Romney/Thune: the other white meat

Just as Bush43 didn't select Dick Cheney to win Wyoming, adding a fundamentalist Protestant certainly builds credible earth hater voter depth to a Mormon-led ticket. From MSNBC and Alex Moe:

CUSTER, SD -- South Dakota Sen. John Thune said he's open to serving as Mitt Romney's running mate, telling reporters in his home state on Wednesday that it would be tough to ever rule out that option. Thune seems to have shifted in the way he's spoken about about his contact with the Romney campaign. Just two weeks ago, the senator told The Hill, he had yet to be contacted by the Romney campaign. But today, Thune said, “We talk to him all the time.”--RT @chucktodd

If Gov. Gary Johnson can gather enough uncommitted and disaffected Ron Paul supporters in South Dakota, having John Thune on the losing ticket in his own state would be the coldest of dishes.

Johnson attracting pollsters

While Democratic Senator Jeff Bingaman surveys the results of a massive wildfire clearing a century of Forest Service mismanagement, former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson, the Libertarian Party's nominee for President, is grabbing the attention of more pollsters.

From a piece in Capitol Report New Mexico:

For example, Johnson received 9 percent of the vote in a survey conducted by Public Policy Polling earlier this week among Arizona voters. On Thursday (May 24), the candidate who wants to slash the federal budget 47 percent (including military spending) while advocating for gay rights and marijuana legalization among other things polled at 5 percent in Wisconsin in a survey conducted by Reason/Rupe. In a national survey conducted by the Washington Times and JZ Analytics released May 13, Johnson was preferred by 2 percent of voters.

Johnson is expected to glean most of the supporters of Ron Paul's failed candidacy after it circles down the earth hater primary drain wrapping up in Paul's state of Texas where Willard Romney is the favorite.

Johnson will be on every state ballot where he will draw uncommitted voters and those disgusted with the conservative liberal at the top of the earth hater ticket.

Gov. Johnson could affect a close race in Montana and in the chemical toilet, maybe even sway the contest for President Obama.

Boston police are investigating after a body was found in Gov. Romney's state. Another victim of the primary Etch-A-Sketch?

End Times come for the Holy Roman Kiddie Diddlers: Reuters

It was a poisonous Pentecost Sunday for the pope, who likely had the tumultuous events of the past week on his mind as he celebrated a mass in St Peter's Basilica on the day regarded as the birthday of the Church. "This is a strategy of tension, an orgy of vendettas and pre-emptive vendettas that has now spun out of the control of those who thought they could orchestrate it," Church historian Alberto Melloni wrote in the Corriere della Sera newspaper. The leaked documents included letters by an archbishop who was transferred to Washington after blowing the whistle on what he saw as a web of corruption and cronyism, a memo that put a number of cardinals in a bad light, and documents alleging internal conflicts about the Vatican bank. --Philip Pullella, Reuters

NPR:

Monsignor William Lynn, the highest ranking Catholic official to be criminally tried for covering up child sex abuse by priests, faced fierce questioning in a Philadelphia courtroom on Thursday. Lynn handled the sex abuse claims when he was secretary for clergy for more than a decade. BARBARA BRADLEY HAGERTY: "Well, there was some fireworks. Assistant District Attorney Patrick Blessington came loaded for bear. He wasn't quite as aggressive as he was yesterday. But I got to say the questioning was really relentless and sharp. He essentially called Lynn a liar 14 times in one hour. He also argued that Lynn tried to protect the priests and the church, and not the children."

What a bunch of fuckheads.

Santa Fe Railyard hosts Farmers' Market

Yesterday, smoke from the Whitewater-Baldy Complex Fire in SW New Mexico caused an air alert in the area featured in these photos taken this morning.

These are just a few images from the home of fresh tamales, chile pods woven with garlic cloves, beeswax candles, organic apricot scones, and locally grown oyster mushrooms. Last Saturday featured Irish clog dancers.

this guy looks about 9 years old: he was playing the Ken Burns Civil War theme like a pro; he was busking last week, too.

