Right Mind

“Indie” here means independent voters.

From Hotline On Call:

Independent voters see Pres. Obama in a negative light by a nearly 2-1 margin, according to a new Marist College survey, while almost half of voters say he has failed to meet their expectations.

The poll, conducted Feb. 1-3, showed just 44% of registered voters approving of Obama's job as president. 47% disapprove. But among indie voters, Obama's approval rating sits at a terrible 29%, while his disapproval rating is at 57%.

Obama's 44% job approval rating is the lowest he has scored in any non-internet poll since moving into the WH, according to a review of data compiled by Pollster.com.

And while GOPers strive to avoid attacking Obama personally, for fear of offending voters who see him in a favorable light personally, even that aura of invincibility is wearing off. Independent voters view Obama negatively, too, by a 39% favorable to 52% unfavorable margin. All registered voters still see Obama favorably by a 50%-44% margin, but that's down 5 points in just 2 months.

Voters are disappointed in what they got with Obama's first year. The poll shows 47% believe Obama has failed to meet their expectations -- including a quarter of Dems, 65% of GOPers and 53% of indie voters -- while just 42% say he has met their expectations. 38% say Obama's policies are moving the country in the wrong direction, while 37% say they're making the country better.

Meanwhile, members of Congress should brace for a difficult election year. 42% of registered voters said they would back their current member of Congress, while 44% said they would support someone else -- a drop of 9 points in support of the incumbent in just 2 months.

The Marist College poll surveyed 910 registered voters for a margin of error of +/- 3.2%.

You know how dangerous those pro-life groups are. The government needs to keep a close eye on them. They are domestic terrorists, don’t ‘cha know <tongue firmly implanted in cheek>.

Not to mention that the majority of Americans now consider themselves “pro-life”.

From Life News:

The Department of Homeland Security admitted today that it improperly conducted a threat assessment on pro-life and pro-abortion groups in Wisconsin. The assessment came before an expected rally last year in response to the University of Wisconsin Hospital board decided to allow abortions.

In February 2009, pro-life advocates planned to protest the hospital's decision to open up a new Madison Surgery Center doing abortions.

The Associated Press reported today that the department said in a memo that it "destroyed all of the copies of the assessment after an internal review found it violated intelligence gathering guidelines about 'protest groups which posed no threat to homeland security.'"

AP indicated the assessment was reportedly only shared with the director of Wisconsin's intelligence-sharing center and local police in Middleton, Wisconsin, the site of the rally.

Today, a pro-life organization in Wisconsin informed LifeNews.com of its concerns.

In response to an open records request by the Alliance Defense Fund and Pro-Life Wisconsin, the Middleton Police Department and the Wisconsin Department of Justice, along with the Department of Homeland Security all refused on February 4 to release copies of the threat assessment.

Pro-Life Wisconsin officials told LifeNews.com that the assessment was "inappropriately shared" and should never have targeted pro-life groups.

“The majority of Americans identify themselves as pro-life, and the Middleton Police Department has shown they are out of touch with this peaceful majority,” said Peggy Hamill, state director of the pro-life group. “Pro-lifers are not a minority of the population, nor are they second-class citizens. We refuse to let our First Amendment rights be silenced.”

Day By Day© by Chris Muir.

From the Associated Press:

The snow is piled up in front of the West Wing of the White House in Washington Saturday, Feb. 6, 2010. Mid-Atlantic residents were buried by a blizzard that the president jokingly called 'Snowmageddon.'

Day By Day© by Chris Muir.

Day By Day© by Chris Muir.

From Inside Higher Education:

“Six months ago, the university blocked a student organization from bringing Horowitz to the university for one of his talks about ‘Islamo-fascism.’ Horowitz is a conservative critic of higher education as well as a wide range of other sectors of society. The university said at the time that it didn’t want Horowitz to talk on campus in a way that could be divisive (as many of Horowitz’s critics have said his talks on Islam tend to be). Students also reported that they were told by university administrators that they didn’t want Horowitz speaking without someone who would offer contrasting views.”

Don’t you just love the tolerance and open-mindedness on the US higher education campuses?

It’s almost like the statists fear free speech and the transfer of ideas.

Can you imagine what the 1960’s college anti-war protests would look like today if they had to follow politically correct rules: nothing divisive can be said; you have to have contrasting views at the podium; etc.

We’re living in very surreal times.

As reported in the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

Some good news: Idaho's children are a few percentage points less overweight and obese than their counterparts nationwide.

Now for the bad: That's not good enough, and students aren't getting nearly as much physical education in school as health experts recommend.

Why is it the responsibility of the state and the government schools to ensure that kids are exercising properly and not overweight?

What’s next, requiring that kid floss brush their teeth under the supervision of a school dental hygenist?

From the UK Globe and Mail:

In 2007, the most comprehensive report to date on global warming, issued by the respected United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, made a shocking claim: The Himalayan glaciers could melt away as soon as 2035.

These glaciers provide the headwaters for Asia's nine largest rivers and lifelines for the more than one billion people who live downstream. Melting ice and snow would create mass flooding, followed by mass drought. The glacier story was reported around the world. Last December, a spokesman for the World Wildlife Fund, an environmental pressure group, warned, “The deal reached at Copenhagen will have huge ramifications for the lives of hundreds of millions of people who are already highly vulnerable due to widespread poverty.” To dramatize their country's plight, Nepal's top politicians strapped on oxygen tanks and held a cabinet meeting on Mount Everest.

But the claim was rubbish, and the world's top glaciologists knew it. It was based not on rigorously peer-reviewed science but on an anecdotal report by the WWF itself. When its background came to light on the eve of Copenhagen, Rajendra Pachauri, the head of the IPCC, shrugged it off. But now, even leading scientists and environmental groups admit the IPCC is facing a crisis of credibility that makes the Climategate affair look like small change.

“The global warming movement as we have known it is dead,” the brilliant analyst Walter Russell Mead says in his blog on The American Interest. It was done in by a combination of bad science and bad politics.

You gotta love it when liberals make these kinds of proclamations.

From the Washington Examiner:

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who flies around on private planes so as to tell larger numbers of people how they must live their lives in order to save the planet, wrote a column last year on the lack of winter weather in Washington, D.C.

In Virginia, the weather also has changed dramatically. Recently arrived residents in the northern suburbs, accustomed to today's anemic winters, might find it astonishing to learn that there were once ski runs on Ballantrae Hill in McLean, with a rope tow and local ski club. Snow is so scarce today that most Virginia children probably don't own a sled. But neighbors came to our home at Hickory Hill nearly every winter weekend to ride saucers and Flexible Flyers.

In those days, I recall my uncle, President Kennedy, standing erect as he rode a toboggan in his top coat, never faltering until he slid into the boxwood at the bottom of the hill. Once, my father, Atty. Gen. Robert Kennedy, brought a delegation of visiting Eskimos home from the Justice Department for lunch at our house. They spent the afternoon building a great igloo in the deep snow in our backyard. My brothers and sisters played in the structure for several weeks before it began to melt. On weekend afternoons, we commonly joined hundreds of Georgetown residents for ice skating on Washington's C&O Canal, which these days rarely freezes enough to safely skate.

Meanwhile, Exxon Mobil and its carbon cronies continue to pour money into think tanks whose purpose is to deceive the American public into believing that global warming is a fantasy. 

HT: Rod D. Martin

David writes:

Senator Shelby has placed a hold on ALL of Obama’s nominees and in return wants billions in earmarks for Alabama and an Air Force tanker contract for his client, EADS (the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company, which owns AIRBUS).

Shelby is just an opportunistic lawyer-politician who 1986 won, as a Democrat, the Senate seat held by Republican Jeremiah Denton, a retired Navy admiral and long-time resident of the Hanoi Hilton, as the Democratic Party regained control of the Senate. Shelby was easily re-elected in 1992 even as Bill Clinton lost Alabama's electoral votes.

On November 9, 1994, Shelby switched his party affiliation to Republican, one day after the Republicans won control of both houses in the midterm elections, giving the Republicans a 53-47 majority in the Senate.

The Democrats will gain great political capital during the next few weeks on his greed.

This is yet another example of Republican fascism, and why the Tea Partiers are fed up with both political parties. These kinds of shenanigans very well may lead to the emergence of another political party.

Via Public Integrity:

Senator Richard Shelby The unusual “blanket hold” placed on Obama administration nominees by Senator Richard Shelby, represents an effort to support a firm that has contributed more than $100,000 to the Alabama Republican over the course of his long political career, according to a Center for Public Integrity analysis.

Shelby reportedly initiated the blanket hold in an attempt to back a $35 billion tanker contract for Northrop Grumman and EADS; the plane would be built in his state.

The contract had been initially awarded to the companies in 2008, but was canceled after rival Boeing protested and the Government Accountability Office upheld the protest — forcing the Defense Department to rebid the contract. Shelby has been outspoken in support of granting the contract to Northrop Grumman and Jeremiah Denton,. Shelby and Northrop Grumman have both objected to the Defense Department’s new rebidding process.

While by all accounts a Northrop Grumman contract would create significant numbers of jobs in his home state, Shelby’s initiative is also a move to secure funding for a company that has long funded him. The fourth-term Senator has received at least $108,233 in PAC contributions to his political campaigns and leadership PAC from Northrop Grumman’s corporate PACs. This includes contributions, dating back to his first Senate election in 1986, from the company’s political action committee and from the PACs of companies that are now part of Northrop Grumman.

According to the Center analysis, this level of support ranks Northrop Grumman as the seventh most generous institutional supporter over the course of Shelby’s political career.

By placing the holds, Shelby essentially announced he would filibuster any nominee sent by the White House to the Senate for confirmation. The White House lists more than 200 nominees who have not yet received a Senate confirmation vote.

Calls to the office of Senator Shelby were not returned by publication time. But in a statement to Talking Points Memo, a Shelby spokesman said the holds were “due to unaddressed national security concerns.” Among those concerns, he said, “is that nearly 10 years after the U.S. Air Force announced plans to replace the aging tanker fleet, we still do not have a transparent and fair acquisition process to move forward.” He said the senator was also “deeply concerned” that the Obama administration will not release funds already appropriated to the FBI to build the Terrorist Explosives Devices Analytical Center, a facility to be located in Alabama.

A spokesman for Northrop Grumman told the Center that the company “is very conscientious in adhering to all federal regulations and reporting requirements when supporting members of Congress. The company’s contributions to representatives of both political parties are a matter of public record.”

Not just once, but two times Obama mispronounces “corpsman” as “corpseman”.

HT: David D.

From the Canada Free Press:

Recently I’ve noticed several things that the Progressives are having trouble with.  Well, actually a LOT of things, but this article will focus on just a few of them.

First of all, Obama, like most Progressives, seems to have a problem identifying the U.S. Constitution. 

In his State of the Union address, Obama stated that “We find unity in our incredible diversity, drawing on the promise enshrined in our Constitution: the notion that we are all created equal….” 

Darn near made me want to stand up and salute, (something our POTUS could use some lessons in, by the way).  There’s a problem here, however.  It turns out that “the notion that we are all created equal” is not “enshrined in our Constitution”—it’s from the Declaration of Independence.

Doesn’t say much for Obama’s grasp of the Constitution, when he confuses the U.S. Constitution, with the Declaration of Independence

This mistaken attribution is an understandable faux pas for your average “Joe six-pack,” but Obama’s supposed to be a Harvard-trained Constitutional lawyer.  It doesn’t say much for Harvard Law School, or Obama’s grasp of the Constitution, when he confuses the U.S. Constitution, with the Declaration of Independence.

(Note to the White House (and Harvard Law School): they are two totally different documents, with different wording, and different purposes.  They are not interchangeable.  I know—bummer).

One can imagine Obama’s final exam on Constitutional Law:

Harvard Law professor:  “Mister Obama, what are the opening words of the U.S. Constitution?”

Obama:  “Uh, ‘When in the course of human events….’”

Harvard Law professor:  “Close enough!  You pass!”

No wonder these folks have so much trouble following the Constitution.

If I may, let me make a suggestion to the Progressives (and Harvard).  The Cato Institute sells a small book that contains a copy of both the Constitution, and the Declaration of Independence.  It’s inexpensive, so there’s really no excuse for you not to have one—as a handy reference, you know.

 I’ve still got my copy that was given to me back in the early days of serving in the US Navy.

Dr. A writes:

Indiana University’s recent refusal to have a conservative-leaning speaker on campus is just one of an increasing number of such acts of “repressive tolerance” at universities nationwide. Ideologues of the Academic Left demand toleration of every sexual and social perversion known to man, but systematically refuse to allow speakers or programs that hint of anything biblical or conservative. This hypocrisy of the Left in such matters of free speech and “tolerance” is baffling to most non-Leftists until you read Herbert Marcuse, the father of campus radicalism. In his 1965 article “Repressive Tolerance” (dedicated to students at Brandeis University), Marcuse explains why the Left should suppress the freedoms of those on the Right. For Marcuse, the only way to “true tolerance” is by denying freedom to those on the Right (i.e., anyone who disagrees with Leftist ideology) and withdrawing their freedom of speech.

Here is Marcuse’s argument, straight from the horse’s mouth:

“Reopening channels of true toleration may be accomplished by apparently undemocratic means that include the withdrawal of toleration of speech and assembly from groups and movements which promote aggressive policies, armament, chauvinism, discrimination on the grounds of race and religion, or which oppose the extension of public services, social security, medical care, etc. Liberating tolerance is intolerance against movements from the Right and toleration of movements from the Left.”

You have to love the progressives: only tolerating and allowing that which they agree with.

Sure gives a new meaning to the word “tolerate”.

Think of this as Social Security for Idaho’s colleges. We all know how well the Social Security Ponzi scheme works. Now we’ll do the same for Higher Ed.

The following article ran in the Lewiston Tribune.

In the midst of famine, two Idaho lawmakers are imagining a feast.

Sen. Joe Stegner, R-Lewiston, and Rep. Scott Bedke, R-Oakley, will propose legislation this session to create a higher education savings account, similar to what's already in place for public schools. The funds would be used to shelter Idaho's colleges and universities from future budget cuts.

The lawmakers say very little money could be put into the account initially, given the state's current budget constraints. However, they're imagining a time when general fund revenues start to improve. They want to establish the account now, so it's ready when times get better.  

The following commentary by Michael Costello ran in today's Lewiston Tribune. Costello is always well worth reading.

You can find a copy on his website: The Pajamahadin.

Mike pulls together all of the data in one place and makes a compelling argument.

Is this a scientific scandal or a journalism scandal?

It took an inordinately long time for the original Climategate scandal to percolate to the surface of the mainstream news media's consciousness. In that one, files were hacked from the Climate Research Unit at East Anglia University exposing the biggest names in global warming research as cynical, dishonest, politically motivated hacks.

The famous computer model used to predict global warming was found to be buggy and unreliable. And even though these men and their predictions were the basis for international treaties and proposed U.S. law, the news of their corruption garnered scant attention.

The Associated Press decided the leaked e-mails did not prove that climate data was faked, a judgment disputed by the left-leaning British newspaper, The Guardian.

But the AP missed the point. The e-mails did prove that the leaders in global warming science were not impartial researchers in pursuit of the truth, but had definite political agendas and did use their positions to stifle dissent and hide contradictory data.

For the past three years, we've been assured that the science supporting the international drive to impose economic burdens, erase national sovereignty and to crush individual liberty was based upon the best possible science. It was "settled," they told us. Balderdash.

But even as the U.S. news media played "hear no evil, see no evil," newspapers in Europe have begun to peel away the layers of deceit and have exposed the shabbiness and political agendas of the "research" used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to make their predictions.

Among the more dramatic claims made by IPCC was that, by 2035, Himalayan glaciers would melt. These glaciers are critical to agriculture for three nations, including the two largest, China and India. Their disappearance would be devastating. The disappearance of those glaciers would lead to famine in India.

As it turns out, the primary evidence used to make those predictions were anecdotes collected in a mountaineering magazine and a single master's thesis written by a Swiss graduate student who cited the magazine as his source. It was eventually confessed that the predictions were included in the final report to increase political pressure for a climate treaty.

Another prediction in the IPCC report said the Amazon rainforest would be denuded by even minor fluctuations in annual rainfall. This turned out to be entirely fabricated. The observed losses in rainforest were caused by logging and not climatic fluctuations. What's particularly disturbing is the reliance of the IPCC upon very suspect information sources for these predictions. Both the World Wildlife Federation and Greenpeace were treated as disinterested, reliable sources. But both the WWF and Greenpeace are politically driven advocacy pressure groups with left-wing agendas even more transparent than those of the scientists exposed in the original Climategate scandal.

And as is so often the case in climate science, there's money involved. The chair of the IPCC, Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, had a fiduciary interest in pushing the IPCC's findings. Pachauri is heavily invested in such schemes as carbon trading, and the future of his investments depend upon sustaining hysteria and the passage of laws and treaties intended to cap carbon emissions.

Gee. This reminds me of a certain failed presidential candidate in this country who is on track to become the world's first "green" billionaire.

The IPCC report also concluded that global warming was responsible for an increase in the frequency and severity of disasters such as floods and hurricanes. The sourcing for that study was also anecdotal and not a single peer-reviewed paper was cited.

Both the United States National Atmospheric and Space Administration and the Climate Research Unit have been presented with Freedom of Information Act requests to share their data. In the case of the CRU, they were found to have violated the law and much of the requested information is missing. What has been found is that CRU cherry-picked and even moved data recording stations. At NASA, the little bit of information that has been gleaned reveals that NASA systematically deleted recording stations that returned cooler than desired results. The actual number of stations used in their data collection has fallen from 6,000 to only 1,500.

There was once a time when cover ups piqued journalistic attention. No more. Kim Jong Il is treated with more skepticism by North Korean newspapers than global warming orthodoxy receives in the United States.  

The following “Ink” by Vera White appeared in today's edition of the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

The INKster keeps talking to people still wondering why the Jan. 23 University of Idaho Vandal Appreciation Day Parade in downtown Moscow also included an anti-abortion rally in Friendship Square. She understands the parade drew a good turnout and rightfully so, since this was the Vandals' first bowl win in 11 years. But the Dec. 30 Humanitarian Bowl win against Bowling Green State University was a thriller and the Vandals needed the attention focused on them.

The INKster understands the folks at Christ Church sponsored the anti-abortion rally.

"Apparently St. Augustine's Catholic Center was in on it too as I saw a sign in the window there promoting the event," said one puzzled fan who was on Main Street for the short parade. "I'm not faulting the rally, but it just seemed like poor timing to have it coincide with the parade."

In Moscow, we call it "Community Togetherness."

Now, you would think that I would have some knowledge whether Christ Church sponsored a pro-life rally. But Vera’s column was the first I knew of it. Clearly she has some insider information. I didn’t get that secret message.

But Daily News reader, Leonard C. Johnson, sent the following Letter to the Editor in an attempt to disabuse the editorial staff of yet another Vera mistake.

Editor, MP DN:
 
Each year on the Saturday nearest the January 22 anniversary date of the fateful, homicidal finding handed down by the U. S. Supreme Court in Roe v.Wade, defenders of the sanctity of the gift of life all over America gather in commemoration.  They march in silent protest against legalized killing of unborn infants, join in prayers, and listen to invited speakers.

In Moscow, this annual event takes the form of a march from the parking lot of Logos School to Friendship Square in downtown Moscow.  Participants this year, on 23 January, were reminded of a need to be more mindful of the clock than usual, lest the message of our invited speaker, a local Christian pastor, be drowned out by noise generated by the Humanitarian Bowl victory parade marching past on Main Street.  As it happened, the last few minutes of the speaker's message were pretty much overwhelmed by the celebratory music.  C'est la vie.  (I hope this assuages some of Vera White's angst). 

This demonstration, its date determined by the calendar and its city permit obtained in advance, is sponsored solely by the Moscow Right to Life Committee. It has no formal or sponsorhip linkages with any other local organization, not even with the leprous Christ Church. 

Good try, Vera, but no cigar!

Leonard C. Johnson
Moscow, Idaho

They will print the letter. But will the Daily News issue a retraction/correction? Not holding my breath.

From the Canada Free Press:

Sarah Palin hit the nail on the head when she told the Tea Party Nation Convention that this repeated mantra of ‘bi-partisanship’ needs to find exit. Quickly. Like right now.

When Congressmen continue to boast on their bi-partisanship, it reveals their lack of conviction. That’s the upshot of what Palin was declaring.

For an elected official to state sweet things to media by continually bragging on how nicely he reaches “across the aisle” makes bland a Congress.

Greta Van Susteren of Fox News gets to the same point. When interviewing John McCain, he kept sounding lovely by accenting his “bi-partisanship” in Congress.

She interrupted him abruptly to ask him why he said those sweet words about his opponents. And then she went on to refer to others who do the same. She did not let up on her criticism of limp verbiage.

She put it to McCain by saying that accenting how kindly Congressmen dialogue with one another gives the American public the idea that conviction has drained out. Of course, the present proof is that conviction has indeed drained out, except for liberals. They cling to insane conviction even when it beheads the nation.

Van Susteren said that conservative patriots want leaders who stand for something, not for officials who kiss up to one another with these pretty phrases.

Palin drummed the same. And the Convention responded loudly with cheers of assent.

From what Scott Brown has been telling about his senatorial style, it appears he is of the same conviction cloth. He’s not going to be cute with other Congressmen; instead, he’s going to stand up for what Brown believes and so go at it.

It’s time that this wishy-washy laudatory verbiage be cut out of Congressmens’ giving forth. It does not make points with the grassroots.

Let feathers fly. Let sparks flash. Let the moralist convictions light up the sky.

HT: Bill J.

From Rep. Tom Trail (R-Moscow).

Constituents — There was at least one good piece of news to come out of the Idaho Legislature this week. Sen. Schroeder and I along with five other Central Idaho Legislators attended the State Park Board meeting on Wednesday to urge the Board to overturn their decision to close Dvorsach State Park. There was an excellent turnout of both legislators and citizens at the meeting. The Board unanimously approved reopening of the Park and Director Merrill has given her staff 30 days to come up with a management plan. The successful management of the Park will mean that many different stakeholders will have to join forces to help the Park move towards becoming economically self sufficient.

Here are some other news items that occurred during the week:

1. Economic News and State Budget — While the news from Washington, D.C. indicates that we have turned the corner in the recession, there are certainly no positive signs here in Idaho. We still have almost 70,000 citizens unemployed. Agriculture experienced a 47 percent decline in net income last year. The only good news was that Micron’s last quarter earnings were on the positive side for the first time in several years.
   
   January’s tax receipts came in about $10 million under projections. Projections are that all state agencies including public and higher education will be facing a 10 percent reduction in their budgets for Fiscal Year 2011. This means that JFAC will be faced with some very hard decisions. For example, if we cut Corrections by $5 million this means that we have to release 250 felons into society. I doubt that the Legislature is willing to go this far. There are almost 50 school districts whose reserves are almost exhausted. The University of Idaho’s state funding was cut back $22 million last year. Key programs are being cut and top researchers and teachers along with their grants are being cherry picked off by other universities. Morale among public school teachers and higher education faculty is suffering. Fewer classes will be offered and class sizes will increase.
   
2. Guarding the State’s Dollars — The recent news that $74,000 was spent for dedication of highway openings and ceremonies caused Rep. Wood, Chair of House Transportation Committee to say, “This is appalling.” The finger pointing went all the way from the Transportation Board to the Governor’s Office. Certainly no one was watching the henhouse on this one.
   
   I recently learned that three Idaho employees (all with salaries of over $200,000/year) are able to take their spouses on domestic and international trips at state experience (assuming there is some benefit to the state). These are the three University Presidents at ISU, UI, and BSU and, yes, it is legal and it is written in their contracts. None of the other University Presidents have this privilege nor does the Governor. I have written the State Board of Education asking for them to provide the Legislature with specific and measurable evidence how such taxpayer expense benefits the state and why none of the other university presidents is given such a privilege. I’ve also requested the Board to provide how much has been paid out for spouse travel over the past five years. The practice may be legal but it certainly sends out the wrong sign to our citizens and other state employees.
   
   On the local scene in Moscow there are reports that a Hilton Gardens Hotel and International Pancake House will be built at the old Wally Orvik Chevrolet location and that the Moscow Walmart will remain open even after the opening of the Giant Walmart in Pullman.
   
3. Taxes — Republican legislators may be promoting some tax cut bills for large businesses in the hopes of attracting more corporations to Idaho to create jobs. I think the emphasis should be on legislation that strengthens our small businesses which is the driving force for creating jobs in the state. As I mentioned in another newsletter the Idaho State Tax Commission reports that is they can hire about 150 part time tax auditors that they can potentially collect about $70 million in unpaid taxes in the state. This would be a return on investment of $10 for every dollar invested. The IRS reports that almost $300 million in taxes go unpaid every year in Idaho. I think this is where we should be getting some of our added revenue. Another area are taxes on internet sales—estimated to be about $60 million/year. This seems to be another fruitful area. The examination of all of the 75 tax exemptions also merits attention.
   
4. Idaho Public TV — I’ve received about 80 e-mails all in support of continuing funding for Idaho Public TV. If the Governor’s plan is carried out it is most likely that citizens in the Treasure Valley and selected southern areas in the state would have access to public TV programs. There are some hidden costs to phasing out funding for public TV. IPTV has spent $22 million for digital conversion over the past 10 years with $6 million from the federal government with strings attached. If public TV cannot maintain the equipment then the state would have to repay the feds about $2 million. I’m working with other legislators to try and overturn this very bad proposal. Citizens should contact the Governor and their legislators to indicate their support.

That’s all for this week. I’d appreciate your e-mails and calls with your comments and suggestions.

I wonder if Tom Trail knows what a “sunk cost” is?

To my readers: feel free to let the governor know if you support him in eliminating state funding to government TV. Why in this day and age of internet content do we need to spend this kind of money on government media is beyond me.

From the Tribune:

The burgeoning tea party movement should remain leaderless and decentralized, former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin said Saturday, calling the effort "bigger than any king or queen of the tea party."

"Put your faith in ideas. I caution against allowing this movement to be defined by one leader or operation," she told the National Tea Party Convention in Nashville. The small government movement is "a ground-up call to action that's forcing both parties to change the way they're doing business. This is about the people."

In her keynote address, Palin offered her analysis of President Barack Obama's foreign policy record and delivered a critique of his stimulus package - decrying the federal deficit as "generational theft." The list of Obama's broken promises is long, Palin said in her signature folksy delivery.

"How's that hopey, changing stuff workin' out for ya?" she asked 1,000 or so supporters who paid $300 apiece to attend her speech.

Palin applauded the president's decision to increase forces in Afghanistan while deriding his efforts at diplomacy, singling out North Korea.

"We must spend less time courting our adversaries and more time working with our allies," the former Alaska governor said. "The lesson of that last year is this: Foreign policy cannot be managed through the politics of personality."

In recent months, Palin has positioned herself outside the Republican Party establishment. She passed on an invitation to attend the annual Conservative Political Action Conference and agreed to speak at the Nashville event.

Palin also has said she would attend two upcoming tea party events: a rally next month in Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's hometown of Searchlight, Nev., and an April get-together in Boston. Both gatherings are being organized by the Sacramento-based Tea Party Express.

From KLEW TV in Lewiston:

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a toilet?

Hahn Rentals boosted a porta-potty 126 feet into the air along Thain Grade last week.

General Manager Larry Bean said he came up with the idea Monday night, that in his younger days he would do radical displays, but hasn't done it in decades.

The store has received lots of phone calls Tuesday and he said he did it to inspire other employees to come up with display ideas.

Bean said it only took a couple of minutes to do it, but that it's for sure the highest toilet in the Valley.

From The Politico:

President Barack Obama acknowledged Sunday that local opposition is likely to nix the administration’s plan to hold the trial for 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in New York City. “I have not ruled it out,” Obama told Katie Couric of CBS News. “But I think it’s important for us to take into account the practical, logistical issues involved. I mean, if you’ve got a city that is saying ‘no,’ and a police department that’s saying ‘no,’ and a mayor that’s saying ‘no,’ that makes it difficult.”

 HT: Bill J.

“Democratic leaders had not considered him a threat to win and didn't highlight his past during the campaign.”

David D. asks the hard question:

Another disgraced Chicago politician who drops out only a few days after winning the nomination.  If you did not think Chicago politics was a dirty game, consider the reporter's statement above.  It wasn't the opposition who would have exposed his record, but his own party if they thought he would have won.

Makes you wonder if they did not do it post-election.

From the Washington Post:

The Democratic nominee for Illinois' lieutenant governor dropped out of the race Sunday night, less than a week after winning the nomination, amid a political uproar about his past.

In announcing his decision at a Chicago bar packed with people watching the Super Bowl, Scott Lee Cohen said the Democrats were not certain they could win with him on the ticket.

Since Cohen won the Democratic nomination on Tuesday, it has become widely known that he was accused of abusing his ex-wife and holding a knife to the throat of an ex-girlfriend - a woman who was herself charged with prostitution. He also admits using steroids in the past.

"For the good of the people of the state of Illinois and the Democratic Party, I will resign," a clearly emotional Cohen said in a rambling remarks made as the Super Bowl halftime entertainment blared in the background.

Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn, who would have been paired with Cohen on the November ticket, U.S. Rep. Danny Davis and Sen. Dick Durbin all had urged Cohen to leave the race. Quinn has said he knew nothing about the allegations against Cohen until after Tuesday's primary.

Surrounded by his two sons, his fiancee and his fiancee's sons, Cohen apologized to his family, his supporters and anyone he may have let down.

"The last thing I wanted to do was put the people of Illinois in jeopardy," Cohen said.

Until his nomination, Cohen was a political unknown. Democratic leaders had not considered him a threat to win and didn't highlight his past during the campaign.

The pawnbroker and owner of a cleaning supplies company ran against several veteran politicians, spending $2 million - mostly his own money - on his campaign, more than twice as much as all his opponents combined. He gained strong name recognition with a flurry of advertising featuring people who said they got jobs at employment fairs he held.

Which is why people ask: can anything good emerge from Chicago politicians?

The following letter to the editor appeared in today’s Moscow-Pullman Daily News:

Larry Kirkland's Jan. 27 Town Crier concerning abortion disconcerts me.

Murdering babies disconcerts me, not an editorial.

He is overly glib in his proposal that women with unwanted pregnancies should just opt for adoption. He believes this not only "saves babies" but women from "post-abortion trauma."

There are a couple of things I'd like to point out to Kirkland. First, the 1973 Supreme Court decision held that a woman may abort her pregnancy for any reason up until the point of viability.

That is not true. A woman may abort her baby well into the third trimester. In fact, as long as the umbilical cord is intact and the baby is still inside, the mother may murder her child. That’s US law.

Why does she think we’re having all of the fights about partial-birth abortion? Those are not done until after viability.

The court based these conclusions on a constitutional right to privacy. So the decision to have an abortion is a private matter between a woman and her doctor!

Too bad the babies aren’t consulted. I wonder what their input would be?

There are myriad reasons a pregnant woman might choose an abortion. It is no one else's business. Ideally, there are no adverse health consequences to a full-term pregnancy.

A second point. Kirkland readily makes the inference that any woman having an abortion will assuredly suffer long-term pain and regret. What he fails to note is that carrying a pregnancy to term can have long-lasting health consequences and/or death.

Abortion has been around as long as women have been getting pregnant. There are no easy answers to this issue. I support the Supreme Court's decision and believe women should have access to safe and legal abortions. I also believe that education is a key factor in preventing an unplanned pregnancy. There are many safe, effective and inexpensive birth control methods available today. It is beyond me that there are those in our legislatures and communities who strive to limit people's access and education to them.

Yes, Larry Kirkland, every child should be a wanted child. It takes all of us to work towards that end both in the United States and around the world.

Nancy Maxeiner, Viola

As reported in the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

Kai Eiselein, publisher of the weekly Eagle/Boomerang, made a gut-wrenching business decision earlier this week.

The community newspaper he purchased in July ceased publication of a print edition, but will continue its online presence.

The economy has hit his advertisers hard and many accounts receivable are not current, he said. That makes it difficult to meet business obligations.

"There comes a time when you have to stop digging a hole," he said. "It's the only way to keep the paper alive."

Eiselein is hopeful enough back advertising money will come in to be able to restart the print edition in March.

"We're looking toward that," he said.

The Eagle and Boomerang newspapers have existed in Latah and Whitman counties under various names for about 100 years.

Eiselein combined the two when he bought them from previous editor-publisher LuJane Nisse. He was an editor for Nisse for a number of years.

The Eagle/Boomerang will be available free online at www.eagle-boomerang.com.

Hard times for the print newspapers.

And, of course, there’s no money to be made by online publishing.

From the Associated Press:

University of Idaho officials say they hope to start offering third-year law classes this fall in Boise without state financial support.

Officials say they are raising money and a student fee increase will help pay for the school.

College of Law Dean Donald Burnett says the school first has to through a process that ensures the expanded program in Boise won't harm the school's Moscow programs.

Burnett says the American Bar Association has to approve the process, called "acquiescence."

The school had previously hoped to open a full 3-year law school branch in Boise but the State Board of Education rejected it as too expensive.

Concordia University in Portland, Ore., says it expects to start offering law school classes in Boise starting in 2011.

The following is from Idaho District 6 liberal Democrat, Rep. Shirley Ringo:

One of the early and critically important actions of the Joint Finance and Appropriations Committee involves the official projection of general fund revenue for fiscal years 2010 and 2011.  This is an action with great political implications.  Those who are extremely conservative and push for reduced state-funded programs will try for a low number.  On Friday, February 12, JFAC will probably take action.  In all probability, the projection for FY 2010 will be 3% below the Governor's recommendation, and the projection for FY 2011 will be 6% below the Governor's recommendation.

It seems to me that the projections that JFAC keeps coming out with is always more optimistic than the actual numbers that result. If anything, I would say that the politics keeps telling the JFAC to not be as accurate as possible, but look through the budget with rose-colored glasses.

The Republican majority is determined to deal with reduced revenue by using reserve funds and cutting support for programs.  I believe a more balanced approach would also require certain revenue enhancement.

It appears that Ringo’s phrase “revenue enhancement” is a euphemism for “increase taxes.”

Here’s one for you: why don’t you raise taxes on just the Democrats, since they love to pay taxes so much.

People in District 6 and around the state need to decide whether the narrow approach taken by the Republican majority takes us in the right direction.  Here are some of the results:

• Phase out state support for Public Television, the Human Rights Commission, the Hispanic Commission, the Independent Living Council, the Developmental Disabilities Council, the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Council, and the Digital Learning Academy.  (JFAC will probably not act on these recommendations unless the appropriate policy committees concur.)
• Medicaid will charge user fees for parents of children with disabilities.  (These fees are to be on a sliding scale, based upon gross income.  This is problematic because of expenditures parents must make to provide for the special needs of their children.)
• Greatly reduced support for State Parks.  This requires a business model that has not been successful in other states and a reduction of 25 positions.
• Further reductions in support for Higher Education, requiring furloughs, cuts in programs and higher student fees.  Proposed cuts in Professional/Technical Education could result in the need to return millions of dollars to the federal government.
• Reduced support for Agricultural Research and Extension Service may force closure of a number of Research and Extension Centers.
• Deeper cuts will challenge the Department of Corrections.  The prison population is growing.  Further cuts will require furloughs and add challenges with respect to supervision.

It is clear that reductions in spending are required, and we must be creative in seeking efficiencies.  However, cuts can be damaging.  Loss of jobs for state employees and cuts in some services will have serious effects on the private sector and their ability to create and sustain employment.

OK, how does that work? It’s always been my experience that the government just gets in the way of the private sector. And government workers now have better pay and benefits than the corresponding private sector employee.

