Haggard News

Don't Vote for Jim Bolin (District 16 House)!

2010-11-01T23:02:00.005-05:00

I am not voting for Jim Bolin, District 16's incumbent state House member.

Two years ago, I supported Mr. Bolin for this office (something he apparently noticed). I now regret that vote.

I guess I was nostalgic about high school when he was my history teacher. And I was also a bit naive that the common sense I saw him use on Canton's city commission would carry over into the state legislature. Oh how wrong I was!

As a teacher, I expected him to be friendlier to this state's education system than most Republicans seem to be. But I was wrong. Even though he's on the Education Committee, he's not that friendly to education. He has been helping Governor Rounds to screw over K-12 education in this state. It's really disappointing to see that. Thankfully, the Democrat running for District 16 (Ann Tornberg) is also a teacher and Dems are traditionally friends to education so I'll be voting for her. And notive that Mr. Bolin has nothing about education on his Governing Principles page. Isn't that odd for someone on the Education Committee?

One of the biggest sins Mr. Bolin committed since he was elected was voting for this year's idiotic bill against global warming. Y'know, the one that was so mindnumbingly stupid the entire country made fun of our state over it (*cough*astrological*cough*). He voted for both the original very stupid version and the second version that was slightly less stupid (but still stupid). That's where he really lost me. With those votes, it was clear that he was ignoring the common sense part of himself that he used in Canton. Unfortunately he seemed to be listening to his radical, conservative ideology for the last two years.

So as much as I still respect Mr. Bolin, I will not be voting for him. And I urge other District 16 voters to do the same.

(Dear Conservatives: While I have your attention, I ask that you please stop saying global warming is "just a theory, not a fact." When using those words as scientific terms, they basically mean the same freaking thing. So saying something is "just a theory, not a fact" shows that you conservatives are scientifically illiterate. Thank you for your time. - Love, Haggs)

Haggard News Is Back

2010-09-03T11:32:00.006-05:00

Yep, that's right! I'm coming out of blogtirement. There's some interesting things going on in Canton, South Dakota right now and I'm hoping to chronicle them right here.

One interesting thing relates to this story KELO ran on the 6 PM news last night. I'm not going to talk about the police suspension... because I just really don't care. But what piqued my interest was this part:

Heiskell says this is the latest in a list of frustrating actions by the town's government. He's a former member of the city council who's proposing the city return to its previous form of government. That would mean the mayor and council would make decisions, and a city manager would have a more limited roll.

I wrote about Canton's last change of government in 2007 and the firestorm that surrounded it. I admittedly got too hot under the collar about it, but it was an interesting time to live here. So I'm planning to revisit the change of government story again and look at the history of how it all got started. So stay tuned!

We Remember

2009-09-11T16:00:00.000-05:00

Sen. Johnson Might Chair Banking Committee And Gets Attacked By Huffington Post

2009-09-01T18:59:00.001-05:00

I was reading through Huffington Post, like I do most days, when I see a picture of Senator Tim Johnson. It led to an article that suggests Johnson might become the new chair of the Senate Banking Committee if Sen. Dodd moves over to chair the Health Committee in Sen. Kennedy's place. But then the majority of the article attacks Johnson's record on banking issues.

If Senator Tim Johnson ascends to the chairmanship of the Senate Banking Committee, the biggest winners will be Wall Street, pay-day lenders and credit card companies. The biggest losers: widows and orphans.
No, really.
In late 2006, the South Dakotan spoke out against an effort by his fellow Democrats to cap the interest rates that members of the military pay for short-term loans. "This time it's military. Who's to say it isn't going to be widows and orphans or other sympathetic groups in the future?" he griped in an interview with the American Banker.
That's the man who's next in line to lead the Banking Committee if the current chair, Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), as expected, vacates the position to take the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee chair left empty by the death of Ted Kennedy.

Now, I'm a Johnson supporter so my first reaction is to be mad at Huffington Post for attacking my senator. On the other hand, I'm a liberal and I believe regulations are important to make sure big companies are not robbing us all into bankrupcy *cough*insurance companies*cough*, so I'm usually in favor of government regulations. But here in South Dakota we have a lot of banking industry jobs that I don't want to see disappear, and I'm guessing Johnson feels the same way.

The article offers up some other possibilities for what might happen, including Johnson being skipped over or maybe beign chairman would make him rethink his pro-banking industry positions. I don't know. I'd like to see Johnson get the chair because I think it would do good things for South Dakota, but I worry that he'll get a backlash from liberals in other states.

We'll have to see.

Happy Fireworks, Everybody!

2009-07-04T15:11:00.001-05:00

"Homestar, that's not what the holiday's called."

Shut up, Marzipan.

A Great Day For America!

2009-01-20T10:34:00.003-06:00

After eight long, embarrassing years we're finally getting a president we can be proud of. We're finally going to have a president that respects the constitution and our civil rights. We're finally getting a president who is intelligent and has a good sense of what's going on in the world. We're finally getting a president who can right the wrongs of the current president. We're finally getting a president who can solve the problems this country is facing.

God bless the United States of America! God bless President Barack Obama!

Prayers Needed for Dykstra Family

2008-09-10T20:38:00.000-05:00

This is a prayer request for Joel Dykstra and his family. I've heard a rumor around Canton that one of Joel's family members has been seriously ill recently. Now I hear that family member passed away yesterday. So please keep the Dykstras in your prayers while they go through this difficult time.

While I've been hard on Joel in the past, I actually really like his family. I especially like his parents. They're just nice, wonderful people. And this news is tough.

I don't know, it's probably a mistake to post this on the internet. But I just think the Dykstras need some extra prayers right now and I know the SD Blogosphere is great at that.

McCain Used "Lipstick on a Pig" Phrase Too.

2008-09-10T20:23:00.002-05:00

A lot of people are talking about Obama's use of the phrase "you can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig" when discussing McCain on change. I think it's a dumb thing to get riled up about, but it seems like a lot of dumb things have taken over the presidential race lately. Anyway, here's a video of McCain using that exact same phrase:

There. That should settle this idiotic discussion. Can we get back to talking about things that actually matter again?

Quote of the Week

2008-08-29T18:01:00.002-05:00

"She's a Democrat. She must prove she loves America. As opposed to Republicans who everyone knows love America... they just hate half the people living in it."

- Jon Stewart, The Daily Show, in response to the discussion of Michelle Obama needing to be patriotic in her speech.

Happy 72nd Birthday John McCain!

2008-08-29T17:58:00.002-05:00

I just wanted to wish Senator John McCain a happy 72nd birthday!

Once again, happy 72nd birthday John McCain!

Water 1 - Canton 0

2008-06-05T21:34:00.002-05:00

Canton is in the news again. This time, it's because we're underwater. KELO, KSFY and KDLT are in town covering the flood of Christmas Lake and the people who are fighting it.

Y'know, I forget sometimes that Canton is surrounded by water. We have Christmas Lake on the northeast edge, the Big Sioux River running along the south and Beaver Creek going through the western part of town. And right now, they're all exploding with water. Christmas Lake is the new part of town so I think they might have had less time to deal with flooding than the othe parts of Canton.

The whole town is dealing with this. I came home from work today only to find water in my basement. Other people are dealing with water issues. It's a big mess. But I'm glad to see the community coming together to help everyone out. Gotta love that!

*Note: Picture borrowed from Keloland's website.

If Clinton Wins in SD, Will Our Superdelegates Switch?

2008-06-02T23:21:00.000-05:00

So a poll came out that shows Hillary Clinton ahead of Barack Obama in South Dakota. Pretty much all of our superdelegates support Obama, but if Clinton wins will they switch to support her? Around the country, many superdelegates are switching (sometimes reluctantly) depending on how their districts and states vote.

That's going to be a tough decision. Either stay a supporter for the Democratic Party's nominee (*cough*Obama*cough*) or switch to the person a majority of South Dakotan Democrats support (no matter if they're wrong).

And what of Daschle? He's co-chair of Obama's campaign. That would be an awkward conversation.

Obama: You're doing what?

Daschle: Y'see, South Dakota voted for Hillary and I don't want to go against the will of my home state.

Obama: But you work for my campaign. You were one of my earliest supporters.

Daschle: Yeah, sorry about that. We still cool?

Obama: ... Security!

Heh. That's not going to happen, but it was fun to think about. And if Clinton does win in SD tomorrow, it's going to be too little too late. All day I've been hearing rumors about her campaign shutting down tomorrow and 34 superdelegates coming out for Obama in the next couple days (putting him over the top).

So we'll see.

Jim Bolin for District 16 House

2008-06-02T19:23:00.004-05:00

(Update: For my current views of Mr. Bolin, please check out this new post.)

I support Republican Jim Bolin for the South Dakota House of Representatives.

Why do I support him? Well, Mr. Bolin was one of my favorite teachers in high school. I have fond memories of his classes, including all the times we tried to get him to tell us stories of his time teaching in Africa. It's safe to say Mr. Bolin played a big role in the person I grew up to be.

But beyond all that, I think he'll make a great legislator. I've been watching him during the past year. He served as a city commissioner in Canton for six months. At that time, the community decided to change the form of government and Mr. Bolin was the only commissioner who stayed. And he was even elected mayor of Canton by the other commissioners.

During his time as a commissioner he fought hard for fiscal responsibility. Remember the hard time Canton had with a previous finance officer screwing up Canton's finances? Well I think one of the reasons Mr. Bolin ran for the commission was to help Canton get back to financial responsibility. He did want to cut spending where he could, but he wasn't a radical conservative in that regard (like, say, Rob Paul). He seemed to think that there were some things worth spending money on, but we need to be responsible with how we do it.

Another reason I think Mr. Bolin will make a great legislator is that he'll listen to people. Even if he disagrees with them, he'll respect them enough to give them a chance to voice their opinion. He has a strong sense of fairness and wants to make sure that every aspect of government treats the citizens fairly.

I was very sad when Mr. Bolin decided not to continue as Canton's mayor, but I hope he'll get into the legislature and do some good.

Mr. Bolin is also a teacher, so hopefully he'll care more than other Republicans about making sure SD's teachers are paid a living wage.

Now Mr. Bolin is a conservative and I'm a liberal, so I know he'll do things I disagree with and say things that frustrate me. Just look at his answers to the Family Policy Council's survey (warning: PDF). It's safe to say I disagree with most of his answers. But, if our legislature runs the way it's supposed to, those won't be the only issues that they will deal with. And I know Mr. Bolin will work hard for everyone in this district and this state. That's the kind of guy he is.

Pat Powers for SD State Senate

2008-06-02T19:14:00.000-05:00

PP probably doesn't want to be endorsed by a liberal who just registered with the Democratic Party, but I'm going to do it anyway.

As I've been following the South Dakota blogosphere for the last couple years, there have been a couple people who have stuck out to me as representing what South Dakota is all about. Pat Powers is one of those people. I always enjoy reading his views about issues that are important to South Dakota. I don't always agree with Pat, but you can see that he really cares about what goes on in this state.

There are some issues I agree with PP on, like open government and fiscal responsibility. I see that those issues are ones he's focused on in his campaign. Also, and this is most important, he cares. Reading his posts at SDWC, I can see that he cares deeply about helping people. One of the best examples I found was discussing South Dakota's restitution system. He's had personal experience with the problems in that system and wants to fix it so no one else will have those same problems.

Unfortunately, I don't live in his district nor am I a Republican. But I pray that those who can will vote for Pat Powers tomorrow and also in November.

My Democratic Adventure - Day 15

2008-05-30T16:45:00.001-05:00

This is my fifteenth day as a member of the Democratic Party. I find that nothing has really changed for me. I still feel like an independent. I've always been pretty liberal, especially about social issues. Though in the last couple years I've started to warm up to a few conservative Republican ideas like local/state control (especially when it comes to education). Does that make me a "Blue Dog"?

I'm still trying to decide, but I still think I'll go back to being an independent after the June 3rd primary. Oh well.

Bill Clinton is Coming to Canton!

2008-05-30T16:18:00.000-05:00

Well, I was pretty shocked today. I learned that former President Bill Clinton is going to be coming to Canton, South Dakota tomorrow. Wow.

Having a former President of the United State of America in Canton is HUGE! I know I just registered as a Democrat to vote for Obama next week, but it's exciting to get President Clinton in town. Who knows if South Dakota will be this important to the next presidential race, so this might be a once in a lifetime opportunity.

It looks like he's coming around lunch time. Maybe he'll stop by the Garden of Eat'n for some of the best sandwiches in this part of the country. *hint hint* Or maybe he'll stop at the Depot and check out the Lawrence Brother's monument and see Canton's contribution to history. *hint hint* He'll be in Jack Fox Park, so maybe he'll comment on our brand new county courthouse. *hint hint*

I also hope some of our commissioners will make an appearance, like our new mayor Bruce Braaten. *hint hint*

Whoo-hoo!

My Nineteen Days as a Democrat

2008-05-19T17:35:00.002-05:00

I never thought it would happen. I've been living blissfully happy as an independent voter since I turned 18. But last Friday night I, Haggs T. Haggardson, registered with the Democratic Party.

I went to the Barack Obama rally in Sioux Falls on Friday night with a few friends. It was a lot of fun. We were apparently sitting in the Augustana College section. There were a lot of students with Augie t-shirts around us and they were all studying for finals while waiting for the program to start.

What a great program. Sen. McGovern gave a wonderful intro. He was hilarious! I loved his Lincoln quotes. And Sen. Daschle's speech was very energetic. All good stuff that successfully built up the main event.

As my nerdy friends might say, Obama's speech was "full of win." I was captivated by it the entire time, so much so I almost wish it would've been longer. I loved to hear him talk about South Dakota's potential for alternative energy. He also made a lot of great points about supporting our veterans. The longer I listened to him, the more I felt a growing sense of hopefulness about the future of this country. I strongly believe Barack Obama can heal some of the problems that have infected our country. When the speech was over, I just had to register. I was going to give the SD primary a pass because I figured I'd get my chance to vote for Obama in November. But something about the speech just made me want to vote for Obama as soon as I could. Maybe hope is more powerful than I thought.

So I've been a Democrat for almost four days now. I've been fighting the urge to become a vegan, listen to NPR, buy a Prius and install solar panels on my roof... but I don't know how long I can hold out. And last night I had a dream about wanting to tax the air we breathe. I wonder what that means?

But seriously, I'm excited to vote in my first Democratic primary. Unfortunately I'm not sure how long I'll remain a Democrat once the primary is over. I'll most likely go back to being an independent (though I'm open to being bribed with an X-Box 360 to get me to stay *hint hint*).

