Tuesday, February 1, 2011 Thursday, February 7, 2013 is the date set for the upcoming Republican party precinct elections, aka “caucuses”.  [Note: If you live in Tulsa County, precinct meetings can be scheduled for Feb. 7th, 8th, or 9th.]

These meetings, by state party rules, are to take place in the precinct on the date designated by the state Republican party chairman.

Tulsa County GOP information: http://www.tulsagop.org/gop-files. For more State of Oklahoma GOP County List information click here.  Registered Democrats need to check here for that party’s information.

Precinct Defined

The precinct, for those who may not know, is the geographical area assigned to vote at a particular voting location;  “a subdivision of a county, town, city, or ward for election purposes.”  Each precinct is to have a committee, made up of citizens elected by other members of that precinct, to conduct the administrative affairs of the party to which they belong (Republican or Democrat, unless and until a third party gets moving in OK.)

The precinct committee is the supreme authority within the political parties.  From the OKRPRules Amended Aug. 2011, pp 4-5:

“Rule 5- Precinct Committees

(a)   Composition and Election: There shall be a Precinct Committee in each election precinct of the state. The Precinct Committee shall consist of a Precinct Chairman and a Precinct Vice Chairman, not of the same gender, a Precinct Secretary, and a Precinct Treasurer, who may be the same person, and who shall have equal right to vote at Precinct Meetings. They shall be elected at the regular biennial Precinct Meeting of the qualified Republican voters of each precinct called by the County Chairman, or as provided in these rules. The same procedure shall be followed at a regular or special meeting, in the event new precincts are created anywhere in any county of the state.

(b ) Authority and Duties: The Precinct Committee is the supreme Republican Party authority of each precinct, subject to these rules, and the direction and control of official precinct meetings. The Precinct Committee of each precinct is charged with the duty of promoting the welfare and directing the affairs of the Republican Party in its precinct. The Precinct Chairman shall be the executive officer of the precinct delegates to any county convention. The Precinct Chairman is not disqualified to be elected or appointed as a delegate pursuant to these rules. Only the Precinct Committee has the authority to remove any duly elected qualified delegate to the county convention.”

Being the most powerful committee within the political parties, the precinct is the starting place for the election of party officials, delegates to party conventions, both county and state, and the committee that will ultimately decide who the delegates are to the National Convention where the participants vote for President. (Presidential election -every four years; party elections – every two years.)

It all starts by being involved in your local precinct election/meeting on February 1, 2011.  February 7, 2013. [Known exception:Tulsa County GOP precinct meetings may be held on 2/7 , 2/8/ or 2/9, per the discretion of the precinct officers.]

Some of the articles below may help in understanding the power of the precinct and why you should participate.

1. The Most Powerful Office in the World is NOT the President of the United States Eagle Forum article: http://www.eagleforum.org/misc/brochures/precinct-committman.shtml
2. Other sources: http://theprecinctproject.wordpress.com/

Excerpt below from The Precinct Project blog – a good place to start:

“Do You Know Who Elects The Party Leaders? Did You Elect Them?

Who elects the leadership of the parties? Do you know? Are you a registered Republican? Guess what? As a “mere” registered Republican voter, without more, you DID NOT have a vote in the election of the present leadership of the Republican Party. Sorry, but those are the facts.

ONLY elected precinct committeemen get to vote for the leadership of the Party. Do I yet have your attention? Ponder the fact that ONLY elected precinct committeemen get to elect the Party leadership. Don’t you want to have a vote in those elections?

About 3,141 counties exist in the United States. Each has a county party organization. And, those county organizations almost always endorse candidates in the party primaries. And, usually, those party-endorsed candidates win. Tired of the kind of Repubican In Name Only Republicans who are winning the primaries? Then DO SOMETHING REAL and become a Republican Party precinct committeeman! Guess what? About half of the Republican Party precinct committeeman slots, nationwide, are unfilled!

Do I yet have your attention? Has the light bulb above your head clicked on yet? In some counties, like the one where I reside, Maricopa County, Arizona, within which Phoenix sits, TWO-THIRDS of the precinct committeeman slots in the Republican Party sat unfilled on Election Day, 2008. Well, it’s now January, 2010, and we’re now at 53 per cent strength instead of where we were a year ago, 31 per cent.

Spend a few moments and picture this in your mind’s eye: thousands of conservatives flock to the Republican Party and join it as precinct committeemen. And, in the next internal party elections, these conservatives (you, me and others) elect NEW, CONSERVATIVE leadership. (Or, instead, these same conservatives (me, excepted) sit behind their computer screens and put first on their priority list, instead of second, writing that next, great blog post that is going to, somehow, save the republic.)”

China Eyes California State Rail

What’s wrong with this picture – besides everything?

China (aka The People’s Republic of China) investing in Idaho, China investing in California, China owning the U.S. ports operations.  Anyone else see a trend?

Link to story: http://www.sacbee.com/2011/01/03/3295215/china-eyes-state-rail-plan.html