Today’s Must Read:
- The Stupid Shall Be Punished: Our Second Amendment Rights.
The Treasure Valley:
- It’s supposed to be 80 degrees here today in the Valley and could be up to 84 on Tuesday. Ya know what that means, summer beers!
- Idaho gets $71 million to create 1,200 jobs by the U.S. Forest Service.
- Idaho Press-Tribune: Get inspired by Earth Day.
- Statehouse neighbors are upset about a plan to eliminate parking - and the quiet way a commission has pursued it.
Idaho Politics:
- The Idaho Statesman — THE 2009 LEGISLATURE: Why are they still here? The Idaho legislature has wasted almost 3 million dollars this session with their inaction and interparty bickering.
- Will Gov. Otter veto bills to pressure House into funding Idaho highways?
- Looks like we’ll have the answer to that question about 10 am this morning. (UPDATED) Gov. Otter expected to veto Parents As Teachers Family Support Act this morning. Otter really does fail as a strategist, he should rethink who he takes advice from.
- Idaho’s jobless fund is going broke. You mean, a bill that was drafted by business interests along with GOP officials was shortsighted and proved to be insolvent? Ya don’t say…
- More on the above here at IdaBlue.
- Day care law could still pass.
- Sen. Nicole LeFavour: Steelhead Whispers.
- Idaho Press-Tribune: Statehouse debate not simple.
- 43rd State Blues: Teabaggers and the Disaffected Fringe.
Politics:
- USDA Rural Broadband Program Criticized.
- Ridenbaugh: Why the rate?
Booze:
- Hit up Brick 29 on Friday and saw Mike and Tammy McClure of Indian Creek Winery, they brought a bottle of their new Pinot Reserve with them and allowed me a glass — that’s going to be a pretty phenomenal wine here in a few years (even now it was very good). I should also note that Chef Bristol made a vegan dish for my wife that was very delicious and he presented it himself, for me; lamb shank that was out of this world. Brick 29 really is a top-notch all around restaurant, one of, if not the best in the Treasure Valley.
- ‘They’ Have Declared Vodka Passé.
- Beer Wars is over, but the battle continues. Hmm, I’m thinking once Beer Wars comes out we’re going to have to have a Nampa screening.
- Make Beer, Not War.
- Beer Houses.
- Pyramid Renames Two Of Its Beers. Pyramid Hefeweizen is now Pyramid Haywire Hefeweizen and Pyramid Apricot Ale is now Pyramid Audacious Apricot Ale.
Grub:
- Tea-Poached Shrimp With Three Salsas.
- Grilled Grouper & Prosciutto Sandwich. I gotta say, that looks pretty awesome.
- White Bean and Spinach Pasta.
- Sara Anderson on the Bittman piece I linked last week. For the record I look at it like this; Food Network is like the Walmart of cooking, whereas PBS is the Williams-Sonoma and the internet is the local restaurant supply store.
- Chesapeake Tempeh Cakes. I think I may have to try these this week.
- Baby portabellas, jalapeños and brussel sprouts with balsamic vinegar, garlic and lots of pepper (yes, those are Boca Burgers):
Misc:
- Garden weekend went good, although it was a much longer process than I originally thought. I’d say it was about 10 hours of actual work plus several trips to the store. I rototilled about 10 inches down and added about 60 cubic feet of compost, top soil and fertilizers. I’d say I have about 100 bucks invested into it so far. On Sunday I planted several different types of peppers, cilantro, Italian parsley, chives, basil, different types of radishes, beets and some snow peas. This weekend we are hitting up Canyon Bounty Farms for the bulk of the rest of the seedlings we’ll be planting.
I just came from the Borah Post Office. Leadership and reporters were trickling in for the “media event” which everyone assumes involves a a veto stamp.
Found some great lamb chops and they grilled up nicely. Your garden efforts look great. I'm jealous of your space and soil.
Thanks, it was a lot 'o' rototilling.
When we built the house we were pretty dismayed to realize that the developer had pushed up all the top soil from the outlaying lots to build up the berms instead of bringing additional dirt in. So at first we were sitting on pretty much hard clay that you couldn't dig down 2 inches, in fact, when we were first working on the backyard we rented a commercial tiller from Home Depot and broke 3 tines the ground was so tough.
When we redid the back yard a couple of years ago had to bring in 100 yards of top soil to get the grass to take; so that made the tilling this past weekend a whole lot easier. After tilling and mixing in all the compost it should prove to be rather fertile — I'm hoping anyway.
I'm thinking what will probably be about a 200 dollar initial investment will provide a bounty of great herbs and veggies for years to come.
