Do Hatch and Bennett support our troops?

So far, the answer is no. Veterans for America are pissed at Bennett and Hatch for voting against the Webb amendment (which would give our troops one year back home for every one year they are in Iraq) this summer. Other Utah veterans have pointed out that our Senators are willing to cheer lead President Bush's anti-troop agenda.

But luckily for Bennett and Hatch, the Webb Amendment is up for a vote again. Listen to what Sen. Webb says about the amendment, a man who served with honor in Vietnam and more importantly, whose son is currently in harm's way in Iraq. In fact, his son's convoy was attacked once and people died just as his Dad was being sworn into the U.S. Senate.

So call Sen. Hatch (202) 224-5251 and Sen. Bennett (202) 224-5444 [Remember to be short & polite, but firm]
Or call them toll free:
1 (800) 828 - 0498
1 (800) 459 - 1887
1 (800) 614 - 2803
1 (866) 340 - 9281
1 (866) 338 - 1015
1 (877) 851 - 6437

And if you hear some crap about "micromanaging" remind them of two things. That Bush is refusing to listen to his Generals (and replacing them with Generals like Petraeus, who tell him what he wants to hear...let alone what the American people have to say) and has managed the war so poorly that for the sake of the Republic, the Congress must take over.

The other of course, is the Constitution: Art I, Sec. 8:

The Congress shall have Power...To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;
To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;
To provide and maintain a Navy;
To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces

It is the Congress' solemn and sacred duty to exercise its war powers to defend the United States from all enemies, foreign and domestic.

GOPers filibuster, voting rights edition

How many times in the 110th Congress has Min. Leader Mitch McConnell and his Republican underlings led a filibuster (or its functional equivalent)? As mind boggling as this chart is, it needs to be updated. (kudos to McClatchy)

It is not just that Republican Senators are obstructing bills that are Democratic bills that are contentious issues with the public but they have repeatedly blocked bills that enjoy massive support from the American public. The Iraq bills are only the most prominent of these.



The filibuster de jure was a bill that garnered 57 votes. As designed, it would give another House seat to one Republican (via Utah) and one Democrat (via D.C.). The two additional seats would be permanent, but reapportionment in 2012 would change nearly every state's delegation size save Wyoming, the Dakotas, Montana, and now the District of Columbia.

But because DC is predominantly black, and because the DC voting rights groups would next push for two Senate seats the GOP blocked the bill.

Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, a close adviser of the Republican leader, said McConnell's argument was good enough to keep many Republicans from voting for the bill.

"Basically it wasn't a surprise," Bennett said of today's vote. "I never thought we had 60."

Bennett said the vote has little negative effect on Utah. "It means, Wait until the next Census," Bennett said.

Shorter Bennett: Stop bothering me with your Democracy for DC and power for Utah crap, I am a very important Senator in Washington D.C.!

Sorry to trouble you Mr. close adviser of the Republican leader of the United States Senate, but you represent the people of Utah, not the Republican party. Next time, try to lift a finger on behalf of your state and care when your party filibusters a bill that hurts your state. Yes, even if it makes you that not-so-close-adviser to the Republican leader.

Utah-DC bill voting in Senate today

UPDATE: (via HuffPost) Senators voted for the DC/Utah bill 57-42, just three votes short of the 60 needed to move the measure forward over a Republican Fillibuster.

This is a non-partisan issue, even though I rag on Republicans who oppose the bill (like Bennett and McConnell) on partisan grounds dressed up in constitutional "concerns." (If you want to talk about the constitution, Mitch McConnell is no expert, he lost at the Supreme Court on McCain-Finegold)

Call Sen. Hatch (202) 224-5251 and Sen. Bennett (202) 224-5444 and tell them to vote for this bill and to urge their Republican colleagues to either vote for it, or allow the bill to have an UpRDown ™ vote

For the first time in almost 30 years, the full Senate plans to take up the D.C. voting-rights issue in a showdown Tuesday that could either give the legislation a strong push or kill it for this year.

[...]

The vote could be a cliffhanger. Almost all of the Senate's 51 Democrats and independents back the bill, as do at least five Republican members.

"We think unless something happens -- arms are twisted -- that we have it," said Nancy Zirkin, a top official with the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, another major backer of the bill.

[...]

The bill would expand the House of Representatives from 435 to 437 seats. It was designed as a political compromise, with one seat going to the heavily Democratic District and the other to the next state in line to pick up a seat: Utah, which leans Republican.

Now given that the latest map approved by the legislature after the latest push for this bill would create a safe seat for Rep. Jim Matheson or a tough seat for Matheson and swing seat for a Ashdown or Carroon-type Democrat, it think it is pretty safe to say that the seat margin will not change between parties.

Calling is the best way to let Senators know the people want something. Postal mail takes weeks to get through thanks to the Antrax mailer and is all irradiated (so don't send your child's paintings). Emails are too voluminous to read. But calls are taken seriously, especially when there are lots of them all of sudden. Congress critters get scared of the people when they call in droves. Make it short and sweat (aka polite) but tell all your friends to call, especially if they work for Hill AFB or Dugway. More members of Congress=more clout in DC=more federal funding.

So please call Sens. Hatch and Bennett toll free at:
1 (800) 828 - 0498
1 (800) 459 - 1887
1 (800) 614 - 2803
1 (866) 340 - 9281
1 (866) 338 - 1015
1 (877) 851 - 6437
While you are on the phone tell them to vote to restore a 400 year old civil right--Habeas Corpus. Dodd's bill has popular national support. Oh and Happy Constitution Day.

Bennett waffles on more power for Utah

If you were a Republican Senator from a small state, and there was a bill that would create another House seat for your state before the Census AND that seat was going to be a safe Republican seat, you would go for it right? Not Senator Bob "Watergate" Bennett.

But Bennett, R-Utah, says he is concerned that passage of the measure could lead to the District of Columbia arguing it deserves U.S. Senate representation for its nearly 600,000 residents.
His amendment, which will be offered later if the bill passes a procedural vote Tuesday, would nullify the legislation if the U.S. Supreme Court rules the District of Columbia must get Senate seats as well.
"If this bill becomes a covert way to give D.C. two senators, I want no part of it," Bennett said in a statement Friday.
The senator also said Friday that he will attempt to change the bill's provision that requires it to be wholly thrown out if the Supreme Court decides the District of Columbia does not qualify for a House seat. Under the current legislation, Utah would lose its fourth seat if the district loses its proposed member of Congress.
[...]
If the amendments fail to be included in the bill, "my constitutional concerns will compel me to vote with the president and sustain his expected veto," Bennett said.

Why would giving the District two Senators, home to more US citizens than South Dakota, be such a bad thing?

Well, DC is overwhelmingly Democratic and worse for Bennett, has a large African-American population. This means that out of the 1-3 person DC delegation, all or most would be black. Get Bennett his vapors.

Still, it is only fair that a city that has had no representation in Congress for 200 plus years should have its fate tied to Utah, who will get at least one more seat in 2012. Bennett's amendment is a poison pill amendment, and he knows it. The whole point of the bill's crafting was to make both Democrats and Republicans happy with it while fixing two inequities at the same time, Utah getting hosed out of a seat because the Census didn't count returning LDS missionaries and DC for having no representation at all.

In short Bennett will vote against his own state's interest just because it might help Democrats and black people have more of a voice in congress.

On Clark's endorsement of Hillary Clinton

I am a huge Clark fan. For Christmas in 2002, I asked for Waging Modern Wars, because the little I had heard about him (via a TIME article that October) made me think he would be the best president for our country. I talked up Clark all year in 2003, telling everyone he would run and could win. I joined the draft movement officially in April 2003, and helped launch MassforClark when my wife and I moved out to Boston. I gave him $100, a lot for me, in September.

I campaigned for him in New Hampshire multiple times and was heartbroken when he had to bow out in February 2004. Back then, he endorsed John Kerry and hit the campaign trail hard for him. Since then, Clark has gotten much better at campaigning (and learned a lot when he was running for president). He raised lots of money for candidates all ove the country and held lots of rallies supporting them in 2004 and 2006.

