Stoopid Party Shenanigans

House Joint Resolution 7, introduced by Rep. Pat Connell (R-Hamilton) passed the Montana House of Representatives by a vote of 52-43 on Friday. This latest crazy bill would demand reparations from the federal government for the effects of climate change on Montana’s water supply.

Because federal wildfire management has caused changes in the quality, quantity and timing of streamflows in Montana, and because “federal policies threaten natural ecosystem processes and habitat, resulting in large burned-over areas that are susceptible to invasive plant species and changes in stream flow and water quality that affect native fish populations”.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE AND THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE STATE OF MONTANA:

     That the Governor and the Attorney General are urged to initiate legal action against the federal government to recover damages to Montana water users caused by federal land management policies, as well as wildfire suppression policies in headwater areas.

Yep, that’s right. Because the climate is warming, there are more and larger wildfires, stream runoff now occurs earlier in the spring with less water in the summer and fall, waters are warmer and the quality of the water is diminished, it must be due to the actions of Federal management policies. I don’t suppose it could be that all these things could have a common cause, like, maybe what rational people call global warming or climate change? Oh, what was I thinking. All natural processes have changed since we elected a Muslim President. It probably has something to do with Obama’s drone policy, or a screw-up in Benghazi. None of these things would be happening if we had a real one-percenter in the Whitehouse.

These guys could be done with their work and out of town in two weeks if they didn’t waste so much of their time and my tax money arguing about insane bills like paying your parking tickets with forty lashes from a cat o’ nine tails, allowing juries to make law, stopping reasonable irrigation management, nullifying federal laws, giving voting rights to embryos, etc., etc.  Take a look at the vote tally on this bill if you want to see just who the really crazy people are in the Montana House.

A touch of sanity from the Montana Legislature

If you are not following the daily video diary of Amanda Curtis, freshman legislator from Butte, you are missing out on the most intelligent and interesting thing to come out of the 63rd session. Amanda is a first-time legislator and high school math teacher from Butte. She is keeping a daily video diary of her experiences in the legislature and posting the videos on YouTube and Facebook. Amanda is not afraid to tell it like it is and to express her frustration with the way our state representatives conduct business. Below is her video from the Saturday 2/10 floor session which she calls “Weird Bill Day” due to the plethora of crazy bills voted on.

I especially liked her calling out Jerry O’Neil on his “Jury Nullification Act” (HB 290) and the “self-proclaimed constitutionalists” who don’t really have a clue about how the court system or the Constitution works. “The people who voted yes for this [HB290] maybe should not be getting their jobs back next time.” The vote for HB 290 “very clearly shows who is crazy and who is a fairly reasonable human being.” I LOVE this lady!

You can catch more on her YouTube channel and also her Facebook page. You owe it to yourself and to Montana to watch and learn about what really happens in the legislature.

Reality-Based Legislation

House Joint Resolution 10, introduced by Rep. Doug Coffin of Missoula.

Be it resolved: 

     That the 63rd Legislature:

     (1) recognizes that anthropogenic or human-made climate change is scientifically valid and represents scientific fact;

     (2) understands that anthropogenic climate change, manifesting as major changes in weather patterns in North America, including Montana, has the potential to cause major socioeconomic and demographic dislocations in Montana that can be construed as an ecological threat;

     (3) compels state government and its affiliated agencies, with due consideration of Montana’s economic heritage and preservation of employment traditions, to employ, invent, and apply new technologies commensurate with the conservation of resources in a manner that mitigates and adapts to climate change to the best of our ability; and

     (4) suggests that educators include anthropogenic climate change science in their science education curricula.

This legislation goes to a hearing at the Montana House Natural Resources Committee on Wednesday (2/13). Let’s support this bill. Yes, it’s a feel-good, do-nothing bill that likely won’t go anywhere, but let’s face it, real science doesn’t make it to the Legislature very often. I think we can send a message to climate deniers and cranks in the legislature and around the state that there are a lot of folks out here living in a reality-based world and we are pretty sick of listening to the crap that substitutes for fact among our elected representatives.

Climate change is real, climate change is happening, and it’s affecting Montana. Stand up and say so for God’s sake! If you have a local House member on the Natural Resources Committee, send them a quick email and let them know that you support real science. Using the Legislature’s Contact Page, it’s simple. If none of your local legislators are on the committee, just whip off a missive to the entire committee and tell them that this bill needs to make it to the floor for a vote putting every legislator on the record.

Still the “Stupid Party” after all.

