From what little knowledge I’ve compiled pertaining to women these past three decades or so, I’d recommend leaving these on the prairie and going for something big, long-stemmed, and expensive instead. It’s best to stick with what works!
On the news tonight I was surprised to see the Democrat candidate for ND Secretary of State trying to propagate more lies that somewhat involve work I’ve done. I sat quiet the first time, but this time I’m calling her on it.
Tonight’s ballyhoo was about how the Secretary of State’s office has confused people into thinking they need a driver’s license to vote, and how suddenly people are approaching her to say they’re scared they can’t vote without a driver’s license. She implies that the Secretary of State’s Office is putting out false or incomplete information. That’s nonsense, and something specifically tackled by a series of voting videos produced by the Secretary of State’s Office and edited & animated by yours truly. These videos are produced for county officials and anyone else who wants them, for education purposes. The plan is that they’ll allow county officials to get up to speed so they can educate voters and answer their questions, and educate voters too…they work for everyone. Tackling voter education is the best way to increase turnout, and the SoS provides the tools to do so.
What Kristin is probably really upset about is that Secretary Al Jaeger thwarted her attempt to take credit for it on behalf of the Democrats of North Dakota. In a June 19th letter to the editor of the Fargo Forum, she praised the videos and said they were the “product of legislation initiated by North Dakota’s national delegation in Washington, D.C.” Secretary Jaeger then set the record straight in a followup letter to the Forum editor the following weekend. And while federal legislation made funds available, the current Secretary of State (not Conrad, Pomeroy, or Dorgan) is the one who took on the effort and produced the videos. Besides, the President signed it into law with a Republican majority in both houses of Congress. He gets the blame for every law the Dems don’t like…can’t he get any credit for the ones they do?
So then Kristin flattered herself to say that the videos were an “answer to her comments” about youth voting in ND. These videos were initiated long before anyone ever cared who Kristin Hedger is, as if anyone does now. People from all over put months of work into producing them, and their hard work shows. Heck, even in news articles online and her own press releases, Kristin praises the videos. But of course, she says, more must be done. As if the current SoS is sitting in an ivory tower at 600 East Boulevard.
There were a lot of talented people from a lot of different entities that cooperated to produce these videos. I was privileged to work with those people, yet their hard labor is only a tool for Kristin and her political ambitions. One of these videos targets the youth voter, one targets the elderly voter, and one targets all voters. Yet another helps educate pollworkers on the special needs of voters with disabilities. These are all good educational tools…so good, in fact, that I’m working on similar videos for OTHER states because they have seen what North Dakota’s SoS has done. Our work is not good enough for Kristin Hedger, though.
Kristin, if you expect anyone to take you seriously, don’t go after an incumbent with the usual Democrat ploys. Come up with something on your own and build yourself up, don’t try to knock someone else down. And quit trying to build a campaign using someone else’s hard work for it; it exposes you for the small person that you are. See you in November.
We tend to think that everyone in our state has a big patch of lawn or a deck at their disposal; that simply isn’t true. For those who live in downtown apartments in Bismarck or other towns, having a place to sit outside and relax may require a trip to a nearby park. In this case, someone’s creativity has resulted in a place to at least sit outside and get some air…even if it’s surrounded by brick on most sides.
I like when small towns show a sense of humor. I’ve never been interested in “the world’s largest fiberglass wombat” or other such gimmicks. That’s why you’ll never see a photo of Salem Sue or *shudder* the Enchanted Highway here. Some small towns like Hensler have a different way of grabbing attention, and it’s that ingenuity that I salute this morning.
By the way…I’ve been posting a lot of photos from towns other than Bismarck or Mandan lately. Why do you suppose that is? Well, as summer winds down once again, it’s important to get out and look around our fair state before the winter causes us to settle in for a while. You can get up on a Saturday morning and venture out, see lots of neat sites and have a decent meal, and yet be home by early evening. That’s important to do; anyone who doesn’t appreciate North Dakota has never tried it. You’d be surprised how much there is to enjoy even within just an hour or two of our beloved cities.
One such lake was a perfect reflector for a particularly nice sunset last night. I believe this lake was in Stutsman County, but might have actually been in Kidder County. I was pretty tired after a long day by the time we saw this photo op.
Due to the fact that we took this photo from I-94, there were some power lines that had to be removed. Just thought I’d be up front about that. I didn’t have any waders to get on the other side of them!
We were in the vicinity of Crystal Springs, having just visited the oasis in the dark, when we spotted some white spikes on the northern horizon. Naturally we pulled to the side of the gravel road for a few quick snapshots. Above is what we saw!
These faint flickers didn’t last long. After only a few minutes of dancing around, the aurora borealis settled into a hazy ring around the north. At that point we hopped back into the truck and took off for home. Once settled in, I did hop in the truck and zoom out to my favorite vantage point, but there were still no flare ups, only that glow.
As you can see from the sign above, you must buzz in between certain hours only. Then someone will come out to meet you and give you the “lobby tour.” That means you can look through a pane of glass at the big GE turbines in the generating station, and the old control room that isn’t used any more…just in case you have never seen obsolete power plant technology. There’s a video and other stuff illustrating the history of the dam project, and that’s about it. Thank you for stopping by.
In days when we didn’t worry about terrorists wanting to blow up items of interest such as giant hydroelectric dams, one could actually walk on the floor of the turbine room. There would also be tours of the intake station. Heck, I even finished up my SCUBA diving certification on the rocks just southeast of the intake tower. Not close enough to be sucked in, obviously. But now these are all off-limits areas, as you can see by the menacing chain link fence.
By the way…does anyone think a chain link fence is going to deter Habib in his van full of explosives? No…these are “feel good” moves. Very little has been done in the way of real security since September 2001. The reason for that is our free society. Freedom always means vulnerability. That’s why it’s up to us to remain vigilant and proactive. How would you like to live in Israel, where bus or cafe bombings are frequent? It’s up to us whether we want to accept that kind of thing, because there are plenty of people who would like to make it happen over here. And perhaps that’s another reason for those chain link fences and restricted areas: to tell people like that “we’re on the lookout for you.”