Governor Dennis Daugaard proposed today in his budget address that, while more details will be forthcoming, we can anticipate that new funds will be sought to put towards teacher salaries in the upcoming session.
The Stanley County Republicans had a great event this morning featuring future leaders of the SDGOP pic.twitter.com/jWSi06njFi
— South Dakota GOP (@sdgop) December 8, 2015
At the onset, let’s just understand that Paula Hawks is going to lose her race for Congress badly. And with that said, it leaves you wondering why she’s admitting she’s going to use her time in Pierre to benefit her campaign, and not her constituents:
One South Dakota lawmaker says she’s crafting a resolution about debt-free college. Democratic State Representative Paula Hawks says she wants to start a conversation with fellow lawmakers about the cost of higher education.
And..
Hawks says she supports a national movement that involves progressive thinking to address higher education and student debt. She says in South Dakota that begins with a legislative resolution she plans to file ahead of January’s session start.
The democratic state lawmaker is also campaigning for United States Congress. Hawks faces incumbent Congresswoman Kristi Noem in November 20-16’s statewide election.
So, she’s going to use her position to promote Bernie Sanders’ platform of “free college,” as she stakes out a campaign position asking people to vote for her because she wants to give them free stuff?
And I use the ‘free college’ term loosely, because it’s not free, it just shifts the cost to taxpayers… basically, people not in college.
I have the sneaking suspicion that endorsing the proposals of an avowed socialist running for president is not going to serve Hawks well in conservative South Dakota. But when you’re already being written off, I suppose you can throw anything to the wall, no matter how bad it smells, and see if it sticks. Hawks is already identified as supporting an income tax & planned parenthood. So, why not add socialism to the mix?
Your thoughts?
I heard a rumor today… And don’t classify this as anything but… But I had someone tell me they’d heard that there could be a primary challenger for State Senator Deb Soholt. And one name that was brought up was really, really interesting.
It was a name that had been brought up in the past for various offices: Leslee Unruh.
As a grassroots organizer, and not unknown in Sioux Falls, Leslee could potentially be very formidable.
But, there’s no indication at this point that it’s something that’s going to actually happen. Just part of the background chatter that pops up from time to time.
From a release from the AG:
Two Arrested in Belle Fourche on Drug Charges
PIERRE, S.D.- Attorney General Marty Jackley announced today that Heather Plunkett, 31, Belle Fourche, and Ryan Plunkett, 33, Belle Fourche, were arrested Friday, December 4, 2015, each on one count of the following: possession of marijuana, less than 2 ounces, class 1 misdemeanor, possession of drug paraphernalia, class one misdemeanor and ingesting substance other than alcohol, class one misdemeanor.
Both are presumed innocent until such time as proven guilty.
Of course, there’s this other thing going on:
I’m starting to update the 2016 Candidate list with things I’ve heard… or at least updated with those things that I haven’t been asked to keep confidential at this point. You can read it here. and e-mail me with updates, corrections, deletions, etc.
I shouldn’t read Gordon Howie’s blog when crazy headlines pop up, because I just feel stupider when I’m done. Gordon spends most of his time hating on the political party that he abandoned when he threw his ally Stace Nelson under the bus and announced as an independent for US Senate.
Admittedly, I had to look when I saw the headline blaring “Daugaard Donations Tied To Syrian Refugees.” So I looked. And as usual, I’m just dumber for the effort to click.
I kind of knew what I was going to get when I noted the author of the article, Bob Ellis. Anymore, Bob spends many of his waking hours being an @$$hole to Republicans after Gordon predictably lost this last election. Bob’s website used to be interesting, even when saying we need to believe in Rambo Jesus, but since last year, he spends most of his time in blind idolatry of Gordon Howie.
Reading the article, Ellis finds himself quickly lost in his specious declaration when the sole link to the Daugaard connection to Syrian refugees is…. (cue ominous music…..dum dum duuuum….) Daugaard accepted political donations from former DSS director and Daugaard Administration advisor Deb Bowman, current LSS CEO Betty Oldenkamp, and former state senator Russ Olson… because they’re involved with Lutheran Social Services!
Umm, what? I mean, they’re not as cool as Catholic organization members (said me in a smirking manner), but I don’t think that means they’re trying to fill the state with Syrian refugees. In fact, I’d challenge Bob to name any Syrian refugees they’ve imported into South Dakota? But God forbid Bob come up with anything that isn’t completely whack-a-doodle.
Bob tries to use his calumny against Daugaard to lecture the world on who is and is not a Republican. If Bob wants to lecture us on who is Republican, and who isn’t, I’d argue that the imagined connection between Governor Daugaard and Syrian Refugees is far less provable than his own false idol Gordon Howie’s connection with Teamsters, the Soros Family, and Democrat PACs from this past election. Because a PAC connected with Howie this past election took money from all of them.
And it was a lot of money. Over $100,000 when it was said and done.
As I’d noted in great detail this past election, this past year, a PAC was formed to support the candidacy of Gordon Howie, ran by Howie confederate Gary Coe, called “Many True Conservatives.” And if you look at their expenditures, in the FEC Report below, Many True Conservatives spent nearly every dime to promote the candidacy of Gordon Kenneth Howie.
Many True Conservatives 2014 4q FEC
Where did this PAC get their money? Well, if you look at the report, they took in nearly all of their money (Over $108,000 total) from a single source – Every Voice Action. Don’t remember them? They came in late in the game, and were reported on briefly by David Montgomery at the Argus Leader. In reference to their support of Rick Weiland:
Every Voice Action received $1.58 million through Sept. 30. It’s received another $665,000 in the past two weeks.
Who are these donors? The biggest ones are other groups.
