Here it is folks. I know I have been lacking but here it so a Walt Minnick victory tonight!

So Bill Sali has proven to be running for office… and by office, I mean, Junior High secretary.

Today, while giving a discussion about issues, members of the Sali campaign, including our esteemed senator decided to make faces and “bunny ears” at Minnick Campaign Director John Foster.

I for one am glad to see that Senator Sali was acting like a 12 year old, 21 days from an election he very well could lose… or maybe he was acting out the level of IQ. We will never know. However this I do know, John Foster or Walt Minnick (who was being interviewed by Boise Channel 7 regarding misleading and patently false ads that the Sali campaign has started airing in Idaho) would never make a mockery of their campaign, and cause the poor media back lash that this has caused the Sali campaign by doing such juvenile antics.

So when asked, Wayne “Part time Communications Director / Part time Kool-Aide Drinker” Hoffman had this to say

            “I sincerely apologize if you took it as heckling. That’s absurd,” spokesperson Wayne Hoffman said via e-mail. “If we can’t laugh at ourselves, then what have we become?”

(Link to Story Here – KTVB.com)

Seriously?! This was the response. I understand the Sali campaign feels they are a shoe in for re-election,  I mean they have to be or they wouldn’t start up sites like http://www.thetruthaboutwalt.com (this is a Sali campaign owned website – and I feel dirty for linking to it)  or Press Releases like this. I mean seriously these cannot be the signs of a campaign that is trying to recoil from being so out of touch with Idaho’s First District voters  and in desperation they pull stunts like this

Oh no, everything is fine at the Sali Campaign, here is the proof.

Only 20 more days… and Idaho’s biggest joke has a good shot of being uprooted for someone who cares about the state he will be elected to represent.

Maybe the new guy – Walt Minnick will actually.. you know, show up at the hearings that are important for the committee(s) he will be serving on? Or maybe he will skip them as “Theater..” (Don’t blame me folks – you guys elected him)

In other news, it appears the Republican National Convention has started to pull ads from the Idaho First Congressional District, polling and pundits have shown that Idaho:1 has moved from “Safe GOP” to “Likely GOP” to “Moderate GOP Hold”

So, they have pulled some of the ads supporting Bill Sali. Maybe we can have them get rid of that crappy ad with 70’s dancer dude and bad disco music… ohhhh wait… they are going to…

P.S. He still hasn’t retired the campaign debt from his 2006 campaign….

So  Friday after the massive, 700 billion dollar bail-out bill passed the house, I looked online to see how our esteemed Idaho delegation voted.

I was impressed the Mike Simpson,  was supportive off the bill, and it passed.

I was less impressed with Bill Sali’s vote a big fat NO.

Even though it (The Bailout Bill) had over  three BILLION dollars allocated for the Secure Rual Schools act. The one Bill Sali has kept voting against, because it didn’t include provisions for allowing off shore drilling, and put restrictive limits on the Oil industry.

So, I don’t know about Bill Sali, if I was a voting member of the house, even if I disagreed with 100% of the Bill, or even 80%, if I knew I could help secure funding for some of the most repressed, and hardest hit because the federal government feels that it can be exempt from local property taxes, and it would directly help the education within my district, I WOULD VOTE FOR IT!

Here is what Bill Sali Had to say….

“The American people have spoken loud and clear and, for a change, their voices were heard,” said Sali. “Now it’s up to Congress to come up with a real solution to our financial and economic problems. We need a solution that does not jeopardize taxpayers and doesn’t change the relationship of the government with businesses. I’m working with a bipartisan coalition of legislators to put that plan together, and I am confident that with we will be successful. Thankfully, advocates of today’s failed legislation were unsuccessful in convincing a majority of House members that a massive bail out is the only course of action to take.”

-       Press Release from Bill Sali’s re-election campaign website.

Later in the press release he tried to convince me, (and anyone else) that the issue wasn’t because of the credit crisis… it is because we don’t allow offshore and domestic drilling to help the airlines.

So because of this, I hopped on the phone Friday afternoon, to talk to Bill Sali. He was too busy for me, but I did talk to his nice staffer for about 30 minutes.

