It's near to becoming official

Yes, it appears that Walt Minnick is close to joining the Party of No. He's pretty much a de facto member, given his voting record. He put out a press release citing various reasons why he's voting against the Waxman-Markey energy bill, and said:

For all of those reasons, I must vote ‘no.’

I'll give Minnick a little credit for not calling it a "cap and tax" bill, which is the official name bestowed by the Gopasaurs in the Party of No.

President Obama described it as a jobs bill, as well as an energy bill.

The energy bill that passed the House will finally create a set of incentives that will spark a clean energy transformation in our economy. It will spur the development of low carbon sources of energy – everything from wind, solar, and geothermal power to safer nuclear energy and cleaner coal. It will spur new energy savings, like the efficient windows and other materials that reduce heating costs in the winter and cooling costs in the summer. And most importantly, it will make possible the creation of millions of new jobs.

Make no mistake: this is a jobs bill.

Idaho's unemployment rate went from 2.7% in 2008 to 6.4% in 2009. The two biggest employers in Idaho are now St. Luke's and Wal-Mart. Seems to me a jobs bill and an energy policy are just what we need.

Minnick cites some decent reasons, but I think they're window dressing. He's subordinating the possible to the perfect to give himself cover for voting against it. "Because we can't have this other, better way of doing it, I'll just forgo doing anything helpful." Politically expedient in Idaho, yes, but not helpful. I think Walt is subordinating the needs of the country to his political future in true Party of No fashion.

Gov. Sanford

Well, yet another moralizing politician laid low by personal peccadillo's. S.C. Gov Sanford, once considered presidential material, and having famously grandstanded about stimulus money, has been revealed to be cheating on his wife.

I have some empathy for the guy, but no sympathy. He's human, and is thus subject to tugs and temptations, like all of us. And like all of us, he succumbed to one of them.

It's a tragedy for his family, particularly. It is one thing to cheat on your spouse, it is quite another to have that be a national media feeding frenzy. So, I have a bit of empathy for him on the human level.

But, no sympathy, really. I saw several newscasts last night where he was critical of others with similar defalcations. Yes, not only is he guilty of violating his wedding vows and humiliating his wife, but he's guilty of one of the most dangerous political sins. Hypocrisy. It's like watching a car wreck; morbidly fascinating.

A self-aggrandizing moralizing hypocrite. But also a person with feelings and emotions. So, empathy, but no sympathy.

Crapo is undecided; riiiiight

The Statesman reports that Senator Crapo claims to be undecided about how he'll vote regarding the appointment of Sonia Sotomayor to the US Supreme Court. Well, if he votes to confirm, you can color me "surprised" to say the least.

He says he liked a couple of answers Sotomayor gave, but then he said this:

"I'm going to withhold a final decision until the process is completed," he said. "I owe it to her and my constituents and the country to make sure I allow the Judiciary Committee to continue its vetting process and proceed to a conclusion."

He's saying, essentially, that he wants to see what might come out in the hearings before making up his mind. Fair enough.

Unfortunately, as I've written before, Crapo toes the party line virtually 100% of the time. And I don't just mean he takes a considered but conservative position like Mike Simpson, rather, he votes the way leadership wants him to vote. Just like Craig did, just like Kempthorne did, just like Risch seems to be doing.

So, I think Crapo is probably dissembling. His mind is made up; he'll vote the way he's supposed to. He'll wait until after the Judiciary committee votes, and he'll see what Republican leadership desires, and he'll vote that way. If opposition falls apart and Republicans cast a few votes for her, Crapo may well vote for her. However, if Republican leadership takes a stand, loyal Mike Crapo will be right there with them.

Update: It occurs to me that I ought to give a little credit where credit is due. Crapo has recently taken more progressive positions regarding local environmental issues. He helped craft a compromise for protecting Owyhee canyon lands, and he seems a bit open to at least considering breaching Northwest dams. Kudos for that. I think that on local and regional matters, national Republican leadership doesn't take a position, which leaves Crapo free to vary from the Larry Craig hard line view of the environment.

Road trip, continued

I returned to Vino Rosso, and scored these, one of each. The Arrogant Bastard on the left is the oaked version. I don't think I have a palette to really distinguish between an oaked and an unoaked version, but I'm sure it will be tasty. (Click to enlarge if you want to look closer at the labels.)



I drove home through Blackfoot, Riverside, Pingree, Springfield, Aberdeen, American Falls, and saw lots of these buildings on the way. Most of you will know what this building is, but perhaps not everyone.



Here's another shot. These buildings are slowly crumbling back into the earth. They're still fairly prevalent in Eastern Idaho. I'm not sure if these were used in other potato growing areas, but probably.



These are the old style of potato storage facility. Basically a large root cellar. Dig down, put up a frame of poles, cover with straw, put the dirt from the hole on the straw, call it good. Now farmers and processors use metal buildings with air conditioning and humidity systems that can effectively store potatoes for a year (with a chemical added to stop sprouting).

Road trip to Eastern Idaho

Spending a couple of days in Eastern Idaho, so took the scenic route. Boy, it's green on the Camas Prarie.



I guess I was taking the Sawtooth Scenic Byway.



