South Dakota Politics

Wireless and the US Military

Being the computer geek I am, this story from the AP was pretty interesting. 

Researchers work on wireless system key to future U.S. military, an excerpt:

In a drab office complex under tight security, computer engineers are devising an ambitious wireless communications network to link soldiers on the battlefield to each other and a host of remote-controlled killing and surveillance machines.

The system represents the backbone of the U.S. military's vision of warfare in the not-so-distant future. But making it a reality is no small task for the small army of private contractors led by Boeing Co. charged with making it work.

The Army has earmarked more than $14 billion for the Future Combat Systems project and is expected to add another $6 billion this year. Delivery of some of the technology is expected as early as 2008, with the goal of equipping a 3,000-soldier unit by 2014.

For more than a year, engineers here have been piecing together 18 separate types of combat systems in the network and writing software that will one day compile a universe of data drawn from the battlefield by soldiers, satellites and unmanned ground vehicles to give U.S. forces an unparalleled advantage.

In practical terms, that translates to moving data at high speeds among several thousand soldiers and hundreds of tanks, transport and support vehicles anywhere in the world.

Dean

I can't believe he might win the DNC Chair, bit it looks possible.  A theory:  Ickes endorsed Dean to eliminate a major Hillary rival in 2008.

The Vote

It's hard to believe the vote will be this soon.  About 24 hours.  Also, is it just me, or is the normally sober and unflappable Professor Reynolds completely unloading on the left in this post.  Not that there's anything wrong with that.

The Academic Left

From the Wall Street Journal:

There They Go Again
Hamilton College welcomes a cheerleader for the 9/11 attackers.

Friday, January 28, 2005 12:01 a.m. EST

It's déjà vu all over again. Less than two months after Hamilton College tried to hire a former Weather Underground activist who was indicted in the 1981 Brinks murders, the Clinton, N.Y., liberal-arts college plans to showcase a cheerleader for the 9/11 attacks. Just the sort of thing parents pay nearly $40,000 a year in tuition and board to have their children hear.

At issue now is a panel set for Feb. 3 on "Limits of Dissent?" to be hosted by the college's Kirkland Project for the Study of Gender, Society and Culture. Among the invited panelists is Indian activist Ward Churchill, who teaches ethnic studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder. While Mr. Churchill has caused controversy in the past--founders of the American Indian Movement denounced him as a "white" and a "fraud"--his screeds usually attract little notice outside obscure Marxist Web sites and the like.

On Sept. 12, 2001, however, Mr. Churchill performed an act of extraordinary crepitation, even for him. In "Some People Push Back: On the Justice of Roosting Chickens," he saluted the "gallant sacrifices" of the "combat teams" that struck the Pentagon and World Trade Center, asserting that the people who worked there ("braying . . . into their cell phones") and died that day deserved what they got.

Hold on Boys and Girls

Drudge links to a story saying Harold Ickes (a Shakespearean name if ever there was one) has endorsed Howard Dean for DNC chair.  The Democratic Party seems to be hitting the accelerator as it heads for the cliff.

Meanwhile, back at the looney bin, Barbara Boxer, Powerline reports, thinks the answer to her party's woes is to fight harder against minority cabinet nominees. And it seems  for Senator Goofey, like Jesse Jackson, it is always 1965 and all of Ohio is Selma (ironic, given her opposition to placing capable minorities in cabinet possitions).  The Senator rants:

 As you and I both know, this is just one more of the many battles we'll be having as we fight for our nation's future. It started with contesting the Ohio vote, it continued with the debate over Dr. Rice's confirmation, and it will certainly continue over the Gonzalez nomination and on many other looming issues. We're going to need to keep working together to make our voices heard and build a better America.

 

San Francisco Proposes Handgun Ban

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors is proposing a comprehensive ban on all handguns within the city limits.  "The proposal would bar residents from keeping handguns in their homes or businesses and prohibit the sale, manufacture and distribution of any firearms or ammunition in San Francisco." 

