Dakota Today

**Pleasant Surprise last night...No Cover No Minimum

I really have a very low tolerance for "music" mumbled or garbled with strange vocal qualities and lyrics comprehensible only if TV captions are on and which seem to be a common denominator of the trash hyped on most CBS morning shows and unfortunately with most late night TV shows.

 Having seen nearly every Lawrence Welk show a half dozen times by now, even bubbly music sung clearly has gotten old.

 But, last night on SDPB was a pleasant surprise. The group East of Westreville was on SDPB TV "No Cover, No Minimum" show. Good lively and crystal clear with what sounded to my aged and less than perfectly tuned ears to be beautiful harmony and always understandable lyrics. Take a look at what is apparently their web site.  Better photos there than those I took of the TV screen.
 Comfort Theater -- East of Westreville
If you did not hear the show or even if you did, you might want to buy their CD.

 The regulars..apparently Brian Bonde, Kaija Bonde, Boyd Bristow, and Al Slaathaug were joined on a few numbers by Owen DeJong of SDPB classical music playing "fiddle" and Bruce Preheim playing harmonica. Most of the songs were familiar or of the kind you could sing along with if one does not mind embarrassing oneself in the privacy of one's own living room.

 I was surprised to hear that Norma Brick Samuelson was Kaija Bonde's mother and her grandfather was Norman Westre of you guessed it Westerville. It has been around 50 years ago that I and a childhood friend decided we should ride our old balloon tire bicycles about 7 miles to Westerville to buy some firecrackers around July 4. I think our 4-H club may have played a game or two of softball in that area. My parents, grandparents, and some uncles are buried in a nearby cemetery now.

And, after all these years I finally put the family name "Westre" together with "Westreville?"  even though "Westerville" shows up on SD maps. I wondered as a child what it was "wester" of anyway. The 1985 Wakonda Centennial Book has a few stories or articles about Lodi and Westerville and also the cemeteries near there. The "Norma Brick" and "Bob Samuelson" names perked up my ears since they were involved with Democratic politics back in the days when I did a little more than just bitch about politicians here at Dakota Today.

 

**Stay tuned even if you can't carry a tune--- Doug Wiken

**Buyer's remorse: Biden over Hillary

Wow, listening to the Sabbath Gasbags today, there seems to be a lot of buyer's remorse about the Obama selection of Joe Biden as Vice President compared with the Sen. Clinton option.

 It should be noted that most of it came from George Will and Rudy Giuliani and in ads presented by the McCain campaign of many houses. George Will was spinning the terribleness of the Biden selection until there was the smell of burned rubber around him today on ABC. Giuliani was on as well in an interview and he seemed terribly concerned about the Biden selection and the impact on the Democratic Party.

 I was truly surprised by his compassion for Democrats and Hillary. I suspect it will not last past the GOP convention however. And, on second thought, maybe Rudy Judy's concern for Hillary not getting on the ticket may have had something to do with both Hillary and Rudy being from New York state. This all appears to be a tempest in a teapot to me and not a bit like the T. Boone Pickens tempest in a teapot dome.

 There seems to be an inordinate amount of unchallenged silliness on Sunday morning and not all of it is in the Sunday sermons.

 We will know soon enough how the Obama-Biden combination works. At least their names are both short enough they will make for good signs and bumperstickers. Maybe by the time the GOP convention comes around, John McCain will remember how many bedrooms or at least houses he has slept in with his very rich trophy wife.

 

*** Stay tuned the conventions will be over in literally a few days.

**What I have not seen in news about the Vehicle registration screwups

Apparently the new South Dakota vehicle registration system has some problems.  TV and newspapers have primarily focused on long lines of people and perturbed county treasurers finding the wrong fees being charged or totaled by the system and then also finding their revenue may be counted by the state system as going to another county or elsewhere.

South Dakota Governor Rounds says programmers are working 24-7.  We all know that is a lie or gross exageration unless they are on illegal drugs and that might explain the problems, but I really doubt that is the answer.

But, what haven't we read or seen?  For one (which I may have missed) is why is this new system is needed and what does it do better (or what is it supposed to do better) than the old system which worked? 

Also, is this new data system a proprietary system purchased from some software outfit, or is it an in house programming masterpiece?  If proprietary commercial software, has that company or officials contributed to Rounds elections?  Hunted pheasants with Mike and his dog?  If it is in-house, who designed the system?  What were the specifications? 

I do know that the computer dudes on SD public radio Friday Midday program did not want to answer even a generic non-accusatory question about the vehicle registration mess.  Might be they would rather discuss the latest game or cellphone, but usually they rise above that a bit.

ETC, ETC....it does not appear that our so-called mainstream media is asking tough questions or they assume we already know the answers to these.  If you have more information, let me and any readers here in on the information.

[On edit:] Noticed I had spelled vehicle more than one way.  Note Cory Heidelberger comment on Mainframe Abandoned; Chaos Ensues and also who vetoed a web site of SD Gov't information...[End edit July 13, 2008]

***Stay tuned and be glad you don't have to stand in a long line to read Dakota Today--- 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

**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