It appears that we may be escaping the inferno that threatened the area for the past couple of days. The McDonald Pass fire which started Friday afternoon and had Helenans holding their breath all day yesterday went from “disaster in the making” to “Whew!” overnight. That’s a good thing.

What’s not so good is that the reason for the concern being so great is that we’re only a teensy spark away from a conflagration that could have unfathomable impacts on thousands of people on the south side of town. Nothing that has given cause for relief this weekend can be taken as assurance that the same factors will come into play the next time a blaze breaks out.

This is certainly not a new situation, and our city and county officials are not unaware of the problem. The question is – Have they and others who are in positions to impact the situation done enough to protect the citizens, businesses, and buildings in the area?

While the county commissioners were busy focusing their time, attention, and tax dollars on a non-existent “water crisis” in the north valley, the pine beetles were devastating the trees on the south hills. While the city fathers were agonizing over humane ways to cull the excess deer population, culling the dying trees was absent on the council agenda week after week. While the chamber folks were convening about branding the city, Mother Nature was conspiring to burn it down. While the Forest Service, DOI, FWP, and all the rest of the alphabet soup along with the private timber industry were doing whatever they could to promote healthy forest practices, the Sierra Club, MEIC, and the other wacko environmental advocacy groups were obfuscating. suing, and obstructing efforts to take the common-sense action that could prevent a wholesale disaster. While the Independent Record was waxing eloquently about our northern border and doing passionate exposes on mental illness, where were the editorials exhorting the powers-that-be to take action before the problem became severe?

When the worst happens, who will stand up and take the blame?

There will be plenty to go around.

In what has to be a textbook example of irrelevant political discourse, democrat challenger Dennis McDonald released a statement about Congressman Denny Rehberg’s behavior on the night of the boating accident on Flathead Lake.

Apparently, McDonald can’t find anything about Denny’s political choices to campaign against, particularly since the vast majority of Montanans oppose the current healthcare proposals and Washington’s out-of-control spending. And he probably has some understanding of the potential backlash against the Cap and Trade legislation should he come out in support of that.

So what’s a fella to do to get his name in the paper?

Come out and attack a guy who has a couple of drinks at a party and then rides in a boat??? NOT!!!!

Note to McDonald: Check out Abe Lincoln’s advice – “Better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt”.

This little morsel from the Special Report Grapevine:

Prince Charles is telling his citizens to hoof it.

Speaking about the “domination of the car over the pedestrian,” the British royal says developers have a duty to put public transportation and the pedestrian at the heart of their housing projects.

No word on whether the Prince plans on parking his two Jaguars, two Audis, a Range Rover or the vintage Aston Martin the queen gave him on his 21st birthday.

Was the Aston Martin vintage when he got it – or has it become so in the 40 years since? Either way – with that many years on it, shouldn’t it be called an antique? No, not him – the car.

I confess, sometimes I do watch a show or two on a network other than FOX News. Actually, I spend a fair amount of recreational viewing time tuned to HGTV and DIY Network. Would that my house looked like it was Divined Designed. Or Color Splashed. Possibly even House Crashed. I could deal with it. Trust me.

So I was curious when I discovered there might be a couple of new home improvement programs starting in the coming weeks. DIY has been trumpeting “Disaster House” which will premier in two weeks.

Disaster House suffers very real damage like dropping a half-ton piano from almost 10 stories high, sponsoring the first sanctioned roller derby inside the living room, and having Page, an 8,000-pound African Elephant, help clog the toilet.

The other show I heard about is called F.L.I.P. This House. Of course, my initial reaction was “already seen that”. And given the tanking of house prices over the past year or two it didn’t seem like the premise held enough potential for a new series. But, I figured I’d check it out. I mean, I’m a sucker for watching an out-dated, run-down, tired old structure revamped, spruced up, and once more a source of pride.

Turns out this program isn’t a made-for-TV series. It’s much more. It’s a made-for-America proposal, designed to totally reverse the irresponsible policies of the liberal Reid/Pelosi Congress. The teaser goes like this:

Tired of the political status quo
and Big Government Statism?
Then it’s time to Flip This House!

