Inhofe is a MORON

[Joey Liberal]

President-Elect Obama (I loved typing that!) will work to undo the damage caused by Bush, Cheney, and the evil GOP bastards.

After 8 years of Bush's moronicity and Cheney's evil ways, we finally have a President who is smart, good, decent, and much to my happiness as well as the consternation of republicans, is black with a Kenyan name. I love it!

The adults are back in charge! America is back! WE SHALL OVERCOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And yes, Inhofe is indeed a MORON. He predicted that McCain and "Gidget on Meth" would win the election, and that the republicans *giggle* would regain the majority in the Congress. What an idiot Inhofe is! And since Inhofe and Coburn have spent their terms in office holding up bills and earmarks for other states, what will happen now, with an even larger Democratic majority and a Democrat in the White House? Oklahomans were fools to re-elect Inhofe. But hey, EVERY county in this state went for McCain. I think I live in a state of fools, with the exception of the small number of Democrats in Okie Land.

[OKNancy]

1. 500,000 of us...

It is disgusting, but there are still some of us here!
I did notice, looking at the returns that more people voted for Rice than voted for Obama. I hate to say it, but I bet it was racial.

[Joey Liberal]

4. We OK Dems need to organize better

I live in Comanche County. We have a good number of Democrats here, but just can't seem to get ourselves organized. The local republican party is VERY organized and it shows.

[enpassant]

7. It's discouraging

Oklahoma is now one of the reddest states in the Union. Perhaps due to upbringing (kids tend to think like their parents) and possibly a reflection of our education ;-) Definitely, one big reason is the one-sided media. For instance, I've never seen a Paul Krugman article published in the Daily Oklahoman but last I checked, the Dallas paper published him weekly. The daily lineup for talk radio in OKC: Glen Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mark Shannon (local wing-nut), then there's Dave Ramsey, a financial guy, right wing but at least not a lunatic. To make up for this he's followed by Mark Levin (lunatic). This continues is six days a week, 24 hours a day.

It's like the Pravda!

ep

PS Rice ran an outstanding campaign, I really like that guy. Facing Inhole, with all his resources was an probably an impossible task. I hope Andrew Rice has a bright future in politics.

[naaman fletcher]

14. well..

Of course Inhofe is a moron, but I actually like what Coburn has done on earmarks.

[a la izquierda]

2. Ugh, I dread the idiocy of

Oklahoma's politics. When I head back in a few weeks, I'm going straight to volunteer for Democrats in whatever way I can.

[skeewee08]

3. My husband & I was very

disappointed that Obama did not carry one County, however I looked back and Kerry didn't carry one County in 2004. Does anybody know what happen to the 200,000 new Democratic Registered Voter's? My husband wa born and raised in Oklahoma & now he wants to move to a Blue State it really hurt him that not 1 County didn't carry for Obama.

[skeewee08]

5. Does anyone think

that voting Straight Party might have confused some new voters?

[enpassant]

6. Not sure

For some reason I really can't articulate, I avoid the the "vote straight party" selection like a plague. Seems too easy for the counting machines or even the human counters to manipulate or get confused. I always go through and mark individual selections even if it's all Democrats.

Overall, I like the ballots used in Oklahoma. It's one thing Oklahoma does right. Granted, no system is perfect but IMO the whole country should standardize on this type of ballot for federal elections. I hope the Dems do more reform on this. The paperless Diebold machines used in other states are scare the ever-living daylight out of me.


-- ep (Oklahoma City)

[ilrslr3]

8. Agree

I do like the Ballots in Oklahoma as well, I was just wondering if anyone has heard of any first-time voters being confused? I have been voting in Oklahoma since 1996 and never had any problem like you said enpassant it's a lot better than those Die-bold Machines.

[hippywife]

9. Here's the big problem in OK

You may have counties that have more registered Dems than Reps but they have no problems with crossing party lines. From what I've experienced in working with the Dem party in my county is that, with few exceptions, they are a pretty conservative lot. I imagine it's that way in most counties in the state.

[procopia]

10. It's a failure to communicate

The two largest newspapers are shamelessly biased, and small town newspapers reflect the mindset of locals who get their political views from their churches. Is there a liberal think tank in Oklahoma? The conservative one, Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs is fairly active. I've noticed that Brandon Dutcher of OCPA often has LTTE published in the Daily Oklahoman. We need to somehow get the attention of those who repeatedly vote for Inhofe et al. Internet access is helping, but we are still far behind.

[Joey Liberal]

11. You are correct

It's tough in this state. My local newspaper, the Lawton Constitution, is so biased to the right its not even funny. They will rarely publish letters to the editor that are left leaning. I know this, because I've tried. And the churches here do force feed their parishioners the standard right wing BS.

[fluffythepitbull]

12. Maybe they take too much to heart

the words of Will Rogers: "All I know is what I read in the papers" (it's often attributed
to him). Therefore, "all they know" is one side of the issues (the one the often very
conservative, pro-big business oligarchies such as the Gaylord Family want you to know and,
condescendingly, fully realize that their readership will drink the Koolaid without
question).

I would venture that part of the lack of education among some segments of Oklahoma's
populace has to do with those "all I know is what I read in the papers" types. It doesn't
matter what level of education they attained as far as I'm concerned, either.

And one wonders what these people will do when newspapers finally die. They are dying
quickly at least as a "hold it in your hands and get black newsprint all over your fingers"
medium and evolving more and more as web-based interactive entities.

I don't want this to sound like an indictment of Oklahomans but its hard not to. I'll
do my best to be gentle. I am a native Oklahoman who has lived in Lawton, Tulsa and now
Norman and it's not easy to diss my own people, but I will when it's warranted and
I think its warranted. I'm ashamed of my fellow Oklahomans that let fear (fear which
I can't help but think is based on religious grounds) and a lack of information
(or a lack of willingness to weigh all information that is available to them) influence
the fact that we have to put up with six more years of Jim Inhofe, however many more
years of Sally Kern in her district in Oklahoma City, and other hateful ideologues
who EMBARASS this state to no end.

As I said above, oligarchies like the Gaylord Family only want you to know what they
want you to know, and they skew the news (even the sports news about the pathetic NBA
team, formerly the Seattle Supersonics, that the publisher's brother in law owns) as
they see fit. It's their prerogative, but its also a disservice to the people of
Oklahoma.

I don't know if there is a liberal think tank in Oklahoma. The closest thing I can
think of might be the liberal blogging community in the state. Kurt Hochenauer, the
webmaster and author of the blog Okie Funk, is also an editorial contributor to the
Oklahoma Gazette. The Gazette also publishes semiregular columns by Dr. Robin Meyers
(author and pastor of Mayflower UCC) ... both of them stuff that the Oklahoman would
never dream of printing ... because everybody's head would explode because it wouldn't
know what to do with reality-based information.

Alternative viewpoints are out there. It's a matter of promoting them however and
whichever way possible.

[KatyaR]

16. Dutcher's another idiot, as well.

That whole OCPA is nothing but a GOP thinktank.

[benld74]

13. HEY ! The 3 Stooges were MORONS!

[Still Sensible]

15. Having lived in the state

(Edmond, B.A.) for 20 of my last 21 years, it just seems to me that there is no place in America where the combination of the conservative cocktail has been consumed as fully as our fair state.

The conservative cocktail:

1 part Reagan's government is the problem dogma;
2 parts the only Republicans can be patriots wave the flag meme;
3 parts Rush Limbaugh can be heard on at least three stations from anywhere in the state;
4 parts all taxes are bad and all tax cuts are good;
5 parts there are two Baptist churches for every one of any other;

And this in a state that to this day has more registered democrats than republicans. I really believe the influence of the churches and Limbaugh, which reinforce the other parts, are probably the most significant.

Our dem governor Brad Henry, who won his first term over heavy fav Steve Largent (R-very right wing) because of the fluke of a one-trick-pony third party candidate, had to cut taxes and in most other ways govern like a republican to get re-elected. It helped that his inept opponent--Ernest Istook--basically looked like a real wacko--even to other real wackos.

There are plenty of good progressive democrats in the state, but just to get someone with a
(D) next to their name elected we have to be joined by a like number of true DINOs.

And yes, we have the worst Senate duo in the nation bar none... but since Boren stepped down nobody formidable wants to run in this climate. I don't think the McCain win was as racist as others have--don't get me wrong, there is plenty of racism here, but not any more than most places I've lived. Much of our population has bought into the anti-immigrant dogma though and, as a result our legislature passed a draconian anti-illegal law last year.

The real culprit is the Baptist churches. Because of their incredible influence, we have (by my guess) the second most anti-abortion electorate in the country and, probably, the most anti-gay rights electorate. And the funny thing is that there are thriving gay communities in both OKC and Tulsa.

It sure is frustrating being a somewhat left of center democrat in the Sooner state.