South Dakota War College

I had a few moments to put pen to paper on the districts as drawn by Judge Karen Schreier. There are some incumbents who aren't going to like this. What incumbents are going to be in the districts as written by "The Honorable?" District 21 Senate - Vacant District 26 Senate - Jule Bartling & John Koskan District 27 Senate - Theresa Two Bulls District 21 House - Tom Deadrick & Cooper Garnos District 26a House - Barry Jensen & Paul Valandra District 26b House - Tom Glover District 27 House - Jim Bradford and Vacant So, if this goes through, we'll see Koskan and Bartling head to head, and Barry Jensen against Paul Valandra. Anyone care to handicap those races? Regarding the comments appearing under this post - To Anonymous (#2) - Hold your horsies there pardner.. When I referred to Judge Schreier as "The Honorable" it was not meant in a derogatory or sarcastic manner at at all. My apologies to anyone who took it that I was slamming the judge. I wa...

Apparently, the Montana Dems have recruited G.I. Joe to run for the U.S. Senate . It's a little out of the area, but I came across the link. What compelled me to look, was that I've never seen hair like that on a human being. Only on action figures marketed by Hasbro. See what I mean?

Welcome South Dakota Watersheds , Nathan Schock at Fresh Glue , Marvin's Laurent Blog , The revolution starts now , and Trampling Rose . (And what is trampling? That's a new deviant practice on me... Not ON me, I've just never heard of it before.) I'm giving these sites a tryout in the RSS feeds, and if they are worthwhile, I'll add them to the links on the left. (I'm starting to be picky). If I could ever get RadioActive Chief's feed to validate with my software, life would be so much easier. Know of one I'm not indexing? If they are related to SD, I'll include them. I'm trying to avoid high school blogs, etc., unless they have some broad general appeal. There's a few others out there, but posting is so spotty it's not worth the effort.

Big AP story today, Federal Judge Karen Schreier announced her redistricting plan, based on her decision in the ACLU Lawsuit. Apparently, the associated press doesn't know how to make maps for us visually oriented people, so I did a couple quick and dirty ones. Here's the maps of districts 21, 26 and 27 as they exist today. The NEW district 21 as compared to the old gives up Gregory county and exchanges it for Lyman and Jones counties. (Sorry for the dark color obfuscating the text, I said they were quick and dirty). District 26 uses the favorite trick of the courts in situations like this, and splits 26 into two separate house districts, 26a, and 26b. District 26 is really re-engineered, going from Haakon, Part of Bennett, Jackson, Jones, Mellette, Lyman, & Tripp counties to Mellette, Todd, Tripp and Gregory Counties. District 27 goes from Todd, Part of Bennett and Shannon counties to Shannon, Bennett, Jackson, and Haakon county. This district could prove to be a bit of a ...

If you haven't noticed it yet, I've added a link and RSS feed for South Dakota Lawyer. Check it out here. Props to SDP and Radioactive Chief for pointing it out.

NVB put up a very thoughtful post from his point of view, but there's one fundamental point on which we'll disagree. From his post on why winning is not everything : The scuttlebutt at the Brown County Democrats' booth at the fair involved the new staff members hired by the state party. Other booths nearby have computers hooked up to the Internet. People go over to them and look at what's on the news and the political web logs. The people who reviewed the blogs this morning said that none of the Democratic blogs have mentioned the new staff members for the SDDP. But the Republican blogs have an inordinate interest, and the blogs shown to me have greeted the new staff members with what can only be described as belittlement. In politics today, the idea seems to be to damage the goods before it can see the light of day. It's called winning by some. and.. Winning elections are not the issue. Keeping the world's last best hope alive is the task. Or you can Read the ...

I just got off my sickbed, the causalty of a man's refridgerator and eating items of questionable age. (Now I know why my wife always throws stuff out after a while). I have to say, despite feeling like crap, the discussion regarding the new co-communications director at the SDDP calling herself an animal activist is pretty interesting. Jackson continues to swat at me for saying it's not a good step for SDDP and his comments give the impression that he thinks I'm being a dick. Corey Vilhauer , whom I respect and enjoy his blog, says we shouldn't judge her because we don't know where she stands. As he puts it: There's a difference between those who believe farm animals shouldn't be smashed into cages and forced to live in incredibly inhumane locales and those who feel that anyone who eats meat should be shot. O.K., Good point. I'll agree with that. Except, I think the spectrum is wider than he states. There is a difference between someone who actively su...

If you catch the comments by "Jackson" under the prior post, apparently I've joined an elite club and deserve an award. He didn't send it, so I made my own. Okay, readers. I try not to be too snarky unless there's a purpose behind it. And as noted to our friend "Jackson," my purpose and point in the prior post was to illustrate that if someone considers themself to be an animal activist, they are not likely to be an effective communicator for an organization trying to win over the hearts and minds of our largely agricultural state. As I noted in my reply to the comment posting to Jackson "If someone decides to place themselves in "the game" they'd better be ready to take a bump or two. It goes with the territory. It's not personal. Believe me, if I want to get personal, I'm perfectly capable, and know how to do it. And I do it well. Do I get personal with the other side for pointing out what they see as shortcomings of Senat...

I see SDP also picked up on the new SDDP Co-Communications director this evening as well. Much like the character in DMPCARR's novel , I psychically sense more state legislative seats swinging to the GOP this next election.... Isn't it Sibby's turn to chime in on this? Progressive Republican ? South Dakota Straight Talk ? I'll be watching for more on this. *BIG UPDATE!* I was so amused by what one of the new communications people had posted on the internet, I hadn't even delved into the writings of his spouse and co-communcations director Elesha Peterson Carr . Elesha describes herself as a vegetarian, which is certainly her choice. Far be it from me to throw stones at that. Although I always thought lettuce and it's ilk were what "food" ate, versus being food itself. But then, she just steps a little too far over the line and notes in one of the articles on her website: I always wonder what the scoop is with that obtuse billboard on I- 90 coming f...

