South Dakota Politics

Fire Thunder

Cecelia Fire Thunder, who was impeached earlier this year by the Oglala Sioux Tribal Council, had some rather bizarre comments yesterday at a conference for Abortion with Healthy Families:

RAPID CITY- Cecelia Fire Thunder the impeached former President of the Pine Ridge Reservation holds press conference in support of Abortion with Healthy Families.

Cecelia filled the room with her voice of hatred toward men, Christianity and unborn babies. "Gov. Rounds acted as a Catholic not a Governor when he signed HB1215; he should be impeached," said Fire Thunder.  She went on to state "I alone can create life;" "If you grow up speaking Lakota you don't need the Bible;" and "Christians are 99% to blame for the problems on the reservations with women." Cecelia also said in her remarks, pregnancy in violence is not sacred, and our god would not want that pregnancy.

Lisa Cook, a Rapid City lawyer, inferred that the Council in Pine Ridge was paid to ban Abortion by saying during her remarks there is, "Monetary compensation to Indians and Tribal Leaders to jump on the Christian bandwagon to ban abortion."  She also went on to say in closing, "It is not God, Church, husband, boyfriend, or man's decision, it is the woman's decision," to end life.

Bruce Whalen, Republican Candidate for U.S. Congress, had this to say in response, "Ms. Fire Thunder's distortion of reality does nothing for me but evoke a very limited amount of pity toward her. The governing Council of the Oglala Sioux Tribe rejected Ms. Fire Thunder's worldview, as do I."

"Cecelia is on the board of the Democrat Party and an organizer of the Unhealthy Families Campaign.  The Democrat Party supports Ms. Herseth and from her recent conference call, she is very, very involved with Planned Parenthood and the Unhealthy Families Campaign.  Ms. Herseth must explain to South Dakota if she supports Cecelia and the statements she made today," said Whalen.

Saddam Verdict

We're expecting the verdict tomorrow for Saddam's genocide trial.  Iraqi forces are preparing themselves for whatever happens, and coalition forces will be a big part of keeping order in Iraq.  It will be an interesting week: first the Saddam verdict, then the elections on Tuesday.

In related Iraq news, Ralph Peters of USA Today says that "Iraq was never our Vietnam. It's al-Qaeda's Vietnam."  My good friend Dan of tdaxp has thoughts related to Peters' revelation.

History Blogging

Xeni Jardin receives a story from a reader regarding some very cool historical documents from two world wars.

HT to Insty.

Herseth Leading in Polls

The Argus Leader reports this morning that Stephanie Herseth maintains a wide lead over Bruce Whalen.  No surprise, really.  Whalen's name hasn't gotten a lot of recognition and Republicans seem to have done little to help him campaign against Herseth.  Plus, Herseth's "blue dog Democrat" status wins a lot of people over.  Argus Leader excerpt:

It appears Rep. Stephanie Herseth does not have a handle Bruce Whalen can exploit, and Whalen's resonance with voters hasn't been nearly powerful enough for him to compete without one.

In a poll conducted Oct. 24-26 by Mason-Dixon Polling Research for the Argus Leader, among 800 registered voters from across South Dakota who were contacted, 66 percent said if the election for the U.S. House were held today, they would vote for Herseth, a Democrat. Twenty-six percent said they would vote for Whalen, her Republican challenger. Eight percent remained undecided. The poll has a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.

The numbers virtually mirror a similar poll taken July 24-26. Then, 60 percent of respondents backed Herseth, 26 percent Whalen, and 14 percent were undecided.

Verasun

Argus Leader:

VeraSun Energy Corp., the nation's second-largest ethanol producer, said Friday it plans to produce biodiesel, a clean-burning renewable fuel, from oil extracted from distillers grains, a co-product of the ethanol production process.

Brookings-based VeraSun, whose flagship ethanol plant is near Aurora, would be the first U.S. company to develop a large-scale, commercial facility for biodiesel production from a co-product of the ethanol production process. It would create two biofuels from the same feedstock, company officials said.

Removing the oil from distillers grains both increases the value of the oil for fuel use and enhances the resulting distillers grains as a livestock feed by concentrating protein and reducing fat content, said Don Endres, chairman of VeraSun, which went public earlier this year.

Vision-gate

I've been remiss to point out another scandal that SDWC is calling "Visiongate."  I'll simply point you to his posts, because I cannot improve nor do I want to risk summarizing the excellent investigative reporting he's doing:

SDWC:  Breaking News: Vision South Dakota Files Report. Citizens for Open and Honest Government mystery deepens
SDWC:  Breaking News: More discrepancies on Vision South Dakota Financial Report
SDWC:  Did anyone besides me notice this...

Here's the best summary of events from a reader trying to connect all the dots, also from SDWC:

(Click to enlarge)

Election Heat: Spinning Ragnorok

Ragnarok, for those who didn't read Thor comic books in the 1970's, refers to the last doomed battle of the Norse Gods against their enemies, the giants, Loki and his monstrous children, and Nancy Pelosi.  What is coming Tuesday won't exactly match that image, but it does promise to be the largest movement of seats since 1994.  No doubt Odin, the king of the Norse gods, has his own Karl Rove ready to get every last hero and demi-god to the polls, and probably he has his own spin masters as well.  I have been keeping an eye on the spin for both sides, and here is a sample.

