Follow the adventures of the four MWF members going to Washington DC

Posted on August 18, 2011 by Moderator

We have started a blog to fill everyone in on what we are doing. Four of us (Joan Kresich, Margie Kidder, Margarita McLarty and Linda Kenoyer) are traveling to Washington DC this Sunday to take part in the wave of sit-ins at the White House to put pressure on the President to deny TransCanada a permit to build the massive, dangerous Keystone XL Pipeline to move tar sands oil from Alberta to the Texas Gulf Coast.

Here is the link for the blog: http://mwftarsandsaction.blogspot.com/

If you’d like to have new blog posts emailed to you each day, you can fill in your email address in the left side bar where it says Follow by Email.

If you’d like to comment on anything you read there, click on the comment link under the post you want to comment. The comment link tells the number of comments so far on that post. (For instance, click on O comments ).

The new blog will continue throughout the length of the protest, which will conclude with a big rally on September 3. The Montana Women For group will be there from the 22nd through the 25th.

Posted in Actions, Livingston Sites & Blogs | Leave a comment

A Canadian Writer on the Keystone XL Pipeline

Posted on August 13, 2011 by Moderator

In Counterpunch online magazine recently, an article appeared by Brian Horejsi on the likelihood of approval of the Keystone XL Pipeline by President Obama. Here is a quote from the article:

Obama will likely approve construction of the massive Keystone pipeline even though it will rip a 50 to 150 foot physical and ecological trough through public and private property and run roughshod over the legal right of thousands of public and private land owners to object to forced entry of their property. The corporate giant behind this proposal is a Canadian company (TransCanada Pipelines, although it pulls along an American partner, Conoco Phillips) that brings “expectations” of approval borne of a long pedigree of successfully operating in Canada’s virtually non existent regulatory environment.

Four members of Montana Women Four will be going to Washington DC at the end of August to take part in a huge nationwide protest hoping to persuade President Obama to decide against the permitting of the pipeline.

If you’d like to read the whole Counterpunch article, it can be found at: http://www.counterpunch.org/horejsi08092011.html

Posted in Actions, General Interest | Leave a comment

Montana Human Rights Network on Cut,Cap, and Balance

Posted on July 22, 2011 by Moderator

Montana Women For is an organizational member of the Montana Human Rights Network. The following is an email we received from Kim Abbott, from the MHRN. Reprinted by permission.

Like most of you, the Network has spent the last few weeks trying to sort out what is happening during the debate over the federal debt ceiling. We have been watching as the debate progressed, but we wanted to take a few minutes to update you on what’s going on.

Earlier this week, Rep. Denny Rehberg voted for the “Cut, Cap, and Balance Act.” This is an extreme proposal that would damage Montana’s families and our communities. Rep. Rehberg made a dishonest statement in the newspaper this morning about how the “Cut, Cap, and Balance Act” protects Social Security and Medicare. It doesn’t. Under the proposal, there would be no cuts to Social Security and Medicare next year. But it makes cuts very likely in following years based on the Act’s structure. Please read the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities’ analysis here . It is incredibly important that Montanans understand the effects of this proposal!

Please take a minute to call our federal delegation and tell them to protect Montana’s seniors, children, students, and working families! We need our members and supporters to speak up! We are also looking for people to submit letters to the editor in their local papers, if you’re interested in writing a letter let us know and we can help.

Senator Baucus: 202-224-2651

Senator Tester: 202-224-2644

Representative Rehberg: 202-225-3211

Below are some talking points from the Montana Budget and Policy Center for your call:

There are no magic bullets for solving our nation’s fiscal imbalance. These policies would force devastating cuts in Medicare, Medicaid, and likely Social Security. These proposals would also force huge cuts in important areas like education, environmental protection, basic research, and veterans programs and could make recessions longer and deeper.

The Cut, Cap, and Balance Act would force huge cuts to anti-poverty programs like Medicaid, food stamps, and Pell grants. These programs help millions of Americans make ends meet and should be shielded from huge cuts.

Deficit reduction without new revenue would protect tax cuts for millionaires and special-interest tax breaks for powerful corporations -at the expense of the majority of Americans. No new revenue would also mean cuts – rather than investment – for our schools, research, and other areas important for our economic growth.

Thank you for your continued support!