If approved by a majority of the city's voters in November, the law would take effect in January 2006. Residents, who have bought nearly 22,000 handguns since 1996,would have 90 days to relinquish their weapons. The ban would make an exception for police officers, security guards, military personnel and others who require guns for their job.

The National Gun Lobby has promised an immediate challenge to the ban if it passes next November.  While the debate over the whether or not San Francisco can constitutionally ban handguns is an interesting topic, perhaps more interesting are the murder statistics of another area that has implemented a similar ban.  Washington banned handguns in 1976.  They saw an immediate drop in the number of murders.  However, recently the murder rate has skyrocketed. 

Last year, the district had 248 homicides, or 20.7 per month -- a rate of 44 homicides per 100,000 residents. By comparison, San Francisco, has a rate of 9.2.

It makes you wonder whether Washington's criminals turned over their handguns. 

CNN

From the mailbag:

Did you know you were just mentioned by name on CNN's "Inside Politics"?  They were doing a story on blogs.

Um, no, I didn't know that.

Hinderaker's Take on the Al Franken Interview

As Prof. Blanchard mentioned yesterday, John Hinderacker from Powerline was a guest on the Al Franken show earlier today.  I was in class so I missed the interview, but Hinderaker has posted his take on how it went.  It sounds like it really wasn't much of an interview at all. 

Who Is Running Against Harry Reid

This Opinion Journal editorial makes me think some enterprising Nevadan needs to start a HarryReidvFillInTheBlank website. 

Shocked! Shocked! To Find Gambling Going On In This Establishment!!

Evidently Hamas is a big winner in elections in Gaza. According to the Jerusalem Post, this has more to do with corruption in Arafat's Fatah Party than an endorsement of Hamas' terrorism.  Corruption?  In Fatah?  Arafat was a Nobel Prize winner, was he not?  The always perceptive Jimmy Carter thought he was a man of great vision.  Corrupt?  I don't believe it. 

Who is this crazy right-winger?

"President Bush's inauguration speech last week marks a consistent evolution of U.S. policy. He spoke of America's mission to bring freedom in place of tyranny to the world. Leave aside for a moment the odd insistence by some commentators that such a plea is evidence of the "neoconservative" grip on Washington — I thought progressives were all in favor of freedom rather than tyranny. [Go ahead — read that line again. You know you want to.] The underlying features of the speech seem to me to be these: America accepts that terrorism cannot be defeated by military might alone. The more people live under democracy, with human liberty intact, the less inclined they or their states will be to indulge terrorism or to engage in it. This may be open to debate — though personally I agree with it — but it emphatically puts defeating the causes of terrorism alongside defeating the terrorists.

Secondly, by its very nature, such a mission cannot be accomplished alone. It is the very antithesis of isolationism; the very essence of international engagement. It requires long-term cooperation.

And it is based on enlightened self-interest. Freedom is good in itself. But it is also the best ultimate guarantee that human beings will live in sympathy with each other. The hard head has led to the warm heart.

None of this means the hard head won't still be applied. America, as is perhaps inevitable being the world's only superpower, who in the end is expected not just to talk about the world's problems but to solve them, approaches all issues with a propensity to question what others assume, treat the pressure groups with resistance, and ask others to share responsibility, as well as demand it of America.

But no one could say the inauguration speech was lacking in idealism."

This is Tony Blair, in Davos Switzerland.  Hat tip, Jay Nordlinger.

Blanchard on Public Radio

I will be on South Dakota Forum (Noon to One O'clock) on Wednesday, Feb. 2nd.  The topic of discussion will be the President's State of the Union Speech and his second term.  You can hear it live online.  Find the link at: South Dakota Public Broadcasting. 

What a load of...

