Posted: January 4, 2013 at 9:24 pm

Daines’s First Votes

Steve Daines, HypocriteSteve Daines took his first votes on behalf of Montanans in Congress this week, the Havre Daily News reports.  Daines was one of only 67 Republican members of the House who voted against a measure to send relief money to victims of hurricane Sandy, which passed with 354 votes.

Montana has benefited from federal disaster relief in the past–for floods, fires, and droughts, and likewise we should help members of the other 49 states when they are similarly in need.  Daines may think he’s earned himself some kind of conservative street cred by voting against the funds.  But the vote shows Daines to be coward rather than a conservative hero. That’s because it’s easy to vote against something when you know it’s going to pass anyway.  Ounce for ounce, Montanans are more charitable than any people in America, and Daines should be representing the state accordingly.

But while Daines tried to defend his vote by saying he opposes any government spending, his actions show otherwise.  Daines also voted this week for an increase government in spending. He voted to give Congressional lawyers more money to defend the so-called “Defense of Marriage Act” (DOMA) which unconstitutionally denies hundreds of benefits to legally married same-sex couples, as From Eternity to Here reports.

97 comments

  2. Brigham

    In between voting for Boehner and against disaster relief, he also took time to vote against equality.

  3. Rjango

    How was the disaster relief going to be paid for again? What’s that? It was going to go on the debt load continuing to be piled on future generations. Oh, that’s real “compassion” isn’t it?

    • Larry Kralj, Environmental Rangers

      Gubmint TITsucker alert! How much hated gubmint you suckin’, bugnuts? And just for the record, highest grade level achieved?

    • The Polish Wolf

      “piled on future generations.”

      But letting the East Coast languish or going into State debt to rebuild would have been a gift to our grandchildren, right?

  4. MTNativeEyes

    Montanans are neighborly and believe in something larger than themselves. Daines is a symptom of a fearful, immature, and selfish age. Be generous. Pray for generosity. Be patient; your actions may benefit a generation yet to come, long after Mr. Daines is merely an historical embarrassment.

  6. Publius II

    Well Rjango, I’m sure other in Congress will NOT forget when it comes time for
    the FARM BILL..that’s WHY RURAL AMERICA – where I live – is having less impact and accordingly getting less respect from the rest of America, when good rural folks ‘hijacked’ by tea party fanatics who make every rural citizen appear to be a loon clutching to our machine-guns and old testaments.

  7. Norma Duffy (@Ilikewoods)

    I guess people dont realize that Climate change Made Hurricane Sandy the biggest ever national disaster to hit our shore. So RJango, you see millions of people bought flood insurance in those areas… by the way, these were smart people who figured the money would be there… except it wasn’t. Why? because the GOP Caucus has been defunding and stealing that governmental money and trying to shut that program down for years to fund their pet projects. Like wars

    You Climate Deniers are also trying to shut down NOAA, the Government weather service, that told millions to get out of the way, before the storm hit. Hundreds of thousands of Americans would have died needlessly in that storm, if not for the weather service the Government provides.

    The Government protects the Farmers in Our state, it has affordable weather, drought and flood insurance for the farmers here… and what your saying is that people shouldn’t even have the chance to invest in that protection either? Cause disasters cost to much???

    Pathetic!

    • Craig Moore

      Norma, it’s BS to link disasters in that fashion. Even the IPCC cautions otherwise: “There is low confidence in any observed long-term (i.e., 40 years or more) increases in tropical cyclone activity (i.e., intensity, frequency, duration), after accounting for past changes in observing capabilities.”

      See also:
      http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204840504578089413659452702.html

      By the way, climate change can’t even crack the top 12 with progressives: http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/12/31/1356591/progressive-resolutions-for-2013/?mobile=nc

      • Norma Duffy AKA @Ilikewoods

        Craig it sits within the top ten of the White House! I stand with the president on his list.

        • Craig Moore

          Have you noticed his tendency to demagogue issues and do otherwise like Gitmo? http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2013/01/20131485117864690.html

          Human rights groups are denouncing President Barack Obama’s failure to veto a defence bill that will make it far more difficult for him to fulfill his four-year-old pledge to close the Guantanamo detention facility this year.

          Obama had threatened to veto the 2013 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) precisely because it renewed, among other things, Congressional restrictions which he said were intended to “foreclose” his ability to shut down the notorious prison, which has been used for the past 11 years to detain suspected foreign terrorists.

          But, for the second year in a row, he failed to follow through on his threat and instead signed the underlying bill, which was passed by both houses of Congress last month and authorises the Pentagon to spend $633bn on its operations in 2013.

          “President Obama has utterly failed the first test of his second term, even before Inauguration Day,” said Anthony Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). “He has jeopardised his ability to close Guantanamo during his presidency.

          “Scores of men who have already been held for nearly 11 years without being charged with a crime – including more than 80 who have been cleared for transfer – may very well be imprisoned unfairly for another year,” Romero added.

          “The administration blames Congress for making it harder to close Guantanamo, yet for a second year, President Obama has signed damaging congressional restrictions into law,” noted Andrea Prasow, senior counter-terrorism counsel at Human Rights Watch (HRW). “The burden is on Obama to show he is serious about closing the prison.”

          • Norma Duffy AKA @Ilikewoods

            When we get to that Issue mister “Change the subject” Ill argue with you on it. and argue with you as well. Stop changing the subject! Lets get our own people right first on this Sandy issue. Unless you wish to keep muddying the waters….. Then Ill just ignore you!

        • Norma Duffy AKA @Ilikewoods

          I am not considered a progressive Liberal Craig, Never have! Center left, with science and fact thrown in for good measure. I do however believe in Jeffersons view:

          “A nation, as a society, forms a moral person, and every member of it is personally responsible for his society.”

          and in Teddy Roosevelt view: “This country will not be a good place for any of us to live in unless we make it a good place for all of us to live in.”

          “Americanism is a question of principles, of idealism, of character: it is not a matter of birthplace or creed or line of descent.”

          A lot of my heroes from American History were republicans. Real men who gave a shit when people were hurt by Natural disaster, but You current GOP abandoned morality and experience for the stupidity and greed of today… You cant budget in National disasters, nor can you ignore their possibilities, or the people caught up in them.

          • Craig Moore

            That is so much crap. Congress has many votes. The Sandy funding could have happened when they reconvened. Forcing attention to do something with the unsustainable Federal Flood Fund is not all bad. Toooooo much is pushed off for others to address. Real insurance sustainability depends on properly setting deductibles, coverage exemptions, limits, and premiums. It’s time to address reality. With Sandy, the Fund is now about 30B in the red with no plan to arrest the trend.

            • Larry Kralj, Environmental Rangers

              How bout we balance dipshit daines disaster cuts with some WELFARE farmer and rancher cuts?

              I thought not. Yellow runs deep in disphit’s veins!

              • Larry Kralj, Environmental Rangers

                Deputy Dog Dipshit Daines stopped a CRIME! A CRIME I tell ya! We should be HONORING our little pissant! He risked his pathetic little life to stop a crime! No, I’m serious on this one!

                http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/05/charles-krauthammer-sandy-rape-treasury_n_2415772.html

                Good Lord when will SOMEONE, ANYONE in the press call these cheese dicks out? NPR is too busy doing their lost dog reports I guess…..

                bwhahahahahahhahahahahahaha!

                HEY, SOMEone has to do it, right? Why not sally mockery who was SO stoopid that when she was interviewing a “contractor” going to Iraq, that she thought he was a carpenter! I shit you not. The woman is an idiot. Anyone out there still contribute to the LD Times, the lost dog times???

                bwhahahahahahahahahhahaa!

        • Craig Moore

          One thing more to go with his demagoguery is his inaction. Under his presidency the US did NOT join Kyoto. Now we have Russia joining with Canada, New Zealand, and Japan to leave it’s requirements. China, like the US, never signed up.

          • Norma Duffy AKA @Ilikewoods

            Your all over the Map here Craig. Daines first order of business was to defend Americans who by no fault of their own were hurt by a natural disaster, the size which has never been seen before. No Matter what the cost we must protect them. that is the way a government works. that is why we have a government. HE FAILED miserably!

            Private insurance would not take a risk on flood insurance because it would hurt their profits. that is why Private Companies should not run the Government. to many unknowns in the real world. Thats why the government is there. You Tea-baggers are out of your league here…. You dont believe in Innovation, research, or studies that help us understand how the world works either.

            Jesus will fix all that? Right? Your all becoming Barking mad!

            • Craig Moore

              Norma, your claim that Sandy was of a size never before seen is false. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/25/science/25FLOO.html?ex=1036561678&ei=1&en=e5dc7574d4eeadfb

              Four times since the last ice age, at intervals roughly 3,000 years apart, the Northeast has been struck by cycles of storms far more powerful than any in recent times, according to a new study. The region appears to have entered a fifth era in which such superstorms are more likely, the researchers say.

