Hi. This is Regina work. Sort of. I’m calling to set the record straight about my friend Mike Lee. The truth is the bikes the key part of all the clear waste out of Utah we work together. I’ve got her husband’s Council. He stopped it from being transferred across our highways ad for big story, it does West desert. You may not know but my ex father. Rex week passed away from cancer related to be there with her. So, if you might expect. Mike, please record his commitment to keeping you talk to say from high level nuclear waste a second not anybody who tells you otherwise. If it’s a resort. It’s a last minute mislead attack ads for the role personal game. That’s the truth. Again, I’m not sure of the calling to set the record straight, and I encourage you to join me support likely the upcoming primary election. Thank you. Goodbye just calling to pay for. I found it and I agree.

That’s right, the primary elections are here in Utah once again! Tuesday June 22 is election day so make sure you take the time to vote.  If you are registered to vote, you can find out the location where you should vote at the Utah State website.  The site will also tell you what party you are currently registered with and let you see samples of both the Ballot for your party and the non-partisan elections for your area.  Also check out Abigail Adams Project – UTAH for information about the candidates.

If the erroneously transcribed voice mail above was complete nonsense to you, then don’t worry, a lot of the information that has been published during this campaign has been just as messed up even when properly transcribed.

I’ve been participating in local Utah elections actively for the last six years, and every time the dirty politics, acrimony, and enmity is thoroughly discouraging.  For example, last Saturday I received the two campaign fliers in the mail from the Bridgewater campaign.  Here’s a photo:

The first flier reads (more or less):

No wonder D. C. Lawyer Mike Lee is running a negative, D. C. Style Campaign.  Mike Lee has distorted businessman Tim Bridgewater’s record.  Here are the facts about Time Bridgewater:

Tim Has A Plan.

Blah blah blah…

Tim Is A Proven Fighter.

Blah blah blah…

Tim is a solid Fiscal Conservative

Blah blah blah

A campaign based on issues, not negative attacks

Blah blah blah

Paid for by Bridgewater for Senate

The second flier reads

Do we really want to be the world’s dumping ground?

You should know D. C. Lawyer Mike Lee is directly tied to the nuclear waste industry…

[On the back it makes several statements about how Mike Lee is really a puppet of Energy Solutions and wants to dump nuclear waste in Utah]

Paid for by Bridgewater for Senate

Now the accusations here are not really that important.  It’s the irony, the cliché, and the pettiness. “Hey! I’m negatively attacking my opponent by pointing out his negative attacks!  So vote for me because I’m campaigning on the issues and not negative attacks….P.S. See the photo of my opponent looking angry?  I told you he was negative.  P.P.S. Did you notice that I’m not wearing a tie and have a blue shirt?  I’m cool like that. I’m anti-establishment. P.P.P.S. Did you know that my opponent is part of a conspiracy run by an evil organization owned by radioactive SATAN? So freak out and vote for me instead.”

Nice.

Mike Lee’s campaign hasn’t been much better when it comes to magnifying to distortion some of Bridgewater’s background. Here’s Bridgewater’s response to some of the Lee campaign’s claims.  Others have responded to Bridgewater’s Energy Solutions accusations against Lee.

And then there is the whole “fake flier that appears to be from Mike Lee but is really from an anonymous group against Mike Lee that was intended to trash his campaign by making it look as if Lee was leveraging religion to trash his opponents when he really wasn’t, which was facilitated by a former long-time Senator Bennett staffer.”  If that seems incomprehensibly convoluted to you that’s because it is.  It’s a reverse-psychology dirty-trick you see.

Does your brain hurt yet?

The sad thing is that both of these men would probably be good, solidly conservative senators, probably.

Mike Lee knows the Constitution inside and out, and he is very consistent in his support for following the Constitution, even when it means taking the side of Energy Solutions when it comes to international contracts because international contracts fall under the constitutional authority of the National and not the State governments.  He is a real constitutional scholar with practical experience in applying the constitution to real-world situations.

