http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/mt-news/ en-us Mon, 4 Jan 2010 15:12:20 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2420564/posts The Montana Supreme Court said Thursday that nothing in state law prevents patients from seeking physician-assisted suicide, making Montana the third state that will allow the procedure. Patients and doctors had been waiting for the state's high court to step in after a lower court decided a year ago that constitutional rights to privacy and dignity protect the right to die. The Montana Supreme Court opinion will now give doctors in the state the freedom to prescribe the necessary drugs to mentally competent, terminally ill patients without fear of being prosecuted, advocates said. Steve Johnson, a 72-year-old Helena cancer patient,... Cybercast News Service http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2420564/posts#comment Mon, 4 Jan 2010 15:12:20 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419134/posts Montana Now Third State to Allow Assisted Suicide, Court Says Helena, MT -- The Montana Supreme Court has officially paved the way for the state to become the third to allow the practice of assisted suicide. The high court considered a case from a now-deceased terminally ill patient who wanted the right to kill himself with assistance from a physician. http://www.LifeNews.com/bio3027.html LifeNews.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419134/posts#comment Fri, 1 Jan 2010 20:51:12 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419118/posts Helena, MT (LifeNews.com) -- The Montana Supreme Court has officially paved the way for the state to become the third to allow the practice of assisted suicide. The high court considered a case from a now-deceased terminally ill patient who wanted the right to kill himself with assistance from a physician.The high court did not determine if the Montana constitution guarantees a right to assisted suicide but said nothing in state law or the precedent of the court prevented assisted suicide.“We find nothing in Montana Supreme Court precedent or Montana statutes indicating that physician aid in dying is against... Life News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419118/posts#comment Fri, 1 Jan 2010 20:29:54 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418916/posts Michael Lee Thompson could just as easily have been dead. Instead, the 30-year-old Corvallis man spent Wednesday in front of a judge for sentencing on charges he attacked a man and chased him inside his home last June. The attack stopped after the homeowner picked up a pistol and told him to get out. Ravalli County Chief Prosecutor Geoff Mahar said the homeowner was scared to death. “Mr. Thompson may not have been here today but for the lack of a couple of pounds (of pressure) on a trigger,” Mahar told Ravalli County Judge Jeffrey Langton. * Later in the... Ravallirepublic.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418916/posts#comment Fri, 1 Jan 2010 13:54:46 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2417941/posts An update on Sen.Max Baucus,MT. OK, fine. Whatever you say. Senator Max Baucus has finally come forward with an attack on his attackers who wondered, as did I, if booze was responsible for his bizarre behavior on the Senate floor last week. Bauchus called the whole thing outrageous. http://www.radioviceonline.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2417941/posts#comment Wed, 30 Dec 2009 22:37:29 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2417802/posts Was Democrat Senator Max Baucus of Montana flagrantly drunk as he gave a speech several minutes long on the Senate floor last week? You know, plastered, sloshed, wasted, or the more proverbial...drunk-as-a-skunk?! According to a now-notorious video that Was Democrat Senator Max Baucus Drunk During His Senate Floor Speech? has spread like wildfire across the internet as well as the dedicated reporting of conservative bloggers, there sure seems to be a compelling case for Baucus' insobriety, indeed. Associated Content (AC) http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2417802/posts#comment Wed, 30 Dec 2009 18:53:12 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2417199/posts Wow: David Shuster really lets it all hang out on Twitter . . . In current tweets, the MSNBCer accuses Karl Rove of "hypocrisy," calls conservatives "wingnuts," claims Baucus wasn't wasted, and denounces Drudge as "repulsive" for supposedly suggesting otherwise. Excerpts from Shuster's current Twitter feed [screencap after the jump]: * Thank you Wingnuts! By mentioning my tweets, you are bringing more attention to @karlrove hypocrisy * Wingnuts, just because you want to believe something is true does not make it so. Obama wasn't born in Kenya. Baucus wasn't inebriated. * Baucus speech was at 430pm in the afternoon. He... NewsBusters http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2417199/posts#comment Tue, 29 Dec 2009 21:40:01 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2416977/posts Montana Senator Max Baucus, who led the Democrats' health care reform legislation through the Senate last week, is responding to accusations that he was intoxicated while delivering a speech on the Senate floor. Video of the speech posted to YouTube over the weekend shows Baucus appearing to slur some of his words and repeating himself at times. Baucus' spokesman Tyler Matsdorf released a statement on Monday refuting claims that the Senator was drunk, calling it an 'untrue personal smear Internet rumor.' Matsdorf said, "This is beyond the pale and this type of gutter politics has no place in the public... Syracuse.