South Dakota Politics

Iran Arming Iraqi Militias

ABC News:

U.S. officials say they have found smoking-gun evidence of Iranian support for terrorists in Iraq: brand-new weapons fresh from Iranian factories. According to a senior defense official, coalition forces have recently seized Iranian-made weapons and munitions that bear manufacturing dates in 2006.

Iranian-made munitions found in Iraq include advanced IEDs designed to pierce armor and anti-tank weapons. U.S. intelligence believes the weapons have been supplied to Iraq's growing Shia militias from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, which is also believed to be training Iraqi militia fighters in Iran.

Some thoughts over at Power Line.

UPDATE:  More thoughts from Ed Morrissey.

Losing the Enlightenment

Historian Victor Davis Hanson writing in the W$J Opinion Journal:

Our current crisis is not yet a catastrophe, but a real loss of confidence of the spirit. The hard-won effort of the Western Enlightenment of some 2,500 years that, along with Judeo-Christian benevolence, is the foundation of our material progress, common decency, and scientific excellence, is at risk in this new millennium.

But our newest foes of Reason are not the enraged Athenian democrats who tried and executed Socrates. And they are not the Christian zealots of the medieval church who persecuted philosophers of heliocentricity. Nor are they Nazis who burned books and turned Western science against its own to murder millions en masse.

No, the culprits are now more often us. In the most affluent, and leisured age in the history of Western civilization--never more powerful in its military reach, never more prosperous in our material bounty--we have become complacent, and then scared of the most recent face of barbarism from the primordial extremists of the Middle East.

Read the whole piece.

Johnson Expects to Run for Re-Election

Tim Johnson has announced he expects to run for re-election in 2008:

He says it's not an official announcement, but Democratic Senator Tim Johnson says he expects to run for re-election in 2008. He's serving his second term in the Senate.

Speaking on South Dakota Public Radio, Johnson says politicians need to end their partisanship in Washington and govern from the middle because he says most Americans are not on the far left or the far right.

Vilsack Announces Presidential Run

Iowa governor Tom Vilsack has declared he will run for president in 2008:

The Democratic governor of Iowa, Tom Vilsack, has announced he will run for the US presidency in 2008, promising to make the US "a beacon of hope".

He said he wanted "to replace the America of today with the hope of tomorrow and guarantee every American their birthright - opportunity".

The governor is regarded as a centrist and is little known outside his state.

Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama are among the other Democrats many expect will contend the party's nomination.

Mr Vilsack, 56, announced his plans to run for the presidency in Mount Pleasant, Iowa - the small town where he began his political career as mayor in 1987.

He went on to become a senator in the Iowa state senate before being elected as the state's governor in 1998.

Daschle To Make '08 Announcement Soon

Asked about a possible 2008 presidential run on MSNBC's Hardball, former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle said, "I'll be making an announcement sometime in the course of the next couple of months. No later than that."

Truth In Advertising

Bad reporting from the Middle East has become too common to ignore.  Jason has noted the Associated Press reliance on a bogus source in Iraq (see here and here). The LA Times seems to have been duped into running a phony story about civilian deaths (see here).  You might remember the doctored and staged photos from the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict in Lebanon earlier this year.  These faked photos of supposed Israeli atrocities were run in newspapers all over the world.  The pattern here is that media outlets are relying on local stringers for their news, and many of these stringers have ties to terrorist groups.  I don't think revelations of bad reporting  should change anyone's mind about what is occurring in the Middle East in general or Iraq in particular, but it should disturb us all that our enemies find it so easy to place their propaganda in American newspapers.  There is little doubt that Americans have received a view of the Middle East that has serious deviations from the truth.

You Stay Classy San Diego!

San Diego is considering banning Wal-Mart.  Read the story here.  The arguments in favor of Wal-Mart have been noted on this site (here, for example), so no reason to go through them again.  I just want to note one statement from a member of the San Diego city council:

Councilman Tony Young, who joined the 5-3 majority, countered, "I have a vision for San Diego and that vision is about walkable, livable communities, not big, mega-structures that inhibit people's lives."

Perhaps Mr. Young should see if other San Diegans (or whatever Ron Burgundy calls them) agree with him by letting them vote with their pocket books.

Sibby

Sibby is making connections in his post "Pelosi, Herseth, and Max Sandlin."

In War, Truth is the First Casualty

So said Aeschylus.  Eric of Classical Values confronts this maxim in "The moral equivalency of fake phonies and phony fakes."  At issue here is whether or not a source the Associated Press has been relying on, a man by the name of Jamil Hussein who claims to be an Iraqi police captain, even exists.  Jeff Goldstein explains the dynamics well:

Whether this narrative is the product of willful distortion or merely the laziness that comes with being fed stories that match your preconceptions is, in effect, beside the point--though the former is clearly more despicable, and, should it prove to be the case, has the practical effect of undermining a representative democracy that can only work properly if citizens are being given accurate accountings of events by those purporting to do so.

Indeed.  Be sure to read the story.

Monkey See, Monkey Do

The University of South Dakota has announced it will be moving to Division 1 athletics. 

Sioux Falls Featured on 20/20 Tonight

Argus Leader:

Sioux Falls will be featured tonight in a  “20/20” segment about giving.

To illustrate what distinguishes those who give from those who don’t, “20/20” went to two parts of the county that have two very different populations: Sioux Falls and San Francisco.

The ABC news program asked the Salvation Army to set up buckets at its busiest locations in both cities — Macy’s in San Francisco and Wal-Mart in Sioux Falls.

The show, which airs at 9 p.m., will reveal which bucket got  more money.

UPDATE:  The Sioux Falls Salvation Army bucket in front of Walmart got a lot more than the one in front of Macys in San Francisco.

The New Media and Political Influence

As SDWC reported, The Hill examines the influence blogs are having on politics.  Excerpt:

Former Sen. John Edwards’s favorite books include “The Trial of Socrates,” “God’s Politics” and “Into Thin Air.” His favorite musician is Bruce Springsteen. His heroes are his wife, Elizabeth, and the American people.

