1/31/12

Depression: find something that works or die

Radio Lab is one of my favorite public radio shows: Robert Krulwich is a master producer. Remember this 2007 story?

A piece on Seattle's KPLU the other day brought glutamic acid closer to home as mushrooms are sources of glutamate. The smell of sex, especially in Hypomyces lactifluorum, has been a fascination.

This morning's broadcast on ketamine harkened the Krulwich piece, too; a contraindication of treating the glutamate sites in the brain is unusual sexual behavior.
Ketamine, in contrast, activates a different chemical system in the brain – the glutamate system. Researcher Ron Duman at Yale thinks ketamine rapidly increases the communication among existing neurons by creating new connections.
Ketamine, a Schedule III substance, is considered a 'street drug' by lawmakers and law enforcement:
Now imagine that your local police have their own bees, bees they release each morning to scour the neighborhood looking for illegal plants.
and is considered far more dangerous when self-administered than Schedule I cannabis has been shown to be:
"We were shocked and surprised that it worked," says Gary Wenk, Ph.D., one of the study's authors and a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Ohio State University. Research shows that the neurotransmitter glutamate is involved in storing memory in a process that involves growing both new cells and connections between them, and destroying old ones. Some current Alzheimer's drugs like memantine affect glutamate—as does THC. Early in life, this process is in balance, and so interfering with either the growth or the "pruning back" of brain cells and connections—as might occur from using marijuana—might impair memory. But, says Wenk, "The same systems involved in pruning neurons at the beginning of life could be killing them at the end." Therefore, interfering with the pruning process later in life might actually help, rather than harm.
Depression is deadly.

The patient in this morning's NPR piece had tried scores of compounds created by Big Pharma and was still trying to end his life.

WTF?

I wondered about this. I watched the Google+ interview with the President and found him warm but scripted. Somebody tweeted that Bill Clinton would have been more in his element than Mr. Obama was; someone else that it looked like a campaign spot.

Interesting read from Charles Trimble.

Tribes, pressure the President to move the Black Hills National Forest, the Custer National Forest, and the Nebraska National Forest into the Bureau of Indian Affairs, take the money owed to you, and petition for Statehood.

More on the Google-backed Newberry volcano geothermal test

NPR's Talk of the Nation hosting ketamine discussion today.

1/30/12

Coal: another love story; Libertarian Johnson: repeal 'Patriot Act'

Update, 31 January: Colstrip benefits PPL Montana investors at the expense of the facts.

Indiana coal expansion would destroy bat habitat.

---------------------

The Boston Globe collected 48 photos that brings it all home.



Former New Mexico Governor and Libertarian Party candidate for president, Gary Johnson, called for repeal of the 'Patriot Act' at ACLU speech.

The GOP presidential race comes to Colorado as Ron Paul holds town hall in Fort Collins.

Obama Google chat dominated by cannabis? @OFA_SD Obama for America SD. Be part of presidential history: Join President Obama for his first Google+ Hangout at 5:30pm ET. #Obama

Senator Tester touts campaign transparency on NPR's ATC and supports Move to Amend.

Kush back on top.

1/29/12

Hubbel spewing earth hatred; Cato: end drug war

Update, 31 January: @DBleizeffer Dustin Bleizeffer, Pavillion study upheld by independent research group.

-----------------

Sioux Falls ALEC legislator, Lora Hubbel is calling for the gang rape of South Dakota aquifers and watersheds according to the Argus Leader:
In a draft report, which the industry disputes, the Environmental Protection Agency linked groundwater contamination in the Pavillion, Wyo., area to fracking of shallow gas wells. The agency is in the process of completing a comprehensive review of the practice.
Red state collapse.




The Senate earth haters are putting pressure on Montana's Max Baucus to abandon his caucus and ram the Keystone XL ecocide into the payroll tax conference according to The Hill:
The other conferees are Sens. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), and John Barrasso (R-Wyo.). Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) is drafting legislation to permit Keystone, citing a report by the Congressional Research Service that found Congress has power to authorize the pipeline.
A Montana legislator's name came up in a DEA investigation. Even though I believe that this initiated law is deeply flawed, Dem AG Steve Bullock is missing in action on this issue as he runs for governor.

From 420 Mag:
In the words of Cato senior fellow Doug Bandow: "Banning drugs raises their price, creates enormous profits for criminal entrepreneurs, thrusts even casual users into an illegal marketplace, encourages heavy users to commit property crimes to acquire higher-priced drugs, leaves violence the only means for dealers to resolve disputes, forces government to spend lavishly on enforcement, corrupts public officials and institutions, and undermines a free society."
A Connecticut State Marshall got popped with a quarter-pound during a routine traffic stop.




Al Jazeera brings more on Cuba's Communist Party congress in a country where being green is the way of life after the fall of the Soviet Union:
The government encouraged rooftop gardens to produce food for urban areas, increased public transportation and permaculture farming techniques, where chemical fertilisers were not required.

1/28/12

Unusual funeral

A woman was leaving a convenience store with her morning coffee when she noticed a most unusual funeral procession approaching the nearby cemetery.

A long black hearse was followed by a second long black hearse about 50 feet behind the first one. Behind the second hearse was a solitary woman walking a pit bull on a leash. Behind her, a short distance back, were about 200 women walking single file.

The woman was so curious that she respectfully approached the woman walking the dog and said, "I am so sorry for your loss, and I know now is a bad time to disturb you, but I have never seen a funeral like this. Whose funeral is it?"

"My husband's."

"What happened to him?"

The woman replied, "My dog attacked and killed him."

She inquired further, "Well, who is in the second hearse?"

The woman answered, "My mother-in-law. She was trying to help my husband when the dog turned on her."

A poignant and thoughtful moment of silence passed between the two women.

"Can I borrow the dog?"

"Get in line."


Cuba ripe for US Statehood



1/27/12

New Mexicans occupy ALEC dinner

During the CNN debate last night the earth haters were asked which Latino(a)s were important to the earth hater party. Dipshit New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez' name was mentioned.

KUNM alerted ip to a ruckus in town.

The guest of New Mexico legislator Bill Rehm suffered a scratched cornea during a confrontation according to Steve Terrell of the New Mexican:
A protest at a dinner held by the politically conservative American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, apparently turned physical Wednesday night after a small group of Occupy Santa Fe protesters went inside the Eldorado hotel and disrupted the event. Jeff Haas, who identified himself as a spokesman for the protesters, said in an email to The New Mexican, "While Occupy believes that confrontation and civil disobedience are often effective as demonstrated by Dr. King and Rosa Parks, we regret that anyone was injured last night by either flying paper or rough treatment by hotel security or ALEC members. Fortunately the injuries were minor compared to the devastation to people and the environment caused by ALEC legislation."
Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu was just down the road yesterday at the Sandia National Laboratories’ National Solar Thermal Test Facility. KUNM has the broadcast.

A month ago, ip was leaving Santa Fe for Deadwood just as Gary Johnson was announcing his intention to leave the earth hater party for the Libertarian Party.

Red to Blue 2012: MT-AL (Rehberg-open)

1/26/12

Anonymous announces Florida debate disruptions in solidarity with Ron Paul

Forest Service releases new planning rules

From the USDA:
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today signaled the U.S. Department of Agriculture's intent to issue a new planning rule for America's 193-million acre National Forest System that seeks to deliver stronger protections for forests, water, and wildlife while supporting the economic vitality of our rural communities, by releasing online a Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) for the National Forest System Land Management Planning Rule. The planning rule provides the framework for Forest Service land management plans for the 155 forests, 20 grasslands and 1 prairie in the National Forest System.
The Sierra Club's Frances Hunt, director of the Resilient Habitats campaign issued a statement that included this:
The new standards announced today can help ensure that our forests will survive for future generations to explore and enjoy. We will continue to work with the Forest Service to promote effective enforcement of strong habitat protections and implementation of plans that are in the best long term interest of our great outdoors.
The Center for Biological Diversity was not so conciliatory:
Today’s rule is a step up from the Bush administration’s rule, but its protections are still a far cry from Reagan-era regulations that the Forest Service has been trying to weaken for 12 years,” said Taylor McKinnon, public lands campaigns director at the Center. “Our publicly owned national forests should be a safe haven for wildlife. In the face of unprecedented global climate change and other threats to species, the Forest Service should be trying to strengthen, not weaken, protections for wildlife on our public lands.
Watershed protection is paramount to any other consideration on the Forest.

Obama approval rating spiking; State of Indian Nations address today

Fewer people watched President Obama's State of the Union Address this year suggesting that Americans are giving him the benefit of the doubt about a successful crossing for the ship of state.

One right leaning polling group quizzed likely voters:
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Thursday shows that 25% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Thirty-eight percent (38%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -13 (see trends). That’s the president’s best rating in a month and comes at a time when the number who say the country is moving in the right direction has reached the highest level in seven months at 26%.
The President is not polling well among people self-identifying as independents. From a Pew survey of representative Americans:
Barack Obama enters his fourth year in office with about as many Americans disapproving (48%) as approving (44%) of the job he is doing in office. Obama continues to get stronger ratings on foreign and security policy than on economic issues at home. When asked what one word best describes people’s impressions of Barack Obama, the most frequent responses are Good (24 mentions) Incompetent (21), Intelligent (19), Socialist (17), Honest (16), Trying (16) and Disappointing (15).
Live streaming for the State of Indian Nations address here.

1/25/12

Adapt and re-use for a greener 'hood

This should be a no-brainer:
A report produced by the Preservation Green Lab of the National Trust for Historic Preservation provides the most comprehensive analysis to date of the potential environmental benefit of building reuse. This groundbreaking study, The Greenest Building: Quantifying the Environmental Value of Building Reuse, concludes that, when comparing buildings of equivalent size and function, building reuse almost always offers environmental savings over demolition and new construction.
Butte USA: take note.

1/24/12

Ecotrope on fracking: geothermal v. natural gas

From Oregon Public Broadcasting:
The idea is to inject water into the cracks of hot rock 10,000 feet underneath the western flank of the Newberry Volcano, where temperatures can exceed 550 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s a nice heat source for making steam to power a turbine. Geothermal energy is normally generated by pulling preexisting hot water and steam from the ground. Linda Christian, the Newberry project manager for BLM, backed up [AltaRock President Susan] Petty’s arguments. She said her agency will know the individual chemicals being used in the proprietary products, which are “like biodegradable plastic bags” that degrade when they get near the heat deep underground. Christian added that the injection process – which she called hydro-shearing – is shouldn’t be confused with hydraulic fracking, which uses a whole different mix of chemicals to break up shale rock and hold it open.

Barth expected to run against Democratic Party

US House candidates in Montana, Democrats Franke Wilmer, Dave Strohmaier, and Kim Gillan are embracing our party's platform and leaders.

In South Dakota, one Democrat is running his US House primary campaign in South Dakota while ignoring his President.

Minnehaha County Commissioner Jeff Barth posted comments at Madville Times that suggest that he intends to court voters outside our party:
I am running hard, I plan to win the primary and I plan to work for the United States and the State of South Dakota in the US Congress. With my pragmatic views and lifetime of experience I am just the right person to do that.
He goes on to say:
Clearly the only way Tea Party candidates can win election in this state is be sure that we don’t do too much to educate. An example of this is where Noem asks for more spending on Lewis and Clark, more spending on Missouri flood relief, more money for Pine Beetles, etc., more tax cuts for business and billionaires and then purports to want a balanced budget amendment to the US Constitution. All that from our current trillion dollar deficit position. Simple arithmetic would show that you can’t spend more, reduce your income and balance the budget. But perhaps that is too difficult for those who remain in the state to comprehend.
Huh? That's not how the President or our party phrases our predicament, Jeff; we are the party of the future, the party of solutions. Courting the middle of the general electorate is a waste of time during the primary season.

ip asked Barth twice to tell readers what he would like to show or where he would like to take President Obama when he visits South Dakota later this year. Barth has yet to answer.

In contrast, South Dakota War College, a mouthpiece for the GOP in the chemical toilet, has attacked candidate Matt Varilek for his support of the President. That assault suggests that the earth haters are more afraid of Matt.

Get on board, Mr. Barth, and talk like a Democrat or ip will do everything in my power to ensure that you suffer defeat to Matt Varilek.

1/23/12

US voters want troops out of Europe

Ron Paul's stance on Europe-based military deployments may be reflective of US voters according to a GOP polling firm:
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 31% of Likely U.S. Voters think the United States should not remove all its troops from Western Europe. However, 47% favor withdrawing those troops and letting the Europeans defend themselves. Twenty-one percent (21%) are undecided.
Greece enjoys the presence of several US military bases.

Rasmussen also tells voters that Newt Gingrich has taken the lead in Florida polling.

hipneck sent two videos: one with Lawrence Lessig discussing his view on ending the influence of unethical money in Congress and one on Joel Salatin discussing unethical industrial agriculture.

Farm subsidies are driving insane record prices for ag land and the best ag land goes for housing developments. WTF?

ip poll voters missed Newt's ascent. Yer slippin' dudes. Who wins South Carolina?

Colbert
2 (20%)

Santorum
0 (0%)

Romney
3 (30%)

Perry
0 (0%)

Newt
2 (20%)

Paul
3 (30%)

Okay: about the poll, Should Hillary be veep candidate in 2012? "Yer fuckin' nuts, kurtz," doesn't answer the question leaving a unanimous chorus for her addition to the ticket:

Yes
1 (6%)

Hell yes
1 (6%)

Yer fuckin' nuts, kurtz
13 (86%)

If Canada legalizes cannabis: then what?

From the Guardian:
Two studies, for which scientists struggled to find funding because of public suspicion and political sensitivity around psychedelic drugs, have shed light on how magic mushrooms affect the brain. The studies showed that psilocybin worked on the same areas of the brain as the SSRI antidepressants such as Prozac, as well as talking therapies and meditation as carried out by skilled practitioners. But the advantage over pills, the team believes, is that the positive effect could be long-lasting.
Statehood for Mexico.

1/21/12

Mr. President: tear down these dams

President Obama:
Tourism is the number one service we export. Every year, tens of millions of tourists come from all over the world to visit America. They stay in our hotels, eat at our restaurants, and see all the sights America has to offer. That’s good for local businesses. That’s good for local economies. And the more folks who visit America, the more Americans we get back to work. It’s that simple.
Tear out the Missouri River dams, Mr. President: rewild the West.



Two pix of an artesian well discharging hundreds of gallons per minute of 133 degree water into Orman Dam. At least two wells were drilled in the vicinity looking for oil (if you know of more, let's hear about it): one discharging at 106 is the source of the Butte-Meade water supply. The one in the photos is a gold mine waiting for the right person to convince its owner to fight being capped by the state.

Email address is larry dot kurtz at lycos dot com if you have the resources and an idea.

1/20/12

Tango down!

@AnonymousIRC:
US Department of Justice usdoj.gov TANGO DOWN. Cause ur doing shits bitches. #Megaupload #Anonymous #Eatcock. We are legion. Expect us.
The communiques occurred all day long yesterday starting in the wee hours. BMI, the music distributor was taken down and is down at this posting, too.

BBC Livestation is hosting discussion of the aftermath.

One of the largest online protests in the history of the internet prompted Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to back away from legislation ostensibly designed to protect intellectual property from piracy.

Revolution via @twitter: has the LulzBoat begun Endgame?

@OccupyWallSt:
Come occupy the courts with us! Today and tomorrow! In #solidarity with #OccupyWallStWest ows.re-configure.org #OWS.
Reuters: DoJ linked to banksters...duh.

Karin Eagle filed at report for Native Sun News of the Winyan Ituwan, or Vision of the Women, who met in the first of four gatherings in Porcupine.

A Deadwood couple was popped after allegedly selling "synthetic marijuana" from a former brothel.

Two thirds of American voters would support a third party candidate. Gary Johnson wants to tap into that.

While the other earth haters have been all over the polling graphs Ron Paul has enjoyed a very steady climb in popularity.

Zinda, his face black, his eyes red.

1/18/12

Earth hater being planted today; Dems want VP Clinton


Janklow goes away.

Rasmussen is learning what ip already knows: Hillary Clinton should step down replaced with John Kerry. Clinton would start her book and return rested then be our veep candidate just before the convention. Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick would appoint Elizabeth Warren to the Senate seat he holds from which she would smash her earth hater opponent in the general.

Galloway: Palin likes Newt; she doesn't want Romney coronation.

Mitt Romney: Mormon bishop, tax evader, social engineer.

Can you draw a line from hebephilia to Warren Jeffs?

Trahant: Rep. Kristi Noem's (earth hater-SD) stance on PPACA will hurt tribes.

Santee Sioux: McBuffalo?

Tucson book banning debate on Democracy Now!

Stop the assault on internet rights!

Obama administration rejecting current Keystone pipeline route but leaves back door open.

66% of Canadians believe cannabis should be legal.

1/17/12

Earth haters debate: part n

From left to right as we saw them:

Rick Perry: very handsome, mostly self-educated, passionate, W with better hair. Polling at about 30% in his own state of Texas. Perry will be gone after South Carolina.

Rick Santorum: i get the sense that he will say anything, do anything, kill anyone who gets in his way.

Mitt Romney: he is so scripted somebody else probably undresses him for bed. His delivery is peppered with oblique racist code intended to assure his minders that even though he's weaker than Gingrich on foreign policy he will protect the oligarchy.

He's doing somebody other than his wife...i can spot a cheater like a vulture spots a corpse.

Newt: yeah, he's a ball buster and took the whip to Juan Williams nearly reducing the former NPR news analyst to a lip-quivering meltdown bringing the mostly white audience to within microns of a lynching.

Could you imagine living with Newt? He's got a hair weave, right? He's certainly qualified for the job but working for him would be worse than working for Bill Janklow except that his finger would be too near The Button. The Nott Mitt crowd is trapped wondering whether another college professor should be Chief Executive.

Ron Paul: he certainly has the look of a kindly old man. He's in it for the duration and will be nipping at Mitt's ankles all the way to the convention.

1/16/12

Kirkeby, Venner first in line to be drug tested

I've smoked pot with Mark Venner. The Venner family corporation receives ag subsidies, test it: isn't it a person? Every ag producer should have to test to receive federal help.

Rapid City lawgiver and weed smoker, Mark Kirkeby, says he will introduce legislation that would require testing for substances not yet legal under federal law before receiving public assistance.

The Noem corporation receives public assistance: test Rep. Noem.

DM sez in the RCJ:
Last year, Kirkeby's bill was defeated 8-5 in committee. Venner's passed out of committee 8-7 but failed 36-32 in the full House.
Fucking idiots. Looks like KW thinks so, too.

1/15/12

Deadwood facing leadership vacuum

Deadwood is bracing for highway improvements (so is Lead).

SDDoT is drawing fire for what it says could be two summers of road construction hell and nearly everyone agrees that something has to be done.

I just got off the phone with a Deadwood City supervisor and learned a few things like that city meetings have been rife with raucous outcry from residents.

One big bottleneck is at Twin City Hardware in Pluma. Heavy turning traffic on a curve near a busy junction where the Mickelson Trail crosses the highway creates many opportunities for single-finger salutes.

There has been discussion between the owners and the City about moving Twin City Hardware to the former Safeway building: a move that I support in full voice. An added inventory of lumber would replace the loss of Deadwood's only outlet for building supplies. Talk of a grocery still just mumbles.

Is there a third way?

Ever since I came to Deadwood in '77 there has been talk of a tunnel from the junction of US385 in Pluma to Highway 85 near the Broken Boot Gold Mine in Deadwood or to some location nearer Central City. The city and the state own adjacent ground at the location where a skate part is next to the Mickelson Trail on the south end of that imaginary tunnel.

The cost of disrupting commerce from the Lawrence County Courthouse to that junction is going to be serious.

Ojo Caliente near Santa Fe is a sought-after destination for locals: it's fabulous. Behind the Deadwood Convention Center there is a rock bench large enough for a slightly smaller open air hot water spa.

Drilling for hot water is not cheap, but investors would find that a well will produce enough hot water to ease pressure on the Maitland Drift which now filling the former Homestake Mine being dewatered for an underground laboratory.

The collapsing slag pile has been left at its repose in Whitewood Creek having been rendered "benign" by the agencies under state Republicans in control. If that slag is harmless, it should be added as aggregate to the concrete destined for highway repairs.

1/14/12

Rasmussen, PPP, ip polls


Rasmussen has released a series of polls that reflect deep divisions in the GOP. In his summary of results, even Scott Rasmussen, consultant to the earth hater party himself, concedes some woe for his clients:
The race for the 2012 GOP nomination has been properly characterized as one between two candidates: Mitt Romney and Nott Romney. Some describe it as a rift between the party establishment favoring Romney and the party base looking for someone else. In the public mind, the tea party is more troubling for Republicans than the Occupy movement is for Democrats.
And, from another post at the Rasmussen website:
The new findings are perhaps no surprise given that voter approval of the entire Congress is at the lowest level ever recorded by Rasmussen Reports. More voters than ever before also believe most members of Congress are corrupt.
Public Policy Polling supports many of the same findings:
The likelihood of anyone other than Romney being the Republican nominee seems increasingly small, but for what it's worth Obama leads the rest of the field by healthy margins: 47-41 over Ron Paul, 49-43 over Newt Gingrich, and 49-41 over Rick Perry.
The recent ip polls suggest that mostly idealogues vote here.

Who could best beat President Obama if election were held today?

Paul
10 (62%)

Santorum
2 (12%)

Romney
2 (12%)

Other earth hater
2 (12%)

My sense is that Jon Huntsman could do best against President Obama if the race were to be held today.

I got the poll: Who wins New Hampshire? up too late and didn't include Santorum to it because I wanted to see whether someone would write him in as Other earth hater...oh, well.

Huntsman
1 (25%)

Paul
0 (0%)

Newt
1 (25%)

Romney
2 (50%)

Other earth hater
0 (0%)

An interview on NPR reinforced the conventional wisdom that Ron Paul has the resources to be in it through the primaries regardless and irrespective of his chances then will plead his case at the nominating convention as the voice for the tea wing bolstering son Rand as the party's future.

Yikes.





h/t hipneck:

1/13/12

Colorado advances cannabis legalization

From 420 mag:
Last week, petitions were turned into the Secretary of State’s office to put a marijuana legalization initiative on the ballot. This week, a second group announced that it is close to finalizing language for a second ballot initiative. The second group, Legalize2012, is soliciting public comment on its language until Monday. Sometime next week, they intend to submit their language to the Secretary and State and also to Legislative Legal Services. According to Ballotpedia, in 2010 the average cost per signature nationwide was $3.29. In Maine, the average cost of a signature that year was only 14 cents, while in Montana it was more than $6.
Initiated law is too blunt an instrument: it needs to be slaughtered in committee then ground into sausage.

Let's roll.

1/12/12

Janklow decap recap

It's official: Bill Janklow is undeniably and reliably dead.

In 1974 ('75?), if a smoky memory serves, then-Attorney General Janklow gave a speech to a standing room only crowd in the Volstorff Ballroom at SDSU.

Remember that time? Not only was the audience smoking, Janklow came to the podium with a cigarette, too.

He was heckled throughout the address hosted by the Vet's Club. Be mindful that this took place in the wake of the Nixon Era, the Custer Court House siege, the Wounded Knee Occupation, and Peter Matthiesen's book exposing Janklow's alleged rape of Jacinta Eagle Deer.

A brash, wild-eyed sophomore (yes, ip) piped up and questioned how the State of South Dakota could persecute marijuana smokers while turning a blind eye to service clubs like the VFW, Knights of Columbus, and American Legion that were running illegal games of chance with impunity. My query received rapturous applause from those in attendance. Mr. Janklow shouted over the din, "mail me their names," and then was booed off the stage.

He of course went on to be governor (for nearly eternity), then was elected to the US House of Representatives.

His Kodos moment probably came at the Jasper Fire where he became the story:
But federal firefighters point out that the governor has no fire training and therefore does not understand the ramifications of his decisions. Janklow himself admits he never had been on a wildfire before the summer of 2000.
Reprinted from an earlier post:

Janklow resigned from Congress after killing a motorcyclist in a 2003 accident near Flandreau. A jury convicted him of second-degree manslaughter and he was sentenced to 100 days in jail and fined $5,000.

If Janklow (a morbidly obese white male) had any remorse for killing someone with a car he hasn't shown it. According to one chilling newspaper story he has been ticketed four times since he slaughtered Randy Scott. Read this piece that appeared in the Mitchell Daily Republic, it will scare the shit out of you.

Here's a snip:
He was also cited for a minor accident when he collided with a parked vehicle, and was twice cited for failure to maintain financial responsibility. The citations for failure to maintain financial responsibility — not having proof of insurance — were dismissed, as was a parking ticket. The minor accident occurred in a Hy-Vee parking lot on Sept. 23, 2008, in Sioux Falls. Janklow was fined $53 and paid $51 in costs.
No telling how many times he has been pulled over without citations by a law enforcement agency that still quivers under his authoritarian personality(s) and powers of coercion.

Earlier in this week's news cycle Jonathan Ellis of the Sioux Falls Argus Leader reported that Janklow pocketed $850,000 from a campaign fund:
Janklow, who had been maintaining the account and filing regular disclosure statements since leaving office in 2003, filed notification that he was terminating the account with the Secretary of State’s Office. The statement required Janklow to report the expenditures from the account. However, the handwriting on the filing was difficult to read. South Dakota law allows political candidates to convert any surplus campaign donations for personal use. In this respect, South Dakota is an anomaly, say campaign finance experts.
It should be noted here that beginning with Janklow, South Dakota now routinely scores at the bottom of US ethics practices rankings.

Ellis goes on to say that South Dakota Secretary of State Jason Gant (also a morbidly obese white male) declared that it happens as a matter of course in the collapsed red state but that the amounts had never exceeded $10,000; and:
Federal candidates also have restrictions on surplus donations, said Edwin Bender, the executive director of the National Institute on Money in State Politics. They can donate the money to other political committees, charity or return it to donors.
That recalled a 2009 piece written by Kevin Woster in the Rapid City Journal about a Republican slush fund that is impossible to trace:
The Governor's Club has been a discrete part of political fundraising in South Dakota for more than 30 years. For a $1,000 donation, contributors buy a place at the table - and a position of potential influence - with South Dakota's governor at club events that are not open to the general public. Gov. Mike Rounds refused a Journal interview request for this story. Former Gov. Bill Janklow split the club proceeds with the party.
Janklow even had a hand in the banking crisis by ramming legislation through the South Dakota Statehouse in 1981 that paved the way for Citibank to locate in an already desperately poor state.

Referring to then-Governor Janklow as "The Intimidator," Minnesota Public Radio covered the 1999 Gina Score tragedy at the now-closed Plankinton 'reform school' where teenage girls were stripped naked then four-pointed to concrete floors. From the Cara Hetland piece:
Gina Score collapsed after being forced to run two miles on a hot and humid July morning. Boot camp counselors refused her help. They said she was faking. "The doctor flushed her with cold fluids, and her temperature was still over 108 degrees. And that was one and a half hours later. So basically, she cooked to death," says her father David. Former legislator Pat Haley says Janklow's reaction to Gina Score's death was typical. He went on the attack. He tried to discredit kids and parents who spoke out on camp abuse.
More recently, convicted felon Bill Janklow sounded scared shitless on his idea of public radio as he condescendingly pontificated to host Paul Guggenheimer. Lifted from Doug Wiken's Dakota Today:
What Janklow is not saying is that he sued the US Corps of Engineers in order to make them maintain HIGHER water levels on Oahe Reservoir. The Republican failure to plan for Mainstem dam water releases in determining safe building areas is the problem...and that includes the Janklow administration.
In the above-mentioned SDPB interview Janklow seemed to call for the removal of the mainstem dams.
Marion’s Pastures is situated in a large meadow, west to the Missouri River, within the City limits of historic Fort Pierre, South Dakota. This development was established in 2000 and is nearly completed at this time.
This is single-party patronage coming home to roost in a town with a history of flooding.

I hope Randy Scott kicks you right in the nuts when he sees you, Billy Boy!

1/11/12

Let's draft some state cannabis law

Montana has already trained a generation of growers. The state enjoys numerous brewery pubs and wine tasting venues for local product.

Let's assume that after President Obama is elected to his second term Health and Humans Services Secretary Kathleen Sibelius announces soon afterwards that cannabis has been removed from Schedule 1:
The HHS Secretary can even unilaterally legalize cannabis: "[I]f the Secretary recommends that a drug or other substance not be controlled, the Attorney General shall not control the drug or other substance."
a federal tax rate is adopted; and, she proposes that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives become the lead agency in enforcement provided that states can craft law to cultivate and distribute.

I've proposed that Deadwood get out ahead and draft legislation to make it a cannabis friendly zone in its quest to become an adult destination.

Assuming that home growing law looks like home brewing and wine making, what would state law need to include about liability insurance requirements for commercial resale and how would law enforcement be guided by probable cause?

1/10/12

Reflections of New Hampshire

Note the Romney Rocks on the wall: one for the Gipper no doubt. It doesn’t get much clearer than this:
I’ve been pointing out for a long time that Mitt “RomneyCare” Romney is a liberal with an “R” after his name. I’ve long pointed out that one of the proof of this is that, despite his slick talk during the campaign, he is really a great friend of the homosexual agenda–having laid out the red carpet for the counterfeiting of marriage in Massachusetts.
Mormons=the dissolution of marriage. Clearly Satanic to the god and guns crowd.

Mormon Jon Huntsman will have plenty of ‘splainin’ to do to poor, white, conservative evangelicals in South Carolina and beyond.

He might be too smart for the GOP…albeit policy differences shaped by a cultish Zionism where the White Horse Prophesy envisions a savior will be sent to rescue a constitution hanging by a thread….

One word describes Jon Huntsman: ‘plastics.’ His father, a major contributor to the campaign also has ties to Bain.

NH Huntsman surge seems weak. Oddly reassuring as he is the only GOP candidate in the field who can beat the President. Probably some back-slapping in the Situation Room.

Best part of his third place speech came at the end when the word, Assghanistan tumbled out of his mouth before he corrected it.

“Romney is the 1st non-incumbent presidential Repblcn [sictwit] to win both the Iowa caucuses and the NH primary,” @kenrudin.

@CurtNickisch: “NH House Speaker William O’Brien says Romney’s win falls short of expectations.”

Romney: “a military so powerful that no one will ever challenge it.” Sounds like Myanmar or North Korea….

My takeaway: Ron Paul remains a force and has the resources to go deep though he's polling poorly in South Carolina at this time. I sense his ground game will rally to plow the road.

Coverage at New Hampshire Public Radio is exemplary.

Thanks to Madville Times for hosting us.

Author discusses United States of North America on NHPR

Join host Laura Knoy:
We speak with author Colin Woodard on his new book "American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America on New Hampshire Public Radio.
A template for rewilding the West.

1/9/12

Earth gaining ground in 2012 elections

South Dakota blogger Doug Wiken recalled the Far Side cartoon that rained egg beaters on a confused shaman.

The environmental community has been raining data on voters still confounded by GOP presidential candidates mouthing the jobs v. earth paradigm.

Wyoming's workplace death rate is in the news after more revelations of obscuring dangerous site conditions from OSHA, one more federal agency reviled by red states.

Sackett v. EPA is in the Supreme Court spotlight in a test of the authority of the agency to regulate wetland protection.

Wyoming might be the poster child for a red state ravaged by earth haters in the name of profit.

South Dakota's embattled Rep. Kristi Noem has opened a can of worms by bringing sunlight to the dust generated by agriculture in a state where the levels of toxicity in soils is off the charts in most watersheds.

Even the conservative Billings Gazette editorial board gulped then praised the new EPA emissions rules:
How big a problem is mercury pollution? It’s a bigger concern in New England where wind patterns tend to carry emissions from other states. But even in Montana, dozens of lakes have such high levels of mercury that people are advised to avoid or limit consumption of fish caught in them. Mercury is particularly bad for children and women of childbearing age because of the damage it does to a developing fetus and to a child’s growing brain.
DoI Secretary Salazar announces a moratorium on new uranium mining in most Grand Canyon watersheds.

Take a bow, Earth.

1/7/12

Mercer: Janklow not dead

Just when you thought it was safe to go driving Sunday.

Update, 8 January:

Through the Governor's Club, Bill Janklow enabled South Dakota Game, Fish, and Parks to manipulate cattle grazing leases (not to mention negotiating a failed gold mine on public land) then drove cougar extirpation to frustrate the efforts of the US Forest Service to reverse the Black Hills' pine monoculture.

Remove the predators, expect pine beetle outbreaks!

A recently completed study of Yellowstone wolves has shown how important apex predators are to forest health.

150 years ago Populus tremuloides was the predominant deciduous tree species on the Black Hills and the Rocky Mountain Complex. Aspen, the most widely distributed deciduous tree species on Earth, is critical to the survival of the Black Hills’ unique ecotones. Beaver communities rely on aspen to slow runoff and store water supplies.

Aspen shoots are favorite browse for elk and bison. Brown and Sieg have noted at least 77 instances of human-induced wildfire on the pre-settlement Hills. Paha Sapa (”hills that are black” is likely a reference to burnt timber instead of the accepted, “seen from a distance”) hasn’t been a natural forest since the mid-1800s when a nearly Hills-wide fire (possibly set by humans hoping to clear pine), opened grazing for distinct historic ungulates.

The Black Hills are broken.

From Yellowstone Public Radio via the Billings Gazette:
The BLM argues that reducing herd sizes are necessary to protect the range and to keep the horse populations healthy into the future. The agency intends to apply a fertility vaccine called PZP to 890 mares, then release the animals back to the areas from which they were captured.
The technology exists to administer this drug to predators without capture even as western states are suing to force the United States Fish and Wildlife Service to remove gray wolves from the endangered species list pressured by livestock producers.

GFP could generate revenue by selling darts loaded with birth control to hunters eager to preserve “balance,” even use dogs to better administer this medicine.

Orphaned kittens are the trouble-makers. Cattle, elk, and deer are the biggest threats to aspen restoration efforts.

There are no viable wolf packs (there is evidence of solo lobos) in the Black Hills because it has been able to support a healthy cougar population…until now.

Connect the dots.

Urge GFP to end the cougar slaughter now!

Rewild the West.

Adams go-to guy on Montana politics; more on mushrooms and sex

Junkies can follow the Great Falls Tribune's John S. Adams twitter feed here.

His astute command of the Montana races is on display in this piece where he quotes an expert on the politics of The Last Best Place:
"I think, in an overall sense, this election season is probably going to have as high of a temperature as we've ever had," said longtime Montana political analyst Craig Wilson, a political science professor at Montana State University-Billings. "I've been commenting on Montana politics going back 30 years, and I can't think of a year where there's been so many races and so much controversy as this coming year."
Marnee Banks may be the go-to gal.

Let's turn Montana blue.

What ip already knows: wild mushrooms taste like sex.

Check out David Newquist's post on Mitt Romney and mormonism. Dr. Newquist reminds readers that cannabis activists expect President Obama to lead on reforms.

1/6/12

President sharpens big stick; was Slave Lake Fire pyroterrorism?

Wyoming, North and South Dakota will likely never vote for a Democratic president who is black. Closing Warren, Minot, and Ellsworth but leaving Malmstrom, Grand Forks, and Offutt to anchor the northern nukes would be mostly painless for the party of Truman.

Make it so, Mr. President.

Globalization is evolution. The US must be a strong leader, but model compassion and democracy, messy as it is. The United States of Earth can happen in our lifetimes.

Any of you xenophobes who has seen this Hawking piece on Discovery is a fool to believe that we do not need Cuba, Iran, North Korea, yep, even Russia in our community.

Believing that the Vulcans will be landing outside Bozeman to save humanity in 2063 and that ip is a temporal ambassador from a future United Federation of Planets might be my Faith as it is bounded by the same facts employed by christians; but, we all know the timeline can be altered.

Statehood for the tribes and for Mexico now.

Listen to primary coverage on New Hampshire Public Radio.

Last year's Slave Lake Fire in Canada likely caused by arson. Was it a weaponized wildfire?

1/5/12

Diesel bumps Kush

420 alert eastbound I-90 South Dakota!

Aggressive law enforcement using dogs as weapons! If traverse of this oppressive police state is unavoidable rent vehicles without West Coast or BC license plates, inspect vehicles for faulty equipment, obey all traffic laws, and remove batteries from your phones.

Persons of color are strictly profiled. Be aware.

Consider an outright boycott of South Dakota and its products.

Copy then paste the above warning to Craigslist in the Pacific Northwest, California, Montana, and Colorado or to your favorite online forum and bulletin board.

New index watch posted at High Times:
Once again, all indices finished below their year-to-date and previous month’s average with the exception of the Schwag Index. In fact, at an average of $328 an ounce, the US Price Index finished with a low for the year, while the Kind Index ended at its second-lowest mark of 2011. Schwag, meanwhile, rebounded $15 in December and finished the month close to its year-to-date average.

CURRENT US PRICE INDEX: $328 (last month: $343; year to date: $346) 
CURRENT KIND INDEX ($350+ PER OZ): $395 ($414, $411) 
CURRENT MIDS INDEX ($150-$349 PER OZ): $264 ($268, $272) 
CURRENT SCHWAG INDEX ($1-$149 PER OZ): $103 ($88, $102) 
Occupy the Courts.

Fires blacken Blackfeet as Rehberg Dennygrates Montana

Update, 0800 MST:

Browning firefighters advance containment overnight after high winds created a fire weather emergency near Browning. So far, the Boy Fire has cleared 45,000 acres.

----------------------------

As grass fires surge through north central Montana and watersheds collapse, that state's lone representative in the US House has dug in his heels.

Denny Rehberg is an earth hater who lost millions in an economy he voted to ruin and is owned by the petrochemical and extractive industries who are giving him millions to defeat aspen restoration in The Last Best Place.

Mike Dennison of the Montana Standard filed the story:
U.S. Sen. Jon Tester's stalled forest bill continued to cause partisan sparks this week, as his electoral opponent, U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg, said he has helped block the measure because "the only thing guaranteed in that legislation is (new) wilderness." The bill, introduced by Tester in 2010, would create 660,000 acres of new wilderness areas in three western Montana national forests: The Kootenai, Lolo and Beaverhead-Deer Lodge. It also requires the U.S. Forest Service to offer up 100,000 acres in the same forests for logging over 15 years. "That's exactly why we haven't had (much) logging done for 30 years or had any wilderness for 30 years," Tester said. "(The mill owners) have moved forward, and Rehberg is still stuck in the past."
Occupy the Courts.

Rewild the West.

1/4/12

ip readers blow Iowa; Wyo facing red state collapse

Whoops, we blew it.

Who wins Iowa?
Romney
1 (10%)


Paul
6 (60%)


Santorum
3 (30%)

This post in August looks nearly prescient, however.


Got the LDS church down, though:

Is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints a cult?
Yes
1 (14%)


Hell Yes
5 (71%)


Okay, maybe
1 (14%)


And we dialed Newt Gingrich right down to his scivvies.

Would you want Newt's finger anywhere near The Button?
No
1 (8%)


Hell No
11 (91%)

Wyoming Public Radio and the Trib are sad places this morning.

Death.

More death. While researching for this story Jeremy Fugleberg tweeted that his findings on Wyoming's workplace cowboy culture were making him "hot under the collar."

The good news is that Rapid City-based Black Hills Corp. is reducing its force as coal falls out of favor among energy brokers.

1/3/12

Wyo Dems pick new chair; Ten Sleep man arrested at Iowa caucuses

Wyoming Public Radio's Willow Belden tells listeners that the state's Democratic Party has selected an executive director.

Jeremy Pelzer at the Trib sez:
[Robin] Van Ausdall, who was born in Laramie, is a political veteran, serving as campaign manager for David Canter’s unsuccessful bid against U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Colo., in 2010 and as the Democratic National Committee’s field organizer for northeast Colorado from 2005 through 2008. She was Andrew Romanoff’s caucus director in his unsuccessful 2010 Colorado Senate bid.
Belden quotes Van Ausdall:
“Wyoming wasn’t always a pretty conservative state, and anything that can change, can change again,” she said. “We pretty successfully have done that in Colorado; they’ve also done it in Montana. And I think the inter-mountain West, demographically, is very similar.”
Hummingbirdminds' Michael Shay brings some insight into the identity of a protester arrested at an Occupy event in Iowa.

Another Trib reporter tweets:
MT @attackerman It's 2012 and Sen. John Barrasso's name is still not an epithet, as in, "She's acting like a real Barrasso" (Note, @jpelzer)