South Dakota War College

Nothing too exciting - just a couple of photos I snapped today between point A and point B.

I ran across this, and they're powerful thoughts as we get ready to start another legislative session: "For in a Republic, who is 'the country?' Is it the Government which is for the moment in the saddle? Why, the Government is merely a servant -- merely a temporary servant; it cannot be its prerogative to determine what is right and what is wrong,and decide who is a patriot and who isn't. Its function is to obey orders, not originate them." - Mark Twain

As you can see, the State Capitol complex is getting all "gussied up" for the Inauguration, and accompanying Inaugural ball tomorrow evening. I'm taking 5 at the moment, grabbing a quick PBJ, answering e-mail, plotting, posting, and doing all of those little things that help make this one of the best darned political websites in the state! I even took a minute to think about future media I could expand things into. (But they probably won't let me wear my jammies). More to come. So, keep an eye out here for more political news and inaugural photos!

Steve over at Sibby on-line has a story this morning from the Mitchell Republic noting how fellow founder, and Republican State Senator Ed Olson doubts that the MAINstream coalition organization will survive: State Sen. Ed Olson R-Mitchell, said a recent membership drive produced fewer than the desired number. "It’s probably not going to make it," Olson said. Olson said that Rapid City Businessman Stan Adelstein, another founder who originally underwrote the organization financially, "mailed out 40,000 mailers and got 75 new members." It likely isn’t enough, Olson said, for the organization to remain in operation. Read it all here . Maybe South Dakotans are actually more conservative then they thought....

Bob Mercer (sorry, not available on-line) is reporting this AM in the Pierre Capitol Journal that Governor Mike Rounds has picked Jeff Vonk of Iowa for the post of South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks Secretary. Watch for more on this as the official announcement comes out today.

KELOland news is reporting that Democratic Senator and Minority leader Scott Heidepreim is going to propose "a legislative code of ethics..." Seriously. And that's not just an oxymoron: South Dakota lawmakers are looking at ways to make themselves more accountable following allegations that Flandreau Senator Dan Sutton groped a page during last year's session. One plan being considered is drawing up a "code of ethics" that legislators would have to follow. It borrows a page from Arizona. and... The South Dakota legislature currently does not have a code of ethics. Instead, lawmakers must abide by a series of separate rules concerning areas like bribery and conflict of interest. But Senator-elect Scott Heidepriem says the current system governing legislative conduct is too much of a hodge-podge. "We really don't have a code of ethics that goes to how one behaves toward one another or toward employees." There are sexual harassment rules in place...

Mary Garrigan at the Rapid City Journal has an interesting story about how the use of the Bible for the swearing in of legislators never really came into practice. Maybe THAT explains why..... (insert favorite joke about Democrats here). Sorry. I couldn't resist. Seriously, go catch the story. It's a tale worth reading: When Rep. Gordon Pederson, R-Wall, takes the oath of office as a state legislator for the 29th time Saturday, he will swear to uphold the constitutions of the United States and South Dakota and faithfully discharge his duties as a representative.But Pederson and the other 104 members of the South Dakota Legislature will not swear on a Bible as they stand, raise their right hand and repeat the oath after state Supreme Court Chief Justice David Gilbertson. “No, the body as a whole does not use the Bible,” Pederson said. “Nobody does, that I know of.” The tradition of using the Bible to affirm an oath never developed in the state legislative bodies, acco...

Here's an unusual thing for me - no Brookings trip today. Although, I'll make up for it next weekend with a late PM trip home, and then an early AM trip to Sioux Falls the next day for a medical appointment for my youngest. So this weekend? I'm going to be volunteering on and off for the Inaugural Ball, and I'm planning to have at least one, if not 2 cameras on hand to snap photos. There should be dignitaries galore, so hopefully I can catch a few in the act. And, as time allows, I'll try to do some posting.

