By Jerry Steinley

We’ll have to watch for more news and analysis on this topic but, I had to read it twice. The president on Fox? I don’t believe it! No, seriously, the AP reports that Obama told Fox News during an interview that the nation could face a double dip recession if it overspends and, this part I love — if the nation keeps adding to deficit spending through tax cuts or more stimulus spending, at some point people could lose confidence in the U.S. economy and that could “lead to a double-dip recession.” Heck, lots of folks lost confidence some time ago.
So is the president letting the country know the gravy train has stopped or, worse, letting us know round two is on the way?
Here’s the brief. More to follow.
This from the Associated Press:
BEIJING — President Barack Obama says he’s worried that spending too much money to help revive the economy could undermine a fragile U.S. recovery and throw the economy into a double-dip recession.
That’s when the economy begins to recover briefly from a recession only to be dragged back under. Obama told Fox News in an interview Wednesday that his administration is weighing tax breaks that could encourage businesses to begin hiring again.
But he added that it’s important to recognize that if the nation keeps adding to deficit spending through tax cuts or more stimulus spending, at some point people could lose confidence in the U.S. economy and that could “lead to a double-dip recession.”

By Randall Rasmussen

South Dakota’s Sen. John Thune introduced a bill Tuesday that would prohibit Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner from extending the Trouble Asset Relief Program after it expires on Dec. 31.

Said Thune: “Congress created TARP to help relieve the credit crisis that threatened our economy last year, but instead of using the program for its intended purpose, the Treasury Department has bought ownership interests in auto manufacturers, insurance companies, and hundreds of financial institutions. Now is the time to end this program to ensure that additional taxpayer dollars are not wasted since TARP has devolved into a slush fund for the Administration.”
Two months ago, Thune joined 39 senators to send a letter to Geithner, urging that he not extend TARP beyond this year. According to a news release from Thune, Geithner has not responded to their request. The Special Inspector General for TARP recently reported that $317 billion remains of the original $700 billion TARP funds.

Thune’s effort received a boost Tuesday with a Wall Street Journal editorial on the bill’s introduction.

Join us live Tuesday at noon for a discussion with Jeff Vonk, Secretary of South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks.

By Kevin Woster

These days, photos lie a lot.

If you believe the pictures you see on the Internet without a serious reality check, you’re going to get fooled a lot.

With PhotoShop and its like, it’s easy for computer-smart manipulators to fool the gullible.

It’s not like the good old days, when photos never lied, right?

Well…

The fuss over the iconic war photo by Robert Capa taken during the Spanish Civil War calls into question the veracity of photojournalism, or at least the potential of manipulations past.

The photo is now all over the Internet. And the more I look at it the more it seems staged.

Or have my perceptions fallen to the suggestions of Capa critics?

And, as some of his defenders suggest - an idea that George Will emphatically rejected in his latest column -  is there “truth” about war in the photo that should transcend the facts?

By Kevin Woster

You gotta like those guys, Gingrich and Sharpton.

At least when it comes to education.

I’d think anybody could set aside their personal dislike for either Newt Gingrich or Al Sharpton long enough to admire their energetic spirit of cooperation on education reform.

And maybe learn from it?

The former House speaker and the outspoken civil-rights leader were on Meet The Press today to joke about their differences - on just about everything except the need for better schools - and talk seriously about what they agree is the most pressing civil rights issue of our time: education.

Gingrich even did the unthinkable to many conservative Republicans in praising Barack Obama for being “a liberal Democratic president who has the courage” to take on an educational system that is failing students in too many U.S. schools.

And Sharpton affirmed the obvious in fixing blame:  It crosses all political lines, and includes both parties in Congress, the unions, the communities and the schools.

As for politics, Sharpton said: “The kids don’t care that he’s a Republican and I’m a Democrat, that he’s a former speaker and I’m a civil rights leader.”

Indeed, the kids want a safe school environment and committed, talented teachers. When given those things, they tend to respond with improved academic performance that Sharpton and Gingrich, working with Education Secretary Arne Duncan on behalf of Obama, hope to promote across the nation’s educational system.

