South Dakota War College

Secretary of State Chris Nelson has posted the 2006 Ballot Question explanation pamphlet . My only question: Who decides who get to write the ballot question pro and con explanations? I think my Amendment E explanation would have been much more incindiary than Tom Barnett's..... Oh. Maybe that's why they didn't ask me. Anyway, go read it for yourself here .

In today's Rapid City Journal , Bill Harlan reports on the progress that the Pennington County State's Attorney made against stopping Bob Newland from gathering signatures for his ballot measure. As in "None": A jury deadlocked Thursday on whether Libertarian political activist Bob Newland had a right to circulate petitions inside Rushmore Plaza Civic Center. Newland was arrested Jan. 31 during the Black Hills Stock Show after he refused to leave the civic center. He was collecting signatures to put a medical marijuana measure on the November ballot. and.. Testifying in his own defense, Newland told jurors that collecting signatures on city-owned property is a First Amendment right. “I was engaging people in conversations about politics,” he said. and.. The jury began deliberating about 2:45 p.m., and they reported a deadlock shortly after 6 p.m. Magistrate Judge William Severns declared a mistrial. “I’m disappointed that it’s not over yet for Bob,” Hymans said af...

Over at http://www.richengels.org , my friend Rich Engels has his website up for his District 9 House race. Just by way of disclosure, I worked with Rich over at the Division of Insurance several years back, and I consider him a friend. (yes, I have a couple Democratic friends, but only a couple). Rich has what I like to see in a candidate website - it's graphically pleasing to look at, and it has lots of information. It's also easily navigated from the web links on the left of his page. No complaints on this website, although on the home page I might do a little bulleting in his statement and highlight more of his previous legislative experience. But that's goes towards the realm of personal preference. Regardless, go check it out at http://www.richengels.org .

According to the Associated Press as printed in the Rapid City Journal this morning , the South Dakota Supreme Court decided to just say NO when it comes to anything the Judicial Accoutability people want: The South Dakota Supreme Court has refused to order any further changes in the wording that will appear on ballots to explain a proposed constitutional amendment that would let people sue judges and other government officials. and.. The amendment’s main sponsor, businessman Bill Stegmeier of Tea, wanted the Supreme Court to require that the ballot explanation be changed to say that the measure would let people sue judges for deliberately violating their rights. He also wanted it to say the measure’s purpose is to hold judges and other officials accountable for such violations. “The only way to make this ballot statement accurate in all respects is to include language in the explanation that informs the voters that this amendment seeks to hold those persons claiming to be shielded by ...

Judy Olson and the South Dakota Democrats issued a press release yesterday that was picked up by the Rapid City Journa l. Apparently they take issue with the administration making a decision to halt the execution of Elijah Page because of concerns regarding State Law: Olson Duhamel said the public suspects that the last-minute news conference announcing the stay of the execution of Elijah Page until after the election was politically motivated. Making the stay decision based on so-called new information is deceptive, she said, noting in a news release that "the information Gov. Rounds is referring to has been on the books for 22 years." "The public needs to know every detail pertaining to this obvious blunder and deserves to know how the state can prevent another such embarrassment," Olson Duhamel said. "The bipartisan, veto-proof committee we propose must have the power to subpoena all evidence and witnesses, and every testimony should be put under oath with n...

From KELOland.com : Members of a church on the campus of South Dakota State University are concerned about some overnight vandalism. Someone armed with a spray can wrote on a sign and on the side of the brick church. Lance Catron a member of the church, said, "It's disheartening. I mean this is the place I come to worship each week. This is my place and when people come here and do this it's disheartening." Read it all here . You know, I'd put up a bounty on the people who did this, but I'd rather make a donation to the church to repair the damage. This is no different - NO DIFFERENT - than the type of people who would burn down black churches in the South. It's a hate crime. It's bigotry masquerading as a political statement. I went to church here during college. Not as often as I probably should have, but it was still my church at one time. It's a cowardly act, and incredibly beneath people who engage in legitimate debate. I at least have respect...

From my e-mail tonight: Bruce Whalen, Republican Candidate for U.S. Congress will join Bound4Life in a Prayer Siege on Planned Parenthood. Candidate Whalen will join an expected crowd of a thousand Christians and anti-abortion advocates Friday from 11:00-1:00 at 6511 West 41st Street, Sioux Falls, SD 57106. “We can pay for 143 miles of the Lewis and Clark pipeline by federally de-funding Planned Parenthood. The Lewis and Clark Pipeline has a price tag of $1.9 million a mile; currently the Planned Parenthood receives $272 million a year from the government.” Said Bruce Whalen Republican Candidate for U.S. Congress ( http://www.ksfy.com/Stories/Story.cfm?SID=8017 and www.all.org ) Planned Parenthood has a four-pillar business plan. First, they teach school age children that homosexuality and underage sexual activities are acceptable. Second, they distribute condoms to further encourage sex with minors. Third, they sell abortions to terminate pregnancies that are a result of the fir...

