Good government is an appropriate election day topic. It certainly seems, at least lately, that when well meaning, or hell, even those with an agenda, ask for openness in government they seem to hit a wall? Why does it appear the 1^st question wondered aloud is motive, or even worse, being simply assigned one. Why is he/she/they doing this? Something must be afoot!

In the past few weeks there have been plenty of examples: Dillon commission, Missoula emails, Kalispell planning board, Great Falls power arm & airport, Billings law enforcement, and I’m sure others. In many of these issues, it seems the 1^st action of government is to question the action rather than responding to the inquiry.

Certainly some political gamesmanship may be at play, but that is to be expected. The beauty of our system (particularly in Montana) is the ability to ask, question, criticize, and, oh yes, participate. In the long run, these actions ultimately help our society, no matter how ridiculous, vindictive, mundane, or even political.

Now go vote.

As if anyone missed my posts on public policy and views on politics from yet another perspective, it is time to return!  My time has been spent with Montana Business, which is doing extremely well in our initial public roll out, we are also moving forward with a second portal site roll out later this winter, which we will highlight at a later date.

My return was motivated by a couple of different factors.  One, I find it almost impossible not to discuss politics, particularly in the midst of this election cycle.  Second, and more personal, I have been involved with a governmental body at the local level which has been acting like anything but a public body.  I have never been so disappointed in all of my years as a public servant.  I believe it is necessary to shed some light on those frustrations in hopes it assists in moving forward in a positive and constructive manner, something we can all learn from, including myself.      

Remember the time bloggers were seen as less than credible (understatement) by the traditional media?  Mark Cuban smacks both houses around as he contends traditional media now uses the blogosphere as a basis for stories and sensationalism.  He contends traditional media has gone from stretching the truth to outright rumor mongering:

Thats how the media has evolved in 3 years. In 2004 they misused quotes. Today, they don't even require quotes. They just make things up

Ouch.  Sounds like the bloggers stereotype.  No doubt Cuban is right in some instances.  Traditional media sources likely look to the blogoshere for information as they research, and almost probably use information found in blogs.  Heres a thought, perhaps responsible bloggers are to blame for this!  Good news for the blogger who wants to ensure credibility and the respect of peers and readers.  In taking mainstream media to task in the manner Cuban has, he continues to reinforce a negative view of the blogoshere.  

If a malcontent blogger makes a false statement and a traditional news source uses it, a pox on both their houses.  

MOTTO will have very light posting through June 15th or so for a variety of reasons, including:

1. Preparing for another Montana news/portal related site launch - stay tuned for details!
2. Still scratching my head over the 60th legislative session.  Did it really happen?
3. People keep telling me to giveitarest., well, you get the picture
4. 4&20 left for the West
5. My golf game is non-existent
6. A) Budge is back and B) repeat

Have a great start to your summer!  Posting regularly in a couple of weeks. Later.

Sorry about the lack of posts, MOTTO has taken a small break through this weekend.  Back on track with fresh perspectives on Monday.  In the mean time, a couple of endeavors to check out:

 Craig at mtpolitics.net has graciously invited me to a lively discussion Friday at 8:30 PM MST on his blog talk radio show.  Should be a lot of fun, join us.

GeeGuy at Electric City Weblog has launched an offline version.  After giving him grief on why he is moving this wonderful format (internet blogging) backwards!, MOTTO can fully support any effort to expand community discussion and highlights our online community of bloggers. ECB & MOTTO find disagreement on issues, but both fully agree on providing media formats which open dialogue, discussion, and flow of ideas.  MOTTO has created an "I offline ECB" badge for their web presence that will be available Friday afternoon under the badges link on the MOTTO side bar.  The badge will link directly to ECB.

Say What? 

Compromise is in the eye of the beholder.  The latest "compromise" tax bill passed out of committee on a party-line vote. No real permanent tax relief and a number of failed tax proposals crammed in.  Boy, that votes a surprise.

Again with the free license for fuel efficient cars nonsense.  Take a stab at Matt's question and put that money toward CHIP eligibility.  Same goes for the renters tax credit. 

Taking a term from geeguy, Great Falls is indeed Montana's ugly stepsister.  Don't be surprised if Northwestern's 1st energy plant is near Roundup.

You have to love the irony in this:

their ultimate ‘green car’ is the source of some of the worst pollution in North America; it takes more combined energy per Prius to produce than a Hummer.

Ed Begly Jr. and Al Gore will need to stock up on their offsets.  And the battery the Prius uses?

the Prius is partly driven by a battery which contains nickel. The nickel is mined and smelted at a plant in Sudbury, Ontario. This plant has caused so much environmental damage to the surrounding environment that NASA has used the ‘dead zone’ around the plant to test moon rovers. The area around the plant is devoid of any life for miles.