There’s no “D” or “R” in that. Only “H.”

For Hope.

That’s what I feel whenever I see Sharpton and Gingrich come together for the kids.

By Kevin Woster

First, I’m a David Brooks fan.

It isn’t just his smooth writing style that I admire. His consistent call for a more reasoned brand of  Republicanism should be heeded by the party, if it wants a more meaningful future.

In looking toward that future, Brooks wrote about John Thune this week, describing compelling qualities in the senator that are familiar to South Dakotans and potentially valuable to a national party looking for a fresh face in leadership.

Brooks comes late to a conversation we’ve been having here on Blogmore for a couple of years. Or, more likely, we started early, inspired by a tendency - based on the likes of McGovern and Daschle - to aim high in expectations for our congressional members.

Either way, Thune seems to be rising as a real possibility in 2012  - as surely as Sarah Palin seems to drift toward self-constructed irrelevance outside of the speaking, book-signing circuit.

And Thune’s appealing personal qualities, encapsulated nicely in the Brooks column, have a lot to do with where he is, and where he could be headed.

Former Sen. Bob Kerrey - once from Nebraska, now from New York - at a media event during a campaign stop for Democrat Scott Heidepriem.

By Kevin Woster

Here’s how much the Heidepriem campaign means to Bob Kerrey:

He skipped the Nebraska home game - AGAINST OKLAHOMA! - to come to South Dakota and campaign for the South Dakota candidate for governor.

Nebraska won, by the way. And Heidepriem? We’ll see.

But if you’re trying to get your name out and raise a few bucks, guys like Kerrey can’t hurt, can they?

A former Nebraska governor as well as U.S. senator, he was elected president of South Dakota in 1992. Sort of. Winning the South Dakota presidential primary was kind of a highlight of the Kerrey campaign.

“If it had come first, you might be talking to former President Kerrey right now,” he said during a chat in downtown Rapid last week end.

Instead, he’s a former senator and current president of The New School in NYC. He’s also a steadfast buddy of Heidepriem’s campaign manager, Steve Jarding, who helped Kerrey win the ‘92 primary here.

So Kerrey was more than willing to come when Jarding called. And it wasn’t just what he brought to the campaign. It’s also what he got in return.

He discovered Frankenfeld, and the ultimate, infinite campaign.

He even got to hold THE SIGN.

Like the rest of us who run a slight Frankenfeld fever, he will be changed forever.

Life will never be the same for Bob Kerrey.

By Jerry Steinley

Is Fox News “fixing” the news? Are they really fair and balanced or is their news just a shadow of the truth more interested in preserving the Conservative party than informing the American public?
Don’t know. You be the judge …  starting with this bit uncovered by The Daily Show’s John Stewart.

In the meantime, don’t believe everything you see… especially if it’s on Fox, apparently.

By Jerry Steinley

Two California Democrats have introduced a bill in the House that would require employers to pay up to five days wages to employees who have been sent home sick with the flu.
Calling it the Emergency Influenza Containment Act, the language of the bill puts the burden on the employer to do a diagnosis and tell an employee to stay home. And then pay the employee for
the work missed.
The real burden for the employer will be complying. Small businesses that have part time employees shouldn’t be saddled with a Congressional mandate to pay non-working employees. This could be the worst time in history to be putting another expense on the nation’s employers.
The idea itself opens the door to widespread abuse by less-than-honorable employees realizing a paid vacation is only a sniffle away.
This is being pushed by the Democrats who would like to cast a larger net know as the Healthy Families Act. While that idea is stalled, the flu scare has opened the door for this “containment act” … the first step in mandating sick leave for all workers.
Do all workers deserve paid sick time or is this just a case of the Democrat’s nanny instincts gone wild?

The team - Democratic team, that is - mascot greets the latest arrival at the Nemec farm for the Third Annual Mount Blogmore Take It Outside Invitational Pheasant Hunt and Chili Feed.

By KW

When Schoenbeck pulled up, the donkey cocked its left leg.

It was like a political howitzer waiting to fire, there in Nick and Mary Jo Nemec’s front yard. And it recognized a Republican when it saw one.

Ever the peacemaker, however, Lee Schoenbeck soon sweet talked the donkey that was lightly tethered in the Nemecs’ yard into a negotiated truce. And soon the hunt was on, without the donkey but with Schoenbeck and his pack of Labs.

The Third Annual Mount Blogmore Take It Outside Invitational Pheasant Hunt and Chili Feed attracted its typically odd assortment of Democrats, Republican and political agnostics to the Nemec farm (farms, actually, since we also imposed on Nick’s brother, Victor) west of Highmore Sunday, a day that was anything but for rest in our crew.

The weather was gorgeous. Mary Jo’s chili was even better. And the birds were just cooperative enough to let 10 licensed hunters (next year, Harlan, the gun, not the camera) bag 24 ringneck roosters.

That’s six short of a limit. But the boys in the hunt still had about all the fun they could have imagined.

So did the odd assortment of dogs, including Schoenbeck’s thundering herd of Labs, Jon Lauck’s golden retriever, Jack, and a pack of Nemec farm dogs that included a short-legged Corgi (whoops, I guess that’s redundant) that was long on wind and spirit.

Mount Blogmore founder and patron saint Bill Harlan made it for the first time this year, and vowed to return next year armed with more than a digital camera. Eric Abrahamson fired at a flying ringneck for the first time, and pledged to come back and tug the trigger further.

And the Thune team of Lauck and Ben Ready was prepared for all speeding game, including jack rabbits.

Once again, a pack of hunters with a variety of political opinions came together to express themselves in a louder, more non-political style.

And the Blogmore hunting team won again.

And we ended the day with a birthday serenade to Mary Jo. I hope it didn’t keep her from sleeping…

(For additional images and insights into the hunt, see Take It Outside …)

Schoenbeck is deep into negotiations with a member of the opposing party.

The team, generally from left to right in a non-political sense: Ben Ready, Bill Harlan, Tom Clemens, Nick Nemec,  Jon Lauck, Keith Wintersteen, Sam Hurst, Eric Abrahamson, Lee Schoenbeck and Lynn Jurrens.

Join us at noon today for a live chat with the state Secretary of Health Doneen Hollingsworth.

By Randall Rasmussen

As everyone by now knows, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a major overhaul of the nation’s health care system, about one-sixth of the national economy.

What’s in it?

Former New York Lt. Gov. Betsy McCaughey provides some tidbits in Saturday’s Wall Street Journal.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

By Randall Rasmussen

Germany celebrated the 20^th anniversary Monday of the fall of the Berlin Wall on Nov. 9, 1989.

The wall, which divided the Soviet-controlled East Berlin from the free and democratic West Berlin, was built in 1961 to keep East Germans from fleeing to the West.

Berlin was a frequent flashpoint in the Cold War, beginning in 1948 when the Soviet Union tried to isolate West Berlin by blockading roads leading from West Germany to the city, which was surrounded by East Berlin. President Harry Truman stood up to the Soviets by beginning an airlift that brought food and supplies to the city.

More than 250,000 flights were flown and nearly 80 British and American airmen lost their lives during the airlift. The Soviets finally lifted the blockade in May 1949, after 11 months.

Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev built the Berlin Wall in 1961, and on June 26, 1963, President John Kennedy delivered his “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech, demonstrating America’s commitment to eventually bring freedom to Eastern Europe.

“All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and, therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words ‘Ich bin ein Berliner.’”

Twenty-four years later, President Ronald Reagan gave his Berlin Wall speech at the Brandenberg Gate in Berlin.

“General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”

The Berlin Wall was the symbol of the battle between freedom and tyranny, between democracy and communism.

