South Dakota Politics

Wikigate, The Second Act

SDWC: "Wikipedia strikes again. Not Stephanie, but the Argus gets it this time"

Helpful Holiday Tips

I just discovered that if you take two blown light bulbs, hold one in each hand, and then shake them next to your ears, it sounds like sleigh bells and you'll get excited because you think Santa is coming. 

Nihilism, Islam, and Geography

The region referred to as the "Middle East," i.e., between Europe and the Far East, has long been one of those places that produce more history than can be consumed locally.  It is, after all, the birthplace of two of the world's great evangelical religions: Christianity and Islam (the other being Buddhism).  It is also the birthplace of civilization.  Jared Diamond's marvelous book Guns, Germs, and Steel, provides at least part of the explanation for the last fact.  Animals and crops can be exported east and west more easily than north and south, due to climate.  The fertile crescent turned out to be the ideal place to gather the greatest collection of herd animals and cultivated crops that powered the rise of the first cities. 

Another reason the Middle East ties so much history together is that it is the crossroads between three of the world's most important regions: Europe, East Asia, and Africa.  It is no accident that this folding of continents should create a lot of pockets for oil to collect in. 

It is Islam, as much as oil, that explains the contemporary importance of the region.  Islam has come to be a womb of nihilistic violence that represents the single most serious threat to modern civilization.  This is evident enough in Iraq.  It is evident also in this weeks most newsworthy political murder.  From Time.Com:

The streets of Beirut filled with cars fleeing the city as soon as news spread that one of Lebanon's most prominent Christian politicians, Pierre Gemayel, had been assassinated in the capital. The killing of his uncle, President Bashir Gemayel, in 1982, marked the beginning of a particularly bloody chapter in Lebanon's 15-year Civil War. And the fear now spreading through the country is that this latest attack could usher in a similar period of heightened violence.

Just right now, the birthplace of civilization is a very uncivilized place.  Only a few months ago I was far more hopeful that the Middle East might be about to follow the path of India and Japan.  Now I have to ask whether a Saddam Hussein, who knew how to skewer all the right people on meat hooks in basements, might not be the best that Lebanon or Iraq can hope for.  That is a very bleak thought.  But it is hard to avoid thinking it. 

Professor Newquist and Myself on Jazz Stores

Professor David Newquist sent this kind note after I identified Lester Young as the sax player in the photo challenge he posted.  I did not identify the man standing next to The Prez, though my wife recognized him.  David fills us in.

The man singing, more likely vocalizing a riff, is Count Basie.  That goes far back into the 1930s. 

Whenever I visit my daughter in Denver, I haunt a used CD shop within walking distance of her house.  I found a CD The Prez made in a Washington, D.C., club shortly after he returned from his lengthy sojourn in Paris in the mid-1950s.  When he was sober, which he must have been for that recording, he was the master. 

By the way, I also found a CD of Bill Evans and Stan Getz with multiple takes  on “Night and Day,” “My Heart Stood Still,” “Grandfather’s Waltz,”  among others. Alvin Jones plays some of the best drums in jazz.  This from someone who took his first trumpet lessons in Louis Belson’s dad’s music store.

dln

On the topic of Jazz music stores, I chanced upon one in Chicago last April.  It was the Jazz Record Mart.  You can shop using that link.  It is almost certainly the best jazz store I have ever seen.  Professor Schaff and I wandering into it while we were searching for a place to eat off of Michigan Avenue.

I don't know the Bill Evans/Stan Getz cd that David mentions, but I have other works by both artists.  I seem to remember a friend of mine in grad school telling me that she lived next to Stan Getz, and once saw him in his pajamas.  Wow.  As for Bill Evans, seen above, I was first introduced to modern jazz by Mead Harwell, an English professor of mine back at Arkansas State University.  Professor Harwell also introduced me to good wine.  He was a big fan of Bill Evans, and I have been so ever since I heard Evan's piano in Professor Harwell's apartment.  No one can squeeze more nectar out of a melody than he could, and I regard him as one of the greatest jazz keyboard players of his generation.

Franken Entering Minnesota Senate Race?

Comedian Al Franken was on "Lou Dobbs Tonight" and was asked about the Minnesota senate race:

Franken: "I don't know. Actually, we're deciding, I think, this weekend, the family, my family."
CNN's Dobbs: "OK, I'll give you the number, and I want you to let me know immediately."
Franken: "I think if I tell someone, it might be somebody in Minnesota" (CNN, 11/20).

Franken is leaving Air America Radio later this year.  He's always been a strong supporter of Democratic Senator Paul Wellstone, who was killed in a plane crash shortly before the 2002 elections.  Franken has been considering a move back to his home state of Minnesota for quite a while now, supposedly to run for the Senate seat held by Wellstone's successor Norm Coleman in the 2008 elections.

Pine Ridge

Bill Harlan is discussing the "political and institutional chaos on Pine Ridge" over at Mt. Blogmore.

Mark Johnston Resigning

Governor Rounds has announced that Press Secretary Mark Johnston is leaving his post on December 15th.

