By Bill Harlan

The RCJ staff has picked their top 10 “biggest stories” of 2006, with an edge given to West River issues. (Compare it to the AP top 10 of Kevin’s earlier comment.) Here they are:

1. A “no” on the abortion ban.
2. Gov. Rounds stops Elijah Page execution.
3. Sen. Tim Johnson has brain surgery.
4. Eastridge Fire burns seven homes.
5. Sturgis Scoopers snap losing streak.
6. Motorcycle-gang violence erupts at rally.
7. West River drought continues.
8. Wal-Mart plans proceed.
9. Oglala Sioux Tribe elections in chaos.
10. Cultures collide at Bear Butte.

The above list is not exactly the same as my ballot, but it’s close. Blogmorites, I’m confident, will tell us what we missed.

Bill Harlan

Happy New Year, Blogmorites! I see you’ve been busy while I’ve been away. My blogmate Kevin W. has been a blogging machine. Huzzah.

I also notice a surly Charley House suggests we discuss upcoming legislation rather than navel gaze. OK, if you insist.

Rep. Gordon Pederson and others are introducting a kinder, gentler state-airplane bill, to amend the one voters approved in November. More leeway for the gov, and a way state employees can drive a state vehicle through Mickey Dee’s drive-thru window without getting arrested. (So far no one has added a “Woster rider,” to grant him retroactive immunity. See his post on this topic earlier this month.)

By Kevin Woster

My old pals at the Argus Leader had an interesting question on their online poll yesterday: Should the South Dakota House censure Republican Rep. Roger Hunt for not revealing the source of $750,000 in donations in support of Referred Law 6 during the last campaign?

It’s a pretty good question.

Should Hunt be censured?

By Kevin Woster

Hanging Saddam - good thing or bad?

Does it help our war on terror?

Is the world a safer place? Is Iraq?

Are we safer in the United States?

Should the death penalty - delivered quickly, with no apparent course of legal appeals - be part of the kind of democracy we hoped to bring to Iraq?

If you pray, will you pray for Saddam?

Or for the people who killed him?

Or for us?

By Kevin Woster

Those of you with kids in soccer know that being issued a red card is a bad thing.

The legal system in Iraq, however, takes it a bit beyond a simple trip to the bench.

Saddam Hussein apparently has received the red card that signals his impending execution, possibly in a day or two.

Or course, he will soon begin a lengthy process of legal appeals that could stretch on for a decade.

Oh, wait, that’s over here. The response from the Iraqi court system to an appeals request is roughly the equivalent of: “Appeal this!”

My guess is they won’t worry about the two-drug, three-drug protocol, either.

By Kevin Woster

This just in from a frequent reader and very occasional contributor to Mount Blogmore:

“I am not writing much to Mt. Blogmore as it seems to be more narcissistic blather and name calling than anything else. Some of those guys have to be careful if they bite their nails as they could easily poison themselves if they ever draw blood. Nasty.”

Narcissistic blather?

Name calling?

Nasty?

Could that be us?

By Kevin Woster

Sen. Tim Johnson turns 60 today, a milestone that will be celebrated bedside by his wife, kids and other family members at George Washington University Hospital in Washington, D.C.

Johnson remains under sedation following his emergency brain surgery Dec. 13. And while his health condition and prognosis remain unclear, there’s no question that all of South Dakota - including those who inhabit or visit the craggy heights of political rumination here on Mount Blogmore - wish the good senator the very best.

Happy birthday, Tim. Get well soon.

By Kevin Woster

At least, that’s what Tom Daschle thinks about Gerald Ford’s decision to pardon Richard Nixon.

Here’s what Daschle had to say yesterday about the passing of President Ford:

“Gerald Ford was the the best decision Richard Nixon made in his Presidency.
He rose to the occasion. His honesty and simplicity were his strengths.”

And on the Nixon pardon:

“It was exactly what the country needed. His decision to pardon President Nixon was perhaps the most difficult of his presidency. It was a political disaster and an historical masterstroke.”

Can you guys think of any other events or decisions that could qualify, in their combined effects, as political disasters and historical masterstrokes?

By Kevin Woster

It was a tough call for me in 1976, choosing between Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford.

I liked them both. And Ford had done much to repair, as best he could, at least some of what was broken by Vietnam, Watergate and Nixon. But Carter seemed new and hope-inspiring and far removed from the Washington cycle of power.

I voted Carter, with reservations. But I’ve always wondered how a Ford victory that year would have changed the nation we are today.

How about you?

By Bill Harlan

The Mount awakes to the news of President Gerald Ford’s death. Although Ford lost to Carter in 1976, he did win South Dakota — albeit by a narrow margin of 50.4 percent to 49.6 percent. Check out the blue-red dynamics here (flipped, red for dems, blue for the GOP.) Times have changed.

City of Presidents project sculpture of Gerald Ford in downtown Rapid City.

