One Utah

Over at KSL, there are many defending Buttars’ bigotry using finely honed apologetics.
I’m all for giving one the benefit of the doubt once, maybe twice. But I know Senator Buttars. He IS an unapologetic bigot and will readily admit it to anyone (privatly) as he did with me one day over the phone. [...]

Sent to Senator Dmitrich and Representatives King and Mathis
I recommend you vote FOR SB 173 and AGAINST SB202.
SB173 was produced by Governor John Huntsman’s Renewable Energy Initiative Blue Ribbon Task Force. I participated with some of the members of that task force in developing the Renewable Energy Portfolio recommendation. That recommendation was modeled [...]

It’s almost impossible to make fun of Chris Buttars - given his level of obvious stupidity, irony, sarcasm and satire fall short of the embarrassing reality of this bigoted little man who likes the rush of power he feels when people call him “Senator.”
In Buttars latest move to become the poster boy for bigots, he [...]

On Thursday, the Utah State House of Representatives will debate HJR 10, Rep. Aaron Tilton’s “Joint Resolution Opposing Designation of Public Lands Currently Urged by Congress and the Bureau of Land Management.” He means wilderness designation, but must be afraid to put that word into the title of any legislation, however symbolic.
Of course, this [...]

I haven’t really commented much on this year’s legislative session for one reason - the news I’ve seen hasn’t really painted a picture of the session. Aside from anything having to do with immigration (i.e. brown people) the session seems to have been actually kind of boring. Yesterday, I got to spend some [...]

It seems oddly appropriate that 2008 Blog for Choice day is the day that the Rep. Stephen Sandstrom’s slut shaming, forced pregnancy hot potato bill was handed off to the Office of Legislative Research & General Counsel - which has already rendered a negative opinion on the bill.
Sandstrom’s bill would prohibit abortion except to save [...]

With yesterday’s largely ceremonial opening over and done with, today marks the first day of real work in the state Leg.
The schedule of events starts at 8 a.m. with committee meetings/hearings (remember, these meetings are where bills go to die).
The tools for staying abreast of what’s happening are plentiful and relatively easy to use. [...]

8 bills per day.  That’s how many bills have to be killed or passed each day to get through the list of proposed bills in the 2008 session.
Utah’s legislative session lasts 45 days. 

It’s impossible to attend the Utah State Legislature year after year as I have without developing a sense of cynicism. The majority of Utah’s legislators strike me as well meaning but useless when it comes to actually effecting changing. The few commonsense proposals that actually make it to the floor are usually killed [...]

This is democracy. Heck- it’s bigger than democracy. It’s life itself and just as important today as the beginning of time (whether 7,000 or untold millions of years ago). It’s called community. And that’s what the Clean Air Summit held Thursday at the Salt Lake City County building was about: saving our community. People representing [...]

So it turns out that some Utah legislators stand to make big bucks on a decision they may decisively influence to bring nuclear power to Utah. We’ve done without this monstrously bad source of power all these years.
Most fundamentally, we still don’t know how to handle nuclear waste without it constituting a huge threat to [...]

I’m of the opinion that the voucher referendum is primarily if not exclusively about taking back our democracy from the special interest-ridden Utah legislature. But what if the special interests were right this time, and private school vouchers are actually a good idea? I don’t think so. Let’s debunk the main talking [...]