The Salt Lake Tribune
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Mind your own beeswax
This may be a textbook example of "what's it to you?": Utah Congressman Jason Chaffetz (R-The Inquisition) is upset that the city council of Washington, D.C., has voted to recognize gay marriages performed in states where it's legal.

And Chaffetz is looking to have Congress overturn the D.C. Council's 12-1 vote.

Mind you, the D.C. Council's action does not affect a single human being outside of the District of Columbia - and certainly not the good people of Utah who sent Chaffetz to Congress.

But, because of the constitutional vagaries that put the District's laws under the perusal of Congress, yahoos like Chaffetz get to weigh in on the personal lives of nearly 600,000 citizens who never voted for those people - and, in fact, have no voting representative in Congress at all.

Chaffetz would be screaming bloody murder if the Feds told the city of Alpine, Utah (Chaffetz' hometown) what laws it should make. But it's OK for him to meddle in local D.C. affairs, he says, because Washington receives federal tax money.

"People in Salt Lake City are paying for the operation and government in the District of Columbia," Chaffetz told the Tribune's Thomas Burr. (If Chaffetz read the federal budget a bit more carefully, he'd see that every city - including Alpine - receives some federal tax money, directly or indirectly.)

On the other hand, it's a relief to see that every other problem in our nation - the economy, two wars, health care, the environment - has been solved. Why else would Chaffetz have time to stew over what local legislators in D.C. are doing?

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 9:14 AM | 2 Comments Links to this post
Friday, May 1, 2009
A hero may rise
The Tribune's Paul Rolly reports that Sam Granato, owner of the popular Granato's deli chain and the chairman of the Utah Liquor Control Commission, will announce in June that he's going to run for the U.S. Senate.

Granato, a Democrat, aims to challenge the incumbent Republican, Sen. Robert Bennett, who's up for re-election in 2010 (and may face a stiff primary challenge from Utah Attorney General - and scourge of the BCS - Mark Shurtleff).

One hopes that Granato, as the owner of several delis in the Salt Lake Valley, can at least have some fun with his campaign. To that end, here are a few proposed campaign slogans:
  • A hero for the Senate
  • Join the club
  • He'll slice through red tape
  • Parmesan, not partisan
  • Every party needs a platter
  • Anti-tax, anti-spending, antipasto

Come on, write your own slogan in the comments.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 10:07 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
"Fleeting expletives" indeed
At the risk of riling up the FCC even more, what the %&$@ ?

The U.S. Supreme Court was given the chance to rule on the constitutionality of the FCC's authority to regulate profanity on the airwaves - a power that's constitutionally suspect - and instead (as reported here by the Associated Press), the high court punted.

On a 5-4 ruling, the court threw out a ruling by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York - which found in favor of a Fox Television-led challenge to the FCC policy of "fleeting expletives," the idea that one use of the F-bomb or the S-word was enough to get you fined, no matter what the usage.

The appeals court threw the case back to the FCC for a "reasoned analysis" of its tougher line on indecency. Instead, the FCC threw it to the Supreme Court - which promptly threw it back to the appelate level to decide on constitutional grounds.

Even Justice Clarence Thomas argued that past decisions in favor of the FCC policy "were unconvincing when they were issued, and the passage of time has only increased doubt regarding their continued validity." Still, he voted with the majority.

Justice John Paul Stevens, writing one of the dissenting opinions, argued that context is key - and something missing from the FCC's draconian policy.

"As any golfer who has watched his partner shank a short approach knows," said Stevens, an avid golfer, "it would be absurd to accept the suggestion that the resultant four-letter word uttered on the golf course describes sex or excrement."

The problem is that the FCC's policy is arbitrary, and unfairly enforced - and who knows how long it will be before the Supreme Court gets another chance to clean up the bleeping mess.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 9:34 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Sen. "Shecky" Hatch
Orrin Hatch - United States senator, or stand-up comedian?

Utah's senior senator played both roles Tuesday, when he spoke at a luncheon sponsored by the Motion Picture Association of America, Hollywood's lobbying arm in Washington, D.C.

According to this account in The Hollywood Reporter, Hatch talked seriously about politics to the assembled audience - which included the heads of most of the major movie studios - about pushing legislation to fight "the pervasive problem of piracy" of intellectual property. Hatch also opined that President Barack Obama's budget and tax policies will hurt industry, including the movie business.

Then Hatch put on his metaphorical clown nose.

Looking at Walt Disney Studios chairman Dick Cook, Hatch said, "Disney, you meet our standards. The rest of you bums, I'll tell you..."

He also recalled filming a 15-minute scene for Steven Soderbergh's movie "Traffic," which was cut to 11 seconds in the movie. "I'm really resentful of you people," Hatch said.

Here, according to The Hollywood Reporter, was Hatch's capper:
Hatch also earned laughs with a list of things he has learned from the movies. It included: Fleeing heroes can always find cover in a St. Patrick's Day parade any day and soldiers survive wars unless making the mistake of showing someone a picture of their sweetheart back home.

Thank you. You've been a great audience. Tip your waiters.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 9:25 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Friday, April 17, 2009
'The Prop. 8 Series'
Politics and sports usually shouldn't mix. In fact, sports is sometimes the one place where people with clashing political views can find common ground - whether you're a liberal or a conservative, we can all agree the Yankees suck.

(Feel free to replace "Yankees" with whatever group of overpaid thyroid cases you despise - Red Sox, Mets, Spurs, Manchester United, etc.)

However, a blogger for the L.A. Lakers fan site Lake Show Life has injected politics into the first round of the NBA playoffs, calling the upcoming series between the top-seeded Lakers and the 8th-seed Utah Jazz "The Prop. 8 Series.":

Not too long ago, it was Utah matched up against Los Angeles in another battle - California Proposition 8. Prop. 8, passed in last year’s general election, restricted marriage to heterosexual couples and eliminated homosexual couples' right to marry.

What the hell does this have to do with the Lakers-Jazz opening round NBA Playoffs series? Everything. In my opinion, the state of Utah was responsible for the passing of Prop. 8.

The blogger, who goes by "kareemadbuladam," notes that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (you know, the Mormons) and its members campaigned hard for Prop. 8 - and that 45 percent of the out-of-state donations to support Prop. 8 came from Utah.

The post goes on, accusing Salt Lake City of being "more close-minded than just about any other major city in the U.S.," and decrying late team owner Larry H. Miller's banning of "Brokeback Mountain" from his Megaplex theaters and what he perceives as discrimination in the Jazz organization's treatment of former player John Amaechi (before he came out of the closet).

"I am already a Lakers fan," continues kareemadbuladam, "but because of the bigotry of a lot of Utah I will be rooting twice as hard for my Lake Show to sweep, humiliate and obliterate the unjazzy Jazz."

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 9:54 AM | 1 Comments Links to this post
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Happy tax day
Today's the deadline for Americans to get their federal and state tax returns mailed in - which usually is accompanied by the tradition of TV news reporters standing outside a mailbox to capture the oh-so-telegenic sight of a line of cars.

This year, though, we have something else to celebrate - thanks to the AstroTurf (that's fake grassroots) movement, mounted by right-wing lobbying groups and Fox News Channel, to launch "Tax Day Tea Parties" across the country.

As the Tribune's Cathy McKitrick reported today, several such events are scheduled in Utah - the biggest being one at noon at the Federal Building in downtown Salt Lake City, where Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, and U.S. Reps. Rob Bishop and Jason Chaffetz will suck up to, er, rally the eager (and, one hopes, waterproof) crowd.

What are the "tea party" enthusiasts - or "teabaggers," as they have unfortunately dubbed themselves - protesting? Are they protesting the Obama administration, which is planning to cut taxes for most Americans? Are they protesting government bailouts, most of which were started under the Bush administration? Are they protesting because they can't come up with anything better? Are they protesting because Fox News told them to?

The nature of the protest, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow said Tuesday night, is "amorphous," but "the adoption of their teabag as their symbol - now that is plain as a one-two punch to the face." (Seriously, as any lesbian received as much enjoyment from "teabagging" as Maddow has this last week?)

Here's the web site listing Utah events, and here's a response from the Utah Democrats.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 9:32 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
What are you doing after the tea party?
It's so hard to be a conservative these days.

As I mentioned in today's Culture Vulture column, right-wingers who are organizing the "Tax Day Tea Party" events for Wednesday have faced ridicule because of the use of the word "teabagging" - a term already in use for a certain sex act.

Now, as comic Andy Cobb points out on this YouTube video (which is both hilarious and for adults only), the National Organization for Marriage's new "2M4M" campaign - signifying a march of two million people for "traditional" marriage - has learned that "2M4M" is sometimes used as chat-room shorthand for a gay three-way (as in "two men searching for a man"). (Hat tip to The Huffington Post for unearthing Cobb's video.)

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 9:05 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Mormon history, a la Colbert
Fans of Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report" got a quick - and hilariously exaggerated - lesson in Mormon history on Tuesday night.

Introducing the 55th installment of his 434-part series "Better Know a District" (in which Colbert attempts to interview every every member of Congress), Colbert launched into the history of New York's 25th District with this fun fact:
"The district contains the town of Palmyra, where in 1827, Joseph Smith discovered the source for The Book of Mormon, the Golden Plates. The Golden Plates also won him a free tour of Jesus' chocolate factory."

Here's the video:

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Better Know a District - New York's 25th - Dan Maffei
comedycentral.com
Colbert Report Full EpisodesPolitical HumorNASA Name Contest


Colbert fans may recall that Utah Congressman Jason Chaffetz appeared in the "Better Know a District" segment in January - where Colbert bested the former BYU placekicker in a leg-wrestling bout.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 9:42 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Videogame crusader not giving up
Jack Thompson - the disbarred Florida attorney and anti-videogame activist who wrote a draconian "truth in advertising" bill that Gov. Jon Huntsman vetoed last month - isn't giving up yet.

GamePolitics reports that Thompson did two hours on the conservative Utah Eagle Forum's radio show on K-Talk, bashing Huntsman and tossing out some tired accusations tying a school shooting in Germany and the Columbine massacre to videogame violence.

Thompson was introduced as "an attorney from Florida." Nowhere, as both GamePolitics and the blog Joystiq point out, was it mentioned that Thompson is actually an ex-attorney. Truth in advertising only goes so far with the Eagle Forum, apparently.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 8:20 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Monday, April 6, 2009
If you can't stand the tweet...
Being a Republican from Utah County, maybe newly minted Congressman Jason Chaffetz isn't used to the notion of people disagreeing with him.

That's one explanation for why the tech-happy Chaffetz has blocked a well-known Utah Democratic activist from his Twitter feed.

Misty Fowler, who runs the blog Saintless and was Utah chairwoman for the Obama campaign, reports today that she is no longer allowed to follow Chaffetz' Twitter feed when she's logged in - though she can still read all of Chaffetz' 140-character pearls of wisdom when she doesn't log into her account.

"So, if I really want to, I can still see his updates," Fowler wrote. "Not that it's important enough to me that I'm going to bother, but I do find it childish that a public official would act this way."

Fowler theorizes that a string of Twitter exchanges, where she asked Chaffetz to stop complaining about President Barack Obama's budget and propose his own plan, may have gotten under the rookie congressman's skin.

Chaffetz has forgotten Vito Corleone's sage advice about keeping your friends close but your enemies closer.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 12:07 PM | 5 Comments Links to this post
Friday, March 27, 2009
Unkindest cuts in Congress
The arts aren't just good for your creative juices, but for the economy.

That was the message Michael Bahr, education director of the Utah Shakespearean Festival, delivered to a congressional hearing Thursday in Washington, according to this Salt Lake Tribune report.

"Art in Cedar City is not a luxury; it is business," Bahr said. "It hires an educated and talented work force. It provides positive economic impact far beyond the theater."

Also testifying (according to the AP's account of the hearing) was actor Tim Daly, who cited the direct financial impact of a single episode of his TV series, "Private Practice." An episode of the "Grey's Anatomy" spinoff takes nine days to shoot, employs hundreds of people, and spends about $20,000 on food, $25,000 to $40,000 on clothes and costumes, $2,500 on dry cleaning and $15,000 on furniture for the sets.

Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, also testified at the hearing - and, of course, ascribed the woes of the arts community to the Obama administration. Bishop said Obama's budget proposal, by reducing the amount that rich people can deduct from their taxes, would remove the incentive to donate to the arts.

Bishop said that charitable donations create an "emotional bond that government funds couldn't match." Apparently, though, that bond isn't strong enough to continue in a smaller tax shelter.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 10:38 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Thursday, March 12, 2009
An idea to keep you awake at night
Oh, mercy. Now some bright bulb in the Utah Legislature - Rep. Craig Frank, R-American Fork, to be specific - wants to tax caffeine.

As someone who ditched caffeine several years ago for health reasons, I don't really have a dog in this fight. But as someone who used to nurse a six-pack-a-day Diet Coke habit, I reserve the right to declare this a monumentally stupid and discriminatory idea.

The problem - besides the hypocrisy of all "vice" taxes, like tobacco and alcohol, that the state becomes addicted to the revenue while officials publicly decry the product - is that it is yet another example of the predominantly Mormon membership of the legislature is forcing its religious views on the rest of us.

And the fact that the Legislature refuses to raise the cigarette tax, while cutting the budget for anti-smoking education, just highlights the hypocrisy at work.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 9:10 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Monday, March 9, 2009
Taking a club to the clubs
The Utah Legislature is saying goodbye to Utah's ridiculous "private club" law.

Gov. Jon Huntsman and leaders of the Utah Legislature today announced they have hammered out a major revision to the state's oddball liquor laws. The two biggest changes: An end to the fig-leaf that only "private clubs" could sell hard liquor, and that restaurants can remove the glass partition - the so-called "Zion Curtain" - that hides the booze from the bar patrons. (Here's the bill in full.)

"This bill tears down the walls," declared Sen. John L. Valentine, R-Provo, who has been in the lead on liquor issues in this year's legislative session.

But where one wall falls, another is going up. New restaurants will be required to build in a separate room for alcohol preparation, unseen by the patrons. Existing restaurants don't have to remodel their bars, but if they do they can get $30,000 in credit at the state liquor store.

In exchange for the loosening of restrictions on the soon-to-be-former "private clubs," legislators got tougher DUI laws - including a law that would, if you are arrested on a second DUI with a suspended license, make you forfeit your car.

These tougher DUI regulations were championed by Rep. Christopher Herrod, R-Provo, who compared it to the European approach to stopping drunk driving.

"In Europe, they have the culture that they drink heavily, but they do not drive," said Herrod (pictured). "That's the culture I want to bring to Utah."

Herrod's words brought a chuckle to the assembled legislators, lobbyists and journalists at today's press conference. Herrod blushed a bit, smiled sheepishly and explained that he wants Utah to adopt the European attitude toward drunk drivers, not drinking in general.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 11:30 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Gamers' eyes on Utah
The Utah House passed, on a vote of 70-2, a bill that would allow people to sue retailers for false advertising if they sell age-inappropriate videogames to underage customers - if they advertise policies to prevent such sales.

The gaming world is watching the bill closely (the blog GamePolitics.com live-blogged the House floor debate), in part because of its potential chilling effect on videogame sellers - but also becausse the bill was written by an old nemesis, anti-videogame crusader and disbarred Florida lawyer Jack Thompson.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 10:10 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
End of the club scene?
The Utah Legislature delights in teasing us, holding out hope that some progressive bit of legislation might make it through to becoming a law - only to pull it away, like Lucy Van Pelt's football just before Charlie Brown is about to kick it.

So the news Monday that the House Business and Labor Committee voted 8-5 to approve HB347, which would put an end to Utah's idiotic system of "private clubs" selling hard liquor, should be met with a bit of hope and a whole lot of skepticism.

For one thing, the anti-alcohol crusaders aren't going to stop fighting - and their allies could easily block the bill on the House floor or in the Senate. For another, the idea that club memberships would be replaced by electronic scanners that read your driver's licence (and then store the information for a week) borders on the Orwellian.

The move has the backing of Gov. Jon Huntsman, who on his recent trip to D.C. became quite the media star - appearing on MSNBC to talk about his fellow Republicans' resistance to President Barack Obama's stimulus plan, dissing GOP congressional leaders to both The Washington Times and Politico. (Between these remarks and his recent endorsement of civil unions for gay couples, Huntsman soon may become more popular outside the Utah Republican Party than in it.)

Apparently being a reasonable-sounding Republican is sort of like a talking dog - so unusual it's newsworthy.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 10:14 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Thursday, February 19, 2009
He's bad - he's nationwide
Congratulations, Utah! Once again, the world is judging the entire state by the actions of one obnoxiously bigoted member of your legislature.

State Sen. Chris Buttars' recent interview with documentarian Reed Cowan has made the rounds of the blogosphere, and the response has been rather harsh.

Some examples:
  • Commentator Andrew Sullivan, on his blog for The Atlantic, nominated Buttars for a "Malkin Award," named for right-wing bloviator Michelle Malkin.
  • The liberal blog Think Progress printed large portions of the transcript, hanging Buttars with his own words.
  • The blog Pam's House Blend, which tracks gay and lesbian issues, called Buttars and the Utah Legislature (which whacked the last of the Common Ground Initiative bills Wednesday) "pathetic."
  • Ed Brayton, radio host and keeper of the "Dispatches from the Culture Wars" blog, declared that Buttars has regained his status as "looniest state legislator in the country."
  • Meanwhile, blogger Eric Ethington puts the lie to Buttars' claim that Cowan promised to let Buttars review the footage from the interview - by publishing the release form Buttars signed.
Of course, as a commenter to the Vulture blog pointed out, Buttars is a citizen and therefore free to express himself any way he wants. But if he's going to dish out hateful insults, he can't cry and complain when epithets are hurled back at him.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 9:04 AM | 2 Comments Links to this post
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
"Greatest threat to America"
Just when it looked like Utah State Sen. Chris Buttars was warming up to gay activists - who even brought him pumpkin bread - the outspoken conservative swats away all such pretense of civility.

In an interview with documentary filmmaker (and former Salt Lake TV news reporter) Reed Cowan, Buttars - he's the one on the left (next to his cartoon lookalike, the Burgermeister Meisterburger) - called the gay-rights movement "probably the greatest threat to America." (Clips from the interview aired Tuesday night on KTVX, Ch. 4. Here's an account by the Tribune's Rosemary Winters.)

"It's the beginning of the end," Buttars said. "Oh, it's worse than that. Sure. Sodom and Gomorrah was localized. This is worldwide."

That's right, gays - who have to ask the Utah Legislature for permission not to be discriminated against (permission the legislature once again denied) - are "the greatest threat to America." Not Osama bin Laden, the falling economy or even the heartbreak of psoriasis.

"He basically labeled my community as virtually the devil incarnate," said gay-rights activist Jacob Whipple, who called for Buttars' resignation. "I don't think that he represents Utah any more. … Saying something so hurtful has no place on the hill."

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 2:21 PM | 1 Comments Links to this post
Artists need jobs, too
It's kind of cool to think that Robert Redford can get $50 million inserted into President Barack Obama's mighty stimulus package with just a phone call.

Redford's call last week to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-California, probably didn't do it alone - but it may have been a help in rescuing a $50 million appropriation for the National Endowment for the Arts, according to The New York Times.

The House had approved the NEA money, but the Senate - giving in to Republican grandstanders who consider the arts as elitist leftie timewasters (and who voted against the stimulus anyway) - yanked the appropriation out of the bill. The conference committee that hammered out a final bill put it back in, after arts supporters in and out of Congress made the argument that the arts provide jobs and a boost to the economy.

Redford cited to Pelosi the example of the Sundance Film Festival, a cultural event that celebrates artists - and also pumps an estimated $60 million a year into Utah's economy. "Ticket takers or electricians or actors - all the people connected with the arts are at risk just like everybody else is,” Redford told the Times.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 7:00 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Friday, January 23, 2009
Hanks to Mormons: Sorry
Tom Hanks has apologized for calling Mormons who contributed money to California's Prop. 8 campaign "un-American."

In a statement issued through his publicist, Hanks apologized for a comment he made last week at the premiere of the polygamy-themed HBO drama "Big Love" (which Hanks' company produces). Here's his statement in part:

"I believe Proposition 8 is counter to the promise of our Constitution; it is codified discrimination.

"But everyone has a right to vote their conscience; nothing could be more American. To say members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints who contributed to Proposition 8 are 'un-American' creates more division when the time calls for respectful disagreement. No one should use 'un- American' lightly or in haste. I did. I should not have."

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 2:24 PM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Friday, January 16, 2009
Hanks takes on the Mormons
Boy, when an all-American guy like Tom Hanks calls you un-American, you know you're in trouble.

Hanks used that word in connection with the way members of the LDS Church threw their money behind California's Prop. 8, the ban on same-sex marriage, according to this Fox News report.

The occasion was Wednesday night's premiere party for "Big Love," the HBO drama (which Hanks' company produces) about a polygamous family in Utah.

"The truth is this takes place in Utah, the truth is these people are some bizarre offshoot of the Mormon Church, and the truth is a lot of Mormons gave a lot of money to the church to make Prop. 8 happen,” Hanks said. "There are a lot of people who feel that is un-American and I am one of them. I do not like to see any discrimination codified on any piece of paper, any of the 50 states in America, but here's what happens now."

Hanks holds out hope that Prop. 8 will be overturned. "Let's have faith in not only the American, but Californian constitutional process,” he said.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 8:54 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
So much for that idea
Don't count out Utah private clubs - and their annoying and antiquated rules of membership fees and wink-wink sponsorships - just yet.

Despite efforts by Gov. Jon Huntsman and the Department of Alcohol Beverage Control to reform the rules, Republicans in the Utah Senate want to keep the idiotic laws exactly as they are.

"Unless we find something better that protects our children and protects us from drunken drivers, we want no change in private club memberships," Senate President-elect Michael Waddoups told the Tribune's Dawn House. "Someday we may find a better solution, but it hasn't even been suggested at this point."

The problem is Utah's liquor laws don't protect children and motorists. They just irritate those who drink and remind them they are an oppressed minority in this predominantly Mormon state.

Sometimes, the laws cooked up by Utah's control-freak legislators do more harm than good.

Take, for example, this year's legislation to ban flavored malt beverages - a k a "alcopops" - from Utah's supermarkets. The idea was to keep underage customers from sneaking a six-pack of Mike's Hard Lemonade past an unsuspecting grocery clerk (something that could not happen, since the scanners at checkout flag alcohol purchases, no matter how well disguised the product).

Did the law keep these "cheerleader beers" out of young drinkers' hands? No. Here's what happened: Instead of having an older brother or frat brother go to Albertson's to buy 3.2 drinks, that older person now goes into a state liquor store and buys "alcopops" with a 5 percent alcoholic content - thus ensuring the drinker gets drunk faster.

Here's the early clue that "protecting children" wasn't really the drive for the "alcopops" ban: When the law went into effect in October, supermarkets had to destroy their remaining inventory - while the state liquor stores were allowed to sell off what they had in stock.

When the Utah Legislature starts talking about "protecting children," they really mean they're protecting the state's monopoly on liquor sales.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 9:21 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Debating Prop. 8 - or not
A Utah businessman's plan to run a full-page ad Sunday in Salt Lake City's two major newspapers - The Salt Lake Tribune and Deseret News - criticizing the LDS Church's stance on California's Prop. 8 was stopped when the papers pulled the ad, according to the blog Gay Rights Watch.

Bruce Palenske's full-page ad (which you can see here in a pdf file) criticized the LDS Church's role in funding the Prop. 8 campaign, and included a form for people wishing to complain to the IRS about the church violating its tax-exempt status.

"We have a signed contract, and the newspapers had already accepted payment for the ad when it was pulled literally 5 minutes before the production deadline," Palenske told Gay Rights Watch. "This is clearly political. ... I can’t help but think that the LDS came in and put the brakes on this."

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 10:37 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Backhanded compliment
If gays and lesbians can't fight the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with protests, then maybe they can use withering irony.

Editors of QSaltLake, an alt-weekly for Utah's LGBT community, chose the paper's "Person of the Year": LDS Church President Thomas S. Monson - the man who with a single letter mobilized a church-wide campaign to support California's Prop. 8, stamping out the civil rights of gays and lesbians to marry legally.

Here's the rationale:
"As strange as it may seem, we at QSaltLake believe that Monson and the Mormon Church are somewhat responsible for this resurgence in U.S. gay rights activism now known as 'Stonewall 2.0.' ... Because of one ill-advised letter, we may one day look back on Proposition 8 as not only an unfortunate chapter in U.S. history, but a chapter that also allied gay people and Mormons in the ongoing fight for social justice."

Anyone want to lay down odds on Monson showing up to receive his award? Anyone?

(Hat tip to Holly Mullen, at City Weekly.)

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 9:16 AM | 2 Comments Links to this post
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Sing that 'Wicked' music
A word from composer Stephen Schwartz ("Wicked," "Godspell") to all you Mormons out there: Homophobia is bad, bad, bad - but he's not going to punish your student singing groups over it.

Schwartz (pictured) told The Salt Lake Tribune's Peggy Fletcher Stack, via e-mail, that he has no plans to withhold the license of his songs from Utah or LDS-related singing groups.

An ex-Mormon blogger recently launched a drive to get composers to deny their songs to LDS-related groups - because of the Mormon Church's support of California's Prop. 8, the ban on same-sex marriage.

"I have not withdrawn the use of my songs by the BYU Young Ambassadors and do not intend to do so," Schwartz wrote. "They are a student singing group."

Schwartz urged all "fair-minded Mormons to reconsider their position and come to support the right of homosexuals to marry the person they love. … I continue to believe that the most important tenet of any religion is 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.' "

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 9:25 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Calling in gay
If one of your coworkers is gay or lesbian, there's a chance you won't see him or her in the office Wednesday.

The web-mobilized activist group Join the Impact is organizing "Day Without a Gay," encouraging gays and lesbians across the country to "call in gay" to work. The idea is to demonstrate, in the wake of attacks on gay civil rights such as California's Prop. 8, the economic clout of American's LGBT community.

Gays and lesbians who take Wednesday off are further encouraged to volunteer their suddenly free time to service groups. (There are at least four such drives in Utah, according to this web site.)

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 12:00 PM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Prop. 8: The musical version
This is too good to pass up, courtesy of Will Ferrell's FunnyOrDie.com:




Your eyes aren't fooling you - this boasts an all-star cast: Jack Black as Jesus, Lake Bell, Sarah Chalke ("Scrubs"), Margaret Cho, Neil Patrick Harris, Allison Janney, Rashida Jones, Jenifer Lewis, Kathy Najimy, John C. Reilly, Andy Richter, Craig Robinson ("The Office") and Maya Rudolph. The number is song by Mark Shaiman ("Hairspray").

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 8:58 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Buttars is "the Worst"
Oh, goody - more free publicity for Utah, courtesy of our own Chris Buttars.

The state senator from West Jordan was named "Worst Person in the World" Tuesday by MSNBC's Keith Olbermann on his "Countdown" show, for his idea to introduce a resolution in the Utah Legislature encouraging retailers to say "Merry Christmas" instead of the more generic "Happy Holidays."

Here's the video:



Now, even discounting the fact that Olbermann is attacking Buttars in part because the senator is playing into the "War on Christmas" horse-manure championed by Olbermann's arch-nemesis Bill O'Reilly, the "World's Worst" honor still doesn't make Buttars - or Utah - look good.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 6:18 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Another foot soldier against the "War on Christmas"
Utah State Sen. Chris Buttars is at it again, this time catching up to that old right-wing conspiracy theory, "The War on Christmas."

Buttars (R-The Paleolithic Era) is sponsoring a resolution in the Utah Legislature to encourage retailers to stop saying "Happy Holidays" or other generic secular phrases - and instead say "Merry Christmas."

"I'm sick of the Christmas wars - we're a Christian nation and ought to use the word," Buttars (pictured here, doing his impression of Mr. Potter from "It's a Wonderful Life") told the Tribune's Cathy McKitrick.

Right-wing blowhards, Bill O'Reilly chief among them, have been trumping up the so-called "War on Christmas" for a few years now. They see isolated incidents of political correctness run amok (fights over public religious displays, stores putting up generic "holiday" slogans, etc.) as a concentrated effort to drive religion - specifically the Christian religion - from the public square.

It's all bullpucky, as Salon's Michelle Goldberg wrote in this 2005 article. Besides showing how the "War on Christmas" is nothing new (the whack-job John Birch Society talked about it in the '50s, and Henry Ford railed against it in his anti-Semitic screeds in the '20s), Goldberg dissected the current mania to declare war on "The War on Christmas":

In fact, there is no war on Christmas. What there is, rather, is a burgeoning myth of a war on Christmas, assembled out of old reactionary tropes, urban legends, exaggerated anecdotes and increasingly organized hostility to the American Civil Liberties Union. It's a myth that can be self-fulfilling, as school board members and local politicians believe the false conservative claim that they can't celebrate Christmas without getting sued by the ACLU and thus jettison beloved traditions, enraging citizens and perpetuating a potent culture-war meme. This in turn furthers the myth of an anti-Christmas conspiracy.

If nothing else, Buttars' proposal again proves that Utah is late picking up on everything - even "The War on Christmas."

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 9:16 AM | 1 Comments Links to this post
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Redford on MSNBC
A cause with a celebrity attached will usually get further than a cause without one. Environmentalists who are fighting a sneaky Bureau of Land Management plan to sell oil-drilling leases near Utah's national parks are getting a boost from a local celebrity: Robert Redford.

After writing a scathing criticism of the BLM plan on The Huffington Post last week, the Sundance Kid appeared Monday night on MSNBC's "The Rachel Maddow Show" to rail against the BLM and the Bush administration even further. Here's the clip:



Maddow was excited to have Redford on her show, even if via satellite. In her intro, she said, "Yes, the Robert Redford - Mom, get the camera."

The publicity over the BLM's sale plans - announced on Nov. 4, when the nation was busy paying attention to that election thingee - apparently is working. According to the Tribune's Patty Henetz, the BLM and the National Park Service are having high-level talks to smooth over BLM's end-around of the Park Service when it decided which parcels would be sold off.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 8:55 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Prop. 8: The stars weigh in
More people in Hollywood are speaking up about a suggested boycott of the Sundance Film Festival, because it lives in the same state as the headquarters of the LDS Church - which heavily supported the gay-marriage ban in California, Proposition 8.

At a benefit screening in New York for the new biography "Milk," co-star James Franco said he doesn't think much of the proposed boycott. "Sundance has no connection to the Mormon Church that I know of," Franco said, according to New York Daily News gossip columnists Rush & Molloy.

"Milk's" director Gus Van Sant doesn't endorse the boycott either, commenting, "So everything in Utah is just, like, off-limits?"

Josh Brolin, who also appears in the movie (as the San Francisco city supervisor who murdered Harvey Milk, the first openly gay politician elected to a major city office), found the silver lining in the Prop. 8 vote: "It's got people fired up. So I'm almost glad about that."

(Photo: Kambouris/WireImage)

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 8:45 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Hard times for the Religious Right
The economy's even tough for right-wingers telling other people how to live their lives.

Focus on the Family, the Colorado-based Christian organization founded by James Dobson, is cutting 202 jobs - citing a drop in donations, which is where the group gets 95 percent of its budget.

Four of Focus on the Family's eight magazines will cease publication, going online-only.

The nonprofit group spent about $500,000 to support California's Prop. 8, the ban on same-sex marriage. How many employees could that money have kept working?

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 10:29 AM | 1 Comments Links to this post
Dan Savage stands me up
My date for cocktails with Dan Savage is off.

I made the invite in the Culture Vulture column in the dead-tree Tribune on Tuesday, asking the famed sex-advice columnist and Seattle alt-weekly editor to visit Utah. My purpose: To show him that his call for a blanket boycott of all things Utah - in response to the LDS Church's hardcore support of the hateful Prop. 8, banning same-sex marriage in California - would do significant collateral damage to non-Mormon and gay-friendly Utahns.

On Monday, before my column hit the streets, Savage posted his RSVP on Slog, the blog for his alt-weekly The Stranger:

Best to the wife, Sean, and I get it, I get it: you're not all bigots and haters, and people marched against Prop 8 in Salt Lake City this weekend. But I'm not ready to make nice—on purpose or by accident—with the bigots and haters from Magic Underpants Inc. who donated money and time to Prop 8. ... You may have a beef with me and others "[singling] out Utah for [our] wrath over Prop. 8's passage," but we have a much bigger beef with the religious bigots that run Utah.

Dan, the invitation remains open. History is on your side, not on the side of the "bigots and haters" - and if a boycott facilitates the change you both seek, then the best of luck to you.

A lot of conservative Mormons in Utah would be overjoyed to know gays and lesbians are avoiding the state - and if those leftist Hollywood types don't come to the Sundance Film Festival, all the better. A boycott won't hurt the people you're targeting, and will do damage to many of your friends and supporters.

This isn't about whether sympathetic Utahns are more persecuted than California gays and lesbians. It's not a victimhood contest. That's the sort of us-vs.-them bickering that the anti-gay forces are counting on to keep their side on top.

There's also the argument that non-Mormons in Utah are enablers to the state's LDS-dominated power structure, and if non-Mormons don't like it they should move. Non-Mormons will tell you that this is their home, too - and if gays and lesbians wanted to help, they would move here in droves and join the fight.

(Imagine if a million gays and lesbians moved to Utah in the next two years - strategically placed in suburbs like West Jordan and Sandy, shifting the balance of power in the Utah Legislature just in time for the once-a-decade redistricting debate. Oh, the commotion!)

Fighting hate with more hate isn't working. Sometimes turning the other cheek isn't just the Christian thing to do, but it's the surest way to drive the other side bonkers.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 9:01 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Monday, November 17, 2008
Prop. 8: Sundance still under fire
Like a dog that won't let go of a bone, AmericaBlog's John Aravosis' campaign to boycott the Sundance Film Festival - as part of a larger boycott against all things Utah, after LDS Church members supported the anti-gay ballot measure Prop. 8 - shows no signs of slowing.

"Your Sundance registration money is quite literally helping to subsidize a donation to Yes on 8," Aravosis wrote in a post Saturday, following the tenuous links from Cinemark CEO Alan Stock's $9,999 donation to the Yes on 8 campaign to Sundance - via the festival's use of Park City's four-screen Holiday Village Cinemas, which are owned by Cinemark.

Never mind that Aravosis has his Sundance information rather skewed - he declares "the Holiday theaters are THE central location for anything and everything Sundance," which isn't the case at all.

The Holiday Village is the only permanent movie theater Sundance uses in Park City - the others are concert or lecture venues or, in the case of the Park City Racquet Club, a converted basketball court.

But the Holiday Village screening rooms are tiny - only about 150 seats each - compared to the cavernous 1,270-seat Eccles Theatre (where the major premieres are) or the 600-seat Racquet Club (where the U.S. Dramatic competition films screen) or the 468-seat Library Center Theatre.

The Holiday Village is home to more than 150 screenings during the festival's 10-day run, and cancelling those now (less than two months before the festival) would leave many filmmakers without a chance to show their films. The Holiday Village is also one of only two venues for press screenings, and without it critics would be scrambling to get into regular screenings - a further strain on a ticketing system that deals with enough sold-out screenings as it is.

Arguing that Sundance - an institution that has reached out to gay and lesbian filmmakers, workshopping such movies as "Boys Don't Cry" and "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" - is being anti-gay because it can't stop on a dime and give in to Aravosis' demands is foolish.

Here's a more positive idea to show your anger at Cinemark for its CEO's donation: A group is urging moviegoers to avoid seeing "Milk," Gus Van Sant's excellent biography of gay politician Harvey Milk, at any Cinemark theater. "Don't let Harvey Milk's legacy finance your oppression!," the protest's web site says.

Eugene Hernandez, editor of IndieWire, takes a thoughtful look at the intersection of independent film and the same-sex marriage issue - which has been all the talk in Hollywood this last week, both with the Sundance controversy and the news that the director of the L.A. Independent Film Festival (who is Mormon) gave a donation to the Yes on 8 campaign.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 9:16 AM | 2 Comments Links to this post
Friday, November 14, 2008
When alt-weeklies collide
Part of the aftermath of a failed political campaign is that natural allies turn on each other.

We're seeing it in the Republican Party after John McCain's defeat, and among gay-friendly liberals after the passage of California's ban on same-sex marriage.

The latest fight involves feuding alternative weeklies: Salt Lake City Weekly, The Stranger in Seattle, and New York's The Village Voice.

It started when Dan Savage (pictured), the esteemed editor of The Stranger and writer of a nationally syndicated sex-advice column, chimed in to support a blanket boycott of Utah (because the LDS Church and its members supported California's Prop. 8 and bankrolled much of the campaign). Savage said he and his boyfriend had been contemplating a Utah ski vacation, but now they will go to Colorado instead.

Of course, a blanket boycott won't hit its intended target (there are a lot of Mormons who don't live in Utah) and will cause collateral damage (think of the 3,000 Utahns who protested around Temple Square last weekend, or the gay-friendly Sundance Film Festival). But Savage is angry, and somebody has to pay.

John Saltas, the president of Salt Lake City Weekly, made such an argument in his weekly column. "A Utah boycott hurts the very people Savage claims to speak for," Saltas wrote, while also noting that Colorado is home to Dr. James Dobson's Focus on the Family and several other evangelical groups that also supported Prop. 8.

Saltas went even further, though, and terminated Savage's sex-advice column, "Savage Love," which had been running on the City Weekly's web site. "Since Savage hates Utah so much, there’s no point in us playing in his sandbox by sending him a regular check," Saltas wrote.

This announcement raised the ire of The Village Voice writer Roy Edroso, who condemned Saltas' action on the paper's "Runnin' Scared" blog: "Runnin' Scared and the Voice are astonished that the paper would defenestrate Savage on the basis of his views - especially when those views are entirely predictable from the tenor of his previous work. (Did they actually expect Savage to be gentle about a major gay-rights issue?) We can't think of another alt-weekly that would do such a thing and, till this happened, never expected it of the Weekly."

Can't we all just get along? I invite Savage to come to Utah (he can fly on an airline with a strong anti-discrimination policy, and we can find him a nice gay-friendly B&B, whose owners won't give a penny to tithing) - and I'll buy the drinks while Savage and Saltas debate the issue and find common ground.

I'm betting that is Savage came to Salt Lake City, the crowd of gays and lesbians that would greet his arrival would leave him staggered and impressed.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 9:58 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Prop. 8: Sundance under fire
The furor over California's Proposition 8, the ban on same-sex marriage, marches on.

And just when you thought the Sundance Film Festival was out of the line of fire (by gay and lesbian activists going after all things Utah, because of the Mormon church's strong support of Prop. 8), now Sundance is the one being asked to boycott one of its own venues.

Activist John Aravosis posted this notice on his AmericaBlog that the CEO of Cinemark Theatres, Alan W. Stock, gave $9,999 to the Yes on 8 campaign. Cinemark Theatres operates 4,700 theaters worldwide, and operates more screens in Utah than any other company - including the 24-plex at Jordan Landing and the two Century 16s.

Aravosis is urging a blanket boycott of all Cinemark theaters. (This leaves militant gays and lesbians in Utah in a bind - some were already boycotting Larry H. Miller's Megaplex Theaters over the "Brokeback Mountain" cancellation in 2006.)

Stock - as I wrote Monday on my Movie Cricket blog - was raised in Roy, Utah, served on an LDS mission, and managed theaters in Ogden and Layton before being hired by Cinemark in 1986. On Election Day, he was back in Utah, overseeing the opening of a new 14-plex in Orem's University Mall.

Here's where Sundance factors in the mix: Cinemark also runs the 4-screen Holiday Village Cinemas in Park City, the only full-time movie theaters used during the film festival. (The other venues are either concert halls or converted spaces.) The Holiday Village theaters are the go-to theaters for the U.S. documentary competition, and the main venue for press screenings.

Movie City News' David Poland, writing on his Hot Blog, puts it directly: "Sundance will actually have to answer what is now a real question... will they financially support a theater in their group of theaters that is led by a Prop 8 financer?"

Poland vows to avoid press screenings at the Holiday Village ("nothing plays the HV exclusively," he writes), but for some members of the press - those with more-restrictive press credentials - that may not be a workable option.

Poland is urging Sundance to try to find an alternative venue, but there's no viable option with the festival only two months away. The Redstone Cinemas might have the screens, but running the shuttle buses out to Kimball Junction would cripple an already precarious transportation situation.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 8:45 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
A Prop. 8 supporter feels the heat
Scott Eckern exercised his constitutional right of free speech and, following the advice of his church - the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - donated $1,000 to the campaign supporting California's Proposition 8, banning same-sex marriage in the state.

Supporters of same-sex marriage exercised their constitutional rights and publicized Eckern's donation - and the fact that Eckern is artistic director of the California Musical Theatre, the state's largest nonprofit musical theater company.

These supporters of gay rights encouraged their artist friends who are gay and lesbian to boycott CMT. One artist who took up the boycott call is fairly famous in musical-theater circles: Mark Shaiman, who composed the songs for the musical version of "Hairspray."

Today, according to this report, Eckern resigned his job at California Musical Theatre, "after prayerful consideration to protect the organization and to help the healing in the local theatre-going and creative community," he said in a statement.

