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Wednesday April 20, 2011 Opinion & EditorialGuest CommentInternational Year of the Forest is time for reflection, actionby Tom Tidwell, Chief, U.S. Forest Service The International Year of the Forest, a United Nations-sponsored celebration to focus the world’s attention on the need to sustainably manage the world’s trees, is not merely an event but a reminder that we are at the precipice of change. We are guardians who have an obligation to protect and restore our world’s forests, grasslands and wetlands, all of which are the source of clean air and water, the protectors of fish and wildlife habitats and the greatest assets to mitigate the effects of global climate change. |
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Letters to the EditorToyota nightmare: blown out of proportionDear Editor, 1. How many years have automobiles, a mechanical contraption, been a part of our life? More than 100 years. How many "run away" vehicles killed their drivers? Zero-zero-zero!
Loring C. White, Sr. |
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NobamaDear Editor, Thank God we’ve got Obama. The Top 10 Items he provides us are:
Jerry Haslip |
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Class warfareDear Editor, America’s two major political parties are battling each other and there is internal friction within the parties. American politics is ugly these days. As a conservative and member of the Republican Party I disagree with Democrats on most issues. Their view of what America should be is totally different from my own. With salary in mind, look into the mirror and ask what level of income your experience and skills qualify you for. Unless you are young and in extraordinary physical condition we can assume that you will eliminate pro football and basketball from consideration Michael Vick of the Atlanta Falcons football team has earned 23.1 million dollars annually. In 2009 Cleveland Cavaliers basketball player Lebron James’ salary was $14,410,581. Per game he made $175,000. I have heard people say that it is not fair for athletes to make the money that they do. I believe that argument to be complete nonsense, totally irrational and certainly motivated by envy. Now personally I wouldn’t pay fifty cents to watch Michael Vick or Lebron James at work. When it comes to actors, Charlie Sheen earns 1.8 million dollars for each episode of “Two and a Half Men.” I have never seen a single episode. But I think I remember hearing somewhere that you charge what the traffic will bear. While you are looking into that mirror, ask whether you could do what those athletes or Charlie Sheen can do. They are earning money for their employers. Obviously they earn enough money for those employers to justify the money they are paid. Vick, James and Sheen make a profit for the companies they work for. Now I want you to ask yourselves what the qualifications are for these people to make the money they do. Do you have the abilities that they have? Would people pay to see you play football or basketball? Can you act well enough for people to pay you for your own TV show? Now consider some of the qualifications necessary to hold the position of CEO of a major financial company. 1. Do you have the ability to manage large groups of people? Some of these companies have thousands of employees. 2. Do you understand and can you manage complex financial instruments? 3. Do you understand the complexities of a major corporation? 4. Do you understand how to operate and manage in a huge, highly regulated industry? 5. Do you understand the responsibility as CEO to the shareholders in a publicly owned company? (In an industry that is regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).) I ask you to question that person in the mirror. Can you honestly say that you meet the criteria listed above, which probably do not cover all of the requirements of the position? The next time you hear some braying Democrat, multi-millionaire ranting about how the rich are robbing you, go and look into the mirror. And while you are there understand that these CEOs make small change compared to successful athletes and actors.
Gene Williams |
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Heavy snowpack can mean high waterDear Editor, Winter snowpack is a vital part of Montana affecting ranchers, irrigators, anglers, and recreationists, who are hopeful for the life this water brings to plants, crops, fish, wildlife, and livestock. Snowpack also has the potential to affect flooding. According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency an average of $2.4 billion was spent every year for the last ten years repairing damage and compensating owners where houses, businesses, and infrastructure were damaged by floods. That’s a lot of money, and that’s why natural resource planners think that the solution is better long-term, common sense planning. If you are thinking about flood prevention when its lapping at your door or as your barn is washing into the creek then it is probably too late. Knowing your snowpack is one tool that can help. Late last week at least 15 Montana counties have experienced high water, low land flooding, closed roads and ice jams along rivers due to melting snow pack. Montana typically gets a good amount of snow every winter, and as of March 1 our snowpack is 113% of normal. Last year’s snowpack at this time was only 68% of normal. The Natural Resources Conservation Service monitors snowpack in 12 western states via 750 automated snow telemetry sites up in the mountains. The latest data is always posted at www.mt.nrcs.usda.gov/snow/data/current.html A heavy snowpack doesn’t necessarily equate to flooding. During a prolonged spring with warm days and freezing nights, the snow can melt off in a manageable way. But too much rain or a sustained period of warm daily average temperatures can quickly cause streams to rise. In addition, snowpack, flooding and land use are interrelated. Impervious surfaces such as roads, sidewalks and parking lots may increase flooding, whereas agricultural fields can help slowly absorb water and often reduce the likelihood of flooding. NRCS’ National Resources Inventory www.nrcs.usda.gov/technical/land/ found that an area the size of West Virginia was converted from agricultural land to housing, roads, and businesses across the nation between 1982 and 2007. The best solution is for Montana’s citizens to work with local, state, and federal agencies to develop sound and thoughtful long-term plans to reduce flooding. Other information on this topic can be found at www.mtfloodplain.mt.gov and www.FloodSmart.gov.