Johnson Not Committed to Daschle for POTUS?

From today's edition of National Journal's Hotline:

SOUTH DAKOTA: Johnson Not Committed To Daschle?

Sioux Falls Argus Leader's Kranz writes, "Some prominent" SDans "are ready to cast their lot for who should run" for the pres. primaries. Sen. Tim Johnson (D) "is leaning toward" Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), who he believes would "truly be a uniter, not a divider." Johnson: "While I'm not ready to formally endorse him yet, at this point I do believe that Obama would by my party's strongest nominee for President. ...I am intrigued by his possible candidacy." Rep. Stephanie Herseth (D) makes no firm commitments "but she says she will likely back" ex-Sen. Tom Daschle (D), if he decides to run. If not, she said she would consider ex-Sen. John Edwards.

Sen. John Thune (R) was expected to back outgoing Sen. George Allen (R-VA), who worked hard to get Thune into the Senate race in '04. But since Allen "imploded his presidential prospects," the "betting is that Thune will go with" Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), who "has been tossing Thune's name around in campaign stops as one of the party's bright young leaders."

Ex-Gov. Harvey Wollman (D) "says he is not looking for a rock star politician" and believes that Sen. Hillary Clinton is "unelectable" while Sen. Barack Obama has some growing to do. Wollman: "The person we need has to be very intelligent and have a world view and be experienced. Al Gore was really elected in the first race against Bush and deserves another chance." Daschle is in the "too early to commit" stage, especially since he "remains in the thought process stage of his own presidential candidacy." But as Obama "absorbs many" of Daschle's valued ex-staffers, "the possibility of a Daschle candidacy seems to diminish" and "the guess here is that he would go with Clinton or Obama" (11/20).

Michigan

John Fund tackles Michigan's ban on affirmative action in the W$J Opinion Journal in an article entitled "Preferences Forever?  The University of Michigan's president does her best George Wallace impersonation."

Worst Newspaper in the Nation

PowerLine is polling readers on the worst newspaper in the nation.  The Argus Leader could certainly make the list with it's liberal dogma and poorly-conceived redesign.

New Blog

PP and SDWC and Todd Epp at SD Watch have started a new blog called "Left Dakota Right Dakota South Dakota."  Be sure to check it out.  Their first topic is whether or not special interests have taken over South Dakota political parties. 

Rounds v. Argus, and Quote of the Day

South Dakota War College applauds Governor Rounds for stiffing the Argus Leader:

I mean, if it's escaped anyone's notice, at times the Argus has gone past objective investigative reporting on state issues of concern and especially in the case of editor Randall Beck's many editorial columns snidely bashing the Governor, they have a tendency to alternately be mean spirited diatribes or scoldings.

No one is expecting hearts and flowers all the time (it is the media, and it's expected that sometimes we don't like what we hear) but often the nasty tone has gone beyond what anyone would consider "South Dakota."

Think of it this way. If I go past the ice cream store, and the owner spits at me all winter, should he have a basis to complain when I prefer to buy my ice cream from the Schwan's man instead? I think not.

A commenter provides the quote of the day: "Politicians come and go, but why can't we throw the bums out of the Argus Leader newsroom?"

Michigan and Affirmative Action

Stuart Taylor of the National Journal writes about Michigan's ban on affirmative action in "Michigan Voters Defy the Establishment."  Be sure to give it a read.   

Down Syndrome, Again

A reader responds to my post on Down Syndrome:

I found your link to the Down Syndrome article very interesting.  There
is a "quad-screen" test that our obstetrician (otherwise unimpeachably
good) half-heartedly tried to push on [my wife]and me that basically
has not practical purpose unless you want to abort "defective" 
children.

Most of the articles they had us read about this, though, suggested that
you can't eliminate Down Syndrome through eugenicism -- in many cases it
is not inherited, but is caused by damage to the chromosomes that occurs
 due to the particular circumstances of each conception or even random
chance.  A few other related chromosomal disorders are similar.  On the
other hand, eliminating green eyes or a particular skin-color is well
within the real of this "gene-therapy" stuff.  Scary.

The Big Blunder

Much attention is being paid to the possibility that Rep. Alcee Hastings may passover Jane Harman as chair of the House Intelligence Committee when the Democrats take over in January.  I never thought that Nancy Pelosi's backing of John Murtha for Majority Leader over eventual winner Steny Hoyer was that big a blunder.  It was unwise, but understandable.  The Hastings situation is different.  Harman is a well respected and serious Congresswoman, while Hastings is a political hack who was impeached and removed from his federal judgeship over serious allegations of corruption.  Byron York reports that many Democrats who voted to impeach Hastings are still in Congress, including John Conyers, Charles Rangel, Barney Frank, Steny Hoyer and...Nancy Pelosi.  Pelosi will have to explain to us why Hastings is too corrupt to be a federal judge, but is just right to handle important intelligence information.  Good luck. 

