The Pineview Apartments in Deadwood were still housing residents in 1987 when the Syndicate Building burned to the ground. I'll never forget the play-by-play account by storied KSQY disk jocks, Jack Daniels and Tom Collins, whose studio was across the street.
Deadwood officials will meet today to determine which streets and sidewalks need to be shut down adjacent to an aging building at 25 Lee St. for public safety and how pedestrian and vehicular traffic will be rerouted. The Pineview Building is slowly deteriorating, the city ruled. It is threatening the Gold Dust Casino and Hotel, as well as the Holiday Inn Express Hotel and other surrounding businesses. Code officials have deemed the building unsafe and ruled it is unlawful for someone to enter it, due to instability.
Apache 8 tells the story of an all-women wildland firefighter crew from the White Mountain Apache Tribe, who have been fighting fires in Arizona and throughout the U.S., for over 30 years. Four extraordinary women from different generations of the Apache 8 crew share their personal narratives with humor and tenderness.
1. Stop erroneous tax refunds for prisoners 2. Cut aid to Iraq, which is running a budget surplus 3. Cut aid to Pakistan, which hasn't spent last year's aid 4. Limit the number of government employee credit cards 5. Cut unneeded Census funding 6. Carry out the Defense Department's plan to reduce reorganization funding 7. Make NASA deliver on existing projects before funding new programs 8. Cut millions of dollars for rehabilitating lakes in the desert 9. Eliminate the duplicative federal agency that focuses on development for Alaska only 10. Eliminate highspeed rail funding for East Coast cities
Carter last visited Cuba in 2002, in a groundbreaking trip that made him the only US president, former or sitting, to visit Cuba since a 1959 revolution brought Fidel Castro to power. In his 2002 visit, Carter urged Washington to end its long trade embargo against Cuba.
The 8th annual Smithsonian Photo Contest closed Dec. 1, 2010. Editor's Picks will resume with new images on April 4, 2011 after the start of the 9th annual Smithsonian Photo Contest on March 1, 2011.
Ms. Eckman, a goddess in her own right, is the daughter of Basin's Odd Goddess.
At a recent meeting of the American Physical Society in Dallas, it was announced that nine countries acknowledge the pending death of religion. The article in appeared in BBC News:
The team took census data stretching back as far as a century from countries in which the census queried religious affiliation: Australia, Austria, Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Switzerland. And in all the countries, the indications were that religion was headed toward extinction.
Remember change.gov? This statement still exists there:
The United States was founded on the idea that all people are endowed with inalienable rights, and that principle has allowed us to work to perfect our union at home while standing as a beacon of hope to the world. Today, that principle is embodied in agreements Americans helped forge -- the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Geneva Conventions, and treaties against torture and genocide -- and it unites us with people from every country and culture.
The case against Bush in Switzerland is, in some ways, a commentary on law and politics in the United States. But not in the way Frum presents it. Sadly, it is a commentary on the failure of the U.S. legal system to demonstrate its strength and independence from politics. Bush has openly admitted authorizing acts that constitute torture. The case against him will be investigated and tried — if not in the United States then in a country that has the courage to give meaning to its legal obligation to investigate and prosecute torturers.
The Justice Department has taken steps to avoid the appearance of impropriety. Ethics officials have advised lawyers -- including Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. -- to recuse themselves in matters involving detainees represented by their former firms. Holder, for one, is disqualified from participating in matters involving 16 Yemeni detainees represented by his former firm, Covington and Burling. Holder never participated directly in the firm's Guantanamo work, and the American Bar Association's Rules for Professional Conduct wouldn't require a recusal in this case. Principal Deputy Solictor General Neal Katyal successfully argued Hamdan v. Bush while a professor at the Georgetown University Law Center. In Hamdan, the Supreme Court found that the Bush administration's military commissions for trying suspected terrorists violated the Uniform Code of Military Justice and the Geneva Conventions.
With Michele Batshitmann entering the Republican presidential primary, nothing would change the tone of the campaign quite like indicting a war criminal, innit? Howard Zinn tag at DemocracyNow!
"Three red lights in a triangle ... spotted hovering in the sky" over Lafayette, Colo., on Monday have folks there talking about aliens and UFOs, Boulder's Daily Camera says. Joe Valadez, 47, also posted a video to YouTube of the lights in the sky. Some of the commenters on Valadez's video were skeptical. One user, Lonnie Sexton, 33, wrote: "I want proof as bad as the next guy, but these are just hot air candle balloons folks."
The cause of the Indian Gulch Fire remains under investigation. Maybe they should look here:
Heavy initial attack activity continued in the southern states. Thirteen new large fires were reported. Seven large fires were contained. Weather: Fire potential continues across eastern New Mexico, west Texas and eastern Colorado due to high wind speeds on Friday.
Dakota Midday is a great show, that and Statehouse are the last programs standing for ip at Bill Janklow's idea of public radio. Yesterday, Paul Guggenheimer hosted a segment when:
former Assistant Secretary of Defense Frank Gaffney talks about the documentary "Iranium." It is showing next Tuesday in Sioux Falls. Gaffney is also a part of the national security panel leading a discussion after the film.
The guy is an Islamophobe and a whackjob of the nth order, but I think he's got the weapon right:
Electromagnetic pulses (EMP) are oversized outbursts of atmospheric electricity. Whether powered by geomagnetic storms or by nuclear blasts, their resultant intense magnetic fields can induce ground currents strong enough to burn out power lines and electrical equipment across state lines. The threat has even become political fodder, drawing warnings from former House speaker Newt Gingrich, a likely presidential contender. "We are not today hardened against this," he told a Heritage Foundation audience last year. "It is an enormous catastrophic threat."
EMP weapons have been part of the US arsenal for decades and are likely being deployed in Libya right now. Knowledge of their operation has been coming home steadily in the minds of radicalized warriors where in a remote scenario they could be built in Ryder trucks to be randomly detonated near grid junctions. Solar events and asteroid strikes are more likely events.
Let's flash back to 2000 where the future looked like:
Dark Angel, an American biopunk/cyberpunk science fiction television program created by James Cameron and Charles H. Eglee. Dark Angel premiered in the United States and Canada on the Fox network on October 3, 2000, but was canceled after two seasons. The show chronicles the life of Max Guevara (X5-452), a genetically enhanced super-soldier, portrayed by Jessica Alba as an adult, and Geneva Locke as a child.
Then September 11 and the anthrax attacks happened. Bill Janklow went on his idea of public radio where he and a caller created DUSEL.
Here are the geothermal gradients (pdf) of the deepest rock in the former Homestake showing potential for the steam power necessary to generate lighting and life support for large numbers of people sustainably if the planet's surface became a hostile environment. Ceramics could support and insulate the miles of stopes in the old mine connecting a network of gardens, living and work spaces.
Radiolab host Robert Krulwich on the 1967 death of a Russian cosmonaut for the forthcoming book, Starman:
The space vehicle is shoddily constructed, running dangerously low on fuel; its parachutes — though no one knows this — won't work and the cosmonaut, Vladimir Komarov, is about to, literally, crash full speed into Earth, his body turning molten on impact. As he heads to his doom, U.S. listening posts in Turkey hear him crying in rage, "cursing the people who had put him inside a botched spaceship."
The president of Bolivia and Russian Liberal Party leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky are calling for the repeal of President Obama's Nobel Peace Prize. The Forbes article is cited in this Huff post:
"These developments in Libya are another outrageous act of aggression by NATO forces and, in particular, the United States," Zhirinovksy's statement, which appeared in Russian, is quoted by Forbes as saying. He went on to call the strikes part of a "colonial policy" with the goal to control Libyan oil. Bolivian President Evo Morales echoed those sentiments. "How is it possible that a Nobel Peace Prize winner leads a gang to attack and invade? This is not a defense of human rights or self-determination," Morales, who is among of number of left-leaning Latin American leaders who have denounced the Libya attacks, is quoted by Digital Journal as saying. "Obama gives speeches trashing his own country and for that gets a prize, which is now worth as much as whatever prizes they are putting in Cracker Jacks these days," Rush Limbaugh told Newsweek. "The Nobel gang just suicide-bombed themselves."
Far more immediacy to commit US firepower in Libya than Iraq, innit? Seems to me that had the first Bush marched on Baghdad in '91 with UN support far less bloodshed would have resulted. Standing up to bullies is liberally compassionate, too.
Attorney Mario Gonzales has been litigating the "Black Hills Claim" for most of his life. He contends that the commission charged to make peace with tribes inserted language into the document signed in 1868 that Red Cloud had neither seen nor agreed to in negotiations.
Ernestine Chasing Hawk, Native Sun News Managing Editor sent this story to the Missoula-based Buffalo Post:
In 2008, during a campaign stop in Sioux Falls then Sen. Barak [sic] Obama gave Great Plains Indian tribes a ray of hope on the outcome of the century’s long legal battle over “theft of 48 million acres of their homeland.” However one of the key elements to resolving the issue is “bringing together all the different parties” and with each passing day their “window of opportunity” shrinks as time ticks away for the Obama-Biden administration.
Anybody surprised? Ms. Chasing Hawk goes on to say:
The 1851 Fort Laramie Treaty gave the Sioux 60 million acres of land west of the Missouri. Gonzalez points out that the Sioux were never militarily defeated by the U.S. and would never have signed the 1868 Treaty had they thought they were ceding any land to the U.S. Arriving at Fort Laramie via Cheyenne in November, the Commission under General W. T. Sherman was dismayed to find no Sioux to parley with as planned. Red Cloud refused to come in until the garrisons at Forts Reno, Phil Kearny and C. F. Smith were withdrawn. The Commission acceded and in March, 1868 the President ordered their abandonment.
The legal battle over what has been referred to as Docket 74-A which began in 1922 is based on the argument that the Sioux never gave up any land and that the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty was treaty of peace, not a treaty of cession. In 1980 Supreme Court said the Sioux were entitled to a mere $40 million dollars (Docket 74-A) for the “ceded land’ and na-cu (using a Lakota lexicon, na is and, cu is dew)the government wanted money back for the rations and other annuities they gave the Sioux in the 1800’s. This government action attests to the origin of the cliché, “Indian givers.” In 1980, the Supreme Court also awarded the tribe $106 million dollars (Docket 74-B) on the ground the U.S. had taken the Black Hills and paid no just compensation in violation of the Constitution’s Fifth Amendment. As a result, the tribe realized almost none of the vast mineral wealth yielded by their stolen land.
One paragraph really caught my eye:
And according to Edward Lazarus during his last days in office, Democratic “Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle did a neat little favor for one of his corporate constituents. As a rider to the defense appropriation bill, he attached a provision granting absolute immunity to the Barrick Gold Company of Toronto for any liability arising from the 125-year operation of its Homestake Mine, a gold-bearing gash in the Black Hills of South Dakota.”
Historical Accounting Claims state that the federal government violated its trust duties by not providing a proper historical accounting relating to Individual Indian Money accounts and other trust assets. Trust Administration Claims that include fund and land administration claims state that the federal government violated its trust duties, mismanaged individual Indian trust funds and violated its trust responsibilities for management of land, oil, natural gas, mineral, timber, grazing and other resources.
The act provides a quantified water right of 650,000 acre-feet per year from natural flow and storage with a priority date of 1868. Tribal executives also brought in high-level speakers to endorse its passage, including U.S. Sen. Jon Tester; Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk, of the Department of Interior; and Michael Connor, Bureau of Reclamation commissioner.
One woman dies as a leader in womens' rights as womens' rights die in South Dakota. From the Blog of Rights
If the law were to take effect, the consequences for women in South Dakota would be devastating. Given that Planned Parenthood is the only abortion provider in South Dakota, and they are in Sioux Falls, some women already must travel great distances to see a physician. But under the law, they would have to make to make two trips: one to visit with the doctor in person, and then another 72 hours later for the abortion. In the meantime, they must visit a crisis pregnancy center, which, under the law's requirements, must be anti-choice.So we're headed to court. We won't stand for this blatant mistreatment of women and blatantly unconstitutional law. We'll join Planned Parenthood in court to stop the law in its tracks so no woman is faced with these burdensome, humiliating requirements.
What do you boycott in a state whose only product is hopelessness?
One name not necessarily being heard from the armchairs is Biden. It means the code has not yet been broken. Confusion can be good early in the campaign. Those who do not need to know probably don't. From Slate:
This was the 119th message of its kind since the passage of the War Powers Resolution. It was the first since the rise of the Tea Party, the conservative movement that defines everything it does as a way to keep faith with the Constitution. So the relative lack of Tea Party angst over the no-fly zone has been surprising. There is no discussion of Libya happening at Ginni Thomas' Liberty Central, no statement from Tea Party Patriots or the Tea Party Express.
Liberal internationalist hawks and neocon hawks share hawkishness and willingness to use force, but have a fundamental asymmetry: the liberal internationalists want interventions that lack any obvious US interest (save in some very indirect sense that conflates ideals and interests), in the name of univeralism [sic] and virtue; the neocons are willing to act sometimes on account of pure altruism and idealism, but are also quite happy as well to act from interest in the most material and traditional sense. A fundamental problem for the Power Doctrine within the administration, after all, is that half of President Obama’s team consists of liberal internationalists eager to preserve American power in order to subordinate it to the will of the international community; while the other half has decided the US can’t really afford the power in the first place, and wants the US to belly up to the multilateralism bar as just another one of the folks in the world, in order to stand down from an unsustainable hegemonic role. The President, the national master of strategic ambiguity, uses phrases that can go both ways.
Representative Dennis Kucinich, the new chairman of House Oversight is dutifully hastening to kill funding for a protracted military entanglement. Pure poetry, beautifully executed; only non-believers can't see it. A Third Way President: what a concept!
Then. The Republican Bush regime makes a deal with Khaddafi:
Now. The UN has to deal with another pile of Bush shit:
hipneck points at Republican Ron Paul who did not support the illegal war in Iraq, but who now slimes President Obama for going to the United Nations to organize a community to scoop up the offending Bush pile:
Amy Goodman and DemocracyNow! staff accompany Jean-Bertrand Aristide back to Haiti after he was ousted, then kidnapped in a 2004 Bush-backed military coup:
Tribes are being briefed on the settlement reached in Cobell v. Salazar after eight years of stonewalling by the Republican Bush criminals. If you haven't read Matt Volz' heartbreaking AP story about the suicide epidemic sweeping Indian Country here is the Missoulian's copy where ip is on a full tilt rant.
