Utah Politics: The Students Perspective

Help please

2010-02-17T22:58:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone like i posted before i started a new blog about politics i need everyones help to please pass the word along about it. I want it to become a big thing for me, i will be updating it at least twice a week thanks everyone. http://www.politicsastudentperspective.blogspot.com/

New Blog Address

2010-02-17T09:27:00.000-08:00

So since I am "All political and that now" i have decided to change locations of my blog so i can now be found at http://www.politicsastudentperspective.blogspot.com

Utah State Legislature

2010-02-11T16:44:00.001-08:00

The State Legislature has been in session for three weeks now and I have learned a few things about the Legislators of our State in this current session.
First: The Republicans and Democrats both have their agenda which is quite Different from one another but the same at the same time. The Republicans want the show Washington that they are not agreeing with its policies and want more state sovereignty. They are doing this by passing a number of message bills aimed to show Washington that we as a State are going to do what we wish. The First and most controversial bill of this kind is Margaret Dayton's SB011 "Utah State-made Firearms Protection Act" Which simply states that guns produced and sold in Utah are property of Utah and under control of Utah thus not covered by the Interstate Commerce Act. The biggest controversy of this bill is simply it is against the Federal Constitution. If the State passes a unconstitutional bill such as this we are going to have a very expensive battle on our hands with the Federal Courts. Now I am all for State's rights but challenging the Constitution through the Federal Court system is not the way for us as a State to approach this matter. The second bill that has me concerned is SB036S01 "Wolf Management Act" This yet again is a message bill that has currently passed both the House and the Senate and sent to the Governor for his signature. This bill asks for the Federal Government to take Utah off the Endangered Species list leaving wolf management up to the state. Now this may at first seem like an alright idea but when one researches further they will find that Utah has not had a single wolf in our state for an extended period of time for the last ten years. The Democrats are also for State rights but are doing it in a way that they consider more healthy for the state I.E passing resolutions stating their views instead of bills which could land our State in court battles. They also are passing Bi-Partisan bills that help all of the state not just a certain sector. SB0087 repealing the taking away of money from school districts from Salt Lake, in order to come up with a State wide true equalization bill. I think Washington needs to take a page out of the State's book and practice true Bi-Partisanship.

Second thing that I have learned is that the people of Utah can have a much larger impact if they just become active in the process. While attending committee after committee and hearing many bills presented that would do harm to the state fail just due to the fact that the public showed up in numbers and voiced their opinion. We need to keep in mind that our country and our state runs by way of democracy meaning that we as citizens control our own fate. We elect our officials and that means that they are serving us not the other way around, but if we just sit back and let them "do their own thing" they get into what they want to do and vote how they would vote. Many legislators and elected officials will head to the calls of the public If and only if THE PUBLIC MAKES THEMSELVES HEARD.

In short I encourage you all to go the www.le.utah.gov and research and find a bill that concerns or interest you and make yourself heard and become and active citizen by writing your senator or represenitive and make yourself heard! Also on that website you can listen to both the House and the Senate realtime including all committee meetings.

dead to blogging

2009-06-15T18:17:00.000-07:00

So as of late i have been completely dead to the blogging world so here is a quick update i am no longer at Discover Card well im on a leave of absence that i dont plan on going off. I am just working away at Mc'Graths they are having me pick up manager shifts every so often so that is exciting. I have been dating here and there casually nothing too exciting. I got through my last school semester with a 3.0 so i should have done better but am content with my results. Um what else nothing that comes to mind oh ya i have a nephew named Jaxon and he is a little bad A i love to see him and cant wait to be "cool" uncle Cody

Interesting

2009-01-19T21:02:00.000-08:00

So it has been forever since i have posted. Update on my life i am again working 2 Full time jobs discover and Mc'Graths Fishhouse. I am also taking 12 credit hours of school one of my classes is Nutrition it is very interesting and i learned a new tool today that may help some people i know or anyone on a diet go to this website http://www.preventdisease.com/healthtools/articles/bmr.html and it will allow you to calculate roughly how many calories you need a day in order to maintain loose or gain weight.

