Resurrected Utah company to build geothermal plant in New Mexico

As red states slowly kill their residents and neighbors with fallout from flammable fossil fuels, a blue state moves forward. KUNM reported that an energy company that built a geothermal electric generator with the blessings of former earth hating Utah Governor Jon Huntsman is building a plant in New Mexico. It is slated to be operational in early 2013. The Albuquerque Journal Online tells readers:

Cyrq Energy Inc. subsidiary Lightning Dock Geothermal has signed a $65 million engineering, procurement and construction contract with Ormat Nevada Inc. to build the binary plant near Animas. Cyrq Energy emerged as a restructured company following the bankruptcy of Raser Technologies. Cyrq has one operating geothermal power plant in southern Utah in addition to geothermal interests in other states and Indonesia.

Barney Frank to step down; Gingrich on cannabis

Massachusetts lawmaker Rep. Barney Frank is expected to announce that he will not run for another term. From the Advocate:

The Democratic lawmaker, who has represented the state’s 4th congressional district for more than 30 years, will announce his retirement at a 1 p.m. EST press conference today at Newton City Hall in Newton, Mass. C-SPAN will live broadcast the afternoon news conference. Founder of the Stonewall Democrats, Rep. Frank "blazed a trail for the LGBT community in many ways — most especially for the openly gay Representatives who followed him into the halls of Congress," said Jerame Davis, the organization's new executive director.

Gingrich flip-flops on Paul/Frank cannabis legislation, too. Newt has brain damage.

Specialist in pyroterrorism selected for wildfire post...go figure.

Homeland slated to become "battlefield;" Helena National Forest announces collapse

In a recent debate, Ron Paul raised awareness of legislation pending in the US Senate. The ACLU's Blog of Rights brings the story via hipneck:

The Senate will be voting on a bill that will direct American military resources not at an enemy shooting at our military in a war zone, but at American citizens and other civilians far from any battlefield — even people in the United States itself. The worldwide indefinite detention without charge or trial provision is in S. 1867, the National Defense Authorization Act bill, which will be on the Senate floor on Monday. The bill was drafted in secret by Sens. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) and passed in a closed-door committee meeting, without even a single hearing. And American citizens and people picked up on American or Canadian or British streets being sent to military prisons indefinitely without even being charged with a crime. The solution is the Udall Amendment; a way for the Senate to say no to indefinite detention without charge or trial anywhere in the world where any president decides to use the military. In support of this harmful bill, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) explained that the bill will “basically say in law for the first time that the homeland is part of the battlefield” and people can be imprisoned without charge or trial “American citizen or not.”

The US Department of Agriculture concedes the failure of Helena National Forest. From the Missoulian:

A Forest Service report (pdf guide) identifies the Helena National Forest as having the worst watershed conditions of all national forests and grasslands in a region that includes Montana and parts of Idaho, North Dakota and South Dakota. The report found the Helena National Forest had 28 watersheds in need of serious help. Most other forests had zero to six.

A California blogger sees a pattern west of the Divide. More on Forests to Faucets.

Celebrating consumption: Thanksgiving 2011

From KCRW's To the Point:

Overconsumption: The American Way (12:07PM) 

This is the holiday when gluttony is not just acceptable, it’s almost required if you try to taste everything on the Thanksgiving table. But ask yourself: is this the only time you eat more than you ought to? Obesity is a national epidemic, and over-consumption of another kind is on the rise. Credit card debt is up by 66 percent since last year and by 368 percent since 2009, when the Great Recession made Americans try to be frugal. Why do we want so much more than we can afford and, probably, more than we need? Is there a relationship between mindless eating and manic buying?

Santorum blasts JFK

Just after lunch on November 22nd, 1963 during Sister Crescentia's Mrs. Quinn's third grade class, our principal, Sister Clarence burst into the room in tears and told us to kneel and pray for President John F. Kennedy.

Rick Santorum was five years old then.

Recently, Senator Santorum said that as President, he would answer to a supernatural being as interpreted by the Roman Catholic Church rather than to the people of, by, and for whom the US Constitution was written. From Jeff Brady in his piece at NPR:

Santorum commented on John F. Kennedy's 1960 speech, in which Kennedy laid out his belief in the separation of church and state. "I had an opportunity to read the speech, and I almost threw up," Santorum told a crowd in October at the College of Saint Mary Magdalen in Warner, N.H. Santorum went on to explain: "In my opinion, it was the beginning of the secular movement of politicians to separate their faith from the public square, and he [Kennedy] threw faith under the bus in that speech."