Three Cheers for Argus Snub

After being continually trashed by the Argus Leader, Governor Rounds has rightly terminated all contact with the Argus, according to one of the Gannett overlords:

When the election was over, Arnold Garson, publisher in Sioux Falls and vice president for the Gannett Pacific Group, sent an e-mail to me showing both the cost and the payoff of this investigative project.  The e-mail said:

"On the one hand, our tough reporting on the governor's unchecked personal use of state airplanes was one of two news projects that have cost us having any kind of relationship with the governor. (The other project is our still-ongoing effort, including lawsuit, to obtain the names of persons invited to the state-funded Governor's Pheasant Hunt.) He won't meet with the editorial board for any purpose. He has attempted to shut down our reporters' access to all his state departments. And in his recent re-election campaign, he specifically outed the Argus Leader and its weeklies from the political advertising buys his campaign staff placed in every other daily and weekly newspaper in the state. I figure that cost us about $50,000. . . ."

The Argus has a history of Republican-bashing, so it's little wonder why Governor Rounds refuses to speak with them.

Leader of "Blue Dogs" in House Says Dems Are "fractured"

From today's edition of Roll Call:

Newly elected House Democratic leaders vowed to quickly reunify their Caucus in the wake of a bitter leadership contest last week, but offered few details and left some rank-and-file Members questioning how the party will mend its divisions as it prepares to take control of the chamber in the 110th Congress.

“We’ve had our debates. We’ve had our disagreements in that room, but now that is over,” Speaker-designate Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) said Thursday following a closed-door meeting at which Democrats elected Rep. Steny Hoyer (Md.) to be Majority Leader, defeating Pelosi’s close ally and preferred candidate, Rep. John Murtha (Pa.).

But at least a few Democratic lawmakers remained angry Thursday over allegedly heavy-handed tactics employed by Murtha supporters in the contest, and others publicly suggested that House leaders could have a difficult time alleviating any lingering bruises.

“I think the Caucus is fractured,” Rep. Allen Boyd (Fla.), who will be a co-chairman of the Democratic Blue Dog Coalition in the 110th Congress, said Thursday, adding, Pelosi’s “biggest challenge is figuring out how to wrap her arms around all the Caucus.”

Local political cartoonist Jason Folkerts also has a fitting cartoon:  "What we know is that she [Rep. Herseth] is a self proclaimed blue dog democrat (meaning: the very liberal Pelosi team/agenda is going to keep her on a short leash when it comes to commonsense legislation)."

Who'll Play Morgan Freeman?

Here's a news story about killer asteroids.  I am not worried because most people find that a little Preparation H remedies killer asteroids. 

Democratic Crack-Up 1

As soon as any new party takes over Congress, or the White House, it is customary to announce impending signs of failure.  Fortunately, as Professor Schaff noted, Nancy Pelosi made it easy.  From the AP by way of the American News:

WASHINGTON - Democrats embraced Rep. Nancy Pelosi as the first woman House speaker in history on Thursday, then quickly snubbed her, selecting Steny Hoyer of Maryland as majority leader against her wishes.

"Let the healing begin," Pelosi, D-Calif., said after Hoyer had eased past her preferred candidate, Rep. John Murtha, a prominent opponent of the war in Iraq. The secret-ballot vote for Hoyer was 149-86. She was chosen by acclamation.

Now Hoyer didn't exactly "ease past" Murtha.  He blew past him.  This was a very stupid move by Pelosi.  It raises serious questions about her leadership and judgment right off the bat, and means that she must now work with a second in command whom she tried to torpedo.  Here is how Howard Fineman puts it:

If Speaker-to-be Pelosi is going to succeed as Speaker of the House, she had better learn—fast—from the fiasco known as the Hoyer-Murtha Race. She violated every conceivable rule of Boss-like behavior: she lost, she lost publicly, she lost after issuing useless and unenforceable threats to people she barely had met, knowing (or having reason to know) that they would tell the world about her unsuccessful arm-twisting. And she lost big: by 149 to 86 votes.

It's worse than that, at least in the short run.  Dena Bunis, of the Orange County Register (hat tip to Kausfiles), has this:

Inside the room where the election was being held, there were boxes for members to drop their secret ballots. Pelosi and her crew watched as people voted. Some members actually brought fellow lawmakers with them when they marked their ballots so they could prove to Pelosi that they did vote for Murtha. And because the Murtha vote ended up being so small, the Pelosi forces can count almost down to the last ballot who voted for Murtha and who for Hoyer.

So Pelosi has split the new House Majority Caucus into two sides, each with a reason to be suspicious of one another.  Good work, considering that she is not quite Speaker yet. 

History Carnival

The forty-third installment of the History Carnival is up at Axis of Evel Knievel.

Costner Trying to Annex Eight Acres Near Deadwood

Rapid City Journal:

Actor Kevin Costner has asked the city of Deadwood to annex 8 acres so he can build a housing development.

The project lies on 160 acres along U.S. Highway 14A above the Lead-Deadwood Sanitation plant.

Preliminary plans call for 88 single-family houses and 72 townhouse units.

The homes will be middle- to higher-end homes, and the owners will have to abide by covenants, according to Costner's attorney, Mike Reynolds of Rapid City.

Oh, Brave New World!

I recently blogged about the use of pre-natal testing as a means to eliminate those who do not fit our preconceived ideas of perfection.  I mentioned that over 90% of all Down Syndrome babies are aborted.  Peter Lawler directs us to this piece that argues that, with the regular use of pre-natal based eugenics, we are successfully (if one can put it that way) eliminating Down Syndrome by aborting all those who bear the genetic defect.  Interestingly, the piece argues that 20-40% of all tests for Down Syndrome are incorrect.  Some of the rhetoric of this piece is overheated (I think we can just leave all Nazi rhetoric at the door), but it is thought provoking. 

Blogging from Philadelphia

During this year's meeting of the National Collegiate Honors Council in Philadelphia, all the participants were bussed out to the National Constitution Center.  There is an impressive multi-media show at the new center, but the real star of the show is Independence Hall, the old Pennsylvania State House where the Declaration of Independence was signed and the Constitution of the United States drafted.  It is, without a doubt, the most important room in American History. 

Antimilitary Bigotry

Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby comments on efforts to shut down the JROTC program in San Francisco in an editorial entitled "Antimilitary bigotry."  And he quotes one of my favorite authors.  Excerpt:

"IN THE FIRST place God made idiots," observed Mark Twain. "This was for practice. Then he made school boards." The San Francisco Board of Education's 4-2 vote last week to abolish the Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps program, which has been active in the city's high schools for 90 years, tends to support his view.

...

So what  is the problem with JROTC? There isn't one. The problem is with the anti military bigotry of the school board majority and the "peace" activists who lobbied against the program on the grounds that San Francisco's schools should not be sullied by an association with the US armed forces.

"We don't want the military ruining our civilian institutions," said Sandra Schwartz of the American Friends Service Committee, a far-left pacifist organization that routinely condemns American foreign policy and opposes JROTC nationwide. "In a healthy democracy . . . you contain the military." Board member Dan Kelly, who voted with the majority, called JROTC "basically a branding program or a recruiting program for the military." In fact, it is nothing of the kind: The great majority of cadets do not end up serving in the military.

But then, facts tend not to matter to smug ideologues like Schwartz and Kelly, who are free to parade their contempt for the military because they live in a nation that affords such freedom even to idiots and ingrates. It never seems to occur to them that the liberties and security they take for granted would vanish in a heartbeat if it weren't for the young men and women who do choose to wear the uniform, willingly risking life and limb in service to their country.

Argus v. Rounds

Argus Leader editor Randell Beck is going after Governor Rounds again this morning.  We'd love to hear from any state officials on whether or not the limitations Beck speaks of are truly as "draconian" as he says they are.  Count me as somewhat skeptical.  I feel Beck is merely playing up the Rounds-as-draconian-leader meme (especially since the ban on abortion was also considered "draconian").  In either case, Beck clearly despises the governor.

Saddle-gate

When reviewing Page-gate this morning, the Argus Leader also discusses a matter from the 1970s known as "Saddle-gate." Excerpt:

A 1970s incident became known as Saddlegate, when three House members in a party mood helped themselves to a trophy saddle of Casey Tibbs on display in the old Falcon restaurant. They took it to their hotel and took turns riding it, they said. They were embarrassed by the press coverage, but never charged with theft and never punished by their peers.

Jim Fry, director of the Legislative Research Council, said a legislator in the 1970s was investigated to see if he lived in his district when he ran for office. Others were investigated after earning especially narrow victories in elections.

"But in recent memory we don't remember any disciplinary action," Fry said. "In the modern era, current recollection is no one's been expelled."

That precedent can be taken two ways - as a sign the Senate should be lenient or as a mandate to take action to preserve a record that Hoover calls "almost pure."

McGovern

From KELO:

Former South Dakota Senator George McGovern is hopeful that his message of an early withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq is sinking in with members of Congress. McGovern, the former presidential candidate who campaigned against the Vietnam War, is back home following his meeting with U.S. House members in Washington.

McGovern met yesterday with about two-dozen members of the "Congressional Progressive Caucus." With more than sixty-members, it's the single-largest caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives. The group is largely Democrat, like McGovern, himself. But McGovern says he wasn't simply preaching to the choir regarding his stance on Iraq.

George McGovern returned home from his trip to Washington confident that more members of Congress are buying into his early exit strategy for Iraq. "I thought it went very well. They realize that there has to be a change in our policy in Iraq."

McGovern favors a complete withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq by next June. That early deadline drew questions from the Congressional members who met with McGovern. "Some of them asked what if when we pull out, Iraq just goes into chaos, we said they're in chaos now!"

McGovern says members from both parties want a change in Iraq. "I talked to some Republicans who are more than anxious to support a move to terminate our involvement there."

It won't be long before McGovern is back at the airport for another flight to Washington. He's been invited to speak again to members of Congress about his proposals. He'll return in January, hopeful that in the meantime lawmakers will give serious consideration to Iraq policy. "I think there will be all kinds of discussions in committee on the senate and house floors, in their homes, that's all anybody seems to be talking about when we were there."

