Where TVs go to die

Like elephants, they end up all in one place, away from civilization, broken and unwanted.



What were once so treasured, now casually discarded.



They're gutted before burying.



Some have entrails hanging out.

Police Blotter

IdaBlue; watching the police blotter so you don't have to.



Another crime that's probably way undercharged. This gal was arrested for, unbelievably, "disorderly house".





This fella was arrested Sunday night and charged with DUI. Gee, I wonder what attracted the officer's attention?

A voice of reason

Will Rainford very cogently explains in a Statesman Reader's view why he will vote for Democrats. He also implies that right wing fundamentalists, who want everyone to vote their way, are off base. An excerpt:

When I weigh all the issues of importance to me as a Christian, I absolutely must vote Democrat. I would be betraying the Holy Spirit if I did not. But that is a very personal decision between me, Jesus, and God. I would be very disappointed to learn that any Christian merely followed my example and voted as I do. Who do you vote for? Go to your knees and pray. You will figure it out. You don't need me to tell you. And you certainly do not need other Christians to tell you.

It's well worth a read. I look forward to Adam's or Bryan Fischer's response, especially since that last sentence takes dead aim at them.

Indian Creek Restoration

The City of Caldwell is uncovering Indian Creek. It was covered years ago and roads and businesses were built over it. Now Caldwell is trying to uncover and restore it and a means of revitalizing the downtown. What they've done so far looks pretty good. I didn't see many new businesses there, but it's early in the project. It certainly looks like it could attract interest.

This photo shows the eventual plan, and a bit of the work in progress in the background.



This photo is of the completed section. Very nice. I think Indian Creek dries up in the winter, unfortunately. The water wheel is a nice touch.



Another part of the creek has a walkway over it, and this is a close up of the detail in an arch over the walkway.



This shows the water flowing under a pizza joint and then under the street in front of the pizza place, and out into the sun on the other side of the street. The building is supported on wooden pilings. The street, i.e., bridge, is supported on concrete pilings. Some old duffer I ran into taking the pictures told me that a carwash located about where the water wheel is collapsed into the creek. I guess the wooden pilings gave out.



This photo shows a newly uncovered portion. The creek is being routed to the right of where it currently flows. Where you see it flowing under the street will just dry up and the area left as an emergency overflow route. And, most likely, home for vagrants.

Hillary

Hillary, it seems, will go to great lengths to raise campaign cash. Apparently she'll even pose for billboard ads.

It just never ends

Here's the link. Click to enlarge.

Now you're talking crazy

Some might think he's talking crazy, but I think Jonathan Clements writing in the Wall Street Journal makes an excellent point.

We all tend to sit up and take notice when we come across people with fancy titles, hefty incomes and immense riches. Yet these aren't signs of genius or virtue. Want proof? All it takes is two words: Paris Hilton.

His short opinion piece is very much worth reading. I have believed for a long time that money doesn't make you special, unless you're using your money to buy the drinks.

I remember a line from the movie The Grifters. John Cusacks's love interest is talking about a victim they're setting up, referring to how gullible and not very smart he is, and she says something like "He made a lot of money (from a bogus savings and loan) so he thinks he's smart."

Wealth cannot be aquired without luck. Luck alone can get you wealth; the lottery. Hard work alone cannot get you wealth; there are millions of extremely hard working poor Americans. Luck is not a virtuous quality, just a delightful one to possess.

Sali's recipe for ineffectiveness

As we know, Rep. Bill Sali voted to sustain Pres Bush's veto of the State Children's Health Insurance Program, even though Rep Simpson voted to overturn it. Sali doesn't like the increased taxes on smoking, and he hates to help "illegal aliens."

But the bill also pays for itself by taxing smokers in a country where more poor people smoke than the rich, Hoffman said, and might allow more illegal aliens to participate by relying on Social Security numbers for identification. Sali just can't support it."We have to be convinced that the $4 billion that's being awarded ... is actually doing something," Hoffman said.

Simpson's view is

"Like all legislation, there are good parts and bad parts," Simpson spokeswoman Nikki Watts said. "Ultimately, he felt the positive outweighed the negative, but it wasn't without some critical consideration."

Note the difference. Simpson is willing to compromise, Sali isn't. Like it or not, compromise is how things get done in Congress. Also, lots of Republicans wanted, perhaps even needed, this bill. By voting to uphold an unpopular President to kill a very popular bill, Sali no doubt irritated the Republicans who wanted to bill passed. He frequently votes against the Republican position. Thus Sali not only marginalizes himself from the Democratic leadership in Congress, but also from his own party's leadership.


Congratulations Idahoans. You elected yet another uncompromising and ineffective ideologue. To Bill Sali, another Wing Nut Award.

Quotes above from Times-News article by Nate Poppino.