Like Matt noted (another MassforClark alum) the General is very sensible on why he is for universal health care, gays in the military, reforming the Pentagon budget, progressive tax reform, etc. He was outspoken against the war in Iraq from the beginning, and has led the fight to keep us out of Iran, which makes Joe Lieberman sad.

So when I got an email from Wes Clark saying he supports Hillary this time around, I take it that the race is essentially over and that Hillary is moving in the right direction. Edwards and Obama must win Iowa to win the nomination, the danger is that their share will split and she will still come in first.

Word on the Hill is also that Senator Clinton is taking names of everyone who supports her rivals, and those intrepid soles will find themselves on the outside looking into a second Clinton White House.

Clark had a lot of tacit support from the Clintons in 2003, both in terms of staff and in terms of money, and how many Rhode Scholars can their be from Arkansas in the late 1960s/early 1970s?

I would be very pleased if Hillary were to choose Clark for her running mate. Now that Mark Warner is off the table, Senator Clinton's choices other than Clark are ex-IA Gov. Tom Vilsack, KS Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, Obama, Richardson, IN Sen/ex-Gov. Evan Bayh, and that's about it. Obama and Richardson are very unlikely because Obama and her are getting nastier towards another by the day, and Richardson keeps saying dumb things and even dumber excuses. Bayh and Vilsack have proven to be uninspiring for most people and it is unclear whether Bayh would be able to deliver Indiana for her (since that state would seem prime anti-Hillary territory) and Hillary might be able to win Iowa without Vilsack on the ticket.

To me, Sebelius is the best conceptual fit for Hillary. Both are successful women politicians whose main selling point is tough competent pragmatism. And if that put Kansas in play, that would be icing on the cake.

But Clark would offer to broaden Hillary's appeal in Arkansas, flipping that state back into solid Clinton Country. And Clark could make inroads into other Southern states like Kentucky, Tennessee, and North Carolina somewhat competitive. Virginia could become a swing state with Warner on the ballot. Warner would have done this too (except more Virginia and less Arkansas) but we need him in the Senate, despite what Matt thinks.

Of course, this is all speculation, but unless something dramatic happens in Iowa, it is not looking good for Obama or Edwards in Iowa and hence the nomination.

Wilson's sexism excuse

(Photo Credit: Mike Terry, Deseret Morning News)

Jenny Wilson, whose come-from-ahead loss is the talk of the politicos in Salt Lake City, is blaming Rocky and sexism for her failure at the voting booths.

Mayor Rocky Anderson's last minute op-ed Salt Lake Tribune piece on the ability to serve as mayor and a mother of small children — could spell trouble in recruiting more women to run for public office, Wilson said.

"Rocky's charges and all of the discussions out there, I think, if anything, are going to suppress women from having an interest in running for office," Wilson said. "Now I feel like there will be some sense of, 'Oh great, I've got kids. Look what happened to Jenny.' And that's too bad."
[...]
The fact Wilson is a woman did not hurt her campaign, former GOP congresswoman Enid Greene said. And Anderson's last minute op-ed two days before the election regarding motherhood was "simply desperation on his part," Greene said of the Salt Lake City mayor, who publicly endorsed Keith Christensen, who also lost in the primary.

"I don't think a lot of people voted for or against Jenny Wilson thinking about her children as much as Rocky would have had them do otherwise," Greene said.

But Wilson said she was the subject of undue scrutiny purely because of her gender.

"The distinctions on this men to women, the increased lens on my family, nobody wrote about the family lives of Ralph Becker, Dave Buhler or Keith Christensen, and there is plenty to say there, both good and bad," Wilson said. "Yet everybody knows I've got these two kids, and, oh, are they going to be OK in all of this, and how do we feel about that, when nobody is asking those questions about the others?"

However, US Sen. candidate Pete Ashdown gives us some backstory that illustrates the fundamental problem with Ms. Wilson's campaign.

Dave Everitt and Ralph were persistent but not obnoxious in seeking my endorsement. I gave money to Jenny early on and what came back is that the campaign expected my endorsement even before she returned my questionnaire.

I was also pleased that Dave took my advice on the proper way to build an email list and also did not use robocallers. As you stated previously, your own household received four robocalls from the Wilson campaign. I firmly believe that robocalls are for sucker candidates and they do more harm than good. [emphasis added]

I call bullsh!t on Jenny, and amazingly agree with Enid Greene [Waldholz]. It was Jenny's campaign's sense of entitlement and crappy answers to lame debate questions that did her in, not the fact that she has ovaries.

She can blame Rocky, sexists, or those rude bloggers all she wants, but the truth is, she ran a crappy campaign. While it is true that Buhler was likely to get a top spot because he had the Republican-LDS base solidly behind him, she still could have beaten Keith and Ralph since she had more money than Ralph, better name recognition than Ralph, and didn't have to run away from her party/record like Keith.

Yet she ran a cautious campaign and struggled in debates and never really rallied Democrats in one of the bluest cities in the state. So if she wants someone to blame, she better start looking in the mirror.

Ashdown points out my error

(Photo Credit: ElectJohnson.com)
(from left to right: fmr. US Sen. candidate Pete Ashdown, St. Rep. Christine Johnson (D-UT-25), SL County Mayor Peter Carroon)

I have tooting my own horn in terms of prognostication and analysis and rarely anyone has called me on it when my predictions turn out wrong. Partly this is because I admit them before someone can, and partly because I don't have as many readers as say Matt Stoller.

The once and future US Senate candidate Pete Ashdown, however, noted that I thought on balance that Carroon's endorsement of Jenny was worth more that his was for Ralph. Of course, Jenny failed to make it past the primary and Ralph won a surprisingly large victory on Tuesday.

In my defense, I had been worried that my friendship with Dave Everitt and my support of Ralph stemming back at least since 2003 would bias my predictions of the race and lead me to undervalue Jenny. I was hypersentive to saying negative things about Jenny because I didn't know her that well but she is a good Democrat and ran a good campaign to knock of a Republican for an at-large seat on the SL County Council.

Ashdown was right though, even if he was classy enough not to say it outright, in a primary election, the base matters. And Ashdown excites activists and frequent voters.

The proof I overlooked? Ashdown beat Hatch in early voting...in Salt Lake County.

Check out this graphic by the Salt Lake Tribune:

People who vote early are not just those who will be out of town on Election Day, but committed voters who tend to be more activist--the same type of people who vote in mayoral primaries. 2006 was a great year for Democrats nationaly, so Utah Dems (many if not most of whom live in SL County) voted early in larger numbers than Utah Republicans.

Not that Ralph sought out Pete's support over Carroon because of this fact, Ralph would have loved both I am sure. But since Jenny was on the County Council and Peter is the County Mayor, it makes sense he would support the one who he has worked with so much more than Ralph, who Peter knows from his days on the Avenues community council.

While it is impossible to tell what sort of impact either endorsement had on the actual voters, it is clear that Pete Ashdown came out of this looking much better than Peter Carroon. This is true even if it is more the SLC mayoral candidates' "fault" than the endorser's, but politics isn't fair. There is a reason why people wonder how much Al Gore's endorsement is worth after Howard Dean flopped in 2004.

not a lot for Robert 'Lot' Muscheck

(Photo Credits ©2007 Stephen Holt/Special to The Tribune)

First off, congrats to Ralph Becker and Dave Buhler, who made it past the SLC mayoral primary yesterday. Secondly, a sad congratulations to BYU poly sci Professor Kelly Patterson, who estimated turnout to be 28,000. The actual result: 27,239 people voted in this election, out of 94,578 registered voters for a city of about 180,000 people. In other words, 28.8% turnout and only 15% of the residents of Salt Lake City are deciding which two people might be the other 85%'s mayor.

Other than Jenny Wilson (I will get to her in a second), the most dubious number of the whole night goes to Robert "Lot" Muscheck. This protest candidate got a grand total of...[drum roll please]...fourteen (14) votes. That's right, other than his nuclear family, maybe his brothers' or sisters' family voted for him. That is impressively bad.

We all knew that Keith Christensen was sinking fast ever since he left the GOP, which must have a) struck primary voters as opportunistic and b) reminded them that he was a Republican. But Jenny's fall from first to third place (a mere 1,206 votes separated her from making into the next round, while 2,916 separated Becker from Buhler and 4,122 separated Becker from Wilson) was the most startling. A few predicted this would happen. I got the feeling it would but wasn't brave enough to voice it on my blog before a commenter beat me to it on Ethan's.

