One Utah

“Redacted” is a fictional film by Brian De Palma based on a real atrocity in Mahmudiyah, the rape, murder, and burning of Abeer Qasim Hamza al-Janabi, a 14-year-old Iraqi girl, in March 2006 by U.S. soldiers who also killed her parents and younger sister.

Scene from “Redacted” (the tank is a Jordanian Army Challenger-1)
The movie’s title [...]

Most Americans are coffee drinkers.  The coffee pot is a fixture in the vast majority of American homes - used daily.  Depending on who you ask the numbers vary widely.  At a minimum, over 50% of Americans drink coffee - up to four cups per day.  Some researchers say 66% of Americans drink coffee daily; industry folks claim [...]

It’s time we as a society end homelessness.  We have sufficient wealth, sufficient resources, to end homelessness.  What we lack is the will.
Allow homelessnes to continue is a grievous moral sin, a stain upon the soul of America, a cancer which eats away at our humanity, a compassion, ourselves.  It is time to muster the [...]

The current issue of The Nation is worth picking up, unless you’re a subscriber and you already know about it. They have excellent profiles of each of the Democratic presidential candidates. Now is the time to reflect on who we really want, because soon we’ll be left with just the front-runners, the “electable” [...]

This is what we were screaming into the void before The Decider executed the worse decision in the history of the world (OK, maybe Hitler made a worse one, but then again, he almost won)
Ripped from All Spin Zone
Mailer’s words in 2003 ought to instruct us well into the future and offer an important warning [...]

According OMB and Orin Hatch the future cost of the invasion/occupation of Iraq to Utah is $18 billion dollars.
Our annual budget is around $8 billion.
But, hey. Saddam was a bad guy and had weapons, really big bad weapons. I’m sure its well worth the investment.

The recent passing of president Ronald Reagan brought together the entire span of the compliant, so called “liberal” media who as if on cue, spun up a frenzy of Reagan worship. It was as if the man walked on water and was deeply loved by all Americans. The media’s lock step performance surrounding Reagan’s funeral [...]

Among the more interesting chapters of Robert Reich’s Reason was his chapter on positive patriotism.  Reich argued (without using these terms) that since 2001, the US has been awash in a very negative kind of patriotism - jingoism, musculur America love it or leave it, we’re right and if you’re not with us you’re against [...]

Via Talking Points Memo: members of Congress have not been able to obtain a copy of the current plan for Iraq, known as the Joint Campaign Plan. The goal of the plan, according to the New York Times, is to achieve political and military security in Iraq by 2009.
House Armed Services Chairman Ike Skelton [...]

I am pro-Union.  As a professional with a master’s degree, chances are good I am unlikely to work in a unionized job, but that does not change my basic support for Unions.
Unions serve all workers, not just their members.  Corporations hold an unfair advantage over individual workers for a simple reason - there are more [...]

Yesterday’s New York Times offered a wide-ranging interview with a group of Iraq veterans, including Salt Lake City’s Lee Kelley (who served as an Army Signal Corps officer in Al Anbar Province). Here’s a brief sample:

Q: Are we mature enough as a country to thank those who risk their lives on our behalf while [...]

On this Sunday morning, I thank God for Norman Mailer. While politicians come and go, the words of great writers live on. They are especially important in times like these when our leaders embarrass the shit out of us, our great American writers serve to remind the world that not all Americans are [...]