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[Ed. note: As a service to our readers, the Kingfisher Times and Free Press will highlight details of construction projects included in the proposed King-fisher Public School bond issue over the next three weeks. School district patrons will vote on the bond issue April 1.]
Additions and renovations planned at Kingfisher Heritage School and Kingfisher Middle School will promote student safety and al-leviate future growing pains, Supt. Jason Sternberger said.
Heritage improvements include the construction of two new class-rooms that will also serve as handi-cap-accessible safe rooms to protect
children from hazardous weather conditions.
The rooms would be added in the space between the gym and existing classroom wing on the north side of the building and would also create a secure, enclosed courtyard that can be used as an outdoor classroom (see illustration and photo above).
Depending on the availability of funds once construction bids come in, the courtyard may be paved or may contain a garden and other plantings, Sternberger said.
When the original Heritage ren-ovation project was planned in 2009, each grade averaged about
four teachers and four classrooms of students, but enrollment has since increased to the point that both third and fourth grade have five sections each, Sternberger said.
“Current ly, every classroom is occupied with no room to grow,” he said. “The addition of two classrooms would allow the district to be proactive in future planning as student enroll-ment continues to increase.”
Kingfisher Middle School would gain a new gym at the northwest
end of the building if the bond issue is approved, including locker rooms constructed to safe room standards to
In BriefFifty Cents Kingfisher,KingfisherCounty,Oklahoma USPSNo.295-420
16Pages
SundayMarch 9, 2014
No. 92 of the 125th Year
Speaker talks’14 Farm Bill
The 2014 Farm Bill is up for discussion at noon Monday at the monthly lun-cheon of Kingfisher County Republican Women at Inter-Bank community room in Kingfisher.
Jeremy Bennett, field rep-resentative for Cong. Frank Lucas, will be the guest speaker and will discuss the Farm Bill as well as other current federal issues.
Bennett holds a bachelor’s degree in environmental sci-ence and a master’s degree in agricultural economics from Oklahoma State University. He is based in Lucas’ Cana-dian County office.
City to toutFFA teams
Kingfisher FFA’s national champion meat judging and parliamentary procedure teams will be recognized at the Kingfisher city commis-sion’s regular March meeting at 5:30 p.m. Monday at City Hall.
Commissioners will vote on a proclamation recogniz-ing the teams as well as an-other proclamation recogniz-ing May 1, 2014, as National Day of Prayer in Kingfisher.
Also on the agenda is a resolution setting a special commissioner election in response to a successful pe-tition to recall Commissioner Janet Clark.
Other agenda items listed for possible action include:
• P o l i c e d e p a r t m e n t canine.
•Renewal of property in-surance with the Oklahoma Municipal Assurance Group at an annual premium of $68,829.72.
•An agreement with JGV engineering services regard-ing Kingfisher Gateway Sid-walk and Share the Road Project.
•Soliciting bids for the Southern Gateway Trails Project.
•Granting a permit to McDonald Land Services for a geophysical survey.
•Increased fuel charges due to nationwide severe weather.
• I n t e r g o v e r n m e n t a l agreement with Kingfisher County for E-911 services.
•Annual service agree-ment with Gooden Holdings Inc., doing business as Good-en Studios, and monthly report from John Gooden.
•Possible action on sur-plus dumpsters.
•Declaring a 1994 Chev-rolet pickup truck as surplus.
•Budget amendments.
Lenten servicesset Wednesday
Kingfisher’s annual Lent-en Services sponsored by the Kingfisher Ministerial Alliance continue at noon Wednesday at the Federated Church.
Patrick McPherson, pas-tor of the First United Meth-odist Church, will lead the service.
A light lunch will follow and both the meal and ser-vice are open to the public.
NEW ENCLOSED COURTYARD
EXISTING GYM
LOCATION OF NEWHERITAGE CLASSROOMS
Proposed KMS, Heritage projects highlightedToursofexistingfacilitieswithexplanations
ofwherenewconstruction isplannedwillbeofferedduringnextweek’sparent-teachercon-ferencesfrom3:30-6:30p.m.ateachbuilding.
Additionally,Supt.JasonSternbergerwillbemakingpresentationsaboutthebondissueat4p.m.and5:30p.m.Tuesdayathisofficeforanydistrictpatronswhowouldliketoattend.
Need more info?
