Sign those petitions in Rapid City

As part of my work with the Pennington County Dems, I have put together a list of local candidate and referendum petitions with contact info. The deadline for legislative candidates for the June election is next week, April 4, so get out there and get signing.

Two petition signing opportunities:

• Erin from Rep. Herseth's office will have a large collection of petitions at Dunn Brothers Coffee on Omaha St, from 11:30 to 1 tomorrow (Thurs., 3/30)
  
• Planned Parenthood is meeting at the Rapid City Library tomorrow night 6-8 to rally to the 1215 referral cause.
  

Go forth and sign!

Where is your precinct?

Here is mine.



Thanks to the wonder of GIS technology, the City of Rapid City has posted both a printable and interactive maps of voting precincts with polling place information. This is where the change will start: in your neighborhood, and not just every major election, but all the time. We Democrats need to get on the ball about that reality!!

Missouri is suffering too

I'm trying to emphasize Rapid City politics here, but I just had to share this...

My father is a wise Adlai Stevenson Democrat who lives in Missouri. That is, he is one of those weird people that holds the radical opinion that knowledge and intelligence are key qualifications for political leadership. (Hard times for those of us that think that way, or even think!) It must be driving him nuts that Hillary is embracing flag-protection law while McCain is publicly supporting Intelligent Design, like they are racing to attract the "dumb vote." But I digress.

This morning my dear father sent me this wonderful column by Bill Tammeus, religion reporter for the Kansas City Star, responding to the ignorance and arrogance displayed recently by the Missouri House with a essentially Christo-fascist nonbinding resolution. First Amendment? We don't need no stankin' First Amendment. I found this SOOO relevant to why we need to replace our Leges:

People of faith who really care about the health and spread of their religion should be working hard to keep the government out of it, except as a guarantor of religious freedom. Government should worry about public education, roads, civil rights and on and on. We people of faith will worry about religion.

Let's all say a prayer for our brothers and sisters in Missouri. Carry on, soldiers!

Raise your voice for Choice

This just in from Planned Parenthood:

You and everyone you know are cordially invited to join Planned Parenthood for the first in a series of Community Action meetings with the purpose of overturning South Dakota's unconstitutional House Bill 1215, which legislates that the termination of a pregnancy is an illegal act with the only exception of preventing the death of the woman.

What: Community Action Team Meeting
When: Thursday, March 30, 6 - 8 p.m.
Where: Rapid City Library (610 Quincy St.), Meeting Room B
Who: Planned Parenthood of Rapid City, 605-341-2545
Why: Learn all about HB1215, the upcoming political process and how you can help make a difference in this political battle.

The real portrait of an activist, after all, is just a mirror.
- Jennifer Baumgardner & Amy Richards, Grassroots: A Field Guide for Feminist Activism

I have a 1215 petition coming in the mail from South Dakota Healthy Families and plan to use my petition gathering effort to also collect Pennington Democrats. To me, soundly rejecting 1215 is an important effort to show the entire country that the Lege did not speak for the majority with 1215. But we must also treat the problem: the type of people we have elected to the Lege and governor seat. They must be replaced with more compassionate people that are focused on our real problems--not a quixotic and worse, unamerican effort to reform society though laws that reflect their (minority) viewpoint.

SDFPC is on the march

So glad the Robert Regier and the Family Policy Council have our back. Can't wait to see the SDFPC liason's at MY church... oh, maybe not, since the churches I choose to attend don't believe in the Bible, at least not according to them.

If people of faith either don't vote or don't vote God's values, babies that God knits together in the wombs of their mothers will continue to die in South Dakota at a pace of over 800 a year. And marriages and families will continue their slide into the cultures of divorce, promiscuity, and homosexuality.

I guess they missed the nuance here.. that there were 800 legal abortions in South Dakota last year. Kind of like openly homosexual church leaders. I sense a pattern...

(full SDFPC marching orders in the comments)

Petition to recall 1215 is on

South Dakota Healthy Families has set up their website and the 1215 recall petition is off to the races. Some charming christians™ were there at St Joseph and Mt Rushmore Road outside the Radisson this morning with a HUGE gory picture—Yuck on so many levels.

Being the irony of this part of the world is a subtitle to my blog, I have to add this, a "Purity Ball" -- you know, chastity rings and all -- is being held tonight at the same place -- Canyon Lake Senior Center -- where Planned Parenthood was going to have their Rapid City press conference... but they moved it, so they narrowly missed that ironic opportunity.

Anyway, you can support this effort in many ways. Don't be shy, this is important. I think it would be cool if the minimum number of signatures is met in record time.

PenDems meet Thursday

Calling all Pennington County Democrats:

Hope to see you tomorrow at the PenDems meeting. I have a school event I need to do at 7 pm so I will only be there at the beginning, but please come and hear what's happening with candidates and the primaries!

Please come, as you may have noticed, all hands are needed on deck this year!

Curtis

State Election Info 2006

I have to say Chris Nelson is a good guy, though I wish he didn't advertise himself quite so heavily on the state website. I suppose it goes with the territory since he's up for re-election all the time. He's a Republican but I am a big fan.... my favorite thing about Chris Nelson is the voting machines the State has started buying under his watch:

The beauty of the system, Nelson said, is that the machine itself does not count votes; the optical-scan ballot provides a paper record. "It meshes technology and the integrity of the process," Nelson said.

His office has posted a very helpful website where you can check on who's successfuly registered for what, both with candidates and referendum petitions.

I am also following (and contributed to) a new South Dakota Candidates 2006 Wiki which is keeping up with things too, not just the legal status but some unofficial info too, for example who is circulating petitions or even just talking about it. It will be fun to see how that page evolves over the next few months! (What's a wiki?)

Day of Reckoning for the Current Occupant

A friend reminded me about truthout.org... and I found a great piece by Garrison Keillor, who proves that he is Democrat to the core and shows why he was hired earlier in life to write by The New Yorker.

Sunday's Rally Cancelled

The weather forecast was like, really bad (surprise, huh--March in Rapid City!) so here's the story (from Karen Hall of DIA):

ATTENTION: DIA Take Back South Dakota Rally Cancelled!

Mother Nature Wins! Democracy in Action has decided to cancel the Take Back South Dakota rally scheduled for this Sunday, March 19th due to the nasty weather predicted for the Black Hills.

This just means there will be a BIGGER and BETTER rally some weekend soon because make no mistake, WE PLAN TO TAKE BACK SOUTH DAKOTA from the mean-spirited, self-interested, backward-looking, well-financed, well-organized but misguided vocal minority in this state. Stay tuned and pass the word...

What is up with your state?

Michelle asks, in a comment to the blog:

Seriously, what is up with your state?

South Dakota is a land of incredible beauty, contrasts, and above all irony.

This is the land that presented the Nation with Wild Bill Hickok, George Armstrong Custer, Crazy Horse, Laura Ingalls (and Rose WIlder), Black Elk. George McGovern, Bill Janklow, Tom Daschle and John Thune. Mount Rushmore and Keystone. I've been here for eleven years and I'm still very much a newcomer... it's a fascinating place.

Most of us are okay, really... but there is a wingnut fringe that has gotten too power-hungry. They overreached. In my opinion, in the long run, the far right of SD may have unwittingly really started a long-overdue correction to the politics of the whole Nation.. the shift back to reality-based leadership of our country is maybe, just maybe starting right here, right now.

Beware the Prince of Darkness

I keep trying to keep things local, but sometimes you just can't resist... a friend who lives in Pittsburgh sent me some precious recent blather and a sweet video clip of her tall, dark Senator.

Unfortunately there is a local angle. Apparently there are a few people in this state that are on the same page as him, and way too many of them were in Pierre this winter.

Fortunately, the vast majority of South Dakotans are good, reasonable, pragmatic, and live-and-let-live kind of people. Let's continue to encourage each other to honor that tradition instead of the darker moments of our fine state's history.

Hope to see you on Sunday at the bandshell at 2 pm!!!

A Republican abandons the party

Former state Representative Rebekah Cradduck of Sioux Falls says "the big tent" isn't really that big, especially these days in South Dakota. So she's running for State Senate as a Democrat.

Here we go!

Read It Again

To: letters@rapidcityjournal.com

The so-called "pro-life" movement's arrogant rhetoric &mdash from Don LeFevre's ignorant assumptions regarding what "abortion people" do not understand, to Jean French's claims to speak for God &mdash appalls me. Who gave them the corner on the morality market? Abortion is a complex issue requiring intense soul-searching, complex thinking, and critical analysis. Seeing this as a black and white issue reflects a lazy middle-school mentality that thinks the bold print of a textbook tells the whole story.

LeFevre, French, and their cohorts don't get that "abortion people" fervently believe in the sanctity of life as well. That very few women end their pregnancies lightly. That life beyond the womb is just as worthy of protection as life within it. That caring for the poor, hungry, oppressed &mdash the countless victims of social injustices &mdash is also pro-life. That many "abortion people" work diligently and sacrificially with neglected and unwanted children &mdash children often ignored by many "pro-lifers" once they are born. Those who see the larger picture approach the subject with humility, compassion and grace.

The teachings of Christ call for compassion, mercy, and justice, and the prophets of the Old Testament do as well. Read it again, folks.

Bethany Wojahn
Rapid City

(Bethany recommends reading Sam Hurst's Sunday RCJ column.)

Hall Of Shame (HB1215 abortion law)

This post is for Rapid City area people.

Mad about 1215? Fight back by unseating the legislators that brought it our way... and if no one is running against them, please do so (the petition filing deadline is April 4). If I weren't a Federal employee and banned from doing so by the Hatch Act, you can bet I'd be running just to make sure someone was talking about it.

I've posted a "hall of shame" list with all the HB1215 YES votes shown in red. If you see any errors please let me know.

Also, urge Jack Billion to run against Rounds.... Mr. Billion does not want to run just on the abortion issue, but against Rounds, which is fine and good... but I hope he makes it clear that Round's HB1215 signing is another political calculation on his part and Rounds should be exposed for what a pandering operator he is! I don't see Rounds commuting any death sentences to life in prison, which he would have done long ago if he were REALLY guided by "sanctity of life" concerns and Roman Catholic teaching instead of politics.

The Children's Crusade

Here are a few pictures Just to show those that weren't there how many kids were there in the pro-1215 crowd.


I have to assume the younger kids were picked from school by their parents, and I'm sure the vast majority of the high school kids were St Thomas More kids (well, they did have a HUGE "Catholics for Life" sign they were carrying, is this an unfair conclusion on my part?) I don't believe STM has an open campus at lunchtime, do they?

This girl (maybe 12?) really broke my heart. She has been sold such a bill of goods. No-one down there on the street on either side would disagree that abortion is not a terrible tragedy. She has been taught a lie: that anyone who supports choice is a murderous monster...


That's tragic.

KNBN responds on pro-choice rally coverage

To Ms. Lindsay Kruger's credit, she wrote me back yesterday to defend her coverage. She said she stood up above the crowd and said she counted twice as many on the anti-choice side of the street. The numbers varied on both sides during the day, but it is a fact that more than 400 people signed Planned Parenthood's sign-up sheet, when they had expected about 50.

Ms. Kruger was going for the story that was more interesting to her, and the loud anti-choice turnout to her was the big story. I really disagree, their voices are loud, but they always will be there. To me the huge story was the 400 people that showed up (and gave their name and contact info to Planned Parenthood), which I see as the beginning of a huge sea change in West River politics.

She said she wanted to avoid "they said -- and they said" report and found KOTAs coverage not very interesting.

If she figures giving Jean French free airtime to share her arrogant views (well, she does look really good on TV, so, hey)... I suppose that's okay. My main beef was quick summary of the anti-choice folks as "celebrating" and the pro-choice folks as "angry". It just didn't capture what went down at the corner of 9th and St Joe on Thursday.

I guess we disagree on how balanced the story came out on the Thursday 10 pm news. I appreciate she is clearly listening to comments. That's a good thing.

It's important that we call people on unfair coverage and praise good coverage. Media Matters really has made a difference, and we can too if we call them as we see them and let the media know how we feel.

(That goes for anything we hear or read, including this blog. I would love to see more comments here. If you respond to one my posts, please identify yourself, using a screen name is fine, and please, feel free to include information that backs up your point. I'm always up for learning something new!)

About Sen. Adelstein

Nick commented:

I'm not sure if I agree with you about Stan though. I think it took some courage and political risk for him to join us.

I'm really wrestling with the Stan thing. It was great to see him there, and I so appreciate the fact that he makes the (non-trivial!) effort to actually know what he's talking about, and his great respect for differing points of view. He's a very good guy.

But as much as I want to, and after much agonizing, I still just can't bring myself to register as a Republican to vote for him in the primary. His party has just done too much damage to the nation in the last 25 years.

A little context: my grandmother was a fine Eisenhower Republican who was in the state legislature of Washington. Nixon was a big heartbreak to her, and now his foot soldiers are running things, with special interests calling the shots, and no regard for fiscal responsibility or a respect for the process of constitutional law...but I digress.

It was so great at the rally to see other people feel the same way and aren't just pissed off but looking for positive ways to change things for the better.

TV coverage of the pro-choice rally and hecklers

I just saw KNBN's TV report of today's pro-choice rally in Rapid City on the evening news. The KNBN report described the pro-choice side of 9th street as "angry" and the anti-abortion side of the street as both twice as large (FALSE) and "celebrating".

I'm sorry, I WAS THERE and I estimated TWICE as many Planned Parenthood supporters their hecklers on the other side of 9th street. I also sensed a great sense of relief among the pro-choicers that they weren't alone, and many many supportive smiles, honks, and waves of people driving by us.

Scroll down and see my other pictures. Angry? Well, now, I'm angry! I phoned them and left a message on their machine how disappointing the report was. If you were there, and agree with me, please contact KNBN and tell them how much they misrepresented the event. Are they trying to please certain advertisers or their owners? Who owns them anyway? I don't care why but I'm really incensed that many Rapid Citians were given a very skewed picture of what happened at lunch today.

The anti-abortion people WERE a bit louder, largely because fully a third of them were St. Thomas More students who were probably required to be there, or drive through the intersection with anti-abortion signs on their cars. I'd love get the straight story on that one, if anybody knows anything, please comment.

To their credit KOTA-TV produced a much more accurate report of the event. I wish someone would have followed up on the St Thomas More student angle though. There were so many of them it sure looked orchestrated to me.

Pictures from today's rally

It was a cool day down by the Fed Courthouse. The anti-1251 demo drew about 300 people, and I estimate about 125 or so on the other side of the street protesting us (and probably 1/3 of them were St Thomas More Roman Catholic high-school kids on lunch break). Hm.

The mood was fairly upbeat, we all know there is a battle ahead but we were all glad to be there. It was really great not to seem like the only person who is willing to support women's rights in this state.










What a great day.

Molly Hatchets Napoli

Don't miss Molly Ivin's loving portrait of our favorite West RIver State Senator basking in his fifteen minutes of fame.

Please, someone, run against him.

Anti-1215 Rally TOMORROW!

See you down at the FEDERAL courthouse (9th st, near the YMCA) at noon tomorrow.

Here's an email I sent to an evangelical friend of mine:

Isaiah 10 speaks to me today:

Woe to the legislators of infamous laws, to those who issue tyrannical decrees, who refuse justice to the unfortunate and cheat the poor among my people of their rights, and make widows their prey and rob the orphan.

I'll be out in the street tomorrow, protesting the outrageous law (1215, I'm sure you've heard of it) that has been foisted on our sad state of South Dakota.

I wanted you to know that there are many Christians of good faith that really have a problem with this. I'd feel a lot
differently if the "pro-lifers" as a whole were more committed to comprehensive sex education, improving access to birth
control, and, of course, paying taxes to support foster care, and economic support for poor families. The post-born
don't seem to get enough attention, especially around here.

My wife works in social services here and deals with teenagers that have never been wanted. She hasn't seen any of the politicians and activists that have pushed this depraved law through down there helping out with the precious lives that they apparently care so much about.

We've had it.

The Journal doesn't get it about Wal-Mart, again

RCJ, 3/6/06:

For more than a year, opponents have expressed concern about the store's potential impact on city infrastructure and existing small businesses, increased traffic and encroachment on views of the Black Hills.

Supporters have touted the job and shopping opportunities development would create.

The Journal continues to not get it that many people are just darn uneasy about Wal-Mart because of their immoral labor practices and the fact that the company has policies in place to do things like help their low-wage workers get government assistance for food and healthcare instead of paying a decent wage. Another Wal-Mart is an economic net loss to the community, even if you don't take their corporate criminal culture as a problem.

Oh, well.

Rally at the FEDERAL courthouse Thursday

Just a reminder, the anti-HB1215 rally is Thursday @noon March 9 is at the FEDERAL courthouse,not the Pennington County courthouse.

Luna Leopold

Quick digression: a great scientist and human moves on. Luna Leopold is a great inspiration to me.

Referendum to invalidate 1215?

I am soooo for moving this forward if the Governor signs 1215. To me, this can be the beginning of the campaign to change Pierre for the better.

Leslee Unruh is worried enough about this to call it hypocrisy because people that don't agree with her worked against an anti-abortion constitutional amendment. Truth is, she didn't have the signatures. The fact that she is concerned enough to mention it is a good reason to support a referendum to invalidate 1215.

Let's do it. Start making a mental list of signers you know the moment the Governor signs. Take it to church, unless your church has less compassion than the legislature--in that case, I urge you to find another church now!

16,000 signatures? If we can't get that done, I don't know...

Rally on March 9, noon

Concerned about the fate of women's lives in South Dakota? Here's your chance to be heard--at the same time as people all around the country speak in solidarity with us. I think it would be really great if an outrageous number of people show up to this rally, speaking with compassion and truth that this law is a wrong, immoral, and ineffective way to stop abortions.

I do hope we can all focus on these sanctimonious, Savanarolist legislators and governor -- not at those who are simply pro-life. (I honestly categorize myself as pro-life-- but not in the narrow way many define it, since I'm solidly anti-death penalty and pro- end-of-life choices, too....)

If you need any more incentive to go, read read this op-ed published in the Journal today by Sherry Bea Smith, it expresses so well the point of a conversation my wife and I had: this isn't even about abortion as much as the arrogance of the legislators that voted for 1215.

Solidarity Rally
Where: Federal Courthouse, 9th and St. Joe (519 Ninth Street)
When: Thursday, March 9, 2006, noon.
Who: Anybody angry about South Dakota's abortion ban
Sponsored by: Planned Parenthood

I'll see you down by the Courthouse next Thursday at noon!!

Download this flyer to spread the word.

Democratic strategy (?) for SD Governor's race

Not even a mouthpiece candidate to counter Rounds on moral grounds? from pulling Planned Parenthood links from the library website to calling for a minimum wage hike but taking no risks to push for it, Rounds does not impress me.

Well, nowhere to go from up from here.

Democracy in Action Events in March

This from my friend Karen from DIA in Rapid City:

A couple of demonstrations are being planned in the next couple of weeks, and I know all of you are interested in participating, and in informing your friends so they can also participate. Details are still very sketchy, but save noon on Thursday, March 9, and the afternoon of Sunday, March 19. The March 9 demonstration will be about reproductive rights, and the March 19th
about taking back our legislature!

Hope you--and all your friends--will be able to join us, and also to help get the word out. More details as they're available!

Is the climate changing, or is it just me?

New topic, for a diversion...

After the warmest January on record here, and a record high yesterday, I am dreading what kind of heat we'll be seeing August. Well maybe it will be a little quieter if some of the bikers boycott the state...

Heard this on the way home, this is a neat South Dakota Public Radio report by Charles Michael Ray about one of the geological wonders of South Dakota: Dr. Perry Rahn of SDSMT. It sounds like Charles may have gotten to go on this hike with Perry and his son to see the last glacier in the Bighorns, while it's still there. I'm quite jealous. Reminds me that I want to take the fam to Glacier National Park soon while the glaciers are still there, too.

I found the Rahn's pictures of this shrinking glacier online here in the School of Mines department newsletter (scroll down to page 7).

Ash Wednesday

Today is Ash Wednesday, a good opportunity to reflect on one's direction and perhaps considering trying something (or not) in a traditional Christian 40-day spiritual exercise regimen known as Lent.

Not to say that this should be a day to beat up on oneself (in the too-traditional "sackcloth liberal" fashion)... simply a moment to reflect. I love the symbolism of painting one's forehead with a little bit of ash to remind us that our time is temporary.

We see reminders all around us: my mom in cancer treatment, my daughter's friend's mother telling me almost off-hand that she is missing a school meeting because she's in chemo and can't do it all, the division of our country and communities along angry ideological lines, ... any of us could go on with things that weigh on us, large and small, all signs of brokenness.

I hope you find a chance to ponder a bit today and in the coming weeks. I may even do something radical myself, like go to church tonight....

Here are some good thoughts, quite apropos to where I am spiritually these days, trying to find my footing: Lent for Dummies.