3/14/2006

The Empire Bar: Closed?

Say goodbye to a Montana institution.

3/9/2006

Academic Freedom

Jeff at Speedkill devoted some of his yesterday to wondering just what John Baden of FREE was thinking when he wrote on academic freedom. Jeff covers the ground pretty well, but the question is a good one: just why does this country have an “academic freedom” movement built entirely on the specter of Marxism. It’s bizarre. While Marx’s political prescriptions have proven to be…shall we say…bad, there is a heck of a case to be made that he did an amazing job critiquing capitalism. And he would hardly be the first person in history to do a masterful job of pointing out a very real problem (Saddam Hussein is a bad man) only to have his solution for the problem fail to work out (the current war in Iraq).

Regardless, in his writing, Jeff referred his readers to this speech by Michael Berube, a man who is among the left’s most brilliant, most interesting, and funniest commentators. Berube has placed himself squarely in the middle of the academic freedom debates.

Several weeks ago, I mocked a couple UM professors for crying academic freedom after the Governor called them names. The fact is that the Governor calling names isn’t censorship. If the American right following Ward Churchill’s outrages had responded by saying that Ward Churchill is an idiot (or by continuing to ignore a scholar whose reach goes about as far as a mitten thrown by a baby), I’d be less worried about the state of the country.

Several years ago, the Montana legislature tried to put pressure on the Montana Regents to eliminate UM’s environmental studies program. Several years ago, the Chair of the Republican Party said that former Rep. Pat Williams shouldn’t be a professor.

Those are cases of academic freedom. Saying someone does shoddy research and making fun of them is something else, but it ain’t censorship or even a call for censorship. The fact that it had Lois Muir posturing in ways I never saw during the war on EVST speaks volumes about both her own idiocy and the extent to which the American right has been successful in brainwashing academics into thinking that they only need to fear censorship from the left.

2/23/2006

What’s wrong with this picture?

I mean beside’s John Sinrud’s creepy Rehberg-esque facial hair.

Sinrud has apparently used his position on the board of a non-profit Christian school to get himself paid. Bigtime.  Sinrud two years ago listed a massive $1.7 million contract from Heritage Christian School as one of his current sources of income. This is a blatent conflict of interest, an example of someone taking advantage of a charity to bring income to a company he worked for.

Makes you wonder whose interest he’s working for in the legislature, doesn’t it? 

 

2/17/2006

YAMB

Just discovered — This Montana Life. Looks like a moderate-to-liberal with a bit of a tongue-in-cheek style of writing. And it’s been around for about a year. Shame I’ve missed it all this time.

2/13/2006

Nice Shooting Part 2

Wow.  Rather than try and talk about the nearly two thousand news articles this event has generated, lets talk about Montana.  In Montana this kind of thing is not appropriate and I can only imagine the same holds true down in “Duck and Cover’s” home state of Wyoming.  In fact, some people are saying that it was outright illegal.  My guess is that they are right.

First off anyone that is being called a “very experienced hunter” and neglects their upland game stamp, and happens to shoot their hunting buddy in the head, is being mislabeled by an idiot (lutjic) who does not have the facts, or does not have a clue.  In Montana, breaking these kinds of laws brings the mark of shame.  Rightfully so.  Those of us that are experienced hunters, myself included, simply do not go hunting without a licence.  Period.  We do not pull the trigger unless we intend to kill the animal at the other end of the barrel.  Very simple. 

lutjic is trying to claim in comments that Matt has no right to judge this incident because of his lack of experience as a hunter and with guns.  The only problem is that Matt is right.  I am going to go ahead and say hunting without an appropriate licence and shooting your friend in the head makes you a poor hunter and bad person.  Thats how I learned it in Montana. 

2/8/2006

Montana Law and the 1972 Constitution

I am enrolled in a class entitled Montana Politics: The Real Story. This class is co-taught by Rep. Dave Wanzenreid and Sen. Jim Shockley, and I don’t think I need to add that it is one of the coolest classes I have taken. Last week’s session revolved around the Montana Constitution, and we had guests including Jean Bowman and Sen. Dan Harrington, who were both delagates from Billings and Butte respectively. We talked a great deal about the ins and outs of the Montana Constitution and why Montanans are better protected than virtually any other citizen of the United States.
The discussion introduced me to one feature of the Constitution that I did not previously know about: the Self-Government clauses. I think that these are Sections 4, 5, and 6 of Article XI.

Section 4. General powers. (1) A local government unit without self-government powers has the following general powers:
(a) An incorporated city or town has the powers of a municipal corporation and legislative, administrative, and other powers provided or implied by law.
(b) A county has legislative, administrative, and other powers provided or implied by law.
(c) Other local government units have powers provided by law.
(2) The powers of incorporated cities and towns and counties shall be liberally construed.

Section 5. Self-government charters. (1) The legislature shall provide procedures permitting a local government unit or combination of units to frame, adopt, amend, revise, or abandon a self-government charter with the approval of a majority of those voting on the question. The procedures shall not require approval of a charter by a legislative body.
(2) If the legislature does not provide such procedures by July 1, 1975, they may be established by election either:
(a) Initiated by petition in the local government unit or combination of units; or
(b) Called by the governing body of the local government unit or combination of units.
(3) Charter provisions establishing executive, legislative, and administrative structure and organization are superior to statutory provisions.

