We are a little over a month in to the petition process for candidates for the state legislature, and things are looking somewhat dim for South Dakota Democrats.

31 petitions to run for either the State House or the State Senate have been filed with the South Dakota Secretary of State’s office as of today.

30 of those 31 petitions are for Republican candidates. Only one Legislative petition has been turned in where the candidate is running under the banner of the Democrat party.

30-1 and counting. Not very good odds for Democrats at this point.

From my mailbox:

Today is President Ronald Reagan’s birthday!

To celebrate today, I wanted to share a quick video I recorded about the impact he’s had on my life – how he’s inspired me and influenced the way I view the role of government. Take a look.

I’ll leave you with one of my favorite quotes from President Reagan: “The government’s first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives.” It’s a value I’ve fought to protect as South Dakota’s lone representative in the U.S. House and one I will continue to defend if elected as your next governor.

Kristi

State Senator Lance Russell, candidate for South Dakota Attorney General has sent out a postcard to prospective GOP Convention Delegates which is hitting mailboxes this week. Check it out:

 

I’ve been told that an effort will be coming today to smoke-out House Bill 1073 – the Campus Free Speech bill – from it’s premature demise in House Judiciary Committee.

The measure to ensure that free speech is recognized and enforced on our college campuses comes as a result of incidents across the country where speakers have been shouted down, as well as in South Dakota, where a controversial movie was canceled at USD. In fact, USD was recognized for their policies violative of free speech by The Foundation for Individual Right in Education.

Among those supporting the measure are Attorney General Marty Jackley, Congresswoman Kristi Noem, the State GOP, Americans for Prosperity, the South Dakota College Republicans and others. But despite that, the measure was killed on a 9-3 vote after testimony from parties including the SDSU Student Senate.

However, after the vote was taken, we’re finding out that maybe the student senate’s opposition wasn’t exactly on the up and up, as noted by several student senate members, and the SDSU Collegian:

The sponsors of the resolution wanted to pass it quickly to have a chance to lobby against HB1073 at the South Dakota House Judiciary Committee on Friday. But the resolution was added to the agenda at the beginning of the meeting — before most senators could be educated and form an opinion to debate it properly.

What’s worse is in the meeting agenda sent with “The Rabbit Report” Monday morning, the resolution wasn’t included, so students were unaware and didn’t have a chance to voice their opinions to their senator.

While there were good intentions with this resolution, the presentation was poorly executed and hurt SA’s senator-student transparency. This resolution is too important to slide onto the agenda last minute.

And..

If SA isn’t being transparent with its student body, or its own body, and actively seeking to represent the students to the best of their ability, then it becomes an issue of integrity.

Read that here.

If the testimony offered by some of the opponents was questionable, the measure deserves the opportunity to be discussed and debated by the full chamber.

When originally discussed in committee, there was actually testimony that the bill should not be passed because it would make it harder to stop speakers who might offend some people.  But isn’t that what free speech is about? That you might have to hear some ideas that contradict your own?

Given the restrictions on our own University campuses, it’s a bill whose time has come.

Rounds Introduces Bill Incentivizing Community Banks to Provide Credit to Small Businesses and Farms

WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), a member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs and the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, today introduced the Access Business Credit Act of 2018. This legislation would incentivize community banks to provide loans to small businesses and farmers by excluding from a lender’s income interest earned on small business loans and loans secured by farm land.

“South Dakota’s community banks provide the capital that small business owners and family farmers rely on to grow their businesses and support jobs in cities and towns across our state,” said Rounds. “By making it easier for community banks to provide capital, South Dakota’s small businesses will be able to focus on expanding, creating more jobs and investing in their communities. Additionally, family farmers and ranchers can focus on production and improving efficiencies during a time in which the farm economy has seen a significant downturn. Fewer barriers to accessing credit can provide them with a much-needed boost.”

“Congress took a great step forward last year in promoting economic development by approving sweeping changes to the federal tax code,” said Curt Everson, President of the South Dakota Bankers Association. “South Dakota’s bankers applaud Senator Rounds for introducing the Access Business Credit Act, providing additional tax relief in support of lending by main street banks to their small business and farm customers.”

“This provision is a wonderful way to help small businesses in South Dakota stimulate growth and reinvest into our communities,” said Megan Olson, President and CEO of the Independent Community Bankers of South Dakota. “Small business and community banks have the exact same mission in mind, to see a successful main street. This helps to achieve that!”

Under this legislation, banks are allowed to deduct two types of qualified interest from their income, provided that neither type of interest exceeds $5 million. This includes interest incurred in the ordinary course of business of a small business and any interest secured by land used or held by a small business in conjunction with farming operations.

This legislation would benefit nearly every community bank in South Dakota and is supported by the South Dakota Bankers Association and the Independent Community Bankers of South Dakota. A companion bill has been introduced in the House by Rep. Rod Blum (R-Iowa).

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Just for the sake of marking the milestone, as of today, South Dakota War College is officially THIRTEEN years old, having had the first post go up on February 5, 2005.

Good gosh, thirteen years of this stuff? Who would have thought? (I’m wondering if I should start to be sullen, and refuse to pick up my room?)

While Sibby Online has been around a little longer, but having had taken a break for a period of time,  South Dakota War College is the longest continuously updated independent website devoted to politics and government in South Dakota.

13 years – In the world of blogging, it’s literally an eternity.  There are a study or two out there that show the average life of a blog is actually a brief 100 days, until people lose interest because they fail to find their audience.

Love it or hate it, I’ve been pretty fortunate that Dakotawarcollege.com has been able to find it’s niche in South Dakota’s political landscape, and I’ve had the opportunity to do some truly fun things that I would not have otherwise had the opportunity to do.

When I, or SDWC, came on the scene we had just come off of the Thune/Daschle race where conservative blogs had vexed Tom Daschle and challenged some of the media coverage of the day. The fallout from that race was an explosion of political blogs on the right and the left, and as I read them, they focused almost exclusively on federal races.

But having worked a couple of times for the SDGOP as their legislative coordinator, as well as working with campaigns from school board to Governor, I wanted to talk about more street-level campaigns, about the state legislature, about things going on in cities, etcetera.  And since no one was writing about it, I thought I’d give it a go.

The website started off as being a bit of this thing that people didn’t understand, and as many people who enjoyed reading it, there were those who were scared of it, or even hated it. I’ve had people physically turn away from walking in my direction because they didn’t want to come close to being quoted on the blog. I had an employer question my doing it, and try to push me against doing it, but luckily their boss enjoyed it just fine.

In the blog’s early days, the State GOP Chairman once called me out in a GOP Central Committee meeting warning everyone “There’s a blogger in the room.” That was fun.  (Things are on a bit better footing now.)

As social media has evolved over the years, and with SDWC becoming the go to source for South Dakota’s political scene, we’ve gone from being viewed as a sort of ‘GOP conservative rebel radio’ to where people now accuse me of being an ‘establishment liberal.’  Which I view as kind of funny, as all it means it that the conservatives who came to run the GOP over the years are more comfortable with social media and they’re the ones in charge now.

As always, there’s another group who wants to be in charge in their place.  Kind of like the circle of life. (Hopefully no one is getting eaten.)

Over the last thirteen years, I don’t think too much has changed. I’m just been me being me, and trying to tell things from my point of view based on my experience and skill set.

Personally, I’ve gone from being someone who was hypercritical of my own writing to someone people have sought assistance from.  That’s kind of cool to me.

More than anything, I’m truly honored by the readers of this website who have given me their time and attention over the past decade and a third. And their friendship.  As we continue down the path of life, it’s always better to have a companion. Even if we’re talking politics, which can be contentious at times.

So here’s to thirteen more years! I could not do it without you.

Senator Nelson must really not be feeling the love today.

First it was Dakota Posts poking at State Senator Stace Nelson.

Now the Argus Leader via letters to the editor has former General Counsel for Citibank and 2016 District 14 GOP House Primary candidate David Zimbeck lobbing a few pointed words regarding Senator Nelson:

For instance, the latter offer of an opportunity to engage in a great debate over a state nosh, the legislation’s sponsor, Sen. Stace Nelson, R-Fulton, provides fellow legislators a welcome reprieve from his incessant “man-splaining” of how the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is controlling over all others; not to mention routine temper tantrums, while regularly purveying conspiracy theories, with little if any suggestion of substantiation. He, the champion of “food fights” of another form. Even the most casual observer of politics in S.D., can take one look at a rather corpulent Senator Nelson and recognize that he would not recognize a “nosh” if it hit him in the head. The notion of something resembling a snack must be an anathema to a person of his girth, yet he finds the need to spend even the smallest amount of time debating the merits with this latest, albeit less destructive, food fight.

and…

Speaker Mickelson and other leaders, need to gain control over the nonsense before most of us can be convinced that S.D. should do anything but go to a biennial legislative session.

Read it all here.

Tapio Resolution Identifies Fundamental Islam as Cause of War on Terror, Calls on SD Organizations, Businesses, Military Veterans for Support

South Dakota Congressional Candidate and Watertown State Senator, Neal Tapio this week introduces a concurrent resolution which formally acknowledges fundamentalist Islam and Sharia Law as the root causes of the global war on terrorism and challenges South Dakota businesses, organizations and political leaders to support the resolution   in a show of unified support of America’s military personnel and in opposition to the terrorist organizations and Islamic nations who practice Sharia law, including the execution of non-believers or those who speak out against Islam.

