Nope, not talking about the NFL – they’re three weeks into the pre-season with one more to go before the real stuff starts. Not Carroll College’s Fighting Saints who blew Azusa Pacific out of the game early on last Saturday afternoon. Even the Capitol and Helena High initial gridiron matches are in the history books.

But this Tuesday, September 1, the starting pistol for the campaign for the seat on the Lewis & Clark County Commission goes off with an unusual bang: Andy Hunthausen will be the guest speaker at the Last Chance Pachyderm Club luncheon.

“What makes this the opening salvo?”, you ask. After all, it is Andy’s cohort Mike Murray who is up for election next year – not Andy. For most residents of Lewis & Clark County that’s a difference without much distinction these days. Our own hometown version of the Three Stooges – Ed Tinsley, along with Mike and Andy, ganged up on the citizens of this county with a couple of dishonest and heavy-handed attempts to implement emergency water restrictions and an unconstitutional road fee a few years ago that had nothing to do with good governance and everything to do with a liberal anti-growth agenda.

As the soap opera unfolded, it became apparent that the commissioners, led by Tinsley, but eagerly trailed by Tweeledee and Tweedledum, were – shall we say – a bit over zealous in their haste to impose unwarranted and unnecessary restrictions by, ummm, somehow causing the results of certain chemical analysis data to be “misrepresented” by county staff. This idiocy cost Tinsley his seat last November. More recently, District Judge Jeff Sherlock (no right-wing thinker himself) came down with a sharply critical ruling about the commissioners’ “arbitrary, capricious and unlawful” actions in imposing development fees far in excess of the justifiable costs. But instead of learning from the election results, Mike and Andy are reluctant to see the error of their ways and have publicly continued to defend their decisions. Ergo, they have huge targets painted on their behinds.

Since Murray was on the commission when the illegally astronomic road fees were assessed, he seems to be hiding behind the ever-popluar “no comment on pending litigation” excuse. So Andy is the designated sacrificial lamb who has to defend these outrageous actions to a group of well-informed, educated, articulate, conservatives who haven’t been all that impressed with very much of anything involving governmental regulation lately. Things could get kind of exciting at Jorgenson’s this week.

Cue the lions.

In case you missed the economic news roundup …

Amen.

UPDATE:

For those of you who thought Governor Palin’s characterization of the bureaucratic commissions that will determine your level of care was over the top, listen to this and then tell me what you’d call it. Remember this piece is from a Portland, Oregon (read uber-liberal) television network. The Oregon Healthplan started in the mid-nineties and from the start involved rationing of care. Then when the “Assisted-Suicide” law was enacted this is exactly what has evolved.

If this is not a “Death Panel” what is it?

The American Medical Association weighs in on healthcare reform:

The Allergists voted to scratch it, but the Dermatologists advised
not to make any rash moves.
The Gastroenterologists had sort of a gut feeling about it,
but the Neurologists thought the Administration had a lot of nerve.
The Obstetricians felt they were all laboring under a misconception.
The Ophthalmologists considered the idea shortsighted.
Pathologists yelled, “Over my dead body!” while the Pediatricians said,
‘Oh, Grow up!’
The Psychiatrists thought the whole idea was madness,
while the Radiologists could see right through it.
Surgeons decided to wash their hands of the whole thing.
The Internists thought it was a bitter pill to swallow, and the
Plastic Surgeons said, “This puts a whole new face on the matter.”
The Podiatrists thought it was a step forward,
but the Urologists were pissed off at the whole idea.
The Anesthesiologists thought the whole idea was a gas,
and the Cardiologists didn’t have the heart to say no.

In the end, the Proctologists won out, leaving the entire decision up
to the assholes in Washington.

H/T and thanks to my favorite liberal, Kathleen!

It’s becoming increasingly clear that both sides in the healthcare reform debate are talking past each other. Hardly surprising, I guess. But at the heart of this disconnect lies a very serious problem – a senior citizen problem. The townhall meetings aren’t being disrupted by long-haired, disheveled, tattooed, dope heads. Take a look at the crowds. Mom. Dad. Grandma and Grandpa, Aunt Marge and Uncle Fred.

