For those of you wondering why the US Department of Justice isn’t doing more to investigate the political targeting scandal at the IRS, it may well be due to the fact that DOJ has been engaging in political targeting of their own. We’ll have that story for you in this week’s Political Trough. Plus- are feds ignoring law enforcement needs in Montana? The Daily Inter Lake editor writes that protecting religious freedom isn’t just a hobby. They’re not only mans’ best friend- they’re a veterans best friend as well. Udall, Hickenlooper threatened by fracking fight in Colorado. And, North Dakota adds 22,000 jobs in one year. Those stories and more are below.
But first, I mentioned this on Friday’s show. If you know a soldier who is serving in a war zone right now, and is being told by the Obama administration that they will have to lose their job in the military when they get back from their deployment- contact me, I’ll bet we here in Montana can find a job for them.
Then just this weekend I ran into a neighbor who says his company is looking to hire about 100 people for their frack crews. The pay? 90-$100,000 a year. And I know there’s more where that came from.
Now, back to the Political Trough.
SayAnythingBlog.com: North Dakota Has Added 22,000 Jobs In The Last Year, Nearly 70,000 Workers In The Last Decade
Once again, North Dakota has added a lot of jobs.
“Employers reported an estimated 22,000 more jobs when compared to a year ago, a 4.9 percent gain,” the report reads.
RedState.com: Fracking Rift Threatens to Sink Udall, Hickenlooper
Fracking has been good for the State of Colorado and its economy, and therefore a large majority of Coloradans support fracking. However, the Democrat base, particularly in Colorado, is not so much with the whole science thing, and therefore they are vehemently opposed to fracking. Uber environmentalist wacko Jared Polis (D-CO), has decided to score an own goal on two vulnerable Democrats who are up for election in a non-Presidential election year and therefore are heavily depending on turnout from their base – by forcing Udall and Hickenlooper to take a stand on fracking. By opposing fracking, Udall and Hickenlooper risk alienating swing voters; by supporting it, they will alienate their most dedicated voters.
What should the US do given that we are facing what some describe as “an arc of instability unseen since the 1970’s.” What about the lost gains in Iraq? I posed those questions and more as we talked with Congressman Steve Daines (R-MT). I also asked him about the gas tax, as Sen. Jon Tester has been open to hiking a gas tax. Daines gave a flat out no to any increase in gas taxes.
Click here to listen to Monday’s show featuring Congressman Daines.
Flathead Beacon: A Veteran’s Best Friend
On July 18, Montana Congressman Steve Daines met with a group of these veterans at Flathead Valley Community College in Kalispell to discuss the lack of support from the Department of Veterans Affairs when it comes to service animals; in Montana, VA hospitals do not allow service animals to stay overnight at inpatient units or even come inside outpatient facilities.
Daines told the veterans that he sent a letter on July 17 to John Ginnity, the interim director at the VA Montana Health Care System, asking for him to use his authority to permit service, guide and therapeutic animals to stay overnight with “any patients admitted to any inpatient unit within the system” as well as making sure community-based outpatient clinics “accommodate Montana veterans with service animals.”
Community hospitals in Montana, as well as VA hospitals in other states, allow service animals, Daines wrote, and he hoped the same courtesy could be extended to Montana’s VA hospitals.
Speaking of veterans, Fox News First has this:
DAINES TOUTS WORK FOR VETERANS IN NEW AD
Senate hopeful Rep. Steve Daines, R-Mont., will debut a new TV ad hitting airwaves across Montana today and focusing on his work to fight injustices challenging Montana Veterans. The 30 second spot features George Blackard, veteran from Billings, Mont., highlighting the hardships he has experienced as a veteran. “We had a situation where deceased veterans were denied grave markers at our cemetery. That’s an injustice and it should never happen,” Blackard says. “Steve Daines was one of the first people in Washington D.C. to speak out. He took swift action. He got a commitment from the VA to fix that problem.” Daines challenges incumbent Sen. John Walsh, D-Mont., in November.Democrats are pressuring US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to step down…can you imagine if Republicans were telling a woman that she has to quit her job because she is too old?
From The Hill: WH not worried about Ginsburg chatter
The editor of The Daily Inter Lake took on Montana’s two senators after their criticism of the US Supreme Court’s decision in the Hobby Lobby case.
Daily Inter Lake: Protecting religious freedom is not just a hobby
There is no doubt that the Affordable Care Act and the regulations it spawned are laws that prohibit the free exercise of religion. When the federal government ordered Hobby Lobby and other corporations to provide services to its employees which violate the beliefs of the owners of the store, they ipso facto prohibited the owners from exercising their religious beliefs in the only way that matters — through action. If I oppose abortion on religious grounds, but the government tells me I have to support abortion with my money and my employment policies, then the government is using its power to enslave me as surely as if it had thrown me in the Tower of London.
The Supreme Court could have said that, but it didn’t. Instead, its tiny-minded majority opinion only said that Hobby Lobby had the right to refuse to participate in the federal mandate because Congress had passed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act in 1993. That’s well and good, but it ultimately says that the government does have the power to restrict my religious freedom as long as it repeals the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
The Billings Gazette’s editorial board lauds the efforts of Rep. Daines (R-MT), pleading with the federal government to “just send help.”
Recently, Montana Representative Steve Daines wrote an emphatic letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder asking for more support. Not too long ago U.S. President Barack Obama visited North Dakota, and he highlighted the Bakken crime problems as an area of concern.
Daines’ pitch wasn’t just some election-season ploy pandering to residents in the eastern part of the state. Daines has repeatedly called for more law enforcement and more attention to the Bakken counties. Recently, he held a listening session in Glendive to understand what the authorities and communities close to the Bakken are experiencing.
One of the other problems is a demonstration of federal bureaucracy simply not being able to handle a real-life situation. North Dakota’s FBI is in a different regional command center than Montana’s, creating a territorial problem for law enforcement. In other words, Montana’s FBI headquarters are in Saltt Lake City. For North Dakota, it’s in Minneapolis. It shouldn’t be a problem, but the federal dividing lines also limit how the FBI responds to what is a growing crisis.
DailyCaller.com: Operation Choke Point Hearing Reveals DOJ Threats And Strong-Arming
A Justice Department fraud prevention program came under fire Thursday for allegedly morphing into actively pressuring banks to deny financial services to businesses for political reasons.
Operation Choke Point functions as a partnership between the Department of Justice (DOJ) and various other federal agencies which deal with bank regulations, specifically the Treasury and the SEC. The objective of the project is to choke-off fraudulent businesses from accessing financial services, in an effort to protect consumers.
Missoulian- Securities fraud: Former legislator Nooney must repay victims $335,000
A Helena judge has ordered former state lawmaker and Missoula resident William R. Nooney to repay his victims $335,000, ending a securities scandal years in the making.
At his sentencing this week, Nooney received a six-year deferred sentence for selling securities in Montana without a license. During that time, he will remain under the supervision of the Montana Department of Corrections.
Nooney, a Republican, won elections to the Montana Legislature in 2006 and 2008, representing House District 100 in Missoula. He was initially charged last September with three counts of fraudulent practices and common scheme, and one count of failing to register in the state as a securities salesperson, all felonies