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A hearing in the Idaho Legislature with public testimony on Representative Scott Bedke’s bill to evict the Occupy Boise Vigil from public property began at 8:30 Friday morning. Occupiers packed the hearing room. Everybody was ready to testify. The House State Affairs Committee planned to speed the bill through.
But delay set in, as the Committee Chairman tried to resolve a snafu. They needed a correctly worded printed bill in front of them for a hearing and vote out of Committee. At the initial session on Wednesday, the Committee had voted to change two words in the initial version of cattle rancher Bedke’s bill. The change clarified who could seize Occupy Boise property when a raid by authorities came down. But the words had been inserted in the wrong place. Now there was dissension about what procedure to follow. The Committee recessed for half an hour to make time for the bill to be printed correctly. Some legislators did not seem pleased.
By this time, all the seats in the hearing room had filled up. The state police used this as an excuse to stop letting people in the room, even though people stand all the time at Idaho Legislature hearings. Some Occupiers told the police they would be happy to stand, and let others have their seats. But no. The Trooper said the room was at capacity. There were 60-70 people in the room, and a few were standing all along. It turns out the room capacity was 200. This was an excuse to keep people out of the room. The authorities seem to be very afraid of people in colorful winter hats. They have also suddenly become afraid of signs –ANY signs – even hand held cardboard signs. This restriction prohibiting signs and placards newly appeared in the hall of the statehouse on Friday morning:
The state’s response to Occupy Boise peacefully exercising their free speech rights on the first day of the Legislative Session. Seeing English words on paper protesting corporate power had evidently offended someone.
So here we see that new restrictions on our rights of free speech and assembly are being imposed within the capital. This is at the same time that Legislators -including at Friday’s hearing, were saying how accessible they were to the public – so no need to have those unsightly tents (and unsavory people) over there across the street reminding them of the crushing economic and other problems many Idahoans face.
The local paper reported on some of the hearing events.
The media didn’t highlight the most revealing remark of the hearing. Scott, a man from the Occupy Boise Vigil site, humbly told his story to the Legislators. He testified about how his wife had died, and after that he could not make his house payments, and ended up losing both his house and car.
In response to heartfelt testimony, Representative Andrus from Twin Falls Lava Hot Springs said: “Did you know there had been jobs picking apples in Washington state”? Scott just looked at him— incredulously.
Andrus is the white-haired man by the flag.
There we have it. An Idaho legislator’s solution to homelessness and joblessness in Idaho. You should have hitched to Yakima for 2 weeks in October and picked apples. Get outta here!
I told Scott when I saw him afterwards that I thought he did great, that he had handled it well, and that Andrus had unwittingly revealed just how heartless many of the Legislators are.
Another man from the Vigil site hadn’t been at the hearing. He wasn’t sure if he was going to testify on Monday. I described Scott’s testimony, and the Go Pick Apples remark. Robert said: “You mean they’re like predators”. He was so right.
The very same Legislators who get apoplectic at wolves, grizzly bears, mountain lions and other natural predators existing in Idaho’s wild lands, themselves act like their own stereotypes of predators when they sense weakness in a person. “Go away and grovel for a job for two weeks in an apple orchard 400 miles from here”.
But tell me, what kind of tough guy is afraid of colorful hats and cardboard placards?
Because of the mix up in printing, the bill now has a new Number, HO 404
http://www.legislature.idaho.gov/legislation/2012/H0404.htm
“CAPITOL MALL – Adds to existing law to prohibit camping on the Capitol Mall property and other state property and facilities”. This is of course the first time in Idaho’s over 120 year history that there has been any “need” for this restriction on the people’s rights of free speech and assembly.
It’s also been pointed out that this new number is what shows up with URL Not Found internet error messages. 404.
So many people wanted to testify, that a second hearing day was scheduled for Monday morning. Stay tuned!
As for Rep. Andrus, there but for fortune … BBC Video of Joan Baez, 1965.
Photos of two Idaho veterans testifying about the importance of the Occupy Boise Vigil site by the Idaho Veteran’s Memorial.
Boise Rep. Phyllis King, a supporter of Occupy Boise, is in the background of these photos.
20 Comments
Please keep these reports coming sagesse!