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2416977/posts#comment Tue, 29 Dec 2009 15:53:00 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2416747/posts Sen. Max Baucus' office Monday denounced a widely viewed Internet video that suggested Baucus was drunk on the Senate floor last week, calling it an "untrue, personal smear" designed to attack Democrats' health-care reform legislation. "This is beyond the pale, and this type of gutter politics has no place in the public sphere," said Baucus spokesman Ty Matsdorf. helenair.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2416747/posts#comment Tue, 29 Dec 2009 04:34:58 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2416355/posts Video of Baucus drunk at link We have already complained about the media double standard in the coverage of Senator Max Baucus' (D-MT) recent ethical problems. Now comes the clearest evidence yet in the form of this video. It already has 176,000 views on YouTube but it has so far been ignored by the major TV networks and newspapers. Let's remember that Baucus is the architect of the Senate-passed health care plan.Let’s also review what else has the media has virtually ignored. Baucus recommended Melodee Hanes, his live-in ‘girlfriend,’ to the White House for nomination for Montana’s U.S. Attorney’s post.... NLPC http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2416355/posts#comment Mon, 28 Dec 2009 17:17:43 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2416218/posts There's a video going around that claims Montana Senator Max Baucus is drunk on the floor of The Senate as he spiritedly takes on Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker in a talk about Health Care Reform. In fact, the video that started the Conservative's nasty attack on Baucus is from Think Progress, which pointed to Baucus' articulate claims of Republican partisanship" I want to tell the Senator that that is not what happened. I was in the room constantly, constantly. I talked to those Senators many many times. That is not what happened. I'll tell you what did happen. Your... San Francisco Chronicle http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2416218/posts#comment Mon, 28 Dec 2009 14:00:46 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2416114/posts This video of Democratic Senator Max Baucus during the debate on the Democrats' health care takeover is all over the web. Most observers say that Baucus was drunk. We report, you decide: [click link above for video] Iclaim no expertise in this area beyond normal human observation, but, for what it's worth, I would say that he was drunk, but is an experienced drinker and was not terribly impaired. What is most interesting to me is how close he comes to articulating the Democrats' real complaint against Republican Senators: they are traitors to their class, i.e., the political class. The... Powerline http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2416114/posts#comment Mon, 28 Dec 2009 06:46:23 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2416077/posts Max Baucus drunk on senate floor http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2416077/posts#comment Mon, 28 Dec 2009 04:35:09 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2415835/posts How can one explain this incredibly bizarre performance by Max Baucus on the Senate floor? Was Baucus so intoxicated by the sound of his own voice that he went off the deep end? Or perhaps he was so drunk with power over shaping the Senate health care bill that it explains his strange rant. In any event, if a conservative such as Jim DeMint or Jeff Sessions had acted this way in the Senate, the mainstream media would have featured the video over and over and over again. Instead, since this was Democrat Max Baucus, this video was almost completely... NewsBusters http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2415835/posts#comment Sun, 27 Dec 2009 18:55:10 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2415745/posts During the general debate on the health care legislation that recently passed the Senate, Senator Max Baucus, Democrat from Montana, took to the floor of the Senate and engaged in a drunken tirade. Oblivious to the fact that he was slurring his words and mangling his sentences, Senator Baucus shouted down opponents as he let loose a rambling, and at times incoherent, tirade against those dastardly Republicans who refused to be bipartisan. This drunk is the Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, charged with overseeing our taxpayer dollars. As is clearly evident from this video, the less than honorable Baucus... David Horowitz's NewsRealblog http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2415745/posts#comment Sun, 27 Dec 2009 15:32:49 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2414712/posts HELENA - This cowboy wasn't about to let a crook rustle him out of a good truck. A Kalispell man chased down the thief who stole his pickup truck and held him for police despite being stabbed twice in the arm. And he kept his cowboy hat on the whole time, said Kalispell Police Detective Kevin McCarvel. The man started his Ford F-250 diesel pickup late Monday afternoon to warm it up before leaving work. But when he walked out of the office at about 5 p.m., he saw his truck being driven away, McCarvel said Wednesday. The truck owner... The Missoulin.