Everyone who knows anything about this race knew it was going to be a low turnout affair. Similarly, it is common knowledge that those who do turn out in such elections are usually more partisan and activist than regular voters, let alone like the average public. So running to the center, like Keith and to a lesser extent Jenny did, hurt them. While Buhler pretended to run in the middle, it seems the SLC Republicans figured out that he was their guy.

Becker by contrast focused on liberal activists. He hosted a screening at the Broadway on a documentary on electric cars. Every piece of advertising focused on his liberal creditials, whether it was a sign attached to a bicyclist, or a mailer with Utah's only two homosexual legislators. Moreover, Ralph already represented one of the most liberal and activist areas in the whole city--the Avenues and Capitol Hill-- so he had a built in advantage of already being known by said activists and having a voting record to back up his campaign strategy. He also ran a relatively mistake-free campaign.

Jenny spent her last dollars robo-calling my wife and I 4 or 5 times because we are frequent voters. Even if I hadn't already decided to vote for Becker out of fear that he wouldn't make it to the next round, my friend Dave Everitt, and his blogger outreach, these calls would have sent me over the edge to Becker anyway. First off, one is enough. The repeated nature of it pissed me off. Also, having the fire chief calling in didn't sell me. I never picked up the other ones, but I assume they were from Carroon and maybe Jenny herself.

I didn't have the inside access to the Wilson campaign like I did for Becker's. But from the emails her campaign sent me, I got the impression that hers was a 30,000 feet campaign, whereas Becker's focus was ground-based. And look who surged even beyond the last poll, and who blew a 25-point lead.

In the end, no matter how great of a elected official you would be in office, if you are running, you need to get your people to the polls in droves. No amount of spending or endorsements will overcome that.

Kudos to Jenny for being gracious in defeat and endorsing Becker immediately. I don't recommend Ralph should take Rocky up on that endorsement thing, since he seems to have the Liberman-Midas touch these days.

I am ready to predict that Becker will blow the doors off Buhler in the general, with most of Jenny's supporters going to Ralph (as well as some of Keith's) and Buhler gaining only about 10 points in a two person race.

let the Matheson mine commission do its job

Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. did the right thing by appointing the guy he beat-- Scott Matheson, Jr.-- to head the commission to look into Utah's mine safety.

"You're talking to a lot of people about a lot of things that are often relevant to what we need," Matheson told James Crawford, a senior trial attorney at MSHA and legal advisor to the agency investigation team headed by Richard Gates.
Crawford said he would like to satisfy Matheson's desire for more information but added that there are limitations on what MSHA should disclose before its probe is complete.
"I hope you are sensitive to our need to protect our investigative process," he said, maintaining that releases of bits and pieces of information before the big picture is assembled can lead to premature conclusions that later turn out to be wrong. "We want to do a good job here . . . To do that, we have to respect the investigative process."

In other words, MSHA needs to make sure it doesn't give Matheson's commission anything that will make MSHA look bad, like how they never did anything in March after the first mini-cave in.

Good thing Matheson isn't going to be sitting around waiting for MSHA to hand him the information he needs.

"If we're not getting [information], we're going to push for it," vowed Matheson, former U.S. Attorney and past dean of the University of Utah Law School. "I'd like the [state commission] to make relevancy determinations [on information] and not rely on MSHA. I'd like a commitment of a good faith effort to work this out."
[...]
Matheson said he already has met once with some survivors of disaster victims and would be talking with their representatives again Monday to ensure the families are kept abreast of the state commission's activities.

That's something Murray wouldn't do. The next time Murray will talk with their attorneys is when he get subpoenaed for the litigation that is sure to follow.

Matheson fired back that since the state does not have the resources to conduct its own probe, the commission relies on MSHA for pertinent information.

"There's no interest (by our commission) in compromising your investigation," Matheson said. "Our interest is in doing our work consistent with an investigation that you feel is thorough and meets all the confidentiality needs that it needs to meet.

"But at the same time, we'd like to have access to information that would help us in doing our work. And periodic updates and giving us information that you're going to give to the public, at least in my view, is not sufficient."

Scott Matheson is fighting for miner's safety, and he won't let MSHA or anyone else cut corners or whitewash over the truth.

the Becker boomlet

After reading Jenni's thoughtful endorsement of Becker, I saw today that the Salt Lake Tribune has a new poll out that is terrific news for Utah House Min. Leader Ralph Becker (D-Avenues/Capitol Hill).

This poll tracks in my mind with previous polls that showed Keith Christensen sinking to around 11-8% while Ralph Becker was rising. At the time of the last poll, I speculated most of the loss was due to Keith's high profile exit from the Republican party in an attempt to highlight his moderate-ness and separate himself from the Republican label which is an anathema to SLC voters.

However maybe it is people moving from Keith to Ralph due to the later's concentrated advertising push to highlight his progressive/liberal track record/credentials. Or maybe it is the opposite-- that people are moving away from Keith due to his advertising push that I have criticized for being too vague (and filled with meaningless feel-good rhetoric [aka High-Boderism]). But my favorite part of this "article" (it is just a poll with a series of called-in responses to said poll) was the reactions by the various campaigns.

"Whew!" Becker's campaign manager, David Everitt, whistled today when told of the poll results. "I can tell you we're not unhappy with that."
[...]
"Really," Jeff Mathis [Jenny Wilson's campaign manager] said. "Interesting." "I never expected to lead in the polls," said Christensen, a former city councilman. "They tend to be about name ID. The only poll that matters is Election Day. Voters will make this call, not the polls."
Buhler, a sitting city councilman, also was measured.
"That's interesting," he said. "What this shows is that it's very important people get out and vote on Tuesday. I felt like it would be close."

The article called Mathis' reaction "subdued" I think he was more shocked and scared than nonplussed. Christensen is typical politician who is behind babble. It is the equivalent to a coach of a sports team saying "We just take one game at a time." And Buhler's "I felt like it would be close," is a back track from the happy talk when he was in a two-way race with Wilson. The fact is, assuming this poll is true, Wilson and Buhler are stagnant/slightly down, Christensen is sinking, and Becker is surging at just the right time. Let's look at the cross tabs.

Wilson, the front-runner in previous polls over the summer, had more than double the unfavorable percentage as Becker, according to the latest survey. Even so, that number for Wilson is small, at 15 percent. Becker's unfavorable is just 6 percent, while Buhler had the highest at 29 percent. Christensen's negative number was 21 percent.
Perhaps surprising, Becker also leads with likely women voters, albeit slightly. The poll also gave Becker small percentage-point edges among Democrats, independents and non-LDS voters.
Buhler leads among likely LDS voters, more than tripling the field in that column.
The only Republican among the major contenders in the officially nonpartisan race, Buhler also dominated the GOP slot. He registered 58 percent of the Republican vote, while Christensen (with 18 percent) had the next closest.
[...]
By contrast, the independent vote was close among the top three contenders. Becker leads with 29 percent followed by Wilson (26 percent) and Buhler (22 percent). Christensen snagged just 9 percent of the independent vote.

Very interesting, especially the support from women. It is like Clinton having a bigger share of the black vote than Obama.

With margins this close and turnout this low ("Historically, though, less than 20 percent of registered capital voters typically go to the polls in off-year mayoral primaries."), the ground game is going to make the difference between second place and being out of this race Tuesday night. And if this poll is backed up by a Dan Jones poll this weekend (which I assume is in the field as we speak for the Sunday Desert News), then the order of finish between the top three is utterly unpredictable.

If any of the campaigns were to listen to me, I would suggest that they forget about airing any more commercials, sending out more mailers, and certainly doing any more billboards. The key is calling likely voters, knocking on doors, and maybe honk and waves. May the best man or woman make it past the primary.

UPDATE: I was right about the polls, of course.

chicken hawk by blood

Remember this?

"The good news is that we have a volunteer Army and that's the way we're going to keep it," Romney told some 200 people gathered in an abbey near the Mississippi River that had been converted into a hotel. "My sons are all adults and they've made decisions about their careers and they've chosen not to serve in the military and active duty and I respect their decision in that regard."

