Wild Card/Monday — 10.18.10

59 comments on this post so far. Add yours!

• 

  dustinhurst on October 18 at 9:57 a.m.

  DFO,

  Aren’t we two weeks and one day away from elections?

  Love,

  Your calendar

• 

  ReggieH on October 18 at 11:00 a.m.

  I was gonna say . . .

• 

  Sisyphus on October 18 at 11:05 a.m.

  Did anyone else see Minnick’s anti-Pelosi ad during the game last night?

• 

  danofthecommunity on October 18 at 11:12 a.m.

  That’s right Dustin…don’t give me a heart attack please.

• 

  dustinhurst on October 18 at 11:24 a.m.

  Minnick had an anti-Pelosi ad?

• 

  Sisyphus on October 18 at 11:28 a.m.

  I don’t think I was dreaming. But I can’t find it anywhere dustin.

• 

  moscow_minidoka on October 18 at 11:58 a.m.

  “We’re a week and a day removed from General Election 2010. ”

  Wishful thinking on DFO’s part - not that I blame him!

• 

  DFO on October 18 at 12:05 p.m.

  @ MM & Dustin … thanx for the correx. As always, bloggin’ at the speed of light …

• 

  DFO on October 18 at 12:07 p.m.

  @ Sisyphus re: Minnick ad attacking Pelosi & Obama administration. I thought I saw it, too. But I wasn’t paying strict attention. I sorta tuned out when I heard the commercial bashing Pelosi & Obama — and then I thought I heard at the ending that it was sponsored by Minnick. Before I could say, what the heck, it was gone … I’m definitely going to pay more attention if that ad surfaces again …

• 

  Sisyphus on October 18 at 12:20 p.m.

  Thanks Dave. I spent some time looking around this morning but I can’t find anything resembling it from either party. We can’t both be crazy, can we? ;-)

• 

  almostinnocentbystander on October 18 at 12:29 p.m.

  I think one of the more interesting shows, post election, will be the Republican Central Committee. They should read Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand but they’re still not gonna get it.

• 

  nwsage on October 18 at 12:32 p.m.

  DFO: The Reagan R’s and the KCRCC are not necessarily Phil Hart supporters. Unfortunately, HART has become the cause celebre for a few, who have lost power within these organizations, —AND, power is the issue - not Hart! There is a system/process to deal with Hart– elections.

• 

  JohnFoster on October 18 at 12:35 p.m.

  Hey guys -

  The ad you saw was likely an independent expenditure running in CD1 in support of Walt, touting his independence from party leaders. I haven’t seen it yet, and am not entirely sure which group is responsible.

  There are also two other ads running independent of the campaign, both of those from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

  John Foster
  Minnick for Congress

• 

  DFO on October 18 at 12:45 p.m.

  @ NWSage re: “There is a system/process to deal with Hart– elections.”

  Alas, that’s not true (although it sounds good). District 2 has been electing and re-electing Dick Harwood for years. I’ve lived in Kootenai County for 26 years years — and I’ve never seen a legislator who so disrespects the nation’s and the state’s laws. I can’t vote thumbs up or thumbs down on Hart. But I can — and I will — continue to point out why he shouldn’t be in the Legislature, especially to religious conservatives who seem to be smitten by this guy’s profession of principles.

• 

  Sisyphus on October 18 at 12:52 p.m.

  That’s odd John. I was pretty sure Walt approved the message.

• 

  nwsage on October 18 at 2:14 p.m.

  Mr. Foster–––—yep, Minnick is now distancing himself from his party leaders. He was for Pelosi, before he was against her. Shows he will do anything to paint himself as a conservative - minus the democrat moniker. Now, he calls himself a centrist. Hmmm

• 

  Sisyphus on October 18 at 2:31 p.m.

  It’s been decided! On October 20th, 2010, we will wear purple in honor of the LGBT youth who have committed suicide in recent weeks/months due to homophobic abuse in their homes and schools.

  PURPLE represents Spirit on the LGBTQ flag and that’s exactly what we’d like all of you to have with you: spirit. Please know that times will get better and that you will meet people who will love you and respect you for who you are, no matter your sexuality.

  http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=144778572233301

• 

  moscow_minidoka on October 18 at 2:42 p.m.

  This is nothing against Sisyphus or anybody else, but I find wearing ribbons and/or dressing in a certain color about the most meaningless thing possible. It seems designed to allow lazy and uninvolved people to feel like they’re “doing something” (or even “raising awareness”) without actually having to do something.

  It’s the least you could do. (Well, other than stupid Facebook “campaigns” such as “I like it…” etc.

  Bah humbug. Take same real action and DO SOMETHING to help your causes, don’t just walk around with a ribbon on your shirt or a pair of purple knickerbockers.

  Meaningless gestures are just that.

• 

  Sisyphus on October 18 at 2:49 p.m.

  Like commenting on a blog?

  Thank you for sharing.

• 

  moscow_minidoka on October 18 at 3:00 p.m.

  Point taken, Sis.

  Sorry, the whole “raising awareness” thing has always bothered me. It’s a pet peeve, I guess. So many of my loved ones have died from cancer and needless tragedies that wearing a ribbon just seems inadequate.

  Like commenting on a blog.

• 

  ReggieH on October 18 at 3:21 p.m.

  @Sis: Down, Kujo! ;)

• 

  OutofStaterTater on October 18 at 3:29 p.m.

  Sisyphean (ˌsɪsɪˈfiːən)
  
  — adj
  1. relating to Sisyphus
  2. actually or seemingly endless and futile

  From the World English Dictionary

  No, I didn’t make this up.

• 

  stacyp on October 18 at 3:32 p.m.

  So they know they are loved and respected by me, I will also wear purple on Wednesday.

• 

  Cabbage Boy on October 18 at 3:36 p.m.

  heheh, well played OOST.

  And MM, I agree. The eternal fund raising and “awareness” campaigns layered on top of each other, get so old. And as you say, work good for those wanting to feel involved without any labor on their part.

• 

  Kage_Mann on October 18 at 3:43 p.m.

  “and “awareness” campaigns layered on top of each other, get so old”. CB

  I take seriously, the yellow magnetic ribbon I put on my car,
  which is: in honor and memory of our troops.

• 

  Lizard_People on October 18 at 3:44 p.m.

  Could be an awesome website

  Stuff MM doesn’t like (SMMDL):

  *crackwhore billboards
  *raising awareness

  What else?

• 

  etorreal on October 18 at 4:02 p.m.

  LM - add Sheriff Joe to that list.

• 

  Lizard_People on October 18 at 4:09 p.m.

  SMMDL:

  *Phil Hart poems

• 

  Cabbage Boy on October 18 at 4:13 p.m.

  Kage, the yellow ribbon campaign was one of the first or at least most prominent ones I can remember. Now all the tag alongs see it as a way to raise money. It is like branding for the perpetual money raisers and is way overdone.

• 

  Sisyphus on October 18 at 4:16 p.m.

  Nice one OOST. Glad to see nothing gets by you. You’ve almost caught up with Kage on the use of a dictionary.

• 

  danofthecommunity on October 18 at 4:18 p.m.

  I just ran a report on how many absentee ballots have been requested so far.

  Almost 9,000!

  I still remember in the 2000 Presidential election that we had a little over 10,000 absentee ballots and that seemed incredible.

  We’ll likely go close to or even over 15,000 absentee ballots in a “off” year election.

• 

  danofthecommunity on October 18 at 4:23 p.m.

  Also hard to believe but we continue to get asked if we really count our absentee ballots.

  Not only do we count them but they get counted first and are the first “live results” that go out on election night.

  I guess some places actually put them aside and only count them if the margin of victory between candidates is smaller than the total number of absentees. With the rise in popularity of absentee voting that seems like a very outdated model.

  Plus it just plain seems wrong not to count every legitimately cast ballot.

• 

  Kage_Mann on October 18 at 5:29 p.m.

  “Also hard to believe but we continue to get asked if we really count our absentee ballots”. DOTC

  Dan, do you keep a poll book, for keeping track of absentee ballots that are counted?

• 

  moscow_minidoka on October 18 at 6:38 p.m.

  Hey guys (many of you!) - thanks for giving me a smile this evening.

• 

  danofthecommunity on October 18 at 6:42 p.m.

  As you well know Kage, their isn’t a physical absentee precinct so no there isn’t a poll book in the usual sense. There are no “people” walking into a polling site on election day to sign a poll book.

  But yes, we do keep a list of all absentee voters on the statewide voter database. In order to be entered into that database we have a signed absentee ballot request and absentee ballot envelope which provides the same level of information as if they were signing an actual poll book at an actual precint.

  In fact, every candidate and the parties who want this information get it emailed to them on a daily basis by our elections office.

• 

  Kootenai_Conservative on October 18 at 6:54 p.m.

  Does anyone know if there is a website or other source where I can find info on the magistrate judges appearing on the ballot? I hate being uninformed about these things.

• 

  jdanmike on October 18 at 7:00 p.m.

  mm—this evening—hell everyday!! do you go to a nascar race for the racing—no— it’s for the crashes\wrecks!

