New Abortion Ban: Orwellian

PP over at SDWC has an advanced copy of the new abortion ban. It is quite Orwellian. The ban language starts out by telling women that you have the constitutional "right" to be pregnant and that "right" is benificial to the mother (they don't use woman anywhere in the text, just mother). It is clear they only see women as baby making machines thus the word "mother" because to these people that is all you are. So the ban is here to tell you that you really want to be pregnant, your just too stupid to see it so they are here to "help" you. Then they do on to proclaim that a "large percentage" of abortions are because women are "not truely informed" and that they are not voluntary.

WTF?!?

They are basing this on what???

Here we are again, the same load of crap the task farce tried to shovel last year. Women are too stupid to know what they want and only do things because they are stupid and forced to?? This is just beyond insulting. None of this in this law is based in any fact and is not supported by any legitimate research. This is nothing more than law based on someone's personal opinion.

Then they go on to again claim that abortion causes psychological issues, suicide and depression. There is a mountain of evidence and every major medical association has declared these statements to be false. So again we have one groups unsubstantiated propaganda put into a law.

The really Orwellian line is where they tell you that it is the states duty to protect your intrinsic right to motherhood. In real world language: we have decided that we can force you to be pregnant and stay pregnant no matter what you say, think or feel. This is nothing but a power grab on womens civil rights.

Now on to the details of the bill.

They stated that any person, not just a doctor that assists a woman even by procuring or selling something to them that they use to terminate a pregnancy would be guilty under the law. Someone obtaining an oral medication that could be used for pregnancy termination would also be guilty and punished under the law. Will they be arresting the store clerks at Bed Bath and Beyond for selling coathangers?? There are drugs on the market that can work as abortive drugs but have other uses. Will doctors and pharmacists now refuse to dispense these drugs for other reasons just in case they might fall in the wrong hands and get used for other purposes?

Then there is the health exception that isn't a health exception. The health exception states that only if the pregnancy would cause an irreversible damage to a major bodily function. The other option is if death is impending. Many of the health complications could kill someone, but also will reverse itself upon the pregnancy ending. So it becomes a rock and a hard place situation. This health exception is NOT a health exception and will not help the thousands of women each year with serious medical complications. Why? Because of the clause that the condition must be irreversible. If the pregnancy is causing the horrible health problem and the pregnancy ends that generally causes the condition to at least partially resolve if not fully. But left to fester that condition could put the woman's life at risk. So the woman would again have to wait til the condition is life threatening before terminating a pregnancy. Therefore puting their own life at unneeded risk due to a stupid law. Women with eclampsia, diabetes, heart conditions, Hyperemesis Gravidarium and a number of other conditions that can become life threatening to the woman would have to wait til the condition became life threatening before they could terminate. This health exception IS NOT ONE and would leave most of the health issues that are cause for pregnancy termination to not even be allowed. There are honest health conditions that can lead to death but again our state legislature has chosen to risk womens lives out of sheer ignorance and disregard.

Ah, and then there are the rape and incest exceptions. Let us start out by saying that the law enforcement and court system in South Dakota is a pathetic abuse system for victims of sexual assault. This is the case many other places in the country but South Dakota is behind the civilized world on this one. The only way a woman could obtain an abortion due to rape or incest is to be FORCED to file charges and participate in whatever police investigation and court proceedings. This bill forces victims to subject themselves to more abuse, degradation and harassment or be forced to carry a pregnancy against their will. This is simply abuse of the victim and the state does nothing to assure said victim gets any sort of fair treatment in the system. Many victims do not want to press charges or come forward. Doing so can be even more emotionally traumatic and damaging than the actual crime and victims can be the subject of retaliation. Law enforcement provides no protection for these victims. There is also the recent story of a rape victim that was thrown in jail after reporting her assault. Victims who are worried about old warrants or other issues would not want to get involved in law enforcement out of fear they would end up in jail. Under this law the victim would not be forced to submit to punishment or incarceration in order to hopefully terminate a pregnancy. There are also many people who simply have no desire to be involved with law enforcement out of simple fear. This entire forced prosecution is simply more harassment of the victim. This also forces someone to submit their private medical records to law enforcement and the courts, there is no method for someone to maintain their privacy. No one should be forced to hand over their medical records.

One odd line in the bill is that these people so offended by the idea that someone would terminate a pregnancy have no problem at all with you going somewhere else to get it done. So the issue they have been up in arms about is totally fine if it is done in Sioux City vs. North Sioux City.

So someone spent quite a bit of money to have this creepy New Jersey uterus chaser lawyer draft this up but the real implication of this law are awful. The short of it is that there is not health exception, only a death exception. Rape or incest victims get no help unless they are willing to turn themselves, their lives and their bodies over to the state.

So don't be fooled by the double talk, this one is no better than the other one.

Argus Leader: Legislature Should Investigate Hunt

The Argus Leader is calling for the South Dakota Legislature to hold ethics hearings about Roger Hunt like they did against Dan Sutton for his misbehavior. The Argus rightly points out that Hunt's criminal actions demand their attention.

South Dakota Progressive also gives a detailed rundown of Hunt's excuses in his pleading to dismiss his date with a judge. One thing is clear, Hunt is running out of ways to weasel out of this.

This Story Will Get Bigger And Have Implications

A pre-med student down in Florida was attacked and sexually assaulted after leaving the Gasparilla festival in Tampa. The student reported the attack when she went into a hosptial for emergency care. At the hospital the student received the first dose of Plan B. Upon police arrival they did a background check on the victim. They found an old restitution issue from a crime when she was a minor, current reports state that it may have been an error. The victim was taken into custody and thrown in jail. While in jail a female health care supervisor refused to allow the woman to take the second dose of Plan B the hospital had sent with her. The health supervisor cited "religious objections" to the drug so she denied the rape victim the second dose. The rape victim did not have "other options" she could not just go elsewhere as is commonly cited as an excuse by those that support denying patients medications on the religious grounds of the healthcare employee. This story hit the blogs and spread, now the national media is picking it up.

Now fast forward to South Dakota.

We have the refusal law in South Dakota that a pharmacist can refuse to dispense a drug based on their personal religious grounds.
The new abortion ban in the works would force rape victims to file a police report. How many victims would fear reporting a rape that they might end up erroneously jailed or have some petty charge outstanding. Connecting access to abortion for rape victims to being forced to file a police report is a bad idea all around. It is punishment and harassment of a crime victim.

The First Two Abortion Bills

Bill SB172 could be titled either the "Punch a woman in the face act" or "Give Alpha Center a desk at Planned Parenthood act". This is another one of these harassment laws. It would require medical staff to tell a woman a bunch of things and force her to sign a pile of forms. Some of the things writting into this are clearly not supported by real scientific or medical research. In fact the medical community holds that some of these statements are outright lies.

"That the abortion will terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being;"
"A description of all known medical risks of the procedure and statistically significant risk factors to which the pregnant woman would be subjected, including:

(i) Depression and related psychological distress;

(ii) Increased risk of suicide ideation and suicide;"

There is considerable medical evidence proving these statements to be false. Notice they finally dropped the abortion gives you breast cancer nonsense. That has been repeatedly debunked by the medical community. One has to ask, is it right for the legislature who are not doctors to be determining medical fact for doctors?

But some of their intentions really raise more questions. Some of the required statements if you use the facts of the medical community actually show abortion is a safe procedure that is far safer than carrying a pregnancy. So who's research will be used to determine what is the right information to present to patients?
The medical community will tell you that abortion carries fewer risks than pregnancy.
So then what is the answer to this required statement?
"The statistically significant medical risks associated with carrying her child to term compared to undergoing an induced abortion."

Does the South Dakota Taliban really want doctors to tell patients the truth that an abortion has fewer risks than carrying a pregnancy? Or do they have another of their alternate reality internal papers supporting their view of the world? So then what information does a doctor use? That of the medical community that is factual accurate research? Or do they use the trumped up pseudo-science of the SD Taliban? Do you think they will drag doctors to court for not using their pseudo-science version? We bet they will.

One of two things:
A. This is another of the far rights poorly crafted laws.
B. They are using this as a trap to drag doctors into court for not parroting their unsubstantiated talking points.

This one should meet the scrap heap for many reasons.

The other bill SB171 could accurately be named the redundant waste of time. This bill requires a sign be posted that says this:
"It is against the law for anyone, regardless of their relationship to you, to force or coerce you to have an abortion. By law, we cannot perform an abortion on you unless we have your freely given voluntary consent. It is against the law to perform an abortion on you against your will."

Never mind that you already have to provide and sign your consent for ANY medical procedure. But what most people miss on this bill is this:

"The posted legal notice shall be printed legibly in boldface type of forty-four points or more:"

Fourty Four point type? That is a pretty big sign. Go select 44pt type in Word and you will get an idea how large that really is.

North Dakota's Contagious Abortion Ban Fever

The report below thanks to one of our readers:

" I'll quickly summarize, there are 2 bills left that have been introduced in ND and are still pending:
HB 1466: Outlaws abortion except to save the life of the mother. Would only go into effect upon overturning of Roe v. Wade. Passed the ND House 61-26. Now goes to the Senate. Called the trigger bill.
SB 2400: No hearing yet. Deals more with ND's state policy regarding child birth and abortion.

The other three bills (HB 1464, 1489 and 1494) were defeated on the House side. HB 1489 was the direct challenge to Roe v. Wade while the other 2 dealt with multi-fetal and genetic testing abortions and materials to be distributed prior to an abortion.

Info on the bills can be found at: http://www.legis.nd.gov/assembly/60-2007/leginfo/bills-res-jour/index.html (Note that the ND session meets every other year.)

I don't want to get you off topic since this area is about SD's pending ban (which I began following last year). I did a pretty extensive review of the ND bills on the 2007 Legislative Forum at http://www.bismarckdems.com/ if anyone is interested in reading further and have also been tracking press related to them and noting in the Forum."

Thanks to Keep Asking Why for the update on the recklessness of the ND legislature.

Wow, you have to read the text of SB2400. That one is a court challenge in the making. North Dakota is trying to give "full citizenship rights" to fetuses. That will end up in court as it goes against the constitution.

So far 3 out of 5 were shot down, one is clearly in violation of the 14th amendment, the only one left is the trigger bill that only goes into effect if Roe v Wade is every overturned.
Not a stellar track record even in conservative North Dakota this can't quite get much traction. The trigger bill and the obviously unconstitututional one will be interesting to watch and see where they go.
Updates on the progress of these bills would be great!

Keri Weems Proves She Does Not Understand Fact Or Science

This gem was in the Argus Leader this afternoon
""The facts remain that abortion harms women and kills 800 innocent babies per year in South Dakota in my district," said Republican Rep. Keri Weems of Sioux Falls, who is a sponsor of the bill."

Keri is just feeding into that misogynistic Victorian era throwback idea that women are clueless and can't make their own decisions properly. Keri does not understand the difference between fact and opinion. It may be her opinion that abortion somehow harms women but the facts prove otherwise. Keri also clearly failed High School science. Since she does not understand the terms embryo, fetus and baby and their proper use.

We need to make potential legislators take an intelligence test before running for office.

SD Legislature Kicks Constituents To The Curb, Abortion Bans Part Deux

Here we go again. Never mind that the public spoke quite clearly last November. It was not just the vote down of the abortion ban but the fact that many who were elected were elected because they said they would work on real issues in Pierre.

A couple of things have emerged as these two new abortion bans began being whispered about.

The crazy Army of God guys with the cameras and the fetus trucks are already back in town in Sioux Falls. Just the smell of a ban had them coming back to town. If either of these bans gets traction expect them to be here for the duration. Do we need to remind people that those guys have long criminal records themselves and deep ties to people who have bombed and killed for their cause. This group is listed as a domestic terror group.

The new ban does not have the support of the state Right to Life chapter, they are pushing their own version of a ban. So who IS pushing the new ban. Leslee Unruh and an out of state lawer from New Jersey who wrote it for her.

The other ban-lite is some concoction meant to further impede Planned Parenthood and harass women. It would require yet more crisis pregancy center drivel to be forced into real medical clinics with the intent to harass not help patients.

The main ban that has a bunch of co-signers and no sponsor would only allow an abortion if you filed rape or incest charges. The requirement to involve the law is more of an offense to rights and justice than the ban itself. This concept of forcing victims to endanger their lives further and possibly be victims of revenge by forcing them to go to authorities is wrong and could possibly be struck down by a higher court. Their false sense of compassion that they want to prosecute for victims is so out of step with the reality of crime victims of sexual assault that it defies common sense. The main ban also only allows a "death" exception. No health exception is in this ban. This was a huge issue with the last ban. The question between when an issue goes from health risk to death risk and the fact that women would be forced to let their health deteriorate until they are near death is reckless.

As mentioned earlier, there is no sponsor on the main ban proposed. It was pointed out that a bill must have a main sponsor. Guesses are that Gordon Howie of "women are just like cows" fame will be the baffoon to step up to the plate this year.

I guess the legislature just didn't get the memo that people wanted them to do the state's business this year.

Ted Kennedy Goes Off On The GOP Over Minimum Wage

"The world has more than enough for everyone's needs, but nowhere near enough for a single person's greed." - Ghandi

Here Comes Another Abortion Ban Bill

The South Dakota Taliban is at it again. They are going to try to push forth another abortion ban, this time with some exceptions though the details on that is mixed.

It seems that they have enough supporters in the House but are trying to gather enough support in the Senate. PP has the details along with the Televangelist letter Kristi Noem sent out begging everyone in the Senate to "pray" and asking them to support yet another diversion into morality legislation. What is most interesting is that the head of SD Right to Life, Brock Greenfield is NOT signing on to this bill.

Tell Herseth To Co-Sponsor HR 676

HR 676 is being reintroduced. This is the plan that would allow people to buy into Medicare as a form of single payer health insurance.

The private healthcare system is quickly imploding on itself as they cut more and more benefits from their plans, drastically raise premiums every year and rake in record profits that rival the oil industry.

You can find out more about the bill here.
Or contact Herseth here.

Leslee Unruh Spotted Throwing Little Plastic Fetuses Around The Capitol

SD Progressive has a report that Meatloaf has been spotted at the Capitol. Her bologna snarfing buddy Roger "orange jumpsuit" Hunt was smirking around Pierre earlier this week that he might have another abortion ban in the works. Tomorrow is the last day to submit drafts.


For more details on the wierdness that is Pierre you have to read Todd Epp's Apocalypse Dan series. It is even better if you have some of the soundtrack songs from Apocalypse Now playing, or at least humming the tune in your head.

Is The Legislature Homophobic?

We don't get it. Roger Hunt has been charged by the state and is waiting for his court date for election fraud. This is one of the worst examples of trying to influence an election in our state's history. The legislature does nothing.

Dan Sutton gropes an 18 year old page and the Legislature drops everything. Now we are not saying that what Sutton is accused of is ok, it is not. Making advances on someone without their permission is always wrong. But the state did not see fit to press any charges and did not see any law violation.

Todd Epp mentioned last week that the atmosphere in Pierre has been rather playboy/horndog for years. Insiders said nothing has changed and the attitude of legislators toward interns and pages of the opposite sex has left something to be desired.
"My source, who is very familiar with Pierre’s inner workings and what goes on during the session, says the fraternity-like atmosphere of some legislators toward pages and interns of the opposite sex is as rampant as ever."

So what does this say about the legislature? Misbehavior is ok as long as it is a female your harassing? But if you direct that same misbehavior toward another guy they will send out the wolves.

Male Legislators groping women = ok
Male Legislators groping guys = get a rope

It sure looks like a double standard peppered with a large dose of homophobia.

Pandagon Puts Bob Ellis's Integrity Balls In A Vice

Pandagon (yet another national blog) has taken Bob Ellis to task for his integrity ball nonsense.

Yesterday Feministing caught wind of Bob's sick women as someone else's property party and gave him a sound beating.

What is interesting is that Bob as of this morning hasn't bothered to attempt to comment at either site. Both allow comments.



(The integrity ball motto: Don't pee on my tree buddy!)

From Pandagon:
"In other words, the wingnuts couldn’t even do anything but reinforce sexism even if they were trying to be more egalitarian. Intergrity is a personal characteristic, and therefore suitable for men. Women have no personalities, apparently, and are just balls of flesh put here to entertain men and make babies, because we can only have “purity”, which is a euphemism that implies that unless your vagina has a freshness seal on it, it’s literally dirty."

"But the sexism doesn’t stop with the names of the balls. The reason they gave to the boys not to have sex before marriage is because it contaminates a vagina that belongs to someone else—and of course, the owner is not the person that should own it under the law of the land (that’d be the woman who has the body surrounding the much obsessed over genitalia)."

"That’s it in a nutshell. Girls, don’t have sex because it makes you dirty. Boys, don’t have sex because it makes girls dirty."

Feministing Gives Bob Ellis Another Beating

We think he kinda likes it, he keeps asking for more. Feministing caught our post about Bob's resulting temper tantrum after they called him out the first time.

Bob went to his own blog to rant and pout. We are sure they would allow Bob to post over there if he really wanted to defend himself. Maybe he is just too afraid of having his chubby backside handed to him by a bunch of women.

What caught everyone's attention over at Feministing was Bob's nasty comment made to us a while back. Bob angrily emplored us to "go have a slut ball". The idea has caught tractions and some are considering it as a tongue in cheek fundraising event.

Just to think. Bob may have spurred a new idea that will bring tens of thousands of dollars to sex education and reproductive rights groups throughout the nation.

Thanks Bob!

More SD Abortion Fun And Games

Denise at Hog House Blog is reporting that one of Leslee Unruh's out of state allies has been spotted in Pierre.
"Harold Cassidy of the Thomas More Law Center, a key player in crafting the abortion ban of 2004 (HB1191) was in town. I saw him at the Ramkota Monday night.

Word around the Capitol halls is that he’s here this time under his own steam, that legislative leadership and others are hoping to avoid an abortion debate this year but that Roger Hunt (sponsor of the 2006 ban, HB1215) is at this time planning to bring a ban with the rape and incest exceptions. No word on a health exception during my relatively brief cruising of the Capitol Halls.

It’s abortion fatigue, even for some of the leaders of last year’s big push. "

So Hunt is back at it. Maybe he is hoping to try to push through another ban before he faces a judge for his campaign fraud scheme last year?


Bill Harlan over at Mt. Blogmore has this:

"As abortion foe Rep. Roger Hunt was leaving the Republican caucus a few minutes ago, I asked him whether we’d have another abortion bill. “We still have four or five days to file,” he said. (next Tuesday’s the deadline.) “Just wait and see.” He was smiling when he said it. You read the tea leaves."

There are a few days left for them to attempt to file this. Please, somebody, anybody. Stuff this fat sweaty little man in a duffle bag and send him on a slow trip to anywhere. As Denise mentioned (and has been mentioned elsewhere) the legislature is a bit fatigued on the issue. Take some time out to email, fax or call your legislators and tell them to not waste time on Roger Hunt's little quest for glory and fame.

Progressive on the Prairie caught this little stunt in the Argus today:

"Jim Miles has a letter to the editor in today’s Argus Leader defending Roger Hunt and berating those who feel proper disclosure is important in the world of campaign finance and that South Dakota law should be followed. His ridiculous claims warrant a closer look.

Jim Miles is the Treasurer of VoteYesForLife.com. This is the group who failed to defend South Dakota’s restrictive abortion ban in 2006 and was also the beneficiary of $750,000 in anonymous donations that Roger Hunt funneled through a shell corporation to benefit the group. Not surprising that the Treasurer of a group who received three quarters of a million dollars in (essentially) laundered money is upset that they got caught."


It appears the SD Taliban are in moral indignation mode over their loss last year and are back in revenge mode. Just remember they still all have an election fraud and money laundering issue hanging over their heads. They should be reminded of this, often.

National Blog For Choice Day

It is more than "choice". It is rights in all areas of reproduction and sexuality. Unrestricted prevention, sex education access, STD prevention, contraception, abortion, and the rights of pregnant women to control their medical decisions throughout a pregnancy to be carried to term.

The compiled reasons of blog contributors and friends:

1. Being harassed and verbally abused by pharmacists for trying to purchase prescription contraception.

2. Obtaining contraception in the 80's and even into the 90's was almost impossible for young women in South Dakota. Even today young women (and even adult married women) face obstacles and harassment.

3. Because we know that prevention works, when people can freely access it.

4. Because conservatives and "pro-lifers" don't give a damn about children after they are born.

5. Being intimidated and called names by protestors for simply seeking preventative health care. Too many young women have been called murderers for trying to enter a building to get a pap smear & annual checkup.

6. Watching friends be coerced into selling their babies to Leslee Unruh in the 80's.

7. Watching Leslee Unruh force her way into sex ed classes against the teachers wishes. Watching her lie about contraception, sex and abortion to high school girls. High school girls are not as stupid as Leslee thinks. Her lies were quickly debunked after she left the room. But she should not have been there spreading dangerous misinformation in the first place.

8. Knowing young women who were forced to carry pregnancies in the pre-Roe days against their will, forced into maternity homes against their will and then had their children forcibly taken from them. They were labeled unfit mothers for being young. Coincidentally this happened to white women far more than minorities. The adoption industry was making a fortune at this.

9. Stories of women frequently being denied emergency contraception or being refused because they didn't meet someone's morality test.

10. Life threatening pregnancies where abortion may be the only option to save the women's health or life.

11. Gerri Santoro.

12. Because South Dakota has one of the highest percentages of rape per capita.

13. Religious freedom. One person's religious beliefs should not control someone else's medical decisions.

14. The 4th and 14th amendment.

15. Eric Rudolph, Shelly Shannon, Michael Griffin, Angela Shannon, Paul Hill, James Kopp, Clayton Waagner, Michael Bray, Stephen Jordi, Army of God and Lambs of Christ, to name a few of the domestic terrorists who violently attack reproductive rights.

16. The harassment of doctors, clinic staff and their families.

17. Leslee Unruh, Roger Hunt and Brock Greenfield. These people have done more to motivate and rally together pro-choice people than anything else in the state. As long as these three continue to take away womens rights, we will be here.

18. Because women are fully capable of making their own decisions about their bodies, their families and their lives.

Read more blogs on Blog for Choice day here.

Feel free to share why you are pro choice in the comments.

SD Begins Distributing Free HPV Vaccines

This is great news. Starting today women and girls 11 to 18 yrs can obtain the vaccine for free.
South Dakota is the second state to provide this vaccine for free. If you are 19 to 20 and Medicaid eligible you can obtain the vaccine for free through Medicaid.

Find out where to get the vaccine through the state program here.
Find out more about the state program here.

If you do not qualify under the program or Medicaid, and don't have insurance Merck is offering a patient assistance program for those who meet certain guidelines.

Does anyone know if Leslee Unruh has been seen weeping upon her Mary Kay collection over this?

We Are The Ubersexuals And We Are Here To Make Bob Ellis Cry

Poor Bob just can't handle having the light of day shined on his buffalo excrement fest.

We posted earlier today about the flambe old Bob is getting over at Feministing for being a misogynistic patriarchal poopy head.

It seems that we are not the only people who find Bob's fascination with women as a commodity rather sick and wrong.

So Bob pulls out his greatest defense. Deny reality and hope nobody notices.

Here are Bob's great excuses


1. there's no way I could have included everything.

2.Males tend to think of themselves as bulletproof, so an appeal to the male to safeguard the welfare of others is more likely to be effective than to tell him that sex outside of marriage is just as harmful to him.
(So they didn't bother at all? Nice. )

The rest of Bob's rant is sort of a fluid disjointed suspension of reality.

* Note he never refutes the allegation that this kind of women as valued or devalued property mentality encourages men to think rape is ok in certain circumstances. He also failed to refute that they did not even once bother to tell the males at this party that THEY should stay virgins too.

Ed (1.20.07): Anyone notice Bob was trying to claim he (and those like him) have a respect for for ALL women and as equals, not just those they have enslaved into their lunacy? Anyone who follows Bob's rantings on the internet, not only on his blog but various forums and other blogs knows his stance on certain categories of women. He has repeatedly vilified the people he perceives as running this blog and has made attempts to dehumanize through sexist name calling and sexual accusations. Calling someone a slut is hardly respectful of women and clearly shows a disdain for "certain women". Bob has also gone on repeatedly on other sites dehumanizing poor women, single mothers, feminists, anyone who is pro-choice or not of his religious beliefs. He clearly considers them lesser human beings and has shown a great hostility toward them. That kind of dehumanization, hostility and the sexually biased nature is the exact mentality we mentioned that sets up young men to assume rape or other abuse is ok in certain circumstances.

Here is a tidbit of Bob's respect for all women:
"Instead of protesting the Purity Ball, why not have your own event and call it the "Slut Ball" or something? After all, if you hate sexual purity so much, you should be proud of being a promiscuous slut, right?"

But the Bob pulled out the big guns and called us "ubersexuals". Were not sure if he is trying to imply that were asexual or over sexed. It is hard to tell with Bob and his limited grasp of the language. Were not quite sure Bob even knows what an ubersexual is.

Ubersexual vs. Metrosexual

1. Both are passionate, but the ubersexual is passionate about causes and principles.

2. The ubersexual spends more time grooming his mind than his hair.

3. Both treat and respect women as equals, but the ubersexual considers other men, and women, his best friends.

4. The ubersexual is more sensual and not at all self-conscious. He doesn't need other people to tell him he's sexy.

5. The metrosexual gets his design tips from the Fab Five, the design gurus from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. Ubersexuals get their ideas from travels and interest in art and culture.

6. The ubersexual knows the difference between right and wrong and will make the right decision regardless of what others around him may think. The metrosexual knows the difference between toner and exfoliant.

The current icon of Übersexuals is Bono. He's global, socially aware, confident, and compassionate, and he commands a huge base of followers who are fans of his music and his humanitarianism. Other notable ubersexuals are Bill Clinton, George Clooney, Jon Stewart, Pierce Brosnan, Donald Trump, and Ewan McGregor.

Yea Bono is pretty hot. But the Donald? Puh-lease.

When Will Hunt Face A Judge?

Is ass patting a high crime in South Dakota while money laundering and election fraud are just fine?

Dan Sutton has been run out of Pierre on a rail by his fellow legislators over a "groping"incident last year. Epp at SD Watch confirmed that Sutton has left Pierre and might resign. He also mentions that the misconduct toward pages and interns in Pierre continues today. Epp mentions something about this:
"My source, who is very familiar with Pierre’s inner workings and what goes on during the session, says the fraternity-like atmosphere of some legislators toward pages and interns of the opposite sex is as rampant as ever.

So much for Dan being a wake-up call for more professional behavior from some of our playboy/horn-dog legislators in Pierre."

Our guess is that this is some of the male legislators, who think it is a state perk to be able to misbehave with female staff who are there in a service or subordinate role. If they were to try that kind of behavior in most corporate cultures they would not only be unemployed but facing a LAWSUIT.

Maybe lawmakers need to be bound by the state employees conduct policy while the legislature is in session, including while they are in Pierre during those weeks but not in the capitol building.
On the other hand if we did that last year we would have to fire a large portion of the legislature.

SD Legislature Just Can't Keep Their Hand Off Your Uterus

They are at it again with another proposed abortion ban and a sneak attack in another bill to set the stage for more such bans.

SDWC has the scoop on both. Roger "orange jumpsuit" Hunt is trying to sneak in some language to an abuse law that would cause a legal loophole where they could attempt to prosecute women for child abuse for abortion. It would also set a legal precedent for classifying "unborn" aka: fetuses as people with legal rights. Its stated intent is to attempt to protect fetuses from drug abuse of the mother. Other states have done similar by locking up drug addicted pregnant women until they gave birth. This alone is very controversial. Since this comes from the sponsor of the abortion ban and he has shown a track record of trying to pass anything and everything to further his agenda it makes this very suspect. Roger is less worried about fetal drug abuse and more looking for some sort of law to be passed that he can then use as a legal stepping stone to abortion bans and with this in place, prosecuting women for an abortion.

Then there is Gordon Howie.

Howie didn't get the memo in November that the people didn't want an abortion ban. Take a look at this guy, is he really who you want making decisions about your reproductive rights?

Maybe this good old boy rancher is confusing women with his cattle.

Howie is proposing yet another abortion ban, this one with exceptions of some kind. Other legislators are commenting they are sick of the subject and the people clearly are tired of this dead horse.

Maybe if enough people give Howie a piece of their mind he will act responsibly and get back to the work he is supposed to be doing.

You can contact Gordon Howie to give him a piece of your mind at the information below or if your planning on attending Women 4 Women day in Pierre February 1st you can pay him a visit and tell him in person.

Gordon Howie's Contact info:
Fax: 605-393-0118
Business: 605-393-2334
Home: 605-393-2686
* Gordon does not have email. Why are we letting people who can not even operate an email account make decisions about women's lives?
His other contact information is in his contact link above.

National Blogs Blast Integrity Balls And Bob Ellis

Feministing Blog says Bob's balls have no integrity.

They took on the oedipal and misogynistic nature of the "treat women as property" party held in Spearfish recently. To get the full effect you have to read the comments section. They truely give this bit of backward social engineering a complete beat down.

The fact that these events tell young men that women are property the more disturbing part is pointed out by the commenters. This idea that women are property and the only role men play in this is keeping their trade value intact. They absolve young men of any responsibility of keeping themselves from having sex or placing any blame or devaluing on the men, it is all about women's resale value. But what is more concerning is the mentality they are giving these young men about women who they do not see in this virginal resale value light. It says that women who are not virgins or not of their version of religion are exempt and therefore fair game. This sets up the idea that they hold no responsibility to behavior with other women, that they are fair game. This kind of mentality encourages rape, abuse and sexual harassment.

Herseth Stands Up To Big Oil Corporate Welfare Handouts

Rep. Stephanie Herseth has sponsored a bill that will take back the big oil taxpayer handouts and put money into renewable and alternative energy.

HR6, The Clean Energy Act of 2007, also known as Ending Subsidies for Big Oil Act of 2007 goes to a vote in the house TOMORROW.

The short of this bill is that it will end the billions of dollars in taxpayer funded handouts to big oil that last year's Congress gave during the same time that these companies pegged record profits and gas hovered around $3 a gallon.

The bill also restructures how certain government leases and other monetary handouts will be calculated. This money will instead be directed toward alternative and renewable energy development and other conservation, energy efficiency and energy independence efforts.

This will free up $14 Billion in funds that can be used for energy independence.
This new resource could help ethanol, biodiesel and wind energy in the state. nz

Political Use Of The Internet Has Doubled

"Twice as many Americans used the internet as their primary source of news about the 2006 campaign compared with the most recent mid-term election in 2002.

Some 15% of all American adults say the internet was the place where they got most of their campaign news during the election, up from 7% in the mid-term election of 2002.

A post-election survey shows that the 2006 race also produced a notable class of online political activists. Some 23% of those who used the internet for political purposes – the people we call campaign internet users – actually created or forwarded online original political commentary or politically-related videos."

Pew Internet & American Life Project

2008 will be an interesting year.

Our Hysterical Leftist Socialist Utopia

Bob Ellis has gone and done it. He has exposed our hysterical leftist socialist utopian agenda.

So we decided to come clean and share it with all of you.

Our agenda is:

All hot dogs packages must come in compatible counts to buns. 8 and 8, get it right people.

13 items in the 12 item express lane should be a capital offense.

Flying cars, we want flying cars.

Cat boxes should be equipped with transporter beams and replicator systems.

Did we mention flying cars?

It should be illegal for any employer to request their staff be in attendance before 10am AND be cheerful about it.

Outlaw horizontally striped golf shirts, nobody looks good in those things.

Computer keyboards shall be equipped with air bags.

Classify pantyhose as cruel and unusual punishment.

Gourmet coffee and top shelf bourbon shall be classified as rights.

We Made Bob Ellis Cry

Like a bag of holding or an everlasting gobstopper Bob Ellis and his lunacy is the gift that keeps on giving.

Earlier today we gave a sound debunking to the distortions and lies Cindy "tin foil hat" Flakol of the CWFA wrote that Ellis saw fit to post on the website of his fake newspaper.

Pointing out the facts, actual statistics and outcomes of the reports Cindy tried to distort and completely mis-represent to fit her cause sure got Bob's panties in a wad.

Part of Bob's temper tantrum here:
"In summary, the CHADs are good at pooh-poohing anything that doesn't fit their narrow socialist utopian vision, but they didn't invalidate anything Cindy said. I enjoy reading the CHADs because you seldom see such hysterical Leftist dedication here in South Dakota. And just as I sometimes enjoy a good smash-em-up action flick, I confess to a certain amusement in watching the CHADs make a train-wreck of all intellectual, rational and moral coherency."

Bob is like the kid in the cafeteria with the kick me sign on his back.
If you bother to read his full tantrum you will notice that he doesn't even address the actual debunking of the article that we did or an answer as to why ALL of Cindy Flakol's claims were proven wrong, not by us but by the actual studies she herself tried to cite.

You can read some more commentary from the other hysterical leftist bloggers and their socialist utopian visions about Ellis's story here:
SD Progressive: C.H.A.D Rips Cindy Flakol of the CWFA a New One
Clean Cut Kid: C.H.A.D. completely tears apart Cindy Flakoll of "Concerned Women" of America
But we can't forget our hysterical leftist leader in our socialist utopian vision, Republican Governor Mike Rounds since the state preschool program is his baby.

Keep up the good work Bob, you make our job too damn easy.

Our Hysterical Leftist Socialist Utopia

Bob Ellis has gone and done it. He has exposed our hysterical leftist socialist utopian agenda.

So we decided to come clean and share it with all of you.

Our agenda is:

All hot dogs packages must come in compatible counts to buns. 8 and 8, get it right people.

13 items in the 12 item express lane should be a capital offense.

Flying cars, we want flying cars.

Cat boxes should be equipped with transporter beams and replicator systems.

Did we mention flying cars?

It should be illegal for any employer to request their staff be in attendance before 10am AND be cheerful about it.

Outlaw horizontally striped golf shirts, nobody looks good in those things.

Computer keyboards shall be equipped with air bags.

Classify pantyhose as cruel and unusual punishment.

Gourmet coffee and top shelf bourbon shall be classified as rights.

We Made Bob Ellis Cry

Like a bag of holding or an everlasting gobstopper Bob Ellis and his lunacy is the gift that keeps on giving.

Earlier today we gave a sound debunking to the distortions and lies Cindy "tin foil hat" Flakol of the CWFA wrote that Ellis saw fit to post on the website of his fake newspaper.

Pointing out the facts, actual statistics and outcomes of the reports Cindy tried to distort and completely mis-represent to fit her cause sure got Bob's panties in a wad.

Part of Bob's temper tantrum here:
"In summary, the CHADs are good at pooh-poohing anything that doesn't fit their narrow socialist utopian vision, but they didn't invalidate anything Cindy said. I enjoy reading the CHADs because you seldom see such hysterical Leftist dedication here in South Dakota. And just as I sometimes enjoy a good smash-em-up action flick, I confess to a certain amusement in watching the CHADs make a train-wreck of all intellectual, rational and moral coherency."

Bob is like the kid in the cafeteria with the kick me sign on his back.
If you bother to read his full tantrum you will notice that he doesn't even address the actual debunking of the article that we did or an answer as to why ALL of Cindy Flakol's claims were proven wrong, not by us but by the actual studies she herself tried to cite.

You can read some more commentary from the other hysterical leftist bloggers and their socialist utopian visions about Ellis's story here:
SD Progressive: C.H.A.D Rips Cindy Flakol of the CWFA a New One
Clean Cut Kid: C.H.A.D. completely tears apart Cindy Flakoll of "Concerned Women" of America
But we can't forget our hysterical leftist leader in our socialist utopian vision, Republican Governor Mike Rounds since the state preschool program is his baby.

Keep up the good work Bob, you make our job too damn easy.

Religious Right Dons Tin Foil Hat About State Preschool

We have busted the religious right on their claims against the state preschool program.

Cindy Flakol of the CWFA on crazy Bob Ellis's blog/fake newspaper is outright lying about the state preschool program. We got the goods on her deception.

Cindy starts off by mentioning the wrestler rape case out in Parker. She tries to give the impression that this crime is somehow due to preschool or the public school system. Nothing in the case so far has indicated ANYTHING related to this guys early life, school or home life as being a cause in this. But don't let that get in the way of a little vague fearmongering.


Then she goes on to question Art Rolnick who supposedly spoke here in South Dakota about the ECONOMIC advantages of preschool. She said he was here "begging" it looks more like he was giving the same economic presentation he has given all over the country. She goes on to question why we should listen to a guy who works for the federal reserve, as if he is out of his expertise on the subject of preschool. She misleads his role in this subject. Art Rolnick is the Senior Vice President and Director of Research at the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank, not just some "representative" as Cindy tries to mislead. He was speaking on the issue of ECONOMICS of preschool and state return on investment. But we understand that ROI and state economics is probably over the head of a rancher's wife from McPherson County. Cindy also complains about not knowing the costs. The linked article gives that information, there is also a link to his original study. Of course they do not provide a South Dakota specific detailed budget for our program, that is not a researchers job but he does clearly outline the average investment and the return on that.

Then Cindy goes on to cite a University of Minnesota study (mentioned in a USA today article) and SHE claims it says that PRESCHOOL causes stress. Again Cindy does not have a clue what she is talking about and is being totally dishonest for her own means.

From the Minnesota Study:
"The second study, by researchers from the Institute of Child Development at the University of Minnesota, found that in children under three years old, levels of cortisol, a hormone associated with stress, rose in the afternoons when the toddlers were in care all day, but fell on days when they were at home. "

The Minnesota study is on children UNDER THREE. State preschool programs would not involve children under three years of age. The study also referred to children under three who were in day care ALL DAY. The state preschool program would not be an all day program. So both of her claims were total bullcrap.


Then Cindy goes on to cite a Berkeley/Standford study. She claimed that the study said that children who attended preschool exhibited negative behaviors.

From the press release for the study:
"While middle-class children benefit modestly from preschool, youngsters from poor families experience two times the gains in early language and mathematics learning, according to a new study of more than 14,000 kindergartners nationwide."

The study clearly states that days longer than 6 hours begin to have a detrimental effect. The study shows that preschool has a clearly positive effect and an even more positive effect for lower income children. It shows that long days are an issue and clearly advocates for partial day preschool programs vs. all day programs. Cindy is working overtime to be dishonest about this. Wonder why?

Then Cindy goes on to cite NIEER and claim there is some sort of disaster brewing in preschool programs. The study shows exactly the opposite of what Cindy is trying to say it does.

From the study:
"The annual report on state preschool initiatives shows that state-funded programs increased enrollment by more than 100,000 4-year-olds from 2002 to 2005, but state spending per child is down and enrollment actually declined in 11 states."

"When NIEER began reporting on state-funded preschool programs for '02, 38 states were funding programs and enrolling 700,000 3- and 4-year-old children. By '05, those states served more than 800,000 children.

"This represents an astounding jump of 16 percent enrollment during those four years," said NIEER Director W. Steven Barnett. "When '06 is reported, a new program in Florida will likely add another 100,000 4-year-olds to the total."

However, 12 states had no state-funded preschool programs and over the four-year period, funding shortfalls produced enrollment declines in 11 states. "Clearly, these states do not yet treat prekindergarten as real education to be delivered in good and bad financial times," Barnett said."


Now Cindy pulls out the crazy hollywood liberal fear card. Of course she fails to mention that Rob Reiner has been a political activist for years and has his sights on the governor's office in California. She drags out an unflattering character he played in the 70's. She implies that Reiner is trying to do this nationwide. That is patently false. Reiner's idea was a state program only. It was based on a Rand study but just didn't get traction with the voters, probably due to the radical nature of Reiner's initiative compared to most state preschool programs. This was an initiative, not a program developed by the state and proposed to the people. California has initiatives just like South Dakota. Remember J.A.I.L.? Trying to paint Reiner's initiative as some governmental mandate would be to paint J.A.I.L. in the same light. Why so dishonest Cindy?

Then Cindy cites this:
"Daycare Deception, by Brian C. Robertson, a Kohler Fellow at the Howard Center for Family and a researcher with the Center for Marriage and Family at the Family Research Council."

Family Research Council is another of Fungus on the Family's groups and run by the likes of Tony Perkins and Gary Bauer. Yea like a far right fringe bunch of nuts is a reliable source. Of course they are trashing public education, that is their job.

The Howard Center for Family is equally as far right and looney as Dobson's group. Not a source with any sort of unbiased credibility.

Sorry Cindy, don't even try to pass off either of these groups as another other than far right looney propaganda machines. People are not that stupid.

She then cites a "child trends" study but does not give any information that would allow anyone to check her claim. In the same paragraph she mentions the same guy, Brian Robertson from the above mentioned far right propaganda groups so one can only assume it is more of his nonsense. An internet search did not pull up any journals or studies titled as such.

So in a close examination of Cindy's article it is completely unfounded and actually the opposite of what she claims appears to be true. So why would Cindy be so transparently dishonest about the state preschool program? Why did Cindy not link to the sources she cited? Why not even some footnotes? Could it be that since her article appears on Bob Ellis's website that maybe she is of the same stripe as old Bob?

Could it be that she is also involved in the movement to abolish the public schools just like Bob Ellis is? Since her article appears on his site and is trying to deceive people into thinking preschool is bad it seems rather obvious.

Sometimes pointing out how dishonest the religious right are is like shooting fish in a barrel.
We would like to thank Bob Ellis for giving us yet another chance to point this out to people.

Fundamentalism, Evangelism And The Destructive Theology Of Dispair

How radical right religion exploits the dispair of its followers. AKA Why Sibby just needs a hug.

Disenfranchisement, suburban isolation from community, dispair and hopelessness of the working and now middle classes. The powerlessness people feel from the dominance of big corporations and the changing place of America on the world stage on their daily lives. All of these things breed hopelessness and dispair for many people who see life as too unfair and with no chance to change things. This has historically been the fodder of fascism and the fascism at the core of radical right religious groups.

These groups offer them an escape from the world they hate, it is a drop out mentality.

This also explains the rage these people exhibit towards anyone who challenges their mythical fantasy world. They fear being forced back into the reality where they felt helpless to the forces working against them in life.

All of the problems in life become evidence that nothing is worth saving and that the end is near. Instead of seeing the problems in our world as calls to action to fix these problems and shape our world into a better place they encourage these problems as ways to hasten the end.

Hedges outlines how the obsession with the apocolypse is about revenge. Those who feel screwed over by the world will get their revenge in the end. When they are vindicated by being the supposed chosen ones and the rest of the world will suffer as payback for all the bad things that happened to said person in their lives.

These groups encourage their followers to satisfy small bits of their desire for revenge through lashing out at groups who are not part of their movement. The systemized demonization of anything secular, gays, womens rights, muslims and anything intellectual are all easy targets for this rage.

This quote from the book says it all:
"They will have behind them tens of millions of angry, disenfranchised Americans longing for revenge and yearning for a mythical utopia, Americans who embraced a theology of despair because we offered them nothing else."

This becomes painfully clear if you follow discussions about political and social issues. The adherent to radical right beliefs are the first to tell everyone that change is impossible. It will never work, it is too expensive and too hard so just don't even try.

The ideas of all workers with a living wage, benefits, healthcare and retirement are too hard. Same with healthcare, education reform, overcoming energy issues, global warming and world peace. Its too hard so give up, adopt the fantasy and close your eyes to reality.

Progressive politics must see this for what it is. They need to offer real hope and show that it CAN be better and people can really make change.

Moderate religious groups need to step up to the plate and encourage people to join them and they need to put more public outreach focused on hope. They need to facilitate people to join in and make change that counters dispair. One such program some moderate religious groups have become active in is money management programs. These programs show people how to control their finances and get out of the cycle of debt and living paycheck to paycheck. This provides a very tangible method to combat dispair and gain back some aspect of control and hope. Similar programs tackling healthcare access and other causes of frustration could go a long way to draw people out of radical religious groups and back into mainstream society.

Offering real solutions that dovetail with religious beliefs may be the first step needed to get people out of the downward spiral of radical religion and the fascism it breeds.

It Is Never Too Early To Indoctrinate Your Sons Into The Patriarchy

The crisis pregnancy center loons out west river are getting a head start on creating the next generation of misogynists.

After taking much heat last year for their purity balls (aka: cattle shows for teenage girls) they came out with the male version. Do they talk about why men need to save THEIR "purity" for marriage? Hell no.

It is all about them not damaging the goods (female property) and giving some other guy the sloppy seconds. Not once do they mention anything about why the males themselves should remain abstinent. The entire focus was on keeping women tightly controlled and how they can participate in this and the social pressure on women to be forced into marriage. Not one mention that these males might be damaged goods if they had sex before marriage. Only that the females would be someone else's damaged goods or they might end up buying some damaged female goods if some guy got to them first.

It Is Never Too Early To Indoctrinate Your Sons Into The Patriarchy

The crisis pregnancy center loons out west river are getting a head start on creating the next generation of misogynists.

After taking much heat last year for their purity balls (aka: cattle shows for teenage girls) they came out with the male version. Do they talk about why men need to save THEIR "purity" for marriage? Hell no.

It is all about them not damaging the goods (female property) and giving some other guy the sloppy seconds. Not once do they mention anything about why the males themselves should remain abstinent. The entire focus was on keeping women tightly controlled and how they can participate in this and the social pressure on women to be forced into marriage. Not one mention that these males might be damaged goods if they had sex before marriage. Only that the females would be someone else's damaged goods or they might end up buying some damaged female goods if some guy got to them first.

Georgia Abortion Ban Antics More Bizzare Than South Dakota's

Georgia has one upped last years dangerous, unconstitutional and crazy South Dakota abortion ban attempt. According to the proposed law doctors will be eligible for the death penalty.

If you thought the South Dakota law was full of propaganda and unproven junk, give the Georgia bill a read. They tried the old breast cancer claim that has been repeatedly proven as false. They also tried to claim that abortion will turn you into a smoker and ruin every aspect of a woman's life. They got carried away to the point of the absurd.

The upside is that the bill's sponsor Bobby Franklin is taking a massive beating in the media. Georgia Libertarians are fuming over the ban and one talk radio host had some rather angry things for Bobby Franklin. One of the major newspapers in Atlanta also did not have good things to say about the whole issue and stated that the bill stands little chance of passing.

Oh but things are surreal and bizzare down in Georgia. Blog for Democracy sat in on the "hearings" and blogged live. We use the term hearings lightly. It was more of a tent revival complete with a band. A freaking keyboard & guitar player performed at their legislative hearing. Oh and lots of prayers, preachers and women doing the testify thing. Not testify in the legal sense, testify in the tent revival sense. The brave blogger who sat though all of this nonsense got there early and saw the women speakers rehearse their spontanious testimony before the offical hearing. They also pointed out one convenient fact of the hearings. Every woman has the same story. Had an unhappy life, had an abortion, found Jebus. The last part seems to be key. Most of these women admitted they worked for crisis pregnancy centers or other fringe religious anti-choice groups.

Spacey Gracey has more pictures of the jebus revival at the hearing. Notice the big stack of women's testimonies they presented. Look familiar? Wonder if they are the exact same prepackaged testimonies that they brought to South Dakota. Anyone know how an average citizen can obtain copies of the documents from the South Dakota hearing? That big old pile of testimonies used for the South Dakota ban should be public documents right?

This comment on Blog for Democracy is freaking scary. One of the revival nuts was watching the person blogging over their shoulder and now the fundies are trying to harass and intimiate the bloggers. People wonder why we keep a purposeful low profile, this is why.

"Also- I never said I met you dear. I said

a friend stood behind you to read your blog
and see who you were writing. He made the notes
and gave them to me and others who know the blogs
you all are on.

Bernita and Grayson are being watched.
Your photos are circulating the capital and
the LOB. You were taped. This I know for a fact.
You are no longer secret spies who blog and
defame the character of well meaning citizens.
Please be careful. The cell phone photos are
illegal in the LOB."


Ah fun and games in Georgia. We will keep you updated as things progress. Right now it looks like it might not even make it to a first vote.

Far Right Fundies Attack SDWC Over HPV Vaccine

Pat Powers over at SDWC is getting raked over the coals by the far right fanatical fringe over his comment that he thinks the state plan to distribute HPV vaccine is a good public health idea.

We seldom find ourselves on the same side as PP and he has taken more than his fair share of shots at us. He agreed with the governor, and both are right. It would be foolish to willfully ignore a preventable form of cancer.

The fundie brigade's comment that we should do nothing and simply let people get HPV as some sort of divine punishment since they don't approve of the behavior is insane. These people probably consider AIDS to be some sort of divine punishment also.

SDWC is a consistently conservative blog, but is grounded in reality. The lashing PP is taking has exposed the horrible truth about the state GOP. There is a faction within their party that is batshit insane, and they are going after SDWC with both barrels. Suddenly a bipartisan idea that most of the GOP doesn't have a problem with is just not radical right enough for these guys and they are eating their own.

This whole thing gets more bizzare when we realized that uber conservative AM radio host Greg Belfrage is on the same side of this issue as SDWC. Belfrage thinks the people attacking SDWC over this are out of their minds too.

Todd Epp over at SD Watch has also come to Pat's defence.

Clean Cut Kid weighs in on the issue and how dangerous the far right fringe is becoming.

It is a bizzare convergence. Gov. Rounds, liberal and conservative bloggers all in agreement on what seems like a cut and dry issue. Now we're all too immoral liberal pinko commie. Think about it for a minute. Belfrage? SDWC?

HPV Vaccine Takes Away Ability To Punish

All the flap on the far right about the new HPV vaccine possibly being distributed for free by the state boils down to one truth. They don't want to lose their ability to punish women for their sexuality.

This is leap of logic reasoning the Unruh wing of the GOP is using to prevent the HPV vaccine from being distributed for free (or at all). They currently use this scare tactic towards teenage girls. Have sex and you be punished by getting cancer. Got cervical cancer? Good you filthy whore that's God's punishment for not doing what we told you. In their bizzaro world female sexuality is a commodity that men buy and sell. Fathers sell it to other men for their use. When you upturn that apple cart all hell breaks loose.

What makes this a humanitarian nightmare is that caught in this delusion are young girls who will pay the price with their lives.

This tantrum about the HPV vaccine was anticipated and it ties in nicely with their other issues. They hate birth control, they hate abortion, they also hate anything that has to do with women owning their lives. If you can control your reproduction and your sexuality you now own a large part of your destiny. Independence, education and career are much more attainable. Cervical cancer is just another tool of manipulation and control. They oppose the vaccine for the same reasons they oppose birth control. They allow women agency.

Their desire to control and punish women seems to be overtaking their ability to deal with reality.

The HPV vaccine protects virgins. Yes, their precious virgins. A female can be a virgin and get HPV through rape or from their spouse on their wedding night. Like men have never lied about their sexual status before.

95% of Americans have had premarital sex. So the fantasy about wedding night virgins is just that. You can lock up your daughter or buy her one of these. But odds are that her male companion has had sex elsewhere, unless he is 5% of the population. How are you going to confirm that one?

The vaccine is 100% effective at preventing 70% of the strains of cervical cancer producing HPV. It has an incredibly high protection rate.

What was probably the weakest argument coming out of the Unruh wing of the GOP was the complaint about tax dollars paying for vaccines. So do they feel the same way about smallpox? Polio? Mumps? Scarlet Fever? Public health protection is one of the most core uses of tax dollars. It is a form of defence. It protects the public from health threats. Just because it does not involve large numbers of buff men holding large guns does not make it less so.

This should be a no-brainer. Provide the vaccine to anyone who wants it and can't afford it. The dems support it, the moderate republicans support it. This is one of those issues that shows everyone who the truly out of touch political crazies are.

Bill Napoli's Burning Groin

We all knew Bill was a bit odd after last year's "Sodomized Virgin" outburst.

Hoghouse Blog has this picture of Bill's new necktie. A burning sensation should be taken seriously, outright flames, you really should see a doctor.

Someone get that man an ice pack and some cephalosporin.

Hunt Pawns Himself

SD Progressive has a detailed rundown of Roger "orange jumpsuit" Hunt's ongoing series of lies about his criminal activity.

Hunt was kind enough to make all of these admissions on the record with the media.

According to Hunt:
1. He admitted the money he gave Vote Yes was DONATED, but he claims it came from multiple people.
2. Then Hunt confirms yet again that the money was DONATED, but says now it was just one person who gave it to him.
3. Then Hunt claims the money wasn't donated after all, it was General Funds.
4. Then Hunt states that the company that just gave away $750,000 does not have considerable assets.


So a company set up during the election that has no real intended purpose, has done no other business and does not have any real assets gave away a quarter of a million dollars to a campaign. Now he wants to pretend he never mentioned the whole donations thing either.

The larger unanswered question is:
Is Hunt that stupid that he thinks any of this is a good case for what he did?
Or does he think the people of South Dakota are so utterly stupid that they will buy this?

If we do not prosecute Hunt and toss him out of the legislature it proves on thing.
We are truely a state full of morons.

Violent Criminal Group Votes Leslee Their Woman Of The Year

Operation Rescue, well known for their obnoxious fetus trucks, run-ins with the law, and the criminal activity of their members has nominated looney Leslee their woman of the year. Courtesy of CCK.

Operation Rescue has a long track record of illegal activity. Many of its members have spent time in prison for bombings, firearms violations, death threats and other violent crimes. Operation Rescue has been vocal of its support for murderers Paul Hill and Eric Rudolph. One of Operation Rescue's key members Troy Newman brags about being a close friend of Leslee's and was in South Dakota repeatedly last year helping her work on the abortion ban. Newman has had numerous run-ins with the law and tax fraud. Leslee sure has an awful lot of criminal friends.
You can find out more about some of the Operation Rescue people and their long records of violence and criminal activity at Maggot Punks, a watchdog group that tracks Operation Rescue. Click on the each picture to get the criminal record and other information of the people involved.

Pendulum Swing In Pierre

So far the agenda in Pierre with Rounds and the Legislature is quite different than last years theocracyfest. With a few of the bad apples out of the picture due to the recent election, the constant trouncing Rounds took and a general torches and pitchfork groundswell after last year's session things seem to be more reality based now. It will be interesting to see if anyone tries to propose anything stupid this year.

The topics this session seem downright liberal. In reality they probably seem that way because things were so off the charts to the right last year. Last year there were pushes to put creationism in the schools, dismantle sex-ed and replace it with a failed religious based abstinence only policy. Those are the ones that didn't get traction. The abortion ban, marriage amendment and pharmacists new right to refuse medications on religious grounds were just too looney for even conservative South Dakota.

The more sane state is discussing these measures this year:

Rounds is proposing free HPV vaccines to be distributed by the state. The talibangical far right don't want it and are probably pretty steamed that Rounds would want to help people not die from cancer. It will be interesting to see if anyone can rally enough opposition to even warrant discussion on making this inititative happen.

Rounds says he supports a state minimum wage hike. The Democrats support this and it has considerable public support. It appears the moderate Republicans support this also. Anyone disputing this is just going to be calling attention to themselves as being an unpopular idiot.

