The State of Deseret

"Keep America Beautiful -- Burn a Billboard!"

2012-02-01T22:21:00.000-07:00

Billboards are nothing more than trash on a really large pole. Salt Lake City has been working on a billboard ordinance that would basically limit the area of electronic billboards with-in the city and limits the number billboards all together. One of the overall goals of the new ordinance is to eliminate billboards where they don't belong - next to homes.

If you know nothing about the billboard industry, you just have to remember this, they own the Utah legislature. A blatant attack on their kingdom by SLC cannot go unpunished. So the billboard company's did what they do best, call their servants. Now there are two bills, one in the Senate SB136 and one in the House HB87 both bills basically state that local governments cannot enforce restrictions on billboards without using eminent domain.

To enact eminent domain on a piece of property, a city is taking the land for the use of the public. To legally do this, the city must pay the owner, in this case the billboard company, just compensation. Now this is where it gets fun. What is "just" compensation for billboards? The company's will use the same line they do when being taxed, billboard are personal property. Yet, while claiming infringements on their property they claim billboards are worth millions of dollars. So what will "just" compensation be? If past law suits are any indication, it would be in the millions per billboard.

I love Niederhauser's (the Senate sponsor)argument that business's have the right to advertise. Classic. I agree they do. Where I get lost is how does regulating the number and type of billboards in a city infringe on that right? A business can still buy all the news paper, magazine, t.v. and any other forum of advertising they want. Where is my right to not have to see trash on the side of the road?

Now I have disliked billboards since I can remember and I remember the billboard battles a while back. But I had no idea how billboards are preventing development in SLC. This is beyond ridiculousness. There are willing developers who want to purchase property downtown SLC and build buildings, adding retail, office and residential space but are prevented by billboard company's who either own the land and won't sell or own the billboard on the land and have used unmoral business tactics to gain insanely long terms.

This High Country News article on billboards is a must read and is where I learned how billboards are preventing economic development and are 10x more evil than I thought before I read it. Something needs to be done. It's bad enough that State legislature meddle in local issues but to give such favorable terms to one industry is absurd. Call your legislatures to stop these bills from passing.

Contact
Sen. Niederhauser Email wniederhauser@le.utah.gov Home: 801-942-3398 Work:801-558-4766
Rep. Brown Email: melbrown@le.utah.gov Home: 435-336-3309 Cell: 435-647-6512

Oh, and while the legislature is trying keep our cities and roads trashy, they also want to make it a crime to carry a marker, pen, or spray caps to "prevent" graffiti. While I'm 100% against gang and junk graffiti, I see it every day in my hood, this is the wrong way to prevent it. And I actually really enjoy street art, which happens to be some graffiti.

Voting Time

2010-10-26T23:11:00.001-06:00

I voted early. I hate voting early. I love voting on election day. It's a very exciting day for me and voting in the morning is a perfect way to start it off. But alas, I will be unable to vote next Tuesday so I had to vote today. I'm going to post some endorsements for a few of the candidates I voted for and why. Even if you dont agree with me, make sure you study the candidates and the issues and vote. I don't believe people should vote just to vote. Whats the purpose if you don't know why your voting for someone besides their party affiliation? In fact, voting just to vote without a clue why your voting for someone I believe is worse then not voting at all. Oh, and never vote straight party! If you happen to vote individually for all of one party that's fine but don't punch the straight ticket. If you do, learn to think.

STATE CAMPAIGNS

GOVERNOR
Well this one was easy. Peter Corroon has lead Salt Lake County extremely well. Corroon knows how to govern and how to run a large bureaucracy and govern it well. He was able to take a balance approach in balancing the county's budget, making cuts where he could, even cutting pay while raising some taxes. I honestly Corroon would make an outstanding governor because of what he has done with the county and what he plans to do as governor. Corroon's economic focus would benefit the whole state without doling out millions to out of state companies. Corroon would focus on funding education fully as well.

After being placed as Governor when Huntsman left, Gary has pretty much riden the coat tails of his predecessor. Gov. Gary has been laying low and not doing much of anything. Its pretty bad if UDOT can spend $13 Million to cover a mess they created and he didn't know about it until it was brought up by his challenger. What kind of governing is that? $13 million in a year where budget cuts and more cuts to come next year. I work for emergency managent, if we have a disaster we cannot spend more then $500,00 without asking the Legislature for more money. Gov. Gary has also approved a strip mine near Bryce Canyon. Funny thing about it, the permit was going through review and after Gary meet with some of the mine's representatives and donated to his campaign, magically the permit was fast tracked. I really think that Gov. Gary's true side will come out further if he wins his first election as Governor and his true side is more back room deals and lack of governing.

US SENATE

My vote went to Sam Granato. Sam has been a business man for most of his life, not that I place much into that but some people do. Sam's a hard worker and gets things done. Sam is more moderate and fiscally conservative. He will be willing to cross party lines to get what he feels is the best policy to help Utah move forward. I honestly Sam will best represent me in Washington DC and do what's right without all the rhetoric and lip service.

Utah 1st Congressional District

It's really too bad that Bowen didn't run a better campaign. I have met Bowen and like him a lot. He's a great guy and would do a fantastic job as our Representative. Bowen is qualified to be our representative and would do a much better job the current sloth that is in that office.

I love how Utah Republicans complain about "pork" projects but mister Bishop is all quiet and pulling in all sorts of pork. (I dont' mind pork, its how you get things funded, its the hypocrisy I don't like). Bishop hasn't done anything any other rep wouldn't have done.

It will be interesting to see how the draw the congressional districts when we get the 4th district.

Thats all for tonight. I'll throw in some county candidates later.

Take Back Utah

2010-08-09T22:05:00.003-06:00

I'm really not sure what they're taking back or who they are taking it from? But Take Back Utah is taking it back! And what are they going to do with it when they take it back? I think the picture above shows what they will do with it, they will continue to drive their loud, gas guzzling machines over it until there is nothing left of it. They want to take MY land from me, my children and my grand-children so they can destroy it for their short term pleasure.

Here is their mission statement
"Take Back Utah protects access to our public lands and defends the freedom of all American’s to explore and experience America’s Wild Places, while preserving America’s small town economies and rural lifestyles through responsible land use."

They are not protecting my access or defending my freedom to explore America's and Utah's wild places. In fact they are taking it away from me and my posterity! And I really don't know how driving their atv's everywhere and anywhere protects rural lifestyles? You want to preserve rural lifestyles, ride a horse.

I don't mind ATV's and in fact I occasionally ride one myself and many active atv users are responsible riders but there are many riders who believe that the machine between their legs gives them the right to do as they please and drive were they will. And once a few of these "bad apples" go off trail and create their own trial, all riders then believe that it's a designated trail making it worse and making riders believe that when trails are closed down, someone is taking something from them.

They are having a "parade" and rally August 28th that will go from Liberty Park to the Utah State Capital. They believe that this will send a strong message to Utah's politicians that the public wants to be able to drive where ever they please & enjoy wilderness while inhaling exhaust.

We need to let our elected officials know that we believe wilderness should be saved and protected. There are hundreds of thousands of miles of existing roads for atv riders to enjoy, many of which are redundant and many others that have been illegally created. Closing roads in wilderness areas does not block anyones right to enjoy the beauty of it in fact closing roads enhances the wilderness experience.

Which activity is more exclusive? The one that requires a $5,000 machine along with a $20,000 vehicle to tow it and $50 in gas every time you go out? or the one that requires a $100 pair of boots and gas for your car to get there?

Unintended Consequences

2010-03-03T23:34:00.004-07:00

Carl Wimmer's HB0012 Criminal Homicide and Abortion Amendments isn't what he thinks it is. There is much more to it no matter what Carl says and I would like to know who came to him with the bill. Carl believes that this bil will simply make it illegal to have an illegal abortion, one that's not done at the hospital.

