Oklahoma

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Oklahoma, the Sooner State, became a state on Nov. 16, 1907. Much of the Oklahoma Territory had been set aside as Reservations for Native Americans displaced by European settlement further east. Rich in oil, natural gas and other minerals, Oklahoma is also a productive agricultural state. On April 19, 1995 right-wing terrorists Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, both of whom were military veterans, carried out a bombing of the Murrah Federal Building that killed 168 andf wounded more than over 800. The crazed rightist conspiracism that motivated them was cultivated by conservative anti-government ideologues since the 1960s.

1 Defeated Working Class
2 Oklahoma Congressional Delegation
3 Oklahoma State Government
4 Oklahoma County Government
5 Law Enforcement Issues
6 Elections
7 Links
8 Freedom
9 Oklahoma News, Etc.
10 Political Blogs
11 See also

Defeated Working Class

Although once fertile political territory for Prairie Populism, Oklahoma has become just another segment in the southern Bible Belt. Majorities in the state have voted Republican in every presidential election since 1964, although the 1976 Carter-Ford race was close. In 2004, George W. Bush carried every county in the state.

The majority of working Oklahomans are politically disempowered and unable to assert their own basic economic interests. In late June 2006 the effort to raise sufficient numbers of petition signatures to place an initiative measure on the ballot to raise the Oklahoma state minimum wage from the Federal minimum of $5.15 an hour to 6.15$ an hour failed.

The group Raise Oklahoma was only able to gather 117,101 of the 150,000 signatures that it had sought. California, Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, New York, Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont, Rhode Island, Delaware, Connecticut, New Jersey and even Florida all have state minimum wages higher than the Federal minimum.

Unlike the working people in those states, the working people of Oklahoma lack what it takes to demand to be treated decently. Bible Belt conservatism is so corrosive that renders even Oklahomans slavish.

Oklahoma Congressional Delegation

Senate
- Senior Senator: James Inhofe (R)
- Junior Senator: Tom Coburn (R)

House of Representatives
- OK-01 Rep.: John Sullivan (R)
- OK-02 Rep.: Dan Boren (D)
- OK-03 Rep.: Frank D. Lucas (R)
- OK-04 Rep.: Tom Cole (R)
- OK-05 Rep.: Mary Fallin (R)

Oklahoma State Government

Executive Branch
- Governor: Brad Henry (D)
- Lt. Governor: Jari Askins (D) appointed
- Treasurer: Scott Meacham (D)
- Attorney General: W.A. Drew Edmondson (D)
- State Auditor and Inspector: Jeff A. McMahan (D)
- Superintendent of Public Instruction: Sandy Garrett (D)
- Commissioner of Labor: Lloyd L. Fields (D)
- Insurance Commissioner: Kim Holland (D)
- Corporation Commissioner: Bob Anthony (R)

Legislative Branch
- Oklahoma State Legislature

Judicial Branch
- Oklahoma Judicial Branch

Oklahoma Constitution
- Oklahoma Constitution

Oklahoma County Government

Oklahoma Counties (National Association of Counties)
List of Counties (State of Oklahoma)
County Maps (State of Oklahoma, Department of Transportation)
Interactive Oklahoma County Map (U.S. Census Bureau)
Oklahoma Counties

Law Enforcement Issues

An estimated 85% of the inamtes of Oklahoma's prisons are there because of alcohol and other drug abuse problems. Imprisoning an inmate for for one year in a minimum-security incarceration costs an estimated $16,126. Tom Blakely. "Straight Shooters." The Norman Transcript. December 2, 2005.

Elections

Oklahoma State Election Board (State of Oklahoma)
2008 Elections
- Oklahoma elections, 2008
2006 Elections
Oklahoma election results
see U.S. elections

Freedom

Cimarron Alliance Foundation
Oklahoma ended its legal ban on tattooing on November 1, 2006. The State Health Department will now issue state licenses to owners of tattoo shops.