BYU Democrats

Dems,Ready for another round of fun leftist events?  Here we go…

IRAQ 5th YEAR ANNIVERSARY CANDLELIGHT VIGIL - 5 years ago today the United States invaded Iraq…and the world hasn’t been the same since.  There will be a candlelight vigil TONIGHT at 8:00 at the Utah County Government Building in Provo, on the northwest corner by Senator Hatch’s Office.  If you’re not sure where that is, you can meet us at 7:30pm at Jamba Juice in the Wilkinson Center and we’ll all head down together.  Bring candles and help us in remembering and pondering the past 5 years…

THURSDAY MEETING - MORMONS, POLITICS, and HOMOSEXUALITY - For our regular Thursday meeting, we’ve invited Tristan Call, president of BYU’s Amnesty International student organization, to lead a discussion on the politics of homosexuality and its relation to us as members of the church.  Tristan has done considerable research on the issue, and this promises to be a great evening of dialogue on a very important issue.  As usual, we will meet from 7:00pm - 8:30pm in 240 SWKT.

ANNUAL DEMOCRATS CABIN TRIP!!  THiS FRIDAY!!…

OK, folks, the time has come!  Everything you need to know:

WHAT: Amazing Democrats’ Cabin Party! We’ll be eating dinner together, talking, partying, and going on a night hike.

WHO: Everyone. We especially encourage left-leaning groups like SID, Parity, and Amnesty to join us, but please invite any of your friends for a really good time.

WHEN: Friday, March 21, 2008
6:00pm Meet at Jamba Juice on campus for carpools up to the cabin
6:30pm Meet at the cabin if you’re driving yourself
7:00pm Dinner
9:00pm Night hike (dress warmly)
1:30pm Festivities conclude

What to bring:
1. We will be having delicious pot luck taco salad for dinner. Our club will provide the essentials, but please bring something to share like a topping, an ingredient, or a drink.
2. Something warm to wear for the night hike.
3. A friend.

WHERE: Zach Davis’ grandpa’s cabin in sundance!
Meet at 6:00pm at Jamba Juice if you would like a ride. Otherwise you can use these directions:

DIRECTIONS: Take Canyon Road, turn left on Sundance turnoff. Drive up road about two miles past the Sundance resort. About 1/4 mile after the resort take Stewart Road over the bridge. Stay on Stewart road for about a mile. You will see a kiosk in the middle of the road. The code for the gate is 0323. Go through the gate, drive 75 yards and you will see a mirror. Go past that and turn onto Balsam Road. Its the 2nd house on the right, house 2989.  Call 801-224-5688 if you get lost on the way.

MARCH 25 - UTAH DEMOCRATIC CAUCUS/INTERNSHIP OPPORTUNITY

Next Tuesday, March 25, there will a Democratic Party Caucus Meeting for House District 63 (which is the Utah state legislative district most of BYU is in) at 7pm in Room 309 of the Provo City Library (corner or University and 500 North).  This will serve as our meeting for next week, and we really need the BYU Dems to show up en force to help us make this meeting a success…we’ve been asked to help host the event, so we’re also going to be needing people who can come around 6pm to help set up.  We’ve got a great slate of local Democratic candidates this year, and we as College Dems can make a big difference by showing up and supporting them.  The caucus meeting will be a chance for you to meet your local candidates for the upcoming State Senate elections and help in planning for their campaigns, etc.  We will also be electing state party officials.

Internship - Dr. Don Jarvis, who is campaigning for the State Senate as a representative from Utah County, is looking for student interns to join his campaign and help him win while gaining valuable political experience.  Attached to this email is more information about the internship and how you can apply!

darren

it seems to US tried to overthrow Hamas (the democratically elected leaders of Palestine) twice in 2006/2007

yea democracy  http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/14D47877-5577-4AEE-B093-BA2573E3FF7E.htm

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/A6D28BF0-554F-42A6-975E-5472D29C935D.htm

 It seems like Israel is getting ready to occupy the Gaza Strip

Hyrum

As a club, we don’t typically get into specific stances on statewide measures, but I feel strongly that the following affects us all:

Approximately 80% of all new developments in Utah, whether condominiums, town homes, or single-family homes, are governed and operated by a homeowner association (HOA). The HOA represents the collective interests of all the individual homeowners. There are thousands of HOAs throughout Utah, representing hundreds of thousands of Utah residents. Our law firm represents over two hundred HOAs throughout Utah in various capacities.

Senate Bill 220 will absolutely devastate HOAs and their respective homeowner members. Generally, HOAs are created and obligated to maintain key structural areas of homes and condos, like roofs, stucco, foundations, brick, sidewalks, roadways, etc. Since the HOA has the obligation to maintain and repair those important structural elements, it is the only entity that can bring a lawsuit to seek redress for defects in the construction of those elements. Since Senate Bill 220 precludes all claims except for contractual claims (which do not exist between an HOA and the building entity), it will completely bar the HOA from successfully bringing claims on behalf of the homeowner members. Since the HOA is barred, the respective homeowners are also barred.

