8/31/2006
Burns is the Worst Person in the World.
by Shane Mason on 11:10 pm.
Tonight on Countdown with Keith Olbermann, Conrad Burns was given the prestigious title of “Worst Person in the World” for his comment about terrorist cab drivers. Mind you, this is a position generally reserved for the likes of Ann Coulter after she has just accused 9/11 widows of enjoying their husbands death.
After mentioning the fire fighter and the immigrant episodes, Keith wondered if Burns would get around to offending every group before election day. Oh? I think that he will get around to it.
Note: the videos and transcripts from tonights show are not up yet but should be by Friday morning.
| Comments (4) | Permanent Link | Categories: Conrad Burns, dickhead, general |
Asleep at the wheel
by Neal on 9:46 pm.
Man, I hope the link below still works, this is just too good. Conrad’s complaining about how slow the federal government can be. YOU’RE A U.S. SENATOR, DO SOMETHING!!
 http://www.greatfallstribune.co m/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/200608 31/NEWS01/60831009
UPDATE: Here’s the latest article. Apparently, Schweitzer declared a state of emergency over a month ago. Way to stay on top of things Burns.
| Comments (4) | Permanent Link | Categories: '06, Conrad Burns, dickhead, environment, montana, policy, political, republicans |
How Did We Ever Elect This Woman
by Matt Singer on 7:41 pm.
In the course of an evening dedicated to supporting the continuation of the war in Iraq, which has thus far killed 2,641 soldiers and wounded tens of thousands more, former Republican governor Judy Martz had this to say (to the apparent amusement of Montana Republicans with a fair amount of discretionary income)
Martz drew a chuckle from the crowd by saying she knows “what it’s like to be the one under fire.”
Does she ever. Martz dodged allegation bullets and scrutiny grenades during the four years known as her reign of terror.
What the hell is wrong with people?
| Comments (2) | Permanent Link | Categories: Front Page |
An Apology
by Matt Singer on 2:58 pm.
Apparently my face is gracing the cover of the Independent. So, um, yeah, I’m sorry.
Update — Honestly, what the hell are they thinking?
| Comments (19) | Permanent Link | Categories: Front Page |
Missoula Independent Covers Bloggers
by Shane Mason on 1:47 pm.
For my first post here, I will be covering that Jay, over at 4 & 20 Balckbirds has a post covering the Missoula Indepedent’s article covering Montana Bloggers. Over all, it is a fair coverage, complete with images and descriptions of your favorite and least favorite bloggers. Well, now that we’ve covered that issue…
| Comments (4) | Permanent Link | Categories: books |
Foreign Policy Insanity
by Matt Singer on 11:11 am.
It’s groundhog day, except the year is 1938 and Chamberlain has just achieved “peace in our time.” Honestly, the elite thinkers of the American right are a joke. We haven’t had a half-dozen Sudetenland moments in the past fifteen years. Hell, I’m not sure we’ve had one.
| Comments (1) | Permanent Link | Categories: Front Page |
A Little Positive Thinking
by V on 10:34 am.
Democrats have threatened to filibuster on Terrence Boyle’s nomination to the Fourth Circuit. Here’s hoping that they follow through with that and stop making “compromises*” at the expense of serious and non-partisan justice and the civil rights and liberties of the American people.
*Not for non-grammerians: I took the time to snatch a definition of compromise from dictionary.com and what do you know it does include a clause about “mutual concessions.” I think we have the concessions part down. I am just not sure about the mutual part.
| Comments (3) | Permanent Link | Categories: Front Page, law |
Not Rocket Science
by V on 10:14 am.
Am I the only one who thinks that defenses of No Child Left Behind, which include standardized test performance increases are inane? Honestly, if a teacher teaches specifically to the test and his or her job depends on evaluations of how close to the standardized test the teaching is, then students are going to do better on standardized tests. Is that what we really want from our education system, which admittedly, we all pay a good portion of our taxes for (except those lucky duckies who pay payroll tax…)? Sure, we will have lots of people expert at filling out bubbles and forming analogies with double colons.
