Salt City Sinner

posted 9/25/2012 by the Salt City Sinner When we   last  touched base with Maricopa County Sheriff Joe "Tough Guy" Arpaio, he was industriously applying his puckered lizard pseudo-lips to the powdered ass-cheeks of a noted member of the landed gentry, one Lord Christopher Monckton of Brenchley. Lord knows it's a proud and celebrated tradition here in the colony to suck up to the British aristocracy - remember just last week when Elizabeth Warren flew to London to pay tribute to our beloved Queen? No? Me neither. Anyway, it seems that Sheriff Joe's twenty-some-odd year reign of terror is (maybe? hopefully?) on its way down the tubes: Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio recently lost support among his Maricopa County constituents amid a high-profile attempt to prove that President Barack Obama's long-form birth certificate is a forgery, a new poll finds.  According to the poll commissioned by Citizens for a Better Arizona, a group helmed by progressive activ...

posted 9/25/2012 by the Salt City Sinner You remember Mia Love, right? First black female Utah mayor, potential first black Republican woman member of Congress, wingnut who called Barack Obama "the food stamp president"...speaker in a prime slot at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida. It's a pretty short resume so far, but it's certainly high-potency. I've been watching Love's emergence as a political force with some interest. This is her first big election, and she's running against Jim Matheson - a truly loathsome "Democrat" and establishment creature who I would truly love to see replaced. But replaced by Love? Oh, my goodness gracious no. The Salt Lake Tribune has an article originally out in July but updated earlier this month entitled "Mia Love's budget plan: Do her deep cuts go too far?" The answer to that rhetorical question is an emphatic "YES." From the Trib : [Mia Love] has ...

posted 9/19/2012 by the Salt City Sinner There's an old golf joke that my dad busts out occasionally that still cracks me up: "I hit two good balls today...I stepped on a rake!" Mitt Romney has made it something of a personal philosophical commitment, his recent rake-stepping. There was the RNC's baffling piece of performance art in which the Romney Campaign sagely decided to let an 82-year-old man ramble through over twice his allotted time in an unscripted, unvetted "speech" (read: cranked-out bitching at an imaginary man in an empty chair). There was Romney's attempt to smirk his way ... ... through a cheap, political "gotcha" moment regarding the tragic deaths of U.S. diplomats - again, wham!, right in the runts. And now, in a surgical political strike by Mother Jones magazine (a previously relatively little known and scrappy publication that has now earned a MAJOR chunk of attention), Romney's words from months ago h...

Posted 9/15/2012 by Law Nerd Remember Rep. Sumsion from American Fork, who not long ago threatened to kick the federal government's toys out of the Utah public lands sand box?  Well I thought I'd check in on our friend, follow up on the bill, and stick a thermometer in the armpit of the nation to gauge the reaction, or lack thereof.  Survey says: Utah's attempt to wrest control over federal public lands within its borders is either being ignored, or has fallen on deaf ears. When last I wrote  about Rep. Sumsion, he had sponsored a bill demanding that the federal government either sell off its public lands in Utah or cede control of them to the Utah government.  This was based on language in the Utah Enabling Act dictating that the federal government would pay to Utah 5% of the proceeds from the sale of public lands within its borders.  Since then, Sumsion's bill, H.B. 91, morphed into First Substitute H.B. 91  (H.B. 91 S. 1).  Now the Utah Legisla...

posted 9/14/2012 by Flora Bernard Larry Gibson and Tim DeChristopher ignoring the "No Trespassing" sign on Kayford Mountain, WV What do you have, in your own circle of life, that is so precious that you cannot put a price on it?  What would it be?  And if someone tried to come and take it from you, what would you do... how far would you go, to stand for it?  For me, it was my land. For me, it was my mountain. --Larry Gibson   A couple of years ago, I took a road trip to West Virginia with some close friends, one of whom was incarcerated environmental folk hero Tim DeChristopher . Tim was born in West Virginia, and watched his mother fight mountaintop removal mining through his early upbringing through every legal channel. After lobbying, petitioning, appealing permits, and otherwise doing her damndest to create the political will necessary to stop MTR for as many years as she could stand, she moved her family out of West Virginia. Decades later, coal c...

Photo Blog posted 9.9.12 by: ViewFinder The dancing was phenomenal! All I can say is that I need to start saving right now so I can afford to go and enjoy all that I want at next year's festival! No, we are not Greek Orthodox, but the woman at the front door was kind enough to explain the thought behind lighting of candles.

posted 9/4/2012 by the Salt City Sinner Mia Love has become quite the interesting Republican as of late. Recently elected Mayor of Sarasota Springs, Utah, she gave an enthusiastically received speech at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, FL. Go ahead and watch the whole thing: What makes Love worthy of attention in this, Your Journal of Note, is that she is both the first black female mayor in Utah's history, a noted wingnut, and a figure we're likely to see quite a bit of in Utah's future. Let's break that down. First black female Mayor in Utah's history - that's solid. A noted wingnut? In a mailer that my parents got from Jason Chaffetz AND Mia Love (bonus!) looking for funds, Chaffetz headlined his letter "Dear Fellow Conservatives,..." while Mia courageously titled her follow-up "Dear Patriots,..." Ms. Love went on to assail President Obama as the "Food Stamp President," which is (forgive the phrase) p...

A Photo Blog Posted by: ViewFinder 9/2/2012 On a "fun family adventure" this afternoon we wandered in the entrance of the Tracy Aviary found on the South West side of Liberty Park in Salt Lake City.  The foliage and the fowl were all stunningly beautiful... the human predator... NOT SO LOVELY!  Despite my MULTIPLE attempts to get this young boys attention he refused to discontinue his harrassment of this beautiful bird.  After yelling  at him a minimum of three times, (once screaming at him to "put the stick down RIGHT NOW!") I finally asked the other boys he was with, where their parents were.  Around the corner enjoying the site of vulturs tearing apart their pre-killed mice, were the parents of this young predator.  As I approached I asked the woman if the boy in the blue shirt was her son... jokingly she responded... "depends on what he has done".  I did not find the humor and explained he was stalking, chasing, and threateni...