The shame of western Oklahoma, The Oklahoman newspaper, has a semi-regular feature called "Monday Morning Quarterbacks," which mostly just reviews conservative voices. The only time they quote liberals or progressives is to mock or refute them. Like today:

CURDLE YOUR YERDLE
The Left Wing is playing for keeps this election cycle. The king of liberal/progressive blogging, Markos Moulitsas rallies the troops at dailykos.com with his own adaptation of Knute Rockne. Libs must "do everything necessary allowable under the law to win because elections have consequences," he writes. "This isn’t about who is most pure, but about taking the fight to the enemy ... and fighting fire with fire." Later Kos writes about having the "killer instinct," rubbing salt in conservatives’ wounds and forcing them to go into debt. What’s next, burning their villages?

Umm...project much?

Esquire Magazine got the civic bug two years ago and started endorsing political candidates. And they didn’t do it half-ass, either, they endorsed in every single congressional district, up or down. Ditto this year, and in Oklahoma, they didn’t pull any punches:

Inhofe believes that 9/11 was divine retribution. He believes that our Middle East policy should be based on the text of the Bible. He denies the science behind global warming. Doesn’t like students. Doesn’t care for poor people. Hates government. Like Jesse Helms, without the charm. We made a mistake on our “10 Worst” list: Inhofe stands alone as the worst member of Congress.
Esquire endorses: Rice

In the federal House races, by district:

1. Georgiana Oliver (D), challenger
2. Dan Boren (D), incumbent
3. Frank Lucas (R), incumbent
4. Tom Cole (R), incumbent
5. Mary Fallin (R), incumbent

For president, they endorse Obama.

Update: I’ve reworked this post to be a letter to the editor of the Oklahoman. I tried to shorten it, but after much editing, cutting and added, it ended up exactly the same number of words. But it was a lot better. I’ll post the new version in a few days. I don’t want to jeopardize getting it published in case they Google and find it here. (Though of course, the chances of them using it are negligible.)

Original version:
On Nov. 4, Oklahomans have a serious question to ask themselves before voting: Do they want to be stuck with two Senators and all but one of their Representatives in the minority party for the foreseeable future, or do they want to be seriously involved in governing this country, solving our collective problems and moving into the future?

Because, unless something unexpected happens before, or something illegal happens on Election Day, the Democratic Party is going to control both houses of Congress — probably by a considerable margin — as well as the White House, come January 20, 2009.

Members of the minority party, meanwhile, simply will be keeping their seats warm, having have no real power.

If Andrew Rice, the Democrat who is challenging Republican Senator Jim Inhofe, is elected, he will be part of that national majority, and able to represent Oklahoma’s interests in Washington during the next six years, which I happen to think he will do very well. But even if you disagree with him on many issues, at least you will be able to contact a member of the ruling party to influence legislation. The other option is to send Inhofe back, where he will continue to suffer the precipitous decline of his status and influence to shape anything other than the cushion of his chair. In the latter outcome, Oklahoma will have no serious voice in the world-changing debate and decisions that are looming before us — in security, the environment, energy, the economy, et. al.

It’s really that simple.

I hope Oklahomans will think about whether they want to have any participation or power in making the changes that are coming. This election could be their one chance for that to happen.

The Oklahoma deadline to register to vote in the Nov. 4 election is Oct. 10. Check here for how to register, or to confirm your registration.

Our own ultra-conservative stalwart is one of the few GOP members in high office willing to show their face at RNC, though doing so means swallowing his pride .

Sen. Jim Inhofe says he has made peace with John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, whom Inhofe has sparred with in the past over global warming and other issues.

Inhofe, R-Okla., once predicted that McCain could not win the GOP nomination, reasoning that his background on some issues would not sit well with activist conservatives.

And here’s a fine example of delusional thinking:

“And later on, I ran into John in the cloak room and he said: ‘Look, Jimmy, we’ve had our differences of opinion…but I’m going to be president and you’re going to be chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and we’re going to need each other.”

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Dream on, you old fogies!

This is running on TV in Oklahoma, has been for about a month. I’m not sure of how heavy the rotation is, since I watch mostly just C-Span, MSNBC and Bravo for specific programs. But I see it frequently when I do watch. The production values are not the best, but the content is great because it’s simple and plain, and the speakers are unpolished. But Andrew Rice is rapidly gaining on Jim Inhofe, and I’m thinking this ad is playing a role.

You can help keep the ad running (and maybe produce some more like it) at Progressive Kick.

Plutonium Page has posted to Daily Kos a diary which helps to expose some important background information about T. Boone Pickens and his "plan" that supposedly will liberate us from foreign oil. T. Boone Pickens' Fancy Sales Pitch

Devilstower and I just went to a talk here at the DNC featuring T. Boone Pickens. Everyone was under the impression that the event would involve an actual discussion (as in, a Q & A session, like nearly all of the other Big Tent special topic sessions). We had a really energetic live blog thread going, where all of you were submitting questions. Sorry, guys. Apparently, the whole thing was just a sales pitch. T. Boone hightailed it out of there before anyone could even raise their hand.

I'll post some excerpts below, but really, go to the original, where you can also read the comments, which are just as illuminating.

Maybe he was afraid we'd ask questions like:

In 2004, you helped pay for the Swift Boat ads, along with fellow billionaire Harold Simmons, who's funding the Ayres attack ads this cycle. If you're willing to tolerate, and even encourage, that level of dishonesty in political discourse, why should we trust you on any subject?

(From Devilstower) I wanted to ask him:

Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma is well known for saying that global warming is the "greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people," and is one of the most outspoken climate change science deniers around, as well as being joined at the hip with the oil companies.

In your presentation today, you specifically said that you "believe global warming is real".

However, you have heavily funded James Inhofe's campaign. How do you reconcile your support for Inhofe with your promotion of renewable energy programs?

From an energy expert acquaintance via email:

Can you please explain why people should take your plan seriously when, for example, you do not include any energy efficiency measures within it?

For a real and honest debate on the topic of energy policy, see the liveblogging thread. On which Devilstower summed up the Pickens Plan with this update: Update [2008-8-27 15:7:47 by Devilstower]: And T. Boone heads for the door without taking a single question. Which makes the whole presentation worth about as much as day old spit.