Weber County Democrats June 5th Congressional Candidate Debate

With the politically savvy Doug Gibson moderating this debate, it's bound to be one lively and informative event

Attention all Weber County Democrats, and all other otherwise politically-leaning folks who are likely to vote in the upcoming June 26 Primary election.  The Weber County Democratic Party website provides a heads up of this coming Tuesday's (June 5, 2011) intra-party debate, where the two Democratic candidates who qualified at the State Democratic Convention to square off in the Primary to run for GOP incumbent Rob Bishop's Utah 1st Congessional District One seat will put their best feet forward to garner your June Primary support. Here's the full text announcement, via the WCDemo site, along with a coupla extra live links which we've added for our WCF readers' convenience:

Dear Weber Dems, Here’s an important date to put on your calendar: Tuesday, June 5th at 7 pm in the auditorium of the Pleasant Valley Branch of the Weber County Library, just across the street from Ogden Regional Hospital.

A debate will be held that night between our two excellent 1st District Congressional candidates, Ryan Combe and Donna McAleer. The debate will be moderated by Doug Gibson, the Editorial Page Editor of the Standard Examiner.

I’m sure Doug will have some tough questions of his own for our two candidates, but we’d like to give you a chance to submit questions. Please send to me at olsensl@aol.com, and we’ll forward them to Doug.

Let’s pack the house that night and show Weber County there are more than a handful of Democrats in our community!

Steve Olsen

Chair Weber Dems
Date: June 5, 2012
Time: 7:00 pm
Where: Pleasant Valley Library
5568 S Adams Ave
Washington Terrace, UT

The Standard-Examiner also carries a brief announcement this morning in its hard-copy edition.

With the politically savvy Doug Gibson moderating this debate, it's bound to be one lively and informative event.

Mark your calenders folks.

We hope you'll all plan to attend.

Standard-Examiner: Idaho Liquor Division Willing to Work with Five Wives Vodka Producers

Whaddaya know?  A near complete 180 degree turnabout within the span of one single day

More breaking news in the "Five Wives Vodka" guerrilla marketing story.  The Standard Examiner reports this morning that the Idaho Liquor Division, duly embarrassed by the tidal wave of bad publicity, and under threat of percipient legal action, is now suddenly "willing to work with a broker to explore solutions that enable Five Wives Vodka, produced by Ogden's Own Distillery, to be sold in that state"  "The use of viral marketing to get publicity has been brilliant," the the formerly intransigent director of the Idaho State Liquor Division,  Jeff Anderson, admits:

• Idaho liquor division willing to work with Five Wives Vodka producers

 Whaddaya know?  A near complete 180 degree turnabout within the span of one single day.

As an added bonus, here's an interesting background story from the Idaho Statesman:

• Five Wives Vodka will sponsor Boise Music Festival

Be sure to check out the savvy reader comments beneath this latter story, which reveal that Idaho residents seem to have no higher regard for their own bumbling home state liquor regulation agency than do the thirsty lumpenciticens of our Beehive State for our correspondingly inept Utah Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.

Seems like every time Big Gummint meddles in what should be the free private market, we always see the same ham-handed results, dunnit?

Standard-Examiner: OUR VIEW: The Vodka War

Keep your heads down, folks...  The Standard predicts there's an upcoming Utah-Idaho trade war

In the wake of Wednesday's Standard Examiner story, (which reported that local Ogden hootchmaker, Ogden’s Own Distillery, has had its vodka product rejected for sale in the state of Idaho because the "label on the vodka offends women and members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints"), the OAD vodka brand is definitely relishing its fifteen minutes.  This morning's Standard follows up Wednesday's story with this strong editorial, which keeps "Five Wives Vodka" right up front in the local limelight:

• OUR VIEW: The vodka war

Smith, Beatty & Conlin (Std-Ex Pic)

We gotta hand it to OAD proprietors Beatty, Conlin and Smith, who, in the finest spirit of opportunistic American free enterprise are making hay with this little tempest in a teapot, and cashing in big-time on all the free publicity. This morning's followup editorial reports that the story's now gone viral, and the SE editorial board is exactly right. Here's a brief sampling of the array of stories on this topic now appearing at various prominent sites across the web:

• Idaho bans Five Wives Vodka for being offensive (Fox News)
• Does Five Wives Vodka Offend Mormons? (ABC News)
• Five Wives Vodka Banned By The State Of Idaho (Huffington Post) 
• Five Wives Vodka can get a seat at the bar in Utah, not in Idaho (Los Angeles Times)
• Banned In Idaho, 'Five Wives' Vodka Says It Meant No Offense (NPR)

And that's just the tip of the iceburg.  There's more... much, much more.

Here's our reco.  Why not mosey on down to your local Utah DABC package store and score yourself a bottle of this fine locally-made artisan product right now?  Not only will you be supporting a local Ogden business, but you'll become a participant in history... in a roundabout way.

