Friends –

2HelenaHandbaskets will be on hiatus for the next few months. The site will be open in case you want to look up old posts or if you need to find a link to one of my favorite blogs.

While I’m off relaxing and galavanting on some gorgeous tropical isle (HA!!!) our friend LOKI is sharing his wisdom and insights over at his own blog The Right Side of Helena. Be sure and catch him there.

And in the immortal words of Whatshisname, “I’ll be back!”

Guest post by Loki

Welcome to the new Banana Republic of America.

President Obama has now without the help of congress decided to change the laws and when he will support them. That darned Obamacare keeps exposing its failures and he can’t have that for the next election cycle. So he has chosen to ignore the constitution and pick and chose which laws to enforce.

Eric Holder has now decided that not only will he not prosecute African-Americans intimating voters, but he will now not prosecute certain drug crimes. After all drugged voters can be told to vote Democrat. Also heavily sedated voters vote to keep their drug flow uninterrupted. And let us not forget fast and furious and not even questing Jon Corzine over MF Global.

Meanwhile the political tool for liberals the IRS continues its war on conservatives groups. Severely limiting conservative groups participating in the 2012 and the 2014 elections.

The EPA is doing its best to ban coal for the President. They are also doing an end run around congress for President Obama and enforcing his global warming agenda. At the same time threatening any employees who are stupid ‘deniers’ with using their free speech and objecting.

Liberals have banned together and attacked the first, second and fourth amendments to the constitution.

And Republicans just take it. They don’t want to raise their voices or they might be accused of being racist. I don’t know which are worse, gutless Republicans or totalitarian lawless Democrats.

If President Obama was a white Republican he would be impeached.

Guest post by Loki

Call me an optimist, but I have high hopes for 2014. Obamacare is falling apart faster than a sand castle in the tide. Senator Baucus has seen the coming train wreck and is leaping from the train. Schweitzer is showing his greed while hoping no one discovers the skeletons in the closet while backpedalling from a senate race. Senator Guillory switches parties from Democrat to Republican (oddly hardly reported in the news). The economy has remained relatively stagnant. Yes I am hopeful that we have a real chance to retain the House and take the Senate.

It will be an uphill battle fighting the Democrats and the media. The media will be especially tenacious defending President Obama’s legacy. The media and TV late night comedians will excoriate the Tea Party, Sarah Palin and any one else who looks like they have the public’s interest.

But we have to present electable candidates. We can’t nominate far right extremists with radical ideas on gay marriage or completely shutting down abortion in this country. But we also can’t nominate candidates eager to compromise. We have to stick to the basics, less government, less spending, more accountability, and tax reform. That will get us elected. Then we have to follow through with those policies. And if we do that and show the public the right way to run this country Hillary won’t stand a chance in 2016.

Paula Deen is in the news lately for saying a “forbidden” word 30 years ago. Even though it was not forbidden at the time. She has lost endorsements and publishing deals. She is being vilified in the press. All while her incompetent team further implicates her on her apology tour.

Alec Baldwin is also in trouble again! He made a “homophobic slur” this week but he is not in nearly as much trouble.

The question is why the disparity. I have an opinion. It is because Paula is not liberal enough. Granted she is a Democrat supporter and gave to the Obama presidential campaign. But her cooking show has not convinced the liberals she is down with the party. She has not mentioned the NAACP on her show or come out with cooking for the lesbian. The liberals just didn’t know she wasn’t a conservative. That and she doesn’t support low fat cooking with little or no meat and she uses (gasp) salt.

But don’t worry. Jessie Jackson has said she can be saved. And right after she donates a large enough sum to his Rainbow PUSH coalition he will declare her forgiven. That is unless the Rev. Sharpton beats him to the donation line.

Guest post by Loki

The scandal feast that is the President Obama administration continues to entertain me on these lazy spring days. Watching the Democrats who screamed murder when President Bush wiretapped a few calls to Arab countries now commit inhuman contortions to justify President Obama’s massive collection of all US phone calls is a performance worthy of Cirque du Soleil. It is fun watching the three unknowing apes that is the Democrat party morph into an urban gorilla (thanks Inspector Lewis) in defense of President Obama.

And then of course the Democrats pay homage to the two greatest presidents in recent history, Presidents Bush and Regan, by trying to blame them. Imagine how great Presidents Bush and Regan were that they are still able to run the country and keep President Obama blameless after being out of office for years… or even dead.

But we have a greater problem that the Republicans (with the exception of a few) are also supporting this massive intrusion into our freedom by way of government snooping. Democrats have tried to justify this expensive collection of our phone records by saying that it has already stopped one terrorist attack, as yet unproven. That is like justifying using a tank to kill the lone mouse in the house. But since this operation has been exposed the terrorists will change their modus opereandi and not use registered phones ever again.

That means that the draugnaut built to watch terrorist will be left to watch Americans. And it’s equally sinister brother Prism will monitor our emails and internet usage and his evil twin sister the USPS will record who we send letters to.

The sycophants defend this intrusion by saying that only metadata is collected. But metadata can reveal our innermost secrets. And with the liberals insatiable desire to control those they feel are incompetent to run their own lives (everyone but them) this intrusion is beyond devastating. One can only imagine that someone in the IRS sees your medical records and decides you are 10 pounds over weight and checks your metadata. He sees that you call the local pizza delivery once a week and that your receive coupons from the local fast burger joint as a loyal customer. He quickly bumps your medical insurance rates up and contacts your Medicare doctor (the real goal of Obamacare) who orders you on a diet. They also cancel your subscription to Gourmet magazine. He also sees you received your NRA and GOP membership cards and notifies the FBI and Homeland Security that you are a terrorist risk.

The Democrats are supporting this intrusion for control of the people while the Republicans are supporting it for protection of the country. They are both wrong. This will become a yoke for enslaving the country.

And now I await the rest of this Three-Ring-Circus with the justification for prosecuting Bradley Manning while justifying the actions of Edward Snowden.

Well – finally. The Lewis & Clark County Republican Central Committee (LCCRCC) has – after nearly six months – gotten its stuff more or less together and come up with the remaining three candidates to submit to the county commissioners for their ultimate selection to replace Derek Brown.

The first three were selected in January by the secret “conservative caucus” of the LCCRCC (who hold their meetings at one of the local funeral parlors) and the committee at large was thwarted in their attempts to interview or question these candidates:

Pat Faber – owner Aqua Bona Consulting; unsuccessful Republican candidate for Montana legislature in 2010

Gilda Clancy – previous one-term legislator and long-time Right-to-Life activist.

Dan Wickens – self-employed; former campaign volunteer for the wannabe pirate governor, Neil Livingstone.

Following the disaster that was the January meeting, the whole process went … (wait for it)… (wait)…
…to Hell in a Handbasket, with several of the well-qualified candidates withdrawing from consideration. After much angst and an arbitrary delay by the committee leadership, the final four candidates appeared in a segment that had more closely in common with the interview portion of a local beauty contest than a substantive discussion of qualifications for a serious job in the public sector. Good thing the candidates were better than the shallow and largely unenlightening questions they were asked.

Ultimately, these are the final three candidates submitted for Commissioners Hunthausen and Murray to consider.

Steve Bostrom – former pastor of now defunct church. Currently chaplain for city of Helena (who even knew the city HAS a chaplain!) and active in local service club.

Susan Geise – resident of, and librarian for, the community of Augusta. Has served in Montana legislature and been active in Montana Republican politics for over twenty years. She was a “conservative when conservatism wasn’t cool.”

Tom Rolfe – fleet and commercial sales manager of local car dealership for over 20 years, native Montanan, former legislator, active in local church and service clubs, LCCRCC precinct committeeman since 1980’s, active in Republican politics since “fifth grade”.

So now the speculation du jour among the local political junkies begins: Who should Mike and Andy pick? Vote — and then share your thoughts and insights below.

Poll open until midnight Friday, May 17th.

Guest post by Loki

Well Senator Baucus saw the light at the end of the tunnel… and it was Obamacare (partially authored by Baucus) speeding at him for an inevitable catastrophe. With no way to escape he abandoned ship as fast as liberals usually abandon ship. While of course taking no blame for actually sinking the ship.

This left the position of senator open game for the next election. The ensuing Democrat scramble looked like the Oklahoma land rush. Every Democrat party member announced their intention to run for the office. It was almost like they thought the job was a guaranteed payday with benefits… well ok it is.

Of course the media had to announce their candidate Brian Schweitzer. They quickly gathered at his feet salivating while asking his intentions, subtlety showing their intentions of full support for his campaign by laying on their backs wagging their tails hoping for a belly rug.

But Schweitzer did not stand for the occasion and gracefully acknowledge his acceptance of their adorations. For Brian was lacking in support. Not the support of the media or the Democrat party but of the Unions.

