Put Down the Smart Phone and Drive... the Helicopter!

As a public service, the U.S. Navy demonstrates how distracted driving can put your vehicle in the lake. The vehicles: two MH-60R Seahawks. The lake: Tahoe. The damage: $506,000. The distraction: taking photos for Facebook.



Helicopter, semi, Prius: when you're in the pilot's seat, you have a job to do. Keep it out of the lake and the ditches: just drive!

[Sponsor Mary Kenyon did not pay for this post... but she won't mind if you visit her website!]

Senate Votes 65-31 to Let Gays Shoot Straight for America

Dr. Blanchard said it was time to repeal Don't Ask Don't Tell, and the Senate listened. Our Senator John Thune lacked the courage to vote yes, but Senator Tim Johnson did not. Various fundagelicals are showing their lack of faith in the strength of our soldiers and the Republic they defend.

Dr. Blanchard encapsulates well my sense that the folks opposed to gays serving in the military don't have much in the way of good arguments. Unit cohesion? That's all you've got?

This strikes me as a very bad argument. There are all kinds of reasons why one solider might be disinclined to trust another. He's Irish, or a Democrat. She's a privileged White girl, or a Red Sox fan. It is one of the jobs of soldiers, sailors, marines, etc., to judge their fellows by their competence and loyalty and nothing else. We expect our armed forces to do their job in harm's way, which means in the face of a kind of fear that us civilians can scarcely imagine. Compared to that, nervousness about a fellow warrior's sexual orientation seems like pretty small potatoes [Ken Blanchard, "It's Time to Dump DADT," South Dakota Politics, 2010.12.18].

Well said, Ken. Now let's sign off on this issue and do what soldiers do: drop the bull and fight our real enemies, the terrorists who want to destroy America, not the good men and women who want to defend it with honor and integrity.

Update 21:30 CST: Equality South Dakota gives me a welcome shout and shares some optimism for more positive change. EqSD also points to this WaPo article that indicates the relief and disbelief current gay soldiers feel. One compelling passage:

For some, the news was bittersweet. That was the case for a 28-year-old West Point Army captain who resigned from active duty this spring after wrestling for years with deprivation, loneliness and half-truths. His boyfriend was sitting next to him.

"Oh God, oh God," the decorated captain, who served two tours in Iraq, said by phone from Dallas as the vote neared. "My heart was thumping."

Text messages began pouring in as soon as the tally was announced.

"So when are you back on active duty?" wrote a straight intelligence officer who served with him in Iraq in 2009.

"LOL. I dunno," the captain responded.

"Let me know so I can get stationed there," the intelligence officer wrote back. "I work with a lot of morons. It'd be nice to have a battle [buddy] with some common sense and discipline again" [Ernesto Londono, "Gay Troops Cautiously Optimistic Following 'Don't Ask' Repeal," Washington Post, 2010.12.19].

Noem Opposes DREAM Act; Pentagon Disagrees

Matt Hildreth of The Independent Local takes Kristi Noem to task for her opposition to the DREAM Act:

You call the DREAM Act “amnesty,” you even say it "rewards those who have broken the law.”

Representative elect, to say that the DREAM Act is amnesty is to say that your children are fugitives. Maybe we should have detained your kids for the +27 times you broken the law.

According to you, it would be “amnesty” not to [Matt Hildreth, "Were Noem's Children Granted Amnesty?" The Independent Local, 2010.12.10].

The Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act wouldn't exactly let children of illegal immigrants off scot free. The only crime these kids have committed lies in not running away from their parents to avoid coming to or staying in America. The DREAM Act would give these kids a conditional path to citizenship: i.e., they have to work to become citizens, either by going to college or by serving in the military for two years.

Dang, that's not much different from the "advice" the judge gave Bill Janklow back when he was a rowdy teenager raising real trouble.

The Pentagon thinks the DREAM Act is a great idea, since it would get thousands more fresh recruits each year. But Noem and the Republicans see a chance to holler about those others who are threatening our American way of life. Keep fear alive, Kristi....

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Bonus Fiscal Conservatism: CBO says the DREAM Act cuts the deficit $1.4 billion and raises federal revenues $2.3 billion over ten years. Wow! Pass 52 more bills like that, and we'll cover the cost of the tax breaks for the rich we're passing this week!

