WEEKENDERS VII

EARL WAS BACK, AND HE WON
Earl Strinden saved his best for last. Twelve years after closing out a 25-year career in the North Dakota Legislature, Strinden earned what is possibly, for him personally, his biggest legislative victory ever. He saved the Fighting Sioux. For the time being, at least, the Fighting Sioux will live to fight another day.

Operating mostly behind the scenes from Grand Forks, but making his grand appearances in Bismarck when needed, Strinden oversaw the effort to pass Legislation forbidding UND from dropping the Fighting Sioux nickname and logo, setting the stage for the next rounds of confusion, threats, lawsuits, whining and chaos in the seemingly never-ending saga of the University of North Dakota versus the National Collegiate Athletic Association.

The votes in the Legislature weren't even close. Most Republicans voted for the bill. Don't ask me why. The influence of Strinden? Perhaps. Most Democrats opposed it. Democrats are generally more sympathetic to the argument that a race of people should not be used as a symbol for athletic teams, or anything else, for that matter.

Interestingly, the most vocal opponent in the Senate was Strinden's longtime Legislative leadership partner, Senator David Nething. It wasn't often that the two floor leaders, during the 1970's and 1980's, disagreed. That's how the Legislature got things done. Each could generally deliver their respective caucuses' votes at the end of the session. Major decisions were made in meetings between the two in one or the other's offices and taken to the caucuses for confirmation.

This year, through, the two parted company. Nething went so far as to take the unusual step of having his remarks printed in the Senate Journal, the only Legislator to do so. Nething, an attorney, concluded that the legislation violated both the state and federal constitution.

So, once again, after an all-too-long absence, Earl Strinden and David Nething provided one more good bit of theater in the North Dakota Legislature. Thanks to both of you.

PARTY AT THE RALPH
Speaking of UND, we learned from the Grand Forks Herald that the Ralph Engelstad Arena announced it will hold a free viewing party Sunday at the Arena if UND's hockey team advances to the NCAA Regional Championship game. Parking and arena admission free, discounts at the arena merchandise store, $3 beer and hot dogs. Drawings for big door prizes. Pretty good party. Could draw hundreds. Thousands, maybe. Wonder how all the Grand Forks and East Grand Forks bar owners feel about that?

PARTY AT APPLEBEE'S
Speaking of bars, the North Dakota Senate defeated the bill this week that would have allowed minors to eat in bars. Supporters argued that there are some small towns that only have one place to eat, and it would be nice if mom and dad could take the kids out for burgers or brats once in a while. So now the people in the small towns will just go on doing what they've always done--take the kids out for burgers or brats once in a while. They might look over their shoulders a little more often, but common sense that did not prevail in the North Dakota Legislature will continue to prevail in our small towns. Meanwhile, Sen. Margaret Sitte, R-Bismarck opposed the idea due to the issues it would cause for law enforcement and what the exposure would mean for minors. Hey, Margaret, ever been to Applebee's?

HYPOCRISY?
Speaking of Margaret, she had a memorable quote last week, saying that anti-bullying legislation was a "nanny-state run amok." That from the woman who introduced the bill requiring married couples considering divorce to undergo mandatory counseling and wait a year before divorcing. Sheesh.

PARTY IN DENMARK
A whole bunch of Legislators and state officials took a trip recently to Denmark to look at a cellulosic ethanol plant. The Forum reported the trip cost the taxpayers a grand total of $10,400. Whooooeeee. I've got lobbyist friends who spend that much on a weekend right here in the good old U.S. of A. Turns out much of the tab was paid for by the people who want to build a cellulosic ethanol plant here. I'd be more comfortable if the state had picked up the whole tab. Just sayin'.

LACK OF DEATH PANELS DISAPPOINTING
Reg Henry is a columnist for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. One of his columns was reprinted recently in The Dickinson Press. Here are the first few sentences: "Wednesday marked the one-year anniversary of President Barack Obama signing the Affordable Care Act, if you support it — or ObamaCare, if you don’t. As one who supports the law but is disappointed in one aspect, I have a question: So where are the death panels already? No death panels are in sight, and some of us are dying to see them implemented. It just goes to show that Big Government can’t organize a booze-up in a brewery. What a disappointment. Sarah Palin promised they would come — on moose’s honor! — so I made a list of several pesky people I planned to refer to the local death panel when socialism was allegedly introduced. OK, I didn’t really wish to see those irritating people deceased; I just wanted them wrapped in red tape and tickled with an old-fashioned feather duster of the sort kept in government departments. This is harsh in its own way, yes, but sulking hasn’t worked on these people."