[See Bonds Page 9]
NEW
CLA
SSRO
OM
SSA
FE R
OO
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REA
PROPOSED HERITAGE AND MIDDLE SCHOOL BOND PROJECTS
If school patrons approve the proposed bond issue April 1, Kingfisher Heritage School would gain two new classrooms constructed to safe room standards, plus an enclosed courtyard for outdoor learning (left photos). A gym would be constructed at Kingfisher Middle School, plus the parking lot between the two schools would be expanded, if funds allow (right photos). [Photos/Illustrations Provided]
LOCATION OF NEWKMS GYM
SPRING FORWARD
Set clocks ahead 1 hour at bedtime Saturday.
Mark Tracey Vernon, 47, was re-leased from jail Wednesday after en-tering a guilty plea to a single felony count of child neglect.
Vernon was sentenced to one year in state prison on the charge, but was released after receiving credit for time served.
As part of plea agreement, Assis-tant District Attorney Jason Seigars dismissed another charge against Vernon alleging five counts of rape
and one count of forcible oral sodomy allegedly involving two young girls.
Vernon had been convicted on those counts in 2011 in a nonjury trial and sentenced to five consecutive life sentences by District Judge Paul Woodward.
The conviction later was over-turned by the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals who found that Vernon’s court-appointed attorney had not exercised diligence in his
trial defense. He was scheduled to be retried
by a jury on the same counts in May, before the charges were dismissed.
Vernon entered an Alford plea of guilty on a single charge that he “failed or omitted to protect K.H. (one of the alleged victims in the previous charges) from exposure to illegal activities or sexual acts or materials that are not age-appropriate.
An “Alford plea” is technically not
an admission of guilt but rather an acknowledgment that the state could present sufficient evidence to obtain a guilty plea if the case actually went to trial.
Vernon had begun serving the first life sentence when his original conviction was overturned and since then has remained jailed on $500,000 bond awaiting a second trial.
He was represented buy court-ap-pointed attorney Al Hoch.
Vernon pleads to lesser crime, released
KINGFISHER MIDDLE SCHOOL eighth graders from left, Alyssa Smalley, Sydney Jones, Christian Rios and Ryann Turner display the lunar and meteorite samples on loan from NASA. The samples will be studied by the students and shared with the other middle school students through intercorrecular projects. [TIMES-FREE PRESS Staff Photo by Cindy Gruntmeir]
Kingfisher Middle School stu-dents are getting a first hand look at moon soil and rock samples as well as samples from meteors that have hit Antarctica, Mexico, Africa and the United States.
NASA’s Lunar and Meteorite Disk Program gives students the experience of viewing six samples of lunar (three rock and three soil) and meteorite material from six locations throughout the world encapsulated in six-inch diameter clear lucite disks.
The disk is accompanied by writ-ten and graphic descriptions of each sample in the disk, a PowerPoint pre-sentation on CD, a teacher workbook and additional printed material.
Cyndi Ice, eighth grade science teacher at Kingfisher Middle School, qualified for the program by attend-ing many workshops sponsored by NASA’s Space Science Education Specialists. She attended the work-shops in 2009 at the Thomas P. Staf-ford Space Museum in Weatherford.
“I hope this will spark the in-terests of my students to greater creative heights and that it will
By Cindy GruntmeirTimes-FreePressStaffWriter
Lunar rockson display
[See Rocks Page 9 ]
Jeremy Bennett
2 Sunday, March 9, 2014 Kingfisher (Okla.) Times & Free Press
Let’s show how much the country cares.
Harvest For Hunger Food & Fund Drive
and
Plains Partners is excited to participate in this 4th Annual CHS Harvest for Hunger food and fund drive in an effort to raise donations of money, food and grain to benefit hungry families throughout our community.From March 1-20, Plains Partners will join CHS Country Op-
erations location across the country to raise more than 2 million meals for regional food banks, which will then be distributed to food shelves throughout our local communities.Financial donations are encouraged because food banks have
tremendous buying power to purchase quality food at deeply discounted rates. In fact, every $1 donated provides between 3.5 and 7 meals. (The number of meals per dollar varies by region.)
The Food Bank accepts non-perishable items that might include:
•Flour •Sugar •InStant MIlk•Canned goodS •drIed BeanS
You can drop off your donations at any of our locations:OKARCHE•KINGFISHER•HINTON•OMEGA•HENNESSEY
If you would like to make a graindonation, please contact your local
Plains Partners elevator.
Thank you for helping us gather more than two million meals to feed America’s hungry families!
March 1-20, 2014
The Keenagers of the First Christian Church traveled to the Oklahoma Publishing Company (OPUBCO) on Monday, Feb. 17.
The group learned about the everyday endeavor of the world of newspaper publi-cation. This undertaking for the state of Oklahoma has evolved through the years from simple typesetting into the age of technology. The Daily Oklahoman was the first newspaper in the nation to move into this age with the use of computer technology.
The first stop of the tour was the video production station.
