Politics 101-Plus

I forgot to post about the fact that I was not selected to fill the vacancy left by the resignation of Steve Thompson from the Logan City Council. But Tami Pyfer is not running again, which leaves two, at-large openings on the Council. Last Monday I signed application forms to run for Logan City Council in the November elections. I know...it was a moment of weakness.

While I was in the act of signing the papers with Theresa Harris, the City Recorder, Kathie called shouting exciteldy "Where are you?" I told her exactly where I was and what I was doing. She relaxed somewhat. She had just received a call from Jay Monson who was calling to congratulate Tony on "running for mayor". Randy Watts had told him it was a fact. Kathie's response was ..."He better not be...that would be cause for divorce."

Nine people applied for City Council, so there will be a primary election on September 15 to narrow the field to four. It is actually encouraging that there is so much interest in running for political office throughout Cache Valley.

Steve Stokes is also running for City Council, but the Steve Stokes you know from our Ward called to make sure that I knew it was not him. Actually I met the Steve Stokes who is running, at the City offices...and he is a nice young man about 25 years old. But the name Steve Stokes is a completely unfair advantage. Our "Steve Stokes" is a really high profile, popular, very successful businessperson in Logan and NAME RECOGNITION is everything in politics.

Oh well...bigger signs...and more of 'em.

Shortest Sermon Ever

Harley Perry reported his mission to Madrid, Spain today. Bart Cardon was assigned to be the concluding speaker. He and his wife Kathy are actually Public Relations missionaries, assigned to Madrid, Spain, but Kathy's health failed and they returned to Logan where they are working out their mission from their home.

Bishop Tom Lee assigned Bart to speak "on the scriptures". As often happens in such meetings, administration of the Sacrament took longer because of the number of visitors in the congregation, and Harley actually had a lot to say...in his strange Spanish influenced accent.

So there was little or no time left for Bart. Never-the-less he left us with a memorable message with the fewest words ever:

"If you want to talk with God...get on your knees and pray.
If you want God to talk to you...stand up and get into the scriptures."

We may remember that longer than if it had been buried in a 10-15 minute talk.

The ELECTRIC LIME Purse

Kathie purchased a bright lime green leather purse this spring. She has received lots of positive comments from family, friends and even strangers. It really is attractive and she has matched it with ensembles which show the purse off with great effect. During a recent trip to visit Shelly and Rich, in Minnesota, Logan 9, who views the world from within a slightly different paradigm, dubbed the purse..."grandma's ELECTRIC LIME purse". That was so perceptive...so creative. It stuck.

Like many men I have a genuine phobia about carrying women's purses. Kathie says I'm insecure about my masculinity. It must be so, because it almost makes my skin crawl to be caught holding Kathie's purse...anytime...anywhere. I feel like an idiot...look like an idiot. Kathie, on the other hand, absolutely delights in putting me in such situations.

For example...last Sunday...we were at Church...walking out of Sacrament Meeting...headed to the priesthood room where I was to teach a Family History class. Kathie said..."Please hold my purse". Apparently the horrified look on my face gave me away, because she said..."Look...it is only 30 feet to the classroom door...I have to go...I'll be back in a minute...just take it to the classroom for me...please...you can do it."

So the old male brain quickly surveyed the situation and the terrain...it was the ELECTRIC LIME purse...we were the first out of the Chapel...the coast was clear...it looked safe enough...and it was only 30 feet. So I clutched the purse fearlessly to my chest...and obediently moved forward.

I actually made it to the classroom undetected and was just putting the purse on a chair in the front of the room when I heard a sweet feminine voice say "Nice purse Tony". I was busted...and speechless. I looked up just in time to see Joann Karren's smiling face pass the door frame.

I tell you...its a female conspiracy.

Tristan Corrigan

You know that I don’t believe in coincidences…I believe in God…I believe that He is in-charge of our affairs…at least, whenever He chooses to be in-charge. And the older I get, the more obvious His hand becomes. It is almost humorous.

