Idaho Speaks

The official date when our troops in Iraq will no  longer be available for combat missions  is August 31, 2010.  At least 100,000 of the troops will  be pulled out by next summer, and 35-50,000 troops will remain to help with counter terrorism duties and other support measures.

I like what the President said.  “Iraq’s future is its own responsibility”.  That seems pretty reasonable.  Of course, we are the ones who helped Saddam retain his power, we are the ones who deposed him, and we drew the wide-scale war to this country.  So hopefully we will actually leave them, and let them do their own thing, from here. 

More troops are headed to Afghanistan as the war there is escalated, to get that task which we started in 2001, finished.

Tags: Afghanistan war, Iraq War, timetable, Troops Drawdown

When the teachers converged on the Capitol steps in Boise years ago, they made a unified showing of force to  the Legislature.  Well, the Legislature got pissed off and retaliated to gut the power of the teachers’ union. 

They made it against the law for any collection of union dues (but they called it the “Voluntary Contributions Act”), saying no government entity could use payroll deductions to collect political contributions.

The decision for Ysursa v. Pocatello Education Association, 07-869 was handed down today. 

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion agreeing with the State of Idaho.  The conservative bloc of justices: Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia, and Clarence Thomas were part of the majority. 

Swing justice Anthony M. Kennedy stayed with the majority this time, and justice Ruth Bader-Ginsburg wrote a separate opinion in agreement, stating that “in the context here, the Constitution compels no distinction between state and local governmental entities.”

3 justices dissented.  Stephen G. Breyer,  David H. Souter and John Paul Stevens were in the minority.  Souter wrote the dissent, and said the law “deals with unions, the statute amended regulates unions, and all this legislation is placed in the state’s labor law certification.  Union speech and nothing else, seems to have been on the legislative mind.”

Tags: union busting in Idaho, US Supreme Court 07-869, Ysursa v. Pocatello Ed Assoc

We knew this was coming, the second wave.  It still feels shocking and the mood in the Treasure Valley is glum. 

So what will they do, these displaced workers?  What any of them usually do.  File for unemployment benefits, and those who keep their jobs for a little while are looking for other work (because they’re trying to try to be prepared). 

Some of them will file for Food Stamps, cash assistance, and Idaho Medicaid.  However, many of that group will be in for a rude surprise.  The unemployment amount will be over the limit for the tiny amount of the Idaho TANF grant.  Their kids may qualify for the Medicaid but the adults will not.  And having had good jobs, they likely have a little more money in the bank than most people right now.  Plus, they’ve likely acquired a few “toys” such as snowmobiles or an ATV or a small boat.  Therefore the combined asset value of their cash and those “toys” will likely put them over the limit to receive Food Stamps, no matter how small their actual monthly income. 

Yet no one is buying these “toys” these days, the rest of us are all strapped for cash even if we have a job.   So the households will use their savings to continue to feed their families and pay their bills, until they’ve totally run dry.  And then the bankruptcies and foreclosures will begin.

This isn’t the end of it.  Not even close.  These families and many others are on the wrong end of the stimulus plan, and the wrong end of these hard times.

Tags: economic hard times, Micron layoffs Boise

Who is Stephenie Meyer, and why are her books so popular?

Stephenie Meyer

Stephenie is a Mormon from Phoenix, Arizona.  She is the writer of the Twilight Saga, a series of 5 books.  The first one is called “Twilight” and is about vampires and werewolves mingling with ordinary humans.

Twilight Cover

The books appeal to teens because they are “clean” with no sex, no bad swearwords, and no bloody gore.  They are so popular that there are movies being made.  The first one is already out, and the second book, “New Moon” is about to be made into a movie, too.

I have read 3 of the 5 books, but I haven’t seen the movie, yet.  I want to, though.

Tags: New Moon, Stephenie Meyer, Twilight Saga

With all the adults involved in this site working full time, and having lives and families to attend to, we’ve been surprised at how slow this building process really is.  We thought it would take a few weeks and we’d have something up and running and ready to present publicly.

