[Vision2020] Otter's Trying . . . Very Trying

[Tom Hansen]

Courtney of today's (December 7, 2012) Lewiston Tribune.

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Otter's trying
Marty Trillhaase 
Idaho's Constitution binds Otter, as the state's chief executive, to "see that the laws are faithfully executed." Chief among those is this Idaho constitutional mandate: "... it shall be the duty of the Legislature of Idaho, to establish and maintain a general, uniform and thorough system of public, free common schools."
In a frenzy of tax-cutting, GOP governors and legislators have presided over a 23 percent - or about $550 million - cut in the share of Idaho's personal income devoted to public schools.
The man who uncovered that trend is Otter's former chief economist, Mike Ferguson, who now directs the Idaho Center for Fiscal Policy. Wednesday, Ferguson stood up before the annual Associated Taxpayers of Idaho legislative gathering and put Otter on the spot. He asked: Is Idaho meeting that constitutional mandate?
Initially, Otter stammered: "I'm not prepared to answer that question."
Next he tried to parry: Has the state ever met the constitutional standard, he asked Ferguson.
Finally, Otter conceded: "I would say that we're probably not (meeting the constitutional obligation), but we're doing the best job that we can and we're going to continue to do the best job we can."
Where does Idaho's Constitution extend the governor a pass for trying "to do the best job we can"?
It doesn't.
Idaho's chief executive just admitted the Constitution is being violated. On his watch. Why isn't Otter doing something about it? Would Otter be so cavalier about doing "the best job we can" to secure constitutional guarantees of free speech, gun ownership or states' rights?
The brainchild of Ohio physician Earl Morse, the Honor Flight network enables World War II veterans to visit the National World War II Memorial at Washington, D.C., a trip many might not otherwise be able to make.
Jenifer students raised this money by going door to door, conducting candy sales and circulating pledge sheets to businesses and neighborhoods. Helping them in that effort were the students and faculty of five Lewiston elementary schools - Camelot, Centennial, McSorley, Webster and Whitman - who generated $1,500 in donations.
In the four years Jenifer students have joined in the Inland Northwest Honor Flight program, they've raised $20,800 - more than enough to fly an entire 36-passenger plane of veterans to Washington, D.C.
Coming on the 71st anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack that launched the U.S. into the second world war, the school assembly will honor two vets who symbolize bookends of that conflict: Don Irby, who manned a .50-caliber machine gun aboard the USS Maryland during the Pearl Harbor raid, and Mike Mitchell, who four years later steamed into Tokyo Bay on the USS Cumberland Sound to witness Japan's formal surrender.
JEERS ... to Congressman Jim McDermott, D-Wash. Relying on records compiled by the website LegisStorm, Roll Call reported McDermott and his senior legislative aide, Jessica Lee, traveled to Bali and Jakarta at a cost of $45,000. That's $21,000 for McDermott; $24,000 for Lee.
Chemonics International, a private development company that contracts with the U.S. Agency for International Development, paid for the trip.
Since 2007, Congress has tightened restrictions on how much privately provided travel a member of Congress or a congressional aide can take.
Roll Call says McDermott and Lee set new individual expense records in the post-ethics reform era.
McDermott told Seattlepi.com he was busy promoting democracy as well as Washington apples and cherries to Indonesia: "Absolutely not! I did not have any fun."
Really?
JEERS ... to Sens. Jim Risch and Mike Crapo, both R-Idaho. They joined their party's lunatic fringe this week by helping to defeat a United Nations treaty to ban discrimination against people with disabilities.
In the United States, that's been the law ever since President George H.W. Bush signed the Americans With Disabilities Act.
In fact, the U.N. treaty merely proposed to use the American template for the 153 countries signing it.
And why shouldn't American values light the path of the world? Why not protect the rights of disabled American service people and civilians living abroad?
Try as they might, critics could not find a sound reason to vote against it. The treaty would not change U.S. disability law. It would not cost American taxpayers or business owners any money. It would not jeopardize parental rights. It had nothing to do with gun ownership or abortion.
But wheelchair-bound former Sen. Bob Dole couldn't change their minds. Neither could more than 250 American disability organizations, 21 veterans service groups or 26 faith organizations.
So it goes. When a treaty bears the imprimatur of the United Nations, reason and conscience go out the window.
His appearance at the commission's annual forum Tuesday marked how much progress has occurred in the three years since his predecessor, Royce Chigbrow, stepped down amid accusations of sweetheart deal making with corporate taxpayers.
Since then, the tax agency has exceeded state legal requirements by involving all four commissioners - as well as professional tax auditors - in corporate compromise and close agreements. Receipt of previously uncollected tax payments are up $52 million thanks to a new compliance initiative. - M.T.

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Not only has Crapo voted against the United Nations treaty to ban discrimintion against people with disabilities, he also voted against the Veterans Job Corps Act of 2012.

Well, that explains where Crapo stands on veterans and the disabled.  What next?  The elderly?

Maybe not the elderly, maybe just the retired people.  Perhaps the next demographic that Crapo will attack is the retired population. 

If only there were a group, maybe an association, of retired people; not necessarily global retired people, just the American segment.  If only Crapo could identify an American association of retired people that he could pursue in denying them entitlements.

Are any of you fine V-Peeps aware of such a group?

Seeya round town, Moscow, because . . .

"Moscow Cares"
http://www.MoscowCares.com
  
Tom Hansen, CPL  (Commie Pinko Liberal)
Moscow, Idaho
 
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