It’s Friday and, more importantly, it’s a three-day weekend for most. Let’s be safe out there!

This Memorial Day please observe a minute of silence at 3:00 p.m., local time on Monday, and remember that Memorial Day is a day set aside to honor American men and women who died while serving our country. My flag will be flying proudly in honor of these brave people!

It’s now time for another exciting edition of “Caught My Eye!”

Friendly Reminder: This column goes well with a glass of wine or with your favorite microbrew (especially on Friday afternoons).

If you are a first-time visitor, this is my weekly column where I take a quick look at some of the stories I did not have time to write about during the week. Often I throw in some sarcasm and poke fun at people just to make you smile.

Today I write about Tester and Veterans, Daines and Keystone, Morris and Watters, Walking for the Fallen, KMOV’s Larry Conners, the IRS and Congress, the graduate, birthdays, making Montana proud, and much more!

Tester and the Veterans:

I happened to catch a press release on Wednesday from the office of Senator Jon Tester regarding a meeting he had with Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki. The meeting was about the backlog of Veterans disability claims. You can read the press release HERE.

A word of advice to Sen. Tester and his Communications Staff: You can provide a “complete synopsis” of all the good things you have done for Veterans, but the bottom line is the disability claims backlog is greater than at any time in history – I repeat, greater than at any time in history – and that is shameful.

Additionally, in your press releases, you tout the fact that Tester is “Montana’s only member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee.” That is wonderful, but with that membership comes a higher responsibility – the higher responsibility of holding those within the Department of Veterans Affairs accountable for our government’s historic failure to provide an adequate disability claims process for veterans.

You can send press release after press release, but it’s now time for action. The current leadership (the Secretary and many senior leaders) in the Department of Veterans Affairs needs to go. Sen. Tester should demand their resignations. If he doesn’t, then he is part of the problem.

Keystone XL Pipeline Vote:

The U.S. House passed H.R. 3, which is a bill “To approve the construction, operation, and maintenance of the Keystone XL pipeline, and for other purposes.” There were 222 Republicans voting for the bill (including Montana’s lone Representative Steve Daines) along with 19 Democrats. The final tally was 241-175.

Reports say it was mostly a symbolic vote – kind of like the vote the House had to repeal Obamacare vote. The Senate probably won’t take up the bill, and even if it is passed, the White House says the President would veto it.

The politics of Washington should make us all shake our heads…

Judicial Nominations:

President Barack Obama has nominated Montana Supreme Court Justice Brian Morris and State District Court Judge Susan Watters to fill two vacancies at the U.S. District Court of Montana. They must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate, which should be a piece of cake since they were recommended by a Democrat (Sen. Max Baucus) to a Democrat (Obama). The Democrats are in the majority in the Senate.

So it should be a pretty easy for Morris and Watters to be confirmed to the gravy train known as a federal judgeship. But, anytime Max Baucus recommends someone to a Federal office these days, it raises questions. We also need to know if Morris and Watters can tell good clean jokes and understand that their official (taxpayer-funded) e-mail is for official use only.

Walking for the Fallen:

I heard about Sergeant Chuck Lewis and “Walking for the Fallen” from the “Voices of Montana” radio show hosted by Aaron Flint. Lewis is walking across the USA to remind folks that the cost of freedom is not free and to raise $50k for wounded and disabled Veterans programs. This is a good thing.

Check out his website HERE. You can also track his progress and donate to this mission on the website, too.

KMOV’s Larry Conners:

St. Louis TV station KMOV fired anchor Larry Conners after he posted some comments on the station’s Facebook page in which he said that after an interview he conducted with President Obama, “The IRS started hammering me.”

The President of KMOV released a statement saying, “Larry is certainly entitled to his opinion, but taking a personal political position on one of the Station’s Facebook pages creates an appearance of bias that is inconsistent with important journalistic standards.”

Amen to that.

We see the people in the media use social networking sites a lot (that’s a good thing) and sometimes we see them post their personal opinions on Twitter and Facebook pages that are dedicated to their newspaper or television stations (that is not a good thing).

I know the days of Walter Cronkite-like reporting are over, but in my humble opinion it is still wrong for real reporters to show which way they lean.

I imagine Larry Connors will land on his feet. Fox News would seem to be a good fit…

The IRS:

A new poll from Gallup “finds Americans’ views of the job the Internal Revenue Service is doing skewing much more negative than in the past, with 42% saying the IRS is doing a poor job, up from 20% in 2009 and 15% in 2003. Meanwhile, positive ratings of the IRS have declined 14 points since 2009, from 40% to 27%.”

Congress is probably jealous; their approval rating is only 16% – 11 points below the IRS.

The Graduate:

Congrats to Eva Longoria for graduating with a Master of Arts in Chicano and Chicana Studies from Cal State University Northridge.

Congrats to all the other 2013 graduates!

Happy Birthday:

Bob Dylan turns 72 today – so that means you should take a moment and listen to “Like a Rolling Stone” HERE. “Once upon a time you dressed so fine, Threw the bums a dime in your prime, didn’t you?”

Making Montana Proud:

-According to a story in the Billings Gazette, a Billings animal control officer was driving around in a city-owned vehicle waving a gun. Police said he “was making odd statements about demons and God speaking to him.”

At least he was not searching for Bigfoot.

-According to a story in the Missoulian, a Washington woman driving a vehicle with Oregon plates was stopped in Montana and “accused of driving really drunk on Interstate 90.”

I know you are wondering what “really drunk” is in Montana. According to the story, “A breath alcohol test registered 0.194 percent, more than twice the legal driving limit of 0.08 percent.”

Yes, that is really drunk.

-According to a story in the Kalispell Daily Inter Lake, “A Kalispell man has pleaded not guilty to what would be his fourth offense of driving under the influence.” He was stopped for “driving a vehicle with one headlight out.”

This makes me wonder if he was a member of the band, The Wallflowers.

One More Thing:

Don’t forget to stretch…

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