Trolley Square Shooter's Criminal History

The 18-year old that killed at least 5 people Tuesday night's sealed juvenile record was leaked to the Salt Lake Tribune this evening:

At age 12, Talovic was before a judge for allegedly holding a knife over the head of girl while stating, "I'll kill you," according to a source who is familiar with the case.
Two years earlier, Talovic was referred to juvenile court for throwing rocks at a little girl.
About the same time, he threatened his parents' landlord with a knife.
The first girl was not struck by the stones. And the mother of the second girl snatched her up in the nick of time, just as Talovic took a swipe with the blade, according to the source, who has seen court documents relating to the case.
[...]
...Musto Redzovic, the family's first landlord in Salt Lake City, said Talovic pulled a knife on him at their duplex apartment in 1998 or 1999. Talovic would have been 9 or 10 at the time.
"He was just a child," said Redzovic, who brushed the incident off and did not report the incident to police.
Redzovic said he believes Talovic did not recognize him and may have been simply trying to protect his family's property...
[...]
"I used to feel bad for him," said Redzovic, who believes the behavior was a direct result of the war in Bosnia. "That child must have seen some troubling things in Bosnia." The rock-throwing incident occurred on Sept. 23, 1999. During a juvenile court trial, the allegations were found to be true, although Talovic denied them.
[...]
The knife brandishing episode involving the girl occurred on April 24, 2001, and was eventually dismissed because the victim and her mother could not be located.
Talovic was also referred to court for stealing fireworks from a Smith's grocery store on June 22, 2001.
On July 9, 2001, Talovic admitted the shoplifting crime, and it was the last time he appeared in juvenile court, according to the source, quoting court records.
Court officials said they have been unable to find any juvenile court history on Talovic. The source said the records were expunged in October, when Talovic turned 18.

I wonder how much they paid this source and who it is. Whomever it is, what they did is illegal, which is why they are staying anonymous.

Again, this seems to indicate not that Talovic was a Jahidist, but rather a messed up kid. Messed up by the war, or just a violent youth who felt alienated from society? That is the question.

When bigots react

Little Green Footballs (LGF), a nutty right wing group blog, flipped out when the local newspapers didn't mention the Trolley Square shooter's religion every time they referenced him. [The link is not to LGF, because I don't want to promote their commerce in anyway, but I guess you can click through]

The blogosphere erupted with xenophobia as some posters noted that Talovic was Muslim and concluded the rampage was a terrorist act. The Tribune also has been criticized for not mentioning his religion in every story. The assumption, apparently, is that all Muslims are violent.
"I had my suspicions immediately," one YouTube poster wrote. "I'm willing to bet they will find American hating evidence in this guy's home, computer, etc. Am I racist? No. I'm a realist. We are at war folks!"

The result of LGF and like minded bigots is an avalanche of hate e-mail to Bosnians and Utah Muslims, blaming them for the deaths on Tuesday night. We still have no idea what the shooter's motive was.

"No, he was very good," his uncle, Sadik Omerovic, said Wednesday.
[...]
The shooting rampage came as a "very big surprise for me," Omerovic said. "It just happened. We're shocked."
Also a mystery to Talovic's relatives is how he got a shotgun and handgun.
"Nobody knows," Omerovic said. "We don't know who [gave] him the guns."
[...]
Omerovic said Talovic had no history of violence. "He never, never [hurt anyone]. He was very nice person."

Just because he is Muslim doesn't mean he thought he was on a Jihad. After all, a right winger named Timothy McVeigh killed hundreds of people, including infants and children, all because he had such hate for the federal government. He believed what he was doing was justified by all the horrible things the federal government does. You know, like giving social security checks to old people.

These are the same kinds of people that attacked Sikhs because they were dark skinned bearded men who wore turbans. Who cares if they are not Muslim or not even from the Middle East? Such facts were details that got in the way of Operation Infinite Justice. Such thinking is what got us into war with Iraq. Such thinking could lead us into war with Iran. Such thinking needs to stop here and now.

wednesday round up

Sorry for the sporadic posting this week.

• I had a jury trial all day long, and the jury found him not guilty. The worst part for me as the nascent prosecutor was having to call the victim and tell her the bad news. Domestic Violence case on Valentine's, you gotta love the court's sense of irony.


• Good for Jim Matheson for learning from his Iraq vote in 2002 and voting for the resolution against the escalation of the war (the McCain Doctrine)"At a minimum, we owe them [American soldiers] a new approach and a thoughtful approach to the situation in Iraq and the pursuit of a comprehensive strategy for success." Right on. He supports the Iraq Study Group. I have my quibbles with the ISG report, but to the extent they say it is a mess and that 20-40k more troops will only make things worse, I agree.


• Harkening back to my post yesterday about the shooter, we learn new deals that basically affirm my suspicion:
  

  Sulejman Talovic, an 18-year-old fatally shot by police after Monday's rampage, was only 4 when he and his mother fled their village of Talovici on foot after Serb forces overran it in 1993...
  Talovic lived as a refugee in Bosnia from 1993 to 1998, when his family moved to the United States, they said.
  During that period, he spent some time in Srebrenica, the northeastern enclave where up to 8,000 Muslim men and boys were slaughtered in 1995 by Serb forces loyal to late ex-Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic. It was Europe's worst massacre of civilians since World War II.
  [...]
  "...I'm convinced the war did this in Utah," said Murat Avdic, a friend of the family. "There cannot be any other reason."

  
  His aunt disagrees: "We all suffered things in war, but, no, we didn't have anything [lingering psychologically]," Omerovic said. Even if he wasn't in Srebenica when the massacre happened, he most certainly heard about it, and he probably knew people who were murdered by Slobo's goon squads. A year after he got to America, we began bombing Serbs for Kosovars, and on TV there were horrific images of bombings, villages being torched, etc. I don't see how it could have not affected, but it doesn't excuse his behavior, even if that were the cause.


• Is the administration insane? [Don't answer that] Why would you try to make another bogus case for war with a better equipped country when your troops are already beyond the breaking point? And when the American people believe you about as much as a used car salesman in a plaid suit? I am sure they believe Iran is behind all their troubles, but there are no real facts to support it. That is why two sitting Generals with lots of stars have said this is hype. Iran is a big player in the region because of this disastrous Iraq policy, compounded by a failure to admit failure. Arrogance and pride should not be the basis of our foreign policy.

That's it, Happy Valentine's!

A generation raised by violence

(Photo Credit: World Revolution.org)

Everyone in Utah by now knows about the "mall massacre" at Trolley Square: six dead (including the shooter) and four seriously injured.

Killed were:
• Jeffrey Walker, 53
• Vanessa Quinn, 29
• Kirsten Hinkley, 15
• Teresa Ellis, 29
• Brad Frantz, 25

Wounded and hospitalized are:
• Carolyn Tuft, 43
• Shawn Munns, 34
• Stacy Hansen, 53
• Allen Walker, 16

The shooter was an 18-year old Bosnian immigrant, which means he was born in 1989. It also means that if he grew up in Bosnia, he lived through two genocides (assuming he stayed until 1999). He might have seen people being brutally murdered by their neighbors for no real reason at all. I am not saying this to excuse his actions, far from it. I am speculating like this to show the consequences of allowing children to be victims of and witnesses to massive violence and war.

This is the second time in a few months that a young man from the former Yugoslavia acted out with random violent rage. The first time, Salt Lake got lucky, and no one was hurt [the SLC library bombing]. This time, obviously, was far worse.

Those who grew up in many parts of Africa (especially Rwanda 1994 and Sudan now) risk being tomorrow's Yugoslav violent youth. The same holds true for those who are growing up in Iraq and Afghanistan right now.

As awful as last nights shooting was, worse may be still yet to come if we don't stop letting violence raise another generation of young people.

Another hurdle for Utah's 4th

(Cartoon Credit: © 2001 Clay Bennett)
The Washington Post reports that several members of Congress requested a Congressional Research Service report on the constitutionality of the DC-Utah bill, and the CRS report said it was unconstitutional. Here's why this is a big deal:

The report by the Congressional Research Service is not binding, and its conclusions reflect what some prominent legal scholars have been warning for years. But it could carry extra weight because the service generally gets high marks for its nonpartisan advice to the House and Senate.
[..]
The report lands at a time when the D.C. voting rights effort has been gaining momentum. The new Democratic majority in the House has vowed to move quickly on such legislation.

Thomas Mann, a congressional scholar at the Brookings Institution, said the report represents "a creature of the Congress . . . saying this doesn't really pass constitutional muster. That has to be taken seriously and will certainly be used by those who oppose it."

The question, however, is highly debatable. Ken Starr, "a former federal appellate judge and onetime independent counsel [who investigated Bill Clinton for years]," and Viet D. Dinh, a former assistant attorney general, had analyzed the measure and found it constitutional."

It all depends on how you interpret the case law:

One is a clause that limits House membership to individuals chosen "by the People of the several States." Courts have determined that the phrase excludes the District, the report says.

The second relevant part of the Constitution, the "District Clause," grants Congress broad authority over the city. The bill's proponents note that the Supreme Court ruled in 1949 that Congress could use its powers to give D.C. residents the same rights as other citizens.