I feel sorry that a guy lost his job. I also feel sorry that 18,000 gay and lesbian couples who have married legally in California this year were told by voters that their marriages don't count. There are no winners in this mess, only victims.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 2:30 PM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Can we laugh? Yes, we can
What Jon Stewart once called "the satirical-industrial complex" is undergoing a shake-up right now.

Out with the jokes about George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Sarah Palin. In with jokes about Barack Obama.

But what are the jokes about Barack Obama? How does a comedian satirize a politician whose stock-in-trade is optimism, idealism and - dare we say it? - hope?

That's the question I pose in today's Culture Vulture column in the dead-tree Tribune. Check it out.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 11:02 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Monday, November 10, 2008
Greetings from the "Hate State"
The Hate State.

That's what a fair number of bloggers and supporters of same-sex marriage are calling Utah, following the lead of AmericaBlog's John Aravosis - who is urging a boycott of all things Utah and all things Mormon, after the support of the LDS Church and its members helped pass California's Proposition 8, banning same-sex marriages in the Golden State.

"Utah is the new Coors," declared Dan Savage, editor of the Seattle alt-weekly The Stranger (and author of the sex-advice column "Savage Love"). "Since all Mormons-in-good-standing must tithe 10% of their earnings to their church, some part of any dollar you spend in a Mormon-owned business - and they're almost all Mormon-owned businesses in Utah - flows toward an anti-gay church that wages anti-gay political campaigns. Ski Colorado, Washington state, and British Columbia. Don't ski Utah."

Others have called for the Sundance Film Festival to vacate Utah (in part because the festival headquarters are at the Park City Marriott, and an owner of several Marriotts in southern California was a big Prop. 8 donor). Still others urge a boycott of Mormon artists - a list that includes Donny and Marie Osmond's current show in Las Vegas, Gladys Knight's concerts, and David Archuleta's forthcoming new album.



Funny, "hate" isn't what we saw spilling into the streets of Salt Lake City on Friday night, when 3,000 people picketed around Temple Square in opposition to Prop. 8 and the LDS Church's support of it.

We saw love. We saw commitment. We saw the beginnings of a movement. And we saw that Utah isn't as monolithic as people outside the state think.

Boycotting Sundance, as Daily Kos and David Poland's Hot Blog both argue, accomplishes nothing. Park City is a blue dot in a red state, Robert Redford's no Mormon, and Sundance has fostered gay and lesbian cinema - with titles such as "Go Fish," "Southern Comfort" and "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" - like no other entity.

(The idea of a Sundance boycott does give hack indie filmmakers a built-in excuse, though. Instead of saying a movie was rejected, a director can say, "Ahh, I pulled the movie before selection because I'm boycotting Utah.")

And a shotgun-blast boycott at everything Utah doesn't make sense either, because look at the people you'd hit in the blast. If you want a target, use this handy database and go after the businesses of those who directly donated to Prop. 8 supporters (something the Prop. 8 folks threatened to do to the amendment's opponents before the election) - such as this guy, the artistic director of a Sacramento-area theater who's now finding that people who work in musical theater (some of whom, believe it or not, are gay) don't want to work with him anymore.

Most importantly, don't fight hate with hate. Fight it with love - the kind of love we saw outside Temple Square this weekend.

UPDATE: Here's the word from the Sundance Institute, which has received some e-mails calling for a boycott or for Sundance to move the festival from Park City:

“The Sundance Institute has a long history, and in fact was founded, on the idea of championing diversity and freedom of expression," said Brooks Addicott, Sundance's associate director for media relations. "It would be a grave disappointment to us if the Sundance Film Festival were to be singled out for a boycott. For 25 years, the Festival has brought together a diverse range of independent voices, and we remain committed to creating dialogue around critical issues of our time."


(Photo: Leslie Sorensen-Means)



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posted by Sean P. Means @ 9:10 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Friday, November 7, 2008
It's not over 'til it's over

If you thought Election Day would settle everything, you thought wrong.

In the battle for gays and lesbians to be accorded the same rights to marriage as everyone else, the fight is still going on - and will be hitting the streets of Salt Lake City tonight.

Those who believe in gay rights are organizing a protest at 6 p.m. at the corner of North Temple and State Street - right in front of the Church Office Building, world headquarters of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Leaders of the LDS Church encouraged Mormons to support California's Prop. 8, a ballot measure that would amend the state's constitution to ban gay marriages - which have been legal in the Golden State for the last 4 1/2 months thanks to a state Supreme Court decision.

The ballot measure narrowly passed with California voters - after a bitter and divisive campaign that brought an estimated $22 million in donations from Mormons on the pro-Prop. 8 side.

About 3,000 protesters marched to the gates of the Mormon temple in L.A. on Thursday, as gay-rights groups have channeled their wrath on the LDS Church's role in the Prop. 8 campaign (even though other churches also supported the ban).

An online petition now circulating is demanding the IRS investigate whether to revoke the LDS Church's tax-exempt status. Backers of the petition quote the section of the IRS code that states: "In general, no organization, including a church, may qualify for IRC section 501(c)(3) status if a substantial part of its activities is attempting to influence legislation (commonly known as lobbying)."

(Speaking of taxes, singer-songwriter Melissa Etheridge wrote a post on The Daily Beast, arguing that she and other gay Californians shouldn't have to pay state income tax if they don't have full rights. "That would just be wrong, to make someone pay taxes and not give them the same rights, sounds sort of like that taxation without representation thing from the history books," Etheridge wrote.)

Meanwhile, opponents of Prop. 8 are also mounting a legal challenge, arguing that California's initiative process was abused - because only small, technical amendments can be passed through initiative, not substantial changes to people's human rights.

An LDS Church spokesperson issued a statement in response to the L.A. protest: "The Church acknowledges that such an emotionally charged issue concerning the most personal and cherished aspects of life - family and marriage - stirs fervent and deep feelings. No one on either side of the question should be vilified, harassed or subject to erroneous information."

That last sentence might draw a hollow laugh from Prop. 8 opponents - who have a detailed list of "erroneous information" (or, as they are sometimes called, lies) trumpeted by supporters of the ban.

This battle is far from over, and it's not limited to California.

(Photo: Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 8:50 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Election aftermath - The Utah effect
While things went pretty much as expected in Utah on election night - Republicans still run pretty much everything they ran the day before (except for a Salt Lake County Council seat and a Utah House seat held by Speaker Greg Curtis) - the state's citizens did have some influence over votes elsewhere in the country:



- The Udall boys are going to the U.S. Senate - and Utah's own Robert Redford gave each of them a boost.

The Sundance Kid held a fund-raiser in September for Tom Udall, the Democrat running for the Senate in New Mexico. Redford also campaigned heavily for Tom's cousin Mark, the Democrat running in Colorado - even making a campaign stop in Aurora, Colo., last weekend.

Tom Udall is the son of Stewart Udall, who was Interior Secretary for JFK and LBJ. Mark Udall is the son of Mo Udall, longtime Arizona congressman and one-time presidential candidate.

- California's same-sex marriage ban, Prop. 8, was approved with about 54 percent of the vote - after a bitter and emotional campaign that saw members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (many of them in Utah) give a lot of money and time to ensure its passage.

The LDS Church's involvement in the campaign itself became a campaign issue, notably when a group called The Courage Campaign aired this ad depicting two LDS missionaries ransacking a lesbian couple's home and tearing up their marriage certificate. Church officials issued this statement in response:

"The Church has joined a broad-based coalition in defense of traditional marriage. While we feel this is important to all of society, we have always emphasized that respect be given to those who feel differently on this issue. It is unfortunate that some who oppose this proposition have not given the Church this same courtesy."

In other words, the LDS Church jumped into the ring with its boxing gloves on, then got its feelings hurt that somebody else would throw a punch. And considering the vitriol coming from the pro-Prop. 8 side, the criticism of the LDS Church was comparatively tame.

- And, finally, Utah can no longer claim to be reddest of the red states. Though Utah gave 63 percent of its vote to John McCain, both Oklahoma (66 percent) and Wyoming (65 percent) posted higher numbers for the Republican. (Conversely, Hawaii - the state of president-elect Barack Obama's birth - is the bluest state, with 72 percent of the vote for the Democrat. The District of Columbia gave Obama 91 percent of its vote.)

(Photo: Dennis Schroeder/Rocky Mountain News)


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posted by Sean P. Means @ 9:58 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Election night - Partying with Kurt
Composer Kurt Bestor has always been a kind of middle-of-the-road guy, both with his music (which is accessible and quite popular in Utah) and his politics.

"I was Switzerland for a long time," Bestor told me Tuesday night at the Utah Democratic Party's victory celebration at the Salt Lake City Radisson. "At a certain point, you've got to stand up and stand for something."

A decade ago, Bestor - who lives in Utah County - was approached by Utah Democratic officials about running for Congress against then one-term incumbent Chris Cannon. He turned them down.

This year, though, Bestor decided to get involved. "I honestly had just grown tired of feeling powerless," Bestor said, adding that state Democratic chairman Wayne Holland urged Bestor "to use that name for more than selling Christmas music. ... I decided I'd be better off to use my name for political things I believe in."

Bestor got involved in a big way this year. He was a poll worker in the primary, and a delegate at the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

Attending the victory party at the Radisson was "kind of the concluding chapter of what I've been in personally," Bestor said. "I had to come here and see it through."

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 9:36 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Election night - Democratic party dress

Ana Flores-Sahagun, 22, of Salt Lake City, put her Obama love into a form that would have made the "Project Runway" folks proud.

Flores-Sahagun, a communications/advertising major at the U. of U., made the dress out of signs from the Utah Obama headquarters.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 11:28 PM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Election night - The big bummer
There's not a lot of "party" in the Utah Republican Party.

Though the R's won most everything they held when they came in to the election, and still control the governor's office and the Legislature, the mood is almost sullen.

The only one smiling at the Grand America Hotel, where the Republicans gathered, was Jason Chaffetz, the newly-minted congressman for Utah's very conservative 3rd District.

Otherwise, the TV crews were packing up, the busboys were taking down the food tables, and everybody was going home early.

Meanwhile, back at the Radisson, the party was just taking off. Club beats emanated from the Young Democrats of Utah suite, while a gaggle of hardcore Dems cheered the news that Utah Speaker of the House Greg Curtis (R-Sandy) was knocked out by Jay Seegmiller.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 10:52 PM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Election night - On the Republican side

You walk into the lavish lobby of the Grand America hotel, and you have to look around to find the party going on.

Of course, the Utah Republican Party doesn't have as much to celebrate as the Democrats a few blocks away.

The Utah Republicans defended their two congressional seats, and got Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. and attorney general Mark Shurtleff re-elected. But with Utah going for John McCain, while the majority of the nation went to Barack Obama, there wasn't the same cheering and exuberance that the Democrats were feeling.

There was plenty of hand-shaking, like when Huntsman ran into Utah's newest congressman, Jason Chaffetz. But seldom have a group that have won so much acted like they lost.

The vibe was also less gracious. While the Utah Democrats listened - and largely applauded - McCain's concession speech, the Utah Republicans missed a large chunk of Obama's victory speech a half-hour later. Instead, they heard from Utah's newest congressman, Jason Chaffetz, who prefunctorily acknowledged Obama's victory and then made this promise: "I will fight tooth and nail to reject socialism."

That's reaching across the aisle for you.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 10:02 PM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Election night - "Yes! We! Can!"
At 9 p.m. Mountain Standard Time, bedlam erupted in the Salt Lake City Radisson.

Chanting "O-Ba-Ma" and "Yes We Can," Utah Democrats cheers the news - declared by the major networks - that Barack Obama had gone over the top in the delegate count and would become the 44th president of the United States.

People cheered. Others cried.

"I've got goosebumps, man," said Utah composer Kurt Bestor.

The cheering continued for several minutes, between more news from the TV screens and a speech by the Obama campaign's Utah director, Suzanne Gelberman.

More cheering erupted when the networks called Colorado for Obama. Many Utah volunteers drove to Colorado to help campaign for Obama, and Gelberman said the win in Colorado would not have happened without Utah help.

Gelberman encouraged the Utah Democrats to keep fighting. "If a black man with a funny name can be elected president of the United States, I have no doubt you can change politics in Utah," she said.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 9:10 PM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Election night - Partying down

The best music playing at the Radisson was in the small room occupied by Young Democrats of Utah, who were celebrating early with club music. (Their communications director, Crystal Young-Otterstrom, above, also had the coolest T-shirt.)

Matt Lyon, YDU's president, and his crew believe they have a lot to celebrate. YDU campaigned hard to find young first-time voters and get them interested in politics.

"Young people don't make the regular voting lists," Lyon said. YDU volunteers identified 4,000 young Democratic voters in Utah, and made 21,000 calls to find them and get them to the polls.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 8:20 PM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Election night - Photo op


One of the most popular attractions in the Radisson is this standup photo of Barack Obama, where nearly everybody is getting their photo taken. (Here is Demontray Lockhart, of Salt Lake City by way of Kansas City, Kansas.)

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 8:15 PM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Election night - Yeas and boos
In the main room of the Utah Democrats' election-night party, it's fun to play "emotional rollercoaster" with the crowd noise.

When a new batch of electoral-vote projections flashed on the TV monitors, the yeas and the boos alternated.

"Obama wins Iowa" - "YEA!"

McCain wins Utah" - "BOO!"

More cheers and boos came with KSL's projections in the Utah races. They cheered for Rep. Jim Matheson in Utah's 2nd District, booed for new Congressman-elect Jason Chaffetz in the Republican-heavy 3rd, more cheers for Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon - and a big cheer when Randy Horiuchi, in a close race for Salt Lake County Council, was declared the winner.

But the biggest and longest cheers came whenever a TV crew started shooting the crowd.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 8:05 PM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Election night - On the button

Ryan Randolph has some 10,000 political buttons in his collection, going as far back as Theodore Roosevelt and William Jennings Bryan.

