Dakota Today

***Yesterday Bush, Today Bush and the "roll me over again" Democrats

Just a day or two ago, Bush, Inc released parts of a document which indicates the apparent gross failure of the Bush Iraq Oil Mirage war. Bush complained that it was just terrible that politics had caused release of that information to begin with.

A day or so later, the president who decried politics in relation to the Iraq war, was out in the country ranting and raving about so-called "Cut and Run" Democrats.

The only cut-and=run Democrats I can think of right now are those who voted for the Texas Tinhorn's detainee interrogation bill.

We sure do have a bunch of courage-challenged Democrats in Washington these days.

Wonder if they are all worried they will be detained as "enemy combatants" and stuck in a prison somewhere without any communication to their campaign contributors.

These are interesting times...meaning we have the combination of a duplicitous, ignorant, lying SOB president and a collection of waffling, whimp Democrats in the Senate who will give away constitutionally guaranteed freedoms at the wave of a flag.

The Democrats who went along with Bush Iraq "war powers", unitary president crap, and "enemy combatant" definitions, and detainee torture are not cut and run Democrats, they are roll me over and screw me again Democrats. These dumb bastards seem to think the expression is not "fool me once, but fool me twice...." but rather "Fool me a thousand times, but fool me a 1,001 times ..."

***Stay tuned even if it is a toss up on which will make you want to puke faster, the Texas Tinhorn Twit or the Roll me over again Democrats.---Doug Wiken

**Terrorism requires a new oath of office

More braking news...Stop the presses.

New Oath Announced
Washington,DC Blindworm News Service direct from the Whitehouse.

President George Bush today announced a new phrase in the oath of office used for appointees in Bush, Inc.

Said Bush, "The exegisis(sic) of "terra" require innovative approaches. Today we present our latest phrase in search of solutions. You know this is hard work, but we bravely press onward."

The new oath includes, "Do you swear to tell the half-truth and nothing but less than the full truth, so help you by God.?

President Bush refused to answer any questions, but noted that a whole big bunch of his appointees were being dragged into congress to testify on all kinds of things. He noted that he did not know which was worse the terrarists or the political attacks on him by the cut and run fascist liberal soft-on-gays democratic extremists...and whichever, we have to be prepared with this new oath. God Bless America. Now, I gotta go cut some brush at my ranch.

Most Democrats refused to comment on the latest Bush shortcut around the constitution, but Joe Lieberman said he could understand and in prayer last night learned that God agreed that half-truths and Untruth might be necessary to stop terrorism no matter what his whimpy whiney opponents thought.

**Stay tuned for more streaming pixel contradictions partly truth and partly fiction--- Doug Wiken

**Almost something from nothing

We usually buy stamps in rolls. That is not quite as neat and convenient as stamp books, but it does save a few trips to the post office. Roll stamps once came in a cellophane package which could be easily turned into a stamp dispenser, but now that they are sticky and on a backing paper, there is no longer a cellophane wrapper.

So, I decided there must be a cheapskate way to make a stamp dispenser of sorts. I found an empty vitamin bottle. It is a little over an inch in diameter and about 2 inches high with the lid. I cut the bottom
out with a knife and a scissor and cut a slot for the stamps to be pulled out. See photo below:

Tack it up on a corkboard frame or someplace handy with a nail or long tack through the lid. I used a paper punch to make holes for the paperclip "key". With the right-sized bottle, the slot could be cut on the cap end and that would simplify things a bit...maybe. Don't try to use a tapered bottle of the kind pharmacists seem to use. I tried one of those and no matter how the slot was adjusted, the stamp roll would catch on the edge of the slot.

Probably much ado about next to nothing, but it does work.

***Stay tuned even if your stamp holder is silver plated and diamond-encrusted---Doug Wiken

**Where is Lake Toba? Things I missed in the NOVA program

Just finished half watching a NOVA program while plinking away on a forum or blog. I got some of the information, but sure did miss the location of Lake Toba in the program. If there is one thing about some PBS programs, it is that the location of things discussed is assumed to be known by all viewers or is given about a 10th of a second on screen as it is talked over by something else.

