Politics

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Immigration rights marchers begin trek to Labrador’s Meridian office

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WILDER — About 20 people gathered Monday near Chula Vista Acres in Wilder to begin a three-day, 30-mile walk from that spot to Meridian City Hall in the name of immigration reform, today’s Idaho Press Tribune reports.

“The walk is symbolic,” said Ruby Menendez, a member of the Idaho Community Action Network. “We are collectively taking a path, current voters and future voters, to recognize that real change, lasting change to our immigration system will build a future together.”

The event is a collaborative effort between the ICAN, the Coalition for Immigrant Rights of Idaho and the Community Council of Idaho. The group walked to Our Lady of the Valley Catholic Church on Monday and held a vigil Monday night and will continue walking to Nampa all day today.

On Wednesday, they plan to arrive by 1 p.m. at Meridian City Hall for a press conference and rally, and will deliver “thousands of petitions” to Idaho Rep. Raul Labrador’s office to pressure him to vote in favor of the immigration reform bill.

And Labrador sees any compromise at this time as “pandering to Hispanics.”

“In fact, the biggest mistake we can make as conservatives is to pander to the Hispanic community and to think that the only way we’re going to get votes is to vote a certain way on immigration,” Labrador said at the monthly ‘Conversations with Conservatives’ event. “Because what we start doing is, we start pandering and we start giving goodies out to people, then we’re going to get into a bidding war with the Democratic Party.”

Labrador said that inciting a bidding war with Democrats over issues such as immigration would only result in Republicans losing because “Democrats are always more willing to give goodies to a certain group than we are.”.

The congressman went on to say he wishes that Republicans would stop basing legislation and policies off of politics because the American people want immigration legislation based on the principle of a secure border.

A bit of history:

On June 5, Labrador, a former immigration attorney, informed his colleagues that he was leaving the bipartisan group negotiating a House immigration bill because he was not satisfied that taxpayers would not have to foot the bill for immigrants in the country illegally in their legislation.

Rather than agree to detailed language on healthcare, the group decided instead to essentially punt the issue and hew to the contours of the Senate Gang of Eight legislation, which makes clear that undocumented immigrants in a provisional legal status cannot receive federal benefits from the 2010 healthcare law.

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GOP “Scamdal”-mongering Just Reminds People Why They Hate Republicans

EXCERPT:

Every once in a while, Republicans forget the first rule of being a parasite: Hide.  For a while, they prospered in the relative obscurity of doing nothing, contributing nothing, and obstructing all attempts by the Obama administration to do Something, at the behest of their ultra-wealthy masters who don’t need and don’t want American government to work (or even really exist).  Like barnacles on the Ship of State, they were known in the general public largely by the constant drag on progress they exerted, which had the ironic – and for them, desirable – effect of being blamed on the guy at the wheel.

For most people, the Republican Party’s brazen corruption, hypocrisy, and treasonous lust to punish the nation for voting against them was an unseen irritant that only served to increase their annoyance with the President for not acting as though the difference in visibility were a difference in power.  And then Republicans went ahead and reminded everyone that, yes, they are The Problem, and have been The Problem all along.  At a time of economic hardship created by them and exacerbated by their refusal to pass any form of economic stimulus in years, they’ve opened the taxpayer spigot to fish for scandals to benefit themselves, and are publicly making a spectacle of the fact that they consider the US government their private property.   Thanks for the reality check …

 READ THE FULL STORY

 

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Republicans are only pretending to care about Benghazi because they need something to attack Hillary Clinton with in 2016

I’ll make this simple.  If you voted for a man who sent over 5,000 Americans to their deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan (that’s not even counting the thousands who are permanently disabled or the tens of thousands of dead Iraqi and Afghan civilians), then was President during 11 different terrorist attacks on American embassies, stop pretending to be “outraged” over 4 American deaths in Libya.

READ THE FULL STORY

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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.

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Suspected Boston Bomber Receives All-Star Defense Team

Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev managed to say just one word to a federal judge when charges were filed against him in a makeshift courtroom held at the side of his hospital bed, “No.”