See also “Gerald R. Ford Remarks in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. October 16th, 1974,” thanks to the The American Presidency Project. An excerpt:

It is good to be back in South Dakota. I have been here a good many times. And I especially enjoy it here in the Mount Rushmore area. There are four faces on that great, great national monument. One is a Federalist, one is a Democrat, and two are historical pillars of the Republican Party. This is the kind of political scorecard that I like in South Dakota.
Naturally, I am delighted to be on the same platform with some truly fine, outstanding people who fit the tradition of Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, and other greats in our political system–people like Jim Abdnor, Leo Thorsness, John Olson, Larry Pressler.

On this day or mourning, Mount Blogmore seeks other Gerald Ford connections to South Dakota. Did any Blogmorites meet President Ford?

By Kevin Woster

Broadcasters and newspapers who subscribe to the Associated Press have make their top-10 picks for big news stories of 2006.

In releasing the list, AP reported that most of the ballots were turned in before Sen. Tim Johnson had brain surgery, which certainly would have made the list otherwise.

In case you missed them in the Journal or elsewhere, here they are:

1. Voters defeat abortion ban.
2. Gov. Rounds delays Elijah Page execution.
3. Voters decide 11 ballot issues.
4. School districts sue state over ed funding.
5. Sen. Dan Sutton accused of sexual impropriety witih page.
6. Tie - The drought drags on, and so does the DM&E projects.
8. Denny Sanford pledges $70 million to Homestake lab.
9. Ellsworth gets financial servicing center.
10. Rounds wins reelection.

Anything you’d like to add? Subtract?

By Kevin Woster

A long time ago (by Mount Blogmore standards) in a post discussion far away (between Sibby and Fleming, I think), the galaxy of thought that is this mountain pondered school vouchers.

That’s a subject dear to my heart, since both of my kids attended Catholic school - where school vouchers, or the lack of them, can be a serious point of consternation.

It never was for me. I’m glad my ex-wife and I decided to make the financial commitment to send our kids through the Catholic system. It offered everything we hoped for in education, community and spiritual connections.

But that doesn’t mean I don’t support and believe in the education offered in public schools. Nor, I think, does it diminish my obligation to support those schools with my tax money.

I feel good about the taxes I pay for public schools, just as I felt good about the additional money I paid each month to send my kids to private school. The fact that our family decided that we wanted another kind of education doesn’t mean we shouldn’t support the public system and the quality instruction that it offers.

At least, that’s my opinion.

I assume you all agree?

Merry Christmas to all,
and to all a good night.

By Kevin Woster

You won’t hear that from Martha Stewart, but readers of The New Republic Online certainly got that message from economist James S. Henry last week in his piece, The Grinch has it right: Why I hate Christmas.

In his long list of examples, Henry argues that Christmas promotes a culture of “forced giving” on “silly and expensive presents” that accelerates our society’s confusion between wants and needs, increases personal debt, reduces our already scant saving rates and consumes vast amounts of money and materials that could be much better spent elsewhere.

Henry says that, far from a universally merry season, Christmas can be a time of deep depression for many and tension for others, especially women who exhaust themselves trying to handle full-time jobs in a challenging economic world while also meeting outdated expectations about the ideal Christmas at home.

December is the peak month for drunk driving, DUI arrests and automobile accidents, as well as for robberies, Henry says, and it produces more assaults, barroom brawls and family feuds than other times of the year.

It brings a peak in delinquent credit-card payments and aggravates the existing inequalities of resource distribution that - despite the Salvation Army bell ringing - diminishes our ability to give to charities by draining our personal financial resources on meaningless trinkets.

So, what do you guys say to that, other than “ho-ho-ho”?

By Bill Harlan

Did anyone see the “China” TV ads associated with Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif.? He’s running for prez, and may have the first television spots up. PP over at SD War College mentioned this days ago, and I just keep forgetting to put it up. Now the Washington Post has a story. The relevant excerpt:

Speaking of ads, a political action committee associated with Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., is airing commercials in some South Carolina, North Carolina and South Dakota markets denouncing China’s trade advantage over the United States.
“China is buying ships and planes and missiles with American trade dollars,” Hunter says in one of two 30-second ads. Hunter, a 26-year veteran of Congress, has announced he is running for the Republican presidential nomination.
The ads were placed by the Peace Through Strength PAC, a political action committee that is promoting Hunter’s conservative views. PAC spokesman Harald Stavenas said the ads are a small purchase appearing on broadcast television.

By Bill Harlan

Sorry Blogmorites, but I mistakenly killed half a dozen or so comments this evening defending the Mount from a hacker. (He’s a spammer, too. Does that make him a “spacker” or a “hammer”?) My defense was successful. I’m so proud. Of course, I was just following, by rote, the instructions from our IT guys. Anyway, there was some friendly fire. I made every effort to avoid harming innocent comments, but in the fog of blogging tragedies occur. (DL, you were definitely a casualty.)

Merry Christmas one and all. (And a lump of coal for a spackhammer.)

By Kevin Woster

Charley House has asked me to stop gazing at my navel and discuss the possible contenders for Tim Johnson’s Senate seat should the senator decide not to run for reelection in two years.

