I wrote the Bill but didn't read it --- HUH?

It just keeps getting better. I recently watched a news show where President Obama said the Democrat stimulus program was working slow but sure. He went on to point out that his administration, with the help of the likes of Montana Senators Baucus and Tester have thus far “created” over 750,000 new jobs. Of course he failed to mention that better than half of those jobs were created to hire additional government employees but what I find the most interesting is the fact that nary one news source has ever taken out their 3 dollar calculator and divided the 787 billion dollars by the 750,000 alleged jobs created. Even doing this simple division problem in my head and rounding off the numbers I come up with over one million dollars spent for every new job created. (That is if you actually believe the reports that 750,000 jobs were indeed “created in the first place.

Now that congress is in recess and our congressional delegation is home to “listen” to their constituents I have to wonder where they have been hiding. You remember the news story earlier this last week where Senator “I wrote the healthcare bill” Baucus and “No Ear-Marks Ever” Tester held a little town hall meeting in Libby Montana to brag about all they have done to help out the people poisoned with asbestos? It seems the people that were supposed to bow on bended knee before our two “greats” had a few thoughts of their own and dared go “off topic” and complain about the recently passed health care “reform”   Thanks to a Corrector reader for sending us this Utube version of Senator “I wrote the healthcare bill” Baucus’s response to someone that asked if he even read the bill he said he had personally written

DUH………….. It would appear that something is amiss here. Time to go to the attic and find my AX Max sign for his reelection campaign and he can take along his dog Tester also

Time to take Action

This video of Houston talk show host Michael Berry calling for people to get involved in Texas politics really made me think. Why not also in Montana? It is only 63 more days until the election and after listening to Michael I think just maybe a few people getting involved could really make a difference. Both political parties could use some rational people guiding them away from the same old political rhetoric and towards what the voters of Montana really want. If you have never been involved it is time to step up to the plate.

I just heard on the radio that Jeff Laszloffy, President of the Montana Family Foundation, will be speaking in Town Square this evening at 6:30 pm about the never ending attacks on Family Values during the legislative session and what you can do to make a difference and help here in Havre.

Scotty’s Ice Cream will also be on hand with root beer floats. 

The Montana Family Foundation website says that they are “a non-profit research and education organization working in association with Focus on the Family to support, protect, and strengthen Montana Families.”

Salt in the Wound

For all those of you that have been e-mailing wanting us to do a story about the proposed Mosque in New York City on the Ground Zero site I am posting this video that I was just sent moments ago. It pretty much sums up my feelings on the matter and this post should give everyone an opportunity to tell us your thoughts on this very controversial subject.

This will be the only post I do on this subject so if you desire one with further more in-depth detail just go ahead and write it up and I will post it for you

Watch the Video by Rita W. Jones………………Nuff Said

Havre Drug Dealers Moonlight as State Employees

It was disheartening to hear of the drug related arrests of two people entrusted with overseeing and working with Havre youth. Lanie Fitzpatrick and her sister Melissa were arrested last Thursday around 7pm in the evening and were charged with numerous felony drug charges. Lanie is employed by the Child and Family Services which is overseen by the Department of Public Health and Human Services (DPHS) which coincidently is the same DPHS that oversees medical marijuana grow operations. Melissa is employed as a juvenile probation officer. Now isn’t this a kick in the pants to those parents that have had dealings with these two through our local court system. The very people you are supposed to trust to help with youth in need of assistance are they themselves breaking the very same laws that brought many of their caseload people to their door in the first place. Could there be a better way of gaining new “clients” than having a list of every troubled youth in Hill County that has had brushes with the law over drug use? Would this also violate the confidentiality provision of the medical marijuana laws? What about the intimate personal knowledge of their clients because of the Fitzpatrick’s employment? This is a better set-up than using an e-mail spam list to obtain customers.

Furthermore, the arrest took place at one of their grow operations in the 900 block of third street less than one block from an elementary school and ironically less than one block from Dustin Malley’s grow operation that we have reported on previously. One of the witnesses to the arrest said that Drug Task Force agent Pete Federspiel spent upwards of three and one-half hours searching through the operation after the two criminals were hauled off to the jail. It does seem a little odd considering the charges that these two were able to be released on their own recognizance not even 24 hours after their initial arrest. Do other drug felons get this same consideration?

While operating a medical marijuana facility is legal under Montana law it would seem that this is yet another example of countless operations that have no regard for the limits currently in place under Montana law. The search revealed records showing the Fitzpatricks were keeping 7 to 10 pounds of marijuana on hand each week which is well over the legal limit. The Fitzpatricks were nabbed selling quantities of marijuana that were over 4 times the legal limit, they routinely bought pot from illegal sources to supplement the shortfalls in production at their operation, and they were selling their product on the street as common drug dealers rather than the “professional caregivers” they were claiming to be. It was also reported in the Havre Daily News that the Task Force agents seized over $27,000 in cash during the bust. Not a bad weeks extra income for two 30 something young ladies. While the Task force did search their second operation in the vicinity of the Havre Skate Park it has been reported to the Corrector that the agents left the plants that these two were legally allowed under current Montana law.



It would seem to us that there are many problems that need to be rectified with the current medical marijuana laws. First, both of these operations are in locations where young children congregate. Second, is it really appropriate that state employees that work with youth are even allowed to obtain a grow license and still maintain their State of Montana employment? Do the parents of the youth served by these two now have grounds for a liability suit against the State of Montana and you the taxpayer? Do any of our readers actually think any income tax was being paid on the sale of this marijuana? Most legitimate businesses deposit their receipts daily and keep records for the IRS.

The Fitzpatricks were reportedly operating under the name of Ganja Gardens which when searched on Google reveals a state wide network of linked operations throughout Montana. We would like to know if this operation was registered with the City of Havre as was required as per the moratorium.

Lastly, this arrest took place on Thursday yet nothing was reported in the HDN until the next Tuesday. Why was that? We received a report from one of our tipsters on Monday wondering why this didn’t make the news but since we have been berated heavily on this blog for “not knowing all the facts” we held up the post to try and verify some of the information. We would like to publically apologize to our tipster for just not running with their information right away. We are dammed if we do and dammed if we don’t.

Here is a related article from the HDN.

Article from the GF Tribune here

Who’s Extreme?

No Mo Crosses

I think that anyone that reads this blog has probably seen one of those white crosses that are placed along the roadways as a memorial to someone that died on the highway. Starting back in 1998 Utah Highway Patrol officers starting erecting 12ft high crosses at various locations to memorialize fallen officers. This was done with the blessing of the deceased officer’s families but as you would guess someone some place took offense and filed suit.

While we have the likes of Snider, Thackeray, and Tretheway to run off to the ACLU to “save us” from ourselves Utah has a group called the “American Atheists, Inc” that were more than happy to file suit to get these crosses removed. The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the crosses are unconstitutional

I am glad that curing this cross problem is the only thing worth expending our energy and tax dollars to accomplish. Now……………..On to the Mosque at Ground Zero

No Mo Crosses

I WANT YOUR MONEY

The economy is in the toilet, people are struggling to get by, the state of things could tend to depress some people but the people churning out the documentaries are having a grand time. This is a movie trailer for an upcoming documentary called “I want your money”

I realize many of our readers think I have a warped sense of direction but I found this darn amusing.

The Favorite of Havre's Football Fans is fast becoming the "Rave" of the Tennessee Titans

Havre’s Mariani is the “Rave” of the Tennessee Titans at the Baptist Sports Park. 7th round draft pick Marc Mariani is doing a fabulous job working towards landing a final spot with the Titans according to News 2



An excerpt from the Tennessee Titan’s website had this to say about Marc;

His new teammates are noticing Mariani’s effort.

“His ability to adjust to the system,” veteran wide receiver Justin Gage said when asked about Mariani. “He’s come in, been a student of the game, and learned the difference between the college game and the NFL game. Also, picking up our playbook, he doesn’t hesitate to ask any questions. When you get him on the field he doesn’t make many mistakes, he’s got great hands, great poise and he has that ability to learn so I have high expectations for him."

