Driving from Missoula to Helena the other day: Gorgeous blue Montana sky, brilliant sunshine on the soft green grasses, rich dark swaths blanketing the mountainsides. God’s country. It’s why we live here. But then you look more closely, and you realize that the whole forest has become a deadly kaleidoscope of tans and rusts, reds and greens. All these public lands; little more than a huge tinderbox just waiting for the inevitable conflagration. National forests, state lands. Acre upon acre of wilderness – managed by your federal, state, and local government bureaucrats. Because they have the expertise and knowledge to know how to take care of things so much better than the private sector. They’re responsible for the long and short term planning to assure strong, healthy forests.

Doesn’t seem like they’ve been up to the task, does it?

And now they want to manage our healthcare system?

Way to much deadwood for my comfort.

Ok, I know, this musical interlude is getting a bit – well, overdone. But I can’t help it. There’s just so much good stuff out there. And I have to share…

You knew it was gonna happen. Here it is…

A toe-tapping eye-opener…

H/T to FLMom at mostly4us.com

Okay, let’s start the weekend with a chuckle…

A woman in a hot air balloon realized she was lost. She lowered her altitude and spotted a man in a boat below. She shouted to him, “Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don’t know where I am.”

The man consulted his portable GPS and replied, “You’re in a hot air balloon, approximately 30 feet above a ground elevation of 2,346 feet above sea level. You are at 31 degree, 14.97 minutes north latitude and 100 degrees, 49.09 minutes west longitude.

“She rolled her eyes and said, ‘You must be a Republican.”

“I am,” replied the man. “How did you know?”

“Well,” answered the balloonist, “everything you told me is technically correct. But I have no idea what to do with your information, and I’m still lost. Frankly, you’ve not been much help to me.”

The man smiled and responded, “You must be an Obama Democrat.”

“I am,” replied the balloonist. “How did you know?”

“Well,” said the man, “you don’t know where you are or where you are going. You’ve risen to where you are, due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise you have no idea how to keep, and you expect me to solve your problem. You’re in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but somehow, now it’s my fault.”

H/T to my friend LLV

In case you haven’t heard yet – the judge in the GM bankruptcy case has ruled that your stimulus tax dollars are more appropriately used to support jobs in Russia and South Africa rather than here in Montana.

Can you friggin’ believe it???? Over $63 billion dollars from hard-working Americans has been paid out to keep GM from going – pardon the expression – tits up, and the American judicial system approves GM’s request to cancel its contract with Stillwater Mining – the only American producer of palladium and platinum – in favor of “lower cost” contracts with foreign suppliers.

When this story first broke, several state bloggers mentioned it and just the other day an online petition circulated gathering signatures to send to our Congressional delegation. Senators Baucus and Tester, Rep. Rehberg, and Governor Schweitzer all issued press releases indicating they were opposed to GM’s request and I assume they made whatever contacts they could – apparently to no avail. I have no idea where the United Steel Workers’ International Union has been, but evidently the UAW and their fancy lawyers couldn’t be bothered to enter an amicus brief on behalf of their union brothers – so I guess Stillwater was just friendless and SOL on this one.

There probably isn’t much we can do to actually change anything, but we can let GM’s new CEO know how we feel about this incredibly anti-American decision. Turns out that General Motors Co. Chief Executive Frederick “Fritz” Henderson is launching a public-relations salvo by activating an online suggestion box called Tell Fritz. If you can think of anything that you might want to share with this stupid jerk brilliant executive about his decision to save foreign companies at the expense of hardworking Montanans, why don’t you shoot a little public relations salvo of your own.

After I finish chewing a bag of nails and spitting out a couple of bags of tacks, I plan to chat with Fritz myself and suggest what he might do with his foreign contracts. I’m pretty sure it will involve some extreme anatomical gymnastics.

Healthcare reform is certainly one of the biggest issues facing this administration. There’s is probably nobody in the country who thinks there isn’t room for improvement in the way Americans receive and pay for their medical services. It’s an issue that has been staring us in the face for years and it is probably as good a time as any to have an honest debate about what kind or kinds of options we need and want.

But, although I’m hearing a whole bunch of noise, and a lot of gibberish, to be really honest, I’m not hearing much that makes me feel warm and fuzzy.

Underlying the whole concept of “healthcare reform” are two diametrically opposed goals: Reducing costs and providing coverage for the 45 – 50 million people who do not have insurance. So far the discussion being led by our elected officials seems to address none of the inherent impediments to achieving these objectives.

If we are to reduce the cost of healthcare, the first place to look would be tort reform. Reducing the cost of providing medical products and services is absolutely necessary. And yet, not one of the proposals in front of Congress includes this most basic reform. In all the blather about the wonderful care available to Canadians, Brits, Swiss, French and German, I have yet to hear a mention about the malpractice liability limits or the product liability that drives the cost of pharmaceuticals.

Similarly, trying to get a straight answer out of the White House about just who will or won’t be included in this marvelous universal plan is an exercise in futility. Will only American citizens be eligible? Or do we extend coverage to legal and illegal immigrants? Politicians sure as hell don’t want to be quoted on this little matter.

On the other hand, what we do know about the proposals being debated in Congress is that the cost of these reforms, instead of reducing the cost of healthcare, will practically bankrupt the country and destroy the economy. And yet President Obama, facing a revolt by centrist Democrats in Congress over the cost of overhauling the health-care system, warned Friday that “now is not the time to slow down.”