Slaughter and 211th Comrades on SDPB Now

Right now: South Dakota Public Broadcasting is hosting a really interesting conversation with three soldiers from the 211th Engineer Company from Madison and DeSmet. Included in the conversation is Madison's own Austin Slaughter. The men are talking about their experience clearing roads of explosives for U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan.

Every man in the 211th came home alive to South Dakota, where clearing roads of snow surely seems like child's play.

Amish Invade South Dakota, Challenge Civic Religion

The South Dakota blogosphere hosts a couple threads of discussion of the Islamic Center developers want to build in an old Burlington Coat Factory rendered "hallowed" by 9/11 landing gear. While some worry about Muslims in our midst, South Dakota is experiencing another religious infiltration that challenges our civic religion: the Amish are coming!

Tom Lawrence discusses this new influx in the Tripp neighborhood in today's Mitchell Daily Republic:

More than 50 Amish people have come to the area this year. So far, six families have bought 720 acres of land and planted crops and roots in southeast South Dakota [Tom Lawrence, "The Amish Arrive in Southeast South Dakota," Mitchell Daily Republic, 2010.09.04].

120 acres per family? What kind of farmers are these folks? How can any farmer support a family on less than a whole section or two? Don't they pray the mantra of Saint Butz, Get big or get out? If these weren't Amish, I'd think they were getting their farm advice from some liberal hippie blog on the Interwebs.*

They are a traditional people who eschew most modern conveniences. They rely on old-fashioned horsepower — horses — for their field work and travel.

...The Amish use traditional farming methods, including putting their corn up in shocks, instead of combining [Lawrence, 2010].

What? These folks won't come in to the blessed showrooms of Jim River Equipment to buy a big combine, or Prostrollo's to buy a big F-350? Blasphemy! South Dakotans have a sacred duty to shop and boost those sales tax revenues! If we let the Amish in, they'll start converting people to their ways and drive this state into deficit and decline.

The Amish don’t believe in confrontation or fights and have declined to serve in the military. Borntreger said his wife’s grandfather was drafted into the military during World War I and when he refused to serve, he was held as a prisoner of war.

They are conscientious objectors, he said, and are now treated that way by the American government [Lawrence, 2010].

The Amish won't serve alongside our best and bravest? They don't even believe in using guns for personal protection. More blasphemy!

Big farms, big business, big technology, big patriotism and guns—these are the central tenets of our culture. The Amish clearly challenge these tenets. Ought not we be alarmed at the presence of this challenge to our civic religion in our midst?
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*Cultural note: The Gracevale Hutterites brought their kids in to the library one day last week. Some of the kids were checking their Facebook pages.

Operation Homefront Collecting School Supplies for Deployed Troops' Kids

I hate even mentioning "back to school" in July. It comes from when I was little: no thought of school until after my birthday in August!

But Patricia Stricherz sends a back-to-school note that shouldn't wait:

Operation Homefront SoDak has started their back-to-school drive to provide backpacks and school supplies to children of deployed troops.

If you would like to help, 2nd Street Diner in Madison is a drop-off location for new backpacks, as well as ABC Seamless in Sioux Falls. Another way to help is to visit the Dollar Tree Store in your area and make a dollar donation that goes to Operation Homefront for supplies.

If you are a family of a deployed military member, please call 888-293-3775 or email us at sodak /at\ operationhomefront \dot/ net to register for back-to-school supplies.

Thanks!
Patricia Stricherz
Operation Homefront South Dakota

Got a buck? A book? A backpack? Support the troops; give Patricia a shout and donate.

South Dakota Celebrates Ellsworth Pork

State Bravely Accepts Heightened Military Risk for Filthy Federal Lucre

South Dakota Republicans talk a good game on cutting federal spending. But start handing out military pork, and watch the good times roll. Republican Senator John Thune is as eager to take credit for bringing a new drone flight control center to Ellsworth Air Force Base as is Democratic Senator Tim Johnson, who as chairman of the military construction subcommittee and member of the majority party might actually have had something to do with bringing the joystick warroom to Ellsworth.

Senator Thune likes to cite the conservative Heritage Foundation when it suits his agenda (he also mentioned them to justify his vote for the 2008 bailout). Yet Badlands Blue astutely points out that Senator Thune conveniently ignores the Heritage Foundation's position from the Bush era on the benefits of closing military bases. Thune also ignores President Eisenhower's admonition about dependence on the military-industrial complex. But who cares about taking a principled stand against federal spending (not to mention military technology arguably more sneaky than black helicopters) when Uncle Sam's money (a) hires local people, (b) helps politicians get re-elected, and (c) wrecks things and kills people?

By the way, has anyone noticed that by taking these federal jobs and putting ourselves "up front in the War on Terror," we're increasing the risk of a terrorist or military attack on South Dakota soil? But hey, we're all about creating jobs with pipelines that could leak, refineries that could explode, pesticides that cause cancer, and other unnecessary risky projects. Military targets are good for the economy, too.

Johnson Right on Gays in Military; SHS Casts Correct Vote

David Montgomery works late to give a good breakdown of where our Congressional delegation stands on allowing gays to serve in the United States Armed Forces. Senator Tim Johnson, who didn't actually get to vote on the defense appropriations amendment that would repeal the Don't Ask Don't Tell policy, made the clearest statement of why we should support that repeal:

As things stand now, any repeal would go into effect only after the study is completed and military leaders and the President give the go ahead. Once that happens, I support ending Don't Ask Don't Tell because any individual who is willing and able to defend our country should be able to do so, regardless of their sexual orientation. My view is shared not only by the administration, but top military leaders as well [Senator Tim Johnson, quoted in David Montgomery, "South Dakota's delegation weighs in on 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell,'" Behind Government Lines, 2010.05.27].

Representative Stephanie Herseth Sandlin joined 233 House colleagues in voting for the repeal. She fails to address the issue of justice and opportunity for all, talking instead about the importance of leaving it to military leaders to "determine what's best for the military." I would prefer SHS add, "...and what's best for the military is to take every willing and able soldier it can get, regardless of whom they love. Forcing gays to stay in the closet and kicking them out when they don't (or when the Rapid City police rat them out) is wrong." Even if SHS manages not to let the gay-word cross her lips, her GOP opponent will still hoot and holler that her vote shows she's beholden to Speaker Pelosi and the "gay agenda." Why play word games, Steph? Call a discriminatory spade a spade and say "Gays have rights like everyone else."

Senator Thune plays a similar game of dodging the real issue. As Montgomery points out, Thune mischaracterizes the repeal amendment as a "White House ultimatum" rather than a compromise. (And don't tell me Thune doesn't have in mind some ultimata he'd issue if he got to be President.) Thune calls repealing Don't Ask Don't Tell a "last-ditch effort by the White House to deliver on a campaign promise"... as if delivering on campaign promises is a bad thing.

On Don't Ask Don't Tell itself, Senator Thune drops this turd in the rhetorical crapper:

"It just seems to me that moving forward [with repeal] would be a mistake.... There are very serious misgivings about changing a policy that has worked pretty effectively" [Thune, quoted in Montgomery, 2010].

..which translates as "Our soldiers are such wimps they couldn't shoot straight if we forced them to serve alongside queers. So kicking out over 13,000 skilled but annoyingly gay soldiers is a great idea. Besides, homosexuals aren't real Americans, anyway. Our Founding Fathers didn't mention them in the Constitution, so screw 'em."

Thank you, Senator Johnson, for the straight talk on this issue. Thank you, Rep. Herseth Sandlin, for at least voting the right way. And thank you, Senator Thune, for exposing the continued bigotry and ignorance of your party.

Pressler Makes NYT, Criticizes Nameless Elitist Hordes

For a former lieutenant, he does an awful lot of generalizing....

Former South Dakota Senator Larry Pressler pops up on the op-ed page of the New York Times, decrying what he calls the "Technicality Generation." Pressler is reacting to the news that Connecticut Attorney General (and current Senate candidate) Richard Blumenthal dodged the Vietnam draft by seeking deferments and ultimately enlisting in the Marine Reserve. (Feel free to discuss differences with George W. Bush's service in the Air National Guard.)

Opines Pressler:

Many of those who didn’t serve were helped by an inherently unfair draft. I don’t fault anyone for taking advantage of the law. Where I do find fault is among those who say they were avoiding the draft because they were idealistically opposed to the war — when, in fact, they mostly didn’t want to make the sacrifice [Larry Pressler, "The Technicality Generation," New York Times, 2010.05.18].

Stop right there. Didn't Larry sit in on any rhetoric classes at Oxford? When you say "in fact," you are generally expeced to present fact, not unsubstantiated assertion.

Pressler proceeds to indict a great swath of nameless, faceless targets. He asserts that "many" in his generation "cloaked themselves in idealism but deep down had to know that they were engaging in a charade." Had to know? Hmmm... speculating as to the mindset of the defendant... surely some prof at Harvard Law mentioned that's a bad strategy.

"This intellectual justification continues to this day," says Pressler, "only now these men are among our country’s leaders." Oh really? Which ones? Care to get specific?

Of course not. Pressler refers to private conversations where he was told "over and over" about the "deeply insidious thing" many of his classmates did. Many, too many... but never any specifics.

Pressler's vague assertions smell a bit of Gordon Howie's unsubstantiated claims about his budget independence. It sure sounds nice, but without any hard evidence, can we really buy it?

Green Notes: Amerts, Army, Urban Agriculture!

As we enjoy what feels like one of the nicest, calmest springs (oh, to run track again in an April like this!), here are some notes on good green news:

* * *

Amert Construction of Madison is doing some good green work in Sioux Falls. They donated some time and effort to pour the slab for the straw bale shed that will be built as part of the Plain Green Conference next week. (The City of Madison still hasn't gotten back to Amerts on their plan to build wind turbines to greet folks coming to Madison on Highway 34. The city's answer should be heck yeah! But the city is discussing its new wind ordinances tonight... which include a proposed prohibition on small wind producers selling their clean electricity to anyone and cutting into the city's monopoly. Hey, what kind of communism is that?)

* * *

Operation Free veterans aren't the only military folks gung ho about green. The United States Armed Forces are recognizing the connection between resource conservation and national security. The Army has cut water use at permanent bases worldwide by 31% since 2004 and energy use per square foot by 10%. They've spent $100 million on spray foam insulation to reduce losses from air conditioning on tents in Iraq and Afghanistan (wait a minute: air conditioning... in tents?). That insulation investment pays for itself in 90 days. The Pentagon is spending $2.7 billion this year on energy efficiency. And before you shout solar panels are for sissies, not Marines, consider: using less fuel means fewer trips for military fuel trucks, which means fewer targets for insurgents and roadside bombs... which means more soldiers making it home with two good legs on which to run to their kids. (Go ahead, Bob: tell me the whole United States military is a bunch of gullible socialist dupes. Better yet, tell the soldiers you know.)

* * *

This editorial notes how a push for urban agriculture could solve a wealth of environmental woes. Consider that 40% of the energy used in agriculture goes to making fertilizers and pesticides. Sure, those chemicals help you get larger yields, but at the expense of flavor and nutrition. Urban organic farmer K. Rashid Nuri notes with pride the growing number of city folks getting away from that addiction to chemicals and quantity by "growing crops on vacant lots, in abandoned fields, in greenhouses, on balconies, by schools, in prison yards, in nursing homes and in countless other creative and engaging places." He notes numerous benefits to urban agriculture: "economic savings, environmental improvement, lifestyle enhancement, increased exercise and family and community bonding." City folks growing rooftop rutabagas may not look quite like Jefferson's yeoman farmer, but when 4 out of 5 Americans live in town, urban farming is a practical way to, as Nuri urges us, "reclaim our agricultural heritage."

Curd and Noem Know Nukes? Republicans Evidently Don't Like Ike

R. Blake Curd is a wealthy Sioux Falls surgeon who likes mansions and tries buying access to candidates of whichever party holds power. Kristi Noem is a farm welfare queen without a college degree. Both scare me when they farcically pretend to be nuclear warriors and presume to criticize President Barack Obama's nuclear weapons policy.

While the President is busy signing historic treaties with Russia, Curd and Noem might want to brush up on the history of an icon of their own party:

In the spring of 1957, President Dwight D. Eisenhower made a sweeping change in the American approach to nuclear war. Henceforth, the United States would rule out waging nuclear war against non-nuclear states....

Eisenhower had no grand objective in installing this policy. Rather, he had become worried by a growing clamor emanating from the Pentagon, supported by “wizard of Armageddon” intellectuals like Henry Kissinger and Democrats keen on retaking the White House, that the United States could wage, and win, a “limited” nuclear war....

On Monday, President Obama announced, in his Nuclear Posture Review, a new American approach to nuclear war that comes right out of Eisenhower’s playbook. And, indeed, Mr. Obama quickly came under criticism from those who have argued that new American technologies, together with the diminished capacity of traditional adversaries, have now made nuclear war winnable... [Campbell Craig, "Just Like Ike (on Deterrence)," New York Times, 2010.04.08].

Yeah, but Eisenhower was soft on Communism, too, right?

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p.s.: Yes, Nelson made similar noise at the same forum about Obama's new nukes policy. But I give Nelson a break this morning, simply because I appreciate his continuing, consistent, and straightforward defense he's been giving conservatives for his role in taking Rep. Roger Hunt to reveal the name of the big anonymous donor in the 2006 anti-abortion campaign. "It wasn't about Roger Hunt, and it wasn't about the issue [of abortion]," Nelson told a conservative forum in Sioux Falls Monday. The lawsuit was about the law. Nelson is doing his share of pandering to the yahoos (also known as my fellow citizens), but if we're going to have a Republican stink up the joint, I'd take the faint musk of Nelson over the stench of Woe de Noem or That Which Rhymes with Curd.

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Update 2010.04.10: As Mr. Smith notes below and as Mr. Feser notes here, Curd and Noem also appear to forget that President Obama goal of a nuke-free world mirrors that of Saint Ronald. Nuclear policy also happens to be one of President Obama's strongest areas of experience... certainly stronger than anything any South Dakota candidate has to offer.

U.S. Military Authorizes Twitter, Facebook, Web 2.0

Be all that you can be... 140 characters at a time!

A commenter here once expressed shock and disgust that KJAM's Matt Hendrickson and I would be using Facebook. What does a grown man need to be Facebook for? the commenter asked oh so ominously.

Well, that commenter can now turn her ire to Uncle Sam: the Pentagon just announced Facebook, Twitter, and the rest of Web 2.0 are cool:

The Pentagon announced on Friday it has authorized the use Twitter, Facebook and other so-called "Web 2.0" sites across the U.S. military, saying the benefits of social media outweighed security concerns.

..."The purpose of the policy is to recognize that we need to take advantage of these Internet-based capabilities. These Web 2.0 tools need to be part of what we use," David Wennergren, a deputy assistant secretary of defense, told Reuters.

"And what we had were inconsistent approaches. Some websites were blocked and some commands were blocking things."

Social media are increasingly important for the U.S. military. Admiral Mike Mullen, who as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is the top U.S. military officer, has a Twitter feed with more than 16,000 followers.

U.S. Southern Command offered operational updates via Twitter on relief activities in Haiti [Phil Stewart, "Military Allows Twitter, Other Social Media," Reuters, 2010.02.27].

Even the U.S. military recognizes that openness and interactivity have their advantages.

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Web Bonus! Check out this good article from Reporters without Borders discussing the global conflict between free access to information and government control of the Internet. South Dakota's attempted Blog Control Acts didn't make the story, but stay tuned for next year....

Operation Homefront SD Collects Christmas Cash by Text

Senator Thune may no longer support the troops, but Patricia Stricherz at Operation Homefront SD still does. She drops a note in my inbox to let readers know Operation Homefront is collecting money by text to provide assistance to military families and wounded vets. If the snow kept you from blowing the last of your Christmas cash at the mall yesterday, maybe you'd like to send a little Christmas jingle their way. To make a donation, says Stricherz, "Text PATRIOT to 90999 and donate $5.00 to Operation Homefront South Dakota to help us stay within our mission of supporting the troops and helping the families they leave behind."

Ho Ho Ho SDSU: Defense Bill Packs $8M in Pork

...or so the headline will read for my government- and education-hating Tea Party neighbors and GOP candidates... right?

Senator Thune had the guts to become my new favorite hippie last week, voting to block funding for the Pentagon. Now will his Republican friends have the guts to denounce $8 million of pork that defense appropriations bill will send to SDSU?