The New Guy Just Could Not Sing

I don’t remember, exactly, how I was introduced to Debra Marquart, or rather to her work, but right after I was, I found her e-mail address on the Iowa State University website and sent her an e-mail asking her how I could buy her two poetry books and one poetry CD, and a week later, a package arrived in the mail with all three items and a bill for about $35. I sent her a check and enjoyed her work, and then one day about five years later she showed up doing a reading at Bismarck State College, and I went and enjoyed it, and took my books and CD up front for her to sign. I introduced myself and she said “Oh, yeah, you’re the guy who e-mailed me. Thanks for the check.” We visited a bit, and I haven’t seen her since, except we’re Facebook friends and I noticed she was just in Bismarck at a North Dakota Humanities Council event, which I missed because we were at Cross Ranch enjoying a semi-spring day and night. I’m writing to recommend you read her work. You may have heard of her latest book, a memoir about growing up on a farm near Napoleon, ND. If not, you should probably buy it or run to the library and check it out, because, while it is not my favorite North Dakota memoir, it is really fine writing. Instead of me wasting words telling you about her, let her tell you herself, from the prologue to The Horizontal World: Growing Up Wild in the Middle of Nowhere.

“Farmboys. How we avoided them when they came around, their hands heavy with horniness, their bodies thick with longing. Be careful of farmboys, we warned each other. They know how to plant seeds.

“And who could say where their hands had been? On pitchforks, mowers, inside swathers, combines. They were patient boys, those long hours in the saddle of the tractor, plowing dark furrows in the fertile earth. They might be grasping the teats of milk cows at sunrise, killing gophers in the afternoon, and be on you by nightfall. No, no. Best to stick with townboys, their soft saliva mouths, their round corduroy shoulders, their talk of plans for college.

“We were farmgirls running tall through pastures. We had long shiny hair and peach-fresh skin. Born to carry the milk bucket, the alfalfa bale, our hands soon mastered the manual transmission. We learned to speed shift, double clutch. Our feet never knew the brake. We roared down the section lines in our fathers’ pickups, empty gas cans clanging in the truck bed. We left trails of dust behind us.

“This was no little house on the prairie.We smeared musky blue shadow on our eyelids and raspberry gloss on our lips. We wore platform shoes and bell-bottom jeans. It was the times.We were hip-huggered, and tight-sweatered, amd navel-exposed. We walked around town like the James gang, tossing this and flashing that.

“We came in pairs sometimes, first cousins, second cousins, double cousins–it thrilled the imagination. Some were brunette with delicate features, some had hair that hung heavy as gold down the angle of a jaw line. Some of us had wild laughs that never led to wild actions. Some had older sisters who got in trouble and had to get married or had to be sent away to homes for wayward girls.

“We had strong white teeth. We shone them on the world. We spoke the international language of beauty. All the immigrant grandparents gossiped in German about us. We were wayward girls looking for the untroubled way. We were best in show, the pick of the litter, the cream of the crop, too good for this place, everyone agreed. We were programmed for flight.

“We farmgirls lived north, south, east and west of town. In the middle of all this was me–the girl that I was then–the watcher, leaning toward the periphery.

“Grow Where You’re Planted, that poster I had on my bedroom wall as a teenager, I know I never believed it. Was it the image I liked that made me duct tape it to the wall? A daisy with a bent stalk growing out of a square pot. Two other posters, Label Jars, Not People and Make Love, Not War, I believed. But Grow Where You’re Planted, never. In my childhood, like those people with suitcases packed and waiting for the mother ship, I prepared myself for transplantation.

“Napoleon, the small town in North Dakota where I grew up–1,107 people , three bars, two grain elevators, a post office, a drug store, a courthouse, a funeral home, and farmland stetching for miles in all directions. The only jobs I saw around me were farmer, banker and priest. The prospects for women were worse–teacher, housewife, nun. Not one of the many occupations I imagined for myself.”

That’s a pretty good start to the book. You’ll learn she did run away, to join a rock and roll band, to tour the country, to earn a degree and then advanced degrees, and to become a professor at Iowa State University. And a poet. A darn good one. I have some favorites, and I’ll share a couple, and then send you out to find her books and read some more. They are some of the best things ever written about North Dakota.

