Montana Loves Liars

Seems that we can't be lied to enough. Sure it's true, why else would both of our senators voted to confirm someone who lied about Saddam, lied about WMD, lied about knowing a lot of pre-9-11 things.

A few thousand dead people here, a few thousand dead there. What does anyoe care?

Thank-you maam, can we have another

Lead Parachutes

What do you count on when your pension plan is ransacked? There was a time that you could count on Social Security to cushion your fall. Maybe now you can't because Wall Street wants it ALL.

Larry explains why privatization is a bad idea.

GOP's problem

Couldn't agree more with Dan Whyte's assessment of the current state of the Republican Party in Montana. (Reader's Alley, Jan 16) One additional factor in their sudden loss of political power should be mentioned, however, and that is the GOP's active participation in the utility deregulation debacle. Not only did the government-approved shenanigans of the Montana Power Company turn many of our retirement accounts into leaden parachutes, it also pushed the agony of paying our utility bills to new levels of tolerance. Montana voters simply felt betrayed by the cozy relationship between the Republican Party and Big Business and decided in turn to elect representatives who would actually legislate with the interest of the electorate at heart. As much as the Republicans like to blame others for their fall, the fault lies in the pro-corporate philosophy of the party itself.

Larry Middagh

Just imagine losing the sum of your life's work to corporate profiteering. Now imagine it happening again with the other thing you were supposed to be able to count on.

Enter Bush on his taxpayer funded multi state hatchet marketing plan. Bad government or just another violation of the Hatch Act?


(via Montana Democrat News) emphasis mine

Not that They Really Care About about Crippled People

But if you ask the questions, people might think that you do.

Bush Comming To Montana Soon

Right after the February 2 State of the Union speech where he will undoubtedly tell even bigger and more fanciful lies than the ones that plunged us into Iraqmire.

How do I know this? I know because Josh Marshall points to this Bloomberg link and mentions an AP article that is not linked yet.

And the Associated Press picks up from there ...

Conrad said Wednesday that he has already being heavily lobbied: Treasury Secretary John Snow phoned to talk Social Security; the director of the Office of Management and Budget, Josh Bolten, came to visit; and breakfast is scheduled next week with Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa.

"If this is just one of those things where the president says, It's my way or the highway ... I can't be for that," Conrad said. But he added: "I think there is a kernel of a good idea in creating accounts that individuals can control."

He said he wants Social Security addressed along with tax reform, long-term care and the solvency of Medicare -- big issues in their own right -- and he said he opposes borrowing large sums to pay for the private accounts, which many think will be necessary.

The backstory here, of course, is the four-state campaign swing President Bush is planning right after the State of the Union, to two states represented by senators from the Fainthearted Faction (Arkansas and North Dakota) and two (Florida and Montana) with senators who have been holding firm.

More soon ...
-- Josh Marshall

Senators Bauchus and Burns, Please don't sell us out again.

Wow

1418 American soldiers have died in Iraq now.

Do you think that we could watch the President joke about the WMD's again?

Of Course

The tell that has yet to fail. Of course.

Priorities

1. People
2. Money
3. Things
   

No On Gonzales Yes for Dean

Because I respect life.

Funny

Did you ever wonder why someone who is convinced that these are the "end times" insists on figuring the SS budget out through eternity?

(this post has been edited)

Aww Max, You Have Tunnel Vision

I hear that you are working on a "Libby fix" to take care of our asbestos victims here at home. That's almost nice.

Do you even understand why the Bush administration wants this legislation so bad? (hint: Halliburton) You can't believe that their recent settlements mean that they have paid their dues; this is the same bunch of people who wrote legal papers saying that the President can rule by decree, that torture is not illegal, that Donald Rumpsfeld can do anything anywhere on the planet without your knowlege, permission or oversight.

I love Libby with their community theater and really nice people, but do you understand the concept of "divide and conquer"?

Asbestos does not discriminate. The rescue workers at ground zero will suffer the same fate that the people of Libby have. Our very own Environmental Protection Agency lied to them about the safety of the air they were breathing while they labored on and on to search for survivors and recover the bodies of the dead in the aftermath of the single greatest tragedy this nation has ever known.

Do you really believe they are any less deserving of protection than our neighbors?

I believe that there will be more people who will discover their lives are being cut short because of this, and they will hurt just as much as the people of Libbey do. In fact, some of the 9-11 rescue workers are already feeling the effects as are some residents who could not get their insurance companies to pay for cleaning up the mess.

I know that you don't think that Dick Cheney maintains any relationship with Halliburton other than the Stocks he has and the hundreds of thousands of dollars he earns on them every year, but what about that insurance policy they bought for him last year?