That the wall finally toppled was due to the steadfast vigilance shown by both Democratic and Republican presidents from Truman to George H.W. Bush that eventually collapsed the evil empire that was the Soviet Union and its captive satellite states behind the Iron Curtain.

By Kevin Woster

One of my Democratic pals called this afternoon to rant about Herseth Sandlin.

He does that from time to time, usually when she votes in a way he considers unbecoming of an officer and gentlewoman of the party.

He was really worked up this time. It’s was her health-care vote. The big NO on the House plan.

My buddy is big on the Obama reform plan, and just about any version Democratic leaders want to push that has a public option.

So he got a bit feverish when he read that Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin announced this morning that she couldn’t vote for the current House version of health-care reform.

The nerve of that woman, he said, voting against a health-care reform plan by her Democratic leadership and her Democratic president.This one will cost her, he said, if not in outright Democratic votes for the Republican challenger, then at least in Democrats abstaining from voting for her.

Then, he said it: If she keeps voting like this, she should leave the Democratic Party.

Tough talk from a hard-core Democrat who, while pretty darn liberal, typically has a pretty solid head on his shoulders when it comes to appreciating the  pragmatic necessities of surviving as a Democrat in a Republican state.

There’s some of that in Herseth Sandlin’s political calculus these days. Maybe quite a bit. And I advised my Democratc buddy that her handling of this touchy issue probably makes pretty good political sense.

That mad him madder.

I also suggested that her opposition to the House plan (remember, she liked the Senate version a lot better) also might be based on legitimate criticism of that plan and even the views and preferences of a good number of her constituents.

That made him madder still. So mad he ended the conversation.

But it is possible, isn’t it? Stranger things have happened in Congress.

By Randall Rasmussen

Much is being made of the Republican victories for statehouses in Virginia and New Jersey.

Bob McDonnell crushed Creigh Deeds in Virginia, while Chris Christie knocked off incumbent Gov. Jon Corzine in New Jersey.

Given that New Jersey has been solidly Democrat for quite some time, Corzine’s defeat is surprising.

President Obama campaigned for both candidates, and they both lost. Is Obama losing his appeal?

Washington Post columnist David Broder thinks so.

Most elections revolve around pocketbook issues, and Tuesday’s elections are no different.

Whining that the sour economy is George W. Bush’s fault isn’t working any more.

Right or wrong, voters blame or credit the party in power for present economic conditions.

It’s Obamanomics that voters are voicing their displeasure for. If the economy continues like it has next year, the 2010 midterm elections could be a bloodbath for Democrats.

By Randall Rasmussen

 According to an Associated Press story, former Vice President Dick Cheney said “I don’t recall” 72 times during Patrick Fitzgerald’s criminal investigation into who leaked CIA agent Valerie Plame’s name to columnist Robert Novak. You can read the story here.

 The 72 “I don’t recall” answers is not even close to the record held by former President Bill Clinton who said “I don’t recall” 271 times during the investigation into Paula Jones’ sexual harassment allegations against Clinton. But it is a higher number than former first lady Hillary Clinton’s 50 “I don’t recall” answers during a House investigation on Whitewater.

 Was Cheney lying, or was he being shrewd?

 The leaker of Plame’s identity to Novak was former State Department deputy Richard Armitage. Fitzgerald knew Armitage was the leaker before he interviewed Cheney and his chief of staff Scooter Libby. It’s possible that Cheney knew that Fitzgerald was trolling for a perjury conviction and clammed up. Libby eventually was convicted of perjury, due to differences between his statements under oath and that of journalists for Time and the New York Times.

 You’ve got to love Dick Cheney using the Clinton defense strategy, though.

By Kevin Woster

When Mark Williams introduced himself as a regular on the Fox News Channel yesterday at the fairgrounds, the crowd went a little wild.

“Fox getting a standing ovation,” Williams beamed. “You got to love that.”

Clearly, the fairground events center was full of Fox fans for the Tea Party Express visit. One of the first signs visible upon entry said: “Thank God for (fair & balanced) Fox News.”

Well, I thank God and the First Amendment for all news outlets, and what they do.

