It was early this year when folks in Idaho heard, through the grapevine, that Idaho Statesman political reporter Dan Popkey was investigating allegations that Idaho Republican U.S. Senator Larry Craig had had sex with men in restrooms in Union Station in Washington, D.C.

For many months, we in the Idaho blogosphere have been waiting to hear those results, but nothing seemed to be forthcoming from Idaho's largest newspaper. Whether the Statesman simply didn't have enough evidence against Senator Craig, or had been convinced not to run what they had, or perhaps had been threatened with legal reprisals, no one knew. The silence seemed very loud, indeed.

But, occasionally, you'll see a movie promo that has few or no shots of the movie. Instead, it will be video of people, apparently outside a movie theater, being interviewed about how much they love the film being promoted. They'll gush, "Wow! That was the kewlest flick I've ever seen!" "My husband and I have never laughed so hard in a movie!" "Man, that guy who did that thing in that place, that was da bomb! I'm goin' back in to watch it again RIGHT NOW!" Etc., etc., etc.

When you see this type of promo -- that movie is in big, big trouble.

Sixty-two. As of today, August 22, 2005, that's the number of American military personnel killed in Iraq since president George W. Bush went on vacation on August 2nd.

On August 1st, the day before he left on the longest vacation of any U.S. president in at least 36 years, seven other Americans were killed.

Sixty-nine of America's Finest -- dead. 18 of them in just one day, August 3rd. Did you hear Bush say much about the tremendous loss of these soldiers?

Nah, me neither.

The Reverend Fred Phelps, leader of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas announced on his church website godhatesfags.com that he will be in Caldwell, Idaho June 15th to hold a protest at the funeral of an Idaho National Guard soldier killed in Iraq.

What are the marks of a sick culture?

It is a bad sign when the people of a country stop identifying themselves with the country and start identifying with a group. A racial group. Or a religion. Or a language. Anything, as long as it isn't the whole population.

"I think the fact of the matter, of course, (same-sex relationship recognition) is regulated by the states. I think different states are likely to come to different conclusions, and that's appropriate. I don't think there should necessarily be a federal policy in this area. I try to be open-minded about it as much as I can, and tolerant of those relationships.  And like (Senator) Joe (Lieberman), I also wrestle with the extent to which there ought to be legal sanction of those relationships. I think we ought to do everything we can to tolerate and accommodate whatever kind of relationships people want to enter into."

ARCO - A possible Hatch Act infraction at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory has been investigated and dismissed. However, action was taken to address the matter in hopes of avoiding repeat occurrences, a site spokesman said Wednesday.

The complaint centered around a series of forwarded e-mail messages that appear to have originated at the federally funded facility. The messages contain a series of testimonials attributed to U.S. military veterans who served in Vietnam alongside or during the same time as Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, a U.S. senator from Massachusetts.

The comments were generally not favorable to Kerry. Also, another INEEL staffer who received the e-mail forwarded it to other site employees with the appended remark, "Let's get this out to as many people as we can. This commie, pinko, traitor."

After seven days of deliberations, jurors found the University of Idaho graduate student not guilty of the three terrorism-related charges against him and two of the 11 visa and immigration fraud charges, which negated another charge. Jurors deadlocked on the remaining charges, prompting U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge to declare a mistrial on those charges.

http://tinyurl.com/29d5x

But here's a graf from her article --

For those of you who may not know, Idaho has been a "Right to Work" state since 1985. From fairwage.org: A "Right to work" state is one where unions and management can't negotiate a union security clause in their collective bargaining agreement. A union security clause states that a worker covered by the agreement must at least pay a fee for the services they receive from the union.

After a short wait of about 15 minutes, I was escorted by a nice young lady to a chair and seated. I was wearing one of my Idaho for Dean shirts, and the stylist noticed it.

I'm sure the headline of this post is a question many of you were asking yourself after the votes came in from the Iowa caucus -- I know I was. John Kerry won first place with 38%, John Edwards took second with 32%, and our candidate Howard Dean came in a far third with 18%. Dick Gephardt fell back even more to a dismal 11%, and officially ended his campaign on Tuesday.

A few weeks ago, Governor Dean was in the lead, and conventional wisdom was that he could walk away with the whole enchelada. How did he go from 1st to 3rd in two weeks? A lot of reasons, actually. Let's go through some of them. (I have no doubt I'll miss some, but these are what come to mind.)

Having said that, I feel I must say this: I've been a Dean supporter since last June. I run the Idaho for Dean weblog and host our local Meetup. I say this as a supporter and a guy who truly believes in Dr. Dean --

He should never broadcast a speech like that again. Never. Ever. Again.

It's time to modulate the bombast and bluster, and show that side of him that we true supporters have seen, that we need the rest of America to see -- he must show his Presidential side. He must talk to America and explain to them why his policies will best benefit them. It's not enough to be against something, he must show our country why his ideas are the best for all our citizens. He needs to speak directly to the issues. I can't emphasize that enough -- voters are finally starting to pay attention, and they want clear, easy to understand specifics on how Governor Dean can best address the problems they deal with in their lives every day.

The kind of speech I watched tonight, where he shouts out all the states we will win in the future, works for us, the faithful. But, and I say this as a loyal supporter, he has to look beyond us to the rest of the voting public. You already have us, but you need more than that to win the White House. Iowa is by no means a death-knell, but it is certainly a wake-up call.

Howard Dean is the best man to be President of the United States. I believe in you, Governor Dean. You no longer need to shout the reasons why -- just talk to America. Those of us who have supported you over the last year have heard you, and now you must speak to the rest. Once they hear you, they will come around. I know you know you can't win this without us, your Dean Teamers, your Deaniacs. But we can't win it without you. You don't have to completely change, but you do have to rearrange. Throw out what doesn't work, amplify what does.

It's not enough to just want to be President. It's critical to measure your words -- the power is in what you say, not how loudly you say it. Show America that you have what it takes to conduct yourself as a United States President.

Say what you believe.
Believe what you say.
Speak strong and steady and clear.
Keep fighting, and we'll keep fighting with you.