This is a worthy subject, and hopefully a more likely one that the more frequently discussed issue of whether Sen. Johnson will be unable to serve out his term and have to resign.

We all hope that doesn’t happen. Many - I’d hope all, in fact - of us hope the senator will return vigorously to finish this term and that his health will not be a consideration when he decides whether to run for reelection in 2008.

But it could be. Johnson could make a solid recovery, finish out his term and decide that’s plenty. He’s got a great family and plenty to live for outside the Senate.

So, if that happened, who might be most likely to replace him and win in 2008?

I’d have to start at the top of the most obvious contenders: Tom Daschle.

Any others?

By Kevin Woster

In their own very different styles, a couple of the Journal’s contributing editorial-page columnists - David Rooks and Kristin Donnan Standard - took us professional news weasels to task for our nosy attitude regarding Sen. Johnson’s illness and its possible political impacts.

They think reporters have paid too much attention to what might happen if Johnson can’t resume his senate duties in the shorter term or, farther out, chooses retirement over running for reelection in 2008. Our focus, they say, should be more on the man, his family and his recovery.

Call me an insensitive jerk (some have, and will), but I think the coverage of the senator’s situation has been pretty well balanced, and appropriate over all. And that includes the pragmatic speculation about the future.

Obviously, we all hope for the best for the senator. And the preponderance of reporting has been on the senator’s health problems, comments from his family and a few limited insights from his surgeons (of which we could surely use more, including what they actually did during the surgery and its long-term implications).

But a substantial amount of coverage has been on what Johnson’s health problems, and his process of recovery and rehabilitation, might mean to the Senate, to South Dakota and to the country.

That seems perfectly reasonable to me - especially during a time when there’s such a slim balance of power in the new Senate, and when the nation is in a state of war.

What do you think?

By Bill Harlan

State Sen. Garry Moore, D-Yankton, (who moves to the House in two weeks, will propose rolling back the cigarette tax voters just approved.

Moore works for a cigarette wholesaler, but he was unabashed when I called him late yesterday afternoon. In fact, he was pretty steamed about a law he says could cost his employer up to $90,000 on Jan. 1. (The dollar a pack tax on his inventory will be due then.) Moore called the hit on small businesses “devastating” and the tax “poor public policy.” He said cartons of cigarettes will be $16 cheaper across the river in Nebraska, and he predicted Yankton would lose $60,000 in sales tax next year.

I also spoke to Rep. Don Van EttenVan Etten, R-Rapid City, who is a physician and a supporter of the new tax. “I would think when 60 percent of the population speaks the legislature would listen.” Van Etten also said the economic drain would be less than Moore predicts because 80 percent of cigarette sales are by the single pack.

On the charge that the additional $1 a pack tax would hurt small businesses, Van Etten said: “If were pitting the kids of South Dakota against small business people, I will opt for the kids. We’re going to save 11,000 kds from becoming chronic smokers.” (He added he was endorsed by the South Dakota Small Business Association.)

By the way, Van Etten is totally opposed to “tinkering” with laws passed by the people. He said the new state airplane law (see Kevin W’s “confessions” below) was “poorly written.”

By Kevin Woster

After extensive consultation with in-staff attorney, blog sculptor and therapist, Gutzon Harlan, I’ve decided to reveal a few details about my use of state vehicles when I worked for South Dakota Tourism two decades ago.

It wasn’t airplanes, mind you. But it was a state Suburban and a state Bronco. Uh, also a state boat. And, uh, some snowmobiles.

As a writer/photographer/host at tourism, I spent a good bit of time in the outdoors, hosting outdoor writers and capturing images in words and on film. To get me there, I had all those vehicles at my disposal. And they disposed pretty well.

If I used the Suburban to run up to Oahe Dam to shoot some pictures of salmon anglers, I’d sometimes stop at my house in Pierre - or at a downtown cafe - for lunch or a piece of pie on my way back to the office.

If that meant driving a mile out of my way, it never occurred to me to reimburse the state for the mileage.

When our video guy and I were up on Oahe shooting walleye anglers or hosting some writers, we often managed a little angling ourselves. That sometimes meant carting personal fishing gear in a state boat and putting “personal” walleyes in the state live well.

And the snowmobiles? Well, we’d use them to transport visiting outdoor writers to isolated fishing or hunting stops. And sometimes we’d heat up our coffee breaks by blowing the cobs out of the sleds.

It didn’t seem like a big deal. Whatever gas we might have used for our own enjoyment was more than equaled by the fuel we’d spend in our own vehicles shooting pictures on our own time that ended up being used for the state.

At least, that’s what we figured. But the new law passed last fall on private use of public vehicles calls all that into question.

More than that, even. Under the new law, I guess my actions back then would be criminal today.

PS from Harlan:

I read this post just in time to stop Woster on his way out of the newsroom. Mary Garrigan snapped this shot. I’m holding the “Christmas present” I received during the newsroom gift exchange.