You see Brian upset the Unions with his blatant display of capitalism with the Stillwater Mining takeover. What you say, our ex-governor is not only a capitalist but also a destroyer of the environment. Well yes… yes he is.

But that didn’t stop the unions or the Democrats from showing their support of this board member who supports the rape of the land (liberal viewpoint of mine owners).

We really need to invent new words for sycophants and hypocrisy. Because they don’t really describe how low the liberals have gone in their support of Schweitzer.

It will be a tough race. I hope we pick someone competent to run against whichever extremist liberal runs for the senate.

Guest post by Loki

By now we are pretty familiar with the Tsarnaev family. We know that the father and mother sought refugee status in the USA and brought their two children with them.

We know that a lot of questions are being asked and the Obama administration is doing their best to cover their collective asses. But I have a few questions that are not being asked by the media that I think should be answered.

• If Dagestan was so terrible why did the parents go back?
• If the USA was so terrible that the parents left why did the leave their children in such a horrible country?
• Did the parents ever hold a legitimate job or were they always on welfare?
• How did any of them get the money to make these trips back and forth to Dagestan?
• Did the family ever plan on becoming American citizens or was their plan always to eventually go back?
• If their plan was always to go back then why did they come here in the first place?
• Is lax revue of refugees being used to infiltrate America?
• Were any of the family registered to vote and with which party did they identify?

So far questions that are unanswered are all we have. But will there ever by any answers or will this be just another Bengasi cover up.

We know the Justice Department under Holder ruined the questioning of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev by Mirandizing him only 16 hours into the 48 hour limit and without telling the FBI in advance. What other road blocks will they throw up to cover their asses? And will they be able to delay answers till after the 2014 election?

Guest post by Loki

Well I was reading about how the liberals were celebrating Hitler’s birthday (April 20th) in Colorado this week. Oh wait, that was wrong, conservatives were supposed to be celebrating when they bombed the marathon in Boston. Or at least that was what the liberals and media talking heads were hoping. Well hoping is not exactly right. They were trying to blame the bombing on tax day, Hitler’s birthday, Waco, Timothy McVeigh… well anything that they falsely associate conservatives with. ‘Til of course the actual bombers were revealed to be ‘peace’ loving Muslim terrorists.

Anyway back to the narrative, the liberals were celebrating pot legalization ‘On a dark and stormy night’, no wait, it was the middle of the day. When the ‘peaceful’ rally was disrupted by gunfire. At least three were wounded. Which is like a gazillion times more than have ever been wounded by gunfire at those ‘evil hate filled’ Tea Party rallies.

Which just confuses me, I thought the meme was that pot smokers were peaceful? They wouldn’t be lying about that would they?

I wonder how long it will be before the ‘peace loving’ pot addicts will start making weekly trips to Montana because of our relative closeness. How many Montana addicts will be making the drive to Colorado to load up the minivan and return to Montana to become dealers to support their habits? Lots I’m betting. Spreading their ‘peaceful’ ways into out schools and society.

I will now fear public transportation and worry how my food is being prepared in the local restaurants and fast food joints. I will also have to avoid ‘peaceful’ pot rallies and go to those dangerous Tea Party rallies… which are much safer.

p.s. I have several pot heads in the family. Their world revolves around pot, booze and other related drugs. So before you liberals start with the anecdotal examples don’t bother. I hate to be bored.

Interesting side note. When I searched for a picture to go with this story I looked for “Pot sellers”, and the liberal Google site returned pictures of people selling clay pots. So lame.

Guest post by Loki

I could never understand liberal’s love of dictators and communist. For some reason they seem to gravitate to some of the worst dregs of the world. I am reminded of this because of the recent trip of Jay Z and Beyonce to Cuba.

But it is not just the trip to Cuba. Jay Z also chose to wear a “T” shirt with a picture of Che Guevara on it. Jay Z must be totally ignorant of Guevara’s history and his dislike of black people.

For those a bit younger who were not taught in school Guevara was the henchman for Fidel Castro. It is reported that he relished his position as head of the execution squads to kill all those who opposed Castro and capitalists. Trials were not considered a prerequisite to the executions. Women and children were also killed.

Jay Z is both a capitalist and black. Guevara would have executed him without a trial.

My only thought is that Jay Z being a deluded liberal thinks that he would be part of the ruling class because of his compassion.

It is sad that Jay Z and Guevara inspire today’s terrorists. Boston bomber quoted Jay Z the day after the bombing. “Ain’t no love in the heart of the city…”