So far, even Coach Fisher likes what he’s seen.

“He’s versatile in that he can return kickoffs, return punts, and make a lot of plays at that level in our offense,” Fisher said. “Our scouts graded him and they had, as far as we can tell, an accurate grade on him. He’s a smart kid and gets in the right place and he’s competitive and he makes plays.”

Your hometown is very proud of you Marc.  Keep up the good work!

Need a Mid-Summer Vacation? --- Head to “Camp Baucus”

Pack your bag and get ready to head out to “Camp Baucus” being held at Big Sky this weekend. Did you miss hearing from Montana’s Senior Senator the last couple of years? Were you unable to attend the hundreds of public listening sessions Baucus and Tester held during the past year? Well this is your lucky day. Senator Baucus is selling access to himself this weekend for a mere $2,500 and is expecting lobbyists and Washington insiders to pay for the rare privilege of speaking to him for a few minutes.

Since we haven’t seen hide nor hair of either Senator Tester of Senator Max Baucus since they took part in forcing the Healthcare Obamanation down our throats this may be one of the few opportunities we have to see them in all their star studded glory. Do they really expect the average Joe Montanan to pony up the $2,500 for the rare privilege of actually having a face to face few minutes of time to tell them what we really need, which is for them to be unseated?  Judged by their lack of availability to us Average Joe's, I would guess so,  but this is still a smoking deal compared to the $5,000 Max charged people to talk to him over lunch at the Charlie Palmer Steakhouse event back in March

Also check out the Glacier Park "Golfing with the Important People" Fundraiser from last week at It’s Party Time!

3 Facts of Islam

This is an interesting view of Islam that we are posting for discussion. Please remember that our varying opinions about this will be diverse and we respect everyone’s opinion so please keep the comments CIVIL and INTELLIGENT but do tell us your take on the “Three Facts of Islam" video

Havre Republicans leave race uncontested rather than appoint a Wolf in sheep's clothing for the Treasurer's race

This just in from a member of the Republican bunch that meet tonight to decide whether or not to accept Wanda Larson’s kind offer to be the GOP replacement candidate for Bill Gupton who withdrew from the race for an out of town employment opportunity.

You may recall that the local Republicans interviewed potential candidate Wanda Mork Larson last week to ascertain if they wanted to support her as their candidate but tabled a motion to nominate her until today. At tonight’s meeting Hill County Republican Chairman Andrew Brekke opened the meeting and then called for a motion to take last week’s motion off the table for discussion. A motion was made but it failed to receive a second so apparently Wanda Larson will not be the Republican candidate this year. I guess these elephants do indeed have a good memory as to what she did to them back in the 2002 election and aren’t going to be suckered in again. Scuttlebutt after the meeting was said to revolve around the fact that the local Republicans have the best qualified candidates for legislature and local races that they have seen in decades and they weren’t about to dilute that gene pool with the likes of an alleged Republican that just wanted to protect ousted Democrat Treasurer Carrie and carry on with the so-so status quo at the treasurer’s office.

Kudos to this bunch for having the courage to do what was obviously the right thing even though they will be getting bad press from the likes of "Senior" journalist Timmy Leeds who was at the meeting reporting on the behalf of the HDN. Just as a sidebar to this whole circus it was reported to us that good old Timmy Leeds took a pre-meeting butt chewing from one of the Republicans for being a biased reporter that was just there to cause trouble and was no friend to the democratic process.  It must have hit home with Timmy because our report was that he slunk off after the meeting with nary a word to anyone. I am glad at least there is one Republican that sees this guy for what he really is as do we at the Corrector.

The deadline for the Republicans to appoint a replacement candidate is August 18th or Democrat Sandy Brown will be running unopposed. We wonder if Wanda Larson will make good on that promise she has been yipping around that she would quit her job rather than work for the likes of Sandy Brown?

