Oil spill outrages Montana residents

DEM governor two DEM senators.

Just pointing out the situation.

And Obama got 48 percent of the vote in 2008.

28-20 in the state legislature, which is what matters. Also more Reps in the house.

With all due respect and with an understanding of your frustrations for red state politics, nobody deserves these man-made disasters.

I'm a lifelong resident of Louisiana and I vote Democrat. Unfortunately I live in a state where the majority consistently votes Republican. Roughly half of America votes Republican, including in the blue states.

So I implore you to reconsider your feelings, because I'm a Democrat in a majority Republican state. And the whole state of Louisiana does not deserve to be raped of our resources and soiled upon by oil companies and bureaucrats because of a 60% majority.

~~

As humans we tend to make sweeping generalizations of groups because it is convenient. We are all guilty of it.

Not all Louisianians are Republican. Governor Bobby Jindal and Senator David Vitter do not represent my interests. I did not vote for them. I am not a hypocrite and I do not deserve having my homeland trashed, and I feel disrespected, or at the very least, disregarded when I read statements declaring that I and the people around me deserve this: irreversible damage to our waterways, to our estuaries, to our wildlife, our fisheries, our marshland that protects our cities, to our way of life, damages that endanger our culture, our personal health, and the very future of the city of New Orleans.

Please open your perspective to people like me who are trapped in a political conundrum.

Matters that the GOP does not have a veto proof majority and the guv is not afraid to use that veto brand he registered to make a point about the fact that the legislature is not running the state.

He set a record this year for vetoes! ☺

Thank you!

The habit some have of slamming entire populations in red states is not especially helpful to those of us busting our humps to get more DEMS, and more progressive DEMs in office. Slamming entire populations is a knee jerk bigotry reaction. It is counterproductive and it is what TPTB want us to do to keep us fighting each other instead of dealing with the root of our problems.

Reinforcing the RW pundits' harangues that DEMs are elitists who hate rural Americans is not how to change hearts and open minds in the heartland. Reinforcing false RW claims about elitist DEMS also makes same error the far right often makes about ignoring nuance.

Fact: GOP pols, and many DEM pols say what the voters what to hear, then do what the puppet masters want done. Voters in red states can't count on pols doing what they say any more that voters in blue states can. True, voters SHOULD be remembering what is done over what is said, but the fact that the WHOLE COUNTRY is having the same problems would indicate the problem of lying pols and inattentive voters is not a red v blue thing. The nation is purple and fighting amongst ourselves over imaginary 'issues' is how the Hoarder Class Minority ends up running everything, everywhere.

Yep, and made such an amusing production out of it that Media wanted to cover the vetos, so he got the last word and was able to point out just how much time/money the demagogues wasted on trying to score points with the teabagger types while knowing the laws were not good for the people of Montana.

Back in the bush days, he went to DC to make the case for why Montana's National Guard helicopters needed to be returned to Montana from Iraq. We were facing horrible fire seasons, the state was in a prolonged drought, and those 7 or 9 (my memory is fuzzy) choppers were essential to fire fighting management and deployment. Guess what? We got our birds back. bush/cheney/rummy caved because Brian was not going to back down and STFU. He was speaking truth to power about how they were abusing the states' guard units which were meant to handle emergency situations in their states, only deployed in war abroad as last resort. bush/cheney/rummy used the guard to supplement the army so they would not have to resort to a draft, which would have turned the country against the war much faster. They caved because he would have kept up until more governors would have been forced to get behind him. Now, keeping up the fight might have been better for the nation as a whole, but Brian's job was/is to take care of Montana and he did. If the other governors had any spine, they would follow suit. He can't make other DEMS fight, but he constantly teaches how to fight, if they care to pay attention and grow a pair too.

It is odd that a couple of MT DEMS are so good at getting what we need addressed in DC, considering we are such a bunch of bad, red state, foolish voters ;^)

Point taken, I take it back as a generalization.

It just pisses me off to no end that people consistently elect the fuckers who do this to them but never put two and two together. They'll vote for the people that slash environmental protections and then get all surprised when people engage in mountaintop removal or because their groundwater is polluted by pig farm runoff or that their land is fucked up by oil spills.

I know it's not all of you, it's not even a large majority of you. But it is a majority, and it is incredibly frustrating. Especially since these issues have been getting worse for the past two decades, not better.

It is a stereotype, and maybe an unfair one at that. But I'm not given a whole lot to work with here, especially when this happens -consistently-.

You speak truth - It's a dog & pony show, a good cop bad cop routine - the whole game's rigged for corporations. I'm constantly advocating for an alternative approach to wasting time, votes, energy and endless petitions to legislators and agencies that simply have no intention of serving the electorate. Obama sold a "brand" to progressives (myself included) with dismal and predictable results, and when we called the administration to task were branded as "the cultural left" who are always "unsatisfied"; Rahm described us in obscene epitaphs. The right has no such worries with their base of the fearful and hateful fifth, they are gleefully willing to be useful idiots for the corporate coup.

So we are left hung out to dry while our livelihoods, rights, quality of life and environment are rapidly going down the tubes. We have been sold out. Period.

The 2012 Presidential Election Conventions should become prime targets for disruption and civil disobedience. We must usurp the stage from the corporate lap dogs running for office. They have stolen everything from us. Turn the spotlight on issues and away from politics.

As for the Yellowstone, I'm sick to my stomach. Montana was a trout fishers paradise. As an avid angler who KNOWS the power of rivers I can assure you the spill will have a tremendous impact and no amount of spin from elected officials can stop that flowing water from carrying it's death load well beyond predicted points downriver.

I'm actually not a big Baucus fan, but I ♥ Jon Tester, even if I disagreed with him on the debit card fees. I sort of like Schweitzer, but boy, he sure can be an egomaniac sometimes.

I think my favourite of them all is Jag. ☺

{hugs} No hard feelings.

A lot of decent people in the Big Sky.

Many of your points are valid.

Baucus sold out and he is on my list of DINOS who have to go. Tester rocks. I know DEMS/Libs nationwide question his judgment, DEM cred, but they are not grasping the voters here when they doubt him. He cares. He is REALLY a farmer, not a pretend farmer. He understands what people here are dealing with.

When he was attacked for the swipe fee issue, people in the east didn't understand that he was really looking out for a lot of local, solvent, safe small, independent banks here. He was looking out for the communities those banks serve and the food producers those banks serve with operational business. I hope those who attacked him didn't do it with a mouthful of Montana meat or grain, made possible by those small, independent banks and the producers they serve. ;^)

The national DEMs need to work a bit more to understand just how much Tester really stands up for the old Democratic Party values that farmers, ranchers, working class people used to support. The national DEMs also need to grasp the fact that the GOP will pour a lot of cash in here for the idiot Rehberg. A senate vote is a senate vote on the Hill, but to win the seat in MT is a lot cheaper than doing same in more populous states.

Tester gets a lot of small donations from real people. Denny Rehberg is a whore and usually a drunk one, but he does what he is told so really fat cats will invest in his run.

Baucus should have retired long ago. He is not looking out for Montana or the people of the nation. He fell victim to the contagion and is serving lobbyists who are not doing anything good for the people.

And the waters that flow through here flow into other states as well.

Absolutely. There are no red states, blue states and what hits one really does 'trickle down' and hit all, one way or another.

Union. Union is the word we would do well to remember. Your air blows to my state. My state's water flows three directions: To the Gulf Of Mexico, the Pacific Ocean and to the Atlantic via Hudson Bay (yes, some water basins here drain to the north east)

It is one planet.

Fracking is coming VERY soon too. We are 'screwn'

tax hikes on all SUVs, private planes, yachts, champagne, jewelry, any house over 3.000 square feet, etc, all luxury items (things only the very rich can afford)

We won't get a strong EPA because Big Oil keeps buying pols on the Hill

hahaha - good one!