The most common sort of spin involves comparison: yeah, we are going to lose, but, hey, you would have expected us to lose worse!  When a President is in the middle of his second term, the average loss for his party is about 39 seats in the House.  Right now almost nobody is predicting Republican losses of that magnitude.  If the Republicans only lose, say, 25 seats, that's 13 better than the point spread!  That piece of spin work is subject to two qualifications, one negative and one positive.  On the one hand, computer powered gerrymandering has made large shifts in the House much more difficult than in the past.  On the other hand, the GOP is laboring under much greater difficulties than usual: Iraq, low approval for President Bush, and scandals that put at risk seats like that of Rep. Foley's, that would normally be safe Republican wins. 

A good piece of counter-spin was introduced by celebrity political scientist Larry Sabato.

Just how Democratic a year is 2006?  Five days out, let's rephrase the question this way: when's the last time a major political party has failed to capture a single House seat, Senate seat, or governorship of the opposing party in a federal election year?

We bet it's never happened before, and it certainly hasn't happened in the post-World War II era. After all, even when a party suffers miserable net losses, it usually picks up at least several consolation prizes in the form of open seat pickups or an against-the-tide incumbent defeat.

Yet look at our 2006 predictions: at this moment, the Crystal Ball cannot identify a single election for Senate, House or Governor in which a Republican is likely to succeed a Democrat in office. Just imagine how devastating an absolute shutout would be in the eyes of history if this proves to be true!

Well, it wouldn't be all that devastating, as it is the kind of thing that only a political nerd would pay much attention to.  But Sabato is right that it has to be dismaying to the Republicans. 

What will really matter, spin aside, is the magnitude of the victory.  If by some miraculous swing of Thor's hammer, the Republicans hang onto both houses of Congress, that will be both a very visible and a real victory.  If they lose the House, that is a very real loss.  If they lose more than 20 seats, that will mean not only a comfortable Democratic majority in the House, but one difficult to reverse in the next decade. 

SDP Listed at The Thicket

South Dakota Politics has been listed on the blogroll at The Thicket at State Legislatures, a "A non-partisan blog by and for state legislative junkies".  I am returning their e-mail message with a suggestion that South Dakota War College ought to be added as well. 

USDA: Rail Project Will Cut Farm Subsidies

From the Yankton Press & Dakota:

The Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad expansion could save federal taxpayers $240 million a year in reduced corn subsidy payments, according to a report released Thursday.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture document, entitled "Benefits from the DM&E Rail Expansion," says the added rail capacity would also cut farm program payments for soybeans, wheat and other grains.

Rail competition lowers shipping rates, which increases profits to farmers, the report states.

"The presence of effective rail-to-rail, rail-to-barge or rail-to-truck competition is necessary to stimulate lower rail rates for shippers. When effective competition is present, rail rates are much lower. Generally, savings from lower transportation costs go directly to agricultural producers," it says.

U.S. Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., said it confirms the scope of the project.

"We've said all along the economic benefits to South Dakota would be enormous, in terms of the jobs it would create. What this illustrates, too, is its importance to the ag economy," he said in a telephone interview.

If the estimated $6 billion expansion project goes through, the DM&E would become only the seventh large-scale Class 1 railroad in the country.

The plan is to upgrade its 600-mile line through Minnesota, South Dakota and Wyoming and add 260 miles of new track to Wyoming's Powder River Basin so it can transport clean-burning coal to power plants to the east, using several dozen trains a day.

Transporting corn-based ethanol and other agricultural products also is part of the plan.

The federal government's Surface Transportation Board approved the proposal in February.

The Federal Railroad Administration has accepted public comments on the DM&E's application for a $2.3 billion loan. Next it will review the comments and issue a decision on the environmental aspects of the project. It then has 90 days to approve or deny the loan.

Though the project has opponents along the line, its main critics are in Rochester, Minn., because of concerns over the impact of trains on the Mayo Clinic.

"You see an awful lot of 'coulds' and an awful lot of 'possiblys.' It's a speculative report," said Lee Aase, a Mayo Clinic spokesman.

Nor does it factor in health and safety issues or the harm to communities, he said.

Tim Walz, a Democrat from Mankato, Minn., who is challenging Republican 1st District Rep. Gil Gutknecht, said he agrees increased rail competition helps agriculture.

But politics could have influenced the favorable USDA report, farm payments are already declining because of value-added agriculture and the Office of Management and Budget criticized the expansion, he said.

"You've got competing agency reports," Walz said. "This is what happens when you have a broken government."

He and Aase also questioned why the expansion needs a federal loan if its benefits are so great.

Thune lobbied for the DM&E before being elected to the Senate in 2004 and legislatively helped increase the amount of money the government is authorized to loan for the project.

"It's a loan. It will be paid back," he said.

Saddam Nuclear Weapons Program

Jim Geraghty: "I'm sorry, did the New York Times just put on the front page that IRAQ HAD A NUCLEAR WEAPONS PROGRAM AND WAS PLOTTING TO BUILD AN ATOMIC BOMB?"

Ed Morrissey writes:

This is apparently the Times' November surprise, but it's a surprising one indeed. The Times has just authenticated the entire collection of memos, some of which give very detailed accounts of Iraqi ties to terrorist organizations. Just this past Monday, I posted a memo which showed that the Saddam regime actively coordinated with Palestinian terrorists in the PFLP as well as Hamas and Islamic Jihad. On September 20th, I reposted a translation of an IIS memo written four days after 9/11 that worried the US would discover Iraq's ties to Osama bin Laden.

