Cheers to Dave Frazier of the Boise Guardian. On his blog, the Idaho Statesman's Kevin Richert referenced that Boise City Council Candidate Dave Litster is referring to Mayor Bieter's downtown trolley as the Folly Trolley. Of course, the term is not of Litster's making, it was originally coined by Frazier on the Boise Guardian as he has reported on politicians' seeming love affair...read more

Boos to Governor Butch Otter (R-Id.) who declared himselfopen to delaying the long-delayed grocery tax credits due to the budget crisis.Idahoans needs tax relief and Otter's decision to hold out during a recession is bad.

While Otter should be praised for not actually raising taxes, his conduct of this budget crisis has not been awe-inspiring. In his old age, Otter has decided every part and...read more

Got an e-mail last night from the Ward for Congress campaign wanting to be sure that we are all aware that National Journal had called the fundraising efforts of his opponent, "small potatoes."

Well, that's really relevant because we know that the quality of potential Congressional representation can be judged based on the size of the campaign's bank account. That's why we...read more

Boos to Senator Mike Crapo (R-ID) and those continuing to back a train despite finding out it would cost $374 million of our grandkids tax dollars to upgrade the tracksplus an ongoing of subsidy of $25 million per annum. Dave Frasier at the Boise Guardian Estimates that for the price of the upgrade, we could buy 1500 busesand have one leaving for Portland or Salt Lake every minute of every...read more

I'm a huge fan of Old Time Radio. With all the political news going on, it's been a nice way to relax. I have two old time radio podcasts and am working on a third that will be even better.

Anyway, I was curious if there was old time radio news. I did a Google News Search. And yes, there was Old Time Radio news, but one item had a twist. A resident of Brookline, Mass. gave a collection of 4,000 original Old Time Radio Recordings to Boston University...read more

Want to take a course on how to use Twitter or Facebook or learn about your reincarnated past as Marie Antoinette's cousin. Then Boise Community Education might be for you.

I just received the catalog in the mail from the Boise School District. I don't mean to trivialize the program. In fact, there are some facinating courses out there that teach useful skills. Others provide fairly low...read more

Last night, Andrea and i watched, "Come What May" a film released this year by Patrick Henry College.

The film follows Caleb, a nineteen year old college student as he struggles with issues of right and wrong in his quest to win the National Moot Court Championship.

I have to say that Caleb comes from a beautifully geeky family, which argues modern political issues by writing Latin...read more

• Cheers: To the Nampa Classical Academyfor filing suit to appeal the ridiculous ruling of the Idaho Public Charter School Commission barring the use of the Bible as instructional material. Look, the state shouldn't try and teach people a creed. In a state that has Catholics, Baptists, Pentecostals, and Mormons among others, there's no way the state can or should teach theology. We got it. However, the role of the Bible in the history and literature of Western civilization is huge and to deny that important component in their education is doing a disservice to students in the name of a war against religion and the Bible.
• Cheers to Boise City Council Candidate Lucas Baumbach: Who has kept the heat on the city of Boisefor Partisan poll closure decisions coming out of City Hall. City leaders should have hell to pay for trying to disenfranchise conservative precincts. The question is whether voters will come out and make them pay the price.
• Cheers to Idaho Governor Butch Otter: Otter got one thing right during the last session. He didn't spend all of the State's reserves to avoid cuts in education. Otter left healthy reserve accounts, which will come in handy as the state is experiencing revenue shortfalls. Had Otter listened to short-sighted Democrats and some Republicans and avoided hard decisions during the last session, he'd have met this crisis with no safety net. Procrastination doesn't make budget cutting easier and now most state agencies are getting time to adjust.
• Boos to the Minnesota Vikings: They cut Ian Johnson. 'nuff said.
• Boos to Tim Kirkman, the playwrite who will premier his play about the Larry Craig scandal in Boise. The play is called, "Wide Stance." Apparently Idahoans didn't suffer enough during the scandal and Craig's relentless efforts to hold onto his seat until the very last day. Kirkman said he wouldn't be inviting Craig to the performance and that he "feels bad for him." Here's an idea. If you feel bad for Senator Craig, don't make the play. And if that's not enough, give some love to his constituents and don't premier it here.

So, by now, gubernatorial candidate Rex Rammell's Obama tags story has been across the wires and around the nation. For those who didn't read it, here are the facts:

After an audience member shouted a question about "Obama tags" during a discussion on wolves, Rammell responded, "The Obama tags? We'd buy some of those."

Rammell, a veterinarian and former elk rancher from Idaho Falls, said his comment was a joke and he would never seriously talk about President Obama that way, although he doesn't support anything Obama's done as president.

"I was just being sarcastic. That was just a joke," Rammell said. "I would never support him being assassinated.

"She kind of caught me off guard, to be honest with you."

