Category Archive

The liberal South DaCola just doesn’t get it.

What kind of a low have we sunk to where a pastor is condemned for speaking plainly about what is true and what is moral. Our society used to commend pastors for that, and used to appreciate that pastors helped keep our society healthy and safe.

Now such pastoral dedication is not only rare, but often met with scorn.

I noted a couple of days ago that South DaCola was awful touchy about the abortion issue when Pastor Steve Hickey at Voices Carry blogged on Leslie Stusiak, the new Regional Field Director for the South Dakota Campaign for UnHealthy Families.

South DaCola was in a tiff because Hickey provided some information about this young woman, and I pointed out that the information provided was not super-secret or information of an intimate or embarrassing nature; pretty much what you could Google up with a few seconds effort. And wanting to know something about a leader in a major public policy group in South Dakota is completely legitimate and natural.

Apparently my appeals to reason fell on deaf ears, because South DaCola took another swipe at Pastor Hickey today, among other things saying Hickey is an “ideologue.”

South DaCola says an ideologue is…

To read more, go to Dakota Voice.

It seems the debate over preschool and universal pre-k are getting started even earlier this year.

Today the Argus Leader from Sioux Falls has two articles on the subject, one examining efforts in the legislature for the past two years to set standards for private preschools, and another examining a new behavior-based preschool being started by Avera Health.

The article on official standards features a quote from South Dakota War College blogger Pat Powers:

Pat Powers of Brookings, an unsuccessful legislative candidate in June who frequently blogs on the topic of the “nanny state,” says preschool standards don’t concern him as much as more heavy-handed state actions.

“My argument has always been that if you’re going to have preschool, it’s not inappropriate for the state to set some minimum standards,” Powers says. “It should always be up to the parent to decide if the child will participate.”

Chris Hupke of the South Dakota Family Policy council, however, more closely reflects my concerns:

Where we get concerned is when the government starts pushing into an area that is already being serviced by private groups, and preschool is being served,” says Chris Hupke, president of the South Dakota Family Policy Council. “That’s our concern. Businesses, churches and private enterprise are providing the service already.”

When government starts getting involved in something, it isn’t long before that something becomes mandatory…

To read more, go to Dakota Voice.

By now news has broke across South Dakota like a firestorm that Senator Tim Johnson has announced that he will not be able to participate in any debates this election season.

I have been open and honest about my recovery. While my speech continues to improve it is not yet 100 percent and I have not yet reached a point in my rehab where my participation in a debate would accurately reflect my capabilities. Therefore I will not participate in traditional political debates during this campaign.

Johnson suffered a brain hemorrhage more than a year and a half ago and has been working hard to come back from this debilitating injury. Despite notable progress, he still faces serious challenges in his mobility and speech.

These difficulties have been the source of speculation for months, over whether Johnson would be able to participate in the usual campaign debates, or would even be able to run for reelection at all.

Recent weeks have seen considerable discussion, especially among South Dakota blogs, over whether Johnson would participate in the upcoming DakotaFest debate later this month and a scheduled October KELO TV debate. Republican challenger Joel Dykstra had already committed to both debates.

This must have been a heartbreaking decision for Senator Johnson and those close to him to reach. Still, Johnson’s advisors surely knew this would be an issue during the campaign…

To read more, go to Dakota Voice

The deception in the abortion debate has begun and continues, and it’s the same folks doing it now as did it in 2006: pro-abortionists and pro-abortion blogs.

The South DaCola blog claims today that a recent post at Voices Carry is “misleading” because it points out that the South Dakota Campaign for UnHealthy Families seems to have designed their website to use a very similar color scheme to the VoteYesForLife.com website. (No mention of my post that same day, even earlier than Pastor Steve’s–sniffle, sniffle)

South DaCola claims the old UnHealthy Families website had similar colors to the new site, and that it’s VoteYesForLife.com that’s the copycat.

Sorry, I know that with all the years of “mainstream” liberal media dominance, liberals feel entitled to revise history and facts at will, but there’s a “new media” in town now…

To read more, go to Dakota Voice.

There are some in the pro-life community who don’t support South Dakota’s latest pro-life measure, Initiated Measure 11.

IM 11 is a measure which would ban most abortions in South Dakota. Unlike Referred Law 6 in 2006, IM 11 contains exceptions for rape, incest and the health of the mother.

The exceptions in IM 11 were carefully written to prevent abuse.