It doesn't end there with the Times, either. In a revelation buried far beneath the jump, the Times acknowledges that the UN also believed Saddam to be nearing development of nuclear weapons. . . . The Times wanted readers to cluck their tongues at the Bush administration for releasing the documents, although Congress actually did that. However, the net result should be a complete re-evaluation of the threat Saddam posed by critics of the war. Let's see if the Times figures this out for themselves.

This blows apart the whole "Bush lied about WMD" meme.  You can read the New York Times story here.  This pretty much hits home:

Among the dozens of documents in English were Iraqi reports written in the 1990’s and in 2002 for United Nations inspectors in charge of making sure Iraq abandoned its unconventional arms programs after the Persian Gulf war. Experts say that at the time, Mr. Hussein’s scientists were on the verge of building an atom bomb, as little as a year away.

European diplomats said this week that some of those nuclear documents on the Web site were identical to the ones presented to the United Nations Security Council in late 2002, as America got ready to invade Iraq. But unlike those on the Web site, the papers given to the Security Council had been extensively edited, to remove sensitive information on unconventional arms.

Amendment C

I guess some would say that the Aberdeen American News has been over taken by rank bigotry.  Others would say it has made a reasonable choice with which reasonable people disagree.  The newspaper has endorsed Amendment C, the marriage amendment. 

Kerry On Our Wayward Son

You can hardly blame Republicans for celebrating Kerry's ill chosen words about our Iraqi troops.  It might be the Democrat's first significant unforced error in this election cycle since John Murtha broke ranks with his fellow Democrats and actually declared a position on Iraq. 

But Kerry's gaffe, in itself, hardly amounts to anything.  It is precisely the kind of stupid thing one can say when one is speaking off the cuff all the time.  He could have gotten out of trouble easily enough just by saying: "It was a stupd thing to say, I didn't mean it, and I am sorry I said it." 

But of course he didn't say that.  Politicians rarely do the simple thing, and Kerry never does.  He first blamed everyone else, then tried out various contradictory interpretations of what he had said, and only belatedly apologized.  But he apologized for appearances without ever quite admitting that he had said anything unwise or wrong.  I am inclined to agree with the LATimes assessement of Kerry's current position.

washington — Ever since he came within 118,000 Ohio votes of winning the presidency, Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts has refused to give up the idea that he could try again. He kept much of his 2004 finance team together and campaigned aggressively this year for dozens of fellow Democrats who could turn around and help him make a comeback in 2008.

But with one "poorly stated joke" this week in Pasadena, Kerry not only sapped momentum from his party in the final week of a competitive election, he dealt a blow to his own White House aspirations.

I don't think Kerry ever stood much chance of making it back to a nomination speech, but this surely drives home that point. 

History Carnival

The latest History Carnival is up at Holocaust Controversies.

Progress in Iraq

Gateway Pundit: The Unreported Good News vs. the Leaked News

Page-gate

The Associated Press has picked up the story on page-gate:

While the U.S. House investigates ex-Rep. Mark Foley's sexually explicit instant messages to former Capitol Hill staffers, South Dakota is dealing with its own page scandal.

The Senate is scheduled to convene in a special session Nov. 27 to look into allegations that Sen. Dan Sutton, a Democrat from the eastern town of Flandreau, "sexually groped" an 18-year-old page in this year's legislative session.

After hearing evidence, the Senate could take actions ranging from imposing no punishment up to expelling Sutton, a 36-year-old insurance agent.

Sutton, who is seeking re-election, has not responded publicly to the allegations, but his lawyer, Mike Butler, has said Sutton has done nothing wrong and will not resign. He pointed out that state investigators have not filed criminal charges.

Fascism Watch

Argus Leader Blog: Nazis in the SD Senate?

American News Says "Vote Yes For Life"

The Aberdeen American News endorses a Yes on 6 possition. 

Abortion Dollars

Take a look at this story and you'll see that the Vote Yes For Life campaign has received 65% of its money from instate while the pro-abortion rights Campaign For Healthy Families has only gotten 8% from instate.

SD in NYT

South Dakota makes the New York Times for the second day in a row in a story entitled "National Battle Over Abortion Focuses on South Dakota Vote."

The Troops Answer Kerry

Plus, he should've done this instead of playing the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy card.  Too little, too late.  Mark Steyn writes:

If you talk to Democrats of the middle-class and upper-middle-class and (in John Heinz Kerry’s case) the neo-Gulf-emir-class, you’ll have heard the same thing a thousand times: these poor fellows in Iraq, they’re only there because they’re too poverty-stricken and ill-educated so they couldn’t become Senators and New York Times reporters and tenured Queer Studies professors like normal Americans do. That is, in fact, what they mean by the claim that they “support our troops”: they want to bring them home and retrain them so they’re not forced into taking jobs as Bush’s torturers and thugs. It’s part of the same condescension as describing soldiers as “our children”. If a 22-year old intern wants to drop to the Oval Office broadloom, she’s a grown woman exercising her freedom of choice. But, if a 28-year old guy wants to serve in Iraq, he’s a poor wee misguided Grade Six drop-out who doesn’t know any better. John Kerry’s soundbite is interesting not because it’s the umpteenth self-inflicted wound by Mister Nuance but because it gets right to the heart of the Democrats’ “support” for the troops.