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2414712/posts#comment Thu, 24 Dec 2009 22:44:36 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2414289/posts Butte-Silver Bow County will erect a permanent building in its TIFID for the testing of rocket engines. Kristen Rosa, administrator of the Tax Increment Finance Industrial District, said that the steel-sided structure could be in operation by next spring. "It will help them be able to test bigger and bigger rocket engines," Rosa said. (cut) Space Propulsion Group Inc., a Stanford University-affiliated company, visited Butte a number of times last year to test fuels used in hybrid rockets. The approximately eight-second tests were done on the smaller 11-inch models, but thanks to the new building companies will be able to... Montana Standard http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2414289/posts#comment Thu, 24 Dec 2009 05:13:19 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2414311/posts GREAT FALLS, Mont. (AP) - The U.S. Air Force is aiming to spend up to $7 million annually through 2015 to spruce up roads where it transports personnel and equipment to Montana missile sites. Cascade County Road Supervisor Dave Sutton said the typical missile road maintenance programs only include applying new gravel every few years to roads leading to Malmstrom Air Force Base missile sites, the Great Falls Tribune reported. Helena Independent http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2414311/posts#comment Thu, 24 Dec 2009 06:39:30 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2413435/posts Energy: An oil company wants to invest its profits in clean-burning American natural gas. A Hungarian billionaire and a "green" politician want to stop it. This is the real Climate-gate scandal. While the greenies of the world united in Copenhagen to talk about the weather, emitting a Third World-country-size chunk of greenhouse gases to gather there, the world's largest oil company, Exxon Mobil, was doing something about it. On Dec. 14, Exxon agreed to buy XTO Energy, a natural gas firm, in a deal valued at $41 billion. XTO is one of the leaders in something called "fracking" technology, in... Investors.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2413435/posts#comment Wed, 23 Dec 2009 01:25:03 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2412787/posts In this season given to tidings of comfort and joy, word has come that we New Yorkers are the sad sacks of the United States. This is something of a surprise. Sure, we complain a lot. Grumbling could qualify as the official state sport. But are we really the unhappiest of them all? It seems so, judging from a study by two economics professors, newly published in Science magazine. The academics — Andrew J. Oswald, of the University of Warwick in Britain, and Stephen Wu, of Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y. — examined piles of data, tossed them into a... NY Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2412787/posts#comment Tue, 22 Dec 2009 06:48:59 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2412417/posts Not being a fan or groupie of anyone or anything, I was surprised how compelled I felt to see Sarah Palin at her Billings book signing this week. It must be the newshound in me that had me RSVP to that event. I braved the cold weather, and even worse, the crowd, to get her picture and an up close and personal look at this now-national personality. I didn’t, however, stand outside and wait in line to get an autograph. I see the collector value in that, but didn’t have hours to spend waiting for the signature. Easily admitted to... Big Sky Business Journal http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2412417/posts#comment Mon, 21 Dec 2009 19:40:25 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2412000/posts Deep in Health Bill, Very Specific Beneficiaries ROBERT PEAR December 20, 2009 WASHINGTON — Buried in the deal-clinching health care package that Senate Democrats unveiled over the weekend is an inconspicuous proposal expanding Medicare to cover certain victims of “environmental health hazards.” The intended beneficiaries are identified in a cryptic, mysterious way: individuals exposed to environmental health hazards recognized as a public health emergency in a declaration issued by the federal government on June 17, 2009. And who might those individuals be? It turns out they are people exposed to asbestos from a vermiculite mine in Libby, Mont. For a... NYTimes http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2412000/posts#comment Mon, 21 Dec 2009 03:23:56 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2411647/posts When the new West is won, will there be cowboys? In light of what her neighbors are up to, Double O Ranch owner Vicki Olson isn’t so sure. “I guess the point that I keep hammering at is that if they succeed, that means all of us third- and fourth-generation ranchers are gone,” Olson said. She is the average Montana rancher, 56 going on 70, working a spread gouged from the pebbly soil by her grandparents 100 years ago. Her neighbor, the nonprofit American Prairie Foundation, is methodically acquiring ranches and crafting a 3.5-million-acre wildlife reserve out of private property... The Gazette http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2411647/posts#comment Sun, 20 Dec 2009 14:40:25 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2411252/posts 18 states allow for recall votes on US Senators. The 18 states allowing for recall are as follows: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, North Dakota, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington and Wisconsin. The Senate oath of office is: I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well... Vanity http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2411252/posts#comment Sat, 19 Dec 2009 19:02:57 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2410891/posts HELENA - In the debate over leasing state coal at Otter Creek in southeastern Montana, 22 Democratic state lawmakers weighed in Friday - but not necessarily for or against the proposed lease. Instead, the lawmakers wrote the state Land Board to reject claims from a group of Republican lawmakers that global warming is "rhetoric" and not a settled, scientific issue. "While everyone is entitled to an opinion, there is only one set of facts," said the letter. "The facts ... are clear: Climate change is real, the pace of change is quickening, and the effects are increasingly widespread, disastrous and... Missoulian http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2410891/posts#comment Sat, 19 Dec 2009 01:58:17 GMT