I guess it wouldn’t be another presidency without a new middle-east country to bomb
l3wis Sorry American seniors, kids, unemployed and down trodden, can’t help you out, we have to bomb another middle east country back to the stone age;
March 2011
These things happen when one party controls Pierre
Bernie Hunhoff writes a great letter about how GOP lawmakers in Pierre are all about talking about transparency, but when it comes to action, they scurry like freaking rats;
My second concern is that we don’t have enough transparency in government to determine whether any of our existing economic development funds are being spent wisely. I introduced legislation this year to require that the state provide an economic database to report information and results on loans, grants and tax rebates for economic development, but it was opposed by the administration and died on a party-line vote.
Democrats also offered a bill to prevent campaign contributions from companies that receive no-bid contracts from state government. That also was opposed by the administration and killed.
South Dakota has no restrictions on so-called pay-to-play as other states have. You could write campaign checks to South Dakota politicians who ultimately control the purse strings on economic development programs. In fact, this year, a bill was passed over my objections to allow corporations to write checks of up to $10,000 to PACs that can give money to politicians. Surely, there’s no quid pro quo in South Dakota, but we should have laws prohibiting such conduct.
But representative Johnston just tells us to get on the inter-webs and we can download and print out all the info we want;
I am committed to openness and transparency in all aspects of government operations. At the state level, our government has taken many steps to provide online resources for virtually all government records through www.Open.SD.gov. I encourage everyone to visit the site to experience all the information available with the click of a mouse.
Wow! Who knew it was so easy to uncover the state’s secrets? I feel like a total ass that I didn’t know about this website sooner. 
Maybe we need to buy the Big Sioux river a pad w/ wings
We don’t seem to be concerned about transparency and conflict of interests in local government. We don’t seem to care about sewer backups, pot-marked streets and water rates being raised every 10 days. We even love to let the city spend millions on task-fucking-force after task-fucking-force on the events center (even though the public has yet to vote on a funding source).
But what do we like to get concerned about? Spring flooding.
Like a women’s menstrual cycle, spring flooding is pretty much gonna happen. Yeah, it may be off a few days, but it always happens. But it doesn’t stop our local government, officials and local media from blowing it way out of proportion;
They believe they have dodged a major bullet. After weeks of preparing for record flooding, they now believe the flood threat for the city is over, at least for now.
While I should be having a sigh of relief, all I can do is laugh at how freaking ridiculous our city officials look making mountains out of mole hills. It would of took a civil engineer and a meteorologist about 30 minutes to figure out our flood threat was low. But hey, let’s divert attention from the real problems that exist in our city by talking about a woman’s monthly visitor.
Maybe we should hold a press conference about the threat of one-way streets downtown have on public safety. I see Iwegions and old people driving the wrong way all the time on them.
Taxing the rich more is the ONLY way to pull us out of this economic mess
This is a very well written letter about the importance of taxing the wealthy more;
My long years allow me to remember how our maximum federal income tax rates varied from 64 percent to 94 percent for the 50 years before President Reagan took office, including a maximum rate of 90 percent during all eight years of the Eisenhower presidency. Eisenhower defended the high tax rate by suggesting to the wealthy that “it is in your enlightened self-interest to help create a more just and humane society.” He knew that it is only through our taxes that we together build a society.
Exactly. It is like what I say about paying property taxes though I have no children, it is an investment for our society and a more educated society makes my life better.
Happy St. Patty’s!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrBLqp-s__o[/youtube]