Utah

From One US Ambassador To China To Another: Jon Huntsman To Gary Locke

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President Obama announced today the appointment of Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke to be the next US Ambassador to China, succeeding former Republican Governor of Utah Jon Huntsman, who has resigned to run for the Republican nomination for President.

Obama thanked Huntsman for his service, and did not joke, as he has done before, about Huntsman’s plan to challenge him for the White House. Huntsman, who speaks Mandarin Chinese, was seen as performing excellently in China, but has now demonstrated presidential ambitions, and on paper, is one of the best choices that the Republicans have, if only they used common sense, which is not seen as likely!

Locke, meanwhile, Chinese American himself, was County Executive of King County, Washington, which includes Seattle, and also served two four year terms as Governor of Washington, and now has served for more than two years as Secretary of Commerce. His experience in the Commerce Department will be an aid to promotion of more equalized trade between the US and China, and he will be the first Chinese ethnic to be ambassador to the nation of his ancestors.

This appointment is one of the most important ambassadorial positions, with the rising role of China economically and in foreign policy and defense, and the nation is fortunate that Obama has made two excellent appointments to this position in his short time as President!

The Insanity Of Weapons On College Campuses: How Does It Promote Safety And Security?

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Texas and Arizona are leading the charge in promoting the idea of allowing guns on college campuses to prevent against threats to students and professors, as most infamous in the Virginia Tech massacre of 2006, but also present in other circumstances and incidents over the years.

Anyone over the age of 21 could carry a gun on campus under the Arizona proposal. How would one enforce this, when one considers that the majority of college students are under 21? And how does this save professors and students from a crazed gunman?

Does it not in fact promote the danger of any student unhappy with a grade, or angry at his girlfriend because of a dispute, or just anyone depressed and stressed, from opening up on fellow students and professors?

Would not the extreme rarity of a Virginia Tech event be worsened by exchanges of gunfire within a classroom or in a student lounge, as crossfire could lead to more people being harmed than otherwise? Are we not overreacting to a occasional tragic event, which could better be prevented by having strict gun control laws to prevent unstable people from having the ability to purchase a gun at a Walmart or other place similar, as Jared Loughner did in Tucson, Arizona before shooting Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and killing six victims and wounding twelve people?

By this logic being promoted, then all high school students and teachers and administrators should have weapons on their person so as to prevent another high school massacre as at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado!

Utah is the only state to allow guns on all college campuses, but with the likelihood of Texas and Arizona joining them, the reality is that there will be more tragic shootings and deaths, not fewer.

But this is the gun lobby at its most extreme, and the nation is moving toward more violence, not less, in a country already with the highest death rate from guns in the world!

Mainstream Republicans An Endangered Species: Bad Omen For The Future

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The Republican Party, in its mad dash to the far right, is about to consume its few mainstream members in the US Senate.

Maine Senator Olympia Snowe is facing a likely Tea Party opponent, and Utah Senator Orrin Hatch was booed at the recent CPAC convention, despite his solidly conservative voting record over the past 35 years.

Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown has lost the support of the Tea Party, which originally was thrilled by his winning of Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat in 2010, and may also face a primary challenge.

But the repudiation in Indiana of Senator Richard Lugar, the senior Republican and foreign policy expert, by his own party leadership, is a major blow to a Senator who could be called more than a politician, instead a statesman.

Lugar made enemies voting for the START Treaty with Russia, opposing a ban on earmarks, and supporting Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan for the Supreme Court. He has been called Barack Obama’s favorite Republican.

So Indiana State Treasurer Richard Mourdock, not a Tea Party leader, is challenging Lugar, although it is believed that Governor Mitch Daniels and Indiana Congressman Mike Pence may stay neutral in the primary race due on May 8, 2012.

Will Lugar get the message and decide to retire after 36 years? It seems unlikely, but his loss would be a major blow to moderate conservatism and the future of the Republican Party image nationally.

The “Dark Horse” To Watch For The GOP Presidential Nomination: Jon Huntsman Of Utah

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As the Republican Presidential race is about to begin, former Utah Governor and US Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman is the man to watch, the so called “dark horse” in the multi candidate race.

