Big Sky Blog

All Hail The Mighty Wulfgar! Yes, Wulfgar has fired up the ole’ “Montana Weblog Awards” for 2006, and he’s taking nominations right now – gitcherself over to his place and nominate blog in any (or all!) of the following categories:

Heading: Political
Categories:
Best left leaning blog.
Best right leaning blog.
Best independent or libertarian blog.
Best Political blog.
Blog that had the most impact on the 2006 elections.

Heading: Culture
Categories:
Montana Blog that best represents popular culture.
Best Montana history blog.
Most exemplifies Montana lifestyle.

Heading: Creativity
Categories:
Most creative Montana blog.
Best photographic Montana blog.
Best written Montana blog.
Most humorous Montana blog.

Heading: Special
Categories:
Best post. (include a link, please.)
Best series of posts relating to given topic.

And don’t forget – if you’re stumped for nominations, you can always visit The Roster Of Big Sky Blogs for inspiration!

Thanksgiving is the most unique day on the American calendar: it’s the only day set aside as a day of thanking G-d, that is celebrated, each in their own manner, by the 3 Abrahamic religions.

The American pilgrims, who originated the Thanksgiving holiday, were deeply religious people. When they were trying to find a way to express their thanks for their survival and for the harvest, they looked to the Bible for an appropriate way of celebrating and based their celebration in part on the 7-day Jewish Biblical Festival of Sukkot (Lev. 23:33-43).

There is almost an unbroken line of presidential Thanksgiving Proclamations, from George Washington on October 3, 1789, to George W. Bush on November 22, 2006, with one thing in common: Thanksgiving Day is a day for thanking G-d.

Portions of many of the past presidential Thanksgiving Proclamations are included in the annual New York Sun “Thanksgiving” editorial.

Happy Thanksgiving.

May the Almighty protect the armed forces of the United States wherever they may be.

Political news: State Senator Sam Kitzenberg, who ran and was elected as a Republican, has officially switched parties and is now officially a Democrat. The result: Democrats now have a 26-24 majority in the Montana Senate. What do YOU think of Kitzenberg’s switch?

If you haven’t already done so, you can subscribe, and then get notified of an emergency by eMail, cellphone or pager from your local, regional & national government sources:

http://www.emergencyemail.org/

On this day America pauses to reflect on the service of millions of American veterans who have served in the United States armed forces. This year is special because it was just a few months ago that the Montana Veterans Memorial was completed and dedicated in Great Falls.

Here are some links about Montana veterans, resources, and news:

Senator Max Baucus, Senator Conrad Burns, and Congressman Denny Rehberg all work for Montana veterans. The Montana Department of Military Affairs includes an office for veterans’ affairs. A page about Montana veterans who have received the Purple Heart for being wounded in action. The Department of Veterans Affairs has a page of Montana-specific programs and health facilities. Here’s a photo gallery of the Montana license plates available to veterans. And Operation “Hero For Hire” encourages the hiring of veterans; here’s the Montana job list. Finally, check out the Montana Heritage project that features interviews with Montana’s veterans.

And Montana bloggers are saying Thank You on this day: Watermark, MT Politics, The Daily Cat Chase, The Last Best Place, Life In A Northern Town, The Hammond Report, Uncooperative Blogger, and Karbon Kounty Moos.

To all Montana veterans: THANK YOU.

2,848. Whether you were cheering for Tester or Burns, you’ve got to admit that last night was quite nerve-wracking. And hearing the political pundits focus on Montana so much – well, we’re just not used to that kind of national attention. So 2,848 is the difference in the number of votes between Tester and Burns, which amounts to just .7% of all votes cast. And now Jon Tester will become the junior US Senator for Montana. Libertarian candidate Stan Jones garnered just over 10,324 votes, which isn’t too bad for an LP. I’m sure both the Reps and Dems would have loved to gain those 10K+ votes – either pushing Burns over the top, or adding more “oomph” to Tester’s win. And there were over 404,000 votes tallied across Montana – pretty good turnout.

Current MT Secretary of State Totals for BURNS vs TESTER
Excellent CNN coverage/map/results.
US House of Representatives election contest – REHBERG vs LINDEEN
Minimum-wage increase looks to pass easily.

Driving home from work this evening past the Heritage Inn hotel I noticed that the sign read “Welcome MT Democrats” – turns out that the election night party for Jon Tester is being held there. So I dropped in around 7:00 pm, and immediately ran into Geannine Rapp, who is a Great Falls resident running for the state House. Then into the ballroom, where the lady at the Press table told me that bloggers had their own table in the corner, and lo and behold, I met Jay Stevens of 4 & 20 Blackbirds and “McJoan” of DailyKos. Very nice people, and although we disagree on many issues, we found room for some agreement on others. Jay and I made a small wager, too: $5.00 that Senator Conrad Burns will be indicted before the end of the year. Jay says yes, I say no. And then I wandered over to the official “Press Room,” occupied by perhaps a half-dozen press folks, one of whom was interviewing Governor Schweitzer for KUFM radio. The Governor was upbeat about Tester’s chances, and he commented that it wasn’t a good night to be a Republican, and that the GOP elephant mascot ought to be replaced. I asked him what might be a better symbol, and he grinned and said, “A snake?!” I then had the honor of meeting him directly and mentioned Big Sky Blog, and he said that he has visited BSB a few times. Thanks, Gov!

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So, that was the highlight of my evening – meeting some fellow bloggers, making nice with some media folks, and shaking hands with the Governor. Pretty cool. How about you? Any election night stories to tell, or pictures to share?

GET OUT THE VOTE! Obviously the biggest “high visibility” Montana contest is between Conrad Burns and Jon Tester, and RealClearPolitics has a great page that details recent polls and analysis. But on to the overall subject today: voting! Drop a note in the comments section to let other Montanans know about your voting experience: was it simple? Confusing? Did you encounter any difficulties? Did you see any cheerleaders or protesters?

Dave Budge is reporting that one of the most popular “portal” sites for Democrats, Left In The West, is currently redirecting to a bland directory instead of the usual “get out the vote” headlines. The reason?

It seems that Left In The West somehow spaced out renewing their domain name and is in cyberspace purgatory…ON THE EVE OF WHAT MANY OF YOUR READERS CONSIDER THE MOST IMPORTANT ELECTION IN THE HISTORY OF MANKIND.”

Aye carumba! Betcha didn’t know that Karl Rove’s genius extended to erasing “renew your domain” e-mails from registrars!

Well, you can always go visit the Googe cache of Left In The West, static though it may be…

From the Forums comes a question from fboehner1:
“I have recently been presented with an opportunity to move to northwest Montana. I am extremely excited due to the wealth of outdoor activities that are available. I am only a few years removed from college and I would like to know some pros and cons about kalispell and whitefish. From the perspective of a young, single male – Would Kalispell or Whitefish be a better fit? I will also be living by myself more than likely, and I have a decent size dog. I am looking for small town atmosphere, with friendly people (being from the south). If anyone has any suggestions or advice, I would greatly appreciate it. Oh, and the job will probably be in Kalispell.”