Leaving Town

I will be out of town for the Labor Day weekend, and the start of the college football season. I will be in Tucson, with no internet.

GO BYU!!

Cindy Sheehan: Freedom Fighters references

The Salt Lake Tribune has an interesting article on the phone calls to Mayor Anderson's office against his protests. http://www.sltrib.com/ci_4253666

The part of the article that drew my attention was: "A LexisNexis search of major newspapers found references to such comments only in letters to the editor or editorial columns, save a paraphrase from a London paper. However, Sheehan has been quoted in The Seattle Times describing Bush as a "bigger terrorist than Osama bin Laden.""

To me this makes it imply that that the GOP is stretching the truth. I tend to think that the Tribune is trying to downplay the GOP ad. If I were doing the ad I would have inserted the part where she said the US is "not worth dying for." So, Rocky: make it clear. DO YOU AGREE WITH THAT STATEMENT?

I decided to do my own Lexis Nexis search for the terms "Cindy Sheehan" and "freedom fighters".


"Antiwar Mom Pushes Peculiar Ideas" The Tampa Tribune September 29, 2005 Thursday.
"She (CINDY SHEEHAN) doesn't appear to worry about what would happen to pro-democracy Iraqis were they abandoned before they can defend themselves from the heavily armed thugs of the resistance. Sheehan has referred to these terrorists as freedom fighters. In public statements in recent weeks, she has added many odd opinions to her antiwar message. The biggest terrorist, she said, is President Bush. She has called the U.S. government a "morally repugnant system." After visiting hurricane-damaged areas, she called on Bush to "pull our troops out of occupied New Orleans and Iraq." And America, she said in San Francisco, "is not worth dying for."



"Cindy's new world Protest is one thing; radical posturing against U.S. is something else entirely." Omaha World-Herald (Nebraska) September 12, 2005
"And indeed, Sheehan, who lost her son Casey during the Iraq postwar and who has become a symbol for organized opposition to the Iraq mission, has endorsed such an agenda. She has used the term "freedom fighters" in referring to radical Islamist fighters who have gone to Iraq to blow themselves up as suicide bombers."



"Rumsfeld's heckler, Rep. Kennedy, and more.; The story behind Ray McGovern." The Weekly Standard May 15, 2006 Monday
"As long as Cindy Sheehan was an attractive club to swing against the Bush White House last summer, she was portrayed simply as a grieving mother who had lost her son in Iraq. Which she was, but she was also, rather like McGovern, an enthusiast for the violent left who called Bush a "lying bastard," said that "this country is not worth dying for," and called the Islamist insurgents in Iraq "freedom fighters.""



“ANOTHER SAD SHEEHAN STUNT” The New York Post February 2, 2006 Thursday
“Sheehan has denounced the historic popular vote in Iraq as a "sham election" and demanded that the United States quit "Iraq and Israel and Palestine." And she's called the terrorist insurgents who are murdering her fallen son's military brothers and sisters "freedom fighters."
Her bile isn't reserved for the Bush administration. Sheehan has declared: "I'm going all over this country telling moms: 'This country is not worth dying for.' "”



“SHEEHAN'S RADICAL VIEWS LITTLE NOTED;
DESPITE HEAVY COVERAGE, NATION'S PRESS STRANGELY RELUCTANT TO REPORT ALL SHE SAYS” Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO) Dave Kopel
“For example, on Aug. 16, Sheehan held a media conference call during which she declared "The person who killed my son, I have no animosity for that person at all." Yet her statement was reported only in the National Review Online weblog. In an interview with Mark Knoller of CBS News, she explained that the foreigners who have to come to Iraq to battle the U.S. military are "freedom fighters." (Video at the anti-war Web site dc.indymedia. org/usermedia/video/2/cindyon bus.mov). Conversely, she described last January's vote in Iraq as a "sham election," in her Tuesday entry on her weblog on Michael Moore's Web site (http:// michaelmoore.com/mustread/ index.php?id=465).” (I was not able to verify if these links are still active)



What is Cindy Sheehan about? Freedom fighters murdered her son? Charleston Gazette September 3, 2005, Saturday
ON Aug. 6, as her 15 minutes of fame was just beginning, Cindy Sheehan used an odd term in a TV interview with Mark Knoller of CBS. She referred to the foreign insurgents and terrorists in Iraq as "freedom fighters." Knoller cut those words out of his report, he told me, because he "really wasn't interested."

Oh, so sad

Sheehan Not Coming to Utah

Have you called?

Here is a copy a radio ad text, that the Utah Republican Party is running. Please call Mayor Anderson's office. Although I don't completely agree with President Bush, having Cindy Sheehan here destroys any credibility Rocky may have had. Thank goodness he is not running again.

"America is at war against an enemy determined to strike us at home. Just days ago terrorists were caught planning to blow up flights to America. The threat to our country is real. And the choice is clear."

"Do we do whatever it takes to win the war on terror? Or do we embolden the terrorists with a cut-and-run strategy? Mayor Rocky Anderson has made his decision. He's invited professional protester Cindy Sheehan to Utah to convince you that America should retreat."

"Cindy Sheehan called Al-Qaeda in Iraq 'freedom fighters.' And she called America 'the largest terrorist organization in the world.' Said she'd rather live under dictator Hugo Chavez [Venezuela's president] than President Bush."

