Dakota Today

*** Representative Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin "Stands Tall for South Dakotans"

Whether or not about 600,000 South Dakotans actually think Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin actually represents them or some group of rich and influential “stake holders” in the Health Insurance industry seems to be an open question.  Whatever we do think, some lobbyist group is loading SD TV with ads claiming SHS is “Standing Tall for South Dakotans”.

My perspective on her standing tall has little to do with left or right, liberal or conservative or even up or down, but with her rank opportunism.



I did not hear the same radio broadcasts that Todd Epp heard and commented on his blog  at KELOLAND Issues Blogs  because both SDPB radio and TV have been off the air in the daytime out here in the boondocks.   I did read the column Herseth-Sandlin got into the Mitchell Daily Republic and did not find it persuasive or even setting a plausible reason for opposing the plans to change health insurance.

There is one good reason to oppose it and that is not Herseth-Sandlin’s reason, but is that the current proposals are a hodge-podge of bandages on a wasteful system that sucks out something like $395 billion in insurance profits and overhead from actual health care.   George McGovern has presented the only real reform of health insurance that makes any sense.

That is "Extend Medicare to every US Citizen”.  That is not nearly 2,000 pages of ways to allow private insurers to ration health care with no regard for patients or their doctors, but with full regard for their own profits and incredible executive salaries.

"Medicare for all citizens" is the only idea that makes sense if one ignores the totally deceptive TV ads fussing about government control of health. This is not government control of health nor is it corporate control of health. It is health insurance for all something the US has needed for over 50 years. Herseth and Blue Dog Democrats of Blue Dog crap fame have not presented a real health reform package any better than the secret GOP plan (remember Nixon's secret plan to end the Vietnam War?).

Those wanting to get the government off their health-care backs are inviting continued economic gang rape by corporations.  Thomas Friedman suggests that the lack of universal health care is the result of cowardice on the part of legislators in the face of corporate contributions or well-funded attack ads.  They are not pushing for optimal government policy instead weakly push for suboptimal policies.  They make little attempt to educate and inform on the real potential of policies and instead say upfront without discussion that such options are "off the table". The lack of universal health insurance separated from employment is also killing start up of innovative small business.  He concluded today on Charlie Rose with something like, "A great nation producing sub-optimal policies will soon cease to be a great nation."

The other problem with this “reform” that Herseth-Sandlin is not mentioning is that it will be used as an excuse to not actually reform heathcare with a universal single payer system.

*** Stay tuned even if you are perfectly happy with sub-optimal politicians and policies --- Doug Wiken

**Herseth-Sandlin and Blue Dogs make Blug Dog Crap

Rep. Herseth-Sandlin again demonstrates that the primary work product of Blue Dog Democrats is blue dog shit. 

Rep. Herseth-Sandlin talks like she represents people when she campaigns here in South Dakota, but when she gets to DC, she isn’t Democratic or Republican, she is 100% opportunist. She claims voting against the Health "Reform" Bill because of the budget impact, but did not consider that for the Iraq war and the other Bush loads of crap she supported. Her explanations for votes here in SD are convenient even if likely totally false responses suitable only for plausible denial

She forgets South Dakota real people in DC and remembers only corporations which dump money by the truckload into politics. In a way she is worse than a Republican since she portrays herself as something better. Her motormouth blithering blather is camouflage for a totally empty political perspective that is overwhelmed by reptilian brained  political survival. Her voting and explanations are an insult to any thinking Democrat or Republican.

The real problem with "Democratic" political hacks like Herseth-Sandlin is that they add credibility to the regressives of the right wing in the GOP party and implicitly support the manure spreader load of policy myths that have never worked and will never work.  By appealing to the lowest most ignorant wing of the GOP she makes the work of real Democrats in South Dakota even harder than it would be without her.  She has had a great opportunity to help educate South Dakotans on the failure of GOP policies and the workability of liberal alternatives and failed completely.

I fully understand that politicians have to get elected to do anything, but when they do get elected and then act as if the only thing important is to get re-elected, they demonstrate only opportunistic cowardice.   They fail to do a good part of the job that actual statesmen labor on educating and informing and they and she also make that honorable task even harder.

