Democracy in action

I pass no judgment on the reporting ability of the Boise Guardian, except that I like how he gets the calls to the Mayor's Hotline. See what your neighbors think about the leading issues of the day, such as:

• Leash laws. "Talk about voting – I voted for Bieter; I voted for Tibbs and Jordan. If they allow this to go through and take away my rights as an American citizen, as a Boise citizen for my whole life, I will not vote for them again. I will encourage my friends and family to vote for somebody else. I don’t care who the person is, I will not vote for those three."

• Epidemics of vanishing cats. "From about 21st St. along Ellis, going diagonally parallel to State St., you see signs or pictures, photographs of dogs on the telephone poles saying “missing”, like a Golden Retriever is one. A gal on the 2600 block of Ellis, south side of the street,came banging on my door in the middle of the week; she had two cats missing. She was on her way to work and she had a friend two houses up from where she was, still on the 2600 block of Ellis, and she too had two cats missing. Later on that day around 1:30, I had a cat missing. I went down to where there was another Russian Blue on the corner of Lemp and 26th, and their Russian Blue had also stayed in all night long and it was missing.... I would like a heads-up from the City Council and from the Mayor."

• The economy. "I’m just calling to ask why we are giving these banks a bail-out or giving bonuses to them. I’m starting with you because you’re the Mayor. That’s what I want to know – why are we giving these executives a bonus when we’re trying to get the banks bailed out? Thank you."

• Protectionism. "I would be very UNcomfortable with having an out-of-state or off-shore call center or billing service handle the Boise City billing."

• Thieving micks. "I’m having a problem with an auto repair shop in Boise called Irish Auto Repair, and I need someone to help me with it. I can’t seem to get hold of anyone who is going to help me and I need someone to call me back so I can find out whom to talk to, to find out what my rights are."

• Ernest Borgnine. "I think some of the FBI people and some of the corrections are some of the ones who are helping, and of course some of the military people. They have some mind settings that are it sounds like from out of Kentucky and Corkoran Prison, and also the leaders of McHale’s Navy, so if they could get some mindset similar to those, I guess it would be helping. I guess you need to call Kentucky or wherever else the people are telling you to call to find out the information. California and New York are really tied up with the muscle lines and hopefully they will be getting it over with shortly. Supposedly with the warfare it should be able to be done. There is some of the sheriff’s department that sounds like that’s Sacramento that’s not trustworthy; they’re causing problems with military machines all over the town..."

• Television. "We used to be able to get 40 minutes of show and 20 minutes of advertisement. Now we’re getting 40 minutes of advertisement and 20 minutes of show.... I think the Mayor and City Council should get on these people’s keisters and give us a little bit more product for what the hell we’re paying."

• Sexual deviants. "I’m calling to ask why the Mayor gave a permit to the perverts to parade on June 14 th at Julia Davis Park when people who are standing in front of abortion clinics where babies are murdered by the thousands in this country, if they read a Bible verse there, they can be put in jail for a number of months? Things are kind of upside-down; this is supposed to be, according to one Supreme Court group long ago, this was said to be a Christian nation and a lot of us would like to get it back to being a Christian nation, but we can’t do it when we have leaders who keep aiding the enemy, and God says these people are an abomination to Him and that they should be executed."

• And one the Mayor might have actually fixed: "I am a victim, and so is everybody else, of thievery when it comes to the gas stations. The gas prices, the diesel prices are all just absolutely ridiculous. We, the people, want to know what you guys, who are in the head of government, are going to do about it, because if you don’t do something about it real soon, we’re pretty well doomed. As far as my household, I’m already figuring we’re like three-quarters of the way there. "