Tom Paine's blog

According to the numbers just released by the US Census, per pupil

http://buffalo.bizjournals.com/buffalo/blog/the_score/2010/06/new_york_sets_the_pace_in_school_spending.html

I don't see how the Idaho GOP gets around this, unless they want to close the numerous small rural districts which are job-programs for their buds out in the sticks.

from one of my favorite blogs, Zero Hedge

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/guest-post-what-do-bp-and-banks-have-common-era-corporate-anarchy

here's something Idaho's really ahead of the curve on

From BusinessInsider.com (pay close attention to #9, state that downloads the most Internet porn) and loves (can you say, "worship"?) money, too. And #14, most popular day of week for viewing porn (guess...duh-oh).

http://www.businessinsider.com/14-amazing-facts-about-internet-porn-2010-6

Another religious GOP hypocrite bites the big green weenie; crash & burn....

http://blog.al.com/live/2010/05/mark_souder_evangelical_christ.html

Come'on Democrats...get a clue. Who was the 'Captain of the Ship' when this stuff was going on?

http://blog.seattlepi.com/environment/archives/148456.asp

And where is he now? Idaho's GOP governor-gone-to-Interior, who could never keep his pants zipped? The national press needs to expose this one.

From the Washington Post:
[so what they lean liberal?, their facts are consistent].

Outside of Idaho, where Dems can really smell blood (& take action), it would not surprise to have it unfold like this: as the economy gets better, the GOP, who has this secular narcissitic narriative floating around their brains that they're on track to win back Congress, suddenly realizes about Halloween---that ain't gonna happen.  read more »

This is, simply put, an honestly amazing story

see link at MSNBC.

If Bennett's thrown from the train down there, what does it tell you about Idaho? And speaking of Idaho, how about Idaho's favorite daughter, Sarah Palin, and her recent take on church & state?  read more »

Check out this piece on Glenn Beck's ratings:
http://www.businessinsider.com/fox-news-glenn-beck-ratings-down-by-30-this-year-2010-4

Hint: the American people want government to (gasp!) govern, and the more the GOP says, "no! no! no!" ...the less the American people like it. (Wow, you think that's why GOP opposition to financial reform collapsed in the Senate?)

Now if the weenie Idaho Democrat party would only take the same perspective to the 30-40 year tenured GOP bums in Boise.

Here's a hottie from the murky world..."beyond the Arid Club". File under: where there's smoke.

Butch Otter is a major private investor in a unique (privately held) Idaho company, PakSense. PakSense makes a type of sensing product, whose purchase & use can be stipulated by regulatory edict.

Right now, there's no specific paper trail (is there ever?) to indicate any sort of causal collusion.

However, wouldn't it be nice to get a complete look at Butch's portfolio?

Check out the reader feedback on this Popkey piece about Vandersloot’s support for small, raw milk producers.

http://www.idahostatesman.com/235/story/1077236.html?storylink=omni_popular&pageNum=1&mi_pluck_action=page_nav&commentSort=RecommendationsDescending#Comments_Container

Without taking sides one way or the other (I personally sympathize with the raw milk crowd; although Richard Nixon always attributed 2 of his brothers' young deaths to his father's insistence on serving raw milk), one would think Mr. Vandersloot would keep as low a profile as he could.

Checkout this latest release (today) from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics:
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/cewqtr.t03.htm

It clearly shows the dramatically slowing (and awfully mismanaged) Idaho economy on 2 fronts thru the end of 2007 (latest verified time). Ada County Idaho only squeaks in with a 0.4% increase in job numbers, and a 0.5% increase in the average weekly wage. How is it the Otter Administration could fool so many people? One BIG part: their Commerce Dept routinely had help from all those business magazines touting Idaho, in exchange for state-placed advertisements.  read more »

Looks like the end is coming [this technological phase, at least] for the parent company of the Idaho Statesman. Total revenues, off some 15% IN ONE MONTH, have brought notice that McClatchy is set to jettison more than 10% of their entire workforce.

After their haughty rebuff of Spokane's Cowles Media's offer to buy the Statesman in 2006, and McClatchy's subsequent failed attempt to get Cowles back in the mood in '07....big changes could be in store for the Boise operation. Their Idaho GOP buddies certainly haven't helped any with their management of Idaho's economy.  read more »

The 100+ year old Albuquerque Tribune was closed this am by the Scripps Howard Newspaper chain. Scripps had owned the Trib for 80+ years.

You can see the Reuters story at http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUKN2037448120080220?rpc=44  read more »

Earlier this afternoon Idaho's Director of Commerce, Jim Ellick, the successful former technology executive from Washington state, announced his "leave of absence" (it's permanent), due to "personal reasons".

According to my sources there's more to this story than meets the eye. Ellick had often expressed outright incredulity to many of the economic assumptions and policies he was forced to stomach from the Otter administration. According to press reports, his take 3 weeks ago on multi-year budget assumptions being floated---refused to allow for the remote possibility that Micron (and HP, AMI, CWI, BEA, Coldwater, et al) might not be around to generate this revenue. This is supposedly the base reason that took Mr. Ellick out.  read more »

Anybody remember this? circa October 2006: http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?ID=5324

Well, well...it turns out some high-flying SV neighbors of mine have been down to old Paraguay on buying trips themselves. It also turns out a little known Austin Texas based oil company named Pantera Petroleum has the exclusive Paraguayan concession for some 16,000 sq kilometers, over a geologic formation known as the Chaco Basin.

It also turns out that Chevron has developmental rights just adjacent & over the Argentine, Bolivian, and Brazilian borders (where they operate the Frade Field). Operationally, they're in primo position to pipe out what experts concede is 7-10 trillion cu feet (tcfe) of natural gas and up to 1-2 billion barrels of oil in Chaco.  read more »

In a story out of Houston, HP is selling over 2 million sq ft of space there and plans to implement "a cost-reduction plan announced two years ago to consolidate real estate holdings into "core sites in key locations" around the world, give up some leased space and close sites it owns". Story at http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/sarnoff/5468874.html

Estimates of their revisions in the Boise area to their imaging division part, range from a high of 6600 jobs down to a present number of appx 1800. [**anyone got actual, up to date stats?**]

For years, HP has been seriously irritated by the state of Idaho's refusal to invest in numerous things more beneficial to technology development. HP folks from Mark Falconer to Dr. Ken Lindblom have gently chided Idaho about it....all to no avail. HP's imaging division showed the least growth & profitability of their business units in the past year, with analysts openly asking if it was time to exit that biz-line, while it still had some valuable cachet. Mark Hurd, HP's new CEO, has shown he's not afraid to take action.

A European based friend of mine with a house here in SV, just notified me Larry Craig has been recently (last few days) seen in Prague and Budapest, and in some rather unsavory places. He's "giving interviews" to local media, and calling on old east European buddies who he soire-ed with back in DC. Many of these were fronts for "child-refugee" problems originating in the Balkan War.

What's going on Larry-boy? Does Popkey need to hop a jet to the sex capital of Europe?

There is disturbing *anecdotal & *2nd hand evidence this am from New Yorkers up here to ski, that Micron will lay off half of their remaining Treasure Valley workforce by the beginning of their 2nd quarter (March 1). Seems their bankers & other institutional investors have given them the hard news, to survive in this climate---where the real estate debacle is taking so much time, energy & attention, Micron must move quickly and broadly in order to get "credit-ability". Their stock chart shows a negative & gigantic double-top formation going back to 1/1/03. This is the end-game for Micron, what happens now (buyout, bankruptcy, split-up, etc) is anyones' guess.  read more »

It seems my associate, William [Wallace] Sellers has been busy in Idaho Falls. He blast their representation in the Legislature this am in a Post Register op-ed openly calling for defeat of many GOP reps.

Sellers is very well connected in that community and has extensive political experience from New Mexico, where he was in a well-heeled guerilla group that had profound influence. Big problem for Democrats...this guy is a Republican! If they get any traction in the 'Falls, it could signal earth-shaking repercussions statewide.

I do not have copy of what he wrote....so if any of you have such or can scan in, please do so...WWS is not returning my e-mails.  read more »

Yeah, maybe in Arkansas or the 1-liner he used as a pickup tactic. More reasons all western Democrats should be deathly afraid of these two. See MSNBC link at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22356197/

**you can't make this s**t up**