Maybe there's hope

This is funny. Some wingnuts tried to hold a rally to protest "reckless federal spending," but only 4 showed up. Har!

Exploiting the troops

President Obama announced today a plan for getting out of Iraq. I'm all for that. But as I've complained before re Bush, it irritates me that the Pres poses in front of a back drop of soldiers, or in Obama's case, Marines.

Please, please, don't use our troops as a visual aid. They're humans, but if ordered to be there will be there. They don't have a choice. I think it's exploitive, and I'm disappointed with team Obama for using the same cheesy photo op as Bush used.

Isn't it good enough to require them to attend a rally, and show the crowd? Do you have to use them as a back drop? I hoped for something better from President Obama.

The recession improves some things

Yummy

From the Tacos El Rey truck parked at Meridian Rd and Amity; they make a dang tasty taco. One taco, one dollar, tax included. Guacamole sauce available.







What is wrong with this picture?



The tamper proof seal. It's chlorine bleach! No one is going to ingest this. Good grief.

Visual equation

Robbing the cradle

The Idaho Steelheads hockey team is currently running its 4 for $44 promotion. The web ad for it is below.



So, I guess this is supposed to be mom and dad and the kids. If so, mom must have birthed her first baby when she was about 12.

MADD has gone mad

The Statesman ran an article today titled "Utah's odd drinking laws under review." I'd link, but I can't find the link.

Anyway, the article reports about a review of the private club system. What struck me was the proposals by the Utah chapter of MADD. Those people are seriously crazy. Leave it up to them and Utah will be the big brother state, in the Orwellian sense, not the Morman "brethren" sense.

This is what Utah MADD proposes: 1) the state should electronically track everybody who enters a bar, regardless of age; 2) mandatory $4.00 cover to discourage bar hopping; 3) keep hotel bars out of public view; 4) ban bars from dining areas in restaurants; 5) ban bars in mixed use residential neighborhoods; 6) requiring bars to keep video surveillance tapes; and 7) bars must scan ID's and maintain name and date of birth on file for a week.

Unbelievable. Electronically track EVERYONE! How, put an ankle bracelet on every citizen? Good grief. Also, no neighborhood bars within walking distance, so you HAVE to drive to a bar.

Somebody is seriously whack.

Personally, I encourage everyone in Utah to join MADD's counter group, DAMM. Drunks Against Mad Mothers. Somebody needs to bring some sanity to the state.

State of the Union

The President seems to be knocking it out of the park. Most of the applause lines even get Republicans to stand and clap.

The whole thing seems, and always has, to me, kind of odd. Clapping and standing so much; political kabuki dance. Nancy Pelosi seems spring-loaded at times, sometimes, not so much (charter schools).

I'm kind of stunned to see an African-American standing in front of the flag, giving a State of the Union speech. (I know, not technically, but still ...)

Party of big spenders? GOP

Economist Ed Lotterman crunched the numbers, and found that "the three most recent Republican presidents oversaw deficits equal to nearly 74 percent of our debt," thereby debunking the myth that the Republican party is the party of less government spending.

The big increases began with Ronald Reagan who, like Franklin Roosevelt, was elected on a platform of stopping his predecessor's reckless spending. Nearly 24 percent of our current debt comes from his presidency. George H.W. Bush contributed another 13.6 percent and Bill Clinton added 4.8 percent.

George W. Bush is the champ, however. More than 36 percent of the total came from deficits between his first budget year, fiscal 2002, and February 2009.

Well, there you go. Republicans like to call Democrats the party of tax and spend. Sorry, the facts don't support that. Even if they did, at least Democrats pay for spending instead of irresponsibly saddling our kids with the bill. Lotterman has proved that Republicans are the party of borrow and spend.

People for Palin

more music charts

Town hall meeting

I went to a town hall meeting last night called by the legislators in my district, Russ Fulcher, Rich Jarvis, and Clifford Bayer. About 70 attended.

The session consisted mostly of saying that the stimulus money seems to be coming, but we don't anything about it or what effect it will have. Had lots of complaints about "strings" attached to the money. The mood with the legislators and the attendees was that the stimulus money is Trojan Horse. Once we accept it, we could be doomed. DOOOOMED!

The biggest applause line was when someone said the State out to get out of the liquor business.

Jarvis asked for a show of hands as to who would agree with raising taxes on beer and alcohol, and lots of hands shot up. Then, someone said "by how much," and that got echoed around, and then hands dropped.

I guess they heard some stuff the was helpful, but they didn't hear anything contrary. No one, for instance, asked Sen Fulcher that since he voted against extending equal protection to gays and lesbians on the ground that the behavior is a choice, whether he would support taking protection away from religion, which is also behavioral.

Crapo; political hack

I wrote in the preceding post that Senator Mike Crapo has become a political hack. Here's an example explaining why I think that.

A hack is someone who parrots the party line and doesn't think for him or her self. I heard Crapo on the radio saying about the stimulus package "We can't spend ourselves into prosperity." Pure hackery.

