Smoking Ban Prevails, School Funding Lawsuit Reborn...

...and Epp returns to journalism?

Boy, I go spend a day mowing and watching a play (Godspell! Boom chick! Good work, kids!) instead of blogging, and the blogosphere has a banner day of big news:

• Chris Nelson ruins Pat Powers's day by finding the smoking-ban opponents really did screw up by having bar owners circulate petitions. Our able election umpire discovered another 10% on top of the originally statistically estimated 25% of the gathered signatures were invalid. In other words, one in three signers were either too drunk, too lazy, or too blinded by smoke to properly provide their own voting registration info. Bar owners, break out those No Smoking signs!
• The South Dakota Supreme Court unanimously* overturns portions of Judge Lori WIlbur's April ruling and opens the door for parents and school districts to sue the state over inadequate funding for education. Seth Tupper plays pessimist and says even a lawsuit can't squeeze more money out of a budget our Republican legislature can't balance without Washington's help. I play pessimist and maintain that any suers face a hard climb to satsify the burden of proof that the state is not meeting its basic constitutional obligation. Still, at least the parents and schools can make the argument.
• Mr. Epp gets back to some quality citizen journalism, breaking the school funding story with a chance conversation, posting the full decision, and cranking out three posts on the smoking ban. Give that man some hits! (But dang it: just as I thought he might be getting back to form, he fouls the air with another tabloid "Today's Babe" feature. Todd! You're asking for another noogie!)

So many wonders... and now I'll be out today manning the Lake County Democrats bake sale table at Madison's Crazy Days festivities. Who knows what awesome news will break next? Hope springs eternal!

*unanimously overturns: Dang: I guess that means Senator Thune won't be supporting Judge Wilbur for any nominations.

Todd Epp vs. David Letterman: Don't Blink, or You'll Miss It

Matt Hendrickson believes that the fact that some of us bloggers have not wasted blogspace on David Letterman's crude jokes negates the argument that objectification of women is bad. Matt Hendrickson is wrong.

All I have to say is this:

Todd Epp is a friend and fellow blogger. It matters more when he does something wrong.

Smokin' Hot Babes! and a Feminist Critique of Blog Traffic Strategy

Babe photos! Click here!

Irony of the week: Todd Epp resorts to objectification of women to drive blog traffic, and the only critique of this anti-feminist behavior comes not from the lovable lefties at DakotaWomen, but from one-note right-wing Pastor Steve Hickey. (Insert Beavis & Butthead snort here: As an added bonus, Pastor Hickey says "horny.")

Mr. Epp is carrying out a dramatic blog overhaul, consolidating his diverse blogging efforts under one new brand and new modular layout. He's also apparently trying to generate more Google juice with babe headlines and photos.

And I'm probably feeding that effort by talking about it.

Here is the difference between Sonia Sotomayor's "sexism" and the sexism perpetrated by us members of the patriarchy: Judge Sotomayor says women may make more caring and compassionate decisions in various situations because of the richness of their experience. That experience includes being viewed by men.

I had a longer sentence in the chute, but the period works there. Viewed by men. Literally.

Men view women in a way women rarely view men. Mr. Epp's babe posts carry the subtext that women are worth paying attention to only because they are pretty. Even if women have numerous other talents to recommend them, we still too often tie them to their appearance. Local TV veteran Shannon Stevens leaves Planned Parenthood, and she's a "fabulous babe." Local TV veteran Mitch Krebs leaves KSFY to become Governor Rounds's press secretary, and he's "honest, hardworking, articulate, mannerly, smart, funny, loyal, and about as good a friend as a guy could ever want," but we don't hear a word about his looks. (Bonus textual analysis: Krebs leaves Pierre, and his "appearance-consciousness" is compared with apparent disfavor by a reporter to the "no-nonsense print reporter" who replaces him.)

Mr. Epp and I are good blog friends. He's been very supportive of my blog efforts, and he is my eager co-host for the big South Dakota Blogosphere Open House. We are both man enough to disagree with each other.

It is in that spirit that I remind Mr. Epp of a conversation we had last year about blog success. We love following our Web stats. Even I look forward to seeing my hit counter break 200K in the coming months. But "success" as a blogger may be better measured in terms not of hits but of influence, our ability to tell stories that are worth reading, that stick in people's memories, that help change things in our community that need to be changed.

Pictures of pretty women we don't even know probably don't create change. Drawing more random Google hits from horny guys probably doesn't build much community... at least not the kind of community we're hoping for.

Besides, Todd, if we want more traffic, what we really need is a Sibby-PP-style blog war!

