UPDATE: It is important to communicate to Senator Tester that we are counting his votes for bringing the bill to the floor and for cloture as well as his vote on the bill. “Yes” votes for the procedural votes are as important as the final vote and we expect our senator to oppose those motions also.

Apparently, Dingy Harry (Reid), Senate Majority Leader, has determined that the Japanese WWII Kamikaze pilots were onto a good thing and is jauntily leading his fellow Democrat lemmings on a suicide dive into political hell. Ergo, he has scheduled another Saturday night massacre whereupon the 2,074 page Obama-Reid-Pelosi Healthcare bill will be ramrodded down the throats of the American public to the probable detriment of several of his soon-to-be-former colleagues.

One of them might be our own Jon Tester.

The bill, as is, has more than a couple of contentious components: Mandatory abortion funding, arbitrary medicare cuts, and serious creative accounting gymnastics that can’t pass the smell test even for the employee of the month at the sewage treatment plant. All in all, the bottom line is pretty much that the majority of Americans do not support this bill – and those that oppose the legislation are far more vehement in their position than those who support it. Hell hath no fury and all that. According to the recent MSU-Billings poll, 74% of Montanans think that healthcare will be worse if the current legislation passes. That can’t make a politician feel all warm and fuzzy as he looks forward to an election in what was generally regarded as a pretty safe seat – up ’til now anyway. Recent hints that Denny Rehberg could be considering a challenge to Tester in 2012 just might be changing the perspective on Jon’s vote this weekend.

If you have a concern that you think Senator Tester might, should, or ought to consider be sure to contact him before Saturday:

Sen. Tester
Capital One Center
208 N Montana Avenue, Suite 202
Helena, MT 59601
Phone: (406) 449-5401
Fax: (406) 449-5462

In the meantime, go ahead and register your “vote” now…

…For Montana Palintologists. Sarah will be in Billings for her book tour on December 8.

Wahooo!!!!

From the Gazette:

Sarah Palin is coming to Borders bookstore in Billings for a book signing Dec. 8 to promote her autobiography, “Going Rogue: An American Life,’’ which comes out Tuesday.

An employee at Borders said Monday there is no further information available about the signing, but that it is confirmed. The former Alaska governor and 2008 running mate of Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, Palin is on a national book tour to promote the 413-page book. With a first printing by publisher HarperCollins of 1.5 million copies, it has been at or near the top of several best-seller lists, including Amazon.com. “Going Rogue’’ retails for $28.99.

The tour itself is a reflection of the unique way that Palin is choosing to affect the political landscape. Using Facebook, she focused the nation’s attention to a serious problem with the liberals’ government-run healthcare plan. Her one post about “death panels” changed not only the tone and fervor of the discussion, but also the topic. Until Sarah’s post on August 7th, the concept of rationing healthcare was hardly mentioned by the MSM. It was being discussed by the “little people” – but mostly ignored by the media and the political elites. Her deft use of the internet – where supposedly the Obama campaign/administration was the master – was brilliant. One woman, all by herself, without the New York Times or NBC, changed the debate. No matter what you think about her, Sarah Palin is a force in American politics. It remains to be seen what her agenda is, but her plan for getting where she wants to go is starting to reveal itself.

She’s is “Going Rogue”.

An interesting article in American Thinker analyzes her strategy:

What’s notable about Sarah Palin’s book tour, which starts midweek, is where she’s not going. She’s not going to L.A. or New York, Boston or San Francisco. She’s going smack-dab to the middle of the country. Fly-over country, liberals call it. And it’s a shrewd move, not only in selling books, but positioning herself for a presidential run in 2012 if she chooses that path.

It’s a strategy right out of the late Sam Walton’s playbook: go where there’s demand and the competition ain’t. Walton, who could have run and won political campaigns, built Walmart into the behemoth it is today by opening his discount stores in small towns in the heartland, towns that the eight-hundred pound gorilla K-Mart ignored.

Walton conquered the discount retail category from the heartland out. He didn’t so much clobber K-Mart as steal a march on it. Palin may just prove that a heartland strategy does more than sell blenders and books. It may be the foundation for winning a national election.

Make no mistake: right now, heartlanders (and heartlanders in spirit) are feeling awfully ignored by Washington politicians. The president and Congress are intent on ramming a health care reform measure through that an ever-increasing majority of Americans oppose. They’re spending as if using someone else’s credit card (in fact, the people’s); they play Americans for dupes by calling an old-fashioned pork barrel bill an economic stimulus; and for toppers, President Obama is playing Hamlet about Afghanistan, thus putting brave soldiers there at greater risk every day…

Sam Walton once said: “Each Walmart store should reflect the values of its customers and support the vision they hold for their community.” The same holds true for politicians’ relationships to citizens. It’s not happening now in America. Sarah Palin has the opportunity to change that for the better.

