[Vision2020] Cheers and Jeers

[Tom Hansen]

Do any of you fine V-peeps know Lee Vierling?

Read on you'll see why I asked . . .

Courtesy of today's (July 17, 2009) Spokesman review at:

(PDF File)
http://media.spokesman.com/documents/2009/07/Document1________________.pdf

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JEERS to U.S. Sens. Mike Crapo and Jim Risch, both R-Idaho, and Patty
Murray, D-Wash. Last week, they were on the wrong side of a vote to stop
the feds from interfering with individuals who import cheaper
pharmaceuticals from Canada.

Sponsored by Sen. David Vitter, R-La., the measure cleared the Senate 55
to 36. Sen. Maria Cantwell, DWash.,voted for it.

Vitter's bill is only a symbolic gesture, and it raises issues of product
safety to have individuals ordering drugs over the Internet or by mail.

But it gets at a fundamental question: For a group of politicians who say
they believe in the power of the market, why would they insulate the
pharmaceutical industry from competition?

Americans spend 50 percent more on brand-name prescriptions than they
would in other countries.

Pending in the House and Senate is a bill allowing wholesalers and
pharmacies to buy drugs from Food and Drug Administration-approved sources
in Europe, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand and Japan.

The Government Accountability Office says passing it would save $50 billion.

Reps. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, and Doc Hastings, R-Wash., and Sen. Jon
Tester, D-Mont., support it.

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CHEERS to Gov. Butch Otter. He made a smart choice in selecting former
state Sen. David Langhorst, D-Boise, for one of two Democratic seats on
the State Tax Commission.

While in the Legislature, Langhorst gravitated toward tax issues and
helped broker an interim committee package for property tax relief, which
later became law.

Langhorst's appointment comes when the Tax Commission is under fire for
cutting private deals on delinquent taxes owed by multi-state
corporations. Lawmakers imposed a series of reforms, but Stan Howland, a
veteran tax commission auditor who blew the whistle on these settlement
negotiations, says the Legislature didn't go far enough.

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CHEERS to Idaho House Speaker Lawerence Denney, R-Midvale. This year, he
unilaterally killed a modest bill that would have brought Idaho into the
mainstream of public ethics. Now he's had a change of heart.

Backed by Gov. Butch Otter, Secretary of State Ben Ysursa and a unanimous
state Senate, the measure would have required legislators and state
officials to offer a minimum of information about how they make their
money and what conflicts of interest they may face. Only three states do
not require public officials to disclose personal financial information.

When it got to the speaker's desk, he refused to give it a hearing.

"In the upcoming session, if it comes back, I think we will try to make
sure that it gets the full hearing and see where it goes," Denney told the
Spokesman-Review's Betsy Russell.

Of course, that doesn't say much about what happens after it gets a
hearing in a committee chaired by one of Denney's lieutenants.

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CHEERS to Clearwater County Sheriff's Deputy Carlos Martinez and Lt. Doug
Ulmer.

Talk about a pair of professionals being in the right place, having the
right skills and making the right choices at the right time.

When 2-year-old Kayla Ladd was swept away into the Clearwater River
lastFriday, the two officers raced into the water after her. Ulmer swam to
her and brought her to shore. Martinez carried the child from the river
bank to the help.

When they got to Ladd, the child's body temperature had dropped to 88
degrees. She was treated and later released from Clearwater Valley
Hospital in Orofino.

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JEERS to Idaho State University President Arthur Vailas. When is this
high-paid administrator going to take "no" for an answer?

The State Board of Education says expanding medical school seats through
the Washington-Wyoming-Alaska-Montana-Idaho partnership and Idaho's
medical residency programs will answer Idaho's chronic physician shortage.

But here was Vailas speaking to the Pocatello Rotary Club last week,
plugging away at his plan to build a medical school in this state.

"If we don't do this soon, more and more health care will become
unaffordable," he said. "When our health care and education system
weakens, our economic outcome becomes negative."

Who is Vailas working for?

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CHEERS to Avista. By the time the utility was ready to upgrade its main
115,000-volt transmission line through Moscow, it came up against a new
obstacle - a tree house Lee Vierling had built for his daughters, Tia and
Kira.

Avista had the right of way. The girls' tree house is located within the
utility's 25-foot easement. Instead, the company opted to move its anchors
in order to avoid disturbing the tree house. How's that for a bottom line?

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JEERS to Republican gubernatorial candidate Rex Rammell. His book, "A
Nation Divided: The War for America's Soul," reads like a biblical text.
And that's OK for a segment of the market.

But somewhere in his soul, Rammell believes socialism is the tool of the
devil:

"... And the capitalists fought back for their freedom and vowed to save
the Constitution.  And God was on their side. And the armies of socialism
led by Satan began to fear. And good men and women rallied to the cause.
..."

You get the idea.

Here's some scripture for Rammell to ponder: "Again I tell you, it is
easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man
to enter the Kingdom of God."

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"The Pessimist complains about the wind, the Optimist expects it to change
and the Realist adjusts his sails."

- Unknown