By RussCrowder on 05-12-10
I hate to be picky, but I think there was a serious typo in the article. It says; “.....Brenneman thinks he has helped Flathead County trim its budget.” Given the fact that county taxpayers are now paying a private developer an estimated $3 Million to put in a private development because Joe Brenneman refused to follow the law, I believe the statement should have read: “....Brenneman thinks he has helped Flathead County trim its budget SURPLUS.” In the interest of accuracy, I am happy to point out the error.
By eman on 05-12-10
The public needs to closely examine the effects of Mr. Brenneman’s time in this position. The infiltration of the planning process by people with an anti-growth agenda is apparent and has caused many costly problems. Apparently Mr. Brenneman has been in support of these activities. Can the taxpayer really afford to keep this guy, or anyone like him, in office?
By debbietant on 05-13-10
Noel Gorton isn’t fooling anyone. I heard she was getting real cozy with Crowder at American Dream Montana’s last public meeting at the Outlaw. Can it be that she is just another Crowder/ADM shill like Holmquist & Gipe? Crowder and ADM don’t seem to leave anything to chance when it comes to controlling the elections in Flathead County. The only one we know for sure that can’t be bought or controlled by the property rights wacko’s is Joe Brenneman! He has had the courage to stand up AGAINST Crowder and the property owners in the county for the past five years, and to stand up FOR the rights of the collective. No one else in this county can make that claim !!!
By commonsense on 05-13-10
debbietant: Please define the “collective” for me as you are applying it in your post.
By debbietant on 05-14-10
How about DECENT people that are concerned about their community, not GREEDY property owners !
By Roark on 05-17-10
Debbie, why don’t you tell us what your idea of “decent” is - and WHY it is a value and to whom it is a value. Also, please elaborate on what you mean by “greedy” property owners. How are you defining the term? Blanket statements such as your that do not have clarity or qualification is just another emotional knee-jerk reaction and not a well thought out rebuttal to anything.
By Whitefish on 05-18-10
Why is it that the people who are so concerned about their freedoms and property rights, are the same people who don’t believe others, such as women and gays should have the same freedoms and rights? Why is that?
And why does that not make sense?
Seems to me that one group is making a bunch of noise just to detract from the real issues.
We NEED some regulations to keep all our properties valuable.
And for BALANCE, we’d better get a Democrat in the vacating commissioner’s seat.
By RussCrowder on 05-18-10
Why is it that some people can be so passionate about helping those that would deny their rights and the rights of others, including, depending on the circumstances, woman and gays. One can’t help but think that this is a trait or defect in human nature that every tyrant that has ever existed has depended upon and exploited, to impose their tyrany over the individual.
By Kalispell Native on 05-18-10
WOW. Reading that last pair of comments was like reading some of the arguments in the white supremacist discussions.
By Whitefish on 05-18-10
Right-wing politics views economic freedom as synonymous with social freedom, yes?
It is a view that anarcho-capitalists capitalize on to promote their own agenda of zero protection for laborers and consumers of all kinds - to increase profit at all costs.
Lately it seems they have been confusing economic success with value as a person.
People who are calling you names, such as “tyrant” for suggesting it, seem to have a problem understanding the kind of politics they support.
By emerson on 05-18-10
In Russ Crowder’s world, everybody lives in silos. What one person does has no effect on another. But that is not the real world.
Mr Crowder fails to admit (or comprehend) that property rights exist on both sides of the fence. What your neighbor does, can affect your rights and property values. If the guy upstream from you pollutes the water running to your house downstream, the guy upstream is violating your property rights downstream.
If someone subdivides and puts 100 houses down your dirt road and adds 500 vehicles a day to your road, it will diminish your property value and quality of life (as well as create a big dusty safety mess).
Mr Crowder’s only solution to such violations of people’s property rights is to sue their neighbors in court (after the fact) based on vague nuisance laws. Imagine the amount of litigation that would pile up in Mr Crowder’s world.
People like Mr Crowder make the false assertion that rules and regulations always amount to the erosion of rights. He fails to acknowledge (or comprehend) that very often property rights—and other rights—can many times be protected and preserved by rules and regulations.
For example: the corporation of BP may feel like safety and environmental regulations eroded their property rights to do what they want however they wanted in the gulf.
But, because the government (Bush administration appointees) failed to set and enforce proper regulations, many small business people who make their living in fishing have been stripped of their property right to fish and make a living. Their rights have been violated by BP.
Mr Crowder would triumph the property rights of BP while ignoring and diminishing the property rights of the gulf area fishing and shrimping businesses. This is because he fails to realize that property rights exist on both sides of the fence.
By emerson on 05-18-10
So I take it you don’t use any dairy products or eat anything produced by farmers “truthorcon?”
Maybe some day you right-wing extremists will realize that healthy and sustainable economies are built on more than harvesting real estate.
By emerson on 05-18-10
No Mr Taz—you are the one arguing that it is OK for a greedy businessman and their stupid lackeys to pollute and exploit the environment for their own greedy business. You argue in favor of this every day. This is how you define “property rights.”
Second, you are making a baseless character assassination against the Dairy Farmer Mr Brennenman. There is no fact and no truth behind your assertion that his farm is polluting the river. You are simply making it up because you are a charlatan.
Third—to the editor of the Beacon. You can not in good order, remove this comment for name calling, while allowing Mr Crowder and his lackeys to pollute these comment boards with their baseless character assaults and outright lies.
The ADM lackeys are nothing more than the slander mongers on the same level as John Stokes.
By debbietant on 05-19-10
Don’t let these property owning wacko’s upset you emerson. The day is coming when property owners will understand the importance of protecting the earth and the “rights” of all the people, not just their corporate bosses and masters! POWER TO THE PEOPLE !!!
By RussCrowder on 05-19-10
emerson…..How did you know? Back in the 80’s I used to work for a company on Alaska’s North Slope called SOHIO Alaska Petroleum Company. Our parent company that owned most of our stock was British Petroleum (BP). Our focus at that time was to explore the possibility of creating a major offshore oil spill in the early twenty-first century in the Gulf of Mexico to deny coastal property owners their property rights. Of course our hope was to degrade water quality in the gulf even more than Brenneman’s dairy farm is degrading it in the Flathead…..I don’t know how you figured it all out, but you caught us. emerson, well done. It is obvious that we just can’t slip anything past you. I just hope you don’t catch on to the thousands of little green men from the planet Zorba that are bieng turned loose at Lone Pine park every night.
By emerson on 05-19-10
So Mr Crowder, are you just carrying on the John Stokes tradition of right-wing extremists who public slander people who actually make a living doing something real?
Or… are you really and honestly concerned about the water quality in our valley and are advocating the need for stronger water quality regulations?
Or… you really don’t know what you are saying…
By emerson on 05-19-10
Also, Mr Crowder. Your failure to grasp my analogy of the property rights in the Gulf of Mexico being violated by BP, is just another indication of the inability of your mind to make cogent connections.
You simply cannot grasp the fact that people and things living on this earth are not isolated—but connected. One thing impacts another.
The views expressed in the comments section do not reflect those of the Beacon.