This blog printed on 100% recycled electrons.
If South Dakota votes for her, it will be like a rifle shot....
Jon read my review of his book and still sends me this good shot. Thanks, Jon! More to come....
PITY the poor word “elite,” which simply means “the best” as an adjective and “the best of a group” as a noun. What was once an accolade has turned poisonous in American public life over the past 40 years, as both the left and the right have twisted it into a code word meaning “not one of us.” But the newest and most ominous wrinkle in the denigration of all things elite is that the slur is being applied to knowledge itself.
Senator Hillary Clinton’s use of the phrase “elite opinion” to dismiss the near unanimous opposition of economists to her proposal for a gas tax holiday was a landmark in the use of elite to attack expertise supposedly beyond the comprehension of average Americans. One might as well say that there is no point in consulting musicians about music or ichthyologists about fish [Susan Jacoby, "Best Is the New Worst," New York Times, 2008.05.30].
2. Economic stimulus
Necessity being the mother of invention, $8 gas would trigger all manner of investment sure to lead to groundbreaking advances. Job creation wouldn't be limited to research labs; it would rapidly spill over into lucrative manufacturing jobs that could help restore America's industrial base and make us a world leader in a critical realm.
The most groundbreaking discoveries might still be 25 or more years off, but we won't see massive public and corporate funding of research initiatives until escalating oil costs threaten our national security and global stability -- a time that's fast approaching [Chris Plummer, "$8-a-Gallon Gas: Eight Reasons Higher Prices Will Do Us a World of Good," Marketwatch.com, 2008.05.28].
MDL: Are there any specific issues or concerns that motivated you to run for county commission? Please explain.
Giles: I began to think about running for county commission a few months ago when I became interested an concerned with actions being taken by the Lake Herman Sanitary District. That process caused me to think about using my past experience as Lake County State's Attorney to serve as a county commissioner.
I'll note that Obama is the one campaigning as if all 50 states, including us rural states, make a difference, getting an early (and as we see now, successful) jump on campaigning in relatively small North Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, and Idaho while Clinton plays big-city, big-state politics and will start pouring resources into the rest of the country only now that it looks like she needs us. [CAH, "Obama -- The South Dakota Candidate?" Madville Times, 2008.02.10]
 Senator Clinton is in the house! "Mmmm... how's that omelet?" |
 Senator Clinton addresses a hundred-some Madisonites, as well as a crowd of press. Credit to Shari Eliason, owner of the Second Street Diner: on probably the busiest morning in Second Street Diner history, she did not run out of coffee... or, as far as I know, anything else! (I did see the Wall Street Journal reporter eating pie later with his fingers, but not for lack of forks: he was just too hungry to wait!) |
 Senator Clinton sitting down for pie and autographs. That's the back of local Dem committeewoman Trudi Nelson's head to the right -- she's a Clinton diehard, surely in seventh heaven today! |
 District 8 Senator Dan Sutton made the trip over from Flandreau to see Senator Clinton. (Go ahead, PP, that's a freebie for you. :-) ) |
Gov. Mike Rounds extended his laptop program for another year, after the legislature rejected the idea in February, using state money the legislature didn't know existed.
Rounds should not have funded the program this way....
During the most recent legislative session, Rounds asked for another year's worth of funding but lawmakers declined. Disappointed, Rounds said he would like to find "private" sources to fund the program for another year. Most observers believed that meant a corporate sponsor.
Instead, the Rounds administration announced last week that it would use $770,000 left over from a settlement with Citibank. The settlement fund began in 1999 with $4.2 million, and had worked down to $1.2 million by January, when administration officials testified before the Joint Appropriations Committee. But Department of Education officials said all the money was already committed to continue previous obligations.
So two questions arise:
1) Did the money always exist and information was withheld from the legislature?
2) Did the administration bypass the will of the legislature by funding a program lawmakers defeated? [Jon Hunter, "Rounds Shouldn't Have Extended His Laptop Program This Way," Madison Daily Leader, 2008.05.27, p. 3]
The following is a statement by Clinton Campaign Manager Patti Solis Doyle.
"We believe Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina play a unique and special role in the nominating process.
And we believe the DNC’s rules and its calendar provide the necessary structure to respect and honor that role.
Thus, we will be signing the pledge to adhere to the DNC approved nominating calendar."
I have no right to live in this country. It's your country. I depend on your graciousness and goodness of your government to allow me to live in this country [quoted by Caitlin Haedicke, "DeSmet Catholic Priest Forced to Leave U.S.," KSFY.com, 2008.05.27].
It's funny. My aunt Patty and her family go to St. Thomas and when Father Gallagher said what was happening he said it was "God's Will." Before he left the station today, I grabbed his hand and said, "Father, God's will is also having friends and people who are willing to fight for you" [Matt Hendrickson, personal e-mail, 2008.05.27].
Look at a very instructive map found on the Web site of RealtyTrac.com. Not only are the big foreclosure hotspots concentrated in just three or four parts of the country – but a disproportionate share of foreclosures are concentrated in a single, nearly contiguous blob reaching from Sacramento to the environs of Las Vegas and Phoenix.
Another hotspot is southern Florida, and along Interstates 25 and 70 in Colorado.
Many of these homebuyers are underwater not just because they bought more house than their incomes could support, and not just because prices are falling. They were also betting on commute patterns and demographic expectations that are proving invalid.
These were bets on location, location, location – premised on the idea that people would be willing to live hours from anywhere for a chance to own a single-family home they could actually afford. No federally sponsored haircut can put these housing bets back in the money, or stop these houses from coming back on the market at distress prices [Holman W. Jenkins, Jr., "Why a Housing Bailout Won't Help," Wall Street Journal, 2008.05.21, p. A17].
Avenue of Flags, Lake County Courthouse, Madison, South Dakota, Memorial Day, 2008.05.26
Volunteer walks the rows, checking the flags
Flag honoring Lake County soldier Captain M. P. O'Loughlen 
Flags in stiff morning breeze; view toward Madison Post Office
Veterans Memorial in front of Lake County CourthouseIn the same breath, she maintained that her husband had not wrapped up the nomination until June. In truth, he did so in March with the Illinois primary. While California made his victory a mathematical fact, the outcome had not been in doubt for month [Devlin Barrett, "Analysis: Clinton's Latest Off-Key Remark," AP via Yahoo News, 2008.05.24].
1. The 1992 primaries ended on June 2, 1992, a day earlier than this year. Several states, including California, had primaries that day. It was not mid-June.
2. According to wikipedia: "Clinton effectively won the Democratic Party's nomination after winning the New York Primary in early April."
3. Clinton's chief rival was Paul Tsongas who dropped out of the race in mid-May, 1992.
4. According to polls, Clinton led in every remaining state except California where Jerry Brown was polling well (his home state). Brown was not going to catch Clinton for the nomination in any scenario.
5. From the May 11, 1992 New York Times: "Aides to Mr. Clinton say that in most of the remaining primaries he will ignore the former Governor of California, Edmund G. Brown Jr., and will try to give voters a clearer sense of his own personality and his positions on major issues, in preparation for a general election campaign against President Bush."
On April 7, we also won in Kansas, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. On April 9, Paul Tsongas announced that he would not reenter the race. The fight for the nomination was effectively over.
...[Stricherz] and her husband have been foster parents in Brookings county prior to Jay's deployment to Iraq, Patricia has also been a CASA volunteer since 2002, sworn in by Honorable Rodney Steele, Patricia worked as a paralegal before deciding to attend college at USF for Social Work. She also has taken in homeless teens and has helped them to get their feet planted on solid ground, she is a very devote Christian and stands by her values ["Anonymous" -- according to Stricherz, actually her daughter Mimi -- 2008.05.21].
she is tossed on the hyperion oil refinery that is being considered in Elk Point. She lived in Cheyenne Wy. as a teenager and has said a number of times that the smell was unbearable, the cancer/population ratio within a 60 mile radius is high, and she doesn't want that for South Dakota...
...[Stricherz] would like to see the oil companies be given a cap as to how much they can charge the public for fuel...
She is also concerned about the pipeline coming through S.D. for several reasons, safety to community and environment, and eminent domain issues.
...she believes that education is vital for our children and would like to see more Masters programs in the state [ed: don't let Sibby hear that: he'll think Stricherz is trying to create more secular humanists...]
...BIG on veterans issues, huge advocate for human rights, and has a desire to start a non-profit organization to assist low income families with transportation issues. [Anon/Mimi, 2008.05.22]
As I have previously indicated, I supported John Edwards and have been watching the primary mostly undecided about Sen. Obama or Sen. Clinton as the candidate choice. But, I have steadily become less impressed with Hillary and more impressed with Obama. Obama and his organization have demonstrated management skills that exceed the much vaunted Clinton team. The Hillary campaign debt is enough reason to suggest that her administration might not be what is needed to undue the Bush damage to the US economy and federal and state deficits [Doug Wiken, "Until the Last Super Delegate Has Sung," Dakota Today, 2008.05.23].
“His being on the Green Party prevented Al Gore from being the greenest president we could have had, and I think that’s really unfortunate. I think we paid a big price for it. I’m pretty sad about that,” Clinton told reporters on the campaign plane as she was en route to several appearances in Rhode Island and Boston.
Clinton was unaware, until questioned about by reporters, that Nader had announced Sunday morning on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he had decided to enter the 2008 race, and she was clearly surprised at the news.
“Well that’s really unfortunate. I remember when he did this before. It did not turn out very well for anybody, most especially our country,” she said. “This time I hope it doesn’t hurt anybody. I hope it’s kind of a passing fancy that people don’t take too seriously” [Beth Frerking, "Clinton Slams Nader over Presidential Bid," Politico.com, 2008.02.24].
Clinton peaked at 48.5% in October 2007, around the time Senator McGovern endorsed her. Obama was actually down from some initial buzzy ratings, around 21%. Seven months and millions of dollars later, Clinton hasn't managed to build any support. Her numbers have stayed stuck in the same 40%-45% range all this time. Obama, meanwhile, has produced a return on his investment, evidently drawing a lot of the undecideds and folks like me whose preferred candidates dropped out.Ammo prices for many popular guns have more than tripled in the last three years, driven in large part by surging demand for metals in rapidly industrializing China.
As the Asian giant becomes wealthier, millions of tons of copper, lead and zinc, which are also used to make bullets and brass shell-casings, are being snapped up.
Shooters, gun dealers and sheriffs say the impact has been further aggravated by competition for limited ammo stocks with the U.S. military, currently fighting wars on two fronts in Iraq and Afghanistan [Tim Gaynor, "U.S. Shooters Feel Pinch as Ammo Prices Soar," Reuters via Yahoo News, 2008.05.19].
Schaefer proposed a new housing development with homes in the $115,000 to $125,000 price range for low- and moderate-income owners. Hess told the commissioners that Madison already has housing available in the below-$100,000 price range. Schaefer said many of those homes are older houses.
Commissioner Scott Delzer agreed with Schaefer, describing many of the older, below-$100,000 homes in Madison as "fixer-uppers" that would require significant modernization to make them similar to a newly-constructed house [Chuck Clement, "City Moves Ahead with Tax Increment District," Madison Daily Leader, 2008.05.21].
Mr. Schaefer and Commissioner Delzer are correct: many of the houses currently available for less than the LAIC's $120,000 affordability criterion are older structures, and many could use some renovation. But Schaefer and Delzer both operate from the unstated and incorrect assumptions that old is bad and that everyone wants a house similar to a newly constructed house. Consider the beauty pictured here, the home built by Madison's first mayor at 401 NE 1st. You don't see newly constructed homes with that sort of character.This is the problem that the Democrats face. Their party is divided between hip waders and lava lamps. When some who appeals to the hip waders gets nominated, the lava lamps fall into line. But it doesn't necessarily work in reverse. We might be about to watch the Party of Jefferson once again snatch defeat from the jaws of victory [Ken Blanchard, "Oregon & Kentucky, Hippies & Hillbillies," South Dakota Politics, 2008.05.21].
Obama in waders holding up a stringer of walleye -- boom! That's an automatic ten-point boost for Obama in the South Dakota vote! [CAH, "Obama First in South Dakota Again," Madville Times, 2008.04.11]
Meanwhile, news director Dylan Hunter* provides the final numbers for the KJAM presidential poll, conducted over the past couple weeks:
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