Free Republic

Clinton and her campaign know that the road to victory for her must include a resolution to the Florida and Michigan votes, something that has been dragging on since both states voted in January in violation of Democratic Party rules. Later this month the Rules and Bylaws Committee of the DNC will meet to discuss the matter... The fund-raiser was interrupted briefly at the beginning when a protestor stood on his chair with a large sign that read "Obliterate Iran? Apologize." The sign referred to some comments Clinton made in regards to bombing Iran if they attacked Israel with a...

LIVINGSTON - Bob Johnson, the mountain man mauled by a grizzly bear last week, has decided to tell the rest of the story. He shot the bear dead, he said Wednesday, plugging it with a .41-caliber Magnum pistol after it had mauled him once and was returning for a second attack. Johnson, 55, maintained last week that the details of the attack were hazy. On Wednesday, he said he had been reluctant to tell the whole story because of legal concerns. He was convicted of a federal poaching charge in the early 1980s and was unsure if carrying a handgun...

A Montana man was mauled and severely injured in a run-in with a grizzly bear in Yellowstone National Park's Hayden Valley Wednesday, park officials confirmed Wednesday evening. The man, in his late 50s, was apparently taking photographs of a female grizzly and her cub along Trout Creek when he was attacked, park spokesman Al Nash said. Despite “severe facial injuries,” he was able to walk two or three miles to the Grand Loop Road, where visitors found him and alerted rangers. The man, whose name and hometown were not released pending notification of relatives, was taken by ambulance to West...

Environmental Groups Sue to Reverse Wolf Delisting By Peter Metcalf, 4-28-08 A wolf in Wyoming, unknown location. Photo courtesy of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service As expected, a coalition of 12 environmental and animal-rights groups filed suit today in U.S. District Court in Missoula, Mont. seeking to overturn the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision to remove gray wolves in the Northern Rockies from protection under the Endangered Species Act. The lawsuit seeks a immediate injunction to protect gray wolves from public hunting and aims to return the wolf to federal management under the Endangered Species Act. Gray wolves...

When we founded Huck PAC we did so with the idea that we would support Republican candidates who are passionate advocates for tax reform, a strong national defense, real border security, life, the family, less government and individual liberty. This week I am headed to Montana to campaign for Roy Brown and Steve Daines, candidates for Governor and Lieutenant Governor respectively. House Majority Leader Brown is an able legislator who is known for his strong advocacy of tax reform, education, energy development and the strong importance of government supporting and empowering the Family. I met Steve Daines when he agreed...

The Bakken shale formation in North Dakota holds up to 167 billion barrels of oil but only about 1 percent of it can be recovered using current technology, a new state study says. The study released Monday said current technology could lead to the recovery of about 2.1 billion barrels in North Dakota's the "middle Bakken" formation, where oil-producing rock is sandwiched between layers of shale about 10,000 feet under the ground. "The future potential is enormous - it means we will be able to exploit this for the rest of the century," said Lynn Helms, director of the state...

Your Turn: Obama’s stance on guns is wrong for Montana By Erik Iverson - Your Turn - 04/17/08 When it comes to gun rights, Barack Obama isn’t shooting straight with Montana. I’ll be the first one to admit, Barack Obama is one of the finest political orators I’ve ever heard. But he can’t talk his way out of this simple fact: his views on the Second Amendment are simply out of step with the values of a vast majority of Montanans. Through both his words and his deeds, Barack Obama has shown that if elected President, he will try...

Associated Press HELENA n The Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services says a Big Horn County man has died of hantavirus. The agency says it was the first death this year due to hantavirus. The name of the 64-year-old man was not released Friday. He died earlier this week. Montana has had eight reported hantavirus deaths since 1993. The last was in January 2007. In total, the state has had 29 reported infections since 1993. Hantavirus is contracted by inhaling airborne particles from the droppings of deer mice. Symptoms may include fever, vomiting, muscle and body aches and...

