It’s Friday and that means it’s time for another edition of Caught My Eye! Congratulations for making it through another week!
If you are visiting The Western Word, Caught My Eye should be your regular Friday “get-away-from-work-for-a-few-minutes” column. In this column I take a look at some of the stories I did not have time to write about during the week and often add some (pointed) commentary or sprinkle the stories with some sarcasm – just to make you smile (or shake your head).
Today I write about GameDay, Tweets gone wild, incumbency, journalism, missiles and bottle rockets, plea deals, Blue blue cross, and I share a special e-mail from my political inbox! So read on and make your Friday go by just a little more quickly!
GameDay
This is “GameDay” in Montana with the Montana Grizzlies playing in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) this evening (at home) on ESPN and the Montana State Bobcats playing Saturday morning (in Texas)– also on ESPN.
The Carroll College Saints football team has this weekend off before playing for the NAIA National Championship on December 17.
Go Griz, Cats and Saints!
Tweets Gone Wild
Congressman Rick Larsen has some staff problems. According to POLITICO, “three staffers for the Washington Democrat were fired Thursday after a local website detailed a pattern of wildly unprofessional behavior—including drinking on the job and insulting the congressman.”
Looks like Larsen’s Washington, D.C. office (and probably other members of congress too) could use some adult supervision. Here’s an idea – hire former military personnel (like me) because we are just the right people to do the job…
By the way, the Tweets can be found HERE.
Anti-Incumbent
A new poll from Gallup tells us that “About three-quarters of registered voters (76%) say most members of Congress do not deserve re-election, the highest such percentage Gallup has measured in its 19-year history of asking this question. The 20% who say most members deserve to be re-elected is also a record low, by one percentage point.”
Interesting. Here in Montana it looks like that our 2012 Senate contest could be considered incumbent versus incumbent if Congressman Denny Rehberg ends up taking on Senator Jon Tester. Rehberg represents the At-Large District in Montana (the whole state) and Tester, as U.S. Senator, also represents the whole state.
Maybe a third-party (non-incumbent) should run…
Blue Cross is…blue…
Blue Cross and Blue Shield missed the deadline to get its bid into the state of Montana for the employee health plan according to THIS STORY.
It was probably my fault…I bet they were busy sending me a form letter telling me I am no longer covered by their Federal plan…for the 30th freaking time. #Winning
Montana Miscellaneous Poll
Public Policy Polling has been busy releasing polls about everything from President all the way down to a state’s favorite football and baseball team.
One of the polls released this past week tells us that, besides not looking too good for Senator Max Baucus, there are other parts of this poll that are kind of cool – like Montanan’s favorite baseball and football teams and more! You can read it HERE.
30 Years for Murder
According to the Great Falls Tribune, State District Court Judge Thomas McKittrick in Great Falls, Montana, decided that 30 years was enough for the killing of 23-year-old Jason Jewett of Wisconsin.
It was a plea agreement.
According to a local television station, KRTV, Loren Joseph Spottedeagle “has several previous felony charges including assault with a weapon and five DUI’s.” He caused the crash that killed Jewett and “was driving his vehicle more than 70 miles per hour on 10th Avenue South when he crashed into a truck stopped at a red light at 13th Street.”
I actually saw the scene of the accident crime and it was horrific.
Five DUIs. Life in prison seemed like a better sentence to me – shame on the judge for not imposing harsher punishment and shame on the county prosecutors for the plea agreement. We need to remember the “soft” judges and “weak” county prosecutors in our judicial system come election day.
How About a Link?
On Monday a story appeared in POLITICO about “A poll commissioned by the Montana Chamber of Commerce shows Sen. Jon Tester with a 5 percentage point lead over Rep. Denny Rehberg in the Senate race, 42 percent to 37 percent.”
The author went on to say, “The data, obtained by POLITICO, was collected in mid-November by Market Research Insight…”
Many others have gone on to cite the poll in their blogs and articles – but they don’t have a link to the actual poll (that I have seen) – they just quote the story from POLITICO.