Thoughts of cody on a sunday evening

2008-11-09T20:29:00.001-08:00

Life is not an easy thing. People will come in and change the way you think of things and the next thing you know it they are gone as soon as they came, don't look at it as a bad thing instead accept the fact that people are going to leave and that some people are going to stay because just as people come in and out of your life you enter and exit others, Seize this opportunity to create change. You don't have to change the world just rise yourself to the occasion of life and live every moment to make a positive impact on the people that you come into contact with, do your best to better yourself and to better the people around you. This is not to say that you cant make mistakes because as many have said to error is human but minimize your screw ups and learn from them. its a cliche but i firmly beilive that everything DOES happen for a reason events in your life such as illness, relationships, sheer happiness and moments of absolute stupidity are to test the limits of your inner self as well as your ability as a human to adapt to the changes around you and make the best of every situation. So my advice is to not live every moment as its your last but instead live every moment to make the future better even if its putting a smile on someones face. Or trying to be a good influence on others, Everyone who is on this earth was born with a measure of worth and ability to contribute to better themselves and other around them. We all can treat each other with a sort of respect and help each other grow in our own little way.
We must live our lives to the fullest and greatest potential that is in us, we must devolp our mind and our natraul gifts that were given to us: Work hard to expand these gifts and grow as a person live with hatred towards none and once you do this then and only then can you tell yourself that you have lived!

Equality!

2008-11-06T07:54:00.000-08:00

So this election has had many many firsts and many chances to show the world that we are a nation of equality and suppportive of all our citizens...First we had a the chance to nominate the first woman president with Hilary Clinton, even though i'm somewhat still disappointed in the fact that she did not recieve the nomination i'm happy with our other first in Barrack Obama, the first black president. Some other "issues" that could have showed our equality in this election was the proposition 8 in California. This is a very sensitive issue so those who read this blog understand that i'm not trying to change anyones views or opinions i'm simply just stating mine. I belive that everyone in this country has a right to love and to marry whomever they like. It comes back to the rights that we are promised The right to happyness and the right to practice our religon or beliefs freely, so many people who are against Same-sex marriage and who are protesting against it say they are using a freedom that is given to them to state their point and i beileve that they are given that right but the only issue i have with the whole sitiuation that they are exercising their right in order to take away anothers right. Many people oppose the idea of allowing same-sex marriage to be allowed and have the same equal rights as “regular” marriage, many of these oppositions root from religious beliefs. These groups claim that chaning the definition of marriage to include same sex would be against gods will, that it is unnatural and promotes unhealthy behavior. The Roman Catholic Church opposes recognition of same-sex unions, arguing that acts of sexual intimacy are only proper between a man and a woman, and that the proper setting for those acts is only within marriage. Other oppositions are the arugurs of family and that child should be raised by both a mother and a father. Those they arguments are their right to have i highly disagree with them. What happened to god loving all of his children, and the whole family aspects divorce rates are at sky rocketing rates right now and same-sex marriage potential divorce rates are very low, and i beilive firmly that same-sex couples who adopt children are some of the best parents that i have ever seen. They truly love and appreciate that child with all their hearts. Plain and simple point is that We are a nation of equality and many in the past few days are saying look how far we have come with the election of Barrack Obama, but i say great now we have a very long way to go to call ourselves a nation of equality......Maybe my views are tainted because i have some friends in the Gay community and they are some of the most loving and caring friends that i have and i just dont see how constiutionaly we can remove rights that should be theirs but then i am reminded that the constitution is nothing more than what the courts say it is. One thing i am extremely grateful for is that McCain lost so that Rowe V Wade will stand and not be overturned.

