Updated 11/1/2006
Rumor has it that Bret Millburn is now claiming that he is open to debate Rob Miller any time and that he has never refused a challenge to a debate. In his letter to the editor posted at the Davis County Clipper Bret Millburn stated, “To date I have not refused any invitation from unbiased, independent groups or individuals to appear and discuss the issues important to Davis County.” Up to this point I’ve thought of Millburn as an honest and honorable candidate. Milburn’s letter is very “clintonesque”. He hasn’t refused an invitation from “unbiased, independent groups or individuals to appear and discuss the issues important to Davis County” but he has refused an open and clear challenge from his opponent to participate in a debate. If you read the whole letter Millburn wrote and the letter to the editor he was responding to you can clearly see that Millburn is not responding to the charge that he has refused to debate Miller…he’s sidestepping it.
Millburn very clearly indicated to Rob Miller on October 9th that he would not participate in any debate with Miller outside of the “meet and greet” events they already had planned which weren’t really debates.
Here is the email Millburn sent to Miller refusing to debate along with Miller’s original invitation:
From: Bret Millburn [mailto:bret@bretmillburn.com]
Sent: Monday, October 09, 2006 8:50 PM
To: DemocratAmicus@aol.com
Subject: Re: Formal Request for a Public Debate
Rob:
If I read the invitation from the League of Women Voter correctly it looks like those events are set up debate style (opening statement, answer questions, closing statement). I look forward to discussing issues at these events.
As far as other times and locations, my schedule between now and Election Day is pretty tight. I’m sure you can appreciate between full-time employment, family, other responsibilities, as well as a planned campaign timetable; it is difficult to commit to anything outside of already scheduled events.
Kind regards,
Bret Millburn
Candidate Davis County Commission - Seat A
XXX East XXX South
Centerville, UT 84014
801.XXX.XXXX
www.bretmillburn.com
On Thu Oct 5 9:49 , DemocratAmicus@aol.com sent:
Bret,
Are any of these events actual debates?
I believe that they are simply “meet the candidates” forums.
As I said before, although I am an inexperienced at the art of debate I believe that the political debate is an honored tradition that should be embraced by the both the candidates and the voters. If you will agree to participate in a debate, I will be delighted to participate also. I received a letter just yesterday by a citizen who said she was interested in possibly putting together this type of event.
I have been talking with several non-partisan organizations and I believe we could have a debate forum that is both fair and fun, that is if you will agree to participate.
Please let me know by October 9, 2006 if you are willing to participate in a formal debate. You can consider this letter a formal request from my campaign to do so.
With every best wish,
Rob Miller
Democratic Candidate for County Commission, Seat - A
(The emphasis in both emails is mine)
If Millburn has changed his mind and will now participate then he gets nothing but props from me as I’ve contended for quite some time on this page that debates are an excellent forum for candidates to display what they are really about. If he is just trying to score political points by now saying he’s always been open to participating in formal debates then I can only conclude that he is being blatantly dishonest.
There hasn’t been an actual debate between the commission candidates because the Republicans in Davis County take the voters for granted. There really isn’t any other explanation for their refusal to participate in an open forum where the voters can ask questions about the issues and the candidates can offer contrasting answers.
Unfortunately this is the closest thing we’re going to get to a debate between the candidates in the commission races. Its not bad…but we voters are still being cheated by the Republicans who don’t think an open exchange of ideas is in their best political interests.
Tyler at Davis County Watch has gone above and beyond the call of duty in a post he put up today. The post contains questions and answers from interviews with many of the candidates for office in Davis County. Read the whole thing. The questions are good and they are fair. The answers are enlightening.
The first thing I noticed was that Democratic candidates were more prone to answering the questions with specific examples and clearly defined positions and Republicans were noticably more vague. I was surprised that the only Republican I voted for who had a Democratic opponent gave answers far inferior to the Democrat. Apparantly I made a mistake in voting for Ms. Downs instead of Chris Martinez. My wife made up for it though and voted Martinez for Commission Seat B today. She’s always been smarter than me.
This post is mostly for my Brother-In-Law Michael but I’m a pretty big Disneyland/World fan too.
Tune in to DoomBuggies.com on Halloween for the original Haunted Mansion backstory as originally conceived by Disney Imagineers. The Haunted Mansion is my second favorite Disneyland ride.
Here is a great Wired piece about Masi Oka, the actor who plays Hiro Nakamura on this years best new TV show “Heroes”.
Ok…I’ve voted. Now its time for the reasoning behind my votes and my predictions.
