From the news article posted here...

"Freshman Democrat Dan Boren voted with the minority as the U-S House narrowly approved the Central American Free Trade Agreement Wednesday night. "

"He cited recent statistics from the A-F-L-C-I-O that show the state has lost 33-thousand manufacturing jobs in recent years. He says he fears CAFTA will exacerbate the flight of such jobs."

What is not mentioned is that maybe... just maybe... we have lost jobs because we are ranked at the bottom of the barrel in wages, our workman's comp sucks and lawsuit reform always seems to take a back seat? maybe its the high cost of doing business in this state that is causing these jobs to leave?

"Phase one is complete; this was the people’s vision" - Bill LaFortune … so just whose vision are we paying the extra sales tax for then?
Why is it that the “people’s” vision took a back seat to the good ol’ boy network’s money making schemes? We said develop the river, they forced a tax to develop downtown and an worthless arena at the expense of the rest of Tulsa.
The river is one of our most prized natural resources and we have squandered it year after year, and we let opportunity after opportunity to slip through our fingers, like the Jenks Aquarium & Bass Pro Shop, and now that they are talking about developing the river, just where are they going to get the funds? After the Vision 2025 fiasco how can they possibly be trusted with more of our money?

Alice Cooper has been rather prolific in the last few years, releasing 4 CDs since 2000. It started with Brutal Planet which without a doubt was his hardest music to date, easily overpowering his mid 80s “hair metal” endeavors. It was a socially aware album that played a bit off of his “Last Temptation” album (1994) with various songs attesting to his Christian faith and worldly conflict. After that was Dragontown (2001), similar in style to Brutal Planet, but definitely one of his weaker efforts. In 2003 he released “the eyes of Alice Cooper” which played up to the garage band sound that had been dominating the airwaves, I thought it was a fine album, but it has received mixed reviews.

In August Alice will be releasing “Dirty Diamonds” I managed to get my hands on a “copy” and it definitely reverts back to the Alice Cooper of old… in the same vein as “Billion Dollar Babies”. there arent what I would call bad songs on the CD, but some are better than others, my personal favorites include the title track, which sounds like it could have been a James Bond theme song, "Perfect", and "Run down the Devil". there are some stabs at Hip-hop ("Stand") and country ("The Saga of Jesse Jane"), both having the Alice cooper twist.

The CD will be available August 2nd

Russia’s Biggest Spammer Brutally Murdered in Apartment

So someone did what millions of people would like to do… I cant help but smile

It’s amazing all the little things that God protective hand is involved in, two incidents this weekend really played that out for me. Let me start by laying the groundwork… The wife and I purchased a new home back in April, and we have been getting it ready to move into for the last few months, its been a long process, but when we are done we will be able to look back and feel a bit of pride. This last weekend we decided it was time to do a little flat roof replacement, yes it was hot, but the forecast said no rain until Wednesday… as we sat there, at 51^st and Harvard, watching the rain come down Saturday evening, we couldn’t help but feel well helpless as our roof on the new house west of the river was not water proof. But just as God parted the water for the Jews escaping Egypt, God used the Arkansas River as the line in the sand, so to speak, and just a few drops of rain fell on the unfinished roof.

Moore, Oklahoma: A Moore woman’s 7-month-old pit bull was beaten to death. From the article “Police say they're investigating the case as a possible animal cruelty crime.”… Possible?!?

Omaha, Nebraska: Two Pit Bulls Rescue Woman From Red Chow, they jumped over the fence to rescue this woman, then proceeded to rip the woman limb from limb to show the chow how its supposed to be done… ok, the last part was made up…

Since starting the “Stop the pit bull ban” petition, I have been interviewed by the Tulsa World & Fox 23, both showing the other side of the argument, and I hope that I am representing the “pit bull” side well. I’m guessing I’m doing an ok job since the phone has been ringing off the hook since the article in the World this morning. The word needs to go out that not all “pit bulls” are monsters, in fact it’s a very small minority that is subject to the hype.

Again, I have said it before, it’s the owners responsibility to keep their dogs under control. The lady in Bartlesville that was attacked last week was done so by two loose animals, they weren’t restrained… again… where is the owner? Enforce the laws on the books we already have and loose animal attacks would be cut down considerably.

