The Road To Willa Cather Landing: GPUR General Election 2012

[Luath]

Chipperback, not that I don't think this TL isn't worthy of a Turtledove , But why is a resurgent CSA so common in Balklanized USA scenarios? Was there really that much interest in restoring it?

[Chipperback]

But why is a resurgent CSA so common in Balklanized USA scenarios? Was there really that much interest in restoring it?

Why its resurgent, every author's reason is different. In mine, I made that call due to history. Even 70 years after the Civil War ended, there were some who felt more allegiance to "The South" than to the country. Add complete economic chaos and you have a situation ripe for a revival.

Now it didn't come easy. When the southern states looked to unite, there many schools of thought. The old segregationists and Confederate sympathizers led by more moderate elements, led by Cordell Hull, who sought to maintain democratic traditions without the overt Jim Crow, and radical elements led by Louisiana Governor Huey Long, who sought to build a "Democratic Republic of the South" built on more of a social democratic model.

The Confederates won.

As far as interest. There's still "interest" even to this day, given some forms of neo-Confederate thought that still exists, and not just confined to the American South.

ITTL, however the CSA is going through what many totalitarian regimes face at some point. Some people just accept and live. Some people prosper. Some people get fed up and leave. Some people get fed up...and fight.

The IRNA is going through some of the same pains. It is not oppressive or totalitarian as the CSA is, but it has been somewhat conservative bordering on authoritarian at points in its history.

[Son of Sphinks]

The Wichita Beacon- Evening Electronic Edition
Tuesday, September 25, 2012

International News

Confederate forces mobilizing near GPUR boarder: Gingrich says for internal security only
UP Wire- Cape Girardeau

The Confederate Broadcasting Service has broadcast a report order for all Militia units located within a 150 mile range of the GPUR boarder and activity has been detected by aerial reconnaissance flights across Arkansas, western Kentucky, and northwestern Tennessee. President Watts announced this information at an afternoon news conference in Omaha, noting that this provocative action is being taken by the Confederates alone. Arkansas has been the focus of attention after days of protest and now violent repression by its Governor, Mike Huckabee. Both Reuters and AFP news services have tried to get information from the Governor’s office, but their requests have been denied by Confederate State Security officials. The only information that has come from the Atlanta regime is from a very short address from President Gingrich. He states that “In the glorious history of the Confederacy, there has always been a reasonable path for discussion and that due to the corrupting influences of Texan and Plainsian propaganda, the youth of Arkansas have forgotten what their elders have taught them. We are a people that are proud of our past and our independence. This government will not stand by and watch either be sacrificed by a radical youth movement and foreign influences.”

Cuba joins IRNA in quarantine zone for Soviet Russia
UP Wire- Havana

Following the lead of the IRNA, Cuba will create a quarantine zone extending 90 miles around the island, encompassing the whole of the contested Florida Strait. Cuban Foreign Minister Dr. Roberto Lima stated that “the Cuban people are a proud people and will not stand by while other freedom loving people in this hemisphere are threatened by totalitarian regimes.”


National News

Presidential Candidates rush to Capitol to support government; Sebelius: “This is time for unity…”
By Jennifer Smith

The campaign trail ran cold today in the face of the actions by Confederate troops along the border. MU’s Sebelius, Wellstone, and Mankiller all returned to the Capitol to confer with fellow party leaders and members of the national defense council while Governor Largent returned to Oklahoma City to assess the refugee situation and consult with the Oklahoma Adjutant General regarding mobilization of the National Guard. PFL Presidential Candidate Kathleen Sebelius issued a statement through her office in Omaha stating, “While the free exercise of our political institutions is key to our Republic, this is not a time for partisan bickering. This is a time for unity in the face of a threat that has challenged us and other free peoples too many times in our history.” Lease Lobby Candidate Paul Wellstone put it more bluntly; “If that fool Gingrich wants to look like an ass in front of the world, we will be happy to hand him his ears.”


Beechcraft, Cessna, Coleman order mandatory call backs
By Bob Harden

Coleman Industries, Beechcraft, and Cessna have issued call backs for any workers laid off in the past 18 months to report to the respective corporate offices tomorrow morning by 9:30 am. A Coleman spokesperson, James Dye, stated that the company is making sure that if emergency production is required, “we have the workforce in place to meet the demand of the nation.” No word yet has been given on similar call backs from Steerman, Chrysler Defense Industries, or Vickers Petroleum.


Wichita State to host Arkansas refugees
By Jodi Buckhannon

Levitt Arena at Wichita State University has been designated as a refugee center for those fleeing the political turmoil in the Confederate state of Arkansas. The Great Plains Red Cross is in the process of setting up a processing center for political refugees and displaced persons seeking asylum in the GPUR. Immigration and Customs officials requested the move of civilian refugees away from the border area in the event that conditions deteriorate further and appropriate services cannot be provided. University spokesman Clyde Neighbarger played up the opportunity. “We’ve been trying to get Arkansas to come to Levitt Arena for many years. This isn’t quite how we saw it happening, but it’s a step in the right direction.”


Sports

Broncos finish off Davenport, will play Duluth in Minor League Championship.
Staff- Davenport, IA

Hutchinson Broncos capped off their 5 game series victory over the Davenport Pirates Monday night, finishing off the hosts 5-3. The Broncos return home tomorrow and will open up the Plains Association Championship against the Duluth Walleyes Friday evening. The Walleyes surprised the St. Joseph Padres in a 4 game sweep to set up this championship best of 7 set.

Southeast Missouri State- North Dakota football game postponed until Saturday.
UP Wire

The Missouri Valley Conference announced from their offices in St. Louis that the scheduled Thursday Night Football game in Cape Girardeau for the safety of the players and spectators. The game has tentatively been rescheduled for Saturday, the 29th.

[Luath]

Chip, you make this all so real, I can easily imagine life in this Timeline. Speaking of which were do you see yourself at this time in this TL?

[Son of Sphinks]

The Wichita Beacon- Afternoon Electronic Edition
Wednesday, September 26, 2012

International News

UK Prime Minister to meet with Soviet Russia leader Putin in attempt to defuse international tensions
UP Wire- London

A spokesman for Prime Minister Portillo stated that the UK leader will be flying to Moscow later this evening for emergency talks aimed at reducing tensions on the other side of the Atlantic. Currently, there is now a small group of Royal Navy assets still along the North American coast after the summer’s intercession with the IRNA fleet. There are also many SR flagged ships, including those in the continued shipments of Soviet Russian goods in transit to Confederate ports, with at least 4 more massive shipments of grain in transit. “We expect that Mr. Putin will respect the concerns of the other major players in Europe and consider how the relations of his country with such an international pariah like the Confederacy will hamper further approaches for bilateral agreements when one does not see the USSR as a equitable player on the diplomatic stage”, said the spokesperson.


