These are videos I took at the Immigration Reform March and Rally on Sunday, March 21, 2010 in Salt Lake City:
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Activism, immigration, immigration reform, salt lake city, utah legislature
July 1….is the date by which [owner] Klc must come up with $125,000 to cover the higher tax on his existing inventory. Klc says it’s too big an investment for products that will be taxed at some of the highest rates in the nation.
"When I think of my customers and suppliers, I feel like I’m losing my best friends. It’s like I’m going to a funeral.
Sen. Allen Christensen, R-North Ogden, who fought for years to raise Utah’s tobacco tax, said he understood that distributors would have to pay the bill, not retailers. But Charlie Roberts, Utah Tax Commission spokesman, said retailers indeed must pay the higher tax and yes, it will come due when the law takes effect this summer."If that’s the way it is, then so be it," Christensen said. "I’m sorry for some of the businessmen the law will impact, but they’re selling a deadly product."
Well, let’s talk about what is "deadly" that also should be taxed.
Guns: Utahns are big on guns. Legilsators need to impose a guns and bullet tax hike: 100% hike on guns and $1.00 per bullet (government exempt)
Pollution: All companies that contribute to the polluted air in Utah should be taxed even higher such as oil refineries and coal fired power plants (which put mercury into the air).
Alcohol: Let’s close all liquor stores and have another prohibition!
Products with aspartagme:
Energy drinks
Fast food that is contributing to the ill health of Americans
(Utah should NEVER allow Big Mac’s into the state!)
Pat Elder sent this out today:
The Maryland Senate narrowly approved a measure today that will prohibit the automatic release of ASVAB test results to military recruiters by public schools. The vote was 24-23.
Opponents charged the bill was unpatriotic and anti-military, particularly in a "time of war." Currently, thousands of Maryland high school students are tested by the Pentagon during school hours without parental knowledge or consent. The Maryland House of Delegates passed the same measure 102-37. Governor O’Malley is expected to sign the bill into law. Maryland could become the first state to challenge military testing in the public schools. Last year, the California Assembly passed a similar measure but it was vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger.
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged education, military, military recruiting, peace, schools, war, youth
Today is another Blog Action Day over at Green Change. The theme for today is War and Peace. This is a timely connection to the 7th anniversary of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq by Coalition Forces and the continuing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I have chosen to focus my war and peace report on military recruiting in schools. The militarization of our youth is big business and it starts in our public schools.
To begin, here is a 2007 video made by Working Assets and Mainstreet Moms called Leave My Child Alone.
I first learned about the clause in the No Child Left Behind Act (incarnation of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act) about giving student information to recruiters when my son was still in high school. I wrote this piece on Chlorophyll back in 2006:
Many folks may not be aware that there is a tiny clause buried in the "No Child Left Behind" Act (NCLB) that requires schools to give military recruiters access to high school student records upon request…..or face losing funding. Here is the section in the NCLB:
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Tagged counter recruitement, education, green change, Green Party, militarism, military recruiting, schools, youth
The last day of the Utah Legislature for 2010 saw a rally by students called “Still We Rise”, a group of activists, students and community members which unveiled a “Student Bill of Rights.”
(Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune)
Rally Statement:
“We the Communities take back the power to declare our inalienable rights that have been promised but not practiced. We rise to protect our civil liberties and to show our legislators they will be held accountable for their actions today and tomorrow. We march to the heartbeats of our ancestors and we rise together united by our struggles.”
The 2010 legislative session has become increasingly frustrating for community members. A number of bills were considered and implemented this session intended to mute the present opportunities and programs that benefit Utah’s marginalized communities. Community members from all over SLC have followed this session and have organized to express their opposition to the bills considered in 2010.
Event organized by student community groups including: The Magpie Collective, Mestizo Institute of Culture and Art (“MICA”), SLC Brown Berets, Movimient Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan (“MEChA”), Family School Partnership (“FSP”), Utah Coalition of La Raza (“UCLR”).
Highlighted bills that were considered by organizers to be detrimental to marginalized communities included:
HJR 24-A proposition to end Affirmative Action.
HB 428- A proposition to repeal in-state tuition for resident and hard working undocumented students.
HB 227-A proposition to require prospective business owners to present documentation that verifies they have the “right” to be in the United States.
SB 251-A proposition that mandates the use of e-verify for every employer.
HB 90-A proposition to benefit public and higher education through a slight tax increase on high wage earners did not leave committee as legislators sacrificed quality education to ensure attractive tax rates for prospective corporations to settle in Utah.
HJR 21-A proposition to withdraw Utah from the Western Climate Initiative.
SB 54-A proposition that would require schools to incorporate instruction about contraception in heath education courses which would benefit communities did not pass through committee
(cross-posted to Utah Legislature Watch)
Legislation led by women of Utah’s House of Representatives saw action on Monday, March 8th, ironically and appropriately on International Women’s Day. The legislation: HR4 Resolution Urging Ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Under the leadership of three women legislators, the Utah House of Representatives unanimously voted to support the resolution and urged the Senate to do the same. The message is loud and clear: Say “NO” to More Nuclear Testing.
Kudos to these women and all Utah legislators supporting this resolution. Future generations survival depend on actions that like this that are a move to a more healthy and peaceful world.
Women’s Action Network for New Directions (WAND) released this memo yesterday:
March 10, 2010On Monday, the Utah House of Representatives unanimously voted for a resolution urging the US Senate to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).
WiLL (Women Legislators Lobby) member and the resolution’s lead sponsor, Rep. Jen Seelig, (D-Salt Lake City), did an excellent job championing the CTBT and garnering unanimous support for the resolution. It is hoped that the treaty will be considered and ratified by the US Senate in 2011.
