Monthly Archives: April 2008

Sad. Tragic. Dumb.

Almost every day we see a story about someone driving drunk, having an accident, and someone getting killed. Sometimes when I read a story about drunk driving in the newspaper or on the web, I shake my head and wonder why someone could be so dumb.

Sometimes it happens to the staff of public officials, like we saw a few years ago in the Martz administration. It gets a little more attention then, either because we expect more from our public officials and from those they employ, or because the media feels they need to report a little more on stories regarding public officials.

Maybe you happened to read, “Baucus campaign staffer charged” in the Billings Gazette on Tuesday. According to the story, an employee of the Senator’s, John Patrick Carey, 28, was charged “with vehicular homicide while under the influence in connection with a fatal accident in Billings on April 20.” Another young man, who was a passenger in the vehicle, also 28 years old, was killed in the accident.

A life no more – a future wasted because of one person’s dumb act.

The Gazette reported that Carey was “a junior member of Baucus’ Bozeman campaign office” from a statement sent by the Baucus campaign, where it was also announced that Carey had resigned.

It appears he may have worked for Baucus for a few years, not just on his campaign. According to the website, LegiStorm.com, a John P. Carey worked for Senator Baucus on his professional (taxpayer funded) staff in Washington, D.C. for a few years, starting in February 2006 as a staff assistant, and then as a legislative correspondent.

The Gazette also reported: According to court documents, Carey was convicted of operating a vehicle with an alcohol concentration of 0.08 or greater in 2000 and of driving with an alcohol concentration of 0.02 or greater while under 21 years of age in 1998.

Driving drunk is just a real dim-witted thing to do whether it’s done by a public official, by the staff of a public official, or by John or Jane Doe.

Many folks have been affected in some way by the act of a drunk driver. I remember a night many years ago when I was about 8 years-old. My mother received a phone call telling her that a drunk driver had hit my sister’s car head-on. Luckily she was not killed, but she suffered serious injuries that prevented her from graduating from high school for a year. The injuries she received due to an act by a stupid person has affected her all her life as well as the lives of her two passengers. In my family’s case, the drunk driver left the area and left my parents to pay the steep medical bills for my sister. The parents of the other two passengers paid for their children’s hospital bills, too.

It’s time to significantly increase the penalties for driving intoxicated in this state. We see people convicted three, four, and five or more times, but they still manage to get behind the wheel and cause harm to others.

Sad. Tragic. Dumb.

He’s outraged…now

Barack Obama, in this story, commenting on Rev. Wright. (March 2008):

In his Philadelphia address, Obama stood by his friend. “As imperfect as he may be,” he said of Wright a month ago, “he has been like family to me. He strengthened my faith, officiated my wedding, and baptized my children. … I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community.”

After losing a primary, his numbers falling in the polls, and trying to save his political career, Obama said April 29:

And I want to be very clear that moving forward, Rev. Wright does not speak for me. He does not speak for our campaign. I cannot prevent him from continuing to make these outrageous remarks. But what I do want him to be very clear about, as well as all of you and the American people, is that when I say I find these comments appalling. I mean it. It contradicts everything that I’m about and who I am.

Cluck, Cluck

It appears presidential candidate Barack Obama is trying to run out the clock, take the democratic nomination, and head into the general election match-up with John McCain.

Hillary Clinton has other ideas. She is energized.

It might be fine for a candidate to run out the clock like some have done in the past elections, but recent information about Obama has the voters wanting to hear more than another 45 minute speech. I know we’ve had about a gazillion debates, so why should democrats want more?

Well, for one thing there’s a lot more information out there since the majority of the debates were held. We received a small taste of what people wonder about during the ABC debate before the Pennsylvania primary. Obama did a terrible job in that debate. Obama and his supporters cried foul, and Obama went on to lose Pennsylvania by 10 points.

Voters want to hear more from Obama about his pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and his affiliation with 1960s radical William Ayers, and other things. In the last year and a half, we’ve learned a lot about Obama, but the voters still have questions. Some of my democratic friends told me they are wondering what else we may find out about Obama before November. They would like to know it now before the Montana primary. They also wonder if there’s something that may come out about Obama’s past after he wins the nomination. Debating one on one could help relieve the doubt in voters.

The tide of this race is turning, but maybe too late. The Clinton campaign smells a little blood. Hillary wants to debate Obama in Missoula next month. The Montana Democratic Party should join her in demanding a debate with Obama in Big Sky Country. Previous televised debates attracted around 10 million viewers.

Obama knows he’s not a strong debater. He does not want to take another pounding like he did in the ABC debate. So it appears that Obama is just a little afraid of repeating his last performance. Cluck, cluck.

Keep Talking

Rev. Jeremiah Wright is in the news again. What will Barack Obama do now? He can’t shut up his pastor and spiritual advisor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Wright is making the rounds on television and he’s giving speeches. Obama even went on Fox News Sunday to try and stop the disturbance.

Today the Rev. Jeremiah Wright circus was in Washington at the National Press Club. Last week, he was on PBS with Bill Moyers.

Every time Wright talks, Obama loses votes. The Obama campaign is probably screaming, “STOP” every time Rev. Wright appears on TV. They can feel the air leaving the Obama balloon.

Now, Wright is telling folks that the media coverage about his sermons is really an attack on black churches. He did not retract any of his previous statements.

Wright’s had a couple of golden opportunities to explain his comments and his beliefs. He decided to attack, and he was combative. Can anyone really believe that Barack Obama sat in those pews for 20 years and did not know what his pastor was saying?