Gingrich condemns Cuban quarantine of Florida Straits: “Respect our territory or we will force our claims”
UP Wire/CSIS

The Confederate States Information Service is reporting that Confederate President Gingrich has come down harshly on the news of a Cuban naval quarantine of waters extending 90 miles around the island. The quarantine zone, set up to prevent Soviet Russian shipping from easily reaching CS ports of the Gulf of Mexico, extends well into the accepted international waters and up to the islands of the Florida Keys. CSIS reports that the Gingrich administration is readying naval assets to force open the disputed shipping lane that has caused so much trouble between the two nations. “Freedom of the seas in necessary for our nation to survive,” quotes a news release from the Atlanta regime. “A small nation of lesser men would only use such a heinous tool of deprivation to add to the hardships they already seek to bring to our peaceful shores”. A Cuban Foreign Service spokesperson retorted that Gingrich could do more to end the suffering of his people by walking to the bottom of the Florida Strait himself than by sending in the Confederate Navy. “We have seen boat people coming from Florida for generations. Havana will always serve as a beacon to freedom seekers, as it has for 50 years, so long as the CSA represses those who live within her borders.”


Around the world, marchers show support for youth of Little Rock
UP Wire

From Melbourne in Australia, to Hong Kong, CFR, Lhasa, Tibet, and Nagasaki in Japan, marchers have stood in quiet remembrance of the now more than 40 dead and 500 imprisoned protesters in the Confederate city of Little Rock. In Edinburgh, 250 Scottish students marched to the sounds of the refugee punk band, ConfedEx, and their lead singer Waylon Jennings Jr spoke to the crowd. In New Orleans, protests turned violent as a small band of pro-Confederate rabble rousers threw rocks and smoke bombs into the crowd in the tight streets of the French Quarter. Republic of Texas officials are investigating the incident.



National News

Concerns over CSA could overshadow debate. Salina police, KBI, tighten security for event.
By Mike Mayfield

Explosives sniffing dogs from Fort Riley have been scouring the Sunflower Energy Center all morning in an attempt to make certain of the safety of President Watts and the four challengers for his office. KBI officers, Salina police, and Secret Service personnel will be covering the crowd at tonight’s debate, trying to protect not only the candidates, but also the expected crowd of 2000-3000 members of the live audience and the debate moderators. Even with final preparations underway, the cloud of Confederate mobilizations may distract from tonight’s debate topic; Agriculture. Coverage will begin on all four National networks at 6:30 pm with the debate to begin at 7:00pm.


Unicameral votes for rail plan- construction to begin on OKC to Kansas City section in spring
By Jennifer Smith

The National Unicameral voted to begin construction of the proposed high speed North-South rail link this morning with funds approved to begin with the Kansas City to Oklahoma City route through Wichita and Topeka. Further funds have been approved to begin construction moving north from Kansas City on both the Omaha to Grand Forks section and the Des Moines to Duluth section for next fall and the spring of 2014 respectively.


Sports
Muskogee Okies refuse to cancel game verse St. Joseph. Cite history for refusal
By Art Belew

If there is one team in the whole of the Professional Football Association that understands sacrifice for the nation, it is the team from Muskogee. The legend of the team from eastern Oklahoma is known all across the GPUR. The actions of the 1957 then Muskogee Redmen are famous as the team volunteered in mass to defend Oklahoma and the nation. Men like Duane Putnam, Harlan Hill, and the legendary Bob St. Clair came forward for their nation in its time of need, defending their city from the invading Confederate forces and suffering heavy casualties. Their actions were immortalized by the Californian musician Merle Haggard in his hit “Okie from Muskogee” a decade later and the team, still toiling in the lowest division of Professional Football took the name with pride, even advancing so far as the first division in the late 1980’s. And to this day, before the team takes to Redman Field, the thousands in attendance sing the song for their fallen heroes. With history like that, few will wonder why the Okies politely refused to reschedule their Sunday afternoon tilt with St. Joseph and even fewer would ask why.

CONCACAF Champions League First Round Recap
Staff

Group A: Club America 3- 0 Arizona Condors, FC Industrial 1-1 Olympique Montreal
Group B: Hamilton AFC 0- 2 Sporting Kansas City, New York Cosmos 5-2 Lone Star AFC
Group C: Boston Bears 0- 0 San Diego Nomads, Baltimore Americans 1-2 Gateway FC
Group D: Chivas de Guadalajara 2-0 Front Range FC, S.V. United 0-1 Toronto Celtic
Group E: Atlanta Greys 1- 0 Rangers de Quebec, Houston Dynamo 2-2 Seattle Sounders F.C.
Group F: Brooklyn Hispano 0-0 Birmingham City, Minnesota Strikers 1-2 Cruz Azul
Group G: Fall River S.C. 3-1 Charleston City Battery, Real Santa Fe F.C. 0-2 Philadelphia Unions
Group H: Miami Fusion 1-0 Temple S.C., Athletico Santiago 1-1 Fort Worth Rangers

[Chipperback]

GPBC News 24/At This Hour

Breaking News: SD Governor Rounds, SD Teachers agree to Lakota Compromise. Students to return to Classes Monday.

-- Salina, KS -- In one of more genteel disagreements in electoral history, the five major party candidates had the agricultural debate Wednesday night. It wasn't as sharply inflammatory as the previous two had been, but still all parties pointed out key differences in agricultural policy.

However, the start of the evening with changed the tenor. Earlier in the day, four of the five candidates, President J.C. Watts, and MUs Kathleen Sebelius, Paul Wellstone and Wilma Mankiller were part of an emergency meeting involving, military, diplomatic and legislative leaders in Omaha. Steve Largent, the PAP President Candidate was in Oklahoma City meeting with Oklahoma emergency and National Guard officials.

The five candidates agree to a joint statement which was read by President Watts at the start of the debate last night.


The following steps have been taken for the safety of our country in the face of possible aggression towards us by a hostile neighboring nation.

All elements of the GPUR Forces in our border areas in Missouri and Oklahoma are on full alert. A number of reinforcement divisions and squadron are mobilizing from bases and units across our country.

Governors in every state are enacting first stage emergency procedures. I am very grateful to our state chief executives like Steve Largent, the governor of the state I and MU Wilma Mankiller call home.

I am extremely grateful to the leaders of all the parties for their unity. I am very pleased that we all are gathered here, even through an emergency situation to continue to affirm the peaceful, democratic process that has justly administered our land for 76 years.

We have received notes of support from allied and like-minded nations around the world. We are grateful that British Prime Minister Michael Portillo had offered to mediate with the Union of Soviet Socialist Russia from the european end. And tonight, with the agreement of all parties represented in our national unicameral, we have the Great Plains United Republic will join the boycott of the USSR initiated by Cuba and affirmed by over 20 nations in our hemisphere.

