OK Observer

EBSCOhost: Indian Country Business Summit 2007 offered in OKC

2010-10-28T02:18:00.000-05:00

EBSCOhost: Indian Country Business Summit 2007 offered in OKC

2009-09-12T21:21:00.001-05:00

A new $47 million budget for the Cherokee Tribe... Tribes make a good case for investment of state resources into citizen needs.http://www.newsok.com/cherokee-budget-passes-committee/article/3400587?custom_click=headlines_widget

2007-02-25T20:41:00.000-06:00

I was shocked to read in today's letters an opinion that churches are given a tax exemption because of what our communities benefit from their existence. What a sad misunderstanding of the tax exemption.Churches have historically been given this exemption to reduce the connection between church policies and influence and those of the state.I am not sure it is posted online yet, but the Norman

2006-06-20T10:19:00.000-05:00

Much has been said and written over the possible Presidential candidacy of Al Gore in 2008. He still says he has no plans to run, but the draft Gore movement is building momentum.The movement was moved up a notch upon the release of Gore's documentary on global warming, An Inconvenient Truth. Gore has the ear of millions of Americans. Americans are worried that what environmental scientists have

2006-01-09T21:41:00.000-06:00

If you are concerned by the loss of America's core values you must read a new book by President Jimmy Carter. As always, Carter is diplomatic but on target in his assessment of current national policy and the trends that are pushing America toward the excesses of fundamentalist regimes and terrible tyrants.For a well-written review by a reader try this one by a lifelong Republican.

2005-10-28T14:11:00.000-05:00

Demand ethical integrity. Never settle for an ethics based on arbitrary authoritarianism.If you are told or if you think, "I can't always define what makes something right or wrong, but I know it when I see it," then suspend judgment until you can define the rightness or wrongness of a thing.

2005-09-07T14:21:00.000-05:00

Bush Free to ActWas President Bush hog-tied waiting for a request from the Governor of Louisiana before he could send help after Katrina's furry flooded New Orleans? Not really. Read this account with the time line and references to the legal grounds that freed Bush to do whatever he needed to do to help the people of southern Louisiana.A real eye opener video is the Hannity and Colmes show on I

2005-08-04T16:22:00.000-05:00

Santorum Claims Right to Your BedroomSantorum is right - well, about one thing. He's right that it takes a family. The problem is that he has a very narrow-minded view of the family.It is a great thing to see parents involved with their kids, even if those parents are non-traditional. Children need adults in their lives and Santorum's view that these adults MUST be one man and one woman is just

2005-07-20T09:39:00.000-05:00

One hundred years from now we will probably get email via a wireless Ethernet from an implanted network interface directly into the language processing centers of our brain (or stored for later processing in a memory chip). Some of us may get to experience this, given the accelerating rate of increase in life expectancy due to advances in health sciences. The big question is whether the barrier

2005-06-19T09:52:00.000-05:00

He's at it again. Bush is saying specifically that we are in Iraq because we were attacked on 9/11.How often can he drag out this old lie? The only grain of truth in that claim is that the terrorist attacks of 9/11 gave Bush his excuse to cloak an already planned invasion of Iraq in the fear of his newly-formed war on terrorism.He's dragging out the old lie of a relationship between his attack on

2005-05-11T10:59:00.000-05:00

Our state House spent time Monday debating and passing House Resolution 1039, calling on Oklahoma libraries to "confine homosexually themed books and other age-inappropriate material to areas exclusively for adult access and distribution."You can get the story and even an audio clip (aren't we getting fancy at the Media Division) at http://www.lsb.state.ok.us/house/MEDIAHME.htm.The resolution is

2005-03-15T07:50:00.000-06:00

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Archbishop of Genoa, yesterday denounced Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code as "shameful and full of lies." A quote run by an Italian newspaper seems kind of ironic to me.From the BBC:The cardinal told an Italian newspaper: "It astonishes and worries me that so many people believe these lies."Cardinal Bertone told Il Giornale: "The book is everywhere. There is a very real