Map showing Williston Basin Province boundary (in red), Bakken-Lodgepole Total Petroleum System (TPS) (in blue), and major structural features in Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota North Dakota and Montana have an estimated 3.0 to 4.3 billion barrels of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil in an area known as the Bakken Formation of the Williston Basin, according to a just-released assessment by the US Geological Survey (USGS). This latest assessment shows a 25-fold increase in the amount of oil that can be recovered compared to the agency’s 1995 estimate of 151 million barrels of oil. The assessment also identified 1.85...

Crews looking for oil deposits last year in North Dakota. Now an area in the region is estimated to hold vast oil resources.An area of shale and other rock in North Dakota and Montana is estimated to hold the largest potential oil resources in the 48 contiguous states, according to an assessment released Thursday by the United States Geological Survey. The area, known as the Bakken Formation, might contain 3 billion to 4.3 billion barrels of oil that could be extracted using current technology, the survey said. The United States had an estimated 21 billion barrels of proven oil reserves...

Crack, crack, crack. Three Montana Highway Patrol troopers, firing from the prone position, sent 15 rounds from their new rifles downrange in quick succession recently. The .223 caliber bullets punched easily through the plywood and paper targets, kicking up clods of dirt from the berm behind the range at Glacier Park International Airport. After officers from the sixth district-which covers Flathead, Lake, and Lincoln counties-qualify with the new weapon, every trooper in Montana will be riding shotgun with a semiautomatic AR-15 rifle. "They're just all-around more versatile for our day and age," Trooper Jerril Ren, one of the patrol's firearms...

Arlington, Virginia - Hillary Clinton has proposed an aggressive plan to reduce our reliance on foreign oil, address global warming, and promote alternative energy. Setting ambitious targets, the plan will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent from 1990 levels by 2050, and cut foreign oil imports by two-thirds from 2030 projected levels, more than 10 million barrels per day. Her plan focuses on improving energy efficiency, moving to clean, renewable sources of energy, creating green manufacturing. By transitioning from a carbon-based economy to a green, energy efficient economy, Hillary’s plan will help unleash a wave of private sector innovation...

Baby-surfing, seat-swapping at Obama event By CHELSI MOY - Missoulian - 04/05/08 AP Photo/Alex Brandon - Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama D-Ill., right, reaches over the crowd to take Missoula infant Natalie Pankratz-Osborn, 8 months, at a rally at the Adams Center at the University of Montana Saturday. MISSOULA - It’s doubtful that Illinois Sen. Barack Obama will have any time soon to kick back with a fly rod and learn the delicate skills of one of Montana’s most treasured pastimes, yet he sounded interested just the same on Saturday. “You guys have a nice deal around here,” Obama...

Montana Band Named the Clintons Pens Love Song to Hillary Saturday , April 05, 2008 AP MISSOULA, Mont. — "Hey, Hill, if you ever dump Bill, come date me." The lyrics are part of a love ballad penned to Hillary Rodham Clinton by a Montana band, aptly named the Clintons. The Bozeman-based band has been around since late 1999, when Clinton's husband still occupied the White House, although band members say they are not named after the famous couple. They say the band name was completely random. Now, the Clintons are earning some national attention as a result of their...

Condemning lethal injection procedures in Montana as "state sanctioned homicide" performed by "untrained individuals," the American Civil Liberties Union has launched a lawsuit in the name of Canadian death-row prisoner Ronald Smith, aiming to halt all executions in the state. Smith's case is already at the centre of a renewed debate over capital punishment in Canada, where the Conservative government recently reversed a long-standing foreign policy and decided not seek clemency for the Alberta-born double-murderer, who faces a death sentence for killing two Native American men in 1982. "Botched executions in Florida and Ohio, which use a three-drug protocol similar...

Clinton poked fun at the situation superdelegates suddenly find themselves in. In a close contest between Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, it's the superdelegates who may ultimately determine the Democratic presidential nominee. "It is frankly disgusting the way all of us are fawning over these superdelegates," Clinton said, after being introduced by Dennis McDonald, chair of the state party and a superdelegate. "Even though I offered to shine his boots on the way over here, I am trying to show some restraint," Clinton said. ... The former president told tribal leaders in a meeting before his campaign event that...

KIRKWOOD, Mo. - Six weeks after a deadly shooting rampage rife with racial overtones in Kirkwood's City Council chambers, the issue of race has spilled over into the contest for mayor of this St. Louis suburb and produced a uniquely tense campaign. A community activist, Michael Moore, is running as the sole black candidate in the four-way contest and has portrayed the Feb. 7 rampage as a symptom of smoldering black resentment in Kirkwood. At a recent standing-room-only candidate forum, the 37-year-old truck mechanic let voters know he wants to overhaul a city government that he says ignores poor, black...

A booming energy industry has helped Wyoming's average income double over the past decade. In 1996, the average Wyomingite earned $21,875 a year and the state ranked 33rd for average income. Last year, Wyoming's average income was $43,226 and the state ranked sixth... No other state's personal income increased as much over the same period. Wyoming is an anomaly in the region. The top five states for personal income in 2007 -- Connecticut, New Jersey, Massachusetts, New York and Maryland -- are on the East Coast. Colorado, at 10th, is the only other Rocky Mountain state in the top 10....

When the news broke 12 years ago that the FBI had arrested that paranoid, bomb-mailing nut the Unabomber near Lincoln, Montana, my reaction was “Montana? It figures.” When the news broke two weeks ago that a hate-spewing, paranoid, bomb-thrower of a preacher was Sen. Barack Obama’s lifelong pastor and counselor at a Chicago church, I had the exact same reaction. The insanity hasn’t changed. Only the geography has. America has always had its share of conspiracy theorists, political paranoids and all-around nut jobs. In fact, during our nation’s first days as a Republic, rumors swirled that a Jacobin conspiracy was...

Maybe, just maybe, it’s now worth at least asking whether Hillary Clinton might wind up as the Democratic candidate for vice president. When the chatter about a Democratic “dream ticket” began last year, it was easy to dismiss. Either Clinton or Obama would win a clear victory in the primaries and, after what inevitably would be a contentious campaign, each would want as little to do with the other as possible. Clinton, if she emerged victorious, would instead choose some kind of national security graybeard to her political right, a retired general perhaps, or maybe even a Republican. Likewise, Obama...

WASHINGTON - Homeland security officials on Friday hinted at a possible face-saving deal to end their standoff with a handful of states over new driver's license rules — a dispute that, left unresolved, could cause big air travel headaches. For weeks, the Homeland Security Department has been headed toward a showdown with some states over a law called Real ID, which would require new security measures for state-issued driver's licenses. Yet a late Good Friday letter from a top DHS official suggested Washington may be backing away from a messy fight. South Carolina, Maine and Montana are the only states...

Depending on whom you talked to Wednesday, a proposal aimed at cutting U.S. carbon emissions will either have dire consequences for Montana's economy or will create ample business opportunities that also better the environment. For much of the day, Billings was the latest stage for an ongoing national debate about the potential costs of curbing carbon dioxide emissions linked to the earth's warming climate. Later this year, the U.S. Senate is expected to vote on the Climate Security Act of 2008, which would impose a mandatory cap-and-trade program for carbon emissions covering coal-burning plants and other facilities that account for...

Montana’s wolf population increased 34 percent over the past year, to an estimated 422 wolves in 73 packs... The wolves are nearly equally distributed between northern and southern Montana...although the bulk of the population growth was in northwestern and far western Montana... Wolves are still listed under the Endangered Species Act. Delisting was set for late March, but lawsuits are expected to delay that. As for conflicts with ranchers, the FWP reported an increase in the number of confirmed cattle deaths due to wolves, from 32 to 75, and an increase in the number of sheep deaths, from four to...

In the continuing saga of District of Columbia v. Heller, 39 of Montana’s elected officials have signed a resolution declaring that a Supreme Court ruling against the individual right of gun ownership would give their state grounds for leaving the union. It seems that when Montana’s settlers signed a statehood contract in 1889, one of the conditions was that the federal government agreed that individuals had the right to keep and bear arms. If the Supreme Court rules that firearm ownership is merely a state or “collective” right, Montana officials say that the statehood contract will have been breeched. “The...