Mixed Messages from Pastor Hickey on George Tiller Murder

I'm having some difficulty discerning true meanings in some of the blog coverage of the murder of Kansas abortion provider Dr. George Tiller. Todd Epp of South Dakota Watch/Middle Border Sun criticizes Pastor Steve Hickey of Voices Carry for "rejoicing" (Epp's word) in the murder. I review Pastor Hickey's original post: he pretty clearly expresses relief that Dr. Tiller is dead, and he says some odd things about us lefties deluding ourselves "into thinking Tiller is receiving heaven's reward right now" (bit of a stretch to make American liberal atheists like me sound like Muslim radicals, Steve). But he also salts his post with enough contradictory language about feeling sick about the murder that it's hard to tell what Hickey means. He says vengeance is the Lord's, not ours, but he expresses eagerness to witness the punishment he imagines God meting out on Tiller. he says the killing was "misguided and far more harmful to the cause than helpful," but he sees pro-choice activists who write offensive statements as more misguided than the man who shot Dr. Tiller in his church. And Hickey ends his post with this Biblical justification for murder:

...the Bible says in this case it'd be better for Tiller to have had a millstone tied around his neck and thrown into the depth of the sea that to have done what he did in this life... [Pastor Steve Hickey, "Today Tiller the Killer, Now a Martyr for Molech, Not God," Voices Carry, 2009.05.31].

There is enough language in both directions that one could argue both ways: in places, Pastor Hickey sounds like he is justifying and celebrating the murder, but in others he sounds like he is condemning it... although that condemnation sometimes seems to reflect more concern about the damage the murder will do to his political movement than the sin of the murder itself. But Pastor Hickey and his supproters can quite rightly make the legalistic argument that he nowhere says he "rejoices" in the shooting.

KELO appears to side with caution and Pastor Hickey on this one. For perhaps the first time in its nearly two-year association with the independent South Dakota blogosphere, KELO has pulled a post. Mr. Epp's criticism of Pastor Hickey remains at his home site, but it has disappeared from Mr. Epp's corner of the KELO Issues blog list.

I won't cry First Amendment foul here. Those of us granted the privilege to post on KELO understand the rules perfectly well: KELO can nuke anything we write, for whatever reason, just as KELO (like any other media outlet, and any blogger) is free to choose what news it covers and what angles it chooses to play up or ignore.

But then I turn to Pastor Hickey's follow-up, which seems to play the same verbal shell game that got Mr. Epp's dander up and his post banned:

Also, earlier this evening a friend of mine dropped an interesting historical parallel into the fray that I believe to be right on the money. It made me think there is a little deja vu down there in Kansas tonight.

The historical parallel is to John Brown, who hacked pro-slavery Kansas farmers to death with swords.

President Lincoln called John Brown a "misguided fanatic." Historian David S. Reynolds hailed him as the man who "killed slavery, sparked the civil war, and seeded civil rights." Historian Ken Chowder said John Brown was "at certain times, a great man", but also "the father of American terrorism." Probably all of the above is accurate.

Misguided... killed slavery... great man... father of American terrorism... "probably... accurate." Pastor Hickey waits until the very bottom of the article, after reposting the full text of the celebratory "John Brown's Body," to say "Tiller's killer is no hero" and deserves no songs to be sung about him... although Hickey offers no explanation of what distinguishes John Brown's celebrated murderousness from yesterday's killing on sacred ground.

Pardon me if I scratch my head a little. I will agree that the issue is very complex... but must also conclude from the language in Pastor Hickey's article that he is trying to play both sides. He wants to introduce the John-Brown-hero meme, but he wants to be able to disavow it. Perhaps that's enough cover to get KELO to ban the debate... but Pastor Hickey lays enough verbal land mines to warrant Mr. Epp's criticism.

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There is one telling passage in the blog post Pastor Hickey says is "right on the money":

No rational person would consider Brown a positive figure in history….but he did prove something. The issue of slavery was one of life and death. It was not political. It was not governmental. It was much, much deeper than that, and there was no common ground high enough for both sides to stand and feel good about their compromises. It could not be negotiated. It had to be settled [emphasis mine, thoughts Randy Bohlender's, "Thoughts on the Killing of George Tiller," RandyBohlender.com, 2009.06.01].

The first part I emphasize actually encourages me: perhaps Mr. Bohlender and Pastor Hickey are agreeing with me that we need to take the abortion debate out of politics, get the government out of women's medical decisions, and address abortion at the personal and community level.

The second part I emphasize makes me nervous: No negotiation, no settlement... those sound like fighting words to me. If abortion protestors do retreat from politics, I hope they will follow Christ and Gandhi and not John Brown in their efforts to remake society. I only worry that Pastor Hickey's equivocal language does not sufficiently condemn the latter and embrace the former.

Update 2009.06.02 09:35 CDT: Even Sibby manages to be more direct in his condemnation: "Tiller Murder Is Not Pro-Life."

Epp Scoops Press; Lincoln HS Out of Touch?

Kudos to Mr. Epp on scooping the paid reporters on the Sioux Falls tea party organizers' (and perhaps Senator Thune's staff's) misappropriation of public school resources for their partisan activities.

The line from Lincoln HS assistant principal is that they school was "misled." I have to ask: how out of touch do folks have to be to not have seen what the Tea Party was about? It was clear from February that the tea parties were partisan (and hypocritical) silliness. Do Sioux Falls school administrators not read the paper?

Epp Scoops Hyperion Grave-Digging, Ecocide, and Just Plain Lies

Forget Hyperion's blather: Check out the Indian graves, virgin prairie, and lies to old farmers Hyperion won't tell you about! The eminent Mr. Epp gets the local scoop on South Dakota Watch. Tell that story, and let's send Hyperion home for good!