Dakota Today

**Apple blossoms and Tim Johnson coms

Yesterday was sunny with a blue sky and white fluffy clouds. Apple blossoms were very striking and pretty. Got out the camera. There are other trees in town with white blossoms. Maybe a photo of them when it stops drizzling and the sun shines again.

And, in the e-mail info from the Sen. Johnson organization. They have a new campaign website. Take a look. I am still a Democrat, but I am also still more than a bit pissed at some of Johnson's votes. He should have known better and demonstrated more integrity. But, what have the Republicans given us in the last eight years?

New Window LINK to Tim Johnson dot com

**Stay tuned even if Hobson's choices aren't particularly appealing when we have to make them again and again.-- Doug Wiken

**They're baaacckkkk and so is Hillary

A few days ago, I missed one of those classic photos. A small neighbor girl and her smaller brother had picked some dandelions out of our weedy grass and were proudly walking up the sidewalk with their bouquet in their hands held out in front of them. Anyway, the yellow pests look good in photos even if they look like crap in the grass.

Meanwhile, she's baaaackkkk too. Hillary Clinton is scheduled to be in Sioux Falls today sometime around 2:15PM at an airport hanger as she flits from the east to the west coast..Oregon perhaps.

As anybody reading this blog for very long knows, I preferred John Edwards even with his southern accent compared to Hillary or Obama. My respect for Hillary has dropped more and more as she has campaigned more and more desperately with less and less integrity. Hillary is getting her high negative ratings the old fashioned way, she has earned them.

And, I do hope somebody in the press or in the crowd will ask Hillary why we should ever support her or anybody else who supported the Bush war powers in Iraq as a presidential candidate or any other kind of a candidate. That decision was so fundamentally wrong from the obvious facts and for the constitutional reasons that it cannot be justified retroactively and it could not be justified prior to the vote. The ONLY reason for her supporting the Iraq war was in the hopes of pulling in the wingnut loons of the right who are blinded by the flag they think waves only for them. It was a desperate expedient amoral vote and it will be that forever. Whatever legacy Hillary had, it disappeared with that vote. It had already been tarnished by her votes for big banks, big credit card operations, bankruptcy legislation, etc.

We do not need another president in the White House who will take any position on any issue simply in the interests of pandering to the loudest most well-financed groups.

***Stay tuned even if you love both Hillary and Dandelions--- Doug Wiken<

**News from the Weekly Incontinent on Pipeline near Winner, SD

Recently, The Madville Times blog mentioned a new pipeline apparently snaking past Winner, SD being planned by the same outfit building the east river South Dakota pipeline. And noted I should be checking on this.

NWLINK to Madville Times on Pipeline

Skimming through the local rag today, I notice in the city council news..not front page news...that some surveyors have gotten permission apparently to poke around the Winner City dumpsite or near it. Text as I typed it follows..there may be errors.

Trans Canada pipeline
Dick Kirsch of the city building department, told the council Universal Field services, Inc., representing TransCanada Pipeline is conducting studies for the proposed pipeline to be constructed from Hardisty, Alberta, Canada to the Texas gulf coast. In order to evaluate the project, the company will be doing some soil testing on land owned by the city near the land fill. The mayor was authorized to sign an agreement with Universal to do the testing. The company plans to do soil analysis, civil, archaeological and other environmental surveys along the proposed route.

The survey party will consist of two to five persons along with survey equipment.

TransCanada Corp is planning a second oil pipeline entering South Dakota at the northwest corner and exiting the state at the southern border.

The proposed pipeline would be larger than the one planned for eastern South Dakota.

I don't know if this story means they have not talked to anybody else around here or if it just means that contact with the city gets into the paper no matter what it might concern and the paper seldom ever covers news more than a mile from the city center...or what. Anyway, it is there and that is all I have heard or read so far about the issue..or lack thereof.

I don't think the problem for this pipeline across SD starts until it gets into the shallow sandy aquifers south of Winner. The city landfill or dump was probably selected for the clay and shale in the area which might be less permeable than the sand south of town. Somehow, this seems a bit like the drunkard's search where the drunk searches under the street light rather than in the dark where he actually lost his keys.

I'm sure there may or may not be more news on this. How's that for wishy-washy. I have been watching to much political spin lately.

**Stay tuned even if you can keep your mind out of the gutter or the city dumps--- Doug Wiken

**No exit strategies..Bush and Hillary are alike

A Black preacher from Sioux City, Ia today on SD Public Radio made the case that essentially the gospel is colorless. Not his phrase, but he said it is the gospel for Blacks, Whites, Yellows, Reds, whatever. He also said that members of a church do not have an obligation to make a scene when a pastor such as himself says something a church member does not agree with. Church members are members of the church, not members of the preacher. Incidentally, George McGovern said essentially the same thing. He happens to be the son of a Methodist minister. McGovern also suggested the Rev. Wright issue was nonsense as a poltical issue. He also suggested that Hillary knew better than to present the gas tax "relief" as an issue. I suspect some of these pseudo issues used by the Clintons aggravated McGovern, but I really don't know.

