Big Sky Blog

Sort of a shameless plug here for a new semi-blog: the Great Falls Election 2005 blog. Two factors in play here:

1. One of the candidates for Mayor, Dona Stebbins, has been reading and commenting on several Great Falls blogs for a while, and some of us figured it might be interesting to give the Mayoral and City Commission candidates the opportunity to share their views and proposals online.

2. One of the local radio stations, KQDI 1450 AM, is sponsoring a “Citizens’ Forum.” What, exactly, is that?

“…we need your questions. Send us the questions you want answered — the questions that could very well decide your vote. We know you’re informed and concerned, so let us know what to ask the folks who want to lead you. We’ll take questions from our listeners until Sunday, Oct 23. Then we’ll review submissions and choose three questions to submit to all candidates. The questions will be posted right here on Oct 25. The candidate responses will be posted by November 2nd.”

Well, that doesn’t quite sit right. Three questions? The staff at KQDI is going to decide what three questions the candidates should answer, and then post the responses in due time? Nope…there’s gotta be a better way. This IS the year 2005, isn’t it?

So the Great Falls Election 2005 blog was born. Candidate Stebbins has already registered at the site. I sent most of the other candidates an e-mail inviting them to participate…now it’s up to them (remaining two candidates will be invited when I get their e-mail or phone #). And considering that the primary runoff election earlier this month resulted in a difference of only 12 votes between the top two Mayoral candidates, well…every little bit of public awareness could matter. This project could be a flop — the candidates may very well decide to ignore this opportunity — but it’s worth a shot.

There have been several reports in the last few weeks about reality TV shows filming in Montana. One incident was reported at Tower Rock, south of Great Falls, and the other took place on the Missouri River in and around Fort Benton. Some have speculated that “The Amazing Race” was filming in Montana, but there’s no confirmation.

Autumn has officially arrived, and the weather reflects it! We’ve dipped down into the upper 30s here in Great Falls, and some of the leaves are beginning to make the transition to pure gold. No snow here yet, but I got a call from Keri a few hours ago, and she reported that there is plenty of snow near Lincoln on the drive to Missoula. Sam reports that it’s been cold & wet down in his neighborhood near Billings. Anyone else have weather-related news to report?

The Montana Festival of the Book will be held today (Saturday) in Missoula, and Patia Stephens, along with some other Big Sky Bloggers, wil be participating in a panel discussion with a cute name.

The panel discussion is called “It’s a Journal … No, It’s a Publication … No, It’s a Blog!” I’ll be joining the esteemed Courtney Lowery of New West, Ed Kemmick of the Billings Gazette’s City Lights, and John Clayton of Writing in the West.

Some famous names in Montana literature will be attending, including James Crumley, William Kittredge, Annick Smith, and Pete Fromm.

One man’s pork is another man’s…job? indulgence? necessity? civic pride? The bottom line for most people is that the federal government collects a bit too much of our money and spends portions of it on certain things that are either silly, bizarre, or have no business being in a “federal” budget. In that spirit, the Raving Norseman offers his suggestions for cutting pork from the federal budget — but only pork that is destined for Montana. His post is part of a larger project from NZ Bear (sparked by Instapundit) who has created a sub-site called PorkBusters. Another local angle to this effort is that of Tracy Velazquez, who has asked Bozeman to forgo a parking garage and instead send the money to the Katrina cleanup effort. So what about you – what would you cut? MORE: the industrious Ms Velazquez has created a site called Leaders Will Follow.

Welp here I am back in Cali for a little bit (not too long I hope) due to a bit of a family chaos situation. I was just reading the Chronicle online and noticed the Hilton Garden Inn doing hiring in October. Does anyone have any clue when this is due to open? That’s my field and I’d love to apply and get into a property at the start.

Another YAMB.

Random musings, comments and perspective on life in Montana from a native Coloradan brought to this beautiful country by his wife, the Montana native.

There is ample blame to go around regarding the post-Katrina chaos: the municipal government, the Governor and state, the Federal agencies, the President, and so on. Wulfgar has managed to sum up what a lot of people feel about the whole situation. He manages to articulate his feelings with some…uh…vociferousness, in true Wulfgar fashion. As for me, I think that blame for this disaster is pretty much shared equally among all the players; singling out one particular person or agency or level of government is pretty pointless by now. On a lighter note, Wulfgar also introduces us to Janna from Billings, who enjoys country music and is now part of the Big Sky Blogroll.

If you would like to register here at Big Sky Blog and create an entry — or if you simply want to leave a comment or two on existing entries — check out the Frequently Asked Questions. Here’s a sample:

Q: What is a “blog?”
Q: What is “Big Sky?”
Q: Why a Big Sky Blog?
Q: So I can register and make my own post?
Q: Do I have to live in Montana to register?
Q: I’m not sure that I want to register, but I would like to leave a comment on someone else’s entry…can I do that?
Q: Wait a minute…isn’t Montana full of militia-men, crazed psycho bombers, and other scary stuff?

The nifty blog service known as Blog Flux offers a cool little map of recent visitors that is integrated into a Google map; take a look right here to see where the Big Sky Blog visitors are coming from.