For example, the better-funded Mayday PAC gave $458,000 to its comrade in the fight against Mike Rounds.
Another group, “Friends of Democracy IE,” was even more generous. It gave $1.15 million to Every Voice. Donnelly is the treasurer of Friends of Democracy, another Super PAC founded “to end Super PACs.” Hopping over to Friends of Democracy’s FEC page, we can see it’s been primarily funded by a famous name: Soros.
In particular, it’s been given most of its money by Jonathan Soros, son of the famous financier (and liberal donor) George Soros. This election cycle, Jonathan Soros gave Friends of Democracy $1.5 million. George Soros gave it another $250,000; other George Soros children Andrea Soros and Alex Soros gave $250,000 and $375,000. It also got a lot of money from Napster founder and Facebook investor Sean Parker ($245,000), Google engineer Matt Cutts ($285,000), Kathleen McGrath of Encino, Calif. ($100,000), and John Pritzker of the Pritzker family.
Back to Every Voice Action. It’s also received $100,000 from CWA Working Voices, the independent expenditure arm of the Communication Workers of America; $100,000 from former Stride Rite president Arnold Hiatt; $50,000 from Cutts; $50,000 from private equity billionaire Jerome Kohlberg; and $50,000 from early Google employee David DesJardins. Other donors gave it less than $50,000; I’ll list them all at the bottom.
It also got an in-kind donation of $11,427.42 from the House Majority PAC, a PAC devoted to helping House Democrats. That was listed as being shared polling costs in districts where Every Voice Action is backing Democratic congressional candidates.
So if Ellis is going to come up with some nutty and false connection and lecture Republicans on Daugaard taking “Syrian Refugee Money” because of someone’s taking money from employees and board members for LSS, then he’d damned well better man up, and apply the same standards to the man on whose website he’s writing for – and admit the Howie PAC’s acceptance of money from labor unions, Democrat PAC’s and the Soros Family.
In last night’s presidential address, President Obama made a point of stating that people on the no fly list be barred from being able to purchase firearms, which to many, might seem to be a reasonable restriction.
But… there are other factors involved in it, as US Senator Mike Rounds brings up in a recent interview with South Dakota Public Broadcasting:
U.S. Senator Mike Rounds questions a call by the Obama Administration to prohibit someone on the no fly list from owning a gun in the United States.
and..
But Senator Mike Rounds worries this would violate the constitution.
“Being able to fly is one thing but constitutional protections for someone to be able to have an arms, to have the right to bear arms, to keep and bear arms, is a constitutionally protected right. And, if you’re going to take that away from someone there has to be a due process involved in it,” says Rounds
And Senator Rounds brings up a good point. the Second Amendment. If you want to restrict someone from flying that’s one thing, but due process needs to come into play if you’re going to strip someone of that right granted under the Second Amendment. Which also brings in the The Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution.
Terrorism is specifically designed to instill fear in the hearts of people. We should not let fear serve as an excuse to allow others to promote a political agenda designed to take rights away from us.
From today’s KCCR, District 30 State Rep Lance Russell is planning to propose a measure to re-direct Video Lottery revenues to teacher pay, noting that he does not believe new taxes are needed:
District 30 South Dakota Representative Lance Russell of Hot Springs is bringing forth a bill that would dedicate revenue from video lottery for the purpose of supplementing teacher salaries in the state and establishing a teacher salary enhancement fund.
Russell says a tax increase for South Dakotans is unjustified…
Russell says that the state can come up with the 75 million dollar increase in teacher pay without raising taxes…
Russell adds that re-allocating lottery funds is an appropriate way to fund education…
The Fight to Repeal Obamacare
By US Senator Sen. John Thune
Before it became law, Republicans in Congress warned of the damage the so-called Affordable Care Act would cause and the burdens the American people would face as a result. Five and a half years later, Obamacare – as it became known – has chipped away at family budgets, squeezed small business growth, and led to fewer choices for patients and their doctors. Obamacare has broken nearly every promise its Democrat authors made to the American people, including the oft-repeated promise that if you liked your doctor and health care plan you could keep them, ‘period.’
Obamacare is broken – it always has been – which is why Republicans who campaigned for the Senate majority in 2014 promised voters that if they gave us the chance, we would send an Obamacare repeal bill to President Obama. Despite fierce opposition from Democrats and the president, Senate Republicans have now made good on that promise.
Now that the Senate has passed a repeal bill, the ball will soon be in the president’s court. He can either support this measure and help lift the burdens Obamacare has placed on the American people, or he can double down on his failed policies. If the president chooses the latter, it will be clear to the American people that the only thing standing in the way of an Obamacare repeal bill being signed into law is the current occupant of the White House.
The evidence to suggest repealing this fundamentally flawed law is necessary couldn’t be any clearer. Obamacare was supposed to lower health care premiums. It didn’t. It was supposed to reduce health care costs. It didn’t do that either. And it was supposed to protect the health care plans Americans wanted to keep, which couldn’t be further from the reality. Obamacare was sold to the American people as a health care solution, but it’s turned out to be yet another health care problem.
Since Obamacare was signed into law in 2010, I’ve heard from countless South Dakotans who have shared with me their personal stories about how this burdensome law is affecting their families. One person recently wrote to tell me that her and her husband’s health care plan is going up by more than $8,000 next year. That’s a staggering amount of money. What family can afford such a significant increase in expenses from one year to the next? Sadly, that’s only one of many stories I’ve heard, and these stories aren’t unique to South Dakota.
It’s time to move away from the president’s broken health care law and toward the kind of health care reform Americans are actually looking for: an affordable, accountable, patient-focused system that gives individuals control of their health care decisions. It’s what the American people want, and it’s what they deserve.