Billings Ranks 3rd Drunkest City in U.S.

February 6, 2010 in Montana

by jhwygirL

a hat tip to Ellen on this one….

I’m sure there are many who find this amusing or something to brag about. Montanans should be so proud.

I went an checked some of Montana’s county jail rosters to see what kind of tallies we have currently on how many DUI defendants are under incarceration right now (8 p.m. on a Saturday night):

— Yellowstone & Lewis and Clark don’t list the specific offenses.
— Butte-Silverbow doesn’t provide a list at all (that I could find)
— Flathead County has 9 DUIs in jail right now, with 3 being noted as 4th offenses
— Gallatin has 12 in house for DUI’s
— Missoula has 23 DUIs in house, 12 of them being mulitiple offenses. All of those multiple offenses are 4th DUIs with the exception of 1, which was a 2nd DUI. Of the 23 DUIs? One of them is under the age of 21, and his current arrest is his 3rd alcohol-related.

Wow. Lovely, huh? More than half of Missoula County’s DUI related inmates are multiple offenses?

(Update: Looks like Billings Gazette columnist (and 4&20 fav) Ed Kemmick has a somewhat cynical take on his city’s latest brush with notoriety:

But what if the researchers read this newspaper on a regular basis and saw how many of our DUI arrests involved drivers racking up their third, fourth, seventh or 12th DUI? Maybe we would have left Reno and Fresno in the dust.

Kemmick dug into the criteria used to make the list. One of ’em?: The severity of state laws regarding drunken driving.

Yep – Montana should be so proud.)

Sarah Palin Gets $100k/hr to Tell Tea Partiers they don’t need a Leader

February 6, 2010 in 2010 Election, 2012 Election, Sarah Palin, Tea Party

by JC

Here’s few choice Palinisms from her performance:

“Around the world, people who are seeking freedom from oppressive regimes wonder if Alaska is still that beacon of hope for democracy.” Alaska?

“Now a year later I gotta ask all the supporters of that, how’s that hopey changie stuff workin’ out fer ya?”

“Nuke-u-lar power” — gack, more Bush-speak

“would be wise of us to start seeking some divine intervention again in this country so that we can be safe and secure and prosperous again”

Calls main stream media “irrelevant”