Thursday, December 20, 2012

Water boarding A parental right ?

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — A Jefferson County man was charged Thursday after authorities accused him of waterboarding at least two boys and injuring a woman who tried to stop him.
William Albert Province, 42, also is suspected of making threats to a school, to Child Protective Services officials and to foster parents caring for his children.
Authorities have not identified his alleged victims.
Province made an initial appearance in Justice Court on Thursday morning on charges of partner or family member assault, and felony intimidation, along with three felony counts and one misdemeanor count of assault on a minor.

Sunday, December 16, 2012

Whats under your Tree this Christmas



Show us Your Guns

 Just Google Kids and Guns and you will see dozens of pictures like these two . How do we change this kind of mentality in our culture ? If we don't limit gun power and/or  ownership. We need to expand police protection and mental health for our troubled kids

Monday, December 10, 2012

Bozeman the Glitter and the Grime


 Well the Metroplex seems to be falling into the Season. Christmas lights and one day sales. Yet perhaps because of the marginal snow, there is also an Aura of gloom ( Or perhaps despair ?) .  Visiting the library today I found a homeless man taking a nap in the magazine section. Guess we should be happy with what we have.
Hopefully if we survive the Fiscal Cliff and the Mayan Apocalypse. 2013 will bring us better things.  What are you going to change, or become or give up for the New Year ?

Saturday, December 8, 2012

The Killing fields



Very soon now the  annual Shooting of Yellowstone Bison will begin again


 
Bison bison bison bison
All I can think about are bison.
There are wild bison being killed
as they try to leave the Park
and move into their homeland.
There are also trees being cut,
mountains mined,
rivers dammed, seas polluted,
houses bulldozed and burned down,
wars brewing,
lands laid waste;
But all I think about are bison.
I have watched them die.
They crowd out other thoughts
sweeping in hordes
darkening the horizons of my plain mind,
trampling me.
I am grazed now, bison, I am trampled.
Go now, to other horizons
and I will recover for you.
I release you
from the park of my psyche. Go now
spread into your domain.
Pour across the minds of all people
Fill their thoughts with your thundering image
Roam through conversations
until the society of people shakes
with your hoofbeats,
and helplessly, joyously, welcomes you
back again.
O Bison,

Return.


Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Bozeman Guilty Pleasures

  Seems to be a lot of guilt floating around the valley these days . Maybe its the commercial holiday season or just post election funk. But nobody seems particularly happy. Get over it, don't feel like you have to do anything for anybody ( like Congress ). Do something for yourself. Instead of buying something on amazon that you have no idea if the person you are sending it to will like. Write them a real letter and put it in a card. The US postal service could use the money.


Here is a funny picture I should be feeling guilty about. If I had not found it on George ( mr Sulu )  Takei 's   G+ page I would

come on that's funny

Saturday, November 24, 2012

global warming


The Sea it rises
taking back the Earth,
The melting Ice
and the disapearing shore

Friday, November 23, 2012

Surviving Thanksgiving

 Always amazed at the stress and pressure that our families and society create around these holidays. There is a great demand to preform before our family and friends. So much so that we forget what the holiday is for. It is even worse if we give in to the marketing and selling of this holiday and the commercialization of the rest of the year.  Having had to work Black Friday from 4 a.m. and seeing the pain and anger associated  with shoppers at that weird hour I feel there needs to be a change.



Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

You can't Fix Stupid




Residents petition for states to secede from union

They don't want to take their country back. They just want to leave it behind.
As the dust settles in the wake of President Obama's decisive reelection last Tuesday, the White House petition website has been flooded by a series of secession requests, with malcontents from New Jersey to North Dakota submitting petitions to allow their states to withdraw from the union.
Most of the petitions submitted thus far have come from solidly conservative states, including most of the Deep South and reliably separatist Texas. But a handful come from the heart of blue America - relatively progressive enclaves like Oregon and New York.
All told, petitions have been filed on behalf of 20 states: Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas.
Many of the petitions invoke the Declaration of Independence's dramatic assertion that "Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and institute new Government."
The petitions have been submitted through the White House's "We the People" website, which aims to give "all Americans a way to engage their government on the issues that matter to them." The White House promises that "If a petition meets the signature threshold, it will be reviewed by the Administration and we will issue a response." The threshold is 25,000 signatures in 30 days and, at the time of this article's publication, none of the secession petitions have reached the threshold (the Texas petition has received over 22,000 and needs to hit 25,000 by Dec. 9; Louisiana, with just under 15,000 signatures, needs to hit the threshold by Dec. 7.)
For some of the states represented, the secession requests are nothing novel: South Carolina, the state whose 1860 secession sparked the civil war, is hardly an unlikely locus of conservative angst in response to Mr. Obama's victory.
And in Texas, which still conceives of itself as a "republic," not a mere "state," politicians seem to make an almost annual show of flirting with secession, periodically dropping dark hints that Washington's chicanery may force the Lone Star state to flee the Union.
After repeatedly nodding at the possibility of secession in the last few years, Gov. Rick Perry, R-Tex., has more recently kept mum on the subject. But some local GOP officials in Texas have been happy to fill the void: Tom Head, a county judge from Lubbock predicted in August that Obama's reelection could lead to a second civil war. And the treasurer of the Hardin County Republican Party, Peter Morrison, asked in a post-election newsletter, "Why should Vermont and Texas live under the same government?" Morrison's newsletter requested an "amicable divorce" from the "maggots" who reelected President Obama, many of them voting on an "ethnic basis."
The Texas petition assails the federal government's "neglect to reform domestic and foreign spending," arguing that "it is practically feasible for Texas to withdraw from the union, and to do so would protect it's citizens' standard of living and re-secure their rights and liberties in accordance with the original ideas and beliefs of our founding fathers which are no longer being reflected by the federal government."
But some political officials in the states involved are not so eager to hop onboard the secession bandwagon, post-election angst or not. Morrison's boss, Hardin County GOP Chairman Kent Batman, explained, "People around here are asking why Texas is so different from the rest of the country, why we see things so differently...but I don't think a lot of people here are saying we ought to leave the Union."
Asked about Morrison's newsletter comments, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports that Batman sighed and replied, "Wow...OK, well, I guess I need to start taking a look at his newsletters."