Of course, Fox isn’t any more fair or balanced than any other station or network. And it could be a little less so than some in certain areas. But it also probably gives conservative viewers and listeners an angle or sense of perspective they won’t always find on most MSM stations and networks, which tend to be slanted at least slightly left of center - or, in the case of MSNBC, more than slightly.

So, in essence, it’s true that the Fox slant is filling a void in coverage left by the failures of the MSM, which is good. Unfortunately, Fox is overfilling it much of the time, which isn’t so good.

The most devout Fox followers  have convinced themselves that it’s the only news outlet that consistently tells the truth.

It’s not, any more than CNN or MSNBC or CBS or NPR  - or the Rapid City Journal - have a corner on the truth.

I watch Fox, along with many other news sources, and I feel like I get a pretty balanced idea of what’s what.

Zombie-like acceptance of one news outlet - whether it’s MSNBC, NPR or Fox - at the exclusion of all the others makes for unbalanced news consumption and malnourished political perspectives.

It’s also a sad waste of the rich diversity of news that’s available.

By Randall Rasmussen

Monday’s (Nov. 2) Wall Street Journal calls the Pelosi health care bill “The Worst Bill Ever” in its lead editorial. You can read it here.

The Journal writes that the so-called public option will provide a generous subsidy to low-income and even middle-class families earning up to $96,000 a year. Once everyone sees the sweet deal their neighbors are getting, a flood of people will switch to the government-run system – which is what the Democrats and President Obama want to see happen.

Taxes will soar, private insurance premiums will skyrocket – effectively killing the industry – the Medicare cuts can’t be realized leading to even more costs – the Journal estimates a $2 trillion cost over 10 years as a starting point.

Some excerpts: “All of this is intentional, even if it isn’t explicitly acknowledged. The overriding liberal ambition is to finish the work began decades ago as the Great Society of converting health care into a government responsibility.”

“Once health care is nationalized, or mostly nationalized, medical rationing is inevitable—especially for the innovative high-cost technologies and drugs that are the future of medicine.

“Mr. Obama rode into office on a wave of ‘change,’ but we doubt most voters realized that the change Democrats had in mind was making health care even more expensive and rigid than the status quo.”

Worth a read.

By Kevin Woster

Interesting stuff this week in a Washington Post story about ethics probes into members of a House appropriations subcommittee - including Democratic Chairman John Murtha - and their relationship with an influential lobbying firm.

An ethics investigation doesn’t necessarily mean that anybody’s guilty of anything. Still, the relationship between millions of dollars in government contracts channeled through earmarks to clients of the lobbying firm, PMA Group, and the number of campaign contributions received by members of the appropriations sub-committee from PMA clients  certainly seems to merit further scrutiny.

Following the money around Washington, D.C.,  makes for an interesting tour that is, too often, not a particularly inspirational one.

It’s one area where the the self-serving inclinations of some members always seem to cross party lines.

By Jerry Steinley

So is Sen. Joe Lieberman a habitual flip flopper or an American hero?
I gained a whole new disrespect for Lieberman in 2006 when, after losing the Democratic nomination, he registered as an independent and won. A real man of his convictions…
Now he’s using his independent status to generally thrash about Washington kowtowing to the right, left, right, left… you get the idea.
Just last year he lost the Democratic party backing after supporting presidential nominee John McCain. Promising to play nice — and as a Democrat would — he kept his position on the Commerce Committee.
Earlier this week he said he’d help Republicans kill — going as far as a filibuster — any health care bill that included a public option.
And now, ABC News reports Lieberman, I-Conn., has said he’ll stump for some Republicans in the 2010 midterms and may not seek the Democratic nomination in 2012.
From ABC News: He finds being an independent “liberating” because, You’re not tied to a particular inner group and feel that extra pressure to march in lockstep. I think that the public generally is fed up with all the partisanship, and us against them.”
Americans are tired of partisan politics. Can Lieberman, and others like him, be the solution? Or just create a bigger problem?