Obama has fallen victim to the idea that the current "middle" of the political spectrum in Washington actually stands for something besides the current muddle of a status quo  that works like a fascist combination of government and corporations.  The GOP now is skewed so far to the regressive backward right that they have made themselves as irrelevant as 17th century Tories in the US.  The Blue Dog Democrats are about an inch to the left of that GOP regression now and then and should be made irrelevant by a hard-nosed Obama driving for something better than mere but expensive patches on the current muddle.

Obama wasn't elected to further change of the small kind that rattles around in your pocket with car keys.  Washington is fundamentally screwed up and utterly corrupted by corporate money.  Herseth-Sandlin is making herself part of the problem instead of part of the solution.

If she opposed the cobbled-together 1900-page health care bill because it is a fraud designed only to bankroll a legacy insurance industry no more viable than a buggy whip plant, she might make some sense.  Supporting the McGovern "Make Medicare available to every citizen plan"  would make her into another prairie statesman instead of just another teat on the boar pig gluttony represented by the congressional status quo.

*** Stay tuned for more on the crying need for political campaign financing --- Doug Wiken

** About a half dozen reasons for Single-Payer Health Insurance

A site has found some of the salaries of the bigwigs in the health insurance industry.  It appears these greedy SOBs are very good reasons for Single Payer insurance of the kind George McGovern supported: "Extend Medicare to every US Citizen."

Insurance Executive Salaries

Our Congress Critters have spent the summer putting together a 1000 or more pages of a bill that does nothing but patch the corrupt health insurance industry with bandages designed to camouflage their excess, obscene greed so that not quite so many egregious denials of coverage exist.

The logic of all these patches does not lead logically to "a public option" as a pitiful small part of another huge industry subsidy, but rather to a public option as the only option allowed. Insurance companies can suck money out of us by providing supplemental coverage similar to those for current medicare program for those of us "lucky" enough to be over 65. Again,  Ask yourself:

• Do you love your family?
• Do you love your insurance company and these executives?

Take your pick.

** Stay tuned, and if you are bored, total up the salaries of the listed insurance company executives--- Doug Wiken

** Health Insurance reform...One side lying the other not telling the truth

I may be paranoid, but I have stopped believing either Democrats or Republicans in Congress are actually one bit interested in real reform of health insurance and thus in directly in the long run also reform of the US Healthcare industry.  The title of this post is from the site below.

Chris Floyd's Description of the "fighting" sides

Some health insurance industry group dumped a report into the media and Congress claiming there will be huge increases in health insurance premiums. Democrats in Congress pounced on that and claimed it was a good reason to support their "reform"

My paranoia suggests this is a ploy. The Democrats can play Br'er Rabbit pleading "Don't throw me into that Briar Patch". Democrats can play this game as they support anything but a single payer system which might actually reduce citizen's spending on healthcare even as it is extended to everybody ala Medicare which now works mostly only for those of us over 65.

CBS News has been taking surveys over a period of time on the "public option" (which I think should be the only option).

---------------------------------------

CBS News Poll. Oct. 5-8, 2009

"Would you favor or oppose the government offering everyone a government-administered health insurance plan -- something like the Medicare coverage that people 65 and older get -- that would compete with private health insurance plans?"

Date...........Favor Oppose Unsure

                    %         %            %

10/5-8/09      62      31           7

9/19-23/09    65        26          9

8/27-31/09     60       34         6

7/24-28/09     66        27        7

7/9-12/09       64        29        7

6/12-16/09     72        20        8

----------------------------------

Note that the support for the "public option" has decreased somewhat because of all the industry propaganda much of it also spewed by Max Baucus who claims to be reform as he produces a plan guaranteeing no real reform, but rather a 1000 page bill that is actually a huge bandage to cover up fraud and deceit and waste in the current system even as it maintains the virtual monopoly of corporate health insurance.. Despite that, support for a public option is still above 50%.

And, if you want another measure of the reason why we should accept nothing but the single-payer universal care approach in the one-line "McGovern Bill"..

"Extend Medicare to every US Citizen"

take a look at the link below which explains a bit about the health insurance system congress generously provides itself at the expense of us taxpayers.

CBS TV explains the Healthcare Plan Congress Gives Itself

And remember, When you hear that this reform involves six percent or more of the US economy, that refers to actual health care not the health insurance industry itself.

*** Stay tuned for more winter of discontent ---- Doug Wiken

Who put the bomp .... Who put the "Con" in Congress?