McGovern's meeting was going on at the same time as the election for the leadership positions in the U.S. House. McGovern says members kept filing in and out of the meeting to in order to cast their votes.

Chris Muir:

Alcee Hastings

Sioux Falls blogger Jay Reding reports that Rep. Jane Harman is taking heat from left-wing bloggers for running against Judge Alcee Hastings, who wants to become chair of the House Intelligence Committee and who was impeached on bribery charges and removed from office in 1981.  We still have no word on whether Rep. Herseth supports Hastings or not.

Glenn Reynolds reports that opponents of Harman are spreading rumors about her and agrees with Reding: "I'll just note that, true or not, the Democrats don't seem to have waited long before descending into circular-firing-squad mode."

Nelson Shanks

Utterly by chance I wondered today into an exhibition of paintings by Nelson Shanks, at the Union Club in Philadelphia.  He is an amazingly gifted artist.  I bet the art world hates him, as he knows how to actually draw and paint a picture of something.  Here is a sample.

That's about as racy as SDP gets.  Here's one for Professor Schaff:

And here's one of the Gipper:

Bear in mind that these are paintings, not photos. No photo could ever be so true to what truly is.

Dr. Newquist gives me another shot

Professor David Newquist graciously gives me another chance to identify a jazz photo.  Here is his puzzler:

The sax player is Lester Young.  Here is another shot, with the same Pork Pie Hat:

Perhaps my single favorite jazz composition is Good Bye Pork Pie Hat, by Charlie Mingus.  If you scroll back through the archives of Straight No Chaser, you can find an entire program devoted to different versions of the song.  "

When Charlie speaks of Lester,
you know someone great has gone.
That sweetest, swinging music man
Had a Porky Pig Hat on.

Those are words written and sung by Joni Mitchell on her album, Mingus. 

ps.  My knowledge of jazz is in fact rather narrow.  I don't know who the singer is (Professor Newquist indicated it was a clue to the time period).  And I do not know the work of Lester Young.  I look forward to it. 

Randy Frederick Stepping Down

Argus Leader:

Randy Frederick has decided against seeking another term as chairman of the South Dakota Republican Party.

Frederick, a Hayti farmer, said today his term ends in February. He won’t seek another term, and it will be up to the state party central committee to choose a new chair at that time, he said.

“When I ran for the position four years ago, I promised (Republican Gov.) Mike Rounds four years,’’ Frederick said. “I can’t promise him another four years as state party chair and it doesn’t make any sense to promise him two, to sign on for another two. And the next two years, coming up to ’08, I can probably be of more service to him outside the chairmanship rather than inside.’’

SDWC was ahead of the Argus Leader by several hours reporting this news.  Great work, PP!

Tim Johnson

From Washington Post blogger Chris Cillizza, who is writing about the 2008 Senate races:

South Dakota -- Tim Johnson (D): It's hard to imagine Republicans finding a stronger challenger than Thune to try and topple Johnson. Johnson's 2002 victory -- albeit it by the narrowest of margins -- proved his appeal in the state. In many ways Johnson's low-key demeanor is a more natural fit for the state than the more charismatic and high-profile leadership of Sen. Tom Daschle (D), who was ousted by Thune in 2004. The one obvious Republican candidate would be Gov. Mike Rounds, who was easily reelected to a second term last week. He will likely be heavily recruited to consider a challenge to Johnson -- especially since the state gave President Bush 60 percent of its vote in 2004. Rumors that Johnson may retire persist -- fueled by his marginal $651,000 cash-on-hand total.

David Newquist and I agree on something!

Professor Newquist had a challenge on his website: indentify the following picture. 

He promised an Al Sharpton campaign button to the winner. Unfortunately he revealed the winner himself before I had a chance to claim the prize.  Its a distorted version of this excellent photo.

Here is Professor Newquist's comment:

Those who tried to identify the man in the photo will have to go farther back than the Blues Brothers. It's Coleman Hawkins. Tenor sax. Incredible man whose playing made the world worth living in for many.

I'm with David on this one.  One of my favorite Jazz disks is Bean Bags, a collaboration between Hawkins and Milt Jackson.  The opening cut, "Close Your Eyes," is a good as Jazz gets.  And that is about as good as music gets.  I suppose it's out of the question to ask for my Sharpton button?

Milton Friedman

Professor Schaff notes below the passing of Milton Friedman.  I have been out of touch while in Philadelphia, as my hotel charges for wireless internet (unlike the Mahogany), so I learning of this sorrow from John.

I had the pleasure of meeting Friedman many years ago in San Francisco.  It was a meeting of the Philadelphia Society.  Friedman was very short.  I am pretty sure I had him by a couple of inches.  But he was one of the most clear minded and consistently right economists in the history of that discipline.  I remember that Friedman opened his public talk with a good joke.

What do you get when you cross a pig with Congress?

Answer: nothing.  There are some things even a pig won't do. 

Friedman brought economics as close to a real science as it can get.  Everything has to be paid for.  What you spend on one thing can't be spent on something else.  If you pay for genius and innovation you will get more of it.  If you tax the same, you will get less.  That is the way his mind worked.  It just happens to be the way the world works.  Godspeed, Mr. Friedman. 

