Tagged: MT GOP

Posted: May 29, 2012 at 5:02 am

GOP Candidate is Convicted Felon

We Democrats can be proud of our candidates. The Republicans, not so much. The man pictured here is Ronald Lassle, the sole Republican candidate for the Montana Legislature in Helena’s House District 81.

An article on this race in the Helena IR mentioned that the TEA Party Republican candidate is a recipient of government assistance–but not that the GOPer is a convicted felon. The TEA Party opposes government assistance but has not taken a position against felons in office. The Montana GOP’s position on the practice is unknown. However, Lassle said of his recruitment in the IR that:

“he was urged to file for the HD 81 seat and said, “I’m very much a Republican.”

Lassle was sentenced to ten years for forgery, theft, and bad checks, according to the Department of Corrections Correctional Offender Network Search. He is currently on parole. While some states have made it illegal for a person to run for office as a felon, the practice appears to be legal in Montana. Lassle had been running in the GOP primary for Governor but later switched to running for the legislative seat. Perhaps he noticed that there were already several candidates in that race to appeal to the GOP’s seamier side.

Lassle will face Rep. Galen Hollenbaugh-D, who currently holds the seat. Lassle’s former gubernatorial running mate Mark Diaz is now running against Democratic Rep. Chuck Hunter for Helena’s House District 79. Oddly, Diaz lists Godisforus.ning.com as his candidate website.

Posted: February 21, 2011 at 7:28 am

Public Outcry Over GOP Hypocrisy, Lack of Focus on Jobs, Increases

This weekend, letters to the editor appeared in Sunday dailies across Montana decrying the focus of Montana TEA Party Republicans in the legislature on frivolous, anti-worker, unnecessary and hypocritical bills instead of jobs.

In Billings, Republicans raise hypocrisy to art form:

The governor proposes a balanced budget; Republicans counter with $497 million in cuts, but then increase their own per diem expenses. They vehemently oppose health care reform, but then enhance their own personal health insurance benefits. They propose business tax reductions, but underfund education, thereby increasing college tuition and forcing us to raise taxes through local school mill levies.

In Helena, Actions, rhetoric don’t match

In its rhetoric, the Republican Party claims to be the party of small government. The reality — at least as reflected in bills proposed in the Montana Legislature this session — suggests something else. Among the Republican proposals are several bills that intrude on privacy rights and individual liberties, including ones to require unnecessary medical tests (ultrasounds before abortions) and mandatory counseling (for couples seeking divorce). Other Republican-sponsored bills seek to take local control away from municipalities (overturning Missoula’s nondiscrimination ordinance) and from school districts.

In Butte, Sales opinion Tea Party spin

Americans for Prosperity and its hyped populist Tea Party, was started by the oil industry billionaire Koch Brothers of Koch industries, along with Rupert Murdoch who owns FOX News, and other lesser multimillionaires according to www.SourceWatch.org. Using such secretive front groups as AFP, these extreme right wing elites are engaged in a well-planned strategy to destroy unions, the presidency and the environment.

Even the Great Falls Tribune editorial page got in on the action:

We’ll close today with a 10-point code that we think ought to be the dominant topic in the Capitol right now:

Jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs.

Posted: February 8, 2011 at 6:51 am

So Stupid

Let’s face it. Sometimes politicians do stupid things. And yesterday, Derek Skees, R-TEA-~~Whitefish~~ Kalispell, may have won first prize in this category with his bills to to kill green energy jobs.

In 2004 there was not a single megawatt of wind power being generated in Montana, despite the fact that Montana is one of the windiest places in America. Neighboring states like Wyoming and the Dakotas had growing wind industries, but Montana, with dopes like Judy Martz and a 25-year entrenched Republican legislature, couldn’t be bothered to try to make an effort to help create this industry in our state.

Schweitzer and the Dems come in and put together a legislative package to bring wind production and transmission, with tax incentives and a renewable energy energy portfolio which requires utilities to use wind power if it is available. And the Governor lures some investment to the state by marketing opportunities to develop energy projects and sell power to places like California where demand for clean power is virtually unlimited. The result? We now have three to four hundred megawatts of wind power being generated and another several hundred about to go online in the next year, as well as transmission projects some of which are already under construction, creating a backbone for additional wind-farms and other electricity projects.

And what does the Right Wing do to help this effort, now that it has taken over the legislature? Monday, the legislature heard two bills introduced by a right wing nut from Kalispell (representing, oddly, a liberal district–Whitefish). Derek Skees proposed to bills that would together dismantle Schweitzer’s renewable energy incentives. (And increase taxes, did he forget what the T in T.E.A. stands for already?)

That makes great sense.

Posted: October 29, 2010 at 6:34 am

Courage Under Fire

Three cheers to Flathead County Commissioner Joe Brenneman for not taking the bait offered to him by Chuck Denowh’s Better Government PAC. When Denowh paid close to $5000 to five different Flathead Valley radio stations to attack Brenneman in his re-election bid, Brenneman countered with this radio ad about talking the truth and staying out of the muck:

JOE BRENNEMAN NON ATTACK

Brenneman, a former college educated English teacher who returned to operate his family’s dairy farm, has spent a lifetime shoveling the you know what and cleaning out the barn when necessary. Kudos to him for recognizing what end of the cow Denowh’s been cozying up to, and staying out of the line of fire.

