Monthly Archives: November 2012

Only one thing left to do now, and – Hey! TRUCK!

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Image shamelessly recycled from previous election

My sweetie and I voted yesterday, and I didn’t get a sticker. That’s okay; we did our civic duty and can now relax and let election day unfold. I’ve heard the phrase, “It’s a turnout election now,” and it looks like turnout will be heavy. When I put my ballot into the M100 Ballot Scanner yesterday (a machine for which I made the training video), I noticed that the three machines had plenty of use: 1,000 on the first, just shy of 2,000 on the second, and around 2,800 on the third.

All that’s left now is to pray for our elections and the people who are elected. As I’ve said on Facebook: regardless of who wins today: all public officials, regardless of party, are only as accountable as we hold ’em. The days of electing them and sending them off to govern while we go about our business are OVER. We’ve got the government we deserve right now, so let’s take it back and conform it to the will of the people and the frame of the Constitution of the United State of America. So we need to pray that the right people would be elected, for wisdom in the electorate, and for a restoration of the greatness of our country.

Last night felt great, because instead of getting wrapped up in political stuff I simply opened up Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop to start playing around with some as-yet undeveloped photos. This truck, for example, is my first real venture into the world of HDR processing. I don’t have any of the industry-standard tools for such a thing, a fact I may have to rectify soon, but I am relatively pleased with this fledgling result. I was able to keep detail in the shadows of the truck and texture of the wood while keeping the colors and brilliant light of the grass, trees, and sky.

I like HDR photos when they’re super-realistic, but not when they begin to look painted. This one is borderline. As I play around with it more and get some more sophisticated tools to wield, I hope to get a better handle on achieving the look I want. It’ll be a nice change from a very polarized and relentless election season.

A few thoughts on Bismarck City Measure #1: a $70 million tax increase with dubious assumptions

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The City of Bismarck has had a “civic center fetish” for as long as I can remember. It has transcended mayors, commissioners, and reason for decades. Now voters will be asked to fund this fetish to the tune of almost $70 million dollars (for now).

City Measure #1 is really nothing more than authorizing an enormous tax hike within the city. Proponents of this idea dismiss the tax as something only visitors will pay. Apparently they don’t think the rest of us ever go out for a burger or rent a hotel room in this town, or they think we’ll forget that we do. Every time you go out to eat you’ll be paying more if Measure #1 passes.

The hotels would love for this measure to pass because it creates much more convention space (no, it wouldn’t expand the arena for the next big concert or minor league sports team). That means they would be able to rent more hotel rooms out to convention attendees. In a way, this is subsidizing the hospitality industry. Why can’t they put some money together and simply provide this service themselves, if it’s so lucrative?

Right now I can only think of two Bismarck hotels which provide convention service of any magnitute: the Ramkota and the Radisson. If the other hotels want a piece of the pie, why don’t they expand to offer it? After all, we’re told it’s such a money maker.

IF you ask John Q. Public what he’d like to see improved in the current situation, I’m sure his top three answers would be: 1) Parking; 2) Parking; and 3) Parking. This $90 million dollar expansion plan, which was only $50 million as recently as June of this very same year (LINK), does not address additional parking according to Mayor Warford (LINK).

Local resident Lynn Bergman points out that this tax not only makes coming to Bismarck to eat or stay in a hotel room more expensive, and therefore less competitive price-wise, but also does not address the increased maintenance costs for such a facility. What happens when the Civic Center has to maintain the larger facility as well as a full kitchen staff and other amenities? You and I are on the hook for it as citizens of Bismarck.

By the way, if you read this Tribune article you’ll find that this tax doesn’t even pay for the Civic Center expansion completely! They simply assume that they’ll be able to come up with tens of millions of dollars of additional revenue from other sources (LINK) to cover the current price tag (which is nearly TWICE the estimated cost from five months ago).

Again, I don’t think this is the right idea.