"Now Rocky Anderson has invited her to Utah. Does he really share her anti-American beliefs?"

"President Bush is visiting Utah to pay his respects to our nation's veterans."

"Call Rocky and tell him to stop embarrassing Utah: 801-535-7704. That's 535-7704.
"Paid for by the Utah Republican Party."

Why do politicans lie?

Who do Politicians have to lie and embellish their records? Why can’t they just run an honest campaign? Here are some recent examples from the national news and local news.

Yahoo News:

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Republican Rep. Jean Schmidt is fast, capable of running a marathon in 3 hours, 19 minutes, 6 seconds. At least that's what a photo on the Ohio congresswoman's Web site shows. No way, says a rival who contends that the picture from the 1993 Columbus Marathon is doctored and complained to state election officials. A four-member commission panel ruled Thursday that there was enough evidence to look into the complaint.
State law prohibits candidates from publishing false statements designed to promote their election. The photo shows Schmidt near the finish line at the marathon with a time clock showing 3:19:06, which would have made her one of the top finishers. But a newspaper list of the top runners does not include Schmidt, said Nathan Noy, who is seeking to run as a write-in candidate against Schmidt.

More from Jean Schmidt:

Ohio State Rep. "Brinkman’s comments follow remarks made by Schmidt on the House floor attacking Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) for calling on the United States to withdraw troops from Iraq. Schmidt also said at the time that she had spoken with a former Marine colonel who, she said, called Murtha a coward for backing a pullout. The former Marine colonel, state Rep. Danny Bubp (R), later denied mentioning Murtha, a former Marine himself, by name and said he would never call a fellow Marine a coward." (The Hill)

From the NYTimes:

Councilwoman Yvette D. Clarke, a candidate for Congress in Brooklyn, acknowledged yesterday that she had fallen a few credits short of graduating from Oberlin College despite past claims in campaign literature that she had graduated from there. Ms. Clarke said in a statement last night, “I spent much of the day in contact with Oberlin College and Medgar Evers College to retrieve my academic records from two decades ago, convinced of my recollection that I had fulfilled the requirements for a bachelor’s degree.
“Contrary to that recollection, I have now discovered that I remain two classes short of the requirements for my degree. This is an embarrassing moment for me, but I feel it is important to set the record straight.” (Who doesn't remember completing college?)

In Utah County we had a candidate for the State House that ran on the stand, “Your Neighbor, Your Values.” It was later proven that he was terminated from several jobs for embezzlement and fraud.

But is the following a lie? In 1976 while campaigning to replace then Seantor Frank Moss, Hatch asked the question "what do you call a Senator after 18 years? You call him home." Is that lie, or just a simple campaign promise?

A great Man

From the SL Tribune: "Outdoors reporter Doug Miller died Sunday night after a three-week battle with diverticulitis. He was 59 years old. Miller, known by many as "Mister Outdoors," had been a fixture on Utah television and radio for nearly 30 years. He complained of pain on July 31 and was admitted to LDS Hospital for treatment of the condition, in which portions of the intestines become inflamed. He died peacefully and surrounded by family, said Dave Phillips, vice president and general manager of KUTV Channel 2 News."

I remember listening to Doug Miller when he was the sideline reporter at the BYU games. Watching his programs, you could see that he had a true passion for what he did.

DOUG MILLER: A UTAH GIANT

Fundraising - No way!

I got an e-mail asking me to attend the Hatch fundraiser with President Bush. There is no way I would attend a fundraiser for anyone who hires unethical people on his campaign staff.

Keep watching, because there is more to this story.

You got to be kidding

Provo water is not that great. Why pay for something you can get out of the tap?

"I am not a connoisseur of waters, but I understand from those who are that this is good."
-- Raylene Ireland, spokesperson for Provo City. City officials think their spring water is so good that they're bottling it and using it as a marketing tool for the city. (Daily Herald)

Are legislators above the law?

Ok, Legal minds, is a state legislator trying to be above the laws that he helps create?

A state senator signs a contract with someone to buy his house. He owns the business right next to their home in. He said he wasgoing to rip the house down and expand his business there. Since the contract was signed they (the owners) started building a house in(city) expecting the Senator's money to be able to finish the house. About two weeks ago this senator shows up to the house saying he no longer has the money to buy the house and doesn't really want it any more, sorry.

There is a copy of a contract, is this senator breaking the law?

What do you think?

Same Ad Agency?

Remember those awful Team America PAC ads that ran against Chris Cannon. Well, it looks like the same people are on the air for UDOT and the express lane. Those ads are terrible.

I have only heard one of the ads, but it was so bad I almost laughed myself off the road. There were parts like, "I hear UDOT is going to put tire spikes to keep us in the express lane."

Talk about a waste of taxpayer money.

Rising Star

Greg Hughes:
"We can invest in education or we can invest in transportation, or - more importantly - we can return it to the taxpayer," says Hughes, chairman of the Republican Conservative Caucus. Hughes and his colleagues warn that gleeful spending in times of surplus means inevitable painful cuts in times of deficit.

Is there a way Hughes can have a leadership position? He is right on the money (no pun intended).