A Creative Way to Use a Parking Spot

Obamaholicbots, Absolute Truth, and Health Care For All

What makes politicians change their tune so quickly? Is it that O'Bama (happy belated St. Patty's Day) truly wants a single-payer health care program but feels he could never get it approved, so he pretends now that he doesn't want it? He supported it when it wouldn't lose him a re-election, but now that he has to create a plan that will pass both houses, he shies away from anything that doesn't fall in the middle of the road (even if it does fall a bit left of the center line)? 

Or is it that he never truly supported single-payer, he just pretended to because it gained him popularity from the left. But now that he's in the Oval Office and has to cater to both sides, he no longer has any reason to pretend to back something that he never actually supported. 

Another possibility is that he used to support single-payer, and has since sincerely changed his mind.

I feel like the current system doesn't allow politicians to ever be totally honest all of the time, even supposed goldenboys like Big Bang Boy oBama. I also feel like people are so caught up in Obamamania that many progressives would never dare critique, criticize, or disagree with him out of fear of being looked down on by other starry-eyed Obamaholicbots. I hope people don't lose their expectations for politicians to do the right thing all of the time. We should hold the current president to higher standards than we're accustomed to because he himself has promised to be a better person than previous presidents.

There's always work for skimpy dressing accordion babes.

I found these old photos of Great Depression era of job hunters and musicians. It's true that history repeats itself, especially the accordion-playing women in swimsuits.

Red Burn Day

A repost from last year, but things haven't changed:

On the radio this morning there was a RED burn day warning issued. Don't drive if you don't have to, don't light anything on fire, don't let the kids go out to recess, don't leave your home unless you absolutely have to, and don't do anything without your S.A.R.S. mask.
No recess?! What deep sickness have we spiraled down into to arrive at the point where we prohibit our children from playing outside? That sounds like something from a futuristic movie depicting society as dark and deteriorated, like Terminator or Soylent Green. One of the common signs of failed civilizations (the Anasazi, the Aztecs, Grunge, Roseanne Barr) is that just before their demise they instigated a ban on recess for their kids. And then they fell, and fell hard. We have willingly created a society that produces such harmful chemical air and water pollution that it is unsafe for children to go outside. Yet we somehow aren't spurred to any action towards change. We don't even think we need to change anything. It reminds me of the old The Ten Commandments movie and NASCAR. Not sure why. But I do know that during the chariot race scene in Ben Hur an actor was killed when he crashed in his chariot and was trampled by horses pulling men. Horses pulling men! Can you believe it? Next thing you know we'll have horses giving men pedicures and vice versa.
But back to recess. Kids are too young to stage a protest, even when they are living in a dirty, unhealthy, lung cancer causing environment. They deserve recess, it is in the U.S. Constitution. It's in one of the amendments. "Congress shall make no Law prohibiting the Practise of Recess. Any Action against Recess or the Practise thereof shall be Ceased and Tried by a federal Court of the People." Our actions have acted against recess. We are in direct violation of the Founding Fathers, Democracy in general, and the band Depeche Mode (who has been fighting for recess rights ever since they wrote the greatest mod love song of all time--Somebody, which talks about the world we live in, and life in general, obviously a direct reference to recess). Kids are too young to stage a protest so it is up to us, the beneficiaries of recess. We must unite in one voice, hopefully the beautiful voice of Celine Dion, and let our movie star leaders know that we're not gonna take it. No, we ain't gonna take it. We're not gonna take it anymore. Our kids are more important than us driving everywhere all the time, and they are more important than the weather phenomenon known as inversion that holds the bad air in and lets the good air out. And our kids are more important than other people's kids. So let Lady Liberty wrap us in her arms and breathe the clean fresh breath of democracy into our kids' lungs via mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. She will hear me scream through my megaphone, distorted by smog and smut but loud nonetheless. And maybe she will think I'm crazy just like my last three girlfriends did and their families and my family did. But she'll at least hear me out. And to finish quoting Depeche Mode's Somebody,
She'll hear me out
And won't easily be converted
To my way of thinking
In fact she'll often disagree
But at the end of it all
She will understand me
Aaaahhhhh....

Dear Mayor of West Bountiful

Dear Mayor Bahunin,

I write as an active and concerned citizen to express my extreme opposition to the pet-coke plant proposed to go into West Bountiful. I know the reason to bring the plant is because it would supply jobs and money. That is a weak reason when compared to the reasons not to bring it. I'll keep this short: Hazardous material from that plant will land on every yard, every child, every plant and animal, every breathing and non-breathing thing along the Wasatch Front. I'm talking about POISONOUS material.

We are already disgusted with the mass amounts of polluted air we are just expected to expose ourselves and our children to. The fact that some people will die from diseases connected to this plant should be by and far reason enough to deny it immediately. How many jobs and dollars are one life worth? How many jobs and dollars are two or twenty lives PER YEAR worth? If you are trying to come up with a dollar amount right now, then you are not fit to be any sort of leader.

The time has long come that we cease perpetuation of dirty, archaic energy milling, and that we move forward with practices that don't poison our air and water, that don't strip our sacred lands or deplete our natural resources. We've been stuck in this illogical and immoral rut for too long. Please be the forward-looking leader that your citizens need right now, not the type of money-hungry backwoods businessman that has brought us to the deplorable energy situation in which we currently exist.