Not that I am doubting the fine reporting from POLITICO, but I’d like to see the actual poll, so if you have the poll or can provide a link to it, email it to me at the address on the right side of the screen.
Missiles
With our Nation being in such sad shape financially it is no surprise that our land-based missiles (ICBMs) would be on the ol’ chopping block. I’ve thought that in the next decade or so one or maybe two missile bases will be closed. Our finances are in that sad of shape that even a garage sale may be proposed to raise revenue (we sure don’t want to raise taxes to pay for our drunken spending, do we?).
So it’s really no surprise that the Montana Congressional delegation is fighting against the cuts. Some local folks wonder why they did not fight this hard when the Department of Defense deactivated 50 missiles in 2007 – because that started the slippery slope in Montana.
It would also help the cause if the congressional delegation (and their staff) knew the difference between a Minuteman III and a bottle rocket…
Jack’s Political Inbox
It was a great week for e-mails from campaigns and from elected officials. Almost every Friday I share a few of the e-mails that Caught My Eye and sometimes offer my personal comments. Enjoy!
-The Hillary Clinton for President Campaign sent me an e-mail that got my attention because I thought for just a moment…just a moment…that she was running in 2012. The subject was “History disappearing” and they offered some leftover campaign items to help Hillary and “all contributions will go to paying the last of the expenses the campaign incurred while making our historic stand.”
I like Hillary Clinton…
–Jim Messina, the Campaign Manager for President Obama, sent me an e-mail with the one word subject, “Osawatomie” and he says “If you didn’t catch any of the President’s speech in Osawatomie, Kansas, you should watch or read it now.” He provides the link.
It was a good speech. I even wrote a column about it HERE.
I noticed at the end of the e-mail this sentence: “This campaign isn’t funded by Washington lobbyists or corporate interests. It relies on donations from people like you. Please make a donation today.”
-The Montana GOP sent me an e-mail with the subject, “$1.2 billion missing dollars gets you Brian Schweitzer’s endorsement” and they linked to a video of Schweitzer saying really nice things about former Governor and Senator, Jon Corzine, who is also the former CEO of Goldman Sachs and of MF Global. MF Global is missing $1.2 billion.
The Schweitzer endorsement video was uploaded in June of 2009 and can be seen HERE.
-The Jon Tester for Senate Campaign sent me an e-mail with the subject “Calendar” and writes, “Between Dennis Rehberg and the Washington special interests who support him, our opponents didn’t wait long to go on the attack.” He goes on to write that he’s about $35,000 short and asks for help to “put up a big showing in December.”
That e-mail got me thinking about $35,000 being pretty small potatoes compared to the amount of our national debt – we’re “short” as a nation about $15 trillion – so maybe our elected officials should send out some fundraising e-mails for that…
Gloves are Off
According to the Associated Press, “Michigan and Wisconsin have thrown off the gloves in a hand-to-hand combat over which of them looks more like a mitten.”
Yep, a mitten. You can read the whole story HERE.
Journalism and Blogging
Reuters has a good look at the story about the federal judge who ruled that a blogger from Montana (Crystal Cox) was not acting as a journalist “when she lambasted an Oregon attorney in online statements…”
One story I read had the judge saying the lady had “no journalism education.”
I’m sure glad I’ve got “Broadcast Journalism” “Mass Media/Communication” “Writing for Mass Media Communication” not to mention, “The Constitution” on my transcripts…
Ironically, several blogs for major newspapers are covering the story…
There are still five spots left to fill before @TheWesternWord hits 500 followers – don’t be left behind! I will sing your praises if you are the 500th follower!!!
Debate
I hereby volunteer to participate in the GOP Presidential debate with Donald Trump as the moderator…
I would at least make it interesting…
Parting Shot:
Don’t forget to stretch…
The Western Word 