The Argus is reporting on the Sutton affair tonight, as the subpoenas will be made available on Tuesday. At the same time one of Sutton's attorneys gets a little overly dramatic: Subpoenas connected to allegations of misconduct involving Sen. Dan Sutton are expected to be made public on Tuesday as lawmakers forge ahead with plans to conduct a hearing on the matter. and... Duffy said a hearing would harm the legislative chamber by leading to more investigations of lawmakers. “The dogs of war are about to be unleashed,” Duffy said. “The long-term effect of what we’re going to do is that the Senate is never going to be the same after we’re done.” Woof it all down here as attorney Duffy threatens them with the dogs of war. Arf..

A user reminded me about this - I'd lost it in the shuffle over the past couple of days - but the Pennington County GOP elected a new chairman, which kind of threw me a curve ball, but not an unwelcome one. Instead of going with a readily identifiable insider, they went with Kevin Thom, a Pierre transplant: The Pennington County Republican Central Committee elected six members to serve on their Executive Board for the next two-year term. Kevin Thom was elected as the new Chairman for the County Republican Party. Thom earned a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice from Minot State University and a Master of Public Administration from the University of South Dakota. He spent twenty-eight years in the Law Enforcement field with varying responsibilities including working as Press Secretary to the Attorney General and Special Agent for the South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation among other positions. Thom most recently served as DCI’s Director before retiring in July of 20...

I see Dave Kranz rushed to get a teaser of his column on-line after the GOP press release came out. So, the news about Karl Adam is starting to spread. Dave was working on it today, so I didn't think I could sit on it any longer. That, and the GOP release coming out meant that it was the right time to drop it in the hopper. So that's old news and I barely got in on the crest of the wave. Since that's not so exclusive anymore, I've got another one for you I've been trying to get it confirmed through legal channels, but I have not gotten a reply as of 5pm tonight from an inquiry I made over the noon hour. So, at this point, it is no more than rumor . But that being said, I'm told I should watch for news to be coming on one of the parties involved in the Wiese/Sutton matter allegedly having a run-in with the law this past New Years' weekend. Before you start getting whipped up into a frenzy of speculation, sorry. I'm shutting down comments on this post unt...

I just got a note on KSFY this week's lineup. Featured will be 3 incoming legislators. Republican Representative Russell Olson , Republican Representative Manny Steele , and Senate Democratic Minority Leader Scott Heidepreim . I'm not sure when it's airing (possibly tomorrow?) but be sure to catch it.

I've been holding off on this one for a while now because there's been some back and forth and will he or won't he. But, I can make it official as his name is out, and he's got the endorsement of the Governor and Senator Thune, making it practically a done deal. Karl Adam is for all practical purposes, the front runner for the State GOP Chair position. In a release just coming out from the GOP ... South Dakota Republican Party Chairman Randy Frederick today joined Governor Mike Rounds and U.S. Senator John Thune in voicing support for Karl Adam of Pierre for State Party Chairman. Governor Rounds touted Adam’s nomination. “I think Karl Adam is the right person at the right time as we build our base for the 2008 election cycle,” he said. “His skills and principles make him the right person to chair the Republican Party in South Dakota . I fully support his candidacy for party chair.” “Karl has been a long-time, hard-working member of the South Dakota Republican Party and...

I just got a note that the Pierre grassroots meeting of the Americans for Prosperity will be held as follows: Our Pierre event will be at the St. Charles Restaurant in the meeting room on Monday, January 8th . The meeting will begin at 12:00 p.m. After the tour wraps up on Monday we will be preparing to give the recommendations gathered from the different stops to each legislator and Governor Rounds. The meeting is open to the public and I want to personally invite you to attend. I'll have it on my schedule to attend, and I hope you will too.

In today's Rapid City Journal, Bill Napoli is taking up the crusade for the DM&E Railroad's expansion and the hundreds, if not thousands of jobs it's going to bring to Western South Dakota, saying we need to organize as we did for the Ellsworth Air Force Base: State Sen. Bill Napoli, a Republican who represents parts of Rapid City and Rapid Valley, said that the $6 billion railroad expansion would create 5,000 jobs during construction and 1,200 permanent jobs. "The mine is a wonderful thing, but these are my kind of people," Napoli said. "These are blue-collar jobs." The expansion would allow DM&E to carry coal from the Powder River Basin in Wyoming across South Dakota to power plants in eastern states. Napoli said he will ask fellow legislators to create a "blue-ribbon" task force to find ways that the state can help the railroad. It would be similar to the Ellsworth Task Force that helped save the air base from closing. The DM&E p...

