The MountainGoat Report

Monday Music

On this Monday morning, Chris O'Brien and "Ocean Stone."

DADT Nabs Decorated Mountain Home Pilot

With news today that the Pentagon has no plans to repeal the don't ask-don't tell policy for gay service members, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow interviewed decorated Air Force pilot Lt. Colonel Victor Fehrenbach who is being discharged under that policy.

As stated in this first public appearance, Lt Col Fehrenbach is stationed at Mountain Home Air Force Base and is being discharged after 18 years of active duty, 88 combat missions, 2,180 total flight hours, 1,487 fighter hours and 400 combat hours.  Oh yeah, and after roughly $25 million in training.

How exactly is Lt Col Fehrenbach "an unacceptable risk?"

BYU-I On Dissolving Campus Political Groups

The Standard Journal has an interesting read on the dissolution of campus political organizations at Brigham Young University-Idaho in Rexburg.

A snip:

[L]ast semester (Winter 2009), the BYU-Idaho administration announced that both the College Republicans and the College Democrats, (both student-run political organizations), would be dissolved in an effort to comply with changes to the BYU-Idaho political neutrality policy.

"We are trying to ensure that BYU-Idaho is a politically neutral campus," said Andy Cargal, a BYU-Idaho public relations representative. "As a private institution and being affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we feel that it is in the best interest of our university to be politically neutral.

"While we actively encourage our students to be politically active and join political parties of their choice, we feel that BYU-Idaho itself can't be a sponsor of partisan political groups or activities."

The university explains that no event prompted this change in policy but one has to wonder if the flak the LDS church received, including questions regarding violations of federal tax law, over their involvement in California's Proposition 8 ballot measure hasn't had some effect.

Regardless, seems there's more to being politically neutral than stating so in policy and eliminating campus-sanctioned partisan groups.

Handicappers' Early 1st CD Predictions

In the very first "House Line" for the 2010 election cycle, Chris Cilliza of the Washington Post rates the top ten seats he predicts most likely to switch parties in the U.S. House.  Very early in this cycle, freshman Democrat Walt Minnick's 1st District seat comes in at number two on the list.

Idaho's 1st district (D) ([Obama won] 36 percent): Rep. Walt Minnick (D) ran a solid and professional campaign but it's hard to imagine him having won this seat if not for the utter ineptitude of then Rep. Bill Sali (R), a hard-right Republican who managed to alienate even his allies during his single term in Congress. Minnick raised a very solid $394,0000 in the first three months of 2009 but the simple fact of this district is that the Democrat could do everything right and still lose. Minnick got something of a break when state Treasurer Ron Crane decided against running but, rest assured, Republicans will find a credible candidate.

Other political observers, Stuart Rothenberg and Charlie Cook list Minnick's seat as "Toss-Up/Tilt Democratic" and "Democratic Toss Up," respectively.  Cook ranks it as one of the three most competitive Democraticly held seats.

Homedale Shooting Tragedy

Nothing about this is fair but portions seem patently unfair.

A 14 year-old Homedale girl walks into a bedroom at the apartment of her sister's boyfriend in Marsing, spots a loaded .25 caliber semi-automatic handgun on a bag in the closet, brings it out to show her sister who believes that her boyfriend does not own any weapons and accidentally discharges it into the head of her friend, a 12 year-old boy who later dies from his wound.

Tragic.  All around.  Marcos Jaramillo was buried today.  The 14 year-old was "a wreck" Monday, Owyhee County Sheriff Daryl Crandall told the Idaho Statesman and he hopes she gets counseling.  One can only imagine the trauma this girl will suffer the rest of her life.

Compounding the tragedy, on Tuesday Crandall recommended that the prosecutor charge the girl with injuring another by discharging a firearm, telling the Statesman, "We have a duty and a responsibility to ensure accountability and justice, and to be sure everyone is treated fairly and correctly. We have to hold her accountable, as painful as that is."

Owyhee County Prosecutor Douglas Emery confirmed to the Owyhee Avalanche that the girl has been charged today but it's unclear whether that occurred before or after the boy's graveside service.

"There should be some potential consequence for negligence or gross negligence in the handling of a weapon," he said. "That statute is clearly on the books and, I believe, perhaps drafted for this very situation. I’m concerned a bit, I guess, about the casual nature in which people use weapons. There are very dire and serious consequences."

The prosecutor also told the Avalanche that charges against the owner of the weapon weren't likely.

"If you took a cross-section of a good number of the citizens in this county, I think you’d find a good number of people feel it’s their right to have a loaded gun within their house, and they make reasonable precautions so that it isn’t accessible in the common areas," he said. "By the same token, they want to have ready access to that weapon in the event of an intrusion. As a prosecutor, I have to weigh both extremes of that..."

Sheriff Crandall explained that the handgun owner was working in Washington state at the time and had no way of knowing children would be present in the apartment.

Here's where it becomes exponentially unfair.

An adult keeps a loaded, unsecured weapon within "ready access," as the prosecutor supposes, to use in case of intrusion.  Okay.  The man is in Washington.  How exactly is he going to use that weapon to defend himself or his property while in another state?  It also seems implausible that he has no idea that his girlfriend has young siblings who might drop in to visit and it couldn't have been left for her protection; according to the sheriff, she had no knowledge that the weapon existed in the home. 

Meanwhile, the 14 year-old kid is the one charged with negligence in the handling of a weapon. 

Seems if the prosecutor is concerned with the "casual nature in which people use weapons" he should be looking at the adult who owned that weapon and the casual nature in which he left it.

Something about this just doesn't seem fair but tragedies rarely are.

Wardrobe Ruling In 'Exotic Case'

Gender identity won't be on trial this June in Twin Falls County but it is difficult for many to believe otherwise.

If you haven't been following the story of Nastaran, or legally Majid, Kolestani, a transgender Iranian refugee accused in the shooting death of the man with whom she shared an apartment in Twin Falls, get caught up here.  As PrideDEPOT boiled down the story back in March:

A request for a change in venue was denied in a murder trial that spotlights gender identity, ethnic diversity, media bias, and uncomfortable issues all contained within a predominately conservative community.

Predominately conservative indeed.

Jurors in Twin Falls County will come from the same group of citizens who hear a rightwing radio host describe LGBT people "vile" and "cockroaches." This is also the same location where gays and lesbians had to fight to be seen in a county parade, and were only reluctantly permitted to participate as long as they didn’t "appear" gay.

Now from the Times-News comes the latest:  "Kolestani can dress as woman, judge rules."

Prosecutors did not have a problem with Kolestani's May 1 request to wear "street clothing appropriate for a female, including female upper body undergarments" during court hearings.  Judge Randy Stoker ruled Kolestani's court clothes must "comply with the Courthouse dress code and must be such as to comply with any requirements of court security," according to court papers filed Tuesday.

Quite an enlightened ruling from Judge Stoker, perhaps realizing that enforcing some gender-specific dress code for Kolestani would be setting a ludicrous nightmare of a precedent.  At what point does such enforcement stop?  Would it have led to undergarment security checks at the courthouse entrance?  Absurd.  As is the Times-News making a point to include the specifics of the request in their report.  (Then again, the T-N editor has made a point of defending the paper's insistence on using male pronouns for her, even calling the case "exotic.")  That the defense felt it necessary to make such a request says something about the territory in which Twin Falls County finds itself.  That Stoker still feels Kolestani can get a fair trial in this county, something else.

Anthem

Melissa Ferrick - "Shatter Me"

Rexburg Swears Off Porn For a Month

Rexburg has a porn problem?  Well, not this month anyway.  May is anti-porn month in Rexburg.  Who knew?

Get A Life

David Ripley and Idaho Chooses Life, this is why sane people have a hard time taking you seriously:

We also know that [Congressman Walt] Minnick has taken money from abortion providers – the guys who actually earn a fortune whacking babies while they sleep in the womb – so his radicla [sic] abortion politics are known, only waiting to be proven by his votes in coming months. ... The only question facing Idaho Republicans is whether they can find a candidate able to mount a challenge built around Minnick’s dangerous threat to Idaho families and the moral foundations of our communities.

Whacking babies?  Walt Minnick—radical?  And a dangerous threat to families?  Puh-lease. . . .

On Everest, Encore

The first question which you will ask and which I must try to answer is this, 'What is the use of climbing Mount Everest?' and my answer must at once be, 'It is no use.'  There is not the slightest prospect of any gain whatsoever.  Oh, we may learn a little about the behavior of the human body at high altitudes, and possibly medical men may turn our observation to some account for the purposes of aviation.  But otherwise nothing will come of it.  We shall not bring back a single bit of gold or silver, not a gem, nor any coal or iron.  We shall not find a single foot of earth that can be planted with crops to raise food.  It's no use.  So, if you cannot understand that there is something in man which responds to the challenge of this mountain and goes out to meet it, that the struggle is the struggle of life itself upward and forever upward, then you won't see why we go.  What we get from this adventure is just sheer joy.  And joy is, after all, the end of life.  We do not live to eat and make money. We eat and make money to be able to enjoy life.  That is what life means and what life is for.

— George Mallory, 1922

Camelina, the Cinderella Crop

Drill, baby, drill?  How about grow, baby, grow. 

Marty Durlin writing at The Goat Blog asks if camelina is Montana's wonder crop and then provides plenty of reason to answer yes.

A new study -- funded by the camelina industry and conducted with jet fuel from seeds developed by a Bozeman company called Sustainable Oils-- says fuel made with the oilseed camelina could cut greenhouse gas emissions by up to 84 percent compared with fuel made from petroleum.

There's more.  Camelina has many grower-friendly factors:  the plant adapts to different soil types, is drought resistant, quick growing and can withstand cold climates; it costs $45 to $68 per acre to produce, is beneficial as a rotational crop and camelina meal, the byproduct of producing the fuel, can be used as livestock feed.  Plus, although camelina is not currently produced for human consumption, it has many nutritional benefits, such as the high content of omega 3 fatty acids in its oil.

Durlin writes that it is estimated Montana farmers would have to shift up to one-fourth of their total planted acres into camelina production to provide enough feedstocks for a 100-million gallon biodiesel production facility, something growers are currently reluctant to do.  But Governor Brian Schweitzer has been instrumental in making biofuel production attractive for growers and industry in Montana and camelina is his darling.

With similar growing conditions here, camelina has potential in Idaho, too.  University of Idaho researchers have been testing camelina since 2005 and while there are critics, some believe it may be the crop that makes biodiesel production economically sustainable.  Experts at UI also disagree with those who blame biofuels for an increase in food and commodity prices and instead point to high oil prices and a weak dollar.

If camelina is to fuel the economic stability of biodiesel production, it appears in Idaho it will have to do so while taxed at the same rate as traditional petroleum-based fuels.  The biodiesel tax exemption has recently become a pawn in the taxpayer-funded game of chicken waged between Governor Otter and House Republicans over road maintenance funding.

Last week the House voted unanimously to eliminate the tax exemption—effectively a ten percent tax increase on biodiesel and blended fuels (estimates are this includes at least 25 percent and may be as high as 75 percent of fuel sold in the state)—while remaining firmly against a tax increase on unblended petroleum-based fuels; the Senate has yet to act.

Camelina thrives in harsh environments.  In Idaho it has to—without glass slippers.