Idaho State Journal Editorial

A government report released Wednesday has confirmed the obvious about wildlife management practices surrounding Yellowstone National Park: Indiscriminately slaughtering bison by the hundreds from the last wild herd is bad policy.
The report, requested by House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., and Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., takes an interagency bison management team to task for failing to expand the area outside of the park where bison can roam freely, as mandated by a 2000 agreement.
Following a year-long investigation, the report also criticizes the management team for having no goals, no objectives, no timelines, little accountability to the public and for failing to adapt to new information or to use the best available science.

[ more.. ]

Idaho State Journal Editorial

In the halls of government, even the most well-intentioned, badly needed reform efforts can go down in defeat.

Such is the case with this legislative session's lobbying reform effort by Idaho Senate Democrats to keep lawmakers from leaving politics and heading straight into lobbying. This bill was right on target, but for reasons that say the worst about our government it never received the courtesy of a committee hearing.

It's a shame Senate Republicans were so opposed to a bill that would have simply required departing legislators or executive officials to wait one year before working as lobbyists.

[ more.. ]

By Jodeane Albright

Usually, discussion of the economy is deadly dull. But not in a presidential election year. So when the candidates speak up about it, everybody listens.
And as usual, the Democratic candidates have better ideas on the subject than the Republican candidate does. At the very least, Obama and Hillary are trying to come up with workable solutions, while McCain sidesteps what needs to be done.

[ more.. ]

Idaho State Journal Editorial

We all want our children to be safe and well-cared for, whether in our homes, at a neighbor’s house or in a day care center.
It’s time we told our state Legislature.
For the fourth consecutive year, state lawmakers have killed legislation to improve day care regulations in Idaho. Currently, day care centers with more than a dozen children must provide background checks, but Idaho day care facilities with six children or less have no state requirements. That means no background checks for workers and no assurances that basic safety and health needs are being met.



[ more.. ]

By Richard Larsen

Those we look to as heroes speak volumes about who we are and our character. Most of us identify as heroes those who exhibit qualities of character that we admire and we desire to emulate ourselves. Such character is manifest by actions, and what our heroes do to deserve such respect and veneration.
The recent passing of the dictatorial baton in Cuba from Fidel Castro to his equally totalitarian brother Raul provides a case study in hero worship. Fidel was the revolutionary who deposed Cuba’s corrupt dictator, Fulgencio Batista. Yet Castro became much worse than the ruler he led a revolution against, torturing and executing more than five times as many Cubans as his predecessor. He nationalized business interests in the country, abolished freedom of religion, took over the media, erased free speech, and turned the tropical island into a totalitarian “paradise” stripped of human rights and freedom. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, Cuba trails only China in the number of journalists and reporters behind bars.

[ more.. ]

By Eniko Jordan

Our society is health-crazy right now, isn’t it? Everybody’s trying to lose weight.
They’re hitting the gym, reading grocery labels, cutting back on salt, fat, carbs, sugar and getting more fiber by eating strange-sounding grains. Nothing wrong with that.
But there is an unhealthy trend going on. It’s not new, but it effects our health as individuals and as a society. I don’t mean our physical health, but rather our mental and emotional health.
The trend I’m referring to is our society’s propensity toward perpetuating victimhood. What, you say? Who would want to be a victim?

[ more.. ]

By Martin Hackworth

"See the glory of the royal scam" – Steely Dan

It's no secret that the administration of George W. Bush has been oblivious to science in crafting policy on issues such as energy and climate change. Nowhere is this more apparent than the Bush administration's push to replace 15 percent of domestic gasoline use with biofuels (corn-based ethanol and biodiesel) during the next 10 years. It's a plan that fails both scientifically and economically.

[ more.. ]

By Jennie Lou Winter

Over the past weeks people have questioned Barack Obama’s patriotism, his true Christianity, his judgment and his motives and qualifications for pursuing the Democratic nomination for president because of his association with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

Well, after all, the Rev. Wright did say that America "Got what it deserved on 9/11." And he also said that Black people should be singing "God **** America."

[ more.. ]

By Mark Balzer

I was going to write on a different topic this weekend. I have several in the mix, one on domestic energy production; I am currently reading a biography of the Marquis de Lafayette, a truly interesting historical figure. But Richard Larson e-mailed me a link to a song written by a couple of U.S. soldiers in Iraq.

[ more.. ]

By Joe Evans

The only constant in this life is change. We change addresses, we change jobs and we change our life circumstances. The exciting aspect of change is that we believe change will bring happiness. My experience suggests that this is often true. Change does create happier circumstances. Once we have grown tired of where we live or what we do, we desire change.

[ more.. ]

By Larry Gebhardt

In various versions of a tale that may have originated in Asia, a group of blind men (or men in the dark) touch an elephant to learn what it is like. Each one touches a different part, but only one part, such as the side, tail or the tusk. They then compare notes on what they felt, and learn they are in complete disagreement. The man walking behind chimes in, ‘the elephant is soft and mushy!’ The story is used to indicate that reality may be viewed differently depending upon one's perspective, suggesting that what seems an absolute truth may be relative due to the deceptive nature of half-truths.


[ more.. ]

By Jodeane Albright

Last Tuesday Barack Obama gave a speech that made plenty of people listen. He and only he could address the one issue the presidential candidates knew was all too obvious and no one wanted to discuss: Race.
Obama's speech was in response to inflammatory remarks made by his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. The following are a couple of the remarks the Rev. Wright made, which depending on your point of view could be construed as troubling or not:
Last December Wright said: "Barack knows what it means to be a black man living in a country and a culture that is controlled by rich white people. Hillary can never know that. Hillary ain't never been called n*****."

[ more.. ]

By Ralph Lillig

A funny thing happened on the way to the Democratic National Convention—they got lost. Probably should have asked somebody for directions. The "party of inclusion" and "the big tent" has begun to show how small it really is, metaphorically speaking.
Let's take a look at local Democrat antics. Since "all politics is local," it'll make it easier to understand the Democrat style of rhetoric vs. politics vs. truth.
Recently, Bannock County commissioners passed an edict prohibiting county employees from running for elected office against their bosses. The vote was right down the party line—two Democrats for exclusion, one Republican against. Apparently, the county commissioners were more inclined toward a continuation of keeping the good jobs for their friends; no outsiders need apply. I should mention that the commissioners, under obvious pressure, eventually rescinded this edict.

[ more.. ]

By Richard Larsen

Perhaps it was inevitable that the Clinton vs. Obama showdown for the Democratic nomination would devolve into a race-baited contest. What couldn’t have been foreseen, at least for many, is Barack Obama would be, if not the initiator of it, at least the perpetuator of it.
Some of the highly incendiary sermons of Sen. Obama’s pastor and spiritual mentor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright of The Trinity United Church of Christ, came to light this month. In a move at damage control, Obama made a speech last week to address his church and his relationship with the pastor. However, it ended up being a speech more about race.
This is becoming increasingly uncomfortable. It’s easy to foresee a time when, if Obama is elected, any discussion about policy will be contorted to a discussion about race in order to obfuscate or at least blur the issue at hand.

[ more.. ]

By Eniko Jordan

I’m sure by now you have not been able to avoid the controversy surrounding some quotes from Barack Obama’s mentor and former Chicago pastor Jeremiah Wright.
Wright has uttered the most hate-filled and anti-American comments that have been revealed in recent memory. While his congregation cheered, Wright said things in his sermons that are so vile they can’t be repeated here.
I hope that you have been paying attention to the news and are acquainted with this issue, because I don’t have the space to go over all the fine points here.

[ more.. ]

By Martin Hackworth

In a political world largely defined by lowest common denominators anything that soars to the heights of greatness is rare. We got a glimpse of such an event last week in the form of Sen. Barack Obama’s address to the nation concerning race. In a memorable and thoroughly remarkable speech Obama defined himself as one of the rare breed who actually care more about the challenges that confront us than getting elected to office.



[ more.. ]

By Sen. Richard Sagness

Last Wednesday the Senate floor was tangled in debate over Senate Bill
1447. This bill proposed dramatic changes to the health care coverage
that current state employees and retirees receive. The debate was
heated and at times emotional. This issue is of great personal
importance to state employees and other citizens of our state.



[ more.. ]

By Jim Guthrie


Last September commissioners Larry Ghan and Lin Whitworth fattened the county budget like a 4-H steer ready for the stock sale. It’s surprising that it took till March for any significant public awareness. It’s troubling that previous commissioners have been accused by Ghan of cutting corners setting up the need for this budget gluttony.

