Here are some things that caught my attention last week.

Obama came to Montana:

-It was interesting to hear Montana described many times before, during, and after Obama’s visit here as a “red state” (Republican). The last time I checked the Democrats (Blue) controlled all the second-tier state-wide offices in state government; there’s a democrat Governor and the two U.S. Senators are democrats. The Democrats controlled the state House of Representatives last session. The Republicans did control the state Senate in the last session and Congressman Denny Rehberg is a Republican. If the Republicans were some sort of animal, they would surely be on the endangered species list in Montana.

-From reports I read, there was not much rowdiness at the event in Belgrade, and the national media has commented on the fact that people are not as vocal at Obama events. The easiest explanation is that there are hundreds of secret service people as well as other law enforcement people at Obama events. It’s easy math: Someone like Arlen Specter is not as important as Barack Obama. Obama gets more security than a senator. People won’t scream and shout as much if they see security people ready to grab their necks and throw them out.

-One question that I thought should have been asked at the “Town Hall” meeting was, “In the 2006 and 2008 campaigns, democrats touted the fact that republicans were spending taxpayer money at record rates. In fact, the dough boy sitting on the stage with you said congress was spending money “like drunken sailors.” Now that you have tripled the national debt and spent more money that any administration in history, will you say now that you and the democrats lied to the American people about how you would stop the excessive spending?”

-Probably the President was not too happy with Governor Brian Schweitzer’s remarks touting the Canadian health care system. The headline in the Great Falls Tribune had this, “Schweitzer touts Canadian system.”
Who knows, maybe the Governor will start taking people to Canada to get their health care? Folks may remember that Schweitzer took people to Canada by bus to get their prescriptions when he was trying to win a seat in the U.S. Senate back in 2000. He was unsuccessful in that race.

Bresnan Internet and Blackberry:

It was “tech hell” for ol’ Jack this week. Thursday night and almost all day Friday I did not have access to the internet. My provider since it was AT&T @ Home is Bresnan. The internet was down because of a “corruption of routers on a particular type of server.”
Then, my Blackberry Pearl trackball went on the blink. The roller ball gets dirty and won’t move. After cleaning it several times, and getting sick of it not working, I upgraded to a BB Curve. Hopefully it will work better. Life sometimes sucks when the tech stuff fails.

Downpour Music Festival:

Although the rain came and it started late and some acts cut their performances short, it was well worth the wait at Centene Stadium in Great Falls.
My favorite band on Friday night was “The Hope Movement” which kicked off the festival around 5:00. Sadly, it started raining again so they cut their performance down a few songs but they left those in attendance wanting more. I’m looking forward to the second night of performances.

I’ll catch you on Twitter this week!