Left in the West: Views from Dryland Democrats

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1/31/2006

SotU: Best Contest for the Worst Tie I Have Ever Seen

by V on 8:14 pm.

Bill Frist aka Colonel Mustard. Rick Santorum aka Mr. Magoo. These guys must be blind, and I though that John “Pumpkin Patch Orange” Kerry was bad. Pictures when I can get ‘em.

Update: Tim Kaine no help on the tie front.

Comments (0) | Permanent Link

Categories:
general

CAP Leaks SOTU

by Matt Singer on 6:27 pm.

Why listen to Bush when you can simply read his speechwriters?

It’s a fair question.

It looks like HSAs were overstated as a center piece of the speech. But this sentence really doesn’t make any sense:

We will strengthen Health Savings Accounts â€“ by making sure individuals and small business employees can buy insurance with the same advantages that people working for big businesses now get.

It looks like the focus is actually on energy and education. I’m confused. I thought we passed an energy bill and NCLB already.

Hrumph.

Oh yeah, feel free to discuss the speech here.

Comments (3) | Permanent Link

Categories:
general

iSwitch Soon

by Matt Singer on 6:20 pm.

My refurbished Apple laptop is on the way.

Should be here in a week.

Sweet.

Comments (1) | Permanent Link

Categories:
general

Vilsack Definitively Lost my Vote

by Matt Singer on 5:23 pm.

I should set up an ‘08 leader board with candidates I’m considering and candidates who are, in Colbert-speak, dead to me. Vilsack just entered the latter category. This is the same guy who claimed that he had serious national security cred because he had raised the specter of “agri-terrorism”, a term that sounds like it is probably German for “pork.”

Now he’s spending his time talking about how Democrats look weak on national security. That’s probably because we have pork barrel Governors from the Midwest claiming to be our voices of strength. He thinks Democrats are walking into a trap defending the Constitution. I wish there were many Democrats walking into that trap. What’s sad is that where the Republicans have the moxie to invent new legal theories to say the President has the legal authority to wiretap (or kill or whatever, I suppose) American citizens on a whim, the Democrats’ advisors seem less concerned with legality and more with perception.

Grow a spine or firk off.

Comments (2) | Permanent Link

Categories:
illegal wiretapping, policy, political

Republicans Scrub Burns Wikipedia Site

by Liesa on 4:17 pm.

New evidence was uncovered today revealing the latest instance of Republicans manipulating the internet to hide harmful information about Senator Burns from the public. First theÂ GOP E-Brief offered advice on how to manipulate the Gazette’s online poll so that GOP-ers could vote more than once to say that they weren’t concerned about the Abramoff scandall.Â

In this second instance of tech-fraud, they appear to haveÂ attempted toÂ alter Senator Burns’ wikipedia information to remove the negative content.Â Check it out.

Comments (12) | Permanent Link

Categories:
general

Query

by Matt Singer on 12:43 pm.

If you know anything about a new, anonymous, no-comments-allowed anti-Burns blog, please contact me.

Thanks.

Comments (11) | Permanent Link

Categories:
general

Conrad Burns’ New Flack is an Asshole

by Matt Singer on 10:05 am.

Conrad Burns just brought out a new communications director to breathe life into his campaign. He apparently found the biggest asshole in the Republican Party, a game almost as tough as finding the most annoying man in France.

OK, he may not be the biggest asshole in the party, but he’s apparently part of the biggest team of assholes in the party. Jason Klindt comes to us from Missouri where he was part of U.S. Rep. Sam Graves’ team, a group of people so nasty a newspaper dedicated a major story to simply investigating their reputation for ruthlessness. We’re talking physical intimidation.

So, in other words, Burns’ brought a mafia guy. I’m guessing Klindt’s new job will be to threaten the reporters who are investigating Burns. If you’re a thorn in Conrad’s side, it might not be a bad idea to keep a loaded gun in the house.

Welcome to Montana, Jason.

Oh yeah, maybe this would be a good time to call Conrad Burns and ask why he’s bringing guys like this into our state:

Billings Office
222 N.32nd St
Suite 400
Billings, MT 59101
Tel: 406-252-0550
Fax: 406-252-7768

Bozeman Office
211 Haggerty Lane
Suite A & B
Bozeman, MT 59715
Tel: 406-586-4450
Fax: 406-586-7647

Butte Office
125 W. Granite St.
Suite 200
Butte, MT 59701
Tel: 406-723-3277
Fax: 406-782-4717

Glendive Office
122 West Towne
Suite 207
Glendive, MT 59330
Tel: 406-365-2391
Fax: 406-365-8836

Great Falls Office
321 First Ave. North
Great Falls, MT 59401
Tel: 406-452-9585
Fax: 406-452-9586
TDD: 406-761-6885

Helena Office
208 N. Montana Ave.
Suite 202A
Helena, MT 59601
Tel: 406-449-5401
Fax: 406-449-5462

Kalispell Office
1845 Highway 93 South
Suite 210
Kalispell, MT 59901
Tel: 406-257-3360
Fax: 406-257-3974

Missoula Office
116 West Front Street
Missoula, MT 59802
Tel: 406-728-3003
Fax: 406-728-2193

Comments (19) | Permanent Link

Categories:
Conrad Burns, corrupt

What Happens When Republicans Run Health Care Policy

by Matt Singer on 8:25 am.