I'll try to keep everyone updated on my crazy adventures in the Democratic Party.

Bruce Braatan Is Canton's New Mayor

2008-05-07T17:16:00.000-05:00

Well, Canton has a new mayor and his name is Bruce Braaten.

For those unfamiliar with the city manager form of government, every year once the three new commissioners are sworn in they then pick a mayor from the group. If the current mayor wanted, I imagine he or she could've run for the position again. But Canton's mayor, Jim Bolin, didn't run for re-election to the city commission (instead, he's running for the state House. Go Bolin!). Commissioners nominate who they think would be a good mayor and if there's more than one nominee, they vote.

A funny thing happened this time though. I talked with someone who was at Monday night's meeting and apparently there were two nominees and they each got four votes. Normally there would be a tie-breaker in the ninth commissioner, but one was missing. When that happened the commissioners looked over at the city attorney for what to do. The ninth commissioner was supposed to come late, so it was decided to defer the vote until he got there. The other option was the re-vote, but only if someone would change their mind. But by the end of the meeting, when the commission went into executive session, he still hadn't shown up. So the citizens who were at the meeting left thinking Canton wouldn't have a mayor until the next meeting two weeks away (though that's not a huge deal since a commissioner mayor has mostly ceremonial powers).

But that last commissioner must've shown up before the meeting adjourned because today's Canton paper says Bruce Braaten was elected. Strangely, it was a 6-3 vote, so someone changed their minds anyway. Oh well, it makes for a funny story.

Congrats to Bruce! I know I was very hard on him last year when he was part of the group wanting to change Canton's government. If I said anything he was offended by I sincerely apologize. From what I've heard and observed, Bruce Braaten has done an excellent job on the commission. So I have faith that he will be an excellent mayor for Canton.

Sen. McGovern Switches to Obama

2008-05-07T10:52:00.004-05:00

I logged into Google News like I do every morning, and the very first headline I see is "McGovern, former Clinton backer, urges her to drop out."

Wow! Not only has he switched his endorsement to Obama, but he's also suggesting she get out of the race. This is not good for Clinton. Could McGovern be the first drip in an upcoming tidal wave of delegate switches? I wonder just how many superdelegate have been waiting for a good enough reason to switch?

And what does this mean for Clinton's visit tomorrow? Will she cancel it like she cancelled her morning show appearances today? I mean, does she have any SD superdelegate support anymore? They usually like to bring a local superdelegate with them in these appearances.

UPDATE: I had MSNBC on in the background and about 30 seconds after I hit "Publish Post" there McGovern was on the phone with them talking about this. I think this will turn out as a better switch than the Bill Richardson thing was because McGovern called them ahead of time.

Blast Off!

2008-03-12T11:49:00.000-05:00

I'm Not Influential

2007-11-07T22:48:00.000-06:00

So apparently the South Dakota Blogosphere has been abuzz lately over some out-of-state blog-thing. The reason for all the excitement is because this Blognetnews site decided to rank the most influential South Dakota blogs. Here's their list:

1. South Dakota War College
2. DakotaWomen
3. Typos and tribulations
4. Haggard News
5. Straight Talk
6. Badlands Blue
7. Sibby Online
8. Mount Blogmore
9. Northern Valley Beacon
10. robbinsdale radical
11. Madville Times
12. S.D. Watch
13. A South Dakota Moderate
14. Left Dakota Right Dakota South Dakota
15. South Dakota Politics
16. SouthDakotaMac
17. New Yankton
18. Hog House Blog
19. Rant-a-Bit by Scott Hudson

Now did anything about that list seem jaw-droppingly odd to you? If your first thought was "How did Sibby rank so high?" you're close.

I am astonished that this run-down dump of a blog ranked #4. Seriously, how did I rank that high? I barely post anymore and lately most of my posts have been about Canton. How does that make me influential?

I guess Canton was in the news a bit last week, what with the election for the nine new city commissioners. So maybe I had a lot of traffic even though I didn't post anything? But I checked sitemeter.com and it said I didn't even get over 200 visitors that week.

So I'm calling shenanigans on Blognetnews.com's "rankings." (Except for the first two) I also find it hilarious that their rankings disclaimer says "BlogNetNews' Blogosphere Influence Rating combines a variety of data sets to determine which blogs are most powerfully influencing the direction of the South Dakota political blogosphere."

And I think these rankings will be interesting to watch. It looks like they update them once in a while. At least that's my assumption for why New Yankton and Hog House Blog have numbers after them.

Sen. Johnson Comes Home!

2007-08-28T15:14:00.000-05:00

I'm greatly looking forward to seeing Sen. Tim Johnson at the Sioux Falls Convention Center this afternoon. It's wonderful that he's recovered enough to come see his constinuants.

Also, I saw a cartoon in the Argus today that summed up exactly how I feel. It was from local cartoonist Jason Folkerts. I hope Jason doesn't mind, but I wanted to put his cartoon up here because it's such a great piece.

Update: You can view the cartoon here.

Quote of the Week - John McCain on Daily Show

2007-08-18T21:57:00.000-05:00

"I'd close Guantanamo Bay and I'd declare that we never torture another person in American custody."

That was said by Sen. John McCain when he appeared on Comedy Central's The Daily Show on Thursday. It was during a discussion of how Republicans seem like they're appearing tough for their base in the debates. And Jon Stewart brought up Mitt Romney's "double Guantanamo" quote.

When McCain said that, I actually stood up and applauded along with the audience. And McCain went on to discuss how he believes the people who support this torture policy must think that reality works just like it does on the TV show 24.

Why can't other Republicans understand that torture isn't an American value? If I didn't disagree with McCain on Iraq, I would vote for him just based on his policy about torture. Even still, I really hope he stays in the race as long as possible to show the other Republicans why they need to be against torture.

Anyway, that was an excellent interview with McCain. It reminded me of the fun guy we used to see before he started courting the right wing of the Republican party. I miss that McCain, so it was good to see him again. And if I've done it right, you should be able to see the interview below. Check it out:

Democratic Candidates Debate GLBT Issues Tonight

2007-08-09T17:07:00.000-05:00

Tonight, the Democratic presidential candidates and planning to do a live debate about issues important to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered Americans. The debate will be on the LOGO network and on this website. It's being called "Visible Vote 08."

I'm looking forward to watching this debate. I have a lot of gay and lesbian friends and most of them feel excluded from the political process. But look at what happened in Massachusetts back in June. Several gay and lesbian couples talked with some state legislators and that was all it took to make they realize it's wrong to ban same-sex marriage and civil unions.

This debate will show that GLBT Americans have a voice and a right to speak up for what they want out of this country. I'm glad to see these presidential candidates listening to this group.

Ted Klaudt: It Just Keeps Getting Worse

2007-08-07T10:41:00.000-05:00

New evidence has turned up in the case against former state legislator Ted Klaudt. Authorities explored his laptop and found evidence that he was an internet predator.

They accuse Klaudt of using the name "studman" in one conversation to ask a
14-year-old girl to send webcam pictures of herself. Investigators say Klaudt
also used the name "thephotoman," pretending to be a 21-year-old modeling agent.
With that, he allegedly asked a 15-year-old girl to send him photos so she could
star in a pornographic movie.

The investigator who lays out this information in an affidavit says an
18-year-old woman he interviewed backs up this evidence. She says Klaudt offered
to take photos of her using sex toys in order to build a modeling portfolio, and
to do the same for her 16-year-old sister.

It's like this case has stepped into Dateline's "To Catch a Predator" series all of a sudden. This whole things just keeps getting worse and worse and sicker and sicker.

Klaudt will be in court later this month. I wonder if he'll still plead "not guilty" if this evidence leads to more charges against him. We'll see.

New Mission to Mars Launched

2007-08-05T13:53:00.000-05:00

I'm very excited to see a new mission to the planet Mars. I'm glad the setbacks haven't deterred NASA from trying to study it.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (AP) -- A robotic dirt and ice digger blasted off
Saturday on a 422 million-mile journey to Mars that NASA hopes will culminate
next spring in the first landing within the red planet's arctic circle.

The unmanned Delta II rocket carrying the Phoenix Mars Lander rose from its
seaside pad at 5:26 a.m., exactly on time, and hurtled through the clear moonlit
sky. It was easily visible for nearly five minutes, a bright orange speck in a
spray of stars.

If all goes as planned... the spacecraft will set down on the Martian
arctic plains on May 25, 2008. It will then spend three months scooping up soil
and ice, and analyzing the samples in minuscule ovens and mixing bowls.

I'm excited to see what this probe will find. I'm very curious about how much water is on the poles and if any evidence of life can be found.

Harry Potter: More Thoughts on Snape

2007-07-20T22:38:00.000-05:00

With a little under two hours before people can get their hands on the seventh Harry Potter book (legally), I thought I would go into some more speculation about what might happen to Professor Snape.

* * Warning: I'll be talking about previous HP books * *

Okay, last month I was talking about how I think Snape really didn't want to kill Dumbledore, but did so to spare Draco from doing the deed. Since then I've reread book 6 in anticipation of the release of book 7. And I completely forgot about the Unbreakable Vow that Snape made with Draco's mother. Narcissa. One part of the vow is that Narcissa wants Snape to complete Draco's task if he can't... probably because she's worried that Voldermort would kill Draco if he failed. And we find out that Draco's task is to kill Dumbledore.

So maybe Snape had no choice but to kill Dumbledore, because he was bound to by the Unbreakable Vow? And I'm guessing that Snape told Dumbledore about it, which was why he seemed to be pleading for Snape to kill him. Both of them knew it was the only way to protect Draco.

And I don't think Snape wanted to do this. He hesitated when making that part of the Vow. He also had a look of disgust when he realized what he had to do.

So that's my theory. I've seen other theories out there as well. My SD blogging buddy, PP, takes a more hardline view with murder equalling life in Azkaban. And that's completely reasonable. I can definitely see where he's coming from. Especially since we've learned that Snape is connected to the deaths of all of Harry's parental figures.

Told Voldemort the prophecy that led him to killing Harry's parents.
Teased Sirius to about being stuck in the Order's headquarters while everone else was fighting, which is one of the reasons Sirius joined the fight at the Ministry.
Killed Dumbledore with the Avada Kedavra curse.

But we'll see what twists Rowling throws at us. I'm still holding out hope that Snape will redeem himself.

Haggard Heroes of the Week: Congress!

2007-07-14T22:47:00.000-05:00

This week, the House of Representatives voted to start withdrawing troops from Iraq.

It's about time!

Of course President Bush will veto it, because he doesn't seem to care how many troops he sends to their death in this pointless, immoral war. But at least Congressional Democrats care about our troops enough to bring them home to their families.

And our very own Representative Stephanie Herseth Sandlin voted for this resolution. Good for her! That's why South Dakotans voted for her last year (and it helped that her opponent was worthless).

So thank you, Rep. Herseth, for doing what you were sent to Congress to do.

Death Penalty Supporters Are Rude

2007-07-11T20:31:00.000-05:00

Last Thursday, the Argus Leader published an article about Sue Merritt, a woman who has been standing out of 41st Street protesting Elijah Page's upcoming execution. She's just a nice lady who's passionate about this issue. She stands out there for 25 minutes a day and doesn't bother anyone.

So why is she getting such hostility?

She hates the feeling of vulnerability as she stands there with her sign,
only the top of her face visible. She cringed when a passing driver shouted out
a profane remark. She feels enormous relief when her 25-minute protest
ends.

...

One day her thoughts were interrupted by a young woman who shouted "I'd
like to blow your (expletive) head off with a (expletive) gun."

Let's break that down, shall we? That girl likes the death penalty so much that she wants to shoot someone in the head just because they are against the death penalty. Wow.

Now I'm not implying that all death penalty supporters are like that girl. But what she yelled in relation to this issue just confuses me.

As for me, I'm still on the fence about the death penalty. I see good points on both sides of the debate, so right now it's hard for me to come down on one side or the other. We'll see what happens tonight if Page is executed.

Fred Thompson Law & Order Marathon

2007-06-29T17:56:00.000-05:00

God Bless the USA Network. First they give us awesome shows like Monk and The 4400. And today they are capitalizing on Fred Thompson's future run for President. All day they've been showing reruns of the Special Victims Unit and Criminal Intent versions of the Law & Order franchise. And all the episodes have on thing in common: Fred Thompson appears.

Now Thompson is a regular on the original Law & Order, but he has apparently made a lot of appearances on the other shows as well. I had the day off, so I've had this marathon on in the background while I do other things.

Good stuff.

Haggard Hero of the Week: Dr. Donald Messer

2007-06-15T08:51:00.000-05:00

There was an interesting story in the Argus about a former Sioux Falls pastor. He has dedicated his life to helping the people around the world who are suffering from hunger and AIDS.

As a student at Dakota Wesleyan University, 46 years ago, Donald Messer spent his junior year in India where he helped at a leprosy clinic.

In 1995, he returned to India, where he learned the once-dreaded disease of leprosy had been replaced by something even more feared: AIDS.

A friend from college days, now a doctor in India, shared a puzzlement. When he worked with lepers, he told Messer, the church was in the forefront. With AIDS, the church wanted nothing to do with the victims it labeled as immoral.

"I had to deliver the bad theological news that that's the way it is everywhere in the world, that's the way the church has responded typically because the church can't deal with human sexuality," Messer said.

Read the whole article, it's very interesting. I've always been taught that we're supposed to follow Christ's teachings and one of the biggest things he taught us was to help the sick. So I'm surprised that some Christians seem to ignore the plight of people suffering from AIDS.

It shouldn't matter how someone got sick. What should matter is that they are suffering and we are supposed to do what we can to help them.

So God Bless Dr. Messer for his wonderful work.

Massachusetts Votes to Protect Equality

2007-06-15T02:35:00.000-05:00

The Massachusetts state legislature just voted to turn down a proposed ban on gay marriage.

(CBS) BOSTON Massachusetts lawmakers have blocked a proposed constitutional
amendment banning gay marriage from reaching voters.

The 45-151 vote means Massachusetts remains the only state in the nation to
allow same-sex couples to marry. The question needed the approval of 50 of 200
lawmakers in consecutive sessions to advance to the 2008 ballot. It got the
first approval at the end of last session in January with 62 votes.

It's a stunning victory for gay marriage advocates and a devastating blow
to efforts to reverse a historic 2003 court ruling legalizing same-sex
marriage.

As the tally was announced, the halls of the Statehouse erupted in cheers
and applause from supporters of gay marriage gathered outside the House
chambers."We're proud of our state today, and we applaud the Legislature for
showing that Massachusetts is strongly behind fairness," said Lee Swislow,
executive director of Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders.

"Equality for gay and lesbian citizens has enriched our state, made our
communities stronger, and our families happier," Swislow said. "The vote today
was the triumph of time, experience, and understanding over fear and
prejudice."

A complaint I see from the anti-gay marriage side is that this move won't allow the people of Mass. to have their say. But I believe they did. Last November, the citizens of Massachusetts voted a lot of anti-gay marriage legislators out of office and replaced them with pro-gay marriage ones. Plus, they voted in a pro-gay marriage governor. So today's vote actually reflected the will of the voters.

And I ran across an interesting story about one of the legislators who changed his mind for the 2nd vote and voted against the ban. Apparently he was being pulled in two directions:

In one corner of Representative Paul Kujawski's mind is the Rev. Michael
Roy, a friend and confidant who stood by the lawmaker after he was arrested for
drunken driving three years ago and who is urging him to continue supporting a
proposed ban on same-sex marriage to preserve the sanctity of heterosexual
marriage.

In the other corner are Sharon and Deb, a lesbian couple from Kujawski's
district who recently met him and hope to change his mind. They told him how
hard it was to come out to their conservative Catholic families and community
and how winning the right to marry, after more than 20 years together, seemed to
solidify their union.

Right there is proof that gays being allowed to marry is a positive thing. And here's more:

Rep. Paul Kujawski, D-Webster, also changed his vote. Kujawski said he
voted against the proposed referendum today after he met with many same-sex
couples and concluded they want the freedom to enjoy life with one another, just
like traditional couples.

"They didn't ask to be born that way," Kujawski said. "They are who
they are."

And finally I wanted to point out a quote from Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese.

“Today’s vote is a reaffirmation of Massachusetts’ proud record of choosing
equality over discrimination. For the past three years, loving and committed
same-sex couples have enjoyed the equal right to marry in Massachusetts. Despite
the doomsday predictions of opponents of equality, the sky hasn’t fallen, and no
one’s marriage has been threatened. To the contrary, the institution of marriage
has been strengthened as same-sex couples and their families have enjoyed the
equal rights and protections they deserve under Massachusetts law. The
Legislature’s action ensures that they will continue to enjoy those equal rights
and protections.”

So congragulations for the Mass. state legislature for coting to protect marriage freedom. God Bless America!

Tom Daschle and Bill Frist Team Up to Fight Poverty

2007-06-12T16:45:00.000-05:00

Our state's former senator, Tom Daschle, is in the news again. This time, he's teaming up with former Republican senator Bill Frist with the ONE Vote '08 campaign.

WASHINGTON, June 11 — Two former Senate leaders who were once fierce adversaries, Bill Frist and Tom Daschle, joined together Monday to promote a bipartisan effort to make global poverty a central issue of the 2008 presidential race.
...

“It is in the strategic and national interest of the United States of America,” said Mr. Frist, a Republican and former Senate majority leader from Tennessee. “People do not go to war with people who save their children’s lives.”

Both Democratic and Republican presidential candidates will be asked to sign a pledge in the fall saying they will offer proposals to fight H.I.V./AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, improve children’s health in other ways, increase access to education, provide access to clean water and reduce by half the number of people who suffer from hunger.

“Through the extraordinary challenge we now have, it is incumbent upon all of us to recognize that this must be a key part of American foreign policy,” said Mr. Daschle, a Democrat and former Senate majority leader from South Dakota.

It's very cool to see both Daschle and Frist come together and use their political clout for a common cause. It's also nice that they are bringing together people from both sides of the political spectrum. I've seen liberal and conservative bloggers discussing a meeting/conference call they've had recently with Daschle, Frist, the ONE Campaign and Ben Affleck. Both sides seem to be very receptive to the idea, which is also nice to see.

ONE Vote '08 is supporting a 5-goal plan that they want the presidential candidates to support:

5 Achievable Goals

1. Save 15,000 lives a day by fighting HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria,
three of the world's most devastating diseases.
2. Prevent 5.4 million young children from dying each year from
poverty-related illnesses and 400,000 women from dying in childbirth each
year.
3. Provide free access to primary education for 77 million out-of-school
children with a special emphasis on girls.
4. Improve the living conditions of vulnerable populations by, for example,
providing access to clean water for 450 million people and basic sanitation to
more than 700 million people.
5. Reduce by half the number of people in the world who suffer from hunger,
resulting in 300 million "fewer" hungry people each year.

I think this is really great and I look forward to hearing more from Daschle and this campaign.

Fred Thompson vs. Al Gore in 2008?

2007-06-12T11:18:00.000-05:00

It amuses me that with all the candidates already in the race to become president, people still want to bring in more. Fred Thompson and Al Gore have been in the Top 5 list of candidates for months and they're not even in the race (though Thompson is making motions in that direction).

And what does it say about the current crop of candidates when outsiders are polling better than some of them? What does it say about Sen. Sam Brownback when people think Thompson is a better conservative than he is?

If Al Gore and Fred Thompson ultimately end up with the nominations, I will laugh. That would make all these debates 18 months before the election pretty useless if none of those candidates are going to get the nomination.

I Agree With Ken Blanchard

2007-06-12T10:40:00.000-05:00

I'm in complete agreement with a post Prof. Ken Blanchard made today on the South Dakota Politics blog.

I agree with him that Severus Snape, from the Harry Potter books, is not evil. Like Blanchard said, Snape is a "son of a bitch." And he has no problem abusing his position to get revenge for all the pain Harry's dad caused him in the past. But while he may be a jerk, that doesn't make him evil.

A reoccurring theme throughout the books is that whenever something bad happens at Hogwarts, Harry and his friends always assume Snape was involved. They were always proven incorrect, but that was all set up for the end of the sixth book. Now it appears that Snape truly has gone to the dark side. But has he really?

Blanchard also talks about Dumbledore's pleading with Snape. But he wasn't pleading with Snape to spare him. He was pleading for him to do something. What was that something? Maybe he was supposed to spare Draco Malfoy from becoming a murderer? Maybe it's about something that hasn't happened yet? Whatever it is, we'll find out in Book 7 next month.

Thoughts on the Democratic Debate

2007-06-04T01:42:00.000-05:00

I decided not to live blog tonight's Democratic Party debate in New Hampshire. I was busy doing something else, but I had the debate on in the background. So I thought I would just post some thoughts I had as the debate was happening. (And I might try live blogging again for the Republican debate... because it's fun to tease them live).

Thoughts:

1.) During the audience question segment, four teachers and a student asked questions but none asked about education. Gov. Richardson finally brought up education during the final seconds of the debate... but that was it? To me, education is a very important issue. I want to know what these candidate plan to do to fix the education system (especially the damage from No Child Left Behind). I know Iraq is the main focus, but I hope they'll discuss education in upcoming debates.

2.) All the candidates want to get rid of the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy. Great! That's very good to hear.

3.) Mike Gravel is a crazy, old coot. He at least made the evening somewhat entertaining.

4.) Larry King is an on-the-floor reporter for the aftermath? Wow, it seems weird to see him away from his desk.

5.) I continue to like Barak Obama. He's a smart guy and makes a lot of good, well-thought-out points. I like that he fleshed out his idea of rolling back President Bush's tax cuts for the rich. He did a great job with that.

6.) Hilary Clinton had a couple of great jokes tonight. They came when she was talking about President Bush's failure of diplomacy. She mentioned that every once in a while, Bush will send Condi Rice around to other countries on diplomatic missions, but she doubts they have any substance to them. And then she mentioned Vice President Dick Cheney going on diplomatic missions and how that is "hardly diplomatic" in her view. That made me chuckle.

7.) The candidates kept hammering the idea that the Iraq War is President Bush's war and how he doesn't care about public opinion or how many American lives his war destroys. That's going to continue to be their best strategy.

8.) Joe Bidon raised some interesting points, especially when it came to his vote for the Iraq spending bill last month.

9.) Health care was almost as big of an issue as the Iraq war in this debate. That was interesting. I wasn't listening close enough to remember which candidate has which position, but they all seemed to be interested in giving health insurance to those who need it. Richardson had some interesting ideas that he seems to have already experimented with in New Mexico.

10.) Also interesting was the discussion of the VA hospitals and how they get a much better deal on medication than other hospitals do.

11.) One of the commentators in the aftermath discussion mentioned that he though Hillary Clinton looked "presidential." And they mention that the other candidates seem to be looking to her for leadership. Interesting.

12.) Obama brought up how President Bush let Osama Bin Laden get away because he let himself get distracted by going to Iraq (a country that had nothing to do with Bin Laden's attack on 9/11). Good to hear.

Those are my thoughts right now. I'll probably think of some more after I sleep on it.

Still No Presidential Disaster Declairation

2007-05-22T19:21:00.000-05:00

Last week Governor Rounds asked President Bush to sign a declaration of disaster for 22 South Dakota counties that were hit hard by storms and tornadoes earlier this month. At the time, I had my doubts because the President has shown very little desire to do anything for the people of South Dakota. So it's been a week... and still nothing. Rounds got desperate and has started giving state aid to those counties, but it's not enough.

And one of the most annoying parts of this story is that FEMA is just sitting there doing nothing. Why wait for the president's go ahead when there are people they could be helping now?

And, worst of all, those areas are being hit by storms again. President Bush may be happy just twiddling his thumbs while people suffer, but at least Rounds is doing something.

-- UPDATE --

Keloland News just reported that President Bush has allowed disaster money for 10 of the 22 counties Rounds hoped to get aid for. And it's limited to help for individuals only. So thank you, Mr. President, for this meager, barely-adequate support.

Tonight's Republican Presidential Debate

2007-05-15T21:51:00.000-05:00

I'm going to attempt blogging about tonight's Republican Presidential debate live. I'm going to start with the 11 PM Central showing (I couldn't miss House and Law & Order: SVU). I've never blogged live before, so this should be an interesting experience.

Yes, I'm going to be watching Fox News. No, I don't expect I'll enjoy the experience. Yes, I'll probably wash my ears out with soap and pray that watching Fox News won't have a harmful effect on my eternal soul. Yes, I'll probably get flack about this from my buddies at SDWC (some of the commenters there).

I'll start the live blogging when the debate starts in an hour...

- UPDATE -

Okay it's almost 11 so here I go!

I flip over to Fox News and it seems I'm a bit early. There's a group of men I don't know talking about the debate. Wait, a couple of them seem familiar. Maybe I saw them being mocked on The Daily Show or something.

"South Carolina Gamecocks." Heh. (Yes, I know I'm 5-years-old.)

Okay, introductions. McCain. Someone I don't care about. Guiliani. Other people I don't care about. Romney. Got it.

First question is about Iraq. Interesting that they're getting the elephant in the room out of the way. McCain answers first. The more he talks about his views of the Iraq War, the more I die a little inside. Where's the McCain from 2000? I'd vote for that McCain, but not this one.

Brownback supported the Iraq Study Group? Wow. Though I disagree with him on something. He said it's "one party for the war and one party against the war." Actually it's one party for the war and the rest of the entire freakin' country against the war.

Jeez, even Guliani is getting on the pro-war Republican party line? The Republicans just don't want to win the election do they?

I like Ron Paul. If I was a Republican, I'd definately be Libertarian. I like what he's saying about the war. Unfortunately, the Republican Party likes to exclude anyone who isn't on the extreme right, so I don't think he has much chance.

Increase the troop levels to 300,000 won't help things now. They would've helped if we went in with that many. One of the mistakes they made was not bringing enough troops to be able to rebuild what they destroyed. So the Iraqis lives so long without basic utilities that there's no chance of them supporting out continued presense there.

New topic: Taxes

Ah, taxes. There's nothing these candidates love more than talking about what taxes they want to cut. Bush talked about tax cuts too, but that didn't stp him from getting the national deficit to its highest levels ever.

Huckabee's ideas are interesting. I like that he's thinking about the lower class in his tax plan.

Sigh. Yes, McCain, Republicans did lose the 2006 election because of the war in Iraq. You're dumb.

Guliani talks about his fiscal conservatism. That's a good card to play.

Attention Brownback: South Dakota also produces ethanol. Jerk. But I do like that he's talking about energy alternatives. It seems like a lot of Republicans are turning away from the Big Oil industries and going for alternatives now. That's nice to see.

Does anyone else think Tommy Thompson looks like a robot?

Ron Paul wants to get rid of the needless beuracracy of Homeland Security. I like that. That agency is one of the things that screwed up Katrina.

The moderators are jerks. It would be nice if they would stop kissing up to the GOP and actually try to ask non-biased questions. Oh wait, this is Fox News. Nevermind.

You're right, guy whose name I can't remember, the Republicans have lost the mantle of fiscal responsibility. Y'know why? They were in power and power corrupts.

Break time!

Live blogging is complicated. I feel like I'm missing half of what happens when I'm typing. Also, I bet my spelling is horrible. I'll make sure I do spell check at the end.

They're back! Short break.

Ah, now we're getting to abortion. Let's watch the fur fly!

In the MSNBC debate, the candidates didn't really attack each other. But now they are. This should be fun.

Way to go Rudy! Turn the abortion debate onto fiscal responsibility and small government. That's my boy!

Ooooo! McCain talks about working with the Democrats on issues important to this country. That's good. For too long the Republicans have said "Screw you Dems, we're in the majority so we can do whatever we want." That was especially seen in President Bush. Hopefully the next president will be willing to work with the other side to do what they're supposed to do: actually help people.

Dang, Romney sucks. How was he governor of Mass. for as long as he was?

New Topic: abortion and stem cells

Thompson knows a little bit about stem cells. Though I disagree with him about adult stem cells being as good as embryonic.

Whoo-hoo! Guliani just related abortion to keeping government out of people's lives. He's in favor of reducing abortions through ways other than bans. I agree with that.

Wow. Hackabee relates supporting a woman's right to choose to Islamist suicide bombers. That is idiotic.

And now it's Brownback's turn to blow smoke up everyone's butt.

A moderator just brought up the idea that illigal abortions will return if Roe is overturned. Interesing. Unfortunately Romney isn't addressing the question. Too bad, it was an interesting thought.

New topic: Illigal immigration

It's not an issue I care about very much. Is Tancre-whoever the goto guy on the issue? I think he's brought it up a couple times tonight.

McCain talks about his experience working with Congress and the Bush administration. Good strategy. It shows he's an active part in imporant issues... even though he has one of the highest rates of absense from the Senate this year.

Everyone is talking about "securing the border." How? More fenses that don't work?

Guliani is talking about his stength in security issues. That will be good for him. Though I'm not sure I like the idea of a national ID card.

Is that San Diego fence better than oher fences? Because most don't work. But a guy just said that his San Diego fence worked. I should look into that to see what's up.

New topic: Foreign policy

Ron Paul says the Republican Party used to be anti-war. Really? They must've forgotten Christ's teachings on peace in the last 6 years.

Whoa! Ron Paul just killed his campaign by saying we invited the 9/11 attack. He has an interesting point, but it's not going to play well with the Republican Party. Just look at how the other candidates jumped on him Yikes!

What the heck is up with South Carolina's love for the confederate flag? I lack the context of it, but isn't it a symbol for one of the mistakes of this country's past?

New topic: Global warming

Huh. Tancrewhoever talks about reducing carbon emissions. That's good.

New tpic: Hypothetical terrorist attack

McCain talks about the horrors of torture. Good for him. He says it will harms how the world views our country.

Hmm... Romney wants to double Guantonimo and deny the prisoners there their rights. That's potentially dangerous.

Mr. Roboto (Thompson) basically just says what we should've done in Iraq.

Brownback says "Screw the UN and how the world see us. Who cares if it will hurt our foreign policy?"

Good point McCain. If we torture people, what happens to our troops when they are captured? That could put our troops in danger of being tortured.

Tanwhoever mentions Jack Bauer. He can save us all in a terrist attack. Fact.

New topic: Minorities

Traditionally a weak area for Republicans. Why are there no minorities runing for President as a Republican? Does Romney count?

Other topics

Romney supports No Child Left Behind? I have a lot of friends who are teachers and they all say it's a failure.

Debate ends

Now some guys named Hanity and Combs are going to discuss the debate.

Heh. McCain said "changes position every other year." Take that Romney!

Yeah, Ron Paul lampooned himself with his 9/11 remark. Too bad because he had some good ideas.

Guliani seemed to come out on top with his discussion on the war on terror and security issues. He also talks about adoptions as a way of reducing abortions. That's good, but I would also point out other programs to help women facing unwanted pregnancies.

McCain keeps talking about how retired members of the military are against any form of torture. And he brings up the fact that waterboarding started at the Spanish Inquisition. ("No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!" - Monty Python) McCain just won't give up on his support for the Iraq War. That's going to hurt him.

Romney on campaign finance reform: The only reason he doesn't like it is because before the McCain Feingold thingy the Republicans had a fundraising advantage. That's an extremely naive way of looking at campaign finance. The system was broken and corrupt. It shouldn't matter if your party can exploit the broken system, because it still needs to be fixed.

"Enhanced Interigation Techniques." That's a lame way of trying to get around the torture issue. How far would Romney go with his "enhanced interigation techinques?" There's a line there that you can't cross and a lot of Republicans don't seem to care about crossing it.

Ron Paul is coming in first in Fox News' text poll. It could be the libertarian bent that you usually see in internet polls (though this isn't an internet poll) or it could be that his profile has increased because of what happened tonight. Interesting.

Everyone is saying how good the moderators and format were... could this be just because of Republical-controlled Fox News was doing the debate?

Huckabee is talking now so I've flipped over to watch Futurama on Cartoon Network. "Look Bender, this has nothing to do with you." "That's impossible!" Heh.

Brownback is coming in last on the Fox News poll. I like seeing that.

Tanwhoever is useless. I don't expect him to last much longer.

"Acting like a moron won't bring your dog back." "Then all hope is lost!" Oh sorry, I switched over to Futurama again.

Brownback didn't get a chance to shine tonight. And he's coming off like a one-issue candidate. If South Dakotans learned anything from Bruce Whalen, it's that a candidate can't win on just an anti-abortion campaign. Also, Brownback just dodged a question about whether or not to prosecute doctors who proform abortions and/or the women who get abortions. There seems to be a lot of differing opinions about this in the pro-life movement. If they could, I imagine they would prosecute both, but that's not a popular idea with the public. So they're sticking with just prosecuting doctors. And Brownback wouldn't give a straight answer.

Mr. Roboto (Thompson) is up now. He's not as bad as some of the other candidates, but I don't think he'll last much longer.

"Windmills do not work that way!" Heh. Yeah, I've given up on the post-debate coverage. Oh, wait, here's Ron Paul. I want to listen to him.

Aw, Ron Paul is pro-life. I still like him, but now I'm wary. I liked how one of the Hanity and Combs guys questioned him about Libertarianism and how it fits with taking away a woman's right to choose. Interesting. Wow. Ron Paul is really getting into it with those guys. Arguing so much he didn't seem to care that they were out of time. For an old guy, he sure has spunk!

Well it's over now. So how did they all do?

Guiliani - Definately won the debate. He was more confident in his abortion answers this time and he got high marks with his discussions of security, 9/11 and the war on terror. And he got the major applause of the night. Nothing happened tonight to change my opinion that Rudy is the best chance the Republicans have of winning against the Democratic Party.

McCain - He had a pretty good night too, though his still has an uphill battle if he wants to continue running on this pro-Iraq War strategy. Also, I really liked what he said about torture.

Romney - Meh. I think he lost ground and a lot of his answers were dumb.

Ron Paul - I love this guy. He's got spunk and some good ideas. The 9/11 remark could be troublesome, but right now it appears to be getting him more press. He definately stood out. Can you say the same about Tanwhoever and the guy who I can't remember his name?

Brownback - Like I said before, he won't get far as a one-issue candidate. The others are leaving him in the dust.

Huckabee - I find him very annoying.

Mr. Roboto - He looked nervous all night. I think he's going to be one of the first to drop out.

Tanwhoever - Totally uninteresting as a canidate.

Guy whose name I can't remember and Some other guy - They can't stand out. I don't even remember who they are, and I just got done watching them debate.

So, that was an interesting experience trying to love blog the debate. I don't really think I like doing it because I miss stuff while I'm typing. Though I may try it again for the nest Dems debate. Now I shall leave you with one more Futurama quote:

"Look, I love life andit's pleasures as much as anyone here. Except perhaps you, HedonismBot. But we need to be shut off! Especially you, Hedonism Bot."

"I apologize for nothing!"

Rounds Asks Bush for Disaster Relief

2007-05-15T17:31:00.000-05:00

It's been reported that Governor Mike Rounds is asking for a "presidential disaster declaration for homes and businesses in a dozen South Dakota counties hit by storms and flooding May 4-5."

I'm very interested in the response he'll get. It has always seemed like President Bush doesn't care about South Dakota. He just thanks us for our electoral votes and then ignores us for four years. For example, he has actively opposed giving South Dakota any drought relief (going so far as to threaten to veto Iraq spending bills that incude drought relief funds). And while he visited Kansas when a tornado wiped out Greensburg, I have yet to see him acknowledge the parts of South Dakota that were also hit with tornadoes and flooding because of that storm.

We're part of this country too, Mr. President. How about some help?

Jerry Falwell

2007-05-15T15:27:00.000-05:00

Jerry Falwell passed away this morning.

His family is in my prayers.

Hunt is Going Down

2007-04-23T13:15:00.000-05:00

I haven't done any serious posting for months. But I just had to pop up again to see Rep. Roger Hunt get what's coming to him.

And I love seeing that even his fellow Republicans are against him in this case. Attorney General Larry Long and Secretary of State Chris Nelson are saying Hunt created Promising Futures to get around the law.

And Nelson had a great quote about this in the Rapid City Journal:

The state says Hunt must disclose the donor because a state law says any
"natural person or ballot question committee" involved in a ballot measure must
file a campaign-finance report. Another law defines ballot question
committee as two or more people who raise or contribute money for the purpose of
passing or defeating ballot measures.

Hunt maintains that he is the sole officer in Promising Future, and it does
not have to file campaign-finance reports because it does not fit the definition
of a ballot-question committee.

But the Promising Future articles of incorporation that Hunt filed with the
secretary of state indicate that one of the purposes of the firm is "education
of the public concerning ballot issues."

Asked about that, Nelson said only: "Bingo."

Hahahahahaha! Chris Nelson made a funny!

Good, ol', honest Roger Hunt must've known about that two-person rule. So he formed a one-person company to get around it. The problem is that the money still came from someone who isn't him. That's two people.

The Argus is covering the trial on their blog, so I'll probably be posting follow ups. This'll be fun!

UPDATE: Apparently one of Hunt's main arguments is that the two-person rule I mentioned doesn't apply in this case.

Let's count:

Roger Hunt + Donor = 1 Person?

Now I was never that great at math in school, but that doesn't seem right to me.

Word Verification

2007-02-07T00:04:00.000-06:00

Well after almost one year of blogging, it seems like the spam programs have finally found me. So I'm activating the word verification feature. It's a pain, I agree, but I refuse to be a pawn in the internet spam wars.

Tim Johnson

2006-12-13T16:13:00.000-06:00

There's news today of Senator Tim Johnson being hospitalized with a "possible stroke" (is it still "possible" or has anything been confirmed yet?). My prayers go out to him and his family.

I'll post again if there are any updates.

CANTON WON! C-HAWKS RULE!!!!

2006-11-10T23:50:00.000-06:00

Whoo-hoo! What a game!

We got there a little late, but we made it in time to catch Canton getting their first touchdown. The guy running into the end zone broke about five tackles to get there.

The game progressed exactly how I love football games to go: constantly close. the score was constant back-and-forth. So much so it was tied at the end of the 4th.

Now high school overtime confuses me. Each team gets a shot at another score and they start ten yards away. You'd think they would automatically try for a field goal, but they'd run the risk of the other team getting a touchdown on their turn.

So Dell Rapids went first in overtime and got a touchdown on the first try. Then Canton went and used all four downs to get their touchdown. That tied it up again. Double overtime. Canton went first and, because Dell Rapids had a penalty on the last play, they easily got a touchdown. Then, for some reason, Canton's defense came alive and was able to stop each of Dell Rapid's attempts. They even pushed them back a few yards. It was amazing!

So 20 years later, Canton returns to the Dome and gets another championship. Way to go C-Hawks!!

Go C-Hawks!!!

2006-11-10T17:23:00.000-06:00

I'm headed down to The Dome to watch the Canon C-Hawks football team play against Dell Rapids in the state championship.

Normaly, I have trouble getting interested in local sports (I'm an NFL guy) unless I know someone on the team. But, it's been 20 years since Canton made it to the finals. That's something you can't miss!

Breaking News: So Long Rumsfeld!

2006-11-08T11:53:00.000-06:00

I was watching MSNBC to see President Bush's upcoming press conference, and they announced that Donald Rumsfeld will be stepping down from his position as Secretary of Defense.

Very interesting. A lot of people had been wanting this to happen, but Bush (stubborn as ever) refused. But now that it look like this election was in response to American's disappointment with the war in Iraq, maybe that finally changed the President's mind.

Comedy Central's Election Coverage

2006-11-07T23:17:00.000-06:00

Thank God for the Daily Show and Colbert Report!

Their election coverage was the beautiful end to a fairly good election night.

Why Whalen Won't Win

2006-11-07T15:32:00.000-06:00

Aside from the fact that he's campaigning against a popular incumbent, there's a very big reason why he's going to lose:

He would be bad at the job.

From the second he entered this election, he's only campaigned on three issues. Being pro-life. Being pro-family. Being Republican. And that's it. If the only issues voters care about are banning abortion and discriminating against homosexuals, then he would win in a landslide.

But smart voters know that the Senators and Representatives we elect have to deal with many more issues that just those two. What does Whalen know about security or economics or agriculture?

And what about Native American issues? I really haven't heard him talk much about any issues that effect SD's Native American population. What are his feelings about sovereignty or the meth problem or education on the reservations? I think he would've been a much stronger candidate if he had focused on issues like that at the beginning.

So, to sum up, don't vote against Whalen because he's Republican. Vote against him because he would be bad at the job.

Church and Politics

2006-11-07T10:44:00.000-06:00

I love my church. Not once did my pastor tell us who or what to vote for or against. The only thing he said was that we all should vote. In my opinion, that's exactly what leaders in the church should do. They should never tell their congregations what/who to vote for or against. They should just direct them to vote. Period.

Also, this last Sunday, they used the adult forum after the service to go over the ballot to help anyone who might be confused. Unfortunately I was teaching Sunday school at the time so I couldn't participate in the discussion. But I heard that there was lively discussion about several issues. Everyone thought Amendment E was a stupid idea (I love my church) and there were people on both sides of Amendment C and the abortion ban.

I talked to one lady afterwards who was upset that a whole bunch of men voted for the abortion ban in the legislature. What she said will stick with my the rest of my life. She thinks it would be a good idea to get all the women in the state together to vote on a law to castrate all rapists. I couldn't believe this sweet, 80-something-year-old lady said that, but it was absolutely brilliant.

Cheney Hunting in SD? Run For Your Lives!

2006-11-05T21:37:00.000-06:00

KELO has a news story about Vice President Dick Cheney's plans to come to South Dakota for hunting this week. Is anyone else scared? I mean, he shot his best friend in the face. What would he do to someone he doesn't even know? We should all pray for our fellow South Dakotans who live near Pierre.

Update: South Dakota Magazine's blog posted something about the VP's visit which I found completely hilarious.

The Gettysburg folks are polite to a fault, so we’d expect there’ll be few jokes about his quail hunting debacle in which he shot his buddy Harry Whitington a year ago. However, there has been a huge run on orange vests at the Gettysburg Farmer’s Co-op Store. The local nursing home even puts the vests on its patients before they’re allowed to sit outside in the sun.

Ann Coulter: Jailbird!

2006-11-02T17:37:00.000-06:00

It seems the good, honest, constervative Christian Ann Coulter might have broken the law.

WEST PALM BEACH, Florida (AP) -- Conservative columnist Ann Coulter has refused to cooperate in an investigation into whether she voted in the wrong precinct, so the case will probably be turned over to prosecutors, Palm Beach County's elections chief said Wednesday.

Elections Supervisor Arthur Anderson said his office has been looking into the matter for nearly nine months, and he would turn over the case to the state attorney's office by Friday.

Coulter's attorney did not immediately return a call Wednesday. Nor did her publicist at her publisher, Crown Publishing.

Knowingly voting in the wrong precinct is a felony punishable by up to five years in prison.

Anderson's office received a complaint in February that Coulter voted in the wrong precinct during a February 7 Palm Beach town council election.

Anderson said a letter was sent to Coulter on March 27 requesting that she clarify her address for the voting records "or face the possibility of her voter registration being rescinded." Three more letters were sent to Coulter and her attorney, but she has yet to respond with the information requested, Anderson said.

In July, Anderson said, he received a letter from Coulter's attorney, Marcos Daniel Jimenez D'Clouet. The letter said the attorney would only discuss the matter in person or by telephone because, he complained, Anderson had given details to the media. Anderson said the matter had to be discussed in writing.

This couldn't have happened to a nicer person.

Top 5 Scary Movies

2006-10-31T21:43:00.000-06:00

This week's Top 5 is of one of my favorite things ever: scary movies. I live for this time of year, because it means I can indulge in my craving for scary movies.

A note before we start. My taste in scary movies is different than other people's. I normally hate movies with fake villain/monster like Jason from the Friday the 13th movies. I just don't find them very scary. The kinds of scary movies I prefer are the ones that use psychological fears, especially the fear of the unknown, so you'll see a lot of those on this list. Like with all my Top 5 lists, feel free to comment and disagree.

Let's get started:

Honorable Mention #1 - Cujo

This movie utilizes a personally fear of mine. Ever since an incident I had with a dog when I was a kid, I always get freaked out by dogs that are barking and growling. I mean, I love dogs but something inside of me freaks out when they growl. And this movie features a big, angry, snarling dog. I have a lot of trouble sitting through the whole movie.

Honorable Mention #2 - Final Destination

This movie, like I mentioned earlier, capitolizes on fear of the unknown. An unseen force (Death) is trying to kill the characters in the movie. I think the concept is great for a horror movie. Unfortunately, I don't think they executed the concept as well as they could have. The unseen force is too predictable and the characters can see when it's coming. That took away some of the stength of the concept, but it was still a good idea.

Honorable Mention #3 - Audition

I first heard of this movie from the list BRAVO TV put together of the 100 scariest movie moments. I wish I hadn't. This movie is a build up to the last fifteen minutes, but that scariest moments show spoiled the twist for me. I mean, it was still one of the best, creepiest, most disturbing horror movies I've seen... but I was sad that I knew the twist ahead of time. I suggest going into this movie with no knowledge of the plot. The only thing I'll mention here is that it was made in Japan, so expect subtitles.

Honorable Mention #4 - Kakurenbo

For a cartoon from Japan, this is very good and very scary. I rarely like anime/japanimation, but all of my usual complaints about that style are not present in this movie. It's about a game of hide and seek gone wrong. At certain times, groups of kids get together to play a game of hide and seek in an abandoned part of town, but the kids who play are never seen from again. We follow the current group that's playing. The story is part mystery and it gets more intesne as the movie progresses. I'm not going to spoil some of the twists and turns, but even if you don't like anime movies, I suggest giving this a try. It's only 40 minutes long and when it was over I was sad that it wasn't longer. Also, this is one of the rare horror movies that I think it okay for kids to watch.

5.) Nightmare on Elm Street

This movie is great because it capitolizes on a part of our lives that we probably don't give much thought. We, as humans, need to sleep. And while we're asleep, we're vulnerable. So what happens if someone starts attacking people in their dreams? That's a scary concept. And I love how, throughout these movies, there are parts where the wall between reality and dreams becomes blurred. Like, the main characters are trying to stay awake, but suddenly Freddy attacks and they realize that they fell asleep. It's facinating the think of the psychological aspects of these movies.

I said before that I don't like movies with made-up monsters or villains, but Freddy Krueger is the exception. He's such a great, scary concept. He attacks you when you're most vulnerable and there's not much you can do to defend youself against him. The only way is to stay awake, and that's very difficult for people to do. Plus, Freddy is a great character. He's one of the few horror monsters with a personality and it's a fun personality.

The main concept and Freddy combine for a surprisingly good horror movie.

4.) Blair Witch Project

My friends all laugh when I say this is one of my favorite horror movies, but it's true. Once again, this is a movie that capitolizes on the fear of the unknown. Throughout the movie, you don't know if what's happening is real of if it's just coincidence from the documentary the characters are shooting. Just like Audition, it builds up to the very last moment. It starts off as a nice little documentary and slowly becomes this unknown element messing with these kids. It just gets more and more intense and you're trying to figure out what's going on and suddenly then ending hits you like a ton of bricks. And I love that if you've been paying attention through the movie to the Blair Witch trivia, the ending is a hundred times more powerful. When I first saw that ending, I sat in my chair stunned for about ten minutes.

Also, I have a lot of respect for how this movie was made. The main actors were pretty much given their own cameras and sent off by themselves to improvize the whole time. I saw an interview with the actors where they said they would someimtes wake up in the morning to find notes from the director, and that was the only direction they were given. Not to mention that this movie is one of the biggest success stories in box office history because it was made for nothing and went on to rake in a lot of money.

3.) Misery

I love this movie for a lot of reasons. I'm an aspiring writer, so I'm instantly relating to the main character, and also this is a stuation that I could see actually happening to someone. I travel in some nerdy circles and I've met some really fanatical people. I could definately see maybe a Harry Potter fan going crazy and making the author do more than seven books.

And the acting was incredible. James Caan was stuck in a bed and wheelchair most of the movie, but he pulled excelled through subtle acting. And Kathy Bates was one of the scariest horror villains ever. You start off thinking she's this nice, swet lady, and suddenly she snaps. Great, great movie.

2.) The Ring

I think this was one of the best scary movies made in the last 15 years. Its a horror movie rapped around a mystery movie. It's full of twists and turns and frights. And, being a mystery, you don't see the main villain until the very end so it builds up the fear of the unknown.

1.) The Haunting (1963)

For me, this is the best horror movie of all time. It's the only horror movie to truely show how deep our fear of the unknown can go. No guy in a costume. No fake monsters. Just four people in a haunted house. The special effects were pretty much just camera angles and and a few sound effects. And they used those things brilliantly to make it seem like the house was really trying to get at the characters.

For such simple concepts and effects, this is the scariest movie I've ever watched. The pounding and the creaking just makes your heart jump. It feels like you're right there with them in that house.

My favorite moment is the ending, where the characters are trying to run away from the pounding. They have the cameras follow them from above. As silly as it sounds, it actually looks like you're watching through the house's "eyes" as it chases them.

This is what all horror movies should aspire to, but I don't think any have come close to capting what make this movie so scary.

And, just briefly, I want to mention how disappointing the recent remake of this film was. It tried to do with CGI what the orginal did with subtle camera work. To top it all off, there was a CGI ghost at the end. My only thought was, "Are you kidding me?" I mean, had they even watched the original before making this piece of crap? Catherine Zeta Jones and Owen Wilson cldn't make up for how awful it was. Best not to waste your time with it and rent the original instead.

Anyway, these are my picks for Top 5. Do you agree? Disagree? Care to suggest new categories for future columns? Don't be afraid to let me know!

Haggard Monsters of the Week: Spider-Man and Friends

2006-10-31T17:11:00.000-06:00

Happy Halloween everybody! To celebrate, instead of my "Haggard Heroes of the week" feature, I'm bringing you "Haggard Monsters." And who are the monsters I want to feature? No, not Leslee Unruh. The monsters I want to feature are super-hero zombies. That's right! Spider-Man, Wolverine, Captain America and others transformed into flesh-eating zombies.

Marvel Zombies is a fun graphic novel that shows what would happen if Marvel super-heroes like Spider-Man, Wolverine and others were infected by a zombie plague. And villains like Magneto have to stop them from destroying humanity. I love this story. It combines two of my favorite nerdy things: comic books and horror movies. And the writing successfully combines humor and horror. If you like super-heroes and/or zombie movies, I highly recommend checking this out.

Have a fun and happy Halloween!

Bush is a Flip-Flopper

2006-10-25T23:58:00.000-05:00

I'm greatly amused by the new messages coming from the Bush administration. For months, they've been preaching how "stay the course" is the best strategy for Iraq. But after they finally realized what a falure their policy for Iraq has been, they're now changing that message.

What's funny about this is that Bush and his sycophants are claiming that their message for the last few months hasn't actually been "stay the course." It hasn't taken long for people like Jon Stewart to point out that lie. I mean, has Bush ever been on the internet? Once you put some information out there, you can't take it back just because you've changed your mind. It's like he's saying, "Hey guys, you know all that "stay the course" stuff I've been talking about? Yeah, I didn't really mean it. My bad."

And I love the news coverage of this issue. My favorite is an article with the headline: "Bush has decided to cut and run from `staying the course'." Ha!

Let's Get This Party Started!

2006-10-17T20:29:00.000-05:00

(That may be a really horrible title... I couldn't think of a better one)

I've been kind of taking the last couple weeks off. I noticed I was taking certain things way too personally (as you can see here). So I thought a nice break would be in order to rest and revitalize myself for the upcoming political debates.

Now that I'm back, my plan is to have political content up every day. I have a lot I want to cover, from the abortion ban to Amendment Discrimination (or "C") to the various political races. I also want to spend tme discussing my Christian faith and why I believe it doesn't contradict my pro-choice and pro-gay marriage beliefs (no matter how many times Sibby may call me "Anti-Christian"). And I plan to continue my fun posts like the Top 5 on Thursdays and the return of Haggard Hero of the Week which will be on Fridays. Plus I still want to start my Haggard Entertainment posts, but they may have to take a backseat until after the election.

So thanks for your patience!

Update 10/24/06 - I knew I was shooting myself in the foot by saying there would be new content every day. Next thing I know a whole week has gone by. I suck.

Update 10/25/06 - And now when I want to post Blogger craps out on me. Grrrrrr.

No On E Radio Ad

2006-10-04T23:52:00.000-05:00

While I was listening to Viewpoint University today, I heard an add from the anti-Amendment E group, No on E.

I couldn't find the ad online anywhere, so I'll have to describe it. The ad was about a game show where the host would list things or ask questions related to Amendment E. For example, the host listed "family, friends, co-workers" and the contestant tried to guess how all those are related. His first guess was "Good and honest people I know" which wasn't correct. The host listed a couple more and the contestant said "People who would be hurt by Amendment E." And that was correct!

And after that, there was a couple more questions (one was about criminals who would benefit from Amendment E and another was about the Californians who started it). Unfortunately, no one won the game because "nobody wins if Amendment E passes." (paraphrased because I can't remember the exact quote)

What a fun ad! It's exactly the kind of ad that I think can grab the public's attention. If I find it online, I'll post it for everyone to hear.

Top 5 South Dakota Attractions

2006-09-28T23:49:00.000-05:00

This is a fun feature I plan to run every Thursday. I'll take a category and try to rate the Top 5. I'll mostly do South Dakota categories, but it won't be limited to just SD stuff.

Today's Top 5 is South Dakota Attractions.

Honorable Mention - Sturgis Motorcycle Rally

I had originally wanted to put this on the list, but it's only a week-long event as opposed to the others which are year-long attractions. But still, I wanted to acknowledge Sturgis as an important SD attraction.

5.) Wind Cave National Park

Out of all the places in the world, you'd never think of South Dakota as having a big, underground cave.

This place is cool. It's one of the only places in the world where you can find boxwork calcite formations.

4.) Wall Drug

My family went on many trips to the Black Hills while I was growing up. The goal of the trips was to see Mt. Rushmore, but I almost looked forward to some of the stops along the way even more. I still have fond memories of the animatronic Cowboy Orchestra.

3.) Badlands National Park

Growing up in the relatively flat southeastern part of the state, I've always had a fondness for places that aren't flat. So it comes as no surprise that one of my other favorite parts of trips to Mt. Rushmore were going through the Badlands. I swear, I could stare at that terrain forever.

2.) The Corn Palace

I have to admit that, when I was a kid, I thought the Corn Palace was silly. I don't know why, I just didn't like it. But it certainly is a unique attraction. So much so, that it averages 500,000 visitors a year. And I love that they use it concerts and other community events. Now that I'm grown up (kind of), I appreciate this landmark as one of South Dakota's treasures.

1.) Mount Rushmore

Was there ever a doubt about which attraction would be #1? Millions of people from all of the country and world come to Rushmore every year to pay homage to America's greatest presidents.

Is it weird that most of our major attractions are on the western end of the state?

Anyway, these are my picks for Top 5. Do you agree? Disagree? Care to suggest new categories for future columns? Don't be afraid to let me know!

Todd Epp's New Job

2006-09-25T23:53:00.000-05:00

I just wanted to congratulate Todd Epp on his new job as legal and communications consultant for the South Dakotans Against Discrimination campaign. Todd's a great guy and that's a great cause.

The "New" Argus Leader

2006-09-25T00:23:00.000-05:00

Starting today, the Argus Leader is going through a format change. They're making a lot of changes to the paper to supposedly bring it into the "digital age." How exactly do you bring a printed newspaper into the "digital age?" Are we now going to get floppy disks tossed on our front porches or would they send us a CD every day like AOL?

Some of the changes are pretty good. I'm looking forward to the Voices section. And I like that the first section is going to be much more focused on local news. And some of their ideas for online, interactive content sounds interesting.

But there are many things I'm not sure I like about this change. The first thing for me is moving the weather page. It was so handy to have in right on page 2. Then there's the Life section. They're turning it into a magazine-like thing. I don't like that idea. The paper usually comes with a lot of magazine-like things in the form of ads and USA Weekend and other things that I throw away. I'd prefer the Life section to match the other sections, but I'll give this a shot.

Another concern I have is just how much content they plan to leave for the website. I'd rather not see stories that say, at the end, "go online for more on this story." Many people aren't online, especially older people. My parents use the internet only for the basics like e-mail, Google and doing taxes. If they have a choice, they'd sooner stop subscribing to the Argus rather than be forced to read content online. So I just hope they're keeping that in mind when they do this.

We'll see what happens tomorrow.

It Won't Be Long Now...

2006-09-14T19:36:00.000-05:00

...until we can finally become cyborgs!

Isn't that cool?

Distractions... I Suck at Blogging

2006-09-07T01:58:00.000-05:00

Is it really September? Wow.

I had such big plans for what I would do with this blog during the summer. I wanted to talk about important issue South Dakota would be facing in November. I had hoped to Spotlight some local people I support who are running for the legislature. I wanted to really get into a discussion on homosexuality and Christian faith. And I wanted to start Haggard Entertainment articles on movies, TV, music, video games, comic books, restaurants, internet culture and more.

I ended up being a lot busier than I thought I would be and I kept getting distracted from my plans. There was the Canton financial issues in June. Then I had a personal distraction in July. And I was out of town a lot in August. Not to mention traveling west river every other weekend to help my sister. And I spent way too much time fiddling with the blog layout.

And looking over my archives, a lot of things fell by the wayside. Anyone remember my Haggard Hero of the Week posts? I haven't done one on months. And at the beginning of June I started what I thought was a series of posts about "Taking Back Family Values" and it ended up being just like the movie "History of the World Part 1" since neither had a Part 2.

So what now? Well, my first step is to set up a schedule of weekly features so I'll have at least one new post each weekday. Like I can do the Haggard Hero posts on Fridays or something. I can't do much about distractions, but the schedule should help me keep on track if anything happens.

Amendment E Discussion on KSOO Tomorrow

2006-09-06T23:39:00.000-05:00

I was listening to KSOO's Viewpoint University, as I often like to do, and the list of Thursday's guests was very interesting to me.

They will be interviewing Diana Miller, from the No on Amendment E group. It's scheduled for 5 PM Central time.

I can't wait to hear them pick apart JAIL and talk about how horrible this amendment would be for the people of our state. Everybody should tune in. It'll be fun!

New Conservative Blog - Worth Checking Out

2006-08-29T23:57:00.000-05:00

A new South Dakota blog has popped up this week called Prairie Conservative. It's run by Greg Belfrage and Kristi Golden, the regular host of KELO AM and a frequent guest host, respectively.

It's a conservative blog, so I know I won't like some of what they post, but so far the content seems to be smart and of high quality. About on par with SDWC. And Greg seems like a nice guy so I think he's a good addition to the SD blogosphere.

And I absolutely love the "News You Can't Use" feature. Without it I would've completely missed the article about Marines showing the South Park movie to Saddam Hussein. If you haven't seen the movie, Saddam is a character who gets killed by wild boars, then goes to Hell where he becomes Satan's abusive boyfriend. Then, as Saddam tries to start the apocalypse and take over the world, he's defeated by a 4th grader.

The thought of Saddam watching that movie just makes me smile.

Sibby Defends Racist

2006-08-29T11:34:00.000-05:00

Ever since Senator George Allen of Virginia uttered his infamous "macaca" comment, Sibby has been defending him over and over.

When the story first came out, he spent quite a bit of time defending Allen on Mount Blogmore. He treated it like some liberal plot and then somehow turned the discussion into an abortion argument.

His lastest attempt is reprinting the text of a WorldNetDaily article with the comment "The hypocrites still can't forgive" preceding it.

What's to forgive? Allen claimed ignorance. He tried to claim that he doesn't know what it means and that he made the word up and that he had heard his campaign staff use it and he even said it was a slang term for "mohawk" (which may or may not have been the hairstyle of the person he called "macaca"). So he lied several times to try and save face instead of apologizing. He eventually did apologize, kinda, when he realized his other tactics weren't working.

That's the guy Republicans want to be President? A guy who "used to keep a Confederate flag in his living room and a noose in his law office."

They sure are working hard to spin this story. They're even attempting to put the blame on Sidarth, the kid who was called "macaca" and welcomed to America (even though he was born here). Because apparently it was Sidarth's fault that Allen said a horribly racist slur and implied that he was an immigrant just because of the color of his skin.

Way to go Republicans! It's no wonder that you're losing minority voters.

How Many Planets Do We Have?

2006-08-24T12:58:00.000-05:00

Last week I heard that scientists were planning to reclassify the qualifications of being a planet. They were doing it with the eye towards adding new planets to our traditional nine. And there were three specific objects that they planned to give planet-status: Ceres (between Mars and Jupiter), UB313 (nicknamed Xena) and Charon (Pluto's moon).

I thought that was a great idea. As we learn more about the solar system, it seems logical that our traditional definition of what a planet is will grow and expand.

But then I checked Google News this morning and discovered that not only was that proposal rejected, but Pluto has now been downgraded and is no longer a planet. What the heck happened? How did we go backwards? Their main objection seems to be that the proposed definition would allow to many objects to be classified as planets and we could have up to 200 planets. So what? That's progress.

For as long as I've been alive, Pluto has always been a planet. Now the 76 year history of the planet Pluto is just swept under the rug as if making it a planet had been a mistake. That's crap. I don't want to sound like a religious conservative, but I'm just going to stick fingers in my ears and say "I'm not listening" to those scientists.

Professor Mike Brown of the California Institute of Technology brought some common sense to the discussion in a radio interview:

"The analogy that I always like to use is the word 'continent'. You know, the word 'continent' has no scientific definition ... they're just cultural definitions, and I think the geologists are wise to leave that one alone and not try to redefine things so that the word 'continent' has a big, strict definition."

That works for me. Just as there are seven continents, there are nine planets.

Activist Judges

2006-08-22T14:13:00.000-05:00

While on the subject of Amendment Evil, I wanted to talk about something I saw in one of David Kranz's columns last week. He showed what a Minnesota district judge, George Harrelson, wrote about South Dakota's J.A.I.L. Amendment (aka Amendment Evil). What caught my attention was his opinion of the people who are always complaining about "judicial activism."

Activist Judges: "I must be one of those activist judges. In the 23 years
that I have been a judge, the caseload has more than doubled, and at the end of
a lot of days, I feel like I have been rode hard and put up wet. Of course, when
you hear about the 'activist judges,' someone is usually complaining about
rulings of a Supreme Court (often in Massachusetts or California) that they
don't agree with. Problem is, trial judges, such as myself, are required to
follow laws or prior court rulings even if they are not popular.

"In the past, when citizens or groups of citizens were unhappy with a law
or court ruling, they would pressure their legislators to pass a different law
or a constitutional amendment. Recently, a new technique has emerged -
intimidate the judge. People are being urged to 'hold the judge accountable.' If
you don't like what the judge did, get rid of the judge," Harrelson says.

"When a judge starts to worry about who they will please or displease with
a ruling, then we cease to be a government based on law," Harrelson
writes.

So the people who are always screaming "activist judges" when they don't like the judge's decision are just bullies. And the Amendment Evil people are just trying to make it easier to bully judges and manipulate the justice system how they see fit. I thought as much.

Amendment Evil

2006-08-22T11:43:00.000-05:00

I don't spend much time talking about Amendment E, which we will be voting on in November, because PP and Tim are doing such a fantastic job exposing the clowns who brought this crap to South Dakota. But it's good for anyone to comment, if for no other reason than showing Bill Stegmeier that almost everyone in the state things J.A.I.L. is a horrible idea.

I spent this last weekend hanging out with a bunch of friends on our annual lake trip. We got to talking about politics one day and someone brought up Amendment E. I don't remember how we came to it, but we all settled on calling it "Amendment Evil." Don't you think that just fits?

And I was very happy to see Judge Max Gors' decision about the ballot description for Amendment Evil. I was glad that Gors put a stop to Stegmeier's lies about who has judicial immunity and who can be affected by Amendment Evil. And I really loved that the Argus included Gors' "money quote":

Glasford also maintained that the attorney general should have used the word "accountability" in his description. Gors rejected that with a flourish, writing, "The attorney general could have said with a straight face that the real purpose and effect of the proposed JAIL amendment is to destroy justice in South Dakota by harassment of public decision makers with lawsuits, but he did not. His actual description is quite tame."

Oh my, anyone smell smoke in here? Because I think the Amendment Evil people just got BURNED!

But there was something in that article that horrified me. The lawyer for Amendment Evil is from Canton. What were you thinking Ms. Glasford? Don't you have some standards in who you accept for your clients? Sheesh.

Mel Gibson

2006-08-11T03:05:00.000-05:00

I'm very late on commenting about this topic. My comment is simply this: Who the heck cares? He's a celebrity. Celebrities, just like any other human, do stupid things sometimes. The only reason it's news is because he's a popular actor.

I admit that I haven't been following the story that closely, mostly because I don't care. The stir seems to be something about anti-Semitic remarks. Whatever those remarks were, they were wrong and I'm sure he feels bad about it. But I've seen people use those remarks to justify their belief that his The Passion of the Christ movie was anti-Semitic.

I personally didn't think the movie was anti-Semitic, but I guess I was more focused on how lousy it was at adapting the story.

I don't know. It seems like a bit much to get up in arms over a crappy movie.*

So when stuff like this happens in the future, just remember this: It was just a celebrity. Not anything important.

*I'm sure Bob Ellis or someone will blast me about the "crappy movie" part. I just think it was depressing that it focused on every single bit of suffering Jesus went through while it left out little things like hope and love and the promise for the future of humanity (which I believe is the important part of the story).

Liar Liar Pants on Fire!

2006-08-10T23:13:00.000-05:00

It always amazes me how the "good, moral, Christian" members of the pro-life movement will lie and cheat to get their point across.

For example: In Sunday's Argus Leader, there's a letter to the editor from Linda Schauer, SD state director of the Concerned Women for America.

I applaud President Bush and Sen. John Thune for supporting research that does not destroy human life through the use of embryonic stem cells.

We continue down a slippery slope when we regard human life as a commodity. It's just wrong to kill some humans to be used as research material to benefit others. Furthermore, it is not prudent to federally fund research that holds little promise of cures when adult stem-cell research has already cured or improved patients representing over 70 ailments.

Unlike treatment with embryonic stem cells, treatments using adult stem cells do not produce cancerous tumors and the serious complication of rejection is eliminated. We need to direct our dollars toward proven success.

Sen. Tim Johnson cites the frozen embryos conceived through in vitro fertilization as "medical waste." Would he consider it ethical to experiment on death-row inmates or would he have approved of the Nazi experiments on humans? Of the 400,000 frozen embryos, only 2.8 percent have been tagged for research by their biological parents. The rest are awaiting implantation by the parents or made available for adoption. More than 100 frozen embryos ("Snowflake" kids) have been adopted.

Government should not fund unethical and unsuccessful research.

Wow. Let's count how many times she broke the "don't lie" commandment.

1.) "Furthermore, it is not prudent to federally fund research that holds little promise of cures when adult stem-cell research has already cured or improved patients representing over 70 ailments."

This number has been drastically inflated to make adult stem cells seem better than embryonic stem cells. Truthfully, the only current treatment that uses adult stem cells is when they take them out of bone marrow when leukemia patients have chemotherapy. That's to prevent the chemo treatments from killing those adult stem calls along with the leukemia. Once the treatments are over, the inject the adult stem cells back into the bone marrow.

The current research with adult stem cells shows a lot of promise in potential treatments for 8 or so ailments. And they are very close to using adult stem cells to improve patients with heart/muscle damage and blindness.

So not only are pro-lifers lying about how many ailments adult stem cells can help with, but they are implying that they can cure/help them right now (which isn't true).

2.) "Unlike treatment with embryonic stem cells, treatments using adult stem cells do not produce cancerous tumors and the serious complication of rejection is eliminated."

Saying that embryonic stem cells cause tumors is an outright lie. Pro-lifers using this argument are saying this to deceive the public. There is no evidence that embryonic stem cells cause cancer or any kind of tumor. Just because they don't like embryonic stem cell research doesn't mean that can make up things about it.

The part about rejection is more truthful, though the chances of rejection are probably no greater than a heart transplant or something.

3.) "Sen. Tim Johnson cites the frozen embryos conceived through in vitro fertilization as "medical waste." Would he consider it ethical to experiment on death-row inmates or would he have approved of the Nazi experiments on humans?"

Here she compares Sen. Johnson with Nazis. That's just mean. Whenever you bring up Nazis in your argument, it shows how weak the argument is.

4.) "Of the 400,000 frozen embryos, only 2.8 percent have been tagged for research by their biological parents. The rest are awaiting implantation by the parents or made available for adoption. More than 100 frozen embryos ("Snowflake" kids) have been adopted."

This part confuses me. It seems to be her answer to Johnson's "medical waste" remark, but she just throws it out there without making a point. I found an article that talks more specifically about those embryos:

The team tallied a "conservative" total of 396,526 embryos.

About 3 percent were earmarked for research; 2 percent for destruction and a like number for donation to women; and 1 percent for quality-assurance studies. Most of the rest -- about 87 percent of the total -- were reserved for ongoing fertility efforts.

It seems that 2% of that 400,000 is earmarked for donation to other women, which is where the Snowflake babies have come from. What I find interesting is that the pool of embryos for donation to women isn't the same thing as the pool earmarked for research. President Bush and anti-abortionists would have us believe that the Snowflake babies are coming from the research pool when, in fact, they are not.

---------

I don't mean to pick on Mrs. Schauer. I'm sure she's a very nice lady. I just thought her letter was a good illustration of one of the things that's wrong with the pro-life movement. If they want to claim that their side is the side of good, faithful Christians, then they need to stop lying and cheating to get their way.

Is Increasing Minimum Wage Worth It?

2006-08-04T11:37:00.000-05:00

The latest twist in the minimum wage issue was that the Republicans in Congress added a provision that would reduce the estates/death/Paris Hilton tax to it.
It ultimately didn't pass. Shocker.

What was brilliant about it was, like a lot of other Republican ideas, they could show support for raising minimum wage without actually having to raise the minimum wage. They knew it would fail like this, but it allowed the Republicans to look like they wanted to raise the minimum wage. Brilliant. Evil, but brilliant.

But my question was: Would it be worth it reduce taxes for the uber-wealthy if we can finally get the Republicans to support a minimum wage increase? It's kind of like signing a deal with the devil, but if that's the only way to get it done... isn't it worth it?

As much as I don't want to support anything that benefits Paris Hilton (because she's destroying America), it might be worth it to get a minimum wage increase. I think raising the minimum wage is very important. If the Republicans will only do it if we agree to their stupid, morally corrupt ideas, then I think we should go for it.

Since it didn't pass, this discussion is pretty moot. But it's something to think about for next time. Hopefully by then the people in control of Congress will want to raise the minimum wage for no other reason than it's a good idea for American citizens. Crazy, I know.

Catching Up

2006-08-04T10:05:00.000-05:00

I had such big plans for the blog this summer, but real life keeps getting in my way.

So I'm going to catch up on the news (like the stem cell debate, minimum wage and the various polls about SD issues) and hopefully start the Haggard Entertainment section.

I hope you'll keep sticking with me.

Bush, Conservatives Lying About Adult Stem Cells

2006-07-19T00:44:00.000-05:00

President Bush and other conservatives keep bringing up to claim that adult stem cells are better than embryonic stem cells when it comes to research into curing diseases. But real scientists say that's misleading to the public because there's not proof.

When White House political adviser Karl Rove signaled last week that President Bush planned to veto the stem cell bill being considered by the Senate, the reasons he gave went beyond the president's moral qualms with research on human embryos.

In fact, Rove waded into deeply contentious scientific territory, telling the Denver Post's editorial board that researchers have found "far more promise from adult stem cells than from embryonic stem cells."

The administration's assessment of stem cell science has extra meaning in the wake of the Senate's 63-37 vote Tuesday to expand federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. The measure, which passed the House last year, will now head to Bush, who has vowed to veto it.

But Rove's negative appraisal of embryonic stem cell research - echoed by many opponents of funding for embryonic stem cells - is inaccurate, according to most stem cell scientists, including a dozen contacted for this story.

The field of stem cell medicine is too young and unproven to make such judgments, experts say. Many of those researchers either specialize in adult stem cells or share Bush's moral reservations about embryonic stem cells.

"(Rove's) statement is just not true," said Dr. Michael Clarke, associate director of the stem cell institute at Stanford University, who in 2003 published the first study showing how adult stem cells replenish themselves.

If opponents of embryonic research object on moral grounds, "I'm willing to live with that," Clarke said, though he disagrees. But, he said, "I'm not willing to live with statements that are misleading."

Conservatives who oppose stem cell research on moral grounds are making up scientific claims to prove their point. Further proof that many conservatives will lie and cheat to get their way.

What is Fetal Farming?

2006-07-18T17:39:00.000-05:00

Today, the Senate passed three bills dealing with stem cell research. The first two deal with embryonic and adult stem cells, but the third bans a practice called "fetal farming." Here's a description:

"Fetal farming" refers to the use of fetal tissue obtained from a pregnancy initiated for research purposes.

Many people think that fetal farming doesn't actually exist, and there is no evidence that proves it has ever happened. So they are banning something that they just made up. If they can do that, then I want to ban research on people who live in the 5th dimension. Poor Mr. Mxyzptlk has been through enough.

Where fetal farming comes from, I think, is the land of slippery slopes where a lot of right-wing conservatives live. It probably comes from the same place where people think allowing a gay couple in a loving, committed relationship to marry will lead to people marrying goats and kicking puppies (or something).

Gay Marriage Ban Fails... Again!

2006-07-18T13:51:00.000-05:00

I thought the amendment to ban gay marriage had gone away last month when the Senate couldn't even get enough votes to send it to the floor for a real vote. But, it came back... only to fail again.

The U.S. House, in an effort in futility, fell short of the number of votes it needed to approve this amendment. Why do I call this futile? Because it already failed in the Senate, so there was no chance that this vote would do anything.

What was the point? To prove, once again, that Republicans want to suck up to their conservative base? Why are they wasting time doing that when they could be focused on something that might actually help the people of this country?

So thank God they weren't able to write discrimination into the U.S. Constitution.

Ku Klux Klan Opposes Gay Marriage

2006-07-18T10:37:00.000-05:00

Read it here. (Yeah, I know it's a story from last year.)

Twelve members of the Ku Klux Klan clamored against gay marriage at a pre-election rally Saturday, struggling to regain relevance in a society that recoils from its racist past.

"We're asking Texans to support Proposition 2 because God supports it, not because the KKK supports it," said Steven Edwards, calling himself the Texas Grand Dragon of the American White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.

See, we can do it too.

Does Thune Want People to Die?

2006-07-18T09:28:00.000-05:00

Senator John Thune opposes research that could save millions of lives. Like Bush, he doesn't care about people suffering from Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and cancer. They claim the focus should be on adult stem cells found in bone marrow and other parts of the body. But how do they know adult stem cell research will give the same results as embryonic stem cell research? They don't, but they're still wiling to toy with people's lives.

In the Argus article I linked to, they interview a South Dakota woman whose life could be saved by this research.

The outcome of Senate debate this week over human embryonic stem cell research could mean the difference between life and death for Huron resident Bonnie Younkin and members of her family.

Younkin, 56, is fighting early onset Parkinson's disease and is the fourth woman in her family to get it. She worries about her three healthy daughters, who are in their 30s, and a granddaughter.

Younkin is hoping embryonic stem cell research leads to a cure for degenerative diseases such as Parkinson's - if not for her, at least for her family. For weeks, she has lobbied South Dakota's senators to support legislation that would lift the Bush administration's limits on federally funded research on human embryos. Tim Johnson, a Democrat, will vote for the bill today. John Thune, a Republican, will vote against it.

When Younkin was diagnosed five years ago, her doctor told her she could expect to have about nine years of good-quality life.

"I want a cure, and I want it yesterday," Younkin said Monday during a break from watching the debate on C-SPAN. "My time is running out."

But does Sen. Thune care about saving this woman's life? No. He care more about the embryonic stem cells that would just be destroyed anyway. That, ladies and gentlemen, is the Senator you voted for. Making South Dakota proud.

Sibby Can't Read

2006-07-17T13:53:00.000-05:00

I generally don't like using my blog to comment negatively on another blog's posts, but Sibby rarely activates the comments feature... so he leaves me no choice.

In a post today, Sibby tries to claim that the Argus Leader wrote a bias into their article on last week's new sex education materials.

The Argus Leader showed its bias by using the subtitle, "Many parents who had sought change like new middle-school materials" for its report on the approval of the Sioux Falls middle school sex so-called education materials. But the report did not support that subtitle.

I see no bias in that title. It's reporting on the facts. Many of the parents who were unhappy with the previous materials are happy with the new stuff.

From the article:

The new books were received warmly by many of the parents who had asked the district to dump the sex ed materials that were to debut last year.

Tammy Cooper-Mosser said she was happy not only that there were "no offensive diagrams or pictures," but also that the new books strongly recommend students speak to their parents or guardians about sex, even providing activities that encourage discussions at home.

Sibby uses selective reading to pick out the two parents who were still unhappy. Those two, like Sibby, wanted sex ed to be "abstinence until marriage only".

But those two parents don't represent all the parents who were unhappy. So the subtitle that Sibby has a problem with is factually accurate... because many of the parents who wanted new materials are happy with the new materials.

Like other ultra-radical conservatives, Sibby likes to think that he's in the majority when that is clearly not the case.

Temporary Layout

2006-07-15T22:59:00.000-05:00

I'm still trying to figure out how to make a three-column blog, but I'm temporarily changing the layout because of my poll results. Everyone (except the soup lovers) wants the blog to have brighter colors for easier reading. So until I can figure out three column fu, this will do.

Enjoy.

Flag Burning Solution

2006-07-15T13:21:00.000-05:00

There's an easy way to fix the flag burning problem that won't result in violating free speech rights. Just start making all American flags out of non-flammable material. We have the technology, so why don't we use it?

There. It's settled. Can we go back to talking about something else now?

Sex Ed

2006-07-10T11:27:00.000-05:00

The Sioux Falls School Board might vote on new sex education materials today.

I applauded the School Board's decision on sex ed standards a couple months ago. It was a smart decision that was inclusive to gay students and others. Yes it made some people mad, but they have the kids' best interests in mind.

Now there's no chance that every parent will be satisfied with these sex ed materials, but you can't please everyone. I hope the School Board puts their foot down. If they vote that this material is best for the standards they set, that's it. If parents still don't like it, they can have their kids opt-out of the class.

Poll: Blog Colors

2006-07-04T12:56:00.000-05:00

I'm attempting to redesign this blog and one of the things I'm looking at is the colors. I'm wondering if the colors are too dark and hard to read. If you think they are, vote yes and I will make sure to change that. Thanks for you help!

Another Good Letter on Gay Marriage

2006-06-30T11:06:00.000-05:00

The Argus Leader has had a lot of great letters this week dealing with the gay marriage issue. This is the most recent:

In response to Rick D. Greb's letter (June 11), maybe judges have "taken it upon themselves to overturn marriage laws or amendments," because said laws and amendments are unconstitutional.

I am a Christian and a member of the ELCA Church, and I wholeheartedly agree with Sen. Tim Johnson in opposing any amendment that would bar any loving couple from getting married - gay, lesbian or otherwise.

Singling out a segment of our society and banning them from marriage is essentially writing discrimination into the U.S. Constitution.

By passing a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, are you not saying that gay and lesbian citizens are lesser than you and they are not entitled to the same pursuit of happiness that you are? I personally don't care if somebody marries a toaster oven; it doesn't affect me in the least and doesn't lessen the marriage to my wonderful wife one bit.

There is no reason to fear; you cannot catch "gayness." However, if you can find some way at catch some compassion and understanding, it may do you, our community and our country some good. Who knows, an amendment to the Constitution that singles you out could be next.

- Matthew C. Douglas

Amen!

Why SD Teachers Need a Pay Increase

2006-06-27T10:03:00.000-05:00

Here's a great reason why teachers in South Dakota need to be paid a lot more: They have to buy classroom supplies with their own money. Most K-5 teachers have to buy their own supplies for their class because the school doesn't supply them. Most of the teachers are forced to spend 50% (in some cases I've heard it as high as 80%) of their income on those supplies.

So SD teachers are already getting paid very little, but they are also forced to spend that little income on their class. Some schools might help the teachers out, but they have no money to spare.

So... why aren't we paying teachers adequately?

"Pro-Life" or Pro-Death Penalty: Pick One

2006-06-26T23:58:00.000-05:00

It amuses me that some conservatives who claim to be "pro-life" also support the death penalty. How can that be possible? Isn't that a huge contradiction?

You'd think so.

Two Good Letters in Argus About Gay Marriage

2006-06-26T02:07:00.000-05:00

In Sunday's Argus Leader, there were two great letters. They are so good that I'm just going to post them without comment.

Same-Sex Marriage

All the to-and-fro regarding the issue of an amendment to the Constitution that would ban same-sex marriage prompts one to ask a simple question of those who, as obvious political posturing, so vocally support it.

Why are they so mean?

"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" is a universal principle underpinning all ethical systems. This principle, in many forms, is found throughout the human experience. It is pre-Christian, pre-religion, pre-history. And yet they would support writing into the U.S. Constitution an amendment of little practical value that would deny to a minority of U.S. citizens rights you appear to enjoy.

- J.A. Murphy

Gay Marriage

I don't understand the controversy over gay marriage.

The First Amendment clearly states the freedom of religion. I'm sure that several million gay people in this country believe that their religious belief allows them to marry the one person that they love.

God made me and made me gay just as he made you straight, and I don't see any differences between us.

Gay marriage is coming to the ballot in South Dakota. I don't believe that our state is full of bigots and haters. I do know, however, that we do have many moral-religious activists that got it in their heads that I cannot be or express who I am as God made me. I pray to God just as you, I take communion just as you, and am thankful every day just as you.

Marriage between a man and a woman does not need protecting. Heterosexuals will always be allowed to marry. By allowing gays equal rights, and allowing them the right to marry, we not only uphold the provisions in the Constitution but our religious beliefs, as well.

Ever take time to talk to a gay person? How about that distant cousin or your niece? You may be surprised at what you find.

- Bruce J. Scott

Leaked Memo on Life in Iraq... It Still Sucks

2006-06-20T10:50:00.000-05:00

The U.S. Ambassador to Iraq sent out a confidential memo about the current conditions in Iraq. It paints a picture that is much different than what we've been told by President Bush lately.

You can read the entire text from that memo here.

The situation in Iraq seems to be getting worse, and it's fueled by our continued presence there. Iraqis who work in the U.S. Embassy live in fear of being hurt or killed. From the memo:

Security Forces Mistrusted

11. In April, employees began reporting a change in demeanor of guards at the Green Zone checkpoints. They seemed to be militialike, in some cases seemingly taunting. One employee asked us to get her some press credentials because the guards held her embassy badge up and proclaimed loudly to passers-by "embassy" as she entered. Such information is a death sentence if heard by the wrong people.

Supervising Staff At High Risk

12. Employees all share a common tale: of nine employees in March, only four had family members who knew they worked at the embassy. Iraqi colleagues who are called after hours often speak in Arabic as an indication they cannot speak openly in English.

13. We cannot call employees in on weekends or holidays without blowing their "cover." A Sunni Arab female employee tells us family pressures and the inability to share details of her employment is very tough; she told her family she was in Jordan when we sent her on training to the U.S.

Mounting criticism of the U.S. at home among family members also makes her life difficult. She told us in mid-June that most of her family believes the U.S. -- which is widely perceived as fully controlling the country and tolerating the malaise -- is punishing the population as Saddam did (but with Sunnis and very poor Shia now at the bottom of the list). Otherwise, she says, the allocation of power and security would not be so arbitrary.

14. Some of our staff do not take home their American cell phones, as it makes them a target. They use code names for friends and colleagues and contacts entered into Iraq cell phones. For at least six months, we have not been able to use any local staff for translation at on-camera press events.

15. We have begun shredding documents that show local staff surnames. In March, a few members approached us to ask what provisions would we make for them if we evacuate.

And human rights are disappearing:

Women's Rights

2. Two of our three female employees report stepped up harassment beginning in mid-May. One, a Shia who favors Western clothing, was advised by an unknown woman in her Baghdad neighborhood to wear a veil and not to drive her own car. She said some groups are pushing women to cover even their face, a step not taken in Iran even at its most conservative.

3. Another, a Sunni, said people in her neighborhood are harassing women and telling them to cover up and stop using cell phones. She said the taxi driver who brings her every day to the Green Zone has told her he cannot let her ride unless she wears a headcover. A female in the PAS cultural section is now wearing a full abaya after receiving direct threats.

4. The women say they cannot identify the groups pressuring them. The cautions come from other women, sometimes from men who could be Sunni or Shia, but appear conservative. Some ministries, notably the Sadrist-controlled Ministry of Transportation, have been forcing females to wear the hijab at work.

Dress Code For All?

5. Staff members have reported it is now dangerous for men to wear shorts in public; they no longer allow their children to play outside in shorts. People who wear jeans in public have come under attack.

The situation in Iraq doesn't look to be improving at all.

Ten Commandments on Colbert Report

2006-06-15T14:33:00.000-05:00

On last night's Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert interviewed U.S. Rep. Lynn Westmoreland from Georgia's 8th District. He has co-sponsored a bill to display the Ten Commandments in public buildings like the House and Senate.

When Colbert brought it up, he asked the congressman if there was a better place to display the Ten Commandments besides government buildings. You'd think the first thing that would come to mind would be "church," but Rep. Westmoreland couldn't think of anything.

And then Colbert asked a toughy. He asked Rep. Westmoreland to name all ten of the commandments. He got three of the basic ones (don't kill, don't steal and don't lie) but couldn't think of any others.

Maybe Rep. Westmoreland wants the Ten Commandments displayed everywhere so he can find out what they actually are?

They'll probably put the video of that interview up here soon.

Opt-Outs

2006-06-15T10:00:00.000-05:00

How many failed opt-outs is it going to take to make our state legislators realize they aren't giving enough money to our schools?

Garretson already tried an opt-out once. When that failed, they had to cut programs and teachers. And now they are forced to cut even more.

Wake up South Dakota legislators! No price should be too high for out kids' education. If it takes new senators, house members and a new governor to realize this... then so be it.

Bush Thinks He and the GOP are "Forward-Thinking"

2006-06-14T15:24:00.000-05:00

Let us all laugh at the absurdity:

"I believe we're going to hold the House and the Senate because our philosophy is one that is forward-looking and optimistic and has worked," Bush told reporters at a White House news conference.

Hahahahahahahaha!

I also have a problem with him thinking the GOP's philosophy is optimistic and whether or not it has ever worked, but I want to focus on the "forward-thinking" part.

What exactly has he or any Republican done lately that is forward-thinking?

Iraq? The results of the war so far has shown that almost no forward-thinking was done. Did President Bush and his administration think about what would happen after they toppled Saddam's dictatorship? Not from what we can see. It seems like they only thought up to a certain point and now are making things up as they go.

No Child Left Behind? This was created because it made it sound like President Bush cared about improving education without actually having to improve education. And by creating this without giving it any money, they've pretty much screwed over ever school in the country. I doubt they ever thought about how this new policy would actually affect schools.

The Gay Marriage Ban Amendment? Nope. This is pretty much a backward-thinking, hurtful piece of legislation. Thank God it didn't go anywhere.

Immigration? Aside from John McCain, I don't think most Republicans have thought this issue through. What exactly is the point of alienating illegal immigrants and, in the process, legal immigrants as well? I think we'll see a lot of Mexican-American Republicans vote Democrat in the upcoming elections.

And I could go on and on. My point is that the Republicans are not the party of forward-thinkers. They've shown this countless times with... pretty much everything they've done.

Do Conservatives Even Care About Gay Marriage?

2006-06-12T03:11:00.000-05:00

I've read a lot of arguments opposing gay marriage in the last couple of weeks. What strikes me as funny is that a lot of the conservatives who argue against gay marriage hardly ever mentioned gay marriage. Most of the arguments I read talked about preventing the legalization of incest, polygamy, pedophilia, beastiality and so on. They seem to think legalizing same-sex marriages will automatically lead to the rest. So, it seems to me, that they are hurting homosexuals in committed relationships for no other reason than to prevent completely unrelated things.

So what's the point of banning same-sex marriage at all? Why not just skip the middleman and go after the issues that they really care about? All this does it hurt people for no reason.

Gay Marriage Ban Failed... Again!

2006-06-07T10:57:00.000-05:00

The sinking ship that is the Gay Marriage Ban has sunk once again... only to be probably raised once more at a future date (hopefully to then sink again).

The funny thing is, this amendment didn't even get to a true Senate vote. Today's vote was whether or not the Senate should cast a real vote on the amendment. And that couldn't even pass.

Unfortunately, several thick-headed Senators don't seem to be deterred by this latest defeat.

The measure's defeat in the Senate is by no means its last stand, said its supporters.

"I do not believe the sponsors are going to fall back and cry about it," said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. "I think they are going to keep bringing it up."

The House plans a redux next month, said Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio.

"This is an issue that is of significant importance to many Americans," Boehner told reporters. "We have significant numbers of our members who want a vote on this, so we are going to have a vote."

I was amused by the response Sen. Kennedy got from this quote:

"The Republican leadership is asking us to spend time writing bigotry into the Constitution," said Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, which legalized gay marriage in 2003. "A vote for it is a vote against civil unions, against domestic partnership, against all other efforts for states to treat gays and lesbians fairly under the law."

In response, Hatch fumed: "Does he really want to suggest that over half of the United States Senate is a crew of bigots?"

YES!!!

How long do we have to wait for conservatives to realize they are wrong and mean when it comes to this issue?

Haggard Heroes of the Week: Haven Herrin, Jacob Reitan

2006-06-02T14:38:00.000-05:00

Haven Herrin and Jacob Reitan, two gay activists, have applied to the National Guard.

ROSEVILLE, Minn. (AP) - Two gay activists applied to serve in the National Guard on Tuesday, saying they hoped to spotlight the unfairness of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" law.

Jacob Reitan and Haven Herrin had expected to be rejected on the spot, and planned a sit-in protest of the law. Instead, their applications were taken and set aside to be processed after a trespassing charge is resolved from an earlier demonstration.

"I'm willing to serve," Reitan said. "I have a right to serve my country."

Haven and Jacob have been in the news a lot lately. They both participated in the Equality Ride this spring. The trespassing charge mentioned in the article was from when the Equality Ride stopped at West Point Military Academy to protest the policy against openly-gay students. It was only one of many arrests they endured in the cause against college discrimination policies.

Those two, plus their friend Ezekiel Montgomery, are my heroes this week for challenging the stupid, mean, discriminatory "Don't ask, don't tell" policy.

Find out more here.

President Bush and Gay Marriage

2006-06-02T14:17:00.000-05:00

As reported on A Moderate from South Dakota, President Bush is planning to support the gay marriage ban that will be voted on in the Seante next week.

The funny thing is, even with the President's support, the amendment isn't likely to pass. This just shows that there is no sinking ship that President Bush doesn't love to jump on.

I'm back!

2006-05-31T18:11:00.000-05:00

College finals, work and "school's out for summer" procrastination have caused Haggard News to become fairly inactive this month. But seeing the news that the South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families handed in 38,000 signatures has gotten me energized.

There's going to be a lot to discuss this summer. The campaigns for and against the abortion ban. Next week's primary/judicial elections. Stupid things going on in Congress (immigration, gay marriage ban). Fighting against Amendments C and E. Making fun of Unruh. And probably a lot more stuff.

I plan to not only discuss the above topics, but also talk about some non-political stuff, like entertainment (everyone should go see Superman this summer).

It's going to be a fun summer, so I hope you'll all join me.

Finals

2006-05-06T01:39:00.000-05:00

I've been studying for finals lately so my posting has dropped off. But after next week I'll be back to annoying the two or three readers I might have.

But after next week, I'm free. And I plan to start a series of articles discussing Amendent C, Homosexuality and Christianity, The Equality Ride and the South Dakotan Against Discrimination group.

See you in a week!

Augustana Road Project

2006-05-03T10:39:00.000-05:00

Today's Argus Leader talks about how Augustana College wants to close off Grange Ave. between 33rd and 37th Streets.

I remember the administration mentioning this plan while I was at Augie. It was one of the options they were kicking around with the future expansion of the Elmen Center.

The guy interviewed by the Argus seems to think that little section of street is hugely important. It's not. Ambulances from Sioux Valley Hospital are much more likely to turn off of Grange on to 33rd St. which is generally a better emergency route.

I think it's more a matter of convenience for the neighboring commuters than for anyone else. The only times I ever used it, while I was an Augie student, was for Elmen Center activities.

But one good thing about this issue is a rare thing to find in an issue like this: compromise. Augie and the city are happy and willing to work things out to everyone's general satisfaction. Augie's preference is to close the street, because it's one less busy street for the students to cross, among other issues. But any compromise is wonderful to see.

President Bush's Disregard for Laws

2006-04-30T23:12:00.000-05:00

Ever wonder why President Bush has signed every single piece of legislation that comes to him, even if he disagrees with it? Apparently, he thinks he's free to ignore any law he wants.

This is what he does: First he signs a bill, then gathers the bill's sponsors and supporters for a photo-op, and then writes a signing statement about that bill giving special instructions on how the bureaucracy is to carry out he law. This way, if he disagrees with a particular bill, he can give instructions saying he doesn't have to follow it.

Legal scholars say the scope and aggression of Bush's assertions that he can bypass laws represent a concerted effort to expand his power at the expense of Congress, upsetting the balance between the branches of government. The Constitution is clear in assigning to Congress the power to write the laws and to the president a duty ''to take care that the laws be faithfully executed." Bush, however, has repeatedly declared that he does not need to ''execute" a law he believes is unconstitutional.

...

Far more than any predecessor, Bush has been aggressive about declaring his right to ignore vast swaths of laws -- many of which he says infringe on power he believes the Constitution assigns to him alone as the head of the executive branch or the commander in chief of the military.

This shows that our President has no respect for the other two branches of government.

Here are some examples of laws the President has signed and the signing statements he included with them:

Dec. 30, 2005: US interrogators cannot torture prisoners or otherwise subject them to cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment.

Bush's signing statement: The president, as commander in chief, can waive the torture ban if he decides that harsh interrogation techniques will assist in preventing terrorist attacks.

Dec. 17: The new national intelligence director shall recruit and train women and minorities to be spies, analysts, and translators in order to ensure diversity in the intelligence community.

Bush's signing statement: The executive branch shall construe the law in a manner consistent with a constitutional clause guaranteeing ''equal protection" for all. (In 2003, the Bush administration argued against race-conscious affirmative-action programs in a Supreme Court case. The court rejected Bush's view.)

And my personal favorite:

Nov. 6, 2003: US officials in Iraq cannot prevent an inspector general for the Coalition Provisional Authority from carrying out any investigation. The inspector general must tell Congress if officials refuse to cooperate with his inquiries.

Bush's signing statement: The inspector general ''shall refrain" from investigating anything involving sensitive plans, intelligence, national security, or anything already being investigated by the Pentagon. The inspector cannot tell Congress anything if the president decides that disclosing the information would impair foreign relations, national security, or executive branch operations.

So President Bush believes he has the right to pretty much do anything he wants to. Doesn't that send a shiver down your spine?

Update: I was reading through some blogs on this topic and came across one the make some great points. This quote is from a blog called Unclaimed Territory.

It is not uncommon for a President to refrain from executing a law which he believes, and states, is unconstitutional. Other Presidents have invoked that doctrine, although Bush has done so far more aggressively and frequently. But what is uncommon - what is entirely unprecedented - is that the administration's theories of its own power arrogate unto itself not just the right to refrain from enforcing such laws, but to act in violation of those laws, to engage in the very conduct which those laws criminalize, and they do so secretly and deceitfully, after signing the law and pretending that they are engaged in the democratic process. That is why the President has never bothered to veto a law -- why bother to veto laws when you have the power to violate them at will?

Worst President Ever?

2006-04-29T19:26:00.000-05:00

Rolling Stone has an article comparing President Bush to the worst presidents in our history. The article was written by one of American's "leading historians." It's really good but also really long so I'm not going to post much of it here. But I will post my favorite part of the article:

How does any president's reputation sink so low? The reasons are best understood as the reverse of those that produce presidential greatness. In almost every survey of historians dating back to the 1940s, three presidents have emerged as supreme successes: George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt. These were the men who guided the nation through what historians consider its greatest crises: the founding era after the ratification of the Constitution, the Civil War, and the Great Depression and Second World War. Presented with arduous, at times seemingly impossible circumstances, they rallied the nation, governed brilliantly and left the republic more secure than when they entered office.

Calamitous presidents, faced with enormous difficulties -- Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, Hoover and now Bush -- have divided the nation, governed erratically and left the nation worse off. In each case, different factors contributed to the failure: disastrous domestic policies, foreign-policy blunders and military setbacks, executive misconduct, crises of credibility and public trust. Bush, however, is one of the rarities in presidential history: He has not only stumbled badly in every one of these key areas, he has also displayed a weakness common among the greatest presidential failures -- an unswerving adherence to a simplistic ideology that abjures deviation from dogma as heresy, thus preventing any pragmatic adjustment to changing realities. Repeatedly, Bush has undone himself, a failing revealed in each major area of presidential performance.

National Anthem en Español

2006-04-29T14:25:00.000-05:00

I just heard about this today. A music producer has put together a version of the "Star-Spangled Banner" in Spanish. He brought together a bunch of musicians from several nationalities and did it like a "We Are the World" compilation. Part of the proceeds will go to the National Capital Immigration Coalition.

You can listen to some of "Nuestro Himno" here.

I know a lot of people will disagree with me, but I think it's a fun idea. Most of the people who came to this country were not English speakers. I'd kind of like to see the National Anthem in many languages to represent the true cultural diversity of America. Not only Spanish, but also German, Arabic, French, Japanese, Zulu (or other African dialects), Norwegian (mostly for those around here) and on and on. And while there is an American Sign Language version for translators, I'd like to see a special version made especially for deaf culture. I've seen some beautiful poetry in Sign and I think someone could make a great version with those elements.

But back the the Spanish song: I was worried that it would have too many pop music influence and not be as "classic" sounding as a national anthem should. But I think they did a pretty good job. I'm not fluent in Spanish so I can't truly appreciate it, but it sounds good.

And I like that this song can be used as a language tool. I hear a lot of people saying that immigrants should be required to learn English. Well, okay, but how about giving them a hand? This could be helpful to those Spanish-speaking people trying to learn English.

What I thought was weird about the whole thing was that this project was started by a British producer. Why, of all people, would someone from England do this? People should be more angry about that then the Spanish translation.

There was one criticism of the song that I agreed with. There was a quote in the article I linked to at the beginning that was interesting:

A remix to be released in June will contain several lines in English that condemn U.S. immigration laws. Among them: "These kids have no parents, cause all of these mean laws ... let's not start a war with all these hard workers, they can't help where they were born."

Bryanna Bevens of Hanford, Calif., who writes for the immigration-focused Web magazine Vdare.com, said the remix particularly upset her.

"It's very whiny. If you want to say all those things, by all means, put them on your poster board, but don't put them on the national anthem," she said.

Political commentary and criticism is inappropriate for a national anthem. The song in its current form is fine.

Finally, I have a few points to make about the national reaction to this.

1.) President Bush's stance on the song is kind of funny. I remember him throwing several Spanish words into his past speeches because, I'm guessing, that he was trying to court the Hispanic vote. But I wonder if coming out against this song will have any backlash against him?

2.) Sen. Lamar Alexander wants to introduce a Senate resolution to give "senators an opportunity to remind the country why we sing our national anthem in English." What a tool. That really seems a bit much to me. It's fine that you don't like it, but don't try to harm a person's free speech rights just because you don't like something.

3.) The extremely negative national reaction strikes me as xenophobic and isolationist. Someone should tell them that a true American National Anthem would actually have to be in a Native American language, like Lakota Sioux, not English.