4&20 blackbirds

by lizard

I’m obsessed with rabbits. from the book I read as a kid, Watership Down, to my favorite movie, Donnie Darko, rabbits have become a powerful symbol for me. Signifying what? From just the two examples I mentioned, a warning the world as we know it is about to end.

Wallace Stevens wrote a poem about a rabbit, and it’s amazing. Here it is: Continue Reading »

by problembear

as usual, i am curious about something….

take a look at these two links and tell me if we have our priorities right here?

1. this outfit as described in today’s missoulian and all over our television news lately has needed much help this winter and the entire sorry episode has been getting a lot of media play lately – not to mention full use of our fairgrounds as provided by mr earle.

“When we heard about this we basically put our arms out and told them we would do everything we can to help,” Earle said.

now, just like everyone else, i saw the footage of the burros with misshapen hooves and animals who have been neglected for far too long and of course, nobody wants to see an animal starve to death and  i know that the mission of the people involved was good-hearted and all but, for god sakes -give me someone who can provide proper logistics and sustainable plans over a bunch of dreamers and feel gooders who collect discarded animals from all over the united states, and then fail to care properly for them when times get rough and then, at the worst possible time of year, drop them in our laps in the middle of a dead cold winter…..

when …..

2. shelters for the homeless are seeing unprecedented numbers of people living on the streets and not enough beds to provide shelter from below zero wind chills which are on the way as i type this. media wise, the coverage of the local homeless plight has been miniscule by comparison to the plight of the failure of this animal sanctuary.

someone needs to figure out what is important here. it is certainly unfortunate that over a thousand animals were in dire straits but we really need to regain some good old-fashioned common sense and realize that homeless americans need our attention during this cold snap in the middle of our protracted recession…..

i certainly don’t ever remember missoula county offering to provide shelter from the cold at the fairgrounds for the homeless even temporarily when the poverello is crammed to undignified and unsafe conditions. do you?

UPDATE:  yet Gallatin county manages to provide some temporary emergency shelter for their homeless…

by jhwygirl

All of these stories were available last night on the front webpage of Montana newspapers across the state…

In Billings, this gem of a guy was allegedly 3 times the legal limit when he nearly hit a police car. He had 5 minors, four under age 9, in the car.

Missoula, not to be outdone, has its own worse cretin – 33-year old Lolo resident Wayne Dale Munnell rolled his vehicle near the Buckhouse bridge on 93 south. He had 3 minors in his car, and a 24 year old who’s arm was nearly severed. Munnell, like the gem above, did not have the passengers in proper restraints or seat belts. His blood alcohol was measured at .149, but not before he snatched the syringe during the blood draw and threatened a state trooper. And a nurse. There’s more violent behavior – go read it.

That guy had a medical marijuana card. And there was “an odor of burnt marijuana on his clothing.”

Just an observation on what I know in life: It’s the drunks that cause the problems. Stoners? Pretty harmless.

Helena, of course, has its own special kind – Adam Wilson threatened to kill two women and a 16-year old, holding them hostage. There was a police chase, yadda yadda yadda. Oh – and a driving under the influence charge.

Frankly, when I think about it…drunks can be a pain in the ass. Mean too.

The Kalispell guy charged with double murder of his ex-girlfriend and her 15-year old daughter? The tragedy began to unfold at the Scoreboard Pub and Casino.

No flash on this story – just your regular ordinary Montanan with a 5th DUI. Nothing to see there, right?

Still more….over in Great Falls, we have a 29-year old male who drove the alleys hitting damaging over 100 garbage cans, along with fences and other myriad personal property.

So before I close this out, I’m heading over to check the Bozeman Chronicle and the Montana Standard…..

….looks like they escaped the banality that is Montana and its alcohol.

by problembear

i will let sherry devlin tell it better than i could.

http://missoulaeditor.com/?p=2627

the s.o. and i will sorely miss him!

here is the U of M school of journalism’s writeup as well… http://www.jour.umt.edu/node/383

i will say however that playing bob in scrabble was a hopeless quest to all but the extremely gifted…..

by lizard

I started off writing about poetry here at 4&20 with a post that asked the question “Can poetry matter?” but the source material I used for that post sprouted from internal gripes within the American poetry world.

Here’s a better question: Why doesn’t poetry matter?

