|
Help Wanted
Idaho Legislative District Map
Idaho County Map
Election 2008 Canvass Results -- Bonneville County
|
 Ronald D. Paul
Chairman and CEO, EagleBank
Posted: January 25, 2010 01:19 PM
Move Your Tax Money and Your Business Money Too
Arianna Huffington and Rob Johnson's clarion call to "move your money" to community banks should be extended to your local governments and businesses.
When you bank local, your money stays in the local economy. Too many businesses and even municipalities bank with big nationals without realizing that their money could go much further if it stayed on Main Street.
Last year I urged my hometown, Washington DC, to bank local. I promised that if they deposited with community banks like mine, we could return the funds at a ratio of 2-to-1 with loans to local small and mid-sized businesses. DC government coffers are filled with tens of millions of dollars and so that promise represents a real economic opportunity for an area struggling with job losses.
The D.C. government is still considering the switch, but communities across the country need to consider it as well. With enough calls and inquiries from constituents and employees, I'm confident that a real sea change is possible because I know that local banks can deliver (for information on how to reach you local representatives, go here)
I was pleased to see New Mexico and New York City take strides to move their funds to local institutions, but they are just a small fraction of what's possible.
More,,,
Here is a link to Idaho Senator Nicole LeFavour"s
2010 legislative survey.
This survey has just seven questions. Your answers will be confidential though she will share overall results with other law makers. She hopes in this way your opinions will help shape their decisions as they work to help the state economy recover and help families and small businesses make it through this difficult time. Senator LeFavor deeply appreciates your comments and efforts to make our state a better place.
Start Survey click here
Change in Senate sharpens regulatory reform fight
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The financial regulation debate is set to get more divisive after Massachusetts voters elected a Republican senator, with Democrats and Republicans both trying to tap Americans' deep anger over the economy.
Ahead of November's congressional elections, look for Democrats to double-down on their attacks against banks and Wall Street bonuses, with Republicans standing firm on a strategy of opposition and delay, supported by banks.
In the long run, the arithmetic of the Senate will push the Democrats toward compromise, while voter resentment over the power and privilege of Wall Street will force Republicans and business interests to yield to reforms, some significant.
The upshot, probably coming this summer, will be a financial regulation package that is less than the wholesale revolution Democrats hoped for a year ago but still meaningful.
More,,,
With 60th vote gone, a search for a new strategy
Democrats split on starting anew on health deal
 WORK TO DO
Speaker Nancy Pelosi should be willing to use intimidation, said Ross Baker of Rutgers University.
By Lisa Wangsness
Globe Staff / January 20, 2010
Republican Scott Brown’s victory has deprived President Obama and his party of the crucial 60th Senate vote they were counting on to pass a sweeping overhaul of the US health care system in the coming weeks, sending Democratic leaders racing to devise an emergency alternative strategy and creating the very real possibility the effort could collapse.
Full Senate race coverage Democrats were sharply divided over what to do. Some vowed to press on. But a number of others rejected the notion of using parliamentary maneuvers or having the House quickly pass the Senate bill, saying it was time to step back and reevaluate their approach.
More,,,
Senate Passes Sweeping Health-Care Bill
60-39 Vote Is Landmark in Effort to Expand Insurance Coverage
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nev., center, answered questions outside of the Senate chambers on Capitol Hill.
DECEMBER 24, 2009, 12:32 P.M. ET.
By GREG HITT and JANET ADAMY
WASHINGTON -- The Senate approved sweeping health-overhaul legislation on Thursday, a landmark moment for White House-led efforts to expand insurance coverage to more than 30 million Americans.
The bill, approved by a 60-39 vote, would deliver on a long-promised Democratic goal of extending coverage to nearly every American, and would represent the biggest expansion of the federal safety net since the 1965 creation of Medicare, the health-insurance program for the elderly and disabled.
Thursday's vote was a victory for President Barack Obama, who made the issue his top domestic priority despite lingering divisions among Democrats and the fierce opposition of Republicans. And it was a validation of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's decision to build consensus on his side of the aisle, rather than reach across party lines, a move that would have forced a lowering of ambitions.
More,,,
Keith Allred: Let's realize Idaho's full promise
Idaho Democratic Party - Thursday, December 17, 2009
 In front of a large and enthusiastic crowd in the Twin Falls High School gymnasium, fifth-generation Idahoan Keith Allred this morning announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for governor.
Allred, who graduated from Twin Falls High School -where he was student body president in 1983 - thanked the community for the “encouragement” that, he said, “helped prepare me to serve the state that I love.”
In his announcement, Allred identified the “Idaho values” of “caring for others, working hard and working together” that would guide his candidacy and administration. Pledging an independent-minded campaign, Allred sought broad support for his run for governor. “I ask all Idahoans – Democrats, Republicans and independents – to join me in this campaign to realize the full promise of a state government that is of, by, and for all Idahoans,” he said. (Read more here.)
An Allred for Idaho rally is set for 5:30 to 7 p.m. tonight (December 17) at the Basque Center in Boise. Tomorrow (Friday, December 18), Keith and Christine Allred will visit the Kootenai Democratic Club during its noon meeting at the Iron Horse in Coeur d'Alene.
The campaign also plans a series of house parties the week between Christmas and New Year's for friends to gather, watch a DVD of Keith's announcement speech and find out more about the Allred for Idaho campaign. If you'd like to hold a house party later this month, please contact Betty Richardson at betty@richardsonandoleary.com or call her at (208) 938-7903.
More,,,
Historic healthcare overhaul passes House
The 220-215 vote marks the first such victory in decades of efforts to expand insurance coverage. The bill wins a lone GOP vote and loses many Democrats, pointing to challenges awaiting in the Senate.
By Noam N. Levey and Janet Hook
November 8, 2009
Reporting from Washington - The House of Representatives on Saturday approved the most sweeping healthcare legislation since the creation of Medicare 44 years ago, giving a boost to President Obama's campaign to guarantee health coverage to almost all Americans.