How did this information about a likely 2008 presidential candidate become public? Through MySpace.com, a networking website where Edwards (D-N.C.), like former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack (D), has set up pages to tell people about himself. Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) has 6,000 friends on his page at Facebook.com. Visitors to those pages can join the candidates’ “networks” and candidates can use the sites to communicate with narrow groups of likely voters.

Ret. Gen. Wesley Clark (D) has focused his efforts on podcasting, creating an audio message that his supporters can listen to at his website or download from Apple’s iTunes. Clark has the second most listened-to podcast among likely 2008 contenders, after Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), as measured by iTunes.

Seemingly overnight, the Internet has changed politics and the course of campaigns. The 30-second television advertisement has been a staple of campaigning for decades. But last summer, Sen. George Allen (R-Va.) made YouTube a must-use campaign website. The site allows users to post and circulate video instantly, and Allen was caught on videotape calling S.R. Sidarth, a volunteer of Indian descent for Sen.-elect Jim Webb (D-Va.), “macaca,” which was said to be a racial insult.

Candidates face a serious challenge from the new ways people gather information and news. Fewer people are watching network television or reading major newspapers, turning instead to the Internet. This trend has left candidates hustling to figure out how technology can help them communicate with a fragmented audience.

Living History Museum

A South Dakota man wants to build a living history museum near Pierre that would rival colonial Williamsburg:

Mel Thorne's voice breaks and his eyes mist.

"Can you imagine what we could accomplish with this?" he asks. "Why, it could change the country," reorienting our moral compass away from sex and violence and back toward hard work, helping your neighbor - the values of the prairie.

And on a more practical level, "It could double the $800 million a year we get from tourism. Overnight."

"This" is Thorne's dream of a lifetime - the Dakota Territory Living History Museum, a sweeping, thousand-acre, hands-on celebration of South Dakota's heritage in Fort Pierre.

Think Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia, only with a focus on Native Americans, Western pioneers and buffalo.

Thorne either is a pie-in-the-sky dreamer or a visionary. Truthfully, the line between the two usually isn't known until an idea fails or succeeds. So far, the jury is out on Thorne. But it's just such a darned intriguing idea, nobody wants to reject it out of hand.

"He's worked so hard on it that he's tugged everybody's heartstrings," said state Sen. Ed Olson of Mitchell, a board member of the nonprofit corporation formed to promote and build the attraction. "I told him that the chances of it being successful are not very good."

Rob Regier Retiring

A reader sends along this note about Rob Regier announcing he is moving on in his career after nine years in South Dakota politics:

Dear friends, it is with sadness that I announce I will be stepping down as executive director of the South Dakota Family Policy Council. I certainly will miss interacting with the thousands of South Dakotans who support the Family Policy Council, but I believe God has a different plan for me, as well as for the organization. After nearly nine years between my time at Family Research Council in Washington, D.C. and here at the Family Policy Council, it's time for a change for my own family.

Argus Calls for Bed Checks for Pages

The Argus Leader is calling for bed checks for legislative pages:

At the very least, we should know where legislative pages live while they serve each year at the Capitol in Pierre.

And that's just the start.

A panel of legislative leaders recommended this week that a system of random checks should be installed to make sure the pages - high school students who run errands and answer phones for lawmakers - are living where they say they are.

That comes in the wake of allegations that a state senator groped a page in a Pierre hotel room.

To some, it may seem like unnecessary meddling in the affairs of families - presumably these high school students' parents are involved in these living arrangements - but the state has a responsibility as well.

Just knowing where pages are living, and double checking to make sure it's true, seems like a small first step, given the recent allegations.

...

The state has a responsibility to oversee the pages to at least a minimum level while they are serving the Legislature. That doesn't mean watching over every action they take; we don't become their parents. But we need to do more than we are.

Tony Dean

Writing in the Argus Leader, Tony Dean, the host of the regional "Tony Dean Outdoors" television show, criticizes outdoor writing:

The truth is, most outdoor magazines these days aren't worth buying or reading - other than perhaps Field & Stream, the only national outdoor publication that features good, meaningful writing. Sports Afield has turned into a caricature of what was once a good outdoor magazine, and Outdoor Life has been a joke for years.

AP: Judge Bars Newspaper Consolidation

From the Associated Press:

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Suspicious about possible alliance among competitors, a federal judge barred The San Francisco Chronicle from consolidating some of its business operations with newspapers owned by MediaNews Group Inc.

U.S. District Judge Susan Illston issued the temporary restraining order Tuesday, upon seeing a previously undisclosed memo saying that the Chronicle's parent company, Hearst Corp., intended to collaborate with the newspaper's rivals on Bay Area distribution and national advertising sales.

The judge ruled the deal would possibly violate antitrust laws.

Conservatives Are More Charitable

Who gives more to charity, bleeding heart liberals, or those "cold as a banker's heart" conservatives?  Well, the data has been gathered.  From The Chronicle of Philanthropy: 

It's been a tough month for conservatives, with the Republican Party losing control of both houses of Congress, but a new book being released this week may help brighten their spirits.

In Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth About Compassionate Conservatism (Basic Books), Arthur C. Brooks finds that religious conservatives are far more charitable than secular liberals, and that those who support the idea that government should redistribute income are among the least likely to dig into their own wallets to help others.

Interesting finding, that.  These despicable conservatives actually give more out of their own pockets to the needy!  Caring liberals are, shall we say it, more stingy?  As it turns out, yes. 

Mr. Brooks, now a full professor and director of nonprofit studies at Syracuse's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, wanted to move beyond the financial incentives and deterrents to giving, and instead examine the values that underlie philanthropy.

His initial research for Who Really Cares revealed that religion played a far more significant role in giving than he had previously believed. In 2000, religious people gave about three and a half times as much as secular people — $2,210 versus $642. And even when religious giving is excluded from the numbers, Mr. Brooks found, religious people still give $88 more per year to nonreligious charities.