My Father Tells This Story About His Brother Frank and the Wick (Every Time I Ask Him For Money)

your grandpa marquart, he was a tight sonofabitch, you know, every night he’d come to the bottom of the steps and yell up, frank, go to sleep, you’re wasting my oil. because frank liked to read. he was always reading something. he wasn’t much for farmwork, but he liked school and reading and just wasting his time on books.

so grandpa thought he better put an end to all that laziness and sloth. frank was pretty much worthless when five o’clock chores rolled around. it was more work getting him out of bed than just doing the chores yourself.

so this went on for years, this, grandpa coming to the steps at night and yelling up, frank, go to sleep, you’re wasting my oil, and frank setting his book down, leaving it open to the last page he was reading and rolling the wick down into the lamp and dousing the flame.

so finally frank gets this town job and makes a little money, and the first thing he does is buys himself some oil right off, see, so he can read as late as he pleases. then when grandpa comes to the steps at night and yells up, frank, go to sleep, you’re wasting my oil, frank gets out of bed and goes to the top of the steps and yells back down, this is my oil. I bought this oil with my own money, and I will burn this oil as I see fit.

but grandpa, he had a way, you know, of seeing how things broke down, how they divided up, because he yelled right back, without even thinking, he said, but what about the wick? that’s what he said, what about the wick?

your grandfather, I’m telling you, now there was a tight man.

Dylan’s Lost Years

Somewhere between Hibbing
and New York, the red rust streets
of the iron range and the shipping yards
of the Atlantic, somewhere between
Zimmerman and Dylan, was a pit stop
in Fargo, a superman-in-the-phone-booth
interlude, recalled by no one but
the Danforth Brothers who hired
the young musician, fresh in town
with his beat-up six string and his
small town twang, to play shake,
rattle, and roll, to play good golly,
along with Wayne on keys and Dirk
on base, two musical brothers
whom you might still find playing
the baby grand, happy hours
at the Southside Holiday Inn.
And if you slip the snifter a five,
Wayne might talk, between how high
the moon, and embraceable you, about
Dylan’s lost years, about the Elvis sneer,
the James Dean leather collar pulled
tight around his neck, about the late night
motorcycle rides kicking over the city’s
garbage cans. And how they finally
had to let him go, seeing how he was
more trouble than he was worth,
and with everyone in full agreement
that the new boy just could not sing.

Note from Jim: There are a few versions of this story about Dylan getting fired from a band in Fargo. This one is as good as any (names changed to protect the guilty). One even involves Bobby Vee. Whichever is true, the fact is, Bob Dylan did stop in Fargo, played a few gigs with somebody, and got fired because, as Marquart says, “the new boy just could not sing.” He who laughs last . . .

WEEKENDERS VI

A SWEDE, BY ANY OTHER NAME . . .
Memo to the dude who calls himself Oley Larsen. You're a North Dakota State Senator now (as unlikely as that may seem to a lot of us). You can't just go around making shit up and using it to justify an argument any more. People are watching, and some of them are writing down what you say and putting it in newspapers. And some of us are reading it and know it isn't so, and we're going to tell others. We call them "whoppers" and if you tell enough of them, pretty soon you won't be a Senator any more. Like this one, your testimony against the anti-bullying bill in the Legislature, from the Bismarck Tribune this past Tuesday:

"BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) - Minot state Sen. Oley Larsen says his Scandinavian name made him a constant target growing up . . . . "

I'm sorry, but I just don't believe that having the last name Larsen makes you a target for bullying. Oh, you say it was your first name? Well, let's see, that would be Leverrett, right? That's right, Leverrett Larsen. At least that was your name until you decided to run for the Legislature, and then you thought using a nickname like "Oley" might get you a little bit better ballot name recognition. You know, sound a little Scandinavian, go for that Scandinavian vote. That was, let's see now, oh, yeah, just last year. In 2008 when you ran for the School Board in your home town of Surrey, you were still Leverrett Larsen. Didn't win. Oley might work better. It did, actually. Back then (and maybe still) your e-mail address was Leverrett.larsen@sendit.nodak.edu. The white pages list you as Leverrett O. Larsen, 1208 30th Ave. SE, Minot ND 58703. The Minot Public School website lists Leverrett Larsen between Sandra Lambert and Michelle Larson on its faculty roster. No Oley there anywhere. So just cut the crapola, Leverrett. If you went by "Oley" when you were "growing up" it was of your own choosing. If that made you a "constant target" there's something you could have done about it. Because there's a big difference between you and someone who's being bullied and has no recourse. I'd like to talk to a few of your classmates and get the real story. Were you really a "constant target" growing up? Well, if so, I guess, in your case, it kept you from becoming one of those "emotional marshmallows" you warned us about a few weeks ago. Hmmm. I wonder what it is that causes someone to become an intellectual marshmallow? If we could address that in the Legislature . . .