So here’s the set-up. It is Monday May 31, 2009. Kathie and I are sitting in the Minneapolis Airport, after a visit with Shelly and her family…on our way to Pittsburgh, to visit with Jeff and Kimi. There is a handsome young man sitting next to me. Kathie leans over and says “I think he might be a Marine…he has his Lid (dress hat) with him”. So I strike up a conversation. The young man is not a Marine, but he is Navy…Naval ROTC to be exact…on his way to Germany for a 25 day exchange with the German navy. He is easy to talk with…so we chat. I tell him about our Marine sons…about Dan’s float in the Mediterranean. He had a similar experience as a crewman on a troopship. I tell him about Henry Sipple and his WWII service…his historical timeline which I recently typed up…problems with WWII torpedoes, etc. He asks if he might receive a copy of Henry’s timeline so I ask for his email address.

His name is Tristan Corrigan…now there’s a good old Irish name if ever there was one. He is attending Iowa State University on an ROTC scholarship. tristanc@iastate.edu

This is where Kathie and her incredible intuition come into play. She says…”you would not be from California would you?: Answer “No…I’m from Minnesota” So Kathie explains how she had just published her mother’s diaries from her Park City teen years…how she was enamored with a young man named Francis Corrigan who lived in California. Tristan looks at Kathie and says…”Francis Corrigan was my grandfather…he lived in California”.

This deserved a …YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME…right?

Well…it turned out to be true. Tristan’s father is Michael Francis Corrigan, the son of Francis Corrigan, of California. Francis suffered from heart problems and died a couple of years ago. It all fits. But what are the odds? That’s so weird. And if the Lord is actually pulling these strings…why? Surely it is not just to show us that he can.

Francis was unfortunately divorced from Tristan’s grandmother…and Francis was estranged from the family…Tristan never met him. But he is sure that his parents will want to exchange information and photos with Kathie, so we are going to email documents to Tristan who will send them on to his parents.

I can hardly wait to find out what will happen on our next trip.

Politics 101

As you know I have been attending 9/12 meetings in Providence. The objective of the group appears to be to get qualified people to run for political office at every level.

The group has been encouraged to read Skousan's "5000 Year Leap". On page 49 he says..."The natural tendency of all people is to encourage others to run for office, but not get involved themselves."

On May 22, 2009, Logan City placed an add in the Herald Journal, calling for applicants to fill the vacancy on the City Council created by the resignation of Steve Thompson.

So on May 27 I submitted my name a candidate to fill that vacancy. The appointment would only be till January 31, 2009. That means that there will be an election this fall to fill that seat and another seat which will be vacated by Tami Pyfer.

The City Council will meet on June 5 to make their decision. I know each of the council members except Lorraine Swenson. Apparently she thinks that whoever is appointed should not be permitted to run in the next election, because the experience gained in filling the interim seat would be an unfair advantage. Other council members think that the council has no business telling anyone what they may or may not do politically. I think I would agree with the majority position.

I sent an email to each of the council members. Jay Monson, Herm Olsen and Tammy Pyfer responded positively, but I have not had responses from Lorraine or Steve Thompson. Steve would support me to the other council members. He is a democrat, but interestingly to me he is extremely conservative...possibly the most conservative on the City Council. He and Tami supported our neighborhood on the power plant issue. None of the other council members were serving at that time.

We will let you know if Popa T is a politician soon. Of course it would be hard to be disappointed were I not selected.

9/12: May 13, 2009

Wow! I attended another 9/12 meeting tonight. It was awesome. There are lots of things going on which should encourage even the most depressed conservative.

Independent Caucus: This is an independent movement to take our government back from the "Big Money" special interests. This group intends to send every Congressman/woman a Pink Slip...and a Tea Bag from thousands of people in their districts nation wide. And they intend to film the reaction at each Congressional office when the bag is delivered.

We watched a video presentation about why it is so hard to unseat an incumbent Congressional politician. Why do 94% of incumbents get re-elected when they have only a 10% approval rating? "Big Money" from lobbyists makes it almost impossible to fund a challenger adequately .

Montana: Two days ago, the Governor of Montana signed into law a bill which says that firearms, ammunition or associated equipment, manufactured in Montana are NOT under the control of the federal government. It is a state's rights issue and it will go to the Supreme Court. This is a big deal.