Huntsman accepted the offer of President Barack Obama to be the Ambassador to China in 2009, and has filled that post very well for the past almost two years. Skilled in Mandarin Chinese and considered an expert on Asian affairs generally, Huntsman is a brilliant, talented man, only 50 years old, and very photogenic and charismatic to boot!

His decision to resign his post in China, plus his purchase of a home in Washington, DC, give broad hints that he is going to seek the Presidential nomination, and he so hinted over a month ago in an interview in Newsweek Magazine.

What are his negatives? Well, he is a Mormon like Mitt Romney, which will upset many evangelical Christians who consider the Church of Latter Day Saints a cult religion, and not really Christian.

Also, by agreeing to work for President Obama, it makes him somewhat suspect in GOP circles, and Obama even joked last month that he thought Huntsman would really please Republican leaders, leading to Obama’s cute way of chuckling! 🙂

Also, Huntsman is definitely a moderate centrist, unwilling to take the strong right wing stands of other Republicans, and not willing to cave in to Tea Party activists.

In a poll of Mormons in Utah, it is clear that they favor fellow Mormon Mitt Romney, who seems much more dedicated to his faith than is Huntsman. Also, as Governor of Utah, Huntsman took socially moderate positions on abortion, illegal immigration, and civil unions for gays and lesbians, which would antagonize most orthodox Mormons.

But his socially moderate views, his brilliance and intelligence and service in China, his good looks and charisma, and his mainstream Republicanism generally, could actually set him apart in the race, and if the GOP wishes to have a real shot at defeating President Obama, Huntsman would probably be their best bet, even more than Mitt Romney who has always been seen as trying to cater to the right wing even though his record shows he is actually in the center, or was, as Governor of Massachusetts, including a health care plan strikingly similar to that of President Obama!

So if the GOP wants a real shot at winning, they would be wise to turn to Huntsman, rather than to cater to the right wing Christian conservatives and Tea Party activists!

So stay tuned as we see whether the GOP is ready to commit suicide and go for a KNOW NOTHING such as Sarah Palin or Michele Bachmann, or a FLAME THROWER such as Newt Gingrich, or a bland boring candidate such as Tim Pawlenty, or a Baptist preacher big spender as Governor such as Mike Huckabee, or a “phony” conservative such as Mitt Romney!

Jon Huntsman Emerges As Possible GOP Presidential Candidate!

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Jon Huntsman, the US Ambassador to China, former US Ambassador to Singapore, Deputy US Trade Representative, and Republican Governor of Utah, has suddenly hinted interest in running for the Presidential nomination in 2012, despite having served under President Obama in Beijing for the past two years, and thought to be unlikely to run for political office against the man who appointed him!

Huntsman would be an attractive moderate in the Republican race, having championed unpopular gay rights legislation in a heavily Mormon state, modified the state’s liquor laws, and publicly backed environmental legislation, all steps toward appealing to groups that would ordinarily dismiss Republicans as an alternative to vote for.

But being a Mormon as Mitt Romney is, would not be a plus, and his moderation on many social issues, having worked for Obama, and being out of the political wars of the past two years, all seem to be negatives for him.

Although Huntsman is spreading the rumor that he might run for the White House, it would still be surprising to see him make a full scale assault on the President, and it would make more sense for him to wait until 2016, when the political climate would be different, and President Obama would not be running for reelection.

The Census And Reapportionment: Will The Republicans Self Destruct Their Theoretical Advantage By Their Anti Immigration Stand?

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The census figures for 2010 that came out two days ago indicate, theoretically, that the Republican Party should benefit, as most of the states that gained House seats are considered “red states”.

Specifically, Texas gained four seats, Florida two seats, Georgia one seat, South Carolina one seat, Arizona one seat and Utah one seat, along with Nevada gaining one seat and Washington State also gaining one seat.

Notice that these states have very high immigration rates, especially Hispanic–particularly Florida, Texas, Arizona, and Nevada, and the facts show that the vast majority of new population in these states is due to immigration growth, whether legal or illegal.

So while the GOP can be expected to gain seats in the House of Representatives, as well as the state legislatures for the short term, it is also reality that if they continue to alienate Latino voters who are legal with their anti immigration stand, the bulk of the new population that can vote will be more likely to vote Democratic, which is the normal tradition anyway for Latinos, except for Cubans in Florida.

So even with short term gains by the Republicans, they could indeed “shoot themselves in the foot” politically long term, and rue the day they decided to take a hard nosed stand against immigration, both legal and illegal, particularly in dealing with the children of illegals, who should not be blamed for what their parents did, and therefore deny them the right to become citizens via military service or college education, leaving them in limbo in the only country they remember!

The apparent refusal of the Republicans to consider the DREAM Act will likely reverberate, and benefit the Democrats, and a party that only appeals to whites is doomed in the long run, as the population of the country will be majority non white by 2040 and after!

So this will be a growing factor in American politics as the years of this new decade go by!

Texas Tea Party And Conservative Republican Dominance Today, But Long Range, Democrats Have Advantage

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Texas has become a solid Tea Party-Conservative Republican state, arguably the most right wing state, although with strong competition from Florida, South Carolina, Idaho, Utah, Oklahoma, Arizona and Kansas.

It has the longest serving Governor in the nation, Rick Perry, who has endorsed the idea of state secession, even though that was supposedly resolved 150 years ago!

It is the home of Senator John Cornyn, and Congressmen Louie Gohmert, Joe Barton,  Randy Neugebauer, Jeb Hensarling, Pete Olson, Ted Poe, Pete Sessions,  Lamar Smith, and of course, the best known of all, libertarian Ron Paul!

It is also a state in which two Democrats just switched parties and gave the GOP a two thirds plus one margin in the State House, making it a veto proof legislative body.

This is a state which has promoted secession and states rights; propagandized in the History curriculum so as to distort and omit large portions of history and de-emphasize historical personalities and events; worked to undermine the study of evolution in favor of Christianity on the state level; became the leader of anti abortion and anti gay rights crusades; and has an oligarchy of powerful financial interests who aim to keep Hispanic, Latino and African American populations in a dependent state and deny them bilingual education, equal job opportunity, and even the ability to study their own heritage, as it may lead to immigration raids to arrest illegal immigrants.

It is hard to believe that Texas was the state that gave us Sam Houston,Lyndon Johnson, Sam Rayburn, and many others who made the state renowned!

The problem for the GOP is that while now they have a tremendous edge, there could be a complete collapse of the Republican dominance within a generation in the state.

This is due to the fact that there are so many Hispanics in Texas, along with African Americans, that as time goes by and as the modern Republican Party manages to turn off most minority people, the likelihood of Democrats regaining majority status in the House of Representatives and in state government grows greater, particularly due to the present economic downtown, in which there are inadequate efforts to provide jobs and educational opportunities as government cuts back social services.  So although the GOP is more dominant than ever, Texas is going into turmoil which bodes for a change of the leadership statewide as Hispanic and Latino population become citizens and go in droves to the Democratic Party!  So Texas is likely to go “blue” in the near future, meaning by 2025-2030!

Nativism Spreading: Will Oklahoma, Utah, And South Carolina Follow The Lead of Arizona? :(

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Just as the US government has sued in federal court to prevent the Arizona immigration law from being put into effect on July 29, there are strong indications that at least three other states are planning similar actions next year! 🙁

The three states are not all that surprising, when one considers the reputation that these states have gained by their political choices!

Oklahoma, the state of Senators James Inhofe and Tom Coburn, arguably two of the worst Senators in American history, is one of them!

A second state is Utah, a Mormon dominated state, which has just defeated a strong conservative, Robert Bennett, for another six year term in the Senate, in the GOP state convention. Bennett was a reasonable man, so of course, he was defeated, and the ensuing primary runoff of two Tea Party favorites led to the nomination and likely election of Mike Lee, a candidate with similar views as Rand Paul in Kentucky and Sharron Angle in Nevada!

And the third state is South Carolina, the state of Senator Jim DeMint, also one of the worst senators in US history! But this is also the state of Governor Mark Sanford, who has stayed in office despite his embarrassing sex scandal, going to Argentina to see his lover behind his wife’s back, and not informing state officials of his location while absent! This is also the state of Congressman Joe Wilson, who yelled “You lie!” at President Obama as he gave a speech to the nation on Capitol Hill!