* No, it is not music. It is the sound of a lot of health insurance industry money oiling the palms of those who pretend to represent those of us who are not rich. Bill Moyers a night or two ago indicated that the health insurance industry has spent $350 Million on deceptive ads, lobbying, and political contributions since the idea of "health reform" gained currency (no pun intended).

* Max Hocus Baucus,  Democrat of Montana has sucked several $million out of the health industry and apparently something in the neighborhood of a million in this last go round. He is in charge of making sure no public option or single payer system comes out of congress as he smiles and talks about reform.

* George McGovern in a talk in Winner, SD recently responded to a question of mine regarding the complexity of society and issues wondering how many congress critters were actually capable of comprehending what they claim to be doing. McGovern politely danced around that and implicitly indicating the problems in Congress were not mainly due to ignorance or mental deficiency, but rather to the nearly incomprehensible amounts of money flooding incumbents of Senate and US Congress. He expressed some sympathy for them suggesting that they were not now really free agents. I guess in terms more of us less politic might say, " Our congress critters have become political prostitutes. They are bought and paid for with multimillion campaign "contributions".

* We have recently had most of the South Dakota delegation Sen. Johnson, Sen Thune, and Representative Herseth-Sandlin back here in South Dakota pretending to really, really be interested in the concerns of people burned and bankrupted by health problems and problems with health insurance. Then they go back to Washington and build a 1000-page incomprehensible bill which is claimed to be reform, but is really a boondoggle stimulus package for the health insurance and health industry.

* Our representatives talk to us a bit like did George Carlin when he gave the sports scores," 10-7, 24- 8, 6 -1 and a partial score 14.

" Our representatives Democratic and Republican are feeding us partial scores that only include bits and pieces of what the health insurance industry wants us to hear. There are a few lonely voices, but they are few and far between. The Republicans who oppose health care reform are mostly not doing it because they want something better, but because the status quo, fouled up as it is, benefits their largest contributors.

*Democrats in Congress who fail to listen to George McGovern's prescription for a single line bill, "Extend Medicare to every Citizen" are failing to comprehend the benefits to the Democratic Party and the country of that best single payer option. If Obama and Democrats pass such a bill, the Republican Party will be a small voice crying in the wilderness for the next 40 years.

*The GOP has opposed nearly every program that benefited everyday people including most of us South Dakotans. Had Republicans won on the REA, The RTA, hydro power development, farm policy, Medicare and Medicaid, and social security, South Dakota would be dark every night at dusk with sick poverty stricken elderly huddling in the cold without washing machines, TV or radio. South Dakota would be even more like a third-world country than it is now.

*Add opposition to an efficient universal health insurance plan and the GOP will be not just an empty bag of tricks, but a vacuum-packed empty bag. The current steaming pile of amendments and patches for a defective system is worse than nothing. If the smoke and mirrors congress passes this "reform", we will be hearing for the next 20 years if we live that long that "We just reformed health insurance." even as the industry demonstrates that it is all just a new bit of sham legislation to raid the US Treasury and still leave millions uninsured.

* The putrid stench from Washington regarding health insurance "reform" is a powerful reason to ban all poitical contributions and have only publicly-fiananced campaigns. I don't think our political prostitutes should be allowed to accept so much as a free cup of coffee from constituents or lobbyists.

* Big money makes democracy irrelevant. Throw the Democratic and Republican bums out. Drag the money changers out of our political "temples".  Much is yet to be done.

*** Stay tuned for the partial weather report --- Doug Wiken

**McGovern and Abourezk preach to the Choir in Winner, SD and we applaud

The political odd couple made it to Winner, SD and were lucky enough to get here for the first bit of sunshine and decent weather in several days.  Abourezk, the former bartender, and McGovern, the son of a preacher man, are traveling around SD doing good things for the Heidepriem for Governor campaign.  Abourezk noted that he did have to watch his language at bit.  I think McGovern has become a little liberated from the bounds of usual bland political responses.  I guess when you get to 87 and are still out trying to do some good in the US and World that you get a bit of a license to speak more freely.  I won't repeat the better comments here, but they were refreshing to hear.

I got a few photos, but I really must get a better digital camera with a real optical telephoto lens.  Below is George McGovern and local yellow dog Democrat Pete Duffy.