I am also pleased that even a nation with whom we don't always see eye-to-eye, sees what is just and right. We have received a diplomatic communique from IRNA President Rudolph Giuliani maybe hour before we gathered tonight seeing that the Industrial Republic will comply with the demands of the International Criminal Court and will extridict their former Vice President and private citizen Erik Prince if investigation on the part of the ICC and Interpol deem it necessary.

I ask all Plainsians to pray for our nation. May the Great Spirit keep His hand on us..and on the people of the Confederate States as well.

Please pray for those in Arkansas violent perscuted for peaceful protest, pray for the refugees feeling compelled to flee, and pray for leaders of the Confederate States, that they can somehow see the wisdom of peace over the insanity of war.

Thank you...Now, lets talk about agricuture.

Would you like to more?...GPBC News 24 Roundtable at 5pm Central will have a special panel on last night debate and continuing situation in Confederate Arkansas...and all the days headlines on the GPBC Six O' Clock News.

[Luath]

I tell ya Chip this is just the best Chat thread I've ever read I saw the protests in Edinburgh, we all hope the people responsible for those shootings get whats coming to them.

P.S check my user title.

[Chipperback]

Good Evening and welcome to the first Vice-Presidential Debate of the 2012 Campaign. I'm Larry Hatteberg -- FBC News Chief Correspondent and the host of the Great Plains Digest..

Introducing the candidates: Representing the Prairie Progressive Conservatives Vice-President John Thune.

Representing the Progressive-Farmer-Labor party the Governor of the State of Iowa Chet Culver

Representing the Plains Action Party, the Governor of Missouri Bill Kenney/

Representing the Lease Lobby, MU for Iowa City Campous C. Vivian Stringer

and Representing the Great Spirit Community Party, the Speaker of the Nebraska Unicameral, Frank LaMere.

A draw among the candidate took place two hours before the debate to decide opening and closing statement position by the luck of the draw. The order for the opening statements will be Kenney, LaMere, Thune, Culver, Stringer

By the rules, Kenney and Stringer must be positions 3 and 4 for the closing statements. The order for the closing statements will be Culver, Thune, Stringer, Kenney, Culver.

Each candidate will have a 60 second opening and a 60 closing statement closing statement.

On a question given to a specific candidate, that candidate will have 60 seconds to answer. The other candidate will have 30 second rebuttal.

On a question to the group, each candidate if they choose will have 30 seconds to answer.

The first section of the debate will be questions from our panel.

Lead Panelist tonight -- Heidi Barker, Omaha/Unicameral Correspondent for GPBC News and the host of "Unicameral This Week" on GPBC News 24

Gina Overholser, Political Editor for the Des Moines Register and a consultant to FBC News

Charles Over-The-Lake, lead National Political Reporter for the Rapid City Eagle and political analyst for Siouxland Television

Jay Saunders, Executive Political Editor for CTN News

and Robyn Allen, political reporter for GPBC Radio Four and the host of "Things To Consider.."

The debate itself will be 90 minutes.
All questions will center on topics similar to those of the first three Presidential debates, Foreign Policy, Education and Agriculture.

Each candidate will have a 60 second opening and a 60 closing statement .

On a question given to a specific candidate, that candidate will have 60 seconds to answer. The other candidate will have 30 second rebuttal.

On a question to the group, each candidate if they choose will have 30 seconds to answer.

The second portion of the debate will feature the candidates questioning each other. The candidate being questioned will have 60 seconds to answer. The if a candidate is mentioned in answer, that candidate will have 30 seconds to respond.

The third portion of the debate involves the folks sitting in the first four rows of the center seats here. This is a section of 100 undecided voters, selected by the Debates Commissions, FBC News and the political science departments at the University Iowa, University of Northern Iowa, Grinnell and Coe Colleges.. Each of the 100 undecided voters are Iowa residents.

We begin the debate with the opening statement by Governor Kenney.

[Son of Sphinks]

The Wichita Beacon – Evening Electronic Edition
Thursday, September 27, 2012


International News

Refugees report violent repression spreading, Mobile and Nashville also experiencing protests
UP Wire – Wichita, GPUR

As refugees from the Confederate state of Arkansas make their way to immigration centers further back from the CSA-GPUR frontier, more tales of crack downs and repression are coming to light. And while some of the stories have been unverifiable, United Press has received video, smuggled out by multiple groups showing Confederate State Security Officers violently dispersing sympathy marches in the Tennessee Capitol of Nashville and in the major Alabama port city of Mobile. In each incident, local police, under the visible direction of CSS personnel, use fire hoses and tear gas to break up the marches. Also shown in the video are beatings by police of young protesters and threats of violence toward onlookers.

“My cousin was in Mobile as these protests were happening. She was scared for her life and only got what she could before sending this to me. It was only 30 or 40 high school kids. All they ever knew was fear and when they tried to stand up for something, they got beat down. All any of us have ever known is fear.”


More SR ships arrive in Confederate ports. 2 appear headed for Florida Strait
UP Wire – Bermuda

More vessels under the ensign of the USSR have arrived in the major Atlantic ports of the Confederacy including three of the four large grain carriers that were at sea in rout prior to the current crisis. Soviet Russian naval minister Roman Abromavitch stated that the USSR was “Exercising its rights as a maritime nation to trade with a willing partner and that all shipping that sails under the banner of the USSR follows existing international maritime regulations.” And while trade between Soviet Russia and the CSA is decried, the most concerning item at this time are the radio reports of two vessels, including one of the grain ships, which showed headings toward the Florida Straits. The straits, contested between the CSA and Cuba, is at the center of the quarantine zone established to prevent further trade between the Confederate pariah and its Soviet Russian partner. Cuba has said they insist upon keeping a 90 mile quarantine zone which reaches to the Confederate shores. Confederate President Gingrich has said the Straits are international waters and free to travel and that any quarantine zone illegally infringes on freedom of the seas and Confederate trade relations. He has also implied that the Confederate Navy will be used to force open the Florida Straits if necessary.

Has IRNA embraced a return to multilateralism?
By the Beacon Editorial Board

The announcement last night that the IRNA would not oppose the extradition of either former Vice President Voss or wanted mercenary Erik Prince, the government in Washington D.C. seems to have finally decided to take a more proactive role in the community of nations. This could either be a belated but honest step by the Giuliani administration to abandon the IRNA’s traditional unilateral approach. Or is this yet another election year political ploy, this time throwing to the international community a no longer useful cog in the machine and a man with too much blood on his hands and not enough money to wash it clean? If the nations of the world see this, companied with the backing down of the Industrial American fleet in the recent spat with the Atlantic Maritime Union, as an honest attempt by the prodigal son to come home, we should welcome the change in tone from Washington. But if the winds of opinion suddenly shift, will Rudolph the red-nosed President shine his light through the mess in his obligations or continue to fly blindly away from the international community.


National News

Lockout Over! South Dakota teachers to return to classrooms Monday - “Fair Deal”
UP Wire – Sioux Falls

Teachers who had been kept away from Harold Stassen Middle School in Sioux Falls were busy today, in their classrooms readying for the new school year. Last night Governor Mike Rounds and the South Dakota Department of Education finally agreed to the so-called “Lakota Compromise” and ended the state wide lockout of teachers. “I’ve got two weeks of work to have done in as many days”, said 7th grade language arts teacher Alisha McClure. “We don’t teach for paychecks like the Governor said. We teach to help the kids and now that the Compromise is set, we can get back to helping them achieve.” The State finally caved in on the assessment, using the tried and true Eisenhower Student Achievement Index, while the teachers have accepted that increases in salary and tenure will be in part tied to student success on the test. Children in South Dakota have one last long weekend to enjoy. They hit the books on Monday.

Boycott of SR goods helping one GPUR business
By Keith Coolie

There are few things that the GPUR imports from Soviet Russia, but check labels behind the bar at your favorite watering hole and chances are that the Vodka is most likely made there. The McCormick Distillery in Weston, Missouri has been hoping to change that for a few years and now with the boycott in effect, the company hopes to have a corner on the market. “Our company has been making fine distilled spirits since 1857 and we will continue to provide those spirits to our patrons, both here in the GPUR and now in other countries boycotting goods from Soviet Russia.


Units prepare to take positions on familiar territory
UP Wire- near Grove, Oklahoma

Where refugees had been met by a few border patrol officers in previous days, now some are being met by military patrols. Units of the 1st Seminole Scouts, 3rd Osage Mechanized, and 23rd Oklahoma Infantry are engaged in patrols along the Confederate frontier with Arkansas and GRUP Marines are taking up positions south of the Arkansas River. In Missouri, the Table Rock basin is once again patrolled by the 12th Mounted division, the famous Ozark Mountain Daredevils, with further Missouri National Guard units forming along the boot heel and along the Mississippi River. Whether they will be needed to again defend the Republic is still an open question, but preparations have been put in place, hopefully with little need.


Water release date set for November 1st
Beacon Staff

The Rocky Mountain Republic announced that the planned releases of water along the Platt and Arkansas Rivers will take place on November 3rd, just in time to be of assistance in the planting of the winter wheat crop in the western most regions of the country. This is also timed with the usual release of water along the Missouri river and should help to alleviate some of the drought concerns that have plagued the Plainsian west for the past 18 months.


Sports

Iowa forces game 7, comes from behind to win 8-6 in 14.
By Ryan Miller

The oldest trees have the deepest roots and with their season on the line, the Iowa Oaks turned to the old Texan, Roger Clemens to get them a desperately needed out in the top of the ninth last night in Des Moines. And the man who gained fame as the Texas Rocket for the Tulsa Oilers in the late 1980’s showed he could do more than rely on a fast ball. Clemens, who had been sitting at home in Houston in late July, showed the grit and determination that had seen him win games across the continent. With the score 6-5, Roger went about setting down the heart of the Oiler order, striking out slugger Alex Rios to end the inning. From there the Oaks scraped across the desperately needed run to keep it alive, giving the ball back to Clemens. Roger kept them in the game through the 10th, the 11th, the 12th, and the 13th. Finally, in the 14th, the Rocket fuel that had Clemens flying high faded, but Grant Balfour put the Oilers down. A Billy Butler 2-run shot in the bottom of the 14th closed the book on this game, but the fans watching all across the country saw a heck of a game. Tomorrow night, the champion will be crowned. First pitch 7:05 on Metro Sports.

[Chipperback]

The next question will come from Heidi Barker..

What would be your criterion for building diplomatic relations with the Confederate States of America? I'd like to address this question to Governor Kenney first, because his state's proximity to a border area.

KENNEY: Heidi, the PAP's stance is simple. First, the Confederate States must pull back troops for our borders. Second we link all issues to the human rights question, we will not do business with the Atlanta Regime as long as that regime commits gross human right violations. Third, they must agree to Cairns Conventions, but they won't do that and that is one reason why a Largent-Kenney administration will take the GPUR out of the Cairns Convention.

CULVER: Governor Kenney, I agree on the first two but leaving the Cairns Convention and not living up to our global obligations makes us no better than Gingrich in my view. I'd also add that the CSA has to fully open up the record of their covert operation outside of their country. This is a nation that goes around North America killing dissidents who have the left their country. The most recent incident was a little more than three weeks ago in Dallas. It is time for Atlanta to come clean on those covert missions

STRINGER: I am 100% against any diplomatic relations until the CSA proves any civilization. A good start for them would be the allow a free exchange of ideas, such as these protests. I also see the nuclear situation as essential. The CSA has a policy saying they reserve the right to use nuclear weapons against us. As long as there is nuclear standoff, we can constructively negotiate.

LAMERE: It is this exact question that has led the GSCP to the stance of a united, comprehensive North America diplomatic initiative. A Mankiller-LaMere administration would plan a continent-wide summit meeting where indvidual nations can discuss these issues in a common forum. Of course, at this moment, we are pointing guns, tanks and planes at each other. I would like to see us all take a step back from the brink.

THUNE: Our administration has worked closely with other free nations in our continent for peace and security. That won't change, but the episode we are in now reaffirms the defense modernizations and policies instituted by the PPC are working. We're ready to go if we have to, and that is the real key to changing the situation to a peaceful outcome. Atlanta must understand that we mean business. That is the only way we can bring them to the peace table.

[Chipperback]

Charles Over-The-Lake with the next question.

Good news tonight on the acceptance of a compromise to end the South Dakota Lockout, but how do we prevent a future one. How will you administration deal with the issues raised by the impasse going forward...I'd like Vice-President Thune to answer first.

THUNE: Charles, I'm just as happy as you are that the lockout is settled. To me it went on too long, and in many ways was needless. But it does show how a PPC government can make the balance between the factions, find common ground and get a solution. We can disagree in our party. And I disagreed with Governor Rounds on the testing mechanism. The Eisenhower index is not a "kick-back" it has been the standard in our country since we expanded public education. I like the Compromise in theory, obvious we have to tweak the matter of pay for performance, but we all agree in principle and from there we can head into the future with a game plan to bring people together and never see such a brink again.

LAMERE: Mr. Vice President, I was a part of those negotiations as well, and the PPC you described would make a great camp fire tale, but it isn't the fact, sir.
The PPC took a hardline out of political fear and to pander to those who cry out "separatists" or yell and scream about the "threat of multiculturalism". At time Mike Rounds sounded more like Newt Gingrich on that Ambassdor that have...That Spurrier person.

That what some of right as become in this country and its sad.

THUNE: Mr. LaMere, you are out of line with that comment!

LAMERE: Am I? Do you deny that even the Federal Government was willing to look the other way citing "local control"

THUNE: Local Control is a necessary component to give parents a choice.

LAMERE: I don't think any parent chose a biased political selection to displace a test that has been a benchmark of GPUR Education from its beginnings...And I don't see how the PROGRESSIVE Prairie Conservative would give to the social phobia of the Largent-Kenney campaign.

KENNEY: I need to step in here. You and Wilma Mankiller continue to try to paint us as "racists".

LAMERE: If that mocassin fits, Governor Kenney. I've had to sit through three debates and hear Steve Largent go after our party's leader, a leader of our people and all plains peoples. The PAP has spent a lot of time going after us, and now your party says the Eisenhower Apitude Exam is a "shill" as a PAP state legislator in South Dakota called it?

KENNEY: Our nation could be at war and here you are.

LAMERE: Save it for a rally, Governor.

STRINGER: There is a lot of truth to what Speaker LaMere has said, but going beyond that argument. The real issue here is the matter of pay and professional respect. I have been a university professor, a coach, and have served on university and municipal school boards. Standards are something I do not have an issue with, but with standards also need tools to reach the standards, and that is a basic weakness of the PPC's program. Its a lofty goal, that you aren't putting tangible resources behind meeting that goal. A Lobby Government will, and one of my prime missions should I be elected Vice President will be leading that reform effort to build standards in line with tools to give our schools the means to exceed those standard and go beyond them.

CULVER: What I can say to John Thune is, we had a similar situation in Iowa 2 years ago, the difference is..Our PFL government was bought and pay for by people who are willing profit over our kids. We had a new deal ready 10 days after the previous school year ended. We had contentions with the unions here, but we worked together.

THUNE: You gave the teachers a deal that put Iowa in deficit.

CULVER: Mr. Vice-President, I'm the Governor of this state, and my state is running surplus right now, after we gave that "sweetheart deal" that wasn't one. Nobody got everything they wanted, but we didn't hold anybody hostage and we weren't owned by anybody, and we certainly didn't turn our back and methods and program we know worked..and I take LARGE exception to the way the Iowa Basic Skills Test was portrayed by certain PPC and PAP officials. You know just this week Jane Elliott, the noted anti-bias educational advocate and a proud Iowan said "I'm beginning to wonder what the PPC and PAP considers the capital, Omaha or Atlanta?"

Makes you say "hmmmm".

[Chipperback]

GPBC News 24 Online
Great Plains Broadcasting Corporation
News at the hour.


Cape Girardeau, Missouri -- GPUR Army, Air and River Defense forces continue to take up defensive position across the GPUR-Confederate Border tonight as more Confederate forces are forward deploying into Kentucky, Tennessee an Arkansas.

Muskogee, Oklahoma -- Oklahoma state and Great Plains Emergency Management officials continue to take in an influx of refugees from bordering Arkansas. The camp at Muskogee has an estimated 1,000 refugees and growing since a CSA government crackdown on protests in Arkansas.

Shreveport, LSR Texas -- Texas official have starting setting up refugee centers for those fleeing the CSA beginning with a group on the border between Texan Louisiana and Confederate Arkansas. Texas President Condoleezza Rice-Hill was visiting the Shreveport emergency camp and reaffirmed Texas' stance. "Texas stands with the free peoples of North America and the world against Atlanta's tyranny."

Winnipeg, Manitoba -- 20,000 marched through the streets of Winnipeg today in a demonstration against a "YES" vote on proposed plebiscite that would seek to have Manitoba become part of the Great Plains United Republic. The marchers representing a mix of peace and Canadian nationalist groups cited concerns about a possible border conflict with the Confederate States as the reason behind the protests. A recent Winnipeg Free Press polls shows opinion equally divided between total separate independence, a renewal of the formal union with neighboring Saskatchewan , or joining the GPUR.

Regina, Saskatchewan -- One prominent citizen of the provincial state came out in support of joining the GPUR. 2-time Oscar Festival winning actor Kiefer Sutherland, a Regina resident and the grandson of Saskatchewan premier Tommy Douglas said the GPUR's forward thinking on human rights, energy, culture and health care are attractive to his vote. "We could go it alone, but we are stuck between Alberta and Ontario and their ambitions, I think it would do us and Manitoba good to join a federation that can link up to our traditions and culture.

In a related story, a University of Regina poll showed that First Nations peoples are in favor of joining the GPUR by a newly 2-to-1 margin. The support is due to the number of laws and societal conventions that have come directly from the native heritage of the GPUR since the founding of the nation. Yet, like in Manitoba, opinion is Saskatchewan is virtually split evenly.

PROGRAMMING NOTE: Saturday morning on GPBC News 24 a special roundtable discussion: Understanding The Plebiscite.


St. Croix State Park, Minnesota -- The annual Concert For Conscience opened tonight not with a star-studded gala, but with a somber salute to the past and current troops at the St. Croix Forest National Monument.
The night featured a mix of religious, reflective music opening with Prince Rogers Nelson leading the combined Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra and the Minnesota Freedmen's Choir in a rendition of the GPUR national anthem "Flowing Plains Forever."

Also playing tonight was a list of New Nashville talent going back to their church roots. Kelly Clarkson left over 10,000 concert goers in tears with a soft rendition of "How Great Thou Art".

But the surprise of the evening wasn't expecting to arrive until tomorrow, but Michael Jackson flew in direct from Europe, along with Paul McCartney...and ending the evening with Michael's pro-peace anthem "Man In The Mirror."

The change of venue was announced two days ago when it was revealed by the government that troops would deploy for border area. Prince, a veteran of the 1980-1982 Border Conflict with the IRNA said he changed the focus of the first night of his annual concert because, "At this time the nation needed reflection and prayer...and I wanted to send a message of hope and peace to Our Forces. I pray all sides take a step back from the brink. I fought Industrials in these woods thirty years ago, and still have nightmares. I don't want somebody now in Missouri or Oklahoma to have to live with those memories."

The Concert for Conscience runs all day Saturday and you can find coverage on GPBC Studio 6 and GPBC Youth Radio.

In World News..

Moscow, USSR -- British Prime Minister Michael Portillo arrived in Moscow for a weekend summit with Russian General Secretary Vladimir Putin in hopes of mediation in the Atlantic Quarantine Dispute with a number of North American and Latin American Nations.

Havana, Cuba -- Cuba's Foreign Minister sharply criticized the Confederate States for their handling of protests in the CSA. Foreign Minister Dr. Roberto Lima in an interview with the Cuban TV network TV Cubana said, "The CSA continues to flaunt civilized convention of human right and dignity. It is a shame that a once revolutionary nation like Russia was devolve to common thuggery."

Detroit, Michigan -- IRNA Constitutional Democratic presidential candidate Joseph Biden continued his attacks on President Giuliani as soft on the CSA, despite Giuliani announcement that the IRNA will turn over former Vice President Richard DeVos and Coldwater Private Security founder Erik Prince.

"Now the President wants to see the light, even after a number of his benefactors own factories that enslave people down there, and even some of our industrial firms here and finding loopholes in the law allowing them to do business with the slave regime. That must end."

Biden, under fire for some question remarks in the last week, has seen his lead in the polls shrink, while another candidate on the left has surged, as a serious of appearance this week have bolstered Dennis Kucinich's campaign. The Ohi Congressman in most polls has leads in the the District of Columbia and West Virginia. A Cincinnati Examiner polls show Kucinich leading by 2 percentage points in Ohio.

In Sports News

Des Moines, Iowa -- Rain washed out the deciding game 7 of the Great Plains Baseball Championship Series between the Iowa Oaks and the Tulsa Oilers. The game is set for a 7:05 start tomorrow night. The winner of the game will advance to the World Series competition, hosted this year by the Texas-Mexico Major Baseball League this year.

WORLD SERIES 2012 -- Qualification Results

MLB/IRNA -- GAME 6 New York Yankees at Chicago Cubs Saturday 12:05pm Central -- Cubs lead series 3-2
RMR BASEBALL -- GAME 5 Edmonton Trappers at Colorado Rockies Saturday 3:05pm Central...Series tied at 2
WESTERN BASEBALL UNION -- GAME 4 TONIGHT Salt Lake City Buzz 6, Los Vegas Blackjack 21s 3 FINAL...Series tied at 2 Game 5 Sunday at Salt Lake City
CALIFORNIA PACIFIC LEAGUE -- GAME 5 SATURDAY Seattle Mariners at Los Angeles Angels 9:05pm Central
NIPPON PRO BASEBALL -- GAME 3 Yomiuri Giants at Chiba Lotte Marines Series tied at 1
TEX-MEX MAJOR PRO BASEBALL -- GAME 4 Houston Colt 45s at Monterrey Bandidos, Monterrey leads series 2-1
CUBAN PROFESSIONAL LEAGUE -- GAME 4 Industriales 7, Havana 2 Industriales leads series 3-1 Game 5 Sunday at Industriales
BEISBOL CARIBE -- GAME 5 Trujillo Dominicana at San Juan Saturday 7:05pm Central.. Trujillo leads series 3-1

Chicago, Illinois IRNA -- The pro golf Ryder Cup opened today at the Medinah Country Club outside of Chicago, and it saw the world's top four players each help their teams in a wild opening day that ended in a 4-4 tie.

The match of the day involved a Team Common Market duo of World #1 Sergio Garcia and British Open champion Rory McIlroy against the "California Kids" Notah Begay and the "Fairway Economist" 2012 U.S. Open Champ Eldrick Woods.

The match ended as Woods sunk a 30-foot putt at 18 to get the four-ball match win for Team North America and force a tie at the end of Day 1.

Silverstone, United Kingdom -- The Formula 1 Grand Prix Administration announced the 2013 schedule today.

There will be 21 rounds on the docket including four races in North America. The Grand Prix of France is dropped from the schedule due to a contract dispute, but F1 Chairman Sir Damon Hill confirmed that a second German round will take it's place with the Grand Prix of Berlin, to be ran at newly bought Euroring, now rennamed Schumacher Brudersring. The first Grand Prix of the Great Plains will run on June 16, 2013 at the under-construction Sitting Bull International Circuit outside of Rapid City, South Dakota and this year marks the return of the California Grand Prix through the streets of Long Beach after a 15-year absence.

2013 Formula 1 World Grand Prix Schedule
All races covered on GPBC 1 and GPBC Sport
17/03 Grand Prix of Australia-New Zealand
24/03 Grand Prix of Malayan Union
07/04 Grand Prix of the Chinese Free Republic
21/04 Grand Prix of California (Long Beach)
12/05 Grand Prix of Spain (Barcelona)
26/05 Grand Prix of Monaco
09/06 Grand Prix of Quebec (Villeneuve-Fellows Circuit of Champions/Montreal)
16/06 Grand Prix of the Great Plains (Sitting Bull Circuit/Rapid City, SD)
30/06 Grand Prix of Great Britain
07/07 Grand Prix of Berlin (Schumacher Brudersring/West and East Berlin, FRG/EGR)
14/07 Grand Prix of the Germanies (Gerhard Berger-Ring/Zeltwig, Southern German Union)
28/07 Grand Prix of Scandinavian Union
25/08 Grand Prix of Belgium
08/09 Grand Prix of Italy
22/09 Grand Prix of Singapore
06/10 Grand Prix of Korea
13/10 Grand Prix of Japan
27/10 Grand Prix of the Trucial Arabian Republic (Yas Marina Circuit/Abu Dhabi)
10/11 Grand Prix of Texas (Lone Star Circuit of the Americas/Austin)
17/11 Grand Prix of Argentina
24/11 Grand Prix of Brazil

Surrey, United Kingdom and Maranello, Italy -- Two top teams in Formula 1 announced changes to their driver lineup for 2013 today. McLaren announced that they will sign up-and-coming Chinese Free Republic star Ho Ping-Tung, who won the Grand Prix of the Malayan Union driving for the French Prost F1 team. The British operating effective shut the door on hopes of resigning current World Championship leader Lewis Hamilton, who is rumored to possibly being Carl Edwards' teammate at Chrysler-Lambourghini

Those rumors are emphasized by the announcement that Italian star Marco Andretti, son of the great 2-time World Champ Mario Andretti will leave Chrysler-Lambourghini after the season. and head for the mark that made his dad loved around the world...Ferrari.

[Chipperback]

Prince Rogers Nelson began the Concert For Conscience in 1986. At the time he had just come off a hit album, "Paisley Park" which included many songs written from his experiences as a reconnaissance patrol troop in the 39th Minnesota Militia during the 1980-1982 Border Conflict with the IRNA. What began as a music festival and teach-in on peace and justice issues has grown into one of my most important entertain and sociopolitical events on the world's calendar.

This year was the 26th edition, and by the opinion of many who've seen more of these than this reporter. It was the best ever.

