By Randall Rasmussen

Chrysler declared bankruptcy Wednesday after a group of creditors rejected terms offered by the Obama administration.

The group, calling itself “Non-Tarp Lenders to Chrysler,” preferred to take its chances in bankruptcy court than take President Obama’s offer.

Obama tried to blame the Chapter 11 bankruptcy on “speculators” who weren’t willing to “sacrifice.” “I don’t stand with those who held out when everyone else is making sacrifices,” Obama said.

Actually, the “speculators” have $6.9 billion invested in Chrysler, and they were offered $2 billion under the administration’s reorganization plan that would give the United Auto Workers union 55 percent of the company and an alliance with Italian automaker Fiat.

The “Non-Tarp Lenders” — who chose that name apparently to distinguish themselves from other creditors who have the administration’s boot on their necks because they took TARP money — think they can get a better deal with a legal solution in a court of law than with Obama’s political solution.

A similar scenario is unfolding at General Motors where bondholders with $27 billion in GM are being offered a 10 percent stake, while the government wants 50 percent of the company and the UAW 40 percent. According to a Wall Street Journal editorial, private investors will get 5 cents on the dollar on their investment, the government 87 cents on the dollar and the union 76 cents on the dollar.

The bondholders think they should have at least a 50 percent stake in the company.

One more reason why accepting money from the federal government is a bad idea.

I expect the administration to tell them to take it or leave it so that GM can be nationalized. Score another victory for the Friends of Obama.

Erin McCarrick

By Kevin Woster

Rick Hauffe said it was time for a new face.

In his April 28 resignation letter to South Dakota Democratic Party Chairwoman Cheryl Chapman of Rapid City, Hauffe said someone new was needed to lead the party forward in the age of Obama.

Actually, that’s not exactly what he said. I threw in that “age of Obama” thing.  But Hauffe did stress the need for new as the the party moves forward with mroe than 15,000 new members in 2008 alone.

“This is the right time for new ideas, new energies and new faces throughout our grassroots organization,” Hauffe wrote to Chapman. “For that reason, I think a new face with new ideas and new energies would be ideal for this position.”

Well, I gotta tell ya, I liked the old face pretty well. The 55-year-old Hauffe has been around South Dakota journalism and politics for as long as I have. We worked on student publications together at SDSU, and he went into news work with the Watertown Public Opinion before getting into politics.

He’s a savvy political guy who’s likely to do all right for himself in private consulting, if that’s what he wants to do. Plus he’s good friends with Bert Gerfel, a fictional Lyman County rancher I’d tend to channel whenever I left a voicemail for Hauffe at Dem headquarters.

“Yeah, hey, is this the socialist Democratic Party headquarters?” Bert likes to say. “Well, this here’s Bert Gerfel down here northeast of Vivian, and I gotta bone to pick with you about taxes.”

I usually get a call back quickly from Hauffe, which would typically begin  with something like this: “Yeah, is Bert Gerfel available, unarmed, relatively unmedicated and moderately well restrained?”

Or something like that.

I’m sure, Erin McCarrick, the new face selected to replace Hauffe next month as Democratic Party ED, will do a fine job for the party.

But it might take a while for Bert to give her call.

He’s always been a little shy around the ladies, you know.

The 2010 Thune campaign team, so far, is, from left, Chris Adkins, Angel Paulson, Justin Brasell,  Barb Buell and Scott Erickson.

By Kevin Woster

It’s just next year, so it’s good to have a team in place.

Here’s who John Thune has in place so far, pictured above in the Thune campaign headquarters in the Commerce Building at 200 N. Phillips Ave., in Sioux Falls:

E-campaign director Chris Adkins: finance director Angel Paulson;  campaign manager Justin Brasell; deputy finance director Barb Buell; Scott Erickson (Scott, what the heck do you do?)

Thune’s campaign Web site is www.johnthune.com, which seem appropriate. On it, you’ll find news and photos and video, and options to “follow Sen. Thune on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Digg.”