UPDATE:  As this AP story shows, John Kerry's recent remarks mirror statements he made in 1972:

During a Vietnam-era run for Congress three decades ago, John Kerry said he opposed a volunteer Army because it would be dominated by the underprivileged, be less accountable and be more prone to "the perpetuation of war crimes."

Kerry, a decorated Vietnam veteran who turned against the war, made the observations in answers to a 1972 candidate questionnaire from a Massachusetts peace group.

After Kerry caused a firestorm this week with what he termed a botched campaign joke that Republicans said insulted current soldiers, The Associated Press was alerted to the historical comments by a former law enforcement official who monitored 1970s anti-war activities

Kerry apologized Wednesday for the 2006 campaign trail gaffe that some took as suggesting U.S. soldiers fighting in Iraq were undereducated. He contended the remark was aimed at Bush, not the soldiers.

In 1972, as he ran for the House, he was less apologetic in his comments about the merits of a volunteer army. He declared in the questionnaire that he opposed the draft but considered a volunteer army "a greater anathema."

"I am convinced a volunteer army would be an army of the poor and the black and the brown," Kerry wrote. "We must not repeat the travesty of the inequities present during Vietnam. I also fear having a professional army that views the perpetuation of war crimes as simply 'doing its job.'

"Equally as important, a volunteer army with our present constitutional crisis takes accountability away from the president and put the people further from control over military activities," he wrote.

UPDATE II:  Here's a look at Seymour Hersh, John Kerry, and Vietnam nostalgia on the left.

Kerry Appearances Lighten Up on Campaign Trail

I noted last night that Iowa Congressional candidate Bruce Braley has asked Kerry to stay away from a scheduled campaign appearance this week:

A Democratic Congressional candidate from Iowa is canceling a campaign event later this week with Senator John Kerry.

Brucy [sic] Braley says Kerry's recent comments about the Iraq war were inappropriate.

Braley is running against Republican Mike Whalen in Iowa's First District congressional race. It's a contest considered to be one of the most competitive House races in the country.

He won't be campaigning for Tim Walz or the DFL, either.  The AP reports that Kerry has canceled all of his Minnesota visits:

U.S. Sen. John Kerry canceled a campaign visit here in the wake of a controversy over remarks he made about students and the war in Iraq, according to a spokeswoman for congressional candidate Tim Walz.

"He wants to make sure the campaign is about the issues we've been talking about the last two years," the spokeswoman, Meredith Salsbery, said of Kerry's decision. "It's important to him that we are able to do that."

Kerry was to appear at 11 a.m. Wednesday at Minnesota State, Mankato, with 1st Congressional District candidate Tim Walz. Walz will still appear at the event, Salsbery said. Walz is trying to unseat U.S. Rep. Gil Gutknecht, R-Minn.

Pennsylvania Senate candidate Bob Casey has canceled his plans to campaign with Kerry as well.  And don't miss this video of Don Imus telling Kerry to "Please stop it.  Stop talking.  Go home, get on the bike, go wind surfing, anything.  Stop it.  You're going to ruin this."

Election Heat: Halloween Edition

With a week to go to E-Day, Republicans are trying hard to encourage their troops.  Here are some reasons for optimism offered by the White House, according to the Allen Report at Time Online.

1)    No Republican is being taken by surprise, unlike many Democrats in 1994.
2) Absentee ballot requests and returns, closely tracked by the party, are meeting or exceeding past levels for Republicans in key states and districts.
3) When the national parties, national campaign committees, state "victory" committee accounts and competitive campaigns are added up, Republicans maintained a substantial financial advantage over Democrats at the last filing period.
4) Republicans say the district-by-district playing field favors them in several structural ways not reflected in national polls.
5) The get-out-the-vote machine designed by Rove and now-Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman in 2001 was dubbed the "72-hour" program, but officials say that's quite a misnomer and that it's really a 17-week or even two-year program.

Now all of these are real, I suspect, and they will make a difference.  But I don't think they are likely to make the difference, this time round.  There are too many Republicans behind in too many places for all these marginal advantages to work their usual magic.  At best they will prevent the Democrats from winning in a blow out.

I am guessing that the Republicans lose control of the House by a few seats, and hold onto the Senate by a seat.  That's hardly a daring prediction.  Right now it's the point spread. 

Legislators Subpoena AG's Office

Argus Leader:

The state Legislature’s Executive Board subpoenaed the Attorney General’s Office today, asking for all information related to the AG’s investigation of state Sen. Dan Sutton.

Sutton, a Flandreau Democrat seeking his fourth term in the Senate, has been the subject of a months-long criminal investigation following an accusation that he groped a high school page during the last legislative session.

Sutton has denied any wrongdoing.

The decision to subpoena the AG’s investigation is the first step in the Senate’s inquiry into Sutton.

The Senate meets in special session Nov. 27 to determine if Sutton broke Senate rules – a separate inquiry from the criminal investigation.

For more on this story, see Wednesday's Argus Leader.

Saddam Trial Update

New York Times:

Witnesses at Saddam Hussein's genocide trial on Tuesday gave harrowing accounts of surviving killing fields where Iraqi soldiers executed Kurdish prisoners in sprays of gunfire and dumped their bodies in mass graves.

One witness, who testified behind a curtain to conceal his identity, told the court that as he and other detainees waited in a bus in the desert for what they suspected to be a firing squad, they decided to attack the sole guard in the vehicle.

''But other guards outside the bus shot at random, killing many people,'' he said. ''I saw my friends falling dead like dry leaves from a tree.''

He said he ''miraculously'' managed to escape. ''I don't know how I fled. I can't remember if I jumped or walked.''

...

Another witness Tuesday recounted how he survived a separate massacre by feigning death when Iraqi soldiers shot at detainees lying at their feet.

The witness, who also spoke behind a curtain, said he was one of dozens of Kurdish prisoners who were taken in buses to an execution site in western Iraq in April 1988.

The witness said the prisoners knew they were going to be shot when they arrived at the killing site near Ramadi because they heard gunfire. They said the Islamic prayers that are customary before death, asking for one's sins to be forgiven.

''The guards took two prisoners at a time from the bus, shot them dead and dragged their bodies to a huge ditch,'' he said.

''When it was my turn, I and my cousin -- whom I asked to sit next to me so that we would be killed together -- alighted from the bus, were blindfolded and handcuffed. I beseeched God to save me.

''The guards asked us to lie down on the ground and then they sprayed us with bullets. I felt no pain. I thought that maybe when the bullet pierces the body, one doesn't feel the pain, but then I heard my cousin dying.

''We were pulled away by our legs. I pretended I was dead.''

SD in NYT

South Dakota is the subject of this New York Times story:

The federal appeals court in St. Louis yesterday blocked the enforcement of a South Dakota law that would have required doctors there to tell women seeking abortions that the procedure would “terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being.”

Laws requiring mandatory counseling for women seeking abortions, and their informed consent to the procedure, are common. The United States Supreme Court in 1992 and federal appeals courts since then have upheld such laws, which typically require that medical information about the procedure and its health risks be provided to women before they can proceed with it.

The defect in the South Dakota law, said the majority in yesterday’s 2-to-1 decision by a panel of United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, was that it supplemented factual information with a value judgment.

Legislative Investigations

As the South Dakota legislature gets ready to convene a special session to deal with pagegate, the Florida legislature is also tooling up for an investigation regarding one of their legislators.

The Indian Electorate in South Dakota Politics

In recent years the Indian vote has become a crucial aspect of South Dakota elections.  In 2002, John Thune lost his Senate bid against Tim Johnson by 524 votes and the Indian vote played a big part in that (see John Fund's chapter on South Dakota in his book Stealing Elections).  Their vote played a big part in 2004 as well.  While Daschle received 1,000 more votes in Shannon County than Johnson did in 2002, Thune more than doubled his vote from 2002, from 248 to 564.  Daschle carried more raw votes than 2002, but Thune showed respectable gains percentage-wise.  The Argus Leader this morning notes that their votes may again play a big role in November, especially on the abortion ban.  Excerpt:

Since 2002, when Sen. Tim Johnson narrowly won a re-election bid against then-Rep. John Thune in large measure because newly registered Indian voters overwhelmingly backed him, the emerging power of the Indian electorate has been notable in South Dakota politics.

As the state decides whether to retain or reject its abortion ban on Nov. 7, the role of Indian voters might again affect the outcome.

"In our culture, they put children number one. That's still there, it always will be there," says Mabel Two Lance, 62, of Pine Ridge.

At the same time, many in Indian Country want little to do with a vote they say won't affect them - because the tribes are sovereign nations.

The Oglala Sioux Tribe is at the center of speculation over Indian votes and the abortion ban for several reasons. Voter-registration drives around Pine Ridge in the past five years have enfranchised thousands of new voters, and tribal members this year recalled chairwoman Cecilia Fire Thunder after she announced she would build an abortion clinic at Pine Ridge. Bruce Whalen, a tribal member and the Republican challenger to Democratic Rep. Stephanie Herseth in the U.S. House race, also has made his anti-abortion stance a centerpiece of his campaign.

But there seems to be no unanimity of opinion about Referred Law 6, the abortion ban, at Pine Ridge or elsewhere in Indian Country.

Be sure to read the whole story.

UPDATE:  In more news regarding Indian Country, the Argus Leader reports that the Oglala Sioux Tribe will proceed with a general election on Tuesday.  The primary election results had been challenged earlier by an election appeals board claiming uncounted and inconsistent voting numbers in a district on Pine Ridge, but the tribal council has decided to proceed with the general election.  They will be choosing a tribal chairman, vice chairman, and tribal council members.

AIM

As many readers know, I've been conducting research on the American Indian Movement for quite some time now.  There's a new book out about them entitled The Unquiet Grave: The FBI and the Struggle for the Soul of Indian Country by Steve Hendricks.  I just started reading it last night.  I'll try to get a review written once I'm finished and let you know how it is.

Numbskull Quote of the Day

John Kerry:  “You know, education, if you make the most of it, if you study hard and you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, uh, you, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.”

Yes, you're reading this right.  Kerry told a college crowd that they should study hard and get a good education--or end up like losers in the military.  This coming from a man who once wanted to command these men and women from the White House.   Then again, Kerry has never been one to hide his contempt for the armed forces.  Will the national Democrats like Ned Lamont and Bob Casey Jr. dispute Kerry's claim that soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines don't have what it takes to succeed in life?  More locally, will Stephanie Herseth denounce Kerry's claim?

UPDATE:  Kerry has made things worse.  On the one hand, he claims the entire issue was engineered by "right-wing nut jobs," led by a "doughy Rush Limbaugh."  Then later this afternoon he claimed it was a "mangled joke" aimed at President Bush.  He can't have it both ways.  This is, after all, the man who has always looked upon the armed forces with disdain: he called American troops rapists and murderers in his Senate testimony in 1971, and last year accused them of terrorizing Iraqi families on midnight raids.  Finally, Austin Bay notes:

In the spare space of 24 hours Kerry has resurrected the Vietnam Syndrome –at least his and the left wing of the Democratic Party’s Vietnam (loser’s) Syndrome. This is stupid but particularly stupid in the last week of a national election. Doubly stupid in the midst of a long, grinding war. Kerry is trapped, in an odd sort of amber. He’s stuck on stupid and stuck in the past simultaneously. John Kerry, the stegosaurus of American politics. (Okay, I’m unfair to stegosaurs, they had backbones and spikes on their tails– but the drawing at the link is cute.)

Why didn’t Senator Kerry just apologize? “I’m sorry for what I said. I meant to crack a joke and it came out sounding like an insult to US troops. Forgive me. We owe our defenders so much.”

But we know why.

UPDATE:  A Democratic Congressman told ABC: "I guess Kerry wasn't content blowing 2004, now he wants to blow 2006, too."  Bruce Braley, Democratic Congressional candidate of Iowa, is canceling a campaign event scheduled for later this week with Sen. Kerry. 

Happy Halloween!

Plus, pumpkin carving with some not-so-average tools.

Hunting

Mobridge Tribune:

Although there seems to be less hunters coming to the area seeking to bag the much-sought after ringneck pheasant, those who are here are bagging birds but working harder at it, according to local officials.

The much-publicized drought and the effects of the hot, dry weather have had an impact on the opening weekend of hunting season, from the lack of cover for the birds, to concentration of the birds near water sources.

Area business owners said they could tell the number of hunters in the area was down from last year and according to one hotel owner, on a weekend that they normally turn people away, there were rooms available.

Connie Frailing, who with her husband Tim, operate Bridge City Bait in Mobridge, said the birds were "pretty wild" according to the hunters that gathered at the store, but most seemed to do fairly well.

"They (the hunters) are saying that the birds seem a little smarter this year," she laughed.

"Those with dogs did better than the others. They said there were a lot of birds out there, but they were having a hard time flushing them."

I went hunting yesterday at Dakota Black Goose by Arlington and the hunting wasn't too bad.  It was six of us with three dogs, so we had quite an advantage.  But overall it wasn't too hard to kick up birds.  It was the shooting that needed improvement, not our flushing skills.  Time to dig out my pheasant recipes and decide what to do with them.

The McGovern Legacy and Foreign Policy

Excerpt from the New York Times:

DEMOCRATS have spent three decades trying to exorcise the ghost of Senator George S. McGovern, whose losing 1972 presidential campaign calling for a withdrawal from Vietnam crystallized his party’s image as soft on national defense.

But surveying the midterm elections last week, Mr. McGovern, 84, said he sees an opportunity for an antiwar campaign in the 2008 presidential race.

“I would love to be running again if I were 25 years younger,” he said in an interview from his Montana home. “I think I would win.”

On the eve of the midterms, dismay over the Iraq war has propelled the Democrats to a political status they have not enjoyed since before Mr. McGovern: for the first time in decades, polls show that the public trusts Democrats as much as Republicans to handle foreign affairs.

But as they look ahead, Democrats are torn between two visions of their history. Some potential candidates in the 2008 Democratic primary and many liberal activists argue that the Republican responsibility for the Iraq war has, in effect, freed the Democrats from Mr. McGovern’s legacy. They say the 2006 elections will provide a mandate for a new antiwar argument: that troops can be pulled from Iraq in order to shore up American security elsewhere in the world.

Other strategists and political scientists argue that the Iraq war has given the Democrats a different opportunity to lay to rest their McGovernite image, in part by rejecting calls for a quick withdrawal in Iraq.

“All voters are doing is giving Democrats a chance, and we better not blow it,” said Gary Hart, the former senator and presidential candidate.

A younger McGovern could probably win the Democratic primary, Mr. Hart said, but he would still lose the general election. “Just running on a platform of ‘get us out of Iraq’ is not going to solve the Democrats’ problem on the issue of national security,” he said.

Big Government Conservatism

CNN:

A quarter century after the Reagan revolution and a dozen years after Republicans vaulted into control of Congress, a new CNN poll finds most Americans still agree with the bedrock conservative premise that, as the Gipper put it, "government is not the answer to our problems -- government is the problem."

The poll released Friday also showed that an overwhelming majority of Americans perceive, correctly, that the size and cost of government have gone up in the past four years, when Republicans have had a grip on the House of Representatives, the Senate and the White House.

  ...

Queried about their views on the role of government, 54 percent of the 1,013 adults polled said they thought it was trying to do too many things that should be left to individuals and businesses. Only 37 percent said they thought the government should do more to solve the country's problems.

I agree with libertarian Neal Boortz that it might be good for the Republican Party if the Democrats captured the House and Republicans retained the Senate.  This would hopefully give them a wake-up call and force them to reconsider their principles that got them elected.  And frankly, given how some Republicans have acted while in power, they shouldn't maintain control in Washington.

UPDATE:  As a further testament to the strength of the Reagan Revolution, the New York Times reports that Democrats have begun producing less liberal candidates in order to win seats in Congress.  If the Republicans lose ground in the midterms, part of the reason may be because they failed to grasp the Reagan legacy.

District 2 Endorsements

The American News endorses Paul Dennert (Democrat) and Jim Lorenz (Republican) for House in District 2 and Brian Johnson (Republican) for Senate. 

Not Even Informed Consent

The US Appeals Court has upheld an injunction against South Dakota's informed consent law regarding abortion.  This law was challenged by Planned Parenthood.  Don't let the "No on 6" crowd fool you.  It isn't just the exceptions for rape and incest they worry about.  Anything that limits abortion in the least, including simply providing information to women, must be attacked in full.  Planned Parenthood will do everything it can, including fighting informed consent laws, waiting periods, and parental notification laws, to make sure there are as many abortion as possible. 

Governor Poll

Rounds up 22%. 

An Ineppt Reply

I have only a little to add to Professor Schaff's reply to Todd Epp.  I have generally admired Todd's blog as visually colorful and full of good humor.  Along with Mr. Heppler, I recently praised a post of his.  So I am a little shocked at his recent hissy fit.   It appears as if the strain of  working for the Billion campaign has gotten to him.  As Professor Schaff indicates, I was trying to be funny with these lines:

So our "Harrisburg Lawyer, political consultant and writer" now deems himself a professor, qualified to comment on literature.  Welcome to the profession, Professor Epp, Doctor of Thinkology.

It would be quite absurd to argue that one needs a Ph.D. to comment on Orwell's 1984.  Books are written for whoever can read them.  Nor did I mean to seriously question his intellectual credentials, or expect that he would be as touchy about them as he obviously is.  I think being a lawyer implies a high level of learning, and have no interest in a contest of  intellectual manhood. 

I wrote the above lines because  Epp has been calling  Dr. Seeber and myself "the NSU  Hardy boys," and "super sleuths, all year long because we dared to write about a police investigation of a death.  It certainly seemed to me that he was implying that we were writing outside our field of expertise, and that there was something pretentious and illegitimate about that.  My point was that Professor Seeber and I have as much authority to express an opinion on that matter as he does on Orwell.  But Todd didn't get it, and replied as if the words above were meant seriously.  Now he dispenses with Professor Schaff and myself by this method:

My wife has a very effective tool to deal with people who are [f]ools: She says they no long exist.  Life is too short to suffer fools of such magnitude.  . . . Blanchard, Schaff, the Ayn Rand quote is my last gift to you.  You both officially do not exist in Eppland.

So Todd's answer to criticism is to clap both hands over his eyes and ignore the critic.  Apparently his wife is content to suffer fools of little magnitude.

Fat People and Global Warming

In an earlier post I suggested that the tax on tobacco (it's proven to kill people!) should be followed by a tax on ugly people, who are proven to be annoying, and a tax on fat people who are proven to be overweight.  Why the latter?  Well, the New York Times supplies me with an argument.

Last week the list of ills attributable to obesity grew: fat people cause global warming.

This latest contribution to the obesity debate comes in an article by Sheldon H. Jacobson of the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana and his doctoral student, Laura McLay. Their paper, published in the current issue of The Engineering Economist, calculates how much extra gasoline is used to transport Americans now that they have grown fatter. The answer, they said, is a billion gallons a year.

Their conclusion is in the same vein as a letter published last year in The American Journal of Public Health. Its authors, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, did a sort of back-of-the-envelope calculation of how much extra fuel airlines spend hauling around fatter Americans. The answer, they wrote, based on the extra 10 pounds the average American gained in the 1990’s, is 350 million gallons, which means an extra 3.8 million tons of carbon dioxide.

Hildebrand Calls KSFY "revolting"

Argus Leader:

A South Dakota episode of ABC's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," is causing some extreme advertising prices at KSFY, some say.

A 30-second TV ad costs $10,000 Sunday night on KSFY, so political consultant Steve Hildebrand decided not to buy time during the show that features a Toronto family getting a new home. The show airs two days before the election, which typically drives television ad prices higher, as well.

"I think it's revolting what KSFY is doing," said Hildebrand, who works for the South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families, a group that opposes a ban on abortion. Voters are being asked to decide the issue on the ballot.

Without the special circumstances, the spot in that time slot typically would cost $600 to $800.

"They (KSFY) know that their viewership is going to be very high in South Dakota that night, and they think that these political campaigns have a lot of money and the most urgent need," he said. "So they're going to try to sell those time slots at top dollar to people who need it the most."

But Kelly Manning, general manager of the Sioux Falls ABC affiliate station, says it's not a case of greed: He has only two minutes of local ad time during the entire hour broadcast, and he wants to reserve some of that time for the home builders.

Not all local advertisers paid $10,000 for 30 seconds during the 7-8 p.m. program. Only the last available time slot is priced that high, he said.

"We had about a minute for political stuff and a minute for local advertisers," Manning said. "We had to weigh it out carefully and make things as equal as possible. We wanted to save some for the builders, who did so much, and we as a community and state reap the benefits of this, bringing notoriety to our state."

South Dakota Furniture Mart of Sioux Falls was the primary donor for furnishings for the Thibodeau family's new home, giving about $25,000 in merchandise, including bedding and accessories.

The company bought a TV ad during the Sunday night show, said Gordy Wallenstein, president of the corporate parent company, Furniture Outlets USA.

Groucho Marx Of The Blogosphere

I recently saw an old Dick Cavett interview with Groucho Marx on Turner Classic Movies (TCM). I laughed for the whole 75 minutes.  Groucho Marx could read his grocery list and it'd be funny. 