              Fix that first.

                  • Craig Moore

                    Keep in my that using the phrase “largest ever” is mere opinion and not scientific since it is not testable. It needs parameters such as “Since 1990…” There have been very severe hurricanes hitting the East Coast that go back in time: http://www.geo.brown.edu/georesearch/esh/QE/Publications/GSAB2001/JDonnelly/Succotash/Succotash.htm#Figures

                    700 yr Sedimentary Record of Intense Hurricane Landfalls
                    in Southern New England
                    Donnelly J. P., S. S. Bryant, J. Butler, J. Dowling, L. Fan, N. Hausmann, P. Newby,
                    B. Shuman, J. Stern, K. Westover and T. Webb III
                    GSA Bulletin Volume 113 no. 6, pages 714 –727 (June 2001)

                    Five intense (category 3 or greater) hurricanes occurring in 1635, 1638, 1815, 1869, and 1938 have made landfall on the New England coast since European settlement. Historical records indicate that four of these hurricanes (1635, 1638, 1815, and 1938) and hurricane Carol, a strong category 2 storm in 1954, produced significant storm surges (.3 m) in southern Rhode Island. Storm surges of this magnitude can overtop barrier islands, removing sediments from the beach and nearshore environment and depositing overwash fans across back-barrier marshes, lakes, and lagoons. In a regime of rising sea level, accumulation of marsh, lake, or lagoon sediments on top of overwash, deposits will preserve a record of overwash deposition.

                    We examined the record of overwash deposition at Succotash salt marsh in East Matunuck, Rhode Island, and tested the correlation with historical records of intense storms. Aerial photographs taken after hurricanes in 1954 and 1938 show overwash fans deposited at the site. Analysis of 14 sediment cores from the back-barrier marsh confirmed the presence of these fans and revealed that four additional large-scale overwash fans were deposited within the marsh sediments.

                    The four overwash fans deposited since the early seventeenth century at Succotash Marsh matches the historical record of significant hurricane-induced storm surge. These fans were most likely deposited by hurricanes in 1954, 1938, 1815, and either 1638 or 1635. Radiocarbon dating of two prehistoric overwash fans indicated that these were deposited between A.D. 1295–1407 and 1404–1446 and probably represent intense hurricane strikes. In the past 700 yr, at least seven intense hurricanes struck the southern Rhode Island coast and produced a storm surge that overtopped the barrier at Succotash Marsh.

                    • Norma Duffy @Ilikewoods

                      2001 thats how far you have to go back in time to make your Point Bwahahahaha. Why cant you bring up the lasest data dude. They hadn’t even had a definition for Frankinstorms yet when that GSA Report came out.

                    • Norma Duffy @Ilikewoods

                      Experts at NOAA called sandy a hurricane. I gave you the link to these experts? It is still the Biggest Hurricane ever, why are you nitpicking again????

                      You lost the argument dude. Hurricanes are major storms which have sustained winds of at least 74 miles-per-hour (mph) and form over oceans. Sandy was 75 miles an Hour with hurricane-force winds recorded as far as 100 miles away from the eye of the storm.

                    • larry kurtz

                      No other hurricane since 1851 has had a track like #Sandy in the NY area. #ams2013

                      RT @WSJweather

  8. Norma Duffy (@Ilikewoods)

    Daines is turning out to be a carbon copy of Rehberg. A Man more interested in enriching his pockets then the constituients that sent him to Washington. He is there only to hunt down lobbyists for his own endeavors. I hope he loses as much money as Rehberg did. Loses as Much credibility, and gets replaced with a person who has the gravitas to govern for the people. Cant come soon enough!

  9. Turner

    It’s very important that we make Daines a one-term representative. He needs to be targeted in 2014. I don’t think Montanans realized he’d be this bad.

  10. Gabby Johnson

    Daines just voted to walk away from an insurance contract, just like he’ll vote to walk away from the contract requiring the country to pay what it owes when the debt limit bill comes up.
    I wouldn’t buy a car from the man.
    I wouldn’t sell him one either.

  12. James Conner

    Daines joined the Hamas wing of the GOP when he voted against helping pay for flood insurance claims. He’s still learning, so there’s an argument for cutting him some slack; every dog gets one bite. But if he keeps casting votes like this, he won’t be eligible to join the compassionate conservative caucus.

