South Dakota War College

This morning in Dave Kranz's Argus Leade r column, the Judicial Accountability crew showed why I'm glad I haven't shut down and gotten rid of my "anti-jail on judges blog." Because they're making noise that they're coming back this next election: They are accusing the South Dakota Legislature of corruption, the State Bar Association of deception and Attorney General Larry Long of misrepresentation. And they suggest that their issue was a victim of election fraud. But Long says his critics need not blame, but instead credit South Dakota voters for studying the issue and making up their own mind. and... "As Arnold would say, 'We'll be back!"And next time, thanks to the lessons we have learned, our new Judicial Accountability Amendment will be bulletproof. And for good measure, we will also put on the ballot an amendment to outlaw computerized vote counting. And just because they have peeved us off, how about an amendment to require judges...

Check out KELOland.com for comments from the Chief Justice as he made his State of the judiciary speech: South Dakota Supreme Court Chief Justice David Gilbertson says voters did the right thing in November when they soundly trounced a measure that had been labeled "jail for judges." and.. Gilbertson, in a speech today to a joint session of the Legislature, said approval of the measure would have brought "catastrophic results" for the judicial system. Read that all here as Gilbertson sticks it to them one time. Interestingly enough, Bill Stegemeier isn't down for the county just yet. He was commenting on increased petition signature requirements over at the Argus Leader today... Surprising support, though, comes from Bill Stegmeier of Tea, the prime backer of the judicial accountability amendment that failed on Nov. 7. Stegmeier and others paid for a Nevada company to organize the petition drive - but he's OK with any possible changes. "South Dakota...

According to Kate Turnbow over at the Capitol Journal today, there's at least someone left over from election night who can't take a hint: Bill Stegmeier is not giving up. Stegmeier, the orginator of Amendment E, said despite a resounding defeat at the polls Tuesday, that this is only the beginning for judicial accountability. Amendment E, the ballot initiative aimed at bringing more accountability to judges, was voted down by 89 percent of South Dakotans. But before bringing any more ballot proposals to the people of South Dakota in two years, Stegmeier, a businessman from Tea, said his next step is to commission a statewide poll to test the legitimacy of the amendment's overwhelming loss at the polls. and... "It will be the type of polling used when there's a possibility or suspicion of voter fraud, and evidently this type of polling is going on all over the country," Stegmeier said. Read all of the craziness here . So, not only is he saying he's bringi...

(Click to enlarge the bad advertising) You know, it's pretty bad when, at the same time they're arguing in court that their campaign opponents are being untruthful, the fun anti-tax 911 conspiracy crew at sdja.net place an ad in the shopper paper which is full of some of the wildest claims you've ever seen. For example: Are they on drugs? SD Prison industries is the largest employer in the state? As Tim Gebhart points out on his take on all of this over at A Progressive on the Prairie : So, if we include inmates as "employees," the total employment at Prison Industries is 289 statewide. Let's look at the largest employers in Sioux Falls alone: Sioux Valley Hospitals & Health System, 5,729; Avera Health, 3,969; Citigroup, 3,200; John Morrell & Company, 3,200; Sioux Falls School District, 3,000; Wells Fargo, 2,722; HyVee Food Stores, 1,699; WalMart/Sam's Club, 1,195; Midwest Coast Transport, 1,180; City of Sioux Falls, 1,082; and, First PREMIER B...

The No on Amendment E people put out a press release today on their website in response to the lawsuit that Bill Stegmeier and crew filed against them. And it notes that this is the type of lawsuit we can expect if it passes - frivolous: No on E Committee Responds to Frivolous Lawsuit from Proponents of Constitutional Amendment Tue, Oct 31st 2006 PIERRE, S.D. – The No on E Committee rejected as baseless a frivolous lawsuit filed by supporters of proposed Constitutional Amendment E, the so-called judicial accountability amendment (JAIL). The No on E Committee simply stated that their advertising explains exactly what will happen if Amendment E is passed. “Despite past claims to the contrary, Amendment E treasurer Bill Stegmeier is now claiming that their amendment only applies to judges,” said Dianna Miller, co-chair of the No on E Committee. “In a December 2005 mailer to the residents of Madison, Stegmeier wrote that the amendment applied to ‘any governmental employee of any stripe sha...

Today's Rapid City Journal has more on the JAIL amendment (Otherwise known as Amendment E) from South Dakota two-star state Jailer in chief Bill Stegmeier and Bar Association executive Tom Barnett: Hanes said that South Dakota Judicial Accountability — the political group backing Amendment E — would continue the legal battle to get Long’s ballot explanation thrown out. Ballots already have been printed and distributed, and people are already voting absentee, but Hanes said, “We have some things brewing.” That could include having the election results thrown out and holding a special election on the measure later. Barnett predicted the result on Nov. 7 would be a rejection of Amendment E. A telephone poll Wednesday and Thursday by the No on E committee contacted 400 “likely voters.” The results showed the “yes” vote at just 8 percent, Barnett said. (“Definitely yes,” 4 percent. “Probably yes,” 4 percent.) The “no” vote was 51 percent. (“Definitely no,” 40 percent; “probably no,” 1...

About a week ago, Americans For Prosperity's South Dakota's State Director, Duane Sand, was kind enough to stop by my house in Brookings on his way home to Bismarck, North Dakota, and filled me in on their issues and what plans they have in South Dakota. I've been extremely remiss in getting to this. Mainly because there was a small story that broke immediately thereafter , and it's kind of sucked the momentum away from anything else political in South Dakota. If you're not familiar with AFP, go check out their website at afphq.org, or you can click here for a direct link to the South Dakota chapter of the organization. They're in about 22 states and the organization is continuing to grow as people hear about their focus: Americans for Prosperity (AFP) and Americans for Prosperity Foundation (AFP Foundation) are committed to educating citizens about economic policy and mobilizing those citizens as advocates in the public policy process. AFP is an organization o...

Ryan Brunner, executive Director of the South Dakota Student Federation just dropped me a note. And it's a great example of how you can comptete with anyone in the world with an SDSU Education. (And the other schools are pretty good too). The South Dakota Student Federation, representing nearly 31,000 South Dakota students unanimously passed a resolution urging South Dakota voters to reject Amendment E. AND it's on the SD Regent's agenda tomorrow as well. Here's the resolution introduced at SDSU, and carried forth to the federation where it was passed by all: Title of Resolution: Opposition to Amendment E; the Judicial Accountability Initiated Law. Text of Resolution: WHEREAS, a constitutional amendment (Judicial Accountability Initiated Law) will be submitted to South Dakota voters in November 2006, designated Amendment E; and WHEREAS, if approved by the voters, Amendment E would allow lawsuits against all South Dakota judges, jurors, prosecutors, citizen boards, incl...

In an article in one of this week's editions of the Wall Street Journal , retired Justice Sandra Day O'Connor takes after South Dakota's JAIL amendment. Wall Street Journal September 27, 2006 The Threat to Judicial Independence By Sandra Day O'Connor In November, South Dakotans will vote on a state constitutional amendment being advocated by a national group called "JAIL 4 Judges." If the amendment passes, it would eliminate judicial immunity, and enable a special grand jury to censure judges for their official legal determinations. Although the amendment's supporters claim they seek a "judicial accountability initiative law" (JAIL), they aspire to something far more sinister --judicial intimidation. Indeed, the national Web site of JAIL 4 Judges boasts with striking candor that the organization "has that intimidation factor flowing through the judicial system." It is tempting to dismiss this proposed amendment as merely an isolat...

