Is Taylor's Jet a Sub-Sonic Ethical Question?

Some time last week, Tulsa Mayor Kathy Taylor [as I expected she would] blocked the ability of the public to track her private jet, "Mayor Force One," on the Internet. Apparently, she has become concerned about the increased interest that I and other constituents have been showing in how she uses this rare asset to affect public policy.

I first had my interest piqued when I heard several councilors refer to trips they had taken with BOk President Stan Lybarger and others to visit ballparks in Memphis, Toledo and Indianapolis. They did this during the July 1o, 2008 City Council meeting during discussion regarding the proposed Business Improvement District [BID] for a new Tulsa Drillers baseball stadium. That measure passed the Council that night by a 6 to 3 vote.

I heard rumors last week that Kathy Taylor had used "her jet" to fly to Colorado to fetch her most loyal councilor, District 3's David Patrick. Seems, I was told, she thought she might need his vote to rush the BID resolution through to passage before opposition to the BID could mount. During my show on Friday, July 18, while talking about how Mayor Taylor had blocked the tracking of her plane, I purposely slipped in as one of the reasons she might have done so, her potential desire to send a plane up to Colorado to pick up David Patrick. [Hear the relevant audio here]. I like to do such things to see if it shakes anything up.

Lo and behold, the very next morning, the Tulsa World miraculously has a story on the occurrence of just such an event!

The story goes to great pains [not to be confused with Great Plains] to explain that the trip had been vetted for any legal and ethical questions that might have arisen. The more cynical among us could almost assume that the Tulsa World reported the story as part of Kathy Taylor's special "spin included" clause that comes with her premium subscription to her friends', the Lorton's, family newspaper.

But questions are still beginning to bubble to the surface. First, who owns the Lear Jet that fetched Patrick? The newspaper refers to it as Taylor's "private jet," which explains more who uses it than who owns it. If a reader somehow becomes confused by the reference so as to believe that Taylor is the sole, private owner, that can't be the World's fault.

The actual owner of the jet is 1132 Investment Co. As the graphic below shows, this is apparently not an Oklahoma corporation, but rather one from Nevada.

It remains to be seen if this is significant. I did some checking on the Oklahoma Secretary of State's website to see if 1132 Investment had any apparent registration with the State of Oklahoma. I could not find any. This isn't conclusive in itself, since the website, ultimately controlled by Mayor Taylor's good friend, former Tulsa Mayor Susan Savage, isn't exactly user friendly.

But let's assume that 1132 Investment isn't domesticated in Oklahoma, but is fully a Nevada corporation. Let us further assume that, as the name implies, the company is a for-profit venture. What then makes the use of this jet to fetch loyal councilors any different than if American Airlines had sent a jet up to get Patrick? In both instances, you would have a jet owned and operated by a out-of-state corporation, flying across state lines for the express purpose of bringing a vacationing elected official back home for a key vote.

I'm wondering if the State ethics experts were told about some of these wrinkles when they were asked their opinion. Or were they simply told that it was Kathy Taylor's "private jet?"

I further wonder if there are any federal ethical questions involved in this?

When I was a city councilor, we were not allowed to accept gifts in excess, if memory serves me right, of $50. By her own admission, Taylor gave Patrick something [a quick and timely trip home] that was far in excess of $50, unless you don't think $4,500 in jet fuel and hours on the road don't rate.

If 1132 Investment Co. is a for-profit corporation, can we assume that the corporate accountant will depreciate the Lear Jet 31a as a result of the trip? Doesn't that take tax payer dollars from the company's tax bill?

Patrick was not in Colorado on official business. He was there on a semi-vacation tending to private property he owns there. It cost him his own money to get to Colorado, so any expense saved in getting back from private activities is a net benefit to his personal wealth, hence a gift! Or are they telling us that Taylor then spent an additional $4,500 to fly him BACK to Colorado after the meeting?

I wonder if the IRS will have some interest in this matter?

One more thing troubles me about the Tulsa World's account of what happened. The paper writes:

Patrick said he and his grandson, who has never flown, traveled back in the jet with the pilot and Stacy Kymes.

Kymes, director of capital markets and mergers and acquisitions for the Bank of Oklahoma, is one of several people who has worked behind the scenes on a proposed downtown baseball stadium for the Tulsa Drillers, the city's Double A baseball team.

Why is a mergers and acquisitions specialist for Bank of Oklahoma made available for several hours to lobby a city councilor? Why is such a specialist working on a ballpark issue for the city and the Mayor, during the same period of time that the Mayor and Bank of Oklahoma were hammering out a $7.1 million settlement in the Great Plains Airlines debacle? Just two weeks prior to the ballpark vote, the Tulsa City Council had voted 5 to 2 to certify that money existed in the city's Sinking Fund, sufficient to pay the $7.1 million to none other than Bank of Oklahoma!

Oh yeah...before announcing her run for the position of Mayor of Tulsa, Kathy Taylor had been a member of the Board of Directors of Bank of Oklahoma!

George Kaiser, the principal shareholder of Bank of Oklahoma has been throwing a lot of money and weight behind much of what the Mayor has been involved in of late. If downtown property owners will benefit from the building of an new downtown ballpark, and if George Kaiser is the owner of downtown property [which he is] then can't we assume that Stacy Kymes, Mr. Kaiser's employee, will be advising Patrick more toward what is in BOk's best interest, rather than the City's? Or are you so naive as to delude yourself that what is good for BOk is also good for Tulsa?

I'm not sure what we can do with this, other than to begin to pressure a city council made up of city councilors who have been enjoying high roller treatment through the generosity of 1132 Investment Co, to change the Council's Ethics Ordinance to stop future activity of this nature. Not likely.

Maybe it's time to put together a petition to publicly censure the Mayor and her jet setting City Council?

Accept It Or You're A Bigot

I'm still marvelling at the spin that is following the decision of dozens of Oklahoma's legislators to decline a complimentary copy of the Koran, that seems to have been offered as a political ploy.

Most of the vitriol that has been generated by the outraged left has been heeped on Rep. Rex Duncan, who was one of the first to decline the offer. He has been accused, unjustly, of holding a press conference to make his decision known. As I wrote below, this didn't happen. In the face of conclusive evidence that it didn't happen, the new spin is that he copied the media on the e-mail in which he declined the Koran. Only problem is, he didn't do that, either!

Rep. Duncan was kind enough to forward the e-mail he sent to the Governor's Islamic committee, declining their offer. The exact content of the message follows:

>Marjan,
>
>Please remove my name from the list of legislators receiving a
>complimentary "Oklahoma Centennial Quran."
>
>Please encourage your fellow Oklahoma Muslims to speak out and
>condemn acts of violence committed in the name of Muhammad and the
Quran.
>
>Most Oklahomans do not endorse the idea of killing innocent women
and children in the name of ideology.
>
>
>Representative Rex Duncan

Most of the critics of Rep. Duncan have been only been quoting the line about "killing innocent women and children in the name of ideology." This sentence, without the sentence that precedes it, seems rightfully peculiar. Parsing the message is a tried and true rhetorical trick.

Are the critics claiming that Duncan is wrong when he intimates that acts of violence are committed in the name of Muhammad and Islam? Only a fool would suggest this isn't happening in the world. Do the critics claim that "Oklahoma Muslims" have been virtually silent with regard to what is happening and that a frightening number of American Muslims support terrorism in the defense of the faith? Studies have proven this is the case.

Did Rep. Duncan "refuse" the Koran, or simply "decline" the offer. There is a difference. His tone is obviously polite and diplomatic. The reason he sent the e-mail in the first place is that the committee asked the legislators to let them know if they were going to decline the gift. Duncan did so.

Politely doing as he was asked was characterized in a press conference today as "hateful words."

In reporting the press event, the Tulsa World also purposely parsed Duncan's message, taking his remarks out of context to make him look bad. The World writes:

Rep. Rex Duncan, R-Sand Springs, refused a gift of Islam's holy book earlier this week, saying, "Most Oklahomans do not endorse the idea of killing innocent women and children in the name of ideology." Other lawmakers joined him in refusing the gift, offered by the Governor's Ethnic American Advisory Council as part of the state's centennial celebration.

Go back and read Rep. Duncan's message. Is he "refusing" or politely "declining?"