(more…)
As of 8:16 AM 10/24/2006 Nearly all Democratic candidates for office in Davis County plus James Ivie (R), Max Eliott (R) and Kim Burningham have 100% of the vote. All of the judges have been kicked out of office and the state constitutional amendment has been passed.
I was the first person in Davis County to vote 
YOUR TURN!!!!
This bugs me. I don’t want people dragging my church into politics…even if the people trying to do it are deans at BYU, general authorities, or other famous/connected Mormons. The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints is not an arm of any political campaign even if the candidate is LDS.
I was inclined to support Romney before hearing about this. The idea that his campaign is trying to get the church involved in organizing a fundraising/campaign network for them really bugs me even if I’m not that surprised. The idea that there may be church leaders or employees attempting to facilitate this crap is quite a shock in light of the church’s constant protestations of its political neutrality. It is also much more disappointing since members of the church should be able to expect much better from them.
(Hat Tip SLCSpin)
Check out this post at The Agitator.
Congress is supposed to be overseeing the war effort but they don’t have the first clue what is even going on in Iraq…or why its happening. I wonder how many people in the executive branch would fail this same quiz.
Republican candidates from all over the state have been ignoring invitations from their Democratic opponents to hold debates over issues voters should be educated on before the elections. I’ve heard Bishop is the only Republican candidate who has agreed to face a Democrat in a debate. Again…kudos to Bishop.
I think it is even more important for our community that candidates for local office be open to the chance to argue their vision for the future in front of voters in a way that allows us to compare them to each other so we will have a good idea of:
1. The issues involved in local government which most people aren’t aware of even though those issues are of more immediate concern to all of us than what is going on in Congress.
2. The willingness of each candidate for office to listen to constituents concerns and communicate answers in a coherent and logical manner
3. The priorities of the candidates for local office. Voters need to know what direction their candidate is going to lead our community and what issues are going to be at the top of the agenda when they take office.
Rob Miller has invited Bret Millburn to participate in a debate with him about the issues facing our county. Milburn is a stand-up guy and a great candidate for office but he hasn’t agreed to participate in a debate with Miller which is a slap in the face to all of us who are interested in the successful future of our county. Please contact Mr. Millburn and let him know that we all benefit when voters can hear about the issues from the candidates themselves in a friendly debate!
UPDATE 10-07-2006
Turns out I was wrong. Imagine that. I got this message from Pete Ashdown’s campaign today:
ST. GEORGE, UTAH - The Spectrum and Cedar City Daily News are sponsoring
a debate between Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Democratic candidate Pete
Ashdown from 10:50 to 11:40 a.m. Wednesday at Tuacahn’s indoor
auditorium, 1100 N. Tuacahn Drive in Ivins.
I guess kudos are in order for Sen. Hatch too if he agreed to this. Ugh…I hate that. Thanks Senator for setting an example for other Republican candidates.
Libertarians (when I use the word libertarian alone I am referring to believers in libertarian ideology not members of the Libertarian Party) believe America has a history of being great because it has a history of being the nation best at preserving private property rights and civil liberties. We desire a government that has the power needed to maintain law and order so an environment exists where property rights are protected and people feel confident enough to sink all of their time and effort into increasing their property without fear of it being stolen from them. This is the definition of the right to property. Libertarians also desire a government that doesn’t dictate moral values to its citizens. Consenting adults who wish to violate the mores of society should be free to do so in any way they wish until their actions perpetrate demonstrable harm to someone who didn’t voluntarily take part in those actions then government should step in to redress resulting grievances. This is civil liberty. Libertarians are deeply distrustful of anyone arguing that some of their property should be forfeit to government so it can be re-distributed to anyone else for any reason other than protection of property rights and civil liberties (police, courts and military).
I’ve always believed that neither major political party has been good at implementing libertarian ideals in government. For most of my life I’ve believed Republicans were better at maintaining my property rights while Democrats were better at maintaining my civil liberties. It is clear that both parties have been very willing to compromise both of these values throughout our nation’s history. In my opinion Democrats are currently the lesser of the two evils when it comes to violating my economic freedoms and my civil liberties. That is why I’m a Democrat and that is why I urge other libertarian leaning individuals to support the Democratic Party over the Republican Party.
(I’ve just written in two short paragraphs what the “great” Markos Moulitsas couldn’t effectively communicate in this giant essay. Not that I’m being cocky or anything.)
Radley Balko does a good job describing the real problem indicated by the “Foley chasing teen pages scandal”. We are represented by a bunch of creeps who hold themselves to a much lower standard than they hold us to when they write the law.