Tim Bridgewater is an experienced businessman who truly believes in the free market, and understands the real-world consequences of National interference in the economy, taxes, and health-insurance.  He truly believes in limited government and is a real fiscal conservative with practical experience.

I’ll be voting for Mike Lee.  Why?  Here are my reasons:

1. Outgoing Senator Bob Bennett endorsed Bridgewater.  I was against Bennett before the convention because I want to replace Establishment Republicans with new, conservative outsiders who are focused on the Constitution.  By endorsing Bridgewater, Bennett essentially gave the Establishment Stamp of Approval to Bridgewater.  Establishment endorsement  = vote for the other guy.

2. The reverse-psychology dirty trick mentioned above really makes me angry.  Using those kinds of tactics to defeat a candidate makes me think that he must be a threat to the establishment.  And the fact that it was facilitated by a middle-man who was a D.C. staffer for Senator Bennett for many years reinforces that perception.  Dirty tricks by Establishment Republicans = vote for their target

3. Bridgewater’s ironic “my campaign is based on issues not negative attacks…Mike Lee is an evil, radioactive corporate pawn” fliers were craptastic.  Good bye moral high ground.  I first heard the Energy Solutions/Nuclear Waste attack against Lee in my caucus meeting from people who were big Bob Bennett supporters. Contradictory moralizing = fail!

4. I was attracted to Lee early on because of his firm understanding of the Constitution.  However, I was honestly worried about his positions because of some of the more radical conservatives who were rabidly supporting him and even linked to his campaign.  I contacted the campaign with my concerns.  I received a personal call from Mr. Lee and he chatted with me about his views, and those of some of his supporters for a good half an hour.  He and I don’t agree on everything, but he isn’t a Birther, or a 9/11 Truther, or any other kind of crazy.  Serious constitutional conservative – the crazy = my vote.

5. While I find Bridgewater’s business experience appealing, Free Market principles and practical experience alone are not going to be enough to get us out of the mess we are in.  We need someone with a solid, comprehensive, personal understanding of constitutional principles.  Bridgewater may not like D.C. Lawyers, but since his experience is in business not constitutional law, he’s going to have to hire a bunch of them to advise him if he wins anyway.  I’d rather have a candidate with an expert knowledge of the Constitution himself, and experience in applying it.  Outsourced constitutional knowledge = Fail! (If Bridgewater does win, I hope he’ll hire Mike Lee to advise him and vise-versa. Lincoln-style Appointing rivals = Win!)

6. The Mike Lee Campaign’s Google Voice Transcribed Voice Message is AWESOME!  I needed a laugh.

Anyhow, visit the candidate’s websites and vote for whomever you think would be best.

Utah County Candidates

I also feel strongly that we need some changes in the Alpine School District.  Consider voting for the following candidates:

A1-Lehi/Saratoga Springs/Eagle Mountain

Paula Hill (http://paulahill4u.wordpress.com/)

Casey Voeks (http://www.caseyvoeks.com/)

A2-Highland/Alpine/Cedar Hills/Small segment of Northeast Lehi

Wendy Hart (http://wendyhart2010.com)

Zonda Perry (http://www.zonda.org)

A3-American Fork

Incumbent-Tim Osborn (http://www.electtimosborn.com/)

A5-Southwest Orem

Scott Bell (http://www.BELLforSchoolBoard.com)

Brad Thompson

…Hi, this is J. Max Wilson. Sort of. I found it and I agree.

———————————-

Dear delegates,

Thanks for reaching out to ask for my opinion and for all your work to represent us at the state convention.

You might remember me from our neighborhood caucus meeting.  I also ran to be a state delegate with the intention of replacing Mr.Bennett.  I realize that in our precinct, most of you expressed support for Mr.Bennett, and that professor Frederickson, in particular, is a personal friend for his (though she did emphasize, to her credit, that just because she is a friend does not mean that she agrees with him).  I hope you realize that I do not think he is a bad person.  He has done what he thinks is right, and that is admirable.  I do think, however, that what Mr. Bennett thinks is right and what I think is right are no longer aligned.

