Last Friday, Democrats in the Montana Senate attempted an obscure parliamentary maneuver to block passage of two voter-referendum bills, SB 405 and SB 408, that would end same-day voter registration and institute a top-two primary system. Instead of just doing it, though, they first held a party caucus to explain what was happening. Republicans caught wind, and the ensuing refusal of Senate President Jeff Essman (R–Billings) to recognize any Democrats on the Senate floor ended in a small, polite riot. You can read about it in my latest column for the Missoula Independent, which has received this glowing review from commenter Scott Wilson:

Typical one-sided Leftist rant. You Democrat-socialist-communist types want same-day registration to get more ineligible people voting and their votes counted. Absent voter fraud, the unaccountable, lawless, oath-breaking Kenyan would not be president vying for position as King and High Ruler. Enough. Sounds like the Republicans should be commended. Sore losers are still losers.

We’ll be back tomorrow with another one-sided rant.

 

Combat! blog is busier than a one-armed man in a puppet show today, so we barely have time to focus our hate laser on North Carolina’s plan to A) declare itself exempt from the First Amendment and B) adopt an official state religion. Don’t worry—it won’t actually happen. The bill, which explains that the state’s General Assembly “does not recognize federal court rulings which prohibit and otherwise regulate the State of North Carolina, its public schools, or any political subdivisions of the State from making laws respecting an establishment of religion,” is a reaction to an ACLU lawsuit against Rowan County’s practice of opening commissioners’ meetings with a Christian prayer. That seems like as good a reason to nullify the First Amendment as any. We’ll be back tomorrow with Friday links and, you know, a bunch of billable hours.

Probably you read it this morning between cloves at Butterfly Herbs, but here is my most recent column in the Missoula Independent, wherein I excoriate the state legislature, again. The Montana legislature meets for six months every two years. It’s designed to be an efficient body, but the 2013 session has been cavalcade of weird and unnecessary bills set to the ongoing neglect of real problems. The state’s medical marijuana law is still verkakte. As the Washington Post pointed out, reservation schools are facing significant funding cuts after sequestration. We have a $400 million-plus budget surplus, and Republicans and Democrats remained locked in an argument over whether to give it back to homeowners all at once with a rebate or by lowering property taxes for the next four decades. Meanwhile, Fort Peck Elementary can’t afford to give paper workbooks to kids. So far this session, Montana legislators have proposed laws nullifying any future federal ban on assault weapons, requiring FBI agents to get permission from local sheriffs before serving warrants in the state and, most recently, allowing the salvage of road kill for meat. That last one passed. If you’re reading this in Montana, now might be the time to send a quick email to your state representative reminding him or her to unfuck him or herself. We’ll be back tomorrow with Friday links.