11/29/13

Benda-gate: Daugaard incompetent, crooked, or both

Pierre's culture of corruption is unraveling.

Intersecting an investigation reportedly begun early this year is Brendan Johnson's near-crusade against human trafficking and his close friendship with South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley. Jackley insists there is no criminal investigation being conducted by his office of US Senate candidate, former SD governor Mike Rounds, one of the principals in the Benda-gate scandal. Johnson's commitment to investigating likely federal crimes would certainly explain his not entering a statewide political race. Jackley, who was appointed by Rounds, and South Dakota Governor Dennis Daugaard, Lieutenant Governor under Rounds, are Republicans.
No state or federal charges have been filed, but it is now known that a federal grand jury issued a subpoena for information from the governor’s office in March and that federal authorities have reportedly questioned at least three people involved with the Northern Beef project, including Benda. [Bob Mercer, How SD became a top place for foreign money, Mitchell Daily Republic]
Another foreign investor is proceeding with construction on a salted fat factory in Brookings. Still another wants to frack Custer and Fall River Counties for yellowcake. South Dakota's earth hater governor sought US aid for cyber criminals.

The dying red state is inviting the firearms and ammunition industry to come pollute South Dakota according to this AP report published at SFGate:
South Dakota officials say they made some promising contacts with outdoors businesses while attending last month's Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade Show in Las Vegas. State Economic Development Commissioner Pat Costello says South Dakota officials have attended the show for the past 12 years.
Minnesota is still cleaning up after one of her 'job creators:'
The New Brighton/Arden Hills Superfund site, which is comprised of the Twin Cities Army Ammunition Plant and its associated property, is a federal Superfund site located in Arden Hills, Minnesota. Contamination resulting from past ammunition manufacturing operations at the facility has been identified in groundwater, soil, sediment and surface water.

South Dakota, of course, doesn't give one shit about environmental protection or whom is killed by products manufactured in that struggling, red moocher state where liability for deaths due to firearms exist only in an alternate universe.
Several Sioux Falls area businesses will be represented on a trade mission to China with Gov. Dennis Daugaard in April. Each participant selected for the trade mission offers an opportunity to increase state exports to China and create jobs in South Dakota, according to the governor’s office. The trade mission to China is funded through an export promotion grant from the U.S. Small Business Administration.--SFBJ.
The whole thing reeks.
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11/28/13

We, the Turkeys, updated

The statement from Leonard Peltier on this National Day of Mourning is posted here. Dana Lone Hill's essay is consistent with the parallels of Israel's war crimes against Palestine and the the screwing of Native America by US.

RT @NoahPollak:
Happy Native American Nakba Day, imperialists



Turkey, Brussels sprouts, stuffing, sugar, food stamps:
So far this election cycle, top recipients of donations from agricultural services companies, according to Sunlight's Influence Explorer were Rep. Frank Lucas, R-Okla, who happens to be chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, and Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. He serves on the Senate Agriculture Committee but, perhaps more to the point, he happens to be the Senate Republican leader. He's also facing a tough reelection fight next year that's likely to make him especially grateful for contributions. Overall, agribusiness is careful to concentrate its contributions where it really counts: on the members of the agriculture committees who write the bill. We can see the result on our Thanksgiving plates. [Nancy Watzman, Sunlight Foundation]








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11/26/13

Lalley: Pierre still a shit hole; Argus bureau unlikely

Sioux Falls Argus Leader editor Patrick Lalley apparently still believes Pierre is best left to the ownership of corrupt christofascists: listen to it here.

Where to start?

South Dakota's governor Dennis Daugaard says he's a conservative; yet, he has begged for billions from the Obama administration. His predecessor's office where he was lieutenant governor and his current bureaucracy have trafficked Native kids, exploited the federal EB-5 green card scam, and is quietly expanding a Medicaid safety net for those not yet voting for his party. A former legislator insisting she is even farther to his right has threatened to run against him in a GOP gubernatorial primary even as an 'independent' and a Constitutional Party member announce.

An isolated capital not worth covering year round except by two and a half white catholic reporters who have been in bed with Republicans for decades is a recipe for corruption.

