The Cost of a Textbook
Posted by Andrew | Filed under Education
Is nothing more than a crime that is being perpetrated by the publishing companies, take my math textbook for this semester for example. It is a new and improved edition over the last edition which was only a year old upon it’s replacement. What improvements have been made? Well, they have changed the numbers of some of the homework problems and they have given it a new cover image of a dolphin. A big improvement over it’s skyscraper covered predecessor.
How much is the new book? Buy it directly from the University and you are spending $162, unless you are one of the few lucky ones who got it used at $140, which is unlikely considering it’s a brand new book for this semester. You can get it for somewhere between $130 and $140 at Amazon or Barnes and Noble, but they will take at least a week before they ship out and another week for delivery. I am still waiting for this book from Amazon and it’s in Ontario, California sitting in a UPS warehouse or something. That’s what the $18 for overnight shipping gets you by the way. I want a refund, UPS.
The best part of this whole affair is that the publisher, Amazon and UPS are taking money from me that I actually don’t have as a student. If I bought it from the University, they would have made even more money from me after I’ve spent money on tuition, student fees and a $136 parking permit. But I couldn’t buy it from them because they sold out and now I am sitting here complaining about the fact that I am already a week behind in math homework because my parents don’t want to hear my complaints anymore.
Which brings me to my point, wasn’t the campus bookstore meant to be a convenience and a service for the students of the school? It seems to me that the school shouldn’t be using my need for textbooks as a way to produce more revenue. It seems to me that public colleges and universities should be subsidizing the cost of textbooks for students and be insuring that each student should have access to that book.
But unfortunately, public colleges and universities are running out of money and states like Utah who are having budget shortfalls are cutting funding to higher education. When are the people of this country going to realize that it is becoming more difficult for people like me to attend school? When I continue to have to borrow and borrow and buy more things like textbooks on credit, I can no longer justify attending school.
But if people like me can no longer justify going to school, how are we supposed to get out of our current economic predicament?
Jezebel and the Denton era of Journalism
Posted by Andrew | Filed under New Media
It’s all about the link bait is what Gawker founder, Nick Denton, would say if he was speaking honestly about his brand of journalism. At least, he would in my head. Recently, one of Gawker’s lesser known properties, Jezebel, who’s tagline is “Celebrity, Sex and Fashion for Women (so you know they are on the for-front of women’s rights), published a story about how Jon Stewart and other staff on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show marginalized women staffers and contributors.
It all comes down to Olivia Munn, who is every fourteen year old video game addicted boy’s wet dream, formerly of Attack of the Show or something on that video games channel, she joined the Dail Show a few months ago. As this post on the Wall Street Journal’s Speakeasy blog points out, there has been criticism “across the web” that Munn was hired for her looks rather than her jokes. People “across the web” seem to not realize that she doesn’t actually need jokes, she just needs to be able to read and recite lines. They have writers for jokes.
But, after reading the entire Jezebel post, I can only come to one conclusion and that is that Lauren Weedman, who worked for the Daily Show between 2001 and 2002, didn’t like working with Jon Stewart. Of course, everyone has problems from time to time dealing with their bosses, it’s normal, and some have more trouble than others. Of course, there is also a quote from a Stacey Grenrock Woods, another former correspondent, said that the Daily Show felt like a “boys club.”
The women on staff at the Daily Show wrote an excellent letter for their website entitled Women of the Daily Show Speak in which they attempt to set the record straight on the atmosphere. For a “boys club,” there seems to be quite a lot of women on staff there (as the picture indicates) some of which have been on staff since before Jon Stewart even showed up. As for the story about Madeline Smithburg and Jon Stewart having arguments with one another as the two Executive Producers for the show, what ever happened creative differences? Since when did splitting a business partnership between a man and woman become sexist?
No, what is clear here is that Irin Carmon, the writer of the Jezebel post, was just taking a classic page out of her boss’s playbook. She wrote the article no because she honestly believes that the women staffers of the Daily Show are being oppressed and that Stewart is a “sexist prick” (Stewart’s words, not Carmon’s), but because she saw an opportunity to generate more clicks and traffic for her, for Jezebel, and for Gawker as a whole. We have seen this again and again from Gawker, from the “Cisco” iPhone debacle to the more recent iPhone 4 checkbook journalism to something else that has nothing to do with the iPhone.