On the day when President Kennedy's death is remembered, Americans need to be mindful that we are a nation of laws and should be suspicious of any influence by the genocidal pedophiles that have plundered untold billions of souls.

President Obama to the earth haters

I had to laugh like hell.

Red flag warning issued for all of NE New Mexico.

Giago on heritage, language: how we the people screwed the Indians, part 4

Tim Giago (Nanwica Kciji), Unity South Dakota, worries that technology is an inadequate teacher of Native culture. From Indianz:

The most adept country at eliminating the language and customs of the indigenous people was Spain. When Spain invaded Native nations from South America to California the first thing they did was to separate the children from their parents, use the parents as slave labor even separating husbands from wives, and begin a process of total immersion in the religion and language of Spain. The US set about eliminating the customs and language of the Indian tribes by following the proven methods of the Spaniards: separate the children from their traditional teachers, their parents and grandparents, force them to speak English only, and coerce them into accepting a new religion by catechists skilled in the art of mind control.

Woster's finger hovering over the delete button

KW started a thread about felons not being able to legally carry a firearm referring to Bob Newland's cannabis arrest record and has allowed 13 comments to evolve around this one:

interested party Says: Your comment is awaiting moderation.
November 15th, 2011 at 3:35 pm
Thank you for making me go look, KW:
William Janklow, Brandon, SD

It can be argued that Newland's contributions to the people of South Dakota equal those of that other convicted felon who is armed as I type this and will likely take his gun with him to his eternal Hell.

Santorum all lubed up; Gary Johnson launches FEC suit

The oil and gas industry ranks as Senator Rick Santorum's #2 contributor behind insurance. How mutually masturbatory, earth haters.

As if protecting the raping of boys in showers isn't heinous enough.

From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via my inbox, h/t Lynn...again:

Marcellus Shale gas drilling spokesmen at an industry conference in Houston said their companies are employing former military counterinsurgency officers and recommended using military-style psychological operations strategies, or psyops, to deal with media inquiries and citizen opposition to drilling in Pennsylvania communities. Matt Pitzarella, a Range Resources spokesman speaking to other oil and gas industry spokespeople at the conference last week, said the company hires former military psyops specialists who use those skills in Pennsylvania.

Live boy is it then, Senator?

Hey, MSM: ignore Ron Paul at your own peril.

Senator don Juan Thune of South Dakota got 10,000 semolians from the Koch machine in 2010.

Yellowstone Public Radio brings news of Flathead Electric Cooperative's initiative to drill for enough hot water to generate electricity. From the Flathead Beacon:

The cooperative has proven open-minded in its pursuit of different energy sources. In June of 2009, FEC began operating a power plant at the Flathead County landfill that converts methane emanating from trash into usable energy. This summer, the plant’s production level was increased. The area surrounding the northwestern Montana town of Hot Springs on the Flathead Indian Reservation is bubbling with mineral hot springs.

Southern Fall River County gets a rude awakening measured at 3.7

Former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson isn't covered as a serious presidential contender either, says Brian Gage at Cannabis Culture:

Unlike his peers, Johnson certainly isn’t afraid of displaying his support for the cause publicly, says he is known known in many camps as the “marijuana guy” When asked about his recreational marijuana use from his younger days, he stated “I never exhaled.”

November - Waniyatu Wi – Moon of Starting Winter.

More poll results

The results of:

Should Indian reservations be counties in a non-contiguous 51st State? 

Yes: 6 (33%) 

No: 12 (66%)

The fact that only twice as many people think it's not the solution is remarkably reassuring and means that i just need to work harder to convince the rest of you.

And:

Would Bill Janklow be more comfortable in his final days self-administering cannabis? 

Yes: 17 (94%) 

No: 1 (5%)

Come on, BJ; it's a no-brainer! Come out of the closet for legalization!

Two ten year-olds teach Rapid City yet another lesson at M Hill

Girls go to college to get more knowledge; boys go to Jupiter to get more stupider. How much more stupider can Rapid City be? Especially after a May, 2010 grass fire in Robbinsdale.

C'mon, Mike: get out there and burn!

One more time from an April post at interested party:

Yep, pure heptane.

Turpentine distilled from the California pines such as Ponderosa Pine (Pinus ponderosa) and Gray Pine (Pinus sabiniana) yield a form of turpentine that is almost pure heptane. When producing chemical wood pulp from pines or other coniferous trees with the Kraft process, turpentine is collected as a byproduct. Often it is burned at the mill for energy production. The average yield of crude turpentine is 5–10 kg/t pulp. In 1946, Soichiro Honda used turpentine as a fuel for the first Honda motorcycles as gasoline was almost totally unavailable following World War II.

The spontaneous ignition of the beetle-killed ponderosa pine in a hundred-yard radius would be measured in megatons. Now consider that there are 70 million acres of collapsed pine forest in the United States.

So, here's the part that nobody wants to talk about publicly:

For parts of the West this is as much a reduction in the threat of weaponized wildfire than an economic development opportunity. Harvesting timber is diesel fuel intensive. Just paying for pine removal after the collapse of the housing market has exacerbated the potential for catastrophic conflagrations.

Keystone, Hot Springs, Custer, Pringle, Hill City, Rochford, Nemo, Silver City, Deadwood, Lead, Newcastle, even Rapid City, Piedmont, Sturgis and Spearfish are at extreme risk from the tactical use of wildfire.

Just six strategically-placed improvised fuel air explosives (FAEs) deployed during red-flag conditions have the potential to create a firestorm that would be virtually unstoppable. Repeated discussions with the Forest Service, law enforcement, fire department officials, even the Rapid City Journal, elicit smirks and suspicion from their representatives.

Here is today's US burn index from NOAA at risk to a Republican government shutdown.



Rapid City, Helena, Flagstaff: CLEAR THE FUCKING PONDEROSA PINE AND RESTORE ASPEN HABITAT!!!!

NYT: physicians ill-trained to treat LGBT patients; Lesbian elected to Missoula council

RT @nytimeshealth:

Blogging surgeon, Pauline Chen, finds that medical schools are not training doctors to address the needs of LGBT patients. She tells readers of the New York Times:

A study published recently in The Journal of the American Medical Association shows that the situation has not changed much for young doctors. Researchers from the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Medical Education Research Group at Stanford University School of Medicine surveyed medical school deans in the United States and Canada and asked about the curriculum devoted to topics like gender identity, coming out as gay and disparities in health care access for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender patients. But while the federal government has recently announced several initiatives to address disparities in L.G.B.T. health care access, the study confirms that most medical schools are lagging behind. More than a quarter characterized what their school taught in regards to L.G.B.T. patients as “poor” or “very poor,” and almost half called their offerings only “fair.”

Montana's D. Gregory Smith brings his perspective of Hillary Clinton's initiative within the State Department to address HIV in the wake of likely illegal warmongering under the George W. Bush regime.

From Out in Wyoming.

Keila Szpaller of the Missoulian tells readers:

"One lady asked if I was 16," said Caitlin Copple, who won in Ward 4. With Copple, it will include the point of view from someone who believes she's the first out gay woman to sit on the Missoula City Council.

Fallows: Cain gripping inner Weiner

Godfather's Toast: new name for an old story.

Read James Fallows' piece in the Atlantic here.

Even less surprising is that the South Dakota anti-civil rights for women and earth hater's caucus led by Israel-backed misogynist, Dan Lederman, voted Cain their choice as standard-bearer. Madville Times has a recap posted here.

More to cum come.

Tim Giago on Janklow, Means

Tim Giago (Nanwica Kciji) strikes the contrast at Indianz between a former governor and the Native leader whose relationship served to define both their careers. Here's an excerpt:

Several weeks ago activist Russell Means announced that he had throat cancer and it was incurable. Last week former South Dakota Governor William Janklow announced that he had incurable brain cancer. Both of them were born in 1939. While serving as Attorney General for South Dakota in 1975 Janklow was often in the forefront of the actions against the American Indian Movement led by Means. Both of them found themselves on the brink of disaster several times in their volatile lives and in the end, their head-to-head confrontations ended in a stalemate.

David Newquist shares some of his thoughts on the Janklow era at Northern Valley Beacon.

Bob Newland is still struggling with flashbacks from going head-to-head with the former attorney general and governor, but lives to talk about it at The Decorum Forum.

Doug Wiken at Dakota Today brings another recollection.

Cannabis for Janklow: poll at interested party

Back atcha, Counselor....




If you have not yet read it, Troy Jones has an eloquent and touching remembrance of Bill Janklow at South Dakota War College. While Troy and ip disagree on many things, peace and the joy of life are not among them.

Douglas left a comment at The Decorum Forum suggesting that Bill Janklow consider cannabis to ease the pain of his final days. Vote now!

Using the 'm' word to describe cannabis is akin to using the 'n' word to describe persons of African descent.

Janklow circling the drain after ruinous career

Woohoo! There IS a God! Just heard it on Minnesota Public Radio. Party! Party!

