Welcome to August faithful readers!  Don’t forget your sunscreen and remember The Western Word is mobile friendly – so take it with you – it’s free!

Today I take a look at a battleground visit, tea for Texas, winning July, a National Cemetery, kicking the can, surplus and Sasquatch, and MTV.  There’s a lot more so read on…

Battleground Visit:

The Great Falls Tribune reported today “U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., is slated to appear at different events in Great Falls on Aug. 17 on the behalf of U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg’s campaign for U.S. Senate.”

Maybe the Rehberg campaign will e-mail me the details when they are available…

Back in June 2011, I wrote that the key battleground area for the 2012 senate race is Great Falls (Cascade County) with the top two public sector employers being the military (Malmstrom and Air Guard) and about 21% of the population in the county being Veterans.

It’s been over a year since I wrote that and we’re seeing incumbent Senator Jon Tester and his challenger, Congressman Denny Rehberg, devote a lot of time to this area.  To win Cascade County, Tester and Rehberg will have to convince voters there that they are more pro-military/veteran than the other guy.

Since McCain is the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Armed Services, maybe we’ll see Tester invite the Chairman of the Committee, Carl Levin, to the Great Falls area…

Tea for Texas:

Tea Party-backed candidate Ted Cruz won the GOP runoff election for the U.S. Senate in Texas last night and will probably be the next U.S. Senator from Texas since the state “hasn’t elected a Democrat to statewide office in nearly 20 years” according to the Associated Press.

The AP also reported, “Cruz was endorsed by ex-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, radio talk show host Glenn Beck, U.S. Sens. Jim DeMint of South Carolina and Kentucky’s Rand Paul, as well as former GOP presidential hopeful and Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum.”

Winning:

Politico is reporting that U.S. Senator Jon Tester won the campaign battle in July over his challenger Congressman Denny Rehberg citing Tester’s ad saying that Rehberg voted to “eliminate funding for breast cancer screenings” as the reason.  Tester also won June.

I think the cancer ad by Tester rocked the Rehberg campaign, but they fought back pretty well…

National Cemetery:

The Billings Gazette is reporting, “The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs announced Tuesday it will designate the Yellowstone County Veterans Cemetery, located north of Laurel, as a national cemetery.”

This is great news and thanks to all who made it possible…

Kicking the Can…

Although it received very little coverage, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Speaker of the House John Boehner have agreed to a continuing resolution that will keep the Federal Government operating for six months after October 1 (the start of fiscal year).  It has to pass their respective chambers, but with this being an election year, it should pass with ease and kick the can down the road until April.

I guess nobody cares much these days about doing their jobs…

Surplus in Montana:

The state of Montana had a “$453 million surplus at the close of the fiscal year on June 30” according to a story by the Associated Press.  Governor Brian Schweitzer (D), who is term-limited from running for Governor again, plans to campaign for Democrats in the state and tell voters that his fellow Democrats are better at managing the state fiscally.

I am happy that Montana has a surplus.  The one big reason Montana stays in the black is that Montana’s Constitution requires a balanced budget – which prevents Democrats and Republicans from going wild.

It will still be fun to watch Schweitzer on the campaign trail messing with the Republicans…which is a lot like the commercial “Messin’ with Sasquatch.”

On This Date:

On this date (August 1) in 1981, MTV was launched.  The first video played was “Video killed the radio star” by Buggles.  The greatest rock band of all time (REO Speedwagon) and their hit “Take it on the Run” was the ninth video played (it stopped after a few minutes due to technical difficulties).

You can thank me for this knowledge later…

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