Amid a creaky economy Congress has found a convenient scapegoat: foreign companies landing American contracts and scheming to take over our iconic brands. First, the Air Force awarded a deal to build refueling tankers to Airbus, a European company, instead of U.S.-based Boeing. And now foreigners are going after our beer. The prospect of Belgium’s […]

I believe in democracy, and I believe that every vote counts and every citizen matters. That’s why, in late June, I challenged Governor Schweitzer to 18 debates around Montana – to give the large majority of voters the chance to hear directly from myself and Governor Schweitzer about where each of us stands on the […]

Years ago, when I was romancing my wife Laurie, I convinced her that “I was a 14-year-old kid trapped in a senior citizen’s body.” That was then and this is now. I have just completed writing a book that is full of advice about how to live the second half of your life. This, incidentally, […]

The Flathead County Library Board of Trustees met last month and once again failed to make a decision, or even indicate a possible plan, on the future of the Kalispell library. Meanwhile, the abandoned Tidyman’s grocery store near downtown here continues to rot, its 52,000 square feet eager for books – or anything else to […]

Sen. Barack Obama’s Fourth of July visit to Butte, already his fourth to our state is proof, if anybody needed any, that Montana in 2008 is indeed a “battleground” state. Democrats see an opportunity to change the electoral map in Montana where Obama ran well in the June Democratic primary. His message of change seems […]

Well, this week I set ANOTHER record gassing up my weapons carrier. Dang, that hurts! Yet there are some who think paying five bucks or more a gallon is a good idea. I think they’re nuts. America is an energy economy. Remember the geezer in the post-Apocalypse epic Soylent Green, pedaling his generator to power […]

Republican gubernatorial candidate Roy Brown, succumbing to political saber rattling, challenged Gov. Brian Schweitzer to 18 debates. While Brown is doing what challengers do, shooting for the moon in an effort to put himself in front of voters while spending little money, the Democratic incumbent’s counteroffer was highly disappointing. Schweitzer wants to have five debates […]

Montana is under siege. And, no, I don’t mean by a bunch of politicians and their surrogates swarming all over the state pleading for votes. I mean Montana’s forests, both public and private, are being hit extremely hard by beetle infestations. There are different types of beetles such as mountain pine and Douglas fir as […]

During the opening reception at the Montana Republican convention last week, party chairman Erik Iverson called for unity. With continued infighting over which ideological direction his party is heading, it’s a lofty goal and one that he must approach delicately. How Republicans fare in the November elections may depend upon Iverson’s ability to appease different […]

London’s The Guardian newspaper (June 11, 2004) gave extensive ink to the words of Tony Hayward, CEO of BP-Global. This is the same BP-Global that intends to develop coal bed methane (CBM) just north of the U.S.-Canada border at the Flathead/Elk River divide near Fernie, B.C. Out of self-interest, we should pay attention to what […]

Al Gore narrated a movie, and for doing so got an Academy Award and a Nobel Peace Prize. From his global warming platform an entire worldwide industry has sprung up. Tens of thousands of jobs have been created to paint the world green. What about painting the ocean blue? Since the oceans cover more than […]

Welcome back, class. Let’s dig out that copy of the Multiple Use Sustained Yield Act of 1960 (MUSYA) you saved in your computer from last time, specifically MUSYA Section 4(b): “‘Sustained yield of the several products and services’ means the achievement and maintenance in perpetuity of a high level annual or regular periodic output of […]

Detractors of Pres. Bush’s stimulus plan were forced to momentarily mute their criticism last week when retail sales posted a bigger-than-expected gain. It turns out that the 57 million Americans who have so far received their checks chose to spend them wildly. Some economists had predicted the opposite; that the majority of Americans would opt […]

It’s not supposed to happen this way. Challengers are not supposed to defeat entrenched incumbents in primaries. Yet on June 3rd, three little-known conservatives did just that, and Montana politics may never be the same. Running energetic, issue-driven campaigns, Mike Miller, Joel Boniek and Lee Randall defeated three heavily favored veteran legislators. Their basic message: […]

I was recently invited to Squaw Valley California to give a speech to the American Association of Professional Ski Patrollers. These are the men and women who keep ski resorts running. I talked to them about some of the things I had learned since I taught skiing at Squaw during the winter of 1948-49 when […]