South Dakota Politics

Numbskullery by John Stossel

Whom I usually agree with.  But he makes this tired complaint against the Congressional Record:

Every night that Congress is in session, stenographers take down every historic word and ship them off to the Government Printing Office. The printing office stays open all night to be sure the official record will be on every member's desk by the following morning. That sounds important.

But the Record isn't a record of what was said in Congress -- the politicians wouldn't subject themselves to that. The Record is a record of what the members want you to think they said.

That's fraud, twice over. It's a fraud on the public, which believes the millions Congress spends on the Record are spent to document what actually happens in Congress. And it's a fraud on those of you who think your congressman talked about you.

This is a very old and familiar indictment.  Both the left and the right frequently trot it out.  But its unfair and irrelevant.  When a  person's words are recorded and then set to print, he is usually allowed the opportunity to correct them.  This is perfectly reasonable.  When someone is typing out an article, he has plenty of time to proof and edit. When he is speaking live he may easily say something that does not reflect his actual opinions on the subject.  So it is in accord with nearly universal practice that Senators and Representatives can correct their remarks. 

Of course one may argue that Congress abuses the priviledge, adding massive amounts of material that was never spoken there.  This is true.  It is also true that much is entered with no pretense that it was spoken (documents and articles for example).  What is important is that anyone who is reasonably informed (and who else ever reads the Congressional Record?) knows this in advance.  Its like buying a two-by-four: you need to know that the board is not really two by four inches in dimension. 

The Congressional Record is a very rich source of material.  It tells you exactly what your Congressman thinks you want to hear, and what he thinks might persuade you.  If you want to know exactly what was said, sit in the gallery.

Iraq

John Hinderacker: How Bad Is Iraq?

Michael Moore

New York Post:

A double-amputee Iraq-war vet is suing Michael Moore for $85 million, claiming the portly peacenik recycled an old interview and used it out of context to make him appear anti-war in "Fahrenheit 9/11."

Sgt. Peter Damon, 33, who strongly supports America's invasion of Iraq, said he never agreed to be in the 2004 movie, which trashes President Bush.

In the 2003 interview, which he did at Walter Reed Army Hospital for NBC News, he discussed only a new painkiller the military was using on wounded vets.

"They took the clip because it was a gut-wrenching scene," Damon said yesterday. "They sandwiched it in. [Moore] was using me as ammunition."

Herseth

The Hill:

Rep. Herseth: ‘From bookworm to bombshell’

From the moment she arrived on Capitol Hill, Rep. Stephanie Herseth (D-S.D.) turned heads, but in the past two weeks she has gone from a first lady Laura Bush librarian type to a glam Hollywood starlet with reddish blond highlights and choppy layers that frame her face.

“You can’t even recognize her,” a Capitol employee noted.

Uh oh. Does this mean she’s going to pull a Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.) and go unrecognized by Capitol Police? Well, not really. But the employee explained, “She has a new look. I think it’s a great change, from bookworm to bombshell.”

More Abortion News

Updating Jason's post (sorry, I see our permalinks are still not working) the Oglala Sioux tribal council has voted to ban all abortions and suspend President Cecilia Fire Thunder. 

The Oglala Sioux tribal council banned all abortions on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and suspended President Cecelia Fire Thunder on Tuesday, charging that she solicited donations on behalf of the tribe for a proposed abortion clinic without the council's approval.

"It was unauthorized political activity," said Will Peters, a tribal council representative from the Pine Ridge district. "It's just a matter of failing to communicate not only with the governing body but with the people that she was elected to serve."

Safe, Legal and Rare?

Here is a myth that abortion supporters continue to perpetuate: Abortion is a necessary tool for poor and/or disadvantaged women who are not capable of taking care of the children that they carry inside them.  The truth is that most abortions are by older (between 30-40) middle-class white women.  So contrary to popular belief, abortions are rarely the domain of scared 15 year-olds for whom this is the only "good" option (ignoring, of course, the option of adoption, which is an even better option because it rhymes).  The vast majority of abortions are by older middle-class white women for the purpose of birth control.  And as we see in this depressing story, in the UK babies are routinely aborted for the most minor birth defects. 

Late terminations have been performed in recent years because the babies had club feet, official figures show.

Other babies were destroyed  because they had webbed fingers or extra digits.

Such defects can often be corrected with a simple operation or physiotherapy.

The revelation sparked fears that abortion is increasingly being used to satisfy couples' desire for the 'perfect' baby.

A leading doctor said people were right to be 'totally shocked' that abortions were being carried out for such conditions.

Campaigners warned we are turning into a society that can no longer tolerate imperfection. Doctors were recently told they can now screen IVF embryos to try to weed out inherited cancers.

This is the result when we adopt (forgive the language) the disturbing innovation that private individuals have the right to use lethal force under the right circumstances.  Where do we go from here? 

 

Deep Thoughts

In a remarkable piece on immigration, Harvard law professor Mary Ann Glendon has this nugget for those whose only standard of morality is "consensual adults."

Those same years, to be sure, saw impressive advances for many women and members of minority groups. But not all the innovations represented progress. Some tended to undermine the cultural foundations on which free, just, and egalitarian societies depend. For example, the notion gained wide acceptance that behavior in the highly personal areas of sex and marriage is of no concern to anyone other than the "consenting adults" involved. With the passage of time, however, it has become obvious that the actions of private individuals in the aggregate exert a profound influence on other individuals and on society as a whole. In fact, when enough individuals behave primarily with regard to their own self-fulfillment, the entire culture is transformed. Affluent Western nations have been engaged in a massive social experiment--an experiment that brought new opportunities and liberties to many adults but that has put mothers, children, and dependents generally at considerable risk.

The family breakdown has had ripple effects on all the social structures that traditionally depended on families for their support and that in turn served as resources for families in times of stress from schools, neighborhoods, and religious groups to local governments and workplace associations. The law has changed rapidly too, becoming less an element of stability and more of an arena for struggles among competing ideas about individual liberty, equality between men and women, human sexuality, marriage, and family life.

