Posts with the tag Utah

Living in a Red State

smffy — Fri, 16 May 2008 20:43:36 EDT

I live in Utah, a state where a large majority of the voters automatically vote Republican. So entrenched is the Republican Party that they have a virtual gridlock on all the elections, local, state, and national.

However, after McCain secured his bid for the nomination, there was a widespread rumor voters were thinking about going for Obama. Unfortunatly, there is a strong anti-Hillary sentiment here that would make a democratic win nigh impossible. Forunately McCain is mistrusted here. And the LDS Church came out with the message that party affiliation is not connected to religion.

Groups like Mormons for Obama are trying to create inroads to the predonminate faith here. Democrats who, in the past, figured they might as well not bother to vote because it wouldn't count anyway (I am one of them) have changed their minds and intend to vote - many for the first time.

My belief in the Obama campaign is so overwhelming that I am volunteering and plan to do everything possible to facilitate his victory here. I live in Salt Lake City, one of the democratic islands in a red sea.

The new attitudes here can be fanned and encouraged with the commitment of grassroots work here - the same grassroot support that has raised so much money for Obama and energized people across the board. Democrats will galvanize behind Obama and influence the Republicans to do the same.

I urge super delegates to come out for Obama and get the campaign behind the clear winner for the nomination. We have indulged Clinton long enough. Please press her to withdraw with grace.

Our job in Utah would be much easier if the message from the party was unified. This is the first time in living memory a democrat had a chance in a presidential campaign.

A new group, Avenues Volunteers for Obama, has been created. The avenues is home to many progressives and liberals who would like to secure Obama's nomination and victory in November. I invite everyone who is working for Obama in this area to join. It's not trite to say we really can make a difference.

Progressive Calls for April

Lori — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 19:49:23 EDT

Hello, Utah Progressives!

Get involved. Talk to Progressives across the country.

Each month, Progressive Democrats of America schedules a series of conference calls to help you keep up-to-date and involved in the development of their projects, programs and procedures.

They are introducing a new format for the call schedule to better help them manage the calls and show off their new calendar! Please follow the links below for the call information and register to attend.

All Issue Organizing Team (IOT) calls have their own call in number and code and begin at 9:00 pm EDT, 8:00 pm CDT, 7:00 pm MDT, and 6:00 pm PDT
(unless otherwise noted).

Tuesday, April 8: End the Occupation of Iraq, Redirect Funding,
click here. Join the End the Occupation IOT Google discussion group.

For the PDA Impeachment Action Group, please contact Matthew Gerbasi at matthew@cotam.org. Join the Impeachment Google discussion group.

Thursday, April 10: PDA Congressional District Delegations — Lobbying Training & Strategy Session Conference Call, click here.

Tuesday, April 15: Economic and Social Justice, click here. Join the Economic & Social Justice IOT Google discussion group.

To participate in the Immigrant Rights/Fair Trade or the Out of Poverty Working Group, please contact Diane Shamis at diane@pdamerica.org / 301-209-1899 x101 / (845) 661-3754. Join the Rights/Trade Google discussion group. Join the Poverty Google discussion group.

Tuesday, April 22: Healthcare for All/Single Payer Conference Call ,
click here. Join the Healthcare for All IOT Google discussion group.

Thursday, April 24: Inside the Democratic Party Focus Group, click here.

Tuesday, April 29: Clean, Fair, Transparent, & Accurate Elections,
click here. Join the Election IOT Google discussion group.

All members of PDA are welcome to participate in any of these calls. Get in there, Utah!

CNN BASTARDS...

Jack Kafka — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 23:05:49 EST

Oddly enough I was just watching CNN.com and with 1% of the vote reported in Utah. John Edwards had the lead by 30 points over Hillary. funny but true...

Its true, then CNN pulled Utah computer listing. It was two small towns. but Cnn squashed it.

The waited a haf hour more to post result while every other state had real time results. Looks like Edwards will still get 9-10% in Utah and 4 % nation wide

what up with cnn....

Join Us at a Meeting in SLC Tuesday, Jan 8th

Lori — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 14:36:18 EST

The Progressive Democrats of America Utah Genesis Chapter will meet this Tuesday, January 8 at 6:00 PM in the Salt Lake Main Library, 4th floor conference room (NW corner), in conjunction with the Utah Democratic Progressive Caucus.

We'll be planning a strategy for the year ahead -- campaigns, advocacy, and fundraising. And, we'll be online so we can keep up-to-date with the New Hampshire primary returns.

