South Dakota Position Papers or South Dakota Public Propaganda Organization Online.
--------------------- Take your pick "Position Papers" or "Public Propaganda"...may be a mixture of both.

 
NOTICE---- Now you can join a "CoolList" e-mail group set up for these blogs

As an experiment, I set up an e-mail group using a CoolList. You can join by entering
your e-mail address at left and then click on "subscribe". That will allow you to post
comments on posts you find in these blog sites. I and anybody else who subscribes
this way will get an e-mail with your post. I am moderating the group howvever and
obscene or overly insulting e-mails will be deleted rather than sent to all subscribers.

Take advantage of the option. You can unsubscribe at any time.
posted by Douglas at 10:17 PM

 
Political TV ad that is a real ZINGER

I still have not seen the disclaimer that indicates who paid for the TV ad, but it goes a bit like this.
Here in SD one of the GOP candidates for Governor is just plain rich. His family made a chunk of
money as Western Surety...I think...sold that. Now he invests his money. He is talking a lot about
being a conservative Republican who will add 50,000 good jobs to the SD economy. That would be
a major accomplishment in a state with only about 700,000 people...most already employed, or too
old or young to work, or living on an Indian Reservation with no intention of ever working.

Back to the TV ad. It starts with a quick indication of some of the above information. Then says,
But, Steve Kirby has invested his money in California, Indiana, etc... A US map on screen with
bold arrows indicating flow of money from Sioux Falls, SD to a lot of points a long ways away. The
screen and voice indicates Kirby has invested $200 Million around the US, but only 1/10th of it in
South Dakota. And then the ZINGER. If you want to see the jobs Steve Kirby has created, you
better buy some airline tickets.

I kind of appreciate any ads that really stick a knife into the campaign of any Republican since we
so many totally distorted and unfair attacks on Democrat candidates and officials here; but this is
about the first TV political ad I have seen that generated a pretty good chuckle...well maybe even a
bit of a good belly laugh. I would think the Steve Kirby team is probably not feeling really very well
today. ----------------- Douglas A. Wiken (c)2002.

posted by Douglas at 7:54 AM

 
COMMENT--- Small Conclusion (perhaps incorrect) from a Narrow Perspective

Living in the boondocks, some car repairs require driving or
hauling vehicles about 155 miles. Yesterday I herded one of
our clunkers to a transmission shop in Yankton, SD. It had
been rebuilt there, but not satisfactorily.

Anyway, a trip there usually meant a stop at a Staples store in
the small Yankton Mall. They had some computer stuff. I think
that store had been open for about 2 years. Yesterday, sign
in front said "Closing in 10 days". The store was nearly bare
of all comuter equipment, desks, etc. Some stationery products
remained. They would not take any checks.

The Walmart store there has had some computer equipment in
the past. Printers, scanners, computer packages and accessories
like cables, paper etc. Yesterday about all they were selling
related to computers were the accessories such as cables,
floppy disks, etc.

Not sure if such things indicate much about the whole US economy,
but they don't look like really good indicators for the economy in
more rural parts of America still significantly related to agricultural
economy.

Of course, this observation may be not all that significant since
it obviously does not represent a conclusion based on broad
statistical analysis of a lot of data from a lot of places.
posted by Douglas at 7:37 AM

 
COMMENT-- Can you say "overkill"?

I just heard that a couple of state prison inmates here in South Dakota got 20 year sentences in a federal court for terrrorism. That'll teach those taxpayers about building excess prison space. It seems that these fools sent from prison a letter or letters written in blood and containing a
powdery substance. The letters made terrible threats to the judges or whomever, including that the letters contained anthrax spores.

It would seem fair to ask a couple of questions here. 1) How did such letters get sent from the SD Prison? 2) If they were sent from the prison, why would anybody take the threats seriously?

Anyway, these not too bright guys have the 20-year federal prison terms facing them after they finish the 10 or 20 year terms (not sure about this) that
they are serving in the SD Prison.

Don't get me wrong here, I have no sympathy for "terrorists", but this seems to be stretching the Sept 11 disaster into some rather strange and incredibly expensive forms. For what is probably a derrranged prank, our government will spend something in the neighborhood of half a million
dollars to keep these loons in a federal prison. Is this another cost of terrorism or a cost of government lunatic wasteful overreaction to an imagined
threat? ------------ Douglas Wiken (c)2002.
posted by Douglas at 8:59 AM

 

COMMENT--The Republican intellectual treason is an elephant compared to the gnat that was Clinton's lie about SEX.
The "if Clinton had just told the truth" is nonsense. How was he to "tell the truth" about accusations that were nearly complete fabrications like the Falwell video tapes? Like the crap that Brock was writing then?

Someplace I still have the American Spectator magazine with Bob Barr hawking the method to get Clinton impeached. As Brock apparently indicated this campaign started in a meeting organized by Richard Melon Scaiffe long before the world was informed of Clinton's sexual follies with Monica by Ken Starr and co-conspirators.

If he lied, it was a lie about SEX. If that is the case, the concern is still only about SEX. The "if he had just told the truth" crap makes no sense if you don't care how he betrayed his marriage vows.

The real problem is not Clinton's sex life or lack thereof, it is how the Republican crotch watchers used this insignificant private matter in an attempt to turn the constitution and the separation and balance of powers upside down and inside out..

The hypocrisy of those Republicans expressing such great concern for the constitution and the integrity of the President's Office, family values, morality of all kinds, etc ,etc, while they were subverting the constitution for the most base reasons imaginable makes any of Clinton's sexual dalliance pale into insignificance.

The Republican intellectual treason is an elephant compared to the gnat that was Clinton's lie about SEX. ---- (c)2002 --Douglas WIken

posted by Douglas at 10:52 AM