Dakota Today

*** A few of the reasons Bush-Cheney should be impeached

Nancy Pelosi has danced an obscene dance around the issue of impeaching George Bush.  One place she says it is off the table, in another she asks for evidence.  This poor woman is supposed to be a congressional leader and has resources none of us have.  She has easy access to perhaps a dozen lists of actual crimes that don't include misleading White House window peekers about sexual dalliances.  Below are some links.  One promises a $1000 to anybody asking Pelosi some tough questions and provides links to several documents which I will also include here.

First, the $1000 offer:

Democratic Underground on Pelosi, Impeachment Articles, etc.

Next, from links at above site, a congressional minority report with a summary on terror and torture relating to Bush adminstration deception:

Minority Report Summary on "Downing Street" deceptioon

And third, the Articles of Impeachment introduced by Rep. Dennis Kucinich:

Articles of Impeachment for President Bush

There is enough information in those three links that they should catch the attention of our current and past South Dakota delegations even if they are intellectually and ideologically blind as deaf bats. Let them know. Save the PDF files for your own reference. Check PBS for the Bill Moyers transcripts of "Runup to the War".

***Stay tuned even if the only kind of impeachable offense you seem to care about involves sexually-challenged ethics ---- Doug Wiken

**From CBS FTN, Sen. Hagel on Sen. McCain's ads and comments

I heard CBS Face the Nation..or most of it as I flipped back and forth between it and the Sabbath gasbags on ABC. Sen. Hagel's comments did catch my attention...and also a lot of other bloggers apparently:

UPDATE: Another huge one!
 Question: Have you decided who you are going to vote for?
Senator Hagel: "I HAVE NOT DECIDED."

 UPDATE x2 Halperin has some of the transcript here:

 BOB SCHIEFFER: Senator Reed, now you've done a lot of these trips. They call them "codels," "congressional delegations," go.

 Are you ever allowed to take cameras when you go in to visit wounded troops? I thought that was sort of the general rule that everybody knew about.

 JACK REED: I don't think Senator Obama would have done that. Senator Hagel, Senator Obama and I visited the combat support hospital at Baghdad to thank those nurses, those doctors, to see patients that were there, to bring a bit of greetings from home and profound thanks. That should be in the ad that Senator McCain is running. I think Senator Obama made a very wise choice. Any suggestion that a visit to a military hospital would be political, he made the wise choice not to go. But when you were in Baghdad we made a point at the end of a very exhausting day to go in and see these magnificent young Americans and those doctors and nurses that give such tremendous care without a lot of fanfare, just to say thanks. He did it-the same thing. We went-we didn't stay in Kabul. We went to Jalalabad to see the soldiers of the 173rd. We stopped in Basra to see our soldiers down there. We went into Anbar province to see soldiers there. That is a completely distorted, and, I think, inappropriate advertisement.

 CHUCK HAGEL: Let me add to that. As you know, Bob, the congressional delegation that you referred to ended when we parted in Jordan. At that point, it was a political trip for Senator Obama. I think it would have been inappropriate for him and certainly he would have been criticized by the McCain people and the press and probably should have been if on a political trip in Europe paid for by political funds-not the taxpayers-to go, essentially, then and be accused of using our wounded men and women as props for his campaign. I think the judgment there-and I don't know the facts by the way.

 I know what you've just read. No one has asked me about it other than what you've just asked about. But I think it would be totally inappropriate for him on a campaign trip to go to a military hospital and use those soldiers as props. So I think he probably, based on what I know, he did the right thing. We saw troops everywhere we went on the congressional delegation. We went out of our way to see those troops. We wanted to see those troops. And that's part of our job to see those troops, by the way, and listen to those troops, Bob. And we did.

 BOB SCHIEFFER: Do you think that ad was appropriate?

CHUCK HAGEL: I do not think it was appropriate.

 BOB SCHIEFFER: You do not.
 CHUCK HAGEL: I do not.
 Daily KOS quotes CBS and Sen. Hagel
 http://snipurl.com/364x0

Some of John McCain's recent comments and ads don't seem to have much in common with the old "straight-talking John", but more to do with the old John of the Keating Five and the tactics of Carl Rove.

 

***Stay tuned if for no other reason than it is too hot and humid outside--- Doug Wiken

**So why are they actually changing the SD Vehicle Registration System?

The arguments I have read and heard from the State of South Dakota regarding the new vehicle license system don't seem to make much sense.  I suspect the present data base system could have been used if the state were not so reluctant to refund the unused part of vehicle license periods.