And if you're a non-imbiber, howbout a nice "Free the Five Wives" T-shirt for your next Two-five Drive Farmers Market summer morning stroll? We're sure these fine and attractive pieces of apparel will be de rigueur on the streets of Ogden 'til the cold weather hits around November.

And keep your heads down, folks.  The Standard predicts there's an upcoming Utah-Idaho trade war, probably something akin to the storied Hatfield-McCoy West Virginia-Kentucky "border war" back in the days of yore, we reckon.

So who'll be the first to toss in their own 2¢?

Salt Lake Tribune: Defendant in Ogden Officer Slaying Case Swaps Attorneys

Hanging Question: Will private donations be sufficient to make sure that Stewart gets a fair trial in a system which is already heavily stacked against him?

According to this afternoon's Salt Lake Tribune story, and just as we earlier predicted here on WCF, Second District Court Judge Hyde this afternoon cut loose Matthew Stewart's "do-nothing" appointed public defenders, and installed Utah criminal defense heavyweights Bernard Allen, Jonathon Grimes and Michael Studebaker to join Stewart’s defense team as counsel of record, "low bono or pro bono," in the 1/4/12 Ogden Shootings case :

• Defendant in Ogden officer slaying case swaps attorneys

No doubt about it, Weber County District Attorney (and politically ambitious 2012  general election Utah Attorney General candidate) Dee Smith finally has a genuine fight on his hands, with the assembly of one of the most competent criminal defense teams we've seen in Utah within memory.

The hanging questions? How will Stewart's all-star defense counsel marshal the necessary resources to put together a proper investigatory and expert witness support team to match its obvious new legal firepower?  Will private donations be sufficient to make sure that Stewart gets a fair trial in a system which is already heavily stacked against him?

Time will tell, we suppose.

A Weber County Forum Tip O' the Hat to messrs Allen, Grimes, Richards and Studebaker, by the way, for stepping up the the plate, and honoring their professional ethical obligations to dive in and devote themselves to what will ultimately prove to be some seriously grueling  pro bono work. These fellas, through their actions, are a true credit to the oft-maligned legal profession, we do believe.

Update 5/31/12 7:43 p.m.: The Standard-Examiner is all over this story, too:

• Court allows Stewart to replace attorneys

Emerald City 5/30/12 News Roundup

A couple of Ogden City-related news items which we're linking, just so you won't think we were "goofing off" all morning

 Sorry folks, but we've been bogged down with personal business this morning, but have now found a couple of Ogden City related news items which we're linking, just so you won't think we were "goofing off" all morning:

1) Ogden City's Crack Economic Development Team scores BIG with yet another portion of a federal grant:

• Federal grant awarded to cleanup possible contaminated properties in Ogden, Salt Lake County

We'll suppose that Ogden City officials won't be weeping tears about that old GOP meme: "Get the federal government off our backs."

2) The Ogden City Council ain't all that bad, we say, despite their chickenshit stance in the recent Ogden City water rates debacle.

In that same vein, here's something from the Standard, reporting on something that's been a long time coming, as the Ogden Fire Department sat through Godfrey Administration stinginess (reign of terror) for twelve grueling years:

• Ogden fire department seeks upgrades to fire stations

We'll be keeping our fingers crossed that the Ogden City Council will remember one of its prime objectives: Making our public safety a top flight priority.

The neglect of the Ogden City Fire Department has gone on for far too long, wethinks.

And what say you, O Gentle Ones?

Monday Morning Weber County Forum News Roundup

Time to clear out the post-holiday cobwebs, wethinks

Now that we've gotten Memorial Day out of the way, we'll try to kick start some discussion with a series of thought provocative items uncovered this morning whilst feverishly Googling:

1) Ultra right-wing Utah conservatives are griping that too many political moderates showed up at the March Utah GOP caucuses, resulting in a situation where the state’s most conservative politicians this year "have been outright defeated in convention or forced into primaries."  Oh, the horror of this revolting development:

• ‘Hatch effect’ hurting Utah’s most conservative lawmakers

So what about it, WCF readers?  Is the Utah GOP pendulum finally swinging back to some degree of  normalcy, as Brigham Young University professor Kelly Patterson suggests; or is Rep. Craig Frank  correct in arguing that this is this "merely a temporary setback" for the Utah GOP "wingnut faction"?