Joyce Swartzendruber, State Conservationist |
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Megaloads will hurt local economyDear Editor, Missoula County’s small business owners have much to be thankful for with the Commissioners’ courageous and well-reasoned decision to join in a lawsuit to benefit our local economic interests. As a fourth generation Montanan and the owner and operator of Dunrovin Ranch and Research, LLC in Lolo, I know as well as the next person that Montana needs to build its economy for the future. But a permanent megaload corridor at the expense of local jobs and taxpayers does nothing but move us backward. Through my own economic and demographic research and my business experiences with Dunrovin Guest Ranch, it is abundantly clear that western Montana’s unique quality of life is the main driver our economy. It is what draws the creative people who turn ideas into economic realities and create jobs across diverse economic sectors. Exxon and other out-of-state corporations’ plans to highjack our highways would degrade our national reputation as an outdoor recreation and cultural Mecca, spoil our County’s ability to market itself, and hinder trucking commerce critical to our local timber industry and others. Small tourism businesses, like mine, serve a vital role in an economic chain. Visitors who fall in love with Montana return again and again, and many end up brining or creating businesses here to enable them to enjoy our unsurpassed life style. This is the real job machine for this County and we all rely on the fact that Missoula has become a world-class destination. Thanks to the Missoula County Commissioners for watching out for the backbone of our economy.
SuzAnne Miller, Owner |
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Support for Veteran’s HomeDear Editor, To Montana Senators and Governor Schweitzer: When you are considering HB 2 and all that it funds, please remember the most cost-effective way to staff and maintain the Columbia Falls Veteran’s Nursing Home is to use VA employees, not contract workers. There was NEVER done a cost analysis and incorrect comparisons were made with the Glendive veteran nursing home that is entirely different. You should not trust anyone in the Senate or House that told you that a cost analysis was completed when it was not. That same lie was given to leaders of the VFW and American Legion who are very angry that such tricks were performed against our Montana veterans. You need to contact the leaders of the VFW and American Legion and their auxiliaries made up of the wives, daughters and granddaughters of veterans to know that the military community is very angry with ANY politician who is trying to remove the Columbia Falls Veteran Nursing Home from proper staffing when the money comes from the VA. Contract workers are not better or cheaper. They do not have the years of experience or the loyalty towards the veterans as the VA workers have. Contract workers and the companies that hire them only care about the money they receive from the contract. If they underbid their work, they will only do what they are paid and nothing extra. VA workers do more than they are paid because they are loyal to the VA system, and not a contract. The effort to privatize many things needs to be examined from many angles and that has not been done when considering who should run the Columbia Falls Veteran Nursing Home. Because this nursing home was put into HB 2, none of the public were allowed to testify in hearings regarding this issue and that is wrong. Shame on any Montana Senator who supports HB 2 if the Columbia Falls Veteran Nursing Home is not funded or sent to a contractor. Montana has more veterans in relation to their total adult population than any other state in the U.S.A. You as a politician would be very foolish to anger veterans that total about 135,000 out of an adult population of about 500,000. If the Senate and House in Helena has the nerve to pass HB 2 that eliminates VA staff from the Columbia Falls Veteran’s Nursing Home, I am imploring Gov. Schweitzer to veto the entire HB 2. And, yes, the press will know about the displeasure of veterans across the state of Montana.
Susan Campbell Reneau |
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Free speechDear Editor, This is in reply to a letter called "the truth will set you free if you can find it.” Mr. Lacroix is espousing that people like Glen Beck and Sara Palin are part of the ultra rich and that they are usurping the airwaves and expressing their opinions, opinions Mr. Lacroix does not like because they do not agree with him plus they are conservative. It's called FREE SPEECH! I have heard radio stations with very liberal agendas spreading their hate against conservatives and calling them very undeserved names and speaking things like beheading Palin. If you don't like conservative radio, it's called the 2nd amendment, tune into one of your Lib stations that agree with you. Perhaps what Mr. Lacroix does not see or hear is that most people may prefer conservative radio instead of relying on the news that is controlled by the extremely rich progressives. Now lets call a spade a spade, what about SEIU and Andy Stern ahead of a fast growing Union in North American who has unlimited access to the White House. He has publicly stated that he will use force if necessary to further their agenda. The tea parties were orderly and well mannered while Andy Sterns mugs came in and beat them up on more than one occasion. Now Mr. Lacroix who is the one that spews hate and is dangerous, not the conservatives by any means. It is people like you and the progressives that are spreading the hate and gossip and are the dangerous ones. In case you don't know this we have the right to believe in God and Conservative values. What scares you so bad about that??