He added: "One of the ways my sons are showing support for our nation is helping me get elected because they think I'd be a great president."

Now we learn this is an inherited trait.

[E]xactly 150 years ago, an ancestor of Mitt Romney deserted from U.S. Army troops sent to put down a purported Mormon rebellion in Utah.
Carl Heinrich (Charles Henry) Wilcken, Romney's great-great-grandfather, would give Mormons information about approaching troops, eventually joined the LDS Church and ultimately became a bodyguard and confidant of two church presidents.

The middle name of Romney's father, former Michigan Gov. George W. Romney (also once a presidential candidate), is Wilcken, after that soldier-ancestor.

The little-known soldier in the little-known "Utah War" was a topic Friday at the annual Utah State History Conference.
[...]
Wilcken saw poor protection by U.S. troops, which allowed Mormon militia to burn forage in front of the approaching army. LDS soldiers also burned many of the federal supply wagons and ran off the army's livestock. Soldiers had little to eat. Their winter camp in Wyoming would be one of the hardest in the history of the U.S. Army.

Wilcken decided to desert and head for Salt Lake City. But, Richardson said, Wilcken reported a spiritual experience that delayed that action for a day and possibly saved him from being jailed or shot.

As he was about to desert, he said he "heard a voice calling his name" — his real name, not the assumed name he used to enlist. Two other times as he was to leave, he heard his name called and stopped. Wilcken later learned that the cavalry had been on patrol all night watching Mormon camps and likely would have caught him.
[...]
Wilcken was baptized into the LDS Church only two months after he deserted the Army and later had plural wives. In later years, he became a messenger and bodyguard for LDS President John Taylor, who was, at times, in hiding during federal anti-polygamy crusades. He also was a bodyguard for President Wilford Woodruff, who succeeded John Taylor and ultimately led the church away from the practice of polygamy.

headline of the day

One of the things I missed when I was back in SLC after livinig in Boston and DC was those free newspapers that were handed out at subway stops. While mostly AP wire stories, they were a good into do the basic news and gave you a short summary of what was going on in all news aspects.

So this morning while I was waiting for the office to open, I grapped one that is run my the Washington Post. In the celebrity section, there was a one sentece article on Casey Afleck's new baby:

"Less Popular, More Talented Affleck Brother Procreates" I couldn't have summed it up any better than that.

Fair thee well

I am off to Washington, D.C. tomorrow morning and will be interning there for the fall. Hopefully, I will have time to blog during the time I am there. Don't worry about me missing the run-off election, my wife and I already voted for Becker.

Since the people at my job find blogging to be a chore, and I have enjoyed it for five years now, you may see me posting over at CLCblog, but my views and their views are totally separate. As a person, I may endorse someone like Ralph Becker, but they do not and cannot. They are completely non-partisan and above board (one guy who works there is legal counsel for a top presidential candidate, and won't even sit in meetings if people idling chatting about the election). If it is jargon-filled, please forgive. I may get a job out in the Washington area, who knows.

No matter what happens, Utah will always be my home. And Salt Lake my home town.

looking out for the fat cats

First here's the depressing economic news that has sent the Dow into a tailspin this morning:

Employers sliced payrolls by 4,000 in August, the first drop in four years...
The latest snapshot of the employment climate, released by the Labor Department on Friday, also showed that the unemployment rate held steady at 4.6 percent, mainly because hundreds of thousands of people left the work force for any number of reasons.
Job losses in construction, manufacturing, transportation and government swamped gains in education and health care, leisure and hospitality, and retail. Employment in financial services was flat. The weakness in payrolls reflected fallout from the deepening housing slump, a credit crisis and financial turbulence that has made businesses more cautious in their hiring.

It sure is a great time to graduate and be looking for a job! So what does $250 Millioniare Willard Mitt Romney propose to help stimulate the economy?

Posted: 7:18 AM- CONCORD, N.H. - Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is filling in the blanks in his proposal to eliminate taxes on interest and dividends for families earning less than $200,000 a year.
[...]
Romney, who previously has talked about his desire to eliminate such taxes, said the plan would encourage saving. He was explaining the details during an appearance Friday in New Hampshire.
"You're creating a dramatic new incentive to save, which is savings will be tax free. ... Your interest, dividends and capital gains will be tax-free, which will allow people to establish pretty substantial nest eggs," said Romney, who previewed his speech in a telephone interview Thursday with The Associated Press.
"Any tax reduction means more money in our pockets to invest in our country, and tax reductions stimulate our economy in general," he said.
Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom, said the proposal would cost $32 billion, to be paid for through economic growth, and by holding non-defense discretionary spending to inflation minus 1 percentage point.

I love the magical presidential candidate "paying for it" by making assumptions that will never ever happen. Could the press please stop asking how a candidate "is going to pay for that?" We all know it is a sham, and I would love it if some candidate would just admit that whatever plan they are proposing is a mere outline of what might someday become law. And that they have no intention of really balancing the books and no way of doing so other than cutting popular programs or defense spending, neither of which are politically possible to do.

But let's get to the larger point, that Romney's plan for cutting dividend and interest taxes will magically eliminate the looming recession is lie to cut taxes for plutocrats like himself.

While nearly half of all American families own stock, they do so in their pensions (AKA IRA's or 401(k)'s). This means that at worst, the own tax deferred stocks (you aren't taxed until you start to access the portollio, which is hopefully when you are retired--which should be decades from when you first started putting your money into the investment vehicle). So the marginal tax rate will provide no incentive for a middle class worker to plunk down more money into their retirement plan. Even assuming he knew what the marginal tax rate was now and knew it went down, it wouldn't matter because the tax rate that matters is the one that exists when that worker retires. For me, that is in the 2040s or 50s. For my parents (who are roughly speaking baby boomers), that is in the 2010s or 2020s.

Now let's turn to the tax on interest...which I assume is taxing money one has in a normal bank savings account.

The Commerce Department reported Monday that the savings rate fell into negative territory at minus 0.5 percent, meaning that Americans not only spent all of their after-tax income last year but had to dip into previous savings or increase borrowing.

The savings rate has been negative for an entire year only twice before — in 1932 and 1933 — two years when the country was struggling to cope with the Great Depression, a time of massive business failures and job layoffs.
[...]
The Commerce report said that consumer spending for December rose by 0.9 percent, more than double the 0.4 percent increase in incomes last month.

A price gauge that excludes food and energy rose by a tiny 0.1 percent in December, down from a 0.2 percent rise in November.

So in short, Americans are happier to plunk down money for a flat screen tv, a new iPod (I am guilty of this one), a new car, etc. rather than put money in the bank. And since the interest rate on savings accounts is low--Zions for example is .20% for a checking account, according to Bankrate.com--the lack of savings has more to do with consumerism and low interest rates than the tax rate on said interest. And how could average Americans save more when they are earning comparatively less, what with the skyrocketing cost of health care combined with flat-to-negative wage growth?

Both hourly and weekly earnings of production non-supervisory workers—the vast majority of workers—increased by 0.3 percent in August before inflation is accounted for. It remains to be seen if these growth rates are enough to let wages rise even after accounting for inflation. After all, in the first seven months of 2007, inflation-adjusted hourly earnings dropped by 0.6 percent and weekly earnings by 0.9 percent.

Thus, Romney's tax cut plan is more Bushonomics. Help the rich, and shift the tax burden to the poor.

a tale of two newspapers

Both Thomas Burr and Suzanne Struglinski went to the same Senate hearing on the Crandall Canyon mine deaths yesterday, but you wouldn't know that by reading their articles. First, the Utah Republican Party Morning News

Subcommittee members, as well as Utah's U.S. Sens. Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett, asked MSHA head Richard Stickler for details on what happened in the mine, what can be done in the future to avoid other accidents and how MSHA should handle accidents in the future.

Next, the Salt Lake Tribune.

