Ruh-roh.  With the legislative session just around the corner, and a gigantic budget problem to contend with after making all the cuts they could in the previous session, it looks like Utah may be in for a battle of taxation.

In one corner, we have the ideologues:

State Sen. Steve Urquhart [...] ]]> http://www.blognetnews.com/Utah/go.php?http://oneutah.org/2009/12/05/max-baucus-nominates-girlfriend-for-us-attorney/ Sat, 05 Dec 2009 17:45:45 -0500 http://oneutah.org/2009/12/05/max-baucus-nominates-girlfriend-for-us-attorney/ The situation may look worse than it is.

Senator Max Baucus was having a relationship with his former state office director Melodee Hanes. Hanes was a long time staffer of Baucus. The relationship was not technically an affair – Baucus and his wife were legally separated at the time. Hanes [...] ]]> http://www.blognetnews.com/Utah/go.php?http://economicspolitics.blogspot.com/2009/12/utah-ethics-initiative-is-redundant-and.html Sat, 05 Dec 2009 22:20:00 -0500 http://economicspolitics.blogspot.com/2009/12/utah-ethics-initiative-is-redundant-and.html
At one time, Utah was in dire need of legislative ethics reform. I've written about it on Simple Utah Mormon  Politics more than once.  Out of such a dearth, the Utah Ethics Initiative was born.  Whether or not the impetus came from the recently' [...] ]]> http://www.blognetnews.com/Utah/go.php?http://oneutah.org/2009/12/05/dixiecrats-and-conserva-dems/ Sat, 05 Dec 2009 21:51:25 -0500 http://oneutah.org/2009/12/05/dixiecrats-and-conserva-dems/ I’ve been pondering this for a while and I don’t know that I have any answers. The Conserva-Dems, people like Utah’s Jim Matheson and other Blue Dogs and people like Sens. Max Baucus of Montana and Ben Nelson of Nebraska, have been crucial in creating a Democratic majority in Congress. [...] ]]> http://www.blognetnews.com/Utah/go.php?http://oneutah.org/2009/12/05/afpak-the-counter-intutive-strategy/ Sat, 05 Dec 2009 16:11:31 -0500 http://oneutah.org/2009/12/05/afpak-the-counter-intutive-strategy/ Like a lot of people, I’m still scratching my head wondering what President Obama wants to do in Afghanistan and Pakistan. It has been proven that counterinsurgency won’t work, at least not without approximately double the resources the USA can possibly commit. What the president gave us on Tuesday [...] ]]> http://www.blognetnews.com/Utah/go.php?http://senatesite.com/blog/2009/12/senator-dayton-what-jobs-summit-missed.html Sat, 05 Dec 2009 13:40:00 -0500 http://senatesite.com/blog/2009/12/senator-dayton-what-jobs-summit-missed.html
By Margaret Dayton
Utah State Senator

On Thursday I attended the ribbon cutting for APX Alarm's new cooperate headquarters and conference center. It was interesting to me that the event coincided with the so-called Job Summit being held by the White [...] ]]> http://www.blognetnews.com/Utah/go.php?http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/KvnusForThePeople/~3/Vu9PkjaVMvg/ Sat, 05 Dec 2009 13:00:11 -0500 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/KvnusForThePeople/~3/Vu9PkjaVMvg/ My post on fundamental assumptions generated some good discussion which began waxing economic in flavor. As part of that discussion I had a new idea about a more reasonable approach the federal government could take to soften economic hard times without outright manipulating our expectations of reality as they [...] ]]> http://www.blognetnews.com/Utah/go.php?http://jmbell.org/blog/2009/12/05/gop-gang-rape-supporters-are-angry-that-its-official-and-in-the-congressional-record/ Sat, 05 Dec 2009 11:33:01 -0500 http://jmbell.org/blog/2009/12/05/gop-gang-rape-supporters-are-angry-that-its-official-and-in-the-congressional-record/ Number of comments: 1

Larry Craig and his GOP supporters went on the assault against the cop who busted the closeted senator soliciting a temporary boyfriend in an airport bathroom. Jason Chaffetz, after trying the same  “DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM!?!” in an airport (granted for a different thing) blamed the TSA agents [...] ]]> http://www.blognetnews.com/Utah/go.php?http://oneutah.org/2009/12/05/fostering-effective-freedom-by-ending-discrimination/ Sat, 05 Dec 2009 11:18:56 -0500 http://oneutah.org/2009/12/05/fostering-effective-freedom-by-ending-discrimination/ The concept of effective freedom is core concept in liberal thought. Effective freedom refers to one’s ability to actively pursue one’s own interests. From John McGowan American Liberalism: An Interpretation for our Time:

Effective freedom requires having the means and the power to accomplish one’s ends. Not just direct domination, but [...] ]]>