Montana governor defying court order; Senators conduct bison circle jerk

With the quiet cooperation of Montana's Fish Wildlife and Parks, the Department of Livestock (wildlife managed by a livestock agency?) has loaded bison, including several newborn, onto trucks and returned them to Yellowstone Park. The cows were part of those that routinely migrate from the preserve to calf.

Earlier in May, a Montana judge issued a retraining order blocking FWP from moving Yellowstone bison within the state after the wildlife agency bravely albeit surreptitiously moved animals to the Fork Peck Indian Reservation. From Northern Ag Network:

Cory Swanson, Attorney for the Plaintiffs, explained to Northern Ag Network that this decision means that Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks cannot:

Enter into any agreements or memorandums of understanding with any other tribal, public, or private entity to transplant or move Yellowstone National Park bison,

Move bison at Fort Peck to Fort Belknap;

Transfer or move any Yellowstone National Park bison from existing quarantine pastures or facilities.

That the bison enter(ed) private land to calf constitutes an implied agreement with a party other than DOL. Individuals were trapped in a Department of Livestock loading area. If the trucks used for transfer are other than DOL vehicles it constitutes entering an agreement with entities other than DOL.

Rulings on contempt of court charges surrounding other bison transfers have yet to see the light of day.

Another Montana judge recently blocked the use of helicopters to move the bison to within park boundaries.

Video h/t @jhwygirl:





A bizarre coalition of senators led by Wyoming's Mike Uzi has sponsored S. 3248: The Bison Legacy Act which seeks to recognize "North American bison." The AP's Matthew Brown wrote "Plains bison" in a Missoulian article.

Thomas does not note whether genetically pure Plains Bison are lumped in with the hybrid mongrels that inhabit feedlots, Custer State Park, and the National Bison Range.

Very suspicious: this thing is on a slippery slope for a future of mixing the species in the wild.

Interesting that two states with genetically pure herds, Montana and Utah are not on Thomas' sponsor list where it's also noted that the bill has poor chance of becoming law (21%).

Rising Tide announces Powder River, Montana coal action

Media Advisory: Environmental Activists Announce No Coal Exports Summer Camp in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin


On August 2-10, hundreds of people from a broad coalition of workers, seniors, ranchers, students, local residents, environmentalists, and more – will converge in in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin at West By Northwest, a No Coal Exports Action Camp, to build constructive solutions to preventable human and environmental catastrophes related to coal exports.


West By Northwest will raise awareness about:


The extraction of more than an estimated 400 million tons of coal a year from Powder River Basin mines for coal industry profit.


The Obama Administration’s release last year of an additional 750 million tons of western coal for mining and export to Asia which will flood these economies with cheap, dirty coal.


The burning of Powder River Basin coal which will cause 1.5 billion more tons of CO2 to be released into our atmosphere.


The burning of exported coal from the Powder River Basin in densely populated Asian nations where health and environmental protections are under development.


The coal industry’s investment in the development of new rail lines and massive shipping terminals that will impact domestic communities with illness, noise, pollution, and traffic delays.


The Coal Export Action taking place in Helena Montana from August 10 through August 20th that is calling on the Montana Land Board to reject Arch Coal proposal to open up the Otter Creek mine in southeast Montana.


WHAT: West By Northwest will hold workshops on extraction and coal export related topics, organizing skills and participate in local community projects.


WHO: High Country Rising Tide is the Wyoming chapter of Rising Tide North America; Rising Tide North America is an all-volunteer climate network working on fossil fuel extraction and climate justice issues in Canada, Mexico and the United States.


WHERE: In Wyoming’s Powder River Basin, near Gillette, WY.


WHEN: August 2nd through August 10th


INFO: For more information on the camp, please visit www.highcountry.risingtidenorthamerica.org. For more information on the Coal Exports Action in Helena, please visit www.coalexportsaction.org


Scott Parkin 415-235-0596 (mobile) sparki@risingtidenorthamerica.org

#CoalExports

August in the Powder River Basin: makes burning man look like a naked picnic. oh yeah, yikes.

