We may as well call this the Weekend Wrap…
Talk about embarrassing. Our own president snubs Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu…but somehow makes time for these yahoos? Full video is below, which even features a “YouTube star” from Missoula. Plus, Zinke makes a power play on Fox News. The Senate Republicans’ climate “head fake.” The Canadian Ambassador is not a talker, he’s a Doer- Ambassador Doer that is. The Hill reports that the US Senate has a final Keystone pipeline vote next week. Those stories are below. Plus, some interesting news out of the Montana Legislature. And, a happy birthday greeting to an old Marine- former US Senator Conrad Burns (R-MT).
No time for Netanyahu…just these yahoos: (h/t The Daily Signal)
By the way, Hank Green is one of the “YouTube stars” featured in the video above…since I made reference to the yahoos who got more face time with the president than Netanyahu- I should probably buy Adam a beer next time I’m in Missoula. I’m sure he’s probably a pretty nice guy…
Now- back to the State of the Union. Here’s what The Daily Inter Lake in Kalispell, Montana had to say: Obama and the state of confusion
There it was, early in the president’s State of the Union address. Those old familiar words, which used to bring comfort to millions of Americans, but now seemed strangely out of place: “… the state of the Union is strong.”
That might have brought a chorus of “amens” if President Roosevelt had said so in 1945, or if President Reagan had said so in 1985, but when President Obama made the same declaration in 2015, it probably elicited more “ahems” than “amens.”
All in all, the president’s performance was baffling. Perhaps, in his mind, everything really is better than it was six years ago, but the American public got to weigh in just three months ago during the midterm elections, and the forceful verdict then was that the state of the federal government led by Mr. Obama is not strong, but rather in a shambles.
FoxNews.com- POWER PLAY: Zinke: Face up to extremism
Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com
Politico Playbook: KARL ROVE’s WSJ column, “What Was Obama Thinking?”
“The recovery he touted is the weakest in U.S. history and the only one in which median household income dropped. … It is hard to fathom why the president offered so many proposals that have zero chance of passing the Republican-run Congress. The most likely explanation is while he is uninterested in governing, he is intent on positioning Democrats for the 2016 presidential race.” http://on.wsj.com/1t19ywc
Fox News First: DEM REBELLION GROWS ON OBAMA FOREIGN POLICY
Dem congresswoman says ‘great concern’ over Obama’s refusal to say ‘Islamic extremism’ – Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, told Fox News that President Obama’s refusal to describe jihadist attacks as “Islamic extremism” is a “great concern” that is shared by lawmakers from both parties. “By his not using this term ‘Islamic extremism’ and clearly identifying our enemies, it raised a whole host of questions in exactly what Congress will be authorizing? Who will we be targeting? Who is our enemy? Gabbard said on “Your World with Neil Cavuto,” “Unless you understand who your enemy is, unless you clearly identify your enemy, then you cannot come up with a very effective strategy to defeat that enemy.”
AND NOW, A WORD FROM CHARLES…
“[President Obama] said we’re going to do this for six months, then we will reimpose sanctions if Iran hasn’t done that. They didn’t. What does he do, he doesn’t impose sanctions. He extends talks. That deadline runs out again, what does he do – extends them seven months again for a second time. This is Obama saying if you like your plan, you can keep your plan.” – Charles Krauthammer on “Special Report with Bret Baier” Watch here.
The Hill: Senate sets final Keystone vote next week
The Senate worked through the night Thursday to get through amendments on legislation to approve the Keystone XL pipeline, which is headed for final passage next week.
Following through on a threat, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) kept the Senate in until midnight on Thursday.
After voting on 15 amendments, 10 of which were offered by Democrats and five by Republicans, McConnell filed for cloture on the underlying bill, setting up a final vote on Keystone next week.
Politico’s Morning Energy from Thursday: GOP HEAD FAKE SPLITS SENATE CLIMATE VOTES
Senate Republicans head-faked Democrats on climate change Wednesday, agreeing in a floor vote that the planet’s climate was changing, but blocking language that would have blamed human activity. In a complicated maneuver that was the first politically perilous test for Senate Republicans, the new majority party split up the votes that Democrats had hoped would force the GOP into an awkward roll call on whether they believed in the science behind climate change. But Republicans made an eleventh-hour change in strategy on two Democratic attempts to divide them – with Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe, their most vocal denier of humans’ effect on the climate, joining a leading liberal in a symbolic vote on whether global warming is “real and not a hoax.” Elana Schor has more: http://politico.pro/1Jah5ga
HE’S A DOER, NOT A TALKER: Canadian Ambassador Gary Doer will be on the Hill this morning for a pro-Keystone press conference with Sens. John Hoeven and Joe Manchin. 10:30 a.m., SVC-203 (It was Thursday….but I just like the headline. Always enjoy chatting w/ Ambassador Doer)
Colorado Peak Politics– BIASED REPORTING?: Eli Stokols Corrects Story on Global Warming Vote
Radio talk show host Michael Brown nailed KDVR reporter Eli Stokols for making a significant error in his report Thursday regarding the U.S. Senate’s global warming vote.
Giving credit where credit is due, we also mocked Stokols’s report, but unlike Brown we didn’t uncover the glaring error in the lead sentence: U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner “is under fire from conservationists for voting Wednesday against an amendment stating that humans contribute to climate change, something 69 percent of his constituents believe to be a fact.”
Turns out that 69 percent of Gardner’s constituents do not believe this to be fact, Stokols got the facts of the post-election poll wrong.
@MikeMillerHD84 @NathanKosted Yeah- enough is enough with gas taxes…and while we’re at it- taxes in general.
— Aaron Flint (@aaronflint) January 23, 2015
Billings Gazette: Lawmaker wants to raise gas tax by 5 cents a gallon
A Missoula lawmaker has introduced a bill to raise the state’s tax on gasoline by a nickel a gallon, dividing the proceeds between local streets and roads and public transportation.
Rep. Nancy Wilson, D-Missoula, is the sponsor of House Bill 275. The bill, introduced Thursday, will be heard by the House Transportation Committee next Wednesday.
AP: Bill Aims to Protect Privacy of Reporters’ Email
Montana government agencies would be barred from going after a reporter’s sources or information through companies like Google under legislation proposed in a House committee Thursday.
Republican Rep. Daniel Zolnikov of Billings introduced the measure in the House Judiciary Committee. He said while Montana has one of the best media shield laws, his bill would close an electronic communications loophole.
The current media protection law doesn’t address a reporter’s emails or other electronic information that may be stored on the servers of a communications provider such as Gmail, Yahoo or Outlook, according to Zolnikov.
And let me say a big ditto to Jackie M. Brown’s post at The Western Word:
Happy birthday to the Marine, the U.S. Senator, and my former boss, Conrad Burns. He hits the big 8-0 this Sunday (January 25).