I do understand that you are working with Senator Specter on this and that he is under constant attack from the religious right and big business. You have both had good long service in our government. I propose that you finish your terms as honorable men in service to the citizens of this country and move on.

We can no longer afford to be cannibalized in the interests of big business. Corporate rights should not trump workers rights, consumer rights or human rights.

If some businesses go under, it will be fine. We need more innovation and less protectionism anyway. Our economy is already stagnant, we are falling further behind every day and these sacred cows have gotten so used to gaming the system that they neglected to move forward. They need to piss or get off the pot with the same limitations that apply to ordinary citizens.

WHERE'S THE CRISIS

Still nothing but manufactured hype.

There is no crisis.

Did you ever hear the one about the con man who just wouldn't give up?

21st Century America

Where no really means yes.

After all, date rape will usually cost you a dinner or something.

Why buy what you can get for free?

Kristol and Krauthammer as Codepent Martyrs

Media Matters called them out for their public crowing over a speech they helped write. They left it up to grannyinsanity to call them out for being codependant.


Sure you've heard it before, I can't be happy until he... I can't do until... My life would be fine if ...

President Bush said that in order to ensure the survival of liberty at home, we have to have the success of liberty abroad.

I have to tell you that isn't very inspiring and it doesn't make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

What's more worrisome is their discombobulated notion that the rest of America is supposed to adopt the same disfunctional attitude. It's hard to tell if they expect us to undergo some type of emotional de-evolution or if they really believe that we are as easily scripted as a soap opera characted.

Every patriotic American citizen will now play the part of the hapless amnesia victim who is forced to have a torrid affair with their daughter's husband to save the family...

Dead Soldier Check

1380. Good going George.

'Splain This One

Why is it that all the anti tax kooks think that anybody who resents paying taxes will gladly pay toll fees each and every time they put their car on the road?

Activist Judge

Any judge who follows the Constitution rather than the orders of people who believe they him.

I Can See Why He Would Want It

Of course he looks great. I just wonder who paid for it. After all, we did pay for Tom Delay's eye job!

Useful Tool

That Zarkawi is one useful scapegoat isn't he? If he wasn't the cause of all the worlds ills somebody would have to invent him.

He does remind me of cartoonist Bill Keane's poltergeist named Ida Know and Not Me.

Voting=infidel Hahaaaahoooeee! Boy that's a good one.

Still No Crisis

The Bush Administration is beginning to panic because they cannot scare us into their plan to wreck Social Security. Josh points out that they have resorted to distorting the words of dead and out of office Democrats to back up their shaky claims.

This pile of hooha would be laughable if it did not stink so bad. Imagine that grannyinsanity makes a sales pitch to swindle you out of your retirement security with facts and figures that I just pulled out of my butt. That is what the Heritage Foundation does.

Despite the massive and illegal taxpayer funded propaganda campaign, There Is NO crisis.

Human to Human Transmission?

If you have birds or other livestock, now is the time to beef up your biosecurity. Do not let people or animals that have been off your property near them. That includes your own dogs and cats.

Viet Nam has reported the 7th human death from avian influenza in three weeks. The last case is believed to have been transmitted to the deceased by his brother.

The World Health Organisation has repeatedly warned that the virus, which
can pass from infected poultry to humans, could mutate into a highly
contagious human-to-human form that could trigger the next global human flu pandemic.

Reassortment

What the World Health Organisation (WHO) fears most is that the virus --
which has now killed 27 in Vietnam and 12 in Thailand -- could [undergo
reassortment] if it infected a person sick with ordinary flu, or got into
an animal such as a pig that was hosting a human influenza virus. If the
H5N1 were to [reassort genome sub-units] with a human influenza virus, it
could produce a strain capable of sweeping through a human population
without immunity, the WHO says. Millions could die worldwide.

But Hans Troedsson, Vietnam representative of the U.N. health agency, told
Reuters on Thursday that the virus has not mutated. He said doctors were
doing comprehensive investigations into the cases of the 2 brothers. He
said there would probably be isolated cases of human-to-human transmission, but
this did not necessarily spell disaster. If a cluster of infections
started to emerge, it might be regarded as evidence of human-to-human
transmission, he said.

Time to strenghten your immune system. Eat nutritious foods, drink lots of water get plenty of sleep and exercise.

No Child Left Behind Is Designed To Fail

I think that 15% of Montana's schools are right on track with their failing grades and all. Why doesn't anybody come right out and say that this is all a clever ploy to privatize our public education system?

I haven't heard it from anybody in Montana, so I will just ask why private schools that recieve public money do not have to clear the same bar that has been set for public schools.