That case, National Mutual Insurance Co. v. Tidewater, concerned the right to have a federal court hear lawsuits involving people of two states.

But the research service says that ruling was narrow. Six justices wrote that the congressional powers over the District weren't big enough to justify making "structural changes to the federal government," the report says. Giving a vote to the District would be such a change, it says.

So what does this all mean? Well for those who were leaning against voting for the bill, the CRS report gives them another excuse to vote 'nay.' There is no doubt that someone will sue to challenge the constitutionality of the bill, assuming President Bush would sign it.

I would hope that DC residents would protest outside the homes of every Justice to drive home the point that they are American citizens and should be able to have the same voice in Congress that their fellow citizens a few miles away enjoy. Of course, Justices like Clarence Thomas don't live in the District.

How Obama got his groove

Notice there was no "back" in the title. That is because I am talking about how his 2000 primary lost to Rep. Bobby Rush made Obama the rock star that he is today.

The Salon article is written by a reporter who knew him back when he was a terrible politician. Barack was a typical, haughty self-entitled Haaaarvard guy. In other words, George W. Bush without the backslapping ability. He tried and failed to be cool and "black." He talked down to people, let them know that he was making a big sacrifice, that he could be making hundreds of thousands in some big law firm, but instead he tried to fix their city. Obama tried to run on his resume rather than on his personality AND his resume.

But a funny thing happened after only getting 31% of the vote. He learned that he needed to work with people to get things done. He learned from critical reporters and colleagues in the State Senate. He learned how to convey his big ideas without sounding intellectually superior to you, but without "dumbing it down." And he learned to use his natural charm and looks to his advantage, and to use his upbringing in the "white world" to his advantage as well. By 2004, he won a crowded Senate primary easily. By 2006, he was charming the country, raising money for Democrats and selling his second best selling novel. By 2007, he was a presidential candidate. In other words, he learned fast.

From reading his first book, the one he wrote before he was full time politician, you get the sense that this is a very introspective person. And from hearing bits from his second book, it seems he now very carefully examines himself and what he does. He is afraid of going back to that 2000 Barack, he is trying to learn the ways of running for president. Of being a movement candidate who is disconnected from the movement. The man has enormous potential to unite the country and win in a landslide against a reactionary same old Republican nominee. He just needs to be comfortable being who he is, and allowing the masses that want him to be president to carry him to the white house.

Rep. Greg "Icarus" Curtis

(Credit © 1971 Frank Wright)

Lee Benson, identical twin brother of US District Court Judge Dee Benson, makes many excellent points in his most recent Op-Ed column:

[C]ould somebody please explain how Real Salt Lake survived to play another season in Utah while work now begins on its $110 million stadium?
[...]
After months and months of economic due diligence and political leaders behaving like true public servants, following the lead of public opinion polls against the deal, Real was denied taxpayer help with its stadium and thus its future in Utah.
[...]
Overnight, a deal that had been studied upside down and sideways for nearly two years by the county and declared "too risky" by Corroon was declared "a solid investment" by Huntsman.
What was that all about? Other than proof positive that a governor trumps a mayor?
I don't get it. Why is RSL so special? With a few exceptions, the Jazz being the most prominent, other pro sports teams on the verge of collapse have looked for government assistance and gotten basically the same reception as someone trying to butt in line at the airport magnetometer.
And no matter how great soccer is as a sport, no matter how many American kids play it at least until they're 14, RSL is no Jazz and the MLS is no NBA.
Major League Soccer is a second-class league with a reputation for losing money that averages 15,000 fans a game — 2,000 less than when it started 11 years ago — and is hanging its latest hopes on a benchwarmer from Europe married to an aging pop star who is being offered a salary that, with bonuses, could exceed the payroll for the entire rest of the league.
Forget Real Salt Lake, there's no guarantee the league will be around in five years.

Benson puts the blame on the Governor, who flexed his political muscles for this to happen in such a short time. But I think Huntsman was trying to cover for Speaker Curtis, who has been pushing for this from day one. And despite seeing his proverbial wax melt in November and barely survive, he decided that public be damned he was going to waste millions of tax payer dollars on a stadium. And vouchers. And tax cuts on the rich. And an abortion test case. But spend a million to prevent cancer in women who might be sexually active? No way.

I expect that next time, Curtis' most recent trips to the sun will be rewarded with a nice salty bath in the Great Salt Lake. At least I hope that the voters of Sandy will see how unrepresentative of their district and values their Representative really is.

O is for optimism

I just finished watching Barry's speech on C-SPAN, and one of the most striking things was his campaign logo:



To me, the "O" serves as allusion to a rising sun, a new opportunity, and of course his name. My wife said the logo reminded her that Oprah has basically endorsed him, calling on him to run and saying he was her "favorite senator" (poor Dick Durbin).

I wonder, what is going to happen to the logo if he wins the nomination? Will another initial be added for his running mate (OC for Obama and Clinton or Obama and Clark? OR for Obama Richardson?) Or will the logo change like Kerry's from a boring safe logo to an even more boring and safe logo? Every candidate has to use red white and blue, with stripes or stars or both...but at least Obama is trying something different. It is a bit narcissistic however.

As for the speech, he stepped on his applause/chant lines a bit. The crowd was cold and wanted to get into it, and he basically plowed through it. But can you blame him? Here is his schedule for today and tomorrow: Feb. 10 | Presidential Announcement
Springfield, IL, Feb. 10 | Announcement Tour Cedar Rapids, IA | Feb. 11 : Waterloo, IA | Ames, IA | Chicago, IL.

The content of speech was generally pretty good, although sometimes he used too big of words. There was an applause line for a long convoluted phrase that made you know most of these people were trucked in from Champaign-Urbana. But the area was packed with thousands, and he is a good speaker.

Bottom line: people hunger for leadership and change. For 7 years we have had a MISleader (great line by MoveOn.org) who has divided us for electoral success. People are tired of being prayed upon and leveraged for some ideological agenda. And people like the idea of Obama: a man whose life story represents the hope and promise of America. That somehow if you are smart enough, you can achieve greatness even if you are black, or poor, or foreign, or whatever. Obama the man might not be anywhere near the idea of Obama. And the idea that we can move past the debates that we have been mired in for the last 30 years. People are tired of talking about Vietnam even as this generation's Vietnam is well underway. They want leaders who can frame debates beyond Watergate and Vietnam, and Obama's youth (born in 1961) is a big part of the hope. All he has to do is sell that idea.

Buttars the first time

So as I foresaw, Sen. Chris Buttars used his position on the Senate Rules Committee to replace the new high school [GAY] clubs with his old version:

Under his proposal, Buttars said schools would be free from the fear of being sued for accepting or denying a non-curricular student club because the Utah Attorney General's Office could defend schools, freeing districts from legal costs.
Like a similar bill last year, Buttars wants to target Gay-Straight Alliances, allowing school leaders to deny the clubs at the school without the threat of losing resources in a lawsuit.
"In my opinion, I hope they don't allow them, they could, but I hope they don't," Buttars said. "The school would have the authority to make a decision on yea or nay — that part got taken out over in the House, and I am going to put them back in."

You can't draft a bill that targets a group because of who they are, that's a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. See Romer v. Evans. And like that terrible abortion bill, it makes the taxpayers pony up the money to pay for ideologs' battles. Not to mention that the schools don't want this bill. Not because they love their gay students, but because it is an administrative nightmare even if it wasn't unconstitutional.

Buttars may be fanatical about homosexuals, and have no knowledge of the law, but he is no dummy and knows his parliamentary tactics.

2007 Kerry to become 1971 Kerry

Now that he has given up losing to Hillary, Obama, Edwards, and all the rest of them (hopefully Clark soon...but I will get to that later), John Kerry has listened to the young man that famously asked who wants to be the last man to die for a mistake.

Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) is embarking on a major national campaign to end the Iraq war and has pledged to spend a considerable amount of his campaign war chest on the effort. On Sunday morning, Kerry will appear on This Week with George Stephanopoulos to kick off the campaign which seeks to have all American troops home within a year....

Kerry will finally use the remaining $7.4 million from 2004 presidential primary account and his Senate campaign account. "He also has $5 million saved away in a special account reserved for legal and accounting costs related to his 2004 general election campaign." And who knows if he can use that for this...I doubt it.

As The American Prospect's Garance Franke-Ruta argues, "it's starting to look like the real [bold leaders] are the former presidential candidates." That is because they don't have to suck up to interest groups any more and they can reveal their true selves. And unlike term-limited sitting presidents, they can't sign last minute executive orders or pardons.

Al Gore's moral authority and persuasive power now comes precisely because he is not seeking any political office. If Gore tosses his hat in the ring, his crusade becomes political message or theme and loses its punch. Plus, he can kiss that Oscar and Nobel Peace Prize goodbye.

Does this mean that Kerry is not running for reelection in two years? Or that he will merely confine himself to being the junior Senator from Massachusetts for life?