Sen. Tim Johnson (D-S .D.), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, on Thursday announced funding levels for a number of South Dakota projects as part of the final version of the Defense Appropriations Bill for Fiscal Year 2010....

The SDSU projects marked for funding include:

• Alternative Power Technology (APT) for Missile Defense $3,200,000. SDSU works with Radiance Technologies to develop and demonstrate alternative power technology for missile defense.
• Accelerated Materials Development for Army Cannon Systems $2,400,000. SDSU is working with the U.S. Army to help develop a fatigue testing system to test and predict the life and the reliability of cannon system parts.
• Renewable Jet Fuel from Lignocellulosic Feedstocks $2,400,000. This project will develop affordable, alternative sources and production technologies that can achieve high conversion efficiency biofuel for military aviation applications [staff, "$8M for SDSU in Defense Bill," Brookings Register, 2009.12.22].

I can count on Sibby to denounce this money: it's his favorite mix of big government and big money for us evil secular America-haters in higher education.

But I want to hear it from people who might actually win votes in 2010. I eagerly await the press release from R. Blake Curd, Scott Munsterman, or any other Republican true believer in fiscal responsibility who will grinch out on SDSU and demand we send this filthy money back to Washington. Go ahead, Republicans. I double dog dare you.

Dems Protect America; Thune Votes Against U.S. Military

Support the troops? Not if it doesn't fit the GOP's agenda.

In a glittering example of putting partisan politics above America's security, Senator John Thune voted against giving our brave men and women in uniform the resources they need to defeat the enemies of freedom. 29 Senators, all Republicans, joined Senator Thune in this cynical ploy to turn our soldiers into pawns in their Beltway machinations. Their vote would have blocked funding for the Pentagon and left our soldiers and our homeland defenseless against al-Qaeda, North Korea, Iran, and all the other threats our nation faces in these troubled times.

Fortunately, the patriotic Democratic majority, plus true American socialist Senator Sanders from Vermont, stood firm in their resolve to support our armed forces. Republican Senators Collins, Hutchison, and Snowe deserve credit for defying their myopic GOP bosses and casting the right vote in the ongoing Global War on Terror.

(Gee, I see why the right-wingers enjoy using this language: jingoism is seductively fun!)

South Dakota's Dunn, Operation Free Vets Invade Copenhagen

Want climate change legislation done right? Send in the United States military... or at least the veterans representing Operation Free! USD's Volante reports that South Dakota Army National Guard veteran Leighann Dunn is traveling to the big climate conference in Copenhagen to make the case for stronger action on climate change and energy policy. A press release from Repower South Dakota noets that Dunn will be one of a dozen Operation Free veterans in Copenhagen raising awareness of the national security implications of climate change.

Folks interested in finding out more can put on their press hats and attend a press conference in Sioux Falls Monday, 11 a.m., at 335 N. main, Suite 200 (above Evan Photography).

The press release also includes this useful bio of Leighann Dunn:

Leighann Dunn is a 9-year veteran of the S.D. Army National Guard. She served in Iraq in 2003-2004 as a Bridge Engineer and served in Suriname South America as an electrician in 2008. Dunn has a B.S. in Communication Disorders from the University of South Dakota (USD) and is currently working on her Master's degree in Multicatagorical Special Education with an emphasis in Behavior Disorders and Autism. Dunn is the current President of the Veterans Club at USD, South Dakota team Captain of VoteVets and a disabled Veteran. She was recently named one of ten Outstanding Young South Dakotans in 2009. She also was one of three national recipients of a outstanding female veteran scholarship in 2009.

Communication Disorders... hmmm... maybe she can figure out what's wrong with Sibby and Bob Ellis, who seem to suffer a strange form of Tourette's Syndrome: in the middle of every other sentence, they suddenly blurt out paragraphs from WorldNetDaily.

Cause for Thanks: Spock Replaces Riley in White House

Dithering? No, John, that's called thinking.

Dr. Newquist hit a similar theme at the beginning of the month. Now Ned Hodgman reads Joel Achenbach's Washington Post assessment of President Barack Obama's Spock-like decision-making and leadership and offers this Thanksgiving thought:

The world is too complicated a place for even the best fact-based analysis to work every time. But logical, reasoned inquiry and decision-making are part of a process that can build on itself, like scientific inquiry. And when “mistakes are made,” it’s easier to find out where and why.

