Massive Asshole + Fingerguns

Furious after the Senate panel tabled his bill Wednesday, Lange stormed into Democratic leadership offices in both houses and threatened retaliatory action against Democratic bills in the House unless his bill is resurrected.

Senate President Pro Tempore Dan Harrington, D-Butte, said Lange came into his office Wednesday and said, "It's war. The bloodletting has started." Witnesses said he formed each hand into a pistol and pretended as if he were firing shots.
Lange said permanent property tax relief is the key issue for Republican legislators, something they promised voters they would provide. He vowed Republicans will do whatever they need to do to make sure it passes, even if it means the House tabling every Democratic bill.

I would post his photo, but it kind of makes me puke in my mouth a little bit.

Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints, please let this legislature end soon.

On a finer note, Rep. Michelle Reinhart's biodiesel bill (HB822) was blasted out of Senate Taxation committee on Saturday and has it's second reading today. Fuck yeah. The weird part is that Sen. Jake Bruggeman is carrying it for her in the Senate. What is up with that?

My theories: 1. He was always a moderate that just didn't know how to voice his opinion against his caucus last session; or
2. He is planning to run for SOMETHING BIG someday and want's to appeal to Jon Tester's peeps.

Hmmmm.

2007 House of Evil

The 2007 Montana House of Reps is chock full of evil. It is dominated by the Sour Grapes Republican Party plus a Assclown Constitutional Candidate. The Rs are blindly voting for terrible shit just to give the Ds a big F-U.

For example, can you BELIEVE that a Constitutional Amendment to define that life begins at conception would make it out of committee? It DID! Luckily it died on the floor - but marginally. A bill that could PUNISH women who have miscarriages got 45 votes. Seriously, do you really think that the republican voters of Montana want to see women's health compromised like this? The answer is NO. If you want to listen to the 2/2/07 Committee hearing, you can download a realplayer file here. I am warning you, it will make you lose your faith in humanity. Seriously Koopman asks a question if an opponent believes that a fetus is a human or a bug growing inside a woman. There is a Dr. who says that if a woman is pregnant with a boy, there is a penis inside of her and no woman has a penis unless there is something seriously wrong with her. . .

These people want to take away our rights and control our wombs. If you still don't believe me, just listen to their very own words.

Way to go Choice Lobby! Thank you for stopping this hideous bill dead in its tracks. Billings Gazette covers.

Baby Arms

Recently I sent a letter to the editor about the Roe V. Wade Anniversary. I TRIED to re frame the debate away from abortion, you know focus privacy and prevention. Yesterday, someone was kind enough to send me a copy of my LTE with a bad photocopy of dismembered baby arms next to a dime, they were gracious enough to scrawl a note at the bottom "This is fact". Sadly, the mailer did not provide me with their return address so I could thank them for the copy of my LTE.

Baby arms. You CAN NOT talk to those people about anything. Not prevention (birth control and sex education), not women's rights, not minority rights, all you get back is fucking baby arms.

I wish I could write back to baby arms thanking her (I assume it is a her, the handwriting was might fancy) for changing my life. Who would have known that baby arms would change my years of pro-choiceness. SERIOUSLY. They use this "baby killer" business to keep pro-choicers afraid to be openly pro-choice.

Speaking of baby arms, Rick "baby arms" Jore the no talent assclown from Lake County is having his first hearing on his "Life Begins at Conception" CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT. Did you catch the constitutional amendment part? Yeah. Think about it. It will only be used to criminalize pregnant women. Bad news.

Oh and there is this new doozie. A full abortion ban because - get this - women OWE it to the State of Montana to produce workers. Ladies hear me now, you don't own that little fleshy babymaker that is in your tummy. It belongs to the welfare of the State of Montana. HURRY - Go make yourself some white baby workers.

WHEREAS, the Legislature of the State of Montana believes it has a compelling state interest in increasing the birth rate over the next two decades to ensure that the state has enough people of working age to prevent a labor shortage; and . . .
WHEREAS, the Legislature of the State of Montana wishes to accomplish the goals of promoting a balanced population, increasing the state birth rate, and promoting the birth of all of the state's posterity.

C is for Cookie

. . . and cookie is for me. I couldn't post because of my cookie settings. How can cookies be bad for you, I don't understand! Well, I took those cookies and I fixed their asses.

C is also for Choice.

Expect lots of blogs on choice this week (and letters to the editor). I have been thinking a lot about Choice since the 34th Anniversary of Roe V. Wade is coming up on January 22, 2007.

For those of you in and around Helena, NARAL is sponsoring a big event. For those of you who are not in or around Helena, find out what your local group is up to.

Here is today's big question: why are you pro-choice? Or if you are not, stop reading this blog, you are dead to me. Ha ha. Here is my answer.

I have always been pro-choice. Ever since grade school, there was no other option. I even grew up in a pro-choice church. I can't say that the national church was pro-choice, but my church was. And it is not one of those hold hands and worship the goddess churches. Seriously. In my youth group we talked openly about abortion, everyone viewed it as a sin to legislate women's wombs. I have spent the last 20 years sailing through waters that I thought were friendly. I was dumb enough to think that everyone thought like me. The only pro-lifers I knew growing up were mormons and well, we all know about them.

Imagine my shock when I started to come to the realization that I was more alone than I thought, there were hideous bills being proposed in the state legislature, freedom killing partial birth abortion bans and then all of a sudden holding up signs with dead babies and killing abortion providers was becoming more commonplace. Outrage. I figured this would force "normal" people to shift hard to the left and become more pro-choice. Boy was I wrong. Politicians became afraid to side with the Pro-Choice Movement. There are Pro-Life Democrats. More shock and awe. People are afraid to be pro-choice or at least talk about it for fear of being publicly called a baby killer.

Let's talk about what being pro-choice is all about. It is about telling the government to stay out of PRIVATE decisions that you (and your family) make with your doctor. It is about working hard toward reducing the number of abortions by advocating for easy and affordable access to birth control and emergency contraception. It is about empowering women to engage in family planning on their clock, not on someone else's.

If you think that those anti-choicers are not all about controlling women, you are wrong. Those people want white babies, tons of them, quivers full. They could care less about parental notification, fetal pain, and death certificates, those are just chips to erode away our rights, they care about full abortion bans like the one we saw in South Dakota. EVEN in the cases of rape and incest, EVEN in the case of the health of the mother, full ban on abortion.

Bad anti-choice bills in the 2007 Montana Legislature. Bad. EVIL!

Is it just me or does it smell like a Friday?

I know that the last thing you would ever expect me to write about is Medicare Reform, but I can't help it. This morning on NPR a republican congressman was interviewed about his opposition to the repeal of the ban on the government negotiating prescription drug prices for medicare. His quote went something like this. It is a slippery slope when the government intervenes in decisions between patients and their doctors. And I was like HEY, THAT IS WHAT WE SAY!

Nancy Keenan in her recent interview with the Great Falls Tribune. 'What is the role of government and politicians in those very personal, private medical decisions that we make as families?'

I love love love it when they can use they use the privacy argument to their benefit, but then refute it when we use it to keep the government out of our wombs! Damn it, I have searched high and low for that quote, if anyone can find it from NPR's Morning Edition, I will send you warmth and love.

We could use the warmth here, it is -9 degrees. At least I am not in Butte. BRRRRRR! -38 degrees. I hope it improves this weekend, I am heading down there tomorrow for some progressive leadership blah blah blah. Expect a full report on Monday.

Also, this might be my favorite bill of the 2007 Legislature. Good article here. It forces our lazy lazy lazy counties to deal with the evil spread of urban growth in Montana or charges their asses for fire supression for which the state foots the bill. Boo yeah.

Mighty White of You

I meant to post this earlier, I just forgot.

Montana's First People and the nasty comments from their peers. The rumor is that Butcher was PISSED that he had to say he had to apologize. I think it is a compliment by calling him stupid hick from Winifred. Where in the f-ck is Winifred anyway? Ahhh, Fergus County which has 1.2% Native population (140 people), the state of Montana is 6.0% Native (55K).

Butcher said if he intended to say something disparaging about American Indians, “I would have come up with something (worse) than that.”

P.S. National NPR's All Things Considered has a special story on SENATOR Jon Tester (god it feels good saying that) and his DC staff. It is on in Helena between 5 and 5:30 and 6 and 6:30 PM. Check it. I would post a link, but I get the BIG RED HIGH FIVE when I try to go there.

2007 Legislature = Fun City USA

You know what they say, behind every bill is a legion of angry lobbyists craftily crafting legislation to screw their opponents or sveltly aid their funders, or in most cases BOTH. Well, maybe it is just ME that says that. Whatever.

It is bills like this that cause me to pause, sit back and imagine the legion of high paid corrupt lobbyists that represent the industry/citizens that just won't take the injustice anymore.

Allow me to share my vision with you: the fine yellow citizens of Springfield have gathered in the town center with signs. Yes yes signs reading "JUST SAY NO TO CHAPPING!" "TOWELS FOR ALL!" "AIR DRY NO MORE!" Lenny will be there, so will Carl and the entire Simpson family. I can even see some pitchforks and torches. Poor Sen. Ryan/Mayor Quimby vowing justice for all of the poor and encumbered citizens with clean, but wet hands.

Behind the curtain is Smithers smirking while typing away at a typewriter crafting such legislation. Over his shoulder is Mr. Burns tapping his fingers together while his imagination bubble above his head shows Springfield's forests being mowed down all in the name of HAND TOWLS.

Excellent!