Tagged: Jennifer Fielder

Posted: May 8, 2013 at 11:30 am

TEA Party Launches Bid for GOP Leadership

The TEA Party may have its own ticket among the candidates who seek to run the Montana Republican Party

Embattled TEA Party figure Tim Ravndal, who made headlines for his remarks that implied support for violence against gays, is floating a slate of candidates for GOP Chair and Vice Chair. Gary Carlson has already announced and put out a flyer listing his qualifications. Jennifer Fielder, a TEA Party legislator from Noxon with ties to the militia movement, is the second name.

In the past, the GOP has tried to give token support to the hard right wing of the party without actually letting them take full control. However, the battle we saw in the Montana legislature between the hard right leadership of Wittich, Priest, and Essmann and the more traditional GOP-ers is also likely to play out here.

Posted: March 11, 2013 at 8:31 pm

Here’s How Montana Legislators Marked International Women’s Day

by Cowgirl

On the eve of International Women’s Day, Montana legislators voted down a measure to increase the penalty for domestic violence. Meanwhile, they offered strong support for bills to increase the penalty for trespassing.

Under current law, a first domestic violence offense is punishable with a $100 fine and a night in jail. But last Thursday, the Senate Judiciary committee killed a bill by Democratic Rep. Jonathan Windy Boy that would have increased the minimum penatlies for domestic abuse from to $250 and the jail time to 72 hours for the first offense. (SB 362) Continue reading →

Posted: February 25, 2013 at 10:35 pm

Tea Party Proposes Law to Invalidate Police Roadblocks

by Cowgirl

Last year in Montana, a right-wing lunatic state legislator named Joel Boniek was hauled into court to answer charges that he’d sped through a roadblock in defiance of an officer’s order to keep out. Boniek was trying to get to his house, but his house was in an area where a forest fire was burning and had been evacuated and blocked off due to the emergency. As a devoted Tea Partier and general wingnut, Boniek did not recognize the authority of the policeman to keep him away from his private property. Also, during his encounter with the officer before he crashed the barrier, Boniek allegedly reached for a gun that he had with him in the front seat. As the Livingston Enterprise reports, he:

“allegedly argued with the officers and eventually ‘dropped his left hand near what looked like a holster’ before a deputy brought him to the ground….The deputy removed a loaded handgun from the holster, according to court documents.”

For his day in court, Boniek brought with him an angry mob of supporters, who shouted down the Judge and Prosecutor in such a menacing way that they fled the courtroom fearing for their safety. At that point, Boniek stood up and proclaimed himself regent over the courtroom, and decreed himself innocent of all the charges (before the bailiff told him otherwise, while brandishing his own weapon).

Boniek is no longer in the legislature, needless to say, so to rectify his situation he has apparently prevailed upon a new Tea Party legislator named Jennifer Fielder, to introduce a new law. This law, SB360, quite simply would allow a person to openly defy police authority and run a roadblock. The bill would allow such an action, even if it involved brandishing a weapon, to go unpunished.

Alas for stupid Boniek and Fielder, they don’t seem to be aware that you can’t get somebody off by the hook by passing a law after the fact.

Posted: December 7, 2012 at 7:42 am

Meeting of the Minds

In a little over a month, legislators from across Montana will descend on Helena to make the laws you must live by. Let’s meet them.

1-Rep. David Howard (R-TEA Park City), Chair of the House Human Services Committee. Rep. Howard is on the record saying he believes a Civil War is imminent

2-A FRONTLINE documentary reported that documents found in a meth house indicate potentially illegal collusion between a secretive right-wing group and Republican candidates. Files on Dan Kennedy, Wendy Warburton, Mike Miller, Ed Butcher, Bob Wagner, Joel Boniek, Jerry O’Neil and Derek Skees were found so far.

3-Rep. Roger Webb (R-Billings). This recently elected GOP-er was convicted of shooting his neighbors dogs to death. It was reported in MT’s largest newspaper.

