There are many things to blog about today: sports, politics, etc.

Letter to the Editor
Mr. William Selph pens an interesting letter to the editor that appeared today in the Billings Gazette. He contends that Denny Rehberg (R-Mont.) voted against a bill because it did not contain vital funding for Montana and that Rehberg’s the only one of the delegation who cares about Montana.
The bill he is talking about was lacking several millions of dollars in funding for Montana that Rehberg and former Senator Conrad Burns (R.-Mont.) had requested.
We all know many of the appropriations bills were blocked by the democrats from being voted on before the last congress adjourned so they could win some seats. It worked.
We’ll see how much Senator Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Senator Jon Tester (D-Mont.) care this year.

Speaking of Senator Tester…
The Great Falls Tribune ran a fluffy story in today’s paper with the headline, “Tester settles into Senate routine.” They key things I noticed from reading the story were:
-Dead last in Senate seniority
-At the bottom of the ladder
-Has none of the power or prestige
-Sits farthest from the chairman and speaks after everybody else has spoken
-Working out of cramped windowless quarters in the basement
-Even lobbyists are welcome in Tester’s office

Hmmm…Lobbyists? Aren’t these the same folks he railed on Burns about?

Monica is Back!
The Billings Gazette also reported today the Monica Lindeen has announced she is running for State Auditor.
I think this is a very smart move because 2008 will be tough for many candidates to get staff and help for their races with a Presidential race, U.S. Senate, U.S. House, Governor, and all the other statewide and local races needing help.
Get some money and people signed up early to help. 2008 will be fun.

The Daytona 500
I think the officials may have screwed up by not bringing out caution when the wreck happened on the final lap when Mark Martin was leading.
The Yellow Flag/Caution should have come out as soon as the wreck started. In one of the photos on NASCAR.COM, it shows the wreck happening behind Martin and Harvick with Martin clearly the leader.
The caution light should have come out to prevent people further back from killing someone to gain a spot.
The Fox commentators said before the green/white/checker start that if a wreck happened, NASCAR would freeze the race and use all their cameras and their sensors and GPS to determine who finished where in the race.
They used to let everyone race back to the line after the caution lights came on, but they determined that was dangerous. Then all of a sudden, at this race , they changed back to the old rules.

The NBA All-Star Game
Yawn.