The gargantuan Democratic measure passed 220 to 215, with a single Republican vote, capping a contentious daylong debate that underscored the ideological divide separating the two parties over healthcare.
The narrow Democratic victory underscored the difficult road ahead as the issue moves on to the Senate. But it also meant that the party had reached a historic landmark: It has been trying since the Great Depression to win a vote to extend the government's social safety net to include healthcare.
More,,,
Affordable Health Care for America Act
By Kruger, Mike on October 29, 2009 10:30 AM
For the first time in U.S. history, all Americans would have access to quality, affordable health care under updated health insurance reform legislation unveiled by House Democrats.
The Affordable Health Care for America Act [H.R. 3962], which blends and updates the three versions of previous bills passed by the House committees of jurisdiction in July, embodies President Obama’s key goals for health reform. It will slow the growth in out-of-control costs, introduce competition into the health care marketplace to keep coverage affordable and insurers honest, protect people’s choices of doctors and health plans, and assure all Americans access to quality, stable, affordable health care.
The key components of the Affordable health Care for America Act include:
More commentary on H.R. 3962,,,
Read the full H.R. 3962 text,,,
Michael Hirsh
Converting the Preachers
George Soros launches a $50 million effort to purge economics of its free-market zeal.
Oct 27, 2009
"Large swaths of economics are going to have to be rethought on the basis of what's happened." So said Larry Summers, President Obama's chief economic adviser, in an interview in the weeks after the markets crashed a year ago. Yet to a remarkable degree, economic thinking hasn't changed very much at all. (Click here to follow Michael Hirsh).
Now financier George Soros is announcing a $50 million effort to speed things along. This week Soros is gathering some of the leading practitioners of the market-skeptic school, who were marginalized during the era of "free-market fundamentalism," among them Nobelists Joseph Stiglitz, George Akerlof, Michael Spence, and Sir James Mirrlees. He's also creating an "Institute for New Economic Thinking" to make research grants, convene symposiums, and establish a journal, all in an effort to take back the economics profession from the champions of free-market zealotry who have dominated it for decades, and to correct the failures of decades of market deregulation. Soros hopes matching funds will bring the total endowment up to $200 million. "Economics has failed not only to predict and explain what happened but has also failed to protect society," says Robert Johnson, a former managing director at Soros Fund Management, who will direct the new institute. "That's what the crisis revealed. The paradigm has failed. There is no guidance."
More,,,
Larry McNeely
Health Care Reform Advocate, U.S. PIRG
Posted: October 22, 2009 10:35 PM
Not With a Bang But a Whimper:
Did Fee-For-Service Medicine Just Die?
House leadership and a group of Representatives from low-cost states made news with a deal Thursday that will deliver their support for a public option which would pay providers according to rates based on Medicare. In return, the Representatives will get a study to start fixing low reimbursement rates in low-cost areas of the country.
Both aspects of the deal -- support for the public option, and shifting Medicare reimbursements in low-cost areas -- are important in today's politics. The grouping of Representatives, calling themselves the Quality Care Coalition, and led by Rep. Bruce Braley (D-IA), Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA), Rep. Ron Kind (D-WI), and Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN), could provide the votes that Speaker Nancy Pelosi needs to pass her aggressive version of the public option.
But years from now, a little-noticed detail of that agreement could potentially overshadow any other story from this year's tumultuous health care debate.
That's because the fine print of today's agreement calls for a second study -- this one on transforming our entire health system, private and public, to one that rewards quality and value. This just might become the game-changing move on cost containment America's health care system desperately needs.
To understand why you must first understand that many of America's health care cost and quality problems start with the payment system that Medicare and many private health insurance companies use. Under this system, known as "fee-for-service," health care providers receive payment for each visit with a patient, each test ordered, and each procedure performed. Payment is based solely on the quantity and complexity of care that the patient receives, regardless of how effective that care actually is or how well it is delivered. This payment structure penalizes those providers or hospitals who focus on disease prevention and treatment protocols which identify medical problems before they become acute. At the same time, it rewards hospitals and doctors who rely on a higher complexity and quantity of tests and treatments, whether they make the patient healthier or not.
Under this deal, the respected, apolitical Institute of Medicine would be charged with charting a new path to "the efficient delivery of high quality, evidence-based, patient centered care."
If the IOM reaches the same conclusions as most health policy experts, and recommends a real and permanent transition away from fee-for-service, the savings could be vast. A recent roundtable of experts sponsored by IOM identified $800 billion a year in wasted health spending by the private and public sectors.
More,,,
Stanley McChrystal’s Long War
Peter van Agtmael/Magnum, for The New York Times
PLOTTING THE COURSE General McChrystal meets with U.S. and Afghan commanders at Forward Operating Base Delhi in Helmand Province.
By DEXTER FILKINS
Published: October 14, 2009
A DAILY BATTLE Members of the 2/8 Battalion in Garmsir. Inside the town, life is fairly normal. Outside, the Taliban are a constant threat.
Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal stepped off the whirring Black Hawk and headed straight into town. He had come to Garmsir, a dusty outpost along the Helmand River in southern Afghanistan, to size up the war that President Obama has asked him to save. McChrystal pulled off his flak jacket and helmet. His face, skeletal and austere, seemed a piece of the desert itself.
He was surrounded by a clutch of bodyguards, normal for a four-star general, and an array of the Marine officers charged with overseeing the town. Garmsir had been under Taliban control until May 2008, when a force of American Marines swept in and cleared it. Since then, the British, then the Americans, have been holding it and trying, ever so slowly, to build something in Garmsir — a government, an army, a police force — for the first time since the war began more than eight years ago.
The Marines around McChrystal, including the local battalion commander, Lt. Col. Christian Cabaniss, looked surprised, even alarmed, when McChrystal removed his protective gear. But as the group walked the rutted streets into Garmsir’s bazaar, they began taking off their helmets, too.
