My Page: Nathaniel Hoffman

<< Newer articles <<    Author Home     >> Older articles >>

Western State Electoral Votes Clacking The Dem Abacus

It’s tough to picture any of them in boots and a hat. Scary even. But Democratic presidential hopefuls including frontrunners Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have put time and money into the mountain states, particularly Nevada, in this Groundhog’s Day of a primary season.

And when they descend on Denver next August for the Democratic National Convention, perhaps we will get to see them in fleece, a Nalgene bottle clipped to their belts, titanium hiking polls at the ready.

“How cool would it be to do a party at REI?” asks Arizona’s Democratic Party Chief Maria Weeg, who is headed to the Democratic debate tonight in Las Vegas. She says it’s not news that Democrats are looking Westward in this election cycle. Democratic activists have long eyed the Western states as a potential “hotbed of new Democratic politics,” Weeg said. [more]

Where Xutos declares the end of summer in Boise

No, not that scary larry.

I mean the ancient ice cream man who plies Boise's Northend. I hadn't heard his truck for a few weeks. But one unseasonably warm day brought old Larry down my street at about 16:30 hours today. He said it was his last day. He said when all the ice cream is gone he'd be calling it quits for the year.

I handed Larry a fistful of change. He handed us two ice creams. Something creamy and something fruity.

Petra said, "Scary Larry? But he's not scary..."

[more]

Where Xutos tries to figure out what's going on with wild sheep

I mentioned in a recent posting that the last time I spoke to Sen. Larry Craig, we talked about sheep.

I was not being facetious. I interviewed the Senator a few months back for this article in High Country News.

I had heard about a conflict between sheep ranchers and wild sheep advocates in Hells Canyon back in April. At that point I knew very little about bighorn sheep. I did, however, know a bit about mutton.

For most of my adult life, when the notion hits me, I have been going out into the boonies to buy a sheep. I learned how to reckon a good sheep in the early months of the new millennium (2000) when I was camping in a town in Northern Namibia, near the Angola border. I learned to look for a nice fat tail. Some dudes I had met there taught me how to cut up the sheep, hang it, and share the meat, cooking it over an open fire or boiling it in a pot.

So, since Idaho is the U.S. state that reminds me most of Africa, I occasionally go back to the farm. [more]

Craig’s loss hurts immigration battle

When the nativist hissing sounds start at the back of the room, most politicians run. One hint of a question about “amnesty” and the instinct is to either play to the crowd or move on to a question about social security or the postal service.

But at a recent forum on immigration, when someone aggressively broached the subject of putting welfare recipients to work in the fields, Idaho Sen. Larry Craig stepped up to the mic, armed with facts and figures.

“He’s taken the principled stand and defended it,” says Craig Regelbrugge, vice president for government affairs at the American Nursery and Landscape Association, a group that has worked for more than a decade for reasonable immigration reform in the agricultural sector.

It’s not a stand that Larry Craig, a career conservative Republican now scrambling to clear his name after a June arrest in a sex sting in the Minneapolis airport, came to easily. Craig developed his nuanced position in support of immigration reform in recent years, based on discussions with growers that began in about 1999. [more]

It's the Phili-, Buster, or, Craig's House of Mirrors

The thousands of stories written about Idaho Sen. Larry Craig since news of his arrest in a Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport broke can be filed into a number of categories. There are plenty of who, what, where, when why stories, including the original muckraking by Capital Hill’s paper of record, Roll Call. Then there are the numerous political analysis stories: Republicans hit hard, can’t take another scandal type reporting.

There are the stories from the left calling Craig on his apparent hypocrisy for voting one way while acting another. And stories from the right calling on Craig to resign for his apparent hypocrisy for acting one way and voting another.

Then there is this gem from The Nation’s Washington correspondent John Nichols: “No one noticed he was there. No one will miss him.”

Nichols calls Craig “an otherwise forgettable hack who cruised out of the Senate without ever contributing a thing to the chamber or the country.”

But Nichols got it wrong. [more]

From the Likely Story Department

If it is a trial that Sen. Larry Craig seeks, then here is some evidence that could work in his favor. Or not.

Here’s what we know: Undercover Minneapolis officer Sgt. Dave Karsnia first spotted Craig at 12:13 p.m. on Jun 11. Karsnia sat on the john at the Northstar Crossing mall area of the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport’s Lingdergh Terminal. The restroom is located just across from a large food court.

Refer to this airport map and the one at right, which we will come to again in a moment. The bathroom where Craig was arrested (circled) is located inside security, between the blue numbers “3” and “4,” near ticketing.

The rest of the story is already well known from Boise to the Beltway.

But is it possible, despite the peeping, the foot tapping, the hand swiping, that Sen. Craig just had to use the potty? [more]

Kuna, Idaho: A great place to live, muy tranquilo

Last week the Census Bureau released its 2006 estimates for county populations. The numbers showed Hispanic growth almost everywhere, including in Idaho. Particularly in the larger urban areas.

A few stories highlighted the fact that Idaho’s Hispanic population grew by 8,300 last year. All but two of the state’s counties saw some Hispanic growth. Parts of Wyoming experienced the same type of growth.

The Billings paper ran an AP story noting that Garfield County in Montana, on the other hand, is still among the nation’s whitest counties.

In this second installment of a NewWest series about immigration in the American West, we take a look at Kuna, Idaho, once a sleepy, nearly all-white country town. Now Kuna, experiencing the same explosive growth that has appeared in similar places across the West, is considered a “good place to live” by many, many Hispanic families.

If the town didn’t smell like cow dung every couple of days and was easier to pronounce, I’d be apt to agree. It’s quaint. It’s near a river. It’s still affordable. It’s close enough to Boise. It has a Coyote Ugly style cowgirl bar.

Oh, and it has a totally authentic taco buffet where a woman presses hand made tortillas onto your plate at the end of the line. [more]

If money talks, the west is vociferous

I once had a purely moralistic stance against giving money to candidates.

Recently, I find myself wavering between morality, stinginess and the desire to pack my bags and move to a benevolent dictatorship in the tropics.

But, my fellow western Americans, this is not the way of the West. In fact, voters in the eight states of the Mountain West have logged onto their checkbooks at a rate similar to their countrymen on the coasts.

Presidential candidates took $19 million dollars out of the Western states in the first half of 2007. That is only 6.5 percent of the whopping $296 million raised by presidential contenders as of June 30. And since the Western states are home to just about 7 percent of the U.S. population, presidential candidates should be pleased with their Rocky Mountain telemarketers and e-blasters.
[more]

Where Xutos tries to opt out of mosquito spraying

I just sent off my personal skeeter abatement plan that I have implemented at my new home. Of course, I have not seen a mosquito in the yard and have not been bitten all summer. But you never know when the neighborhood could be preemptively sprayed.

Jen Miller at the Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides sent out a sample plan last week that anyone in the state can follow. She has run it by the Ada County Abatement officials, but it should apply in other counties as well. According to a new state law passed earlier this year, anyone can opt out of spraying if they follow a simple plan to abate mosquitioes on their own property.

Ironically, the Legislature intended this new law to make it easier for some counties to spray. But it does contain opt out language that organic farmers requested. So I'm opting out. Here's my plan. I'll just add that even if it's in my abatement plan, I don't really intend to use bug spray. But if you come over to visit you are welcome to daub it anywhere you like.

Oh, and feel free to steal the plan, customize her and send it in to WeedandPest@adaweb.net. If you live outside Ada County, send it to the proper mosquito abatement district.

[more]

Where Xutos tries to spin the spinners

It rolled into Nampa, Idaho right on time.

A rag tag bunch of “caravanistas” on their way to Cuba in a big old hippie school bus.

I was the featured speaker at the Hispanic Cultural Center of Idaho last night, addressing the 10 self-described “Cuba solidarity activists” and maybe 10 other interested Idahoans. I was supposed to talk about my recent visit to the island.

What do you say to people who love Cuba as an idea? People who have never been there and have very little direct connection to the island, but are really into Cuba as an activist cliché.

What do you say to Canadians, in general?
[more]

<< Newer articles <<    Author Home     >> Older articles >>