I think Grandpa John McCain was done in by eight years of Bush fatigue and a stinking, sinking economy.

But picking Gov. Sarah Palin didn't help.

Sure, she was cute and all, but she was not Presidential timber.  Plus, her wacky views and frankly obnoxious speaking voice turned plenty of undecideds off.

And while SD Watch made lots of fun of picking on our own high school 800 meter star, Sen. John Thune, as Grumpy Old John's running mate, it would have been a far, far better pick.

While Thune shares a lot of Palin's unscientific conservative worldview, he's not dumb.  He is well spoken, handsome, and would have also solidified his base as The Man Who Beat Tom Daschle.

Thune would not have acted like running for Vice President was like running for head cheerleader.  He would have brought business experience, agricultural experience, and a great jump shot to the McSame team.

Mind you, the result would have been the same.  But it would have been a loss with far more dignity to the country, Sen. McCain, and launched someone who would not be a joke as a Presidential candidate himself some day.

I think Vote Yes for Life's continued reliance on plastering the state with yard signs again proved to be futile.

Yard signs don't vote.  Even yard signs with pictures of babies on them don't vote.  Putting ten yard signs with pictures of babies doesn't mean there's ten votes coming from that house.

If Lesleeiacs come back yet again in 2010 with still another abortion ban, I hope they continue this waste of time, money, and resources.

A little birdie passed this video on to me.  I don't know it's source.  However, it juxtaposes Tiffany Campbell's story about having to choose one of her twin fetuses against the hogwash the Vote Yes for Life Unruhians have tried to vomit up against her choice.

My source provides this bit of commentary:

Someone pulled together VoteYesForLife's various responses to Tiffany Campbell's story and put them to music.  I knew that VYFL was panicked by Tiffany's story and confused as to how the measure that they're peddling would impact her case, but wow -- the contradictions and kitchen-sink tactics used to discredit Tiffany's story are pretty appalling.

Here's the video:

I’m watching the televised Catholic service on KELOLAND.  The priest’s homily is exhorting support of IM 11, the abortion ban measure, and asking Catholics to support anti-choice candidates.

I’m wondering if this triggers equal time or fairness doctrine provisions under federal law.

I’m also wondering if the Campaign for Healthy Families and pro-choice candidates will get the same sort of access to the largest and most influential broadcaster in South Dakota.

Nice to know that both Sanford and the Sioux Falls Diocese have their own TV station.

Chalk this up to the things that just make you want to go “hmmm” list.

The Sioux Falls Church at the Gate, led by anti-choice Pastor Steve Hickey, is starting a whole series on “choice” this Sunday.

Considering that when Jesus walked the earth there was no country of “America,” it also makes you wonder, WWJ think? 

Click this link to open the flyer (Hickey’s Church Flier - Back.JPG)

Unfortunately I can’t find the original source material for this goofiness from Leslee Unruh. You’ll just have to take it from the excellent Kansas City Star newspaper political blog, Prime Buzz.

Unruh issued a statement praising John McCain’s veep candidate-designate for her “compassionate and reasonable response” toward her daughter Bristol’s pregnancy.

Then she added this:

“Young people from all walks of life are daily exposed to sexual messages through billboards, magazines, music, internet, peers and condom educators in the schools. Teaching young people sexual integrity - as is done in abstinence education - how to withstand the pressures of their peers, combat the messages they receive from the media, and how to make the healthiest choices should be top priority when it comes to our youth,” Unruh said. “When it comes to educating our youth about their sexuality - condom education is failing our youth. It sexualizes youth by exposing them to sexual images thus lowering the expectations for their behavior. It puts them at risk for pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases because condoms don’t work 100% of the time. Not to mention the emotional stress and heartbreak that sex itself can cause. Youth need abstinence education, which teaches sexual integrity and offers the healthiest message - how to eliminate the risk from their lives completely. Anything less than the healthiest message should not be good enough for our country’s youth.”

Did I miss something here? Is Unruh saying that the abstinence message somehow worked in this case?

“We know of thousands of young people who have waited,” Unruh continued. “Wouldn’t it be nice if the media spent as much time showing the success stories of those who have waited until they are married as those who have made mistakes?”

Oh, right. It’s the media’s fault.

Like the Seinfeldian Soup Nazi, Sen. John McCain has told Bristol Palin and young women like her, "No pregnancy prevention or post-natal aid for you! Come back in three years!"

From CBS News:

(AP) Republican John McCain, whose running mate disclosed that her unmarried 17-year-old daughter is pregnant, has opposed proposals to spend federal money on teen-pregnancy prevention programs and voted to require poor teen mothers to stay in school or lose their benefits.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's announcement Monday about her daughter, Bristol, was aimed at rebutting Internet rumors that Palin's youngest son, born in April, was actually her daughter's. Palin said her daughter intends to raise her child and marry the baby's father, who was identified only by his first name, Levi. The baby is due in late December.