"What the hell is the problem at MSHA?" Byrd asked rhetorically, as several audience members erupted in applause.
"It is past time - way past time to take the gloves off," Byrd told Stickler, advising him to "crack some heads" at the agency to make improvements.
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, stood up for the embattled witness.
"It's always easier after the fact to come in and find fault," Hatch added. He later told reporters that MSHA did the best it could with the knowledge it had and it is "pretty tough" to have the foresight to see a bump would occur.
Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, asked Stickler why rescue operations weren't halted earlier as Bennett had been told was the case. "It was with great feeling in the pit of my stomach to hear that rescue operations had begun again and three rescue workers were killed," Bennett said. Stickler said the experts thought it was safe for rescuers to re-enter the mine.

Guess which one has ex. Utah State Party Chair Joe Cannon as their editor-in-chief. And guess which one is still angling for that Attorney General job?

theocracy via charter school

(© 1998 Utah State University Press)

"[A] perfect separation between ecclesiastical and civil matters," wrote James Madison in 1822, is the best course, for "religion & Gov. will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together." In 1832, the author of the First Amendment wrote a letter to Rev. Jasper Adams further explaining his position. "The tendency to a usurpation on one side or the other, or to a corrupting coalition or alliance between them, will be best guarded against by an entire abstinence of the Gov. from interference in any way whatever..."

"Beliving with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God," President Thomas Jefferson wrote to the Danbury Baptist Association on January 1, 1802, "...I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between Church and State."

And yet the theocrats down at Karl G. Maeser Preparatory Academy have an LDS seminary built right into their taxpayer-funded-school. So there's a wall, architecturally speaking but there's a door too.

A new publicly funded charter school and an LDS seminary share the same roof in Lindon, but they're entirely separate institutions, educators say.
[...]
"It's not accessible from our school," he said. "You have to go outside and go around to get to it."
But he acknowledged Maeser Prep students, who study liberal arts using the Socratic method, benefit from its location.
"It's convenient to have it close," he said. "Students go back and forth from [seminary] time to our classes."
Locating a seminary and public school in the same structure could cause some people to believe the school is subsidizing the church, said Carol Lear, director of school law and legislation for the Utah Office of Education. Being across the street from a public school, which is typical for an LDS seminary, gives a different appearance.
"There certainly is an issue of perception," she said. "It does matter that they're in the same building. Does it make it illegal? I'm not sure I can say that."

I believe even the across the street seminaries already are skirting too close to the line, especially when students used to get course credit for attending them. Which is why the Utah Supreme Court ruled in 1981 that "students could be released from school for religious programs, but the instruction needs to take place separately, funded with separate resources."

When people accidently enter into the seminary thinking they are entering into the charter school, it is a problem. I hope somebody sues them.

put two and two together

I think if you read these two articles together you will get my argument without me having to make it. I love it when that happens.

Neighborhood schools serving minorities and the poor in the U.S. are losing teachers to wealthy districts, according to a study.
''High-minority'' districts are almost twice as likely as richer areas to struggle at retaining math and science teachers, according to the report, released today by the American Institutes for Research, a nonprofit group based in Washington.

Recently released results of such college prep tests as Advanced Placement, ACT and the SAT, show Utah minority students largely still lagging behind their white peers both in scores and participation. The achievement gap, both in Utah and nationwide, is nothing new, but experts say the recent results reflect the challenges many minority students face in getting to college. They're difficulties that arise from cultural differences, a lack of opportunities and economic pressures, experts say.

Cultural differences my ass.

in memoriam

2004-2007

My iPod, HP Apple iPod 20GB with Click Wheel - 4th Generation, passed away today. He enjoyed playing my eclectic mix of songs, from vivaldi to chemical brothers and everything in between (except right wing country and christian rock), as well as dozens of Podcasts in two languages. He also stored my term papers, outlines, cover letters, photos, bar review lectures.

my iPod is survived by a gray mini (my father's) and two black nanos (my mom's and sister's). In lieu of money, the family is accepting cash donations...for the new iPod

Murray's self-inflicted wounds

(© 2007 Trent Nelson/The Salt Lake Tribune)

His diatribe against Global Warming, Unions, and all things progressive, as well has his actions, may have hurt his beloved coal industry more than the fact that his mining practices killed 9 people.

According to the industry newsletter "Coal & Energy Price Report," the mine was near the end of its life, producing 604,000 tons in 2006, down from 1.6 million tons in 2005. Production dropped by more than half in the last 12 months.
Unwilling to just shut it down, Murray's company embarked on a new plan to extract every last bit from the mine. According to an expert quoted by a Salt Lake newspaper, the Crandall mine before the recent disaster was pulling out coal that should have been left standing to support the roof.
The operators used a tactic known as "retreat mining," where miners pull the remaining pillars of coal and collapse the mine behind them. The federal Mine Safety and Health Administration may have allowed the mine to remove too much.

Then again, the Bush Administration officials weren't exactly doing a great job either. While the above article was basically an op-ed and the expert could be construed by the Murray-types as a highsight union boss...but not if those facts were the same as the ones by actual federal inspectors.

"I have been concerned about pulling pillars in this environment," Falk, a mine inspector for the Bureau of Land Management, wrote in February 2007, referring to the retreat mining going on in the mine - where huge blocks of coal left to support the roof are cut away, leaving the roof to fall in.
[...]
He was back days later. A major seismic bounce on March 10 had rocked the mine, blasting coal from the pillars, damaging tunnels and supports, and making it impossible for mining to continue, Falk wrote in an inspection report obtained by The Salt Lake Tribune.
It was a smaller version, and perhaps a harbinger, of the event that tore apart the mine Aug. 6, trapping a half-dozen miners inside, and it was never officially reported to the Mine Safety and Health Administration, as apparently required by federal rules.

But don't worry, people of Carbon County and Emery County.

Murray on Sunday described the layoffs - impacting all three of Murray's Utah mines - as temporary. Miners told The Salt Lake Tribune Saturday that 270 employees were to be laid off.
[...]
Miners who were at Murray's meetings with employees over the weekend said he lashed out at Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. and The Tribune, pinning part of the blame for the layoffs on them.
[...]
Many residents of Carbon and Emery counties interviewed Sunday applauded Huntsman's intervention and blasted Murray.
"The governor was completely right," said Rae Lyn Peak.
Anita Brady, whose husband works at the Deer Creek mine, said those in the community "know how [Murray] runs his business . . . and it's not good. It's not the mines. It's the way they were mining them."
Danny Erickson of Wellington, a cousin of Don Erickson and one of the miners laid off Sunday, commended the governor rather than Murray for making sure the Tower mine is safe. The layoff, he said, "is just pushing more quickly to get out of mining."
Wellington said his 9-year-old daughter had already begged him to stop mining.
"I enjoy it, but it's not safe," he said.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

Friday round-up

1. Like Karl Rove, today is my last day at work. And I have to turn in my badge and clear out my desk. Unlike Karl, I am going to Washington this fall (he will probably never leave) and work to fix our election laws (Karl will work to muddy them to avoid disclosure, maybe by working for Fred Thompson


2. The gang of Republithugs got together to kill the voucher referendum that will end their dreams of privatized education. I am with Bob, where's my car voucher? Rolly reports, you listen.
   

   About 20 lobbyists were summoned to a meeting Monday...
   ...held at the Utah Board of Realtors office and the lobbyists were put in the position of either committing to the pro-voucher campaign or rejecting a request from the very lawmakers they need to help pass their legislative agendas each year.
   The legislators hosting the meeting were House Speaker Greg Curtis, R-Sandy; House Majority Leader Dave Clark, R-Santa Clara; House Assistant Majority Whip Brad Dee, R-Ogden; Senate Majority Leader Curtis Bramble, R-Provo; and Senate Majority Assistant Whip Sheldon Killpack, R-Syracuse.
   [...]
   Most were lobbyists for business associations representing manufacturers, mining, homebuilders, small businesses, real estate agents, food retailers, trucking, the Chamber of Commerce, utilities and others.
   [...]
   They were asked to raise money for the effort and lend the names of their institutions in support of vouchers.
   The lobbyists have been summoned to a follow-up breakfast meeting Thursday at the Board of Realtors to report on their fund-raising progress.

   Nothing like a little blackmailing between lobbyists and legislators.


3. Speaking of vouchers, here's another good thing that will change if vouchers succeed--diversity.
   

   [A]ccording to a new report by the Pew Hispanic Center...
   ...the percentage of white students in Utah attending all-white schools decreased more than any other state in the nation - from 51 percent in 1993-94 to 14 percent in 2005-06.
   [...]
   "The world is not predominantly white," he said. "When students are exposed to the culture and language of ethnic minorities, it's a healthy thing because once they move out, they'll be facing a world that is more diverse than their communities."