Kangaroo campaign: how do you make this shit up?
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Who owns Mike Rounds? Obese South Dakota blog bully on full whine

I had to laugh like Hell.
You know, I’m shameless when it comes to candidate and VIP photos. But after I get them, I always think I look terrible in them. Case in point, one I just got today from a few months back. It was a good event, and Mike was an excellent speaker. But I look at myself, and go “yuck." Maybe I’m as hypercritical of myself as I’ve ever been, and just hate photos of myself because it amplifies it, as I’m doing so today as I choose an official “Realtor” photo, and find myself rejecting most of them. Anyway, here’s a picture of US Senate candidate Mike Rounds and myself. (At least the guy on the left looks good).--Pat Powers, South Dakota War Toilet.

Previously at interested party:

South DaCola is keeping the heat under Sen. Stan Adelstein's call for an investigation of Jason Gant and the Secretary of State's alleged collusion with former employee, Pat Powers to engineer an ALEC-inspired red map strategy.

Ryan Lengerich of the Rapid City Journal brought readers up to speed:
If Gant decides not to resign, Adelstein said he will ask colleagues in the House of Representatives to call for an impeachment at next year's legislative session. Doing so would cause a distraction Adelstein said he would rather avoid by having Gant resign. “We have more problems in South Dakota than incompetence and a possibly dishonest Secretary of State," Adelstein said. “I don’t want these matters shoved aside for something like an impeachment.”
The Rapid City Journal believes an investigation should be conducted and now the Watertown Public Opinion thinks so, too.

We all know this thing goes so much deeper. How much deeper?



Pat Powers is morbidly obese, now the load on his health is taking its toll.
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11/25/13

Yiddish curses for Dan Lederman

May Dan's caller ID confuse the number of all campaign robo-calls, fundraising solicitations, and telemarketers with that of his grandchildren.

May Dan's child give his Bar Mitzvah speech on the genius of Ayn Rand.

May Dan be reunited in the world to come with his ancestors, who were all socialist garment workers.

May Dan grow so rich that his widow’s second husband is thrilled they repealed the estate tax.

May Dan dream all his life of making aliyah to Israel, only to be rejected when he fails to produce his long-form Bar Mitzvah certificate.

May the secretary Dan is schtupping depend on Planned Parenthood for her birth control.

May Dan's only "grandchildren" be cats, and may he be allergic, but may his pharmacist legally refuse to refill his Allegra prescription because it's manufactured by the same company that makes the abortion drug.

May Dan's insurance company be as consistent and reliable in their dealings with him as Mitt Romney has been with the American people.

May Dan's accountant be as honest as Paul Ryan, and may his children be as compassionate towards the elderly and infirm.

May Dan's son the doctor introduce him to his fiancée, Bristol Palin.

May Dan's colon be as obstructionist as the GOP-held House.

May Dan find himself insisting to a roomful of skeptics that his great-grandmother was "legitimately" raped by Cossacks.

From Yiddish curses for Republican Jews.


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11/24/13

At last: suicide comes for the GOP

God may not be enough for religious states: they lead the nation in anti-depressant use.

Obesity and mental illness are closely linked, especially in northern tier states like South Dakota.
In fact South Dakota is slipping. Just last year,the state ranked 19th but even that ranking would put us well behind most of our neighboring states. But why does South Dakota rank so low and what's being done to improve that rank? It's a test South Dakota is failing.--Jake Iverson, KSFY.
The Mitchell Republic is hardly a bastion of progressive thought; yet, editor Seth Tupper is often a guest on Dakota Midday's political junkie segment. I wince, cringe, even clinch to constipation whenever publisher Jon Hunter of the Madison Daily Leader appears as a guest on that program.

It was with pleasant surprise that part of this interested party's manifesto popped up in the online pages of the Mitchell publication. Reporter Frannie Sprouls interviewed some catholic hospital employee for her piece:
In the Upper Midwest, adequate exposure to the vitamin D in sunshine is hard to come by. During the summer, the temperature rises and people stay inside with air conditioning. During the winter, the temperature lowers and people stay inside huddled under blankets. “It’s hard to get it into your diet, so you have to rely on the sun,” said Megan Vilhauer, a nutritionist at Avera Queen of Peace Hospital in Mitchell. “You want to do it just right, so you don’t get sunburned or get skin cancer.”
No wonder obesity, depression, and xenophobia plague the chemical toilet as the state wrestles with whether to ruin gasoline engines with local ethanol.

Rapid City is a scary place: just look at the bags under Gordon Howie's eyes. Shorter days and longer nights especially around the winter solstice mean more people die by their own hands.

Cindy Uken reports from the Billings Gazette that Montana leads the nation in suicide rates:
The victims are military veterans, American Indians, senior citizens and teenagers. Often, they are depressed and hundreds of miles from the nearest mental health professional. Even where they can get help, they tend to "cowboy up," afraid their illness will be seen as weakness. People who live in areas with high concentrations of guns are more likely to die by suicide, according to a 2007 study by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health.
Alaska suffers as do northern tier red states where access to affordable health care is virtually non-existent. Megan Edge writes:
Alaskans have to wait until December 21 to see the light slowly increasing daily, and for most that day can’t come soon enough. “It looks like seasonal affective disorder (S.A.D.) is related to low light levels,” said psychologist and depression specialist Suzanne Strisik. “[That] is when we are around the holidays and we are trying to adjust to those low light levels.”
Rich people can save themselves: they merely flee South and complain that immigrants are taking over the workforce; but, poverty chains those who live in despair year 'round.

Gun carrying people are saying they are being responsible (but won't be held liable) for our safety if the rest of us don’t, or refuse to, carry.

Stand your ground has become vigilante justice because the courts are overwhelmed with suspects in the war on drugs, our communities are becoming armed camps and we’re barricaded in our homes afraid to let our kids go to school.

There are 83 vacancies on the federal bench where zero American Indians serve. The New Jim Crow has created a generation of felons in a non-white school to prison pipeline. Bullied kids, some to become young white men, have retreated into their virtual sancta and believe victims are the problem or that killing them would be sparing them a future torture.

Have the gangbangers always been right because a gun is power?

Is this how Americans really want to live? Carry rifles and sidearms into every bar, church, and arena?
Milch has pointed out repeatedly in interviews that the intent of the show was to study the way that civilization comes together from chaos by organizing itself around symbols (in Deadwood the main symbol is gold). If history is written by the victors, Deadwood is all about giving the losers their due. In the first season, magnificent bastard Al Swearengen (Ian McShane) came off as a villain; this year, his inevitably doomed campaign to save the lawless town from annexation by the United States and exploitation by robber barons served as a brilliant allegory for the evolution of American capitalism.
How many more people will be caught in or die from as yet uncounted crossfires?

Ending the war on cannabis is essential to the process as concurrent possession is illegal. It also would free resources to hire those professionals to whom Craig Moore alludes.

From KCRW's To the Point:
Overconsumption: The American Way (12:07PM) 
This is the holiday when gluttony is not just acceptable, it’s almost required if you try to taste everything on the Thanksgiving table. But ask yourself: is this the only time you eat more than you ought to? Obesity is a national epidemic, and over-consumption of another kind is on the rise. Credit card debt is up by 66 percent since last year and by 368 percent since 2009, when the Great Recession made Americans try to be frugal. Why do we want so much more than we can afford and, probably, more than we need? Is there a relationship between mindless eating and manic buying?


Maybe this would be a great time for a piece of rhubarb pie.

Migration must be celebrated, not outlawed. Statehood for Mexico would mean more people could save themselves from brutal winters in the North.

Find something that works or die.

Rewild the West.
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11/23/13

South Dakota cougar slaughter creating problem animals


Despite the fact that cougars pose little threat to humans, many states still manage their population through hunting—which also makes it more difficult for them to spread east. South Dakota’s Black Hills currently mark the eastern border of established cougar habitat, and hunting has been allowed there since 2005. John Kanta with the South Dakota wildfire [sic] agency says some hunters falsely blame the cats for drops in the region’s deer and elk populations. “Mountain lions are killing deer and elk,” he says, “but there are a lot of other things going on.” The real culprits of the deer decline, he explains, are drought and the over-issuing of hunting licenses. [Mary X. Dennis, Cougar Town, On Earth]
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.
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.
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, poaching and cougar/car collisions 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.
Here is the name and number of the sportsman asshole who used dogs to slaughter a treed cougar in South Dakota's Disneyland: Justin Deutsch, (605) 493-6598

Rewild the West.
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Tribal nations trapped in Wyoming seeking separate state status

Imagine a blogger's jaw hitting a keyboard.

Karin Eagle of Native Sun News reports that US Attorney for South Dakota, Brendan Johnson met with Rapid City residents to discuss treaty rights.
The Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone tribes nearly five years ago asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to treat their shared central Wyoming reservation as a separate state for purposes of implementing the federal Clean Air Act. If the EPA approves the application, it would allow the tribes to seek grant money to monitor air quality. Approval also could set the stage for the tribes to seek to impose air quality regulations more stringent than federal standards. Rich Mylott, spokesman for the EPA in Denver, said the agency is reviewing the tribes' application and is working toward a decision soon. He said it would be inaccurate to say the agency has seen a lobbying effort against the application by the state, the U.S. attorney's office in Wyoming and industry. [AP, Billings Gazette]
Thunder Basin National Grassland west of Devil's Tower is at risk to the 1872 Mining Act, not to mention the ground impacted by another Canadian invasion in the form of a proposed strip mine for rare earth minerals north of Sundance. Wyoming blasts through treaty lands and leaves mercury trails in its wake.

Mark Trahant is a member of the Shoshone-Bannock tribe surrounded by the State of Idaho and a former president of the Native American Journalists Association. He appeared with Karl Gehrke on Dakota Midday, the flagship broadcast on Bill Janklow's idea of public radio. Trahant addressed the 2013 Joseph Harper Cash Memorial Lecture at the Al Neuharth Media Center: a part of the University of South Dakota. His presentation, “Money in the Cup: The Affordable Care Act and American Indian Health Care,” explores how ACA impacts the Indian Health Service. He calls tribal nations the 51st State in health care.

Montana's red state earth-raping machines are fueled up and ready to rip. The Otter Creek coal development would carve wide swathes through southeastern Montana burial sites. Mal-named Custer National Forest should be under Northern Cheyenne and Crow care although this blogger has witnessed that the pine bark beetle has moved deeper into the Pryors now, too.

The US Environmental Protection Agency recognized the Havasupi as a state under Section 303 of the Clean Water Act as an essential function of tribal governance. And, in a story from The World, a Coos Bay Lee paper, the BLM snubbed the State of Oregon and gave the Coquille tribe an opportunity to develop a sustainable forest plan for federal wildlands.

Nathan Lefthand is an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation. He wrote this and more at Indian Country Today:
It is constitutional to create a new state out of an existing state(s), in this case, Arizona, Utah and New Mexico, with the approval of those state legislatures and of Congress. The process for carving out a new state is outlined in Article IV, Section 3 of the Constitution. One rider, one act of Congress, can change it all, and believe me, looking at a few of our borders; it’s getting crowded, “out there." We need to be the fifty-first state in the United States of America. The State of Navajo.
Yes, Mr. Lefthand: there is a Santa Clause.




The history of humanity in the United States of America is at least 14,000 years old, some researchers say it is far older. We the People are at another crossroads: we can allow China to outgrow us or we can grow.

There are 2.5 million Native Americans living in the US, more living in Canada, and virtually every native Mexican is a native American as well. Four sets of laws trapped in a quagmire of treaty obligations. If each reservation in the lower contiguous states were a county in a non-contiguous state, the two senators and five representatives would wield great power in Congress.

Several tribal nations trapped within South Dakota are forming an alliance as a counter-weight to that state's selfishness. Jennifer Naylor Gessick told readers of the Rapid City Journal:
Council representatives from four Sioux tribes met this weekend in Rapid City where they laid the groundwork to work as one nation to address issues important to their communities, Oglala Sioux president Bryan Brewer said Sunday. The Oglala Sioux Tribe hosted representatives of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, the Rosebud Sioux Tribe and the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe at the Holiday Inn in Rapid City for three days of meetings. The tribes have not come together in such a way for over 100 years, according to Brewer.
The War Toilet tripped over the Black Hills Land Claim the other day exposing the GOP's ignorance of issues in Indian Country but ip hasn't bothered trying to get in over there yet today to get readers a link. They block my devices because of my serial, likely obsessive TP-ing of their bullshit so you'll have to get your own waders on and go in. Don't forget a pitchfork.

A persistent commenter over there (yep, guilty) is convinced that President Obama should issue an executive order reassigning the Black Hills National Forest and the Custer National Forest to the Forestry Division of the Bureau of Indian Affairs as a compromise seeking to settle the Claims lawsuits. These lands would be managed by professionals on a par with the current USDA protocols. Besides, how could they fuck it up worse than the Forest Service has?

The Black Hills National Forest should cease to exist and the proposed Tony Dean Wilderness should be folded into a deal for National Grassland, too, maybe under a cooperative Park Service/BIA charter with input from each stakeholder. I'll say it again: the Forest Service should come out of the USDA and look more like the Bureau of Reclamation.

Statehood for the tribes and Mexico. Native readers: what would you call your own State?
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11/22/13

Man camps, oil field roads spell doom for Harding, Butte Counties

Once, it was a spur of the migration route that intersected the bison hunting ranges of the Pawnee and Comanche near Raton Pass in southern Colorado with the confluence of the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers in the northern ancestral grounds of the Mandan, Arikara, and Hidatsa.
Harding County has an ordinance addressing man camps in place. One fear is that TransCanada, which heads the construction of the pipeline, will want to put a haul road in through Harding County, as they had previously suggested doing in Hoover. [Kaylee Tschetter, Black Hills Pioneer]
After the Lakota acquired the descendants of Spanish equus, herstory evolved very quickly in relative time.

Now, Hoover Road is just another trail of tears decimated by CAFOs, ruin, and carelessness adjacent to a US85 buckling under the weight of oil field traffic.








From Steve Newborn at WUSF and NPR:
Wildlife corridors, which connect wildlife habitats, have been proposed for states as different as California and New Jersey. There's even a transnational one planned to stretch from Yukon to Yellowstone. But do they really help to heal fragmented landscapes? "All the study that's been done so far has been typically at very small scales, and only looking at very short-term animal movement," says Paul Beier, a conservation biologist at Northern Arizona University. "What's yet to be known is whether the longer corridors — on the scale of miles — will, over the long term, promote gene flow and allow things like animals to recolonize areas," he says.
Even after recent rains the continental volume of dead grasses between Hoover and Santa Fe is explosively dry: goddess have mercy on us for we know not what we do.

Rewild the West.
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11/21/13

Lakota women lighting the path

On Monday at 9:00 p.m. Central on SDPB-TV, INDEPENDENT LENS presents “Young Lakota,” which follows three young people living on the Pine Ridge Reservation trying to forge a better future. When the tribe's first female president, Cecelia Fire Thunder, defies a South Dakota law banning abortion by threatening to build a women's clinic on the reservation, the three young tribe members are drawn into a political firestorm that changes their lives. Sunny Clifford, who is featured in the film, is now a reproductive rights activist. She was the winner of the Ms. Foundation Award for her work making sure that women on Native American reservations have access to emergency contraception, a right available to most women nationwide but which is excluded in many Indian Health Services Clinics. Sunny Clifford and filmmakers Marion Lipshutz and Rose Rosenblatt discussed the documentary. [Nathan Puhl, South Dakota Public Broadcasting]
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Trahant: tribes are 51st State

Imagine a blogger's jaw hitting a keyboard.

Mark Trahant is a member of the Shoshone-Bannock tribe surrounded by the State of Idaho and a former president of the Native American Journalists Association. He appeared with Karl Gehrke on Dakota Midday, the flagship broadcast on Bill Janklow's idea of public radio. Trahant addressed the 2013 Joseph Harper Cash Memorial Lecture at the Al Neuharth Media Center: a part of the University of South Dakota. His presentation, “Money in the Cup: The Affordable Care Act and American Indian Health Care,” explores how ACA impacts the Indian Health Service. He calls tribal nations the 51st State in health care.

The War Toilet tripped over the Black Hills Land Claim the other day exposing the GOP's ignorance of issues in Indian Country but ip hasn't bothered trying to get in over there yet today to get readers a link. They block my devices because of my serial, likely obsessive TP-ing of their bullshit so you'll have to get your own waders on and go in. Don't forget a pitchfork.

A persistent commenter over there (yep, guilty) is convinced that President Obama should issue an executive order reassigning the Black Hills National Forest and the Custer National Forest to the Forestry Division of the Bureau of Indian Affairs as a compromise seeking to settle the Claims lawsuits. These lands would be managed by professionals on a par with the current USDA protocols. Besides, how could they fuck it up worse than the Forest Service has?

The Black Hills National Forest should cease to exist and the proposed Tony Dean Wilderness should be folded into a deal for National Grassland, too, maybe under a cooperative Park Service/BIA charter with input from each stakeholder. I'll say it again: the Forest Service should come out of the USDA and look more like the Bureau of Reclamation.

Thunder Basin National Grassland west of Devil's Tower is at risk to the 1872 Mining Act, not to mention the ground impacted by another Canadian invasion in the form of a proposed strip mine for rare earth minerals north of Sundance. Wyoming blasts through treaty lands and leaves mercury trails in its wake.

Montana's red state earth-raping machines are fueled up and ready to rip. The Otter Creek coal development would carve wide swathes through southeastern Montana burial sites. Mal-named Custer National Forest should be under Northern Cheyenne and Crow care although this blogger has witnessed that the pine bark beetle has moved deeper into the Pryors now, too.

The US Environmental Protection Agency recognized the Havasupi as a state under Section 303 of the Clean Water Act as an essential function of tribal governance. And, in a story from The World, a Coos Bay Lee paper, the BLM snubbed the State of Oregon and gave the Coquille tribe an opportunity to develop a sustainable forest plan for federal wildlands.

Nathan Lefthand is an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation. He wrote this and more at Indian Country Today:
It is constitutional to create a new state out of an existing state(s), in this case, Arizona, Utah and New Mexico, with the approval of those state legislatures and of Congress. The process for carving out a new state is outlined in Article IV, Section 3 of the Constitution. One rider, one act of Congress, can change it all, and believe me, looking at a few of our borders; it’s getting crowded, “out there." We need to be the fifty-first state in the United States of America. The State of Navajo.
Yes, Mr. Lefthand: there is a Santa Clause.

Statehood for the tribes and Mexico.


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11/20/13

Hartmann: Kochtopus leading plot to destroy America




The Dulles Brothers and the CIA knew Lee Harvey Oswald was crazy.
Because they fund so many different pieces of what has become the Libertarian/Republican machine, this notion that government is bad somehow, that Reagan introduced in his first inaugural. The thing that people have to get is, you know, if you don’t like government, that’s fine, but if you take government out of the way, if you take—if you stop administering the commons by the government, there’s an enormous vacuum. And there’s a whole lot of billionaires who are just waiting to step into that vacuum. So, if we don’t have government regulation, for example, of, you know, smokestack things, then the Kochs make more money, but all the rest of us get more cancers. [Thom Hartmann: interview, DemocracyNow!]
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says he has the votes to go nuclear.
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Lalley: Pierre a shit hole, could get Argus bureau

Sioux Falls Argus Leader editor Patrick Lalley held court over 100 Eyes on Politics yesterday. He and reporter Jonathan Ellis fielded questions on Benda-gate and on how nobody with any integrity wants to live in Pierre. Listen to it here.

From the Rapid City Journal: Governor-elect Dennis Hussein assumed the mantle of Ba'ath Party leader by appointing Tariq Nelson to the Public Utilities Commission. Nelson was defeated in his bid for the Ba'ath Party's nomination to the US House by Kristi Hussein, now Bimbo At-large.

From the official blog of the Christian Republic of South Dakota (now deleted):
Steve Sibson: “And the PUC and Pierre are already captured by industry. You’ll need to elect Dems to fix that.” Cory, and DC is also captured by industry and the Dems own the White House and had control of both chambers of the legislature…so how can you say the Dems can fix anything?
Sheesh...Nelson will then be appointed and serve on the PUC until an election is held in 2012. Nelson said he is planning to stand for election for the remaining four years of the six-year term.

Hussein appointed Nelson despite the secretary of state lacking experience in the utilities industry, saying Nelson was the right person for the job. As secretary of state Nelson earned $78,362 a year. He will get $91,390 as a member of the public utilities commission.

ip copied a dialogue from DWC because it seemed important at the time:

Thomas JamesApril 2, 2013 at 6:58 pm | Permalink
Ummmm, what about the fact that Lentsch was completely culpable in the loss of the funds in the Farm Mediation Program? Must have been a pretty shallow pool that the Governor went fishing in.

 Thomas JamesApril 2, 2013 at 7:10 pm | Permalink
Oh wait, the Daugaardian administration conveniently covered that up by stating that those responsible for the missing money where no longer there. Except small problem the supervisors that had knowledge of the problem for years were still there.

 Nope no GOP cronyism here folks….just keep on walking, pay no mind to the men in the backroom they are just honest public servants.

 Thomas JamesApril 2, 2013 at 7:53 pm | Permalink
Nope, sorry charlie, this started before Lucas got there. But he had knowledge of the problem for months before anything was done about it. He neither authored the solution nor disclosed the problem. See the above post. All he did was assist in the cover up.

 So in either case, are you as a Pierre “operative” trying to stifle an examination of the transparency and accountability of an administration appointed public servant? Really? that is GOP way now huh? So much for the party of transparency.

 Thomas JamesApril 2, 2013 at 8:43 pm | Permalink
Maybe Lucas really is exactly perfect for the Daugaard administration. Maybe its the Daugaard administration that is bad for South Dakota. Yep that’s it. He has exactly the type of integrity and leadership to fit right in among the Daugaard state government. Yep you need him.

 Thomas JamesApril 2, 2013 at 8:59 pm | Permalink
Better to be in the minority of honesty and transparency than in the majority of cronyism and sleazy politics. I feel for you bro.

 Thomas JamesApril 2, 2013 at 7:41 pm | Permalink
Yeah, you sure about that. Are you just an administration stooge trying keep the cover up going. Its got to be one or the other because the documents and facts don’t support what you just said. So let’s try a few public facts on for size.

 1. Lucas was there for six months before any action was taken.

 2. Lucas was not the one that identified the problem nor the one the ordered the solution. Perhaps you should ask Karen Webber-Boyd about that as she is actually the one that figured this out.

 3. According to public documents this problem stretched back several years.

 So what exactly did Mr. Lentsch do to fix it and why did it take him over half a year to even figure it out? Did he fire the person responsible? Did he order an audit? Answer – he didn’t do anything. And when the press figured out something was awry did he admit that under his “management” that this had occurred. No, Nathan Sanderson for the Governor told the press that those responsible for the lost funds were no longer there even though several of the supervisors responsible for this program were still at DOA.

 So Jack Wad I would hope for your sake as a GOP Admin Stooge that you can convince stupid otherwise people might not like Mr. Squeaky clean quite as much. Oh and thanks for the name calling always good to see what this administration is really about.
Thomas JamesApril 2, 2013 at 8:14 pm | Permalink
Sure tell yourself whatever you need to or spin it however it works for you. Facts are stubborn things and if you want someone that is slow to fix obvious problems, did NOT really do anything to fix it when they did, takes credit for things they didn’t do and is okay with the cover up so they can come back as Ag Secretary later then a big thumbs up to you. Unfortunately that does really reflect well on South Dakota or the administration…gotta hate those pesky facts. Apparently the Daugaardian suits have finished their supper and are trolling the blogs with their little Daugaardian club t-shirts on…. Watch out folks the name calling is about begin and it won’t be at Mr. Perfect party chairman.

 Thomas JamesApril 3, 2013 at 8:38 am | Permalink
Interesting comment from an anonymous person. One might look at that type of comment as a threat to keep quiet or we will publicly out you. Kind of makes the point about the administration. SO lets assume for the sake of argument that you know what you are talking about. Are you threatening retaliation against a whistleblower?

 Be careful from here forward because that is really kind of how it looks! And if so and you are going to start naming names why not start with yourself and your position in state government ? Do you think it is appropriate to discuss personnel matter anonymously? Maybe time to talk to counsel?

 Cause here is the fair warning, assume for the sake of argument that at the least I am talking to one of those people that you claim was fired. Do you really want them to pull their documents out and start telling your story because I bet that is exactly what they would like to do? So anon aka one of a short list in the Governor’s office? My whistle is primed. Care to keep threatening me or should my friend just go ahead and get a lawyer along with starting a conversation with the press?

 Big thing that I hope everybody gets. If there wasn’t any dirt why the defensiveness, name calling and now attempt to intimidate? Even if this information is just from some bitter former employees, why are they bitter? And what went down that caused this situation? No doubt Lucas is a nice guy, but that doesn’t mean that people don’t make mistakes or make less than honest choices. Especially in politics. What it does mean is that government official should be held accountable for what they do! And if they make morally incorrect decisions they should take responsibility and not cover them up.

 Thomas JamesApril 3, 2013 at 9:42 am | Permalink
Nah, if the adminstration isn’t going to quit being anonymous then I don’t think I should. If you don’t want this discussion here I am happy to move it to another forum. I understand the protection politics at play on this website. I am sure others out there would be interested in the story and I can respect that you may be uncomfortable with intimidation of a whistleblower on your website.

 PP at the SDWCApril 3, 2013 at 10:38 am | Permalink
I stated my position clearly. The only one I’m protecting is myself and my time. If you’ve got accusations, use your real name, as I don’t want the headaches of subpoenas or other requests for information, for someone who might consider your statements libelous.