These three states would rate with many observers as among the three worst governed, so it is not surprising that they would be seriously considering nativist legislation!

The question is whether the US government’s action regarding the Arizona immigration law will be able to prevent this unwise and discriminatory trend spreading to these three states, and possibly others! 🙁

Arizona And Utah: The Republicans Reject Both For The National Convention In 2012: Its Meaning

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Arizona is rapidly becoming a pariah because of its passage of an illegal immigration law last month!

Now it has reverberated on Arizona, as the Republican National Committee chose Tampa over Phoenix and Salt Lake City as the site of the 2012 Republican National Convention!

The author predicted this a couple of months ago, as Arizona and Utah were guaranteed GOP states, so why hold the convention in either location? Florida made a lot more sense, as the state which has the most electoral votes of the three contending states, and a state in play in the upcoming Presidential election of 2012!

Now, however, with Arizona going “off the deep end” with several laws on guns, and now banning ethnic studies being taught in public schools, along with the illegal immigration law, and with economic boycotts developing that will certainly hurt a state already having foreclosure problems in housing, the Republicans had good reason to go to Tampa.

And Utah, with its anti democratic way of eliminating a sitting Senator in a convention, and not permitting Senator Bennett the option of being on the primary ballot so that the voters could ultimately decide his fate, also gains a bad name and reputation! Both states seem to have become the most right wing states outside of a few Southern states, and that is not meant to be a compliment! 🙁

But ironically, Florida, the center of the contested 2000 Presidential election, will now host the convention, but the question arises whether the GOP will allow the sitting Governor Charlie Crist, who has just broken with the party and is running as an Independent, to show up at the convention to welcome the delegates, a normal routine for the Governor of any state!

So the Republicans have a very interesting situation caused by their final list of state candidates as hosts for their national convention! 🙂

Tea Party Extremists Gone Amuck: Defeat Of Utah Senator Robert Bennett!

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Senator Robert Bennett of Utah would be considered, by any reasonable standard, to be a solid conservative Republican, certainly in no way a liberal or moderate.

This man, a Mormon whose father Wallace Bennett served in the Senate before him; the grandson of the seventh president of the Mormon Church; and married to the granddaughter of the ninth President of the Mormon Church–was unable to win a fourth term nomination at the Republican State convention today!

What stood in the way of this senator, who voted against abortion, affirmative action, gay rights and marriage, health care reform, energy standards proposals, even emergency funding for Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina–and for the Patriot Act and tighter immigration controls, and repeal of the inheritance tax and support of the flat tax which favors the most wealthy taxpayers, among many other votes?

You would not believe that the vote which doomed Senator Bennett as NOT conservative enough, was his decision to support, as many others in the Senate and House did, the “bailout” of Wall Street institutions introduced by the Bush Administration in the fall of 2008, and continued in 2009 by President Obama’s Administration!

This event, the rejection of Senator Bennett, is an example of the absolutely sickening, crazy, loony Tea Party Movement’s influence, and a warning to Senator John McCain, Governor Charlie Crist and many others–establishment Republicans with a solid record of accomplishments for conservative causes–but also an element of individualism and maverick nature who DARED to use their brain, rather than ideology, to do what was the proper thing to do in a dire emergency, as we had not seen or experienced in 80 years!

The fact that what the US government has done has indeed worked toward the beginning of an economic revival does not matter to these lunatics! They are such “puritans” regarding their backwards ideology that they do not care what harm they do to the party which has best represented their right wing interests for all these years!

This is a warning to the GOP–continue to embrace the Tea Party extremists–and IF the American people have any common sense, these right wing rebels will be rejected at the polls this November!

Obviously, SOME of these characters will manage to get through and poison the political atmosphere, but Democrats MUST do whatever they can to keep the ship of state on an even keel, as a Tea Party takeover of American politics would be the triumph of insanity and harm the long term future of the United States!

By the way, there is the possibility that Senator Bennett will wage a write-in campaign for his seat, since this rejection was not in a primary where all registered Republicans could vote. With a famous name in Utah politics, and 18 years in the Senate behind him, it could occur that Senator Bennett will yet overcome the wingnuts who defeated him in the state convention today! For a state that is solidly conservative Republican, his eventual write in victory is the best that could be hoped for!