He informed me that people were against this bill – I responded with “Well, what if it had been explained just a bit better to his population base”  and he agreed with me.

I was impressed with this young staffer, and his responses. It is nice to see someone employed by Bill Sali other than people who are able to parrot the information of the senator – even if I do not agree with him.

Racisim in the Political Campaign

So it would appear that Sarah Palin has no problem with Racists or Un PC Comments regarding Presidential Candidate Obama. Twice in as many days, someone in the crowd has screamed “Terrorist” as she was on the tour of Sarah Palin’s campaign version 2.0

I find it offensive and reprehensible that the McCain / Palin Campaign would allow this to happen….

Over the last couple weeks Bill Sali has been laying low before the election (not smart) and So I have also decided to use this blog to fight the status quo of the stranglehold that the Republican Party has in the state of Idaho.

So Lets just start off with a few random topics:

Sarah “Broken Record” Palin:  I watched in amazement as John McCain (Or John McBush) picked a wild, outlandish pick for his V.P. candidate, I was impressed with his choice of a woman. And I will admit that the choice suprised me for the Party usually assosicated with Rich White Men. However, I was 1 of the 35 Million people who watched her give her campaign speech at the Republican Convention. Now being as I am a moderate independent, I was impressed with her speech, I might not have agreed with the content, but impressed that she was so well spoken, and handled her self. However, as I am sure many others have, I have watched in Horror The Trainwreck known as the “Sarah Palin Greatest Hits Show”. She has had absolutley nothing to say, she just recites bullet points from the convention speech, and people cheer?

WHY?!

Why would we want someone who is so politically inept that they cannot even come up with a new stump speech? Someone who doesnt exactly lie - but someone who isn’t exactly truthful when she speaks:

Case In Point:

1. The “I Sold the Jet on Ebay” line: This is true, - sort of she did list the plane on Ebay, however It Did not Sell it was sold in a private transaction offline For a Loss. The Plane was also used by different agencies other than the governor. It was also used by the Alaska Department of Corrections to shuttle prisoners between Alaska and the Contract Prisons they use (Since I guess they dont have enough land or resources to build another prison in Alaska…)

2. The “I told the Federal Government, Thanks – but, No Thanks to Bridge to nowhere…” This is also kind of True, however after she received the funds as governor (Thanks to Ted “Tubes” Stevens) she did tell the government that they werent going to build the Bridge – but, kept the money.

3. “The Difference between a Hockey Mom and a Pitbull is…” Stop, This joke isnt funny, it was worth a slight chuckle, but it is old now. Move along.

4. She must have more experience because “Being a Small Town Mayor is like being a Community Organizer just with Actual Responsibilities”: Jesus was a community organizer… Ceaser was a Governor. How insulting is this to your religion.

I think it is going to come time for her to spread out on her own other than repeating all this stuff. Because it is getting old. Kind of Like the Republican Power – after 8 years of a Republican Party.

I sincereley belive (and hope) that Joe Biden will destroy her (figuretivley speaking of course) on the issues at the Vice Presidential Debates.

Usually I would reserve a posting on this blog for a Bill Sali jab at his pathetic campaign that needed a small investment from rich – out of state donors, or his bad cameraman for the videos on you tube.

However, while watching the Republican National Convention I got to see lots of pandering about how the “Liberals are ruining America” and “We need to make Washington D.C. Conservative Again” And refusing call the Democratic Party “Democratic” but Democrats.

And then they paraded the big business CEO’s Meg Whitman from eBay. And then I had to see her. The Single, Solitary reason I will never vote for John McCain.

That’s right, they paraded Carelton “Carly” Fiorina.  The Former CEO of HP.

Now, it should be known – I am an Ex-HP Employee, and I am still Bitter about her tenure.

When I was a young kid, I lived next to an HP Complex. A friend of my parents worked at the local plant and took me to work one day to see what it is an “E/S” (Engineer Scientist) does for a living. I was enthralled. So many electronics, computers, and testing equipment, I was in geek heaven.