I’m sure the Washington State apple growers appreciate having Rep. Andrus pimp for them.
Again. Great report. You in Boise, I take it?
No mention of any of this in the local papers here in Coeur d’Alene (as of yesterday).
We sure don’t need yet another stupid law … what we really need is a few *less* stupid laws. Dunno what happened, but about three years ago Boise completely flew of it’s rocker (or at least that’s when I noticed).
Heartless bastards. They really don’t understand how close they are to the talens of the .01%ers. The MOTU aren’t finished with their raping and pillaging. Representative Andrus may be in for a rude awakening. He thinks his politics will save his bacon.
Yes, I am in Boise. The Representatives in the Legislature on the Committee from Boise oppose the Bill. It was introduced by Bedke, from Oakley over south of Burley – butting in where he has no business. He lives 3 1/2 hours away. He said he got to Boise, and was very concerned by the tent city that had sprung up.
But this is what the “leadership” aka , House Speaker Denny, et al. want. And Bedke is considered part of the elite good old boy cabal of “leadership”.
The site they are so concerned about is slated to become a parking lot – due east of the capitol, marring the view right by the beautiful old courthouse. Yet Bedke’s bill talks about “aesthetics”. The irony too is Bedke is a public lands welfare cattle rancher – and he has no problem with his cattle herds defecating in the streams on BLM and Forest Service lands, or trashing the aesthetics of mountain meadows by eating all the wildflowers.
When I say “Boise” I mean it in the sense that people mean “Washington”. And sadly, they’re earning their fellow Idahoans having a similar view of their … work. At least that’s how I’m seeing it. The GOP turned into a comic strip and the Democrats … *face-palm*.
Don’t know that much about the dynamics or personalities down South.
I’m mildly ambiguous to BLM ranching, been Idaho/Nevada for decades now and see it as pretty important to both. I think there’s kind of a trade-off going … the Federal government demanded control of damn near the entire productive landmass in Western states as an entry fee (and it’s not like entry was ultimately optional). There really is a somewhat legitimate beef – on the East coast, the states pretty much own all their land. OTOH, the open lands and public access benefits from doing it the way it’s set up are pretty awesome and, now that it’s rolling I far prefer it to the trend to selling it off and privatizing it (which, believe me, many of these “wellfare ranchers” would *love* to sink their cash into). People often ignore the royalties extracted from Western resources when figuring state’s relative contribution to the national revenue profile.
IMO, both sides need to chill out and show some respect for each other. The damage being done to waterways and such like problems can’t just be ignored … and would be an issue even if it were private lands instead of BLM; the waterways (for example) impact all of us either way. Same goes for the ATV crap. If folks want to ride, first make sure it doesn’t screw things up but there should be plenty of places to ride (actually, there are … it’s totally bad-ass) and yeah, other people should be able to have a spot where they can drive out to the wilderness for a nice camp and not have to listen to a bored-out two stroke blazing 80 yards down the canyon from their tent. The whole damn state’s done lost it’s fucking marbles. And also too Wolves. /rant
It’s easy to forget that when you live a day’s drive away in Coeur d’Alene, Boise can seem as distant as DC.
You are right about them wanting to sell off the public domain. In fact a few years ago, Bedke was part of a “Federal Lands Task Force” during the heyday of Larry Craig. Its aim was to get control of public land through pilot projects, and turn it over to the state who would eventually privatize it — so into the hands of Idaho’s elite. Or into the hands of the foreign corporations these same folks have now become so friendly with …
The peasants just keep bothering the elite and it makes them cranky. The elite always know what’s best for us and picking apples in another state is like a vacation. s/
Yeah, and you might get picked up for hitchhiking or vagrancy or something in the process of trying to get there, and be fed into the state’s crony prison system, providing jobs for the friends of the Elite …
http://www.idahostatesman.com/2011/04/15/1606309/gov-otters-comeback-kid.html
Occupy REGARDLESS.
In January?? There won’t even be apples for at least 8 months. Maybe Idahoans don’t know it’s January in Washington state right now.,,,or maybe, these so called leaders are dumber than a sack of rocks.
GOP state Rep. Ken Andrus is from Bannock County, near Pocatello in Southeast Idaho, not Twin Falls which is in Southern Idaho. And, yes, he is a heartless swine. A few years ago he voted against funding for health services, and shortly after that a mentally-ill man in Pocatello whose supervision was de-funded shot a young man in the back outside a coffee shop. From last November’s Idaho State Journal:
“Cuts have forced the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare to close nine local offices that previously provided mental health services. Staff has been cut and appointments are hard to schedule at offices that remain open. Last year’s budget cuts completely eliminated mental health services for 452 Idahoans who needed them.
State records reveal that out of these 452 people cut loose from mental health support, nine were in jail, 48 have had at least one hospitalization, two committed suicide and one was involved in a shooting within a year’s time.
That shooting took place outside the Mocha Madness coffee shop in Pocatello and nearly killed 25-year-old Ryan Mitchell. Mitchell was a total stranger to the man who pulled the trigger from a nearby apartment, 54-year-old Gerald Durk Simpson. Simpson had been receiving supervision from the state to make sure he took the medication needed to treat his mental illness until budget cuts eliminated that service.
Simpson is now a full-time resident of a state-run mental facility after being ruled unfit to stand trial. Mitchell has survived his gunshot wound and is still paying the medical bills. Police spent hours of manpower on the case. Those nine former mental health clients who spent time in jail probably cost Idaho taxpayers more money than continued services would have. And chances are state or county indigent funds picked up the tab for the hospital stays of the 48 former clients who wound up there. The suicide victims are simply gone – a tribute to budget cuts.”
Thank you for posting, sagesse.
I have a soft spot in my heart for Idaho, I learned many skills in the 4 years I spent in her gorgeous mountains.
When I lived there, every once in a while the whorehouses in Wallace [ honest businesses,in their day],would get a call that the State guys were doing a sweep. All the bars would stash their gambling stuff, everyone cleaned up, and the local sheriff got so into the idea of Law Enforcement that he pulled up 5 tomato plants and sent them to Boise ahead of time.
I look at that white haired White Man, the guy my age, and think “Fuck you”.
In 4 years no one was ever arrested by the Feds.
Bless our houses of ill repute for they shall protect us from politicians.
Thank you for correcting that Serephin. I think I remember reading an article about that shooting in the Boise paper, but not about 452 patients cut off from help. Just googled a few articles on that incident. One described the shooter as “released” from a program with no explanation on the release being caused by de-funding.
Sounds like wild times in Wallace! Here we have a whole raft of politicians offended by tents. Wasting taxpayers time and money in the short three month legislative session in their attempts to snuff out free speech. Offended by tents in Idaho, of all places … It looks like Occupy Boise and Wolf Hating and accelerated slaughter of wolves are going to be the primary topics in the Legislature. That, and pretending that fracing chemicals don’t pollute ground water as they get their palms greased by an Oil and Gas industry staging to despoil Idaho. While Health and Welfare, and every other public support system falls to pieces.
Idaho… Mississippi of the Northwest.
Scott Bedke, why are you not out there supporting the people who need you representing them? Are tents more of an eyesore than homeless people who can not find jobs? Who cant get health care? Tents are petty things to spend valuable, not to mention expensive, time on when there are such huge problems facing us.
I figured that you would understand the problems facing us when I voted for you. You are a smart man and, knowing your mom, I know you were raised well. Remember its your constituents who voted for you not the fashion police.
Ken Andrus is 2x Brigham Young University alum and ex-military. I don’t think he is related to Cecil Andrus except for a similar pattern in the ties to certain special interest groups playing a supporting role to the 0.01%.
Holy Smokes. This also caught my attention:
I figure Cuba, AL is not the “Cuba” meant in the article. The US Dept. of State still calls “Cuba is a totalitarian police state which relies on repressive methods to maintain control” and restricts Americans’ travel there (the Cubans don’t). Also, note that Governors apparently don’t have to have a security clearance. It would be interesting to know why Gov. Butch Otter was visiting there in 2001. Coming up, Saudi Pilots are still slated to train at Mountain Home as part of an arms sale by the US.
Uh, what’s this (h/t @Arizona_Abby for the catch)?
“Lawmakers draft bill to boot Occupy Boise” (Arbiter Online, Jan. 19, 2012)