Welcome! Here are the topics for today’s column:
- Constitutional Initiative 128
- Sheehy’s Discredited Abortion Claims
- Ammo Vending Machines
CONSTITUTIONAL INITIATIVE 128:
There are several reports about Montanans Securing Reproductive Rights (MSRR) contending the Montana Secretary of State’s Office (SOS) is improperly rejecting signatures from their petitions to get Constitutional Initiative 128 on the ballot this November.
MSRR is a citizen-led initiative working to secure reproductive rights, including the right to an abortion, for Montanans in the state constitution.
According to MTN News, MSRR said they filed public records requests and received emails from last month, in which the SOS office told county election administrators inactive voters would not be eligible to sign a petition. In another email, state officials said they were updating Montana’s election software to automatically reject signatures from voters on the inactive list.
MTN News also reported that Montana law says you have to be a “qualified elector” in order to sign a petition. In a letter to the SOS office, Raph Graybill, an attorney representing MSRR, said the state constitution says any citizen 18 or older “who meets the registration and residence requirements provided by law is a qualified elector” unless they’re in prison for a felony. He argued that should include people who are registered but are on the inactive list.
It looks to me that the Republican-run SOS office seems to be changing the rules after the fact, or attempting to put up roadblocks. That’s the problem with the initiative process in Montana. If the people in charge (SOS) are against the initiative, then they can hamper it from getting on the ballot.
You can read the MTN report HERE. Lee Newspapers has the story HERE.
SHEEHY’S DISCREDITED ABORTION CLAIMS:
The Montana Free Press (MTFP) has posted a story from KFF Health News about the discredited abortion claims made by Republican U.S. Senate candidate Tim Sheehy about U.S. Senator Jon Tester.
MTFP reports that in a televised debate June 8, Republican Senate candidate Tim Sheehy accused incumbent Sen. Jon Tester and Democrats of voting for ‘elective abortions up to and including the moment of birth.’ KFF and Politifact rate that statement false.
You can read the full analysis HERE.
Here is KFF’s conclusion:
Sheehy’s description of Tester’s “extreme” position that would allow abortion “up until the moment of birth” simply doesn’t hold up.
The statements are rooted in Tester’s support for the Women’s Health Protection Act. That bill, however, doesn’t open the door to abortion on demand later in pregnancy. Instead, it allows for the role of medical judgment. In addition, CDC data indicates that late-term pregnancies are rare. Also, the term “elective abortion” is a political rather than medical phrasing.
We rate this claim False.
The problem with campaigns these days is desperate people like Sheehy continue to throw untrue crap against the wall hoping something will stick. There has to be a better way to combat the lies spread during campaigns. Social media posts these days are full of half-truths and lies. Campaigns need to hire people to monitor social media and fight the lies. It would be money well spent.
AMMO VENDING MACHINES:
Is this a great country or what…
The Associated Press (AP) is reporting that a company has installed computerized vending machines to sell ammunition in grocery stores in Alabama, Oklahoma and Texas, allowing patrons to pick up bullets along with a gallon of milk.
The AP reports that American Rounds said their machines use an identification scanner and facial recognition software to verify the purchaser’s age and are as “quick and easy” to use as a computer tablet. But advocates worry that selling bullets out of vending machines will lead to more shootings in the U.S., where gun violence killed at least 33 people on Independence Day alone.
I expect we’ll see these vending machines in Montana shortly.
The Western Word 
Newsflash Scary, this ain’t your father”s Dem party. They’re now the party of self destruction.
They destroy our economy.
They destroy our borders.
They destroy women’s sports.
They destroy world peace.
They destroy families with illegal invaders who murder.
They destroy with fentanyl.
They destroy inner cities.
And they kill their kids in their wombs.
Swede, it’s time. You and me, buddy. We are of the age “when the age is in, the wit is out.” And I don’t golf. So I’m challenging you to a cognitive test, because it appears that one of us could be slipping. I’ll go first.
”The first questions are very easy, the last questions are much more difficult. Like a memory question,” Trump explained in one interview. “It’s like, you’ll go, ‘Person. Woman. Man. Camera. TV.’ So they’d say, ‘Could you repeat that.’ So I said, ‘Yeah. So it’s person. Woman. Man. Camera. TV.’ “
Without looking, person, woman, man, camera, TV. I aced it. Your turn. This might help explain you post above! It’s trump level argument.
When it comes to fact checking sites I find its interesting that 75% of R’s distrust them vs. 25% of Dems.
Convolute the subject as much as you can but you can’t ignore the true fact that the Women’s Health Protection Act does provide for late term abortions.
Sheehy was right.
I think I’ll believe what KFF and PolitiFact say over you on this issue. -JmB
A true believer.
“Elective” abortions. Not medical phrasing? OK what is the medical phrasing? Like “partial birth abortion” has a medical phrasing.
Convolute the subject as much as you want but the issue discussed above was Sheehy’s claim about “elective”.
The bill would have created a statutory right to the procedure up until the point of viability and beyond that point, if the doctor, using “good-faith medical judgment,” determined that the procedure is necessary “for the preservation of the life or health of the person who is pregnant.”
Sheehy and Republicans in general would seemingly rather see a woman die than allow any abortion at all to save her life. Some “pro-life” stance.
Health…Life or Health. We all know what life is. Health….nothing new about that one word causing the problem. I do think if each side in this matter can’t see the other side’s point of view they’re not trying. It would be swell if humans cared about their young as much as penguins do but they don’t.
Penguins? Do penguins interfere in the reproductive choices or health decisions of other penguins?
People with evil intent won’t lay down their life to protect their child.
Wow. Swede the morality king! Only problem is that the entire field of religious study finds your argument puerile and uninformed. Seems that Swede’s way or the highway isn’t included yet in any religious doctrine. Keep trying though. You’re helping to destroy the christofascist hold on America.
“These are the poorest of us, the most disenfranchised and they’re struggling more because some portion of Christianity feels they have the right to decide for other people what is moral,” Lewis said. “It breaks my soul to see religion weaponized this way … it’s the opposite of what religion should be.”
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/americas-religious-leaders-sharply-divided-over-abortion-a-year-after-roe-v-wades-reversal