Interesting...preparing for something I would say. But, prisons for who?

Here's a research project to enliven a dreary day at work!

These are the idiots, the citizens of Hardin, MT, that is, who decided to contract with Municipal Capital Markets Group, Inc. (a Texas IB worth checking out) for $27 million in revenue bonds to build a private prison without any committment in writing from the state corrections department that they would move in, and Montana law preventing them from taking out-of-state prisoners. Brilliant.

[There are worse things than poverty. Stupid is much worse. My researches also turned up the fact that the citizens of Hardin have a brand new coal fired power plant just up wind. Fools. Utter fools.]

So, back to the prison ... these are also the brain surgeons who offered to house Guantanamo detainees not too long ago.

Now they have contracted with this APF (who won't say where their money comes from because it is just possible that they haven't got any) to do heaven knows what. Neither the Major or APF have been very clear.

Michael Hilton registered his corporation on 3/2/09. The address for service of process googles out to some perfectly dreary residential corner of Anaheim. The website is pure schlock mercenary. Mr. Hilton himself hails from Montenegro and is ostensibly a veteran of that whole Bosnia-Kosovo-Serbia catastrophe. So I suppose it's possible that he is monetarily "connected." I'm trusting the NYT will tell us to whom ... shortly.

But I rather do think that the poor citzens of Hardin have been snookered again.

And you know what else? It is a good thing to have a state legislature that does business more-or-less year-round, especially if you are going to mess around with private prisons and power plants. The prison was finished in 2007 after the closing of the state legislative session, and they were not able to address this out-of-state prisoner issue until the next session, which opened in January 2009!

"...have a brand new coal fired power plant...Fools. Utter fools."

Yes...a nice little stick fire in the ol' teepee is a much better solution especially at times when the snow flies or when temps sit at 10 below 0 for days...30-40 below with windchill. Solutions...hmmm...solar doesn't help...the sun sits so low in the sky you need to be several stories up just to see it move across the horizon. (Montana has very few buildings over two or three stories.) How about wind? ...sure if the suckers don't freeze up and what about when the wind doesn't blow? Montanan's are hardy people but good grief get a clue. Montana is one of those states with a long winter and one month of bad sleddin.

Not so sure the suspense is over, Jack, both the right and left are wondering. WND has an article on the group and one lefty looking blog has done some research...links:

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=111442

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread505847/pg1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHZhhVUxQCY&feature=youtube_gdata

The APF website has been shut down.

"Libby...good going, that was funny and informative! Unfortunately it spoiled the suspense about who they were going to lock up, your side or mine? lol (jack)"

I forebore to repeat it, but since your egg me on ... some sillyass woman got herself quoted on a local blog supposing that the APF was an agent of Obama's federal secret police force. I like to bust a gut.

Fools. Utter fools.

Alas, the citizens of Hardin, Montana, have humiliated themselves, nationwide. The Montana AG, who does collect a salary year-round, is onto it.

Now we have to ask ourselves, how many other purveyors of municipal bonds were only too pleased to produce the paper, collect their commission, and abscond ... there being no hope of the bonds being repaid? Anticipate yet another burst bubble compliments of BushCo.

Yeehah.

This scrazy story just keeps getting better:

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/national/central/view.bg?articleid=1201484

Calif. jail entrepreneur has checkered past BILLINGS, Mont. - Michael Hilton showed up in Hardin, Mont., last week, presenting himself as an economic savior, the man who would take over the town’s $27 million jail — empty since it was built as a development project in 2007 — and provide 200 new jobs in the process. He wore a military style uniform, and as a gesture to local law enforcement offered up the use of three Mercedes SUVs. ** But the man who styles himself as a military veteran turned private sector entrepreneur and a California defense contractor with extensive government contracts also has another image, and that one is provided by public documents and interviews with associates and legal adversaries. ** The record says that he is a convicted felon with a number of aliases, a string of legal judgments against him, two bankruptcies and a decades-long reputation for deals gone bad. American Police Force is the company Hilton formed in March to take over the Hardin jail. ** "Such schemes you cannot believe," said Joseph Carella, an Orange County, Calif. doctor and co-defendant with Hilton in a real estate fraud case that resulted in a civil judgment against Hilton and several others. ** "The guy’s brilliant. If he had been able to do honest work, he probably would have been a gazillionaire," Carella said.

Use the link for the rest of the story which also features a picture of the dude.

Tina