Can it get any worse?

[Big Fin]

Well, I think I have pretty much documented my distaste for the political party of which I am registered. Today is just a lot more proof of why. Teddy Roosevelt is probably rolling in his grave.

The bill that passed the Senate today, SB217, is the worst bill to come out of the MT Senate, since I can remember.

And Republicans wonder why I will do everything in my power to show how bad they are putting the screws to MT hunters. As of today, I have officially declared every Republican in the MT legislature as fair game for all tactics necessary to get them unelected.

This bill requires FWP to reimburse livestock producers for diseases they have identified as being wildlife-borne diseases. They are diseases borne by wildlife because domestic livestock introduced these diseases to wildlife. You are probably saying, "WTF?"

The reimbursement is very expensive, but since it represents a diversion of Federal P-R dollars, the Feds will pull those matching dollars from the state. For those of you not aware, Pittman-Robertson money is Federal excise tax money given to states as matching funds for wildlife programs. Use for purposes other than wildlife are illegal and result in repayment of those funds.

This bill will take between $17,000,000 $18,000,000 from FWP every year, starting in 2010. No, I am not making this up. Here is the fiscal analysis of the bill, as provided by the budget office.

http://data.opi.mt.gov/bills/2009/FNPDF/SB0217.pdf

It was passed pretty much by a Republic party block vote.

Hopefully it will die in the House. And these Republicans wonder why there is increasing tensions between aggies and hunters. Stuff like this is the biggest reason.

Time for a house cleaning. :BLEEP::BLEEP::BLEEP:

 

[JoseCuervo]

That is just crazy stupid. FWP having to lay-off 128 employees to allow a bunch of cows to get tests for cow diseases...

The Republican party is fugged up, big time.

 

[TLC]

Fin, you guys out there in montana trying to catch illinois in the WTF dept when it comes to politics? illinois had to come up with 9-10 million to pay back the DNR that blogo had taken and spent elsewhere.

 

[Big Fin]

Fin, you guys out there in montana trying to catch illinois in the WTF dept when it comes to politics? illinois had to come up with 9-10 million to pay back the DNR that blogo had taken and spent elsewhere.

Better watch out TLC, they don't want to just catch you guys in IL. Hell, looks like they want to lap IL, and anyone else challenging for the throne of stupidity.

And we can't even blame it on one single psych job, like you guys can. We got a big pen full of 'em.

Yup, the WTF factor is redlined at this time.

 

[shoots-straight]

Fin, one of the Co-sponsers (Rick Liable) from the Bitterroot is my Senator. We all called him on Tuesday, he and Jim Shockley our other Senator both voted no on the second reading. Then (DEBBIE BARETT the sportsman's enemy) from Dillon changed it by taking the word wildlife and changing it to elk, and the term disease to Brucellosis. Then they got it out of committee re-read it. Liable and Shockley, and one more Senator changed their vote twice and now it's history.. WE plan to have a forum and call in these guy and hold them to task on this... Our Republican legislators suck. They've both voted for all the bills that are against the sportsman.. Hell ,Liable was the one that ran a bill to null and void the stream access bill. He told us he never read the bill before he submitted it..I heard he had 300 tags on his message board from the Bitterroot, so he pulled the bill. What a joke.. We need every one to call the state and let them know how you feel. We need to kill this is committee.

 

[JohnSWA]

Welfare for everyone! It only gets better, or worse depending on your perspective. Please somebody turn off the lights when everybody leaves.

 

[Grizzley]

Is everyone moving LEFT!

It is absolutely disappointing that the entire country appears to be moving left and becoming entirely to liberal for me. Where are our conservative votes that are suppose to represent the midwest values...or should I say a sportsmen's values!

All of us must remember this over the course of the next two years...our votes count, our voices need to be heard, and we must elect people that are willing to represent our views! We need to move this country back to the right! The alternative is to stand in line with those that enjoy a government handout...

I wish all of you luck in drawing a great tag this year...but don't waste your vote by voting for people of a certain party...vote conservative! Today there is a definite difference being republican and being conservative!

 

[shoots-straight]

Grizzly, the people that are pushing the anti, sportsman bills are Republican, their no friend of the sportsman and don't share our hunting heritage values. If saving our way of life is liberal count me as one of them. The right have turned fascist. Some of the left have turned right, and the far left, is left behind.

