May 2010

Clarifying Rand Paul – This is a tough one

While I think it can be very difficult as a social liberal to defend some of Rand’s comments, I do defend some of the things he says;

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3O2rBz9gwo[/youtube]

I unequivically disagree with Rand and his stance on the Civil Rights Act. Discrimination needed to be reigned in, publicly and privately. One of the reasons why I support gay marriage and equality rights for gays is because equal rights should be afforded to everyone in this country, but as Rand Paul points out in the NPR interview, we must take common sense steps while achieving equality. He brings up the ADA. I agree with him, why not let local businesses and communities solve these issues, why let the Feds mandate these programs? Can’t we use common sense to solve problems instead of an across the board approach? I think that is really what Rand is talking about.

As for his rants about the liberal media (who is owned by rich, well-connected Republicans) and his affiliation with the tea-party movement (who is funded by rich, well-connected Republicans, the Koch Brothers in particular) Puhleeeeese! You are not fooling anyone.

Review Code Enforcement? Isn’t it a little late for that?

I must kill the constitution!

Once again the Gargoyle Leader puts on kid gloves while battling a monster;

Review the way that city code is enforced across the board and find a better way to make it fair.

Earlier in this editorial you said what is wrong with code enforcement; IT’S UNCONSTITUTIONAL. The review process is over, we know what will make it fair; get rid of the administrative appeals process and let citizens fight their citations in front of a judge.

It’s fortunate that new Sioux Falls Mayor Mike Huether already had called for just such a review during his campaign, saying that consolidating the process across the various departments that oversee city code might be the best solution.

Consolidation will help the administrative part of code enforcement and save tax payers money, but it does nothing to solve the problem. It is really quite simple;

• Fire anyone directly involved with this mess

• Totally destruct the process as it is now and start from scratch

• Allow citizens to defend themselves in a court of law

This isn’t freaking rocket science, it is constitutional rights. It is a shame, that a person who has given so much to Americans as a combat vet had to spend $40,000 of his own money to prove the obvious.

The bigger question though is why is the Gargoyle Leader using kid gloves on this topic? It’s simple, they have contributed to the flawed system in a round about way. After one of their employees was killed by a careless driver they pushed to put in red light cameras, another convoluted city endeavor that doesn’t allow citizens to fight their charges in front of a judge. Funny how the AL Ed Board didn’t bring that up in the editorial.

Sorry, you can’t have it both ways, if you want to keep the cameras, you have to ditch the unconstitutionality of them. That means actually ticketing offenders (not cars) and allowing them to argue their charge in front of a judge, or dismantling the robot police.

Hey, Mayor Mike, It’s time to get over yourself

In a story about our mayoral election process in Sioux Falls, Huether couldn’t resist to get in one more dig about how people were mean to him in the final days of the campaign?

But Huether disagrees. The campaign dragged on long enough and probably led to voter fatigue, he says. And in the runoff, “the last two weeks weren’t fun because of some of the tactics used.”

While people have hammered me about being nicer to Mike and to get over my ‘sour grapes’ I find it astounding that a guy who won is still crying about things people said about him.

Let’s clear something up Mike. YOU WON! And you won because you hired a professional bad ass campaigner to run your campaign, and you spent a gob of money. Partisanship, gays, abortion, short bald men and big mouths like me, Tracy and Ches had nothing to do with it.

I opposed you for a number of reasons, and 90% of them were funny shit that no one cares about (like your campaign colors being totally awful.) The main reason I opposed you is simple; You became a millionaire on the backs of poor people who have no understanding of finances and credit cards, all the while telling people you came from where they came from. Trust me, if First Premier would have came knocking on your mom’s door, she would have taken it, and you know it. Maybe that was your advantage as marketing VP of FP Bankcard, you knew how to sucker your own kind.

So please, if you want to be an effective mayor, stop worrying about your image, your hair and your precious daughter, and start worrying about us, the ones who fund your four year (hopefully) adventure.

New crappers & now a hot tub?

Boy, we are living the life on the taxpayer’s dime in Sioux Falls

Oh, where to begin?

Snow monkeys from Japan soon will show their inquisitive faces in Sioux Falls.

They’ll make their new home in the Great Plains Zoo as part of a $5 million expansion to educate and entertain year-round visitors to their exhibit.

They’re famous for seeking out a warm bath.

“They like to sit in the hot springs in northern Japan,” Smith said.

Maybe they would like to come over to Detroit’s house for some margarita’s and a hot tub soak on a cold winter day?

Money for the new exhibit will come from three sources. Planners hope $1.5 million will come from the businesses in a fund drive the Chamber of Commerce has endorsed. Officials first set that target at $2.3 million but lowered the goal because of the soft economy. Another $1.5 million will come from the city capital improvements budget and $2 million from additional donations, Whealy said.

Oh, sorry, we don’t have $8,000 for a house that helps ex-cons transition into society or tax breaks for homeless shelters but we have $1.5 million for monkey hot tubs. Pathetic.

While I welcome the new exhibit, it is time we cut the purse strings at the zoo. If they can raise $3.5 million privately for the project, it is obvious they can raise the entire $5 million privately. Let’s get the CITIZEN’S house in order before we get the MONKEY’S house in order.