Risch and his planes

Remember when Jim Risch ran for Lt. Gov. while he was Gov? He was positively peripatetic, flitting all around the state to hand out awards, appear at hospital bed sides, and basically get photo ops. Many folks concluded that Risch was essentially campaigning for Lt. Gov. on the state's dime.

Risch got around so much by making frequent use of the state's plane. Now that he's running for Senate, he' s using Melaluca's plane, or maybe it's the personal property of Melaluca owener Frank VanderSloot, according to the Statesman. Anyway, he's cozying up to an extreme right businessman right from the start. Doesn't bode well for Idaho.

Separated at birth?

Cassandra

I don’t want to be a Cassandra, but I’m kind of alarmed.

I don’t like where Pres Bush has taken this country. I don’t like it that we now allow torture. I’ve always been proud that we had a higher standard, then say, the Nazis or the North Vietnamese. AG nominee Mukasey in his hearing refused to say that water boarding is torture, and also testified to an extremely broad version of executive power. The AG won’t be a check on unbridled presidential power as I was hoping.

The big justification is the war on terror. Well, that war will never be won. It will never end. If we allow the executive to do whatever he or she wants in the name of the war on terror, our democracy will be threatened.

I’ve been hanging on thinking that Pres Bush will be out of office soon, and that he probably can’t declare martial law and get away with it. I’ve also been assuming that a Democrat will be elected president, but that isn’t a sure thing. The scariest part is that pretty much all the Republican candidates are in complete agreement with Pres Bush’s policies. Romney; expand Guantanamo. Guiliani; we need to attach Iran, now. If one of these guys gets elected I’m afraid that Bush’s policies will continue.

The terrorists are winning, because of our over reaction to the perceived threat. Airports are miserable places. The government has suspended habeas corpus. American citizens can be snatched and held, without access to courts or counsel, even without telling anyone. Just like in South America, we can now have “disappeareds.” The government can wiretap at will.

Live blogging the Craig Interview

Former sportscaster Marc Johnson wearing his best suit, trying to exude gravitas. Quotes paraphrased. My commentary freely mixed in with quotes and paraphrasing. Typing frantically so typos happen.

7:02 Craig thanks MJ for the opportunity to clear his name.

(Early notes recreated from a recording, so the times aren't listed)

Mrs. LC says, the statesman called 300 of their friends. Yowza, they got a lot of friends.

LC says he's a farmer and a rancher. Well, not for the last 30 years. He's a career politician.

MJ gushes "Your web site is one of the best web sites in the US Senate."

He's received over 1500 - 1800 emails, and he's read them all. "I've got to read it all. I've got to understand what Idahos [sic] are thinking." Tell that to Jim, I don't do email, Risch.

Mrs. Craig says she thinks Larry was targeted; lots of folks were set up in the Minneapolis airport.

Plays clip of LC resigning, shows wierd bearded guy in the background.

Says his resignation was part of "an unprecedented firestorm." Did you sleep through the Clinton years senator?

7:23 “People told me, Larry, fight for your rights.”… to party!

7:26 Larry found out he could be effective in Congress. “This seniority I hold isn’t mine, it’s belongs to Idaho.” Really? You act like it’s all about you.

7:28 Says he won’t walk away from Idaho’s veterans. Sorry, too late. Chairman of the Vet Committee, yet Walter Reed is woefully underfunded.

7:29 Mrs. Craig says, circumstances change and en educated person reevaluates, only a stubborn person won’t change his mind. Gee, I wonder what she thinks about Pres. Bush’s Iraq policy?

7:30 LC says Nev Sen Ensign never called him, he hasn’t talked to LC.

7:32 “I know people [who are] running for president. Oh my, are they righteous!” Take that Romney, you righteous twit.

7:36 LC has written 8 or 900 thank you notes. Geez, he has never written back to me when I’ve expressed disagreement with his votes. Too busy writing thank you notes.

7:38 LC says he laughed at Leno’s skit about river dance toe tapping in stalls.

7:40 What’s with the family photos conveniently turned to show up on camera, instead of toward the seating area?

7:40 Americans aren’t used to the politics of personal destruction. Hmmm, I recall “Bill Clinton is a naughty, bad, nasty boy.” What was that Larry?

7:42 Mrs. LC says she questioned everything over the last years living with LC, and is totally convinced that LC has been totally faithful to her. Totally!

7:43 "I was conflicted" when I seemed to counter the family values group.

7:46 Says he's honorary president of Idaho Special Olympics, makes about the zillionth time he's said "Idaho."

7:48 LC would "relish" a Senate ethics hearing. A great opportunity to pay back all the schmucks who abandoned him.

7:50 Two short clips of Jim Risch (!) and Larry Larocco, and 6 more references to "Idaho."

7:51 The Democrats have shoved that low approval rating even below George Bush. Geez Larry, you never acted like you knew Bush was unpopular, since you always voted, and still are, in total lock step with him. SCHIP ring a bell?

7:53 LC moved [barks out an involuntary laugh] by MJ's statement that the kids at Midvale High School want him to speak at their graduation.

7:55 MJ asks questions that people posted on the KTVB web site. Would LC support some actual rights for criminals? Well, now he would "take a very serious look at it." Says "family" for the bazillionth time. Recalls that quote, a liberal is a conservative who's been arrested.

7:58 Johnson lobs final softball: "Is there anything else you'd like to say that hasn't been said?" LC "We still love our state, it's a great place to be."

At some point, I missed the time, LC says he had a piece of toilet paper stuck to his heel, and that's what he picked up. Do you pick that up?

Alcohol was involved

See this guy? He was arrested and charged with carrying a weapon while intoxicated.

First off, it seems that pretty much everything is illegal if you do it drunk. Drunk in public, riding a bicycle, whatever.

The thing that jumped out at me was, this is a crime that is WAY undercharged. Have you even been deer hunting? Ever see an intoxicated person carrying a weapon?

It also brought to mind Dead Eye Dick Cheney, who after drinking a couple of beers shot his hunting companion. Don't know if Cheney was intoxicated, but I sure don't recall him being charged with anything.

How the Senate's Craig probe will work

is the title of a story on MSNBC. One of those inadvertantly funny headlines. The sub-title is "A guide to the Ethics Committee's investigation of the Idaho Republican." The article is a nice primer on said ethics committee.

Risch's opponent Rex Rammell

Rex Rammell says he's going to file the papers to challenge Risch for the Senate seat currently held with a wide stance by Larry Craig. I looked over his web site, and, if you say nothing else about Rammell, you can say he's right on the issues for lots of Idahoans

Seal the borders, anti-abortion, tax cuts, gun rights, he's there. He also makes it clear, by referring to his and his son's LDS missions, that he's right with the dominant religion in the Southern end of the state. The guy has a BA, a masters degree, and a doctorate. His wife is a respected educator. He's got an attractive family; one of his daughters was Miss Idaho, like Gov Otter's wife.



If he can get his story out, and can shed the image of an out of control anti state government nut, he might draw some votes. I don't think he'll win, since Risch has been anointed like Gov Otter was, but Rammell seems to have the bona fides to put up a fight. This will cause Risch to spend money he doesn't want to, and it may cause him to stake out some positions earlier than he'd perhaps like to.

If Rammell is smart, or maybe you'd call it canny, or possibly something worse, he'll cozy up to the Club For Growth. He's already taken the Taxpayer Protection Pledge from the Americans for Tax Reform, and has an image of it on his site. The money the CFG could send could cause serious problems for Risch. That would be fun to watch.

Update: If I'm going to write about a guy, I ought to at least spell his name right, so I added the other l to Rammell's last name.

Risch; Fresh Ideas?

I checked today and couldn't find a web site for Risch for Senate. Risch's primary opponent, Rex Rammel, already has one up. (h/t Mountain Goat) Larry LaRocco has a website up, and he also has a blog. As Betsy Russell reported, Risch says he doesn't read blogs and he doesn't pay attention to comments in them.

Well, that's not surprising. The Idaho blogosphere is much more blue than red, so there's not as much to pull Risch in. Also, Risch is an old school guy. I know guys his age that don't even like to use email or computers. Russell ( or maybe it was Jill Kuraitis) once reported that Risch, wearing a sport coat and tie, apologized for his informality for not wearing a suit. That's some serious old school thinking.

I think Risch's old school mein, and his apparent lack of interest in the internet (he's announced for Senate, but no web site) says something about Risch's ability to bring new thinking to Congress. What it says is, not so much. "How I've always done business has worked for me and I see no reason to change."

Update: In the credit where credit is due department, Jill Kuraitis was the first person to ask Risch about whether he reads blogs or online news.

Smell the Fear

As Betsy Russell and The Mountain Goat reported, almost all of Idaho’s leading Republicans have endorsed Jim Risch in his quest to replace Larry Craig. (We’re not sure yet about potential challenger Lawrence Wasden.) Russell also reported that Idaho GOP Chair Kirk Sullivan took the unusual step of endorsing a candidate before the primary election. Most of the speculation is that this is a means of pressuring Craig to fold his tent and go home.

I suppose that is an explanation, but I also smell fear.

Just think of the embarrassment for the Idaho GOP if Idaho, the reddest of the red states, elects a Democratic senator. The national GOP is going to be focusing attention and showering money on Idaho to save the seat. They want a reliable, safe GOP senate seat that they don’t have to worry about every election, so it’s worth investing in this time around. We saw the same thing last election when the GOP establishment - and the Club for Growth - pulled out all the stops to prevent Larry Grant from picking up the House seat. (Larry LaRocco is a strong candidate, so expect the GOP and CFG to come after him.)