Got to give both these guys credit for getting out to a meeting like this.  McGovern has been on a very long political trail mostly as a prairie statesman for around 50 years and Pete apparently had some serious recent surgery.  Puts a couple of faces on the current medical coverage discussion.

The real point of the evening was to push the Scott Heidepiem for Governor of South Dakota, but like all Democratic meetings, there was a bit of rambling.  Both Abourezk and McGovern hammered on the idea that near one-party control of State Government is not good for South Dakota.  South Dakota's reputation for good government is disappearing as no bid contracts and tie ins between University Presidents and corporations with an agenda are excepted as nothing out of the ordinary by Republican leaders.  They have become so accustomed to control that they seem oblivious to conflicts of interest.

McGovern noted that when he got started in SD politics around 1953, there were about 2 Democrats out of over a hundred legislators.  It was a 2-party government situation, but not the right kind.

It is not that bad now, but not good enough to be good for either the Democratic Party or the Republican Party.

Below is one of my fuzzier less than focused photos of Jim Abourezk and Marian Jorgensen.

Abourezk hit the no-bid contracts in South Dakota.  Something like 1800 of them.  Maybe that explains tax increases without evidence of increased good government or governance.  He mentioned Lawrence and Schiller getting a $12,000,000 no bid contract.  He tossed in some interesting ethics-related facts on Joel Dykstra and Pres. Chicoine of SUSD and his sweetheart connections with Monsanto.

Abourezk has been a lawyer for those opposing the Hyperion oil refinery and related some interesting facts related to that.

McGovern hopes people will again realize that the Democratic Party is the Party that is on the side of everyday people just as he realized it years ago even if his own parents never grew out of their Republicanism.

McGovern listed programs that Democrats have pushed and Republicans in Congress have opposed.  Had Republicans gotten their way, there would be no rural electricity, no rural telephones, and no social security or medicare.  South Dakota would be a literally dark, sick, poverty-stricken area even worse than it is now had not Democrats succeeded.  I have to mention however that Abourezk still thinks the US Senate is a "chickenshit outfit" and is perhaps even worse now because so many Democrats seem to have lost courage and perspective and a willingness to educate voters as they hold their wet fingers to the political wind.

  I asked McGovern a question in the general nature of, "With the incredible complexity of society and government, what percentage of current congress does he think are actually sharp enough to honestly grasp issues or do they mostly just parrot on the basis of ideology?

McGovern did not directly answer that, but his response was dead-on any way and interesting.  McGovern noted that in his first campaign for Congress, he spent $12,000.  Now campaigns burn up millions of dollars.  Here in SD, Abourezk noted that Daschle-Thune both put in around $20 million.  Thune won, Daschle lost.

The demands for campaign funds occupy significant time for current congress..perhaps 2 or more days out of each week reserved for fund raising.  This greatly reduces time for study and work, but also in McGovern's perspective makes congressmen less than free agents.  He didn't skip from "kept men" to political prostitutes, but from my perspective we are there already.  The current situation of campaigns and money cries out for public funding of campaigns.

McGovern was also on the George and James excellent adventure to push his book on Abraham Lincoln.  His royalties are going into a fund for study of alcohol and abuse...a project given his attention because of the tragic life and death of one of his daughters.  I waited a bit too long in line to get the last autographed copy.  McGovern signed a few dozen books.

McGovern gave a good short talk on Lincoln's accomplishments despite his own depression and the civil war.  Guess we should get the book.  Will have to follow up on that...perhaps if we get an interview with Senator McGovern for Dakota Today sometime in the near future.  Abourezk got him to talk a bit about his WWII experience.   I think I will discuss that in a post tomorrow.

It was a pretty good night for Democrats in Winner, SD October 3, 2009, ..well at least for some of us with too much gray hair. Abourezk teased one of his old Winner Republican friends with a telephone call saying there were about 150 of us, but it is a sad fact that the export of educated young people from South Dakota is having an impact on every kind of social and political organization in rural areas.  The group was more like 40 than 150.   Years ago, I noted that Janklow's policy could seem to be summed up in "Import garbage and export graduates."  Unfortunately, that has not changed.

It really is time for a resurgence of Democrats in South Dakota.  Maybe Jim Abourezk and George McGovern, old war horses that they are, can help get Scott Heidepreim into a position where South Dakota can move forward again for all of us instead of just the privileged and connected few.

*** Stay tuned for the old political ramblings and rumblings of someone who worked first on the McGovern campaign in Rapid City, SD in 1961 or 1962---- Doug Wiken

** McGovern and Abourezk to visit Winner, SD

An ad in the local Winner Paper and a robo call from "James Abourezk" let us know that former US Senators George McGovern and Jim Abourezk will be at the Tripp County Courthouse in Winner, SD Saturday October 3, 2009 at 7:00 PM CDT.

This should be an interesting meeting even if it is to hype the  Scott Heidepriem 

campaign for Governor of South Dakota.  Kevin Woster wrote a column about the event for Heidepriem with McGovern and Abourezk at SDSM&T several days ago.  I can't find a link for that.  Guess I will have to dig the snail mail version out of the pile and see if I can find it.  I hope we can ask the two Senators a few questions.

I wonder if Abourezk still views the US Senate as  "a chickenshit outfit".

The Democratic performance in the House and Senate busily turning "reform" of health insurance into a bunch of bandaids and subsidies to protect the profits and jobs of executives in the health and health insurance industries strongly suggests that "chickenshit" outfit might still be a perfectly appropriate description. 

** Stay tuned, but there is enough wind in South Dakota that you really don't need any of mine for a day or two--- Doug Wiken

**Shades of Nixon's tape machine and Rosemary Woods in Oklahoma

Sounds like the ghost of Rosemary Woods was running the cameras in Oklahoma the day the Murrah Federal Office Building was bombed with 4000 pounds of fertilizer and diesel fuel in 1995.

Mysteriously, the security tapes have a gap prior to the explosion, but also mysteriously are on again at 9:02.

Read the story of the released tapes from Oklahoma here:

Chron. AP Oklahoma Report 

Don't miss the connection between the guy who finally got the tapes and his brother who was allegedly beaten to death by prison guards who mistakenly thought he had some connection to the bombing.  That cost taxpayers another $Million or so.

If Rosemary Woods is a mystery to you, take a look at the Nixon Library info:

Nixon Library info on Rosemary Woods

I don't really know what to make of this conspiracy plot material. Some commenters at the story suggested it is part of the "mushroom treatment". If that term is a mystery to you, check:

An Optimist on "the mushroom treatment"

I remember the day primarily because our children were home from school that day because we had something between 20 and 40 inches of snow.  At first I thought the TV was showing some movie footage as part of the detective show regularly broadcast then.

** Stay tuned for fresher conspiracy theory..or maybe not --- Doug Wiken

** George McGovern on Sensible Health Insurance Reform

Former US Senator from South Dakota, George S. McGovern has written a good guest editorial column that has appeared in a number of places including the Mitchell Daily Republic.  I have copied it as a continuation of this post.  It is worth reading.

McGovern says the simplest most cost effective approach is to extend Medicare to everybody.  He notes that the health insurance industry siphons out "$450 Billion" from the money paid for actual healthcare.  That would be a significant saving even if it meant some insurance tycoons might need to find other employment.

***Stay tuned and read the McGovern Column in the continuation --- Doug Wiken

** SD Focus seemed to be loaded with insurance and Medical profit supporters

I saw most of the SD Focus show on SDPB-TV this evening (Sept 10, 2009).  I got the impression that the panel was loaded with advocates for the current mess favored by the insurance companies and the most shortsighted elements of the medical professionals intent on maintaining the essential doctor-patient's billfold relationship.  Perhaps I missed something.

The lone voice of reality seemed to come from a caller wondering aloud what was so terrible about Medicare, Veterans medical, and federal employee tri-care perhaps.  That call produced a flood of the same unconvincing GOP and Blue Dog Democrat double talk we have already had dumped on us.

Single payer is the only system that makes any sense.  All the patching, baling wire, and bandaids being discussed to fix the present system have created a huge proposed bill and inordinate complexity and needless expense and even greater executive windfall salaries will be the result.  George McGovern has the solution in just a few words: "Extend Medicare and Medicaid to everybody."   That won't take a 1000 page bill. 

Get the private insurers out of the money pipeline and there will be an almost immediate savings of 30% or so on healthcare.

The only real solution is being talked around and we are getting the mushroom treatment from our Congress Critters because they get too damn much money from the insurance, banks, and health industries.

*** Stay tuned and stay healthy--- Doug Wiken