“Who owns the land here?” McChrystal asked, peering up the street and into the shops. “Is it owned by the farmers or by landlords?”
It was the sort of question a sociologist, or an economist, would ask. No one offered an answer.
“If you owned 200 acres here, would you live on it, or would you live somewhere else?” McChrystal asked.
The entourage entered the bazaar. The Afghans sensed that an important American had arrived, and they began to gather in groups inside the stalls. Then the general stopped and turned.
“What do you need here?” McChrystal asked.
A translator turned the general’s words into Pashto.
“We need schools!” one Afghan called back. “Schools!”
“We’re working on that,” McChrystal said. “Those things take time.”
McChrystal walked some more, engaging another group of Afghans. He posed the same question.
“Security,” a man said. “We need security. Security first, then the other things will be possible.”
“That is what we are trying to do,” McChrystal said. “But it’s going to take time. Success takes time.”
The questions kept coming, and the answer was the same. After a couple of hours, McChrystal put on his helmet and flak jacket, boarded the Black Hawk and flew to another town.
Success takes time, but how much time does Stanley McChrystal have? The war in Afghanistan is now in its ninth year. The Taliban, measured by the number of their attacks, are stronger than at any time since the Americans toppled their government at the end of 2001. American soldiers and Marines are dying at a faster rate than ever before. Polls in the United States show that opposition to the war is growing steadily.
More,,,
The Wizard of Beck
By DAVID BROOKS
Published: October 2, 2009
Let us take a trip back into history. Not ancient history. Recent history. It is the winter of 2007. The presidential primaries are approaching. The talk jocks like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity and the rest are over the moon about Fred Thompson. They’re weak at the knees at the thought of Mitt Romney. Meanwhile, they are hurling torrents of abuse at the unreliable deviationists: John McCain and Mike Huckabee.
Yet somehow, despite the fervor of the great microphone giants, the Thompson campaign flops like a fish. Despite the schoolgirl delight from the radio studios, the Romney campaign underperforms.
Meanwhile, Huckabee surges. Limbaugh attacks him, but social conservatives flock.
Along comes New Hampshire and McCain wins! Republican voters have not heeded their masters in the media. Before long, South Carolina looms as the crucial point of the race. The contest is effectively between Romney and McCain. The talk jocks are now in spittle-flecked furor. Day after day, whole programs are dedicated to hurling abuse at McCain and everybody ever associated with him. The jocks are threatening to unleash their angry millions.
Yet the imaginary armies do not materialize. McCain wins the South Carolina primary and goes on to win the nomination. The talk jocks can’t even deliver the conservative voters who show up at Republican primaries. They can’t even deliver South Carolina!
So what is the theme of our history lesson? It is a story of remarkable volume and utter weakness. It is the story of media mavens who claim to represent a hidden majority but who in fact represent a mere niche — even in the Republican Party. It is a story as old as “The Wizard of Oz,” of grand illusions and small men behind the curtain.
More,,,
Social Security strained by early retirements
Older workers who can’t find employment opt to collect their benefits
Social Security officials had expected applications to increase from the growing number
of baby boomers reaching retirement, but they didn't expect the increase to be so large.
updated 11:26 a.m. MT, Sun., Sept . 27, 2009
WASHINGTON - Big job losses and a spike in early retirement claims from laid-off seniors will force Social Security to pay out more in benefits than it collects in taxes the next two years, the first time that's happened since the 1980s.
The deficits — $10 billion in 2010 and $9 billion in 2011 — won't affect payments to retirees because Social Security has accumulated surpluses from previous years totaling $2.5 trillion. But they will add to the overall federal deficit.
More,,,
How Health Overhaul Would Affect The Uninsured
by Christopher Weaver
September 20, 2009
Are You Covered?
How many Americans are uninsured?
According to the Census Bureau, in 2008, more than 46 million Americans — about 15 percent of the population — did not have health insurance. Because of the recession, many experts believe the number is now larger.
Who are the uninsured?
Income is a strong factor in identifying the uninsured. About two-thirds of uninsured Americans earn less than twice the federal poverty level, which is $22,050 for a family of four. Almost 25 percent of the uninsured are poor enough to be eligible for Medicaid but are not enrolled.
Nearly 80 percent of the uninsured are U.S. citizens, and 15 percent are undocumented immigrants.
The vast majority of the uninsured — 80 percent — are in working families. And a higher percentage of minorities are uninsured than whites.
More,,,
To Cut Healthcare Costs, Let's Start With the Secret Prices
When a colonoscopy ranges from $450 to $10,000, there's room for plenty of savings
By Bernadine Healy, M.D.
Posted September 15, 2009
As President Obama said again in his recent address to Congress, an imperative for health reform is containing runaway health costs. But the elephant in the room that is a real driver of costs is something few people are talking about: the variable and hush-hush pricing of medical goods and services, set by the government or negotiated by insurers and largely kept secret from the patients ultimately responsible for their bills.
Look at a colonoscopy: When paid by Medicare, the fee is roughly $450. Insurance companies secretly negotiate a maze of different prices, generally two to five times that. But as the trade group America's Health Insurance Plans recently reported, patients who have to pay their own bill because they are uninsured, are seeking care outside of their insurer's network, or their insurer has denied their claim, can face retail charges as shameless as $10,000. And how can it be that Medicare pays $40,000, prix fixe, for the same heart operation, by the same doctor, at the same hospital, that costs patients paying privately $80,000 to $120,000?
More,,,
Have You No Decency, Sir?
At Long Last, Have You No Sense of Decency?
