There’s a strong odor emanating from Ada County, and it’s beginning to smell a lot more like public corruption and less like a landfill.

Read these posts by the Boise Guardian to get an idea of what’s going on there in the Dynamis-Ada County trash-to-energy project.  (more…)

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I’ve just finished reading “No Easy Day.”   The cover and flyleaf and the pre-pub hyperbole will sell a lot of books to those who are armchair aficionados of military special operations.  Those who believe the fictional images portrayed by Arnold and Sylvester will be both enlightened and disappointed by the book.

My impression of the book’s theme is that it is first and foremost about mental discipline and focus.   It was more an unintended self-help book about striving to achieve excellence in personal performance while at the same time recognizing that achieving personal excellence depends heavily on others having the same objective and translating it into team performance.  (more…)

16th Annual Coeur d’Alene Powersports
Chili Cookoff & Children’s Village Benefit

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For those of you who missed it, here are a few photos from the 16h Annual Coeur d’Alene Powersports Chili Cookoff & Children’s Village Benefit.

Nice people.  Great chili.  Great cause! (more…)

This past week Federal Reserve Chairman “Helicopter Ben” Bernanke instituted a third round of quantitative easing (mercifully abbreviated QE3) as an interim non-solution solution to the nation’s economic recession.

QE’s 1 and 2 were turkeys, and there is little reason to believe that QE3 won’t also gobble.

So here’s some friendly advice to Helo Ben:  Before you go any further, watch the last few minutes of the 1978 Thanksgiving episode of  “WKRP in Cincinnati”. Think of it as a prescient training film, Ben.  And please, pay particular attention to the statement of WKRP station manager Arthur Carlson (character actor Gordon Jump) as the closing credits begin to roll.

“As God is my witness, …”

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Following last Sunday’s OpenCdA post titled “I’d Follow the Law”,  “concerned citizen”  added this comment:

“Hopefully this will also raise the question as to WHY Deedie’s computer was wiped clean. What did they have to hide?”

Regardless of whether the Idaho Supreme Court addresses that specific question when it hears oral arguments in the appeal of Brannon v. City of Coeur d’Alene, et al, on Wednesday, September 19 at the Kootenai County Courthouse,   it’s a question that should be discussed even if not answered definitively.   (more…)

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For all of you who emailed or called asking why OpenCdA was down, the answer is  according to the news, Go-Daddy, our webhost, was hacked today.

According to a post in the Caldwell Guardian, the Caldwell police department recently spent a big pile of money on an unmanned aerial system (equipment, training, etc.).  The photo (shown left) is not necessarily the unit purchased.

It is no surprise that civilian law enforcement would be encouraged by unmanned aerial vehicle  (UAV) manufacturers to buy UAVs for police surveillance and operations.  The US military and intelligence community has paid millions if not billions of dollars for their development.  As first generation UAVs evolve to second generation and then third generation and so on, the manufacturers will be trying to get rid of technological inventory at bargain basement prices.

But should US civilian law enforcement be using UAVs?  What are the constitutional issues?  Should US civilian law enforcement be able to deploy weaponized UAVs?  Under what circumstances?

The issue has become large enough for Congress to begin looking at it.  To help the hired help in Fantasyland-on-the-Potomac get somewhat up to speed, the Congressional Research Service has published Drones in Domestic Surveillance Operations:  Fourth Amendment Implications and Legislative Responses .  It was released September 6, 2012.