It began on Friday with a special show. Normally, Friday is a glitzy kickoff throughout Minneapolis' downtown nightspots. Many acts play the clubs from the 9th Ave District up to the University/Dinkytown. Not this year.

Instead, the CFC began in quiet forests perhaps 90 minutes or so away.

St. Croix National Forest is beautiful, primal, silent. Thousands of old growth trees cover the land.
But it is true what they say about battlefields. Long after the guns stop their report, you can feel the ghosts.
A stray bullet thirty years ago could have made one of the great popular and classical musicians of our generation a ghost.

This is where Prince Rogers Nelson, like many young Minnesotans then, were deployed fighting Industrials from Wisconsin and Illinois, who were just as young and perhaps just as scared.

On this night, the silence was replace with strong but somber notes. A soul-stirring rendition of the composition Prince wrote in 1985 that became the GPUR's National Anthem. Followed by a night were thousands of concert goers were taken back to church. It was part funeral, part prayer service, part revival. It was also a cry for peace amid the news that GPUR troops were mobilizing to the south, in the wake of provocations by the CSA.

The Friday session closed with Kelly Clarkson, one of the spiritual leaders of the emerging "Free Nashville" sound, bringing the crowd to tears and joy with "How Great Thou Art"...But, that was only a warm up for what she would bring to the Target-Viking Main Stage Saturday.

Saturday saw music spread across five specially built stages set in a huge field a 10 miles south of The Mall Of The Plains in Bloomington, Minnesota. But even from the parking lots of the world's largest shopping center, you could hear the sounds.

There was music for every taste. Fans flocked to the Sayers GaleStation stage for three sets by Kraftwerk, the legendary group of Vienna trained musicians with one foot in the 17th century and the other foot clearly in the 25th century. Flex and The First Nations Crew rocked another stage. Indigenous acts came full force, and many of them were looking to influence concert goers from Manitoba and Saskatchewan to say yes to the GPUR in the coming votes in those provinces in October.

Prince's push for more Free Nashville bore a lot of fruit. Willie Nelson brought his Lone Star Outlaw Army in full force. But it was the Lone Star Hippie Cowboys who stole the show, with a special tribute to "the Trinity". The threesome of Elvis Presley, Ray Charles and Buddy Holly, who truly built Texas-Plains rock music in the 1950's. At the start of the 1958 Mid-North America War, Charles, a blind genius who escaped the Confederate pogroms of the 50s, wrote a song funky, jumpy dance tune called "What'd I Say". The threesome recorded the song...and it became very popular among the Texas and Great Plains troops fighting the Confederates. To many veterans of the GPUR's border wars, it's a fight song and an anthem to their courage.
The Lone Star Hippie Cowboys, with Toby Keith covered the song Saturday. It was perhaps the most emotional that fiery Keith has been on stage ever. Keith is a veteran of the 1980-1982 border conflict. He was a part of an Oklahoma mechanized unit that fought on the Mississippi riverfront between Missouri and Illinois. "My daddy fought in '59, I've had kin who fought in '71, and I did my turn in '81. I hope no one else has to do that now."

A surprise of the day, came from Old Nashville. The popular Confederate group Sugarland, rumored disappeared, detained or dead after going missing from a concert date in southern Mississippi, showed up Saturday Afternoon...in Bloomington.

The announced that with the help of the New Underground Railroad, they had been in hiding in East Texas. Their tale was daring and harrowing.
Sugarland was seen as the darling of the Confederacy. A act that could sell to the world and has seen the world. The perfect counter to the propaganda of Austin and Minneapolis. Talented, attractive and 100% apolitical.

Or so Atlanta thought.

Kristian Bush for the last four years wasn't just a guitarist and vocalist, he was also a conductor on the New Underground Railroad..and he revealed to reporters, a member of a student group in the CSA called "Children of 18".

Also Sugarland was putting out underground music on the heavily censored DixieNet. Protest song versions of the hits, that both Bush and lead vocalist Jennifer Nettles admitted were the real versions of their popular songs.

"We left because we felt noose tightening," Bush said. "They were harassing our families. Beginning when they jail and tortured Kristin Hall, we don't know if she's alive or dead in one of their gulags down there. We were being practically forced to play. Security Services everywhere we go, even when we perform overseas. Maya Angelou said it best, "a gilded cage is still a cage' So we had to go. I hated to leave. I love my native Tennessee, I love the South. I hate Newton Gingrich and what and all those people have done to my home...and done to our art. Look at all the genius wasted or escaped."

On stage Nettles performed a new song she had written for their return to the public, "Stuck Like Glue" which see described as partly on the friendship of their group and partly a tribute to fellow Georgians and now fellow dissidents Jimmy Carter and Fran Tarkenton, a minister in Minneapolis and a former chairman of the Anti-Pogrom League of Minnesota.
"I'm humbled to have the chance to meet a true hero in the cause of freeing the South," Nettles said. "It's past time for change back home, and I hope the world rallies with the students. I'm a Georgian, but I won't look back if it means be able to live and perform as a free person.

Peace was a major theme of evening. Peace, social justice, anti-poverty and environmental group held teach in throughout the day Saturday. The political parties were also there. In recent election years, the CFC has been a least a tertiary priority. This year, with youth turnout expected to smash previous records, the CFC was critical enough for every Presidential and Vice Presidential candidate to make an appearance this weekend. Each of the candidates for the highest office attended Friday's show, and all day Saturday, you could see the candidates talking to concert goers.

But, this is still a jam, and it was a good jam. Dre-Cee-Oh came in from California and brought the L.A. soul sound to the house. They opened up with their summer hit, "Long Beach Era" that had most of the crowd estimated at 250,000 dancing.
The Caribe Funk Sound was well represented from Prince's leadoff tribute to Jaime Brown, to the Godfather of Caribe Soul's grandchildren, led by the Tip-Rad Troop and their hit "Trouble Man". The Old School got their licks in, headlined by "The Teacher" himself. Kris Parker, working with collaborator Sean Paul, who debuted a new cut, "Beat Dem Thieves" written as a protest against Soviet involvement with the Confederates.

The biggest memories of the night, was the return of "The King Of Pop". After six years away from the stage, taking time out to be a father and a husband, Michael Jackson got back in shape, back in the studio..and Saturday night back on the stage, and even at age 54, he didn't miss a beat.

Name a Michael Jackson hit? He performed it, from his days with the Jackson Brothers, to his smash solo efforts of the 1980s. The man was a "Thriller" once again.

But MJ was also there for a special purpose. A special four-song medley dedicated to his father-in-law Elvis Presley. "This night was for the fathers I'm glad to have had later in life. Quincy Jones, and Papa Elvis," Jackson said.
MJ grew very close Elvis as he was courting his daughter Lisa Marie. Elvis performed at their wedding in 1992, and since then Jackson made it a personal mission to preserve and protect Elvis' musical legacy, and the legacy of many Elvis contemporaries who escaped the CSA who were imprisoned in the country as Elvis was before defecting to Texas in 1955, along with blind jail mate in Mississippi named Ray Charles.

