Schoenbeck: screw the poor

When dad [sic] was home disabled, mom [sic] took a job as a kitchen aid [sic] at the local nursing home. I remember mom [sic] telling us she did it for the health insurance. For our family, it just seemed like a natural continuation of the teachings of commitment, hard-work, and responsibility that had always been our parents’ lives. [Lee Schoenbeck (RWNJ-5]

The word, "welfare" was used as a pejorative fifteen times in the screed with zero concern for anyone's welfare.

That wasn't the first time Schoenbeck exhibited his disease with the English language: here's more. I wouldn't want him sitting on my death panel, either.

The hypocrisy of South Dakota’s Republican Party knows no bound.

South Dakota is already the fourth most dependent state.

A wealthy SDGOP legislator wants to raise taxes on the poor...again.

The state Republican Party denies the Anthropocene, the American Genocide, and the legacy of slavery while rich lawyers like Lee Schoenbeck scramble to cover up the crimes being committed against South Dakota's workforce.

Utilities and banks are using the state as a tax haven languishing in the regressive tax structure with which Schoenbeck, a member of a pedophile cult and the National Ravage Association (NRA), raises his campaign money.

South Dakota should listen to Paula Hawks, Bernie Hunhoff and Cory Heidelberger and pass a corporate income tax.

Reduce the number of South Dakota counties to 25, turn DSU into a community college, and adopt my cannabis template: the kurtz solution painted on a thumbnail.

A well-respected, less radical former Republican legislator, Stan Adelstein, was driven from the extremist South Dakota legislature for proposing the bill Schoenbeck is being lauded for.

A state that calls itself conservative depends on federal Social Security benefits to pay the property taxes that currently bankroll the bulk of South Dakota's moocher state bills while video lootery drives poor residents even further into despair.

South Dakota deserves the legislature it suffers.

NEW MAP: Which States Rely the Most on Federal Aid? https://t.co/HXT6ivHFmV @JaredWalczak pic.twitter.com/GLpTeB8Mvv

— Tax Foundation (@taxfoundation) January 6, 2016

Rounds: "I wish I had a better answer"

Mike can't fly home.

The system in Washington D.C. is broken, South Dakota U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds, R, told a hometown crowd Tuesday in Pierre. Rounds said he didn’t have good answer to the problem. “I wish I had a better answer,” Rounds said.

Read it all here.

Pierre’s essential air service most likely will not get better anytime soon. That’s according to South Dakota Senator Mike Rounds. Rounds says the air service problem in Pierre, was actually caused by Congress. Rounds says he is frustrated with Pierre’s air service just as much as anyone else. Rounds adds that hopefully, there will be some act of congress that will eliminate the minimum amount of flying hours for pilots and alleviate some of that pain of airlines, especially the smaller ones like Pierre’s. [KCCR Radio]

Recall that the TEApublican former governor squandered Amtrak money on an airplane for his personal use now Pierre continues to suffer Essential Air Service woes and low boarding numbers even while the legislature is in session.

Recent concerns of poor service and late or canceled flights from Great Lakes Airlines have prompted Pierre officials to try and find a different air carrier as of lately. Pierre’s bid to get another airline firm, Aerodynamics Inc., to provide flights in and out of the capitol is not going to happen.

Read that here.

In September a former South Dakota legislator dropped the Westerhuis murders at Mike Rounds' feet.

Rounds built a self-insured house in a swamp that his administration knew was susceptible to flooding which of course flooded in 2011.

Back in October a source close to the Rounds family said Tike Mike was talking about resigning his seat.

Lee Enterprises will close Billings call center

Historically in the bag for ethics-free right wing extremists like Steve Daines and Mike Rounds Lee newspapers are media cripples.

After gutting its capital bureau Lee Newspapers of Montana is cutting more staff.

A regional customer service call center based at The Billings Gazette and serving its parent company, Lee Enterprises Inc., will be closed and consolidated by Feb. 4, company officials announced Tuesday. Ten full-time and 26 part-time jobs will be eliminated by the closure. [Billings Gazette]

Lee Newspapers of Montana could survive as part of a Bismarck Tribune, Rapid City Journal, Casper Star-Trib marriage and not become part of a Gannett takeover.

But who has the huevos to pull that together?

Lee stock is trading lower today and Gannett's is trending upward.

Buhl O'Donnell won't seek reelection; Erpenbach committed to public service

State Senator Angie Buhl O'Donnell (D-15) announced today she has been accepted to nursing school and won't run for reelection. She was interviewed by Rick Knobe on KSOO's Viewpoint University.

Sioux Falls council member Michelle Erpenbach appeared with Stu Whitney and Patrick Lalley on an Argus Leader interactive webcast where she did not rule out a run for higher office. With a bright future in South Dakota politics she called Mayor Mike Huether a strong leader.

We wish you well during the upcoming #sdleg @angiebuhl pic.twitter.com/82iof3A1Jx

— Viewpoint University (@ViewpointU) January 5, 2016

Chris Nelson: without federal permit KXL toast in SD

Update, 1230 MST: of course the Republicans on the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission caved to their campaign donors TransCanada.

Recall the reminder from TCMack that the Army Corps of Engineers touted the construction of the Oahe Dam on the Cretaceous Shale. That same shale accounts for the systematic breakup of roadways and railbeds in South Dakota likewise confounding KeystoneXL pipeline engineers.

The South Dakota Public Utilities Commission will meet Tuesday morning in Pierre to make a final decision on whether or not to certify that TransCanada can meet the conditions set by the PUC for the company to build a segment of its proposed Keystone XL petroleum pipeline through western South Dakota. South Dakota PUC Chairman Chris Nelson says the time has now come for the PUC to make a final decision. Nelson adds that regardless of Tuesday’s decision, without the federal permit, the pipeline won’t be built through South Dakota. [KCCR Radio]

KXL is geologically untenable and will never be built.