No More Mister Nice Blog

Jon Huntsman 2012? Obama Ambassador Hints At Run For President
Jon Huntsman, the former GOP Utah Governor who President Obama convinced to serve as U.S. ambassador to China, has hinted to Newsweek that he is considering a run for president himself. Newsweek's McKay Coppins reports: Now, it appears, the ambassador is ready to make some noise of his own. Sitting in the echo-y living room of his new Washington home, Huntsman, a tall, lean man with silver hair and impeccable posture, pauses only briefly when faced with the question of presidential aspiration...

Jon Huntsman 2012? Obama Ambassador Hints At Run For President
Source: Huffington Post Jon Huntsman, the former GOP Utah Governor who President Obama convinced to serve as U.S. ambassador to China, has hinted to Newsweek that he is considering a run for president himself. Newsweek's McKay Coppins reports: Now, it appears, the ambassador is ready to make some noise of his own. Sitting in the echo-y living room of his new Washington home, Huntsman, a tall, lean man with silver hair and impeccable posture, pauses only briefly when faced with the question of pr...

In Isolated Utah City, New Clubs for Gay Students
Last January, nine High Schools in Utah had active Gay-Straight Alliances; last month, 32 did. ST. GEORGE, Utah — Some disapproving classmates called members of the new club “Satanists.” Another asked one of the girls involved, “Do you have a disease?” But at three local High Schools here this fall, dozens of gay Students and their supporters finally convened the first Gay-Straight Alliances in the history of this conservative, largely Mormon city. It was a turning...

US ambassador to China hints at presidential bid
Stumble This! WASHINGTON — Jon Huntsman, the US ambassador to China, has hinted he is considering running for the Republican presidential nomination in comments made to Newsweek. Huntsman, a former Governor of Utah and a rising Republican star, was picked by US President Barack Obama for the China posting in 2009 in a Bipartisan move that some speculated was aimed at removing a potential future rival. "You know, I?m really focused on what we?re doing in our current position," he said in r...

US ambassador to China 'hints at presidential bid'
Jon Huntsman, the US ambassador to China, has hinted he is considering running for the Republican presidential nomination in comments made to Newsweek. Huntsman, a former Governor of Utah and a rising Republican star, was picked by US President Barack Obama for the China posting in 2009 in a Bipartisan move that some speculated was aimed at removing a potential future rival. "You know, I?m really focused on what we?re doing in our current position," he said in response to a question about pres...

Sunday Reading
Growing Up Gay in Utah -- High School Students, both gay and straight, are overcoming Bigotry and religious intolerance in a small town. ST. GEORGE, Utah — Some disapproving classmates called members of the new club “Satanists.” Another asked one of the girls involved, “Do you have a disease?” But at three local high schools here this fall, dozens of gay students and their supporters finally convened the first Gay-Straight Alliances in the history of this conservat...

Party Time!
Bob Casey Vulnerable in ’12? Lancaster, Pa.—Seventeen months before the 2012 Republican U.S. Senate primary in Pennsylvania and nearly two years before the next General Election, GOPers in the state are already discussing who their Candidate will be against freshman Democratic Sen. Bob Casey Jr. The talk of a spirited 2012 challenge to Casey has been fueled by a just-completed Quinnipiac University Poll showing only 39% of state voters approve of his performance, while 29% don&rsquo...;

On the horizon in 2011
Happy New Year! I’ve been trying to figure out what the next year should be about.  Should it be The Economy?  The war?  Equal Rights for women?  But I keep coming back to the same point: protecting our right to vote.  Without that, nothing else you want to accomplish matters.  It is this right that I think is most under threat, if it hasn’t already technically disappeared. Here in NJ, we vote on electronic Voting Machines that don’t print a paper trail. &#

Gay-Straight Alliances
At New York Times, "In Utah City, New Clubs for Gay Students": ST. GEORGE, Utah — Some disapproving classmates called members of the new club “Satanists.” Another asked one of the girls involved, “Do you have a disease?” But at three local high schools here this fall, dozens of gay students and their supporters finally convened the first Gay-Straight Alliances in the history of this conservative, largely Mormon city. It was a turning point here and for the state, w...

Impatient Tea Partiers Willing To Dump More Republicans Overboard
The New York Times reports that Tea Party Leaders are still not happy with the establishment in Washington and especially not Republicans. Not only are they angry because Candidates supported by Tea Party groups were denied leadership positions, but also because Republicans, in their view, were taken to the cleaners by Democrats in the lame-duck session, allowing tons of bad Legislation to be passed. Mark Meckler , a co-founder of Tea Party Patriots, said “the Republicans, frankly, have been ...

Steele ally swipes Barbour
Holly Hughes, RNC committeewoman and a Michael Steele ally, circulates an Endorsement email where she asks "Who is trying to get RNC members to vote for a certain Candidate for RNC chairman?” Hughes sees presidential politics at work, with a backhanded swipe at Haley Barbour and his nephew Henry's backing of Reince Priebus for chair: Presidential Politics? Sure, it makes sense that certain candidates contemplating a run for the presidency would want to control the RNC and have their...

Huntsman hints
Newsweek reports: ...sources close to Huntsman (who requested anonymity to speak freely without his permission) say that during his December trip to the U.S., he met with several former political advisers in Washington and Salt Lake City to discuss a potential campaign. “I’m not saying he’s running,” says one supporter who has worked with him in the past. “But we’re a fire squad; if he says the word, we can ge...

