New West Network

My Page: Sharon Fisher

Column "Agricultural" television

More farm, not so many huge tracts of land.

That's the consensus of the real farmers who are watching "Farmer Wants a Wife," the most recent variant of the so-called reality shows that pit a number of potential mates against each other while the searcher gradually winnows them out based on a series of tests.

At least, among those real farmers who have a satellite dish or time to watch tv during spring planting season. "Do we *have* to look at the girls?" complained one. [more]

presidential election

Western states that are largely controlled by Democratic governors are poised to play a role in selecting the next President, New York Times columnist Tim Egan told the Boise City Club this week.

Defining Western states as "public land states," a definition that he said excluded Texas, Egan said 8 of the 11 of them had Democratic governors. Moreover, four of them -- Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, and New Mexico -- are "swing states" that combined have 50% more electoral votes than the more traditional swing state Ohio.

Egan went on to describe the number of ways in which Democrats have captured key positions in those states. [more]

state politics: idaho

Facing what appeared to be defeat, Chair of the Revenue and Taxation Committee Representative Dennis Lake, R-Blackfoot, pulled a bill that would have removed a tax exemption for providing broadband Internet, after a long bipartisan debate against the bill.

A number of representatives – particularly those representing the rural Idaho areas that are currently underserved – urged a “no” vote on the bill until such time as all Idahoans had access to high-speed Internet. Several cited H543, a bill that takes the first step toward creating a statewide broadband network that is initially intended for education but will also support government and industry. [more]

state politics: idaho

In classic game theory, there is an exercise known as “Prisoner’s Dilemma,” where two players have to decide whether to cooperate or betray their opponent, based on a series of rewards or punishments built into the game. Typically, in a single game, various studies have concluded that betrayal works better.

Last week, a Harvard University study on iterated prisoner’s dilemma included a variation: the addition of costly or spiteful punishment, where one opponent could punish the other in return for paying a fine itself of one-fourth of the punishment. The result, according to David Rand, the biology graduate student at Harvard who designed the experiment, is that “people who punished in response to defection did very badly, and people who did not punish did very well.”

Apparently, the Idaho Legislature doesn’t read Harvard studies. [more]

Idaho Politics: Sharon Fisher's Blog

Is there any stronger human motivator than “Hell, I can do a better job than that”?

Whether it’s becoming an athlete, writing a book or a movie – or becoming a politician – that motivation is there. Not just doing a good job, but doing a better job than the so-and-so who’s doing it now.

That motivation is particularly strong when one is a journalist. You spend your entire life in observer mode – watching other people do things – and while that puts you in what seems like an inherently superior position as you comment and judge and critique, you start to wonder. You wonder whether your position actually emanates from fear. Maybe you hear it from other people, or maybe you start hearing it from yourself: “Well, if you think you’re so damn smart, you try it.”

I’m trying it. [more]

state politics: idaho

Members and followers of the Idaho House of Representatives heard something today they may not have heard before: "Madame Speaker."

Representative Margaret Henbest, D-Boise, filled in for Speaker Lawerence Denney, R-Midvale, for a while during today's session, primarily consisting of a series of appropriations bills (beginning with, coincidentally, the appropriations bill for the Women's Commission).

Representative Cliff Bayer, R-Boise, was the first to say "Madame Speaker," drawing a round of applause from the House, and representatives seemed to make a point of finding an excuse to say "Madame Speaker." [more]

state politics: idaho

The Idaho House passed unanimously yesterday a bill directing the Idaho Department of Transportation not to implement the federal REAL ID Act – a decision that, if passed by the Senate and signed by Governor Butch Otter, could theoretically prevent Idahoans from using their driver’s licenses for boarding planes and opening some kinds of bank accounts.

The so-called Real ID is an unfunded Congressional mandate from 2005 for nationwide specifications for drivers’ licenses that was ostensibly intended to help protect Americans from terrorists, but it has since been opposed by more than 30 states, including Montana. [more]

state politics: idaho

The Idaho House hopped to it today, clearing not only the backlog of its own bills and Senate bills but also whipping through several appropriations bills that typically wouldn’t have been voted on til tomorrow.

It’s a slick legislative maneuver that gets done to bring up a bill from the second reading calendar to be voted on. It was previously done in this session on a field-burning bill to get it completed as quickly as possible, but in this case it was just being done to reduce the backlog of bills and get done faster. [more]

state politics: idaho

When you feel poor, if you’re smart, you go pay the mortgage and the utilities and buy groceries first, and then go see what you might have left to spend on goodies.

Today, after having finished last week setting tight budgets for state agencies, Idaho Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee went for the goodies, some of which had been passed over in the normal budget-setting process out of concern about declining state revenues, as well as wanting to leave room for a grocery tax credit. The committee also made appropriations to bills that had passed after it had already set budgets for those agencies; such appropriations are called “trailer bills.” [more]

Idaho Politics: Commentary

Editor's note: This column originally ran March 1, but since it didn't seem to make it onto the local radar screen, we thought we'd run it again.

"Astroturf" defines efforts intended to make it appear that there is a groundswell of popular support for something, when the effort actually comes from a small group of people (Astroturf = fake grassroots, get it?)

Two current events in the Treasure Valley that at first seem unrelated -- a "concerned parent" protesting The Joy of Sex an the Joy of Gay Sex at the Nampa Library, and a demonstration demanding the firing of a Planned Parenthood staffer for her supposed racism -- are related, through the same man -- an associate of conservative gadflies Bryan Fischer and Brandi Swindell. [more]