Yes, it is true that working within the current system Mr. Bennett would be able to leverage his seniority to direct federal monies to Utah, and to Orem.  At our caucus meeting, Mayor Billings repeatedly emphasized that Mr. Bennett had been instrumental in getting the funding for several programs that have greatly benefited our city.  And if our goal were to continue to work within the current scheme of things then Mr. Bennett would clearly be the right man for the job.  But our goal isn’t to get the most out of the current scheme.  We aren’t just looking to get the most advantage out of the status quo.  The system is broken. Federal monies come with federal strings attached which are used to wield undue influence well beyond the constitutional roles of the national government. We are tired of selling our independence in exchange for federal money earmarked for our state and city.  We don’t want to get the most out of the current scheme, we want to overhaul the scheme to return it to the principles of liberty, limited government, and individual natural rights.

Mr. Bennett is part of the era of Big Government Republicanism with which we have all become so disillusioned.  No matter how good his intentions, he has been in Washington too long and as a consequence his views of how government should work have become mired in the status quo. The kind of changes we need to make in Washington require fresh, energetic, even revolutionary thinking to re-found our nation on the principles of good government identified by the original founders.  Under our constitutional republic, revolutions are fought with ballots instead of bullets. We want a revolution at the ballot box. We want a new senator that represents the principles of our revolution.  That is why Mr. Bennett will not be reelected.

I encourage you to reject the current scheme of things in Washington and embrace the need for new representation by voting for Mike Lee or Cherilyn Eager for Senator at the Utah State Republican Convention on May 8th.

Thank you for considering my point of view,

J. Max Wilson
http://www.sixteensmallstones.org

Well, part of the reason is that the official Utah voter website isn’t on utah.gov. No, that would make too much sense. It is at www.LeaveYourPrint.com . Which doesn’t make any sense at all, because finger prints are not required to vote in Utah.

The Leave Your Print website IS the official government voter portal. So why isn’t there a big announcement for it right on the homepage of utah.gov? 21 Days left before the election and there isn’t a single link to LeaveYourprint.com anywhere from the official state website?

That said, LeaveYourPrint.com is a vast improvement over what has previously been available. If you live in Utah, I recommend that you go there as soon as possible. The interface is fairly clean, though the red theme is a bit strong.

The website will ask you for your name, birth date, the county in which you live, and the numerical portion of the beginning of the address of your residence.

Based on that information the website will tell you whether or not you are registered to vote, what party you are affiliated with if any, and your Precinct. Then it will then give you a list of all of the candidates, initiatives, constitutional amendments, etc. that will appear on your ballot. Each ballot item is a link to information about the candidate, with contact information and websites so you can learn more. The candidate information portion of the website could be better implemented. Currently it is just a bunch of PDF documents. But it is better than nothing.

The website really should include mash-ups with Google maps to show precinct, district, and county boundaries, as well as your voting location, but it doesn’t. At least it tells you where you are supposed to go to vote, though.

Remember, the last day for registering to vote by mail has already passed. You can still register in person at your county clerk’s office through October 20th. However, if you were not registered to vote by October 6, you are not eligible for early voting, so if you register in person by the 20th, you will have to vote on November 4th.

You should re-register if your name has changed, or you have moved to a new residence since you last registered.

Please take the time to learn about the candidates before the election.

So in sum: the new tools provided on the website are a great step forward. But the “Leave Your Print” domain name and website name is lame and confusing and frankly, a waste of money. The marketing guy who came up with it should be fired. These tools should simply be at vote.utah.gov with a great big, obvious link on the front page of the utah.gov website. The fact that there are NO LINKS to the new website from utah.gov, let alone on the front page, is completely inexcusable.

Here is a slideshow of photos I took at this year’s festival, including explanatory captions to give those of you who have never been a taste.

http://picasaweb.google.com/jmaxwilson/FestivalOfIndia2008#

The temple building itself is an interesting addition to the Utah landscape, located across the street from the Kingdom Hall of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. It had not yet been constructed in 1996 when I first attended the festival, and I have watched over the subsequent years as it was built. The LDS Church apparently contributed a considerable amount to its construction through its philanthropic arm, the LDS Foundation .

The annual festival is a celebration of the legendary king Ramachanda , and his defeat of the 10 headed demon Ravana . They believe Ramachandra, or Rama, was an incarnation, or Avatar, of their Hindu god Vishnu.

At the climax of the festival, there is a theatrical, musical retelling of the Ramayana , the epic story of Ramachandra, how his wife Sita was kidnapped by Ravana, and how Rama saved his wife and led an army to destroy the 10 headed demon. To the adherents of Hindu, the story is scripture. The presentation is extremely abridged from the original drama, which apparently can last days, and has become even more abridged since the first time I saw it performed in 1996.

At the end of the drama, the character playing Rama, accompanied by the other characters, leaves the stage into the audience. The people in the audience stand and follow him to the top of the hill, where they have previously erected a 25 to 30 foot image of Ravana (see the slideshow above). Ramachandra then fires flaming darts at the image of the demon (represented by Roman candles), and the demon image is ignited and burned to the ground while participants in the crowd cheer and throw stones at it while fireworks explode overhead.

After the incineration, the crowd gathers around a band that plays music while they chant the Krishna Mantra and dance. The mantra is a chant of words praising Rama and Krishna that the Hindu believe imparts power and intelligence simply by being repeated continually.

From what I understand, in the ritual the demon Ravana represents the wickedness in each person and by joining Rama in destroying him the participants symbolically purge themselves of their own wickedness.

As I mentioned, have attended the event for a number of years, and every time I am careful to not participate in either the ritual burning of Ravana or the mantra chant, since I understand them to be forms of Vishnu worship, and I intend only to be an observer.

However, every year I note a number of clearly LDS BYU students who join in throwing stones and the ritual defeat of Ravana and in the mantra chanting with the band. Mostly I believe that they participate because of their naivete about what is going on. But there are a few that exhibit a frivolity that I consider disrespectful of the beliefs of others, and their participation is done as a subtle form of mockery—they participate because it is ridiculous to them.

In either case, every year their participation concerns me and in my opinion, they are accidentally worshiping Vishnu. I would hope that they would have both enough circumspection and enough respect for the beliefs of others to refrain from joining in the ritual and mantra.

At the same time, I realize that just as Latter-day Saints do not deny the Sacrament to visitors, the Krishna adherents are not likely upset by the accidental worship of their visitors. For all I know they may be pleased by the number of local Mormon college students gaining power from praising Krishna and Ramachandra. At least they seem to encourage it by calling on the crowd to chant with them and using a band with catchy rhythms to make the chanting fun.

This year one of them even commented to the crowd that “worship should always be this fun.”

Should LDS BYU students be participating in the rituals and worship of other gods, even inadvertently? Even in the name of mutual understanding? I feel that they should not. What do you think?

But since today are the Utah State Neighborhood Caucuses, I wanted to encourage all of you to attend your Precinct meeting tonight.

I have been involved with my local precincts for a number of years now.

Did you know that unless you participate in the Caucuses tonight it is very likely that some of your elected representatives will be put into office without you having a say in it? For some elections the winner is decided only by those delegates you elect in your caucuses, so that there is never a primary or general election vote.

A friend of mine spent the time to quickly write a Beginner’s Guide to the Utah Neighborhood Caucuses, which I am posting here for those of you who want to understand what the caucus is for and why it is important that you attend.

These are his first drafts, so they could use some editing, but they should be helpful anyway.

Download and read the following two PDF documents. Email them to your friends and family. The first is an overview of what the caucuses are and how they work. The second discusses some real-life Utah politics examples of how elections are influenced by the caucuses.

