Dakota Today

** Some chickens crossing the road humor..it's a joke, son

Apologies to Foghorn Leghorn, but this was a little bit of humor that got interjected into the discussion of Sen. Clinton's recent foot in mouth disqualifier. I have no idea who wrote it to begin with. It was quoted without any attribution included.

WHY DID THE CHICKEN CROSS THE ROAD?

BARACK OBAMA: The chicken crossed the road because it was time for a CHANGE! The chicken wanted CHANGE!

JOHN MC CAIN: My friends, that chicken crossed the road because he recognized the need to engage in cooperation and dialogue with all the chickens on the other side of the road.

HILLARY CLINTON: When I was First Lady, I personally helped that little chicken to cross the road. This experience makes me uniquely qualified to ensure -- right from Day One! -- that every chicken in this country gets the chance it deserves to cross the road. But then, this really isn't about me.......

GEORGE W. BUSH: We don't really care why the chicken crossed the road. We just want to know if the chicken is on our side of the road, or not. The chicken is either against us, or for us. There is no middle ground here.

COLIN POWELL: Now to the left of the screen, you can clearly see the satellite image of the chicken crossing the road...

ANDERSON COOPER - CNN: We have reason to believe there is a chicken, but we have not yet been allowed to have access to the other side of the road.

          PAT BUCHANAN: To steal the job of a decent, hardworking American.

BILL CLINTON: I did not cross the road with that chicken. What is your definition of chicken?

DICK CHENEY: Where's my gun?

** Well, at least it wasn't another post about another post here--- Doug Wiken

** Itty bitty gas guzzlers

The title "itty-bitty gas guzzlers is a bit misleading, but is how I feel right now anyway.  Most of the time, I drive a Mitsubishi Eclipse with a 1.8 L engine and a 5-speed manual transmission.  It gets pretty good gas mileage, and has a relatively small gasoline tank.  Despite this, I put a nickel less than $50.00 of gasoline in it this evening.  As usual I bitched at the counter.  The gal behind the counter said, "Well, at least it didn't cost $50 to fill a lawnmower."  Apparently somebody had put $20 of gas in a lawnmower today.  That'll teach 'em to fertilize.

One of my previous posts here has generated some comment in the SD BlogLand. The post is on running reasonably fuel efficient "junkers" instead of buying a new Prius or similar car.  I don't usually get traffic from SD Politics Blog which is almost always on the dreadful darkside of politics, but anyway, here is a link to their take on the issue.
NWLINK to SD Politics on Fuel efficiency, etc

And, to balance out the political perspective a bit, Cory H. at Madville Blog linked to that post and that generated a few interesting comments.
NWLINK to Madville Times on Gas and Jalopies

Cory Heidelberger made a most interesting point in a comment on his own post when he wrote that I had missed the obvious best option;ie, "Buying a used Prius". Anyway, that is probably enough of the circuitous web links to my own posts. I sure don't want to generate any comments in the vein of "Oh, what a tangled web we weave."

***Stay tuned for a post on something besides another post here--- Doug Wiken

**Until the last super delegate has sung

I hope Hillary and Obama stay in until the last primary vote is counted and the last super delegate has sung. Right now however, Hillary may be wondering herself why she stayed in until the South Dakota primary.  And we should also be glad as well, because she has sucked the oxygen right out of her own campaign and indicated also why she should not be President of the United States.

And, by her special assassination logic, John Edwards and all the rest of them should have stayed in the race...just in case.  Hillary claiming that there are a lot of calls to keep South Dakotans from voting is just plain crap.  She knows better, and it is no justification for her assassination comments.

Keith Olbermann is also not impressed with Clinton's latest foot in the mouth too far.
Keith Olbermann on "invoking a nightmare

Some of Sen. Clinton's supporters are suggesting she is just too tired and this should be excused.  Of course the same people a few weeks or two ago were calling Sen. Obama a wimp because he was tired or ill. They have also failed to see there is fundamentally no difference between voting for Sen. Clinton because she is a woman and voting for Sen. Obama because he is a Black or in turning those around and voting against Hillary because she is female or against Obama because he is Black.  There are better reasons for choosing or rejecting either of them.

As I have previously indicated, I supported John Edwards and have been watching the primary mostly undecided about Sen. Obama or Sen. Clinton as the candidate choice.  But, I have steadily become less impressed with Hillary and more impressed with Obama.  Obama and his organization have demonstrated management skills that exceed the much vaunted Clinton team.    The Hillary campaign debt is enough reason to suggest that her administration might not be what is needed to undue the Bush damage to the US economy and federal and state deficits.

South Dakota is still in the race.  I think Sen. Obama already owes South Dakota a huge debt of gratitude and if we can settle the issue in the next few days and get America back on the right track without John McAncient running the railroad on the route begun by the corrupt and incompetent Bush Administration, he and all of America will be indebted to the "small" state of South Dakota..

**Stay tuned--- Hillary has another foot to go--- Doug Wiken

**CounterPunch on the Clinton machine attacks on Sen. Obama

Below is part of a comment at Counterpunch.  The full comment makes some interesting points.  Worth reading all of it if you are still a  supporter of Sen. Clinton.