"This has been a great year for buttons," Randolph said, at a table where he was selling buttons with Obama, Hillary Clinton and other Democratic figures. There were more Obama buttons produced this year than John Kerry buttons in 2004.

"We're recording history here," Randolph said.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 7:58 PM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Election night - At the parties

The ballrooms at the Radisson in Salt Lake City are a rabbits' warren of activity, as the Utah Democrats are celebrating election night.

The local TV and radio (and, ahem, a blogger or two) are ensconced in one of the larger ballrooms, while smaller rooms are housing legislative candidates, Democratic supporters and smaller groups.

Spirits are high, with plenty of food and drink - and people watching any available TV monitor to see how Barack Obama is doing in the electoral count. (ABC has him up 200 to 124 at the moment.) Meanwhile TV crews are catching whatever candidates or partygoers they can find to fill time. For example, here's KUTV reporter Rod Decker interviewing Democratic gubernatorial roadkill, er, candidate Bob Springmeyer:


(Don't worry, Republicans - the Vulture will moseying over to the Grand America, where the GOP is partying, later in the evening.)

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 7:45 PM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Get out the vote

This was the scene at my polling place, at an LDS ward near Salt Lake City's Capitol Hill. No lines, minimum wait, efficient poll workers - and even a chance to get a flu vaccine if you wanted one. (The posters said "Vote and Vaccinate.")

Not all polling places around America ran so smoothly this morning. At Penn State, nearly a thousand students were lined up before the polling stations opened. CNN reported mistakes by pollworkers, machine errors and long lines in Virginia, New Jersey and Ohio.

The idea that people have to stand in line for long periods of time to exercise their right to vote seems patently unfair, and unbecoming of a great nation. Rachel Maddow, commenting on her MSNBC show on Sunday, went even farther, calling the long lines "the new poll tax" - essentially giving up money (in the form of lost wages) in order to cast a ballot.

No matter the sacrifice, though, everyone should get out and vote today. If you're not sufficiently motivated by the issues or the candidates, go for the free stuff - Starbucks is giving out free coffee, Krispy Kreme is giving out red-white-and-blue donuts, and Ben & Jerry's is giving out free scoops of ice cream.

The best reason to vote, though, is that it makes you feel proud all day.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 9:57 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Monday, November 3, 2008
Loose Cannon's parting shot
So much for leaving with dignity.

Utah congressman Chris Cannon has been a lame duck since challenger Jason Chaffetz knocked him out in the Republican primary. While the world went on with the campaign, Cannon apparently has been keeping himself busy promulgating a wingnut conspiracy theory.

According to this story by the Tribune's Thomas Burr, Cannon has been trying to get proof that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's best-selling autobiography Dreams From My Father was ghost-written by (and I'm not making this up, though somebody is) William Ayers, the Chicago professor and one-time Weather Underground member.

Cannon's evidence? A theory pushed by writer Jack Cashill, who says he compared word length and frequency of words used in Obama's book and in Ayers' memoir Fugitive Days.

But the Oxford professor who created the software Cashill used to make his comparison did an examination of his own - and the professor, Peter Millican, said it was highly improbable that Ayers wrote Obama's book.

Cannon, of course, dismisses Millican's analysis, claiming the professor is "miffed" because he didn't get a negotiated $10,000 fee to run the comparison.

Millican, in a column in The Times of London on Sunday, describes receiving "an urgent call from Bob, a man close to a Republican Congressman in the American West [, who] wanted to enlist my services in an effort to prove a scandalous allegation against Barack Obama." Millican then goes on to debunk the Ayers connection, tearing apart Cashill's argument in scholarly detail on his web site.

Cannon - whose most notable accomplishment during his six terms in Congress was his constant presence on Fox News touting Bill Clinton's impeachment - swears he's not trying to smear Obama with this 11th-hour investigation.

"I'm off to the side watching this thinking, 'This is interesting,' " Cannon told Burr.

Yeah, sure. Whatever you say. You're a disinterested observer here.

Good luck in private life, Rep. Cannon. Go pursue your B.S. theories on your own dime.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 11:32 AM | 1 Comments Links to this post
No. 8 and Prop. 8
Consider what it's like to be Steve Young.

He's one of the most popular celebrities in northern California, thanks to his success as quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers. He's also probably the most recognizable Mormon in California - and possibly the most recognizable Mormon anywhere who's not an Osmond.

Now consider when those worlds - his California popularity and his Mormon faith - collide. That's what's happened with the battle over Proposition 8, in which California voters will decide whether to amend the state's constitution to ban same-sex marriage (which is currently legal there).

Leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints support Prop. 8, and have encouraged church members to donate money and time to pass it. And Steve Young is not just any member of the Mormon Church, but the direct descendant of the church's legendary president and prophet Brigham Young.

Over the weekend, word got out that a "No on 8" sign was posted in Young's front lawn at his home in Palo Alto, Calif. Young's wife Barbara sent an e-mail to Equality California, a gay-rights group, which read in part, "We believe all families matter, and we do not believe in discrimination, therefore, our family will vote against Prop. 8."

Mrs. Young further clarified her position and her husband's: "I am very passionate about this issue and Steve is completely supportive of me and my work for equality. We both love our Church and are grateful that our Church encourages us to vote our conscience. Steve prefers not to get involved politically on any issue no matter what the cause and therefore makes no endorsement."

This caused enough of an uproar that Young issued a statement to KSL Sunday night:

"Barb and I love each other very much. It is that love of each other and the Savior that helps us come to the decisions we do. For Barb, who has a remarkable and enviable compassion for others, those political activities are far more public than mine. Those who know me, know I chose long ago not to be publicly active in the political process. I do have strong opinions. I do vote and will vote on Tuesday, but those matters are private."

In many ways, Young is caught in the same bind as many Californians and many Mormons - trapped between religious dogma and human compassion. And if anyone thinks Mormons (or Utahns) are monolithic in their support of Prop. 8, this Sunday night vigil in Salt Lake City staged by those opposed to Prop. 8 should change your mind.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 10:54 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Entertainment value
My fellow Tribune blogger Glen Warchol makes the case that voters should sometimes pick candidates based on the level of entertainment they bring to the populace, rather than the actual good they might do in office.

Warchol argued this point in support of Utah state Sen. Curt Bramble (R-Provo), who's up for re-election after a year that included crushing ethics reform, his bullying legislative tactics, and an infamous run-in with a pizza-delivery woman. Contradicting the Tribune editorial board's endorsement of Bramble's opponent, Democrat RaDene Hatfield, Warchol asks this question: "It comes down to this — do you want good government on Capitol Hill or rock 'em-sock 'em entertainment?"

In a similar vein, Bill Maher complained about the presidential front-runner on his HBO show Friday: "Barack Obama has to give comedians something to work with. Seriously, here's a guy who's not fat, not cheating on his wife, not stupid, not angry and not a phony. Who needs an a------- like that around for the next four years?"

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 7:00 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Monday, October 27, 2008
California issue, Utah dollars
The battle over California's Proposition 8, which would insert a ban on same-sex marriage into that state's constitution, is getting fierce as election day approaches - and Utah money is at the heart of it.

According to this article in the Tribune's sister paper, The Mercury News in San Jose, about 12 percent of the $27.9 million donated to Yes on Proposition 8 are from outside of California. Of that 12 percent, 45 percent of the donations come from Utah - three times what people in any other state (besides California) have given.

That's roughly $1.5 million of Utahns' money going to California. Presumably much of that money comes from members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who have been urged by church leaders to get involved in the ballot issue.

Opponents of the ban, No on Prop. 8, are catching up to the supporters, having raised $26.7 million. About 21 percent of that figure comes from outside California, though the Mercury News article doesn't detail what states are giving more. You have to figure Utah's percentage is moderately high, just from WordPerfect founder Bruce Bastian's reported $1 million donation.

The fund-raising tactics of the anti-gay forces took a sleazy turn last week, when several businesses that had donated to No on Prop. 8 received letters demanding those businesses donate to the Yes side - or have the businesses' names publicized as "a clear indication that you are in opposition to traditional marriage."

The businesses weren't just threatened with being "outed." No, first they were being shaken down for contributions - using the threat of publicity as, let's call it what it is, extortion. There's high-minded morality for you.

UPDATE: One more item of note on Prop. 8 and the LDS connection: This entry on the left-leaning Huffington Post by Joe Vogel - remember him as one of the Utah Valley student-government officers who invited Michael Moore to Orem? - in which he laments members of his church being "on the wrong side of history again."

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 10:27 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Distracted by shiny objects
Leave it to Victoria's Secret to miss completely the signs that there's a recession going on.

The lingerie company has teamed with jeweler Martin Katz to create "The Black Diamond Fantasy Miracle Bra," a $5 million piece of underwear featuring 3,900 gems (black diamonds, white diamonds and rubies) with a total weight of 1,500 carats - including two black diamonds with a combined weight of 100 carats. (That's supermodel Adriana Lima modeling the bra in the photo.)

Now, at this point, I could make a sarcastic joke - something about how Sarah Palin will be using the Republican National Committee's Visa card to buy one - but I'm not going to do that. Instead, I direct your attention to the thoughtful commentary by CNN's Campbell Brown, who complained that the recent uproar about the Alaska governor's exorbitant wardrobe bill is a) distracting from important campaign issues, and b) reflecting a double standard about how people judge women's appearance compared to the appearance of men. Watch it:

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 1:05 PM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Correction: The father, not the son
A correction to Monday's post about political endorsements:

Harvey Jackson Unga, the father of BYU running back Harvey Unga, has endorsed Utah congressional candidate Jason Chaffetz.

The Vulture regrets the error.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 10:14 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Sedaris, decidedly
Ooh, this is exciting: Culture Vulture's first official correspondent!

Jessica Ravitz, who normally covers religion for The Salt Lake Tribune, attended author David Sedaris' appearance Monday night at Abravanel Hall. Here's her report:

His hand blocking his eyes from the brightness, or more likely the view, David Sedaris began his Salt Lake City appearance last night with a call for darkness. He wanted someone to cut the lights on the crowd assembled at Abravanel Hall, explaining later, "This is fine, as long as I can't see you."

 In a way only this humorist, author and radio contributor can do, Sedaris regaled the audience with stories of the absurd, most of it autobiographical. From buying condoms in bulk for teens, a perfect "light and individually wrapped" gift when pills aren't available, to his adventures with a "slave monkey" and a riff about the house guest with an annoying French accent, he had the crowd roaring. He shared tales from the road, including insights into how he might prioritize people in line at book signings — selecting first, for example, smokers, grown women with braces or men under 5-foot-6-inches.

But some of the loudest cheers came when he turned to the presidential election, wondering out loud if undecided voters might be professional actors. He painted a picture of a flight attendant offering up meal options to make his point.

"Can I interest you in the chicken, or would you prefer the human s--- with bits of broken glass in it?," he said, as the hall exploded. "To be undecided in this election is to pause for a moment and ask how the chicken is cooked."

Sedaris, who tours often, said he likes coming back to Salt Lake City in part because of The Little America Hotel.

"It's like a four-star motel... It should be depressing, but it's not," he said. "I've stayed at The Big America Hotel, but I really prefer The Little America."

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 9:05 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Monday, October 20, 2008
Endorsements: What are they worth?
I received an e-mail when I got back from vacation, informing me that Harvey Jackson Unga - father of Harvey Unga, the star running back for Brigham Young University's Cougar football team (pictured) - is endorsing Republican candidate Jason Chaffetz (himself the Cougars' starting place-kicker in the late '80s) for Utah's 3rd congressional district.

"There is no question that Jason Chaffetz has the potential for great things," said the elder Unga in a statement, sent by a publicist. "He is the right choice for our society and community. He is an athlete. He is well known amongst the BYU athletes and by BYU."

Is Unga's endorsement going to influence your vote? Is the opinion of a famous athlete's father - or a rock star (like Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel, who played at a Barack Obama fund-raiser last week) - important in helping you decide for whom you should cast your ballot?

How about the considered opinion of the editorial board of your local newspaper?

The Salt Lake Tribune's editorial board this weekend issued its endorsement in the presidential race. The headline sums it up: "A simple choice: The nation needs Barack Obama in the White House."

After pointing out that the Tribune endorsed Obama's opponent, Hillary Clinton, in Utah's Democratic primary this spring, the editorial acknowledges that the board has come around:

"Under the most intense scrutiny and attacks from both parties, Obama has shown the temperament, judgment, intellect and political acumen that are essential in a president that would lead the United States out of the crises created by President Bush, a complicit Congress and our own apathy."


Surely the Tribune's endorsement - along with endorsements from dozens of other newspapers (including that of the Chicago Tribune, making the favorite son Obama the first Democrat that paper has endorsed in its 161-year history) - will give conservatives grist for their usual "liberal media bias" gripes. And just as surely it will give relief to that tenacious breed known as Utah liberals, many of whom accused the Tribune editorial writers of knuckling under to a publisher's decree when the paper endorsed George W. Bush four years ago.

But will the Tribune's endorsement move Utah from the red column to the blue? Will it have any more effect on Utah voters than the number of lawn signs each candidate has (Obama is well ahead in that count in Utah) or how many 7-Eleven coffee cups were sold with each candidates' names on them (Obama came out ahead there, too)?

Probably not, but that's not the point. Endorsements serve as helpful guides to the candidates' positions and barometers of the candidates' temperament. They are written by people who have studied the candidates, and they urge you - the voter - to study them, too.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 6:45 AM | 2 Comments Links to this post
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
A '60s radical at Sundance
We've heard plenty, perhaps too much, of talk about Bill Ayers - the '60s anti-war radical and member of the Weathermen (a k a The Weather Underground) - and his tenuous ties to presidential candidate Barack Obama.

(Ayers and Obama served on a couple of education boards in Chicago together, decades after Ayers' involvement with the Weathermen and after he and wife Bernadine Dohrn turned themselves in to authorities.)

Duane Dudek, movie critic for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, recalls having coffee with Ayers and Dohrn in Park City, Utah, during the 2003 Sundance Film Festival.