2) Interesting Salt Lake Trib story this morning, reporting that a national sportsman's advocacy group, Sportsmen for Responsible Energy Development (SFED), is squaring off (more or less) against energy development advocates in an effort to tout the value of preserving fish and wildlife populations and natural/scenic areas to help drive long-term economic growth in the Rocky Mountains:

• Report touts dollars from outdoors recreation vs. energy

"This is not meant to be a one-versus-the-other scenario," said Rob Southwick, of Southwick Associates, which compiled the report which provoked this morning's Trib story. That doesn't necessarily seem to be however what SFED's website actually says, however:

• Hunting and Fishing Imperiled

Here's the full SFED document in PDF format:

• Hunting and Fishing Imperiled Full Report

3) And here's a real eye popper. Former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman is listed here, right along with the likes of George Clooney, Antonio Banderas, Denzel Washington, Jon Bon Jovi, Samuel L. Jackson, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, Liam Neeson, and George Strait:

• Huntsman named one of ‘Sexiest Men on the Planet’

First time we've ever seen the word "sexy" and the name of a politician (with the exception of Ben Franklin) connected in the same sentence, we do believe.

4) Last but not least,  Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne observes that  conservative GOP values have recently suffered some serious mission creep:

• Conservatives used to care about community. What happened?

Yeah.  We know that Dionne is a known liberal.  Weirdly enough however, this go-round, this life-long warhorse conservative (your blogmeister) agrees with dang near every word Dionne says, (in today's column, at least).

That's it for now, O Gentle Ones.

Chime in on any of the above suggested topics, or fire up a conversation all your own.

Time to clear out the post-holiday cobwebs, wethinks.

2012 Memorial Day Special

Interesting Veterans Statistics off the Vietnam Memorial Wall... A little history most people will never know

As we set forth to celebrate today's Memorial Day 2012, the U.S. federal holiday designated as a day of remembering the men and women who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces, here's a little something to contemplate, submitted by one of our Vietnam Era Veteran WCF readers, via The Veterans Resource Network, with the preface, "Here’s a few facts on this Memorial Day concerning my generation’s war":

Interesting Veterans Statistics off the Vietnam Memorial Wall. A little history most people will never know.

There are 58,267 names now listed on that polished black wall, including those added in 2010.

The names are arranged in the order in which they were taken from us by date and within each date the names are alphabetized. It is hard to believe it is 36 years since the last casualties.

The first known casualty was Richard B. Fitzgibbon, of North Weymouth , Mass. Listed by the U.S.Department of Defense as having been killed on June 8, 1956. His name is listed on the Wall with that of his son, Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Richard B. Fitzgibbon III, who was killed on Sept. 7, 1965.

There are three sets of fathers and sons on the Wall.

39,996 on the Wall were just 22 or younger.

8,283 were just 19 years old.

The largest age group, 33,103 were 18 years old.

12 soldiers on the Wall were 17 years old.

5 soldiers on the Wall were 16 years old.

One soldier, PFC Dan Bullock was 15 years old.

997 soldiers were killed on their first day in Vietnam ...

1,448 soldiers were killed on their last day in Vietnam ...

31 sets of brothers are on the Wall.

Thirty one sets of parents lost two of their sons.

54 soldiers attended Thomas Edison High School in Philadelphia . I wonder why so many from one school.

8 Women are on the Wall. Nursing the wounded.

244 soldiers were awarded the Medal of Honor during the Vietnam War; 153 of them are on the Wall.

Beallsville, Ohio with a population of 475 lost 6 of her sons.

West Virginia had the highest casualty rate per capita in the nation. There are 711 West Virginians on the Wall.

The Marines of Morenci - They led some of the scrappiest high school football and basketball teams that the little Arizona copper town of Morenci (pop. 5,058) had ever known and cheered. They enjoyed roaring beer busts. In quieter moments, they rode horses along the Coronado Trail, stalked deer in the Apache National Forest. And in the patriotic camaraderie typical of Morenci's mining families, the nine graduates of Morenci High enlisted as a group in the Marine Corps. Their service began on Independence Day, 1966. Only 3 returned home.

The Buddies of Midvale - LeRoy Tafoya, Jimmy Martinez, Tom Gonzales were all boyhood friends and lived on three consecutive streets in Midvale, Utah on Fifth, Sixth and Seventh avenues. They lived only a few yards apart. They played ball at the adjacent sandlot ball field. And they all went toVietnam. In a span of 16 dark days in late 1967, all three would be killed. LeRoy was killed on Wednesday, Nov. 22, the fourth anniversary of John F. Kennedy's assassination. Jimmy died less than 24 hours later on Thanksgiving Day. Tom was shot dead assaulting the enemy on Dec. 7, Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day.

The most casualty deaths for a single day was on January 31, 1968 ~ 245 deaths.

The most casualty deaths for a single month was May 1968 - 2,415 casualties were incurred.

For most Americans who read this they will only see the numbers that the Vietnam War created. To those of us who survived the war, and to the families of those who did not, we see the faces, we feel the pain that these numbers created. We are, until we too pass away, haunted with these numbers, because they were our friends, fathers, husbands, wives, sons and daughters. There are no noble wars, just noble warriors.

Have a great holiday folks; but let's not overlook the real reason we celebrate this holiday...

Via J.M. Bell