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Show 8 Thursday, January 31,2008 OPINION www.dailyutahchronicle.com Cry me a river Clinton's wasting a rare chance for Democrats to strut their stuff CAN'T WAIT TO AN W THANVC4, PHIL CANNON/ffif Utah's dirty little secret The Beehive State is on the verge of becoming the dumping ground for Earth's nuclear waste U tah has a dirty little secret. Despite not having a single nuclear reacJOSEPH tor within our borders, we are America's dumping ground for BATEMAN nuclear waste. Soon, Utah will go global and become the world's dumping ground. Not content with building a Tower of Babel out of America's tickets would fly for the "climb the nuclear waste at its Clive site. nuclear waste container" attraction Energy Solutions President Steve or even a nuclear waste version of Creamer wants to import 20,000 the corn maze. The possibilities tons of Italian nuclear waste and are limitless like the nuclear waste bury it in Utah. Apparently, the in our state. "solution" in the company's name Gov. Huntsman must see the stands for "dump it in Utah." same tourist dollar signs dance Don't-worry about the health across his eyes, as he doesn't obrisks, groundwater contamination ject to the importation of the fine or that nuclear waste takes hunItalian waste. We already import dreds, if not thousands, of years their pasta, wine and loafers, so to break down. what's wrong with a Just think about little of the world's the opportunities. most dangerous subUtahns already got a fancy new name for the arena formerly pledge or that being known as the a public servant Delta Center. means you serve and Not convinced? protect the people, Well, just think not the multi-million about the tourist dollar corporations potential. Forget and their army of about the greatest — lobbyists. snow on Earth, Reps. Matheson, Temple Square or even the Golden Bishop and Cannon must go to Spike. We could be thefirststate bed with the same dreams of that glows in the dark. Say goodbye grandeur, or stay up into the to electric bills and say hello to night counting the campaign conthe three-eyed cutthroat. The tributions from EnergySolutions. aybe the governor forgot his anti-nuclear waste pledge or that being a public servant means you serve and protect the people... Despite objections from several other members of the House of Representatives, Utah's delegation remains absurdly silent. The reality is that this nuclear waste doesn't benefit anyone but Creamer, fattening his already burgeoning wallet. Our so-called leaders champion business at the expense of the people, and the pundits wonder why Congress' approval rating is at historic lows. Since our induction into the Union, America has viewed Utah as a giant dumping ground. "Not in my backyard" for the rest of the nation meant "bring it to Utah." Just ask the residents who lived downwind of the nuclear bomb tests. Take a tour of the superfund sites of the uranium mines and mills and the dead miners' graves. Stroll past US Magnesium Corporation, otherwise known as Magcorp or to the EPA as the nation's worst toxic air polluter, spewing tons of PCB and chlorine gas into the air and making Utah's air some of the most polluted in the nation. The sad part is that if these things were happening in New York or California, the residents would be up in arms demanding action, but, in the Land of Zion, it's business as usual because silence reigns supreme in keeping Utah's dirty secret safe. letters@ chronicle.utah.edu ow, the Clintons' political machine is a lot more cunning than I have ever given them credit for. I must admit, I was pleasantly surprised when Hillary showed the hypocrisy of all liberals and started pulling the gender and race cards on ' her own party—the kumbaya-singing party of tolerance, diversity, inclusiveness and injustice. Does Hillary Clinton really think that the Democratic Party has been TIARA C. compromised and is AUXIER now full of sexists? For decades it was the conservatives who were slandered as racist, sexist bigots. Who would've thought that Democrats have that disease in their own party? This should be the Democrats' chance tofinallyshow us how superior they claim to be. They finally have two minority-classified presidential candidates. Either would be a landmark in civil rights history. Instead of focusing on the issues and winning on her own merits, Clinton is using the knee-jerk reactions of yelling "racist," "sexist" or attributing some bigoted motive to Obama for daring to challenge her. These tactics are usually reserved for conservatives and any critic of radical feminism or affirmative action, but are now being used to secure her own power. In the last desperate hours in New Hampshire, Bill Clinton was hoping for sympathy from women voters when he pulled the gender card by saying that he "can't make (Hillary) younger, taller or male." He defended his actions by saying that he was just trying to protect his • woman from the guys ganging up on her. Do we want a president who can't even fight her own battles? No! That is insulting to capable women everywhere. Not only is Hillary overplaying the gender card by these examples, but she is also going on national television and contriving tears to soften her image. Now, she is pulling out the race card on Obama. When it was obvious that she was polling way behind Obama in South Carolina, she and Bill went on the attack. They started saying that she didn't have a chance there because all the blacks would