Weiland: Reform Farm Bill, Focus on Healthy Food

Folks on both sides of the aisle tell me Dr. Kevin Weiland would have gotten creamed if he had run for Congress and brought up his stance against our current farm subsidy program. I say, so what?! You run on principle, and maybe you get beat 90–10 the first time. You run again, get it down to 80–20, then 70–30... and pretty soon, the majority gets what you're talking about!

But hey, Dr. Weiland isn't running for anything, so he's free to start the conversation about why our current "fat farm bill" is unhealthy for America right now:

We have spent hundreds of billions of dollars on farm subsidies since 1996 with almost 80 percent going to the production of four major groups: food grains, feed grains, oilseeds and cotton. The food industry has profited by the mere fact that it is relatively inexpensive to fatten cattle with government-subsidized grain and to buy cheap industrial food additives such as flour, corn starch, corn syrup and soybean oil for its products.

According to U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service Food Review, Volume 25, Issue 3, "nutritious foods have increased in price by nearly 38 percent" while the price of high-calorie items such as soft drinks has decreased by 25 percent since the inception of the Freedom to Farm Act in 1996. The price for this cheap food comes at the expense of our health, however.

We have more than 33 million people in the United States alone with the type of diabetes seen in people who are overweight. Additionally, our government health agencies are concerned about the epidemic of childhood obesity [Dr. Kevin J. Weiland, "Federal Farm Subsidies Fattening America," that Sioux Falls paper, 2010.05.14].

Fattening America? Well, Kristi Noem doesn't look much worse for wear....

Blue Dogs like Rep. Collin Peterson of Minnesota continue to defend the status quo, where the focus of the farm bill is on propping up corporate farms rather than feeding Americans good food. But like it or not, our farm policy supports crappy food and crappy health outcomes. Even anti-government Republicans like Senator John Thune disguise corporate welfare as a "farm safety net" that favors the wrong crops and makes neither economic nor environmental sense.

Dr. Weiland is right: we need a broader conversation about farm policy. Farm policy shouldn't be just about production and profit any more than energy policy should be. Farm policy should involve all stakeholders: farmers, eaters, doctors, and everyone else affected by the externalities of unhealthy industrial agriculture.

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Taxes Got You Down? Try 22 Counts of Evasion and Fraud

The South Dakota media finally get around to transcribing this May 7 press release from U.S. Attorney Brendan V. Johnson announcing the conviction last week of Thomas R. Kelley, age 53, of Salem, S.D. A jury found Mr. Kelley guilty of "filing a false income tax return, impeding the Internal Revenue Service, two counts of tax evasion, three counts of willful failure to file tax returns, and 15 counts of passing fictitious United States Treasury obligation."

Mr. Kelley defended his behavior by claiming under oath that he was just following tax advice from Austin Gary Cooper of the apparently defunct Ten Foundation (also known as the Taking Back America Foundation... and again, I ask, taking it back from whom?). Mr. Cooper was convicted in 1990 for tax evasion. Cooper's bogus advice including telling people to renounce their United States citizenship in favor of "American" citizenship. (Get a taste of that nuttiness from this 2001 report.) Cooper and his wife Martha were ordered by the U.S. District Court of Colorado to stop peddling their bogus, illegal tax plans and to inform all of their duped customers of said court order. The Coopers failed to comply, which earned Mr. Cooper six months in federal prison for criminal contempt. (Wife Martha would have gotten time, too, but she didn't show for that 2006 hearing and was deemed a fugitive.)

As Mr. Kelley awaits sentencing on August 2, perhaps he will consider seeking tax advice from someone other than convicted felons.

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Obama Administration Saving Money with Cloud Computing

The Obama Administration is saving you money with cloud computing. The White House announced yesterday that it will move the stimulus website, Recovery.gov, to "hardware and services [that] are shared, and not owned by the government."

As Nicholas Carr explains in The Big Switch, cloud computing is to information technology what the power grid is to electrical service. When electrical equipment first came about, each factory built and maintained its own electrical generators, just as factories previously had to generate their own mechanical power with onsite water wheels and steam engines. Then manufacturers realized they could outsource power generation to a big utility that generated oodles of power in a coal-fired plant or hydroelectric dam while the manufacturers concentrated on the widget-making they were good at.

Similarly with information technology: as computers developed over the last 50 years, businesses had to create their own IT departments to install and mainatain all of their own mainframes and servers and software. Cloud computing says, "Hey! You're not a computer company! You're a widget maker (or, in this case, the federal government). Focus on your core competency. Let us generate your computing power and manage your software." Instead of having your own bank of high-powered computers with expensive software, you just plug your vanilla computer into the Web, switch on your browser, and access software and processing power from a central utility.

