Denny Rehberg’s Pal Michele Bachmann-Pwned!

Cenk Uygur takes on Michele Bachmann’s extreme positions on social issues like gays and abortion during her recent trip to Iowa, and going way back during her first days as a Minnesota lawmaker.

Incidentally, Cenk refers to a moment when Bachmann hid in the bushes during a gay rights rally in Minnesota. I went back and dug through my archives to find the post I wrote about it back in April 2005. That was like anti-gay gay boot camp for what she’s doing now.

Crazy Quilt

She was invited by Rehberg to the Montana Republicans Lincoln/Reagan Dinner (named after non-Montanans- guess they couldn’t find any notables like Mansfield/Metcalfe). And the Republican higher-ups simply GUSHED:

“Congresswoman Bachmann is a leading voice for conservative Republicans. She is in great demand for speaking engagements throughout the country. We are very fortunate Michele Bachmann will be our guest in Montana’s capital city and are grateful for Congressman Rehberg’s assistance in making this possible,” said Lewis and Clark County Republican Central Committee chairman Bridget Holland.

Rehberg’s casual, snide flinging of the word “Obamacare” is obviously modeled on his crazy-eyed pal- who uses it at least once every time she’s interviewed. She’s so obviously entrenched in Crazyland- and completely unencumbered by the facts/truth. But watch for yourself. And remember: this is who Denny Rehberg aspires to be….

Schweitzer Rope-A-Dope

Apr12 by D Gregory Smith

Love him or hate him, you can’t deny that Montana’s Governor is a shrewd player.

Brian Schweitzer’s letter to Attorney General Steve Bullock asking for preparation for a state government shutdown is pure poetry- if you like the “twistin’ in the wind” metaphor….

Republican lawmakers have spent the session wasting time (and our money) on ridiculous issues instead of intelligently addressing budget issues (not non-existent “crises”).

Will the people of Montana see through the shenanigans? Will the budget surplus be maintained? Will Schweitzer come out (again) smelling like a (freshly veto-branded) rose?

Read the letter here.

Legislative Asshattery

Apr8 by D Gregory Smith

The crazy just keeps coming- and yes, that is a clinical opinion.

crazy

At Intelligent Discontent, Pogie reports on Ken Peterson and James Knox, two Montana Republican Legislators who seem to have some difficulty reining in their obsessions with sex. Peterson wants to keep The Gay illegal:

“Homosexuals can’t go out into the heterosexual community and try to recruit people, or try to enlist them in homosexual acts,” Peterson says. He provides an example: “’Here, young man, your hormones are raging. Let’s go in this bedroom, and we’ll engage in some homosexual acts. You’ll find you like it.’” Peterson hasn’t actually seen this happen, he says, because “I don’t associate with that group of people at all… I’ve associated with mainstream people all my life.”

Hmm. Sounds more like fascination than disgust…. And for the record, I’d like to come out in violent opposition against the term “homosexual acts”. It’s unenlightened, and ridiculous- implying an explicit absence of love, affection and tenderness.

Like I said, ridiculous.

And Knox? Well, we might know more soon:

I’m told that Knox chose not only to make a fool of himself at a legislative event last night (with pictures and video floating around the Internet), but his remarks about and behavior towards high school pages have been incredibly inappropriate. At least two reporters were looking into the story and interviewing today, and the Billings Gazette was fishing for more information…

Uh oh. “Inappropriate”, for those of you who are new to this, is code for “disturbing”.

Full story here.

The “Tax Cheat”

Apr6 by D Gregory Smith

Excellent article from (a friend of) Matt Singer at Left In The West. Excerpt:

There is something fundamentally different about the way conservatives communicate. When they talk about a topic they not only speak of an event, but they seem to dwell on the people involved. Think of the ugly stereotypes we’ve become acquainted with over time. The “Welfare Queen”, “Border Runner”, and now “Anchor Baby” are all part of our political vernacular. Instantly a mental image springs forth to fill in the hazy gaps in our minds, because the Right has not only built the narrative, more importantly they’ve cast the characters.

…But of course there’s no reason why we can’t learn from our mistakes by copying their strategy. And to those ends I’d like to suggest that our new villain is the “Tax Cheat”. The name itself tells us a few things. We’re not going to say that he’s rich, we’ll let the voters fill that one in for themselves. Which is great because this lets us play the class card, without offending any of our wealthy allies and donors who happen to have a conscience. But more importantly it says he has tax liability or that he owes something to society. Few people actually enjoy paying their taxes (although most people like what our taxes afford us), but we pay them nonetheless out of obligation to each other and future generations. Most importantly regardless of what we pay, each of us thinks individually that we pay our “fair share.” But the Tax Cheat doesn’t. He doesn’t contribute a dime toward all the things that make our system work. He still uses the parks, schools, and bridges like everyone else, but we the “tax-payers” end up footing the bill.

And it’s the ~~entitled~~ rich who get to play this game. I wonder if there are any “Tax Cheats” out there pretending to serve the People Of Montana while fleecing them? Does suing the taxpayers count?

Full story here.

“It’s Easy To Stand Up And Argue Without Facts”

Apr3 by D Gregory Smith

nuts

…so said Billy Bob Wagner, “rising to address those who were attacking his gold-and-silver bill.”

I know!

And there’s more!
Read Ed Kemmick’s full article on the craziness of the MT Legislature here.

Progress, But Still Disappointing

Mar30 by D Gregory Smith

March 29th, from Diane Sands:

Friends…

Today I attempted to “blast” SB 276 out of hostile Judiciary Committee and onto the Floor for a vote. This is Senator Facey’s bill to remove offensive language about “Deviate Sexual Conduct”….the law was ruled unconstitutional in 1997 but the legislature insists on keeping it on the books as part of sentence in the Sex Crimes part of MCA that includes bestiality.

