Ah Fritz choo!

Kazuza

Unsullied!

Matt Singer’s changing coffee shops at the moment but he should be around to chat in a bit and answer people’s questions about Tester.

This is turning into a very exciting race and I really appreciate Matt taking the time to fill us in with what’s happening on the home front. Great post.

rootz!

rootz, rootz, rootz for the home team !

OTs
EPU - I answered you below but am in moderation. I am usually best tolerated in moderation, so I may stay there for awhile. ;-)

Shadowlake - here’s the link:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....21845.html

Republican Senator Conrad Burns once again trails both Democrats vying for his job. Perhaps even more stunning is that a relatively unknown GOP candidate now polls better than Burns when matched against the Democrats.

Burns now trails State Senate President Jon Tester 48% to 44%. A month ago, Burns held a very slight lead over Tester. They were even at the end of March.

After pulling to within two points of State Auditor John Morrison last month, Burns now trails by four, 49% to 45%. In March, Burns trailed Morrison by five points (see crosstabs).

Burns has been hampered by his relationship with convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Bob Keenan (R), the minority leader in the state Senate, is challenging Burns for the Republican nomination. While he is considered a long shot in the Primary competition, Keenan does better in the polls against both Morrison and Tester.

The relatively unknown Keenan has a one-point edge over Tester 43% to 42% and trails Morrison by two, 43% to 41%. Earlier surveys had shown that other, better known, Republicans, would soundly defeat either Democrat.

In fairness, these results have less to do with Keenan than with the Republican leanings of the state.

Crosstabs are available for Premium Members.

Two years ago, President Bush carried Montana by twenty percentage points, 59% to 39%. Republicans are trusted more than Democrats in the state on the economy, national security, immigration, and Iraq. Democrats have the edge only on energy policy.

With these built-in GOP advantages, a two-time incumbent Senator should have no difficulty winning a third term. But, the Abramoff matter has clearly made this a very competitive race. Senator Burns may be in better shape than Pennsylvania’s Rick Santorum, but it’s hard to think of another incumbent who would switch places with Burns at this time.

(Rasumussen)

Just tossed some money Tester’s way at ActBlue earlier today. Let’s turn Montana true blue!

Still I don’t see very many bloggers talking about the Estate tax. OK, actually none, except me, which is why I’m going to keep posting about this until I get some results:

http://menditdontendit.blogspot.com/

Frist and the Rethugs are going to take away the Estate Tax PERMANENTLY next week unless we get some results! Becuase no one else is going to do it.

Great that Mr.Tester keeps building the momentum. Maybe Morrison will get a good case of joementum.

We need more of this kind of thing. Can we establish a roots project to identify at least one similar candidate in each state? That is not a democrat but a real progressive that we can help make it? People who not only have a decent chance but who would make a real difference?

Tester, Lamont, Feingold….these our our kind
is it ok to say that junior G-man?

hay! bale out now, Morris-”sin”.

in Indiana, TV ads have been running asking Hoosiers to tell Senator Evan to oppose the “Death Tax” — with pictures of small family farms in the bucolic background…

Thanks for the update, Matt.

You can contribute to Jon Tester and many other progressive candidates by going to Howie Klein’s ActBlue list.

Oh man — I’m having flashbacks of putting up hay season at my cousins’ farm in the summer as a kid. Thanks much for the update, Matt — and thanks even mroe for doing the hard work, day to day, door to door, in Montana. :)

Note the bang for the buck. The man says Montana is a cheap media market. I just sent a donation.

More OT:

Sonate - from below threads:Since the executive branch has never searched a congressional office, is the “probable cause” bar set higher by the courts when it involves a legislator?

I don’t think so technically, although as a matter of course I am sure a Judge is more reluctant to proceed when acting with respect to a branch that can remove him/her. ;-)

The issue is not probable cause so much as it is privilege. Where privilege attaches to some things that may be located at the same place as, or commingled with, things which are not privileged, then you need a very specific warrant and a very specific approach to handling the search/seizure. So a lot of things spelled out in the affidavit for the warrant that go to probable cause do so not as much to show “more cause” than in other cases, but to show very specific relationships to wrongdoing allegations to make it clear that they are not intending to rifle through privileged materials as well

Now, what actually happened during the execution of the warrant - I dunno. But the warrant seemed pretty tailored to me.

