Huckleberries Online

Hump Day Wild Card — 12.9.09

Posted by DFO

Dec. 9, 2009 9 p.m. • 29 comments

It’s beginning to seem as though waiting for Sarah Palin is a bit like waiting for Santa Claus. Anyone willing to stand out in the cold all night for 3 seconds of personal time with the Wasilla Wonder definitely has sugar plums dancing in their heads. Or a couple of shots of whisky under their belts. Any Huckster who gets up close and personal with Sarah is welcome to report back here tomorrow. Meanwhile, I’ll post this Wild Card and get on with the Scanner Traffic report …

29 comments on this post so far. Add yours!

Lizard_People on December 09 at 10:54 a.m.
Torture Judge John Yoo is a Spokane resident, right? The American Conservative magazine just posted a review from a couple years ago of his book on the front page of their website www.amconmag.com

here is the first paragraph : “George W. Bush has made absolutism respectable among American conservatives. And no one has done more pimping for president-as-Supreme-Leader than John Yoo, the former Justice Department official who helped create the “commander-in-chief override” doctrine, unleashing presidents from the confines of the law. At a time when Bush is pushing Congress to approve the use in military tribunals of confessions that resulted from torture, it is vital to understand the thinking of the Bush administration’s most visible advocate of “coercive interrogation.”
Lizard_People on December 09 at 10:54 a.m.
Best line of the review : “Perhaps Yoo’s authoritarian tendencies resulted from his time at Harvard, where empowering an elite is always in fashion.”
Sisyphus on December 09 at 11:01 a.m.
Bizarre. Actually, last I heard John Yoo is still on the faculty at Berkley. Also bizarre. He’s never been a judge, thank God. And probably never will be.
Laughing on December 09 at 11:49 a.m.
Glad to hear that the Indian nations have received a $ 3 Billion dollar settlement. I am always confused as to how the Indian nations are apart of Idaho, and the U.S., on Tuesdays (election day) but separate and independent on all the others. The information on the settlement caused me to remember the recent article about the push for a new-or extended-continued medical care bill for the Indian nations. At what time (century, decade, year) does the money faucet run dry?
redman on December 09 at 11:58 a.m.
You gotta love it DFO, Palins keeping your numbers up this month
Sisyphus on December 09 at 12:02 p.m.
“I am always confused as to how the Indian nations are apart of Idaho, and the U.S., on Tuesdays (election day) but separate and independent on all the others.”—the most engaging class on jurisdiction I ever took was my Indian Law class. And I’m still confused. ;-)
poolman on December 09 at 1:31 p.m.
I have a new favorite politician, his name is Joe Barton. Joe is sponsoring a bill that would make it illegal for the NCAA to promote the BCS Championship as a “National Championship” and ultimately force the NCAA to initiate a playoff system to decide a national champion.

Some might argue that congress has more important things to worry about - I disagree. College football and the BCS is a multi-billion dollar industry that is currently being monopolized by six major conferences to ensure the majority of revenue from those bowl games stays in those conferences. They are currently abusing basic business ethics laws like collusion, price fixing, anti-trust in the name of “higher education”.

When I look at the bowl line-up this year I see two games that I’m interested in watching (and I’m a huge college football fan). The bowl system is a joke and the matchups are disgusting this year. Notice how TCU and BSU were kept away from the “big six” and matched up against each other (for the second year in a row no less) – wouldn’t want people to start questioning the superiority of the “power conferences”. Good luck Mr. Barton…
Howard_Martinson on December 09 at 2:27 p.m.
RE: Sarah Palin

This morning I spotted a large motor home wrapped with Sarah Palin graphics, it was motoring west on Sherman Avenue. I suspect it’s involved with her book signing tour.

Welcome home, Sarah. No, I don’t plan to brave the cold and crowds at Freddie’s tonight.
nic on December 09 at 2:42 p.m.
“waiting for Sarah Palin is a bit like waiting for Santa Claus”

You spend years fostering a magical belief with your kids who come to loath you for lying to them when they find out this fantastic human is a fake. Now they’ll never believe in God.
Charles_Dixon on December 09 at 3:28 p.m.
Apparently the Idaho Dems are about to reveal who their candidate will be to challenge Otter for Governor.

http://voices.idahostatesman.com/2009/12/09/rockybarker/democrats_say_they_have_strong_idaho_gubernatorial_candidate

Let’s play “Name The Candidate” and see who wins.