Please join us -- the rest of the country is turning more progressive -- we need your voice in Utah!

My Weekend of Hospitals, Doctors, Insufficient Pre-Approvals, Damned Republicans, and Bad Insurance Companies

JM Bell — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 14:30:16 EST

So ... I've had a horrible weekend. Between timid doctors (not really their fault), surly, overworked and underpaid nurses and my insurance company denying every test, nearly EVERY PROCEDURE, on the pre-approval phone calls, I am still in a considerable amount of pain, and I'm mad about it.

The insurance folks let me know on Saturday that they'd unhappily pay 1/4 of the cost of an MRI, and 1/2 of the cost of an x-ray. I can't afford either, so I left the hospital with a handful of pill that I didn't want, but had to take, and went home to borrow a boatload of money that I can't afford to pay back.

I live paycheck to paycheck, and there are several days where we hold our breath waiting for the next check to arrive. I don't want to, but, as I've written about before, sometimes there are holes in my employment because Democrats are only nice to you when there's a campaign on, and Republicans are never nice to Democrats, no matter how often the LDS Church leadership tells them to be.

So, I beg family and friends on Saturday to see if I can cover the costs of either an x-ray or the MRI. The hospital wont do the scans or pictures unless they can be guaranteed payment. The only rich folks I know are the same ones who like to tell me that I'm going to hell for being a Democrat). When I finally get a commitment for a loan, on Sunday, we load up in the car and head back to the hospital.

That's when things got really stupid.

Back to the hospital last night where, calling the insurance company again to confirm their part of the payment, the hospital is told that they wont pay any portion of the MRI or the X-Rays because of a preexisting condition. The pre-existing condition being that I was in the hospital the day before with a neck pain that felt like my head was on fire.

So last night and this morning I'm back on the phone to borrow more money that I can't afford to pay back so that I can get the damn picture that, if history is any example, will result in a shrug of the shoulders and another handful of narcotics that don't work and that I don't want.

So, to my friends in the GOP, you'll excuse when I get angry at your continued blathering about letting the market forces shape the health insurance industry without federal regulation or a patient's bill of rights that actually means something.

You'll hopefully excuse me while I wish America had a system where a guy who pays a boatload of taxes can actually go to a doctor or a hospital and get fixed, as opposed to sitting stagnant waiting for his head to explode from either pain or frustration.

You'll excuse me if I pray to God to damn all of you supply siders to hell.

You'll excuse me if I beg you all to buy a coupe of t-shirts for Christmas so that I can cover the cost of the damn MRI and still give my kids something of a Christmas.

And, I hope you'll excuse me for any bad spelling or iffy grammar, due to the fact that I'm writing this on a Blackberry in the hospital's waiting room.

Utah man tasered for speeding

Paul Thompson — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 00:03:16 EST

My son just made me aware of this video on YouTube. It's from a police car cam and it shows a traffic stop that goes bad. The driver of the car ends up on the wrong end of a taser.

In the 3 days the video has been on YouTube, over a half-million people have viewed it. It's about 10 minutes long and can be disturbing. Everyone survives.

Speeding Ticket Taser

Did the driver deserve to be tasered? What's your take on it?

What's up with Utah?

Douglas Erickson — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 13:35:48 EDT

Since this is the first blog that I have ever written, I ask for your patience and tolerance if it takes me a while to get going. What I would like to do with this blog is give a perspective of what it is like to be a Progressive in Utah. I am only expressing my personal feelings, but I know that what I feel is also felt by many others in this great, "Life, Elevated" (our new tourism slogan) state. The first comment that I want to make relates to the current to-do in Washington that is affectionately referred to as Attorneygate. This is relevant to Utah in that Rove and Sampson are both Utah Mormons. Rove attended high school at Olympus High in what was at the time unincorporated Salt Lake County. He also attended the University of Utah where he attained his law degree. Sampson attended Cedar High in Cedar City, a burg in Southern Utah, followed by a stint at Brigham Young University which is probably the last bastion for the NeoCons in the West. (BYU has just confirmed that Cheney is to be the commencement speaker next month).

So, when the country makes the connection between these two crooks, Utah, the Mormon faith, and Mitt Romney, how will they react? Will they still say that they would be comfortable voting for a Mormon for President? They weren't when our ferret-faced, weak-chinned, Senator for Life Orrin (read: Anal) Hatch ran.

Anyway, that's all for now. I hope that through this blog I will be able to shed some light on what life is like here in the Reddest of Red states for Progressives other than Rocky Anderson (who is great, by the way).