Montana
updated
10:04 p.m.
Good for Senator Tester, better for women: For the past five years, grants to local affiliates of Planned Parenthood have been an important part of Planned Parenthood’s work to protect women from breast cancer. Komen funding for Planned Parenthood has provided nearly 170,000 clinical breast exams and resulted in 6,400 referrals for mammograms. In 2011 [...]...
Intelligent Discontent - 4:22 p.m. - 5 clicks 
I do have to say that this photo would be slightly more interesting/illuminating (pun intended, I guess) if it included western Montana....
Intelligent Discontent - 2:02 p.m. - 10 clicks
by lizard I’m going to feature poems this month about the mess of human relationships. I hesitate to use the term “love poems” because love may not always be present, even if the word “love” is used, especially with this weekend’s selection. The poem below the fold comes from Judy Blunt, creative writing director at [...] ...
4&20 Blackbirds - 9:40 a.m.
Democratic candidate for Attorney General Jesse Laslovich announced today that he’s received the endorsement of three-term Attorney General Mike Greely. From Mr. Greely’s letter: Not only is Jesse an accomplished legislator, he’s also a successful and experienced criminal prosecutor. Jesse prosecuted the longest Madoff-style Ponzi scheme in Montana’s history, has returned millions of dollars...
Intelligent Discontent - Thu 11:41 p.m. - 14 clicks
by jhwygirl By now most of you have heard of the Susan G. Kolman for the Cure Foundation hullaboo over them having pulled funding from Planned Parenthood for mammogram funding. Because Planned Parenthood is under investigation by Congress. Because, you know, women’s health is an issue for a bunch of old white men in DC [...] ...
4&20 Blackbirds - Thu 7:45 p.m. - 3 clicks
All hat, no cashmere goats. That’s the only possible explanation for the out-of touch remarks made by Representative Rehberg when he suggested that there is no danger in agricultural work. Rehberg, a six-term congressman who’s running to unseat Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), said he’s a fifth-generation Montana rancher whose great grandfather, born in 1873, started [...]...
Intelligent Discontent - Thu 4:02 p.m. - 19 clicks
While I’m inclined to agree with those who decry the media’s focus on fundraising instead of discussion of issues, it’s hard to ignore the fact that Representative Rehberg is making national news for his inept fundraising this cycle: LOSERS For whatever reason, Reps. Rick Berg (R-N.D.), Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and Denny Rehberg (R-Mont.) all had [...]...
Intelligent Discontent - Thu 3:45 p.m. - 10 clicks
If you’re a Republican running for governor in Montana (and other than Jeff Essmann, who’s not these days?) it seems that there are really only three things you need to talk about: restricting the right of women to make decisions about their bodies, reducing the tax burden on massive corporations, and decreasing regulations that “harm” [...]...
Intelligent Discontent - Thu 3:02 p.m. - 12 clicks
by Pete Talbot Eating crow First, an apology to our readers for a factual error. We wrote that GOP gubernatorial candidate Ken Miller was going to announce Billie Orr, from Bozeman, as his running mate. It turns out that the PSC’s Bill Gallagher got the nod. We got the Orr info from a reliable source. [...] ...
4&20 Blackbirds - Wed 11:07 p.m. - 13 clicks
by jhwygirl A number of people falling over themselves – and I say this with gratitude – mea culpa’ing over my post GOP’s Ken Miller to Announce Billie Orr as his Lt. Governor Running Mate. In the end, I put the fingers to the keys…and know what? I’m OK with that. Normally I put out [...] ...
4&20 Blackbirds - Wed 7:29 p.m. - 2 clicks
by jhwygirl Quick hit here. Caught this yesterday Bozeman Daily Chronicle. Montana’s Electrical Cooperatives Association is sponsoring its Campaign School which is designed – as the Chronicle put it – to encourage newcomers to enter the political sector. Classes are being held in Great Falls on the 7th, Missoula the 8th, Bozeman the 9th and [...] ...
4&20 Blackbirds - Wed 7:02 p.m. - 11 clicks
Today Rob Stutuz released a “biographical” YouTube video. Considering the budget Stutz is working with, I have to say I was fairly impressed. The video is four minutes and thirty seconds long. Follow the link below to have a gander: Rob Stutz for Congress – Biography This adds one more candidate to the list of [...]...
Intelligent Discontent - Wed 5:10 p.m. - 6 clicks
Let’s be clear, you can win an election and be on the losing end when it comes to fundraising. One need look no further than Tester’s come from behind win in ’06 as an example. And you can definitely win when the money gap isn’t very large. That being said, here’s a quick look at [...]...
Intelligent Discontent - Wed 9:40 a.m. - 9 clicks
The Crow Reservation in Montana was first defined by the United States government at the Fort Laramie Treaty Council of 1851. Subsequently, the Indian Office (later known as the Bureau of Indian Affairs) assigned Indian agents to administer the reservation. In 1902 Samuel G. Reynolds became the Indian agent for the Crow reservation and began to implement a program of self-sufficiency. He cut off...
DailyKos (Montana) - Tue 8:27 a.m. - 22 clicks
by jhwygirl I’m getting a little sick of hearing Newt Gingrich whine about the negative campaigning of “Massachusetts liberal Mitt Romney.” Isn’t that negative campaigning? Newt calling Mitt Romney a “Massachusetts liberal”? Isn’t the word “liberal” an insult in the GOP world? And sometime we’re going to have to have a discussion about ne...
4&20 Blackbirds - Tue 7:26 a.m. - 3 clicks
Jhwygirl has the news that Ken Miller will be announcing the selection of conservative education opponent activist and Republican House candidate Billie Orr as his running mate in his futile bid for the governor’s chair. (Correction below) Republican legislative candidate Billie Orr is certainly going to have some explaining to do when it comes to [...]...
Intelligent Discontent - Mon 11:24 p.m. - 16 clicks
by lizard I can’t wait until we start killing prisoners for sport, like in the dystopia depicted in the Steven King story turned crappy movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, The Running Man. I don’t think we’re that far off, and lately I’ve been thinking that maybe it’s time we just embrace violence. Kill who needs to [...] ...
4&20 Blackbirds - Mon 9:09 p.m. - 2 clicks
by jhwygirl Worthy sources are confirming GOP gubernatorial primary candidate Ken Miller – who’s hitting Rick Hill’s insurance big business connections pretty hard – will be announcing one of Bozeman’s newer residents Billie Orr as his Lieutenant Governor running mate soon. Who is Billie Orr? From her Wikipedia page: Billie J. Orr, Ed.D. is an [...] ...
4&20 Blackbirds - Mon 6:47 p.m. - 16 clicks
Senator Tester, on NPR’s All Things Considered, today: “Well, I think corporations are a whole lot different than people. I don’t know corporations that can be put in prison. I do know people that can be put in prison. I mean, it’s a totally different entity. I don’t think the forefathers envisioned when this country [...]...
Intelligent Discontent - Mon 4:01 p.m. - 16 clicks
by lizard I went looking through my Pablo Neruda to find a poem for Newt Gingrich. I found one that seems appropriate in Neruda’s collection, titled Fin de Mundo, published by Copper Canyon Press (2009). I’m going to feature the poem in its native ghetto language first. For those of you who can’t read Spanish, [...] ...
4&20 Blackbirds - Sun 2:05 p.m.
Who says Congress doesn't work on issues that matter to Americans during tough economic times? Montana congressman Denny Rehberg, co-founder of the Congressional Tea Party Caucus and Michelle Bachmann's earliest endorser, has announced that he will hold a hearing this week on a crucial issue: a statue of Jesus at a ski resort. Here's a pic. ...
DailyKos (Montana) - Sun 9:09 a.m. - 25 clicks
Comedy. Belly-shaking, can't resist the public laugh, joy to your roots - Comedy. Being a football fan, this is the funniest thing I've read in months....
A Chicken is not Pillage - Jan 27 - 9 clicks
by lizard So I was watching the latest episode of the Showtime series Shameless the other night when I witnessed something profound. spoiler alert The drunken patriarch of the family, Frank Gallagher (played brilliantly by William H. Macy), had been laying the groundwork for a long-con on a woman who is dying. Slowly he ingratiates [...] ...
4&20 Blackbirds - Jan 27 - 4 clicks
1-3 for picks last week, though only one outcome was truly surprising. In my opinion, the 'Niners and Saints played the game of the year. Alex Smith probably played the game of his career. I thought my wife, a diehard......
A Chicken is not Pillage - Jan 21
While checking into a motel in the small town of Seeley Lake, Montana, a small herd of deer—about a dozen—ambled across the parking lot and asked to have their pictures taken. This is their photo diary. ...
DailyKos (Montana) - Jan 19
For geofft. I began as a seedling, high in the Sierras of Nevada. With the nourishment of the clean, fertile soil of the earth, and the nutrition of the clean air and soothing rains, I grew into a sapling. I was protected by the driving snows from the howling winds of Winter, knowing within myself that I was destined for greatness as a strong and mighty tree. For years, I grew. Left to that ...