• 

  LarrySpencer on October 18 at 7:34 p.m.

  Did everybody see NPR and The Center For Public Integrity spank Walt Minnick for making false claims about his position on stimulus support?

  http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130602175

  “This year, conservative Democrat Walt Minnick of Idaho—one of seven Democrats to vote against the stimulus bill—is running ads touting his opposition.

  “I’ve had to say ‘no’ far more than I’ve said ‘yes.’ I’ve said ‘no’ to government spending,” he says in them.

  But Minnick wrote the Commerce Department at least three times lobbying for stimulus funds for broadband projects.”
  
  The report is called “Stimulating Hypocrisy.” and it paints Walt a very ugly color. NPR going after Walt. Wow.

  Come to think of it…. do those contracts for broadband projects help MikeK’s company? It seems like he was talking about something relating to that some time ago. Mike, did your bosses get an earmark out of the bill that “had no earmarks”?

• 

  danofthecommunity on October 18 at 9:09 p.m.

  KC, we have sample ballots listed on our elections website for all the candidates by legislative district. Of course the candidates for magistrates would be the same countywide.

  http://www.kcgov.us/elections/sample/2010_General/

  Hope this is what you were after.

• 

  Kootenai_Conservative on October 18 at 9:45 p.m.

  @DOTC

  Actually I was hoping for information about the judges’ histories, views, or something that would give me a basis for voting “yes” or “no.” Do you know of anything like that available to voters?

• 

  LarrySpencer on October 18 at 10:04 p.m.

  So…. I did some research…

  Turns out that Mike Kennedy’s name is all over stimulus documents.

  Maybe Mike would be more.. respected.. if he would just operate Intermax as a honest company instead of nursing it on federal pork stimulus funds.

  $492K as a grant (not a loan) to pay for new facilities so MikeK can provide service to areas served now only by his competitors, none of whom asked for or received pork slop from uncle Walt Minnick, who wrote a “lettermark” appropriation into the stimulus bill he claims to not have supported.

  What disingenuous hypocrisy, Mike and Walt.

  Shame on both of you!

• 

  Mr_Bloggy on October 18 at 10:15 p.m.

  Larry, you got that right! Anyone else agree??

• 

  kamm on October 18 at 10:31 p.m.

  I’ll wear a purple shirt, or something close to it, on Wednesday.
  To show support for a group of people and their family and friends is a warm fuzzy.

  For those who don’t want to appear to condone these people, you can, at least, support their existence as a child of God. ‘Judge not
  least ye be judged’.(or something like that)

  I understand some of the cynics views, though. It’s called ‘compassion fatigue’, though, for some it’s called ‘bah humbug’.

  @LarrySpencer
  Can’t you say something nice about a fellow human being? ‘The sky is falling’ is getting old. Let’s just wait until the day AFTER the election to pile crap on whomever.

• 

  LarrySpencer on October 18 at 10:36 p.m.

  Mr Bloggy @ “Larry, you got that right! Anyone else agree??”

  /looking in the mirror to see if there is a knife handle protruding from my back or if Mr Bloggy was actually being real back there…

• 

  LarrySpencer on October 18 at 11:04 p.m.

  My-side-is-right-Kamm @ “Can’t you say something nice about a fellow human being? ‘The sky is falling’ is getting old. Let’s just wait until the day AFTER the election to pile crap on whomever”

  Seems to me like you have said some pretty unkind things about Republican candidates recently, no?

  /sigh

• 

  kamm on October 18 at 11:38 p.m.

  @LS I say nice things, too. Even you have some good qualities. And I am on the side of the righteous. What can I say.

• 

  MikeK on October 19 at 6:29 a.m.

  Larry,

  I’ll reply simply to correct the record. My company, like I think several dozen other companies around Idaho, applied for broadband stimulus funds. What you chose to ignore in your “research” is that my company’s application was rejected, like many others. Rep. Minnick’s office was immensely helpful in the process - even handed to all companies in Idaho. At least one ARRA grant recipient that I’ve come to know was very grateful for Minnick’s help, though he did not know Walt or his staff prior to applying for this grant.

  The program was poorly structured and poorly administered, in my humble opinion, which was what Minnick argued could happen when he voted against the program in the first place. Since it became law, though, he did what a representative should do, which was help his constituents through the bureaucracy as best he could. No other federal representative offered any assistance or enlightenment at all.

  Larry, if you are going to attempt to defame me, at least do more research before making an idiot of yourself by posting incorrect information as you have done regarding my personal and professional life over and over again (remember that non-existent Lexus you said I drive?).