4-We now have a legislator with ties to the militia movement. Yes, Sen. Jennifer Fielder (R-TEA Sanders County) was elected and will serve on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

5-Then there is the GOP legislator who when called by the press about a former UM student who accused him of sexual assault, handed the phone to his mom. Rep. Nicolas Schwaderer (R-~~Missoula~~ Mineral) denies the allegations. He has also threatened a defamation suit against anybody making “slanderous statements” against him. It is not known at this time whether mom will be coming to Helena with Rep. Schwaderer.

6-Rep. Jerry O’Neil (R-TEA Columbia Falls) demanded to be paid for his legislative acts in gold and silver. O’Neil has been ridiculed for his request in the national press. But recall that last session, half of the House of Representatives voted for Wagner’s bill to require the state of Montana to conduct all business in gold and silver. This includes current GOP Speaker of the House Mark Blasdel and Republican House Majority Leader Gordon Vance and many, many others who are back this session.

7-And let’s not forget Rep. Wendy Warburton and Rep. Kris Hansen (both of Havre) who co-hosted an event with former Gov. Judy Martz to tell Montanans that the War on Women is made up. Warburton has an explanation for the lack of GOP women candidates. She said a couple of years back, that “the biggest reason that more women who are Republicans don’t get into politics is because we are the pro-family party.” Yes ladies, GOP women are home raising kids like the women of the pro-family party should be.

8-After I first blogged it here, the Chair of the MT House Judiciary Committee TEA Party Republican Krayton Kerns (R-TEA Laurel) was featured in a popular Huffington Post story for his blog post claiming that moving some bison will “topple the Republic” and lead to $25/gallon gas prices. This month, Kerns’ concern is the “imminent collapse of society.”

9-The newest member of the MT House Education committee will be an interesting addition. Republican Rep. Sarah Laszloffy, age 19, is an alum of the Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry, where students of all ages come to learn how to live ”a supernatural lifestyle.” (And you thought Republicans opposed alternative lifestyles. Not true!)

According to the school’s website, Rep. Laszloffy and her fellow students learned how to “live the Bible,” —including useful skills such as “how to cast out demons” and other practical solutions to life’s most pressing problems. Bethel’s members also purport to have the ability to heal people through prayer and bring the dead back to life.

Perhaps the ability to bring people back from the dead will be useful. Former legislator turned Public Service Commissioner Roger Koopman threatened that if his fellow GOP legislators didn’t stop criticizing him, “Republican blood will flow in the streets.”

10-The outgoing GOP House Majority Leader, Tom McGillvray (R-TEA Billings). McGillvary tweeted (from his official Twitter account) that President Obama must release his college records so as to prove that he was not a “foreign exchange student” while he studied at Columbia and Harvard. McGillvray is termed out and his term will end this month.

Posted: November 7, 2012 at 7:26 am

UPDATED: Dems Make Small Gain in Legislature

As of the time of this posting, with vote counts still coming in, it looks like the make-up of the Montana senate may be 21 Democratic senators to 29 Republicans in the next legislative session. Democrats and Republicans appear to have won an equal number of the seats up for grabs, but Rs maintained an advantage in holdover senators.

During the 2011 session, there were 28 Republicans and 22 Democrats.

In the House, it looks like Democrats may pick up seven ~~five seats,~~ making that chamber 40 38 Democratic seats to 60 62 Republicans instead of 32-68 like the 2011 session. This will help Governor-elect Steve Bullock sustain his 2013 vetoes. UPDATE: As of 8:30 pm Wed evening, Dems have gained seven MT house seats. The Billings Gazette has the story.

All of the results STILL aren’t in yet, so this could change and the Dems could pick up more seats.

Here are a couple of highlights. I’m sure there more more, please add them in the comments.

GOOD:

Democrats Brad Hamlett and Greg Jergeson were successful in winning tough Senate races.
Democrat Ed Leiser is leading Tim Baldwin.
Tom Jacobson appears to have taken out TEA Partier Cleve Loney.
Reilly Neill (D) looks to have taken out Dan Skattum in an ATP targeted race.
And in Butte, Ryan Lynch took back Max Yate’s house seat for the Dems.
Newcomer Jenny Eck was successfull in keeping her Helena house seat blue.
Gary Marbut lost in Missoula.

BAD:

Janna Taylor and Dee Brown will be back in the Senate.
Militia-linked Jennifer Fielder is in from Sanders County is now a state senator.
Nicholas Schwaderer defeated Christine Johnson for the Superior house seat that was much in the news.
Dog killer Roger Webb is leading Wanda Grinde in Billings for the Heights senate seat, but all the votes aren’t yet in.
Warburton and Hanson will be back in the house. Though given the recent Frontline expose, she might be subject to a range of penalties, including removal from office, fines, or worse. The question is whether there is a prosecutor out there who is willing to begin looking into this stuff.
Liz Bangerter from Helena and Joanne Blyton from Red Lodge will be back as well.

Posted: October 10, 2012 at 8:00 am

GOP Candidate for Legislature has Militia Ties

A prominent member of a group linked to the Militia of Montana is running for legislature in Sanders County.

Republican Jennifer Fielder is a leader of the innocuous sounding Sanders Natural Resource Council–the organization is the latest incarnation of the Militia of Montana. Fielder, who is running for senate district 7, is on the group’s board of directors, according to her website. Here’s the screenshot.

Fellow Militia of Montana leader John Trochmann explains in this radio interview why the Militia of Montana is currently operating under the name Sanders National Resource Council–to evade detection by federal agents. Organizing an armed anti-government para-military group is against the law.

“For you federal agents that are listening, this movement is growing. There are sweet little units everywhere. Government, you figure it out…

Here in MT it is impossible to start an armed militia and take ‘em out and train them because of state laws…so if you want to train you have to do one thing at a time. You go out and target practice or you go out and do your skills as camping out or cold weather survival, especially like communications. We do that very well here, undetected hopefully…the name may be changed but we are still the same. “

Right now, that name is Sanders Natural Resource Council, Trochmann explains. If you wonder why the Militia of Montana would want to pose as an anti-environmental group, consider this. The militia leaders say that the biggest threat the militia sees right now is from attacks by “globalist organizations” of ”environmental wackos.”

The Sanders Natural Resource Council (pronounced “SNaRC” by locals) believes that conservationists who support wildlife management of local bear populations are part of a conspiracy to conduct surveillance on the militia movement. Here’s how the bear surveillance conspiracy works:

“If you try to do anything with these bears–they have collars on them. If you try to plug a bear and the heart stops there will be a satellite over the top you instantly to take your picture of you and call out the game wardens instantly.”

“What if you plug one of the game wardens?” the host asks. To be sure, the host goes on to clarify his remark :”I was being somewhat facetious–but only somewhat, with that.”

And so, to fight the ominous threat of bear-activated satellite surveillance systems, the SNaRC Militia set about spreading fear with a spree of “town hall” meetings. GOP candidate Jennifer Fielder led the meetings, saying the Forest Service was planning a conspiracy to close down the entire forest.

At the meetings, the militia members raved that private property rights are at risk over grizzly management lines that they only just learned of. Problem is, the bear management lines have actually been on the map for thirty years.

Besides legislative candidate Jennifer Fielder, nutjob all-stars Rep. Greg Hinkle (R-Spear Hunter) and Ron Olfert also participated in the conspiracy briefings. Hinkle is running for county commissioner. Olfert is running for, of all things, county administrator: an unpaid position that is responsible for ensuring indigent people who die get a decent burial. (This was the only other position available to run for after Olfert lost his county commissioner race last election).

The Militia of Montana organized from the remnants of an earlier organization, United Citizens for Justice. That was the group of angry white supremacists that formed in the 1990′s after the wife and son of white supremacist Randy Weaver were killed in a standoff with federal agents in Ruby Ridge, Idaho. The Alliance Defense League reports that “nearly all of its leaders and chief supporters were white supremacists, including Louis Beam, former ambassador at large for Aryan Nations.”

If Fielder is elected, expect another “secession session” focused on militia favorites like we saw in 2011. The gold standard, making sheriffs the supreme law of the land, armed militias etc–at a greater level even then we saw last time from Greg Hinkle, Derek Skees, Jerry O’Neil and crew.