DailyKos (Montana) - Jan 18 - 7 clicks
Recently I attended an annual event hosted by the League of Women Voters of Monroe County called the Legislative Breakfast, where one of the guests was my Pennsylvania State Legislator Rosemary Brown . Given my previous experience with Rosemary Brown, chronicled in my last blog (along with the bulk of the forum which focused mainly on the voter ID bill she voted for), when I got the opportu...
DailyKos (Montana) - Jan 18 - 8 clicks
The Billings Montana Shrugged TEA Party has issued a "CALL TO ACTION" today (capitalization and inexplicable quotation marks are their own.) In an email to TEA Party members, Billings TEA Party leader Eric Olsen calls for a boycott of all news. The TEA Party leader says the boycott is needed because news agencies in Billings and elsewhere "are complicit in the destruction of Amer...
DailyKos (Montana) - Jan 17 - 13 clicks
A few reminders for those who have become so learned that they've gotten stupid about the most basic things. A linear function does not need to describe a "straight line". It simply means that it's variable or variables are constrained......
A Chicken is not Pillage - Jan 16
For more than a hundred miles the narrow Swan Valley runs between two mountain chains in Montana’s Northern Rockies. At the end of the last ice age, some 12,000 years ago, the glaciers receded from the valley leaving behind a number of lakes and an area which eventually became tall forests. It was used as a hunting and resource area by the Pend d’Oreilles Indians and in the nineteenth century it...
DailyKos (Montana) - Jan 15
I didn't have the time to post my picks for the Wildcard round, which is just as well since I only went 2-2. I sincerely thought that Dalton and the Bengals could take advantage of the severely injured Texans. Kubiak......
A Chicken is not Pillage - Jan 14
Eric quips: I just wish that my RAIDERS had gotten the job done against the Chargers and that they were in the playoffs. Dude, you do realize that the Raider's fortunes are never going to change while they remain the......
A Chicken is not Pillage - Jan 13
Time has been limited for me. That's probably an understatement. I have had little (awake) free time and I've chosen to spend it with my many greatest loves, my wife, my animals and NFL Football. Reviewing my last post, and......
A Chicken is not Pillage - Jan 13
Modern planners have recognized that there is a human need for green space, for places that maintain at least some of the natural characteristics. In putting in modern subdivisions, planners are now incorporated natural features as a kind of sanctuary for the human occupants. There are a couple of new subdivisions going up where I occasionally walk. The developers are retaining the creek that ru...
DailyKos (Montana) - Jan 9
The topic of Montana's election financing ruling yesterday has already been diaried - but I spent last night reading the decision and wanted to share some thoughts Cross-posted to my blog at dailyoligarch.com , Twitter: @dailyoligarch At stake, Montana's well-titled 'Corrupt Practices Act', enacted in 1912, which specifies: (1) A corporation may not make a contribution or an expendi...
DailyKos (Montana) - Jan 5 - 2 clicks
If a court makes a ruling in the backwoods and no one willing to talk, is it still a ruling? Talking heads on television network news have proven that coprorations who sign pay checks are also responsible for the Montana gag order. To find out what Network News will not tell you, read below the fold... ...
DailyKos (Montana) - Jan 4 - 2 clicks
Justices of the Montana Supreme Court The Montana Supreme Court, let's be clear, did not quite overturn Citizens United last week. Its 5-2 decision did uphold a ban in Montana state races on corporations funding independent expenditure ads, but the benefits of this decision will be extremely short-lived. First off, what happened here? The Montana law in question states that "a corpora...
DailyKos (Montana) - Jan 4 - 2 clicks
Given the reputation of the Rocky Mountain states for being pro-free market and pro-Republican-pretty-much-anything, I was pleasantly surprised to learn recently that Montana's Supreme Court had rejected Citizens United . Today, a Facebook friend who likes to examine multiple sides to any issue posted an interesting link to an article by one of the West's many radical libertarian groups. ...
DailyKos (Montana) - Jan 3
As I sit and write this diary in chilly, snowy northern Montana I wonder why its not chilly and snowy. Its January 3rd, 2012 and though it snowed briefly on the last day of 2011, the temperatures rose and the white melted away by noon. That's how quickly snow melts after a December snowstorm in Las Vegas! And its not just where I live, even in North Dakota 400 miles east is enjoyin...
DailyKos (Montana) - Jan 3
There is some big news on the Citizens United front this morning. The Montana Supreme Court has found that the State laws governing unlimited corporate donations to state candidates actually pass muster under that (horrible and flawed) decision. This is in response to a trio of plaintiffs who claimed that Montana’s ban on direct use of unlimited corporate funds was an unconstitutiona...