Think of it this way. Say, as a lawyer, I have a client and I have client records for them. It just so happens that I also go into business with that client and say our business becomes the subject of some investigation for wrongdoing. My offices will have docs that, while discussing my client are solely about our business. My offices will also have docs solely relating to our atty-client relationship and which are privileged. My offices may also have a squishy category of things where it is not absolutely clear whether I am dealing with my client as a business cohort or as someone receiving legal advice from me (can we do this? Sure, it’s fine - type stuff).

So there would be stuff clearly ok to take, stuff clearly not ok, and there might then be some stuff that is ???? If I’m there and know what they are taking I can raise objections and maybe get a very quick hearing with the judge to have those squishy items dealt with more completely.

All that is something that can happen all the time in the context of privilege and the fourth amendment and has nothing to do with separation of powers. Here, the separation issue is strictly that the privilege that exists is under the speech and debate clause and is deemed to exist by virtue of the separation of powers, but how the privileged items are handled doesn’t get any “super-protection” over how other privilege matters are handled, at least as far as I can see.

So no “extra” probable cause would be needed IMO.

Christy Hardin Smith @ 1:52 pm (#17) - I did that a few times. It was how I discovered I have hay fever. Collecting the bales out in the field was fine, but putting them in the barn really sucked.

epu:

to produce the acute accent for the smallcase letter e ( é ) in html write:

é or é

there’s a long cheat sheet of html codes for other special characters at:

HTML 4.01 Entities Reference

Some party switchin’ a goin’ on in Kansas. Looks like it is indeed bleeding red.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200.....hdA–

-GSD

Save The Estate Tax @ 1:43 pm (#10) - Someone is collecting petitions out here in WA to abolish the “Death Tax”. I ran into one of those clowns outside the local Best Buy. Really had to restrain myself.

The DLC says: “We believe that the promise of America is equal opportunity for all and special privilege for none.” Bunk. This group is a bunch of beltway insiders, business and lobbyist types and NAFTA/CAFTA cronies whose claims that “America has a responsibility to lead the world to political and economic freedom” are totally couched in their real objectives which include outsourcing, low pay, and the lowering of the standard of living for millions of blue AND white collar Americans. All in the name of economically suffering Americans. The DLC are prime movers and shakers in the presidential aspirations of the Democrat sell-out rascal, Senator Hillary Clinton, and the re-election of that scoundrel of a pale imitation of a Democrat, Joe Lieberman. What really taxes credibility is the DLC’s claim to be a “progressive activist movement”. The DLC has done more harm to the traditional Democratic Party than anything imaginable. With perhaps the exception of Hillary Clinton and her despicable and contemptible side-kick, Joe Lieberman. Good post Matt Singer. And I surely do hope Testor can pull it off!

Cujo at 20 — I was the smallest, so I got stuck with the straightening bales on the hay wagon job. Which meant constantly dodging snakes and spiders as they slithered out of the bales and back to the ground, and trying not to get squashed while my older cousin’s tried to heave the bales on top of me when I wasn’t looking. (Yeah, being in the barn with hayfever doing the stacking would have sucked.)

This really is exciting news. As a Montana resident a couple years back, I was mystified by the political make-up of the state. I found Montana to be as socially and fiscally conservative as they come. But ever since Marc Racicot practically handed the governor’s office to Judy Marsh in 2001 (who was off-the-charts incompetent), I don’t think the Republican party has enjoyed the complete trust and loyalty of Montanans that they once had. With Burns in a free-fall, now’s the time to put a progressive in the race, and NOT just a republican in democrat’s clothing.

as a teenager I helped my uncle put up hay. It was a horribly hot Indiana summer day. I lasted one tractor trip across the field - I was sent back to the house to recuperate. I can relate to Lenin when he made his famous remark about the “idiocy of rural life” — I’m a city boi to this day!

i’m with John. I’ll examine my shrinking political donations budget (i’m already set to give to lamont although i live in oregon) and see if i can come up with something for Tester as well.

