Tonight:

A story from New York State about teachers giving “half credit” to students who get wrong answers in math classes, but “used the right methodology” to get these wrong answers.  How does this help students? Is this a result of class sizes and low resources?  Lazy teachers?  Cultural demise?  Isn’t failure as important as succeeding when it comes to learning/growing experiences?  Are we making the next generation dumber than Sarah Palin?  Discuss.

Peter Cetera is coming, Peter Cetera is coming!  Details in the 5 o’clock hour.

Question of the week:  If you were the POTUS, what would you do to fix the mess in the Gulf?

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Podcasts of this and previous shows are available here.

Today/tomorrow… we’re giving these away.  Listen to find out how (we never plan these things in advance.  Ever).  The show happens Thursday night.  Get tickets here.

Tonight:

Immigration reform remains a top headline grabber (thanks in part to Jan Brewer, and her strange little world).  Initial reactions here in Utah (thanks in part to Rep. Sandstrom, and his strange little world) was “Yeah!  We want that too!”  Since, a little reality has settled in.  This week, Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff proposed a different kind of reform: a Utah only guest worker pilot program.  The AG is working with immigration officials and lawyers to develop a proposal.  We’ll discuss this, and other possibilities.  Immigration bills are on the legislative docket for an upcoming interim session.

And it’s Tuesday. Mero Moment day.  This week, Sutherland Institute President Paul Mero addresses last week’s dust up right here on this show over drill teams, community standards, and changing norms and mores.  Should be a great discussion.

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Podcasts of this and previous shows are available here.

Ha:

The convention’s platform calls for a radical overhaul of the federal government. One proposal is a Tea Party favorite, calling for the repeal the 17th Amendment, which provides for the direct election of Senators instead of the original system of them being selected by state legislatures. The platform also calls for the state legislature and governor to “nullify any and all existing and future unconstitutional Federal mandates and laws, funded or unfunded, that infringe on Idaho’s Tenth Amendment sovereignty.” In addition, the GOP calls for the state of Idaho to take back federally controlled lands.

Then there is the hard-money plank, which might have come right out of a Goldline ad on talk radio: “We believe Idahoans need to protect their savings from the ravages of inflation, which is hidden taxation, and encourage citizens to participate in a systematic acquisition of precious metals which represent real value as opposed to paper currencies.”

One resolution went even further: “Let free Idahoans pay taxes, and other fees due to the State, County and City in silver and or gold in any form. Payments to City, County, or State employees requested to be paid in silver and or gold, Will be complied with.”

We asked the state GOP for comment on this one: How would such a system work? How would the state evaluate the proper values of gold and silver in collecting payments? And since governments collect taxes and fees in order to spend those revenues on needed goods and services, how would the state find people who accept gold and silver, instead of the universally accepted U.S. dollar? Would the state simply sell the excess gold and silver, in order to pay for services with dollars? They have not responded to our request for comment.

The platform also called for marriage to be limited to a “naturally born” man and woman, going the extra mile beyond conventional gay marriage bans and making sure to exclude transgendered folks, as well.

That said, there are some places that the state GOP wouldn’t go — they rejected a call for the state to establish its own independent volunteer militia, separate from federal control. The reason: It would cost too much.

(Platform and resolution documents provided to TPMDC by Dustin Hurst of Idaho Reporter.)

Many of us woke up to the headlines this morning about SCOTUS overruling the Chicago gun ban and heralded it as a victory for the Second Amendment.

But then, after seeing this video from The American Conservative that’s been circulating this morning, the opinions changed pretty quick.

At face value, yeah, you’re excited about the victory for the Second Amendment, but in supporting this ruling, we’re put smack dab in the middle of one part of the Constitution conflicting with another. Ultimately, as is argued in the short video, gun rights advocates might have to sacrifice gun rights in places like Chicago (or Washington D.C. or NYC or wherever else) in favor of holding the high ground on 10th Amendment issues (like keeping gay marriage or Obamacare out of Utah.)

These are the times.

Some of you may be familiar with the New York comedy troupe, The Whitest Kids U’ Know.

Well, they’re at it again with a recent video satirizing political candidates and their bogus campaign ads. Basically, “Clint Webb for Senate,” is the best mockery of American politics since the Jib-Jab’s “This Land,” video from 2004.

Remind you of any Utah politicians? I can think of a few that fit the bill.

WATCH THE VIDEO HERE.

Read the original article at My Daily Roast.

This has been one of those weeks in talk radio.

One of those good weeks.

Whodathunk that at the end of this week, the biggest story in the “KVNUniverse” wouldn’t have something to do with the Primary Election on Tuesday.

Let me set the table for you.

On Tuesday, after our regular For the People show, we did the entertainment portion of the show from 6-6:30, and Paul Mero, president of the Sutherland Institute, remained in studio with myself, Jason and Jonathan.

Now, if you’ve listened to FTP Prime Time before, you know that what we generally do is read through entertainment news stories, and make comments on them, comments that are often sarcastic against the glimmering shine of Hollywood.

This particular Tuesday, there was news about the latest Miley Cyrus photo scandal from a Toronto concert. In this incident, the Reuters news agency posted a risque photo of Cyrus on its wire service, and the photo was linked to by celeb blogger Perez Hilton. Our discussion on Tuesday (which isn’t available online since I don’t podcast FTP Prime Time) ventured from a legal discussion about the posting of the photo (Reuters apparently consulted their attorneys and decided the photo would not pose a “child porn” issue if it were posted, as the intent wasn’t child pornography and the photo was taken at a concert in view of thousands.) As we were looking at the news story on Tuesday, I showed the photo in question to Paul Mero to get his reaction, and he said something along the lines of “That’s nothing worse than you’d see at halftime of sporting event,” referencing the dance troupes that often perform at halftimes. This led us into a discussion of teenage role models, and at one point, we received a phone call from someone identifying himself as Adam.

Adam told us that he had a sister who was a member of a local high school drill team, and because he felt either the costumes or the dances were inappropriate, he quit attending events to watch his sister dance.

That was that, we eventually moved on to other news.

On Wednesday, however, it turned out that we had lit the fire of controversy in Cache Valley, with comments that were made on Tuesday apparently offending several parents of drill team members in the valley. Myself and others at KVNU received phone calls and e-mails varying from demands of apologies to requests for a response from someone associated with drill teams. On Wednesday’s show, during the first part of the 4 p.m. hour, I brought up the issue briefly (you can listen to that here) and announced that on Thursday at 4:10, we’d hear from some parents and take calls on the issue.

We did that on Thursday, and ended up staying on the topic and taking calls non-stop for two hours. (Hear Hour 1 and Hour 2.)

I thought it was great radio. Whereas an early caller in the program told us that discussing the issue of whether drill teams (and other dance troupes) engage in inappropriate or suggestive dances and wear inappropriate clothing was not relevant and was something we shouldn’t be talking about on radio, the two full hours of calls we received indicated otherwise.

It is a very relevant discussion for us to have, and as the community listening post at KVNU, we have the perfect forum to have the conversation.

During the course of the evening we heard from a parent of a drill team member, a drill team coach, a current member of a drill team, a former member of a drill team who has a little sister involved in dance, a parent who wouldn’t want their child on a dance squad and several others. We received several different perspectives and it was fantastic. The discussion was great. Meanwhile, online in our chat room, the discussion remained vigorous and brought different points of view to the table.

So it surprised me to wake up Friday and find that not only were there still some people fuming about the issue, there are parents out for blood.

Friday’s ire apparently was focused on one comment that was made in our chat room from one of our listeners in response to a parent’s claims that the girls on drill team work long hours and work extremely hard. While I don’t have a transcript of the chat (perhaps the listeners who copied and pasted the transcript and are distributing it amongst their friends can provide me with one,) the comment was along the lines of “Prostitutes work hard too. And late nights.”

You can interpret the comment how you want, there are several ways it could be interpreted. That the comment was calling members of drill teams prostitutes, however, is an extreme stretch at best.

To me, that comment was simply a commentary that hard work and long hours does not excuse certain behaviors. To an individual who is concerned about the ever-more risque behavior seen amongst our youth and the desensitizing of our society to sexual exploitation, the comment is relevant. More so, however, it’s an opinion protected by the First Amendment.

I understand emotions are high in this issue. We’ve got what I think, by and large, are parents of drill team members who are emotionally, financially and physically invested in the endeavors of their children. It’s easy to get defensive, and it’s good that they’re standing up to defend the issue, because that’s what they’re supposed to do.

But the flip side of that reality is that there are people in our communities who believe that certain activities are pushing the boundaries of our community standards, and from time to time, we need to all pow wow and discuss our individual values and define what our community standards are, then, make sure we are abiding by them.

That’s what we did yesterday, at least in the form of two hours of radio time that can serve as the start of that discussion. Some have demanded that my colleagues and I apologize for what we’ve said, specifically, they say, for accusing local drill teams of dancing inappropriately.

To that, let me say, myself, Jonathan Choate, Jason Williams, Paul Mero and all of our callers Thursday, have said nothing of the such. No accusations have been levied at any of the Cache Valley drill team programs or any other local dance troupes. We recognize that these teams work extremely hard to have precision routines and over the years, the different squads have won numerous awards for their work. What we have said, however, is that the content of dances nationwide have changed over the years (yes, including here) and we must keep a prudent eye on not just what the children in our community are being involved with.

Because ultimately, at least with this drill team situation, what a drill team coach, a drill team member or a drill team parent thinks is appropriate is important, but of equal importance are the values and opinions of thousands who see these groups perform, from the father of the girl on the drill team to the mother of a member of the football team to the 15-year-old boy in the stands.

We must constantly monitor our community standards, because if we don’t, we let them slip.

Utah moves to the Pac-10! from Semper Ute on Vimeo.

Is summer finally here to stay? I look at the calender and the Fourth of July is just around the corner. Reminds me of a potentially unhealthy addiction I was afflicted with in my youth. I kicked the habit a long time ago…….. but have had relapses.

Continue Reading

Tonight:

Controversy comes to For the People from the most expected places.  This time, from our summer entertainment show FTP Primetime.  During Tuesday night’s Primtime, we were discussing the Miley Cyrus/Reuters photo, and “decency” standards.  During the show a caller identifying himself as “Adam” said he had a sister on the Sky View “Vistaun” team, and that because of certain dances and costuming, he “couldn’t stand to watch her.”  We discussed community standards, dance troupes, and “Beauty Pageants” for young kids.  The next day, we were flooded with calls from parents defending local drill team against the statements of the caller, and the hard work required.  We’re dedicating the first part of today’s show to parents who want to speak out in defense of drill teams.

Other news were contemplating discussing maybe (we like to be flexible here): DISCLOSE Act, Herbert thinks it takes to long to kill people in Utah, Proposition 8 might be overturned, iPhone vs. Android, Toy Story 3, where did Jason’s favorite mug go… etc.

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Podcasts of this and previous shows are available here.

Snark aside, this is an interesting lil’ development on the immigration reform front.  A corporate movement for a humane reform.

This puts the GOP (not to mention Murdoch’s own news empire messaging) and any corporate, conservative Democrats — already on shaking ground with a growing Latino voter bloc — in an odd spot, if it catches on.

Chief executives of several major corporations, including Hewlett-Packard, Boeing, Disney and News Corp., are joining Mayor Michael Bloomberg to form a coalition advocating for immigration reform — including a path to legal status for all undocumented immigrants now in the United States.

The group includes several other big-city mayors and calls itself the Partnership for a New American Economy. It seeks to reframe immigration reform as the solution to repairing and stimulating the economy.

Bloomberg and Rupert Murdoch, chairman and CEO of News Corp., appeared together Thursday on Fox News to discuss the effort.

“We’re just going to keep the pressure on the congressmen,” Murdoch said. “I think we can show to the public the benefits of having migrants and the jobs that go with them.”

