(Oklahomans should urge Gov. Brad Henry to veto House Bill 2633, which contains a religious intrusion act sponsored by state Rep. Sally Kern, an Oklahoma City Republican. Here is a recent Associated Press story about the legislation. Here is the governor's Web site.)

(U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe is out of touch with ordinary Oklahomans. Watch the new DSCC video about Inhofe’s “expensive little toy” as state residents face staggering increases in gasoline prices.)

Perhaps it is symbolically fitting that Oklahoma’s U.S. Rep. Tom Cole, a longtime Republican political operative in one of the country’s reddest of red states, is now overseeing the demise of the neoconservative movement on a national level.

But, then, who else besides a prominent Oklahoman Republican, backed by the state’s ultra-conservative, GOP-adoring corporate media and energy companies, could get a free media pass when defending on a de facto basis the botched Iraq occupation, the torturing of foreign prisoners by the U.S. government, the continuing war on basic civil rights in this country and the tanking economy? Who else would even do it? Maybe someone from Utah or Mississippi? Maybe.

Cole heads the National Republican Congressional Committee, which tries to get Republicans elected to the House. His local public relations firm, The Oklahoman, published a story Saturday about his efforts so far, and, well, things are not going so well in neoconservative loony land these days. Democrats recently defeated Republicans in two special elections in Louisiana and Illinois. The seats were considered Republican strongholds. The Illinois seat was previously held by former House Speaker Dennis Hastert.

Chris Casteel, one of the most biased, right-wing reporters in the country, fails to mention in his story the declining approval ratings of one of the most unpopular presidents in the country's history or how the sinking economy and the Iraq occupation have turned the country against Republicans. These are only some reasons why Republican candidates continue to lose across the country. The numbers and facts are all there. The neoconservative experiment did not work. It divided the country on a historic level, squandered the country’s treasury and brought us endless war. Meanwhile, Democrats are registering to vote in record numbers, and presidential contenders Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama attract adoring crowds wherever they go.

To his credit, Casteel quotes House Speaker Nancy Pelosi about the rise of the Democratic Party these days, but the real story about this election will never be found in the pages of The Oklahoman, which continues to promote oligarchy, war, torture and fewer civil rights for ordinary people.

What is tragic from a real local public relations standpoint, though, is that a politician from Moore, Oklahoma—Cole is no doubt returning political favors—is the frontman for a dead political movement now led by a 71-year-old clone of Imperial President George Bush. It makes the state seem like it is stuck in a huge time warp as the country moves forward, embracing change.

The facts are increasingly clear John McCain’s shallow political campaign for president shows the Republican Party is now held tenuously together by dead ideologies, but do not count on the corporate media to challenge him.

In addition, McCain, the Arizona Senator and Republican presumptive nominee for president, won the nomination early in the process, and this has effectively shut down any real debate among Republicans about the major economic problems faced by Americans this election year. (There are Republicans who do want a discussion about the issues.) Americans in staggering numbers do not think the country is heading in the right direction, but this fact matters little to the media.

Conservative pundits, from Rush Limbaugh to Robert Novak to George Will to Charles Krauthammer, dish out the witty vitriol and clever snark about Democratic Party candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, but the real story is these commentators—blustering, pontificating cartoon figures—are as intellectually bankrupt as the Republican Party they so adore. The corporate media feeds these narcissistic, loony right-wing ideologues with petty guilt-by-association plots and Clinton-family obsession. What did the Rev. Jeremiah Wright say today? Did Chelsea look sad the other night? Is she out of touch with her generation? Limbaugh, Novak, Will and Krauthammer (and so many, many others in the mainstream media) crowd around the pig trough.

As respect for the neoconservative experiment declines even further throughout the country and world so does the trust in the American mainstream media. Together the GOP and media have brought us the Bush-GOP/Iraq nightmare, illegal torturing of prisoners, threats to our civil liberties and economic chaos. Now, again working together, the GOP and mainstream media want to reduce our election into ad hominem attacks against Clinton and Obama.

What are McCain’s ideas besides “bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran”? What are his stances and positions? How do they differ from those of Imperial President George Bush? The answer to all these questions is simply this: McCain has no new ideas, nothing that differs substantially from Bush or the incredibly botched neoconservative experiment. Even if one does not buy into the change theme this year, it is clear that McCain is Bush redux.

