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Posts tagged: Idaho Blog Roundup
On Adam's Blog, Adam Graham writes of the GOP presidential primary/caucus race: “The phenomenom of one candidate leading the GOP pack and then leading another has been described as “flavor of the month.” 
This is ultimately disrespectful to both the process and the candidates that have run the race. Each Conservative Candidate for President brings a lifetime of unique and exceptional experiences that has carried them through years and politics and business. You don’t get elected three times as Governor of Texas, rally thousands to the Capitol against Obamacare, win two terms in the Senate in a blue state, or lead the Republican Revolution because you are a flavor of the month. Perhaps, the most apt comparison is to a marathon.” More here. And: “Perry & Gingrich 2012 = Fred Thompson 2008” here. (AP Photo: Rick Santorum in New Hampshire this week)
Question: Am I the only one in Hucks Nation who believes that Mitt Romney is the only GOP candidate with a chance of unseating President Obama — and then less than a 50-50 chance?
It is a curious time for me as an American who has always been proud of America and what it stands for. I
don’t remember a time in my life ever questioning America’s good in the world. I certainly never questioned if our President was proud to be an American or of this country. Not even Jimmy Carter, as misguided as he was. Unfortunately today, with President Obama I can’t say the same. Over the last two years by his words and actions I can’t help but question how President Obama feels about America. It’s my belief that President Obama is not proud of America or to be an American/Idaho Conservative Blogger. More here.
Question: What do you make of ICB's contention that President Obama isn't proud of this country?
Question: Which North Idaho legislator would you like to see in a GOP leadership role in the 2011 Legislature?
This is finally IT, maybe. If we turn down being screened at airports by those new-fangled, incredibly invasive, nakey-nakey devices, then we must submit to a groping…where they fondle your bewbies and/or your junk. Submitting to a groping by somebody who’s not getting me drunk first…not gonna happen. And neither is going through a freaky skin sizzling machine. Thing is, some people (survivors of sexual assault) are getting PTSD reactions to the forced probings, because, you know, they’re FORCED PROBINGS. And some idiots out there actually have the gall to say, “Those people need to stop being so sensitive about the probings”/Cassandra, 43rd State Blues. More here.
If you take a look at Americans who are politically active, you’ll
find that Americans on the left 
and right in the 21st Century
are culturally different, with different views of the importance of
religion, family, marriage, etc.. We don’t read the same books, we
aren’t entertained in the same way, and we don’t have the same heroes
from American history. Of course, there are some people who are exceptions to the rule, but I
think the problem with civility in 21st Century America comes to the
fact that by a series of choices with unintended consequences along the
way, Americans have diverged/Adam Graham, Adam’s Blog. More here.
Question: What do you think of Adam’s theory that Americans have grown apart and therefore less civil because we no longer share similar values?
There once was a time when Arizona Sen. John McCain warmly embraced the label “maverick.” He 
seemed to delight in taking positions at odds with his party - or even his state’s - orthodoxy. He had established himself firmly in the tradition of some of the great Senate mavericks of the past - LaFollette, Borah, even Goldwater. But just as BP’s “Beyond Petroleum” brand washed away in the Gulf oil spill, so has McCain’s maverick brand forever vanished thanks to his presidential election run and his ugly, but still decisive, victory yesterday in the GOP primary in Arizona. McCain, by all odds, will be back in the Senate post-November, but not as a maverick and likely not ever again as an interesting, important American political player/Marc Johnson, The Johnson Post. More here. (AP file photo)
Question: Which national politician today best exemplifies the label “maverick”?
Idaho Republicans seek salvation through their nostalgic worship of a
mythological perspective of 
the founding of this country carefully
omitting any inconvenient historical fact or rationale which led to the
demise of whatever constitutional virtue they seem to be extolling. In
other words they’re grasping at anachronisms
as solutions for this country’s problems. And using “regressive” in
response to the question on repealing the seventeenth amendment is a
perfect example. The seventeenth amendment was championed by Idaho’s
popular progressive Senator William Borah (R-ID)/Sisyphus, 43rd State Blues. More here.
Question: What was present at the founding of our country that you wish was still present now?
Can anyone believe that women are paid an average of only 60 cents for every $1 a man is paid for equal work? OK, that is the average for Idaho - not the most enlightened of states - so maybe it isn’t so hard to comprehend. But nationwide, women are making 78 cents for every $1 paid a man, according to 2007 figures, and that’s still nowhere near good enough. It’s also illegal, and has been since Congress passed the Equal Pay Act of 1963. But considering some recent actions on the equal pay front, maybe we shouldn’t be surprised the law is broken as commonly as it apparently is/Jim Fisher, Lewiston Tribune. More here.
Question: Have you worked in a place where you were certain that women didn’t get the same pay as men, despite doing the same work?
The Center for American Progress has put together a map on this, showing in the Northwest 
that Democrats made the largest presidential-level gains in Idaho (13%), closely followed by Oregon (12%) and Washington (10%). In Washington state, 18 counties (of 39) registered a Democratic shift of more than 10%. The largest shift was in one of the most Republican counties in the state, Chelan County just east of the Cascades, at 15%. In Idaho, 21 counties (of 44) shifted 10% or more. As in the other states, most were just above the 10% mark, but one of them - Teton County - registered the largest shift in the whole region, at 23%, as well as the second highest, Power County at 18%. Those are both small counties, but also of interest were the shifts in the two largest counties in the state - Ada (17%) and Canyon (16%)/Randy Stapilus, Ridenbaugh Press. More here.
Question: Do you see a day when Idaho will become a toss-up state?
Among the 21 lawmakers who debated Otter’s 7-cent fuel increase Thursday, telling words came from Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Eagle. Labrador is ambitious enough to enjoy talk about his running for Congress and represents a district crisscrossed by congested roads. But rather than silently cast a “no” vote, Labrador openly defied Otter and the coalition the governor has spent two years building. The 43-27 vote against the tax increase included a 28-24 defeat among Otter’s fellow Republicans and a 19-9 loss among lawmakers from the Treasure Valley, the region supposedly most sympathetic to higher taxes for roads/Dan Popkey, Idaho Statesman. More here.
Question: Why did the GOP & Treasurer Valley legislators abandon Otter on the road-fix issue?
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.
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up prospects of a wholesale shift in leadership among
majority Republicans. At least two of the four leadership positions were already being
contested at next week’s organizational session. Geddes’ decision
ensures that at least three spots will be in play. With four freshman
Republican senators replacing less conservative predecessors, there is a
good chance the more moderate Senate will edge closer to the more
conservative House/Dan Popkey, Idaho Statesman. 
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