Fourty-Four Point Type

Here's the text that some of our Reps want posted in every medical establishment in South Dakota that may provide abortions in "no less than 44-point type" (that is, filling up a wide-margin 8.5x11 page, landscape -- I checked). As if any medical care can be given without consent:

It is against the law for anyone, regardless of their relationship to you, to force or coerce you to have an abortion. By law, we cannot perform an abortion on you unless we have your freely given voluntary consent. It is against the law to perform an abortion on you against your will.

CHAD called this bill a redundant waste of time and an obnoxious interference of politics with medical practice. I'm a little more alarmed.... because I think this sign in 44-point type is not for the patients. The directive subtly promotes the myth that women who have abortions are by-and-large coerced or tricked by immoral men or the so-called "abortion industry." That's bad enough, but there is a yet darker side to this bill: the 44-point-type sign is nothing less than a big identifying sticker on the wall, to make it easier for anti-choice terrorists to target medical facilities that, uh, have the audacity to attempt provide comprehensive women's medical care. For political demonstrations, harassment, and, of course, violence. Hey Operation Rescue, we're right over here!

Well, if this bill passes and doctors have to post politically-motivated directives, I've got an idea: let's have a liberty-motivated directive that the following be posted in every office in the State Capitol, in 44-point type of course:

No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Another Open Letter (regarding 1293)

Sounds like, sadly, another number will become part of our vocabulary.... My dear spouse wrote this letter today to State Sen. Ryan Maher, (D-Isabel) co-sponsor of the abortion bill, just brought forward today (HB1293). This new one, although it has exceptions (ugly condescending ones, but they are exceptions) is in some ways is more devaluing, disrespectful, and condescending to women than HB1215 was last year. The language used is quite telling--see the excellent summary and analysis provided over at CHAD. I'm trying to find the strength to saddle up and ride--hopefully cooler heads will prevail in Pierre and the smart folks there will find of a way to keep this from becoming law.

Dear Senator,

I am so disheartened to see that you are on the list of sponsors for this bill. I know that you are "pro-life," and I respect that, because I, too, am adamantly "pro-life" as well. Abortion is a painful reality in today's society, a decision that is not usually come to lightly. Many of us who believe in choice also believe in protecting life, and also know that legislating and imposing morality simply does not solve the problem of abortion. It is a problem rooted in deeper issues, and as a Democrat, I would have hoped that you would understand that. Once again, the restrictions in this bill will not address these issues, and they will certainly not reduce the number of abortions performed in South Dakota. If this bill is passed and eventually challenges Roe V. Wade, as it is certain to do, it will only strengthen the Supreme Court's decision, rather than address the issues that contribute to the reasons women and children seek to have abortions in the first place.

I know that you follow your heart and your convictions, and I have met you and know that yours is a kind spirit. Please, I urge you, withdraw your name from this bill. Do you really want your name associated with the likes of Van Etten, Hunt, and Howie? I know that you are different from them. I know that your ideals and values are not in line with theirs. And I know that you believe there is a better way. You were not elected to be a crusader on this issue, and you do the state of South Dakota and your constituents a disservice by acting as such.

Most sincerely,

Beth Wojahn
Rapid City

p.s. I encourage you to read a piece written by my mother. She is an ordained pastor, and she wrote this during the election in response to the question, "Can one be pro-life and pro-choice at the same time?" Not only is my mother an eloquent writer, she is wise, and has seen the suffering of many. Please consider her words prayerfully.
http://rr57701.blogspot.com/2006/11/pro-life-and-pro-choice.html

Open letter to Rep. Buckingham

Rep. Mike Buckingham is on the House Judiciary Committee, which will be reviewing SB 74/75/76 soon. Here's the initial Senate committee hearing in RealPlayer worth listening to if you are following this bill.

Re: Medical decisions bills

Dear Rep. Buckingham,

I urge you to consider supporting these good bills. They have been put together not by some liberal or conservative think tank but by professionals in South Dakota that deal with these issues on a day to day basis and are asking for your help. I was the one at the Cracker Barrel last week that asked Sen. Schmidt about these bills, and was frankly surprised by Sen. Napoli's comments about his worry about the patient's long-lost drinking buddy "Bob" of 50 years ago getting to make medical decisions. These bills not only put "close friends" wishes last in the list of seven categories, but Sen. Napoli's example of "Bob" would fail both the explicit tests in the SB74 definitions--even if there was no family to help make medical decisions, "Bob" would not have that right under this law. This was well described in the testimony given, which I have listened to on the web and recommend to you.

This is a good and compassionate set of bills that try to make these decisions more ethically sound, not less. This is not about "convenience" or "economics" but a way to try to help us avoid making an ethically wrong decision by prematurely ending care, or on the other hand, 'Playing God' by prolonging life and suffering with medical technology long past the time natural death would have occurred. These are not easy decisions either way. This law would make the authority clearer when we face them.

Thanks for your consideration of these bills.

Curtis Price
Rapid City

Peace and Justice fights on the home front

The attached info came across my email desk.. I felt it was worth sharing. Proof that there is a lot happening, and a lot we can do, to make change happen in our country.

Why do our leaders not hear us about Iraq? It's clearly time to let them know we need a huge change in our international approach to fighting terrorism now.
_____________________________________________________________________

Hello,

You are cordially invited to the Jimmy Carter statue on Fridays at noon to what has been described as a "peace surge." While we only meet for an hour each week, our commitment remains open-ended. Please invite friends. Exchange viewpoints and strategies. Please help spread the word.

Join with us at Jimmy Carter. America needs you. She doesn't call often, but today she is calling. ...

All the best,
Mike Forrette
_____________________________________________________________________

Timeline of the Occupation Project:

February 5: The Occupation Project officially begins. President Bush will submit his supplemental spending request to Congress either this week, or he may have submitted it the prior week. Some press reports are that he will submit the
request on February 5 itself.

This is the date on which, in 2003, Colin Powell made his infamous speech to the United Nations justifying the U.S. led invasion of Iraq.

Ehren Watada’s court martial is scheduled to begin. He has joined many others, including Katherine Jashinksi, Camilo
Mejia, Kevin Benderman, and Pablo Paredes, in risking imprisonment—and being imprisoned—rather than participating in the Iraq war.

February 12

John Murtha, Chair of the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee, states he will hold hearings on the supplemental spending package. Unfortunately, committee and subcommittee hearing schedules and topics are typically not announced until the week they are to occur. Will this be the week that the Murtha chaired hearings begin?

February 19

Congress is in recess this week. All Representatives will be in their home districts and all Senators will be in their home
states. Also, on February 22, 1943, Sophie Scholl, Hans Scholl, and Christoph Probst— members of the White Rose student resistance movement in Nazi Germany—were found guilty and executed for their actions.

March 5

Last year, the House Appropriations Committee held a single day hearing during this week on the supplemental spending
bill and passed it by voice vote. Will the same happen this year?

March 12

In both 2005 and 2006, the full House of Representatives passed the supplemental spending bill submitted by President
Bush. While it cannot be definitively stated when the full House will vote on the supplemental spending bill this year, the speed with which it passed in 2005 and 2006 gives some indication of when it will be voted upon this year.

Each year, Congress took a one week recess that began immediately before St. Patrick’s Day. This year, Congress will not
take its recess until the week of April 2 and it will be a two week recess this year.

Hearings in the Senate Appropriations Committee will likely also have begun by this time.

March 16 to 19

Declaration of Peace is organizing for nonviolent civil disobedience to occur throughout the U.S. during this week. It is
entirely possible that this period will be immediately prior to a full House vote on the supplemental spending bill. For more information, visit DoP’s website at www.declarationofpeace.org

April 2

Congress begins a two week recess. The House will almost certainly have voted on the supplemental spending bill prior to
the start of this recess. Senators will be in their home states and Representatives will be in their home districts. As it regards the supplemental spending bill, the focal point will be on Senators at this time.

However, it now appears that President Bush will include full Iraq war funding for October 1, 2007 to September 30, 2008
in the regular budget request he will submit to Congress (also this February). So office visits to Representatives demanding that they vote against funding the Iraq war in the regular budget process will also be necessary during this recess.

April 9

In 1945, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was executed on April 9 for his participation in the German resistance to the Nazi regime and Hitler. What is the responsibility of citizens in a country which has launched a World War?

April 16

Congress returns to D.C. The full Senate will likely vote on the supplemental spending bill sometime between now andthe end of April. In 2005, the Senate passed the supplemental spending bill on or about April 16. In 2006, the Senate passed the supplemental spending bill on or about May 4.

Deb McIntyre, Director
South Dakota Peace & Justice Center
PO Box 116
Sioux Falls, SD 57101
605-743-5647
www.sdpjc.org

First Crackerbarrel: Schmidt Guards The Plug

I was pleased to have the opportunity to brave the cold wind this morning and attend the first legislative cracker barrel of the season. It was wonderful to see a less divided table up front and a less-divided audience.

My favorite quote of the day was from Sen Tom Katus about how people are guarding $750 M of trust funds, and resisting even using the interest to fund education (I paraphrase):

Some want the State to invest in the stock market. Instead, we want to invest in our children.

I was impressed that Jean French came with a very good and pertinent question about the plans to set up the Voc-Tech system in South Dakota under its own governance and budget, apart from the K-12 umbrella under which it now exists. It was great to hear her on an issue that doesn't just divide everyone. Nice earrings, too, Jean!