Not so much.  It’s up and going, but it’s not fine tuned, just yet.  There are various bits of programming that we’ve yet to sit down and puzzle out, and we thought we knew what kinds of options we wanted to offer the public but no one took notes when we met and we’re all old farts who suffer from CRS most days, so…

Authors.  We’re still looking for those who are willing to write.  We have some lined up, and I think we’ll have a Submissions Editor function going pretty soon.  We have engaged a photographer, we expect to install a local picture gallery within a month or so.

We installed a chat box because that seems to be a pretty simple way to communicate with site regulars without having to get “chatty” in the comments.  However, that will stay pretty quiet until we have a regular contingent of commenters. 

We see that other sites have a poll section, is that something you think we should have, also?  I’m thinking no, because the other sites sometimes leave their polls up for weeks and weeks at a time…wtf ? 

Also it was suggested (thanks, Warg Rider) that we have a  ‘back to the top’ comment feature, and some way to see recent comments.  We got those installed, tell us if they don’t work.

We had a suggestion for podcasts and some audio files.  Trust me, we’re looking into those ideas.

Someone emailed me that they wanted an advice column, in addition to our Darlene’s World (middle aged woman viewpoint), and our Grizz Gurl Growls (teenage girl viewpoint).  I’m just not sure that would work.  Who is qualified to give advice to a stranger ?  Certainly no one involved here is willing to dispense words of wisdom beyond our usual editorializing.  So consider that idea to be tabled for the time being, but keep the suggestions coming.

You’ll notice we have a “Contact Us” page at the top.  As the administrator (and one of the webmasters) my email address is there, just write to administrator at the name of this website.com.  Forgive us for not actually putting in the correct name, as that link would be munched on by the spambots that troll the sites. 

If you’ve registered but can’t sign in, or need to reset your password and can’t get a return email, use that email address to contact us and we’ll get you a new one out, pronto.

So, tell us what you like and don’t like.  We may be new, but we don’t need to be strangers.  Speak, Friend, and Enter!

Tags: Idaho Speaks wants your suggestions, New Community Website in Idaho Falls

I’ve seen the poll numbers come down a bit from where they started.  The nation is settling in, and there appears to be a little (maybe a lot) of grumbling that Obama is not bringing as much change as he said he would, or as much change as folks had hoped he would.  The honeymoon may be ending, and now we’re holding our breath wondering, what is next, and can he make that magic return before we start looking for another sweetheart?

He, Too, Has a Dream

And the people on the right, those of the wingnut contingent, are gearing up for even more scathing attacks, because after praying to their vengeful God that Obama would fail, they could finally draw a sigh of relief because at least, he didn’t make any stellar and amazing moves.   He didn’t get what he asked for, he took what he could get, and he got burned by a few bad moves right off the bat.  He might be vulnerable, so they will dial up the volume.

Myself, I’m still waiting.  One month does not a legacy make.  One month does not a recession break.  I want him to get comfortable on the job, and then, I want him to systematically tackle our priorities and bring our nation back.

Yes He Can.

Tags: President Obama's First 30 Days, Presidential Honeymoon

I have seen many references recently to Margaret and Helen, a blog supposedly written by a woman in her early 80s from Texas.  I went to the site and I’m sore from laughing my ass off (sorry, LMAO) at the posts in the last 4 months.  In fact, I have this image of Helen that I can’t get out of my mind…

Ann Coulter's Nemesis

Have you been reading her stuff?  At first she was a lioness pouncing on ‘Ms. Pitbull with Lipstick Palin’.  Then she switched to Elisabeth Hasselbeck (there’s nothing to see there) and lately she’s been all over Ann Coulter, the self-identified sexpot of the Republican Party.  This group is the mighty triumvirate of Republican Womanhood, but Ms. Helen takes them on and eats them for breakfast.

Now, I’m just as skeptical as the rest of the world, that this is really a woman in her 80s who was just chatting online with her college roommate, separated by miles and years.  She’s incredibly saucy, in fact, acid drips off her tongue in every paragraph.  From out of nowhere, her blog rose to be a major national contender, and she gets hundreds of responses from all across the nation, with every post.

I heard there is some massive amount of sleuthing going on.  People want to find out who ’she’ really is, either to expose her for being a 28 year old liberal mama’s boy who still lives in his parents’ basement, or a failed comedy writer who can’t get picked up by a TV series, and needed to generate some publicity.  If you go to Google, you’ll see that there have been more than 3 MILLION searches related to their authenticity alone.