REQUEISCANT IN PACE, JIM JUNGROTH
A small obituary in the Jamestown Sun this week described the political career of James Jungroth, who died Tuesday:

"He was chairman of the State Democratic-NPL Party, served in the North Dakota Legislature, past president of the North Dakota Young Democrats, was chairman of the Non-Partisan League, was chairman of Citizens Committee for Senator Quentin Burdick, served on the North Dakota Water Commission and North Dakota Water Pollution Control Board, was president of the North Dakota Wildlife Federation and ran for the U.S. Senate."

Ran for the U.S. Senate, indeed. We note his passing because that run for the U.S. Senate significantly changed the course of North Dakota history. In 1974, Jungroth launched an independent campaign for the U.S. Senate, competing with incumbent Senator Milton R. Young and former Governor William L. Guy. He ran on an environmental platform. The mostly-young Democrats who voted for him might have otherwise given the election to Guy, who ended up second to Young by just 177 votes out of more than 230,000 cast. Had Guy won the election, he likely would have served two or three terms. He was only 55 that year. That means that Mark Andrews would have likely stayed in the House of Representatives instead of running for, and winning, the retiring Young's seat six years later in 1980. Which means Byron Dorgan likely would not have been elected to the Andrews' seat in the U.S. House in 1980. Which means that Kent Conrad would likely not have been elected to Dorgan's office as State Tax Commissioner in 1980. Which means Heidi Heitkamp might not have succeeded Conrad in 1986. Who knows how long Andrews would have stayed in the House? He was never a risk-taker, so he likely would not have challenged Quentin Burdick in 1982 (although he would have been a much better candidate than Gene Knorr), for doing so would have meant giving up his job in the House. If he had run, though, he might have won, and that would have really screwed up Kent Conrad's future. And who knows how long Dorgan would have remained as Tax Commissioner? He likely would have either sought the Governor's office in 1984, and probably won, which means Bud Sinner would never have been Governor, or Ed Schafer or John Hoeven after him, or else Byron would have gotten bored with state politics and gone off with his MBA in hand into the private sector and began a new career. There probably would have been no opening for Insurance Commissioner Earl Pomeroy to run for the U.S. House in 1992, which allowed his brother Glenn to step up into his job, and later lose a race for Attorney General to Wayne Stenehjem, who probably never would have become Attorney General anyway, because he could have never beaten Heidi Heitkamp. And so it goes. Well, none of that happened, because 6,679 voters chose James Jungroth over Bill Guy in 1974, and just 178 of them would have elected Guy to the U.S. Senate. Jungroth mulled all that with a smile from time to time in his later years, but he never spoke it, as far as I know. His closest supporters claim to this day that Guy wouldn't have won anyway. I think they're wrong. We'll just have to keep disagreeing about that. And let Jim Jungroth keep smiling. The 1974 election aside, he was a great man. I think I'll write more about him later.

THE KENT CONRAD BYPASS
Two weeks ago, Minot city officials were notified that a vote in the U.S.House of Representatives had rescinded $14.3 million in federal funding for a north-to-east bypass around the city, similar to the north-to-west bypass that exists now. North Dakota Republican Representative Rick Berg voted for the bill that rescinded the funds. The city of Minot had committed significant local funds to have the engineering work done. Had the road construction funds gone away, that money would have been wasted. The bill moved to the U.S. Senate. Senator Kent Conrad showed why seniority is important in Washington. Conrad went to U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood personally and asked him to commit the funds for the project before the Senate acted on the bill, and it became law, and the money really disappeared. Thanks to Conrad's friendship with the Obama administration, LaHood had been to North Dakota earlier as Conrad's guest, and was familiar with the project. LaHood committed the funds this week. The road will get built. It will likely be finished about the same time as the November 2012 election. When Rick Berg will be on the ballot. It remains to be seen how many votes Rick will get in Minot. We'll be waiting to see if the bypass is officially named for Senator Kent Conrad, too. Maybe the Minot City Council could do that the week before the November 2012 election, just to remind voters how it came to be. Who supported it and who didn't.