John Gibney |
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Resource-based economy key to successDear Editor, I read an interesting editorial in the WSJ (4/1/11) written by Stephen Moore, a senior economics writer. Mr. Moore states that today in America there are nearly twice as many people working for the government than in all of manufacturing. He says this is an almost exact reversal of the situation in 1960, where there were almost twice the workers in manufacturing than collecting a paycheck from the government and according to Moore, it gets worse. More Americans work for the government than work in construction, farming, fishing, forestry, manufacturing, mining, and utilities combined. While in no way do I want to disparage government workers, I am convinced that our nation’s move away from creating new wealth from the production of natural resources and the associated value-added manufacturing of ‘things’ we consume has not been good for our state or our nation. Increasing the options for mineral production, forest products, energy, and agriculture are in our best interests and anything the legislature and Governor can do to create jobs in those sectors are beneficial. Of course, there are vocal minorities who continue to advocate that the only thing that matters is doing nothing in terms of natural resource production. They have been banging that gong since the 1970’s and the shrill ringing is leading us backwards. Moore closes by saying that “President Obama says we have to retool our economy to "win the future.” The only way to do that is to grow the economy that makes things, not the sector that takes things.” I agree. We should encourage the Legislature and the Governor to support legislation that will do anything to help create necessary jobs that “make things.”
Katharine E. Wikstrom |
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Montana lawmakers protecting our health care rightsDear Editor, Some say health care is a "right," but there is a right far more fundamental. That is the right of choosing your own health care and your own providers, and contracting freely for services without government interference. In America today, that right is under grave threat. Not only will "ObamaCare" take away many of your choices, but by expanding the system that has fueled huge price increases, it will raise the cost of heath care even more. What can Montanans do? The U.S. Constitution provides a way we can protect ourselves - if we are willing to use it. The American Founders wrote into the Constitution checks and balances designed to promote good government and preserve liberty. Everyone knows about the checks between the legislative, executive, and judicial branches. But most of the Founders considered the balance between state and federal governments to be even more important. Both John Dickinson, one of the greatest Founders, and James Madison ("Father of the Constitution") spoke of the duty of state officials to push back when the federal government exceeded or abused its power. You can read Madison's views in Number 46 of the Federalist Papers. All over America state officials are now responding in ways that come directly from Madison's playbook. Many Montana lawmakers are among those responding. But they are being fought tooth and nail by people who either do not understand our Constitution or don't care very much about you being able to make your own decisions. Consider what happened to Rep. Gary MacLaren's House Bill 206. That measure would have permitted Montanans to vote on whether they wanted a state constitutional right to health care freedom. HB 206 was not "nullification," as some have claimed. It was a reasonable, moderate measure of the kind already adopted by several other states. However, in Montana placing a state constitutional amendment before the people requires approval by a two-thirds of all lawmakers. Although HB 206 received a clear majority, Democrats in the legislature lined up against it for reasons best known to themselves. They denied you the chance to vote for protecting your health care freedom. But Montanans may be able to vote on a weaker alternative. Rep. MacLaren also is sponsoring HB 609, which would let the people to decide on a law protecting health care choice. HB 609 would not be as strong as HB 206 because a law is not as strong as a constitutional right. But only a majority of lawmakers is necessary to let the people vote on a law. HB 609 already has passed the house and is awaiting action in the senate. If it passes the senate, then it will be on the ballot, because the governor has no power to veto referenda. As to some other bills, the governor's position is a concern. He recently issued an amendatory veto on Sen. Art. Wittich's Senate Bill 125, which would block state officials from joining federal efforts to force us to buy government-approved health insurance. A related measure is SB 224, sponsored by Sen. Jason Priest. It prohibits state bureaucrats from signing us up for ObamaCare without legislative authorization. Still another good proposal is Rep. Cary Smith's HB 445, which would allow you to purchase health insurance policies from other states, thereby increasing competition and driving down prices. Despite what you may have read in the press, none of these proposals constitute "nullification." Nullification is a declaration that federal law does not apply within the boundaries of a state. Nullification is legally suspect and has a terrible track record. Madison opposed nullification, but favored the kinds of measures that are still alive in the Montana legislature. They exemplify just how the system was supposed to work-checks and balances to promote good government and protect liberty.
