South Dakota War College

I was doing some more reading on the website of the group that the South Dakota Mainstream Coalition based their movement on, namely the Kansas/Missouri Mainstream Coalition . As mentioned many times before, there's several in the South Dakota group who I admire the heck out of. But I really have to question it when they form a group whose out-of-state counterpart seems a bit... Well, for lack of a better term, it doesn't seem quite mainstream with South Dakota values. Just a few planks from the Kansas/Missouri Mainstream Coalition's mainfesto: Gun Control The MAINstream Coalition believes all current laws restricting the carrying and use of weapons should be strictly enforced. We support any measure that will curb the proliferation of personal firearms in America. We oppose the concealed carrying of weapons by the general population. We support legislation to provide for safety locks on all firearms. Human Cloning The MAINstream Coalition believes that governments should ...

From the Rapid City Journal : Tribes want more gambling By Chet Brokaw, Associated Press Writer PIERRE — The Oglala Sioux Tribe wants to build a new casino on the eastern side of Pine Ridge Indian Reservation to draw customers off Interstate 90. Across the state, the Sisseton-Wahpeton Tribe wants to add 500 machines in its casino near Watertown to attract more visitors. Officials of the two tribes told state lawmakers on Friday they hope to negotiate new gambling agreements with the state that will give them more leeway in expanding their casino operations so they can boost other parts of their economies. The Legislature’s State Tribal Relations Committee discussed tribal casinos and the gambling compacts that are negotiated between the state and tribes.“I can see no reason why the state of South Dakota puts any kind of limit on our tribes for gaming,” Rep. Jim Bradford, D-Pine Ridge, a member of the committee, said. and.... The Sisseton-Wahpeton Tribe’s casino operations now employ 8...

Regarding my "quote of the day" post below from a few days back, apparently the Pierre Capitol Journal didn't much care for the "This in not a public meeting, but a meeting held in public" quote either. And they got out their spanking stick to administer editorial justice .

Nothing to do with politics, but from the Brookings Register: Many local residents did a double take as they saw a Girls Gone Wild bus roll ino town Monday. Girls Gone Wild is a production company that encourages college-age (often intoxicated) girls to expose themselves on camera. The video producers reportedly planned to make a stop at a residence near an intersection of 7th street and 12th avenue, about one block from the SDSU Campus. It's not politics. But Girls Gone Wild in Brookings is akin to driving slow as you pass someone pulled over. Kind of a "what's going on?" thing. And my daughters will never, ever go anywhere on spring break.

From Kelo News : Some big news from Governor Rounds, South Dakota is going smoke free. Starting in May of next year, smokers won't be able to light up in a lot of public places, including the outdoors. If this sounds extreme, that's because it is. and... "We are participating because we want to protect people who don't use tobacco and also to help those who want to quit using tobacco," said Rounds. That means you won't see any state employees huddled up outside the door smoking anymore. Read it all here . This is so new that the impact hasn't really been measured as of yet. The media has done some superficial reporting with college students who MIGHT have smoking removed from campus, and that's about it. But people are certainly buzzing about it.

This letter to the editor appeared in the Pierre Daily Capitol Journal last night, and I was also provided a copy by the authors. It's regarding the Oahe Electrical Coop's attempted purchase of the City's electrical utility, and it's certainly going to generate some debate. Dear Editor: This letter is in response to the many statements put forth by various officials regarding the proposed consolidation of electric systems between Oahe Electric and the city of Pierre. This will be among the first of informative pieces put forth to give the residents enough information to make their own decision regarding this issue. The proposed consolidation would be required to go to a vote of the residents of Pierre and would require a 60% vote in favor or the concept would fail. During the education process there will be several points at which the residents or Oahe Electric can back away from the process and not proceed. This is not a “hostile takeover”, rather an example of democra...

"Prohibition goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man's appetite by legislation and makes crimes out of things that are not crimes." - Abraham Lincoln An excellent thought of the day from the father of the Republican Party.

Check out the Argus Leader . It's not posted on their website yet, but Kranz's article is interesting today. Mel Olson is stating that if Dan Mathews challenges Ed Olson in the primary and wins, that he will run as an independent candidate in November. And, Mel is noting that he isn't chomping at the bit to get back into politics. But apparently he will rise to defend his Mainstream teammate. More than anything, this reminds me of saturday morning cartoons. You remember the Justice League cartoons of the 70's, don't you? When one teammate would get captured by the villain, other members of the team would swoop in for the rescue. In this case, Ed Olson, the Mainstream Team's Superman is being threatened by a member of a rival super team. So it's up to Mel Olson's - the Mainstream Team's Aquaman to swoop in and defend him as an independent... At the same time there will likely be a Democrat (from the Legion of Doom) also in the race. That would mean...

I'm told that there was a fundraising letter that went out recently from Representative Alice McCoy. Unfortunately, I don't have a copy of the letter. At least not YET. So it remains unconfirmed that the letter actually said "Should I run for the State Senate? If you think so, please send me a donation." I'm hoping this notation in the blog will get a copy coming my way. ( e-mail me here if you have one and you want to share.) It's not important enough to burn a favor for, especially a fundraising letter that sounds as bad as that one sounds. If the rumors on the letter are for real, then this sounds like the start of the most underwhelming campaign effort of the season. If I really wanted it, and had an important post to base on it, I could probably have it located in an hour or two. But I don't want it that badly. I would only be to read it for fun, and talk about what's wrong with what she did. But I did that recently (08/03/05) on a state GO...

If you have a free minute this evening, run, don't walk to this event at USD. Where the River Bends: How the Next Greatest Generation is Defending Liberty and Freedom in Iraq. November 16, 2005. 7:00 p.m. Farber Hall. The College Republicans will be sponsoring Joel Arends , a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom and current law school student who was a Army Infantry Platoon Leader and recipient of the Bronze Star. Joel will present a first hand boots-on-the-ground account of the fight to defend freedom and keeping the peace in Baghdad, Iraq. Joel is a former state legislative candidate from Iowa, a SDWC reader, and a good Republican down at the USD Law School. I guess I hadn't realized he was a bronze star recipient. They don't just hand those out for showing up. (If you read this Joel, send me a blurb on the award of this medal, I'd like to publish it). ALSO - Joel is going to be on Belfrage (KELO AM 1320) on Thursday morning the 17th at 7:25 a.m. to speak about ...

As I think I had noted in my prior post, some of the activities of the Mainstream Coalition's counterpart down in Kansas had been related to me with a notation that they might not be as inocuous as they've been portrayed in the media. Apparently they also had the media and Democrats gushing over them. And then there were charges of espionage? In South Dakota, I've read the articles just like you all, and there's people involved with the Mainstream Coalition that I personally like, such as Ed Olson and Jan Nicolay. I might not agree with them setting up a political organization separate from the GOP, because I'm not sure how it makes Republicans stronger. But it's certainly a free country, and no one needs to ask my permission, as I didn't ask anyone else's to start my corner of the blogosphere. But getting back to the topic at hand. There's this group of Mainstreamers. Some are friends and acquaintances. And they're doing their thing and getting ...

I was just interviewed by Ben at the the Kansas Progress for their audio blog. My detractors will probably expect me to sound like a total boob. Hopefully I won't disappoint them. If anything, it will show me unplugged and unedited. Really unedited, as the software doesn't allow for the editing I require for my own use (to edit out the 'ahhs' and 'umms') . But it's good practice as I ease back towards more multimedia on my weblog. Ben Hodge, one of the five (5!) editors for the blog and I had an interesting discussion about the development of the Mainstream Coalition in Kansas where he related the movement's activities down there. It sounded like there were some real parallels with what had happened there with the group, and what is starting to happen now in SD. I'm going to do some research on the topic, because it sounds fascinating. As related, it doesn't sound as if it was all hearts and roses. And it could be a very interesting post. --- Al...