    The Washington Post has a useful story on the situation: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/house-approves-97b-in-sandy-aid-with-some-republican-dissent/2013/01/04/6a232c1c-5681-11e2-bf3e-76c0a789346f_story.html?hpid=z2

    • Larry Kralj, Environmental Rangers

      Wonder if this little dipshit daines is gonna go to the Montana welfare farmers and ranchers and tell’em they’re on their OWN now?! No mo of that hated gubmint money! Tuff luv and tuff shit!

      But James, you didn’t listen carefully to the debates, didja? What you see is what he is, a pathetic little kochsucker! He didn’t hide nuthin’! It was all in there. He’s a walking talking talking point little nothing of a man of god. He’s Dopey Reeburp without the cowboy hat. He lifted himself up by his own bootstraps and his own LIPS attached firmly to the big kochs!

      But ya gotta wonder if he’s gonna be so bold with Montana’s moochin’ welfare farmers and ranchers? I doubt it!

  13. Norma Duffy AKA @Ilikewoods

    Most republicans like Daines forgot how Obama helped Farmers when the Government bought 200 million dollars of Beef, Pork Lamb and catfish in August 2012 because of the drought. Obama said he also directed the Defense Department to speed up purchases and hold the meat for later use. The buying will help farmers, and the government will get a better price on products than if they were bought later, he said.

    “We’ll freeze it for later — but we’ve got a lot of freezers,” Obama told supporters in Council Bluffs as he kicked off a three-day visit to Iowa, a swing state that is also the country’s leading producer of pork, soybeans, corn and ethanol. “That will help ranchers, you know, who are going through tough times right now.” http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-08-13/obama-to-urge-agriculture-bill-as-usda-buys-170-million-of-meat

    Since August last year the senate farm bill has languished in the GOP lead house. yet the Majority of Farmers and Ranchers here in Montana vote for assholes like Daines and Romney. Do the dummies know they are slitting their own livelihoods voting for Jerks like the GOP??? Probably Not! Because Fox news and other right wing punditry sites wouldn’t tell them the black President has their back in times of adversity!

    • Larry Kralj, Environmental Rangers

      Don’t worry, Norma. God tol’ Mini Mitt Daines that new yorkers are bad and welfare farmers are good! You see, there’s lots of atheeists and minoritees and liebruls in them there big cities, and god doan LIKE them kinda peeples ’cause they’re not real christian. But dipshit daines KNOWS that the welfare farmers here in Montany are the salt of the gubmint titty suckin’ earth! He will never touch farmer welfare money. You see, there’s phoney, and phoney baloney, and then there’s TEATARD phoney! That’s little dipshit daines! Friend of the welfare farmer!

      • Norma Duffy AKA @Ilikewoods

        HOw they gonna know they are voting for salt of the earth people, when they gave them all up for corporate Jesus long ago…. Them “Salt of the earth” folks wear signs in there backs or somethin???? Just saying! LOL I think the signs say, “kick me” myself!

      • Larry Kralj, Environmental Rangers

        p.s. You wanna know what would really be nice? And timely? If even ONE of our state dailies would find the courage to write an editorial letting the rest of the country know that we Montanans do not ALL agree with this teatardian, bachmanalian, uncompassionate, nutless little twit!

        I guess we can always dream, can’t we? But that’s a pipe dream I know. But still, maybe they could at least gentley remind the little twit that he must represent DECENT Montanans too, not just the nutless little gubmint suckin’ teatards like himself!

        I guess he thinks it courageous to suck a big kochk! But really, it makes him look the fool who can’t understand nuance!

  14. Richard Miller

    I think his solution to the problems we all need more computers. This man is nothing but trouble for our state. He is all self interest and nothing else. Almost wish we had old Denny back;)

  15. Larry Kralj, Environmental Rangers

    Jumpin’ CEEment Jaysus! A Dem with some common sense! What’s that all about???

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/06/heidi-heitkamp-gun-control_n_2420775.html

    Lay off the gun control shit or kiss the Dem party good bye!

    “Bye”, as in God be with ye, or the more shortened form, good bye! (sorry, that’s the teacher in me comin’ out!)

    But in any event, the Dems do NOT need to keep doin’ self-destructive shit!

    Look, when we FINALLY get to see the Kennedy assassination report, and when we FINALLY get a real investigation of 9-11, then maybe I’ll trust the gubmint enough to tell them how many guns I have! But until then, F*CK’EM! When guns are outlawed, only cops will have guns!…and fascist bastards like eric prince and toilet water!