Regarding global warming and the search for cleaner ways of using energy, it was day and night at the state Capitol on Monday. At the governor’s office, Democrat Brian Schweitzer was talking with U.N. ambassadors from Denmark, Finland, Iraq and Thailand, who wanted to know how the state is promoting “clean and green” energy technology in response to climate change. Elsewhere in the building that same day, Republicans on the Environmental Quality Council, which was considering suggestions in a state global-warming report, were calling the very concept of global warming caused by carbon emissions into the atmosphere a “lie” that...

One week from Tuesday, the United States Supreme Court will hear arguments about the right to bear arms. It will be the first time in a half-century that the high court will take up a gun rights case. The case is called District of Columbia v. Heller, and it deals with a local ordinance banning Washington D.C. citizens from owning handguns. What the Supreme Court will decide is whether that law violates the rights of citizens who want to keep firearms in their homes, but are not affiliated with any state regulated militia. A week and a half ago we...

SPOKANE — The era of massive dam construction in the West — which tamed rivers, swallowed towns and created irrigated agriculture, cheap hydropower and persistent environmental problems — effectively ended in 1966 with the completion of Glen Canyon Dam in Arizona. But a booming population and growing fears about climate change have governments once again studying dams, this time to create huge reservoirs to capture more winter rain and spring snowmelt for use in dry summer months. New dams are being studied in Washington, California, Oregon, Idaho, Colorado, Nevada and other states, even as dams are being torn down across...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hSwlCgJSCs Concord-Washington faceoff continues over Homeland Security's threat to make New Hampshirites use passports at airports.

We hear much about Hillary Clinton as someone breaking through barriers for women. Here's a test. Who was America's first congresswoman, and which party did she belong to? One brave Republican woman: Jeanette Rankin. How many feminists know that Montana's groundbreaker, born in 1880, trimmed her own hats, but was still gutsy enough to -- I quote -- tramp "through deep snow potting bears and wolves for pastime"? [i] How many journalists are aware that Miss Rankin, a seamstress, made her own clothes, cooked excellent meals, and "endured all the hardships of pioneers" with her sisters in Montana's wilderness? [ii]...

KALISPELL, MT - A string of red-hot wildfire seasons has claimed millions of Western forest acres and not a few homes and lives, and Mike Dubrasich reckons he's figured out at least part of the solution for future summers: “If you know a Sierra Club member, please feel free to set their home on fire.” That's the suggestion - “I'm suggesting it, but I'm not advocating it” - Dubrasich posted on his Web site last week. * “Personally,” said Bob Clark, “I thought that was a little over the top.” Clark is a Sierra Club representative based out of Missoula,...

Montana officials are warning that if the Supreme Court rules in the D.C. gun ban case that the right to keep and bear arms protects only state-run militias like the National Guard, then the federal government will have breached Montana's statehood contract. Nobody is raising flags for the Republic of Montana, but nobody is kidding, either. So far, 39 elected Montana officials have signed a resolution declaring that a court ruling of the Second Amendment is a right of states and not of individuals would violate Montana's compact. "The U.S. would do well to keep its contractual promise to the...

The Popo Agie Ranch, just four miles south of town, has a 70-acre hay meadow which rises from an aspen- and cottonwood-sheltered river basin, rolling east and empty into the foot of Table Mountain. The meadow, and the adjacent 4,000-acre pasture, was once used for a modest but profitable cow-calf operation. Today, if visitors roll over the wooden platform bridge across the Middle Fork of the Popo Agie River, they'll notice a few corralled llamas, a handful of horses, but no cows. When wolves moved into the area, rancher Dave Vaughan got out of the cow-calf business... "As soon as...

