The Basement

This is how Charles Hill of Dustbury fame catagorized my discussion of the gas prices/Bush/Iraq tipping point. He talks about it here. His suggestion is that we try to "can get Cindy Sheehan a meeting with the chairman of ExxonMobil." As usual, Mr. Hill's suggestion seems more reasonable to me that anything I hear from any elected official.

Matthew Hurst makes the assertion that we've hit the tipping point with gas and oil prices. I think he's right – so I started running my own BlogPulse Trends to see what else I could find and this is what I discovered...

(Click here for your own BlogPulse Trend graph.)

Look closely – particularly at the green line which represents mentions of "oil" and "price" or "prices" but no mention of "Iraq" and it's relationship to the dark blue line which represents mentions of "Iraq" and a least one of a list of anti-war words I came up with but no mentions of gas or oil.

Mar 16: Green Spikes – Oil prices hit record high of $56/barrel
Mar 31: Dark Blue Spikes
June 21: Green Spike – Oil prices hit record high of $59/barrel
June 29: Dark Blue Spike – Bush's Iraq speech and a huge surge in anti-Iraq posts

I'm not sure what happened in late April (I don't have time to dig tonight) but I think it is important. There's a surge in mentions about Bush and Oil (light blue) - but they're seperate from the mentions of Bush and Iraq (purple is Bush, Iraq & Oil). Again, a few days later a surge of of anti-war rhetoric - but this time it's sticky and it's starts to swell - but still seperate from oil and gas discussions.

These are the big points. It seems like when ever there's increased buzz about high oil prices, it's followed with a surge of anti-war posts which don't mention oil or gas prices. That's important, so I'm going to say it again – high oil price posts lead anti-war rhetoric post that don't mention oil or gas prices. This is not a huge surprise I guess – but this might indicate that we aren't terribly honest about our anti-war sentiments – maybe not even with ourselves. This seems to suggest that we were all okay with sending our young overseas to die as long as we didn't feel it in our wallet at the pumps. But once that happened, we suddenly develop issues with the war – of course, they are completely unrelated to oil or gas prices.

Now look at the purple line. It represents mentions of Bush, Iraq and oil or gas. I think this line represents the level to which the American people (or at least those posting to blogs) associate Bush's action in Iraq with oil and gas prices. When this line trends up, it's really bad for the Bush administration. Once this line begin its upward trend, people are no longer separating the concepts, they are no longer thinking rationally. I think Matthew's right – we've reached the tipping point on gas prices, but it might also be the tipping point for the Bush administration and American support for the war effort.

This might suggest that rising oil prices are the catalyst for American people turning against Bush's war effort – but we're going to use something else as an excuse.

In a follow-up to A Funny Thing Happened To Me This Morning On The Way To My Blog ..., Dan Galloway, City Manager of Bethany, Oklahoma and my Dad has forwarded his paper titled Local Sales Tax Law in Oklahoma: The "Donors" are Dying. He has also forwarded a conceptual overview of what Oklahoma municipal sales tax reform might look like which includes some examples of how it would affect 17 sample municipalities around the state (including Bethany, Oklahoma City and Tulsa).

According to Mr. Galloway's calculations, the City of Tulsa received nearly $64 Million in sales tax revenue annually from citizens that do not live in the City, cannot vote for Tulsa City officials and do not receive the direct benefit of this tax.

On a tangentially related note, my wife and kids and I went to Bethany yesterday for their annual 4^th of July festival which includes a parade, carnival, free outdoor concert and fireworks. This year's performers were The Coaster (of "Yakity Yak" fame) and Kenny Rodgers.

I have to admit I went to see Kenny Rogers so I could make jokes about him later – however, the guy was phenomenal! A truly great performer. My favorite moment was when he announced the point in the show where he used to walk off the stage and down the steps and "pretend that he wasn't coming back". He said that he think encores are silly and he's getting too old to walk down the steps more than he has too so they were just going to finish playing the rest of the show. Mr. Rogers, I couldn't agree more.

The festival looked to be a huge success, I'd guess there were anywhere from 15,000-25,000 people there. They have it every year and it is scheduled to be one of the official Oklahoma Centennial Celebrations in 2007.

The Basement was mentioned on Bates Line! Bates Line is the work of Michael D. Bates, a fellow Tulsa based blogger. His focus is primarily political and as an added bonus, The Tulsa World has threatened him with a law suit for creating links to their website and using excepted text in what is clearly protected as "fair use". Anybody that gets threaten by a law suit for exercising first amendment rights is alright in my book. Someday, through hard work and dedication, I hope to get threatened with a lawsuit too. Thanks for the mention Mr. Bates!

Charles G. Hill of Dustbury picks up our eminent eminent domain story. Sure I had an inside man but it's awful cool that we scooped every newspaper in Oklahoma, published editorial feedback and subsequent response from a the original author, and got quoted on another exceptional Oklahoma blog where the editorial comments continued – all in 24 hours. This medium continues to astound me.