CaucusesExplained.pdf
CaucusExamples.pdf

Hope some of you find this information useful.

Soon I will return to more regular blogging, with some exciting new projects, some new original poetry, and more commentary on things that are important to me.

In an anti-voucher PowerPoint presentation he acquired, Oak uncovered given to Oak by a nameless source, the the following incriminating meta-data was noticed:

Created: Tuesday, July 31, 2007 9:08 PM
Modified: Friday, October 12, 2007 10:13 AM
Last saved by: Cache County School District
Revision number: 30
Total editing time: 689 Minutes

Here is the screenshot:

Now it may be that the file was created by someone else, and merely opened and saved by an individual in the Cache County District . However, if it was actually created at a Cache County District computer, and they used 689 minutes of their time to create it, then that is a serious abuse and against state election laws.

Whether or not you agree with or oppose the the voucher laws (HB 148 and HB 174) that have been proposed, we should all oppose this kind of illegal misuse of school resources.

In full disclosure, while they are certainly not perfect, I favor the voucher laws. However, if Pro-Voucher advocates were illegally using school resources to further their cause, I would oppose their actions just as much.

UPDATE: Oak has sent me a copy of the PowerPoint document. When I open it in OpenOffice and look at the document properties, it says that it was created by someone named “Mandy” on July 31, 2007 at 21:08:54 hours. Opening the file properties in Windows also lists the author as “Mandy.” It was last modified by the “Cache County School District” on Oct. 3, 2007 at 07:08:48 hours.

I also have a forwarded copy of the email used to transmit the PowerPoint presentation, which appears to have been sent using official @cache.k12.ut.us email addresses to what appears to be a listserv or email distribution list on the @cache.k12.ut.us.

If anyone wants a copy of the PowerPoint file or the email, let me know in the comments and I will send it to you.

I will be posting my notes on the sessions I attend in a subsequent post when I get a moment. However, it may have to wait until after the Weird Al Yankovic concert at the State Fair tonight.

White and Nerdy

The storytelling festival is absolutely awesome! If you have never been, and can be in Utah County this week, it really is worth checking out.

Every year, they invite ten or so of the most accomplished national and even international storytellers to come to Utah to teach workshops and perform for the festival. The festival is well known among professional storytellers, and each year the tellers comment on how impressive the event is when compared to similar events nation wide. Thousands of people attend.

Most of the daytime events are held at the beautiful new Mt. Timpanogos Park, just up the mouth of Provo Canyon, which Orem City built specifically for the festival. Large evening performances are in the SCERA Shell Amphitheater at SCERA Park in Orem.

My Puppetry Troupe, Maxed Out Puppetry, has performed as part of the festival as local entertainment, for at least six years.

This year, though, we have the first-time opportunity to provide the pre-show entertainment for the Bedtime Stories event on Friday Night at 5:30pm. It should be a ton of fun.

Additionally I will be performing briefly on Saturday Morning at 11:00am with local, professional Mime, Joe Flores. Joe has been teaching me mime on and off for the last few years, and I have performed with him periodically before. Mime is such a cool form for theater. And the kids love it.

If you have never been to the festival before, I recommend going to the “Laughin’ Night” event at the SCERA Shell on Saturday night. The ten featured storytellers each tell their funniest stories. You’ll laugh until you choke. Tickets for just that event are available.

You can find out all about the festival at www.TimpFest.org .

See you there!

Click her for Concert details.

And just to get you in the mood, here is a video mashup of Skook’s song “Popularity” with the incomparable Jerry Lewis dancing from a scene of the 1963 version of The Nutty Professor:

[Watch video at Google Video]

See you there!

Here is a brief video of the fire burning this evening above the foothills in northern Provo Utah, near the Edgemont neighborhood, as visible from a street near my home:

[Watch video at Google Video]

These fires always cause considerable damage, let’s hope they get it extinguished soon and that nobody is hurt or killed.