East of San Francisco

Former Utah Jazz Center John Amaechi wrote a biography about the great time he had as a closeted gay black man in Salt Lake City. How had how delusional people in Utah (and the NBA) are about all the homosexuals in the midst:

It's hard to overestimate the stranglehold of the Latter Day Saints on the state of Utah. With the majority of the residents, the church had major say in everything from the composition of the legislature to what was considered appropriate attire. Which is why I was astonished that the city is the hippest, gayest place east of San Francisco. (Okay, so there's not a lot in between.)
Frankly, the Jazz fan base isn't all that different from that of Coffee Garden. You can't throw a basketball into a crowd without hitting a gay man or a lesbian. Dozens of season ticket holders who sat directly behind the bench were same-sex couples. I knew they were gay because they'd show up at some of my parties. (One of my guests even turned out to work for Senator Orrin Hatch.)
. . . Yet the Mormon majority seems blithely unaware of this flamboyant minority in its midst. They see same-sex couples walking down the street hand-in-hand. They drive by parts of town where every other Victorian house is festooned with rainbow flags. They see joyfully gay men pouring in and out of bars and clubs.
And at the same time, they don't see it. They're oblivious.

The Salt Lake Tribune, got an advance copy of his book that will be released next week, "Man in the Middle," and provided juicy excerpts.
"Homosexuality is an obsession among ballplayers, trailing only wealth and women," he wrote. "They just didn't like [gays]- or so they insisted over and over and over again. It soon became clear they didn't understand [gays] enough to truly loathe them."

Similarly, a local sports columnist took it upon himself it to point out that that Armaechi was not a good basketball player, as if that was relevant:

John Amaechi remains one of the worst players in franchise history.
I'm not Amaechi-bashing here.
I'm just stating a fact.

On a related note, Jazz owner and homophobic businessman Larry L. Miller (who payed Amachi's salary) regrets blocking 'Brokeback Mountain' from his theaters.

Miller said he probably would allow "Brokeback Mountain" to be shown if the movie was released now, calling his ban a bad decision.
"Not because I got beaten up over it, but because it was a knee-jerk reaction," he said. "You have to choose your spots to draw your lines and I didn't choose a very good one."
[...]
"It was good for me in a couple of ways," he said. "I learned a lot about them with some open and honest dialogue. It didn't change my way of thinking or theirs, but we all realized after talking with each other we have a better understanding of each other.
"I'm still outspoken on issues, but I know I have to look at people's feelings and lives. I'd like to say I'm more understanding now. To say I'm tolerant would be less
accurate, but I am more understanding."

Folks, you tolerate bad tasting food, you understand why Germans voted for Hitler in 1933. Of course understanding and tolerating are not the same as condoning or liking or supporting.

Nonetheless, he is trying.

Utah GOP: life begins at conception and ends at birth

The title of this post was taken from an Ed Bagley cartoon that I posted on my blog a several days ago. But the point is still true.

First, punish women and other taxpayers for your anti-choice views:

A proposal to ban abortions in Utah might also carry with it a criminal penalty for women who get an abortion. Representative Paul Ray thinks it's not just the doctor who deserves to be punished in what he calls "killing babies."

"It's a two-way street," says Ray. "The provider's not forcing the woman to do it - she's opting to go there and to pay for it."

If that weren't bad enough, there's the $4 million price tag for this pointless bill:

Even if both Bush-appointed justices John Roberts and Samuel Alito "were hellbent on overturning it, they don't have a fifth vote," said Pam Karlan, a constitutional law professor at Stanford University. "Right now, on the Supreme Court there are not five votes to overturn Planned Parenthood versus Casey. ... It's absolutely clear that the current court would not permit a state to ban all abortions."
[...]
"If all the lower courts agree that this is unconstitutional, then the Supreme Court would probably react cautiously and not take it," said Robert Bennett, a constitutional law scholar at Northwestern University.

Meanwhile, Utah Republican controlled legislature wants women and girls to die, because they might have had sex:

Introduced by Rep. Karen Morgan, D-Cottonwood Heights, HB 358 would have given the Utah Department of Health $1 million to raise awareness of the disease and immunize girls and young women against it with the new Gardasil vaccine.
[...]
Many health providers hailed it as a major advancement because it is the first vaccine designed to prevent human papillomavirus, which can cause genital warts and cervical cancer.
Critics have said it is too early to know if Gardasil is effective and questioned whether it might lead to increased promiscuity among adolescents.

HPV is a curable disease and having a shot would not make people want to have more sex. It is not like sex has gone up since HIV has become less of a worry. And who says that these females won't get HPV from their husbands who sleep around? This is a public health issue, and shouldn't be another front in the culture wars.

I would also like to point out that Texas Governor Rick Perry (R) signed an executive order to do the same thing as HB 358. And no one would accuse Perry as being a liberal or disloyal Republican. Of course, the Texas Republican Party is freaking out about that executive order.

Buttars luck next time

(photo credit: Deseret News, © 2006)

I never grow tired of those puns. I am sure you do though. Anyway, it looks like the Utah House bothered to make Sen. Chris Buttar's (R-crazytown) anti-gay bill constitutional and administratively possible. Originally, Buttar's wanted every high school club to submit minutes and [OF THEIR RADICAL GAY] agenda to the principal (or vice-principal) and have copies of such items available for parents prior to any meeting of any [GAY] club, so the parents could pull their kid out of the club [BECAUSE THEM GAYS ARE TRYING TO CONVERT LITTLE EPHRAM SMITH GAY!!! BOO!]. Here's what happened House side:

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Aaron Tilton, R-Springville, now only requires all clubs to have a name consistent with its purpose, that the club can't deviate from its purpose and that a parent must sign a consent form.
The House eliminated language defining human sexuality or allowing administrators to block clubs for moral reasons. Lawmakers also removed a provision requiring the state to cover the costs of lawsuits involving the restrictions of school clubs. And the bill no longer requires clubs to provide the principal with information that would be presented to the club a week in advance so parents can review it.
House members responded to the pleas of Rep. Scott Wyatt, R-Logan, who said the original bill placed a "bureaucratic stamp" on what should be handled on the school district level.

If you really care about what you are pretending to care about, Sen. Buttars, then you will pass this bill as is. But if all you want to do is keep them gays out High Schools, well then you are going to have to kill all the gay Utahn teens, or use your voucher bill to send them all to private gay schools. People are gay because they are born that way, they don't catch it like some disease (or is a disability to be born homosexual). It isn't a cult where you can be convinced you are attracted to the same sex.

All his obsession with gay sex really makes me wonder if he isn't hiding something from himself.

the announcement that wasn't

So I got back information...Clark seems to have pulled back on his announcement plans this past weekend after he got a luke warm reception from the DNC winter meeting folks.

He canceled his Hardball appearance, and never went back on TV. Could it be that one of the candidates talked him into joining their ticket? Could he have decided he couldn't win based on the reception? Could it be that his old donors said their sticking with Hillary or Obama? Who knows.

Clark has a rock-solid NH asset: newly election US Rep. Carol Shays-Porter, who actually worked for Clark in 2004. Will he be able to use it? Will he use it if he can?

It is sad that a man would be a hell of a president and his over-qualified is not considered a front runner because a bunch of party hacks didn't like the way he talked.

disasters in the making

There once was an idea out there to "professionalize" our state legislature by making it year round. If they passed bills like the ones I am going to describe below year round, no thanks. If it would attract saner politicians, I am all for it.

1. the zombie RSL stadium is back:
   

   A bill emerged Thursday on Utah's Capitol Hill that could bring a Real Salt Lake stadium to Sandy and salvage Utah's two-year-old soccer franchise, which is being aggressively courted by investors in St. Louis.
   If the measure passes - it was crafted behind closed doors this week with the blessing of Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson and legislative leadership - it would snatch at least $20 million for the project out of Salt Lake County coffers, which critics allege could result in a countywide property-tax hike.
   The move to revive a stadium in Sandy spells the end of talk to relocate RSL to the Utah State Fairpark in Salt Lake City or the former Geneva Steel site in central Utah County.
   [...]
   A separate bill - sponsored by Sen. Michael Waddoups, R-Taylorsville, and backed by Sandy Mayor Tom Dolan - threatens to redirect $15 million in annual restaurant taxes from the county to the suburbs.
   Corroon calls the new soccer bill "troublesome" and insists it could gut the county's ability to fund conventions and tourism.
   "It's regretful," he said. "It will end up hurting all the citizens of the county and the state."
   

   Good thing they didn't consult the public who would be paying for it.


2. Rather than an abortion trigger bill, the Utah Legislature wants to be the test case to overturn Roe:
   

   "On its face, it is unconstitutional. But there are a lot of issues that are ripe for the Supreme Court to consider," said Senate President John Valentine, an attorney. "It's the kind of thing the citizens of this state would support."
   And citizens will have to support it - literally. Defending the bill could cost at least $2 million.
   [...]
   The bill provides exceptions in cases of rape, incest or to prevent a woman's death or "substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function." Without allowing public comment on the new bill, committee members sent it to the House floor for debate.
   [...]
   The Attorney General's Office estimates the legal battle will cost taxpayers at least $2 million - double that if an outside law firm is hired. In the early 1990s, the state's abortion ban cost more than $1 million to defend - not including plaintiffs' fees. That law was found unconstitutional.