A jackrabbit found throughout much of the West has disappeared from the Yellowstone area, although the reason why remains a mystery, a new study concludes. Whatever the cause, the study suggests the white-tailed jackrabbit's disappearance has wrought major changes to Yellowstone's food chain. Coyotes and wolves, which could have depended on the rabbit as a significant food source, apparently turned their attention instead to larger prey including young elk, pronghorn antelope -- even domestic livestock. However, because the rabbit's decline went relatively unnoticed until now, quantifying that shift is virtually impossible, said the study's lead author, Joel Berger with the...

Interior Department Removes Northern Rocky Mountain Wolves from Endangered Species List Contacts Ed Bangs (406) 449-5225, x 204 Joan Jewett (503) 231-6211 Sharon Rose (303) 236-4580 Joshua Winchell (703) 358-2279 The gray wolf population in the Northern Rocky Mountains is thriving and no longer requires the protection of the Endangered Species Act, Deputy Secretary of the Interior Lynn Scarlett announced today. As a result, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will remove the species from the federal list of threatened and endangered species. "The wolf population in the Northern Rockies has far exceeded its recovery goal and continues to expand...

Montana officials are saying that the United States already has resolved any questions about the 2nd Amendment's application, defining that "any person" has the right to bears arms. That's the issue at hand in a pending U.S. Supreme Court case originating in the District of Columbia, where authorities have banned handguns under the claim that such a limit is "reasonable" and therefore enforceable even given the rights granted by the 2nd Amendment. U.S. Rep. Virgil Goode, R-Va., has asked President Bush to order the U.S. Justice Department to submit a brief to the high court supporting the rights of individuals...

Secy of State Brad Johnson of Montana delivered a letter to the Washington Times about possible outcomes of the Heller decision. Second Amendment an individual right The U.S. Supreme Court will soon decide D.C. v. Heller, the first case in more than 60 years in which the court will confront the meaning of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Although Heller is about the constitutionality of the D.C. handgun ban, the court's decision will have an impact far beyond the District ("Promises breached," Op-Ed, Thursday). The court must decide in Heller whether the Second Amendment secures a right for...

A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day Free Republic made its debut in September, 1996, and the forum was added in early 1997.   Over 200,000 people have registered for posting privileges on Free Republic, and the forum is read daily by tens of thousands of concerned citizens and patriots from all around the country and the world. A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day was introduced on June 24, 2002. It's only a small room in JimRob's house where we can get to know one another a little better; salute and support our military and our leaders; pray for those in...

CNN founder Ted Turner, the largest private landowner in Nebraska and the United States and the nation's largest bison rancher, said Wednesday that he is about done buying new ranches. He said he would like to reach 2 million acres nationwide before he dies — about 40,000 acres more than he currently owns. "I'm almost done. I've got enough," said Turner... The 69-year-old billionaire, philanthropist and conservationist said he isn't interested in free-standing ranches anymore, only "reasonably priced" parcels adjacent to his current operations, which include five ranches in Nebraska near Gordon, Oshkosh and Mullen. The ranches cover 425,221 acres,...

Mitt Romney wins in Montana, predicts Fox News

Romney ahead in Montana Caucus

For Immediate Release February 5, 2008 Contact: Press Office 703-650-5550 U.S. Senator Sam Brownback, Former Governor Frank Keating, Congressman Spencer Bachus, Former Secretary William Ball to Campaign in North Dakota and Montana VA -- U.S. Senator John McCain's presidential campaign today announced that U.S. Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS), former Governor Frank Keating (R-OK), Congressman Spencer Bachus (R-AL), and former Secretary of the Navy William Ball will campaign on behalf of John McCain in North Dakota and Montana on Tuesday, February 5th. Tuesday, February 5, 2008 FARGO, NORTH DAKOTA WHO: Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) Former Governor Frank Keating (R-OK) Congressman Spencer...

HELENA - Republicans say John McCain now has a better chance in Montana's unique GOP caucus - open to only about 2,000 party volunteers and officeholders - after getting rid of a state chairman many in that group saw as a traitor. McCain dumped Montana's maverick lieutenant governor recently in favor of former U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns, much more popular with GOP insiders despite losing his re-election bid in 2006 amid suspicions over connections to a Washington, D.C., lobbying scandal. The move comes as McCain has spent time and money nailing down his conservative credentials in other states. In Montana,...