The resolution which comes under consideration at an as yet undisclosed date in Pierre clearly identifies Islamic laws of apostasy and the belief in capital punishment for anyone who leaves the Islamic faith as the driving   doctrine behind the violent Jihadist tendencies that are plaguing peaceful western societies in both Europe and  North America and makes formal request that businesses, organizations and political leaders in South Dakota stand up and be counted as supporters of that message in order to facilitate renewed dialogue and effective policy against the stealth Jihad and sleeper cell invasion that has been concealed by the United Nations refugee resettlement program via NGO or nongovernmental organizational placement of Islamic refugee populations in South Dakota  and other states.

“The intent of this measure is to very clearly define the root causes of the plague of jihadist terrorism and violence that is ravaging open societies around the world,” Tapio said. “And to give some of the most powerful and influential organizations and businesses in South Dakota an opportunity to indicate one way or another their policies and intentions in either supporting or rejecting this resolution and thereby clearly signaling their   sentiments and future plans contributing to either the safety or danger of South Dakota citizens moving forward,” Tapio said.

Senator Tapio’s resolution formally calls on the South Dakota Chamber of Commerce, Lutheran Social Services, Sanford Health, Aberdeen Development Foundation and other entities to support America’s military troops home and abroad by stating clearly an acknowledged solidarity against Islamic jihad around the world while simultaneously issuing a statement of unified support for freedom from persecution, discrimination and threat of violence for anyone seeking to escape the deadly and hateful ideology that threatens death for leaving the Islamic faith. Tapio also calls on Governor Dennis Daugaard, U.S. Senators Mike Rounds and John Thune and Congresswoman, Kristi Noem to support South Dakota’s troops and veterans and those who have offered the ultimate sacrifice for their country by declaring publicly and explicitly that Islamic terrorism and organizations    who propagate jihadist violence are directly responsible for the war on terrorism and the untold carnage and human and material cost incurred by fighting that war in theaters around the world.

Tapio’s resolution goes so far as to name specific organizations and state sponsors of Islamic terror, such as Al Qaeda, the Taliban, Boko Haram. Al Shabaab, ISIS, Hamas, Hezbollah and other signatories of the Muslim Brotherhood, all fighting to enforce globally the Islamic laws of apostasy which prescribe the death penalty for leaving the Islamic faith.

“This hateful and deadly ideology is a scourge upon humanity and all freedom loving peoples, irrespective of race, color, creed, gender, religion, sect, or national origin,” Tapio said.

“Every individual and every nation suffering under the violent and cruel oppression of Islamic Sharia law should rise up in the same spirit of our American fighting men and women, their soldiers and families and shrug off the mantle of slavery and mental and physical bondage placed upon them so that they may know what it means to live and remain free,” Tapio said.

Senator and Congressional Candidate Tapio called on his fellow candidates, office seekers and office holders, including Kristi Noem and Marty Jackley, Dusty Johnson and Shantel Krebs, to support the resolution as well. Tapio’s resolution also includes a clear corollary to the imperative laid out in the formal declaration which states   that anyone, any organization, business or political candidate who fails to support the resolution is by omission declaring themselves an apologist for radical Islam, an enemy of the state and de facto supporter of and accomplice to violent jihad on American soil. Tapio  says his resolution and the political firestorm and debate to come will   serve as a clear line of demarcation in what he sees as the clash of civilizations and the ongoing policies both   federal and state which have allowed an influx of Islamic practitioners of Sharia law to locate within the    continental boundaries of the United States.

“No longer will we allow patriotic Americans to be considered members of a hate group, or political extremists or xenophobes, or Islamophobes, simply because we believe in freedom for all mankind and can clearly identify ideological or religious threats to the freedom, peace and safety that should be the birthright of every human on earth,” Tapio said.

“Today begins a fight for the very heart and soul of America. A fight for the survival of freedom and liberty in this nation.  A fight for the heart and soul of every American who has sacrificed for their country and come home to  find us importing the very ideology that tried to kill them overseas,” Tapio said.

“America stands on the Judeo-Christian traditions of freedom and liberty. We stand on the shoulders of our ancestors that fought and died so that all men might be free. We fight likewise in a different time and place, without apology, but with the equal conviction that any tyranny over the mind of man is contrary to our Constitutional rights to free speech and freedom of religion,” Tapio said.

“We don’t apologize, we won’t back down, and we will not surrender as we wage this valiant struggle against encroaching darkness, in defense of this gleaming bastion of liberty that has so sweetly and famously been referred to as a ‘Shining city on a hill,’ Tapio said.

“It is our sacred duty and honor to fight this battle. And surrender is not an option,” Tapio said. “Let’s roll.”

Senate Concurrent Resolution 13 can be found here.

Dakota Posts is poking at Senator Stace Nelson again this morning: