Manifesto/Bio
Recent Comments
Re: “Lost in transcendence”
I thought Bob rocked the Big Sky Brewery venue. The sound was great, Bob's harmonica playing was exquisite, and his band is monster.
I like that Bob can show case his harmonica, and pull it off really well.
Bob is using some Baby Gramps style and technique in his vocals, which works ok. He's 71 so that is what it is.
I'd pay to see the same thing again, it was that good. Missoula is lucky to get him.
Re: “etc.”
i think the Independent is a little miffed at being scooped on it's own turf.
If you don't want to write the story, someone else will. Whether you tell them to or not.
Of course if you want it done right, do it yourself.
Re: “Did Cody do it?”
As far as Fred Van Valkenburg's claimed dedication to protecting victims, I don't buy it a bit. He's just doing cya.
My wife, my two children and myself were the victims of multiple death threats, of felony intimidation, and of a physical assault back in the late 1990's and Van Valkenburg let the perps completely and totally off the hook.
In doing so he violated state laws concerning victims rights when he changed the trial date and when he decided to let the perps off with deferred prosecution without notifying us. We found out after the fact, and not from Van Valkenburg but from the Victims Advocate office's Karen Orzak who was the victims advocate at that time.
When we confronted him, Fred Van Valkenburg told me and my wife that he was too busy to listen to the evidence (the phone tapes of the death threats that the sheriff had in their evidence locker,) and so he cut the perps loose to clear the case off his over- crowded desk.
So it kind of sickens me to see Van Valkenburg now hiding behind his professed concern for victims in the Cody Marble case. His concern, IMHO born from experience, is clearly with covering his ass.
And make no mistake about it; If Cody Marble was wrongly convicted, he is the victim of a violent crime perpetrated by the state.
Perhaps Van Valkenburg could attempt to get RT a lie detector test and see if his conviction of Marble stands up to scrutiny.
And as for his over crowed desk, Van Valkenburg's recent actions into legislative politics shows he prefers to clutter his desk up with a bunch of low level cannabis cases instead of actually protecting victims of violent crimes.
Stephen Wells
Florence, MT
Re: “Politics”
To Jessica Mayrer (the stories' author) I'd say that your caricaturization that "...the party appears poised to oust her" is premature. As a voting member of the Missoula County Central Committee, this hasn't been proposed, to my knowledge.
In fact there are ten seats on the Executive Committee and 5 voted "no confidence," whatever that means, since I don't believe it has any real effect in the real world. It's a feel-good to feel-bad kind of thing I guess, kind of like your cover story. Starla abstained from voting for obvious ethical reasons. So while a majority (5 votes for, 4 votes against, one abstention) did vote for the mirror image equivalent of naming a post office, that's hardly a consensus.
In fact, I'd say a far more accurate statement would be "Democrats possibly to hoist foot-into-mouth due to pointless vote over whether board has "confidence" in current Chairwoman due to a right-wing blog smearing their chair with ancient and non-relevant past transgressions."
But that's just my personal opinion.
To your readers I'd like to say; I've known Starla since early 2008 when we were both volunteers on Obama's presidential primary campaign in Montana.
The Starla I've come to know and admire over the last 3+ years is a hardworking community organizer. Starla is a mom who raised 4 nice children into responsible adulthood. Starla is a concerned civic minded citizen who is an asset to our community and to our party.
Starla has been a very good Missoula Democratic Chairwoman. She has expanded party participation. She has made all citizens feel welcome to participate. She has tirelessly supported our candidates. She is a volunteer.
Democrats believe in change. We believe that pulling together, we can change our community for the betterment of all. We also believe that people, as well as Communities, States, and Countries can change and we encourage positive personal transformation.
Democrats believe in 2nd chances. When a person makes an honest sustained effort to make amends for their wrong doings, we believe we should support that person, not tear them down for doing the right thing.
I guess you could say that Democrats believe in the possibility of redemption.
I know I do.
People can change and Starla proves that. Which is why i think the college Republican kids feel the need to try and slime her now for things out of her past.
Those Republican kids' one way blog must see themselves as being without sin, which would explain why they are so comfortable tossing the first stone.
Re: “Power Broker”
Jedipeacefrog, I just found out I have duel citizenship because the Canadians changed their law back, and once again, anyone who has a parent that was born in Canada is considered a Canadian citizen. I'm thrilled that I don't have to die like a dog in the US, but I can go to Canada and get modern health care like people all over the civilized world get.
You are stuck here at the mercy of the criminal health insurance companies where 18,000 people die every year because they can't get treatment for curable diseases. So Sorry for you!
Anyway, My 15 year old daughter and i just got back a couple of weeks ago from Montreal, and it was amazing. Nobody worries about the cost of health care because everyone is covered and no one pays anything out of pocket. No one goes bankrupt or loses their house because they have a heart attack or because they or their kids get cancer, or because they have a car accident.
I feel sorry for you that you have never traveled to Canada and so you have no way of knowing about what a great health care system they have.
We can do it here, but first we have to get rid of the scumbag parasite private insurance companies who suck all the money out of our health care system and then bribe our congress. Good luck and God bless!!
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Re: “Friends with benefits”
As a citizen of Montana I'd like to thank the Independent for publishing this article. There seems to be a dearth of Montana media who are willing to touch this story.