Alert: Al Gore is due to be on “Fresh Air” with Terri Gross today within the 2PM show (NOW).

*ilson46201 @ 2:05 pm (#26) - Living in the country as a boy cured me of any romantic notions I might have had about such a life.

Thank you, Matt, for this exciting post from the grassroots, and for the in-depth news on your own blog as well. This post took me back to my own political organizing days in rural Virginia many, many years ago. I’ll check the donation budget for some money for Jon Tester.

Keep us up to date on your work — it’ll be terrific to see this go the right way, as it will with your efforts.

I seem to remember that Tester is all in favor of making the drug companies that have developed meds on the taxpayers dime sell those same drugs at a fair and reasonable price to the american public.

What a refreshingly honest concept !!

Hope the junior G-man
doesn’t object.

I put up some hay this weekend and I know for a fact that the really extra heavy bales of alfalfa aren’t going to sweat down right - I’m sure they have mold already. *s* Makes you wish you had cattle instead of horses.

Organic farmer eh? Can we rely on him to send broccoli to . . .

Never mind. I’ll donate anyway.

aarrgghh (21) - thanks for the accent link

Larry - I would personally very much appreciate it if you would stop the “junior G man”.

Asking nicely.

This time.

The last time I cleared a field of hay bales, we bought 5 acres of hay for our dairy goat farm. The week the hay was ready (it was Oregon so you have to aim for a non-rain week) was my ex’s two weeks a year guard duty. My 5 yr old drove the Jeep waggoneer on granny low standing up stearing while I stacked hay on the trailer. God I hate those bales with snake tails flopping out.

I have been following Jon Tester for almost a year, on his email list and am a frequent donnor. His stands on the issues are what I wish to find in candidates in Arizona. Sounds like a damn fine man. What America needs, real pepole, with real experience, someone who works for a living, close to the land.

There are two here in AZ to support too, Herb Paine for CD-03 & Jeff Latas in AZ CD-08.
Go Jon Tester!

http://paineforcongress.org/
http://www.jefflatas.com/

mary,

and you are ?

The “estate tax” that republicans refer to as the “death tax” was designed to prevent American families from forming dynasties. Back in the old country, the super rich had these dynasties, whereby they passed on all of their wealth to their successors. This created a ruling class that kept the little people from getting a leg up…

The republicans have been hacking away at it for years because they love (their own)dynasties and hate all taxes (except for those that the little people pay). After years of attack by the republicans, the estate tax has been chipped away to the point where it now only affects the wealthiest millionaires.
They are lying to people again by inferring that poor family farmers are impacted by the estate tax, while, indeed, they are not.

Someone said that Paris Hilton is a good argument for (keeping) the estate tax. I think that is funny and true.

And all God’s people said “Amen!”

Reading this brings tears to my eyes. Those of us who can’t volunteer are glad that there are those who can. I’m glad that the tide is changing and there are people like Tester who are changing it.

Aarrgghh -

Thanks for the info on “special” characters. They will be of use to many around here, especially Hugh . . .

After perusing your blog, let me return the techie favor, with a little tech hint of my own. You can get Capital Letters by holding down the “Shift” key on either side of the keyboard, then pressing the desired letter. ;-)

fwiw, Rahm et al at the DCCC just sent out a good Email solicitation to help Francine Busby in CA … that’s gonna be a damn expensive race!!!

I’m someone asking nicely Larry.

What a great surprise to see Matt over here. I really love his blog and have followed his hard work, generally from afar, with great admiration. As soon as I saw this I emailed my friends over in Billings to see if they wanted to jump in and help Matt. So question to Matt, where would you like the feet on the ground kinda folks to connect up with you? Use the blog?

ThAnKs PeTeRrR

I foretell a smackdown cometh….

For aarrgghh and Peterr,

OT and maybe you have this already..but heres a very handy tech site

http://www.w3schools.com/default.asp

Speaking of smackdown:

Bush Aide Called War Reporters ‘Whiny’ and ‘Soft’

Twinkle-tongued Zinmeister, that’d be. If you’re into disgusting chickenhawk bilge, there’s plenty of his here, followed by a quite thorough demolition of any claim he might have to cred, and finally today’s tangy exchange between Helen Thomas and Snowball re same.

http://www.editorandpublisher......1002577367

Kudos to “E&P Staff” for kewl skewering and timing.