So let’s be thankful our present president favors his brain over other parts of his anatomy in making decisions. This makes him different from at least a couple of his predecessors [Ned Hodgman, "A Healthy Serving of Facts: Obama's Rigorous Approach to Decision-Making," Understanding Government, 2009.11.25].

There's no turkey in that thinking. Stay cool, stay Vulcan, Mr. President.

Wasson Proposes Trade with North Korea, Cut DoD by Half

GOP U.S. House candidate Thad Wasson keeps the ideas coming: He extends his proposal for bear-hug diplomacy with Iran to include agricultural trade with North Korea. He also proposes the most serious federal deficit-cutting plan I've heard from anyone this year: withdraw from Kosovo, Italy, Japan, and Korea and cut the U.S. military budget by half. Wasson makes the interesting argument that other countries look at our enormous military spending and assume that such expenditures are the route to greatness. A paradigm shift to a less bristly America could lead to a paradigm shift in other nations.

Or so Wasson proposes, and so Wasson would like to discuss on the campaign trail. Not that the mainstream media or even the Republican Party chiefs are interested in hearing big ideas like that. They're more interested in R. Blake Curd's ability to count words. in the health insurance reform bill.

Honor Your Vets, Save the Planet, Pass ACESA

Don't think Veterans Day should be political? Ask a soldier who risked her life in Iraq due to our political choices. LeighAnn Dunn, USD grad student and South Dakota National Guard member, applies the Bush "first-strike" doctrine as justification for passing climate change legislation:

This “first strike” standard also obligates our nation to another standard, which is to take extraordinary steps to prevent wars our leaders can see developing in the future. One threat we clearly see and can prevent is further damage from climate change. The U.S. Department of Defense, the CIA, the State Department and the National Intelligence Council see this threat and are all incorporating man-made climate change as a security threat into their long-term planning. Here are some climate change scenarios our nation’s top military minds are looking at:

Climate change dries up water and creates famine. Nations panic. Wars erupt. American troops get deployed.

Climate change makes sea levels rise, creating tens of millions of refugees. Refugee camps are ripe recruiting grounds for terrorist organizations.

Climate change fuels radical storms to occur more frequently. This stretches military resources from their primary mission: defending America against our enemies [LeighAnn Dunn, "Nation at the Crossroads This Veterans Day," letter to the editor, USD Volante, 2009.11.11].

When treehuggers and GI Jane agree, it's time to act. Support the troops: enact climate change legislation.

Wasson Goes Web, Questions Iraq Occupation, Flies Flag for ACESA

Hey, that Wasson character must be serious about running for Congress: he's got a new website, just the big kids! Among other things, candidate Wasson notes that American troops in Iraq will be protecting Chinese oil interests. I can't wait to hear the policy implications of that point on the stump!

Wasson is also blogging with my favorite free blogging tool, Blogger. On his blog, Wasson has the temerity to disagree with the rest of the GOP field and suggest South Dakota might be able to use climate-change legislation to its advantage. (Interesting: Wasson expressed the opposite position back in July. He's obviously cleared his head by reading the Madville Times.) I'm still voting Dem, but this guy could be the straw that stirs the Republican drink in the primary debates.

I also hear Wasson is planning some East River trips—expect some stern critiques of South Dakota's own East Coast intelligentsia. ;-)

Primary is just seven months away: bookmark those campaign websites now!

SD House (Dem):

• Stephanie Herseth Sandlin

SD House (GOP):

• Thad Wasson
• Chris Nelson
• R. Blake Curd

SD Governor (Dem):

• Scott Heidepreim

SD Governor (GOP):

• Scott Munsterman
• Ken Knuppe
• David Knudson
• Dennis Daugaard

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Update 10:32 CST: I notice Wasson is busy updating already. His blog sidebar includes a South Dakota blogroll that includes conservative and liberal blogs. Making Candidate Wasson's blogroll: Madville Times and Dakota War College, both of which have dished out criticism of Wasson's campaign. Now how many candidates do you know who have the moxie to allow opposing content on their website?