On the other hand, a great deal of American prestige in fields which require education is based on innovation. There is no cause to be innovative when you are taught on the basis of the standardized test and tested on that basis and the government pretends that the standardized test is the gold standard of education.
One of the major arguments against socializing healthcare costs is that it might drive innovative, expert doctors out of the country to make a living. Hell, we might be lucky to have innovation in the next generation at all, if teachers aren’t free to challenge students in a way that a standardized test cannot quantify. A standardized test focus stifles innovation in the classroom, and reads to me like a recipe for disaster, if only the in the medical sector.
| Comments (4) | Permanent Link | Categories: Front Page, health care, policy |
Quick Note
by Matt Singer on 9:16 am.
Some bastard spammer pretended to use an @leftinthewest.com email address early this morning, so my inbox is being jammed with bounced messages (roughly 7,000). While I’m doing cleanup, I’ll be slow to respond to messages. And I might accidentally delete some emails today. My apologies.
| Comments (1) | Permanent Link | Categories: Front Page |
We Can Make $250
by Matt Singer on 9:09 am.
[Bumped. Check below for new content. --Matt]
Honestly, folks. I know people aren’t paying much attention to state level races, but we got some damn important stuff here. As I wrote yesterday, one key difference between a Democratic legislature and a Republican legislature is that the Republican property tax plan is about twice as expensive as the Schweitzer plan because they want to send a lot of money to a) rich out-of-staters who own land in Montana and b) huge corporations who haven’t cleaned up their messes in Montana. That seems to me be a real dumb idea. In fact, it’s an idea so dumb I’m not sure I’ve seen anyone except Roy “Bought-and-Paid” Brown or Corey “Can I Run for Congress Yet?” Stapleton embrace it.
| Comments (1) | Permanent Link | Categories: '06, Front Page, democrats |
Conrad Burns: Dumb or Racist? Take Your Pick
by Matt Singer on 8:15 am.
Man, oh man. The First Lady came all the way from Washington, D.C., to campaign for our Conrad Burns. It appears he didn’t want to let her down by using non-ridiculous rhetoric, so he offered up this gem instead:
Burns talked about the war on terrorism, saying a “faceless enemy” of terrorists “drive taxi cabs in the daytime and kill at night.”
Where to even begin? Honestly, giving Burns the benefit of the doubt and not calling this a racist statement (and I’ve already gotten a couple emails from people offended by Burns’ apparent massive stereotyping here) means that Burns is simply stupid.
Honestly, from what I can tell, there are maybe one or two terrorist suspects out of the whole lot who were cab drivers. But the real idiocy of this statement is the the “kill at night” portion. Killing at night is the last thing terrorists typically do. Terrorism is big, audacious, in crowded places. That’s basically the tactical definition of terrorism. Launching a terrorist attack in the middle of the night would be a simply ridiculous thing to do.
But, hey, we need to keep Mr. Burns in D.C. because he’s serious about this whole terror thing.
Yeesh.
| Comments (19) | Permanent Link | Categories: Conrad Burns, Front Page |
8/30/2006
Derby Mountain on the move
by Gerik on 10:47 pm.
A friend in Red Lodge just called to inform me that she was concerned about all the shingle ripping wind, ash, smoke, and red sky she was seeing. Sure enough, the Derby Mountain Fire is intense enough to warrent the closure of I-90 and evacuation of Nye. Damn.
| Comments (2) | Permanent Link | Categories: Front Page, environment, montana |
Drinking Liberally – Missoula
by Matt Singer on 5:30 pm.
# Last Wednesday of each month (next meeting August 30), 5:30 pm onward
# The Mo Club, 139 W Main St
# Hosted by Lesley Lotto
| Comments (0) | Permanent Link | Categories: Events |
New Writer
by Matt Singer on 5:05 pm.
Or rather, same writer, new location. Shane Mason of Wrong Dog’s Life Chest is coming on-board to write political stuff here. I’ve been a fan of Shane’s writing since he started contributing to the Montana blogs and he’s been talking about making a move from blogspot. I thought I’d expedite it.
Anyways, he should start posting very soon here.
| Comments (5) | Permanent Link | Categories: Front Page |
HD-49: Kendall Van Dyk
by Matt Singer on 10:00 am.
On top of the U.S. Senate race, the U.S. House race, and all the ballot initiatives, there are a lot of important Montana House and Senate races this year. Both chambers fates are up in the air and what happens can make a huge difference in terms of what happens in the 2007 legislative session.
To get just one quick idea, consider the differences between the Democratic and GOP positions on property taxes. Under the two plans, the vast majority of Montanans come out equally well-off. But the GOP plan is way more expensive, because they also want to give hundreds of thousands of dollars to companies like Exxon (already bringing in profits hand over fist) and BNSF (liable for a huge clean-up in Livingston, where they are dragging their feet).
In order to win, we need to elect some great new legislators. One of our best opportunities is in the heart of Billings — House District 49.
Kendall Van Dyk is running to take Roy Brown’s seat while Roy mounts his campaign for the Senate and make no mistake — Kendall is one of our best opportunities to pick up a House seat this year. The district he’s running in is historically a friendly district to Democrats and Governor Schweitzer’s polling numbers there are simply phenomenal (Schweitzer/Bohlinger outperformed Brown in this district in ‘04 — but the district is part of Bohlinger’s old seat as well).
And while Kendall and I are friends and agree on a lot of policy values, I should probably make it clear that we diverge pretty significantly when it comes to strategy and tactics. It’d be fair to say that I’m a divider — Kendall’s a uniter. He grew up on a farm near Three Forks, Montana — and, until recently, considered himself a Republican. Time in Helena changed his political identity and he’s spent the last couple years working as an organizer for the Northern Plains Resource Council — a conservation-minded non-profit that represents family farmers and ranchers across Eastern Montana.
He also remains to this day an active hunter, going so far as to post hunting dates reminders on his campaign site.
Kendall’s a hard worker. He’s been out knocking doors, talking to voters, and doing what he needs to win. His campaign committee is top notch — literally the cream-of-the-crop for political volunteers in Billings.
He’s mounting this campaign to win and the proof is in the pudding — Kendall scored a huge victory against a tough opponent in the primary. He can win this race this fall.
He needs help, though. If you live in Billings, volunteer with the campaign. If you live elsewhere, now is the time to help Kendall finish his fundraising push so that he can turn his focus to talking to voters:
Contribution limits in Montana are $130 per individual per candidate per election. That means two things — First, your contribution really does matter to Kendall; second, he can’t simply get this money from a tiny handful of big donors.
Give $5 or $10. Let’s see if we can raise $250 for Kendall today.
Update — Not happening quite at the pace I hoped, but we’re 10% of the way there, with $25 from two donors. Please, use the form above — the donations are given via a secure server and the campaign can use the money to win this important seat.
Update 2 — Well, we’re up to $55 $105 from four five donors. Progress, eh?
Update 3 — Two donors so far have used this opportunity to give to Kendall and to Kevin Furey, another outstanding young candidate. I should get a chance to plug Kevin soon. But if my readers already know enough to donate, I may have to focus this mighty Abramoff-like firehose not pathetic fundraising capability in a different direction.
| Comments (8) | Permanent Link | Categories: '06, Front Page, elections, montana |
8/29/2006
Howie Rich Won’t Defend His Ideas
by Matt Singer on 4:07 pm.
Howie Rich is the man behind CI-97, CI-98, and I-154. A fierce libertarian, Rich is motivated almost exclusively by ideology, yet the man will not even attempt to publicly defend his ideas.
Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski challenged Rich to a debate over Measure 48, Oregon’s version of the spending cap (CI-97 here in Montana). Rich has refused. Nice catch, Blue Oregon.
| Comments (6) | Permanent Link | Categories: Front Page |
Conrad Burns Fights Public Access Again
by Matt Singer on 1:44 pm.
John Gibson has the details in an op-ed in this morning’s Gazette. No commenters have seen fit to defend Burns on this one.
| Comments (10) | Permanent Link | Categories: '06, Conrad Burns, Front Page |
8/28/2006
Debating Graciously
by Matt Singer on 9:35 pm.