ARROGANCE, PERSONIFIED
Here's the latest offering in the continuing saga of "We're Legislators, and we're way smarter, and we know better, than the people." This from the Associated Press:

"BISMARCK — A proposed constitutional amendment would give the Legislature power to order a new election for initiated measures. New England Rep. Mike Schatz says voters sometimes approve initiatives that turn out to have problems. He is sponsoring an amendment that gives the Legislature authority to suggest changes to an initiative and put it back on the ballot. The amendment would allow the Legislature to put initiatives back on the ballot for another vote if lawmakers thought the original measure was flawed."

Schatz is right. You just can't trust the voters. I mean, look who they elected.

2012 - THE YEAR OF THE DEMOCRATS?
Democratic-NPL Party Chairman Mark Schneider threw a new wrinkle into 2012 politics this week when he announced that he had spoken with former Congressman Earl Pomeroy about coming home to run for Governor. Good for you, Mark. That's great. I hope Earl will do it, although I think it is a long shot, given he's only been at his new job a couple of months. But boy, it would be nice to have a candidate with his fundraising ability to compete with Governor Dalrymple. But Mark, I also hope you've spoken to Heidi and Ryan. You've read about them here before. And you should be calling Aaron and Jasper down at the USDA offices in Fargo and Bismarck, and Tracy out at Fort Lincoln--they've all run statewide races--and maybe even Merle and Tim and Joe and Lee, and . . . (I know, I know, you've got a committee, and it is doing that). The best thing that could happen to the Democratic-NPL Party is a spirited race for Governor. 2012 is a party-rebuilding year, much like 1984, when Republicans had a fairly weak incumbent Governor, and a pack of Democrat-NPL'ers set out to unseat him. Buckshot Hoffner,Walt Hjelle, Art Link and Bud Sinner canvassed the state for months, the result was a huge increase in name recognition for Sinner as he secured the nomination, and a re-spirited party, rebounding from a trouncing in 1980, swept through the Capitol claiming most of the statewide races that year. If Democrats are looking for a repeat, a healthy race for the gubernatorial nomination is the way to get it going. I'll even sign on to be a volunteer car pool driver to the district conventions.

FOOTNOTE
Footnote to the Leverrett Larsen story: Izzy Kalman, the author/creator of the website Bullies2Buddies.com, and the world's most serious critic of the anti-bully movement, featured Senator Larsen in his blog on the Psychology Today website. He calls Larsen "The Best Friend of North Dakota Schools." You can read it by going here, but, like swimming, you might want to wait a half hour after eating before you jump in.

Some Foley Poetry

Okay, that's enough politics for a while. Time to bring the blood pressure back down and share a little prairie literature. There's a fascinating story unfolding in Medora right now. It has to do with the von Hoffman House, ordered up by Medora's mother, the Baroness von Hoffman of New York, so that she and her husband, the Baron von Hoffman, would have a place to stay when they came to visit their daughter and son-in-law, Medora and the Marquis de Mores. Except, according to researchers, they never came, and so in 1885 the Marquis hired a fellow named James W. Foley Sr. as a caretaker and moved Foley and his family, including little Jimmy, the son who would go on to become the famous Poet Laureate of North Dakota, into the house, where the family resided for most of the next 60 years.

Now I've not been a big fan of James W. Foley Jr.'s (1874-1939) poems, after hearing them too many times when I was a child (except for Billy Peeble's Christmas, which we used to read on Christmas Eve every year at my house), but I've taken a new look at his work the past couple of weeks, and I'm finding some redeeming social value. The guy did get 13 volumes published, so someone liked them and bought them. And recently a company named Bibliolife has discovered the books are in the public domain and is reprinting them by scanning the pages, producing look-alikes to the original editions except for the covers. So there must still be some interest in them. And there is a Medora connection, so that gets him more points in my book. Besides the fact that his father worked for the Marquis, and that Foley family descendants have now surfaced with a good bit of the original furniture that was in the home in the 1880's, which is leading to the restoration of the von Hoffman House as a museum, there's also a Theodore Roosevelt connection.

