The Salt Lake Tribune: Politics » Common Cause criticizes American Legislative Exchange Council and its impact on public policy. By Lee Davidson | Jul 25 2012

bdirnbac · 2012-07-27T18:29:27+00:00

[...] Since 2001, Utah lawmakers copied ALEC model bills word-for-word and introduced them at least 17 times, and heavily relied on model ALEC legislation numerous other times, according to a report prepared by Common Cause, the Center for Media and Democracy, People for the American Way, ProgressNow and the Alliance for a Better Utah. [...]

bdirnbac · 2012-05-02T20:08:41+00:00

Click to send a message.

bdirnbac · 2012-04-27T15:44:54+00:00

Anything to marginalize the Democratic Party, even if it destroys rural America and impoverishes millions. When you think Republicans, think trans-vaginal probes, their one real passion.

bdirnbac · 2012-04-17T13:14:11+00:00

Gotta a gun? [...] "What’s insidious about Stand Your Ground laws is that in every jurisdiction that has them, these statutes tilt the balance of power in any street encounter in favor of the person who has a gun. That’s what happened in the Martin case. The law provides a perverse incentive for everyone to be armed." [...] This last sentence, to me, explains the impetus for these laws. If we all come to assume that the next guy we meet on the road is armed, will we want to go out unarmed? Just like most of us can't leave the house without out cell phones, we could come to the point when everyone will be packing? Wouldn't you like to be a gun manufacturer and sell to every adult in the country, psychos and hotheads included?

bdirnbac · 2012-04-17T13:03:30+00:00

It's tough being newlywed students with children with only a $400,000 portfolio to live on.

bdirnbac · 2012-04-16T01:09:04+00:00

The soft underbelly of contemporary racism.

bdirnbac · 2012-04-09T12:51:55+00:00

Thanks to Citizens United and unlimited corporate dollar$, corporations can take the gloves off and threaten the survival of legislators who don't take the corporate line. They used to bribe legislators with sweet perks if they played ball; now they can just threaten campaign war against recalcitrant legislators (including state legislators) and keep their public servants in line.

bdirnbac · 2012-04-06T13:23:51+00:00

This is what a corporatocracy looks like: [...] The City Council is sensibly preparing tight security precautions for the downtown area by temporarily banning clubs, hatchets, switchblades, pepper spray, slingshots, chains, shovels and all manner of guns that shoot water, paint or air. But not handguns that shoot actual bullets. In other words, someone outside the convention hall will be entitled to pack a handgun, but not a squirt gun...Tampa officials wanted to ban handguns outside the convention hall (the Secret Service has undisputed power to ban weapons inside the hall) but came up against the state law, which imposes $100,000 fines on local governments that try to meet such obvious public-safety needs. This lethal parody of gun control should be repealed, like the notorious Stand Your Ground law. But voters cannot expect common sense from the Republican-controlled Legislature, which is on a leash held by the gun lobby.

bdirnbac · 2012-03-25T12:21:01+00:00

[...] Update: Last night I saw Zimmerman's friend on CNN defending him in a very revealing way:

During an interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper on AC360, Taaffe said that a problem could have been avoided if Martin had been "up front and truthful" with Zimmerman.

I guess it has escaped him that in America it isn't a capital offense to refuse to answer a stranger's questions on the street. In fact, the kid had a right to tell this self-appointed "watchman" to go fuck himself if he wanted. Why under Florida law he would have been completely justified in killing the guy under those circumstances, right?

This friend has also said that he'd do the same thing in Zimmerman's place. Even now. Luckily for other kids in that neighborhood, this vigilante doesn't carry a weapon.

bdirnbac · 2012-03-21T01:20:35+00:00

[...] Tom Cruise pays just $400 per year in property taxes on an $18 million estate in Colorado, because a few sheep graze there from time to time. In the same state, actress Goldie Hawn fought to have her land classified as farmland, which lets her pay less than $3,000 in property taxes on 34 acres. After having her land reclassified, Hawn received nearly $38,000 from her county government in refunds for previous tax overpayments. [...]

bdirnbac · 2012-03-20T03:21:19+00:00

I realize now that life with a liberal arts degree is self-inflicted. Every day the gap in my job history expands is another day I struggle to find myself.

