Dakota Today

**Feel Safer Now? Saddam executed

From "spider hole" to the gallows.. Saddam Hussein hanged:

Breaking: Saddam Hussein Executed

December 29, 2006 10:41 p.m. EST

Danielle George - All Headline News Staff

Baghdad, Iraq (AHN) - According to reports, former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein has been executed at approximately 10:00 PM EST, 9:00 PM CST, 6:00 AM, local Baghdad time.

The Pentagon on Friday said that U.S. forces in Iraq are on high alert as they brace for any violence that might occur following the execution.

Byan Whitman, spokesman for the Pentagon said, "U.S. forces in Iraq are obviously at a high state of alert at this time because of the environment that they operate in and because of the current security situation."

http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7005993546

Read the rest of the story LINK Full Headline News Story

So, Do you feel a lot safer now? About 3,000 people died working on 9-11. By now, over 3,000 US soldiers have died in Iraq and something over 20,000 have been wounded. Do you think the killing of Sad. H. was worth that?

Executing heads of state may have some unforseen consequences. There are more than a few people in the world who view George Bush, Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld, Henry Kissinger, et al as war criminals. How many Iraqis has George Bush had killed? How many "enemy combatants" who have not done anything to harm the US and had no intention of harming the US or us...take your pick.. have been tortured in violation of ideas of simple civilization and the Geneva Conventions?

There are now estimates that the war in Iraq has or will cost US taxpayers $2 Trillion with all costs figured in including continuing military costs and associated social and medical costs, etc. spread out for years into the future.

There are estimates that $3 Trillion would put in place enough wind power systems to remove our need for foreign oil.

This seems to suggest that Bush family vengeance has perverted common sense in favor of world power familial tribal revenge.

**Stay tuned for the dancing and murder in the streets---Doug Wiken

**Winner and Tripp County could make "lemonade" out of a "lemon"

A previous post here noted the loss of a Home Federal Branch in Winner, SD. I wrote a letter today which was rejected for publication by the local shopper masquerading as a newspaper, but here it is. If you think there might be a good idea buried in here, let the powers that be know.

Dear Editor:

The closing of the Home Federal Bank Branch in Winner, SD is a loss for the area.

This "lemon" can be turned to "lemonade"; however, if the now closed "Home Federal" building can be
renamed "The Lillibridge Center" with some nice brass letters above the door and then the Lillibridges and First Fidelity can donate the building to Winner and Tripp County as an economic development center and home for the Winner Chamber of Commerce.

This would put an obvious indicator of the interest of this community in ending the death spiral that is demonstrated nearly every week in the regional obituary and birth news columns in the papers and other media.

This would be a lot better than converting the building to a liquor store or another insurance agency office. It would certainly be a good public relations gesture for First Fidelity and the Lillibridge Families.

Doug Wiken
Winner, Sd

There are further steps that might help too. One of those might be a local push to get former legislator John Koskan into the management of the SD Highway Department or on the SD Highway Commission where he could start the push to make sure that the coming 4-lane running north-south from Pierre ends up going south of Presho to Winner paralleling the new two-lane.

It sounds like the new county commissioners may be trying to undo the tremendous foul-up of the Winner Airport rebuild a couple years ago. Finally getting more land to the S-E and pushing for extension of the runway. The real shame is that this was not done prior to the rebuild of the runway with a beautiful concrete runway that is a few inches too thin and a few thousand feet too short.

***Stay tuned for more good ideas which are likely to be completely ignored in South Dakota---Doug Wiken

**Check SDPB Tonight ..Summary Includes a couple of bloggers

SD Public Broadcasting tonight will look back on the year 2006. Panel will include a couple participants who blog. They also have had or are professionals in media or broadcasting, so they can't quite say, "I blog therefore I am (on Public TV)."

Todd Epp has the details LINK-- SD Focus Yearend Summary includes blogger Todd Epp

More detail at the link, but time and place on the dial below:

I will be one of the "media" panelists on South Dakota Public TV's "S.D. Focus" program Thursday night at 8 p.m. CST to discuss the "Year in Review."

Tune in and see if Rich Muller can get past being too cute by half and give Epp and Belfrage a chance to mention blogging in South Dakota.

***Stay tuned..except tonight from 8 to 9 pm CST on SDPB---Doug Wiken

**The strange case of the Blue Dog that doesn't bark

Stephanie Herseth, D.SD. was asked a question for a column in the Rapid City Journal today December 27, 2006. The question: What lessons did Democrats learn from being out of power in Congress for 12 years?

There is a whole lot of nice blather about how Americans indicated in the last election they want to return to government from the center rather than the extremes. Of course, she paints herself into that nice little blue corner as a "Blue Dog Democrat". Nice to define the future of American politics as yourself and fellow centrist Blue Dog Democrats. She might let us know which extremists got us into the current mess and how they did it however.

A very curious omission in the wordy blather of Rep. Herseth: Not one word there about the rejection by the American people of the Bush war in Iraq as a primary factor in the the change in control of House and Senate from Republican to Democratic.

Of course, Ms. Blue Dog voted for that ill-begotten war. I am surprised she failed to mention that. Well, not really. She is the Blue Dog that doesn't bark.

There are extremes of government and politics and there are other extremes of government and politics. If we had a consistent middle of the road governance in the US, we would stlll be running under the Articles of Confederation which preceded the Constitution.

The work product of Blue Dog Democrats may only be Blue Dog Crap. Government from the center is stagnation government. It is lock in all the benefits to the rich and influential and screw the rest of us as the ship of state sails small circles in placid puddles of dead stagnant mediocrity.

Herseth in the "Just had TO ASK" RC Journal column is truly the curious case of the blue dog that doesn't bark, but which also must be stone deaf dog which is also unable to smell death for all the wrong reasons---including her votes.

***Stay tuned. Do not fold, spindle, mutilate or immerse in liquid and that is not a collection of rules for prison interrogators, but might be---Doug Wiken

**The SD De-Banking Commission

A week or so ago, we got a letter from Home Federal indicating their local branch here would be closed. This was followed by a letter from First Fidelity indicating the same and noting that accounts would be automatically transferred to that bank on December 29, 2006.

The local newspaper indicated a few of the details of the bank transfer. Members of the State "De-Banking" Commission had so many real or potential conflicts of interest in the deal that they had difficulty putting together a quorum for the approval votes. But, it went through. The little Savings and Loan/ Bank pictured below was going to be sold twice and then closed.

We started doing some little banking there when it was something like Dakota Home S&L probably a bit more than 20 years ago when Bob Carr was running it. Even if he once ran for the SD legislator as a GOP candidate, he was a guy you could talk with. He was followed by Dan Viedt who died too young of cancer. Then the place was more or less run by the two women who had worked there for some time.
Shirley and Stephanie always were cheerful and helpful.

The letter we received indicated or implied they would have new jobs more or less guaranteed after the transfers and closure. When we closed our small accounts there, it seemed that indication of possible employment in the letter may have been made in error.

The transfers are interesting. Home Federal sells about four of their branches including that here in Winner, SD to Great Western bank. I don't know what happened to the other old HF branches, but the one here in Winner will on Dec 29 be transferred fo First Fidelity and then First Fidelity on the same day will close the bank and move accounts to their bank.

But, I doubt all former Home Federal customers will move to First Fidelity by default. Some of us were willing to pay for our own checks to move the accounts to Bank West instead. I assume there were perhaps a few more people around here who did something like that too.

Banks which like to promote free enterprise and open playing fields of capitalism really want a bowling alley and a bulldozer for their own businesses. The SD "De-Banking" Commission has not done Winner, SD any favors by allowing removal of one more element of banking competition here.

The building isn't very large, but isn't in a bad location. I wonder if it can become another drive-in liquor store? Winner, SD needs a few more places selling booze if they can figure out a way to get around the permit limitatioins as the population drops here.

Which reminds me of the recent snowstorm and the fact that snow again was a huge surprise and set on the streets until it became about 4 inches of packed snow slippery as ice on a smoothed rink...only it wasn't smooth. Here is a question for those of you with math skills. How many times does a truck with a blade set 4 inches about the surface have to blade the street to get rid of the last four inches of that mystery substance apparently never seen before, but commonly known as snow?

People who have considered this as a place to move to have thought about it until the came here after a snow and then wondered if the city even had a street department. That pretty well killed their interest in retiring here.

But, the sun did shine a bit today and some of the snow disappeared from the streets. Even the mess on the street to the hospital and school mostly slushed off by late this afternoon. Another day or two of some warmth and the streets may be ready for the next snowstorm and the ever surprising ice that mysteriously forms when snow removal never starts until the very, very last snowflake falls.

We did get a couple of nice ballpoint pens from Bank West for opening new accounts there. It has been one of those days and this place doesn't even have a Lake Woebegone any where near here but it does have a sewage lagoon thoughtfully placed so the prevailing wind blows the stink right into town most of the times when a warm winter day releases the stench. And, the city fathers decided that if they could con the county into helping pay for a new jail here that it would be a wonderful form of economic development...never mind that some of the prisoners come with attached relatives some of which also have problems that generate social costs here.

**Stay tuned even if you keep all your liquid assets hidden under your mattress and sleep with a shotgun and one eye opening waiting for the next jail break.=--- Doug Wiken

**Read Population: 485....by Michael Perry

I read several magazines and two or three newspapers, but I must confess, not many books..or at least not many whole books...parts and pieces mostly.

But, last week I heard Michael Perry on Michael Feldman's Whada ya know? Not Much. public radio show. He was turning some pretty good phrases at a little less than 60 mph and had a few good stories. I found a book by him and bought it from Amazon...nearest bookstore is about a 200 mi round trip. The book Population: 485, meeting your neighbors one siren at a time is his "memoir" of writing and working as an EMT and a volunteer firement in New Auborn, Wisc.

The book is a bit over 200 pages of good quick reading. It is an engaging mix of high drama and hijinks, family and fraility, joy and sorrow. I suspect the collection of stories many experienced EMT's nurses, highway patrolmen, and volunteer firement in small towns could write if they also happened to have Michael Perry's ability to write.

For my taste, Perry works a bit to hard trying to relate small town living to the rest of humanity as linked to ancient history and literature, but not to the point of being annoying. Always interesting anyway . He weaves in a few odd words that only George Will would appreciate, but the meaning of the story is obvious without resort to a dictionary even if some phrases reminded me of Ernie Kovacks "Percy Dovetonsils"

I don't have Dakota Today set up to get rich on book references and sales, so you will just have to dig around a bookstore or library in your town or if Amazon is nearly your only options, shell out $12 or $15 or so and get a few hours of better entertainment that you are likely to get from a similar evening of commercial TV watching. You might however find yourself wiping your eyes once or twice.

As Perry writes something like "The coming and going of many small towns has just got up and went", it is not hard to see many similar small towns and big and small people in South Dakota.

***Stay tuned even if you feel kinship only with a virtual "community" in area of the internet sparsely population with a few people with similar attitudes toward reality..few sirens and alarms, but perhaps a lot of quiet desperation most of the time---Doug Wiken

**Save your sympathy and prayers until the next election

Many South Dakota legislative districts are so heavily Republican that the GOP can run candidates with all the personality, charisma, and likability of a breakfast cereal box and win elections.

To a somewhat lesser degree that is true or nearly true for statewide races as well.

So, if Democrats do get elected, they must have a pretty good (even an overwhelming) mix of pleasant characteristics, and obvious competence and experience. This is partly why GOP campaigns against such Democrats must usually be really dirty, deceptive, and based on irrelevant manufactured "issues" the would be slander and liable in any other context.

Tim Johnson's wife Barb had cancer. That generated some measure of sympathy for them and may have helped Johnson win a previous election.

Now, if Tim Johnson recovers to a significant degree (as many of us hope) and can function well as a legislator and candidate again, his combination of likability, competence, experience and sympathy support will make him nearly impossible to beat if he chooses to run again.

Right now, I don't see any Republican candidates that come close to being such a package of likability and competence that they could defeat a recovered Tim Johnson

So..fearless prediction..we can expect some serious realignments in expectations for who runs for what and also see Johnson win in a walk even if we also see one of the most dirty, meanest, nastiest, most deceptive GOP campaigns in the history of South Dakota.

**Stay tuned. The campaign strategists are already grinding away on "the prayer line" and I am working on some more carefully hedged fearless predictions such as the race will appear so lopsided that the national GOP won't waste a dime on South Dakota in the next election---Doug Wiken

**Hey YOU, person of the year, Check your newspaper

The TIME magazine "person of the year" is "YOU". The magazine cover has a mirror so you can look at YOU on the cover. Interesting marketing idea, but it really is based on something even if the priority for picking it may seem a bit skewed.

The rise of blogs, youtube, Google, innertube, etc is catching the attention of the traditional news media. On ABC this Sunday morning, George Will looked like he had swallowed an extra gallon of dill pickle juice when discussing the rise of blogs and other web tools and "devices".

George Will rather derisively dismissed most blogs as introspective diaries implicitly suggesting that bloggers are most interested in picking lint out of their own navels and writing about it. The level and nature of Will's wrath suggests to me that blogs and other web tools are not a real threat or at least not so much of a threat to unbiased news sources as they are to opinion columnists like George Will and "news sources" acting like opinion columnists.

With growing access to real news via Google and other search systems, any reasonably intelligent person can write opinion about that news and get it onto a blog in minutes at nearly zero cost just as I am doing right now right here at Dakota Today.

This suggests, to me at least, that newspapers, magazines, and other media news services need more actual news and investigative reporting and less of the opinion stuff from columnists like George Will, Bill O'Reilly and others of the right and left pushing their opinions as "news".

In short, The future of newspapers and news magazines really is in NEWS and not in opinion or opinion presented as if it is news. The same goes for TV News.

Maintaining a strong separation between news and opinion is now even more critical for news media now than in the past. It is important to their bottom line and to the perception of their integrity which will help maintain that bottom line and public support. "News" integrity can now be checked in minutes rather than hours, months, or years. Bloggers and forum writers knew that the "news" reasons for an invasion of Iraq were all bullshit even before the the US Congress voted for the ill-begotten war and "powers".

I suggest that much of the news media is reading the growth of blogs backwards. Because millions of people read and write blogs is not a sign that millions of us want our newspapers and news magazines and TV news to become more like opinion blogs or spigots for actual blogs.

So, what do YOU think after being so honored by Time Magazine?

**Stay tuned.."music ended with Fart Noise" [Text caption from PBS/BBC Monty Python show] -- Doug Wiken

**Separating Tim Johnson, the person, From TJ, holding the US Senator position

The RC Journal blog gets posts from a wide-range of opinions and expertise. With the help of professional journalists herding webcats, it may be one of the better blogs/forums.

The feeling that the speculation regarding Johnson...rather really Johnson's position...has caused great ire in some who view Tim Johnson as a personal friend. Johnson is not a personal friend of national political analysts. They are not really discussing "him" when they discuss the potential implications of his illness and surgery.

One of the most interesting posts there is by Rapid City lawyer Patrick Duffy. It relates to his experience. He has been there and had that done to him. I hope the RCJ and Duffy will not be offended if I copy his post here. Check the continuation of this post for the full text and get the feeling of what must be sheer terror and sheer joy in such a situation and the following recovery.

***Stay tuned even if I am more interested in the political implications or the lack thereof than interested in the personal situation which is also very important, but in a whole nother way and may be viewed as a "vulture" by Patrick Duffy.---Doug Wiken

***More than three less than 39 Million.. minds to go before I rest

On CBS News this evening Dec 15, 2006, somebody noted that there are now about 13 million blogs and about 39 million people who say they read blogs. I assume that is US only data or estimate.

Maybe those of us with blogs should be happy if we get more than 3 readers a day even if there are another 39 million who miss our delightful informative and imaginative blog posts.

Onward and upward.

**Stay tuned even if blog statistics are as interesting to you as an empty stare---Doug Wiken