2005-02-25T08:28:00.000-06:00

The Choicepoint security breech was a low-tech scam of a high-tech company. It becomes a textbook case of one of the most common misconceptions in the digital age. I remember being embroiled in a discussion over whether high stakes contracts (such as real estate deals) could ever be consummated online. The main concern from the title insurance industry was how they could have ironclad confidence

2005-02-19T07:43:00.000-06:00

Friday's Blog for America offered a review of the President's proposed budget from a labor organization.Blog for America: "The International Labor Communications Association, a North American organization of labor communicators, today released a statement that President Bush's budget will be hard to swallow for most low-income Americans by creating additional tax cuts for the wealthy, while at

Change needed in discourse on reproductive rights

2005-02-07T22:46:00.000-06:00

We Democrats are hearing we need to be more competitive on the abortion issue. The solution, however, is to change our focus rather than our position. I have yet to meet anyone who is pro-abortion. Democrats have never argued that women should get abortions. We have always argued that some women will seek abortions whether safe, legal procedures are available or not. When the procedure is

2005-01-27T22:11:00.000-06:00

FRAMESHOP: Frameshop: You survived terror Cheney used the ceremony today commemorating the liberation of Auschwitz to link what the Nazis did almost a century ago with today's terrorism and, by the false link he's made in the past, also to the war in Iraq. As he and President Bush have done over and over, Cheney painted a very polarized world. Everything is either evil or good. All evil is

2005-01-27T07:51:00.000-06:00

DNC: Kicking Ass - Find a real solution Comment of the day.... Everytime the Repubs talk about the SS Crisis, the Dems should reply: "I agree, there is a crisis; but it's with the Healthcare system." It's so easy to turn this debate on it's head. If everytime they are on TV to discuss the SS Crisis, they bring up Healthcare instead. Focus the debate on why the Repubs want to fix a system that

2005-01-21T08:51:00.000-06:00

An interesting explanation for what motivates this administration's domestic and foreign policy: " If what's guiding business now has any tradition, it only goes back a couple of decades to the 'discovery' of 'creative destruction,' an economic theory that looks at the world, sees that there is a certain amount of destruction involved in the process of creation and concludes that creation can be

2005-01-14T21:41:00.000-06:00

The original intent of Social Security was not a gift to the elderly, nor a reward for hard work. It was a practical way to encourage older workers to retire to generate more advancement opportunity for the young. Social Security is a solid, beneficial program that has been maligned by people who will risk the strength of our country for personal gain. Robbing the Social Security Trust Fund, a

2004-11-19T10:30:00.000-06:00

SpiderFarmer - No Surrender, No "Healing", No Compromise! SpiderFarmer expresses what so many of us feel post 11/2/04. We feel as if our country has been invaded, as if the body snatchers are coming for us. This attitude of intolerance and injustice is not for America and we will resist.

2004-11-08T01:32:00.000-06:00

In scores of emails over the election results, some Democrats are saying that we need to listen more and talk less. We need to be asking our friends and relatives why they voted the way they voted and listen to their answers seriously and thoughtfully. What did they see in the candidates and how could they support the one state question that so many of us found repulsive and mean (definition of

2004-10-24T22:38:00.000-05:00

I am impressed that the Washington Post sided with John Kerry. This is a newspaper that has a very conservative management (like most do) but one that has historically done its best to remain as objective as possible for a staff of humans. Knowing that the WP endorsement editorial would be well considered and full of good arguments I had to look it up. Go to www.washingtonpost.com and find the

2004-10-09T01:33:00.000-05:00

Many people don't vote in America. However, concerning me the most are those people who were politically active at one time, but who became frustrated and disillusioned. Looking over some events in the past 24 years I have come to a new appreciation of them. In 1980 I recall standing in a long line outside a polling place in Texas. I had a deep respect for Jimmy Carter, but so much had gone

2004-09-15T23:42:00.000-05:00

Presidential candidate John Kerry has a "faith-based initiative." This news was a shocker to me. Has Kerry adopted the wedge used by right-wingers to crack the wall of separation between church and state? Both religious and secular people support that wall and have for over 200 years. Maintaining that separation frees religious organizations from government strings. Kerry's approach is

2004-09-12T11:16:00.000-05:00

In a recent column George Will declared, "Barry is back." The parade of prominent Republicans such as Rudy Giuliani and Arnold Schwarzenegger at the party's recent convention, he said, demonstrated a return to Barry Goldwater conservatism. This would be conservatism without the religious fanaticism on which the movement has leaned for winning

2004-08-25T11:09:00.000-05:00

In reference to the email quoting a Professor Alexander Tyler on the Athenian Republic, this entire post is built on an urban legend that has been circulating since just after the 2000 election. In fact, the count of states won by Gore and Bush indicates that it was begun before the results were finally determined for Florida and New Mexico. The total in the email comes out to 48 states. The

2004-08-22T12:02:00.000-05:00

I live in a wonderful community. First, the Dean campaign brought out a hidden group of progressives who, like me, have for years tried to maintain normal lives apart from politics. We have been disappointed in the directions of our various governments at time, but other than complaining to family or friends (the few who would listen) we tried to remain private citizens and simply vote our

2004-06-06T11:28:00.000-05:00

I recently received an email forward that ranted about John Kerry's position on jobs going overseas and complained that his wife, Teresa Heinz-Kerry, owns a company that has a majority of its production plants overseas (the H.J. Heinz Company). Nothing could be further from the truth and so I did some research. I normally ignore this kind of email urban legend, but it is especially offensive in

2004-06-02T15:04:00.000-05:00

Thirty years ago I remember televised evangelists and street preachers claiming to have direct messages from God. Most church leaders at the time issued warnings about such modern day "messengers of God" but otherwise tolerated these outbursts as one would the eccentricities of a family member. However, as these demagogues have grown large followings the local church leaders have sometimes

2004-04-13T17:09:00.000-05:00

...from www.spectator.org "The moral of the story is that what people believe about God is more important than we usually imagine. The rise of Islam, a counterpoise to the modern decline of Christianity, should concentrate our minds on this important subject. Allah, as Muslims view him, is omnipotent, above logic and reason, unrestrained by natural law. He can decree at any moment that evil is

2004-04-08T10:50:00.000-05:00

This is a disturbing article. I thought all we were fighting for were the basic rights and freedoms underlying our own nation. What we may have here is a battle against a conspiracy for world domination. The opportunity for a Pax Americana is very real. The collapse of the Soviet Union presented us with the very real opportunity to crush remaining overt resistance to American interests and

2004-02-27T23:43:00.000-06:00

I'm thinking the Internet phenomenon in politics is the same as it is in business. It adds a new perspective and layer to politics but doesn't replace the basic principles underlying campaigns. What Howard Dean's campaign did was tap into the viral marketing phenomenon and what has been called disintermediation. What it failed to do was realize it still had to bring the political party and the

2004-02-19T14:02:00.000-06:00

The slime campaign of 2004 has begun. I got an email forward of an editorial written by a Don Bendell that engaged in pretty thorough character assassination of John Kerry. Here is the response I gave the sender and the other recipients: Thanks for including me in this email. It helps me see what influences a global network has on various social structures, like gossip and political campaigns.

2004-02-08T13:01:00.000-06:00

Dean's Hero Journey What plunged our hero, Howard Dean, into his wilderness journey through which he will be undone or he will emerge with new powers? Return to November and early December of 2003. Dean had amazed us all with his appeal and his ability to identify professed followers and raise large sums of money in small increments. His opponents were growing with despair over his strength.