The Office of Management and Budget says switching Recovery.gov to cloud computing will save $750,000 this year alone. Switch a million (oops! 1.15 million) more programs, and we'll have the stimulus paid for!

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Legal Question: Who Should Be on the Sex Offender Registry?

I have a journalistic and legal quandary. I'd like your input.

I received in the mail a court document—signed and stamped by the clerk of courts, receipt attached... it's legit. The document outlines an individual's conviction and sentence for pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge of "attempted sexual imposition." (Not rape, apparently: no penetration.) The crime was committed several years ago, in another state prior to the existence of our sex offender registry statutes. Subsequent statutes in that state appear to have required that individual to register as a sex offender for the past crime.

That individual currently resides in South Dakota. Yet that individual does not appear on our sex offender registry.

Now I'm still reviewing the relevant statutes. It appears that the same crime committed in South Dakota would not land an individual on the registry. SDCL 22-24B-1 includes felony sexual contact with a minor under 16 and sexual contact with a person incapable of consenting as sex crimes. But that statute also includes crimes committed in other states that land a person on that state's sex offender registry.

Now I'm not entirely comfortable with the existence of the sex offender registry. We don't have a murder or manslaughter registry (do we, Mr. Janklow?). We don't have a drug dealer or embezzler or DUI registry. Certainly all ex-convicts face criminal background checks and uncomfortable questions whenever they apply for jobs. But do we not impose this special legal burden on any other class of criminals, any of whom arguably pose as much social danger as sex offenders.

Still, the law is the law. If we have a sex offender registry, sex offenders are expected to register.

So some questions for you, gentle readers:

1. Under what circumstances can a sex offender from another state legitimately avoid registering on South Dakota's sex offender list?
2. Who does more harm—a man who gropes a 15-year-old, a man who kills a motorcyclist, or a woman who embezzles half a million dollars? (Feel free to expand the question with comparisons to other crimes of your choice.)
3. South Dakota requires lifetime registration of every sexual offender. Our neighbors in North Dakota notify communities only of high-risk offenders. Explains North Dakota:
   

   If the community was notified about every offender, it would dilute the usefulness of the information about the few offenders who pose a very serious risk to the public. Public notification about low-risk offenders may have the unintended effect of making them more risky. An employed sex offender living in a known location and who is participating in offender treatment is preferable to one unemployed, transient, and with no incentive to complete treatment [Office of the Attorney General, North Dakota Sex Offender Website FAQ #17].

   
   Should we change our registry to publicize the names of only the high-risk offenders?
   

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Bonus statistic: According to this 2009 PDF map from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, South Dakota has more registered sex offenders per 100,000 population than California. The national average is 228 per 100,000; South Dakota has 325 per 100,000, the eighth-highest rate in the nation.

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Plug BP's Gulf Leak... with a Nuclear Bomb

Of course the Russians would come up with a plan like this: plug BP's runaway oil leak at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico by dropping a bomb on it. A nuclear bomb.

Russian science journalist Vladimir Gubarev says this trick worked more than once in the Soviet Union:

The USSR had a sad experience in containing oil-well flowing in Central Asia. Two breakdowns occurred almost simultaneously. One of them took place in Urtabulak, where a gas torch was burning. The other one took place in Pamuk – a breakdown at an oil well. The two giant flames were extinguished with the help of nuclear explosions. They drilled two wells to approach the emergency wells under the ground and lowered nuclear devices into the wells. The troubled wells were blocked as a result of the explosions.

The work was extremely hard, but it was worth it. I took direct participation in the experiment and was personally present there during the explosions. The experiment was a success. The exploitation of the Pamuk oil well was launched again and nothing could remind of the disaster which had been liquidated with the help of nuclear explosions [Vladimir Gubarev, "Nuclear Explosion Can Heal the Bleeding Wound in the Gulf of Mexico," Pravda (English translation), 2010.05.13].

Wow. That might be the best use I've heard of for a nuclear bomb short of the Orion Project. (Read Niven and Pournelle's Footfall—and take that, you stinkin' Fithp!)

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Green Notes: Dump Coal, Cap Carbon, Create Jobs...

All sorts of green notes!

