3/30/13

420: how to starve South Dakota's police to death

Cannabis advocate, Emmett Reistroffer weighed in on Amicus lector, the blog of Argus Leader crime and justice reporter, John Hult:
Policing for Profit also grades the states on how well they protect property owners—only three states receive a B or better. And in most states, public accountability is limited as there is little oversight or reporting about how police and prosecutors use civil forfeiture or spend the proceeds. Federal laws encourage even more civil forfeiture abuse through a loophole called “equitable sharing” that allows law enforcement to circumvent even the limited protections of state laws. With equitable sharing, law enforcement agencies can and do profit from forfeitures they wouldn’t be able to under state law.
Hult made this chart showing where the loot from drug busts goes:



The large awards to Corson County stand out:
The racial makeup of the county was 60.80% Native American, 37.19% White, 0.10% Black or African American, 0.05% Asian, 0.22% from other races, and 1.65% from two or more races. 2.13% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. 27.3% were of German ancestry.
Proceeds from seizures are netting less cash for South Dakota's police state after interested party began alerting West Coast and Colorado patriots.

3/29/13

Clay, LawCo support marriage equality

W'all be drugged: even Brookings County looks like it's evolving.

So, from someone who believes that Facebook is malware, this map offers some hope:
Over the last week, many Facebook users have shown support for marriage equality as two high-profile cases get underway at the US Supreme Court. They've done so in a simple yet instantly noticeable way; by substituting their usual profile photo for a pink-on-red equal sign designed by the Human Rights Campaign.
Looks like Facebook people in Missoula County, Montana and Santa Fe County, New Mexico support marriage equality, too.

RT @jerenergy, a guy surprised by his Wyoming (The Equality State) readers.

3/28/13

West River bracing for water shortages, wildfires; Thune, Noem slamming burning barn door

State Rep. Bernie Hunhoff (D-18) still believes in the state that I've forsaken. He has some common sense wildfire defense advice for East River residents frustrated with Gov. Denny Daugaard's lack of action:
If you live in the country, take a hard look at your yard before the temperatures get any higher. Move firewood and other kindling away from buildings. Keep haystacks, fuel barrels and other inflammatory materials in spacious areas that can be reached by fire trucks. Keep the grass mowed and trim the trees so if a fire does start it is containable.
Hey, look: Les Roselles and Jerry Apeshit are running to replace Bubble Butt as mayor of Lead while Sen. don Juan Thune and Rep. Krusti Noem arrive about ten years late to fight ponderosa pine infestation in the Black Hills.

LawCo should have panicked a long time ago.
Lawrence County Deputy State’s Attorney Bruce Outka said that in-kind, as well as monetary resources, count in the match process giving the county about $955,000.--Jaci Conrad Pearson, Black Hills Pioneer.
Creeks in the Southern Hills are dry with little relief in sight: it's staggering to see so many real estate signs on properties surrounded by dead and dying ponderosa pine as people and cattle have sucked up all the water.




From a piece by Aaron Orlowski published in the Rapid City Journal.
Last summer was one of the busiest ever for firefighters. It is a sentiment shared by Dave Barber, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service, who said that although precipitation totals are about average this winter, it has been a long, dry spell for western South Dakota. “If we don’t see precipitation as we begin to warm up and get more sunshine, we are going to get a lot of dry grass conditions and that can be dangerous,” he said Sunday. “I just hope we pick up more snow and spring rain.”
Forest management=land management: banning the acquisition of threatened resources only puts existing public holdings at risk to unintentional often-costly human-caused wildfires.

The scale of pine infestation is changing daily even as the beetle gets the rap. Now, it has been labelled an invasive species although the insect has been managing the habitat effectively for eons before European cattle destroyed it as a bison range.

Investors: stay away from the Hills until after it burns to the ground then enjoy bargain basement prices as it renews in juniper, aspen and oak.

3/27/13

Hot Springs joins Brookings as socialist community

South Dakota came up this morning in a discussion of inland tax havens for dark money during a segment of the Diane Rehm Show and on Dakota Midday, voters were reminded that Mike Rounds left office with a glaring structural deficit.
Residents of Hot Springs voted in favor for the city to purchase the Black Hills oldest tourist attraction, Evans Plunge. By a count of 380 to 369, a 'yes' vote allows the city to borrow up to $1.9 million to purchase and renovate the property.--Joe McHale, KOTA
Okay: it's the home of far too many old, fat, white people already; so, why would any business locate in The Peoples' Republic of Brookings anyway? Councilor Jael Thorpe wonders whether the town even has a future.
“I like the direction you’re heading,” Thorpe told Jay Bender and Dwaine Chapel, “but when does the subsidy stop?” Bender, who heads the Growth Partnership, parent organization for the Research Park at SDSU, gave an equally straightforward answer: “We’re projecting seven to 10 years, at which time there should be enough rental income to reduce our requests. The short and the long answer, Jael, is that at this moment we need your help.”--Ken Curley, Brookings Register.
Let's see: the town owns the liquor store, the water, the phone company, the power company, the golf course....

3/26/13

Noem ally subject of ethics probe

Here's another way an unscrupulous campaign surplus can change the game: Minnesota Public Radio aired a report on how Rep. Kristi Noem's TEA Party compatriot, Michele Bachmann (earth hater-MN), used her campaign war chest to bully Republican legislators in her state by threatening to run opponents to them in primaries if they voted against a bill that bans marriage equality.

Fellow Koch whore Bachmann could be subjected to a trans-vaginal ultrasound of the IRS kind:
The Daily Beast has learned that federal investigators are now interviewing former Bachmann campaign staffers nationwide about alleged intentional campaign-finance violations. The investigators are working on behalf of the Office of Congressional Ethics, which probes reported improprieties by House members and their staffs and then can refer cases to the House Ethics Committee. Now the prospect of a House Ethics Committee investigation into Bachmann’s presidential campaign adds an additional indignity to the self-inflicted disasters of her political career. Demagoguery eventually brings dishonor. And her most passionate supporters ought to consider what it means when the people who know Bachmann best respect her the least.--John Avlon, The Daily Beast.

South Dakota's large-bottomed US House Representative, Kristi Noem, is getting rich pimping her children and relatives in her campaign videos. She raised four times more moola than her opponent, Matt Varilek, according to the newspaper hiding her past from voters:
Tony Post, executive director of the South Dakota Republican Party, said he doesn’t see Noem’s gift as very unusual. Republican congressional candidates usually give to support the party, he said, citing $95,000 in donations Sen. John Thune gave to the party in 2010.
But her skills at prostitution are hardly new.

Noem nearly lost in 2010 following revelations of a 20-year driving record fraught with recklessness resulting in numerous arrest warrants for failure to appear.

Millions in farm subsidies apparently negotiated through FSA: evidence of entitlement, solipsism.

Democrats=safe sex. Republicans=cheap sex.

High court muzzles drug dogs; Thune ally: cannabis not criminal

David Jackson, USA Today:
Police who searched a Florida house based on the reactions of a drug sniffing dog violated the homeowner's constitutional rights, the Supreme Court said Tuesday. Writing for the majority, Justice Antonin Scalia said a dog sniff at a house where police suspect drugs are being grown constitutes a search under the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, but the circumstances did not justify the officers' entry.
The GOP is unhinging over cannabis.
United States Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) is asking his colleagues in Congress to stop sending people away to prison for minor marijuana offenses. “There are people in jail for 37, 50, 45 years for nonviolent crimes. That is a huge mistake. Our prisons are full of nonviolent criminals,” Sen. Paul said. Over the weekend, however, he announced that, along with Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), he was working on a bill that would no longer put nonviolent offenders behind bars for dealing in small amounts of a drug that recently become legal in two US states.--RT.com

Rounds, Daugaard administrations received many millions to traffic Native children

Negatives continue to damn GOP hopefuls in South Dakota.

For another good look at why Mike Rounds is such a poor candidate for tribal nations check out this piece from Christina Rose, Native Sun News, posted at indianz:
American Indian High school graduation rates have dropped from 68 percent to 45 percent in South Dakota in the last two years. One teacher even stated that the current curriculum includes mistakes based on was known in the 1960s. “They changed the cover on the old curriculum. That’s all they did,” said Heather Brown, teacher at the Takini School. The fifth grade social studies lesson plans originate with European settlers and the difficulties they had upon arriving on these shores. One teacher said that out of the entire curriculum, there is only one section on Native Americans and it features only early contact. The all-white representation of people within the curriculum is said by educators to be as alienating as the lesson plans.
The name, Hani Shafai, keeps popping up in searches into the developing scandal surrounding the Daugaard/Children's Home Society campaign donation circle.

It's well known that South Dakota is a moocher state and will shaft anybody it can to make $1.59.
Among other things, the October 2011 series — “Native Foster Care: Lost Children, Shattered Families” — said Native American children in South Dakota too often are placed with white families, contrary to the intent of the federal Indian Child Welfare Act. It also said the state has a financial incentive to take Native American children into state custody, that Gov. Dennis Daugaard’s work at Children’s Home Society while he was lieutenant governor was a conflict of interest, and that South Dakota’s foster care system in general has a cultural bias against Native Americans. The Coalition of Sioux Tribes for Children and Families and the Lakota People’s Law Project cited this number in a report to Congress in January. “We believe it is likely that the state consciously treats Native American foster children as an attractor of federal money,” the coalition’s report said. --Cody Winchester, Sioux Falls Argus Leader. Links added.
A summit of stakeholders is scheduled for April in Rapid City.

NPR followed up on its original story. Laura Sullivan reports that South Dakota Department of Social Services has likely broken federal law:
"I've seen it firsthand," says Brandon Sazue, chairman of the Crow Creek tribe. "That would be like United States going into a foreign country and saying, 'Hey, I'm taking your kid because of this or that,' " he said. "I mean, this is within the boundaries of the Crow Creek Sioux Indian reservation, and as far as I'm concerned, we are the government." Officials with that agency say that when native children are placed in foster care, South Dakota and other states generally move the children onto Medicaid, which is heavily subsidized by millions in federal dollars.
The State is also most certainly in violation of the 'Bad Man Clause' because federal money is involved: it has been applied in other legal actions according to a report by Mary Garrigan in the Rapid City Journal:
The "bad man" legal argument was successfully used by Lavetta Elk, another Oglala Sioux, in a lawsuit alleging that a U.S. Army recruiter had violated the "bad man" clause when he sexually molested her while transporting her to a military recruiting appointment. Elk recently won a $650,000 settlement that left intact a federal judge's ruling that said the treaty language requires the government to reimburse Sioux tribe members who are injured by "any wrong" done by "bad men among the whites, or among other people subject to the authority of the United States."
One red state commenter at reporter Bob Mercer's blog, Pure Pierre Politics, believes DSS is broken because women employed there hyphenate their names.

The Sioux City Journal and its parent company are earth haters' wet dreams with histories of supporting only GOP candidates.

Dr. David Newquist chronicles South Dakota's path to red state collapse as TOTN interviews Laura Sullivan about her heart rending Native foster children story:

Sen. Johnson leading conservation efforts; KXL dividing GOP

While the recent Public Policy Polling findings suggest that the GOP is failing South Dakota voters, Senator Tim Johnson is being recognized as a tireless champion for sustainability in his state. Ducks Unlimited member, Darrel Reinke writes in the Pierre Cap Journal:
For nearly 50 years, a federal program, The Land and Water Conservation Fund, has been working effectively in our state to protect our most critical outdoor resources and to provide recreation opportunities that have helped spur a $1 billion recreation economy in South Dakota. Yet the fund, which is supposed to receive $900 million annually, has been constantly raided by Congress and used for other unintended purposes. Sen. Tim Johnson wants to fix that problem and make sure the promise that was made to the American people is finally fulfilled. He has co-sponsored a bill (SB 338) in the U.S. Senate that would make sure LWCF receives the annual funding that the federal government collects from offshore drilling.
Sen. Johnson is a strong leader and is expected to defend the environment from the seat he holds until the end of the upcoming election cycle.



West River ranchers describing themselves as Republicans are angry that their political leaders aren't doing more to end the land grab that would spoil their livelihoods:
Dwayne Vig, 71, a cattle rancher near Mud Butte in Meade County, says while he's no Obama fan, he is even less enthused about TransCanada's pipeline. The couple feared they would be taken to court by TransCanada under eminent domain, a law that allows land to be acquired if it is perceived as being in the national interest.--Daniel Simmons-Ritchie Rapid City Journal staff.
A now-dethroned former GOP strategist taught meanness as an effective political tool: some of us learned better than others have.

The earth hater party is splintering in South Dakota, a state that traffics Native children and is under fire by civil rights groups.

3/25/13

Brendan Johnson sweat lodge experience life-changing; Lakota Grandmothers call nations to action

Johnson cooked for an hour and a half and came out feeling changed in ways likely to endure. But then, he has been feeling changed since he began his travels to Indian Country for something other than prosecution work.--Kevin Woster, Rapid City Journal.
From my inbox:

LAKOTA ELDERS TRUTH TOUR
LakotaGrandmothers.org
PRESS ADVISORY
For Immediate Release: March 25, 2013
Rapid City Event Contact: Thembi Blessington, 828-707-8619, thembithongo@gmail.com
To arrange interviews with Lakota Elders: Canupa Gluha Mani at 605-517-1547.
Truth Tour press contact (Lakota Solidarity Project): Thembi Blessington at 828-707-8619.
LAKOTA ELDERS FIND THEIR STRENGTH TO CHALLENGE GENOCIDE
History Making Truth Tour Begins in Rapid City April 1 on Journey from Pine Ridge Reservation to the United Nations and White House
WHO: Lakota Elders Truth Tour of traditional Lakota Elders from Pine Ridge Reservation.

WHAT: Educational and cultural presentation followed by a screening of the powerful new Lakota documentary Red Cry, about genocide in America.

WHEN: Monday, April 1. The presentation and film begins at 6:30pm.

WHERE: Mother Butler Center, 221 Knollwood Dr., Rapid City, SD.
The Lakota Elders Truth Tour is a historic, multi-city education and advocacy tour featuring Lakota Elders Wagunpi Woashake Ikicupi (Elders Take Back Their Strength) on their way to the United Nations in New York and White House in Washington D.C. to demand an end to the policies and practices that are causing the ongoing genocide of their people. In each of the 12+ cities along the Truth Tour route, Lakota Elders will speak of their lives and resistance, backed by a showing of the groundbreaking new Lakota documentary Red Cry. The event is free to the public. Donations to support the Truth Tour are both welcome and needed.

A trailer for the film can be seen at http://www.lakotagrandmothers.org/.
More information to follow.
###
Lakota Wagunpi Woashake Ikicupi is Lakota Elders taking back their strength to end the genocide of the Lakota people and renew matriarchal Grandmother leadership on Pine Ridge and across the Lakota Nation. An international solidarity movement is building to Stand Behind the Lakota Grandmothers backed by the Lakota Solidarity Project with the Lakota Strong Heart Warrior Society. Join the movement at LakotaGrandmothers.org

Red Cry.

Ketamine back in the news

Ketamine, a Schedule III substance, is considered a 'street drug' by lawmakers and law enforcement and is considered far more dangerous when self-administered than Schedule I cannabis has been shown to be. Maia Szalavitz reports in MSN Health & Fitness:
"We were shocked and surprised that it worked," says Gary Wenk, Ph.D., one of the study's authors and a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Ohio State University. Research shows that the neurotransmitter glutamate is involved in storing memory in a process that involves growing both new cells and connections between them, and destroying old ones. Some current Alzheimer's drugs like memantine affect glutamate—as does THC. Early in life, this process is in balance, and so interfering with either the growth or the "pruning back" of brain cells and connections—as might occur from using marijuana—might impair memory. But, says Wenk, "The same systems involved in pruning neurons at the beginning of life could be killing them at the end." Therefore, interfering with the pruning process later in life might actually help, rather than harm.
A piece on Seattle's KPLU the other day brought glutamic acid closer to home as mushrooms are sources of glutamate. The smell of sex, especially in Hypomyces lactifluorum, has been a fascination.

One morning's broadcast on ketamine harkened the Robert Krulwich piece, a contraindication of treating the glutamate sites in the brain is unusual sexual behavior.
Ketamine, in contrast, activates a different chemical system in the brain – the glutamate system. Researcher Ron Duman at Yale thinks ketamine rapidly increases the communication among existing neurons by creating new connections.
A patient in a previous NPR piece had tried scores of compounds created by Big Pharma and was still trying to end his life.

WTF?

Mental illnesses linked to depression are deadly and exploring every drug to manage that pain is a legitimate role of government.

3/23/13

Kristi Noem=Sarah Palin



Put yourselves in concrete Republican galoshes.

Brookings still financing research park, earth hatred

Okay: it's the home of far too many old, fat, white people already; so, why would any business locate in The Peoples' Republic of Brookings anyway? Councilor Jael Thorpe wonders whether the town even has a future.
“I like the direction you’re heading,” Thorpe told Jay Bender and Dwaine Chapel, “but when does the subsidy stop?” Bender, who heads the Growth Partnership, parent organization for the Research Park at SDSU, gave an equally straightforward answer: “We’re projecting seven to 10 years, at which time there should be enough rental income to reduce our requests. The short and the long answer, Jael, is that at this moment we need your help.”--Ken Curley, Brookings Register.
Let's see: the town owns the liquor store, the water, the phone company, the power company, the golf course....

3/21/13

Noem House seat vulnerable in 2014

Public Policy Polling has just released findings that show Rep. Krusti Noem (earth hater-SD) would lose the seat she holds to Democratic former House member Stephanie Herseth Sandlin: a popular figure getting a 52/37 favorability rating with 30% of earth haters who would cross over to support SHS. From Tom Jensen at PPP:
South Dakota might be next on the list of states where Republicans have a bruising Senate primary. Herseth Sandlin would lead Noem 48/47 in a rematch of their 2010 contest, and would start out trailing Rounds by a 49/44 margin.
Noem has been asking young white people to join her campaign to help defend, at taxpayer expense, the seat she holds. She is whoring for donations in safe settings and wants the federal government to spend more in her failed red state yet has no clue where she will get the money.

As charges mount against former Governor Mike Rounds expect his numbers to begin to plummet.

More on the tribal nations' lawsuits at ACLU.

Black Hills aquifers in big trouble; Minnesota honey producer suing EPA

The scale of pine infestation is changing daily even as the beetle gets the rap. Now, it has been labelled an invasive species although the insect has been managing the habitat effectively for eons before European cattle began destroying the region.

Creeks in the Southern Hills are dry with little relief in sight: it's staggering to see so many real estate signs on properties surrounded by dead and dying ponderosa pine as people and cattle have sucked up all the water.

LawCo is panicking:
Lawrence County Commissioners gave county officials the go-ahead Tuesday to apply for state funding to assist in the ongoing pine beetle fight. Lawrence County Deputy State’s Attorney Bruce Outka said that in-kind, as well as monetary resources, count in the match process giving the county about $955,000.--Jaci Conrad Pearson, Black Hills Pioneer.
Investors: stay away from the Hills until after it burns to the ground then enjoy bargain basement prices as it renews in juniper, aspen and oak.

Minnesota Public Radio News is reporting that David Ellingson and his Ortonville-area honey-producing family are suing the EPA for not regulating the neonicotinoids killing their colonies. The operation is one for whom I worked one summer between semesters at SDSU: it was one on the most fascinating lessons of this life.

3/20/13

Black Hills cougar population threatened

Update, 20 March, 1732 MDT: a collared cougar from the Black Hills died during an act of gun violence in the Crazy Mountains near Big Timber, Montana according to Erin Madison in the Great Falls Tribune:
While this mountain lion’s story is very interesting, it’s certainly not the first mountain lion with South Dakota roots to show up in Montana, said Justin Gude, wildlife research and technical services chief for FWP in Helena.
----

Officials for the GOP-owned wildlife-killing agency in South Dakota told a Sioux Falls teevee station that the Black Hills cougar population has nearly been extirpated:
With only two weeks left in the season, only 49 lions have been killed, including 29 females. The season limit is 100 total lions or 70 females. No lion has been killed for nearly two weeks. The last one killed was on March 6 in Pennington County.
Apex predators are essential to healthy bioregions but at least one stupid white guy in the Black Hills eats cougar meat:
Yet "eating carnivores is mostly not a good idea," argued Luke Hunter, president of Panthera, a U.S. based wild-cat conservation group that works with National Geographic's Big Cats Initiative. Handling wild-carnivore carcasses can also be dangerous, Hunter said. Since the predators end up eating so many different animals, they accumulate parasites and diseases. In 2007, for instance, a biologist in Arizona contracted primary pneumatic plague after dissecting a cougar carcass and died shortly after.--Christine Dell'Amore, National Geographic News
Assassinations of cougars by the law enforcement industry are not counted as part of the "harvest." KW reported in the Rapid City Journal:
Jack Alexander, a state Game, Fish & Parks Department lion-removal expert who handles a pack of state-owned hounds, was called in to shoot the lion Tuesday night when it returned to feed on a deer it had killed a day earlier in a neighborhood above Canyon Lake.
Rewild the West.

Tribal nations suing DSS, rejecting catholic "discovery doctrine"

Karl Gehrke interviewed the head of the Sioux Falls chapter of the Church of the Holy Roman Kiddie Diddlers during the Dakota Midday segment on Bill Janklow's idea of public radio. Topics of discussion included the implications of a pope tied to the military dictators who orchestrated Argentina's Dirty War and church abuses on South Dakota's reservations.
Pope Benedict XVI appointed Paul J. Swain as the eighth bishop of Sioux Falls on August 31, 2006 and he was consecrated as Bishop of Sioux Falls on October 26, 2006. Bishop Swain previously served as a member of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Committee for the Protection of Children and Young People.--bio, Catholic Diocese of Sioux Falls.
Protection of children and young people, my sore ass.

Andrea Cook has reported in the Rapid City Journal that two tribal nations are preparing to sue the South Dakota Division of Social Services.

From a piece by Stephen Rex Brown in the New York Daily News:
A 15th century Catholic decree permitting Europeans to seize Indian land in the New World is a load of papal bull. That was the message Tuesday from the Onondaga Nation, which is calling on the new Pope to revoke the so-called Discovery Doctrine, which evolved from a papal decree written by Pope Nicholas V in 1455. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg cited the doctrine in a 2005 ruling against the Oneida Indian Nation. The ruling affirmed the government’s sovereignty over lands, even if they’re sold to an Indian tribe. If the church were to dissavow the decree, Lyons said it would remove a legal argument against tribal land claims.

Lee CEO compensated for supporting right wing; Red Cry trailer posted

The Sioux City Journal and its parent company are earth haters' wet dreams.

This mention came in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch 11 January:
Lee, owner of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and 50 other newspapers, lost $16.7 million in the fiscal year ended Sept. 30. It had lost $146.9 million the previous fiscal year. The stock price rose 88 percent during fiscal 2012, with most of the increase coming as Lee completed the refinancing.
After her company's stock lost half its value, Jim Romenesko's story on Lee Enterprises CEO Mary Junck's pay raise rolled through the twitterverse yesterday like a bowling ball.

So far this morning none of her right-leaning papers followed by this former shareholder (I shorted at 1.62 just before it plummeted to near $1.00) have not run Romenesko's findings. He says:
Mary Junck, chief executive officer: $2,093,267, up 82% from fiscal 2011. Carl Schmidt, chief financial officer and treasurer: $905,969, up 48% from fiscal 2011. Kevin Mowbray, vice president, publishing: $591,607, up 33% from fiscal 2011. Greg Veon, vice president, publishing: $450,342, up 13% from fiscal 2011. Michael Gulledge, vice president, sales and marketing: $526,697, up 76% from fiscal 2011.
The Bismarck Tribune supported earth haters Willard Romney and Rick Berg. The Rapid City Journal also supported only earth haters, as did the Sioux City Journal.

Some, but not all of the Lee Newspapers of Montana supported Democrat Jon Tester while endorsing the white Mormon for president.

The Casper Star-Tribune threw President Obama under the coal hauler while the Lincoln Journal-Star supported both the President and former senator Democrat Bob Kerrey.

Following a tiny rebound LEE stock tumbled Friday and after hours.

From my inbox: Red Cry.

Lay in a course for the Badlands, old man









Both sets of buttes in each photo are on Hat Creek, south and west of Ardmore and look identical to the badlands carved by the White River whose tributaries drain the adjoining divide to the east.

3/17/13

Rounds nepotism radioactive to candidate

Charges of nepotism are nothing new in the chemical toilet.

Brian Rounds is the son of former earth hater Gov. Mike Rounds.

The junior Rounds' plan accepted by the South Dakota's Public Utilities Commission, where he is an analyst, forcing NorthWestern Energy to buy power from a local wind farm, where the elder Rounds sits on the board, did not immediately feel like a conflict of interest to Argus Leader reporter, David Montgomery in response to a question submitted at today's 100 Eyes webcast.

Tim Rounds is a career bureaucrat.

Daniel Rounds is part of a federal education scam.

Steve Rounds enjoys an unusual 30-year lease on land managed by a state agency.

Jamie Rounds was appointed to lead economic development by his brother, former governor Mike Rounds, one of many moves that the Sioux Falls Argus Leader called, "ethically confused."

From the Wikipedia entry:
His father, Don Rounds, worked at various times as state director of highway safety, a staffer for Rural Electrification Administration and executive director of the South Dakota Petroleum Council. Rounds' brother, Tim Rounds, is a member of the South Dakota State Legislature representing District 24, which includes Pierre. During the 2006 legislative session, Governor Rounds signed House Bill 1233, entitled “An Act to provide for the establishment and operation of artisan distillers and to revise certain provisions concerning farm wineries.”[6] This bill, proposed by Jamison Rounds (another of Gov. Rounds' brothers), changed state law to allow for operation of small-scale (50,000 gallons/year/facility) liquor distilleries in the state.[7] At the time, Jamison Rounds testified before the legislature and explained that he was advocating the change so that he could open a distillery in the state.[8] The bill passed the state house 60-5 and the state senate 33-2; among those voting in favor was another Rounds brother, Representative Tim Rounds.
I attended SDSU with Randy Brich, in fact: we have shared bongs on more occasions than can be recalled.
Gov. Mike Rounds says there's nothing improper about his sister and brother-in-law working as consultants for a company seeking state permits to mine uranium in the southern Black Hills. Rounds said he knows little about the work his sister, Michele, and her husband, Randy Brich, do for Powertech Uranium Corp., through their consulting company, Diamond B Communications of Pierre. During an interview on the issue this week, Rounds had to ask to have the Diamond B name repeated when it was first mentioned.--Kevin Woster, Rapid City Journal.
In South Dakota, another red state attempting to nullify federal health care law and where Republican legislator Don Kopp confuses federal scientists' findings on climate change with ass-trologic forces, the hubris in eliminating state-sponsored public comment on in situ uranium extraction while the GOP is actively smothering the EPA, is nothing short of stupefying. Powertech has been suing state legislatures as a matter of course while flouting the reports of fracking disasters in the natural gas industry.

Life is good; day trip to Ojo recreated

interested party had a twelve hundred hit day and its author went to see this movie at The Screen:




Fort-shaped buttes in Carson National Forest



Mother ship leaving Roswell



Sangre de Cristos still have snow



Non-typical southwestern architecture



Courtyard entrance to Ojo Caliente


GOP, Thune, Noem panicking

South Dakota's tourism industry is bracing for the crush of bad press being generated by the state's red state legislature and the effects of climate change on its DC-dependent tax structure.

US Representative Krusti Noem (earth hater-SD) is asking young white people to join her campaign to help defend, at taxpayer expense, the seat she holds. She is whoring for donations in safe settings and wants the federal government to spend more in her failed red state yet has no clue where she will get the money.

On International Women's Day, earth hater, now woman hater governor, Denny Daugaard moved closer to ending civil rights for women by signing HB1237.

The institutional assault on South Dakota's low income women continues: women who can afford it fly to Minneapolis, Omaha, or Denver to terminate their pregnancies.

Rep. Noem and her Teabagger faction exposed themselves as the party that no longer represents a majority of the state's voters after their disgusting portrayal of women as breeders and easy targets of violence for her white male less-than-athletic supporters.

Comes this from the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press:
At a time when the Republican Party’s image is at a historic low, 62% of the public says the GOP is out of touch with the American people, 56% think it is not open to change and 52% say the party is too extreme.
Conservation should be a keystone requirement of the Farm/Food Bill.

The Sioux Falls Argus Leader followed Bimbo At-large Noem throughout her 2010 race:
During her House campaign last year, Noem attacked then-Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin's use of mailers as inappropriate. Congressional offices enjoy "franking" privileges that allow them to send mass mailings to constituents at taxpayer expense. The longstanding practice has been criticized for giving incumbents an advantage.

3/16/13

Sibson: catholics r satan (but so is everyone else)



Any of this stuff sound familiar?

1. Marxists Control The Catholic Church.
2. The UN Will Take One-Quarter Of America’s Land.
3. Marriage Equality Must Be Opposed.
4. George Soros Controls Everything.
5. Puerto Rico’s Statehood Referendum Was Rigged.

Looks like Sen. Rand Paul (earth hater-KY) beat Sen. Marco Rubio (earth hater-FL) in the straw poll at the Conservative Political Asshole Conference.

Memories of a past CPAC drifted through some local grey matter.

South Dakota political pundit, Steve Sibson is a 'special' case, if you get my drift. He reminds readers of Madville Times that former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney answers to Santa Satan before country.

My guess is that Mr. Sibson is suffering from depression.

South Dakota's ultra-theocon, laments:
The GOP won’t win if they do accept the cease fire. They can’t win if they do. America will lose no matter who wins. This election is irrelevant. Such is the case when pragmatism trumps principles. It is a dog fight, Darwinian survivalism where the one who attracts the most mud loses.
Romney’s LDS and Ryan’s church are two of the biggest NGOs on the planet hiring the best paid lobbyists and employing a myriad; so, gutting the federal budget while allowing those Ponzi schemes to survive is so beyond what the Founders envisioned it leaves nothing to the imagination.

Radio Lab is one of my favorite public radio shows: Robert Krulwich is a master producer. Remember this 2007 story?


A piece on Seattle's KPLU the other day brought glutamic acid closer to home as mushrooms are sources of glutamate. The smell of sex, especially in Hypomyces lactifluorum, has been a fascination.
Ketamine, in contrast, activates a different chemical system in the brain – the glutamate system. Researcher Ron Duman at Yale thinks ketamine rapidly increases the communication among existing neurons by creating new connections.
Ketamine, a Schedule III substance, is considered a 'street drug' by lawmakers and law enforcement:
Now imagine that your local police have their own bees, bees they release each morning to scour the neighborhood looking for illegal plants.
and is considered far more dangerous when self-administered than Schedule I cannabis has been shown to be:
"We were shocked and surprised that it worked," says Gary Wenk, Ph.D., one of the study's authors and a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Ohio State University. Research shows that the neurotransmitter glutamate is involved in storing memory in a process that involves growing both new cells and connections between them, and destroying old ones. Some current Alzheimer's drugs like memantine affect glutamate—as does THC. Early in life, this process is in balance, and so interfering with either the growth or the "pruning back" of brain cells and connections—as might occur from using marijuana—might impair memory. But, says Wenk, "The same systems involved in pruning neurons at the beginning of life could be killing them at the end." Therefore, interfering with the pruning process later in life might actually help, rather than harm.
Depression is deadly.

Rep. Hoffman: transparency bad for business

South Dakota's legislature is opaque.

Clearly not the sharpest tool in the shed, one legislator shielding the red state body from sunlight is Rep. Charlie Hoffman (earth hater-23). This comment attributed to him appeared at the War Toilet:

March 16, 2013 at 7:06 am | Permalink
Pat,

If any of your readers want to find out how the ACLU operates go to the Judiciary committee hearing from February 20th and listen to all of the testimony on SB36. The level of malice intended for a legal business providing material to the State of SD involving drugs used in lethal injections for executions was made quite evident by our Attorney General. If SD does not protect intellectual property rights of those doing business with us business’s [sic] will discontinue doing business with SD.
South Dakotans sure are some bloodthirsty, barbaric, savage, malevolent christians.

Nebraska could repeal its death penalty while North Dakota has never adopted it:
Nebraska would become the 18th state in the United States to abolish the death penalty under a bill introduced by Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha.
The Legislature’s Judiciary Committee heard testimony March 13 on LB 543. 
The bill would get rid of the death penalty in the state and replace it with life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
Nebraska has executed three people since 1976 when the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the resumption of executions after a two-year moratorium. There are currently 11 inmates on death row in the state.
--Joseph Moore Nebraska News Service, Chadron Community, Rapid City Journal.
Maryland just voted to end capital punishment in that state.

3/15/13

Swain on Dakota Midday; Catholics love ObamaCare

Karl Gehrke interviewed the head of the Sioux Falls chapter of the Church of the Holy Roman Kiddie Diddlers during the Dakota Midday segment on Bill Janklow's idea of public radio. Topics of discussion included the implications of a pope tied to the military dictators who orchestrated Argentina's Dirty War and church abuses on South Dakota's reservations.
Pope Benedict XVI appointed Paul J. Swain as the eighth bishop of Sioux Falls on August 31, 2006 and he was consecrated as Bishop of Sioux Falls on October 26, 2006. Bishop Swain previously served as a member of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Committee for the Protection of Children and Young People.--bio, Catholic Diocese of Sioux Falls.
Protection of children and young people, my sore ass.

Cult member and Speaker John Boehner (earth hater-OH) will not be going to Rome with Vice President Joe Biden.

Even the Catholic Church likes ObamaCare.

Three years ago, the Affordable Care Act was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama. This historical law is structured to transform health care in America. To start, it will grant health care to people who could not otherwise afford it.--Candace Y.A. Montague, NBC News.

Determine what you will have to pay out of your own pocket for covered services (deductible, co-insurance, copayments, and out-of-pocket limit).

Check whether the plan’s health care providers include your current providers.

Inquire about whether or not the provider’s location is convenient for you.

Check whether the plan covers the health care services and medications you require.

Beware of insurance-like products that don’t offer comprehensive coverage.

Separation of church and state is just so bothersome in the chemical toilet, especially when litigation hurts donations.

Jackley and red state failure: SD polizei get more weapons to incarcerate non-whites

Cannabis use is protected by the First and Ninth Amendments: even Sen. Rand Paul (earth hater-KY) believes as much. He just called his party, "stale and moss-covered."

420 alert eastbound I-90 South Dakota! Avoid eastbound US14 through Huron, too.

Aggressive law enforcement using dogs as weapons! If traverse of this oppressive police state is unavoidable rent vehicles without West Coast or BC license plates, inspect vehicles for faulty equipment, obey all traffic laws, and remove batteries from your phones.

Copy then paste the above warning to Craigslist in the Pacific Northwest, California, Montana, and Colorado or to your favorite online forum and bulletin board.

Persons of color are strictly profiled. Be aware. White legislators belonging to American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) were greased by the Koch Brothers in 1999: From Edwin Bender at Follow the Money:
"The busiest Task Force was Criminal Justice, which had 199 bills introduced. The anti-crime legislation with the most enactments was the Truth in Sentencing Act (inmates serve at least 85 percent of their sentence), which became law in 25 states." Those states were Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming.
Per capita, the state incarcerates more non-white men than nearly any other in the US...but it's not enough: now cops are getting more weapons to harass and arrest people of color turning economic refugees into felons.

From the RCJ:
The South Dakota Highway Patrol will receive $212,500 from the state’s Drug Control Fund to assist in drug-control operations. The money will be used for weapon upgrades, service-dog equipment and additional equipment, according to Attorney General Marty Jackley. Jackley said the patrol contributes substantially to the drug-control fund.
South Dakota is still fighting the Battle of Wounded Knee.

Lalley: more coming on South Dakota's violations of Indian Child Welfare Act

Wow, Denny Daugaard is sure having a crappy week: everything seems to be blowing up in his face.

100 Eyes on South Dakota Politics host and editor of the Sioux Falls Argus Leader, Patrick Lalley responded to a question about whether there has been any word on the Rounds/Daugaard administrations violations of the Indian Child Welfare Act.

He opined at great length about his paper's coverage of the Indian Health Service that received little attention while NPR's coverage of apparent crimes elicited the "wetting of pants" and referred to parts of the two stories from Laura Sullivan as "muckraking."

He went on to say that yes, Governor Dennis Daugaard's tenure at the School for the Deaf is under review and much more is coming out about the offenses.

Jonathan Ellis and David Montgomery added telling details of the upcoming election season. Ellis believes that Rep. Kristi Noem will defend the US House she holds and he expects a primary challenger to her from the Right. Montgomery mentioned that Larry Rhoden has been rumored as a primary contender for either Mike Rounds or for the governor's chair now held by Daugaard.

More to come.

Brendan Johnson honored for advocacy

The South Dakota Domestic Violence Coordinating Committee has named Brendan Johnson as its Prosecutor of the Year. Since his appointment as U.S. Attorney for the District of South Dakota in 2009, Johnson has made the prosecution of people charged with human trafficking, domestic abuse and sexual violence a priority.--Rapid City Journal staff.
The Journal reported earlier that US Attorney for South Dakota Brendan Johnson has appointed attorney and tribal member Erin Shanley to prosecute crimes against women on the Standing Rock:
An agreement between the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and the U.S. Attorneys' offices in North Dakota and South Dakota makes Shanley's appointment possible. Funding is provided by a grant from the Justice Department's Office on Violence Against Women.
The state's earth hater congressional delegation voted against protections for women.