Starting with the 2010 elections conservative citizens have the opportunity to throw out the accumulated trash and porkulus currently defiling our nation’s capital. And the final reveal will be something to celebrate if these four design principles are adhered to: Free markets, Limited government, Individual and family liberties, & Private property and prosperity.

Move over Candice, David, and all you other design stars – American Patriots are moving in on your gig,

I’ve been a faithful viewer of Fox News Channel since 1996, when it first hit the airwaves. Over the years I’ve watched the major events unfold in a fair and balanced way. Lately the left has taken to denigrating Fox News and its viewers with a viciousness and snottiness that is, quite frankly, beyond offensive. Generally speaking, we conservatives have taken a “grin and bear it” approach to this kind of vilification. NO MORE!

I’ve had enough. I’ve had it up to my eyeballs with the arrogance of Chris Matthews, Keith Olberman, Rachel Maddow, Charlie Gibson, and others who think they are better, smarter, and somehow more entitled to express their views than I am to express mine. I’m tired of David Letterman’s and Bill Maher’s vulgar, race-baiting, ranting and immature attempts at satire that have attacked the most inappropriate targets. They aren’t funny, and they aren’t worth my time. I watched our President Wednesday night pander to the liberal spectrum by serving up a platter of disingenuous half-truths and out-and-out lies, spiced by ad hominem attacks on conservatives generally and specifically, seniors, and ordinary Americans who dare to question his policies and proposals. I’m over these obnoxious jerks. And apparently I am not alone.

From Drudge Report – ratings for September 10:

FOXNEWS O’REILLY 3,609,000
FOXNEWS BECK 3,340,000
FOXNEWS HANNITY 2,986,000
FOXNEWS GRETA 2,522,000
FOXNEWS BAIER 2,362,000
FOXNEWS SHEP 2,040,000
MSNBC OLBERMANN 1,573,000
MSNBC MADDOW 1,164,000
CNN KING 965,000
MSNBC HARDBALL 882,000
MSNBC SCHULTZ 734,000
CNN COOPER 691,000

So let’s see – in total, Fox had almost 17 million viewers compared to just over 4 million watching MSNBC and 1.7 million tuning into CNN. In other words Fox viewers outnumber the liberals about 3 to 1. When people have the freedom to choose their source for news programming, they tend to gravitate to the programs that they find they can trust.

That should be sending a message to the White House that preaching to the choir isn’t going to convert the heathens. But it doesn’t seem like Obama understands that pi**ing off a huge voting block can have negative impacts on his long-term leadership potential. He may be able to “Rahm” his healthcare plan through Congress, but it will come with a big price tag that will be paid in the 2010 elections. Because of Fox, the Silent Majority KNOWS what is in the bills in Congress. We know about and understand the out-of-control spending that has occurred since January 21, we comprehend the cap and trade legislation and what it will do to our personal finances as well as the country’s energy and economic future; we knew about Van Jones, and we’re watching the other 30+ czars that populate the Administration; we don’t trust ACORN, the SEIU, Nancy Pelosi, or Harry Reid because Fox News has presented both sides of the story and we have found the liberal message sorely lacking in credibility. We have made up our own minds. No matter how the liberal media spins it, Fox viewers are not the mindless lemmings they accuse us of being. We are knowledgeable, discerning, independent, and patriotic. We agree with and support our leaders when they are right and we call them to task when they are wrong.

We are FOX HOUNDS.

The American Foxhound is sweet, kind, loyal, and a very loving, intelligent creature. While on the hunt the foxhound is a warrior. Foxhounds are not nuisance barkers but they do have loud, deep voices that carry a great distance. They are independent by nature and will not follow commands unless it suits them. Training a foxhound can be a trying experience, they can be stubborn and don’t respond to negative reinforcement well.

If the description fits…

No, I’m not kidding. Things like this happen all the time around here.

Sure they do. But I haven’t got a clue why.

Okay everyone, the draft of THE speech is out, and the overblown fears of those Americans who have come to mistrust this administration – with good cause – can be put to rest.