The support for CTBT has been growing throughout the country, and it is a particularly personal cause for Utah’s ‘downwinders’. Winds blew fallout from the nuclear weapons testing site in Nevada over into Utah, causing devastating health problems.
Rep. Trisha Beck (D-Sandy) reminded her colleagues of a pamphlet distributed decades ago by the U.S. government saying that the nuclear-test site in Nevada was safe and did not cause illness. But, by 1990, the federal government had passed the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act to aid those who had been harmed by above- and below-ground testing that continued through the Cold War. In explaining her commitment to CTBT ratification, Rep. Beck said, “Preventing nuclear testing by detonation in the future is the best way of memorializing those who have made the ultimate sacrifice in the past.”
That’s the title of Granny D’s book about her hell raising. Granny D. has passed at the young age of 100.
Granny D spent her late years doing just that – raising a little hell. At the age of 90, in the year 2,000, she walked across America – 3,000 miles from California to D.C., to deliver her message to congress, where she was arrested at the U.S. Capitol, along with others. Her message was to request that elected officials stop the corruption of big money influencing elections in the United States.
Granny D’s statement when she appeared before the judge after that arrest:
Your Honor, the song was a few years early, but the time has now come for change. The times are changing because they must. And they will sweep away the old politician –the self-serving, the self-absorbed, the corrupt. The time of that leader is rapidly fading. We have come through a brief time when we have allowed ourselves to be entertained by corrupt and hapless leaders because they offer so little else, and because, as citizens, we have been priced out of participation and can only try to get some enjoyment out of their follies. But the earth itself can no longer afford them. We owe this change to our children and our grandchildren and our great grandchildren. We need have no fear that a self-governing people can creatively and effectively address their needs as a nation and a world if the corrupt and greedy are out of their way, and ethical leadership is given the helm.
Your Honor, to the business at hand: the old woman who stands before you was arrested for reading the Declaration of Independence in America’s Capitol Building. I did not raise my voice to do so and I blocked no hall. But if it is a crime to read the Declaration of Independence in our great hall, then I am guilty.
Since that monumental year Granny D has been hell raising in a variety of ways, including running for U.S. Senate. Granny D was truly an inspiring icon in our country. Her energy, passion, love, and hell raising will be missed – but her spirit, and the spirit of her work, will live on forever.
I was able to get up to the Hill for a very short time today. The bill being discussed on the House floor was SB157 Motor Vehicle Dealer Franchise Amendments. The bill aims to modify and enact provisions under the New Automobile Franchise Act. Read about the bill in today’s Salt Lake Tribune.
My only regret about visiting Capitol Hill today is that I couldn’t stay longer than I did. To see how the process works in person is enlightening, informative and engaging. Everyone should spend some time just observing how everything works to gain a better understanding and appreciation for the proceedings.
Regardless of your political views, there is something for everyone during the Legislative Session. Democracy in action.
There were even some protestors in the Rotunda:
Happy International Women’s Day!
Here is an article on how IWD started: The First International Women’s Day
Reuters has a "follow the sun" live blog that is following events and news for IWD.
Read the Green Party’s Platform (currently under revision) on Social Justice which includes Women’s Rights.
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Tagged Green Party, international women's day, women's issues
Utah’s legislators are about to set the stage for placing a tax on tobacco products. But what about considering increasing taxes on all “vices”?
HB196 Tobacco Tax Revisions aims to increase the tax rates “on the
sale, use, storage, or distribution of tobacco products in the state for the 2010-11 fiscal year and allowing the rates to fluctuate in subsequent fiscal years”.
SB40 Cigarette and Tobacco Tax Amendments aims to
“increase the tax on cigarettes, moist snuff, and other tobacco products; deposit income from the permanent state trust fund into the General Fund; and
address the deposit of revenues collected from the taxes; make technical and conforming changes”.
HB71 Nicotine Product Restrictions “amends provisions of the Uniform Driver License Act, provisions relating to the state system of public education, the Utah Criminal Code, and the Utah Code of Criminal Procedure to place restrictions on the provision, obtaining, and possession of a nicotine product and to enforce these restrictions”. Specifically, the bill is aimed to prevent the sale of nicotine laced candy and gum (not including smoking cessation products) in Utah, the products of which are currently not available in the state.
The sponsor of HB71, Rep. Paul Ray, R-Clearfield, has been the target by tobacco companies for possible court action should the bill pass, according to a Deseret News Article.
“Now they need to try to keep going by doping candy with the most addictive and deadly substance in tobacco,” he said. “Utah has made a point of protecting our youth from the hazards of tobacco use, and now that they are targeting a new market with lozenges and mints, we think that’s going to far.”
Read the rest of the article here.
In his piece in the Deseret News, Tobacco tax to hit those who can least afford it Lee Benson shares his encounter with folks addicted to tobacco who, despite raising taxes on the products and thus the consideration to stop the addiction, still are not able to stop.
“I know smoking’s not healthy,” he[patron at tobacco shop] says. “But every time I stop smoking, I gain weight — so I have to decide, am I going to die from obesity or from smoking?”
Smokers, he says, are a “scapegoat” for taxation.
“Nine percent of taxpayers smoke. Out of that 9 percent, they’re trying to take care of the majority. It isn’t fair. But what can you do?”
Benson interviews Sy Pham, a tobacco wholesaler, who complains of the disparity between citizens actually paying for the tax increase:
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Tagged budget, health, health care, taxes, utah legislature, vice taxes
Deanna Dee-Dee Taylor 