Salt Lake Crawler (Glen Warchol)

Onward into the fog

2009-05-12T14:32:00.007-06:00

As you may have heard, daily newspapers are going to hell in a handbasket. The Salt Lake Tribune's publisher, Dean Singleton, has laid out his strategic plan to meet the challenges of making money with online news, without alienating subscribers to the ink-and-paper thing.

You can read Singleton's super-secret scheme in detail here and know as much as I do about what's going down at the Trib.

Parental descretion advised: The memo contains impenetrable marketing gobbly-gook. For example:

We cannot continue to give all of our content away for free; we must consider, create and deploy new products and sites that both decouple our interactive revenue from our classified business and offer a compelling new experience for a younger (non-newspaper buying) demographic.

Read it, put on your pointy media pundit hat and tell me what the future holds for the Trib.

In related news, Crawler and most Trib blogs will be switching to a new and sublime blogging system—which will make zero difference to most of you. But if you wallow in this or any other Trib blogs through aid of an RSS server, you will have to get a new link.

For Crawler that link is: http://blogs.sltrib.com/slcrawler/index.php?tempskin=_rss2

(If you have /index.htm in your bookmark, get rid of it. The url http://blogs.sltrib.com/slcrawler will still do the trick.)

Shurtleff: traveling salesman

2009-05-12T10:24:00.005-06:00

Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff is in Israel on a trade mission with Gov. Jon Huntsman. Despite Shurtleff's embarrassing ties to multi-level marketer Usana, it's hard to see what the state's top lawyer has got to do with international trade.*

Shurtleff is using the trip to appear to know something about world affairs to boost his image in an upcoming run against Sen. Bob Bennett. Bennett is vulnerable to an attack from the right, which explains Shurtleff's appearance at Salt Lake's recent tea-bagging extravaganza.

Shurtleff is using the power of blogging to inform Utahns of his worldiness and his reverence for the Holy Land:

This is my fifth trip to the Holy Land – the one place outside of the United States I most feel at home. Although I am not Jewish, Israel is nonetheless the birthplace of my Savior, who was. I can relate to my Jewish cousins, past and present, who long for the land of their inheritance. Away from Israel, the words of a Twelfth Century Spanish Jew beckon . . .[I'll spare you the rest.]

*These Israel trips, of course, are really about, from Israel's side, indoctrinating American policy makers and, from the politicians' side, winning the Jewish vote.

Shurtleff likely will advance the cause of his financial backer Usana while he's in Israel:

.

Desperately seeking fun in Provo

2009-05-12T08:43:00.003-06:00

A band of University of California, Irvine, Calif., college journalists look for excitement in Provo in an article in the New University and learn that fun requires understanding the culture around you.

If you thought Irvine was boring, try setting foot in Provo. Don’t get me wrong, Provo has its own culture, one that revolves around morals and religious beliefs. However as an outsider, it is very difficult to say the city is exciting.

Almost everything closes at 8 p.m. on the weekdays, and ironically enough, even earlier on weekends. We didn’t cross any coffee shops in Provo, and only one bar was open past 1 a.m. And let me tell you, that bar was weird.

Even BYU students told them Provo is "pretty boring," but finally the Californians were sent to the Jump On It trampoline center in Lindon. "Sure we were the oldest ones at the place, but for $8 it was an experience we will never forget."

“Lame,” however, is subjective. Sure, if we come to Provo expecting our type of fun we will find almost anywhere else lame. You have to put yourself in their shoes, accept and enjoy their activities. Without the help of flashy entertainment and alcohol, Utahans really get creative.

GOP cannibalism

2009-05-12T07:56:00.003-06:00

Mitt Romney seems to be getting it from all sides in the GOP. First, Alaskan Gov. Sarah Palin's supporters trashed him as a wuss after he took what they saw as a cheap shot at Palin for being picked an "influential" American:

Was that the issue on the most beautiful people or the most influential people?

Mitt maintains it wasn't a swipe and if you watch the segment, it's obviously a self-depreciating quip that bombed.

But Rush Limbaugh, de facto head of the GOP, stirred the pot, saying Romney and other would-be Republican leaders, “despise Sarah Palin."

They fear Sarah Palin. According to them, she’s embarrassing.

