Nuke It

You know, the other day I made the joke about using nuclear weapons to clean up the Gulf oil spill. We did the same thing with Bikini Atoll, and that worked great for fixing the Cold War in scaring the Russians into giving us respect. And sure the atoll is still uninhabitable, but at least we won the Cold War! When she heard me say this, Jen looked at me like I was crazy.

And then I found this:

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Bobby Ray (aka B.o.B.)

For Mother's Day, I gave Jen a CD of B.o.B's mixtape that was released for free on the internet. B.o.B. recently released his first commercial album, which debuted at #1 on the Billboard pop charts. Last year before he was famous, Jen and I saw him open for Q-Tip at a free concert, and both of us were amazed at how talented he was. Jen was sad he didn't give a longer concert, even though she loved Q-Tip's work in A Tribe Called Quest for several years.

What was cool about that hip-hop concert was we took two neighbor kids, and had some wild adventures learning not to give Mt. Dew to minors. This is seriously the kind of parents we are going to be.

Anyway, here is one of her favorite songs from the mixtape:

Party in My Tummy

Since Jen and I discovered this video last year, we seriously sing this song at every meal. When we have kids, we are totally going to watch shows like this with them. We can't wait.

R.I.P. Hank Jones

Hank Jones, a famous jazz pianist, passed away two days ago at age 91. Here is probably my favorite song he contributed to, "Love For Sale", with Cannonball Adderly, Miles Davis, and Art Blakey (all of whom are among the best jazz musicians in history).

Illegal Immigration and Arizona SB 1070

For my internship at the SLC Immigration Court and Immigration Law Class, I’ve spent the past four months intensely studying the federal Immigration and Naturalization Act (INA) that controls immigration issues into this country. I’ve become more aware than ever of the inherent contradictions in existing laws that have incentivized illegal immigration.

For example, say an illegal immigrant in Utah marries a U.S. citizen. The U.S. citizen can then petition for their spouse to get a visa to be here legally. However, the immigrant must go back to their home country to pick up the visa at their country’s U.S. counselor’s office. But under the current INA, if an illegal immigrant leaves the U.S., they automatically receive a 10 year bar preventing their return. So because people don’t really want to wait ten years to be with their loved ones again, they are forced to wait in the shadows until the INA changes.

Another example is the number of work visas that are available every year. The Department of Homeland Security released their Annual Flow Report a few weeks ago that said last year 144,034 work visas were issued, compared to 747,413 family sponsored visas. Of those work visas, only a few thousand were issued to low skill workers. But there is a demand for hundreds of thousands of low skill workers to work in farming, construction, cleaning, etc.

The policy idea behind this is we want American jobs to go to Americans. But the policy doesn’t consider whether Americans want those jobs. Thus is born the inequality between the demand for workers and numbers of visas available.

Thousands of illegal immigrants are now in our country, but contrary to popular belief, they are not generally criminals. The Immigration Policy Center in 2007 issued a statistical study finding that Immigrants have lower incarcerations rates than natives, even among those who are high-school dropouts. Immigrant groups generally have larger incarceration rates once their children become assimilated. Studies like this one suggest that fears of illegal immigrants maybe greatly exaggerated.

But while the danger of illegal immigrants may be exaggerated, many people view it as a serious problem that must be dealt before it gets any worse. In recent years, many states, including Utah, have passed discriminatory legislation to attack the scourge of illegal immigration.

The new Arizona state anti-immigration law, SB 1070, makes being an illegal immigrant a state crime. It requires police to stop those whom they have a “reasonable suspicion” of being here illegally, and requiring everyone to carry documents showing proof of legal residency. If they are not carrying documents to demonstrate their legal status, the police can arrest them. It also enables citizens to sue police officers for not effectively enforcing the law.

The law is unconstitutional for several reasons. First, it is a violation of the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution which basically states that when there are conflicting State and Federal laws, the Federal law is supreme. Because the federal INA already makes illegal immigration a federal offense, states cannot make it a state crime. Thus the state law is unconstitutional for its preemption of federal law.