From the Huffington Post:

Sarah Palin's 17-year-old , unmarried daughter is five months pregnant, the campaign has announced. Hoping to quell internet rumors about about her youngest son, Palin released the news about her daughter Bristol earlier today.

A statement released by the campaign said that Bristol Palin will keep her baby and marry the child's father. Bristol Palin is five months pregnant, and the baby is due in late December.

Can you imagine the Rightwingers' outcry if this were Barack Obama's 17 year old unmarried daughter?

It is easy to make fun of Sioux Falls anti-abortion zealot Leslee Unruh if you are on the other side of her.

Her over the top statements, her excessive make-up, her less than explicated past, and frankly, her success in trying to make South Dakota not just a “no abortion zone” but a “no sex zone” makes her a juicy target.

Hell, I’ve had my own fun with Leslee over the years in the pages of this blog and elsewhere. But her husband Allen is also a fellow member of the Sioux Falls Downtown Lions Club and I get massages at son Nathan’s chiropractic clinic, Envive.

Yes, South Dakota and Sioux Falls are small places. We all rub elbows with one another.

As we find out, Leslee, like most of us, is a complicated, nuanced person.

The September issue of More Magazine has an extensive interview with Unruh by writer Amanda Robb, whose uncle—an abortion provider—was murdered by a pro-life crazy.

Robb is trying to understand her uncles murder through somone who shares the murder’s values—but not their penchant for blood.

The resulting article about Unruh is layered, critical, sympathetic, interesting, infuriating, detailed, and insightful.

Whether you are like me and consider her part of the political and cultural problems in our state or are one of her staunchest supporters, you’ll learn something about a woman who obviously has a lot of clout, not just in South Dakota, but in the pro-life and abstinence movements in the United States.

Plus, we’re in the middle of yet another ballot measure on abortion in South Dakota.

More’s publisher gave me a heads up about the publication. Here are some excerpts:

The most influential woman I’d never heard of, Unruh was largely credited with the passage of the nation’s most restrictive anti abortion law, the Women’s Health and Human Life Protection Act, in March 2006.When it was overturned by South Dakota’s voters in a referendum eight months later, Unruh was undaunted. “We’ll never, never, never give up,”she told supporters. And she hasn’t: An amended version of the bill —one with exceptions for rape, incest and maternal health — will be on the state’s ballot in November. Both sides see it as a direct, and potentially successful, challenge to Roe v. Wade…

Her sweeping rhetoric not only roils her opponents on the left, it also frustrates many on the right. Some conservative groups object to her”abortion hurts women” sloganeering (they prefer to keep the emphas is on the fetus); others worry that her over-the-top pronouncements will tarnish the abstinence brand. But there can be no denying that in the high places where laws are written, Leslee Unruh’s passionate message about sex and its consequences has been coming through loud and clear…

“I meant to grow up to be just like you: a typical liberal feminist,”says the Sioux Falls native as she prunes plants and straightens stuffed bears. “Everyone in my family was a Democrat. I grew up in the time of Gloria Steinem, and it was exciting and inspiring.” The 1972Lincoln Senior High School yearbook reveals a boho-looking Leslee Bonrud lying in a circle with other arty types, the staff of a literary magazine called ut, an acronym for Unabashed Thoughts. After her parents’ divorce (Unruh says her father, a plasterer, once had adrinking problem), her mother worked as a housekeeper, and Unruh says she told her mother to “get out of the kitchen, start a business,” soshe could “get out from under the thumb of a man.”…

Where she was, exactly, can be maddeningly difficult to pin down. A 2003 Washington Post article reported that Leslee and Allen married in 1972. “Five kids, two of my sons are doctors,” she told the paper. “Abstinence works, people.My daughter saved her first kiss for her wedding day. I’m here to tell ya.” But according to Clark County, Nevada, marriage records, her name was Leslee Joy Kutzler (not Bonrud) when she married Allen Dale Unruh in a Las Vegas elopement. The recorded date of that marriage is November 17, 1978 — five years after Nathan, her oldest, was born.Daughter Nakia and son Chace were born in 1974 and 1976, respectively…

By 2005, government contributions and contracts accounted for 71percent — about $1 million — of Abstinence Clearinghouse’s annual revenue. That same year, government grants accounted for 41 percent($241,839) of the revenue at Unruh’s crisis pregnancy center. Today,Abstinence Clearinghouse affiliates — among them hundreds of crisis pregnancy centers — pay Unruh and her staff to show them how to secure federal grants and then how to negotiate the government’s reviewprocess. And today, says the women’s rights advocacy group Legal Momentum, about 12 percent of all abstinence education funds go to crisis pregnancy centers or groups closely affiliated with them…

But in South Dakota the conservative political establishment still appreciates Leslee Unruh. “No one understands better how these issues really impact women,” says state representative Roger Hunt, who introduced the abortion ban in 2006 and again this year, and who has worked with Unruh on antichoice issues for two decades. “No one explains it better. And no one is more committed.” And if there are some on the right who disapprove of her tactics, well, “all effectiveleaders get criticized,” Hunt says.

Heaven and my political brethren forgive me, but I can imagine the profound relief her clients must feel at being told what to do. Despite the deep divisions between Unruh and me, I have found her oddly seductive; how can I be surprised if women in trouble do, too? I find myself wishing someone on the right would replace her, someone less able to touch all the conflicted feelings of the women she istrying to reach and the legislators she is seeking to persuade. I also wish that, for me, she could have been a better interpreter of her side of America’s culture wars, so I could better understand why my Uncle Bart is dead. But now that I see how Unruh has edited her own past, Iam more confused than ever. And I’m convinced that if Unruh would tell her very human story, plainly and completely, she would be more, not less, inspiring. She’d be real…

Go online or buy the magazine and make up your own mind. You might still like her or oppose her but you’ll come to the conclusion that she is far from stupid or insincere.

I’m quoted briefly in columnist Lou Jacobson’s column in Stateline.org today on the impact of social issues on the 2008 election.

Read: Seeds of social issues dot 2008 elections

Excerpt:

“I get the feeling most normal people on both sides of the issue are tired of the abortion debate, but for some voters, it can be a deciding issue, or even the only issue, in legislative races,” said Todd Epp, a state Democratic committeeman in South Dakota.

Lou talks about a number of other states as well, including Montana, Missouri, and California.

Thanks, Lou!

Technorati Tags: abortion, Lou Jacobson, Stateline.org, South Dakota

Maybe we’re going about this abortion thing all wrong.

South Dakotans believe that they are so superior with their “South Dakota Values.”

This past legislative session, these “Superior Dance of Values” apparently include greatly expanding alcohol sales and consumption here in The Mt. Rushmore State.

Now, last time I looked, what is one of society’s greatest evils?

Alcoholism.

It destroys those who drink. It destroys families of alcoholics. And alcoholics who drink and drive often kill and maim others.

So, what’s the solution?

Make alcohol more available, says our state legislature, by letting local wineries serve and sell their homemade hooch at fairs and expositions. By letting cities distribute more liquor licenses regardless of city population.

I’m no prude. I like beer, wine, and spirits. Life always seems a little better after a tomato beer with green olives floating in it.

But I can handle my alcohol. It’s just all those other South Dakotans who can’t.

Yet unlike abortion, we in South Dakota support our drinkers’ and alcoholics non-family value of partaking of alcohol.

Why?  What’s the differencce?

Because the state is in on the vig.  Sorry, that’s a gambling term for part of the take or interest. The state gets taxes from alcohol sales.

So, why not tax abortions? Like alcohol, abortion is not what the Superior Dance Crowd thinks is a “family value.” But alcohol is acceptable and even promoted because it is a revenue source.

Why not abortions?

The state could put a tax on the procedure and call it the “Fetus Protection Excise Tax.” The state could promote our low cost of abortions (hey, our doctors and nurses probably also work for less pay like the rest of us—it is a competitive advantage) compared to other states. While still attempting to outlaw abortions, the Fetus Tax could be set aside for the expensive U.S. Supreme Court that would likely occur if such a bill passes.

Further, Fetus Tax revenues over and above the amount for legal fees could either go into the general fund, or, as Gov. Mike Rounds likes to do, send the revenue to a Zygote Trust Fund and only use the interest that is accrued for the state budget and never touch the principle.

I mean, this is how the alcohol business works. The state on the one hand tries to stem drunk driving and under aged drinking by education and law enforcement; on the other hand, it promotes local wineries and vodka mills and Big Box retailers so they can sell more brews, vino, and rot gut.

Leslee Unruh, Roger Hunt, Gov. Rounds, I think I’ve found some common ground for us all!  Don’t stop abortions, tax them!  It’s the South Dakota Way—taxing what we find to be odious.

Technorati Tags: abortion, alcohol, alcoholism, South Dakota, Gov. Mike Rounds, Leslee Unruh, Roger Hunt, fetus, Fetus Protection Excise Tax, Zygote Trust Fund, zygotes

From Kate Looby at Planned Parenthood:

South Dakota Legislature Passes Divisive Sonogram Bill

(Pierre, SD) Today the South Dakota legislature passed two bills requiring physicians ask women to view ultrasounds prior to obtaining an abortion. SB88 passed through the Senate and HB1193 passed through the House.