The occasion for these ex-'60s radicals being in a Utah ski town was the premiere of a documentary, "The Weather Underground," that chronicled the Weathermen's bombings and anti-war activism.

Ayers and Dohrn, Dudek wrote in his 2003 story, "looked like any other casually fashionable couple here to ski: He had a cell-phone headset planted in his ear, she drank a Starbucks coffee. The red star on his fleece vest was the only physical evidence linking them to their younger selves."

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 8:47 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Plans for tonight: Debate, standing up
- The second presidential debate between John McCain and Barack Obama, from Nashville, Tenn., starts at 7 on all the major channels. The Salt Lake chapter of Drinking Liberally will gather starting at 6 at Saints and Sinners, 3040 S. State, South Salt Lake City (must be 21 or older). (If you know of a rockin' Republican viewing party, e-mail the Vulture and I'll post it here.)

- Weezer brings its jukebox of offbeat hits - including "Buddy Holly," "Island in the Sun," "Hash Pipe" and "Beverly Hills" - to the E Center, 3200 S. Decker Lake Drive, West Valley City. Angels & Airwaves (fronted by Blink 182's Tom DeLonge), Tokyo Police Club and local band Tolchock Trio will open the show. Doors open at 6:30. Tickets are $39.50 to $42.50, at Ticketmaster.

- Christian rock trio BarlowGirl headlines the "Million Voices" tour, along with Jimmy Needham and Brooke Barrettsmith, starting at 7 at Calvary Chapel of Salt Lake, 480 W. Century Drive (4500 South). Tickets range from $14.50 (groups of 10 or more) to $24.50, by calling 801-814-4645 or 801-264-9999.

- This week's cool band name: A Place to Bury Strangers. They play at the Urban Lounge, 241 S. 500 East, Salt Lake City. Sian Alice Group and Laserfang are also on the bill. Show starts at 9. Tickets are $10, at 24Tix.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 12:08 PM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Don't be a jerk
What we can learn from today's news - namely this story of Salt Lake County Council candidate Paul Pugmire, who had to apologize for joking on a high-school reunion blog that he was "born a poor black child"?

Lesson No. 1: Never write anything on a blog that you wouldn't say to your mama.

Lesson No. 2: High-school reunion blogs are a waste of time. So, if you think about it, are high school reunions - unless you're really itching to know whether everybody you hated in high school turned out as fat, bald and downtrodden as you hoped they would be.

Lesson No. 3: Steve Martin's "The Jerk," like most movies that came out when you were in college, was not nearly as funny as you remember.

Thus endeth the lessons.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 9:26 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
"Boogie" on down
The Culture Vulture column in today's dead-tree Tribune gets political - hey, what isn't political when it's four weeks until we choose a president?

I interviewed Stefan Forbes, the director and writer of the new documentary "Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story." If you don't know who Lee Atwater is, he was a hot young star in Republican circles in the 1980s - most notably as George H.W. Bush's campaign manager, turning a Yalie son of privilege into a Texas good-ol'-boy and turning a principled governor of Massachusetts into a tax-hiking, murderer-paroling weenie.

As Forbes describes Atwater (that's him standing next to Bush Sr. in the photo above): "He never ran for any office. He never passed a piece of legislation. But he single-handedly changed the landscape of American politics, changed the way the media covers our campaigns, and wrote the winning playbook that has been working for Republicans even after his death."

The movie opens Friday at the Tower, and Forbes will be in town for the opening. A screening Friday at 7 p.m. will be followed by a panel discussion about political campaigning, featuring: Jenny Wilson, Salt Lake County councilwoman; David Hansen, former campaign manager for Sen. Orrin Hatch; Patrick Shea, attorney for Utah and Washington D.C. (and former gubernatorial candidate); and pollster Dan Jones. Troy Williams, host on KRCL Radio Active, will be the moderator.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 9:24 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Plans for tonight: Veepstakes

- Vice-presidential candidates Gov. Sarah Palin (R-Alaska) and Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) face off in their one and only debate, live from Washington University in St. Louis, at 7 on all major channels (and a few minor ones). Want to see it in a group? Utah Republicans start their party at 6:30 at their party HQ, 117 E. South Temple, Salt Lake City (call 801-533-9777 for info); while the left-wing party animals at Drinking Liberally will also have a party starting at 6:30, at a site to be determined (in keeping with Will Rogers' famous quote: "I'm not a member of any organized political party - I'm a Democrat").

- California indie rockers Cold War Kids play at 7 at In the Venue, 579 W. 200 South, Salt Lake City. Tickets are $15.50 at SmithsTix and 24Tix.

- Moses Pendleton's dance-illusionists Momix perform some of their greatest hits at 7:30 at Kingsbury Hall, on the University of Utah campus, Salt Lake City. Tickets, at $29.50-$37.50, available on the Kingsbury Hall web site.

- Repertory Dance Theatre opens its season with "The Messengers" - featuring works by the late Glen Tetley, the legendary Ze'eva Cohen, Elizabeth Waters and of-the-moment choreographer Andrea Miller - at 8 at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center, 138 W. 300 South, Salt Lake City. Tickets are $30 at ArtTix. Runs through Saturday.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 12:17 PM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Rednecks: A treatise
Joe Bageant is a redneck, and proud to say so.

"In their political correctness, media types cannot bring themselves to utter the word 'redneck.' So I'll say it for them: redneck-redneck-redneck-redneck," Bageant - a liberal blogger originally from the backwoods of Virginia - writes to open an essay, "Why Rednecks May Rule the World," posted on the BBC's web site.

Bageant, who dissected his fellow rednecks in the best-seller Deer Hunting With Jesus, gives the world a brief glimpse of "The Republic of Redneckia," and admits readily, "by any tasteful standard, we ain't a pretty people."

"Most of all we are defiant and suspicious of authority, and people who are 'uppity' (sophisticated) and 'slick' (people who use words with more than three syllables). Two should be enough for anybody.

And that is one of the reasons that, mystifying as it is to the outside world, John McCain's choice of the moose-shooting Alaskan woman with the pregnant unmarried teen daughter appeals to many redneck and working class Americans."

If you recognize yourself or your neighbors in Bageant's article, then - to borrow Jeff Foxworth's tag line - you might be a redneck.

(A disclaimer: I go back a ways with Joe. We toiled together for a time, nearly 20 years ago, at a small paper in Moscow, Idaho.)

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 12:53 PM | 0 Comments Links to this post
"Alcopops": Going, going, gone
A new law banning flavored malt beverages - brands like Zima, Smirnoff Ice and Mike's Hard Lemonade - from Utah supermarkets and convenience stores goes into effect today.

And because of the Utah Legislature's ludicrously restrictive new labeling laws - which require the product's alcohol content printed in large letters on the front of the bottle - some manufacturers will not sell them anywhere in Utah (even the state-run liquor stores).

"Thanks to the Legislature, Smirnoff Ice is no longer available in Utah," Zsoka McDonald, spokeswoman for Diageo, one of the world's largest multinational beer, wine and spirits firms, told the Associated Press. "It's just not cost effective."

The state is selling off what supplies it has now, and won't order more until (or unless) manufacturers comply with the new labeling rules.

Here's the telling passage from the AP's story: "Republican Gov. Jon Huntsman said banning products like Zima, Smirnoff Ice and Seagram's Fuzzy Navel from grocery stores would harm Utah's image, but agreed to it in exchange for increasing the amount of liquor allowed in shots and standard cocktails to 1.5 ounces, up from 1 ounce."

There you have it in a nutshell: Huntsman and the Utah Legislature are willing to look like morons and restrict legal products from the citizenry - all to keep expensive booze flowing to out-of-town businesspeople being wooed to move to Utah.

The rich get drunker, and the working folks go dry.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 12:38 PM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Monday, September 29, 2008
Who's the reddest of them all?
When Utah lost the title of biggest consumer of Jell-O, we rallied and reclaimed the trophy from Iowa. So what are we going to do about this?

According to an August survey of Intermountain West states by the polling company Mason Dixon (and reported on The San Francisco Chronicle's web site and in the Casper Star-Tribune), Wyoming voters are the most conservative in the region.

This trend was most pronounced over the issue of immigration:
  • Likely voters who support moves to stop illegal immigration from Mexico - Wyoming, 77 percent; Utah, 74 percent.
  • Likely voters who support deporting immigrant workers: Wyoming, 47 percent; Utah, 37 percent.
  • Likely voters who support offering the chance for legal status to illegal immigrants: Wyoming, 45 percent; Utah, 50 percent.

Blame it on the LDS Church. "Brad Coker, managing director of Mason Dixon Polling and Research, attributed Utah's somewhat softer approach to illegal immigration to the influence of the Mormon Church, which he said has a substantial impact on voter positions in that state," the Casper paper reported. "He said Mormon beliefs about being a good neighbor may lead some otherwise very conservative Utah voters to adopt a somewhat more lenient position on immigration."

One topic where Utahns are more conservative than their Wyoming neighbors: Drilling for fuel sources on public lands. According to the poll, 61 percent of Utahns would put exploratory drilling as a higher priority than environmental protection - compared with 51 percent of Wyoming voters who think that way.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 8:52 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Friday, September 26, 2008
Immortalized (until the crows come)

Today's dead-tree Salt Lake Tribune includes a roundup of Halloween activities along the Wasatch Front - with the usual onslaught of haunted houses, corn mazes and other autumn traditions. (Tribune writers also offer tips on how to pick and carve a pumpkin, how to cook pumpkin seeds, how to create a cool Halloween costume and throw a fun party, plus a look at Utahns who get carried away with the Halloween decorating.)

One of the highlights is Cornbelly's annual corn maze at Thanksgiving Point - which this year features the smiling, singing image of Utah's own "American Idol" runner-up David Archuleta.

If you think that's tacky - that millions of Americans will fly over Lehi and laugh at those wacky Utahns - consider what Ohio farmer Duke Wheeler did to his cornfield:


(Photos: AP)

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 10:17 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Plans for tonight: Satan, satire and more
- Finnish power-metal rockers Children of Bodom plays at Saltair, 12408 W. Salt Air Drive, Magna. Also on the bill: Black Dahlia Murder, Between the Buried and Me. Show starts at 6:30. Tickets are $18, at Ktix or at the door.

- A day before the first McCain/Obama debate (presuming there still is one), get your taste of musical political satire with The Capitol Steps, at 7 at the Capitol Theatre, 50 W. 200 South. Tickets are $35, at ArtTix.

- The Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company's newly reconstructed version of Alwin Nikolais' work "Tower" begins a three-night run, at 7:30 at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center, 138 W. 300 South, Salt Lake City. Tickets are $30, or $15 for students at seniors, at ArtTix.

- Outlaw country singer David Allen Coe - the guy who wrote Johnny Paycheck's hit "Take This Job and Shove It" (a song we occasionally hear hummed wistfully in the restrooms at the Tribune) - plays at Bar Deluxe, 666 S. State St., Salt Lake City. Michael Dean Damron is the opening act. Show starts at 8. Tickets are $25, at SmithsTix.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 12:15 PM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Moore's five minutes in Utah

Utah gets five minutes and 25 seconds in "Slacker Uprising," Michael Moore's documentary (available on a free download on the movie's web site) about his 2004 college get-out-the-vote tour - and, all in all, the state comes out looking pretty good.

About an hour into the film - at the 57:04 mark, precisely - Moore chronicles when the tour came "to visit the liberals stranded in Utah" with his infamous appearance at Utah Valley State College (what's now Utah Valley University).

We then get a fast montage of TV news coverage (all four local TV news stations - 2, 4, 5 and 13 - are included) of the buildup to Moore's visit, including local businessman Kay Anderson's $25,000 offer the student-government officials to cancel the event. (Anderson was outbid by somebody in Reno, who offered $100,000 to cancel Moore's visit at the University of Nevada-Reno.)

Then the movie shows a bit of Moore onstage, praising the UVSC student leaders for their courage. "They wouldn't back down," Moore said, "because they have the radical belief that Utah is still in the United States of America."

Moore doesn't show Roseanne Barr's less-than-stellar performance on the UVSC stage (though she is shown, briefly, at another tour stop). And no mention is made of right-wing blowhard Sean Hannity's pre-emptive visit to UVSC a few days before.

The movie ends optimistically, in spite of the fact that Moore failed in his goal of unseating George W. Bush. Moore claims that voters in 54 of the 62 cities he visited went to John Kerry - and that the college-age vote was the only demographic group that Kerry won. "Unfortunately, their parents voted for Bush," the movie adds.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 8:59 AM | 2 Comments Links to this post
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Moore for free
Michael Moore's latest documentary, "Slacker Uprising," is not playing in a theater near you. It's playing practically everywhere else - on TVs, computers, cell phones or wherever else you wish to download 1.04 gigs.

Moore made the film - which chronicles his 2004 get-out-the-vote college tour - available for a free download, as of Tuesday. On the movie's web site, Moore sent this message:

"I'm giving you my blanket permission to not only download it, but also to email it, burn it, and share it with anyone and everyone (in the U.S. and Canada only). I want you to use 'Slacker Uprising' in any way you see fit to help with the election or to do the work that you do in your community. You can show my film in your local theater, your high school classroom, your college auditorium, your church, union hall or community center. You can have your friends and neighbors over to the house for a viewing. You can broadcast it on TV, on cable access, on regular channels or on the web. It's completely free - I don't want to see a dime from this. And if you want, you can charge admission or ask for a donation if it's to raise money for a candidate, a voter drive, or for any non-profit or educational purpose. In other words - it's yours!"

Some are taking Moore up on the challenge. BYU College Democrats (yes, both of them - ha, ha) had a screening on campus Tuesday night.

The movie will be of interest for Utahns because the state is prominently featured in one segment (pictured above). Moore, as you may recall, brought his tour to Utah Valley State College (now Utah Valley University) and raised a ruckus - including the efforts of one Kay Anderson, who offered student-government officials $25,000 to cancel Moore's appearance.