As my daughter is napping after ear surgery, I got a chance to check my e-mail. I had somone who was nice enough to send this to me, and I have to admit, it's a darned good looking piece. (Click on the pictures to enlarge them). Bulleted points, and not too much text either. Graphically, it's one of the more pleasing advertising pieces I've seen this year. In the past, his Republican opponent Dick Kelly has not been known for achieving greatness in his advertising material. In fact, one consultant I know used it as an example of what NOT to do. While I haven't seen it yet, hopefully this year he's stepping up his game. Regardless, what would I change about this piece? Not much. The "let's get back to work" has been used before, but I don't know if it is going to resonate as strongly as he might hope. In fact, I think many South Dakotans wish the legislature would be "less activist." But again, that might be just me. Campaigning as an out...

Onan committed the sin of self love. And candidates loving themselves too much can get themselves into just as much trouble. From WCCO news: A Post-Bulletin Web site user who calls himself "127179" has often commented about local issues and has praised the work of City Council member and mayoral candidate Pat Carr. Turns out, the six-digit Web user is none other than Carr himself. The newsroom doesn't regularly check identities of online users, but a reporter noticed similarities in the way "127179" writes and Carr talks. Some of the dozens of messages posted from Carr's account since November found notes of praise for him, while some attack officials who voted differently than Carr. and.. Carr acknowledged Monday that he wrote all past comments except one, which was written by a friend visiting his office. "If people want to trash me, I have the right to stand up and defend myself," he said. "I stand by what I said." Read it all here . I...

You might notice this is a slightly off-time for one of my posts. I just got back to Brookings from Sioux Falls a little bit ago. I have a little one who is prone to ear infections, so we were on the road at 5am this morning to go get tubes put in. As I finally got around to checking stats today, I see that I've officially broken my record for visitors - 17,000 this month (providing about 35,000 hits). Thanks again for your continuing readership.

Tonight on the Sioux Falls Argus Leader website , Bill Napoli weighs in with his opinion on halting the execution: State Sen. Bill Napoli of Rapid City said Gov. Mike Rounds should not have stopped the execution of Elijah Page. And he questioned why the state planned to use three drugs to kill him. Napoli said he was disappointed that the issue involving the lethal drugs was not discovered much earlier. and.. “People can’t have faith in the justice system if justice is not carried out,” he said. Read it all here . This issue is one of those I suppose you'd term a sticky wicket. If they used the three drugs, they'd be in violation of state law and possibly liable for a lawsuit. If they used the two as prescribed under state law, then the question becomes whether or not it's cruel and unusual punishment as one of the other inmates has alleged for his future execution. In either case, the state would possibly be facing a lawsuit. So, you're damned if you do, damned if yo...

I was reading the other day in the Watertown Public Opinion about something I’d heard about before at home, regarding the application of NCLB to special education. Basically, one of the problems with the No Child Left Behind Act is that it lumps the achievement standards for children utilizing special education along with the everyone else, without consideration for the fact that the special-ed kids might be receiving special education services for a reason. From the Watertown Public Opinion : The biggest challenge for Watertown , assistant superintendent Leslie Hanson said, is meeting proficiency in its sub groups: groups of 10 or more people in areas of ethnicity, low socio economics, special education and limited English proficiency. “Overall, the Watertown school district did very, very well,” Hanson told the Public Opinion today (Friday). “ Watertown will always be a district that has many subgroups, so all of our subgroup categories also have to make proficiency” The high school,...

God knows we're on opposite ends of the political spectrum on the issue of Medical Marijuana. But I do support Bob on this issue. Bob Newland, aka "the Civic Center One" goes on trial for gathering petition signatures in the doorway of the Rapid City Civic Center. From my e-mail: I go on trial for a Class 1 misdemeanor (max 1 year in jail and $1000 fine) Thursday morning at the Pennington County Court House (Rapid City SD). The charge is “failure to leave a premises after proper order given”. The crime? Asking a question while carrying a clipboard inside the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center. Public places – those built with money extracted in the form of taxes – should be open to political discussion. They should not be reserved as free-speech-banned zones for the convenience of well-to-do promoters who use these publicly-funded venues to line their pockets. I think it’s great if people want to hold events, and that they risk capital to do so. But if they are doing so in a ven...

