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Okay, I found the latest plug by the Democrats to get their minions to attend the Bill Maher event a bit funny.

This week is your last chance to purchase tickets to the Bill Maher show, taking place Sunday, September 13 at the Washington Pavilion. Tickets are still available through the South Dakota Democratic Party until Thursday, September 10 at noon. We can’t wait to see you there!

Samuel Parkinson

Compliance Director

The plug for Democrats to attend the show, and the pre-show reception (with no one famous attending) is being pushed hard today by their compliance director.

So, if the minions don’t attend, are they out of compliance with the party’s Liberal-speak?  And someone will put a checkmark in a box? 🙂

Here’s a good one submitted to me from “Personal Capital” – What is the candidate’s net worth?

Executive Summary:

The 2016 presidential primaries are ramping up, and with those races come a slew of public awareness events aimed at positioning each candidate in the best spot to win their party’s nomination. As Americans begin to learn more about the people hoping to run the country, Personal Capital wants to see how money may help decide our next Commander-in-Chief.

In 2012, about $7 billion was spent on political races across the United States. More than a third of that total ($2.6 billion) was spent on the presidential election alone. For reference, about 129 million people voted in the 2012 election, and if the money spent promoting Barack Obama and Mitt Romney were split between every voter, they would each receive a check for more than $54 dollars! This and more can be seen in our exclusive blogger community infographic.

GOP presidential hopeful Donald Trump has by far the highest net worth, sitting at slightly more than $4.1 billion. On the Democratic side, current frontrunner Hillary Clinton holds a personal net worth of about $30 million. Members of Congress all also pretty well off. The median net worth of a member of Congress is more than $440,000, while the median U.S. adult has only about a tenth of that!

Lastly, unless Trump wins the election the net worth of the country’s next president will be dwarfed by those of Washington, Jefferson and Roosevelt. In 2010 dollars, President George
Washington would have been worth an astounding $525 million, more than doubling (and then some) his closest rival, Thomas Jefferson.

What are your opinions on money, power and this year’s candidates? If you want to know what you’re worth, check out Personal Capital’s net worth calculator.

A candidate’s wealth isn’t necessarily a indicator of how they would run government as public sector isn’t the same as private sector experience. But it does provide food for thought, as those who have earned or managed that type of wealth over their lifetime have a sense of what truly matters, and what’s merely minutia. In a Macroeconomic sense, one might argue.

What are your thoughts?

Attorney General Jackley to Deliver National Keynote Address at Alcohol Law and Policy Conference

PIERRE, S.D – Attorney General Marty Jackley will deliver the keynote address at the 8th Annual Alcohol Law and Policy Conference hosted by the Center for Alcohol Policy on September 11th in Chicago, Illinois. The conference will focus on better understanding the role of state attorneys general in policy debates over alcohol. The annual conference attendees include experts in the field such as state regulators, attorneys general, legislators, public health leaders, educators and industry official to discuss and debate current law and policies.

“This is a great opportunity to focus on the role of the State Attorneys General and the importance of polices that safeguard against the abuse of alcohol. I intend to highlight the success of South Dakota’s 24/7 Sobriety Program to cost-effectively addressing addiction. It is also important to recognize the strong efforts of the Center for Alcohol Policy in working with law enforcement to safeguard against the abuse of alcohol,” said Jackley.

South Dakota’s 24/7 Sobriety Program has reduced the likelihood for alcohol re-offenses by implementing drug and/or alcohol testing for first-time DUI offenders with a high blood alcohol concentration and any repeat DUI offenders. The 24/7 Sobriety Program exists in 61 of South Dakota’s 66 counties and due to the success of the program, it has been replicated statewide in North Dakota and Montana and is at different stages of implementation in 9 additional states.

Click on link below to view Center for Alcohol Policy event release:

http://www.centerforalcoholpolicy.org/2015/05/18/south-dakota-attorney-general-marty-jackley-to- deliver-keynote-address-at-alcohol-law-and-policy-conference/

From Today’s KCCR, Attorney General Marty Jackley is weighing in on the new thorny issue of the 2018 Gubernatorial race. The issue of whether or not Hilger’s Gulch in Pierre should go back to a natural state, or continue being watered like a golf course:

Gov. Dennis Daugaard has earned his share of scorn, mainly from Pierre residents, since the Hilgers Gulch initiative announcement.

and…

An organized resistance sprung up fast. Hundreds of citizens railed against the plan, voicing their disgust during community meetings and lodging complaints directly to the Bureau of Administration and Daugaard’s office.

One elected official Attorney General Marty Jackley, whom many believe to be running for Governor in 2018, says the Hilgers Gulch initiative should be a local decision…

Read, and listen to Marty Jackley’s comments here.

Marty notes that personally, he thinks “rather than the state making that decision, the local folks should make that decision.”

Wait, what?  Isn’t this state property?  Here’s one issue where Marty and I probably will disagree. I’d say the local people can make the decision – but conditionally.

It’s easy to say you want it kept green with other people’s money. If the city and/or all the people protesting and making it an issue want the area kept lush & green in the punishing Pierre summer heat, I’d say “pony up, and bring your proposal to the table.” Offer to pay for the watering and mowing. That makes it an easily solved decision.

But otherwise, don’t tell your neighbor how he needs to design his landscaping to meet your personal preference.

Here’s an interesting one. I heard a complaint from the State Fair this weekend that one of the petition measures might not have had people out there being…. precise in their explanation of the ballot measure they were pushing.

Word I’m hearing is that one person out there allegedly explaining the redistricting panel petition explained their measure as something along the lines of “the people not being represented by the present system.”

Uh… yeah. That would be one person’s opinion. Not a real explanation of a ballot measure.

Larry Kurtz, who throws out nonsense in support of South Dakota Democrats has long been banned from this and other South Dakota related web sites because of a constant string of profanity, bigotry and other hate speech.

After Kurtz, who writes the ‘South Dakota Progressive‘ blog recently claimed that exposure to plastic makes people gay, it was hard to think that such a ridiculous (& offensive) statement ciuld be topped.

But somehow, he managed to say something more offensive. Especially after a recent string of incidents where police have been injured or killed in the line of duty.

Those in the law enforcement/corrections industrial complex eke out existence on the public dole, are overwhelmingly Republican, are alcohol and domestic abusers living violent lives, most are obese and usually die early after miserable careers.

Read that here.

I’m not sure what to say, except if that represents the opinion of the Democrat rank and file in South Dakota, there’s a good reason their support continues to erode in the state.

And it says more about the person throwing out offensive statements like an attention seeking child than the law enforcement officers who put their lives on the line for the public on a daily basis.

9/8/2015 Update

I notice Larry has rewritten his post 2 or 3 times, now chasing after me like a kid who just can’t admit his mistake, but still squirms in his chair.

A few are asking me why I point it out, as it probably generates 10 times the attention he’d otherwise get. Yes, I know that, and it’s a bit of a double edged sword.

My response is that whether it’s Brad Ford spouting racist commentary on Gordon Howie’s website, Kurt Evans’ anti-Catholic bigotry, or Larry Kurtz calling cops drunken wife beaters, wrong is wrong, and evil must be challenged.

Agree or disagree on issues. But there are just some things you can’t ignore.

The South Dakota Family Heritage Alliance issued the following statement via email regarding the matter of the county clerk who was me who was jailed for refusing to issue a marriage license to a same-sex couple:

As most of you are very aware, the first individual to be jailed as a result of the Supreme Court’s epic overreach on same-sex marriage is now sitting behind bars. The public is safe from her for the time being. It seems that the promises of tolerance we consistently heard from those campaigning for the rights of same-sex couples were rather short lived. On top of her incarceration, County Clerk Kim Davis is now the object of a great deal of hostility and the subject of an ongoing merciless smear campaign.

The Family Heritage Alliance has prepared a simple statement which reads as follows:

Whereas the Family Heritage Alliance is gravely concerned about the health of the family and especially the cultural view of marriage, we do not consider the events in Kentucky where County Clerk Kim Davis was jailed, to be a marriage issue. We see this simply as one more in a long string of events that demonstrate the deterioration of religious freedom in our country. Religious liberty has been a birthright of every American from the very beginning of this nation. We are deeply saddened by the blatant judicial overreach and ongoing persecution of the Christian faith in this country. It is our hope that citizens everywhere, in all fifty states, can see the need for and be active in the defense of all religious freedom, regardless of the views of the person or persons in question.

Your thoughts?

If you read the comments in the story below regarding Fred Deutsch becoming president of South Dakota Right to Life, you might’ve caught some commentary from Spencer Cody, One of the board members of the organization.