The group saw the earliest typesetting equipment on
display to the latest in digi-tally produced colored news articles.
Three stories of building worth of paper presses, type sets and ink vats are a part of the tale of the vast endeavor that occurs after reporters have submitted the day’s news for production and dis-tribution.
The group learned that even after each section of the paper is created during late afternoon-evening hours, it still takes individual human beings to assemble the sec-tions of the printed product into the “whole” for delivery.
OPUBCO also contracts with several other entities
to produce news in print in-cluding the USA Today paper which is transmitted to their facility, printed and distribut-ed each weekday.
The group was told that OPUBCO will soon be mov-ing its corporate offices to downtown Oklahoma City because of its recent sell to the Anschutz Company of Colo-rado. The printing facility will remain on site in northwest Oklahoma City.
Following the tour, the group traveled to Mimi’s Restaurant for lunch then returned to Kingfisher.
The next event will be a two night trip to Bartlesville on March 20-22.
Keenagers tour Oklahoma Publishing Company
KEENAGERS OF the First Christian Church touring the Oklahoma Publishing Company recently included: seated, from left, Marilyn and John Merle and Joe Hyatt; and, standing, Barbara Swart, Shirley Sutton, Mary Ann Hyatt, Tom Matson, Melva Wood, Donna Jech, Opal Leech, Arnold Jech, Sherry Blair and Kayleen and Gary Helt. [Photo Provided]
SERVES AS PAGE – Blair Kloeppel, the daughter of Tom and Sandra Kloeppel of Kingfisher and a senior at King-fisher High School served as a page for Rep. Mike Sanders (R-Kingfisher) at the state capitol during the week of March 3-6. [Photo Provided]
100 years agoAn amendment to the
Constitution to provide four year terms for members of the House of Representatives is proposed to a joint resolu-tion introduced in the House of Representatives by Con-gressman Borland, a Missouri Democrat. This resolution stipulates that the members shall be elected subject to recall at the will of the voters of their districts.
75 years agoThe local officers of the
Future Farmers will go to Okeene on Tuesday of this week to perform the ceremo-ny of raising green hands to the grade of Future Farmers for the Okeene F.F.A. boys. Who will take part are: Nor-man Smith, Dale Helt, Clyde Triplett, Chester Beasley, Carl Mackey and John McMillan.
Joseph B. Hamilton, King-fisher County farmer living two miles west of Hennessey, takes good care of his flock of hens and the hens go a long way toward taking care of the day-to-day expenses of his family, according to Harry E. McCartney, county farm security administration supervisor.
The flock of 76 hens lays 50 to 60 eggs daily. Mr. Ham-ilton feeds them scratch feed, keeps them in a shed, the sides of which are covered with tar paper.
The flock is helping the Hamiltons to make up the loss suffered recently from losing 500 bales of pea hay in a fire.
50 years agoEleven directors were
elected to three-year terms when a board meeting of the Kingfisher United Fund organization was held Friday morning at the DeLuxe Cafe.
Named directors of the organization were C.E. Py-att, Roy McDonald, George F. Johnston, Cloise Johnson, Paul Sanders, Bill Hubbard, Clarence Hubbard, Mrs. George Boeckman, George Gooden, Mrs. John A. Francis and Mrs. Jim W. Poole.
25 years agoThere will be 1,170 bricks,
memorializing Kingfisher residents, past and present, in the Centennial Brick Wall which will be dedicated at the courthouse April 22.
The bricks will contain names and certain other his-torical or personal informa-tion about county residents, and will be used to build a decorative memorial at the north side of the courthouse in Kingfisher.
The Omega HCE met at 1:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 14, in the home of Volamae Marks for their regular meeting.
Velta Quintle, chairman, called the meeting to order and led the group in the Pledge of Allegiance to the American Flag.
The devotion was given by Marks.
Quintle gave the lesson entitled, “Cook Once, Eat All Month.”
The March meeting, a soup and salad luncheon, will be at 12:30 p.m. Thursday, March 13, in the home of Marks.
The lesson, “Amish In America,” will be given by Sue Smith.
Volamae Marks hosts Omega HCE meeting
By Frederik SheridanMarch 10: Born-Barry Fitz-
gerald, 1888; Bobby Fisher, 1943. Event-Hitler orders conscription, 1935.
March 11: Born-Sir Mal-colm Campbell, 1885; Law-rence Welk, 1903; Ralph Ab-ernathy, 1926. Events-Forbes Magazine releases list of world’s billionaires, 322, 2009; Bombs on commuter trains kill 191 in Madrid, 2004.
March 12: Born-Andrew Young, 1922; Edward Albee, 1928. Event-Girl Scouts orga-nized, Savannah, 1912.
