Not something you see every day in South Dakota, when a candidate for Public Utilities Commission hosts an event promoting the release of a man involved with murdering 2 federal law enforcement agents.

As promoted by Democrat PUC Candidate Henry Red Cloud on his Facebook page…

Wow. And I mean wow.  A Democrat candidate for statewide office is promoting the release of a man convicted of murdering two FBI agents in cold blood.

Quite the change from when no less of a Democrat than Tom Daschle told Bill Clinton not to pardon him:

From the Associated Press from February 2001:

Gov. Bill Janklow said he urged former President Clinton not to pardon American Indian activist Leonard Peltier before leaving office last month. “I am probably the one who’s responsible for Leonard Peltier not getting out,” Janklow said Friday.

Janklow said he flew to Washington in early December and had a long meeting with Clinton at the White House. He told Clinton that Peltier should never get out of prison because he is dangerous.

“Leonard Peltier is not innocent. He is a cold-blooded murderer,” Janklow said.

and…

Bellecourt noted that Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., also asked Clinton not to pardon Peltier.

Read it here.

(For more reading, I’d recommend the entire website at the No Parole Peltier Association, and the book “American Indian Mafia,” which presents first hand accounts, and the other side of the coin to the propaganda Red Cloud seems to be promoting.)

Congratulations to long-time friend of the SDGOP and former SDGOP ED Patrick Davis in being named Trump State Campaign Chair for Colorado:

Donald Trump’s campaign hired a veteran political operative Wednesday to lead his efforts in Colorado.

Patrick Davis, a Colorado Springs-based consultant, will serve as Trump’s state director — the first indication that the presumptive Republican nominee is building an infrastructure to make a play in this top battleground state.

The announcement came two days before Trump is scheduled to visit Colorado for the first time in 2016. He will give a speech Friday morning at the Western Conservative Summit in Denver.

Davis was the political director for the National Republican Senatorial Committee in 2004 and served as the executive director for the South Dakota Republican Party in 1995. More recently, he led the nascent super PAC, Go America PAC, that supported Robert Blaha’s unsuccessful campaign for U.S. Senate.

Read it all here.

As we have advertising contracts that have about run their course, the SDWC has space available once again to help you put your message in front of our State’s opinion leaders and decision makers. It’s a great way to grab their attention, especially if you want to raise the profile of your issue with them in the run up to this years’ election, or next years’ legislative session.

(If I was running for Governor, Attorney General, Congress, or a host of other offices in 2018, it’s a good way to gather potential volunteers, and to put yourself on the map. But, that’s just me. 🙂  )

Advertising on the Dakotwarcollege.com website is based on a first come, first serve basis for the available positions.  Advertising slots on the right are 300 px wide up to 300 px tall, and may be either static image, animated .gif, or flash file, as long as the file size is within acceptable file parameters, does not impede the loading of the website, or interfere with existing code.  All ads run through-site, and are not rotated in their positions.

Information on ad prices, ad positions, and required ad commitments may be directed to the webmaster by clicking here.

And if it needs to be mentioned, I’d encourage you to visit our long list of advertisers, and check out their websites, such as United States Senator John Thune, Americans for Prosperity SD Chapter, Congresswoman Kristi Noem, Vote Yes on S – Marsy’s Law, as well as my own Dakota Campaign Store, one of the State’s largest suppliers of campaign materials.

And while I’m on the subject, for all you newly minted candidates who may be looking for parade materials such as stickers, banners, car magnets, and the like, Dakota Campaign Store is open for business, and available to serve the campaign material needs of Republican and non-partisan campaigns.

Thanks for your patronage!

From the Argus Leader, Attorney General Marty Jackley says that the people who looted the GEAR-UP program for personal gain should go to jail.. But, it’s not quite that easy:

South Dakota’s top prosecutor wants to put someone behind bars for the state’s Gear Up scandal.

But the attorney general faces an obstacle in a 2013 state law that made it tougher to lock up nonviolent offenders without criminal histories.

and..

South Dakota prosecutors’ efforts to take probation off the table if defendants don’t have a criminal past haven’t succeeded since the state’s Public Safety Improvement Act took effect in 2013.

The act changed state law to require that those convicted of Class 5 and 6 felonies receive probation barring “aggravating circumstances … that pose a significant risk to the public and require a departure from presumptive probation.”

and…

The documents also include a conversation between Phelps and former Gear Up business manager Scott Westerhuis in which they agreed to run the AIII through an affiliate so that its board members wouldn’t question their activities.

“I think that all of those charges that we identified are relevant to show that this wasn’t a mistake, to show motive in relation to (those) fabrication of evidence felony indictments,” Jackley said.

Read the entire story (with video interview) here:

Sometimes you read stuff that leaves you laughing at how ludicrous it is. Kathy Tyler’s latest missive on her campaign blog falls in that category, as she makes up a new word, alongside her historic revisions: De-Elected.

During the 2014 election where I was de-elected, there were many fallacies told about me. The postcards and the radio ads were quite descriptive of a person that I am not.  I think it’s time to clarify where I stand on a few things.

and..

The anti-education postcard was one I didn’t even show my husband. I voted against funding a swine research unit at SDSU. I voted against it the first time it came up and then voted for the expenditure the second time it hit the floor. It was probably a mistake on my part, or was it a mistake to change my mind?  I haven’t visited the facility nor have seen any research results produced by it, but am sure it is a good addition to SDSU.

and..

They also claimed I was pro-abortion. I don’t think anyone is pro-abortion; everyone is pro-life—some just a little more than others. I believe that life begins at conception. Along with that is the support of common-sense anti-abortion legislation. There are some anti-abortion bills that just aren’t necessary. And I take my pro-life stance farther than the pro-birth, pro-life people. I support prenatal care for all women; that includes immigrants.  That bill finally passed this year. I also support Medicaid expansion (it’s pro-life, too.) It’s a win-win for South Dakota. (That’s another article.)

Read that all here.

De-elected? Um, yeah. That’s not a word. In any dictionary.

“Lost the election.” “Was defeated at the ballot box.” “Had my silly butt kicked from one side of the district to another.” Those are factual statements. But “de-elected?”  Not so much.

But that sort of revisionism goes right along with her revisionism on two major issues that are still going to plague her during the 2016 election, just as they helped cost her the race in 2014. First off, her anti-SDSU vote:

The postcard was 100% accurate, as she did cast a vote against the facility. I’d argue it was absolutely fair game. But in light of her comments why she voted against SDSU, I’d say they went quite easy on her:

 

“it was a vote of, uh, a retaliation type of thing.” Her own words, in her own voice.

It wouldn’t be so bad, but she’s trying to revise history not just once, but twice, as she tries to deflect her record on abortion in preparation for election 2016:

She calls herself pro-life, and claims that “I believe that life begins at conception.” But her voting record says otherwise, as she voted against pro-life bills on MULTIPLE OCCASIONS.

It wasn’t just the issue that has managed to capture everyone’s attention when she claimed her priest told her (which he absolutely denied) “Jesus was pro-choice”…

…It was her total record on the issue.

Kathy Tyler lost the 2014 election for State Representative because she says one thing in Pierre – as stated and recorded in her own voice – and tries to tell the people in her District another. Trying to state anything to the contrary is just trying to revise history.

Just as claiming she was “de-elected” is another bit of ridiculous revisionism.

Hopefully, the voters in District 4 aren’t into “the NEW history books,” as written by Kathy Tyler.

From Gray DC News, Senator Mike Rounds talks about his measure to clean up archaic references & language in federal law as tribes are concerned:

Senator Mike Rounds (R-SD) introduced the Repealing Existing Substandard Provisions Encouraging Conciliation with Tribes Act (RESPECT) Act in April. John Flute, Chairman of the Sisseton Wahpeton Sioux Tribe made the case to lawmakers on Capitol Hill during a Senate Indian Affairs Committee hearing on Wednesday. He testified about how these laws impacted his grandfather.

 

and…

Some of the laws date back to the 1800’s and were used to repeal treaties, withhold Federal money owed to the Tribes, even punish members for consuming alcohol. None of them are actively in use today.

“We don’t have to have archaic laws on the books that reflect very very poorly on how we try to do business with the Native American Communities,” said Senator Mike Rounds (R-SD).

Rounds said overturning these laws is necessary to begin a process of normalizing relationships with the tribes.

Read it all here.

American Innovation and Competitiveness Act Heads to Full Senate

“Today’s vote will be welcome news for universities throughout South Dakota as well as other research institutions like the Sanford Underground Research Facility in Lead.”

WASHINGTON – U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, issued the following statement after the committee approved S. 3084, the American Innovation and Competitiveness Act, by voice vote. The bipartisan legislation, of which Thune is a cosponsor, would maximize science research by reducing administrative burdens for researchers, enhancing agency oversight, improving research dissemination, and reforming federal science agencies to increase the impact of taxpayer-funded research.

“The committee’s passage of the American Innovation and Competitiveness Act puts important enhancements for federal research and our economic competitiveness one step closer to becoming law,” said Thune. “Today’s vote will be welcome news for universities throughout South Dakota as well as other research institutions like the Sanford Underground Research Facility in Lead.”

S.3084 would reaffirm and update the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research upon which South Dakota research universities rely, improve coordination and planning of federal investments in high energy research at institutions like the Sanford Underground Research Facility, and update the Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership program to better meet the needs of South Dakota small- and medium-sized businesses.

In June 2015, Thune and Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), ranking member of the Commerce Committee, established an Innovation and Competitiveness Working Group, which convened a series of bipartisan roundtables to gather input from the U.S. science and research community. Public feedback received by the working group was used in part to craft this legislation.

In addition to its investment in scientific research, S. 3084 would reauthorize the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, both of which are under the Commerce Committee’s jurisdiction.

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