Tagged: hypocrites

Posted: May 31, 2012 at 7:14 am

The Montana GOP Hypocrite of the Week Award Goes To…

…TEA Party Republican Rep. Janna Taylor has passed the official GOP legislator’s fit for duty exam. (No, a drug test was not involved.) Taylor says that what’s wrong for everybody else is very very right for her.

I’m talking of course about government money. Rep. Taylor is the number one recipient of government farm subsidy cash in the Montana Legislature. In fact, Taylor, one of Montana’s loudest and proudest Tea Partiers, and also the Montana House whip, has collected $1,000,000 over the last 10 years in federal cash farm subsidies, according to recently released figures.

But her campaign has a good defense. It goes something like this: “Well somebody had to take the money–the government keeps advertising it.” Principles to live by.

In a letter to the editor in the Missoulian recently, Taylor writes:

“Interestingly, as we try to remove land from the CRP, the federal government is advertising for more to be put in. The other programs are set up to decrease food costs for the public.”

Taylor’s been on the dole to the tune of a 100 grand annually for the last decade. Do we expect her to let that kind of cash fall off the money tree, hit the ground, and rot?

In the past, Taylor had written to voters that government spending concerned her because she was ”worried about the debt we leave our children.” But in her most recent missive, she’s just worried about getting the government cash for her own son:

“Now our son, a fourth-generation farmer, is working to keep us in agriculture. That’s not easy when our property taxes over there are over $28,000 yearly, workers’ comp, payroll, seed, fertilizer, fuel and the list of costs goes on and on. We pray he succeeds. Agriculture is the backbone of America.”

And hypocrisy is the backbone of the Montana Republican Party. Pat yourself on the back Rep. Taylor. You’ve wowed us once again.

Posted: May 29, 2012 at 8:35 pm

Attempted Bigamy

Neil Liviginstone, a.k.a. the Wannabe Most Interesting Man in the World, can often be found among the Helena Republican establishmenti with a woman on his arm whom he alternately introduces to everyone as his fiance and his wife. Her name is Cythia Tsai.

There’s only one problem. Livingstone’s wife is Susan Livingstone. Ms. Tsai is in fact his fiance. The Livingstones are still married but are apparently in the process of estrangement, as this legal document indicates [PDF].

Livingstone has made little effort to disabuse anyone of the notion that he and Tsai are married. Here is a screenshot of the photo from a Montana Public Radio profile describing her as his wife. The caption on the current version of the story has since been updated to read “fiance.”

And several pro-Livingstone commenters on this blog have also referred to her as his wife. Tsai is Livingstone’s Vice President at his Washington DC think tank, so Livingstone is going the Baucus route for sure.

Anyway, fiance it is. We wish the happy threesome well.

More importantly, this reminds me of a similar and hilarious item from a few years ago, when Dave Berg, a right-wing radio shock-jock from Billings, was revealed to have been married to two women at once. Here is the the hilarious transcript from the day he was busted:

Interesting Berg in the Morning Call Today:
Berg: I’ve got Lisa on our Helena line. Lisa has been hangin’ on so patiently there. Lisa are you there?
Caller: I’m here. Thank you.
Berg: Thank you very much for your call.
Caller: Yeah, I have a question about education. I’m wondering. I saw something on the internet about you, Dave Berg, and your involvement with bigamy. And I just want to know what kind of message you think that sends our kids when you’re married to two women at the same time.
Berg: I am married to two women at the same time?
Caller: According to the website (Berg laughs) you had two wives from the period of July 13, 1998 to July 15, 1999.
Berg: That’s news to me. Ha ha ha.
Berg: Who the? Whose?
Caller: Apparently your name, apparently your real name is Dave Fullwiler.
Berg: Whose? Whose website?
Caller: You wrote the book called “The Gripes of Wrath”
Berg: Whose, uh whose, whose website is that you’re taking it from?
Caller: This is on several websites. It’s all over the blogs across Montana.

Berg: My goodness, I want to see a copy of that. Thank you very much.
Caller: I would go to leftinthewest.com if I were you and check it out. There’s a ton of comments. People are really upset about it.
Caller: I’m going to be going to be calling advertisers of this station and letting them know that this is supposed to be a family values show. I mean, you talk about family values. What are you doing? This is unacceptable.
Berg: I would agree with you. I thank you very much Lisa for your call. I better check into that.
Berg: I better check into that.
Roy Brown: We need an education on that.
Berg: We certainly do.
Dave Rye: You’re listening to the family friendly and alcohol free–at least until he get’s off the air–Berg in the Morning. That’s a 60 second trip
across Montana. I’m Dave Ray.Northern News Network.
Bob Keenan: And one other thing David, if it was on the internet and it was on a blog site it must be true, Right?
Berg: Oh ho ho. Right, Absolutely. It’s in print, so it’s true.

Berg, who was so right-wing that he made Aaron Flint look like Bernie Sanders, later admitted being married to two women at once. After his past was revealed, it wasn’t long before he disappeared from the air.

Posted: December 26, 2011 at 11:43 am

Cowgirl Countdown 2011! The Top Ten Blog Stories of the Year

As 2011 draws to a close, in the next week, we will be counting down the Top Ten Cowgirl Stories of 2011. Each day will feature one of the top ten most popular blog posts of the year, based on total viewership. Also in the mix will be a few of my (and readers’) favorite stories from other Montana blog sites.

