The Liquor Talking

Hey,

I don’t know why you’re surprised about the amount of out of state money pouring into Montana’s senate race. Some of it comes from companies who have a vested interest in Montana and its senators. How many McDonalds restaurants are there in Montana? I don’t see anything wrong with McDonalds corporation donating money to whatever candidate they think will better serve their interest.

I strongly suspect that most of it though comes from corporations and people who have no interest in Montana whatsoever, but are rather motivated by wanting their political party to be in control of the US Senate.

It’s crap that a bunch of out of state money can influence an election that’s important not just to the people of Montana and the country.

Chad.

I didn’t say I was surprised. I said it was curious.

There’s no question that the bulk of the money coming from out-of-state is from people/corporations that want to either change or maintain the current balance of power in the Senate.

As much as I’d hate to see crackpots like Elizabeth Warren get elected to the Senate, I’m not gonna give a dime to their competitors. It’s on the people of Massachusetts to elect whoever they think best serves their interests.

Trouble is, there’s a ton or outside money going into that campaign too.

I just don’t see campaign finance reform ever coming to pass. If it was up to me, if you can’t vote in an election, you can’t contribute money to those running in it. Meaning if you’re not eligible to vote in the election that will decide Montana’s congressional delegation, you shouldn’t be able to give money to any of the candidates thereof.

One of the problems we’re seeing in these parts are campaign ads, most of them attack ads, that don’t reveal WHO is paying for them.

The Free Enterprise Fund Committee? Who the hell is that? I think it’s critical to know who exactly is paying for the ad in order to determine its credibility.

Elim

Even if you hate the republican candidate, we’ve got to give our next president a republican majority in the senate, Even if by some incredibly impossible chance that Obama is reelected, republicans in control of the legislative branch is critical in stopping the economic free fall we’re in.

So even if you have to hold your nose, a bad republican is better than the best democrat.

Steve

Let’s be clear here. I don’t hate either candidate.

Rehberg voted against extending the Patriot Act, even though most republicans supported it. Whether his vote was politically motivated or not, it was a vote all the same.

Tester also voted against it.

All three members of the Montana delegation have been giving full-throated support for the Keystone pipeline.

So, before I can vote for Rehberg, I gotta go back through his voting record. If I find him wanting, I can not in good conscience cast my one and only vote for the guy. I can’t vote for someone who’s supposed to represent Montana based on a desire to get control of the senate.

Elim

Yeah, I liked how Gingrich took it to the CNN debate moderator. It was long overdue.

That said, I think it’s a legitimate concern. If a guy is gonna cheat on his wife, then there’s a trust issue. Giving a lot of weight to his thrashing liberal media douchebag pushes the question to the back burner.

Roy

I’ll admit that his extra-marital behaviors give me pause. The point that Gingrich made was that opening something as serious as a presidential debate with crap like that was low-down.

And yep, a lot of the talking heads interpreted the audience and subsequent voter response to mean that the people didn’t care about his infidelity. They were 100% wrong. I don’t for one second believe that the people of South Carolina are so facile as to vote for Gingrich because he stood up to the liberal media and I doubt seriously that they dismiss the issue of marital indiscretions.

As I’ve said a skillion times before, journalism in this country is dead. Releasing the story a couple of days before the polls open was a deliberate, targeted attack. Gingrich gave a good, measured response.

What impressed me with his response was that he spoke directly to the question. He flatly denied the “open marriage” thing and called it for what it was. The best part was when King tried to play it off because the story was on another network, but Gingrich nailed King to the floor.

So, he’s back in the “Maybe” column.

Elim

It looks to me like all of the republican candidates want to punt education back down to the states. It’s obvious to me that having it mixed up between federal, state and local controls has resulted in both fail and win, depending on how you measure it.

I don’t know what the answer is, but what we’re doing now ain’t getting it,

Rudy

A case can be made for getting the federal government out of the education business.

Part of the President’s State of the Union address last night touched on education.

One of his suggestions was a proposal to make a law requiring kids to stay in school until they either graduate or turn 18.

It’s thinking like this that’s helped make our education system the train wreck that it is today. I’m pretty sure the answer is not more ridiculous federal mandates. I’m with you in that I don’t know what the answer(s) is/are, but I think a good starting point would be national standards.

Yes, yes, we’d wind up with a bunch of teacher who just “teach the test” but I don’t think it’s impossible to craft the tests in a way to minimize this.

Another part of the problem is of course the money. When an administrator, who never sets foot in a classroom is paid twice what a classroom teacher is paid, we have a problem. I’ve seen a lot of good teachers who were maxed out on the pay scale move into administration so they could earn more. So, we wind up taking a good, experienced teacher out of the classroom and put them in administration where they’re in all likelihood, not going to be as good.

As much as we need to keep the good teachers in front of the students, it needs to be easier, a lot easier to get shed of bad teachers. Under our present system, a teacher only needs to work just hard enough to not get fired to get the same pay increases as a teachers who’re busting their humps day in and day out.

That ain’t getting it done.

Stir in the local control issue where parents get all up in arms over how what subjects are covered in a curriculum and we get the fail salad we have today.

So yeah, I don’t know the solution(s), but I think I can at least point at the problem(s)

Elim