Posted: Friday, March 19, 2010 at 1:11 am
By: Cory Allen Heidelberger
While South Dakota Congresswoman Stephanie Herseth Sandlin finds a convenient excuse on procedural matters to continue her opposition to health insurance reform, Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich may actually save this legislation and save money and lives in South Dakota.
The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank can’t resist taking cheap shots at my man Dennis (leprechaun?!? Really?) before acknowledging the biggest idealist in Washington is talking pragmatic sense. The Kansas City Star’s Arturo Mora says Kucinich may make history as the man “who broke the Republican back on healthcare reform.”
Mora skips the leprechaun jokes and notes Kucinich isn’t the only Catholic getting [Read More]
Tags: Dennis Kucinich • health care • politics • South Dakota • Stephanie Herseth Sandlin
Posted: Thursday, March 18, 2010 at 10:13 pm
By: Ken Blanchard
John Eastman is running for Attorney General of the State of California. He is also Assistant Attorney General for South Dakota. Therein is a tale.
But first, in the interests of full disclosure (and to show how cool I am), I note that John is a grad school buddy of mine. I know what he looks like with a beer in his hand. Or what he used to look like. Back then, we both had color in our hair. He is also short. I admire that in a man.
Here’s the story, from the LA Times.
Republican attorney general candidate John Eastman has chosen the job description he will show voters on the June ballot: assistant attorney general. What he isn’t saying, though, is that he is an assistant attorney general in South Dakota.
Eastman resigned as dean of the Chapman University School of Law in Orange in January. But he opted to use a [Read More]
Tags: Attorney General • California • Eastman • John Eastman • Reisch v. Sisney • South Dakota
Posted: Thursday, March 18, 2010 at 11:59 am
By: Tim Gebhart
Seems a California man’s appointment as a special assistant attorney general by South Dakota AG Marty Jackley is causing a bit of stir in California politics.
California’s FlashReport blog reports that when Republican John Eastman formally filed as a candidate for California Attorney General yesterday, the former law school dean listed his occupation, which will appear on the ballot, as “assistant attorney general.” Eastman, though, is not employed by the California Attorney General’s Office. When asked about the designation, his campaign issued a “ballot designation worksheet” that said, “On February 23, 2010, I was appointed Special Assistant Attorney General by South Dakota Attorney General Marty J. Jackley to represent the state before the Supreme Court of the United States in Reisch v. Sisney, No. 09-953.” The campaign said that means “the ballot designation of Assistant Attorney General is literally accurate and is the most accurate description” of Eastman’s current principal profession and [Read More]
Tags: California • elections • law • politics
Posted: Thursday, March 18, 2010 at 8:21 am
By: Cory Allen Heidelberger
The Madville Times Online Crackerbarrel is taking questions through suppertime today! Submit your questions today for District 8 legislators Rep. Mitch Fargen, Rep. Gerry Lange, and Sen. Russell Olson. (If you’re from another district and want to submit a question for any other legislators, feel free!)
This evening I will compile the questions and e-mail them to our local legislators (and any others you might specify) tonight. They’ll take the weekend to consider, compose, and return their responses. I’ll organize and post those responses right here next Wednesday.
Remember, we still don’t have a state budget, so there’s lots to ask our elected officials about, and plenty of chance to make your voice heard on what you think they should prioritize in the budget. So submit your questions and comments now! [Read More]
Tags: politics
Posted: Wednesday, March 17, 2010 at 6:24 am
By: Cory Allen Heidelberger
Friday’s print MDL ran this half-page informational ad to explain just what the state gets for its extra investment in small schools. The ad, apparently from the Rutland and Oldham-Ramona school districts, is clearly a response to failed House Bill 1150 and other action during this year’s legislative session that shows our elected officials (mostly Republicans) still view education as an unpleasant expense rather than a vital investment.
Some highlights from the ad:
- The 232 students at Oldham-Ramona and Rutland cost the state about $44,000 more than the aid formula would send if those kids went to bigger schools. That $44,000 supports 60 jobs and $3 million of district expenditures… also known as economic activity (Rutland pays teachers; teachers buy gas, [Read More]
Tags: budget • education • South Dakota • state legislature
Posted: Tuesday, March 16, 2010 at 11:26 pm
By: Ken Blanchard
What is going on in Congress right now is the greatest show on earth. The prospect of a fundamental piece of social reform passed by Congress in contempt of the manifest opposition of the public, well, one needs jugglers and computer graphics to capture that. Here is a brief sketch of the evolution of the Democratic legislative strategy.
PLAN A. Both the House and the Senate have passed healthcare reform bills. Standard procedure would be to refer both bills to a conference committee, consisting of members of both Houses and both parties. A single bill would emerge from conference and would have to be voted on again by both Houses. However, the Senate bill was passed when the Democrats still had a filibuster-proof 60 votes in the Senate. Republican Scott Brown replaced Ted Kennedy in the Senate (largely by running in vehement opposition to the reform bills, in one of the most Democratic states in the U.S.). Senate Republicans can now [Read More]
Tags: deem • health care • legislation • pelosi • reconciliation • reform • Slaughter solution
Posted: Tuesday, March 16, 2010 at 6:02 pm
By: Joel Rosenthal
Straight Talk Commentary – The Democrat Majority in the U S House can not muster the votes to pass the Senate Health Care Reform bill and then utilize the “reconciliation process” “to fix” that bill’s faults.
What ever happened to amending a bill? – Well you know about Dem’s losing their filibuster proof super majority in the Senate so they are using parliamentary and tactical procedures to effectively pass the Senate Bill without having to have members take a vote.
What’s happened to Democracy?
Never mind that this so called reform affects one sixth of our economy.
This power grab is unprecedented particularly in terms of its scope and is outrageous!
Suggestions have been made that these are tactics that our President has brought with him from Chicago. Horse Puckey, Chicago thugs would be humiliated by this theft.
It was only late last week that President Obama proclaimed, the time for debate is over, and it is time for a vote. Now it appears, not being able to get their way with a vote, the Democrat Majority will use procedure to get their way. [Read More]
Tags: politics • US Congress
Posted: Tuesday, March 16, 2010 at 1:24 pm
By: Cory Allen Heidelberger
We have our first notable blogger sighting on a 2010 South Dakota ballot. Doug Maurstad, known online as “Old Cranky,” has filed his petitions to run for the Union County Commission. The Alcester Republican tells the Sioux City Journal the current commission is “not open and accessible.”
Maurstad has also been a vocal opponent of the proposed Hyperion refinery. He says if, if, IF the refinery is built, he wants to impose some real oversight and control. “Our best interests are not part of [Hyperion's] concerns,” Maurstad tells SCJ.
Maurstad has been blogging since May 2008 about the shenanigans between Hyperion and the Union County Commission. He has not hesitated to call Hyperion “sneaky [Read More]
Tags: Hyperion • politics • South Dakota • Union County
Posted: Monday, March 15, 2010 at 10:38 pm
By: Ken Blanchard
I had thought that the Nobel Prize awarded to President Obama would hurt the new Chief Diplomat more than a little. I thought that the foreign policy problems facing him would make a mockery of the promise on which the award was based, which they have; but I also thought that nearly every article about his foreign policy failures would begin by reminding us of the prize.
Instead, the world seems largely to have forgotten his prize as if it were one of those little nylon ribbons that American school children get for most advanced in self-esteem. I continue to be amused by the fact of the prize, especially when I read this article from Der Spiegel.
US President Barack Obama glided off the stage to thunderous applause. He had just given a speech that commentators around the world, particularly those in the Muslim world, [Read More]
Tags: Bush • China • Der Spiegel • Europe • foreign policy • Iran • Israel • Middle East • Nobel Prize • Obama • Russia
Posted: Monday, March 15, 2010 at 1:48 pm
By: Cory Allen Heidelberger
(Mr. Gebhart and I are both thinking about newspapers today.)
Randell Beck, publisher of that Sioux falls paper, celebrates Sunshine Week with a celebration of newspaper reporters:
In an era increasingly shaped by ideological trench warfare – a media-saturated world in which folks are lured to consume prepackaged news mirroring their own narrow worldview – the very best reporters challenge authority, ask the hardest questions, challenge conventional thinking and hold accountable those who presume to speak for all of us – all with a relentless fidelity to the truth, “without fear or favor” [Randell Beck, "The Best Reporters Pursue Truth," that Sioux Falls paper, 2010.03.14].
Like Beck, I am grateful for reporters. The paid media do a lot of investigative work that even the most passioante [Read More]
Tags: journalism • Media • South Dakota