I just have one question: Who the hell wrote the introduction??? American kids are a pretty demanding audience – and the first three paragraphs of this speech are yawners. For such an exhaulted speechifier, the intro sure sucks on this one. If any kids are still listening after the first fifteen seconds, they will probably find the underlying message important, and – except for a few too many self-references – for the most part pretty good. I personally think that the little ones – Kindergarteners – 4th graders – are too young to sit through all the rhetoric, but the older kids – especially those in middle school/junior high – are exactly the targets for this “believe in yourself and work hard” message.

As a parent, though, I doubt that most school kids will really pay that much attention. He may be the President of the United States, but to a kid, he’s just another grown-up, and they stopped listening to grown-ups around the age of two.

So, for those of you who were concerned about a potentially anti-American message, don’t worry. The message is PG rated. And the audience is far more interested in who’s wearing what, who’s talking or not talking to whom, who’s cool and who’s not, and other really IMPORTANT things. NBD.

I bet you thought that the so-called “Death Panels” were the scariest things in the Democrats’ proposed healthcare plans. Nay, not so, my friend. You are oh so wrong.

Byron York has a piece in the Washington Examiner that rivals any Stephen King novel for sending chills down your back:

But if the plan envisioned by President Barack Obama and Congressional Democrats is enacted, the primary federal bureaucracy responsible for implementing and enforcing national health care will be an old and familiar one: the Internal Revenue Service. Under the Democrats’ health care proposals, the already powerful — and already feared — IRS would wield even more power and extend its reach even farther into the lives of ordinary Americans, and the presidentially-appointed head of the new health care bureaucracy would have access to confidential IRS information about millions of individual taxpayers.
In short, health care reform, as currently envisioned by Democratic leaders, would be built on the foundation of an expanded and more intrusive IRS.
Under the various proposals now on the table, the IRS would become the main agency for determining who has an “acceptable” health insurance plan; for finding and punishing those who don’t have such a plan; for subsidizing individual health insurance costs through the issuance of a tax credits; and for enforcing the rules on those who attempt to opt out, abuse, or game the system. A substantial portion of H.R. 3200, the House health care bill, is devoted to amending the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 in order to give the IRS the authority to perform these new duties.

If you haven’t assumed the fetal position yet, read the whole story here.

Just a thought… How would this affect Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner? Or Charlie Rangle? Oh, right, never mind. They’d be exempt from the whole program. I forgot. Silly me.

Well, vacation’s over for the big guy in the White House. August was evidently a ton of fun as the presidential entourage traveled around the country taking a quick peek at the locals to try to gage the temperature of the great unwashed masses. Even after carefully orchestrating the campaign stops townhall meetings so that only a teensy minority of the non-kool-aid drinkers were allowed into the hallowed presence of The One, it seems like someone on the staff actually got a whiff of the outrage wafting up from the globally warmed grassroots.

With his approval ratings falling like a homey’s gansta pants, Obama has come to a brilliant conclusion: It’s time to take a leadership role. Ya’ think???? All this time we’ve been hearing that this guy’s some sort of genius and finally he figures this out? Talk about a remedial grasp of the obvious.

“Which Way Did They Go? How Many Were There? How Fast Were They Going? I Must Find Them … I Am Their Leader!”

This ought to be a fun watch:

The Left-wing Nuts are insisting on a single-payer, universal healthcare plan that’s free for everybody, the Liberal Elites are focusing on a public-option, hoping to slip in the single-payer government plan by using the ever-popular reconciliation process, the Moderate Democrats are thinking they could live with co-ops (as long as they don’t have to define them), but they’re willing to vilify the insurance companies, figuring no one will notice that’s who would be running the co-ops, and the Blue Dogs are chasing their tails trying to find a friendly place to lay down and hide.

We haven’t even gotten to the independents, the conservatives, the TEA Party folks, the seniors, and Sarah Palin and the Death Panel chorus.

And the political lightweight who hasn’t even led a Girl Scout Troop on a field trip thinks he can whip this circus into shape???

Go get ’em wrangler!