Survival lessons from an 88 year old woman

Who needs self defense classes? A lesson to readers: if a naked guy walks into your house...just grab him by the balls.

Uh-oh.

Looks like Dakota Women BFF Roger Hunt is still not off the hook for the shady shell corporation he established to funnel three-quarters of a mil to Vote Yes for Life.

We'll keep you posted as the trial begins...

That Girl's Last Minute Awards of 2008

And the winners are...


The Badass Mother%#&@er Award: Barack Obama

The Women Who Rock Awards: Susy Blake, Martha Vanderlinde, and Peggy Gibson

Biggest Time Suck Award: Fighting abortion bans/Voices Carry blog

The Golden Straight Jacket Award: Leslee "Third Time's the Charm" Unruh

Most Time Spent Locked in a Cage Award: Leslee "More babies" Unruh (beating out gerbils the world over)

Game Face Award: Kellie Grant of KELO for maintaining a straight face during election night coverage of the Vote Yes for Life Campaign in both 2006 and again in 2008

Douchebag Award: South Dakota's own Joe Lieberman, Pat Kirschman of District 15

The What the hell were you thinking?! Award: Sandy Jerstad of anti-pornography fame

The Kicked Ass, Took Names Award: National Women's Political Caucus

Lady Crush Award: Rachel Maddow. Need I say more?!

The You Deserve an Invitation to That Girl's Group Slap Award: Pro-Choicers who voted for McCain

The Comedic Gold Award: SNL for portrayal of Bill Clinton as Mystery of The Pick Up Artist

When all else fails....go for the Supreme Court?

I had to chuckle at a letter to the Argus today, asking Gov. Rounds to tap Ron Volesky for the SD Supreme Court.


Ron Volesky, who has run for just about everything South Dakota has to offer (mayor of Huron, state house, state senate, governor, U.S. House, attorney general...I'm sure I'm forgetting something in there), has become a political punchline unto himself. If I remember right, when he ran for whatever he was up for in 2006 (so hard to keep track...I'm not sure how he does it!), I'm pretty sure he conceded before the polls closed. If it's 6:30pm on election night, and you already know you've lost...you've got problems, man.


It wouldn't shock me at all if he got someone to submit this letter because the SD Supreme Court is about the only thing left for Ron. I'd love to see a Native justice on the court. It's just not going to happen for Ron.

The Final Countdown

Since Todd Epp has turned his little Best Blog of 2008 contest into a melodramatic war between Voices Crazy and those of us here at Dakota Women, I thought I'd go ahead and bring our readers' attention to the fact that said contest ends tomorrow at 6 pm. If you haven't voted Dakota Women yet, get your DW-loving ass to his site and have at it! Thanks, all.

The Infinite Wisdom of Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

One of my favorite parts of Christmas break is getting to read for fun and take a break from the dull law school stuff. This year, I got Kurt Vonnegut Jr.'s Man Without a Country, which has been on my list for a while. It's a quick read - I think I finished it in a couple of hours - and it really does give you the sense that Kurt is just hanging out and talking to you (a sensation all the more precious now that I know it's never going to actually happen). Although he settled in NYC, one of the many things I loved about Vonnegut was his devotion to the Midwest. One of my favorite quotes comes from his comments at the end of Bagombo Snuff Box:

What geography can give to all Middle Westerners, along with the fresh water and topsoil, if they let it, is awe for a fertile continent stretching forever in all directions.
Makes you religious. Takes your breath away.

In Man Without a Country, Vonnegut points out that, "Like me, many American socialists were freshwater people." I appreciate that Kurt takes the time to remind people that the Midwest isn't the homogeneous red blob that so many on the coasts make it out to be.

I was also heartened by the comments on this post where lots of kick ass rural Americans were like, "Excuse me, we actually think Sarah Palin was an idiot, too. Please stop 'defending' us by making it out like we're rubes." The only thing that disappointed me was the occasional anti-small town comment from some elitist urbanite (I don't think all urbanites are elitists, but these definitely were). Way to miss the point, folks. Those coastal liberals who fall into the same tired city mouse v. country mouse crap that Palin and Navarrette are trying to exploit are just as ignorant and sheltered as the people they're mocking.