At this point it appears the only option left to the Wanda Larson / Carrie Dickson "keep everything status quo" team is for one of them to run a write-in campaign. 
What do you think? Should they kick off a write-in effort or just admit defeat and welcome Sandy Brown as the new Hill County Treasurer?

12% of Montana's Population Recieves Food Stamps

I was reading the news tonight and ran across an article with what I think is very disturbing news. It seems that as of this month there are over 118,000 people in Montana receiving food stamps which is over 12% of our total state population. The total recipients in July of 2009 totaled over 100,000 people.

Food stamps are now called SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) and the recipient is given a debit card issued by the state program. The big increase is apparently following the national trend here in Montana and as of this May 40.8 million people nationwide are receiving this benefit which is a 19% increase from a year ago.

The economy has left many people unemployed and part of the increase is from people that have used up all their unemployment benefits and are just getting by.

The Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services website shows that a family of 4 can have no more than $3,401 monthly income to qualify

With the projected decrease in State revenues this year it would appear that our local legislators will have some hard decisions to make this session

Republicans Skirt the Hill County Treasurer Appointment

Sounds like the local Republicans might be having some doubts as to their prospective replacement candidate for the Hill County Treasurer’s race. Last night the Hill County Republicans publically interviewed Deputy Hill County Treasurer Wanda Larson about her desire to be appointed as the replacement candidate for Bill Gupton who was the Republican nominee that withdrew from the race to take an employment opportunity out of the area.

One fact that was stressed to us over numerous conversations with local Republicans today was that they didn’t seek Wanda out as their candidate of choice. Wanda lobbied them to appoint her AFTER the win by Sandy Brown was announced and Gupton withdrew. The local Republicans have some suspicions that Wanda just may be up to no good and that this sudden desire to be appointed is just a slick ruse to try and keep things at status quo in the Hill County Treasurers office and retain ousted Carrie Dickson as a deputy.

According to today’s Havre Daily News article about Wanda “She ran for the office as a Republican in 2002, but announced she was ending her campaign after the primary election. Larson said Wednesday during the meeting that personal issues came up in her life that prevented her from campaigning that year”

 This bold faced lie was collaborated today by a person who was a member of the Republican Central Committee in 2002 that said Wanda withdrew from the race after Carrie won the primary because “her purpose was served, which was to make sure Kitty Galbavy didn’t win the election” This person went on to say that Wanda had told him that with Kitty out in the primary there was no need for further bother in her quest to maintain the status quo in that office. The Republicans were essentially thrown under the train which apparently some remember as they voted to table a vote on appointing her as their “official” candidate at last night’s meeting

Contrary to what some people have commented on this blog the Corrector has never ever endorsed Democrat Sandy Brown for this position. We did however advocate for a cleaning up of this office with someone that was an outsider as was Republican candidate Bill Gupton.   You can verify this by doing a search of this blog in the upper left hand corner.

We do get bashed regularly on this blog for having conservative leanings and for lacing our opinions throughout our articles but we wonder why no one ever makes the same comments about the “professional” newspaper articles that are supposed to be opinion free. Case in point is tonight’s article by Timmy Leeds that said Wanda’s “responses to questions were similar to the stance taken by Brown in the primary” We were also told that countless people asked many questions yet the only Republican quotes were brilliant lines like “It’s difficult to run for office when you don’t live here” referring to Gupton and “We have some work to do as a committee” and then a quick shot at the person saying he declined to comment on his comment after the meeting. Why can Timmy lace his articles with opinion and twisting of fact and no one cries foul? The Corrector, which admits it is a blog slanted to the opinions of the author, is sending Timmy Leeds, alleged HDN “reporter” a personal invitation to submit opinion articles to our blog so we can provide you with some balance to our reporting. If you know him call him and ask that he accepts our kind offer to allow his real opinions to be known without the bother of hiding them in “News” articles.

Another opinion forming quote reported in Timmy’s article, which by the way we happen to agree with, said that Wanda “is not interested in making major changes in the staff at the office if she is elected” and she said “I would be keeping the same personnel” She is definitely a shill for the status quo in this whole scenario.

