South Dakota War College

Nationally syndicated columnist Robert Novak has a column out today talking abut why Republicans are looking at former US Senator Fred Thompson as the great "red state" hope for Republicans to retain the presidency. In just three weeks, Fred Thompson has improbably transformed the contest for the Republican presidential nomination. It is not merely that he has come from nowhere to double digits in national polls. He is the talk of GOP political circles, because he is filling the conservative void in the Republican field of candidates. Republican activists have complained for months that none of the big-three contenders — Rudy Giuliani, John McCain and Mitt Romney — fits the model of a conservative leader for a conservative party. The party faithful have been waiting for another Ronald Reagan. But in conversations with them the past year, nobody mentioned Thompson as the messiah until he appeared March 11 on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace. and... Thompson's popularity ...

Aside from it being somewhat slow politically in South Dakota (unless I want to talk about the RC mayoral race yet again...), I've got some personal stuff that came up requiring an emergency run to Brookings a few days ahead of time. Given that, I'm going to be between home in Brookings and down to Sioux Falls. And back and forth for a few days. So... blogging is going to be pretty light. But in the interim, please enjoy your family time above anything. And have a happy easter.

Tony Mangan over at KCCR News is reporting today that a challenger has arisen in the Pierre City Commission race. The bad thing is that it's one of the few serious challenges that has arisen in years. A young member of the Pierre community wants to help move the city forward and that is why he is running for city commission. Jesse Naze has filed petitions to run for the lone open seat on the commission. He will face three-term incumbent Stan Schwellenbach in the June 5th election. The 26 year old Naze, a North Dakota native has lived in Pierre for almost 2 years and works as a policy analyst at the Department of Social Services. He wants to be part of the city’s future. and... Tuesday was the final day to file nominating petitions for either Pierre city commission or school board. No one but the two school board incumbents, Deanne Booth and Norm Lingle, filed petitions for the two open school board seats. Read that all here . I think I'm disappointed because in a town driven by...

Maybe it's just me being unreasonable again, but I personally think it's kind of crappy that they gave the guy driving the firetruck that got in an accident a citation for overdriving conditions, as reported at todayskccr.com . Sitzman was cited for overdriving road conditions, but Alexander says the investigation by the state Highway Patrol showed that the truck was only going about 35 miles an hour, about 5 miles above the posted speed limit on that section of Sioux Avenue. Sitzman also was given a breathalyzer test which showed that he had not been drinking. and.. Alexander says Sitzman will be disciplined internally by the department. But Alexander says Sitzman, who drives truck for a living and who has expressed regret for the accident, will remain on the department. Yes, he might have been 5 miles over the speed limit. Personally, I'd have to go look to see what the posted speed limit is on the s-curve is, since as long as I've lived here, it has been 35MPH on ei...

( From yesterday's Pierre Capitol Journal.) Dang! That must have been some fast lobbying between the tech schools and Pierre.

Adding to an already crowded field smelling blood in the Rapid City Mayoral Race, State Representative Alan Hanks has confirmed what many had long suspected, that he would enter this year's mayoral contest: State Rep. Alan Hanks announced Tuesday his candidacy for mayor of Rapid City in the June 5 municipal election. Hanks, a former city council member and current District 32 representative, said he will resign his seat in the Legislature if elected mayor. Gov. Mike Rounds would then appoint a replacement to serve the remaining year of his current term. Read it all here in the Scott Aust article in the Rapid City Journal . With Hanks' candidacy, that puts seven people willing to jump in against the current mayor who faces issues of his health (as brought up in today's other article ), his leadership, the city's investment in infrastructure, and Shaw's pounding on cars in Iowa .

I must be getting forgetful - I've forgotten to hawk the beg button for several weeks. So please click on the pay pal beg button on the right to help keep the SDWC on the web. I also have advertising space available. Contact me for details . Thanks in advance for your patronage and readership!

After causing a huge amount of controversy in the Rapid City Mayoral race over switching from the Sam Kooiker team to the Mayor Shaw team (after a financial arrangement with Rapid City businessman Doug Hamilton was made) Rapid City councilman Mike Schumacher announced today that he's withdrawing from the race as reported by the Rapid City Journal 's website: Alderman Michael Schumacher will not seek re-election to the Rapid City Council this June, citing a desire to spend more time with his family. "I know people are going to read this and say, 'Oh, it’s the cliche ‘family reasons.’ But that’s really what it is," Schumacher said. "I don’t think people truly understand how much time and effort is involved. As a part-time council person with a full-time job, it is hard to juggle everything." Schumacher said he made the decision recently but that it has little to do with the controversy about being offered money to consult for Mayor Jim Shaw’s re-ele...

What's the buzz this morning in Pierre? Aside from Bob Mercer writing in his column this morning that the legislature is proposing to work fewer weekdays and stretch session across more weeks (ugh, say it isn't so), it looks like the big issue for Capital City Residents is a proposal by the local YMCA to use fingerprint and photo ID's as part of new security measures effective April 1st. Yes, as part of a letter that went out to members, Pierre will be super advanced as one of only two YMCA's in the country to use the new fingerprint system. Are they freaking kidding me? I had been thinking of joining again in another vain attempt to try to work out on a regular basis and lose weight. But seeing this move by the local fitness center - it's not just no thank you, but HECK NO! I've got to be fingerprinted if I want to use the track? Cataloging me as one would a criminal will protect me from vagrant weightlifters? Who thought up this ridiculous idea? I dont' th...

In an editorial in the Yankton Daily, newly minted SDGOP State Chairman Karl Adam hits hard at Congresswoman Stephanie Herseth over her lack of support for the troops overseas in favor of following Speaker Pelosi: The war in Iraq is a difficult situation. Too many of our young men and women have died and the sacrifice of many others has been great. Families have been separated from loved ones for a year at a time or longer. Brave soldiers who have been on the front-lines fighting the terrorists slinking around the countryside have sustained serious and life-threatening injuries. Each and every American has been affected by this war and each of us hopes and prays for its speedy and safe conclusion. What Mrs. Herseth Sandlin has lent her voice to though, while calling for a quick end to the conflict, certainly is not a safe option for our troops, the Iraqi people or America which is in the crosshairs of merciless terrorists. Handing the schedule of when our soldiers will be retreating to...

In the April 2007 Edition of Churchreport.com , U.S. Senator John Thune gives a brief interview on why he believes the United States needs to prevail in the war occurring in Iraq: [ Q: ] Why do you think that that message is not being received by these war protesters? [ A: ] It is probably emanates from different world view but that defies thousands of years of experience. What you’ve got are brutal dictators. If you don’t confront it those types of regimes they prey on weakness. The reason the United States has been able to continue to maintain its position of prominence in the world of being the world superpower is because we’ve always recognized that to achieve peace you have to stay strong. The way to avoid conflict around the world is to project strength. The anti-war left honestly believes that you can reason and negotiate with these types of people. In the end it’s partly, I think, perpetuated by the media constantly running negative stories about the good work that our men ...

I'm surprised that the SD Blogosphere hasn't been jumping all over this one. On Saturday, the Rapid City Journal ran a story on how opponents of the Meade County School District's proposed bond issue hired an out of state consultant who specializes in killing School Bond measures - Paul Dorr of Ocheyedan, Iowa: A group of school district residents calling itself Meade 46-1 Citizens Acting for Responsible Education (MCARE) has hired Paul Dorr of Ocheyedan, Iowa, to conduct a campaign against the bond issue. Dorr has a track record of opposing bond issues, among other things, and has said that he has a 90 percent success rate in defeating school funding proposals. Meade Superintendent James Heinert and school board President Dennis Thuringer called a press conference Friday morning concerning the new group, hoping to keep lines of communication open between the school district and Meade County patrons. Read the entire story here . This isn't a story which should be igno...

An AP story is out there today about a large group of over 200 unwanted Horses being returned to a few states, including South Dakota, after the Humane Society filed a lawsuit to shut down horse processors: Horse enthusiasts had hoped that Cavel International would allow the horses that had been headed to its plant to go to area barns, but the company on Thursday returned six trailers of the animals to suppliers in Colorado, Tennessee, Iowa and South Dakota, said Colleen O'Keefe, the Illinois Department of Agriculture's Division manager of Food Safety and Animal Protection. and... U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, ruling in a lawsuit filed by the Humane Society of the United States, found the USDA did not follow federal procedures for setting up the inspection fee program. Read the whole story here . At this point, the story notes that the animals will be shipped to Canada for processing. Since they eat them, they're apparently not as squeamish about proces...

The Rapid City Mayoral Race continues to heat up as this year's hot political race for the 2007 municipal and school elections. Today in the Rapid City Journal, one columnist is not terribly kind to the sitting mayor as he paints him as a chronic backstabber: It’s a good thing Mayor Jim Shaw and the city council got benches back up at some of the Rapid Ride stops. Now, Rapid City citizens can sit comfortably while watching the mayor and some aldermen throw people under the bus. First to wear the Shaw steel belted tread design is shrewd political confidante and Ward 1 Alderman Mike Schumacher. Schumacher told the press he had contracted with Shaw supporter Doug Hamilton to run Shaw’s campaign for a big hairy wad of money. Schumacher, who had long supported Ward 2 Alderman Sam Kooiker, was widely criticized for being a turncoat for sale to the highest bidder. Shaw’s response: Doug who? Mike who? EnVision Design of Rapid City, designer of the embattled civic center expansion, ...

As you will note, on the prior post I had commented on how this past election, I didn't care for Representative Noem's campaign logo (but then again, why should she care, she won). As I was doing an internet search to see if I could find the post I did where I pointed out why I didn't like it, I came across a blog reference with the same name as the new Republican State Rep from District 6: It is about Him. ....For myself, I realized what a change I could have in my marriage if I approached my husband in such a way as well. Ester spent hours thinking about King Xerxes and learning about his likes and dislikes. She prayed for him and that her heart would be filled with love for him. She allowed her mind to focus on becoming physically attracted to him and studying his work and interests so that she might intelligently discuss issues and offer solutions for him... Posted by Kristi Noem at 08:23 PM Read the entire post here . I thought.... Nahh, it couldn't be. But upon...

I was over in Brookings this weekend, and I saw a new champ for the worst campaign logo, ever. If you recall, this last election I railed on Representative Kristi Noem's election logo because... Well, frankly because I thought it was terrible. Kristi can take heart tonight that someone has knocked her off of that perch. I'm kicking myself because the camera stayed in Pierre this weekend. Brookings School Board Candidate Pam Merchant has this multicolor design on the top of her signs that takes up at least half of the sign, plus something that I thought was an oak leaf. It was like one of those designs that if you stare at it long enough instead of seeing an object, you get a headache. And then we get to her name on the bottom third of it. All of it was tough to read doing 35 as I traveled north on 20th Avenue. If I wasn't attuned to these things, I would have missed it entirely. Bleaugh. When are candidates going to learn that you have to be able to read signs. It's ...

Check out this story at the Washington Post Blog: Karl Rove, Wedding Crasher? It should be the happiest, most care-free day of her life. But we can't help but wonder if Rep. Stephanie Herseth (D-S.D.) will be nervously looking over her shoulder Saturday for White House counsellor Karl Rove when she's scheduled to walk down the aisle....... Read it all here . And if anyone got photos of the event, let me know . I'd even post them. It was a dreary weekend at the Home of the SDSU Jacks, but I hope everything went off without a hitch. I did catch a Herseth sighting myself last week when I was in Brookings. She was coming out of HyVee with Starbucks in her hand as I was leaving with a load of my own groceries.

As I'm sitting back in Pierre tonight, trying to organize my MP3 collection, I caught some chatter on the fact that there's two or three versions of an Associated Press article out there on the same topic. One appears to be presented in its entirety, and the other.... Well let's just say its a bit watered down. See if you can catch the difference. Here's the first article which I mentioned a few days ago: http://www.aberdeennews.com/mld/aberdeennews/16990498.htm and the Argus Leader version of the same article? Well it's not available on line at the Argus website at all. But what it does do is to edit out the harsh criticism that the people quoted in the article have for the three democratically appointed judges. The Argus article stops with the paragraph "An assistant U.S. attorney from another state ultimately was appointed until a South Dakota lawyer was nominated and approved." But then leaves out nearly half of the article which continues on.... Schr...