Those dates overlap with STURGIS® MOTORCYCLE RALLY 2012. Wednesday of Rally is traditionally a Wyoming loop: could get weird.

Mr. President: let your freak flag fly

C'mon Barry: let Joe loose again or Gary Johnson will cut into your base.

52% of poll respondents believe that a constitutional convention would have lasting effects on american democracy according to recent findings.

A constitutional convention would:

heal american democracy
3 (17%)

undermine american democracy
6 (35%)

have no effect on american democracy
8 (47%)

Thanks for voting everyone.

Edelman: Obama deconstructing cradle-to-prison pipeline

Peter Edelman is the author of So Rich, So Poor: Why It's So Hard to End Poverty in America. An excerpt from his book appears in Dissent Magazine where he lays most of the blame for incarceration rates at the feet of uncaring red state legislators:

Check the boxes: father in and out of prison or whereabouts unknown or never known. Mother struggling to find steady work and often not succeeding. Drugs or alcohol in the parental picture somewhere. Violence in the home. Early childhood inattention or worse. Terrible schools. No caring adult other than the mother or grandmother in the boy’s life. Street culture that valorizes defiance and denigrates educational achievement. Police all too willing to arrest. 

There are 804,100 youth and young adults (ages eighteen to twenty-nine) in prison or jail, and about 92.4 percent of them are men. But there are three million or more youth and young adults who are not in school and are out of work for a long time, most of whom will not spend time in jail or prison. Ending poverty in America requires action on many fronts, but providing every young person the opportunity to be a full participant in our society could not be more important.

The Santa Fe New Mexican is reporting that healthy food and eating habits will be spotlighted by a summer of free eats:

The New Mexico Collaborative to End Hunger estimates that one in five children are unsure about where their next meal will come from -- if it comes at all. This summer, Santa Fe Public Schools, working with the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department, is helping out by offering free lunch and breakfast at about a dozen school sites from early June through late July. "The program is a way to feed kids for free so they can stay healthy throughout the summer," said Betsy Torres, the summer food-service coordinator for the district. "The district wants its kids healthy when they come back to school."

America is a food desert where capitalism decides who eats well enough to avoid desperation.

Help President Obama reverse America's red state failures.

Updated with photos: Annular eclipse reportage from the foot of Ortiz Mountain

Life is truly a weird place.

A neighbor has extended an invitation to join him for an eclipse viewing party: one of the authors of Fermilabs operating manual, he is also an amateur astronomer.

In later updates to this post, hopefully to include photos and with his permission, it will be verified that his career history overlaps with Lead's Homestake Lab.

A trip to Home Depot resulted in the purchase of a welding helmet: adapting it to the camera is iffy.

The eclipse is expected to begin around 1830 locally.

Bullseye took place at 1932 MDT. Camera images are too shaky because I forgot the tripod:

Party host, Terry Asher: he left Fermilab before the proposed Homestake neutrino targeting experiment

Sandia Peak

Ortiz Mountains

Terry and Arlen's power plant

damned near the only one in the sky this cloud threatened to obscure the bullseye 

ring of fire moment but stupid settings, new camera and programming: will try to tease out a better view

sunset

Letter: SSM won't kill us but Monsanto will; Mount St. Helens flashback

My morning creamed with organic half and half from free-range cows-organic, fair-trade coffee drinking partner read aloud this letter to the Santa Fe New Mexican:

Great, now this election year can be all about gay marriage, a human-rights issue we could have solved years ago. Concerned about sexual morals? Then get to work bringing pedophile priests, domestic abusers and human traffickers to justice.

Meanwhile, this nation's policy discourse should be about liberating us from the corrupt corporate-congressional revolving door and realistically addressing what's headed our way from tar-sands filth, BP dispersants, Monsanto poisons, melting ice caps, Fukushima, and our own nuclear mess. Wake up, people! Someone else's marriage can't kill you, but the rest of this stuff could.

Sasha Pyle
Santa Fe

No shit.


