South Dakota War College

Dave Kranz got a bit of a scoop on everyone with his column in the Argus Leader today noting that Dusty Johnson is at a point where he's considering the US House Race: "It is something I am considering. Any time you have a realistic opportunity to make South Dakota better, you have to take a look," Dusty Johnson says. "The thing for me: Can you be a good congressman and a good father?" and... "I have tremendous respect for Rep. Herseth Sandlin, but this is not about her. It is tough to sit on the sidelines as we deal with security and economic issues. It would be an opportunity for me to make a difference," Johnson said. Rep. Joel Dykstra is opening the door to a possible U.S. Senate campaign regardless of what Johnson decides to do. Read it all here . Actually, I'm intrigued by this lineup. It might mean Republicans have a solid congressional field to go into the election season with. When faced with a choice of this nature, it means that the Con...

As I woke up watching the typically horrendous KDLT morning news (where the current anchors use the word "definitiely" on a constant and daily basis as if they watched Rain Man just a few too many times), I saw Kate Looby of Planned Parenthood on the show telling people about a free Gadrasil clinic at Planned Parenthood to incoculate women against the HPV virus. They're taking the same position I took during session. And as I watched her performance, my heart sank. Thanks. Thanks a lot. Boy.. You guys really, really didn't do the rest of us who think that way any good. You know, when it's Planned Parenthood is saying the vaccine isn't about sex, I don't think it helps my argument any. It's like Quentin Tarantino saying his movies aren't about violence.

In case you missed it yesterday, Rapid City Journal columnist and Dakota Voice Blogger Bob Ellis did a story in the paper on the South Dakota blogosphere - and everyone was invited: Todd Epp, a Harrisburg lawyer who publishes the liberal SD Watch blog, was one of the first to interview Jeff Gannon of Talon News, who reported Tom Daschle’s Washington D.C. citizenship; Gannon was later found to have pictures of himself naked appearing on a homosexual Web site. Pat Powers, who lives in Brookings and has been active in Republican politics for years, runs the conservative South Dakota War College blog. Powers has been ahead of the curve on a number of breaking stories, including the incident concerning state Sen. Dan Sutton last year. Sparks sometimes fly between the liberal Clean Cut Kid blog and conservative Sibby Online. Chad Schuldt, who publishes CCK, has worked for Sens. Tim Johnson and Tom Daschle in the past. Steve Sibson of Mitchell, publishing Sibby Online, is also very active a...

Al Gore: Americans need to switch to compact fluorescent light bulbs. Earth Day 2007: Tom Katus promotes compact fluorescent light bulbs. Sheryl Crow: "We can make it work with only one square per restroom visit." Earth Day 2008:..... NOOO!! I don't even want to think about it! (Original Photo from the Hog House Blog . Go visit)

The Argus is reporting tonight that the Westward Ho country club is going after it's employee for hundreds of thousands the person supposedly absconded with over the course of several years: Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been stolen from the Westward Ho Country Club, and the club is now trying to get the money back. A longtime employee is accused of taking the money, club officials state in court documents obtained by the Argus Leader. Club officials accuse their former office worker and general manager, Nancy Frerichs, of making off with the money during the past several years. and... Frerichs has not been charged with any crimes. The allegations against her are contained in a lawsuit filed against her by the country club, near Sherman Park on Sioux Falls' west side. Read it all here and tomorrow in the Argus Leader. The sad thing is, this crap happens every day in South Dakota. And I cannot tell you how much it steams me every time I read about this. Why? It happene...

The Sam Kooiker campaign was nice enough to buy an ad here to promote his website which was just fired up for public view. So take a moment to go over and visit www.samkooiker.com to learn more about the candidate.

In case you were wondering, KCCR News has a report on what the Governor has to say about running for US Senate: Rounds-office Governor Mike Rounds continues to stress that he likes being Governor just fine. Rounds has been mentioned as a possible U.S. Senate candidate in 2008, which would be in the middle of his second term as Governor. Rounds, who has always said he has no interest in running for the Senate, says he is focusing on his job as Governor. At this point, Rounds says he doesn’t foresee a situation that would compel him to run for Senate. Read it all here .

I was doing some "stuff" recently which allowed me to get some pictures of some unbelievable South Dakota political items - things I've never seen before. And being a sharing person, I thought I'd share the experience with you. President Taft, Gubernatorial candidate Vessey, and in what would have been his inaugural US Senate Run, Coe Crawford. If anyone has one of these they'd like to sell, drop me a note . I'm sure I could give you $10 for it. ;) There are a lot of harsh political pins out there in the McGovern Era - but this is by far the harshest. "Acid - Amnesty - Appeasement - Vote McGovern." Yow. This is the first time I've run across this rarity. I actually owned one of these at one time, many years ago. That, and an honest to goodness Coe Crawford for Governor pin. But I haven't seen the Burke one since, until now. Another very early SD Pin for one of Charles H. Burke's political campaigns in the early part of the century (Cong...

CQ was reporting on something interesting regarding the situation with Senator Johnson and his continued recuperation. Apparently he's being allowed to sign of on meetings he isn't attending as he continues his convalescence: Sen. Tim Johnson wasn’t at Monday’s meeting of Iraq War spending conferees, but his signature was. and... “When they passed the signature sheets around on the conference report, he had already signed,” said an aide who attended the meeting. How Johnson’s signature got there remains something of a mystery. Johnson spokeswoman Julianne Fisher claimed no knowledge of the signature’s existence, even after the conference had closed. “He’ll sign it by the time he needs to sign it,” she wrote in an e-mail. Read it all here .

Bob Mercer talks about the Zaniya project today, which in its original form was little more than a state mandate for health insurance. Much like the wildly successful mandates that have been passed requiring auto insurance. (Oh, those haven't worked either? Silly me.) The concept of getting state government more involved with the issue of un-insured citizens was brought to the 2007 session by Rep. Joel Dykstra R-Canton and Sen. Tom Dempster R-Sioux Falls. Their original legislation called for establishing a new system for health insurance in South Dakota. They wanted to require all state residents to obtain health insurance, provide assistance to those who couldn't afford it, and penalize people who could afford insurance but didn't have it. The legislature adopted a study instead in a much-reworked version of HB 1169 . I can't imagine why they had to rework the original measure: FOR AN ACT ENTITLED, An Act to require that all state residents obtain health insu...

I was just starting to do some research on the Secretary of State's website for something I'm working on, and I noticed a couple of things. First off - They have a motto now. Maybe I just missed it before, but I'm noticing tonight. Click on the image below, and you can read the motto that has been added which notes: "Rising above your expectation with excellent customer service through friendly, knowledgeable, and responsive personal assistance." But that didn't grab me as much as the next thing I came across as I was looking up some voter registration statistics. For some odd reason, they have a degree of kinship chart here . (Click to enlarge, y'all) I think this is a more recent addition. I'm assuming it's so people can look at the chart and figure out if they're allowed unlimited donations or exempt from other campaign finance laws based on their "degree of relativity." That's got to be it. Or else it's for purposes whic...

Angela Nielsen of the South Dakota GOP has announced that it's time for a change. This Finance Director of the South Dakota Republican Party for about 5 years has decided to pack up her ledger book and try something else. Well, not that new. Angi has taken a position as Finance Director of the Republican Party of Minnesota. Angela - congratulations on your new position, thanks for all your hard work, and good luck at your new position from the SDWC. We hope to be reading about you again soon.

KELOland is reporting tonight that tomorrow will bring the hearing where State of SD attorneys and Representative Roger Hunt will argue whether or not Roger creatively found a loophole, or improperly avoided state law on donor reporting: Hunt, a long-time anti-abortion activist, has said the person is a South Dakota resident who wants to remain anonymous out of fear of possible violence. and... The state says Hunt's corporation must identify the person, but Hunt argues it's not a ballot question committee and is not required to file campaign finance reports. Read it all here . Not passing judgment on the morality of it, but given the state of South Dakota's previous campaign finance laws, I think it is entirely possible that Roger was within the law to do it in the manner he did.

I was cleaning out some boxes I had brought over to Brookings this weekend, and unexpectedly came across this gem of a political pin in my stuff. In fact, I'd forgotten I even had it. The picture doesn't do it justice, as it's nearly perfect in every way. This pin comes from the 1940 presidential election of Wendell Willkie against FDR. South Dakota was one of 10 states that Willkie carried. I kept it pinned to my shirt all day so I wouldn't misplace it, and as I took it off tonight, I thought I'd share a picture of it. For those collectors among you, you can generally find this pin for about $20.00 or less.

After taking Saturday completely off from blogging, and doing my household chores inside at the Brookings headquarters of the SDWC earlier today, I'm back on-line! The big event of my weekend was the Codington County Lincoln Day Dinner on Friday night. It was a great opportunity, because from my experiences that evening, I learned three things. First, when attending a Lincoln Day Dinner, bring the good camera. The little one just can't handle the low light as evidenced from my picture of former State Senator (and current Codington County GOP Finance Chairman) Lee Schoenbeck here: and my picture of US Senator John Thune here: If I hadn't tried some correction (gamma correction was cranked way up) on them, they might as well have been a picture of a black lab in a cave at midnight. Considering I had the best seat I've had at most any Lincoln Day Dinner I've ever attended, the bad photography is even more inexcusable on my part. The second thing I learned was from Se...