For instance, the health exception requires that the issue must involve “a serious risk of substantial and irreversible impairment of the functioning of a major bodily organ or system.” In making this determination, the abortionist must use “accepted standards of medical practice” which must be documented in the woman’s medical records. In other words, the claim to invoke this exception cannot be frivolous and must be medically substantiated.

The exception for rape and incest requires that the incident be reported to law enforcement authorities before…

To read more, go to Dakota Voice.

From KXMB in Bismark, North Dakota on Operation Dakota Peacekeeper, which increased the number of law enforcement officers on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation which is mostly in South Dakota and partly in North Dakota.

The reservation has had a crime problem…

To read more, go to Dakota Voice.

This is from a KEVN report about Senator John McCain’s appearance at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in Sturgis, South Dakota yesterday.

For more, go to Dakota Voice,

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Pro-life initiative Measure 11 offers South Dakota voters an opportunity to stand in defense of preborn human life during the November election, and carries the endorsement of Focus on the Family Action in conjunction with the South Dakota Family Policy Council.

Both groups are urging South Dakota voters to vote “yes” on Measure 11, which would prohibit abortion except in cases of rape or incest, or when the life or health of the mother is endangered by the continued pregnancy.

To read more, go to Dakota Voice.

Fox News and others are reporting that the energy “Gang of 10″ which includes Senator John Thune have formulated an energy proposal to lower gas prices.

While I’m not totally happy with their plan, this group of Democrats and Republicans seem to have a slightly better understanding of the problem of high gas prices than Democrat Senator Ken Salazar last week.

From Human Events:

McConnell was asking for unanimous consent, so the bill could pass immediately. Try as he might, Sen. Ken Salazar (D-Co) objected no matter how high McConnell raised the ante.

$4 a gallon? Salazar objected. $7.50 a gallon? Again, Salazar objected. Finally, McConnell offers a trigger for offshore drilling permission at $10 a gallon gasoline prices. And guess what? Salazar objected.

The Democrats would rather have us under the burden of $10 a gallon gasoline than give permission for offshore oil drilling.

To read more, and to see a video of McConnell and Salazar, go to Dakota Voice.

GUEST COLUMN

BY DON KOPP

“It’s the economy, Stupid,” was Clinton’s campaign slogan in 1992. Today, Democrats are trying to revive the slogan for this election year and of course, blame our slumping economy on the President rather than where it belongs, on Congress. But the majority of our economic woes lie totally at the foot of most liberals, both Democrat and Republicans who have become environmental fanatics.

At the request of Congress, a BLM report submitted by their lead scientist, Richard Wilson stated there are “117 billion barrels of oil on lands managed by the Federal Government with an additional 22 billion on private lands—more than the known oil reserves of Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, Russia or Venezuela, respectively. And, “when you consider ANWAR in Alaska, throw in another 7.7 billion barrels.”

At our present consumption rate…

To read more, go to Dakota Voice.

The pro-abortion South Dakota Campaign for UnHealthy Families (how do these people even say the official name for their outfit with a straight face?) has rolled out their new website.

Is it just me, or does this

look a whole lot like this?

They say evil loves to counterfeit good…

To read more, go to Dakota Voice.

The issue of Republican values has been a recurring theme for several years now, not only on the national stage but here at home in South Dakota.

Of late, it has become an intense topic on the Right side of the South Dakota blogosphere, with several posts from Sibby Online, SD Wingnuts, some from the South Dakota War College, and the South Dakota GOP Republican Tide.

I think it’s understandable for a political party to be a bit stand-offish or distance itself from members who represent more of the opposition’s values than the values of their own party, or who work actively against members of their own party while going out of their way to help the opposing party.

Ironically, however, it seems that sometimes money can overcome even an obvious divergence of philosophy. This should not be.

It is equally disappointing when the party apparatus fails to support their own candidates who uphold party values, just because those candidates may not be as polished as they would like…

To read more, go to Dakota Voice.

Dakota Voice is reviewing the Report of the South Dakota Task Force to Study Abortion, in light of the upcoming November vote on Initiated Measure 11 to end most abortions in South Dakota.

Pertinent sections of the report will be reviewed each week for the next several weeks which may shed light on Initiated Measure 11.

First week: The Incorrect Assumptions of the Roe v. Wade Decision

Second Week: What Has Been Learned From the Practice of Abortion Since the Roe v. Wade

Last Week: The Current Practice of Abortion in South Dakota

The following is from Section II.A.5 on the findings of the report:
===================================

We received and reviewed the testimony of more than 1,940 women who have had abortions. This stunning and heart-wrenching testimony reveals that there are common experiences with abortions. Women were not told the truth about abortion, were misled into thinking that nothing but “tissue” was being removed, and relate that they would not have had an abortion if they were told the truth.

