Congratulations on making it to Friday – the first Friday of August!

If you are a first-time visitor, “Caught My Eye” 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. I often throw in some sarcasm and poke fun at people just to make you smile.

Today I write about Concealed Weapon Permits, Protecting Montana’s missiles, Veterans Clinics, Wyoming Senate, G.I. Joe, Vacation time in D.C., the GrOpener, plus there are two winners in the Making Montana Proud category!

Concealed Weapon Permits:

Some on the right are up in arms (pardon the pun) over a request for information about concealed weapon permit holders in Montana.

Montana Attorney General Tim Fox released a memo (to someone), which I could not find on the AG website, but I found it on The Flint Report blog, saying “no” to the request. Flint stated, “A source outside of the Montana Department of Justice sent me a copy of this memo.”

Nice.

Flint said he did confirm the accuracy of the memo from John Barnes, who is the Communications Director for Attorney General Tim Fox. Flint reported, “Barnes confirmed that two entities, the Associated Press, and a Boston outfit called ‘MuckRock News,’ had requested information on all concealed weapons permit holders in Montana.”

I am perfectly fine with AG Fox denying the request. It was the correct thing to do in my book. But I would suggest that in the future AG Fox train his Republican staffers on how to best distribute his memos to all the public instead of what appears to be a selected few…

Save Our Missiles:

Earlier this week Republican U.S. House member Steve Daines received his two minutes of fame from the Great Falls Tribune when he added an amendment to the Defense Appropriations Act “to prohibit the Department of Defense from using funds in the bill to do an environmental impact study of intercontinental ballistic missiles or the facilities in which they are located.” The Tribune story was a little over 800 words.

Today (Friday), U.S. Senator Jon Tester received his two minutes of fame after he sponsored “language prohibiting the Defense Department from using funds to conduct an environmental study related to Minuteman III silos that contain missiles.” This Tribune story was around 870 words.

I salute Daines and Tester for being vigilant in regards to the remaining 150 missiles assigned to Malmstrom AFB, but that was a lot of ink just for some language being inserted in a bill.

Of course, if the Department of Defense really wants the study completed they will get the funds from somewhere. By the way, both stories contained incorrect information (again) about the 564th Missile Squadron being deactivated in 2006. It was deactivated 2007. (Source)

Veterans Clinics:

Talk about a mess. CBS News is reporting that Congress has put 27 VA clinics on hold “because of a disagreement over accounting.”

The Federal government and accounting – now that is funny!

CBS News says, “Typically the VA rents clinic space from developers — and Congress pays the bill every year. But last fall, the Congressional Budget Office studied the VA rental agreements for the first time and concluded the clinics were government purchases, not rentals. Because of the ruling, the VA had to count 20 years worth of lease payments against this year’s budget alone. The ruling was a budget buster and forced the VA to stop the clinics.”

For years I have believed that the best way to take care of veterans’ healthcare is to allow them to use civilian clinics and hospitals in their hometowns if no VA clinic/hospital is reasonably close. Almost every elected official says they support veterans. The CBS story shows as the wars wind down and our military personnel need assistance with their healthcare that support is sorely lacking.

Wyoming Senate:

The Associated Press reported, “U.S. Senate candidate Liz Cheney and her husband were more than two months late paying property taxes on a $1.6 million home they bought last year in the tony community of Jackson Hole, according to Teton County records.”

Welcome to the world of scrutiny, Liz…

G.I. Joe Retaliation:

I got a kick when I happened to catch the advertisement about the movie, “G.I. Joe Retaliation” which is coming out on DVD. The funny part was that when you buy the movie, you can also get “free personalized dog tags.”

I am the proud owner of some “free personalized dog tags” and you can get some, too. Just stop by your local recruiter’s office to find out how…

V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N:

Watch out – Members of Congress are leaving Washington and won’t be back there until September 9 (that’s a nice vacation).

CBS News reported Thursday, “This 113th Congress is on track to become the least productive in history, so what better way for them to mark that than by taking off the rest of the summer without finding a way to fund the government come September.” They continued, “Congress has passed just 23 laws this year, including one to name a bridge and another to promote fishing in Tennessee’s Cumberland River.”

Making Montana Proud:

This is the section where I mention people whose actions embarrass Montana.

-This one is from KRTV (CBS) in Great Falls: “Tyreek Stephens made his initial appearance in court on Monday following a disturbance on Saturday night on the west side of Great Falls.”

But was it really Tyreek Stephens?

KRTV also reported, “It eventually took several officers to detain Stephens, who reportedly identified himself as Tiger Woods.”

-Although this person is not from Montana, the event happened in Montana. According to the Montana Standard (Butte), “Matthew Colbert, 38, of Vancouver, Wash., is expected to be charged Thursday in Philipsburg district court with attempted deliberate homicide. Colbert is accused of shooting a handgun from his pickup truck at a couple, Danny and Kathleen Muir, as they drove on the interstate early Friday.”

Apparently it was a real shoot-out: “Danny Muir, who was driving, fired a shot from his own .22-caliber pistol at the suspect’s rear tire in an attempt to stop him, but the shot missed the tire.”

It was also reported, “Colbert told Granite County Sheriff Scott Dunkerson that there were papers in his truck from President Obama and the Joint Chiefs of Staff ‘granting him immunity from arrest.’

I guess people should remember that if you shoot at someone in Montana, they may shoot back…

Must Have:

For those readers who need help opening bottles, I bring you the GrOpener (Grab Opener). Enjoy!

One More Thing:

Don’t forget to stretch…

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