Combat! - Page 185 of 406 - A blog by Dan Brooks

Poverinos losing war on poverty

By Dan Brooks in Uncategorized January 23, 2014 0 Comment

The war on poverty drags on.

Today is not quite every other Thursday, but it is an other Thursday, and that means my column is running in the Missoula Independent. It’s about Missoula’s war on poverty, which lately seems indistinguishable from a war on poor people. In its quest not just to find a solution to its own problems but also to address the larger issue, the Westside Neighborhood Association submitted a model ordinance banning soup kitchens within 300 feet of any residential zone. The city council plans to make it law next week, but they’ve backed off from an ordinance banning panhandling downtown. Or have they? The war on poverty cannot be won with half measures, and until all forms of helping/asking for help are banned, we’ll have to suffer poverty’s effects. In the meantime, I’ll sit indoors and type. We’ll be back tomorrow with Friday links.

Ravalli treasurer claims conspiracy, demands guard, does not have progress report

By Dan Brooks in Politics versus Government January 22, 2014 6 Comments

Ravalli County treasurer Valerie Stamey, photographed by Alex Sakariassen of the Independent

Yesterday, the Ravalli County Commission met for a weekly update from embattled treasurer Valerie Stamey, whose office has not produced a financial report since September. Since the last time commissioners formally met with Stamey, news broke that she had fled a default judgement in South Carolina after double-cashing an $18,000 check. She also appears to have defaulted on a mortgage she filed on her home there in 2007, after she had moved to Montana. Stamey addressed neither of these issues with the commission, nor did she mention the county financial reports. She did, however, accuse commissioners Greg Chilcott and JR Iman of conspiring to illegally sell tax liens and orchestrating a “vile campaign to destroy my character.”

To what degree is Sarah Palin trolling us?

By Dan Brooks in Contemporary Media January 21, 2014 1 Comment

Sarah Palin tries out her ultimately discarded catchphrase, "I'm a bad wittle sublimation of wacism."

Sarah Palin sublimates a nation’s racism in her adorable voice.

As the respectful absence of Combat! blog reminded us, yesterday was Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. I celebrated the way Dr. King called on us all to do, by remaining silent, but every American observed the holiday as he or she saw fit. Sarah Palin, for example, called on President Obama to stop playing the race card. As usual, she used Facebook to communicate her argument, but she was uncharacteristically to the point:

Happy MLK, Jr. Day!

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

Mr. President, in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. and all who commit to ending any racial divide, no more playing the race card.

That was the whole thing, and it raises an important question: to what degree is Sarah Palin trolling us?

Friday links! And dot-com the wolves edition

By Dan Brooks in Friday Links January 17, 2014 0 Comment

A federal contractor performs a routine stop to listen to your voicemails.

Let us say, just for a second, that someone invented technology that allowed everyone on Earth to communicate with one another almost instantaneously. People could use this marvelous machine to say anything they wanted, and they could say it to just one person or broadcast their ideas all over the world. You couldn’t use it to exert force or shoot lasers or anything; the machine could only convey speech and the written word, plus pictures. Approximately 20 years after this machine is invented, a government announces it has the right to record and read, at its leisure, everything everyone uses the machine to say. It must do so to protect freedom. Does this government sound democratic to you? Today is Friday, and the wolves have come out. Won’t you shiver in the vast field of prey with me?

Close readings: VA congressman argues that restricting abortions creates jobs

By Dan Brooks in Close Reading January 16, 2014 8 Comments

Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R–VA) responds to allegations that his name is made up.

Yesterday, during committee markup of a probably-doomed abortion bill making its way through the House, Rep. Bob Goodlatte argued that restricting access to abortions creates jobs. “Having new children brought into the world is not harmful to job creation,” he said, himself employing litotes for a job it maybe didn’t need to do. It was a peculiar line of reasoning, partly for the sheer bulk of its verbiage—more on that later—and partly because of its ambitious attempt to connect an old controversy to the political byword of the day. Strap on your chunky glasses, because Rep. Goodlatte is the subject of today’s Close Reading.