You must have had a good rest, huh TBogg?

I am not clicking on that video. I can guess. I am, in fact, going to bed instead.

Actually, I heard he’s considering joining his “little buddy,” disgraced former senator George Allen on a ticket:

Allen/Hale: A three-hour…bender.

These DUI laws don’t just hurt America’s small mortuary businesses, they save lives, undermining the tradition — the uniquely American tradition — of families and communities coming together to mourn the deaths of innocents.

At least he’s covered his ass on any ‘hypocrisy’ accusations that may come along.

Moved by the Representative’s plea to preserve a “way of life”, Montana pioneered the first nature preserve where soon tourists were being driven on safari in armored Range Rovers by guides narrating “Ladies and gentlemen if you look to the left, one of them just drove his pickup truck into a tree.. ..and now he’s taken his gun from the rack and is shooting it! Oh this is a stroke of luck indeed…”

If you don’t find that
Embarrassing all over,
You are a fucktard.

Shorter Hale: “They drink, therefore I am.”

You have to command a certain special degree of ignorance and lack of comprehension and compassion to stand up and defend drunk driving with a Martin Luther-esque “there I drive, I can do no other” bit of bullshit about bars and boozin’ as the center of a community. It may well be true that all they can do for fun in rural Montana is get drunk and run over other people’s kids, but if you were any kind of a leader, you might want to think about changing that sad state of affairs, rather than condone it and legalize it.

Apparently, Hale always goes alone to bars to drink, since the possibility fo a designated driver is never mentioned. Hell, you can also go to a bar, have one beer, maybe even two, hang out with your friends, have fun and drive home legally and safely. It’s probably not as fun as getting seriously blotto but you will probably remember it the next day and the chance that you’ll do something embarrassing like moon the bartender is a whole lot less.

If they just had decent public transit, you could get seriously blotto and ride the bus home … except that Hale would pass out in his seat, miss his stop, and puke all over the bus, earning him a night in jail on a PI charge.

The video was bad but the campaign page was worse. Apparently, he must think it’s un-American to hire a proofreader. Possibly, he thinks it’s elitist to punctuate properly.

Boy, the way they tell it, the “American Way of Life” will be dead some time next week. What a crock of crap…I well remember the Founder’s undying wish that cowboys in Montana have the right to drive drunk. Please. Can we institute an intelligence test before one is eligible to run for office?

Good stuff.;)

I started heard a rumour that Mr. Hale has rolled his F-150 over the clown head at his local Jack in the Box several times in the wee hours. If not for people like him, those clown-head-repair small businesses would move to China, or worse, San Francisco.

you weren’t kidding…

alan Hale for montana: pro drunk driving, anti- capitalization, spelling, and grammar!

AAARGh watching Mr. Hale, Proprietor of The Best and Only Bar in Basin MT (pop. 13 1/2) explain that of course his business is going to collapse if said pop. can’t get blotto and drive home, was the best entertainment we had in our office since we can watch in real time on the tubes – of course watching anything in our current Legislature beats cable teevee any day. Beats working. And he isn’t the craziest. Still, Montana is now firmly established as the stupidest state no more people will want to move here. FWIW approval of the GOP contingent is about 14% among Montanans so hopefully they will crawl back into whatever stinky hole from whence they came.

What a perfect opportunity for any aspiring entrepreneur! All we need is for someone to offer taxi service to all the Drunky McCowboys in Hale’s ‘hood. Why isn’t the Chamber all over this?

From Montana, you’re welcome.
I do have to point out that Hale is absolutely right about bars being community centers in small towns. There may may be only one or two patrons of a place that live within walking distance and maybe only a dozen within a half hours drive. That lack of density means people are going to drive home a little drunk. Not sayin’ it’s right, just sayin’.

Montana? With that bowtie? Looks more like a greasy, drunk Jefferson Davis.

I smell a dream ticket in 2012 featuring Hale and Dave Tillis, America’s First Openly Drunk Senator!

It must be very frustrating to work at the Onion. How can you satirize a party that is hellbent on co-opting your most ridiculous material?

Back in the day, the centre of small towns in Montana and Alberta was the Elks Hall. Sometimes the Moose, but mostly the Elks. ‘Course that had to do with whiskey licensing laws more than the sodality.

Wow. In the cold light of daylight, I ventured to watch the video and click through to the campaign page.

The campaign page….geez louise. Couldn’t he have at least asked one of the grandkids to look it over, seeing as how he himself is illiterate?

Yeah, having been in small towns, no doubt the bar is the social center. But we aren’t living in the olden days when you walked or rode your horse, and the horse knew the way home even when you were too blotto to get there. Sadly, driving a car is not the same, and it can’t be treated the same. Nor, as much an advocate as I am for public transit, will there be a bus or trolley car out in the vast plains or high mountains.

That means we gotta change our time-honored behavior about drinking. Designated driver, one drink instead of ten, etc. Good grief.

We are in a situation that canon be sustained, without grave consequences; I would propose cuts in spending, taxes, and most importantly, regulation. I believe that if, we can do this, we can avoid and impending disaster.

Canon? Boy, he does take that first amendment stuff seriously.

He then goes on to acknowledge that the question of abortion is very “controversial”, and that as a result his view should be the one that everyone else should be forced to adhere to. Yes, that sounds like a typical anti-abortion stance, just with far more incoherent typing in his case.

From the web site, no shit, it says “My last issues is states rights.” This has to be my personal winner for most grammatical errors in the shortest sentence. What a putz.

And WTF is a resource industry, anyway?

(Waving hand wildly)– I’m pretty sure I know – I’ve read a ridiculous amount of euphemism-legal-spin-speak. Context (rural Montana) helps, also, too.
A resource industry is one that exploits resources, er natural resources, such as coal mining. Or oil drilling.

think I first encountered the usage in following Massey Energy spin.
It’s possible it even includes some agro businesses, depending on who’s talking. One of those words that can stretch to fit.

It’s obviously in Hale’s best interest to make it easier for his constituents to get shit faced, and stay shit faced. If they ever sober up for any length of time , there’s no way in hell they’re going to re-elect his illiterate ass.

Duh. Just came back to check on this thread, and now realize the dude’s name IS Alan Hale, so my already lame attempt of a joke is really lame now. Having recently discovered the joys evils of box wine, especially last night, I now can understand the ramblings of Ms. Althouse. (hiccup)

It sounds like they are only considering how long a DUI stays on your record to enhance the next one. More minimum time with each one that is counted. The .08 breath level is more or less federally mandated because if a state doesn’t have that level they lose a per cent of their fed highway money.

I see shortening the lookback as a nice way to make the voters think you are tough on crime, without actually doing anything real. In Ohio we have pretty red and yellow license plates to, I guess humiliate the driver. Kind of like the Scarlet Letter, although it would appear as though no one actually read that book.

these taverns and bars connect people together

After all, what connects people better than a head-on collision? Now, that’s what I called connected, when it takes the jaws of life to unconnect them.

The center of town? I think in many cases, the tavern is actually the town (give or take a gas station/convenience store).

It’s time to think outside the box. If they can’t drink and drive, they can’t go home. Put one of those micro-hotel things next to the bar so all of the good old boys can camp in a cubicle for the night and drive to work in the morning when their alcohol level simmers down. Serve some bacon and eggs in the morning and call it Hangover Inn.