An ag bill’s defeat
The day after Valentine’s Day, a new environmental group formed in the Idaho Senate. Certain Republican senators teamed up with Democrats to defeat Senate Bill S1245 dealing with pesticide labels.
What is happening in our great state where an agriculture bill cannot get passed?
S1245 was not introduced in the Senate Agriculture Affairs Committee. Instead, it came through the Commerce & Human Resources Committee. It fits in both but it would have died in ag and not even made it to the floor because of the committee makeup.
The intent for S1245 was to use existing required Environmental Protection Agency labels as being sufficient warning because of their extensive testing program, instead of Idaho needing to create its own warning labels.
During Senate floor debate, certain Republican members used points such as “World Health Organization (WHO) experts,” “China would gain control,” and “EPA would get too much power.” Seriously, citing the WHO as experts? What about their COVID-19 arguments? What about Idaho’s mines instead of China’s?
Socrates said: “Nobody is qualified to become a statesman who is entirely ignorant of the problem of wheat.”
It’s still unbelievable that agriculture was not supported. I thought S1245 was a shoo-in. How times and Idaho have changed.
After all, the courtship to get enough “nay” votes was done leading up to Valentine’s Day and the afterglow of birthing a new environmental group comprising Senate Republicans and Democrats is the new Idaho love child.
Robert Blair
Kendrick
Watched Trump’s actions
Fellow veteran John Bradbury, I owe you a response to your letter of Feb 4.
I also did not vote for Bill Clinton. But I bet we both voted for John Kennedy, a true World War II hero who told us, “... ask what you can do for your country,” and we did.
You also must have been horrified when the combat rules of engagement were dictated by the Obama White House. The only military success for Barack Obama was the killing of Osama bin Laden, and that only after pressure from Hillary Clinton. From Obama, I learned to not judge politicians by what they say; judge them by what they do. Obama failed as our commander.
I berated Joe Biden’s military leadership, but never said vote for Donald Trump. I didn’t listen much to what Trump said but rather watched what he did, as did the leadership of our enemies.
His first move as commander-in-chief was to delegate the rules of engagement to combat commanders. His decision to pull our troops from Syria when Turkey launched an attack against the Kurds was brilliant. Trump was berated by everyone, who claimed we abandoned our ally. The Turks got a shock when they found the Kurds were well-armed and trained by U.S. special ops and withdrew.
Trump was right. He then risked his presidency by taking out Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and later, Qasem Soleimani. Both operations were flawless.
Should we vote for the man responsible for the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal?
Bill Mulligan
Clarkston
We are selfish people
Abortion is nothing new. It has been done since the beginning of mankind.
We are born with an evil nature. It is called sin.
History proves that every civilization at some point will practice human sacrifice.
In 1973, this country chose to do likewise. Patty Sprute quoted Mother Teresa of Calcutta: “It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you can live as you wish.” Modern abortionists routinely kill babies while government bureaucrats spend millions to save snail darters and silverspot butterflies.
We have become a selfish, self-absorbed, it’s-all-about-me people. Murdering an unborn child is not OK. They call it abortion. I call it murder.
God always demands an accounting. If you think abortion is OK, ask yourself: What if my mother had thought the same?
Regret is the worm that never dies.
Lois Hummel
Lewiston