What really surprises me is that in this world of lawyers and programs like Judge Judy and Judge Mathis, why isn’t Denton and the rest of the Gawker empire buried in endless libel and slander lawsuits? At some point, they will step way over the line and find themselves the property of someone other then Denton.
Issues of Oil Empires
Posted by Andrew | Filed under Business
Rosie O’Donnell, who apparently has a radio show on one of the satellite networks, apparently said that the federal government should take over BP. Which makes sense because Rosie happens to have degrees in Business and Public Policy, oh wait, no she does not.
She has no idea what she is talking about at all, in fact, any person who drives a car probably knows that the “B” in BP stands for “British,” as in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. And if their Wikipedia page is to be believed, they are based in London. So, what is Obama supposed to tell the British government when we seize a bunch of assets owned by one of their largest corporations? It would be like the British seizing Goldman Sachs because they destroyed their pension system. Actually, that’s a good idea.
She also is unaware apparently that the Deepwater Horizon is owned by Transocean, a company based in Geneva, Switzerland. So, shall we be seizing their assets as well? It’s like the situation with Toyota, the United States does not have the authority or the jurisdiction to bully foreign companies on the scale that we are. By the way, our stock markets are effecting British pension funds because of this, which is incredibly ridiculous.
By the way, here is a map of all of the offshore oil platforms off the coast of Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. There are nealry 4,000 platforms operating today and it was only one of them that failed. It is as if you had a town with 4,000 drivers all with their own car, one of them crashes their car into a pole, and the entire town loses their minds. They prohibit everyone from driving, and then go about suing the guy driving the car, the person who sold him the car and the company that built the car. When you think about 4,000 incredibly complicated oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico with only one major failure in recent history, they are really very reliable and safe.
When are people going to realize that we are going to pump every bit of oil out of the ground and we are going to use every bit of it. Even after every person has an electric car. In a recent episode of No Agenda, Adam and John discussed the negative effects of shutting down the oil industry in Louisiana. In fact, I think No Agenda has basically hit the nail on the head when it comes to the entire situation.
Why Democrats may win 2010, Part Three
Posted by Andrew | Filed under Elections
Here is the second half of my paper on reason the Democrats may retain their Senate majority after 2010, first half posted here.
Shortly after withdrawing from his nomination to be Secretary of Commerce in the Obama administration in February of 2009, New Hampshire Senator Judd Gregg announced that he would not seek re-election to a fourth term in the Senate. Congressman Paul Hodes is seeking the nomination from the Democratic party to replace Gregg in the Senate. Hodes has served as the Representative from the state’s second district since being elected in 2006. Leading in the Republican party nomination is Kelly Ayotte, the state’s former Attorney General serving from 2004 until 2009. According to polls conducted by WMUR Granite State Poll and the University of New Hampshire in October, Ayotte leads Hodes with 40% versus 33% of the vote. However, in the same poll, only 6% of respondents were definitely decided on who they would vote for.
In the Presidential election of 2000, New Hampshire’s four electoral votes were awarded to George W. Bush, however, John Kerry and Barack Obama won the state in the 2004 and 2008 elections respectively. In 2004, Republican incumbent Governor Craig Benson lost re-election to Democrat John Lynch who will seek election to a fourth term this year, and in 2006, Democrats Carol Shea-Porter and Paul Hodes both beat incumbent Republicans Jeb Bradley and Charlie Bass in the state’s two Congressional elections. Additionally, in 2008, former Governor and Democrat Jeanne Shaheen defeated Republican incumbent John Sununu in the state’s last Senate race. All of these events indicate that the state of New Hampshire has become increasingly Democratic in its voting, when in the past, it has been a swing state due to it’s status as one of the first states to hold primaries in Presidential elections.