“These decisions are best made between women and their doctors, not by legislators in Pierre,” Looby said. “At a time when South Dakotans are looking for concrete, common sense solutions, the same group of legislators are mandating even more restrictions in a state that already has some of the most restrictive abortion laws in the country,” said Looby.

“These bills won’t prevent even one unintended pregnancy and won’t do anything to reduce the need for abortion. It’s another example of Roger Hunt and a small group of legislators fixated on intruding into the personal, private matters of South Dakotans rather than providing authentic solutions,” Looby said.

Polling released in November shows that 75% of South Dakotans surveyed support an approach that gets to the root of the problem – working together to take practical and meaningful steps to prevent unintended pregnancy thereby reducing the need for abortion.

Technorati Tags: Kate Looby, abortion, sonograms, pregnancy, South Dakota Legislature, right to lifers, Planned Parenthood

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One of my progressive friends sends me the following take:

 

This is from Chet Brokaw’s AP story re the legislators’ support for putting abortion on the ballot in ’08.

Rhoden said after a similar measure was debated in last year’s legislative session, Attorney General Larry Long offered to help draft a proposal that could be more easily defended in a court challenge. He said the language in the proposed ballot measure was developed with input from Long and other lawyers.

Does anyone else think it’s odd that our AG is getting that involved in writing initiated measures? Isn’t that crossing the line just a tad bit? I wonder if the “JAIL” supporters asked Larry to help them out if he would be so accommodating?

I think Larry has done a pretty good job as AG. But I don’t think he should be helping legislators write initiated measures. That is not a service he offers other South Dakotans. Also, it can put him in a tough spot since the AG’s office is supposed to write a non-partisan synopsis and explanation of all ballot issues. His office can hardly be unbiased when it is also drafting measures.

 

That this is also done on an abortion referendum compounds the problem, given the issue’s controversy.

Photo: AG Larry Long.

Technorati Tags: Larry Long, AG Larry Long, attorney general, abortion, South Dakota Legislature, referendums

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I love irony.

The Rapid City Journal reports today that Sen. John Thune is pro-choice when it comes to pill counting pharmacists having a right not to provide birth control pills to women so they can avoid an abortion.

Read: Thune supports pharmacists on moral ground

An excerpt: 

U.S. Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., said Monday he opposes a move in Congress to force pharmacists to fill prescriptions for birth-control pills or other drugs they find morally objectionable.

“I believe that, if a pharmacist or pharmacy owner has a religious or moral dilemma with filling controversial prescriptions, he or she should not be mandated by the federal government to do so,” the South Dakota Republican said in a quote provided by his communications director, Kyle Downey.

Yet Thune and his anti-choice ilk have no problem telling women that they can’t choose to have an abortion—and now, that they can’t choose to take birth control if they have a jerk as a pharmacist.

Perhaps the next step for Thune and Gov. Mike Rounds is to establish state or federal gestation farms for all the women they are going to force to have babies so the pasty white guys in white smocks who put pills in a bottle can preserve their “rights.”

But of course, sex is bad.  That is, when it comes to other people having it, unless you’re a holy “servant leader” NeoChrisCon like Sen. Thune The Pure.

 

(Cross-posted to SD Watch and SDW @ KELOLAND.com.)

Technorati Tags: Sen. John Thune, Gov. Mike Rounds, abortion, birth control, birth control pills, contraceptives, pharmacists, pill counters

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Last year, Gov. Mike Rounds signed an abortion ban bill.

This year, he says the state is too strapped to increase funding to help pregnant poor women.

• Read: Rounds: S.D. can’t afford to expand Medicaid

An excerpt:

PIERRE - Gov. Mike Rounds says he agrees with a task force proposal to expand Medicaid coverage for low-income pregnant women, but the state can’t afford it right now.

“We certainly don’t have the resources today to do that,” Rounds told reporters in a briefing on the budget he presented to legislators Tuesday.

The Zaniya Task Force, created by the last Legislature to recommend ways to assure that all South Dakotans have access to affordable health insurance, included the expanded Medicaid concept in its final report.The report says the state offers Medicaid eligibility to pregnant women if their income is 133 percent of the federal poverty level or less. Expanding the program to include more low-income women would “promote healthy birth outcomes for all low-income children,” the report said.

It is sadly ironic—but not unexpected—that the allegedly “pro-life” Governor is willing to “protect” the unborn but not scrape up a few more dollars to help those fetuses turn into healthy babies.  And healthy babies and mothers will actually save the taxpayers money in the long run as they won’t need to seek as many health services in the future.

I think it is safe to say that Gov. Rounds is “pro-life”—as long as it doesn’t cost anything.

Disgusting.

Technorati Tags: abortion, health care, healthy families, pro-life, South Dakota, Gov. Mike Rounds, South Dakota Legislature

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