The 55+ demographic is the opposition to the Democrat’s rush to a government takeover of the American healthcare system – and they aren’t just upset. They’re scared and they’re mad, and they DO NOT trust the President, his minions, or the nimrods in Congress who vote on thousand-page bills without reading them – spending untold trillions on undefined shovel-ready government boondoggles, corporate bailouts, and ill-considered cap and trade programs likely to raise their energy costs by huge amounts. Now those same politicians tell them that they can provide more healthcare coverage to more people at no increased cost, and you’d better believe that the trust factor with this group is in the negative numbers and dropping faster Bill Clinton’s trousers in a sorority house.

The biggest problem the liberals are having in selling whatever-the-hell healthcare reform they’re peddling is that this particular group isn’t made up of the naive innocents who are easily charmed by the hopey changitude rainbows and unicorns that seduced the media and the terminal victims of Bush Derangement Syndrome during the campaign last fall. The last of the Greatest Generation and the majority of the Baby Boomers have been around the block a time or two and they learned a few things from the School of Experience. Many of these people lived thorough the Great Depression, and World War, and/or at least the Cold War, including some bad times, and some good ones. The Carter years and the Reagan years. They can tell the difference between a lump in the oatmeal and a lump in the breast, and they know which one can’t be ignored without dire results. Many of them are retired and computer literate. They’ve done the research for themselves; they can read and understand the information. Some of them were in fact, rocket scientists; many of them survived Woodstock and VietNam. They raised families and worked hard for whatever they have today. They are not stupid and they didn’t drink the Kool-Aid. They grew up asking the big questions and/or challenging the government. They aren’t about to stop now.

And that’s where the problem arises. This Administration has never come up against this kind of force and they aren’t prepared to defend their plan(s). Even Camille Paglia, brilliant liberal columnist for salon.com, challenges The One:

Obama’s aggressive endorsement of a healthcare plan that does not even exist yet, except in five competing, fluctuating drafts, makes Washington seem like Cloud Cuckoo Land… I just don’t get it. Why the insane rush to pass a bill, any bill, in three weeks? And why such an abject failure by the Obama administration to present the issues to the public in a rational, detailed, informational way? The U.S. is gigantic; many of our states are bigger than whole European nations. The bureaucracy required to institute and manage a nationalized health system here would be Byzantine beyond belief and would vampirically absorb whatever savings Obama thinks could be made. And the transition period would be a nightmare of red tape and mammoth screw-ups, which we can ill afford with a faltering economy…. You can keep your doctor; you can keep your insurance, if you’re happy with it, Obama keeps assuring us in soothing, lullaby tones. Oh, really?

This group isn’t that easily lulled. When the President stands up in front of a greenhouse crowd (full of “plants”) and asserts, “We are not talking about cutting Medicare benefits” this audience doesn’t think, “Whew – we were concerned for a minute there.” Nope – this bunch immediately concludes, “Right – you’re not talking about it – you’re just planning to do it and hope we don’t notice.”

They’re noticing that the message coming from Washington doesn’t pass the smell test.

They understand that universal healthcare, a single-payer plan, or even a public-private option plan that promises to provide increased access and coverage for an additional 45 – 50 million people has to cost more. Yesterday in Bozeman, Randy Rathie of Ekalaka, confronted the President, “We keep getting the bull (about what’s going on), that’s all we get,” and said there’s no way to pay for health reforms without raising taxes. Obama replied by agreeing with Rathie, saying “I can’t cover another 46 million people for free,” but said he had promised not to raise taxes on those earning less than $250,000 a year. “For people like myself, who make more than ($250,000), there’s nothing wrong with me paying a little bit more to help people who make a little bit less,” he said. But his audience knows that those who earn over $250,000 a year could pay 100% of that income in taxes and it wouldn’t cover the cost of universal healthcare – so they KNOW – beyond a shadow of a doubt – that just like what has happened with Medicare and Social Security – that everyone will have to shoulder a bigger tax burden. And that isn’t working for them so much either.

