TransCanada Plans More Pipelines Than Keystone

This article from a friend in Britton deserves some extra attention, especially for those of you who think TransCanada is going to run just one pipeline through South Dakota. TransCanada CEO Hal Kvisle told investors at a conference in Whistler, BC (think really fancy ski resort) that building an even bigger "bullet" pipeline all the way to Gulf Coast refiniries is already on the drawing board:

The other option to send growing volumes of oil sands crude to more distant refineries is to take a page from Keystone's design and reconfigure more of its underused natural gas pipelines for part of the route, TransCanada CEO Hal Kvisle said.

"But if the demand for transportation materializes more quickly we would look at building a direct line," Kvisle told investors at a conference in Whistler, British Columbia.

"Either way, the discussions are well advanced and this is one of the future projects that we will be bring forward here in the months ahead," he said in his Webcast speech [no author cited, "TransCanada Plots Next Big Oil Line to Gulf Coast," Reuters.com, 2008.02.21].

Download CEO Kvisle's presentation and watch the Webcast for yourself.

As they have advocated their Keystone project, TransCanada has told landowners that the pipeline will only affect the productivity of the land for one season, when the pipeline is dug and laid. After that, barring the need for maintenance, farmers will supposedly be able to plant crops or hay or run cattle right over the pipeline, as if it weren't even there. That's why TransCanada says a one-time payment should be sufficient for the easements they are requesting from landowners.

So suppose you're farming in Miner County, and you're dealing with TransCanada. They offer you a one-time payment this year to let them build the Keystone pipeline and have access to the pipeline corridor for 99 years. Best-case scenario, the plow through this year with their crews and equipment, taking that 110-foot corridor (50 feet permanent for the corridor, another 60 for workspace, about 13 acres across one section) out of production for the season. Farmers, I'll let you tell me the productive value of a strip of land that size. The pipeline goes in, you go out in the fall or the spring to level the dirt and clear out the TransCanada crews' Slurpee cups and Tim Horton's boxes. TransCanada knows that torn up strip of land won't get back to full production for at least a year or two, so they also offer compensation for lost crops: 100% the year they dig, 75% the next year, and 25% the year after that.

So Year 4 comes, and you're thinking, "Hot dang, time to get that land back to full production." Before you get to your tractor, you see the bulldozers and pipeline trucks pulling into your field. "Good day, neighbor!" the TransCanada crew calls. "We're here to put in the next pipeline! Thanks for the easement!" You signed your land rights away back in 2008, so you have no more compensation coming. If TransCanada builds just one more pipeline, you're out at least six years of production on that land, and you get only two year's worth of compensation.

If that's how these easements work, maybe you can understand why some landowners over by Howard, up in Britton, and elsewhere have been hesitant to sign the deals offered by TransCanada. CEO Kvisle's comments only confirm what our smart landowners could see all along: TransCanada has a lot more planned than just one pipeline. They could be a permanent disruptive presence in our farm fields, and the landowners want their interests protected, not just this year, but throughout their business relationship with TransCanada. Our corporate neighbor, however, wants to use eminent domain to force our landowners to accept payment for just two year's worth of crops in return for 99 years' worth of land rights and productive value.

That deal makes business sense for only one party... and that party doesn't live in South Dakota.
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This Reuters article also reminds us of the size of this particular gorilla South Dakota might get in bed with: Keystone pipeline project cost: $5.2 billion. South Dakota state budget FY 2009: $3.6 billion. Perspective: If South Dakota could impose a 1% tax on the construction project alone -- or a 10% tax on the one-tenth of the project that will cross South Dakota -- we'd rake in $52 million dollars, enough to cover $5000 raises for every K-12 teacher in the state and restore funding for expanding the Classroom Connections laptop program.)

Obama Uplift for the Morning: Good Campaigns Mean Something

My neighbor and District 8 House candidate Gerry Lange points me toward an HNN essay on the Obama campaign that further supports the thesis of my Sunday post: campaigns can tell us a lot about a candidate's abilities as President.

...[I]f experience mattered most in life, Babe Ruth would have been a winning baseball manager, Dick Cheney would be considered a visionary, IBM would have led the personal computer revolution, and both Richard Nixon and Herbert Hoover would be judged among our greatest presidents whereas Abraham Lincoln and Woodrow Wilson would be among the worst.