As they say, read the whole thing. 

Joe K On Marriage

Joe Knippenberg has wise words for anyone interested in South Dakota's Amendment C or the federal Marriage Protection Amendment.  In related news, Howard Dean would fit right in with the South Dakota left-wing blogosphere. 

Fire Thunder

The Oglala Sioux tribal council is taking action against tribal president Cecelia Fire Thunder for proposing abortion clinics on Pine Ridge.  Argus Leader excerpt:

The Oglala Sioux tribal council banned all abortions on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and suspended President Cecelia Fire Thunder on Tuesday, charging that she solicited donations on behalf of the tribe for a proposed abortion clinic without the council's approval.

"It was unauthorized political activity," said Will Peters, a tribal council representative from the Pine Ridge district. "It's just a matter of failing to communicate not only with the governing body but with the people that she was elected to serve."

Peters made a motion to suspend Fire Thunder indefinitely, and when that failed, voted to suspend her for 20 days until an impeachment hearing could take place. That motion passed.

UPDATE:  I am told the vote was 16-0.

Vote for the Great American Novel

Powerline is having a ballot for the best American novel.  I voted for All The King's Men, by Robert Penn Warren, for the simple reason that I have read the novel and it left an indellible impression on me.  So far, 3.2% of the voters have agreed with me.  Go here to vote: Powerline News . 

Immigration Politics and the Failure of the Republican Majority

I have argued that the solution to the problem of illegal immigration ought to include two things: 1) the borders must be brought under control, not so that immigration should be halted, but so that it should be reduced to manageable levels; and 2) that the illegal population in the U.S. should be put on a reasonable path to legalization.  I submit that, were both these things accomplished, almost all the problems connected with illegal immigration would be remedied. 

Its becoming increasingly clear that the Senate bill would do too little of the former, and would be far too generous with regard to the latter.  Robert Samuelson has this, from Real Clear Politics:

The Senate last week passed legislation that Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., hailed as ``the most far-reaching immigration reform in our history.'' You might think that the first question anyone would ask is how much it would actually increase or decrease legal immigration. But no. After the Senate approved the bill by 62 to 36, you could not find the answer in the news columns of The Washington Post, New York Times or Wall Street Journal. Yet, the estimates do exist and are fairly startling. By rough projections, the Senate bill would double the legal immigration that would occur during the next two decades from about 20 million (under present law) to about 40 million. 

Samuelson notes the political weight of this estimate:

It is interesting to contrast these immigration projections with a recent opinion survey done by the Pew Research Center. The poll asked whether the present level of legal immigration should be changed. The response: 40 percent favored a decrease, 37 would hold it steady and 17 percent wanted an increase. There seems to be scant support for a doubling. If the large immigration projections had been in the news, would the Senate have done what it did? Possibly, though I doubt it.

Samuelson does not note other provisions of the bill, such as providing for immigrants to be paid union wages, thus putting them in a position better than many native born workers.  Such was necessary to secure Democratic support.

It seems very unlikely that anything like the Senate bill will pass the House.  Perhaps in conference there will be some sensible compromise, but at this stage I wouldn't count on it.   

The Democrats hold very good cards.  The swelling illegal population promises future Democratic voters, and a failed attempt by the Republicans to control immigration is likely to alienate Hispanic voters while at the same time discouraging the Republican base.  If the Republicans can't solve the immigration problem, then it can't be solved.  Right now, it looks like they can't. 

If I've Said It Once I've Said It A Thousand Times

Don't do heroin in Detroit. 

Immigration Debate

Real Clear Politics writer John McIntyre:

There is a quiet rage building among average middle class folks on the illegal immigration issue, and if the Republican leadership doesn't take control of the problem very soon they will allow the more extremist wings of the anti-immigration debate to become the face of the Republican party on immigration. That would be a disaster for GOP hopes to grow their new found majority in the years to come.

The surprise that is building politically is how strongly illegal immigration will manifest itself in the fall elections. Contrary to the early conventional wisdom that the huge immigration rallies would galvanize Congress to pass some kind of "comprehensive reform" along the lines of the Senate bill, the reality is that House Republicans with their enforcement-first approach are poised to reap substantial benefits by killing the Senate's reprise of Simpson-Mazzoli.

...

Republicans should understand that if there is a signing ceremony with President Bush, John McCain and Ted Kennedy on a compromise immigration bill that the Washington Post and New York Times praise, the GOP can kiss control of Congress good-bye.

The inimitable John Fund also has some observations: "So far, the White House and Republican National Committee are behind the curve."

Harry Reid: Following the Path of Daschle

Chuck Todd of The Hotline:

Meet Harry Daschle?

It was only a matter of time that the perils of being in the nat'l party leadership would starting taking its toll on Harry Reid back home in NV. His job rating is under 50%, according to a new Research 2000 poll, conducted for the Reno Gazette Journal and KRNV-TV. Some more highlights:

-- 48% of Nevadans approve of the job Reid's doing compared to 41% disapprove. OK, not horrible. But these are the best numbers in this poll.
-- The pollster added this question: "Do the Democrats under Harry Reid's leadership have a workable agenda, or not?" 35% of state voters answered "yes" and 43% said "no," including 40% of indies. This means there are a chunk of NV voters who approve of the job Reid's doing as a senator but don't think he's helped the party develop a "workable agenda."
-- And then there's this question: "Does Harry Reid possess the leadership qualities to guide the Democrats to gain control of the Senate in 2006." 36% said "yes" and 46% said "no," including 20% of Dems and 44% of indies. Now, it's possible some of these Dems who don't view Reid as having the right "leadership qualities" could be simply pessimistic about the nat'l party's chances. Still, it's a result that has to be somewhat depressing to Reid partisans.

Poll numbers like this put Reid in a box. While he may be doing things that the nat'l party desperately needs done (i.e., make Senate GOPers look like they can't govern), his reputation with home-state voters as a middle-of-the-road Red-state Dem is eroding. If this storyline seems familiar, it is. It's exactly what happened to Tom Daschle. There's no perfect answer. For Reid, becoming majority leader might actually help change the minds of some NV voters who will start enjoying the fruits of Reid's power. It's not easy being a party leader who represents a swing state because by nature of the leadership position, you look partisan. And in some of these states, partisanship doesn't sit well with swing voters. If Reid's tenure as Senate Dem leader ends the same way Daschle's tenure does, it could mean that a "red state" Dem won't be picked as leader for a long time. Being personally safe politically may become a necessary job requirement.

Dem Group Approves of Abortion Ban

Dakota Voice:

Democrats For Life of America (DFLA) commended the South Dakota legislature today for recently approving a bill that will prohibit abortion in their state.

DFLA noted that support from pro-life Democrats was critical to the ultimate passage of the bill.

The legislation would not have passed without the support of pro-life Democrats. There were as many Democrats voting for the bill as Republicans voting against.

“Pro-life Democrats in South Dakota saved the day on this bill. There were just as many Democrats who voted for this legislation as there were Republicans voting against it. So when it comes to protecting the unborn, pro-life Democrats stepped in and gave the voiceless, a voice in South Dakota” said Kristen Day, Executive Director of Democrats For Life.

While the ground breaking legislation passed both chambers of the South Dakota legislature, it was a pro-life Democratic Senator, Julie Bartling, who introduced the legislation in the Senate. On the House side, one-third of House Democrats, including 3 Democratic women, sponsored the House version.

Dayton

This AP story discusses Senator Mark Dayton of Minnesota:

Asked to describe his attitude in his last few months in office, Sen. Mark Dayton cited a line from the 1960s song "Me and Bobby McGee." "Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose," he says.

The first-term Minnesota Democrat is not seeking re-election and, these days, sounds very much like a politician with little to lose.

In February, upset about a plan by a South Dakota railroad to run coal trains close to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Dayton said the clinic "is worth a hell of a lot more than the whole state of South Dakota."

He later apologized for the remark.

The following month, he called fellow Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold's proposal to censure President Bush over a warrantless surveillance program "an overreaching step by someone who is grandstanding and running for president at the expense of his own party and his own country."

Dayton did not apologize for that.

He even told a Minnesota high school group he'd give himself an "F" if he had to grade his accomplishments in the Senate.

Herseth

Poll Monkey:

"Politics1 Poll: PICK THE HOTTEST WOMAN IN POLITICS": #1: Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn, 28%; #2: Congresswoman Stephanie Herseth, 22%

Indian Voting

Last week some national liberal group released a report attacking South Dakota as hostile to Indian voting, making the state sound like 1950s Mississippi.  Today's Argus Leader editorial calls that "hogwash."  Excerpt:

A civil rights report released last week blasts South Dakota for a climate of discrimination, racial hostility and unfair treatment of Native Americans. It calls the state a "hotbed of voting rights litigation."

We have problems, but that's just over the top.

The report, commissioned by the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights in Washington, D.C., a national coalition of civil rights organizations, was timed to coincide with congressional review of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. One provision requires federal approval of state laws and regulations governing voting in areas with a history of discrimination. Shannon and Todd counties of the Pine Ridge reservation are on the list. South Dakota ignored this provision from 1975 to 2003.

South Dakota's record has been checkered. After all, we're home to Wounded Knee. And it wasn't until 1951 that South Dakota allowed Native Americans to vote.

But to paint South Dakota as a place of widespread racism today, where county auditors and poll workers look for ways to discriminate against Native Americans, where lawmakers secretly connive methods to make it more difficult for Native people to vote, is hogwash.

Amazingly, what they do not mention is that Tom Daschle was pushing the report that attacked his home state.  Argus Leader excerpt:

Former Sen. Tom Daschle is scheduled to help unveil a report today criticizing enforcement of Native American voting rights in South Dakota, prompting political opponents and observers to speculate about his motives.

The report, "Voting Rights in South Dakota 1982-2006," documents the state's "rocky voting rights record," according to a news release from the Washington-based Leadership Conference on Civil Rights. The release did not detail Daschle's role in the report, and attempts to contact him Tuesday were unsuccessful.

Another Brick For The Wall

From the Rocky Mountain News:

Sometimes, mail call hits Congress like a ton of bricks - literally.

One by one, opponents of illegal immigration have been sending lawmakers real, red bricks with angry messages written on the side: "Build a wall. Deport them all."

While hundreds of thousands of activists took to the streets Monday, lawmakers in Washington dealt with an increase in mail from supporters of a get-tough approach to illegal immigration.

One letter, which was wrapped around a brick and mailed to [Senator Wayne Allard (R-Co.)], says: "I can't take a day off from work to go stand in the street and protest all day long like an illegal immigrant. But I did have time to send you this brick so that you could get started building a wall between the U.S. and Mexico."

Is this the opposite of making your point with a sledgehammer?

Governor News

A brief article on Wiese and Billion, and then another piece on Wiese's plans for education.  I note that Wiese disapproves of Gov. Rounds's plan to give laptops to students. 

Good Hands on SF Steering Wheels

From the Fort Worth Star-Telegram:

Sioux Falls, S.D., is the safest city for driving in America, according to an Allstate survey of 200 cities. Residents there crash an average of once every 14.3 years.

Of course, it helps that Sioux Falls is home to only about 123,000 people. North Texas has freeways that carry that many people before lunch.

Tarrant County cities didn't fare well in the survey. Fort Worth ranked 130th, with an average of one crash every 8.6 years, and Arlington was even worse, in 169th place with a crash every 7.9 years.

So, if you're tired of fearing for your life every time you get behind the wheel, or paying through the nose for car insurance, take comfort in knowing that there's always Sioux Falls. But let's not all move up there at once, lest the city tumble from the top of the list.

Here Come the TV Ads on Abortion

Sibby on Mount Blogmore's disclosure of new abortion ads:

Looks like Focus South Dakota has decided to continue the distort[ions] they have become well known for. They claim to be a South Dakota organization, but I have already disclosed their out of state funding. Now they have the DC based Kossack [and Dean supporter] representing Focus South Dakota as they paint others as extremists promoting ads that most found extreme and over the top.

Literature

Power Line:  "I don't know about you, but we need a break from poltics [sic]. So, in anticipation of time at the beach, in the hammock or on the dock, we thought it would be fun to see what our readers consider to be the best American novels ever written."  You can find the poll at Power Line News.  Head over and vote!

Memorial Day

Bill Harlan over at Mount Blogmore has a collection of photos from the wreath laying at the Black Hills National Cemetary.

Memory and Memorials

I'm very interested in memory and remembrance, specifically as it applies to history and the formation of an historical consciousness.  In April, I presented a paper at the Dakota History Conference at Augustana analyzing the memory behind the massacre at Wounded Knee and the use of that memory by the Indian activists of the American Indian Movement.  That presentation is being expanded into an article I will publish in South Dakota History.  Anyways, generally speaking, "historical memory" refers to the ways in which a society or people collectively remembers its past, reflecting the "understanding that a specific group of people shares about past events which this group perceives as having shaped its current economic, cultural, social, and political status and identity."[1]  Depictions of the past play a crucial role in our contemporary world through public memorials, films, museums, theme parks, and memorialization practices.  On this day of remembrance, Paul Richard of the Washington Post has an article entitled "Now, Memory Fails Us," which examines the rise and fall of memorials in Washington, D.C.  Excerpt:

Remember, tomorrow's Memorial Day. That's what it's for, remembering.

The holiday's gone blurry. Now it's mostly fun (ballgames, setting up the barbecue, another day off work), but it used to be for focused recollections of the dead.

Not the dead in general, the dead in sharp particular. Half a million soldiers had died in the Civil War. When the rites were first observed in 1866, there were plenty to recall.

Each spring at the end of May, their graves were strewn with flowers, their faces brought to mind. This was deeply serious business. The fallen mustn't be forgotten. We used words like "the fallen" then. That seriousness bred art. That art would shape the country's look, and Washington's especially. Vast amounts of money, artistry and effort would be expended on its making. The beauty of the art would illumine its high purpose -- to immortalize remembrance. Strewn flowers weren't enough. The fallen would be given stone-and-metal monuments impervious to time.

Washington is filled with them. If you want to get Memorial Day, look around at the memorials. They're victors' monuments. They put generals on pedestals, and dead presidents above them. Washington's memorials share a certain style. Their statues aren't just portraits, though they're often that, as well; they're personified ideals. Their bronze laurel wreaths and eagles, and Greco-Roman lions, say: The past approves of us. They're insistently high-minded, august.

They represent an art movement, now dead. For a long time their architects and artists, their stone-carvers and bronze-founders got better and better. For a long time their elevated style got nobler and nobler. Then, suddenly, it died.

It died a poignant death -- at the peak of its accomplishment, just when it got great. We know the date exactly. Memorial sculpture's greatness left Washington forever on the 30th of May, Memorial Day, 1922.

Check out the whole article.

[1] Eric Davis, "The New Iraq: The Uses of Historical Memory" Journal of Democracy, 16:3 (July 2005): 54-68. 

Harold Thune Remembers

A nice story in the Rapid City Journal.

Memorial Day Thoughts

Good ones from Ben Stein and Chris Hitchens.  I think this one is the most relevant to our current situation.  Joe Knippenberg links to this music from We Were Soldiers. 

Yesterday in church the pastor spoke on the subject of memory.  One of the worst things that can happen to a person is to lose memory, as in an older person struck with Alzheimer's or some other form of dementia.  We say that that person is "lost" or "isn't the same person" anymore as they cannot relate to anyone around them and they have lost the memory of who they are.  The same thing can happen to a people.  For example, we as Americans can forget who we are and where we came from.  We can forget how we came by all these riches and comforts.  A nation that cannot remember is a nation that has lost its identity [side note, see David McCullough on the subject of history and remembering].  Memorial Day, as the name suggests, is a day to remember those who came before us, especially those who gave their lives so that "government of the people by the people and for the people, shall not perish from this earth."  Naturally, our pastor concluded by saying the most important thing to remember is that Jesus Christ died for our sins, winning the greatest victory ever won; the victory over death.  Now that's something worth remembering.  In fact Christ asks us to do so ("do this in memory of me"). 

Memorial Day Post

For Memorial Day I reprint this piece of mine from the Aberdeen American News.  I lost the date, but it appeared in 2005.

It was an altogether happy day when my neighbor, a South Dakota National Guardsman, returned safely from Iraq. Whatever worries I had while he was away surely can’t compare with those of his wife and family. But I did worry about him, almost every day. My wife and I gave him some heavy duty backpacking socks for Christmas, and he later reported that they made his military boots comfortable for the first time. That was one small gesture of gratitude. This column is another.

The success of the recent elections in Iraq put critics of the war in an uncomfortable position. The Minneapolis Star Tribune put it this way: the Iraqis should be congratulated for their election; nonetheless, “American troops should be called upon to lay down their lives for the defense of the nation, not to bring democracy to anyone.”

This is a reasonable opinion, to be sure, but I believe it does our servicemen and women a disservice. My father served in the Pacific during WWII, and my Uncle Bill was killed by a sniper’s bullet on Okinawa. They did not sail west in order to revenge the drowned sailors on the Arizona, or because the Japanese had any designs on northeast Arkansas. The Japanese attacked us because they thought it necessary to preserve their Pacific Rim Empire. My uncle and my Dad went to war in Asia because that empire ultimately threatened everyone, everywhere.

Our fighting men in WWII deserve honor not only because they were defending American interests, which surely they were. They are also to be honored precisely because they brought democracy back to Western Europe, and introduced it to Japan. They liberated millions of human beings from the most brutal despotisms. They laid the foundations of postwar peace and prosperity because they fought for something nobler than the mere national interest that is all the Trib will allow.

The U.S. is much stronger today than in 1941, and Saddam Hussein was, at worst, a small scale replica of Hitler. Nonetheless I insist that my friend next door deserves the same measure of honor and gratitude as Dad and Uncle Bud.

The Iraqi election stands as the most promising event in the Middle East since Jimmy Carter brokered peace between Egypt and Israel. Al Jezeera and Al Arabiya, the most important Arab news services, faced a choice on January 30th. Should they concentrate coverage on the long lines of Iraqis waiting to vote, or on the various attempts to kill them? They recognized early in the day that the courage rather than the carnage was the real story. A sense of wonder and optimism was consequently palpable in coffee houses on both sides of the Fertile Crescent.

Critics are wrong to say that this election was only a step towards democracy. Democracy is not a goal, it is a process. Eight million people queuing up to vote is as much democracy as you will ever see, anywhere. Whether the Iraqis will achieve a stable republic remains to be seen. But they have already achieved a remarkably balanced government, in which the Shiite majority must negotiate with Kurdish and Sunni representatives to build a new constitution. That is exactly what a republic looks like.

The most durable symbols of Iraqi self-government are the many images of veiled women holding up ink-stained fingers, in defiance of the insurgents who promised to murder them if they voted. And then there’s Abdul Amir. This Iraqi policeman was blown to bits when he wrestled a suicide bomber to the ground, preventing the man from reaching a line of voters.

Many sensible people will still insist that the 2003 invasion was a mistake, and whoever thinks so should say so. They may yet be proven correct. But just right now siding with the veiled women and Abdul Amir against their murderous enemies is in the interest of the United States, the region, and the world. It is also a noble thing in itself. Our men and women at arms deserve the full measure of honor for it.

Debra Saunders

Debra Saunders:  "Still, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi rails against the GOP 'culture of corruption.'  And in the most boneheaded political move of 2006, House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., just handed her extra rope." 

More on Churchill

Bob Pasnau, chairman of the Department of Philosophy at CU, has published this op-ed entitled "Churchill isn't tip of iceberg" in Boulder's Daily Camera regarding the Ward Churchill scandal.  Excerpt:

The fact that this disparate group of highly distinguished scholars could reach its verdict with complete unanimity — save for the final, delicate question of what sanction to impose — should give one a great deal of confidence in their verdict. No such confidence can be taken from Churchill's own statement (available on the Camera's Web site). A careful reading of the original report, next to his response, shows him to have misstated and ignored the committee's findings at every stage. Indeed, one might almost laugh at the way his slipshod responses re-enact the very sorts of intellectual failings that the report originally highlighted.

One might laugh, that is, if the whole affair were not so depressing. Perhaps its most unfortunate aspect, beyond the immediate and very serious damage to CU, is the impression it seems to have left in some quarters that this is just the tip of the iceberg.

...

Happily, it does not fall upon me to decide what sort of penalty is appropriate in this case. But were such misconduct discovered among my own faculty, or in my own field at large, I would be the first to seek that person's dismissal.

Be sure to read the whole thing.  Diana Hsieh of the CU philosophy department offers some thoughts.

Rock 'n' Roll

Some time ago I noted Clinton Taylor of The American Spectator who created a list of country music songs he thought were politically conservative.  John Miller at the National Review has done the same, this time compiling 50 rock and roll songs with a conservative flavor.

For conservatives who enjoy rock, it isn’t hard to agree with the opinion Johnny Cash expressed in “The One on the Right Is on the Left”: “Don’t go mixin’ politics with the folk songs of our land / Just work on harmony and diction / Play your banjo well / And if you have political convictions, keep them to yourself.” In other words: Shut up and sing.

But some rock songs really are conservative — and there are more of them than you might think.

Argus Pushes Quotas

David Kranz, political analyst for the Argus Leader, called for racial/gender quotas on the Sioux Falls city council a few days ago:

It's time for another woman, or a minority, on the Sioux Falls City Council.

Council members already have started casting about for a replacement, after Darrin Smith announced last week that he'd resign after six years on the council.

Kermit Staggers, for instance, has suggested that one candidate ought to be former Minnehaha County Commissioner Jerry Noonan - a white man - who lost a race last month against incumbent De Knudson, the council's only woman.

But we need to be more imaginative than that. It's time all government bodies, especially the council, began to reflect the community - half women and increasingly minority. 

Argus chief editor Randell Beck does the same thing in today's paper.  What's wrong with picking the best qualified person, instead of basing the selection on a person's skin color or gender?  That said, watch for the left to silence this debate.

Indian Activism

Argus Leader:

The 66th annual motorcycle rally is being ushered in by controversy about two new entertainment venues rising from grasslands north and south of Bear Butte State Park.

Native Americans who consider the butte sacred are joined by area ranchers who have seen livestock sicken and die from inhaling dust continually kicked up by motorcycles cruising gravel roads.

Their coalition also includes townspeople who contend their community is being strip-mined by rally vendors who make millions of dollars from hundreds of thousands of rallygoers but leave little of that money in Sturgis and Meade County, where municipal services are strained to host all the bikers every August.

Memorial Day

Victor Davis Hanson has some thoughts on Memorial Day and the Iraq War.

Also, don't forget to tune into the 90th annual Indanapolis 500 today, then jump over to the NASCAR Coca-Cola 600 this afternoon.

MSM II

Powerline:

The media would love to help the Democrats with their "culture of corruption" campaign theme; unfortunately, the facts aren't cooperating very well. Which didn't stop CBS News from doing its best, in this story about the Justice Department standing firm on the documents seized from Congressman William Jefferson:

Top law enforcement officials at the Justice Department and the FBI indicated to their counterparts at the White House that they could not, and were unwilling to, return documents to the Louisiana Republican which were seized as part of a bribery investigation.

Jefferson is, of course, a Democrat. It's common for news stories about scandals involving Congressional Democrats to omit any reference to their party, but this really is going too far!

Al Gore Spins his past again.

After all these years Al Gore still manages to amaze me.  He has, perhaps, good reason to be bitter about the 2000 election; but he did manage occupy the office of Vice President for eight years, and has been a national figure since that time.  Yet his self-esteem remains so vulnerable that he still can't resist padding his resume with petty and easily exposeable lies.  That is at least the way it seems from this Real Clear Politics piece by Jonah Goldberg:

In a recent write-up of Gore's visit to the Cannes Film Festival to promote his new film on global warming, which premiered Wednesday in Los Angeles, [Arianna] Huffington hailed the "new Gore" as the "hottest star in town," beating out Bruce Willis and Tom Hanks.

Gore told Huffington that this was his second trip to Cannes. "The first was when I was 15 years old and came here for the summer to study the existentialists - Sartre, Camus. ... We were not allowed to speak anything but French!" This, gushed Huffington, "may explain his pitch-perfect French accent." Perhaps. Though according to David Maraniss' biography of Gore, the former vice president's 15th summer was spent working on the family farm. Remember those stories about how Al Sr. said, "A boy could never be president if he couldn't plow with that damned hillside plow"? That was the same summer.

Apparently, Poppa Gore thought a boy who couldn't both plow a field and parlez French existentialism could never be president either. Then there's the fact that young Al got C's in French at his tony Washington high school, St. Alban's. That's some school if a kid who can intelligently discuss Sartre's "La Nausée" and Camus' "Betwixt and Between" in apparently pitch-perfect French still can't earn a B in French class. Mon dieu!

Doing your best declared offensive in Connecticut

Its hard to believe this one, from ESPN:

HARTFORD, Conn. -- High school football coaches in Connecticut will have to be good sports this fall -- or risk a suspension.

   The football committee of the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference, which governs high school sports, is adopting a "score management" policy that will suspend coaches whose teams win by more than 50 points.

   A rout is considered an unsportsmanlike infraction and the coach of the offending team will be disqualified from coaching the next game, said Tony Mosa, assistant executive director of the Cheshire, Conn.-based conference.

   "We were concerned with any coach running up the game. There's no need for it," Mosa said. "This is something that we really have been discussing for the last couple of years. There were a number of games that were played where the difference of scores were 60 points or more. It's not focused on any one particular person."

   Some have dubbed it the "Jack Cochran rule," after the New London High football coach, who logged four wins of more than 50 points last year. In New London's 60-0 rout of Tourtelotte/Ellis Tech, Cochran enraged the Tourtelotte bench by calling a timeout just before halftime. Tourtelotte's coach was arrested on breach of peace charges after police say he struck a security guard and an assistant New London coach.

Europe, Victimization, and the Multiculturalism Debate

Flemming Rose writes about "Europe's Politics of Victimology."  Excerpt:

The worldwide furor unleashed by the cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed that I published last September in Jyllands-Posten, the Danish newspaper where I work, was both a surprise and a tragedy, especially for those directly affected by it. Lives were lost, buildings were torched, and people were driven into hiding.

And yet the unbalanced reactions to the not-so-provocative caricatures -- loud denunciations and even death threats toward us, but very little outrage toward the people who attacked two Danish Embassies -- unmasked unpleasant realities about Europe's failed experiment with multiculturalism. It's time for the Old Continent to face facts and make some profound changes in its outlook on immigration, integration, and the coming Muslim demographic surge. After decades of appeasement and political correctness, combined with growing fear of a radical minority prepared to commit serious violence, Europe's moment of truth is here.

Read the whole thing.

MSM

ITM:  "Does the CNN have problems with translation from Arabic to English or is it a case of deliberate twisting of facts?"

Fire Thunder

Argus Leader:

When she announced this spring that she intended to build an abortion clinic on the Pine Ridge reservation in defiance of the South Dakota Legislature's passage of a bill in March banning abortions, Oglala Sioux Tribal President Cecilia Fire Thunder drew her people into a controversy that has taken on national dimensions.

Now tribal members and the tribal council are making it clear they are uncomfortable with that, and that they do not unanimously support Fire Thunder's abortion stand.

On Tuesday, opponents of an abortion clinic at Pine Ridge will gather at the powwow grounds at 10 a.m. and march to a tribal council meeting to demonstrate their opposition.

The council that day will take up two resolutions banning abortions on the reservation, and also might deal with claims that Fire Thunder violated tribal ordinances and should be removed from office.

The Coming Battle Over Homosexuality

It is claimed on some South Dakota blogs that opposition to same-sex marriage and the belief that homosexual sex is sinful are the products of nothing more than bigotry.  In this sense the fight for same-sex marriage and full civil rights for homosexuals qua homosexuals is the same as the fight for civil rights for black Americans (see Shelby Steele for a counter argument).  If this is the case, then those who oppose this agenda are morally equivalent to those who "stood in the schoolhouse door" or whose racist convictions led them to oppose civil rights and desegregation in the American South.  If this is all true, then the full weight of the law should be put behind reshaping people's attitudes regarding homosexuality and certain current public benefits should be denied those organizations who continue to teach that homosexuality is sinful. 

This is the argument of law professor Doug Kmiec (registration required, and HT to Joe Knippenberg). 

While it may be inconceivable for many to imagine America treating churches that oppose gay marriage the same as racists who opposed interracial marriage in the 1960s, just consider the fate of the Boy Scouts. The Scouts have paid dearly for asserting their 1st Amendment right not to be forced to accept gay scoutmasters. In retaliation, the Scouts have been denied access to public parks and boat slips, charitable donation campaigns and other government benefits. The endgame of gay activists is to strip the Boy Scouts (and by extension, any other organization that morally opposes gay marriage) of its tax-exempt status under both federal and state law.

For technical legal reasons, it is difficult to challenge a religious group's non-profit status in federal court, but state court is more open. There, judicial decisions approving same-sex marriage or even state laws barring discrimination can be used to pronounce any opposing moral or religious doctrine to be "contrary to public policy." So declared, it would be short work for a state attorney general's opinion to deny the tax-exempt status of charities and most orthodox Jewish, Christian and Islamic religious bodies. If enough state lawyers do this, expect the IRS to chime in.

There is precedent for denying public funding or tax exemption for organizations that do not conform to our standards of racial equality (see, for example, Bob Jones University vs. US, and to be clear I think the Court reached the correct decision in that case).  Will the government remove public dollars from, say, Christian schools that continue to teach the scriptural view of homosexuality?  Will their tax-except status be removed?  As is already occurring, public schools will likely begin teaching the moral equivalence of same-sex and traditional marriage.  We have also seen the state of Massachusetts strip Catholic Charities of its power to arrange adoptions because Catholic Charities has religious objections to placing children with homosexual parents.  The popular culture is already well on the way to creating a culture where homosexuality is mainstreamed while those who maintain an orthodox opposition to homosexuality are marginalized, if not ostracized. 

I post these thoughts without comment.  I intend them to be an analysis of what is currently happening and what is likely to occur in the future.  Some will take these events to be a sign of a new age of civil rights and justice.  Others will see it as a continued assault on orthodox Christianity and those who hold to biblical sexual morality.  One thing is for sure: the coming of same-sex marriage (which I take to be nearly inevitable) will further a constituency for the use of state power to counter the latent influence of biblical morality on the populace.  The other question is whether I will face any penalty for the overuse of prepositions in the previous sentence.

Fightin' Joe

Here's a nice piece on the attempt by some on the far Left to purge the Democratic Party of one of its most honorable members, Joe Lieberman. 

Just In Case You Needed More Proof

Pat Robertson is nuts.  You owe to yourself to watch the video on this page. And then of course buy a case of Pat Robertson's Age Defying Shake!  I think it is you that ends up defying age, not the shake. 

Short People Got No Jail Time

The victim-hood industry made a huge leap forward with the discovery of yet another class of oppressed and down trodden persons.  They were always here, it turns out, it just that no one bothered to look down when trodding on them.  Intrepid reader Miranda Marmorstein directed me to this story, at Fox News:

A judge's decision to sentence a 5-foot-1 man to probation instead of prison for sexually assaulting a child has angered crime victim advocates who say the punishment sends the wrong message.

But supporters of short people say it's about time someone recognizes the unique challenges they face.

Cheyenne County District Judge Kristine Cecava issued the sentence Tuesday. She told Richard W. Thompson that his crimes deserved a long prison sentence but that he was too small to survive in a state prison.

Though he could have been sentenced to 10 years behind bars, he ended up with 10 years of probation instead. On Thursday, the state's attorney general, Jon Bruning, promised to appeal within two weeks, calling the sentence far too lenient.

"I'm concerned about the message this sends to victims and perpetrators," said Marla Sohl with the Nebraska Domestic Violence Sexual Assault Coalition, adding that it shows more concern is being placed on the criminal and his safety in prison than the victim.

But Joe Mangano, secretary of the National Organization of Short Statured Adults, agreed with the judge's assessment that Thompson would face dangers while in prison because of his height.

Being somewhat shorter than five and a half feet myself, I here provide personal testimony.  Altitudinally Challenged Persons (who you callin' "little man,") are just as capable as anyone else of bearing responsibility for their actions.  We just bear it a wee bit closer to the ground than the altitudinally enabled.  Thompson belongs in the slammer.  What happens to him there will depend much more on the size of the fight in the dog than on the size of the dogs in the fight. 

I note that this is the second such decision this year.  Fox reports on a decision handed down in Howard Dean's wonderland:

Judge Edward Cashman should be the darling of conservatives: a churchgoer, a former prosecutor, a Vietnam vet and a member of the bench known for his hard-line stands: A decade ago he jailed for 41 days the parents of a suspect in a rape case because they refused to cooperate with prosecutors.

In the past few days, though, Cashman has been vilified by conservatives on TV and on blogs. On Fox News, Bill O'Reilly told viewers as video of Cashman rolled: "You may be looking at the worst judge in the USA." And several Vermont Republican lawmakers have demanded he resign or be impeached.

The reason: Cashman sentenced a child molester to just 60 days of jail time — a sentence he said was designed to ensure the man got prompt sex-offender treatment but critics say was too soft.

"As far as we're concerned, Cashman's district can hereby be considered a predator's sanctuary," wrote the Caledonian Record newspaper of St. Johnsbury. "As long as judges like Ed Cashman are allowed to sit on Vermont benches, children cannot be considered safe."

Cashman has been unswayed: "I am aware that the intensity of some public criticism may shorten my judicial career," he wrote in a memorandum this week. "To change my decision now, however, simply because of some negative sentiment, would be wrong."

The firestorm erupted last week when Cashman sentenced Mark Hulett, 34, for having sexual contact with a girl, beginning when she was 6, over a four-year period.

Cashman said he would have imposed more jail time — a three-year minimum — if the state promised treatment while Hulett was jailed.

"The solution to these concerns requires quick and effective treatment," the judge wrote. He also noted that Hulett tested at a borderline intelligence level, has the emotional maturity of a 12- to 14-year-old and did not understand why others were so upset by his actions.

No one seems to have thought to ask how tall Hulett was.  I agree that treatment is in order and suggest that Judge Cashman be cashiered so that he can receive it.  He is laboring under two delusions.  One is that sexual deviance is treatable.  Short of very invasive surgery, it isn't.  The second is that it is the business of a judge both to prescribe therapy for offenders and to legislate his own view of social policy from the bench.  The latter delusion was obviously shared by Cecava.

ps.  I have always been opposed to affirmative action, but if NOOSSA can get short statured adults included as a suspect classification, listed just after Eskimos and Pacific Islanders, well, I'm off to Harvard boys!

Pelosi's Puppies

SD War College has posted a press release from the SD Republican Party with a great zinger from chairman Randy Frederick about Rep. Herseth's vote against drilling in ANWR.

"This was an opportunity for Rep. Herseth to make a real difference for everyone in South Dakota but she chose to side with Nancy Pelosi rather than the citizens of our state," Frederick said. "She is no 'Blue Dog Democrat.' She is one of Nancy Pelosi's puppies and this vote clearly shows that."

"Synthetic Worlds"

We economists' contributions to society usually involve taking interesting topics and make them either boring or incomprehensible. Edward Castronova, associate professor of telecommunications at Indiana University, does neither in his book "Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games."

Castronova devotes his book almost entirely to the genre known as "Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games" — "MMORPGs" for 'short'. EverQuest and World of Warcraft are probably the two most popular of these games, which involve creating a character that interacts in a fantasy universe with hundreds of thousands of other people. Gamers in MMORPGs chat, fight battles, trade items, learn crafts and skills, etc., perhaps as if they were an extra in a "Lord of the Rings" or "Star Wars" type movie who got to swing a sword or pilot a starcruiser, but also sat around a tavern sometimes and worried about what color shirt he was wearing.

In his introduction, Castronova describes the growing number of people playing these games (I am not one of them, but many of my friends — and a few of their parents — are):

If we indeed experience a gradual migration of human consciousness into the synthetic universe, we will have a growing need for economic, political, social, and cultural expertise to deal with the difficult issues that arise.

Fulfillment of this need, however, is hampered by the opinions of many intellectuals, who won't believe that whatever is happening in video games could be of any importance.

An aspiring doctoral student forwarded me a thesis proposal in which the main research question was simply, "What are MMORPGs?" Since such a descriptive question seemed, to me, subpar for PhD-level work ("What are automobiles?"), I pressed for an explanation and was told that the student's major professor had required it.

But these fantasy games have been rapidly breaking out into the "real world," carrying significant implications:

Each synthetic world has a play-money currency inside to facilitate player-to-player transactions. These currencies have begun to trade against the dollar in eBay's Category 1654, Internet Games. Many of them now trade at rates higher than those of real Earth currencies, including the yen and the Korean won.

The commerce flow generated by people buying and selling money and other virtual items (that is, magic wands, spaceships, armor) amounts to at least $30 million annually in the United States, and $100 million globally.

As the technology continues to improve, a new generation of people will swell the ranks of online gamers, and policy makers must be aware how this will affect society. Should these online transactions be monitored or taxed somehow? What would stop a money launderer from buying thousands of gold pieces on eBay, using them to buy a rare sword in a game, and then turning around to sell the sword for cash? 

Castronova gives an example of a computer hacker who facilitates the theft of an in-game item that can be sold on eBay for $1,000 or more. Clearly, someone has been unjustly deprived of an object carrying significant value. But what if that same item was lifted by an in-game thief, who chose to train and develop his "pickpocket" skill subject entirely to the rules set by the game's developers? Should the "real world" get involved to ensure justice is served? Cases like these are not unusual in Korean courts, but how will our legal system react?

"Synthetic Worlds" is a fascinating insight into a phenomenon most people are only vaguely aware of. By seeking to understand these games, society will not be caught off guard by the wide-ranging effects of this important technological advance.

More Johnson

As long as we are broadcasting Tim Johnson's votes, note the differences between how Johnson and Thune have voted on immigration matters.  Not surprisingly, I find Thune's voting pattern in favor of strengthening border security more defensible, but there are good arguments in favor of the Johnson position that leans toward amnesty.  The least defensible position is Johnson's opposition to requiring a photo ID to vote:

Johnson and Thune also split on a proposal that will not make it into the final immigration bill. Senate Whip Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., tried to get an amendment in the bill that would have required anyone voting in a federal election to present a photo ID.

"I do support the photo ID. I think it makes a lot of sense," Thune said, and noted South Dakota is among 24 states that already have that requirement.

Johnson, however, said, "If states want to pursue that, it's their prerogative. But I do not think we need a one-size-fits-all demand from the federal government.

"I'm opposed to addressing that issue in the context of immigration. This is a complex-enough bill as it is, and I don't think we ought to be (using immigration legislation) to federalize that aspect of voting."

One would think that the integrity of federal elections is a national concern for which "one-size-fits-all" solution is appropriate.  Clearly it's better to leave matters at the state level when practicable, but this is a relatively unobtrusive and sensible suggestion.  The argument that it is inappropriate to address the issue in the context of immigration makes some sense, but it is not as though the matter is unrelated to immigration. 

Johnson

Despite my two posts below regarding Tim Johnson's voting record, I would like to congratulate our senator for this:

Sen. Tim Johnson is in a three-way tie for first among U.S. senators in home-state popularity, with 72 percent of South Dakotans surveyed earlier this month saying they approve of the incumbent Democrat.

And Johnson stands alone with the lowest disapproval rating in the Senate, at 22 percent.

Johnson is joined at the top of the SurveyUSA poll for May with Maine Republican Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, who also have 72 percent approval ratings. Snowe and Collins had disapproval ratings of 24 percent and 25 percent.

Johnson’s net approval rating of 50 percent — 72 percent approval minus 22 percent disapproval — was the highest in the Senate. The survey was conducted by telephone with 600 registered South Dakota voters ages 18 and older between May 12 and May 14.

Ward Churchill

The American Council of Trustees and Alumni issued this report, released May 12th, asking "How Many Ward Churchills?" (pdf alert).  Excerpt:

[W]e do not mean to suggest that issues of alleged plagiarism, dubious claims of ethnicity, or inadequate credentials—problems specific to Ward Churchill—apply broadly to all academics. What we do mean to suggest is that the extremist rhetoric and tendentious opinion for which Churchill is infamous can be found on campuses across America. In published course descriptions and online course materials, professors are openly and unapologetically declaring that they use their positions to push political agendas in the name of teaching students to think critically.

Given this state of affairs, some will argue—indeed many have already—that Ward Churchill and others like him should be fired. But as we contend in the following pages, the solution is not to fire professors who express extreme views, but to expose them, to compel them to defend their positions, invite them to debate ideas, and, above all, to insist that they do their job of teaching students well and empowering them to make up their own minds.

Kavanaugh

The senate confirmed another federal appeals court judge today. 

White House aide Brett Kavanaugh won Senate confirmation as an appeals judge Friday after a wait of nearly three years, yet another victory in President Bush's drive to place a more conservative stamp on the nation's courts.

Kavanaugh was confirmed on a vote of 57-36, warmly praised by Republicans but widely opposed by Democrats who said he is ill-suited to sit on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

Johnson voted against him.