I know one shrewd junker car buyer around here who always considers the value of the existing license plate on a vehicle. A car with plates that expire closer to a year from now than to a week or two from now is worth more to him.

Unless we have personalized plates, I don't think many of us have preferences for the random numbers on plates that we end up with.  Some people with connections in the local treasurer's offices can get some relevant or easy to remember numbers.  My feeling is that if people want those, they should pay extra for them just as they would for personalized plates.  In any case, most of us would also remove the plates from vehicles we sell or trade if we knew we could get a few dollars for them when we turn them in.  Dealers need some temporary plates that fade to all black or all white in a week or so.

I suspect the actual drive for the new plate system is pushed by private companies selling the intersection and other camera and penalty systems.  They don't want a bunch of people getting their fine letters who sold the vehicle a month ago, etc.  I don't ever remember anybody saying, "Gee, I sure wish I could use these old plates on my new car."

And, based on comments from some local license buyers, the system isn't just fouled up in Minnehaha and Pennington County.  Pick the right time of day, and the process may take a lot of time even in the boondocks.

The part of the system that may in the future allow getting plate stickers via e-mail or internet browser might be useful in some situations, but snail mail and a telephone call might work just as well.

It now appears to me that a lot of taxpayers are wasting a lot of time standing in line and more than a few county treasurers are frustrated for perhaps less than good reasons.  I don't think the Great State of South Dakota is showing all the cards in the little vehicle license game they are playing.  If you have better ideas, comment.

**Stay tuned.  No licenses yet equired to read this blog--- Doug Wiken

**The poisoned DNS Well

Apparently a few weeks ago, almost all DNS servers were vulnerable to an attack which poisons the information our browsers use to convert a string of hard to remember numbers into something you can type easily and remember such as http://www.typepad.com  instead of a dozen or so nearly random looking numbers.  NPR discussed this today with the security expert that discovered the problem:

All Things Considered, July 26, 2008 · A few months ago, Internet security expert Dan Kaminsky discovered a major problem with the basic wiring of the Internet — one that could easily be exploited by hackers. It has to do with what's known as the domain name system, or DNS.

Kaminsky, who works for the Internet security company IO Active and is a consultant for Microsoft, tells NPR's Andrea Seabrook that he stumbled upon the flaw while tinkering with a way to make the Internet faster.

"You want to talk sinking feelings," he says. "This was a bug that was going to take months and month and months of work."

Essentially, the DNS contains a design flaw that could enable hackers to switch the Web site you're directed to when you type a URL into your Web browser. Without your knowledge, you could be transferred to a fake Web site that tries to steal your personal information.
NPR with more of DNS and Dan Kaminsky
http://snipurl.com/35m7b

At the NPR site are links to Kaminsky's blog and also to a site to test the DNS server you access sites with to determine if the vulnerability has been patched yet. Apparently 50% of the DNS servers have not yet been updated. If you find a problem, let your Internet Service Provider (ISP) now you have found a problem.

***Stay tuned, right now at least you are right here and not at a site in China or Singapore or Russia--- Doug Wiken

**This and that-- Robert Novak and John McCain..taking the age gravy train

Robert Novak, another conservative gasbag is oblivious to the world around his black Corvette:

Novak told WJLA-TV he was cited for failing to yield the right of way. He said he didn't realize what happened and continued driving until a bicyclist stopped him. David Bono, the bicyclist who witnessed the incident, told The Associated Press that the pedestrian was hit in a crosswalk and was splayed across Novak's windshield.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25819579&GT1=43001

More details at the site. Novak is older than John McCain, but younger than Henry Kissinger. Wonder if they are all collecting the maximum social security payment despite their ideological opposition to such dreadful programs which also help poor people ...even if not quite as much as they help rich people. Apparently John McCain has been collecting over $2000 a month even though his wife is worth about $100 Million with $6 million in annual income. Republicans don't just want a free lunch, they think they deserve free gourmet meals on silver platters sprinkled with decorative gold flakes.
 McCain takes SS Payments from the system he calls disgraceful

 

**Stay tuned for more of this and that, now and then -- Doug Wiken

**"Mondak" starts a new South Dakota TypePad blog-- Dakota 21

Another blog has been started in SD BlogLand or in the South Dakota Blogosphere.  Take a look.  The author apparently wants to move South Dakota into the 21st century.  It may be a big job for a single
blog, but check what may be the newest blog in South Dakota and it is a TypePad Blog.

Dakota 21 Blog by "MonDak"

**Stay tuned, but now and then spin the dial around South Dakota Blogland for other perspectives--- Doug Wiken

**Somebody was asking just last week... it is a dynasty

I just plain don't remember who it was, but somebody just a week or so ago was wondering if Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin was pregnant. It appears a dynasty is on the way, but I doubt SD Bloggers will be paying millions for the first pictures.  Anyway, good luck to the Herseth-Sandlins on their latest project.  Nice to see that some intelligent people are having children.  The importance of good parenting becomes more obvious every day.

Herseth Sandlin expecting first child in December

In an e-mail to friends and supporters, Herseth Sandlin and husband, former Texas Rep. Max Sandlin, said they were overjoyed to share the news. She said they are looking forward to a "particularly blessed holiday."

Spokesman Russ Levsen confirmed the news, saying the pregnancy will not affect Herseth Sandlin's re-election this year. He said the late December due date works well with the congressional schedule, since the House is not expected to be in session at that time.

Herseth Sandlin, 37, wed Sandlin, a fellow Democrat, in March 2007. Sandlin has four children from a previous marriage.

http://www.mitchellrepublic.com/articles/?id=28097

***Stay tuned even if celebrity news is not the usual beat here-- Doug Wiken

***Argus Leader editorial advocates an open door to frightening prosecutorial abuse

Copied below must be one of the most anti-democratic, myopic, expedience at all costs editorials I have ever read. This makes the McCarthyism of the 50s either come alive again or seem like child's play. I don't know anybody who enjoys child pornography or is a pedophile or who preys on underage children and in no way approve of or support such behavior; but, we don't need to make mockery of the Bill of Rights or the rest of the US or SD constitutions to catch sexual predators. Read the editorial below which is Titled "Legislative fix for Internet case" A hotlink to the Editorial follows the quote.

July 19, 2008 Editorial: Legislative fix for Internet case Need to consider protecting means of catching predators Editorial Board Argus Leader A challenge brought by a man arrested after being caught on the way to what he allegedly thought was a liaison with a teenage girl might get him off the hook, but it should also result in the closing of an important loophole in state law.

 Samuel Wilson was arrested in February after he set up a meeting at Tuthill Park with what police say he thought was a 13-year-old girl. The person he'd been chatting with on the Internet really was a Sioux Falls Police Department investigator, and Wilson was charged with soliciting a minor and attempted sexual contact with a minor.

 The first count isn't being challenged. But as Judge Brad Zell pointed out, the law doesn't allow for the prosecution of crimes against victims who don't actually exist. That circumstance does seem to set a troubling precedent.

 And while the law regarding solicitation of a minor includes a provision, to throw the book at deviants who only think they're talking to a potential victim, the law prohibiting sexual contact with a minor does not.

 At least not yet.

 The best solution here might be a legislative fix. It makes sense to include the same provisions in laws prohibiting similar crimes. That's because there's little doubt about what the people caught by police had planned. Those who are caught attempting to prey on children - even if no child is present - deserve stern penalties if convicted by a jury.

 If police weren't catching these predators online, it's entirely likely they'd be setting up meetings with teenagers who are very real.

 Internet predators now are routinely investigated and prosecuted nationally in the same way Sioux Falls police are attempting now. Protecting teens and younger children online requires tools we couldn't have imagined when most of our laws were written. Police need to be given those tools.

 If this ruling does not go in the prosecution's favor - that's quite possible - the Legislature should address the issue in next year's session.

 http://www.argusleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080719/VOICES01/807190311/0/voices09&template=printart

The link in the quote as a hotlink is
 Argus Leader Editorial Printable Version

This text from the editorial is one disturbing concept:

The first count isn't being challenged. But as Judge Brad Zell pointed out, the law doesn't allow for the prosecution of crimes against victims who don't actually exist. That circumstance does seem to set a troubling precedent.

It is troubling that the ARGUS considers this a loophole in the law which somehow requires fixing. If they don't comprehend the possibilities for prosecutorial abuse of such a broad power, let's put it in terms of this editorial or recent libel cases against the ARGUS.

 Assume for a moment that press errors are viewed by a repressive authoritarian government as terribly serious and socially damaging problems. So, they allow tests of papers by generating ficitional witnesses, stool pigeons, and whistleblowers who communicate with the paper via the internet. The paper is fooled by this dodge and prints the story.

 The authoritarian regime then prosecutes the paper for publishing falsehoods and prosecutes them for that "crime" but also allow an attorney working with them to bring civil charges for harassment under color of legal fees on behalf of an imaginary reader and an imaginary whistleblower. Can you imagine the press outrage at such a situtation?

There seems to be an element of insanity in the idea that an individual can be prosecuted for an imaginary crime against an imaginary personna... even if one personna is a cop pretending to be a teenage girl and the prosecuted person is a personna acting as a sexual predator. But wait incredulous ones, there is more to the editorial insanity.

Protecting teens and younger children online requires tools we couldn't have imagined when most of our laws were written. Police need to be given those tools.

Even if you have near complete trust in the wisdom and virtue of police and insane fear of sexual predators, you might want to think twice about the idea of giving any kind of law enforcement the power to prosecute on the basis of imaginary crimes against imaginary victims.

Freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, freedom of association, freedom of any kind of privacy, freedom to vote for the right or the wrong people, freedom to earn a living..in short any kind of freedom can be threatened by any kind of precedent that allows law enforcement and prosecutors to prosecute for imaginary crimes against imaginary victims.

 If police really "need" tools like that, it is time to wonder why they can't make a case based on actual behavior not generated by police acting as if they are something they aren't. It is not a problem with a loophole in the law or a judge's decision, it is a problem with police incompetence.

 This editorial gives the impression the editorial board has real admiration for the kind of internet censorship and monitoring favored by the Chinese Communist government and SE Asian dictatorships. This editorial supports shredding the constitution and all civil rights in the desire to control internet access and communications between sexual predators and teenagers with mental problems and gross ignorance of the world.

 It is a variation of the burn the village to save the children or the "Better dead than Red" logic that led John Birchers to conclude that we should drop a nuclear weapon on Cuba to save them from communism. The editors might want to remember what Benjamin Franklin said or wrote:

People willing to trade their freedom for temporary security deserve neither

***Stay tuned even if you support your local dead tree editors no matter what they write--- Doug Wiken

**Marching to the dumb drum..Must see Dark Knight, Must see dark Knight

Newspapers, TV, Public Radio, all are feeding us hype about a comic made into a movie.  Holy Hype, Batman.  People standing in line to be the first at 4000 theaters to see Dark Knight.  This susceptibility to media hype causing thousands to march like lemmings to get ripped off at a theater seems like a modern form of mass hysteria to me.  Trust me, it won't really make a difference if you are among the first to see or review such a movie.  Batman or Harry Potter or whatever....you can wait.  Lemmings are not good models for human behavior and blind following of media hype has something in common with hallucinations from moldy bread in the dark ages.

Of course if you just absolutely have no willpower to resist hype, dash right off to SD Politics to read the review and view the photos if you haven't seen or read enough mind-numbing hype yet.

SD Politics and the Dark Knight Walk barefoot in wet grass, lay on your back and imagine angels in the clouds..or huge flying bats depending on your mood, but you really can wait to see this movie. Maybe it will be on a DVD or TV in a year or two. Whatever. It really is just another well-hyped movie pushed by corporate media conglomerates all wired together in a mutual hype society. ***Stay tuned even if there is no Dark Knight in "a dark and stormy night...."--- Doug Wiken

Memorializing Tony Snow..the guy who put lipstick on George Bush's pigs.

There is something about the fraternity of press people and media talking heads.  The day some dude who helped produce mass catastrophe dies he or she  becomes one of the nicest people who ever lived. Tony Snow may have been a genuinely nice guy, but he put his genuine nice guyness to promote one of the most mediocre, mendacious, inept administrations in the history of the US.  That should not be forgotten in the elegies for him.

Bush's collection of smooth liars have convinced a bunch of semi-informed people that a war against Iraq was justified because of 9-11 and that class warfare on the poor and middle class for the benefit of the very, very rich is somehow "reform". The rich have gotten richer because of the war. More soldiers have died than workers died in the WTC. Tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis have also been killed and maimed.

They also tried to make it appear that Georgie Boy actually gave a rat's rear about the people suffering after Hurricane Katrina because he flew overhead in an air-conditioned airplane.

Bush's press secretaries did a smooth job of putting lipstick on a number of Bush's stinking pigs.

***Stay tuned even if it is now too hot and too humid..a really miserable combination--- Doug Wiken