South Dakota War College

In the prior post regarding the Grassroot Dems's, there was an excellent comment challenging my view of the GOP. I believe in limited government, and Anon#4 pointed out that I might be a little too much of an idealist: Anonymous said... Your Republican values are not in line with the party you continue to support. Your party once was a good and decent party that did more than just masturbate over limited governance. It followed it, at one time. But not any more. Republicans are all about big government. Only they skirt the issue by outsourcing everything to high priced people like KBR and Halliburton. They spend more money on stuff and somehow nobody calls them on it. I would be a Republican too if the party was as you describe in your post. It doesn't. I've quit lying to myself. Are you doing to do the same? Admittedly, it gives one pause to think. My response? Well, it was kinda harsh. But Anon #4, be encouraged, there are some of us true believers still left in the party...

I’ve been following this election since it started, simply because it’s an election, and I’m nosey and opinionated. In my newly adopted hometown, the place of my hazy and questionable collegiate career, there’s a big thing to do over the City Commission offering major incentives – as in millions – to entice their new girlfriend to come over to their dorm room… er, town. This measure has been fought mainly in the daily newspaper but otherwise, I haven’t noted much evidence of it. One of my neighbors who wrote a letter on it has one of the two yard signs I’ve seen in town in his yard. Otherwise, as outsiders who are new to town, let’s pick apart the election a little on the basis of what the various parties have been able to communicate to this uninformed voter over the course of the election. The “I need to take a course in graphic arts award” colloquially known as the “Fugly” goes to: The Citizens Against Retail Subsidies . They’ve been opposing it strongly, but ‘damn’. They have had...

Bryce Healy makes his recruitment pitch for Democrats in this weeks' Blue Note message. In an excerpt: Public service is truly a rewarding experience. Yes, our numbers in Pierre are small. However, I assure you, that it is possible to elect more Democrats in our state. I know the South Dakota Democratic Party has plenty of talent and many rising stars. We just haven’t discovered them yet. Who could have imagined 27 years ago that Tom Daschle would be the country’s most powerful Democrat? Would anyone who saw George McGovern wresting with a donkey at the South Dakota State Fair think that someday he would be the Democratic nominee for President of the United States? Both of these men have gone on to do many great things for South Dakota. Now is the time to honor their dedication to South Dakota by electing Democrats who will carry on their legacy of public service at all levels of government. We must start at the grassroots level. You must begin talking to Democratic f...

In the Mitchell Daily Republic today, there’s a huge article by reporter Kimberly Kolden on the Grassroot Democrats putting up a billboard to say how they are just like Jesus. You know, the “Jesus cares for the poor-So Do We” billboards. Actually, they are a pretty good attention getter – as evidenced by the big article. I thought they (the GD’s) did a pretty good job explaining their position. And they also noted that they’ve got 8 of those things around South Dakota, mostly in Sioux Falls. This is not new news. What caused me to stop and write about it was a quote in the article from Roger Berggren, the Grassroot Democrat Executive Director. His quote? “Give a man a fish and he eats for a day. Change the policies of our government and maybe Americans will never have to go hungry” he said. “We believe that taxes are a dividend, or investment in our country. The government (when) spending our dollars should be focused on our values. By spending some money and changing people’s views ...

From today's Argus Leader Dave Kranz Column : Timpany board member The Rev. Kathryn Timpany of First Congregational Church in Sioux Falls is a board member of Mainstream Coalition. Her name was omitted in Sunday's column. What, is that two board members with Reverend as their title? I thought they were against religion in their politics. Okay, with that in mind.... Here's a question for the MAINstream coalition governing board: Where do you stand on churches paying use tax in items purchased out of state, and where does the coalition stand on the church exemptions for property taxes?

You'll notice that I gave up on the audioblogging thing, because my heart wasn't really in it. I think I did a good job, but I want to do video. So, I'm doing my best to give this another shot. This is the same video as I used before, but it doesn't sound like one is abusing chemicals. I'm using the Turbine Video Encoder to get my video down to a managable file size through Mcaromedia Flash. I've got to figure out how to place a stop at the end of it, and then I should be gold. NOTE - To turn it off, right click on it, and select (removing the checkmark in front of) Play (Okay, I removed it. It was driving me nuts. I need to change it so it doesn't load until you click it.)