Bakken and Torquay Formations - A Saudi Arabia of oil under Saskatchewan, North Dakota, South Datkota, Montana and Manitoba The Bakken oil formation is possibly the largest conventional oil discovery in Canada since 1957. If this oil formation plays out toward the higher end of size and recoverability then it will change the geopolitics of oil and the economies of the United States and Canada. If a lot of the oil proves difficult to recover now, new technologies could still drastically improve the percent recoverable. The motivation to pull out another 100 billion barrels would be $9 trillion at todays...

There's nothing wrong with a group of people historically at odds sitting down to find common ground. Or is there? For decades, our public lands have been a battleground: Timber, wildlife, recreation, wilderness -- which interests and uses should dominate? But now, "collaboration" is all the rage. In collaboration, diverse stakeholders (as they invariably tag themselves) -- environmentalists, developers, off-roaders, timber companies, county officials -- hash out an agreement on how to manage their local public lands and then submit it to Congress for approval. A few deals already have been enacted, and another half a dozen are in the...

CHOTEAU, Mont. — School authorities’ cancellation of a talk that a Nobel laureate climate researcher was to have given to high school students has deeply divided this small farming and ranching town at the base of the east side of the Rocky Mountains. The scholar, Steven W. Running, a professor of ecology at the University of Montana, was scheduled to speak to about 130 students here last Thursday about his career and the global changes occurring because of the earth’s warming. Dr. Running was a lead author of a global warming report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the...

A reclusive billionaire whose family owns the Mars confectionery empire has emerged as a determined opponent of the energy industry's plans to develop one of America's last wilderness states. Forrest E Mars Jr, the 75-year-old former chief executive of Mars Inc, has drawn on his $14 billion fortune to fire off a clutch of lawsuits to prevent drilling for natural gas and coal on his 82,000-acre Diamond Cross ranch near the town of Birney in south-eastern Montana. Under threat: The Diamond Cross ranch in Montana The state is famous for its "Big Sky" and breathtaking scenery but, despite its natural...

Deep-pocketed Mars fights energy development on land A reclusive billionaire whose family owns the Mars candy empire is emerging as a formidable opponent to the energy industry's development plans in southeastern Montana. Forrest E. Mars Jr., the former chief executive of Mars Inc., owns a sprawling ranch along Montana's Tongue River - directly in the sights of companies hoping to tap the area's extensive coal and natural-gas reserves. Through his previously undisclosed ownership of the 82,000-acre Diamond Cross ranch, Mars is bringing his fortune to bear on the side of ranchers and conservationists trying to curb the companies' ambitions. Mars...

Burns, a Republican, narrowly lost reelection to a fourth term in 2006 after Democrats made his relationship with Abramoff a key issue. Abramoff is at the center of a corruption investigation that has led to convictions of a former congressman, legislative aides, lobbyists and Bush administration officials.

A Flathead Valley houndsman reports that wolves killed one of his hounds and severely wounded another on a recent mountain lion hunt west of Kalispell. Joe Kerney said he was on a hunt Dec. 31, when he released two grown hounds and a pup on a mountain lion track in the Rogers Lake area. After a chase of less than a mile, the hounds were baying. “They went up this draw and it sounded like they had a cat treed,” said Kerney, who was pursuing not far behind. “All of a sudden, I heard a dog fight going on,” he...

The Department of Justice confirms former Montana Senator Burns is no longer part of an ongoing investigation of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff. In an exclusive phone call to the News Station's Aaron Flint from his Washington, DC office, Senator Burns is calling it good news and says he feels "so great that it's unbelievable." Burns then released a prepared statement, saying the Department of Justice Public Integrity Section has notified his attorney Ralph Caccia that it (DOJ) has ended its investigation. Burns lost a close race to now Democratic Senator Jon Tester after Democrats questioned Burns about his ties to...