“There has definitely been a demographic shift here,” says Joe Marquette, a Barrington, New Hampshire resident, businessman, teacher, and Democratic activist. When asked whether or not Hodes could beat Ayotte in the general election, he said, “If Hodes wins, it will have been a close race.” In 2008, Marquette volunteered in Democratic campaigns and fought for the election of Obama as well as Governor John Lynch, Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter, and Senate candidate Jeanne Shaheen. The political atmosphere in New Hampshire is evenly divided, “There are both people who are afraid of the Democrats and afraid of spending money and the health care bill, meanwhile those who want it are in Dover and Portsmouth having rallies.” Democrats and ideological liberals have gathered in the larger towns and cities in New Hampshire rallying support for the Democrats and health care reform. On whether or not their is hostility towards the Democrats over unemployment or health care reform, Marquette said, “You see people with bumper stickers and lawn signs that are against Obama and the Dems, but they are definitely not the majority, but neither are the solid liberals.” New Hampshire’s Senate race has the potential to become one of the most highly contested elections in the country.
Another issue to consider in the upcoming Senate elections is that some Republican incumbents are being challenged within their own parties. One example being 2008 Republican Presidential nominee John McCain of Arizona. Former Congressman and conservative radio talk show host, J.D. Hayworth has made a highly publicized bid against McCain for the Republican nomination for the Senate election. In November of 2009, Rasmussen Reports released a poll stating that McCain had 45% of the vote to 43% for Hayworth in the primary, and that 61% of Republicans in Arizona felt that McCain had “lost touch with his own party.” However, in January, it was announced that McCain’s running mate in the 2008 Presidential election, Sarah Palin, would be campaigning for him in Arizona. According to Rasmussen, this caused McCain to lead Hayworth 53% to 31%, while 7% prefer another candidate and 8% remain undecided. Despite this, conservative talk show hosts Mark Levin and Michael Savage as well as conservative Fox News pundit Glenn Beck have publicly endorsed Hayworth over McCain.
In McCain’s previous Senate election in 2004, McCain defeated Democrat Stuart Starky by over one million votes. However in 2002, the state elected Democrat Janet Napolitano to be Governor, who also won re-election in 2006. Currently, out of Arizona’s eight congressional districts, five seats are held by Democrats, including Ed Pastor, who has served in the House for Arizona since 1991. In the 2008 Presidential election, McCain won the state’s electoral votes by over 600,000 votes, but Obama won the popular vote in four of Arizona’s fifteen counties. It is possible that when the general election is held in Arizona this November, the Democratic nominee could defeat John McCain due to what could become a division amongst Republicans and ideological conservatives over whether or not McCain actually represents the best interests of his party and whether J.D. Hayworth represents them more. In a state where Democrats have had success in recent history, a divided party could be costly for McCain.
Another Republican incumbent who is being challenged within his own party is Utah Senator Robert Bennett, who is being challenged by businessman Tim Bridgewater, former Congressman Merrill Cook and attorney Mike Lee. Lee’s announcement that he would challenge Bennett came with introductions from former Governor Norm Bangerter and former Congressman Jim Hansen. He also received an endorsement from state Attorney General, Mark Shurtleff, who was also running against Bennett until suspending his campaign to attend to his family. On February 25, CNN reported that Cook would enter the race and stated that conservatives are angry at Bennett for his votes for bailing out Wall Street financial firms and the Detroit automakers. It was also reported that conservative groups, Club for Growth and FreedomWorks were also campaigning against Bennett. While the race for the Republican nomination has become crowded, Utah Democrats have so far united behind businessman Sam Granato.
In 2000, Merrill Cook, who represented Utah’s second district sought a third term in the House against Democratic nominee Jim Matheson, son of former Governor Scott Matheson. In that election, Cook was challenged for the Republican nomination by businessman Derek Smith who defeated him with 59% of the vote in the primary. Smith went on to lose the general election to Matheson after only obtaining 41% of the vote, and Matheson is likely to seek his sixth term in Congress this year, being the only Democrat representing Utah in the federal legislature. It is not unreasonable to think that the same scenario could happen this year in the Senate race. If either Bennett or Lee wins the nomination, there is a possibility that the Republicans will not unite behind a single candidate and the Democratic nominee could win a Senate seat in one of the country’s most conservative states.
