The Idaho Freedom Foundation (IFF), brainchild of Bill Sali's ethically questionable pitchman Wayne Hoffman, is disseminating numbers to Idaho media outlets regarding taxpayer costs associated with illegal immigration, numbers which are conveniently provided without any basis whatsoever. The numbers come from the Federation of Americans for Immigration Reform (FAIR) which the Southern Poverty Law Center labels a nativist hate group with ties to white supremacists. FAIR drafted Arizona's controversial ethnic cleansing law and helped draft a similar bill which was sponsored by Idaho Senator Mike Jorgenson. The bill went down in flames committee and Jorgenson lost his seat in the primary to somebody reputed to be even more extreme.

One would hope that Idaho's media would be more discerning. Sam Seder picks apart FAIR sponsored alarmism on border violence and calls bullshit, a job the traditional media seems not to undertake. While there is ample cause for skepticism, Hoffman's media ex-colleagues just print whatever he sends.

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This morning I wake up to find this utter piece of self contradicting tripe passing for political analysis reprinted in the Idaho Statesman. Funny how the village herd mentality is so hard for them to break, particularly when the Statesman's parent, McClatchy, had a piece which is much more accurate. But traditional media pinheads are certainly keeping Jon Stewart quite popular who simply skewers them with cold hard facts. His show practically writes itself.  read more »

Boise resident Lt. Col. Victor Fehrenbach is an F-15 fighter pilot, and an 18-year veteran of the United States Air Force. He flew combat missions over Afghanistan in 2002, and over Iraq in 2003. The U.S. government invested $25 million in training Fehrenbach, and it was money well spent -- he's a highly decorated pilot, having received nine air medals, including one for heroism. He's flown 88 combat missions, and logged more than 2,000 flying hours. In the midst of two wars, this war hero is ready to deploy again, serving his country honorably, but because of his sexual orientation, the government has said Fehrenbach's services are no longer needed. Rachel Maddow has more on the good colonel.  read more »

This is brilliant.

UPDATED BELOW WITH VIDEO

Way to lead, Republicans, can you get any more un-American?

A group of artists has been asked to lighten the faces of children depicted in a giant public mural at a Prescott school.

The project's leader says he was ordered to lighten the skin tone after complaints about the children's ethnicity. But the school's principal says the request was only to fix shading and had nothing to do with political pressure.  read more »

Beyond all the win-win-win scenarios with the environment and the economy, the one major reason that should appeal to everyone, even selfish Republicans, is that we would stop putting American wealth in the hands of our enemies.

Republicans carefully crafted a talking point that ACORN loving, election stealing, low income folks and their Democratic masters, destroyed the economy by shoehorning these people into affordable housing. Krugman patiently and graphically torpedoes their logic, if you'll pardon the oxymoron.

Even during the Great Depression Idaho has never cut funding to education, until this year. And all you hear from Republicans on funding education is the same frustrations of child not being able to figure out how to get out of the sandbox. Here's a report from the Idaho Statesman on the lack of depth of the Idaho labor pool:  read more »

Toe-tappin', bobo-slappin' disgraced GOP ex-Senator Larry Craig -- the gift that keeps on givin':

Just when Lavatory Larry thought he was out... Comedy Central pulls him back in.

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

The Republican National Committee hired two staffers to work full time with the sole purpose of defeating Minnick. Funding congressional campaigns usually falls to the National Republican Congressional Committee which gave Labrador's opponent, Vaughn Ward, special status and access to resources during the primary. Indeed the NRCC funded this completely false ad in an effort to demonize Minnick.

The NRC has been plagued by funding woes and scandal under the helm of Michael Steele, the Republican's answer to Obama, and good friends of Idaho Republican head Pee Wee Herman Norm Semanko who asked for this assistance personally. Contrary to the conventional wisdom in the traditional media on a Republican wave sweeping the country this November this tactical move by national Republicans demonstrates significant weakness when they have to devote resources to defeating a Democrat in a district McCain carried by twenty points. This gives Democrats in swing districts a fighting chance.  read more »

Mayor Dave Bieter announced:

the City had entered into lease negotiations with Sunergy World to construct a $45 million, 10-megawatt solar electrical-generation facility on City-owned property west of the airport.  read more »

There's been a bit of analysis as of late in regards to the CD1 race between Walt Minnick and Raul Labrador.

First, McJoan of the DailyKos said that Raul will make a tougher opponent than Ward would have. Her basic argument was that Labrador will make a better candidate just because Ward was such a ridiculously embarrassing screw-up that *anyone* would have to be better than Ward. I think she also said something about Labrador's potential appeal to moderates.

Then, Sisyphus came in with some impressive analysis. I'll break it down into three quick main points here just for the sake of posterity. (1) Labrador, like Sali, pissed off the moderate wing of the Idaho Republican Party by supporting the ousting of Kirk Sullivan, (2) "Labrador's anemic fundraising is evidence of the fact that the same informal coalition that got Minnick elected is still in tact.", and (3) teabagger enthusiasm has waned in Idaho (as evidenced by the incredibly poor turnout for the recent Palin event). So, Sisyphus disagrees with McJoan and believes Raul will be an easier candidate for Minnick to run against than Ward would have.

All of this analysis is very interesting, I think, and relevant/helpful if we are to analyze Idaho’s political climate and make political decisions in light of such analysis. I would like to take it down a slightly different direction. Below the fold, I’d like to explore how Raul’s Latino background might influence CD1 Latino voting patterns.

Its well past time to remove this vestige institutionalized discrimination from our government. Its a sad part of our history and I'm glad Minnick has the fortitude to lead on it. But we all have a part to play. I've fought this battle at home.

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Well thanks to Timothy Egan of the New York Times I have one less post to write.

In the midst of one of the most precipitous political crashes in the Mountain West, Sarah Palin made a mad dash into Boise on Friday, urging the election of a man who had plagiarized his campaign speech from Barack Obama, had been rebuked by the military for misusing the Marine uniform and had called the American territory of Puerto Rico a separate country.  read more »

Idaho State Republican Chairman Norm Semanko said he’d "never seen anything like the rise and fall of Vaughn Ward’s campaign. Ward, a decorated Iraq war veteran, was making his first run for office; he’d piled up endorsements from much of Idaho’s GOP mainstream, including two former governors.

“I think social media is playing a significant role in politics in general,” Semanko said. “Even though it was a low turnout, what drove people to vote was the social media. … Things are changing before our eyes.”

And we are that social media.

Good job, 43sb.  read more »

I've been a huge fan of Idaho native Joan McCarter (McJoan), front pager for Daily Kos, ever since I first became acquainted with her from blurking the blogs. And I acted like a star struck teenager when she brought Kos to Idaho for a Democratic banquet. But her write up on the Labrador upset is wide of the mark.

Unfortunately for the incumbent, Dem Walt Minnick, because his best chance of holding on to his seat was the mistake-prone Ward, who was unlikely to generate the kind of enthusiasm Labrador can garner. The best a Dem can hope for in this state is low Republican turnout.

On the contrary, Labrador is Sali's heir apparent. Minnick won this seat in a district that gave McCain 61% of the vote. Minnick's opponent, Bill Sali, was a Republican flame thrower who became a congressman in a similarly divided primary after being funded by a right wing PAC, Club for Growth. Sali was the informal head of the ideological wing of the Idaho Republican party which constantly clamors for purity purges to cleanse it of notions they see as an anathema to conservatism.  read more »

1. Have had this John Heilemann article saved on a perpetual tab for at least a day now. I'll get to it sooner or later. Looks pretty interesting.

2. Feeling pretty ambivalent about the Ward/Raul race. I saw the debate and came away with a clear preference for Raul over Ward, but I liked the idea of a Minnick v. Ward face-off b/c I think that would be an easier race to win at this point. So I remain ambivalent, I guess.  read more »

The only difference between Idaho GOP goofball wingnut primary candidate Vaughn "AWK!" Ward and a pinata is, you don't get candy out of Ward when you beat him with a stick.

I take back the above written comment. Apparently, Ward IS candy to the national media. MMMmmmmmm, candy...