DailyKos (Montana) - Jan 3
Having been inspired by snowy bridge posted by blueyedace2, I climbed out of the kiva (technically a kiva is an underground ceremonial chamber, but since my library/office is in a windowless basement it is called a kiva), and upon entering into the outer world I perceived a strange object in the sky. Accessing my memory banks, I concluded that this must be the sun, and so I climbed into my anc...
DailyKos (Montana) - Jan 2
2011 probably wasn't the best year for most folks, though there was considerable improvement for many. Politically speaking, it's been one of the most polarizing years I can think of. Here's hoping for a better 2012. We can make that happen. Many individuals, smart and otherwise, have argued loud and long that America has a two-party problem. We have a center right party a...
Left in the West - Dec 31
There are still a few hours to go until we reach the 2012 horizon, so there is still plenty of time for some antics from the Montana Republicans running for Governor in the GOP Primary. They would have to register high on the wackjob scale, however, to top this. ...
DailyKos (Montana) - Dec 31 - 2 clicks
Vermont's minimum-wage workers get a 31-cent raise While the federal minimum wage remains at $7.25—$2.60 an hour less (after adjusting for inflation) than it was in 1968—some states have instituted a higher minimum, or even indexed the minimum wage to inflation. In eight of those states—Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Montana, Ohio, Oregon, Vermont and Washington—the minimum wage will go up a...
DailyKos (Montana) - Dec 27
This is my first diary entry here and it is about my brother's work. Thank you for taking the time to read this. My brother Ken Furrow is a wildlife biologist and documentary film maker based in Montana, our home state. He is working on a project I think is positive and important for the future of Montana. So many times I see problems around me but can't see any solution or even a path to a so...
DailyKos (Montana) - Dec 26
UPDATE 12/26/2011: This is from a statement from Stewart Rhodes of Oathkeepers regarding Republican Denny Rehberg as a target of recall, who also voted for NDAA. Here in Montana, while we will go after all three violators of the Bill of Rights, I will place special emphasis and "focus of effort" on Denny Rehberg, since he is so fond of wrapping himself in the flag and claim...
DailyKos (Montana) - Dec 25
I was inspired by blueyedace2’s photo diary cold day hiking and so I went for a short walk. The photos from this walk are below the squiggly thing. ...
DailyKos (Montana) - Dec 19
Frequent Daily Kos poster, Ojibwa, has put out a call to represent . If you've never been a Kossack, now's your chance to find out what it's all about. While you're there, be sure to check Ojibwa's photo diaries of Montana. They are somewhat breathtaking. ...
Left in the West - Dec 17
Having just returned from Washington DC and a meeting with Dennis Rehberg, the blogger and twitterer ILIKEWOODS reports this to a post from Don Pogreba : You all want to hear this! I went to DC last week and I and my 8 other friends found out that Rehberg doesn't plan on dumping that border bill! He told us in about a half an hour interview that he thinks we still need this bill! His reaso...
Left in the West - Dec 12 - 15 clicks
With Newt Gingrich, the not-Romney du jour in the Republican front ranks spouting off about English as an official language, it's time once again to have another look at this solution in search of a problem. I can haz xenophobia? As you might imagine, this is being fought on two fronts, state and federal, and the federal version, should ...
DailyKos (Montana) - Dec 11
"I once led in the polls by THIS much..." Here at Daily Kos Elections, we kick off our first full week of December with a new daily feature: all the numerical goodness in the race for the White House, all in one place. Sure, some of these numbers have already been committed to memory by the most addicted of our political junkies (and we say that with love and admiration), but for the re...
DailyKos (Montana) - Dec 5
The huge margin suggests Newt Gingrich is more than just a Not Romney (Chris Keane/Reuters) Public Policy Polling (PDF). 11/28-30. Florida Republicans. ±4.5%. ( 9/25 results ) Newt Gingrich: 47 (10) Mitt Romney: 17 (30) Herman Cain: 15 (7) Ron Paul: 5 (8) Michele Bachmann: 4 (6) Jon Huntsman: 3 (3) Rick Perry: 2 (24) Rick Santorum: 1 (2) Gary Johnson: 0...
DailyKos (Montana) - Nov 30
Long ago the railroad abandoned much of its service in Northwest Montana. For many decades the old rail bed lay abandoned, part of a derelict landscape from a distant past. In recent years, however, parts of the old rail bed have been restored as a walking/biking trail. Here are some photos from one section of this trail. ...
DailyKos (Montana) - Nov 28
Earlier today at Down With Tyranny, we ran a post about the Montana congressional race . Perhaps looking for an excuse to not spend her entire day doing call time, the progressive candidate in the race, Franke Wilmer, was moved to write a guest post for us. Not a response but... well, give it a read after the jump . And, if you'd like, give her campaign a contribution . ...
DailyKos (Montana) - Nov 26
