Dakota Today

**So venture over to Cranium Creek and laugh or groan

Cranium Creek descends deep into the caverns of puns.  Laugh or groan, it is your choice:

Cranium Creek Blog and "Punilingus"

 Not much new in the way of news around here, but about 4pm this afternoon, I was driving the 1/4 mile from our farmhouse to the county highway when I heard a thump and a dark thing with 4 legs hanging down over the windshield for an instant. The old Mitsubishi Eclipse is relatively low and apparently a deer had jumped nearly cleanly right over the top of the car. No window or windshield breaks, dents, or scratches that I could find. Also no broken deer parts littering the gravel. Brome grass has grown up nearly as high as the car. Guess tomorrow will be a good day to try to mow along the road so a deer in the ditch might be seen and perhaps a deer might even see a car coming.
In the spirit of punilingus and Martha Stewart, "Near and deer" is not a very good thing

. ***Stay tuned even if your groan response to puns is far too close to a gag reflex-- Doug Wiken

**About an Argus Reader Rant from Donna M. Price

The Thursday June 19, 2008 Argus Leader had a "reader rant" on the Voices pages.  It was titled "Disappointed with Democratic Leaders".  I have typed it from the dead tree version of the paper, so there may be errors:

I am so disappointed with our Democratic leaders in this state. I will not vote for Sen. Tim Johnson or Rep. Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin. Former Senator Tom Daschle never listened to the people of his state, either. I think he is just looking for an appointment. As for former Sen. George McGovern, I can't believe what he did. The Clintons did so much for him and his wife. I can't see what benefit there was for him not to go with the people of his state. I have no intention voting for Sen., Barack Obama, either. Hope there is an independent ticket. Donna M. Price, Sioux Falls

This has to be one of the most ignorant or disingenuous rants or comments I have ever seen in a news paper. Price is either a Republican or one of the most mentally dis-engaged Democrats I have ever read. McCain is trying to persuade women that he is a better alternative to Sen. Clinton than is Sen. Obama. Price has either suckered for this nonsense McCain doubletalk blather  or is a Republican shill to begin with who has probably never voted for a Democrat in her whole life.

 I think there are good reasons for not supporting Daschle, Thune, Johnson, or Herseth-Sandlin, but those reasons relate to their support of the Bush War and that appears to also be a problem for Sen. McCain. The reasons Price appears  to believe regarding Daschle, et al are political boilerplate crap from the RNC and the McCain campaign or other groups supporting him. The ARGUS needs a section devoted to "Letters from the Fringe" or "Hot views from GOP Blastfax or Spam Room".

. ***Stay tuned for news about the US on the 'Wrong Track"---Doug Wiken

**This and that..AP and Bloggers, Sen. Obama and good rumors

Well, it appears that AP is again on the warpath attacking bloggers who have the audacity to quote their stories and give links back to the source.  A site named Drudge RETORT (not Drudge REPORT) has gotten notice from AP in what appears to be another opening salvo.  I know some SD bloggers have also been hassled by AP in the past.  Some bloggers think all bloggers should give AP the obscurity they seem to want.

More on the story here at the Carpetbagger's blog:

Carpetbagger Blog on AP and Drudge RETORT copyright issues That is one issue. Here is another that makes a point in a rather humorous way: SLATE story on Rumors Obama should not correct And, an interesting comment found at Salon Table Talk in the White House Folder concerning the "inexperience" of Sen Obama:

Verbal Remedy - 08:40 am Pacific Time - Jun 19, 2008 - #3134 of 3149 I've just got to say this: Obama had no previous experience running for national office. He had no previous experience in widespread netroots fundraising and organizing. He had absolutely no experience running against the presumptive "inevitable" nominee with 100% national name recognition. No experience whatsoever in assembling a national security advisory board. Not one lick of experience putting together a rapid response team to fight smears. No experience addressing issues of race to a national audience, under fire from the MSM. You know what? All things considered, when you look at how all those things turned out, his lack of experience is working out a hell of a lot better than his inter- and intra-party rivals' combined hundred or so years in Washington, DC. http://tabletalk.salon.com/webx?14@@.773d380a/3130

**Stay tuned even if the weather is strange and TV network "news" becomes more and more trash and hype--- Doug Wiken

**Architecture-- University Grotesque HodgePodge Style and Graffiti

First the graffiti.  I rant and rave about vandalism, but this bit of graffiti is just plain clever and
funny.  Not  sure of the source.  It was emailed to me with no references.

And, graffiti of an architectural kind on the University of South Dakota campus at Vermillion. The appearance may be an artifact of the alumni publication or the computer generated image. Whatever..the new student center looks like a dog's vomited breakfast.
Click on image for a larger view. Source the recent USD Alumni News. This looks like something from Grotesque HodgePodge School of Architecture... Toss together the plans for a confinement hoghouse add on a nursing home design, toss in an exposed stairway and something from the plans of a highschool gymnasium and hot lunch food service....mix in a large nonsense block of decorative brick and WOW!! Your perspective might be better and/or much different than mine, but sticking this building on the same campus with Old Main seems like architectural graffiti or vandalism

. **Stay tuned even if a blog is just a house of pixels blowing in the wind--- Doug Wiken

**Nova runs the Mega Volcano show again

Sure seemed like I had seen some of the NOVA program broadcast tonight before.  I started to see hits on Dakota Today from Google searches for "Lake Toba".

Anyway, tonight I saw the whole NOVA program, but if you want to see the Dakota Today post made
months ago, check

Dakota Today on NOVA's MegaVolcano Show Sept 26, 2006

Breathing sulphuric acid and volcanic ash glass particles is not good for your health. Hope we have no immediate surprise Mega Volcano in the neighborhood such as Yellowstone.

Anyway.. interesting show, but now and then Public Broadcasting "detective-type" shows scientific, historical, whatever take an inordinate amount of time to get to the point. "Building suspense in Science Reporting" is kind of an oxymoronic phrase.
**Stay tuned as we build suspense in the wait for real SD news such as SD Democratic women whining about Tom Daschle endorsing Sen. Obama who will not be the next woman president-- Doug Wiken

**Gore Endorsement of Sen. Obama Reversed by US Supreme Court

You may have heard already that Al Gore endorsed Sen. Obama as the Democratic presidential nominee.

What you may not have heard about this is what the US Supreme Court did today regarding that endorsement.

Check The Really Serious News for the latest:

Really Serious News on Gore Endorsement Reversal

Ya, I know we should get over the theft of an election.  Just look what the 5-4 partisan court decision gave us.  Well on second thought....

Maybe the actual real news is good enough.  Obama is on the move.  I think we have some hope of reversing the dreadful mistakes of the Bush adminstrations and their aiders and abettors.

***Stay tuned, one of these days there may actually be another real News Flash--- Doug Wiken

**Newt Gingrich..still crazy after all these years..and wives

I did not catch all of Newt Gingrich going ballistic this morning on ABC or CBS morning blather, but below from the Huffington Post is what I mostly heard, but with a few of the HP poster's comments included.

Reacting to the recent decision of the Supreme Court of the United States of America - who recently affirmed, by 5-4 decision, our Constitutional rights of due process of law, accorded by the 14th Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America - former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich came visibly unglued, and called the decision the worst since Dred Scott.
 GINGRICH: I will say, I think the recent Supreme Court decision to turn over to a local district judge decisions of national security and life and death that should be made by the president and the congress is the most extraordinarily arrogant and destructive decision the Supreme Court has made in it's history.
REID: In it's history?
GINGRICH: In it's history. Worse than Dred Scott, for the following reason: The court has now knowingly stepped in, this morning's newspaper say, smugglers had actually gotten the design of a nuclear weapon, that we now have the evidence that people out there had a nuclear weapon design. And this court is saying that any random district judge, based on whatever their personal caprice is, whatever their personal ideological bias, can intervene with a terrorist in such a way. Gingrich went on to slam Obama for supporting the decision. "The problem with Obama is that he's wrong...He applauded this court decision. This court decision is a disaster and it could cost us a city." Then Gingrich referred to district judges - all of them! - as "nutcake."

Naturally, it's Gingrich, and Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who are nutcake, and I wonder if I can sum up why that is any better then the headline of a recent post on Jezebel: "According to Scalia, People Only Get Rights When There's Nothing At Stake." Nope! Turns out I could not have possibly said it better! http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/06/15/gingrich-rails-at-supreme_n_107214.html http://snipurl.com/2iz4c

Are we going to have months of the same old same old crap from the Republican noise machine? After years of Gingrich in Congress and Shrub in the White House as a consequence of the gullible believing these raving loons, one might expect this kind of inflated rhetoric would not go unchallenged by press and people who are normal.
***Stay tuned even if it might not rain tomorrow and Newt's sky might not fall as the result of a court decision suggesting the constitution means something despite Bush smoke and mirrors about a unitary presidency immune to logic, facts, history, congress, and courts-- Doug Wiken

**More about Tim Russert than we ever wanted to know

We have no NBC affiliated TV station in the area, so any thing about Tim Russert is usually from a secondary source if I see it.  I probably saw more of Lawrence Spivak than Tim Russert.  Since Russert died, CBS and ABC "news divisions" have had a lot of coverage of Russert which seemed a bit hypocritical since he was their competitor in some ways.  Interesting however in the spill out of the news is the incestuous nature of Washington, DC and NY TV media.  Husbands and wives, sons and daughters all with different last names, but all related even if in different networks and organizations.

I didn't see enough of Russert to have many positive or negative feelings about him.  But, hearing that somebody younger than yourself croaks while working catches my attention at least   Anyway, a blogger indicates a little bit of tiredness of All Russert all The Time.

 

Accidental Blogger on All Russert All the Time

The Accidental Blogger site looks interesting even if some news media types might describe the above linked comment there a bit on the "cranky" side.

Celebrity news and celebrity newscasters and their incestuous relationships with other parts of the corporate media and government certainly distort and avert attention from real news.

*** Stay tuned even if you prefer the old media to the this new media---- Doug Wiken