Blogging from Philadelphia

I am coming to you tonight from the City of Brotherly Love, which is hosting the annual meeting of the National Collegiate Honors Council.  More specifically, I am blogging from Mahogany, a wonderful little cigar bar on Walnut Street between 14th and 15th Streets.  The placed is full of businessmen with their top buttons undone and large cigars in their paws.  They have wood paneled lockers where gentlemen keep their private collection of hand rolled beauties.  Roll the music and recite a little Kipling:

Open the old cigar-box, get me a Cuba stout,
For things are running crossways, and Maggie and I are out.

  In between conference business, I have been able to visit the Mutter Museum of Surgery (a chamber of horrors, that one, and the marvelous Philadelphia museum of art).  They have Joseph Mallord William Turner's "Burning of the House of Parliament," as well as a fine collection of Asian art.  Turner is my favorite painter.  The central image in their Japanese temple might be my favorite Buddha statue.  Siddhartha would not have liked it as much as I did.  He insisted he was just a man.  That insistence gave way after about 200 years, and they promoted him to god. 

The founding fathers were just men, too.  Tomorrow we will visit the most important room in American history, at Independence Hall. 

Daschle

Tom Daschle doesn't make ActBlue's list of prospective presidential candidates for 2008.

FFA

New York Times:

INDIANAPOLIS — The number of family farms in America is dwindling, as is the number of young people who say they hope to take over their parents’ farms. So the National FFA Organization, once known as the Future Farmers of America, would seem doomed to a parallel fate.

But a swarm of blue corduroy jackets, not so different from the jackets the Future Farmers wore in the 1930s, seemed to fill every street corner of this city’s downtown in October for the FFA’s national convention, which the group says has grown into the largest annual student gathering in the nation.

The Future Farmers declined precipitously as the country’s farm economy fell into crisis and agriculture classes, like other vocational classes, fell out of favor. But the group, which for nearly 80 years bound together farm youths in the country’s most isolated parts, has swelled by more than 100,000 members over the last decade and a half to almost a half-million this year.

A new face has emerged on this old-fashioned tradition. More FFA members now come from towns, suburbs and city neighborhoods, including Queens and the South Side of Chicago, than from rural farm regions, FFA officials say. The largest chapter in the country? At W. B. Saul High School of Agricultural Sciences in Philadelphia.

Reality 1, Pelosi 0

House Democrats pick Steny Hoyer as their majority leader, proving the membership is much wiser than Nancy Pelosi.  I am very grateful for this occurrence because "Steny Hoyer" is a much funnier name than "John Murtha."  Makes for better jokes in the classroom.  And may Daniel Akaka never leave the Senate.

Freedom's Advocate

Milton Friedman, RIP. 

President Goofy Tooth

Devastating review of Jimmy Carter's new book on the Middle East. 

Kucinich Calls for Cutting Off Iraq War Funds

Congressman Dennis Kucinich, following in the footsteps of George McGovern, is calling for cutting off funding of the Iraq war:

Congressman Kucinich called Wednesday for cutting off funding of the Iraq war, as the surest way out of Iraq. His statements were made in an interview by Democracy Now!'s Amy Goodman.

"I want to say that there's one solution here, and it's not to engage in a debate with the President, who has taken us down a path of disaster in Iraq, but it's for Congress to assume the full power that it has under the Constitution to cut off funds. We don't need to keep indulging in this debate about what to do, because as long as we keep temporizing, the situation gets worse in Iraq.

"We have to determine that the time has come to cut off funds. There's enough money in the pipeline to achieve the orderly withdrawal that Senator McGovern is talking about. But cut off funds, we must. That's the ultimate power of the Congress, the power of the purse. That's how we'll end this war, and that's the only way we're going to end this war.

"We need to shift our direction."

"We have to take a whole new approach. We're spending over $400 billion a year, money that's also needed for healthcare, for education, for job creation, for seniors. We have to take a new look at this. We need to be a strong country, but strength isn't only military. Strength is also the economic strength of the people, their chance to have good neighborhoods. We spend more money than all the countries of the world put together for the military.

"It's time for us to start to shift our vision about who we are as a nation, because if we don't do that -- we're borrowing money right now to wage the war in Iraq. We're borrowing money from China. We're not looking at our trade deficit. We're not looking at conditions, where people are going bankrupt trying to pay their hospital bills. We need to shift our direction, and the direction has to be away from the continued militarization of the United States society."

Better Off Dead?

This news story makes it sound like the Anglican Church in England favors letting disabled babies die if it is too expensive to treat them.  Wesley Smith notes that there is some exaggeration and bad reporting in the news story.  The AC does not endorse infanticide, just the stoppage of life sustaining activity, but Smith does say that suggesting that money should be a consideration as to whether we treat the sick and disabled is not exactly a victory for human dignity. 