Plano - it truly does affect only a few situations. There was a period of time when, given the market heydays and inflation it was getting closer and closer to affecting more upper middle class families, but even so with estate planning the effects were small. The problem is partly in how the tax is structured, so that when it does initially kick in the rates are so high, but it has also in the past been a great incentive for chartiable planning as a part of Estate planning.

Even a lot of uberwealthy Repbulicans are not that against the tax, but many would like it restructured. In essence, it taxes what we tend to tax - transfers. It’s an area where that legal fiction of a husband and wife being one person comes in very handy ;-) but it is anti-free market and anti-entreprenurial to not have some transfer tax on big bulk wealth transfers, whether at death or as lifetime gifts. IMO.

mainsailse 42 — that’s a great question. Matt if you’re around, can you let people know how they can show up and help? Walking precincts, phone banks, etc?

One campaign donation, done.

Bob Keenan is a fine man and frankly, I would LOVE to see him win the primary and go up against Tester. What a campaign THAT would be haha

If people are around, shoot me an email singer@leftinthewest.com

We’re looking for phone bankers mostly, but we’ll take walkers as well.

All the baling stories, donation offers, and thanks to the volunteers is much appreciated. Here I thought I’d be getting hit with questions.

Jon Tester’s a great guy. Honestly, if you’ve got friends in Billings (or anywhere else in the state), tell ‘em to help the campaign out. We’ve got the momentum, we’re calling the voters, we’re pushing the lit, and we’re winning the votes.

And, of course, contribute.

lotus 46,
That Zinsmeister fellow is not very nice. It looked to me like Snowball deflected and obfuscated Helen’s question in a manner that Scotty dog might have had when he first started.

Pretty slippery fellow - that Snowball. He might last til 08 (or chimpeachment).
Poor Scotty, he’d gotten so tired and lie weary toward the end.

I just pitched in a modest sum. Go, Tester!

Thanks, punaise!

Yes, Plano, and Scotty had it EASY compared to what’s headed for Snowball.

Mumf mumf mumf.

Mary 41,

I’m back and thank you for asking so nicely about my comment concerning any potentially lurking junior G-men….(I hope they don’t mind). However, this thread is about Mr.Tester and how he is going to WIN in Montana so I prefer to not sully it up with any visions of thought police. Thanks

Mark the date, folks:

May 30, 2006 - punaise admits to being both modest as well as a bit Testy

How odd that I would know some people in Big Sandy, where Tester is from, a town of what…700?I’ve never been to Montana but my sister also lives in Missoula. I’ll contribute via ActBlue on that alone, but also because he’s spreading organic fever in Montana. My acquaintance is trying the organic version of cattle ranching.

Matt, is there a Tester contact @MSU ?

Go Yellowjackets!!

Peterr 57 - LOL
blink and you’ll miss it

As a kid growing up on a farm in Ireland I also had lots of experience of putting hay into the barn. Exhausting is a good kind of way!!

Larry — Are you wondering about MSU or MSU-B?

There’s no specific contact for the Billings college, but I can help you out. If you know Bozeman folks interested in volunteering, they should contact the campaign or me and I’ll pass ‘em along to the appropriate people on staff.

I used to have to mow the lawn in suburbia…

Billings is my favorite place, once each month (client invoices)

I used to make out in the barn with Hay Haulers, does that count ??

Hey Matt, thanks for giving us the Grassroots 411, and yes thanks for all your work

Hey Christy - W. VA Congresswoman was named by Neil Volz as doing Abramoff’s bidding in quid pro quo at the Safavian trial today - Shelly Moore Cavito (raw story has moore -lol)

did some GSA work for dear Jack outside her district, during a re-election race - of course it was all her Chief of Staff’s fault per the Congresswoman’s spokesperson

My favorite Montana memory hearkens back to the time when the state had no limits on speed on its interstates. I was driving my brother’s Canadian Honda Accord back from Vancouver for the summer, and I successfully convinced him (by jiggering the kilometers/miles conversion) that we weren’t really going 98 mph the entire state. Big state, but it did go by kinda fast…. wasn’t that when they used to call it the “Montana-bahn?”

