Thanks for stopping by to read “Caught My Eye!”

If this is your first time visiting The Western Word the “Caught My Eye” column is posted every Friday morning! This is when I take a quick look at some of the stories I did not have time to write about during the week. By the way, I often throw in a touch of sarcasm just to make you smile – or maybe to irritate you just a little.

Today I write about the Montana Economic Development Summit, Daines and food stamps, Shutting down the government, Trust in Media, The Hammer, Key Moments in Twitter, plus there are three winners in the Making Montana Proud category!

Food Stamps & Daines:

Congressman Steve Daines made another one of those silly Tea Party votes recently. He “voted with fellow Republicans to cut federal food subsidies by an estimated $39 billion over the next 10 years.”

Lee Newspapers reported, “Most households using food stamps include young children, a senior citizen or someone with disabilities.” Lee Newspapers also reported, “Under the plan, roughly 2.8 million people would be pushed out [of] the food stamp program right away, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Another 850,000 households would see their average monthly benefits of $290 a month cut by $90. Another 210,000 children would no longer be eligible for free and reduced school lunches.”

According to Roll Call, Daines is “Among the richest freshmen in Congress” as well as coming in at number 40 among all members of the House and Senate (535).

With this vote he showed he has very little compassion for those less fortunate. I guess it’s hard for him to see the need from his ivory tower.

Montana Economic Development Summit:

While most people in the Montana media were giving Max Baucus’ Economic Development Summit lots of love and “full team coverage,” some bloggers and others did not see it that way.

-The Helena Vigilante posted “BAUCUS SUMMIT: HUGE LOVEFEST FOR THE RICH AND POWERFUL” that showed how much was donated to Baucus from some of the companies in attendance.

-The Montana Cowgirl posted “AGAIN IN BUTTE, THE TITANS OF INDUSTRY” writing “Max Baucus is starred in his own show this week” and “They have agreed to come kiss Baucus’s ring because he is the man that, as chair of the Senate Finance Committee, doles out corporate tax breaks and statutory loopholes in federal law…”

-The New Republic magazine posted a story entitled, “Maybe Eric Schmidt, Sheryl Sandberg, and Elon Musk Just Really Like Butte, Montana” saying, “This is less a jobs conference than a corporate-underwritten lobbying junket.”

-Here at The Western Word, I wrote about the Economic Development Summit on September 10 in a column titled, “Good-Paying Jobs” in which I said, “Several years ago, Baucus discovered a gold mine in getting much-needed publicity when he started hosting a Montana Jobs Summit.” Yesterday I wrote, “I felt a little nauseated after reading and watching those in the media report on the greatness of Max Baucus during the summit.”

Shut Down the Government:

The Montana Democrats sent a press release with the title, “Steve Daines Wants To Shut Down The Government, Hurting Montana” and added some interesting quotes from Daines’ fellow Republicans. It seems that Daines and some of his Tea Party members want to shut down the Government if they don’t defund ObamaCare.

A couple of my favorites are:

-Republican Senator Tom Cole: The “equivalent of throwing a temper tantrum”

-Republican Senator John McCain: “Most Americans are really tired of those kinds of shenanigans here in Washington”

Personally I would like to see both sides get together and work to make ObamaCare a better program – I think most Americans would like to see that, too.

Trust in Media:

Gallup has released a new poll, “Americans’ confidence in the accuracy of the mass media has improved slightly after falling to an all-time low last year. Now, 44% say they have a great deal or fair amount of trust and confidence in the mass media, identical to 2011 but up from 40% in 2012, the lowest reading since Gallup regularly began tracking the question in 1997.”

So I guess 56% don’t have that much trust. It’s MSNBC and FOX News’ fault…

The Hammer:

Former House Majority Leader Tom “The Hammer” DeLay, R-Texas, is a free man. He won his appeal on the conviction of “illegally funneling corporate money through the Republican National Committee to help elect GOP candidates to the Texas Legislature in 2002.”

Maybe he can give Dancing with the Stars another try…

Making Montana Proud:

This section is where I mention people whose actions embarrass Montana in some way.

-From the Missoulian: Adrianne Lynn Bennett, 32, was found by a man “standing in his garage topless. When asked what she was doing, she said that he was cruel to animals and she was the owner of the home.”

A friend told me that after reading this story, he was keeping his garage unlocked…

-From the Billings Gazette: Tami Lynn Shorthair, 43, “drove drunk with her children to a prearranged meeting with a state trooper.”

It takes a special kind of stupid to drive drunk with children in your car. It ventures into idiot land when you drive drunk to meet a state trooper.

-From the Billings Gazette: Lisa Smith Peterson, 43, “was charged Friday with her fifth drunken-driving offense” after she allegedly drove her vehicle into a cornfield off Interstate 94.

Hopefully the judge will be tougher on her than other judges have been…

Key Moments in Twitter:

CNN has “23 key moments from Twitter history” which is pretty interesting. See it HERE.

Yes, Anthony Weiner made the list…

One More Thing:

Don’t forget to stretch…

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