There's no shortage of intelligent, aware, forward thinking people in this part of the country. Check out the blogs coming out of this state (I'm talking about you, Madville Times!). Pick up South Dakota Magazine. Buy a copy of Jerry Wilson's Waiting for Coyote's Call. I think a rural progressive renaissance is right around the corner. If only Kurt were here to see it.

Happy Holidays All!

What Would Jesus Wear?

I've gotta say, the Argus has done a heckuva job in the last couple of days w/ posting crazy stories. Today is no exception.

Apparently, a church in Kansas City is urging people to dress like Jesus around Christmas. Apparently, they've confused Christmas with Halloween. I mean, I get why they're doing it, to remind people about Jesus at Christmas and all...but really?

I've got to say, it'd be fun to go to their Christmas services if they're all still dressed like Jesus. 100 Jesuses watching himself be born...that's a trip.



Happy Holidays...Merry Christmas...Happy Festivus...Happy Hanukkah...Happy Winter Solstice...or whatever it is you're celebrating this time of year!

File under "W" for WTF

The Argus has a story this morning about a guy who thought it would be a good idea to melt ice on his house with a blow torch. Not unexpectedly, his house started on fire. For future reference, dear readers, some simple math: blow torch + house = fire.


Also at the Argus this morning: A Sioux Falls teen was arrested after attempting to run over her ex-boyfriend in the IHOP parking lot. When the ex-boyfriend's sister came outside, the girl allegedly hit the sister as well.

I would have a fun, snarky comment here, but I can't do better than one of the comments on the story: "IHOP: Come Hungry, leave in an ambulance." WIN.


In other news, Todd Epp at South Dakota Watch is running a bit of an informal poll on which South Dakota blog was the best in 2008. Vote for DakotaWomen here!

Franken pulls ahead!

CNN is reporting that Al Franken is now ahead in the Minnesota Senate race by 102 votes.


I've said this before, but few things would make me happier than Al Franken being a United States Senator.


As an aside, I enjoyed CNN's picture of both candidates, in that Norm Coleman looks like he's about to pull a Mike Tyson on Franken's right ear!

Credit Card Companies: Suck it!

I was thrilled to see yesterday that federal regulators passed new consumer protections against the credit card industry.


The new protections will end the practices of retroactive interest on previous month's balance, and raising interest on existing balances unless payment is 30 days late. My personal favorite: no more universal defaults, meaning that if you're late on one credit card or bill payment, other card companies can't hike the interest rates on those cards.


The credit card companies are, not surprisingly, whining about this. They're saying it'll cause an across-the-board interest rate hike...to which I say, at least we'll all know what we're getting. I'd rather buy that flat-screen knowing my interest rate is 15%, as opposed to it being 8% when I buy the TV, and 19% a bit later.


Shorter: Here's a big, DakotaWomen "Suck it!"

Blago Enlists "Pee on You" Lawyer

I just heard something hilarious. Thank you Rachel Maddow.

Apparently the lawyer who's representing the Rod "Sort of looks like Mike Rounds" Blagojavich is none other than Ed Genson, the lawyer extraordinaire that finagled R. Kelly's amazing acquittal of all charges having to do with the infamous "urinating on a minor" video. The R. Kelly trial was far too hilarious not to follow (that said, is there a "Boston Legal" episode about that somewhere that I missed?!), so of course I did...and lemme tell ya: I never in a million years thought there was a prayer in hell for this guy. I guess Ed Genson, presumably, is one badass mother...or at least a golden shower enthusiast? Either way, it sounds like the ground work's already being laid in Blago getting off the hook by way of the "it's not illegal to have a dirty mouth" defense. But seriously, if someone can pee on a minor, video tape it, and suffer no legal ramifications, can we expect political bribery to go anywhere? Not under Genson's watch, it won't.

And just to give light again to how ridiculous that case was, here's the Dave Chappelle "Pee on You" parody video for old time's sake.

When all else fails....throw a shoe.

Most people don't know that the modern gay rights movement started because someone threw a shoe. No, seriously.

In 1969, the NYPD conducted a series of raids on a local gay bar called the Stonewall Inn. Eventually, the patrons got tired of being harassed, and a drag queen threw what I'm sure was a fabulous shoe at an officer. This sparked the three-day Stonewall Riots....and thus, a movement was born.

Today, frustration sparked another shoe-throwing incident. During a press conference as part of Bush's surprise visit to Baghdad, an Iraqi journalist threw both his shoes at the President (who exhibited impressive reflexes). Check out the video:




I'm not saying this will spark riots on the scale of Stonewall...but at least it keeps Americans talking and thinking about Iraq--at least for a bit longer.