Of particular note is Mr. Hill's comment on Dad's editorial...

I have to wonder if maybe Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett was thinking along these lines when he offered to extend city fire and police protection to some of the suburbs under contract.

So, welcome Mr. Hill and readers of Dustbury.com! This looks like a really interesting blog and, relatively speaking, it's as old as dirt – archives dating back to 2000. Mr. Hill blogs on well, almost everything, but it looks like he's got lots of good local political commentary – especial if it involves the Oklahoma City area. Oh, and he funny - in his own distrubing way. He's got a blogroll that includes all kinds of Oklahoma sites as well as an impressive smattering of eclectic stuff from around the planet. I've added him to my blogroll and I'm honored that he mentioned The Basement. Thanks again Mr. Hill.

Oh, BTW, where the hell is Dustbury, Oklahoma?

Oh, and one last thing, my Dad's name is DAN not DON, but not to worry, I'm sure he's been called worse.

But first, the back story...

Our recent flag debate was triggered by my Dad's response to my original post This Post May Soon Be Illegal. For those of you not in-the-know, my father, Dan Galloway is the City Manager of Bethany, Oklahoma – a small suburb of Oklahoma City. As CM's go, the guy is a bit of a maverick. As City Manager of Clinton in Southwestern Oklahoma he turned an otherwise useless city landfill into a dirt oval stock car race track. One that many races say is the best around – so I'm told. Once at a Oklahoma City Managers Association meeting, he solved a group problem solving icebreaker exercise that was designed to take 1 to 2 hours in less than 15 minutes spoiling the mornings agenda. More recently, he's ordered the painting of a blue line outlining the City of Bethany so that city residents know where to spend their sales tax dollars. This particular measure has garnered him national press as can be seen here, here, here, here, and here. But it's not ALL good press, there was the somewhat less publicized Egret Debacle of '98 as seen here.

Most recently and on a more serious note, Dad has been leading the charge for Oklahoma state sales tax reform. His basic assertion is that Oklahoma sales tax is collected and distributed in a disproportionate way that unfairly burdens "donor" cities like Bethany to fund Oklahoma City and Tulsa in a way that may be unconstitutional. A couple of articles discussing this are here and here. Now, according to one of these articles, Dad has written (and once upon a time I reviewed a rough draft of) a 12-page report entitled, "Local Sales Tax Law in Oklahoma - The 'Donors' are Dying." I would create a link but I can't find it anywhere – not even on the City of Bethany website. [Note to Dad: If you want people to read your paper, put it on your website.] BTW, also missing from Bethany's website – a press release page, links to all of these articles, the "Better Buy in Bethany" branding campaign, your paint can mascot, A CITY MANAGER'S BLOG!!! ...but I digress.

Oh, but there's more... this 4^th of July, my Dad's booked Kenny Rogers (Yes! The Gambler!!) to play the big free outdoor concert shindig extravaganza that Bethany hosts each year. (and yes, I'll be there singing along!)

Oh, here's just two more articles – a before and after. Here's one with a good picture of Dad lookin' real civic like and another (more recent) with his new "Now I'm really serious!" haircut.

So this is my Dad. He's brilliant and funny and I love him a lot, so naturally, I want him to be impressed with my blog...

So after some great discussion from Bob P. and Danger on the flag issue, I pinged my Dad to make sure he saw his influence on me my blog. Here's an except from his response:

Read your comments yesterday. Would like to have time to add some more but am pretty busy right now.

No problem Dad, I understand, the cat and the cradle and all that. Then – the funny thing that happened - an hour and forty-seven minutes later, I get another email from Dad ...

Subject: Eminent Domain

Just finished a brief editorial and sent to a few newspapers. Thought you might be interested.

Dan Galloway, City Manager

What !?!? Since your son's got a blog that's almost two weeks old and is read by nearly a half a dozen people world-wide you might as well email in your editorials in the hope that you'll be picked up? Well if that's not a compliment I don't know what is! Thanks Dad! Of course I'll pick this up! Oh, Dad, for future reference just go ahead and cut and paste your editorials into the comments of some unrelated post, that's what Bob's been doing.

So I read my Dad's editorial. It's not really about eminent domain – it's Dad's Oklahoma sales tax is so unfair rant. I would link to the editorial on Bethany's website, but... oh, I already covered that. [Dad, seriously, get a blog!] Well, since he is my Dad, I converted his Bourgeoisie Microsoft Word formatted document into a PDF so that it would be appropriately formatted for this blog and posted it here.

Mild misdirection aside, he makes good points and it's worth the read. His primary point (as I understand it) is that the dependence of Oklahoma municipalities on city sales tax revenue is the impetus to exercise eminent domain for commercial development. With no real alternative to city sales tax, municipalities are forced to encourage commercial development at almost any price.

