You Can Text While Driving in Montana, But Don’t Be Gay While Doing It

March 19, 2011 in 2011 Legislative session, Bozeman, Carol Williams, Christine Kaufmann, civil rights, Equality, Gay and lesbian issues, Missoula, Montana, Montana Democrats, Montana Power, Montana Republicans

by jhwygirl

Aside from my own personal feelings on texting-while-driving regulations (texting only being pretty much unenforceable) the Montana GOP sent quite a message in the legislature on Friday, such that Senate Minority Leader Carol Williams at the end of the day called it “Black Friday” and “the absolute worst day of the legislative session.”

HB516 moves forward out of Senate Judiciary to a floor vote probably Monday. Amendments were made on Friday that aim it at ordinances only, leaving intact Bozeman’s equality resolution. (Search HB516 here for more background.)

The conservative attack on the budget was in full mode in Senate Finance Friday morning, and among the leaders speaking out against unnecessary cuts and a lack of priorities were the governor’s budget director David Ewer and Health & Human Services Director Anna Whiting-Sorrel. The message was loud and clear from Schweitzer’s office – and even Bloomberg Businessweek picked up the story.

There was more, and to be honest, I am ill-informed on the entirety of it all. As for the topic at hand, though…..

HB241, a bill that would make texting-while-driving illegal, with a $100 fine was postponed indefinitely on the floor of the Senate after passing Senate Judiciary on an 8-4 vote. The bill was proposed by Sen. Christine Kaufmann.

Match that up with the House Judiciary tabling Senator Tom Facey’s bill which would have taken Montana’s laws which make intercourse between two consenting people of the same sex illegal.

SB276 cleared the Republican-controlled Senate with a 49-1 vote.

That law is, btw, unconstitutional under the Montana Constitution….and it is also proudly part of the Montana Republican Party platform.

The Montana GOP is an embarrassment.

I wonder if the House Republicans have the guts to allow it to a floor blast vote.

If they don’t allow a floor blast vote, they’re cowards.

What, This Nobel Peace Prize?

March 19, 2011 in Montana

by lizard

So, I guess we’re at war. Again.

Western planes led strikes against Muammar Gaddafi’s military as world leaders ordered the biggest intervention in the Arab world since allied forces invaded Iraq in 2003. The patience of the international community finally ran out as Gaddafi’s troops pounded the rebel stronghold of Benghazi hours after the Libyan dictator had promised a full ceasefire and invited foreign officials into his country to monitor it.

And, once again, I feel compelled to state unequivocally that I believe the President is a duplicitous liar who makes me nauseous every time he opens his paid-for mouth.

This has nothing to do with a national concern for the people of Libya, and everything to do with geopolitical positioning. If Obama gave a shit about the suffering of people (which he most emphatically does not) he wouldn’t turn a blind eye to the INVASION of Bahrain by Saudi Arabia.

Only a few hours after the US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates concluded his unannounced visit to Bahrain to meet the members of the country’s royal family, the military troops of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were dispatched to Manama to help the monarchy in its uncompromising clampdown on the revolutionary protesters who have been on the streets of the capital for weeks, demanding the dissolution of the tyrannical, US-backed government of King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa and the implementation of political, social reforms in the small Persian Gulf nation.

Undeniably, the invasion of Bahrain by the Saudi and Emirati forces, which are by chance two of the closest allies of Washington in the Persian Gulf, couldn’t have happened spontaneously or without the green light of the White House. Interestingly, the members of Arab League, the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council, the United Nations Security Council and the European allies of the United States collectively turned a blind eye to the invasion of Bahrain as a sovereign state and kept a low profile in order to let the agenda proceed as it was planned by the White House: to invade Bahrain, suppress the protesters by resorting to military force, quelling the demonstrations, quieting the political dissidents and returning the country to the flimsy tranquility it had before.

This makes me sick. I need a new word, because hypocrisy just doesn’t cut it, and a string of expletives doesn’t really accomplish anything.

I will say this, though: Mr. President, if you had any shred of dignity you would return that peace prize, because you are a fucking disgrace to the people who actually work for peace every day.