Word: utah
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...weeks ago vote in Congress to sabotage Clinton's request for more teacher hirings and school construction? Forget reality. With a raucous Chaka Khan, with rappers and wrestlers and a rocking gospel choir (hey, these Republicans do have rhythm), critics had taken to comparing the convention to a Utah Jazz home game, where everyone in the stands is white and most of the performers are black. I left a message for Powell asking whether he might have been used as just another prop in this diversity derby. (Did I mention the blind mountain climber and the Hispanic dotcom mogul...
Fortunately I ran into Vicki Varela, the deputy chief of staff to the Governor of Utah and chief floor whip, a title I found very sexy, especially since it meant she had one of the biggest radios in the room...
Vicki sent me to meet Utah Senator Orrin Hatch. "I'll probably say something about us having the greatest skiing on earth or the world's greatest choir," he said. We had a lot of work to do. My first idea, "Utah: the no-drinkin', no-gamblin', no-whinin' state" didn't go over well. And "Utah: our Olympic officials are as corrupt as anyone's" was summarily dismissed. But "Utah: home of that snotty Sundance Film Festival" pleased the Senator greatly. "Robert Redford is a liberal Democrat. What do you expect?" he said. And after we tried to come...
...liked both "Home of the perennially not-so-bad Utah Jazz" and "Utah: where U come first." And it seemed possible she'd use "where the water is as clean as our language." But the next night, just before she was to deliver her lines, she showed me her speech, which had been vetted by the Governor and Hatch. Full of platitudes about their education system, it was almost as dorky as North Dakota's bragging about having the country's "highest verbal and math SAT scores." I was hoping Montana would walk over and beat the crap...
...this air, crackling with arsonist summer lightning, that is burning up huge patches of forest in the American West. It is the worst fire season in 50 years, or maybe 65. Almost 4 million acres are on fire in California, Idaho, Montana, Utah and other states, and even with so many firefighters working them, the fires will not be extinguished until the fall, when rain and snow will...