Avast! Ye scurvy legislators!
It is altogether fitting and proper that Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. has called a special session of the Utah Legislature for Sept. 19.
Fitting because Sept. 19 also happens to be International Talk Like a Pirate Day.
Proper because the twin goals of the session are to loot the state's education treasury to provide tax cuts for the rich and to pillage a plan to expand TRAX light rail to the west and south parts of Salt Lake County in order to meet up with commuter rail service favored by the scalawags from Utah County.
We can see it now:
"Aaaargh! The chair recognizes the scurvy dog from Provo! Ye lubber!".
Watch for the Jolly Roger to fly over the Capitol Tuesday.
-- George Pyle
Fitting because Sept. 19 also happens to be International Talk Like a Pirate Day.
Proper because the twin goals of the session are to loot the state's education treasury to provide tax cuts for the rich and to pillage a plan to expand TRAX light rail to the west and south parts of Salt Lake County in order to meet up with commuter rail service favored by the scalawags from Utah County.
We can see it now:
"Aaaargh! The chair recognizes the scurvy dog from Provo! Ye lubber!".
Watch for the Jolly Roger to fly over the Capitol Tuesday.
-- George Pyle
4 Comments:
Nicely written. Huntsman as Bush. Looting is the proper word. The wealthy, including Huntsman, get a tax break - God, when does this gouging of middle-class and poor taxpayers stop! Why can't the rich, the wealthy - who have been overcharging the middle class and poor for years to create and maintain obscene homes, property, boats, first-class this, that and everything - meet their pornographic needs on their own? God knows, they have the bucks.
It won't happen in Utah, but surely what has been happening on the political scenes around the country should dictate to the astute, smart, intelligent, god-loving Utahns (I love that word), that Republicans on the national and local levels are stealing them blind. BLIND! Why?
My hunch is that because the likes of Huntsman, Bennett, Hatch, Matheson (the sheep in sheep's clothing), Bishop (appropriately named) and Cannon have the elders' power - they are white, male Mormons and 75 percent of the people in this state have to abide with their wisdom.
I am not being obtuse. My son and daughter both were converted into Mormonism. I love and respect them and encourage them to live their lives accordingly.
But the majority in this state are sheep and follow the shephard, lack courage to be independent and thoughtful and think they're doing God's will by straddlng the narrow lane that the dominant while male leaders what them to tread.
My dream, and I know it's a dream, is that the women of Utah go into the voting booth and, knowing it's secret and that only they and God - and not the male elders - know for whom they cast their votes, speak up and vote for 1) the First Amendment, 2) the entire Constitution, 3)women's rights, 4) an end to the slaughter of their sons and daughters and 5) help to get this country back to the people. Let them help take back the United States from the rich and the very rich politicians.
Pop! The dream bubble just burst. Damn reality!
yukisama makes good points. But, indeed, as the person wrote, it would be a dream to have those right-wingers frog-marched out of office. But, it's Utah, and it will be the end of the world before that happens.
But still it's difficult for me to believe that Utah voters can't see that they elect men who do nothing for them, just pad their wallets and resumes.
Since you don't offer new postings very often, let me write my comments here about the Tribune's new look.
Why the change? The fancy graphs, bars, color, charts and other unread nonsense take away what should be the intent of any good newspaper - content.
Former Publisher John Gallivan said it right: "If it's not broke, don't fix it."
Well, if the content in today's edition is an example of what Tribune readers can expect, it's time to subscribe to The LATimes, NYTimes or Washington Post for national news - which I do - and to search local television news for happenings in Utah. The latter, though, will just fill your void of traffic accidents - if the camera crew got there in time - and brand new cooking recipes.
The content of local news in today's paper (Sunday Sept. 17) causes me to stifle a yawn. No, a dozen yawns.
