The Idaho Conservative Blogger got an audience or at least an e-mail audience with my Congressman Mike Simpson and they asked about a somewhat caustic remark I wrote last month:

Well, Simpson is so confident, he's done the political equivalent of walking out on the battlefield in t-shirt and gym shorts. When he's back in his district, he doesn't hold town hall meetings where his constituents can ask him questions. He doesn't have representatives show up at Central Committee meetings, which is a good thing as his staff makes the downtown DMV look like the Missionaries of Charity. I've gotten more polite service at a Subway near BSU. That says something."

"Simpson has taken his position for granted. Even Simpson's fundraising numbers are weak. They're the numbers of a man whose political career has become a never-ending victory lap. Now, he faces a challenge. Not two unknown challengers throwing in their hats at the last minute before the filing deadline, but one challenger who is raising money and building an organization in a year when incumbency will offer less advantage than any year since 1994."

Simpson...read more

The media made a big deal out of Congressman Sali's issues with the FEC, which later turned out not to be his fault.

Well Congressman Simpson seems to have run into a little bit of a problem as he received a Disavowal notice from the FEC for not filing a statement of candidacy, which is legally required. Of course, everyone makes mistakes, so having this issue happen in 2009 wouldn't be...read more

Cheers to Governor Butch Otter who has set up a website for citizens to provide feedback for how Government can tighten its belt during these hard economic times. Said Otter, ""We need your help. Government does not have a monopoly on good ideas." Indeed, they don't, Governor, however an anti-trust lawsuit may be forthcoming against government on the other type.

Boos to...read more

Boos to Rep. Walt Minnick (D-Planned Parenthood) for his vote for funding abortion through Obamacare. His vote for Planned Parenthood and NARAL v. his constituents is telling. The people of the first district don't want their tax dollars to subsidize abortion. On the other token, Minnick's own folks are not happy about his vote against the underlying bill, so I don't think he's long...read more

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

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

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

• 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

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 had to note Governor Butch Otter's effusive praise of the state lottery:

Butch Otter today approvingly called the Idaho Lottery "probably the clearest form of self-taxation that we have in the state." Here's a link to the governor talking about how much the lottery has raised for schools and state buildings in Idaho in the past 20 years, how much the state needs money right now, and how "we appreciate the people taxing themselves, voluntarily, through the lottery." When Idaho's state lottery commission chairman, Roger Jones, made ready to present this year's check to Otter on Tuesday, he said amid some laughter, "We're able to give another million dollars more than last year. ... Maybe it's all spent, Butch, I don'tknow."

Self...read more

Sharon Ullman lost a battle in her effort to reform government:

On Wednesday, the Valley Regional Transit (VRT) Board voted against consolidating with the Community Planning Association (COMPASS). I was the only VRT Board member to vote the other way.

It would make sense to consolidate these two closely-related agencies. VRT is responsible for the bus system and COMPASS does transportation planning. There is significant overlap between the Board members of the two agencies. Through consolidation, greater efficiencies would be realized and tax dollars would be saved:

Last week, news broke that former Congressman Bill Sali was exonerated by the FEC over some campaign finance filing issues:

The Federal Election Commission concluded its own staff failed to adequately assist then-U.S. Rep. Bill Sali file a 2008 campaign finance report. In a May 1 memo, FEC staff members wrote the "repeated failure on the part of Commission staff to promptly follow-up...and help them with their software problem" led to the Republican House member's tardy July 2008 quarterly filing.

Vickie...read more

Peter Morrill over at Idaho Public Television writes a self-serving Reader's viewin support of public television. It's self-serving because Morrill is the general manager of Idaho Public Television and I have yet to meet someone who gets tax dollars who will argue that the money being appropriated his way is not money well-spent.

Morrill knows this is Idaho and a good way to generate sympathy...read more

Cheers to Nampa Classical Academy: Nathaniel Hoffman has a great piece over at Boise Weekly that it sure to give BW readers fits is well-balanced. He talks with Isaac Moffett, the founder of the public charter school. What's plain from Hoffman's article is that Moffett is not trying to start a Christian school, but rather a conservative school. Moffett is working within the guidelines of...read more

I like Superintendent Tom Luna, but I think he's absolutely got it wrong on his goal of lowering the bar for passing school bonds:

State Superintendent of Schools Tom Luna says he's always been an advocate of lowering the supermajority to pass school bonds, while also reducing the number of possible dates when bond elections can be held. The successful legislation this year to consolidate elections, which will reduce school bond votes to only four dates starting in 2011, just did half of that - and would therefore, on its own, make it tougher for Idaho school districts to build new schools. "I think you've raised the bar considerably," Luna told Eye on Boise. "And I don't think that was necessarily the intent of all of those who supported election consolidation - it sure wasn't my expectation that we would stop with just election consolidation."

Luna, who will propose a constitutional amendment to lawmakers in January to lower the supermajority from two-thirds to 60 percent, said, "I think it's still a high bar the districts need to get over in order to pass local bonds and levies." Election consolidation means "you're going to see a lot more people show up at the polls," he said. "I'm not predicting that it will mean that districts will have an easier time. Quite frankly, with more, quite possibly with seven or eight times more people showing up at the polls, 60 percent is still going to be a high bar to get over."

There's...read more