Dave Kranz I think..noted that McGovern was just getting himself into alignment with his 10 grandchildren who all support Obama.

McGovern also said he had discussed his decision with Bill Clinton this morning after agonizing over his decision most of the night. He expressed gratitude to Bill Clinton for attending the dedication of the McGovern Center here in SD and again it was noted that both Bill and Hillary had run McGovern's campaign in Texas. I do not think this was an easy decision for McGovern, but he does have a bit too much experience with bitterly divided conventions to be ignored because he was smeared into defeat by the Nixon soap salesmen.

Even so, at this stage, I am not at all certain what effect if any endorsements or support from party celebrities and "super" delegates will have on anything until the convention.

McGovern said both Hillary and Obama are good candidates, smart and able, etc. But, he noted the near mathematical impossibility of Hillary winning and noted that at this stage, her dropping out will not be seen as her being forced out prematurely by party hacks.

Republican pollster on TOTN (Glenn Bolger?) today was blathering on about how the Democratic "split" was helping McCain so much. Well, when was the last time you heard anything from McCain, Obama, or Hillary?.

There is news, old news, and no news. McCain is right now "no news".

It is up to both Hillary and Obama to keep making news or start making news about really serious issues that make it impossible (as Obama said) for McCain to be the third term of this Bush Administration. Speaking of Bush administrations, the PBS history programs and George H.W. Bush make him look like an angel compared to his son. I suspect the unfortunate comparison between the Bush dynasty father and son, may also impact the Clinton Dynasty..Husband and wife. Perhaps it is time we forgot about giving relatives of presidents some kind of status unwarranted by actual qualifications.

A comment made last night by a talking head..don't remember which, went something like "Bush and Hillary are alike..neither of them has an exit strategy."

Well, so much for news related to the Democratic Presidential primary. The votes are in, but Hillary has not declared herself out. She is cooking her own goose.

***Stay tuned for something..oh perhaps of dandelion photos-- Doug Wiken

**Short-term solutions? More of same old same old

There are no short-term solutions to the energy problems and the foreign policy problems that spring from hopelessly flawed energy "policies". Anything intentionally short-term is not a solution. Anything long-term that can't be turned into an actual real short-term SOLUTION with commitment of a massive program and resources is also not a solution. There is not time for half-hearted non-existent long-term handwaving.

Hillary and McCain and the Anwar obliterators are talking about smoke and mirror policies that give the appearance of doing something, but actually accomplish nothing or actually make the real problem worse. We have Thune playing the ANWAR game. It is a smoke and mirrors attempt to make anybody pushing for real solutions appear to be associated with hopelessly optimistic and idealistic tree huggers. Expect to hear more stories about Obama or Hillary demanding that horses in the wilderness wear diapers. There is nothing absurd enough or slanted enough to be beneath desperate politicians trying to maintain their offices and their contributions from the rich. Now Republican senators have latched onto the food chain and merchandiser monsters claim that ethanol is driving up the price of groceries.

It seems to me that Obama is at least hinting that the special-interest driven politics coupled to election at all costs have led us to catastrophe or near catastrophe and must be changed if we are to literally survive as a modern nation.

Hillary is more of the same old same old. Thune is the young same old same old. McCain is the old same old, same old.

Hillary is more and more aggravating every day. She is smart enough to know better.

***Stay tuned for more of my same old same old (Of course, it is the best of golden same old same oldies} --- Doug Wiken

** I didn't know that..surprising Mother's Day fact from SD Magazine

SD Magazine sends out an e-mail newsletter now and then. The text below was in the May version. Interesting if you happen to have a mother and live or lived in South Dakota.

Mother's Day Originated in South Dakota

Although Mother's Day has origins that date back to the Greek sages, South Dakota actually played a significant role in its development in America. Anna Jarvis of Wessington Springs came up with the concept in 1905 and began an official campaign to kick it off. Unfortunately, some history books credit West Virginia as being the first state to make it official in 1910. South Dakota beat the Virginians by a full year. Governor Robert Vessey proclaimed the nation's first Mother's Day observance on April 9, 1909.

Motherhood is truly the world's highest calling. What compares to the sacrifices made by a good mother, many of which the child never perceives? Not even service in the military, or the ministry or medicine. What else requires a lifetime committment? What else is undertaken with a surety of at least a degree of frustration, failure, financial hardship and heartbreak? But what else gives mankind a hopeful future?

Happy Mother's Day to all in South Dakota and beyond our borders, the mothers and the mothered.
— Bernie Hunhoff

**Stay tuned even if you always buy your mother or wife candy on Mother's Day and then eat all of it yourself..well actually that's what happens on Father's Day, but that is a ways off---- Doug Wiken