He writes that religious people are more likely than the nonreligious to volunteer for secular charitable activities, give blood, and return money when they are accidentally given too much change.

"There is not one measurably significant way I have ever found in which religious people are not more charitable than nonreligious people," Mr. Brooks says. "The fact is, if it weren't for religious people in your community, the PTA would shut down."

Byron R. Johnson, a sociology professor and co-director of the Institute for Studies of Religion at Baylor University, says he recently gathered data that show similar results — such as high levels of civic engagement among religious people — while assembling a report on faith in America that was released in September.

"It was not surprising to me that the lil ol' farmer in South Dakota outgave people in San Francisco," Mr. Johnson says. "But I think to the everyday citizen, this might strike them as counterintuitive."

The lil ol' farmer in South Dakota, you say?  Maybe we here in this neck of the woods are not so inferior a people after all. 

Globalization & Protectionism

It would be cheap to say that Democrats are a threat to free trade, on account of the fact that sentiment for protection has been steadily building among Republicans as well.  In fact it's getting harder and harder to find anyone who doesn't think foreigners are stealing our jobs.  Lou Dobbs, who is mad as Hell and not taking it any more, is making a fortune with this argument.  The only thing wrong with it, as far as I can see, is that it is obviously false. 

You can see that simply by reflecting that the animous against free trade is nearly universal among trade unions and indigenous people's organizations around the world.  Globalization can't be stealing everyone's jobs, can it?  Or else where are the jobs going?  Mars?

Economist Robert Samuelson (Real Clear Politics) makes these points:

We may be about to shoot ourselves in the foot -- or maybe the chest -- on trade. In the name of "fair trade,'' we may punish our own exporters. In 2005, worldwide exports exceeded $10 trillion. Since 1980, they've more than tripled while the overall global economy doubled. Like it or not, massive international flows of goods and services (aka "globalization'') underpin all modern economies.  . . .

American trade deficits haven't destroyed U.S. job creation by sending work abroad. Consider. From 1980 to 2006, the trade deficit jumped from $19 billion to an estimated $786 billion, or from less than 1 percent of gross domestic product to about 6 percent. Still, employment in the same period rose from 99 million to 145 million. Job creation defies the trade deficits, whose causes lie largely beyond our control and have little to do with "unfair'' trade practices.

I think it unlikely that the next Congress or any other will move to put new and serious restrictions on trade.  Far too many Americans are dependent on export-related jobs, and the damages of a real trade war between nations would be immediately apparent.  On the other hand, progress toward freer trade is likely to crawl to a stop.  Unlike the American economy or the Indian economy, the world economy has no in-group bias to defend it.  There is no interplanetary Lou Dobbs to defend Earth jobs against those low wage Martians. 

Hildebrand Working for Obama in Iowa

The Des Moines Register is reporting the following: "Acting as a key contact for Obama in Iowa is Steve Hildebrand, a longtime aide to former South Dakota Sen. Tom Daschle. Hildebrand ran Al Gore's campaign for the 2000 Iowa caucuses."

Lawmakers Meet with Lawyer in Sutton Investigation

Rapid City Journal:

A South Dakota legislative committee met privately Tuesday with the lawyer handling the investigation into allegations that a state senator engaged in sexual misconduct with a high school student who served as a page in the 2006 legislative session. Members of the Legislature's Executive Board, which handles management issues for the Legislature, said they could not discuss details of what was said at the meeting.

Sen. Ed Olson, R-Mitchell, the panel's chairman, said Sioux Falls lawyer Jim McMahon told the committee what he has learned from investigation records that were subpoenaed from the attorney general's office. The panel also discussed what direction the probe will take, Olson said.

The Senate is looking into allegations that Sen. Dan Sutton, D-Flandreau, groped an 18-year-old male page during the 2006 session. Sutton has not spoken publicly about the issue, but his lawyer has said Sutton has done nothing wrong.

The Senate had scheduled a special session this week to look into the allegations against Sutton, but it was canceled when Sutton resigned Nov. 14 from his current term.

Alcee Hastings, aka, My Lord And Savior

Nancy Pelosi has decided not to select Alcee Hastings as Chair of the House Intelligence Committee.  NRO has Hastings's statement, and it is quite the whopper.  Here it is in full:

"I have been informed by the Speaker-elect that I will not serve as the Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence in the 110th Congress. I am obviously disappointed with this decision. As we learn in Ecclesiastes, however, for everything there is a season.

"I have been honored to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives for the past 14 years and look forward to having this privilege for many, many more years to come.

"I appreciate the support that I received for my potential chairmanship from numerous colleagues here in Congress, from supporters across the country and, indeed, spanning the globe. Their words to me and on my behalf are something for which I am truly grateful.

"This institution is organic. Many opportunities are ever-present and changing.

"Now I must, and will seek other ways to better serve the citizens of Florida's 23rd Congressional District and our great Nation.

"As has been the case over the past seven years of my service on the Intelligence Committee, the next Chair of the Committee will have my full support to do everything we can to protect the national security of the United States and our allies.

"Our nation's national security is far more important than my professional security.

"Best of all, I will be seeking better and bigger opportunities in a Democratic Congress. There is much to be accomplished and little time to re-set this nation's economic and spiritual compass. I look forward to working with our new Speaker of the House and all of my colleagues to see that we do this at once.

Sorry, haters, God is not finished with me yet."

1. This actually isn't a bad statement until the last two sections, although it is not clear what he means by his "professional security" other than being distinct from "national security."
2. Since when is it the job of Congress to "re-set" the nation's "spiritual compass"?  I thought Democrats were against religion in politics, and yet here is a guy who wants to use government to tinker with my "spiritual compass."  Let me also opine that the best thing Congress can do regarding our "economic compass" is leave it alone. 
3. Is Alcee Hastings aware that there might be reasons for opposing a corrupt impeached federal judge as Intelligence Chair other than hate?  This smacks of self-righteousness in extremis, all the way down to the "God is not finished with me yet," which, if said by a Republican, would have many Democrats screaming "Theocracy!"  How dare we keep Alcee Hastings from his God appointed job as Chair of the House Intelligence Committee. Another victory for hate! 

