Archive for July, 2006
What about that trade between the Phillies and Yankees? Bobby Abreu and Cory Lidle for four minor leaguers. Maybe it’s just sour grapes pushing my pen here — I’m a Red Sox fan and my team nurses a half-game lead over the Yanks — but this trade was obscene. Abreu and Lidle for four minor [...]
Just the other day during my rant against the local dailies for not adequately covering the story behind the funding for the terrible trio of initiatives, I mentioned that newspapers are strangely resistant to new technologies that could bring in extra revenue. As if on cue, the New York Times reported on the Washington Post’s [...]
I’m away on vacation when Burns gets primal on some firefighters? Just my luck. I missed the furor, Burns’ “apology“, hot shot reactions, etc & co. It’s not every day that a partisan hack like myself is handed such a gem from a prominent politician. And me away on vacation!Nonetheless, the wheels of 4&20 blackbirds [...]
PSA: I’ll be out of town Friday through Monday, so 4&20 blackbirds will be idle. But set your calendars! I’ll be back… Shane Mason offers computer support, web design for any Montana Democrat or Independent candidate. Gratis! The Rolling Stones are really coming to town! Pogie weighs in on the Washington court decision to uphold [...]
The latest to connect the dots between Montana’s extremist ballot initatives – 98, 154, and – and real estate mogul Howie Ric is the Independent’s Alyssa Work: “Following the Money.” The story features a closer look at Jon Motl, the Helena lawyer challenging for a right to peek into Travis Butcher’s Montanans in Action (a [...]
Love the Internet. The other day when I posted about John Yoo, the administration’s legal hack who justified its most heinous acts, not only did I get some helpful copy editing (I had written John “Woo” instead of “Yoo”), but I got a fantastic link to a November 2005 article by David Cole that…well…destroys all [...]
On Wednesday, Washington’s highest court upheld a ban on gay marriage. This decision follows a couple of other like decisions that one editorial called the “Gettysburg” for the gay-rights movement. (You know how I feel about this issue already. Whatever two consenting adults want to do with each other is their own business. That includes [...]
These are the kind of people who collect signatures for the extremist initiatives. Shane M meets Tester and likes what he sees. F-Words on Washington’s recent decision upholding the ban on gay marriage. It’s not just health care that’s squeezing the middle class, it’s debt, too. Funny that Congress made bankruptcy rules stricter and eased [...]
It’s time for another baseball post! Pronk vs Papi update You may remember that, waaay back at the beginning of the year, some sports pundit had the audacity to say that Cleveland’s Travis Hafner may be a better hitter than Boston’s David Ortiz. So I compared the two…and well…maybe the dude was right. How are [...]
Some folks defend Bush’s recent legal power grabs – the signing statements, the use of “enemy combatant” status, illegal wiretapping, and so forth – by saying there’s some legal arguments that support his moves. Um, yes. There are probably legal arguments for every hare-brained scheme imaginable. Kind of like claiming the Constitution’s Fifth Amendment (“Nor [...]
Local bloggers post about the “terrible trio” of extremist initiatives. Matt Singer writes about Montanans in Action’s attempt to mislead voters; Shane Mason presents a “fact sheet” on the “Stop Overspending” bill, CI-97; and our local Liberal Whacko chimes in on all three initiatives. Why is Conrad Burns ashamed of our troop presence in Iraq? [...]
I don’t post too much about the Connecticut Senate primary pitting Joe Lieberman against his upstart challenger Ned Lamont: I try to keep things local with an occasional post on some federal issue. (Plus I save the other stuff for the American Prospect.) But today I feel compelled to write on some remarks Bill Clinton [...]
The Bush administration combats socialism by allowing rich people to cheat on their taxes. Remember the open mic at the G-8 summit? A British TV station claims Russia’s Putin was responsible. The American Bar Association criticizes the President’s signing statements: they “undermine separation of powers.” Those d*mn liberal extremists! A White House press release endorses [...]
High Country News has got the dirt on Montana’s initiative 1542 – which you’ll remember I called “anti-democratic.” Like blogger Hart Williams, HCN’s Ray Ring traced back the money backing the initiative through Americans for Limited Government to a single source: Howie Rich. Americans for Limited Government has provided loans and expertise to the Montana [...]