First off, Obama and the Dems aren't saying that the stimulus will lead to prosperity. They're saying it is necessary to to keep the economy from falling as far as it will if we don't act. This really isn't disputed by any rational American who cares about the country.

Also (I'm kind of reluctant to use that word, given how Sarah Palin has given it a notoriety similar to "wide stance", also), the line is a common talking point. The Republicans are excellent at hitting their talking points, and Crapo nails it here. Unfortunately, it does not advance the debate to spout bumper sticker slogans. It might help gel opinion in their favor, but it doesn't help the country.

Another example is when he carped about the cost of the stimulus.  He fully supported Bush's tax cut for the rich, and he fully supported the Iraq war, and the Bush bailout.  Now that a Democrat is the President, Crapo suddenly starts to worry about money.  This is hypocrisy of such maddening purity that typing this makes me want to spit.

Risch seems to have immediately fallen into hackdom as well, also. As I've said, Mike Simpson, whose politics are mostly not my politics, will vary from the party line from time to time, and I don't think he's a hack. I respect him. He's a conservative, but not a blind supporter. You betchya. Also.

****
It's official; this is post 700.

Bloggers MIA?

I ran across a thread I'd missed at HBO while hanging around the McCall Special Olympics venue, discussing that Idaho blue bloggers have gone missing.  I guess that as a group we're not as active as we have been at other times, but I think posting, for many of us, is cyclical. 

This will be post 700 on this blog, plus the 293 on my previous blog, over a period of about 4 1/2 years. Sometimes I get busy, sometimes nothing is happening, sometimes I'm distracted by some other pursuit, and sometimes I'm just brain dead.

If my style was to throw bombs and snark, I could stay really busy, because that's fun. But that's not what I like to post, so often I don't say anything, on the blog. People within earshot hear plenty of that, but not folks within, .. er, ... blogshot?

Things rattling around in my head, that might end up as a post, include these. Sen Crapo has turned into a Larry Craig political hack, like Kempthorne did, blindly supporting whatever the Republican leadership wants, and Jim Risch is right there behind him. Behind Crapo; wouldn't want to be right behind Craig's behind. Simpson usually goes with the R leadership, but to his credit he will sometimes strike out on his own path and I like him for that. And Minnick? I'm keeping my lip zipped for now, but so far, well, I'll let it go at that.

Alcohol vs. fun

more music charts

Special Olympics, last post

I've put up a few short videos of the McCall Special Olympics venue, as you can see below. It was pretty fun to attend, and part of the point was to have fun. I wasn't sure what to expect before I got there, as I don't know many disabled people. Just one, actually, and her disability is that she can't walk. I don't know anyone with a mental disability.

Here's my main take away. I saw a tall Canadian competitor race in the 400 M race, and in a relay race, and man could that guy run. His time, in snowshoes on snow, was the equivalent of running a 6 minute mile. Big long stride, arms pumping, throwing up a rooster tail of snow about 12 feet high behind him. Very impressive. I later saw him after he received his medal, and I became aware of his disability, sort of. He was making odd facial expressions, looked down at the ground and rolled his eyes, and he was curling and writhing his fingers.

So, which impression defines him? The mentally challenged impression, or the gifted athlete impression? I think that both define a part of him, but neither defines him entirely. Of course.

These volunteers greeted the competitors as they crossed the finish line.



Clip of the 400 meter race.



In this clip, I stood in one spot and filmed a full circle. This one probably gives the best idea of the layout. It was filmed before the competitors arrived for the day.



This clip shows the half way point of the 800 M race.

More Special Olympics pix

Soldiers and competitors having fun.



The blond took 2nd in his event.



Check out the cool Canada/Idaho pin.



The Italians' snowshoes. Of course, speedy and sleek.



A fan.

Special Olympics

It's the start of day 4 here in McCall, and it snowed last night for the first time. Here a park employee is grooming the snowshoe track.



The old visitor center at Ponderosa State Park os on the left. It serves as the venue headquarters. These are some Forest Service employees talking before any of the SO folks showed up, about 0800.



The podium for presenting awards, and its backdrop. There are 8 places on the podium. All 8 get recognized, but only the top 3 get medals.



These guys are putting in a little fence/barrior in front of the podium to keep the crowd back. The guy on the left is drilling a hole in the snow for the post. The drill bit costs about $200, per the guy on the right.

Scenes from the Special Olympics

I'm spending this week in McCall supporting the Special Olympics World Winter Games, and this post tries to share part of that experience. First off, I'd say that if you have time, you will enjoy spectating at the games. I've only been at the McCall venue, 2009, so I can't report beyond that. But, man, folks are having fun in McCall. They have a fun announcer, they play stimulating music, and when something like "The Macarena" comes up, lots of folks start dancing.

It's not all that serious, like a big money sporting event might be. People wear funny hats, they dance, they swap pins, they hug the competitors, and they take pictures of everyone. It's hard to walk the length of the course (half a football field) without getting roped into 2 or 3 photo ops. It's a lot of fun.

