Oklahoma

Garfield County Democratic Party Fundraiser
Date 4/28/2008
Time 6:00 pm

Details

Location: Napoli's Italian Restaurant, 221 W. Randolph, Enid

Tickets: $25 (must be purchased in advance)

Sen. Andrew Rice will be the featured speaker for the fundraiser, benefiting the Garfield County Democratic Party. For tickets, please call Sandy at 580-233-9021 or Pat at 580-233-3604.

For more information, you may also contact Eric Edstedt at eric@andrewforoklahoma.com.

Andrew Rice is running for Oklahoma Senate. And you can help him while having fun at his fundraiser/birthday bash. He has led an amazing life and brings a great dedication to everything he does. He also has been working hard to end hunger in Oklahoma, so this big fundraising concert is also a food drive.

"Rock, Roll and Rice" for Andrew's Birthday
Date 4/24/2008
Time 5:30-7:30

Location: 3214 N. Classen (formerly the Back Door Coffeehouse), Oklahoma City

Music by Matt Stansberry Band
Free food and family fun!

Join us to celebrate Andrew's 35th birthday, and come rock & roll with your next U.S. Senator from Oklahoma!

Suggested donation: $10 (and bring a can of food for the Regional Food Bank)

I have blogged about how Dems have really great candidates in Alaska and Nebraska in 2008. How about Oklahoma? In Oklahoma we have a real chance to defeat the insane bastard Inhofe. This is a Republican who can't even musted the compassion to support America's Veterans. Here is his record on Veterans' issues:

2006 Senator Inhofe supported the interests of the Disabled American Veterans 40 percent in 2006.

2006 In 2006 Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America gave Senator Inhofe a grade of D-.

2006 Senator Inhofe sponsored or co-sponsored 6 percent of the legislation favored by the The Retired Enlisted Association in 2006.

2005 Senator Inhofe supported the interests of the Disabled American Veterans 33 percent in 2005.

2004 Senator Inhofe supported the interests of the Disabled American Veterans 0 percent in 2004.

2004 Senator Inhofe supported the interests of the The Retired Enlisted Association 0 percent in 2004.

So who are Dems running against this bastard? Andrew Rice:

I first became aware of Andrew Rice through his efforts trying to fight hunger in Oklahoma. But there is more to Andrew than just compassion. Here is an excerpt from his website:

In 2006 I wrote about the idea of a "Community Candidate," a candidate who has already shown his dedication to the community before he even asks for your vote. I based this on a conversation I had with a UAW member who attended a political event in Brooklyn. He expressed frustration at the political process because it was so often based on nothing but hollow promises. He wanted to see more candidates that have an existing track record of serving the community. In other words, he wanted to see some results in advance. This led me to the idea of a "Community Candidate." This is also the idea behind the organization who operate in Michigan and New York State. Over in Oklahoma, Democrat Andrew Rice is showing the kind of dedication to his community that I am looking for in a Community Candidate.

Oklahoma State Senator Andrew Rice (also a candidate for US Senate in Oklahoma) was a driving force in setting up a task force to study hunger in Oklahoma...and the report is now out. Those of us who have watched average Americans get hit by the double blow of two Bush recessions AND the Republican "Drown America in a Bathtub" philosophy, it is no surprise that the report is a rather grim one. You can read the report here (PDF).

Oklahoma is already starting to suffer the consequences of it's tough new anti-migrant workers law :

People are just picking up and leaving :

PARK HILL, Okla. — Autumn had arrived in eastern Oklahoma, and workers at the sprawling Greenleaf Nursery were prepping for deadly frosts. They needed to ship plants, erect greenhouses and bunch trees together to protect them against the cold.

But in late October, about 40 employees disappeared from the 600-acre nursery about an hour's drive from Tulsa. "Some went to Texas, some went to Arkansas," nursery President Randy Davis says. "They just left."

Why did the workers, all immigrants, flee? "Those states don't have 1804," Davis says.

Because most legal residents are children of undocumented parents:

Supporters of 1804 say the state will benefit from illegal immigrants leaving. "That's money in our pocket," says Carol Helm of Immigration Reform for Oklahoma Now.

Not all of those leaving Oklahoma are in the USA illegally. "I've lost two housekeepers out of a staff of 12," says Joe Geis, general manager of the Sleep Inn & Suites in Edmond. "They were here legally, (but) they have family" members who were not.

Immigrant activist Blanca Thames says she has helped more than 1,000 families prepare power-of-attorney papers to protect children in case parents are deported. Many illegal immigrants have U.S.-born children who are citizens.

For our Nevada and Oklahoma readers, there are some political job opportunities, some career-level, opening through the Indigenous Democratic Network (INDN). They are expanding and hence hiring. From INDN:

INDN's List is seeking to fill the positions of Executive Assistant, Political Director, Development Director, and Communications Director. If you're a college student, we also have openings for paid interns!

Our team is immensely dedicated to building a brighter future for Indian Country - working day in and day out, evenings and weekends when necessary, to ensure that our First Americans aren't the last Americans to be represented.

If you or someone you know has a taste for politics, experience relevant to our openings, and most importantly a passion for civil rights and social justice, we want you at INDN's List.

Visit www.indnslist.org/careers now to find out which opening is right for you. Application deadlines vary by position, and each will be open until we find the right person.

In addition to the openings at INDN's List, our sister organization has openings for its upcoming caucus organizing in Nevada - the first effort of the Native American Network (NAN). If you want to join a non-partisan effort to make Indians the determining vote in the Nevada Caucuses and a key component in deciding the nominees of both parties, then joining INDN's List Education Fund (ILEF) is right for you.