Thumbs down to whoever's been distributing anti-Catholic literature in the Helena area recently. Sometimes communications from various fringe groups can be amusing, but literature from folks who think the Vatican, President Bush and all Muslims were behind the attacks on the World Trade Center is too boringly stupid to even be funny.

Thumbs down to political hype. It turns out that Montana Republican Party Chairman John Rabenberg didn't really mean it in fund-raising letters saying "the media is against us" and Democrats "are poised to win the governor's race and both houses of the Legislature." That was just a way to "fire up" potential donors. Sure, there's a lot worse political lying going on at the federal level, but it is disturbing whenever a political goal is to create heat rather than light.

Thumbs up to Gov. Judy Martz for urging the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to pay attention to Montana's needs when managing Missouri River water. We're not sure her efforts will be successful because the more populous downstream states have more political clout than Montana does, but it can't hurt to make Montana's position clear.

Thumbs down to payroll procedures for activated Army Reserve soldiers that are so messed up that a study by congressional auditors found that 95 percent of the cases they examined contained mistakes. The auditors previously found similar problems affecting the Army National Guard. Soldiers sent to Afghanistan and Iraq deserve better than that.