Evan Handler
Posted: September 10, 2009 02:47 PM
I'm pretty invested in this health care bill battle. First, twenty-four years ago, when I was 24 years old, I was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia. My medical treatments lasted over four years, cost close to half a million dollars, and were largely paid for by insurance coverage from my two acting unions, Actors Equity Association and Screen Actors Guild. Still, my family was forced to empty my bank account to meet official poverty levels (there wasn't very much to spend, at the time) in order to qualify for Social Security disability payments, and my years of illness nearly bankrupted my parents -- in spite of all the insurance coverage and assistance. I can tell you firsthand: even the most privileged among us are within a millimeter of losing everything to an unexpected illness. I was lucky enough to escape the clutches of what was then considered to be an incurable disease. I had my life. But I was left with nothing else. So, I'm puzzled, and amazed, and dismayed, by those who want health care reform legislation to be anything other than the most comprehensive and powerful it can possibly be.
Then there's my new family. My wife is from Italy. She, her parents, her grandparents, all her relatives, and all their friends have received prompt, capable, and comprehensive health care their entire lives, and it hasn't cost them a thing. They've had their teeth cleaned regularly, their cavities filled, gum tissue transplants, fused spinal discs, abdominal surgeries, you name it. They didn't wait any longer than anyone would here. Nothing was rationed or withheld. They were, and are, every age, from zero to 94. Their government makes sure that its citizens can visit the doctor, have surgeries, and take care of their health, period. It's a right of existence, and -- to judge by my wife's circle -- it's working well (and Italy ain't exactly known for things working well). For that matter, my wife also attended the high school of her choice free of charge, and a world renowned Italian University for $200 per year. Why wouldn't Americans want the same? If they do want it, why are these things being kept from them? Maybe a more pertinent question today is, why are they being encouraged and instructed to fear this kind of progress on the part of their government, which every other advanced nation's government in the world has already long embraced?
More,,,
Krugman on Economics
This weekend’s New York Times Magazine has the 7,000-word article about the state of macroeconomics that Paul Krugman has been hinting at for some time now. It’s a well-written, non-technical overview of the landscape and the position Krugman has been presenting on his blog, which for now I’ll just summarize for those who may not have the time to set aside just now.
Like many, Krugman faults the discipline for its infatuation with mathematical elegance:
More,,,
Yes, We Can Afford Health-Care Reform
By Simon Johnson and James Kwak
Tuesday, September 1, 2009; 8:29 AM
"Moderate" opponents of health-care reform like to say that we cannot afford it, particularly in the midst of a recession that has widened the deficit with both reduced tax revenue and the fiscal stimulus package. This was the argument advanced by Sen. Joe Lieberman on TV a week ago and repeated by Michael Gerson in this newspaper: "Obama's massive spending, intended to stabilize the economy, also drained the Treasury, making it more difficult to propose major new expenditures."
But what does this mean?
More,,,
A Portrait of Mormons in the U.S.
July 24, 2009
 In Utah, July 24 is Pioneer Day, a state holiday commemorating the day in 1847 when the first Mormon settlers, led by Brigham Young, entered the Salt Lake Valley. Today, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and other Mormon groups make up 58% of Utah's population and 1.7% of the total U.S. adult population, according to the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, conducted by the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life in 2007. The religious tradition, founded in the United States in 1830, has come under increased public scrutiny in recent years as a result of prominent Mormons in the news, such as Mitt Romney, a 2008 Republican presidential primary candidate and former governor of Massachusetts, and Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), the majority leader in the U.S. Senate, as well as the involvement of the LDS church in political issues, such as the recent debate over gay marriage in California.
A new analysis of the Landscape Survey data reveals that as a group Mormons are among the most devout and conservative religious people in the country. The Mormon community is also internally diverse, with differences according to levels of religious commitment and educational attainment, regions of the country where Mormons live, and between lifelong Mormons and those who have converted to the faith. This report explores Mormons' unique place in the American religious landscape and is divided into three parts: demographic characteristics, religious beliefs and practices, and social and political views.
More,,,
The Faith Community of the Portneuf Valley welcomes all to
Prayer & Candlelight Vigil For Healthcare Reform
Monday, September 7 -- 6:30 p.m.
First Congregational United Church of Christ
309 N. Garfield - Pocatello, Idaho 83204
As our country debates and discusses healthcare reform and what it means for our nation, the faith community has offered a calming voice amid the shouting.
Forty-seven million Americans are without health insurance, and every day 14,000 more lose their coverage. In the last 10 years, premiums have doubled, out-of-pocket costs have increased by a third, and deductibles have continued to rise.
Our faith traditions teach us to pursue justice and bring the marginalized into our folds. Yet it is not a just society when
- Families are forced to choose between paying their mortgages or paying for prescription drugs;
- Small businesses must choose between being profitable or providing coverage to their employees;
- People are denied health insurance because they have a pre-existing condition for which they need medical care.
Equal access to safe and affordable health care is an essential social justice issue of our time.
Prayers and meditations will be offered for healthcare reform that is compatible with our shared faith-inspired values: compassion, community stewardship, abundance, generosity, and concern for those who are vulnerable.
For more information, please call the Congregational Church, 232-3056.
Huffington Post - Aug 17, 2009
Eight more Glenn Beck advertisers, including Wal-Mart -- the world's largest retailer -- have confirmed to ColorOfChange.org that they pulled their ads from the controversial Fox News Channel broadcaster's eponymous show. Allergan (maker of Restasis), Ally Bank (a unit of GMAC Financial Services), Best Buy, Broadview Security, CVS, Re-Bath, Travelocity and Wal-Mart join the dozen other companies who previously distanced themselves from Beck.
Twenty companies have pulled their ads from Beck's show in just the last two weeks. The moves come after the Fox News host called President Obama a "racist" who "has a deep-seated hatred for white people" during an appearance on Fox & Friends. Previous companies who pulled their ads include ConAgra, GEICO, Lawyers.com, Men's Wearhouse, Procter & Gamble, Progressive Insurance, RadioShack, Roche, SC Johnson, Sanofi-Aventis, Sargento, and State Farm Insurance. More,,,
Democrats outline eight health insurance guarantees
Written by Julie Fanselow
Tuesday, 11 August 2009 12:00
Much of the healthcare reform debate has focused on the 47 million Americans who lack health insurance. But reform isn’t only about the people who don’t have insurance. It's about those who have coverage, said R. Keith Roark, chairman of the Idaho Democratic Party.
