South Dakota War College

Oh my god. I hadn't head about this one until this AM. Apparently, at the recent Rapid City Crackerbarrel, Gordon Howie started his "for god's sake don't re-elect me" campaign. And I don't think this one is going to die. Ever. According to Mt. Blogmore - as related by Bill Harlan - Howie was trying to explain his rationale' as to why he's against abortion: "... during a comments about abortions, which Howie opposes, he noted that pregnant cows were worth more than the non-pregnant variety." and Gordon also apologized for the remark. He said he only meant to say that South Dakotans value life. If we value unborn livestock, he said, why wouldn’t we value the lives of unborn human beings. “I freely admit I said that very poorly,” Gordon said. Apparently, Celeste Calvitto is going to devote her Tuesday column to the whole debacle. I related this all to my wife, and her immediate comment was "Oh my god. He's just made half of his elector...

From the Rapid City Journal , who's coverage on this has been outstanding: BELLE FOURCHE -- Belle Fourche Mayor Todd Keller resigned Friday, two days after his arrest on domestic violence charges. In a letter of resignation to the Belle Fourche City Council, Keller denied the allegations made against him but said he was resigning in the best interests of his family and the city. and... Keller admitted to the DCI agent that he had assaulted his wife on several occasions in 2004 and 2005, according to the affidavit. Keller said he hit his wife with an open hand on the back, legs, buttocks and chest. He said he had stood on her legs and put one wooden match out on her tongue, according to the affidavit. However, he denied spraying his wife with Lysol and throwing lit matches at her. He denies all of those scurrilous allegations. (Nevermind that stuff he admitted to the DCI agent). Read all of the article here . And give Steve Miller, the reporter, props. He did a thorough, bang up job...

At approximately 6:30 this morning, this picture of Congresswoman Herseth and Belle Fourche Mayor Todd Keller was up on the congresswoman's website. As of 5pm - that sucker was LONG GONE! Who am I kidding? Any of us would have done the same. I certainly would have. The only reason I didn't also have pictures of anyone else up here too, is that I couldn't find any. I didn't think it would be effective enough with only one. I was going to do a post on it with a kind of countdown to see how fast it came off of websites. I opted not to, but in light of how fast this photo was excised, I changed my mind. And you know what - don't consider this a criticism of Herseth. Not at all. Because I would have done the same thing. I think its a fine example of how fast people are going to disavow him. I hope there are politicians who publicly do so. I'm very interested in what the Belle Fourche city council is going to say tonight. It may determine whether or not the honorable...

I was thinking that this whole situation was looking bad, and then I read the Rapid City Journal this AM, and it got a whole lot worse: Keller’s wife, Jill Marie Keller, told state Division of Criminal Investigation agent Chad Evans that Keller had assaulted her several times during the past year, according to a probable-cause affidavit filed in Butte County Court. Then, on Dec. 8, she told the DCI agent, Keller choked her several times; grabbed her arms, leaving bruises; made her sit on the floor and pushed his foot into her chest so hard that she gasped for air; jumped on her legs while she sat on the floor with her legs straight; lit matches and put them out on her tongue; and sprayed her face and body with Lysol and then threw lit matches at her, according to the document. According to Jill Keller’s account in the affidavit, Keller told her he was going to start her on fire and watch her burn. and... Mayor Keller told the DCI agent on Wednesday that he had assaulted his wife on ...

I was getting ready to go to bed, and just checking the Rapid City Journal's website, where I see this note for an upcoming story tomorrow AM: Tomorrow's Journal Belle Fourche mayor in court for domestic violence And I'm thinking to myself.... " Isn't this the guy who was in the bar fight ?" If the story in the AM is about Belle Fourche Mayor Todd Keller, then it would likely be the same guy. I was frankly a little shocked that he was re-elected after that little episode in October 2003. Maybe I'm being a little bit of a moralist, but I frankly thought that the voters would say "public officials getting involved in bar fights isn't cool." Yes, I know he was never charged or convicted, and this was after the DCI investigated. But C'mon. The guy is the mayor of the town. I was a little dumbfounded that he'd get into that sort of situation anyway. But they put him back into office anyway . I wonder if tonight the vo...

Over on Mt Blogmore, the Rapid City Journal's Weblog, there's an excellent discussion going on about the very topic I posted on yesterday . Which was in reference to State Task Force to Study Abortion and those members in the minority who nearly in unison said "I'm outta here." There's lots from poster "Sophia" who is doing her darndest to tout the position of the pro-choice minority from the committee. And there's this fairly poignant comment from Senator Nesselhuf, who commented yesterday on this blog that the though "there was plenty of Cartman to go around." But the Mt. Blogmore comment I thought had merit was as follows: “That’s like the minority members of a legislative committee walking out in protest every time the committee hears substantive testimony and then votes contrary to that testimony.” If that was the case, I would never have to sit through a full committee hearing again. Comment by Ben Nesselhuf — 12/14/2005 An...

If any of you are affecianadoes of "South Park," you're certainly familiar with the whimsical antics of Eric Cartman. Eric, arguably the focus of the show's wicked sense of black humor, when provoked with something he doesn't want to deal with because he's on the losing end of things is prone to annnounce "Screw you guys, I'm outta here." This was similar to the outburst from Senator Stan Adelstein and several other members of the State Task Force to Study Abortion. Those members had only won a few concessions from the majority of members on the master document to be presented as the final report. And then, they decided to take their toys and go home. Click here for the actual sound bite . No matter what side of the argument your beliefs lay on, you have to admit the tantrum is a bit much for an elected official. "Screw you guys, I'm outta here." Indeed.

I see the SD College Dems and the SD High School Dems now have blogs (Which have been added to the feeds). But considering all the success the GOP blogs had in the last election, where the heck are they for the 2006 cycle? For this year, GOP Blogger numbers are down. Definately down.

I've noticed at least three or four things that have been related to me or in the news that I'd like to write on. I'll pick from them for doing an evening post to the weblog, but for now, the most timely of all the topics would be Celeste Calvitto's excellent column in the Rapid City Journal today with the wife of Bill Napoli regarding the political poll being conducted in the Napoli/McCoy Race. The Napoli/McCoy race is the story that just won't settle down, and I continue to predict that this will be the white-hot contest to watch during the primary election season. Here's a snippet from the Calvitto article with Peggy Napoli discussing the poll in the Rapid City Journal : "We already knew about it," she said. "The thing that was interesting is that an older lady came up to us in a restaurant and said they asked her if she would vote for Bill if she knew he was against senior citizens. I wasn't asked that question." Peggy Napoli took not...

I was checking to see if any legislation which has been pre-filed is available on the Internet, and what do my eyes behold, but the State Legislative Research Council has integrated RSS feeds with their website : Senate Feeds House Feeds Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Appropriations Commerce Education Government Operations and Audit Health and Human Services Judiciary Legislative Procedure Local Government Retirement Laws State Affairs Taxation Transportation House of Representatives Agriculture and Natural Resources Appropriations Commerce Education Government Operations and Audit Health and Human Services Judiciary Legislative Procedure Local Government Retirement Laws State Affairs Taxation Transportation All available for the linking from their website. What it's going to cause me to do is to update my website, because this will be a "must have" feature to provide to the readers. They even do a good job of explai...

Huge hat tip to the Rapid City Journal . Did any of you read the letters to the editor from Sunday? I almost missed this one which was hidden at the bottom of the second page - the last letter in the section. Bill Napoli had words for the person doing some opinion polling research against him. Yep. He had words. And they weren't very happy ones at that. The Senator from Rapid City is ready to kick some tail and take some names in the almost inevitable primary race against Alice McCoy where she's going to make a run at his seat since she's term limited out of her own. From the Rapid City Journal: Negative polling I'm sure many of you in District 35 have received the negative push-pull telephone poll attacking me in very slanderous terms. People have the right to get angry at their elected officials and make their dissatisfactions public. However, the gutless person who commissioned this push-pull poll is hiding behind the fact there's no state law requiring them to i...

As opposed to some of the bickering going on in the rest of the SD Blogosphere, I'm concentrating on the 2006 Legislative Session with a laser-like focus. Or at least with "a used steak knife-like focus." To me, that's where the action is. And that's where the things are going to occur which affect each of us more on a day to day basis. Congress deciding on a spending bill which will allocate a million dollars less to states? Yawn . But the state legislature passing a bill which raises the child seat requirements from age 3 to age 5? That's going to get me excited. It's not that the first example doesn't matter. It's just that the second has more immediacy and more of a direct impact. If they say you must do it, or you can't do it, then "boom" the following July it's the law of the land. What's in store this next session? The Rapid City journal has a good pair of articles today that are dealing with that very topic. Read abou...