Thank you for your time,

Hasen Cone


Submit opposition to:

Division of Air Quality: jjenks@utah.gov

Governor John Huntsman, Jr.
Utah State Capitol Complex
350 North State Street, Suite 200
P. O. Box 142220
Salt Lake City, Utah 84114-2220
801-538-1000
800-705-2464
http://governor.utah.gov/goca/form_governor.html

West Bountiful Mayor James Bahunin
jbehunin@gmail.com

West Bountiful City Hall

550 North 800 West

West Bountiful, Utah 84087

Put Up a Fight

Dear Friend, this is urgent.

As you are probably aware, the Utah BLM, under mandate from President George W. Bush, will be auctioning off several parcels of Utah’s wildest and most beautiful land to big oil corporations on December 19th. This lease auction comes as a last-ditch effort by the outgoing administration to secure drilling and mining land that would most likely not be available once President-Elect Obama takes office. Much of this land will be leased for its deposits of shale oil, which isn’t drilled for like liquid petroleum, rather it is obtained and processed through a method more comparable to strip-mining. While—thanks to pressure from the public, the National Park Service, and other groups concerned that this rush job is taking place unethically— the BLM has removed certain parcels of land from its leasing list, there are still hundreds of thousands of acres in some of Utah’s most pristine and unique wilderness that will be auctioned off to the highest bidding oil company on December 19th.

The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA) plans to bring legal action against the BLM to reverse any land leased at the oil auction. However, SUWA very much needs help in raising funds to fight this legal battle. My group, Visual Cacophony, is organizing a fundraiser at Momentum Climbing Gym (220 W. 10600 S. next to R.E.I. in Sandy) this Friday, the 12th of December, to help raise funds for this legal battle. There is a group that has promised to match any donations up to $100,000, so anything you donate will be automatically doubled. Talk about bang for your buck!

To raise funds, we are holding a silent gear auction and would like to invite you to attend. Please spread the word to your co-workers and friends. I’ve attached a poster invite with all the details. You can hang it in your break room or somewhere in the office where others can see it.

We are also congregating outside the BLM’s office in Salt Lake City during daytime business hours on Friday the 12th to stage an organized protest, as the BLM has said they will finalize the list of which lands are to be included in the lease sale on the 12th. We are inviting the media, and will also be returning on the day of the actual lease sale, December 19th to protest once more.

I implore you to take an active role in this issue:

1) Please come to our fundraiser at Momentum Climbing Gym on the night of the 12th (this Friday). There will be a band, a movie, an auction, and an art project which will be presented to the BLM on the day of the land lease auction.

2) Please donate money—remember, anything you donate will be matched.

3) Please come to the protests outside of the BLM office in Salt Lake (440 West 200 South, Suite500, SLC 84145) during daytime business hours on the 12th and 19th of December. By visibly making this an important public issue, politicians and private companies will be under more pressure to right the wrongs being committed.

We ask that you RSVP if you are coming to the fundraiser. Please send your response to me at lovebarn@yahoo.com. We greatly appreciate your generosity, and hope that this issue becomes as important to you as it is to us here at Visual Cacophony and to other lovers of Utah’s beautiful wildplaces.

Thanks again,

Hasen Cone
Visual Cacophony

Bush and BLM Selling Utah Wilderness to Highest Bidding Oil Companies

This is urgent. As a goodbye gift to himself and oil companies, our current president has mandated that public land agencies "eliminate obstacles in the way of drilling," and this December 19 (only a few weeks away) the BLM is holding an auction to lease away some of Utah's most important land to the highest corporate oil bidder.

This isn't land out in the middle of nowhere that no one uses. This is land that many of us frequently spend our free time in and consider holy. It immediately borders Arches National Park (drills could be visible from Delicate Arch which is on the edge of the park border), encompasses River Road in Moab along the Colorado River (ever go bouldering at Big Bend, hiking in Negro Bill Canyon, or rafting on the Colorado Daily?), Nine Mile Canyon (has the longest petroglyph panel in the world, as well as an intense concentration of other Indian and settler culture and history), Desolation Canyon on the Green River (in the largest roadless area in the lower 48 states, imagine looking up the cliffs at Three Fords Rapid or Range Creek Ranch to see them drilling away), among other places.

The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA) is mounting an opposition to fight the pillaging of Utah's most sacred lands. Any monetary donations will greatly help, especially since there is a group that will match your donation up to $100,000. If you donate ten bucks, SUWA gets twenty. Fifty becomes one hundred, etc. You can donate and find out more at SUWA's site.

Click on this link to the SUWA website to write a letter to president-elect Obama urging him to reverse George "I Drink Oil Instead of Redbull" Bush's fire sale of our backyard to corporate oil.

This is an issue that directly and immediately affects us as Utahns and/or lovers of the outdoors. The unethical drilling so close to the Colorado River (what happens when there is a spill or leak?) needs to be prevented. The turning of Deso, one of the country's last true pieces of remote wilderness and whitewater, into a drilling field to further America's addiction to oil has to be stopped before it begins.

Please donate money, write letters, and become active in the fight against the Bush administration's and the BLM's attack on our Redrock Wilderness. Come to our protests, shoot me an email at hcone@backcountry.com to find out more.