A South Dakota Moderate

I saw this headline in the LA Times, “Solving global warming with giant vacuums“, and the classic movie “Spaceballs” immediately came to mind. Who could forget Rick Moranis as “Lord Dark Helmet” ordering Mega Maid to suck all the air from the atmosphere of Druidia? Suck, Suck, Suck….
Seriously, the story documents a Columbia University professor’s [...]

Admittedly some of the diaries on Daily Kos go a bit overboard, OK big time overboard, but when one of the most religiously intolerant right-wing blogs on the internet calls them out for being antisemitic, Miriam Webster starts the presses so they can rewrite the definition of hypocrisy.
They just can’t help it. Loony antisemitic [...]

How’s this for an Easter message?
Family Research Council’s Peter Sprigg’s response when asked about the Uniting American Families Act which would give same sex couples the same access to green cards and visas as is currently afforded to traditional partners.

(emphasis below mine)
We oppose this bill because it is, although it may be at the margins, [...]

Jason Heppler over at South Dakota Politics links to a Glenn Reynolds piece about our legislature’s attempt to allow guns onto South Dakota universities (HB1261). Following the usual NRA talking points Reynolds proclaims that being able to carry guns into the classroom could have saved lives at Virginia Tech, you even got to love Reynolds [...]

The next time you are searching for the money needed to put gas in your tank between your couch cushions, try to remember just how rough that $3 plus a gallon gas is on our big oil companies.
Royal Dutch Shell reignited anger over excessive profits today after revealing it made $27.6 billion (£13.9 billion) in [...]

The AP ran a story yesterday about a study from 2 non-profit organizations that provided blow by blow accounts of what they called “false statements” from President Bush and members of his administration following the terrorist attacks in 2001. The study found over 900 instances where these apparent false statements were given with over 250 [...]

You would think that government loans owed by US serviceman killed in the line of duty would be forgiven, at least my version of common sense would have assumed that to be true. But believe it or not, the VA has been trying to collect money from the estates of these fallen soldiers and though [...]

It does say something for capitalism when our wonderful telcoms have no problems breaking the 4th amendment at the urging of the Bush administration and spying on US citizens but fail to pay the phone bill for that spying and all that flag waving so-called patriotism goes right out the window.
Telephone companies have cut off [...]

This isn’t a post that seeks to get into the global warming argument, I will post about that later I am sure, but instead details what Religious Right leader Pat Robertson thinks could be the cause behind the latest ice storm to hit the Midwest. Believe it or not it has nothing to do with [...]

Another provision of our Constitution that is hanging on even now because of our love of killing things is getting set to be debated by the Supreme Court during the upcoming session when they look at the Constitutionality of Washington DC’s  gun control law. Whenever talk of limiting someone’s access to guns comes up, the [...]

While I understand that it was common practice here in South Dakota to blame all our problems on Tom Daschle, just ask Jon Lauck, but now apparently Daschle bashing has become common place nationally as well. This morning former Bush puppeteer Karl Rove all but blamed Daschle for our presence in Iraq.
This morning on Fox [...]

Apparently the talk of lowering the drinking age that started West River with Rapid City’s Bill Napoli has now migrated East River to of all places Flandreau. N. Bob Pesall, a lawyer from the town best known for their casino, thinks that 19 year olds should be allowed to imbibe 3.2 beer and is starting [...]