Joe Biden

2008-09-25T10:43:00.000-07:00

So first a short little overview of Biden's career and then my thoughts, Joe Biden is the democratic pick for the vice president of the united states. Biden' career started in 1970 (38 years ago) when he was elected to county council for his town of Wilmington Delaware He served until 1972 when he ran against long time senator Caleb boggs and beat him out for the senate seat. Biden has continued to stay in the senate winning by a percent of about 60 percent of vote each time and has been re-elected 5 times in 2000 after his fellow colleague retired Biden became the senior senator of Delaware. Currently Biden is on numerous powerful committees which include Committee on Foreign Relations (chairman, filing Obama's void and weakness in that area), The Judiciary Committee which include various subcommittees, And is co-chairman on the international narcotics control. In my opinion Biden is so strong in the area of Foreign Relations and gives Obama everything that he is missing, Obama is very strong and very trusted on issues in the economy and Biden brings that strength of experience and knowledge of foreign relations to the table. Some major polices that i agree with are when the US first entered Iraq Biden tried to pass a resolution that supported military efforts in Iraq only after all diplomatic efforts had been exhausted this resolution was quickly shot down and rejected by the Bush Administration. Biden agrees that we cant just leave Iraq and says that the US cannot fight alone and needs to have global support something the Bush Administration has failed to get. He is an advocate in dividing Iraq into three separate ethnic states that would help end so much sectarian violence he and many other supports give this "third option" which would federalize Iraq and give the Sunnies Shites and Kurds breathing room in their own regions...His ideology is Liberal his life time liberal score is 70 percent to 18 percent conservative, He is a firm believer and supporter for new energy and alternative fuel sources somthing McCain and Palin both appose seeing how McCain has voted against 90% of all energy bills including Water and Wind. He is against drilling in the Artic refuge, against privatizing social security, and is a firm believer that action must be taken against global warming.

The biggest question that i have for you is John McCain could very well pass away before his term is up if elected the republican response to this is Obama is more likely to be assinated (something i think is just ridiculas and wont happen) who would you rather have running the country if one of these things happened? a completely unexperienced, not qualified Plain (she has served nowhere on the national scene) or Biden.

View on Sarah Palin, rest of candidates are forthcoming

2008-09-19T15:03:00.001-07:00

So now that I have a better understanding of who Sarah Palin actually is I am now going to like the rest of the country has been doing the past few weeks voice my opinion on Sarah Palin. Sarah Palin in my opinion is a very unqualified person for the job of being vice president of the United States of America, her experience consists of being on the city council and then the mayor of a little city in Alaska. She is now the the Governer of Alaska. That in a nut shell is all of her life’s political experience…….This is not my only reason for not liking Sarah Palin, she has supported quite a few propositions that I frankly don’t agree with at all such as the infamous “Bridge to Nowhere,” In 2006 there was a proposal included in a omnibus spending bill (a bill that basically allocates a lot of funds for various different budgets for government at once) to give over 400 million dollars to Alaska to fund a bridge to a little island off the coast of Alaska. Once this bill hit congress it was quickly striped down and never passed calling it a “Bridge to nowhere,” Ms. Palin ran for governor on platform of build the bridge. Eight months after becoming governor she continued to support this insane amount of money for a irresponsible earmark up until late 2007 when Palin changed her mind about the same time that public opinion went really south and against this bridge. Throughout her campaign Palin has consistently denied that she ever supported this bridge. Another main contrevsy that has ungulped Sarah Palin that I just cant get passed is that of the firing of Alaska’s Public Safety Commissoner for her reasons “was not a team player with budgeting issues.”, or the more likely reason which is that he didn’t fire Palin’s ex brother in law from the state trooper force. Palin at first denied any of it that there was no pressure put on him to fire her brother-in-law but later when an internal affairs investigation was started Palin then changed her opinion to "pressure could have been perceived to exist, although I have only now become aware of it." I just don’t belive that and don’t really trust her. I don’t agre.e with her proposed drilling in Alaska for oil including that of ANWR, she also has stated that global warming is not human-caused to her little bit of credit she did change her position to “humans may have contributed to global warming.” It is a fact that humans have been a major contributer to global warming. I totally disagree with her foreign policy view of pre-emptave military show of force, she also has supported a war with Russia.
Other views that aren’t just palin’s views but a lot of views by a lot of people include opposition to same-sex marriage, oppostion of abortion including in cases of incest and rape. I’m not trying to convince anyone to my views I’m just simply stating my views that I would like to not have a president that is eager to go to war and run major country decisions on emotions.