There are however, many incumbent Democrats in swing states will have to campaign harder than other Democrats seeking re-election. In their Senate ratings, the Cook Political Report states that incumbent Democrats Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, Michael Bennet of Colorado, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada are all in swing states. Blanche Lincoln comes from the home state of Bill Clinton, who served as their Governor and won the state in the Presidential elections of 1992 and 1996. Bennet, who has only served in the Senate for Colorado since 2009, replacing Ken Salazar who left office to become the Secretary of the Interior, is in a tough election. In 2008, Colorado elected Democrat Mark Udall to the state’s other Senate seat and currently, five of the state’s seven Congressional seats are held by Democrats and in 2006, Democrat Bill Ritter was elected to Governor. Like New Hampshire, Colorado’s recent history indicates a shift towards being a Democratic state.
Arlen Specter and Harry Reid have the most difficult re-election bids in the Democratic party. Arlen Specter was originally elected in 2004 as a Republican and is being challenged by Congressman Joe Sestak for the Democratic nomination and may not defeat likely Republican challenger, former Congressman and President of the Club for Growth, Pat Toomey. Harry Reid currently serves with Republican Senator John Ensign, and in 2006, the state elected Republican Jim Gibbons to Governor, although, in January 2009, the Reno Gazette Journal reported his approval rating as 25%. Two of Nevada’s three Congressional districts are represented by Democrats, but the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported in January that Harry Reid’s approval rating among Nevada voters is only 33%. Both Specter and Reid are not likely to retain their seats in the Senate.
Both Democrats and Republicans have a challenge in the upcoming mid-term elections across the country, but the Democrats do have the ability to maintain their majority in the Senate. Despite the challenges facing Senators Reid and Specter, most incumbent Democrats seeking re-election are going to retain their seats and with Republicans not seeking re-election in swing states like Missouri and New Hampshire, the Democrats have the opportunity to win those additional seats. In addition, with Republicans dividing over races in the states of Arizona and Utah, there is a chance that some incumbent Republicans from traditionally conservative states may lose their seats to Democrats. With controversies over health care reform, the state of the economy and the unemployment rate, many conservatives like Utah Senator Orrin Hatch are confident that the Republicans will win back the Senate in 2010. However, considering the current circumstances, that confidence may be unfounded.
For the full paper, including a list of the sources that I used, go here.
Helen Thomas and the Degradation to the 1st Amendment
Posted by Andrew | Filed under Politics
Tell them to get the hell out of Palestine. Remember, these people are occupied and it’s their land. It’s not German, it’s not Polish. -Helen Thomas
That is the quote that apparently cost 89 year old Helen Thomas, veteran of the White House press corps, her job. She said it to a Rabbi named David Nesenoff. The United States has become a country where you aren’t allowed to say anything that is critical of Israel, despite what the 1st amendment of the Constitution says.
A gentleman from the great state of Maine was kind enough to share his experience on a flotilla headed for the Gaza strip when Israeli forces attacked it recently. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended the attack of a ship carrying aid to the Gaza strip and vowed to continue a blockade against Gaza.
Don’t forget that it was only a few months ago when Israel was planning new construction of homes for Jews in the disputed areas in East Jerusalem. A move that demonstrates that the Israeli state does not recognize the legitimate claim of the Palestinians who occupied that land before them in an almost sociopathic way. If Jordan or Syria was doing the type of things Israel is engaged in, we would go to war against them.
In response to Helen Thomas, who is of Lebanese decent, suggesting that the Jews in Israel return to Europe, Rabbi Nesenoff asked if she was familiar with the history of the region. He apparently isn’t aware that modern Israel was established in 1948 by mandate of the United Nations to create a Jewish home country out of the British Mandate of Palestine. This caused a Civil War and the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. From that, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict continues to this day.
It is time for the United States, a country which has been Israel’s strongest and at some points only ally in the world to demand the establishment of Palestinian state. Peace in the middle east is not possible unless the nation of Palestine is recognized. It is also time for Israel to stop bullying the Palestinians who have just as much of a legitimate claim to the land in Israel as they do, and both need to establish borders and boundaries that both should agree to follow if both intend on remaining there.
