Utah Legislature about face

[Borderline Divine]

Which is good, as this was perhaps the worst piece of legislation even that august body has crafted. This bill didn't have a friend in the world. Process sucked too.

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home/51...tml.csp?page=1

[Goatnapper'96]

Didn't Muhhh-Ladd secede from the lovely Deseret a looooong time ago? Why the interest in the batshitt crazy local politics of our beloved Carrotsnappers to our south when we can bask in the sunshine of Butch Otter?

[Borderline Divine]

pssst, I have slipped the surly bonds of Malad for my former haunts. Yes, I am once again a Utahn.

To be perfectly honest about it, it was mutually agreed between myself and the city fathers that I seek my fortune elsewhere. Any elswhere, they said.

[NorthwestUteFan]

Which is good, as this was perhaps the worst piece of legislation even that august body has crafted. This bill didn't have a friend in the world. Process sucked too.

Would that it were true. I have no doubt that if we dug for a few minutes we could easily come up with several equally preposterous laws passed by that esteemed legislative body. Didn't a group of state (city/county?) legislators and the local stake presidency plan the Mountain Meadows Massacre? History definitely is not on their side on this issue.

This is the reason it is preferable to have a strong, vocal opposition party in nearly all cases. I used to see the same overreaching of authority in Mass, which was ~20-30% Repub. My experience in Utah and in Massachusetts demonstrated striking similarities (in terms of power abuse) between the overwhelmingly Repub legislature in Utah to an overwhelmingly Democratic legislature in Mass. The difference in Mass was they actually prosecuted legislators for being crooked*. AFAIK Utah's legislators have rarely crossed the legal line, but I wouldn't put it past them.

I would prefer a closer balance of power, and deal with the constant bickering back and forth, than have ANY one party be in power.




*from the TMI department: When I moved west, their 3rd Speaker of the House in 15 years was facing 185 years in prison for conspiracy, 'honest services fraud', wire fraud, extortion, etc.

A previous Senate President was 'well-connected', as he was the brother of Whitey Bulger (Jack Nicholson character in The Departed was semi-biographical of Bulger). He went straight into politics from Law School, and now is living off a ~$200k pension.

Bunch of crooks. We get exactly the type of government we deserve, because the elected politicians ARE US. Scary thought, that.

[Uncle Ted]

Which is good, as this was perhaps the worst piece of legislation even that august body has crafted. This bill didn't have a friend in the world. Process sucked too.

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home/51...tml.csp?page=1

It is kind of unclear from this article so correct me if I am wrong... This new law would restrict the disclosure of things like cell phone records and email of lawmakers that are using government issued cell phones and laptops?

I would assume that if they wanted to keep their cell phone records and email/internet private they could pay for their own private cell phone and laptop out of their own pockets. Or did they just want to be able to use their government issued laptops and cell phones to surf porn and to text message their mistresses?

[Borderline Divine]

It is kind of unclear from this article so correct me if I am wrong... This new law would restrict the disclosure of things like cell phone records and email of lawmakers that are using government issued cell phones and laptops?

I would assume that if they wanted to keep their cell phone records and email/internet private they could pay for their own private cell phone and laptop out of their own pockets. Or did they just want to be able to use their government issued laptops and cell phones to surf porn and to text message their mistresses?

And so it follows that such as simple solution does not correct the real problem, which is that they loathe the media.

Another bullshit reason they state is that the current GRAMA law is allowing multitudes of frivolus and costly records rearches. Ironically, there were a total of 8 GRAMA requests during the recent session, which involved 400 hours of labor. One of the 8 consumed 280 hours of the total.

Governor H. was embarrassed during the campaign by a GRAMA request that showed UDOT paying $13 million to an unsuccessfull bidder on a major freeway contractor. Major donors to his campaign got the bid. The former Senate President Kevin Garn resigned because he feared his text and cell phone records would reveal that he was paying hundreds of thousands to a woman in CT. who he had an improper underage affair with decades earlier.

This bill is a dark, ugly thing. I mean this baby is black.