Thank you Helene!

Tonight, Helene Duhamel, on the KOTA Family Healthcast briefly mentioned a newly-released Canadian study of gay men and family order. The study made a very strong case that men that have many older brothers are significantly more likely to be homosexual. (The effect was only significant with biological older brothers, which really nails the coffin on the old hypothesis [dead to psychology now for more than sixty years] that homosexuality is caused by bad parenting, or bad moral values.) The study also addresses many of the problems inherent in sex studies with respect to sampling, and has a very large sample: 944 men.

Please pay attention, South Dakotans--what your hearts tell you is true: homosexuality is part of our natural variation as humans, and laws like Amendment C are as wrong as restricting which races are allowed to marry. It's time to stop just putting up with this kind of thing from those that refuse to face reality. This law hurts people and families that you know; it's not an abstract theological or philosophical issue, it's about facing the truth of our real-life experience and illuminated by science like this Canadian study.

Please plan to vote no on C and and be (gently but firmly) vocal about it. Amendemnt C is not in anyone's interest except those that are using it to rabble-rouse among those of us that haven't had the opportunity to see the hurt this Constitutional amendment would cause. I'm ashamed of my friends in the Republican Party of South Dakota for endorsing this immoral amendment.

We are all precious in God's sight.

The "compassionate conservatives" speak

At the GOP convention this weekend, they have been really playing to the "base":

Republican State Convention delegates passed a resolution urging voters to approve the abortion ban. (...)

Most of the debate Friday dealt with a proposed amendment that would have added language acknowledging that some "people of good conscience of both major parties" may take issue with some aspects of the abortion ban.

Pretty radical stuff!

"We may need to acknowledge there are some decent people in the middle," [GOP delegate and amendment author] Douglas Kephart said.

And of course the delegates generally responded with typical even handed-ness:

The delegates rejected Kephart's proposal by an 85 percent to 15 percent margin.

So much for the Republican "big-tent" theory. I can't wait to see how compassionate and understanding these folks are next Legislative session.

(Update: Since I posted, Kephart publicly reflected on this experience in a must-read op-ed in the RC Weekly News.

Of course they also passed a resolution on Amendment C, the so-called "gay marriage" amendment that is basically another political chit for them. Please work against this amendment--for two reasons: first, it's redundant and a symbolic limiting of rights and secondly, it has the potential to hurt all kinds of families--blasting a big hole in common-law, which protects Moms, kids, and Dads.

It's all about divide and conquer with these people. And I for one am finding it more than little boring. Let's see a real interesting summer and fall as many folks call these people on their pious attitdes and their pathetic attempt at social engineering!!!!

Act Blue for Robbinsdale

I discovered this evening that ActBlue has moved down to the state level and immediately set up a page to support my neighborhood candidates. I am just thrilled about them. Read the Pennington Democrats blog to find out why. ActBlue is great, they send candidates checks every couple of weeks and they are giving Dems fuel all over the country to fight for us.

If thoughts of Elli and her big-money friends running our fine State is keeping you up late at night, I feel your pain. The antidote is: support these folks with your thoughts, prayers, your voice, your time, and of course, your money, if you can spare some. Your time and voice are even more important than money--contact the candidates and encourage them and offer to help.

There's something happening here

(Note: this post has been corrected on some details about the SD Freedom Fund. We value truth around here.)

There's been talk on Mount Blogmore (the scrappy Rapid City Journal political blog) about what the results of the June 6 primary election mean for November. Bill Harlan said on the Mount that all incumbent Repubs who voted against HB1215 with a challenger lost, but the results were split for Democrats. Rep. Julie Bartling (D) (the Dem co-sponsor of 1215) prevailed in her primary, running against two other Dems whose combined votes would have solidly defeated her. (!)

Enquiring minds query the tea leaves: will anyone else lose elected office because of the bravery / cowardice / arrogance / ignorance / passon of their actions in the Lege session? Some "conservatives" sound overjoyed, interpreting one race in particular, the Schwiesow/Adelstein State Senate Republican primary in District 32, as a strong grass-roots endorsement of HB1215.

It seems to me that the District 32 story wasn't so much a resounding "values" victory, but more the result of Schwiesow staying on her (one) message, and fiercely mobilizing her local base through lots of hard work and volunteer phone calls.

Or not. Schwiesow did get a little last-minute help from out-of-district friends Bob and Rita Fischer, and more of her East River and Westside friends (aka the "SD Freedom Fund") who quickly came up with the $11K needed when Fischer's flagrant breaking of the political contribution rules was exposed by the Adelstein campaign. (Here's who stepped in to fill the gap.) Although Schwiesow clearly has some grass-roots support in her District, let's please knock it off on the home-town political David and Goliath/Underdog/Cinderella story. But I digress.)

Since three of these closely-followed Repub State Senate primaries were right here in town, I thought it would be fun to do a very rough likely-voter analysis, on the assumption that as many people will vote in the 11/06 State Senate races as voted in 11/04 (who knows, this a WEIRD year). So I took the number of people that voted in 11/04 in these races and subtracted out the Repub primary voters from June 6, and this is what I got (data from the Pennington County Auditor):




What will happen? Assuming the fire-engine red, 'true-believer' Repubs stick by their candidates, what will the moderates (rose color) do? Vote the party line? Sit on their hands? Vote for (or work for) one of the excellent Dem candidates in their District? And what about the non-true believers, those that aren't active in party politics, do not vote in primaries, and are at best ambivalent toward politics? And what about unlikely voters, that didn't vote in '04? There's a lot in play here.

All I know is 1) a lot is at stake 2) there are real opportunities for Dems with a good organization and a compelling message and image.

DIA Rally Report!

We had a great day today at the Take Back South Dakota rally held by Democracy in Action. It was windy, but that kind of strengthened the resolve of the crowd to keep their campaign literature on the tables and raise our voices over the wind! Many
Dem candidates and some Republicans as well were there to talk about their plans. Issues were also discussed (see the table educating folks about the dangers of Amendment C).

Sen. Adelstein came by to thank progressives for the support they have given him in his primary contest against Elli Schwiesow, and thanked DIA for their work in supporting new candidates for the SD Legislature that aims to solve problems instead of promoting ideological agendas.




The event included speeches by many of the new faces showing up in West River politics, including one of my favorite House candidates, Pam Hemmingsen, who really summed up what this all about: working to raise the level of dialogue and get real solutions from Pierre!


Musicians Leonard Running and Kenny Putnam supplied some great acoustic music to keep us smiling!






I have to applaud Democracy in Action for really doing great work, encouraging people from all political points of view to come together to promote real South Dakota values being practiced in our politics and government!

Followup: Denise Ross posted more pix of the rally on Mount Blogmore. Does the "guy sent by Billion" look familiar to you?