The supposed purpose behind this bill is because a pregnant teenager was threatened by her boy friend he would leave her if she had the baby. Her solution was to HIRE someone to beat her up to induce an abortion. They arrested the girl and tried to charge her but she committed no crime, poor prosecutors couldn't put a teenager behind bars for 15 years. SO, the genius that Utah law makes are, they (more likely some anti-abortion group) come up with this bill!! Brilliant!

Lets continue to address a bandaid on a gapping hole in your head. This is always the best solution. Of course it never occurs to types like Carl that there are larger ISSUE at hand than a teenager trying to have an abortion!! Maybe the fact that she in an abusive relationship and is willing to have an abortion to stay in it? Or how about that her solution to her boy friends threat was to PAY for someone to beat her up? Who pays someone to have them bet you up? There are much larger and more concerning issues at hand other than authorities couldn't punish this girl.

This bill will open the door to prosecuting anyone who has an abortion, has a miscarriage or maybe even a still birth. Carl doesn't believe this, which means he really doesn't know or understand these issues or he's lying. I don't like to call anyone a liar if I don't know they are lying so we'll just say he hasn't thought this one through.

Democracy Now did a great piece on this bill. I'll put down some of the highlights if you don't want to read the whole thing.

"The man, the Utah legislator, as I understand it, who put this law in, he was asked, “Isn’t this really, you know, an anti-abortion measure?” And he said, “Listen, I am totally anti-abortion rights. I don’t want women to have any abortion rights, and I hope that this measure does restrict women’s ability to terminate a pregnancy when they want to.” He said, “I think the”—the Utah—he obviously is one who believes that the Utah legislature has more right to control a woman’s body than the woman herself does."

"for people who claim to pass laws to promote a culture of life, it’s hard to imagine that, when they don’t value the life of also the life of this young woman. Anybody who is so desperate as to invite violence against herself—and she could have died from the beating—to think that a statute making that behavior a crime is going to deter such desperate behavior is pretty crazy, to begin with, and lacking in any common sense about—if you really want to value fetal life and maternal life, this is certainly not the way to do it. "

I would say that it is illogical to believe that Wimmers law would deter anything like this case.

"So I think people—when we give examples of women being arrested for staying with a batterer, people think these are slippery slope craziness. But we keep seeing cases like this. In fact, Utah, in 2004, arrested a woman who had given birth to twins, one of whom was stillborn, and they charged her with murder, because she had refused C-section two weeks earlier. And the theory was her refusal of the Caesarian section, Caesarian surgery, constituted murder. So right now there’s a law that’s been passed by both houses in Utah that would make miscarriages and stillbirths, because it applies to pregnant women from the moment they conceive."

Thanks to Utah Legislatures like Butters and Wimmer Utah is moving backwards in time.

Carl Wimmer's Alternate Universe

2010-03-02T23:39:00.008-07:00

I really don't know where to start. This happens every year. I try and follow the Utah Legislative session, but I get so disenfranchised, I just give up. I do keep pretty busy with everything else in life, I could use a few more hours in the day. Wouldn't it be great if we didn't need sleep, just think how much more we could get done and we wouldn't need to waste money on beds or hotel rooms.

After watching this John Stewart clip I realized what Carl Wimmer wants. He wants the alternate universe that John talks about at minute 3:30 with Samantha B. And the great thing about Carl's alternate universe - the federal government no longer exist and Utah cannot only take it's destiny into it's own hands but can change their name to what it was always meant to be - Deseret!

Now let me make a disclaimer. I'm not 100% for everything the federal government does and I support the 10th amendment of the constitution. I also ware tired of Washington's one size fits all with every piece of policy that crawls West.

With that said, all these "state rights" laws the Utah fools are pushing through this year are making my blood boil. Do they really think that Utah could exist without the federal government? Utah receives the best managed state award and the tea bagging tenthers think they can secede from the Union. Honestly, do they not know how much money the federal government gives to the state? Sure, we could all stop paying federal taxes and give that to the State instead but it probably wouldn't cover what we currently receive from the evil empire.

These Utah politicians somehow think that they are better than Washington politicians. I agree, the feds should work a bit more closely with states on federal policies but to think that Utah politicians could do a better job is not only laughable but illogical (Carl called me illogical in a tweet, had to throw it back at him). This group of out of the box free thinkers on Utah's capital hill have created a club, the Patrick Henry book club. This is where they all get together and develop their fool proof plans.

Here is what the Patrick Henry book club plans on doing with your land once they take it back from the evil empire.

After the Patrick Henry book club rapes Utah what business or tourist will ever come to Utah? I suppose we could promote our oil wells, lack of wildlife and pollution as selling points.

I find it interesting that tenthers conveniently forget the 8th article of section 1 of the Constitution. Or maybe choose to ignore the fact the evil empire has the right to create laws.

Here are some of the Patrick Henry's book club "tenther amendment" bills

HB0382 Task Force on Balanced Federalism
No language

HB0067S01 Health System Amendments
This bill prohibits a state agency or department from implementing federal health care
reform passed by the United States Congress after March 1, 2010, unless the state
Legislature specifically authorizes the implementation by statute.

HB0296S01 Choice of Law in Utah Courts
This bill requires that, in circumstances where applying non-U.S. law would otherwise
10 fail to protect the fundamental constitutional rights of the parties before the courts, Utah
11 courts should apply U.S. law as necessary in cases and controversies before them.

SCR003 Adams, J. S. State Sovereignty Concurrent Resolution
This concurrent resolution of the Legislature and the Governor reaffirms the
11 sovereignty of the state of Utah under the Tenth Amendment of the United States
12 Constitution.
SJR006 Stephenson, H. Joint Resolution - State Sovereignty and Tenth Amendment
This joint resolution of the Legislature strongly urges Congress and the President to
18 refrain from exercising authority related to the individual states beyond that granted by
19 the states in the Constitution of the United States and declares the state's sovereignty
20 under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution.

HCR002S01 Fisher, Julie Concurrent Resolution on States' Rights
This concurrent resolution of the Legislature and the Governor strongly urges the
11 federal government and United States Congress to repeal and prohibit regulations and
12 laws that do or would infringe upon the rights of states under the Tenth Amendment to
13 the United States Constitution.

HB0324S01 Public Lands Litigation
This is the bill that takes money from SITLA funds - funds that go to Utah schools and puts into a savings account insuring that we have money to fight the evil empire in court when they sue the state for stealing yours and my land and trashing it. They have convinced themselves that this court battle will only cost $3 million, which it will, the first month and that they will somehow make the money back by reaping in millions worth of oil & natural gas revenues. If they could reap millions from rapping my land why are there hundreds if not thousands of oil leases currently not being used?

How many resolutions do they need? One isn't enough? Oh.......... I think I get it. The more you pass the more likely the US Congress or the President might notice. Maybe they'll have a state rights summit? And how are they going to deliver these resolutions? I can't think of a single way they could deliver these resolutions to the federal government that doesn't use something the federal government has created, built or regulated for our benefit.

On the bright side we can all sing "In Our Lovely Deseret" while watching Great Salt Lake tire fire burn.

Utah School Seismic Hazard Inventory

2010-02-02T21:44:00.007-07:00

Haiti

This is the third year that Rep. Wiley has put forward this bill, this year under HB 72. Again, as with the past years, there was a large earthquake prior to the start of the legislative session, the earthquake in Haiti. Last year a few months prior to the legislative session there was the 2008 earthquake in Sichuan, China, and then there was the 2007 earthquake in Wells, Nevada. While what happend in Haiti and Sichuan, China would not happen in Utah, we have better building codes (much better) Utah would still receive large amounts of damage.

The Wells, Nevada earthquake is an excellent guide to what would more then likely happen across Utah. In the Wells earthquake, the high school became structurally unsafe and had students been in the school at the time of the earthquake it is very conceivable that there would have been major injures and possible fatalities.