Compliments of a Ryne link, here's a good look at one of the by-products of cattle culture on the Plains:

Definition of Marriage Bill

It looks like South Dakota voters will determine in 2006 whether to amend the state constitution to define marriage as being between a man and a woman.  Via KELO

Unless something unexpected happens, South Dakotans will be voting in 2006 on a proposed constitutional amendment that would define marriage.

An existing state law already does that, but Representative Elizabeth Kraus of Rapid City thinks the definition should be in the state constitution. She's offered a joint legislative resolution that will put the issue on the 2006 statewide ballot.

The measure has 55 House sponsors and 23 Senate sponsors, virtually guaranteeing that it will clear South Dakota's 105-member Legislature.

Joint resolutions passed by lawmakers go on the ballot automatically and do not have to go to the governor for his approval.

Kraus says her measure is an important means of protecting the sanctity of marriage.

Iraq

From The Times of London:

FOR decades, voting in Iraq meant taking part in a national exercise of state-enforced adulation, as 99 per cent of the electorate would dutifully turn out to tick the box beside the name Saddam Hussein.

Yesterday the contrast could not have been starker, as the campaign for Sunday’s elections picked up pace and voters were presented with a dizzying selection of dozens of candidates and parties.

Notwithstanding insurgent terror aimed at wrecking the polls, there is finally a palpable sense in Baghdad, and other Iraqi cities, that the country is entering a new era.

***

While voters may be confused by the experiment in democracy, they cannot complain about a lack of choice. There is a Communist Party, with the message of a “free country and a happy people”, a monarchist movement pledging the restoration of the Hashemite dynasty, and even a party under the banner of Abdul Karim al-Qassim, the former brigadier-general who seized power in a military coup.

***

Political pundits agree that three of the coalition lists will dominate Sunday’s polls. The United Iraqi Alliance, a loose collection of more than 100 parties supported by Ayatollah al-Sistani, is expected to win as much as 40 per cent of the vote, drawing on the support of the majority Shia population in central and southern Iraq and Sadr City, in Baghdad. Not only do Shias believe that they will finally win power after centuries as second-class citizens, they have also been told that voting is a religious duty.

In spite of the strong religious backing, the party has been at pains to emphasise that it supports secular politics and rejects any notion of an Iranian-style theocracy. To make the point that it is not bound to Islamic doctrine, it put up posters of a beautiful girl with long, flowing black hair that looked more like an advertisement for shampoo.

If you want to follow events on the ground in Iraq during the election, go here.

Harsh Judgments on Hersh

Max Boot, whose column is one of the few reasons to check out the LA Times, writes scathingly and convincingly on Seymour Hersh, whose writings could give yellow journalism a bad name. 

Hersh . . .  is the journalistic equivalent of Oliver Stone: a hard-left zealot who subscribes to the old counterculture conceit that a deep, dark conspiracy is running the U.S. government. In the 1960s the bogeyman was the "military- industrial complex." Now it's the "neoconservatives." "They overran the bureaucracy, they overran the Congress, they overran the press, and they overran the military!" Hersh ranted at UC Berkeley on Oct. 8, 2004.

Hersh has a track record of conspiracy theories based on unnamed sources and unfounded speculations.  I remember him first from a piece that Boot describes here:

In 1986 he published a book suggesting that the Soviets shot down a South Korean airliner because they mistook it for a U.S. spy plane — a claim debunked by the opening of Soviet archives.

That was vintage yellow left journalism.  The Soviet shoot down an airliner full of innocent people and who is to fault?  The Reagan administration of course. 

But it is not Hersh's irresponsible imagination that is most appalling.  Its his stupidity. 

Hersh has also compared what happened at Abu Ghraib with Nazi Germany. (Were American MPs gassing inmates?)

If you compare the Abu Ghraib scandal with reasonable standards of interrogation it looks pretty bad, not only because the treatment of prisoners was so nasty but because it was, as far as anyone can tell, useless.  But when you compare it with Auschwitz, the Americans come off as angels.  Can you imagine any inmate of a death camp who would not regard it as divine deliverance were he to be transported to Abu Ghraib? 

