requires a paid subscription. Could we see a fair-use portion?

They didn't endorse SUNDAY at IPT, they endorsed CANDIDATES.

We do get tired of subscribing to a million things for potentially trivial reasons. Forums and blogs are understandable but not having to log in to watch the news and it's really not worth it to provide "demographics" to see content or save 15 cents at the grocery store. I just look elsewhere and buy 3x as much at a discounter.

As a 'Roosevelt Republican' (Teddy Roosevelt) it greatly pains me to say this...but Idaho HAD BETTER start electing some Democrats to national office. No better place to start than with Minnick and LaRocco.

Doing my electoral handicapping over the weekend....the GOP is toast (big-time!), and unless Idaho voters start playing both sides of the street, we'll be toast as well. Just having a low-wage, high-tax state (unless you're a welfare-farmer-legislator) won't be near enough to keep us afloat.

Seems like there's always a need for all that.

Yep.

CA will have to leave ID and we will have a nice state again. Just a few rich ranchers like JR. Then we could drive down Fairview Ave. on a Sat. without so much traffic, if we could only afford the gas.

Look at our State, Idaho control by the conservative republicans for over 25 years, the conservative republicans must claim responsibility for current state of everything in Idaho, our poor roads and highways, lack of industry and jobs, extremely poor education system, no modern energy development, failure to address Urban growth, manipulating voting districts to maintain conservative power. How can you not vote for change of some sort.

Don't sprain your back setting the bar that low.

And the tax shift is away from the Big Corporations to the individual citizens.

How many of us have our own paid lobbyist at the Legislature and Congress?

The shift from shows that 30 years ago the big corporations paid 60% of the taxes and now pay 16%.

It's to the point where we do like Abraham Lincoln and Harry Truman did--seize the assets of the big corporations.

they just look fancy now!

I'm hurt, can't believe you would say such a thing. Poor reader? I read fine Bounce, I point out what I want to point out, just like you do. Tax shifting is a little like that, isn't it? Bait & switch?

I knew an old con artist, grifter, when I was in my late teens. Old guy swore he never worked a day in his life, hustled pool, gambling, he conned people for a living. He was a likeble old guy, won you over with a smile, words of praise & that confidence. I guess that's why they called them confidence men. Just like politicians!

Could have been President had he taken another avenue. Must have been good, never spent his life behind bars, locked up, he was in bars a lot. He was a politician, didn't run for or get voted into office but he did the same thing I see our representatives doing everyday.

My folks warned me about this guy, my mom worked with his sister in an old folks home. It was too late in life for him though, he was harmless, more in need of friends than another mark. I worked construction, housing, painting, concrete, & you know, the jobs Americans won't do. We painted his sister's house in which he lived, one of the more entertaining jobs we had. He'd bing out a beer at the end of the day & tell us stories, entertaining. Looking at the political circus & the way America is run takes me back to those days. Promote the alcohol & blow smoke rings.

Poor reader? The message isn't always in the words or way it's written. Sometimes it's by whom it is written making it best to look past the words written into the reason. Republican spin has you calling me names. Unlike you I'm not in the phone book, for a reason. I don't want the grifters calling or knocking on my door. For some reason I keep getting their political junk mail while my mail takes weeks to get where it needs to be.

The Post office, another government office promoting junk mail most people would rather not receive. Wonder why?

Personally I like you Bounce buddy, you just need a friend, like the old con artist. Don't take offense to Bounce, it's a fine $25 handle you can be proud of with no personal disrespect intended. If I had a handle like that it would be in my obituary & on the stone when they plant me. It has character, the kind of name people hear or look at & wonder why. Has ring to it, people wonder why or how he got it? You're lucky to have friends like me, even if you think I read poorly. You don't have to tell everybody just because you don't like me. I skipped a lot of school, shoot a fair game of pool, & can spot a grifter others may not. Don't I get any credit for all that? Grade me on a curve here Buounce.

You give Foreignoregonian credit for his writing & he never gave you a fine handle like Bounce. I'm starting to feel unappreciated. It's starting to sound like I can't read or write so I better quick sign up for the military. I could go to Iraq to defend America from imaginary threats, the ones that never showed up until we did, after major fighting was over, about four & a half years ago. Bush's plan worked, suckerd the terrorist in. Too bad the price of oil doubled, along with the cost of war driving our economy into a swirl spin down the thunder bucket. Will we ever know what the true costs were?

I find it interesting that big oil suggest the world using
more oil, demand as the reason for the price of oil going to $133 a barrel possibly $200 before long. Did the world start using two, three, or four times as much oil, overnight in line with rates oil prices have risen? Must be gospel. I can see it over a period of a few years but oil prices have almost doubled in the last, how many months?