The plant is the source of all the nickel found in a Prius’ battery and Toyota purchases 1,000 tons annually. Dubbed the Superstack, the plague-factory has spread sulfur dioxide across northern Ontario, becoming every environmentalist’s nightmare.

“The acid rain around Sudbury was so bad it destroyed all the plants and the soil slid down off the hillside,” said Canadian Greenpeace energy-coordinator David Martin during an interview with Mail, a British-based newspaper.

All of this would be bad enough in and of itself; however, the journey to make a hybrid doesn’t end there. The nickel produced by this disastrous plant is shipped via massive container ship to the largest nickel refinery in Europe. From there, the nickel hops over to China to produce ‘nickel foam.’ From there, it goes to Japan. Finally, the completed batteries are shipped to the United States, finalizing the around-the-world trip required to produce a single Prius battery.

And you thought they were only ugly on the outside. (h/t to venture chronicles)

Kilgore has a diary at LITW which deserves to be promoted to the main page, if for no other reason than containing the best line I've read in a long time "hippies will never be a majority".  Kilgore reflects on a peace rally on campus that was apparently more radical than it needed to be

 If you really want to destroy any credibility that you have, just invite a conspiracy theorist to speak at your rally. I like folk singers but I don't think they are the best way to connect with college students.

One must give Kilgore credit for pointing out the obvious, radicalism doesn't always help ones cause.  

Young people are turned off when they think about their parents for any reason.  Staging a hippy-style rally complete with folk singers, strange speakers, and the bizarre is the exact opposite way to get young people involved in the anti-escalation movement. We need to provide arguments against the current plan, not talk about why Bush is the devil"

Aside from the second best line (Young people are turned off...parents for any reason) Kilgore make a valid point, serious issues deserve serious scrutiny and debate.  I would much rather engage in a discussion/debate about  Iraq with Kilgore than some goofy radical who blames 911 on Bush.  He stands a much better chance of changing my mind and gaining respect for his position.     

When I read articles like this, I know why people have a hard time trusting our government.  It also underscores the publics concern about providing additional authority to state agencies, as discussed in the previous posts about the DOR.

The agents confiscated several Old West gambling items from the Cowboy Cabin, saying they were illegal — two ancient roulette wheels, two early 20th century punchboards and a chuck-a-luck. A chuck-a-luck is an small hourglass-shaped cage that spins — with three dice inside.

One roulette wheel and its table dates to the 1880s. It was fixed up to be a prop in the saloon on the CBS television series “Gunsmoke” before ending up in limbo before the Turners found it.

One old punchboard is framed behind glass. Winning punchboard combinations offer prizes such as 5 cents, a candy bar or one cigarette.

The agents marked as evidence and left a huge craps table, a blackjack table, a roulette table and an smallish craps table top — all 19th century items to be picked up later. The blackjack table is a half-circle table with green felt on top and no markings, which the Turner thought eventually would be bought as a bar for a recreation room. All the remaining gambling gear has been moved into storage in the back, except for the huge, almost unmovable craps table.

[snip]

Ron Turner said: “Some of these things are over 100 years old. These are not gambling devices. These are antiques ... It’s a historical collection. .. This never is, was nor will be a gambling establishment.”

Gambling equipment appears to make up a tiny fraction of the Cowboy Cabin’s rustic-looking stock. It has Old Western cavalry and Indians oil paintings, saddles, lots of guns, gun racks, furniture, furs, 1930s cowboy movie posters, old-time photos and a huge PG-13-rated painting of a reclining lady of likely easy virtue

 For gosh sakes, do we need a law to clarify when an antique is an antique, or can common sense prevail?  Apologize already.   

As part of an news series on aging, the NY Times quotes a noted health economist on his views regarding aging. While income, race, stress, insurance availability, etc. are often discussed or studied as factors, James Smith notes their is one indicator that consistently appears, education.

He is venturing, of course, into one of the prevailing mysteries of aging, the persistent differences seen in the life spans of large groups. In every country, there is an average life span for the nation as a whole and there are average life spans for different subsets, based on race, geography, education and even churchgoing.

But the questions for researchers like Dr. Smith are why? And what really matters?

The answers, he and others say, have been a surprise. The one social factor that researchers agree is consistently linked to longer lives in every country where it has been studied is education. It is more important than race; it obliterates any effects of income.

Year after year, in study after study, says Richard Hodes, director of the National Institute on Aging, education “keeps coming up.”

And, health economists say, those factors that are popularly believed to be crucial — money and health insurance, for example, pale in comparison.

Dr. Smith explains: “Giving people more Social Security income, or less for that matter, will not really affect people’s health. It is a good thing to do for other reasons but not for health.”

Health insurance, too, he says, “is vastly overrated in the policy debate.”

Instead, Dr. Smith and others say, what may make the biggest difference is keeping young people in school. A few extra years of school is associated with extra years of life and vastly improved health decades later, in old age.

We now have another reason to encourage and advocate for education, you'll live longer.