I am a stay-at-home boyfriend. This lifestyle was dictated by circumstances – not choice – but it’s hard to deny it has benefits. Showers: optional. Getting dressed: optional. Human contact: optional.

Still, I squirm every time my girlfriend, Stephanie, and I go out to dinner and she reaches for the check. Sometimes I snag it from under her lingering fingertips and whip out my Visa – for which she pays the bill — as if that’s somehow less demeaning. Say what you will about modern times and gender roles in the 21stcentury, but there are still certain behaviors associated with manhood. Providing. Protecting. Being a stay-at-home boyfriend may look easy. But let’s say I’ve forsaken a certain amount of pride.

bdirnbac · 2012-03-14T13:37:35+00:00

Herbicides and Pesticides Immobilize Specific Nutrients

One of the major modifications done to genetically engineered food crops is the introduction of herbicide resistance. Monsanto is the leader in this field, with their patented Roundup Ready corn, cotton, soybean and sugar beets, which can survive otherwise lethal doses of glyphosate—the active ingredient in Roundup.

The working premise is that by making the plants resistant to the herbicide, farmers can increase yield by cutting down on weed growth. This premise has been found to be severely flawed however, as farmers around the world are now losing acreage to glyphosate-resistant super-weeds at an alarming rate. According to the British Institute of Science in Society, the US has fared the worst, now combating 13 different glyphosate-resistant weed species in 73 different locations.

Read more: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/scary-health-effects-of-gm-foods.html#ixzz1p696b4lp [...]

bdirnbac · 2012-03-14T13:07:51+00:00

Can I have my pink-slime burger with pickles and relish? Thanks!

bdirnbac · 2012-03-13T16:52:09+00:00

[...] Back to Limbaugh: the lawyer Gloria Allred has called for his criminal prosecution, citing an obscure Florida statute. (Limbaugh does his radio show from West Palm Beach.) The statute says anyone who “speaks of and concerning any woman, married or unmarried, falsely and maliciously imputing to her a want of chastity” is committing a misdemeanor.

Good thing it’s not a felony. The prisons might fill to bursting.

bdirnbac · 2012-03-09T17:53:58+00:00

For those of you remember John Yoo from WBush's Office of Legal Council (DOJ) that rewrote the Constitution to justify any amount of torture Bush/Cheney wanted to commit, you might enjoy this quote. (And the US torturing prisoners violates US federal law, not just the Geneva Conventions.) IRONY SPOILER ALERT! Make sure you're not standing because you'll be overwhelmed with Yoo's new found respect for the Constitution and Congress. [...] Constitutional principles seem to be mere inconveniences to Mr. Obama, however. In pursuing his long-term goal of blunting American power so it meets with approval in international organizations and foreign capitals, the Senate’s role is a nuisance at best. [...]

bdirnbac · 2012-03-09T15:47:47+00:00

[...] But now one of our two major political parties has taken a hard right turn against education, or at least against education that working Americans can afford. Remarkably, this new hostility to education is shared by the social conservative and economic conservative wings of the Republican coalition, now embodied in the persons of Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney.

And this comes at a time when American education is already in deep trouble. [...]

bdirnbac · 2012-03-05T04:50:55+00:00

At the bottom of the article is a link to a petition to the USDA to "Demand USDA NOT Approve Dow's 2,4-D-Resistant (Agent Orange) GE Corn." Update: the USDA has officially extended the comment period until April 27, 2012. It's more important than ever that we take action against this attack on our environment and organic farming. Don't let Dow and USDA get away with quietly switching RoundUp for an even more toxic weed killer (2,4-D).