One isn't sure which is worse; if Hastings believes this drivel or if he doesn't. 
         

FCC to Investigate the Concentration of Media Ownership

The FCC has announced plans to investigation the concentration of ownership in the media industry.  South Dakota-born commissioner Jonathan Adelstein (son of state Senator Stan Adelstein) wants more scrutiny:

As part of its current review of media ownership rules with an eye toward loosening them -- which already has sparked heated controversy -- the FCC announced plans to conduct 10 economic studies on the issue.

But the agency's two Democratic commissioners immediately attacked the plans as inadequate and secretive.

Studies will focus on individual topics such as the impact of ownership on programming; the relationship between cross-ownership and news reporting; and the status of minority ownership.

Announcement, issued Wednesday, identified study authors, who will include academics, FCC officials and the Nielsen organization. All studies will be peer-reviewed, the agency said.

"Today's announcement of the commission's new media ownership studies, unfortunately, raises more questions in the public's mind than it answers," commissioner Michael J. Copps said in a statement. "How were the (authors) selected for the outside projects? How much money is being spent on each project -- and on the projects collectively? What kind of peer-review process is envisioned?"

Jonathan S. Adelstein, Copps' Democratic colleague, said the announcement "ultimately undermines the public's confidence" because "the legitimacy of the studies is directly correlated to the transparency of the process undertaken to develop the studies and select the authors. The descriptions of the studies are scant, lacking any sense of the commission's expectations for scope, proposed methodology and data sources."

FCC chairman Kevin J. Martin has stated the ownership rules are outdated and that limitations or restrictions should be eased to reflect the contemporary media environment. When the commission last voted to ease ownership rules in 2003 along strict party lines, a federal court blocked the attempt, saying it was unjustified.

Nicolay

Argus Leader editor Patrick Lalley suggests naming the new school in Sioux Falls after the woman who spearheaded the effort to allow abortions in South Dakota, Jan Nicolay:

There are several deserving women, including Sylvia Henkin, who's been a pioneer in many ways for this community; Loila Hunking, the first woman to serve on the City Commission and who rehabbed our street system; or even Jan Nicolay, who was an administrator in the district for many years and served in the Legislature and in the administration of Gov. Bill Janklow.

More Daschle Staffers Supporting Obama

From today's edition of Roll Call:

Job Application?

Looks like Todd Webster, the former communications director for then-Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), has a man crush on Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.).

Either that or two other possibilities: He's a true believer who wants Obama to be president, or he's looking for a job.

Webster sent out a blast e-mail last week announcing that, as a fan and admirer of The Alternative to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), he has created a help draft Obama Web site, at www.runobama.com.

The site allows citizens to sign a petition of support for an Obama candidacy, Webster said. There is also a blog devoted to chronicling Mr. Obama, which is linked through the Web site.

War, Then and Now

Historian Victor Davis Hanson:

Western exhaustion, guilt, and appeasement are nothing new. Much of the British aristocracy saw not much wrong with Hitler, even after the invasion of Poland. It was Churchill alone who put an end to their peace feelers to fellow travelers in Germany, still creeping out when his new British government chopped them off after the fall of France.

No need to talk about French politics in the 1930s, or the conditions in Austria before the Anschluss. Reread what Joe Kennedy or Charles Lindberg said about appeasement before December 1941, and it gives a frightening glimpse into the mind of a great segment of the population that thought it could ride out the European war, deal with a Hitlerized Europe, and live with Imperial Japan.

All that said, the West is encountering something novel, as it fights its first politically-correct war, in which all the postmodern chickens of the 1980s and 1990s have come home to roost. Thus multiculturalism makes it hard to fight non-Europeans from the former third world, inasmuch as it argued there was not just little distinctively good about the West, but rather the once recognized universal sins of mankind—racism, sexism, class oppression, inequality, patriarchy—were to be seen as exclusively Western.

Read the whole thing.

Bogus Iraq Stories

Gateway Pundit has more reports of bogus Iraq stories from the Associated Press.  Glenn Reynolds comments: "Kind of makes you wonder about the reporting from Iraq. Okay, it's more like 'confirms your suspicions' than 'makes you wonder,' really."

Jerstad/Earley Recount

Argus Leader:

A recount of votes in the state’s closest legislative race tightened the margin by one vote but left Democrat Sandy Jerstad of Sioux Falls as the winner, auditors said today.

Jerstad held a 20-vote margin over incumbent Republican Sen. Bill Earley of Sioux Falls after the official canvass of votes from the Nov. 7 election. Earley sought a recount, which was finished today.

He closed the gap by four votes in Minnehaha County but lost three votes in Lincoln County, auditors said. In Minnehaha County, the recount showed Earley with 3,096 votes and Jerstad with 3,492 votes, Auditor Sue Roust said. That’s one fewer vote than Earley had in the canvass but it’s five fewer for Jerstad.

In Lincoln County, Earley finished the recount with 2,055 votes, three less than the canvass, Auditor Paula Fecht said. Jerstad’s canvass number of 1,678 remained unchanged after the recount.

The combined two-county totals were 5,170 votes for Jerstad and 5,151 for Earley. The numbers must be certified to the secretary of state’s office, which issues certificates of election.

Todd Epp, however, thinks the Argus Leader is wrong. 

Cowboy Diplomacy

Well, here we go again.  Rumblings from the loonies who think that Iranian President Ahmadinajad is a crazed war monger who must be removed from power. Haven't we heard this before?  Weapons of mass destruction!  Evil leader!  We can't afford to let that leader get his hands on nuclear weapons! We can't negotiate with these people!.   Will the Bush Administration ever learn?  Oops. This time it's Ellie Wiesel, who no doubt advocates regime change in Iran in order to enrich all his friends in the oil industry, while the Bush Administration, through its new Secretary of Appeasement Jim Baker, advocates negotiation and concessions to Iran. 