Roosevelt actually wrote the introduction to one of Foley's books, "Voices of Song," published in 1916. Here's part of what he wrote:

"Among the friends I made was the father of the author of this volume. Mr. Foley was one of the comparatively few men of that time and region who was devoted to reading and to books. Now and then, after six or eight weeks on the range with valued friends who were of distinctly non-literary type, I would come in to spend an evening with Mr. Foley for the especial purpose of again listening to speech about books. At that time the present poet was one of the small Foley boys, and seemed far more likely to develop into a cow-puncher than a literary man. At different times he and his brothers worked for me and with me.

"I think it was the author himself, who, on one occasion in my absence, joined with my foreman Sylvane Ferris in improvising , out of my rather large collection of somewhat uncertain-tempered horses, a pair which it was deemed possible to harness to a wagon in order to take a certain Eastern college professor and his wife out to see the Bad Lands. The team, which was driven by "Foley's boy," ran away and the unfortunate professor broke his leg. Sylvane Ferris related the incident to me, explaining that he had called on the professor--who was then undergoing convalescence in the very unattractive local hotel--and had told him that in view of the accident he would not charge him anything for the rig. The professor retorted with some acerbity that he was glad some consideration was shown him, for he had begun to believe that the runaway team had been given him on purpose. "By George!" said Sylvane, "It made me hot to call that a runaway team. Why, one of them horses never could have run away before! He had never been druv but twice! As for the other horse, maybe he'd run away a few times; but there were lots of times he hadn't run away!" --which last statement Sylvane considered a guarantee of gentleness sufficient to satisfy the most exacting! So I can testify from personal knowledge that Mr. Foley writes his western sketches not out of books, but out of his own ample experience."

And so, today, I offer up a pair of Foley's "western sketches," for your consideration.

THE BUILDING OF THE BRIDGE
(Read at the opening for traffic of the Red Trail Bridge at Medora July 24, 1916)
Ye are the builders of empire, who bridge all the rivers that flow,
Who tunnel the hills with your pathways as Westward and Westward ye go;
Who ridge all the hillsides with furrows and bring down the grain to your mill,
Who go forth with stout hearts and singing to bend the wild lands to your will.

And this is the empire ye builded and this is the river ye span,
And these are the fields ye made fertile and here rise the dreams that ye plan;
And this is the west where ye planned them--the West that has given to thee
The spirit that thrills in a people grown sturdy and steadfast and free.

And what will ye give of the spirit--give back to the West where it grew?
Will ye give souls for service as steadfast as skies of Dakota are blue?
Will ye stand firm for right and for freedom as these rugged hills have stood long?
Will ye honor the wild lands ye master with purpose that still shall be strong?

For freedom what foes may assail it? Aye these be the dreams that we dream,
To last while these hills shall stand steadfast, and down the long course of the stream
The waters shall flow on unceasing! For this is the empire ye made,
And so shall ye honor it--free men, with strong hearts and souls unafraid.

That cautionary verse may or may not have been inspired by the building of the automobile bridge at Medora, but it surely sets out a challenge to those who build and use them. And then, in this poem, he laments what that bridge--or any bridge--might have meant to the wild lands of Western Dakota he so loved.

THE PASSING OF THE PRAIRIE
They have tamed it with their harrow; they have broken it with plows;
Where the bison used to range it someone's built himself a house;
They have stuck it full of fenceposts, they have girdled it with wire,
They have shamed it and profaned it with an automobile tire;
They have bridged its gullied rivers; they have peopled it with men;
They have churched it, they have schooled it, they have steepled it--Amen.

They have furrowed it with ridges, they have seeded it with grain,
And the West that was worth knowing, I shall never know again.
They have smothered all its campfires, where the bearded plainsmen slept;
They have driven up their cattle, where the skulking coyote crept;
They have made themselves a pasture where the timid deer would browse,
Where the antelope were feeding, they have dotted o'er with cows;
There's a yokel's tuneless whistling down the bison's winding trail,
Where the redmen's arrow fluttered there's a woman with a pail
Driving up the cows for milking; they have cut its wild extent
Into forty acre patches till its glory is all spent.

I remember in the sixties, when as far as I could see,
It was never lord or ruler, but the buffalo and me;
Ere the blight of man was on it, and the endless acres lay
Just as God Almighty left them on the restful Seventh Day.
When no sound rose from its vastness but a murmured hum and dim
Like the echoed void of Silence in an unheard prairie hymn,
And I lay at night and rested in my bed of blankets curled
Much alone as if I was the only man in the world.

But the prairie's passed or passing, with the passing of the years,
Till there is no west worth knowing, and there are no Pioneers.
They have riddled it with railroads, throbbing on and on and on,
They have ridded it of dangers till the zest of it is gone.
And I've saddled up my pony, for I'm dull and lonesome here,
To go westward, westward, westward, till we find a new frontier,
To get back to God's own wildness and the skies we used to know---
But there is no West; it's conquered--and I don't know where to go.

Now, that's probably not "some of the best poetry ever written about North Dakota" but you get Foley's message. I'm trying to imagine what he might think if he hopped on that pony and rode around western North Dakota today.

Weekenders V

BREAK ON THROUGH TO THE OTHER SIDE

Okay, the North Dakota Legislature survived its own first half. Crossover (why do I always think of Jim Morrison when I hear that term?) has come and gone. The way I’ve always looked at it, no damage has been done yet. No bills have been signed by the Governor. No laws have been changed, added or eliminated. The only money that’s been spent is salary and per diem for Legislators and staff. Scheming abounds. Some good ideas (and some bad ones) that made their way into bills have been shelved, but no idea is dead until there are no bills remaining onto which it can be amended. Longtime Republican Legislative Leader Earl Strinden, in his day, was the master of that. So was his counterpart, Democrat Richard Backes. Followers of the Legislature watched the last few days of the session when those two were running it, some in joy, some in despair, but all in awe of their legislative skills in shutting down a session. House and Senate Floor Leaders have been dumped in the interim between sessions because of their inability to bring a Legislative Session to a successful end. But not Strinden and Backes. They were the masters. God, I miss them both.

CHEER UP, THINGS COULD BE WORSE

There have been a few wacky bills introduced this session, mostly by right-of-center newcomers, and most have died or will after “statements” have been made, but out in Montana the Tea Partiers are having a blast. One of my favorite Montana political blogs is Montana Cowgirl Blog. Cowgirl has compiled a list of “nutjob bills” that have been “put forward by the Tea Party Republicans, who are now in control of the Legislature. This is not a joke. These are real bills, and they are currently taking priority in the Montana Legislature. Enjoy.”

1. Legalize hunting with hand-thrown spears (Senate Bill 112)

2. Create fully-armed militia in every town (House Bill 278)

3. Allow Legislators to carry weapons in the Capitol (Senate Bill 279)

4. Create an 11-person panel with authority to nullify all federal laws (House Bill 382)

5. Allow guns in schools (Senate bill 558)

6. Eliminate educational requirements for persons seeking the job of State Superintendent of Schools (House Bill 154) (Huh. That’s nuthin’. In North Dakota, Al Carlson is trying to eliminate the job completely.)

7. Lift nuclear ban for purpose of building a nuclear reactor in the Flathead Valley (House Bill 326)

8. Withdraw the United States of America from the United Nations (Senate Joint Resolution 2)

9. Omit Barack Obama’s name from the 2012 ballot because his father was born outside of America (House Bill 205) (this guy (sponsor) was on CNN this week)

10. Eliminate all state incentives for developing wind power (House Bill 244)

11. Compulsory marriage counseling for people seeking a divorce (House Bill 438) (I guess Margaret Sitte is serving out there under an assumed name)

12. Give sheriffs authority over the federal government in terror investigations (Senate Bill 114)

13. Legalize hunting with silencers (House Bill 174)

14. Lift the prohibition on carrying concealed weapons in bars, churches and banks (House Bill 384)

15. Eliminate the law that requires landlords to install carbon monoxide detectors (House Bill 354)

16. Require the federal government to prove in court that National Parks were lawfully acquired (House Bill 506)

17. Officially designate the “Code of the West” as the “Code of Montana” (House Bill 216) (we’ve discussed this one before)

You can look at her blog here (NOTE: In response, Democrat Governor Brian Schweitzer, a rancher, has paid $100 to register a new brand with the state Livestock Department that says “VETO.” He hasn’t had the branding iron made yet.

EASING INTO THE 21ST CENTURY: WHOSE LAND IS IT, ANYWAY?

