It's Official

I filed the Petition of Candidacy with the Idaho Secretary of State's office to run for state senate district 22. I'm led to believe that because of the Republican dominance of the two counties that make up the district (Boise and Elmore), if I beat the incumbent in the primary, winning the general election shouldn't be hopelessly difficult. The 2006 Boise County election results for the U.S. House seat was 51.6% for Republican (and a very conservative Republican, Bill Sali, who was despised by the leftist media). In Elmore County, which is a different U.S. House seat, it was 67.9% for the Republican.

I will be opening a checking account for the campaign on Monday, and setting up a PayPal account to accept donations from the Internet as well. If you think that your contribution can't make much of a difference--there were less than 10,000 votes cast in my district in the 2006 for Congress--so it doesn't take an enormous amount of money to elect me. And especially when the incumbent received a C rating from NRA at the last election, and introduced a bill to add "sexual orientation and gender identity" to the state's employment discrimination law. The biggest town in my district is an Air Force base; the second biggest town has a mandatory gun ownership law.

I also need to create a web page for the campaign. I've usually thrown web pages together (and yes, "thrown" is the right word) from raw HTML in the past. Does anyone have a suggestion for a quick and elegant looking HTML template for this sort of thing?

UPDATE: I'm told the beard has to go--Idahoans may have beards (at least the men), but they won't vote for men with beards.

I'm On YouTube

I had a rather vigorous discussion with a lawyer for the other side in line in the Heller line. You can watch it here.

Not Busy Enough

I spent the evening talking to a very large number of Idaho legislators--and I have been strongly encouraged to run for state senate against Tim Corder. The filing deadline is tomorrow, so I will need to get on this. I'll start begging for campaign contributions soon! You will have to comply, too, so that I don't get corrupted by all those contributions from George Soros, the Violence Policy Center, and the Human Rights Campaign!

Idaho Statesman Published Me Today

Idaho Statesman Published Me Today

I'm not keen on the title they picked for it, but it does address the problem of deinstitutionalization. The comments section is open, and unsurprisingly, some of Idaho's liberals are reduced to ad hominem attacks.

The Supreme Court Building

The Supreme Court Building

This is a majestic building. It was built 1932-35 when labor and materials were cheap--and what a gorgeous result!

This is the front--quite awesome to climb those steps.


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Here's some detail of the carvings above the entrance.


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I'm not sure what the classical architecture term for these statues to the sides of the steps, but instead of lions (like the New York Public Library uses), these are humans.


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Here are the bronze doors.


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Oh yes, every building has a back (except the Mobius Building), and that includes the Supreme Court!


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D.C.: What a Depressing Place

D.C.: What a Depressing Place

There is so much in the way of beautiful architecture, but even a few blocks from the Capitol, it turns into a vast ghetto of decaying buildings, men drinking out of brown paper bags, and mentally ill homeless people.

Here's the Capitol:


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Here's the front of the Supreme Court building:


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Here's the view of the Capitol from the steps of the Supreme Court building:


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I can see why leftist politics are so big in places like D.C. It would be very, very tempting, if you believed that people were basically good, to assume that there must be some vast conspiracy to oppress poor people and black people. I mean, what's the alternative?

Very, very sad.

Number 1 In Line For Heller

Number 1 In Line For Heller

You can read his story (with pictures) here.

He describes a heated conversation:

This guy wrote one of the amicus briefs. I'm sure someone here knows who he is. He was having a heated discussion with one of the two government lawyers from NYC who both contributed to amicus briefs.

My readers will recognize the person in the picture, of course!