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TypePad can be very aggravating now and then. Especially when it eats a post being prepared that has a number of links that required 30 minutes or more to put together but which has not yet been saved.
Stay tuned later for links to KELO for Johnson interview, The Strawbale Museum, the Norwegian photos, etc. Right now I am too frustrated to start on that one again right now.
***Stay tuned...ah the wonders of technology gone amok--- Doug Wiken
Today one of my mostly worthless but generally lovable mutts managed to catch a jackrabbit or find one already killed by a hawk or car. By the time I saw him gnawing on it, there wasn't much left. It did remind
me that Ted Nugent was apparently going to be at the SD State Fair and it had been suggested that he tone down his rabid wingnut right rants.
Click on image for a larger version if you have the stomach for it.
Prairie Progressive found a link to the Rolling Stone and an article on the rabid right wingnut loon Nugent and also story about the suggestion he make his "music" act "PG 13" when performing at the SD State Fair.
LINK--Rolling Stone Magazine on Ted Nugent, Hillary, Obama, and SD State Fair
I guess Nugent ranting about Hillary and Obama might not bother Republican administrators in a state where Republicans ran ads in newspapers years ago with photo edited to show rifle scope crosshairs lined up on George McGovern's head, but apparently Nugent has at times referred to a former wife as a sex fiend. Gotta maintain those GOP family values.
Speaking of which, Idaho Republicans have their own family values man.. Sen. Larry Craig who is alleged to have solicited sex with a male in a Minneapolis airport. Turned out the guy next stall was an undercover agent. I am waiting for the right wing ranters to rage about "entrapment". It would seem to me this might be a good case to get all irate about.
Of course, South Dakota's own John Thune had Rudy-Judy Giuliani out here campaigning for family values even as he was going on his second or third divorce and simultaneously living with his wife and children and another woman who has now become his wife. I don't remember any Catholic Bishops in South Dakota ranting about that however.
Speaking of "Catholic", Wild Bill Walsh of Deadwood notoriety apparently greeted Rapid City Journal writer Bill Harlan at Lead, SD meeting on SUSEL lab with something like, "Bill, It is great to be a Democrat and heterosexual." I guess that is probably sincere coming from an ex-priest. But...GASP.....it is certainly not politically correct...damn funny anyway.
I promise to make the next post better (it really isn't a very high bar to surpass however).
***Stay tuned for links to good photographs from Norway and of a StrawBale Museum--- Doug Wiken
The "Johnson Homecoming" had almost all the bells and whistles for a political convention or rally with the possible exception of demonstrators marching around to "Happy Days are Here Again" or "When the Saints Go Marching in". There was an Indian, but If there was a cowboy, I missed him or her. There was a Lutheran Bishop. There was the Governor of SD, there were mayors, and there was Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin acting as master of ceremonies. There was Johnson family.
And finally Tim Johnson was wheeled in on a wheelchair. He stood next to his wife at the podium. The podium and a birthday cake more or less prevented video of him being wheeled around in the wheelchair. It was a well-staged event.
But, it was terribly sad to me as well. Our bodies are both strong and weak and vulnerable. Johnson's face appeared to be partially paralyzed and his speech was about like George Bush giving one of his where he sounds like a fifth grader reading a poem he doesn't like. He could obviously read and his mind was working, but his speech was halting and now and then hesitant and broken. But, he made it through his speech and his response to applause and crowd reaction all appeared right on.
Having no idea what condition Johnson was in months ago, I am not aware of the extent of the progress he has made, but I assume it is significant and there will be more progress in the near future. Johnson's brain is working for sure and he is communicating. His family appears happy with his progress. If he has the ability to read and analyze what he has read, he will probably be ahead of many politicians who have never had a brain injury or illness.
ABC is now reporting the Johnson return as "a triumph". ABC promising more later tonight on Johnson's "amazing recovery". My guess is that will show the steady improvement in ways not apparent at the function today.
My guess is that at sometime in the near future, they will have a press conference which will be able to demonstrate Johnson's ability to think on his feet even if he has trouble walking with them. That ability will be essential if he is to continue in the job as US Senator.
In the meantime, congratulations to Tim and family on this stage on his road to full recovery. Other US senators have had similar problems and have recovered and are now in the US Senate and most of us would not know they had had such serious problems in the past. He has worked hard on his recovery and Johnson will probably continue working. We can all be generous and kind enough to give him time for full recovery.
But, he was wrong about the Iraq war before he had his brain injury. He is still wrong on that. I hope too he can now see why we need a single-payer insurance system that can help people with serious health problems who don't also happen to be in the US Senate. He can become a spokesman in the senate for those who suffer from similar afflictions but are without his insurance, family, and economic resources.
**Stay tuned. We can wait and it won't kill us. Bush on the other hand is a daily danger---Doug Wiken
Recently, the blog calling itself "Madville Times" has a couple of detailed posts on several topics both on the local Madison, SD area and generally for South Dakota. I just added a link to the blog in the "Thanks for the Hits" list to the left. Definitely worth checking if you are wondering about the wisdom of dumping taxpayer dollars into "economic development". I also finally got around to putting a link there for Northern Valley Beacon. Now and then I write something there and it adds a hit or two here. The RSS reader at left picks up new posts there as well.
I imagine all the wingnut loons of South Dakota are barely breathing right now...only about an hour before Sen. Tim Johnson gets back in front of South Dakotans in South Dakota today at Sioux Falls, SD sometime after 4:15 PM CDT August 28, 2007. The wingnut loons have been feigning great concern for the health of Sen. Johnson for months since his surgery. Now, with bated breath..they wait sitting at their keyboards waiting for a verbal fumble by Sen. Johnson that they can work into a negative campaign ad sometime in the future.
I really do hope Johnson has made a remarkable recovery and that his "Thankyou, South Dakotans" meeting is a personal as well as political success. I suspect the SD lapdogs of the DC GOP machine are royally pissed off that it appears Johnson and staff have pulled off something of a near political coup.
Of course, they would like to bury Johnson because of his medical problems, but they are loath to talk about the actual reason for getting rid of Johnson, Thune, and Herseth-Sandlin...that being their support of the Bush,Jr. war based on his lies and their expediency or incompetence.
I also find deep irony in the SD press members with their knickers in a knot and their noses severely out of joint because Sen. Johnson's staff may have misled them regarding interviews with Johnson during his rehab period recovering from his brain blood leak and related surgery. One writer went so far as to start a discussion on the Johnson "lie". That same writer has yet to express outrage at the Bush lies that have resulted in 3500 US soldiers dying in Iraq for nothing. As far as I know, nobody has died as a result of Johnson's illness. Hell has no fury like a reporter scorned, but perhaps some re-ordering of priorities in the SD mainstream press might be beneficial.
I really don't give a damn about celebrities drug problems, bowel movements, and sexual perversity or normality, and I don't see that we really need to know the intimate details of all medical and surgical issues related to our politicians. They may be politicians, but even that life form deserves a bit of privacy now and then.
It is worth looking around the other SD blogs on this issue. A number of them have expressed outrage or concern and even some serious thinking with quality prose I cannot match. So look around the lists of blogs here and the RSS links too. Check the links in the continuation of this story for context.
And, after typing this, it is now only 45 minutes until "J Hour".
***Stay tuned and start thinking about sensible reality-aware replacements for Thune, Johnson, and Herseth-Sandlin who are not afraid of the SD scoundrels hellbent on using phony patriotism as their last resort in partisan conflict--- Doug Wiken
Continue reading "**Sen Johnson is Baaaaackkkkk and some blog news" »
Alberto Gonzales has abandoned the sinking rat. Headline news below:
Flea Flees. Abandons Sinking Rat
Alien life forms unable to prevent sinking. Dolphins fail to appear despite old Peggy Noonan propaganda
Next to the editorial appears a column by former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan, which embraces the religious claptrap about Elian's miraculous rescue by dolphins—"God's creatures had been commanded to protect one of God's children"—thus bringing to mind that Reagan carried out major policy initiatives on the basis of recommendations from his wife Nancy's astrologer.http://www.wsws.org/articles/2000/apr2000/raid-a25.shtml
http://tinyurl.com/24kmrb
Apparently Noonan's "religious claptrap" does not apply to the sinking rat in the White House and the jumping fleas abandoning him.
With fleas abandoning the rat, what kind of lower life forms will replace them?
***Stay tuned even if the only thing you really care about is Tim Johnson's medical condition--Doug Wiken
First, some bridge news brought by carrier pigeons:
ST. PAUL, Minn. (Map, News) - Pounded and strained by heavy traffic and weakened by missing bolts and cracking steel, the failed interstate bridge over the Mississippi River also faced a less obvious enemy: pigeons.Inspectors began documenting the buildup of pigeon dung on the span near downtown Minneapolis two decades ago. Experts say the corrosive guano deposited all over the Interstate 35W span's framework helped the steel beams rust faster.
Although investigators have yet to identify the cause of the bridge's Aug. 1 collapse, which killed at least 13 people and injured about 100, the pigeon problem is one of many factors that dogged the structure.
"There is a coating of pigeon dung on steel with nest and heavy buildup on the inside hollow box sections," inspectors wrote in a 1987-1989 report.
In 1996, screens were installed over openings in the bridge's beams to keep pigeons from nesting there, but that didn't prevent the building of droppings elsewhere.Pigeon droppings contain ammonia and acids, said chemist Neal Langerman, an officer with the health and safety division of the American Chemical Society. If the dung isn't washed away, it dries out and turns into a concentrated salt. When water gets in and combines with the salt and ammonia, it creates small electrochemical reactions that rust the steel underneath.
http://www.examiner.com/a-894848~Pigeon_Dung_Examined_in_Bridge_Collapse.html
http://tinyurl.com/yo6n6q
More information on the bridge and pigeons at the link.
And some OH, CRAP news from a TV ad. Just saw some "freedom" group with a whining woman conflating 9-11 and Iraq and the fight against terrorism with the ominous, "We don't want another 9-11". Yah, we need this kind of a crappy propaganda crusade about as much as we needed Junior Bush's doing it to the Senate, the World, The United Nations, and to all of the rest of us. "Oh, crap" is a mild euphemism for my actual feelings while watching the deceptive ad. Maybe next time I see it, I will get the web address.
**Stay tuned but don't go batshit over pigeon crap or wingnut loon crap in TV ads---Doug Wiken
Hermosa, SD on the edge of the Black Hills and not so far south of Rapid City, SD has been devastated by a flood caused by a lot of rain in a hurry washing rattlesnakes out of their holes and off their rocks and attracting politicians to the aftermath.
I wish the people of Hermosa the best. They have gotten a dose of the worst and don't need any more of that.
BUT, I am remembering that after the Rapid City Flood 35 years or so ago, that cloud seeding was blamed and the wingnuts of the time went about nuts circulating petitions around South Dakota blaming both the Rapid City flood and the prairie drought on the the cloud seeding.
Well, Hermosa got a dose of something like the Rapid City flood even if the weather conditions may or may not have been the same, but as far as I know, no cloud seeding was involved.
No matter what engineers may say about flooding possibilities in the Black Hills or immediately surrounding area or perhaps any mountain area, when a canyon or series of canyons with mountains around them collect rain like a huge funnel and then dump it out the creek or stream which may otherwise be a trickle, there is going to be a torrent of water.
If nothing else comes out of this, it might be another message that it just does not make sense to build anywhere close to a stream or on a stream bed in the Black Hills or on the edges of the Black Hills unless you are many feet about the stream. Streams there can turn from a trickle to a torrent in literally minutes.
As a politician or two has said, it is a miracle that nobody was killed in this torrent and deluge. But then politicians like to find miracles and often mention God in the next phrase or sentence. Frankly I think miracle is over used. Damn good luck following damn bad luck might be a better description of what happened. But, no votes in such none miraculous descriptions.
**Stay tuned even if you worry more about lightening than flooding where you are--- Doug Wiken
When Bush was busy campaigning across the US spreading one lie after another to tamed crowds and shills, there were a few people who thought he deserved a glimpse of reality rather than fawing admiration designed for TV cameras. Bush did not rent the Popemobile, but his campaign had all the security.
Out come the tools dear to TT at SD War College. Yup those terroristic Tee-shirts. But these didn't have "STD" on them. These were some of those that didn't express complete admiration for the Texas Twit..the junior war criminal himself who thinks of himself apparently as a God that demands only fawning genuflecting admiration.
Well, it appears that your government (well we taxpayers) is now paying for having arrested those pacific protesters who were so audacious as to wear ..gasp...tee-shirts with ..oh my dear...negative slogans.
LINK--Boing Boing Blog with legal news
Well, one small element of freedom of speech has been vindicated for awhile.
**Stay tuned for the uncensored news and views --- Doug Wiken
John Dvorak has been ranting and raving at PC Magazine for longer than we bloggers have been doing it. Sometimes his columns are total crap, other times they contain a gem or two...or maybe they just support my pre-existing prejudices in a more eloquent way.
Whatever is the case, the September 4, 2007 PC Magazine on page 96 has a Dvorak column titled "Don't Give up on Old Media". It fills a page, and my summary may slant it or omit significant ideas. It seems it can be summed up as, "An old medium adopting the "best" of new disruptive technology may be selecting the "worst" for the old medium".
Dvorak hits the idea that the internet is disruptive technology and is a new cheap way to distribute information.
The old forms of distribution such as newspapers and magazines have been trying to adapt by filling themselves with white space and fluff on celebrities and entertainment. Dvorak says this is just about exactly the opposite of what they need to do. Newspapers can handle dense text and full pages in ways that are nearly impossible on the internet. Fluff and humbug is really easy on the internet and the TV and on radio.
Let's contrast what KELO has done with what the ARGUS has done. KELO-TV has made rapid and good use of the internet as a supplement to their TV news and other broadcasts. Now they have pulled in blogs which are the everyman's content management systems tied in with the power of the very cheapest way to distribute content.
Now, look at what the ARGUS has done. They are dumping or reducing their best and strongest "technology"..ie, carrying dense text news and analysis in favor of fluff and white space and the blather that is available on ...gasp..the internet and blogs.
KELO has strengthened itself and the ARGUS has shot itself in the foot. I have griped about the "new" ARGUS enough already, but Dvorak makes a good case that it is doing nearly exactly the opposite of what it needs to do to remain a useful powerful medium.
Your mileage may vary...especially if you are a newspaper publisher in search of a cheap way to boost shortrange profits.
***Stay tuned for more from the disruptive technology area of the media--- Doug Wiken
Todd Epp at his blog of many ads and PP at his War College of many T-Shirts have been hyping big news coming in the SD BlogOsphere.. Well, it now appears that That SD blog cutting edge is actually an area of the excellent KELOLAND site.
What Epp and PP have been huffing air into and suggesting will let a lot of the hot air out of SibbyOnline seems to be somewhat less than their airy posts seemed to suggest even if a very interesting idea anyway. KELO site is putting RSS feeds of several SD blogs under the Heading for "Political Blogs".
The information without any of my slant is available at Epp's site and as a new development in SD blogs warrants your attention even if political blogs are not a primary interest of yours.
LINK--Todd Epp's Post on the Big Deal in Blogs at KELOLAND
And the links in Epp's story which may be useful in the future if you are interested in several SD blogs.
LINK--All the Blogs Linked from KELO including news, Lund, Hemmingsen
And the direct link right to the red meat of the "Political Blogs".
LINK--KELOLAND RSS of POLITICAL BLOGS
This does seem to be a major marker on the SD information highway related to the "BlogOsphere" here in SD. It indicates a willingness of sorts that the mainstream media sees a place for blogs (besides their own) in the world of politics, information, and entertainment. This is sure to have ripples of several other kinds which may ultimately be even more significant in the future.
Without helping too much to inflate the egos of the bloggers involved, this really may be a kind of watershed blog moment in SD and perhaps not surprising it is KELO doing it and not the ARGUS, or the RC JOURNAL or any of the other mainstream media in SD, or SD Public Broadcasting. KELOLand has consistently led in the use and exploitation of the internet in ways to benefit their traditional media and vice versa for their internet media, so perhaps their being in the front of this should not surprise us.
And there is also other news of an internet site in the Sioux Falls area that has goals which may conflict with KELO and the ARGUS dominance of information markets in eastern South Dakota. That too is a developing story with possibly large future implications. So, congratulations to all involved.
**Stay tuned..these are interesting times in the SD Blogosphere even if you are not riding a Trojan Horse--Doug Wiken
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