2 Helena Handbaskets

“When you’re 0 for 3, you’d better stop lecturing and start listening.”

Sarah Palin just left the stage at the TEA Party convention in Nashville. To say that she excoriated Obama, the Democrats in Congress, and their liberal budget-busting agenda would be like saying that it snowed a little in Washington DC today. To use the vernacular, she delivered a rousing bitch-slapping that ought to scare the living daylights out of any politician she puts in her crosshairs.

She made it quite clear that she fully intends to play an active role in this year’s elections. “The process may not always be pretty or perfect, but the message is loud and clear: We want a government worthy of the fine Americans that it serves. And we’re going to keep spreading that message one convention, one town hall, one speech and one election at a time.”

Sarah – America’s Real Advocate for Hope.

Reprise:

As long as you don’t count what he says or how he says it…

Depending on what happens in Washington DC in the next few months on the Cap and Tax legislation, Montana families could be in the unfortunate position of paying up to $4,000 more per year for the energy it takes to run their homes. An increase like that takes a healthy chunk out of paychecks already stretched about as far as they can go.

There’s not much that stands between us and that kind of economic devastation – except for the Montana Public Service Commission. And right now, wet toilet paper offers more consumer protection than the present PSC chaired by Ken Toole, a progressive liberal democrat with a political philosophy in lockstep with Obama, Reid, Pelosi, and the puppet master, George Soros, himself.

But there is exciting news on the horizon!!! Bill Gallagher, a local Helena attorney with roots in Dillon, Plains, and Polson, has officially thrown his hat in the ring for the District 5 seat on the Montana PSC. His announcement today attracted a rather substantial crowd at Jorgenson’s Restaurant where the consensus was that Bill is the real deal and will very capably serve the energy consumers of Montana as a strong Reagan conservative.

In his “fiery” announcement speech, Gallagher pointed out that decisions made by the PSC in the next few years will have huge impacts on all Montana families. He noted that he is not a career politician and the PSC is not a “sexy” office, but he can “stand up to those who would take our money and deprive us of our rights and liberty and stifle our economy under the guise of globalism, environmentalism, and socialism.”

You can read more about Bill and his views on the issues central to the PSC on his website: http://www.gallagher4psc.com/

And if you decide that this is the kind of guy you want in your corner, go ahead and get involved in his campaign. What’s a $4000 a year savings worth to your family?

From today’s IR comes an interesting story about the relative integrity of our two senators:

As health-reform has dominated the national news, Montana’s congressional delegation has been swamped with constituent mail and telephone calls on the issue — and it’s certainly not been all positive.
U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg, a Republican who’s been opposing Democrat-sponsored health-reform bills, reports that 77 percent of the 16,500 calls, letters, e-mails and faxes his office has received in the past six months have been against the Democratic health-care plans.
The other members of Montana’s delegation — Democratic U.S. Sens. Jon Tester and Max Baucus, who’s been a key figure in crafting the reform bills — say health care has generated more mail and calls than any other topic the past six months.
Yet both offices declined to categorize whether those contacts are running “for” or “against” the bill that Tester and Baucus supported on floor votes last month.
Tester’s spokesman Aaron Murphy said the 40,200 contacts received by the senator the past six months represent a “spirited and evenly divided debate,” while a spokesman for Baucus said the office doesn’t break things down “pro versus con” on its 49,400 health-care contacts from constituents.
“Because health care is a very complex issue, people express a bunch of different views, all in the same call,” said Ty Matsdorf.

Even Craig Wilson, MSU-Billings, can’t buy what they’re selling:

And as for Tester’s and Baucus’ claim that they don’t categorize the nature of the calls, Wilson isn’t buying it.
“If it was running for their position, why wouldn’t they release it?” he said. “The educated guess is that they are getting more negative (comments) than they are positive.”

Which begs the question – Just who the hell do they think they’re representing?

Certainly not Montanans.

Made me think of this. (I saw the original on Broadway a long time ago – nothing’s changed much.)

The verdict is in, but the jury’s still out.

The Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision has struck down much of the McCain/Feingold legislation. A few minutes online will provide the reader with a broad variety of responses – everything from “A Landmark Decision in Favor of Free Speech” to “The Horrible Consequences of Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission”. On a more local level, the analysis goes from the judicious to those expressing concerns that go beyond the scope of this case to speculate on how campaigns laws from almost a hundred years ago may fair in light of this ruling.

Justice Anthony Kennedy, generally regarded as the swing vote in the Roberts Court, penned the majority opinion, which came down on the side of the Constitution and our First Amendment right to free speech:

“When government seeks to use its full power, including the criminal law, to command where a person may get his or her information or what distrusted source he or she may not hear, it uses censorship to control thought. This is unlawful. The First Amendment confirms the freedom to think for ourselves.”

It is not the role of the Supreme Court to concern itself with the practical implications of it’s decisions, so it is left to the rest of us to figure out what the real results will be.

What say YOU?

Anyone want the Kleenex concession? Me neither.

I hope that Jon Tester is watching the election returns tonight.

Senator, if you aren’t listening to what your constituents are telling you, please understand: THEY WILL FIRE YOUR SAME SELF!!! If you continue to support the Party over the People, if you take more direction from Obama than you do from Opheim, if you believe what Barack, Harry, and Nancy are telling you over what is coming from Billings, Havre, and Noxon then you should be sent back to the farm in 2012. You have a Constitutional obligation to represent US – the citizens of Montana. You are not a stupid person. There is no way that you can look at the man in mirror and honestly admit that the abomination drafted in the most partisan way imaginable, behind closed doors, in the darkest hours of the night is a good bill. You owe it to the people of Montana to go in to work tomorrow morning and begin working for us.

Today’s election should be a wake-up call for the United States Congress. Martha Coakley offered some very wise advice tonight when she said she respected the people’s voice – even if she didn’t agree with it. Beginning tomorrow morning, the people of this country are going to expect a whole new level of respect from our elected officials. We have a right to disagree with you – and to let you know our opinions. You do not have the right to ignore our concerns and belittle us with derogatory labels. We are your employers. You cannot ignore our concerns in some misguided attempt to push through an agenda that was never communicated to the voters and clearly does not have our support. You cannot pretend that a 2,000 page bill that you haven’t even read, let alone studied and understood, that has never been openly debated, that has required all sorts of bribes and back room deals in order to pass – is something that Montanans – or Americans – deserve.

Start over. Go talk to the junior senator from Massachusetts. He’s been listening – carefully. He gets it.

Just in case you’ve forgotten your Latin from high school, let me reprieve a picture I posted a while back – it translates the message pretty well:

UPDATE: That’s Senator McAwesome to You!!! (My HillBuzz friends will understand the reference.) WAHOO!!!

There’s an old adage that says something to the effect that everyone has a purpose in life, even if it’s only to serve as a bad example.

In that spirit, I have put together a compilation of campaign tactics from the Martha Coakley senate race that ought to be useful now that the 2010 Election Season has officially begun.

1. After winning a contested primary, treat yourself to a lovely 6-day vacation – less than three weeks before the general election. Not only do you need the rest, but it gives your opponent a chance to have unfettered access to the media.
2. Attempt to paint your campaign finances in the most positive light possible by releasing a number that has no basis in fact: “The $5.2 million number being hyped by Coakley has nothing to do with anything; it’s like the homeowner who brags how much her home used to be worth.”
3. Avoid any and all opportunities to meet voters; minimize campaign appearances and only hang out in Washington DC with power brokers, political elites, and drug lobbyists. Your potential constituents will be impressed that you know all those mucky-mucks.
4. When leaving a DC fundraiser, have a member of your staff assault a reporter and make sure that there are clear pictures of you looking at the victim on the ground with your hands in your pockets. Then go on the record claiming that you didn’t see anything.
5. When debating your opponent and the question turns to your foreign policy experience, be sure to remind the audience that your sister “lives overseas”. It’s also wise to be quoted as an authority on the absence of terrorists in Afghanistan on a day when they killed three Americans there.
6. Always see that the name of your state in your campaign literature is misspelled. You don’t want voters to think you are smarter than they are or that details are important.
7. During a radio interview on the most important issues of the campaign, make stupid assertions guaranteed to insult a large segment of the population by stating that the basic Constitutional freedom of religion does not extend to the workplace if you are Catholic healthcare professional.
8. After dissing the local sports fans by insinuating that they aren’t worthy of your time (see #3 above), add insult to injury by claiming one of the local sports icons is a fan of the team’s rivals. Red Sox fans will chuckle to hear that Curt Schilling is a big Yankee booster.
9. Imply that because your husband is a retired police officer that you have the endorsement of the local union, so that the organization gets above-the-fold headlines when they come out with the announcement that they have formally endorsed your opponent.
10. Use pre-9/11 pictures of the World Trade Center in a campaign ad trying to tie your opponent to Wall Street greed. Hardly anyone will be distracted from the message by the visuals.

