South Dakota Politics

The Minnesota Front

From today's edition of The Hotline:

      "Despite persistent rumors" that Sen. Mark Dayton (D) could face a major primary challenge, no "big-name" Dem has come forward. Three prominent Dems whose names have been mentioned "whole-heartedly threw their support behind Dayton" last week, even though some Dems think that "the party ought to search for a stronger potential nominee."
      Ex-Rep. Bill Luther (D): "Mark Dayton is a good friend of mine. I am not saying I would never run in the future (for political office) but I would never challenge Mark Dayton. He's a close friend, and I'm a big supporter." '00 candidate/atty. Mike Ciresi (D) said he would "absolutely, in a nanosecond" consider running if Dayton decided to retire, but would not run against him, despite their ideological differences. Ciresi: "I don't think that would make any sense. If Mark's going to run, we should all get behind him. It's going to be a tough battle." Ciresi would not rule an '06 bid against Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R), but he said it was unlikely. He also wouldn't "rule out challenging" Sen. Norm Coleman (R) in '08, "though he said it was too far in the future to think about seriously." Ciresi: "That'd be fun just to do it. Norm's core value is Norm. He'd be a lot of fun to take on in a campaign."
      Some Dems "have turned longingly" to publisher/Dem donor Vance Opperman and "urged him to run." Opperman: "I support Mark Dayton 100 percent, I would never run against him. ... The republic will do just fine if I'm not involved." More Opperman, on why there are so many rumors about a primary challenge: "There are far extreme Republicans who would love for Mark Dayton to have lots of problems. ... Mark will be easily endorsed (by the party) and I'll doubt that he'll have any major competition of any kind."
      GOPers "are salivating at the possibility of taking Dayton down." He has said that he cannot spend the $12M "from his own pockets he expended" in '00 and that he is looking to the DSCC for help. Dayton has just $191K CoH as of the end of '04. Reps. Gil Gutknecht (R-01) and Mark Kennedy (R-06) are both considering, as is ex-Sen. Rod Grams (R). Kennedy, who is seen as the early favorite of nat'l GOPers, had just $66K CoH as of the end of '04. Gutknecht had $361K CoH. Ex-Rep. Vin Weber (R) "has also been mentioned as a potential candidate" (Duran/Kurtz, Roll Call, 2/8).

Reid didn't lose any sleep last night

In case you were all wondering, from the AP:

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid questioned President Bush's honesty on Tuesday and said he wanted "the boys at the White House" to know he wasn't losing any sleep over the Republican Party labeling him an obstructionist.

It was the second straight day the Nevada Democrat grew animated in response to the GOP criticism, and he said, "When you have a real bad chafe, is that what they call it, it's hard to get soothed."

***

Reid added, "I want the boys at the White House, the girls at the White House, the men and women at the White House, everyone to understand, I haven't lost one wink of sleep over the attack yesterday."

Identify this face!

With a tip to Strange Women Lying in Ponds.

Give up?  This is Yulia Timoshenko, the New Prime Minister of Ukraine.  I bet she can bring out the vote.

Alan Dershowitz at Columbia

This article, tip to Powerline, is worth reading.  To put it mildly, I don't often agree with Dershowitz.  But here he is dead on.  His theme is the extreme anti-Israel bias among the faculty.

"Anybody who advocates for divesting only from the Jewish state ... at a time when Iraq was posing a great threat to the world, when Iran was posing great threats ... when China is oppressing million of Tibetans, when the Kurds are still denied independence and statehood, to single out only Israel for divestiture at that point in time cannot be explained by neutral political, even ideological consideration," Mr. Dershowitz said.

The position of a handful of Jewish students pitted against the faculty in the Middle East and Asian Languages and Culture Department reminds one of the plight of conservative students at many elite universities.

Taking politics out of politics.

The Los Angeles Times has a piece, "Taking Politics out of Elections," by Richard L. Hasen  The title is more revealing than was intended.  The piece urges that the post of Secretary of State in California be made non-partisan.

California's Constitution should be revised so that the chief elections officer (who may or may not be the secretary of state) is appointed to the position for a fixed term of, say, 10 years. He or she should be nominated by the governor and approved by a 75% majority of the Legislature. Such a supermajority requirement would ensure that only a consensus candidate who could achieve broad support from both parties would be chosen for the office. The Constitution should also guarantee some independence for the budget of the office and provide that the chief elections officer can be removed only through a difficult impeachment procedure.

If ever there were a state that has been reformed near to death, it would be California.  The state government has been rendered so dysfunctional by a long history of counterproductive and often contradictory initiatives that the only hope now is a computer virus that managed to erase every existing copy of the state constitution.

Mr. Hasen's reform is not so bad as most, if only because it is useless.  Non-partisan does not mean neutral, it just means that the office holders inclinations would not be apparent to the voters. And given the extreme partisanship of the legislature, a supermajority might be impossible to get.

Voting down free speech

The South Dakota legislature is doing its part to limit the political freedom of citizens by limiting how much a citizen can contribute to a PAC.  This bill has passed the Senate.  Luckily the governor opposes the bill and may veto. 

Reid v Bush and the RNC

Sen. Harry Reid today attacked President Bush and the RNC, calling for an end of their "petty, divisive tactics."  He also brought up Former Senator Tom Daschle.  From Reuters:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid hit back at the Republican Party on Monday for targeting him with an attack reminiscent of one used to help oust his predecessor, Tom Daschle.

Standing in the Republican-led Senate, Reid called on President Bush personally to repudiate and pull "a hit piece" against him by the Republican National Committee.

"What they want to do is just like (what) they did to  Daschle," Reid said.

Republicans last year effectively branded Daschle, a South Dakota Democrat, as a "chief obstructionist" to Bush's agenda on Capitol Hill and persuaded his constituents to vote him out of office.

Daschle had served in the Senate for 18 years, his last 10  as Democratic leader.

Reid, of Nevada, noted Bush has called for bipartisanship and said the president telephoned him after last year's election and said he wanted to "get along."

"Is President Bush a man of his word (or) is what he is  telling the American people just a charade?" Reid asked.

At the White House, spokesman Trent Duffy said, "The president looks forward to working with Senator Reid on addressing our country's challenges."

During his comments, he held up a issue of Roll Call with the headline: "RNC Turns Up Heat on Reid".  The article goes on to mention a booklet entitled "Reid all about it. All the facts you need to know" was to be distributed by the RNC today.

Virginia Op-Ed piece mentions the DBA

An op-ed piece by John Behan in the Augusta Free Press mentions the Dakota Blog Alliance and how blogging may impact the next Governor's race in Virginia.

Then we have the case of Daschle, the former minority leader in the U.S. Senate. Daschle's loss in November to challenger John Thune has been attributed in part to the efforts of a group of local blogs that call themselves the Dakota Blog Alliance. The Alliance took on Daschle, scrutinized his record, and eventually the South Dakota (and national) press were unable to ignore them.

Jason Van Beek, a recent graduate of the University of South Dakota School of Law, is the man behind South Dakota Politics (http://southdakotapolitics.blogs.com), one of the more influential members of the Dakota Blog Alliance. Van Beek began his blog in January of 2003 "for one big reason: to challenge the (Sioux Falls) Argus Leader to scrutinize Democratic political figures in this state as closely as they did Republican figures. I envisioned a network of like-minded bloggers around the state of South Dakota who could add their thoughts and reinforce this message. This vision has succeeded beyond my wildest expectations."

That's an understatement. Soon, Van Beek was joined by history professor Jon Lauck's "Daschle v. Thune" blog (http://daschlevthune.typepad.com/) and Wes Roth (www.wesroth.com), along with several other South Dakota bloggers. The game was afoot, and Daschle never had a chance. The bloggers pointed out Daschle's obstructionist tactics in the Senate, and how he attempted to frustrate Republican goals at every turn. That was a big deal in South Dakota, which is a deeply red state. Many voters were surprised that the Daschle they thought they knew was different from the Tom Daschle who resided in D.C.

Interestingly, the efforts of the Dakota Blog Alliance have resulted in a new verb, "to Daschle," which has been loosely defined by The Hill as "to aggressively target for defeat a liberal Democrat who represents an otherwise solidly Republican state."

That's where Virginia enters the picture. Virginia, of course, is one of only two states in America that will be electing a new governor in 2005. (New Jersey is the other). The down-ticket races are taking shape, but the big battle is going to be the one for governor, between former attorney general Jerry Kilgore and Lt. Gov. Tim Kaine.

Read the whole thing, it is really a good piece and goes into greater detail about the work bloggers are doing in Virginia.  The Old Dominion Blog Alliance has been created to help educate Virginians about Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tim Keane's record from his time as Mayor of Richmond.   The author of the piece, John Behan, is also a blogger, posting at the site Commonwealth Conservative

Sosa

Professor Schaff posed a question for me on a previous post asking what I think of the Cubs recent trade of Sammy Sosa.  I tend to agree with him that Sammy is past his prime and I wanted him shipped out this off-season.  What I didn't want was the Cubs making their team worse simply for the sake of ridding themselves of his attitude.  Unfortunately, I didn't get what I wanted.  I really have no beef with Jerry Hairston Jr. (the main guy they got in return).  What I'm really not happy about is the 15.5 million the Cubs forked over to the Orioles.  Then when I thought Jim Hendry (the Cubs General Manager) couldn't do anything stupider he managed to do so by signing Jeromy Burnitz to replace Sosa in right field. 

At first glance Burnitz looks like he had a pretty good year last season when he managed to hit .283 with 37 homers (2 more than Sosa) and 110 RBI.  Unfortunately, he did that playing half his games in Coors field where the air is so light I could hit probably hit .200 with 10 homers in half a season.  On the road last season he batted .244 with 13 HR and 42 RBI.  Burnitz was signed for about 4.5 million.  That essentially means the Cubs traded an aging right fielder who strikes out all the time making 17 million bucks in 2005 for another aging right fielder who strikes out all the time making 20 million. (when you count the money the Cubs gave Baltimore + Burnitz's salary)

This means is the Cubs are going to be right at their allotted budget of 100 million to start the season, meaning Hendry won't be able to do what he does best and get players like Ramirez, Lofton, and Nomar during the season.  No money for in season improvements + no legitimate left fielder, right fielder, or closer = no chance in 2005.  Guess I'll be waiting until next year again.

UPDATE
The Cub Reporter, my favorite Cubs blog, (yes I am a dork like Schaff and Napoleon) has this post and response in their comment section today. 

Cubs "Believe" bracelets are on sale now, according to the Cubs website. They are on sale for $2 per bracelet, the minimum order is 5 bracelets, and shipping to New Jersey cost an additional $6.

If you ship them to Baltimore, the Cubs pay you $3.95.

 

Budget

Drudge links to a very useful site on the US budget.  It gives very basic breakdowns of each department's budgets.  Lord help us, the State Dept is seeing a 15.6% increase.  For what?  More quiche? 

The Real Question

What I really want to know is what Q thinks of the Cubs trading Sosa?  I think he (Sammy, not Q) is way past his prime, but I wonder if they got fair return on him.  Thoughts Q?  I must say as a Cubs fan I am happy to see him go.  I often said while living in Chicago that Sosa was the worst 60 home run hitter in major league history (yes, that's partly a joke).  Sammy is one of the worst right fielders I have ever seen, has no concept of situational hitting (you can count on Sammy to fail with a runner on third and less than two out), and couldn't hit a slider to save his life. 

Good grief, when is opening day?  I can't take all of this basketball silliness.  When does a real sport start? 

$2.57 trillion chump change?

The headline right now at the Minneapolis Star-Tribune is "Bush's $2.57 Trillion Budget Is Long On Spending Cuts."  God help us if we are cutting our way to $2.57 trillion. Anyone who opposes this budget and still complains about the deficit has the duty to tell us where they would get savings.  I suspect that the Democrats have no response to that other than raising taxes.  Read the actual article here. 

For your inner geek

What Napoleon Dynamite character are you?  Hat tip to NRO.  Oh, I am Pedro.  At least I'm not Uncle Rico. 

Sen. Thune

Senator Thune will be making a few TV appearances today to discuss his weekend trip to Iraq.  Thune will be on CNN's Inside Politics today at 3:00 PM CT and MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews today at 6 PM CT. 

Eason Jordan Affair

Hugh Hewitt beat me to this report:

Jon Lauck just talked to Judy Woodruff in the hallway and asked about Eason Jordan.  Woodruff told Jon that she had not heard of the story, and after a quick summary, Jon reports she appeared to be stunned by the idea that Eason Jordan, with whom she talks nearly every day, would say that the American military targeted journalists.

Yes, it's true.  Hugh and I were on this panel which followed a panel chaired by Judy Woodruff and other media luminaries in DC so I asked her about the Eason Jordan affair.  She had no idea what was going on and was stunned at the idea the Jordan would make such charges.  The fact that she had no idea what was going on says it all.  More later.  UPDATE:  I see Hugh mentioned the panel:

I'll be on a panel, "Blogging: Doing an End Run on the Mainstream Media" for the mid-winter meeting organized by Campaigns and Elections magazine.  Good group including Brian Reich of CampaignWebReview, Mike Krempansky of RedState, Alan Nelson of Command Post, Mathew Gross, and Jon Lauck of South Dakota Politics.

In case you're wondering about Easongate, go here.

Moyers

Remember that searing Bill Moyers' piece that ran in the Minneapolis paper a few weeks ago arguing that Republicans were all waiting for the rapture and so didn't care what happened to this physical world?  Powerline, once again, exposes Moyers' for making stuff up.

Bush's Trip to the High Plains

Michael Barone:

Consider Social Security, the centerpiece of Bush's domestic policy this year. The conventional wisdom is that change is impossible. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid says he has 45 votes lined up to filibuster any change. But Bush is working to change public opinion. The first polls taken after his speech show that he is succeeding.

Polls taken in Montana, North Dakota, Nebraska, Arkansas and Florida -- states Bush traveled to after the speech, all with Democratic senators -- will probably show the same thing. Bush's argument that the system is unsustainable and needs change is growing stronger with the public.

Democratic leaders' "just say no" response grows weaker. Its weakness has already been demonstrated by the defeat of former Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle in South Dakota. It is held up to ridicule by The Washington Post editorial page. Charles Grassley, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, where the first work on the issue will be done, is determined to get personal retirement accounts. The ranking Democrat on the committee, Max Baucus, is from Montana, a Bush state, and has worked with Grassley before. Favorable action is not assured. But it is possible.

It is possible also because Bush has already transformed the American electorate. On Election Day, John Kerry won 16 percent more votes than Al Gore did in 2000. George W. Bush won 23 percent more votes than he had in 2000. This is comparable to Franklin Roosevelt's 22 percent gain in popular votes between 1932 and 1936. FDR created a New Deal majority that hadn't existed before. Bush may have done something similar for his party.

Reid

According to Monday's Roll Call, Senator Reid is going to come in for some criticism:

The Republican National Committee is set to begin a prolonged attack against newly installed Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) aimed at weakening his support in his home state as well as on the national level.

Drawing on a blueprint used successfully against former Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), the RNC will send a 13-page research document today to roughly 1 million people — a group that includes journalists, donors and grass-roots activists — detailing Reid’s alleged obstructionism among other topics.

“This is the initial salvo in the upcoming discussion that we are going to be having with Sen. Reid,” said RNC Communications Director Brian Jones. ... “This is the Daschle-ization of Reid,” said one Republican strategist. “We are going to chip away day by day.”

Daschle Still Raising Money

From the Monday edition of Roll Call:

Tom Daschle hasn’t sent out his last fundraising pitch.

The former Senate Democratic leader plans to continue trying to raise money for his leadership political action committee and to pump donations into the campaign coffers of Congressional, state and local candidates.

In an unusual move for former lawmakers, the South Dakotan’s DASHPAC purchased the donor address and e-mail list from his re-election committee and will soon be sending fundraising pitches to his contributors.

“Tom is passionate about his politics, and he wants to remain involved,” said Steve Hildebrand, campaign manager for Daschle’s unsuccessful re-election effort.

Before he narrowly lost his race to now-Sen. John Thune (R), Daschle operated one of the most active PACs on Capitol Hill. But now Daschle and his advisers want to marry the success and efficiency of the PAC with the massive fundraising operation of his re-election effort, which, while unsuccessful at the ballot box, blew away all expectations financially.

Over the entire six-year cycle, A Lot of People Supporting Tom Daschle, his re-election committee, raised $20.3 million, $18.7 million of which was raised in the last two years of the cycle. That’s more than three times as much money as had ever been raised for a campaign in South Dakota, which, despite record turn-out levels, had just 400,000 voters in November.

Fascism Watch

From a comment on the Rapid City Journal blog Mt. Blogmore:

Republicans like to “frame” there [sic] destruction of programs as “reform” and refer to Democrats evil agenda. Hitler probably referred to his gas ovens as a “reform”.

This same writer has called the Bush administration "fascist."  Next he'll start talking about "Little Eichmanns."  Anyway, several requests for the writer to explain exactly how the Bush administration is "fascist" have been ignored.  More on this here. 

Native Sons in the Cold Canadian Pines

The International Herald Tribune has this on Americans still threatening to head north. 

In the Niagara of liberal angst just after Bush's victory on Nov. 2, the Canadian government's immigration Web site reported a surge in inquiries from the United States, to about 115,000 a day from 20,000.  After three months, memories of the election have begun to recede. . . .

Yet immigration lawyers say that Americans are not just making inquiries and that more are pursuing a move above the 49th parallel, fed up with a country they see drifting persistently to the right and abandoning the principles of tolerance, compassion and peaceful idealism they felt once defined the nation.

In other words, they lost and now they want to take their marbles and go, well, somewhere else.  I have to admit the prospect seems less than threatening.  If the number of U.S. citizens receiving permanent residence status in Canada triples this year, the article says, it will amount to about 18,000 people.  That only matters if they are virtually all from Wisconsin or New Hampshire. 

And frankly, its hard to take them very seriously.  Christopher Key, a relation of Francis Scott, intends to leave.  " His house is on the market, and he is busily seeking work across the border in Canada."  But he hasn't exactly left yet. 

Likewise "Melanie Redman, 30, assistant director of the Epilepsy Foundation in Seattle, said she had put her Volvo up for sale and hopes to be living in Toronto by the summer."  It was that or New York, and this way she can make a statement! 

Other cases seem even more uncertain:

Mike Aves, 40, a financial planner in Palm Beach, Florida, where he has been active in the Young Democrats, said he was finding it almost impossible from that distance to land a job in Canada. "I've told my wife, I'd be willing to take a step down, socioeconomically, to move from white-collar work to a blue-collar job, if it would get us to Canada," he said.

Does this mean hes going or not?  We will have to stand by for that.  And then there is this example of heroic will:

"My wife and I have talked for a long time about perhaps retiring to a condo in downtown Vancouver," said Frederick Newmeyer, 61, a professor of linguistics at the University of Washington in Seattle. "But the election was the tipping point."

Well he's a linguist, so presumably he talked a long time about perhaps retiring to Canada in clear and coherent prose.  Who knows?  Maybe he will actually make the move, or maybe not. 

Naturally, someone has founded a website for such folk, and he proudly proclaims their heroism.

"Not everybody is prepared to live their political values, but these are people who are," said Jason Mogus, an Internet entrepreneur in Vancouver whose communicopia.net offers marketing services for progressive companies and nonprofit groups, and whose canadianalternative.com is often the first stop for Americans eager to learn about moving north [my emphasis]. 

If sitting around in a snit and threatening to emigrate is living one's values, imagine what falling short of those values would be like!  The American election was remarkably close, but it didn't go their way.  So what do they do?  Stay and keep up the good fight?  No, they grab a couple bottles of Chablis and a block of cheese and make a run for the border.  Or at least they dream of perhaps doing that, someday, whenever the stars are properly aligned.  Calling these folks lightweights would be misleading.  Lightweight is a merit badge they have yet to earn. 

But in their honor you might listen to Cold Canadian Pines.  Its recorded by, Bob Frank, a very obscure folk singer whom I used to listen to about three times a day back when my hair was down below my arm pits, and I had an ear ring in my left ear.  Unlike Professor Newmeyer, I eventually grew up.  But I still like the songs. 

Obit Blogging

In keeping with Saturday's obituary blogging, here's more on Max Schmeling from Instapundit:

WHY DON'T I HAVE ANYTHING TO SAY about Max Schmeling's death? Er, why would I? It's not really my kind of subject. Schmeling comes off pretty well in my law school classmate Chris Mead's book, Champion Joe Louis: A Biography, which was excerpted as a cover story in Sports Illustrated when it came out. But I don't know much more than that.

Speaking of boxing, I went to "Million Dollar Baby" last night.  While half of me came from Max Schmeling's German province of Mecklenberg, the other half came from County Cork in Ireland and "Million Dollar Baby" is replete with Irish-ness: Yeats, Gaelic, mass everyday, a figther named Margaret Fitzpatrick... 

Thune in Iraq This Weekend

Associated Press:

Thune said it was a thrill to talk to Iraqi citizens who for the first time were able to vote. A week after the election, their fingers still are stained with the ink used to mark their ballots, Thune said.

"They're just incredibly proud to have had that opportunity."

Thune said one of his most memorable conversations was with a woman who went to the polls with her sister against the advice of their father who thought it was too dangerous. But when they came back, the father was so inspired by their courage that he went as well, said Thune.

bin Laden filmmaker to sue Michael Moore

The UK Times is reporting this today:

A FORMER close associate of Osama Bin Laden is to sue the film-maker Michael Moore for using his footage of the Al-Qaeda chief in the documentary Fahrenheit 9/11.

Essam Deraz, an Egyptian, spent almost four years in Afghanistan filming Bin Laden at training camps and fighting, gaining unprecedented access to the terrorist leader.

He was the only person to film Bin Laden during the late 1980s and has the only footage of the Saudi exile in battle in Afghanistan.

Deraz has started legal action in Egypt and America to seek compensation for use of his footage in Fahrenheit 9/11, the biggest-grossing documentary in cinema history.

I would love like to see Michael Moore's reaction to this...

Shiite and Sunni rapprochement

With all the usual caveats, this is good news:

The leading Shiite candidate to become Iraq's next prime minister welcomed overtures on Saturday  by groups that boycotted national elections and declared that he and others were willing to offer "the maximum" to bring those largely Sunni Arab groups into the drafting of the constitution and participation in the new government.

 

And now a rant against gambling

I'm feeling good and cranky this morning, so let me bash on my birthplace of Minnesota. I see that a strong majority are in favor of more gambling in the state to make up for some fiscal woes in state government. One gentleman says this:

"If [running casinos] is good enough for [Native American Tribes], it's good enough for us here," said Nolop, the owner of Corky's Pizza and Ice Cream in the southeastern Minnesota town of La Crescent. Nolop said the new money could be used to help his community's struggling school district.

Here's how Mr. Nolop can help out his struggling school district: raise taxes. This is what gambling and lotteries are. They are fun ways to pay taxes. You don't think you're paying a tax because you are scratching off a card with a clown face on it, or pulling down a lever on a box with pretty lights, but it's a tax. In addition, we know that these types of revenue come disproportionally from low income people. Just like cigarette taxes, taxes from games are great ways to tax the poor without making it look like you're taxing the poor. If states what to raise revenue, how about doing it honestly instead of dealing in vice.

 

Population

I have two comments about the article Jon L links to below about population decline in most South Dakota cities. First, given the population decline in Aberdeen, it boggles the mind that there is major opposition to the entry of Super Wal-Mart into our city. This place needs economic growth and vibrancy, and that's what Super Wal-Mart represents. Counties which Super Wal-Mart enters end up with a net increase in jobs. While stability has value, as this stick-in-the-mud writer knows, economies are like sharks, they have to keep moving or they die. We can value stability in local business, but then people must then realize that in the long run that means the end of our city.

On that note, SDSU graduate assistant David Olson speaks just like someone who does not plan a future in South Dakota. He says:

"We sort of assume growth is better than nongrowth. But I'm not sure one can defend that. If we have more people, we have more taxes and more income circulating in the community. On the other hand, are there places we have too many people for the ecological footprint of the population? It depends on the area."

I can guarantee you, Mr. Olson, that there is not one place in South Dakota that has too many people for its "ecological footprint." Let's start worrying about growth, and then at that point we can worry about "smart growth," which in practice means "the government tells people where to live and drives the cost of housing out of the range of the average person." It's satisfying to see Mr. Olson is being trained well into the arts of academia. Surely he knows better where the people of South Dakota should live than, say, the people of South Dakota. What can't be defended is the idea that population stagnation is a good thing. Population stagnation, or in most of South Dakota population decline, is a sign that people do not have hope that they can build a future where they live and must go somewhere else. Memo to graduate assistant David Olson: THAT'S A BAD THING!! Not that I feel strongly about this. 

Update: After about 30 more seconds of thinking about this, does it not seem odd that someone would say, "Sure population growth gets you economic growth and more revenue to administer to public needs, but what about the ecological footprint?" When you are trying to provide for a family and have a decent community, economic growth and tax revenue are nothing to sneeze at. Most people like having jobs and decent roads. They like being able to provide a comfortable life for their children. People are funny that way. I am currently writing an article about the problem of progress, and I certainly understand that material progress entails certain trade-offs, but I do not blithely ignore the very human desire to provide a comfortable life for one's family and posterity. As I tell my students, you can whine and complain about American materialism, and I do it some myself, but when your daughter comes down with juvenile diabetes, you thank God you live in a rich country that can take care of her and possibly find a cure.  And that wealth does not come from overzealous worrying about our "ecological footprint."  If this is something some reader out there worries about, come to Aberdeen, South Dakota.  We've got so much open land here, we don't know what to do with it. 

Israeli Immigration

Israeli immigration from the Former Soviet Union is down, but Western European immigration, notably from France, is up 13%.  This may be a result of the French government announcing, as it did a couple years ago, that it can't protect French Jews from violence.