Section 6. Self-government powers. A local government unit adopting a self-government charter may exercise any power not prohibited by this constitution, law, or charter. This grant of self-government powers may be extended to other local government units through optional forms of government provided for in section 3.

Read together, these clauses essentially mean that a local government can keep the legislature out of their business and maintain a much higher degree of local autonomy than in any other state in the union. It also means that localities can form governments of their own choosing and draw boudaries in the ways that they think best represent the folks living there. To my knowledge, only Butte, Silverbow and Anaconda, Deer Lodge have taken advantage of these clauses, but as remarked by Jean Bowman (I think) its still nice to know that any locality could do it. Just another reason that Montana is the best state in the union.

2/2/2006

Billings Gazette allowing Comments

While the Washington Post is trying to decide whether to allow comments on its blogs, the Billings Gazette is now allowing comments on its news stories. Worth noting, of course, is that the Billings Outpost has done so for years.

Still, kudos to this print daily for following suit.

wHa?

Salon.com tries to take a look at Brokeback Mountain’s performance in Montana and leaves a rather bizarre impression of Montana’s demographics.

In Kalispell, a stronghold of conservatism in the northwest part of the state, the film opened last Friday and took in $3,656 at the box office its first weekend, a draw Focus says it’s “very happy” with. In the equally conservative ski town of Whitefish, where the film also opened on Friday, it was the weekend’s top draw, taking in $2,312 and beating out “Big Momma’s House 2,” “Nanny McPhee” and “Underworld,” the top three national box-office draws.

Whitefish and Kalispell are conservative? Reality check. The Flathead is conservative, but the heart of Kalispell and Whitefish are both progressive towns. It’s just that they’re overwhelmed by a hardline conservatism in surrounding areas.

And then there’s this:

And a rep for the company calls the film’s performance in Billings, a traditional farming community in central Montana, where it has taken in $26,065 since opening on Jan. 13, “absolutely phenomenal.”

A traditional farming community? WTF?

Billings certainly has some farming history, but it’s also pretty tied into the oil business and today is tied, basically, to health care, oil, and being a regional trade center, if we’re going to use the whole economic base model.

Traditional farming community? Honestly, it makes it sound like Brokeback Mountain brought in $25,000 in Winnett.

Bizarrre.

1/26/2006

Rep. Jack Wells, R-1880

Jack Wells is declaring war on labor organizing through pushing for an end to unions as we know them in Montana.

How is he doing this?

Mostly through lies.

Are you one of the “thousands of workers throughout the Big Sky state forced to fund violent organizing drives and a limousine lifestyle for union bigwigs”?

Are you willing to “join in the fight to end the tyranny of compulsory unionism”?

This is why it’s so funny when Republicans talk about how the Democratic coalition of workers and environmentalists is problematic. No one says that there aren’t occasional disagreements between unions and conservation groups, but the difference is that while we occasionally have disagreements within the family, the Republican business groups want to pay workers $1.50 an hour, provide no health insurance, and condemn workers to live in areas with rampant mercury emissions. It quickly becomes no question who is really on your side.

On the bright side, I spent my lunch hour today meeting with a broad coalition of people organizing with Raise Montana, the group behind a ballot initiative to raise the minimum wage by a dollar and tie it to cost of living adjustments. This is a simple policy to treat workers fairly. It’s also got broad support.

If you’re interested in helping get the initiative on the ballot, drop a line in comments or in my email and I’ll get you in touch with the organizers.

1/6/2006

Velveeta v. the Spam Sandich

Courtney Lowery has the goods on skiing, food, and status in the Rocky Mountain West. It’s quite an enjoyable read. Interestingly, she makes it seem like Velveeta is more of a lower class pleasure than spam. That seems disconnected from what I experienced growing up, where Velveeta was a quite acceptable cheese substance in the proper uses, but spam was nothing but a joke.

She also talks about chilimac. Delicious.

Another interesting Montana/Wyoming phenomenon: chili with a cinnamon roll. From what I can tell, this is a distinctly western meal, albeit a great one. Honestly, if it sounds too bizarre, try it sometime.

Anyways, I’m all about food of all kinds. My birthday is tomorrow and my mom actually got me a gift certificate good for a turducken. That’s awesome. I’m totally roasting a turducken, making some jambalaya, and frying some cajun catfish for po’ boys sometime in the next month.

1/5/2006

Heat on Mercer

Bill Mercer, U.S. Attorney for the State of Montana (and in the running for least popular ASUM President of all time), is coming under fire from Dennis McDonald. McDonald has a problem with Mercer’s new responsibilities in the Justice Department, since they may include some oversight of the Abramoff investigation.

Mercer got the U.S. Attorney position in part on the recommendation of Burns. McDonald concludes his letter, “Now more than ever, Montanans need to know that government business is not being conducted with a wink and a nod.”

That’s a good point.

Of course, this isn’t the fiercest criticism Mercer has borne of late. U.S. District Judge Don Molloy recently accused Mercer of having too many jobs in too many towns and bogging down the federal judiciary in Montana. He asked AG Gonzales to shuffle the job duties around.

1/3/2006

Schweitzer Gets the Love

Schweitzer is beloved by the liberals. He’s also getting relatively high marks from a libertarian and a right-winger.

I’m guessing not everyone views him as the second coming, but that’s pretty good reviews across the spectrum.

It looks like all eyes are on his coal proposal.