1. A new report from the Civil Society Institute and Synapse Energy Economics maps a feasible path to meeting all of America's energy needs and use zero coal and nuclear power by 2050. The "Beyond Business as Usual" plan also saves money.
2. Badlands Blue notes that a majority of Republicans and conservatives "would back a comprehensive energy policy that both boosts domestic energy production and caps carbon emissions." Such a policy even has more Teabaggers for it than agin' it. Of course, the poll was conducted by a bunch of Republicans....
3. Don't let those temporary Knight & Carver layoffs get you down; Howard is still working to be a leader in green jobs. Howard's Rural Learning Center is getting a $99K grant from the state Department of Labor to train wind turbine technicians. MDL reports that, thanks to this grant, traning can start in September and reach 325 workers.
4. And how about some more green jobs... green bean jobs. Mike Knutson cites evidence that local food production—the novel concept of farmers growing real food for their neighbors to eat—"could produce $882 million in sales and add 9,300 jobs in the Midwest." Of course, Rebecca Terk and the South Dakota Legislature already know we should buy fresh and buy local. Dennis Daugaard, are you listening?
   

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Pot-Luck Picnic at Sherman Park May 18 for Medical Marijuana

Are you tired of the federal government coming between you and your doctor? Then South DaCola recommends the Picnic 4 Patients, sponsored by the South Dakota Coalition for Compassion on Tuesday, May 18th, 6 p.m. at Sherman Park. Bring some hotdish, bring some beverages, and talk with friends about how to pas the medical marijuana "Safe Access Act" in November.

Coalition for Compassion organizer Emmett Reistroffer will be there, as will Vermillion mayoral candidate and freshly-pled pot-law violator Nick Severson.

Oddly, health care freedom crusader Gordon Howie has not scheduled an appearance.

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No Abortion Campaign... Faith Finds Oil... Coincidence?

Two years ago, Pastor Steve Hickey suggested that God would bless South Dakota with a fortune in oil if we would just pass the abortion ban on that year's ballot.

That ban failed, as had its carbon-almost-copy in 2006, and our country sank into godless socialism.

Uh oh—what's that ominous sound rising from the fiery depths?

Last year the town of Faith decided it was time for a new well to supply their water. They had no idea what they were about to stumble on.

"We didn't find water, but we did find traces of oil," Faith Mayor Glen Haines said.

Haines said he didn't know the magnitude of what they hit until a local geologist contacted Nakota Energy, an oil company from Colorado.

"In the last year we've been working more on this with this company, and they're the ones getting more excited about it, kinda exciting the whole community," Haines said [Austin Hoffman, "Faith Hits Oil," KELOLand.com, 2010.05.12].

Just so we're clear: we get news of an oil strike in Faith in the year when there is no abortion ban on our ballot. How can this be? Folks in Faith must be tossing local virgins down the well to appease the petro-gods.

We don't need to win God's favor to find oil. We just need Faith to dig a water well.

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SD Joins Lawsuit to Protect Gov't Health Care from Corporate Fraud

Now here's a health care lawsuit AG Jackley is right to pursue: South Dakota is joining sixteen other states to sue pharma-giant Wyeth for cheating Medicaid out of hundreds of millions of dollars. The suit alleges Wyeth gave hospitals big rebates on certain drugs but did not report or pass on those discounts to the state Medicaid programs.

See, when the states stand to get money, Marty Jackley is all about government health care. Now if he AG Jackley would just look up the Frontier States Amendment, he might drop that other silly health care lawsuit he filed in March.

And a note for folks girding for the battle over cost-control in health care: you can grumble about a granny here taking advantage of Medicare or an unemployed mom there abusing Medicaid to get some fancy medical treatment, but when one business can cheat taxpayers out of several hundred million dollars... well, maybe we should be concentrating on the big fish, not the small fry. Go get 'em, Marty!

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Shad Olson Goes Palin, Quits Job to Profit from Political Pablum

Shad Olson is a quitter just like Sarah Palin. He has left KOTA TV to be a "radio talk theologian." Shad, I live with a theologian. You are not a theolgian. Being a theologian requires much more than politically motivated Mormon-bashing.

(I'd link to Olson's article urging "vigilant avoidance of anything and anyone Mormon" and saying Mitt Romney is going to hell, but Olson's website is a piece of flashy junk that doesn't provide unique URLs to specific content.)

I'm Shad Olson, and my superhero goggles help me see Reds everywhere!
(Image from ShadOlsonShow.com)

Olson also plans to make money as a political consultant for Gordon Howie. Alas, the text on Olson's website indicates he won't be able to come up with any improvements on Howie's shoddy campaign slogans. "Gordon Howie Stands Alone"—that's obvious, Gord, but should you really trumpet that as a good thing when you want to govern all South Dakotans? Olson's contract with the Howie campaign just shows more bad fiscal judgment, since that job will last less than four weeks.