I asked brand-new Sen. Dennis Schmidt (R-Rapid City) (below) about why he was the only one to vote against a well-thought out set of bills on end-of-life medical decisions. This package of bills (SB74-75-76) have passed the State Senate and are off to the House and are something we really need. Sen. Schmidt got himself in the news by sounding off that he didn't think the bill was a serious enough effort, mentioning the obvious point that "this isn't about a dog, it's about people." (Read more here on Blogmore.)


We all got a sermon that he always stands on the side of life.

Well, yeah, Sen Schmidt, that's why these bills were carefully crafted by nurses, doctors, and lawyers that, uh, know all about this issue, including former State AG Mark Barnett and others.

This is a good package, it has passed the Senate and is currently in House Judiciary. I recommend you support it. If you want to know more, listen to some of the hearing on the SDPB website (RealPlayer). Schmidt's sermon, which sounds like he wasn't listening (or could not follow) the excellent testimony from the hospice nurses, doctors, and lawyers behind the bills, starts near the end of the tape at 55:30.

Sen. Bill Napoli (below) had some concerns about SB74/5/6 but I hope he will come around and reconsider his support of this legislation when it comes back to conference.




Afterwards I went to Surbeck Center to get this snapshot of Democracy In Action's post-cracker barrel meeting. (DIA meetings which IMHO are striking in their chaotic intensity, but really fun. And they have sure accomplished some great things.)

Here they are conspiring on their socialist agenda to like, uh, give women a fair deal under the law, fund education, increase access to good health care, and support good jobs. (Shameless, aren't they?)

What a switch

You may recall my unabashed joy in seeing Dr. James Dobson having to drastically scale back a rally from a ticketed stadium event to a much smaller (free admission) venue as he faced a collective yawn from the public.

Meanwhile, in Boise, Idaho, there has been a illustrative mirror-image. Al Gore sold out a 1,000-seat venue in 10 minutes, and then almost as quickly sold out a 10,000-seat stadium. Even in the Mountain West, where resentment of the Clinton administration USED TO run high. Guess out here we are realizing that the Republicans aren't really a viable alternative.

Just had to share that.

Fun CHAD this week, and a neat story

Coat Hangers At Dawn has been doing some lovely explication this week of the "alternative" (or, what I would call "unsupported") tin-foil-hat opinion piece at on Dakota Voice about the supposed harm that would be caused by Comrade Rounds' excellent preschool proposal. The Dakota Voice piece was a typical hatchet job and Dawnne clearly had fun blasting the (slow, large) fish in Cindy Flakoll's CWA-endorsed barrel. I recommend checking it out.

In the middle of enjoying the rant-debunk-rant aspect of it all (watching the piece itself, and Ellis's typical righteous indignation and faux-revolutionary ardor skewered by the facts), I was diverted by a link CHAD posted to a new Pew Trust study about where people got political news in 2006. The web is a big and growing slice.

There was a partisan angle to the study; they found Dems and Repubs equally looked to the web for information... but Dems were found more likely to get information from newspapers ... Hm. The RC Journal comes in colorful Thune and anti-choice bags, they joined in the unfair character attack on a fine man and a great moderate Senator ... and in another bold move to gain market share among people that apparently don't read the paper, they replace Sam Hurst with Bob Ellis? Are the publishers of the RCJ high?

I am encouraged to see progressive blogs continue to thrive, right here in South Dakota, by... well, just doing what we do best to spank and cheer and share the facts as we see them--and even back them up on occasion.

Sen Bill wants his massages unregulated?

The Radical was browsing the Legislature's docket and found something that has him scratching his head....

Our own Sen. Bill Napoli, and others, are sponsoring a bill to repeal all regulation of massage therapy in the state of SD, just after it got started. One would think conservatives would think more regulation of massage would be a good thing; guarding against someone, well, pushing the limits of appropriate business behaviour and all. (Regulation of the massage therapists was enacted into law (SDCL 36-35) by the Legislature in 2005 and a brand new board is up and running and apparently doing good work.)

What's up with this one??

Teachers get the short stick

The Rapid City Journal reported today on our stiffing of Rapid City teachers, through the actions of our representatives in Pierre and on the RC School Board. Read the article; Margio Rosario and Eric Abrahamson seem to be the only ones that really get it.

The root of the problem is so damn clear. Look no farther than the Journal's (usually ugly) Good Bad and Ugly feature for Jan 9 illustrates why things are as they are:

THE UGLY: The 2007 Legislature begins its session today. Guard your pocketbooks, citizens.

The problem is that in the name of low taxes as religion, we tax people so unfairly, and the system is getting MORE regressive, not less.

It's really sad to see some of the best teachers in the nation treated this way by the voters, who continue to believe that less is more. And it really isn't about low taxes but really about FAIR taxes: for anyone making under $50K a year in South Dakota (a huge number of them families with kids), less is indeed far less. And everyone suffers the refusal of people in power to pay their fair share--instead we see 30 million dollars from our smokers--largely low income folks--going not to stopping smoking, but to squeak our State budget in balance on the backs of low income people. That's what the cigarette tax was really about--squeezing a little more money from people that cannot complain.

The truth is, you get what you pay for.

And, to contradict a local accounting firm's slogan, it isn't about what you keep. In fact, it's not even about you.

It's about what we collectively value--and in SD it apparently isn't our kids or our future and the teachers we depend on to support both.

John+ and Arnold

Sorry for the out of state digression, but as a proud Episcopalian, I must share this snippet from Sen. John+ Danforth. In the current issue of US News he tells the truth about the loud, but isolated "conservatives" in the Episcopal Church:

Q: Some of the same social issues have also proved problematic outside of politics, even in the Episcopal Church... Why has the issue of a gay bishop [in the Episcopal Church] been so divisive?

Danforth answers:
I think what's remarkable is not that some people are terribly upset about this within the church, but how relatively few they are.

He's absolutely right. The "conservatives" sowing discord in the Episcopal church are mostly getting a big yawn from most of us, and only patient tolerance from our excellent, smart, faithful, and FEMALE Presiding Bishop. Fr. John continues:

So I think most people, when they go to church, they simply go to church. They're not thinking about gays all the time. (emphasis mine)

I'm just so glad he finally, after years of alienation from his Party, now is being vindicated as Republicans fall over themselves to rejoin the reality-based world: for example, it seems to me that Gov. Arnold should just come to the "dahk side" and become a Dem after his California State of the State address today. He's for funding schools, alternative energy, acting on global warming, and universal health care.

Here in SD, the moderate Republicans are back in control in Pierre, and SD Healthy Families is reminding our legislators that they were absolutely wrong about their constituents when they said they were representing South Dakotans when they approved the harsh and brutal abortion law HB1215 last year.

The truth: Republicans are running from their old positions, and many of them, especially the conservative ones, totally flip-flopping like they haven't flip-flopped before. The tide hasn't only turned, it's coming in.

The Center West is Open

The Center West has opened at the beginning of the year. The Center in Sioux Falls (I like to call it "The Center East") has been around since 2000, but now GLBT folk and their friends and family have a place to call their own right here in Rapid City. I'm proud to say I have been asked to join The Center's board of directors. I've been helping out so far mostly with getting their computers set up at Center West so far.

The Center West is a non-profit resource, support, referral and educational community center serving the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered community and those who provide services to them and those who love them.

Our regular hours are from 1 pm until 8 pm daily. Wednesday evenings from 6—8 pm are PFLAG drop in times; when members of PFLAG (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbian and Gays) will be there to visit, answer questions and provide information to whomever may need it. The PFLAG meeting also provides a social time for Parents families and friends. If you have any questions, feel free to call!

The Center West
Michael Coats, director
Phone (24 hrs): 605-348-3244
Fax: 605-348-3372
3601 Canyon Lake Drive (same building as Chrysalis)
Suite 4
Rapid City, S.D. 57702

France is still no help, but can you blame them?

I just had to share this.

The New York Times reports on the president of France's surprise criticism of GW Bush's Iraq policy:

PARIS, Jan. 5 — In a scathing attack of the American-led war in Iraq, President Jacques Chirac said Friday that his predictions that the war would spread chaos and more terrorism had come true.

Of course, yet another opinion for the Bush Administration to ignore.

Time for us all to understand that we are one great nation among others. Ironically, until the US foreign policy returns to that truth, we will not be able lead the world as we should.

On a local note, anti-war protests will begin (they've been off since the election) at noon on Fridays at the statue of Pres. Jimmy Carter downtown. Come support our brave soldiers by urging redeployment to missions where their amazing ability and sacrifices will better serve our national interest. See you there.

Keep the heat on Roger Hunt

The Rapid City Journal put out an editorial over the holidays saying that if State Rep. Roger Hunt's sham money laundering scheme to support RL6 wasn't illegal it should be.

Guess what, according to our Republican AG and Sec of State, Hunt did break the law. Here's the current scoop as of Sunday, from the Sioux City Journal (slow link). Rep. Dale Hargens is planning on not letting the Legislature start up without this topic in the early January news threads.

I hope we do not let this story drop. Hunt and Unruh both should be prosecuted for playing fast and loose with campaign finance and tax laws. Unfortunately, they can't be prosecuted for their role in misleading and false advertising of RL6, but that's the cost of free speech and this writer can live with that.