George W. Bush: Lousy president...but fantastic reflexes.

Guest Blog from Kate Looby

With all the talk of Kate Looby's leaving Planned Parenthood, we here at DW wanted to give Ms. Looby an opportunity to speak for herself on the subject. Kate Looby has been a true fighter in South Dakota and we would not be where we are today without her. We have deep admiration for you, Kate. We wish you the best and know that wherever you go, whatever you do, you will continue to do great things.

Last week was Thanksgiving which gave me the opportunity to reflect on the blessings in my life. I often think that I’m the luckiest person in the world. I was born in a country that holds freedom dear to a loving and tight-knit family with strong values. I have smart, healthy children. I am healthy. I have amazing friends who care about me. And I can walk and chew gum at the same time. When I think about it, I can’t believe all of the gifts I have been given.

One of the greatest gifts I have received was the opportunity to work for Planned Parenthood in SD for the past nearly six years. Very few people get to wake up every morning and go to work to help ensure that women and families have the opportunity to make the most basic decisions about their lives. Reproductive freedom has been a passion of mine for as long as I can remember. In fact on January 22nd, 1973 I recall hearing on the nightly news about the Roe v Wade decision and thinking that it made all the sense in the world to me that women should be allowed to decide when and if they want to have children. In high school I was writing term papers on the importance of safe and legal abortion and letters to the editor of the Lincoln High School Statesman on reproductive rights. At the ripe age of 25 I was board chair of NARAL in SD. Reproductive justice has been a part of my life for a very long time.

Working for Planned Parenthood gave me the opportunity to work every day to maintain safe and legal abortion in the state I grew up in. As a fifth generation South Dakotan, I was proud to carry the banner for the movement to keep the government out of these very private, difficult decisions.

Planned Parenthood had to make some difficult decisions also. Faced with trying financial times, many philanthropic organizations are being forced to cut staff and reduce programs. Planned Parenthood is not unique in their need to watch the bottom line to ensure that basic services to patients remain intact. My position was one of many which were recently eliminated due to these economic restraints.

I will miss working for Planned Parenthood in South Dakota, but I welcome the opportunity to find new challenges to work for basic human rights and I intend to do so. There remains a tremendous amount of work to do and after fighting two abortion bans in South Dakota and winning both, I know all too well that our work is never done.

The challenges are many but the gifts are infinite. I remain thankful.


Kate Looby

Prop 8: The Musical

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

Check out the star-studded cast, in one of the funniest videos you'll see in a long time. Jack Black is Jesus. You'll also note Margaret Cho, who's clearly awesome...and I do believe that's Allison Janney (of West Wing fame) as the co-lead anti. Ha!

Rolling Stone: No on 8 just ran a bad campaign

In the wake of Prop 8 passing in California (with a slightly wider margin than South Dakota saw), there's been a lot of post-mortem speculation as to why such a seemingly progressive state could pass such a crappy initiative.

Some people blamed Obama. Others blamed black or Latino voters. Some other people blamed the Mormons. And a lot of people just called it garden variety homophobia.

But I think there's a different reason, which is (more or less) nicely summed up in this Rolling Stone article. Basically, we lost in California because the No on 8 side screwed up. From the article:

"According to veteran political observers, the No on Prop 8 effort was slow to raise money, ran weak and confusing ads, and failed to put together a grass-roots operation to get out the vote."

I couldn't put it better myself.

The article comes close to mentioning this, but I feel the need to spell it out: California lost because they tried to run this as a "gay campaign." They ran this on the messages of fairness and equality and freedom...and the old favorite "discrimination doesn't belong in the Constitution!" The same losing messages that were run in all but 2 campaigns against similar initiatives.

Yes, it's hard going up against conservative groups who have ready-made volunteer teams in churches. It's hard trying to outraise the Mormon church. It's hard, but not impossible.

The answer is in messaging. Until the progressive movement cans the idea that being right will win campaigns, we're going to keep losing. Until the progressive movement gets good at appealing to voters' self-interest (which has nothing to do with equality, fairness, or discrimination, by the way), we're going to keep losing. And until the progressive movement understands that the most "ideologically pure" campaign on the planet doesn't matter if we lose, people are going to keep losing their rights.

The Race to 60: Swing...and a miss.

Almost a month has passed since the elections, and it was still unclear before tonight whether the Democrats would get a fillibuster-proof 60-seat majority in the Senate. Alas, today was the runoff election between Democrat Jim Martin and Republican incumbent Saxby Chambliss....and much to my disappointment, Jim Martin lost.

It's not terribly surprising...I mean, we're talking about Georgia here. And yet, Jim Martin promised to be one of the most pro-equality candidates the progressive community would see in Georgia for a while.


So that brings us to the race to 60 59, as the Minnesota Senate race between Republican Norm Coleman and Al Franken (who I friggin love). Minnesota Public Radio has the best coverage of the recount. Brief recap: 90% of the votes have been counted, with Franken leading the recount by a couple thousand votes. Hold on to your seats, kids.


Few things in the world would make me happier than to see Al Franken as a United States Senator. And so we wait.

Nice Christian Attitude, Marcee!

If you follow the regular commenters at Voices Crazy, you're probably familiar with Marcee. She's their resident self-proclaimed prophet. Apparently, she's also a self-proclaimed expert in the "root cause" of breast cancer, according to this from a couple days ago:

The root cause of breast cancer is unforgiveness or bitterness towards a woman's mother, mother-in-law, sister or a sister in Christ. When the unforgivenss is worked through, the cancer will go into remission. I have a book that discusses root causes of diseases and it's written by a Pastor with a successful healing ministry.

So...Marcee thinks the root cause of breast cancer is bitterness toward women, particularly women in her own family.

...in other words, Marcee apparently thinks that when women get breast cancer, it's their own fault. That they essentially give it to themselves.

Apparently, Marcee thinks the FDA, with all their fancy "tests" and "studies" and "science" is really missing the big picture....because she read this in a book! Marcee would like us to believe that it's not genetics or environmental factors that cause breast cancer....all women have to do is just be less bitter, and *poof*, they'll be just fine!

Marcee, I don't know if you know any breast cancer survivors, but I do. A good friend of mine is all of 23 years old, and is in the fight of her life with this disease. She didn't give herself cancer.

But thanks for your Nice Christian Attitude.


*Update*: At a commenter's request, here is the link to Marcee's post, so you can see for yourself. Enjoy!

Breaking news: Michels not running!

The Argus is reporting this morning that former Rep. Matt Michels (of my hometown...holla, Yankton!) has decided against running for governor in 2010, and will throw his support behind Lt. Governor Dennis Daugaard.


So I guess that only leaves Lee Schoenbeck, Dennis Daugaard, Dave Knudson, (I've heard rumors of) Larry Diedrich, and probably 847 people I'm forgetting who have talked about tossing their hat into the Republican Governor's race.


Hmm...I wonder if Leslee will toss her hat into the ring. God, I can't wait.

Oh, poor little eHarmony....

This story got delayed a bit...which I'm going to blame on Thanksgiving.

eHarmony, whose founder Neil Clark Warren has ties to my BFFs at Focus on the Family, has refused to match same-sex couples since the company's founding. Their explanation? That their site is aimed at getting couples to tie the knot...and same-sex couples can't legally marry.

So, since same-sex couples can get married in a couple states (Massachusetts and Connecticut, with New Jersey and New York on the horizon and California hanging precariously in the balance), New Jersey resident Eric McKinley filed a complaint with the New Jersey Attorney General's Division on Civil Rights, which then filed the lawsuit alleging that discrimination had taken place.

eHarmony settled the suit, and agreed to launch a site called "Compatible Partners" by March 31, 2009. (Btw, can we agree that the name is a little gross?) They also agreed to pay $5k to the plaintiff, and $50k to the Division on Civil Rights (for investigative and legal expenses).

Michelle Malkin is, as expected, upset about this. She called it a "shakedown," and paints a picture of the big, bad GAYS beating up on poor old grandfatherly Neil Clark Warren.

Her argument that eHarmony is a private business that should be able to do whatever it wants holds water.....for about four seconds, until you actually think about it. Should eHarmony be able to refuse to match inter-racial couples? How about inter-faith couples? Should other businesses (online and other) be able to refuse service to people of color?

Of course not. This is freaking 2008. I think we, as a nation, have decided that discrimination isn't okay, and I'm glad someone had the guts to stand up and wave the bullshit flag on eHarmony.