At the end of the day, watching him write code and debug code, and test his code, I was pretty sure I knew what I wanted to do for life.

When we were leaving, he went by a cart, and pulled out a book from a bookshelf at the endless rows of cubicles, called “The HP Way: How Bill and Dave built our Company”

I was 12 years old.

Fast Forward a few years:

I now lived in Southern Idaho – next to one of the Large HP Plants, this one happened to house the LaserJet division. And I got a chance to work there.

I started out by working across the street doing over the phone support for a 3^rd Party Company.

And then got the chance to move over to the Main Site, where I got to work as a software engineer (after some schooling and many tries) but finally I had succeeded.

I remember meeting Lew Platt in 1998, and Carly Fiorina in 2001, and Mark Hurd in 2005.

Carly Fiorina destroyed HP. She destroyed the culture, she laid off about 30,000 employees (out of 130,000 worldwide)

She asked employees to step aside with their benefits – for the good of the company going through hard times, and she went out and bought a new shiny corporate jet.

She ruined the openness and collaboration that existed at HP, as a Research Company first, and a Printer and Computer company second.

·         HP owns more patents for printing and printing technology than any other company in the world (16,000 plus in the US and over 35,000 world wide)

·         HP encourages it’s employees to innovate  things like

o   Ink jet Printing

o   LightScribe™ CD Label Burning

o   HP Wabulation TV Technology

o   The First  Desktop Scientific Calculator

o   The First Handheld Scientific Calculator

o   The Worlds First Programable Calculator

She moved away from this legendary lineage of research and innovation, to bland, boring products.

She was a member of a coalition with 8 CEO’s about how prohibiting companies from killing American jobs in order to offshore would ruin business.

She informed employees once at a press conference “A Job is not an American Right we have to compete” – This after starting to offshore what initially was supposed to be just consumer products. Now all of the jobs that used to exist at the HP Call Center are in Banglore, India or somewhere in Canada.

The HP Board came to her in 2004/05 with a 4 page list of issues they had with her “Management Skills”

I left HP in late 2005 as a result of my disillusionment with the “New” “reinvented” HP.  However I watch it closely and sometimes I wish I could go back to see how Mark Hurd is running things.

Because of Carly Fiorina, any chance of me voting for McCain/Palin is gone. If they win, it seems like she has an automatic place in the McCain Administration.

This scares me, and I will do anything needed and necessary to prevent her from ever being close to Washington D.C. and advising our next president.

 External Links for more info:

Carly Fiorina - An Example of Corporate Excess

HP Ousts Fiorina - And There was Much Rejoicing

Slashdot.org Comments on 9 Feb 2005 (Caution: Could be NSFW)

I never thought I would laugh out loud at a post from Bill Sali on his official campaign blog - Wayne “Kool-Aide” Hoffman, i will be sending you a bill for a keyboard…

So while cruising around the internet today, ran across a post from one of my favorite blogs – the Spokesman Review Huckleberry’s Blog. And where did this post Link to? Bill Sali’s blog of course!

So, I personally would like to welcome Bill Sali back to the blogosphere, I would rather read about Bill Sali defending the residents of Idaho from Nancy Pelosi, and those evil dirty democrats, as opposed to the world’s biggest Sali fan Adam Graham waxing poetic about his views about Bill Sali protecting us from Nancy Pelosi and those darn dirty democrats.

However, it would appear the lack of special interest money from outside of Idaho has kind of cut in the Sali campaign’s profits this election cycle. I mean Wayne “Kool-Aide” Hoffman has to donate his time as Public Relations person for both Congressman Sali and Sali’s re-election campaign.

What makes me say this? Well the fund raising report, the failure to submit his paperwork to the FEC until 10 days after the deadline. Oh yea

And today’s post on the Bill Sali Blog…. “Yard Sales for Sali” that’s right, if you donate a portion, or all of your Yard Sale monies to Bill, YOU could have a direct hand in helping him to be re elected.

That’s right, the old trunk with mouse droppings, the broken TV, the Short Wave radio with bent antennae, or that cute Dish Soap holder could all be the difference between that tax and spend democrat Walt Minnick and Nancy Pelosi from running Idaho.

And if you call.. The Sali campaign will make sure you have the reading materials, yard signs and propaganda needed to prove you support Bill Sali.

I don’t know about any of you, I wouldn’t want to admit to anyone that I am helping Bill Sali get re-elected, and it would appear from a fund rasing aspect, the only people who want Bill Sali re-elected are the special interest groups, and PAC’s who give Bill Sali his money from out of state, because Walt Minnick seems to be spanking Bill here at home in Idaho.

So, either Walt Minnick (Who files his FEC Reports on time) or Bill Sali (Who lies about retiring campaign debts and takes 10 days after the deadline to submit his paperwork, and has done nothing for Idaho over the last 21 months) is lying… I am going to take my chances and think maybe Bill Sali has a hard time between perception and reality.

One thing I love about the republicans and conservatives in this state is the totalitarian attitude they take with anyone who disagrees with them. This is not more evident than in our favorite person’s campaign. Of course we are talking about Bill Sali.

His Campaign is in a state of shock that they are being called out by people including Idaho’s most conservative news paper the Idaho Press Tribune.

While they are a close second (Behind the total journalistic chaos that is the Hagadone News Network – or as I like to call it – the Duane Hagadone pet project propaganda machine)  to being one of my least favorite papers I think Vikki Holbrook and the staff over there are doing a decent job.

The weird thing is whenever someone says something that could possibly criticize the Bill Sali campaign, be it on his weird voting record, or his weird campaign statements or the things he does with oil companies, anyone who doesn’t defend him is automatically labeled a “Liberal hatemongering blogger” who 

     “regrettably, joined the chorus of shrill news lemmings all marching willingly to a sea of liberalism, filth and innuendo.”

So I have just one question to ask of Wayne “Kool-Aide” Hoffman, Where did you go to school again? Because it seems like you must have gone to the Jim Risch school of how to deal with the blogosphere.

The Sad thing is they have never sent me a diatribe. I know (Thanks to Word Press and Google Analytics) that they Visit my site, in fact according to the statistics I gather, I have 4 areas of the country that view this blog several times a day in order they are

1.       Idaho (Most notably The First Congressional District)

2.       Washington DC – (The house of representatives Net block)

3.       The State of Idaho republican party (Again by Net block)

4.       The Idaho State Capitol

But yet never a comment. I don’t know why, I kind of feel left out.                                           

So Maybe Bill Sali set up his blog on Blogspot (Here) to counteract me. Unfortunately it is hard to tell because he has the other Sali Kool-Aide drinker (Adam Graham from Adam’s Blog) writing guest opinions as opposed to posting anything of substance, and poor quality you tube videos with falsehoods about why we need to drill in the United States.

Even though I might not like the views that the Idaho Press Tribune has politically I know one thing for sure. Vikki Holbrook is a true professional. Now granted I know a limited number of reporters to judge this assessment on, however I have met her, she is too much of a straight shooter to “libel” someone (which is hard to do when you are in the public eye like Kool-Aide Hoffman is because his Boss is a little socially awkward). The Thing about Vikki Holbrook is that if you are doing something right or wrong she is not going to beat around the bush, she is just going to tell you.

Which makes me wonder how the separation from the IPT and Wayne Hoffman went down.

I just find it odd how the Republican party likes to think they are the best for Idaho but like to repress any sign of descent with the official party line, we saw it at the Idaho Republican Convention, and I am sure we will see it at the nation convention as well.

So, it appears that congressional Campaign public relations person Wayne “Kool Aide” Hoffman is a little bit upset with his former employer, Canyon County’s Idaho Press Tribune. In an Editorial where they critized Bill Sali’s Re-election Campaign for the recent campaign gaffe regarding the recent problem with the campaign finace reports.

The reaction to the editorial according To Kool-Aide Hoffman was

“They took the entire matter out of context in my mind, and I worked for the Press-Tribune for four years,” he said. “It borders on libel.”

So, because one of my least favorite papers in Idaho actually called your campaign out on it’s well known issue and the seemingly “ho-hum” who cares about election finance laws response (as noted in one of my previous posts - It becomes libel? You need to stop drinking the Kool-Aide.

So how did the IPT Staff respond to this accusation of “Possible Libel”

By setting up a blog - called “From The Editors” with a title “Wayne Hoffman: The man behind today’s launch” (The Blog can be found here)

In short, it took Rep. Bill Sali’s office and his spokesman Wayne Hoffman to task on several issues. It’s created a bit of a firestorm. Bloggers seem surprised that this “rightwing” newspaper would speak up on this

 

I think that even though YOU might not care about the issue, The people who pay your salar(ies) might. You might want to try a new political ploy instead of depending on the “Bill Sali (R) - ID” game plan. The Republicans in this state are in a Mess, Novemeber is either going to be real depressing or real eye opening for the “Majority” party in this state.

So now, it is starting to pick up steam with this issue. I have to say sitting back and watching Bill Sali’s campaign melt down from the inside - (From the Boise Office - which is outside of his Congressional District) is quite funny.

– Sorry about the Extended Break I will have some new posts here later, just been super busy with non-political stuff–

Yes, that Ted Stevens. I will try and keep this post brief  so as not to “clog the tubes of the internet”

So while on the website for the FEC I saw an interesting Graph about the fundraising in Idaho.

So, it appears Bill Sali is having issues with this election cycle and raising money. Now we all know he used money from PAC’s to effectively scare the people of the first congressional district in to voting for him.

However it looks like most of his money this time around is coming from PAC’s which is sad. Even though I have never given any money to any political campaign ever, I support raising funds for the election. But it should be from people in Idaho who are giving the money, there should be some ban from out of state PAC’s giving money to Congressional and Political Office seekers.

This is where I will insert my call for any Idaho politician who may have received money from Senator Ted Stevens, his office, his campaign, or his Northern Lights PAC to donate it to charity or return it.

There is no reason to keep this money that is potentially dirty.

If you don’t return it, you are as guilty as he is when it comes to hiding campaign donations. Because that money is Dirty

So today as I was doing my morning run of the blogs related with happenings in Idaho. I came across this nifty post.

From the Office of Rep. Bill Sali

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Bill Sali has introduced a bill that would provide real, tangible - and timely - help to the tens of millions of Americans hit hard by skyrocketing energy prices.

The Family Energy Relief Act (FERA) of 2008 will provide American taxpayers with a tax credit of $1,000 for couples, $500 for individuals and $250 per dependent. The measure already has garnered significant support…….

“I sincerely hope Speaker Pelosi recognizes the toll this is taking on our constituents. She should change her mind and allow Congress to vote on drilling in ANWR and offshore. But, that will not be enough. Americans need help now, so I hope she will also bring this commonsense legislation to the floor to give Americans the short-term relief they need,” concluded Sali…

What is funny is Bill Sali doesnt explain how to fund this nifty tax credit will be funded.

And as soon as it was announced people started to laugh at him with quips like this

Jasper LiCalzi, professor of political economy at the College of Idaho, said a credit like the one Sali’s proposing would create additional economic activity, but said, “That it would pay for itself is not logical, because if that’s the case, every tax cut would pay for itself, we’d just keep cutting taxes everywhere until there are no taxes.” Any legislative changes aimed at energy independence are likely to take 15 to 20 years to have real effect, he said.  

And then imagine my delight when I started to read this post during my morning coffee:

Congressman Sali informed us that a solution to the high price of gasoline was to make petroleum from “all those trees in our forests.” Stunned by the comment, I suffered a momentary regret for not taking that high school chemistry class those many years ago. He continued by saying there ‘”could be up to 40 barrels of oil ” in a single tree. If word of this gets out, maybe Idaho can become part of the “forest cartel” and show those pesky Saudis a thing or two More here and here.

Mr. Sali, I will be submitting you an invoice for the keyboard i ruined when I had coffee out of my nose.  To which his Minister of Kool Aid administration Wayne Hoffman said: