9/16/05 -- Fire in their Bellies, Utah Thunder

The Columnists Are Getting Cranky
Nothing like the end of a slow Summer to bring out a bit of interesting punditry. The past few days have been impressively vitriolic. School's almost starting, by the way, so that means that I'll be on a less random posting schedule.

I am less than a month away from being twenty-two. I find the thought strangely unprovocative.

Roberts' Nomination:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/15/opinion/15brooks.html?n=Top%2fOpinion%2fEditorials%20and%20Op%2dEd%2fOp%2dEd%2fColumnists
David Brooks gets nasty, even on the Republicans.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/13/opinion/13tierney.html?n=Top%2fOpinion%2fEditorials%20and%20Op%2dEd%2fOp%2dEd%2fColumnists
John Tierney mocks the hearings as pointless. Still, one does miss Safire.
http://www.uexpress.com/anncoulter/?uc_full_date=20050914
Ann Coulter doesn't much like the New York Times.

Hurricane Katrina
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/14/opinion/14dowd.html?n=Top%2fOpinion%2fEditorials%20and%20Op%2dEd%2fOp%2dEd%2fColumnists
Maureen Dowd gets a little graphic about the deaths of the elderly in New Orleans. Coincidentally, I met a person this weekend with whom she regularly corripsonds with. Small world.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/15/AR2005091502355.html
Donna Britt discusses the "trendy" poor.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/12/opinion/12herbert.html?n=Top%2fOpinion%2fEditorials%20and%20Op%2dEd%2fOp%2dEd%2fColumnists
Bob Herbert looks at personal stories, some of which are pretty heart-wrenching.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/13/AR2005091302372.html
Steven Pearlstein examines economics in the wake of Katrina. And insults Barbara Bush.


Turning Utah into More of a Dump (kidding)
I grew up in Utah and it's a beautiful state full of beautiful people (well, some of them, at any rate.) The nuclear waste waiting for Yucca now might be dumped in Utah. The New York Times endorses it, probably everyone else on the East Coast too. "Wow! Dump it in Utah! Sounds like a great idea!"

Here's an idea: you reaped the benefits of nuclear power, dump it on your own land. Int he NYtimes editorial on the subject, http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/16/opinion/16fri2.html the newspaper stresses the temporary nature of the project. I'm not the first to cry BULLSHIT! Once it's placed somewhere, will anyone take it off the hands of Utahns? No way. It's the inebriated elephant that everyone's longing to avoid. The New York Times also stresses how Utah should allow a private citizen's deal, being that they're all Republicans. So, what, now you guys are conservatives? Now you guys think we should allow a bunch of impoverished Native Americans to accept a deadly, dangerous package and place it within 50 miles of the state capital? Environmental racism is what we call it in the debate community. Republican does not, contrary to some people's opinions, mean stupid. It's not our problem if you guys have messed up your own area and want to stick your waste somewhere else. Go bury it in the Hamptons and leave my people the hell out of it.

As you might guess, I'm not even going to pretend to be unbiased. The same people who would decry dumping nuclear waste in Africa are perfectly happy to bury it in Utah's backyard, and the contempt that many Utahns feel for Easterners leaks out in many, many columns. Perhaps they don't understand our sensitivity, after all, they've forgotten the generations of people still dying of leukimia from unneccessary nuclear tests on Nevadan soil. Never again will we let there be another family of downwinders, the inevitable result of a surface storage facility protected by little more than a chain-link fence.

Various Attacks on the Utah Solution. The last one accuses Americans of treating "the Rocky Mountain area is a giant toilet for their lethal trash." As always, some are higher quality than others. The first article is the most in-depth and provides the best overview, I think, both on the politics and the poverty of the region.
http://www.citypages.com/databank/25/1223/article12097.asp
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,605155261,00.html
http://www.sltrib.com/ci_3016885
http://www.nevadaappeal.com/article/20050914/OPINION/109140062
http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/ci_3016060
http://www.harktheherald.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=63352
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0507/S00346.htm
http://www.newutah.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=64058
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,600122761,00.html

Other Utah-Nuclear News
Uranium Mining on Navejo land
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,605155073,00.html
Timeline on Nuclear Standoff
http://www.sltrib.com/utah/ci_3019264
Transportation Worries.
http://www.inbusinesslasvegas.com/yucca/st_george.html
Documentary Links on Skull Valley
http://www.kued.org/skullvalley/controversy/
Discussion of Goshute Economic Situation
http://www.swans.com/library/art9/gsmith07.html

Unfortunately, Utah and Nevada are probably going to be in competition with each other over who has to take the waste, instead of joining together and fighting both. Even if they did join together, let's face it: not the most politically powerful state, Utah. Maybe if a bunch of Democrats move in, it'll have a little more sway, but until then the state is just going to have to rely on itself for political salvation. The legislators are quite clever, I'm sure they'll come up with something to keep the ball going for another ten or twenty years.

Meanwhile, if a nuclear train comes into my house, I'll be the first one to lay down on the tracks and try and send it back where it came from.