2004-02-05T14:49:00.000-06:00

Just a link to an interesting (and well written, I think) analysis of media influence on the Howard Dean campaign: The Scream

2004-01-18T15:45:00.000-06:00

In a NYT column today titled Dudgeons and Dragons, Maureen Dowd lamented Presidential candidate Howard Dean's lack of mythical arc, but I believe she has simply missed seeing it. His hero story runs like this. Beginning life somewhat privileged, Dean left a career managing investments and assets to seek one managing the health of individuals. As a physician he served rural Vermonters. Still

2003-12-14T09:33:00.000-06:00

Bravo to blogs and journalists who use them. When the news clips of Saddam Hussein's capture were shown we all saw the outbursts of a few journalists, but nobody was answering the obvious question of just what they were shouting. Only after a lengthy online search did I find a BBC journalist who mentioned the outbursts with a little more detail than just the word "cheering." BBC Television

2003-12-09T14:09:00.000-06:00

Have you followed the controversy over Diebold voting machines? Well this just in from Reuters..... Worm hits Windows-based ATMs Reuters December 9, 2003, 4:30 AM PT URL: http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-5117285.html Automated teller machines at two banks running Microsoft's popular Windows software were infected by a computer virus in August, the maker of the machines said Monday. The ATM

2003-10-19T21:47:00.000-05:00

I think that if sales and use taxes are going to be collected they should be collected fairly. I just don't think the argument that online retailers have an unfair advantage is a very good one. Most online retailers are also offline retailers. All offline retailers have the choice to add an online channel. Online sales have disadvantages that may balance the field or tip it in favor of brick and

2003-10-12T15:12:00.000-05:00

I have been blessed with good health and seldom get out of my insurance what I put into it. I've often been tempted to cancel all I can and simply put money into savings (though my income isn't high enough to build the balance fast enough to cover the risk of catastrophic needs). As I get older I may never use Medicare or Medicaid enough to recover all of my taxes in support of these programs.

2003-08-25T20:51:00.000-05:00

Much has been said lately about Howard Dean's success raising money and supporters through the Internet. In fact, most articles might be a bit misleading. Some of the commentary sounds like Dean has successfully mobilized Netizens because of some kind of cool factor. This is the same blind analysis that took us into the Internet stock bubble. It isn't the Internet, folks. It is communications -

2003-08-07T16:47:00.000-05:00

Would someone tell the national press that Americans aren't stupid? (see http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101030811/nhoward.html) Supporters of Howard Dean know exactly where he stands firm and where he's less than sure. Unlike most politicians, he doesn't pretend to have all the answers. In fact, that's why so many people support Howard Dean. Even when we disagree with him or where he's less

2003-07-15T12:17:00.000-05:00

Reported today at Dean's official blog: Recent meetups for Bush, Edwards and Missouri Rep. Richard Gephardt flopped for lack of interest. Carol Darr, a political scientist at George Washington University, says a study found 294 Internet political chat rooms about Dean, five times more than the other candidates combined. "The Internet benefits insurgents," Darr says. "It is a way for candidates

2003-07-13T13:41:00.000-05:00

Getting together was all about "good feelings, not just good memories," Jon Ball said as we parted the Tulsa East Central 30-year reunion last night. I think that's a great insight. It isn't just nostaligia. Something endures over the years when you reunite with friends from your idealistic years of youth. Reunions can also be a great study in the immutability of genetic influence. No matter how

2003-07-08T23:28:00.000-05:00

Doc Searls rants about this NYTimes article today. In the article Matt Richtel claims that the "always-on" world of the Internet may be addictive. Doc's point is made by comparing the network with other forms of media. Nothing of interest is on TV. Very little of value is on the radio. Magazines and newspapers are filled with content you don't want. The value of the Internet is that the user is

2003-06-29T11:21:00.000-05:00

In a clever political strategy, a minority of severe free-market capitalists formed an uneasy coalition several years ago with evangelical Christian conservatives. The alliance has produce political leaders such as Ronald Reagan, Newt Gingrich and George W. Bush and policies that favor large corporations and wealthy individuals. In return for making possible this shift away from capital

2003-06-26T22:35:00.000-05:00

Even with overwhelming evidence to the contrary, some people seem convinced our public schools have failed to educate us. The evidence is clearly all around us. We have the highest standard of living in the world. Our technology is better than anyone's. Our pure science holds its own against the academic centers of the world. This isn't to say we haven't failed some citizens. Poverty, disease

2003-04-29T11:41:00.000-05:00

NewScientist.com announced yesterday a success in developing a method of obtaining stem cells without ethical problems. "Cloning Without Controversy," blasted the teaser box ad. "'Virgin birth' method promises ethical stem cells," the headline claimed. Do they really believe they have found a method that will be embraced by those opposed to other methods? If so, they are blinded by their own

2003-04-27T11:57:00.000-05:00

I just discovered that Esther Dyson has joined the blogging world with Release 4. Like me, she is feeling her way through the new habits that blogging requires. A blog is hardly a blog if new posts arrive infrequently. It is also part of the genre that links be used freely. So far I have found it hard to establish new habits in both of these areas. I love linking out, but it takes an effort to

2003-04-27T11:29:00.000-05:00

Justification was available for military action in Iraq. It simply wasn't the justification being used. It would have been far better had our country led an effort to bring international war crime charges against Saddam Hussein. The facts about his heinous record are fairly clear. I have no experience in law and certainly none in international law so maybe I am being naive to think that the case

2003-03-26T22:53:00.000-06:00

Found drifing on the Internet.............. It's the soldier not the reporter who gives you the freedom of the press. It's the soldier not the poet who gives you the freedom of speech. It's the soldier not the campus organizer who allows you to demonstrate. It's the soldier who salutes the flag, serves the flag, whose coffin is draped with the flag that allows the protester to burn the flag!!

2003-03-26T21:57:00.000-06:00

A torrent of flag waving has been flooding the Internet lately, but these kinds of speeches diminish the very principles of our country. Typically they praise the freedoms we enjoy while at the same time begrudging the exercise of those freedoms. When someone says we are pursuing an unjust war they aren't speaking poorly of the brave soldiers fighting that war. The skill and professionalism of

2003-02-20T23:13:00.000-06:00

In the renewing battle over whether to tax online sales we still hear that ridiculous whine about how online retailers have an advantage over brick and mortar stores because they can often sell without sales tax. This comes from a situation familiar to most retailers, but it is a situation that existed long before the Internet. A large retailer will often locate a store on a strip of land just

2003-02-09T12:26:00.000-06:00

Since Colin Powell’s appearance at the U.N. Security Council I’ve heard comments ranging from opinions that Powell made a successful argument to opinions that he said nothing new. I’ve even heard some people say they believe the visual and audible evidence he presented was created fraudulently for the occasion by U.S. government technicians. Of course, the conspiracy theories can’t be proven

2003-02-06T22:45:00.000-06:00

Colin Powell made a clear case demonstrating Iraq's dishonesty. Dan Gillmor seems to think so, anyway. In some respects this is exactly what the diplomats opposing military action ask him to do - lay out the evidence showing that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, continues to pursue more wmd's and engages an elaborate scheme to defeat the international inspectors. Assuming all of the

2003-01-22T22:39:00.000-06:00

Dino Price passed along this alert from the NYTimes.com: Posted from The New York Times, today. "...a federal judge ordered Verizon Communications yesterday to give a record industry trade group the identity of an Internet subscriber suspected of making available unauthorized copies of several hundred songs. In the closely watched case, the Recording Industry Association of America argued

2003-01-15T23:11:00.000-06:00

Telocity was a reseller of DSL connections to the Internet. This meant that a customer would order a DSL connection and Telocity would order the actual DSL line from the local phone company. When all worked well the customer never knew anything but that their DSL line was from Telocity. Telocity provided the customer with DSL equipment (what the industry is calling a DSL modem), customer service

2003-01-14T00:03:00.000-06:00

Clueless Customer Service -- This is NOT one of those nightmare stories that ends in stomping off without making a purchase. This is just a clueless moment. When traveling late in the evening between Tulsa and OKC I often get sleepy and stop at the midway McDonald's to move about and get a snack. Snacking seems to supplement the usual coffee (which, oddly enough often makes me sleepy). Tonight I

2003-01-13T00:11:00.000-06:00

I finally found five minutes to set up a web log. It really took me no more than five minutes. Of course, the real time starts now in exploring the options, establishing a routine and generally trying to figure out how this technology fits in the world of business. That's what I do for Oklahoma's premier technology training system. I gather information about technology that is useful for small