   Once again, the legislature is going to be wasting the public's money without any input from them.


3. Another dumb bill is the school voucher bill, one that will not help a single poor person go to private school but will give the rich a break on their bill:
   

   After weeks of back-room arm-twisting and spirited lobbying on both sides of the issues, supporters managed 38 yes votes to the 37 opposed -- there were no representatives absent. Surprise supporters included Rep. Brad Last, R-St. George, and Rep. Keith Grover, R-Orem - two former public school officials. Both said they had wrestled with a decision.
   [...]
   HB148 will let parents spend public money on private school tuition. Every Utah family, with the exception of current private school students, would be eligible for a voucher ranging from $500 to $3,000 depending on family income.

   
   "The Parent Choice in Education Act, sponsored by Rep. Steve Urquhart, R-St. George, would give families a private school tuition voucher that would range from $500 to $3,000, based on income.
   The bill, which calls for $9.2 million in general, not school funds, would leave per-student spending over and above the amount of the voucher in the school system. So, an estimated average $2,000 voucher still would leave $1,500 in state spending in the school district where the voucher recipient lives for the next five years, unless the student graduates.
   The bill seeks $9.2 million, but the Office of the Legislative Fiscal Analyst also says it would put nearly $4 million back into the schools' budget in the first year. The program would require more funding in the coming years."
   Man oh man...I won't get into this any more, because Utah Amicus and others have written much more and better things about it. Count me in as agreeing with them

Ed Bagley Rocks

Oh and the legislature hates brown people too:

Sen. Mark Madsen, R-Lehi, is again seeking to require voters to prove their citizenship and residency in order to register to vote.
[...]
"I don't want to disenfranchise people who are citizens," Madsen said. "In order to have confidence in the system ... it's worth a little bit of effort on everyone's part."
[...]
"I'm not sure what they're trying to solve," said Salt Lake County Clerk Sherrie Swenson. "It just creates a bit of a hardship for everyone. ... If someone poses as someone else, we should punish that person."

And even though Speaker handout doesn't think it is a big deal, the public wants ethics and campaign finance reform in their state government.

Oh and standing up to RSL and Sandy politicians was a popular move.


For those of you keeping score at home, that 70.5% approval for the RSL move and 67.5% approval of Carroon in general. Unless something goes horribly wrong, like San Fransisco Mayor Gavin Newsom's affair with a substance abusing wife of an aide, he will win reelection in a landslide.

Clark is in?!

Good news for me. It seems that Wes Clark is IN!

So he will probably announce this weekend at the DNC winter conference/on Hardball. With him in, the field goes to 10 (just like 2004). So, let's take a look at the field and see who's up, and who is down (and who should be out):

1. Obama: his timetable legislation is specific and tough, with a date far enough away to be realistic and not 'too liberal' it forces other candidates to either make their time tables sooner (and seem to be followers or 'too liberal') or reject timetables altogether (and be labeled as Joe Lieberman clones).

2. Clinton: she went to Iowa and demonstrated how much press and people she can attract. But some seemed non-plussed with her who weren't already firmly behind her beforehand. And then her big splash in NH got canceled due to a family illness. I hope they get better.

3. Edwards: with Hillary and Barack in, he is a front runner who is running against the media this time who is hell bent on making this a two-way race. Obama timetable outflanks Edwards who cannot do anything other than make a speech. (that's the downside of not being in office). But he can hang out with primary voters and raise money all day long (that's the plus side).

4. Richardson: His Darfur peace treaty seems to be holding up, and his resume is pretty impressive. But the fact that he was part of the When Ho Lee scandal (as Clinton's Energy Secretary), and the rumors of philandering may kill his candidacy before it starts. Plus, he lost NM for Kerry.

5. Clark: he starts off much better off than last time. Like Edwards, he learned a lot by running last time. He now has a real organization behind him (WesPAC/VoteVets/etc.), he has campaigned for candidates all over the country in 2006 by request, just like Obama. His wife, who was against it in 2003, learned to love campaigning in 2004. A general who make a lasting peace in ethnically divided land and ran a competent war (save the embassy bombing) seems like a pretty good selling point in 2007. Now who is he going to hire? Where is his money coming from?

6. Vilsack: he keeps going lower and lower in Iowa, where he was governor for 8 years. If he can't win Iowa, how can he win nationally? Plus, that name is terrible.

7. Also rans (Dodd, Biden, Gravel, Kucinich): none of these guys have a prayer. Dodd said he is competing with the margin of error in polls. A paper replied, you wish, the MoE is 5.4%, you are at 1%. Ouch. Biden made news today by making a racist-sounding "compliment" to Obama. This from a guy whose whole strategy is to convince South Carolinians that he is just as racist as the worst of them (saying that Delaware was once a slave state and wished it could have joined the Confederacy, mean old Maryland and DC where in the way). Gravel will never be heard from. Kucinich is trying to capture the Nader vote, so I guess that is useful, but he is a joke.

To me, the biggest threat to Democrats wanting the White House is no longer John McCain, but ex-AR Gov. Mike Huckabee. He really sounded great on the Daily Show. My wife remarked that she had no idea that he was a GOPer until the label appeared. His anti-fat campaign is something that many Americans can get behind. After all, there are lots of overweight people in America. His story of losing hundreds of pounds is about as inspiring as Obama's to some.

why RSL must die

I don't know about you, but I am sick and tired of the political drama of Real Salt Lake and its stupid soccer stadium. Clearly, Sandy's Mayor and representatives in the Legislature (especially the Speaker) miscalculated SLCo. Mayor Peter Corroon. Same with Dave Checketts. They all assumed that Corroon was a normal politican and would bow to their whim because they were "powerful" and "influential."

But Corroon decided that he needed to do what was in the best interest for the taxpayers of the County, and in his judgment, that was not selling the farm to rent a cow to milk. He wanted real hard numbers, and so did the County Council after Corroon led the way. And when those numbers finally came in, it was clear that they were about as forthright and reasonable in their assumptions as Enron's financial statements (or President Bush's Budgets). So Carroon and the Council said no dice.

And guess what? The voters love them for it. And the Speaker almost lost his seat last fall because of this chest-beating exercise.

It is good that someone finally stood up to professional sports teams when they ask cities to pay for their stadiums or threaten to leave. The economics behind such sweet-heart deals just isn't there. That's why Portland's voters said see-ya to the Trail-Blazers. Now the Speaker is going to punish the County while trying to punish Corroon by taking away the hotel tax money.

I would love to see how that turns out. But really, I don't want to hear another story about that soccer team. I am tired of it by now, aren't you?

Utah's legislature: corrupt, male chauvinist pigs

Tribune opinion columnist Rolly notes that "The Utah Legislature has consistently rejected legislation mandating that insurance companies cover birth control for women. At the same time, the Beehive State is the easiest place in the country to get Viagra." Could it possibly have something to with the fact that the average state legislator is male, middle-aged, alumni of the U or BYU, and LDS (90% of them are) with dozens of grandchildren.

Meanwhile, those same legislators who are sexists can't bother be ethical either.

The tickets were so good that [a legislator] took an elbow from Jazz forward Matt Harpring, who was chasing after a loose ball.
[He] accepted the bruise and the gift, as did Senate Minority Leader Mike Dmitrich and Senate Majority Leader Curt Bramble.
Bountiful GOP Sen. Dan Eastman rounded out the quartet. But he paid Stokes for the ticket.
The cost: $500.
"Because of the price of this seat, I just thought it was appropriate that I pay for it," Eastman said. "I was always taught to avoid the appearance of evil, and if there is some there we ought to avoid it."
Bramble shrugs off concerns about perception. He says he routinely disagrees with Stokes and that the Jazz game will not buy his vote.

The gift limit is technically $50, but no one will enforce it against Bramble, who wants to eliminate the restriction altogether. Because you know, it won't buy his vote, at least that is what he says. And how dare we citizen's question his morality?

September 2003=February 2007?

Hotline says Wes Clark will probably form an exploratory committee in two weeks and then take his sweet time to decide whether he should really run. But beyond this revelation, they have a interesting point:

Clark recognizes that he got in too late in 2003. And he's arguably the most qualified to confront issues of war and peace in these turbulent times. Is February of 2008 equivalent to September of 2003? What an absurd question -- of course not.

But then again, when you think about it, it's hard to divine a compelling justification for Clark to take his time in a field that includes foreign policy heavyweights (Biden), a Clinton (remember how Clark was encouraged to run by Pres. Bill Clinton's friends and donors?) a Southerner (Edwards) and a breath of fresh air (Obama?)

First off, at this rate of announcements drop outs etc, it might be like September 2003. Secondly, Biden is not a foreign policy heavyweight. He is a blowhard Senator that likes to hear himself think. If he was such a brilliant foreign policy guy, why did he support the war? Why is he pushing all these non-binding resolutions and going on Sunday talks shows moving the goal posts for Iraq dozens of times? Clinton's presence really does hurt Clark in terms of his old staff and his old donors. But maybe he needs to get beyond Bill and Hill. He needs better staff than last time, he needs his own fundraising base.