   Sorry I just loved that last quote. It is true too. Why pretend the world is a little blond, blue eyed place filled with folks named Jensen or Christensen when even on your mission, you will learn otherwise?


4. Here's one surefire way to avoid future Crandall Canyons:
   

   Local officials on Thursday launched the Solar Salt Lake project, which was funded by a $200,000 cash grant plus at least another $200,000 in technical assistance from the U.S. Department of Energy. Salt Lake was one of 13 cities nationwide to receive funding as part of the Solar America Cities program.
   
   With that money and national expertise, Salt Lake city and county officials hope to reach grid parity between coal and solar energy by 2015. And if solar power is just as cheap as coal, local officials believe residential and commercial developers will pick the environmentally friendly choice.

can we stop calling it an accident?

From Dictionary.com:
ac·ci·dent (ˈæksɪdənt[ak-si-duhnt])–noun: ... 3) any event that happens unexpectedly...

Maintaining he cares deeply for his employees, Murray has accused the UMWA of using the collapses to criticize him and unionize his employees. The Deer Creek mine and the Emery mine are the only organized coal mines in Utah.
Mike Dalpiaz, international vice president of the UMWA office in Price, and the mayor of Helper, said the union had no strong interest in organizing the Crandall Canyon mine. He pointed to indications the mine was due to close soon anyway.

The [Bush Administration's] Mine Safety and Health Administration has determined the United Mine Workers of America union cannot represent the families of six trapped coal miners in the agency's upcoming investigation of the Crandall Canyon mine disaster.

[A] mine in southern Illinois owned by Murray subsidiary American Coal Co. has had a significant number of recent violations.

The Galatia mine, which has about 850 workers and produced 7.2 million tons of coal in 2006, has 869 violations so far this year, leading one mining expert to believe the company is "just going for the production and not going for the safety."

A Deseret Morning News review...shows that while the White House requests increased slightly each year from the 2002 to 2006 fiscal years, the requests did not exceed or even match what Congress had approved in each prior year when adjusted for inflation.
Meanwhile, the number of coal-mine safety inspectors with the Mine Safety and Health Administration also decreased during those years.

[Indy's Channel 6 News] 9:21 pm EDT August 10, 2007 PRINCETON, Ind. -- Three people were killed Friday at the site of an air shaft under construction at the Gibson County Coal mine in southern Indiana, police said.

Associated Press 08.30.07, 11:52 AM ET WINNEMUCCA, Nev. -Rescue crews have recovered the body of a miner killed during a cave-in at an underground Nevada gold mine, authorities said.

Does all this still sound like an accident to you? Because it sure seems like a direct consequence to me.

Attorney General Orrin Hatch?

I have previously said that Hatch is pining for the Attorney General spot within the lame duck Bush Administration.

Now here is some "confirmation" from a trusted name in wingnut news:

White House officials are considering five names that "have kind of emerged" as possible candidates to take over the beleaguered Justice Department, according to a senior Bush administration official.

The official who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to speak more openly about the process declined to identify the five contenders who were being looked at "pretty seriously."
[...]
Interviews with current and former Justice Department officials, congressional aides, attorneys and other legal experts yielded as many as 24 names of possible, if highly speculative candidates for the attorney general's job.

When contacted Tuesday, several contenders asked to remain anonymous and flatly said they did not want the job. Others declined to comment.

"I love the Department of Justice — it's the most wonderful professional experience I've had in my life," said Ted Olson, a former solicitor general for the Bush administration who declined to say whether he has discussed the attorney general's job with the White House or whether he would accept the post if offered.

Similarly, George Terwilliger, a deputy attorney general under former President George H.W. Bush who has emerged as an often-mentioned contender, declined to comment.

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who formerly chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee, once said he would take the job if offered.

When asked if he would take the job of running the Justice Department, former Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson sent word through a spokeswoman that "he's very happy in this role" as general counsel at PepsiCo.

Solicitor General Paul Clement could remain acting attorney general for an indefinite time after Gonzales leaves.

So the top five are 1) Ted Olson, 2) George Terwilliger, 3) Orrin Hatch, 4) Larry Thompson, and 5) Paul Clement. Let's review each [except Hatch, whom we have documented repeatedly as a GOP water-carrier].

Ted Olson argued Bush v. Gore before the U.S. Supreme Court. He was part of the crack investigative team that tried to take down Bill Clinton in the "Arkansas Project." His wife was on the plane that terrorists crashed into the Pentagon on 9/11. Expect that to be the part Fox News focuses on.

Terwilliger also has Bush v. Gore street cred: he was a leader of President George W. Bush's legal team during the Florida election recount. Moreover, he also "oversaw the BCCI settlement, which saved the US some money in bailouts, but probably also increased the comfort level of the Saudis who had bankrolled the giant money-laundering scheme."

Larry Thompson is a corporate whore. Thompson "was the director of the Providian Financial Corporation, during the time when Providian paid over $400 million to settle charges of consumer and securities fraud. Thompson made $4.7 million dollar in the sale of Providian stock prior to the allegations. In 2002, Judicial Watch filed suit against Thompson for artificially inflating the stock price in order to illegally increase his earnings in the sale of stock." He is also the author of "the Thompson Memorandum written to help federal prosecutors decide whether to charge a corporation, rather than or in addition to individuals within the corporation, with criminal offenses. the guidelines were considered tough because they require that to claim cooperation, companies must (1) turn over materials from internal investigations, (2) waive attorney-client privilege, and (3) not provide targeted executive with company-paid lawyers. The guidelines were criticized for, among other things, "seriously eroding" attorney-client privilege. These guidelines were "eased" in December 2006 by Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty who issued a revised version of the memorandum." He is now Corporate Counsel for PrepsiCo. Look for Faux News to point out that he is black.

Paul Clement is the acting AG and was the Solicitor General, the attorney with the honor of representing the Administration before the US Supreme Court. He is very smart and a very good arguer. However, he has argued during the detainee cases (Rasul v. Bush etc.) that the Justices must "trust the executive to make the kind of quintessential military judgments that are involved in things like that." The government's interrogators understand that information obtained through coercion may be unreliable, Clement said, and they know that "the last thing you want to do is torture somebody or try to do something along those lines." When Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg noted that some governments engage in "mild torture" to obtain information, Clement shot back: "Well, our executive doesn't." Clement has similarly outrageous views about unlimited executive power in the area of the US Attorneys.

Personally, I think Clement is the most dangerous man to have in the chair. Hatch will sound like Gonzales under tough questioning, but Clement could argue that the world is flat and make you believe it, if only for a moment. Terwilliger seems like the old school conservative wise man that Washington loves. Thompson and Olson are the ones that someone like Hatch would jump on the 9/11 or black/racist specious arguments to rally for. After all, he first tried calling Democrats racists for attacking Gonzales since Alberto is of Mexican descent.

Fire near my parents' home

(image courtesy of KSL.com)

This morning, my mom spotted smoke coming from over the hill, so she called my Dad asking how to turn on the sprinklers. He told her how to do it, but told her to get out of there. From his office in downtown, he could see smoke coming from the canyon. My dad reports to the children, "I talked to her about an hour ago and she was at the library. ... I don't see the smoke now, but she is not answering her cell phone (she said the battery was low) and I don't think she is home yet."

I have told my Mom a million times to keep her cell phone ON and CHARGED. When ever I need to reach her, I never can via cell because it is either turned off or not charged fully. Generally, I don't even try her cell anymore. I called a couple of minutes ago at home and she didn't pick up. It is times like these when you need your freaking mobile phone working.

Here's a report from the Salt Lake Tribune:

a blaze...has consumed nearly 20 acres of grassland in east Salt Lake City's Emigration Canyon today.
Shortly before 1 p.m., firefighters believed they were getting the upper hand on the flames, having gotten aid from aerial fire-retardant and water drops.
KUTV reports that late this morning workers were grinding rebar at a new fire station site four miles up the canyon when sparks ignited nearby scrub oak. Flames quickly spread, at one point threatening several homes before firefighters reined in the fire.

