Dakota Today

**Some more software which may be useful

Opera software has been around for years.  It is a relatively compact web browser with built-in mail programs and more.  Some features not in Firefox of Internet Explorer, but also some of their features not in Opera.  A new version is available.  Try it, you may like it.  Incidentally, a new version of Firefox is said to be coming out in a few days.

Info and download Opera 9.5 .. now free

And by golly, it came out of Norway and is better than lutefisk.

 And, some accounting software that appears to be more powerful than what I need, but which may be useful to some. There do not appear to be a lot of freeware accounting software programs for Windows systems. I have installed it on a computer, but really have not used the program made by Turbo Cash

 I might do more with it, but right now an old version of Quickbooks does as much as we need.
 Turbo Cash Accounting Software Info and Download Links

Your mileage may vary on all software and freeware is sometimes better than commercial software, and sometimes it is just good enough.
**Stay tuned even if your checkbook never balances quite right and you are just plenty happy with a huge Microsoft browser--- Doug Wiken

**Myths I have believed and repeated ..unfortunately

I would swear I heard a reputable source on one of the Sunday gasbag shows say that most of the US oil produced in Alaska was exported to Japan and I have used that "information" more than once here and elsewhere.  Somebody mentioned at Mt. Blogmore that it is a myth.  And apparently he is correct.  Searching Google for something like "Alaskan Oil to Japan" turns up dozens of links most of which have information something like what is in the following link.

Alaskan Oil goes Where?

Live, read, listen and learn.

**Stay tuned anyway, now and then I am actually right about something-- Doug Wiken

**McCain loves Hillary supporters. Where do GOP women go?

Apparently John McCain is chasing after the skirts of Democratic Hillary supporters hoping to persuade them to jump from a sunken ship to a sinking ship.  I would think McCain's current deep love for Hillary supporters might cause some concern in the hearts of all those GOP women less than thrilled by Sen. Clinton.

Let's hope the "Hell hath no fury like a women scorned." still works with Republican women being dumped by fickle lover of GOP ladies John McCain.

Politics not only makes strange bedfellows, it makes strange beds.

**Stay tuned even if you are a GOP lady with no delusions about where Dakota Today stands on women's choices--- Doug Wiken

**Gore Vidal on Articles of Impeachment..more on lies about lying

Below is a link to Truthdig with a comment by Gore Vidal on the Articles of Impeachment introduced by Dennis Kucinich. I wonder if the impeachment efforts would be languishing in Congress if Kucinich looked like Paul Newman did 20 years or so ago.
 Gore Vidal on Impeachment at TruthDig

**Stay tuned even if Gore Vidal can write a hell of lot better than I can-- Doug Wiken

** And more about lying about Bush lies..the Kucinich Impeachment articles

Below is a link to a pdf file with the kind of details SD Politics and the loons who still believe Bush knows truth from fiction need to read.  It is a pdf file with Rep. Dennis Kuchinich's details on articles of impeachment.  This would all be so much simpler if some braindead female was intent on sucking Bush's dick, then he would have been impeached long ago.  Cowards in Congress and wingnuts have got to keep their priorities straight.

PDF with Bush Impeachment Articles..No Sex involved However

**Stay tuned  and remember politicians are loath to outright say, "The SOB is a liar or a crook"..it is professional courtesy like why rattlesnakes don't bite lawyers--- Doug Wiken

**More on lies about lies at SD Politics

SD Politics doesn't allow comments, so it is really a waste of time to discuss their posts.  The right wing blogs and the newspaper apologists for Bush War are in a tizzy about a "Rockefeller report".  SD Politics jumps right into the propaganda war...must help John McAncient with his 95% support of Bush War powers, etc. Posts like that at SD Politics are actually a string of distortions from start to finish line by line but written so they would require pages to disembowel and dozens of references.  I don't have time for that.

From a source of dubious background perhaps is a bit of counterpoint to the wingnut right barrage.

World Socialist Site on Rockefeller "Coverup" Report
I don't have cable or satellite TV, but the Rockefeller report must have something deadly to Bush and McCain or the wingnut right would not be going ballistic about it.

 Previous posts here at Dakota Today have mentioned the transcript of Bill Moyer's or Frontline report on the Bush runup to the war. That program showed the video of Bush, Cheney, Powell, and Condoleeza and neocons saying something that was already documented as false..one string of lies after another. The problem wasn't the intelligence data available, it was that Bush cherry-picked the reports that appeared to support war and ignored the valid information indicating his cherry-picked pseudo facts were all propaganda or lies.