Now, Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, from the more moderate arm of the GOP, is reopening old wounds by calling Romney a flip-flopping Mormon (I'm not sure which charge is more damaging among the GOP base):

Remember, it was the base that rejected Mitt because of his switch on pro-life, from pro-choice to pro-life. It was the base that rejected Mitt because it had issues with Mormonism. It was the base that rejected Mitt because they thought he was back and forth and waffling . . .

A Romney spokesman's reaction to Steele's comment was, "Sometimes when you shoot from the hip, you miss the target. This is one of those times."

That's an fair statement, considering Romney's from-the-hip comment on Palin.

Cap, control Obama?

2009-05-12T07:13:00.004-06:00

Freshman Congressman Jason Chaffetz takes on President Barack Obama's cap-and-trade pollution-control measure in a Washington Times op-ed. Chaffetz is sponsoring legislation to require utility companies to itemize any cap-and-trade costs passed on to their customers.

To counter the administration's attempt to bury this tax increase in our utility bills, The left obviously does not want taxpayers to know the real cost of the tax-and-trade scheme even though sound tax policy dictates that taxes should be visible to taxpayers and not buried in the cost of the items we purchase.

Chaffetz recently told KCPW's Elizabeth Ziegler:

When . . .you're on the floor of the House, and you say things as fundamental as, ‘It's not the government's money, it's the people's money' that that is a concept that does not necessarily resonate with most people in that body. That is a new and different concept. I would venture to say most people do not agree with that statement.

Unfamiliar Utah

2009-05-12T06:47:00.002-06:00

Britain's Mirror has one of the worst written travel articles recently on Utah. For one thing, it places the Beehive in "America's midwest."

Utah, it would seem, revolves around those "Robin Hoods of the West" Butch Cassidy, the Sundance Kid and Robert Redford:

Nobody in Utah will badmouth old Butch, who was seen as hitting only the rich institutions, while helping "ord'nary folk" whenever he could. As for the Sundance Kid, his name lives on at Sundance Resort, an environmentally-friendly bolthole set up by the film's star Robert Redford. . . . He doesn't dwell on it, but Redford's ex-wife was a Mormon from just down the road.

According to the Mirror, everyone asks two questions about Utah:"Do they practise polygamy? And can you get a drink?" As for the answers — Gov. Jon Huntsman could have written them himself:

No one seems prickly or over-sensitive about [polygamy], with one beer advert even reading: "Polygamy Porter - Why have just one?" You can get a drink in hotels and restaurants, and even in the one where you couldn't - the exquisite Roof Restaurant in the Joseph Smith Centre in Salt Lake City - it was no big deal. The food, ambience and superb views of the city and mountains are sufficiently intoxicating.

My favorite part was a Utah resort "where you can sleep in a tepee and live like a Navajo Indian." Navajos slept in tepees?

Settle it in swimsuits

2009-05-12T06:16:00.003-06:00

Finally, the heavy intellects have arrived to help us sort out our feelings about gay marriage and California's Proposition 8.

The latest sage to weigh in is aged actress, model and former Miss Teenage Memphis Cybill Shepherd, who uncovered that the Mormons and Catholics were behind the passage of Prop 8:

Most of the money came from Utah, it’s very unfortunate.

Cybill goes on to explains the cosmos:

I’m a Christian-Pagan-Buddhist-Goddess worshiper, but I’m also a feminist. I think the ultimate glass ceiling is God. . . . I really think that probably God is a woman. That helped me to break through that celestial glass ceiling.

Sounds as coherent to me as any worldwide theology out there.

Opposing gay marriage, you've got Miss California USA Carrie Prejean, who says she does not think gay marriage is a good idea — at least not as good as getting someone to buy you breast implants two weeks before the Miss USA pageant.

Of course, thoughtful, measured debate was inevitable. And Carrie got it from gossip blogger Perez Hilton and Village Voice columnist Michael Musto, who opined:

She's dumb and twisted. She's sort of like a human Klaus Barbie doll … This is the kind of girl who sits on the TV and watches the sofa. You know, she thinks innuendo is an Italian suppository.

Sheesh. Why not kick a puppy?

Huntsman's 'branding' problem

2009-05-11T11:20:00.005-06:00

We've already heard about the problems the news media has had in keeping Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman's name straight.

Now we hear that some people can't even keep his face straight.

