Political Trough: Refracking is the New Fracking

Pro-tip for news reporters: when covering positive stories about an illegal immigrant, highlight the fact that they are an illegal immigrant.  When covering negative stories about even the same illegal immigrant- don’t say anything about illegal immigration.  Remember that Montana story?  I’ve got it below in the Political Trough. 

Plus, even non-Catholics are supposed to listen to the Pope now, according to one Missoulian.  A liberal website falsely claims that a Bozeman-based group wants to do away with national parks. And, fighting for the right to party on Sundays- a UM history professor gets some love from the National Endowment for the Humanities.  Those stories and much more are below. 

But first…

Bloomberg.com: Refracking Is the New Fracking

Early evidence of the effects of restimulation suggests that the fields could actually contain enough reserves to last about 50 years, according to a calculation based on Wood Mackenzie Ltd and ITG Investment Research data.

If the word fracking has carved out a spot in the lexicon of Americans as the nation advances toward energy independence, then refracking, as roughnecks have begun calling it, could be next. And for an industry that has been hammered by the 50 percent drop in crude prices over the past year, the finding on the technique’s potential — at a fraction of the cost of the initial well — provides a much-needed sense of hope.

Mike Vincent, a well-completion engineer who teaches the technique to industry workers, said he’s been overwhelmed by the sudden interest in the class. He even had to abandon plans he had been making to spend a week fly-fishing in the Rocky Mountains over the summer. “I’m booked every week teaching refrack classes out to November,” said Vincent, who runs a Denver-based firm called Insight Consulting. “It’s amazing how much passion there is.”

If you’re thinking that this isn’t the first time you’ve heard of “re-fracking,” you’re correct.  Dr. Bill Whitsitt joined me on Voices of Montana from Bigfork to discuss this very topic back in February (AUDIO).

In other news…the Left is completely twisting around a piece by the Bozeman-based PERC.  In fact, the headline at Daily Kos says this: Koch-backed group calls for end of national parks

The headline, of course, makes no sense when you actually look at what PERC’s Reed Watson actually had to say:

“True conservation is taking care of the land and water you already have, not insatiably acquiring more and hoping it manages itself,” the op-ed reads. “Let’s maintain what we’ve already got, so we can protect it properly,” it concludes.

Now, on to illegal immigration.  As Donald Trump is under fire for his remarks about illegal immigrants and rape, you may recall a story about an illegal immigrant in Bozeman, Montana who was charged with rape. As Tim Adams with Media Trackers Montana noted back in August of 2013, The Bozeman Daily Chronicle was quick to highlight this illegal immigrant “Cinderella story.”  However; when that same Montana State University student was charged with rape- no mention of the fact that he was an illegal immigrant.    

Instead, the Chronicle simply offered this headline:  Montana State student arrested for rape of teen girl

While Trump has faced criticism for his remarks about illegal immigration ushering murderers, rapists, and drugs into America…the numbers apparently back up his claims.

MRCTV.org: Border Reports Back Up Trump’s ‘Rapists’ Claim | MRCTV

“The U.S. has become a dumping ground for everybody else’s problems,” He said. “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”

While the remarks are certainly blunt, they’re not inherently wrong. Border Patrol seized just under $3.5M worth of marijuana from Mexican nationals in Arizona this past Thursday alone.  There’s also  been 40 cases of sex abuse by illegal aliens this year, and that’s just from what Border Patrol has posted as media releases on their website. A staggering amount of those cases involve children and minors.

The Daily Caller- O’Reilly UNLOADS: Obama Admin ‘Complicit’ In Illegal Immigrant Murder In San Fran [VIDEO]

During his “Talking Points Memo,” O’Reilly argued that the administration is “complicit” in Steinle’s death, while going even further against the city, saying they are “directly responsible” after refusing to comply with the 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Responsibility Act.

“Apparently Sanchez has seven felony convictions. Has been deported five times. Yet, he’s still walking around the streets of San Francisco, this guy,” O’Reilly railed. “That’s because Mayor Ed Lee and the 11 members of the San Francisco city supervisors refuse to cooperate with the federal government on criminal aliens.”