HB 72 requires the creation of a Public School Seismic Safety Committee that is comprised of structural engineers (in other words, experts) who will then conduct a seismic safety evaluation on all of Utah's public schools. They are then to report their findings to the districts and to the state board of education.

Sichuan, China

Thats it. Thats all the bill requires. Well, it requires that the state reimburse the local school districts for any cost they may occur during the process and it also clears any liability of the state, locals or anyone involved in the process.

Why is this bill necessary?

Currently we don't have any idea how Utah schools will perform during an earthquake, besides new schools that were built to code. We can make a pretty good guess based on the year it was built and the materials it was built with. But the evaluation will give the state a much greater overall picture of the status of the schools and the risk Utah children are in while at school. Then the state can work with the school districts to decide which schools are a priority for either seismic retrofitting or for tearing down and building a new one. As funding is made available the state and school districts begin to check off schools one at a time.

This bill will make Utah's public schools a safe place for Utah's school children.

Wells, Nevada

It must be that time of year...

2010-02-02T21:09:00.004-07:00

Seems that Utah's annual ~~circus~~ legislative session always gives me the urge to blog. And after listening to Radio Active on KRCL tonight, it made me really want to blog more, mainly because I had a comment for everything they talked about. Ask my poor wife, I have a comment for everything. Im pretty sure that having an opinion doesn't qualify you to be a blogger, but I enjoy sharing my opinion, whether its right, wrong or indifferent. I'm a horrible writer, I cannot pen my thoughts nearly as well as I think I should and there are many political utah bloggers out there that are much better than I am but I need a place other than facebook and twitter to voice opinion (mostly outrage).

I really do enjoy the bloggers that were on Radio Active, One Utah, Saintless, and Blue in Red Zion.There are other's that I enjoy as well and all of them are better at getting their opinions and voices across than I am. All things considered I'm still going to attempt to blog, at least through the legislative session.

Sage Brush Rebellion II

2009-08-09T22:27:00.004-06:00

Well, it looks like they're at it agian. The hillbilly crowd is getting upset by what they feel is excessive federal government interference. It seems like they easily forget or don't realize two simple facts, the first being that they already have more then enough places and space to do their things. And two, the Civil war gave the federal government the right to control the land and dictate to the states.

Now before you all get upset, I have no problem with those who ride on designated trails and areas. I enjoy an occasional ATV ride, in fact rode one a couple times over the weekend on a Ranch. I don't own one nor do I plan to own one but my father and father-n-law have one.

Also, I just read an article, can't remember where, I'll have to put some time into finding it. Basically it stated that this "new sagebrush rebellion" is doomed to fail before it even started. More people live in urban areas and actually care about and want to preserve the environment.

I would like to thank Edward Abbey for explaining how I feel.

"Machines[off-road vehicles] are domineering, exclusive, destructive and costly; it is they and their operators who would deny the enjoyment of the back country to the rest of us. About 98% of the land surface of the contiguous USA already belongs to heavy metal and heavy equipment. Let us save the 2% - that saving remnant."

"The slobs who go roaring over the landscape in these over-sized over-priced over-advertised mechanical mastodons are people too lazy to walk, too ignorant to saddle a horse, too cheap and clumsy to paddle a canoe. Like cattle or sheep, they travel in herds, scared to death of going anywhere alone, and they leave their sign and spoor all over the back country: Coors beer cans, Styrofoam cups, plastic spoons, balls of Kleenex, wads of toilet paper, spent cartridge shells, crushed gopher snakes, smashed sagebrush, broken trees, dead chipmunks, wounded deer, eroded trails, bullet-riddled petroglyphs, spray-painted signatures, vandalized Indian ruins, fouled-up waterholes, polluted springs and smoldering campfires piled with incombustible tinfoil, filter tips, broken bottles."

HB330

2009-02-25T21:18:00.002-07:00

Utah School Seismic Hazard Inventory -- Wiley, L.

I did not put together this slide show on the Chinese earthquake that occurred last year, it was passed along in an email. It is very likely that Utah could and will receive an earthquake much like the one the that hit Sichuan, China.

My reason for posting this slide show is to hope that after you view the slides you will call your Representatives and encourage them to vote for HB330. It did pass committee, by one vote and is in the house, which is already farther then it went last year.

The bill puts together a committee that will inventory all the schools in the state and determine a seismic threshold, the threshold will be determined by the committee. The inventory will eventually lead to a list of schools that are likely to receive major damage with a possibility of failure due to an earthquake.

We need to know what the earthquake risk is to our children while they are at school so that we know what needs to be done to eliminate that risk. Schools can be seismically retrofitted to reduce the risk of failure, some already have been. We need to know what shape are schools are in and which ones need attention first before we can begin to fix the problems. Ignoring the problem will not keep our children safe in the event of an earthquake. We do not want our children to be buried in ruble or the Nation and the World wondering why we sat by and did nothing to protect our children from a disaster we know is very likely to happen.

Hopefully we are able to protect our children before a large earthquake hits Utah.

Slide 16 shows the school. I'm sure if you google for it there are more pictures that show the devastation.

"We're the Legislature"

2009-02-05T22:48:00.003-07:00

"We're the Legislature, the ones who are supposed to have the control. It's time to stand up and be counted." Rep. Mike Noel

This is the greatest line ever! This explains so so much of what goes on up on the hill. They are suppose to have the control? Who does he think he is? God? The President? He's a Representative for a small county in a small state. He just happens to represent some of the most precious land in the country. Which is really too bad and sucks for those of us who care about what we leave behind for our children and grand children.

He dares to call Tim DeChristopher a terrorist? Those are strong words and not far from slander. Next thing you know the enviros are going to be calling Noel the terrorist and then someone will start calling Utahns terrorist and then we allow the real terrorist to win. In all seriousness, if we're going to throw around the word "terrorist" I would think environmental terrorist are the ones who destroy the environment (drilling, building roads to nowhere), not the ones who are trying to preserve it for the very reasons that attract millions of people to visit Utah every year. We start drilling everywhere, building roads everywhere, degrading the environment, Noel will get his money now but our children will miss what made Utah and it's landscape a beautiful place that they will only know from books and pictures.

Noel and other's like him like to use the "rural" card. "We have no other way of making money" "We need this for our economy". If they are that worried, and have that hard of time living where they do, do like my grandparents, MOVE! We would all love to live out in the country, in the rural beautiful places but what would we do for a living? My dad spent the first years of his life living in a town with fewer then at the time 100 people. My grandparents moved for work and to be closer to hospitals. My wifes mom left a small town of fewer then 50 people in Idaho for work. Those who stay in small communities do so because they love it and they know and have accepted the consequences.

At times I am honestly jealous of those who stick it out in the small towns and kinda wish I was like them but then I think of my children and the many more opportunities they will have living in a bigger city. We all make our choices for various reason but we make them knowing the consequences.

Sorry for the long rant but this really got under my skin. Just because he is one of the few people who lives there does not give him the power to decide what to do with OUR LAND!! I think he often forgets or just does not believe that the state and federal land belongs to ALL of us and WE ALL have a say. I think it's time for us to stand up and let him know who is really has control!

The PEOPLE!

HB278

2009-02-04T21:59:00.001-07:00

RS2477 is a Revised Statute that was passed in 1866 to help settle the Western Frontier. It is a short law, and it's entire text is one sentence: "the right-of-way for the construction of highways across public lands not otherwise reserved for public purposes is hereby granted." At the time of it's passing it made sense. It allowed local control of roads over federal lands or lands not claimed.

Using this out of date Statue counties in Utah are trying to claim as many roads as possible. Some of their claims are with merit and are actual roads, but the majority are not. The counties wish to control federal land and this is their way to continue the sage brush rebellion. Not having roads does not limit oil and mineral extraction, they plow new roads all the time, with agreements and following the law.