As chair of the former commission in question I have followed some of Ghan and Whitworth's decision making over the past 15 months. With the Ghan-led procrastination on the hospital decision and the controversial resolution not allowing employees to run for county office, there have been ample opportunities for criticism. However, my philosophy has been not to fire until fired upon. Now with rounds zipping across our bow I must take exception to Ghan's comments.



[ more.. ]

By Nick Gier

In 1999 I visited the Drepung Monastery, 3 miles outside of Lhasa, Tibet. There I saw firsthand evidence of Chairman Mao's Red Guard attack in 1966. Political graffiti defaced the walls of the huge temple complex in which 10,000 monks used to reside.

The Red Guards destroyed two of the four colleges, and they either killed or exiled all but 500 of the monks. Since 1959, an estimated 1 million Tibetans have died and 6,000 monasteries have been destroyed.

[ more.. ]

By Mark Balzer

Well, well, well, it seems the County Commissioners are at it again. In an effort to bring THEIR salary up to the level of their peers in similar counties they have voted to give themselves a nice little pay increase. Predictably the vote (2-1) went down party lines with democrats Mr. Whitworth and Mr. Ghan voting for the pay raise and Republican Steve Hadley voting against.

I guess this is how they fix a ten million dollar budget shortfall. Bannock County already has one of the highest tax rates in the state. Whitworth and Ghan have provided a myriad of excuses for needing the pay raise.

[ more.. ]

By Joe Evans


Centuries ago revolution challenged European aristocracy. Following the American Revolution, other countries began to suffer their own defeats. In France, heads literally began to roll and by the 20th century working class citizens had begun to successfully rise up and claim their place in society.

Experimental governments, including ours, were being tested. People wanted more control over their everyday lives and people wanted opportunity. Many forms of government arose, including democracies, republics, parliaments, communist societies and even Zionism. All proposed their own approach and all had the same intent—to provide more influence to the working class, more equal opportunity to all and more sharing in power and responsibility.

[ more.. ]

By Jodeane Albright

The title of this column could be called "sex, lies and surveillance tapes," what with the sudden and precipitous downfall of former Gov. Eliot Spitzer, D-New York. You'd have thought Spitzer would have learned, as many other men in power certainly didn't learn, that sex and politics don't mix.
If you haven't heard by now, Spitzer was involved in a prostitution ring that was under investigation by law enforcement. Through a wiretap (the surveillance part), law enforcement officials outed four people involved in running the Emperors Club VIP, of which Spitzer was a client, and charged them with operating what they said was "an international prostitution and money laundering ring."

[ more.. ]

Idaho State Journal Editorial

Not since the frenzy surrounding the possibility of landing something called the superconducting supercollider has Idaho been so worked up. The Legislature can’t wait to give tax breaks to a French nuclear services company, Areva, in hopes of persuading the firm to build a $2 billion uranium enrichment plant in Bonneville County.
Unlike the particle accelerator project which eventually went to Texas, getting the Areva plant is a real possibility even though Idaho is bidding against Washington, Ohio, Texas and New Mexico as a site.

[ more.. ]

Idaho State Journal Editorial

President Bush says torture has helped the U.S. protect itself against terrorist attacks, though he does not use that word.
He calls it a “classified interrogation program,” and he vetoed a bill that would have barred the CIA from using simulated drowning and other coercive interrogation methods to try to gain information from suspected terrorists.
It’s impossible to verify that CIA torture helped stop plots against a Marine camp in Djibouti and the U.S. consulate in Karachi, Pakistan, and plans to fly passenger planes into a Los Angeles tower or London’s Heathrow Airport and city buildings, as the president contends.

[ more.. ]

By Craig Bosley

The First Amendment of the United States Constitution states, “Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom of speech or of the press....”

Conspicuously absent is mention of any responsibility accompanying this right, although Benjamin Franklin, in the "Apology for Printers" published in 1731, suggested there were responsibilities saying, “I have also always refus’d to print such things as might do real injury to any Person....”
On Feb. 21, 2008, the New York Times published an article accusing Sen. John McCain of possible ethical lapses with a lobbyist, including the possibility of a tryst. This 10-year-old story was supported with innuendo, supposition, possibility and appearances.


[ more.. ]