KTUL has a story about how, somehow, a national source says that “Tulsa is a must-see tourist attraction”. What even worse is Suzanne Stewart’s cheerleading, its sad, it like watching the cheerleaders for your team trying to get the crowd going when they are down 4 touchdowns, the opponent has the ball, your starting quarterback has a broken leg, and there is only 5 minutes left in the game… lets dissect her comments, shall we? <!--[endif]-->

“There's enough of Tulsa to stretch over seven days” Does that include road trips to KC & Dallas?

“Tulsa is one the top three sites for art deco architecture, celebrated year in and year out” Though this may be true, we are bulldozing buildings downtown at an alarming rate, and I’m sorry, going to go look at art deco buildings is not what most people consider to be a vacation destination spot.

“And, there's the history at museums like the Gilcrease, where you can see the lost city, The Machu Picchu.” – um… that exhibit leave next month I believe, then what? I will agree, we have some top notch museums in this city, the Philbrook, & Gilcrease, but again, those are not things that are considered destination spots, I don’t go to KC to go see the Truman museum exclusively, we go there for the Plaza, the depot, the Arabia, the food, the Chiefs, the zoo, the historical spots, and then if we have time, we will squeeze in the museum.

“there's the Greenwood District, full of history, the Black Wall Street, rebounding from the destruction of the 1921 race riot” visitors will be in and out of the greenwood district in one hour, yes its historical, but it also covers about 2 blocks, its still not a destination point and it also has a very limited audience

“Tulsa has the largest stretch of Route 66 in the country.” Which we have summarily been destroying and allowing to decay for the last 30 years, thanks to the likes of Chris Nichols Autohaus. Yeah the road is still there, but its flooded with used car lots and hookers.

Add all these together and you have a bunch of niche attractions that will only appeal to a very small group of people.

If people want to go to an amusement park, they will go to Worlds of fun in KC, Six Flags in Dallas or even Frontier city in OKC… not Bells.

If they want shopping they will go to KC or Dallas, not Tulsa.

If they want sports... sorry Talons, Oilers & Drillers...

How can we change that? Is it “possible” to change that? It is but it will require some real effort by the people in charge. Pocket parks, Jazz hall of fame (Tulsa is known for its jazz?), a bridge to Bixby & the arena are not the answer. Spurring economic growth is. Building up our strengths is...

Someone with some initiative (and some cash of course) could look at turning the Rose Bowl into a route 66 museum, which will attract historians and car nuts.

Spur economic growth on 66 by issuing tax credits to those who will open businesses other than used car lots on 11th street.

Stop the destruction! Stop TU from tearing down Starship records & tapes & nationally know Metro Diner. Stop tearing buildings down in the downtown area (Tulsa World alone is responsible for 2 one to make room for more parking, Trinity Episcopal Church is tearing down a 1920s parking garage for... parking) let quit destroying our history… especially if that is what we are trying to market.

 After a week of being on the receiving end of criticism for not signing on with the council & their resolution to stand against the county and their attempt to take city land for a privately funded bridge (the role of gov't BTW), the Mayor (Im guessing reluctantly) signed on to the resolution.
I say reluctantly because this  goes against his buddy's interests, and his advisor saying he (LaFortune) was for the bridge...

so why is this only "good news"? there are plenty of other channels that the good ol' boys can try and go through to push this through, next stop is Drew Edmondson. I like Drew, I hope he sees through this attempt at an endaround.

The smoking gun has an article about a Washington county resident who gave birth while drunk, she was arrested after giving birth and is facing felony child neglect charges... she claims she drank a case a week, so she was probably drunk during the conception as well (which would explain why she "didn't know" she was pregnant)...

Oklahoma State Rep. Paul Wesselhoft (R-Moore) Is proposing a statewide ban on pit bulls, current owners will be grandfathered in, but will face severe & costly restrictions in order to keep their family pets. This all came about because of a 3 year old stuck his arm into a yard occupied by a pit bull. I'm sorry to say, the boy lost his arm. What is not clear is where the parent(s) of the child were, if the child was tormenting the dog, or the dogs/dog owners history.

If you have a pit bull, you will need to contact your state representative and let them know that irresponsible owners are to blame and not the dogs themselves. Tell them not to make the media hype influence their decision making.

For non pit bull owners, if you would like to learn more about this maligned breed of animal, I ask that you take a moment and learn the truth about these loyal and loving dogs.

If you are an Oklahoma resident, please sign the petition here