It's been a bad computer weekend. Right before I left for Brookings, I nuked a keyboard with diet coke, and my Internet was unhooked because someone thought I had moved. As opposed to calling and saying "PP, have you moved?" To which I would have answered, "no, not yet." But, we're cool now. Robbed a keyboard off of another computer, and just got my internet service restored. As always, I enjoyed spending time with the family. MP wasn't feeling well, so I cooked. I wasn't sure how sick she was going to be, so I pre-made meals for several days, and even made about 5 dozen cookies for the kids. By the time I left, MP was feeling better, and the kids tore through the cookies taking them down to 1 dozen by the time I got in the car. So, from scoping out my e-mail box and the news - what's up in the world of politics this week? * Aside from being "dissed" by J-Ro over at Straight Talk , the STOP petition drive is rolling along at over 30,000...

Hat tip to the Argus Leader . Dave Kranz in his column today reports on the gathering of MAINstream coalition members and observers in Sioux Falls this last week. He also points out who sits on the nine member board: Board members are David Volk, former state director for Rep. Bill Janklow; former Republican Rep. Jan Nicolay; former Democratic legislator Mel Olson of Mitchell; Bob Duffett, Dakota Wesleyan University president; Katherine Kinsman, former secretary of health; former Sen. Arlene Ham of Rapid City; Watertown banker Gary Schofield; and the Rev. Dave Zellmer of Pierre. According to the article, State Sen. Tom Dempster said“Some people will say this is a charge on the Republican Party, on the Democratic Party. Not at all. This is Republicans Plus and Democrats on Steroids,” he said. Republicans Plus? I'm not going to touch that one. I'll just leave it to the tender mercies of those who comment on this blog. (Although, "Republicans Lite" briefly came to mind)...

The SDDP Auction for the " Monumental Blue " Willie Nelson print is over and at $202.50 - the item did not meet the reserve price. So, instead of making a couple hundred on the item, it ended up costing them about $5 - 10. That's actually a pretty common occurrence in fundraising efforts. Often, something that seems like a pretty good idea ends up going over like a lead balloon. Picnics, golf tournaments, casino nights, wine and cheese parties, you name it. Sometimes they hit, and sometimes they miss - and if you miss, count yourself lucky that you didn't miss big. Here, the SDDP isn't out much, aside from pocket change and the lesson. Imagine if they had held a dinner where as a sponsor, they had to guarantee payment for a 100 person minimum at the event hall. And no one showed up. Those are the ones that really sting. I was involved in a campaign within the last few years where someone wanted to put on a big shindig for us, which sounded ok. They wanted to put o...

I'll bet she's not telling us what house she bought because then we'll see how she keeps her lawn. It's going to get pretty long between congressional breaks. And the darn papers are going to pile up. From the Brookings Register , please see the article below. *update* In the 10 minutes since I posted this, my wife taunted me as I laid down in bed - she believes she has the location. If I had bought the first house I looked at which was for sale by owner, we'd literally be neighbors. As it is, the local gossip has her located a mere five or so blocks from me. Actually, if the rumor holds true, she would be closer to progressive republican's House. As it is, the rumored house supposedly is just a straight shot up the street from me on 17th Avenue South. I'm wondering about the whole secrecy thing in the article below. Isn't all that stuff recorded at the register of deeds office? As public information. As in, the public can go look at who bought a house...

Scoop from the War College - Coming up in this weekend's newspapers (or shortly thereafter) Watch for Celeste Calvitto's column in the Rapid City Journal . I just heard that she did an interview with Bill Napoli and not just about his ballot initiative. Supposedly it might touch on his electoral future among other topics.

I'm starting to hear rumbing on the horizon with regards to the Republican State Central Committee Meeting that was postponed until October 1. A few people are making statements one way or another on the set of bylaw amendments that were proposed, but no major activity has taken place yet. It is interesting, to say the least. Next week, I suppose I'll have to break down and prepare for the meeting, and do some further organizing. Fron that point on, it will literally be a flurry of activity getting ready. Maybe I should host a keg the night before the event? I'll at least bring donuts that morning. Interestingly enough, I heard that I was being referred to as one of "the ringleaders" on the effort to prevent the bylaw changes. Me? Nahhhh. Did I send a nice note to many of the GOP officials and county chairmen asking for their consideration of what I believed? Yes. And I heard back from many of them, with only one person who didn't agree with my position. ...

Did anyone catch the KELO news report last night on the guy out in Belle Fourche ? The gentleman with KBFS-AM who applied for and was granted a 9/11 loan for companies impacted by the 9/11 attacks. It’s not often that a South Dakota news report makes my mouth hang open in shock. But this dude did. As you have probably read, the guidelines for being considered “impacted” were pretty loose. If you were a business adjacent to the twin tower complex, you were impacted. And apparently if you were a radio station in South Dakota who covered the event – and didn’t play revenue generating commercials – you were considered impacted. Station Owner Karl Grimmelmann said, "We were airing the national thing because it was of national importance. Nobody knew what was going to happen the next day. There was two solid days of new coverage of what was going on, what we could anticipate." He says the extended coverage hurt business because the station lost advertisers and money from commerc...

I sometimes mix up political fundraising limits because they vary at certain levels. So from time to time, I need to refresh my memory at the Secretary of State's website . So without further ado, straight from the SOS: No individual may contribute more that $1,000 to or in behalf of any candidate for statewide office in any calendar year. ( SDCL 12-25-1.1 ) No individual may contribute more than $250 to or in behalf of any candidate for legislative or county office in any calendar year. ( SDCL 12-25-1.1 ) No individual may contribute more than $3,000 to or in behalf of any political party in any calendar year. ( SDCL 12-25-1.2 ) There is no limit on the amount an individual may contribute to a political action or ballot question committee. Voluntary work for or on behalf of any candidate is expressly permitted. ( SDCL 12-25-12 ). Now, the key is the little phrase "in any calendar year." We're just hitting the fall in t...

I had a call waiting for me on my cell phone a couple nights ago. One of my friends had left me a message noting "I'm coming to town to work on our website, and I know nothing about them. Can you help me get it set up? It's terribly out of date. I'd like to get it updated and have a weblog on it. If you can help me do it, I'll get those ten questions you were asking for done this week." Well, he's got me over a barrel there. One of my long overdue sets of ten questions. Do I give up seeing that 10q anytime soon, and throw him to the technological wolves, or do I give up watching the re-broadcast of Friday's Battlestar Galactica, or whatever DVD I decide to watch because I'm bored, and help him? My only other entertainent this week was to be reading my daughter's Harry Potter book. As you can tell, I'm hard up for entertainment. During the week the life of a weekend commuter is seriously pathetic. So, of course I'm going to help him. Thi...

Well, not really. It's the early fall, so we're in the middle of interim meetings and study commissions. But clicking here will take you to the audio archive/live streaming page of South Dakota Public Broadcasting. Not only do they have meetings coming up in the near future, but you can also catch the meetings that have already taken place. Government Operations and Audit was yesterday, and the Constitutional Revision Commission will be up tomorrow and Thursday.

Hot off the press, the South Dakota Right to Life Organization has just started their own blog, and the inaugural post is up. I've got them included in my feeds, so you'll see what they have to say on an updated basis as they post.

I *just* got back into town, and I'm rushing to get some lunch and get into work, but here's a couple of quick items - Bidding on the auction for the Democrat poster has stalled at $202.50 . And they still haven't hit the reserve yet? You've got a reserve on this item upwards of $202.50? Hint to the Democrats regarding the nice print autographed by Willie Nelson. If I recall, the last big thing that Willie Nelson did was the " Dukes of Hazzard " movie. Considering how universally that movie was reviled, I think I would have started it at $5 and taken what I could get. More seriously, Tim Johnson must have had the chili for lunch at the Senate Cafeteria, and sounded a blue note on the SDDP blog. It started out as a nice message of unity in the wake of Katrina. And he had a nice comment about the cooperation on Ellsworth. But then, he has to go and bring up the mainstream coalition: Another encouraging sign is the recently formed Republican Mainstream Co...

Four years ago today, I was ambling down the hall in the hospital in Pierre awaiting the impending birth of my fifth child. My wife had been in light labor as of the previous day and since early that morning had been moving towards more serious efforts at childbirth. My kids were at school or at daycare, and my father, who was out of town was expected home that day from visiting a brother and sister in New Jersey. He was to going to be on a flight in the morning out of the Newark, N.J. airport, into Minneapolis. My mother, who had doted on her granddaughters, had passed away the previous November, and this was to be the first child born into the family that she would not see. As my wife lay there having contractions, I walked out into the hallway where I noticed some floor nurses paying unusual attention to the television. They seemed awestruck, and as I walked over they noted that a plane had flown into one of the World Trade Center towers. It seemed a horrific accident until shortly ...

Not that anyone in Pierre should be nervous when those things come out of my mouth, but this afternoon, I'm not talking about the town of my youth where I usually cause trouble with things on the ballot. Today, I'm in Brookings with the family. I was out mowing the lawn with the new (used) mower, where a piece of crumpled paper was found on my lawn. What was it? A flyer for the anti-Lowe's-subsidy people. If you recall, the City of Brookings is providing Lowe's a huge incentive package to locate in Brookings, as opposed to another area. And some people don't really like it. Check out http://www.brookingsclearchoice.com where they've done a just "ok" job of laying out their argument. I would have done it differently. Some of the best arguments in support of their position are buried in the website as opposed to being the primary focus. I suspect that it's because of the homegrown nature of the effort. I don't know that they have anyone with...