January 2012

MLK DAY

When you listen to this speech by MLK, you can’t help to think about our current situation, except it applies to ALL of the working class, not just minorities.

“A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. On the one hand we are called to play the good Samaritan on life’s roadside, but that will only be an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life’s highway.“  -Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

FROM BREAD FOR THE WORLD

Let’s Do Something About Why People are Hungry.

There are many reasons. One is South Dakota’s tax on groceries.

• Grocery prices are up! The state can’t undo the high prices, but it could help by getting the tax off.

• Times are tough!

• Solutions are available! especially for the state portion (4%) of the food tax. This would help middle- and lower-income people. Most states do not tax groceries. No state bordering South Dakota taxes food.

• The food tax refund program is not the answer. It now reaches only 264 households in the whole state, despite much greater need. These types of programs are inherently ineffective.

• Cutting the food tax is the right thing to do. This tax hurts. What people pay annually in food tax (state + city tax) could buy their food for 3 weeks.

What to do? Enough people need to ask state legislators to start cutting the food tax. To join an email network of advocates, send your name, address & phone to: ryebread@breadrising.org.

www.endthefoodtax.org

South Dakotans ended the tax on medical services and outlawed paying to use toilets. You don’t pay a tax before you can vote or before you can breathe. No one should have to pay a tax before they can eat.

Investigative journalism isn’t free, fools

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HofoK_QQxGc[/youtube]

While most people have been in a zombie like haze over the past couple of days, mostly about this white guy from Denver who has a bible stuck up his butt and the arm of the 6 Million dollar man, back in the real world, where people actually pay attention to what is going in local politics (very few), we have our local news media. Of course getting any other story out of Stormland TV over the next week may be difficult. They have been busy covering the Janks. But long behold, the Argue Endorser promises us investigative reporting (when those doing the investigating are not on unpaid vacations).

Here’s the deal, folks, providing the news takes money, and Hell, if you provide enough money, you can buy the media, just ask the Build it Now folks. So while many are in a tizzy about the AL charging for internet access to their indepth stories, I say – go for it. There readership will be even less, which will lead to their demise even quicker (IMO). They haven’t figured out yet that the advertisers should be paying for their existence. You’d think they would have by the way they kiss their asses. Nope, instead, they want the public, that they should be providing a public service to, pay for it.

Okay fair enough, let’s play along.

I have had South DaCola for several years now, have made next to nothing running the site, but enjoy doing it. I received several emails this morning that it had disappeared on the internets. Why did it disappear? I had to pay the coffers, yup, believe it or not, it even costs a blogger a few bucks to maintain his madness.

So here is my plan. Unlike the AL, I won’t charge you to read my site, BUT, if you would like to donate, like many others have, go to the right hand side and throw a few bucks in the kitty. I promise not to spend it on vodka or lap dances, but I won’t make any guarantees either.

And I won’t let you buy me either, even if you send me a case of Chopin. (subtle hint)

Inside Jenkalowland

(Image: KELO-TV)

I guess I really don’t have to give my two-cents about Bill. Other media sources will fill your breakfast bowl on that. While I have many things to say about Bill (good and bad) I choose not to.

I will say this though. I have had the pleasure of knowing one of Bill’s best friends and one of his children for several years. Both wonderful, intelligent, amazing people who have both been honest with me over the years about Bill, and I appreciate that.

Just like the rest of us, Bill will have to meet his maker, and only they can decide whether Bill was ‘all that’ and a bag of chips. But it is interesting to watch STORMLAND drool all over themselves telling Wild Bill stories. I walked by the studios this afternoon and almost fell on my ass. Where is code enforcement when you need them?

Besides TIF’s is the city considering ‘cash incentives’ to developers?

Need Cash from the city? If you are developer in SF, you may be able to get drive up service at city hall.

A South DaCola foot soldier attended the city council working session yesterday, and was surprised to hear the city was considering ‘cash incentives’ besides TIF’s to developers. What a slippery slope! They told me this about the meeting;

The room was packed with developers (invited by Darrin Smith).  I sat next to a developer and a prominent city director. The developer kept making the remark ad naseum that he came to the meeting because he heard that they were handing out free money! He was giddy!  After he had said the same thing over and over, the city director that was sitting next to him said,

“Yeah, maybe we should just have a drive-up?”

I already think it is a farce we give TIF’s to developers to re-develop older neighborhoods when we don’t give it to residents who buy older homes and fix them up (though community development does a nice job with low-interest equity loans and grants). But I draw the line at cash incentives. How does a tax payer benefit from giving a direct payment to a private business without receiving a service? We don’t.

And secondly, how dare a city director joke about it.