This is not about anti-semetism like some suggest. Just because I don’t agree with the recent child abuse scandal of the Catholic church does not mean that I am anti-Catholic. And just because I don’t agree with Israel attacking aid boats and abusing land claims does not mean I am anti-semetic. Helen Thomas made a statement concerning a state which is made up mostly of people who’s families had immigrated from Europe and are a majority Jewish.
If Helen Thomas, previously one of the most powerful journalists can not speak her true mind, then who can? You can watch the video of the impromptu interview here.
Why Democrats may win 2010, Part Two
Posted by Andrew | Filed under Elections
The nice thing about having your own blog is posting whatever you want on it. Here is the first half of my paper thoerizing why the Democratic party will maintain a majority in the Senate after the 2010 general election. I began discussing this here in February.
In the mid-term elections of 2006, the Democratic party obtained an additional thirty one seats with in the House of Representatives, and with two independent Senators in caucus, a fifty one seat majority in the Senate. President George W. Bush’s approval rating had been on a decline since the previous year and at the time of the elections was at 38% in early November according to a USA Today/Gallup poll. Military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq had become the major concerns to the public at large, and the national attitude that had led to the re-election of President Bush two years earlier had vanished. The next two years would lead to the approval rating of President Bush continuing its decline and the race for the Democratic nomination for President to begin with Hillary Clinton, John Edwards and the eventual nominee Barack Obama gaining traction in their respective campaigns.
In the elections of 2008, Barack Obama defeating Republican nominee John McCain in the Presidential race by 192 electoral points. The Democrats won an additional twenty-one seats in the House and, following Arlen Specter’s announcement the following April that he would return to the Democratic party, a filibuster-proof sixty seats in the Senate. The Democrats entered 2009 with an agenda including the reformation of health care, tackling the global warming and energy issues, and changing the strategies of the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. However, the United States had entered an economic recession and the unemployment rate was rising, public attitudes were once again changing. Concerns over the management of the $700 billion economic stimulus funds and the contents of the health care reform legislation caused President Obama’s approval rating to go from 68% at the beginning of his presidency down to 47% a year later according to Gallup. It was in January when a special election was held in Massachusetts to fill the Senate seat of Democrat Ted Kennedy who had passed away the previous August, that the Democrats found themselves in trouble.
The special election in Massachusetts came down to the commonwealth’s Attorney General, Democrat Martha Coakley and Republican state senator, Scott Brown. Senator Brown said at a campaign event, “In Washington, there is no debate. Everything’s being done in the back rooms, The health care bill, we’ve lost faith, and we need to send it back to start over.” One of Senator Brown’s most notable campaign promises was to be the 41st vote against controversial health care reform legislation being pushed by President Obama and the Democrats. On January 18th, Scott Brown won the senate seat that had been held by Ted Kennedy since 1962 with 51% of the vote, saying at the end his victory speech, “I’m Scott Brown, I’m from Wrentham, I drive a truck, and I am nobody’s senator but yours.” On February 4th, Senator Brown was sworn in and the Democratic party had lost their sixty seat majority in the Senate.
In 2010, President Obama will see his first midterm elections since taking office, and the first clear indication of how he has performed in his first two years in office. There are thirty-six seats in the Senate up for election, with eighteen being held by Democrats and eighteen being held by Republicans. Five of those Democrats and six of those Republicans are not seeking re-election including Missouri Senator Kit Bond and New Hampshire Senator Judd Gregg. Meanwhile, incumbent Senators John McCain of Arizona and Robert Bennett of Utah are being challenged within their own parties for nomination to the Senate. While answering the questions of students at the University of Utah, Republican Senator Orrin Hatch confirmed his confidence that his party would recapture the Senate in the upcoming elections. However, with the Republican Senators who intend not to stand for election, and the current challenges facing others, the Republican party will not be able to capture the additional ten seats required to reclaim the majority in the Senate that they lost in the mid-term elections of 2006.
