MONTANA the new capital of fear

WELCOME TO MONTANA

Police officers, some dressed in riot gear, gather in downtown Missoula in July 2000, responding to a crowd gathered during the Hells Angels' visit to Missoula.
Photo by KURT WILSON/Missoulian


In the past two months, they've had drinks in our bars and charmed our waitstaff, pitched business proposals to our merchants and spoken cordially with police.

In short, the Hells Angels have been downright civil.

One might even get the impression that the most feared and revered motorcycle club in the world was planning a company picnic instead of a national gathering of so-called outlaws. And in some ways, one would be right.

“They were my best patrons all day,” said Katie Hatheway, a waitress at the Top Hat Bar who served a group of Hells Angels last month. The bikers were in town scouting out possible venues for their 2008 USA Run, which is almost certain to take place in Missoula in late July or early August. “They were so nice and they tipped me so much,” she said.

Assistant Police Chief Mark Muir said he's had several conversations with a chapter member from Richmond, Calif., who is on the planning committee for the summer rally. Muir has been named incident commander for the probable gathering this summer.

“They have expressed that they want to come here, and they have confirmed that they met with Bruce Doering (owner of the defunct Marshall Mountain ski area) but nothing is locked in yet, neither a date nor a location,” Muir said. “We have had very cordial conversations and plan to welcome them to our community without discriminating, but we will be prepared if things get out of hand. That's our overriding goal: to make sure this community remains safe.”

Oh my God it's like out of a "B" movie. Read the rest hereAdd to Technorati Favorites............

Hells Angels get apology from Denver police

The Denver Post
Article Last Updated: 01/24/2008 03:37:19 PM MST

For the second time in five years, Denver police apologized to the Hells Angels motorcycle club for possibly violating the group's Constitutional rights.

In a settlement released Thursday, attorney David Lane said Denver and Mountain View police agreed to pay a total of $14,000 to the group, and apologize for a Sept. 2, 2005 traffic stop in Mountain View.

During that stop, which the Angels lawsuit said was made without probable cause, Denver police arrived for backup and held the Hells Angels at the rifle-point for about an hour while each was searched.

In his letter, Denver Manager of Safety Al LaCabe apologizes, and wrote, "at no time did any officer or the City and County of Denver ever intend to violate your Constitutional rights.

"We apologize if this may have inadvertently occurred."

Mountain View Police Chief Eric Gomez wrote an identical letter. The traffic stop resulted in one ticket for speeding and the arrest of two Hells Angels for carrying concealed weapons.

In 2003, the city wrote a similar letter to the Hells Angels and paid $50,000 after a Denver police raid on the group's clubhouse.

Lord don't you know if we could only have video of the city fathers apologizing.Add to Technorati Favorites

An interesting little ride:

Yesterday a couple of us decided to tale a little ride over to the “Out Post” a little over 100 miles west of here (if you have not been there on a Sunday afternoon yet, you need to check it out). A nice Sunday ride we thought. So what? Just another Sunday ride right? You decide.

Heading out Hwy 20 before we are really out of town this way large motor home towing a truck pulls out in front of us. Now o.k. he couldn't see one bike with lights on in the middle of the day. But three bikes, two of which with highway lights?

So we miss the motor home. A little further down the road here comes a passing car in our lane. O.K., it's hwy 20, a two lane road with only a 65mph speed limit when not passing through a town. Perfect for passing. So we slow down to let him have his way and my arm involuntarily rises in a one fingered salute. But hey thats motorcycling right? We have to look out for them, not them for us. Besides if they hit us what do they get? Ticket and wrist slap of a fine?

Bur we do make it to the Out Post alive and all agree that it was beautiful ride. A good band was playing, bikes were rolling in and food was being served. Alas, to soon it was time to leave.

Well, on this here two lane highway about 30 miles from nowhere here comes this passing Jeep in our lane and it's doing about all it probably can. My thinking is, “Oh shit” followed by trying to see where those behind me are in my rearview mirror so I can take my chances in what use to be a field of pines.

Not to worry however, cause the folk behind me were already riding the edge of the road planning which part of off the road they are going to crash in.

Fortunately by hugging the side the whoever was able to shoot by. However I am convinced that had we been anything wider than a motorcycle it would have been real ugly. He too got the salute. Though he was probably past me before I could get it up.

Now we all know that it is bad out there. But two close calls and an “Oh Jesus” on a Sunday afternoon on uncrowded road? I call that, they just pain don't give a damn but anybody on motorcycle. That whatever respect we may have had in the past his gone through nobody's fault but or own.

Why our fault? Because we could have forgiven the first two of stupid. The third one we should have chased down and shot. Yeah, maybe whoever did the shooting would be in jail. But then maybe after the news picked up how a cager died from a pissed off biker instead a cager takes out three bikes and gets a freaking ticket they would start lookin for us instead of running over us!Add to Technorati Favorites

Why we do not, nor will we, endorse political candidates

Primarily because there is no way to determine the "real" truth about a candidate. Consider the following that is all over the internet today:

Ron Paul '90s newsletters rant against blacks, gays, from CNN.

Could this be true? There are about a billion blogs that say it is but who knows. See there is a little quirk in the law that is a good and a bad thing. You can't lie, slander or libel people or corporations without some basis of fact, EXCEPT, when it comes to politicians. Politicians are fair game and it is perfectly ok to misrepresent the facts in order to create a lie. It's called "swiftboating."

I believe it was CNN that ran a special last night on how "swiftboating" or lying about candidates has grown into and industry and become so effective based on a particular peculiarity of Americans. For the most part we will believe whatever the media puts in front of us, whether true or not, as long as it re-enforces what we already believe true or not. Hello, weapons of mass destruction in Iraq anyone?

Sadly, members of both parties or religions (can't tell the difference anymore) are guilty.

It can even be effective enough to make us doubt our own knowledge of the truth. Cognitive dissonance anyone?

One of the ways we should be able to know the truth is through the press as noted by Hugo Black below:

“Paramount among the responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent any part of the government from deceiving the people and sending them off to distant lands to die of foreign fevers and foreign shot and shell.”

“The Founding Fathers gave the free press the protection it must have [to] bare the secrets of government and inform the people.” Hugo Black, 1886-1971, associate justice of the Supreme Court

The above is the whole reason the press was granted Freedom in the first place! Although those of us involved in th Motorcycle Rights movement are well versed in how the press sensationalizes, misrepresents the facts and parrots governmental doublespeak most people bristle at anything presented to them by anything other than their favorite news source or water cooler guru.

This was made plain by the The Center for Public Integrity, release that we posted on here,

Bush Administration-935 examples of deception leading us to war with Iraq-Impeach? Treason?

I later caught a spokesperson for the Center for Public Integrity on C-Span where during a news conference he laid the blame, not so much on President Bush, but where it belongs on the press and us for not being VIGILANT enough regarding the governance of our country. Most interestingly he went on to chastise the press for not investigating political contacts with multi-national corporations also.

So how can we tell the truth if the press will not do it's job? We will not be able to until independently funded, unbiased think tanks do our job for us and investigate the facts after they have occurred. But of course, by then it may be to late.

So what will WE do? Close our ears to their rhetoric and open our eyes to their actions. Attacking any of the bastards that engage in any action that infringes upon our right to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness no matter which side of the idealogical fence they claim to be from.
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