Sincerely,
Kim

Kim Abbott
Montana Human Rights Network

Posted in Actions, General Interest, Legislation | Leave a comment

Sample Letter to Oil and Gas Board on Fracking

Posted on June 23, 2011 by Moderator

The state Oil and Gas board is set to make rules on the practice of “fracking” which is a method of extracting natural gas from the ground by injecting a stew of toxic fluids under pressure to fracture rock and release the gas. Please send an email with your comments and concerns to

trichmond@mt.gov, Tom Richmond, Administrator of the Board of Oil and Gas
lnelson@nemont.net, Linda Nelson, Chair of the Board of Oil and Gas

Here is a sample email sent by Joan Kresich, Chair of our board of directors which you can use to help you frame your own letter:

Dear Mr Richmond and Ms. Nelson,
>
> Like many people, I have become very concerned about the extreme dangers to our precious clean water, air and communities posed by fracking. I understand that you have been given the responsibility of drafting regulations for this industry. As a citizen of Park country, I have several requests.
>
> I request that you provide a public hearing to the citizens of Park County. This relatively new technology may have huge impacts on our air, our water, our families and our future, and we deserve to be given all relevant information. Any decision you make will affect each and every one of us, and we need to be informed. Informed citizens are the very heart of democracy. There are a number of citizens here who will work with you on arranging the public hearing, helping with publicity and other details.
>
> I request that you draft regulations that provide the public (all of whom will be affected) with full disclosure of ALL fracking fluids used in the process. Partial disclosure will not help anyone. That would be similar to reading a label on a food package that tells you some of the ingredients. If you are, for instance, allergic to nuts, you could not be sure nuts were either in or out of the product. The industry has no right to put a mixture of chemicals in our ground water without telling us what those chemicals are. If their claim that the chemicals are safe is true, then they will be willing to disclose those chemicals.
>
> Finally, I would like to remind you that you have in your hands a trust for future generations. We here in Montana have been given an unparalleled and unspoiled natural landscape. Ground water and air are in the commons- they are in the joint care of all, and as such, cannot be poisoned.
>
> Thank you for your thoughtful care to this issue. I hope to hear from you soon. You may respond by email or phone (406) 222-5270.
>
> Sincerely,
> Joan Kresich
> Livingston, MT

Posted in Fracking | 2 Comments

Montana Women For Annual Meeting

Posted on March 1, 2011 by Moderator

Do you love Montana Women For? Here’s how you can show it:

Annual dues are due now.

Your dues will help fund a scholarship that will be awarded this spring to a local high school senior who plans to use her college education to address critical issues in our democracy and to serve the community. Membership dues are $25 each year. Those who can afford more are encouraged to pay more. You need to be a member in good standing to vote at the Annual Meeting. See below for instructions on how to pay dues.

To pay your membership dues, please send a check for at least $25 to Montana Women For, PO Box 2196, Livingston, MT 59047 OR you can go to our website ( http://www.montanawomenfor.org ) and click on the button that says Pay Now in the right hand column. This will allow you to pay your dues either with a Pay Pal account or using your credit card.

Come to our Annual Meeting at 7:00 pm on March 10 at the Danforth Gallery, 106 North Main Street in Livingston.

This will be a chance to elect a Board of Directors, hear reports on the activities of the last year, and help plan the coming year. We will have a presentation from the Montana Organizing Project. The project is a collaboration of diverse community, civic, labor and faith groups and community members who have come together to form a new organization. They actively work for social and economic justice, promoting the dignity and empowerment of people with low and middle incomes whose voices have not been heard in their communities.

In the last few months, we have:

Helped support the MSU Muslim Students’ association in their efforts to educate the public about Islam – opening minds to the diversity of cultures in our country and our world
Taken part in a Christmas Flash Mob to bring attention to the cost of wars and the need for jobs
Introduced a new scholarship for budding local political activists to help them go to college
Facilitated a face-to-face Skype session between Livingston teenagers and a high school girl in Cairo who took part in the Tahrir Square revolution
Helped support three demonstrations/rallies in Helena
Raised $850 for the Livingston Food Pantry at our annual Reading the Range event
Cooked and served dinner to our hungry neighbors each month for the last three years at Loaves and Fishes of Livingston, along with the Park County Democrats
Sponsored a Legislative Roundup Forum where Livingston’s state representatives came face-to-face with our members and others of their constituents to discuss the current session in Helena

With the current efforts in both Washington DC and Helena to change the role of government in our country from a common effort to meet the needs of the people to a force for expanding the power and freedom of corporations and the super-rich, while imposing the rules of religious extremists onto the private lives of everyone, this is a time when we must speak out or risk losing everything we’ve built in the last 50 years. Montana Women For and groups like ours have a vital role to play in our country’s struggle to define what it means to live in a democracy.

This is the time to take part.

Thanks for your support.

