A day of politics

I experienced both sides of the political aisle today. It was quite the experience.

For the past several months I’ve been attending the monthly Democratic luncheon. It’s interesting though attended mostly by a bunch of old folks. I’m the youngest by far. Still though, they’re interesting people and I enjoy the lunches. There’s always an interesting topic to discuss (though I’ve just listened for the most part) and I’m learning a bit about how party politics work in this part of the country.

After the lunch, I cruised over to the high school where Republican Denny Rehberg was holding his town hall meeting. He’s our only Representative (Montana only gets 1 since no one lives up here) and it’s pretty rare we get a major politician rolling into town. I wanted to see what he had to say and get a feel for things from the other side on how things are going.

It was shocking to say the least. First off, Rehberg was a master at political doublespeak. Seriously, he could talk for 5 minutes and not answer the question in the slightest. A democrat asked him why he didn’t support affordable health care for everyone (He’s against the public option or any kind of reform) and also asked him to rebuke those in the audience booing and calling Obama a Nazi. He then spent almost 10 minutes talking about how he didn’t know what was in the bill and that he didn’t hear anyone call Obama a Nazi. He didn’t say ANYTHING about fixing the health care problems our country has. I was hoping, seriously hoping, he’d share some kind of Republican plan to provide affordable health care. I didn’t get one though.

I guess I could kind of expect that though… but the behavior of those in the audience was appalling to me. If someone was on the Republican side, they could ramble on and speak as long as they want and everyone was quiet and listened. As soon as someone said anything in favor of health care reform, they were immediately booed and told to sit down by the people in the audience. It was very rude.

Now I know this isn’t specific to Republicans… I’m sure it’s happened in the past… but seriously, why does that make it acceptable? Town Hall meetings are supposed to be a chance for citizens to speak directly to their congressman… like it or not, they have a right to share their feelings with them and they deserve to be given respect while they do that. If you truly have the best ideas, answering honest questions shouldn’t be a threat. Booing someone and yelling at them to sit down and shut up doesn’t respect their right to address their congressman… and aside from that, it’s just demeaning and shouldn’t be acceptable.

I was disappointed in the way those people behaved. And if given the chance, I would have said something. I just wish our elected official would have had the courage to say something. His lack of action was a sad example of partisan politics and I lost a lot of respect for him after watching that.

On the Oregon trail

Ok, so I haven’t gotten to the blog in a while. I’ve been busy. We went over to Portland for my bro-in-law’s wedding. He’s been dating his (now wife) for 5 years and we all knew they’d get married but he put it off for a while.

So, here’s our trip in a nutshell. I didn’t include pics from the drive over because… well, I was stuck in the back of my father-in-law’s truck and it was miserable. 12 hours of being trapped in a small space with too many people.

Once we got there though, we had a little free time to do stuff. First up, checking out Mt. Hood. We didn’t have the money to be able to ski up there so I didn’t take my skis which made the trip up to the mountain bittersweet.

That’s Jess and I standing at the bottom of the snow. We’re a little up the path from the Timberline Lodge. The snowfields are over my shoulder and it looked like so much fun to be up there. Next time we go I’m taking skis and getting in some skiing. That much is for sure.

This is looking the other way, back toward the lodge and away from the mountain. It was pretty smokey that day. Plenty of fires burning in the area I guess. It was still pretty though and you could tell that in the winter it’s absolutely gorgeous. The lodge is really cool too with some amazing achitecture inside. Huge, huge beams running all over the place. I really liked it and would love to spend some time there in the winter.

Then we went over to the rehearsal. My mom-in-law bought these aprons for Mattie and Steph so they’d look appropriate for the rehearsal. It was the most detailed rehearsal I’ve ever been a part of. They went through EVERYTHING. Plus, it was about a million degrees. I was sweating. I knew that having to go through all that in a suit was going to be unpleasant at best. But it was fun to watch the whole thing and exciting knowing they were finally going to tie the knot.

This tree was in the middle of the wedding location. I just thought it looked cool.

The rehearsal dinner was at the bride’s parents’ house. They have little dogs. One of them is only a year old and has a problem with piddling around the house. So he got this little diaper put on him. I thought it was so funny I needed to take a picture of it. Funny little thing. He bounced all over the place instead of walking. And yes, it’s a boy with a bow in its hair.

The next day Jess and I had some free time so we went to check out VooDoo doughnut. We’d seen the place on the Travel Chanel or Food Network or something. They make weird donuts like a maple bacon bar. I was after the “Tex-Ass” donut. And I got one.

Now that’s a donut! Tasty too.

So then it was wedding day. Finally!

It was a small wedding but nice. Since I was sitting on the end of the front row, I couldn’t really get pictures of anyone walking down the aisle. I couldn’t see over everyone so all I could see was when they were all standing up front.

I think this is when they were saying their vows to each other. They wrote their own vows and they were very good. I was impressed. Steph cried, of course, though she said she didn’t plan to.

Then it was time to KISS THE BRIDE!

They had a LONG wedding kiss. I probably should have covered my eyes!

But enough of the ceremony… Let’s get some cake!

They did cupcakes instead of a traditional cake. They were really good. I had 2 and split a third with Jess.

As usual though, all good things must come to an end… and soon it was time for Mattie and Steph to leave. So we put them in their car and off they went!

And the next morning we left for home. It was another grueling 12 hour drive to get back home. It was a fun trip, though one I don’t intend to drive again anytime soon. At least not in a dual-cab truck with five people. But it was great fun to see Matt and Steph and I wish them a great marriage… now that it’s finally started.