Rob Kailey's post in Montana's A Chicken Is Not Pillage elicited a flashback.

I recall this from the hang glider launch on Mt. Sentinel:

The wind was dead all day and we passed the time kicking the hacky sack.

Late in the afternoon a massive cloud filled the western horizon so everybody but me, the driver that day, ran their gliders into a scant breeze to beat the weather.

By the time I got off the mountain and back to the LZ, the golf course, the sky was so dark the street lights were coming on.

Not having thought to turn on a radio, I was totally freaked when ash began falling from the sky. Only after running back to the pickup and turning on the news did I learn.

The next week in Missoula was spent inside with the windows duct-taped shut and not being able to see the sun or even across the street, for that matter. An emergency executive diktat from the governor shut the town down.

Stores ran low on essentials and going outside meant stinging eyes and sand gritting in your teeth.

After a week of cabin fever, I took the top off my '65 Land Cruiser, drove into the Rattlesnake, and saw my first black bear in Montana.

Thanks, Rob.

Montana tribes seeking more input at National Bison Range

Tribes are being included more and more in roles within the Department of Interior.

The buffalo at the National Bison Range are hybrids: descendants of those crossed with European cattle breeds.

The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes have sought more active participation rather than just through an annual funding agreement. The US Fish and Wildlife Service wants an environmental impact assessment before proceeding; that proviso shot down the last agreement in 2010.

Vince Devlin brought readers of the Missoulian up to speed:

That agreement “relied on a NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) document from 2004 that the judge determined was not adequate,” said Dean Rundle, the Moiese refuge’s manager. “This is based on that ruling.” It will give interested parties the opportunity to comment on the draft funding agreement, first in a scoping period Rundle said is designed to identify “issues, problems and missed opportunities” that can be more easily addressed before a formal public comment period. Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, which filed the lawsuit that got the last agreement thrown out and has long fought any tribal involvement at the Bison Range, indicated it would again oppose a funding agreement.

The comments in the Missoulian story thinly veil the predominant prejudice implied in a deeper tribal role.

Dismissing those and approaching this on a strictly environmental tack, this interested party believes that enhanced tribal involvement should be tied to a future where genetic purity in NBR animals becomes such that they could join in broader rewilding efforts, especially after a judge blocked transfer of Plains Bison to reservations at the behest of entitled invasive species producers.

SDGFP: Red state collapse on parade

Buy 'em books and buy 'em books then they roll 'em up and use 'em for toilet paper.

SDGFP has been systematically exterminating the cougar population that had been discouraging wolves from migrating into the state.

From the RCJ:

The gray wolf found dead Monday morning near Pine Ridge made a 400-mile journey from Yellowstone National Park to southwest South Dakota in less than two months, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wolf specialist said Tuesday. Mike Jimenez of Jackson, Wyo., said information received from the radio-transmitter collar on the wolf identified it as a 3- to 4-year-old male that was part of a wolf pack in the southeast part of Yellowstone. --Kevin Woster, Rapid City Journal

Dear Goddess.

US Fish and Wildlife Service: sue the Republican-owned South Dakota Game, Fish, and Parks into the dustbin of history.

Willard: politician or psychopath?

About two hours after passing these signs on Colorado 71, KRCC aired This American Life which ran the story, The Psychopath Test:

NPR Science Correspondent Alix Spiegel tells the story of Robert Dixon, who's in a maximum security prison in Vacaville California and is unlikely to ever get parole because of his score on the psychopath test. The test also is called "the checklist" or, more formally, the PCL-R, which stands for "Psychopathy Check List—Revised." Jon Ronson investigates whether corporate leaders can, in fact, be psychopaths by visiting a former Sunbeam CEO named Al Dunlap.

Psychopathy or leadership? Should Willard Romney be a maximum security prisoner after being a corporate executive having murdered numerous corporations without remorse?

Images of 2002 Grizzly Gulch Fire

Here are a few photos of the Grizzly Gulch Fire in 2002 shot with just enough exposures left on a roll of film.

