SoonerBlue

As the Senate voted for new rules governing credit card companies, they also voted to allow people to carry loaded firearms - including semi-automatic weapons - into national parks and wildlife refuges. My senator, Tom Coburn (R-Okla) sponsored the measure and the NRA is just so dang proud. Next thing you know he'll sponsor a measure that will turn all the Gitmo detainees loose in Yellowstone...

Seriously, the national parks/loaded firearms amendment would overturn a decades-old ban on carrying loaded guns into national parks. I think we could always take unloaded firearms into parks and wildlife refuges, but they had to travel and be stored unloaded.

But now we'll be able to put our loaded semi-automatic assault weapons right out there on the picnic table with the deviled eggs...

Under the Coburn Amendment, state law would rule over federal regulations. So, if you have a concealed carry license that's valid in the state of the national park you're visiting, go ahead, you can pack some heat on your walk over to the Trading Post.

What's next? Should it be acceptable to carry guns into Arlington National Cemetery, the White House...the Capitol?

~Bill Changing Credit Card Rules Is Sent to Obama With Gun Measure Included~

WASHINGTON — Congress on Wednesday sent President Obama a set of new rules governing credit card companies, completing a trio of consumer-related measures that Democrats had raced to get signed into law by Memorial Day.

But the credit card victory came at a cost that angered some backers of the legislation: approval of an unrelated provision allowing visitors to national parks and wildlife refuges to carry loaded weapons if they are otherwise licensed to possess guns.[..]"

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/21/us/politics/21cards.html?_r=1&ref=politics

Coburn's measure plays into all the right-wing panic over Obama and gun control. One thing for sure - Ammo manufacturers and Walmart are just tickled pink to be making a freaking fortune from all this gun nut paranoia. They've long been spreading rumors that "Obama is going to make ammo harder for you to get, that's why it cost so much see, you better buy all you can now."

Some people say that this particular issue is a tempest in a teapot, and will have little bearing on public safety or the park critters for that matter.

Some people are pissed at the Dems for voting for it...others say don't be too hard on them, that this is just the way the game of politics is played. They had to add that amendment as a compromise...so they could stop credit card companies from cheating and taking advantage of customers. Something has to be done about such practices as sudden increases in interest rates even for those who paid their bills on time, hard-to-understand contract terms and hidden fees, etc.

Some say there will be far far more people benefit from the credit card regulations than will suffer from the gun amendment. Not sayin' I like it, but ...

Who led the war into Afghanistan and Iraq? Who told Rumsfeld - "This ain't going to work. You can fire me. I'm either the commander or I'm not, and you've got to trust me or you don't."

He was known for his creative cussin'...called the Joint Chiefs "You Title X motherf**kers!"

Well, he's retired now and lives in my area...he's building a General Tommy Franks Leadership Institute and Museum nearby. A place for all his artifacts, papers and photos. I'll drive over there one of these days, I'm curious to know what it's about. This is from my local paper:

"Southwest Oklahoma boasts one of the top western museums in the country--the Chisholm Trail Heritage Center in Duncan. Then there's the Discovery Trail in Lawton-Fort Sill that includes the Wildlife Refuge and Holy City of the Wichitas. "We have the Mattie Beal house, we have the Museum of the Great Plains, the Comanche National Museum and cultural center which is one of our newest museums, and we're out here at Fort Sill which is one of the most fantastic museums in the U.S. Army," said Tipton.

"There's an awful lot to do around this community and that's part of the reason that we love it here," said Retired 4-star General Tommy Franks. General Franks will soon open a museum of his own in Southwest Oklahoma. General Franks already unveiled a traveling road show of artifacts in September, and is about to open a permanent leadership institute and museum in Hobart. "With the way the economy is right now, a lot of people are looking for things they can do without having to climb on an airplane and spend a lot of money, and so I've told a lot of people to come on out to Hobart, Oklahoma, next Saturday the 23rd, have a chance to see the opening of our museum."

Even though his travels took him all over the world, Franks says he still likes to visit Lawton's museums, and even be "touristy" for some things we might take for granted. "Out around Roosevelt where we live, we don't quite have a Wal-Mart over there, or an Outback, or a Red Lobster, so we come over here quite a bit actually."

From kswo.com

Hey, if some idiot Okies want to be that way, I say give 'em all the free beer and guns they can carry, send 'em on down to Texas, seal off the border, and just wait for the dust to settle.

~Oklahoma Declares Sovereignty~

Yep, I'm sure the Cherokee Nation (et al) would like to say a thing or two about sovereignty to those fine white folks in the OK legislature...

Dang, ain't it funny what three months of a black Democratic president will do to one's sense of patriotism.

Rest assured that plenty of us Okies are happy with being part of the United States. Right now, I'm ashamed of how many of the people in my region act. Then again, I've been ashamed of many of the things my country has done over the last eight years. Yet I remain a proud Sooner and a proud American.

A while back when the teabaggers were protesting, and the Governor of Texas was threatening to secede, the winds of right wing separatism started blowing through several red states.

It resulted in the Georgia Senate, the South Dakota House, and both chambers of the Oklahoma legislature passing resolutions to affirm their sovereignty...saying that the federal government stands in violation of the Constitution.

Oklahoma's Gov. Brad Henry vetoed it anyway. That's not stopping the legislature though...its set to override the veto and put Washington on notice. Which won't really change anything legally, but it just shows you what can happen to a blue governor in a red state.

Oklahoma has been playing around with this for over a year...jumping the gun on all the crazy secessionists. When it comes to crazy, Oklahoma is always at the top of the list.

For a state to "affirm its sovereignty" is for it to declare federal law null and void if it conflicts with state law.

Secession talk has been gaining steam in wingnut media for some time - lunatics talking about God's directives to secede - and a lot of gullible, confused people have picked up on it without really understanding what it would mean.

I just wonder how many secessionists would still want to leave the union when they realize they would lose all their pieces of the federal pie...they would lose their military bases, they'd lose government contracts because they'd be reclassified as foreign corporations. They'd lose FEMA funding, agriculture subsidies, DOT money, FAA money...they'd lose their National Guard. They'd lose access to the world's embassies...they'd lose FDIC protection for bank depositors.

Yet, they'd immediately gain massive unemployment and a crushing tax burden. Werks fer me.

I heard on the news that the states where secession polls are the strongest receive the most in federal money...like Texas.