KUTV has streaming video

KSL's Sandra Yi has a great line

It's a little bit ironic it was the construction of a fire house that started this fire, but authorities say that's exactly the reason why there needs to be a fire house up in Emigration Canyon.

The Yi's page has video of the blaze but I can't seem to get it to work on my computer.

It seems all is OK with my mother and with their house (where I lived from age 11-19) and others persons and property. I was just thinking about how glad I was that the County was building that fire station. If I hear anything more, I will update everyone.

UPDATE:My Mom just called and said all is
well. She used up all of her juice calling neighbors and telling them to get out/there's a fire etc.

There are literally fire trucks in their driveway and they told her to
park her car outward because she won't have time to back up. She invited some in to use the bathroom.

The smoke she said is mostly gone now but she saw actual flames over the hill. That is really freaking scary. She ran the sprinklers some and is back home.

Craig lied about not having an attorney

While most probably saw through the "if only I had known I should have gotten an attorney when I faced criminal charges" excuse, it is now clear that Sen. Larry Craig (R-his own private Idaho) was making a bald faced lie to his constituents and the media.

Thankfully, one newspaper checked out his stories.

As Craig apologized Tuesday afternoon for "the cloud placed over Idaho," he also acknowledged that he had told no one about his June 11 arrest for making sexual advances on an undercover police officer in the men's restroom of the Minneapolis airport.
But 11 days later, on June 22, Craig revisited the Minneapolis airport to complain about how he'd been treated by police and asking for someone with whom his lawyer could speak, according to police records. [emphasis added]
[...]
Court and arrest records released Tuesday show that Craig negotiated his plea over the telephone, then signed and returned it to the courts in the mail, much like a traffic ticket.
In his plea, signed and dated Aug. 1, but not recorded until Aug. 8, Craig agreed that by handling the matter through the mail, he was giving up a trial and his right to be present at the time of sentencing.

In my (meager) experience in Utah state courts, this plea by mail is typical for out of state defendants of minor crimes. The courtesy of telephonic pleas is afforded to people with attorneys who arrange such a thing and are not considered especially dangerous/likely to offend again.

It seems pretty dang obvious that Sen. Craig was doing everything a good defense attorney would suggest to avoid publicity and attention from his family, staff and Republican colleagues. Now it could also be true that he was trying to avoid Dan Popkey's investigative reporting by pleading, but it doesn't explain what he was doing in that notorious Minneapolis airport bathroom.

The airport restroom was so well known it was featured on an adult Web site that offers information about where men can link up for romantic encounters in both public and private locations.

If you read the plea agreement, it states what he is agreeing happened, and it even states that can "make no claim that I am innocent of the charge to which I am entering a plea of guilty,", as well as waiving his trail rights etc.

He had from June 11 until August 1 (when he signed in Washington) to seek counsel and advice. It is pretty clear from the circumstances of his plea and the events subsequent to his arrest but prior to his plea that he knew exactly what he was doing, thanks to legal counsel.

While the Senator might not go quietly into the night, as his Republican "friends" hoped he would, the facts are pretty clear that he was attempting to proposition (an undercover cop) in a public restroom for sexual activity.

Mitt Romney is a lying hipocrite, part 2,138

No I am not talking about making Sen. Larry Craig his Senate Co-chair only to yank his support video and compare him to Mark Foley...and Bill Clinton. I am talking about his claims that he is a budget balancing governor/businessman who will get our fiscal house in order thanks to going to Harvard Business School with George W. Bush and running Bain. Previously, I had pointed out that his no-tax cut claims were a myth hidden by regressive fee hikes. Now the media finally caught on.

When Mitt Romney wanted to balance the Massachusetts budget, the blind, mentally retarded and gun owners were asked to help pay.
The Republican managed to slash spending to eliminate a deficit pegged at $3 billion, but he also proposed or presided over a far-ranging series of fee hikes - a strategy that allowed him to maintain the no-new-taxes stance he now boasts about as he runs for president.
In all, then-Gov. Romney proposed creating 33 new fees and increasing 57 others - enough, he said, to pull in an extra $59 million for the cash-strapped state.
Horseback riding instructors, prisoners, those seeking training to combat domestic violence and used car shoppers were asked to dig a little deeper.
[...]
"For me, generally, a fee is something which applies to a subset of the population. A tax is something which is far more broadly applied," Romney said in 2003.

Mr. "lifelong hunter" also increased the gun licensing fee from $25 to $100. Maybe that's why the 250-million dollar man only went twice in his life. The article has more details of him sticking it to the little guy so he could claim the mantle of no-tax-raises and fiscal-conservative.

Larry Larry quite contrary

(Actual booking photos, courtesy of THE USA Today's Kathy Kiely)

without a shred of truth or evidence to the contrary, the Statesman has engaged in this witch hunt. In pleading guilty, I overreacted in Minneapolis, because of the stress of the Idaho Statesman’s investigation and the rumors it has fueled around Idaho. Again, that overreaction was a mistake, and I apologize for my misjudgment.

Shorter Sen. Craig: If it weren't for that newspaperman looking through my underwear drawers to find out whether or not it was true that I was gay, I wouldn't have propositioned myself to a undercover cop.

This line of defense is not as laughable as Bob Allen's "I'm racist, not gay" defense, but I guess that is why Bob Allen is state senator, and Larry Craig is a full senator (the previous "wide stance" defense didn't work).

This reminds me of another cartoonishly closeted character from a Tony Award-winning play, Ron, who's song is about as believable as Craig's version of events.

(Rod and John Tartaglia, singing "My girlfriend who lives in Cananda from Avenue Q. Image courtesy of Playbill.com)

ROD
Ohhhh...
I wish you could meet my girlfriend, my girlfriend who lives in Canada.
She couldn't be sweeter
I wish you could meet her,
My girlfriend who lives in Canada!

Her name is Alberta
She live in Vancouver
She cooks like my mother
And sucks like a Hoover.

I e-mail her every single day
Just to make sure that everything's okay.
It's a pity she lives so far away, in Canada!

Last week she was here, but she had the flu.
Too bad
'Cause I wanted to introduce her to you
It's so sad
There wasn't a thing that she could do
But stay in bed with her legs up over her head!
Oh!

I wish you could meet my girlfriend,
But you can't because she is in Canada.
I love her, I miss her, I can't wait to kiss her,
So soon I'll be off to Alberta!
I mean Vancouver!
Shit! Her name is Alberta, she lives in Vancou-

Both guys need to work on keeping their stories straight. Pleading guilty about a month after the incident means he had plenty of time to get an attorney or even just ask one. If it really was a misunderstanding, as he has claim, he would have fought it and not pled guilty ASAP.

This story looks to be staying around for a while. Even if the local media in Utah are pretending nothing is happening in Idaho.

UPDATE: The local media finally pick up the ball, thanks AP wire stories. Note, only the Trib has used this, no DesNews yet.

How has Hatch been good for Utah?

In a follow up to their Hatch-as-AG-candidate story, the Deseret News added some more quotes, one of which was laugh-out-loud funny:

"I don't make the decision on it. This is a decision the president is going to make," [Hatch campaign manager David] Hansen said, adding he had not heard anything from the senator about it and that Hatch is "more valuable to Utah as a senator."

Really? I call on anyone to name anything that Hatch has done that benefited Utah exclusively in his entire career in the Senate. Sure, he has changed copyright laws to protect a Utah company that was getting sued by Steven Spielberg et al. due to their "cleansing" of those directors' movies, but Orrin also changed copyright laws around so he could make a few more bucks on his terrible "musical" albums.

He may have raised cigarette taxes to pay for sCHIP with Ted Kennedy, but he also rakes in tons of money from tobacco lobbyists, which is odd considering smoking is supposed to be a sin for him.

Hatch has used his seniority and power from day one to help Orrin Hatch. He got his mission companions and other friends spots in the federal judiciary. He loves his front row seats at Jazz games...next to the players. He has tried to make every conceivable Republican scandal look not so bad, from Clarance Thomas to Alberto Gonzales.

Now Hatch is trying to cash in on all of this water carrying, despite the awe-shucks routine.