So if history tells us that experience sometimes matters, sometimes doesn't, how else can we compare the competence and ability of our leading presidential candidates?

The best gauge may be to examine the one experience in which all three of them started from the same place: running for president. And on that account, the one with the least experience has hands down done the best.

From money to message to campaign organizing to drawing voters, Obama has outpaced his two rivals and in fact has pioneered a number of new strategies that future candidates will dissect and study in the years ahead. His campaign has become the Apple or Google of American politics [Leonard Steinhorn, "Obama's Run a Great Campaign--That Says Something, Doesn't It?" History News Network, 2008.03.03].

Build a broad base of small donors, focus on grass-roots organization, use technology, sell a consistent message, stick with it, work like a dog, and come out of two months of primaries ahead of the erstwhile presumptive nominee in delegates, popular votes, and campaign donations -- sounds like a heck of a résumé to me.

Dr. Steinhorn (he teaches communication and history at American University) agrees with me that good campaign performance doesn't guarantee good Presidential performance. However, he concludes, "for voters who do their comparison shopping, it's instructive to see how each of these candidates – given their different life experiences – has met the exact same challenge."

Growth and Development... of Taxes?

The following should put a spring in the step of my friend Lee Yager as he heads for the golf course this morning. His warning in a letter to the editor a couple years ago that the mindless "grow or die" philosophy would turn Madison into a "metropolitan madhouse" still rings in my ears, as much for its hyperbole and alliterative-slogan potential (think of it on a billboard: "Madison: Metropolitan Madhouse!" Now that would be Unexpected™!) as for its reminder that growth isn't always what it's cracked up to be.

Case in point: a real metropolitan madhouse (well, the closest thing we've got), Sioux Falls. Our biggest city's population growth has been the envy and perhaps the bane of many a regional economic development chief. Last year Sioux Falls was among the 50 fastest growing cities in the nation in 2006*. The city has doubled in population since 1970 and currently adds 3000 to 4000 people and a square mile of turf a year.**

Sioux Falls's vigrous growth looks like another feather in the statistical cap of this low-tax economics professor and blogger who finds a slight (-0.23) but statistically significant negative correlation between state population growth and state tax rates -- 1% higher state tax burden correlates with 0.23% less population growth. His commenters question the validity of the results, but the proposition is interesting....

Now my friend Lee loves low taxes, but he might not be so fond of all the people those low tax rates appear to attract. This brief KELO blurb makes me wonder if Lee will end up getting the worst of both worlds as population growth causes higher taxes. You'd think that higher population means more people to share the costs of public services and thus a little lower tax burden for each individual. But more people also means more demand for services. Dakota County, MN (that's the south side of the Cities), sees its population growth bringing a 5% increase in traffic each year, leading to a projected quadrupling of road congestion by 2025 and the need for more tax revenue to pay for more roads. The Carrying Capacity Network argues that population growth just can't pay for itself as we try to keep up with the new schools, hospitals, and prisons all those new people need.

Now it's not that Lee and I don't like people (well, maybe I shouldn't speak for Lee -- stop out to the gravel pit this spring and ask him yourself). Having more neighbors can bring a number of advantages (more folks to ask for a cup of flour, more folks to support businesses and local arts, etc.) But as Sioux Falls grows, and as the LAIC's Forward Madison project pursues its goal of adding 400 new residents to Madison over the next few years, let's not be surprised if all that population growth still doesn't give us the wiggle room to lower our taxes.

*Ben Dunsmoor, "SF Makes 'Fastest-Growing Cities' List," KELOLand.com, 2007.04.05.
**Matt Belanger, "How Big Can the 'Big City' Get?" KELOLand.com, 2007.04.06.

Ed. Chief's Daughter: Teacher Pay Raise "Slap in the Face"

Hat tip to another eagle-eyed Madville Times reader! 100 eyes are better than 2!

KELO quotes Baltic teacher and interp/drama director (and my pal!) Tara Melmer on the paltriness of the increase in education funding proposed by the Legislature and awaiting our stingy Governor's approval:

Lawmakers have made their decision, but the fight to increase teacher salaries is far from over. A bill is on the Governor's desk that would provide an extra $3 million to school districts next year - that's beyond the $23 million increase recommended by Rounds.

The extra money will go toward teacher salaries. But some teachers say the raise is still not enough.

South Dakota is still last in the nation when it comes to teacher pay, so to Baltic teacher Tara Melmer any increase is welcome.

Melmer says, “At this point any thing's good and we'll take anything. However it’s so minimal that to some degree it’s almost a slap in the face.” [emphasis mine; article Kelli Grant's: "Pay Increase Not Enough for Some Teachers," KELOLand.com, 2008.03.04]

What KELO doesn't note is that Ms. Melmer is the daughter of Governor Rounds's right-hand man for education, state Secretary of Education Rick Melmer.

Dusty Johnson Sending Signal to TransCanada?

If so, it may not be a good signal for us...

I receive the following e-mail from Dr. Steve Shirley, DSU VP/Dean of Student Affairs, over breakfast [emphasis mine]:

A reminder the Spring 2008 All-Campus Convocation sponsored by the DSU Student Senate will be at 11 a.m. TODAY at the Dakota Prairie Playhouse. All 11 a.m. classes on the DSU campus have been canceled today. Dusty Johnson, South Dakota Public Utilities Commissioner, will deliver the keynote address, “Avoiding the Siren’s Call: Being a Common Sense Environmentalist.” In addition, the campus will be recognizing student achievement for academic, artistic, athletic, and student involvement.

For those unable to be on campus this morning, you can also view the webcast here: http://streaming.dsu.edu/live (the link will be active about 10 minutes prior to the start of the Convocation). If you are unable to watch live this morning, the Convocation will be archived at this link: http://streaming.dsu.edu/students/Convocation_S_08.wmv (should be active about a half-hour after the Convocation has concluded).

“Avoiding the Siren’s Call: Being a Common Sense Environmentalist.” Do I hear some GOP denial coming? Some economic development boosterism? A signal that the PUC is about to rule in favor of running the TransCanada Keystone pipeline (and more pipelines in the future) through prime South Dakota farmland and wildlife habitat?

I'm probably just being paranoid. And I have a ton of homework, so I won't be able to go convoke with my fellow Trojans this morning and hear Dusty's message. But for those of you interested in hearing what sort of environmental thinking is guiding the PUC's decisions on TransCanada and other projects, tune in this morning at 11, or check out the archived video later.

Johnson "Attack" on Kirby Silly...

...just like the blog fuss about it.

The blogstorm of commentary on Tim Johnson's "smear campaign" against possible GOP Senate challenger bears more than a whiff of tempest in a teapot. "Smear"? What did the Dems do, I wondered, accuse Kirby of adultery? Embezzlement? Not mowing his lawn?

Nothing so grave. Johnson's campaign manager, Steve Jarding, sent out an e-mail to campaign donors saying Kirby is a multimillionaire. (Boy, why didn't I think of that zinger when I was on the playground at Washington Elementary?) Jarding then went on to issue some standard anti-GOP rhetoric:

“Steve Kirby cares little that home foreclosures are growing, while incomes are not; that health care costs are skyrocketing while 47 million Americans lack health insurance; that jobs are being outsourced even though American workers are more productive than ever; that we are mired in a war without end that is mortgaging our children's future,” the email stated. [staff reports, "Johnson Campaign Attacks Steve Kirby," that Sioux Falls paper, 2008.02.29]

Jarding's language is rather silly: Kirby hasn't even declared his candidacy, let alone issued any policy statements defending the plutocracy. The Johnson camp appears to have gotten out the elephant gun for a mosquito: why make even the effort of those few words against a guy you lead 70-19 in the latest poll?

The Dems aren't helping themselves. Dr. Schaff correctly calls out-of-state blogger Lowell Feld, maintainer of the SD Dems' paid blog, Badlands Blue, on sheer denial of reality. Feld, who hasn't spent any time I know of in South Dakota, claims that Johnson is just being "aggressive" to avoid suffering the fate of Tom Daschle:

One of the main reasons Tom Daschle lost in 2004 was because he wasn't aggressive enough against John Thune.

Next, the Badlands Blue question of the day is this: Should Democrats repeat the same mistake in 2008?

I'll catch heck from my Dem friends on this one, but a quick look at Jon Lauck's analysis of the 2004 contest will remind us that Daschle was waging a TV ad campaign months before Thune declared or put a single ad on the airwaves. The Daschle campaign had spent $8 million on TV, radio, newspapers, and mailings by May 2004, compared to Thune's $500,000 at that point, and saw Daschle's lead shrink.

Still, the GOP/blogspheric hue and cry over this "smear" sounds very much like an effort to find something, anything, to give their least hopeless maybe-candidate some tiny toehold in the election. And it's always funny when Republicans play the victim card. Ho-hum.

Johnson got the Dems behind a website criticizing Kirby to take it down. He called Jarding's e-mail what it was: rhetoric to stir up donors (would my Republican friends oblige and post copies of all the juicy text they get from the GOP candidates seeking their money? I'm sure we can have some fun with that literary analysis). He also called Kirby what he is: a millionaire. I won't begrduge my GOP friends for not wanting the story to end there; they do desperately need a story. I'll just wait until the campaign gets going and Johnson and... whoever... get to talking about the issues.

Madison City Commission: Four Candidates Confirmed

Four is the magic number in our local elections so far: the Madison City Finance Office confirms that four citizens have filed to run for the two open seats on the Madison City Commission. Your official candidates (in the order listed by the Finance Office):

• Monica Campbell
• Scott Delzer
• Kelli Brown
• Dick Ericsson

Alas, our blue-collar potential candidate, Nick Abraham, has evidently decided that local politics are not for him this time around. A man has every right to set his priorities, but from the comments he offered in MDL's coverage of his potential candidacy last month, I got the impression he might be a good straight-talking, no-nonsense representative of a neighborhood and demographic that maybe don't get as much voice in government as they should. (And alphabetically, he would have been the perfect crown jewel on an A-B-C-D-E ballot!)

But we have four good candidates. Let's hear what they have to say about where our city (and out tax dollars!) are going. (And hey, candidates -- where are your websites?)

Legislative Review 2008 -- Getting Our Money's Worth?

With the big rush of the final week of the Legislature, many of us seem to have gotten wrapped up in political horseraces and who's being snarky with whom (Johnson v Kirby, Clinton v Obama, Powers v Sibson...). Maybe it was just a little Pierre fatigue... maybe you don't have to actually be there to catch it!

But with our legislators all back home now, safe and sound, where they can catch up on their work, catch heck from their constituents in person, and blame Governor Rounds for as much as possible, let's take a look at some of what they achieved. Here in no particular order are some bills that caught our interest during the session:

HB 1184 would have created tax incentives for all sorts of renewable energy projects: wind, solar, hydroelectric, hydrogen, biomass (cow poop! landfill gas!), geothermal, and even recycled energy (i.e., making electricity from unused waste heat from other processes). The bill went nowhere fast.

Wind power did catch a break, though, catching the new breeze blowing across the South Dakota tax landscape: productivity tax. HB 1320 changes the tax system for wind farms so that instead of paying taxes based on land value, wind farms pay taxes based on power-generating capacity and gross receipts. That's one small step for wind power, one giant leap toward income tax.

Farmers get an even more giant leap away from property tax and toward income tax with HB 1005. Starting July 1, 2009, farmers will pay taxes based on "agricultural income value on a per acre basis." The professors at SDSU have 15 months to come up with their magic statewide productivity formula (I wonder if I'll have to pay $350 to get a copy of that study).

In the "Anything for a Buck" category:

SB 174 railroads individual property rights, making it easier for railroad companies to take your land for their profit.

Sen. Kloucek's SB 138 would have required proof of financial responsibility from TransCanada and other oil companies seeking to run pipelines through the state, kind of like we citizens have to do when we drive our cars to the store for milk. Mostly killed in committee, smoked out, really killed on the Senate floor.

Sen. Nesselhuf's SB 196 would have imposed clear and tough regulations on oil refineries, like the proposed Hyperion project at Elk Point. It got hoghoused down a couple of times, until there was nothing left but a statement that South Dakota reserves the right to impose environmental regulations of its own more stringent than federal standards, as it sees necessary to protect its natural resources. It passed the Senate, but even that imposition of local control and responsibility on the oil industry was too much for the House Ag and Natural Resources Committee (funny, the committee's name doesn't include "Oil"), where everyone but Rep. Dave Gassman (D-8/Canova) voted to kill it and keep Big Oil free and happy. (You tried, Dave -- thanks!)

On open government:

We get a state Freedom of Information Act, sort of, with SB 186, which creates a formal process by which we can request state government documents when the folks in the office just won't be neighborly and go get them for us.

We also get a new state website where we can look up any and all state financial information, thanks to HB 1233. Expect Sibby, PP, and the rest of the SD Blogosphere to melt down that server in the first week.

In other news:

HB 1179 gives the State Fair another subsidy, this time of $768,004.

While the Legislature found money to keep Huron's tourist economy afloat, it could not find money to reverse the Governor's $2-million cuts to the Highway Patrol budget. SB 172 floundered and spawned some unpleasant Republican bickering (keep it up, kids -- you'll be sorry when Gerry Lange becomes House Majority Leader!).

HB 1124 was going to enhance education by establishing a wild new three-tiered teacher salary system, plus a statewide minimum teacher salary of $30,000. The bill had the state paying for the tier increases; where the minimum salary was going to come from (and how it would be enforced) was anyone's guess. The bill got hoghoused to read in its entirety as follows: "Section 1. Education in South Dakota is hereby enhanced." That's all. And in perhaps the dorkiest vote of the session, the House and Senate actually passed it.

The Legislature did manage to pass education funding in SB 187. Per student state aid is increased, with a requirement that school districts use the money to boost teacher pay and benefits. HB 1087 managed to find $3 million more for education by cancelling the planned third-year expansion of the Classroom Connections (laptops in HS classrooms) program to 20 more schools (what could be more fun than watching the Legislature unite to increase education funding specifically by cutting one of the Governor's pet programs?).

HB 1076 was going to shift Internet costs from the state to the schools and keep more money in Pierre for the promulgation of further foolishness by the State Department of Education. It got hoghoused last Wednesday into a bill dealing with consolidation, but the House let it die. (So as I understand it, last year's much touted consolidation mandate still has no teeth.)

HB 1291 would have added dyslexia to the list of problems officially eligible for special education services in South Dakota. This bill seemed perfectly innocuous, until a friend of mine noted that it might actually have ended up denying kids services they can already get under federal rules. The House passed it, but the Senate Education Committee killed it.

HB 1261 was a snarky swipe by legislators at the Board of Regents, which had asked for legislation banning guns on campus and ended up with a bill banning the BoR from banning guns on campus. We had a brief flurry of Second Amendment bluster, and then the Senate imposed reason and killed it.

And vanity plates have lived to agitate and amuse for another day. SB 185 offered a comical list of potentially offensive messages to be banned from the official parts of your bumpers. SB 20 would have banned vanity plates altogether. Both measures died cold, lonely deaths in committee in January.

The Legislature continues to practice medicine without a license with SB 88, guaranteeing women seeking abortions the "opportunity" to see a sonogram of the fetus before the operation. We can at least take solace in the fact that otherwise, our legislators manageed to stay away from abortion politics this time around.

So, did we get our money's worth from our legislators this time around? I guess we'll get our chance to say so in November. But feel free to offer your say-so here! How'd the Legislature do in your book? What did they miss? What did they do too much of? And what did they do right? Your comments are welcome.

Bring Back the Lincoln Look -- Beards for Prez!

...or fine, for Vice-Prez!

I caught a little ribbing a couple weeks ago after posting some photos with my wintrily hirsute visage. But check out Governor Bill Richardson: a few weeks out of the Presidential race, and he's haired up into one baaaaad-lookin' dude! No more gentle chubby-cheeked look for him. Man, if he'd have stepped into a debate looking that tough, he and McCain would six weeks deep in a New Mexico-Arizona grudge match by now.

Time to ride the wave, Obama. The Illinois Senator should follow his forbear Abraham Lincoln and wear whiskers to the White House. Or, if Obama just can't part with smooth, put Richardson on the ticket as VP: best combo of facial hair and foreign policy on the block!

