I like Gordon’s soldier analogy. You’re like a point man on a infantry patrol though a jungle. In this case the jungle is Treasure Valley. As you make your way through the mire, constantly alert, you keep an eye out for things that seem out of place, listening for things that just don’t sound right, and passing the word along to your readers thereby raising their awareness of what’s going on.

To say the least, being a point man can be exhausting. But we’re all grateful you are there for us.

You’ve been willing to take on a fight with seemingly unbeatable foes, winning some battles along the way. You fight for all that is right and are willing to march into a preverbal hell for the cause. And you continue to persevere even when weary. The Valley is a better place for your efforts.

Thank you Guardian.

JQP

🙂

EDITOR NOTE–Help would come in the form of some good investigative researchers to handle the time consuming factual research. Thanks.

I’m going to send you $20, Guardian, to be used to continue your blog effort and I would suggest to everyone of your dedicated readers who realize that depending on the local newspapers to publish the truth is a waste of time that they think about doing the same . How much is being able to see the TRUTH IN PRINT FOR ALL THE AREA AND WORLD to see? You can’t put a price on it for me and I can tell you our local political small-time crooks spit out their morning coffee every time they read about what they are really doing!

EDITOR NOTE–Joe, you can’t buy me off like some local politico! Keep your cash for now. I will ask for donations when I need them, but thanks for the gesture.

However, all things considered, it wasn’t a bad year. On the growth front, the Guardian spotlight on traffic issues associated with The Cliffs in the east and Avimor et al to the northwest helped shove a vestige of a backbone up ITD’s kazoo and as a result may have helped save Idaho tax payers as much as $200 million.

The guardian spotlight also exposed Ada County subsidizing The Cliff’s developer via a misapplied / fraudulent agricultural tax exemption. That will save Ada County taxpayers about $100,000 per year.

Judy Peavey-Derr got a well-deserved, long overdue, pink slip, at least in part because of Guardian efforts. And, as more and more of Tilman and Yzaquirre’s decisions move from their desk into the courts (open meeting law violation, Avimor, probably EMS, probably The Cliffs, etc.) their political lives will become more and more tainted.

Not a bad year at all.

Good job Guardian.

EDITOR NOTE–Not sure if some of these are BLAME or CREDIT. You Mr. Jones have really been out front and dedicated. Good job to you, sir.

Guardian: If by “winning it,” you mean totally eliminating graft, idiocy, imcompentency, apathy, bone-headedness etc. in governments, then, no, of course there’s no chance of “winning it.”

When the Boise River overflows, we don’t try to stop the river; we sandbag and dig and do what we can to protect our homes and ourselves from the flood.

Basically, that’s what you (and to some extent, we) are doing here — not expecting to ever stop the flood of ineptness in governments, but trying to lessen the impact.

Each court case you’ve won, each official you’ve made pay a little more attention to the legalities (or lack thereof) in what he or she is doing, each citizen you’ve inspired to show up at the next public meeting and raise a little hell … these and so many more things are the “sandbags” that can divert some of the flood of atrocities and perhaps save a few homes and at least a shred of sanity.

Hey, even Jesus couldn’t wipe out stupidity, sin etc. Mother Theresa couldn’t aid every poor person in India. No one person can solve all of any problem, or win any war, but each soldier who does his best is a major part of the outcome.

OK, I’m getting carried away with analogies, but you get the drift. You’ve done a *lot* — and we’re all better off for it.

Keep plugging away, and remind youself each day that you’ve taken one more step toward reining in some of the cascading bureacracy miscreants.

EDITOR NOTE–We WILL continue to offer up the forum, but Gordon seems to have lost it with Mother T and the big guy.

It can be frustrating when you look at it all, but you have made (and i am confident will continue to) make a difference, make sure you KNOW that!

t

My feeling is like they are in charge of maintaining the “Hope Diamond” and instead of cleaning and polishing it, they are chipping it into fragments in the name of growth.