Month: October 2008
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Reason To Be Anti-Incumbent
I found this little exchange to be insightful from Congressman Bishop: . . . the two 1st District candidates snapped at each other, with Bowen accusing Bishop of taking $26,000 in the past four months from the radioactive-waste-storage company. "I did not take $26,000, I took $28,000," Bishop fired back. "And that’s not company money,…
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Real Capitalists
My reaction to Obi wan’s claim that "pro-capitalist conservatives have pushed for governmental intervention into our capital markets" was that nobody who supported the bailout has any claim to being a capitalist. I find that my position is much more clearly stated by Judy Shelton in the Wall Street Journal: Honest capitalism requires the following:…
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A Budgetary Hat-Trick
Jason shared a link to Budget Hero and I had to go take a look. If the game is to be believed, all is not yet lost in the quest to get a balanced budget without abandoning all vestiges of the social safety net that we have been spinning for the last 80 years. I…
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Financial Foundations Exposed
News reports related to the fluxuations of the stock market are not surprising or inconsistent, but when I stop to consider what they say I find that they are either disturbing or based on faulty assumptions. This holds true whether we are talking about reports of falling or rising stocks and the report on today’s…
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Like Sheep . . .
I have been noticing the various political yard signs popping up as we approach the general election and based on what I have seen I am beginning to think that in Utah, the most politically active non-candidates are almost universally leaning Democratic. Considering that Utah is still expected to heavily favor the Republican tickets at…
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Rejecting Amendment E
While amendment D looks to close a loophole in the Constitution, Constitutional Amendment E appears to be opening a loophole. I admit that there is potential to increase the funds available for public education if we allow some of those funds to be invested in private company stocks or bonds. The problem is that this…
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Supporting Amendment D
With the insertion of only 12 words Constitutional Amendment D would close a technicality which could be used by some enterprising politicians to wreak havoc on the necessary and often too-political process of redistricting. Now is a good time to do it too because, while redistricting is usually little more than adjusting existing district boundaries,…
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Rejecting Amendment C
My position on Constitutional Amendment C is much like my position on Amendment A – it is unnecessary tinkering with the constitution. I don’t see any advantage to starting the session a week later than we do currently. I don’t buy his argument that citizens would "more appropriately honor the late Reverend Dr. Martin Luther…
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Get Ready to Vote
One of the things I hear about in the news are the stories of people being turned away from polling places for not being properly registered to vote or for showing up at the wrong location. In Utah we have a chance to vote with a provisional ballot where there is confusion, but we also…
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Supporting Amendment B
I was pleased to find that Constitutional Amendment B was absolutely as straightforward in its proposed wording as the description suggested. It simply inserts one line into the Constitution allowing for more flexibility in adding funds to the existing state trust fund without making it easier for the Legislature to remove money from the fund.…