Mr. Epp seems to have taken a cue from Groucho.  Mr. Epp is frustrated that he can't have a serious argument with us.  Let's review.  I posted a link to a piece by Martin Albl on Amendment C.  Mr. Epp went ballistic.  What a great routine.  He pretended not to know the difference between "dismiss" and "disagree."  Then he accuses Mr. Albl (or as Mr. Epp calls him, Mr. Albi) of being prejudiced and advocating something similar to the "one child policy" of Communist China.  Hilarious.  Because telling a woman she cannot kill her baby is exactly the moral equivalent of telling her she must kill her baby.  Both tell adults what to do with their bodies (or actually someone else's body, but who's counting). And killing babies and opposing same-sex marraige? Same thing.  Where does he get this stuff!  Todd's arguments against Mr. Albl (and me) include: your ideas are old; your ideas don't match my experience; adults should be able to do whatever they want with their bodies (I await Mr. Epp's arguments for legalizing prostitution, the sale of body parts, public nudity and drug use).

My colleague Ken Blanchard then wrote this post about Mr. Epp's interpretation of the novel 1984. Ken takes off on Epp's reference to Ken and Jim Seeber as the "Hardy Boys" to give Mr. Epp the appellation "Doctor of Thinkology."  I am pretty sure Ken was being funny.  It seems to be in the spirit of the "Hardy Boys" gag of Mr. Epp.  But perhaps I overestimate Mr. Epp's comedic talents.  Perhaps he actually thinks Blanchard and Seeber are in fact the Hardy Boys incarnate. In that case this post where he takes (self) righteous indignation at having his credentials questioned makes more sense.  Perhaps Mr. Epp has lost his sense of humor.  When I was a kid and I lost something it was often in the toy box.  Perhaps Mr. Epp should check there first.  Unless he is practicing irony in this post.  In that case: comedic genius! 

I loved this last one, where he says he can't get a decent argument from us while calling us jackasses.  Why isn't this guy on Leno?  So in the course of three posts Mr. Epp presents virtually no actual arguments defending his positions, but proceeds to call his opponents: prejudiced, bigots, totalitarians like the Communist Chinese, authoritarians (as distinct from totalitarians), elitist apologists for oppression, stuck in the Dark Ages,  haters, and we use our education to "perpetrate illegal wars, discriminate against the citizens, support crony capitalists, and belittle anyone who doesn't agree with those power elites," and (big finish!) jackasses.  And he's really mad at all the name calling and is frustrated that he can't get a serious argument.  What a routine.  Bravo! Perhaps he is making a riff on Groucho's routine from Horse Feathers: Whatever they're for, I'm against it!  Here's the sound file. 

Jacks Beat Davis

Argus Leader:

More than a few fans from a Hobo Day crowd of 15,248 - the third largest in South Dakota State University history - left Saturday's football game early.

They should have known better.

For the third time in four games, South Dakota State erased a double-digit deficit in the fourth quarter to beat a team ranked in the NCAA Division I-AA top 25.

In this instance, the Jackrabbits beat No. 16 University of California-Davis 22-21 in Great West Football Conference play at Coughlin-Alumni Stadium.

Abortion Ban

The abortion ban looks headed for repeal based on a new poll showing it losing 52% to 42%.

UPDATE:  It would seem the poll has some flaws, according to Sibby.

Beck on Sutton

Randell Beck of the Argus Leader sees pagegate as a "witch-hunt," and even quotes Arthur Miller's "The Crucible":

I had to laugh last week when I read Sen. Ed Olson's comments about whether a special legislative session on the matter should be open to the public. He doesn't think so: "I'm just really sensitive because I'm closer to it than most. Because of my connection to those folks, I don't want a circus."

Great. Instead, we've got a public witch hunt featuring vague talk from Attorney General Larry Long about a "criminal investigation," innuendo from self-righteous legislators suddenly concerned about the scruples of a brother senator and a hearty "me too!" from an ambitious governor predictably concerned about being perceived as pro-pedophile. Give me a circus any day.

I don't mind telling you that as we enter Act II of this sad drama, in which we find some lawmakers piling on for a public lynching, your humble editor is beginning to wonder exactly who the victim is here.

...

In "The Crucible," Arthur Miller's searing and dramatic portrait of the witch trials in 17th century Salem, Mass., fiction becomes fact as hysteria overpowers justice. Men, swept along in a surreal tide of suspicion and fear, choose sides for the wrong reasons. Cynicism overshadows conscience.

Danforth, the trial judge, represents those who seem hellbent on drawing a line in the sand for the rest of the world.

"You must understand, sir, that a person is either with this court or must be counted against it, there be no road between," he says in Act III. "This is a sharp time, now, a precise time - we live no longer in the dusky afternoon when evil mixed itself with good and befuddled the world."

Yes, just now the machinery seems set against Dan Sutton.

I'm not sure I would characterize this as a "witch-hunt".  Yes we have to be careful because we don't actually know what happened.  But the allegations towards Sutton have been around since before the primaries last June.  Why was it never disclosed to the public?  Chad Schult, Todd Epp, SDWC, and SDP have all asked this question.  And I doubt this whole affair came about because of "politically inspired disclosures."  What does anyone hope to gain by this?  Besides, it appears that Dennis Weise has been asking for these investigations for quite some time.  But politically inspired rumors told as factual news stories must be all right for the Argus, as was the case with Bob Sahr.

UPDATE:  Sibby has some more observations.