OK, I’ve never done three out of the four, and never heard of, uh, Digg. But some of the rest of you might like it.

Being 57 and still without a cell phone or a wristwatch, I’m perplexed by the notion of an e-campaign manager. But I suppose I’ll get used to it by the time November of 2010 rolls around.

Thune’s more tuned in to that stuff.

“We will run an aggressive, modern campaign, and this is one of the first steps in that effort,” he said in a news release talking about the Web site. “We will continue to add more features, information on current issues, more social networks, and more ways for citizens to become engaged in our campaign.”

Sure, OK, great. But is there any chance you could just MAIL me a news release once in a while?

For old time’s sake?

By Kevin Woster

OK, that’s not exactly what Arlen Specter is saying.

But it’s close.

The U.S. senator from Pennsylvania, long seen by most reasonable observers as a moderate Republican (although some Republicans might argue that he’s been a Democrat in GOP clothing for years), seems to think there’s no room for moderate in the GOP anymore.

He’s also worried about his eroding based in the Republican primar, as lots of moderate Republican switch to Democrat.

As all of you blog-trotters knew sooner much than I, Specter’s  jumping party ships, to the socialist, communist, anti-Christian, pro-jihadist, secular-humanist Democratic Party.

Geez, I was channeling Sibby there for a minute.

Let’s back up and try again: He’s changing his party registration and, we can presume, fundamental loyalties from Republican to Democrat.

So what? So 60, that’s what.

With that Minnesota comedian soon to be added to the U.S. Senate mix, as we must presume he will be, the Democrats appear to be filibuster proof.

Which must brighten the president’s  world as he prepares for his 100-day celebration.

South Dakota Sen. Tim Johnson is ready to welcome an old colleague to a new party, as he says in a prepared statement:

“I have always found Arlen Specter to be the type of man who was looking for solutions from the center and willing to do what was best for his nation and state over party interests.  I expect he will continue to be a moderate and I look forward to continuing to work with him as a member of the Democratic Party. ”

As for South Dakota’s Republican half of the U.S. Senate team from South Dakota:

“Sen. Specter made a difficult political decision that he could not win the Pennsylvania Republican primary,” Sen. John Thune said. “I’m disappointed, but I continue to look forward to working with him as a friend and colleague.”

By Kevin Woster

OK, so call me a socialist. But I don’t worry about taxes.

I never have.

Lots of things get me worked up.  Not taxes.

Oh sure, I know, there’s all this waste in the government.  People play the system. People get money they don’t deserve. Government programs often aren’t efficient.

I’d like to see those things improved.  But not all of my tax money is wasted. In fact, most of it isn’t.  So my taxes help built roads and improve bridges, provide health services to poor kids, the elderly, the disabled, provide basic food stuffs to families in need.

Yes, they fight wars that I have questions about, and lead to the loss of innocent lives, “ours” and “theirs.”

But my tax dollars also provide better armor for Humvees that save the lives of young men and women, including some, perhaps, from South Dakota. And my tax dollars help take care of those military personnel who get wounded in the war.

It’s a mixed bag, for sure, and an imperfect process. We need to do more to cut waste and honor taxpayer’s dollars. I hope we do.

But I’m not going to lose any sleep over it.

I never have.

I am, however, going to pass on a link - courtesy of rdennis - to a Ray Stevens song that offers an entertaining other take of the tax situation.

By Kevin Woster

Let’s call it the Jack Bauer question.

If you could get information from a person believed to have terrorist connections that might save the lives of U.S. citizens, would you use aggressive interrogation tactics, or even torture?

And what would you consider torture?

Slapping? Waterboarding? Playing Barry Manilow for hours on end?

Certainly, we’d all agree that beating people senseless day after day is torture. So is ripping out fingernails or hooking electrodes to sensitive body parts.

What level of physical abuse would you inflict - or would you want a government agent to inflict on your behalf  - on U.S. adversaries in the cause of protecting American lives?