The meetings will bring cabinet-level representatives from 21 countries, along with hundreds of other officials, to Big Sky to discuss ways to deepen the trade and economic relationships of APEC's member countries.
Dr. Linda M. Young tells us in Big Sky Political Analysis, the blog of the Montana State University Political Science Department:
Members account for 41% of the world’s population, 54% of the world’s GDP and 44% of world trade. Sixty percent of US exports are destined for APEC members, which also account for 6 out of 10 of our top trading partners. US goods trade (both imports and exports) with APEC members was $1.6 trillion in 2009 and service trade was $303 billion in 2008.
To help ensure that the attendees are all well taken care of, the U.S. State Department is asking for Montana Host volunteers from Big Sky to help manage certain aspects of the APEC conference. Volunteers will act as meeting room attendants, check badges and credentials, give directions, work in the document center and at the information desk, assemble materials for attendees, help with special events and more. "The work is easy, fun, educational and essential for the success of this conference," said Cathy Gorman, Montana Host volunteer coordinator. "This is a great chance to serve our country and to get an inside look at our government at work." Due to security clearances, volunteers will be required to put in one week's worth of assistance, be it in a row or throughout the conference. Gorman plans to schedule volunteers whenever they are available to work. Volunteer training will be held on March 31 from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Big Sky Resort's Dunraven Room. Prospective volunteers should confirm the dates that they wish to participate with Gorman by March 21.
Meanwhile, Kevin Woster reports on what ip already knew: Tony Dean is still dead as South Dakota slides deeper into red state failure. His list of opposers seems to suggest that there are twelve grazing permits that should be sought after and secured.
A representative from Senator Johnson's DC office returned my call a week ago and told me what she told KW. I neglected to inform readers; I'm a dullard and a dolt.
Kevin also brings yet another story of deceit and pending environmental disaster. Fracking to extract uranium is earth-shattering.
hat tip to hipneck for bringing Cody Lundin's tips on how to survive after TEA-totaling Republicans take over, or after the Second Coming whichever happens first:
Note: The Seattle Times editorial board commends the House Ways and Means Committee for holding a hearing HB 1550 to legalize marijuana, and also expresses its support for SB 5073 to license, tax and regulate growers and dispensaries for medical cannabis. This page has been part of it. On Feb. 20 we came out for regulation and taxation of cannabis for adult use, which HB 1550 would do through the state liquor stores. That The Seattle Times would say this lowers the risk for public officials to say it. At the hearing Wednesday at the House Ways and Means Committee, chaired by Rep. Ross Hunter, D-Medina, you could feel the change. The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Mary Lou Dickerson, D-Seattle, presented Hunter’s committee with an estimate that in the next biennium her bill could raise $441 million for the state.
As a founding listener and devotee of Bill Janklow’s idea of public radio for 37 years, my affirmation was cemented by this story:
In ’97, I performed my first of six seasons as Mother Ginger in the Black Hills Dance Theater’s production of the Nutcracker; Vanessa Short Bull danced the Sugar Plum Fairy. On opening night, her dad brought her likely centenarian grandmother backstage before the show to watch her warm up. The vision of three Sicangu generations attending a Tchiachovski ballet was all it took for me to understand how public media funds bridges.
Kristi Noem, Cynthia Lummis, and Denny Rehberg know not of these things; they, and their families are victims of televangelism and commercial broadcasting as they tout the wonders of jesus and white bread to children.
Rep. Lummis, bless her earth-hating heart, proposed in a media release that:
NPR must stand on its own. However, she noted that she prefers what she calls a "glide path to self-sufficiency" for Wyoming Public Radio.
Doc Blanchard hosted a fascinating discussion about NPR.
Federal laws limit the authority of Indian tribes to punish Indian offenders to no more than 1-year imprisonment, and force reservation residents to rely on Federal (and in some cases State) officials to investigate and prosecute violent crimes on Indian lands. The Tribal Law and Order Act takes a comprehensive approach at addressing these shortfalls by establishing accountability measures for Federal agencies responsible for investigating and prosecuting reservation crime, and by providing tribes with additional tools to combat crime locally. Foreign drug cartels are aware of the lack of police presence on Indian lands and are targeting some reservations to distribute and manufacture drugs.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs within the US Department of the Interior is the nearly universally hated clearinghouse of resources and trusts for tribes while DoI manages The Peoples' water and mineral tracts for lease to the various industries of extraction. The Office of Special Trustee has a temporary director. The GOP's solution? Eliminate the BIA:
The toast of the Tea Party, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, so desperately wants to cut the federal budget that he’s ready to stomp all over federal trust responsibility and treaty obligations to Indians—even obliterate them, if he must. The good news: The United States won’t be quite so broke. The bad news: The United States will have broken the law in order to balance its books on the backs of Indians.
Law enforcement are the last men standing: ATF, DEA, FBI, DHS...because Republicans sell prisons as economic development solutions, take the money from programs treating core issues, and use violence to suppress the results.
While Montana lawmakers grapple to control a booming medical marijuana industry, the state's seven Indian reservations are islands where the drug is still illegal in all circumstances. As sovereign nations, each tribal government can pass laws stricter or more lenient than state or federal laws. The debate reminds Blackfeet Chief Earl Old Person of a similar discussion more than 50 years ago. Decades after prohibition ended, the tribe continued to outlaw the use and sale of alcohol on the reservation. The council agreed to allow it on the reservation in 1954. "The people supporting it said 'if our boys can fight in wars, why can't they drink liquor?'" Old Person said.
Discussions of medical marijuana on Montana reservations began about a year ago with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai but has not yet circulated to all seven recognized tribes as a black market flourishes within peeing distance of 450 Minuteman IIIs.
Pennington County State's Attorney Glenn Brenner, Rapid City Police Chief Steve Allender and then Pennington County Sheriff Don Holloway filed the complaint last May after Fuller referred to law enforcement officers as a "bunch of racists."
Topeka — A legislator said Monday it might be a good idea to control illegal immigration the way the feral hog population has been controlled: with gunmen shooting from helicopters.
Federal agents with guns drawn raided a medicinal marijuana greenhouse on Highway 12 and one of the co-owners of Montana Cannabis says he was not given a reason why about 1,700 plants were taken Monday.
Contrary to what your sleeping partner says, snoring is not a crime and tonsils vestigial organs? Guess what, Buster, humans might not have been such successful survivors in a predator-infested environment for 500,000 years without evolving the capacity for snoring.
Imagine a family group huddled in a riverbank overhang to sleep while hyenas, crocodiles, and wolves hunted them relentlessly. Now imagine an entire clan sawing away and how scary that would be to a tiger on the prowl.
See? I rest my case.
But, I rather like sleeping with a goddess who only purrs subtly when she sleeps (although the French Bulldog at her feet is way louder than the man is); now a freakin' syndrome has developed as a result of my being a famous snorer. Thankfully, the hyenas have mostly withdrawn and NPR's Patty Neighmond tells us that medical science has brought a robot to the rescue:
At 32, it just didn't make sense that Daniel Sheiner was exhausted literally from the moment he woke up. According to Erica Thaler, an ear, nose and throat surgeon at the University of Pennsylvania Hospital, Sheiner's sleep study found that he woke up about 112 times every hour. That meant Sheiner stopped breathing for at least 10 seconds about two times every minute. So Thaler suggested suggested a type of robotic surgery currently used to remove cancerous tumors at the back of the throat. Thaler was starting to perform it on sleep apnea patients, to remove tonsils and excess tissue. "What the robot allows you to do is get into a small confined space without using hands," Thaler says. "Human hands are huge and robot hands are tiny and yet they can do exactly the same thing if you control them remotely."
So give the snorer in your family a break and thank your ancestors for evolving to pass PPACA!
HELENA – A measure to repeal Montana's medical marijuana law has stalled in a state Senate committee. Republican Committee Chairman Sen. Terry Murphy voted against the measure and says the panel will look into creating a reform bill to tighten regulation of the industry.
Both Maine and Wyoming legislatures have been trying to craft law that would skirt the grossly unpopular 2010 FDA Food Safety Modernization Act. Two versions of the Wyoming Food Freedom Act didn't make it out of committee. The Casper Trib tells us:
Under the bill, homemade foods served at weddings, potluck dinners and charitable events would not be subject to state food safety regulations. The Senate, however, inserted language into the legislation that would allow cities to adopt their own licensing and inspection rules.
It is already within the purview of most county health departments (the goddess affirms that as Jeffco Health Officer she has the authority) to walk through and inspect any place where food is sold or distributed, but that the resources are blissfully unavailable to police every funeral. Permits for large events are issued through the County Sanitarian.
Gardeners, home producers, and permaculture types resist compliance under the law on grounds that the potential absolute liability for giving somebody a carrot or some salsa made right out of the garden threatens the very core of community. ip, too, confesses discomfort about the insidious tendency of this law to creep into the courts and ultimately coerce individuals into purchasing personal liability insurance. Existing Montana law posits that food being sold under compliance is safe.
The other morning NPR's Frank Deford told us how The US Department of Defense funds the national spectacle of earth hatred through its mouth organ, the Stars and Stripes:
Even sports has gotten into the budget-cutting, when a House amendment was offered the other day that would prevent the Army from spending $7 million to sponsor NASCAR race car No. 39. But even in a slash-and-burn atmosphere, the amendment was soundly beaten. There are a lot of congressmen prepared to do away with a lot of good old-fashioned all-American stuff, but keep your hands off my NASCAR.
The Stars and Stripes isn't my GI father's newspaper any more. This 2004 NPR story on Pentagon funding for the military's media machine popped up and reminded me to wonder, after practicing some April Fools ideas, about how it's ok that three US public broadcasting networks are reporting three different versions of world history.
Then, like a vision from Tommy Chong it hit me: let's just merge 'em.
Pravda has a lengthy history of journalistic integrity, right?
11:14 MST: The President announces in his press conference that funding cuts should found in other areas, "not CPB."
WBUR's Here and Now host to NPR's board chair: Vivian Schiller should have stayed to defend organization's integrity.
Al Jazeera English reports on BP/Gulf sickness. Where the hell is the American press?
Just in case you're not pissed off enough, here's the Utne's Read on Citizens United v. FEC.
It’s a story of stunning civil disobedience in a time of global climate crisis. On December 19, 2008, Tim, a college student and environmental activist, derailed Bush’s last minute, parting gift to the oil and gas industry when he crashed the BLM's illegitimate oil and gas auction in Salt Lake City. While protesters circled outside, Tim breezed inside, registered to bid, and took his seat. Bidder’s paddle #70 rested on his knee. By the time the guards escorted him out, he’d won 22,000 acres of pristine Utah wilderness with no intention to drill or pay.
An Overwhelming majority of Connecticut voters support both legalizing medical marijuana and the decriminalization of possession of small amounts, according to a recent Quinnipiac poll. There is a proposal in the state legislature that would decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana. Low-level marijuana users would be punished with a fine, instead of a criminal charge. Do you think this is a good idea or a bad idea?
65% good idea 32 Bad idea 3 DK/NA
There is a proposal in the state legislature that would allow adults to legally use marijuana for medical purposes if their doctor prescribes it. Do you think this is a good idea or a bad idea?
79% good idea 17 Bad idea 3 DK/NA
While support for both medical marijuana and decriminalization was strongest among young people, and Democratic support for the changes was remarkably strong across the board, a majority of Republicans, Independents, and every age group in the poll thought the legal changes would be a good idea. This poll should be a helpful boost to Governor Dan Malloy (D), who is actively pushing both to legalize medical marijuana and reduce the penalty for minor cannabis possession to a small fine. With a state legislature also controlled by Democrats, there is a good chance both reforms will happen during Malloy’s first term.
In essence, a general strike is the complete and total shutdown of the economy. A general strike can last for a day, a week, or longer depending on the severity of the crisis, the resolve of the strikers, and the extent of public solidarity. During the strike, large numbers of workers in many industries (excluding employees of crucial services, such as emergency/medical) will stop working and no money or labor is exchanged. All decisions regarding the length of the strike, the groups of workers who continue working, and demands of the strikers are decided by a strike committee.
NPR reports that nanodiamonds are also showing to be effective anticarcinogenic agents:
If you're feeling technical, here are some details. When the nanodiamonds are washed in acid, their surfaces gain carboxyl groups and they become "sticky." Small molecules like doxorubicin and large molecules like strands of genetic material can grab on. The nanodiamonds even stick to each other when they are attached to doxorubicin, forming clumps with drug-filled pockets.
WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Representative Kristi Noem (R-SD) today announced her cosponsorship of bipartisan legislation to keep the gray wolf off the endangered species list. “The gray wolf is a thriving species that has fully recovered and should no longer be listed as endangered. The wildlife managers on the ground, researchers, and land owners are in the best position to create and implement new wolf management policies, not bureaucrats in Washington, DC. This bill will restore management authorities to the states and local authorities and end the abuse of the Endangered Species Act,” said Noem.
George Wuerthner says that wolf delisting is really about oil and critical habitat. The "bipartisan" support is two Dems from red states and "thriving?" Like any species continually being hunted toward extirpation can thrive. Nobody knows what "fully recovered" means; that's her opinion only. "Bureaucrats in DC" and "abuse of the ESA" is Republican code for stop We the People from preserving biodiversity. Returning authority to states and local "authorities" means shot-on-sight.
"I commend Representative Denny Rehberg for putting in so much time and effortgathering input from stakeholders to make sure we have a policy that reflects the needs and desires of local land owners and stakeholders, not well-funded, extreme environmental special interest groups,” said Noem. H.R. 509 was introduced by Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-MT) on January 26, 2011. The bill amends the Endangered Species Act of 1973 to make sure it does not apply to the gray wolf (canis lupus).
As the Democrats seem to be bringing House Bill 1242 codifying the use of tribal identification cards as the equivalent of certain state-issued documents for identification purposes to the floor of the fascist-dominated South Dakota Legislature still chortling over the belch of Hotchkiss guns 120 years later, Bob Mercer's maybe coincidental post reminding South Dakotans about Real ID pinged ip's race radar.
Mary Garrigan brought this story on Roger Campbell, a Republican out-of-stater who parachuted into the feel-good, symbolic, smacking-of-appeasement post as Indian education director. But it was her excellent piece on the appointment of Leroy "JR" LaPlante as secretary of the newly created South Dakota Department of Tribal Relations that suggested that maybe people are getting more serious about healing the scars of hate. Mr. LaPlant is a wearily ubiquitous christian submitting to an autocratic GOP/wasicu administration making his choice highly suspicious.
Rosebud Sicangu Lakota elder and spiritual leader Albert White Hat spoke about the responsibilities and burdens that his nephew would face in his new job. "A lot of us still don't trust the state. Some of us have scars that we'll take to our grave," White Hat said, before praying over his nephew with an eagle feather to ask the Eagle Nation to assist him. The Bad Nation Singers, a drum group from the Crow Creek Reservation, offered Lakota flag and honor songs to the Great Spirit during the ceremony. A history of broken promises and the historic underfunding of treaty obligations is part of the challenge of his new job, LaPlante knows, but he echoes the governor in saying he wants to see new collaborations and fresh ideas in state-tribal relations. "We are mutually tied to the land and citizens of South Dakota, both Indian and non-Indian," he said.
Stephanie Rissler and LaPlante on Bill Janklow's idea of public tv.
It remains to be seen how the warrior societies will receive yet another Republican lawyer this time speaking Lakota filling one more position in another failed red state.
Here is more on Ian Murphy's prank call to Wisconsin Governor Walker:
Dennysthetics is evidence of Rehberg's desperate campaign.
His blog post this morning brings personal attention to bear on the anti-civil rights faction (read, Republicans) within the Montana Legislature in its crush to choke the state's voter-approved medical marijuana law. To persons for whom treatment with Marinol suppositories is clearly unacceptable, cannabis in its natural form should and must be available to patients.
But, Mr. Smith's observations are not so much about his own dilemma; they are about the hothouses of budding industries flowering to palliate the losses of construction and building jobs leaving affected tax collections at the core of the argument. He points to a New York Times article:
But in a huge, mostly rural state where a libertarian, keep-government-off-my-back spirit runs deep, the debate is also different in temper and geography than in other states. “We tried prohibition,” said Representative Diane Sands, a Democrat. “Marijuana has been in our community for years; it is not going away,” she added. “We have to deal with that fact.” “We had many years to regulate something that 62 percent of Montanans wanted, and we chose to do nothing,” said Representative Pat Noonan, a Democrat. “Don’t vote against the citizens.”
Cannabis is an effective therapy for the sufferers of myriad ailments. It's cultivation, distribution, and use are part of an historically lucrative underground economy that is only recently being tapped as a legitimate revenue source.
Contact your legislators and urge them to defend patients' rights and to do the right thing by Montanans.
No doubt about it: Tim Pawlenty is a dork. Maybe, that's why ip has said for at least a year that he is going to be the GOP's guy.
He ordered the violent crackdown on Amy Goodman and her staff at Democracy Now! during the Republican National Convention in St. Paul making him unacceptable to progressives while bolstering his cred with the Fascista wing of his own party. He appeared with Jon Stewart on the Daily Show in January and defended the decisions he made at that time.
As a Minnesota Public Radio devotee, ip knows his career pretty well so it was giddily affirming when David Brooks announced in a less than enthusiastic appraisal last night on All Things Considered, that the former governor is just dull enough to match the requirements for the kind of candidate that the GOP wants to run against President Obama in 2012. Pawlenty has established an extensive series of base camps in Iowa in what some have called an "all in" effort.
Not too surprisingly as governor, he filed suit against PPACA. In a recent interview with NPR's Steve Inskeep, Pawlenty phrased his state's health care strategy like this:
"Don't just say we're going to pay you for endless volumes of procedures," Pawlenty said. "We've got to start paying them for better health, and better health care outcomes. And that's what we've done in Minnesota. And when you do those kinds of things, even in the primitive or early-stage ways that we've done it, it's extremely promising and it works." Pawlenty was referring to an experiment in Minnesota that bundles medical services into so-called "baskets of care." Providers who create baskets for conditions like diabetes or asthma receive a single, comprehensive payment that covers all of their services -- rather than individual payments for individual office visits. Bundling care into baskets or packages gives providers an incentive to get their patients healthy as soon as possible. If they do, they'll make more money. If they don't, they're on the hook for any costs that exceed the bundled payment.
Face it: the GOP is NOT going to nominate a Mormon who is little more than a cockered DC gadfly added to a slasher movie CPAC casting call for the role of Ronny Reag-urgitate in something like, "2012: The White Elephants Trumpet" though he will likely win New Hampshire, but then falter in South Carolina and beyond.
Sorry, hipneck, Ron Paul is a fun guy; but, he's not electable mostly because he's not a governor and is perceived by the Reagan voters (read, old) to have contracted DC disease. Jeb Bush, having appeared with the President at a recent gala, is being fitted with a virtual pair of concrete galoshes. Allahu akbar.
Veep? John Thune's neighboring failed red state doesn't have enough electoral votes. ip's hunch? Unless Tiny Tim can enlist the oxymoronical "qualified Republican woman," (as if there was a qualified Republican man) watch for Florida's Marco Rubio's eyes to begin sparkling since running two governors seems incomprehensible.
ps: start listening for noises about normalizing relations with Cuba.
So far, at least 87 dolphins have washed up onto Gulf shores in an "unprecedented mortality event:"
ip's ideas for helping high schools race to the top:
1) middle schools should be eliminated.
2) high schools should insist on business casual except on Fridays.
3) girls and boys, women and men in public schools should be instructed in separate classrooms
4) school boards should have an elected representative from the high school student population
5) teachers must be union members
6) districts should have the flexibility to experiment with curricula, including year-round sessions
7) American Indian languages should meet the world language requirement
Conventional warheads atop ICBMs, the concept I wrote Tom Daschle about in the aftermath of the fall of the Soviet Union and the first Gulf War is still on the table.
So, about the management of apex predators: why is cougar and wolf slaughter the only answer to curbing marauding livestock killers while Monsanto, Koch Industries, et al. are allowed free range? Coyotes are mesopredators yet Citibank is too big to fail. Think, trophic cascades as applied to economics: if the free market is such a cool deal, why aren’t cougars and wolves protected instead of assassinated?
Diane Rehm hosts NPR's national security god, Tom Gjelten, and others in a discussion on Libya.
A federal grand jury in Tucson indicted Jared Loughner in an action that supercedes his previous indictment. KGUN, great call sign for a TV station, huh? Arizona Public Media's KUAZ reports that US District Judge Larry Alan Burns ruled that the autopsies of the shooting victims will be available to the public. His arraignment is scheduled for March 9 in Tucson and is to be tried in San Diego. ip scooped NPR by a full hour; h/t to Ken Blanchard for making me look.
Speaking as a biologist, I think women are less aggressive than men, and they play a larger role in the early education of the young and helping them overcome their genetic heirloom.
Heather Hanson brings this look at sustainable energy production on public land from the Range at High Country News:
A pro-active, collaborative approach in which the least hotly-contested sites are vetted for development, perhaps with the help of reputable groups like the Sierra Club and the National Congress of American Indians, might be worth a try. Just as we carefully consider uranium mining near the Grand Canyon and drilling in Bridger-Teton National Forest (two other issues now open for public comment), we need to look at renewable energy development on public lands as a possible threat to that environment, and continue to do careful environmental assessments, and to consider additional objections through a rigorous pubic comment period.
In South Dakota, another red state attempting to nullify federal health care law and where Republican legislator Don Kopp confuses federal scientists' findings on climate change with ass-trologic forces, the hubris in eliminating state-sponsored public comment on in situ uranium extraction while the GOP is actively smothering the EPA, is nothing short of stupefying. PowerTech has been suing state legislatures as a matter of course while flouting the reports of fracking disasters in the natural gas industry.
David Folkenflik reports on the Republican effort to cut funding for public broadcasting in an interview with some fuckhead from Colorado.
At the end of a stirring speech about the challenges America has faced and the ways it has overcome them, journalist and author Tom Brokaw asked a sold-out audience of 1,400 at Montana State University to "take a pledge." He gave a timeline of 1968: the Vietnam War raged, Martin Luther King, then Robert Kennedy, were assassinated, a generation of young Americans rebelled against the conventions of mainstream America. Yet at Cape Canaveral, Fla., scientists and pilots were hard at work to send Americans to the Moon, and launched a preliminary mission that year that gave astronauts an outside look at Earth in all its beauty. "Education is the great coin, the currency of the challenges that are before us," he said. "We cannot go forth as a great nation if we are constantly involved in a series of accusations and food fights," he said. "We cannot get stalled by petty feuds. We need to look at the big picture. We are at a pivotal time in this nation."
No, we didn't go.
Bozeman has a rich history of journalism and love of Montana. Chet Huntley, who was born in Cardwell and attended then-Montana State College, was building the resort at Big Sky even as ip, and Joani it turns out, were living in Bozeman in 1976.
Buffalo Post brings news of Tim Giago's retirement.
NPR's Goddess of SCOTUS reports on the Court's strong defense of hideous public political farce even if it's "repugnant." If that body has a blog, does that make them Scroggers? I crack myself up.
The Arab League (yes, Iraq is a member) mulls joining the African Union in enforcing a no-fly zone in Libya. My guess? Jordan and a coalition of the willful stumbling over their dicks.
