If you’re going to back a cell phone ban, you can expect this to happen. How much will a small adjustment in food stamp funding actually mean? Who gets the last “I told you so.” Is that how you really take “sole responsibility?” And- a great promotional video for Kalispell, Montana. That and more is in this week’s Political Trough:
Great Falls Tribune: Mayor, who backed cell phone ban, busted using cell phone in vehicle. (h/t The Western Word)
Mayor Michael Winters of Great Falls was stopped at a traffic light on the West Side on Tuesday, talking on a cellphone.
Shouldn’t the mayor of a city follow a city ordinance?
Yes, Winters told the Tribune this week. But the mayor said there is more to the story, while suggesting this was a “pretty crummy” attempt by local critics to hurt him in Tuesday’s municipal general election
Most folks wouldn’t care too much about violating the cell phone ban, but if you’re going to endorse the ban…don’t be surprised when someone snaps a pic.
Food stamp cuts, by the numbers in The Flathead Beacon:
Food stamp benefits will be cut to roughly 47 million Americans, including 131,000 residents in Montana, starting today as a temporary boost to the federal program expires without a new deal from Congress.
Under the Supplemental Nutrition and Assistance Program, or SNAP, a household of three in Montana will lose roughly $29 in benefits each month.
Conservative blogger Tom Balek points this fact out from USA Today:
“Food stamp benefits to 47 million Americans were cut starting Friday as a temporary boost to the federal program comes to an end without new funding from a deadlocked Congress.
Under the program, known formally as the Supplemental Nutrition and Assistance Program, or SNAP, a family of four that gets $668 per month in benefits will find that amount cut by $36.
Who gets the last, “I told you so?” From the Montana GOP:
Today Montana Republican Party Chairman Will Deschamps released a statement critical of Lindeen for her remarks, and her ongoing support of Obamacare.
Deschamps said, “Commissioner Lindeen says Montana should have created an Obamacare exchange. ‘I told you so,’ she says. Well, perhaps we can share a few ‘I told you so’s’ of our own: We told you rates would go up. We told you Obama’s ‘If you like your health insurance you can keep it’ promise was false. We told you Montanans would lose their insurance coverage. Every single one of those things have come to pass. If she’s going to start saying ‘I told you so’ she should start listening to all the truths that Republicans have been speaking about Obamacare since before it was even passed
From the Great Falls Tribune opinion page:
Longtime political observers know if there is anything that makes voters mad, it’s a politician trying to dodge a drunken driving charge.
Politicians who plead guilty to DUI, and apologize, do much better with voters. It’s too early to say how state Sen. Shannon Augare, a Democrat who also serves on the Blackfeet Tribal Business Council, fits into this picture after pleading guilty to DUI and other misdemeanors in Blackfeet Tribal Court this week. He received no jail time from Blackfeet Chief Judge Allie Edwards; 37 days in jail were suspended.
This certainly doesn’t make the case for helping with the whole “sole responsibility” thing…especially since Augare has spent the last several months dodging the media and constituents. (First with the stunt at the legislature last Spring, and then following the alleged DUI story.)
Joe McKay, atty for Sen. #Augare in DUI case, just rudely hung up on me and sounded HAMMERED. #MTpol #mtleg
— Sanjay Talwani (@Sanjay_Talwani) October 31, 2013
George Will- another victory for free speech.
Flathead Beacon: Former UM Law Professor and Outspoken Conservative Promotes State Ratifying Conventions
Former University of Montana law professor Rob Natelson, a constitutional scholar and outspoken conservative, recently advocated the need for state ratifying conventions to more than 200 audience members at a gathering in Kalispell.
The conventions are one of two methods established by Article Five of the United States Constitution for ratifying proposed amendments. Natelson spent two hours explaining the textured process for altering the supreme guiding document on Oct. 21 at the
Natelson took aim at mainstream conventions that dismiss the relevance of Article Five conventions, saying those antagonists “cherry pick the evidence to try to get the conclusion they want to get.”
If you’re hosting conventions, might I suggest Kalispell, Montana for the event location? Here’s a great Kalispell promotional video by the Kalispell CVB: