Call to Action

This letter was written by the cutie standing next to me in the picture at the top of this blog, and she managed to get it published in almost every paper in the state!

On the 100th anniversary of Montana women’s right to vote, everyone’s right to vote is at stake in the 2014 election! Few Montanans can compete with $10,000 to $425,000 donations.

Daily, corporate fundraisers are the newest fad in Washington, D.C., thanks to fewer anti-corruption rules. Only 28% of Ryan Zinke’s donations and 33% of Steve Daine’s donations come from Montanans compared to 70% of John Lewis’s funds. Zinke’s recent fundraiser cost $10,000/couple with John Boehner who leads the most unpopular U.S. Congress ever, with only a 10% approval rating. Steve Daines collected $425,000 from a Wall Street billionaire and his vulture capitalists who profit from failure.

Your vote is extremely important in 2014!

In 2012, the conservative U.S. Supreme Court Justices, many whom were nominated with a religious promise to strike down a woman's right to vote in her own reproduction, struck down Montana's 1912 Corrupt Practices Act, now diminishing all US citizens’ right to vote in elections.

As a result, in 2012, 75% of Montanans voted for a referendum directing Montana's two U.S. Senators and one U.S. Congressman to create a U.S. Constitutional Amendment to stop unlimited corporate money from buying elections, echoing our 1912 referendum. In September 2014, Republican U.S. Senators blocked this bill.

Can you afford to buy politicians?

To preserve the power of the vote, vote for intelligent, 35 year old, math teacher Amanda Curtis to be Montana’s first female U.S. Senator! Stop voting for the most unpopular U.S. Congress ever, vote for John Lewis for U.S. House!

Use this letter to get your community to vote Amanda Curtis and John Lewis starting October 6th at your county courthouse!

Judicial Hi-Jinx

If you have been following James and the Cowgirl concerning the hi-jinx surrounding the Van Dyke candidacy for the Montana Supreme Court, then you likely noticed the whole scheme is way off.  Senator Tester called Stanford and affiliates to the mat for meddling in our elections.

Looking outside of Montana, a C&L commentator's tip  eventually led me to learn that outside money is pouring into Illinois, Michigan, Montana, Missouri, North Carolina, and Tennessee. Then Tom Glover from the Bozeman Democrats tweeted this link about a politically disrupting conservative with strong ties to Coca Cola and Stanford University.

Coca Cola? Riverdaughter at the Confluence picked up on something unsavory about Coca Cola's  political spending .  The excessive and secretive political spending is unsettling to say the least. Returning to the topic of Van Dyke's candidacy, Rob Breeding notes that our Stream Access Law is simply one of the issues at stake in the Supreme Court election.

While Rob chose to focus exclusively on the potential threat to our Stream Access Law, I chose to look at Van Dykes campaign report with the understanding that it is just the tip of the iceberg. One item that stood out was the number of donations by members of the Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher law firm. Notable clients include Wal Mart, Kraft, & Viacom, past cases include Bush V Gore. Ugly stuff, but somebody has to defend them, and lawyers do need to eat, just like the rest of us.

That said, I am disgusted with the way Chevron got off Scott free for all of the environmental and human damage their company caused. Here is a little more meat and background of the Chevron story. Let us not overlook the Dole Food Co. (DOLE), Fresh Del Monte Produce Inc. (FDP) and Dow Chemical Co. (DOW) were sued by more than 1,000 banana plantation workers from Costa Rica, Ecuador and Panama in a new round of cases claiming injury from a pesticide.
The chemical, dibromochloropropane, has been linked tosterility, miscarriages, birth defects, cancer, eye problems,skin disorders and kidney damage, according to eight separate complaints filed since May 31 in federal court in Delaware.
The pesticide, banned in the U.S. in 1979, was sprayed on fields to eliminate microscopic nematode worms, and workers “wore no gloves, protective covering or respiratory equipment” and none of the defendants “ever informed them that they were in danger,” the plaintiffs said in court papers.

Factoring the Chamber of Commerce's renewed insistence of Tort Reform  into the equation and our entire existence has the potential to become a toxic wasteland. Speaking of wasteland, we are currently in protracted negotiations with our county officials about the way we manage our refuse. It does not seem as if they are responsive to our needs and wants at all.

Photo Credit  and Story about the business of collecting waste

. Remember, Jon Sonju did manage to squirm a tricky cookie cutter bill that restricts local governments from beginning their own garbage service removal if there is a private service available.

It is rather interesting to note the waste disposal companies donations to Mark Blasdel's campaign

What industries are funding your candidates?