 Thomas JamesApril 3, 2013 at 10:41 am | Permalink
Then perhaps you should also admonish Anon to disclose who they are, (though I suspect you already know) because as it stands right now if a subpoena is going to be issued it will be because of their whistleblower retaliations. How about it Pat are you going to demand that they also use their real name?
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11/19/13

Daktronics beneficiary of Obamanomics

Stocks are rebounding from the horrors of the Bush era.
In company news, Daktronics ( DAKT ) is up nearly 6% at $13.31 a share, earlier climbing to its best share price in nearly three years at $14.10 after posting fiscal Q2 earnings beating Wall Street expectations by $0.06 per share. The high-tech scoreboard and electronic displays company also topped analyst estimates with its quarterly revenue. [NASDAQ]
The forecast for the week shows Mr. Kurtenbach will continue to freeze his fucking ass off so this interested party can keep working on his tan.

Disclosure: I'm long DAKT.

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Holy Roman Kiddie Diddlers pushing ABQ anti-rights vote, updated

Rich women have full reproductive rights while women at lower income levels do not.
While the measure is only a municipal ban, not a statewide ban, it would affect women far outside of Albuquerque. Neighboring Texas enacted a 20-week ban on abortions earlier this year, so most women across Texas and New Mexico have to drive to Albuquerque for an abortion if a difficult situation arises late into her pregnancy. [Laura Bassett, Huffington Post]

Albuquerque voters are headed to the polls today to decide whether the city can deny women their civil rights after twenty weeks of pregnancy.
Roman Catholic Archbishop Michael Sheehan of Santa Fe is urging Albuquerque parishioners to vote for the ban on late-term abortions, which does not include any exceptions for things like rape, fetal anomalies or threats to the mother’s life. If the referendum passes, a legal challenge is expected. Attorney General Gary King, a Democrat, has said he believes the law is unconstitutional. [AP, Santa Fe New Mexican]
If passed, this law would have a chilling effect on the Establishment Clause, too.

King has announced his intention to run for governor, a seat now held by catholic earth hater, Susana Martinez. Martinez is considered by some to be veep material on the 2016 earth hater party presidential ticket.

The diocese of Gallup, N.M., has formally started the process of bankruptcy, citing the costs incurred by a growing number of sex-abuse claims. On Nov. 12, the diocese filed for Chapter 11 reorganization in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Albuquerque, N.M., Bishop James Wall said in a letter to parishioners that was posted on the diocesan website Nov. 11. [National Catholic Reporter]
How can you make this shit up?
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Colonel Kernal: dust bowl returning to ethanol states


South Dakota, Montana and North Dakota are seeing more frequent dust storms:
The return of “black blizzards” in parts of Kansas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Nebraska and Texas should be no surprise. These five states account for approximately 42 percent (2.2 million acres) of the total area converted to row crops nationwide over that five-year period, an Environmental Working Group analysis shows. [Soren Rundquist, Ag Mag, EWG]


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11/18/13

Who owns Marty Jackley and Denny Daugaard?

Steve Simunek gave Marty a wad: Simunek bilked Hot Springs out of a golf course.

The South Dakota Democratic Party wants Attorney General Jacklow to recuse himself from the investigation of Benda-gate.

Chemicals, chemicals, chemicals.

Follow the money:

REPUBLICAN STATE LEADERSHIP CMTE
Conservative Policy Organization
2010 1 $25,000
PFIZER
Pharmaceuticals & Health Products
2010-2012 2 $2,000
GLAXOSMITHKLINE
Pharmaceuticals & Health Products
2010 2 $1,500
ADVANCE AMERICA CASH ADVANCE
Payday/Title Loans
2010 1 $1,000
CITIGROUP
Miscellaneous Finance, Insurance & Real Estate
2010 1 $1,000
DUPONT
Chemical & Related Manufacturing
2010 1 $1,000
MONSANTO
Agricultural Services & Products
2010 1 $1,000
WELLMARK BLUE CROSS BLUE SHIELD
Insurance
2010 1 $1,000
BLACK HILLS CORP
Electric Utilities
2010 1 $500
SOUTH DAKOTA BEER WHOLESALERS ASSOCIATION
Beer, Wine & Liquor
2010 1 $500
SOUTH DAKOTA RETAILERS ASSOCIATION
Retail Sales
2010 1 $500
AT&T
Telecom Services & Equipment
2012 1 $250
WELLS FARGO
Commercial Banks
2010 1 $250




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