Tim Johnson Shows Leadership, Tells South Dakota He's Proud of Health Reform

Meanwhile, Senator Tim Johnson shows some Democratic leadership by standing up in the middle of red-state South Dakota and declaring health insurance reform is good!

Americans have been waiting for generations to see common sense changes made in our country’s health care delivery system.

Now that Congress has passed health care reform and President Obama has signed the legislation into law, reforms that had only been talked about for decades are now being put in place. As this bill is implemented, South Dakotans will not have to wait long to see the immediate benefits of this bill [Senator Tim Johnson, "SD will see benefits of health reform soon," Pierre Capital Journal, 2010.04.06].

It takes more than some politically impotent protestors and posing propagandists to drive Senator Johnson away from the facts on health insurance reform:

Unfortunately, those against health care reform have tried to scare seniors and families about the impacts of this bill. Some have gone so far as to say these reforms should be overturned. I can’t imagine why anyone would want to reopen the donut hole and charge seniors more for their prescriptions, once again allow insurers to drop you from your plan because of a preexisting illness, or banish kids from their parent’s policy.

After all, this bill actually reduces the national debt by $143 billion dollars over the first decade alone.

As for me, passage of health reform was one of the proudest moments in my 31 years in elective office [Johnson, 2010].

One of the proudest moments... that's the kind of leadership we need to hear from South Dakota Democrats. Health insurance reform is good for South Dakota and good for America. It saves money, improves health care, and expands our liberty. Thank you, Senator Johnson, for not being afraid to say so.

Gordon Howie, Please Quit

South Dakotans will not get to celebrate Confederate History Month with their own reënactment of secession. Gordon Howie's last-ditch attempt to nullify health insurance reform has failed, with petitioneers gathering only half of the necessary 16,776 signatures necessary to place the initiative on the November ballot.

Wait, did I say last-ditch? Apparently when it comes to declaring state law superior to federal law, last-ditch isn't in Senator Howie's vocabulary. Neither is quit, or lose gracefully. Having lost three times now (the South Dakota Senate soundly rejected this bad legislation twice) The gubernatorial candidate and self-proclaimed teabagger now says he'll continue gathering signatures to take to Pierre to bolster his demand that the Legislature take up his nullification crusade again next year... or maybe even in a special session this year.

Gordon, stop. There comes a time to admit defeat and move on to other issues. Other senators make proposals that go nowhere during the legislative session, and they have the grace and good sense not to wage futile petition drives and go grandstanding around the state for the rest of the year on it. Can you demonstrate a little gubernatorial statesmanship and do the same?

Obviously not. Gordon Howie knows he can't win the governor's primary on practical South Dakota issues, not against wonks like Dennis Daugaard, Dave Knudson, and Scott Munsterman. (Watch Gord's YouTube campaign video, see how little relevance his slogan collage has to specific South Dakota issues.) Howie has not one practical solution for governing this state.

So Howie has only one way to win: he has to gin up supporters by aping Tea Party mantras on national issues that the South Dakota governor really can't do anything about but which are a lot more fun to scream about while wearing a tri-corner hat. (Try reading Dennis Daugaard's economic plan or Scott Munsterman's policy briefs the way Sarah-Palinites screamed about death panels—it just doesn't work.)

The dead legislation Howie keeps flogging, this year's Senate Bill 137, also happens to be unnecessary. South Dakota is already suing Uncle Sam to overturn health insurance reform. The lawsuit is based on the same constitutional arguments Howie hollers to justify his bill. If the federal health insurance law is unconstitutional, we won't need a state law to nullify it: the courts will find in favor of Jackley et al., the law wil be overturned, and there will be nothing for South Dakota to nullify. If the courts rules against the suing states (and that's the smart money), the courts would also rule against Howie's nullificatory bil.

Howie's endless nullification campaign is, therefore, a cynical publicity stunt. He knows further petitioning is legislatively futile. It's a Saul-Alinsky-style organizing tactic, a chance for his supporters to shout "Obama is Hitler!" and stay all juiced up long enough to vote in the Republican primary. It is a ploy to distract South Dakotans from practical state issues that Howie just can't handle.

If Howie were really interested in governing, he'd show some statesmanship and let health reform nullification die. But Tea Bag ranting is all Howie has to offer... and that's proof that he can't hold a candle to any of the other men, Republican or Democrat, who want to govern South Dakota.

Refineries Bring Economic Boom? Well, You Got Boom Right...

South Dakota GOP gubernatorial candidate Dennis Daugaard vows in his economic plan to "Make the Hyperion refinery a reality." He says the proposed Union County oil refinery is an "incredible opportunity for South Dakota," promising jobs and dollars, and he vows as governor to "ensure that environmental extremists and an activist EPA do not prevent this important project from becoming a reality."

O.K., how about safety concerns? Union County Commission candidate Doug Maurstad directs our attention to a new study finding American refineries are exceptionally bad at safety. American refineries apparently lose four times as much money from deadly accidents as overseas refineries. (Is our American know-how limited to making things go boom?)

An explosion at the Tesoro refinery in Anacortes, Washington, Friday killed five workers and critically injured two more. The Tesoro facility had a history of previous safety violations that government regulators arguably did not do enough to punish. U.S. Chemical Safety Board chairman John Bresland says, "The CSB has eighteen ongoing investigations. Of those, seven of these accidents occurred at refineries across the country. This is a significant and disturbing trend that the refining industry needs to address immediately.” CSB is currently investigating accidents at facilities owned by, among others, CITGO, Goodyear, and Exxon.

I'm not sure which is riskier: doing business with current industry players, or trusting Hyperion, a company with no refinery experience at all, to build a time bomb in Union County.

With such a rottten safety record, oil refineries clearly require stricter oversight and regulation. But in Dennis Daugaard's Republican world, efforts to strenghen OSHA and the Chemical Safety Board and protect workers and neighbors from refinery explosions are just "federal efforts to over-regulate and stifle economic growth... erode state autonomy and hurt businesses and families."

Third Place Nights Opens April 21 at BrickHouse

The Madison Area Arts Council announces date and time for its first Third Place Nights event. Wednesday, April 21, 7–9 p.m., Lake County's creative types will gather at the newly named BrickHouse to paint, sculpt, knit, write, philosophize, and engage in other creative activities.

I'll admit, I tried painting in front of an audience once at Art in the Park. It didn't go well. My creative processes generally require seclusion, an absence of distraction.

But in that setting, I was surrounded mostly by spectators, not fellow creators. Surrounded by a roomful of artists gathered for the same purpose, painters and writers can inspire each other, share and reinforce the creative vibe.

We'll test that out Wednesday, April 21. Come on down, set up your easel, and have at it!

DSU Wins $5.7 Million Stimulus Grant for Health IT

So, R. Blake Curd, how much of this federal money should South Dakota send back?

Health and Human Services Secretary Katherine Sebelius just announced $267 million in grants to establish Health Information Technology Regional Extension Centers. These centers will help hospitals everywhere adopt I.T. innovations like electronic health records, the technology that helps the Veterans Health Administration deliver "the highest-quality medical care in America."

Bringing home $5,687,168 of that bacon: Dakota State University.

This grant brought to you by university academics and all those darned leftists who voted for President Obama's stimulus package last year.

Russell Olson Wins Re-Election by Mail Mix-Up

I was all excited to announce that District 8 Senator Russell Olson would have a Democratic challenger this year. Last week, at the last minute, my wife and I and eighteen of our Madison neighbors signed a petition for Clark Schmidke from Trent to run for the State Senate. (Politicians from Trent make me jumpy, but we'll take what we can get.)

With bated breath I watched the Secretary of State's candidate list, just waiting for the District 8 challenger to pop up. Waiting, waiting... what gives?

Today I learn the Secretary of State's office received petitions, but one of them was sent certified mail instead of registered mail. That petition is thus null... and Russell Olson gets a free pass to another term in the State Senate.

That's two petitions I've signed into oblivion this year. Grrr. If you see me grumping about town today, please understand, I'm having a cranky primary season.

South Dakota Pays Lowest Wages per Job

The latest Prairie Business popped out of our mailbox yesterday. Among other things, we learned that South Dakota has the nation's lowest compensation per job. In 2008, the per-job average here was $40,726. The next lowest state, Montana, posts $1462 more per job. The national average per job is $56,116.

South Dakota's average compensation per job is 73% of the national average. South Dakota's cost of living is 91% of the national average. Our median household income is 88% of the national average. Our per capita personal income is 94% of the national average, ranking us 25^th in the country. Evidently we make up the difference by working more hours and more jobs.

That's South Dakota's great quality of life: you get crap wages, so you work more hours and get to brag about your great work ethic. Yay.

Madison's the Tech Town... So Where's Our Web Buzz?

Madison markets itself as an Unexpected™ technology hub. We've got technocentric Dakota State University, the semi-shadowy but job-creating Bulldog Media, the now full Heartland Technology Center and a number of other new tech-oriented business.

Maybe folks in Madison are too busy actually working with technology to mess around with Facebook and other Web 2.0 distractions, but I continue to wonder, for all our native techno-wizardry, where's our Web buzz?

I know Facebook isn't a perfect proxy for all Web activity or real-world support, but it does capture some information about a subset of the population. I say subset, even though Tea economic development director Jenni White gushes to KELO that "everyone" is on Facebook. Not quite everyone... but the city of Tea created a Facebook page* and drew 397 fans in two months. If our economic development corporation, the LAIC, is anywhere on Facebook, I can't find it. (Genuine open interaction with the public terrifies the LAIC.) Madison's Chamber page has been up a little longer than the Tea page but has 130 fans, me included.

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Update 10:46 CDT: The absence of Madison Facebook buzz is all the more striking in the context of this amazing statistic from Mike Knutson at Reimagine Rural: South Dakota has the highest percentage of population signed on to Facebook in the country, 31.1%! Knutson also points to other communities making good use of Facebook, like Oldham, whose page has 251 fans. That's 68% of the population in the Oldham ZIP code. The Madison Chamber page's friend–ZIPpop ratio: 1.5%.
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Our radio station, KJAM, is doing a little better on fans, with 574. Its Amazing Madison website also gets some participation on its calendar of events.

Participation capacity remains absent from Madison's other online venues. MadisonSD.com is still all top-down marketing... but it does offer a wonderful live view of Heartland's new sign and the gas station at the edge of town.

Even at DSU, there is what feels to me like a surprising lack of online activity. Well, not in class: I see numerous students making constant use of Facebook (expect a subsequent study on the inverse relationship between in-class Facebook use and GPA). But I don't see a lot of students or even profs doing much to establish prominent online presence. With some notable exceptions, From our President on down, we just don't see much online activity.

Is this odd? Am I missing a great undercurrent of local Web activity? Or is techno-Madison strangely behind the times in terms of embracing and producing engaging Web content? If there are Madison Facebook pages and blogs and other online presences that put the lie to my hypothesis, let me know!

*Hyperlink Grouse du Jour: tea has a Facebook page, but I'll be darned if anyone makes it easy to find. KELO commits that familiar sin of doing journalism about the Web and not including hyperlinks to the website discussed (Grrr!!!). The City of Tea, with more stake in driving traffic, flunks Web 101, too: on their city website, they say, "Join us on Facebook... Search Tea South Dakota."

Tea Webmaster, go like this:

<a href="http://www.facebook.com/#%21/pages/Tea-SD/Tea-South-Dakota/351241160161">Join Us on Facebook!</a>

GOP Boss: Obama Catches More Heat Because He's Black

My father-in-law gave me grief this weekend for suggesting the Tea Bags are motivated in significant part by racism. but today it's not me playing the race card on some of President Obama's critics; it's Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele:

[George] Stephanopoulos, offering up a question from a viewer named "Myron" via his blog, asked, "Do you feel that, as an African-American, you have a slimmer margin for error than another chairman would?"

"The honest answer is yes," Steele responded. "Barack Obama has a slimmer margin. A lot of folks do. It's a different role for me to play and others to play and that's just the reality of it. But you take that as part of the nature of it" [Brett Michael Dykes, "RNC Chairman Michael Steele says he and Obama have it harder because of their race," Yahoo News: The Newsroom blog, 2010.04.05].

Ring the bell: school's in for spin in the comment section....

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Update: Let's go to the videotape... and some commentary from Newsy.com:

Miracle Mocha on Main: Cottonwood Coffee Crying Christ

Forget crying in your beer; how about Jesus in your java?


I just fanned the Cottonwood Coffee and Cottonwood Bistro in Brookings and found the above photo of one of our Brookings friends' steamy beverages. I challenge you to look that coffee in the eye and tell me you don't see a tearful Messiah... or Bob Marley... or maybe a Matt Groening character.

But whoever that milky miracle is, it's shrine time! Call South Dakota Tourism! Call the Vatican!

Republican Dan Wyatt Runs for Sheriff as Independent

While checking the Secretary of State's candidate list for third-party candidates, I did find one of the few Independents filed right here in Lake County. Then an eager reader forwarded me his website: Dan Wyatt for Lake County Sheriff.