One Utah GOP insider said the rumor floating for months now has been that Hatch's office started spreading his name - though Hatch's office has been batting down the rumor as well.
"Most of us assume Hatch will be wheeled out of the Senate chamber on a gurney like Strom Thurmond," the insider said.

For at least since 1992, Hatch has gotten the praise while Bennett brings home the pork. Not that I think Bennett isn't also a partisan hack, but at least he has done something to help this state.

I have heard that his staff does great constituent service, much like his friend Ted Kennedy, but again, that should not be appropriated to Hatch himself. The only time he does constituent service is to help a drug dealing music friend of his get out jail in Dubai.

Like other media hungry senators, he is more interested in being on "Meet the Timmeh" than meeting the needs of Utahns. So please find me an instance where Hatch's presence in the Senate has helped out the Beehive State.

Hatch Begs to be a Bush Crony

UPDATE: Sen. Hatch give a non-denial denial.

David Hansen, Hatch's campaign manager, said Hatch has not received a call from the White House to fill the Cabinet spot.
"It is not going to happen," Hansen said.
Staffers in Hatch's Senate office said they knew nothing of a potential job switch. Hatch declined any media interviews Monday.
[...]
Hatch has said he doesn't believe the president would nominate him for the position but he also noted that he wouldn't turn down the president if he asked.

If you haven't been out of it this morning, by now you have surely heard that Alberto Gonzales finally resigned of Attorney General (he called Bush on Friday, Bush asked him to think about it, and then they announced on Monday, during which time they lied to reporters about it, naturally).

What you might have missed is the next phase in this saga... who is going to replace Gonzo? The rumor mill has DHS head Michael Chertoff, a Bush loyalist who was appointed to the DOJ in 2001, then to the 3rd circuit, and gave it up to head DHS. And besides the obvious terrible management of the agency during Katrina, Chertoff also has a number of other scandals under his watch waiting to surface.

With Chertoff hearings looking to be a gold-mine for Democrats in Congress, a smart White House would pick someone who was equally loyal and partisan but less likely to have contentious/embarrassing hearings. Enter Sen. Orrin Hatch:

Many Democrats — and some Republicans — had been calling for Gonzales' resignation for months based on his involvement, or lack thereof, of the Justice Department's firing of eight U.S. attorneys and the administration's policies on warrant-less wiretapping.
[...]
Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said on "Meet the Press" April 1 that Hatch was "actively running" to be Gonzales' replacement to which Hatch replied, "Oh come on, Pat." Hatch was just re-elected to another six-year Senate term in the 2006 election.
[...]
Hatch has repeatedly sided with the Justice Department and Gonzales' role as attorney general. He said in a statement issued Monday that Gonzales "has been the president's strong right arm in fighting terrorists using the tools of law enforcement, and he helped successfully protect the American homeland during his tenure."

"I hope that history will remember Attorney General Gonzales for his honorable service to his country, rather than for the absurd political theater to which some critics have subjected him," Hatch said in a statement. "He has overseen the Department of Justice's efforts to protect children from Internet predators, to combat human trafficking, and to prevent the spread of meth in our communities."

Hatch played coy in April, but now he is probably trying to add his name to the rumor mill and placing calls into the White House. One would think that a fellow Senator would be harder for Democratic Senators to vote against, especially one that had been there so long.

It would be great to have the GOP have to defend another open seat, and to watch Utah GOPers scramble to out-conservative each other for the spot. I have no illusions about a Democrat's chances in the inevitable election, but beating an 2 to 4-year Senator is a lot easier than beating 40 year Senator for life. That means better quality candidates would emerge on the Democratic side. Not to say that our last two were bad, but more folks would consider running and more folks would be willing to donate.

Bob Murray Loses Another Round

(Photo Credit: AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, courtesy of KSL.com)

See below for an update

Poor Bob Murray. He is so old school that he refused to listen to media consultants in the beginning who would have told him to STFU and get his mug off the TV. Murray talked his way into a mess, especially when the results on the ground got worse and worse for the miners trapped in Crandall Canyon and those 3 rescuers died.

Meanwhile, businessman-turned-ambassador-turned-governor Huntsman sat back and watched the implosion. Not until it was clear how badly everything had gone and how little chance there was of changing things around his Jon jr. begin to trash Murray in his own press conferences.

Rather than pointing out this Jon-y-come-lately and hindsight aspect, Murray went to the old school "we have be reckless with human life because that's the only way to make a profit" mentality:

"If you persist in your statements and course of action, you, Governor, are going to jeopardize 700 jobs in Carbon and Emery Counties," Murray said in a letter [PDF] obtained Friday by the Deseret Morning News.
"I cannot maintain them alone, and I definitely cannot do it if I am going to be your whipping-boy."

Yes, apparently Bob Murray employs all of Emery and Carbon Counties. It is this man's benevolence in allowing these rural men to work in his unsafe mines.

This from a man that is about to be sued by the miners' families to keep the mine from being sealed so that they can at the very least extract their loved ones bodies out from the rubble.

Not only is Murray's argument as ridiculous as it is specious, the miners' families seem to be echoing what Huntsman is saying:

the families feel Murray Energy Corp., the mine owner, has misled them about the effort to find, rescue or recover their loved ones - Kerry Allred, Don Erickson, Luis Alonso Hernandez, Juan Carlos Payan, Brandon Phillips and Manuel Sanchez.
[...]
"We don't intend to abandon them," [their attorney Colin] King said.
[...]
King cited several reasons for the families' perception that Murray Energy officials had given up on their loved ones.
He said the families were told repeatedly that a large-diameter drill rig capable of boring a hole big enough for a rescue capsule was en route to the mine, "but it never arrived on site and we're suspicious about those statements."
As early as Monday, King added, Olsen and the families had requested the full study done by eight outside experts brought in by Murray Energy and MSHA to evaluate the ground-control system used before the implosion that killed and injured the rescuers.
MSHA released only a three-paragraph statement from the expert panel that said it was too dangerous to send anyone underground to search for the missing miners.
King said "that may or may not be the case. I don't want to second-guess the experts. But we are upset that we were not provided a copy of the [full] report and they did not provide a reason why.
"We would like to see [the report] so we can analyze it and talk to our experts about how we can get in there and get these people out," he added, noting that he already has begun obtaining mining experts as consultants.
King asked Murray Energy officials whether there had been a major bump in March, as reported by The Salt Lake Tribune, that forced the company to stop mining a long "barrier pillar" of coal adjacent to a large mined-out area. That barrier pillar was left to hold up the mountain overhead.
"Mr. Moore refused to answer," King said.
Was a report about this collapse filed with MSHA, as required by law? he asked.
"Moore refused to answer," King said, while MSHA official Jack Kuzar, who was brought in only recently from Pennsylvania to help with the operation, said he did not know.
"MSHA ought to know at this point," King contended.
Given all of these unsatisfactory responses, the lawyer added, "I can't imagine how [missing miners' spouses] Martha Sanchez and Nelda Erickson are even coping. You do what you have to do. But they need closure."

Mr. Murray is not arguing from a position of strength. He has shown his true colors during the course of this debacle and it isn't pretty. While Huntsman might not have been as "take charge" as others in similar disasters in PA and WV, he avoided having to say that the miners were alive when they were in fact all dead like Gov. Joe Machin did. Politically, Huntsman played this as well as he could without taking unnecessary risks.

Mr. Murray, the letter makes you look only worse as a megalomaniac ower-first businessman of a extraction industry. If I was your PR guy/atttorney, I would have never have let you send that letter.

But as a blogger, you are posting-gold. Keep it comming.

UPDATE:

Thanks, Mr. Murray!

Bob Murray made good on his threat to cut jobs in Utah's coal country early this morning.
The owner of three Utah mines met with workers at the Tower Mine in Carbon County at 7 a.m. today. During the meeting, Murray told workers he is shutting down the mine and offered workers there jobs at his other mines in Illinois and Ohio, several laid-off miners said.

He really doesn't think he has the upper hand, does he?

This reminds me of Dr. Evil holding the world hostage for "One MILLION dollars!"

The man gets more cartoonish by the minute. Yeah I am sure a x-th generation central Utah miner is going to pick up and move to Illinois or Ohio. This guy has no clue about our state, our people, or people in general.