I will propose these measures to enhance revenue:

• 5% surcharge on income tax for those with more than $50,000 taxable income.  (For example, a family of four earning approximately $75,000 would have taxable income over $50,000.  The 5% surcharge would add about $164 to their yearly tax.)
• Partially freeze growth of the Grocery Tax Credit.  (The credit has been increasing by $10 per person per year, with the goal of reaching $100 per person per year.) 
• Hire additional compliance officers to recover unpaid taxes owed to the state.
• Impose an additional 50-cent per pack tax on cigarettes.
• (One of my colleagues has a proposal to collect taxes on internet sales.)

The Governor opposes the partial freeze of the grocery tax credit saying, "This is a promise we must keep."  In 2006, we held a special session at the call of acting Governor James Risch.  The purpose was to shift support of public education from an automatic property tax assessment to the sales tax.  To confirm their support of this shift, citizens were asked to vote on raising the sales tax from 5% to 6% for the purpose of "protecting education."  Approximately two years later, legislators voted to increase the grocery tax credit in stages.  When the incremental changes are complete, it will cost the state about half of the money gained by the 6% sales tax to "protect education."  It would seem that we broke our promise to the people when we raided funds available to education to pay for a new program.

It was an awful idea to shift from state tax to sales tax back in 1996. I was against it at the time, and I’m still against it.

However, Ringo should know that taxing people to eat is worse than taxing them to support government education. Remember Maslow: food, clothing, shelter?

I will appreciate hearing from you regarding your questions or opinions.

Representative Shirley Ringo

Ideas have consequences.

A brilliant serial killer videotapes his debates with college faculty victims.

The topic: His moral right to kill them.

Written and directed by Brian Godawa.

HT: Yoost N.

While I have no doubt that some liberals are ignorant, and some are in denial, I fear that the vast majority are going into this with their eyes wide open and in the full knowledge of what they are doing. And while they claim to be anything but racist, the outcome of their words and deeds shows otherwise.

This is from the website Black Genocide.

At a March 1925 international birth control gathering in New York City, a speaker warned of the menace posed by the "black" and "yellow" peril. The man was not a Nazi or Klansman; he was Dr. S. Adolphus Knopf, a member of Margaret Sanger's American Birth Control League (ABCL), which along with other groups eventually became known as Planned Parenthood.

Sanger's other colleagues included avowed and sophisticated racists. One, Lothrop Stoddard, was a Harvard graduate and the author of The Rising Tide of Color against White Supremacy. Stoddard was something of a Nazi enthusiast who described the eugenic practices of the Third Reich as "scientific" and "humanitarian." And Dr. Harry Laughlin, another Sanger associate and board member for her group, spoke of purifying America's human "breeding stock" and purging America's "bad strains." These "strains" included the "shiftless, ignorant, and worthless class of antisocial whites of the South."

Not to be outdone by her followers, Margaret Sanger spoke of sterilizing those she designated as "unfit," a plan she said would be the "salvation of American civilization.: And she also spike of those who were "irresponsible and reckless," among whom she included those " whose religious scruples prevent their exercising control over their numbers." She further contended that "there is no doubt in the minds of all thinking people that the procreation of this group should be stopped." That many Americans of African origin constituted a segment of Sanger considered "unfit" cannot be easily refuted.

While Planned Parenthood's current apologists try to place some distance between the eugenics and birth control movements, history definitively says otherwise. The eugenic theme figured prominently in the Birth Control Review, which Sanger founded in 1917. She published such articles as "Some Moral Aspects of Eugenics" (June 1920), "The Eugenic Conscience" (February 1921), "The purpose of Eugenics" (December 1924), "Birth Control and Positive Eugenics" (July 1925), "Birth Control: The True Eugenics" (August 1928), and many others.

These eugenic and racial origins are hardly what most people associate with the modern Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), which gave its Margaret Sanger award to the late Dr. Martin Luther King in 1966, and whose current president, Faye Wattleton, is black, a former nurse, and attractive.

Though once a social pariah group, routinely castigated by religious and government leaders, the PPFA is now an established, high-profile, well-funded organization with ample organizational and ideological support in high places of American society and government. Its statistics are accepted by major media and public health officials as "gospel"; its full-page ads appear in major newspapers; its spokespeople are called upon to give authoritative analyses of what America's family policies should be and to prescribe official answers that congressmen, state legislator and Supreme Court justiices all accept as "social orthodoxy."

HT: Rod D. Martin

From The Washington Times:

The long-shot bid by Republicans to retake control of the Senate is suddenly in play, as the prospect of high-profile Republican candidates entering the fray has pushed the GOP even or ahead in polling for 10 races.

The potential candidacies of former Republican Govs. George E. Pataki in New York and Tommy G. Thompson in Wisconsin are improving the polling fortunes of the party as it pursues seats long in the hands of Democrats, while the anti-government "tea party" movement has provided momentum to Republican challengers in states such as Florida, Arkansas and Pennsylvania.

And here is the Zogby kicker:

"If the election were held today, the Republicans could come close to winning back the Senate, if not actually win it," said pollster John Zogby.

Republicans are solidly ahead to take at least five seats now held by Democrats — in North Dakota, Delaware, Nevada, Arkansas and Pennsylvania. Five more are now considered winnable — Colorado, Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana and even liberal New York. Two other races, in California and Washington, are tightening daily.

But here’s the rub for the GOP: no one wants the same kind of Republicans in office that we had rubber stamping George Bush’s big-spending agenda for eight years. They need to find true-blue conservatives.

Good luck with that.

HT: Rod D. Martin