Ah, the speed limitless days. Good stuff.

so TSF was haulin’ ass?

The whole state was.

Matt, thanks for the email address, I’ll pass it along. Also, EVERYBODY, walk, crawl or skip down to get your very own new CD of Springsteen doing the Seeger Sessions. If ever there was music to energize a campaign or simply to fill in another day of Rove still in the WH, this IS the one. Seriously, it will getcha up and dancin folks!

Damn, Matt Singer on firedoglake, who would ever have thunk it. Let’s hope Tester fares better than Dr. Dean.

Two votes for Tester, a bit of cash heading to the campaign, and my wife wants to know where we can find yard signs. Now that we’re in Bigfork instead of the Yaak, people might actually see something we put up.

Good work, Matt.

Re: #27 *the idiocy of rural life*.
FWIW, this is from Marx in The Communist Manifesto, and it has been said that the phrase is better translated as *the isolation of rural life*:

*This oft-quoted A.E.T. [authorized English translation] expression is a mistranslation. The German word Idiotismus did not, and does not, mean idiocy (Idiotie); it usually means idiom, like its French cognate idiotisme. But here [in paragraph 28 of The Communist Manifesto] it means neither. In the nineteenth century, German still retained the original Greek meaning of forms based on the word idiotes: a private person, withdrawn from public (communal) concerns, apolitical in the original sense of isolation from the larger community. In the Manifesto, it was being used by a scholar [Marx] who had recently written his doctoral dissertation on Greek philosophy and liked to read Aeschylus in the original.*
http://www.monthlyreview.org/nfte1003.htm

Well it’s GJ day tomorrow. Anyone have any hunches about whether or not the frogs will be marching?

Charlie Cooks summarizes the state of the goopers in the midterm house elections:

“A year ago, just 18 Republican-held House seats were in play: Two were rated by The Cook Political Report as “toss-ups” and 16 as “lean Republican.” To make the 15-seat net gain necessary for taking control of the House, Democrats needed to hold all of their own seats and win 83 percent of the competitive Republican ones. By the first of this year, the number of vulnerable GOP seats was still 18 — but half were in the more dangerous “toss-up” category.

Now the situation has worsened considerably for the GOP: 36 of its seats are in play, and 11 of them are toss-ups. Democrats need to win just 42 percent of the Republican seats in play to reach the magic number of 218. An additional 18 Republican seats are rated “likely Republican,” meaning they are potentially competitive. The consensus among veteran Republican campaign consultants, particularly pollsters, is that if the election were held today, their party would lose the House.

Unfortunately, there are few reliable independent polls conducted in House races. Political reporters and analysts are being deluged with polls conducted for Democratic candidates that tout their gains. And Republican campaigns are releasing few poll results that contradict them. GOP pollsters, media consultants, and other operatives privately concede that the drumbeat of bad numbers coming in — but not publicly released — has become depressing and alarming. What most concerns GOP strategists is that these congressional polls may not fully capture the extent of their party’s problems, because other polling shows that Republican voters are disillusioned about the Iraq war, the federal budget deficit, illegal immigration, port security, gasoline prices, the response to Hurricane Katrina, and so on — and are showing less interest than Democrats in the November election.

Since our Cook Election Preview supplement to the May 6 National Journal, we’ve moved two contests from “lean Republican” to “toss-up” — for the open CA-50 seat vacated by Randy (Duke) Cunningham, which first will be filled by a June 6 runoff and then fought over again in November, and the KY-04 rematch between Republican freshman Rep. Geoff Davis and Ken Lucas, his Democratic predecessor. And 12 contests shifted from “likely Republican” to “lean Republican” — those involving GOP incumbents Richard Pombo (CA-11), Nancy Johnson (CT-05), Anne Northup (KY-03), Jon Porter (NV-03), Jeb Bradley (NH-01), Charles Bass (NH-02), Michael Ferguson (NJ-07), John Sweeney (NY-20), Randy Kuhl (NY-29), Curt Weldon (PA-07), Don Sherwood (PA-10), and Thelma Drake (VA-02).

