I had the opportunity to chat with conservative commentator Michelle Malkin during last year’s RightOnline conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota. One of the things that struck me about Michelle Malkin was her focus on Western issues, something that is oftentimes left out of the national dialogue.
In Minneapolis, she focused on national monument designations, a major topic of concern to folks in Montana. In fact, thousands packed the gym in small-town Malta, Montana as the national Director of the Bureau of Land Management paid a visit. Busloads of concerned farmers, ranchers, and small business owners travelled the state to register their concern over national monument designations to the head of the BLM.
This year, in Las Vegas, Malkin once again hammered the Obama Administration for what she calls a “War on the West.” (Watch her full speech below) Specifically, she focused on a fight over a grain terminal in Washington State.
We’ve heard a lot about the war on coal, but what about the war on railroads being waged in Montana, Idaho, and Washington?
I had the chance to catch up with Michelle Malkin Saturday morning. I mentioned during my first question that Western issues finally seem to be creeping into the national dialogue.
Here’s what Malkin, who writes her columns from Colorado Springs, Colorado, had to say:
“I think there’s a huge advantage to being outside of the beltway, at being plugged into the issues that don’t always make it on to the Washington- Manhattan radar screen. And, I think these issues are going to be huge in the upcoming election because we talked about this last year, and it has only gotten worse. Obama and the Interior Department and all of these environomental radicals that are embedded in that administration, waging a war on the west, which is a war on jobs, a war on the economy, a war on capitalism, a war on sound science. These go to the core of the destructive policies that have reigned over the last few years. A lot of the buzz and the talk show circuit that you get back east centers on things they can grasp, like gas prices, but there is so much more involved. And when Obama talks about job creation and when he talks about his values, what does he really mean? He values the green agenda over the lives and livelihoods of Americans who contribute to the well being of this country.”
As for the war on coal ad the war on railroads in Montana and the Pacific Northwest, Malkin added this:
“It’s land grabs, and it’s also sea grabs too.” LOST, Law of the Sea Treaty. The grain terminal issue and the way in which these battles are being waged at our ports on the West Coast. Very significant because it ties directly into the Occupy Movement.
“Those young tools, I called them OccuTools in my speech last night, are serving as front groups for these dying big labor organizations who are very up front about what this is all about. This isn’t about the welfare of workers, this is about their turf wars and their last-ditch attempt to cling to power.”
Click here to listen to the audio of my brief interview with Michelle Malkin.
Click below to watch Michelle Malkin’s speech to RightOnline 2012 in Las Vegas.