Dakota Today

**The Freedom to say "No".

My viewing of Public TV tonight was focused on the Japanese railroad associated with the Bridge on the River Kwai made famous in a movie I happened to see in the early sixties. The program was "Secrets of the Dead".

Most of these historical "mystery" shows are stretched almost interminably to fill the time slot building to the final seconds of significance. This program did build to the finish, but was however interesting from start to finish. There was new information..at least new to me..that guided bombs were used in WWII to hit the 4-foot wide railroad and wooden bridges on the railroad built with slave labor.

The perspective started with the engineering angle. How could such a massive project be completed in wartime with scarce resources and equipment in terrible jungle conditions for work and disease. Ironically, the engineering of the bridges was based on a US engineering manual used by railroads building trestles in the US and copied by the Japanese.

One of the Japanese engineers was still alive, but seemed to be in a complete state of denial of the actual horror of the construction and the inhumane treatment of indentured Asian laborers and families and the British, American, and Australian war prisoners. A Japanese engineer who was notorious for sadistic treatment of workers and prisoners had been filmed before his death claiming that the deaths were due to prisoners and laborers failing to eat sufficient rice. They were actually systematically beaten and worked to death as well as starved.

Several ironic points in the story however. When it came to knocking out the actual bridge on the river Kwai, it was not done with guided bombs, but with 4 1000-pound bombs dropped from very low elevation and aimed at the concrete pilings of the bridge.

The engineer interested in the engineering of the railroad became convinced as he saw the evidence that while it was an engineering accomplishment, it was also almost emotionally devastating because the story is the near equivalent of a holocaust in pursuit of wartime engineering. Probably over 100,000 people died in the construction of that railroad. The irony in that was that perhaps only 9 prisoners and workers died in the contruction of the actual Bridge on The River Kwai.

The final line or nearly the final words in the program were by a survivor of that terrible ordeal who remembering his feelings when US soldiers finally rescued them from the Japanese military and military engineers, his response was something like, "I finally realized I was a free man again. I had beaten the bastards and now I could say "no" again."

The right to say "no" is critical. If we cannot disagree with our government or are given only terrible alternatives and punishments for disagreement, the "freedom to say yes" is not terribly significant in comparison with the right to say no. The idea that we should have a draft again is another way to remove the freedom to say "no".

While it may be a stretch from the Bridge on the River Kwai to South Dakota, the recent attempt by theocrats in SD to make it impossible for women and girls to say "no" to carrying a rapist genes in their children and depriving them control of their own bodies also indicated the significance of the "freedom to say "NO"." Rapist rights were partially shot down in the recent election and women retained some of their rights to just say no even if it is after the fact of "no" being meainingless to protect them.

***Stay tuned even if now and then you just can't take your eyes of of history on TV---Doug Wiken

**From Bay of Pigs to Baying of Dogs (of the neocon type)

I watched THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE on public TV tonight. It was about Bobby Kennedy.

Brought back a lot of memories. I was working for nomination of Sen. Eugene McCarthy, but had friends and knew many others supporting Kennedy. There are a few things I will probably remember until the end of my life. The assassination of Jack Kennedy, The LBJ decision to drop out of the 1968 election, and the assassination of Robert Kennedy. I was still watching TV and frankly discouraged that he had won California the night he was shot. Then like many others was nearly in a state of shock.

The program was probably pretty well slanted for Robert Kennedy, but interesting anyway. Also, the few snippets of speeches from McCarthy, and both Kennedy brothers are such startling contrasts to the Texas Twit.

But more important perhaps was that Robert Kennedy and Jack Kennedy were burned by faulty CIA intelligence and agreed to launch the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba. They had been assured that would start a revolution against Castro and there would be joy in the streets, rabid support of the invaders, etc.

By the time the Cuban missile crisis came around, Robert Kennedy had gotten to the point after some hours of discussion of seeing that the USA invading Cuba would be a "reverse Pearl Harbor".

Kennedy learned.

Now we come to Bush and the lies he and the neocons spread in the runup to war against Iraq. Bush still hasn't learned. He and his co-conspirators have just become more persistent and practiced liars and deceivers.

That is another severe contrast.

Which also brings us to US Senator Tim Johnson on Public Radio Noon Forum today.

He has gotten around to saying that the reasons for invading Iraq were incorrect or false. Well, I am quite certain I sent a number of e-mails to the Johnson and Daschle offices practically begging them to understand that the Bush administration and the Neocons were lying and misleading congress. Salon and Salon Table Talk were full of documentation indicating the falsity and incorrect assumptions of the Bush administration.

There simply was no good excuse for Tim Johnson and Tom Daschle to go along with the Bush administration no matter what Tim Johnson said today.

The lessons of the Bay of Pigs, The Cuban Missile Crisis, the buildup to the war in Vietnam, the Vietnam quagmire were all available and should have been known by the whole US Congress. Sen. Robert Byrd gave constitutional reasons which by themselves were adequate reasons to not support the Bush war in Iraq.

It was really, really hard to watch that show tonight without being terribly angry at the damage that has probably followed in the world and USA because two crazy assassins were successful. It is also terribly hard not to be angry at the collection of congress critters today who show nearly none of the political skills and courage, character and intelligence of the Kennedy Brothers, Eugene McCarthy, George McGovern, William Fulbright, and others.

These are interesting times for all the wrong reasons and all the wrong people.

***Stay tuned. Maybe there will be nothing interesting on TV tomorrow---Doug Wiken

***What with Bush proported desire to build democracy in Iraq, what is happening to democracy here?

**Yah, sure.. Bush Baby protests now after saying he was opposed to nation building that really, really,he really wants to build democracy in Iraq, home of a whole lot of oil..bubbling crude...Texas Tea and very little democracy in the midst of a civil war generated by ancient religious lunacy.

So, what is the Bush administration doing to democracy in the United States? Well one of those damned Norwegian newspapers is reporting that ratings of democracy here are going down. Our democracy hasn't raced clear to the bottom with some third-world countries yet, but we are on the way with the Bush ride to the bottom of international respect.

Check the story at link below:

LINK--Aftenpost on Democracy ratings

The United States and Britain are near the bottom of the full democracy category, but for somewhat different reasons. America falls down on some aspects of governance and civil liberties. Despite low election turnouts, political participation in the United States is comparatively high," the report said.

"In Britain low political participation (the lowest in the developed world) is a major problem, and to a lesser extent, for now, so are eroding civil liberties," the report said.

The lowest scores on the scale of ten were seen in Myanmar (1.77), Togo (1.75), Chad (1.65), Central Africa (1.61) and North Korea (1.03).

And the top ten of the functioning democracies...well lets say my now deceased mother-in-law's most treasured assumptions about Norwegians and other Scandinavians was always fundamentally wrong....
1. Sweden 9,88
2. Iceland 9,71
3. Netherlands 9.66
4. Norway 9,55
5. Denmark 9,52
6. Finland 9,25
7. Luxembourg 9,10
8. Australia 9,09
9. Canada 9.02
10. Switzerland 9.02

Let Bush know how happy you are that South Dakota is not the only place on the race to the bottom of some lists of quality. Bush really is doing something to make South Dakota look better..by comparison...

***Stay tuned, I am still waiting for information on some interesting technology---Doug Wiken

***Water, water, and the pumps are shutoff. Smells of Republican management.

In a stunning move of brilliance in science, advertising and grant seeking, South Dakota under the expert management of Mayor Mikey and his theocratic team of crack legislators, is allowing Homestake mine to fill with water.

This has to be one of the most brilliant strokes of public relations since ..well.. maybe since new Coca Cola or whatever came beteeen Classic Coke and Classic Coke reborn.

I can't imagine anything that would be more inspiring to a body of scientists, engineers, and bureaucrats looking at two mines as potential deep research labs to know that in one of them.. Homestake.. they can play in about 3000 feet of subterranean water. Mayor Mikey has adopted "Rubber Ducky, you're my friend." as the theme music for the research center. After all, some of the researchers must have kids who watch Sesame Street and also like splashing in the water.

The rising water is also throwing a monkey wrench into plans to convert Homestake into the warmest mausoleum closest to deep mythical hell. Another group hoping to use the hot water for heating a new resort for unaborted juvenile delinquents is rubbing their hands together in glee however with smiles wider than Leslee Unrah's flapping lips can generate. As the water is rising, they are racing to the bottom.

Almost forgot too.,, Mayor Mikey has named the Edsel the official car for the Homestake planning/promotion specialists when they aren't riding around from town to town being towed by a matched team of golden oxen with noses in the air trying to smell for water.

We got all this valuable information via three sickly homing pigeons dyed red, white, and blue and blown off course by the northwest wind and also via the Mitchell Daily Republic.

**Stay tuned especially if you have hot ideas for flogging dead horses in multiple media modes ---Doug Wiken

**Just missed it by this much

Just looked at the clock and realized I am missing the Winner parade of lights...or at least am missing trying to find a way to drive around it without driving through it. I suppose I should be in there getting a photo for the blog, but not even sure where I could drive or park to get a photo or two.

Oh, well. looks like a quarter moon or so is visible and stars are starting to show up in the sky which means it is going to get colder tonight. I guess we can't always have sunny, sunny days and cloudy, cloudy nights instead of starry, starry nights.

I so far have avoided spending much money on the wonderful bargains in obsolete technology that seem to fill the Christmas glitzy and colorful store ad inserts in the newspapers. I did decide a new electric razor and a pair of Wrangler jeans for about $32 total weren't bad deals...makes it possible to keep the hair off my face and keep from freezing the hair off...well that is enough detail on that.

Listening to Lehrer news and CBS evening news tonight don't seem to suggest that "Peace on earth, Goodwill to men" is finding much favor in many parts of the world. A moslem grandmother decided she needed to blow herself up in an attempt to kill some Israeli soldiers. That is just so special. Also special is that she had something like 30 grandchildren. Might that not indicate a reason for poverty in the region? I don't think the Israeli soldiers are forcing their enemies to populate the earth so well that they generate millions of unemployed and devour the land.

Never mind. The Mideast is an intractable snake pit. A pox on all their sanctimonious houses. More and more they are making it look like the world would be a better place if the all the sand in that part of the world was converted to hot glowing radioactive glass and we were getting our energy from the wind...tainted with floating radioactive particles or not. The exit of the educated professionals from the area would seem to be very telling.

The time for all varieties of religious fanatics ended a few years after Newton discovered or rediscovered some laws of physical movement in nature and not so many years later Darwin gave a better explanation of life diversity than did the myth of Adam and Eve.

George Bush, the wingnut right, the religious fanatics of all varieties in the mideast sand and wherever else, and all those who take their myths and supersitions seriously are not making the world a better place. They are turning it into hell on earth. So much for their prophets. So much for their disciple's pious sanctimoious proclamations.

Money may be the primary root of all evil, but the actions of religious fanatics are making a good case for believing that religion is a very close second in the race for that dubious honor.

***Stay tuned. Keep looking up and keep thinking about ways to make America energy independent even if that requires permanently insulating ourselves from the insanity---Doug Wiken

**Google and Bush..some quick statistics

Now and then just for the pure unadultered hell of it, it is sort of interesting to get the numbers google provides for search matches. Some that relate to Bush follow.

Results 1 - 10 of about 4,600,000 for worst president ever. (0.07 seconds)

Results 1 - 10 of about 56,600 for "idiot bush". (0.15 seconds)

Results 1 - 10 of about 1,290,000 for "impeach bush". (0.28 seconds)

Results 1 - 10 of about 996 for "Bush worst president ever". (0.13 seconds)

Results 1 - 10 of about 61,400 for "Bush war crimes". (0.27 seconds)

Results 1 - 10 of about 1,180 for "bush best president". (0.42 seconds)

Results 1 - 1 of 1 for "bush is best US President". (0.34 seconds)

You will note some real differences from putting search phrases in quotes. Not sure the others make much sense...or if these do either.

Of course, a google search for "Dakota Today" turns up

Results 1 - 10 of about 171,000 for "Dakota Today". (0.19 seconds)

Results 1 - 10 of about 58 for "Dakota Today blog". (0.31 seconds)

Looks like about oh...roughly 171,000 of those for "Dakota Today" were mostly for something like,
"We drove a jeep through South Dakota today"

So much for that nonsense...well, one more

Results 1 - 10 of about 11,200 for "Mt. Blogmore". (0.14 seconds)

***Stay tuned even if I can't blame this diversion on eating too much turkey---Doug Wiken

***Airline Ad Slogan Suggestion...Muslim Boycott

I noticed yesterday in the dead tree versions of some paper that some imams were pissed that an airline and its passengers weren't persuaded that prayers were necessary. South Dakota Politics Blog has more
on the Sheikhs on a Plane.
LINK-- SDP--Sheikhs on a Plane

The newspaper version noted that the imams and other Moslims were calling for a boycott of the airline involved. I can't think of a better idea than that.

The airline should let other passengers know about the boycott however. I suspect something like
"The Only Airline Boycotted by Muslims" on banners about 20 feet high around all
of their terminals would be fair.

I can't imagine just what that would do for that airlines business, however. Be prepared to make an investment soon.

****Stay tuned even if I linked to gasp...South Dakota Politics..what is the blog world coming to?"---Doug Wiken

**Happy Thanksgiving 2006 and Don't buy the Argus today

Hope the food is good today and the turkey is fully cooked and was and is carefully refrigerated. I remember too many childhood Thanksgivings and Christmas day meals with a collection of aunts, uncles, and cousins which sure tasted good at the time, but which were almost invariably followed by something my parents labeled as flu, but after these years, I am thinking it was more likely food-borne sickness.

Anyway, being a bit more careful with the food storage, defrosting, and cooking these days has seemed to reduce the less desirable after effects of holiday meals. Hope anybody reading this has enjoyed or will enjoy a good thanksgiving. The weather is pretty good on the plains this year compared to what has happened on many past holidays.

But, now in the Thanksgiving Grinch mood. I picked up the RC Journal, The Winner Advocate, and the Argus this morning at the never-give-a-discount on anything convenience store. I was a tad bit surprised at the total cost. Noticed after paying that the ARGUS had tacked on a $1.50 price on their rag today. Hmmm. I expect that on Sunday, but Thanksgiving Day? And to add insult to injury, there was no more "paper" than for a usual daily, but a pound or two of inserted ads.

As I have indicated before, the ARGUS re-do format sucks from front to back. It has become one of the most unreadable daily paper formats I have ever seen.

So, stick a red flag on the rag today. You won't miss much and the more of those $1.50 ripoffs that come back to them from news racks tomorrow the better.

***Stay tuned for a plug coming later today for a new piece of technology that looks really slick even if I can't afford it----Doug Wiken

**Poppa Bush shocked by criticism of Bush Baby

A story in the Omaha World Herald this morning caught my attention. Bush, the elder, and not even Barbara Bush at that, was upset when he gave a speech in the Persian Gulf and found his son was not universally loved and admired. I found a link to a similar story.

LINK--Pop rocked by criticism of W, U.S.A.

Not sure how long that link will be any good. Here are a few excerpts from it in case it disappears.

Former President George Bush gets emotional during defense of his son at World Leadership Summit today. President Bush's father was forced into an emotional defense of his son yesterday in the Persian Gulf when an Arab audience launched a blistering surprise attack on his first-born.

"We do honor Americans, and I believe that they are highly respected in our country. However, we do not respect your son, and we do not respect what you are doing all over the world," college student Nevine Al Rumeisi told the former President at a leadership conference in the United Arab Emirates.

Her comment was roundly cheered by the business and political leaders gathered in once pro-American Abu Dhabi.

Bush, the elder, appeared to be stunned by the reaction. His reaction to the comment lacked something in the way of diplomacy

"It takes a lot of guts to tell a father what you said about his son when I just told you that the thing that matters to my heart is my family," he said.

"My son is an honest man, he is working hard for peace, and how come everybody wants to go to the United States if the United States is so bad?"

That prompted another audience member, an American ex-pat, to tell Bush, "I think the remarks that you made about why people need to go to America to be very hostile and make the country look even worse."

When another audience member said he thought American wars are designed to open markets for U.S. companies - drawing more cheers and whoops - Bush grew testy.

"I think that's weird and it's nuts," he said.

My guess is that if the elder Bush had given his speech in nearly any university community in the US that did not have a hand-picked audience, he would have gotten the same or similar reaction and comments.

If fact if his son, The Texas Twit, had had enough courage to speak in front of any crowd not hand-picked by political hacks, he might also be surprised by the reaction. Of course, Bush family might be able to plead ignorance since "security" kept even grandmothers with questioning tee shirts miles away from Bush, the minor.

The Bush family lives in a bubble. A typical South Dakota farmer in overalls or boots and a cowboy hat might be able to figure out the problem with the Bush war in Iraq policies and not be surprised that such policies are not universally loved and admired just as Barbara's dear baby is also not universally loved and admired.

***Stay tuned even if cruel world realities bring you nearly to tears---Doug Wiken

**Checks on petition signatures

Another legislative commission is advocating changes in the initiative and referendum processes for South Dakota. Theron McCheney at SD Progressive has an interesting comment on the idea that 5% of the signatures must be selected randomly and checked to verify voter status of the signers. He notes the problem involved when petition circulators turn in more than the minimum number of signatures.
LINK-- SD Progressive on Cons. Rev.

I have another question. If signature authenticity and voter registration status is viewed as a problem, let us see some evidence. Pull 5% of the signatures of the referred law and initiatives turned in this year and see how many of them are invalid. This might tell us if the new restrictions are even needed.

Also, if they want to change something, make the requirement for signature be only that the signer's address indicates he or she is actually a resident of SD. Why require that the actually be registered to vote? That just complicates the data collection and verification for reasons I don't understand. The requirements should be that they are registered to vote or eligible to be registered.

Charlie Johnson suggested that those hell bent on making it harder to get signatures should be required to get the signatures for their own revision proposals. They might find that getting the required signatures without having a ton of out-of-state funds to be rather difficult. The promoters of toughening up the restrictions only seem interested in actually making it harder for those with a problem but without power to get required signatures while giving a thruway to those with money and power and no real problems to get their positions onto the ballot.

Some more thinking and actual data seems appropriate. Anyway, if they aren't going to give us a unicameral with single-member districts, all their reforms fall short of common sense.

***Stay tuned and remember that unicameral government and unitary presidential powers have nothing in common---Doug Wiken