John Lee's blog

An open secret among the D4U'ers is that I was, gasp, a Reagan Republican. Bruce Bartlett was one of the advising economists responsible for the Reagan tax cuts. He buries the notion that "tax cuts would pay for themselves", and that revenue would not be lost.

Complete and Total Nonsense.

His words, not mine.

Link to interview with Brian Lehrer.

So the the Republican-controlled Congress said NO to Utah's 4th congressional district, but a Democratic-controlled Congress says YES? When this happens, we ought to keep reminding folks about that.

The new Democratic majority, in the first months of the new Congress, is expected to take up a bill that would increase the voting membership of the House from 435 to 437, giving new vote each to Utah, a Republican stronghold, and the District of Columbia, dominated by Democrats.

We met last night to revise our issues - our current issues are on the left under the "categories" heading. Linda Hilton from CORC was so inspiring, we thought that it was time to do it.

After a voting on over 20 ideas, we arrived with the following three categories:

• I'm mad that more people DONT VOTE!

• I'm mad about the wage gap and inequality!

• I'm mad about the polarization in our country!
  Read the rest of this entry...

I voted on a dieblod machine yesterday at the state Democratic Party convention. You can see that I voted for Walt Whitman(photo on the flip), at least I think that I voted for Walt Whitman, but if a recount is held, they don't look at the boxes with X's in them, they look at the bar code that you see below. While there is a paper balot cast, if it is used in a recount, it's the BARCODE that is recounted. By a machine. Since I can't read barcode, I don't think that this is voter verified anything.

[John Lee is D4U's liaison with Drinking Liberally. –Carrie]

Mayor Anderson spoke at Drinking Liberally last Friday. His talk? A downer. He tried to be entertaining, and I always enjoy hearing him speak, but... our media, which "conventional wisdom" tells us leans to the left, fails to inform the public well enough for the public to make informed decisions. Stepping into this void is moneyed interests whose goal is shift public opinion for it's own benefit. We have a big hurdle to overcome. Our fourth estate is not doing its job. Oy.

After his talk, a table mate of ours called Rocky over to share a pitcher of beer. You could tell that the talk he gave wore on him as well. We started talking about what we can do. In his talk he spoke about the letters to the editor, and how we need more articulate voices for progressive causes, and in the back of my mind my D4U assignment that I have not yet been able to assemble. But shifting the discussion to what we can do broke the spell. We know that the cards are stacked. We want to make our communities better, and just can't help trying to make right.

[From the personal blogs –Carrie]

Not only is our country on the wrong track, but in an article by Jeffrey H. Birnbaum, lobbying is becoming so profitable that investors want in too. Presumably, you can now make money investing in the lobbying firm that represents you to government so that your own interests are advanced. Perpetual motion machines may not work in physics, but it seems that politics is now breaking all the rules.

Following Peter Corroon's trip to pick up trash in October, Jen Colby invited us to help the Great Salt Lakekeeper clean up floating pollution on the Jordan River north of 1700N. We collected hundreds of pounds of drink bottles, beer cans, construction foam, shoes and sandals, a go cart, a birth certificate, toys, tennis balls (so that's where they go), soccer balls, basket balls, Styrofoam cups, a fire extinguisher (what did I leave out)...

Bush's speech to the nation from New Orleans tonight was like nothing he has said before. I have to say, that I liked what I heard, and am holding out hope that we may have a new President. I think that this disaster will focus our nations attention that in a civilization, we have a responsibility for our fellow citizens. Nearly all of my progressive ideals are dependant on that one notion. When the allusion to 9/11 was drawn, my hopes were nearly dashed. But the allusion was to point out that we had not accomplished what needs to be accomplished to secure our citizens in time of need.