Today we begin with #10 and #9. The tenth most viewed Cowgirl blog of the year was Montana’s New Welfare Queens: Guess Who? Below is the reprint of that post (and the update to it (Republican Who Took $495,000 in Federal Subsidies Wants to Cut Education, Food Assistance)

Janna Taylor, one of Montana’s loudest and proudest Tea Partiers, and also the Montana House whip, has collected $1,000,000 over the last 10 years in federal cash farm subsidies, according to newly released figures.

State senator Bruce Tutvedt, another proud ultra-conservative who runs around Montana railing against excessive spending and the evils of “too much government”, has collected $643,063.

In fact, of the top 33 legislators in Montana who are recipients of federal farm assistance payments (which are cash payments that the government gives farmers for NOT growing crops), 30 are Republicans. They all claim some affiliation or solidarity with the Tea Party. All of them rail constantly against the federal government and excessive spending. Most of them just voted, last week, for the now infamous Montana Nullification Act, which would have allowed the state to selectively ignore federal law.

Taylor was the gal, mind you, who said that Governor Schweitzer had “grown government” so much that “the governor’s residence needs to befumigated when he leaves office.” And here is a peach of a response from Rep. Taylor, when confronted with the fact that she’s been on the dole to the tune of a 100 grand annually for the last decade: “I don’t control federal dollars. Talk to Senators Baucus or Tester.”

Speaking of Senator Baucus, and speaking of queens, Taylor’s husband ran for US Senate against Baucus in 2002, but dropped out when theDemocratic party ran an attack ad against him, using TV footage which tried to suggest, in a not so subtle way, that Mr. Taylor was once an “effeminate” hairdresser in a previous life. The TV ad also raised a more substantive issue: that Mr. Taylor had taken massive amounts of federal loans to start a beauty salon, which he had never repaid.

Amusingly, Mr. Taylor, in that pathetic 2002 effort to beat Baucus, had been giving speeches dressed up as Teddy Roosevelt, with wire-rimmed spectacles, a TR-style mustache and even donning a turn-of-the-century wardrobe.

I don’t know what TR thought of hairdressers, but he probably didn’t believe in anti-government, free-market-obsessed conservatives taking loans and not repaying them, or taking a hundred thousand dollars a year for not farming.

Tutvedt, too, has an interesting response when confronted with his own pile of checks that Clinton, Bush and Obama have written him for the last 14 years in federal assistance: he is preventing starvation. If there we’re a free market for crops, Tutvedt says, “people would starve or go hungry, and I’m not willing to go there.”

I never knew Tea Partiers were so worried about the neediest.

Posted: August 30, 2011 at 6:34 pm

Anti-Gay Republicans Caught Polishing Their Moral Compasses

The shoe dropped this week for two Republican legislators who built their careers advancing anti-gay bigotry and depriving citizens of basic rights.

A married anti-gay Republican state legislator from Indiana was caught paying a male teen $80 to meet up via Craigslist but vehemently denies he is gay, saying:

‘I went to the edge, but I didn’t fall over the edge.’

The Indiana state Rep, Republican Phillip Hinkle, also says he doesn’t know why he set up the meeting, but in emails released from the exchange with the teen Hinkle writes:

‘I am an in shape married professional, 5’8″, fit 170 lbs, and love getting and staying naked.’

Hinkle was the sponsor of the state’s “In God We Trust” license plates, and has voted against marriage equality.

In an unrelated instance, photos of another married, anti-gay Republican legislator, this time from Puerto Rico, surfaced on the gay hook-up site Grindr this week. The Republican says he can’t remember if he took the pictures of himself or not, but offered an excuse in case they turn out to be pictures of him:

‘You know I’ve been losing weight. As I shed that weight, I’ve been taking pictures.’

I ask those of you on a fitness program if this is the kind of picture you take to track your weight loss. Here’s the Gawker article reporting on the pic. Republican Roberto Arango has a history of supporting bigoted legislation and making bigoted remarks.

Posted: March 28, 2011 at 7:16 am

The Worst Kind of Hypocrites

Republicans are keeping up their track record of doing absolutely nothing on job creation, ostensibly what they were sent to Helena to work on, but they are doubling down on looking out for numero uno: Gutting health care benefits for their neediest constituents, while making sure their own families are taken care of.

Despite running campaigns largely focused on repealing government funded health care, and introducing dozens of bills designed to prevent the implementation of the program in Montana, the Missoulian is reporting that 95% of Republicans in the legislature take government health care benefits themselves: even as they voted to cut health care for seniors, Montanans with disabilities, and children.

This explains why Republicans opposed a simple measure to make transparent whether members of the legislature accepted government funded health care. Polling shows most Americans oppose health care hypocrisy. Most Republicans think those who campaigned against the health care bill should put their money where their mouth is and decline government provided health care now that they’re in office. [Public Policy Polling, 11/23/10]

A list of legislators taking the benefit can be found here.

Posted: February 24, 2011 at 7:19 am

Gossip for Your Weekend Cocktails

First, strong words from Wulfgar at A Chicken Is Not Pillage”

The next time some right wingnut tells you how the state is, you know that they’re lying or ignorant or both.

He makes the case for the statement well in this must read post. And if your friends are wondering what the GOP is saying about all the national negative attention,the post provides some great fodder for conversation in the form of a summary of what Montana’s rightwing blogs are saying(so we don’t have to go there.)

Second, are you heading out with some outdoor loving friends this weekend? Chat up your friends over beers on the deck at Great Divide with some of the latest and most intelligent discussion of Montana’s climate change denier (Note: He denies climate change is true, but if it is true, global warming is great stuff).

Finally, the item everyone will be talking about and the one thing you don’t want to miss listening to is the prank call to WI Gov Scott Walker by a gonzo journalist pretending to be national TEA Party bankroller David Koch: