***GOP TV ads for Diedrich Just Plain Dumb

Recent polls in SD indicate Stephanie Herseth is leading GOP congressional candidate Diedrich. This must be generating some real desperation in the GOP circles labeled as "Taliban" by Senator Tim Johnson, because the GOP Congressional Campaign organization is running some peculiarly dumb and misleading TV ads.

These ads feature smooth-talking GOP governor Mike Rounds oozing all the sincerity of a real estate agent selling the Brooklyn Bridge at a special discount price just for you and just in time for the election. Rounds says something like, "We need Larry Diedrich in Congress because the Congress has failed to do something like "lower the cost of drugs and Washington thus needs Diedrich". Rounds' oily sincerity aside, that makes no sense for a Republican to say in an ad sponsored by those same Republicans.. Diedrich has as far as I know never given any indication he would demonstrate any courage whatsoever in a conflict between himself and a GOP executive or a powerful wrong-headed wing of the GOP.

And, guess who has been controlling that congress and guess which party has its very own dolt in the White House. If you have been living in a cave somewhere in the Black Hills, it is the ...drum roll...The "Taliban" Republicans... The radical fundamentalist. theocrats of the right bent on imposing an anti-constitutional repressive government in the US and hell-bent on restricting freedoms and imposing religious dogma on the whole population.. The same dudes in bed with the big drug companies and taking millions of campaign ads from them and their associates.

Incidentally, Senator Tim Johnson correctly labeled the congressional wingnut right GOP as being much like a "Taliban" wing. He had no reason to apologize in anyway for that comment. He had them tagged correctly in a moment of gutsy integrity and honesty. Instead of apologizing when Diedrich nearly went into a state of political apoplexy over Johnson's label, Johnson should have gone on the offensive.

Diedrich conveniently leaped to the conclusion that Johnson meant him and all the people who farm and are Republican in South Dakota. Of course that was not what Johnson said or meant. But, instead of apologizing for what he never said, Johnson should have said something like, "If Larry is upset about being associated with the Taliban GOP in Congress, he should disassociate himself from their radical fundamentalism and anti-constitutional theocratic fervor. If he has willingly put himself between a rock and a hard spot, it is up to him to get himself out of that tarpit."

Well, tomorrow we vote. I hope South Dakota rejects the outright lies and intentional or unintentional distortions of logic and reality spewed out again and again by the crony-capitalist and theocratic wings of the GOP.

***Democratic Legislators Blather...and then....

After the Bill Janklow reign as SD Governor, any other governor might look good to some Democratic state legislators. At the start of a new legislative session right after Janklow was out of the governor's office, new GOP governor Mike Rounds looked pretty good to them and a few of the Democratic legislators were stupid enough or naive enough to publicly state how wonderful Rounds was. They were just unable to say something like, "He does not seem as terrible as Janklow, but we can wait and see what he does."

So, with Democratic legislators mindlessly helping, Rounds built up his "nice guy" image despite pushing regressive Republican social policies, fundamentalist theocratic religious biases, etc. But, I now hope those Democratic blathermouths are having trouble sleeping. Their inability to keep their mouths shut has created another GOP monster... or at least a smooth-talking mini-monster.

Rounds is now in oily TV ads attacking Democratic candidate Stephanie Herseth for the US House to replace Janklow. Rounds is slandering Herseth in the nicest way in his support of Diedrich for Congress. The content of the ad is the responsibility of a national GOP organization according to the disclaimer. So, Rounds is spouting the RNC attack lines oozing all the sincerity of a real estate agent selling the Brooklyn Bridge.

Give Rounds no slack in the future. He is just another Republican hack. No sense helping dress another naked GOP emperor with new robes. No sense advancing his career. Both he and Diedrich are parts of the "Janklow right or wrong" for all those years. They carried water for the whining tyrant and then looked back at the imbalance between legislature and executive with alarm.

Let the Democratic legislators know that we don't need any more of their endorsements of Mike Rounds. South Dakota does not need another Janklow. In fact, South Dakota does not need another Republican in any office of any kind in the state. They have been a pox on real progress and nothing I see suggests they will do one bit better in the future.

**I What is wrong with South Dakota?

Another blogger titled a discussion "Banging head againist a Wall". He was both irate and in wonder of how South Dakota could have a poll showing support for Bush and his oil war of something like 67% and opposition in the area of 33% while the US total results were nearly the opposite.

What is wrong in South Dakota? Why do voters here keep shooting themselves in one foot on election and then doing it in the other foot the next election by voting and supporting Republicans and the Republican party which never does anything for farmers, low income citizens, education, or health care without kicking and screaming; but, is willing to build prisons and jails to put a grossly high percentage of our population into prisons and jails which do nothing but breed resentment and ever upward costs of incarceration? What is wrong in South Dakota?

Got an answer. Let us know.

HMO Frist Hits SDakota

Bill Frist visited SD. He was here to attack Sen. Tom Daschle. This was the first time in 50 years that a Senate Majority Leader campaigned against a Minority Leader in his home state.

Nothing is beneath the current crop of Republican thugs. But, Frist comes from a really big money background. HMO runs in his family blood. He is the perfect GOP big money apologist. He springs from the greediest wing of the party coupled with a reactionary radical view of how to pervert the Constitution, the Courts, and the Executive Departments into the best tools for big money and influentials with big money. Coupled with that is a willingness to exploit religious fundamentalism for the most un-Christian goals. Republicans like Frist are part of the "Southern" GOP strategy to exploit racism for votes in areas of the country where the KKK was once a powaerful force. They are also part of the GOP "Northern" strategy which is designed to separate good-hearted Catholics who view government as a tool for all people and not just the richest by convincing them that heaven and earth will collapse in a heap if some unfortunate female must have a legal abortion. Those "Southern" and "Northern" divisive strategies are deceptive and despicable.

He was attacking Sen. Daschle as an obstructionist. I guess I don't view that as a bad thing if Daschle is showing the backbone to resist mediocre ideologue judicial appointments and anti-democratic GOP attacks on Bill of Rights freedoms.