    • Craig Moore

      Larry, here’s a fellow Lefty that has concerns like you: http://kontradictions.wordpress.com/2012/08/09/why-not-renew-the-assault-weapons-ban-well-ill-tell-you/

      It’s not easy being a leftist who loves guns. It’s like being a Republican who listens to NPR or supports single payer health care. But being a leftist, I get exposed to all the liberal publications and media that invariably call for gun control every time someone does something stupid with one. Being a gun enthusiast, I also get exposed to the political Right’s oversimplification of those liberals as somehow lacking moral fiber or true appreciation of freedom. Rather than agreeing with both, I tend to end up arguing with both. It’s exhausting to always feel like I’m apologizing for the other “side”…

      If gun control advocates want to actually have meaningful discussion and debate about the “assault weapon” and “high capacity” ban, they MUST address these questions:
      - Why ban cosmetic features?
      - Why ban guns used in a mere 2% of crime?
      - Why base gun control legislation on rare and statistically insignificant mass shootings to begin with?
      - Why ban magazines that have been consistently sized since their invention?
      - How would banning these magazines have saved lives, given that all a shooter needs is multiple magazines and 3 seconds of time (i.e. Cho)?
      - How will a ban on either these weapons or magazines reduce crime, since there are many millions of them legal and available anyway, especially since production has ramped up after the ban’s expiration?

      And most importantly:
      After a decade of failure, why assume that the bans will reduce violent crime THIS time around?

      • larry kurtz

        It’s being reported that the President has staked out a bold initiative on determining the locations of the existing constituent private armories and to hold the NRA membership personally responsible by publishing financial ties.

        Newbies like Daines are being loaded like cannon fodder: let the wild rumpus start.

      • Larry Kralj, Environmental Rangers

        Good article. It IS damn hard bein’ a lefty who supports the Second Ammendment. You cannot seperate the history of the gun from the history of our country. The rifled barrel made us succesful against the British, and the gun settled the west. Can you even IMAGINE bagging a griz with a gun of the Lewis and Clark expedition? 1793 government issue! Guns are part of our history. They ain’t goin’ anywhere any time soon. And the Dems are dumber than doghshit to be pissin’ up this rope…..AGAIN! Guns ARE who we are, and I’m one lib who is totally against gun control. Look, when guns are outlawed, only Blackwater will have guns. I can’t abide that.

  17. Hi-Liner

    I can’t say I’m surprised Daines turned out to be a complete moron and hypocrite. His entire campaign strategy was to keep his mouth closed about his true views–now, we see the real Daines.

  18. larry kurtz

    Excise taxes of 100% on sales retroactive to 1990 on any magazine or firearm capable of holding over ten rounds: any questions?

  19. Dave Skinner

    Oh, for crying out loud. That Luckovich cartoon is a fossil from a previous century. And good old Commander Kurtz comes up with a way to punish, by golly, PUNISH those magazine evildoers.
    Problem is, I got my mags cheap, some of my toys cheaper, there’s been inflation since, and darn, I lost my receipts! I don’t even know what I actually have! Darn!

    • Larry Kralj, Environmental Rangers

      I just hope that you don’t own any KAHRs! They’re made by the son of the thankfully deceased Rev. Sun Myun Moon! (aka Jesus) Kahrs are MOONIE guns! Made by his son, appropriately named Kook Moon! I shit your not!

      I was lookin’ into an Auto Ordincance 1911, but they have been bought out by Kahr. So, back to Springfield I go! Sumthin’ REAL unAmerican about a company that claims to be American but is ACTUALLY owned by a Kook!

    • Norma Duffy @Ilikewoods

      Poor Dave, It bothers him a cartoon still holds true after a few years!Cause the guns obviously have gotten more powerful!

  20. Larry Kralj, Environmental Rangers

    Gawd DAM it’s good to have Alan back! Nobody does it better than Alan Grayson! And really, he must’a been lookin’ at little dipshit daines when he said this! This is too funny, AND too true!

    http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/01/07/rep-grayson-mocks-bath-salts-caucus-for-voting-against-sandy-relief/

    Right outta the gate dipshit daines embarrasses the state! Jumpin’ CEEment Jaysus! It even took sen. cornhole BURNS a little while to get warmed up! Daines is good, REALLY good in the dumbass dept!

  21. larry kurtz

    Believe it or not our numbers tomorrow show there’s not a whole lot of support for putting more guns in schools

    RT @ppppolls

  22. larry kurtz

    GOP, NRA universally hated:

    The NRA’s focus on putting more guns in schools is likely what’s driving the decline in the organization’s image. Only 41% of voters support the organization’s proposal to put armed police officers in schools across the country, with 50% opposed. Public Policy Polling

  24. Lynn

    I can only imagine was the gang wars would have been like with AR-15′s……5 to ten times the deaths

    • Dave Skinner

      Actually, gang wars amongst gangstas with AR’s would probably have a good long-term effect. Out of the gene pool, never in prison for us to feed, house and guard. Look at the context of such a thing — I mean, we’re all Darwinists here, right?