BONUS TRACKS

As the campaign comes down to the final weekend, be sure to transmit your sense of panic by insisting that the widow and niece of your presumed predecessor come out of mourning and make campaign speeches on your behalf to remind the electorate that you are entitled to the seat.

Finally, don’t worry about your resume. No one will care that you have a controversial history; particularly that you did everything you possibly could to avoid prosecuting a political ally for sexually molesting his 2 year-old niece with a hot curling iron. Things like that never come back to bite you on the ass.

And always remember, in the end, you can always count on your loyal supporters to be there for you – no matter what.

Alert. The. Media.

President Obama has neutralized the latest threat to his precious healthcare bill. Following hours of intense negotiations with labor union officials, Obama strategically gave in to every demand the union leaders wanted. Ben Nelson could hardly have done better.

The latest concession was given to the unions because they were threatening to pull their support from this really, really popular bill. It seems that the 40% tax on cadillac health plans would have hit their members right square in the wallets. Union leaders are usually pretty diligent about protecting their members’ paychecks – otherwise they might not have enough money to pay their union dues. So the arm wrestling began, and in classic Mob fashion – a concept that is apparently clearly understood by Illinois politicians – they made Obama an offer he couldn’t refuse. So he didn’t.

Unfortunately, there seem to be a couple of minor little issues hanging out there that could prove a touch – uhhh – “challenging” when the WH tries to sell the deal to Congress.

First, there’s been some speculation that the deal may be a little bit unconstitutional, but Obama and his Chicago buddies have never let that kind of thing stand in their way before, so why should they begin now? No problem. One down. What’s the other issue?

The other issue is somewhat trickier. It seems that the whole house of cards could tumble in a New York minute if the money angle doesn’t work. And there have been more financial contortions already in this process than a guy can keep up with. I don’t know how Obama will come up with the revenue to pay for this latest bribe, ahem, compromise – but that’s his problem. The original plan was expected to raise approximately $150 million, the deal negotiated with the unions cuts that revenue by $60 billion.

But what would happen if the insurance companies and larger employers, who are actually self-insured, restructure their “pricing” so that the plans covering union members have higher prices – and thus are not subject to the 40% tax, courtesy of this brilliant Obama deal – and plans for non-union members are priced lower – and thus are below the “cadillac” threshold?

Win-win-win for unions, employers, and millions of non-union employees. As far as escaping an unfair tax, anyway.

If you expand the exempt plans through some kind of repricing, that $60 billion could shrink faster than a cashmere sweater run through the washer and dryer. Which means Congress will have to find a way to restore that money through another tax. There’s already talk this morning that the Democrats in Congress are meeting today at their winter retreat about raising the Medicare tax. Remember those promises about “budget neutral”?

Call me silly, but I think the Democrats may be running out of suckers for this circus.

OMG!!! With friends like these, who needs enemies? From the Independent Record online this afternoon…

Newt Gingrich enlists Schweitzer’s help
By MATT GOURAS – Associated Press Writer | Posted: Thursday, January 14,2010
HELENA, Mont. (AP) – Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich says he likes what he sees in Gov. Brian Schweitzer’s handling of state finances.
The conservative Republican called Schweitzer Thursday morning and invited him to help with the American Solutions for Winning the Future project.
Schweitzer, a Democrat, told Gingrich he would be happy to participate.
The governor says Montana is doing better than other states because it set some money aside during good times and was prudent with its budget.
Gingrich says his project is trying to find the best governing ideas for creating jobs, fostering energy independence, protecting workers’ rights and reforming education.

WHAT THE HELL IS NEWT THINKING???? Sheesh!

If Brian gets his ticket punched to DC in 2012 we know who we can thank for the help.