Photo credit: Natalie Guillen/AP

Obama v Clinton -- Campaign as Test of Administrative Skill

It's not three a.m., and my kids aren't sleeping, and grim music isn't playing in the background to make me scared of bin Laden or other vague, unnamed threats to the strongest, freest nation in the world. So let's take a clear-eyed, fearless, and rational look at which Democrat is demonstrating the ability to manage a big, expensive, complicated project, like, oh, say, a Presidential campaign. Says Eleanor Clift:

The much vaunted Clinton campaign operation, billed as the biggest, baddest game in town, had no post-Super Tuesday strategy because its leaders apparently didn't think one was needed. Whether that's due to arrogance or ignorance, it's the campaign equivalent of what President Bush did in invading Iraq without a post-Saddam plan. The primaries are in a very true sense a practice run for the White House, and if you emerge with high marks, as Obama has, it's a pretty clear statement of the kind of government you would run. Obama has shown a steadiness in demeanor and message. Clinton has blown through $120 million dollars, and her persona is more confused than ever. A USA Today cartoon captures the shifting moods with a political weather map and a "Five-day Hillary Forecast: Monday… Friendly; Tuesday… On the attack; Wednesday… Complimentary; Thursday… Hostile; Friday… Conciliatory." [Eleanor Clift, "Day of Reckoning," Newsweek, 2008.02.29]

That's an argument that's been running through my head for the past month: if you can't run a strong campaign, how are you going to run a country? Richard Cohen notes in the Washington Post that Hillary Clinton has been a lackluster candidate in the three elections she has stood for. Professor Blanchard backs this up, noting the tens of millions Clinton allowed her campaign manager, Patti Solis Doyle, to waste on her easy 2006 Senate re-election campaign.

So who's got the skills to be an effective manager? Running a campaign isn't the same as running a country, but it is one good test of how a person picks staff, manages money, and mobilizes people. Let's see what Vermont, Rhode Island, Ohio, and Texas say about that.

Campaign Finance Filings? Not in School Board Race!

...and thank goodness!

PP's post this morning about campaign finance forms and conflcits of interest reminds me to go check the rules on campaign finance for school board elections. The Legislature passed quite an overhaul last year, and folks running for office should double check, make sure they're playing according to Hoyle.

Fortunately for the candidates in Madison's school board race, those rules don't apply here. The Secretary of State's website states that candidates for school board do have to file financial interest statements, but only in school districts with 2000+ students. Madison Central's fall 2007 enrollment: 1171.

Blogger Weeds out White House Plagiarist

Plagiarism is lying, cheating, and stealing, and the Bush Administration, bless their hearts, will have none of it. The New York Times reports that blogger Nancy Nall caught White House aide Tim Goeglein plagiarizing essays for his hometown paper, the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel. Nall found Goeglein's column in Thursday's paper to be plagiarized from a 1998 Dartmouth Review article. The News-Sentinel investigated and found Goeglein had plagiarized 20 of 38 columns since 2000. By Friday evening, the Bush Administration had declared Goeglein's plagiarism "not acceptable", and Goeglein's resignation was on the President's desk.

Note that Goeglein had served as a good Christian soldier for evangelical Gary Bauer's presidential campaign in 2000, then became a top aide to Karl Rove. NY Times describes Goeglein as a "liaison to the social and religious conservatives" for the Bush Administration. The describes Goeglein as "instrumental in establishing the Bush faith-based community initiative" [Ashley Smith, "Bush Aide Goeglein Resigns," Fort Wayne News-Sentinel, 2008.03.01].

Gogelien's religious background has at least led him to take responsibility for his sins: he has been issuing apologies at a vigorous pace:

“It is true,” Mr. Goeglein wrote in an e-mail message to another Fort Wayne newspaper, The Journal-Gazette. “I am entirely at fault. It was wrong of me. There are no excuses.”

He said he had apologized to the author of The Dartmouth Review article.

[Sheryl Gay Stolberg, "Bush Aide Resigns After Admitting Plagiarism," New York Times, 2008.03.01].

Goeglein is right about having no excuses. He double-majored in journalism and political science at Indiana University Bloomington. He wasn't writing under deadline or for pay for the News-Sentinel. He had all the knowledge to avoid plagiarism and none of the pressure that might cause some writers to slip.

Even one plagiarized article is unacceptable. But 20? How'd that many slip by the editors?

News-Sentinel Editorial Page Editor Leo Morris said writers of guest columns are given a certain level of trust to ensure the information they supply is correct and not plagiarized.

“You don't have the time or the manpower to check everything that comes in,” he said.

“If you can't trust the faith-based assistant to the president, who can you trust?” [Smith 2008.03.01]

Thank goodness we have bloggers to help check the media. There's one more positive contribution bloggers make to the general welfare!

So here's your small miracle for Sunday: The Bush Administration and the Madville Times agree. Plagiarism is wrong, and you can expect to lose your job for it.