vote for Obama just because he is black. Interestingly enough, back in December, Hillary held support of the majority of blacks over Obama, but after South Carolina those numbers have changed. Obama has the support of blacks nationwide almost four to one. One might ask why she would've given up the race in South Carolina and risked pushing the black vote away when they made up 50 percent of the vote. This is the answer. Clinton wants Obama to be viewed as the black candidate running on the special interests of blacks and not the crossover candidate he was looking like. Obama's campaign had been taking off with huge momentum. He was starting to sound like Martin Luther King Jr. His talk of hope and change were resonating with not only black voters, but the youth and women as well. Hillary attacked his "hope" and "change" analogy of Dr. King and painted both of them as idealistic hopers and dreamers. She diminished King's role in the civil rights movement when she said that "Dr. King's dream began to be realized when President Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act." In other words, she thinks that it is fine for a black man to have his empty idealistic hopes and dreams of change, but it takes a president—maybe even a white president—to take care of blacks. After that statement, the blacks flocked to Obama's camp in outrage. So, now, going to the white-dominated states of Super Tuesday, she looks like the victim of black block voting. She is crying that this is a racial fight and hopes the white women who were in Obama's camp will now stand up and fight back against this unfair treatment of racial preference. It is shameful that she is throwing the colorblind ideals of Democrats out the window just gain individual power. letters@ch ronic le. utah.edu DANNY JOHNSlOWJht Alienated Pmi Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., is greeted by supporters at a rally in North Little Rock, Ark., on Wednesday. Take it from my dad, tough customers are always right W e as consumers need to keep big business in check- The only way to keep the mentality that "the customer is always right" is to have a population of stubborn customers who are, in fact, always right. My personal role model for this type of consumer is my own father. He calls himself a "consumer terrorist." Every time huge corporations flaunt their sincere concerns for "the customer," you can be assured they are lying. If they weren't, they would be a non-profit organization without any stockholders breathing down their necks. They want your money, and you want their services. The only way to get a fair trade is to be as clever about coming out on top as they are. A few examples from the model consumer terrorist: Nathan Kirk spent two hours in a hardware store gathering expensive equipment for a home-improvement • project. When he got to the register, the cashier scanned all the items in his cart including a few slabs of wallboard. He noticed that it was raining outside and knew that his wallboard would be ruined. He informed the cashier that he would back bis truck up to the loading dock to load the wallboard. She told him that it's against store policy. He then said, "Never mind. Back out the order." She took the wallboard off the order, and he corrected her, "No, I mean the whole order." The manager overheard and realized that hundreds of dollars were at stake. My father was then permitted to back his truck up to the dock, thereby receiving the ser-' ADAM KIRK vice he deserved as a high-paying customer. Let the justice system to which you pay taxes to support fight for you. After his cell phone contract had expired, my father called the cancellation line to terminate his contract. Twice he waited 15 minutes on the line with no answer. He then called the sign-up line and got a representative after the first ring. He told him he wanted to cancel his contract. The representative said that he could not process, that request, then transferred my father back to the cancellation line. After waiting another 15 minutes, he called the sign-up line again, got an answer after the first ring and told the representative to tell the company that he was canceling his contract, then hung up. Of course, the contract was not A week before the trial, a lawyer from Colorado called to intimidate my father and convince him he didn't have a case. After practicing law for 20 years, my father knew better. The ___ lawyer called back the next day and offered double his Ley want your money, He agreed, as the customer who is months of no payment, services. The only way to always right. These are model my father received a ' ' acts of a consumer notice that his home get a fair trade is to be as terrorist who phone would be , , will not put up disconnected, and he clever about coming out with fine print or would be turned over n n t _ _ _ c *u m / ^rn entrapments. One to a coUections agency. o n l 0 P a 5 i n e Y a r e who stands for fair My father sent in ^^~^^— business wherever the money and sued in the state of Washington, which it is deserved. One who gets his has a consumer protection act. This money's worth. provides triple damages for unfair letters@ or deceptive practices. chronicle.utah.edu and you want their If you like running errands, making coffee, nachos and lewd conversation, you might be interested in applying for the office internship at The Daily Utah Chronicle. For more information, contact Lindsey Sine at l.sine@chmnicle.utah.edu. We're waiting for you! , w |