On January 8th, 2009, Missouri Senator Kit Bond announced that he would not seek a fifth term in the Senate, saying, “in 1972, I became Missouri’s youngest Governor. Good friends, I have no aspiration of becoming Missouri’s oldest senator.” Missouri Congressman Roy Blunt is the candidate most likely to receive the Republican nomination, receiving 53% of the vote according to a poll conducted in November of 2009. Congressman Blunt has served as the Representative for Missouri’s seventh district since 1997 and has been active in his party’s leadership in the House, most notably as the Majority Whip between 2003 and 2007. The leading candidate from the Democratic party is the current Secretary of State for Missouri, Robin Carnahan. Although Carnahan has only served as the Secretary of State since 2005, her family legacy includes her father, Mel Carnahan, who served two terms as Governor of the state, and her brother, Russ Carnahan who currently serves as the Representative from the state’s third district. She has the name recognition in Missouri that can be associated with Kennedy in Massachusetts or Huntsman in Utah.
In the general election of 2008, Carnahan was re-elected to the position of Secretary of State in Missouri with over 61% of the statewide vote, winning the popular vote in 104 counties out of 114. In that same election, Democrat Jay Nixon was elected to be Governor of the state with over 58% of the statewide vote and John McCain narrowly won the state by only 4,000 votes in the Presidential election. In the state’s last Senate election held in 2006, Democrat Claire McCaskill defeated incumbent Republican Jim Talent, who was seeking a second term, by over 48,000 votes. Historically, Missouri has been a political swing state, voting for Democrats Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton in 1976, 1992 and 1996, and Republicans Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush in 1980, 1984, 1988, 2000 and 2004. In a poll released by Public Policy Polling in January found that Carnahan leads with 45% of the vote, only 1% more than Blunt with 11% of pollers undecided. The recent history of elections in Missouri would indicate that the state is very likely to elect a Democrat to be their senator.
On February 18, the Cook Political Report released a summary of Senate elections in 2010 based on which party is likely to retain the seat. There are seven incumbent Democrats who are all expected to be re-elected including Daniel Inouye of Hawaii, Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Russ Feingold of Wisconsin. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Barbara Boxer of California are also likely to win re-election and the open seat in Connecticut will likely remain Democratic. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut has announced that he would not run for re-election, and according to polls conducted by Quinnipiac University in March, the likely Democratic nominee will the the state’s Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and the likely Republican nominee will be former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment Linda McMahon. That same poll also concludes that if the final Senate race was between Blumenthal and McMahon, Blumenthal would win with 61% of the statewide vote. It also concludes that 31% of voters who identified themselves as Republicans would vote for Blumenthal over McMahon.
The Cook Political Report also states that seats up for election in Indiana and Delaware are likely to be won by Republicans nominees. However, in the 2008 general elections, both Indiana and Delaware’s electoral votes were awarded to Obama and in that same election, Delaware elected Democrat Joe Biden to his seventh term in the Senate and Democrat Jack Markell to be Governor of the state. However, the Democrats are likely to lose the seat currently occupied by Byron Dorgan of North Dakota who is not seeking re-election this year. The only Democrat to announce candidacy for the office is State Senator Tracy Potter who is likely to face Republican Governor John Hoeven, who is currently serving his third term. A poll conducted by Rasmussen Reports in February has Hoeven defeating Potter with 71% of the statewide vote.
Democrats will also have challenges in elections being held in traditionally Republican states such as Alabama, Alaska, Georgia, Idaho, Oklahoma, and South Carolina. In Kansas, incumbent Republican Sam Brownback is not running for re-election and recently, the Democrats had a victory in the state when Kathleen Sebelius was elected as Governor. However, Sebelius left office to serve as the Secretary of Health and Human Services in the Obama administration and so far, the only candidate on the Democratic side is communications director and former journalist Charles Schollenberger. On the Republican side, Congressman Jerry Moran and Todd Tiahrt have both announced their candidacy. According to a poll conducted by Rasmussen Reports, both Republicans would receive at least 50% of the vote over a Democrat or third party candidate. However, the Democrats have the opportunity to replace incumbent Republicans in Kentucky and Ohio, where Jim Bunning and George Voinovich are both not running for re-election. Another chance for the Democrats to pick up another seat is the election in New Hampshire.