And - so I hear - it's “420 Day”. IF you're interested > http://theboisepicayune.blogspot.com/2009/04/42... And remember… It's not only illegal; but just plain stupid to keep and arm bears!
Your must read for today is something else… I think these paranoid clowns are going to scare me into buying some firearms to protect me from them.
Nicole's piece pretty much confirms what we're all thinking. The right wing is holding Idaho hostage and the moderates won't deal with Democrats. I have no sympathy for the moderates when we start taking them out.
Need to hit up Brick 29 again. Had their lamb shank a long while ago and didn't love it. It's changed since then and sounds great, plus it has ringing endorsements from both you and Mike. I'm usually pretty tempted by the pork chop though, think that's what I had to get the last two times we've been.
Yeah, Mike is the who has been tellin' me about it, it's one of the things I never got around to trying. Although, that night there was a Sea Bass w/ strawberry salsa as a special which sounded awesome. I asked the waitress which one she preferred and she said she'd have to go with the lamb — so I did.
I tried talking Mike into the Ribeye, but I think he went back to the shank. That ribeye, at least the cowboy ribeye they had as a special sometime back was pretty amazing with the blue cheese sauce.
I will say, the shank by itself was so-so, the shank combined on the fork with the smoked mushroom risotto and red wine bordelaise was pretty awesome — I was happy to have the IC Pinot to go with it, cause it was a beer night for me (3 Sockeye's on tap; Hell Diver, Dagger Falls and Powerhouse Porter also WhiteBird Wheat from TableRock which got killed then they put in Sun Valley's Blonde Lager). Sad really that the best on-tap beers in Nampa is a place with only 4 taps.
On the upside you do get the best food and best tap selection in Nampa all in one location. Though the the fact that it only takes 4 taps to get #1 status is a little sad.
Its amazing to me how developers could give a shit what's supposed to be under the grass. I'd gladly do what you did and then some. Every time I ruminate in that direction though I'm looking at basically starting over.
Well, I am pulling lamp shanks out of the freezer tonight now. I am going to broil some up tomorrow night.
Nice, it's hard to go wrong with lamb. A protein I have pretty much ziltch cooking experience with, but I love eating it!
Yeah, thats a lot of work but it gets easier every year as the soil improves. I use my garden as a compost pile over the winter and till it in in the spring and now I can till it in two passes. I had three foot piles of leaves last fall that composted down to a few inches.
I don't measure gardening time by the hour, instead the job is measured by the amount of beer required. Same for working on the cars.
My developer actually brought in an inch or two of topsoil to cover up the rocks so we wouldn't notice we were building in an old flood plain. So much river rock on my land we burned out the clutch on the ditcher and had to hire a back hoe to put the sprinklers in.
I like your enthusiasm, Sis, but have zero confidence in the average Idaho voter to hope for that outcome. I honestly do not think that there is a single Republican who is worried about being reelected. I also have next to zero confidence that the Dems have a plan or the candidates to change that. This state is politically brain dead — just a functioning body getting by on life-support. The only way that will change will be a dramatic shift in the voter's mindset, but if one occurs, I think its more likely to go farther to the right before it leans left.
It seems to me that I don't really hear a lot about Democrats trying to deal with the moderates either. It's totally possible that I've missed something, but I've never heard of any concrete plan coming from the Dems this session that extends the opportunity for moderates to work with them. Something like we will give you X% of the transportation $'s you want if you agree to cut X% less from the education budget in return. The fact that they have seemingly totally missed an opportunity to work with moderates and bypass the wingers has got to be what has disappointed me most about them this session. I would say that this year I really have no sympathy left for Idaho Democrats.
I also would have to agree with Akita that I just don't see who it is that you think the Democrats will be “taking out”. Maybe grab seat or two in Boise, District 15 perhaps. Are there other places you see them making major gains? If not then I don't really see the situation changing much. We'll gain a Democrat or two and they'll still have a rather small minority while the Republicans lose more moderating voices and the wingers further solidify their control.
So far the only thing I see either the Democrats or moderate Republicans working toward is remaining in the minority for the foreseeable future.
I'm torn on this. I like that the Dems have stymied the GOP power base, but I hate that they had to do it by aligning with the Conservative wing of the GOP.
If Otter gets his way and there is a raise in the gas tax you can be sure that those moderate Republicans who voted for it will be targeted Conservatives in the primaries. That will mean that the rural delegations will become more Conservative, however it does give the Democrats better chances in the suburban and urban areas to run against non-incumbent Conservatives.
err, I meant lamb shanks. I am going to the co-op at lunch to get some things to dress it with as well as some sides.