Dakota Today

**A war story for Democrats and Republicans

Sen. Chuck Hegel of Nebraska is an interesting Republican even if a rich conservative. He and his younger brother Tom were in Vietman together in 1968. The war changed them. Tom quite soon, and Sen. Hagel somewhat later. This is an interesting story. Liberal Democrats should read it even if it involves the Hegels of Nebraska and Republicans should read it even if it is published by Salon.

LINK--Salon printagle-- The Private war of Chuck and Tom Hegel

You may have to view an ad to read this if you are not a member of Salon Premium...worth the wait anyway.

The first few lines are copied below:

The private war of Chuck and Tom Hagel After saving each other's lives in combat, Chuck Hagel, the future Republican senator of Nebraska, and his brother Tom fought about Vietnam and Iraq -- until they finally saw eye to eye.

By Myra MacPherson

Apr. 30, 2007 | In 1968, through a fluke that remains a mystery, Chuck Hagel and his younger brother Tom became the only known American siblings to serve in the same infantry squad in the Vietnam War. The future Republican senator from Nebraska and anti-Iraq war maverick, then 21, fought side by side with his little brother in the steaming jungles of the Mekong Delta. They walked point together, they watched comrades get ripped in half by land mines, and they sent five Purple Hearts home to their mother. They also saved each other's lives.

Prints out to 8 pages, so there is some content. Worth reading.

***Stay tuned even if you don't want to read any more parallels between Vietnam and Iraq--- Doug Wiken

**Sam Kooiker for Rapid City Mayor

I have been reading the Rapid City Journal for a few years regularly and it usually appeared to me that as a councilman, Sam Kooiker might have usually been on what I viewed as an outsider..the right side with no real dog in the fight. Now I see he is running for Mayor of Rapid City.

My guess is that his and my politics on a number of issues are significantly different, but I also think Sam Kooiker might have respect for the taxpayers hard-earned money and the sacrifice many make paying taxes. He also has some education which might even be relevant to the job which I suspect may have been lacking for some of the Rapid City mayors. Real progress doesn't always require huge expenditures of taxpayers' money.

At right is a small version of Sam's web banner ad which you may see elsewhere.

Here is a link to his site LINK Sam Kooiker For Mayor and Good Government Site

I suspect not many people from Rapid City actually read this blog, but if you do, you may want to check Sam's propaganda at the link and keep an eye on the RC Journal for letters to the editor and other city news. Sam's site uses a little Flash animation. I just don't care for that, but be patient and click on the down arrows and hold to scroll for more information in any window there. It is an odd scroll system. He has made it larger which many of us with older eyes may appreciate.

If I have time, I will put his ad up until the election too.

Rapid City has always seemed to me to have a whole lot of unmet potential. Potential that some short-sighted local greed and lack of perspective has stifled for many years. Maybe somebody like Sam can get things moving, but as usual, I don't think we get many knights on White Horses. Let's just hope he is better than average so if he gets elected and "does good" and remembers who elected him, we and the people of Rapid City can be pleasantly surprised.

***Stay tuned for something, anything, whatever that doesn't involve local or regional city politics--- Doug Wiken

**Dreams of Walmart Sugar Plums Dancing in their Heads

A few posts ago, I mentioned a story in the local Winner, SD regarding the idea that a Walmart Store would move into Winner. That story was followed by another in last weeks paper with a few more details.

Apparently Walmart people have visited the community, looked for land, etc. The story piqued my interest so I did a little discrete asking in the community if I happened to meet anybody who might know anything at all.

So, this is all hearsay.

First thing I heard was that a new Walmart Store would bring in an extra $80,000 a month in city sales tax for Winner, SD. That sounded a bit like the kind of thing the walled city would think about. But, that has some implications for sales expected. Some quick and dirty math suggests this would mean additional sales of $4 million per month or $48,000,000 more sales per year.

Today I heard that there were projections of an additional 300 families per day expected to visit Winner if a Walmart store were built. That means roughly 9000 extra visits per month here. If I did not screw up the math, that total and the sales expected put together require each visiting family spends $467 per visit.

That seems a tad bit optimistic to me since I have visited a few Walmarts several times and haven't yet spent a toal of $467 in several years. But, let's continue with the story of Walmart Sugar Plums Dancing in the heads of Tax Collectors.

You can pull up a census map of SD with a map of counties. Clicking on any one of them pulls up a lot of census information such as total population, total housing units, people per unit, people per square mile, etc.
SD County Census Hotlinked to Data

A quick and dirty check of data there suggests that within an area of likely market for a new Walmart store in South Dakota, including the counties of Tripp, Todd, Gregory, and Mellete, there are 9,298 housing units with a total population of 22,325 or about 2.4 persons per household with that total skewed by the 3.62 persons per housing units in Todd County which also happens to have a 54% Native American population.

So, dig up what you can from these maps and check my rough calculations. If we go a bit further on in this, the propaganda for another retail outlet in Winner in the way of Walmart would have to bring in every existing family unit in the area (neglecting Nebraskans to the south of us) and each would have to spend about $500 ADDITIONAL per month in Winner to generate the kind of additional sales and city sales tax revenue. And without much difficulty, you can see that means $6,000 of extra spending per family per year.

I have heard that some of these projections are based on what is claimed to have happened to Vermillion, SD once a Wal-Mart superstore was located there. What the spin neglects to mention is that a new bridge across the Missouri south of Vermillion has brought in a whole new trade territory for Vermillion, SD.

I just don't think those numbers are at all realistic. I would put this information in the Winner paper, but it has an editorial policy that forbids any letters to the editor which mention any business in Winner, dead or alive, So the only way this information is going to get around here is from this blog.

I don't think the solution to the economic problems of this area can be solved with an additional retail store in the city when not all of them are probably making anybody really, really rich locally with the exception perhaps of farm implement dealers and they won't be particularly impacted by another general retailer in the area.

But, if we assume that a lot of Walmart's sales if they actually came here would really be obtained by stealing customers from existing local businesses, then a Walmart store here would mean that perhaps two hardware stores would be gone, at least one or two quick stop stores, and probably one or both grocery stores would fold up here. And then as happened in other cities, we would see a gradual increase in local Walmart prices.

The area sure as hell does not want to extend Walmart any tax breaks or incentives for coming here for any reason at all. Such tax subsidies penalize all local taxpayers.

Before Winner has any more retail stores, it needs businesses that bring dollars in here from outside the community and leave most of those dollars here instead of exporting most of them to Chicago or Arkansas, or California, or China...wherever. The local hospital does that to an extent, local doctors help. The school brings in state dollars. Agricultural programs and social security bring in federal dollars.

This suggests a small factory with only a few employees that turned some low cost inputs into a high value product mostly sold outside of Winner or a data processing outfit bringing in pay from out of the area would do more to stimulate the local area even if they might not generate city sales taxes. It seems that the city sales taxes here are at cross purposes with actual development of the kind that would keep more of the school graduates here in the area or provide opportunities for them to return here after college.

Well, that is probably more of this than you want to read; but it seems to me some kind of a reality check is in order in the development propaganda ministry in Winner, SD.

***Stay tuned even if you own Walmart stock..or especially if you do---Doug Wiken

**Since 1964, Republicans have veered away from real virtue

In 1964, Barry Goldwater presented a form of conservatism that was not a friend of government snoopervision, violations of privacy, big brother in the bedroom or monitoring every phone call or violations of the separation and balance of power in the name of an imperial presidency. His 1964 Acceptance speech is copied in the continuation of this post.

The GOP Taliban right wingnut loons are not classical conservatives and they are not classical liberals. They verge into an area of fascist, fundamentalist theocratic corporatism. Promoting a vision of continuous war against "them"..no matter who "them" is. Always a war president, etc, etc and always for the wrong reasons.

It is long past time for resignations or impeachment of Bush and Cheney. How many more than 3000 need to die in Iraq needlessly before the height of their calumny becomes apparent to all?

I never agreed with a whole lot of what Barry Goldwater said and stood for. His view of extremism as a virtue was dead wrong from day one because his own party had no clear view of "liberty" and it was dangerous when perverted into a pursuit of pure power by deception. But, it was hard not to believe that Goldwater was sincere at the time.

It is however hard not to believe that Bush, Cheney et al are simply calculating and conniving to maintain control for the worst of reasons and certainly not for virtue. They have exploited primitive fundamentalists in the name of God and religion in government to gain support of those ignorant of the dangers of such exploitation. My guess is Goldwater would have opted for separation of church and state to protect both church and state and not opted to exploit either for pure personal gain, greed and corporations.

***Stay tuned even if the continuation is 33 years-old stuff and some nonsense-- Doug Wiken

**Some Voted for the Fatally-Flawed Iraq War, These did not.

I don't buy the excuses and justifications of our Congress Critters for the votes for the Bush war in Iraq. And I don't buy Governor Mike's pandering and exploitation of the deaths either. A poster at Salon Table also does not agree with his own Congress Critters on this which happens to be Hillary Clinton of NY.

P Glass - 01:52 pm Pacific Time - Apr 27, 2007 - #167 of 181 Question everything. .... O_I_L From Salon Table Talk

When Sen Clinton insists 'if I knew then what I know now' I would have not voted in favor of war'.

Ridiculous. I do not believe this.

How come one third of the senate and the house voted against war? Because they knew, how come Clinton didn't know?

He then produces a list of the US Senators and Congressmen who did see the problem with the Bush War on Iraq. I put the full list in the post continuation. Apparently he included the original source as well which follows the list.

Now, when you wonder why John Thune, Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, Tim Johnson, and Tom Daschle unwisely supported the Bush war on Irag, you will have some additional reason to know you are not the only one to wonder.

I think it is time to get rid of all Senators, Governors, and Congressmen who supported the Bush War on Iraq. They either knew it was wrong and hoped it would give them a "get elected free card", or did not understand the problems. In one case they were shamelessy deceptive and exploitive and without regard for the lives of thousands. In the other case they were just plain inept and incompetent.

Whatever, it is time to make sure they don't get re-elected and it is also time to think seriously about impeaching George Bush and Dick Cheney. Well actually, it was time to think seriously about that several years ago. It is also time to make sure that those in Congress who made the serious mistake or egregious exploitation of our trust should not become President..whether they are Democratic or Republican.

**Stay tuned even if these are "interesting times"-- Doug Wiken

**New Version Irfanview file viewer..V4.0

Most of the images you see on this site or in the albums here have been resized or have had color adjusted, etc by using the free file viewer with some editing capability Irfanview. This is a good program that mostly just keeps getting improved by the author. The most recent version apparently just introduced is Version 4.0.

The authors site is LINK -- Irfanview Free File Viewer Home

CNET's Download.com can be reached by clicking the image below. There are editor's reviews and users comments pro and con here as well as a download option.

I am not sure you need all this information. You might just want to download it and try it.

Stay tuned even if you now know how to convert some not so good images into usable images for your own website or blog or just to make an album for your kids at essentially zero cost to you--- Doug Wiken

**Did you see the Democratic Debate?

The TV debates some are seeing these days have a precursor. Yup, It was VP Nixon vs. Sen Kennedy back in 1960. A library in the area was moving from one building to another and was discarding a lot of romance novels, and other stuff like books from L. Ron Hubbard.

But, in the pile was one book that went back to the days when almost all TV was black and white and some of us were still in high school. It is a paperback government publication I did not even know or remember existed.

Click on the image for a larger view. The actual cover title is THE JOINT APPEARANCES OF Senator John F. Kennedy AND Vice President Richard M. Nixon.. PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIDGN OF 1960 with over 700 pages in it including preface and index. I doubt we will be seeing anything like that from the Democratic and Republican debates this year.

***Stay tuned even if you saw Bob Ellis claiming the Bill Moyers show was just "propaganda". His Koolaid must have GOP and RNC on the label with the ingredients for the "sour grapes flavoring" right below --- Doug Wiken

**Transcripts available for the Bill Moyers "Buying the War"

Read the transcripts, check the blog and the comments at link below for Bill Moyer's Journal..reborn with a blast at the corporate conglomerate media more interested in corporate "needs" than real investigative journalism.
Don't take my word for it however take a look at the link. Copy the transcript and read it.

LINK -- Moyers -- Selling the War transcript --Apr 25, 2007

If you didn't know it then, you know it now. And, there was no excuse for our congressmen and senators not knowing it then.

**Stay tuned and then tune in Moyers again on Friday night on Public TV --- Doug Wiken

**More about the Bill Moyer Program on press failures

I missed the earliest few minutes of the Bill Moyer program tonight on Public TV including SDPB. It was interesting to say the least and reminded me altogether too much of what were the obvious lies presented by Bush, Inc. and aiders and abettors for their lies. The link to the site related to the program has a forum on the program, but the comments are coming in so fast the server appears to be overloaded. Worth reading the comments anyway even if it takes awhile. I tried to post the following, but locked up everything and generated a blizzard of 403 notices, etc.

Salon and Salon Table Talk were also good sources indicating the nearly complete package of lies supporting the Iran War. I used information from there to plead with South Dakota Congress Critters and never got a single intelligent response from them.

Democrats and Republicans who went along with Bush Iraq war because they thought it was a "get elected free" card should be removed from government by voters and not be rewarded for their cynical abuse of our trust and the waste of over 3000 lives of US servicemen.

Newspapers and TV media that gladly went along with Bush,INc. in the hopes their corporations would be rewarded with an open road to mergers and FCC licenses, etc. owe all Americans some 3-inch-high headlines pleading for our forgiveness.

There is more to this story as has been well indicated by previous posters here.

As the show indicated, the talking heads who were so dreadfully wrong about this are still on the TV talk shows despite their being so dreadfully wrong or deceptive and getting face time as if they actually know something.

There were a couple of conservatives who seemed to be more or less consistently against the Iran War. Possibly Pat Buchanan and John McLaughlin may be the short list for all I know.

Dan Rather, whether intentionally or not, made the most damning inidictment of the failings of corporate conglomerate news media. He said they have "legislative concerns or needs" and every reporter knows that whether or not they will admit it. They also know that going against a Washington administration or their corporate bosses can endanger the merger plans of the media conglomerates or queer the approval of FCC special privileges or opportunities to make millions of billions of dollars. Essentially he was saying, "What do 3000 American lives and Billions of tax dollars mean to executives of conglomerate media if they can make billions by playing dumb."

**Stay tuned to poverty-stricken media and contribute to Public Broadcasting..maybe they can get fully independent again--- Doug Wiken

**Don't Miss Bill Moyers on the Runup to the War and the Press Failures

Coming tomorrow evening April 25, 2007 (probably at 8PM CST in SD) will be the return of Bill Moyers Journal on SD Public Broadcasting. Don't miss it. My guess is it will confirm much of what I communicated to SD Congress Critters prior to Bush,Inc. dragging the USA into the ill-begotten, poorly conceived Iran war for an oil mirage.

Much of our press failed to do its job of investigating government claims and political positioning and posturing on this issue literally involving the life and death of thousands of American soldiers and sorrow for their families and friends and tens or hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives of many who had no ill intent for the USA at the time prior to Bush's pre-emptive attack. (Remember too the glowing support of Mike Rounds for Bush the War President)

Bill Moyers indicated on the Tavis Smiley show last night that his early opposition to the Iraq war resulted from his experience in the LBJ administration. He was seeing the same kind of flawed and biased thinking by the Bush administration and outfits explicitly and implicitly supporting the war as he had seen in the Johnson administration was it escalated the Vietnamese War.

So, don't miss "Buying the War..How did the mainstream press get it so wrong? Check the link below for more information now and after the broadcast.

LINK -- Bill Moyers Journal-- Buying the War......

Check the continuation below for a small part of the page linked above.

**Stay tuned even if you spend an inordinate amount of time watching PBS. (PS: You can multi-task)---Doug Wiken