Would waterboarding one human being be worth it if it saved the lives of thousands? Hundreds? Dozens? One?

Would you be willing to do worse than waterboarding?

And is this a legitimate issue, or simply Woster gone “24″ on a Monday morning?

By Kevin Woster

John McCain speaks from a particularly firm foundation on the subject of torture.

We were right, he says, to  end the practice of waterboarding and other questionable interrogation practices. We should, he says, take steps to assure we don’t start again in the future.

 And then, he says, we should move on.

McCain - who understands torture well beyond waterboarding or slapping - continues to be emphatic about the wrongness of what was considered acceptable interrogation tactics during the Bush years. He’s just as emphatic in condemning the practice and assuring that it doesn’t happen again in the future.

He also believes we should not seek criminal charges againt those who shaped the legal and policies that authorized interrogation methods that some find extreme - at least by the overall standard in the U.S. and the world at large, if not necessarily in some of those countries that wish us harm.

That all sounds about right.

I’m more worried about whether our president and his team will get it right on the economic crisis, Afghanistan and Iraq and the long-line-up of energy, health-care and environmental issues than I am in any questionable pursuit of criminal charges in the past administration.

Examining the mistakes and discussing them in public is one thing. Going on a political witch hunt is quite another.

As a friend of mine likes to say, down that road lies madness.

In his heart, I think Obama feels the same way. In his head, too, if he can withstand the political pressure from the most vidictive of his left-wing supporters.

“I didn’t come here to get into a debate about the past,” he said not long ago.

He’s said that in various versions,a number of times. And I take him at his word.

There’s too much at stake in our country and our world  to get mired in the blame game, a good share of which will undoubtedly have more to do with political expediency than legal improprieties.

David Broder said as much, and called upon Obama to end the search for scapecoats.

Obama’s a smart guy and not, it seems to me, a vindictive one. While I continue to worry about his stimulus spending and the Afghanistan build-up, I like his measured, reasoned and relatively humble approach to his job.

 I expect him to follow Broder’s advice and make the same call McCain has.

By Kevin Woster

“This is HOT off the press.”

So says PP from SDWC about CN and 2010.

Huh? I think I’ve over-coded myself, which can be painful if you’re not wearing shin guards.

Seriously though, and aren’t we always serious here on Mount Blogmore? Pat Powers just sent out an urgent news advisory, AP style (only by e-mail, of course, which doesn’t actually involve any presses for anything to come hot off of - I write, ending a sentence with a proposition, much to Jeremiah Murphy’s chagrin) about this breaking news on South Dakota War College (which is another blog, for those of you, like me, who don’t get around the Internet that much.)

Anyway, from Powers:

“On a day that coincides with his daughter’s birthday, tonight at the Lawrence County Lincoln Day Dinner, Secretary of State Chris Nelson announced that he is exploring a run at the congressional seat currently held by Democratic Congresswoman Stephanie Herseth Sandlin.”

(Dang, Powers, assuming that the Lawrence County Lincoln Day Dinner is still held in Lawrence County, you came out here - or maybe just got word by phone -smack into the heart of Mount Blogmore Land and scooped the Mount Blogmorons? The nerve. Wait ’til I tell Rasmussen. He’ll be waterboarding the snot out of you, but only under the strict supervision of Mount Blogmore’s security experts and legal advisers, to make sure we don’t cross any lines.)

I could get pretty worked about about old PP’s snoopy invasion, too, although probably not much above the slapping level. I’m actually too tired to engaged in even mildly irritating interrogation techniques, much less low-grade torture.

And speaking of mildly irritating, back to PP’s advisory (I kid because I love):

“This race just got very interesting.”

I think it did, although up until now I wasn’t aware that we had a House race to get very interesting. Nelson is not only one of the nicer guys you’ll ever work with, he’s also a heck of a secretary of state. How that translates into a House campaign remains to be seen.

Apparently, Powers plans on seeing it. And speaking of low-grade torture,  there’s more:

“Hang on to your seats, as I’ll have more on this breaking story as it develops.”

I’m too tired to hang on to my seat tonight, although it sounds entertaining. So knowing PP’s got it covered, I’m taking off my shin guards, rearranging my prepositions and going home to re-read a few pages of Buffalo for a Broken Heart before  hitting the sack to dream about High Plains and hot presses.

As our buddy Denise Ross likes to say: Toodles.

By Randall Rasmussen

The Obama administration appears to have backed away from an independent commission to investigate former Bush administration officials over interrogation methods.

If any investigation is to be conducted, it likely will be done by Congress. We can expect the Democratic partisans in Congress to hold show trials before the next election. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said he wants to form a “Truth Commission” to investigate. George Orwell would be so proud.

Criminalizing political differences would be a huge mistake and is unprecedented in the nation’s 220-year existence. It would in effect have the meaning of the rule of law change with every election. Lose an election and you might find yourself on trial – sort of like how many third-world countries operate.

My reaction upon reading about the interrogation methods used on al-Qaida suspects was: Is that all? Slapping, tossing them against a wall, bugs in the cell, waterboarding. You call that torture?

The memos released by President Obama show the lengths interrogators went to avoid harming prisoners.

Also, by releasing details about interrogation methods while keeping classified the results of the methods, Obama is able to claim the moral high ground for his decision to halt the interrogation methods and close the Guantanamo Bay prison. Obama is changing the focus on the war against terrorism by saying the previous strategy was wrong, possibly criminal.

Would anyone really feel safer knowing that Sen. Leahy is manning the guard tower?

By Kevin Woster

Hey, how about that Joel Dykstra? Back in the game, baby.

As one of the organizers of a petition drive to amend the state constitution to assure South Dakota workers a secret-ballot option for union organization, Dykstra dives headlong into a big national Republican issue.

He also may be setting up another run for statewide elected office.

Like, say, the U.S. House?

Obviously, Dystra’s not thinking about challenging incumbent Democrat Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (Please, Joel, tell me you’re not!). But if Herseth Sandlin decides to run for governor, it sets up a pretty good sequence for Dykstra and a House run.

He spent much of 2008 getting his tail whacked by Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson, whose physical and speech impairments didn’t seem to diminish his toughness in a political fistfight. But Dykstra also must have shaped the beginning of a donor network that wasn’t nearly enough to worry Johnson (Which was OK, because Steve Jarding worried enough for both of them), but could be enough to give him a head start in the money chase for a House campaign.

Dykstra spent some bucks and traveled a lot of miles to raise his name ID in South Dakota from the “Huh?” level to “Oh yeah, I’m pretty sure I’ve heard of him.”

That’s a start.

And if Herseth Sandlin makes a move toward Pierre, the House seat is really up for grabs (saddle up, Heidepriem).  And involvement in the campaign to negate the card-check movement - officially known as the Employee Free Choice Act - could give Dykstra a periodic news platform and public role that would be helpful in his own campaign.

Dykstra for House in 2010? Could be.

Unless, of course, I don’t have a clue. Which would certainly fit the historic pattern.

By Kevin Woster

OK, so you’re tossing some of those delicious white-bread hunks to the goofy, gabbling, grabbing geese and ducks at Canyon Lake when you hear a stern voice behind you:

“Drop the Old Home, raise your hands in the air and back away from the Muscovies, sir. You’re under arrest.”

OK, maybe it wouldn’t do exactly like that. But people who like to feed the ducks and geese at Canyon Lake and elsewhere in town could find themselves in violation of a city ordinance in the not too distant future, if a proposal by the council is approved.

Eventually, a violation of the city’s wildlife feeding ban could carry a $500 fine, although City Attorney Jason Green has assured council members that the full fine amount would rarely be imposed.

It’s a potential hammer that wouldn’t be used much, Green says, because people generally comply. And the proposal now would have a phase-in period of three years on the fine, going from warnings this year to $25 next to $50 in 2011, before the full fine maximum of $500 would be in place in 2012.