UPDATE: Here is some additional video. Forgive the heavy breathing, I had just run to the end of the street and am out of shape…

[Watch the video at Google Video]

Incidentally, Edgemont is where I grew up. I went to Canyon Crest Elementary School, and I have family that lives near there.

UPDATE 2: The fire is mostly under control now, though it looks like they may be airlifting some people out of the foothills. Final video:

[Watch video on Google Video]

UPDATE 3: Despite appearances from last night of having been largely extinguished, the fire still rages on this morning. According to the news, it was started when a lawnmower hit a rock which caused a spark that ignighted the dry grass. No homes have been damaged, and nobody has been hurt.

[Watch video on Google Video]

I know what a bad feeling it is to go into the voting booth and to look at empty names, with no idea who they are or what they want to accomplish other than what I can assume from their party affiliation. So, as part of my volunteer efforts for Citizens’ Resource we now have short, online video presentations by nearly all of the candidates that will appear in contested races on the Utah County ballot available on Google video.

Hopefully all of you will take advantage of email, blogs, and the word-of-mouth power of “viral marketing” to help as many people view these videos as possible before voting on November 7th.

1. Watch the videos in the races you will be voting on.

2. Email a copy of this post to as many Utah County voters as you can.

3. If you have a blog, tell your readers about the videos and encourage them to watch them and to tell others as well. Also, because the videos are on the Google video service, you can go to the video web page and embed any of the videos right into your own blog or website. Feel free to contact me if you need help doing this.

I’ve posted all of the videos here on my personal blog in addition to the Citizens’ Resource website.

Video Introduction to the 2006 Candidate Preview by Jessica Connors

Video is available for one or more candidates in the following:

2006 Utah Candidates for U.S. Senate

2006 Utah Candidates for U.S. Congress District 2

2006 Utah Candidates for U.S. Congress District 3

2006 Utah Candidates for Utah County Commissioner

2006 Utah Candidates for State Senate District 11

2006 Utah Candidates for State Senate District 15

2006 Utah Candidates for State Legislative District 58

2006 Utah Candidates for State Legislative District 60

2006 Utah Candidates for State Legislative District 61

2006 Utah Candidates for State Legislative District 64

2006 Utah Candidates for Provo School Board District P4

2006 Utah Candidates for Nebo School Board District N5

Video is not available for the following races:

Utah State House of Representatives District 27

John Dougall (Republican Party, Incumbent)

Elizabeth Ann Rice-McFarlane (Democratic Party)

Utah State House of Representatives District 59

Lorie Fowlke (Republican, Incumbent)
Website: http://www.votelorie.com

Russ Zimmerman (Libertarian Party)
Website: http://www.utahlib.org/russzimmerman

Utah State School Board District 3

Edward A. Dalton (Nonpartisan, Incumbent)

Richard Moss (Nonpartisan)

A special thanks to all of the candidates, the individuals at Utah Valley State College, and Jessica Connors for the many, many hours spent filming, editing, and preparing this candidate preview.

Charles Garn Coombs (Nonpartisan)
Website:
Video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5458269664888729926

Rodney H. Oldroyd (Nonpartisan)
Website:
Video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7772883797363200606

Shannon Poulsen (Nonpartisan, Incumbent)
Website:
Video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6674443459039439133

Norman Thurston (Nonpartisan)
Website: http://electnorm.blogspot.com
Video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3931335489527902501

Shaun Knapp (Constitution Party)
Website: http://www.hangingbyathread.us
Video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1186903270633314799

Becky Lockhart (Republican Party, Incumbent)
Website: http://www.beckylockhart.com
Video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3864480697777806672

Kenneth Peay (Democratic Party)
Website: http://www.kenpeay.com
Video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2228429926041857002

Susan Chasson (Democratic Party)
Website: http://www.checkchasson.com
Video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2438534405186036577

Keith Grover (Republican Party)
Website: http://www.keithgrover.com
Video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-355463890933514836

Steve Saunders (Constitution Party)
Website: http://steve.fami.ly
Video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4906906912319727301