As they claim these roads they have to prove to the federal government that these roads existed prior to 1976 when RS2477 was repealed but all roads prior were grandfathered in. Claiming some of these roads is costing the counties a bit of money and they are tired of paying the bill alone. Under HB278, the counties want to use money they receive for road maintenance on B and C class roads to fight the feds in claiming cow trails as roads.

I'm not sure why the tax payers of the Utah should pay for some rouge counties to plow roads where ever they want or think they remember a road? If they're allocated money to maintain roads they own, I think that they should use that money to maintain the roads they have. If they want to increase their stock of roads, let them come up with the cash to prove it was an actually road prior to 1976. When we are cutting funding for schools we shouldn't be paying to fight arbitrary road fights.

They can still claim the road, they would just have to follow the new laws and guidance to build a road across Federal land. But as we have seen in the past, they are above the law.

Should Everyone Vote?

2008-11-04T16:16:00.002-07:00

Here is a Commentary that got me thinking about whether everyone should really get out and vote. I have always been one to tell everybody that they should vote, no matter who they are voting for, they need to vote. But really? Do we want people who have no idea, or very little idea what any of the candidates are about or what they stand for or what the issues even are to just show up and vote? It's not an office march madness poll where those who know nothing about college hoops are the ones that win. This is an election where the winner of the election decides on public policy for the next two to six years. It's a little more serious then march madness.

I think we should emphasis more on telling people to become informed and be informed all year. I would have to agree with commentary that maybe not everyone should vote.

Before the last Debate; Electoral College Map

2008-10-15T20:37:00.003-06:00

Again McCain seemed like a grumpy old man. He looked very nervous for the first half of the debate and he was cranky through out the whole thing. McCain cannot stand on his issues and has to talk about why Obama wouldn't be a good president. McCain needed to talk more about what he is GOING to do, not that "he knows how" to fix everything. Stop telling me you know how and tell me how your going to do it.

All this talk about Joe the Plumber, I bet just about every news channel has a Joe the Plumber to interview either tonight or tomorrow. Talking about plumbers the Union endorses Obama.

Before the Debate; Electoral College Map

2008-10-07T22:34:00.003-06:00

This is from a CNN poll posted Tuesday morning the day of the debate. We'll see if there are any changes in the next poll.

What I watched of the debate, McCain hobbled around and sounded bitter and angry. What do I know? I'm biased and saw what I wanted to see, just the same as many of the blogs and news story's I have read tonight.

Michael Palin for Vice President

2008-09-29T19:42:00.000-06:00

Sara Palin - Hilliary Clinton Address

2008-09-15T21:46:00.003-06:00

The republicans have found a way to transform Dick Cheney into a younger women to keep him running the government.

Small Town Values

2008-09-09T23:09:00.003-06:00

via videosift.com

What are small town values? The Daily Show questioned a dozen or so republican delegates at the RNC and no one could answer it. My favorite answer was "going fishing". Of course no homosexuals live in small towns and thats why men marring women only is a small town value. Being gay only happens in the big cities.

Republicans are great at the rhetoric because as you can see they get the sheeple to chant some thing they can't even explain. They don't know what it is but it's important and it's what they believe in. What? Only people from small towns have values? I know people from small towns, from really small towns and their values are no different then any one else. What I see as small town values, the "good 'ol boy" network is a definite small town value. Meth is a small town value.

Another favorite was "values from the '50s". Thats great, so we want to go back to racial segregation and keeping women in the kitchen? Those are the values I think of when someone mentions "values from the '50s".

Please could someone explain what small town values are and why only those who live in small towns have them?

Short Term Memory

2008-09-03T22:46:00.005-06:00

Can you really believe anything Joe Lieberman says?

After watching selected highlights from the RNC tonight, I was let down. I really thought that after all the hype that Governor Palin would have given an incredible speech. A few times I forgot why she was even talking. I had to remind myself that if McCain is elected she WILL be the next president (I doubt that McCain makes the four years). Who cares about her foreign experience, how about her lack of any type of experience? Eighteen months as the Governor of Alaska? Here is what Carl Rove had to say about Vice Presidential experience when Governor Tim Kaine was on Obama's short list as VP

I wonder where the town Gov. Palin was Mayor fits in with the rest of Americas cities? I doubt it's 110th! Poor Tim Kaine only has three years of experience as the governor of Virgina thats almost the same as 18 months of being the governor of Alaska. It is the largest state of the nation.

The RNC tonight was like watching the republican primary debates a few months ago, except this time they just replaced their own names with McCain. McCain hasn't been a maverick since he handed his manhood to bush 8 years ago. In '04 the republicans tore down a Vietnam vet, and made clear that serving in the military was not a prerequisite of being president. Eight years ago the bush campaign turned the fact that McCain was a POW against him and convinced enough people that it was a bad thing. Now his military and POW experience is what qualifies McCain for president?

The Best F*@king News Team

2008-09-03T21:06:00.004-06:00

This has to have been the best week and a half of The Daily Show and the Colbert Nation with a couple more shows left covering the conventions.

Talking of the Republican Party, "The republicans love America, they just hate half the people in it", "The leaders of today are F*@K ups of yesterday"

Priceless!

I don't know how anyone can watch cable news that's not on the Comedy Central?

100 Reasons Why McCain Won't be President

2008-08-26T21:52:00.002-06:00

100 Reasons Why McCain Won't be President of the United States.

Here are a few of my favorites in no particular order;

20. John McCain opposes net neutrality. Barack Obama supports it.

15. He favors warrantless wiretapping of American citizens.

4. Age (He's old and he will be even older and is loosing his memory)

3. Torture (You would think that he would be against torture after spending 5+years as a POW)

2. Money (He can't raise the money that Obama is raising and the money he is raising is from big business)

1. Bush (Since Sept. 11 he has overwhelmingly voted with Bush, he is not the "maverick" that he claims to be, in the last two years he has voted 80%+ with Bush)

91. Rather than support Jim Webb’s 21st Century G.I. Bill to greatly expand educational benefits to vets, McCain skipped the vote. Both Hillary & Obama voted for the measure.

90. Later, when Webb’s G.I. Bill passed overwhelmingly in the Senate 92-6, McCain had the audacity to suggest that he both supported the bill all along AND that he voted for it, when in fact, he did not.

79. McCain is trying to float the privatization of social security once again, only this time he’s calling it “personal accounts”.

71. McCain voted on numerous occasions from 2003-2007 against additional funding for Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

56. McCain praised President Bush in 2001 when he said he could trust Putin because Bush had “looked the man in the eye” and got “a sense of his soul.” Asked by Chris Matthews how Bush did in his Russia trip, McCain replied, “I–I give him an A. I’d give him an A.”

47. Days after McCain’s reversal on the subject of off-shore oil drilling, Multiple oil company executives gave huge contributions to electing him. The total collected from the Hess family alone was $285,000. Total contributions from the oil industry to McCain’s campaign jumped from $208,000 in May to $1.1 mil. dollars in June.

39. McCain, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Service Committee, has attended zero of his committee’s six hearings on Afghanistan over the last two years.

35. McCain has said $5 million is the line between being considered middle class and “rich”.

33. When asked by a reporter how many homes he and his wife Cindy own, he could not give a number and said he would have to have his staff get back with the answer. Politico later reported that the McCain’s own at least 8 properties, but that it could be as high as 12.

30. McCain voted against Florida Everglades restoration.

A Pizza Deliverer, A Senate Leader and A Blog

2008-08-23T16:13:00.006-06:00

I honestly love the internet. It's truly an amazing thing. I also continue to find the story of the Pizza girl and Senate Majority Leader very interesting. One of the most interesting aspects of the story to me is how the blog post was found and how fast it spread. The post first appeared on Monday the 18th, it apeared on the Utah Bloghive Tuesday evening on this blog, KSL Nightside project picked it up Tuesday night and by Friday KSL news did the story above. All this from someone simply posting a story on a blog that she believed very few people viewed.