Even at $25, the addition of $50 or so in court costs makes for a pretty hefty hit.

Feeder are feeling targeted unfairly, especially considering that the city built at some expense a feeding area at the lake in 1995, and encouraged its use. Going from that to fines, even over 14 years, seems illogical to many feeders.

THe pro-ban side has its points. They’re not bad, either: Lots of waterfowl poop in the water and up on the lawns and sidewalks. Damage to grass at nearby businesses, the park and the golf course. A change in migration patterns for birds that should probably go south in the fall and north in the spring. Disease potential because of the close concentration of too many waterfowl. Aggresive behavior toward adults, including children. Health concerns for birds that stuff themselves with refined bread and Fruit Loops.

Still, ticketing people for feeding the birds?

Too much government? Or just about right?

And is this a winner or a loser or a relatively neutral political issue for council members in the future?

By Randall Rasmussen

South Dakota Sen. John Thune is emerging as a rising star in the U.S. Senate.

According to this story on the Politico Web site, Thune has been picked by Senate Republican Conference chairman Lamar Alexander of Tennessee to be the point man on party outreach as it tries to regain the ground it has lost in the past two election cycles. Thune is conference vice chairman.

Thune’s role is to spread the party’s message on key issues, including the Employee Free Choice Act, budget, energy and global warming legislation.

The story referes to Thune as “a rising star who some believe has his eyes on a future White House run.”

Will Thune’s higher profile in opposing President Obama’s agenda help or hurt his re-election chances in 2010?

By Randall Rasmussen

President Barack Obama held his first Cabinet meeting Monday.

Fresh from his trip to the Summit of the Americas, where he apologized for the United States being the terrible country that Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega claim it is, Obama told Cabinet officials to trim $100 million from the budget and report back to him with recommended cuts in 90 days.

The $100 million in cuts represents 0.00278 percent of the president’s own $3.6 trillion budget plan.

Republicans pointed out that interest alone on the just-passed stimulus plan amounts to $100 million a day. Which means that by the time the Cabinet comes up with $100 million in budget cuts, $9 billion in interest on the stimulus will have been spent.

Obama said, “None of these things alone are going to make a difference, but cumulatively, they would make an extraordinary difference because they start setting a tone.”

“Setting a tone” is what it’s all about. Nothing less, and certainly nothing more.

By Kevin Woster

It seemed OK to me.

The handshake, I mean.

Oh, sure, Hugo Chavez isn’t one of our favorite foreign leaders. He’s Mr. Tough Talk when it comes to the U.S. Mr. Hate, quite regularly.

Of course, he has done some good for the folks on western South Dakota reservations, when they really needed heating oil. Few of us are all good or all bad.

But even without the heating help, why not shake his hand? And even chat a bit?

Seemed like the reasonable thing to do.

Yet, I somehow feel differently about that U.N. International Racism Conference in Geneva. At this point, it looks like Obama might not go, or send a representative.

There’s some reason for that. Pretty good reason. As some have wondered, how do you have a meaningful anti-racism conference when, among other things, at least one of the leaders present, Iran’s Ahmadinejad, continues to call for the destruction of Israel?

Obama’s skepticism and hesitancy to attend seem reasonable. Unless, of course, our attendance could change some minds, and put some pressure on Ahmadinejad to changes his ways.

And while we’re talking Obama, how about that assault-weapons  ban? You know, the one he promised to pursue if elected president.

Now he’s backing away fromt for now, at least.

John Thune has some comments on that over on Take It Outside.

If you get a minute, check it out.

P.S. And how about RR this week? Was he on fire as a Blogmore moderator? Yeah, I think so.

By Randall Rasmussen

I went to the Rapid City Tea Party at Memorial Park.

What I saw and heard:

A lot of signs, expressing more than anti-tax sentiments. A lot of the signs expressed frustration that Congress and the federal government was spending too much money on wasteful things.

