February 2010

Whatever Vernon

Vernon works in marketing but didn’t think there was anything wrong with this? Whatever.

Vernon Brown’s mayoral campaign has redone a television ad after Brown’s former employer expressed concerns about the commercial.

Brown is a former reporter for KELO-TV in Sioux Falls. The 30-second video included clips from Brown’s reporting days. In the first 10 seconds, the KELO logo briefly appears in three different clips. The ad has been running on cable television shows, including CNN.

KELO General Manager Jay Huizenga said he heard about the ad during a staff meeting earlier this week. He was concerned that viewers might see the KELO logo and view it as an implied endorsement of Brown’s candidacy.

“Because, like, we are already the propaganda wing of Ironic Johnny and the current mayor of Sioux Falls. We just don’t want to confuse viewers by also giving a leg up to a candidate.”

Brown said he apologized and that he doubted many people noticed the logos.

Yeah, because old ladies, your biggest base, NEVER EVER watch Stormland TV News.

“I should have thought of that, but I didn’t,” Brown said. “It’s part of my biography. It’s where I worked.”

That statement right there tells you he knew what he was doing.

With 12 years as a KELO reporter, Brown arguably has the best name recognition of any of the six candidates in the race.

He DID have the best name recognition. I would argue that Staggers and Huether have that in the bag now.

Warning! D-Bag Alert!

I love how Blake talks about spending and protecting the working poor while driving his leather-clad SUV. Get a clue dude.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVXSwo6s4hQ&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

Rumor has it to, that you live in Harrisburg now. How can you represent your district when you don’t live in it? Is this true?

Dr. Huber ‘tries’ to spread the bullshit on medical marijuana

Get with the program Tom;

“I don’t believe the number of people who want this is a large number.  I think there’s a vocal number of people but I don’t know if there’s a large number of people,” Dr. Tom Huber with the South Dakota State Medical Association said.

Yeah, because 32,000 people in a state of 750,000 isn’t a lot of people. You may be a doctor, but you are not a mathematician.

“So far with my patients, or patients I’m familiar with that work with specialists, we seem to have control of this and it doesn’t seem to us that we have a huge problem that needs something new and very controversial.”

Something NEW!? WTF are you talking about?! Marijuana has been around before mankind! It has been consistently proven to be a natural analgesic. Maybe Tom needs to smoke a joint and get a clue.

“I’ve seen what its like to suffer from one of these illnesses and have met MS patients, people who have cancer and there is a community out there of medical marijuana patients that are suffering,” Reistroffer says.

Why would we deny people who are dying, relief from pain because a couple of buearacrats labeled it the ‘evil weed’. When this passes in November, Huber is the one that will look like a gigantic asswipe.

For the record, Emmett helped Theresa and I with the tax petition drive. He is an incredible guy, with tons of passion. If someone can get this done, it is him.

Staggers lands a zinger

Seems things are heating up in the mayoral race. Bout time.

“While every person, business and organization in the community knew we were in the middle of a serious economic slowdown, City Hall chose to ignore reality,” said Bill Peterson, who voiced his criticism Tuesday.

Correct me if I am wrong, but wasn’t Bill one of the advocates of the tax increase for the arterial streets and the 3rd penny for the EC? At both council meetings I warned of a economic downturn. Where were your concerns then, Bill?

“This is just another example on how city government is becoming more out of touch on what the citizens of Sioux Falls want,” Huether said.

Yah think? I’m glad to see Mike is out there talking to citizens. I think he is coming to the realization that people are hurting, I can tell you that 2009 wasn’t the greatest year for Detroit Lewis, but I don’t have four kids to feed. I can’t imagine what some of these people are going thru.

Mayor Dave Munson, who is term-limited, said Peterson’s criticism almost sounds like he is running against him. “I hope that he’s not trying to create a crisis for one that doesn’t exist,” Munson said.

Well, Dave, if you think a $330 million dollar city debt and a sagging economy are not a crisis, I have a bridge to sell you in the Sahara.

“They should have seen this coming and they didn’t, and that’s a failure of leadership, period,” Peterson said.

Well, well, well, seems Mr. Peterson doesn’t even know the ‘failure of leadership’ he created himself. He wrote the unconstitutional home rule charter for the city which pretty much ties the hands of councilors to make budget decisions. Kinda hard to lead when you are handcuffed Bill. You pretty much eliminated the checks and balances the city council would have had over the mayor.

Five months ago, some council members and the mayor sparred over the 2010 budget, which is 4 percent larger than last year’s. Staggers introduced 30 amendments to cut spending. Only one passed. It pushed a capital project to a later date.

Yes, and only a couple of those amendments were seconded for debate. That is the rubberstamp council at their best. What I can’t understand is even if you do not agree with Kermit’s amendments, why wouldn’t you at least be willing to debate them?

The current plan for potential holdbacks is to put the city, and the next mayor in a good position, Munson said.

“I really do want to leave it solid,” he said. “We have to make assumptions ahead of time.”

Yes. A solid debt. $100 million for ‘Quality of Life’ projects like monkey crappers, wood thingies and football fields for kids living in Montrose. $70 million for a water pipeline that we won’t have for another 2-6 years (maybe) and over $10 million for levees that the Feds should be paying for out of our income taxes.

Staggers said his opponents who supported the local sales tax funding option for the events center are contradicting themselves.

“It’s interesting that they are concerned about the budget, but at the same time they are out there advocating tax increases,” he said.

ZING!