No, he could not afford an attorney.

As a result, Tsarnaev, 19, who is facing the possibility of the death penalty for his alleged role in last week’s terror attack, will be represented by one of the most experienced and well respected public defenders in the country, Miriam Conrad.

Conrad heads the Federal Public Defender Office in Boston and her resume includes defending “shoe bomber” Richard Reid in 2001 for trying to blow up a Paris to Miami jetliner.

Read the full story on ABC NEWS!

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Glenn Beck Clings to Boston Conspiracy Theory

Glenn Beck has spent lots of time in recent days alleging that the Boston Marathon bombing was carried out by a conspiracy that revolved around a shadowy Saudi national questioned by police in a Boston hospital in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy.

OK, is he just winging it here, or does the ex-Fox, now-independent radio and Internet video host have any real evidence for this charge?

He says he does, unsurprisingly. On his show Wednesday morning Mr. Beck produced a document that he claimed is an official US “event report” showing that the Saudi in question is a bad, bad man who was on a no-fly list and already subject to visa revocation.

Yahoo! News has the full story.

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Afterthoughts on Pocatello’s ordinance decision #gay #LGBT #lesbian #homosexual

By H. Wayne Schow

At the outset of Thursday’s Pocatello City Council meeting, everyone stood and repeated the “Pledge of Allegiance.” At meeting’s end, the Pledge’s concluding words, “with liberty and justice for all,” seemed to hang hollowly, hauntingly, in the air.

The dramatic 4-3 outcome makes a statement about our city to outsiders. It says we will not be in the vanguard with progressive cities like Sandpoint, Boise, Moscow, Ketchum, Salt Lake City and numerous others in fighting for equal justice. It says that, for the time being at least, the majority of our elected representatives would rather continue with the status quo.

Council members Nye (who moved to accept the motion), Bray, and Moore made abundantly clear that they recognize the existence of too much unfair treatment in our community directed against LGBT persons. Revealing, heartfelt testimony from the previous hearing had powerfully established that. They argued that the proposed ordinance could help to address that bias in the areas of housing and employment and ought to be adopted. Moore said his yes vote was an easy decision for him. Bray said that the proposed ordinance, if not perfect, was nonetheless a carefully considered first step, and subsequent adjustments could be made if needed.

READ THE FULL STORY FROM THE IDAHO STATE JOURNAL

From the comments:

ike says:

Larry,

“It’s time for a new mayor.”

Replaced by who? I disagree with his decision (as you do), but as I’ve met with him on a couple of different occasions and know a number of people who interact with him rather intimately, I’m convinced that you Pocatellans have one hell of a mayor – this latest decision notwithstanding.

LFerro says:

Ike, Blad will have to “prove” that he’s a good mayor to me because all I’ve seen to date, is the opposite, a lot of talk, no action.

Disgusted Reader says:

LFerro,

He has to prove it to the electorate and not you. One man one vote, not on PC things and the religious can’t vote on it type of thing. Idaho went through that back in 1884 and it appears didn’t learn much since.

When action is counter productive then the only thing you can do is talk. DUH! Making things worse is not helpful, ever. But the perps in Boston were so innocent, just ask their mother and aunt.

I suspect your lack of backing him up will result in him being elected by a bigger majority next time around. Thanks for the compliment.

He could replace the mayor of Austin in a heartbeat and a huge bunch would be pleased down here.

We’re in the process of getting rid of a drunk D.A. and a bad judge here at present. One bad one at a time.

She tested .239 but says she wasn’t drunk but pleaded guilty anyway, the D.A. is now in jail serving a 45 day sentence for DUI. Dashcam videos were rather damning against her.

We’ve had a number of people yell, discrimination and when the videos came out they ended up being the perps. Get ready for Poky to be covered by thousands of cameras, which aren’t cheap to prove just who is the one with the problem. Isn’t technology expensive but helpful in showing things are just like most people thought they were and not what a few allege but can’t prove so they do the “bad law” route?

Never learn, do we?