My Comments were taken out of context

This seems to be the year for comments taken out of context. This week it’s Rush Limbaugh and “phony soldiers.” Montana’s junior Senator Jon Tester felt this was such a terrible statement that he decided to issue a press release about it.

Last week it was Bill O’Reilly and his “M.F.-er” comment.

We’ve had Barack Obama with his “just air-raiding villages and killing civilians” remarks.

We had Harry Reid and his “…this war is lost” comments.

We had Mitt Romney say his sons were serving their country by traveling across Iowa in an RV.

So what is my point you might be asking? This just proves that neither liberals nor conservatives have the market cornered on stupid remarks. But both sides will waste valuable time and money debating the remarks.

Is this the first of many?

The Great Falls Tribune ran a story in their Sunday edition about a company called Precision Lift closing in Monarch, Montana.

“They lined up $15 million in Defense Department contracts from 1999 to 2005, thanks to former Sen. Conrad Burns’ clout, and were off and running.”

One has to wonder how many other defense-related companies in Montana will close shop or move to another state now that Burns’ clout is gone.

Let’s study it and issue a report

In the Great Falls Tribune today was a story about an amendment pushed by Sen. Max Baucus and Sen. Jon Tester telling the Secretary of Defense to do a study and report on the feasibility of establishing an association between the Montana Air National Guard and Malmstrom Air Force Base. It appears this is another attempt to open the runway at Malmstrom.

Some friends in the business told me there’s already some association between Malmstrom and the Guard with the RED HORSE units.

To ensure this study done, part of the amendment states the Air Force can only remove 40 of the 50 missiles until this study and report are completed.

That will get their attention.

As I have said before, Montana is a little weak with the Department of Defense because we don’t have anyone on a defense committee.