Rep. Ken Peterson still claims that the Court didn’t address this issue entirely and that the crime should stay on the books, including the FELONY status with a penalty of 10 years in prison and a fine up to$50,000 or both.

While we didn’t get the 60 votes required, we did get 51, including a number of Republicans who believe it is a privacy issue.

THIS IS THE FIRST TIME IN THE 20 PLUS YEARS I HAVE WORKED ON THIS TOPIC THAT WE HAVE EVER WON THE MAJORITY OF THE SENATE AND THE HOUSE!!!!

I view this a great progress, especially with the ultra conservative make up of the current legislature.

Sands, the first openly gay member of the Montana Legislature, is a force of nature and a champion of human rights. The words she chose to introduce her motion are powerful and deserve a look/listen:

The words of the opposition also need to be heard- the ignorance and intolerance are epic, an embarrassment to the State of Montana and, indeed the whole country.

Even Fox News Mocking The MT Legislature?

Mar29 by D Gregory Smith

From Cowgirl:

Remember way back a long time ago earlier this session when the GOP tried to portray themselves as the party of the Constitution, even hosting a “seminar” about the Constitution from the conservative National Center for Constitutional Studies. Even now, you’ll still see one of these legislators occasionally whip one out, although it is usually only to try to brush some snack cake crumbs off of their other papers or to misapply it to justify their own kooky ideas.

No, the hypocrites in GOP can’t hide utter disdain for the actual document. Take Rep. Greg Hinkle (R-Spearhunter) who, when confronted in his anti-constitutional stance by Fox News of all things in a segment titled with the double entendre “Taking Liberties,” immediately dismisses the document.

Read the full story here– and watch the crazycrazy video.

(Gasp) Hypocrisy In The Legislature!

Mar26 by D Gregory Smith

…about health care. Apparently, the legislators decrying health care reform with the loudest voices, have chosen to receive state financed health benefits worth up to $733.00 a month- and they’re on the run.

From Mike Dennison at The Missoulian:

Legislative officials agreed Friday to a Lee Newspapers request to release the names of all legislators accepting health insurance benefits from the state, revealing that all but seven of the 150 lawmakers chose to receive the health benefits, worth up to $733 a month.

Within hours of the information’s release, the Montana House refused to consider a bill putting into state law that the information on lawmaker health benefits should always be made public.

Don Pogreba had this to say from Intelligent Discontent:

As always, Representative Knox best represented the values of today’s Republican Party. He voted against the blast motion on SB 284 today, despite championing transparency about state spending two days earlier:

But let’s not end with Representative Knox today. Another well-known champion of liberty has apparently been seduced by the Marxist wiles of state bureaucracy and largesse. Even Representative Derek Skees has been transformed from a Galtian hero into a puppet of the state, gladly accepting benefits he knows to be socialistic.

Sigh.
I see chickens circling the henhouse- and the sun is going down…

Queering Ecology: One Goose At A Time

Mar24 by D Gregory Smith

If you’re an amateur naturalist, like me, you’ve probably spent some time in the library or online looking for sexual ambiguity in nature- after all, one of the biggest arguments against the biodiversity of sexual orientation is this: Natural Law.

The argument basically says nature dictates what is (and what isn’t) natural. The basic premise for years had been that animals and plants have clearly established sexual roles and are completely hetero-oriented. And that was a basic premise of my high school science and biology classes.

Because my own experience doesn’t bear this out, I’ve always known that science would soon catch up- destroying the faulty premise of hetero-only natural law. My friend Alex Johnson- a bona fide environmental scientist, also had the itch to find the versatility of nature.

In his fascinating piece for Orion Magazine, Alex writes:

Where is the line between what is Nature and what is Human? Do I spend equal times in the parking lot and the forest? Can I really say the parking lot is separate from the forest? What if I end up staying in the parking lot the whole time? What if it has been a long drive and I really have to pee?

The problem is, the Nature/Human split is not a split. It is a dualism. It is false.

I propose messing it up. I propose queering Nature.

As it would happen, I’m queer. What I mean is this: A) I am a man attracted to men. B) Popular culture has told me that men who are attracted to men are unnatural, and so C) if my culture is right, then I am unnatural. But D) I don’t feel unnatural at all. In fact, the love I share with another man is one of the most comfortable, honest, real feelings I have ever felt. And so E) I can’t help but believe that Nature, and the corresponding definition of “natural,” betray reality. From my end of the rainbow, this thing we call Nature is in need of a good queering.

Like I said- fascinating. Read the full piece here.
Then forward it to your high school science teacher.

Displaced Anger And Civility

Mar24 by D Gregory Smith

Yesterday’s post ended rather snarkily on my part.

I dismissed the abuse suffered by Rep Kris Hansen (R) Havre with:

That’s nothing- we LGBT people have been putting up with this all our lives. Wimp.

I admit, I was angered by her lack of understanding of the abuse this bill attempts to codify into law and her whining about some answering machine obscenities and impassioned people in public. That kind of stuff seems to be a part of a controversial person living a public life, and the deep reality of the anger that this bill provokes.

However, I don’t ever want to convey the impression that I believe that this kind of incivility is something that I condone. No human being should ever be subjected to threats because of a political position- even when that position infringes on the rights of other human beings to pursue safety, happiness and well-being.

Having said that, the anger and other strong emotions elicited by this legislation should not be suppressed. That’s part of the process, too. But those strong emotions should never be used to intimidate, coerce and threaten. That’s fascism.

And we’re better than that.