Thune YouTube Video

Um, what?!  This is just weird.

HT to Plains Politics.

Financial Underpinning of the Iraq Insurgency

Ed Morrissey: "Guess Who Financed the Insurgencies?"

How Expatriots Celebrate Thanksgiving

Here is a curious note on behalf of two former residents of these United States (David and Ms. Drucker) who, in 2004, put their passports where their mouths were and got the Hell out of Dodge.  From the LATimes:

I'm sure a lot of other dyed-in-the-organic-wool liberals muttered something similar that dark morning in 2004, but unlike most of them, we meant it. Plan A: John Kerry wins, we build that dream ski house in Vermont. Plan B: Move to Vancouver, Canada.

So, Plan B it was. We'd had enough of Bush, the direction the United States was going, and this was the last straw. Never mind that we lived in Cambridge, Mass., arguably the most liberal city in the bluest of the blue states. We were packing our bulk granola into our diesel Beetle and heading out.

Now I have nothing against Canada (other than North Dakota).  Some of my best friends are Canadian.  And I am sure there are lots of good reasons to move to Canada, though just right now I can't think of any.  To be sure, Mr. Drucker is right about those "dyed-in-the-organic-wool liberals".  A lot of them promised to leave the country after Bush was re-elected, but to judge by recent election returns, most of them were all travel brochure and no plane tickets. 

But one cheer is all I can muster for Mr. Drucker.  Leaving the country just because your side lost an election is perilously close to agreeing to a coin toss and then backing out after you make a bad call.  That might be justified if you thought that the other side was acting in bad faith, and would cancel the next election if there were any danger they might be thrown out of power.  But 2006 proves that the Republicans can lose an election, and will leave office because they have to.  So what keeps the Druckers among the cold Canadian pines?

It turns out that Canadian conservatism can look awfully liberal. So far, Harper — derided as "Bush lite" — has, for instance, introduced a partial tax credit for monthly transit passes. The Conservatives have proposed a Clean Air Act for Canada, and although it's not ideal, it's still something. Harper said that these new laws would "institute a holistic approach that doesn't treat the related issues of pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions in isolation." When was the last time you heard any U.S. politician utter the word "holistic"?  Did I mention universal healthcare? Even Harper seems committed to keeping that.

We've come to the conclusion that the United States has drifted so far to the right that any self-respecting Canadian Conservative would be considered a raving liberal in Washington. Stephen Harper is no George W. Bush. We may not agree with him, but we don't feel ashamed every time he opens his mouth. We might yawn, though.

The Druckers do not wish to live in a country where anyone disagrees with them on anything they consider important.  It is not conservatives in power, or insufficiently liberal policies, that annoy them; they cannot abide the mere existence of genuine conservatives.  They refuse to live among folks who do not use the right kind of vocabulary.

I am as content with the Druckers's decision as they are.  If their testimony is reliable, their immigration has made the United States a little more of what it already was: a place where genuine diversity of thought is real and respected.  That is not the sort of place that the Druckers want to live in.  They are wealthy, privileged people, who can afford to chose between a "dream ski house in Vermont" and Vancouver, Canada.  They suppose they are entitled to a environment where they need never confront anything out of their comfort zone.  The U.S. is not a good place for someone who feels so special. 

Greg Latza

Kevin Woster of the Rapid City Journal has an article about photographer Greg Latza in today's paper.  I've met Latza a couple of times and found him to be a very friendly, personable guy, and one of my favorite photographers.  He is great at capturing landscapes and wildlife, but absolutely excels at capturing people.  His ability to capture the personality of South Dakotans is awe-inspiring.  Check out a sample of his work at his peoplescapes website.

Herseth Featured in Esquire Magazine

Rep. Stephanie Herseth was featured in an article about the best and brightest women in the nation in this month's Esquire Magazine.  Excerpt:

At thirty-five, Herseth is South Dakota's golden girl. Her grandfather was governor, her grandmother secretary of state, her father a popular state legislator for twenty years. She was high school valedictorian, got a master's and a law degree from an elite East Coast university, and got elected to Congress at the tender age of thirty-three. She's a Democrat who opposes gun control so completely, she's endorsed by the NRA and part of the small group of conservative Democrats who continue to support the war in Iraq. "This is one of those things where I've made myself available to work with the administration," she says. "I'm just not looking to make this partisan. Not only will I lose support among my constituency if I do that, but I just don't think it's going to get us where we need to be."

But Herseth is also capable of giving a fiery partisan speech that attacks Republicans for running a corrupt and secretive government that neglects the actual concerns of the people. I saw her do this twice, and she was very accomplished at it, slicing and dicing her opponents just like a seasoned politician. And she remains firmly in support of a woman's right to an abortion, a risky stance in a state so red that it recently banned abortion even in cases of rape or incest.

So Herseth is planting her feet, feeling her strength, looking for her moment. But in two promising ways, she's very much like the other four women. She's surprisingly open and straightforward in person, talking easily about the time she freaked out and flew to Quito, Ecuador, or her childhood on the farm with the tornadoes and the drought, or her parents' divorce after her father lost the '86 election.

...

She's also relentlessly focused on her goal. Right now, we've been on the highways of South Dakota for fourteen hours, and the Dixie Chicks are in the CD player, and there's one more rally to go, one more high school gym with farmers and housewives dressed in cheap, clean clothes, one more speech about how ethanol pulled $1 billion into South Dakota in 2004, a lifeline to rural America, because most of the biorefineries are owned by local farmers and ranchers, which helps the tax base and the school district, as long as federal policies don't encourage the kind of consolidation we've seen in other industries.

Argus

SDWC: "Has anyone noticed that the news has snuck back up towards the top of the Argus' new website design?"  He's right, but the design is still terrible.