Monday, November 12, 2012

Lets Return the favor robo Call Washington


  For the last 14 months we got buried in bulk mail, robot calls and sound blasts on radio and TV from our political Representatives . I think its time to return the favor. I urge you to e-mail your Congress person and tell them to get off their lazy butts and get a deal done. Do y7ou know that Congress only has 14 working days till the end of the year ?




If the present Congress errs in too much talking, how can it be otherwise in a body to which the people send one hundred and fifty lawyers, whose trade it is to question everything, yield nothing, and talk by the hour?
                                                 Thomas Jefferson



This country has come to feel the same when Congress is in session as when the baby gets hold of a hammer.
Will Rogers

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

The Right wing did not see it coming


It was sad watching the shock and dispair on Fox News last night. They were blind sided by actual results. After months of believing their Fox news polls showing a Romney victory. ( who takes Fox News polls but white male, Christian conservatives ?)

The Republican party has spent the last 4 yrs telling the rest of the country, they are stupid , lazy and unamerican, Maybe its true but that's not something you say if you want to win votes. On top of that they alienated moderate women by making it a crime for women to decide what goes into or comes out of their own Womb.



The Republican party needs to become mor inclusive and stop letting policy be set by the likes of Limbaugh, Rove ,Norquist and Fox News.


Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Election Day



Finally the 2012 Political Ads will end.
tomorrow the 2016 political ads begin


Saturday, November 3, 2012

After the election

  If we survive this vote count something needs to be done to free the voter from  being trapped in one of two camps. Not particularly fond of Gary Johnson but the idea of a third party appeals to me
 
 
Breaking the two-party stranglehold that is killing American democracy
 
We the people have the power to end this dysfunctional, corrupting duopoly of Democrats and Republicans. Vote with me
Mitt Romney, Barack Obama
Gary Johnson: 'Where is it written that voters' choices should be so limited? Certainly not in the constitution.' Photograph: David Goldman, Eric Goldman/AP
With the election only days away, it is a fair question to ask how many American voters are about to cast their votes for a candidate who doesn't really reflect their views? Why would they do that?
The answer is complex – and simple. The Republicans and Democrats have spent decades trading power back and forth between themselves, and in doing so, have managed to install a two-party duopoly that completely controls America's political process. This duopoly runs everything from how candidates qualify to get on the ballot, to who is invited to the only debates aired on national television, to, yes, the special-interest money that fuels their billion-dollar campaigns.
The consequences of this insider game? Too many voters approach Tuesday's election believing their choice is between a Republican and a Democrat, with no other real option. And why shouldn't they? The debates they have seen only included the Republican and the Democrat. The hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of TV ads they have seen are all about the Republican and the Democrat. And the news media? Well, they have bought into the whole scheme, with coverage that overwhelmingly portrays a two-party race.
There's a problem, though. This duopoly leaves tens of millions of Americans essentially disenfranchised. Polling shows that roughly one third of voters doesn't necessarily consider themselves Democrats or Republicans. Every election, they end up making a choice between what some would call the "lesser of two evils".
Where is it written that voters' choices should be so limited? Certainly not in the US constitution. Certainly not in the law. And certainly not because the voters themselves decided that the media, two massively well-funded political parties or anyone else should "preselect" their choices for them.
In Tuesday's election, the sizable portion of the American electorate that believes the time is past when our troops should have been brought home from Afghanistan doesn't have a "major-party" candidate who agrees with them. The millions who believe government is far too large and intrusive will be looking at major-party options that both support the Patriot Act and a National Defense Authorization Act, which inexplicably legalizes the indefinite detention of American citizens. And for those who care deeply about marriage equality, they won't see a major-party candidate who believes marriage discrimination violates basic constitutional rights.
On the most compelling issue of all in these difficult times, the economy, what do the two major parties offer? Vague assurances that they will balance the budget someday, years or even decades from now, quibbling over minor adjustments to a fundamentally flawed and corrupt tax system. And neither offers any real commitment to challenge monetary policies that are devaluing our currency by the day.
Where is the choice on election day for a candidate who will balance the budget now and propose the first substantial reform of the entire tax code in decades – scrapping taxes on income and replacing them with a single consumption tax that will create millions of jobs?
Giving the American people these choices is what my campaign for president is all about. Of our $16tn debt, almost equal amounts have been racked up under Republicans and Democrats. Our chronic involvement in costly and unnecessary wars has come through a progression of major-party administrations that seem to have little or no disagreements on foreign policy. Likewise, the truly alarming erosion of our civil liberties by the federal government has been an entirely bipartisan effort.
Americans deserve the opportunity to vote for a third choice: a candidate who is neither a product nor a proponent of a status quo that is clearly not working. My candidacy, the thousands of volunteer hours spent overcoming obstacles to ballot access, and the determination of our campaign to "crash the party" are all driven by the desire and, I believe, the imperative to break the two-party stranglehold.
It will not happen in one election. But like all significant movements in American history, it can start with one election if the disenfranchised "waste their votes" in significant enough numbers to become franchised again.

Saturday, October 27, 2012

The perfect storm

Hunters and Politicans the perfect storm for Asian  massage in Montana

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Hope for the City ?




  I like to see these take backs in the big cities of the rust belt. Whole sections of the city that were abandoned by business and basic neccesitys like grocery stores are creating thier own industry and new business's .

http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2012/10/urban_farm_in_clevelands_forgo.html


Saturday, October 13, 2012

And so it begins

   The fact that the airwaves are full of hate and fear mongering , Militia radio talking about, Un plots and Obama requiring everyone wear Burkas. I'm expecting to see more events like this


2:03AM EDT October 13. 2012 -
DENVER (AP) — Denver police say someone has fired a shot through the window of President Obama's Denver campaign office.
Police spokeswoman Raquel Lopez says people were inside the office when the shooting happened Friday afternoon, but no one was injured. A large panel of glass was left shattered at the office on West Ninth Avenue near Acoma Street.
Lopez says investigators are looking at surveillance video but have not yet confirmed a description of a vehicle that might be linked to the shooting. Police didn't immediately release other details while detectives pursue leads.
Lopez says she isn't aware of any previous threats against the campaign office.
The Secret Service referred questions about the incident to Denver police.
An Obama campaign spokeswoman declined to comment.

Thursday, October 11, 2012

rehburgs booze trip

I wonder why this has not been more used by the pro Tester bunch



Intrigue in Montana

Depending on what happens in this hearing, it could be significant in the race between Montana Democratic Sen. Jon Tester and his Republican challenger, Denny Rehberg, via the Daily Inter Lake:
The judge who sentenced former state Sen. Greg Barkus for a criminal endangerment charge related to a boat crash on Flathead Lake in 2009 has scheduled an Oct. 23 hearing to consider releasing a pre-sentencing investigation report in the case.
An organization called Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington is seeking the report for information related to Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., who was badly injured in the crash along with two of his staff members along with Barkus.
Also interested in the report is the campaign of Sen. Jon Tester, whom Rehberg is challenging in the November election.
Tester’s campaign has issued press releases related to the request for the report, including one on Wednesday with the order from Malta District Judge John McKeon, who presided over Barkus’s case.
It's not clear what will happen, but the hearing is much closer to Election Day than Republicans would care for.

Sunday, September 30, 2012

Peets Hill a BozeAngeles landmark




 Trying to get away from political rants and back to talking about the beautiful town we live in. Hopefully this will last till after the debate on Wednesday. Anyways the Goat family went up  Peets hill to enjoy a cool but dry Bozeman day. First real day without Smoke

great trail access from the library parking lot and some rather odd art on the way to the trail head.

Beautiful day and not too hard a hike for the little goats. Bring a snack and a bottle of something and watch the sun set over they valley. There has been a couple Black bears in the area , but you don't have to out run the bear just the slowest person in your group

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Optimism or Delusion is The Bozeman Economy turning ?

"I should tell my story. I'm also unemployed." —Mitt Romney, speaking in 2011 to unemployed people in Florida. Romney's net worth is over $200 million. 


  We are living in a  Nation of Hope and Delusion


  Something I've noticed around town the last month are new commercial construction sites, primarily chain stores but also sites being built on speculation .

Here's the New Olive Garden site





Below is the Closed Old Navy being turned into a TJ Max







 There are also several new banks being built , which always confuses me. Do banks make money  from every bank they build ? You'd think they would keep over head lower with fewer buildings and more ATM's  My question is ," is this optimism or delusion ?" 

Monday, September 24, 2012

Riding in Montana

Motorcycle rider injured, bike hits mountain lion
A Jefferson City man suffered head injuries when the motorcycle he was riding struck a mountain lion on Interstate 15 between Clancy and Helena.The Montana Highway Patrol tells KFBB-TV ( http://bit.ly/SpZR7d) the man and his wife were southbound between Clancy and Helena at about 8 p.m. Saturday when their motorcycle hit a mountain lion.
The collision killed the mountain lion

Friday, September 21, 2012

Guilty of Doing Nothing

Skinhead lying

on the side walk,

bloody and still

sirens in the distance

I drive on by,

guilty of doing nothing

I think of running for congress.

Sunday, September 16, 2012

When Gabrial blows his Horn

Kind of scary the Bible and Koran waving going on in the halls of power. The fundamentalists at the two extremes are pushing for  a holy war ,and it looks like the military is ramping up for it.  Make it clear that I think radical Islam has no part in the modern world, but neither does radical christianity

Iran commander: 'Nothing will remain' of Israel if it takes military action

The top commander in Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard warned Sunday that "nothing will remain" of Israel if it takes military action against Tehran over its controversial nuclear program.
Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari said Iran's response to any attack will begin near the Israeli border. The Islamic Republic has close ties with militants in Gaza and Lebanon, both of which border Israel.
Iran has in the past made reference to the destruction of Israel but his comments at a Tehran news conference were unusually strongly worded and detailed.
He also said that Iran warned that oil shipments through the strategic Strait of Hormuz will be in jeopardy if a war breaks out between Iran and the United States. Iranian officials have previously threatened to close the waterway, the route for a fifth of the world's oil, but less frequently in recent months.
Gen. Jafari also told a news conference in Tehran Sunday that if it is attacked, Iran will no longer be committed to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, under whose terms U.N. inspectors visit Iranian nuclear sites. He said however that this does not mean that Iran would build a nuclear weapon.
The U.S and Israel have both left open the possibility of a strike on Iran if diplomacy fails to stop what it says is a push for a nuclear weapon. Tehran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.
Gen. Jafari however said that Iran believes the United States won't attack Iran because it is very vulnerable and its military bases in the Middle East are within the range of Iran's missiles. Jafari also said Israel is very unlikely to take unilateral action.
Israel believes that any attack would likely unleash retaliation, in the form of Iranian missiles as well as rocket attacks by Iranian proxies Hezbollah and Hamas on its northern and southern borders.
Jafari's comments come as U.S.-led naval forces from the West and Arab allies gather for naval maneuvers in the Persian Gulf that include mine-sweeping exercises.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/09/16/iran-commander-nothing-will-remain-israel-if-it-takes-military-action/?test=latestnews#ixzz26fCmIGlL

My Take: It’s time for Islamophobic evangelicals to choose

By Brian McLaren, Special to CNN
I was raised as an evangelical Christian in America, and any discussion of Christian-Jewish-Muslim relations around the world must include the phenomenon of American Islamophobia, for which large sectors of evangelical Christianity in America serve as a greenhouse.
At a time when U.S. embassies are being attacked and when people are getting killed over an offensive, adolescent and puerile film targeting Islam - beyond pathetic in its tawdriness – we must begin to own up to the reality of evangelical Islamaphobia.
Many of my own relatives receive and forward pious-sounding and alarm-bell-ringing e-mails that trumpet (IN LOTS OF CAPITAL LETTERS WITH EXCLAMATION POINTS!) the evils of Islam, that call their fellow evangelicals and charismatics to prayer and “spiritual warfare” against those alleged evils, and that often - truth be told - contain lots of downright lies.
For example, one recent e-mail claimed “Egyptian Christians in Grave Danger as Muslim Brotherhood Crucifies Opponents."  Of course, that claim has been thoroughly debunked, but the sender’s website still (as of Friday) claims that the Muslim Brotherhood has “crucified those opposing" Egyptian President Mohamed Morsy "naked on trees in front of the presidential palace while abusing others.”
CNN’s Belief Blog: The faith angles behind the biggest stories
Many sincere and good-hearted evangelicals have never yet had a real Muslim friend, and now they probably never will because their minds have been so prejudiced by Islamophobic broadcasts on so-called Christian television and radio.
Janet Parshall, for example, a popular talk show host on the Moody Radio Network, frequently hosts Walid Shoebat, a Muslim-evangelical convert whose anti-Muslim claims, along with claims about his own biography, are frequently questioned.  John Hagee, a popular televangelist, also hosts Shoebat as an expert on Islam, as does the 700 Club.
Many Christian bookstores that (used to) sell my books, still sell books such as Paul Sperry’s "Infiltration: How Muslim Spies and Subversives Have Penetrated Washington" (Thomas Nelson, 2008). In so doing, they fuel conspiracy theories such as the ones U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minnesota, promoted earlier this year.
In recent days, we’ve seen how irresponsible Muslim media outlets used the tawdry 13-minute video created by a tiny handful of fringe Christian extremists to create a disgusting caricature of all Christians - and all Americans - in Muslim minds. But too few Americans realize how frequently American Christian media personalities in the U.S. similarly prejudice their hearers’ minds with mirror-image stereotypes of Muslims.
Ambassador's killing shines light on Muslim sensitivities around Prophet Mohammed
Meanwhile, many who are pastors and leaders in evangelicalism hide their heads in the current issue of Christianity Today or World Magazine, acting as if the kinds of people who host Islamophobic sentiments swim in a tiny sidestream, not in the mainstream, of our common heritage. I wish that were true.
The events of this past week, if we let them, could mark a turning point - a hitting bottom, if you will - in the complicity of evangelicalism in Islamophobia. If enough evangelicals watch or try to watch the film trailer that has sparked such outrage in the Middle East, they may move beyond the tipping point.
I tried to watch it, but I couldn’t make it halfway to the 13-minute mark. Everything about it was tawdry, pathetic, even pornographic. All but the most fundamentalist believers from my evangelical Christian tribe who watch that video will be appalled and ashamed to be associated with it.
It is hate speech. It is no different from the anti-Semitic garbage that has been all too common in Western Christian history. It is sub-Christian - beneath the dignity of anyone with a functioning moral compass.
Islamophobic evangelical Christians - and the neo-conservative Catholics and even some Jewish folks who are their unlikely political bedfellows of late - must choose.
Will they press on in their current path, letting Islamophobia spread even further amongst them? Or will they stop, rethink and seek to a more charitable approach to our Muslim neighbors? Will they realize that evangelical religious identity is under assault, not by Shariah law, not by the liberal media, not by secular humanism from the outside, but by forces within the evangelical community that infect that religious identity with hostility?
If I could get one message through to my evangelical friends, it would be this: The greatest threat to evangelicalism is evangelicals who tolerate hate and who promote hate camouflaged as piety.
No one can serve two masters. You can’t serve God and greed, nor can you serve God and fear, nor God and hate.
The broad highway of us-them thinking and the offense-outrage-revenge reaction cycle leads to self-destruction. There is a better way, the way of Christ who, when reviled, did not revile in return, who when insulted, did not insult in return, and who taught his followers to love even those who define themselves as enemies.
Follow the CNN Belief Blog on Twitter
Yes, “they” – the tiny minority of Muslims who turn piety into violence – have big problems of their own. But the way of Christ requires all who claim to be Christians to examine our own eyes for planks before trying to perform first aid on the eyes of others. We must admit that we have our own tiny minority whose message and methods we have not firmly, unitedly and publicly repudiated and rejected.
To choose the way of Christ is not appeasement. It is not being a “sympathizer.”
The way of Christ is a gentle strength that transcends the vicious cycles of offense-outrage-revenge.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Brian D. McLaren.

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Montanans plan to invade Canada ?

The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) announced on Tuesday the seizure of 18 firearms, along with weapons and ammunition, at the port of Coutts, across the border from Sweetgrass.
In a press release, the agency says that on Saturday, September 8, three U.S. residents arrived at the port of Coutts heading to Alaska in a pick-up truck and travel trailer.
When asked by CBSA officers if there were any firearms in the vehicle or trailer, the driver declared that he had seven long guns.
Officers began a routine secondary examination of the vehicle, where they discovered the following contraband concealed under a bed in the travel trailer:
- 7 rifles (restricted and non-restricted),
- 11 hand guns (restricted and prohibited),
- 9 prohibited over-capacity magazines,
- 4 flares,
- 12 non-explosive smoke grenades
- 1 incendiary grenade
- thousands of rounds of ammunition
Michael John Dorsey, 42, of Alaska, was arrested and turned over to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Border Integrity section, and faces six Criminal Code and two Customs Act charges.
Last week, the border crossing was closed for several hours after a reported suspicious package was received at the Port of Coutts.

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

when the threat comes from our leaders

For You, O Democracy


1819-1892



Come, I will make the continent indissoluble,
I will make the most splendid race the sun ever shone upon,
I will make divine magnetic lands,
With the love of comrades,
With the life-long love of comrades.

I will plant companionship thick as trees along all the rivers of America,
and along the shores of the great lakes, and all over the prairies,
I will make inseparable cities with their arms about each other's necks,
By the love of comrades,
By the manly love of comrades.

For you these from me, O Democracy, to serve you ma femme!
For you, for you I am trilling these songs.

Monday, September 10, 2012

The National Opinion

The National Opinion

 

The national opinion Is made

in the writing rooms

of the talking heads

The machine cranks out

A virus of fear and hatred

wrapped in patriotism and religion,

facts and compassion have no place.

Monday, September 3, 2012

Congress is the problem, term limits ?

Congress is in the midst of its summer recess, which might be hard to notice, because lawmakers managed to not do much even when they were in Washington.
At first blush, it’s hardly breaking news that Congress isn’t getting a whole lot accomplished. But a USA Today analysis last week underscores just how little Congress has to show for itself.
Simply put, lawmakers aren’t making many laws. Looking at the number of bills being passed into law, the current Congress is on track to be the least productive since 1947, USA Today reported.
To put it in perspective, Hawaii and Alaska weren’t even states in 1947. The Dodgers still played in Brooklyn in 1947, the year Jackie Robinson broke baseball’s color barrier.
So far this year, Congress has approved only 61 bills out of 3,914. Lawmakers apparently could only agree on 2 percent of the legislation put forth. In 2011, Congress signed off on just 90 bills.
How low are those figures? Between 1947 and 2010, Congress passed at least 125 bills every year except one; in 1995, lawmakers passed only 88 bills. But in 1996, Congress got busy, approving 245 bills.
Don’t expect a similar bounce-back this year.
Lawmakers aren’t going to spend that much time in Washington for the rest of the year. Most members of Congress are seeking re-election. Based on those numbers, one wonders what accomplishments those incumbents can tout.
Both Democrats and Republicans deserve to take the blame for this gridlock.
GOP lawmakers can say with some credibility that Senate Democrats, led by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, aren’t putting forth budget plans. Republicans, however, have repeatedly pushed bills that are certain to gain little or no Democratic support.
U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., deserves credit for passing one of the few pieces of legislation to be signed into law. And he offers an example other lawmakers should follow much more often: He crossed party lines in seeking co-sponsors on legislation to create more jobs.
Toomey worked with Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., on legislation to make it easier for small companies to go public. As Toomey noted during a meeting with The Patriot-News Editorial Board last week, the two lawmakers “usually can’t agree that it’s Wednesday.”
Admittedly, the Toomey-Schumer bill is hardly the most sweeping legislation, but it offers genuine opportunities to help people. President Barack Obama signed the measure in April.
If more lawmakers crossed party lines, even on smaller bills, it might lead to better bipartisan relationships that could be useful in tackling bigger problems.
Such cooperation could certainly become useful in Harrisburg, too, which is rivaling Washington in its lack of activity in recent years.
The General Assembly under then-Gov. Ed Rendell approved 226 bills in the 2009-10 legislative session, which marked the lowest number in a quarter-century.
Some might applaud the fact that lawmakers aren’t passing too many laws, since it does reduce the possibility that they will enact bad laws.
But the small number of bills making it into law offers stark evidence that too many lawmakers are doing too little.
For many lawmakers, the lazy days of summer are simply business as usual. Voters should consider that when they cast their ballots this fall.

Thursday, August 30, 2012

burning up in Bozeangeles

the Valley is very Smoke Filled today . Makes seeing hard on the roads  and breathing hard for those with health problems.

 

We sure could use some of that rain from Hurricane Issac.

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Darwin Award Winner in Montana

A man dressed in a military-style "ghillie" suit and apparently trying to provoke reports of a Bigfoot sighting in northwest Montana was struck by two cars and killed, authorities said.
The man was standing in the right-hand lane of U.S. Highway 93 south of Kalispell on Sunday night when he was hit by the first car, according to the Montana Highway Patrol. A second car hit the man as he lay in the roadway, authorities said.
'He was trying to make people think he was Sasquatch so people would call in a Sasquatch sighting.'
- Trooper Jim Schneider

Flathead County officials identified the man as Randy Lee Tenley, 44, of Kalispell. Trooper Jim Schneider said motives were ascertained during interviews with friends, and alcohol may have been a factor but investigators were awaiting tests.
"He was trying to make people think he was Sasquatch so people would call in a Sasquatch sighting," Schneider told the Daily Inter Lake on Monday. "You can't make it up. I haven't seen or heard of anything like this before. Obviously, his suit made it difficult for people to see him."
Ghillie suits are a type of full-body clothing made to resemble heavy foliage and used to camouflage military snipers.
"He probably would not have been very easy to see at all," Schneider told KECI-TV.
Tenley was struck by vehicles driven by two girls, ages 15 and 17, who were unable to stop in time, authorities said.


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/08/27/man-trying-to-create-bigfoot-sighting-killed-in-montana/#ixzz24qdwDGwm

Sunday, August 26, 2012

RNC Muzzles Ron Paul

  Not the biggest fan of extreme Conservativism but hyave little fiath in the moderate GOP to actually do what they say they will do. Like him or fear him you got to respect Ron Paul  he was always true to his beliefs. And now the RNC has cast him into the wilderness.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/26/us/politics/ron-paul-passing-torch-to-a-libertarian-legion.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all

TAMPA, Fla. — The future of what Ron Paul started rests with supporters like Ashley Ryan, who will attend Mr. Paul’s final presidential campaign rally here with decidedly mixed feelings.

Narayan Mahon for The New York Times
Representative Ron Paul of Texas, who will not speak at the Republican convention, will instead lead a valedictory rally for supporters on Sunday at the University of South Florida’s Sun Dome.
Ms. Ryan, a 21-year-old college student, will take over as Maine’s national committeewoman after sitting as a Paul delegate at this week’s Republican National Convention. But in a credentials dispute, hard-bargaining party leaders left Paul forces with only half the Maine delegates they thought they had won this year — a blunt reminder of Mitt Romney’s grip on the proceedings.
“It was a huge slap in the face,” Ms. Ryan said. Though her unseated Maine colleagues can attend with guest passes furnished by the Iowa delegation, she said, “I was very disappointed.”
Yet Mr. Paul’s supporters can celebrate achievements that an earlier generation of libertarians never tasted. Despite Tropical Storm Isaac, Mr. Paul is still scheduled to stage a valedictory rally on Sunday before an estimated 10,000 supporters at the University of South Florida’s Sun Dome. Its speakers, including Ms. Ryan, were planning to send the Republican Party a message about their commitment to grow in influence as the 77-year-old Mr. Paul moves on.
The libertarian movement has always boasted intellectual champions. But it has gotten something new from Mr. Paul, the iconoclastic veteran House member from Texas, whose small-government, low-tax, noninterventionist views found new attention in the Tea Party era and served as the focus of a determined grass-roots effort to shake up the Republican establishment.
Over three separate presidential bids, Mr. Paul has given libertarians a leader from the world of electoral politics, a beachhead within the party and a passionate if disparate army of activists. The onetime obstetrician has even bequeathed the movement a successor: his son, Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky.

Saturday, August 25, 2012

We live in Interesting times

  The Chaos that faces us  has to make us appreciate the past and I guess that's the attraction of the Conservative movement. We want  what we remember  from our youth, the sad thing is a lot of people both on the right and the left want it with out working for it .  I am waiting to see what the talking heads will actually promise to do in the conventions. Then we will have to decide who to believe .

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Ending the Deadlock in Washington



 Been obsessed with the Up Coming Republican Convention. NO I am a tree Hugging independent  and    not enamored  with Mitt Romney  but I have come to the conclusion that we need to end the deadlock one way or the other in Washington.  The question is can we trust either party to follow through on the changes needed ?



We Need a ‘Conservative’ Party



THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

There has been lots of talk that Paul Ryan’s nomination ensures that we’ll now have a "real" debate about the role of government. That’s actually funny. The bar for this campaign is so low that we celebrate the fact that it might include a serious debate about one of the four great issues of the day, though even that is not clear yet. And even if Ryan’s entry does spark a meaningful debate about one of the great issues facing America — the nexus of debt, taxes and entitlements — there is little sign that we’ll seriously debate our other three major challenges: how to generate growth and upgrade the skills of every American in an age when the merger of globalization and the information technology revolution means every good job requires more education; how to meet our energy and climate challenges; and how to create an immigration policy that will treat those who are here illegally humanely, while opening America to the world’s most talented immigrants, whom we need to remain the world’s most innovative economy.