President Bush and the Republican Congress passed the Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit.

Unsurprisingly, pharmacists complain the multiple insurance companies they have to deal with aren’t paying for prescriptions. These pharmacies are losing something like 30% of their revenues. That means cost-shifting and higher expenses for all of us.

The feds screwed up and didn’t cover state costs, meaning that state governments are having to step up and ram through emergency legislation to make sure people aren’t without drugs.

Meanwhile, the failed implementation of the program has caused massive problems for the mentally ill who need medications to keep a firm grip on life. Nice job, Bush.

What else?

Oh yeah, drug company executives are making out like bandits as are insurance executives, while seniors get screwed and meanwhile, the lobbyists are running to the states to do everything they can to keep prices up for seniors.

Oh yeah, and bill is damn expensive, too.

This is why I’m excited about Health Savings Accounts, allegedly the center of Bush’s State of the Union. If all the wonks in D.C. were to get together to consider a health care reform, they’d be hard-pressed to find one that would accomplish less at greater cost while completely ignoring those who need the most help but providing a tax benefit to the wealthiest Americans.

Honestly, this is the reverse Robin Hood society. At times, I’m kinda surprised the Republican Congress hasn’t simply voted to authorize mobs of hoodlums to mug me provided they share their takings with Hedley Lamar or Seymour Burns. It would be much more efficient. Oh wait, I forgot, efficiency isn’t the goal. Pretending to help people while lining the pockets of America’s richest corporate schmucks is.

My bad.

Comments (2) | Permanent Link

Categories:
health care, health insurance, policy

Horse’s Ass is an Idiot

by Matt Singer on 7:37 am.

Tim Eyman, the famous for-profit initiative operator in Washington, thinks that voters should get a chance to overturn the recent anti-discrimination law as well as embrace an anti-affirmative action over sexual orientation bill.

Now, Eyman, in his justification, argues that voters deserve a chance to reject the civil rights bill and that they will because the out-of-touch Olympia politicians were simply trying to look good in an election year. Tim, if the politicians were trying to look good, why would they vote for unpopular legislation.

I have to say, though, the specter of gay affirmative action is an interesting one. From what I can tell, no one on the left has ever indicated a desire for affirmative action for the GLBT crowd. In fact, the civil rights movement has been focused almost exclusively on simply extending human rights to the GLBT crowd: marriage, the right to serve one’s country in war, non-discrimination, etc.

But Eyman knows that many straight white males must be terrified that pretty soon the gays will be stealing their jobs, so he’s making them worried that those durn librul politicians over there in Oly land are going to start assigning quotas and 90% of new state hires will be them queers. And pretty soon, you won’t even be able to apply for a hunting permit without encountering one of the peculiar folks who wants to look at your bum.

Oh, the humanity.

For those of you who don’t know, I refer to Eyman as “Horse’s Ass” in honor of the initiative to rename Eyman “Horse’s Ass.”

Goldy, the man behind the initiative to make Tim Eyman known as Horse’s Ass, has already offered his take, which is that Eyman is a greedy idiot. Fair enough.

Comments (3) | Permanent Link

Categories:
glbt issues

Colorado Eyes Major Move

by Matt Singer on 7:27 am.

Colorado legislators are eyeing a unique move to make progress on the emergency contraception front: allowing pharmacists to prescribe the pill, making it significantly easier for rape victims and others who need the medication to access it.

The legislation does not require pharmacists to dispense it (which is something I would support) nor does it even require institutions to inform patients that such an option is available. Those are both bills that Governor Bill Owens would likely veto. This merely creates a new option for a trained group of medical professionals to help women seek a safe drug that must be taken on a short timeframe.

Comments (0) | Permanent Link

Categories:
health care, sex and abstinence

1/30/2006

Why Primaries?

by Matt Singer on 5:24 pm.

Meteor Blades has his thoughts on the cloture vote. MB has some decent thoughts and I like his optimism, but I think he misses two points. First, the progressive infrastructure needs to be reinvigorated. While it is true that some victories are won on election day, we stopped Social Security privatization. We could have stopped Samuel Alito’s confirmation. It simply takes the same level of coordination and the right kind of message.