The other major reason why the law is unconstitutional is because of its discriminatory intent and effect on Hispanics. The law, while facially neutral, is intended to target Hispanics. And this discriminatory effect is a violation of the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause.

In my Counterterrorism class we have learned about how the public will look to leaders in times of crisis to quickly address the problem. Elected officials have a responsibility to protect their people. However, if the leaders act quickly on instinct and don’t carefully think through the implications of their policies, their decisions can lead to violations of individual rights.  Conversely, if the leaders don’t do anything to act, they will appear weak, and the people will look to leadership elsewhere.

Unfortunately, the Governor of Arizona wasn’t looking to the long term effects of her signing the law, but was instead focused on the short-term goal of only getting re-elected. Soon Arizonans, both legal and illegal, will begin to have their rights be violated.

I sincerely hope that Congress will have the courage to amend the INA in ways to fix our broken immigration system. I hope that our elected officials will make correct decisions, not just for short-term political gains, but for the long-term benefit of all Americans. And if the current leaders are incapable of effecting these changes, I hope that voters in November will elect new ones who will make responsible changes.

Kids, Don’t Rap at the Drive-through in Utah or You’ll Be Arrested

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These kids should have done it B-Money style with clean lyrics...oh wait...they did.

UMA Marshallese Education Classes

A few weeks ago, Jen and I stayed up very late into the night because we were unable to sleep. We were talking about many of the serious problems the Marshallese community faces here in Utah, and how many people that we know and love are facing tough times right now.

And then a series of ideas began to come to us of how to help. Along with the new ideas came an impression to write down all of our thoughts so we wouldn’t forget them in the morning. I’ve experienced revelation like this before, and I’ve come to recognize it as the Spirit guiding our thoughts and conversation to answer our prayers.

One of these revealed ideas was for the Utah Marshallese Association to host a series of education classes to help teach responsible adult behavior. Our proposed list of classes includes:

• Financial and credit responsibility
• Sexual education
• Healthy lifestyle management
• American citizenship and naturalization classes
• College enrollment
• Crime and fire prevention

One example of how these classes can help is with sexual education. Over the past two decades, Marshallese people have one of the highest fertility rates in the world. Marshallese women typically begin having children while teenagers, which can greatly inhibit their educational and work opportunities. By limiting their educational experiences, Marshallese women are limited in their ability to teach their children while raising them.

Adultery and extramarital relationships are also a big problem. Up in Spokane, Jen and I were amazed at how almost every family had a pastor who was having affairs with their wives’ sisters. Often these couples do not legally divorce, even if they have been separated for years and have multiple children with subsequent partners. This widespread adultery prevents their posterity from enjoying the full blessings of the law of chastity.

By teaching a Marshallese language class on the blessings of the law of chastity and dangers of unprotected sex, hopefully we can cut eliminate adultery and decrease the number of teenage pregnancies.

We are very excited for this and the other UMA classes. UMA is currently negotiating with West Valley City to use their City Hall for our forum. If you have other suggestions or ideas for this program, be sure to let me know!

Valleys of Neptune

I love Jimi Hendrix’s music. His creative approach to playing the guitar forever changed rock ‘n roll for the better.

A new Hendrix album came out a few weeks ago called Valleys of Neptune. Comprised of previously unreleased music, simply put, it’s awesome. I can’t stop listening to it!

Here’s a music video to accompany the new album:

Louie

Jen, Rudy and I adopted a new dog named Louie the day after New Years. Louie is super cute, and he and Rudy have become best buddies.

 Louie, Brian and Rudy the night they adopted Louie

Jen and I had been talking about getting another dog for several months, especially since we moved to our new apartment in Salt Lake City. Rudy became really depressed since we moved because he didn’t have his giant field or the social pack of dogs he was used to. He was lonely and unhappy, even though we would take him on lots of fun doggie walks and adventures.

We decided that the end of Christmas break was the best time to get another dog. We got him from the Utah Animal Adoption Center, a no-kill center in North Salt Lake. We brought Rudy with us to pick out “his” new dog at the shelter. They became best friends right away, and Louie came right up to us to snuggle. We fell in love with him and took him home.

 Louie the night we adopted him.