I’ve always said I was a Wal-Mart Republican. There are a whole lot of us. The 5th Avenue Elites could end up trampled by a thundering herd.

“What’s the squishy stuff between an elephant’s toes?” Democrats.

Plans are being made by groups from around the state to converge on the Magic City for a glimpse of the GOP superstar. Use the comments below if you are interested in hitching a ride from your hometown.

So many appropriate sayings are going through my head: “Hindsight’s always 20/20”, “You don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone”, “Act in haste, repent in leisure”, and, of course, “Better late than never”. All of them so right on so many levels for this post, starting with – I should have done it three days ago, but here it is now…

Many of you who know me or who have been reading this blog for a while have heard me rave about HillBuzz; in fact several of you who frequently visit here come from the HillBuzz community. For those of you who know me, you probably aren’t that surprised that HIllBuzz is a favorite – after all – it’s political, it’s snarky, it’s insightful, it’s funny, it’s clever, it’s very well-written (chalk that one up to Catholic nuns! They not only cared about what you said, it damn well better have been grammatically correct, spelled right, punctuated properly, and most importantly, NEATLY written in – by God – blue or black fountain pen and not one of those “cheap, messy ballpoint implements”!), and the comments are interesting, thoughtful, and intelligent. Left-wing, vulgar, obots have given up and gone elsewhere to spew their vileness.

The authors of Hillbuzz are three gay guys who live in Chicago’s Boystown – lifelong democrats and die-hard Clinton supporters, who early-on saw what Obama and his cronies were about, and when Hillary lost the primaries became very active and hardworking “DemMcCrats for McCain/Palin”.

Even though the Boyz have been Sarah fans since last summer, they really hadn’t quite come around to appreciating former President Bush. No matter how despicable they found The One and his fashion-disaster wife, they never spent a whole lot of time and energy re-evaluating our previous president. Until Fort Hood.

If you have been reading us for any length of time, you know that we used to make fun of “Dubya” nearly every day…parroting the same comedic bits we heard in our Democrat circles, where Bush is still, to this day, lampooned as a chimp, a bumbling idiot, and a poor, clumsy public speaker.

Oh, how we RAILED against Bush in 2000…and how we RAILED against the surge in support Bush received post-9/11 when he went to Ground Zero and stood there with his bullhorn in the ruins on that hideous day.

We were convinced that ANYONE who was president would have done what Bush did, and would have set that right tone of leadership in the wake of that disaster. President Gore, President Perot, President Nader, you name it. ANYONE, we assumed, would have filled that role perfectly.

Well, we told you before how much the current president, Dr. Utopia, made us realize just how wrong we were about Bush. We shudder to think what Dr. Utopia would have done post-9/11. He would have not gone there with a bullhorn and struck that right tone. More likely than not, he would have been his usual fey, apologetic self and waxed professorially about how evil America is and how justified Muslims are for attacking us, with a sidebar on how good the attacks were because they would humble us…

The world needed George W. Bush, his bullhorn, and his indominable spirit that day…and we will forever be grateful to this man for that.

As we will always be grateful for what George and Laura Bush did this week, with no media attention, when they very quietly went to Ft. Hood and met personally with the families of the victims of this terrorist attack.

We are blessed as a nation to have these two out there… And we are blessed to have Dick Cheney, wherever he is, keeping tabs on all that’s going on and speaking out when the current administration does anything too reckless and dangerous.

Cheney’s someone else we villainized and maligned in the past who we were also wrong about… There has never been a Vice President more spot-on right about the dangers facing this country from Islamic terrorism…

We live in strange, strange times indeed.

We are now officially committed fans of George W. and Laura Bush. We are fans of Dick Cheney. Our gratitude for them makes us newly protective of them, and the continued role they play in this country…

You owe it to yourself to take the time to read the entire piece. It is relatively long, and as of right now has more than 1.025 comments – most of them poignant, thoughtful, and also worth reading. Get yourself a cup of coffee, a glass of wine, or whatever suits your fancy and settle in for an eye-opening, heart-warming experience.

Because it could be too late if we don’t “get it” pretty damn soon.

God bless our soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen and women, and all who serve and have served in the cause of America’s freedom. And a special prayer for the families who also sacrifice so much that the rest of us can enjoy the blessings of liberty every day.

We are forever grateful.

The liberal/Progressive agenda has moved forward a step with House passage of the Healthcare bill last night. HR 3962 is not a good bill by any standard. It will not reduce the cost of healthcare and there is no way in hell that it will provide more or better coverage for more Americans. But, no matter, Obama and Pelosi got “Healthcare” passed. There may be consequences in 2010 for the 40 Congresscritters who broke party lines to vote against their leadership (39 Democrats who opposed the bill, and 1 Republican who voted for it). MoveOn.org is already claiming they have $3.5 million in the bank to use in primary contests against the “traitors”. [Note to political neophytes: This is called “Eating Your Own” and is normally a self-defeating tactic indulged in by both major political parties and all of the minor parties when they confuse purity of principles with stark-raving political reality.] The fact that the Blue-dog Democrats were protected by the Democrat leadership to such a huge degree that they were allowed to insert an anti-abortion amendment into the bill should serve more as a caution to the Progressives that their agenda is beyond the mainstream. A few minutes’ worth of research on conservative political blogs and various TEA Party sites indicates that contributions to candidates running against the liberal agenda will be more forthcoming than usual. The healthcare bill will be a rallying issue next year – no doubt about that.

Here in Montana, there is much wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth in certain circles with respect to the House race against Denny Rehberg in 2010, but, so far anyway, the opposition candidates are little more than tokens with very little chance of overcoming Denny’s name recognition, financial strength, and very positive approval rating with the vast majority of Montana voters. But whispers of bigger things to come wafted across the fruited plains last week when news of Denny’s meeting with the Republican National Senatorial Committee was leaked to the media.

Does this mean that Jon Tester is being put on notice that his votes on the Senate healthcare bill and possibly Cap and Tax have assumed a whole new level of importance? The gauntlet has not yet been thrown – but certainly someone is waving it from the wings.

What does the Magic 8 Ball say?

As of right now, the Senate leadership does not want to bring the healthcare bill to the floor. Senator Joe Lieberman has announced that he will not vote for cloture and unless one of the liberal Republicans crosses over to the dark side it doesn’t seem like Dingy Harry can afford the slapdown. Also, Senator Tom Colburn (R-OK) has vowed to clear his calendar to stage a full-fledged, old-fashioned, shades of Strom Thurman fillibuster. But, such theatrics are generally little more than delaying the inevitable. Clearly the Democrats have enough votes to pass the bill – as long as they don’t require some kind of imaginary bipartisan support.

So, the United States Senate may defer to political reality and indulge in timely cowardice, thus avoiding the showdown that could thwart the President’s agenda post 2010 and his reelection in 2012. Or, the powers that be in this administration – and here I speak not of the President, but rather of his puppet masters, Soros, Axelrod, Emanuel, et al, – may understand that 2010 and 2012 are already pretty much lost and go for the gusto now – damn the consequences. After all, they’ve demonstrated time and again that they are willing to use and abuse whomever is at hand and throw them under the bus whenever expediency demands it. Obama is not calling the shots (and probably never has) – he’s just the dancing puppet designated to headline the show. If advancing the cause of the Progressive agenda, taking over more and more of the US economy, growing the federal government beyond all previous attempts, and bankrupting this country for generations to come is possible, the cost to the political frontmen is of little concern to the string-pullers. It becomes the triumph of ideology over power.

Is that what last night’s House vote foreshadowed? Who knows?

Like much in life, the score of the game at halftime is not always indicative of the final result.

If you don’t think that the government takeover of your healthcare is in your best interest, then NOW is the time to take action. Contact your congress critters and let them know how you feel. Even if you know it won’t change their vote – let them know! As Rep. Mike Pence notes below – a minority in Congress plus the American people equals a majority.

Carpe momentum!!!

What with all the scary stuff to focus on this Halloween season, it is worth a minute or two to take a breath and realize WHY we care so much about what happens in the political arena: Our freedom to search out the path to our own brighter future.

Today, we celebrate the founding of Montana’s capital city. Only 145 years ago, four miners chasing the dream of gold and untold wealth, ended up along Prickly Pear Creek and decided to take one “last chance” at finding gold before returning home with pockets empty and dreams dashed. They had no guarantee of success. No government stimulus money to fund their efforts. No promise of a bail-out should they fail. It was all up to them.

We know the story. The question is – have we forgotten the moral of the story?

“Far better to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory, nor defeat.”– Theodore Roosevelt

Happy Birthday Helena!

What could I possibly add????

The American consumer long ago fell under the spell of the Madison Avenue marketing gurus who dazzled us with promises of instant gratification. “Charge it”, “No payments until…”, “Buy now, pay later” are phrases that we all have readily taken advantage of at one time or another. But there’s a new wrinkle out there these days, coming not from mid-town Manhattan, but from that bastion of fiscal creativity, Washington DC.

The latest shade of lipstick being put on the pig that is healthcare reform is an embarrassingly nauseating one: In order to pay for the increased costs of “the government option” or whatever they’re calling it now, the American taxpayer gets the stick first with promises of the carrot to come.

AP reported thusly, “Under the Democratic bills, federal tax credits to help make health insurance affordable for millions of low- and middle-income households won’t start flowing until 2013 — after the next presidential election. But Medicare cuts and a sizable chunk of the tax increases to pay for the overhaul kick in immediately.”

So tell me again why it’s so important that a bill – no matter how well or ill-crafted – gets passed in such a huge rush when we aren’t going to see any of the changes that are so desperately needed for at least three years. How can all those poor uninsured souls possibly continue to exist FOR THREE MORE UNINSURED YEARS???? Or how about all those pre-exisitng conditions that won’t be covered for THREE MORE YEARS???? Or all the frustrations caused by insurance coverage denials FOR THREE MORE YEARS????

From a political standpoint, it just doesn’t make any sense. Higher taxes now and nothing in return for The Won to campaign on in 2012. How does that make any sense?

It took me a while to figure this out, but I think I’ve finally got it.

If there’s one lesson to be learned from the 2008 Obama campaign, it’s that having a record to run on is not all that important to this President. He’s quite comfortable projecting smoke and mirror intimations onto the electorate and letting them conjure up the candidate they want to see and the promises they want to hear. Maybe Obama, or maybe someone on his staff, is sharp enough to understand that if healthcare reform were actually implemented next year, by 2012 the reality of reform would be all too clearly experienced by the public – and after that, the chances of Obama’s re-election sink deeper than the Titanic. Sure, the Republicans will attack them on the issue of higher taxes – but let’s face it – most of the people who would vote for Obama either don’t care or don’t pay taxes anyway.

The Democrats can buy votes with promises of something for nothing – they’ve been doing it for decades. As long as their candidates can assure the voters that they’ll get more stuff after the election, they stand a good chance of being returned to office. Obama needs to be able to say to the voters in 2012, “We passed healthcare reform and next year all that HOPE you’ve carried around these last THREE YEARS is about to CHANGE.” And the Progressives, the liberals, and the terminally naive will believe that – at last! – they have the perfect healthcare system they’e been waiting for.

It will only be after the 2012 election that stark raving reality will set in and Americans who bought into Obama’s rhetoric will find out that they’ve been bamboozled. Only in fairy tales does everybody live happily ever after. In the real world, you get higher taxes, fewer choices, and less control to show for the money you pay to the government to provide the services that used to be provided by the free market.

Despite all the fancy talk coming from the Democrats in Congress and the Administration, politically designed healthcare will cost more and deliver less. There is no way that they can provide full coverage to 47 million more people for the same amount of money. America’s new healthcare system – whatever it ends up looking like – will be an ugly monster. And whether you like it or not – and whether you call it “death panels” or not – someone besides you and your doctor will be deciding who gets what care:

No matter how we “reform” health insurance, there will still be close calls, where it’s not clear that a costly procedure will actually do any good. There will have to be someone, either in government or in the private sector, to decide which operations and treatments should be covered and which should not. And there will be patients who will die after being refused.

Health care “reform” won’t eliminate such incidents and may produce more of them.

But no health care measure can alter the fact that our resources are not unlimited. We may not want to hear it, but no matter what kind of insurance system you have, sometimes someone has to say “no.”

Obama can’t afford that reality to be a part of the debate in 2012. Ergo – pay now, buy later. We’ll have to see how it works out for him. Stay tuned.

In the meantime – here’s a little ditty to bring it all home….

For many of my faithful readers there has been something very important missing for the past few days: The Dextra RSS Feed. The constant updates from the Montana conservative blogosphere that magically appeared on the right side of the page as a new post was launched from Electric City Weblog, The Montana Misanthrope, Missoulapolis, Rabid Sanity, 2nd Grade Bike Rack, The Last Best Place, Montana Main Street Blog, TSN Roundup, and a couple other blogs that are currently on hiatus (which we hope won’t last too much longer!), and gratefully 2HH. It was disconcerting Sunday morning to wake up and realize that I had to visit each of my favorite sites without knowing whether or not there was a new subject to enjoy.

I don’t know how Craig does the magic. I just know I have become addicted to the ease with which my favorite sites can be accessed directly from my blog. (What – the rest of you don’t check out YOUR blogs first??? Of course not.) And I really appreciate that he has come to our rescue and made the magic continue.

I am thankful. Bless you, Craig!