South Dakotans

Solution for road money; TAX POOR MORE!

This is one way to get the money we need.

Once again legislators are punishing the poor and thrifty by suggesting we raise registration fees JUST on the people who can afford it the least; people who drive older cars.

People who own older cars could end up paying more to license them if a group of state lawmakers has its way.

A bill that will be introduced in the next legislative session would require owners of older cars to pay the same fees applied to newer cars. Currently, the owners of any noncommercial vehicle more than five years old pay 70 percent of the original licensing fee.

Depending on a car’s weight, it would cost owners $9 to $19.50 a year in additional licensing fees.

Representative Shantel ‘Al Bundy’ Krebs is leading the fight. Yeah, because shoe sales(wo)men have the best ideas.

Licensing fees for trucks and cars are based on their weight. The heavier the vehicle, the more it costs to license, because heavier vehicles exact a greater toll of wear and tear on highways and roads.

Eliminating the discounts for older vehicles would generate an extra $12 million a year that counties could use to build and maintain roads, said Rep. Shantel Krebs, R-Sioux Falls. Krebs is one of the lawmakers supporting the measure.

Eliminating the discount for older cars makes sense, Krebs said.

Maybe in your bad math, help the priviledged more, mentality.

First off the fee is unfair as it currently stands. If you own a vehicle that is 2,000 pounds and 4 years old your fee is $30 but if you own a vehicle that is 10,000 pounds your fee is $65. Shouldn’t it be $150 if we are truly taxing by weight?

BUT LET’s TRAVEL TO COMMON SENSE LAND FOR JUST A MOMENT(I know this will be hard for my Big Government Republican readers, but please bare with me.)

I think the best solution is to hope for Federal dollars from Obama’s stimulus package. The second solution would be making cuts, cuts, cuts to Rounds Kingdom in Pierre.

But if we still need the money I suggest we fix the weight-to-fee issue as it currently stands. Tax accordingly to the weight (which we are not currently doing).

Charge a retail luxury tax on on personal vehicles over $60,000. If you can afford the vehicle you can afford the tax, and more then likely finance the taxes due in your payments.

If all else fails, we can have a rate increase, but it should be across the board keeping the discounts in place. People who drive older vehicles probably drive less. If they can’t afford a new vehicle, they probably have trouble putting gas in the vehicle they currently have.

Taxing the poor more is a stupid idea, in these economic times, but if we must truly raise fees, make it fair. Once again it proves our legislators are short on progressive ideas. Whadda yah expect?Thirty years of secretive, regressive Republican rule will do that to a state.

I guess we don’t have to worry about Hamas attacking us in SD.

SD could be getting a new logo

Another ignorant bigot writes a letter to the editor. Don’t get me wrong, I think the Zionists in the mideast cause just as many problems as the extremist muslims do. But I don’t think we need to worry about the Jews taking over SD anytime soon. Mike Rounds must of had a couple campaign contributors who were Jewish he had to appease.

I read that Gov. Mike Rounds lighted Menorah candles on the Capitol step during Hanukkah. The Menorah has been the symbol of the Jewish religion for 3,000 years. South Dakota is a Christian state.

But then at the end of the letter she contradicts herself.

Gov. Rounds has violated the separation of church and state and turned his back on the Christian traditions of South Dakota.

So which is it? Do you believe SD is a Christian Theocracy or a Secular state? You can’t have both.

This is especially repugnant to me in light of the fact that Jews reject the divinity of Christ.

Wasn’t Jesus a Jew?

City’s voodoo math

Okay, so we raise taxes to build new roads on the outskirts of town that only benefit new development, then borrow against bonds to maintain infrastructure and then cross our fingers and hope the feds pay us back, without interest.

The city can prepay the U.S. government’s remaining share of the cost at $24.7 million and Congress will reimburse it.

Um, wouldn’t you wait until the check cleared the bank before we started these projects? I’m beginning to think that Eugene ‘Montgomery Burns’ Rowenhorst and Mayor Minions are trying to shove as many projects through as possible before they jump ship and leave an empty galley to the next administration.