A previous secret report made when Bob Graham of Florida was on Senate Intelligence committee indicated to all ...including Democrats who went along with the war powers..including Hillary Clinton, Tom Daschle, Tim Johnson, et al that the war was based on lies from "curve ball", etc.  Blanchard, et al claim that somehow the Democrats supporting the Bush lies makes them not lies. I find the support by Republicans, Democrats, or independents congressional support of Bush war powers all despicable and an indication of their incompetence or mendacity and total lack of courage in the face of the wingnut right war propaganda and mind-numbing flagwaving pseudo-patriotism.

A bit of info from Huffington Post on Bob Graham and the Senate Report as a test for Hillary which she flunked.

Graham, who headed the Senate Intelligence Committee in the run up to Iraq, famously declared his war opposition after reading the National Intelligence Estimate, a document he thought did not make the case (and one that Sen. Hillary Clinton has acknowledged not reading). That aside, Graham noted that "experience" in and of itself was not a prerequisite for becoming leader of America's armed forces.

Huffington Post on test for Commander in Chief http://snipurl.com/2eye9

 **Stay tuned, the rewriting of Bush history is going to go full blast every time somebody from the Bush administration retires in disgust and adds more information suitable for impeachment of Bush and Cheney--- Doug Wiken

**Swimsuit research..yes really..Britain and Japan

A pair of old cutoff blue jeans just aren't going to do for Olympic swimmers.

It can take years to develop a new swimsuit material from scratch for competitive swimmers, but with just weeks to go before the Olympics, Japanese manufacturers are trying to do just that. They have been forced to try to come up with something after the Nottingham, UK-based firm Speedo developed a new bodysuit, LZR Racer, which has sent world records tumbling. The new suit has helped swimmers around the world break 30 world records in three months. It sucks the muscles into the perfect shape to swim. Lighter than others, it repels water, reducing drag.

 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7434159.stm
 $632 Swimsuits..British and Japanese Olympic competition

MUCH more on this exciting excess at the link above.

**Stay tuned even if you are never amazed at sports excess--- Doug Wiken

**Lies about lies forwarded by SD Politics

The Bush apologists don't give up on trying to rewrite history or foul the political air with fear, uncertainty, and doubt...see Microsoft and Oil Company "research on global warming" for other examples.
 SD Politics quote lying about Bush lies
I am not going to waste time going through the article quoted at South Dakota Politics, but anybody paying any real attention to the runup to the war and to Bush, Cheney, and other neocons spreading distortions will know there are no real facts in that article and a lot of baseless assertions. If Blanchard is a scholar, he should know better. Time for Blanchard, et al to quit flogging their dead horse and waving their hands..

 

**Stay tuned, one of these days the national plague that is the Bush Administration will be over unless McCain supporters figure out a way to swiftboat Sen. Obama--- Doug Wiken

*** Dakota Today Midday June 9, 2008

Listened to Midday at SDPB radio this noon.  Actually called in and was then left on hold for about 25 minutes at 38 cents a cellphone minute.  Interesting too was that we received an SDPB begging letter today.  Testing, one, two, three....

Anyway, the discussion today June 9, 2008 was with Denise Ross on Hillary as VP, as candidate, sexism, etc. etc.  Denise summed it up mostly with  Truman's comment, "If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen."

If Hillary did nothing else, she might have helped pave the way for somebody like Denise Ross and her common sense to run a successful race here in South Dakota.  But, more seriously, years ago, Grace Mikkelson of Rapid City, SD. ran on the Democratic ticket for congress if my memory is correct.  She was very intelligent and well informed and could give a very good campaign speech.  She was stomped in the election probably mostly because she was on the Democratic ticket, but also because she was a woman.
Hillary Clinton's near win at the national level and also here in SD indicates a tremendous change in attitude
or demographics depending on which columnist you believe.

Somebody called in and mentioned the idea that Hillary might make  a good Supreme Court justice.  Gosh, nobody had heard that idea before.....unless they read Dakota Today on May 5, 2008 and also happened to check the bloglike web site "Kiss my Big Blue Butt".  Anyway, if you are curious the permalink to the post here is below:

Dakota Today May 5 ..New Job for Hillary

The main question today was something to the effect of "Should Obama select Hillary as VP." A couple callers noted her value in the US Senate might be greater and more powerful than being VP. An article in yesterday's ARGUS noted that the Hillary Clinton campaign was on the wrong side of the "Change" issue.

 Hillary was viewed by many as more of the same old same old and Obama was tuning right into the desire of many Democrats and also Republicans for getting the US back on the right track with necessary change and the urgency of now.

 That is probably the primary reason to not put Hillary on as a VP. She is emblematic of yesterday and the status quo even if the Clinton yesterday was much, much better than the Bush yesterday{s}. A secondary reason for not having her on the ticket was her vote on the Bush war powers and the unconstitutional delegation of congressional war powers to a president. That decision of hers is nearly unforgivable especially if Sen. Clinton is forever unwilling to admit she screwed up.

 Obscured as well in the discussion blurred by the continuing dead horse sexism talk was the age issue which Dave Kranz raised in a recent ARGUS column. Hillary appeared to do worse in areas with more youth and better in areas with more elderly white women. Incidentally, Dave Kranz never made it to the discussion today at SDPB Midday.  Forgotten too apparently was that apparently Sen. Clinton and her bitter supporters are searching for any excuses to explain her defeat other than that Sen. Obama ran a better smarter and more aware campaign.

 **Stay tuned..if you can't get SDPB Midday, you might get something about it here at Dakota Today--- Doug Wiken

**Juvenile diabetes..Hughes Medical, Harvard, and Sanford Health

During last week, Sanford  Health announced it will be seeking a cure for type 1 diabetes as part of a $400 million donation from T. Denny Sanford.

Sanford health seeks cure for type 1 diabetes
Sanford project to focus on beta cell regeneration

Sanford Health leaders announced today the focus of the Sanford Project is curing type 1 diabetes via the body's natural ability to regenerate beta cells. Identified as the attack on one of the greatest health concerns of our time, Sanford Health is dedicating health research resources to cure type 1 diabetes, also known as juvenile diabetes.

"The concept for the Sanford Project is to focus on a single, pressing healthcare issue and establish a world-class research team to achieve significant progress within a reasonable time period," said Sanford Health Executive Vice President Dave Link. "Through an extensive selection process which outlined specific candidate criteria, Sanford Health has chosen to attack type 1 diabetes by focusing on beta cell regeneration."

Type 1 diabetes currently affects nearly 3 million people in the United States. It is an autoimmune disease in which the body's immune system attacks and destroys insulin-producing cells of the pancreas. It often strikes during childhood, makes patients dependent on insulin for life and carries the constant threat of devastating complications. Regeneration research focuses on triggering the body to re-grow the insulin-producing beta cells that have been killed by the autoimmune response and to prevent destruction of the newly regenerated cells by the same autoimmune reaction.

"Beta cell regeneration is one of the fastest-growing and most intriguing areas of type 1 diabetes research," stated Ben Perryman, PhD, Sanford Health Vice President of Research. "Through the Sanford Project, our research team will hope to either spur the body to copy existing functioning beta cells or to coax the pancreas to create new ones. When people with the disease have regenerated beta cells, they can begin making their own insulin again. The intent of the Sanford Project will be to focus on bench-side research and closely integrating translational research opportunities with clinical treatment."

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-06/jdrf-shs060608.php
http://snipurl.com/2em5m

Tonight on CBS 60 Minutes, there was a story on Hughes Foundation with $11 Billion in assets has put money into a Harvard researcher also working on juvenile diabetes.

Hughes investigator Doug Melton, at Harvard, is thinking about a cure for juvenile diabetes. He's working with stem cells from human embryos.

"And I can think, as I do, most every waking moment of the day, 'How am I gonna get those cells to become insulin-producing cells?' And the Hughes makes that possible," says Melton, who wouldn't have gotten a federal grant at all for his research.

In 2001, President Bush imposed his stem cell ban, in which he tried to balance the objections of opponents of abortion against the wishes of scientists to work with collections of stem cells,

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/07/13/60minutes/main629388_page3.shtml
http://snipurl.com/2em4x

There is more information at each story link above for both stories.  The race may be interesting.

*** Stay tuned even if you don't have and never want to have a credit card and have never even heard of Howard Hughes or confuse that with "Howard Huge"-- Doug Wiken