I was checking out the newly designed Judicial Accountability website (it's a matter of "know thine enemy") when I noticed that as part of their campaign activities they're sponsoring the nutty Aaron Russo conspiracy movie "America: From Freedom to Fascism." It's being shown at the Ramkota Hotel and Conference Center on Friday October 27 and Saturday October 28th at $12 a head. (click on the images to enlarge them) What can I find about this movie? As one reviewer noted about it : America: Freedom To Fascism gives the Michael Moore muckraking-underdog treatment to the kind of delirious conspiracy theories generally associated with mentally ill homeless people screaming at passersby to stop stealing their brainwaves. and.. Fascism rails semi-coherently against bogeymen on the left and right, employing public-access production values and a world-changing sense of purpose wildly disproportionate to its paltry resources and amateurish direction. The f...

In a comment tonight under a post I did way back in March , former Constitutional Party chairman Scott Bartlett is seemingly disavowing the Judicial Accountability Act after the JAIL people had listed him as a supporter: Just a note of interest. There's a huge number of people opposing JAIL. But who is in favor of it? Here's the list from their old site : Constitution Party of South Dakota Scott Bartlett, Chairman Sioux Falls, SD Phone: 605-361-3094 And in the comments : 7:23 PM , Scott Bartlett said... Fist of all thanks to the person who thinks I'm nice. Most of the time my kids will agree with you on that. I am no longer the State Chairman of the Constitution Party, I now work as the Midwestern States Area Co-Chairman. Secondly, although judges need reining in and accountability, the J.A.I.L amendment requires an additional layer of government. As a Constitutionalist, I oppose additional layers of government. We need to shrink the ...

In the Dakota Voice newspaper, Two-Star JAILer Bill Stegmeier is claiming high support according to a Zogby's poll that he commissioned. While It's certainly not my intent to pooh pooh poll results out of hand, I will observe that it was Mark Twain who once remarked that there were three types of lies. Lies, damned lies and statistics. Getting back to the story - here's what Bob had to write on the topic: Bill Stegmeier of South Dakota Judicial Accountability says a Zogby International poll he commissioned for the upcoming vote on Amendment E has yielded some interesting results. According to the Zogby poll conducted yesterday of 504 South Dakota likely voters, 67% say they will vote for Amendment E. Those who say they will vote against the measure are 19.8% and 13.2% are “not sure.” The poll has a +/- 4.5% margin. The question asked of poll respondents was as follows: Amendment E called the Judicial Accountability Amendment will be on the ballot this November....

It's been pretty quiet in politics this weekend as the 5th Anniversary of September 11th approached. You know, September 11th. That whole thing that Bill Stegmeier believes is a Government plot. Which got me wondering; What have the Amendment E proponents been up to lately? For starters, Bill Stegmeier was preaching to the choir in the Yahoo Newsgroups in this message you can read here (membership may be required): From: Bill Stegmeier [mailto:rmsroll@...] Sent: Thursday, August 31, 2006 3:31 PM To: Undisclosed-Recipient:; Subject: Homework assignment! Here is what South Dakota Amendment E is up against. Donations anyone? http://www.southdakotajudicialaccountability.com/ Thanking you in advance, Bill Stegmeier Sponsor of Amendment E NewsGram from the South Dakota Judicial Accountability Committee, August 31, 2006 The mid-year campaign finance reports concerning Amendment E are now posted on the South Dakota Secretary of State's web site. The reports offer a revealing look at ...

You've got to love it. The Decision of The Honorable Max Gors in the matter of Stegmeier v. Long. Sorry if it's a little wordy, but it's good. It's just too good: [ ¶ 1. ] This petition for a writ of certiorari was filed by Stegmeier on August 14, 2006 , and was tried to the court on August 17, 2006 , on an expedited basis due to the exigent nature of the impending election. [ ¶ 2. ] The people have initiated a proposed constitutional amendment which has been placed on the ballot as Amendment E. Amendment E is popularly referred to as the JAIL amendment. The proponents say that JAIL is an acronym for Judicial Accountability Initiated Law. They also refer to it as JAIL for Judges. Generally the initiated amendment to the state constitution would eliminate judicial immunity and allow judges to be sued for civil damages and to be indicted by a special grand jury for crimes. In addition, if the special grand jury indicted a judge, a petit jury would be impaneled ...