New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand saw Huntsman in a hotel lobby and called out "Terry?" She thought Huntsman was Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe, former chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

A decent Mrs. Utah

2009-05-11T08:33:00.004-06:00

Mrs. Utah United States wants to promote "decency" in all its splendor and vagueness. Newly crowned Mrs. Utah Karmel Larson has even begun a "decency tour:

It's about upholding the moral standards of society, which is also up to interpretation. How I define 'decency' is promoting anything that promotes strong family values or speaking out against profanity, violence, indecency, pornography. Anything in the media that pulls down society's values is what I want to speak out against."

Larson has set decency goals:

Community leaders "will learn how to declare decency."
Schools throughout the state will celebrate White Ribbons Against Pornography week.
City councils will adopt community-standards resolutions.
People individually will stop talking about fostering decency and do something.

And, yes, Mrs. Utah frightens me very much.

First Family values win over LDS

2009-05-11T07:55:00.004-06:00

A new poll shows that Mormons, though they trail other religious groups, like President Barack Obama. The Gallup poll puts the president’s approval among LDS members at 45 percent, with 40 percent disapproving. Adam Brown, a BYU political science professor, says Obama's Mormon support is striking:

Is it any surprise that Mormons, who lean Republican by a wide margin, would have the lowest approval of Obama? What’s remarkable about the Gallup results isn’t that ‘only’ 45 percent of Mormons approve of Obama, but rather that an overwhelmingly right-leaning bloc gives him a net positive approval rating.

Ken Stiles, a BYU political science professor says it may be the First Family that is winning normally conservative Mormons over to Obama:

It’s possible that his exemplary family has won over a few who see him as a potential role model.

4x4 tea bags

2009-05-11T07:23:00.005-06:00

The same people who get apoplectic about Rule of Law when it comes to illegal immigration and who want monkey wrencher Tim DeChristopher punished for peacefully derailing an oil lease auction — shouted "The people are the government!" and violated federal rules to tear up and down the Paria River in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument on off-road vehicles.

The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the BLM's transportation plan for the monument (Rule of Law). But BLM officials did not enforce the rules, instead simply watched the ORVs plow through the muddy stream.

State Rep. Mike Noel, a would-be nuclear power plant developer, participated in the rally, which included praying (above) and warning the protesters that after the roads are taken away by the government, the feds and environmentalists will take away the right to hunt on public land.

'Not a country of torture'

2009-05-08T12:52:00.006-06:00

The drum beat continues for punishment of the Bush Administration legal eagles who made torture acceptable in the Land of the Brave.

The New York Times continues to push for a serious spanking of the former Justice Department attorneys, including, BYU-grad Jay Bybee—especially since it appears they will never face criminal charges, unlike the grunts who carried out their orders:

A draft report by the office does not call for prosecuting those lawyers, . . . but is likely to ask state bar associations to consider disciplinary action. We believe it must do so in unequivocal language. Bar association disciplinary committees . . . have no excuse not to use documentary evidence from the report to proceed.

The New Republic reminds conservatives of their sacred Rule of Law:

Remember the Rule of Law? In the late 1990s, it was all the rage in conservative circles. Having maneuvered Bill Clinton into a position where he could either lie under oath or suffer massive personal and political embarrassment, conservatives reasoned that Clinton must be held accountable for perjury or the basic underpinnings of democracy would be shattered. . . .

Today, the administration malfeasance consists of illegal torture, a crime no less serious than lying under oath about fellatio. Yet Republicans now believe that the Rule of Law is not only consistent with letting administration crimes go unpunished but actually requires it. To prosecute the departed administration would make us a "banana republic"—the premise being that banana republics are defined not by their use of torture but by their overly zealous enforcement of anti-torture laws.

The Las Vegas Sun reveals that 9th Circuit appellate judge Jay Bybee has been lobbying members of Nevada’s congressional delegation “to tell his side of the story.” Reps. Dina Titus (D-NV) and Shelley Berkley (D-NV) have both heard from Bybee's flunkies. Titus says:

I’d like to hear from him if he thinks he made the right decision interpreting the law and doing the job as he saw it defined. But I also will not hesitate to make it clear to him that I absolutely disagree with his interpretation.

The United States is not a country of torture.

And the skiing sucks

2009-05-08T10:28:00.005-06:00

That hurts. When Olympic Savior Mitt Romney dumped his Deer Valley lodge we wondered where would Mitt the Magnificent hang his hat. The new gazillion-dollar California home? Or a barge-mansion hovercraft that could be whisked to any coastal state with lots of electoral votes?