I have a friend named Tom who is politically a conservative independent with a libertarian streak and he is a conservationist. He was excited, as a lot of us were, to read about the conservation easement bill making its way through the North Dakota Legislature. Sponsored by Sen. Connie Triplett, a Democrat, it would have finally legalized permanent conservation easements in North Dakota. It wasn’t just a conservation bill, it was a property rights bill too. North Dakota is the only state that doesn’t allow permanent easements, depriving property owners of one of their most important rights–the right to save land. Okay to develop it, but not to save it in North Dakota. Current law allows 99 year leases, which are not recognized by the IRS as permanent, thus not providing the same financial benefits to landowners as residents of the other 49 states are allowed. In a cruel twist, opponents of permanent easements changed Sen. Triplett’s bill so that it not only continues to disallow permanent conservation easements, but shortens the maximum easement term to 40 years from 99. Which forced Sen. Triplett and all but two of her fellow Democrats and a handful of Republicans to vote against the bill. To no avail. Senate Majority Republicans passed the bill as amended and sent it to the House, where the battle begins anew. Now Sen. Triplett has to go in front of a House committee and ask them to kill her own bill. I think we probably need to put this on the ballot and let people vote on it. I hope Tom will help.

REALLY FRACKING SCARY

You need to look at the website Bakken Watch. Its owners believe that there is a conflict of interest between state officials and the oil and gas industry. Many state officials in North Dakota are also closely affiliated with the oil and gas industry. To expect our leaders–who are prominent figures in the oil and gas industry–to regulate oil/gas and keep us safe at all costs is like asking unsupervised children to keep their hands out of a very full and wide open cookie jar. The difference, though, is that when they gorge on the cookies, we all pay a huge price for a long time to come. You also need to watch this very troubling video. What’s going on here? This is really scary.

COLOMBIAN GOLD? PANAMA RED?

From Congressman Rick Berg, on his Facebook page: “This afternoon, I joined 67 House freshmen in urging President Obama to move forward free trade agreement with Colombia, Panama and South Korea. Please visit my website to learn more about these agreements and the letter that my colleagues and I sent to the President.” Sooooo. Columbia and Panama. Gee, I remember (kind of) the days back in the late ’60s and early ’70s when a whole bunch of people of my generation would have been big fans of “free trade” with those two countries. Fast forward about 40 years–I wonder if Rick knows something I don’t? And has he told the President?

FOX NEWS NOT HEADING NORTH OF THE BORDER

The article below was borrowed from the Huffington Post and was written by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

No wonder the America’s right wing dislikes Canada so much,and disses their health care system. As America’s middle class battles for its survival on the Wisconsin barricades — against various Koch Oil surrogates and the corporate toadies at Fox News — fans of enlightenment, democracy and justice can take comfort from a significant victory north of Wisconsin border. Fox News will not be moving into Canada after all! The reason: Canada regulators announced last week they would reject efforts by Canada’s right wing Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, to repeal a law that forbids lying on broadcast news. (emphasis added) Canada’s Radio Act requires that “a licenser may not broadcast….any false or misleading news.” The provision has kept Fox News and right wing talk radio out of Canada and helped make Canada a model for liberal democracy and freedom. As a result of that law, Canadians enjoy high quality news coverage including the kind of foreign affairs and investigative journalism that flourished in this country before Ronald Reagan abolished the “Fairness Doctrine” in 1987. Political dialogue in Canada is marked by civility, modesty, honesty, collegiality, and idealism that have pretty much disappeared on the U.S. airwaves. When Stephen Harper moved to abolish anti-lying provision of the Radio Act, Canadians rose up to oppose him fearing that their tradition of honest non partisan news would be replaced by the toxic, overtly partisan, biased and dishonest news coverage familiar to American citizens who listen to Fox News and talk radio. Harper’s proposal was timed to facilitate the launch of a new right wing network, “Sun TV News” which Canadians call “Fox News North.” Harper, often referred to as “George W. Bush’s Mini Me,” is known for having mounted a Bush like war on government scientists, data collectors, transparency, and enlightenment in general. He is a wizard of all the familiar tools of demagoguery; false patriotism, bigotry, fear, selfishness and belligerent religiosity. Harper’s attempts to make lying legal on Canadian television is a stark admission that right wing political ideology can only dominate national debate through dishonest propaganda. Since corporate profit-taking is not an attractive vessel for populism, a political party or broadcast network that makes itself the tool of corporate and financial elites must lie to make its agenda popular with the public. In the Unites States, Fox News and talk radio, the sock puppets of billionaires and corporate robber barons have become the masters of propaganda and distortion on the public airwaves. Fox News’s notoriously biased and dishonest coverage of the Wisconsin’s protests is a prime example of the brand of news coverage Canada has smartly avoided.