There are lessons that people should already know by now about the internet, I believe two very important lessons that should be re-learned.

The first important lesson, in our web 2.0 generation anything you say or do CAN end up on the internet. Besides the famous examples of Paris Hilton and other celeb sex tapes, politicians who believe they are talking off the mic, there are probably millions of everyday story's of people who do or say something they thought was private that ends up on the internet. We should know and especially public figures should know this lesson. Of course we should be kind to everyone and act appropriately whether or not it will end up on the internet. Our actions shouldn't be determined by if they will end up on the internet but we should keep that in mind.

The other lesson, whatever is posted on a blog, sent in an email or in a text message is in the public domain. Here's a good explanation on how the post was probably found. Even if you believe no one is reading your blog, someone is. Think that your friend will not forward or post your email or the picture you text them you always have to think that they might.

Reading the comments on the pizza girl's blog, on ksl and other blogs who have posted about his story shows that this is a common thread in Brambles life and his dealings with people, especially people who he feels are beneath him. I seriously doubt that this will cost him the election but lets hope that it will cost him the leader position that he so easily abuses.

One of my favorite post on the story. I also like this post

Do you know who I AM?

2008-08-20T07:47:00.009-06:00

This story from Cartoon Brick Wall is one for the books. I don't know how Blue in Red Zion found this story, but hat's off to the find.

Now, I have had bad days and moments of weakness were I have not treated someone with the respect that they deserve. About a year ago I was not very nice to a lady at my local grocery store because she charged me the wrong price for an item. I have felt bad since and I make sure to say hi with smile to her every time I see her at the store now. I've had other experiences, but I have never dropped my name, "Do you know who I am?" or my credit limit. I guess I haven't because dropping my name wouldn't do much to get me anywhere and my credit limit is nothing to brag about.

If this story would have read like it does without Curt throwing out the "I'm the Leader" line more then once then you could've passed it off as a bad day and a overly sensitive deliverer. The ease and quickness he drops his name tells me that he does it often. Why should being the Senate Leader get you anything? Why would you expect it to give you anything? If he uses his title to try and work around a no check policy what else is he using his title for?

Who writes checks these days anyways? I write one check a month and only do so because the church hasn't set up direct deposit, yet. A lot of business don't accept checks anymore and the one that only takes checks drives me crazy! Costco does not take debit or credit cards, cash or checks only. I have checked out more then once forgetting this little gem of information (I live close enough to run home and grab a check) and yet I have walked away without talking to the manager, offering up my credit limit, dropping my name or my line of work. I'm surprised he didn't pull out the LDS card.

There is talk of leaving a tip jar at the capital to help Curt out with his tips.

You can now digg this story.

More on 4-10's

2008-07-18T08:24:00.003-06:00

It sounds like the gov made the decision, announced it and left it to everyone else to work out the details and here. Most state employees that I have talked with are fine with the holiday decision although most would have liked to of had a voice in the decision. I think that is what most employees are upset about, the lack of choice they had in this decision. I have no problem with any of it, maybe that's why I think the gov went about it the right way. If he would have sent out the survey and had conversation before he made the decision, it would be a year before any decision was made.

I think that the holiday policy is great. My first holiday working for the state, I was working four-tens, so I put down ten hours on the holiday, it only made sense to me. I was working four-tens, I get ten hours on a holiday. Well the payroll guy gave me a call and told me to fix it. While I was working four-tens I would have to either work the two extra hours or take vacation time to make up on holiday weeks. I have no problem giving up two holidays for 52 Fridays.

Utah might have been the first state but it looks like others are considering the four-ten work week, Colorado and Arizona are talking about it. Many municipalities are working four-tens while many more are thinking about it.

I wounder how long it will take before we see any savings?

4 10's

2008-07-09T09:35:00.001-06:00

By now just about everyone has heard of the Governor's plan to have All non-critical state employees work four tens. It's been interesting for me as a state employee to listen to, read and partake in the dialog following the govs announcement.

The first thing I need to discuss is that I sense a strong belief in the "lazy government worker" stereotype from reading comments on the Trib and Des news websites and talking with friends and acquaintances. I will agree that government has it's share of lazy workers, but I have worked in the private sector with it's fare share of lazy workers. Many people have replied that they have been working five tens and would love to work only four tens, many of my friends tell me this. To them I say, sounds fine with me and I'll take your salary!

The fact is that many government workers work just as hard as anyone in the private sector. For those who work overtime most do not get paid for the overtime they work (its not in the budget). They work overtime because they are not allowed to hire more workers and so are doing the work of two or three employees. Remember we do have to make it look like we have a small government.

From state employees I have heard everything from joy to resentment, but I hear that on a daily bases for just about any issue. I have co-workers who are in a constant state of disappointment. I started working for the state at four twelves a ten and a four or five, eventually down to four tens. When I went back to school I started my current schedule that I love and will dearly miss, five whatevers as long as I get my forty+ and my work done. I don't mind the four tens I just really love the five whatevers.

Radio West did a great show on four tens the other day. I thought it brought up some interesting aspects from both sides. I have always thought that four tens were more productive then five eights. Thats one less day of morning chatter and afternoon chatter, one less day of spending the morning turning the computer on (that takes a lot longer then it should), I'm already there, working, in the middle of something what's another two hours?

The one less day of driving doesn't do much for me, I live two miles from work and take the bus about half the time. UTA needs to step up and change bus schedules, that has been the biggest complaint that I have heard besides child care is that employees that have been taking the bus will have to drive. They won't "have" to drive but because they will miss the express buses their commute time home triples.

I'm sure that this will save the State money which is good because although I'm a state employee I still pay taxes. (I think many people forget this little detail). I don't believe that it will save employees money from driving less, they will use the extra day to run errands and such, driving just as much if not more.

In the big picure, I'm not sure why we are stuck working in a confined amount of time? One of the guest on the Radio West broadcast points out that with crackberries and laptops employees are working at home, on weekends and on vacation. They are also taking care of personal issues during work hours, paying bills online and personal phone calls.

What I loved about my five whatevers is I don't have to be in the office for forty hours to get my work done. We should be more concerned about the quality and quantity of work being done and less concerned about how much time we spent in our office.

Word of the Day

2008-06-27T17:08:00.003-06:00

This is a fun site! Summarizes the talk on the big Hill in one word.

Construction

2008-05-01T17:52:00.003-06:00

I haven't kept this blog updated as much as I would like and I'm not sure what direction I want this blog to take. I'm trying to find a layout that I like and then I will have to decide what to blog about if anything.

Be kind to immigrants

2008-02-18T22:01:00.005-07:00

I know this was so last week. I'm a bit slow on things.

Sitting in Sunday school last week an interesting topic came up for Sunday school, immigration, after reading 2 Nephi Chapter 1. Many of the older (70+) crowd started complaining about the "Latinos" taking over the country, breaking laws and all sorts of other things. After a few minutes of this another older man spoke up and pointed to these verses:

2 Nephi Chapter 1
6 Wherefore, I, Lehi, prophesy according to the workings of the Spirit which is in me, that there shall none come into this land save they shall be brought by the hand of the Lord.
7 Wherefore, this a land is consecrated unto him whom he shall bring. And if it so be that they shall serve him according to the commandments which he hath given, it shall be a land of liberty unto them; wherefore, they shall never be brought down into captivity; if so, it shall be because of iniquity; for if iniquity shall abound cursed shall be the land for their sakes, but unto the righteous it shall be blessed forever.

This cooled things off a bit.

When a General Authority comes out and suggest to a mainly LDS legislature to "slow down, step back and carefully study and assess the implications and human costs involved" you would think that the LDS members of the legislature would give heed. Instead they have justified
their actions and question why the church doesn't just come out with a clearer statement.

