Nampa district ups the ante in its dealings with the teachers’ union

by Kevin Richert

The school district has asked the Nampa Education Association to ratify that it represents at least one-half of the district’s staff, Interim Superintendent Thomas Michaelson told Idaho Education News this week.

Senate Bill 1149 allows school districts to request ratification, on an annual basis. It’s one of several labor bills that passed the 2013 Legislature — and restored elements of the failed Proposition 1 law. The Idaho School Boards Association proposed SB 1149; the Idaho Education Association opposed it.

It’s unclear whether the Nampa Education Association will be able to meet the 50 percent plus one hurdle. The Idaho Press-Tribune has reported the union represents only 40 percent of district teachers.

Read the full story.

123idaho comment of the week

And so it begins: the obligatory Rex Rammell-induced Idaho bashing from the media wrote Kevin Richert on Friday.

“Whoa, Nellie. Who saw it coming? Perhaps the first (but sadly, unlikely the last) snarky little blog lumping Idahoans in the kooky camp with Rex “Obama tags” Rammell. (Hat tip: Thanh Tan, Idaho Public TV.)”

Richert continues:

“Seattlepi.com blogger Scott Sunde had great fun regaling his readers and riling his commenters with the story of the “Obama tag” controversy — starting with Rammell’s pandering appearance before a GOP gathering in Twin Falls.”

Of the 34 comments to date, “Batted Down” submitted by BRR, is among the best:

When Phil Batt says you’re outta there, hang it up, Rex Rambo, you who say you don’t apologize for anything you say..

Your joke is just a joke to the rational but then again you don’t see the irrationals who gave us our glorious historical violence:

1865 Lincoln killed

1880 Garfield killed

1900 McKinley killed

1910 Teddy Roosevelt shot (saved by speech in his breast pocket)

1933 FDR Shot at in an assassination attempt. Mayor of Chicago was killed

1950 Truman Shot at in assassination attempt

1963 JFK killed

1975 Ford escapes two assassination attempts by pistol, one shot fired

1981 Reagan almost killed, three others wounded

And Others

Huey Long, ML King, Robert Kennedy, G.Wallace, Vernon Jordan

And Just Recently

Dr Tiller by a anti abortion gunner while greeting people at his church

The Holocaust Museum Guard gunned down by a deranged racist while opening the door for him
The gunman who attacked the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist church in Knoxville was, in fact, angry with the percieved “liberal” views of the people he gunned down. In a letter, one year later the killer wrote “The future looks bleak,” the ex-soldier lamented. “I’m absolutely fed up! So I thought I’d do something good for this country — kill Democrats ‘til …

And then there is your further racist memento on a radio station today when you said 99% of your callers and emails had “called me everything but white.”

The problem Rex Rambo is you appear to be one of the irrationals

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Minnick’s Millstones

From Sisyphus’s blog on 43rd State Blues

The title is derived from a “takeaway question” by editor Kevin Richert upon endorsing this insurance industry approved right wing screed weakly attempted to be legitimized by calling it a Wall Street Journal editorial opinion written by Kimberly Strassel. As an editor Kimmie gets to schill for right wing causes. But she’s not so quick on the draw. She once argued that if you’re an environmentalist, you should love nuclear power cause its pollution free. Last November she wrote a puff piece on Sarah Palin in a last ditch effort to sell the former beauty queen to the American people on the eve of the presidential election.

Read more of Minnick’s Millstones

Quote of the day

birthers, Birchers & the KKK
Submitted by boisentv to Kevin Richert‘s blog:

The so-called “birthers” who are spreading the lie that Barack Obama is not a citizen are the same folks who fervently followed John Birch some years ago, and before that were prominent in the Ku Klux Klan. These people are simply seeking a new way to legitimize themselves without openly admitting their racist beliefs. They would prefer an imbecile like George W. Bush or Sarah Palin to any educated black man in the white house, and will use any means to discredit Obama. Soon, like the Clintons, Obama will be accused of every crime under the sun. Anything to distract folks from the truth about health care, energy policy, etc.

Full story: On birthers and the ‘X-Files Syndrome’

Kevin Richert: Democrats are looking for a few good candidates

Kevin Richert talks about the Democrats’ candidate search, and gives his take on “birthers” in this column:

In the late 1980s, when Betty Richardson served as Ada County Democratic Party chairwoman, her party made inroads in local legislative races – including a high-profile 1988 campaign, when a relatively unknown Mike Burkett ousted Jim Risch, the GOP’s Senate president pro tem.

In 2002, she picked up 39 percent of the vote in a uphill bid to unseat Republican U.S. Rep. Butch Otter. Running a congressional race was a doctoral education in politics, she now says, but she has no intent of running …

See: http://tinyurl.com/mpeg4s