In its truest essence, Senate Bill 220 says that if you buy a home that is poorly constructed, the owner, will almost always be responsible to pay to fix the damage, despite the fact that the damage was clearly caused by the builder’s or the developer’s negligence. This bill does nothing more than give a free pass to builders when they build homes replete with construction defects.

These problems are not only hazardous (mold), but they are very expensive repairs (foundation subsidence, complete replacement of the stucco application, etc.). The repair work required in each of these cases is well over two million dollars. If the HOA is unable to bring these claims against the builder, it will be forced to special assess their homeowner members who will be required to pay those expensive assessments out of their own pockets. This is not only completely unfair, but it is unbelievable that our State legislators, who are charged to represent their constituents, would even think about passing this bill. They would never consider preventing an individual from seeking legal redress for a driver’s or a doctor’s negligence. Then why should we protect a builder’s negligence.

Please vote no against SB 220! This will negatively impact millions of Utah residents for generations to come.

If you’d like to help out, please send your own message or the following formatted one to state representatives by clicking on the following link:

Send an E-mail

Subject: Vote NO on Senate Bill 220

Message:
Dear Representative:

I live in Utah County. This morning I watched a news story on Channel 2 http://www.kutv.com/content/news/topnews/story.aspx?content_id=774D47E8-1BEE-4B5F-8F6A-EFE8400C131D&gsa=true> and read a similar article in the Salt Lake Tribune http://www.sltrib.com/ci_8389269> discussing the implications of Senate Bill 220. If these stories have any merit, I strongly urge you to vote against this bill.

State Senator Chris Buttars (South Jordan, West Jordan, and Herriman) recently came under harsh fire for describing a bill he opposed saying, “This baby is black. . . . It’s a dark, ugly thing.” On Tuesday he refused to meet with the NAACP to discuss his comment and complained that he had become a target of a “hate lynch mob” because of e-mails he has received condemning his remarks. When the NAACP held up pictures of a real lynching in Price, Utah and said he clearly didnt know what lynching means, Buttars responded, “Lynch mob is a Western term. You wouldn’t find one person in 10,000 in Utah that thinks that’s a racist term. That’s not a racial term in my opinion. How do I know what words I’m supposed to use in front of those people?”

I am one person in 10,000, I guess, who thinks “lynch mob” is a racial term. “Those people” are calling for Buttars to resign immediately, and so do I.

Read the Salt Lake Tribune article here.

-Diane

So apparently there’s a website where you can talk about what platform Jesus would have if he were to be running in the 2008 Presidential election.  You can read about it in the Washington Post here.  The actual website is www.jesusin2008.com/

You can also discuss potential running mates.  Do you think He’d pick Huckabee or Romney?

Diana

Some of you may have read a leader to the editor of the Daily Universe on Wednesday criticizing a sign that had been on display at the BYU Democrats booth.  The sign read “Mitt Romney dropped out.  Now you have to think.”  The editorial suggested that this was bigotry.  The following response was sent to the DU editorial staff, and while it was unfortunately not published in today’s editorial page, as it should have been, we have been told it will be published on Monday.  I did not want to wait, however, knowing that many of you might have concerns about the situation:

90 percent of those who voted in Utah’s Republican primary now face a choice.  On February 5th, they all chose to support Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign.  Today, Mitt Romney is no longer in the running, and each and every one of those voters must now decide which candidate they will support in his stead.  To make that decision, they must think.  That was the fundamental argument of the sign posted at the BYU Democrats booth last week, and if you were to present that to any of those February 5th Romney supporters, they would agree.

The criticism offered of the sign in Wednesday’s opinion page suggested that presenting a similar argument to women who support Hillary Clinton or African-Americans who support Barack Obama in the event of either candidate’s withdrawal would amount to bigotry, and that therefore our sign was equally inappropriate.  Romney’s 90% support margin in Utah’s primary, far and away the widest win margin of any candidate of either party in any state’s primary thus far, combined with the fact that none of Romney’s policy platforms could be described as appealing specifically to Utahns, provides strong evidence that the causal factor in Utah’s disproportionate support of Romney is the one overwhelming trait that makes Utah unique: the predominance of the LDS faith.  This suggests that many Utah voters chose Romney predominately because he is a Mormon.  Now that there are no Mormon candidates in the race, this motivating factor has been rendered insignificant, and those single-issue Mormon voters must now think harder as to what factors will define their voting choice.  This is a valid criticism.  If statistics show that black voters are supporting Obama based on his race alone, or that women gravitate towards Hillary solely because of gender, to suggest that the resignation of either candidate’s campaign would complicate these voters’ candidate selection process would also be valid.  The fundamental issue here is single-issue voting, not religious affiliation, gender, or race, and therefore the accusation of bigotry is baseless.

Is it a sign of the apocalypse or merely long past due?  Utah voting democratic in November would be AWESOME.  Let’s make it happen.

http://www.feministmormonhousewives.org/?p=1614

http://youtube.com/watch?v=yjbknhX383A

Randal

In class today, I got tired of all the ridiculous and ignorant comments of the ‘conservatives’ that surround me so I made this wallpaper. It’s formatted for MacBooks, but works on any computer.

Your friend,

Eric Harker