Reproduce them at will:

From Whitewood Creek looking toward White Rocks: the fire is about an hour old at this stage

First aircraft on the scene

Shot from the slag pile

another shot from the slag pile

fire moving into Spruce Gulch, White Rocks on right

fire in Spruce Gulch

exploding out of Spruce Gulch

Photo shot from '59 burn: spot fire on Pillar Peak, at least a mile downwind of main fire

another shot of Pillar Peak area

Here's a snip from an article that appeared in the Rapid City Journal on 14 February, 2002:

Recently, the National Forest Protection Alliance (NFPA) issued a report challenging the way the 1,242,713-acre Black Hills National Forest (BHNF) is being managed. Working with the Black Hills Group of the Sierra Club, Biodiversity Associates and the Black Hills Sioux Indian Treaty Council, NFPA published "America's 10 Most Endangered National Forests," featuring it as the third-most endangered in the national forest system.

To be fair, much of the fire burned over BLM ground pock-marked with 130 years of mining scars overgrown with non-native plant species.

Earth haters in Congress fund more attacks on safe access

Montanafesto posted the 2012 Montana Cannabis Voters Guide:

This issue is contentious and assessing the information has been rather difficult. Many legislators who supported regulating medical marijuana in Montana actually voted to repeal its use entirely and the legislative hearings were rife with miscalculations, exaggerations, and blatant lies.

From HuffPo via Cannabis Culture:

A bipartisan measure that would have eliminated funding for federal raids on medical marijuana dispensaries in states where they're legal failed Wednesday in the House of Representatives. The legislation, introduced by Reps. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), Sam Farr (D-Calif.), Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.), and Tom McClintock (R-Calif.), was part of the appropriations bill to fund the Department of Justice for fiscal 2013. It failed 262-163. Of the 190 Democrats in the House, 134 (more than 70 percent) voted in favor of the bill. Only 29 of the 242 House Republicans (less than 12 percent) did.

Deadwood not dead nearly ten years after Grizzly Gulch

Observers of regenerating vegetation after a series of fires in the Rapid City area are marveling at the Earth's resiliency.

The anniversary of the Grizzly Gulch Fire is coming this July: watching it for 24 hours was one of the most awe-inspiring experiences of my life. The heat was so intense whole trees were lifted then sent downwind for nearly a mile setting spot fires on Pillar Peak.

Using Mt. Moriah as a gauge I estimated the flames rising to 800 feet above my vantage point near where The Lodge at Deadwood is today. Had the wind not switched and sent the fire toward Galena, it could have very quickly marched into Whitewood or Sturgis or both.

I watched as officials sent evacuees fleeing the Gulch.

It felt like one could reach up and touch the bellies of the slurry bombers that deployed their cargo over south Deadwood at an elevation far below my position.

Using my cell phone I gave live updates to Jack Daniels at the head-banger radio station. His home was just one of hundreds threatened by the blaze. His family returned to a near-miss now a place where oak is returning to those canyons at the foot of Pillar Peak.

In two hours during the following Spring I picked over 200 pounds of morels which carpeted the skidder trails. A hard rain made another 1000 pounds unusable.

Ten years later aspen is exploding into the hills where pine once infested these draws and buttes.

The following photos were taken above Whistler Gulch:

Update, 9 May: Cory penned a very sweet review of this post at Madville Times.

Humans killing high plains: images of Butte County

Once, it was a spur of the migration route that intersected the bison hunting ranges of the Pawnee or Comanche near Raton Pass in southern Colorado with the confluence of the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers in the northern ancestral grounds of the Mandan, Arikara, and Hidatsa.

After the Lakota acquired the descendants of Spanish equus, herstory evolved very quickly in relative time.

Now, Hoover Road is just another trail of tears decimated by CAFOs, ruin, and carelessness adjacent to a US85 buckling under the weight of oil field traffic.

Earth is female: rape is forever.

From Steve Newborn at WUSF and NPR:

Wildlife corridors, which connect wildlife habitats, have been proposed for states as different as California and New Jersey. There's even a transnational one planned to stretch from Yukon to Yellowstone. But do they really help to heal fragmented landscapes? "All the study that's been done so far has been typically at very small scales, and only looking at very short-term animal movement," says Paul Beier, a conservation biologist at Northern Arizona University. "What's yet to be known is whether the longer corridors — on the scale of miles — will, over the long term, promote gene flow and allow things like animals to recolonize areas," he says.

Even after recent rains the continental volume of dead grasses between Hoover and Santa Fe is explosively dry: goddess have mercy on us for we know not what we do.

Rewild the West.

Cannabis rights in Montana defended in new film

Many Democrats, including this interested party, are deeply troubled by recent statements from the leading contender in our party's nomination primary for governor of Montana, Attorney General Steve Bullock. His choices to turn away from one voter-initiated law and embrace another more suited to his election chances seem to signify an ethical lapse where some feigned moral high ground trumps civil liberties.

From my inbox:

Hello Larry, 

Medical marijuana policy in Montana continues to be a hot topic and a new documentary film, entitled "Code of the West," about the Montana political debate will premiere this month around the state, featuring high profile figures from both sides of the issue — Tom Daubert, founder of Patients & Families United, and Montana Speaker of the House Mike Milburn. 

For "Interested Party" and your coverage of statewide issues, I thought you'd be particularly interested in the film. Below is more information about the documentary, the screening tour and post-screening panel discussions that will be happening in Missoula, Bozeman, Helena and Billings the weeks of May 13 and 20. 

We invite you to attend one of the screenings and panel discussions and continue the discussion on your blog. 

You can also view the film's trailer at www.codeofthewestfilm.com and find more information about Emmy-nominated filmmaker Rebecca Richman Cohen, the screening tour, Facebook invitations and the press kit with images from the film.

New Documentary Follows Montana Medical Marijuana Debate


“Code of the West” to screen in four Montana communities


May 1, 2012 — Montana — As Montana medical marijuana business owners face serious federal charges, newly produced documentary film, “Code of the West” — telling the emotional story of the state’s medical marijuana political debate — will screen in four Montana communities this month. Screenings and post-screening panel discussions with high-profile figures from both sides of the political debate are to be held in Missoula, Bozeman, Helena and Billings the weeks of May 13 and 20.


“Code of the West” documents the 2011 Montana Legislature as it debates marijuana regulation and repeal of the Medical Marijuana Initiative that Montana voters passed in 2004. It follows key figures on each side of the debate, including Tom Daubert — longtime lobbyist for environmental and public health-related issues including medical marijuana, who recently reached a plea agreement with federal prosecutors after his former business Montana Cannabis was raided by federal agents in March 2011. Daubert’s former colleagues, co-owners of Montana Cannabis, also face federal indictments. Daubert will join the “Code of the West” post-screening panel discussion in Billings on Tuesday, May 22, at the Alberta Bair Theater.


“Medical marijuana is one of the most heated policy issues facing the country today. Sixteen states and the District of Columbia have legalized medical marijuana, yet the federal government doesn’t recognize any legitimate medical use. The way in which states regulate a drug that is illegal under federal law — a drug that is widely used by adults and teenagers for purposes that are not medical and a drug which has become a powerful symbol in a much wider debate about cultural values — raises the sort of hard questions that drove me to make this film, “said Rebecca Richman Cohen, Emmy Award-nominated filmmaker and director, producer and writer of the film. “While the film follows a story that is unique and specific to Montana, this political debate and its implications are relevant nationwide.”


“Repeal of this law for many is a matter of life and death,” Daubert said in “Code of the West.” “Anything that serves the interests of patients having continuous, reliable access to good, safe, diverse kinds of medicine is something I’ll support.” To demonstrate his resolute support for medical marijuana legalization and how to run a medical marijuana business under Montana law, he became co-owner of Montana Cannabis, later leaving the business to lead the industry’s lobbying efforts.


