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by: Jay Stevens

Thu Feb 26, 2009 at 09:01:22 AM MST

What's up with Montana Republicans? Can't they let a legislative session go without some sort of squealing and whining? Frankly, Scott Mendenhall should get on his knees and kiss Bob Bergen's feet for quashing the GOP's "right-to-work" bill. Remember the reaction to the "right-to-work" plank slipped into the party platform from its own supporters? Can you imagine how an attack on the unions would be received by the state electorate, especially on the heels of Republican obstructionism on CHIP?

And doesn't Representative Howard's self-righteous trilling on the Rotunda Report remind you of someone else who got mad? Does Representative Howard really want to discuss "character," after his party tabled a bill that would give gays equal protection under the law, and stalled a program that had support of 70 percent of the electorate? Whatever. This is politics, not a rubber-stamp body for far-right ideology.

Jhwygirl found yet more bills before the legislature that are bad for the environment, as well as a weird bill that would, er, protect protesters at health-care facilities? I realize much of modern conservatism is based on persecution fantasies, but, really? Abortion protesters need protection? From the people entering the clinic? Really?

Shane Mason likes the proposed bill that would waive federal regulations for Montana-made and -sold firearms: "I have long felt that gun rights are a state/local issue much more so than the feds. I remember the first time I heard Howard Dean speaking and he said that gun rights mean something completely different to folks in Tennessee and Montana than they do to people in New York city and that quiet frankly it was not the feds business to tell people in Montana how to regulate their guns."

Keila Szpaller has a nice report of Bob Jaffee's famous email reports of Missoula City Council meetings. I'm a subscriber still, and you should be, too, if you live in Missoula. And why aren't other city council persons doing something similar?

The Notorious Mark T tells a tale of the Perfesser and how he years ago p*ssed in the well of pragmatic tax reform...

More on the Obama agenda: his plans to regulate the financial sector. The administration also "detailed its expanded financial aid plan for the banking industry," which includes the government taking ownership "stakes" in the "most troubled banks." Then there's the proposal to create a 634-billion-dollar healthcare fund to help pay for an overhaul to the health care system.

Attorney General Eric Holder indicated the administration wants to renew the assault weapons ban. Is the ban worth the political cost?

Economist Edward Glaeser proposes an end -- or lower ceiling for -- home mortgage deductions. Not only a regressive tax rebate, it pushes home prices up, encourages mortgage speculation, and results in bigger houses.

Can you believe how Joe the Plumber has become the spokesperson of the conservative movement? Not everybody's happy about it -- but it appears the national GOP has farther to fall. Perhaps only in the wreckage of a Palin/Jindal 2012 ticket, Republicans will have the ability to reinvent their party and make it responsive to Americans' needs.

Kossak MissLaura notes the hypocracy from the religious right on Bristol Palin's pregnancy. It's not what you do: it's how subservient you are to conservative rhetoric that matters.

Speaking of which, you won't believe what some conservative Colorado legislators said about a bill that would include HIV testing for pregnant women. Sen. Dave Schultheis, who opposed the tests: "What I'm hoping is that yes, that person may have AIDS, have it seriously as a baby and when they grow up, but the mother will begin to feel guilt as a result of that. The family will see the negative consequences of that promiscuity and it may make a number of people over the coming years ... begin to realize that there are negative consequences and maybe they should adjust their behavior." Another equated homosexuality with murder.

Christopher Hitchens: idiot.