My favorite argument
"is ok to brake some laws?" "Will I get an ecclesiastical pass for breaking other laws or is only immigration law declared invalid?"
"Honor, obey, and sustain the law, but only if you're a legal LDS U.S. resident. If you're illegal, then the bishop can give you a wink and validate your fraudulent perjury-plagued status."

The Trib comment section is full of these. Which makes no sense to me other then all the anti-mormons are also anti-immigrant?

Maybe the legislature should draw up a resolution calling for Congress to address the real underlying issues of immigration. Why are all of these people coming here? Leaving their homes, safety, family to travel across a desert to a strange land with the possibility of dying on the way. When they get here they work any job they can get (watch "Fast Food Nation") working for next to nothing only to send the money home. Non of this makes sense unless where they come from is so bad in the first place. Maybe if we work on fixing the issues that cause them to leave we wouldn't have so many immigrants here to worry about.

The Utah lawmakers should make it easier for those who are here to declare themselves here so that we know who is here and where they are at. Instead they are forcing the immigrants to stay in the shadows and adding more stress to their lives.

Mother May I?

2008-02-15T00:05:00.006-07:00

So its been nearly a year since my last post, not like any one reads my blog anyway. I think there is something about the legislative session that pushes me to write a blog. The things those fools do up there are amazing! You know I don't think you could make some of this stuff up.

I'm not sure what's so hard about making it a felony to seriously abuse an animal? Ohh, wait it is......if....they have been convicted of animal abuse once before in the last five years. Nice.

Really I have to know who votes in West Jordan? I would like to meet those responsible for Nutters Buttars and slap them in the back of the head. Honestly do you just show up at the poll and pick the Republican? What an embarrassment! I think the last thing anyone would want to do right now is admit that they vote in West Jordan. I guess it's bad enough they have to live there.

The Utah legislature is full of small minded, hate filled, vindictive evil men, not all of them but enough of them that I feel I can generalize. They hate the idea of someone else doing something (because they do so much of nothing).

The gov goes off and signs a non-binding deal with a bunch of other govs to lower emissions, the legislators draft a bill that requires the gov to get their permission before he does anything like that again. What was he thinking?
Mother may I?

The Mayor of SLC decides to put together a domestic partner registry, you would think he used the BoM as toilet paper. Now there's a bill outlawing that. Even though the SLC council passed the registry unanimously, meaning that the majority of the citizens who are supposedly represented by the city council are in favor of the registry.
Mother may I?

I should help Curtis write a bill, this one would require all county and city councils run agendas past the legislature and get their ok before passing anything. No decisions can be made with out mother first making sure it's whats best. I believe this would save a lot of time and tax payer money in the long run. There would be a lot less laws on the books and the legislature would have more time in the session to actually get something accomplished. We will call this bill the Mother May I bill.

I would have to say though that my favorite is the conflict of interest. All they have to do is state that there is or might be a conflict. Thats it. They are required by law to vote on all bills.

I love this time of year!!

Sad Day

2007-05-22T22:36:00.000-06:00

This story broke my heart. I do not know the family but my heart goes out to them.

Dad and daughter, 5, killed in crosswalk near kindergarten

By Michael N. Westley
The Salt Lake Tribune

Article Last Updated: 05/22/2007 06:36:39 AM MDT

Don Ostler just wanted to get his 5-year-old daughter, Gwyndalyn, to afternoon kindergarten safely.
The pair were in a crosswalk to cross 1300 East near 5300 South in Murray Monday and had nearly reached the opposite curb when they were struck by a southbound car about 12:30 p.m., said police Detective Kenny Bass.
The impact of the crash threw both Ostlers several feet. Paramedics worked to revive the pair but were unsuccessful, Bass said. The 29-year-old man and daughter were pronounced dead at the scene.
The girl's grandmother, Nancy Ostler, told KSL Channel 5 News that the girl was about to turn 6 and already knew she wanted to be a doctor.
"If my granddaughter had to go to heaven, I'm glad it was my son that would take her," Nancy Ostler said. "My son did not have to die today. My tiny grandbaby did not have to die today."
The driver of the car, whom Bass said was an 86-year-old man, has been questioned by police.
Witnesses told police the car rolled right through the crosswalk where the Ostlers were walking, Bass said.
"The witnesses weren't indicating anything about speed," Bass said.
Nancy Ostler told KSL she had reviewed police reports, which made it appear as though the elderly man was not fit to be driving. "I have worked with the elderly before," Ostler said. "There's a time you need to say, 'I just can't be on the road.' "
Initial testing did not reveal the presence of drugs or alcohol on the driver, said the detective, but the case will be reviewed with prosecutors for possible charges.
mwestley@sltrib.com

It is a sad state of affairs that we rely so heavily on our vehicles to get us around. While everyone will be blaming the 86 year old man for driving when he obviously shouldn’t be (and he is to blame), no one will mention that without a drivers license he is a prisoner in his own home. We have set up our society so that those who do not or cannot drive are punished to use our substandard transit system or be stranded in their homes. Our houses are far from shopping, eating establishments, post offices and gathering places.

As medicine continues to advance more people will be driving at older ages then ever before. There will be an increase in these horrific unnecessary slaughters. We need to change how we build our cities, prioritizing people over cars.

We need to build cities where senior citizens are able to walk or easily ride transit to get to the doctors or stores.

We need to build cities where a father can safely walk his daughter home from school without dying.

Silly Notions

2007-04-11T22:50:00.000-06:00

I don’t understand people and where they get their silly notions, such as the notion that condos will bring down their property values and that high density is bad. The silliest notion is thinking that a commuter rail station is going to bring your property values down. I just don’t see it happening in Woods Cross, it hasn’t happened anywhere else in the state or the country so I don’t see why Woods Cross would be any different. To me this is a win win situation. If they don’t want to live within walking distance of a commuter rail station that will take them all over the Wasatch Front then they can sell their homes for at the very least double what they bought them for.

Why did they wait until now to start complaining? Woods Cross has been working with UTA for over two years now. If they say they didn’t know about the transit station and where the parking lot was going to be, it’s because they don’t pay attention and maybe they should attended City Planning and Council meetings.

I will be surprised if homes are still there in ten years. Just like all other stations in Salt Lake and around the country, condos, apartments, offices and retail will pop up all around the station.

Sky Bridge Debacle

2007-04-04T23:34:00.000-06:00

To me this is not a hard choice.

No sky bridge.

This will impede the view from Main Street. The view is something that city forefathers had enough common sense to preserve and to put the preservation of it into the city code by not allowing sky bridges. If we allow this one it will be that much easier for the next developer to build one. We are going to allow “the church” a variance to build a sky bridge but not the next guy? How is that going to look in front of a judge?

Sky bridges are fun and neat but not necessary for the city creek center to go forward and to function. If it is going to draw the crowds the developer says it’s going to bring into Salt Lake, something like 10million then the “mall” will succeed without the bridge. The developer is trying to tell us that 10 million people are going to decide not to shop at the center because there is no sky bridge?

Plus all the other reasons not to build a sky bridge.

On a side note, how well will that retractable glass ceiling do during an earthquake?

Legislative Rant

2007-03-23T00:05:00.000-06:00

It’s been a busy month for me at work and the flu for a week all but did me in, seems like the end of the legislative session always wears me down.

What I love most about the Utah legislature besides how they waste time is the fact that they love nothing more then to legislate local issues. They hate it when the feds get in their business but they have no problems getting all up into the locals, especially Salt Lake City and the County. Salt Lake County according to the Govs Office in 2005 had just fewer than 1 million; the entire State had just over 250 million. Salt Lake County is 38% of the States population and we have legislatures from rural areas telling the city and county what they can and cannot do? Try telling the rural folk what to do; you would think the world is coming to an end. I think that the County is responsible enough to make its own decisions without the help from the State legislature. Hopefully next year they will focus more on State issues and less on how to punish Salt Lake.

I know that the session has been over for a while but I hadn’t had a chance to rant about it. So there it is.

Capital Parking

2007-03-22T23:22:00.000-06:00

I thought that the purpose of tearing out the old parking lot at the State Capital was to put in a garage and add more parking for the employees and visitors. As it is now there is not enough parking for the employees, forget about when the legislature is in. Come to find out they are not putting in a parking garage but only beautifying the parking area, in the end there will be less parking. I suppose that parking and access to your legislatures is less important then a good looking capital complex.

Salt Lake Arena?

2007-02-08T21:30:00.000-07:00

I have no problems with soccer, I even watched the World Cup and soccer clips on Youtube. But I am beyond tired of Dave Checketts and this soccer stadium hoopla that is being forced upon us. This is the most pressing issue that the legislature has to deal with?

Forget payday lending, health care, the budget, let’s drop everything before the baby with the ball takes his game somewhere else. Checketts is worse then my 3 year old. Why is it our business to pay for his? If his business plan is so great why isn’t Energy Solutions tripping over themselves to put their name on the arena?

With Salt Lake county taxpayers paying for the stadium are they going to call it the Salt Lake arena?

It would only be right.

When they came for the Mormons

2007-02-08T21:24:00.000-07:00

Some one needs to send this quote to the good Senator of West Jordan R- Chris Buttars.

When the Legislature came for the homosexuals,
I remained silent;
I was not gay.

When they outlawed abortions,
I remained silent;
I was not pro-choice.

When they came for evolutionist,
I did not speak out;
I was not a Darwinist.

When they came for the Mormons,
there was no one left to speak out.

Sen. Buttars has no problem taking away rights from everyone else but when some kid in a CTR shirt gets kicked out of school he’s the first one to shout foul. It amazes me that the people of West Jordan continue to vote to keep this guy in office.

Against Word of Wisdom

2007-02-01T22:06:00.000-07:00

The Trib was full of good ones today. Another classic

Over the edge

Public Forum Letter

Article Last Updated: 01/31/2007 07:52:59 PM MST

The decision by the Legislature to cut funding for the Utah Department of Environmental Quality makes me want to drive my Prius off of a cliff.
Aren't the legislators aware we have had a record number of "red" days this year?
Weren't they listening to the radio when a member of the national news media, who was here for the Sundance Film Festival, said he was shocked when he flew into the Salt Lake International Airport because it looked just like flying into Mexico City?
Haven't they heard that breathing the bad air, with its damaging fine particulates, is like smoking cigarettes?

Actually, breathing the highly polluted air should be against the Mormon "Word of Wisdom." If the legislators really considered the ill effects of living in a polluted environment, they would now be voting to increase funding for DEQ.

Elaine Nielson
Salt Lake City

Tailpipe Taliban

2007-02-01T21:57:00.000-07:00

Best letter to the Editor ever!!!!

From the Trib

ATV agitators

Public Forum Letter

Article Last Updated: 01/31/2007 07:52:59 PM MST

As a resident of Wayne County, I'm angered beyond belief that the dealership-funded agitators of USA-ALL (formerly the Utah Trail Machine Association) are again attempting to turn the Factory Butte region into a dirt digger's Disneyland. A Jan. 22 Tribune article said that recent all-terrain vehicle restrictions spurred a county commission proposal to open 190,000 acres to unrestricted riding.
There are at least 50,000 miles of legal ATV trails in Utah, and acrobatic riders already have "Swing Arm City," 2,600 acres of the most beautiful and extreme terrain, designated for open use. Now they're attempting to portray pirate-grabbed land as "traditional use areas," critical to the local economy, and "family bonding." In truth, most of these areas never saw tracks until the last 5 to 10 years, and the core user group is tiny.
This isn't about public access; it's about an extreme-terrain park, which would make better sense near Tooele, Richfield or Grand Junction, where most of the agitators live. Of course, anyone with the audacity to object to their internal-combustion caliphate will receive ridicule and death threats. That's because the Utah Shared Access Alliance is really the Tailpipe Taliban.

Steve Howe
Torrey

If you build it, they will ride it

2007-01-26T19:55:00.000-07:00

U students pick TRAX
Skyrocketing mass transit use cuts costs, saves space

It makes no sense that we are still pushing roads over rail. The University TRAX line has shown us that if you build it they will ride it.

Before the completion of TRAX, U of U officials were trying to find ways of providing enough parking for the students. Parking issues were in the Utah Daily Chronicle everyday from letters to the editor, complaining about the lack of parking to front page stories covering the fact that more parking passes were sold than their were parking spaces. Now that I don’t attend the U of U, I don’t read the Chronicle much but it’s been a long time since I remember seeing anything about parking in it. U of U officials were contemplating building a multi-structure parking garage on campus with one possible location being the golf course.

Thanks to TRAX there is now an excess amount of parking, the best part being that the tax payers and students did not have to fund a parking garage. The space can be better used to place new buildings and/or green space.

An added bonus to all of this is there are fewer cars on the road, relieving traffic, 5,000 fewer cars on Foothill Blvd. Not only fewer cars on the road and in the parking lots for school but for football, basketball, gymnastics, the museum and other events held at the University.

When the commuter rail line is finished along with the West Valley and Jordan TRAX extensions, even more U of U parking will open up along with fewer cars on the road. Parking downtown for those who still drive downtown will be made easier, downtown traffic will be remain bearable as we add more people to the city.

Last week the Trib reported that officials were no longer considering the public transit aspect of the west side freeway, Mountain View (previously known as Legacy) Highway because they did not see the ridership there and it was not cost effective.

What came first the freeway or the shopping complex? If you build a freeway first, you will get the type of development that you get everywhere that feeds off of freeways. If you build mass transit first, you will get the type of development that is high density, fewer cars, less pollution, and less traffic. To build an eight lane freeway without a mass transit aspect is going backwards 50 years. TRAX lines in Salt Lake have shown us that there is an unmet need in our region for mass transit.

After the last couple weeks of the “inversion” it would be nice if more people used mass transit but that won't/can't happen until we have a mass transit system that allows everyone the choice between personal vehicle and mass transit.

Incredible Shrinking Government

2007-01-23T22:00:00.000-07:00

This is from the Senate Blog

The Incredible Shrinking Government

From December 2005 to December 2006, the population of the State of Utah grew by 2.7%. Total employment in the state grew 4.7%.

This sheet shows that the number of people employed by state government only grew 1.88%.

Bottom line: Your state government is shrinking as a percentage of the total Utah workforce and as a segment of the population as a whole.

The way this happens is that we don’t hire needed employees; we give the ones already working a heavier work load, and we hire contractors at twice the cost. So how is this helpful to the citizens of Utah? It looks good for the republican legislature to show their constituents that they are shrinking government, while they are paying more money for less work in the form of contractors and working the few employees they do have into the ground. Instead of allowing employees to do some things really good, they are so over burdened with work that they do lots of things just ok.

Taiwanese Style Politics

2007-01-19T18:00:00.000-07:00

Could you imagine if our State legislature did something like this? It would be great!! Just picture Rep. Becker throwing a shoe at Rep. Curtis who is surrounded by a group of Republicans on the podium.

Taiwanese Politics

State of the State

2007-01-17T21:20:00.000-07:00

The govs State of the State was a lack luster. I'm sure if we pulled up last years address it would be almost identical. The dems came out pretty quickly with a response , too bad the govs speech wasn't more like the dems response and even worse too bad the dems have no sway in getting any of their proposals considered.

One of the issues the dems mention that I believe is overlooked by the public is gerrymandering. Paul Rolly had a great piece in the trib the other day. It basically states that Utah democrats are under represented and I believe moderate republicans also. The controlling party has locked in their assurance to win an un-proportional amount of the districts and in doing so has given the extreme elements of the republican party (a minority) the majority of say in State policy.