Bloomberg added, “Somebody has to lead and explain to the country why this is in our interest.”

If it catches on.

Tonight:

We’ll revisit (I know you’re not sick of it yet) the Utah Senate Race one more time to touch on a subject Tyler posted about earlier.  Utah enjoyed an amazingly low voter turnout in last night’s GOP primary.  Some are arguing that a level of “systematic disenfranchisement” keeps voters away, others that voters are just lazy and apathetic.  What say you?

Last night on For The People Primetime (we we don’t podcast, sorry, angry listeners currently on the phone yelling at Tyler as I type!) we had a discussion about the Miley Cyrus photo Reuters published that turned into a discussion about decency and “suggestive dance/costumes” at sporting event half times — specifically those for high school dancers.  Since then — in which several local dance groups were mentioned — we’ve received a backlash of public comment defending young dancers, and citing a lack of standards from state and national associations.  We’ll address the topic, partly to clarify opinions expressed, and also to let listeners weigh in.

And today, the Legislature entered into what I would guess is the favoritest-most-amazingly-exciting-better-than-Lagoon thing for legislators: The Summer Interim Sessions.  See an agenda here.  We’ll speak with Sen. Majority Leader Scott Jenkins (District 20) about the interim session, and get a feel for the state of the state since the general session wrapped in April March (thanks Natalie).

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I had a chance to listen to the Mero Moment last night and was reminded of this map I stumbled on a while back. It was posted in 2007.  I hope the information is accurate.

US States Renamed For Countries With Similar GDPs

Or this one is more colorful:

According to this map, we have approximately the same GDP as Peru.  Yet Peru has ten times the population of Utah.

Its pretty obvious we are a very prosperous nation. Can we govern ourselves on principle anymore?  Or is it all about the money?  I’m kind of cynical on this.  I believe American politics are “about the money”.  Who gets what, when and where.  We demand change.  I believe most of us, individually or collectively, would not be willing to sacrifice much of our standard of living in aligning ourselves with the principles of said “change”.

As we wrapped up (what I thought was) a great night of election coverage on KVNU last night, we started to get into a discussion about the low voter turnout in the 2010 Primary Election, and past Primary Elections, in terms of what Salt Lake City radio host Ethan Millard and friends of the show like Tom Grover called “systemic disenfranchisement.”

I woke up this morning to find Millard was still beating that drum well into the 9 a.m. hour, almost to the point of being either comical, or purely to try and generate buzz about it so he’d have a topic on The Nightside Project (which I wouldn’t fault him for doing because lord knows I do it from time to time.)

It’s nothing new for people to complain about Utah’s closed Republican Primary Election. You have to be a member of the Republican Party to vote in it. Meanwhile, anyone can vote in the Democratic Primary Election. I get it.

Do you know why I get it?

Because I used to be among the ranks. I used to be one of the guys, as a registered Democrat, who decried the process of being locked out of politics in Utah, because we all know that in 80 percent of the races in the state, whoever the GOP nominee is on the General Election ballot is going to be the person who fills the office. That is especially true in Cache County where up until recently, Democrats sometimes didn’t even field a candidate in most races, even on the state level.

But I realized I could complain about this, or I could do something about it. If I wanted to have a say, there was a very easy, quick, free way to do it.

Register as a Republican. I did that earlier this year, I participated in the caucus process for the first time, and on Tuesday I voted. As a member of the Republican Party, even if the party didn’t know for sure that I agreed with its platform, its collective ideology or its values, I was allowed to have a say in Utah politics for the first time.

So to call this “systemic disenfranchisement” is a combination of pettiness, arrogance, ignorance and jealousy all in one. You can probably also pepper in a little enjoyment in using a five-dollar phrase like “systemic disenfranchisement.” It makes you seem smart and like you know what you’re talking about.

But know this: Whoever is saying anyone was disenfranchised in Utah yesterday doesn’t know what they’re talking about.