I am starting to worry that Clark, being the smart guy that he is, realizes it will be tough slog to raise the necessary money with this current three-headed monster of Clinton-Obama-Edwards gobbling up all the primary cash. He may be running for VP against Richardson & Warner & Bayh. I sure hope he runs. If he does, he will have my support. If he doesn't, I will support Obama and urge him to pick Clark for his VP (visionary with no foreign policy experience but with lots of domestic policy experience coupled with a visionary with lots of foreign policy experience and no real domestic policy experience).

Cannon will be primaried

Just look at the reception he got with the Utah State Legislature, filled with state Reps. and Sens. who live in Cannon's district:

[The exchange] turned heated when Cannon was questioned about immigration and the "out-of-control" spending of Congress.
Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, told Cannon that the recent shift of control in the House and Senate on the federal level is because people are "fed up" with the inability of Congress to "run the affairs on this nation." He then asked Cannon how he planned to deal with the issues of earmarks and illegal immigration, which he called an "unfunded mandate."
Cannon responded by saying that Republican leadership made a "huge mistake" with immigration by listening to people who were "xenophobic and tried to create a wedge issue." He then said that Congress is "going in the right direction and have been savaged by people, I think unfairly."
Other notes from Cannon include a reference to Utah Valley State College and his hope that the school would be turned into a full university.
"I like the name Utah International University," he said. "It has to be a regional college, calling it more than a university will not make it a regional college."
Cannon also said that he was hopeful lawmakers would look carefully at a bill that would forbid children of illegal immigrants from receiving in-state tuition. "What does it cost us to have an incremental student, then what is the cost to society to have an incentive?" he said.

Sounds pretty hostile...now if it was just a cranky legislature, they would be even meaner to Utah's lone Democrat in Congress:

Stephenson asked Matheson the same question about immigration and spending. Matheson said he was confident the issues would be addressed.
"I think that the message you have voiced about the concerns that Congress is not functioning and is not doing its job is something that resonated in the past election and I hope that Congress gets it," Matheson said. "I sure heard it."

Cannon saw his primary win as a condemnation of xenophobia, but it looks like immigration reform is still an urgent need of the states. And states like Utah wish (at least their legislatures do) that the Sensenbrenner bill passed.

global warming is bad for the economy

There are some delusional folks who want to believe climate change is not occurring, or that if it is, it isn't caused by humans. Then there are those who agree that it is happening but then believe that any policy changes would set America's economy back to those of Sub-Saharan Africa. But then there is this troubling fact:

The most recent glimpse of snowpack totals in Utah's six major river basins paints a fairly grim picture. After ending 2006 - and the first three months of the water year - with near-normal precipitation, Utah has seen a long dry spell shrivel snowpacks to as low as 64 percent of normal in the north and 69 percent in the south.

Now the article blames it on El Nino, which is a weather event that happens when sea temperatures are higher...gee I wonder what causes that. Just remember ZERO peer-reviewed scientific articles on the climate have disputed that humans are causing a dramatic climate change. And remember that less snow in Utah's northern mountains means less skiing. And less skiing means that less people stay at hotels, rent skis, buy meals, gas, etc. In short, our tourism portion of the local economy suffers.

Utah ski resorts, not surprisingly, are hurting.
In the Cottonwood canyons, Alta, Snowbird, Solitude and Brighton all had base totals of less than 60 inches on Wednesday.
The Park City resorts - Park City, Deer Valley and The Canyons - were all under 50 inches.
"I think we're at the point in the season where people are beginning to realize that they need to ski the mountain as it is, because we've now had a couple of long, extended periods without new snow and we're not seeing anything on the horizon," said Snowbird spokeswoman Laura Schaffer.

Then think about all the jobs that can come from developing better wind turbines, solar panels, water turbines, hydrogen fuel cells, electric motors and batteries. And more efficient gas-motors, and hopefully some day hover boards! These are jobs that will not end up in India and China for decades, these are jobs that can only be accomplished in a research heavy US with its Universities and private businesses.

Hatch: no I'm the partisan hack

Yesterday I told you about a silly speech that Sen. Bennett gave to his fellow crazy Utah Republicans in power and the silly coverage by LDS Church-owned and GOP-controlled Deseret News. Well today, Sen. Hatch one-upped his colleague:

Even most Utahns - always Bush's strongest fans in the reddest state in the nation - are not backing the president on the war in Iraq.
Tough crowd.
Not the same crowd that welcomed him in 2002 with 76 rounds of applause during his 48-minute speech, or an America that, at the time, gave his job performance an 83 percent approval rating.
This time, Bush clocked in at 49 minutes, but only got applause 57 times - a dozen times from the Republican side only.
...
Hatch, who watched from home still nursing an injured shoulder, said Bush “enjoyed” giving the speech, even with a not-so-receptive audience. “I think he stuck it to them,” Hatch said. “How can you disagree with anything he said?”

I will tell you how one can disagree with nearly everything Bush said. It is called fact-checking. Much of what Bush said was based off of distorted information at best, all intentional misrepresentations.

Secondly, even the MSM nearly universally agreed that Bush's speech was a dull retreat of last years and other speeches, whereas Sen. Webb's response knocked their socks off.

Disagreeing with your party's president on principle? That is impossible to fathom for water-boy Orin. Sen. Chuck Hagel is one of these principled Republicans. He is conservative, but he is mad about Iraq and willing to call BullSh!t on Bush where most Republicans cower in the corner, or blame Cheney (ala McCain) an easy out since Cheney is not running for president and couldn't care less what anyone else thinks.

If only Republicans had Sen. Hagel to choose from, along with the usual bootlickers in Congress and in state houses, GOP primary voters would have a choice of conservative who is against the war or moderate who is for the war, or conservative who waffles on the war, or conservative who is for the war. If those were the choices, then we could truly see where the party is at.

Oh and thank you John Kerry for not running for president again. I appreciate what you did in 2006, and while you were my third choice in 2004, you got pretty dang close for a liberal senator from Massachusetts. Now if we could only get Joe Biden, Dennis Kucinich, Tom Vilsack, and a few others to drop out, we would be somewhere.

I still don't get the point of protest presidential candidates.

Bennett: I want to be the political hack

As a poly sci professor in college argued persuasively to me, Senators compete against the other home state senator for niches*. One tends to be the "bacon" senator, the other the "statesman" or "lawmaker." Some divvy up issues: Barbara Boxer get the environment while Feinstein gets abortion. For the longest time, Orin Hatch was the lawmaker, drafting bills with the likes of Ted Kennedy on cigarette taxes (towards children's health care), while Bennett was Utah's own "Senator Pothole" touting every nickel he got for the beehive state.

But lately, Bennett is encroaching on Hatch's other domain: political hack. Orin likes to ask compliments or softballs during his "questioning" of Republican officials--be they Appointees for the judiciary (see Anita Hill hearings through ScAlito) or executive appointees (see this month's Gonzales hearings). He also likes to go on talk shows or other media outlets and make the most disingenuous arguments in favor of whatever conservatives want to be true be it that Hillary and Bill killed Vince Foster or that Obama is a radical Muslim (not that he made either arguments, but ones like them). Now, Bennett is trying to be his own mini-hack:

The Democratic takeover in Congress, Bennett said, has put in jeopardy some funding for the state, including for agriculture-related programs at Utah State University and for scholarships at the University of Utah.
The decision by the new Congress to continue spending at current levels, the state's junior senator said, "means that new initiatives will disappear ... quite frankly there will be some problems in the state of Utah as a result of that."

I am sure this bogus stuff has nothing to do with the fact that the former Utah Republican Party Chairman is their editor in chief, nothing.

But to the meat of his contentions. Democrats (and many Republicans) in the House voted to lower college student loans (Utah's House Republicans voted no, claiming it hurt loans paid off during college, which no one does). If the USU programs are valid ones and not Iowa rain forest studies or $300 million bridges from one hamlet to another in Alaska, then I am sure it will be included in appropriations. Democrats will be cutting GOP pork, not projects in GOP districts just because they are presented by republicans. Oh and who's fault is it that funding is frozen at its current levels? Why the Republican controlled 109th congress who failed to pass 11 of the 13 appropriations bills last year and then passed a CR (continuing resolution) during the lame duck session. It is like the guy who ditched you when the bill came at the nice restaurant and then complaining to others that you didn't order appetizers.

* Wendy Schiller, "Sharing the Same Home Turf: How Senators from the Same State Compete for Geographic Electoral Support." 2002. In U.S. Senate Exceptionalism, ed. Bruce Oppenheimer, Ohio State University Press.

YouTube-ization of announcement speeches

I don't know about you, but I am already tired of the the internet videos of candidates announcing their candidacy for the presidency online. Edwards did it, Obama did it, Hillary Clinton did it, Richardson did it, and who cares about the other Democratic announcers thus far? It is a bit condescending to me as a blogger that this is their nod to the netroots. "Look, I put it on the internet, now help me raise some money!"

It makes one wistful for Kerry's announcement tour to stand behind various objects (boats, people, etc.)...OK well not really.

