Water, Welfare and Waste

I find our *so called* conservative led Legislatures efforts to control all of our assets from food stamps, public lands and our waters ironic at best because while they pay so little attention to conditions and needs of the people they supposedly represent, our conservatives are eager to waste everything from time to our health by way of nonsensical grandstanding to gain public approval for attacking the poors to threatening to blow fifty-five million dollars on a lawsuit over the Water Compact.(Keith Regier)

It is doubtful that any of them are aware that there were 295 oil well blowouts and spills in Montana between 2009-2013 including 83 in 2012.


The Indy reported that fracking had polluted the water near Poplar eleven months before a second pipeline burst on the Yellowstone River last Saturday, but safe drinking water does not begin arriving until Tuesday Morning.

One resident affected by both Yellowstone River spills,Dena Hoff, posed the questions "For the people in Lower Yellowstone Irrigation District, what's going to happen to their irrigation water?" she asks. "What's going to happen to the paddlefish at the intake diversion, where the paddlefish come up every May?"

That reminds me of something...

Weeks away from the spring herring season in 1989, the oil spill occurred." Bombers full of oil dispersants started flying over Prince William Sound and they didn't know a school of herring from an oil slick and they bombed those schools of herring with chemical dispersants... son of a gun, the doggone herring died off. They're just-pretty much gone."

RJ Kopchak did the math for the damages to his own small family fishing operation at over half a million dollars and said that his settlement checks would amount to less than ten per cent of his losses.

"The lesson from these big oil spills is: A) the oil companies won't make you whole and; B) the damage is still going on twenty years later and there is no way fishing dependent or natural resource dependent communities will ever recover from major oil spills, at least during the lifetime of the people who were there when the spill happened."
-RJ Kopchak, fisherman, Cordova, Alaska

This is an unfortunately long story, and I have other points to get to so I will mention that Baker Hughes plans 7,000 layoffs in the oil field business and break from it for the time being.

All news is not bad for Montana, a low income community decided to purchase their trailer court so they can upgrade their sewer and water problems rather than stay at the mercy of an indifferent owner, and Neil DeGrasse Tyson will be speaking at the Fieldhouse in March!

Photo from California Sugar Queen.

The Legislature Convenes Today

Military commanders ordered troops to kill buffalo to deny Native Americans their own source of food, 1800s

The ruling party wants to control all the resources, what else is new?

"The CIA is lying..."

“Director Brennan and the CIA today are continuing to willfully provide inaccurate information and misrepresent the efficacy of torture,” Udall said.

“The CIA is lying. This is not an issue of the past, this is going on today.”

It is boggling that the media gives them so much time to lament their lack of due process, because they deserve it, but the innocent people they torture do not. Our poor widdle CIA agents sound like they all need a protein and a nap.

The torture program we did not have was extremely important.

Bullet Makers Sue For Lead Exposure

I am speechless.

Our New Farming & Ranching Expert

Surprise- it's Scott Reichner! Although I have been to attended a number of water meetings over the years, I don't recall seeing Scott Reichner at any of them; definitely not at the informational meeting in September. Despite not showing up to listen to the people that have put a massive amount of time and money into the process had a very successful PR push for a small new non profit that is dead set to overturn and disrupt the carefully crafted agreements  that have already been reached.

 Rumor has it that Keith Regier is talking lawsuits -like 55 million dollars worth of lawsuits -to prevent the water compact from going through.

Reichner's new non-profit boasts hundreds of supporters and lists them by first name and last initial! New hires Eric Whitney and Steve Jess  at Montana Public Radio appear to believe that Reichner is the real deal. I recommend that you read the work of Laura Lundquist at the Bozeman Daily Chronicle instead.

 Unlike Reichner's group, Montana Water Stewards- a non partisan group- formed in 2013  for the express purpose of educating the public about the compact and they have earned credibility. Read the back story here.

The Dirtiest DealYou Never Heard Of

There does seem to be a media blackout on the nearly secret Trans Pacific Partnership,

Surprise!

A "Christian" group is spreading misinformation about doctor assisted suicide.

I can't believe that I didn't notice the story about the Nigerian posing as Attorney General Tim Fox to scam some lonely hearts earlier (like last month?)

Vaping your booze is the hot new thing to do. The FCC wants more time to do what it wants to do about Net Neutrality. Of course the telecoms are spending big bucks to confuse the issue. The usual suspects are urging the Federal Trade Commission to punt in favor of paid prioritization on the internet.

A new study finds a positive correlation between political donations and tax rates. Imagine that.