March 13: Born-Hugh Wal-pole, 1884; Sammy Kaye, 1910; Andy Bean, 1953. Event-Roo-sevelt asks for legalization of alcohol, 1933.
March 14: Born-Albert Einstein, 1928; Michael Caine, 1933. Events-Iwo Jima falls to U.S. troops, 1945; Syria begins troop pullout from Lebanon, 2005.
March 15: Born-Andrew Jackson, 1767; Harry James, 1916. Event-Andrew Jackson is born posthumously, first president so burn, 1767.
March 16: Born-James Madison, 1751; Pat Nixon, 1912. Events-West Point es-tablished, 1802; 7,000-man Pakistani army begins attack on terrorists near Afghan border, 2004.
This Week
The monthly meeting of Keith Lowry-Henry Ellyson Post No. 5 has been moved to 7 p.m. Thursday, March 20, at Memorial Hall.
Legion meeting moved
Lomega schools officials have announced the schedule for the week of March 10 as follows:
Monday – Board meeting, 6 p.m.; Northwest District premium sale, 7 p.m.
Wednesday – After Shock Bible study, elementary, 6:30 p.m.; junior 4-H, after school.
Thursday – Northwest OK Honor Band at NOC in Enid; OYE stock show, Thursday through Sunday.
Lomega schedule told
Many avoiding unhealthy foods have been avoiding sugar, substituting honey, brown sugar, molasses and other substitutes.
The latest diet news is that these three substitutes (and agave plants) are not healthy choices. Choose naturally sweet plants other than agave plants.
Healthy Eating
–There’s no such thing as
something for nothing in life.
1. Name the first state to ratify the Bill of Rights.
2. Who is credited with this statement, “In this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”?
3. Who discovered the fro-zen continent of Antarctica?
4. Name the 21st U.S. president.
5. When did the U.S. end direct control over Cuba?
Who Knows
Answers:1. New Jersey, in 1789.2. Benjamin Franklin, in a
letter to a friend.3. U.S. Navy captain Na-
thaniel B. Palmer, in 1820.4. Chester A. Arthur.5. In 1909.
Minestrone, the popular Italian vegetable soup, can be cooked in the microwave.
Use power level automatic simmer.
With the already prepared stock, simmer vegetable soup mixture 6 to 8 hours.
Microwave Tips
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Kingfisher (Okla.) Times & Free Press Sunday, March 9, 2014 3
“The 2014 Farm Bill was written to insure enough profitability in farming that people will continue to farm,” Randall Newton, director of the Kingfisher County Farm Agency told Rotarians last Tuesday.
Newton said the bill is written to provide economic stability for farmers, ranchers and consumers.
“Since the first farm bill was passed by Congress in 1933 as part of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, farm bills have been written to in-sure that an adequate number of producers provide an ade-
RANDALL NEWTON, left, Farm Agency Director for King-fisher County was the guest speaker at Rotary last Tuesday. He was introduced by Rotarian Tom Garrett. [TIMES-FREE PRESS Staff Photo]
Farm bill written to provide adequate food supply
quate food supply,” he said.The previous farm bill
included direct payments to farmers whereas the new bill will pay farmers based on prices and output.
Rotarian Tom Garrett in-troduced Newton at the meeting.
In other business, it was announced that this year’s delegates to RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards) camp are Kaci Pennington and Jaryn Fry.
It was also voted to spon-sor a Kingfisher High School junior girl to Girls State.
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Steven and Barbara Farrar of Okarche announce the engagement of their daugh-ter, KyLee Regina Farrar of Kingfisher, to Brandon Hal Smith of Yukon. He is the son of David and Mona Smith of Yukon.
The bride-elect is a 2006 graduate of Kingfisher High School. She attended South-western Oklahoma State University. She received her practical nursing license in
2010 and her registered nurs-ing degree in 2013.
The prospective bride-groom is a 2005 graduate of Chandler High School. He attended Oklahoma State University. He is currently employed as an OG&E elec-trical lineman.
The wedding has been set for 7 p.m. Saturday, April 26, 2014, at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Okarche.
•Engagement
KyLee Farrar and Brandon Smith
Farrar-Smith
The Kingfisher Study Club met Wednesday, March 5, in the home of Connie Boeck-man.
Gerry Plummer, president, welcomed the members and called the meeting to order, with 17 members responding to roll call.
The annual Senior Girls Tea will be held at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 2, in the Gathering at the First Baptist Church.
Committee reports were distributed and final plans were made regarding the tea.
The nominating commit-tee report was given by Ruth Ann Satchell and the follow-ing officers were elected for the 2014-15 year. New officers include: Donna Inman, pres-ident; Linda Randall, vice president; Virginia Hellwege, secretary, and Anna Mae
Stolz, treasurer.The program was present-
ed by Judy Whipple, King-fisher Chamber of Commerce director. She explained the goals, activities and events sponsored by the chamber. She gave an insight to the many questions and respon-sibilities that keeps a chamber of commerce director and secretary busy.
Those present included: Betty Beall, Sherry Blair, Melda Fischer, Carlene Good-en, Nancy Hasenfratz, Donna Lann, Clairetta Lowe, Don-na Major, Carol Neundorrf, Judy Pannell, Boeckman, Hellwege, Inman, Plummer, Randall, Stolz and Satchell.
The next meeting will be at 9 a.m. Wednesday, April 2, in the Gathering at the First Baptist Church.
Study club meets; Senior Girls Tea discussed
MILLION WORD READ-ER – Heritage Elementary School officials recognized Jett Matson, a fourth grad-er, of reaching one million words read for the school year. He reached that goal and got the opportunity to wear the million dollar costume. He will be recognized for this accomplishment at the Heritage Reading Awards in April. [Photo Provided]
MILLION WORD READER – Heritage Elementary School officials recognized Trynitie Morkes, a fourth grader, of reaching one million words read for the school year. She reached that goal and got the opportunity to wear the million dollar costume. She will be recognized for this accomplishment at the Heritage Reading Awards in April. [Photo Provided]
Kingfisher Public Schools’ officials have announced the schedule for the week of March 10 as follows:
Monday – High school FFA Northwest District Livestock show.
Tuesday – No STARS pro-gram; parent-teacher confer-ences, 3:30-6:30 p.m., Tuesday and Thursday; junior high baseball vs. Oklahoma City Broncos, (T), 4:30 p.m.; high school baseball vs. Watonga, (H), 4:30 p.m.; high school counselor questions and an-swers for enrollment, 5-6:30 p.m., Tuesday and Thursday.
Wednesday – High school FFA Oklahoma Youth Expo,
Kingfisher schedule told
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Wednesday through Sunday; middle school spring pictures and spring sports, 8 a.m.-noon; third grade multiplication reward swim party, 12:15-2:30 p.m.
Thursday – State Basket-ball Tournament, Thursday through Saturday; no STARS program; KEF board meeting, 8 a.m.; high school track at Mar-low; junior high baseball vs. Perkins, (H), 5 p.m.; high school baseball vs. Perkins, (T), 5 p.m.
Friday – No school; junior high baseball vs. Piedmont, (H), 4:30 p.m.
Saturday – High school baseball vs. Perry, (T), noon.
4 Sunday, March 9, 2014 Kingfisher (Okla.) Times & Free Press
VIEWfrom behind the
plow(A column of opinion by Gary Reid, Publisher Emeritus)
The Kingfisher Times & Free Press(USPS No. 295-420)
Published Every Sunday and Wednesday by Kingfisher Newspapers, Inc. at323 N. Main, Kingfisher, OK 73750
Periodicals Postage Paid at Kingfisher, OK 73750
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to:
Kingfisher Times and Free Press, P.O. Box 209, Kingfisher, OK 73750
All I know is what I read in the papers.
–Will Rogers
BUSINESS HOURS: Monday-Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
General Information, Subscriptions, Circulation Phone: 375-3220
Barry Reid ....................................Publisher, AdvertisingChristine Reid ..............................News EditorRobin JohnstonAdvertising Director
[email protected]/Legals
Brenda Slater ......................................Office ManagerDebbie Benson ......................................... NewswriterJeremy A. Ingle .......................Staffwriter-ProductionLacey Odell .......................... Proofreader-newswriterKati Homier ..............................Subscriptions-LegalsMichael Swisher.....................................Sports EditorCindy Gruntmeir ....................................... Staff Writer
Member
Gary Reid, Publisher Emeritus
Russian President Putin of Russia totally ignored bluster from Obama last week about how world opinion would turn against Russia if he took military action in the Ukraine and rolled tanks into the Ukraine to put down an uprising.
The upheaval is going on in the southern region of Crimea.We almost expected President Obama to begin talking
about strongly-worded letters and red lines, he was so angry. Why he might even send Weatherman Secretary of State John Kerry (who said last week that global warming is the world’s greatest threat) to the region.
Putin acted just like every world leader today. He did what he wanted. No foreign leader pays attention to the American president any more.
In the process of breaking down America – economically, mil-itarily and morally, Obama has turned himself into a nonentity.
His posturing gets as much attention as any other Punch and Judy show. However, destroying America’s hard-won superi-ority has created an opportunity for the start of World War III.
