Rocky Pounds the Pres

Last week, Dubya made a stop in Utah. With Jr's approval rating nearly as low as it should be, a day in the Reddest state in the Union must have seemed like a brilliant idea to the President and his handlers. Slap a few backs, photo op with Orrin Hatch, rah-rah a little with the Foreign Legion and fly back to DC a couple points ahead. However, the geniuses that promised to win the war in Iraq in six months didn't count on Salt Lake City Mayor, Rocky Anderson.

I wish I could have been there but I moved away from Utah over a year ago, so I had to settle for reading about it in the Utah papers. It seems that Rocky made his intentions known to protest the current regime so a couple of wealthy Republican benefactors took matters into their hands and financed full page ads in the local paper blasting the Mayor for his intentions. Attendance at the rally was estimated at 4,000 to 5,000 people and I'm sure the Republican ads had something to do with that.

Rocky didn't waste the opportunity. He blasted the President and his cronies for lying about WMD, for continuing the lies even after the evidence was out and for good measure, he chided the media for taking nearly four months to report those lies after they became known. I won't parrot Rocky's speech but suffice it to say he pulled no punches in telling the truth as he saw it. A politician who is willing to tell the truth without dancing around it is something we need a whole lot more of in this county. You can read a transcript of the speech here: http://www.sltrib.com/search/ci_4263654.

After the rally at Washington Square in downtown Salt Lake City, the crowd marched to the Federal Building a few blocks away. Utah takes a lot of heat for being pretty conservative and LDS dominated but 4 to 5,000 people assembling in the middle of a work day to protest this foolish war is proof positive that there is another side to the State where I was born. I've known that all along and maybe now a few more people know it too. I've never been prouder to be from the Reddest State in the Country than I was last week.

Thank you, Rocky, for telling the truth. Maybe you'll start a trend.