Have you had a chance to read “In Which Our Hero Is A Curmudgeon”? It’s the travelogue of Anthony Jastrzembski, one of my friends from Minot, who travelled to Ireland for a semester of university and is presently working in Tanzania.

Representative Corey Mock (DNPL-Grand Forks) is doing the rounds today, announcing his candidacy for Secretary of State.

I’ve had opportunities to visit with Mr. Mock over the years, and can see he’s a rising star in North Dakota politics.  At 25, he’s leading a new generation of leadership for our state — leadership that looks increasingly progressive.

I don’t believe I’d rather have anyone else count my vote. I look forward to hearing his platform.

Last week the story broke that the Tristanis are leaving Hazelton.  This highlights the flip side of the concept of “Small Town North Dakota” — we romanticize the image of a one horse town, without bothering to remember the problems that come with them.

What happens when you bring new ideas to a small town in North Dakota?  At best, it seems, you run afoul of the city council.  Ask Larry Waith.  At worst, well, ask the Tristanis.  Ask Steven Jones, who was fired as chief of the Larimore police because he had the audacity to enforce the laws townies preferred to skirt rather than repeal.

The damning undercurrent of the Hazelton account, however, is the total lack of local economics in that city.  The Tristanis tried to set up a cafe and it failed, so they turned to fixing and flipping Bismarck-area houses.  Tom Weiser, who spearheaded the project to lure folks to the town, himself works at Wal-Mart.  In Bismarck.

I guess you can forget any notions you had about “close knit” being in the equation for our state’s small towns.  Or that they’re hospitable and inviting to new people and ideas.

NDSU isn’t looking for much in a new President, just someone who isn’t Joe Chapman. They don’t even care if the new guy has a Ph.D! It doesn’t really matter if they know about education, or the research process, that’s not what the President does anyway. The President does important things like: Attend dinners! Fire their own bosses! Hire themselves bodyguards! And develop a healthy cult of personality around themselves!

This latest push to dredge the entire barrel, instead of just the top, is sure to pay off by delivering responsible leadership, right? After all, ANYONE would be better than the State Board homewrecker and diamond-crusted home builder that was Joe Chapman, right? Right?

Roxana Saberi, who was held in one of Iran’s worst prisons for her reporting work, is getting an NCAA Award of Valor.

It rather annoyed me that The Williston Herald lead this off with “Former Miss North Dakota…” I’m not saying that being Miss North Dakota is a bad thing, but I’d rather think that being locked in a prison for a few months for being a journalist would change how we perceive this remarkable and heroic individual.

What Roxana Saberi is now, in addition to what she’s done in the past, is a famous journalist.

I’ll say this right off:  I’ve met John Hoeven.  He’s a nice person.  He is far more level-headed than pretty much any other Republican you can name in this state.

Will that make any difference once his vote is available at the crack of the GOP Senate Whip?  I’d say if they can whip John McCain, they can break anybody.

After being elected to serve as the Governor for longer than any other person, does he really plan in the end to only equal Governor Guy’s record 10 years?

What else has John Hoeven done for this state that will merit recognition 20 years down the road?

I can recall exactly one success of leadership during the Hoeven administration: raising teacher pay from 50th to 49th in the nation.  It was the only time I can recall when the Governor of North Dakota actually called the legislature back to finish the job.

Since then, he’s shown no sign of being able to do that again.

Maybe most of his biggest successes were soft power, backroom deals, that moderated the worst of the right-wing attack dogs in the state legislature.  But that’s not something to run on, even if it was true.

So just what is Governor Hoeven’s legacy?  And what, if anything, could a Senator Hoeven do that would make up for so many years of sitting at his desk quietly?

Larry Waith has a small wind turbine, which he set up on his own land in Wishek. The unobtrusive 2600-watt unit sits atop an unremarkable 12 meter pole, whirring softly as it generates free electricity for Waith’s home.

The City of Wishek wants him to take it down.

Why have they done this? Because Brent Thielges, a city councilman who lives nearby, is annoyed by his neighbour’s personal initiative and environmental responsibility, and compares it to torture.

Yeah, I can totally see how saving money and not burning fossil fuels to power your television rates up there with brutalizing someone’s humanity.

Thielges complained to his fellow councilmen, who acquiesced to his campaign of red tape against Waith. Mr. Waith was willing to pay a small fine for forgetting to ask for a building permit, but will not stand for the council to impose more fines for the turbine to remain standing.

After a month of back-and forth, the matter is to go before a judge. Does the City of Wishek really believe they can subject landowners to bills of attainder based largely on the whims of just one of its members?

I had to come out of hiatus for this.

Byron Dorgan, longtime U.S. Senator from our fair state, has decided against running in 2010.  This is exactly the kind of break John Hoeven was looking for during his months of meandering maybes on the question of running for the Senate.  But if the Governor expects to abandon his post and move to Washington by acclamation, he’s sorely mistaken.

Aspiring Dem-NPLers now have a platform to show themselves off, and the best of them will win the nomination to continue Byron’s tradition of progressive leadership.

It’s been a day of positive environmental news.  China has pledged to restrain its growth in emissions, while the United States and Japan are  planning to hold the line.  But this is the start, rather than the end, of the solution to economic dependence on unsustainable processes.  Groups in North Dakota are holding a kickoff for public outreach campaign in Fargo Wednesday night –  Details at the 1sky blog.

All eyes were on the Senate Finance Committee’s draft bill for healthcare reform, and it seems very little of substance has changed.

In continuing the pursuit of health-care “co-ops”,  The Senate Finance draft bill provides a possible loophole for scam artists to form shell companies to drain away the government’s startup subsidy.  Moreover, multiple co-ops will be allowed in each state, severely diluting their market power against established insurers.

The bill does next to nothing to aid people who want to buy insurance across state lines, requiring “national” plans to be registered in every state they want to do business in.

The bill does nothing to grow the risk pool.  People will be permitted to buy plans that only cover catastrophic claims, leaving the rest of people who opt for traditional coverage with higher premiums than if everyone was paying a fair share.

And naturally, the Senate Finance Committee asks much less of health insurers in general than HR 3200.  Seniors will pay 5 times as much as young people for the same insurance policy.  HR 3200 limits this to 2:1.

The bill fails to take any sort of leadership on malpractice reform, instead suggesting that states try out some pilot programs of their own.

Kent and Max have compromised on almost everything, but with Republican “support” for any substantiative measure evapourating, what have they gained?  I say ignore Kent’s boondoggle and pass the HELP committee’s version through the Senate instead.