This has got to come to an end!

Utah needs a bipartisan redistricting committee. 11 States now have bipartisan redistricting committees and two of them are our neighbors; Colorado and Idaho. If Idaho can have bipartisanship I don't see why Utah cannot.

I understand their are many priorities this year and other important issues need to be addressed but I believe this is important and deserves to be addressed. We cannot continue to ignore this issue and allow politicians to choose their constituents. We all deserve equal representation and as long as the Republicans continue to gerrymander our political districts, citizens in Utah will be denied that right.

Sierra Club top ten achievements of 2006

2007-01-10T21:27:00.000-07:00

The Utah Chapter of the Sierra Club listed their top ten achievements for 2006. At number one:

1. Sierra Club activists from around the country and national lobbyists helped persuade senators not to allow Senator Bennett's growth-on-steroids Washington County Growth & Conservation Act of 2006. Defeat of this bill means no public lands in Washington County sold to developers, and the revenues from such sales will not fund inappropriate development projects.

Sierra Club

While the Sierra club claims this as one of "their" victories and it was a marginal victory, I believe it had more to do with Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid then with the Sierra club or any other environmental group. At the same time the Washington County Growth & Conservation Act was being denied in committee the White Pine County Conservation, Recreation and Development Act flew right through. Both of these bills did pretty much the same thing in the same general region just in two different States. The reason I believe that Sen. Reid would not want the Washington County bill to pass is the lack of water for the region. Southern Utah is already fighting with Southern Nevada over water; neither can continue to grow at the rates they are now for much longer with out a secure, available, unlimited source of water.

A greater and more meaningful victory for the Sierra Club would have been if they had stopped both of these bills. As it is now Sen. Reid got his way (he did not help Senators Matheson and Bennett with their bill) and S. Nevada will continue to grow and will continue to take water from the already parched desert and impeding the growth of S. Utah.

The U.S will add another 100 million people in the next 30 to 40 years and they have to live somewhere. The middle of the desert is not the place for them, Las Vegas is about as middle of the desert as you can get right next to Phoenix. St. George would like to think that they are not in a desert, they do have some limited supplies of water, but no matter what they tell themselves they are in a desert and because of it growth is going to be limited. Unless new technology will allow us to make water out of air the growth that the Southwest has been seeing is going to have to slow if not stop all together.

Boise State National Champions

2007-01-09T07:43:00.000-07:00

The national champion should be Boise State. This is twice that a non-BCS team has broke into the system and beat a BCS team. Boise should have played Ohio St. Florida made it on a fluke when UCLA beat USC who would have been playing Ohio had they one that game.The reason why Boise state got to play the Big 12 Champs was that when Utah went to a BCS bowl they gave them some crappy Pitt team who Utah killed. So to try and prove that non-BCS teams don't belong in bowls the committee gave Oklahoma to Boise thinking that the sooners would walk all over the Broncos. That didn't happen. Boise could play with any team this year. What was BYU doing playing the fifth ranked Pack 10 team? They should have played Oklahoma the Big 12 champs while Boise played Ohio St., USC or Florida. Florida is not clearly the National Champions, there are to many questions. It will only take one or two more non-BCS teams to win in BCS bowls before they decide that a play-off system is the only way to determine with-out question who is Champion. It wouldn't take any longer then it does now and each team would only have to play a couple more games if they kept winning. But until they have a play-off there will never be a clear National Champion. This year Boise State is as much of a National Champion as Florida.

I'll take my ball and go home!

2007-01-05T21:25:00.000-07:00

trib article

I’m just waiting for Bishop to pick up his ball and go home. Now that he and his buddies in Washington are no longer in charge the rules they’ve been playing by for the last 12 years are now “railroading”. The difference between the Republicans and the Democrats running the show is that the Dems said they would play nice? Now that dems are in charge they decide to play like the repubs have and Bishops going complain about it because they “promised” to play fair?

Since when did Bishop become the moral compass?

“ ‘Open’ government may be ‘better,’ but it also may only be ‘voyeuristic’ government with all the hidden negatives,''

Affordable Housing

2007-01-03T22:00:00.000-07:00

The trib article "SLC debates housing policies" was interesting. I like mayor Corroon but it seems that he doesn't understand much about affordable housing. I was really surprised that he didn't support the policy to spread the affordable housing around. I just don't see how if the housing project isn't 100% affordable that it can't be built. Makes no sense to me. It seems that the county is doing the developer a favor in allowing them to mix housing.

100% affordable housing projects turn just into that, projects. Nobody wants those projects in their city, no one wants to live next to those projects. How many 100% housing projects are on the east side of the valley? The best socially responsible policy is to mix housing types. And all of this shows in that few of the new projects are 100% affordable. The Gateway is a mix housing project. I think that they tried 100% affordable housing, Mobile Home Parks, see how well that worked. Now we're kicking people out of their affordable homes.

I agree with the Crossroads Urban Center in that every project built should have affordable housing including projects around trax stops. I would think that especially around trax stops housing projects would be required to have affordable units.

Mormons and Heathens for a Better Utah

2007-01-03T21:52:00.000-07:00

I love the Canyon Country Zephyr and I have to share this article.

MAHBU forever!

Rail or Roads?

2006-12-11T20:03:00.000-07:00

So I was wrong to believe that Paul Mero had correct information on transit ridership. I assumed that he had done his homework and researched for his little opinion piece. A letter to the editor made me think twice about Meros numbers and with a quick search he was way off base. According to the US census and to wikipedia 4.5 million people use NYC transit system a day, about 54% of the population. Here is a nice little fact that Mero left out, "Ridership in the city increased 36% to 2.2 billion annual riders from 1995 to 2005, far outpacing population growth". More people are riding transit in NYC now then ever before. Personal vehicles are used for only 6% of shopping trips into Manhattan.

There are 36 cities in the US with 10% or more of its population using public transit.

Here are some interesting facts about transit

Transit-related congestion relief saves the nation nearly $20 billion annually.

Transit users save time for themselves and for all other road users.

A Federal Transit Administration study of six light-rail corridors found savings of:

Over 17,000 hours for transit riders each day,
22,000 hours daily for the remaining automobile drivers on the corridor itself,
$225 million in total savings annually.

30,000 passengers can be carried on a single U.S. subway line in one hour, ten additional highway lanes would be needed if those riders drove instead.

In Denver, 50 percent of light-rail commuters previously drove to work, and ridership on the light-rail system is 60 percent ahead of projected levels.

The DC-area Metro has generated nearly $15 billion in surrounding private development. Between 1980 and 1990, 40 percent of the region's retail and office space was built within walking distance of a Metro station.

I'm not sure why or how the Sutherland Institute is held as a credible source of information and why they are included in on policy discussions. An article by Paul Rolly in the trib points out to more inaccuracies associated with Sutherland.

As for the decline of transit in European countries, with a quick search I could no information to back that up. The only information I found in my short search was for Great Britain where it explains that public transit use declined from the 1950s but in the last five years has started to increase in numbers again.

Can't go home losers!

2006-12-08T15:48:00.000-07:00

I don't want to get into the war on my blog. There are more then enough blogs on the war in Iraq and on Terrorism. But since our congressmen are such great statesman with quotes to remember I just had to post them.
From the trib

"Hatch said it was worthwhile to have the bipartisan panel study the issue.........we can't just pick up and leave because the Democrats want to."

Which is it? A bipartisan panel that suggest we pull the troops out or the Democrats suggesting we pull our troops out?

Best quote by Rep. Cannon
"As I read the report, it says the president is right," he said. "Basically, it says the president is a smart guy."

The pres. is a smart guy? Is that the best he could come up with? Did he read the same report that everyone else got? Did he read the report?

Hatch says that Bush has "superior knowledge", now that was one of the funniest things I've read in the paper for a while.