They KNOW that government run healthcare will mean rationed healthcare. It’s a matter of math and logic. When Sarah Palin charges that the inevitable decisions about who gets or doesn’t get needed health care will be made by a bureaucratic “death panel”, this audience remembers Dick Lamm telling older Americans that they have an “obligation” to die so that the young and healthy can live. They know about Ezekial Emanuel’s writings on that subject and understand that is the basic philosophy of the White House insiders. They checked out Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), the “Angel of Death” who authored Section 1233 of HR3200 and learned that he is one of the most fervent proponents of Oregon’s Right to Die law. And somehow that just doesn’t inspire warm fuzzies in Grandma’s world.

The President has taken to the campaign trail to try to reverse the opposition to his bold plan to reform this country’s healthcare system. So far it doesn’t seem like he’s been able to convert the unbelievers. The Word has gone forth and fallen on deaf ears. Brother O’s Traveling Salvation Show* plays to the choir, but the congregation isn’t chiming in with the great “Amens”.

*H/T to my blogger buddy “pistolpetestoys”. Love it!

Please feel free to forward this message to flag@whitehouse.gov. Perhaps this administration will get the message that there are Americans left out here who are willing to stand up and even fight for our country against all tyranny, foreign or DOMESTIC. While you are at it, maybe you can add a few thoughts of your own, and share it with your friends, so they can be as patriotic as you.

Dear President Obama, et. al. ~

In order to save some time and effort on the part of the minions that you have encouraged to spy on me, I am writing to turn myself in regarding your official White House request for people to contact you and let you know if they have heard any rumors and ‘casual conversations,’ or seen any e-mails surfacing against your so-called ‘health insurance reform’ bill.

Not only have I seen these things, but I have also forwarded them to everyone in my address book, posted about them this blog, other message boards and Face Book ad nauseam and I have discussed them (out loud!) in public restaurants during dinner with my friends and family members. I have worked to expose the absurdity of your scheme to destroy America over the phone, internet and fax when I corresponded with my duly elected representatives in an effort to let them know my views in opposition to this horrific bill so that they can actually REPRESENT me in voting against it. I’ve signed several internet petitions and joined online groups opposing this travesty!

I have dared to exercise my FREEDOM of SPEECH, (as guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States the last time I looked), in my frequent writings against this bill to deconstruct my way of life.

I listen to talk radio. Worse yet, I listen to CONSERVATIVE talk radio with the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Fred Thompson. And to top that off, I actually LAUGHED at several jokes that may not have been as politically correct on this issue as you demand, but at least they weren’t directed at innocent Special Olympic kids.

Oh yeah… I dress nicely for a member of a mob ~ certainly not as lavishly as Michelle Obama in her $500 tennis shoes, but I’m probably a little more presentable than most of the “entitled” thugs in your “spontaneous” mobs ~ you know, the poor, disadvantaged and uneducated lazy bums you have inspired to join ACORN to train to be ‘professional’ agitators. What’s more I can actually read the signs I make myself and carry!

OK ~ I’m guilty as charged! I’m a conservative, pro-life, Jesus loving Christian, an active Republican, proud Sarah Palin supporting, white woman. I’m old enough for AARP, but I wouldn’t belong to that group of progressive-liberal hacks for all the senior-citizen discounts in the world. English is my only language. I am a patriotic, hard working, tax-paying American citizen with a certified copy of my original birth certificate, who loves my country with no apologies and I don’t bow down to anyone, let alone terrorist dictators. I support the troops, respect my elders, and eat too much apple pie, so there’s plenty of me for the health Czar to shun in public. People know who I am. None of my records are sealed. I’m not afraid and don’t hide my true self behind LIES or a platoon of highly paid attorneys like you do.

I don’t appreciate you screwing over America and I’m going to continue to express my TRANSPARENT opinion against your pompous, radical actions in every way I can.

What the HELL are YOU going to do about it?

Sincerely,

A Loyal American Citizen

Ok – maybe not THE Oscar, but hey – we shan’t get bogged down in details. Tonight was the showing of the films entered in the Myrna Loy Short Film Festival. Here’s my favorite. Completely brilliant. That’s a totally unbiased and objective opinion. Honest.