World War II ended and the Cold War started in Crimea, which became part of the Ukraine in 1954.
Fox News’ Sheppard Smith points out that if the next major war starts there it will be ironic as allied leaders, including U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin met at the Crimean resort of Yalta to divide up Europe in 1945 – at the end of World War II.
Russia says its soldiers are protecting human rights of vul-nerable ethnic Russian citizens – and that Nazis and neo-Nazis are leaders of the revolt.
The Ukraine is important to Russia in order for it to re-emerge as an empire (like the old Soviet empire).
Ulrich Speck, visiting scholar at the Carnegie Europe think tank, says the action by Putin augurs badly for other neigh-boring countries with Russian populations such ad Abkhazia and South Odessia.
He sees the Russian goal as developing a circle of countries controlled by Russia (a sort of Soviet Union “lite”).
If Moscow succeeds in the Ukraine, it will conclude that it can act like an empire again, Speck believes.
Russia and Putin already have the upper hand in the Middle East due to Obama’s ineptitude.
Putin is not afraid of intervention by European Union countries.
Europe receives over 60 percent of its gas from Russia.It’s a symbiotic relationship. Russia depends on the EU for
its national income.John Hayward in Daily Events quotes House Intelligence
chair Mike Roger (R-MI) summing up the Ukraine crisis this way: ”Putin plays chess while Obama plays marbles.”
Hayward continues:“House Intelligence Chair Mike Rogers (R-MI) summed the
Ukraine crisis up perfectly on Fox News Sunday by saying ‘Putin is playing chess, and I think we’re playing marbles.’ The degree of disconnect between reality on the ground in the Crimean region, and the Obama Administration’s hap-less stream of babble and bluster, is amazing. The message other global leaders and miscreants must be taking from the confrontation is profoundly disturbing.”
Rogers relates an old geo-strategic saying: “Russia without the Ukraine is a country. Russia with the Ukraine is an empire.”
“The scary thing is that nobody in the Obama Adminis-tration seems familiar with that saying, or much of anything else about the region,”Hayward says. “The fallback position for nervous Obama apologists at this point is to snarl at critics, ‘Well, what do you think he should do, nuke Moscow?’ The point is not that a better president would be on a war footing against the Russian empire, but that a better president might have kept this crisis from bubbling over the way it has, or at least avoided further damage to American diplomatic prestige by fumbling the response so badly.
“Team Obama has been agonizingly slow to realize that Russia had an empire, and wants it back. The universal administration expression of shock and awe as Russia first violated international law by slipping forces out of regular uniform into key positions, and then just rolled in thousands of regular military forces – within hours of saying no, of course they would never do any such thing! – makes Obama and his people look ridiculous. It is very important not to look ridiculous at times such as these.
“But this is the same team that wears a similar expression of numb incomprehension when their rigid ideology fails to pre-dict domestic economic developments. Obama Administration dogma viewed Russia as a somewhat grumpy, but basically friendly, entity that was scarcely worth paying attention to, beyond some concessions here and there to make them happy. Remember how Obama and his equally clueless media allies derided Mitt Romney for naming Russia as a top geopolitical foe? Remember the clueless Obama badgering Romney with preschool taunts like, ‘The 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back?’ during a presidential debate?
“Mitt Romney knew what he was talking about. Barack Obama did not. Obama twice managed to secure electoral victory against far better informed people than himself, given that 2008 vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin foresaw a Russian move on the Ukraine as a consequence of then-Sena-tor Obama’s reaction of “indecision and moral equivalence” to similar Russian action in Georgia. As ABC News put it
(See View, Page 5)
Putin play chess as Obama plays marbles
MICHELLE MALKIN The Inevitability of Obamacarefor Illegal Aliens
You knew it was coming. I knew it was coming. When government expands entitle-ments, illegal aliens always end up with a piece of the pie. Obamacare promoters relented to GOP pressure to include an illegal alien ban on eligibility and vowed end-lessly that no benefits would go to the “undocumented.” But denial isn’t just a river in Egypt. It’s the Obama way.
In Oregon this week, o f f i c i a l s c o n f e s s e d that nearly 4,000 illegal immigrants h a d b e e n “accidental-ly” steered f r o m t h e
state’s low-income Medicaid program and instead were enrolled in Obamacare in violation of the law. Oopsie. The Oregonian newspaper’s Nick Budnick reported that the health bureaucrats “dis-covered the problem several weeks ago and are correcting it.” Get in line. The belea-guered Cover Oregon health insurance exchange has been riddled with ongoing prob-lems, errors and glitches since last October that have yet to be fixed.