 

[JohnSWA]

C'mon folks, how long is it going to take for you to see that democrats and republicans are one in the same. They will sway which ever way their major campaign contributers push them. This hasn't been a government by the people/for the people in a hundred years!

 

[guppie9]

C'mon folks, how long is it going to take for you to see that democrats and republicans are one in the same. They will sway which ever way their major campaign contributers push them. This hasn't been a government by the people/for the people in a hundred years!

AMEN!!

 

[Grizzley]

Roosevelt Rolls Over

Shoots-Straight..Republican...democrat...liberal...conservative...

I understand what you are saying. Personally, I have found that more times than not the conservative vote is in line with a hunters views but as Big Fin pointed out, SB217 in Montana is not a friend to us! With this issue the disappointment and responsibility rests at the feet of the republican party. My only fear is that if we go the liberal route and swing back the other way we may find ourselves fighting for bigger issues like gun control.

I guess I will go back to what I said earlier I will remain conservative and fight for my rights...if we are going to follow in Roosevelts tracks we must remember a couple Rooseveltisms...

"Speak softly and carry a big stick. You will go far. "

"A vote is like a rifle; its usefulness depends on the character of the user."

"The unforgivable crime is soft hitting. Do not hit at all if it can be avoided; but never hit softly." In any case Big Fin...it sounds as if you have avoided hitting them at this point so make the first hit...hard and on target and if I can help let me know!

 

[Big Fin]

My only fear is that if we go the liberal route and swing back the other way we may find ourselves fighting for bigger issues like gun control.

........ In any case Big Fin...it sounds as if you have avoided hitting them at this point so make the first hit...hard and on target and if I can help let me know!

Grizzley:

First of all, welcome. Hope you hang around and share some stories and pics. A couple other ND guys are pretty good at laying low and then posting some amazing stuff.

As far as the liberal route, I suspect ND is a lot like MT. Our most liberal legislators could lead the Republican party in most other states. We reallly have no liberals, in the context of what we think of as liberals on a national level.

Those types just can't get elected in places like MT. Some are liberal in a "relative measurement," but I couldn't bribe a MT legislator into talking about anything that resembles gun control, let alone sponsoring gun control.

So, the concern about gun control on a state level in MT, is a non-issue. It got thrown out of the playing field in 1994, when Max Baucus sided with the Clintons on some issues. He almost got hung for it. He learned his lesson, and now is rated favorable by most groups concerned about gun control. Our state legislators learned from Max's mistake.

With those type of issues not being part of the landscape in MT, it is hard to fathom what is being accomplished by the last fifteen years of blantant and relentless attacks the MT Republican Party has launched on FWP and resident hunters.

They bring up issues like wolves and gun control as a smoke screen to try sway people to thinking they are looking out for our best interest. I call BS. I call it publicly, I call it in personal meetings with them, and I call it when ever the opportunity provides.

I am an outcast among them. Kind of like the skunk at a party. I am always told I am not a conservative, because I violate the 11th Commandment - "Thou shall not speak poorly of a fellow Republican." Some times sinning is a necessity, when you have idiots doing what the MT Republican Party is doing in MT.

As far as hitting them. Oh, I have hit them. I have hit them as hard as I can, every time I can. I will continue to do so.

But, in a state like MT, we have so many districts that are Republican to such a degree that no challenge can be mounted to many of the biggest offenders. At least not in the general election. Myself and others are working to find common sense Republicans to run against the morons in the Primaries. It is really the only way to make change with fish and game issues with these people.

This bill in question is just one more volley in the barrage of stupidity that comes from small minds corroding within a circle of other small-minded thinkers. I would love for some of them to come to these hunting threads that I always forward to them. But, they don't have the balls (no sure what the women legislator analogies are) to come here. If they came to a site like this and drooled their infantile drivel to guys who know better, they would be pounded to pulp in short order, and they would then run to their little corner of cronies and cry about being picked on.

Sorry to carry on.

Thanks for signing up.

 

[Grizzley]

Pictures????

I work with Buschy...so the standards for posting pictures out of ND have been set a little high if you know what I mean! I'm working on it...the last three months has been map reading, map reading, shooting and tuning, taking in the Buschy Seminars, reading this site, and more map reading! This wet weather can't be gone soon enough~


I believe you know Buschy...ran into him last night at Space Aliens...if there is such a thing as "Cloud 9" he was on it! It was hilarious...two guys high fiving each other in the middle of a resturant and yelling "I'm going to Arizona" "Your GOING to Arizona I can't believe it"! People just stared it was awesome!

 

[BigHornRam]

What About This One?

2-party duo pushes timber bills
By MIKE DENNISON of the Missoulian State Bureau



HELENA - The completion of part of a huge conservation land deal in western Montana - along with help for Montana's timber industry - are part of an emerging agreement at the Legislature, with bipartisan support to achieve both goals.

The land deal is the state's purchase of 26,000 acres of Plum Creek Timber Co. land in the Blackfoot Valley east of Missoula - part of the

$490 million Legacy Project that will transfer 310,000 acres of Plum Creek timberland mostly to public and nonprofit ownership.


Part B of the plan is a state-funded $7.5 million revolving loan fund to help the timber industry get through a rough economic patch.

The proposals are in two bills approved Friday by House committees, and are expected to be on the House floor Monday for debate and likely passage.

The chief architects of the plan are Reps. Chas Vincent, R-Libby, and Jill Cohenour, D-East Helena, two lawmakers often on opposite ends of the political spectrum but who saw a need to tackle the land and timber issues.

“We're pushing from the bottom up on our timber industry, which has to survive over the next few years,” Cohenour said Friday.

Vincent is the lead sponsor of House bills 669 and 674, which are new versions of proposals kicked around earlier this session.

HB674 authorizes the state to issue $21 million in bonds to buy the 26,000 acres of timberland, most of which is between the town of Potomac and Interstate 90, east of Missoula.

Vincent said HB674 has new provisions to make the proposal more attractive to conservative lawmakers - some of whose votes are needed to get the two-thirds vote required to OK a state bond sale.

The bill says the state will sell an equal amount of public land, so the purchase of the 26,000 acres will result in a net-zero gain of public land ownership. It also says whenever the state Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks proposes to buy additional land for wildlife habitat or other purposes, it will notify and involve local government in the process.

“Many people feel that one more acre (of public land) is one acre too many,” Vincent said Friday.

HB669 creates the revolving loan fund, targeted at small- to medium-size timber mills, other wood products businesses and private contractors and individuals in the industry, such as contract loggers.

Loans of up to $2 million can be made for equipment, land, marketing, advertising and other uses.

Vincent and Cohenour said it's vital to keep the timber industry going in Montana, so it can be here to provide jobs and process trees killed by pine-beetle infestation, as well as timber that needs to be thinned to prevent forest fires.

“They're on life support going into this market, and the market crunch they're going into now is going to be the final straw unless they can get some help,” Vincent said.

Cohenour and Vincent consider the two bills an inseparable pair and hope they go through the Legislature together.

The 26,000 acres of Potomac-area Plum Creek properties are part of a larger planned transfer of 100,000 acres to the state, for management as state forest lands.

The Nature Conservancy will purchase the land and then transfer it to the state, which must come up with $100 million as its share of the deal. The bonds in HB674 form part of the financing.

Kat Imhoff, Montana state director for The Nature Conservancy, said the land deal in HB674 has wide support from people in the area, as well as the conservation community.

“It's not only about access for hunting and hiking and all of those things, but also providing good lands for income for the communities in the future,” she said. “By the state adding (this land) to state forest, it's a way to make sure there is (timber) that can be taken off those lands to support the local timber industry.”

 

[Tom]

Maybe you should point out that if Montana missuses their share of federal Pittman-Robertson funds, they may loose all federal funds. Is that true?

 

[Nemont]

SB 217 was tabled in the House FWP committee yesterday. Hopefully that is where it will remain.

Nemont

 

[BigHornRam]

Good to hear.

 

[shoots-straight]

We can only hope, thanks for the good news.

 

[Nemont]

Unfortunately SB 436, the Outfitter Sponsored License for Antelope, is still alive and headed to its second reading in the House. I have written and spoken to all the committee members and to the members I know. It appears to me that this bill is being used for some real horse trading of votes and that it has the legs to keep on trucking. I was informed by a person in the know that there have been many, many backroom promises made in order to get this bill out of committee. If you think Outfitters don't deserve more state sponsored welfare then please pick up the phone, email or testify to that effect.

Nemont

 

[The Hedgehog]

That is rotton, no doubt.