Political Calendar

Please submit calendar items to Daily@UtahPolicy.com
- Sept 27: Downtown Rising Visioning Workshop for the business community, 8 a.m., City Library Main Branch, 210 East 400 South, Salt Lake City. Review what has developed from the Downtown Rising collaboration so far, explore ideas and give us input for the future of Downtown. RSVP to Camille Winnie at Camille@downtownslc.org or 801-333-1106. - Sept 27: Hinckley Institute of Politics Forum: U.S. - Iran Relations, 8:35 a.m., University of Utah, Orson Spencer Hall, Room 255. Guest is Roxane Farmanfarmaian, Donner Scholar of Transatlantic Relations at the Centre of International Studies at Cambridge University; author, Blood and Oil: A Prince’s Memoir of Iran, From the Shah to the Ayatollah Cosponsor-Middle East Center.- Sept 27: Midday Metro at 10 a.m. on KCPW 88.3 FM features Douglas Brinkley, author of Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans and the Mississippi Coast. It’s a special rebroadcast of his visit to Utah earlier this year. Brinkley talks about the aftermath of hurricane Katrina and describes the inability of local, state and federal agencies to help victims who were, by and large, poor or African-American.- Sept 27: Women’s State Legislative Council Meeting, 11:45 a.m., State Office Building Auditorium. Meet and hear the state candidates running for the Utah State Senate representing both Republican and Democratic Parties. Delegate members and visitors are welcome to attend. Question/Answer period. Visitors call for a Guess Pass to Kitty Kaplan, 801-942-5133 or Suzanne Merrill, 801-796-0831 or suzannemerrill@comcast.net. - Sept 27: Gov. Huntsman to attend Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce Annual Luncheon, 12:30 p.m., Columbus Center, 2531 South 400 East, Salt Lake City.- Sept 27: Gov. Huntsman and Speaker Curtis event, 6 p.m., Willow Creek Park, 8400 South Highland Drive, Sandy.- Sept 27: Davis County Democratic Party hosted Beans and Bread Banquet with Pete Ashdown, 6 p.m., 50 West Gentile, Layton. The banquet will include a seminar for those with incomes of $50,000 and below on how to spend your $50.00 tax cut the Utah legislature recently passed. For more info email dccwc@aol.com, or call 801-776-0668.- Sept 28: Annual Golf Tournament hosted by the Senate Majority, sign-in at 6:30 a.m., shotgun start at 7:30 a.m., Thanksgiving Point. For reservations call Ric Cantrell at 801-673-1603 or Kaci Ogier at 801-268-4747.- Sept 28: Utah Valley Executive Summit at Sundance, 7:30 a.m. to 3:15 p.m., Sundance Rehearsal Hall. This is a one-day rapid-fire seminar for Utah Valley’s business & civicleaders and will address Utah Valley’s most important issues. The general public is welcome.Cost is $100 for members, $130 for non-Chamber members. For more information or to RSVP, email info@thechamber.org.- Sept 28: Lt. Gov. Herbert to welcome attendees of the Be Ready Utah Preparedness Symposium, 9:45 a.m., Rose Wagner Theater, Salt Lake City.- Sept 28: Governor's Monthly News Conference, 10 a.m., KUED Studios. - Sept 28: Hinckley Institute of Politics Forum: Soldier Slaves: Abandoned by the White House, Courts and Congress, 10:45 a.m., University of Utah, Orson Spencer Hall, Room 255. A discussion with the authors James W. Parkinson and Lee Benson.
- See the entire calendar

UPD Blog Warch by Golden Webb

Blog Watch by Golden Webb
Rep. John Dougall says: "Utahns love Jon Huntsman Jr. ... But as of a few months ago he still hadn't acquired that gubernatorial swagger. He served as a respected ambassador for Utah. He was an effective cheerleader for the State. He just hadn't quite mastered the up close and personal, hand-to-hand legislative process. At times he relied too heavily on legislative leadership to promote his agenda, as if the legislature were a top-down corporation, rather than a very dynamic, bottom-up affiliation ... At other times he relied on his loyal staff to convey a message that only he could communicate to the legislature. Well all that has changed! And it's a great improvement for Utah (and for the legislature). Probably the most important result of the process leading up to, and including, the special session is that Gov. Huntsman really experienced the success of effectively conveying his message for change to the rank and file members of the legislature. Being willing to meet with each legislator, taking the time to travel the state, and look each legislator in the eye and ask for his or her support, showed the Gov's passion and sincerity, both for tax reform and, more significantly, for the legislative process. I know that he has gain significant respect with the members of the House. Respect that will serve our State well for years to come"... Rep. Craig Frank posts a podcast interview he conducted with Rep. Steve Urquhart about last week's special session... The UAC Blog posts a September legislative update... The Zion Mojave Wilderness Blog says: "Proponents of the [Washington Co. growth bill] have been ringing alarm bells about an impending shortage of private land in Washington County. But it turns out this 'shortage' is pure propaganda ... It turns out that, even with explosive growth over the past decade (the county is one of the fastest growing in the nation), a mere 9% of the private land in the county has been developed. Intriguingly, the source that exposed this lie is no less than the St. George Chamber of Commerce. After several letters-to-the-editor and blog posts pointed out the truth by citing the Chamber's own facts, the offending page seemed to mysteriously 'disappear.' Can't have inconvenient facts clouding up the picture, can we?"... Jen's Green Journal posts a link to Amy Goodman's Democracy Now! interview with SLC Mayor Rocky Anderson... RedState Radio interviews Mass. Gov. and likely '08 presidential candidate Mitt Romney (see also here, here, here, and here)... CoolestFamilyEver says of the controversy surrounding a plan to pump water from remote valleys on the Utah/Nevada border to Las Vegas: "This problem wouldn't exist had Californians been willing to take their lumps and develop their own water resources instead of using the power of superior numbers to legislate it away from their neighbors. By not spending the money to invest in desalinazation plants and resevoirs to trap their share of the Sierra Nevada's melting snow, they've trapped themselves in a dependency on water from the Colorado River and Lake Tahoe. Their bad example of using population to bully what they want out of others is the same model used by Las Vegas against the rural ranchers. Let's hope our bad neighbors to the west (both of them) get a grip on reality and start playing nice."

The NIE has Been Declassified

September 27, 2006
THE NIE HAS BEEN DECLASSIFIED: Go here for the "Key Judgments."
Bill Frist comments here. And John Podhoretz has a question for the NYT editors now that we know what the NIE actually says.
It's late but I'll add one more thought: While we should fire the leakers on general principles, we should probably also fire whoever wrote this -- for producing a meaningless document full of empty bureaucratic twaddle. If the jihadists win, they'll have more prestige! And they will probably use the internets! Do tell. Jesus Christ, if this is the quality of intelligence we're getting, no wonder we haven't won yet.
posted at 12:07 AM by Glenn Reynolds

4the seat in House? Clock is ticking

Final Utah districting plan is needed first
By Suzanne Struglinski and Bob Bernick Jr.Deseret Morning News

WASHINGTON — Congress won't act on Utah's proposed fourth seat in the U.S. House of Representatives until after the November election — and after a special session of the Utah Legislature to approve the new fourth district. Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. released maps earlier this month of what a four-district Utah might look like, but U.S. House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wisc., wants more than that before voting on the bill. "Chairman Sensenbrenner is waiting for a final Utah redistricting plan before he intends to have the committee mark up this legislation," said the chairman's spokesman, Jeff Lungren.

"He has conveyed this position to Utah members of Congress and Governor Huntsman." The committee needs to vote on the bill before it would go to the full House for a vote. The bill could have been taken up at the committee's markups, usually held on Wednesdays, but today's schedule, finalized on Tuesday, did not include the bill, according to the committee press office.

Congress is set to adjourn by the end of the week so members can go home before the November election. The bill could be taken up when they return for the "lame-duck" session and quickly be approved by the House and Senate for it to become law. If not, the bill, like all legislation, would need to be reintroduced at the start of the next Congress. Huntsman's spokesman, Mike Mower, said the bill is "still very much alive" and that the governor is open to calling a special session to act on the fourth district map when appropriate. But neither Utah Senate President John Valentine nor House Speaker Greg Curtis see an immediate special session to deal with a possible four-seat congressional plan. "We can't have a special session in the next two days, before Congress adjourns" for the elections, said Curtis, R-Sandy. He believes no new four-seat plan can be adopted "without going through a public hearing process." And it is unclear if even that can be done in November, after the congressional and legislative elections, but while Congress comes back for the anticipated lame-duck session. Valentine, R-Orem, points out that in 2001 the Utah Legislature did adopt a fourth-seat plan. But since Utah lost its U.S. Supreme Court appeal on getting a fourth seat, that plan never took effect. "That is the official four-seat plan," noted Valentine. However, that was based on 2000 Census numbers. And after five years of population growth, "We know those numbers are now not accurate," he said. The four-seat plan put forward last week by the governor, Valentine and Curtis is based on updated population growth throughout Utah. And so, said Valentine, it is a more accurate and more appropriate plan. The 2001 four-seat plan basically created a new seat, all contained in southern Salt Lake County. However, Democratic Rep. Jim Matheson does not live in that part of the valley. His house, near Hogle Zoo, would place him in a district containing little of Salt Lake County and a vast area outside of the county — which has historically been the home to at least one U.S. House seat. The four-seat plan put together by Huntsman, Valentine and Curtis at the request of congressional GOP leaders puts Matheson in a district containing northern Salt Lake County, Summit and Morgan counties. By Curtis' own admission, that map was drawn to get "as many Democrats as possible" into Matheson's seat. "I would support a special legislative session," Valentine said. "But only at the right time. And that time is not now. We know the 2000 Census numbers are now wrong. And I don't know if I would want to go forward" with a special session "without the assurance that Congress would indeed give Utah another seat."
E-mail: suzanne@desnews.com; bbjr@desnews.com