  Perhaps, though, I’ve pointed out a contradiction in terms. One can’t “make an idiot” of themselves if that is their permanent state of being.

• 

  Soaf on October 19 at 6:40 a.m.

  I’ve pointed out a contradiction in terms. One can’t “make an idiot” of themselves if that is their permanent state of being. — MikeK

  But Mike,,,,,,,,, he does it sooooooo well!

  ;-)

• 

  Soaf on October 19 at 6:42 a.m.

  BTW Mike, since the Idaho Supreme Court affirmed him as a liar, you have nothing to worry about.

  :-)

• 

  Sisyphus on October 19 at 8:31 a.m.

  They did a follow up piece this morning on KBSX on lettermarking. The entire delegation was guilty of it. Minnick’s slightly more guilty of hypocrisy since ending earmarking is a crusade of his. But I agree with him that once money is appropriated its our federal delegation’s job to get as much of if they can for the benefit of Idaho. The bigger hypocrisy is them spouting anti-spending rhetoric as if the state’s economy wouldn’t shrivel up smaller than Larry Spencer after a cold swim in the lake but for federal money spent in Idaho. Its pretty small as it is.

• 

  LarrySpencer on October 19 at 9:28 a.m.

  Mike, the point isn’t that you did or didn’t receive any stimulus funds, the point is that you requested them, and how your buddy Walt went about trying to have the request “backdoor” slipped into the bill. And then how he seems to be now campaigning on a false position that he wasn’t involved with the stimulus, other than his opposing it.

  When people think about how stimulus funds were to be used, I suspect that building a bridge or a new interchange comes to mind, but the idea of buying Intermax a project described as….

  “This project will provide high-speed Broadband to thousands of unserved and underserved residents in the rural part of Kootenai County, Idaho. The project will be served from an enhanced Lone Mountain (aka Round Mtn.), providing permanent electrical power, increased tower height for distance access, licensed backhauls for stability to rural areas and necessary components for the project.”

  That description looks less like a stimulus project and more like a half million dollar piece of pork designed to help Intermax get ahead of the competition.

• 

  Arpie on October 19 at 9:38 a.m.

  “This project will provide high-speed Broadband to thousands of unserved and underserved residents in the rural part of Kootenai County, Idaho.”

  This is the kind of thing I hoped the stimulus would be doing.

• 

  Arpie on October 19 at 9:39 a.m.

  Perhaps you’d prefer the Government did this rather than a private contactor , Larry?

• 

  kamm on October 19 at 10:01 a.m.

  In every truth there is some lie; in every lie there is some truth.

  And then we have Larry.

• 

  kamm on October 19 at 10:14 a.m.

  …continued on todays Wild Card.

• 

  LarrySpencer on October 19 at 11:56 a.m.

  Arpie @ “Perhaps you’d prefer the Government did this rather than a private contactor , Larry?”

  Ummm…. No. I don’t think it is a proper role of government that a business owner or manager would ask for government dollars to further his business in an effort to out-build the competition.

  If this was approved (and I am not clear on if it ultimately was or not, but it doesn’t matter either way for the sake of this discussion) it would be a government gift to a “favorite” that would result in one business making a profit at the expense of other businesses, who would be put at a disadvantage.

  Are you (or MikeK) saying that you think this is a proper role of government?

• 

  jt on October 19 at 12:44 p.m.

  If the building and maintenance of the national interstate highway system is a “proper role” of the government then, yes, it is also a proper role that they allocate funds to build our the national broadband “virtual superhighway”.

  I guess one of the other things I fail to comprehend is the negative connotation with “pork” projects. Spending tax dollars for the benefit of society, even specific beneficial projects, is good (as long as it’s not “Bridge to Nowhere” type projects). It’s the method by which projects appear in the budget, attached to unrelated legislation, etceteras, which is distasteful. IMHO

• 

  LarrySpencer on October 19 at 1:37 p.m.

  JT, what this compares to is the federal government being asked to build a toll highway- and then giving it to a prominent political party figure to profit from.

• 

  jt on October 19 at 4:52 p.m.

  No, it is not. Grants were/are available for broadband expansion, green energy development, etc. If the award had happened it would have been along these lines.

  Since the award did not happen, the point is moot. Nothing I or anyone else says will change your mind, however.

  Karma has an interesting way of coming back around. Assuming the worst about people and their intentions is one certain way to burn bridges on many levels.

  We could talk about all the subsidies to myriad industries, state tax exemptions which skew the marketplace, etc. None of that happened here.

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