Entries Tagged 'SD' ↓

You might end up voting for the other guy . . .

I had to laugh, then cry at the hypocrisy of Mr. Ten Haken, Social Media expert(?) and Click Rain president (Web and media services for countless GOP candidates and PACs);

Ten Haken said he is no stranger to a good political debate on his Facebook and Twitter, but airing out your political feelings online can be a social media ‘don’t’ because it can come back to haunt you.  Rants and fights online can not only wreck personal relationships, but even put your job in jeopardy.

Why? I have never understood this line of crap. Last I checked I live in a Democracy and am protected by the 1st Amendment. My boss may have the right to ‘suggest‘ how I should register to vote, and who to vote for, but it is none of his/hers business my political affiliation. In fact, I would be a bit insulted that my boss would even make it an issue, and it actually borders on discrimination. I have never been fired for my political views, and have actually been defended by past and current managers for my stances. One even said to me, “I appreciate it that you stick up for what you believe in, even though I may not agree with you.”

Sorry Paul, but being involved and vocal about the process is EXACTLY what the public needs to start doing, especially new registered voters.

“It’s just safe to kind of walk the middle of the road and if you’re going to post about politics.  There’s nothing wrong with engaging in politics, but just not in such a polarizing way,” Ten Haken said.

Mr. Ten Haken, Mr. Middle-of-the-Road himself. LOL! This is the same guy who helps out people like Gant and the Rushmore PAC. He even assisted Pat Powers to play ‘musical servers‘ with his website(s) domains. Mr. Ten Haken is no stranger to being ‘POLARIZING’ he just hopes you are not, because you might find out about him . . . birds of a feather.

I read about this on a couple of blogs last week, but Ellis summed up the hilarity of this site.

Are you a Republican if you enjoy gunning down coyotes from your snowmobile? Does that make you a soldier of the GOP?

Or are you a Republican if you believe that midwives should be licensed to administer births? Or how about if you think employers should be thrown in the hoosegow for hiring “illegal aliens?” Does that make you a Republican?

I am an indy, and lean left, but trust me, the Dems have done things that are just as silly. But trying to claim you have nothing to do with it when the IP is registered to you is a bit of a stretch;

Turns out the site was being hosted by a server linked to Rep. Stace Nelson, the first-term Republican and retired Marine who hasn’t been afraid to challenge his party’s leadership.

Nelson told me he did host the site, but he says he didn’t have a role in creating the content or making the rankings.

Sure. Stace. And Santa Claus is real.

I expected controversy from the dynamic duo Gant and Powers in the SOS office to happen a lot sooner then this (of course we certainly don’t know what they have done so far);

Secretary of State Jason Gant attempted Tuesday to bypass the state board of elections — which has rule-making authority under state law — in approving new forms and introducing legislation.

And while an apology may be more appropriate we get this statement;

During his eight-year term, former Secretary of State Chris Nelson brought forth his proposed legislation to the board for its approval. But, he said, the secretary of state has final authority regarding whether to take it to the Legislature.

“I utilized the expertise of the board, in large part, to improve legislation that I was thinking about putting forth to the Legislature,” Nelson said.

Viken, who has been on the board since 1999, reminded Gant how legislative issues were handled by previous people in the office.

“I don’t care about the past,” Gant said.

Well you best start caring. You are the SOS of state, not chief rule maker.

Well isn’t this funny.  All those pious right wingers and South Dakota leads in being a state that profits from sin. Can they say hypocrites???

You can listen as the SD Supreme Court weighed in on this case .

So why has there been no media about the case? Because we know the SF MSM are tools, and the city has turned that tool away from the case.

This is what I know so far;

• The City filed a 7 page brief citing 4 obscure cases.

• Daily’s attorney submitted a 38 page brief citing 35 state court cases, 13 US Supreme Court Cases, 2 other cases, 6 constitutional provisions, 8 SD statutes, and 3 city ordinances.

I’m no lawyer, but I think we know how this will turn out. Then maybe the media will pull their heads out and consider this a REAL story.

Oh, crap! Is it already the end of the legislative session! Better prepare the budget;

By the end of the day on Friday, the South Dakota Legislature will approve a budget containing significant spending cuts — but the shape and size of those cuts is far from determined.

This is what I scratch my head about every year. Before the legislative session starts everyone starts crying about how broke we are (which we are) so you would think the very short session would be devoted to solving our budget issues. Nope. Abortion. Guns and more guns.

But it seems a dirty little secret has been exposed;

Lawmakers are also discussing the possibility of getting rid of some of the state’s $500 million in tax exemptions. Unlike a tax rate increase, Gov. Dennis Daugaard has said he is open to eliminating tax exemptions. Two bills dealing with tax exemptions have passed both houses; several others have been killed. Any legislator could introduce a budget amendment eliminating more sales tax exemptions.

$500 million! WTF! While I am an ardent supporter of some exemptions, it seems we could probably find a couple of them that should be eliminated?

But that would be too easy, why not something more difficult and painful;

A much-discussed alternative, HB1141, would set a special election this November for initiated measures with the intent of allowing for a popular vote on a tax increase.

BAHAHAHAHA! This wouldn’t pass in a million years, and any legislator who thinks it would should get their freaking head examined. We give tax breaks and refunds to Canadian corporations to dig holes in our state then turn around and expect South Dakotans to pay more in taxes on a loaf of bread? Get real.

Eliminate exemptions and tax advertising. Done deal.

Okay, I know this episode of Inside Stormland TV is over a week old, but I have been doing some catching up. This is actually a pretty good show, compared to Jon Wilson’s BJ episode of Rounds. Both sides of the school funding case gave great arguments, but I would have to agree with Scott that school funding is a SD constitutional obligation, and Scott let’s AG Jackboots have it over it. He uses the analogy of the state suing over ‘Obamacare’. Jackboots hangs his head so low in his lap, you thought at one point he was going to fall out of his chair.

Worth the watch.

I saw this as a political football from the beginning. Funny how no one found a (Extreme Right Wing Conservative) Republican Attorney General, who was running for office, was playing politics with the food for votes fiasco;

“I think this was a clearly partisan charge from the beginning. The Republicans know you can make a charge five or six weeks before election day and the investigation is going to take several months. They can make a charge, make it seem like fact regardless of the fact that no laws were broken. They pretend that it was and use that allegation to scare voters.”

Nesselhuf said there is history of these kinds of “bogus charges,” and it probably will be seen again in elections.

While I don’t agree with the food exchange, I doubt a donut, a hot dog or a bowl of chili is going to convince people to vote for a certain candidate. In fact that assumption is freaking absurd and as Michael Jackson would say, “Ignorant.”

Lucas Lentsch, executive director of the state Republican Party, said he expects the Legislature to weigh in when next year’s session begins.

“Vote-buying or food-for-votes will more than likely be a policy discussion of the 2011 South Dakota state Legislature,” Lentsch said Tuesday. “I fully anticipated that there would be an investigation of some sort, the attorney general and U.S. attorney have rendered their decisions, I just expect it to continue to evolve and be a policy discussion.”

It seems Lucas just can’t let it go. While I agree there should be some legislative intervention, Lucas seems to think there should be an investigation. I guess it wasn’t good enough that his party beat the living daylights out of the Dems, he seems hellbent on punishing them even more. Bring it on, your party was participating in the practice also, and that is why the charges were probably dropped.

“My goal is to make sure that the integrity of our elections is not jeopardized by any activities of different groups or individuals for that matter,” Gant said. “We’re going to look at the language, we’re going to look at reports from the attorney general and the U.S. attorney and I want to do everything I can to provide the legislature with information on how we can best ensure that we have fair and legal elections.”

This coming from a guy who created a fake issue during the election about the Feds taking over state elections. This was clearly about sticking it to the Dems right before an election. Maybe there should be laws enacted that prevent political parties from creating controversies about the opposite party right before an election. I’m sure that would make Kermit Staggers very happy.

Besides a couple of quips on either side – it was the pretty boring expected BS.

Here’s some highlights;

Doogard went back on his promise to not take Federal education funding because him and buddy Mikey found out their was ‘no strings attached.’ Heidi-Scott jumped his ass about it.

Doogard did slam Heidi-Scott on being his own man, he said something like, “My name is Doogard not Rounds.”

They sparred over ethanol and education for awhile, but the Hyperion discussion was interesting. Heidi-Scott suggested that the state listen to the EPA (you know, that federal entity that tries to prevent poisons from circulating in our air.) While I did not agree totally with Scott and did agree a little with Dennis on this issue, I was a little confused about Dennis’ demonization of the EPA and talking about cow farts (methane regulation). I have often respected Dennis for not dragging out FOX News talking points, but this was straight out of the Ironic Johnny playbook. He avoided the air quality question by talking about cow farts instead of an oil refinery.

I don’t think either guy is ready to be governor. Which is unfortunate. Because either way you churn it, we will get another 8 years of do-nothing politics.

Like this is a surprise;

South Dakota scored poorly in almost every category during the first round of competitive grants, getting poor marks in such areas as lacking a data system that ties test scores to teacher evaluations and failing to turn around the state’s worst schools.

When we choose to spend less and less on public education every year and have one of the highest dropout rates in the nation why do we sit around and scratch our heads and wonder why we fail at things like this? Is it because our state legislature is poorly educated? Maybe.