The issues are clear and compelling. Here is just a partial list: How do we improve wages and health care for regular Americans? What do we do about the Iraq debacle? How do we de-sanction the torture of prisoners and regain our standing in the world? What do we do about the energy crisis as gasoline prices skyrocket? How do we protect the environment, improve sustainability? The Republicans and McCain are simply nowhere to be found on these issues in any meaningful way. Clinton and Obama have debated these issues for months and months

Meanwhile, in state legislatures across the country, the GOP ideological wars continue unabated with voter ID, anti-illegal immigration and anti-abortion initiatives. GOP-sponsored legislation continues to attack science education in schools as it seeks to erase the boundary between church and state. These are the dead, negative GOP ideologies of hate and right-wing Christian theocracy that disenfranchise people, the wasteland of the neoconservative experiment.

Polls show Americans collectively do not support the GOP on these cultural wedge issues, but would you know that by following the news in the mainstream media? No. Under the current corrupt rubric, mainstream GOP media pundits speak for “all Americans.” Those who opposed the war and the Imperial Bush agenda, for example, from the beginning are the “left-wing fanatics” who speak for only a small, marginalized group in this country. Yet, again, polls show otherwise, that Americans oppose the war in Iraq in large numbers, that they disapprove of Bush in overwhelming numbers. This disconnect between ordinary people and the corporate media has perhaps never been greater in the country’s history.

Many Americans hope for a correction to the quasi-fascist government of the Imperial Bush, perhaps the most unpopular president in the country’s history, this election year. But how can that correction occur when the corporate media continues to reward those who were wrong and marginalize those who were right about the most important foreign policy endeavor in a generation? Many of us who were right about the Iraq invasion and ensuring occupation were penalized for speaking out. Meanwhile, people like John Yoo, the lawyer who wrote the infamous memos sanctioning U.S. torture of its foreign prisoners, get faculty positions at major universities.

Consequently, Americans need to continue to exchange information and work outside of the mainstream media in order to bring about real political reform in this country. It may take many more years, true, but American democracy is at stake. We are not giving up. Never.

Listen, the mainstream media will absolutely never hold McCain accountable to policy positions, nor will it stop trashing the Democratic presidential contenders. Once Democrats get their nominee, the GOP and corporate media will join together and relentlessly and ruthlessly attack the candidate. Accepting this simple and obvious fact now could help the Democratic Party win in November. It is time for new structures, frames and rules. Democrats will not win by trying to work within the corrupt GOP/media system.

Forbes Magazine might have labeled Oklahoma’s largest city as “recession proof,” but a growing number of state families face financial hardship as food and energy prices rise and wages remain stagnant.

A newly formed, nonprofit organization, the Oklahoma Policy Institute, warned about these vulnerable families in an issue brief released Tuesday.

OK Policy, an offshoot of the Community Action Project of Tulsa, was formed to “provide objective, non-partisan, analysis” of state policy issues. The institute, according to statement, will be concerned with “alleviating poverty, expanding economic opportunity and promoting fiscal responsibility.”

According to the issue brief, written by the organization’s policy director, David Blatt, the Oklahoma economy is doing better that some state economies in distressed areas of the country, but it is unlikely the state can escape residual problems from the national economic downturn. The brief is titled "On The Brink: Oklahoma Families Are Already Facing Tough Times."

Blatt writes, “What makes the prospect of an impending downturn especially worrisome is that even in these generally prosperous times for the state, many Oklahoma families are already feeling financially pinched. Despite low jobless rates and rising statewide incomes, a great number of households are barely scraping by or not making it at all as they struggle to balance their household budgets and cover their essential needs.”

Blatt points out the Oklahoma’s median income, when adjusted for inflation, declined 4.1 percent from 2001 to 2005 while the top one percent of households grew by 11 percent. In addition, the 2005 median average hourly wage of $12.26 was actually 0.7 lower than in 2001.

Blatt’s research reflects the growing disparity in this country between the richest families and everyone else.

“According to a recent study, on average,” Blatt writes, “incomes have declined on aver age by 2.5 percent among the bottom fifth of families since the late 1990s, while increasing by 9.1 percent among the top fifth.”

Meanwhile, Blatt points out, the price of food, gasoline, utilities, health care and education (tuition, fees, child care) continue to rise in Oklahoma. Middle-class families are feeling the pinch. The state also has the sixth largest rate of people (650,000) without health insurance in the country and high rates of hunger. Many Oklahomans continue to have poor access to health care. State poverty rates continue to rise. State tax revenues are declining.

Is the state on the verge of a major economic slowdown or even a crisis for middle-class and lower-income families as the state’s richest people continue to enjoy increasing income levels? Forbes Magazine recently declared Oklahoma City as the most recession-proof city in America, but does it take into account families trying to make it during a time of rising prices and stagnant salaries?

State leaders should carefully consider Blatt’s research for a full and realistic view of Oklahoma’s economic situation.