This story and this story, both also out of England, discuss the possibility of using genetic test to select out children who do not meet preconceived standards.  We already abort 90% of all Down Syndrome babies.  How about aborting babies because they have the wrong hair color or they are the wrong sex?  Another victory for human dignity.  As the film Gattaca points out, there is no gene for the human spirit?

Meet The New Boss

I like this bit on the new Democratic Congress from Ed Cone, if only for the Pete Townsend reference.  HT, Instapundit. 

Alcee Hastings

In her first major act since the Democrats captured Congress, Nancy Pelosi is set to endorse Alcee Hastings for the House Intelligence Committee instead of supporting current ranking Democrat Jane Harman of California, an act The New Republic calls "both substantively foolish and politically tone-deaf":

In one of her first important acts since Democrats recaptured Congress, Nancy Pelosi is about to make a decision that is both substantively foolish and politically tone-deaf. The decision involves the chairmanship of the House Intelligence Committee. For obvious reasons, that post has serious implications for national security--as well as the image of a Democratic Party seeking to convince the public it can be trusted to govern. But it appears alarmingly likely that Pelosi will spurn both with a decision based on petty personal and identity politics.

The current ranking Democrat on the Intelligence Committee is Jane Harman of California. Harman is one of the most respected Democrats in the House on national security and intelligence issues--a widely acknowledged expert in a field that Democrats as a whole are woefully unfamiliar with. Given her current seniority on the committee, Harman is the natural choice to become its chair in the Democratic Congress--and she has made clear that she wants the job. But all indications are that Pelosi will deny Harman the job and appoint in her place Alcee Hastings of Florida, a former judge who was impeached on bribery charges--and someone who has left no discernable mark upon the critical intelligence debates of the post-September 11 era.

Ordinarily, few people would take Hastings seriously for such an important job. In 1981, Hastings was a federal judge in Miami. He was accused of conspiring with a friend to take a $150,000 bribe in exchange for issuing light sentences to a pair of mobsters. A Miami jury acquitted Hastings (while convicting the friend), but three different federal judicial panels later referred him to Congress for impeachment. "Judge Hastings attempted to corruptly use his office for personal gain. Such conduct cannot be excused or condoned even after Judge Hastings has been acquitted of the criminal charge," concluded one panel, composed of five circuit court judges.

...

In a then-Democratic Congress, Hastings was impeached by the House on a 413-3 vote and convicted by the Senate, 69-26. (Hastings sounded awfully unrepentant afterward: "Everybody thinks that to get to be a judge is supposed to be the biggest doo-doo on earth. It aaaiiiin't! It ain't! It's just something else to do," he explained to The Washington Post in 1988 with a reverence for the judiciary befitting his alleged behavior.) This disgrace didn't prevent Hastings from winning a House seat, in which he has served since 1993 without leaving much of a mark on the institution.

So why does Pelosi want him for the Intelligence Committee job? There are two likely reasons. The first is that Pelosi personally dislikes Harman. In part, Pelosi is annoyed because Harman, unlike Hastings, was initially a strong supporter of the Iraq war (though she has since become a tough critic). Pelosi is also reportedly infuriated by Harman's aggressive lobbying for the job (allegedly with the help of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, an effort that is reportedly being scrutinized as a part of a larger federal investigation of the group). Some also suggest natural tensions exist between two ambitious, sixty-something women in California politics. (Pelosi's office says Harman always understood that her senior position on the Intelligence Committee came with informal term limits. But that argument is badly undermined by the 9/11 Commission's strong recommendation against term limits for senior Intelligence Committee members.)

The second probable factor weighing on Pelosi is racial politics. Some have noted that Hastings might flunk a basic FBI background check for a sensitive government job, making him a curious choice to oversee the nation's most sensitive secrets--particularly for Democrats who campaigned against the GOP's "culture of corruption." So, if Harman is completely unacceptable, why can't Pelosi just choose some third candidate? The answer, most likely, is that Pelosi doesn't want to skip over a black member like Hastings for fear of angering the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC). The CBC has never been shy about protecting its institutional power--even though, with African Americans sure to chair several major committees (Ways and Means, Judiciary, Homeland Security) and the likely ascension of South Carolina's James Clyburn to House majority whip, the CBC is already handsomely represented.

There's ample reason to think that Americans cast a negative vote last week--not so much for Democrats as against Republicans. Over the next two years, voters will be watching to see whether Democrats are up to the responsibility of governing, and doing so with the national interest in mind. If Nancy Pelosi bases her decision about such a critical position on a combination of personal feuding and identity politics, she won't just do Republicans a favor by giving them a readymade bogeyman to attack. She will have shown voters that she's unable to push aside petty institutional politics in the name of the national interest.

What does Rep. Herseth think of her party's new choice to be Chair of the House Intelligence Committee?

UPDATE:  Looking around at the people the two parties are nominating for various leadership posts, I have to agree with Dean Barnett who asks: "Is it just me, or is it becoming increasingly apparent that the Republicans and Democrats are determined to engage in a two year dumb-off?"

Kranz

David Kranz wonders if new Senate leader Scott Heidepriem can save Senator Sutton:

There are other significant transitions.