Well, the program covering a "Super Volcano" that errupted about 75,000 years ago was made interesting by mixing in a kind of detective story in search of the source of high sulfuric acid levels in ancient ice,,etc. John Westgate and other scientists in the mix.

Here is a link to NOVA---NOVA--Mystery of the MegaVolcano

And, a few more links adding what I missed in the NOVA story--
Toba, Sumatra, Indonesia

Toba Catastrophe Theory. Answers and Wikipedia

I wonder if there was a "Pat Robertson" or "Jerry Falwell" around to expain to the soon to die why some god was destroying them. Was that god trying to explain the intricacy of "human life" values just as the anti-women's-choice groups are busily trying to do with HB 1215 in the South Dakota?

Nova indicated that four "super volcano sites" are known: Lake Toba, Long Valley in Western US, Topo? New Zealand, and Yellowstone.

**Stay tuned even if you and we will most likely be lucky enough to escape the consequences of any "super volcanoes"---Doug Wiken

**Prairie Business Magazine..interesting plains news

Noon forum SD Pub Radio today had a focus on area technology. One of the participants was with the Prairie Business Magazine.

LINK--Prairie Business Magaziine (PrairieBizMag)

Note, Unless you want to find an online loan outfit, don't try to find just "PrairieBiz".

Look around. It is an interesting online magazine. Current issue has stories on a SD Business selling insulating panels in Antarctica. Also notes the noon radio show today September 26, 2006. Numerous
good links at the site as well.

It appears to be a North Dakota publication, but has plenty of SD news as well.

**Stay tuned. Stay tuned. Stay tuned. Can't say it enough since I don't have the wingnut right "Mighty Wurletzer" dumping out propaganda non-stop over the airwaves---Doug Wiken

***Argus New Style--Argus Dudes must be having a very bad trip

My late night first impression of the new Argus Leader format may not be the same as my perspective after a few weeks of my viewing and their fine tuning, but here it is.

The new Argus format looks like it was made by tossing highschool yearbook pages onto a table and then filling in the space around them with random type and graphics.

The new Argus format looks like a plot to make full-page ads look better. It is not the usual case that an ad stands out as an improvement on the paper, but the ad for the "vote" on the DM&E expansion looked good by comparison.

The hype in the Sunday Argus for the new format sounded good. More space for letters to the editor. Pulling info from their on-line forums and blogs into the paper etc. Sounded a bit like the Rapid City Journal. I was expecting "steak"; but, my first taste of the paper suggests it is re-gurgitated bad hash.

First impression of the Argus new format is that it needs fine-tuning, it needs course tuning, it needs a new paint job, and perhaps I missed it, but a similar format for all sections might be nice. Stick all the sports crap in one section everytime, so that can be trashed immediately. Make the "sections" of the paper an actual section rather than part of a page in a clown's pants hodgepodge of distraction. Actually provide an "index" of the paper and sections. It must be a lot easier to do that now with electronic editing and put that at the same place everyday on the front page.

They must be on the edge of an idea at the Argus, but they have a ways to go...or this old Luddite has a lot of re-thinking to do about what I like and don't like in paper print publications.

***Stay tuned even if you don't care if the Argus or any other publication even has a format and get a migraine headache every time you look at Dakota Today---Doug Wiken

**What happens to Coops with Go-along, Get-along directors

Below is the start of a story on a crippled farmers cooperative. This is what happens when coops pick their board members on their willingness to get-along, go-along with whatever a manager feeds them. It appears as if this happens in businesses and associations other than coops as well. Coops seem to become loaded over the years with managers interested in increasing their pay and doing it by increasing the pay of board members and recruiting pliable know-nothings for board members. Not sure if that is what happened at this coop, but would not be overly surprised if that were the case. It happens on school boards. It happens on REA boards. It happens on non-profit hospital boards. There may be a lot of good sharp people on some of them, but there are also a lot of people who get on those boards only because they want a title following their names.

Bounced checks cripple farmers co-op KELLY HILDEBRANDT khildebr@argusleader.com PUBLISHED: September 25, 2006

A once thriving cooperative, established in the early 1930s, probably will be dissolved next month after it failed to collect $1.5 million in bounced checks from a local fuel distributor.

Members of the Farmers Union Cooperative Association, based in Alcester, are now trying to recover some of their losses by filing a civil complaint against the past manager and the board of directors in South Dakota Circuit Court.

"They failed to do their job correctly," said Warren Wilkens, a longtime member of the cooperative and past employee. "Somebody should have stepped up and said, 'Oops, we got a problem.' "

LAT = http://www.argusleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060925/NEWS01/609250317

LINK--- ARGUS LEADER --Crippled Farm Coop

And, we also know what happens when the US Congress turns into a pliable collection of yes-men intent only on re-election and willing to go along with a fundamentally ethically, intellectually, and morally corrupt president who has been labeled as a "devil" by foreign devils who apprently know the breed.

The death toll of US soldiers in the mis-beggotten US Oil mirage war in Iraq has now exceeeded the number of dead in the World Trade Center terrorist attack. Bush, Inc. is bankrupting the US in order to dump money into corporate friends and frauds and get Bush and his collection of congressional psychophants re-elected.

Had enough of the Republican Failure-in Chief and his little fairy helpers? How much does it take to wake you up if you still support the White House turkey policies?

**Stay tuned even if you have no clue where Alcester, SD is on a US map----Doug Wiken

**And now for something mildly different.. a few links

And now for something not q bit like Monty Python..not even 16 Tons, not even 1 Ton... a few interesting links.

Check the ranking of your lastname in a list of 55,000. "Wiken" or "Viken" is not among them. A few other family names turn up in the upper ends however.
Perhaps the Sweetest Sound--Your Surname

And, stumbling around with Stumble turned up a couple more:
Some info on colors and color psychology
Infoplease on Colors, color Psychology

traffic simulation
Traffic Simulation Applet

DNA Organization
DNA Organization. Info for Sudents, Teachers

And a few links on a recently deceased country singer Don Walser. Heard him for the first time yesterday on an old public radio interview. Interesting kind of "cowboy, western, country, and rock music sang with a bit of Swiss yodeling" style.

TV News on Walser Death
Don Walser Memories by a Blogger

And, an obiturary: Don Walser Obituary

Guess it might be time to buy a CD or two by the guy before the music dies.

***Stay tuned even if you absolutely, positively detest country music in any way, shape or form---Doug Wiken

**Spreading appreciation of Docudramas alarms Journalist Professionals

Lutefisk Media has announced a docu-drama that has scenes of Foxy Chris Wallace screwing an unhappy pig while George Bush jacks off a horse. The White House and Fox News have fired off complaints to Ole OleOleOffsonfree head honcho at Lutefisk Press. Laura Bush noted that she thinks children should be reading more books. Bill Bennett took some time off from his visit to Las Vegas (just for old times sakes) to blast the morality of a sexual docu-drama. Bennett noted that the ABC 9-11 docu-drama does not actually show a stained blue dress in the ruins of the WTC.

Ole says there are a few scenes which may not be exactly documentary, but they sure do fit into the drama category. He has made arrangements with HighSchool Biology of the Americas to distribute his film to highschools. Already complaints have been coming in from Kansas. Ole says he kind of expected that from the Bible Belters who have a love-hate relationship with pork.

Ole said that the growing interest in his latest..well actually his first video..has caused him to look seriously at the script for another video which has Ann Coulter engaging in sex with a transvestite who looks a lot like Ann Coulter while they try to read Lincoln's Gettysburg Address aloud. Actually says Ole, neither of them are Ann, but this is a docudrama and we took a few liberties and let our imagination run just a bit wild. We don't plan to include the drama of Ann Coulter having an abortion however. There are limits.

Tex Rexonious of the Conservatives for Journalistic Truth and Profits Group has raised concerns about the spreading fever to make more docu-dramas. He fears it may spread to political commercials which are already mostly dreadful.

Which reminds me. The Rounds for Insurance Agent in Chief organization is running an ad reassuring us that accidental governor Mike Rounds really is a real person. That what you see is what you get, and by God, it is real and just for icing on the cake...Mike Rounds is the only man qualified to be South Dakota governor or some such blather..perhaps a little docu-dramatics there.

Anyway, that ad reminds me a bit of a truck company ads of the 1970 era which said their pickups were built like a rock and the ads had an airhammer spinning on a heavy metal front end logo. The company was actually advertising to paper over their weaker points. The one we had fell apart like it had a clockwork mechanism triggering failures of varying kinds at inopportune times.

It seems to me the Rounds ad indicates the weakness rather than the strength of Rounds. He was the default accidental gubernatorial candidate and the more he is on TV, the phonier he looks.

I guess I will have to ask for information on this from the Lutefisk Press Organization. Somebody in their research closet there must know something about all this kind of stuff.

Get those contribution letters off to Lutefisk Press. It has been a dry year in parts of Minnesota too. Ole never managed to get any money out of the 9-11 disaster fund for reduced sales and he has been a bit depressed ever since he found out some South Dakota outfit got a low-interest loan.

***Stay tuned even if what you read may be a streaming pixel contradiction partly truth and partly fiction---Doug Wiken

**Health Insurance Horror Stories and some other stuff

Below is a paragraph or two from Krugman on health insurance cherry-picking and retro-cancellation, etc.
Read the whole link to get some of the grim details.

Yet even as health care becomes the core of the American economy, our system of paying for health care remains sick, and is getting sicker.

Because everyone faces some risk of incurring huge medical costs, only the superrich can afford to be without health insurance. Yet private insurers try to refuse coverage to those most likely to need it, and deny payment whenever they can get away with it.

The point isn't that they're evil or greedy (although you do wonder how the people who cut off the Schaeffers can look themselves in the mirror). The fact is that cruelty and injustice are the inevitable result of the current rules of the game. Blue Shield of California is a nonprofit insurance provider, yet as a spokesman put it, if his organization doesn't follow the for-profit practice of selectively covering only the healthiest people, "we will end up with all the high-risk people."

LINK to ABOVE--Insurance Horror Stories

Big surprise, your friendly "non-profit" health insurance business wants to cover only healthy people to begin with and then when they get sick, weasel out of their coverage. Makes it a lot easier to pay executives huge salaries and hire more and more people to figure out ways to escape liability. Fits right in with never having enough 800 lines to some third-world island for precertification, etc.

Medicare, Medicade, Veterans system, etc. are still the most efficient systems for health care with the smallest administrative expense in relation to payments for patient care. Every egregious story of health industry screwings of the average joe is one more argument in favor of federalized single-source health insurance. Of course, don't hold your breath waiting for our congress-critters to do something actually in the interest of the average voter. They have had years to do something about egregious bank serice charge ripoffs and credit card ripoffs and the best they could do was "bankruptcty reform" that made it easier for the sleaze balls to bleed debtors for the rest of their lives.

Well enough of that. Here is a link that relates to the wonderful Vietnam celebration in Pierre, SD last week. Something to sing at Rounds re-election functions.
LINK--Phil Ochs Music from 1964

Looks like we got about an inch and a third of rain. Might snow in the Black Hills. South Dakota temperatures can go from 20 degrees above normal to 20 degrees below normal in literally a matter of a few hours.

***Stay tuned. Stay healthy. Stay alert. Stay Free.----Doug Wiken