Take a look at the article in the HDN and see for yourself here

What say you readers? In light of these facts should the local Republicans appoint the devious Wanda to be their candidate?

Havre of Yesteryear

The following pictures were submitted by a reader (Fedup Tohere) and are some scenes from the Havre of yesteryear. Can anyone place some dates, times, or stories with these photos? Thanks for sending these to us at the Corrector. We enjoyed reminiscing immensely while viewing them.

What is wrong with these Havre Republicans?

You may recall that their candidate for Hill County Treasurer, Bill Gupton, recently withdrew from the Hill County Treasurer’s race to take a job in Anaconda. The Republicans are allowed by statute to appoint a replacement candidate for Gupton to run against Democrat Sandy Brown.

It was announced in last night’s Havre Daily "News" that the local Republicans will be meeting Wednesday at the US Bank meeting room at 6 pm to “interview” current Deputy Treasurer Wanda Larson about running in Gupton’s place to take on yet another Hill County Treasurer’s employee, Sandy Brown who was the primary winner over incumbent Carrie Dickson. It is beyond me why HDN reporter Timmy Leeds would consider this a “news” story in the first place other than a partisan attempt to rile up the local voters. See his tripe here

We did a little checking this morning and what has happened is that Wanda Larson has been lobbying the local Republicans about appointing her to fill the vacancy and has also alerted the press as to her desire for the position, hence the newspaper coverage of this “interview” meeting. Those I talked to didn’t know if any other candidates had stepped forward other than Larson but did say that the Republicans are facing a deadline for making an appointment, if any appointment would even be made.

Is the local Republican hierarchy really this stupid? If you want to bring professionalism to the Treasurer’s office I would think that you would want a candidate with no present connection to that office or at the very least find a person with an aversion to the employees growling at the customers and munching HO HO’s while a line is waiting. It is also rumored that primary victor Sandy Brown has made the claim that she will be replacing Wanda Larson as her deputy when she takes office. Could this be what now motivates Wanda to seek this office? If she did desire to seek the office why didn’t she file as the Republican candidate before the primary? Something smells fishy about this whole 11th hour fiasco.

Wanda Larson did run for Treasurer as a Republican in the 2002 election. From what I could gather this morning here’s what happened at that time. Carrie Dickson was up for reelection and fellow county employee Kitty Galbavy filed to run against her in the Democrat primary in midst of a big interoffice brouhaha that was taking place at that time. Carrie, who was good friends with her deputy Wanda Larsen (who went by the name Wanda Mork at that time) thought if Kitty won not only would she be unemployed but most likely Kitty wouldn’t retain Wanda either so she convinced Wanda to file as the Republican to “cover all the bases” in the event Kitty defeated her in the primary. The truth as to the “duping” of the local Republicans came to light after the primary election when Carrie defeated challenger Kitty Galbavy and the so called Republican, Wanda “Mork” Larson, refused to campaign any further to seek the office because their “mission” was accomplished. These poor dumb local Republicans effectively had the wool pulled over their eyes and wound up throwing their angry support at Kitty Galbavy who then ran as a write-in candidate in the general election and was still defeated handily.

Now comes the same scenario being presented to the local yukes at the Republican Party expecting them to again fall for the same old trick. Why are they even giving Wanda the time of day after how she kicked them in the groin in 2002? Apparently there isn’t anyone left in the party that was a member of their group in 2002 or they are dumber then I actually thought.

The poor service and lunch counter attitude at the Treasurer’s office has raised the dander of many taxpayers and has made Hill County the laughing stock of the area yet no one with any credibility seems to desire the job. What is up with that? I have learned that you DO NOT have to have an accounting background to do this job. The preferred candidate would be someone with strong business management and customer service experience, not an accounting background. This job pays over $40,000 per year and has full benefits that are entirely paid by the county. This is a first rate job, why is no one clamoring for this position?



UNBELIVABLE !