Uncategorized - South Dakota War College

Day 2 of the Annette Bosworth Trial (#BozTrial) – Thoughts, Winners & Losers.

May 21, 2015 @SoDakCampaigns

Ohhh my god…. will it never end? Day 2 was marked with boredom. From the audience.

It was great through the examination of Sioux Falls Attorney Joel Arends. Then everyone left as soon as the painful cross examination slogged on. And on. And on. By the time Italia Frederici took the stand to corroborate much of what Arends said, and fill us in on juicy details including that it sounded like Bosworth was having a book ghost written, everyone was out working on their lawns.

Again, KELOland did a bang up job & set the standard for media coverage for providing the video that most everyone else was watching. But… KSFY and KDLT joined in with KELO via twitter. The Argus is still spending it’s time with the Associated Press’ sloppy seconds in terms of coverage.

Tomorrow? I suspect we’ll hear from Pat Davis. Not sure if we can wrap this up by this weekend though.

Winner: KELO again for superior coverage. Honorable mention for KSFY and KDLT.

Loser: Accomplishing anything today. This was boring. Nothing like Law & Order. (bum bum).

Howie back making excuses for Bosworth, but proves he just doesn’t bother to read.

May 21, 2015May 21, 2015 @SoDakCampaigns

This morning, Gordon Howie, who might just have schlepped himself out to Pierre for one of Bosworth’s free hotel rooms that she was offering is writing this morning without the benefit of information, accuracy, or a brain to guide him as he makes his daily excuse for Annette Bosworth’s poor judgement:

As I sat watching, it was hard not to wonder about the intensity with which the Jackley team attacked Bosworth in their attempt to convict her of 12 felony charges over petition errors which her defense maintain were “honest mistakes”.

It was also hard to wonder where Jackley was when then Republican Speaker of the House Brian Gosh purposely violated the law by notarizing his own signatures on his own petitions. Nothing. No consequence. The Attorney General did not marshal a team of lawyers and engage the director of the DCI to launch an investigation. There was no consequence whatsoever, even though Gosh is an attorney himself and should reasonably have known better.

Why this obvious double standard?

Read it here.

First off, as Howie should have noticed by the testimony yesterday, there are distinct and separate parts of the petition. The Declaration of candidacy. The portion where voters sign, and the attestment of the circulator (The part Bosworth is in trouble for).

Howie is mewling & trying to say “but..but…but… Brian Gosch did it too” – a statement which is completely and utterly false.

For the petitions that Brian Gosch had circulated on his behalf, he had filled out the top portion, where he declared his candidacy. Someone else circulated the petitions, and returned them to Gosch, signing in his presence. What Gosch did was to notarize the petitions, which is an attestment to the fact that the person signing the oath that they were circulator appeared in his presence, which he confirmed.

A completely, and utterly legal act…. as Stephanie Strong found out to her detriment when she tried to use the court system to gin up the issue. It had been legal, and was quite legal at the time when he did it. The legislature has changed the law since, but at the time, it was just fine.

But, don’t bother getting Gordon Howie to try to accept troubling little things like facts.

Day 2 of KELO Coverage of #BozTrial starting up at 9am.

May 21, 2015 @SoDakCampaigns

Go here to watch: http://www.keloland.com/custompages/livecoverage/

Rounds Introduces RESTORE To Permanently Address Regulatory Reform

May 20, 2015 @SoDakCampaigns

Rounds Introduces RESTORE To Permanently Address Regulatory Reform
“It’s time to end regulation without representation.”

*Floor schedule pending, Sen. Rounds plans to address RESTORE during his maiden speech at 5 p.m. ET today. Watch HERE*

WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) today introduced a resolution to permanently address overregulation in America. The bipartisan Regulation Sensibility Through Oversight Restoration (RESTORE) Resolution would establish a Joint Select Committee to conduct a comprehensive review of rules enacted by federal agencies and analyze the feasibility and options for creating a rules review process in congress. The committee would also hold hearings on the effects of these rules and recommend ways to reduce the regulatory burden on the American people.

“The cost of federal overregulation affects every single American,” said Rounds. “It is a hidden tax that for too long, has been dictated by unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats in Washington rather than elected representatives who our founders intended to be the voice of the people. The regulators have essentially become a fourth branch of government and de-facto legislative body. It’s regulation without representation, and it’s wrong.

“The cost of federal regulations last year was nearly $1.9 trillion, far more than Americans paid in individual federal income taxes. This compliance cost is crushing the can-do American spirit that founded our nation, settled the West, won two world wars and put a man on the moon. And it’s killing the American dream. RESTORE seeks to reinstate the people’s role in the rulemaking process and provides a path to eliminate the bad ones. It offers a permanent solution to overregulation in America and restores the representative democracy our founders envisioned.”

Original cosponsors include Sens. Joe Manchin (D- W. Va.) John Thune (R-S.D.), Jim Risch (R-Idaho), John Hoeven (R-N.D.) and Shelley Moore-Capito (R-W. Va.). Because it is a resolution, if passed by the House and Senate, RESTORE would be implemented without requiring the president’s signature.

Background:

The RESTORE Resolution would create a Joint Select Committee consisting of members of both the Senate and House of Representatives. The committee would:

Analyze the feasibility of a permanent joint rules review committee to

o Review all rules causing an annual impact on the economy of $50 million or more before the rule is enacted; and

o Delay the imposition of rules for review to the Permanent Joint Rules Review Committee.

Analyze the feasibility of requiring each federal agency to submit each proposed rule over $50 million to the appropriate committees of Congress for review before the rule is enacted.
Conduct a systematic review of rules enacted by federal agencies;
Hold hearings on the effects of current rules and look for ways to reduce the regulatory overreach;
Submit to Congress recommendations for a process to sunset overly burdensome and unnecessary rules, as well as a process for federal agencies to submit rules to Congress for review before they are enacted;
Submit to Congress recommendations for ways to reduce the financial burden these regulations place on American families;
Recommend whether Congress should overturn rules by enacting a joint resolution of disapproval; and
Submit a list of rules that should be repealed.

By the Numbers: Federal Regulations Today

41: Number of states that currently have a rules review process that gives state legislatures a final say in the rulemaking process. (source: National Conference of State Legislatures)
$1.88 trillion: Estimated annual cost of federal regulation and intervention in America annually. (source: Competitive Enterprise Institute)
$1.4 trillion: Estimated amount Americans pay each year in individual income taxes. (source: Wall Street Journal)
2010: The year federal regulations in America passed 1 million. (source: Chief Executive)
10th: If regulation was a country, it would have the 10th largest economy in the world, ahead of India and just behind Russia. (source: Competitive Enterprise Institute)
$15,000: The average cost of economy-wide regulations per household, which is 29% of an average family budget. (source: Competitive Enterprise Institute)
5.7 million: Hours spent by Americans on paperwork so far in 2015. (source: American Action Forum)
77,687: The number of pages in the Federal Register in 2014. The Federal Register is the official journal of the federal government of the United States that contains government agency rules, proposed rules and public notices. (source: Washington Free Beacon)
16 to 1: The ratio of regulations issued by unelected bureaucrats compared to new laws enacted by congress each year. In 2014, regulators published 3,554 new rules compared to 224 new laws. (source: Competitive Enterprise Institute)
24,000: Number of public notices and uncounted “guidance documents” annually in the Federal Register. (source: Competitive Enterprise Institute)
48: Percent of federal regulations stemming from the top six rulemaking agencies: Departments of Treasury, Commerce, Interior, Health and Human Services, Transportation and the Environmental Protection Agency. (source: Competitive Enterprise Institute)
$60 billion: The combined budgets of federal regulators in 2014. (source: George Washington University)
29 percent: Average additional amount small businesses pay per-employee in regulatory costs compared to others. (source: Competitive Enterprise Institute)
$10,585: Average cost per employee for small business with fewer than 20 employees to comply with federal regulations. (source: Competitive Enterprise Institute)
$7,755: Average cost per employee for businesses with 500 or more employees to comply with federal regulations. (source: Competitive Enterprise Institute)
38 percent: Approximate percentage of federal resources dedicated to regulations in 2008. (source: Chief Executive)
86 percent: The number of millennial voters who favor trimming regulations. (source: American Spectator)

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Nothing to do this afternoon? Live coverage of the Boz trial starting at 1pm today

May 20, 2015 @SoDakCampaigns

Go here: http://www.keloland.com/custompages/livecoverage/

Argus Reporter Jon Ellis on Bosworth trial

May 20, 2015 @SoDakCampaigns

The mainstream media is weighing in on the Annette Bosworth petition fraud trial taking place in Pierre this week:

“This should be pretty simple. Were you in the Philippines? Yes. Guilty. Done. It’s not going to be something that’s going to take a whole lot of time, one would imagine.”

– Jon Ellis, Argus Leader, 100 Eyes on Politics. 5/18/2015

Dr. Annette Bosworth’s criminal trial on 12 felony counts related to the signing and notarizing of her 2014 Republican U.S. Senate ballot petitions starts Wednesday afternoon. Here are the top seven things I can think of that will be more productive than watching the good doctor do a header off the judicial system.

and…

2 -Build my own crazy train.

I could go downstairs into my basement and build my own crazy train from items I find laying about, like an old filing cabinet, a broken toaster, some tricycle wheels and a Betamax VCR. That would be more useful than following the Bosworth trial.

Read it all here: Top Six Things That Are More Productive Than Watching the Bosworth Trial

Actually, I put off writing on tonight’s craziness myself, and worked on my workbench area, merging my recently passed father-in-law’s tools to my own. It kept me from it for a few hours!

And you read it here first – some Wellmark insurance rates up 42%

May 19, 2015 @SoDakCampaigns

From Politico:

SD RATES UP 42 PERCENT — Wellmark, a South Dakota insurer, has announced that it proposed 2016 rates that are 42.9 percent higher than 2015. The company said in a memo that the rate hike is the reflection of higher than anticipated costs, including more claims and prescriptions than expected and “a number of members who cancelled their coverage after receiving costly health services.” The company said it anticipated high utilization among certain enrollees, but that actual utilization was three times higher than that.

Read it all here.