But what’s even more troubling is that we need more than debates. That’s all we’ve been having. We need deals on all four issues as soon as this election is over, and I just don’t see that happening unless "conservatives" retake the Republican Party from the "radicals" — that is, the Tea Party base. America today desperately needs a serious, thoughtful, credible 21st-century "conservative" opposition to President Obama, and we don’t have that, even though the voices are out there.

Imagine if the G.O.P.’s position on debt was set by Senator Tom Coburn, the Oklahoma Republican who has challenged the no-tax lunacy of Grover Norquist and served on the Simpson-Bowles commission and voted for its final plan (unlike Ryan). That plan included both increased tax revenues and spending cuts as the only way to fix our long-term fiscal imbalances. Give me a Republican Party that says we have to put real tax revenues and spending cuts on the table to solve this problem, and you’ll get a deal with Obama, who has already offered both, although not at the scale we need. True conservatives know that both Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush used both tax revenue and spending cuts to fix budget shortfalls. Ryan-led G.O.P. radicals say "no new taxes," find all the savings through spending cuts. That’s never going to happen — and shouldn’t.


Imagine if the G.O.P.’s position on immigration followed the lead of Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Rupert Murdoch, chief executive of the News Corporation. Bloomberg and Murdoch recently took to the road to make the economic case for immigration reform. "I think we are in a crisis in this country," The Times quoted the Australian-born Murdoch, who’s now a naturalized American, as saying last week. "Right now, if we get qualified people in, there shouldn’t be any nonsense about it." Regarding the "so-called illegal Mexicans," Murdoch added, "give them a path to citizenship. They pay taxes; they are hard-working people. Why Mitt Romney doesn’t do it, I have no idea, because they are natural Republicans."

Imagine if the G.O.P. position on energy and climate was set by Bob Inglis, a former South Carolina Republican congressman (who was defeated by the Tea Party in 2010). He now runs George Mason University’s Energy and Enterprise Initiative, which is based on the notion that climate change is real, and that the best way to deal with it and our broader energy challenge is with conservative "market-based solutions" that say to the fossil fuel and wind, solar and nuclear industries: "Be accountable for all of your costs," including the carbon and pollution you put in the air, and then we’ll "let the markets work" and see who wins.

Imagine if G.O.P. education policy was set by former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida, without having to cater to radicals, who call for eliminating the Department of Education and view common core standards as some kind of communist conspiracy. Mr. Bush has argued that a conservative approach to education for 21st-century jobs would embrace more effective teacher evaluation and common core standards, but add a bigger element of choice in the form of charter schools and vouchers, the removal of union rules that limit new technology — and combine it all with greater autonomy and accountability for individual principals. When parents can choose and school leaders can innovate, good things happen.

We are not going to make any progress on our biggest problems without a compromise between the center-right and center-left. But, for that, we need the center-right conservatives, not the radicals, to be running the G.O.P., as well as the center-left in the Democratic Party. Over the course of his presidency, Obama has proposed center-left solutions to all four of these challenges. I wish he had pushed some in a bigger, consistent, more daring and more forceful manner — and made them the centerpiece of his campaign. Nevertheless, if the G.O.P. were in a different place, either a second-term Obama or a first-term Romney would have a real chance at making progress on all four. As things stand now, though, there is little hope this campaign will give the winner any basis for governing. Too bad — a presidential campaign is a terrible thing to waste.

Saturday, August 18, 2012

Ayn Rand and Paul Ryan


Ayn Rand is the high priestess of undiluted capitalism and a champion of looking after number one. With an estimated 25m copies of her books in print, including Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead, her ideas about small government and unfettered markets still resonate in conservative circles, with a young Paul Ryan, the Republican vice-presidential candidate, being a big fan.
"I just want to speak to you a little bit about Ayn Rand and what she meant to me in my life and [in] the fight we're engaged here in Congress. I grew up on Ayn Rand," Ryan told an audience in 2005. "I grew up reading Ayn Rand and it taught me quite a bit about who I am and what my value systems are, and what my beliefs are."
The Russian-born American author, a refugee from Soviet communism in the 1920s, wrote at a time when collectivism was widely seen as a blueprint for the future. However, her vision was for a free society where the strong flourished and egoism ruled over altruism. In Rand's world, material achievement had spiritual value and unproductive citizens were "parasites," "looters" and "moochers". There are no state benefits, no national healthcare.
She believed that humans are rational and self-interested, thriving if left to their own devices. Rand said, : "Making more money means we are making more use of our brains." Admiration of the rich only stopped with those who inherited their wealth, whom she viewed as living well from cronyism and nepotism.
Rand argued her theories with almost messianic passion, winning a coterie of acolytes , including eminent members of the Reagan administration (notably Alan Greenspan, the former Federal Reserve Chairman, who became a lifelong fan.) Another devotee is the influential conservative talk radioshock jock Rush Limbaugh.