I think we've recently seen some examples of this here in the Tulsa area. Urban sprawl is a horrible thing and large scale commercial development detracts from the "small town" feel of suburban communities like Broken Arrow. In terms of "standard of living" the argument could be made that Broken Arrow would be better off if, for example, the Bass Pro Shop were built near downtown Tulsa. Being built in a more centralized location would be better for Bass Pro Shop as it draws from a larger population for both customers and employees. Furthermore, it would strengthen radial growth from the metro area while minimizing commercial sprawl. This would benefit Tulsa and all of its surrounding suburban communities. However, under the current sales tax system this would mean that Broken Arrow taxpayers would be further funding Tulsa's infrastructure and municipal services instead of their own. As Dad would say, this is taxation without representation as these Broken Arrow taxpayers would have no say in elections held in Tulsa – and no say in how these tax dollars are spent. To this end, Broken Arrow has little choice but to compete head to head with Tulsa for commercial development as the demands of their population grows. Lucky for Broken Arrow, Tulsa is really lousy at this whole economic develop gig. [Note to Mr. LaFortune: This just in - Boeing is not moving to Tulsa. Maybe you should look for some other opportunities.] Ultimately, there is a tipping point beyond which Oklahoma municipalities must "sell out" to commercial interests in order to provide necessary services to their citizens. This taxation system works in direct opposition to cooperation between neighboring municipalities for the greater good of the larger community.

Bob, Danger, anyone up for debating the relative evils of the structure of Oklahoma sales tax collection and distribution? I for one would say that it's relatively evil.

Dad, send me a copy of "Local Sales Tax Law in Oklahoma - The 'Donors' are Dying " and I'll post that too, you know, because I have my own blog.

Oh, and I'm really proud to be your son.

In response to This Post May Soon Be Illegal, Dan Galloway wrote:

There is a difference (at least in the minds of many) between cutting up an actual flag and sewing it back together as a shirt, and printing some material with colors stylized to represent the look of the flag and cutting it up and sewing it together. I doubt (no I am sure) that Roper does not order cases of U.S. Flags and cut them up to make shirts. Would have to charge a lot more than $34.99.

( DISCLAIMER: Dan Galloway is my Dad and is usually quite brilliant and I love him very much.)

Hmmm. You have a point. There is a difference between Abbie Hoffman's shirt* and the one from Roper. Mr. Hoffman wore his shirt in the American tradition of defying authority in the name on injustice. He was a patriot that sacrificed his own freedoms, and put himself in harms way to affect the course of American government and society towards what he thought to be liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Roper, on the other hand, is capitalizing on an a surge of terror induced patriotism for commercial gain by prostituting the imagery of the American flag.

You're right, Roper most likely doesn't cut up already assembled flags and stitch them back together as shirts. Why? Because as you pointed out, the shirts would cost more! I ask you this, if Roper could make these shirts cheaper by using real flags do you think they would? After all you didn't say they don't use real flags because it would be unpatriotic.

I personally think only one of these examples desecrates the flag.

Yes, these two cases are different in some ways, but they are also the same. They are both clearly protected under the First Amendment.

So how would this new amendment change things? First, it only gives power to create law making desecration of the flag illegal – it's not a law by itself. So what would a law look like, what would it protect? Easy right, the flag! So what, is the flag? Is it the material that we attach to a flag pole? What about burning a photograph of the flag? Or how about burning a shirt that is intentionally designed to look like a flag? Or a flag with 51 stars or 14 stripes or 7 white stripes and 6 red – these are clearly not the American flag – just like your Roper shirt.

The point is that the flag is not the material we run up the pole but the idea that it represents – namely freedom.

So what does desecrate mean? It means to "violate the sacred character of" So where the hell do we draw this line? I would say that putting the flag on coffee mugs and selling them on a street corner violates the sacred nature of the flag. What about using the flag as a symbol of government in a peaceful demonstration by citizens who want to be involved in the direction of government? Isn't this guaranteed under the First Amendment? Oh, this is fine as long as the use of the flag is PRO-GOVERNMENT!

So "desecrate" really means anything you do to a flag, or anything that looks like a flag in order to make a political statement that is in opposition to the rule of government – even if it is a peaceful demonstration. Hmmm. This sounds a lot like the tyranny from which the founding fathers fled. Not to worry, this is why we have the Second Amendment. Bravo.

I think Rep. Jerrold Nadler ( D-NY) said it best, "If the flag needs protection at all, it needs protection from members of Congress who value the symbol more than the freedoms that the flag represents."

Would you rather live in a country where political leaders legislate patriotism or inspire it?

_{*I'm not sure Mr. Hoffman's shirt was made from a "real" flag or not, but let's assume that it was – after all this point is moot.}

1968: Desecration of the flag.

2005: Dumbass that shows his support of the anti-flag desecration amendment by wearing a Roper® flag print shirt, $34.99

I think there should be a constitutional amendment against hypocrisy and stupidity in American government. This is really sad and embarrassing. I only hope there are 34 senators with a clue. Oh well, a guy can still dream – at least until they pass an amendment to ban that too.