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Barack Obama  |
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Rob Kailey is a working schmuck with no ties or affiliations to any governmental or political organizations, save those of sympathy.
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Democrat
Wed Jun 23, 2010 at 18:32:55 PM MST
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Montana Attorney General Steve Bullock scored another victory for family farms and ranches this week when federal regulators included many of his demands in a proposed rule to reform the industry. Bullock is leading a 16-state effort to save small farmers and ranchers by pushing the federal government to use antitrust weapons to fight increasing consolidation in agriculture.
The toothless anti-trust regulations that Bullock is trying to reform have "contributed to the exodus of about 150,000 cattle operations since the mid-1990s, which has, consequently, caused the hollowing out of rural communities all across America." according to R-CALF USA.
The proposed reforms would improve market transparency and further define practices that are unfair, discriminatory or deceptive, including efforts by big packers that would limit the legal rights of small producers.
The draft rules have been praised by industry experts across the U.S.:
John Crabtree of the Center for Rural Affairs said that the rule isn't perfect, "but it is the most aggressive, significant livestock market reform to come out of Washington, perhaps since the passage of the Packers and Stockyards Act itself.
"This rule will breathe some life, some competition back into our livestock markets," he said. "And we're going to work hard to keep improving it, and we're going to fight -- tooth and nail -- to ensure that the packers cannot weaken the rule."
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Thu Oct 16, 2008 at 10:39:19 AM MST
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During the primary season, I remember hearing Steve Bullock talk multiple times about the death penalty and generally sounding like someone who is OK with the death penalty in theory, occasionally has problems with it in practice, and gets nervous talking about it in a state with a pretty vocal abolition movement.
How did I spot that? Well, I fall in basically the same place.
How much did I think about this? Not a ton -- in large measure because as Bullock has emphasized repeatedly, the Attorney General is not a legislative actor, but an executive one. The AG manages an operation of limited resources to focus on different priorities. And Bullock has always been pretty clear that his interest is in managing the state's legal operation, not being a mini-Governor using the bully pulpit of the office to try to convince the legislature to act on his agenda.
Because of that -- and because of a thoughtful, nuanced interview he gave to Jay here at Left in the West -- he is being attacked in a dishonest ad. Jennifer McKee nicely summarizes just how dishonest it is: Among other things, the ad claims Bullock, also a Helena lawyer, is "against the death penalty."
Bullock has been repeatedly quoted on the radio and in Montana newspapers as saying he supports the death penalty and would support it as attorney general.
In documentation supporting the ad, the GOP cites an interview Bullock gave with the blog, Left in the West. There, Bullock said several times that as attorney general he would support the law. So where does the GOP argument come from? From stuff like this:He also said that if anyone hurt his daughter he "would want to kill them but I'm not sure the state should." Elsewhere in the interview, Bullock said he would be neither surprised nor disappointed if the death penalty were overturned. Hell, I'm in favor of the death penalty, just like Bullock, but I'd also be neither surprised nor disappointed if it was repealed.
Questions of life and death and the state are complicated. They can be complicated legally and are inevitably complicated morally. That's why a bunch of progressives are upset with John McCain's dismissiveness of a mother's health as a justification for late-term abortions. And that's why a lot of us who favor the death penalty in theory also wouldn't be super upset if the penalty went away.
In fact, I think it says a lot more about the Republican Party that they'd be so flippant about taking someone's life than it does about Bullock that he appreciates the import of that decision.
Sadly, though, despite pretty clear evidence that the Republicans aren't just distorting, but that they are outright lying, Montana media stations have yet to pull the ad. It's high-time they do so.
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