Category: Uncategorized

Thune Statement on President Obama’s Budget

WASHINGTON, D.C.—U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) made the following comment on the president’s fiscal year 2016 budget proposal:

“While the president continues to cling to the same old failed top-down economic policies of spending increases and tax hikes, Republicans are focused on the future. Our budget will focus on growing the economy from the ground-up. Unlike the president’s budget, ours will balance and will reduce runaway spending and waste to make a more efficient, effective, and accountable federal government.”

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Noem Statement on President’s FY2016 Budget

Washington, D.C. – Rep. Kristi Noem today responded to the President’s release of his FY2016 budget proposal. Noem will be questioning the administration on the proposal Tuesday morning during a Ways and Means Committee hearing.

“Our country faces tremendous challenges and they require real solutions, not political rhetoric,” said Noem. “The President’s tax-and-spend budget proposal is nothing more than politics, which is extremely disappointing. South Dakotans deserve a genuine proposal that will fundamentally rebuild our economy from the bottom up, ensuring hardworking folks have the opportunities they need to achieve the American Dream.”

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What’s your spread for the Super Bowl tonight? No, not the point spread. Who cares about the game. It’s all about the food!

There’s 2 types of wings, jalapeño dip, chips, crackers, pigs in a blanket, and Cuban sandwich sliders at the Powers household, conveniently staged by the couch in the basement.

So, what have you got?

I still anticipate slow/light posting here at the SDWC for another few days with my computer on the fritz, as you can see in the picture to the left a multitude of disconnected hard drives, as I try to limp it along enough to do some basic posting.

I think I managed to salvage all of my design work files, but more importantly I salvaged about 275 gigabytes and over ten years of photos off of the drive giving me the most trouble.

So, bear with me. Parts start arriving tomorrow for a rebuild and upgrade, so I should be back up to 100% in short order.   (Just in time to do my taxes. )

From Fox News:

Mitt Romney announced Friday he will not run for president in 2016, after briefly flirting with a third White House run — a decision that only slightly narrows the crowded field of potential Republican candidates.

“After putting considerable thought into making another run for president, I’ve decided it’s best to give other leaders in the party the opportunity to become our next nominee,” Romney told donors on a conference call Friday morning.

Read it here.

If you notice site weirdness today, bear with me. I’m working on some optimization to improve site loading speed.

And in the pile of bills being introduced today, the infamous tan ban is back. Again.

Yes, there are a number of people sponsoring this measure I support and whose friendships I treasure.  But seriously? Another run at the tan ban? Hopefully, I can persuade them to see common sense. Especially when they’re trying to ban minors from when kids can go outside and use the sun to get their melatonin fix.  So, seriously – come on.

“It’s hard enough to be a small business and survive without the government regulating you,” Nagel said. “I feel like this is my business and I treat it responsibly.”

Nagel said her business promotes responsible tanning and enforces certain restrictions for safety purposes, including requiring parental permission for anyone 17 or younger.

and…

“It’s just so frustrating because as small business owners we don’t have thousands of dollars to hire lobbyists,” Nagel said.

and..

“It’s a babysitting bill,” Rozum said. “I don’t think the government should be babysitting what people do.”

Read it all here.

It was back in 2013 regarding another measure designed to keep us all safe from ourselves when I noted “Legislators need to leave tanning bans, eating behind the wheel, and other nit-picking nanny state measures alone, and stick to the big issues of keeping taxes low, reducing the bureaucracy, and doing as little damage as possible from January through April.”

What are your thoughts?

I had forgotten about this, until a correspondent had brought it up.

So, why is access to the Capitol tunnels tightly controlled? It sounds as if they’re not tunnels of transit, but tunnels of naughtiness.

Doesn’t anyone remember why they always get closed? Illicit sexual rendezvous. And, the tunnels were a known benefit of being a DOT or Capitol employee. After the no smoking rule got put in place, it became the indoor smoking place to go.

Smoking and Sin.

Maybe the state should keep them off limits.