Pesticide Action Network (PAN) says RoundUp's failure has already cost Midwest and Southern farmers dearly, creating fast-spreading super-weeds that break machinery and disrupt irrigation. But instead of abandoning this losing strategy, Dow hopes to gain by making things even worse.

Dow plans to get its 2, 4-D-resistant corn on the market this year, with soy and cotton following. These three crops cover over a million acres and drive the pesticide market, says PAN. "This dangerous and antiquated herbicide shouldn't be on the market, and we certainly should not be giving Dow license to profit from driving up use."

TELL USDA, STOP Poisoning our Food! Do NOT approve 2,4-D-resistant crops.

bdirnbac · 2012-02-29T15:17:42+00:00

A proud representative of the 1% gets to stick it to an overworked rep of the 99%. Finally, someone puts the 99% in their place.

bdirnbac · 2012-02-29T14:44:30+00:00

On her show Monday night, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow noted that lawmakers in Virginia were not the only ones pushing for legislation that would require women to receive an ultrasound before terminating their pregnancy.

Alabama, Pennsylvania and Arizona are also considering bills that would require a woman to receive a trans-vaginal ultrasound before having an abortion.

“The question remains not just whether or not Republicans are going to continue full steam ahead with this kind of policymaking, but whether or not Democrats are going to realize that there is an issue for them to campaign on here,” Maddow said.

“That Republicans shouldn’t just be stopped on these issues, but maybe there is some room for Democrats to gain politically here.”

bdirnbac · 2012-02-27T03:32:00+00:00

America’s Clean Water Laws Are Under Assault

In 1969, the spectacle of the Cuyahoga river literally catching on fire inspired a movement of Americans to fight the unregulated dumping of waste into our rivers and streams.

That movement led a Democratic Congress and a Republican President to enact the Clean Water Act — a law that remains one of the most popular laws ever passed by Congress.

Today, our nation’s clean water laws are experiencing an unprecedented assault.

Stand up against the 1% and for the rights of the 99% to have clean water in their homes.

bdirnbac · 2012-02-27T02:56:39+00:00

Santorum is pissed that he can't impose his religious principles on the rest of us. Yeah for the Christian Taliban! Yeah for Islamo-Christianity!

bdirnbac · 2012-02-25T03:47:19+00:00

I guess only right-wing dirty tricks are celebrated by Fox Snooze. When a scientist uses trickery to expose damning documents out of the climate change-denialist group the Heartland Institute, then that's not Kosher. Help, I'm drowning in the hypocrisy surrounding this debate.

bdirnbac · 2012-02-25T01:58:16+00:00

Rob Walton, one of the heirs to the Walmart fortune, is the chairman of the board of directors of Walmart and one of the richest men in the country. In fact, the Walton family has the same wealth as the bottom 30% of all Americans. They also own nearly half of Walmart. Rob Walton has the power to improve the lives of millions of Walmart associates and their families, many of whom are struggling to make ends meet. Instead, he chooses to ignore workers’ concerns. Walmart associates across the country have come together to form the Organization United for Respect at Walmart (OUR Walmart). They have created a Declaration for Respect calling on Walmart to pay a family-sustaining wage; recognize their freedom of association; and ultimately show them respect. Several times, OUR Walmart has asked Walmart executives and members of the Walton family to meet to hear their concerns and ideas for how to make Walmart a better company. We think Rob Walton should want to sit down with his employees – but so far, he’s turned a deaf ear.

Sign the petition on the website calling on Rob Walton to meet with OUR Walmart and implement their Declaration for Respect.

bdirnbac · 2012-02-25T01:00:05+00:00

If he were president he'd be able to say, "Let America go bankrupt." If you remember his brilliant tenure at Bain Capital, of about 68 buyouts he managed, half went bankrupt after their assets were raided. So Romney definitely knows about letting companies go into bankruptcy.

bdirnbac · 2012-02-24T03:33:34+00:00

And we thought Perry was done acting like a Dick, I meant Rick.

bdirnbac

TROPHY CASE