NOTE - My wife has gotten off of saying that the SDWC is only read by the same 16 people. Lately she's admitted to a wider audience, but says it's because it reads like a gossip/society column. This post isn't going to do anything to dispel that image. I held off eating until later this evening, as I got the chance to have dinner with Senator Brock Greenfield who is often in Pierre by himself as a result of his position with South Dakota Right to Life . When he's in town we hit Guadalajara's, La Minestra, or Jakes, or another one of the dining establishments in town. And we might end up hanging out too late watching some boring movie and talking politics until way past my bedtime. The difference this evening was that were waiting for State Senator Jerry Apa who was on his way to town. I had heard lots about Senator Apa through friends, as well as from what's written in the media, but I hadn't really met him before tonight. I have to say I enjoyed speaking ...

Hot off the rumor mill, I've been informed that Clark School Superintendent Jim Holbeck (R) is looking at running for the Legislative Seat being vacated by Art Fryslie (R) in District 6. But Jim shouldn't get his hopes up just yet. I'm also hearing word of a young "gunner" by the name of Samantha Stormo (R) who interned with the legislature in 2005 for the State House of Representatives. I'm told Samantha has her eye on the seat and is going to give it a serious run. I'm also hearing of a few people who suprisingly AREN'T running, but I'm going to get confirmation on those first. Stay tuned.

They said it. And now they might be wishing they had phrased it differently. These were good enough quotes that I couldn't resist reprinting them. “In this issue we simply did not make our case and were reprimanded. In all cases, however, the ends clearly justified the means.” - Tom Nelson, Mayor of Lead. From the Lawrence County Journal "The school board meeting isn't a public meeting but a meeting held in public.” - Nicole Nordbye, President, Pierre School Board. From the Pierre Capitol Journal Gotta love it!

As opposed to hammering out an introspective and informative article over the lunch hour, I'm going to “phone it in” on this windy and wintry day and do a quick roundup on the news. The furnace has been on the fritz at the War College’s Pierre location since last night and I’m literally freezing my tail off. (I'm at least shivering). The Brookings campus has been doing well since we discovered you have to actually order the gas to be turned on for a gas furnace. But the Pierre campus? All I have to say is that furnace part better be here by noon as promised. So, without further rambling, the week’s SDWC roundup on the news: State GOP Dinner this week in Sioux Falls and Rapid City. The State Republican party is having their annual State Dinner this week on November 17th featuring Governor Rounds and John Thune’s Campaign Manager Dick Wadhams. The Black Hills Pioneer had a good story this last week on Mr. Wadhams in relation to the dinner, which I felt showed the more human side ...

from the Yankton Press and Dakotan print edition, 11/11/05: Should South Dakota implement a personal/corporate income tax? No 69% Yes 27% Not sure 3% (Total votes 412) Hey, they said it, not me. Think what you will about the actual or supposed need to realign South Dakota's tax structure, but the bottom line is that people are not going to support an income tax. Period.

From the Rapid City Journal's Mt. Blogmore: After our conversation, I came to this conclusion: If a gift for oratory could overcome a lack of a campaign organization, a fuzzy fund-raising strategy and an undisciplined message, Volesky might very well have been elected governor yearsago. Ouch! Check out Denise's latest edition of Mt. Blogmore's audioblog "Talking Smack" Here .

I was lying in bed this morning watching Adam Sandler in " The Waterboy ," when my mental affliction which re-directs everything into a political context struck me. With it's silly and sometimes scatological humor, the movie would sometimes go for the lowest common denominator to get the laugh. Admittedly, I found myself giggling out loud. And it's exactly how you need to communicate to the public in a political campaign. You need to modify your language to communicate to the lowest common denominator. No, I'm not saying you need to make a lot of fart jokes. I'm saying you should sculpt your message to penetrate to the greatest number of people. And before anyone brings it up, I'm not using "lowest common denominator" as a derogatory term as it is sometimes intended. What I'm saying is that your message needs to cut across educational levels to reach the broadest audience possible. If your message is crafted in such a complicated manner it en...