“Hysteria over healthcare reform is being driven by Republicans and their allies in big out-of-state insurance and pharmaceutical companies who have a huge stake in keeping the status quo,” Roark said. “It’s unconscionable that rather than try to guarantee better healthcare for everyone, including the millions of Americans who like their insurance, Idaho Republicans are resorting to lies about what reform will mean for Idaho families and businesses. Fear mongering won’t obscure what the vast majority of our citizens know: The healthcare system is broken, and if we don’t fix it now, it will get worse. ”
Roark added that most insured Americans are satisfied with the coverage they have, but many people have concerns about losing coverage if they become sick, lose their job, move to a new job or launch a business of their own. That's why Democrats including President Barack Obama and Congressman Walt Minnick agree on these Eight Health Insurance Guarantees that must be part of any reform legislation passed this year:
More,,,
'I'm a Democrat because I am a Mormon'
 Pat Jones is the first woman to attain a leadership role in Utah's State Senate. Given her state's demographic profile, people are never surprised to hear that she's a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. But tell them that she's a Democrat, and that's a different story.
Jones was among the featured presenters at the 2009 Democratic National Committee Western Regional Caucus held August 7-9 in Worley, Idaho. She began her presentation by noting that although people often avoid discussion religion and politics, "I'm going to do both."
"There's kind of a minor debate, or maybe not so minor: Is it possible to be an active or good Mormon and still be affiliated with the Democratic Party?" she noted. "I can tell you I've had people ask me that question. And I always tell them, 'I'm a Democrat because I am a Mormon.'"
More,,,
 Idaho family, hometown folk hope for safe return of Taliban prisoner
Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl
BY Stephanie Gaskell
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Monday, July 20th 2009, 10:02 AM
The distraught parents of an American soldier captured last month in Afghanistan broke their silence Sunday and urged the nation to pray for their son's safety.
A terrified Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl, 23, of Hailey, Idaho, appeared in a video released by the Taliban over the weekend.
"We hope and pray for our son's safe return to his comrades and then to our family," wrote his father, Bob Bergdahl, in a statement released by the Pentagon. "We appreciate all the support and expressions of sympathy shown to us by our family members, our friends and others across the nation.
"Thank you, and please continue to keep Bowe in your thoughts and prayers," he wrote.
More,,,
Sen. Kennedy's committee passes health care bill
15 July, 2009 WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate health committee has passed legislation to revamp health care, becoming the first congressional committee to act on President Barack Obama's goal of overhauling the system this year.
The Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee voted 13-10 along party lines to pass a $600-billion measure that would expand coverage to nearly all Americans by requiring individuals get insurance and employers to contribute to the cost. The bill would provide federal aid to families and individuals making less than four times the poverty level, or about $88,000 for a family of four.
Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy, the chairman, wasn't there for the milestone vote. He's being treated for brain cancer.
More,,,
Route to resignation: Palin's political, personal turmoil
By Jim Rutenberg And Serge F. Kovaleski
 The New York Times
Updated: 07/13/2009 01:47:31 PM MDT
Anchorage » In late March, a senior official from the Republican Governors Association headed for Alaska on a secret mission. Sarah Palin was beset by such political and personal turmoil that some powerful supporters determined an intervention was needed to pull her governorship, and her national future, back from the brink.
The official, the association's executive director, Nick Ayers, arrived with a memorandum containing firm counsel, according to several people who know its details: Make a long-term schedule and stick to it, have staff members set aside ample and inviolable family time to replenish your spirits, and build a coherent home-state agenda that creates jobs and ensures
re-election.
More,,,
Ted Pike, 1924-2009
Posted by: Julie in public service, Democrat, Bonneville County on May 21, 2009
Former Bonneville County Democratic chairman Edward "Ted" Pike passed away this week at the age of 84.
"Democrats across Idaho are mouring the passing of a good friend" said Jim Hansen, executive director of the Idaho Democratic Party. "Ted was the Democratic prosecutor in Bonneville County and served the community in many other ways as well. Even in the face of tough opposition, he never gave up working as an advocate for ordinary people."
More,,,
 Where did all the bailout money go?
The government has pledged $11.3 trillion for economic rescue – and has spent one-quarter of that. On what?
By Mark Trumbull | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor from the April 26, 2009 edition
It's enough to boggle the mind. If all goes well, it'll be enough to help the economy recover.
The US government has deployed more than $3 trillion in an all-out effort to resolve a financial crisis and end a recession. It is acting as lender of last resort, investor of last resort, and consumer of last resort.
After more than a year of extraordinary federal interventions in markets and private companies, much still hangs in the balance.
At best, the federal efforts could stabilize the banking system, ease a record foreclosure wave, and kick-start an economic recovery. Then the Federal Reserve and Treasury would withdraw their stimulus before it sparks inflation or a run on the dollar by foreign investors.
At worst, the rescue could fizzle. While putting out a fire for a season, it could leave key banks still weak and the economy stalled, all while piling up a dangerous level of federal debt that limits options for the future.
Or the result could be something between those extremes. However it all turns out, the government strategy in some ways echoes the very banking behaviors that helped to launch the crisis: expanding its own leverage (debt) to extend high-risk credit to others.
Here's a guide to the rescue programs, in questions and answers.
More,,,
Pharmacy bill unnecessary,
bad for business, patients
By Rep. Sue Chew
The Idaho Senate will soon consider legislation - House Bill 216 - that would provide pharmacists immunity from liability when they refuse to fill a prescription based on religious or ethical reasons. As a licensed pharmacist, I see two major problems with the bill: The proposal seeks to provide a right that pharmacists already have, and it has far-reaching effects that may create troubling and unintended consequences, especially for Idaho business owners.
