Democracy 4 Utah meetup on February 1 @ 7:00 p.m. at the Salt Lake City Library. Craig Axford from the State Demo Party will be talking about precinct organizing. Get your butts over there and then we can all go out for a drink after.

I love this site! I like that we have a chance to bold and quote and do other stuff. Hope you all saw my post about the Democracy 4 Utah meetup on February 1 @ 7:00 p.m. at the Salt Lake City Library. Craig Axford from the State Demo Party will be talking about precinct organizing. Get your butts over there and then we can all go out for a drink after.

Citizen Lobby Night, Jan. 25:
Last week, congressional lobbying scandals continued to engulf Washington. We learned that Jack Abramoff took in $40 million in four years from clients, and bilked Indian tribes of $20 million in the process. In the wake of Abramoff’s guilty plea, Rep. Tom Delay abandoned his former House majority leader post. And the Salt Lake Tribune reported that Envirocare, though not accused of any wrong doing, shelled out $4 million in recent years and used Abramoff’s former firm to lobby legislators in Washington.

These pay-to-play tactics are all too common in politics. We want to put your voice back in the process.

Now that the Utah legislative session has officially begun, join HEAL Utah and the Utah Rivers Council for a Citizen Lobby Night and learn how to make your voice heard without spending millions.

When: Wednesday, January 25th, 6:00-7:30pm
Where: (Note location change) We will meet in the lobby of the WEST building of the State Capitol Complex (350 North Main Street)
The lobby is at the east entrance of the building, facing the center plaza. The West building is located to the northwest of the Utah State Capitol building, which is currently under construction.

Parking will be available in the EAST parking lot or on the street. If you park in the east lot, you can get to the west building where we will meet by going through the east building and across the plaza. It sounds more confusing than it is, but a compass may help.

Dress is casual and all materials will be provided for you.

Thanks to everyone who came out to listen to what Pete had to say. While Drinking Liberally isn’t in the business of endorsing a candidate, I think that everyone attending Pete’s speech has a good idea of who they’re going to vote for, even at such an early stage in the process.

Pete was a great, enthusiastic speaker with a populist message. One of the central themes was the idea of breaking into government, which has become an exclusive club removed from the people with seats won almost entirely by those who spend the most money. Pete’s idea is to grow an unconventional grassroots campaign, building momentum from word-of-mouth using the Internet as well as using conventional campaign techniques for those who might not have Internet access.

If the idea of a more responsive Senator who cares about your needs is appealing to you, check out Pete’s website at www.peteashdown.org and the collaborative wiki site at http://vote.peteashdown.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page . Also, if you attended the speech and have any comments, post them here (just click “Raise your drink!”).

The Utah legislative session will last until March 1st. For the next 45 days, we will be working to make sure that the expansion of radioactive waste disposal at Envirocare is kept off the table, that legislation is created to keep foreign nuclear waste from being dumped in Utah, and that environmental groups preserve their ability to bring lawsuits against harmful practices by corporations or the government.

You, our members and volunteers, are our most credible voice. If you’d like to learn more about the issues we will be working on this session and how you can get involved for the next 45 days, join us this Thursday, January 19th, at 6:00pm in our office for a Legislative Briefing.

We’re looking for people who can join us at the capitol to create a citizen presence, attend hearings throughout the session, come to rallies and press conferences, talk to their neighbors and generate calls to their legislators, or even host in-home meetings with their legislators. Whether you can do a lot or a little, your participation makes a big difference. Together, we can achieve much more than what our three-person staff can achieve on our own.

If you can’t attend the meeting, but would like to be involved throughout the session, please let me know.

The issues in a nutshell:
1) Even though Gov. Huntsman has definitively said no to Envirocare’s expansion, the company is still proceeding with its plan to double the size of its radioactive waste dump. Currently there is a resolution pending, sponsored by Rep. Jim Gowans (D-Tooele), that would approve Envirocare’s expansion. We will be working to make sure that this resolution does not pass.
2) Remember the 500 tons of uranium “ore” that was shipped from Japan and dumped at IUC in Blanding, UT? We will be working this session to create legislation that would prevent foreign nuclear waste from being dumped in Utah.
3) We will also be working to stop a bill that would make it prohibitively expensive for environmental groups to file lawsuits in the state of Utah. We need to preserve access to the judicial branch of government so that proper checks and balances remain in place.

From John Urgo, Outreach Director of HEAL Utah:

In the Utah state senate today, Sen. Howard Stephenson (R-Draper) introduced a bill (S.B. 70) that would change state law to make it easier for Envirocare to double the size of its radioactive waste dump. Current law requires a company like Envirocare to get regulatory, legislative, and gubernatorial approval before expanding. S.B. 70 would rewrite the law to allow the legislature to override the Governor’s veto.

This bill is very dangerous. The decision to expand or develop nuclear and toxic waste dumps cannot be undone. Once nuclear and toxic waste is brought into Utah, the effects on our health, environment, and state will last for hundreds to thousands of years. Gov. Huntsman, looking after the interests of all Utahns, has already said “N-O” to Envirocare’s expansion. Envirocare is now using their tremendous influence in the legislature to rewrite the law so they can bypass the governor and entrench Utah as the nation’s nuclear waste dump.

Can you take a minute to call Sen. Stephenson to voice your opposition to this bill? Tell him to represent the interests of Utahns not Envirocare’s bottom-line.
office: 538-1035 (Senate Switchboard)
home: 576-1022
email: hstephenson@utahsenate.org

No longer is it enough to be able to read the printed word; children, youth, and adults, too, need the ability to both critically interpret the powerful images of a multimedia culture and express themselves in multiple media forms. This session will show you what media literacy is, how media tries to manipulate you, how advertising is like a drug and what you can do to counter it.

This training is appropriate for youth ages 10 and up to attend with their parents.

PRESENTED BY:
Chris Walker and Yuri Perez , Granite School District Prevention Specialists

January 26 (Thursday)
Columbus Center (2530 S 500 E)
6:30pm - 8:30 — FREE

More information at www.ufyi.org

Friday, January 20th, our regular Drinking Liberally meet-up will be held in the back room of Fiddler’s Elbow (map) instead of our usual at the Desert Edge. This is to ensure we have enough room for our guest speaker, Pete Ashdown.

Pete Ashdown is running for US Senate against Orrin “Blow up their computers” Hatch this year. Pete is running a grassroots, “open source” campaign complete with a wiki which allows anyone to edit the content, a blog, and a good old-fashioned campaign website at www.peteashdown.com, where you can sign up to become a volunteer. Pete has gained quite a bit of press even outside of Utah, but he could certainly use more volunteers to beat the 5-term incumbent senator with powerful connections (who, incidentally, won his senate seat in 1976 on a platform of Senate term limits).

Pete will be speaking at 7:30, but will be there earlier to mingle with the league of liberal drinkers. So feel free to read up on where Pete stands on the issues and bring your questions for him. Open to everyone, and sure to be an enlightening evening.

Friday, January 20th, our regular Drinking Liberally meet-up will be held in the back room of Fiddler’s Elbow (map) instead of our usual at the Desert Edge. This is to ensure we have enough room for our guest speaker, Pete Ashdown.

Pete Ashdown is running for US Senate against Orrin “Blow up their computers” Hatch this year. Pete is running a grassroots, “open source” campaign complete with a wiki which allows anyone to edit the content, a blog, and a good old-fashioned campaign website at www.peteashdown.com, where you can sign up to become a volunteer. Pete has gained quite a bit of press even outside of Utah, but he could certainly use more volunteers to beat the 5-term incumbent senator with powerful connections (who, incidentally, won his senate seat in 1976 on a platform of Senate term limits).

Mr. Ashdown is currently the CEO of Utah’s leading independent ISP, XMission. If you’ve used the free WiFi in and around Salt Lake City, notably Main Street downtown, then you’ve probably used XMission’s service. Many of the issues Pete feels strongly about are technology related; things like the sorry state of the US patent system and copyright law.

Pete will be speaking at 7:30, but will be there earlier to mingle with the league of liberal drinkers. So feel free to read up on where Pete stands on the issues and bring your questions for him. Open to everyone, and sure to be an enlightening evening.

When Larry Miller pulled Brokeback Mountain from his movie theater, most of us probably just thought something like “that’s par for the course” and saw it at the Broadway theater instead. But it has upset a brand new progressive and independent film distributor out of San Francisco, IronWeed Films. They have an online petition to Larry Miller (that you can sign here) asking him to let Brokeback Mountain play in his megaplex. The petition letter reads as follows:

UPDATE: The Guardian out of the UK has picked up on this as well, and has a blog entry here.