Nothing that exciting yet. Mitt's making New Hampshire, at least temporarily, his new primary residence and HQ for the pre-pre-pre presidential campaign. What a slap in the kisser for Utah.

The former governor is in the process of opening up the Lake Winnipesaukee house this month and "will be spending more time on the East Coast."

As to how permanent the Granite State address will be, Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom only says:

I have no announcements to make on residency. He just recently closed on selling his Belmont house and, as of now, he's still registered to vote in Massachusetts.

Meanwhile, Washington Post political bloggers rank Mitt as the No.1 most influential Republican. Gov. Jon Huntsman is ranked No. 9. There appears to be a direct relationship between creepiness and ranking on WPost's GOP "influencer" list.

Duel in the dust

2009-05-08T06:57:00.004-06:00

It sounds like an Old West showdown — except the posse will be riding noisy off-road vehicles to face off vigilantes armed with picnic baskets and muffins.

It's a matter of debate as to who is wearing the black hats.

Hundreds of off-road vehicle riders are vowing to invade the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument to protest the Bureau of Land Management's intention to enforce rules against riding in the Paria River streambed. But Susan Hand of Kanab is organizing a "picnic with a purpose" to head them off at the pass.

Hand's low-impact counterprotest will include an offer to the opposition for chit-chat:

We want to show the world that local people care about protecting our land from illegal and irresponsible use. We will not be confrontational, inflammatory, aggressive or hostile. It's hard to yell at someone who is calmly sitting in a lawn chair, munching a muffin and sipping tea.

Months of Mormon moms

2009-05-08T06:45:00.006-06:00

The much anticipated Chad Hardy pin-up calendar of Mormon moms is in production for Fall release.

Hardy, a LDS returned Missionary who was excommunicated and deprived of his BYU diploma for his Men on a Mission beefcake calendar, has fired back with Hot Mormon Muffins that also serves up “a taste of motherhood” in the form of muffin recipes.

Sisters who want to risk their temple recommends for a little exposure can audition for the 2011 calendar.

Hat tip: InThisWeek.

The Thing that Wouldn't Die

2009-05-07T16:44:00.005-06:00

The Plague of Jack Thompson, video-violence crusader, has re-emerged in Louisiana, where the Legislature will take up his video game bill that was dropped kicked by Utah's governor.

The disbarred Florida lawyer wrote a video-game bill that was overwhelmingly approved by Utah's Legislature, but vetoed by Gov. Jon Huntman. When the Lege didn't attempt to override the veto, an enraged Thompson emailed animated porno to Senate President Mike Waddoups and every other lawmaker. Waddoups threatened to have the Utah Attorney General's Office prosecute Thompson if he didn't cut it out.

Now, the Louisiana State House may get to experience the wrath of Jack. Don't lawmakers ever use Google?

In another part of the video-game cosmos, Congressman Jason Chaffetz, who got wiped by Stephen Cobert in Rock Band, admits:

I suck at Rock Band. Best if I stick to Halo.

Says Game Poltics:

It's reassuring to know that at least one member of Congress enjoys a round of Halo now and again.

I doubt Jack Thompson would agree.

Messing up SLC's Good Thing

2009-05-07T12:57:00.006-06:00

Mayor Ralph Becker has a really bad idea for the future of Salt Lake City's arts and science district — stick a five-story cop shop next to the award-winning Downtown Library and The Leonardo arts and technology museum.

Mayor Ralph announced today the $125 million "civic campus" that he wants to plunk down on the east end of Library Square. The project would include a high-rise police and fire headquarters and a three-story emergency-operations center.

A proposed bond to fund the project would go before Salt Lake City voters in November. You're probably wondering to yourself, didn't the voters dump a similar bond issue not too long ago — when the economy was booming?

You are right.

Becker tells Trib reporter Derek Jensen that he hasn't polled the public and really doesn't have a sense of whether Salt Lake residents want to take on a huge public works project in a lousy economy. Says Ralph:

We'll find out.

That's one way to build consensus.

LDS at the Y-M-C-A

2009-05-07T10:25:00.005-06:00

The blog Sneer Review reports that Brigham Young and Joseph Smith have been posthumously inducted into the Village People.