Rob Natelson |
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No to Bill 306Dear Editor, During floor debate on a measure that undermines Montana’s ban on new open-pit cyanide-leach mines, Sen. Dave Lewis punctuated his support by declaring, “…. some people don’t like…holes being dug, but this is Montana. That’s what we do.” Sen. Lewis is correct. But the former state budget director missed the irony in his statement. Passing Senate Bill 306 will indeed dig holes, especially of the fiscal variety. The failed mining technique enabled by SB306 – combining cyanide with open-pits that produce huge amounts of waste and polluted discharges that last for centuries – has already saddled Montanans with tens of millions of dollars in cleanup costs. Yet, lawmakers who trumpet their dedication to fiscal responsibility now want to burden Montanans with even more pollution-cleanup debt. This exemplifies the familiar political affliction infecting the Capitol today: Say one thing, but do another. Montana voters in 1998 voted “no” to new open-pit mines that require cyanide leaching, regardless where the ore processing occurs. Voters overwhelmingly rejected a 2004 initiative seeking to overturn the ban. Montanans were clear: They want no part of this failed mining method. Yet by passing SB306 the House and Senate insist they know best. Many lawmakers who voted for the bill also justify slashing state budgets and programs by claiming they are listening to the voters. Curiously they are tone-deaf regarding the public’s view on open-pit cyanide-leach mining. Again, they say one thing but do another. SB306 puts at risk surface and drinking water, as well as fish and wildlife, because it authorizes new large, open-pit mines that almost always generate acid, metals pollution and toxic waste, while also damaging groundwater systems. Evidence from recent open-pit gold mines around the state demonstrates these impacts are long-lasting. Protecting the public from the damage is always expensive and never 100 percent effective. Moreover, the record shows that taxpayers always pay. The abandoned open-pit cyanide operation at Beal Mountain, above Anaconda, once touted by industry as state-of-the-art, has for 20 years been polluting groundwater and streams, while contaminating trout. Its cyanide-laced impoundment is at risk of failing catastrophically. According to the U.S. Forest Service, a permanent fix could cost taxpayers at least $50 million. At the Zortman-Landusky mines in north-central Montana, taxpayers – not mining companies – have already shelled out more than $13 million for partial reclamation and water treatment. We will be paying for treatment in perpetuity. The overall cleanup cost has already topped $55 million. Another open-pit cyanide operation at Kendall, near Lewistown, has yet to be reclaimed. Monitoring that mess costs taxpayers, as will final reclamation. That operation also harmed nearby ranchers by polluting or drying up their water sources. SB306 allows new open-pit mines to use cyanide as long as the mining occurs in one place and the ore is hauled to existing cyanide-leach facilities. The option to use cyanide clears the way for construction of damaging, new open-pit operations in places such as the Blackfoot or Rock Creek watersheds. The bill also allows cyanide pollution to expand at existing sites, such as at the Golden Sunlight Mine at Whitehall, where state scientists estimate acidic pollution from the pit could last as long as 10,000 years. SB 306 is a recipe for more failure, environmental degradation and taxpayer-funded cleanup. Proponents claim cyanide-enabled mining is necessary for producing mining jobs. They are wrong. According to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis Montana has more mining jobs today than before the ban, proving cyanide technology is not essential for creating mining jobs for Montana. The Legislature has failed Montanans. Gov. Schweitzer, however, can protect us from this awful bill with a necessary veto.
Bruce Farling, Executive Director |
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Out of orderDear Editor, So, yesterday I went down to the County building to sit in on the big meeting about the "not-planning director". Oh...the commissioners’ peanut gallery was all a’buzz, chock-full of vigilant citizens whispering and nodding to and fro and oddly enough, divided with "lefties" on the left and "righties" on the right. Following a protracted discussion about what a "conflict of interest” is, and with that finally settled once and for all, the public commentary item came around. After politely listening to a number of citizens getting their turn at saying whatever came to their mind, I got up to comment upon the situation like the so many of them. Beginning by saying that Planning for sustainability is THE most urgently important practical issue facing all of us today, "Stick to the subject. We’re not interested in your world view," mister chairman said to me while scowling his disapproval and brandishing his wooden hammer. “Isn’t planning the subject?" I continued with the next comment leading to the point about planning, that recently we have witnessed a concerted anti-planning campaign that tossed our growth policy out like so much vermin. "You’re out of order," mister chairman glowered while acting all fidgety. Then I said that we recently witnessed a concerted political campaign for commissioner seats founded upon a plain anti-planning ["I kin do what I want with my land"] principle. "You’re out of order!" the most honorable chairman shouted with eyes on fire, while others muttered along. "Fine then," I said getting a little agitated by this swell of resistance to my right of comment. "This [not] planning position issue is plainly a move to promote anti-planning," I continued a bit more animated now because of the shouting and hackled-huckster behavior being hurled by our fearless leaders and their minions, "Out of order! Out of order!" wham! wham! wham! They was all a’shoutin at me while bobbing up and down and while the most honorable mister chairman pounded that little wooden hammer. And just like that, I was ejected from my right to speak by heckle-and-jeckle jeers, while my "peers" said nothing and have still said nothing. hmmm. So then, what might we make of that “out of order” outburst? Was I wrong? Isn’t Planning the core issue? Isn’t everyone’s future at stake...including all future generations? Isn’t this “director of Not-Planning” thing just another skirmish in the anti-planning “free rights” campaign that has been plied into our community and, indeed, in our country over the past few years? Shouldn’t there be a call now to block this wild-west-cowboy assertion? I thought I heard one just the other day. And to my so-called colleagues...what’re we up to, if not that? "No sir, mister bent-over-in-the-chair-anywhere-in-the-world-man, I think it true enough to say that you are out of order...that you are all out of order!" Meaningful leadership is in the tank...Donald Trump for president?...ya gotta be kidding. There are but a few widely scattered wise "elders" out there being throttled by the bad-finger-throwers. We should all be in the streets...look around...collapse is, indeed, already upon us and all we can think about is "what’s innit for me?" Many of you reading this will be thinking...oh, another Kierig "rant" or "diatribe" – it’s so easy to raise the ire of ignorance as an immediate show of dukes -- indeed, the philosopher’s code is so poorly understood...ya gotta read a lot...like the dictionary while trying some Nietzsche for starters or Plato, Socrates, Sartre, Hume, Heidegger, Kant, Huxley, Hawthorne, Whitehead, Chomsky...Jesus, sweet Jesus, the most celebrated sublime Love-bringer philosopher socialist, yes...socialist, ever to be exalted and made over, fixed up and smeared a’plenty by "underman" to be now the "something-other"...oh, you know, I’m sure you’ve seen him, "Heidelberg-underman" who gropes for some other-more-perfect world promised as a kingdom in heaven...virgins, "suchness" and all the rest of it; who has never lifted hardly a good finger to actually become that to which he claims. Such a proud legacy for this arrogant "underman". Huh. Has not the long historical trample of crusading mayhem for single-nation status as "one nation commanded under gawd" clearly brought us to this time like no other in world history – climaxing now as a severely oppressing seethe of vile cumulative effects, oily discharges, ruination, degradation and degenerative behavior heaped over our plain obligation to keep, nurture, steward and grow the common trust...hitherto denied and - for worse - attacked, assaulted, blitzed, cursed and deposed for the immediate gratification of puny desires arising as primal urges for wealth, power and corporeal pleasures? Monkey shine. Is not this, the collective mind of "underman" plainly suffering a severe character disorder, desperately clinging to a worn out infecting tradition as the myopic world view handed down like an old coat replete with pockets bulging over with salvation booty and carpet bags stuffed over with plunder and spoils while sporting across our time in this, our "Given World", in a reckless power-surge display...exalting as "great" those conquering ring-leaders haled as "great" emissaries of "civilization" while maligned in a hero worship of gladiators, gangs and zealots...tooting horns, sounding bells and banging our blocky-brained heads on walls and crusty concoctions of superstition...while committing horrible acts of immorality as means-to-moral-end? Oh, for "suchness" this puny arrogance, this "underman" parading around creating all suffering as a foul excretion, delusional and manufacturing virtual [false] ground of "worth" while killing, smiting and smoting, oppressing and subjugating those "others" while sucker-punch-drunk on a "flat-earth" knowledge hurled as our gift to improve the world. Meager two-face schemes are beheld as a badge of honor and glory in "HIS" name. Look deep, here’s your "Supreme Socialist". And who might "HE" be?...for the vast too many of us, handed a ladder with only one rung by the self-proclaimed absolutionists, the place of the ALL is not nearly understood by the ruse of commonly swallowed not-thought; which is so infinitely more than what is commonly hawked into society by the sententious barkers of a false and reckless propriety bent to create "HIS" kingdom in the universe and denied by robotic technocrats of technology building tools and weapons, held now in all reverence as nothing more than a bloated sacred cow...now that is clearly "out of order" and that is from where all malady arises. And for "GOD" – the ONE of all possible, how might we actually be worthy in those eyes while bent-over up to our wrong-colored necks in a bisque of swirling out-house-litter-box poisons? The plain failure of "underman" [recall Nietzsche’s "overman"...’cuz he ain’t nowhere to be seen] to acknowledge, recognize, admit and move to rise above it; to finally put suffering down, is seriously "out of order" as nothing short of the moronic cruel hoax hurled into the jaw-dropping ignorant herd mentality remaining cowed and shackled from all hope to evolve and what now appears wholly immutable and totalitarian as a viral seethe of aggression and prejudice to steal precious freedom from the ordinary sentient being who really only wants to give Love; decadence, heaped over but a grain of Truth – and that, all of us so-called keepers of the common trust, is THE three-hammers "out of order" stooped posture exhibited by the "all-front-and-no-back" mendacious "underman" who dares to think he "knows" stuff. Gangs of