No need to worry

From kotatv.com:

Another mountain lion spotting in Rapid City

Posted: Aug 30, 2008 09:45 PM, Lela French

Another mountain lion escapes a police hunt in Rapid City Saturday morning.

Around 11:30 people at Robbinsdale Park reported seeing a mountain lion walk through the park and through people's yards.

Police then set up a perimeter, but were unable to find the big cat.

"You just never know where they are going. It could have gone through a large culvert. He could be hiding out in a bush somewhere nearby, you just don't know," said Senior Officer Michael Lang, Rapid City Police Department.

Police say they'll just wait to see if someone else calls the mountain line in, but say there's no need for anyone to worry.

Uh, OK.

The dear spouse asks: "Are mountain lions like bees, if you don't bug them, they won't bug you?"

"Pay no attention to the big cat behind your lilacs. Nothing to see here. Move on."

Pollitt: The Wrong Woman For The Job

Katha Politt (of The Nation) tells is as she sees it:

Here's the reality: Palin is a rightwing-christian anti-choice extremist who opposes abortion for any reason whasoever, except to save the life of the girl or woman. No exception even for rape, incest, or the health of the woman. No exception for a ten-year-old, a woman carrying a fetus with no chance of life, a woman on the edge of suicide... She wants to force over one million women and girls a year to give birth against their will and judgment.

She wants to use the magnificent freedom the women's movement has won for her at tremendous cost and struggle--the movement that won her the right to run those marathons and run Alaska -- to take away the freedom of every other woman in the country. (emphasis mine)

Good News At The Center West

This came over the wire. I'm really glad to hear the Center West is open and in business serving the GLBT community.

The Black Hills Center for Equality is dedicated to serving the GLBTQ and straight community in Rapid City, South Dakota.

Located in a new 4,000 square foot space at 1102 West Rapid Street, it's a new home for a group with new leadership, a new name, and an outstanding new board of directors.

Dana Jones beat out several applicants as the new Executive Director, in July, replacing Michael Coats, who was unable to continue in the position. [The Black Hills Center for Equality is no longer officially associated with Equality SD, or The Center in SF.]

The Center is in a state of transition, but already has groups meeting in our new building, a reassembled library of both GLBT fiction and non-fiction, a Pride Store, and Wi-Fi access.

They're open 11-5 M-Th, 11-6 on Friday & Saturday and closed Sunday.

A weekly community organizing meeting is held weekly on Wednesdays at 5 p.m.. Please feel free to attend and offer suggestions, feedback, questions, and learn of upcoming events, groups, and volunteer opportunities. Up first, our 2nd annual HIV/AIDS Walk.

Or reach them during business hours at (605) 348-3244 -- which can be dialed as (605) "FIVE-BIG".

How closely did John McCain vet this choice?

This question is on my mind... He met Sarah Palin once at a meeting. They spoke a second time, last Sunday, when he called her about being vice-president. Then he offered her the position.

("McCain met Palin once before yesterday," MSNBC, August 29, 2008)

I wish I could have been the fly on the wall.

Hello Sarah, this is John McCain.

(silence) ... Uh, Hello, Senator.

How's the weather up there, my friend. Cold, I bet....

Hey, have you seen the Russkies poking around up there recently? We thought you might be able to tell us what they are up to since, heck, you live just next door, right?

("what?")

Hey, how'd you like to run for Vice President?

("You're sh***ng me.... Uh, okay.")

But all fun aside... Madville Times has pointed out that this is the woman who pushed her state to give 500 million dollars to TransCanada corporation to help convince the SD state legislature to illegally take land from South Dakota rural landowners.

Is she really just a cute, politically successful Leslee?

I'm thinking, absolutely not: this woman is a real threat to the future of the USA. Let's not kid ourselves.

A foretaste a McCain Presidency?

Pre-emptive security. Is this what life in McCain's America will look like?

I hope Tim Pawlenty can answer for this.

People who had been inside the building said that officers entered shortly after 8:30 p.m., saying they had a warrant and instructing the occupants to lie on the ground.

“They handcuffed all of us,” said Sonia Silbert, 28, from Washington. “They searched everyone.”

At 11 p.m., police officers stood in front of the building. People who emerged one by one told similar stories about what had taken place inside. They said they had been searched and questioned and photographed before being released. Jordan Kushner, a member of the National Lawyers Guild, said the two-story brick building had been rented by a nonprofit organization and was being used by several groups planning protests.

People who had been inside said that teach-ins and legal training had been conducted there and that the space was also a repository for such items as computers and bicycles. Mr. Kushner said he believed that the police had read a warrant aloud but said he had not seen the document.

Lost Chihuahua in Robbinsdale

This little chihuahua showed up in our garage today. Judging from her teeth, she isn't a puppy, and she has no tag, just a string around her neck.

Anyone looking for a lost little dog?

MTV Street Team Features Bethany Wojahn!

Bethany Wojahn was profiled last night by our South Dakota MTV Street Team Rep.

Just another example of people that appreciate where Bethany is coming from!

Tina Fey for VP!

My favorite story so far is (of course) at MSNBC.

The kids who captivated an entire city

I posted shorter version of this in the Rapid Reply on the Rapid City Journal's site (The Kids Who Captivated An Entire City, RCJ Editorial, Aug 27) which went to national competition (not a small feat) but was defeated at the championships (pretty soundly, but hey, it's the Little Big Leagues, and being there was a huge accomplishment!)

I felt this was too important to bury deep in the Rapid Reply, so I expanded on my comment here:

First, I don't want to take away from these Little League kids, they, with the unselfish support of coaches and parents, have done a great thing.

But I want to note that there is a another group of kids in this town and adults that support them that do not get the recognition they deserve.

Our public school orchestra ensembles are stellar on a national level, and the high school groups consistently do very well in regional and national competitions. (Truth in advertising, I'm aware of all this as a parent of three young string players (11,12,17), so I know this from the inside.)

These kids do not have it handed to them on a platter... playing string instruments is a huge commitment, as it takes many years, practicing with incredible dedication, to master the skills involved. They represent a diverse group from all over Rapid City and they (and our public school staff) have all worked very hard for many years (from elementary music, and some even earlier) to be where they are.

Every spring, 800 (rough guess) elementary school string players (grades 4-8) do an amazing annual concert at the Civic Center. The national-level clinicians who come here to direct these concerts are overwhelmed at the accomplishments of this program and what it provides to our young people, our families, and the larger community. In the last ten years, I have only seen very rare coverage of this event, which is a jewel of Rapid City.

Rapid City string players dominate the South Dakota All-State Orchestra, and they do that by mastering audition pieces that challenge professional musicians. The Central Chamber Orchestra was selected in 2006 and 2007 to play at major national conventions as the cream of the crop among all high school groups in the nation.

One of our high school orchestra directors recently earned a master's in conducting, and the other directed the Colorado All-State Orchestra last year. These people work hard together with kids from the elementary level up and deserve our gratitude for their MANY years of faithful dedication.

These teachers team up with Black Hills Suzuki School to run a week-long string retreat that can attract amazing teachers from around the country to give our kids individual and group instruction. These teachers include South Dakota's, John Thompson, SDSU orchestra conductor and violinist, and top-flight folks like renowned viola teacher Barbara Barber. The local teachers that run this thing keep it very affordable; they do it for minimal financial reward because it benefits the kids program immensely during the school year. Parents (like me) chaperone and contribute to this camp in many ways because we love it and know these investments will enrich these young people's lives in ways we can cnly imagine. Given some of the kids start as 3-year-old day campers, it's can be a 15-year commitment. The teachers have the similar long-term outlook.

There are no parades for them, and rarely even a mention in the papers or media -- not to take anything from our excellent athletic teams, again. To be blunt, our public school music programs don't get the press, support and accolades they deserve.

I am NOT whining that we need a pat on the back. These kids and parents and teachers receive much from this program. But the lack of recognition is why, year after year, we are threatened with cuts to a program that is seen in the national orchestra community as a treasure. And if we cut elementary music, it will be gone... it's that simple.

I just want to say that we should consider there are also other kids out there accomplishing great things in Rapid City as well. The kids and the adults that work very hard on this music program year after year richly deserve more public support. This program is something our community should celebrate, and dedicate ourselves to preserve.

RR and Ellis on the 10pm news on young voters

I got a brief spot on the KOTA 10pm news this evening in a story from Rachael Embler, on the topic of young people in the electoral process and how the web's role in that.

Amazingly, Bob Ellis sounded almost like a sane person, warning young people to watch the veracity of websites where they get their information, as some bloggers have an evil habit of picking and choosing sources to back up their opinions:

[Ellis:]"Blogging is definitely opinion oriented. I'd like to think the better bloggers and the best bloggers out there try to keep that grounded in as much factual information as possible," he said.

Talk about the crack-pot calling the kettle white. This the guy who dismisses the APA, the AMA, and National Academy of Sciences and the IPCC climate folks as "non-credible" and instead has to seek out the experts from places like "Grove City College."

This was good too:

"Who knows, we might actually get a surprise and see the youth vote come out in greater numbers than we've ever seen," Ellis said.

Well, Duh. Under 35s aren't aren't stupid, they are seeing the biggest transfer of wealth from them to the boomers from the Bush tax cuts and the proposed "privatization" (I call it "theft") of Social Security.

Ellis may be surprised, but not me. I see him and many boomers surprised by the young people who see the writing on the wall and are increasingly politically active. In the unlikely and tragic outcome of a McCain Presidency, you can look forward to a inter-generational political fight like the Nation has ever seen.

But it's such a non-option -- I plan to work hard for Obama. Two overwhelming reasons why: A McCain Presidency will mean (a) the Justice Department will not be investigated and (b) a Supreme Court that show increasing disrespect to the US Constitution.

No thank you!


The irony is overwhelming to me, as Ellis sources some pretty extreme fringe "experts" on the topics he uses, and then challenges people to respond with "credible" sources. I guess by "credible" he means sources that agree with his ultra-wing-nut point of view?

And so it goes!

PP is annoyed

... that I was being off-topic and unduly snarky in my response to his post.

At the end of his "corrections" he commented:

But obviously, none of that mattered as you hoped to just smash conservatives in general.

As if almost everything PP himself posts is not even his opinion; just news filtered through his blogger lens aimed to discredit the progressive point of view.

Oh, please.

:-P

We love you Rachel!

Rachel Maddow is replacing that snotty lawyer on MSNBC. This going to be GREAT.

When Maddow was 19, two years after she came out of the closet, she watched with horror as Pat Buchanan took the podium at the 1992 Republican convention and called for a culture war against such liberal notions as "homosexual rights."

"I felt my country was declaring war on me," she says.

On Monday night, seated on a makeshift stage overlooking Denver's train station, Maddow recalled that experience on the air, turning to her left -- where Buchanan, her fellow MSNBC analyst, sat.

Awkward!

This is what I'm really looking forward too though (emphasis mine):

Unlike Olbermann, Maddow plans to interview some conservative guests. But she is determined to avoid the left-right pairings that sustain much of cable news.

"It creates fake balance," she says. "I'm sorry -- we're going to have a debate about whether or not the Earth is flat? It doesn't make sense to have a debate about whether offshore drilling is going to bring down gas prices. You know what? It's not. The fact that it's false ought to be reported, or you're advancing a lie."

More at WaPo. Many thanks to Kevin Holsinger at DailyKos for bringing this great article to my attention!

See Rachel in action TOTALLY smacking down Pat Buchanan last night on MSNBC.

Laura Ingraham gets what she deserves

Plains Feminist introduced me to a great Laura Ingraham video:

I've watched the Laura Ingraham video that everyone is talking about, but what I see is not a horrible person, but a professional who is trying to do her job and totally, utterly prevented from doing so by a team of incompetents at FOX "News." I probably still hate her, but in this, she has my understanding.

My response:

I was familiar with Laura Ingraham's work back when I was in grad school at Dartmouth in 1982. (I think she had just graduated and was still writing ugly, mean editorials for The Dartmouth Review.)

After all the suffering Laura has caused, it gave me extreme pleasure to have her personally experience what we have seen for the last eight years-- what happens when people are hired on the basis of their loyalty instead of their skills, experience, and professionalism!

And, since we're seeing this tape, maybe their loyalty wasn't so hot either!

As Dietter would say, her agony was goooooredgous!

Joy!

PP is slow on the uptake

A couple weeks ago, PP over at South Dakota War College finally got around to reading Initiated Measure 10, and noticed the "domestic partner" language. Apparently (I'm shocked, SHOCKED, I say) he hadn't read the full text of Measure 10 before his weeks of commenting on it.

Oh. My. Gosh.

As it parallels the language in an identical measure in Colorado, as the Rocky Mountain News reports, it sounds as if the wording of IM10 might possibly be the catalyst for South Dakota to recognize same-sex marriage via it’s inclusion of "domestic partnership" in the relationships it covers

The August 13 post, which was recently brought to my attention is now a bit buried in the archives, and so you don't have to wipe off your keyboard after visiting PP's site, here is my response to his fear and loathing:

Dear Pat,

Wow.

You seem AWFULLY slow on the uptake. We read this domestic partner language a long time ago. Because I like, read the thing before I decided not to support it.

(I wish more of you conservative Defenders of Liberty would read the scary language in IM11 too — DNA samples, etc… where are the black helicopters!!)

Duh.

And, DOH!, if pigs fly and IM10 passes, the “domestic Partner” language would would be immediately overruled by our State Constitution, which thanks to your side of the aisle now has this ugly discrimination written into it. That’s why you argued to add this icky amendment. Thank goodness the US Supreme Court will roll back all efforts in a half a generation with a laugh of how misled we were back at the turn of the century about GLBT people. In that future coming when the majority figures out they’ve been LIED to, that GLBT folk are not a scary threat but rather realize they are a treasured gift to our American society and culture. But I digress…

And I thought you conservatives were constitutional law experts. Oh, well it’s not the first time you were all just pulling it out of your collective butt.

McCain doesn't know how many houses he owns

More on that story at HuffPost...

But this video really tells the story in stark relief. Please share it:



How folks like Bob Ellis can attack Obama as elitist is beyond my comprehension...

Let's Drill American Oil for America!

Keep American Oil American is a great idea. How about it, Rep. Herseth Sandlin?

I love this:

You wanna drill for oil in America? Fine – every bit of that oil you drill in America, stays in America, for use by Americans.

More from Occam's Hatchet on Dailykos.

Woo Hoo! My sister is a runaway favorite for Island County Commissioner, by a 3 to 1 margin in their primary election held yesterday, in Island County in Western Washington State.

Yeah Helen! Rock and roll!

Commissioner, District 1
(Short and full term)

Helen Price Johnson Prefers Democratic Party 4760
Reece Rose Prefers Republican Party 1451
Phil Bakke Prefers Republican Party 2058
Curt Gordon States No Party Preference 2033

8/21 Update: (current returns above) If Bakke continues to squeeze past Gordon, this may be good news for Helen Johnson as Gordon is a long-time family friend for many years and is likely to throw his support behind Johnson if he doesn't make the #2 spot on the ballot.

We should let families decide: Vote no on Initiated Measure 11

by Marv Buehner

Rapid City Journal, Sat August 16, 2008

In 2006, South Dakotans had a thorough and thoughtful debate about banning abortion, and we decided that such inflexible government intrusion into private medical decisions is wrong. Last year, our legislators seemed to accept the public’s message, rejecting another abortion ban attempt.

Now, activists are pushing another abortion ban on voters. Initiated Measure 11 is another ban to divide communities, waste precious resources and distract attention from the issues that really concern most South Dakotans. This ban also does nothing to address the larger issue of unintended pregnancies.

Anti-abortion extremists are still willing to bet South Dakota tax dollars that they can ban abortions nationwide. While it is frustrating to have to repeat this debate so soon, I trust that South Dakotans will again use their values and good judgment in resisting another measure that could do much more harm than good.

Measure 11 would only allow a doctor to end pregnancies for health concerns if facing a “serious risk of substantial and irreversible impairment of the functioning of a major bodily organ or system of the pregnant woman.” Rape and incest victims would be required to report details about the incident and the perpetrator to law enforcement officials before the pregnancy could be ended. The victim would then have to be subjected to DNA analysis, and the doctor would have to collect and transfer custody of fetal DNA samples to law enforcement.

Since the failure to meet these very difficult standards could result in the doctor spending 10 years in prison and paying a $25,000 fine, this medical decision would have to be made by attorneys representing the doctor and hospital — attorneys who have no responsibility to the welfare of women and families. Because no physician is likely to risk career and freedom to provide services under these circumstances, this measure is essentially a total ban on abortions, which South Dakotans just overwhelmingly rejected.

These abortion bans represent the misuse of millions of taxpayers’ dollars to promote a narrow ideology forcing big government into the most private aspects of citizens’ lives. When South Dakota ranks last in teacher salaries and school districts are deciding whether to cut music or student counseling, spending millions of dollars defending an unconstitutional abortion ban is a colossal waste of resources. Especially since South Dakota already has the most stringent regulations and one of the lowest abortion rates in America. But there is a way to further reduce the number of abortions in a fiscally conservative way.

It is estimated that every dollar spent on family planning saves $3 in health care costs related to pregnancy. It has been shown around the world that the most reliable and most cost-effective way to minimize abortions is to reduce the rate of unintended pregnancies, not to make them illegal.

It is time to move beyond abortion bans to public policies that will actually improve the health of our state and relieve the taxpayers of an unnecessary burden. Measure 11 further victimizes victims of sexual crimes, criminalizes medical care to sick pregnant women, and forces women to carry to term pregnancies that cannot survive outside the womb. Vote “no” on Measure 11 and urge our elected officials to begin addressing pregnancy prevention instead.

Thanks Marv, you said it well! The same page had Leslee Unruh's predictable rant that people that don't comprehensive health care for women hate babies.

If you don't think it's important to quietly vote 11 down again, I bring forward exhibit "A" from her typically sweet and innocuous defence of an absolutely brutal law:

It eliminates the use of abortion as a means of "birth control."

The quotes are code to her extremist base that she thinks birth control is simply a euphemism. For these social engineers this is just the beginning.

As we learned in 2006 These folks want to control women's choice of when and with whom to have children, it's that simple. They don't want our young people to understand birth control because they think it's wrong, which is okay, but they want to decide for everyone else.

Arguing with advocates like Leslee is useless because they are not interested in lowering the abortion rate, or the teen pregnancy rate.

As Russell Shorto of the NY Times back in 2006 ("Contra-Contraception", NYT, 5/7/2006) put it so well:

... [The anti-abortion conservative movement's] ultimate goal is not a number — the percentage of abortions or unintended pregnancies — but an ideal, a way for people to think and behave.

It's about control. Their control, not yours or your family's.

Now, who was Bob Ellis saying is anti-family, anti-American, and anti-God?

I mean, really.

Please work to defeat 11.

God Bless The ACLU

Bob Ellis's is crowing about the American Civil Liberties Union showing up to work against the unconstitutional granting of wide government authority over our very bodies. Where are the black helicopters? Apparently Ellis is for the government having an awful lot of power over people who he doesn't trust.

This is how he mentions it:

(even the ACLU--one of the most anti-God, anti-family, anti-American groups in the country--was there),

Bob just doesn't get it. The ACLU will be there to protect HIM as well against the "Anti-God, Anti-Family" folk he so fears. They do not discriminate. This has gotten them in big controversy with both the left and the right, but they do not waver.

If you're wondering why the ACLU has taken interest in Measure 11, I invite you, plead with you to simply read the whole thing... This proposed law dangles the sword of the government, threatening prosecution unless citizens hand over tissue samples for DNA evidence of their personal medical treatment. How anti-American is that?

The Pro-11 wingnuts are trying an end-run around this debate by framing Initiated Measure 11 as a referendum on abortion being right or wrong. No, sorry, I'm not biting. That's the kind of thing you can (and should) talk about with your kids. The question for November is simply whether I.M. 11 is a law we want on the books.

The extremists (who are common in this debate) are eager to frame good and evil in a political vote. Politics by its very nature doesn't work in this frame... this kind of talk stifles debate and takes all the good (and fun) out of politics. I wish they'd just knock it off. Flying Tomato Farms nailed it exactly:

There are those who want every issue, every idea, every thing they encounter to have a “good” label or an “evil” label, and there are those who are quick to affix those labels. They castigate those who will not engage in this sort of labeling as the ultimate evil-doers: moral relativists. I do not see myself as one of those.

And neither do I.

Please vote carefully on 11, and vote your conscience. But please read the whole law before you vote and ponder what the effects of it will be if it does pass.

McCain called on his say one thing, do another

This is simply great stuff: from the Obama campaign, and so true:

(Motors revving)

Announcer: Listen to John McCain speaking to motorcycle enthusiasts in Sturgis, South Dakota, on Tuesday.

McCain: Not long ago a couple of hundred thousand Berliners made a lot of noise for my opponent. I'll take the roar of 50,000 Harleys any day...

Announcer: But when it comes to his record, American-made motorcycles like Harleys don't matter to John McCain. Back in Washington, McCain opposed the requirement that the government buy American-made motorcycles. And he said all buy-American provisions were quote "disgraceful." Surprised? You shouldn't be. This is the same John McCain who supported billions in tax breaks for companies who ship American jobs overseas.

(More motors revving)

Announcer: It's time to hear the roar of the strong American economy again -- and stop John McCain from shipping our jobs overseas.

Obama: I'm Barack Obama, candidate for president, and I approved this message. Paid for by Obama for America.