2/29/12

HB1234 summed up in one photo


RT @breakz0r

Follow the process here and here.

h/t @rcjMontgomery and @ua14, et. al.

RT @sampeil: @DianeRavitch Prediction: 10 years from now, we will look back and wonder who decided that standardized test scores were most important thing in education.

Texans resisting KXL land grab; Paul/Romney alliance


Public Radio International's Living on Earth is a favorite: host Bruce Gellerman cares deeply for the efforts to preserve Earth. This week's broadcast interview, locally aired by KUNM, includes a litigant in the lawsuit seeking to expose the TransCanada Keystone XL pipeline as a bad precedent:
Leading the charge against the taking of private property by a private company is Debra Medina. She’s a former Republican candidate for governor and head of the property rights group “We Texans.”
A Republican that's not an earth hater? Seems incredulous.

An Texas judge dissolved the restraining order; now movements toward construction continue.

No means no: act350. #nokxl.

Chris Cillizza on Diane Rehm Show: Mitt Romney, Ron Paul very close friends and supporting each other's campaigns.

Ralph Nader locks horns with NPR's ombudsman for not covering progressives.

Naomi Klein muses: is Bill Clinton making a play for a blue Texas?

Montana Governor Schweitzer derides Koch Brothers' influence in local elections:

2/28/12

Heteros invented by Germans

Two Spirits have existed as sacred for millennia; it took Protestants to make sex aberrant.
Like the typewriter and the light bulb, the heterosexual was invented in the 1860s and swiftly and permanently transformed Western culture. The idea of “the heterosexual” was unprecedented. After all, men and women had been having sex, marrying, building families, and sometimes even falling in love for millennia without having any special name for their emotions or acts. Yet, within half a century, “heterosexual” had become a byword for “normal,” enshrined in law, medicine, psychiatry, and the media as a new gold standard for human experience. --historian Hanne Blank
Indian Country Today:
Edited by Qwo-Li Driskill, Deborah Miranda, Daniel Heath Justice and Lisa Tatonetti, Sovereign Erotics: A Collection of Two-Spirit Literature (University of Arizona Press, 2011)is a landmark book—the first Native gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, two-spirit (GLBTQ2) prose and poetry anthology since Living the Spirit: A Gay American Indian Anthology (St. Martin’s Press, 1998).
The United States was founded by misanthropes and misogynists. Western religion will be the death of us all.

2/27/12

Thune touts earth hatred; Mexico is failed state

Senator don Juan Thune (earth hater-SD) has no life outside Washington, DC. His entire career consists of bible college, law school, a master's in public administration, lobbying, and DC.

Now he passes for straight in Politico:
Approving the Keystone XL pipeline, streamlining how offshore and onshore permits are issued, lifting the offshore oil and gas moratorium in the Eastern Gulf and Atlantic and Pacific Coasts, relaxing boutique fuel requirements, opening offshore areas of Alaska and Alaska’s North Slope and stopping new regulations that will drive up the price of gasoline are just a few of the actions that could be taken today to open up domestic energy resources and ease Americans’ pain at the pump.
Cushing, Oklahoma can't handle more crude so TransCanada intends to build the southern portion of Keystone XL.

Higher gasoline prices are contraindicated for the poorest Americans, no doubt about it. Support more mass transit: especially in rural development strategies.

John Thune is mouthing earth hater boilerplate as a short-lister for veep: ignore his ranting.

KANW is New Mexico Public Radio. An interview with Dr. David Shirk affirmed what ip already knows.

Statehood for Mexico.

2/24/12

Daktronics taking a pounding

Disclosure: i own stock in Brookings based Daktronics. It is down thirteen percent while the South Dakota legislature debates the future of electronic billboards in the state. David Montgomery of the Lee Newspaper (i don't own any LEE), the Rapid City Journal tells readers:
Senate Bill 157 is fiercely opposed by most West River lawmakers but has the backing of advertising companies, many East River legislators and Brookings-based digital sign manufacturer Daktronics. It passed the House Commerce and Energy Committee 9-4 Wednesday after extensive debate. The bill's supporters said Rapid City's ordinance violated state law and harmed businesses. "We're concerned with what events happened in Rapid City, because we think it would hurt our national reputation if our own state ends up prohibiting (digital billboards)," said Al Kurtenbach, chairman and co-founder of Daktronics. "I agree you've got a problem in Rapid City, but you need to take care of it through your zoning," said Rep. Spencer Hawley, D-Brookings.
There is no doubt that Rapid City is broken.

Electronic billboards: are they here to stay?

2/23/12

Karl Gehrke to host Dakota Midday

Bill Janklow's idea of public radio is announcing that a longtime producer and Big Band Spotlight host will moderate the Dakota Midday segment. Minnesota Public Radio has a bio:
Karl Gehrke is a producer and arts reporter for Minnesota Public Radio where he is highly regarded for his impeccable table manners and exquisite penmanship. He joined MPR in December 2004 after working as an arts reporter and music host for WCAL-FM at St. Olaf College and South Dakota Public Radio.
Best wishes, Maestro.

2/22/12

Holy war: hey, it's good for GDP

Is the United States at war with itself again? Or, still? Is it a religious or holy war? A class or culture war? A drug war? Gang war?

A smoldering war of indigenous resistance to occupation?

Violent and aggressive behavior stimulates the economy. Anger fuels sales.

A blog post by Professor Ken Blanchard at South Dakota Politics generated agreement that seems to suggest that we're in it: civil war.

The evidence is gathering:

jesus got a gun, his dog day's just begun....




2/21/12

Ron Paul talks up cannabis in ND; Gary Johnson in CO

Lee Enterprises is rebounding on today's New York Stock Exchange as the Dow crosses 13,000 for the first time since the collapse of the Bush43 regime.

The Bismarck Tribune is covering the earth hater presidential campaign where reporter Nick Smith caught up with Texas Representative Ron Paul:
Paul was in Jamestown on Monday afternoon before traveling to Bismarck. He also made stops in Williston and Dickinson on Sunday. In Jamestown, Paul was critical of the federal government's ban on the cultivation of industrial hemp, a crop that is related to marijuana but does not have its mind-affecting properties. Industrial hemp is grown in neighboring Canada and other countries, where it is used to make paper, lotions, clothing and biofuels. North Dakota's Legislature and Agriculture Department have pushed allowing hemp to be grown in the state. A state lawmaker who wanted to cultivate the crop filed an unsuccessful lawsuit against the Drug Enforcement Administration, seeking a declaration that doing so would be legal.
Maybe an ip reader can direct us to a Paul policy paper describing whether he favors GMO hemp or its non-organic cultivation.




While no legal subsidies for growing cannabis in the US yet exist (although federal law enforcement is routinely culpable for its illegal cultivation and distribution), earth haters are paid billions in corporate welfare to perpetrate ecoterrorism.

Libertarian Presidential hopeful, Gary Johnson, is campaigning in Colorado according to a piece reposted at Cannabis Culture:
It's inevitable," he maintains. "When I came out in support of legalizing marijuana in 1999, 35 percent of Americans supported legalizing it -- maybe even less. Then, three months ago, Gallup did a poll that showed 50 percent of Americans now support legalizing marijuana. And this is the first time it's been a fifty-fifty debate.

2/20/12

Catholics, RCJ leading neo-Fascist movement, red state failure

Lee Enterprises stock has been in freefall: now, panic has gripped its publishers. Having squandered their popularity, The Montana Standard and Helena Independent Record have consolidated their bureaus after enjoying respectable readerships and advertisers by pandering to the Catholic clergy.

Rapid City is considered by many demographers the most racist town in the United States. The Rapid City Journal is controlled by Catholics. Now, its masters are forcing the silencing of dissent.

And, it's not Rick Santorum's fault: he was doomed at birth. Earth made humans, not the other way around. AlterNet tells readers that the propaganda deployed by hypocritheocrites is the same as that deployed by other Fascists to kill thousands. Here is a sliver of the reposted piece from AlterNet:
It was the underpinning of the regimes of Mussolini in Italy, The National Catholicism of Francisco Franco, in Spain; The Parti Rexiste in Belgium; The Irish Blueshirts; The CroatianUstaše, the Nazi puppet government in Croatia, and ultimately, was the kind of Catholicism practiced by the Sainted Josemaría Escrivá, founder of the Catholic order Opus Dei. The goal of fascism was to have the state take over every aspect of ordinary life. To live under a fascist state was to be part of the state itself. Family life, social life, and the professional world were all absorbed into state and party identity in fascist societies. The intent, ultimately, was for to make it impossible to have an individual life or identity outside of the context of the state.
The Journal has been stingy in its coverage of the sex abuse of Natives by the Diocese of Rapid City, too.

2/19/12

Joel-Peter Witkin photos depict human disconnectedness

Think Robert Mapplethorpe had an eye for art? You ain't seen nuthin' yet. THE Magazine, based in Santa Fe, features a spread of Joel-Peter Witkin photos. The Edelman Gallery has a pictorial:



A trip through Whole Foods Market in Santa Fe yesterday was an adventure in nuts-to-butts shopping with some of the most beautiful people I have ever seen. The person with whom i trekked told me that witnessing a sexual encounter in any aisle can be a regular occurrence.

2/18/12

Lakota immersion saving language




Lawyers trained in indigenous languages have access to stories that could reverse the loss of treaty lands.

Ruth Moon brings a story of hopefulness in today's Rapid City Journal:
Lakota is part of the "Dakota" language group, the third most commonly spoken Native American language in the country, but new Census estimates indicate fewer than 19,000 people still speak it. More than 10,000 of the nation's Dakota speakers live in South Dakota. Navajo is the most commonly spoken Native American language with more than 150,000 speakers. Nearly 20,000 people speak Yupik, the language of central Alaskan indigenous people. The "Dakota" language group comprises 18 language variations.
The US Census Bureau cites the languages:
Assiniboin, Brule, Brule Sioux, Da'catah/Dakota/Dakota Sioux, Hunkpapa/Hunkpapa Sioux, Lakota/Lakotah/Lakota Sioux, Nakota/Nakota Sioux, Oglala/Oglala Sioux, Santee, Teton, Yankton.

2/17/12

Attack awareness heightened: weaponized wildfire feared, updated

Update, make it so, Silver City.

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

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that US mayors and emergency planners are bracing for retaliation for Israel's alleged attacks on Iranian scientists. @drshow.
An unclassified U.S. government intelligence bulletin circulated last week and obtained by The Associated Press warned, "We remain concerned Iran would consider attacks in the United States," and predicted that domestic violent extremists "will continue to threaten and conduct isolated acts of violence against Jewish organizations."
In his Google+ interview, President Obama declassified the US propensity for drone attacks on persons suspected of armed resistance and did not rule out their use within domestic borders.

Today's burn index from NOAA.

2/16/12

Build it and they will climb it naked

It's true, ip has tried to make this shit up:

Holly Meyer of the Rapid City Journal says Chris Pelczarski isn't afraid to make a statement:
"I was just sort of in the moment; it seemed like something fun to do," Pelczarski said of his first nude climb. At the very least, he wanted a few people to drive by and get a few laughs out of the sight. "The act of something ridiculous is inspiring -- something so far out of the norm that it's just great," Pelczarski said. "Many people will see that, and it will change their day. They could have been having a terrible day. They could have seen a naked guy on a frozen waterfall, and it changes your entire day."
The RCJ is font o' folly, innit?

Is it time to buy?

Tester KXL position; 'independents' fleeing GOP for Obama

As a registered voter in Montana, ip was one of the over 800,000 submitting comments to US Senators: mine through the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) petition portal.

The offices of both Senators, Max Baucus and Jon Tester, responded electronically. Here is the text of Senator Tester's response:

Dear Larry, 
Thank you for contacting me about the Keystone XL Pipeline. I appreciate your concerns. 
I recently added a provision protecting private property rights to the bill that called on the Obama Administration to make a quicker decision on the permitting of this pipeline. After this change was incorporated, I voted for this legislation.

As you know, President Obama then rejected a permit request for this project to move forward at this time. I am disappointed with the president's decision but will continue to work with my colleagues to promote Montana energy resources, both renewable and traditional. 
I support the Keystone XL Pipeline because I believe it will create jobs in Montana and lessen our dependence on foreign oil. Using more oil from the Bakken formation in Montana is far better than buying it from the Middle East. From my perspective, energy security is national security, and that is why I support this pipeline as well as investing in Montana's wind, geothermal and solar energy potential. It will take all of these resources to make our country energy independent and Montana should be a national leader in this effort. 
As we develop all of these energy resources, I believe it is critically important that we protect Montanans' private property, our wildlife and clean water while creating jobs and investing in our energy security. Montana is blessed with clean water and unspoiled land, and we need to make sure these treasures are around for our kids and grandkids. That is why I pushed for better pipeline safety legislation and why I told TransCanada that the Keystone XL Pipeline must take every reasonable precaution to ensure public safety and the protection of our land and water.

I will continue to closely monitor this process. Please don't hesitate to contact me again if I can be of further assistance. 
Sincerely,
Jon Tester  United States Senator
I have no doubt that Senator Tester believes every word of this letter and that his voting record is the more important feature of his voice.

Senator Tester's re-election campaign has raised more money than his earth hater opponent and is exhibiting transparency with his donor list.

We have the opportunity to turn Montana into a solidly blue state this year. Getting the base out to vote will ensure success; in solidarity with other bloggers, degrading the opposition continues to be ip's mission.

TPM: Poll after poll is showing disgust with candidates in the earth hater party. Rasmussen, Gallup, Pew, PPP showing more likely voters support the President.

Fuck the earth haters.

2/15/12

Defenders: Bush-era Forest Service plan disrupting sacred places

The so-called 'Healthy Forests Initiative' is altering landforms sacred to indigenous peoples. Log skidding not only scars surviving trees, the massive machines crush ancient landmarks.

Now, land within the proposed Okawita Paha National Monument in the southern Black Hills is at risk according to Charmaine White Face of Defenders of the Black Hills:
The US Forest Service is planning on logging and-or burning 43,516 acres in the Hell Canyon Ranger District under a project called the Vestal Project. Sixty percent of the area is National Forest acres and and almost all of that area will be logged. More detailed information is available at the Friends of the Norbeck website.
Comments on the Draft Environmental Impact Study were taken until February 13, 2012.

The Forest Service has been under fire from tribes after ancestral remains were disturbed at other sites sacred to indigenous.

In New Mexico, the Forest Service is both plaintiff and defendant in litigation surrounding grazing permits to historic Latino land-grant recipients.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released new data stating that last month:
also marks the 26th January and 323rd consecutive month with a global temperature above the 20th century average. The last month with below average temperatures was February 1985.
Mother Jones' Blue Marble: mega-fires in the West likely this year.

2/14/12

Dithmer: cannabis revenue saving cities, why not the tribes?

Bet limits could go up in Deadwood after a bill passes the earth hater-glutted South Dakota Senate. Another legislator/video loottery operator wants more machines as domestic violence and bankruptcies spike directly attributed to gambling.

Oregon, Colorado and California have enjoyed kinder, gentler growth through their cannabis industries. Even ultra-conservative Colorado Springs raised $700,000 last year according to the NY Times via Cannabis News:
Oregon closed a budget gap last year in part by raising the annual fees it charges people with doctors’ notes to join the state’s medical marijuana program. In October, the state doubled the fee to $200 a year — with reduced fees available to people on food stamps — to raise an estimated $6.7 million a year to pay for other health programs.
Cherished reader and contributor, Bill Dithmer, believes cannabis could bring needed revenue to tribes:
Legalizing the growing of hemp and the industries that would come as a result of that one act would make huge strides on the Pine Ridge Reservation. What we are doing is not working, hasn’t worked in the past, and history is a guarantee that it wont work in the future so why not perpetuate change now?
Deadwood and tribal gaming are inextricably linked: would revenue from the sales of cannabis require a change in the state's constitution, too?

2/13/12

Former Rapid City bishop fully engaged in 'kulturkamf'

The Archbishop leading the assault on the White House is a short guy (not to mention a Two-Spirit of the first order). He entered seminary to dodge the draft, avoided service in Vietnam, and served as bishop of Rapid City from 1988 to 1997:
Chaput is a professed Capuchin and has a reputation as an outspoken conservative. A member of the Prairie Band Potawatomi tribe, he is the second Native American to be ordained a bishop in the United States, and the first Native American archbishop.
Bill Blankenship of The Topeka (Kansas) Capital-Journal:
Chaput didn’t grow up in the Potawatomi culture, but he told The Topeka Capital-Journal in 1998 when it named him a Kansan of Distinction that in the Diocese of Rapid City where more than 40 percent of Catholics are American Indians, he discovered his own native roots.
From American Thinker:
Conservative commentator and talk show host Hugh Hewitt (who is Catholic) declared a kulturkamf the same day. That's German for "culture war." It harks back to the persecution of the Catholic Church in Prussia under Bismarck.
Being six feet under makes Chaput an unlikely defender of birth control.

Doug Wiken takes The Church to task for its hypocritheocrisy at Mount Blogmore:
Consider that, in interpreting the Selective Service Act, the Supreme Court extended the definition of “conscientious objection to war” to include beliefs arising from any system of thought which played the same role in the life of a non-religious person as religion plays in the life of a believer. BTW, what if a church objects to infant male circumcision on religious grounds? Does it have to buy health insurance for its employees that pays for that?
Viagra coverage means breeding more paying Catholics to settle Church sex abuse lawsuits: NPR.


2/12/12

Palin self-immolates at CPAC

Her voice makes me crave the sound of fingernails on a blackboard:



@daveweigel: "So after a week of birth control debate, the only solo (ie not on a panel) woman on a Sunday show was a former Alaska governor?"

@RawStory: "Palin says she has created more jobs for impersonators than Obama has during his presidency."

Singer Houston dead at 48; 18 year-old nun self-immolates

2/11/12

Brezsny: more sex for ip?

In the interest of full disclosure it should be noted that ip doesn't have a spiritual bone in his body...save: one.

So, maintaining my criteria for a long-term romantic partnership has been somewhat of a mixed bag: she can't have a higher BMI than i have; she can't be fertile; she can't have a hairdo; she can't own a dog; and, she has to know who Nina Totenberg is. Yes, one or more has (have) been waived...simple, right?

Free Will Astrology is just one of Rob Brezsny's artistic enterprises: he is also a published author having penned Pronoia is the Antidote for Paranoia.

The Missoula Independent runs Rob's column on Tuesdays; he is a Cancerian as is ip. From this week's Indy:
CANCER (June 21-July 22): On average, an adult on planet Earth has sex 103 times a year. But I’m guessing that in the immediate future, Cancerians everywhere may be motivated to exceed that rate by a large margin. The astrological omens suggest that your tribe’s levels of sensual desire may reach astronomical heights. Do you know anyone you’re attracted to who might be willing help you out as you follow your bliss? If not, be your own Valentine. One way or another, it’s prime time to celebrate your relationship with eros.
This blogger read the Sandy Geffre article in the Black Hills Pioneer about Tim Johns' District 31 candidacy and began a post, but was beaten to publishing it by Bob Mercer. ip won't double it except to say that kurtz has a lengthy history in Johns' courtroom as a defendant...likely as the result of an addiction to sex.

2/9/12

OST sues Whiteclay, bottlers...finally

Update, 11 February: Bootleggers arrested on the Pine Ridge according to the Lakota Times.

________________________

It's about time. Noteworthy is that the Rapid City Journal's lede is written by Kevin Abourezk for the Lincoln (Nebraska) Journal Star.

@ILPCTurtleTalk: The Oglala Sioux Tribe has filed suit against:

JASON SCHWARTING, LICENSEE OF
ARROWHEAD INN, INC.; JASON
SCHWARTING D/B/A ARROWHEAD
INN, INC.; SANFORD HOLDINGS, LLC,
LICENSEE OF D & S PIONEER SERVICE;
SANFORD HOLDINGS, LLC D/B/A D & S
PIONEER SERVICE; STUART J. KOZAL,
LICENSEE OF JUMPING EAGLE INN;
STUART J. KOZAL D/B/A JUMPING
EAGLE INN; CLAY M. BREHMER,
PARTNER, LICENSEE OF STATE LINE
LIQUOR; CLAY M. BREHMER, PARTNER
D/B/A STATE LINE LIQUOR; DANIEL J.
BREHMER, PARTNER, LICENSEE OF
STATE LINE LIQUOR; DANIEL J.
BREHMER, PARTNER D/B/A STATE
LINE LIQUOR; PIVO, INC. D/B/A HIGH
PLAINS BUDWEISER; DIETRICH
DISTRIBUTING CO., INC.; ARROWHEAD
DISTRIBUTING, INC.; COORS
DISTRIBUTING OF WEST NEBRASKA,
INC.; D/B/A COORS OF WEST
NEBRASKA; ANHEUSER BUSCH INBEV
WORLDWIDE, INC.; SAB MILLER D/B/A
MILLER BREWING COMPANY;
MOLSON COORS BREWING COMPANY;
MILLERCOORS, LLC.; PABST BREWING
COMPANY

ip believes this lawsuit has ramifications for legislatures creating language for eventual cannabis cultivation and distribution.

Can the Roman Catholic Church withstand similar suits?

2/7/12

US v. Cuba: who won?

Cuba is Earth's second most literate country; the US is tied for 20th. President Carter tried to save the world during his Presidency but nobody cared.

Last year, President Carter visited with Los Hermanos Castros en Español because it's the right thing to do:





President Obama: the Cuban embargo is a human rights catastrophe for the United States; end it now.

2/6/12

Giago on Cobell appeal

Elouise Cobell is no longer with us to see the results of her nearly sixteen-year efforts that exposed some of the mismanagement of Indian trusts in the Interior Department distributed to tribal members. Before she died an appeal to that settlement was filed in US District Court according the Albuquerque Journal:
Boulder, Colo., resident Kimberly Craven, a member of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate nation and a vocal opponent of the settlement, has filed a notice in federal court that she plans to appeal its approval. A separate notice of appeal also has been filed by a nonprofit group called the Harvest Institute Freedmen Federation and two individuals, Leatrice Tanner-Brown and William Warrior.
Craven, Carol Good Bear, New Town, ND; Charles Colombe of Mission, SD; and Mary Lee Johns of Lincoln, NE have been enduring threats and hate mail.

More from the ABQ Journal:
In a response filed Thursday to the $8.3 million bond request, Craven said Cobell’s attorneys wildly exaggerate the costs of an appeal and shouldn’t be allowed to include their legal fees. Approving the bond would lead to another legal challenge that would only delay matters further, the response said.
Tim Giago (Nanwica Kciji), in a 2012 Unity South Dakota copyrighted piece reposted at Indianz.com, tells readers:
Two of the complaints say the settlement does not include an accounting for how much money was lost. This is what Cobell’s original suit set out to prove and they say that many of the class action members did not understand that they could have opted out of the entire settlement. The others object to the class of landowners that the settlement creates because they believe that each is different. They also believe that the Indian nations should have been involved in the process from the beginning. Appeals must be heard by a federal appeals court before any money can be distributed. The first appeals court hearing will take place on Feb. 16 in Washington, D. C. at the U. S. District Court of Appeals. For all Indians that can afford to be there, please be there.
I don't get this: why tamper with the results of Cobell and what prevents additional lawsuits that address the other abuses within DoI's Indian trusts?

ip readers picked Ron Paul to come in second in Nevada. @ThomasPaine_Fan tea-partier: Congratulations, @ppppolls! You delivered the second place prize to Gingrich! Just like CNN did to Santorum in Iowa. 46 minutes ago. Retweeted by ppppolls.

2/5/12

Bay of Pigs dox would "confuse the public"

Holy crap! @wikileaks:
CIA says, as to five volumes of documents on the Bay of Pigs: "Trust us. You don't need to read it for yourselves."
The best line from Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy:
I don't know about you George, but I'm feeling seriously under-fucked.
From New Dimensions, The Foremothers of Judaism, Islam, and Christianity:
The war in Iraq has been called a war between the sons of Sarah and the sons of Hagar, the two wives of Abraham. Biblical scholar Charlotte Gordon has examined the story of these women in all its complexity, unraveling key elements that were lost in translations of the Old Testament. Her compelling work gives us a new perspective on Sarah’s son, Isaac, the traditional father of the Jews, and Hagar’s son, Ishmael, ancestor of Mohammad.
Democrats=transparency. Republicans=opacity. Open source>proprietary. ∴ GOP=toast.

2/4/12

Santorum to seek W's endorsement?

Update, 5 February: Santorum not dead and feeding on Newt's zombie campaign.

@PeterHambyCNN: Romney camp had been eyeing a campaign appearance in Minnesota but canceled plans to focus on CO instead. Santorum may take MN.

___________________________________________

Or Cheney's, or both?

I woke up thinking that Rick Santorum has nothing to lose. None of the other candidates in the earth hater presidential primary would risk doing it.





What do you think?

2/3/12

Wolf, elk killings more evidence of red state failure



KW sez a protected endangered wolf was killed near Custer:
Brad Merrill, a special agent for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service in Pierre, said that he couldn't discuss specifics of the incident, which remains under investigation. Merrill said wolves are still protected in most areas, including western South Dakota. And the gray wolf is on the state list of rare, threatened or endangered species.
And:
For most of us, such an act would be unthinable [sic]. Yet, it happens. It always happens, inexplicably. A guy with a gun and an inclination toward idiocy takes aim and pulls the trigger. At something illegal. That’s how two bull elk ended up dead in Wind Cave National Park earlier this week.
South Dakota is home to more idiots than its neighbors.

Istáwicayazan Wi – Moon of Sore Eyes (Snow Blindness)

2/2/12

Cheese kills!

Just when you thought it was safe to go to Brookings.


Wtf?

Tribe enters energy agreement with lab; the rights of nature

@SanfordLab: What is the Long Baseline Experiment (LBNE) and why is an underground facility essential to its success?

KUNM brought news that the Navajo, one of the largest tribes in the US, has entered a three-year pact with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The Arizona Business Journal has the story:
The lab signed a memorandum of understanding with the Navajo Nation, which covers 27,425 square miles of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah in the “Four Corners” area where the states meet Colorado. Steve Grey of Livermore Lab helped put together the agreement, which promises technical help with “energy security; carbon sequestration; coal gasification; shale gas; enhanced oil recovery; wind, geothermal and solar; environmental studies and other areas.”
Earth has rights. More from KUNM:
On Thursday UNM will host a talk by guest speaker Thomas Linzey. Linzey, who works with the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, is becoming known across the country for helping individual communities ban environmentally-damaging practices on a local level. He spoke recently with KUNM’s Sidsel Overgaard.
ALEC, the John Birch Society, and other earth haters are scared shitless of cooperation through community organizing: witness the movement to end collective bargaining and trade unions.

Eff Bob Mercer: Cronin bill targets Native sovereignty; Custer County and FLDS

Update, 4 Feb: Mr. Mercer said it wasn't his fault.
_________________________

ip is blocked from dissent. The apologist for the SDGOP purged all dissenting comments from Pure Pierre Politburo. Rep. Justin Cronin (earth hater-23), ALEC Tax and Fiscal Policy Task Force Member is pushing a bill that represents a chilling effect on tribal sovereignty.

The Koch wing of the earth hater party is stoking the coming race war.

Custer County is having a war of wordlessness with the FLDS according to Jason Ferguson of the malnamed Custer Chronicle:
After several months of receiving rambling emails about apocalyptic-like letters from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS), the Custer County Commission has decided enough is enough. The commission voted unanimously to direct county auditor Linda Nelson to refuse to sign for what have become weekly priority mail letters for the commission.
@EnergyCommerce Energy Commerce Dems: Rep. Waxman Questions GOP's Special Treatment for #Koch Industries. #KXL #KeystoneXL

Denise Juneau is Montana's Superintendent of Public Instruction and is the first Native American in Montana history to win a statewide election. She attended the Harvard University Graduate School of Education. Here is a snip from an interview with her in The Nation.
I see our public schools in Montana performing very well. We don’t have charter schools. We have a few private schools. We have a group of people who want to privatize public education in our state and we consistently fight it back. Our public education system does a great job. I don’t think it’s broken. We aren’t interested in doing reform for reform’s sake. I believe in public education; it did a great job for me. It deserves our support and encouragement.

SD receives 'F' in prairie dog preservation

Wild Earth Guardians releases Report from the Burrow on Groundhog Day:
“Despite being essential to a healthy grassland ecosystem, prairie dogs are not getting the protection they deserve,” said Taylor Jones, Endangered Species Advocate for WildEarth Guardians. Scientists consider prairie dogs keystone species. Like the keystone that supports an archway, prairie dogs support whole ecosystems. Prairie dogs fertilize and aerate the soil, reduce noxious weeds, and clip the top parts of forage, creating a shorter but more nutrient-rich blade of grass. Large herbivores including elk and bison often prefer to graze on prairie dog towns. Prairie dog burrows provide habitat for numerous reptiles, amphibians, and invertebrates. Prairie dogs are an important food source for a wide variety of species including hawks, eagles, coyotes, foxes, and badgers.
South Dakota: F. Montana: D. Wyoming: D-

2/1/12

Half of Americans support legal cannabis

From the Raw Story:
A majority of Californians believe that marijuana should be regulated like wine, according to a recent statewide poll sponsored by legalization advocates. Sixty-two percent of residents in the Golden State support the Regulate Marijuana Like Wine Act of 2012, a ballot initiative that will be voted on in November. Last October, a Gallup poll showed that half of Americans now support legalizing marijuana.
Colorado and Washington are among other states with legalization on the November ballot.

The future of the business should be a combination synthesizing the cannabis equivalents of organic microbreweries, vintners, and greenhouses rolled into (heh heh) cottage industries that can withstand fiduciary and insurance requirements.

We are a litigious society: ways to generate revenue for states can be hammered out in committee in each state legislature to head off some of the torts likely following enactment and to guide law enforcement using most of the same language that governs alcohol use. Patients that seek cannabis as medicine can be seen by a health care provider and be excused from paying the excise taxes.