Officer Dan Wyatt, candidate for Lake County Sheriff

Wyatt, currently a patrolman for the Madison Police Department, identifies himself as a Republican, a Christian Conservative, and a member of the local 9-12 Glenn Beck fan club. I get a little itchy when I hear any political candidate touting his piety. More importantly, given that the 9-12ers support nullification and secession, I will need to hear Dan affirm that as a law enforcement officer he will reject Calhoun conservatism and recognize the primacy of federal law over state law.

But why would this Republican run as an Independent? Wyatt likely wants to broaden the electorate and avoid what happened last time he challenged incumbent Roger Hartman for the job. In 2006, Wyatt ran as a Republican and was defeated by Hartman in the Republican primary. Since no Democrat filed for the job, the Republicans had sole say on who became sheriff. This disenfranchisement of local Democrats and Independents bothered a lot of people. It certainly made me see the harm in not designating sheriff and perhaps other local government positions as non-partisan.

Instead of once again allowing just 45% of the Lake County electorate pick the sheriff, Wyatt has more than doubled the number of people who get to vote on our county's top cop, just by filing as an Independent.

That desire for more public participation also figures in Wyatt's campaign promises for a new style of sheriffing:

My campaign is simply one of positive change in the way the Sheriff’s office conducts business... I will be a visible, out in the public eye, working Sheriff. You will see me out in the communities of Lake County. I will seek your input, your suggestions and you can always expect a honest answer if you have a question. I ask that you invite me to your organizational meetings, your township meetings and if you want contact me, we can set something up [Dan Wyatt, campaign website].

Wyatt also appears ready to throw punches in this local race:

Currently the office is held by an incumbent who has lost his ambition to do all that he can for the office and the residents of Lake County. He has publically stated twice before that he was not seeking the Sheriff office again... and then changed his mind.. I point this out because sometimes the old way of doing business is not always the best way. This is especially true in the business of Law Enforcement. It is time for a change [Dan Wyatt, campaign website].

Looks like we're in for an interesting discussion of the future of law enforcement in Lake County... a conversation that, this time around, will last to November and involve all Lake County voters.

Four Lane Highways and Darwinian Selection

Bob Mercer likely loses some Madison friends with his suggestion that the South Dakota Department of Transportation ought to make U.S. Highway 12 a four-laner west of Aberdeen to Ipswich. Mercer notes another four-laner anywhere, not just the lonely 20 more miles to Ipswich, is the last thing the state can afford right now, but...

...each time I drive on U.S. 12 between Ipswich and Aberdeen, I become more convinced that expanding to a four-lane highway might make sense from a traffic safety standpoint. The area has seen more and more agriculture development including ethanol production, which has seemed to significantly increase semi-truck traffic. Whether or not the traffic numbers support such a project, I don’t know. But I do know that the combination of grain trucks, which seem to be driven safely on a consistent basis, and the impatience of many other motorists frequently isn’t a smooth mix, especially during sunrise and sunset hours [Bob Mercer, "A Four-Lane West of Aberdeen?," Pure Pierre Politics, 2010.03.31].

That mad rustling sound you hear is John Goeman digging out his flyer with the traffic numbers explaining that there's no chance that Highway 12 should qualify for more lanes ahead of Highway 34. The traffic numbers on four-lane Highway 12 east of Aberdeen are already 40% lower than traffic on two-lane Highway 34 between Madison and I-29. I'll speculate wildly that there's probably even less traffic west of Aberdeen.

But note Mercer's mention of driver impatience. Does he really want us all to spend tax dollars because some drivers can't behave like civilized human beings? Why should I have to pay more taxes because the SUV meathead on his cell phone next to me can't show the same good sense Nick Nemec does and ease up on the gas pedal? (Conservatives, I smell a campaign issue here!)

What I've said previously about safety concerns on Highway 34 may apply similarly to the road to Ipswich: we might solve the problem much more cheaply by adding a few turning lanes and telling people to slow the heck down.

But maybe I've got it wrong. Maybe we shouldn't spend money to add lanes or change speed limits on either highway. Maybe we should leave those roads exactly the way they are... and let Darwinian selection weed out the impatient drivers. Let a few leadfeet highball right up the back end of a grain truck by the ethanol plant, clear out the worst drivers, leave more room for the rest of us. Any takers?