fools, stooges, twerps, pirates, hackers, takers, thugs, thieves, morons, earth-skinners, humanity-fleecers and jokers in larcenous habiliments of clown garb, military costumes, gowns, vestments, funny hats and special water strut around armed with but smoke and mirrors, so proud and haughty claiming to make gold from lead...so arrogantly violating and profiteering against our plain responsibility to feed the common trust...while not having a clue as to what that even is, nor having a clue about the eternal giving-to-it Presence as immutable that is denied for immediate material gratification while failing True Creativity; while looking for "success" in a lottery ticket and for bliss in a brown bottle; while groping at empire-building plans based on scheme-riddled Ponzi-laden profiteering plans having its basis in gambling plans; while making budget plans; while making "architect-conceived" military plans to seize the world’s dwindling resources while promising a meaningless "democracy" and freedom – but not too much; while making retirement plans; while making get-ahead-get-rich-quick plans; while making insurance plans; while accepting without a second thought that the "people are a’comin"; while deploying the same old and sickly domination and education plans that utilize fear as the prime instrument to coerce behavior, hoping to achieve different results, this time – this is our plan?...so many plans with no plan at all. And to all that we have wholly gulped...a swallowed hole of meager purpose - that is clearly "out of order" mister chairman. Decadence, degradation and degenerative corruptive scheming behavior is the plain consequence of a flawed "belief" system that has posited "self" as its core value. It is plainly laid out upon the dubious record of an adventuring, crusading, filching "underman" society concocted under false suppositions heralded around a stinky savanna dung-fire pancake supper in the waning sighs of the Pleistocene Epoch. If the Civil War wasn’t about a "free rights" campaign perpetrated by scallywags bent on twisted aims to "free rights glory"...what was it about? Witch hunts? The Crusades? The Inquisition? Conversion plans? Wishing we could turn lead into gold, perhaps? Party time as "rightful purpose"? What for these Plans laid to annihilate the "heathens" or "infidels" as commanded by a "god" who looks on with a twisted degenerate pride? Is THIS who we are? Is THIS all we’ll ever be? Please, mister chairman, isn’t this totalitarian pin-head world view seriously "out of order"? This current bent-over circumstance is "out of order"...this steeped-in-superstition surge to unfettered capital expansion, that is shamefully, recklessly and criminally KILLING ALL LIFE and our "Given World" is "out of order". Our astounding silence and dismal failure to unite and rise to finally call the question is without MERIT and plainly "out of order". Standing boastfully proud against the urgent need to make a substantively meaningful world plan for sustainability is "out of order". Our turned away juvenile behavior as the species ordained as the keepers of this, our "Given World" is "out of order". Are not the Minions of degradation, the vile Earth-skinners and the unforgivable humanity fleecers, mister chairman, "OUT OF ORDER!"? Are we not ALL "out of order"? Indeed, mister chairman, there seems to be no shortage of "out-of-orderness" in our crashing-now "Given World" suffering extreme gnaw. And for me?...in my mosquito-mind world speaking as observer and commentator in a philosopher’s code of such things?...why yes, mister chairman, you are so right...compared to the common "belief-as-emulation" - while now besieged in a protracted melancholy, I am indeed, "out of order"... a mere lone brown shoe in a sexy tuxedo attired flat-earth world drunk on the elixirs of primal urges after all. Where, then, is the Infinite Love in what we do?
Lee Kierig |
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Support for early learningDear Editor, Young children in Ravalli County deserve the best that we can give them. Week of the Young Child, held April 10-16, is a time to recognize the needs of young children, and thank the adults involved in their education and care. Parents, teachers, caregivers and other adults play important roles in the lives of young children, and Week of the Young Child celebrates their efforts. We can show our support for early learning in our community by promoting early literacy programs, thanking teachers and early care providers, and working to ensure that our public policies support early learning for all young children. Week of the Young Child is a time to remind us that early years are learning years.
Marjorie Vegoren, President |
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Thanks from Como Trails ClubDear Editor, After a great winter, The Como Trails Club would like to thank everyone who helped make the ski trails a success. It truly is a county wide cooperative effort to create and facilitate this new trail system. With all the help and support from individuals, government agencies, and organizations, the trails were a success. The club would like to thank all of the skiers/snowshoers who made it up there to enjoy the grooming, gorgeous scenery, and new place to go closer to town. The trail system is considered a work in progress, so the club will continue to improve it for years to come. And last but not least, a special thanks to all the dog owners who did a good job picking up after their pets! The grooming crew only had to pick up after the wildlife, who traveled along the trails all winter, leaving many interesting tracks. If you didn't get a chance to ski or snowshoe on the new trails, it is a fantastic area for hiking, biking, horseback riding, etc. To read more about us, or to view a few pictures of the trails, check out our website – http://comotrailsclub.weebly.com We'll see you out on the trails!
Tony Neaves, president |
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To the Ravalli County CommissionersDear Editor, Regarding the possible hiring of Terry Nelson, Chair of Ravalli Co. Republican Central Committee, to a good-paying government job (with health benefits!) within your responsibility, and the major changes in the job description that he will be hired under, including the elimination of the former title “Planning Director” in favor of the (apparently) much-less-bookish and more developer-user-friendly title of “Planning Office Manager”. You recently agreed to sign a contract with American Stewards for Liberty, a Texas-based Far-Right organization that promotes nullification/manipulation of Federal laws through a process they term “coordination”. Your stated purpose for this contract is for American Stewards to assist our county in usurping federal laws at a rate of $150/hr. plus an initial $1500 annual sign-up fee. You have also completely rewritten the job description and title for a new head for our planning department to include a preferred “knowledge of coordination process government to government agencies” (sic). This re-write was done without public input, and now this commission is poised to appoint Terry Nelson, the three new commissioners’ electoral ally and benefactor, to the newly defined job, which definition now to suits him to a “t”. Given these circumstances and that there was a quorum of commissioners at a private American Stewards’ “coordination seminar” in Hamilton last January—sponsored by Commissioner Foss--we feel it is the public’s right to know a few things about this seminar, this organization, and these significant policy changes. Did that quorum of commissioners, at this private meeting that cost $45/person and was not allowed to be filmed by the public, discuss qualifications they would like add to the planning staff’s job description, including the addition of “knowledge of coordination process government-to-government agencies”? According to American Stewards HYPERLINK "http://americanstewards.us/" http://americanstewards.us/ these training sessions cost “$1500 plus travel expenses”. Over 50 people attended the private seminar (at $45/person) and, according to Commissioner Kanenwisher, there were also other, private donations to fund the event. That would make the gross receipts for this event well over $2000, if not more. What is each of your financial relationship with American Stewards for Liberty? Did the county incur any expenses in this training? Did any other counties pay out of their coffers to “send” their officials to this event? In their information and training documents, American Stewards recommends that you represent these self-described “coordination” meetings with federal agencies as “government-to-government” meetings where “there will be no public comment because of the government-to-government nature of the meeting” . HYPERLINK "http://americanstewards.us/coordination/introduction/how-it-works" http://americanstewards.us/coordination/introduction/how-it-works. Do you believe citizens shouldn’t be able to participate if the Ravalli Co. Board of Commissioners succeeds in setting up “government-to-government coordination” meetings with the Forest Service, your self-stated first target? Can you explain to citizens how Ravalli Co. would benefit from your implementing this self-declared form of “shadow government” between them and their public policy? “Coordination”, as described and defined by American Stewards for Liberty (again, in their training material), holds that a local board such as the Ravalli County Board of Commissioners, or even a school or cemetery board, represents a government entity equal in standing to the federal government. Therefore, according to the same documents, American Stewards suggests that you should pick and choose which local government body to implement “coordination” with carefully, and to consider working “quietly”, without public input if there is public resistance to this “coordination” process. Do you think there might be resistance to your “coordinating” efforts here in Ravalli County? Has it been determined by you, the Board of County Commissioners, that yours is the preferred local governing body in Ravalli Co. to be working with “quietly” on your “government-to-government coordinating” effort, or are you concurrently pursuing your “coordination” strategy with other local government entities to nullify and/or manipulate federal laws concerning federal lands? How do you propose to pay for the litigation that will inevitably follow this highly questionable, untested, quasi-legal tenet that seems to be pedaled almost solely by American Stewards? Will American Stewards accept any liability for any ideological claims made by this county on American Stewards’ behalf? Please share with the public how you believe this situation you are entering into with American Stewards is not a privatization of our public process? Given the change of wording in the job posting for our County Planner and your contracting with an out-of-state industry front-group that is apparently the main proponent of their self-described “coordination”, can you elaborate for the public how you think “coordination” differs from County Supremacy, Sheriffs-First and nullification tenets that have been the hallmarks of such anti-government (in some cases for-profit) groups and movements such as the Montana Freemen (Paul Stramer), Christian Identity (Richard Butler, Red Beckman), Militia of Montana (John Trochman), Posse Comitatus (Richard Mack), and Celebrating Conservatism, which sponsored proponents of the above anti-government tenets to speak in our community and with whose extremist-Libertarian views you apparently still agree?
Bill LaCroix |
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Support needed for senior tripDear Editor, Hello. I am the current valedictorian of the 2011 graduating class of Darby High School. As with most graduating classes, from a very small school, we hope to take a modest senior trip. Our class has set a goal of raising $800. Our trip has been approved by the school board but we are experiencing some funding shortfalls. Any donation is welcome; even just $20. However, we must receive all donations by Thursday, April 21st. If you would like to donate to our local students, please make checks payable to “Darby Senior Class 2011.” As the class president, I will be responsible for collecting donations. Please mail them to the school under my name. The school address is: Miss. Sarah Jakober, Darby Senior Class President, 209 School Drive, Darby MT 59829. This experience will be a once in a life-time opportunity for many students. As a token of our gratitude, we will publish the names of all donors (with the amount donated) in the May edition of the Darby Community Calendar and the School Newspaper. Thank you so very much for your kind assistance.
Sarah Jakober, 2011 Darby Class President |
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Seize the day!Dear Editor, I am writing to express my delight in how our commissioners are tackling governance in Ravalli County. For example, their action regarding the Planning Department is truly inspired. In one bold, courageous, move they have made a great start in returning our county to the good old days when planning was just a glint in some liberal’s eye and we could live our lives without interference. Before making their appointment to head the Planning Department, the commissioners had the good sense to remove the title of “Director” from the job description and replace it with “Administrator/Manager”, and they re-worded the qualifications section (there are no required qualifications – only preferred ones) to include a preference for candidates well versed in county “Coordination” with the Federal government. Nicely done – the last thing we need are requirements that unfairly limit the candidate pool to individuals who possess at least minimal qualifications, and if we can throw off the yoke of US government tyranny, even better! So it appears there is a new day dawning in Ravalli County. We can all anticipate reaping the benefits of fewer regulations getting in the way of what we want to do. I am particularly looking forward to the good will of corporations and speculators in looking out for my interests. And I am sure the good people of our valley will embrace the notions of County Supremacy and Coordination, once they fully understand it and finally see that a national government just gets in the way. The lawsuits and loss of funding that will arise from challenging the federal government might make such action seem irresponsible, but this is a small price to pay relative to the losses of individual rights and liberties we have already suffered. Please pay attention to what is happening in Ravalli County. With your support, some luck, and some guidance from American Stewards of Liberty and other similar organizations, this could be a first step in taking back our country from the poor, the elderly, the liberals, the illegal immigrants, the socialists, the non-Christians, and all other groups who suck up the fruits of your labor. Seize the day!
Kelsey Milner |
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Fake attack on PresidentDear Editor, The other day Jeremiah Wright and Louis Farrakhan launched a verbal assault on Barack Obama. Shortly after those two racists attacked Obama, the spokesman for the New Black Panthers blasted the President too. It would appear that Barack Obama is the victim of these vicious and unsavory people who are as hostile to him as they are to America. And in Farrakhan’s case, white Americans especially. For a moment I almost forgot my antipathy toward Obama. But only for a moment, though. Then I remembered that these two so called ministers have long been friends of his. As for the New Black Panthers, they are a ludicrous bunch of racists with little standing in the black community. They have been denounced by the original Panthers spokesman. (I suspect that if you had a room full of new Black Panthers their combined IQ would be a single digit.) It was a New Black Panther in Philadelphia who brandished a police baton at a polling place and was accused of intimidating white voters. He is on videotape haranguing Philadelphians on South Street. He denounced mixed race couples and said that it will be necessary to kill white babies. It should be noted that Obama’s Attorney General, Eric Holder, refused to pursue the case against this despicable racist thug. Holder has never explained that decision. Holder obeys Barack Obama. Now Jeremiah Wright and Louis Farrakhan, followed a day later by Malik Zulu Shabaz, the New Black Panthers leader, denounced Obama disrespectfully. I am convinced that they are attempting to help reelect Obama. Recent polls indicate that the president cannot afford to have to defend his decades long association with Wright’s church again in the 2012 campaign. Wright and Farrakhan have attempted to insulate Barack Obama from reexamination of his long standing association with them and their radical views. Shabaz followed suit. It remains to be seen whether voters accept the notion that Obama is being unfairly attacked by these contemptible racist hustlers. Obama will always be tied to them. This transparent attempt to distance him from their odious history should not be successful. These three hateful anti-Americans know how the majority of voters feel about them and Obama’s association with them. People who follow events know that Obama has deliberately associated himself with the most radical people he could find. Van Jones, for example, is a self proclaimed Communist revolutionary. Obama hired him as a presidential advisor and paid him with American taxpayers’ dollars. A great deal of time and energy has been spent attempting to label those on the left. Are they Communists or Socialists? It really doesn’t matter. One source describes the difference between Marxism and Communism this way: “Communism is really based on Marxism and the two cannot be separated. However, one can see that Marxism is the theory and Communism is the practical implementation of Marxism.” That is good enough for me. The real question is what was Van Jones doing in the White House as a member of the Obama Administration? Throughout the president’s murky history, most of those he has chosen to associate himself with are hostile to the concept of the democratic Republic that is America. Racists, Communists and radical environmentalists are among his current advisors. They were preceded by individuals he has described as mentors. People like the communist Frank Marshall Davis, who sold marijuana and engaged in sexual encounters with his wife and a thirteen year old girl. Davis confirms that he was the author of a hard core pornographic autobiography titled “Sex Rebel Black”, in 1968. In short, for all of his adult life Barack Obama has chosen to closely associate himself with criminals, radical leftists and individuals with anti-American views. These associations have largely been ignored by the media. The recent efforts by Wright, Farrakhan and Shabaz are just an attempt to shield Obama from his bizarre past affiliations. It will not succeed. There is no way that the American people will permit another collaborative effort by the Obama team and the mainstream media to keep his sketchy and highly questionable history as secret as they did during his first campaign. They can try, but Wright, Farrakhan and Shabazz will never be able to erase their close relationship with Barack Obama. Neither can his long association with the terrorist Bill Ayers and people like Van Jones, Cass Sunstein and other advisers he appointed as czars so that they would not face Congressional examination. They are writing policies that will achieve the total transformation of America Obama wishes to achieve. If they are successful America will not survive.
Gene Williams |
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