Read more: http://india.nydailynews.com/newsarticle/bfb762b2cdab2447befd789c78f424c4/paul-ryan-grew-up-on-ayn-rand#ixzz23up5ZbvM

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Paul Ryan and the GOP right

  I guess you have to wonder if the Republican Party actually has the  grit and willpower to do what they say needs to be done.  The big risk for Romney is Ryan seems more presidential . Heres a good view of the issue by the BBC

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/19271041

Monday, August 13, 2012

bridger Ridge Run



Would love to have the health and discipline to run this 20 mile run along the spine of the Jim Bridger Mountains. I have hiked part of the route. It is beautiful but you have to have the stamina and courage to run some of the path

Friday, August 10, 2012

Wow where did 15 days go

  Lost two weeks there some how. Crud in the goat family, burst water line and flood in kitchen and Smoke all over only excuse.



   Lots of fires burning in the area 4 in Yellowstone . A couple big property fires just in the Harvest Creek area. Insurance claims or bad Mortgage ?

 Now here's a lap dog


Hows the economy where you live ? I see a heck of a lot of people shopping the Smiths bargain bin and buying discounted past due food. Yet its hard to find a rental if you are looking to move into town. The anger level is up too.



GOP convention coming up. Looking forward to seeing if the Republicans are serious about getting elected and are serious about takling our deficit problems. 

Saturday, July 28, 2012

no social redeeming value

Okay this is bad, but not a lot to write about.  Heres a funny youtube about the apple phone's Siri spanish language instruction


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3zufedBeao&feature=player_embedded#!

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Bowing Smoke in Washington

 Got to stop watching C span . The babbling, finger pointing and Posturing among both Parties is just depressing. They are not working for the people .They are playing games with our future.


The Republican and Democratic Representative government is artifice, A political myth, designed to conceal from the masses the dominance of a self-selected, self -perpetuating , and self -serving traditional ruling class.

Thursday, July 12, 2012

theres gold in those Crickss


For centuries, wealth has been measured in gold. King Tut was buried in it; Scrooge McDuck swam in it, and today, many people can’t help but search for it.Huge jumps in the price of gold — which was selling at $1,580 an ounce Tuesday, up $900 in the past five years — have drawn more hobbyists to prospecting,
“I’ve seen more hobby prospectors than ever before,” Baide said.
His store at 402 E. Main St., buys gold in all forms, including the flakes and nuggets found by locals and people with claims across the state.
If the gold rush and ghost towns it left behind are any indication, the metal is certain to be found in the hills of southwest Montana, though Bozeman itself might be one of the only places in the area that doesn’t have gold, according to Patti Albrecht.
Albrecht own Earth’s Treasures, 25 N. Willson Ave., which sells supplies for recreational miners, from pans to magnets that separate iron-rich black sand from small flecks of gold.
Albrecht said old prospectors used to look for gold with the same pan that made their breakfasts, even though the oils on the pan could cause flakes to stick to other debris and not fall to the bottom — which is the same reason modern prospectors should avoid using hand lotion, she said.
Today’s pans are mainly light plastic, with ridges to help separate out rocks and sand. Albrecht calls them “training wheels.” Because they’re lightweight, backpackers and fisherman sometimes take pans with them for downtime on rivers and in mountain streams, she said.
Jessie Soukup of Bozeman and her father first tried panning years ago after seeing a demonstration at the Great Rockies Sport Show.
“We thought it would be something fun to do together,” she said.
They only found a few gold flakes and some garnets, but Soukup said her father now sometimes takes the pan along while fishing.
Travel about an hour outside of Bozeman in practically any direction and gold flakes can be found in Montana’s waterways. The first strike in Montana, in 1852, was near Bannock. Others followed in Helena, Norris, Butte and Deer Lodge, according to Albrecht.
According to the United States Geological Survey’s publication on gold, the metal was one of the first mined because it commonly occurs in its native form, not combined with other materials. This also means it’s relatively simple for anyone to find, if they know where to look.
That’s not to say that anyone will tell you where to look. Most people are secretive about where they’ve found gold, or where there may be more, although if you’re only armed with a pan, they may let you go splash around.
According to the Bureau of land Management, “recreational mining and panning is allowed on ‘open’ federal land” or land not under current mining claims. Panning or mining with a pick or shovel does not require a special permit in Montana.
For more information on recreational panning regulations, visit http://bit.ly/mt-prospecting.
Recreational panning will probably not make you rich — it’s more of an exploratory art, meant to show whether there’s the possibility of more gold in the area, Albrecht said.
But if you find a few small flakes in a bit of dirt, it might be worth moving to the next step – a sluice, which uses water to separate gold from larger amounts of detritus shoveled into one end.
The amounts of gold Baide is seeing come in to the Gem Gallery vary, but he said he’s certainly seeing more people.
“Some people are not finding very much, with others it’s considerable amounts,” he said.
With recreational prospecting, not everyone is out looking for the mother lode, and that’s the beauty of it, Albrecht said. They may never see a nugget in their pans, but they enjoy finding a few flakes now and then.
For those people, Albrecht and her staff at Earth’s Treasures give demonstrations if people have questions.
“We try to help people,” she said.
Albrecht has also taught classes and taken her own children panning. Her son was able to separate the gold even when he was “doing everything wrong,” Albrecht said.
He would throw and splash instead of allowing the water to naturally carry the light debris out into the water, she said. The gold, which is heavier than most materials, settles to the bottom and catches along the edge.
For more information, Earth’s Treasures also has copies of Phil Walsh’s book, “Recreational Gold Panning in Montana” and maps of where gold and other minerals and gems have been found.