To be continued…
Anti-Incumbancy at it's Finest
Posted by Andrew | Filed under Elections
On May 8th, both the Republican and Democratic parties of Utah met for their bi-annual nominating conventions at the Calvin L. Rampton Salt Palace Convention Center in my new hometown, Salt Lake City. Calvin L. Rampton was a Governor of Utah who served three consecutive terms and was one of the most prominent Democrats in Utah’s history. So, why the Republicans chose the venue, I have no idea. For them, Democrat is a dirty word in the Beehive State.
Surely, the Sandy Expo Center in Sandy, Utah just 15 miles south of the Salt Palace will soon have it’s name changed to the Jon Huntsman, Jr. Expo Center and Szechuan Palace Buffet. Something like that. (read this if you don’t get it)
The entirety of the national media watched as well respected Republican incumbent Senator Bob Bennett was virtually gunned down by his own party in two votes. The issue? He voted in favor of the massive government funded bail outs such as TARP. Utah Republicans eliminated him after two votes in favor of either Tim Bridgewater and Mike Lee, a businessman and an attorney of whom trumpet themselves as being more conservative then their incumbent opponent.
Menawhile, downstairs from the Republican convention, the Democrats of Congressional district 2 decided that the incumbent Democrat, Jim Matheson, also was guilty of not being liberal enough. Matheson voted against the healthcare bill and Claudia Wright is challenging him in a primary vote with the campaign slogan of “The DEMOCRAT for Congress.” I think that she should be ashamed for the uncensored use of such profanity on her campaign material.
Claudia Wright won’t get far, Democratic delegates weren’t stupid enough to completely kick Matheson out, just stupid enough to make him go through a primary. What they don’t seem to realize is that moderate Republicans will come vote in a primary to ensure that Matheson gets nominated so that they can vote for him again in November.
Prior to the actual convention where we all sit and listen to those we are their to nominate speak, one of the people with the Wright campaign approached me and a friend of mine in the hallway. My friend was parading with a sign stating “Wright is Wrong for Utah,” and this gentleman told us that Jim Matheson isn’t a Democrat and anyone who thinks he’s a Democrat is full of “bullshit.” Completely ignoring the fact that we aren’t there to nominate the person who is the most likely to actually be elected.
It seems that everyone has forgotten that elections are won “between the forty yard lines,” as my dad would say, in a a quest for ideological purity. While the Republicans are giving the Democrats a chance to win a senate seat by booting a popular incumbent in Bob Bennett and the Democrats are giving the Republicans a chance to grab a Congress seat by forcing popular incumbent Matheson into a primary. Is it possible that the Utah system where a relatively small group of 3,500 delegates can defeat someone who the greater public actually wants to re-elect?
Or is it possible that the war between the two major parties has gone too far?
Bradshaw vs. Noyce, SL's District 1 Showdown
Posted by Andrew | Filed under Politics
I’ll be honest, I leaned Republican when I lived in Maine. In 2008, I voted for Republican incumbent Senator Susan Collins and I voted for Charlie Summers over eventual winner Chellie Pingree.
Now, I live in Utah. What passes for a Republican in Maine is a Democrat in Utah and what passes as a Republican in Utah would be arrested for anti-government terrorism in Maine. So, this year, I signed up to be a Democratic delegate for my precinct which was easy because only two people showed up to the caucus and we needed two delegates. First stop, the County Convention at West High School in Salt Lake City.
Since this is Utah, nominating Democrats to run for office is easy considering that usually only one person from the party will stand. In the two county wide elections where the nomination was contested, we easily nominated Holly Mullen for the County Council At-large “B” and Sim Gill for the Salt Lake County District Attorney. Unfortunately, I live in Salt Lake City, which is like San Francisco if you replace the bay and Pacific ocean with the Wasatch and Oquirhh mountains. Very liberal city.