Keep up the great work, Joe!

Posted: October 8, 2010 at 7:20 am

Kharacteristicly Klassy Komments

Kristi Allen-Gailushas, the GOP candidate for legislature who made the Montana TEA Party famous for her crusade against health and nutrition, has issued a statement of support of the misconduct of the Montana Shrugged TEA Party, who are subject of a recent complaint after allegedly running afoul of the law.

Says Ms. Allen Gailushas, in her Kharactaristicly Klassy Kommenting style:

Please, please, whatever you do, do not do what the Big Sky TEA Party did and bend over and grab the ankles. FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT the smears. I am behind you!!!

Posted: October 6, 2010 at 6:15 am

The Montana GOP Hypocrite of the Week Award Goes to…

…a trifecta of legislators: Representative Pat Ingraham, State Senator Greg Hinkle (both R-Thompson Falls) and Representative Gordon Hendrick (R-Superior).

Recently, as a writer to the Clark Fork Chronicle explained:

Republican state representatives Pat Ingraham and Gordon Hendrick and state senator Greg Hinkle met with Sanders County school administrators to talk about the school funding challenges facing the 2011 legislature. The meeting was arranged by Sanders County Treasurer Carol Turk who is running for re-election on the Republican ticket along with Ingraham and Hendrick. All three of the state officials expressed their concern about school funding issues. There “concern” would be a lot more credible if any of them had ever actually voted for state funding for education.

So each of these legislators count themselves as pro-education. If a bill came to the House or Senate that would improve educational opportunities for children, one assumes these pro-education legislators would propose to improve it, accept a few necessary small compromises and then enthusiastically support the proposal.

Yes, indeed, every Republican legislator is pro-education except when they are regularly anti-education. The state’s education leaders give Ingraham and Hinkle a 0% education voting record, and Hendrick a 15% (all are F’s).

Ingraham, Hinkle and Hendrick are all incumbent legislators which means that they swore to uphold the Constitution.
Here are three “constitutional upholders” that are masters at hypocrisy when it comes to the constitutional rights of Montanans, which include a guarantee of a quality education for all. Senator Greg Hinkle, Representative Pat Ingerham and Gordon Hendrick, step right up, you are the Montana Cowgirl Blog’s GOP Hypocrites of the Week for all your hard work at flouting intelligence out there in Western Montana.

Posted: September 9, 2010 at 7:19 am

Isn’t “Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness” One of Those Ten Commandment Things Joanne Blyton?

GOP Candidate Joanne Blyton, of Carbon County, has been caught telling untruths about the voting record of her opponent, State Representative Paul Beck (D-HD 59), during a presentation to a Boyd seniors’ group on August 19, 2010. According to an August 26, 2010 report in the Carbon County News (online version soon to be posted here when the Carbon County News has a spare moment), Blyton announced that Beck,

“…has consistently voted against Montana’s values. He voted against Montana Authority (HR3), against Montana Firearms Freedom (HB246), against Protection of Unborn Life (SB46), against Protection of Mothers-to-be (SB327), against Parental Nofification [sic] of abortion (SB374) and voted for Benefits for Domestic Partners (HB590).”

Only one of her claims was actually true. Here’s the deal:

HR3 is the only vote Blyton got right. It was a House resolution that Paul did indeed vote against. Which is smart because, as The Flathead Memo reports, it was essentially a piece of crap bill:

that panders to crackpots and zealots who want to lay a legal and political foundation for Montana’s secession from the United States.

Paul did not vote against HB246, the Montana Firearms Freedom Act like Joanne Blyton tried to say, he voted for this bill. So, yeah, that’s a lie.

As for SB46, SB327, SB374, and HB590, none of these bills made it out of committee–committees that Beck wasn’t even on.

Not only is Joanne Blyton’s credibility shot, reporters and bloggers will now take a close look at her her biography, website, and and other online and public remarks to uncover other falsehoods. Her lies insult every Montana citizen who has ever tried to make an informed vote.

Posted: August 4, 2010 at 9:54 pm

Facts kind of ruin everything for Roy Brown

Of the many distortions and false assertions put out by Republicans recently, the subset of these known as paranoid speculations or conspiracy theories certainly stands out.   Perhaps it is because the Republican party has been taken over by people whose vision of the state of things is conspiratorial and weirdly detached from reality.

So, when oil company executive and country-clubber Senator Roy Brown, (R-Billings) needed something to say to the tea-baggers, those plebian masses so far from Roy’s every understanding of uppercrust living, he of course decided to give them what they wanted.  But what kind of conspiracy theory could he pull off?

That’s when he stepped away from the bridge table, ingested whatever substance Roy Brown needs in order to get the creative juices flowing (one guess: Braggs Liquid Aminos) and told the hapless dupes that Montanans had a problem because  “…oil developers have been ‘chased out’ of the state…”. Problem is, however that the facts show differently. As the Billings Gazette reports, “Permit activity shows Montana oil back in play.”

These statements could result from a simple lack understanding of the oil industry and do not necessarily mean he is distorting the truth on purpose. Then again, this is the guy the call Big Oil Roy Brown. Thoughts?