Take note: This wasn’t a one-time computer melt-down. Because Oregon’s health insurance exchange website has been offline and its software architects under investigation for possible fraud, the Oregon Obamacare drones have been processing each and every application manually. That means nearly 4,000 illegal alien applica-tions with “inaccurate” data somehow passed through government hands and some-how ended up getting routed through as new enrollees with Obamacare-approved full-service health care.
How many Obamacare services did these nearly 4,000 illegal aliens avail themselves of, and at what cost?
Does anyone believe the same incompetent boobs who enrolled them will be able to track down the nearly 4,000 illegal alien beneficiaries, “correct” the “errors” and ensure that it doesn’t happen again?
What a slap in the face to the millions of law-abiding Americans who have lost their health care coverage and work hours thanks to Democrat-ic-sponsored federal health care regulatory burdens and mandate costs.
One Oregon Obamacare manager defended the un-lawful illegal alien enrollment by explaining: “We were just getting people into the services.” And there’s the rub. The imperative of these government social engineers is to herd as many “clients” into taxpayer-subsidized programs as possible. Just last week, Obama’s Home-land Security Secretary Jeh Johnson publicized an open letter to families with illegal alien relatives promising that no one would be deported for seeking Obamacare services.
“No one in America who is eligible should be afraid to apply for health coverage because they have a family with mixed status,” Johnson assured. And in another sign of how the White House is still planning for mass illegal alien amnesty, Johnson also made clear: “Enrolling in health coverage ... will not prevent your loved ones who are undocumented from getting a green card in the future or who do not yet have a green card at risk.”
As always, California Democrats are at the forefront of busting open Obamacare for the illegal alien popu-lation. Earlier this month, Democratic state Sen. Ricar-do Lara introduced a bill to extend health benefits and a special online marketplace to one million illegals under an Obamacare-style program subsidized by state taxpayer dollars.
In case you forgot, Pres-ident Obama had already paved the path for illegal alien Obamacare when he signed the massive expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP) in 2009. As I’ve reported previously, the law loosened
(See Malkin, Page 5)
Malkin
My wife and I once leased a ranch whose western bound-ary was a busy highway. Quite regularly I used this opportunity to ride along the fence on my trusty steed Gen-tleman, to show the passersby what a real cowboy looks like. Gentleman and I cut quite the impressive figure, even if I do say so myself. As I admired my centaur-like shadow I was jealous of the motorists who got to see such a muscular stud, with a dinner-plate jaw and masculine extremities. And that was just my horse, I didn’t look too bad either in my faded Stetson that looked like it had been run over by a herd of buffalo with loose bowels. Every now and then a rental car would squeal to a halt and a tourist from one of the Scandinavian countries would jump out to take a snapshot to take home and show his or her friends that the American West was alive and well.
It was during my Highway-man years that I was flooded with requests from ranchers to borrow my wonder horse to breed to their mares. Okay, so only one person actually flooded me with requests, and that was my friend and neighbor, Jeep.
“I can’t let you use Gentle-man,” I replied, “what would I use to check my cows?”
“You can borrow my three wheeler,” said Jeep.
“If I had wanted to ride mo-torcycles I would have been a Hell’s Angel,” I said.
“Okay, I’ll let you borrow my horse to check your cows,” said Jeep.
Normally I would not
condone such promiscuous behavior but I loaned Gen-tleman because I was curious myself to see if Gentleman still had “It”, if in fact he ever did.
I got off on the wrong foot with Jeep’s horse, who I called Piggy because he looked like a Berkshire boar. The stump-sucker’s back was so wide I had to adjust the stirrup leathers on my saddle, and Piggy had long ago stopped feeling anything in his mouth so I had to ride along in the direction he was going. I
suspect that Piggy’s relatives all pulled beer wagons or did Bud commercials. This was the opposite of Gentleman who was so well trained that all I had to do was shake the jinglebobs on one my left spur and he would turn in that di-rection. Yes, Gentleman and I reined supreme!
On our first outward bound trip Piggy and I came to a dinky little creek, or crick as my backward friends say, and Jeep’s horse acted like he’d never seen flowing water before, which was entirely possible as he was only 12. I rattled my spurs and urged Piggy on and when he just stood there I gently put the steel to him. A millisecond lat-er I was flying with the birds. In self-defense, it was windy that day and maybe that’s why I got bucked off, after all, I’d
never been bucked off before. Sure, I had “dismounted un-conventionally” a few times, but nothing like this. On my first cowboy job I had to ride rank colts but in so doing I followed horse trainer Craig Cameron’s advice: “The first thing I do after I get on a green horse for the first time is get the heck off.”