“We must stop being the stupid party,” said Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal in remarks this week to the Republican National Committee. I guess it takes a while for the sensibilities and moderation of party leaders to filter down to Montana. Our own crackpot GOP legislator, Jerry O’neil (R-Columbia Falls) plans to introduce his bill to revive the cat o’ nine tails into the Montana justice system.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MONTANA:

NEW SECTION.  Section 1.  Corporal punishment in lieu of incarceration. (1) Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, a person convicted of any offense by a court in this state, whether a misdemeanor or felony, may during a sentencing hearing as provided in 46-18-115 bargain with the court for the imposition of corporal punishment in lieu of or to reduce the term of any sentence of incarceration available to the court for imposition.

(2) The court and the person convicted of an offense shall negotiate the exact nature of the corporal punishment to be imposed, which must be commensurate with the severity, nature, and degree of the harm caused by the offender. If the court and the offender cannot agree on the exact nature of the corporal punishment to be imposed, the court shall impose a sentence as provided in 46-18-201.

(3) The imposition of a sentence under this section must be carried out by the sheriff of the county in which the crime occurred if the sentence for corporal punishment reduced or eliminated the term of incarceration in the county jail or by the department of corrections if the sentence reduced or eliminated the term of incarceration in the state prison. Any imposition of sentence pursuant to this section must be carried out within a reasonable time.

(4) For purposes of this section, “corporal punishment” means the infliction of physical pain on a defendant to carry out the sentence negotiated between the judge and the defendant.

Representative O’neil began taking heat even before the legislature convened for his demand that the state pay him in gold coin, because the U.S. Treasury is controlled by a Muslin extremist who will destroy the value of paper money. He has also introduced a resolution to force the U.S. to modify the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution because he has found “the current allotment of power to the United States Congress that allows the Congress to regulate intrastate commerce to be overly broad and overreaching.”

On the moderate side, his new bill actually does actually allow defendants to “negotiate” for the severity of their punishment and even though the last incident of lawful corporal punishment in the U.S. occurred in 1952, it’s not like spanking as punishment is unheard of;

Corporal punishment remains a common form of criminal punishment in several countries including Singapore, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Yemen and Nigeria. For example, media reported on Monday that the Iranian state amputated the fingers on the right hand of a convicted thief. Corporal punishment remains on the books in several other countries including Barbados, Botswana, Brunei, Swaziland, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, and Zimbabwe.

I’m not sure if amputation as punishment is covered in Mr. O’neil’s bill.

“Agenda Control”

Ahh, the Montana Legislature is back in session. Bloggers rejoice! From all sides we hear that the 2013 version of our lawmakers will be much less contentious than what we saw in 2011. These are the guys that know how to get things done. How to work together in political harmony. Less than a month ago we heard:

“We’d like a modest, workmanlike session that’s focused on the things important to Montanans,” Senate President Jeff Essmann, R-Billings, said. “We’d like to see bills that move the needle for our economy.”

That’s what we want to hear. Now we can get our economy back on track and solve the important problems. Not like the last legislature that spent its valuable time, and our tax money, working on stuff like;

• Allowing legislators to carry guns in the capital.
• Creating an 11 person panel with authority to nullify all federal laws.
• Removing Barack Obama’s name from the 2012, ballot because his father was born outside of America.
• Making it legal to hunt with spears and stones.
• Requiring the federal government to prove in court that the National Parks were lawfully acquired.

Already this year we have important and sensible bills like:

• Ending same-day voter registration. (HB30)
• Opening the medical records of pregnant women to the courts. (HB104)
• Amendments to the U.S. Constitution to nullify federal firearms laws.
• Paying lawmakers in gold, silver, monopoly money or coal.

Now we learn from emails among the leadership, their primary interest lies in “Agenda Control” whatever the Hell that is. In comments exchanged between Jeff Essmann, Senate Majority Leader Art Wittich of Bozeman, Sen. Jason Priest of Red Lodge, Majority Whip Eric Moore of Miles City, Sen. Ed Walker of Billings and Sen. Dave Lewis of Helena we find an extremely paranoid Essmann saying in September;

“How do we show progress on advancing the conservative policies so that we can engage in the long game strategy that involves changing the face of the Montana Supreme Court so that it does not find a constitutional block to every conservative policy initiative and will give us a better shot a redistricting in 10 years?

“But what do we do now? Is it better to force the moderates to be transparent in the cooperation with the Dems to block our objectives, so that we can use that to raise money and win primaries, or is it better to negotiate a deal (subject to be broken) to advance conservative policies?”

How do we keep those sleazy moderate Republicans from working for compromise and undermining the agenda of the minority? Art Wittich replies; “No, I do not trust them.”

“The session is a biennial docu drama. Let’s make it a good show, from day 1. We want the people watching to know there is a legitimate battle of ideas in the country and state, and at least some of us “get it”. That will help with the logistics, and frankly recruiting reinforcements. . . Appeasement is not the answer. . . We must help the purge along. Hopefully, a new phoenix will rise from the ashes.”

They seem to be at war with people in their own party with whom they disagree. Ah, compromise. The basis of all civil government. And  “docu drama”, and purging everybody who doesn’t agree with you. There is quite a bit of just “inside baseball” in these emails. They show some of the planning and strategy that occurs each time the Legislature meets. Mostly they just show neurotic people who are more interested in how the game is played than in what the result may be. No matter how much we hear from Teabirther legislators who control how we spend our money, about compromise and moving forward the “needle of our economy”, the important thing to these folks is winning the rhetorical game and furthering the far-right agenda no matter the effect on the state of Montana.

In reaction to release of the emails, former Senate president Jim Peterson said,

“I think the politics of power is trumping good policy,” “If you can’t have good debate and then vote and then move on, if politics continues to be the driving force of the Legislature, then it’s going to be hard to do what the Montana voters want us to do.”

You can expect that this session will be different. You can hope that legislators will finally be less combative, work together and honestly try to solve the problems of the Treasure State but, if it turns out otherwise, you shouldn’t be too surprised or disappointed.

The Walls of Liberty

Ah, winter. Time to cozy up to a blazing fire, reflect on events of the past year and let your imagination run wild. Will you better off in the new year than you are today? If not, you might consider joining a cadre of like-minded friends to build a better world. Take Glenn Beck for example. In the new year, Glenn plans to unveil his latest big-picture dreamscape Glennbeckistan Independence USA. Built to honor the memories of Walt Disney and Ayn Rand, the new project will become a safe haven. “A retreat from the world where entrepreneurs, artists, and creators could come to put their ideas to work. A place for families to bring their children to be inspired.” And, a theme park honoring  that great American, and carnival barker, Glenn Beck. “Beck estimates the city-theme-park will cost about $2 billion to build, or roughly .002 trillion-dollar platinum coins,”

Across the lake, there would be a church modeled after The Alamo which would act as a multi-denominational mission center. The town will also have a working ranch where visitors can learn how to farm and work the land. [and listen to Glenn 24/7 on loudspeakers?]

Yes, winter is a time to let your imagination take you to those wonderful, fanciful places that never existed and with your help, never will. Over in Idaho, zealots dream the impossible dream of returning to those glorious days of yore behind the impregnable stone walls of their own Camelot;

The Citadel Community will house between 3,500 and 7,000 patriotic American families who agree that being prepared for the emergencies of life and being proficient with the American icon of Liberty — the Rifle — are prudent measures.

World not going just the way you thought it would when you were in high school? Apply today. Join a fun team of liberty-loving, gun-toting, families just like you,

Marxists, Socialists, Liberals and Establishment Republicans will likely find that life in our community is incompatible with their existing ideology and preferred lifestyles.

Yes, these will be your kind of people. Behind the protective walls of The Citadel, the horrific world, filled with those “other” people, will pass you by. Here, you will be completely safe from the impending Zombie Apocalypse or Islamofascist takeover. You will feel ultimately secure knowing that every neighbor will be heavily armed, and living in a state of constant fear of everyone else. For your safety, and within your new safe haven,

• “Every able-bodied Patriot of age within the Citadel will maintain one AR15 variant in 5.56mm NATO, at least 5 magazines and 1,000 rounds of ammunition.”
• “All Patriots, who are of age and are not legally restricted from bearing firearms, shall agree to remain armed with a loaded sidearm whenever visiting the Citadel Town Center.”
• “Every able-bodied Patriot aged 13 and older governed by this Agreement shall annually demonstrate proficiency with the rifle of his/her choice by hitting a man-sized steel target at 100 yards with open sights at the Citadel range. Each Resident shall have 10 shots and must hit the target at least 7 times.”

In this sacred new year of 613, “We the People come together in this covenant of our free will and do pledge our Lives, our Fortunes and our Sacred Honor to defend one another and Jefferson’s Rightful Liberty, defined as unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others.“

Behind our fortified towers and “curtain wall” you can finally find peace, marching to rousing martial music on the “Captain John Parker Green”, shooting ducks in the reflecting pool, touring the Firearms Museum, or visiting the local arms factory where you can procure your own AR-15, safe from prying eyes of government intervention;

“Your heart will never be satisfied until you own one, because it’s the only firearm in America that is designed by Patriots, built for Patriots, with the sole purpose of defending Liberty.” [and killing zombies, one would assume]

Firearms built by skilled, patriotic artisans, just like you. Since this is rural Idaho, with few employment opportunities, you will likely have a great job at the arms factory, unencumbered by silly things like a unions, a decent health or retirement plan, or a minimum wage. And, you will remain secure in the knowledge that everyone on the factory floor, including your supervisor, is packing heat.

But then, nobody ever said that liberty doesn’t come without cost. At last you can be completely free to live as you wish, behind high stone walls guarded by heavily-armed patriot fanatics with many, many guns, likely pointed in both directions.

Republican Anti-Science Committee

Good Grief! Do you still wonder why Republicans have no credibility with voters? The House Republican Steering Committee just named Wyoming representative Cynthia Lummis as the new chairman of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology. Yes, THAT Cynthia Lummis. The one who said, “she believes the jury is still out on climate change.” “This subcommittee’s focus on the science of energy development and use is a perfect fit,” she said in a statement.” Where, exactly, in “Science, Space and Technology” does energy development and use fit in?

Lummis takes over the helm from former chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas). “In 2009, [Smith] criticized the media for not airing enough “dissenting opinions” about climate change.” Smith, in turn, replaced Texas Republican Ralph Hall.

“I don’t think we can control what God controls.” [Hall] also said he agrees with Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) that climate scientists are involved in a conspiracy to receive research funding.

This is the very same “Science” committee who gave us Paul Broun (R-Georgia) who used the term “Lies from the pit of Hell” to describe his scientific knowledge about the science behind evolution. “And it’s lies to try to keep me and all the folks who were taught that from understanding that they need a savior.” he said at an appearance at Liberty University. “Bill Nye [The Science Guy] slammed Broun, for his comments about evolution, saying that Broun “is, by any measure, unqualified to make decisions about science, space, and technology.”  And, Nye went on to make the astonishing claim, in response to Broun, that the earth is simply not 9,000 years old.

And, let’s not forget committee member Todd “Legitimate rape” Akin. Oh, and, good ole boy Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.),

Rohrabacher has made a number of scientifically questionable statements, including the idea that an earlier period of global warming may have been caused by “dinosaur flatulence.” Last year, after coming under fire for seeming to suggest that if global warming is real it could be addressed by cutting down trees (when in fact forests reduce global warming by absorbing atmospheric carbon), he issued a statement saying, “I do not believe that CO2 is a cause of global warming.”

And so, the anti-”science” committee marches on under the same old, new leadership, embarrassing our country with a chairman and members who wouldn’t know science even if they weren’t sniffing dinosaur farts.

 

Uhh…Umm…Gee…Well…

UPDATE 12/05/2012: Evidently Marco Rubio has decided that if he is to become a Party leader, it might be a poor career move to be seen as a doctrinaire teabirther. He is quickly backpedaling on his comments from last month that we can’t know the age of the earth with any certainty. In an interview with Politco, Rubio reluctantly admitted that there really is such a thing as science and just maybe we should pay at least some attention to proven facts. He did say however, “…it’s possible to believe in both creationism and scientific proof that the Earth is much older.” Evidently, somebody forgot to tell Marco that the creation/evolution debate has no relation to the age of the earth since evolution makes no claim whatsoever about the beginning of the universe. Or, maybe he just doesn’t want to stray all that far from the teabirther hard line and risk losing all the crazy-people vote.

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Recently, Florida Senator Marco Rubio, possible 2016 GOP presidential hopeful,  was asked in an interview, “How old do you think the earth is?”  His answer, in part?

“Whether the earth was created in seven days, or seven actual eras, I’m not sure we’ll ever be able to answer that. It’s one of the great mysteries.”

The great mystery is where they come up with these answers. We have known for decades that the earth is around 4.5 billion years old. That estimate is based on very real, very sound radioactive decay principles, geology and completely accepted science. Now, Rubio is no dolt, even though he plays one on TV for voters. He’s a smart guy and he likely understands the principles, if not the science, behind the actual age of the earth. But, his answer, or non-answer, points out the biggest problem faced by the Republican party. They have spent decades denying science and playing to the irrational prejudices of older, mostly white, bible-believing, voters. They play these games not because they believe this crazy stuff, but because these views get crazy people to vote for the rest of their agenda. The problem, of course, is that crazy people don’t vote, they secede.

The GOP game plan works as long as the majority of voters are white, Christian and aging, but that is changing. In the last several elections cycles, the electorate has begun to move away from the traditional voting blocks that Republicans have spent so many years crafting. Young voters, most nearly as smart as Marco Rubio, are seeing the mess that old, white guys in government and business have created. Women are consistently breaking with a GOP platform that attacks their health and welfare. Black, Hispanic and other minority voters are forming an ever-more powerful voting block that rejects Republican attacks on immigrants and the rights brown people. When you add together the young, Black, Hispanic and women voters we are seeing the formation of a new, national agenda that often breaks with the views of the traditional Republican voter.

A recent Pew post-election poll points out some of the very real problems faced by the Republican Party. Age matters, and so does ethnicity. Barack Obama beat challenger Mitt Romney by a margin of 60% to 36% among voters under 30. In 2000, 74% of under-30 voters identified as white. In the recent election that percentage dropped to 58% and both of those groups form a growing block of voters.

The times they are a changin’ and the problem is that the GOP has not fully recognized that fact. Rachel Maddow recently pointed out that beltway Republicans have begun making noises that sound like change. They are backing away from silly tax pledges, they are de-emphasizing the importance of immigration reform and abortion rights as platform planks. The conundrum for the GOP is that many state legislature are proceeding full bore with the decades-old conservative mantra of gay marriage, contraception, evolution and science denial, and immigration reform. Not to mention total secession. In many, if not most, of these states, the female and minority voter is not nearly as important as it is on the national stage and legislatures continue to be made up of mostly old, white, males. So, while the Potomac Republicans make at least some superficial effort to court the new voter, folks are still seeing the same old, same old from Republicans in their states and they continue to flee the Republican Party in droves.

How does the Grand Old Party modernize their world view? How do you quickly turn away from a time-honored strategy that has begun to lose elections when most of your members haven’t gotten the memo and continue to antagonize the very voters you will need in national elections? Until Marco Rubio is able to give a forthright and honest answer to questions of science this is something that we will continue to see Republicans struggle with and we can only hope that it is a very, very long struggle.

Just sell it harder

Chairman of the Tea Party Express:

“There’s plenty of blame to go around, but at the end of the day, the Republican Party has a branding problem,”

She also said that the party needed to be more aggressive in promoting its message.

In a country where half the population now has black or Hispanic neighbors, it becomes harder and harder to see our fellow citizens as objects of hate. In a country where most of you neighbors can’t afford decent health care, how do you continue to justify the Emergency Room as your primary health care provider? Yep, the message is just fine. All we need to do is tweak the rhetoric a bit.

Rachel Maddow spelled it out nicely:

“Ohio really did go to President Obama last night, he really did win. He really was born in Hawaii, and he really is, legitimately, president of the United States again. And The Bureau of Labor Statistics did not make up a fake unemployment rate last month. And the Congressional Research Service really can find no evidence that cutting taxes on rich people grows the economy. And the polls were not skewed to oversample Democrats. And Nate Silver was not making up fake projections about the election to make conservatives feel bad. Nate Silver was doing math.And climate change is real. And rape really does cause pregnancy sometimes. And evolution is a thing! And Benghazi was an attack on us, it was not a scandal by us. And nobody is taking away anyone’s guns. And taxes have not gone up. And the deficit is dropping, actually. And Saddam Hussein did not have weapons of mass destruction. And the moon landing was real. And FEMA is not building concentration camps. And UN election observers are not taking over Texas. And moderate reforms of the regulations on the insurance industry and the financial services industry in this country are not the same thing as communism.”

Yes, as long as the GOP remains in its fantasy bubble, denies science-based reality and continues to regard gut-instinct pundits like Karl Rove, Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity, Grover Norquist and Fox News as bastions of truth and enlightenment I will continue to have this giant, silly smile on my face.

Ghosts Stories of the GOP

On Tuesday, the Republican reliance on fear, fear of Muslims, fear of abortion, fear of blacks, fear of gays, fear of immigrants, fear of women, backfired on them big time. The right continues to use extremely divisive issues like gay rights, guns and abortion to frighten their constituents into voting for conservative candidates. The problem is, they no longer realize that those issues are just as divisive among their own as they are between parties.

Reliance on the extreme and unnerving views of the outermost among their party faithful to instill fear of the “other” broke down spectacularly. The Republican party is now 90% white and aging. The “other” is fast becoming the majority of the voting public. Winning national elections without a strong coalition of women, youth and minorities is no longer going to happen, no matter how afraid your core voters are. Denial of reality in the face of reality becomes fantasy and even conservatives are beginning to see that you can’t base a political philosophy on fantasy.

Dependence on alarmist outlets like Fox News and old, white billionaires to carry a message of fear and loathing against those who don’t fit the white, conservative, Christian mold lost this election for the Republican party and we can only hope it will continue to shrink the party and lose elections in the future. Fear of the dark ends where the light of reason begins.