The Idaho GOP has elements of a political machine. Because all the goodies are coming from GOP congressmen, it helps perpetuate them in office. Get a Democrat in office and suddenly it’s not just the GOP that delivers.

Even worse for Idaho Republicans, a Democratic senator will always be identified as the Democratic senator from Idaho, and Idaho voters will see a very visible Democratic politician. They might begin to realize that a Democratic can adequately represent them and start to actually look at the candidates instead of just reflexively voting R. Once the monopoly is broken, the whole machine could fall apart.

Idaho GOP leadership is massing behind Risch to convince Craig to go, but they want Craig go because staying threatens the GOP stranglehold on Idaho politics. Add Craig’s trouble to the closed primary and rightward lurch that will bring, and Idaho becomes a much friendlier place for Democrats.

Scenes from a Sheep Shearing

Larry LaRocco has a video up, taken at a sheep ranch near Bellvue, Idaho. Sheap shearing, working dogs, herding sheep; a pretty interesting glimpse into sheep ranching.

The Unsinkable Larry Craig

Bruce Reed of Slate has some fun at Larry Craig's expense.

One Romney supporter seems to have a history—the unsinkable Larry Craig. You can always judge a man by his arrest report. As the sergeant who busted Craig recalls: "I pointed towards the exit. Craig responded, 'No!' " Now it's happening again. State, party, and country are using every known signal to point Craig toward the exit—but, once again, the senator is dragging his feet and saying, "No!"

And

Thanks to his home state, Craig does have one place to go. Next week, Sen. Craig will be inducted into the Idaho Hall of Fame.
...
Craig may have a tough time measuring up. His mug shot is unlikely to replace Sacagawea's face on the dollar coin. When Chief Joseph surrendered to authorities, he said, "I will fight no more forever." Craig handed them his Senate business card and said, "What do you think of that?"

It's worth a read.

Alert the BSU College Republicans

And Bryan Fischer. The liberal speaker ratio is getting dangerously out of whack again. Gary Hart spoke at BSU as part of the Frank Church Conference, and Dr. Helen Caldicott, co-founder of Physicians for Social Responsibility and author of Nuclear Power is Not the Answer, is coming on October 23rd.

We need to get Rush Limbaugh to come here to restore balance and harmony. Quickly!

State Employee Pay & Benefits

Gov Otter is going to "push like the devil" for pay raises for state employees, per the Statesman. According to the story, the Gov wants decent pay raises over three years or so so catch state employees up with the private sector. 5% for 3 years would make up the 15% gap currently between state employees and their counterparts it the private sector.

With this, though, the Gov wants to trim benefits to state workers. The net result will be some increase in state expenses, but the benefits savings will offset much of the pay raises. It looks to me like the end result is where employees would be if they get the usual 1-2% and benefits aren't changed.

If there isn't much change, why do it? Well, the Gov says that younger workers aren't so much interested in benefits, so higher salaries and lower benefits will attract younger workers. Young workers tend to make less, so perhaps overall the state's employee costs will decline proportionally over time as older workers are replaced by younger ones. Also, it seems in keeping with the Gov's philosophy of running government like business.

Other leaders have worked that philosophy, and it can work, to an extent. Some risks lurk in the Gov's plan. If state agencies become populated by younger workers, they will be at risk of high turnover; young workers tend to change jobs more than older ones. Also, if the state falls on hard times and doesn't give raises for a year or two, as has happened every few years, a young worker will be more likely to bail out.

Good benefits are a key to keeping state workers, especially when the pay lags. If you don't get a raise for two years, but your benefits are good, you'll probably hang on. If you don't get a raise for two years and your benefits are mediocre to weak, you'll probably bail. The benefits serve as a form of golden handcuffs.

The state employs lots of low wage workers, in the $10 an hour range. Many of them are older workers who are working primarily for the benefits. I know many whose spouses have poor or no benefits, so the state employee stays employed for the benefits. If the benefits go, the workers will have no incentive to stay.

Admittedly, these older workers have higher use of the health care system which drives much of the cost of the health insurance. Rather than shift expense to state workers, I'd prefer to see the Gov pursue two changes that would save money. One, join with Oregon and Washington in a pharmacy benefit plan. The three states would buy pharmaceuticals together, and negotiate discounts. This is done by the Veterans Administration, and the Dept of Defense, and it works. Drug costs are much lower.

Two, build incentives into the health insurance. Charge more to smokers and people who exceed X body mass index, since smoking and excess weight cause so many health issues. I'd also like to see the Gov require that every state building contain showers, to encourage exercising for state workers.

I'm happy the Gov is trying to bring state worker pay into parity with the private sector. I hope he doesn't overlook opportunities to reduce the costs of benefits, rather than just shifting them to state workers.