Louie is extremely obedient. He will do anything we ask, including taking baths. He is very eager to please and wants to keep us happy. He can play Frisbee for hours on end. He loves to snuggle, as well as wrestle with Rudy for hours.

 Louie and Rudy snuggling.

Frisbee!

Louie’s new trick is he realized that we control the dog through their collars, so he tries to steal Rudy’s all of the time. While wrestling, Louie can grab the collar in his mouth and yank it off, which makes Rudy look really embarrassed. It’s hilarious stuff.

Louie has a very thin fur coat, so he doesn’t shed very much. However, this thin coat makes him shiver all of the time when he is outside. We had to get him some sweaters and coats to keep him from freezing on walks. Jen and I are both a little embarrassed about this, but Louie loves wearing stylish sweaters.

One last note about Louie is that his primary love language is words of affirmation. He loves to be told that he’s a good boy, which he is!

Good Dogs: Rudy and Louie

Terrorist Dogs and Other Conspiracies

As I’ve said before, being a moderate makes me freak out when I see extremism on either the far right or far left. Unfortunately, living in Utah I see more of the far right being displayed. Here are some humorous examples of far right extremism from the Colbert Report:

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Let’s be honest…I’m not surprised about dogs being terrorists. Rudy used to be pretty destructive when Jen first found him and took him off the street. What is shocking is how people respond to the Census:

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Tonight is when the Utah Democrats and Republicans will be holding their around the state. You can get more information about the meetings here.

You can also find out what district you are in here.

With the recent passage of the Health Care Reform Bill, I'm sure tomorrow night will be a pretty wild and cacophonous night at the Republican caucus meetings. I plan to go to my area's Republican meeting to try to be the moderate voice of reason in the room. I'm really concerned about these extremely right-wing tea partiers trying to further push their radical agenda on the state, and want to do all that I can to temper the insanity.

Please try to attend your local meeting to try to talk some sense into these wackos! PLEASE!

And as if we needed another reason to show up, Super Dell is running for governor again!  We have to stop this guy!

Simulation Fallout

The Mayor of Baltimore responding to a terrorist attack.

So last Friday while minding my own business as the mayor of Baltimore, some crazy terrorist blew up a dirty bomb in the Port area, which rendered 3 miles of the city uninhabitable for 1,000 years. Oy…that made for a long day. I survived the counterterrorism simulation, but unfortunately, several thousand people in Baltimore didn’t.

The Deseret News and ABC News  both covered the story. Please note, ABC reported it incorrectly by saying that it was an aircraft that crashed into the port, and not a dirty bomb, which I learned makes for a big difference when you start having all of your first responders die from radiation poisoning. Oiaue!

All in all, it was a fun, stressful and crazy day fighting terrorists!

Daniel and Jennifer’s Wedding

To catch up on some recent family news, my little bother Daniel got married on December 29th in the Bountiful temple. Jen and I were so happy for them and were really glad to be there for their sealing. Here are some pictures we took that day:

Daniel and Jennifer with Jennifer's parents at the Old Spaghetti Factory.

Daniel and Jennfier with my parents and Uncle Mark and Aunt Dixie Tanner.

The Black and Tanner families at the Old Spaghetti Factory the night before the wedding.

Brian and Jennifer Tanner at the Old Spaghetti Factory.

Caught smooching!

Dean Howard, a man Daniel worked with on his mission in Texas, came out to Utah for the wedding and stayed with Jen and I. Rudy quickly claimed him as his friend.

Waiting outside the Bountiful Temple in the snow for the Bridegroom and Bride to appear.

When you're this hot, how can you notice the cold?

Still waiting in the snow...maybe they snuck out the back door?

There they are!

Tada! Mr. and Mrs. Tanner!

Bling!



Still kissing.

The New Tanner Family.

Some vandals threw streamers and painted Daniel's car that night at a secret, undisclosed location.

Plastic Beach

Tomorrow the new Gorillaz album Plastic Beach comes out, which I’m really excited for. Gorillaz creator, Damon Albarn, from the British band Blur (most famous for Song #2 or “Wahoo!”), originally came up with the concept of an virtual rock band in response to his disgust with modern music. At the height of the consolidation of the radio/music industry and the bland bubblegum reigns of Brittney Spears and N’Sync, Albarn wanted to make an album showing just how creative music should be.