After a lot of sign-waving and honking of horns at Fifth and Omaha streets (many people who were just passing by honked in agreement), the crowd gathered at the bandshell.

State Sen. Gordon Howie was the emcee. After the singing of “The Star Spangled Banner,” several speakers came up to the microphone. Again, most speakers weren’t anti-tax so much as demanding greater accountability from lawmakers and a stop to wasteful spending by Washington, which everyone agreed was way too much.

How many people? Several hundred at least.

It’s not the taxes we have to pay. Everyone agrees that taxes are necessary. It’s the out-of-control spending by Washington on programs that don’t work, people, groups and companies that don’t work and an idea that government is best that doesn’t work.

By Randall Rasmussen

The Department of Homeland Security has issued an intelligence assessment, warning federal and state law enforcement agencies of “right-wing extremism.”

The report, which you can read here, warns that the bad economy, and the election of the country’s first African-American president could be used by right-wing extremists to recruit people.

What is right-wing extremism? Here’s their definition:

“Rightwing extremism in the United States can be broadly divided into those groups, movements, and adherents that are primarily hate-oriented (based on hatred of particular religious, racial or ethnic groups), and those that are mainly antigovernment, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority, or rejecting government authority entirely. It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration.”

We can all agree that racist hate groups could be dangerous, particularly to racial minorities.

However, the other group or individual types that the report is concerned about is so broadly defined that it could include many millions of people. “Antigovernment,” “rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority,” pro-life, anti-illegal immigration are categories that include a lot of people.

The report also says veterans are potentially dangerous. Ditto if you buy guns and ammo.

Well.

Some right-wing groups and individuals could be a threat. Some left-wing groups and individuals also could be a threat.

What gets me is that according to the way the Homeland Security assessment defines “right-wing extremism,” I’m someone to watch out for.

This is your anti-government, state’s rights, pro-life, pro-border security, gun-owning, right-wing extremist signing off.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iuK4RrdQYakZgAF3_iK0WphHFmPwD97HSRD01

By Randall Rasmussen

Forget the Somali pirates. Forget the war in Afghanistan. Forget bailouts and TARP and Wall Street bonuses.

What Mount Blogmore really wants to know is: Did Barack Obama break a campaign promise to rescue a dog from an animal shelter?

The Obama family dog is a Portuguese water dog given to the Obama girls by Sen. Ted Kennedy, who, appropriately enough, has several of them. No word on whether Kennedy’s water dogs are trained to rescue people from submerged automobiles.

Where was I?

Oh, yes. Did Obama break a campaign promise? Obviously, a pedigreed Portuguese water dog from the Kennedy Hope and Change litter is not a rescue dog from a shelter.

Hope and Change litter? No, I am not making that up.

You can read the breathless AP account here. The watchdog press never sleeps. Get it? Watchdog press.

Does anyone who voted for Obama based on his promise to get a shelter animal feel like they’ve been lied to? Is this just another promise broken for political expediency?

The dog’s name is Bo, as in “Bo” Diddley.

By Randall Rasmussen

The Somali pirate hostage crisis came to a successful conclusion Sunday, with Capt. Richard Phillips being freed unharmed.

According to reports, Navy Seal snipers killed three of the pirates in the lifeboat containing Phillips on orders from the USS Bainbridge’s commander, Cmdr. Frank Castellano. President Obama had given the OK for use of force if Phillips’ life was in “imminent danger.”

A fourth pirate apparently gave himself up to seek medical treatment, and will probably face prosecution.

Richards gave all the credit to the crew of the Bainbridge and the Seals: “I’m just the byline. The real heroes are the Navy, the Seals, those who have brought me home.”

Other Somali pirates hold more than a dozen ships and about 230 foreign sailors.

Abdullahi Lami, one of the pirates holding the Greek ship anchored in the Somali town of Gaan, told the Associated Press: “Every country will be treated the way it treats us. In the future, America will be the one mourning and crying. We will retaliate (for) the killings of our men.”

A job very well done by the Navy and the Seals. Obama, for his part, made the right call to OK force and let the military professionals do their jobs.

By Kevin Woster

Happy Easter.

It’s a great day to live in a Christian nation.

Wait, that’s not who we are. Our president said so, just last week, while in an Islamic nation.

“We do not consider ourselves a Christian nation or a Jewish nation or a Muslim Nation,” Barack Obama said during a news conference in Turkey. “We consider ourselves a nation of citizens who are bound by ideals and a set of values.”

He said much the same thing back in 2006. And that caused a bit of a fuss, too.

I have to admit, having the president say we’re not a Christian nation stopped me. I guess I have tended to consider us, without any careful consideration, a Christian nation, although even typing it there in some ways does a disservice to the many other religious beliefs - and non-beliefs - we are made of.

And I consider us first and foremost a nation of laws and freedoms - including the right to choose and worship as I please.

I just hadn’t thought about it much in those terms.

Wolf Blitzer was among those who brought the issue  to national TV news last week. Not surprisingly, Democrat James Carville and Republican Frank Donatelli disagreed on whether it was significant.

Religion and particularly Christianity have been important to the people who shaped the  United States, Carville said, but they don’t define the United States.

“That’s not what defines us as a nation. We are defined by our laws,” he said.

Donatelli disagreed: “It’s the Judeo-Christian tradition that informs America as a country.”

Donatelli said Obama denied that Judeo-Christian reality in his comments in Turkey, and in a way appeared to apologize for it.

Blitzer saw neither the apology or the denial. I guess I didn’t see either, either. And when you see the entire quote, it really simply states the obvious.

We are a nation with Christian underpininngs, and Christianity is still the dominant religion. The in-migration of Hispanics brings even more vitality there.

But we are increasingly diverse in our religions, and resolutely mindful, I hope, to protect them - as well as those who don’t believe in God at all.

And we have enduring laws that protect us all in that.

I feel good about that as I celebrate  a day that is so important to me, and to so many who live in America.

Christian label or not.

By Kevin Woster

We ran out of time on Dakota Midday last week before we got to gay marriage.

But we’ll get to it, sooner or later, on public radio and throughout the South Dakota news media.  With Iowa apparently joining the handful of states where same-sex marriage is legal, the issue is bumping up against the South Dakota border.

It’s hard to say what that means for South Dakota. We’re different than our next-door neighbor to the southeast in many ways, just as we are different from our neighbors to the west and north and south.

I tend to think of Iowa, however, as quite a bit more liberal than South Dakota overall. But maybe I misjudge, based on the high-profile Democratic caucuses there, which seem - to an outsider like me - to be controlled by the most liberal of Demcratic factions.

So where is South Dakota on same-sex marriage? It says in law and - since the 2006 general election - in the state constitution that marriages will be between a man and a woman only. It also prohibits the state Legislature from recognizing civil unions, domestic partnerships and quasi-marital relationships, regardless of sex.

State voters extended that existing same-sex marriage ban in statute to the constitution in 2006, but not by a wide margine. At 52 percen t0 48 percent, it was closer than I expected.

Seventeen counties rejected the amendment and most others were close. They included Minnehaha, where it passed 33,603 to 32,838, and Pennington, where it passed 19,806 to 18,991.

It failed in most of the reservation counties, or counties where the Native American vote has particular weight. It also failed in Brookings and Clay counties (almost two to one against in Clay), where SDSU and USD carry clout to the polls.

And it got a big vote of support in others, including the heavily Catholic (if my East River recollection is intact) Douglas County, where the vote was more than two-to-one in favor, and Codington County (a fairly strong Lutheran and Catholic mix), where it passed 6,110 to 4,754.

What’s that all mean? Stay tuned. The same-sex marriage conversation is just getting started.

Meanwhile, check out Brothers & Sisters on TV. It’ll help get you accustomed to seeing men kiss.