"Two Utah Lawmakers Have Ties to Nuclear Plant"

Update: The Utah Amicus puts it far more succinctly than I. "No conflict of interest, my ass!"
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At first I chuckled thinking of two Utah legislators tied to a nuclear power plant. But then I read the sub-heading, "But Tilton and Noel see no conflict of interest." Here are some facts. Let the readers decide for themselves whether or not a conflict exists for either of these public servants:

• They both serve on ". . . an interim legislative committee considering legislation that would help utilities build nuclear power plants."
• "Rep. Aaron Tilton, R-Springville, is an owner of Transition Power Development, a private equity group that has signed an agreement to secure water rights for a nuclear power plant. If approved by water regulators, the plant's enormous water demands would be supplied by the Kane County Water Conservancy District, whose executive director is Rep. Mike Noel, R-Kanab."
• "Transition Power has agreed to pay the conservancy district $1 million a year for almost 30,000 acre-feet of water once the plant starts producing power."
• "Noel is chairman of the Legislature's Public Utilities and Technology Committee, and Tilton is vice chairman. Also, both men are members of the Public Utilities and Technology Interim Committee, which is co-chaired by Noel. The interim committee has heard extensive testimony for and against nuclear power in its July and September meetings."
• "Transition Power is considering building a nuclear power plant in Utah. "
• "Transition Power has already paid the district $10,000 upon signing the water agreement. The private equity group will pay $100,000 annually for five years until construction starts. Then, the payment becomes $500,000 a year until power generation begins, when it jumps to $1 million annually."
• "A bill to assist utilities in building nuclear power plants was discussed extensively by the Public Utilities Interim Committee on July 18 and Sept. 19."
• "Concerning the bill that was discussed July 18 and Sept. 19, Tilton said Monday that he has no conflicts of interest.
  "I really don't have a conflict of interest, because I'm not a regulated utility," he said, and the bill dealt with those utilities."
• "On his Declaration of Conflict of Interest form, Noel noted that he was associated with several groups: Michael E. Noel Environmental Consulting, Flood Canyon Ranch and Kane County Water Conservancy District. But Monday he said it was not a conflict to co-chair the committee that is considering legislation involving a nuclear power plant. 'The district is a public entity, like a city, a community, leasing water to them,' meaning the nuclear power plant, he said. 'We're a public utility. I work for the water district as a paid employee.'"

And one more fact:

A poll this past May by Dan Jones & Associates found that 84 percent of Utahns want lawmakers to be able to abstain from voting on a bill on which they have a personal or professional conflict. The poll also found that 77 percent of Utahns want greater disclosure of conflicts of interest.

So why does Utah keep electing guys like this? One reason: They run on the "R" ticket which equates to MORALITY in many voters' minds. Yeah, morality.

Source and kudos to: Deseret Morning News, October 16, 2007 http://www.deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,695219044,00.html

KSL says "Good News for Utah drivers, gas prices are down!"

Under the category of "Huh?", KSL's 4:30 news broadcast this afternoon informed us that it's good news for drivers that gas prices are down to the lowest level in a long time. Whoever wrote that story apparently didn't read a different story on the KSL web site saying Gas Prices on the Rise Again in Utah.

FACT: Oil prices have reached their highest level ever, over $86 per barrel!

Is local news getting worse or does it just seem that way? The poor writing, inconsistencies, and outright errors are blatant.

Why do George Bush, Rob Bishop, and Chris Cannon hate sick kids and love the Iraq War?

The following is excerpted from an email from Senator Ted Kennedy:

President Bush and I have one thing in common.

When either of us wants to see a doctor, American taxpayers cover 72% of our health care premiums. And when it comes time to pick a medical facility, either of us can go to a government-run hospital like the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.

President Bush just vetoed a bill extending and reforming the State Children's Health Insurance Program. So I want to know:

If government-run health care is good enough for me, and is good enough for President Bush, why isn't it good enough for America's children?

President Bush says that SCHIP will cost too much.

But for the price of one day in Iraq, we could cover 256,000 children. One week would cover 1.8 million children. And just over one month of the Iraq war would cover the full cost of the bill, insuring more than 10 million children for a whole year.

This is a question of priorities -- and President Bush's priorities obviously don't include the needs of America's children.

There has to be a better way. Health insurance shouldn't be a luxury for the privileged few. It should be a right for all Americans -- especially our children.

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The senate has enough votes to override this veto, but the override will fail in the house unless more congressmen join in. Senator Hatch has courageously stood up against Bush in this issue. Where do our Utah congressmen stand?

Congressman Rob Bishop calls it flawed and voted against it: http://robbishop.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=75331

Congressman Chris Cannon has nothing at all to say about it on his web page but voted against the SCHIP bill: http://chriscannon.house.gov/

Congressman Jim Matheson supports the program and appears likely to vote to override the veto: http://www.house.gov/matheson/info_schip.shtml

Blackmailing the Republican Party

The media is all in a tizzy following a meeting in Salt Lake City last week of a super double-secret conservative society that was graced with a visit from none other than the Prince of Darkness Cheney himself. Word is, there was some super, super secret discussion about the Christian right lunatic fringe going with a third-party presidential candidate (rather than vote for likely Republican candiate Guiliani whom they are openly calling "pro-abortion").

Huh! Who are they kidding?

The New York Times says "Participants in the group that endorsed the resolution said they had reached their position after hearing an assessment of the state of the Republican primary from Mr. (Tony) Perkins, who acts as a point man in Washington for the movement. Mr. Perkins told them that Mr. Giuliani could plausibly win the primary if he carried Florida, which has many conservative Christian voters, and that now was the best chance to stop any momentum behind his campaign."

Now IS the best chance to stop any Giuliani momentum, indeed. Get the Republican Party scared they might lose the support of the Christian wackos, and force him out of the race. Let's not pretend for a second to take seriously the suggestion they might put forward a 3rd-party candidate. They remember Nader. They remember Perot. These smart guys know a 3rd-party presidential candidate is nothing but a spoiler. This swift-boating of Giuliani is about nothing more than arm-twisting in an attempt to control the primaries and the nominating process (UPDATE: remember, that's illegal for a 501(c)3). As I said in the post immediately prior to this, the campaign once again is going to be all about abortion and not about how we care for and provide medical care for the children who are born in this country. Right. Family values.

And if you're wondering just who is in this super, super secret society, the Council for National Policy, here's a link to a membership list I found online (might be a year or so old): Council for National Policy

And by the way, what's the deal with the editor of the Deseret News, Joe Cannon, saying he was attending the CNP Salt Lake meeting as a "journalist" but he would not be reporting on it? In what way was he attending as a journalist? Man, that really is a secret society!

Photos: Tony Perkins (Focus on the Family), Dr. James Dobson (Focus on the Family), V.P. Cheney

Don't miss the great Guthrie/Seeger video in my post just prior to this.