They relate that they were coerced into having the abortion by the father of the child or a parent, and that the abortion clinics also apply pressure to have the abortion. They almost uniformly express anger toward the abortion providers, their baby’s father, or society in general, which promote abortion as a great right, the exercise of which is good for women. They almost invariably state that they were encouraged to have an abortion by the mere fact that it was legal.

They are stunned by their grief and the negative impact it has had on their lives…

To read more, go to Dakota Voice.

Is South Dakota’s 24/7 Sobriety Program to fight drunk driving getting the job done? KELO examines that question.

Drunk driving is an offense which can not only get the perpetrator hurt or killed, it can hurt or kill the innocent.

Alcohol is also a leading contributor to many other offenses including general assaults and domestic violence.

South Dakota has taken an aggressive approach to preventing repeat offenses with the 24/7 program which requires perpetrators of alcohol related offenses to come down to the police station twice a day to take a breathalyzer test.

But as one anonymous participate points out in the KELO article, the system isn’t foolproof…

To read more, go to Dakota Voice.

In this day of tight energy resources and drilling obstruction from liberals in Washington, we need power from every source where it can be reasonably obtained.

With the huge amount of wind that rips through the plains states, wind power could be a boon for South Dakota.

The Argus Leader reports that despite Senator John Thune’s support for wind power, he voted against a wind energy tax credit bill because it was full of pork:

The bill includes $1.2 billion for New York City to build a rail line to John F. Kennedy International Airport and a $1.6 billion tax benefit for trial lawyers.

Far too much legislation is loaded down like this with garbage that has nothing to do with the primary purpose…

To read more, go to Dakota Voice.

ABC is one of the many outlets reporting on Barack Obama’s egocentric, self-aggrandizing statement:

“I have become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions,” Obama said, a witness told the Post.

Excuse me, but Bill Clinton’s socialist leanings and Jimmy Carter’s all-around economic and international incompetence do not constitute “traditions.”

The “best traditions” of America are the ones upon which she was founded, and the ones which brought us to greatness.

They include freedom, limited government…

To read more, go to Dakota Voice.

It’s looking like Senator Tim Johnson’s campaign and his liberal friends in the “mainstream” media are going to milk his illness for all it’s worth.

David Kranz’ latest hit piece on the Joel Dykstra campaign in the Argus Leader today takes aim at Dykstra’s website for a statement it makes: “South Dakota’s Voice for the U.S. Senate.”

Democrats seem to be making the most of the fact that Johnson’s speech has been hindered by his brain hemorrhage and it is difficult for him to speak–and are trying to portray anything said or done by Republicans as a slur against Johnson’s impairment.

The Kranz hit piece does point out…

To read more, go to Dakota Voice.

The SD Shovel is now officially up and running.

The SD Shovel is a blog aggregation of some of the Right-of-center South Dakota blogs, and is one of the things to come out of the SamSphere South Dakota meeting in Sioux Falls last Saturday.

The platform where the site his hosted has a good page rank, so will hopefully add exposure to participating blogs. So far, RadioActive Chief, SD Wingnuts, Sibby Online, Voices Carry, and Dakota Voice are participating, and we expect more to contribute in the future.

The site will also be limited to South Dakota-related issues, or national/world issues that are of considerable interest to South Dakotans. We’ll be limiting our personal posts and others that don’t have some direct or strong connection to South Dakotans.

One of the things that this site is fostering…

To read more, go to Dakota Voice.

An update on what your tax dollars are paying for at Planned Parenthood.

How good it is to see a disturbance of this operation in Sioux Falls, even if only temporary.

For more, go to Dakota Voice.

The issue of universal preschool has been recurring in South Dakota for about three years now.

Today, the Argus Leader reports that a Stanford professor says studies don’t support a full-scale program.

Erik Hanushek, a Stanford professor who is among expert witnesses for the state in a school-aid lawsuit, seems lukewarm about the value of preschool, which he admits is “complicated.”

“There are some good but very small-scale studies showing positive effects of preschool,” Hanushek said in an e-mail exchange. “Most of the positive effects, however, are not educational improvements but reductions in crime and incarceration. These might well be good investments for society, but they do not solve the education problem.”

So is there any developmental bang-for-the-buck? Despite the claims of proponents, it doesn’t look like it…

To read more, go to Dakota Voice.