Today’s editorial in the Missoulian is amusing. It’s on teacher pay. Apparently the paper doesn’t like the way teachers are rewarded with pay raises based on experience and education. I admit, teacher pay scale isn’t the best I’ve ever heard of. Then again, every system I’ve ever seen is patently unfair or causes problems. The [...]
The Independent staff has written a fantastic eulogy on Patricia Goedicke. Ed Kemmick writes a funny and thought-provoking eulogy of Montana historian, Dave Walter. State Republican, John Sinrud, gets tangled up with Wulfgar! Let’s keep his poor wife happy and keep Sinrud home this next legislative session. Support Jackson Cyr for HD 67. The NRA [...]
Recently the Missoula Independent published a full-length feature on a local hooker (“Using Her Religion,” on June 22, by Jason Wiener). I read it at the time, but didn’t comment on it or think about it much, mainly because it’s not where my focus lies right now. But what I have noticed is that the [...]
In a conversation over at WRIM (get yer own link) over repealing the 17th Amendment – a debate I don’t want to get into here, but suffice to say I’m against it for many of the same reasons I support the end to our Electoral College – commenter DC Kidd dropped this little bomb: So [...]
Pogie notices that RedState rightwing bloggers think Burns’ source of funding is shameful. Speaking of using the dead for political purposes, it turns out Mke DeWine’s ad featuring the 9/11 dead was doctored. Lamont leads Lieberman in the latest poll. Meanwhile, Lieberman thinks he’s running against the blogs and has forgotten Ned Lamont. Meanwhile the [...]
We bloggers tend to rush to judgment, cry “foul” whenever we see a perceived slight or possible malicious tinkering with information found in traditional media outlets – newspapers, television, radio. Sometimes we’re right. Sometimes we’re wrong. The other day I blogged about the disparity in coverage of possible inmate abuse at the Missoula County detention [...]
Glenn Greenwald urges the media to hold right-wing bloggers accountable for their hate-filled and violent rhetoric. A must read. Jonathon Motl turns over Montanans in Action – the supporter of the state’s terrible trio of initiatives – and finds a nest of creepy crawlies. Ed Kemmick adds the context for a letter in the Gazette [...]
I miss Jose Canseco, don’t you? There was Madonna, the ball bouncing off his head into the stands for a homer (for which he received an offer from a soccer team), and that time he pitched against the Red Sox and ended up tearing a tendon in his elbow. Oh, and there were domestic violence [...]
A study in leadership: Schweitzer v. Bush Two leaders. One a governor, one a president. It’s the season for potential natural disaster: in Montana, it’s fire season; on the Gulf Coast, it’s hurricane season. Montana’s Governor Brian Schweitzer: Gov. Brian Schweitzer said Tuesday that dry weather and lightning will continue to present fire danger [...]
Whoa! There seems to be an overwhelming number of letters lately supporting Tester in the local papers! Some highlights: Barbara Parker of Missoula on wayward “son,” Conrad Burns: …It is so apparent how much [Burns] has lost his way. He brags about all the pork he has brought home, defended “earmarks” as a great thing, [...]
The Helena IR praises Burns for something he didn’t do. Don’t look at me: I’m just a partisan blogger. Gee, the President wouldn’t use a war as cover for a veto of popular legislation, would he? Crooks and Liars has an excellent summary of links surrounding the politics of stem cell research. The House rejects [...]
Yesterday, the Gazette ran the dueling guest editorials of Conrad Burns and Jon Tester. I admit that these editorials weren’t as exciting as those from the House race, but in that case Rehberg really laid it on thick. That, and we’ve heard most of the Senate race positions made during the debate. Still…as always…my thoughts: [...]
Shortly before the Fourth of July, a woman inmate at the Missoula County jail was subdued with seven pepperball bullets and then tied to a chair for over forty minutes before being decontaminated. The material in the bullets is a weaker form of the pepper spray used to ward off grizzly bears – symptoms from [...]
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