Dear Mr. Huntsman,

You and your friends on the hill just allowed SB155 to become law. This law seems to remove our pesky public servants from approving any expansion of nuclear waste storage at EnergySolutions. Well, I’m thinking about getting into this same business (nuclear waste storage) and I was wondering: how much money do I have to “invest” in you and your capitol hill gang so that I can do whatever I want? Cuz hell, if all it takes is a little strong-arm lobbying and some petty cash to keep you guys off my back and exempt from laws, I want in.

I’ll just start storing the waste here at my house until I get some of that sweet-smelling cash from my hands straight into your pockets.

Yours truly,

Stinky Cheese

“An Inconvenient Truth” may have won an Oscar, but until climate change gets a sinister mustache and starts poking out people’s eyes, not much will probably change. If only gay sex caused global warming.

Have you ever heard of George Takei?
Probably best known for a role on the first Star Trek.
I have proof that George Takei is EVIL. And funny. Very funny.
Do not click with your mouth full!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=aA20dKc3kK8
You have been warned.
Incidentally, has anyone followed the Libby trial?
I have hopes.

This has got to be the most unfunny, terrifying thing I’ve seen in a long time. How they think they’ll be able to compete with ‘The Daily Show’ I’ll never know.

The day after the horrible shooting at Trolley Square, a co-worker of mine said something to the effect of: “You’re a liberal- are you going to use this incident to call for the ban of all guns like you guys always do?”

Without expressing my personal opinions of guns, I told him that unlike conservatives, liberals’ beliefs and values aren’t spoon-fed to them over the airwaves or other venues. The beliefs of liberals are about as diverse as liberals themselves.

Regardless, this really isn’t such a narrow political issue. This is only a political issue in that we need political leaders that realize we have to address the social and cultural root of this problem. We need to figure out how someone becomes so disenfranchised and socially dissociated that they would kill others. Why does our country have a preponderance for deadly violence as compared to other developed nations? Is it our winner-take-all culture? Is it the ever-increasing socio-economic divide? The experts probably already have pretty good clues.

Whatever it is, we need to start addressing these issues - level the playing field and ensure that everyone feels that they have the same chance as everyone else at life. We now know that the perpetrator of this shooting was a Bosnian refugee. The culture change itself is probably pretty difficult; going from your homeland where violence was common with people were being slaughtered every day and moving to a place where even non-Mormons feel out of place couldn’t be easy.

There should be no excuses for taking the life of another, but we need to figure what puts someone in a mental state close enough to hit that tipping point. Once we do that, I believe that the gun issue will become moot.

Throw a little money in the direction of your elected representatives, and what do you get? Exemptions. At least in the case of EnergySolutions: SB 155 will exempt EnergySolutions from having to get approval from the state government to expand its nuclear waste storage site if it so desires.

KSL.com has a good article regarding the amount of money EnergySolutions has given the legislators, and their claims that money doesn’t influence them to vote in favor of ES:

It’s ludicrous to believe that the money ($15,000 to Gov. Huntsman, $10,100 to House Speaker Greg Curtis) that has been given to our elected officials won’t influence them in any way.

Senate President John Valentine scored some points in my book when he spoke at the public comment on Divine Strake in opposition to it. However, it seems that he was one of the senators to vote for SB 155. Let’s hope that this one gets shot down either by the House, or the governor.

Oh, can Fox get any better?  Today I stumbled on this little bit over at ThinkProgress: http://thinkprogress.org/2007/02/05/obama-oprah/

The host of the show asks: “Isn’t [Biden] saying what every liberal is thinking,” that “Obama is acceptable because he’s…a non-threatening black man.”

Warning: if you can’t stand the ‘constantly moving camera’ technique that is frequently attributed to MTV and seems to be a way to make people think your show is hip and cool, don’t watch this.

Usually Sen. Chris Buttars annoys me with his yearly string of message bills, and his smug little cartoonish mug.

Then I learned about SB 111; a bill he sponsored that would ensure the “Free exercise of religion without government interference.” I believe the bill is meant to allow kids to be able to wear religious t-shirts to school, pray at school, sing religious choir songs on government property, etc.

But when I heard about this bill there was only one thing I had in mind: now I can finally take up those three other wives I’ve been wanting. Thanks, Buttars!

The General Description of HB235 almost says it all: “This bill amends provisions of the Utah Criminal Code relating to abortion.” Abortion = Criminal.
This bill passed committee as a trigger law, outlawing all abortions in the case that Roe v. Wade was overturned. However, in a surprise move the bill was substituted with a bill that effectively bans abortions regardless of Roe v. Wade, as soon as it becomes law. This bill is sponsored by the chair of the Health and Human Services Committee, Rep. Paul Ray, with co-sponsors Glenn A. Donnelson and Kerry W. Gibson.

The sponsors understand that there is a “high probability” unconstitutional:

Maybe I’m just being naive, but shouldn’t it be considered bad legislative form to write bills/laws that are unconstitutional?  I guess it’s just another way to chip away at Roe v. Wade.

House Bill 148, the school vouchers bill, has passed through committee and is expected to be approved in both the House and the Senate. Those intimately familiar with the school system (more than just having kids in the public school system) are overwhelmingly opposed to this bill, while parents on the left seem to be pretty evenly split.

Because I don’t have kids and can only look at the whole issue from a distance, I’ll leave my commentary out of this post except to say that on the surface it seems like a way for our legislature to say they’re doing something for education, while at the same time giving a gift to the businesses that will run these private schools.

There are some good discussions over at Politicopia.com, though mostly for school vouchers. There is a PDF voucher letter from Kim Burningham at the Utah State Board of Education that reads in part:

It’s a good read and Kim makes a good, objective case. Rep Steve Urquhart, the sponsor of the bill, responds to Kim’s letter with no small amount of emotion.

Today there will be a Concerned Citizens and Taxpayers Press Conference on Vouchers: