Dakota Today

*** Wired Magazine discovers the Obama Brain Trust, or You can go anywhere from here

Probably not too much is surprising in this story to semi-aware South Dakotans paying any attention to the Democratic primary in South Dakota and nationally.
 Wired Magazine on Obama Brain Trust

[Followup edit based on Al Tabor comment.  The story is not at Wired site, but at the Rolling Stone site.  Sorry about that screwup and thanks to AT for the correction]

 The Daschle "machine" is embedded in the Obama brain trust. I suppose Rove, et al will start attacking Sen. Obama because he doesn't have South Dakota values...whatever they are. Thune apparently thinks his family values are superior to those of all Democrats in South Dakota. Wonder how McCain and company will be able to spin family values this election.

The Daschle "machine" might have a better plan for that now than they did when Daschle lost in South Dakota.

 

**Stay tuned, there will be a South Dakota influence in the White House..and hint: It won't be John Thune--- Doug Wiken

**Heat plus corn, but no popping just bad jokes and old Republicans

Okay, I have stolen a joke from the newsletter South Dakota Magazine sends out now and then:

Feeling the Heat

This summer's scorching heat elicted some of the craziest "How hot is it?" jokes we've heard in years. The best was about three Swedes who settled on the Great Plains — one in South Dakota, one in North Dakota and the third in Canada. Many years later, all three happened to die on the same day, so their families decided to cremate them together. The Canadian became ashes in an hour. The North Dakotan was reduced to ashes in two hours. After three days in the fire, the South Dakotan poked his head out and said, "You know, another week of this heat and we won't have much of a corn crop."

—Excerpted from South Dakota's Best Stories

Reminds me of a story my father told about one of the really, really hardcore Republicans back in the days of  Franklin D. Roosevelt.  The Republican forever at whatever cost  lived in the Volin, South Dakota area..  The neighbor swore that even if he had to go to the corn crib for breakfast, he would never, ever vote for FDR, or any other Democrat ,  or ever support a "new deal" even if it would make him rich.

There might be a few fewer of that kind of South Dakota Republican left around, but I suppose that if there were none, we would be telling jokes about how cold it is in Hell.

***Stay tuned, a cooling front is said to be moving in by KELO weathermen, and we know they are never wrong.............about the temperature in Hell--- Doug Wiken

** The Power of Prepositions

A couple of phrases or sentences indicating the power of prepositions..among other things.

We have all heard "Government of the people, by the people, and for the people."

Another that a few politicians should also remember might be:

"Freedom of religion requires both freedom for religion and freedom from religion."

And, a few posts ago, I reported on the death of a high school teacher of mine.  Today, I heard
of the death of another high school friend and classmate:  Patrick W. Collins whose obituary in the Yankton, SD P&D is under the name  "Pat Collins".  He will be buried  at 3:00 p.m. MDT, Wednesday, July 2, at Black Hills National Cemetery in Sturgis, SD.  Pat put in many years serving us in the US Military.

It was a small high school class at Wakonda, SD.  A death in the class means about a 4% drop in the original graduated population.

**Stay tuned and hang in there-- Doug Wiken

**PUMA but not a Wildcat or Mountain Lion in Sight

If you have paid a bit of attention to the Democratic Presidential primary, you have probably been hearing from the media gasbags about the terrible split in the Democratic Party.  Irate supporters of one of the losers, that being Sen. Hillary Clinton, are claimed to be hellbent on supporting Sen. John McCain.  This sure makes good press even if it makes no sense whatsoever.

There are even claims of a PUMA group which has nothing to do with wildcats or mountain lions, but with irate Hillary supporters. PUMA is apparently an acronym for "Party Unity My Ass".  There is even a PAC apparently organized on the idea that Hillary supporters are so bitter and vindictive they will vote for Sen. McCain.

Well, somebody has done some digging on one of these groups.  It appears that it was started by a McCain contributor, but there are already guesses it is a shill group for a shill group allowing GOP claims that it was actually a Democratic plot.  What a twisted web is tangled by the media now and then.  Anyway, take a look at the site below:

Pandagon on Pumas are "swiftboats There you will find more on this story:

I've been suspicious from the beginning about the existence of "PUMAs": Female Clinton supporters who are so bitter about her loss that they will throw equal pay, reproductive rights, the environment, and a chance at peace under the bus to get their revenge by voting for McCain. I'm skeptical even though they show up in comment threads all over the internet, claiming they're real. I'm skeptical even though they wrote Rebecca Traister letters claiming that they exist. I believe that the Republicans are cheerful rat-fuckers and therefore would not hesitate to set up a secretive operation of people running around claiming to be Clinton voters who are voting for McCain to keep the legend of the PUMAs alive. If you can convince people that there are PUMAs, then you accomplish two giant goals for the McCain campaign:

Some documentation at the site pulled from the required filings of PAC groups, etc. Take a look for more information. Probably not the kind of thing that will gladden the hearts of those heartsick about the odds for Sen. McCain nor support the idea that there are a lot of real PUMAs out there. ***Stay tuned and check old posts here for information on actual mountain lions-- Doug Wiken