I had one fella, from Indonesia, come up to me and say "Pin, pin, pin," I don't have any pins, so I had to gesture, shrugging, palms up,  sorry, no pins.

Anyway, speaking as a former skeptic, you ought to go, it's a ton of fun. I keep saying "fun." Sorry, but it's the best word to describe the experience. Here's some pix.

The Canadian contingent are a happy group. Check out the joker hats. Click to enlarge.



Here's a shot of the one version of the showshoes used by the competitors. The shoes vary; this is only one example.



The Bolivian contingent.  Who knew Bolivia had winter sports?



The start/finish line.





Connectivity ain't all that swell, so I'm not sure about future posts. I'll be there all week (try the veal! har!), and I'll try to post more.

And in the mean time, Speaker Denny continues to refuse to allow a local option tax bill that doesn't contain a constitutional amendment. Power mad jerk.

Wassup?

Lately I've been spending my time supporting the Special Olympics World Winter Games.  I'm doing this because I'm in the Idaho Army National Guard, and it's my duty.  (And it's why my blog hasn't been updated so much lately.)  I'll admit, I didn't have that great of an attitude going in, but that has changed.

I'm at the McCall venue, snowshoeing, and I thought, man, that's got to be slow.  Well, I was wrong.  Yeah, there are some of the competitors who aren't too speedy, and to whom the appellation "athlete" really doesn't apply, but there are others to whom whom that title clearly does apply.

Check this out.  It's 22 seconds, the first half of which is title cards, so hang in there for 11 seconds.  But that last half ... Remember, these guys are running in snowshoes.

Lay offs or pay cuts

The legislature is mulling over the idea of reducing spending on state employees, either by cutting pay by 10%, or by cutting 10% of the work force

If those are the choices, I think the 10% lay off is the way to go. If pay is cut 10%, morale will plummet. State workers are already about 15% behind their private sector counterparts. Butch Otter was proposing 3-4 years of 5% raises just to get state workers even. They got about that one year, and will not get raises this fiscal year. So cutting salaries will widen the wage gap.

It also seems likely that the pay cut will be permanent. Do you think that in a couple of years the state will fund a 10% raise for all employees? That would be unprecedented.

Given that, and given the low morale, as soon as things turn around employees will leave the state jobs in droves. And of course, the best workers will be the ones getting hired in the private sector.

Note that the benefits package has already been cut back in accord with the Governor's idea that state workers ought to be compensated like the private sector. The benefits were higher than the private sector, so cut them back while raising salaries. A pay cut will be a double whammy.

It seems somewhat unfair as well. The higher paid workers will take larger cuts. A person making $50,000 a year will get a $5,000 pay cut. A $25,00o/year worker will only get a $2,500 cut.

As I've written before, reducing state employee pay, while expecting them to do the same work, places the burden on the employee while shielding the citizenry from the problem. If citizens want the state service, they ought to have to pay for it, through taxes.

I say cut 10% of the work force. The folks left will at least know their jobs are safe.

Connecting the dots

Chris has some interesting analysis and speculation about Tom Luna running for Representative in CD 1 in the next primary. Worth a read, and is the type of stuff I'd like to see more of, from any source.

Hoffman doesn't disappoint

Wayne Hoffman is off to a good start with his high visibility columns running in the Statesman. Today's column discussed that we ought not raise taxes for transportation until we're sure the money is used efficiently. Fair enough.

Unfortunately, Hoffman doesn't have his inner wingnut under control and it shows up in his column. He writes

we now have two recent reports proving that increased fees and taxes will merely be used to subsidize inefficiency and hyper-regulation.

The reports don't call out "hyper-regulation." The "hyper" is a favorite intensifier of Hoffman, and he usually attaches it to "liberal." But, as used by Hoffman, it is meaningless. It just stokes emotion but is devoid of reason. Hoffman doesn't tell us which regulations are so horrible, nor does he discuss the purpose of the regulations. Nor does he make any comparisons to other regulatory regimes to show that Idaho's are "hyper" in relation to some other state.

He also writes

Further, the U.S. Government Accountability Office released a draft report last year that concluded as much as 34 percent of the cost of transportation projects are the result of regulatory hurdles all throughout the planning and construction process. That's just paying people to push papers around.

I'm sure that regulations do add to the cost. Regulations impose requirements for quality control, and standards of production. They establish, for instance, the slope of the roadway so that water will drain instead of puddling unsafely. They impose runoff limits to keep from destroying streams and habitat near roadways. Regulations impose standards for signing during construction, and for flagging, and for traffic control to keep drivers safe.

No, Wayne, regulations are not the enemy. Just ask folks in the financial community. Some regulations are critically important to protect taxpayers and citizens. True, some regulations might be over the top, but if you're going to gripe about regulations, you have an obligation to tell us which ones you don't like, and why.

If this is an example of the thinking done in your think tank, I'm guessing your tank is an inch deep and a mile wide.