One Utah

Geographers like me are used to our fellow Americans’ inexhaustible reservoir of ignorance about the world. After all, it’s a big planet that offers a vast array of little-known information.
Yet, surely we could be expected to know something. How hard can it be?

Only 37% of young Americans can find Iraq on [...]

Eric Kleefeld on Talking Points Memo reviews the latest polls:

It’s starting to look like the presidential race is narrowing once more. The latest Rasmussen tracking poll now has a nearly-tied race at Obama 47%, McCain 46%, the latest national poll showing the race to be practically even.
Rasmussen also registered a dead-even tie yesterday of 46%-46%, [...]

AP | BEN FELLER | July 14, 2008 at 10:46 AM
WASHINGTON — In another push to deal with soaring gas prices, President Bush on Monday will lift an executive ban on offshore drilling that his stood since his father was president. But the move, by itself, will do nothing unless Congress [...]

Mike Huckabee was not my candidate this year. He won’t be my candidate in the future. But his strong electoral performance on a shoestring made him one of the most intriguing candidates of 2008. In some ways he was sounding like a Republican populist, perhaps because he was running against Governor Romney, [...]

I highlighted two races yesterday. Here’s a couple more I think we should watch.
The first - and a slightly unusual one - is House 24 - formerly Ralph Becker’s seat. Rebecca Chavez-Houck took Ralph’ spot back in January and is running for re-election this fall. She’s discovering a strange dynamic - that [...]

I know it is scary but the State Legislature has more impact on your life than almost any other level of government. City government is largely about performing effective tasks of city management and planning. But our state legislature is hugely important - it has the power to create policies that effect each [...]

Barack Obama promised “change,” and he has delivered on that promise. We wanted Obama to change Washington, and instead he’s inexplicably changing his policy positions to accommodate the Bush administration and the far right. The most immediate problem: a proposal to make unconstitutional changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).
Senator [...]

Wazzup? Last month, Barack Obama suddenly switched his position on illegal warrantless surveillance– now he’s for it. In an interview with Fortune, he embraced NAFTA.
The Wall Street Journal says:
We’re beginning to understand why Barack Obama keeps protesting so vigorously against the prospect of “George Bush’s third term.” Maybe he’s worried that someone will [...]

Allegorically speaking, to a political junkie such as myself, C-Span and C-Span 2 are the uncut heroin of political news. If you’re somebody who doesn’t really need to be told what you just saw with your own eyes, C-Span provides the perfect information gathering vehicle to understand what is going on in Washington politics, but [...]

What a pleasant surprise to wake up to. Arguably one of the most shameless and despicable Republicans in modern history has been unceremoniously sent packing.
We’ve done our best over the years to hurt soon-to-be-FORMER Congressman Chris Cannon, but never in my wildest dreams did I imagine Utah republicans would do the deed themselves.
But did [...]

Senator Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic Presidential nominee, has announced his support of H.R. 6304, the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 that passed the House of Representatives yesterday.
Obama has caved on an important constitutional issue and has given us a window into his governance as President, i.e. triangulation. Back in September, Obama vowed to [...]

This morning, 105 Democrats voted for the FISA Amendments Act of 2008, including our own Rep. Jim Matheson (D-UT) (R-UT). This legislation is unconstitutional and a total capitulation to White House claims of unlimited executive power. It also stymies future efforts to investigate the full extent of the Bush administration’s illegal surveillance activities. [...]