On the other side of the Montana debate, the documentary follows advocates of the medical marijuana repeal effort, including Cherrie Brady of Safe Communities Safe Kids and Montana Speaker of the House Mike Milburn (R) HD 19 Cascade, who sponsored the bill to repeal the medical marijuana initiative and make all marijuana use again a crime. Speaker Milburn will participate in the film’s panel discussion in Helena on Thursday, May 17, at the Myrna Loy Center, and Cherrie Brady will sit on the Billings post-screening panel.


“Even in the couple of years we’ve had medical marijuana, it has changed the culture of Montana,” said Milburn in the film, “but we are still living under the federal law and that makes it hard to even come up with a legitimate state law.”


While Milburn’s repeal bill passed the Montana Legislature, Governor Brian Schweitzer vetoed the legislation. Later in the legislative session, the governor did sign Senate Bill 423, a reform bill that drastically limits Montana’s medical marijuana industry.


As of March 31, 2012, the Montana Marijuana Program under the Department of Public Health and Human Services reported 11,993 medical marijuana cardholders. Prior to the passage of SB 423, the number of medical marijuana cardholders peaked at 31,522.


Opponents of SB 423 have collected the required number of signatures to put a Montana Medical Marijuana Referendum on the November 6, 2012, ballot. If passed, the measure would repeal SB 423. Also, the Montana Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments on May 30 for Montana Cannabis Industry Association v. the State of Montana, a suit that is appealing portions of state District Judge James Reynolds’ ruling on June 30, 2011. That ruling blocked portions of SB 423 from taking effect.


The panelists, speaking immediately after the “Code of the West” screenings, encourage audience questions. Other high-profile panelists include former Congressman Pat Williams, who is moderating the Missoula discussion; Bozeman Deputy Mayor Jeff Krauss; Chris Lindsey, also speaking in Bozeman and Helena and representing the Montana Cannabis Industry Association; and Helena Mayor Jim Smith, in addition to several Montana Democrat and Republican legislators.


“Code of the West” premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival in March 2012 and is an official selection of the Independent Film Festival Boston 2012.


“Code of the West” screening times, trailer, ticket information and Facebook event links are available at http://www.codeofthewestfilm.com/screenings. The following includes the full tour schedule and a listing of panel discussion participants:


Missoula: Tuesday, May 15 at 7 p.m. at the Wilma Theatre
Participants in the post-screening panel discussion:
o Moderator: former Congressman Pat Williams
o Emmy-nominated filmmaker Rebecca Richman Cohen
o Missoula County Attorney Fred Van Valkenburg
o John Masterson of Montana NORML
o Montana Representative Diane Sands (D) HD 95 Missoula


Bozeman: Wednesday, May 16 at 7 p.m. at the Center for the Arts and Culture
Participants in the post-screening panel discussion:
o Moderator: George Cole, broadcast journalist and former host of Yellowstone Public Radio’s “RealTime”
o Emmy-nominated filmmaker Rebecca Richman Cohen
o Bozeman Deputy Mayor Jeff Krauss
o Former Montana Representative Brady Wiseman (D) HD 65 Bozeman
o Retired Gallatin County Sheriff Jim Cashell
o Montana Cannabis Industry Association board member Chris Lindsey


Helena: Thursday, May 17 at 7 p.m. at the Myrna Loy Center
Participants in the post-screening panel discussion:
o Moderator: John Adams, USA TODAY correspondent and capitol bureau chief at the Great Falls Tribune
o Emmy-nominated filmmaker Rebecca Richman Cohen
o Montana Speaker of the House Mike Milburn (R) HD 19 Cascade
o Montana Representative Pat Noonan (D) HD 73 Ramsay
o Helena Mayor Jim Smith
o Montana Cannabis Industry Association board member Chris Lindsey


Helena: Friday, May 18 at 7 p.m. at the Myrna Loy Center
Post-screening audience Q&A session with Emmy-nominated filmmaker Rebecca Richman Cohen


Bozeman: Monday, May 21 at 7 p.m. at the Emerson Center for the Arts and Culture
Post-screening audience Q&A session with Emmy-nominated filmmaker Rebecca Richman Cohen