Pharmacists in the state of Idaho have always had the right to turn away business like any other business or profession. The absence of a "duty to fill" in Idaho Pharmacy Rule, by default, allows pharmacists the "right to refuse" a prescription that would result in a fatal overdose as well as many other circumstances.
I have received letters from fellow pharmacists who say HB 216 is unnecessary. Sam Hoagland is a pharmacist who practices law and has taught pharmacy law for ten years at the School of Pharmacy at Idaho State University. According to Professor Hoagland, David Ripley of Idaho Chooses Life brought his desire for a conscience bill to the Idaho Board of Pharmacy. The board urged him to consult with pharmacists to review and discuss the idea before drafting legislation. Neither he nor the bill's sponsor, Rep. Tom Loertscher, chose to do that.
More,,,
 Proposed Pharmacy Bill by Idaho House Committee Targets Moral Issues
Reporter: Tammy Scardino
Posted: March 18, 2009 10:39 PM MDT
Updated: March 18, 2009 10:47 PM MDT
The state of Idaho is now one step closer to passing legislation that would put into writing an unspoken understanding that pharmacists have the right to refuse filling a prescription. What makes this a hot topic is the specific type of medication that gets denied.
It really comes down to a difference in people's moral opinion about the "Morning After Pill", also called the "Plan B" pill.
The same type of person that would be against the now over-the-counter medication might also not believe in dispensing any form of birth control, if say for instance they were Catholic.
More,,,
 Jon Stewart takes Jim Cramer apart: getting mad at the 'Mad Money' man
Mar 13, 2009, 12:04 AM | by Ken Tucker
Categories: last night, Television
What The Daily Show With Jon Stewart billed as "the week-long feud of the century" almost ended in a very funny fizzle: Instead of being his usual feisty self, financial advisor Jim Cramer could not apologize fast enough to Stewart for what he repeatedly called his "shenanigans" as host of CNBC's Mad Money.
Note I said "almost," because something pretty amazing happened. Things got dead-serious as Stewart played 2006 clips of Cramer talking about how to manipulate stocks and create Wall Street rumors during the time he was a hedge-fund manager. You could almost see the blood drain from Cramer's face every time the camera returned to him in the studio with Stewart. Talking about the present-day crisis, Stewart tore into Cramer, saying for doing things like urging his viewers to buy Bear Stearns stock shortly before that investment bank collapsed. "It's not a f------ game," said Stewart, asserting that what Cramer and other financial reporters did could be considered "criminal at worst."
More,,,
Executive Privilege Compromise:
Win-Win-Win
Posted by Andrew Cohen
March 4, 2009 10:16 PM
(CBS)Believe it or not, this is precisely the way the Founding Fathers envisioned how the Constitution could work. Pressure from the judicial branch (a pending deadline to file a substantive brief) and the legislative branch (Congressional subpoenas to Bush officials) forced the White House into compromising over the scope of executive privilege in the U.S. Attorney matter. It’s a win-win-win, Steve Carell would say.
Or, you can look at it another way. The deal that finally delivers Karl Rove and Harriet Miers into Rep. John Conyers Congressional den of inquiry came about because neither the Obama Administration, nor the Congress, wanted to risk creating “bad” legal precedent about the scope of the privilege—federal law that might be political convenient now, but which could hinder future administrations (or even this one, a few years down the road).
More,,,
Cost of locking up Americans too high - Pew study
Mon Mar 2, 2009 7:44pm GMT
WASHINGTON, March 2 (Reuters) - One in every 31 U.S. adults is in the corrections system, which includes jail, prison, probation and supervision, more than double the rate of a quarter century ago, according to a report released on Monday by the Pew Center on the States.
The study, which said the current rate compares to one in 77 in 1982, concluded that with declining resources, more emphasis should be put on community supervision, not jail or prison.
"Violent and career criminals need to be locked up, and for a long time. But our research shows that prisons are housing too many people who can be managed safely and held accountable in the community at far lower cost," said Adam Gelb, director of the Center's Public Safety Performance Project, which produced the report.
The United States has the highest incarceration rate and the biggest prison population of any country in the world, according to figures from the U.S. Department of Justice.
Most of those in the U.S. corrections system -- one in 45 -- are already on probation or parole, with one in 100 in prison or jail, the Pew study found.
More,,,
Republican obstinacy: How's it working?
By Derrick Z. Jackson
Globe Columnist / February 18, 2009
NOT EVEN the stimulus bill stimulated the Republican Party into any human feeling. It heard not the screams of 4 million people losing their jobs in the last year, not the slamming doors of shuttering factories, nor the shrieks at kitchen tables from Saco to Sacramento as working Americans open their mail to see they've lost 40 percent and more on their 401ks.
With the collective livelihood of America at stake, only three of 219 Republicans in the House and the Senate voted for the $787 billion economic recovery package, and the three who did - Maine's Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, and Pennsylvania's Arlen Specter - slashed what they could before passage in the Senate.
The party displayed the very obstinacy that lost it the White House. Lest we forget, and the party sure must have thought we did, its standard-bearer, President Bush, turned the $128 billion surplus of President Clinton into a $1.2 trillion deficit. For that, a grand 17 percent of Americans in a New York Times/CBS poll approved of Bush's handling of the economy as he left office. In a Gallup poll, only 5 percent of Americans thought Bush made progress on the economy, a gracious 7 percent said the economy stood still, and 87 percent said we lost ground. The 5 percent who said the economy was better could only have been Wall Street CEOs, the Patriots' sudden star and suddenly rich Matt Cassel, and free-agent baseball pitcher C.C. Sabathia, who signed with the Yankees for $161 million over the next seven years.
A CNN poll found that only 13 percent of Americans believed the outgoing Bush "brought the kind of change the country needed." So America elected Barack Obama as the "Change We Need."