Not one single friend ever said they saw me in my High-wayman role, prancing by the freeway pretending to be a cowboy, but all of my friends and, in fact, the entire town, saw me get bucked off. Isn’t that the way it always works?
Once on the ground, I gath-ered myself and started walk-ing back to the barn because Piggy had left the scene of the accident, although I don’t think it was an accident at all. That fat excuse for a horse did it on purpose!
Motorists stopped to offer me rides and I had to explain my bleeding forehead and why I was wearing spurs on my little “walk”. I saw a relative I hadn’t seen in years, and a friend on vacation from the East saw me hit the rocks at the moment of impact. A Good Samaritan I vaguely re-membered as an acquaintance hit her brakes, got out of her truck and rushed over to ask if I was hurt.
“No,” I replied. “Say, don’t I know you?”
“You better. I’m your wife, you big knothead. And the only reason you’re not hurt is because you landed on your head!” (By the way, Jeep’s mare never did have a foal.)
wwwLeePittsbooks.com
It’s the PittsBy Lee Pitts
The Highwayman
By Ted BuswellAs the month of March pro-
gresses the weather continues to hold our interest and concern. Mother Nature has kept us guessing with her frequent and changing advances of fronts throughout the country. The na-ture of things has made the old adage about Oklahoma weather ring true: “If you don’t like the weather now, just wait a spell and it’ll change.” Folks around here have ever been interested and concerned about the weath-er and its impact on our welfare since we are primarily an agri-cultural region dependent on proper distribution of seasonal climatic occurrences. If you’ve been around here for many years you’ve seen numerous conditional effects of Nature’s whims on our well-being. Watching the news on TV lately it’s obvious that we have a lot more than the price of wheat and the daily temperature and wind-chill factors to worry about.
For several days now the Russian “invasion” of Ukraine has been in the headlines. It’s interesting that President Putin has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize award this year. The nomination was probably based on his influence in disarming Syria of its chem-ical weapons in the rebellions occurring there. Of course his Russia was also supplying them with conventional weapons at the time. It would behoove the United States and other nations interested in peace and freedom and independence around the world to bear in mind that Russia is not in step with such aims necessarily. Remember the Iron Curtain and Berlin Wall and the Cold War that Russia maintained until our
President Reagan challenged them to “Tear down this wall” somewhat easing the tensions that had persisted and threat-ened world peace since the end of WWII. We should be reminded that politics are not always peaceful in the alloca-tion and assignment of power and leadership of people in all circumstances. And simply claiming to foster individual liberty and justice doesn’t in and of itself make such claims true. And at best people must be ever ardent in guarding and protect-ing the personal liberties they have, wherever they must live.
We are hearing much crit-icism of Russia’s obvious in-vasion of Ukraine throughout America and much of the rest of the world. But there seems to be little support for the idea of taking up arms against the invaders. Americans seem to be fed up with sending our troops into harm’s way in foreign coun-tries outside our own borders. Afghanistan and Iraq are still matters of much disagreement as to our involvement there. And the Korean and Vietnam conflicts were similarly debat-ed and absolute victory in any “war” we’ve fought in since 1950 has been lacking. One might wonder if such a thing as absolute victory is attainable in foreign conflicts any more. Hopefully the people on earth now might find success in less bloody and expensive ways to settle deep-seated differences in their affairs. As noble as such hope might seem, there has been no indication that such may soon occur. Perhaps a part of the problem is that honesty and fairness must be a part of any negotiations if such are to have
lasting and peaceful ends.
And it’s not easy to find the lead-ers and diplomats in possession of such character. But again I’m reminded of what my mother told me: “There’s so much good in the worst of us, and so much bad in the best of us, then who are we to judge the rest of us?”
Perhaps we should concen-trate on qualities of people that are more readily and accurately measured in our judgments. As folks attain their educations the quality and mastery of much of it can be measured by sim-ple testing. And our personal business and living conditions are much like that, too. If we learn that we must live within our means, we tend to not spend more than we earn. And groups like corporations and other businesses operate that way as well. And if the biggest conglomeration in the coun-try, which is the government, doesn’t know and practice this simple principle we are in trouble for sure. And folks, we are there under the leadership of incompetent management of the top executive (the President) and his board of directors (the Congress). Can all the folks out on the assembly lines and sup-plying the labor and materials for production and services do anything to correct the flaws in the operation? Well, our forefathers believed that they provided us the means to make such corrections if and when needed.
What would you say we need to do in America today to get the train on the right track and get the bus out of the ditch? It won’t be quick and easy, but surely there is a way, and we best be about finding it before it’s too late?
What is it that makes America where we ever want to be?