I'll post a brief review of the movie here later, as soon as the sucker downloads on my iTunes account. Only five hours to go!

(UPDATE: I got an e-mail from Austin Smith, who organized the BYU screening, which was enjoyed by about 50 people. "It was kind of a depressing ending for liberals since of course Bush did get elected, but I felt the movie was a warning voice, and it definitely inspired me to try even harder to get a progressive candidate elected this November, specifically through encouraging people my age to vote," Smith wrote.)

(Photo: Brave New Films)

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 10:29 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Thursday, September 18, 2008
A commitment in cash
If the debate about same-sex marriage is ultimately about commitment, here's a sure sign of commitment: Orem's Bruce Bastian, the openly gay ex-Mormon co-founder of WordPerfect, is donating $1 million to the "No on Prop 8" fund - which is fighting a California ballot measure that would amend that state's constitution to ban same-sex marriage.

According to an article by the Tribune's Rosemary Winters, Bastian was prompted to make the donation when the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints issued a statement in June, calling on members to "do all you can" to pass Prop. 8. Bastian said:

The LDS Church has no business [sticking] their big nose in something that's a legal matter, not a religious matter. Constitutions are meant to protect minorities, not to take rights away from people.

Winters' article notes that the campaign supporting Prop. 8 has received donations from 37 Utah residents, totaling $120,550. Also, according to a pro-Prop. 8 spokesperson, many of the 25,000 volunteers are LDS.

(By the way, actor and open heterosexual Brad Pitt is donating $100,000 to the No on Prop. 8 campaign.)

LDS church members were also active eight years ago in getting a no-gay-marriage ballot measure, called the Knight Amendment, passed in California. This time around, the drive isn't as successful: According to a Los Angeles Times poll in late August, 54 percent of likely voters oppose Prop. 8, while 40 percent support it.

What's changed? Life.

Eight years ago, same-sex marriages were more of an abstract concept than a concrete fact. Now, with couples getting married in Massachusetts and (since the state Supreme Court's ruling) California, gay marriages are happening to people in the neighborhood or celebrities you've heard of (like Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi, pictured). Every time two men or two women share vows of commitment, it kills the myth that somehow everyone else's marriage will be weakened.

(Photo: Danny Moloshok, AP)

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 9:10 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Monday, September 15, 2008
Plans for tonight: Politics, here and there
- The documentary "Iron Ladies of Liberia," which profiles Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (pictured at left), the first elected female president of Liberia - and the first freely elected female head of state in Africa - screens at 7 at the City Library auditorium, 210 E. 400 South, Salt Lake City. Part of the Salt Lake City Film Center's "New Face of Africa" series. Free.

- John Jackson Jr. (pictured at right), associate professor of communication and anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania, will deliver a lecture, "Race, Class, Gender and the Elections," at 7:30 at the Vieve Gore Concert Hall at Westminster College, 1250 E. 1700 South, Salt Lake City. Free.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 12:30 PM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Visiting Temple Square, on the public's dime
Reporters always love the "hand in the cookie jar" story, when some politician gets caught using public money for personal advantage - like charging the taxpayers for a trip to some tropical location (or, in a recent case, getting a per diem for nights spent in your own house).

From Australia comes a reversal on the formula: The politician comes from a tropical location, and charges his government for a trip to Utah.

The Courier-Mail (the paper in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia) reports that a member of the Australian parliament, David Gibson, claimed a $305 daily travel allowance for a weeklong visit to Utah last June.

While in Utah, Gibson (who is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) saw a rehearsal of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, visited the LDS Family History Library, dined with a church friend and met both with church officials and Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman.

Gibson, who also attended a political seminar in Washington, D.C., justified the trip to Utah as a study tour - because he visited a sustainable building and irrigation engineering program at Utah State University in Logan. (Gibson is the climate change spokesman for the Liberal National Party, the opposition party in Australia's parliament.)

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 10:27 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
"Goliath" in Texas
The old adage that "you can't fight City Hall" has required modification in recent years, to include corporations as something one isn't supposed to fight.

But the short documentary "Fighting Goliath," narrated and backed by Robert Redford and screening for free tonight in three Utah cities, shows an instance of determined local activists fighting a big corporation and (for now, at least) winning.

The documentary shows what happened when the energy giant TXU proposed building 11 coal-fired power plants in central and eastern Texas, with a regulatory process fast-tracked by Gov. Rick Perry. Ranchers, small-town residents and big-city mayors banded together to fight the plan, citing the environmental and health dangers the plants posed.

The movie is supported by The Redford Center at Sundance Preserve, founded in 2007 and "devoted to a distinct brand of problem solving that brings artists to the table to collaborate with diverse groups of policy makers."

Redford told the Associated Press he was inspired by the coalition of divergent interests coming together on this issue. "To me, that was a sign of changing times," he said.

The movie is screening tonight at 7 p.m. at three Utah locations: The Tower Theatre, 876 E. 900 South, Salt Lake City; the Quality Inn in Richfield; and Grace Episcopal Church in St. George. The screenings are free to the public.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 8:48 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Friday, September 5, 2008
Putting the "party" in "political party"
The words "fun" and "political speech" usually don't go together - unless you, like me, watched John McCain's acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention with the members of the Salt Lake City chapter of Drinking Liberally.

The group, which is as dedicated to liberal causes as it is to having a good time, gathered last night at Saints and Sinners, a private club in South Salt Lake, to watch McCain's speech. About 30 or 40 people showed up - including the Democratic challengers for governor and lieutenant governor, Bob Springmeyer and Josie Valdez.

Drinking Liberally was born in New York City in May 2003, and now boasts 293 chapters in all 50 states. The Salt Lake chapter has been around for about three years, according to Heather Culligan, one of the three "hosts" of the McCain event. (The chapter meets regularly on the second and fourth Fridays of the month at Piper Down, 1492 S. State St., Salt Lake City.)

Before McCain's speech (which we watched on one-hour tape delay, because the TVs were tuned to KUED, and nobody realized it wasn't a live feed until it was too late), and I got chatting with Valdez and with Misty Fowler, chairperson of Utah for Obama (who was live-blogging the speech from the bar on her web site, saintless.com).

Valdez and Fowler were both in Denver last week for the Democratic National Convention, and they compared that experience to the show from St. Paul they were seeing on TV.

"It was absolutely amazing," Fowler said, "seeing so many different people gathered in one place from so many different backgrounds."

Valdez remarked on how disorganized and dispirited the Republican rank-and-file looked on the floor of Xcel Energy Center. "We had better sign flow and coordination at our party," Valdez said. Fowler added that the cheering and sign-carrying was all organized by Democratic volunteers, who took the job because it gave them a chance to get into the Pepsi Center and be part of the event.

Once McCain's speech started, everybody was gathered around the TV with their beer glasses ready. Culligan had passed out copies of a drinking-game (devised by Drinking Liberally's Portland, Ore., chapter) to go with the speech. A few people added their own rules, such as taking a drink every time the cameras captured a person of color (which, for the whiter-than-white Republicans, became a sort of televised "Where's Waldo?" game).

Most got into the game with good spirit, though there was one loud angry guy who kept getting louder and angrier as his beer intake increased. I hope he got home OK.

Here's the drinking-game scorecard, as I tallied it:

  • Sip when McCain says taxes should be cut: 6
  • Sip when he mentions Barack Obama by name: 6
  • Sip when he talks about his bipartisan record: 3
  • Sip when he refers to his running mate, Sarah Palin, as a reformer: 1
  • Sip when he talks about the "surge" being a success: 1
  • Sip when he says we have to stay in Iraq until we win: 1
  • Drink when he mentions he's a POW: 1
  • Drink when he refers to Palin's "executive experience": 1
  • Drink when he acknowledges that most Americans think the economy is in bad shape: 3
  • Chug when he calls himself a maverick: 2

And we didn't even get to the end of McCain's speech, because the bar's regular Thursday night reggae band, Soul Redemption started playing at 10 p.m. Those who wanted to catch the rest of the speech did so without sound, with the closed-captioning on.

As it turns out, some good reggae music is the perfect way to relax after fiery political rhetoric.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 9:26 AM | 2 Comments Links to this post
Thursday, September 4, 2008
McCain, "Straight Talk" on the rocks
If you can't survive listening to John McCain's acceptance speech tonight without alcohol, the group Drinking Liberally is having a listening party tonight - around 7 or 7:30 - at Saints and Sinners, 3040 S. State Street.

According to one member of Drinking Liberally, there will be a John McCain drinking game, in which you take sips or shots when McCain says certain keywords or phrases.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 4:32 PM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Hatch vs. TMZ
TMZ.com, the bottom-feeders of tabloid TV, ambushed Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch at the Republican National Convention, asking if there should be a comparison between Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and celebrity mom Lynne Spears - because they both have had to deal with their teen-age daughters' pregnancies.

Hatch brushed off the TMZ guy politely but firmly, as this video shows.

TMZ is late to the party, anyway. Most everyone - from Barack Obama to Lindsay Lohan (no, seriously, Lindsay Lohan has weighed in on this, and quite intelligently, too) - has declared Palin's daughter Bristol off-limits.

It's not about the politician's family, it's about the politician's policies.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 9:48 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Give or take 24 years

(Top photo: Apple Computer ad; bottom photo: Mike Segar/Reuters)

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 8:43 AM | 1 Comments Links to this post
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Arresting journalists, at home and abroad
It's a chilling thought to any journalist: That you could be arrested for doing your job.

That appears to have happened to New York documentary filmmaker Andrew Berends (pictured), who (according to this AP dispatch) was arrested in Nigeria - accused by the military of spying in that nation's troubled oil region.

The anti-censorship group Reporters Without Borders has condemned the arrest of Berends and his interpreter, Samuel George, in the town of Port Harcourt on Sunday. Berends was released after 36 hours and told to return for more questioning; George is still in custody.

Word of Berends' detainment spread quickly across the Web, thanks to e-mails sent around by editor Aaron Soffin (who edited some of Berends' documentaries) and filmmaker James Longley (who directed the Sundance entry "Iraq in Fragments").

And if you think what happened to Berends can't happen in America, I direct you to this news of the violent arrest of Amy Goodman and two of the producers of her "Democracy Now!" radio program in St. Paul at the Republican National Convention.

Goodman was charged with obstruction of a legal process and interference with a peace officer. The producers, Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar, face felony counts of "suspicion of rioting" - even though they identified themselves as members of the press. The three were covering the anti-RNC protests, and the riot-squad response by St. Paul Police.

Salazar captured footage of her own arrest:




Here's the video of Goodman's arrest:

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 1:36 PM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Hey, I've met Robert Redford, too
Jay McDonough, a progressive blogger for the Salt Lake City edition of Examiner.com, perfectly pegged the off-the-wall suggestion by Cindy McCain that her husband John's vice-presidential pick, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, has foreign-policy experience because "Alaska is the closest part of our continent to Russia." (No, she really said that - here's the YouTube evidence.)

Countered McDonough: "I met Robert Redford so I, therefore, know about acting."

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 9:16 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Friday, August 29, 2008
Nobody expects the Alaskan governor
Bad news for all those Utahns who still want to vote for Mitt Romney: Presumptive Republican presidential candidate John McCain has chosen Alaskan governor Sarah Palin to be his running mate.

Not Michael Palin from "Monty Python's Flying Circus" (pictured at far right), but Sarah Palin from Alaska (pictured at near right).

The pundits are speculating on why McCain chose Palin. I can come up with two reasons: Courting the spurned Hillary Clinton vote, choosing somebody comparatively young, and going after her oil-company ties - three reasons.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 9:49 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Plans for tonight: Obama's night
- Young Democrats of Utah and the Salt Lake County Democrats are sponsoring a convention-watching party, to see Barack Obama deliver his nomination-acceptance speech from Denver. The party starts at 5 at Brewvies Cinema Pub, 667 S. 200 West, Salt Lake City. Admission is free if you participate in a Youth Vote Barackathon; get there after 6 and pay $5 to get in. Must be 21 or older to enter, since Brewvies serves that beer stuff.

- If you want to watch Obama and you have kids with you, there is also a convention-watching party from 6 to 10 at Canyon Rim Park, 3100 E. 3100 South, Salt Lake City.

- The Twilight Concert Series closes out its summer run with singer Neko Case and the band Crooked Fingers, starting at 7 at the Gallivan Center, 239 S. Main St., Salt Lake City. Free.

- Banjo master Danny Barnes of the Bad Livers performs, with opening act the Puddle Mountain Ramblers, starting at 9 at Urban Lounge, 241 S. 500 East, Salt Lake City. Tickets are $8, at SmithsTix.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 12:37 PM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Checking in on the Utah delegation
Since the Olympics are over, and August otherwise is so bereft of news that New York magazine declared it "National Slow News Day Month," our only shared cultural event this week is the Democratic National Convention in Denver. (Next week, it will be the Republican convention in St. Paul, Minn.)

If you're looking for some insight that's a little different than the saturation coverage on CNN and MSNBC, here are a few sites to check out:

  • For blow-by-blow details of what the Utah delegation is up to, check out the Utah Amicus blog. It's a great reminder that there actually are Democrats in Utah. (Here's hoping the Utah Highway Patrol will let them back into the state when they try to cross back over the Colorado state line.)
  • The Salt Lake Tribune's sister paper, The Denver Post, is covering the living hell out of the convention in their backyard. They're keeping an exceptionally good eye on the social scene and the celebrities in town (such as this roundup).
  • The funniest and freshest post-game analysis of the convention is the "DNC Vlog Except That We Hate The Word Vlog" on The Huffington Post. Two of the Post's bloggers, Rachel Sklar and Glynnis MacNicol, are rooming with Time.com writer (and Wonkette founder) Ana Marie Cox - and the three of them give from-the-hip, pre-morning-coffee takes on the previous night's action.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 9:12 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Stars shine in Denver
Hollywood is out in force in Denver for the Democratic National Convention. Some are there to support Barack Obama. Others are there to push causes and issues important to them. Some are there because they want exposure for themselves or their careers, and they can smell a camera lens from a thousand miles away.

The Huffington Post has photos of some of the celebs who hit Denver early (such as Anne Hathaway, at right, snapped at the Denver airport looking like she slept during the flight).

Meanwhile, The Los Angeles Times hooked up with Richard Schiff, formerly of TV's "The West Wing" and a longtime supporter of Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, now Barack Obama's vice-presidential pick.

In today's dead-tree Salt Lake Tribune, I devoted my Culture Vulture column to the phenomenon of celebrities latching onto politicians (and vice versa), and why some people - like Republicans - needlessly get worked up about it.

(Photo: The Huffington Post)

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 9:34 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
"Laser graffiti" artist nabbed in Beijing
You may remember the work of Graffiti Research Lab, a group of free-speech tech geeks who brought their laser graffiti technology - projecting graffiti-like images with a light pen onto big buildings - to this year's Sundance Film Festival. (Here's some video of their handiwork in Park City.)

Now the founder of G.R.L., James Powderly (at left) of Brooklyn, was detained by Chinese officials in Beijing around 3 a.m. Tuesday morning (Beijing time), according to Students for a Free Tibet. He was about to employ a new piece of protest technology, a L.A.S.E.R. Stencil, to beam a pro-Tibet message onto a building somewhere in Beijing.

Soon after Powderly's detention, five American protesters with a lighted "Free Tibet" banner - using L.E.D.'s developed by Graffiti Research Lab - were detained at Beijing's Olympic Park. They got the banner unfurled for about 20 seconds before the authorities got them.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 1:42 PM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
The dirt on Bush

Your cynical left-winger could look at the Bush Legacy Tour bus - a touring compendium of the current president's scandals, mistakes and foul-ups over the last 7 1/2 years - and say, "How could they fit it all on one bus?"

The biodiesel-fueled touring museum, sponsored by the progressive Americans United for Change, parked for a couple hours today in front of Salt Lake City's City-County Building - giving downtown workers food for thought on their lunch hour.

The exhibit includes commentary on Bush's legacy on the Iraq war, Hurricane Katrina, the economy, the environment, health care, education and workers' rights. To call it unflattering would be an understatement.

I ran into a friend on the bus, who said she had to check it out "because this kind of thing never comes to Utah."

The tour bus' stop in red-state Utah was brief, and by now the bus is already on the road to Colorado. Next week, it will be in Denver for the Democratic National Convention - then the following week in St. Paul, Minn., for the Republican National Convention.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 12:55 PM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Friday, August 8, 2008
What the candidates like
If you believe, as I do, in Nick Hornby's maxim from High Fidelity, "what really matters is what you like, not what you are like," you will be interested in these twin interviews in Entertainment Weekly with presumptive presidential nominees John McCain and Barack Obama.

In the interviews, the candidates are asked about their personal pop-culture habits. Let us compare and contrast tastes:
Favorite sitcom - McCain: "Seinfeld"; Obama: "M*A*S*H"

Favorite movie or TV president - McCain: David Palmer (Dennis Haysbert), "24"; Obama: Jackson Evans (Jeff Bridges), "The Contender"

Last movie seen in a theater: McCain: "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull"; Obama: "Shrek 3"

First movie seen as a kid: McCain: "Bambi"; Obama: Can't recall specifically, but one of the first was "Born Free."

If you could be any superhero: McCain: Batman; Obama: Spider-Man or Batman.

Musical tastes: McCain: ABBA, Roy Orbison, Linda Ronstadt, Usher; Obama: On his iPod include Jay-Z, Frank Sinatra, Sheryl Crow, John Coltrane, Bob Dylan, Javanese flute music, African dance music, a lot of R&B.


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posted by Sean P. Means @ 10:54 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Paris Hilton vs. "wrinkly dude"
OK, here's the lesson for John McCain: When you start attacking your opponent by comparing him to air-headed blonde celebrities, remember that the air-headed blondes also have access to cameras.

And their writers are funnier than yours.

And they might not be as dumb as you (or, indeed, America) thought they were.

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 1:37 PM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Monday, August 4, 2008
McCain's celebrity complex, continued
This is how slippery the slope is for John McCain: He has ceded the moral high ground to Paris Hilton's mom.

Kathy Hilton, mother of the oft-photographed socialite, issued a statement to the left-leaning blog The Huffington Post on Sunday, offering her first reaction to the McCain campaign's ad that knocks his Democratic opponent Barack Obama - using images of Paris Hilton and Britney Spears - for his celebrity status:

It is a complete waste of the money John McCain's contributors have donated to his campaign. It is a complete waste of the country's time and attention at the very moment when millions of people are losing their homes and their jobs. And it is a completely frivolous way to choose the next President of the United States.

An AP story mentions that Kathy Hilton and her husband Rick donated $4,600 to the McCain campaign earlier this year.

McCain's increasingly negative and snarky campaign ads - like an online ad that suggests Obama is comparing himself to Moses - were all the buzz on the Sunday talk shows.

Mike Murphy, McCain's 2000 campaign manager, called the Spears/Hilton ad "clumsy, juvenile, and a mistake" on NBC's "Meet the Press." And David Gergen, who has worked in both Republican and Democratic White Houses, was particularly stinging on ABC's "This Week":

I think the McCain campaign has been scrupulous about not directly saying it, but it's the subtext of this campaign. Everybody knows that. There are certain kinds of signals. As a native of the south, I can tell you, when you see this Charlton Heston ad, 'The One,' that's code for, 'he's uppity, he ought to stay in his place.' Everybody gets that who is from a southern background. We all understand that.

One thing about McCain's attacks on Obama: According to the latest polls, they're working.


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posted by Sean P. Means @ 10:37 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Friday, August 1, 2008
McCain's celebrity complex

So now the Republicans are playing the celebrity card.

A recent attack ad by presumptive Republican presidential candidate John McCain attacks his Democratic opponent Barack Obama for being - gasp - popular. The ad juxtaposes images of Obama's recent European tour with red-carpet footage of such celebrity airheads as Britney Spears and Paris Hilton.

I think calling the ad racist, as some have - because it juxtaposes the African-American candidate with two blond white women - is a bit of a stretch. But it does reveal an intellectual vacuum in the McCain campaign, and some hypocrisy for the Republicans' celebrity bashing.

The point of the ad - vote against Obama because he's being treated like a rock star - is vacuous, and betrays a little envy on the GOP side. As Obama himself said in response to the ad, "Is that the best you can come up with?"

Republicans are adept at bashing celebrities who get political active - note the "Shut up and Sing!" mantra aimed at the Dixie Chicks when Natalie Maines spoke ill of President Bush. But this is the same party that more successfully pushes movie stars as candidates (Ronald Reagan, Fred Thompson, Arnold Schwarzenegger) and get all gushy when somebody like Chuck Norris get campaigning.

Folks in Hollywood, according to this Los Angeles Times article, look at McCain's tactics as desperate. And marketing expert Robert Kozinets says the "anti-celebrity de-endorsement" is likely to boomerang on McCain as it gets run through the Internet.

(Cartoon by Pat Bagley/The Salt Lake Tribune)

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 8:46 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Hatch's song for Ted
Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy's battle with brain cancer - and a request from Democratic senators - has inspired Utah's senior senator, Republican Orrin Hatch, to write a song about his colleague, according to this Boston Globe article.

"Sailing home, sailing home. America, America, we're headed home at last/ Just honor him, honor him, and every fear will be a thing of the past," the lyrics go.

The song could be played as a tribute to Kennedy next month at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. (Kennedy himself won't be there, as he's continuing his treatment for cancer.)

OK, I could say something snarky, like "Hasn't Kennedy suffered enough?" But there's something sweet and beautiful in the friendship between two senators on opposite sides of the political spectrum.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 8:37 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
The political power of celebrity
Yesterday I noted that Utah resident and world citizen Robert Redford had written an e-mail endorsement for Colorado Democrat Mark Udall, who's running for the U.S. Senate.

How much is such a celebrity endorsement worth? Depends on who you ask.

Stephen Baldwin - who qualifies, barely, for the title "celebrity" because he was on "Celebrity Apprentice" - opined Monday on Fox News that "what is freaky to me is the media and Hollywood is so convinced that Middle America and mainstream America cares what it thinks."

Baldwin then went on to endorse John McCain for president, and promised that he would leave the country if Barack Obama becomes president - a riff on brother Alec's promise, on which he reneged, to leave the country in 2004 if John Kerry lost. (This brings up two questions: 1. Isn't Stephen Baldwin leaving if Obama's elected what we would call a "win-win"? 2. What's Thanksgiving dinner like at the Baldwin house?)

Obviously, the answer to the question of "What's a celebrity's endorsement worth?" is "The same as anyone else's endorsement is worth." But not all celebrity endorsements are created equal.

Some celebrities - like Redford or Warren Beatty - carry more weight because they have reputations for thoughtful political involvement. Others (for example, Barbra Streisand) help bring in fundraising dollars. Republicans seem to like to be surrounded by action-movie stars (like Arnold Schwarzenegger, before he became a politician himself, or Chuck Norris) to give their candidates an air of toughness. Obama got serious traction from the endorsement of Oprah Winfrey.

People may listen to these celebrities' opinions - just as they listen to the opinions of their elected officials, their clergy, their relatives or their barber. How much weight each of those carries is up to the individual voter to decide.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 10:10 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
E-mail from the Sundance Kid
Colorado voters, about 50,000 of them, may be seeing an e-mail in their inbox from Robert Redford.

According to Rocky Mountain News columnist Penny Parker, The Sundance Kid sent out a campaign pitch for Mark Udall, the Colorado congressman who's running for a U.S. Senate seat.

Udall is the son of venerated Arizona congressman Mo Udall, the nephew of JFK's Interior Secretary Stewart Udall, and the cousin of New Mexico congressman (and U.S. Senate candidate) Tom Udall. And, yes, they're all Democrats.

It's not the first time Redford has helped Mark Udall - having recorded a robo-phone message for Udall's 2000 House campaign. "Some women saved that voice mail for such a long period of time," said campaign spokeswoman Tara Trujillo. "Some accidentally erased the voice mail and called our office back to see if [Redford] could re-record the voice mail."

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 9:58 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Barack's iPod, and other trivialities
A breathless world waits to know: What's on Barack Obama's iPod?

According to Rolling Stone (which has the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee on its cover again this coming week), Obama is a big Stevie Wonder fan - but also has a lot of Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan and Jay-Z in rotation, as well as "everything from Howlin’ Wolf to Yo-Yo Ma to Sheryl Crow."

As someone who believes that there is no line between politics and pop culture - that, as Nick Hornby said in High Fidelity, "what really matters is what you like, not what you are like" - I should be the last one saying this, but how shallow has our political discourse become if we're asking what a candidate listens to on his iPod?

Of course, this isn't the lowest level of trivialization - and neither was the "boxers or briefs" question asked of Bill Clinton in 1992. After all, nobody actually based their vote on that answer. (Whether he kept his boxers or briefs on at crucial moments of his life was another issue.)

The low point was in 2004, when people looked at George W. Bush and John Kerry, and voted for Bush because he was "someone I could sit and have a beer with." Since the odds that you will ever get to sit and have a beer with your president are pretty low (unless you're a lobbyist who donated vast sums to his campaign fund), shouldn't you be more worried that your president (whether Republican or Democrat) stay sober and concentrated on the world's problems - so you and your friends can relax and have a few beers?

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 10:27 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
A great mother-daughter act
For today's Culture Vulture column, in the dead-tree Tribune, I met Elaine and Virginia Madsen - who were in Salt Lake City on Monday for a voter-registration campaign, Freedom of Expression Through Film.

Virginia Madsen is the Oscar-nominated actress from "Sideways," who also starred in "Firewall," "The Astronaut Farmer" and "The Number 23." Her mother, Elaine, is a poet and documentarian, currently editing a movie, "I Know a Woman Like That," about women aged 64-to-94 who are not letting age slow them down. (Virginia is the movie's producer, and Elaine's onscreen travel partner.)

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 12:09 PM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Of course, it's racism
The letters to the editor keep coming in regarding "The Sock Obama," the offensive doll being marketed by a West Jordan, Utah, couple that equates a presidential candidate Barack Obama - an African-American - to a monkey.

A typical argument, expressed in one letter, says that "the Obama sock toy is not any more offensive than Pat Bagley's Salt Lake Tribune cartoons depicting President Bush as a monkey. The only difference is that Obama is black and Bush is white."

No, it's not the same thing. When you depict George W. Bush as a monkey, you are criticizing Bush as an individual, not making a statement about all white people. Depicting Obama as a monkey, because of its historical and cultural precedent, is making a comment about all black people as inferior.

Some historical examples:
  • The 19th-century physician Josiah Clark Nott, in his book Types of Mankind, theorized that the human race was actually several species -- and its illustrations misleadingly suggested that “Negroes” were a class between Europeans and chimpanzees.
  • In 1983, sportscaster Howard Cosell was criticized for saying "look at that little monkey go" during a run by Washington Redskins receiver Alvin Garrett, who is black. Cosell said his intent was not racist -- and, in fact, he had used the "monkey" remark to refer to white athletes on occasion.
  • One of the Los Angeles police officers tried in the 1991 beating of Rodney King sent a computer text message referring to a domestic disturbance in an African-American family as ''right out of 'Gorillas in the Mist.' ''

Some have defended the Lawsons, the marketers of "The Sock Obama," by saying they didn't know the monkey comparison is racist. If they didn't, that's surprising but not impossible. But now they do know - and if they keep pursuing their plans (as the Tribune has reported), they cannot hide behind ignorance as a defense.

Others say the Lawsons are protected under the First Amendment. True enough. They can say any bigoted thing they choose - but they shouldn't be shocked if the exercise of their free-speech rights doesn't leave them as societal outcasts.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 7:00 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
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