County
2C Commish Forgets Pornmeister Lesson
December 10, 2008 
FERDNAND & RULE
Probably no one better qualified to comment on fashion than a Canyon County, Idaho Commish!
NEW WEST didn’t give the Commish any slack at all in their reporting of the “racist” remarks Rule circulated about Michelle Obama’s choice of dress on election night. Writer Jill Kuraitis may have been a bit harsh, but Rule has to be in the same IQ range as Commish Dave Ferdinand who was packing a pistol through the X-ray machine at the Boise airport! Wonder if they were classmates somewhere.
At least they drive 2/C licensed cars so the rest of Idaho doesn’t have to claim them.
Note to Canyon residents: Don’t look for Federal Grants any time soon.
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Comments & Discussion
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© 2008 Boise Guardian. 
Dec 10, 2008, 11:41 pm
It’s got to be the smoke from the sugar beet factory. Prolonged breathing of 2C air must cause a case of the “stupids” when you add elected office to the recipe.
Dec 11, 2008, 10:15 am
Another person falling victim to being discovered in the chain of “inappropriate” e-mail forwards.
Out of courtesy to my friends and family, before I forward something I delete all the names and e-mails of people in the chain. Mr. Rule’s friends and family didn’t have the courtesy to do so and he didn’t have his wits about him enough to recognize his own public exposure.
I’ve received the same e-mail about the Michelle Obama dress and it is all over the internet, even on fashion commentary websites. If Hillary Clinton or Sarah Palin were wearing the same dress the same “Black Widow” comments would have been made, just without the double entendre caused by Mrs. Obama’s race.
Note to Elected Officials and Business Leaders: Don’t forward e-mails to anybody!
Dec 11, 2008, 10:25 am
Just read New West’s account of this episode and I don’t find it to be ‘harsh’ at all–
Rule gets everything he deserves in the article.
I wouldn’t go so far as to say that Idaho deserves the same opprobrium because of Canyon County, since Illinois recently isn’t doing much for its reputation either–guv scandals and all.
My reactions to the dress were mixed–first I hated it, then on reflection I thought, well it’s fashion–then I reminded myself that I hate fashion.
However, the red blaze on the front of the dress does not come close to the hour-glass shape of the spider’s bellymark. Nothing like a few racists to go whole hog, however.
Dec 11, 2008, 1:46 pm
Nothing whatsoever will come of it.
Dec 11, 2008, 2:31 pm
While I thought the dress was unattractive it didn’t make the black widow pop into my mind. Someone mentioned that it looked like she had just come from field dressing a moose.
She has a lot of nice dresses – does anyone know why she picked that one?
Dec 11, 2008, 2:47 pm
All the usaual responses are everywhere
“Lighten up,” “where’s her sense of humor” “can’t she take a joke” “Making a federal case our of it”
“why doesn’t she write about mean emails about Palin,” etc. which of course all miss the point. The word “poinsonous” is used in the first part of the email.
Dec 11, 2008, 2:48 pm
Is Mr. Rule a racist, or just another “public servant” with poor judgment?
I read, and re-read, the message which Mr. Rule apparently forwarded on (but did NOT author). Frankly, I think it’s more misogynist than racist. (For you non-library types, that’s “hatred of women.”) Just another insecure man, afraid of the deadly female spider.
Is the message offensive? Each reader will have to decide. We all choose what we will be offended by.
Unless Mr. Rule has a demonstrated track record of prejudice in one form or another, I can’t cast stones at the guy. I have forwarded on the occasional politically-incorrect email without giving it much thought. (We should all learn something from this episode… think twice, because once that “send” button is clicked, you can’t bring it back.)
(The New West comments are enlightening. Mr. Guardian, there are people among us who think all the morons and racists and crooks and bigots and ne’er-do-wells are Republicans! My lifetime of observation has taught me that they know no party lines.)
EDITOR NOTE– We have never discriminated along party lines. We go after ALL politicos!
Dec 11, 2008, 4:30 pm
It’s not the “black” that bothers me so much as the “widow” part. Everybody knows she’s not a spider.
Re: Roberto’s comment about deleting the other names in the “chain”. Spammers LOVE it when you send email with ‘Cc;’ to multiple recipients. If just one of those recipients has a “zombie server” running on their machine, all of the recipients get spam. Bad thing to do.
Dec 11, 2008, 5:08 pm
There is a county policy about doing anything but county business on county computers. Guess what?
The Info Lady who works for the Commissioners advised the media that ELECTED OFFICIALS ARE EXEMPT FROM COUNTY POLICY MANUAL REQUIREMENTS!
It quite simply a case of don’t do as I do but do as I say for the good people who should be the example and not the exceptions to county policy.
A new low water mark has been achieved at 1115 Albany Street in Caldwell.
Dec 11, 2008, 7:21 pm
A gun totin idiot and a clansman. What a pair. Lets go burn a cross.Ferdinand and Rule. What a pair to provide leadership.
Dec 11, 2008, 10:04 pm
Good Lord people! The dress is ugly and she is the best looking “first lady” since the Kennedy era. End of story! Sure, the CC commishes aren’t the sharpest knives in the drawer, but klansmen??
Dec 11, 2008, 11:50 pm
Hawaii’s Governor recently demanded her tourism director’s resignation for using his government computer to send racist, sexist e-mails. See: Seattle Times – October 9, 2008
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/travel/2008244266_webhawaiitourism08.html
Now, Steve Rule, Canyon County Commissioner in Caldwell, Idaho is getting national exposure for setting Idaho’s image back to the Aryan Nation – Idaho is full of white supremacist days. Please give him our thanks and then kick the stupid sonofab–ch out of our county offices.
Dec 12, 2008, 8:08 am
I like to see the internet literacy or rather illiteracy angle of this story. I doubt many people even know that they can delete the carbon copy addresses. I know people who don’t know what cut and paste means. Are you using HTML in your email? That’s another faux pas. I know a certain neighborhood association president who puts his/her realtor’s logo on all his/her association related correspondence. Yeah, that’s a netiquette violation as well.
Netiquette! Please forward this link, it’s a good place to start. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netiquette
Dec 12, 2008, 5:49 pm
Guess you could call 2C County Commissioner Rule a “fashion victim”. This is the county where they burned a cross on a family members lawn because of a multi-racial marrige. People like Rule make it suck to be 2C.
Dec 14, 2008, 4:57 am
Hey, Cyclops: Dale didn’t even know how to spell Klansman, and apparently didn’t know it should be capitalized. Why waste your time responding to his idiotic comment?
Hell, if everybody’s so worried about Michelle’s dress, maybe we should ask Sarah to take her shopping.
Or maybe we should all be commenting on something a helluva lot more important than a seemingly stupid 2C official and the looks of a dress. Hmmm. … yeah, guess I’ll go do that.
Dec 14, 2008, 11:06 am
I have (R) friends and (D) friends. The (R) ones seem to always gravitate to personal attacks that they think of as ‘jokes’. Not once in 8 years of Bushmonster’s rule did I recieve a single forwarded email about Laura Bush.
I don’t agree with the (D) or the (R) point of view since I think they are just the left and right arms of the corporate party, but it seems to me that the (R) folks tend to be very hateful, narrow minded, and resistant to new ideas.
Dec 14, 2008, 4:32 pm
You are kidding? Right Tom? Please tell me you are kidding! If I missed your sarcasm, that’s cool. If not, I would beg you to never handle sharp objects, or, God forbid, a gun. You couldn’t get even one sentence between your claim that republicans are prone to personal attacks and your reference to the president as the “Bushmonster and his 8 year rule”. Such a lack of intelligent thought could prove dangerous!
EDITOR NOTE–Play nice kids–both of you! You DON’T want me to stop the car can come back there do you? Sorry, but it has been really slow with no really good juicy stuff to toss out.
Dec 14, 2008, 10:20 pm
Wow Cyclops. Tom is NOT kidding. I read his comment and thought “finally, someone is telling it like it is”. Then I read yours and was once again reminded that so many people don’t see what is right in front of their face. I receive (I guess because I am noncommitted and no one knows where I stand on issues) the whole slew of email junk from the most liberal the most conservative, and I can tell you with confidence that the repub stuff is horrendous. I have never received anything awful on Laura Bush or Condaleeza for that matter…yet I open my inbox only to find nude pics of Hillary with full male genitalia…etc..etc..etc. I am telling you, it is despicable. And I find it even more disgusting that I have never heard a rebub realize this fact and I have never heard one call for an end to it. Sure the Libs have gotten worse over time and tended to jump into the muck…but there is nothing like the crap that I am sent from the repubs all across the states.
Dec 14, 2008, 11:30 pm
He started it daddy!
Seriously both Tom and Wheeler. Have you seen the photo shop with Sec.of State Rice’s picture on an ape’s body? Can we mention the landslide of nasty pictures of Sara Palin? All of these internet “jokes” are equally infantile and humorless! But it isn’t any more prevalent on the side of Republican or Democrat!
My problem with liberals is that they seem more than happy to call anyone they disagree with names!
“Bushmonster” is just the most recent. A complete lack of respect for the office, much less the man, just rubs me the wrong way. When I was a young man, NO ONE referred to the president as anything but “The President, or Mr. President”. On a more personal level, I am equally guilty of calling the mayor names as well. Neither is correct!