Jon Huntsman On Charlie Rose (VIDEO)
Former Republican Utah Governor and current ambassador to China Jon Huntsman hinted to Newsweek that he's mulling a run for president in 2012. He was recently on Charlie Rose for wide-ranging conversation about his work in China and in the Obama Administration. Watch it below. For information on Huntsman, visit his Big News page. ...

NBA: Utah 92, Memphis 92
SALT LAKE CITY, Jan. 2 (UPI) -- Paul Millsap's 22 points and 10 rebounds Saturday carried Utah to a 98-92 win over Memphis. Millsap's performance was part of an evenly spread Jazz offense that also saw Deron Williams add 19 points, Gordon Hayward finish with 13, Al Jefferson add 11 and Raja Bell score 10. Zach Randolph led the Grizzlies with a game-high 27 points and 16 rebounds. O.J. Mayo scored 18 and Mike Conley added 17. Utah has alternated wins and losses in its last four games but clings ...

Salt Lake City Mayor plans re-election run
Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker is expected to officially announce his run for re-election today (Sunday), and if numbers don’t lie or remain anywhere close to the same, he should have a cake walk. Currently, even with all the talk about his Parley’s Historic Nature Park Veto, the mayor has an Approval Rating of 84 percent. His open space policy has been wildly popular as has his increase in bike friendly routes and support of Mass Transit. He’s stood firm against Chevron ove...

Wimmer rethinks school voucher legislation, looks at Utahs 4th district
Wimmer’s bill reportedly would give Scholarships to Students attending failing public schools, and those Scholarships could be used at private schools. He believes it is a way to help Students who are “slipping through the cracks.” He suggested paying for the program through donations from businesses and individuals. The Donors would get Tax Credits. Wimmer says “a non-refundable tax credit is the least the state can do to help that individual donate that money.” Vo...

Millsap scores 22 points, Jazz beat Grizzlies
Memphis Grizzlies center Marc Gasol (33), of Spain, gets behind Utah Jazz center Kyrylo Fesenko (44), of Ukraine, for a shot during the first half of their NBA Basketball game in Salt Lake City, Saturday, Jan. 1, 2011. Paul Millsap scored 22 points on 8-of-11 shooting and Deron Williams had 10 points in the Fourth Quarter to help the short-handed Utah Jazz beat the Memphis Grizzlies 98-92 on Saturday night. It was Utah's eighth straight home win against the Grizzlies. The Grizzlies, playing wit...

GOP and Global Warming -- What Changed?!?
Today's Politico has a fascinating article by Darren Samuelsohn on the "green skeletons lurk[ing] in GOP closets." Here are a few quotes, guess who said them: 1. "I support a reasonable cap-and-trade system. I think it'd be good for the Federal Government to take that up rather than have states take it up as clusters of regions." 2. Human activities "certainly can be contributing to the issue of Global Warming, Climate Change" and "we've got to do something about it, and we have to make sure t...

Colonel Flagg Battles the Pink Fungus
New converts to the political Right meet a predictable reaction from leftist friends.  Besides being warned we’re going over to the dark side and being threatened with social death for our abandonment of the fashionable, we are assured that “all” Conservatives are bigots and haters.  Not only have I heard that chorus many times, but I have been accused, even by some here, of thinking that way myself.  What cannot be explai

More online at projo.com
From the day he announced his candidacy for Governor in January, Chafee made promises to voters on issues as diverse as illegal Immigration and State Pension plans. But will he keep them? Today, PolitiFact Rhode Island launches a new feature designed to answer that question. It’s modeled on the Obameter on the national PolitiFact site, which has been tracking the status of hundreds of promises Barack Obama made during his campaign for president. (The national site will also be rating prom...

Goodbye to 2010, Looking to a Brighter Future
I'd like to join my co-blogger Kyle in wishing our readers a happy new year. It has been a roller coaster of a year, but we're not in the same place we were on January 1, 2010. While going forward we may not have the same unity of purpose that came at the end of the year from pushing for a discrete piece of Legislation, the DREAM Act, there is new momentum and energy stemming from that push. And the new year will bring opportunity for new ideas and strategies. They will be necessary to counter...

Sunday Question for Conservatives
Well, it's nomination time, isn't it? Sarah Palin, Mitt Romney, Mitch Dainels, Haley Barbour, Jim DeMint, Mike Huckabee, Gary Johnson, Ron Paul, Tim Pawlenty, Mike Pence, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, John Thune, Rick Perry: how many and which of these Candidates (or potential candidates) would you trust to be a reliably conservative President of the United States? ...

McGinn's go-it-alone approach gets mixed results at City Hall
Two weeks after his election as mayor, Mike McGinn delighted Seattle City Council Members with a visit to their offices. Friendly and unescorted, he parked himself in the middle of Councilmember Sally Clark's office to chat. Councilmember Jan Drago acted as tour guide, taking the soon-to-be mayor from office to office. Councilmember Nick Licata swooned in his newsletter that McGinn's "seemingly ever present smile may become his Trademark." A year later, McGinn's trademark is not his smile but ...

Jailed Miss. sisters freed but must trade kidney
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - A South Dakota Governor once commuted the sentences of 36 criminals—on the condition they leave his state. In Florida, a convict was told in the 1990s to move to Maryland in order to be set free. Governors granting early releases have sometimes imposed unusual conditions. But as far as anyone can tell, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour may be the first to require an inmate to give up a kidney to her sister. The unusual agreement has alarmed some experts, who have raised...

NAACP: Sisters' release makes Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour 'shining example'
Just last week, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour was in hot water over his apparent approval of the all-white Citizens Council in the 1960s. But Thursday the NAACP lauded him for suspending the life sentences of two black sisters....