Brigham Young man,
there's no need to feel down . . .

Raising the bar on torturers

2009-05-07T09:42:00.006-06:00

A highly anticipated U.S. Justice Department investigative report is expected to turn over the authors of the infamous "torture memos," including BYU grad Jay Bybee (now a federal judge), to their state bar associations for possible disciplinary action this summer.

The many citizens who would like to see sanctions, if not criminal charges, brought against these architects of torture — particularly in light of the show trials of grunts who carried out their orders — are in for disappointment. A lawyer practically has to kill someone (such as a judge) with his/her bare hands to get disciplined by their bar association. And that censure usually amounts to a secret, confidential scolding never released to the public. Usually bars refuse to acknowledge even if a member is under scrutiny. According the Washington Post:

Law professors and legal practitioners who have handled such cases said the difficulty of gathering witnesses and evidence could present "nearly insurmountable challenges" for state investigators who may wish to pursue a case against the lawyers, John C. Yoo and Jay S. Bybee.

The Salt Lake Tribune editorial board joins The New York Times and Slate in demanding Bybee step down or be impeached. The Trib says Bybee's memo is an affront to Americans:

Bybee's 46-page memo is a painstakingly detailed treatise on how to skirt the laws and treaties that bound previous administrations from engaging in interrogation techniques that ape the torture methods used by the communist Chinese government against captured U.S. GIs during the Korean War, and for which the U.S. and its allies prosecuted Japanese and Nazi interrogators following World War II.

Has Huntsman 'left the building?'

2009-05-07T08:35:00.008-06:00

Huntsman gets national love.

It probably says something about the sorry state of the national GOP that Gov. Jon Huntsman's presidential buzz continues to grow in volume. Huntsman, a Utah moderate viewed with suspicion in his own state, saw his star boosted yet again when Obama's former campaign manager made an off-hand comment that Huntsman makes him a "wee bit queazy" as an opponent.

Atlantic's Marc Ambinder says his political instincts would make Huntsman a non-starter:

Because so many Republican primary voters don't care for gay people, and because these Republicans are more important to the make-up of the GOP primary electorate than, say, activist liberals are to the Democratic electorate, the political gadfly's first instinct is to dismiss the Huntsman case outright.

How in the heck can he possibly compete in Iowa?

Then, Ambinder flips and says, hey, it could happen without Iowa:

There will be a big enough pool of pro-gay civil union moderate voters who are happy to make Huntsman their Mormon -- assuming that another Mormon, Mitt Romney, is also in the race and is by 2012 a dedicated social conservative. . . .

IF -- and a big IF -- 2012 turns out to be a referendum primary for the GOP, Huntsman could do very well, perhaps as a bridge candidate. He has plenty of conservative credentials and he has just as many reformist credentials. He's not very compelling on the stump, and he needs something other than his stance on gay rights to distinguish himself from other Republican governors with solid resumes.

OwenHD on the TPM blog explains Huntsman's visceral appeal among moderate Republicans and even Democrats:

How can you not have at least a tiny, tiny bit of love for a Republican Governor of UTAH who stands in front of a podium and comes out strongly for civil unions? And still manages to pull approval numbers in excess of 75 percent?

In the weird world of Utah politics, Huntsman, who is calling for a GOP commitment to the environment, is moving ever further to the political left of the state's Democratic congressman Jim Matheson.

As one commenter on Crawler warned, "Huntsman has left the building."

Getting porked by H1N1

2009-05-07T07:20:00.004-06:00

Utah Agriculture Commissioner Leonard Blackham proves once again that state bureaucrats are nothing if not bumbling and behind the curve. H1N1, aka the swine flu, has moved around the world, sickening scores, killing a dozen humans, forcing schools, theaters and restaurants to close and driving down the profit margin on pork. And tragically sending many innocent hogs to a premature death.

Now that the health threat has turned the corner, Blackham issues a statement to Utah's news media, asking them to stop calling it the swine flu and instead use the technically correct H1N1.

The world's leading health organizations confirm that we are not at risk of contracting H1N1 virus by eating pork. Continuing to call it swine flu perpetuates a misconception about pork and the virus.

I realize that in communications the simple approach is often best, but in this case accuracy should trump simplicity for the sake of good journalism.

Apparently, Blackham's team has yet to get the message. The Ag Department's official message to citizens on H1N1, still refers to the virus as "swine flu."

