Friday, September 29, 2006

on political literature

I've been getting some political literature lately from the candidates in my legislative districts. One of them, Roy Brown, in particular, likes to promote the Republicans' so-call Handshake with Montana. It promises lower taxes, better support for education and coconut cream pie every Sunday. I hope the people of Montana remember that none of this got done during the 12 or so years that the Republican party ran the state. Mark Racicot was all hat and no cows; Judy nosmartz was a total washout so busy selling property and reminiscing about her glory days as a skater to do anything for the state, and the legislature was giving away tax breaks for the rich and talking out of both sides of its mouth. Now Brown wants us to believe they will help education. Right. Brown stood on my front porch one day and told me that the Republican legislature had fully funded education when it was pretty obvious to anyone who looked at it that it hadn't. Either he lied to me or he didn't have the slightest idea what is going on in Montana.

Tom McGillvray has one good idea: enabling us to put locks on our credit reports, something that his party should be doing at the national level. Otherwise he's a total loss. He brags about being ranked 15th of 100 for "fiscally responsible" representatives but doesn't say by whom. I would guess that it was the Montana Taxpayers Association, which means, essentially, that it is an irresponsible position. It is irresponsible to promise to give back the surplus or to promise to cut taxes while we still need state services. I understand that one of the items he considers a waste would eliminate a few thousand dollars to fund chaperones so that parents can visit with children that they are in danger of abusing. That's a waste?

Last night, at about 8:34 p.m. I got an automated phone call from a computer who said it was taking a poll. If it was a poll, then I'm the tooth fairy and I haven't put money under anyone's pillow since my youngest lost his last tooth. The questions were so slanted that they meant only that you would be a fool voting for Jon Tester. They kept asking me if I would vote for Conrad (_____ ______) Burns. I said absolutely not, never, no way, never, under no circumstances. The man is an embarrassment to the state of Montana. But the call was definitely illegal.

And finally, I got a mailing today from the supporters of the Constitutional Amendments to limit spending, stressing that the courts were taking away my right to vote. Actually, I think they took away my rights by bringing in and paying people to gather signatures. I've been on the stump a time or two for signatures and I would never pay people to gather them. I suggest that if they can't get volunteers to collect the signatures, then they don't have enough people who have enough interest to cost us what it takes to put it to the vote. Get real!

Friday, September 01, 2006

on bushwa

Baby Bush has resurrected his "fight them in Baghdad or fight them in New York" rhetoric. It was stupid the first time and it remains stupid. Fight them in London maybe. Perhaps fight them in Saudi Arabia, maybe. But in Iraq? Saddam, for all of his iniquities committed on his own people was not connected to 9/11, he had no WMDs, and he had, from our findings on his ground, had not violated the U.N. resolutions to any extent. He kept saying he had no weapons and we haven't found any, no matter what the wingnuts are claiming based on the discovery of antiquated and unusable relics.

I go on the comment sections of the Gazette articles and on the blogs out of Montana and I wonder where all the idiots came from who are supporting Burns because he "knows how to fight fires" and how to support the president and one of the bigger lobbyists in D.C., who is taking the rap for a political system gone out of control. Montana used to have a good school system that taught people to think for themselves, but I'm seeing a lot of people out there who haven't turned a screw in their brains since birth. They remind me of a new model for a real life cat: no moving parts.

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