In July, the Cowgirl Blog turned two.

And, the blog is on the verge of receiving our one millionth viewer.  Montana Cowgirl has been featured on CNN, and in the Washington Post, Huffington Post, Mother Jones, and numerous Montana press outlets, much of it in the course of exposing the 2011 Republican legislature for the lunatics that they were (are).

But far more flattering is this: at a recent Washington, DC “summit” of the Americans for Prosperity Foundation group (the Koch brothers’ outfit of angry right-wing misfits), there was a panel at which I am told my blog was the main topic of discussion.  Who is this person, they asked. How does she do her research? What dark arts must she know?

It is truly hilarious that these dingbats believe my blog to consist of some sort of magic.  They view it with a sense of awe and bewilderment, like when Tarzan watched in amazement when he first saw the British artistocrat shave his face with a strait razor.  To the Tea Party set, this blog is an item of technological wonder, believed to emanate from some advanced, alien civilization.

A few pieces of advice for the panel participants. First, if you are literate, you can start a blog.  It costs almost nothing and can be done for free.  Second, if you know how to surf the web, conduct google searches, read a Facebook page and receive reader tips by e-mail, you can do all of the things that this blog does.  (Thank you readers! Your tips make up the most important content on this blog. Send tips to mntnacowgirl (at) gmail.com) True, this sets a high bar for an organization (AFP) whose Montana leaders are Joe Balyeat and Henry Kriegel. But it’s incomprehensible that there is such a dearth of credible GOP blogging in this state. The relative absence of conservative blogging (compared to all the really great Montana progressive blogs you see among those on the blog roll here to the right of this post) speaks volumes about the right wing.

As to the occasional remark made that this blog “lacks courage” because it is penned anonymously, these critics do not understand that anonymous writing is a crucial component of political discourse and has always been so.  Among other examples, Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, a 1776 work that set forth the basic principles on which the American Revolution was based,was published anonymously.  I’m sure that Tea Partiers, with their intellectual command of American history, are aware of this.