Scrubbing the news and raising heck

2009-05-06T10:29:00.008-06:00

Imagine him naked, talking like Jesus.

In his quest to "get the right tone" — i.e. a positive LDS spin — at the re-educated Deseret News, editor Joe Cannon seems to have missed an important point. That is: Mormons, like everyone else—maybe even more, like to read trashy stories about themselves. If nothing else, stories of put-upon members makes everyone feel like old-timey martyrs to the cause.

This week the news has been chock full of juicy Mormon stuff:

• The "Mormon Mafia," that was pivotal in sanctioning and designing the U.S. torture program is a national story — never explored by the DNews/MormonTimes.

• DN/MM fails to note a local actor who is nominated for a Tony for his nude "Hair" Broadway performance. Will Swenson is also the official voice of Jesus at Temple Square, for gosh sakes!

• DN/MM buries its re-written release from LDS HQ on the baptism-in-death of Obama's Mama. Riveting headline: "LDS Church Reiterates Proxy-Baptism Policy."

• DN/MM ignores latest Marie Osmond bombshells: She has a lesbian daughter and supports gay marriage and other basic civil rights for gays.

The DNews did, however, report these blockbusters today: A chicken-cooking contest prize winner, a probing story on the mind of Simon Cowell and a slide show on a retiring barber. (Glass House Note: Yes, the Trib put the death of B-list comedian Dom Deluise on its front page. Sorry.)

Marie backs gay marriage

2009-05-06T07:30:00.006-06:00

Gossip monger Perez Hilton gives Marie major props.

Two nights ago, Marie Osmond gave a lengthy interview to Channel 4. "Nothing about her has been off limits" in her new memoir, we were teased. But after a tedious recounting of Marie's "Dancing with the Stars" fainting drama, neither Osmond nor Channel 4's morning-lady team addressed recent rumors about Marie's adopted daughter Jessica being a lesbian and living in a committed relationship with another woman.

So it must have been a bummer for Channel 4 News to hear Marie spill her guts to a LA radio host. Marie still was less than straight forward on her daughter's sexual orientation, but she apparently diverges from her church and brother Donny on civil unions and even gay marriage:

One of the things that we have to be careful of is that we don't create hate. Because people believe certain things and we can’t make everyone become homogenized.

Everybody has a right to believe what they believe. But I do think everyone has a right to have civil rights.

I believe everyone should have the right to share homes and finances with somebody that they care about. You know, on those types of things, I am very supportive. When it comes to marriage, you know, I think civil rights need to be for all.

It also appears that Marie loves Jessica for who she is. And that would support the idea, rejected by the LDS church, that being gay is inborn, not a choice. Otherwise, how could a member of the Osmonds, the most righteous of Mormon clans, grow up to be gay?

Hat tip: Chris Vanocur.

'The one to watch'

2009-05-06T07:13:00.004-06:00

Washington Post political blogger Chris Cillizza, finds great significance in Gov. Jon Huntsman's huddle this week with John Weaver, "long known as the political consigliere to Sen.John McCain."

Huntsman is the one to watch.

Earlier David Plouffe, Obama's campaign manager, said that of all the potential Republican candidates, only Huntsman makes him a "wee bit queasy."

Plouffe expanded on the statement to Cillizza:

It's just that he is one of the few GOPers out there who seem to realize you can't thrive and win elections appealing to the 25 percent of people who still think Bush was a good president," said Plouffe. "In DC, they seem to have no concern about the middle of the electorate. At least he appears to.

Obama's Momma a Mormon?

2009-05-05T14:21:00.009-06:00

It's one thing going door to door to proselytize the living, but leave defenseless dead people alone. Reportedly, the LDS Church has baptized President Barack Obama's late mother into the Mormon faith.

Genealogical researcher Helen Radkey discovered records indicating that during the presidential campaign Obama's mama Stanley Ann Dunham, who died in 1995, was subjected to the curious Mormon custom of "baptism for the dead" and an "endowment" ritual in the Provo Temple. Says Radkey:

The LDS Church is walking a fine line...

It sends out the message that the religion she chose while she was alive was not good enough. And that spills onto her son, who is our president.

After all the grief the Mormons have gotten from the Jews for baptisms of Holocaust victims, you think they would at least ask Obama if he wanted a Mormon, alive or dead, in the family.