More and more Republican incumbents previously thought to be in reasonably good shape are in danger.”

I have never seen such a learned discussion of idiocy- bring up a subject and someone here knows about it! (g)

Here’s something a little interesting (from Raw Story) about officials changing from the gooper party to dem- in KANSAS! Now that’s news!

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) - The former chairman of the Kansas Republican Party jumped ship in a big way Tuesday, switching his affiliation to Democrat amid speculation that he would become Gov. Kathleen Sebelius’ running mate.

Johnson County Elections Commissioner Brian Newby confirmed that Mark Parkinson, the state GOP chairman from 1999 to 2003, came to the office and switched his party affiliation shortly before noon.

Parkinson’s name has been widely circulated as Sebelius’ choice for a running mate as the Democratic governor seeks a second term. Current Lt. Gov. John Moore - another former Republican - is retiring when his term expires in early 2007.

Sebelius spokeswoman, Nicole Corcoran, would not comment about Parkinson, but said an announcement of the governor’s choice of running mates was scheduled Wednesday not far from Parkinson’s home in Olathe, a Kansas City suburb.

“Traditionally, you do see that the first stop would be in or around that person’s home base. It would be safe to assume that she would be choosing someone from the Johnson County area,” Corcoran said.

Parkinson didn’t immediately return calls seeking comment.

Johnson County District Attorney Paul Morrison also switched parties from Republican to Democrat to challenge Attorney General Phill Kline, a Republican, in the November election.

Republican House Speaker Doug Mays said he was disgusted by Parkinson’s lack of loyalty to the party that made him chairman, but he isn’t surprised by the rift.

The Republican Party, which has dominated Kansas politics since statehood, has shifted to the right in recent years and it inevitably will shift back to the left, he said. Instead of defecting to challenge one another, though, Republicans need to find common ground, he said.

there’s new fiber upstairs

Donated to Tester a few days ago, and will do so again once ol’ payday comes around again on friday.

Hate to change the subject, but any more news on any possible Rove indictments?

The rumor mill seems to have quited down a bit.

Cold cash sent just now to Tester. I’m cheering for you folks, Matt.

Good luck, Matt and Jon. Any friend of Jeff Ament is a friend of mine!

The word is spreading. We’ve got the momentum. Now, Jon Tester is trying to finish his media buys today. Montana is a cheap media market. Even a small donor can buy radio and TV spots. Please, give generously . This isn’t just about beating a Republican. It’s about electing a Democrat who is right on health care, right on the war in Iraq, right on privacy and civil liberties. Jon Tester is that Democrat.

Interesting point.

And not a bad electoral strategy. The mainstream media has been bleating about Red State values — and a lot of folks have bought right in, as though all points between Nevada, North Dakota, and West Virginia are just completely alien.

Yet this characterization is very far from accurate. Prairie populism and progressive politics didn’t just arise out of thin air. It’s still out there. Christy’s WV post was right on, if You all (i.e., everyone else) doesn’t bother maintaining the connection to people deeply rooted to place, that connection’s not going to take care of itself.

The Red State myth was invented to keep us afraid and divided from “them.” Well, them is us.

Bottom line, let’s flip the strategy on its head. The disproportionate electoral strength of sparsely populated Plains states should be turned to our advantage. We’ve complained about it: now let’s use it.

As Singer notes, these are not expensive media markets. So it’s cost effective. There are fewer people to meet, and fewer to persuade. So it’s not as insurmountable as it might seem. There’s a Jon Tester in every state.

And the way I heard some old die-hard Republican life-long local guys talking in Tennessee, back more than a year now, it shouldn’t take much more than the right candidate, using the right approach, to swing many a state.

Good bye good luck and

GO TESTER!!!!!!!!!!!!

thanks for visiting Matt.

hope the junior g-man did’t mind

Also, can we get a MEME out there in every race from Pennsylvania to Tennessee?

A MEME that screams — ok, calmly repeats — “Mine Safety” over and over again?

tt — I might be able to find you some yardsigns. Email me your address: singer@leftinthewest.com