Gosh, I hate Congress. About six weeks ago, the Senate Judiciary approved, on a straight party line, a gun control bill: S-649 – misnamed the Safe Communities, Safe Schools Act. While watered down slightly from what gun-haters in Congress really lusted for (gun and magazine bans), it still stank. Stinkiest of all was “universal background […]

Montana’s new Republican Congressman Steve Daines spent a good part of his Easter “vacation” from Congress on a “natural resources” tour, including visits to forest-products mills in Missoula, Seeley Lake, and here in the Flathead. But after making the expected promise that he hasn’t “lost sight of the foundation of this economy – timber, oil, […]

I’m getting a new computer. This time, I dang well will set it up to lessen the amount of information going out, as it seems like Al Gore’s Internet is learning a little too much about Dave. Why else would I see so many obviously-targeted adverts for guns, politics, AARP and bikini contests? Trust me, […]

When Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced his resignation from the Obama Administration, attention turned instantly to a successor. But President Barack Obama shattered the mold when he nominated Seattleite Sally Jewell, CEO of Recreational Equipment, Inc., known as REI. Born in England, Jewell came to America at age four when her anesthesiologist dad […]

Because I abuse my Second Amendment rights just as enthusiastically as I abuse my First Amendment rights, the post-Newtown “sensible gun control” kabuki dance in Washington, DC has my rapt attention. Trouble is, when it comes to Congressional hearings or press events, “news” organizations almost never cover the really important stuff. Thank God for C-Span […]

Darn. Only three months after the last election, the political slime spigot has already been turned on again: Most of us saw the cheesy Super Bowl ad trying to pin the National Rifle Association, “independently” paid for by billionaire nanny Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Illegal [For Peasants] Guns. I was going to discuss what […]

I’ve been writing about the ongoing beating being inflicted on Montana’s education trusts by the so-called Whitefish Trail/Whitefish School Trust Lands Neighborhood Plan. But the harshest blow to the beneficiary trusts was struck by Montana’s Land Board when it approved the Plan in November 2004. The Plan covers 13,000 acres of state trust lands, which […]

With politicians and journalists jitterbugging in blood, a giant sucking sound heard at gun shows and gun shops all across America, and now word that President Barack Obama may ban guns through executive order – is new gun control likely in the wake of the Newtown slayings? One certainty: The political fight over Evil Black […]

Last month, I explained how nicely the Nature Conservancy made out on the Swan Lake State Forest checkerboard deal, paying $1,428/acre for land appraised at $2,331/acre and eventually gathering a total of $1,982/acre – a tidy gain of $554/acre (39 percent in two years) in a dead-flat real-estate market. Now, let’s compare how the Whitefish […]

I had myself a cry upon the news of the Newtown slaughter. So many, so evil, so immoral. So shocking, it was two whole hours before the political blood-dancing started. I was especially struck by a comment made on Face The Nation, when Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) said he felt America might be at a […]

Last time, I promised to explore whether the Whitefish Trail program is paying “full value” to the school trusts. Well, first there are a couple of other “conservation transactions” our intrepid Land Board approved Nov. 19 that provide some preparatory full-value context. Alongside the Whitefish deal was the Milk River/Aageson ranch on the Canadian border. […]

When is an easement keeping 1,500 acres of state trust lands west of Whitefish “open and undeveloped for all generations to come” not a conservation easement? When it’s a Beaver Lakes Area Deed of Public Recreation Use Easement, of course! Prior to 2001, Montana Code Annotated (MCA) said nothing for or against conservation easements on […]

Rats! I thought I’d closed the lid on Money Sewer 2012. But then, added to the screaming over Rick Hill’s half million, was news of hundreds of thousands being spent to fake out voters in Montana’s Senate race. Some went for possibly illegal “conservatives should vote for Dan Cox” mailers that came out of Las […]

Earlier this month, federal judge Charles Lowell issued a declaration blowing out Montana’s campaign-finance limits. In the six days between his ruling and a Ninth Circuit Court stay, the Montana Republican Party threw a half-million dollars at Rick Hill’s gubernatorial campaign and another 30 grand to Tim Fox, the Republican attorney general candidate. Democrats, of […]

Well, the tidal wave of stupid political mailings and ads shows no sign of ebbing. The most hateful thing about political adverts is their intent: Not information, but manipulation, which is an extra shame given a Gallup poll I fell across the other day. Gallup found 60 percent of Americans distrust the press. The sad […]