But where we organized in every state on Social Security, I have yet to see our side manage the kind of press operation that, say, Progress for America had on the other side.

We need to continue to build that.

But this is also, I believe, a clear case of why I think involvement in primaries matter. You want to change the face of the Democratic Party? Vote in a primary. Run for yourself. You need help running? Contact DfA. This is why they exist.

Personally, by the end, I don’t think this cloture vote is make-it or break-it for me in the ways that it is for some people. I don’t believe that Alito will manage to get a majority for an all powerful executive. I think even folks like Scalia will oppose that.

But this is a troubling step and it’s an even more important sign that if, say, Ann Coulter poisons John Paul Stevens, it will be important to actually fight, coordinate from day one, and settle on a message to communicate with the American people.

Politics is a game of inches. The right just moved the ball down the field. That doesn’t mean that we don’t still try to stop their plays.

Comments (6) | Permanent Link

Categories:
Samuel Alito, political

AZ Supreme Court Upholds Ousting of Unclean Elections Candidate

by Matt Singer on 2:20 pm.

An Arizona state Rep. ousted from the state house for violating the state’s clean elections law has lost his appeal to the Arizona Supreme Court. The former state Rep is calling the action a travesty. I’m calling it justice.

If it’s legal for candidates to break campaign finance law, there’s nothing preventing a candidate from engaging in vote fraud to win. Candidates who use illegal methods to get elected should be denied their seats.

Arizona wins today.

Comments (2) | Permanent Link

Categories:
general

Sen. Kennedy: Patriot.

by V on 10:58 am.

There is a Letter to the Editor in the Missoulian today that struck me. A lot of people these days are completely loose with the words traitor and unpatriotic. Many just have to hear that Kennedy is from Taxachussettes to know that he is not a patriot. What struck me about the letter from Nancy Maston is that she includes a lot about Kennedy that his opponents are the first to cite:

Kennedy has never escaped his legacy earned in the dark, rushing waters of Chappequidick. Those old enough to remember, can never forget the ghost of Mary Joe Koppechne. Rumors persist about Kennedy’s drinking and past sexual transgressions.

She then states plainly the case for patriotism:

[The] ghosts of Kennedy’s past have contributed to his personal failings. Two of his brothers, President John Kennedy and presidential candidate Robert Kennedy, were assassinated serving their country. His brother Joe, a bomber pilot, was killed during World War II, serving his country. Both his sister and his nephew – the son of a former president- were killed in airplane crashes.

I am glad that we have a Senator like Kennedy. He is a living tribute to loss for Democracy’s sake. His brothers were casualties of political terror, and yet he is willing to stand up to those domestic terrorists in precisely the way that Preseident Bush would have us do in the face of terrorists abroad. He is truly an asset to American government, and a champion for those in need.

Comments (41) | Permanent Link

Categories:
democrats

D.C. Democratic Insiders: Dean Working Outside the Beltway (GASP!)

by Matt Singer on 9:58 am.

Roll Call has a nice new anonymously sourced, quietly placed story trying to take away from Howard Dean.

See, the DNC has only $5.5m in the bank, compared with the RNC’s $34m. Nevermind that the RNC has an incumbent President to fundraiser. Nevermind that Dean has raised more money in an off-year than any DNC chair in history. Nevermind that he’s revitalized a small donor base and put organizers on the ground across the country. Nope, we need to be worried because Dean can’t blow his wad on crappy ads in the last two weeks and line some consultants pockets in the waning days of an election that we’ll end up losing after the Democratic candidate gets sterling advice like “Tell the voters they’re Republicans and that you have no principles.”

Look, I’m happy with the DSCC and DCCC and their fundraising. It’s going to be extremely helpful, but the notion that a chairman other than Dean would be getting the money he’s getting or that it would be flowing the way it is if it was just going into a media consultant slush fund is just pure bunk. We knew that we were donating to a 50 state strategy. That’s what we wanted to support.

If D.C. insiders have a problem, it’s with their base, not with Dean.

And to every slimy D.C. consultant who feels the need to go anonymous to Roll Call, most of us bloggers have the cojones to do this stuff publicly and with our names signed. You want to discuss Dean’s chairmanship? I got comments.

Comments (2) | Permanent Link

Categories:
democrats

1/29/2006

What the People Are Saying

by V on 10:59 pm.

Montana’s Junior Senator has been a frequent topic in Letters to the Editor recently. I figured I would wrap a couple for today, and consider this a Burns thread, for anything you might want to say to the Senator himself (if he reads us), or to us regarding him. A Billings resident, Korber says that Burns is pulling a fast one on horses:

In 2005, Conrad Burns slipped an amendment into the FY2005 appropriations bill without any hearings or public comment. This amendment severely weakens the Wild Free Roaming Horse Act of 1971. This has largely eliminated legal protection for our wonderful wild horses in the Pryor Mountains.