Thoughts watching CNN And FOOTBALLLL

2008-08-29T08:05:00.000-07:00

So I love politics and am very intrested in this years presidential race, I have thought since the begining that it would be a runaway victory for the Democrats with a canidate like Barrack Obama, then when Obama picked Joe Biden to be his Vice-Presidential canidate or co-president in the words of my father i thought there was no doubt that it was going to be a democrat in the oval office this November seeing how Biden feels all of the weaknesses that Obama has such as international policy and experience. But then today i was watching CNN up at the union between my classes and the annoucment came out that McCain would be selecting The female alaskan senator(who i had no idea who she was and still don't seeing how i cant remember her name) the election has just gotten a whole lot more of a race. The number one reason is that she is female and pro-life which could have the ability to swing a lot of Hilary supporters who don't feel completely comfortable with backing Obama over to the Republican side. Cause right now 92% of Republicans are voting for McCain to the 79% of Democrats that are voting for obama........Thanks for reading something most of you probably have no interest in ha ha this is going to be an interesting November oh and 1 day away from when Michigan goes down to Utah.

So looking at the Mt. West Conference i keep thinking to myself that the race really is for third place cause both Byu and Utah are leaps and bounds ahead of everyone else in the conference. BYU has a fantastic offense and Utah's two back set with Mack Asita and Brian Johnson leading the offense will have defenses not only trembling but running behind each watching them in the end zone. So if Utah can beat Michigan and Oregon state and BYU can beat UCLA then entering the always exciting football holy war both teams will be undefeated and the winner of the game will dare i say it bust the BCS!!!!!

Back to school and my new favortie hobby

2008-08-25T08:13:00.000-07:00

So today is my first day back at school. So far so good i guess....I have three classes Political science, psychology, and physics.....So far i like my schedule but i don't really know how i feel about having and hour and fifteen min between each one of my classes i suppose that it makes for great study time.....Another good way to pass the time is to people watch! Right now i'm looking at a kid in half a tuxedo with hair down to his back and riding a long board now i want to be just like him when i grow up i have decided..another funny thing is to see people who dont normally wake up as early as this on a regular basis and to see them falling asleep around me left and right at the union so those are my observations for now there will be more to come!

High school tag

2008-08-15T14:04:00.000-07:00

Did you date someone from your school?......I dated in High school but dated a girl from coppershills and senior year dated an older girl named Amy who had already graduated.

What kind of car did you drive? The beautiful 1995 Buick Regal custom

Were you a party animal? Not in my opinion

Were you considered a flirt? Probably by a lot of people i was

Were you in the band/orchestra or choir? Nope

Were you a nerd? Sure wasn't that i know of ha ha

Were you on any of the varsity teams? Wrestling and Football

Did you ever get suspended or expelled? If you count ninth grade then yes

Where did you sit during lunch? Outside on the football feild or Janbo Express yum

Did you go to homecoming? Not at my school but at copper hills i did

What do you remember most about graduation? Texting Darin and Laurie jo during it

Have you gained some weight since then? probably ten pounds but ina good way i want to gain more :)

Are you going to your ten year renioun? I doubt it

Sking pics pt 2

2008-08-10T22:33:00.000-07:00

skiing pics pt 2

2008-08-10T22:32:00.001-07:00

New skiing pictures

2008-07-28T15:03:00.001-07:00

So i found out the other day that when my car seats fold down it turns into about a double bed. :)

Modern technology and my ipod!!

2008-06-22T09:31:00.000-07:00

So a few of you know that my ipod had gotten stolen from my car at iggy's one night. Needless to say that when this happedned i was extremly upset not only was my 80 gig ipod gone but i was not smart enought to back all the music that was on it up so hence all 79.3 gigs of music disappered with it as well. So i was pissed off for a couple days and then i remembered that i heard that you could track where it gets syncd up with Itunes with your serial number. Well i had my serial number cause i had a program on my macbookpro that saved all of my devices serial numbers on it. So i did a lot of digging on google and around on the internet and finally found a place that tracks where this info gets synced just so happens that it gives you the ip address cause when you go to itunes it automatically connects to the itunes store hence using the internet. I was lucky enough that he was using his home phone number when he synced up through his ip. So i gave him a call and said i want my ipod back. Of course he denied ever taking it i repeated i want my ipod or i'll call the cops and show up at your address before they get there with a 300lb samoa. So he met me at smiths and returned my ipod. The guy was driving a nice car. 2005 Honda Accord and looked very put together plus he was around the age of 40! So i asked him "You still haven't gotten your life together after all this time? i feel so bad for your mother." and just walked away.

So now that i have my ipod back i have a new goal. I'm putting it on the shuffle songs feature and am going to listen to the 80 gigs of music without changing the song once so far i'm on song number 179 and it is ironically the BOM Alma Chapter 3 ha ha I might have to remove some things on there.

Hello again

2008-05-13T15:28:00.001-07:00

So i've heard from many of you that i suck at updating blogs....All i have to say to that is SO WHAT i like my once every four months post it gives it more meaning....i'm trying to make it more of a dramatic effect.....it's my computers fault and finally the last excuse that i can think of...Its cause i'm prego...sorry to steal your thunder soon to be large one(laurie jo). No with all excuses aside i just havent had much to write i've been pretty much just working sleeping and going to the gym. I got 5th in the department last month out of 200 and i'll be getting my incentive check in two weeks and i get to go on a cruise in 5 days but pretty much other than that nothing has gone on whatsoever....oh and i also moved up to 50th on xbox live on Madden that was pretty sweet ha ha. Oh and finaly i'm hoping laurie jo will have a boy so that i can call him jacks-on ha ha if not i'll have to settle with sexy lexie which just isnt as original but they will both work just fine for me.

2008-04-21T20:05:00.000-07:00

My dear old Ipod

2008-04-06T14:52:00.000-07:00

Excitement!

2008-03-26T22:25:00.000-07:00

So i am now just finishing up all the preparation for my cruise that is coming up in may and i cant wait...If you didn't know i'm going on a cruise with a bunch of people from the Fish House for seven days...I cant wait...So me and Darin have finally started to get a semi routine for working out going even if we have to go at separate times every once in awhile it all works out...I have also decided that me and Randall make a pretty dang good team and we're quite funny (at least we think we are). Discover is going quite well I'm out collecting everyone else so I'm pretty stoked about that and if you have a Discover card and miss a payment watch out I'll be coming for ya!

Pictures

2008-03-14T11:58:00.000-07:00

Dj'ing and work

2008-03-14T11:49:00.000-07:00

So discover is going awesome i'm the best collector on my team and am not looking back looking forward to those incentive checks!!!!....So the other day me and randy hung out and it was quite fun we picked on my dad and natalie and i think that we have all come to the conclusion that we make quite the funny team i think randy is going to be postin some pictures in not too long. So today i went over to my friend eric "the pizzle" hills house and we did a way fun dj set and it was pretty much wicked awesome. Tonight i'm going to Josh's (horrocks) wedding reception update on that later....Late

Random Thoughts

2008-03-06T21:27:00.000-08:00

Why is sleep a necessity?, How can music change your mood within a few seconds, Does Everything happen for a reason?, Is there such thing as fate?, Do you really know yourself or are you just sucked into a persona that you put off cause people think you should be a certain way?, Why is the world seem like it's filled with more bad than good people?, Is there such thing as an unselfish act, Are people inately good or inately bad?, Do people remember you for how you want to be?, Who invented the alarm clock?, How did people survive without modern technology?, Why do you pay people so much for playing sports and pay nearly nothing for teachers?, What is the first impression that i give people?, Are people afraid to aproach and talk to me?, Thats all for now peace out i'm tired!

Update on work and such

2008-03-02T20:54:00.000-08:00

So work is going quite well and i'm enjoying all of it quite a bit. I like discover and the restaurant is getting a lot busier so that is always a good thing cause that means more money for me! YAY! and i also started working out with darin and getting into a routine again so thats also alwys good well i'm off to bed i have to wake up at 5 in the morning again.

Goodbye life as i know it!

2008-02-25T00:41:00.000-08:00

So as of seven am today. I will be working forty hours a week and discover as well as thirty hours at the restaurant (mc'graths Fishhous) so pretty much i'm going to be working a ton to say the least. And i have also come to the genius thought of that i'm going to have to figure something out during summer cause i can not be working at six in the morning seeing how that time slot in my day is going to be reserved for waterkiing so ill have to change my shift or something.

