Archive for the ‘Political Blogs’ Category
by Pete Talbot
Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis
This is in response to the Polish Wolf’s post over at Intelligent Discontent. While some of his stats are interesting, his premise is flawed. Basically he says that the 99% are responsible for their economic plight by shopping at WalMart, buying imported clothing and purchasing gasoline. There’s a grain of truth to this, I suppose, but I’m thinking that the policies of the last few decades have more to do with wealth inequalities: economic policies that favor Wall Street over Main Street, Free Trade agreements that benefit corporations more than workers, and energy policies that promote carbon-based fuels over renewables and conservation.
Montana Supreme Court rules
Or maybe I should say the Montana Supreme Court rocks! I certainly have more respect for the majority of Montana Supremes than the majority of SCOTUS justices. In a 5-2 vote, the justices ruled against the kooky triumvirate of Western Tradition Partnership, Champion Painting Inc. and Gary Marbut’s Montana Shooting Sports Association Inc. Unlike the U.S. Supreme Court, Montana justices don’t believe corporations should be able to buy and sell elections.
Look up pompous ass in the dictionary
And you’ll see a picture of George Will. In his latest column, he promotes the Keystone XL pipeline, the Canadian tar sands and fracking in general. He pooh-poohs climate change, the EPA, the National Labor Relations Board and student loans. He believes “conservatives should stride confidently into 2012” … “because progressivism exists to justify a few people bossing around most people … ” He has that backwards, of course, but because he uses a lot of two-dollar words, people think he’s smart. He’s not.
And locally
Usually reliable reporter Gwen Florio reports on a woman who’s attempting to disqualify Justice of the Peace John Odlin. This stems from two misdemeanor charges against the woman for “community decay.” What the hell does that mean? Did she beat up on some curbs and gutters? Forget to paint her porch? Dump raw sewage into a neighborhood park? I’m dying to know. Anyway, the Montana Supremes call her case against Odlin “frivolous.”
by jhwygirl
Progressives delivered another take-down movement in Wisconsin yesterday with the first elections geared towards gaining a Democratic control of the Wisconsin legislature. The Democratic primary held yesterday saw 6 “fake” Democrats defeated in 6 senate primary recall elections.
An important factoid there is that Wisconsin has open primaries. Koch Industries funded Wisconsin Republicans didn’t even try to hide the fact they ran fake Democrats. The 6 REAL Democrats won – 5 of them quite decisively – which has to have 6 Republican state senators getting the boxes ready for moving day. Or should.
For every action there is an equal an opposite reaction. Those crazy tea party people! Look what doo-doo they got themselves into over there.
Thank Goddess for those crazy radical storm-the-capital union-loving progressives! It sure as hell wasn’t a bunch of milquetoast leftys out there camping in the capital, or marching the streets or gathering signatures up within weeks of their legislative session’s sine die to recall the Republicans and regain control of their state.
Congratulations Wisconsin. Congratulations.
Democrats? Progressives? – pay attention, take notes and learn something. Raising Hell (and Hope) is how it’s done.
by Pete Talbot
At first glance, maybe this was something I should have attended. The Helena Independent Record headline read: Insight offered to bloggers. Gosh, I thought, I wonder why I didn’t hear about this earlier.
Then some of the names in the story caught my eye: Aaron Flint of the Flint Report, Carl Graham of the Montana Policy Institute, Montana Watchdog, the Franklin Center — all pretty much mouthpieces for right wing and Libertarian causes.
Flint, for example, has a radio show on the Northern Ag Network, a conservative station out of Billings. He has the Flint Report website, too, that carries headlines like: Tester Profits Off Credit Card Companies and Bullock Gets Testy Over Otter Creek.
The Montana Policy Institute out of Bozeman is a Libertarian think tank that refuses to reveal it’s funding sources. Perhaps you’ve seen MPI President Carl Graham’s guest columns in your local paper on the wonders of a free market economy. MPI just finished hosting a “Health Care Freedom Panel” with keynote speaker and MPI Senior Fellow Rob Natelson.
There’s Montana Watchdog, another website, that is sponsored by the Montana Policy Institute and presents itself as a news organization with Front Page links to, well, Natelson’s “Health Care Freedom Panel.”
The Franklin Center, based in North Dakota and Virginia (now there’s a strange pairing) bills itself as an organization dedicated to investigative reporting. The group’s founder and president, Jason Stverak, is the former executive director of the North Dakota Republican Party.
Here’s a line from the end of the IR story:
Also among them was Big Sky Tea Party Association board member Roger Nummerdor, who thinks it might be time to start doing some blogging.
This all happened last Saturday at the Red Lion Colonial Inn in Helena.
And these guys are joined at the hip. I don’t begrudge some dudes holding a workshop, spreading the righteous word, maybe having a few beers, chewing the fat. It’s just that they’re so sneaky about it. You seldom see them flaunting their right-wing credentials.
Heck, they even fooled the IR reporter, who didn’t mention a thing in her story about these guys’ background. I’m hoping she was fooled, anyway, because if she knew and didn’t mention it, that’s piss-poor reporting.
By CFS
In all this ongoing back and forth between the liberal/progressive/Democrat blogs of Montana (the Great Flame War of 2011) one point that is yet to be made is the differing approach that the two parties seem to deal with internal dissent. One party gives the impression of eagerly embracing the mutiny… while the other is trying to quickly stomp out the fire before it can spread.
What started as a grassroots movement from outside the ramparts of a party historically known for it’s discipline in pulling it’s member into line on issues; the Tea People’s anger, enthusiasm, and naivety was quickly capitalized upon by the Republican establishment and old guard power base. Organizations that, at first ad-hoc groups meeting at coffee shops bitching about how the Republicans had betrayed their ideals, were quickly provided with organizational support, funds, and training from long-time Republican political operatives. Nation-wide organizations were built by the likes of Dick Army and elected Republicans such as Michele Bachmann embraced the mass of angry white people produced by a steady diet of Fox News.
Now that the Tea People are well ensconced in the warm and loving embrace of the GOP guess what happens whenever the Tea People get all uppity? Thats right… Boehner quickly folds and make overtures to please his new far right base.
Contrast this with the current approach that the mainline Democrats seem to want to take when dealing the more progressive/liberal/whatever side of the party…
This attitude comes straight from the top as Obama and his press secretary have said more than once that they are tired of the criticism coming from the left. Other Democrats have used this type of language, calling liberals “extremists.”
The same attitude has been on display recently on various Montana progressive blogs. Pogie actually did a great job of getting to the issue and fostering a discussion around the role of dissension within a political party in shaping policy and strategy. Others however have been eager to follow the STFU guidelines. From LITW:
Here’s the dealio. Democrats still have value. I like Jon Tester, even more for taking action on wolf control dictated by the judiciary. Don’t like that? Tough shit. Leave. I like Barrack Obama. I think he called out the Republicans and has played them very well. Don’t like that? Tough shit. Leave. Seriously. You don’t like Democrats? Leave, assholes.
The problem with the STFU/your-either-with-us-or-against-us type attitude is that people really do leave. People will choose to vote for third party candidate like Nader when they get frustrated enough which then gives us 8 years of THE ADVENTURES OF BUSHIT AND TURD BLOSSOM .
If a party doesn’t listen to internal dissent and respond to the criticism by addressing people’s grievances then people leave. The Republicants were electorally successful in the last cycle specifically because they embraced the crazy hidden within themselves and physically manifested as the Tea People.
Do we really want to put this at the entrance to the Democratic party?
By CFS
Its been official knowledge for some time that Michelle Obama hates America, but now she is taking matters into her own hands and is singlehandedly killing Americans… pedestrians that is.
The big news today flying around cantservative “news” sites and blogs is that Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move campaign – a campaign aimed at fighting childhood obesity through encouraging healthier eating habits and a more active lifestyle – has been linked to an uptick in pedestrian deaths in the first half of 2010. How has this not been called by its proper name yet… an act of terrorism?
The original story appeared in the Washington Examiner this morning in their local section and comes from a recently published report by the Governors Highway Safety Association on PRELIMINARY safety statistics for 2010. The GHSA representative originally quoted in the Examiner story linking the uptick with Let’s Move has already denied saying any such thing.
The fact that this is getting so much traction is mostly because of the absurdity of the claim and the fact that it makes for a great rabble-rousing headline. This doesn’t bother me so much as the fact that a “respected” media outlet doesn’t know how to handle statistics and accurately represent them to the public. As someone who spends most of his workday compiling large amounts of information into databases for the purpose of statistical analysis and mapping the idiocy of the statistical reporting boggled my mind.
The Examiner’s first offence is that data covering six months does not constitute a trend. Four years of data, yes… two years of data, maybe… six months, absolutely not. Additionally, this is a preliminary report which means the numbers are likely to change and they don’t even have a margin of error published yet.
Their second offence was cherry-picking the statistics they reported. The story only talks about the increases in pedestrian deaths and misses a lot of the other information the GHSA report published. Yes deaths were up significantly in the DC area, but on a national level the increase was only seven fatalities, or .4%, a statistically insignificant number when dealing with close to 2000 total fatalities in that six month period. They also failed to mention that 28 states saw pedestrian fatalities decrease while only 18 states saw an increase.
Thirdly, the reporter at the examiner apparently can’t read either, given the fact that the GHSA report’s first sentence states, “The number of pedestrian traffic fatalities in the United States for the first six months of 2010 were essentially unchanged.”
And finally, they missed a bigger story embedded in the report. Just four states make up 41% of all pedestrian deaths – California, Florida, New York, and Texas. Those four states also happen to be the four states with the highest vehicle miles traveled per year, a total coincidence I’m sure.
These are the kinds of quality stories that are produced when the media, politicians, and the public play at gotcha journalism. The Examiner doesn’t care that there is not one bit of useful information in the story, or that there are three or four pieces of misleading information, the only thing they obviously care about is driving traffic to their site and stealing five seconds from our precious attention starved web surfing brains.
Now… back to something useful found on the internet… slip nips over at Huffington Post.
by jhwygirl
Well, if you read Jay’s FUBAR post, you know I didn’t get my Monday credentials to get onto the floor with Montana’s fine delegates. I walked more than 35 city blocks yesterday in search of the darned thing – and now know that at one point I was in the right place but apparently the people I talked to weren’t aware they were there. The free pedestrian shuttle would have saved all kinds of urban hiking (which can get pretty miserable when it’s 85 degrees or more out, and you are carrying around 15 pounds of electronics), but that wasn’t functioning very well either because protesters are everywhere – including McCain DRILL NOW folks.
Lovely, huh?
But I’m well rested and back at it – today is Jay’s day for the floor credentials (good luck, Jay!), so I plan on trying to head to a Media Matters event (I hear they are here in our hotel), and then the Council for a Livable World and Veteran’s PAC event at Coors Field.
Just came from breakfast with Montana’s delegation, and they’re getting comfortable. I saw some regular old t-shirts and tevas – frankly, it’s just too darn hot and muggy for anything else.
Our wonderful Senator Max Baucus was the main speaker this morning, and he spoke quite passionately about the importance of the upcoming election. I have to say I honestly really like Max – he’s really very down to earth – he’s quick to pass credit to anyone he possibly can, including Dennis McDonald, our Montana Democratic Party Chair, this morning – and he seems genuinely taken aback at everyone’s admiration for him. Not everyone likes to share the spotlight – Max never has it any other way. Really.
In speaking about the upcoming election, Max laid out the work that needs to be done: “…in 70 days and 12 hours, the polls will be closed. We have an obligation for our kids and our grand kids – the promise of change, or hope, of the future.” He went on reiterating this very important mission several times. It is clear that Max sees the work that needs to be done in very far, generational terms, and he said in a very obviously heartfelt way: “Remember that it is our responsibility to do everything we possibly can to prevails. I do believe that we have a moral responsibility to leave this world a better place.”
When I watched him say those words, I know he means it and that he believes it. It clearly is his mission.
There are important issues at stake in November, and he reminded us of them – Healthcare, Tax Policy, Foreign Policy. He pointed out – angrily is how I would describe it – that “McCain wants to lower taxes of the very rich. Lower them!”
He may be the longest sitting US Senator from Montana, and he may spend a hell of a lot of time in Washington, but he comes off as my neighbor.
Max spoke of the importance of other races and how a 60-seat majority in the Senate is what really needs to happen. How hard it is to eek out those extra 9 votes to get a filibuster proof bill passed – and even here he was quick to throw credit to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her work in the House.
He ran down a list of seats where he felt that Democrats have a good chance to make a difference – Mark Warner in Virginia and Jeanne Shaheen New Hampshire (he said he was sure that Sununu was out – and Jeanne looks to be 10 points ahead there!); Tom Udall of New Mexico; Mark Udall of Colorado (now up by 4 or 5 points); and Jeff Merkley of Oregon (fighting a tough race against lots of $).
He mentioned some others that he thought were possible: Al Franken in Minnesota and state Senator Kay Hagen in North Carolina (Hagen in a dead heat with Elizabeth Dole – tell me that aint’ bad news for old Libby!); and Bruce Lunsford, facing a pretty uphill battle in Kentucky against Mitch McConnell.
“We’ll pick up seats,” he said. “4 will be OK – 6 would be a great night, and 8 would be fabulous.” The room roared with that statement.
I’m getting long winded here, so I will save Max’s Ted Kennedy story for another post.
But let me add just 2 more items….Max closed out by pouring more credit out there on Raph Graybill, Montana’s youngest delegate (19). Raph is blogging the election for the Great Falls Tribune, BTW….and then Max went on to shower more credit and sunshine on Stephanie Sherrick, a Butte native who is running Al Franken’s campaign (and who had worked her magic on our own Jon Tester’s amazing win in 2006).
Finally – this: Congressman Pat Williams spoke this morning too, commenting on the historic events before us. He lead off with his first experiences with the national convention in Chicago 1968. It seemed maybe Dennis McDonald had been there with him (?) too – and for those of you who don’t know (or don’t remember), Chicago was a hell of a time with Mayor Richard Daley and the anti-war protests.
“These protesters don’t know how to protest,” he said (only jokingly). “I saw a whole bunch of them last night – lined up in a single line, wearing dark black hoods, looking very serious – holding things in their hands – and I saw them walk out of the convention area, walk down the street, and come to a red light. They stopped.”
The room laughed.
“That wasn’t Chicago!”
Later, in all seriousness, Carol Williams and Sara Pyfer closed out this morning’s meeting reminding folks to be careful out there – police had to use pepper spray last night – that things were only going to get more active, and how the situation was very fluid….and that the police have a job to do out there and that we should all be aware that they need to be able to do it.
Off to downtown…..Cheers.
by jhwygirl
A pleasantly surprising thing to wake up to on a Sunday morning, the Washington Post’s politics blog, The Fix, has listed 4&20 blackbirds as one of Montana’s entries into the Best of the State Politics Blog.
Chris Clizza has been writing The Fix since October 2005. Before that, he was with Roll Call, D.C.’s publication covering Capitol Hill.
What I’m wondering now is whether Left in the West is too far up in the stratosphere to be seen? Certainly Montana’s blogfather belongs on that list too!
~~~
It’s a honor Chris – and we b’birders will continue to work hard churning out the writing that has earned placement on the Washington Post’s Best of State Politics blogroll.
Wow.
by jhwygirl
More specifically: How to deal with anonymous posts that personally attack or allude to an individual with unsubstantiated accusations.
Check the comments on this post, for your lesson in Credible Blogging 101.
Now, I could have let what was said there fly – hell, it’s no secret that I’m no fan of Lawbreaking Liar Lewie Schneller (candidate for Ward 6) – but leaving that comment there would not have been the right thing to do.
It would have been wrong for a number of reasons – including the fact that a false allegation, like the one said there – but it really could have been anything – is not something that can be disputed easily. Lewie would have been hard-pressed to prove it didn’t happen.
Plainly, it wouldn’t have been fair.
People come to read 4&20 blackbirds, I’d like to think, because what I write makes every attempt – when stating something as fact – to be accurate. While I’m certainly writing opinion here (surely, no secret, right?), I am writing opinion based on the reality of an event.
I want to get it right, in part, because I’d be really really embarrassed if I printed something completely inaccurate. But mainly I want to get it right because I want to be honest.
That’s my own personal criteria, at least.
by jhwygirl
Which is why I have been so absolutely perplexed about the bullcrap recently blogged over at Carol Minjares’ website, attacking Forward Montana.
At first I went looking for the “Humor” tag, given her propensity towards bad jokes.
But alas, it was missing.
She frames the Roosevelt Institute as a “Soros-funded conglomeration of think tanks.”
The Roosevelt Institution has an annual budget of around $150,000. Can’t much fund a conglomeration of think tanks with that kind of budget, now can we? (But honestly, if you want to see who’s funded well, check out that link.)
