Online moderator needed

Coeur d’Alene Press honchos should know by now that they can’t operate an online comments section on the cheap. The Press, I believe, still uses volunteers to review comments for inappropriate content. On Tuesday, the moderator was doing his duty by trying to bring attention to anonymous Freedom For All who posted a link to an vile racist music video. Freedom For All left his garbage under an online article about a Nontombi Naomi Tutu speech to the 12th annual Human Rights Banquet. Where it stayed for five hours. The Press was more vigilant, pulling down other racist comments attracted by the story about the local appearance of the daughter of Nobel Prize winner Desmond Tutu. However, racist Freedom For All struck back by posting his foul link in five other spots on the Press online site later in the day. Around town, the Press online section is notorious for inappropriate posts. Either, it should require registration to remove posts from serial cranks and racists or pay someone full-time to monitor the site. This, or get chamber manager Jonathan Coe a year’s supply of Tums.

Home sweet home

Sheriff Rocky Watson tells Huckleberries that he will continue to live in his Rockford Bay home and sell the property he bought from the late John Pointner on Cougar Bay, complete with Duane Hagadone’s old Casco Bay “cabin.” Seems Rocky had a change of heart when wife Mary said, uh-uh. At one point, the Watsons had both properties up for sale, figuring they’d live in the one that didn’t sell. But things changed when Mary decided that she preferred her current home sweet home to the new place that’s too close to Highway 95. Rocky said he’ll wait out the recession, selling the property in a year or so, possibly as a bed-and-breakfast place.

Attaboy, Walt

Berry Picker Frito Ray tells Huckleberries he fielded a recorded message from an organization – he couldn’t remember the name – that was unhappy with U.S. Rep. Walt Minnick’s votes against President Barack Obama’s stimulus package and a large omnibus spending bill. Frito Ray said he was urged to join the effort to force Demo Minnick to back Demo Obama’s spending plans – and told which button to push on his telephone to call Minnick’s office. So Frito Ray called Minnick’s office – to thank the young woman who answered for an elected boss who seems to put the concerns of Idahoans ahead of party. May his kind increase.

Huckleberries

In the “Kids Say The Darndest Thing” category, blogger Jen/A Butterfly Moment was surprised to learn that her oldest boy was impressed with the performance of “The Jungle Book” by the Christian Youth Theater – impressed enough to consider playing the oldest Mowgli on stage. Why? “Because,” Junior said, “he gets to do something with the girl behind the umbrella” … Poet’s Corner: For the blahs and/winter sadness,/nothing beats a/dose of Madness – The Bard of Sherman Avenue (“Spring Tonic”) … Bumpersnicker (on an older-model blue-and-white pickup with Shoshone County plates @ 4th & Harrison Monday): “The federal government has spent $58 billion this week.” Yeah, I know, it’s not funny … In the “ee-yew category,” a recent post on my online blog’s Scanner Traffic offered this entry: “Lambert Lane resident reports that a boy in red Blazer stopped in front of her home, defecated on her lawn, and then drove off. She got the license plate and wants police to order the teen back to clean up his mess.” Mebbe some of us did descend from apes … City Attorney Mike Gridley is thisclose to wrapping up that squabble with car dealer Kathy Sims and Tom Macy about alleged campaign finance problems from the 2007 CDA municipal elections. The city is seeking reimbursement for legal costs and an ap-hollow-gy. At one time, the Dynamic Duo faced fines totaling more than $20,000.

Stay tuned.

Parting Shot

If it isn’t bad enough to worry about your job in this lousy economy, you also have to worry about your kids’ jobs. In her Brand X Ranch blog, Jana Tritto/Hidden Valley captures a parent’s anguish upon learning that a child lost a dream job: “I am feeling his pain. That which hurts him, hurts me. I cried for and with him. I want to fix it, to go and yell at those bastards that have wounded him so badly. My Son, my pride, my joy. … I want to hold him and make it all better just like I could when he was small. He is an adult now, and the bruises and scrapes are adult sized. I can’t fix this one. All I am able to do is tell him I love him beyond reason, and I am so very proud of him. I will be by his side through thick and thin. I am Mom. … That’s my job.”

Jana’s doing Job One well.