From The SDDP announcement on the new staff members: As you know we have been recently advertising to hire for three new positions. I’m please to announce that we’ve filled those positions this week. Deb Elofson of Sioux Falls has been hired as Legislative Director. Charlie Scott of Sioux Falls has been hired as Field Director. Don & Elesha Carr of Pierre (originally from Sioux Falls and Rapid City respectively) have been hired as our communications team. And the Republican reaction is........ *yawn * And a reminder to everyone - READ press releases before they go out. "I'm please to announce"? It was an easy mistake. Have someone else read it for comment, and sit on it a night if you have to, and read it in the AM. Sometimes your mind interjects the correct word without realizing it's still typewritten wrong, because you meant to say "pleased" instead of "please". Anyway, many posts ago, I was noting that if the Democrats wish to strike fear i...

The attention my silly little weblog has been getting suprises me. But I'm also concerned that it's affecting the free flow of information around me. On one hand, I was in getting a haircut at Angel's Salon in Pierre the other day, and next in line behind me was State Senator Bob Gray . Bob arrived a moment or two early for his appointment, and in jest, Bob advised Angel to use caution in her words, since they could end up in the War College. This brought up a good discussion about blogging in general. (And consider this a firm endorsement of Angel's Salon and of Senator Gray). I have to admit, I appreciate being recognized as creating something that's worthwhile reading. But then, on the other hand, I passed by and exchanged greetings with someone in the capitol the other day who I've known for years - and I also know that they read this blog. And it was like they couldn't wait to get past me with a minimum of words exchanged. (Run Away! Run Away! I don...

From the Pierre Capitol Journal : Pierre doctor investigated for photo of patient "....At the end of a day he deletes the pictures unless they are particularly funny in which case he may e-mail them to his brother." The next time I have minor surgery, no anesthesia for me. I'm doing it fully awake and biting a bullet.

I'm adding the following Blog to my feed list, and I'll get it added to the blog roll as well. Tripp County Democrats Ok, fellow Republicans - we're continuing to lose ground in the BlogOSphere wars.

As we all know, the Dems have been interviewing for a few office positions, courtesy of National Chairman Howard Dean. So I checked the website out so see if there were any releases about who got picked. And on the page of elected officials , I see this cool graphic. It's cool to me, because I'm a political button nut and have been for a long time. This graphic (as the arrows point to) up in the little corner shows political buttons from the great elected Democrats of the past. Great Democrats of the past like F.D.R., and Lyndon Johnson, and Hoover and Willkie and..... Hey! Wait a minute!?! Hoover and Willkie? Last I knew, one was a Republican President, and the other a Republican Challenger for president. So the Dems are paying homage to great Republicans of the past? I could go so many ways with this one. But I'll just stop here. Especially if they want to send me those buttons for my collection. They might not be needing them for the next picture.

One of the reasons I've been around for as long as I have is because I'm really good on the computer. I can cut video, I can search the internet for obscure data, and I know how to do list management. It's a vital function in any campaign, and many people either don't do it, or do it poorly. In fact, one of the most common questions I get is "Can you help me get a list...." I'll warn you ahead of time, I'm going to use all this as an excuse to do a multi-part post on list management. Yes, many of you will know this stuff already. But it's being directed to the person who is running for the first time (or doing list management for the first time). Why is this an important topic? Because it can make the difference between winning and losing. If you don't know who your voters are, how can you ask them to vote for you? As a candidate, one of the scariest things you might get a brochure for is "Campaign Management Software." Why is is so d...

When frogs are wiping their rear-ends on the packaging of baby wipes, I'm conceding defeat in the culture wars. (And since when do frogs have butts?)

Dave Kranz speaks about our congresswoman at length in his column today . Although, he doesn't put her in a cheerleader outfit like Blind Orange Julius does when she's featured on his website. Here's the thing that caught my eye on the whole discussion: In recent days, two other names have surfaced. House Speaker Matt Michels of Yankton and Bob Sutton, head of the South Dakota Community Foundation, are taking a look at challenging Herseth. "I am receiving quite a bit of encouragement to consider it, and I wouldn't close the door on it," Michels said. "I am very flattered by the people asking me to look at it. It is a decision of the heart." Read the whole article on Congresswoman Herseth here (or go buy an Argus). Wasn't Dave also referring to Representative Michels and Bob Sutton as possible contenders for Governor recently? Next thing you know, he's going to be noting them as contenders for Senate in 2008. And then for Mayor of Sioux F...

I was reading NVB the other day, and he talked about a conservative assault on liberal culture as being the 'culture wars'. I don't agree with NVB's assessment of "culture wars" as having more sinister orwellian overtones as a byproduct of the efforts of conservatives. It got me thinking more about the cutural wars raging across the country. We read about them from time to time - crucufixes submerged in urine as art, Janet Jackson on the superbowl. Anything involving Paris Hilton. NVB was probably referring to liberalism versus conservatism on a national scale, but as a red state Republican the " culture war " is much more personal to me. I'm not in favor of out and out banning things because I don't want to hear it or see it, because to me, it's not republican. To me, my party stands for freedom and less government involvement in my life. But the 'culture wars' tend to bring a factor into it that give things a twist. I want the ...