My prediction: Cecil Andrus.
Laughing on December 09 at 3:32 p.m.
Mercedes-Foot-Tush? Hm. Just was at the Post Office and a young(er-than me female) was explaining to 5 year old (guestimate), as she was heading to her Mercedes, that he/she (winter garb) had such a bad attitude that the youngester was lucky that she didn’t stick her foot up his/her tush. What is the politically correct thing to do in such an instance? Nothing, as I did?
Sisyphus on December 09 at 3:53 p.m.
I know who it is and I guarantee a surprise, Chuckles. But I like the guessing game idea.
Phaedrus on December 09 at 4:09 p.m.
My prediction: Cecil Andrus.

Wrong. i’ll wager $100 that nobody* gets it correct. *(Sisyphus isn’t allowed to play)
Laughing on December 09 at 4:36 p.m.
Wager…I will wager that far less than a majority of Idaho voters will care.
Sisyphus on December 09 at 4:43 p.m.
“I will wager that far less than a majority of Idaho voters will care.”—LOL I dunno. Butch already has challengers in his primary cause his leadership thus far hasn’t been exactly stellar. This will be a viable choice for Idaho.
Lizard_People on December 09 at 4:44 p.m.
Patty Duke!
Sisyphus on December 09 at 4:54 p.m.
Oh c’mon liz. When we could have Dawn Wells? Are you a Ginger? Or a Mary Ann?
MamaJD on December 09 at 4:54 p.m.
Poolman — Interesting. Leave it to a Republican to take some action on the BCS issue. Last year in his 60 Minutes interview, President Obama promised to fix the BCS and throw his weight around a little if he had to. I’m still waiting for this promise.
hmoffsuite on December 09 at 4:56 p.m.
>>> ” I’m still waiting for this promise.”

And, all the others.
poolman on December 09 at 5:22 p.m.
MammaJD - Yes - surprising for a Republican to be interested in spreading ANY wealth around. I think he is really just a big TCU fan :)
Laughing on December 09 at 7:58 p.m.
Good point Sisyphus, wager withdrawn. Go Demo Gov Candidate.
bpoole on December 09 at 9:51 p.m.
I will second the comment made by “Laughing” at 7:58 pm.
hhuseland on December 09 at 10:55 p.m.
I’ve kind of been out of touch as it applies to ancient Idaho politics. How old is Cecil these days?
spokelooneh on December 09 at 11:02 p.m.
“Last year in his 60 Minutes interview, President Obama promised to fix the BCS and throw his weight around a little if he had to. I’m still waiting for this promise.”
-MamaJD

Ha ha! You fell for that? What a deep thinker your are!
zelda on December 09 at 11:07 p.m.
There are portends of a Second Coming — Cecil Andrus or maybe an alien invasion?

Take a look at the stunning video of the pinwheel in the Norwegian night sky? http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/12/09/2147455.aspx

It’s almost as beautiful as a Hubble photos. I’m going with the theory that it was a stage of a Russian submarine missile test. Cool (the spectacle, not the missile).
Nick_Adams on December 10 at 1:10 a.m.
The Democratic president and a Republican congressman agree on something. Thank God for bipartisanship.

Given that it’s possible we’ll have three undefeated teams after the bowl games (Texas/Alabama winner, BSU/TCU winner and if Cini wins) the BSC will be, once again, proven to be a joke.

Obama’s 8-team playoff scheme is too conservative—no surprise. It should be a 12 team playoff. If you cap the number of games to 11, it’d only add 1 to 2 weeks to the schedule. You could still have all the minor bowls for those unable to make the 12 team cutoff. Lots of revenue, plus finally big time college football will catch up with every other sport on the planet.
Arpie on December 10 at 7:59 a.m.
About 20 folks hanging in the parking lot waiting for Sarah in Sandpoint this morning @7:00.
MamaJD on December 10 at 8:08 a.m.
He seemed pretty sincere in his promise regarding the BCS. And as Nick points out, now there’s bi-partisan support. What’s the hangup?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WDuQe89kJM
Phaedrus on December 10 at 8:10 a.m.
Here’s the scoop on the Demo candidate for Governor:

http://www.newwest.net/city/article/democrat_keith_allred_to_form_committee_for_idaho_governors_race/C108/L108/

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About this blog

D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.