So, our County Council district (District 1) had three Democrats vying for the seat, whoever got the nomination would most likely be the victor in November. To make it even more stereotypically liberal, all three were homosexuals. The candidates were Arlyn Bradshaw, Cal Noyce, and Mike Fife. We had our first vote, each candidate requires at least 40% of the vote to move on to the second round. Mike Fife was killed off quickly, he had no prominent endorsements and it came down to Bradshaw and Noyce. Bradshaw was the leader with 49% of the vote, but after Fife decided to make an endorsement of Noyce, Noyce got 51% of the vote in the second round.
Normally, that would be the end of the story, but in Utah, you need 60% of vote to leave the convention with the nomination. Otherwise, a primary vote would have to be held where the majority vote gets the nomination. However, Noyce only got 54% of the vote when all was said and done. Prior to the third vote, the candidates begged the delegates not to push a primary, but 18 voters for Bradshaw including myself, decided to push for it.
The reason I voted against Noyce was simple, I didn’t like his resume. It seemed to be a long list of volunteering and I couldn’t find anything on his education or his professional experience. Has he lived for the last 40 years off of donations? While I could have called him and asked him questions as a delegate prior to the convention and asked him about this. However, the average voter usually doesn’t have that opportunity and I decided not to go down that road and only use the materials that those average voters had.
Bradshaw has been working for the County Council for the past few years and has worked for Congressman Jim Matheson in the past. He also has an MPA (Masters in Political Administration) from the U. Yes, I do endorse Bradshaw over Noyce and if you live in Salt Lake County’s Council district 1, please go vote for him on June 22nd.
A New Project, A New Horizon
Posted by Andrew | Filed under General
Over the last few weeks, I have been taking the steps towards starting my own online publication that would focus on the political environment in my new home state of Utah. The project is called ForzaUtah which is partly a joke, referring to the political party in Italy which recently merged and formed another political party. Forza is the Italian word for “force” and commonly used by Italian football (soccer if your American) teams.
My main goal for this site at this point is to create more awareness in Utah concerning the upcoming elections in November. When it comes to state and local elections, it is difficult for potential voters to just Google an election and find out whose running let alone what their stand on the issues are. ForzaUtah will hopefully make it easier by having a full directory of the elections with summaries and relevant links to information available to everyone.
I am currently in the process of finding writers and contributors for the site as well as generated a little bit of revenue so that I can actually pay these contributors and maybe pay the expenses of the web site. If you do live in Utah, and you are interested in contributing, you can find more information here.
Big Red Must be Stopped
Posted by Andrew | Filed under Bad Ads
This is clearly one of the worst commercials currently out there today, and Verizon should be fined $1 billion for this. This commercial show people in all sorts of situations with their eyes glued to their cell phones all while they should be doing other things. I especially love the part with the hotel bell-hop who is completely neglecting his job so that he can play Farmville or something on his phone. If I did that at any of my past jobs at that pay grade, I would have been fired.
And then there is the husband and wife riding on a horse watching YouTube. If you actually tried that, you would fall off, get trampled, have your spine broken in three places and if that didn’t kill you, you would spend the rest of your life in a wheelchair communicating with a keypad you would operate with the three fingers on your right hand that you can still move. Why don’t we just tell people to watch YouTube on their phone while doing 70 miles an hour down the highway. Hopefully, governments around the world will put a stop to it before it happens.
By the way, the scene with the kids on the phone in the middle of the woods to surf Facebook at amazing 3G speeds, while their dad is telling a ghost story or something, wouldn’t happen. No one is providing 3G in the woods, what would be the point? No one lives there! Verizon, Sprint, AT&T, and T-Mobile could all spend a trillion dollars each improving wireless access in this country and you still wouldn’t get 3G in the woods unless it was a backdrop at the Sears photo center in the Mall.
This ad is also a weak play by Verizon because consumers in the U.S. still don’t buy wireless plans based on 3G access. No, they buy based either on what kind of phone they can get or how much they are going to have to spend to get the plan that they want. Let’s face it, Verizon doesn’t have all the coolest phones, such as the iPhone or the first run of the Nexus One. And Verizon isn’t competing with the pricing of T-Mobile or some of the virtual network operators.
Oh, and seeing the ad four times every time I watch a show on hulu will not change my mind. It only makes the ad more annoying.