More Town Hall:

There’s an interesting e-mail floating around about some “behind the curtain” things that went on at the Obama Town Hall meeting in Belgrade. The lobster being shipped in was quite interesting. The political strong-arm tactics was nothing new.

Read more by clicking HERE.

It does take a bunch of people and equipment to host a presidential visit. Given the fact that the President and his family were staying the night in the area, I can only imagine the magnitude of stuff that was needed for the family and security. At least it was good for the local economy…in some ways.

Rehberg Town Hall:

Congressman Denny Rehberg has held 18 Town Hall meetings across the state of Montana during the August recess. That’s 18 more that U.S. Senator Max Baucus and 18 more than U.S. Senator Jon Tester. It appears that our two Senators are afraid to face their constituents this recess – and to think that Baucus is actually crafting a bill about health care. Baucus has been hit from the right and from the left in the last month so much, it makes one wonder how a politician could anger so many folks in so short of time. His biggest problem is that he can only send out 30 second sound bites (after multiple takes) and carefully crafted e-mails written by his staff. Any venture into the public to speak off the cuff, would only land him in deeper water.

On the other hand, Tester does not understand health care from day care, but they both understand fundraising – they have held more fundraisers this month than town hall meetings.

Veterans Centers:

The Veterans Administration has decided to open Veterans Centers in Great Falls and Kalispell.

When I read this, I thought that is good news. I am a veteran. Then I started doing some research and found another broken promise from the leadership in the Senate, House and White House. What about the backlog of claims with the Veterans Administration? Should the VA concentrate on (spend money) getting these backlog of claims settled, instead of opening more VA-funded centers and clinics? Supposedly since January 2009, the backlog of claims with the VA has grown 13.3% – a backlog of some 916,456 claims according to this site.

Isn’t that what the politicians who ran for office in 2006 and 2008 promise the veterans – faster claim ratings and fewer backlogs of claims?

Another broken promise, but us veterans will have more facilities to go visit…if your paperwork is approved.

I have always been an advocate of providing local private health care for veterans. There’s billions of dollars spent each year to run these facilities and pay staff that could go to providing local private healthcare for veterans in their own communities.

Oh well, all of us may be using a government-run healthcare system in the future.

The RNC Letter:

I received another letter from the Republican National Committee this week with this opening sentence, “Please don’t tell me that you’ve given up…that you’ve abandoned the Republican Party.” It went on to add, “”But we’ve not heard from you since 2006-and I hope you haven’t deserted our party.”

Of course, they added a tear-off section to send in my contribution (just in case I wanted to give them a little money).

Note to RNC: Don’t hold your breath.

Cash for Clunkers:

Wow. It ends Monday. They sure blew three billion dollars pretty fast, heh? This administration can really spend the money.

Football:

The preseason is here! Brett Favre is now a Viking. Michael Vick likes dogs now…and the Eagles. Plaxico Burress is gone for two years. Every team has dreams of going to the Super Bowl. Only two teams will have that dream come true. But in the preseason there is hope – a lot of hope.

Catch you on Twitter!