In 1933, famed science fiction writer H.G. Wells wrote a book called The Shape of Things to Come which dealt with a future history for the century after 1936. Much like that future history, after I did the post on the South Dakota Mainstream Coalition, I find myself wondering about it’s future history. In five years will it be consigned to the dust heap of bad political ideas, or will it develop into something further? And if it does develop into something further, what form will it take. I think we need look no further than what the organization has become in Kansas . The Mainstream Coalition down there, which the South Dakota group is modeled after, just put out a newsletter which they have posted on the net , and I’ve reproduced a portion of for your perusal (click on any of them to enlarge): They're pretty strong in their statements, and that's ok. They're entitled to their opinion. But now, here's the part that I think that South Dakota Republicans ought to pay pa...

From my e-mail box tonight, the Dems are announcing a Fundraiser for Billion over in Huron on the 2nd: Please Join the South Dakota Democratic Party for Breakfast & Billion A Billion for Governor Rally On Saturday, September 2nd at 8:30 A.M. At the Crossroads Hotel and Convention Center 100 4th St SW, Huron, SD (605) 352-3204 $25 Donation includes breakfast and a BACK JACK mug Please make checks to SDDP We hope that you are able to join us and then stay at the State Fair for the Billion/Rounds scheduled debate at noon. This doesn't do anything for me, but it might be enticing to the Dems. So, here it is for our Democratic Readers.

Governor Rounds, citing a problem with the current law which mandated the use of two drugs instead of the three that are used in common practice, is putting off the execution of Elijah Page for a year according to Keloland news: Rounds and Attorney General Larry Long say the law on the books since 1984 requires the state to use two drugs to kill a condemned person, but the standard nowadays is a three-drug combination. Long says using the three drugs, as was planned, could put the people who carry out the execution at legal risk. Rounds says the stay is in place until next July. That would give lawmakers time during the next session in the spring time to review the law and bring it into line with the common practices of lethal injection. Read it all here .

The Argus Leader (as well as other news outlets) are reporting tonight that the execution is off: South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds will stay the execution of Elijah Page, the Argus Leader has learned. Attorney General Larry Long confirmed moments ago that Page's execution will be stopped from happening tonight. At 5:05 p.m., Long said he was drawing up the paperwork for the stay. Read it here and watch the media tonight for the reasons.

(Big HT to Tim from a Progressive on the Prairie who wrote on this on the No on E blog .) The MAINstream coalition, which has been surprisingly quiet over the course of the past few months, came out recently with a number of position statements on various issues. As written on by Russ Keen in today's Aberdeen American News , They oppose Amendment E, as well as several other issues: Abortion measure : The coalition is against the near-total ban on abortions because it doesn't make exceptions for incest and rape, Olson said. While the measure approved by the Legislature allows women who are raped to take the so-called morning after pill, Olson said that's not adequate because most cases of rape and incest aren't reported. The law has been referred to a statewide public vote. Amendment D : The so-called STOP (Stabilize Taxing Our Property) constitutional amendment should not be approved, Olson said. Amendment D would change the way property is assessed, basing it st...

"I've talked to people even about prairie dogs. Now, you need to talk to a producer to really get a feel from a guy whose being overrun by prairie dogs and whose land is being ruined. It's a whole different problem then. " And Billion's solution to the prairie dog problem? "Maybe we'll make pets out of them and sell them out east. We'll call them big hamsters and ship them out on trucks," he said. That has to be the quote of the day.

Judge Gors must be getting sick of ballot initiatives lately. Because he's certainly deciding the fate of many of their explanations. Tonight, the decision is out on the Video lottery measure: A circuit judge has ordered Attorney General Larry Long to make a change in the language that will appear on South Dakota ballots to explain a measure that would repeal the video lottery. The attorney general’s explanation can continue to tell voters that repeal of video gambling would cost the state $112 million in revenue, but language should be added to explain that the loss would be equal to 11 percent of the state general fund budget, Circuit Judge Max Gors ruled. Long’s office said the judge’s ruling will not be appealed because ballots must be printed soon. Secretary of State Chris Nelson has said the ballot language must be finalized by Friday in order to give soldiers stationed overseas a chance to get ballots and return them by the Nov. 7 general election. A lawyer for sponsors of t...