The day of performance ended with just about every act on stage together singing Jackson's peace anthem "Man In The Mirror". There wasn't dry eye anywhere in the show. And many hope that the chorus of the song was heard along borders in Missouri and Oklahoma...and in Omaha, Austin, Washington...and Atlanta...and Moscow.

I'm Starting With The Man In
The Mirror
I'm Asking Him To Change
His Ways
And No Message Could Have
Been Any Clearer
If You Wanna Make The World
A Better Place
Take A Look At Yourself, And
Then Make A Change

[Orville_third]

Wow- this was amazing. I'd love to have gone to this, even if my heroine can't attend this year. (And you've got Kraftwerk too!)

Did REM ever form and are they out of the South? Did Indigo Girls form and are they out?

[Chipperback]

Did REM ever form and are they out of the South?

REM caught some hell in 1980s, but they had a couple of interested parties in Europe who heard their music and decided to help get them out of the CSA. Quincy Jones, a European-based "conductor" of the New Underground Railroad, put together a network that moved the entire band from Athens, Georgia (which is an underground capital of resistance to the Atlanta Apartheid Regime), to England where the band is based now.

REM has played every CFC since they defected.

Did Indigo Girls form and are they out?

They are known as Sailers and Ray ITTL. Amy Ray and Emily Sailers were in the shadow of Nashville as they were growing as a musical duo. Both of them rose above class to be admitted to elite Vanderbilt as collegians. If they would have stayed nice femme, nonpolitical and cute, they'd have a great career in old Nashville.

But they had a rebel streak, and they were heavily influenced by a woman who was a heroine to resistance forces in the CSA, and an enemy of the state to its ruling nomenklatura. These young ladies wanted to be Tammy Wynette.

Both led anti-border draft demonstrations, women's rights and the end to apartheid/forced survitude.

Also, they were both lesbians, and in the CSA of the Jesse Helms era homosexuality was a capital crime.

After more than 2 years of harassment, detainment, and threats to their families back in Decatur Georgia, Sailers and Ray decided to defect...

Fate brought them into the hands of a kindly groundskeeper at Vanderbilt, who was also a "porter" on the New Underground Railroad. It took 8 weeks, but the machinery was in motion in 1988, the young ladies sifted across the border from Mississippi to Louisiana...in the Lone Star Republic of Texas.

Two years later, they produced their first album, Sailers and Ray it did well and it introduced the world to their unique sound which was a cross of the feminine side of Old Nashville with folk influence that seemed to be Californian in nature.

Speaking of California. That is where the duo lives. They share of studio/home along the San Francisco Bay. In between music gigs, they go full bore into causes they care about...Gay rights, environment, women's right, ending Confederate apartheid...and they are both "rail women" of the New Underground Railroad...who have been known to sneak back into CSA to link up with underground protest groups and to serve as porters, conductors and engineers of the NUR.

That is why Sailers and Ray didn't play the CFC this year. They've been in Arkansas for the last month working taking video of the protest and smuggling them to the GPUR and Texas.

[Chipperback]

The National Electoral Board Committee on Presidential Debate announces a format change for the upcoming debate Wednesday October 3, 2012
SCSU Convocation Center/St. Cloud State University -- St. Cloud, Minnesota

The first 45 minutes of the debate will be questions concerning policy should Manitoba and/or Saskatchewan vote to begin proceedings to become part of the GPUR. This entire portion of the debate will be panel-driven. The second 45 minute half of the debate will be the first of two debate section dealing with economic policies. The following debate on October 10th will be a continuation on economic policy following the full 90 minute format.

[Orville_third]

Two more questions- First, is Don Saliers, Emily's dad, still in the CSA? (OTL he's a Methodist minister and an authority on Church music. He and Emily both cowrote an excellent book together.)
Second, how is Winonah LaDuke ITTL?

[Chipperback]

"One more question- is Don Saliers, Emily's dad, still in the CSA? (OTL he's a Methodist minister and an authority on Church music. He and Emily both cowrote an excellent book together.)

A Song to Sing, a Life to Live was still written by Rev Dr. Don Sailers and Emily Sailers in 2006, but it thicker than it was in the OTL. The book not only touched on theories of song and service, but also told a story through anecdotes and song of a part of life Emily only learned about after reunion with her father in 1999.

Rev Dr. Don Sailers was a theology professor at Emory University in Atlanta. He was also a "conductor" on the New Underground Railroad. His activity weren't known by anyone, even his daughter, wife, family or colleagues. Sailers was seen a much above reproach even by the CSS, despite his open sympathies against government policy and being one of the signees of the 1977 Plains Declaration, which openly challenged the validity of the result of the 1977 General Election.

Sailers facilitated the defection of over 500 dissidents, even as he was monitored even more closely in the 1990s, when the CSS has reports that his daughter, one-half of the feminist Christian folk-rock duo Sailers and Ray were conductors and engineers in the NUR. in 1996, Sailers was formally arrested and detained for "Antisocial Example". But, Texas-based Methodists mounted an international press campaign seeking the release of Sailers and 100 other Methodist clergy. The election of Lamar Alexander to the Confederate Presidency led to a relaxation of the state security apparatus. Sailers and many other were allowed leave if they so choose.

Today Sailers lives in Dallas, Texas. He is a special professor of Music and Liturgy at Southern Methodist University. He's also had a hand in his daughter's career. He wrote "Fleet Of Hope", which was on Sailer and Ray's 2009 album Poseidon and the Bitter Bug. And, Sailers is still a part of the NUR, as a "handler". He helps resettle dissidents and their families.

California born Winona LaDuke emigrated to the Great Plains United Republic in 1981, and set up White Earth College of Land Studies near Moorhead, Minnesota in 1990. Today WEC is a research beacon for the study of sustainable land use, drawing scholars and researchers from around the world.

LaDuke is a strong supporter of the GSCP, and stand squarely behind the candidacy of Todd Okerlund, who is running for MU for the GSCP representing Moorhead-Chippewa-Quad Falls.

[Chipperback]

CTN News Coverage of Campaign '12 is brought to you by, International Harvester and their 2013 line of cars and trucks. IH is more than just tractors and combines.

[Orville_third]

Does Cessna still produce GA aircraft? Have they also gone into the agricultural market? (I took a few Cessna pics the other day which I could send.)
Did IH not merge with Case? Did it move its HQ from Illinois to the GPUR? (Perhaps Anita McCormick Blaine followed Henry Wallace to the GPUR...)