Hersh's pieces are indeed an indictment of such journals as the New Yorker, who might as well be printing the Protocols of the Elders of Zion for all the journalist integrity that Hersh's writing brings. 

Hobbes

Andrew Sullivan has rounded up some commentary on the situation in Iraq, which some see as a Hobbesian nightmare.  Tonight, Mort Kondracke was on television talking about how terrorists in Iraq are handing out flyers saying 'if you try to vote your blood will run in the streets.'  NBC News also ran a story tonight about how terrorists have targeted schools where voting will take place for bombings.  Even before the voting begins they're blowing them up.  First, pray for our troops who trying to make a democratic election possible.  Second, give thanks you live in a place where democratic practices and institutions are so entrenched--last fall, nearly 80% of people voted in South Dakota.  Sometimes when we write about "South Dakota Politics," the topic that launched this blog, we forget how much we've assumed.  Third, remember Afghanistan, where 10 million people registered to vote and 8 million went to the polls.  That's 80% too, just like in South Dakota.  And 80% of the registered women in Afghanistan voted.  Fourth, pray that the anti-democratic forces of Hobbesian chaos are defeated on Sunday and that the Iraqis get the same chance as the Afghans.

Mailbag

From a reader:

Did you see that the Argus gave Thune's election as a new whip in the Senate two sentences on a sidebar in section B?

No, I didn't notice that.  But now I can see how I missed it.  Today, the top story in the newspaper is about how the state might by a new airplane.  Priorities...

The Star-Trib Front

Editor & Publisher:

If you don't believe that bloggers are giving newspapers a headache, talk to Nick Coleman. A veteran newspaper columnist for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Coleman is in the middle of an old-fashioned feud with one of the leading conservative Web logs in the country.

So far, his battle with Powerlineblog.com — Time magazine's "blog of the year" — has sparked an anger-spewing column by Coleman, an ombudsman's clarification, and a threat by a leading bank to pull advertising from the newspaper.

Moreover, it has confirmed the growing ability of blogs to get under the skin of the mainstream media. "This is just the beginning," an exasperated Coleman warns. "People need to pay attention to [bloggers]. To watch out."

Read the whole thing.  Yes, newspaper columnists no longer have the power to abuse their perches at will. 

Hindrocket Live on the Al Franken Show

Tommorow at 12:45 Jonathan Hinderaker, one of the Olympians at Powerline, is going live on the Al Franken's radio show.  You know, the one that is supposed to make up for Rush Limbaugh.  I gather you can hear it live on a link from the show's blog.  Hinderaker will go on just after Nick Coleman, the gopherhead who attack Powerline recently in the Star Tribune.  Coleman displays all the intellectual firepower of a stunted fern.  Should be fun all around.

MI5 and the Coming British Police State

For anyone who doesn't know, A&E has been running the British spy show MI5.  The first two seasons were quite good, and the third season is running now.  A recent episode focused on an attempt by a government minister to take control of MI5 and use it to arrest his political enemies.  I expect that the plot was inspired by recent proposals to give the British Government new powers with which to combat terrorism.

Home Secretary Charles Clarke has announced that he will introduce house arrest without trial for British citizens as well as resident aliens suspected of involvement in terrorism.  The British Press has reacted with predictable alarm, and its hard to blame them.  Says Simon Jenkins in The Times:

It is because some ministers can degenerate to this craven state that most countries have proper constitutions. They have supreme courts, plebiscites, senates, checks and balances. Britain has none of these. It has only Parliament. Yet hands up those who think a majority of MPs will boldly cry “Liberty” and walk through the division lobby to stop Mr Clarke’s monstrous arrogation of power. Not a hope.

Still, it is one thing to complain about the measures that government is taking to deal with the terrorist threat.  Its another to offer alternatives.  One has to recognize that most folk aren't yet scared.  In spite of all the nonsense about how 9/11 changed us forever, very few Americans felt any personal fear or suffered any hardships as a consequence of the disaster.  The same, I would wager, is true of the people of Spain.  Modern societies are large enough and rich enough to absorb terrorist attacks of this scale so that the vast majority of folk never feel the shock.

But one of these days that may change.  A serious biological attack, or an attack against a nation's power grid or communications networks that caused folk every where to fear for their own lives or, what is almost as bad, caused them to loose their jobs, might well create a consensus in favor of trading civil liberties for security.  If you want to save civil liberties, then, you have to make sure that attack never happens.  So far as I can see, few civil libertarians seem willing to spare a thought for this.

It is hard for me to imagine that arbitrary house arrest makes much sense.  If a suspicion of terrorist activity is strong enough to subject someone to incarceration in any form, surely house arrest is not secure enough. 

Alice Thomson in the London Telegraph makes this point:

New Labour is more proscriptive than any Tory government. It concentrates all its energies on stopping smoking in public places, outlawing hunting, even banning large teddy bears from amusement arcades. These are all unnecessary but trivial. House arrest of British citizens without trial is serious and unacceptable.

Maybe the foxes should be subject to house arrest?

Hilliary Clinton Has a Colleciton of AK47's?

Ok, so its a joke.  The tip off is the article date.  But its a good joke.  See the London Times.

Saddam could vote...but...

Headline of the Day:

Saddam could vote in Iraqi elections but won't for technical reasons: report

[via Speed of Thought]

Email from Condi Rice

Instapundit noted this post from Citizen Smash about a email Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice sent out this morning:

Colleagues, today is the first of many days ahead that we will work together to help our country build a safer, better world. I am honored to lead the State Department at this critical time -- a time of challenge and hope and opportunity. And, like you, I owe a special debt of gratitude to our dear friend Colin Powell, who has served our nation with distinction, and has done so much to strengthen the Department of State.

Read the rest...

North Dakota

Josh Marshall is not happy with North Dakota Democratic Senator Kent Conrad on the Social Security front.

Q it up

Please welcome Quention Riggins, i.e. "Q", back to the blogosphere!  He's another great American from the West River country of South Dakota.  He blogged away during 2004 and was reliable member of the Dakota Blog Alliance and we welcome him to SDP.  Q is a law student down at University of South Dakota and will be our Vermillion correspondent.  His inaugural post is below.  SDP is assembling a great little group of posters and we're interested in thoughts from readers.  Any format or style or topic suggestions are always welcome. 

This Guy Needs Help

First off, I would like to thank Jon and Jason for inviting me to post on SDP. For those of you who don't know me, I was a member of the DBA posting at Quentin Riggins Blog.  It is a pleasure to work with Jon and Wes who I blogged with up until the election, as well as Professors Blanchard and Schaff who I was fortunate enough to have as professors during my time at Northern State University. 

A professor at the University of Colorado has written an essay which says that the people who were killed in the terrorist attacks on September 11th were not innocent victims.  Among the more controversial claims made by Professor Ward L. Churchill are the following. 

The Sept. 11 attacks were in retaliation for the Iraqi children who were killed in a 1991 bombing raid and for economic sanctions imposed on Iraq by the United Nations following the Persian Gulf War.

Hijackers who crashed jets into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on Sept. 11 were "combat teams," not terrorists.

The people killed inside the Pentagon were "military targets.

"As for those in the World Trade Center," the essay said, "well, really, let's get a grip here, shall we? True enough, they were civilians of a sort. But innocent? Gimme a break."

Election Law

Associated Press: 

A move to prohibit per-head payments to workers who register voters or get them to the polls was passed Wednesday by the South Dakota House after a debate that split mostly along party lines.

The measure's main sponsor, Rep. Mike Buckingham, R-Rapid City, said HB1085 would help prevent fraud by preventing political organizations from paying workers based on how many people they get registered or deliver to polling places. Such workers could still be paid salaries or by the hour, he said.

If a driver gets paid $10 for each voter delivered to the polls, questions arise on whether the driver gives a cut of the commission to each voter, Buckingham said. "What I'm trying to accomplish here is a clean election," Buckingham said.

I wonder if he's any relation to Lindsay.

The Left

You may remember this post from last summer about how Lewis Lapham, the editor of Harper's, kept alluding in his new book to a coming fascism in the US.  Insty now points us to this video of interviews with people on the left who also think fascism has arrived.  It's very revealing.  One thing I've often found interesting is that the media will often refer to the "far right loonies" in the nation, but rarely do you see an exploration of the far left in America.  Well, watch the video and take a look.  (Hat tip: Sibby). 

Minnesota Senate Race in 2006

From today's issue of The Hotline:

MINNESOTA: Coming Straight From The Top

      In his 1/27 news conference, Pres. Bush "dismissed" Sen. Mark Dayton's (D) claim that his admin has lied "repeatedly, flagrantly, intentionally" about Iraq, saying "there are 99 senators other than that person." In the Senate debate over Sec/State Condoleezza Rice's nomination, Dayton said Rice and other admin officials had a record of "lying to Congress, lying to our committees and lying to the American people." GOPers "were quick to criticize" Dayton for his "wild-eyed rants."
      Dayton spokesperson Chris Lisi said calls and e-mails to Dayton's office "overwhelmingly" supported him, but that they also received "a handful of phone calls" saying he was racist (Webb, St. Paul Pioneer Press, 1/27).
      Minneapolis Star-Tribune's Grow writes that Dayton was speaking about Rice "from his soul," but his words "didn't just fall on deaf ears. They fell on virtually no ears at all." Just 4 other Sens. were on the floor when he spoke 1/25. Dayton: "We have a lot of good speakers here. We don't have many listeners." The one-sided vote to confirm Rice "could be seen as underscoring the commonly held view" that Dayton "is a vulnerable target" for the GOP, but it is "just as possible to see him as a national leader of opposition" to the Bush admin.
      Dayton "doesn't create tingles of excitement," and "it's more powerful to read a Dayton speech than to hear one." But he "has potential leadership strengths," the "greatest" being that he is "one of the few consistent critics" of Bush's foreign policy and "its veracity problems." His criticism "is from the heart," and he "genuinely believes" that he was lied to, noting an '02 meeting with Rice in which he was "repeatedly" told that there was "absolute proof" that Iraq had a nuclear weapons program.
      Most people "acknowledge that Dayton has substance and that he never has been afraid to take political risks," but substance "is a hard sell." Gustavus Adolphus College prof. Chris Gilbert: "Everything he does is going to be trapped in a reelection narrative. We're in a period when loyal dissent gets dragged down as partisan politics" (1/27).

The Press

Journalism students at the University of Tennessee are being taught about blogs.  Good idea.  When they become journalists, they won't have a news monopoly like their predecessors did. 

Iowa

Washington Times: "Republicans in the Iowa Senate are advancing a controversial proposal that would exempt residents under age 30 from state income taxes to halt a brain drain."

Daschle to Speak Tonight in New York City

From the Drum Major Institute:

DMI Event: The Progressive Agenda for 2005 with Senator Tom Daschle

Is America better off now than it was a year ago? The Drum Major Institute's 2004 Year in Review provides you with the hard facts to answer that question. Celebrate the release of DMI's 2004 Year in Review report with Senator Tom Daschle, who will offer his vision for a progressive agenda in 2005.

WHEN
January 27, 2005 / 5:30pm

WHERE
Lotus / 409 West 14th Street / New York City

Voting

Both the Dakotas, Montana and Washington became states on the same day in 1889.  Our "sister" state's race for governor keeps getting attention.  Polipundit:

WA Republicans have identified at least 240 felons who voted in the election. In addition, at least 44 people who died, before absentee ballots were mailed, ended up voting anyway.  That puts Democrat Christine Gregoire’s “victory” margin of 129 votes, after three recounts, in a new light. 

To the East, note this from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Citing a Journal Sentinel review that found more than 1,200 votes cast from invalid addresses in Milwaukee, local and federal law enforcement officials launched a joint investigation Wednesday into potential voter fraud in the Nov. 2 election.

Such problems were the target of that vote yesterday in the SD House of Representatives.

The Passion of Michael Moore

Michael Medved has a nice piece in today's WSJ about the relationship (or lack thereof) between Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9-11 and Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ.

Slow Day Ahead for State House of Representatives

SB 54#    clarify the procedure to be followed for expedited abused or neglected child proceedings; SB 14#    modify provisions related to the payment of unemployment insurance benefits; SB 18#    require the Public Utilities Commission to disburse certain bond or other proceeds to affected customers;  SB 19#    revise the length of time for the Public Utilities Co

The Minnesota Race

Hinderaker in 2006!  Good idea.  He's from Watertown, you know.  Hey, Hubert Humphrey moved from Doland to Minnesota and became Senator...

"Yush" for Nobel Peace Prize?

The Roth Report covers the breaking news from the Russian News Agency NOVOSTI:

Senator and the former 'first lady' Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Senator John McCain (R-AZ) have nominated Ukraine's and Georgia's presidents Victor Yushchenko and Mikhail Saakashvili for the Nobel Peace Prize, Senator Clinton's spokesperson told this correspondent.

The two senators sent their joint letter dated January 24 to the Nobel Institute in Norway, having highlighted the historic role played by Saakashvili and Yushchenko in Georgia and Ukraine respectively.

The letter, the copy of which was sent to RIA Novosti, stresses that Saakashvili and Yushchenko "have displayed an extraordinary commitment to peace".

"Awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to these two men would instill hope and inspiration in those seeking freedom in other countries that lack it," Clinton and McCain wrote.

Yushchenko deserves this award, in my opinion.   

UPDATE: Press releases from Sen. McCain and Sen. Clinton. 

The Mystery of the Missing Frogs

Tech Central Station has a nice piece by Alex Avery on "The State of Frogs"  Disappearing frogs have been one of the environmental movements favorite "waring signs."  Lower number of frogs have been blamed on global warming, the deteriorating ozone layer, and pesticides.  In fact frogs comprise a range of  species and the fate of one is not necessarily linked to another.

Frog deformities in Minnesota were blamed on pesticides, but it turned out that the real culprit was a naturally occurring parasitic worm.  It was hard to blame the disappearance of frog species in Rocky Mountain lakes on pesticides, but the environmental movement tried anyway.  Supposedly, farm chemicals were drifting east over the mountains and settling in the lakes.  Hey, why not? 

Unfortunately for the theory, there was an easier explanation. 

Thirty years ago we began stocking these naturally fishless lakes literally by the planeload. Dr. Vance Vredenburg removed the trout from five separate lakes in the late 1990s and saw frog "population explosions" in each over the following years. As he told the San Francisco Chronicle, "There are at least 10,000 lakes in the High Sierra. Ninety percent to 95 percent of them hold introduced species of trout but no more frogs at all. And there may be 200 lakes that have plenty of frogs, but few or no fish. So the answer is pretty straightforward, and it doesn't get much simpler: with no trout you get an immediate and dramatic response."

Now that's a simple answer to a complex problem.  I don't know how we can get rid of the trout, or whether we want to.  I like fish better than frog's legs.  But its just not a very sexy story.  And there's no multinational corporation to sue.

Bush Cabinet news

Overlooked today by the 85-13 vote on Condoleezza Rice, three other Bush Cabinet members were confirmed: Michael O. Leavitt was confirmed as Secretary of Health and Human Services, Jim Nicholson was confirmed as Secretary of Veterans Affairs and Samuel Bodman was approved as Secretary of Energy.  The full Senate will take up Alberto Gonzales’ confirmation the week of January 31. Michael Chertoff,  nominee for Director of Homeland Security, will face committee approval on February 2. 

World Economic Forum in Davos

Couple of interesting developments  at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. French President Jacques Chirac called for a "global tax" to fund the global fight against AIDS.  Also, Prime Minister Tony Blair urged the US to work with the International community. 

Payments to Register Voters

A new bill is now being debated on the House floor "An Act to prohibit certain payments and receipt of payments for registering and assisting voters and to establish certain penalties."  It's HB 1085.  Apparently the Democrats are opposing the bill and using this case as part of their argument. 

UPDATE:  Representative Buckingham is talking about the bill now on the floor.

UPDATE II:  This issue came up during the 2002 Senate race and was reviewed in John Fund's new book about election problems.  Here's the chapter in PDF: Download FUNDvoterfraud2002.pdf

UPDATE III: You can listen to the debate here.

UPDATE IV:  The bill passed 45-25. 

We Shall Be Free

Somewhat comically, Mahmoud Abbas is ordering the "state" (i.e. PA) controlled media to be free.  Or else!!  Rousseau would be proud. 

Bye Bayh Senate, Hello Des Moines

Ms. Rice was just confirmed by the Senate as Secretary of State, 85-15.  The most interesting 'no' vote was from Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana, who has now sent the second signal that he's running for President in 2008 by catering to the party's anti-war base.  The first sign, of course, was hiring Daschle's campaign spokesman Dan Pfeiffer, who was planning to assist Daschle's Presidential run but ended up helping the Senate effort.

Smoking Update

It sounds like there will be a motion to reconsider the House vote on the smoking ban yesterday, i.e. the vote rejecting the ban.  There has been considerable arm-twisting going on by the proponents of the bill.  If the motion to reconsider the bill passes, there will be some amendments to the bill apparently.  Insiders doubt the motion to reconsider will pass, but nobody is sure.

UPDATE:  Apparently the proponents of the smoking ban have given up.

Canada #1 supplier of pot, speed to US

From the "that's not good" file:

Canada is now the largest single supplier of pot, speed and steroids to the United States, says a top customs official.

"In the old days, the flow of drugs was northbound, coming out of the United States," [head of counter-terrorism and counter-proliferation for the Canadian Border Services Agency George] Webb said Tuesday. "That . . . has changed."

"We are now their biggest drug supplier, whether it be B.C. bud, methamphetamines or steroids."

The Smoking Battle

The latest reports indicate that those who favor the smoking ban are really twisting arms but expert analysts of the legislature don't think they'll succeed in their effort to revive the bill.

McGovern

In the 26 factors I listed as explanations for the final results in the Senate race last fall I noted this:

(11) THE CORN CROP:  My relatives and friends who farm in Lake and McCook counties say they will probably have their best corn crop ever this year.  My research into McGovern's first win in 1956 and Daschle's first Senate run in 1986 indicate that Corn Matters, i.e. when the farm economy is shaky it helps Democrats.

A couple of people asked me about that research.  The article I was talking about was "George S. McGovern and the Farmer: South Dakota Politics, 1953-1962," in South Dakota History (Winter 2002).  Here's a PDF of the article: Download LauckMcGovernPolitics.pdf  As always, comments welcome. 

Word on the Street

...is that some legislators in Pierre are trying to revive the anti-smoking bill, i.e. 'moving to reconsider' yesterday's House vote.  Stay tuned. 

US sends top journalists to Iraq

From The Washington Times:

Political polls, town hall meetings, dramatic interviews: The Iraqi elections will get intense American-style coverage, even as security concerns mount for U.S. broadcasters.

Beginning today, big-name anchormen will report live from Baghdad and beyond — a full six days before the elections, scheduled for Sunday.

Shepard Smith, Peter Jennings, Anderson Cooper, Brian Williams and even Dan Rather will be reporting from Iraq this week.