Bonding is like a long-term mortgage, Beninga said. The CIP, which comes from the second-penny sales tax, typically is a one-time-only expense with no interest cost to the project. With a bond, interest would be added to the bridge project’s cost.

“We have lots of other issues that we’re going to have to address in the future, and I would prefer that we keep our bonding indebtedness as low as possible,” he said.

Munson doesn’t care, he’s done in 16 months.

There should be laws against this recklessness.

Oyateunderground-Siyotanka: A Voice from Within

Wanbli WiWohkpe (James Starkey) has been making a series of videos. This is one of them. James makes and plays his own traditional flutes often out of found objects.

Commentary;

Wanbli WiWohkpe grew up on the streets of Rapid City, an illegal squatter town built in the Sacred Homeland of the Lakota Nation.
Growing up amidst what was commonly called “The Feud”, Wanbli WiWohkpe was caught between two worlds: the wasicu world of academia, where he excelled and blossomed, and the world of the reality around him, where he was looked down upon for who he and his Family were.
Wanbli WiWohkpe saw the utter disrespect afforded the Indigenous Male. He was told constantly in school to eschew his kin, and to grab hold of the American Dream.
Through a series of events, Wanbli WiWohkpe chose instead to follow his older brother, Warren Rich, and the two became very close, almost as if they melded into one person. He learned to be strong, to be swift, and to be loyal.
The Youths ultimately became entangled in the system of incarceration perpetuated by the Invader/Occupier. The Youths grew into Men, and the violence continued and escalated. Knowing something was amiss and unable to articulate what, these Men learned to lash out upon others of their kind. A tragic spiral of lateral violence continued unabated until they were all again incarcerated by the illegal squatter government.
Wanbli WiWohkpe went to prison for 1st Degree Manslaughter in 1986.
In the subsequent years, Wanbli WiWohkpe has seen those closest to him as a Youth perish. Most escaped their oppression via suicide. None lashed out at the Invader/Occupier in the terrible ways other oppressed Nations do. None went amongst the Invader and exploded. None took the Occupier with them to their death.
Instead, being from a beautiful People not familiar with domestication, a People not wishing to inflict damage upon their tormenters; not wishing anything from their tormenters but for the torment to cease, they imploded.
They imploded and they continue to implode. The Invasion/Occupation continues unchecked, and the Lakota Nation, especially the Lakota Male, remains pauperized.
Our Lives were stolen by the Occupier. Every thing the Invader has is stolen.
Every bite of food, every warm bed, every happy home, every scrap of power, every nuance of anything enjoyed by the Invader is taken directly from the Health of the Indigenous. The Invader’s prosperity is taken directly from the Hearth and Home of the Lakota Nation. A Hearth and Home now non-existent as the Lakota People wander their own Homeland as homeless.
As the fortunate give thanks for the blessings of God and their American Dream, the Lakota Nation, the less fortunate, continue to simply exist as pesky and useless vermin in the Occupier’s world.
Through Lakol Wicohan, the Friendly Lifeways of the Lakota Nation, Wanbli WiWohkpe began to see. He began to understand the difference between his Nation and the Occupier. He committed himself to Sundance and Vision Quest, and now after completing 4 years of Sundancing and a 4 day Vision Quest, Wanbli WiWohkpe has made a true Relative with the Siyotanka, the Ancient Lakota Flute.
Wanbli WiWohkpe believes the Siyotanka is part of Lakota Man Power, a component of our Being that has been kept from us. To label the Siyotanka as a “courting flute” and to play it as feebly as “Native American Flute” players do, keeps us emasculated as Indigenous Males.
Look around, most “Native American Flute” makers/players are not Indigenous, and those famed Indigenous flute players often play a non-Indigenously made flute.
The Invader/Occupier is literally chopping off a part of us, emasculating us; thereby rendering us impotent. Wanbli WiWohkpe has learned directly from the Winged and Four Legged just how to play the Siyotanka, how to regain Lakota Masculinity, and how to Heal.
OyateUnderground Productions: World Class Representin’.

Wanbli WiWohkpe, he emaciapelo