      • Rob Kailey

        Let me put this in terms you might understand. If gang wars were fought as you might envision, Skinner, then the people who would survive would be the most loathsome, evil and vicious. As if such a thing could occur, (it doesn’t) they would pass those genes onto their progeny, and strengthen the pool of EVIL VICIOUS super villains. Does it give you a stiffy thinking about that?

        • Lynn

          You guys have never had to dive for cover on the way to or from work…. or made sure you were standing behind the cement trash can at a bus stop…….

        • Dave Skinner

          Oh, you mean like the Mexican drug wars or the Colombian cartel conflicts, or Chitcago? Where nonparticipants are unarmed and unable to do anything?
          The sick fact is that fratricide of nasties is not always a bad thing. And pardon me if I think that society is better off when truly bad people off each other, hopefully before passing on their genes.
          I am now reading a DOJ study that shows a shamefully high rate of murder for, yep, young black men. I knew the numbers would stink, but I had no idea it was so far off the charts, way out of proportion to the share of population. Is the problem centered on guns, culture, or lack thereof? You tell me.

      • larry kurtz

        Hey Skinner: what about building a trillion-dollar platinum drone that could be deployed at Malmstrom AFB? You could stamp ‘em with “In God We Trust” and John 3:16 then go kill a few children in Pakistan: you’d love that.

        • Dave Skinner

          Guess what, Shorty?
          I don’t like drones except in narrow circumstances. Domestic UAVs upset me greatly. I’m not even sure if I like the idea of deployment overseas, unless the target is righteous. But your sarcasm is misdirected, which is par for you.

          • Larry Kralj, Environmental Rangers

            Dave, what is the best gun for bringing down domestic drones in your estimation? For you see, I would really like to know. Again, I still want to bring one down to send the approriate message, which is DON’T SPY ON ME! And then, after bagging a drone, I would ask for a jury of my peers.

            Or as we used to say in the latrine, we’re all equal here, for we’re all pee’ers!

            p.s. Is there a season on drones? Are they are go gut and skin??

            • Larry Kralj, Environmental Rangers

              Ooops! Should read, “are they hard to gut”? Too many Guiness makes jack a pisspoor speller!

            • Dave Skinner

              I don’t know personally, Larry, but I do know the SHARC animal-rights people were trying to bust a dove hunt in Illinois or Indiana a couple of years ago. They flew the drone over private property only to be met by the line of advance. The drone crashed and the state dismissed SHARC’s lawsuit to get it back — “trespassing.”
              I’m sorry, but I want only manned aircraft watching me — combination of size and expense meaning it would be by nature inherently limited.
              There’s been a lot of talk about making drones for “homeland security” in Montana, really groovy high-tech jobs, ya know. Dang it, there better be bench warrants for any flights, but that’s a faint hope, eh?
              And yet Shorty, for all his handwringing, wants me to register my guns? I need to get over to the sandbox and steal some shoulder-fired missiles.

              • larry kurtz

                The Sioux Falls Argus Leader in South Dakota has already deployed an UAV as many other media outlets are: only a matter of time before a Montana outlet does it.

              • Larry Kralj, Environmental Rangers

                Well, I still would like to bag a drone. For you see, I really MEAN it when I say that I would simply ask for a jury of my peers. Hell, if those stupid bastards send me to jail for bagging a surveillance drone, well then, the country is totally fucked anyway, and at LEAST I’d have health care in jail.

                I have a good buddy, a Marine in ‘Nam, who tells me that’s his retirement plan anyway. Only half jokingly. When he’s too old to care for himself, he’s gonna rob a bank, sit in front, and wait for the cops!

                Sad but true story. He’s a great guy, but if you knew his history, you’d understand why. Some folks just weren’t mentally equipped to wipe out villages.

            • larry kurtz

              In the ’60s and ’70s the NRA pushed gun control out of fear of the Black Panther Movement and now the temporary spikes in gun and ammo sales are boosting stock prices for weapons manufacturers.

              But this spike will collapse as people barricade themselves in their homes and the NRA wins as President Obama’s measures to keep the economy from tanking.

              The US is fucked no matter what happens.