Wow, it has been almost a month.

I had one of the first cases of the flu in Davis County in Davis County this year. If you get it, you can blame me. It has been a tough couple of weeks. Due to budget cuts my shift was canceled and I will be demoted in January, but I have not been forced to take a pay-cut and I will not be laid off. So I have not been in the best of moods. Needless to say that being the highest paid person on my team is not a comfortable feeling right now. It makes me an easy target for the next round of layoffs. I will be getting my resume out.

Today, the Arena Football League announced that there will be no 2009 season. I suspect that in two to three months, it will be announced that there will no longer be an Arena Football League. Rumor has it that the WNBA will be next. (That is Women's National Basketball Association, for those of you not in the know.) I suspect that some independent baseball leagues and semi-pro leagues and perhaps some rookie leagues if not all of them will go away as well. I am hopeful that the Pioneer League will continue, but doubtful. (The Gulf Coast League seems like the low-hanging fruit, followed by the Arizona Summer League.) I am certain that the NBADL will not last the entire season. I am also concerned that Major League Soccer may not be around for 2009; but I think that there may be a contraction of at least two franchises, but not the whole league. Chivas USA is the most likely candidate for contraction. San Jose and Kansas City have unresolved stadium issues. I am confident that there will be soccer at Rio Tinto Stadium in the spring. But a lot of people are not. If all of this holds out, we will not have a pro team in Utah that is not owned by the Miller Family. (That is just the Jazz and the Bees.) The Blaze are all but gone, the Flash will be next. I am not hopeful for the Owlz or the Raptors this year. I am confident for Real, but not a lot of people are. That is 1 gone, 7 remaining and 5 in trouble.

Now, what has really been on my mind the past four weeks is the fate of our junior senator from Utah. My last couple of blogs pointed out that at least 40% of Salt Lake County voters did not vote a straight-party ticket last fall. They voted with for at least one person on each party in the top four races in the county. The success of Jason Chaffetz' campaign to unseat Chris Cannon from within the party has also sent shock waves throughout the party. That is why Mr. Bennett has began to campaign already. His real problem is at the grass-roots level of the Republican Party based upon his support of the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act and of his yes vote for the Wall Street bail-out back in October. He has managed to anger both social and fiscal conservatives. This is a hard thing for a Republican to do in Utah. It all depends on who ponies up to run against him in 2010 and if the economy rebounds by then.

Why should Bennett retire? 1. There are several good candidates in the Republican Party here in Utah that would represent this state well in Washington DC if Mr. Bennett would only step aside. This men and women will not run against him. 2. His Seniority in the Senate means nothing when the other party holds such a strong majority. 3. He will get a strong in-party challenge from someone. 4. When the Donks are only 2 seats away from an over-ride proof majority, they are bound to find someone who is vulnerable and work for the next two years to defeat that person. Look at what happened to Ted Stevens. 5. He said that he would only run for two terms in 1992. He should have kept his promise and retired in 2004.

The economy needs to rebound, but that has been building for a long time. If you want to blame the Republicans...well you are correct to do so. If you want to blame the democrats...you are also correct. The fault lies with just about all of us. We are all going to have to sacrifice to make it work.