It’s an enormous tax on Bismarck residents, regardless of what the proponents tell you;

It doesn’t even address parking, one of the Civic Center’s greatest weaknesses;

It raises enormous questions regarding maintenance and operations costs;

It’s for a project which has nearly doubled in cost over only the past six months;

It assumes that tens of millions of dollars in additional funding are going to fall from the sky in order to complete the project.

Finally: what if the economy turns south, by the way? Even if Mitt Romney wins the election, the Obama EPA Administration is preparing an unprecedented effort to strangle coal, one of our state’s key energy industries (LINK). If that happens, and our state economy falters as a result, are the City Commission going to find this $23 million (currently) as they anticipate? If people cut their extra spending (such as hotel stays and going out to eat) and that tax revenue drops as well, who’s left holding the check for this $90 million dollar debt? You and me, residents of Bismarck.

DPI candidate Potter calls ND “terribly embarassing”, served as Socialist Workers Party elector, gave false information to IRS

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One of Rob’s readers at SayAnythingBlog.com pointed out an interesting detail about Tracy Potter, the failed gubernatorial candidate who’s looking for another foot in the door of North Dakota politics: he served the Socialist Workers Party in the 1970s. People who don’t pay much attention to politics are probably tired of the term “socialist” after the past four and a half years, but this one’s documented.

Potter’s name appears under the Socialist Workers Party in the Official Abstract of Votes Cast for the “terribly embarrassing” state of North Dakota (more on that later) issued by the ND Secretary of State’s office in 1976. You can download a PDF of this document by clicking here.

Potter was serving on behalf of Peter Camejo, author of “Racism, Revolution, Reaction, 1861-1877. The Rise and Fall of Radical Reconstruction” (boy, if that doesn’t sound like the last four years!). Camejo was the candidate of the Socialist Workers’ Party, a party of former Communists and other radicals. Is this who you want running the Department of Public Instruction?


Click for full-size image (new window)

By the way, Tracy Potter doesn’t appear to be a fan of children escaping the womb, either. In a 2007 Bismarck Tribune article he’s quoted as calling North Dakota “terribly embarrassing” for its predominant pro-life stance on abortion. Sounds about right for a leftist. You can download a PDF of this article as well by clicking here.

Strike three: you may not know it, but your land probably falls inside the new Northern Plains Heritage Area, an enormous chunk of land in central North Dakota that Tracy Potter got designated with the help of then-Senator Byron Dorgan. It allows for millions of dollars of your money to be distributed to dubious groups, many of which do NOT have your property rights at heart.

Potter lied about this thing from the get-go, including the fact that his Fort Abraham Lincoln Foundation lied on its tax records. It claimed that it had not paid to lobby Congress on its behalf (PDF available here), when in fact lobbying firm Greystone Group disclosed that it had performed lobbying services for Potter’s Foundation “in excess of $10,000” (PDF available here).

So…here we have a documented leftist radical from a Socialist party; one whose rabid pro-abortion views clash with those of the majority of North Dakotans; and a proven deceiver and advocate against the property rights of North Dakota citizens. Is this the person you’d like to have running the organization in charge of teaching your little kids? I think he views this as a prime indoctrination opportunity.

Potter’s opponent, Kirsten Baesler, has received the endorsements of just about everybody under the sun, from varied ideological standpoints as well. They include:

The Fargo Forum, Bismarck Tribune, Grand Forks Herald, and Dickinson Press;

US Senator John Hoeven, Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem, Fmr Governor Ed Schafer, Governor Jack Dalrymple, ND Senator Judy Lee, Tax Commissioner Cory Fong, and ND Reps. Kathy Hawken, Mark Sanford, and Al Carlson;

Organizations such as the ND Education Asssociation, ND Family Alliance, ND Farm Bureau, and ND Association of Realtors

The choice is obvious: elect the radical with a proven history of disdain for North Dakota, dubious associations, and outright deception…or elect an experienced educator and administrator who has garnered support from the gamut of organizations, media, and elected officials.

Don’t put a 60’s throwback radical in charge of our kids’ education. Vote for Kirsten Baesler as DPI Superintendent!