A remote farm nestled in a little valley, under threatening skys.



In Idaho Falls, the outside of the Snake Bite Restaurant, in Idaho Falls' Historic District.



South Fork Salmon sandwich; salmon, roated red pepper, grilled onion, and pesto. Tasty.



The Inside of the Snake Bite.



Across the street, a store whose name I forget, but which has 4 coolers of differents selections of beer. Best selection I've seen in Idaho.

Not bright

At least, not mentally. This gal was arrested and charged with burglary. Gee, I wonder what attracted attention to her?

I do like the way the hair and the outfit kind of clash.

Vultures

Angelo Mozilo, the head of Countrywide Financial, a mortgage lending company, has been charged with securities fraud. This brings up the sore subject of home mortgage lending abuses.

If you've purchased a home, you'll probably recall all the fees tacked on the to basic mortgage obligation. Document preparation fees, loan origination fees, and various fees by various names, all are tacked onto the loan to be paid by the borrower.

Consider the loan origination fee. 1% is a common amount for this fee, but it can range up from there. So, you might have walked into Countrywide, or WaMu, or any of the zillion loan originators, to arrange a home loan, and by the time you were done, the originator would earn 1%. On a $200,000 home, that $2,000 you paying the originator, right on the spot, as a fee for services rendered. And for what?

The originator does just that; starts the loan. It's not a lender, that's usually a bank or some other financial company. The originator might make a few calls to an actual lender, will type your data into its computer, will pull a credit report and shuffle some paper, and with often less than an hour's work, will earn $2,000. It's hard to believe they really earn that money. It is closer to the truth to say they are just in a good position to skim it off the top of your home purchase transaction.

If you're buying a home, bear in mind, the origination fee is negotiable. Offer $200, see what they'll accept.

Also realize that the person you initially deal with is probably not the person processing your loan. Many originators are just sales people, bringing in business, then handing off the paperwork to secretaries.

Here's another little jewel: Yield Spread Premium (YSP). Keep an eye out for this if your buying a home, or refinancing. Or go back and check to see if you've been screwed.

Say that you qualify for a 5% loan from a bank. Well, if the originator gets you into a 6% loan, the originator and the broker (who places your loan to the lender) get to split that one percent. It's disclosed on your closing statement, but would you really know what Yield Spread Premium meant? 1% interest on a $200,000 over 30 years is a lot of money.

If you ask, the originator will say, well, you don't pay the YSP, the lender does, which is how it looks on the closing documents. No, you're paying it through the 1% higher rate you're paying.

People don't buy many houses so it's foreign to them, and they're usually excited about closing, so if they stop to question things it feels like it could queer the deal. Plus, so much money is involved that it's easy to overlook 1% here and 1% there.

Shop around. Go to a bank. Don't let these rapacious vultures, like Mozilo, steal money from you

Good news

I have two items of good news to discuss. First, Walt Minnick voted with congressional Democrats to block an investigation into Nancy Pelosi regarding what she was told by the CIA about torture. It's good that the silly distraction was voted down, and it's good that Walt voted with the Democrats on the issue.

I suppose that Peolsi and House leadership are pretty tolerant of Democratic House members from tough districts, like Walt, but voting to investigate the Speaker would probably be going too far.

Two, Bryan Fischer is moving away, and the IVA is going into "whisper mode." I didn't particularly mind the guy, though he said some offensive stuff from time to time, and he can care all he wants to about issues near and dear to him. The reason I'm glad he's moving away is that our local media overplayed him, which gave him too loud a voice in the public debate.

I wonder who, if anyone, will step up and start flogging the various wingnut issues that Fischer liked to pursue. It will be interesting to see if the media pick a new guy to prop up as the go to guy for winger issues, or if someone will assume that role intentionally.

Start your watches

Because it's only a matter of time until Bryan Fischer says something repulsive about Dr. George R. Tiller being murdered. Dr. Tiller provided abortion services in Kansas, and was gunned down in church. In church! Under Fischer's twisted logic, abortion providers, and their families, live under the constant threat that God will take them out at some point for providing abortions. (You recall his comments about the plane crash that killed the doctor and his family members.)

Fischer recently posted this gem:

OBAMA CHOOSES RACIST FOR SUPREME COURT

President Obama’s nominee to replace David Souter on the Supreme Court, Judge Sonia Sotomayor, is by all objective accounts an activist judge who will indulge left-wing policy preferences instead of impartially applying the law.

She appears to be intellectually shallow, and perfectly willing to use her judicial power to discriminate on the basis of race, as long as the victims of discrimination are white.

Boy, that's rich, Fischer calling Justice Sotomayor intellectually shallow. Plus, he's jumped on the "racist" bandwagon with Limbaugh and Gingrich. Good grief. Ya know, if Fischer were a light bulb, when you turned him on during the day, the room would go dark.

(I'm not linking to the IVA site; can't bring myself to do it.)

Update: Well, knock me over with a feather. Fischer came out and denounced this murder. (See Dave's comment and link in the comments.) I thought Fischer would denounce it but also include some language to weaken the denunciation, a la Randall Terry, but no. Seems to be pretty clearly against this. Well, good on ya Bryan.