They were very telling, as Spencer minced few words in his literary dismantling of State Representative Isaac Latteral’s abortion legislation that he’s brought at various times. In this instance, Spencer took aim at the Representative’s legislation to ban beheadings in abortion:

I commend Rep. Latteral’s strong commitment to life, but there were so many things wrong with that bill that it needed to just go away. For starters, it did not actually ban dismemberment abortions to begin with. Latteral did not catch this obvious error among others because he does not vet his bills and was too busy and interested in making the connection to ISIS beheadings hence the “beheading ban bill.” Don’t worry. Abortionists prefer to rip the child apart one limb at a time anyways. The idea that a beheading ban would prevent dismemberment abortions shows one’s unwillingness to understand the very problem they seek to remedy. Meanwhile, Latteral was so busy showboating this insane bill to realize his Down Syndrome counseling bill was going down in flames even though we likely had the committee votes if he were willing to get his act together. If he brings something that silly again this session, we might just stand back and let him own it. He can explain to the AG’s office how they are going to defend it in court and work on the futility of defending one of his poorly-written bills in court while we go on with the business of saving lives. At least it will keep him busy.

Read it here.

There has often been a difference in opinion between those are aligned with South Dakota Right to Life, and those who take a more agressive approach.

RTL always has one eye on the Supreme Court when they present measures, whereas those Who might take a harder line in the life movement are well prepared to challenge all the way up to the Supreme Court, regardless of whether others view it as folly.

What do you think? Is Spencer’s scolding of Latterel an outlier which has no relation to the larger battle? Or does it represent one group who has long represented the life battle telling the more radical forces on the same side not to screw it up for all of them?

Bob Mercer posted some interesting numbers this week regarding the migration of voters in South Dakota.   While numbers of Republican voters remain steady, voters seem to be abandoning the Democrat party by the thousands:

Turning back the calendar two years, Republicans are down by 400-some, Democrats are down by 12,000-plus (yes, that number is correct), and independents / others are up by more than 11,000 (and yes, that number too is correct).

Read that here.

Whenever I read statistics such as that, I’m reminded of the 2014 election where former House Democrat Minority Leader Dale Hargens abandoned the Democrat party to run as a Republican for the state legislature, and made no bones about what prompted the switch:

Hargens was an interesting entry into the Republican primary because he is a legislator that already served for a number of years as  Democrat; and he was a Democrat Minority Whip and Democrat Minority Leader during that time. Hargens said he felt the Democrat party moved away from him in its surge to the left. He said the Democrat Party had “Turned the lights out”.

Read that here (Via SDLiberty).

When one of the recent Democrat party leaders decides that there’s no place for his views among the party faithful, it’s not surprising at all that they’re shedding voters at a mind-shattering pace. But it’s not just Hargens.

Former Democrat legislator Ryan Maher who served in the South Dakota State Senate from 2007-2014 discovered a conservative point of view wasn’t welcome in the Democrat Caucus, and found himself going GOP when he changed political party from Democrat to Republican in November 2010. As he noted in his statement at the time “since Jim Peterson and Julie Bartling have moved on, they made up the conservative wing of the Democrat party, there was really no reason for me to stay behind. ”

Senator Eldon Nygaard found himself in a similar position when he returned to the State Senate after election, with leadership that he found wasn’t aligned with mainstream South Dakota.  One article described Nygaard as having “a pretty moderate to conservative voting record.” and as a business owner his “philosophy regarding government’s role in society is more in line with the Republican Party.”

What other examples are there regarding the Democratic Party’s hard left turn? Two words: Bernie Sanders:

Free college tuition.  Doubling the minimum wage.  A single-payer, universal health care system.  Those are just a few of the campaign promises by Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, who does not try to hide that he embraces a form of socialism.

and…

Despite his self-described socialist views, Sanders is experiencing an unexpected wave of popularity, and is drawing some of the largest, most electric crowds of any presidential candidate so far.

Read it here.

20 years ago…  possibly even 10 years ago, no one could have predicted that there was a real possibility a registered socialist could top the Democrat ticket for President.

When a self-described socialist is surging among Democrat voters, it’s a sure sign that business-owners and those with conservative views are going to continue to find the environment within the Democrat party less and less hospitable of a place to reside.

It’s evidenced by the continuing trend of impossibly strong Republican showings in elections, and it’s evidenced by the trend of people choosing to be independent, rather than put a D behind their names on that voter registration card.