“The feds asked the city of San Francisco to keep Sanchez in custody. The city refused. Ms. Steinle paid for that irresponsible and unconstitutional decision with her life. San Francisco is a sanctuary city and proud of it, and violent crimes committed by criminal aliens have happened there before. City authorities refuse to say how many because they know it’s a huge scandal, a black mark on the history of San Francisco, the most tolerant of cities. The family of Kate Steinle asking for calm, not vengeance, but talking points is not as charitable.”

Breitbart.com: Illegal Immigrant Deported 6 Times Charged in Felony Hit-and-Run of Family that Injured Children

A six-time-deported illegal immigrant is charged in the felony hit-and-run of an Arizona mother and her two young children. The man allegedly admitted to being high on marijuana while causing the severe lacerations to a five-year-old boy. The five-year-old and a two-year-old were both taken to an area hospital.

This tragedy comes within one week of two separate incidents involving previously deported illegal immigrants allegedly murdering women in two U.S. states: California and Texas. The California case involved a young woman in San Fransisco taking photos with her father on a pier when an illegal immigrant who had been deported five time prior allegedly murdered her. The Texas case involved an illegal immigrant who had been deported four time prior. Police say the man admitted to murdering his wife with a hammer.

CBS San Francisco- SF Sheriff Mirkarimi: Pier 14 Murder Could Happen In Any U.S. City… ICE Needs To Step Up

San Francisco Sheriff’s deputies have been making secret phone calls for years to help the Feds get illegal immigrants like murder suspect Francisco Sanchez, off the streets.

One former cop said it happened all the time because they “resented” the city’s so-called ‘sanctuary policy‘ and they wanted to get illegal immigrant criminals off the streets. Then, Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi got wind of it.

KPIX 5 obtained the memo Sheriff Mirkarimi sent to his deputies in March spelling out that he, and only he, can turn over illegal immigrants to Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE).

First there was Montana’s own Rachel Dolezal…now this:  Top American Indian Scholar Outed As Fake Indian | The Daily Caller

Just a few weeks after Rachel Dolezal transfixed the nation with her bogus claims to black heritage, yet another professor stands accused of falsely claiming a different racial identity to advance her career.

Andrea Smith, a professor of media and cultural studies at the University of California at Riverside, has started to draw attention in the wake of the Dolezal incident from those who say she has for years falsely claimed to have Cherokee blood. The case is arguably much more significant, though, because while Dolezal was a relatively undistinguished academic at Eastern Washington University, Smith is recognized as a significant scholar in her field. She routinely appears as a featured scholar at major events and has written books that were well-received by her colleagues (though others may question the broader worth of works like Conquest: Sexual Violence And American Indian Genocide).

Politico Playbook:  WHAT N.H. IS READING

Union leader front-page editorial, “High-horse Hillary corrals a wimpy news media,” by Publisher Joseph McQuaid: “HRC (Her Royal Clinton-ness) … Republican presidential candidates by the handful were in New Hampshire parades, answering questions and shaking hands with no trouble. And this included Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio, both of whom get a great deal of press and public attention. The national media should, but it won’t, ignore any further Clinton coverage unless and until she gets off her high horse.” http://bit.ly/1HK4Rfo

Oh…so Senator Steve Daines (R-MT)- a non Catholic (I’m assuming) is supposed to listen to the Pope? But Nancy Pelosi doesn’t have to when it comes to issues like abortion etc?  Letter from guy in Missoula: Daines ought to review pope’s encyclical

KTVQ-TV: Oil prices dive below $53 as Iran deal looms

Iran is nearing an historic nuclear deal with the West — and that’s scaring the oil markets.

Oil prices plunged nearly 8% and broke below $53 a barrel on Monday, the deepest plunge for crude oil since early February.

American drivers may have even lower prices to smile about in the future, especially if an Iran nuclear deal is in place by this week’s deadline. The national average gas price could return to nearly $2 a gallon later this year, said Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at the Oil Price Information Service. The national average is currently sitting at $2.77.

Forbes.com: Civil Forfeiture Now Requires A Criminal Conviction In Montana And New Mexico

This legislation also shifts the burden of proof onto the government—where it belongs—when spouses, neighbors and other innocent owners try to get back property used by a suspect without their knowledge. Montana’s civil forfeiture reforms are vital to restore due process and protect the property rights of the innocent.

New Mexico went even further and abolished civil forfeiture outright. As in Montana, law enforcement can only forfeit property after a criminal conviction. Crucially, this new law requires that all forfeiture money be deposited in the general fund, preventing it from becoming a police slush fund. Without a single vote cast against it, Gov. Susana Martinez (and a former prosecutor) signed this landmark reform on April 10.

National Review’s Jim Geraghty- Obama: Oh, Hey, I Just Realized Beating Islamist Terror Will Take a While

Then-Senator Obama, March 19, 2008:

What more could America’s enemies ask for than an endless war where they recruit new followers and try out new tactics on a battlefield so far from their base of operations? That is why my presidency will shift our focus.

President Obama, Monday:

“This will not be quick. This is a long-term campaign. (ISIS) is opportunistic and it is nimble….This larger battle for hearts and minds is going to be a generational struggle.”

The guy who mocked his predecessor for getting America into an “endless war” now recognizes that the battle against radical Islam will be a “generational struggle.”

NEH.gov: Fighting for the Right to Party on Sundays; How the struggle over blue laws changed American politics

The battle began with the Second Great Awakening in the early nineteenth century. Protestant reformers led by Lyman Beecher and other evangelical ministers trembled as their traditional Christian Sabbath seemed to be under assault. Instead of a day of worship, rest, and quiet contemplation, Sunday was becoming a day of raucous amusement and gratuitous commerce. Particularly threatening was the rising tide of immigrants—many of them Catholics—who brought festive Sabbath traditions soaked in alcohol from Europe. From Vermont to Alabama to Indiana, hundreds of local associations were founded to protect the Sabbath. In 1843, prominent clerics established the American and Foreign Sabbath Union to bring national unity to the burgeoning movement. Activists spread the reform message at numerous meetings and used steam-powered printing presses to bombard the nation with pro-Sabbath literature. As former president John Quincy Adams announced at the National Lord’s Day Convention in 1844, all this was to ensure that Americans obeyed God’s Fourth Commandment: “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.”

Battles over Sunday laws did not end with the Civil War. The events of the previous two decades set a pattern that would continue into the twenty-first century. Certainly, a modern legacy of the old blue laws is the limits on Sunday business that persist in Bergen County and other parts of the United States. But the broader legacy concerns a central dynamic in the history of American democracy: the tension between majority rule and minority rights. As with the struggles over Sunday laws, that tension has so often been driven by competing grassroots movements, some preaching majority rule and moral order and others championing civil rights and civil liberties. That core conflict continues to animate American public life, and for many, it operates seven days a week.

The above piece was written by Kyle G. Volk, an associate professor of history at the University of Montana.

FoxNews.com- (Former CNN Reporter) Lynne Russell: The second amendment saved my life

Lynne Russell thanks the right to keep and bear arms for keeping her and her husband alive during an armed robbery on June 30th.  The former CNN anchor and Chuck de Caro, formerly a CNN reporter, were held at gun point in an Albuquerque Motel 6 room by felon Tomorio Walton.

What ensued was a stand-off that left Walton dead and de Caro shot three times. Russell was not injured in the shootout.

Russell told FOX411 that having a gun “absolutely” saved their lives.

Finally, Cats and Griz alike are keeping the family Eryon Barnett in their thoughts and prayers.

Bozeman Daily Chronicle: Montana State mourns the death of former defensive back Eryon Barnett

Montana State football coach Rob Ash mourned the loss of his former player in a statement released by the school Saturday evening.

“We’re heartbroken by the loss of Eryon Barnett,” the coach said. “He fought through so much as a football player, and always showed a resilient spirit that everyone that knew him drew from and admired.”

Barnett, a native of Euless, Texas, missed part of fall practice before the 2014 season because of complications from pancreatitis, or inflammation of the pancreas. He also missed two games in November, beginning with a road game against Cal-Poly, due to similar symptoms.

Teammate reaction via Twitter:

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