The animated video for Clint Eastwood was a huge hit, for good reason. Blending hip-hop and alternative rock, it was a breath of fresh, independent air.

 

The other songs from their debut album, Gorillaz,  featured a diverse blend of styles and lyrics in English, Spanish and Japanese. One of my other favorite videos from the album was for 19-2000:

 

The Grammy award winning second album, Demon Days, was produced by Dangermouse, also famous for the Beatles/Jay-Z mashup “The Grey Album” and Gnarls Barkley. The album was a huge success, and the track “Feel Good Inc.” featuring De La Soul became synonymous with Apple’s iPod through extensive advertising.

By the way, Dangermouse’s video for Encore with Ringo scratching and John Lennon break dancing is simply fantastic. 

 

Gorillaz’s newest video Stylo, features Mos Def, Bobby Womack, and Bruce Willis.

Political Protest

Rudy "expressing his grievances" against the Utah State Legislature

Everyday, I get more and more upset at the Utah State Legislature. Being politically moderate, I get really disturbed by extreme legislation on either the far right or the far left. Here are some of the disturbing proposals from the last few weeks:

• Ending affirmative action by amending the state Constitution.
• Honoring a the inventor of a semi-automatic pistol with a state holiday that would coincide with Martin Luther King Day, who worked for peace and was murdered by guns. When asked to justify celebrating guns on the same day as one honoring a Nobel Peace Prize winner who was murdered by an assassin, the Senate Majority leader said “Guns keep peace.”
• A bill to prevent the Federal government from regulating guns manufactured in Utah, even though Utah already has the least strict gun laws in the nation.
• Advertising on the sides of school buses.
• A bill to order the Federal EPA to stop regulating carbon-dioxide gasses until climate change is proven.
• Denying instate tuition at state universities and colleges to undocumented aliens who graduate from Utah high schools.
• Preemptive legislation to allow Utah to be immune from any Federally mandated health care reform bill.

The purpose of many of these laws is to give messages to the Federal Government and public. Having spent some time this year in law school studying Utah laws, I’ve come to realize that message laws generally end up creating contradictions in the legal code. They are generally short-sighted and do not consider the long term ramifications of their effects. Rather, message laws help politicians win points with special interest groups (i.e. NRA) and make for good bullet points on a campaign brochure (i.e. “I voted to keep your family same from the mean nasty Federal Government).

Many, including our governor, are concerned about these message laws.

The Patrick Henry Caucus is behind many of these message laws. They are an ultra-conservative group who interpret the 10th Amendment very broadly in wanting to minimize the role of the Federal Government. Their message is akin to southerners in the pre-Civil War South who wanted the Feds to get off their back about slavery. The issue of Federal v. State sovereignty was was really caused the Civil War, not slavery by itself. The Caucus largely ignores two centuries of Supreme Court case law interpreting the Constitution, and instead want to impose their interpretation on the country. None of the Caucus members attended law school.

Rep. Chris Herrod, a member of the Caucus, was the sponsor of SB81 from a few years ago, is also advocating for the state to seize federal lands in southern Utah. Near the end of President Clinton’s presidency, he declared this area in Southern Utah a national monument. This upset developers (i.e. Big Coal Companies) who wanted to mine the area, and they have resented it ever since.
From the Salt Lake Tribune:

“Our schoolchildren have been robbed," said Rep. Chris Herrod, R-Provo.
Herrod asserts that, despite Supreme Court rulings to the contrary, the state is "sovereign" over lands in its boundaries and has power to reclaim those that the federal government did not acquire with state approval. He concedes that Utah gave up claims to federal lands at statehood, but said the federal government has broken its pledge to put the state on "equal footing" with other states by keeping more than two-thirds of the state in federal ownership….

Rep. Kraig Powell, R-Heber City, said the potential advantages of a court victory are worth the risk of defeat and loss of legal fees.
"We may very well be termed crazy somewhere by constitutional attorneys around the country," he said, "but every argument that was once asserted by someone had to be started by someone."

When they say “Constitutional attorneys”, I’m afraid that’s going to include the Supreme Court Justices and any other judge who would hear this case. I doubt they would even accept the appeal.
From the Deseret News:

“"Most of the land is not in production. We cannot tax it and it cannot provide for us," Herrod said. "But the rewards of going after that land are in the billions and billions. I am not a gambling man, but if someone were to say I could put a quarter in a machine and had a chance to get a billion dollars, I would put that quarter in.”

With our state facing a very serious budget crisis this year, this is not the time to put quarters in any gambling machine.

Thankfully, I’m not the only one who thinks this and other message laws would be a waste of time or money.

Now, I must admit that not everything that has been proposed has been terrible. For example, Rep. King from Salt Lake City who wanted to raise income taxes by 1% for those who earn over $250,000 to help raise $100,000 million for public education next year. However, being a Senate Democrat plan to raise taxes, the proposal was quickly defeated by the right wing.

My message to the legislature is this: Radical Right Wing Utah Legislators...Please stop wasting time with weird, 1855-style State Sovereignty message laws to the Federal Government, and actually try to fix some of the problems this State is facing. I understand it is important to you to show the Feds their powers are not unlimited, but state sovereignty is only effective if you use the power to help the people.

When do people suffer more: when the Feds have too much power, or when the States refuse to provide public services for their citizens?

Update: Here's a really awesome political cartoon on this subject by local cartoonist, Pat Bagley:

Targeted Killings

As a follow-up to yesterday’s post about the upcoming counter-terrorism simulation, my professor for that class, Amos Guiora, was on NPR’s Talk of the Nation radio program yesterday morning. The topic was discussing whether the United State’s use of predator drones to strike inside of Yemen and Pakistan are violations of international law. They also discuss how “assassination” is different from “targeted” or “extrajudicial killings.”

This radio program gives an example of just what our class is like. Lots of complex issues, and having to come up with practical answers for those problems.

Counter-Terrorism Simulation

This semester I am enrolled in a Counter-Terrorism class at my law school. The class teaches us about how various countries respond to terrorist attacks and their policies for dealing with threats.

Each year class members participate in an all day simulation where they respond to a simulated terrorist attack somewhere in the United States. This years simulation will be on March 19th. I along with everyone in my class will have a different role (such as President of the United States, Secretary of Defense, Attorney General, etc.) to make the event as realistic as possible.

I can't tell you what my role is yet, but it will be really cool. All of this will be filmed and broadcasted live on the internet, so you can watch me save the country from the comfort of your own home.

The purpose of this event is to help law enforcement, government and other counter-terrorism policy makers around the country and world better prepare for terrorist attacks and develop effective policies to respond to threats. The goals is to help leaders around the world better protect citizens while avoiding violations of human rights.

I will have more information about this event as March 19th approaches.

It’s really cool to think that I will be helping to influence the global community's future policies toward terrorism.

Feel free to share this with anyone who would be interested.

The Land of Eb

During the last few months of my mission, my mission president sent me and my various other Marshallese companions to remote areas on the outer islands where Marshallese people were being found. Where on O’ahu we had a branch and other units, the outer Hawaiian islands only had a handful of Marshallese members. Most of them were inactive, which made things even more difficult.

Marshallese Elders on the Big Island, Spring 2004: Elders Austin Lowe, Bryan Boaz, Brian Tanner, and Steve Lutz.

My last area was in Kealakekua, on the south western edge of the Big Island (Where Captain Cook was killed). Just before I arrived there, a huge community of Marshallese was discovered in Ocean View, near the southern tip of the island. Ocean View is the world’s largest residential subdivision, located between two lava fields. The land is cheap, and a two hour drive from  civilization in any direction. As missionaries, we would joke that Marshallese elders who were sent there were “banished.” I was never personally “banished” there, but most of my other Marshallese companions were.

 

Map from Coldwell Banker

I recently discovered that some students from the University of Nations are making a film called The Land of Eb about Marshallese living in Ocean View. “Eb” is a Marshallese word for “dance”.


