UPDATE: Revised First Joint Committee on Federal Health Care Law Meeting Notice – Sept. 14, 2011

(9/8/11 UPDATE: Below is the revised agenda for the first joint committee meeting.)

The first meeting of the joint legislative committee on the effects of the federal health care law (Affordable Care Act, aka “ObamaCare”) on Oklahoma will be held in Oklahoma City on Wednesday, September 14, 2011 at 9:00 am in the House chamber at the OK State Capitol.

This first meeting appears to be featuring some of the key members of the Health Insurance Exchange Steering Committee from the Oklahoma Health Care Authority.  The OHCA is the recipient of the federal grants to implement health care reform, including a $1 M planning grant, as well as being the intended recipient of the $54 M Early Innovator Grant the state accepted then “rejected” earlier this year.

Committee co-chairs are Sen. Gary Stanislawski and Rep. Glen Mulready. Every Oklahoman with concerns about the implementation of health insurance exchanges (now “marketplaces”), the use of electronic medical/health records and medical privacy should try to attend this meeting.  This looks to be an all-day meeting, so come prepared to spend some time.

The entire notice is below, including the joint committee members.

Future meetings are to be held in Tulsa, and then again in Oklahoma City.  Dates and times are not confirmed at this time.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

MEETING NOTICE

Date of Notice: September 7, 2011

JOINT COMMITTEE ON FEDERAL HEALTH CARE LAW

SUBJECT:                  First Meeting

MEETING DATE:   Wednesday, September 14, 2011

MEETING TIME:        9:00 A.M.

LOCATION:                House Chamber, State Capitol Building

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Agenda:

9:00 am – 11:30 am                                                                          

1.              Welcome and Introductions

2.              Present State of Health Outcomes and Health Care in Oklahoma

Julie Cox-Kain, Chief Operating Officer, Oklahoma State Department of Health

                                                Mike Fogarty, Chief Executive Officer, Oklahoma Health Care Authority

1:00 pm – 4:00 pm

 3.              PPACA: Description of Mandates, Costs, and Other Implications for the State Concerning Public                         Health

Julie Cox-Kain, Chief Operating Officer, Oklahoma State Department of Health

 4.              Medicaid and Accountable Care Organizations

Buffy Heater, Director of Planning and Development, Oklahoma Health Care Authority

                                                Cindy Roberts, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Oklahoma Health Care Authority

                                                Jason Sutton, Policy Impact Director, Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs

5.              Other Business

Senate Appointees:                                                     House Appointees:

Senator Gary Stanislawski, Co-Chair                Rep. Glen Mulready, Co-Chair

Senator Cliff Aldridge                                                 Rep. Doug Cox

Senator Bill Brown                                                      Rep. Randy Grau

Senator Sean Burrage                                                Rep. Danny Morgan

Senator Brian Crain                                                    Rep. Jeannie McDaniel

Senator John Sparks                                                  Rep. Jason Nelson

Senate Staff:

Jennifer Mullens, Legislative Analyst

Alicia Emerson, Legislative Analyst

Lori Block, Staff Attorney

Andrew Messer, Fiscal Analyst

Anthony Sammons, Staff Attorney

Darrell D. Washington, Administrative Assistant

Twelve Truths About Legislation

OK-SAFE, Inc. was created in late 2006 by 13 concerned Oklahomans with the express purpose of stopping the Trans-Texas Corridor coming into the state of Oklahoma.  Since then, we’ve both expanded our efforts and fine-tuned them to address specific issues such as objecting to the collection of personal biometric information, the growing surveillance society, and the continued expansion of the reach and scope of state government.

Networking with other grassroots groups, we’ve learned from the bottom up how to research an issue, how the legislative process works, how to lobby, and how to read and track legislation. We educate others on how to do the same.

Seekers of the truth, we’ve also learned how to discern political doublespeak.  We’ve come to understand that the legislative process in Oklahoma has been corrupted not only through perversion of words, but by special interests. The process is agenda-driven.  Only certain types of bills get a hearing and are allowed to advance through the legislative process.  Other bills, although sound in principle and policy, are either ignored or introduced to pacify constituents, their author knowing full well the bill will go nowhere.

Bad language, stopped one year, is slipped into a different bill later on, or held for a new, unsuspecting legislator to run.

Legislators ignore the people’s concerns and pass liberty-killing legislation anyway, pooh-poohing their research and warnings. They add “claw back provisions” as false comfort to prevent abuse of some newly created give-away scheme, directing taxpayers money to most-favored businesses.

