It's Law Day! Start dialing for dollars! $9.5 million to be precise!

Happy Thursday everyone! I’m back at The Compound this morning, taking a break from the road. Cousin Fred and I will head to Indiana tomorrow or Saturday to follow The Trump.

After his major foreign policy speech in DC yesterday, I’m beginning to wonder about the guy. There wasn’t anything particularly new in that speech. He mostly defended foreign policy rants he’s made in the past, just restating them with a bit less vitriol. But, hey, that’s not why Cousin Fred and I embedded with him for the long-haul. He’s still the most entertaining candidate out there and at some point that presidential façade he’s suddenly adopted will crumble and the bat-shit crazy billionaire will reemerge.

The Wife leaves on one of her fabulous vacations tomorrow so I still have to work out a dog sitter to come in while we’re on the stump with Trump. Generally when she’s gone it means I get to eat beef and pork at will and I even try to stay up later – 9PM instead of 8:30 – o’ the debauchery!

There were two items in the Woodward News (whose motto taken from the Latin is “You want real news? So make real news!”) this morning that inspired me as I was starting to write this post.

The first, and yes I know I went on ad infinitum about this last year - about Oklahoma receiving its annual payment from the Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust Fund. The payment, in the amount of $76 million, pushed Oklahoma’s fund once again just above $1 billion according to the state treasurer. That money is supposedly used to help people in the state stop smoking. That’s great, really it is, but other than those goofy commercials where small kids are fingering tobacco products and asking if they can take some home, where is the money going?

In the past ten years, I’ve lost three close relatives who died as a result of smoking. Why not do something substantive for smokers who want to quit? Seriously…$1 billion would fund a lot of programs to help people stop smoking. What the hell is the state going to do with that money? I suppose Her Royal Highness Mary of Fallin will use some of it to fund additional Botox treatments now that she’s been tapped as The Trump’s running mate.

But, I digress…same as last year, the $76 million dollar payment doesn’t all go to the trust fund…oh no. $19 million of it is taken right off the top and divided between the morons in the state legislature and the Oklahoma attorney general. The morons supposedly use it to fund health care initiatives (uh huh). The OAG’s cash goes to his “evidence fund”…seriously?

When I first broke this last year, I spent some time calling around trying to find out what the hell the OAG’s evidence fund is all about. Either nobody knows or they won’t talk about it. What’s the big secret? Are they buying evidence? Paying off people? $9.5 million a year would buy a lot of evidence I’m thinking.

This year, though I may have a solution. The other article in the paper this morning that caught my eye is that it’s Law Day today. Attorneys around the state are allowing us non-attorneys to call into hotlines to ask questions.

I encourage ALL Oklahomans to call in during the Law Day (number is 800-456-8525) and ask what the hell the OAG’s evidence fund is actually used for.

If you don’t get a satisfactory response, keep calling until you do. Someone in the Oklahoma Bar must have worked in the OAG’s office at some point.

Let’s make Law Day actually mean something this year! Oh, and be sure to let me know if you get a plausible answer.
 

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