Colby Natale has switched directions and is now running a debate forum, graciously hosted by Jeff of Speedkill fame. Colby’s issued an invitation to me, but I think I’m going to decline — I get a loud enough microphone.
One of the things that has happened in this site due to my refusal to moderate comments is that they are not as hospitable as some would like. Colby is creating a space where response will probably be, um, less nasty than they are here. So I’d urge any lurkers I have who are inclined to discuss these issues and are looking for constructive criticism rather than ad hominem attacks to head over there. Heaven knows I’ll try to remember to stop by and read occasionally (although, if I do this, I’ll probably break down and comment). I might even occasionally link to interesting discussions. But, like I said, I’ve got a microphone. I’ll let someone else do some talking.
| Comments (3) | Permanent Link | Categories: Front Page |
Depressing?
by V on 9:18 am.
With the economy beginning to slow, the current expansion has a chance to become the first sustained period of economic growth since World War II that fails to offer a prolonged increase in real wages for most workers.
That situation is adding to fears among Republicans that the economy will hurt vulnerable incumbents in this year’s midterm elections even though overall growth has been healthy for much of the last five years.
The median hourly wage for American workers has declined 2 percent since 2003, after factoring in inflation. The drop has been especially notable, economists say, because productivity — the amount that an average worker produces in an hour and the basic wellspring of a nation’s living standards — has risen steadily over the same period.
The NYT reports on hearing the news about workers, the first thing that springs to the minds of the Republicans in Washington is how that might effect mid-terms. It strikes me wrong that this is the mentality of folks intended to represent the people. They are more concerned with the way that they might fare in their own jobs than in the way that their constituents are getting on.
It adds insult to injury that the representatives they are talking about here are Republicans. “Pull yourself up by your bootstraps, so that we don’t have to bend so far to kick you in the teeth.” Honestly, the productivity has been on the rise and wages have stagnated and then decreased. It’s news like this that makes me worried that the American Dream might just be dead.
The way that this bit of news effects mid-terms is irrellevant when compared to the way that it effects wage workers. Anyone who looks gaily through their etched glass windows, but cannot see the starving folks on their stoop has no business representing the people.
I don’t claim to know a lot about economics, but what I do know is that this country won’t run without wage earners. Isn’t it time that the Republicans in Washington gave a little more thought to their lives and a little less to their own special interests?
Update (by Matt) — I haven’t seen any specific evidence on this, but as we have discussed on this site before, wages are sticky. In other words, most individual workers are probably not seeing actual wage cuts. Rather, wages are rising more slowly than before and entry wages for new workers are lower than they have been before. The same trend occured in Montana during periods where “wages fell” — in reality, wages were falling for few people, but were falling across the board at the same time. This is what happens when you look at data across the entire economy as opposed to simply looking at individuals. It also means that my peers leaving school and entering the workforce are entering a bleaker job market for new hires than their predecessors. Given that entry earnings correspond highly with long-term earnings, that’s not a good sign.
| Comments (27) | Permanent Link | Categories: '06, Front Page, dickhead, economic, elections, policy, political, republicans |
8/27/2006
Checks and Balances
by Matt Singer on 5:49 pm.
Eldridge Jones says he is proud of his union, because “I have seen first hand what the tyranny of a system w/o checks and balances to protect workers could become.” That’s a key point. I do not defend unions because they are always right and good, nor do I defend the judiciary because the judiciary is always right and good. Rather, these institutions are important because multiple institutions jockeying for power prevents control of a system from being concentrated. And, over the long term, that is a good thing.
Inevitably, there will be some bad apples in the world of organized labor. Heaven knows that judges will write bad decisions. Likewise, I will sin. You will, too. We are all people. Preventing any of us from gaining too much power is critical and one of the best ways to do that is competing institutions. In other words, we aim not for perfection for we are incapable of it — instead, we seek the system that can bring us closest — James Madison knew that, so did Richard Lipsey and Kelvin Lancaster.
| Comments (1) | Permanent Link | Categories: Front Page, economic, law, philosophy |
