We're Cheap

Bite it, Iowa!

AAA rates N.D. (and Nebraska) as cheapest destinations

KC Speaks

Conrad takes issue with coverage of the Democrats' budget proposal. It's not about assumptions of the expiration of upper-class tax cuts. It's about the tax gap, off-shore tax havens and abusive tax shelters. Got that?

Conrad writes a letter to the NY Times

North Country Memorial Day

Today's Washington Post has an article about families of Minnesota National Guard soldiers, who are on one of the longest deployments in Iraq. It's mostly about Minnesota, but also about the Red River Valley, with some North Dakota references. It's also a good read for Memorial Day.

Long Time Gone, from the WaPo

Nice Forks Joke

Bored Chicago columnist, eager to get out of the office for Memorial Day weekend, picks on North Dakota. At least someone is gauging America's North Dakota awareness. Apparently, it ain't too good, either.

The Black Hills are not in North Dakota.

From Kent to Byron

Against the 400,000 ...

Byron Dorgan got some press opposing the immigration bill's guest worker provision.

"Who is the senator from North Dakota trying to fool?"

Maybe the guest workers would like to move to North Dakota and take advantage of the state's low unemployment and cost of living. It wouldn't be the first time a wave of immigrants came and populated the open prairie.

Is Not/Is So

Sen. Kent Conrad: Expiration of tax cuts in 2010 is not a tax increase.

Conservative columnist Robert Novak: Yes, it is.

Novak accuses Kent of a "big lie."

'Cause there's no argument like a semantic argument.

Another NY Times Obit for a North Dakotan ...

... whom I'd never heard of.

Myer Shark, 94, not a fan of the utilities

If your name is Shark, are you destined to become an attorney?

Cuba y Dakota del Norte

El Roge is talking Cuba again, this time in the Miami Herald. (It's a short quote, halfway down).

Cuba trade goes on

C'mon ... Let 'em have our agricultural products. They can't live on cigars alone.

Go West

Reporter in Oregon, raised in North Dakota, needs directions to the ocean.

Tell Terry where to go

Prairie Dogged

Sardonic Washington gossip blog Wonkette details Sen. Dorgan's fear and loathing of prairie dogs. I have to disagree with Byron on this. Prairie dogs are awesome.

Dorgan: North Dakota is going to the dogs

I'm willing to give the senator the benefit of the doubt here and assume that with the vast amount of rhetorical crud congressmen have to produce over serval terms their oratory sorta drifts off to weirder areas at times. But note how the comments after the Wonkette post show the internet's ability to reduce dialogue to general jackassery.

Rob at Say Anything also covered Dorgan's jihad against prairie dogs, though didn't link to Wonkette.

Tsk, Tsk

What's the guy supposed to do with a snowmobile in Alabama, anyway?

Eyesore in Alabama

Synfuels ...

... and, um, elephant poop. I guess even the most worthless seeming crap is good for something.

Synfuels plant now a "crown jewel"

The other one has the whiff of a hoax. Five hundred pounds a day ... wow!

Elephant scat

"Not a Single Hint of Human Endeavor"

Guy writes a book about parks in the Midwest and names Theodore Roosevelt as his favorite. His book doesn't include Yellowstone or anything like that, but we beat out South Dakota at least. Take that, Badlands National Park.

TR National Park best in Midwest

Town For Sale

This story was all over the wires today. It's a good story, too, as much about a 93-year-old woman (who seems like a hoot) as it is about a small town. By Blake Nicholson of the AP, here is how it appeared in the Washington Post. (Nice work, Blake.)

Toots Hagglund, Founding Mother

Just Like So Many College Grads ...

... Bees are fleeing North Dakota.

Bye-Bye Bees

Interesting revelations:

1) North Dakota has an apiary inspector.

2) North Dakota leads the country in honey production.

3) Hive husbandry is slipping.