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Great game tonight, eh? It's amazing how a third baseman can turn a game around with his glove, and that's exactly what Joe Crede did tonight (his bat helped, too). This isn't news to real baseball fans, as third basemen...

It just keeps looking worse and worse for these guys.The scandal engulfing the United Nations Procurement Department now appears to be bottomless. It also shows signs of growing more sinister, especially where it involves a mysterious private company called IHC...

Deal 'opens the door' to wind power

DEFINITELY A WIN-WIN-WIN for South Dakota's Economy!

One of the biggest hinderances to the development of more wind power in South Dakota has been a lack of enough transmission line capacity to get the electricity to where it's needed.

There is a positive logic to the addition of a new coal-burning plant also. The US has an abundance of coal, and large deposits of high quality low-sulfur coal are just to the west in Wyoming. There is a synergy that comes into play here with a three-way synergistic development of South Dakota's utility and transportation infrastructure which is catalyzed by the planned construction of a new coal-burning power plant at Big Stone.

The first element of this synergy is the expansion of the DM&E Railroad, which, in spite of the usual opposition from envirowacko activist groups and assorted other NIMBY (Non-In-My-Backyard types pushed through approval of extending it's lines into the Wyoming coal fields, and upgrade of its existing mainlines to handle the greatly increased traffic that results from this. (See note 1 in extended entry) This increases the availability of coal for new plants.

With the abundance of coal, and modern abatement technology, it is possible to burn low-sulfur coal with a minimum amount of air pollution, plus it helps to increase the electric power capacity, which is an essential positive factor for continued economic growth in the area. (See Note 2)

Finally, this proposed coal plant will bring in a significantly serious excess in electrical power transmission capacity, above and beyound the needs of the new plant. This excess capacity is available for the development of large(r) scale wind turbine developments, which (a) provides yet more electricity, (b) is a clean, renewable energy source, and (c) provides yet another boost to the local economic structure.

So, what's the "win-win-win"? More needed electrical power, use of domestic coal instead of imported oil, and the enabled development of even cleaner wind power capacity. Three birds with one "Big Stone". Not too bad.

A friend sent me a story from the Chronicle for Higher Education (subscription required) which features a study indicating the overwhelming majority of all politically active professors at top law schools are Democrats. The survey is part of a paper...

I have not taken the conservative split over the Miers nomination very seriously hitherto. While I think it does reveal some of the fault lines in the Republican party, it doesn't seem to me that there is any serious divergence...

I've been writing about free speech of late because some of SDP's critics are so obviously hostile to the idea. Fortunately these would-be bullies are about as threatening as the Smurfs discussed in my last post. NCATE is another matter....

Kids hate clowns, but moms know what a clown packs....

FINAL VOTE RESULTS FOR ROLL CALL 519

Stephanie Herseth claims to be some sort of moderate "blue dog" Democrat. The Chief has NEVER been very impressed with these claims. She's essentially a libDonk, and except for some narrowly select issues to fool us, she will trend that way pretty consistantly in most cases.

So, here comes the vote in the House on HR 3893, Gasoline for America?s Security Act, which is designed to ease the administrative burden on building new oil refineries. I guess the Donks don't think 20+ years without expanding our refining capacity is what will help a prospering economy keep on keeping on, since ALL of them drank the party Kool-Aid and voted against the act.

Make sense? The Donks? Why start now!

Our gal Stephanie is looking out for South Dakota, eh? Maybe she thinks that farming should go back to horses. (Oooops - that won't work either. Animal flatulence is a concern of the envirowackos as a contributor to the alleged human promoted global warming.)

This vote was taken earlier in the month. Didn't you notice the extensive coverage of Stephanie's voting performance? You didn't? Neither did I. (The enemy paper again proves itself to be the Argus-Misleader.)

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