POTUS OBAMA IS NOT "THE BOSS OF ME?"

[Teatownclown]

Capitol Report, Wayne Greene: Oklahoma's state's rights panel gets jeers and cheers

By WAYNE GREENE World Senior Writer
Published: 3/3/2013  2:24 AM
Last Modified: 3/3/2013  5:04 AM

OKLAHOMA CITY - For pure political drama - and, at times, comedy - the meetings of the House States' Rights Committee have proven one of the most entertaining venues in the state Capitol in recent weeks.

Depending on whom you ask, the panel is either an important bulwark of the rights of Oklahomans or a playground for "Internet myths" and "tinfoil-hat fantasies."

One of the panel's harshest critics is a member, Rep. Mike Shelton, D-Oklahoma City.

"Where is Jay Leno when you need him?" Shelton asked recently. "If I didn't know this was reality, I would think this committee was something out of a movie.

"It is unreal. This committee in no way tries to solve the problems and challenges in front of the people of Oklahoma," Shelton said. "Instead, it appeals to the very worst fears of a small but vocal minority in our state."

Republican leaders shot back.

"The States' Rights Committee is a legitimate committee, and individual freedom and state sovereignty is a legitimate concern of House Republicans," said Chairman Lewis Moore, R-Arcadia. "Maybe mocking the concept of individual liberty makes House Democrats feel better, but I take very seriously the encroachment of the federal government onto our natural God-given and constitutional rights as citizens.

"I believe Oklahomans sent House Republicans a very clear message when they voted in the largest Republican majority in state history in November, and protecting their rights is one of our top priorities."

The panel - an innovation of Speaker of the House T.W. Shannon, R-Lawton, and broadly interpreted as a bow in the direction of the tea party wing of his party - has pitted some of the Legislature's most liberal Democrats, as committee members, against some of the most conservative Republicans, who are bringing forward the sort of libertarian bills that have rattled around the Capitol for years, but previously always got bottled up somehow.

In recent weeks, the committee has debated whether U.N. Agenda 21 constitutes an international conspiracy against the private property rights of every American, whether it should be a crime for any state employee to assist in the implementation of Obamacare, whether employers should be allowed to refuse - on religious grounds - to cover their workers' contraception and sterilization costs in their medical insurance, and if physicians should be prohibited from asking their patients if they have a gun.

Long story short: The U.N. and Obamacare lost, and while you don't have to worry about checking your sidearm when you go to the doctor's office, you might have to pay for your own vasectomy.

The panel's arguments have at times been pointed.

Rep. Kay Floyd, D-Oklahoma City, and Rep. Gus Blackwell, R-Laverne, had a fascinating back-and-forth in one recent meeting over the constitutionality of Obamacare and Blackwell's proposal to allow a religious exemption to the law's contraception coverage mandate.

Isn't Obamacare the law of the land? asked Floyd, an attorney and a former judge.

"We'll see," said Blackwell, a minister.

Hasn't the U.S. Supreme Court decided the issue? she asked.

"Does the Supreme Court have the ability to change its mind?" Blackwell responded.

Rep. Kevin Matthews, D-Tulsa, joined the conversation: If states can nullify federal law, could cities or individual citizens nullify state law?

"Civil disobedience has made quite an impact on our country," Blackwell said.

Later, Floyd felt it necessary to remind committee members that contraception is legal in the United States.

Blackwell recast the issue. It isn't about estrogen and tubal ligation finance. It's about telling Barack Obama that he's not the boss of us.

"The time has come to say to the federal government ... sit down and shut up, I will not take it any more," Blackwell said.

On another occasion, Rep. Ed Cannaday, D-Porum, tried to drill into the position of Rep. Dan Fisher, R-Yukon, on another Obamacare question.

Fisher maintained that, regardless of the June decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, the law is unconstitutional. Part of his evidence was the high court's 1857 Dred Scott ruling, which made slavery constitutional throughout the nation. The court was wrong then and it's wrong now about Obamacare, Fisher said.

Cannaday asked Fisher how the Dred Scott decision came to be overturned.

It happened in another high court decision, Fisher said.

Are you sure it wasn't through a constitutional amendment? Cannaday asked.

That's right, Fisher said.

Well, couldn't opponents of Obamacare overturn the June decision through a constitutional amendment, too? Cannaday asked.

In the end, Fisher won and Cannaday lost. The proposal to criminalize enforcement of Obamacare was sent on to the state House for consideration.

Arguably, the committee's most focused moment came when it passed a bill written by Speaker Shannon to require state agencies that receive federal funding to prepare a contingency plan in case they suddenly lost a quarter of that money.

Another time, the committee achieved near unanimity on a bill - written by Moore - to create a task force to study the impact of Obamacare in the state. Even Shelton said that was a good idea.

But those kinds of moments have been the exception, not the rule.

While Moore has maintained order and decorum at the meetings, the rhetoric has been high and, at times, the tempers short.

"The behavior of the Democrat members of the States' Rights Committee has shown their lack of concern for the citizens' individual rights and their lack of knowledge of the functions of government on all levels," Rep. Tom Newell, R-Seminole, said in a recent press release.

On the other hand, Shelton thinks the whole exercise is making the state a laughingstock of the nation.

"The States' Rights Committee is going to live up to all the hype," Shelton said. "By the end of the session, Oklahoma will be the punch line for jokes on late-night television."


Original Print Headline: Panel gets jeers and cheers

Read more from this Tulsa World article at http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=11&articleid=20130303_16_A18_OKLAHO117201

Bunches of stupid haters....states rights...states rights....

These fools can't pass the test on history.

[Conan71]

Yet you continue to live in mediocrity?

[Teatownclown]

Yet you continue to live in mediocrity falsely conceptualized exceptionalism?

It's environmentally ill people who make believe we are exceptional.

Mediocrity is our congressional people....