Title: Montana Women For Annual Meeting
Location: Danforth Gallery, 106 North Main St Livingston
Description: This is our organization\’s annual meeting. We will review the accomplishments of the past year, elect new board members, plan activities for the coming year, and hear from a speaker from the Montana Organizing Project. Please come.
Start Time: 19:00
Date: 2011-03-10

Posted in Events, General Interest, Meetings | Leave a comment

The Cost of For-Profit Healthcare

Posted on January 24, 2011 by Moderator

Quote of the Day from http://portside.org/submittous3 January 20, 2010

'We have a for-profit health care system, where $800,000,000,000
every year is spent on corporate profits, stock options, executive
salaries, advertising, marketing and the cost of paperwork.

 'In the for-profit system that we have, nearly one out of
 every three health care dollars goes for things not related
 to health care.  If we took that $800,000,000,000 and spent
 it on care for people, we'd have enough money to cover all
 medically necessary needs in addition to dental care, vision
 care, mental health care, prescription drugs and long-term care.

 'We would not have a situation where 50 million Americans
 don't have any health insurance.  Americans would not have to
 worry about losing everything they have worked a lifetime for
 because they have an illness in the family.

 'This debate is the wrong debate.  A for-profit model is the
 wrong model.  We should be talking about universal health
 care, single-payer not-for-profit health care, Medicare for
 All, quality health care for all Americans."

 Dennis Kucinich, a co-author of Medicare for All, H.R. 676,
 in the 111th Congress.  The bill is expected to be
 reintroduced in the 112th Congress.

Posted in Health Care Reform | 1 Comment

Chronicle Outdoors Columnist Seeks to Provoke with Column on Wolves

Posted on December 13, 2010 by Moderator

Thursday, December 9, a column by Parker Heinlein appeared in the Bozeman Chronicle which, while it did not add anything new to the long-running debate over the management of re-introduced wolves in the Northern Rockies, did contain a number of outrageous statements intended to do nothing more than provoke outrage.

“Wolves are like that old joke about women — you can’t live with them and you can’t shoot them.”

“Wolf reintroduction is much like the war in Iraq. It was a success, but after victory was secured, no one knew what to do next. There was no exit strategy in Iraq and there’s apparently no long-term management plan for wolves.”

The general gist of the column is the same old rant about how there are too many wolves and they are wiping out the elk and ruining the hunting. Since there is absolutely nothing new in the article except the provocative comments, it appears that they were the whole point of the column.

We at Montana Women For believe in freedom of the press and in the right for any fool to voice his opinion. While we would never want to call for the muzzling of a voice that offends and outrages us, we do reserve the right to try to drown him out.

So we are encouraging our readers to write Letters to the Editor of the Bozeman Chronicle, objecting to the the expressed desire to shoot women, and the comparing of the re-introduction of wolves to the illegal invasion of Iraq, or the idea that invading a sovereign country and conquering it is a success.

Here’s how:

1. Write a letter. Revise it carefully. Make sure it is succinct and states clearly the points you want to make. Make sure you sign it with your name and address. Without name and address, they will not publish it.

2. You can send it by email to citydesk@dailychronicle.com

3. Or you can send it by US Mail to Editor,Bozeman Daily Chronicle, P.O. Box 1190, Bozeman, MT 59771

Posted in General Interest | 1 Comment

Holiday Fun – join Bozeman Peace Seekers in the first Bozeman Flash Theater Mob

Posted on December 10, 2010 by Moderator

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 16^TH, NOON `TIL ONE (and maybe longer) BOZEMAN‘S FIRST FLASH THEATER MOB: There will be a local action in support of the Veterans and Peace Activists in Washington DC. We will be a roving Nativity Scene accompanied by Unemployed, Veterans, Students and more, singing raucous satirical Christmas Carols and spreading a message of political awareness and hope. COSTUMES AND BOLD SINGERS most welcome. If you want to join the fun, contact Margarita: maga@wispwest.net For information on the Washington D.C. event: http://standtogethernow.org/?p=1355

Posted in Events | Leave a comment

No meeting in November and no Loaves and Fishes dinner in November

Posted on November 8, 2010 by Moderator

The regularly scheduled November meeting of Montana Women For is canceled this month. Watch for details of next month’s meeting.

Also, because the last Thursday of the month (our regular day for cooking at Loaves and Fishes) this month is Thanksgiving Day, we won’t be doing a dinner this month. On Thanksgiving, the folks at Loaves and Fishes have a big turkey dinner planned. Our next date to cook will be December 30.

Posted in Events, Meetings | Leave a comment

Elsie Fox Award presentation

Posted on October 3, 2010 by Moderator

Location: Murray Hotel, 2nd and Park in Livingston
Description: This year we will be presenting our annual Elsie Fox Award for a Woman of Courage to Carol Williams, state senator from Missoula. There will be a reception for her in the Murray Hotel lobby on Friday, October 8, 2010 at 6 pm
Start Time: 6 pm
Date: 10-08-2010
End Time: 8 pm

Posted in Events, General Interest | Leave a comment

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