So what if I’m related to the artist? To quote the great Ogden Nash, “I know what I like, Me knows what art is”.

Anyway it was a fun project and the result is worth a look. Enjoy.

First, do no harm.
Second, if you have to harm somebody, stick it to those who tried to screw you.

Notice how we haven’t heard too much comment from government workers about this issue? How many press releases have you read from the American Federation of Government Employees extolling the virtues of HR3200? Did you see all those talking heads from the National Federation of Federal Employees on the Sunday news shows raving about the benefits of single-payer versus public-option plans? And how about all the PAC money from the National Treasury Employees Union that’s being spent on PSAs explaining how universal healthcare is being eagerly anticipated by the 14.6 million government employees?

What’s that you say, Bunky? You haven’t read, heard, or seen any of those things? Hmmm….. The silence is deafening, isn’t it?

That’s because all these bills will have little to no effect on government employees. They get to “keep their existing plan”. When Darrell Issa, the ranking Republican member on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, on July 17 urged the committee’s chairman, Rep. Edolphus Towns, to hold a hearing to examine what impact reform would have on federal employees’ healthcare, Towns declined, saying that any impact would be “limited.” Talk about a loophole! So good little union soldiers that they are, their little government lips are sealed. Not a peep out of them. Word gets out about the fix on this one and all hell will break loose.

Word’s out now, guys. You’re busted.

Here’s where I come down on the whole bloomin’ healthcare issue: Nothin’ gets passed unless there’s a provision that all Federal employees, including elected and appointed officials and staff in all branches and agencies are full participants in the plan. From day one. Exact same provisions, terms, conditions, from the President and First Family all the way down to the cleaning crew at the federal prisons.

If it’s good enough for us – it is damn well good enough for those who work for us. Period.

Whodda thunk it? This blog has reached the ripe old age of 3. Happy Blothday to 2 Helena Handbaskets!!! It’s been an interesting experiment – and definitely a learning experience.

What have I learned, you ask?

Well… I’ve learned that to be a successful blogger, you have to post regularly. You lose your audience if you go away for weeks at a time. I have also learned that certain topics will attract readers like flies. Mention Obama’s birth certificate or Sarah Palin’s divorce and the internet trolls flock to read what you write. Of course, putting those topics in the headline makes the traffic even heavier. (You have to love those search engines.) Speaking of headlines – I haven’t yet determined if it’s better to start with a clever headline and then figure out what to write or vice-versa. Kinda depends on the day. Headlines can also impact the geographic make-up of a blog’s readership. Mention the name of a place in a headline and guaranteed – someone from there will drop by – and hopefully come back from time to time.

Readership is the objective. And possibly comments. Comments are double-edged swords though. Early on I decided I didn’t have the time or inclination to deal with a whole lot of conflict and discussion, so this blog is not where you’ll usually find a string of comments after a post. Every once in a while we get a good conversation going though so it’s always interesting to see what’s on the comments page.

Mostly, I’ve learned some new techno-tricks. I can post pictures, videos, and links to other blogs and sites. Thanks be to Apple and personal genius son, without whom I never would have been able to start, let alone, continue with this endeavor.

Besides the educational opportunities, the very best thing about this blog is the new friends I’ve met as a result of it. Craig, Gregg, Doug, Jamie, Carol, Steve, the other Steve, “Anonymouses”, and a ton of virtual friends who still don’t have faces, but nonetheless have become treasures in my world – RP, jlw, Mike, Andy, Jack, FLMom, TXMom, TNMom, Julieann, NeeNee, Lynne, Pistol Pete, and the rest of the gang from HillBuzz (which seems to be off the ether right now, but hopefully will be back soon) and Mostly4us.

On my very first post – yea those three long years ago – I climbed up on my soapbox and pontificated on what I expected this blog to become. I think I’ve mostly stayed pretty true to my vision – not a 100%, but close enough. After all, you have to be willing to change and adapt, right? One thing’s for sure – I do this blog my way – and I have a blast doing it. And as I said back then, “It’s good to be Queen”.

Thanks to all of you who have made blogging a wonderful part of my days. God bless!!!

And keep coming back, y’hear. I check my stats on Mint every day.