Big Sky Cairn

Someone should do some scientific studies on exactly what it is in the liberal brain that so effectively avoids cognitive dissonance in their beliefs. Whatever allows them to live solely in a world of lofty ideals, far removed from the real-world also seems to compartmentalize inherent contradictions in their popular partisan attack-memes.

For example:

George W. Bush is a complete idiot.
George W. Bush has perpetuated massively complex conspiracies and duped the whole world.

Government should help the poor.
Government should raise taxes on the things that poor people do (smoke, drink, buy gas).

Denny Rehberg is an uber-wealthy elitist who has gone Washington
Denny Rehberg is a white-trash hillbilly that sleeps on his couch and drinks at dive bars.

Update (thanks to Wulfgar for embodying this one in comments below and on his site):
People should practice tolerance toward each other.
People should be intolerant of people who are intolerant.

Edit: Yeah, I spelled a word in the title wrong. Sue me.

I was recently reminded that Congressman Rehberg is one of four House Republicans that were asked to debate four House Democrats on Energy. One can attribute this to his strong leadership on the issue, and it’s certainly good for Montana - with our tremendous potential for resource development - to have a seat at this table.

Being a fan of debate - unlike my counterparts on the Left - I asked my boss if I could take an early/long lunch break and she said it was fine. So for the first time, I’m going to try my hand at this live-blogging thing. We’ll see how it goes - and cross your fingers that my internet connection handles streaming video well.

Here we go.

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Bob Kelleher has a new website.  It’s got about 2 pages on it, but just in case you get lost he was kind enough to provide a site map.

Judging from his “Issues” area, he is trying to reinvent himself as a conservative.  Not sure why he would do that - he’d probably get more votes if he came at Baucus from the Left - where he’s more comfortable.

In any case, given his issue shoe-horn act, his bio page is certainly appropriate, and not just a little ironic:

“Under Construction”

Yep, he’s doing a complete refab on who he is and what he stands for.  He’ll probably be under construction again in 2 years when he picks another Party to run in.

In the mean time, head over to Eyebrows Over Highbrows.  It’s a fun new blog that takes some pot-shots at “Doesn’t-Live-In-Montana” Baucus.  It’s also very well written.

Kudos to John Driscoll for being the only major ticket Democrat to fill out a Project Vote Smart survey.  Shame on Baucus and Schweitzer for hiding their views.

But more important than actually taking the survey is what he says in it.  Western Word had this run-down in the days after the surprise Primary.   There’s enough there to set him back to pasture - including supporting a tax increase for anyone making more than $12,000/year.

Well Driscoll is at it again - this time taking a candidate survey from the sacred clergy from Scientists & Engineers for America.  I think Driscoll must really enjoy filling out these surveys; it’s about all he does.  Anyway, here are some quoteables:

I favor taxation to internalize the full costs of an end use [of energy] to the end user.

There you have it.   He actually wants to tax energy use with the goal of increasing prices.  Gutsy position to take in todays energy climate.

I’m not convinced that monetizing pollution, or the lack of it, will address the challenges we all face. Direct regulation, using the police powers of our various nations, may be quickest and most effective.

Carbon police.  Literally.

Require universal metering at every level of water use, including precise measurement for irrigation. Provide resources and education in support of water conservation. Discourage use of plant species that require water not available in the natural local environment.

Against irrigation.  Sorry Eastern Montana.

One continuously improving result should build on wellness approaches to human health such as “stop smoking” and “exercise a few minutes each day.”

Nanny state meets Orwellian control.  Sorry liberty.

Anyway, the more this guy puts out, the more out of touch he demonstrates himself to be.  What’s terrifying is that the army of Obama zealots that may turn out in November may also blindly vote down-ticket and by some freak lapse of judgment elect this guy.

