Time to clear out the post-holiday cobwebs, wethinksNow that we've gotten Memorial Day out of the way, we'll try to kick start some discussion with a series of thought provocative items uncovered this morning whilst Googling:
1) Ultra right-wing Utah conservatives are griping that too many political moderates showed up at the March Utah GOP caucuses, resulting in a situation where the state's most conservative politicians this year "have been outright defeated in convention or forced into primaries" Oh, the horror of this revolting development:
So what about it,
WCF readers? Is the
Utah GOP pendulum finally swinging back to some degree of normalcy, as
Brigham Young University professor Kelly Patterson suggests; or is Rep. Craig Frank correct in arguing that this is this
"merely a temporary setback" for the
Utah GOP "wingnut faction"?
2) Interesting Salt Lake Trib story this morning, reporting that a national sportsman's advocacy group, Sportsmen for Responsible Energy Development (SFED), is squaring off (more or less) against energy development advocates in an effort to tout the value of preserving fish and wildlife populations and natural/scenic areas to help drive long-term economic growth in the Rocky Mountains:
"This is not meant to be a one-versus-the-other scenario," said Rob Southwick, of Southwick Associates, which compiled the report which provoked this morning's
Trib story. That doesn't necessarily seem to be however what
SFED's website says:
Here's the full
SFED document in PDF format:
3) And here's a real eye popper. Former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman is listed here, right along with the likes of George Clooney, Antonio Banderas, Denzel Washington, Jon Bon Jovi, Samuel L. Jackson, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, Liam Neeson, and George Strait:
First time we've ever seen the word
"sexy" and the name of a politician used in the same sentence, we do believe.
4) Last but not least, Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne observes that conservative GOP values have recently suffered some serious mission creep:
Yeah. We know that Dianne is a known
liberal. Weirdly enough, this go-round however, this life long warhorse conservative (your blogmeister) agrees with every word Dionne says.
That's it for now, O Gentle Ones.
Chime in on any of the above suggested topics, or fire up a conversation all your own.
Time to clear out the post-holiday cobwebs, wethinks.
