A Whole ‘nother Country

Well, it looks like Texas is going to secede from the Union. Governor Perry is for it, two candidates for governor are pushing it. There is a whole Texas Nationalist Movement that drew tens of irate Texans to the capital yesterday to hear inflammatory speeches. There’s even a bill, H.C.R. 50 for the Texas legislature [...]

Fracking Stinks

We may finally get some answers. ProPublica reported yesterday that chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing (fracking) fluids for oil and gas drilling have been found in drinking water wells in Pavillion, Wyoming, an area of intense natural gas drilling. The investigation is based on complaints going back as far as 15 years by residents claiming [...]

“To da moon, Alice!”

Pennsylvania – “As of October 1, 2009 Aetna health insurance will be increasing the Aetna HMO rates in Pennsylvania“. “10.3% is the average overall increase amongst all the Aetna health insurance HMO plans“.
New Jersey – “Health insurance premiums for public employees in more than 250 school districts will rise by 25 percent next year, after [...]

Montana Psychomotor Reflex

2003 – Khartoum: Foreigners Shake Hands, Make Penises Disappear. “The panic was caused by rumors of foreigners roaming the city and shaking men’s hands, making their penises disappear. The rumors were spread rapidly by text messages on cellular phones, and diverted the public’s attention from a breakthrough in negotiations in Kenya between Sudanese Vice President [...]

Use It or Lose It

You see, the problem is we have all this damn “unallocated water“. The darn stuff is just laying around in rivers and lakes and not doing anybody any good. Heck, there’s so much of it out there we just spread it out on hay fields and give it to cows. That water could be put [...]

Max Needs Some Sleep

Yesterday, Max Baucus sat down with the editorial board of the Helena Independent Record for an extended interview about health care reform. You need to watch this video of the interview. He is visibly worn down by what he has had to go through the last few weeks and no wonder.
I like Max, I really [...]

Women for (their own) Prosperity

I just saw a new commercial by an outfit calling itself the Independent Women’s Forum ragging on health care reform. The talking points are familiar by now. Tens of millions will lose their insurance and 300,000 women would die on the “Government-Run” health plan. The IWF bills itself as “a non-partisan, 501(c)(3) research and educational [...]

I’ll Have The Chicken

A recent USGS study found mercury contamination in every fish sampled in 291 streams nationwide. Mercury concentrations in fish at more than two-thirds of the sites exceeded the value of 0.1 micrograms per gram (μg/g) of mercury  that is of concern for the protection of fish-eating mammals. 27% of the sites exceeded 0.3 μg/g, which [...]

Git ‘er Done

There is no “majority” support for killing the public option, there never has been. In a health care poll by SurveyUSA on August 19, questions included the following:
“In any health care proposal, how important do you feel it is to give people a choice of both a public plan administered by the federal government and [...]

More Health Care Info

Yesterday we talked a bit about how health care costs are affecting Montana using data from the Kaiser Family Foundation. Since Kaiser does long-term tracking, some of their data may not include information collected in recent months that include the effects of the economic downturn. For a good source of recent data you might want [...]