That...read more

I wrote a post, making the argument that if Alex Rodriguez were represented by a union like the teacher's union, he'd make far less and the game would be far less interesting. Several people pointed out in comments that A-Rod is represented by a union. Yes, he is, but he is not represented by a union that is like the NEA

The MLBPA does not try to limit rewards for merit. It focuses on maintaing...read more

• Apologies for being AWOL. I've been busy completing a college course.
• While Rep. Walt Minnick's 100% score on the Club for Growth REPORK card has made news, the score of his House Colleague, Mike Simpson garnered a 1% anti-pork rating, supporting 67 pieces of wasteful spending and opposing one. I'm at a lost as to what to do about Simpson's voting record. I've had ideas for several protests including advising members of the public to send pork rinds to Simpson's office, as well as having a protestor in a pig costume try to shame Simpson and attract media attention to Simpson's fiscally wreckless voting record. The problem is that Simpson can't be shamed. He figures that he owns this seat as long as he wants it. The media doesn't care. I'm open to ideas.
• Endorsements are coming hard and fast in the 1st District Congressional race. I've received e-mails announcing support for Vaughn Ward from former Governor and Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne and former Ada County GOP Chairman Ben Doty. In the meanwhile,House Caucus Chairman Ken Roberts (R-Donnelly) Meanwhile Roberts picked up the endorsement of 29 legislators including such Conservative stalwarts as Senator Russ Fulcher (R-21), Representative Marv Hagedorn (R-20), and even the more moderate George Eskridge (R-1).
• Will any of these endorsements matter? In and of themselves, no. Former State Senator Skip Brandt received the endorsement of former Congresswoman Helen Chenoweth in the 2006 GOP Primary and Brandt finished dead last. Both Ward and Roberts are little know across the district, however national political coverage almost always lists Ward as "the candidate" against Minnick, which means a lot of out of state money will float in, and that Ward is the frontrunner right now, particularly with Ward having the backing of a lot of the State political establishment. The challenge of Id. Rep. Roberts is to get known and show he can raise serious cash. This is going to be a challenge. Roberts has a solidly conservative voting record (85% Idaho Conservative rating), but not a spectacular one, so he's not going to excite a lot of out of funds from groups like the Club for Growth, as Bill Sali did. Of course, as the Republican Caucus chair, he may be able to raise more in-state dollars. Though Roberts may need to weigh his options on that. Serving in the State House will mean taking two months off the campaign trail to focus on the legislative work, while Ward can continue to campaign freely could tie his hands. Leaving the State House and letting Governor Otter appoint a replacement probably wouldn't be abad idea.
• A bad headline for Democrats in the last couple of weeks. Idaho Schools showed big academic improrvementwith 2 out of 3 schools meeting their goals in Math, Reading, and English, up from 56% in 2006-2007 school year and way up from 27% under Democrat Marilyn Howard in the 2004-05 school year. Not sure how this adds up to Tom Luna being vulnerable.
• A News Story that proves people comment on the news without reading it. The Statesman ran an article talking about how Gallup found Idahoans had a sense of well-being. A political foodfight ensued in the comments with liberals excoriating the stupid Idahoans for being happy, and many political points were made. However, reading the article itself, the sense of well-being had nothing to do with politics and everything to do with"life evaluation, emotional health, work environment, physical health, healthy behaviors and access to basic necessities." Other than access to some basic necessities, government has little to do with any of these things. Or perhaps liberals have a much greater expectation of what government is to provide. However, if Democrats depend on Idahoans being anx-ridden wrecks looking for government to save them, they may be infor a rude awakening.

A favorite philosophical question often asked is, "Why does your average teacher earn a little more than one percent of what Alex Rodriguez does in a year?" There's a simple market-based explanation for this. Alex Rodriguez can play the game of baseball like few other people and his services come at a premium in a free market.

However, Alex Rodriguez would earn far less if only the...read more

For the past three years, my church has hosted a video simulcast of "The Leadership Summit" from the Willow Creek Association. I've not attended in years past because I don't have an actual leadership title or position. However, I'm applying to move up into a role with a bit more leadership responsibility, so I thought it would be worthwhile.

I don't know how much the...read more

I must confess I'm in a minority. More than 80% of Republicans voted for Congressman Mike Simpson in the GOP Primary and 71% voted to re-elected Simpson over Yellow Dog Democrat Deborah Holmes.

Yet, I'm that statistical anomaly. I'm a Republican and I don't like Mike Simpson. When it comes out in conversation, the idea is pooh poohed or a fellow conservative will sympathize and admit...read more

I saw an irritating headline over at Pajamas Media, "Does Michael Vick Deserve a Second Chance?" Without even reading the column, let me answer the question, "No." Michael Vick doesn't deserve a second chance, neither do you, neither do I.

Giving someone a second chance is an act of grace. Yet, we use the language of entitlement to describe an act of grace. Grace, by its...read more