From the Rapid City Journal:

Former South Dakota Governor and House Rep. Bill Janklow announces he's dying of brain cancer. Janklow resigned from Congress after killing a motorcyclist in a 2003 accident near Flandreau. A jury convicted him of second-degree manslaughter and he was sentenced to 100 days in jail and fined $5,000.

If Janklow (a morbidly obese white male) has any remorse for killing someone with a car he hasn't shown it. According to one chilling newspaper story he has been ticketed four times since he slaughtered Randy Scott. Read this piece that appeared in the Mitchell Daily Republic, it will scare the shit out of you. Here's a snip:

He was also cited for a minor accident when he collided with a parked vehicle, and was twice cited for failure to maintain financial responsibility. The citations for failure to maintain financial responsibility — not having proof of insurance — were dismissed, as was a parking ticket. The minor accident occurred in a Hy-Vee parking lot on Sept. 23, 2008, in Sioux Falls. Janklow was fined $53 and paid $51 in costs.

No telling how many times he has been pulled over without citations by a law enforcement agency that still quivers under his authoritarian personality(s) and powers of coercion.

Earlier in this week's news cycle Jonathan Ellis of the Sioux Falls Argus Leader reported that Janklow pocketed $850,000 from a campaign fund:

Janklow, who had been maintaining the account and filing regular disclosure statements since leaving office in 2003, filed notification that he was terminating the account with the Secretary of State’s Office. The statement required Janklow to report the expenditures from the account. However, the handwriting on the filing was difficult to read. South Dakota law allows political candidates to convert any surplus campaign donations for personal use. In this respect, South Dakota is an anomaly, say campaign finance experts.

It should be noted here that beginning with Janklow, South Dakota now routinely scores at the bottom of US ethics practices rankings.

Ellis goes on to say that South Dakota Secretary of State Jason Gant (also a morbidly obese white male) declared that it happens as a matter of course in the collapsed red state but that the amounts had never exceeded $10,000; and:

Federal candidates also have restrictions on surplus donations, said Edwin Bender, the executive director of the National Institute on Money in State Politics. They can donate the money to other political committees, charity or return it to donors.

That recalled a 2009 piece written by Kevin Woster in the Rapid City Journal about a Republican slush fund that is impossible to trace:

The Governor's Club has been a discrete part of political fundraising in South Dakota for more than 30 years. For a $1,000 donation, contributors buy a place at the table - and a position of potential influence - with South Dakota's governor at club events that are not open to the general public. Gov. Mike Rounds refused a Journal interview request for this story. Former Gov. Bill Janklow split the club proceeds with the party.

Janklow even had a hand in the banking crisis by ramming legislation through the South Dakota Statehouse in 1981 that paved the way for Citibank to locate in an already desperately poor state.

Referring to then-Governor Janklow as "The Intimidator," Minnesota Public Radio covered the 1999 Gina Score tragedy at the now-closed Plankinton 'reform school' where teenage girls were stripped naked then four-pointed to concrete floors. From the Cara Hetland piece:

Gina Score collapsed after being forced to run two miles on a hot and humid July morning. Boot camp counselors refused her help. They said she was faking. "The doctor flushed her with cold fluids, and her temperature was still over 108 degrees. And that was one and a half hours later. So basically, she cooked to death," says her father David. Former legislator Pat Haley says Janklow's reaction to Gina Score's death was typical. He went on the attack. He tried to discredit kids and parents who spoke out on camp abuse.

More recently, convicted felon Bill Janklow sounded scared shitless on his idea of public radio as he condescendingly pontificated to host Paul Guggenheimer. Lifted from Doug Wiken's Dakota Today:

What Janklow is not saying is that he sued the US Corps of Engineers in order to make them maintain HIGHER water levels on Oahe Reservoir. The Republican failure to plan for Mainstem dam water releases in determining safe building areas is the problem...and that includes the Janklow administration.

In the above-mentioned SDPB interview Janklow seemed to call for the removal of the mainstem dams.

Marion’s Pastures is situated in a large meadow, west to the Missouri River, within the City limits of historic Fort Pierre, South Dakota. This development was established in 2000 and is nearly completed at this time.

This is single-party patronage coming home to roost in a town with a history of flooding.

In 1974 ('75?), if a smoky memory serves, then-Attorney General Janklow gave a speech to a standing room-only crowd in the Volstorff Ballroom at SDSU. He was heckled throughout the address hosted by the Vet's Club.