The Land of Eb from Andrew Williamson on Vimeo.


As a side note, the University of Nations is a Christian university in Kona, and is similar to a evangelical version of BYU. Their campus includes a youth ministry training, similar to the MTC, if the MTC was designed for missionaries to tract only Provo and Utah County. These guys caused a lot of headaches for us as missionaries, but I appreciate their efforts to teach the islanders filmmaking skills while making this documentary. This looks like a really interesting film.

Coincidentally, all of those Marshallese Elders who went to the Big Island in 2004 with me were groomsmen at mine and Jennifer's wedding.

Former Hawaiian-Marshallse Elders and convert at the Tanner Wedding, June 2008: Rick Nang, Steve Lutz, Bryan Boaz and Austin Lowe

Interesting Articles in the News

It’s been a few weeks since I last posted. I’ve been extremely interested/disturbed in some news reports recently, especially regarding the Utah State Legislature. Here are some interesting articles I’ve read recently:

• Child Pornography and an Issue of Restitution – A compelling article about a victim of child pornography who is seeking monetary restitution from perverts who are arrested possessing her images. Apparently videos of this woman’s abuse are often found when a child pornography bust is made. She and her lawyer have calculated the total damage of her victimization is about $3.4 million dollar, consisting of her therapeutic and other emotional costs. She is now asking judges to order those convicted of possessing child pornography to pay her money. Child abuse is one of the few things that can really make me upset, so I found this a novel way to fight both pornography and recompense victims.
• Clearfield man, Scott Kirby Paterson goes after victim in court after child sex abuse conviction – in a related story from Bountiful, a man convicted of child sex abuse suddenly jumped into the courtroom gallery to attack his accuser and her family. This is pretty crazy stuff, which I hope prolongs his sentence.
• 2010 Utah Legislative Session – oh man, I never realized just how wild the state legislative process can be until this last week. Call for eliminating the 12th grade to save money?  Eliminating high school bussing altogether? This is wild stuff. Yesterday in one of my classes, my law professor talked about how he wishes the legislative session was only a few hours long to cut down on the amount of damage state lawmakers can do…
• Perhaps the most ridiculous proposal brought to the capitol this year were numerous proposals to repeal the Salt Lake City ordinance protecting LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) from discrimination in housing or employment. A number of state representatives, riding on a wave of anti-LGBT fervor, want to pass discriminatory, state-wide legislation to invalidate the ordinance, even though the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has specifically asked them to leave it alone. The Church was one of the biggest advocates for the ordinance a few months ago because "because it is fair and reasonable and does not do violence to the institution of marriage." I think this ordinance was very much needed, especially after several violent incidences of anti-LGBT bigotry last year.  Ultimately, these lawmakers essentially came to a draw with pro-LGBT representatives to leave the ordinance alone for at least a year. Basically, the representatives don’t want to mess their re-election chances this year by being labeled as the “pro-gay rights” candidate. We already have a state constitutional amendment to not recognize same-sex marriage, but that doesn’t mean we can’t treat people like decent human beings. Thankfully, we don’t have to worry about any messes the size of SB-81 this year.
• SB-81 Like Bill Can Be Challenged in Federal Court in Oklahoma – Two years ago, Utah passed state bill 81 (SB-81) which made life more difficult for illegal immigrants in Utah. This law was based on an Oklahoma law that was almost exactly word for word the same. Part of the law requires police officers to inquire about people’s citizenship statuses when they have probable cause they are dealing with someone who is an illegal immigrant. Traditionally, immigration falls under federal jurisdiction, so the federal “Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers” (ICE) deal with immigration. SB-81 turns state law enforcement officers into pseudo-ICE officers. SB-81 is problematic in its application violates the 14th Amendment to the Constitution’s equal protection clause. Police officers are not asking white folks about their immigration status, but just Hispanics, which shows the law has a disparate impact in its application, and is thereby unconstitutional. Anyway, a law suit challenging the Oklahoma law will finally be brought to federal court to determine its constitutionality. If the Oklahoma law is struck down, then the Utah one will be as well because Utah is in the same judicial district as Oklahoma. Stay tuned….