Patrick Henry Caucus: Carl Wimmer, a member of the Utah Legislature started the Patrick Henry Caucus in Utah. He was on Glenn Beck last week talking about the landmark Montana legislation. Utah is working on a similar, but more broad state's rights bill. Texas is moving forward with similar legislation. We watched this portion of the Glenn Beck program. It was inspiring. Utah intends to take back all state's rights bestowed by the Constitution.

Larry Bodily explained how the federal government usurped state's rights back in the 1930s. They did it over the issue of interstate commerce. Apparently a farmer, who owned a bakery, was growing his own wheat, making bread products and selling them all within his state...no interstate commerce. The federal government had no control over him or his products under the then current Constitutional law. They used him as a test case. They came up with the screwball argument, that because he was NOT engaging in interstate commerce he was actually affecting interstate commerce negatively... therefore he could be regulated and taxed. The supreme court upheld that action...following which anything and everything could be defined as falling under the definition of interstate commerce...controlled and taxed by the federal government.

Glenn Beck was beside himself when one of his guests, who was a retired judge, said that this would the biggest supreme court case since Roe vs Wade...and the current conservative court would reverse a 70 year old law. Glenn begged the supreme court members to "eat your vegies...stay healthy...don't any of you dare die on us". The whole audience applauded after that short video clip.

There is a Tea Party at the Utah State Capitol next Wednesday at noon to celebrate the formation of the Patrick Henry Caucus to take our States' Rights back. Think I may go. This is getting exciting!

9/12 Meeting

We here we go! I attended a 9/12 meeting in Providence last night. Last week was their first meeting, so everyone was still new to the concept of coming together in unity and love to effect political change. Larry Bodily seemed to be the ad hoc leader of the group. He was cool and calm. One young bloke stood up, distributed an organizational chart and announced that we needed to get organized, with heads over counties, cities and precincts. One woman asked "Why?" and she got a lecture on how organization was ncessary if we wanted to accomplish anything. One eloquent old bloke said "It would be better to talk without being organized, than to be organized before we talk". Even that did not deter the young fella. A few others complained, but he pressed on..."we must get organized now." Finally I said, "Excuse me...but you are not listening...people are telling you that we don't want to get organized until we understand what it is we want to accomplish by being organized." He pressed on...people threatened to leave...he shut up. So it was not a smooth beginning.

Larry Bodily reported that someone in SLC has actually taken it upon himself to get 9/12 groups organized across the USA and in Utah. Apparently there are dozens of groups meeting, but without any coordination. He also said something that got my attention. 9/12 representatives were meeting last night in SLC with conservative political parties...Republican, Constitutional and Libertarian, to try to forge some unified effort to replace current elected Congressional politicians with politicians who will live by 9/12 values. It is a strongly held "throw the bums out" mentality.

The reality at present is if a really well qualified candidate is put forward by the Constitutional party he/she will not get elected in Utah. So it is my opinion that unless people like me who feel that the Republican party left us behind want to eat crow and work within the Republican party, nothing will change. Larry promised to report on that meeting next week. We are meeting weekly.

Future meetings will include a little education. It was suggested that we each purchase Skousens "5000 Year Leap" and read it. There are also classes on the Constitution that we can attend.

The meeting became anecdotal...which was pleasant if not really productive. There was some dark talk about how threatening the government could really get...and about Glen Beck predicting that he would be silenced. I had not heard that. One fellow asked if we new why Glen Beck chose to call his effort 9/12. I had no idea. It was becasue 9/12 was the day after 9/11. On 9/12 the USA was humbled but united. He wants all who are like minded politically today to come together with that same awesome feeling of unity....which is real power.

I like to think of 9/12 as the day that evil hid its ugly head...there was not a word from the America haters...yet within six weeks evil emerged in the form of Michael Moore. It was the hate America croud which convinced me give up 36 years as a legal alien...permanent resident alien...to become a US citizen...to stand shoulder to shoulder with my American brothers and sisters in the fight against evil...which is now even more seriously threatening to destroy this great country.

So last night was ...one small step.