Johnson is expected to run for constitutional office in the upcoming election cycle. During yesterday's 100 Eyes on South Dakota Politics, the consensus was that Mr. Johnson can actively campaign as top cop.

3/14/13

Tribes eligible for EPA funding

US Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar visited the Navajo Nation today with a bold economic development initiative.

As tribal nations begin to look more like states, the US Environmental Protection Agency is offering the resources to build healthier communities. From the press release:
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as part of its Science to Achieve Results (STAR) program, is seeking applications proposing research on science for sustainable and healthy tribes. This solicitation is focused on research to develop sustainable solutions to environmental problems that affect tribes. The objectives of the awards to be made under this solicitation are to improve understanding of: 1) the health impacts of climate change on tribal populations; and 2) the health impacts of indoor air pollution exposures that derive from or are directly affecting traditional tribal life-ways and cultural practices. In both cases, projects should focus on impacts to vulnerable sub-populations of the Tribal communities. Proposals should also consider sustainable, culturally appropriate and acceptable pollution prevention, and adaptation/mitigation strategies.

Jackley aiding, abetting Holy Roman Kiddie Diddlers

The South Dakota GOP is in panic mode. Governor Denny Daugaard is facing an investigation, violent crime is up, environmental degradation is killing the state, and the death of ag is close at hand.

It has come to light that the Rounds and Daugaard administrations repeatedly broke federal law. Mike Rounds, a failed former South Dakota earth hater governor and member of the Church of the Holy Roman Kiddie Diddlers, has begun a long-shot run for the US Senate seat held by solid civil servant, Tim Johnson.

An Associated Press report appeared in the Sioux Falls Argus Leader:
A new report says South Dakota has violated federal law by removing too many American Indian children from their homes and placing them in foster care with non-Indian families. The report is in response to a National Public Radio series last year that said the state routinely broke the Indian Child Welfare Act. Federal law requires that Native American children removed from homes be placed with relatives or put in foster care with other Native American families except in unusual circumstances.
A Pine Ridge representative hopes to repeal a statute passed in 2011 that limits the amount of time victims of horrific crimes committed at the hands of clergy, especially those of The Church of the Holy Roman Kiddie Diddlers who routinely buys influence in that South Dakota body lobbied by longtime legislator and Catholic kingpin, Lee Schoenbeck of Watertown: Secretary of State Jason Gant, is their latest accused criminal.

Brandon Ecoffey of Native Sun News reported from indianz:
To many South Dakota constituents, the bill seemed to directly target Native Americans, who were victims of abuse during their time in church- and state-run boarding schools. Killer — who voted against the bill — told Native Sun News: “I am definitely in favor of repealing the bill. Here is a bill that doesn’t really explore the history of the abuse that was going on. If you are going to think about any type of bill that pertains to any type of tragedy you would think that there would be a conversation with the aggrieved party — and that conversation never happened at all with this.”
Tim Giago wrote from indianz in February of this year:
The U. S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, is monitoring the actions of the South Dakota legislative body and if violations of the civil rights of Native Americans are perceived, the state may be open to injunctory relief and monetary damages.
The Great Falls Tribune ran a piece from AP reporter, Mary Esch, on the recent canonization of a Mohawk saint:
Orenda Boucher, a Mohawk humanities professor at Kiana Institution, a Native American college near Montreal, said there are “mixed feelings” and no easy answer to the question of what Kateri represents to Mohawks or the rest of the world. “A lot of my friends who are traditionalists see Kateri as tied into the story of colonization that has deeply affected Kahnawake, and to the atrocities of the church,” she said.


The news oozing from the Vatican will hurt catholic candidates like former South Dakota Governor Rounds, especially among American Indian voters with whom he already has a shitty relationship.
Pope Benedict XVI appointed Paul J. Swain as the eighth bishop of Sioux Falls on August 31, 2006 and he was consecrated as Bishop of Sioux Falls on October 26, 2006. Bishop Swain previously served as a member of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Committee for the Protection of Children and Young People.--bio, Catholic Diocese of Sioux Falls.
Protection of children and young people, my sore ass.

Lee Schoenbeck is an earth hater and a member of the Church of the Holy Roman Kiddie Diddlers. He's smug little fucker, says he's a lawyer and knows Bill Janklow raped Jacinta Eagle Deer: think he doesn't have clergy for clients? My guess is that he has a tiny dick as well as shitty orthographic skills.

Former legislator, pious Catholic, and one of the richest men in South Dakota, Schoenbeck confessed in the online edition of South Dakota Magazine:
Through the sponsorship of organizations like Avera, Tessier’s and Muth Electric, the hunter’s registration fees and proceeds of the banquet auction, the Bishop’s Hunt generates funds. Initially the funds went to the support of the Catholic elementary school in Huron, and later the general mission of the Catholic Foundation. More recently, the funds have had a more focused purpose.
Mary Garrigan revealed in the Journal that the Church of the Holy Roman Kiddie Diddlers, Rapid City Branch, greased the anti-civil rights movement in Minnesota with a thousand simoleons:
Bishop Robert Gruss said Wednesday that the donation was made at his discretion after it was requested by Minnesota bishops. "Sometimes it takes money to stand up for worthy causes," he said.
Separation of church and state is just so bothersome in the chemical toilet, especially when litigation hurts donations.