DID YOU EVER WONDER WHY BUSH IS SO POPULAR IN UTAH ? I MEAN WHAT KIND OF PEOPLE LIVE THERE ?

You may have noticed that sometimes I slip up and call Republicans "Republicrooks," although I'm certain you can understand how easy it is to make that little slip-up. Back in the late 70s my old friend Beverley Wilshire, one of KSAN's most beloved and rockin' disc jockies, used to habitually call them Republipukes. I hadn't thought of that in ages until this morning when I started thinking about the crazy right-wing judge in Hildale, on the Arizona/Utah border, Wally Steed. First a few facts about Wally, by the numbers (as TIME Magazine would say):

# of wives- 3
# of children- 32
# of years on the bench- 24
# of years of high school completed- 4
# of years of college attended- 0
# of taxpayer dollars he makes per year judgin'- 3,000
# of polygamists, which is illegal, in the area besides Wally- at least 30,000

Utah's Judicial Conduct Commission ordered Wally dismissed from the bench for a pretty simple, straight-forward reason-- although he took an oath to uphold the law, he is breaking it by practicing polygamy (or bigamy), a third-degree felony in Utah punishable by up to five years in prison. (Neither Mark Shurtleff, Utah's Attorney General, nor any of the Washington County Prosecutors have decided to prosecute good ole Wally.) And now Wally has petitioned the Utah Supreme Court to let him stay on the bench. (The Utah Chief Justice, Christine Durham, decided not to place ole Wally on administrative leave during the investigation.) All of these people are, predictably, Republicans, of course. (Like all Republicans, they believe, firmly, in law and order-- for African Americans and other minorities but not for themselves.)

A little background: polygamy was an original and accepted pillar of the silly, made-up Mormon "religion" until 1890 when the U.S. told them that if they wanted Utah to become a state they needed to get that lunacy out of their so-called "Buy Bull." About a century ago there was a schism between the delusional Mormons and the ultra-delusion Mormons. The delusionals don't practice polygamy or child rape but get to run the very backward and ill-educated state of Utah for their own purposes and the ultra-delusionals live in isolated desert communities where they have as many wives as they can get their hands on and rape children unhindered. And they all vote for Republicans all the time, Utah being the only state in the United States (of America) where George Bush is still popular.

Now Wally belongs to a bizarre, reclusive cult calling itself the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The cult completely dominates Hildale and nearby Colorado City in Arizona. The area is run by religionist zealots from an extremely primitive patriarchal point of view, making its own laws and ignoring American jurisprudence completely.

Ole Wally is only a part-time judge-- his real job is that of truck driver-- but part of his bailiwick involves ruling in domestic violence cases. Ole Wally married his first wife in 1965, then her sister in 1975 and then a third sister in 1985 (real, biological sisters). I'm not certain if they're barefoot, but with 32 children so far, they sure have been plenty pregnant. The Republican Party doesn't seem to have any problem with this, although they somehow think that allowing gay men or gay women to marry will destroy the institution of marriage. I haven't heard a peep out of Ricky "Dog on Man" Santorum on this, now that I think about it.