I believe rhythm and rhyme are foundational components in how we clever mammals communicate with each other. Kids already know this to be true, no need for explanation. But as we grow up and become these strange creatures known as “adults” many of us lose touch with the powerful pulse of language.

But poetry is there, throughout the recorded drama of human existence, echoing across the centuries.

*

This particular post came about because of another contentious exchange in the comment thread battleground. Immediately after that exchange, which included discussion about the continued stain on American jurisprudence known as GITMO, I pulled a collection of poems from Guantanamo, edited by Marc Falkoff, from my shelf. This very short poem is from a now released prisoner, Siddiq Turkestani. This is from the intro to his poem:

Siddiq Turkestani is a thirty-three-year-old ethnic Uighur raised in Saudi Arabia. In 1997, while traveling in Afghanistan, he was abducted by members of Al Qaeda and tortured until he “confessed” to plotting to kill Osama bin Laden. He was imprisoned by the Taliban at Kandahar until 2001, when U.S. intelligence personnel visited the jail. He told them his story and was promised a quick release. Instead, he was eventually sent to Guantanamo and held for four years on accusations that included being associated with the Taliban and Al Qaeda. The military determined that he was not an enemy combatant in January 2005 and he was released from Guantanamo nearly six months later.

Continue Reading »

By Duganz

Last night on Twitter I asked if anyone would want to recreate The Moth here in Missoula. I figured I’d get two or three replies, mostly just people asking what I was talking about. But actually the response has been overwhelmingly good.

So far City Council badass Stacey Rye has signed on, as have local reporters Beth Saboe (KPAX), Keila Szpaller (Missoulian). I’m betting those three ladies have some great stories (hopefully not all concerning Dick Haines). And plenty of other people have said they’d love to come and at least watch the show, so that’s good news.

For those of you who don’t know what The Moth is, it’s a NewYork venue where people get up and tell stories to a live audience. Sounds easy, right? It should be.

Anyway, we’re trying to get a venue and a PA for the whole deal, but here’s what you need to know to take part:

• Think of a story (any story) you could tell to a group of people in 10 minutes
• The story can’t be something you’ve  workshopped, or read elsewhere; we’re looking for raw story
• Write it out if you must, or make notes–whatever it takes for you to be able to tell it
• Poems work… Kind of… You can read a poem, but only if you’re doing so as part of the story
• Email me at MissoulaMoth@gmail.com

This whole deal is still in its infancy, but it could become a really great thing if enough people take part–so get on it Missoula!

by lizard

As the president scores some lame duck points, our state republicans are positioned to translate the national GOP corporate hype machine into actual legislative goals. Inevitably it will boil down to slashing taxes, which means killing state revenue, which means pushing local municipalities to make painful cuts in local programs.

All evidence that cutting taxes has the worst stimulative effect will fall on deaf ears. It has been disastrous nationally, so of course it needs to implemented locally.

Our continued economic malaise will be touted as the reason to put more money in the pockets of Montanans, but what never gets properly articulated is how we have gotten to this national nadir.

Allow Pam Martens at Counterpunch to illuminate a mind-numbing number that ALL of us should try to wrap our heads around:

On December 1, the Fed was forced to release details of 21,000 funding transactions it made during the financial crisis, naming names and dollar amounts. Disclosure was due to a provision sparked by Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. The voluminous data dump from the notoriously secret Fed shows just how deeply the Federal Reserve stepped into the shoes of Wall Street and, as the crisis grew and the normal channels of lending froze, the Fed effectively replaced Wall Street and money centers banks in terms of financing.

The Fed has thus far reported, without even disclosing specifics of its lending from its discount window, which it continues to draw a dark curtain around, that it supplied, in total, more than $9 trillion to Wall Street firms, commercial banks, foreign banks, corporations and some highly questionable off balance sheet entities. (Much smaller amounts were outstanding at any one time.)

A careful review of these data makes it highly likely the GAO will be releasing some startling findings come next July 2011. That’s when the American people will have a much clearer picture of how the Federal Reserve shoveled taxpayer money to Wall Street by the trillions. As a result of Senator Sanders’ legislative efforts, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) is to complete an audit by next summer of the Fed’s lending programs during the financial crisis.

Our state republicans need to be very clear about how their proposed policies will help Montanans. Will cutting business taxes really translate into new jobs? What kind of industries do we want to support in this state? Is bending over and taking it with big rigs for a few flag waving jobs really worth turning our back on being good stewards of our scenic roadways? Is hurrying through reactive legislation to hobble or kill medical marijuana a good idea? How do we keep Montanans from losing their homes in the great real estate crisis that, according to some experts, is far from being over?

I sincerely hope our state legislators can focus on creating constructive legislative goals to help the majority of Montanans that are hurting right now because, well, that’s their job.

by lizard

As I have been following the emerging tabloid-like coverage of the now infamous Jason Christ, it occurred to me that pot-crusaders and panhandlers have something in common: the dogged attention of the Missoulian.

for example, read the first chunk of reportage by the Missoulian’s Gwen Florio in the latest installment of the Christ saga (italics mine):

Jason Christ, perhaps Montana’s best-known medical marijuana proponent, faces an accusation of felony intimidation in connection with an alleged bomb threat at the Verizon store on South Reserve Street in August.

hmmm, perhaps this bowl-roasting psycho (my opinion) is “Montana’s best-known medical marijuana proponent” because the Missoulian is all revved up about reporting on him. because he’s controversial. because that sells papers.

obviously y’all know where I’m going here, because I’ve said things like this.

the influence of local media sources like the Missoulian, though in decline, are still powerful actors in how certain hot-topic subjects get framed.

take, for instance, the headline of this recent article:

Kalispell woman sentenced for covering up death of medical marijuana patient

the victim referred here as the “medical marijuana patient” is 49 year-old Wesley Collins. read this article for more context.

my questions is this: why does the fact some medicinal marijuana was “shared” by the victim and the assailants, and the theft of some plants (in addition to other things stolen, like cough syrup with codeine) warrant the murder victim be reduced in the headline to a “medical marijuana patient” instead of WESLEY COLLINS?

this topic–critically examining how certain topics are reported–is touchy, because I know people working for the Missoulian and connected to both the issues cited in the title of this post.

but i also think that these days, with some corporate media enterprises struggling for survival (thus willing to fan any controversy that may translate to sales) it is absolutely necessary to remain skeptical about how certain issues are handled, from headlines to comment threads.

by lizard

I have been grossly derelict in my assumed duty to bring poetry to these virtual pages, so I’m making up for it by bringing a double-dose for the weekend.

First up is Donald Justice, a pretty well known poet in the poetry world:

*

Landscape with Little Figures

There once were some pines, a canal, a piece of sky.
The pines are the houses now of the very poor,
Huddled together, in a blue, ragged wind.
Children go whistling their dogs, down by the mud flats,
Once the canal. There’s a red ball lost in the weeds.
It’s winter, it’s after supper, it’s goodbye.
O goodbye to the houses, the children, the little red ball,
And the pieces of sky that will go on now falling for days.

*

I will update this post later tonight with Patrick Todd’s poem. until then, here’s a teaser: it’s title is Poverello…

According to the back of Patrick Todd’s book, The Iron Walrus (written in 1979), Todd received his MFA from the University of Montana, and served as poet-in-residence for the state for 3 years. At the time of print, Todd also worked as the director of the Poverello Center. Here is the same titled poem: Continue Reading »

by problembear

i don’t expect any better from the republicans either. this country is now officially a plutocracy. open rebellion against the entire corrupt system is the only answer left to those of us who lack enough funds to bribe our representatives.  working within the system and trying to effect change from within only plays into the hands of the corporations and the wealthy elite who now run our once proud nation. as of this date, my every act, thought and written word will now be in open revolt of the corrupt plutocracy of traitors who have stolen this republic from the people of the united states of america.

turns out i am not alone in my disgust.

by problembear

if they won’t listen we are just making noise

and noise is just annoying.

the bark of the ponderosa interlocks like puzzles

to join the silence of snow where the answer to the problem

gathers strength and awaits the proper time to speak.

by lizard

Of the 100+ comments in the wikileak thread, the commentary I find the most disturbing comes from the perennial defender of American Empire, “The Polish Wolf.” I was so dumbfounded by the lengths to which this person is willing to defend the indefensible, I figured a closer look at (his?) rationalizations was in order. so here we go. Continue Reading »