Here's the list of Utah stories:
# Summer gets snowed under as temperatures and flakes descend
# Mullen: Running for office? Read this
# Lightning leads to a power surge, gas leak at Kennecott
# Living History: From ice skaters to rollerbladers, Liberty Park still beautiful
# Utah animal lovers wade into disasters
# Best Friends: The no-kill animal group grows steadily
# Civil rights boss wants to topple separation wall
# Tax reform: What's it all mean to you?
# Web site marries slogans to polygamy T-shirts
# Off the Agenda: Councilwoman out of mayor's race
# Tongan king memorial will be tonight
# Free speech suit against Park City dismissed, though artist may refile
# Promise dealt blow by fatal crash
# Tanker spills fuel, briefly catches fire
# Feds reviewing cases of violence against Navajos
# Sheriff's office investigates murder-suicide of 82-year-old man, wife found near Beaver
# Pace at library returns to normal after blast
# Legislation in Congress bans mountain bikes
# Suspect dies in shootout with officer
# Kids make museum Discovery
# Man loses paratransit ride
Not a single investigative piece. No story in that list enlightens anyone in Utah; none of them add anything to one's knowledge; not a single story mirrors good writing. The content appears to have been applied with a grout trowel.
Please give me a single, intelligent reason for subscribing to the Tribune.
Interesting story about the former owners of the Tribune(see below).I really think the Tribune was a much better newspaper when the former owners had it. I think its reporters covered the valley and state government with vision and enthusiasm, both of which are lacking now.
I think the Tribune is too heavy on looks at the expense of content. The writing is sophomoric and the reporting is stilted and unenlightened. I get the feeling readers are "talked-down" too.
I hadn't realized the Tribune is "renting" property at the Gateway. I thought a Tribune editorial goal was to support a strong downtown, and the Gateway is not downtown. And, renting? Damn, how cheap, unstable and unbusinesslike that seems for a major power with historic roots in the community.
But, then, Singleton was never considered shrewd, in the good sense, just cheap and caring only about the bottom line.
Hurry back, McCartheys! We need a good newspaper in Salt Lake City.
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Former Trib owners revive battle
By Paul Foy
Associated Press
Lawyers for the former owners of Utah's largest newspaper asked a federal judge Friday to reopen their case seeking to buy back the Salt Lake Tribune.
The 6-year-old case took a detour three years ago into a dispute over the value of the newspaper. That matter has yet to be resolved, but lawyers for the McCarthey family and a former publisher, Dominic Welch, say both cases should proceed in tandem.
The main battle pits Phil McCarthey, chairman of a management group that once controlled the Tribune, against William Dean Singleton, MediaNews chief executive and vice chairman, who outmaneuvered the McCarthey group when he bought the Tribune for $200 million in 2001.
Singleton later offered the paper to the former owners for $355.5 million, a price set by a series of appraisals, but the McCartheys refused, calling the figure inflated. Now they contend the value of the paper — and its readership — has declined.
Friday's motion was filed by Albuquerque lawyer Victor R. Marshall, who helped a family wrangle ownership of the Santa Fe New Mexican from Gannett Co. in a decades-old case similar to the battle over the Salt Lake Tribune.
"This case — the main case between the parties — has been pending for almost six years without making much progress toward an overall resolution, primarily because of the unanticipated need for several appeals," Marshall said in a 7-page motion also signed by Salt Lake City attorney Steven Marsden.
Because the main ownership battle could take several more years to resolve, they asked U.S. District Judge Tena Campbell in Salt Lake City to reopen it while the newspaper's value is determined.
A federal appeals court reversed Campbell two months ago after she ruled the courts had no authority to second-guess appraisals for the newspaper.
The Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered Campbell to consider whether the appraisals were lawful, but she removed herself without explanation from the case shortly afterward.
The appraisal case bounced through three other judges who refused to take it, finally landing with U.S. District Judge Paul Cassell. The main case, however, is still assigned to Campbell, whose law clerk refused to say whether she'd keep it.
The McCarthey group's lawyers outlined the "tortuous" history of the litigation in a 21-page brief accompanying their motion. In it, the lawyers accused MediaNews of mismanaging the Tribune.
Singleton declined comment Friday when reached by The Associated Press.
Lawyers for the McCarthey group said that if it got the paper back it wouldn't have to buy the expensive new printing plant Singleton built for the Tribune. They didn't make clear where or how they would print the paper. The group also objected to the move of Tribune newsroom operations to rented offices from a brick high-rise on Main Street.
The lawsuit also seeks damages against AT&T Corp., which sold the paper to MediaNews, and the parent company of the Deseret Morning News, the Tribune's joint operating agreement partner and rival.
As a business partner, the Deseret Morning News exercised its right to veto the McCartheys' purchase of the Tribune after they let the paper go.
The McCarthey family reluctantly parted with the Tribune after other shareholders persuaded them to merge the newspaper with TCI, John Malone's cable-television giant, in a 1997 stock swap.
The merger solved an estate tax problem for the Tribune's biggest shareholders, who watched an early investment in TCI that over four decades multiplied 10,000-fold in value to nearly $500 million. That could have left the families of the bigger shareholders with huge tax bills upon their deaths, possibly forcing a sale of the paper.
Terms of the merger called for TCI to give the McCarthey group the option of buying back the paper after five years.
Former Trib owners revive battle
By Paul Foy
Associated Press
Lawyers for the former owners of Utah's largest newspaper asked a federal judge Friday to reopen their case seeking to buy back the Salt Lake Tribune.
The 6-year-old case took a detour three years ago into a dispute over the value of the newspaper. That matter has yet to be resolved, but lawyers for the McCarthey family and a former publisher, Dominic Welch, say both cases should proceed in tandem.
The main battle pits Phil McCarthey, chairman of a management group that once controlled the Tribune, against William Dean Singleton, MediaNews chief executive and vice chairman, who outmaneuvered the McCarthey group when he bought the Tribune for $200 million in 2001.
Singleton later offered the paper to the former owners for $355.5 million, a price set by a series of appraisals, but the McCartheys refused, calling the figure inflated. Now they contend the value of the paper — and its readership — has declined.
Friday's motion was filed by Albuquerque lawyer Victor R. Marshall, who helped a family wrangle ownership of the Santa Fe New Mexican from Gannett Co. in a decades-old case similar to the battle over the Salt Lake Tribune.
"This case — the main case between the parties — has been pending for almost six years without making much progress toward an overall resolution, primarily because of the unanticipated need for several appeals," Marshall said in a 7-page motion also signed by Salt Lake City attorney Steven Marsden.
Because the main ownership battle could take several more years to resolve, they asked U.S. District Judge Tena Campbell in Salt Lake City to reopen it while the newspaper's value is determined.
A federal appeals court reversed Campbell two months ago after she ruled the courts had no authority to second-guess appraisals for the newspaper.
The Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered Campbell to consider whether the appraisals were lawful, but she removed herself without explanation from the case shortly afterward.
The appraisal case bounced through three other judges who refused to take it, finally landing with U.S. District Judge Paul Cassell. The main case, however, is still assigned to Campbell, whose law clerk refused to say whether she'd keep it.
The McCarthey group's lawyers outlined the "tortuous" history of the litigation in a 21-page brief accompanying their motion. In it, the lawyers accused MediaNews of mismanaging the Tribune.
Singleton declined comment Friday when reached by The Associated Press.
Lawyers for the McCarthey group said that if it got the paper back it wouldn't have to buy the expensive new printing plant Singleton built for the Tribune. They didn't make clear where or how they would print the paper. The group also objected to the move of Tribune newsroom operations to rented offices from a brick high-rise on Main Street.
The lawsuit also seeks damages against AT&T Corp., which sold the paper to MediaNews, and the parent company of the Deseret Morning News, the Tribune's joint operating agreement partner and rival.
As a business partner, the Deseret Morning News exercised its right to veto the McCartheys' purchase of the Tribune after they let the paper go.
The McCarthey family reluctantly parted with the Tribune after other shareholders persuaded them to merge the newspaper with TCI, John Malone's cable-television giant, in a 1997 stock swap.
The merger solved an estate tax problem for the Tribune's biggest shareholders, who watched an early investment in TCI that over four decades multiplied 10,000-fold in value to nearly $500 million. That could have left the families of the bigger shareholders with huge tax bills upon their deaths, possibly forcing a sale of the paper.
Terms of the merger called for TCI to give the McCarthey group the option of buying back the paper after five years.
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