Disenfranchisement would be if the Republican Party vetted voters before allowing them to join the party and, as a result, vote. Disenfranchisement would be if the Republican Party had in its bylaws that it doesn’t allow gays or blacks or women or non-landowners to vote. Disenfranchisement would be if there were any arbitrary factor that the party used to prevent people from having a say in picking their nominee.

The Republican Party doesn’t do that. All you have to do is go to your County Clerk’s office, fill out a new voter registration form, and check “Republican.” This is a move that has virtually no impact on anything except for the number’s the party is allowed to boast and it gives a voter access to the ballot.

You see, being on this side, I can absolutely see why the Republican Party keeps its primary closed to members. The Primary Election is not really an election. It’s the final step in the nominating process. The party is selecting its nominee. Using the logic that everyone should be allowed to participate in the nominating process, irrespective of party affiliation, then we should get rid of the nominating conventions on the national level and just let everyone vote on their nominees. We should adopt a system like California just did where everyone goes into the race and we take the top two vote-getting candidates and then let them campaign against each other for a few more months.

Maybe the “systemic disenfranchisement” crowd would like that. But for now, at least, we don’t know how California’s experiment is going to work, so before we cross that bridge, let us give California a chance to have that experiment grow in the petri dish for a while. We’re in Utah, we have a system that works.

The reality is, everyone who wanted to vote in the 2010 Primary Election had an opportunity to vote. We can’t dumb down the election process to make it easier for everyone to vote, because the fact that the Republican Primary is closed isn’t what is keeping voter turnout down. Collective apathy is what is killing turnout, and we can’t force people to care. All we can do is hope that people will come to the realization that it’s to their advantage to vote, they’ll realize that it’s a great privilege in this country and, for many of us, Election Day is a day to look forward to.

But the collective angst being directed toward the Republicans for keeping anyone but members in the party away from the ballot box is misguided at best and delirious at worst. Like I said, I was one who complained about “disenfranchisement.”

But then I grew up and did something to solve that problem. And when your problem is “not being able to vote” and you can remedy that by checking a box on a form, you’re not really being disenfranchised.

After today’s regularly scheduled program, Tyler, Jonathan and I will return — with the help of “guest analyst” Paul Mero — at 9 pm as numbers start to come in from the primary election.

What will it be?  A win for Jim DeMint and Freedomworks, or will Bob Lonsberry and the Minutemen sweep the polls?

Baited breath…

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Podcasts of this and previous shows are available here.

The race between the two Republicans for Senate is absolutely obnoxious.  They’re taking words out of context.  They’re taking half lies, which are worse than full lies, and beating each other over the head.  I’m profoundly offended by how stupid these campaigns think Utahns are.

More in an interview with Bryan Schott in tomorrow’s Utah Policy Daily.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctEDHm0OKms

Before you read any further, please cue the following music from the YouTube video for full effect.

As you may or may not know, Bob Lonsberry’s show on Clear Channel’s KNRS in Salt Lake City was canceled this week. Lonsberry’s show was cancelled because he was getting bad ratings. Rather than man up and practice the gospel which he preaches- namely personal responsibility and free markets – Lonsberry has decided to blame U.S. Senate candidate Mike Lee for his shows demise.

I  know.  I had the same WTF? moment you’re having now.

Bizarre.

Hang with me here and we’ll try to make sense of it.

From Lonsberry’s blog:

Of course, being suspicious is my stock-in-trade, and the timing of my termination and the stand I’ve been taking on the looming senatorial primary and the fact I’ve been opposing a candidate who made $600,000 from one of our largest advertisers last year [EnergySolutions], does make me wonder. Strings get pulled in the real world, and politics is hardball, and our program’s effort helped tip the nominating convention, so it’s not impossible that I lost my job in Salt Lake so that somebody else [Mike Lee] could get a job in Washington.

So are you following this?

Bob Lonsberry thinks he was fired because Mike Lee used to work for EnergySolutions who is apparently a big advertiser on Clear Channel’s KNRS.  Apparently, in Bob’s world Mike Lee pressured EnergySolutions to pressure Clear Channel to drop Bob’s show on KNRS.

There’s no documentation to back this up.

Not even hearsay.

Just association.

But apparently that’s enough to draw the conclusion that Mike Lee got Bob’s show cancelled.

Hmmmm….

This is the logical fallacy known as “Post hoc ergo propter hoc.“  Essentially, it mistakes association for causation.   For example:

• A occurred, then B occurred.
• Therefore, A caused B.

Applied to Lonsberry’s argument:

• Mike Lee worked for EnergySolutions.  EnergySolutions bought a lot of ads from Clear Channel to air on KNRS.   Bob Lonsberry’s KNRS show was cancelled by Clear Channel.
• Therefore, Mike Lee caused Bob Lonsberry’s show to be cancelled.

But it’s not just Bob Lonsberry who is buying this conspiracy.

Tim Bridgewater, Mike Lee’s opponent, has adopted Lonsberry’s conspiracy as part of his campaign!

The following autodialer went out this week, voiced by Cherilyn Eagar and paid for by Bridgewater for Senate:

Now you’re probably wondering, “How does a 15 year talk show host suddenly have ratings that are so bad that he is fired out of the blue?”

The Portable People Meter, that’s how.

The Salt Lake radio market recently switched the way radio audiences are measured.  Previously, people carried a notepad with them called a diary and kept track of what they listened to.  Diaries were incomplete.   They were also abused by radio stations and zealous fans who over reported their favorite shows or stations. This crude method meant that active, habitual listening was reported more than passive incidental listening.

Under a the new system, PPM, the listener carries a small device that automatically and electronically records all the radio stations you listen to.  When you get in your car and listen to the country station, PPM records it.   It measures radio audiences more effectively than diaries did. As markets switch to PPM, as Salt Lake recently did, we begin to find out that some stations and shows had audiences that were over and under reported under the old diary system.

Bob Lonsberry’s show has apparently been over reported.

Now, in Bob’s defense, Clear Channel switched KNRS from the AM to the FM at the same time that PPM came to Salt Lake (which was really stupid timing).

But the fact remains that Bob Lonsberry’s audience isn’t as big as everyone had thought.

Anyway, I am not really a fan or a supporter of Mike Lee or Tim Bridgewater.  I just don’t want anyone let Bob Lonsberry’s pathetic and embarrassing conspiracy theory factor into who they vote for on Tuesday.

Tom

Tonight:

I’ll be joined by former Logan City Mayor Doug Thompson and local activist Marhsall Thompson.

U of U Athletics Director Dr. Chris Hill and PAC-10 Commis. Larry Scott held a formal press conference today at Rice Eccles Stadium on the Ute’s move to the conference.  We’ll listen in on the Q & A portion of the press conference, and discuss what this means for USU.

Marshall will give us the details on his recent trip to Mt. Everest with Apa Sherpa (Apa doing his 20th climb!).

Doug will let us pick his brain on everything from a new CEO at Logan Regional Hospital, health care reform, Logan’s sewer troubles, and the Utah GOP Senate candidates and the “Temple Mailer” (he knows some of the folks behind it.)

Bumped: And something we had to bump from yesterday’s clock: an article from WaPo about South Korea’s “information assault” on North Korea, undermining the N. Korean propaganda machine with… wait for it… The Google!  And it’s working.  The obvious question: could the internet save the world from tyrants?

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Podcasts of this and previous shows are available here.

Tonight:

Hello, PAC-12! We’ll recap the lead up to the decision, and discuss what the conference your school plays in means for your education (if anything?).

Summerfest is almost underway, and we’ll be joined in studio by festival Executive Director Mariane Sidwell to hear what’s new.

And Orrin Hatch, unwilling to go a full week without putting his foot in his mouth (seriously, Utah’s gay activists… he meant it as a compliment!) is now suggesting, via legislation, that we implement regular drug tests for the unemployed receiving government assistance.  Good idea?  Bad?  And when will we start drug testing aging Senators?

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Podcasts of this and previous shows are available here.