And these issues are simply the beginning. There is much yet that the American public should debate. We are not ready to come to a conclusion – not anywhere near ready. The dialogue should start in earnest now – based on facts and honest proposals – not fear and threats and political gamesmanship. But the president has an agenda that he would rather shove down our throats.

He might be wise to back off, however:

“Deceit is in haste, but honesty can wait a fair leisure.”

Haste and hurry can only bear children with many regrets along the way.”

“Haste does not result in prosperity.”

“Haste makes waste and waste makes want.”

“He that is too much in haste, may stumble on a good road.”

“Nothing is more vulgar than haste.”

“The devil takes a hand in what is done in haste.”

“Act in haste, repent at leisure.”

CNSNews.com reports on an interview to be published in Sunday’s New York Times Magazine that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said she thought the landmark Roe v. Wade decision on abortion was predicated on the Supreme Court majority’s desire to diminish “populations that we don’t want to have too many of.”

Huh?

Did she say that she thought the Roe decision was a prelude to ethnic cleansing? And as a liberal woman she supports the “right to choose”; presumably that can be interpreted to mean that she supported the liberal Burger Court’s 7 – 2 decision. And she opposed the Hyde Amendment that prohibited Medicaid funds from being used to pay for abortions because that would have prevented “poor women” from having ready access to them.

In 1973 – what ethnic groups in the United States were “poorest” and, at least as a percentage of their total population, were the largest segments of the welfare society? Jews? Nope. Italians? Nah. Irish? Not a chance. Asians? Yeah, particularly with the influx of Vietnamese refugees . Hispanics? They were becoming a significant demographic in some areas of the country. But there was one specific group that was perceived as a huge component of the bottom of the socioeconomic strata in the US. Can we say “blacks”? You betcha.

Okay – so let’s examine the logic here. The Roe v Wade decision was a liberal interpretation of the Constitution by the liberal majority of a generally acknowledged liberal Supreme Court, which was embraced by Justice Ginsburg, one of the most liberal judges in the country today. And she thought abortion was a means to control the size of certain “populations”, and was opposed to attempts to prevent funding for the poor.

Holy buckets, Batman. Does this mean that we’ve been bamboozled by all that PC doublespeak that sounded like the liberals were sooooooo concerned with the well-being of the downtrodden? The poor, the tired, the huddled masses. When in fact, the liberal intelligensia really was planning on funding their self-extinction? First by legalizing abortions – and now by promoting the “right to die” (euthanasia) and socialized healthcare, which inevitably will result in rationing – ala Dick Lamm’s “obligation to die” for the old and chronically infirm.

Think I’m being farfetched? Look at Europe – where the birthrate in many countries is below sustainable levels for certain groups – primarily the ones that bought into the liberal/socialist agenda.

Conclusion: Liberals have created a means to assure their own self-destruction, and conservatives are the only ones standing in the way. Because, at the end of the day, liberals hate everybody.

“I Love Humanity, It’s People I Can’t Stand” – Linus VanPelt

Everyone of us is accountable to someone. No big deal. We’re expected to do certain things, perform in certain ways, accomplish certain tasks, achieve certain goals. No matter what our job, “the boss” has a right to demand that we do the work for which we were hired and for which we are paid. Pretty simple concept – and one that most of us accept as fair and reasonable – or else we don’t keep the job for very long because the boss will fire our sorry butts for failure to meet the demands of the position. The HR folks call this “Management by Objective” – where clearly defined standards are communicated to the employee, so that when the evaluation process takes place it is no surprise to the poor schmuck when he learns that the boss wasn’t so thrilled with his job performance after all.

The same concept should apply to our elected officials.

When we elect our Congressional representatives, we are, plain and simply, hiring them to do a job – represent our interests in the legislative duties of government. We understand that on controversial legislation, there is no way any one person can “represent” both the supporters and the opposition on any given bill. But we do have the right to expect the our representatives and senators will read and understand the legislation they vote on. Over the past several months a majority of the members of both the House and Senate voted to spend billions and billions of taxpayer dollars WITHOUT EVER HAVING READ THE FRIGGIN’ BILLS!!!! Derelection of duty – pure and simple. It is not acceptable that “a staffer” has read the bill. If we wanted to rely on some staffer – we would have voted for the damn staffer!!! Apparently there has been a “failure to communicate”. This must change.

So here’s the deal: The Let Freedom Ring organization has mailed out pledge cards to all 535 members of congress asking them to pledge that they will read the healthcare bill before voting on it. The pledge doesn’t obligate the legislators to vote any particular way – it just obligates them to do the basic job for which they were elected. The cards went out earlier this week and the Exec. Dir of the group said they will give the Congressional members two weeks to respond and then they will release the names of those who responded and those who didn’t. (I expect that Denny Hoyer’s obnoxiously condescending response will hit YouTube much sooner.)

If you think that the healthcare bill might possibly be an important piece of legislation that warrants at least the minimal level of effort on the part of Denny Rehberg, Max Baucus, and Jon Tester (or for my out-of-state readers – insert names of your rep and senators), call or email each of them and let them know that you – THEIR BOSS – fully expect them to sign the pledge and then read the healthcare bill before voting on it.

And, oh yeah, remind them that when the time comes to evaluate their performance with an eye to continued employment, this is one of the “performance standards” that your vote will be based on.

So now we’ve had a few hours to reflect on yesterday’s bombshell. What do you think precipitated Sarah Palin’s announcement? Vote now!