The Federal Minimum Wage just went up. Doesn’t really matter in Montana since our state minimum wage is already higher then the Federal Minimum, but it did remind me of when I was making the minimum wage at my first job at Wendy’s. Oh, wait. Now that I think about it, as a green high school freshmen with zero work experience, my first job actually paid more than the minimum wage. Turns out, not too many people actually make the minimum wage…

So next time a liberal tells you a sob story about how hard it is to raise a family on the minimum wage, ask him to produce a family that’s trying to survive on the income from a sole breadwinner earning minimum wage.

And while they are looking, I’ll produce hundreds of small business owners who are struggling mightily in a soft economy, pinching pennies everywhere they can just to keep the doors open and the ledger in the black. I’ll show you a small business owner who has to reduce their payroll or postpone hiring new workers. I’ll show you the reasons for increasing unemployment.

And if by some miracle your liberal buddy manages to find someone scraping by on minimum wage, be sure to ask them if they’d prefer a slightly smaller paycheck or no paycheck at all.

We’ve blogged a lot about the near-religious dogma that is catastrophic man-made global climate change. On the left, it’s very rare for someone to even bother arguing the relative merit of climate change since they have unilaterally declared the debate “over.”

A recent Wall Street Journal editorial makes a lot of really good points, including this:

The former vice president has also recently disavowed any intention of returning to politics. This is wise. As America’s leading peddler of both doom and salvation, Mr. Gore has moved beyond the constraints and obligations of reality. His job is to serve as a Prophet of Truth.

People like Al Gore are the ones standing in the way of energy solutions. For them, a crippled economy is not only unimportant, but actually beneficial to their goal of reducing the so-called human environmental footprint. So when Republicans talk about the economic impacts of high energy costs - especially on the most vulnerable - they aren’t speaking the same language as the powerful special interests writing Democrat policy in Washington, DC. A significant economic blood-letting is exactly what they’ve been ordering for decades.

The best satire has an element of truth in it.  Which is why this piece about Obama’s excellent, amazing, incredible world tour is so freaking funny.  He ventured forth to bring light to the world.

And it came to pass, in the eighth year of the reign of the evil Bush the Younger (The Ignorant), when the whole land from the Arabian desert to the shores of the Great Lakes had been laid barren, that a Child appeared in the wilderness.

The Child was blessed in looks and intellect. Scion of a simple family, offspring of a miraculous union, grandson of a typical white person and an African peasant. And yea, as he grew, the Child walked in the path of righteousness, with only the occasional detour into the odd weed and a little blow.

There’s much, much more, and reading the entire thing ought to be mandatory.  What makes this satire so effective is that if you toned it down just a little you could actually have a passable mainstream media fluff-piece on The Great Obama.

It’s no surprise then to learn that when media people donate money to political campaigns they give to Democrats more than Republicans.  What is surprising though is how lopsided that disparity is: 100 to 1 in dollars given.  That’s huge.

I guess no one should be surprised by bias in local media coverage either.

Over at 4&20, jhwygirl has an interesting, if somewhat snarky, comparison of the energy proposals forwarded by Democrat Senator Max Baucus and Republican Congressman Denny Rehberg. It’s a bold move for a Drill-Nothing Democrat to throw stones at a Republican about energy considering the current energy situation has 3 out of 4 Americans siding with the Republican side (sadly, one of the only issues that this is the case).

So let’s dance.

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Just to clarify.

I’m not against withdrawal from Iraq.  I’m just against doing it before we win.

I’m not against alternative energy, clean energy or the fantastic economic opportunities they provide.  I’m just against relying on those sources before they are viable.

I’m not against universal health coverage.  I’m just against a single-payer government program to provide it.

Believe it or not, I support many of the goals that have become the platform for modern liberal dogma.  The sticking points are how we get there.  In debates, Democrats often talk about the importance of the goals they seek (suggesting that their political opponents don’t share these goals), and glaze over the details of how you get there.  For this conservative at least, the means they don’t talk about are often not worth the ends they do.

Reminds me of the famous South Park Underpants Gnomes’ plans for converting stolen undergarments into profit:

1. Collect underpants
2.  ?
3. Profit

This is awesome.