Pete Ashdown’s Journal

Why did the senate have to go and enact ethics reform? You win a sixth term at the party and they take all the fun out of it. Utah’s Senator Hatch joined Tom Coburn to form a coalition of the unwilling against the following ethics reforms that passed 96-2:

• Bar lawmakers from accepting gifts and travel and lodging paid for by lobbyists.
• Extend from one to two years the time a former member must wait before he can engage in lobbying activities.
• Deny pensions to lawmakers convicted of serious crimes.
• Require more reporting by lobbyists on their activities.
• Require public disclosure of those home-state projects.
• Require senators hitching rides on private jets to pay full charter rates rather than the current practice of paying the far-cheaper equivalent of a first-class ticket.
• Require reporting by lobbyists who obtain small donations from clients and then “bundle” them into larger contributions to politicians.
• Prevent spouses of sitting members from lobbying the Senate.

Keep fighting the good fight Senator Hatch! Utah is proud of you!

Apparently the people telling us that everything is OK with a “test” blowing up 700 tones of ammonium nitrate can’t schedule a meeting venue properly. It has been moved at the last minute. On the bright side, Governor Huntsman is aware of the farce that DTRA is putting on and has scheduled another meeting with real public input. In any case, please try to show up for both.

Forwarded information:

The Jan. 10 public meeting on Divine Strake will be moved to the Grand America Hotel at 555 So. Main at 6:30 p.m. The National Nuclear Security Administration and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency said late today that the location wasn’t available. Curious they didn’t know this earlier.

St. George, Jan. 18 from 5-8 p.m. in the Dunford Auditorium of the Browning Building at Dixie State College Salt Lake City, Jan. 24 from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. in Room 135 of the Utah Capitol West Building, main floor.

Now that those pesky elections are out of the way, Divine Strake is ramping up again for execution as early as this spring on the Nevada Test Range. My objection to Divine Strake sources not as much from the potential of more lethal toxins being kicked into the atmosphere, but the fact that we’re developing new nuclear weapons at all. The Defense Department doesn’t seem to realize that bunker busters have little effect on insurgents using cellphones and fertilizer to make roadside bombs. The nature of war has changed, but we’re still dumping borrowed cash into schoolboy efforts to see how big of a boom we can make in the desert.

The “Great Stopper” has not weighed in on the new timetable for Divine Strake. Make sure you let him know how you feel about the military messing around in the desert while there are still troops lacking armor in the field.

The Orwellian “Defense Threat Reduction Agency” is holding a series of public meetings on Divine Strake:

• Jan. 9 6:30-9:00 p.m., Defense Threat Reduction Agency and National Nuclear Security Administration, public meeting on the proposed “Divine Strake” nuclear simulation to be conducted at the Nevada Test Site. Cashman Convention Center, 850 N. Las Vegas Blvd., Las Vegas, NV
• Jan. 10 6:30-9:00 p.m., Defense Threat Reduction Agency and National Nuclear Security Administration, public meeting on the proposed “Divine Strake” nuclear simulation to be conducted at the Nevada Test Site. Energy Solutions Arena, 310 W. South Temple St., Salt Lake City, UT
• Jan. 11 6:30-9:00 p.m., Defense Threat Reduction Agency and National Nuclear Security Administration, public meeting on the proposed “Divine Strake” nuclear simulation to be conducted at the Nevada Test Site. Dixie Center, 1835 Convention Center Dr., St. George, UT