Congratulations!  You’ve almost made it over the hump to slide into the three-day weekend – so hold on and you’ll start feeling better as quitting time approaches!

Thanks to all the visitors to The Western Word yesterday, and thanks to all you who took part in the poll!  There’s more information on that below.

Today I talk about a new poll, the baggage ad, Pro-Life/Pro-Choice, Cobell, Great Falls Airport, rebranding, blood for sale, and a lot more so read on!

TWW Polls:

Many folks have been taking part in The Western Word poll (Montana GOP Governor Primary) that was posted yesterday afternoon.  It’s a 24-hour poll, and the results will be released later this week.  This is just for fun (not scientific) to see who can rally their supporters to vote in the poll.  It uses your computer’s cookies to (try to) prevent re-voting.

Note: There will be a Montana U.S. House Democratic primary (one-day poll) posted later today – so come back and participate!

Too Much Baggage:

The GOP Primary for Montana Governor got a little more interesting this week.  Cory Stapleton used some of the money he loaned his campaign to pay for a 30-second campaign ad called “Rick Hill’s Baggage” attacking fellow Republican Rick Hill.  Hill is the frontrunner in the polls and fundraising in the Republican primary for Montana Governor.

Some of the baggage labeled by Stapleton in his ad includes “sales tax” “Obamacare” “Jack Abramoff” “Ponzi Scheme” “workers comp” and “Vietnam.”  It shows Hill at the Palm Springs airport getting ready to board “Lobbyist Air Line” and being told by the airline official that he has too much baggage and that it just won’t fly in Montana.  The ad shows Stapleton showing up at the 20 second mark saying, “It’s time for new blood and fresh ideas in Helena.”

The ad also showed Hill wearing his customary light blue shirt…

I don’t know at this late date in the primary season if Stapleton can chip away at Hill’s lead that the polls show – but Stapleton has sure given the Democrats something to use if Hill makes it to the General Election.  I also don’t know if Stapleton is a big enough challenger to make Hill fight back.  Rick Hill can be a tough (some call it dirty) campaigner – especially against his fellow Republicans…

Pro-Life/Pro-Choice:

According to a new poll from Gallup, “The 41% of Americans who now identify themselves as “pro-choice” is down from 47% last July and is one percentage point below the previous record low in Gallup trends, recorded in May 2009.  Fifty percent now call themselves “pro-life,” one point shy of the record high, also from May 2009.”

I have always been intrigued by this battle, and I see the reasoning from both sides…

Cobell Settlement:

The Associated Press reported, “A panel of appellate judges Tuesday upheld a $3.4 billion settlement between the U.S. government and hundreds of thousands of Native American plaintiffs whose land trust royalties were mismanaged by the Interior Department.”

That is good news for those who have been screwed over for so long…

Great Falls Airport:

Back in 2010 I wrote a lot about the Great Falls International Airport Authority Board – so much that I even made a category for it (GFIA) on this website.

In short, I believe it was a circus.  I lost a lot of respect for a few of the members and those who appointed them.

The Great Falls Tribune published a little story today (Wednesday) about the Board and their conflict of interest policy with some interesting quotes from a couple of members and the director.

Is the honeymoon starting to end?

Rebranding:

According to a story from KRTV there will be new names for “the five Montana Colleges of Technology and two-year programs in Bozeman and Hamilton.”

Here are the proposed names:

Great Falls College-MSU

Bitterroot College UM, Hamilton

City College at MSUB, Billings

Gallatin College MSU, Bozeman

Helena College UM, Helena

Highlands College of Montana Tech, Butte

Missoula College UM, Missoula

The “Great Falls College-MSU” name is too much like the University of Great Falls (a private university) which was called the “College of Great Falls” until 1995.  “Montana State University – Great Falls” or for short called, “MSU-Great Falls” works just fine – and just think of the money the University system (taxpayers) will save by not rebranding.

Rebranding is a silly idea…

Blood for Sale:

According to this story by the Associated Press, “A Channel Islands auction house says it’s selling a vial that allegedly contains blood residue from Ronald Reagan.”

The bidding ends Thursday and so far a bid of $11,000 has been received, which means a lot of people are now going to go into the blood selling business…

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