A brash, wild-eyed sophomore (yes, ip) piped up and questioned how the State of South Dakota could persecute marijuana smokers while turning a blind eye to service clubs like the VFW, Knights of Columbus, and American Legion that were running illegal games of chance with impunity. My query received rapturous applause from those in attendance. Mr. Janklow shouted over the din, "mail me their names," and then was booed off the stage.



I hope Randy Scott kicks you right in the nuts when he sees you, Billy Boy!

Douglas brings a fascinating idea posted at The Decorum Forum.

Lead downtown: too little, too late

I like Dave Snyder, even though he's a Republican.

Not only did he help advance the Mickelson Trail concept, he has been a tireless promoter of the Lead area having sold his hog operation to build a mansion from a pole shed in the Dumont/Nahant area south of town for a woman who broke his heart immediately thereafter. My guess is that she realized South Dakota was collapsing long before I did and ran screaming into the night searching for bluer pastures.

I contracted the drywall finish there some ten years ago and lobbied him on the ice climbing park.

Mark VanGerpen wrote a nice, albeit futile piece in the Black Hills Pioneer about the latest Lead (re)revitalization plan based on a pending SDDoT highway project:

Snyder said the main objective of the three options is to create a pedestrian-friendly environment, where people can easily access the downtown area's businesses and events. Doing so would hopefully increase tax revenue for the city and both economically and aesthetically revitalize the downtown area.

Note the word 'hopefully' in Mr. VanGerpen's story.

Unfortunately (or not), Lead doesn't have a pot to piss in because the bulk of its taxpayers are lining up with their walkers or lying on gurneys awaiting their turns for the various cemeteries splattered throughout town.

Except for Stan, the rest are obese, white retirees from somewhere else who fled cultural diversity in their own States taking advantage of South Dakota's regressive tax structure and are now packing their RVs preparing to flee the advancing strings of 40 below-zero days.

Too many Lead residents are local high school dropouts who married their sisters, are strung out on meth somewhere and are only paying taxes through video loottery, Mickey's malt liquor, cigarettes and fuel.

So: sorry, Dave. I'm holding out for the Yellowstone supervolcano to fix Lead...maybe you should, too.

WPM: predator count up, ungulate count down, aspen returning

After Gary Ellenbolt's voice and christian smarminess sent me lunging for an escape from Bill Janklow's idea of public radio, Wyoming Public Radio brought a story of hope.

The interview begins with a back country outfitter whose home is filled with the carcasses of dead animals. His client count has fallen because moose numbers are down due to what he described as spiking numbers of wolves and grizzly bears. His guiding exploits fetch 5000 bucks a pop.

Wyoming game officials have noted decreases in mule deer populations as well. From Willow Belden's (great name) story:

The Wyoming Game and Fish Department is seeking public input about how to deal with declining mule deer numbers in the Platte Valley and southern Wyoming. Mule deer populations in southern Wyoming have dropped about 30 percent in the past five years.

In another story, she mentions that stations have been established to inspect hunters' quarries for disease.

The Casper Trib brings this:

When walking through a forest decimated by mountain pine beetles, Wyoming Game and Fish Department wildlife biologist Tony Mong noticed how hard it was to maneuver around the dead, fallen trees. Dead trees make it hard for elk to move across the landscape because of fallen logs and more vegetation. It also hinders hunters in easily accessing hunting areas and limits hiding cover. The Sierra Madre elk herd is a keystone species in Wyoming, producing more than 30,000 recreation days and $2.6 million in hunter expenditures.

The Trib's Martin Kidston sez:

Three projects are slated for the Wapiti district and one for the Clarks Fork district. The project would treat about 50 acres of aging aspen by cutting back encroaching conifer stands. The effort follows a similar project that took place in 2009 when about 52 acres of aspen were treated. By 2010, officials said, an abundance of aspen sprouts had begun to appear, suggesting the project was a success. The aspen stands provide key habitat for elk, deer, moose, songbirds and other wildlife, officials said.

My takeaway is this: the State of Wyoming is benefiting from inbound hunter revenues while ordering the extirpation of an apex predator leaving We the People to expend resources fighting the effects of beetle kill. WTF?

Nick Gevock of the Montana Standard reports that the wolf slaughter shows no sign of abating anytime soon:

By Monday, the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks had checked 44 wolves in the 14 districts statewide. Biologists said that signifies a steady kill with roughly four weeks of deer and elk hunting and two full months of the wolf season remaining. The wolf kill is updated daily at 1 p.m. For information, go to www.fwp.mt.gov and click on "wolf hunt" for a map and the current kill in each district.

Here is some more ammo for ip's concept making the Tohono O'odham Nation a county in a non-contiguous 51st State.