My experience at my precinct caucus meeting

Two years ago I attended my Republican Party precinct caucus meeting. I had attended previous caucuses, but this was my first as part of the WX05 precinct. The meeting was held at Woods Cross Elementary School. The state party platform was read and then from there the meeting was completely different from any one that I had been to previously. The majority of the precinct members attend the same LDS Church Ward. Since I'm not a member of that ward, I can't say for sure what happened, but, it appeared to me that a lot of the campaigning for the chair and delegate positions had taken place in that LDS Ward meetings. Nominations were made, then votes were cast. No time was given for the candidates to give a speech about why they should be elected. Now, do you think I'm excited to participate in this year's precinct caucus meeting? Maybe I'll send spies to their church meetings Sunday to see what goes on.

Do political bloggers need federal protection?

There was an interesting article on ZDNet yesterday titled "Political bloggers may get federal protection." One small quote from the article states:
"Bloggers should be treated no different from talk radio," said Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald, a California Democrat. "Talk radio hosts have protections under the First Amendment. While I may disagree with their positions on the issues of the day, I will nonetheless fight for their right to speak their mind."
It will be great if this legislation actually passes. I don't think most political bloggers are out to intentionally break federal election laws. I think most of us just like to comment about what we see in the world around us, and our interest happens to be in politics.

When to use eminent domain?

When should a city use eminent domain? That is one of the toughest questions a city council must deal with. A Deseret Morning News article talks about Provo using eminent domain for a performing arts center. This may be allowed by law, but, is it good public policy? I believe there are very few times when a city should even threaten the use of eminent domain. Using eminent domain for the health and safety of it's citizens is a good use of it. Using the threat of eminent domain to coerce someone into selling their property is, in my opinion, always a bad idea.
What constitutes threatening eminent domain? I don't know the legal definition, but, if I personally received a letter from an attorney stating something along the lines of:

Dear Mr. Van Ry,
Woods Cross City needs to acquire property owned by you for the purpose of providing access to the city park. It is the desire of the City to obtain your property through negotiation rather than filing a condemnation proceeding.
Please respond within 30 days to complete this transaction.

I would feel that the city was threatening eminent domain. I believe most reasonable people would also feel the same way.

What's in a Name?

An article in the Deseret Morning News says that UTA will unveil the name for their commuter-rail line tomorrow. In the article, UTA says they ruled out Wasatch Area Rapid Transit because it could be shortened to WART. Let's hope they don't call it Wasatch Front Area Rapid Transit. W-FART is much worse then WART. Since it runs the entire length of Davis County, I say we call it Davis Area Rapid Transit or DART. Mayor Rocky Anderson probably wouldn't like that. Maybe we should call it the Rocky Rocket, except, Davis County commuters probably wouldn't ride it then. Coming up with a name for commuter-rail isn't as easy as it seems.

Ethics are ok for you, not for me.

Well, the legislative session has ended. Our state legislators apparently think it's ok to impose ethics restrictions on others but not on themselves. This session ended with them passing SB108, which is titled "Ethics in Dental Advertising," however, they failed to pass HB94, titled "Ban on Gifts to Elected Officials." They also failed to pass HB101, titled "Lobbyist Gift Limits and Disclosure." Apparently they think that Dentists have a harder time with ethics then state legislators do. (I believe it takes more schooling to be a dentist, than a state legislator.)