Fact is, the announcement process is really ridiculous and farcical. Everyone knew that these folks were going to run (even if I tried to con myself into thinking Hillary would hold the trigger at the last moment). The real news is when these people decide NOT to run. It doesn't matter if they pose in their living rooms, their hip lofts, their office, behind the USS Constitution, or in the lower 9th ward.

I know all this pomp and circumstance is to generate buzz and free press. I will tell you who has no need for free press: Hillary Clinton. I listen to a podcast of the leading nightly newscast in Germany and Hillary made that news, no mention of Obama or McCain or anyone else save Bill.

The 4th seat mutates

So the Utah-DC exchange bill is introduced in the 110th, but with a new twist:

[this year's bill contains] a provision that would bar [Utah's Republican-controlled legislature] from redrawing congressional districts until 2012. Some Democrats in Congress fear [they would] gerrymander the state's only Democratic congressman, Jim Matheson, out of office.
State lawmakers already met in a special session last year to finalize a four-seat map.
[Utah Republican Congressman Chris]Cannon says the redistricting moratorium is "a slam down on our Legislature." He said state lawmakers wouldn't want to redraw the map, but Congress shouldn't be telling them they can't.

I think this is a reasonable restriction, since it forces Utah Republicans to go with the December 2006 map (see HR 328 IH sec. 6(a)(1)).

The DC vote folks want this bill to happen on or before April 15th, when their whole taxation without representation will have the most symbolic power.

quote of the day (Buttars edition)

As usual, St. Sen. Chris Buttars tops the list in terms of stupid statements: “The state has become hostile to religion.” Really? If anything the culture in this state is hostel to those who are atheists. Just look at Bountiful, Utah. While it probably still is the one of if not the most LDS city in Utah, there are lots of churches of other religions in that city. I suspect that those who are not LDS and live in Bountiful feel compelled to prove that they are just as religious as their LDS neighbors. There are churches every other block there from my experience. Even in "secular" Salt Lake City and Park City, there are are no shortage of people attending church without any "hostility." If you ever try to get any chores done on a Sunday in Utah, you can forget it. Almost everything is closed on Sundays, save grocery stores, Chinese restaurants, some coffee shops, convenience stores, some smoke shops, and some 'private clubs.' Utah has some of the strictest anti-smoking and drinking laws in the country, and have had them 20 years before the smoke-free restaurants movement of the late 1990s.

AG Mark Shurtleff, a conservative, LDS Republican that actually knows the law (unlike lawmaker Butters) knows that the West Valley Republican's bill will cost the state lots of money in pointless lawsuits:

"What it will guarantee is it opens up the need for more litigation in state courts," he said, just as there have been in federal court. ...The Republican attorney general said the bill would protect "every strange permutation" of religious expression, including a child who defends wearing a Satanic T-shirt to school by claiming to worship Satan.

Did I call that one about that Satan Tees or what? The Tribune chimes in with more doubters:

“Can we solve this problem by working with the school boards instead of passing legislation and opening up a can of worms?” asked Sen. Scott McCoy, D-Salt Lake City.
“This is a sledgehammer,” said McCoy, an attorney. “I don't know that we need a sledgehammer.”
The bill also drew opposition from Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff and Utah Higher Education officials.
“There will certainly be a number of state court challenges because of this law,” Shurtleff said.

I guess every work place has to have it's Chris Buttars.

"I have a feeling it is going to be very interesting."

That is the closing line on Sen. Hillary Clinton's announcement video on her website. And this is one thing everyone should be able to agree on. Right now, there are about 7 Democrats in the race for the party's nomination, but only 4 real shots (HRC, Obama, Edwards, and Richardson) and the last one, Richardson, is on the outside looking in on the 3-way race. By contrast, the Republican side is McCain versus the anti-McCain, whoever wins that prize.

Both primaries look to be wide open. McCain probably will win the nomination, since there is no good consensus "true conservative" to challenge him...but he is looking pretty weak right now. But who knows, maybe the religious right will rally around Romney (unlikely because of the SBC's hatred of Mormons) or Gingrich (he seems to be Giullini's man) or Brownback (too dumb to be president after GWB). I predict a McCain/Gingrich ticket at this point, but its is way too early.

Democrats will squabble and might not know who their nominee is until after Super Tuesday, especially if it narrows to a Clinton v. Obama race. Hillary has sworn off taking any public money either in the primaries (like Kerry and Dean and Bush) or in the general, a first. Edwards and Obama are holding simultaneous fundraisers in NYC early February not just because it is Hillary's "home turf" but because there is a lot of money in that city. Richardson may be running for VP and even that race is tough, with Warner and Clark and Bayh as possible contenders.

AFSCME is holding a cattle call in a few WEEKS, so if Clark wants to even have a chance, he better announce before then. He is my first choice, but if he doesn't run, then I would say Obama, then Richardson, then Edwards, and then Hillary (in that order). I think Hillary has done a great job as Senator and should stay there, where her talents and shortcomings are best matched.

Utah Republican legislators: too righteous to be ethical

In the U.S. Senate, after a failed attempt (45-55) to fillabuster the Finegold-Obama ethics bill by the GOP leadership, the bill passed albeit without key provisions thanks to Utah's senators. Sen. Bennett introduced an amendment that would allow astroturf non-profits like those used by Jack Abramboff to continue to lobby Senators sans reporting. And horribly enough, it passed. Worse yet, the bill was weakened substantially by ethically lacking senators who didn't want an independent Office of Public Integrity like other countries have and preferred the current self-regulating system that worked so well that the 109th Congress lost 3 members to felony charges (2 convicted and sentenced) and another resigned because of what would be felony charges. Others lost who should have been investigated, indicted, and convicted. Even this watered down version was too much for Sen. Hatch, who was one of two senators to vote against the ethics bill.

And if you think that's terrible, at least they are letting it come up for consideration (although I bet Hatch and Bennett filibustered like good GOPers), unlike their state level colleagues.

But Legislative leaders have issues with outright banning meals, because food is often paired with lunchtime meetings during the session. In addition, lawmakers say they're not about to be pressured into passing new laws based solely on what the Governor does.

Rep. Greg Curtis, House Speaker: "He chose to do this in the state of the state, in a very public forum. To my knowledge, I haven't been able to obtain a copy of the executive order. And it seems to have been done for a very public purpose."

Every year St. Rep. Ralph Becker has introduced ethics reforms, and every year the GOP majority have kept his bill from coming to a vote. According to the non-partisan center for public integrity, Utah ranks 47th in "Legislator Personal Financial Disclosure," garnering a grade of "F." This means that legislators rarely, if ever report conflicts of interests (i.e. and vote on a bill/amendment that effect them personally). I remember a friend of my parents was a state senator in the early 1990s, and when a bill came up on taxing small aircraft, he announced that he could not vote on the matter since his family owned one. They all look at him in shock and horror, and not because his family was wealthy enough to afford a private jet, but that he disclosed it.

In prior years, when ethics bills have come before the state legislature, Legislators took the bills as a personal affront to their morality. They assumed that the sponsor was accusing them. One even cried during his speech, babbling something about his wife. I wish I could find the test of that, I can't remember what was said, but I remember it was rich.

feeling like a young parent

My wife and I don't have children yet. We want to start a family soon, and need the financial stability of me being employed full-time before we make that leap. But as avid readers know, we did get a dog "for Christmas."

The miniature/toy poodle, who named himself Poe, [we went through a list of authors and he responded to Edgar Allen's last name] is now a full member of the family. And just like an infant, he has trouble sleeping through the night and wakes us up with his antics. So as a result, I haven't been sleeping through the night either.

Plus, like a child, we have been dressing him in snow coats [because of the cold (10 degrees at 11 PM) and his lack of fur (the rescue society gave him a mighty buss)]. We go home at lunch to take him out on walks and he is sad to see us go every time, trying a sit-down strike on our laps to keep us from returning to work/class.

Unlike my classmates with lots of real children, mine will never grow up and learn how to talk to us and so on. Instead we rely on gestures like pawing the dish for
hunger, weird behavior and pawing the door for urgent bathroom breaks, and tail wagging for happiness.

So I know we are not experiencing nearly the same thing as our friends with infants and young children, but for right now, it is the closest we are going to get.

better late than never

Obama on the McCain Doctrine:

“I cannot in good conscience support this plan. As I first said two months ago, we should not be sending more U.S. troops to Iraq, we should begin redeploying them to let the Iraqis know that we will not be there forever and to pressure the Sunnis, Shiites, and Kurds to finally reach a political settlement.

“Escalation is a failed policy opposed by generals, Democrats and Republicans, and now even the Iraqis themselves, and the fact that the President is already moving ahead with this idea is a terrible consequence of the decision to give him the broad, open-ended authority to wage this war in 2002.

“It now falls on Congress to find a way to support our troops in the field while still preventing the President from multiplying his previous mistakes. That is why I not only favor capping the number U.S. troops in Iraq, but believe it’s imperative that we begin the phased redeployment I called for two months ago, and intend to introduce legislation that does just that.”

So I take it the Senator is in favor of a rhetorical empty gesture, a symbolic non-binding resolution. The Levin resolution.

Obama believes that symbols mean a lot, and they do. But actually doing something is always better than great speeches and gestures.

Romney can only dream of being the next Gore

That is, best case scenerio, he will win the popular vote, but lose his "home" state.

A Nov. 17 poll by Survey USA and WBZ-TV found that 65 percent of residents disapproved of Romney's performance, a figure that dropped to 59 percent a month later in Romney's waning days in office. The Globe and WBZ reported 54 percent of those surveyed in October viewed Romney's performance as unfavorable.

In reality, Romney is a lying opportunist. I would tell my conservative friends who are worried about Romney's fidelity to conservative ideals that he is a conservative...as long as that will get him the nomination.

Romney played liberal Republican in 1994 and 2002 and governed conservative to please the national party people from 2003 until 2007. In truth, he has no principles and just wants to get power. He probably is conservative socially, more so than Giulliani for sure, and maybe more than McCain on things like tax cuts and illegal immigration.

Nevertheless, he will never be president.

so much for Oprah

Folks had speculated that Barrack would announce he was running for president on Oprah because the website had a TBA for one of the days of the week. However, Obama is trying to be all high-tech and announce via a streaming video on his website. Here's the text (HT to Hotline)

"As many of you know, over the last few months I have been thinking hard about my plans for 2008. Running for the presidency is a profound decision - a decision no one should make on the basis of media hype or personal ambition alone - and so before I committed myself and my family to this race, I wanted to be sure that this was right for us and, more importantly, right for the country"

"I certainly didn't expect to find myself in this position a year ago. But as I've spoken to many of you in my travels across the states these past months; as I've read your emails and read your letters; I've been struck by how hungry we all are for a different kind of politics."

"So I've spent some time thinking about how I could best advance the cause of change and progress that we so desperately need. The decisions that have been made in Washington these past six years, and the problems that have been ignored, have put our country in a precarious place. Our economy is changing rapidly, and that means profound changes for working people. Many of you have shared with me your stories about skyrocketing health care bills, the pensions you've lost and your struggles to pay for college for your kids. Our continued dependence on oil has put our security and our very planet at risk. And we're still mired in a tragic and costly war that should have never been waged."

But challenging as they are, it's not the magnitude of our problems that concerns me the most. It's the smallness of our politics. America's faced big problems before. But today, our leaders in Washington seem incapable of working together in a practical, common sense way. Politics has become so bitter and partisan, so gummed up by money and influence, that we can't tackle the big problems that demand solutions.

And that's what we have to change first.

We have to change our politics, and come together around our common interests and concerns as Americans.

This won't happen by itself. A change in our politics can only come from you; from people across our country who believe there's a better way and are willing to work for it.

Years ago, as a community organizer in Chicago, I learned that meaningful change always begins at the grassroots, and that engaged citizens working together can accomplish extraordinary things.

So even in the midst of the enormous challenges we face today, I have great faith and hope about the future - because I believe in you.

And that's why I wanted to tell you first that I'll be filing papers today to create a presidential exploratory committee. For the next several weeks, I am going to talk with people from around the country, listening and learning more about the challenges we face as a nation, the opportunities that lie before us, and the role that a presidential campaign might play in bringing our country together. And on February 10th, at the end of these decisions and in my home state of Illinois, I'll share my plans with my friends, neighbors and fellow Americans.

In the meantime, I want to thank all of you for your time, your suggestions, your encouragement and your prayers. And I look forward to continuing our conversation in the weeks and months to come.

And if that doesn't work out, there's always getting reelected in 2010.

the undemocratic, dogmatic branch

Which branch am I referring to? Why its the Utah State Legislature of course. Its members routinely give the metaphoric finger (because swearing and fingering in reality would be "rude" and "sinful") to Utahns by adopting unneeded legislation and ignoring the people's priorities.

Utahns want lawmakers to spend a projected $1.6 billion surplus first on public education. A tax cut is lower on their list of priorities. Much lower.
But legislators are poised to give Utahns a tax cut ranging from $100 million to $300 million anyway - whether they want it or not.

And that's not all. Utahns don't want school vouchers, but screw 'em we will do it anyway.


But wait, there's more:

If someone directly challenges Roe v. Wade . . .
And if the U.S. Supreme Court reverses more than 30 years of legal precedent . . .
State Rep. Paul Ray wants Utah to be ready.
[...snip...]
Ray's bill is modeled on similar legislation South Dakota voters rejected earlier this year. That law was meant to test the 1973 Supreme Court decision that granted women the right to legally end a pregnancy. But South Dakota's bill did not include exceptions for incest, rape and the health of the mother.
"I would have issues if we didn't consider those exceptions," said Ray.

So now the legislature will most certainly pass a litmus test bill on a theoretical problem. Why not wait until Roe is overturned and then pass the bill? Someone in Utah just might get an abortion in under some freak scenerio I guess. While there are 4 solid anti-abortion votes on the high court, it is fairly uncertain that Justice Anthony Kennedy could be convinced to reverse on Roe. Rather, the anti-abortion plurality will have more success if they keep finding areas to chip away at ones ability to have an abortion...although there aren't too many exceptions left to find. There already are 24-hour waiting periods, parental consent for minors (from both parents with a judicial escape clause if the girl claims Daddy is the father), the prohibition on dilation and extraction procedures (so called "partial birth abortions") unless the health/life of the mother is in jeopardy, forbidding people from traveling state lines to have an abortion in another state were the laws are laxer, unfunding clinics, making it dangerous and unprofitable to become a doctor performing such procedures etc. [the last few are extra-legal ones that occur]

And really is this an urgent problem? Are the number of abortions skyrocketing in Utah despite the 75% anti-Roe gut reaction of LDS-dominated Utah? No

Abortions in Utah

Abortions remained fairly flat even as Utah's population grew by 300,000.
Abortions by year:
* 2000: 3,279
* 2001: 3,372
* 2002: 3,300
* 2003: 3,338
* 2004: 3,379
* 2005: 3,279
Population:
* 2000: 2.25 million
* 2005: 2.55 million

Why won't the legislature work on making our K-12 schools better, our college more affordable, better health coverage for the poor, etc. Why not do things that will actually improve the lives of Utahns rather than posture for lower taxes for the rich and a fake abortion bill?

And in this corner

Only a fews on the job, and Lohra Miller has already pissed off her predecessor.

An aggravated assault charge was dismissed Friday against Granite School District Police Lt. Richard Todd Rasmussen, who shot and wounded an unarmed man after a chase in October 2004.
Newly elected Salt Lake County District Attorney Lohra Miller said it would be difficult to prove Rasmussen did not fire in self-defense.
It was Miller's first major decision as the new district attorney, and it drew immediate fire from her predecessor, David Yocom, whose office filed the charges against the officer.
"It should have been decided in a courtroom, rather than for political reasons," Yocom told The Tribune on Friday. "Let a jury make the decision. Especially when a law enforcement officer is involved, it should go to trial."

Here is the trust of his 'political reasons' charge

Miller said she reviewed the case - filed in January 2005 and set for trial next month - at the request of "a number of police officers."
One of Miller's campaign slogans was "Ask a Cop," and heading into the election, she had the support of the 700-member Fraternal Order of Police.

Dave Yocum was an awesome DA and I loved how tenacious he was. But I have to say there isn't much there there...unless you have built in assumptions. But I have no dog in this fight, I am just reporting it.

The worst part of the whole thing though, is that it puts Wally Bugden on the same side as Miller. Bugden is also currently representing former FBI 10 most wanted Warren Jeffs for a pretty penny (jetting to St. George etc.).

"These decisions are made in pressured circumstances," Bugden said. "They are split-second decisions made in dangerous and stressful circumstances.
"Sadly, people get shot with a Coke can in their hand," he added. "But the common denominator in officer deaths is an officer who hesitates."

How much do you want to bet that on another day, Bugden would argue the opposite thing for another client? Nah that's like betting on Payton Manning to choke during the playoffs. Too easy.

the real cost of Bush's pride

Rather than admit his lost and move on, Bush wants to double-down on his pair of twos with someone else's money.

Hundreds of soldiers, including some Utahns, will have their tours of duty in Iraq extended to support an increase in troop strength announced by President Bush on Wednesday.
[...snip...]
"The clock has been reset, folks," said Brian Tarbet, adjutant general of the Utah National Guard. "All soldiers are available again today. All of them."
That includes soldiers from units, such as the 115th Maintenance Company, that have recently returned home from Iraq.

Rather than complaining, these national guard troops seem resigned to their fate: "I kind of figured it was going to happen - they're not going to start drafting people," said Troy Steen, who returned from Iraq with the 115th less than a year ago. Oh and for those of you who just want to cheer these people on without thinking about the conserquences of this mindless war, this is his third tour since 9/11 and he has a new wife. But that doesn't matter, Bush can't be wrong, he can't lose, so we are stretching our nation's military to its breaking point.

More than 80 percent of current Utah Guard members have deployed since the 2001 attacks, according to state Guard officials. Pentagon rules limiting how long reservists may be called into active duty had, until this week's policy change, left many of those ineligible to redeploy to war.

