|  Reader Response Question
Who’s Biggest Junkie?
We’ve received a lot of entries for Utah’s biggest political junkie, but we need more. Send us a name or two or three and we’ll make a list and have you vote on them. Send us Republicans and/or Democrats. It’s OK if they’re living out-of-state. Who is obsessed? Who stays up all night to watch the election returns? Who stays until the very end of boring county conventions? Who is always talking politics? Who always knows the latest gossip? Who eats, drinks and sleeps this stuff? Send your nominations to daily@utahpolicy.com (and it’s OK to nominate yourself).
A Strange Version of Federalism
Utah legislators at the American Legislative Exchange Council annual meeting in Texas were shaking their heads over comments about federalism made by Education Secretary Margaret Spellings in a speech Thursday at the meeting. Spellings is chief advocate for No Child Left Behind, which a lot of people believe is the biggest federal intrusion ever into public education. Here’s what Spellings said (see also news release):
"We at the Department of Education are good federalists. We all know that when our Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution, they clearly reserved certain powers for the state -- not the federal government. One of those responsibilities was education." Clearly, said one Utah legislative staffer, “the Department of Education propaganda machine is in full spin mode.”
Podcast Watch
Jennifer Napier-Pearce’s weekly Podcast has been posted at InsideUtah.com. Included are interviews with Congressman Jim Matheson on free trade and the space shuttle, Senate President John Valentine on the needs in northern Utah, and analysis from citizen watchdog Clair Geddes and Chamber President Lane Beattie on public funding for faith-based charities.
2004 Vote Fraud
Here’s an interesting, independent, non-partisan report on “Vote Fraud, Intimidation & Suppression In The 2004 Presidential Election.”
Campaign Tip
A Million Little Things Add Up to a Win
The filing deadline for municipal elections is Aug. 15, and many campaigns are already under way. Serious candidates should be visiting with opinion leaders, raising money, and developing detailed campaign plans right now. The focus should be on how you are going to reach active voters three or four times before the November election.
Novice candidates will soon learn that political campaigns can be discouraging because a lot of campaign work, by its nature, is boring and tedious. Myriad details must be addressed, and it’s easy to question whether doing all those little things is really very important or will make a difference in the end. Candidates and campaign workers want to be out doing big, glamorous things, like engaging in high-profile debates, filming television spots, holding high-level strategy meetings and visiting editorial boards.
But those things won’t win an election unless they are supported by a solid foundation built through a lot of attention to detail—all the little, boring things that ultimately add up to success. Political success usually results from a million little things coming together at the right time. A campaign is hour after excruciating hour of work and more work, with plenty of wondering if you’re making any headway, especially if your opponent is getting more headlines. But if you’re working smart, getting the fundamentals done right, then it will all culminate in a big win at the end.
We’ll feature tips in the future highlighting the fundamentals of a successful campaign, with a particular emphasis on grassroots organization and targeting.
Cache Valley Gets Fiber Optics
Rep. Rob Bishop, Gov. Jon Huntsman, Logan Mayor Doug Thompson, and State Rep. Fred Hunsaker, held a press conference to announce the completion of the $1.5 million Cache Valley redundant fiber optic line, reports the Herald Journal. The project will improve the region's telecommunications infrastructure and bring new services to customers.
Church vs. State & Holy Ground
“As US agencies and courts declare sites as holy ground, critics charge the government is establishing religion,” says a story in the Christian Science Monitor. One such example is Utah’s Rainbow Bridge, which a federal court declared to be a protected spiritual site for Southwestern Native Americans.
Utah to Receive Water Grants
The Dept. of Interior (DOI) has awarded Utah over $2.5 million in grants for various water conservation projects. Click here to see a breakout of the western states that received grants and the water conservation projects involved. The DOI says the Water 2025 program was developed specifically for innovative state projects that reduce the likelihood of conflict over scarce water supplies in the region.
Wise Words
"[N]either the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt." -- Samuel Adams (Source: Federalist Patriot)
Casual Friday
Inquiring minds want to know . . .
The lyrics to “Louie Louie”
(Warning: The Web sites listed here contain coarse language.)
“We've all been there. You're at a party, a bit liquored-up and dancing like a loon. Then ‘Louie Louie’ starts to play and, suddenly, you're one of the Kingsmen. You're howling the lyrics when, during the third verse, you realize that you don't know the lyrics.”
-- From the Web site, “The Smoking Gun”
Not many rock-and-roll songs have as colorful a history as “Louie Louie,” recorded by the Kingsmen in 1963. The reason is that the recording is so bad, or the lack of elocution so extraordinary, that the lyrics are simply unintelligible.
Thus, numerous “Louie Louie” fans have manufactured their own lyrics, with many rather raunchy versions. “Back in 1963, everybody who knew anything about rock 'n' roll KNEW that the Kingsmen's Louie Louie concealed dirty words that could be unveiled only by playing the 45 rpm single at 33 1/3” says another Web site.
The song reached legendary status when complaints by parents led to a 30-month FBI investigation. Eventually the FBI decided it couldn’t prosecute something it couldn’t understand.
The song is the lament of a seafaring man, spoken to a sympathetic bartender named Louie. Here are the "official" published lyrics:
"Louie Louie, oh baby, me gotta go. Louie Louie, oh baby, me gotta go. A fine little girl, she wait for me. Me catch the ship across the sea. I sailed the ship all alone. I never think I'll make it home. Louie Louie, me gotta go . Three nights and days we sailed the sea. Me think of girl constantly. On the ship, I dream she there. I smell the rose in her hair. Louie Louie, me gotta go. Me see Jamaican moon above. It won't be long me see me love. Me take her in my arms and then I tell her I never leave again. Louie Louie, me gotta go." (By Richard Berry. Copyright 1957-1963 by Limax Music Inc.)
Here’s what Snopes.com has to say about it: “So it was that the youth of America scored a major coup in 1963 by spreading the rumor that a popular recording of an otherwise innocuous 1956 song about a lovesick sailor's lament to a bartender named Louie was really all about sex. You had to listen carefully, the rumor went, maybe even play the single at 33 RPM instead of 45 RPM, but if you did, you'd find that ‘Louie Louie’ was chock full of smutty lyrics. (Another version claimed the dirty words could only be heard on the single and not on the album, even though both were pressed from the same master.) A more effective means of aggravating the older generation could scarcely have been devised: They could neither reassert control by proving the lyrics dirty and punishing those responsible for them, nor could they demonstrate they had never relinquished control by proving the lyrics clean.”
Best of Late Night Humor
Jay Leno.... A Washington think tank has concluded that the job of finding and removing all illegal immigrants from the United States would cost over 200 billion dollars, and take over five years. That is, unless we hire illegal immigrants to do it, then it would cost us a tenth of the normal price. .... Did you see John Kerry in France? He was over there to meet with Lance Armstrong after his victory. Do you know why? John Kerry at one point...wanted to be a professional bike rider but they could never find a helmet that would fit his head. .... According to President Bush’s most recent physical, he’s the most fit president in history. He’s in the 99 percentile for men 55 to 59 years old. And Dick Cheney is in the 1 percentile. So together they’re 100%. You can’t do better than that! . . . Doctors said that President Bush's only bad habit is he smokes an occasional cigar. Bush says he smokes cigars to help him think. So lucky he’s not smoking that often. . . . Although doctors did caution President Bush about his posture. They noticed he tends to lean way to the right.
Letterman . . . It’s so hot out that over at the Central Park Zoo the penguins were marching to Ben and Jerry’s. It was so hot out today that the guys were applying sun block before urinating in Time Square.
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