Apparently this pattern of abuse has been noted elsewhere – listed below are Twelve Truths About Legislation from Freedom Keys.

1. Any law the electorate sees as being open to being perverted from its original intent will be perverted in a manner that exceeds the manner of perversion seen at the time.
2. Any law that is so difficult to pass it requires the citizens be assured it will not be a stepping stone to worse laws will in fact be a stepping stone to worse laws.
3. Any law that requires the citizens be assured the law does not mean what the citizens fear, means exactly what the citizens fear.
4. Any law passed in a good cause will be interpreted to apply to causes against the wishes of the people.
5. Any law enacted to help any one group will be applied to harm people not in that group.
6. Everything the government says will never happen will happen.
7. What the government says it could not foresee the government planned for.
8. When there is a budget shortfall to cover non-essential government services the citizen will be given the choice between higher taxes or the loss of essential government services.
9. Should the citizens mount a successful effort to stop a piece of legislation, the same legislation will be passed under a different name.
10. All deprivations of freedom and choice will be increased rather than reversed.
11. Any government that has to build safeguards into a law so that it will not be abused is providing guidelines for abusing the law without violating it.
12. Any legislator up for re-election will vote against a bad law if and only if there are enough other votes to pass it.

Whoever wrote this list must have been watching what happens in the Oklahoma legislature.

We can only conclude with these words – Never believe a politician.

OK-SAFE, Inc.

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.”

OK-SAFE was right – the government is Monitoring America

The case OK-SAFE has been building and advancing for three years has finally made it to the mainstream media – the government is monitoring the American people.

State and Federal Representatives have steadfastly scoffed at the idea.

A Washington Post article entitled Monitoring America offers a window into the deceptive nature of our government.  

Excerpt:

“Nine years after the terrorist attacks of 2001, the United States is assembling a vast domestic intelligence apparatus to collect information about Americans, using the FBI, local police, state homeland security offices and military criminal investigators.

The system, by far the largest and most technologically sophisticated in the nation’s history, collects, stores and analyzes information about thousands of U.S. citizens and residents, many of whom have not been accused of any wrongdoing.

The government’s goal is to have every state and local law enforcement agency in the country feed information to Washington to buttress the work of the FBI, which is in charge of terrorism investigations in the United States.”

Although the move toward integration of the entire justice system started years ago,  fusion centers – doing away with barriers to information-sharing between the federal, state, local, and tribal levels – are  greasing the wheels.  More than 72 of the data-hubs exist in the U.S. and countless others are in operation globally.  And they’re networked together.

Included in this global data collection network is SARS (Suspicious Activity Reporting System); the Eyes and Ears programs; and the “If You See Something, Say Something” effort advocated by the DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano.

On the state level, one incident reporting (think snitch) system includes Oklahoma’s SIBRS, the Statewide Incident Based Reporting System, the state’s version of NIBRS (National Incident-Based Reporting System.)

State incidents – both criminal and non-criminal – are instantly shared with the FBI, upon request.  

Associations advancing the global integration of justice systems, law enforcement, and the private sector include the IACP (International Association of Chiefs of Police), IALEIA (International Association of Law Enforcement Intelligence Analysts), and InfraGard, (partnership between the FBI and the private sector).

Minimize Interaction with Law Enforcement

Sadly, it is evident that law enforcement has changed dramatically since 9/11.  Today, the greatest threat to personal liberty and real security is the government and its’ militarized local law enforcement agencies.

Assuming that you, like most folks, are a law-abiding citizen, to the best of your ability minimize your interaction with any law enforcement entity.   Don’t be a snitch. Neighbors should not report neighbors except in the most extreme cases; if you must report something use common sense, i.e. report the Muslim extremist carrying a rocket launcher on his shoulder, or the TSA agent touching your private parts, not your neighbors displaying the pro-life decals or third-party candidates bumper stickers.

Address personal family issues within the family, or within your church; only seek another non-profit entity or a public agency as a last resort.

Scripture provides us with wisdom in dealing with each other – Matthew 18:15-17 reads:

15 “If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private ; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. 16 “But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that BY THE MOUTH OF TWO OR THREE WITNESSES EVERY FACT MAY BE CONFIRMED. 17 “If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.”

Government and law enforcement have changed dramatically…and not for the better.  Be wise about your activities and protect yourself as best you can.