Monthly Archives: June 2010

McChrystalled

Taking time out of my busy vacation schedule to watch the World Cup and the latest shenanigans from the Obama Administration, I watched General Stanley McChrystal get replaced (fired is a better word) today as the top war commander in Afghanistan by his Commander in Chief, Barack Obama.

Here in the Midwest with the heat index over 100 degrees, I just had to find a cool air-conditioned spot to let off some steam about the latest move by Obama.

In my opinion, it was a terrible move to fire McChrystal and one that will set back the war effort in Afghanistan by a year or more. There seems to be some discontent in our ranks from the lowest enlisted person to the highest Generals with our country’s current leaders in regards to a plan for Afghanistan.

Obama has named General David Petraeus to succeed McChrystal. During his speech announcing the replacement, I waited for the part where Obama would say, “This is all George Bush’s fault” but it did not happen. McCrystal was Obama’s man and his man alone.

General Petraeus did not faint, either, which is a good sign.

One thing I got from Obama’s announcement was that if you are in the military you had dammed-well better respect Joe (bite me) Biden and Barack and our (inept) civilians in charge of the military plus those ambassadors in Iraq and Afghanistan or your butts will be out quicker than Obama can say “fore” on a golf course. In other words, you will be “McChrystalled” Continue reading →

On the Road with Jack (II)

Leaving Rapid City, South Dakota, we drove by Ellsworth AFB where, if I remember correctly, was spared from being closed by Senator John Thune.

After a few miles, we stopped at Wall Drug where one can spend hours browsing around the stores and taking photos. There are 76,000 square feet of Wall Drug to explore! Everyone should make a stop at Wall Drug – it’s worth the time.

After Wall Drug, we headed on east on I-90. It was a beautiful day. We stopped in Murdo, South Dakota, which happens to be where Senator Thune grew up. Continue reading →

Big 12

Living part of my life in the Midwest, I followed the Big 8 and then the Big 12 in football and basketball and still get my fix on college basketball and football by following the teams, especially MIZ-ZOU.

They had a good thing going, but it appears it is about to end.

Colorado recently decided to head to the PAC 10. I’ve heard rumors that Nebraska may jump to the Big 10. A friend of mine who lives in Nebraska told me the times have changed in the Big 12 and that the members of the former Big 8 conference were getting a little tired of the Big 12 being centered on the Texas teams.

I read that Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State may go to the PAC 10 making it a mega-conference with an east and west division. Continue reading →

Chicken

The Daily Interlake ran an editorial today about Montana’s two Senators, Max Baucus and Jon Tester, dodging constituents. You can read it HERE. Gregg over at the Electric City Weblog gave his comments. You can read them HERE.

The Interlake editorial started with this line, “It appears Montana’s two senators have joined a national trend in Democrats avoiding wide-open town hall meetings in recent months.”

They ended their editorial with this line, “Tester is not up for election for two years and Baucus not for four, but someday they will probably have to face the heat from their critics in Montana. They can’t lie low forever.”

Hopefully other major daily newspapers in Montana will take notice of our senators being too chicken to meet constituents.

Like the Interlake, I also received Jon Tester’s e-mail about his travels around the state. It’s nice that he can play Taps at Veterans cemeteries. He also told us he held a couple of meetings. It appears these meetings were “controlled” and only for invited guests which has become the typical way for Democrats to hold their meetings. Even the New York Times has noticed this disturbing trend.

Tester and Baucus should be out and about meeting Montanans face to face to hear their concerns – just like our Congressman, Denny Rehberg, does on a regular basis – and Rehberg holds these meetings with less staff and less funding than the Senators, all the while covering the same area. Continue reading →

Internal Turmoil

Now that the primary is over, a couple of stories about the problems in the Republican Party caught my eye.

The first story by the Associated Press had the headline, “Denny Rehberg hears primary’s tea party message” was pretty funny. You can read it HERE.

This line caught my attention: “…but political observers say the GOP primary should serve as a wake-up call for Denny Rehberg all the same.”

Silliness. Some of these political observers really amaze me with their predictions and analysis. I often wonder how many campaigns they have volunteered for or advised, or if they have ever run for office.

Rehberg took 75% of the vote and did little campaigning. The “constitutional” candidate (French) took 19% of the vote. The “moderate” candidate (Otjen) received 6%.

It appears by this vote the Republicans want someone in the middle of the conservative scale and Rehberg fills that slot nicely for them. Continue reading →

Montana Election 2010: McDonald vs. Rehberg

Election night is a major event for me. I love to watch the votes come in and see who wins the races. Thanks to all (over 300) who followed my updates in Twitter throughout the evening.

I stayed up late last night waiting for the Cascade County to get their results in to the Secretary of State’s office, but gave up. I read in the Great Falls Tribune this morning that the count was not done at 1:30 a.m. There’s something seriously wrong in the Cascade County elections department when they are consistently last in counting the votes.

It was also fun and somewhat comical to watch the Montana media try to keep up with the results. Hopefully they will improve a little before the big event in November.

A round of applause goes to Montana Secretary of State Linda McCulloch and the great website she has up and running for the election. Good job.

Montana At-Large Primary: Continue reading →

Kiss and Make-Up?

I happened to catch a story in the Billings Gazette regarding the Republican primary for U.S. Congress. It’s one of those races in which one candidate (Mark French) says the other (Denny Rehberg) is not conservative enough, yada, yada.

Let’s just hope they kiss and make-up after the primary is over. It may be tough.

It seems “Constitutional” Republican Mark French had called the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) unconstitutional, but was accepting farm subsidies from the USDA. At first he said it was not him getting the subsidies, but later confessed that he was. You can read the story HERE.

It appears Rehberg supporters discovered the error on French. That’s great research and shame on French for not telling the facts. Continue reading →

We’re All Alright?

I’ve been traveling the last few days and hadn’t had a chance to comment on some of the stories in the news. But I am back now and ready to offer some commentary.

First up are a couple of defense stories I read:

According to a recent story in the Great Falls Tribune, local and Federal officials who follow Malmstrom AFB apparently believe they will only lose a few missiles under the new START Treaty. Supposedly, each of the three missile bases will lose 10 missiles. Supposedly.

Of course, Senators Jon Tester and Max Baucus are taking credit for Malmstrom only losing a few missiles, which have not been removed, yet. I guess we should give them credit for that and for allowing the DoD to take the 50 missiles in 2007 (and about 500 jobs). So, good job guys!

The other story that caught my attention was the Montana Air National Guard becoming “operation capable” with their F-15s. I love to hear the F-15s flying overhead (day or night), although our delegation does not seem to want to open up the Montana skies for training.

Congratulations to the members of the Montana Air National Guard, their leadership, former Senator Conrad Burns and others who made this day possible.

But, the most important part of the story was about the plans of the National Guard Bureau to “shift Montana’s F-15 planes to a California Air National Guard unit as early as October 2011.”

Will our “powerful” senators be able to stop it?

A Party of One?

I happened to catch a story by the Associated Press about the fight that is going on within the Republican Party in Montana. “Friends are foes in legislative primary battles” can be viewed HERE.

The story was good for a chuckle.

They are basically fighting because one group wants ultraconservatives to be elected and another group wants moderate conservatives to be elected. One group is called “Main Street Advocacy” for the moderates and the other group is called “Montana Conservative Alliance” for the ultraconservatives.

According to the story, State Senator John Brueggeman is helping the Main Street Advocacy group and Roger Koopman is the leader of a group called the Montana Conservative Alliance.

Brueggeman gets the award for the best line in the story. He said, “Eventually it is going to be Roger Koopman standing on a hill all by himself,” the state senator said. “The way they are going, they will have a party of exactly one.” Continue reading →