I’m really tired of out-of-state people telling us how to conduct or manage our state. Maybe he should go to Missouri and tell them the horses have no money or votes.

(All the emphasis will be mine. I am going to highlight the parts of these letters that seem to get at the heart of the author’s feelings towards Conrad.)

I hadn’t heard about this vote, but I like the parallel that this reader seems to be drawing.

Gilhousen from Bozeman writes the Bozeman Daily Conservative to clear up an error regarding an earlier LTE:

In his Jan. 26 letter to the editor, Jerry W. Calvert argues that Sen. Conrad Burns’ Web site is hiding information making it difficult for the “little guy” to contribute to his campaign. The fact is that the senate.gov Web site is a government Web site and no senator can use government facilities to support their campaign.

This is probably fair. I doubt even Burns thinks that he could get away with using his Senate site, to funnel money for a campaign. I am actually reprinting this though because the next part is funny regardless of political affilliation:

By using my Republican secret decoder ring, AKA Google, I was able to find the Sen. Burns campaign Web site in about two seconds.

Google? Republican secret decoder ring? Good stuff.

The Missoulian shows its commitment to fair and balanced journalism by printing this first letter from Missoulian Minjares:

Sen. Conrad Burns came to town to talk with the Missoulian news staff and defend his record. But in the story on Jan. 17, the reporter proceeded to repeat every allegation and innuendo from the file, in the unlikely event the reader has not heard them before.

This almost-daily reiteration of charges makes them seem more substantial than they really are. There’s really not much there, folks!
Then, mesmerized by its own coverage, the Missoulian ran an editorial on Jan. 19, â€œSen. Burns is stuck in a no-win situation.â€ The only no-win situation Burns is stuck in is with the Lee newspapers reporters who report on anonymous sources and seem to have a pipeline to the Montana Democrats.

My take is that Burns must be doing a pretty good job for Montana to draw the ire of the Missoulian. He will be get my vote and the vote of many others in the Missoula area who understand how important he is for Missoula and all of Montana.

followed closely by this morning’s Letter of the Day from Stevensvillian Metully:

I am one of the â€œfolksâ€ Conrad Burns is encouraging to speak out in response to the Missoulian editorials not exactly favorable to his re-election for a fourth term (Missoulian, Jan. 22). In defense of this senile old fool, I am not sure if he even knows the difference between right and wrong. let alone between corruption and honesty.

His example should make a convincing case for the concept of term limits. A seniority system that allows this type of mentality to dispense huge amounts of our money for any reason is just absurd.

…

I am quite sure in a couple of months Burns is going to decide to spend more time with his family in his beloved Montana and decide not to run again.

Heh.

Comments (2) | Permanent Link

Categories:
'06, Conrad Burns, corrupt, elections, montana, political, republicans

750 Word Political Columns: Candidates Have Websites

by Matt Singer on 2:53 pm.

Isn’t this information better suited for a sidebar than for an actual political column?

I really like the fact that Lee newspapers gives their bureau chief the opportunity to write a weekly column. A lot of political news can be hard to understand in short news stories. A column gives Johnson the opportunity to explain larger stories, trends, or provide background on relevant news of the day.

Instead, far too often, we end up with bland 700-word pieces on things like websites. It’s just not really very helpful.

Perhaps I’m being too harsh. Most Montana political reporting is so superior to the crap we’re seeing nationally that we really should be somewhat grateful. I just know that I like to do a really good job, not simply a better one than others are doing.

Comments (2) | Permanent Link

Categories:
general

We Get Questions

by Matt Singer on 2:06 pm.

Steve of Rabid Sanity has some questions for Democrats.

Fair enough. We got answers. (more…)

Comments (12) | Permanent Link

Categories:
policy

Awesome

by V on 10:07 am.

Scientists are using wheresgeorge.com to set up models for pandemic spread.

Searching for a way to model the modern spread of disease became the focus of discussions among the co-authors: Theo Geisel, director of the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self Organization and professor at the University of Goettingen; Dirk Brockmann, a postdoctoral fellow at the Max Plank Institute for Dynamics and Self Organization; and Hufnagel. Following a conference in Montreal, Brockmann met with a friend in Vermont, a cabinetmaker, who showed him the internet game for tracking the movement of dollar bills, located at www.wheresgeorge.com. Participants can register a dollar bill, of any denomination, and monitor its geographic circulation.

Comments (0) | Permanent Link

Categories:
cultural, general

1/28/2006

My First Earthquake

by Gerik on 9:36 pm.

Only a 2.8 in magnitude but certanly enough to make me get out of my chair and look around. Felt like someone was trying to pull the rug out from underneath me. Turns out it the whole city got a little shake out of the deal.

Comments (4) | Permanent Link

Categories:
oregon