* * *

I was going to cut Olson some slack. Yes, he spoke at a Tea Party rally. Yes, the journalistic code of ethics says newspeople should "shun secondary employment, political involvement, public office and service in community organizations if they compromise journalistic integrity." But I'm uncomfortable with any job that says you cannot participate in the civic life of your community. When journalists establish their credibility by shunning politics, they reinforce the notion that we can't trust people who are involved in politics.

It seems to me other parts of the journalistic code of ethics—distinguish analysis and commentary from straight reporting, hold those in power accountable, give voice to the voiceless, support open exchange of all views whether you agree or disagree—are plenty to ensure that journalists conscientiously inform the citizenry on air or in print even if after work they speak at a GOP rally or a Dems meeting.

I hold teachers to the same standards: they can enlighten students and promote fair and free classroom discussions and still be active in community politics. I don't want anyone to shut down the good Dr. Blanchard's blog or to kick him out of the classroom for political advocacy off campus. Of course, should Dr. Blanchard go off his rocker and start giving D's to students who say the New Deal was effective and A's to students who say FDR was a socialist dupe, he should get the boot. (Even there, a paper claiming the New Deal was effective might still be a D paper; I'd want to see if the student used semicolons properly.)

I would take the same position on Shad Olson: unless someone can demonstrate that his job performance was suffering, that he was twisting his headlines and vetting sources to give KOTA News a Foxy tilt, he should have been free to continue covering Rapid City commission meetings and bake sales. I'm inclined to argue the burden of journalistic objectivity should not crush journalists' participation in civic affairs; the burden should fall more on the editors and the viewing/reading public to scrutinize the journalists' messages.

Requiring this monkish non-participation of reporters may be akin to requiring celibacy of priests. No, it's not about preventing reporters' children from inheriting corporate media wealth. But this requirement of political "celibacy" takes reporters out of the fullness of civic existence. It makes them outsiders to the community... and thus, perhaps, less qualified to speak on the issues that matter to and shape the community.

Of course, none of this now matters in Shad Olson's case. He is unwilling to stand and fight for good journalism. He prefers to quit a job that requires conscientious public service and enhance his own fame and wealth spewing the unoriginal platitudes of talk radio.

Just like Sarah Palin.

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Take Back America from Big Banks with Financial Reform

I hear a lot of people cry about the need to "Take back America!" I keep wondering, from whom?

Maybe from the army of corporate lobbyists fighting to prevent financial reform:

Throughout the financial reform debate, the finance industry has waged an unprecedented assault on the democratic process, spending an estimated $1.4 million per day to influence Congress and hiring 70 members of Congress and 940 former federal employees to lobby on their behalf.

...The lobbying spree is taxpayer-funded—it follows $160 billion in bailouts from Congress and trillions in cheap loans from the Federal Reserve. And as their influence has come to be viewed as increasingly toxic in Washington, the banks have shifted segments of their political activity to a “shadow lobby” that includes such front groups as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce [Kevin Connor, Institute for America's Future, "Big Bank Takeover," OurFuture.org, 2010.05.11].

Read the full PDF report here (and thanks to an eager reader for starting my morning off on a depressing note!).

Here's your chance, Teabaggers, to prove you are more than an anti-Obama, anti-Democrat front group for the status quo of corporate power. Show you can pay attention to the man behind the corporate curtain. Call your Congressmen, Republicans and Democrats, and tell them to do your bidding, not the banks'. Tell them to support real derivatives reform, and real financial reform.

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BP Does More Damage than Failed Bomber: Strip Corporate Rights

Corporations are persons, right? Persons who threaten to damage our country deserve to lose their constitutional rights, right?

The Displaced Plainsman takes the square root of those two and asks this arguably reasonable question:

BP has caused millions of dollars of damage to the United States. The damage may be the result of negligence or criminal activity. If true, why can’t BP the individual be declared an enemy combatant for terrorizing the United States? The harm done by the spill is far greater than the harm that would have been done by the Times Square Bomb attempt. In fact, people actually died because of BP’s actions [LK, "A Question in Which I Act Like a Cranky Conspiracy Theorist, Sort Of," The Displaced Plainsman, 2010.05.11].

People want to take away Faisal Shahzad's rights as a person for bumbling in his use of firecrackers. Why don't we get as cranky about the real damage—human, ecological, and economic—done by corporations?

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