Boarding

2008-02-10T19:53:00.000-08:00

So today i went up with my friends Krystal, Jessica, Nikki, and Jamie and went snowboarding. It has been a long time since i have been skiing or boarding and i must say that it was a freaking blast! I was actually able to carve and i didn't fall all day soooo ya thats all that is new so far.

Sleep

2008-01-21T10:48:00.000-08:00

So i've come to the realization that sleep is a good thing...I realized this last night when at four in the morning i was laying in my bed trying to just fall asleep but for some reason i just couldn't so ya i'm running on no sleep and i'm quite upset about it!

Colorado

2008-01-09T11:01:00.000-08:00

So i'm really starting to like colorado quite a bit it is a change in the weather but overall good. Work is going well but busy seeing how the rest of the servers and the management team are a bunch of lazy retards but oh well what can ya do?....I'm most likely going to to be trying to get a day job as well as the restraunt just to keep me busy and earn some extra cash.....well nothing much has been going at least nothing exciting i'll talk to you all later.

ALMOST DIED!!

2007-12-24T18:24:00.000-08:00

So as you all know the roads were really bad this night (Christmas Eve) me and randy were driving home i go to switch lanes on I-15 to get off the freeway next thing you know we in mid 360 facing the on coming traffic!!! CRAZY COOL in my opinion.

Starting to Hit Me

2007-12-21T21:24:00.000-08:00

It has finally started to hit me that within two weeks i will be sitting in my bedroom typing a blog in Lakewood Colorado....How trippy is that. Even though i'm a little stressed and am going to miss all of my friends and family dearly i am so excited that i cant even describe.. Well onto more things yesterday i went to beautiful San Diego and probably watched the most exciting football game that i have ever seen in my lifetime- it down to the very wire and was a little to close for comfort but when all was said and done the Utes beat the Midshipmen(what kind of mascot is that anyway). Well i 'm beat from a long day and work and am working a double shift tommorrow so i 'm off to bed Asta.

Family

2007-12-16T23:02:00.000-08:00

Today we had a family get together on the Horrocks's side and i had a complete blast...I always love getting together with family and talking and making fun of one another. I realized that i'm going to miss being able to just drive to my Grandma's house or my sisters to visit whenever i feel the urge. (well i guess i could drive but the urge might be gone after the 9 hours it would take me to get there) Well i leave you with this quote that i have been working on for the last year or so....
Who we are is made up of many things that can be broken down over time. One thing that i have come to find is that our inner strengths, experiences and truths can not be lost or tainted by others but only through our own doing. Everyone who is on this earth was born with a purpose and the ability to contribute to better themselves and others around them. We all can treat each other with a sort of respect and help each other become better in our own little way. We must live our lives to the fullest and greatest potential that we can acheive, we must develop our mind and our talent that was given to us: Work hard to mature our talents and mind and grow as a person with hatred towards non and then be able to say i lived my life to help others holding nothing back and having no regrets

Moving.

2007-12-15T07:52:00.000-08:00

SO i realized that I'm going to have to actually keep up on this and post multi-weekly now....The reason is that because I'm going to be moving to Denver in two weeks and i figure the easiest way to keep everyone informed will be for me to keep up on my blog so ya...Lately work has been a little slow but overall good it hit me last night just how much I'm going to miss all my friends and of course family but overall I'm very excited to go and experience the opportunity. Oh and not that you all care of anything Till the Sky falls down by Dash Berlin is simply amazing

So.........

2007-10-24T06:36:00.001-07:00

So i'm so excited right now. This morning as i'm sitting in class i start to look at the rest of the Tennessee Titans schedule and i'm so stoked...They are going to win the rest of their games with the exception of the Colts, and the Chargers. The titans have broken my heart for the last nine years it all started when they lost by a freaking yard in the super bowl, from there they lost to the all famous Patriots and Colts for the next four or five years in the playoffs then they went into the NFL abyis of the bottom of the league a 4-12 record followed by a 5-12 record then our savior Vince Young graced our team and led us to the first 500 season in such a long time we barely missed the playoffs and this year we are back you suckas all better watch out the Titans are angry!