Ken SchreinerNevada Democrat Senator Does More to Help Utah Than Our Own Republican Guys; Excuse Me, I Have to Take This
Let me begin by saying I apologize. I’ve been gone promoting my new movie, hob-nobbing with Hollywood bigshots and lowlifes, and basking in the human-induced tanning machine that is southern California for a while (note driving with the top down and AC off to prevent damage to ozone-layer but lack of hands-free cell headset to avoid collision with daily high-speed police chase). The air there is nearly as bad as it is along the Wasatch Front but, hey, they’ve got Rodeo Drive. I’ve been trying to keep up on the environmental news in Utah which, frankly, has been pretty darn putrid. Smoke from wildfires, heat waves causing record usage of coal-generated electricity, drought sucking water right out of the gutters where we just sprinkled it and, of course, our visionary Republican federal and state leaders doing their best to handcuff the people who vote these power tools into office year after year to the smokestacks, vehicles and cooling units they order us to use. But Messrs. Bennett and Hatch, Bishop and Cannon et al might’ve been singed a little from this Trib editorial about how Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada cares more about Utah’s air than our own representatives (permalink). Don’t expect anything to change though. Everyone knows who covers the bill for their campaigns. It might be a better investment for “The Fossil Fantasy Four” to just give the thousands they get from power company and oil lobbyists and buy subscriptions to the Deseret News for every resident of Utah. Then we’d all be lost in the ozone with them.
August 1st, 2007 at 12:12 am
Before the words “tree hugger” were ever uttered, Senator Hatch called people like you “toad stool worshipers.” At the time, people like James Watt, (oil lawyer), were traveling the country telling people that we needed to “restore Americas greatness” through belligerent policies against people who might “go to the park” and waste their time or others around the world who may want to control their own destiny and resourses. The parks he was talking about were the nationally protected areas that he wanted to turn over to private businesses.
Watt was, as far as I know, the first person appointed to an office specifically to counter the purpose of that office, (Department of the Interior), in favor of special interests, (oh, let’s say oil companies for instance.)
Of course, now we see that every single office designed to protect our tradition of preserving our precious resources and freedoms has been filled with intentionally incompetent people including the “president” of the former Untied States. We are now the Divided States of America.
The “Great Uniter”, (yes, they actually called him that in the lead-up to a stolen election?)
Crap!
August 1st, 2007 at 8:25 am
I was a reporter in Denver during the Watt years. I saw first-hand that besides being a certifiable loony, he was a dangerous and motivated ideologue who provided the mold for the current generation. Because Americans have, as Gore Vidal says in Eugene Jarecki’s doc “Why We Fight,” “no sense of history,” we keep on making the same mistakes over and over again. It’s less the fault of the Bush/Cheney Regime that we’ve got what we’ve got. America should’ve seen it coming 30 years ago with Ronald Ray-gun, Ed Meese and the don’t-tax-but-spend-everything Republicans whose legacy lives on and haunts us to this day.
August 1st, 2007 at 5:41 pm
What’s amazing is that James Watt didn’t loose his job for wanting to debauch the earth. He lost it because he said something derogatory towards Jewish people first and then did something so horrifying, that he had to be removed.
He criticized the Beach Boys!
Or at least that was the perception left by the media.
August 2nd, 2007 at 7:46 am
Ah, yes. The Beach Boys not allowed to play in Washington on the Fourth of July I believe was the raging controversy that toppled “The Bulb.” Thanks for that reminder. It was around that time (the mid 1980s) I determined the direction of the corporate news media in America had turned the wrong way: from the voice of the people to the voice of power and money. Curiously, the years immediately following Watergate, where respect for the news media was at an all-time high, turned out to be the same type of missed opportunity as 9/11. And history also delivers more than clues to the reasons why. In the 1980s, it was news consultants and corporate buyouts. Now, it’s more like self-defense to prevent a collapse of the whole greed-based superstructure they’ve built for themselves. Talk about karma. BTW: if you want to relive the golden years, go see “Talk To Me” with Don Cheadle. It’s about the emergence of urban radio in the 1960s and is outstanding. Read about it on my blog http://schreinervideo.blogspot.com later today.
August 2nd, 2007 at 5:56 pm
“The Bulbâ€
I love that!
Looks like a very interesting video. I wish I had the Sundance channel or some way of seeing what must be a treasure trove of movies made by independents. Someone should open a video store that carries these types of movies.
I am truly stuck in the sixties. I had a wonderful time and felt like there were always going to be better times ahead because we were the smart Americans and could do anything. Yeah, it’s more then depressing to see guys like Hannity holding so much of the publics attention. It makes me want to sob like I did on the night of “Shock and Awe.”