Cast HD100 vote for Curdy
When it comes to casting my vote for House District 100, I have a hard time making an unbiased evaluation.
For more than 19 years, Willis Curdy has been my next-door neighbor. We’ve built fence and irrigated together, hauled hay and fed livestock, and even fought wildfires together before we both retired from the U.S. Forest Service (Curdy was a smokejumper during the summers, and became a USFS pilot after retiring from teaching at Hellgate High School).
Now, we in HD 100 have a chance to send Curdy to Helena to represent our interests. I hope you’ll join me in supporting his election to the Montana House from District 100.
Dick Mangan, Missoula
Schweitzer’s 'joke’ an embarrassment
With the election now just days away, it is critical to understand and appreciate the right we, as free citizens, have to cast a ballot for those candidates we believe - or have been told - best represent our interests, and that we can trust in the integrity of the electoral process. Brave people around the world risk their very lives to exercise a privilege that we often take for granted, and that millions of Americans have sacrificed so greatly over the past two centuries to protect and defend.
Unfortunately, there are always those who will attempt to abuse the very concept they purport to promote. Voter fraud, intimidation and corruption are very real issues and a very real concern to free people. To Gov. Schweitzer, they are punch lines.
With the unsurprising news about the group ACORN allegedly contaminating the voter registration process, possibly involving hundreds of thousands of voter registrations throughout the country, how can we possibly consider for election to the state’s highest office a man who “jokes” about influencing the very, very close senatorial election in 2006, and in his typically crude way?
With the incumbent U.S. senator and U.S. congressman facing only token - at best - opposition, our attention perhaps should focus upon the election that will determine whether Montana will continue to be embarrassed by the current governor, or whether we will elect someone who will take seriously the integrity of the election process and will represent Montanans in a manner they deserve.
Schweitzer has compared himself to former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura. I cannot imagine, though, even in his most pompous, tie-dyed, feather-boa-wearing, egotistical and blowhard moment, that Ventura would have so contemptuously and arrogantly insulted and embarrassed his state by “joking” about corrupting the electoral process upon which our very future depends.
David H. Ohnstad, Hamilton
Choose life this election
“The first thing I’d do as president is sign the Freedom of Choice Act. That’s the first thing that I’d do.” So said Sen. Barack Obama, speaking to the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, July 17, 2007.
This must be an extremely important issue, as he put it ahead of the economy or the war in Iraq! I’d never heard of the FOCA before, and I assume that most other people haven’t either. It would behoove voters to educate themselves as to what this act is and what it means.
In a nutshell, FOCA will invalidate all state and federal laws governing abortion including such things as parental notification and consent laws, the right of physicians and hospitals who have moral issues with the procedure to conscientiously object, laws requiring that abortions only be performed by licensed physicians, and the right of any government official elected or not to make any statement or take any action if anyone felt that it discriminated against abortion rights, laws limiting partial birth abortions, or even laws prohibiting post-viability sex-selection abortions. Where is the choice in this - denying parental rights and conscience rights of health care providers? The bill takes away any choice, making abortion not only a fundamental right, but an entitlement. Your tax dollars and mine, whether you agree or not, will be used to indiscriminately terminate fetuses.
Please consider your vote carefully this election, and write to your senators, both of whom, unfortunately, proudly support this immoral legislation. If you are an abortion advocate please do not vote to force those of us who see it as a grave ethical and moral wrong to participate in what we see as murder and infanticide. Please choose life.
Patrick Sullivan, Missoula
Republican would have voted for Obama
Sitting at dad’s memorial, the Wally Crawford Fishing Access, I wondered how he’d have voted this year. The last time he backed a Democrat, Corvallis’ Brooks House was serving fried chicken and “pass-the-beans-please” dinners and the six families with telephones out Willow Creek were on one party-line. It was 1968, President Kennedy and Martin Luther King were already dead and soon dad’s choice for President, Bobby Kennedy, would be assassinated.
Dad, a life-long, small-business Republican, abandoned his party that once: “I fear for our country - fear it’s being torn apart by its extremes. I’m voting for Kennedy. He’s the only SOB I think can pull us together and lead us forward.”
It wasn’t a conversion to liberalism; dad disagreed with many Kennedy positions, but he felt it was a time to put country ahead of his own preferences. Dad’s World War II Marine Corps experience in the Pacific formed his thinking. Believing it was by the luck of the draw he returned safely, he believed he held a special responsibility to those who did not.
Dad voted Republican after that until he died. This year though, Wally would be backing Barack.
W’s lies about weapons of mass destruction would have infuriated him and he’d have considered letting Osama bin Laden get away a cardinal military sin.
A strong democracy and a safe world, dad reckoned, depended on everyone who played fair and worked hard getting a piece of the pie.
While dad would have voted for Reagan and those tax cuts, he’d have seen more tax cuts to the rich and greedy as neither fair nor smart. By now, he’d be quipping, “A vote for McCain would be like voting for everything-is-hunky-dory-Hoover - after the crash.”
Kate Crawford, Corvallis
Beware of taxes before mill levy vote
With just days left until the election and several mill levy proposals on the ballot, wouldn’t one think that our elected officials would want us to have all the information necessary to make an informed decision?
One bit of information that would be helpful is what damage the 2008 property tax bill is going to do to each of us. I wonder if those tax bills will be mailed out in time for us to see the 5 percent to 9 percent increases. If you would like to know what your increase is going to be just go online and take a look. All you have to do is type in www.co.missoula.mt.
us/owner/addresssearch.aspx and enter your address, but please be seated first.