Sounds a little suspicious, but then I'm not a Congressman asking the questions/enjoying my investments in oil or AG subsidies. Were we wasting time asking oil executives who couldn't recall their salaries? Better get back to America's more pressing issues, steroids in baseball!

Did I say we need full finacial disclosure by all our representatives? Wonder where the two parties stand on that?
Never mind, we already know.

Absolutely. What a joke for Congress to ask private sector people their salaries. It's actually none of their business. I would have declined to answer. They haven't called in tobacco execs to ask about the high cost of cigs.

Yes, Congress wastes a lot of time meddling in issues that are not theirs, Constitutionally, baseball included. Sorta like Texas taking 400 kids from their moms.

"...best to look past the words..." Hmmm, you do that at your peril. Want to know what I mean? Simply read what I write. No hidden messages. I'm pretty open about my communications - sometimes to my peril. But I say and write what I mean.

You do score well on the curve...I like pool, but it's probably my worst "sport," somewhere behind bowling. Haven't done either in years. You write well, but I gave FO props because he mentioned the money thing. There is a lot of stay-at-home writing work that can be done, if he is short on income.

Big oil is right in terms of usage. China brings one million new cars "online" every year. We and other countries increase too - but nowhere near that level. If Iraq shut down oil production entirely the price of gas would not be affected as much as it has gone up. There are many oil producing nations, and many factors impacting price - to that end Iraq is a small player.

And yes, oil per barrel has doubled in months - and gas has not. That is important to note. Congress should call in the oil execs, note their cost per barrel and thank them for keeping the price per gallon so low. Recommend a bonus to their boards...just a thought.

Estimates of the speculator factor on the price of oil has been set at about $25 per barrel. That is a significant amount, but still has the cost over $100 if the speculator factor was zero.

And they are not "crazed" unless they are knowingly not making money. Speculation fuels much in capitalism.

New Orleans was indeed a major player in domestic supply. Many of our southern coastal fields were shut down or disrupted. That is why we need further development of our coastal fields, ANWR, and other diversified locations so that production can be picked up in one area should there be a slowdown in another.

My point is simple math. A barrel today is about $130, cut that in half to the date it was $65...and check the price of gas per gallon on that date. You'll find it has not doubled in the same time.

I'm not into it today. Thanks for writing.

If you're going to take $25 off the price of a barrel of oil for hedging then let's consider the price of gas based on the price of oil before hedging. It is closer to $105 a barrel so how does gas & diesel compare now? Gas hasn't increased in comparison to oil?

In 1978 gas was approximatly .75 a gal & oil was about $35 a barrel. $35 x 3 =$105 & .75 x 3 = $2.25 so why aren't we paying $2.25 a gallon & why is diesel more expensive than gas now when it used to be less than gas? 35 x 4=140 & .75 x 4=$3 so why are we paying almost $4 a gallon for gas & $4.70 for diesel? Oil was $133 a barrel so it looks like prices for gas are in line with oil, hedging included. Whose numbers should we use?

Where do you want to start, I'm sure the numbers & comparisons change from year to year. If I recall, gas was about .25 a gallon in the early seventies, oil was around $12 a barrel. The demand wasn't the same, more than enough to go around because other nations weren't using as much. You can bet we used to waste more in every way imaginable too. $105 divided by 12 =8.75 & .25 x 8.75=$2.18 a gallon. I messed up the math in the earlier post, had it at $3 a gal. Could oil companies really raise gas & diesel prices at the same rate as oil? People are screaming as it is. What's the dollar worth in comparison? If the dollar is down, worth less than the early seventies, doesn't that have to be factored in?

What will a dollar buy today compared to 1972? Same as with oil & the cost involved in drilling, refining & the whole mess. Is it cheaper to drill & refine a barrel than it was in 1972, better more efficient methods? I don't think you can just say gas is so much & oil is so much & those are the final numbers, end all. Wages, add the CEO's, & minimum wage today compared to 1972, & average mpg cars get, & all kinds of numbers.

Where do you begin & where does it end? I don't think it's a perfect science. Solutions rather than continued failure might help. How much has changed in DC? Seems it's going the other way. I don't see that the people we elect have the knowledge to run the country, they get voted in based on $, contributions. How much can they come up with & when corporations contribute to each of the two parties, they win no matter what. Do We the People? If we vote somebody into office who has no real knowledge of so many things, bills, thousands of pages are introduced, these people couldn't possibly read & understand it all, pass legislation & laws, what do we get? You can bet the people & corporations which contribute, tell these representatives of ours what they want them to know, so bills & laws are passed based on ?

I wouldn't doubt if a very high percentage of bill are passed, representatives believing they know what they are voting on while in fact they have been misled. Campaign finance!