Meanwhile, back on the pig farm...

I gather that Bush is presently back on his pig farm, venturing out into Florida and other relatively comfortable ultra-right wing locales (I can't bring myself to say conservative hangouts because Bush is far from being a conservative). I find it amusing to know that Bush bought a 1600 acre former pig farm not long before running for president. This place is now described as a "ranch." As far as I know there are no cattle, no sheep, no pigs, no horses. It is a brush ranch. It grows brush so Bush can have a place to pretend to cut brush while having his picture taken (I guess splitting firewood doesn't cut it anymore for politicians of his stature). As he has trouble riding bicycles he doesn't dare trying horseback. Oh well, if he wants a pretend ranch to go with his pretend presidency we should just all humor him. After all, he does communicate directly with God. How many of us can say the same thing.

Tomorrow is the big day. After months of lies piled upon lies piled upon prevarications piled upon falsehoods seasoned by nonsense with a dash of the absurd we are about to cast the most important votes we will probably ever have during our lifetimes. The choice seems pretty clear-cut: either we will become a fascist dictatorship or we will attempt to salvage our disappearing democracy. This is not exactly what is known as a "Hobson's choice." Happily our local choices are not quite so ominous. For example, we can vote for Clement Leroy Otter, a genuine lightweight politician with a twenty year history of almost complete inactivity (except to maintain the status quo of business interests), or Jerry Brady who has the best interests of ordinary citizens as a priority. Otter was involved in a scheme to sell off Idaho lands (to pay for cleaning up after Katrina it was said, if you believe in fairly tales), until he discovered it was an overwhelmingly unpopular idea back here at home and then decided to change his mind. He has a history of vacillating about such things until he discovers which way the business winds are blowing. Brady has promise for actually doing something for he citizens of Idaho as well as for the reputation of the state (which could certainly use some positive PR given our dismal location on the scales of education, health care, and environmental issues).

Then there is the contest for Congressman between Larry Grant and Bill Sali. This one is truly a no-brainer. Sali is New York's man in Idaho, financed almost exclusively by a filthy rich New Yorker who has designs on our state which are far from positive. Proposition 2 is another example of "takings" legislation which, like all of such attempts previously, would be a disaster if enacted. For example, under this proposed rule, if I decided to start a pig farm on my six acres here at Sandhill, and the neighbors were opposed, they would have to pay me for all the money I might have lost had I been allowed to start such a farm. This is similar to previous attempts at such legislation. Timber companies who made money by exploiting public lands for years (at taxpayer's expense) argued that if they were prevented from continuing to do so they should be paid for not doing so. That is, they should be reimbursed for not logging public lands. How many loggers do you think they would have needed to not log our public lands? These "takings" proposals are so intrinsically absurd it is difficult to believe anyone can be taken in by them. Just remember, "there are suckers born every minute and two to take them."

In any case it will all be over tomorrow at least for another couple of years. Oh, no, it won't, because after tomorrow will begin the 2008 elections. Aaaagh! Help! Is there nowhere to run? And, of course, there isn't. Nonetheless, the only hope for the moment is TO VOTE DEMOCRATIC!