The World further reports:

"Today, I'm an American Muslim, speaking for our brothers," said David
Bernstein, executive director of the Jewish Federation.

"Hateful words inevitably lead to hateful actions," he said.

Where are the hateful words? Millions of Americans, including me, share Duncan's frustration that "peace loving Muslims" are not openly and frequently condemning the radicals of their faith. Are we never to put our frustrations, no matter how politely constructed, into words?

The other troubling bit of media bias that is rampant in the hyperbolic coverage of this story is the fact that nobody reports that Rep. Duncan is anything more than a elected member of the legislature. What has never been reported since this broke is Duncan's military service.

Here's what is written in Rep. Duncan's on-line profile at the State House web site:

Lieutenant Colonel, OK Army National Guard. Rex has served 28 years in the
Guard, Reserves and active duty.

He volunteered for active duty following 9/11 and served 16 months as a
Special Forces officer with the Special Operations Command-Central. His duty assignments included Middle East and Horn of Africa.

He currently serves as Battalion Commander of 2/189th Regiment, Regional
Training Institute in Oklahoma City.Awards and decorations include: Special
Forces Tab, Ranger Tab, Master Parachutist Badge, Air Assault, Pathfinder and
EIB badges and the Defense Meritorious Service Medal.

Surely, Rex Duncan knows better than any of those who have criticized him as bigoted, what has been done in the name of Islam. After all, the man has served his country bravely in the Middle East. How many of the critics have done the same?

Even if you think this biases his worldview, you would surely have to agree that his service is at the very least a mitigating factor that the readers of the newspaper and the online forums who know little or nothing about Duncan's past, have a right to know.

The feeding frenzy surrounding this manufactured event is predictable. Those that see the rise of Islamo-Fascism as the greatest danger facing the West today have grown accustomed to the tactics of the anti-war types and their allies in the liberal denominations and faiths.

We'll just keep telling the truth and hope enough of it seeps out to make a difference.

They're Ba-ack!

Tax increase…tax increase…tax increase!

Remember that creepy scene in the movie Poltergeist, when little Carole Ann Freeling, played by Heather O’Rourke held her hands on the tube of the family TV, which was showing only “snow,” and announced to her parents' horror the infamous line, “They’re Here?” Remember in the somewhat lame sequel Poltergeist II: The Other Side, when in a similar fashion, Carole Ann told her parents, “They’re Baa—ack!?”

Reading this morning’s Tulsa World opinion section reminded me (eliciting more horror than either of these two Hollywood products ever could), of the sequel’s tagline. Only this time, it isn’t angry specters and goblins that are coming back to haunt us, but the tax-and-spenders of Tulsa, who the city’s newspaper of record always seem more than ready to support.

If you purchased a Sunday paper today [March 18, 2007], pull out the Opinion section [Section G] and participate in this quick little exercise.

Look on the front page. You’ll see two articles; one by Ken Neal and one by Janet Pearson. Both stories are preliminary “think pieces” on why Tulsans should ultimately raise their taxes. Then flip over to the back page. There you’ll find another, somewhat whimsical piece, by Mike Jones on why Tulsans should immediately support the Mayor’s desire to move City Hall to the partially vacant One Technology Center. A careful reading of the article shows Jones’ analysis of the move is made logical by several future changes that would require a tax increase.

There you go. Three opinion pieces telling Tulsans that life in our city could be so much better [You might even be able to find parking at City Hall!] if you’re just willing to raise your taxes quite a bit.

Neal is the most shameless, suggesting we add a five year renewal to the thirteen year long Vision 2025 tax to pay for low water dams that we thought we were getting in the first thirteen year package. Or, if we don’t want to extend the tax, perhaps it would be easier to just add the .4 cent tax that didn’t go into effect when Boeing opted to stay in Washington. What’s another 40 cents on every $100 you spend in Tulsa, if it could get us what we thought we were getting on the first 60 cents in taxes per hundred bucks we voted in back in 2003?

Gird your loins folks, for Kathy Taylor and the Mid-Towners are itchin’ for a fight. Keep practicing saying “nay” and get ready for a whole bunch of momentum killing negativity. Why?

Because “They’re Baa-ack!”