Meanwhile, the Clinton and McCain campaigns are probably trying to schedule more appearances for Rev. Wright.

Applause

Bloggers everywhere should give Congressman Denny Rehberg a round of applause for his support of the Blogger Protection Act of 2008, H.R. 5699.

He announced his support of the bill by blogging about it over at mtpolitics.net – a fellow Dextra Blogger. You can read his post HERE.

Here’s a summary of the bill:

The Blogger Protection Act of 2008 – Amends the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to: (1) exempt uncompensated individual Internet activity from treatment as a contribution to or expenditure of a campaign for federal office; and (2) cover blogs and other Internet and electronic publications under the general media exemption pertaining to expenditures.

If your Representative in Washington, D.C., has not signed on as a co-sponsor of this important legislation, contact him or her and tell them to co-sponsor H.R. 5699. You can send them an e-mail HERE.

Face it folks, the media doesn’t always tell the whole story or they let their personal views take over the story, especially in politics, and especially here in Montana. Blogs fill in the blanks, and many times tell the rest of the story. We should not have those rights curtailed in any way.

Farm Bill and Hospitals

A new farm bill has still not passed. Congress voted for the fifth time to extend the old one, which became law back in 2002. The farm bill is another example of how the democratic majority in the House and Senate are screwing things up.

It appears they want to add $10 BILLION in new spending to this bill. It looks like the total bill will cost about $280 billion.

The folks who run physician-owned hospitals are not too happy with the farm bill, because some of the money may come from them to pay for it. Yes, it looks like farming and hospitals are linked in the new farm bill. Who would do such a thing? According to this article, “…Sen. Max Baucus, D-Montana, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, has proposed paying for part of the new bill by taking away Medicare funds to doctor-owned hospitals.”

There must not be too many physician-owned hospitals in Montana, maybe two according to this report.

The biggest problem with the Farm bill as I see it, is there are not enough farmers and ranchers or people with Agricultural backgrounds on the House and Senate Ag committees who know what the heck they are doing. It’s the same thing with veterans, as I have blogged about before.

The United States may be heading for a food crisis. We’ve seen the price of food go up significantly along with the cost of fuel. Of course, the democratic leaders in the House and Senate have given everyone today off. Passing a good farm bill and getting control of skyrocketing gas prices have taken a back seat. It’s election year and that’s more important to them.

That’s My Story and…

Back on the 8th of April, I commented about the Montana GOP filing a complaint with Montana’s Commissioner of Political Practices contending that Governor Brian Schweitzer violated MCA § 2-2-121(4) by doing a Public Service Announcement for the Montana Department of Agriculture after he filed for reelection.

Today we find out through the Great Falls Tribune that the Governor has asked the state commissioner of political practices to dismiss the complaint. Schweitzer contends that using state e-mail, state equipment, and state employees to do the Public Service Announcement after he filed for office does not exactly mean he used state funds. Uh huh.

Is that your story, governor?

It looks like Schweitzer also hired a lawyer. In keeping with the Montana Democratic Party theme from the 2006 elections when a certain senator hired a lawyer, then Brian Schweitzer must be guilty. If Schweitzer really believed he’d done nothing wrong and this was all just politics, he wouldn’t have hired a lawyer, would he? Will he use campaign funds to pay for his lawyer? Maybe he should just step down…

Funny how things work out, huh?

Fuel Me

Here at The Western Word, I have blogged about the high gas prices before starting in May 2007. With the price for a gallon of gas hitting record highs over and over since January 2007, it’s apparent the democratic-controlled Congress does not have a plan.

Nancy Pelosi promised a “commonsense” plan for skyrocketing gas prices.

Max Baucus is pretty quiet about the high cost of gas on his campaign and senate websites.

Jon Tester used the high price of gas as a way to get elected way back in July 2006:

“But I’ve been listening to Montana families and they’re sick and tired of buying $3 a gallon gas. Here we are in the middle of the summer when Montana families are taking vacations and farmers are getting ready for the harvest, and gas is just too expensive — all because government hasn’t done anything to look for alternatives. It is time for leadership in Washington.”

Of course, other democrats used the high price of gas as a tool to get elected (just like they promised to end the war). They’ve had almost two years and failed.

Yes, it’s time for leadership in Washington.

????OBAMA????

With Hillary Clinton projected to win in Pennsylvania, many Democrats must be questioning the candidacy of Barack Obama.

The Pennsylvania race was called by Fox News for Clinton about 45 minutes after the polls closed. MSNBC and CNN followed shortly thereafter. I predicted Clinton would win by 8 points, and she is near that with 76% of the precincts reporting.

By the way, the folks at MSNBC looked pretty sad about the announcement that their guy was projected to lose.

Obama outspent Clinton almost 3-1 in Pennsylvania and still lost. Clinton has won some of the largest states and has the momentum. By most accounts, Obama cannot close the deal. He has to be worried.

With some of the issues that have come forward regarding Obama, it appears the voters in Pennsylvania decided there’s just too much they don’t know about him. The voters have a lot of doubt that Obama can win in the general election against John McCain. Clinton added to that doubt tonight. Obama needs to stop the bleeding. He can’t just run out the clock.

Up next: Guam 5/03, Indiana 5/06, North Carolina 5/06, West Virginia 5/13, Oregon 5/20, Kentucky 5/20, Puerto Rico 6/01, Montana 6/03, and South Dakota 6/03

As it gets closer to June 3, the Democrats in Montana and South Dakota may see the excitement rise to the level we saw in Iowa way back on January 3. That’s good for them and for those of us who enjoy politics.