Most important will be the arrival of Scott Heidepriem, assuming the powerful role of Senate Minority Leader. That looms large in this equation given that Democrat voices have not been particularly effective in recent years.

Heidepriem succeeds Moore and will likely wield substantially greater clout in that job.

Gone, too, will be Senate Majority Leader Eric Bogue, R-Faith, victim of term limits. He will be replaced, not as leader, but as senator from District 28, by Ryan Maher, D-Isabel.

Outspoken new Democrats like state Sen.-elect Nancy Turbak, D-Watertown, will be in the chambers. It is likely that state Sen.-elect Sandy Jerstad, D-Sioux Falls, will be there, too, if she weathers an anticipated re-count.

Democrats will be in place, too, where Republicans used to roam, making this a more friendly environment if and when a new special session - or a proceeding during the regular session - is called to consider allegations against Sutton.

Minnesota

Joe Knippenberg of No Left Turns looks at our eastern neighbors and asks "As Minnesota goes, so goes the nation??":

MOJ blogger (and law professor) Gregory Sisk observes that winning pro-life candidates, who cemented DFL control over the state legislature, appear to be getting short shrift from the liberal leadership of the Democrat-Farmer-Labor party. Here’s the core of his post:

[I]n Minnesota (as in so many other states), Democratic gains in last week’s election, including taking control of the state house of representatives (and increasing a majority in the state senate), came largely in more conservative/moderate suburban districts and often involved Democratic candidates who described themselves as pro-life. As one Democratic pollster described it, the new DFL faces in the legislature tend to be people who “ran away” from the official DFL platform.

So, if Minnesota is the harbinger of the future, how are things looking so far in terms of prospects for a pro-life revival within the Democratic Party?

Well, just one day after the election, the assistant leader of Democrats in the state senate, Senator Ann Rest, pronounced: “We have a pro-choice Senate now.” Then, in a clear dismissal of human life issues as being worthy of any attention in the legislature, Senator Rest asserted that “[n]ow we can concentrate on the issues that bring us together, not the ones that divide us.”

Then, just two days after the election, the DFL in both houses of the Minnesota legislature proceeded to disregard the new blood in the party from the suburbs and rural areas and elect as their new leaders two of the most liberal (and stridently pro-choice) politicians in the state, both from the DFL stronghold of Minneapolis.

Interesting, eh?  Will national Democrats behave the same way?

Sutton Investigation Developments

The Argus Leader reports that state legislators are requesting Governor Rounds cancel the special session to investigation allegations of misconduct by Sen. Dan Sutton.  Mt. Blogmore speculates that the special session could still be alive, in correction to an early report that Rounds agreed to cancel the session.  As my colleague Prof. Schaff noted today, Sutton has resigned his senate seat, which is a strategic move on his part, as SDWC notes.  And our blogosphere colleague Todd Epp says Page-gate "puts a monkey wrench into Scott Heidepriem's first days as senate minority leader."  My opinion is that the special session is a better option because the legislature can focus solely on that issue, rather than dealing with the investigation along with all other legislative details they'll be facing in January. 

Presidential News

Feingold is out.  Guiliani, McCain and Biden, and Vilsak are in.  Granted, these four are only forming exploratory committees.  This does not mean for sure they are running.  I believe Guiliani will not run.  He is essentially a liberal Republican, which is fine, but that means he has about as much chance of winning a the Republican nomination as a pro-life Evangelical has of winning the Democratic nomination.  Let's also not forget that Guiliani has an ex-wife who really hates his guts.  Rudy, I suspect, will decide that a run for the presidency is not worth the public humiliation as his messy divorce is exposed for all to see.  Biden and McCain each have egos big enough to fill the Grand Canyon (Biden is possibly the most pompous windbag in the Senate, which is saying something), but both are also smart and good candidates.  Vilsak's candidacy makes it less likely that Tom Daschle will run.  What has Tom Daschle got that Tom Vilsak hasn't got?  Oh yeah, Vilsak never helped lead his party to electoral defeat, losing his own seat in the process.  I am sorry that Feingold is out, as he is a smart and honest liberal.  He'd be good for the country to see on (or near) center stage.

Getting Better All The Time

A summation of economic stats.  The Dow has set a record high and interest rates will remain stable. The inflation rate has dropped sharply, and not just because of lowering energy prices, while total worker compensation (salary and benefits) is up.  The unemployment rate is a giddy 4.4% according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Wal-Mart, good overall barometer of consumer spending, is reporting high profits and is looking forward to a very merry Christmas season.  Boy, that Bush is wrecking the economy.  Let's raise taxes. 

Brief, And To The Point

This is one of the best and shortest book reviews I have seen.  John Podhoretz reviews Andrew Sullivan's book on the "conservative soul." 

This Is a Review of Andrew Sullivan's Book [John Podhoretz]
I couldn't finish it because I was bored out of my mind. And I read every word of Gravity's Rainbow.
Now, based on his habit of responding to critics with restatements of his themes running to many multiples of the original words of criticism, I calculate Andrew's response to this post will run roughly the length of Kant's Critique of Pure Reason. Only not as funny.