It’s a cultural phenomenon, no matter what it ultimately turns out to be.  For my money, I hope it’s an 83 year old woman who lives in Texas and blogs to her friend for life who lives in New England.

Tags: Margaret and Helen authentic?, Margaret and Helen fake?

Oh, the scandal and the hue and cry in this tiny little burg!  I’m not even sure where to start.

Brilliant but no thanks

Dean Miller, the Executive Editor of the Post Register, was “fired”.  These things are never clearly and completely known by the public, or even other employees of the Post Register.  Personnel issues are touchy and usually no one really wants to say (or can legally say), exactly what happened.  Therefore rumors abound and speculation rules the blogosphere.

The story in today’s paper generated some pretty intense Post Talk.   jemcgimpsey (is this John, the Democratic candidate for the Idaho Legislature, who lost the last two local elections?) commented several times, and was very thorough and reasonable.  Of course, that’s his style…which didn’t appeal to the voters although I admired him for it.  John did use terms that caused Roger Plothow to respond…John said that the management action, given what was printed, seemed ‘incompetent or capricious’.   

The fact of the matter seems to boil down to, the direction Dean was taking the Post Register was at odds with where the management wanted to go, so it was time to part ways.  They mentioned cumulative things.  Well, he was a firebrand by comparison to the rather staid and stuffy community.  There were many questionable ‘news’ stories.  He did ruffle many feathers locally, not the least of which was Frank Vandersloot’s.

I guess the local Mormons buy a lot of dildoes but they don’t want you to make it front page news when they do.  And they allow their kids to go to Scout camp where the management knows about pedophiles, and they are pissed off if you try to suggest that isn’t a safe place for their sons.   And how dare you print that Frank’s wife was a huge donor to the Proposition Hate 8 campaign in California?   Or say that their church encouraged members to do the same?

You might be brilliant but apparently you need to take your brilliance the hell out of here, Dean.  I wish you well in a more enlightened venue.  Too bad we’re not ready for your kind of prime time here in SE Idaho.

Tags: Controversial Firing, Dean Miller, Post Register

There’s a report out from the National Academy of Sciences that says our nation’s crime labs need a lot of work and money, a “major overhaul”.  That’s a real concern to me, and you should worry, too.  

If the labs are not functioning well because their equipment is substandard, or they are overloaded due to being understaffed, and on top of that the staff they have are not trained in the latest techniques…Houston, we have a problem.

Per this story on CNN.com, the report showed there is a:

…serious lack of uniform standards, training and oversight. And, with the exception of DNA technology…experts often overstate how much can be determined by forensic techniques running the gamut from fingerprinting to bite mark and hair analysis.

US Court of Appeals Judge Harry Edwards said,

 “We determine whether people are innocent or whether they are guilty in part based on forensic science evidence, so as a nation it is terribly important to us that we do it as well as it can be done, and we are not doing it as well as it can be done right now”

The report made some recommendations:

The panel recommends that Congress create an independent National Institute of Forensic Science that could formulate standards for various forensic disciplines, regulate training and accreditation, and lead research. Another recommendation is that crime labs should be autonomous and not controlled by police departments or prosecutors’ offices to head off any real or perceived bias toward law enforcement.

I am hoping Congress takes this report seriously and gives good thought to the recommendations.  It’s really telling that we are a nation of laws, and we depend upon good scientific evidence in our criminal prosecutions, but we don’t take care to make sure we are correctly gathering, handling, analyzing and reporting data that will ultimately point to the true perpetrator or possibly exonerate the accused.

Tags: Crime lab report, National Academy of Science

Per a story on Local News 8…

Folks are going to the hair salons less often these days.  They aren’t having dye jobs, or streaks or perms as often as they used to.  And per the salon staff, they are also not tipping as much as they once did. 

I Miss My Stylist!

It stands to reason, the salons are a luxury expense.  But it bothers me, if you’re still getting the work done, the person should still deserve a tip.  Especially these days.

Do you use salons?  Have you cut back?  And most importantly….with all the cutbacks, do you still tip?

Tags: economic hard times, hair salons, Local News 8