With everyone taking cuts and losing money in today’s economy, it does not appear the city is interested in doing the same. The county appears to be holding constant. It is unfortunate a majority of the City Council and the mayor were not interested in seriously considering the budget cuts proposed by some council members. My sneak preview of the upcoming tax bill (mine is only up 7.5 percent) makes the decision on each of the proposed mill levies quite easy. Hope it does for the rest of you, too.
I realize the mill levy proposals are not specific to the city, but politicians had better start realizing they cannot have everything they want and expect property owners to continue endorsing a blank check. It is time to stop pointing fingers and get the problem fixed.
Roger Seewald, Missoula
New emergency center a must
I am writing to voice my support for the bond issue required to build a new emergency response center.
A little more than three years ago, someone walked into our house at 5 in the morning. Juneau, our superdog, ran him off, and within three minutes of calling 9-1-1, the police arrived and subsequently arrested the person at gunpoint in our garage. The person was eventually fined $320 and ordered to stay 100 yards from my house.
On a similar note, I see that the Missoula Police are directing more attention to bicyclists who don’t use lights. At 2 a.m. on Sunday, Sept. 28, an officer knocked on our door to inform us that someone had hit our car and fled. Unfortunately they were riding a bicycle, and left a large, head-shaped hole in the rear window. I can only assume the rider was wearing a helmet due to the scarcity of blood. I would bet that the next day that rider bought a light for their crumpled bike but I can’t be sure about the helmet; after all, why wear a helmet if you don’t have any brains?
Don Kukla, Missoula
Make Juneau next state superintendent
As the proud mom of a public school-educated daughter, I’m watching the race for state superintendent of Public Instruction very closely. And I like what I see when I review Denise Juneau’s qualifications.
Juneau is a hard worker, and she’ll work hard for Montana’s children. Juneau has attended, taught in and worked in Montana’s public school system throughout her life. She understands how the state’s school system works and how it can be improved; as a district administrator for the Office of Public Instruction, Juneau has traveled the state working with rural and urban school districts to help them be the best they can be.
Juneau believes that strong schools can create educational opportunities for Montana students to be highly competitive in the global economy. And I believe that Juneau is the right person to bring our children into that global economy.
On Nov. 4, I’ll be walking my daughter to school like I do every day. Only this time, I’ll stop by the voting booth to pull the lever for Juneau. My kids are counting on it.
Deborah Halliday, Missoula
Estenson is right choice for HD11
I am a retired business owner who strongly believes in the tenets of the old Republican Party. I was very disturbed at the lack of cooperation and infighting between our Republican and Democratic legislators last session.
My concerns this year are the pocketbook issues - cost of living, loss of income on investments, pensions, investment board losses on teacher retirements, government employee retirements and the rapid price increases on groceries, gas, insurance and medical expenses. Our state Legislature was so divided last session that progress was impeded due to the lack of civility and listening to one another. This prevented work from getting finished during the regular session and at great expense to the taxpayers, an extra session was called. I do not like those unnecessary expenses.
We need coalition builders in Helena for the 2009 session, not a bunch of partisan politicians. Pat Estenson is just such a builder. He is man of integrity and ability - an excellent listener with moderate Montana values who will put the interest of his constituents in the forefront of his decision making. He will listen to everybody - regardless of party affiliation - and work hard to represent us fairly, honestly and with cooperation. Let’s elect Pat Estenson as our representative from House District 11.
Ed Mitch, Rollins
Don’t forget to vote on I-155
The most important items on the ballot are the final issues on the ballot.
There is a tendency for people not to complete their ballots in full. There are many reasons for this. Some actually have no preference, some because of frustration, some because of mistakes and some because they don’t fully understand what they are voting on or know the candidates. The issues that have the greatest direct effect on the state, the initiatives that only the citizens of Montana can vote for, are placed last on the ballot. These votes actually have a greater effect on the outcome of these issues than others do on the ballot. I’m not encouraging you to make rash decisions; please inform yourselves on the issues and make an effort to go through each item on your ballot carefully, but maybe start from the back.
One of the initiatives at the end of ballot is Initiative 155, Healthy Montana Kids. This initiative would provide health coverage to 30,000 additional uninsured children in the state. It is critical that this initiative passes. Unfortunately, in addition to its placing on the ballot, the ballot also fails to mention the fact that we would only be paying 25 percent of the total costs for this program. While the ballot mentions that it would cost the state
$22 million, it neglects to show that the federal government will be paying $75 million toward the project.
On Nov. 4, vote your ballot backward, inform yourself, and help pass I-155.
Bradley Seaman, Missoula
Obama, government not the answer
All you people out there enamored of “change and hope,” who want the government to take care of all your problems and see Obama as a shining light, remember, every time you give up one of your responsibilities and hand it over to the government you’re going to lose a corresponding right. Government is not, and should not be, responsible for your “American dream.” All our Constitution guaranties is the right to pursue happiness, not have it handed to you on the backs of those who have worked their tails off to achieve it for themselves. The ugly grip of socialism being promised with “redistribution of the wealth” and government“entitlements” (no one is entitled to anything they don’t earn) can only lead to living in fear and abject poverty - witness the entire communist world, and how we pitied them for so many decades.
Be careful what you wish for.
Leila Perlot-Luberto, Noxon
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