More,,,
Human evolution kicks into high gear
Researchers debate whether our species is growing apart or together
 By Kathleen McAuliffe
updated 12:21 p.m. MT, Tues., Feb. 10, 2009
For decades the consensus view — among the public as well as the world’s preeminent biologists—has been that human evolution is over. Since modern Homo sapiens emerged 50,000 years ago, “natural selection has almost become irrelevant” to us, the influential Harvard paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould proclaimed. “There have been no biological changes. Everything we’ve called culture and civilization we’ve built with the same body and brain.”
This view has become so entrenched that it is practically doctrine. Even the founders of evolutionary psychology, Leda Cosmides and John Tooby, signed on to the notion that our brains were mostly sculpted during the long period when we were hunter-gatherers and have changed little since. “Our modern skulls house a Stone Age mind,” they wrote in a background piece on the Center for Evolutionary Psychology at the University of California at Santa Barbara.
So to suggest that humans have undergone an evolutionary makeover from Stone Age times to the present is nothing short of blasphemous. Yet a team of researchers has done just that.
More,,,
Mortgage Madness: Protest targets 'predator'
Posted on 02/09/2009
By AMANDA NORRIS
anorris@thestamfordtimes.com
STAMFORD -- Stamford and Greenwich became the stomping grounds of a grassroots campaign against corporate greed Sunday as part of a three day homeowners' workshop sponsored by the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America. Between 350 and 400 people, most of them members, staff or volunteers for the Boston-based nonprofit organization, converged outside the Greenwich home of William Frey, manager of Greenwich Financial Services, at around 1 p.m.
Wearing bright yellow hats and t-shirts with pictures of sharks and the words "Stop Loan Sharks," protesters had already targeted the home of John Mack, CEO of Morgan Stanley, at 6 Club Road, Rye, N.Y. earlier in the day.
More,,,
On Biblical RIGHT-eousness
It is not fair to expect secular journalists to be biblical scholars, nor should it be anticipated that they would spend the necessary time to research the issue. It is for that reason that they tend to accept uncritically the oft-repeated Evangelical Protestant and Conservative Roman Catholic definitions that the Bible is anti-gay. If these people were honest, they would have to admit that the Bible is also pro-slavery and anti-women.
There is also a widely accepted mentality that if the Bible is opposed, the idea must be wrong. That is little more than nonsensical fundamentalism. The rise of democracy was contrary to the "clear teaching of the Bible," as the debate over the forced signing of the Magna Carta by King John of England in 1215 revealed. The Bible was quoted to prove that Galileo was wrong; that Darwin was wrong; that Freud was wrong; that allowing women to be educated, to vote, to enter the professions and to be ordained was wrong. So the fact that the Bible is quoted to prove that homosexuality is evil and to be condemned is hardly a strong argument, given the history of how many times the Bible has been wrong. I believe that most bishops know this but the Episcopal Church has some fundamentalist bishops and a few who are "fellow travelers" with fundamentalists.
The Bible was written between the years 1000 B.C.E. and 135 C.E. Our knowledge of almost everything has increased exponentially since that time. It is the height of ignorance to continue using the Bible as an encyclopedia of knowledge to keep dying prejudices intact. The media seems to cooperate in perpetuating that long ago abandoned biblical attitude.
That is not surprising since the religious people keep quoting it to justify their continued state of unenlightenment. That attitude is hardly worthy of the time it takes to engage it. I do not debate with members of the flat earth society either. Prejudices all die. The first sign that death is imminent comes when the prejudice is debated publicly. The tragedy is that church leaders back the wrong side of the conflict, which is happening today from the Pope to the Archbishop of Canterbury to the current crop of Evangelical leaders. That too will pass and the debate on homosexuality will be just one more embarrassment in Christian history.
–John Shelby Spong
30 January, 2009
Four Things the Republicans Don't Want You to Know About the Economy
Keith Boykin
Keith Boykin is editor of The Daily Voice, a CNBC contributor and a BET political commentator.
Posted January 26, 2009
In the past few weeks, I've heard lots of Republican talking heads make some pretty damning arguments about "liberal" Democratic economic policies and Barack Obama's "wasteful" spending plans. The arguments may sound convincing at first blush, but the Republicans aren't offering any serious alternatives. So I did some research and came up with a quick list of four things Republicans don't want you to know about the economy.
More,,,
Inaugural Address
 Obama puts stamp on DNC
By LIZ SIDOTI
01/21/09
WASHINGTON (AP) — A prolific political fundraiser and grass-roots organizer, President Barack Obama is quickly putting his stamp on the Democratic Party in an attempt to build on the success of his groundbreaking campaign and Democrats' recent election results.
One day after Obama was sworn into office and a few after he announced that his massive campaign organization would become a special project of the party, the Democratic National Committee formally elected the president's choice for chairman — Tim Kaine — and several vice chairmen who are presidential allies. They are taking the reins of the party won sweeping victories in back-to-back elections
The team's task: taking a Democratic Party that's extraordinarily empowered to the next level by supporting Obama's governing agenda while preparing for the midterm elections in 2010 and, ultimately, Obama's anticipated re-election campaign two years later.
In his first speech as chairman, Kaine channeled Obama when he added another objective: defining the Democratic Party as a problem-solving, positive, unifying body that embraces the values of hard work and equality, while rejecting ideological fights, partisan gridlock and hard-core negative rhetoric.
More,,,
A Balanced Strategy
Reprogramming the Pentagon for a New Age
Robert M. Gates
From Foreign Affairs, January/February 2009
Summary: The Pentagon has to do more than modernize its conventional forces; it must also focus on today's unconventional conflicts -- and tomorrow's.
Robert M. Gates is U.S. Secretary of Defense.
More,,,
Muslim woman defies male dominance.
By Farah El Alfy in Cairo, Egypt
Amal Soliman was ridiculed for wanting to be a marriage registrar [Jasmin Bauomy]
Amal Soliman, a 32-year-old Egyptian woman, has endured intimidation and ridicule in the year since she applied for a job as the Muslim world's first mazouna, or female marriage registrar, but she says her victory has been worth the fight.
In late September, Soliman, who holds a Masters degree in Islamic Sharia law, broke into what has until now been an exclusively males-only club.
However, the Committee of Egyptian Mazouns, an all-male organisation, challenged Soliman's application saying the job would be inappropriate for a woman and voiced their opinion in a statement issued by the committee.
A marriage officer presides over a wedding (or divorce) ceremony, recites verses from the Quran and signs the official certificates making the union legally binding.
Al Jazeera recently spoke with Soliman shortly after she conducted her first wedding ceremony on October 25.
More,,,
US intelligence report sees shift of power to east
By Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington
Published: November 21 2008 02:00 | Last updated: November 21 2008 02:00
The world is shifting towards a multi-polar system with a less dominant US and a more powerful China and India, and a "historic" transfer of wealth from west to east, according to a new US intelligence report.
The Global Trends 2005 report, released by the director of national intelligence yesterday, says that while the US will remain the most powerful country in 2025, the rise of emerging powers and regional blocs will constrain its ability to "call the shots" across the world.
The National Intelligence Council analysis concluded the US would be ever more constricted by scientific advances in other countries, the expansion of irregular warfare by state and non-state actors, the proliferation of long-range precision weapons and the growing frequency of cyber warfare. "The multiplicity of influential actors and distrust of vast power means less room for the US to call the shots without the support of strong partnerships."
The report said the international system prevailing since the second world war would be "unrecognisable by 2025 owing to the rise of emerging powers, a globalising economy, a historic transfer of relative wealth and economic power from west to east, and the growing influence of non-state actors".
More,,,
Mormons Tipped Scale in Ban on Gay Marriage
By JESSE McKINLEY and KIRK JOHNSON
Published: November 14, 2008
SACRAMENTO — Less than two weeks before Election Day, the chief strategist behind a ballot measure outlawing same-sex marriage in California called an emergency meeting here.
Jim Wilson/The New York Times
Frank Schubert was the chief strategist for Proposition 8, which defines marriage as between a man and a woman in California.
Election Results | More Politics News
“We’re going to lose this campaign if we don’t get more money,” the strategist, Frank Schubert, recalled telling leaders of Protect Marriage, the main group behind the ban.
The campaign issued an urgent appeal, and in a matter of days, it raised more than $5 million, including a $1 million donation from Alan C. Ashton, the grandson of a former president of the Mormon Church. The money allowed the drive to intensify a sharp-elbowed advertising campaign, and support for the measure was catapulted ahead; it ultimately won with 52 percent of the vote.
More,,,
 Human Rights Rally Scheduled in Idaho Falls Saturday
Posted: Nov 14, 2008 03:54 PM MST
Updated: Nov 14, 2008 03:54 PM MST
A local group is gathering Saturday morning to stage a rally in Idaho Falls that is part of a nation-wide protest.
One of the participants told Local News 8 the rally is about human rights and the passage of Proposition 8 in California. He wants to show the area that there is a gay community presence in Eastern Idaho.
Similar protests are scheduled to happen across the country and are organized by Join the Impact.
The rally is sponsored by Parents, Families, & Friends of Lesbians and Gays, or PFLAG, Breaking Boundaries and concerned citizens.
It is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. at the Bonneville County Courthouse, 605 N. Capital Ave.
More,,,
Nebraska fears rush to drop off kids before haven law change
By Ed Lavandera
CNN
OMAHA, Nebraska (CNN) -- Nebraska officials said they're concerned about an apparent rush by parents to drop their teenage children off at hospitals before lawmakers change the state's troubled "safe haven" law.
Four children have been dropped off at Nebraska hospitals in the last two days.
The latest cases came on the eve of a special session of the Legislature on Friday to add an age limit to the law. On Thursday, a boy, 14, and his 17-year-old sister were dropped off at an Omaha hospital; the girl ran away from the hospital, officials said. A 5-year-old boy was left by his mother at a different hospital, officials said.
The day before, a father flew in from Miami, Florida, to leave his teenage son at a hospital, officials said.
"Please don't bring your teenager to Nebraska," Gov. Dave Heineman told CNN. "Think of what you are saying. You are saying you no longer support them. You no longer love them."
Nebraska's safe haven law was intended to allow parents to hand over an infant anonymously to a hospital without being prosecuted. Of the 34 children who have been dropped off at hospitals, officials said not one has been an infant.
All but six have been older than 10, according to a Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services analysis.
State officials said because of legislative procedures it will take at least a week to change the language of the safe haven law, creating a window where more parents could try to take advantage of the loophole in the statute.
More,,,
What does this say about,,,
Idaho donates $400K to pass gay marriage ban
IDAHO FALLS, Idaho - Campaign finance reports show Idaho residents contributed more than $400,000 to a Web site-based campaign in support of banning gay marriage in California.
California Secretary of State records show dozens of Idaho residents sent $10,000, $5,000 and $1,000 donations to ProtectMarriage.com, an online-based campaign in support of the ban.
Voters in California narrowly passed Proposition 8 in the Nov. 4 election. The ballot proposition amends the California constitution to define marriage as between a man and a woman.
The ProtectMarriage.com campaign collected a total of about $40 million for its Yes on Proposition 8 campaign, according to a statement posted on its Web site.
The Idaho donations were collected in a span of less than two weeks, beginning on Oct. 27 and ending on Election Day, and a bulk of the money came from the eastern region of the state.
Information from: Post Register, http://www.postregister.com
More,,, |
2009 Inaugural Address
|
IDAHO VOTE BY MAIL Dedicated to making voting in Idaho easier and more convenient for all registered voters |
|
Since our elected Republican leadership has chosen to leave those with no Health Insurance out in the cold, many people are having serious budget problems handling their prescription expenses. We suggest they investigate this
Free Drug Card.
It may help them save as much as 75% off their prescription costs. |
 |
EAST IDAHO DEMOCRATS