Rounds proposed state funded pre-school and the program is already underway in Sioux Falls. The only debate so far stated was a concern that it could hurt private preschool programs. The number of private pre-schools is rather small and many people who use them will continue to use them. They provide specialized programs, the daycare before and after the actual pre-school hours of the day and many other extras. Most parents that already use these schools and can afford it will probably stay. Parents struggling with costs will now have better options. The real impact though, is that more young kids will get that important early learning and this will have a huge impact on elementary education and the ability of these kids to stay competitive as they go through school.

These things Rounds has proposed. Most were Billion's campaign promises. Interesting.

Education funding is high on everyone's list. This is a good thing. Teacher pay is at least getting mentioned, it needs to go up. Taking a look at forced school consolidation makes sense too. What is missing is a real plan. The state needs to be looking further into how to best use our dollars and resources. How can we take advantage of technology and consolidation to provide services cheaper AND better. Students in rural South Dakota should have most of the education opportunities available in the larger cities. We need more statewide resources and programs and less redundant and costly district level versions. Electronic classrooms, computers and distance learning sound expensive but could save millions in the long run. Baby steps are good. If they at least address current funding problems and some of the things bleeding the system dry it is progress.

Campaign and ballot reform. There are proposals out there to change contributions and rules for campaigns. The new rules don't go far enough. Stiffer penalties and more specific rules are needed. A $50 fine for filing late? Make it a $1000 fine. They also need to make what Hunt did a felony. It is already illegal but with a misdemeanor hanging over your head, complying with the law is a low priority for those with other motivations. The ballot reform proposals are largely not needed. The two issues that should be changed don't make it harder for people to get an issue on a ballot, they make it harder for outside special interests to. Make it illegal to pay people to collect signatures, volunteer only. Require that all petitions have an explanation that is approved by the state that clearly informs the public what this petition does. Require the canvasser to have this statement for the public to view and copies to give someone if they ask. Make it a crime to falsely describe a petition. There were examples of outright lying to people by canvassers. Paid canvassers were caught telling people they were collecting signatures to ban abortion (not put it to a vote) before the petition was even filed. These were the paid canvassers who were also collecting signatures for the cel phone tax, medical marijuana and some others. They had nothing to do with the actual abortion ban vote. The paid canvassers for the JAIL amendement were also repeatedly caught misrepresenting the actual initiative and purposely covering up the ballot language with cardboard so people could not read it.

All in all, so far it's a tame session.

Pendulum Swing In Pierre

So far the agenda in Pierre with Rounds and the Legislature is quite different than last years theocracyfest. With a few of the bad apples out of the picture due to the recent election, the constant trouncing Rounds took and a general torches and pitchfork groundswell after last year's session things seem to be more reality based now. It will be interesting to see if anyone tries to propose anything stupid this year.

The topics this session seem downright liberal. In reality they probably seem that way because things were so off the charts to the right last year. Last year there were pushes to put creationism in the schools, dismantle sex-ed and replace it with a failed religious based abstinence only policy. Those are the ones that didn't get traction. The abortion ban, marriage amendment and pharmacists new right to refuse medications on religious grounds were just too looney for even conservative South Dakota.

The more sane state is discussing these measures this year:

Rounds is proposing free HPV vaccines to be distributed by the state. The talibangical far right don't want it and are probably pretty steamed that Rounds would want to help people not die from cancer. It will be interesting to see if anyone can rally enough opposition to even warrant discussion on making this inititative happen.

Rounds says he supports a state minimum wage hike. The Democrats support this and it has considerable public support. It appears the moderate Republicans support this also. Anyone disputing this is just going to be calling attention to themselves as being an unpopular idiot.

Rounds proposed state funded pre-school and the program is already underway in Sioux Falls. The only debate so far stated was a concern that it could hurt private preschool programs. The number of private pre-schools is rather small and many people who use them will continue to use them. They provide specialized programs, the daycare before and after the actual pre-school hours of the day and many other extras. Most parents that already use these schools and can afford it will probably stay. Parents struggling with costs will now have better options. The real impact though, is that more young kids will get that important early learning and this will have a huge impact on elementary education and the ability of these kids to stay competitive as they go through school.

These things Rounds has proposed. Most were Billion's campaign promises. Interesting.

Education funding is high on everyone's list. This is a good thing. Teacher pay is at least getting mentioned, it needs to go up. Taking a look at forced school consolidation makes sense too. What is missing is a real plan. The state needs to be looking further into how to best use our dollars and resources. How can we take advantage of technology and consolidation to provide services cheaper AND better. Students in rural South Dakota should have most of the education opportunities available in the larger cities. We need more statewide resources and programs and less redundant and costly district level versions. Electronic classrooms, computers and distance learning sound expensive but could save millions in the long run. Baby steps are good. If they at least address current funding problems and some of the things bleeding the system dry it is progress.

Campaign and ballot reform. There are proposals out there to change contributions and rules for campaigns. The new rules don't go far enough. Stiffer penalties and more specific rules are needed. A $50 fine for filing late? Make it a $1000 fine. They also need to make what Hunt did a felony. It is already illegal but with a misdemeanor hanging over your head, complying with the law is a low priority for those with other motivations. The ballot reform proposals are largely not needed. The two issues that should be changed don't make it harder for people to get an issue on a ballot, they make it harder for outside special interests to. Make it illegal to pay people to collect signatures, volunteer only. Require that all petitions have an explanation that is approved by the state that clearly informs the public what this petition does. Require the canvasser to have this statement for the public to view and copies to give someone if they ask. Make it a crime to falsely describe a petition. There were examples of outright lying to people by canvassers. Paid canvassers were caught telling people they were collecting signatures to ban abortion (not put it to a vote) before the petition was even filed. These were the paid canvassers who were also collecting signatures for the cel phone tax, medical marijuana and some others. They had nothing to do with the actual abortion ban vote. The paid canvassers for the JAIL amendement were also repeatedly caught misrepresenting the actual initiative and purposely covering up the ballot language with cardboard so people could not read it.

All in all, so far it's a tame session.

Everyone Laughs & Points At Leslee

We had really hoped to be focusing more on new proposed laws the first day of the Legislature but Leslee has demanded the media and anyone humanly possible pay attention to her. Sometimes you should be careful what you ask for.

Kelo ran a story this morning where Unruh insisted that everyone should pay attention to her unsubstantiated claims of signature fraud rather than paying attention to the pending court date of her partner in crime Roger Hunt. Hunt is due to face a judge to determine what will happen next in the ongoing investigation by the state Attorney General's office. The closing line of the story is just comedy gold though. After they give Leslee sixty seconds of TV time to set herself up publicly they pull the rug out from under her by pointing out that the Secretary of State Chris Nelson has told them that no, enough signatures were verified by their office to be authentic and the time limit has run out. Kelo went on to say that Nelson said there would be no investigation into Leslee's claims. Ta-Da! They made her look like a total fool and this was before 8am this morning.

Earlier this morning Chad over at CCK points out that nobody on the right is rushing to Leslee's defence over her new claim that had been made the day before. Nobody on the right want's to have anything to do with looney Leslee it seems.

By mid morning reports come out of Pierre that Leslee has shown up with some pink balloons at the Capitol publicly declaring Roger Hunt to be her hero. The guy who is facing election fraud charges for helping launder a million dollars for Leslee's failed ballot group to try to keep Steve Kirby's identity as the donor a secret.

But then South Dakota War College posts on the minor plea for attention from Leslee. They came to Leslee's rescue right? Wrong! PP has a picture of Leslee and the few friends she has left holding a sign about "Hero's of 1215". The comment at SDWC asks, what side were they thanking. Leslee just can't get a break, anywhere.

SD Progressive has the finale for Leslee's comedy of errors, complete with video.
Unruh admits the only reason she is trying to make a scene right now is to divert attention from Hunt's impending legal smack down. She also attempts to claim that Hunt should not be investigated because she says he has integrity. This is coming from the woman who barely weaseled her way out of a prison sentence for human trafficking not that long ago. Leslee is starting to look more and more like a criminal trying to help her fellow criminals and probably herself get out of trouble. SD Progressive also has the video of Leslee's latest public meltdown. We agree, it is better than the public meltdown she had on TV when she lost the election.