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The Week Ahead
The calendar says we should be over the hottest part of the summer, but Mother Nature isn’t cooperating. The high country is starting to see some cooler nights but, overall, the blistering summer continues.
Utah lawmakers have a busy week with their annual site visits on Wednesday and Thursday. This year they visit Davis and Salt Lake counties. Some committee and task force meetings are scheduled early in the week and on Friday, with a joint meeting of the Education Interim Committee and Local Issues Task Force focused on the hot topic of school building equalization on Tuesday 2-5 p.m., in W135. See the legislative calendar for notices and agendas and the Utah Policy.com calendar for all the week’s political events.
Today in Political History
August 13, 1818: Suffragist Lucy Stone is born in West Brookfield, Mass. (Source: NBC5)
August 13, 1926: Fidel Castro, Cuban communist revolutionary and leader of Cuba from 1959, is born near Mayari, Cuba.
August 13, 1961: East German border guards begin construction of the Berlin Wall, creating eastern and western sectors. (Source: Perspicuity)
Wise Words
“When a man sits with a pretty girl for an hour, it seems like a minute. But let him sit on a hot stove for a minute -- and it's longer than any hour. That's relativity.”
-- Albert Einstein (Source: Quote Garden)
Leadership Tip
Colin Powell on Leadership
Lesson 2: "The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help them or concluded that you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership."
If this were a litmus test, the majority of CEOs would fail. One, they build so many barriers to upward communication that the very idea of someone lower in the hierarchy looking up to the leader for help is ludicrous. Two, the corporate culture they foster often defines asking for help as weakness or failure, so people cover up their gaps, and the organization suffers accordingly.
Real leaders make themselves accessible and available. They show concern for the efforts and challenges faced by underlings, even as they demand high standards. Accordingly, they are more likely to create an environment where problem analysis replaces blame. (Read all 18 lessons at Coach Thee)
National Politics
Best Stories From . . .
-- Wall Street Journal: Peggy Noonan profiles Gen. David Petraeus, commander of U.S. troops in Iraq, who will be reporting to Congress in September.
-- New York Times: States are taking the lead in presidential election reform, proposing changes in Electoral College vote apportionment and moving primaries ahead.
-- Chicago Sun-Times: Columnist Steve Huntley: "With only one month to go before the opening of perhaps the climactic political battle in Washington over the Iraq war, what once seemed like a virtual slam dunk for anti-war Democrats to get Congress on record in favor of a troop withdrawal has become less certain. ... [A] surge in optimism is washing over the war's supporters, who believe a significant shift in the course of the conflict is under way." See related New York Times story.
-- The Politico: The leading Democratic presidential candidates maintained, albeit with a few caveats and apologies, their opposition to same sex marriage before a largely gay and lesbian television audience Thursday night.
-- Boston Globe: "Barack Obama has repeatedly reminded voters that his presidential campaign does not accept contributions from lobbyists or political action committees .... But behind Obama's campaign rhetoric about taking on special interests lies a more complicated truth. A Globe review of Obama's campaign finance records shows that he collected hundreds of thousands of dollars from lobbyists and PACs as a state legislator in Illinois, a US senator, and a presidential aspirant." (See also related Reno Gazette-Journal story.)
Lighter Side
A couple is lying in bed. The man says, “I am going to make you the happiest woman in the world.”
The woman replies, “I'll miss you…
—from Tea Leaf, submitted by Shaz (a friend of Jeff Thredgold) |