The Unreliable News of the MSM

On November 13, the Los Angeles Times reported the U.S. military had carried out an air strike at Ramadi that "killed at least 30 people, including women and children."  Blogger Patterico later saw an email from an officer who was at Ramadi who claimed the Times's account was incorrect: there had been no air strike and those killed were insurgents caught placing IEDs or trying to steal munitions.  Patterico began to investigate what really happened at Ramadi, and you can read his results here.  As John Hinderacker noted: "Patterico's findings are significant, I think, to all of us who try to make sense of the news coming out of Iraq."

Execution Debate

Argus Leader:

When it comes to executions, some say less detail in state law might provide more clarity for future death penalty procedures.

Gov. Mike Rounds and Attorney General Larry Long have researched court cases and death penalty laws in other states and expect to introduce a bill in January that would prevent death row delays such as the Aug. 29 stay of execution of Elijah Page.

Although they haven't said what the bill will entail, some say that rather than clarifying the exact method of execution, providing flexibility in state law might be the best way to prevent confusion.

Cold, Uncaring Socialism

Note this passage from an enlightening story about the Dutch elections:

This confusion at the ballot box underscores the difficulties Europe faces in adapting to an ever more globalized world. Voters across Europe feel deep anxiety over how to preserve their cultures without closing their doors to immigrants, how to protect their cherished welfare states without becoming an economic dinosaur, and how to channel the energies of the free market without turning into a cold, uncaring continent.

What is "cold" and "uncaring," one would think, would be to devolve into "an economic dinosaur."  A business motivated by profit has far more reason to treat you well and to give you good service than does the government.  If your accountant does a bad job and treats you poorly, what do you do?  You get a different accountant.  If the IRS does a bad job and treats you poorly, what do you do?  Go to the other IRS? 

An economy is like a shark: it must keep moving forward or it dies.  Europe can decide to maintain its massive welfare state that stifles creativity and innovation and thus slowly fall into decay, or it can liberalize its economy to promote innovation and productivity and face the fact that, yes, there will be more uncertainty and more need for hard work.  There is no doubt that the market produces "creative destruction."  Some focus more on the "creative" part, others on the "destruction."  I have sympathies with both camps.  One should not pretend that this is an easy choice, but it does seem like a clear one.  Europe has two futures.  In one future, it reinvigorates its dedication to political and economic liberalism and the grand history of Europe.  In the other future, it dies of economic and cultural euthanasia.

The Ignoble Prize Winners

The winners of the Ig Noble Prize (makes you laugh, then makes you think) were announced today.

ORNITHOLOGY: Ivan R. Schwab, of the University of California Davis, and       the late Philip R.A. May of the University of California Los Angeles, for       exploring and explaining why woodpeckers don't get headaches.

PEACE: Howard Stapleton of Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, for inventing an electromechanical teenager repellant -- a device that makes annoying high-pitched noise designed to be audible to teenagers but not to adults; and for later using that same technology to make telephone ringtones that are audible to teenagers but probably not to their teachers.

MATHEMATICS: Nic Svenson and Piers Barnes of the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Research Organization, for calculating the number of photographs you must take to (almost) ensure that nobody in a group photo will have their eyes closed

LITERATURE: Daniel Oppenheimer of Princeton University for his report "Consequences of Erudite Vernacular Utilized Irrespective of Necessity: Problems with Using Long Words Needlessly."

Headlines Worth Noting, Holiday Edition

After the fact?

Ex-KGB Spy Blames Putin for this Death.

It is, after all, only a toy newspaper. 

Man With Toy Gun Disrupts Miami Herald

It was a good weekend to be elsewhere.  But that's every weekend in Jersey.

Turkeys Try for Fast Train Out of New Jersey. 

The turkeys had no time to lose.

Man Eats 4.8 Pounds of Turkey in 12 Minutes.

How long was the bomb?

PHILADELPHIA - A man who mailed a bomb to a doctor because he was angry about how his penis enlargement surgery turned out was sentenced Tuesday to four years and 10 months in prison.

Just when we needed someone to restrain us.

Go Ahead, call your friend "meathead"

 

Democratic Crack-Up 3

Having wandered onto the topic of the Clintons, the following from the New York Times is news fit to blog on.  Ms. Clinton is generally regarded as the front runner for the 2008 Democratic nomination.  I think she has done about as much to earn it as anyone ever does.  I have admired Senator Clinton for the fact that, unlike other celebrity hopefuls like Jesse Jackson, she put her assets where her mouth was and won a senate seat as a platform to seek the Presidency.  But there are signs, dare I say, that her judgment is not always sound.

She had only token opposition, but Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton still spent more on her re-election — upward of $30 million — than any other candidate for Senate this year. So where did all the money go?

It helped Mrs. Clinton win a margin of victory of more than 30 points. It helped her build a new set of campaign contributors. And it allowed her to begin assembling the nuts and bolts needed to run a presidential campaign.

But that was not all. Mrs. Clinton also bought more than $13,000 worth of flowers, mostly for fund-raising events and as thank-yous for donors. She laid out $27,000 for valet parking, paid as much as $800 in a single month in credit card interest and — above all — paid tens of thousands of dollars a month to an assortment of consultants and aides.

Throw in $17 million in advertising and fund-raising mailings, and what had been one of the most formidable war chests in politics was depleted to a level that leaves Mrs. Clinton with little financial advantage over her potential rivals for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination — and perhaps even trailing some of them.

Spending more money than any other candidate on a safe Senate seat, well, it does make one wonder.  Apparently, this is all the buzz among Democratic circles.

Democratic Crack-Up 2

There is one advantage to losing an election: one's own party immediately becomes a smaller target, and the winners a bigger one.  Early evidence suggests that this will be more fun for Republicans than it was for Democrats in similar circumstances.  Republicans in Congress ultimately overplayed their hand after 1994, but at least at first they maintained an awesome discipline.  So far the Democrats, to put it mildly, have not. 

We have noted how soon-to-be Speaker Pelosi has set her caucus against itself with her unsuccessful bid to replace heir-apparent Steny Hoyer with John Murtha for majority leader.  This was doubly unfortunate, as it undercut the two winning issues that put the Democrats in charge of Capitol Hill.  Iraq was issue number one.  Whatever one thinks of Murtha's position on Iraq (get out now), at least he has a position.  Murtha's sound defeat seriously reduces the risk that the Democrats will adopt a policy of their own. 

Issue number two was corruption.  Murtha was named as an "unindicted co-conspirator" in the ABSCAM sting, the most serious Congressional scandal in recent decades.  He has been known all along as a Congressman with whom one could do business. 

Then of course there is Alcee Hastings, whom Pelosi wants to put in as Chair of the House Intelligence Committee, over Jane Harman who is in line for the job and very well-qualified.  What sort of fellow is Hastings?  Here is Byron York's report, from National Review:

William Borders was a prominent Washington, D.C. lawyer when, in 1981, he was charged with conspiring with his good friend, federal judge Alcee Hastings, to solicit bribes from defendants seeking lenient treatment in Hastings’s courtroom. Hastings was charged, too, though the men were tried separately. When it was all over, Borders was convicted, disbarred, and sentenced to five years in jail. Hastings was acquitted, but later impeached and removed from office.

By advancing Murtha and Hastings, Pelosi wrecked any chance that the incoming Democratic majority would be seen as a reform movement.  Instead, it looks like business as usual in the worst sense.  Moreover, the Hastings matter has a Clinton connection, which is not exactly what Ms. Clinton might want to see in the press.  William Borders, mentioned above, had a powerful friend.

At various times over the years, Borders has tried to have his license to practice law in the District of Columbia restored. But his episodes of contempt, in addition to his original conviction for bribery, led the legal bodies involved to conclude that, even though he had done his time, he did not feel remorse for his actions nor a respect for the law under which he was punished. He remains disbarred today.

None of that, however, stopped President Bill Clinton from granting Borders a full and unconditional pardon as part of the flurry of controversial pardons Clinton issued during his last hours in office. The pardon documents listed Borders’s crime this way: “Conspiracy to corruptly solicit and accept money in return for influencing the official acts of a federal district court judge (Alcee L. Hastings), and to defraud the United States in connection with the performance of lawful government functions; corruptly influencing, obstructing, impeding and endeavoring to influence, obstruct and impede the due administration of justice, and aiding and abetting therein; traveling interstate with intent to commit bribery.”

Whatever the new Democrats are about, it isn't cleaning up Congress.

Sheikhs on a Plane

James Tarranto of the Wall Street Journal scooped me by a bit on that headline, but I am using it anyway.  From USAToday:

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Council on American-Islamic Relations called Tuesday for an investigation into the behavior of airline staff and airport security in the removal of six Muslim scholars from a US Airways flight a day earlier.

A passenger raised concerns about the imams — three of whom said their normal evening prayers in the airport terminal before boarding the Phoenix-bound plane, according to one — through a note passed to a flight attendant, according to Andrea Rader, a spokeswoman for US Airways.

"We are concerned that crewmembers, passengers and security personnel may have succumbed to fear and prejudice based on stereotyping of Muslims and Islam," Nihad Awad, the council's executive director, said in a news release.

The six were returning from a conference in Minneapolis of the North American Imams Federation, said Omar Shahin of Phoenix, president of the group.

"They took us off the plane, humiliated us in a very disrespectful way," Shahin said after the incident.

This story represents a set of disjointed generalizations.  On the one hand, the vast majority of Muslims neither condone nor participate in terrorist acts, and so represent no threat to anybody.  Here are the results of a Pew poll:

On the other hand,  almost all those who support or condone terrorist acts are Muslim.  It is neither possible nor wise to ignore this when making security decisions at airports. 

Top Influential Americans

The Atlantic Monthly, consulting ten historians, has a list of the top 100 most influential figures in American history.  I'm somewhat suspicious of any list that doesn't include James Madison (the father of the Constitution) in the top 10.  And I have serious misgivings about Woodrow Wilson being ranked so highly, primarily because of his stance on Latin America (he called for self-determination in Europe, but didn't extended the same to our southern neighbors, where he interfered in their politics half a dozen times).  But overall it's a good list, and even better that they included Mark Twain and Louis Armstrong.  Here's their top 10:

1 Abraham Lincoln
He saved the Union, freed the slaves, and presided over America’s second founding.

2 George Washington
He made the United States possible—not only by defeating a king, but by declining to become one himself.

3 Thomas Jefferson
The author of the five most important words in American history: “All men are created equal.”

4 Franklin Delano Roosevelt
He said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” and then he proved it.

5 Alexander Hamilton
Soldier, banker, and political scientist, he set in motion an agrarian nation’s transformation into an industrial power.

6 Benjamin Franklin
The Founder-of-all-trades— scientist, printer, writer, diplomat, inventor, and more; like his country, he contained multitudes.

7 John Marshall
The defining chief justice, he established the Supreme Court as the equal of the other two federal branches.

8 Martin Luther King Jr.
His dream of racial equality is still elusive, but no one did more to make it real.

9 Thomas Edison
It wasn’t just the lightbulb; the Wizard of Menlo Park was the most prolific inventor in American history.

10 Woodrow Wilson
He made the world safe for U.S. interventionism, if not for democracy.

The Argus Monopoly Problem

In SDWC's note about the Argus Leader yesterday, a commentator wrote:

I grow more appalled and sickened by the Argus Leader every day. Their preaching and sense of moral superiority and arrogance has long-since passed the point of outrageous. While constantly blabbing on about what they see as corruption and claiming to look out for the little man and also smearing our good governor, the Argus Leader (a subsidiary of Gannett Corporation) which makes tons of money as a near-monopoly, is ACTUALLY TRYING TO CRUSH ITS COMPETITORS!! Who is going to expose this outrage? Who will do news stories about this? Nobody, people, because the media protects their own. Their dirty secrets will remain buried.

See here for more on the Argus monopoly problem.  We've also written about the Argus's attempt at quashing competition before, so the commentator quoted above is correct that the Argus participates in anti-competitive behavior.

This also leads to a larger question of why more political news isn't covered given the profitability of the paper.  First, a few qualifiers:  It's obvious that a lot of stories aren't covered.  We receive good stories via email quite often, but we can't always address them in a formal sense even though they deserve attention.  Second, remember that editors, as economic theory suggests, are constrained by choice.  The editorial choices made by the Argus Leader, which has the most resources for covering news in the state and from which many small town dailies and weeklies take their news (call it the Argus ripple effect), are extremely consequential.  Nevertheless, the biggest criticism of the paper is it's lack of balanced political reporting.  They've been facing falling subscription rates and the format changes were an attempt to curb that.  Unfortunately, that hasn't worked.  The paper likes to publish editorials from each side, one praising and the other criticizing the "new" Argus.  However, I'm hearing that the ratio is more like 100 to 1 against the changes.  For instance, one group upset are teachers, who would clip national and international news from the paper use in class for discussions.  But the editors at the Argus have missed the point.  If they want real progress, they would adopt reforms and create a better product.  Participating in anti-competitive behavior, attacking Governor Rounds, and ignoring criticism (blog or otherwise) won't help their situation.  I think it's time for some Argus competition, an idea that's been floated before.

Argus Leader

Earlier this week, Argus Leader executive editor Randell Beck went after Governor Rounds' "draconian" restrictions on state travel and the Argus editorial board also wrote an editorial attacking the governor.  Vernon VanDerhule writes in to point out what the Argus got wrong:

The Argus Leader editorial "Let it rest, governor," is just flat wrong. Referring to hardworking state employees, the Argus Leader states, "This new law doesn't affect them at all, unless they use state aircraft."

If you read only the attorney general's ballot explanation, or Reynold Nesiba's ballot explanation, I can see how the Argus Leader came to the conclusion. But if the Argus Leader would have taken time to read the full text of the initiative, it would find something completely different.

Nesiba's initiative did not create a new section of state law. It amended an existing section that clearly applies to all state employees and all state vehicles. Nesiba added a paragraph on state aircraft that is more restrictive than on other state vehicles. Then he added additional language to the existing penalty for violation of the section. Behind the existing language, "A violation of this section is a Class 2 misdemeanor," Nesiba added the following:

"The violator is also subject to a civil action by the State of South Dakota in circuit court for the recovery of a civil penalty of not more than one thousand ($1,000) dollars plus 10 times the cost incurred by the state for misuse of the vehicle. An action for recovery of a civil penalty of compensatory damages shall, upon demand, be tried by a jury."

Note carefully: The new penalty language does not say "aircraft" or "airplane"; it says "vehicle." I have no doubt whatsoever that the new penalty language applies not only to the governor in a state aircraft, but also to the hourly paid state employee driving a snowplow.

Had the Argus Leader taken the time to read the full text of the new law, the Argus Leader would have known this. The Argus Leader should know better.

Indeed.

The Last Full Measure

Alan Guelzo shows why he is the best historian of Abraham Lincoln today.  This is a must read.

The turn of the 9/11 ceremonies to the Gettysburg Address was instinctively correct. But Lincoln's words are more than just a tonic for crises. Self-restraint, self-enforcement and the recollection that democracy has a transcendent core arching far above our poor power to add or detract--these are the stuff of democratic life, and the Gettysburg Address is the reminder of Lincoln's prescription for government of the people, by the people and for the people. If we forget it, it may be because we have forgotten all the other things that democracy demands.  

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving

From President Bush's Thanksgiving proclamation:

At this time of great promise for America, we are grateful for the freedoms guaranteed by our Constitution and defended by our Armed Forces throughout the generations.  Today, many of these courageous men and women are securing our peace in places far from home, and we pay tribute to them and to their families for their service, sacrifice, and strength.  We also honor the families of the fallen and lift them up in our prayers.

Our citizens are privileged to live in the world's freest country, where the hope of the American dream is within the reach of every person.  Americans share a desire to answer the universal call to serve something greater than ourselves, and we see this spirit every day in the millions of volunteers throughout our country who bring hope and healing to those in need.  On this Thanksgiving Day, and throughout the year, let us show our gratitude for the blessings of freedom, family, and faith, and may God continue to bless America.

In this weekend of giving thanks, thank fate you live in America and no where else.  Take pause today and reflect on what deserves gratitude in your life.  I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Herseth or Heidepriem for Governor?

David Kranz says Scott Heidepriem and Stephanie Herseth are leading contenders for governor:

Scott Heidepriem’s Nov. 7 state Senate victory and abrupt elevation to Democratic leader status quickly raised him to top contender status on the Democratic Party rolls.

Whether she is agreeing to this or not, a good many Democrats are putting credence in a possible bid for chief executive by U.S. Rep. Stephanie Herseth in 2010. New-found majority status for the U.S. House Democrats might give her a stronger foundation for growing influence in that body, but too many people back home want her to take a look-see.

Most of the high-powered staff surrounding Herseth dismiss the idea as not being an option at this time, but those who push the idea talk about her family history. The governorship is in the Herseth family, and at some point, she will want to travel that avenue, too. Grandfather Ralph Herseth was governor from 1959-61, and her father, Lars Herseth, ran a close but unsuccessful race against George Mickelson in 1986.

Former Sen. George McGovern has long articulated to Democrats the need for this chair to be a priority, saying, “If you don’t have the governorship, you can’t build the party.”

Doubters about a Herseth race in 2010 wonder whether she would be playing gubernatorial cards too soon.

Plain and simple: Don’t rule out a third-generation Herseth for Governor campaign sooner than one would have thought.

If she does vacate the House seat, it is a no-brainer that Brendan Johnson, son of
Sen. Tim Johnson, would have no trouble getting the Democratic nomination and would be a credible candidate from the beginning. The question, though, is whether he is ready to begin his political career.

More thoughts from SDWC.