I guess you could call this edition of the Political Trough- “Where’s Auggie?” Update 5…
Once again, combining a 4 day holiday weekend with several road trips for our live statewide radio talk show, and our discussion with the Fox Business Network– I’ve got a stack of news and commentary items that you might be interested in.
Let’s start with this report from MTN’s Marnee Banks:
Montana Senate leadership has asked Senator Shannon Augare (D-Browning) to step back from his legislative duties while his federal DUI case is pending.
Minority Leader Jon Sesso (D-Butte) says several legislators were pressuring Augare to step down from the committee and even resign as Senator.
Moving on…
Well Ranger- you’ve done a great job at Glacier National Park. Your work with Brutus the Bear has just been magnificent….but now we’ve got a new assignment for you- From The Hill: House Dems Pitch National Park on the Moon
Two House Democrats have proposed legislation that would establish a national historical park on the surface of the moon to mark where the Apollo missions landed between 1969 and 1972.
The bill from Reps. Donna Edwards (D-Md.) and Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas) would create the Apollo Lunar Landing Sites National Historical Park. The park would be comprised of all artifacts left on the surface of the moon from the Apollo 11 through 17 missions.
Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/house/309829-dems-propose-historical-park-on-the-moon#ixzz2Yjv3UtC8
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The Daily Caller: Thousands Fleeing Canada for Health Care
An estimated 42,173 Canadians left their homeland in 2012 to seek medical treatment elsewhere. This is a decrease from the 46,159 Canadians who fled the country in 2011 for medical treatment.
“In some cases, these patients needed to leave Canada due to a lack of available resources or a lack of appropriate procedure/technology,” according to a report by the Fraser Institute — a free-market Canadian think tank. “In others, their departure will have been driven by a desire to return more quickly to their lives, to seek out superior quality care, or perhaps to save their own lives or avoid the risk of disability.”
Business Got a Pass- We Want One Too. Here’s another report from The Daily Caller:
A new survey indicates that only 12 percent of consumers believe Obamacare’s individual mandate should be enacted in 2014, according to HealthPocket, a health care reporting company.
Conducted in response to last week’s news that the Obama administration will not enforce the employer mandate until 2015, the survey also found that a full 41 percent believe that if requirements are waived for employers, they should be waived for individuals as well. Forty-seven percent of respondents are not certain.
Accuracy in the Media: Obamacare’s Rollout a “Slow Motion Train Wreck”
AIM quoted ABC’s political director Rick Klein from Sunday’s This Week.
You have seen Democrats saying that implementing Obamacare has the potential to be a train wreck. Well, now you have the prospect of a slow-motion train wreck. Here’s the thing about this particular provision, this effects thousands of workers, not the millions of workers who are going to be impacted over the long haul on this. So if you couldn’t even get this piece of it right after a three-year ramp up period, and you’re saying that you need another year and a half just to put in this tiny piece of Obamacare.
Twitchy.com: Creepy Jim Messina warns Republicans against possible Sarah Palin Senate run
Messina Tweet
Candidate @sarapalin? Could anything be better for natl Dems? This my R friends is guaranteed not to fix your problems. . .
— Jim Messina (@Messina2012) July 10, 2013
TX Abortion Debate- Activist says fetuses don’t have Social Security numbers:
Stunning. RT @OurLadyBusiness: Fetuses don’t have SS #s, aren’t deducted on tax returns. No civil/human rights until viability
— Kirsten Powers (@kirstenpowers10) July 11, 2013
KELOland.com: Republican Party Chairman Rescues Woman From Burning Vehicle
Most people know Craig Lawrence as the chairman of the South Dakota Republican party. But there’s a young woman in Minnesota who knows Lawrence only as her hero.
The woman is unconscious, so Lawrence grabs her and struggles to get her out of the burning vehicle.
“She’s screaming while I do it, even though she doesn’t remember anything. She’s screaming and I’m saying, ‘I’m sorry, but if I don’t pull you out, I know it’s going to hurt, but you’re going to die,'” Lawrence said.
From The Flathead Beacon, a great read profiling Montana Incident Commanders:
Under heavy scrutiny and faced with the most challenging conditions in his long career fighting fire, (Greg) Poncin tried to answer the question asked of him day after day: What are you going to do?
Poncin trusted in his team of men and women from Montana and across the Northern Rockies. He relied on the years of training from his mentors back home in Kalispell, Wally Bennett and Steve Frye. He remembered the lessons his firefighter father taught him as a kid growing up in the mountains outside Eureka.
“It’s essentially bringing order to chaos,” Poncin said of the incident management team’s goals.