The Argus Leader is reporting this AM that a national study shows that at the same time people are saying we're last in education as far as teacher salaries are concerned, we're near the top as far as educational achievement: ....the state was fourth in the nation in achievement indicators. A greater percentage of South Dakota students scored at or above a proficient level in standardized math and reading tests. and... "This report seems to take a broader look at our educational program," he said. As for the state's low rank in aligning statewide programs to help students transition through school, Melmer cited South Dakota's governing structure. "We tend to have fewer statewide policies and more local policies," he said of why South Dakota has few of the policies the study looked for, such as "college prep required to earn a high school diploma" - which only nine states had. Read it all here . Why the disparity? And how do those who say we...

The Rapid City Journal has an article in today's paper where Tom Katus is invited to talk about his tax views. And not only does he continue to try to abdicate his responsibility as a legislator to make a decision... not only is his plan still a thinly veiled attempt to get an income tax on the books... But he also makes a great case as to why he's a democrat. Why? Because he thinks things should be different for different people: Two major sources: sales (45 percent) and property tax (44 percent) comprise 89 percent of state and local tax revenues (SD LRC; FY 2006). Sales tax is known to be the most regressive of taxes; i.e. the poorest of the poor and the middle class pay the same 6 percent of state/city sales tax as do the wealthy. Schools levy 59 percent of local governments' property taxes. The Governor's Advisory Commission on Taxation (1988) concluded, "Property taxes are high and...assessments unequal and unfair (and) current tax sources are inequitable....

I was reading the Freeman Courier today, when out jumps this article with Republican Representative Gary Jerke discussing the upcoming legislative session. Pretty mundane, until you get to the part where you can almost imagine Gary getting a little wild-eyed as he starts in on what the legislature needs to tax next: There will be a big push in this legislature to tax advertising, said Jerke. One idea, he said, was to tax political advertising one to two percent. PAC's seem to have unlimited resources, he said. Another idea expressed, he said, has been that for every $2 spent on advertising, an additional $1 should be assessed for education. "Go after the politicians and their sources of revenue," said Jerke. Read it all here (registration required). What? Is he freaking kidding me with this pablum? *Sigh* It looks like this is one of those times I need to get out my spanking stick for someone of my own party. First off, given that he just got past his first campaign a...

Governor Mike Rounds' name is making a bit of traffic in the national blogosphere lately. I didn't realize how much until I was searching for something and came across a list. From Politics One Blog : Rounds Takes Early Lead Governor Mike Rounds of South Dakota has taken an early lead in the Republican Poll for President here on Politics One. The Poll has been up for 24 hours now and Rounds has already struck huge momentum with viewers across the nation. This is a month long poll so results will change. The Question is can The Mike Rounds Supporters keep the lead or will supporters of John Cox and Mike Huckabee take the lead. Cox and Huckabee were the first and second place winners in the December Poll. But from there, it goes straight to the Tim Johnson issue as the national blogs on either side of the aisle sink their teeth into speculation. For example... From Cyclone Conservative: If you have been following the news, you might have heard and seen that Senator Tim Johnson,...

KCCR News had the story early this AM (at least, earlier than the Argus) that the committee formed to hear the Sutton matter has now been formed: The select committee will be chaired by Senate Republican Majority Leader Dave Knudson. Other Republicans on the committee are Gray, Gene Abdallah, Ed Olson and Kenneth McNenny. Democrats on the committee are Minority Leader Scott Heidepriem, Nancy Turbak, Ben Nesselhuff and Gary Hanson. Gray says a Democrat will be appointed to serve as vice chair. Gray says if there is a disciplinary hearing, it would start probably in the second week of the session. He says details such as when, when and how many times the committee would meet haven’t been set. Gray says the select committee would serve as any other legislative committee. It could recommend some type of action against Sutton, such as expulsion, censure or nothing at all, that would then have to be approved by the entire Senate. Read it all here .