Hillary Clinton famously found her voice in New Hampshire, but it took the senator until West Virginia to relocate her inner child. Yes, she's once again embraced the Goldwater Girl of her youth.

....

The Clinton camp has become so entrenched in their racial rhetoric that I've begun to wonder if they begin their morning strategy sessions with a screening of the Rodney King beating tape as a motivational tool.

For the dull-witted, Clinton's surrogates are sent out spell it out in capital letters. Obama used cocaine (Bob Johnson). Obama's middle name is "Hussein" (Bob Kerrey). Obama is a master of "shuck and jive" (Andrew Cuomo). Obama is another Jesse Jackson (Bill Clinton). Obama's story is a fairy tale (ditto). And, most recently, Geraldine Ferraro told the Los Angeles Times that Obama is a "sexist" (most black men are, right?) and she won't vote for him if he is the nominee.

To sum up: Obama is a drug abuser, a huckster, a secret Muslim, a con artist and a misogynist. And that's without dragging Jeremiah Wright into the scenario.

Numerically, Obama sewed up the nomination back in March. Since then the Clinton campaign has been running largely on the fumes of her own ego, at a cost of a million dollars a day. How then can she justify persisting, especially with a campiagn freighted with such malignant themes?

Her campaign now resembles a political neutron bomb that wipes out all living contenders and leaves only the super-structure of her own aspiration standing. Apparently, the idea is to crush the interloper Obama, either in Denver, through some deus ex machina of spineless super-delegates stampeding her way, or to have McCain do her work for her so that she can challenge the septuagenarian in 2012. If so, her motto will be the familiar taunt of the schoolhouse tattletale: "I told you so."

If Obama survives the primaries and falls to McCain in November, Hillary will attempt to remake the Democratic Party in her own image. It will replay of the origin of the conservative DLC, designed by her husband and Lieberman to keep the party from falling into the hands of Jesse Jackson and the Rainbow Coalition. This time the C will stand for Clinton.

--Jeffery St. Clair

<http://www.counterpunch.org/stclair05212008.html

**Stay tuned for the fallout on the Sen. Clinton statement on the Robert Kennedy assassination and has typepad ever screwed up their WYSIWYG posting window --- Doug Wiken

** Fix the junker avoid payments for the hybrid fuel-efficient vehicle

Now and then I start thinking we really should figure out a way to get newer and more fuel-efficient vehicles if we are to maintain our tree hugger status.  Well, not really.  The actual contest is between frustration over parts costs and time wasted versus new and trouble free, but follow along with me anyway even if walking and bicycling might as well be for another planet as far as you are concerned..

If we are driving something getting reasonable mileage, say 20 to 30 miles per gallon, it might be easy to buy a hybrid or very-fuel stingy new vehicle and expect that you or we would be doing the world some good and reduce carbon emissions to the atmosphere.

BUT,  the June 2008 WIRED magazine page 153 suggest used vehicles might be better choices for lower carbon emissions than buying something like a new Prius because making a new Prius consumes 113 million Btus.  A single gallon of gasoline contains about 113,000 Btus, so "Toyota's green wonder guzzles the equivalent of 1000 gallons of gasoline before it moves one mile. But, buy something like an old Tercel or other vehicle that gets 35mpg and the Prius will have to go 100,000 miles before it catches up.

There is more in the magazine if you can find the issue and the page.  WIRED makes determining which issue you are reading and which page anything is actually on remarkable hard to find and read. The most recent issue has a florescent red cover with Steiger (as in big tractor) green lettering.  But, if you are herding around an older vehicle don't feel too bad about it all.

Cheap out all the way around and push for a new 55mph maximum as are some former SD legislators and you can feel just plain good about your public-spirited world sense even if you would never ever hug a tree no matter how shapely or no matter which blacksmith labored under it.

As for our politicians, they might start working toward more standardization of vehicle repair parts and put pressure on vehicle manufacturers to make it easier to keep older vehicles instead of buying new ones and keeping the build, crush, smelt, build energy sucking cycle going again and again.

**Stay tuned for homesize cogeneration systems and area windpower systems--- Doug Wiken

** What goes around, goes around again.. in the crosshairs

Years ago, some South Dakota Republicans or their out-of-state supporters ran an ad attacking George McGovern.  Well that kind of despicable campaign attack is baaaaackkkkk.

NWLINK to "In the Crosshairs"

Yup, it is placing a Democratic candidate in the crosshairs of a rifle scope.  The snakes have crawled out from under their rocks again with some of the same old same old despicable campaign practices.

**Stay tuned for more happy accidents--- Doug Wiken

** Is this for real? A Whatizit or a Whatizn't it?

I don't know if this site is real or not.  This isn't anything like Dakota Magazine's Whatizzzit contests.  This might be a whatisn'tit contest.  Maybe it was set up on April 1.

Turn your body into a fossil?

Some days people search for odd stuff and now and then Dakota Today turns up in the list, but frankly, some of the other stuff found might be more interesting..or at least odd.

Of course, there are probably a few thousand feet of mine at Homestake in Lead, SD which could be converted into a mausoleum if the state ever gets all the water pumped out that should never have been allowed in the mine to begin with.

**Stay tuned anyway, more on the energy and climate folly later-- Doug Wiken

** Saving Energy, reducing carbon footprint in non-obvious ways

I think a person could watch CBS Morning Blather for a years and barely get a significant idea or fact from that program.  This morning, they were devoting time to feelings about Ted Kennedy  and best flirting techniques for grocery store visitors.

Meanwhile, in an issue of Wired and Fine Homebuilding, I found several interesting topics which link together very well for astute political candidates and statesmen actually interested in doing something instead of merely giving the illusion they are solving any actual problem rather than simply helping get them re-elected.

For perhaps a dozen years, I have thought that the building projects on the area reservations for Native Americans were dreadful mistakes.  Dumping conventional (in the worst sense of energy wasting, etc) homes on the prairie seemed very stupid to me.  Building with concrete walls encasing 8 inches or so of foam insulation with air lock entries and all windows facing south with good overhangs, etc would build homes that were nearly indestructible and fireproof and energy efficient.  My problem was never coming up with a good label for such construction ideas.

An article in the July 2008 issue of Fine Homebuilding pages 22 and 24 discuss the concept of "passive survivability" by Alex Wilson.  It involves standards for construction that lead to homes and businesses with nearly zero net energy consumption which prevent people and pipes from freezing if fuel or electricity sources become unavailable.  Similarly, designed so that if air-conditioning fails, that homes will not be overheated death traps for the very young and the elderly.

Put this together with our current energy situation and housing, etc and there are good reasons for serious consideration of "passive survivability" not just for Native American reservations, but for the whole society and if not the whole country, South Dakota can lead the way if our state leaders abandon the idea that they can finance state government on the basis of sales taxes on inefficient heating and cooling systems and vehicle fuel consumption.  There is an unfortunate conflict between good policy and taxes in South Dakota.

I will drag out a few more of the non-obvious ideas in coming posts.

** Stay tuned and save your energy--- Doug  Wiken

**Online anonymity prosecutable? Nails from China? An et cetera post

A recent prosecution of a woman who posed as a young male on a website and then allegedly got a young girl to commit suicide is being prosecuted in an apparently novel manner. The following is from a story in the Sunday Rapid City Journal May 18, 2008.

Beware: Anonymity may not protect you online Think twice beroe you sign up for an online service using a fake name or [fake] e-mail address. You could be committing a federal crime.

Federal prosecuters turned to novel interpretation of computer hacking law to indict a Missouri mother on charges connected to the suicide of a 13-year old MySpace user.

There is more in the paper story, but the case is raising questions since it gives a business contract the force of a law thus violations of a web site's user agreement could now lead to criminal sanctions.

In short, those anonymous posters who use that anonymity as a shield for their own outrageous, misleading, and insulting posts that most would not ever post under their own names with a real address may not feel quite so cocky if this prosecution leads to conviction and is not overturned as some kind of prosecutorial excess.

In a whole 'nother bag...how can China make common nails cheaper than US companies a few miles away from the actual steel sources? I can't believe there is even a dime's worth of human labor in a ton of nails. In the same vein, how can china plates be made cheaper there. They appear to be made by machine with I assume nearly zero human labor.

What has gone wrong? Why are our local stores importing so much stuff from China when the shipping would seem to eat up any labor costs compared to US made products?

I don't really know, but this all seems totally wrong unless it is entirely related to obscene executive salaries and unrealistic profit expectations of Wall Street and stockholders. Anybody out there actually know?

And, just to fill out this mixture of stuff, check the SD Magazine and see if you can identify the mystery photo apparently taken around 1914 by F. W. Byerly. Has google or anybody else put together building recognition software that can compare thousands of images for similarity?

SD Mag identify the "Mystery Building"

Maybe it is something for the "History Detectives" on Public TV.

**Stay tuned even if you just hate your vegetables and meats mixed together in a casserole which converts perfectly good food into an inedible meeting dish edible only with help of Pepto Bismol---Doug Wiken

**Almost Biblical...The first shall be last and the last shall be first

In the Democratic primaries, all kinds of things have happened which weren't predicted by the horse race specialists in the press and their fellow press controversialists. Let's sum up using the "First shall be last and the last shall be first" approach.

Florida and Michigan wanted to be first. They may as a result be irrelevant and not even last. Hillary was so far in front after years of preparation for a campaign, but like the tortoise and the hare, she was so first and so fast, she missed so many delegate small convention votes that she may be a mathematical impossibility for presidential candidate.

But, let the whole thing play out to the end, so that neither Obama nor Clinton nor any of their supporters can say, "We was robbed."

And then guess what. Improbability of improbabilities, South Dakota may have been last, but may be first when it makes the final difference in shoving Obama into first place.

So, SD Democrats may turn out to be the beneficiaries of a great debt owed to them by the Obama campaign if we can give Obama the bulk of the SD Democratic delegates. More of the last shall be first, etc.

**Stay tuned even if you are fully aware the Devil can quote scripture--- Doug Wiken