No Guardrails

I’ve been meaning to blog lately but I can’t think of anything I really want to say so I’ll just point everyone to this. Thanks Radley.

Happy Birthday to Utah Policy Daily

When I moved to Utah I wanted to get up to speed with what Utah Politics was all about. After being gone for 7.5 years I really had no idea what was going on or who was who. I found the Utah Policy Daily website and decided to read it every day for a week (then subscribing to their daily email) and was very surprised that it nearly brought me completely up to speed in that short time. Now after nearly 4 months of reading their update every day it has become even more clear that they provide the best collection of each day’s Utah political news on the web.

Check out today’s message to see what the Utah Policy Daily is all about and if you are interested in being kept up to date with politics in this silly state you really should subscribe.

Congratulations and thanks to Lavar Webb and team for their two years of great service to Utah’s political junkies. Good luck in the future!

A Senator From Utah For Utah (Updated)

I posted yesterday on the Pete Ashdown interview in Wired magazine. There isn’t a lot more to say other than I think Pete Ashdown is clearly a better choice for Utahn’s than Orrin Hatch. He is actually a Utahn, he has posted his whole philosophy in a detailed and direct way, and he is a success in life before politics…not just because of it.

I’m not going to waste space in this post running Orrin down…although he deserves it. Instead I want you to get off of my site for a minute or two and check out Pete’s. He has his views clearly and reasonably detailed…no abstract garbage like on the other guy’s site (go ahead…check it out too…the comparison will only make the choice more obvious). If you want to know what your future senator believes and how he’ll vote (for Utah…not for interests in the recording industry, drug supplement industry, movie industry and such) check out his site and see a detailed list of his beliefs and platform. Make suggestions and you’ll get a response from Ashdown…not from some staffer. Ashdown wants to represent Utahns because he is one…he is a successful business man who built his dream in Utah in service to Utahns. His family is being raised here and his love of this state is palpable when you read his writings or hear him speak. Ok…enough evangelizing from me….go to Pete’s site now.

Here are some great blogs supporting Ashdown’s candidacy:

The World, According To Me
Obiter Dicta By Steve
SLCSpin
Gary Thornock’s Weblog
One Utah
The Utah Amicus
Form A Line
His post deserves a clip and a hearty AMEN!!!:

Orrin has been in the senate since I was two years old. It’s true. When he was asking “What do you call a Senator who has served 18 years?” and answering his own question with the immortal line, “You call him home” I wasn’t old enough to tie my shoes. He has spent a lifetime (mine) in the US Senate. He’s completely out of touch with anybody under 50. We should buy him a card, leave it up at the front desk for everybody to sign, stuff in a gift certificate to Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, and send him back home to Pennsylvania.

Utah Democrats
InnIsFree
Signifying Nothing
Bloglet
Foxy Starbuck
The Third Avenue
Picklewagon
Leap Into The Void
JuniperWest

UPDATE: 5/07/2006

Check out this post at Tyler Farrer’s blog: Davis County Watch and read the responses in the comments section. We need someone who pays attention to Utahns and their concerns to represent us in the U.S. Senate. To contribute to Ashdown’s policy discussions (and get feedback from the cadidate himself if you want) go to http://vote.peteashdown.org/ and become part of the process. Wouldn’t it be cool to have a Senator who doesn’t ignore us?

Pete Ashdown in Wired Magazine

My favorite candidate in any political race this fall is Pete Ashdown. He is running against Orrin Hatch…who has been commented on often enough in this blog that I’ve thought about adding an Orrin Hatch category. Orrin Hatch is a Grade A wiener who doesn’t belong in a Senate seat representing Utah.

Wired magazine interviewed Ashdown and you can read the interview here. I’ve included the introduction to the piece in this post because it so well summarizes why all Utahns should work together to boot Orrin out of the Senate in favor of an actual Utahn who is equipped to represent Utah instead of Hatch’s special interest donors. (Hatch isn’t from Utah and hasn’t ever even really lived in Utah as he was elected to the Senate soon after relocating here from Pennsylvania)

Hatch is a popular incumbent who has polled over 62 percent in past elections. Apparently, Utahans couldn’t care less about the Republican senator’s slavish endorsement of entertainment industry-backed bills that would, without understatement, create the equivalent of a copyright police state.

Hatch has terrorized techies from his Washington perch by sponsoring the much-loathed DMCA. He’s on record saying it’d be a good idea to let entertainment companies remotely destroy the computers of those they suspect of copyright infringement. And he’s a co-sponsor of the Induce Act, a moribund bill that aimed to hold tech companies responsible for creating devices that could be used to pirate digital content.

Ashdown is a political novice with impeccable tech credentials. He founded the first independent ISP in Utah, used to DJ raves, and uses a collaborative wiki for his campaign.

This has all the makings of a classic Old West showdown between Hatch — seemingly beholden to the entertainment companies who contribute to his campaigns — and Ashdown, who hopes to fight anti-tech policies and help Congress understand the internet from the point of view of someone who has been there.

Guess which one I chose to interview.

Read the whole Interview. GO ASHDOWN!