Billings: Tuesday May 22 at 7 p.m. at the Alberta Bair Theater
Participants in the post-screening panel discussion:
o Moderator: KTVQ-TV Assistant News Director Jay Kohn
o Emmy-nominated filmmaker Rebecca Richman Cohen
o Tom Daubert, founder of Patients & Families United
o Cherrie Brady of Safe Communities Safe Kids
o Montana Senator Jeff Essmann (R) SD 28 Billings
o Dr. Ed Stickney, past president of the Montana Medical Association and the Montana Chapter of the American Academy of Family Physicians


Missoula: Wednesday, May 23 at 7 p.m. at the Wilma Theatre
Post-screening audience Q&A session with Emmy-nominated filmmaker Rebecca Richman Cohen

UN: return Black Hills to tribes

This AP report is posted at KDLT's website:

A United Nations fact finder surveying conditions of Native Americans and Alaska Natives says he will recommend in his report that some of their lands are returned. 

James Anaya has been meeting with tribal leaders, the administration and Senate members over 12 days to assess U.S. compliance with the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. He plans several suggestions in his report, likely due out this fall.

Anaya says land restoration would help bring about reconciliation. He named the Black Hills of South Dakota as an example. The hills are public land but are considered sacred land by Native Americans. 

President Barack Obama endorsed the declaration in 2010, reversing a previous U.S. vote against it. It is intended to protect the rights of 370 million native peoples worldwide.

A loop just now through Upper Spearfish Creek revealed extensive infiltration by the Western Spruce Budworm in Black Hills Spruce.

My guess? Vehicles brought the insect from other western states: ATVs, logging equipment...take your pick. Doesn't matter: water is being sucked from aquifer recharge zones then transpired into thin air in quantities that defy imagination leaving the Ponderosa pine monoculture even more vulnerable to anthropogenic climate warming.

Wakan Tanka: please, have mercy on us.

Reporting on weaponized wildfire generating heat

W'all be drugged. Hey, media: the US jihadists aren't Muslims, they're christians!

An explosion at a sawmill has been blamed on heptane that is concentrated in Ponderosa pine dried by a century of climate warming!

Bob Beck is Wyoming Public Media's News Director. He recently began an interview with Senator John Bare Asso (earth hater-WY) asking the question: "Senator, why do you hate the environment?" WAKE THE FUCK UP!

Preserve the legacy trees, clear the ladder fuels, kill the youngest pine, convert the biomass to the fuel needed for logging, mill the remainder into paper packaging at a mill near a sustainable water source (like a freed Missouri River loaded at a rail head in St. Onge), torch infected trees when there is sufficient snow cover in areas too sensitive to log, then burn prescriptively concurrent with favorable weather.

Minneapolis cops stone protesters for training

Free weed...to train cops!

Maddow: Ron Paul delegates still in play; PPP polls Montana

Romney=Obama Lite.



Members of the earth hater party are shaking their heads and holding their noses as Willard Romney lunges for the mantle of the anointed while Ron Paul supporters infiltrate some state party organizations.



@maddow will be on NPR's All Things Considered tonight promoting her new book: Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Ron Paul would win Montana in a landslide if voters self-identifying as 'independent' had their way, says Public Policy Polling.

PPP has been surveying the gubernatorial, US House, and Senate races in that state this week and also finds that Libertarian presidential contender, Gary Johnson is polling at 8% making his bid a factor in Montana at the final tally while Mitt Romney's lead is eroding.

A snip from the most recent findings:

“Barack Obama probably missed out on his best chance to win Montana in 2008,” said Dean Debnam, President of Public Policy Polling. “But the race there is still closer than you would expect it to be.”

Looks like Doug Bandow of the Cato Institute is weighing in on the 2012 presidential race, too:

The American people desperately need an alternative to the Republicrat Parties. Although the case for Rep. Paul heading the LP ticket is strong, so is Gary Johnson's claim to the vice presidential position. In fact, the latter is well-qualified for the presidential nod.

Yee muthafuckin' haw!

Strike!