"Even 12 months is hard, but it's a cycle," Rich Miller, who recently returned from a tour of duty in Ramadi, Iraq, where he led the Utah-based 222nd Field Artillery, said "You miss one school year . . . you're not away for your child's junior and senior year."

The more I think about it, the madder I get.

Buttars than ever

After trying to bring religion into the school via teaching "intelligent design" last session and failing, cultural warrior Utah State. Sen. Chris Buttars (R-West Valley) is at it again.

His bill, SB111, is titled, "Free Exercise of Religion Without Government Interference." It would require government entities to demonstrate "clear and convincing evidence" that any action taken to curb free exercise of faith "is essential to further a compelling government interest" and is the least restrictive way of doing so.

His idea is to allow students to wear t-shirts with religious themes like "CTR" (Choose The Right, an LDS-phrase) and for said students to be able to pray at graduation. Of course, the court has repeatedly said that even a moment of silence amounts to an unconstitutional establishment of religion. And would Buttars be ok with kids wearing Satanic shirts?

Moreover his belief that being gay is amoral, and his bill to ban gay clubs in high schools, will be in direct conflict with SB111. What a moron.

clueless in Salt Lake City

Photo Credit: Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret Morning News
How shameless is the Utah Republican Party? My quote of the Day:

Last year, Dayton and GOP House members came under criticism for making the pre-legislative fund-raiser a "speed date." Using a format adopted by some adult dating services, lobbyists paid $100 and got several hours to move from one small table to another, talking to individual Republican House members.
"We took some flak last year, and we never fully understood why," said Kat Dayton, who heads fundraising for the Utah St. Rep. GOP PAC, adding that she thought the "speed dating" format "was done just for fun, just for a change."

She added, "I don't get why they compare politicians to prostitutes." OK well that was my attempt at a Daily Show style quote.

Instead of getting into the House Republicans' reception for $100 — as was the case with the speed dating format last year — individuals will have to pay $300 a pop. Groups can also pay $2,500 or $1,500 for tables at the event.
Dayton said House Republicans hope to raise more than $30,000. Senate Republicans are anticipating collecting about $80,000 at their breakfast event, which carried a price tag of $1,800 a table.
There's one more twist to this year's event: It is being held at The Point, a reception center/restaurant on the top floor of the Huntsman Cancer Research Center at the University of Utah.

In other news, the bill to give Utah a 4th seat and DC a vote in the House has resurfaced. No word on when it will come up for a vote.

The Bush Matrix

Remember the first Matrix movie, you know the good one? When they explained that Deja Vu was the Matrix changing something and was a software error? Well Bush will speaking about Iraq tonight for upteenth time and I hereby boldly predict that the media will fuss about how great a speech it was and speculate that it might move opinion, but that no ones minds will be changed in Bush's favor. I mean, look at this:

A poll by The Salt Lake Tribune conducted last week showed that Bush has lost majority support on Iraq from Utahns. Just 41 percent approve of the president's handling of the war, with 45 percent opposed.
Utahns were split on the question of a short-term increase in U.S. troops in Iraq, with 44 percent in support and 42 percent opposed.
A recent Washington Post-ABC News poll found three of four Americans disapproved of how Bush has handled the situation and only 17 percent called for an increase in U.S. forces in Iraq.

If Utah, the reddest state in the nation have 41 approval of Bush's Iraq policy, adn only 17% nationwide want an increase in troop levels, how is Bush going to get any support for 21,500 more men and women to go to Iraq?

He isn't, and I don't think he really cares anymore. He will do just about whatever he wants, signing statements and all, since it will take a long time for the Democratically-controlled Congress to get through all the crap he has already done and all the legal battles over Congressional subpoenas etc.

Just like Neo, Americans have discovered that Bush has Potemkin Village of an Iraq Policy (wait until they figure out the same is true with the War on Terror and domestic policies). Now that we have all swallowed the Red pill, are we willing to deal with the consequences and seriously reign in this madman? Or will we mutter something about "commander in chief" and let more people die needlessly?

bad day

This morning, before leaving the house, I thought our checkbook had been stolen (it fell out of my bag and into the backseat of the car). Then I spent all morning prepping cases for the wrong week. Then I learned that I screwed up a memo to the number two guy in my division. Then I was late to class because I chatted with a classmate 30 seconds too long (TRAX left without me). Then I went home and walked the dog twice and only mananged to have one slice of pizza before I had to fix my memo and send it back. Then I found out they changed the bus schedules and was late to the next class. Oh and I resprained my ankle rushing down some icy steps. Then I went back to work and wasted more time on said cases. Then I got home and iced my ankle, only to have smoke billow out of our stove and ruin my dinner (pizza) and make the whole house a hazy chocking mess. So while the oven self-cleans, my wife and dog and I are holed up at my grandmothers, and her excessively hot house.

So now I am hot, with a headache from the fumes, and a sore ankle.

But other than that, I have had a great day...how was yours?

Monday round-up

• Could someone please remind me why the legislature wants armed students, faculty, staff, and other persons on the University of Utah campus? Last time I checked, it wasn't a high crime area, let alone an area with lots of violent crime requiring a gun for ones own protection. And apparently, I am in the vast majority about this one:
  

  The Deseret Morning News/KSL-TV poll shows 64 percent of those surveyed think guns should definitely or probably not be allowed on campus. That's compared to 36 percent who think concealed weapon permit holders should be allowed to carry guns.
  The poll, conducted by Dan Jones and Associates on Jan. 2-4, has a 5 percent margin of error.

  
  Why does state law then force the U to accept guns on campus? Because they are more interested in appealing to the NRA lobbyists than actual constituents. They are trying to out conservative each other.


• Sign number 234 that Gore will not be running for president but is still popular and trying to start a movement around global climate change:
  

  After about 1,500 tickets were snapped up in 10 minutes for former Vice President Al Gore's speech later this month, Boise State University has moved the speech to a larger venue and is offering more tickets.
  Gore is now scheduled to appear at Taco Bell Arena to give the keynote speech of a conference sponsored by BSU's Frank Church Institute. The speech is set for 7 p.m. Jan. 22 and is titled ''Global Warming: Beyond the Inconvenient Truth''

  
  That's right Boise, Idaho. No disrespect to Broncos fans [what a game!] or people from Idaho, but if you are running for president, you don't give speeches in Idaho, you give them in New Hampshire, Iowa, South Carolina, Nevada, Michigan, etc. But if you care about your issue and aren't just posturing for the cameras, you go to places like Boise.


• Allow me to join the crowd and applaud SPEAKER Pelosi for setting term limits on Committee Chairmen. This was, as Ed Kilgore points out, the only good idea Newt had. True change cannot come without abandoning the chairman for life mentality. All of the major incoming committee chairmen just waited out the Republican majority for 12 years to get their gavels back. As Sen. Obama said on Oprah, those who are in DC too long start representing Washington to their constituents rather than their constituents to Washington. How much of a reformist can one be if one can indefinitely weld power? Chairman Waxman is a "Watergate baby" i.e. Class of 1974. John Dingell has been a member of the House since 1955, longer even than Ted Kennedy. Dingell has written major legislation, like the Clean Air Act, but he also has stymied improving fuel economy for cars to "help" Detroit Automakers. Just ask them how much they were helped when you compare Toyota's hybrid sales to their own SUV sales. It's time for a change.


• And lastly, a store that was never open finally closes its doors for reals this time.
  

  Amy's Antiques in the 9th & 9th district, an attractive old brick building literally shuttered with plywood for more than 10 years, is approaching its final transaction.
  Lou Diston, who owns the building and ran the resale shop for 20 years, is finally unloading what's left of her decades of picking up remnants from estate sales she managed.

  
  I remember in middle school and high school walking past Amy's and wondering how one could get away with such a fake "business" where one bought crap and pretended to have a store but never sold anything. I haven't taken a tax course in law school, but I always assumed there was some pecuniary reason for this setup.

selfish vs. selfless

If you ever wanted to know how many Democrats there are proportionally in Utah, it is better not to ask the party affiliation question but this question: would you rather have a tax cut, or an increase in government services?

The Dan Jones & Associates poll of 400 Utahns conducted this past week shows that 38 percent of Utahns want a $100 million tax cut, as suggested by GOP Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.
Nineteen percent favor a $300 million tax cut, a number already approved by Utah House Republicans. Together, 57 percent of Utahns told Jones they want some kind of tax cut in 2007.
But 37 percent said they don't want any tax cuts this year. They favor just spending the extra cash on state programs, Jones found.

Thirty-seven percent. That is what Utah Democrats are up against these days. But people's selfish tendencies have been overcome before. Look at TRAX where, although it took a decade or so to get light rail, once implemented, the public was willing to raise their taxes for it.

If somehow the public can see the benefit to its high tax burden, they will be willing to pay for it. But when it just goes to adding more roads and irrigation, without less traffic or better agricultural production, they aren't willing to let the state government have their cash. Spend it on education Pre-K to 12, and post-secondary. Get more teachers more classrooms more books. Make college tuition completely tax deductable and more affordable.

But whatever you do, don't give the wealthy a useless tax cut.