She disses on his 2 year communications director gig at Progressive States Network because they were funded with $30,000 ($30,000! The horror!!) grant from the Proteus Fund, which is separated by how many degrees? Three? Six? Fifty? to George Soros?
Lord!
Then she goes on to connect the $250,000 grant that Forward Montana got to “Jon and Peter Lewis of Skyline Public Works.”
Skyline Public Works is the baby of Deborah and Andy Rappaport – and hell, Google is your friend on that one too..
From there she takes that lie and ties the Lewis’ false connection to Soros – which she admits didn’t work out too well – and connects Matt to Soros.
But wait! It gets better! She then takes an anonymous post to that first lie-filled post and creates another post about how Matt supposedly had a conversation with a group of strangers, in a public place, bragging about his connections to Soros!
Look – I’ve been around ‘think tank’ people on both sides of the aisle – if you want to believe me – and I sure don’t go throwing around the names of who I’ve hung out with and how much money they spent on whatever they’re spending they’re money on. You just don’t get to be around people like that if you’re going to do stuff like that. Period. You wouldn’t last 3 minutes – they’d nullify you in a heartbeat.
Even The Montana Misanthrope, I’m sure, would back me up on that one.
But it shows the gumption of wanna-be’s who will print anything to drive up traffic on their site.
Now aside from Forward Montana’s mission statement that basically reads:
Forward Montana is:
Cultural Politics – combining music, art and political activism
Mobilizing for Change – using media, email, and the masses to make our voices heard
A New Generation of Leaders – recruiting and training young Montanans to lead in the 21st century.
What does all this stuff mean? In short – a new model for political participation that recognizes that we can make serious change and have a little fun at the same time.
And aside that, as I’ve noted above, just about everything she tried to smear Forward Montana, and in turn, my friend Matt Singer with was lies and bullcrap….
I don’t give one rat’s ass over where in the hell that organization is getting it’s cash.
I know some of it is from me. And I will be calling them tomorrow to up that meager donation I make to them a meager amount more. Yep. That’s right. THIS WHOLE DIRTY AFFAIR IS MAKING ME WANT TO GIVE THEM MORE MONEY!
~~~~~~~~
But back to the topic at hand:
I know lawyers are supposed to twist the facts to make the best case they can for their clients…but are they really supposed to lie?
{Now I really feel dirty. I’ve said what I’ve had to say – so don’t expect me to say anything more. Ugh.}
by jhwygirl
Not only do they continue to try and paint Lewie Schneller a Democrat, but apparently they’re touting a fake Bin Laden Democratic Presidential campaign.
Lovely.
And we’re supposed to take them seriously? A reasonable voice for conservative politics?
They’re making it a bit difficult, I say.
If you want to go straight to the good stuff from the right, may I recommend for your reading pleasure the following:
– all blogs that I enjoy, and where I can count on reading a thoughtfully presented conservative viewpoint.
Recent Comments
Miles on A New Shelter for Vets or an E… success rate for In… on Thirty years ago ARCO killed A… Warrior for the Lord on The Dark Side of Colorado Linda Kelley-Miller on The Dark Side of Colorado Dan on A New Shelter for Vets or an E… Former Prosecutor Se… on Former Chief Deputy County Att… JediPeaceFrog on Montana AG Tim Fox and US Rep.…
Born to Lose
May 1, 2010 in Editorial Commentary, Humor, Political Blogs
By JC
Welcome to Mark Fiore, 2010’s Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist. Mark’s Pulitzer is the first given out to an artist whose works do not appear in print. Here’s the blurb that accompanied his prize:
“Awarded to Mark Fiore, self syndicated, for his animated cartoons appearing on SFGate.com, the San Francisco Chronicle Web site, where his biting wit, extensive research and ability to distill complex issues set a high standard for an emerging form of commentary.”
Mark’s animations remind me of style combining Bullwinkle with South Park. Many of you are probably too young to know much of Rocky and Bullwinkle (a decidedly leftist plot to infiltrate the minds of young Americans), but they were a saturday morning watching-the-cartoons-on-tv staple in the early-mid 60’s. And of course, the reruns during my early college days were a must for after work/study munchies. Here’s a bunch of Rocky & Bullwinkle episodes.
I’ll do my best to bring an occasional treat from Mark for you guys to watch, and I’ll add a link to his site in the Political Blogs column of links to the right, so you can check out his weekly posts. Enjoy, and consider this an open thread!