By Bill Harlan

HB1005 just passed the House. It’s a revolutionary change for the way ag land is valued for taxes.

Instead of market value — wha the land would sell for — ag land will be valued according to the income it can produce. House Republican Leader Larry Rhoden of Union Center championed this bill, which will have a profound effect on his own county, Meade. Senate Republican Leader Dave Knudson of Sioux Falls, a co-sponsor with Rhoden, told me the bill’s chances in the Senate are “excellent.” That makes sense because a similar but less palatable measure sailed through the Senate last year.

See AP writer Chet Brokaw’s story coming soon on the RCJ homepage.

Bill Harlan

Apropos of not much, except it improved my mood, I left my expensive (to me) digital recorder on the desk in the Senate press box Tuesday. Yesterday afternoon I was thinking, where the heck did I leave that thing? This morning, in the shower, it hit me. Doh! The recorder wasn’t on the desk this morning. It was safely tucked away in a drawer where I was sure to find it.

Now, where did I put my car keys?

By Bill Harlan

This from state Rep. Joel Dykstra’s U.S. Senate campaign:

Since announcing his candidacy in July, 2007, Joel and the campaign have received total contributions of
$137,953, with $56,080 coming in the fourth quarter of 2007. About 97 percent of the contributions
came from South Dakotans.

Campaigns being a money-type deal, and incumbents being money magnets, is Joel raising cash fast enough? Just for fun, here’s an FEC Watch graphic on Sen. Tim Johnson’s campaign fundraising:

Click to make larger.

Johnson had more than $2 million cash on hand before the fourth quarter report was in. See FEC Watch for details.

By Scott Aust

Cabela’s still plans to build in Rapid City despite fourth-quarter earnings below estimates.

The company reported productivity in some new stores has been below expectations, and as a result Cabela’s is significantly slowing down it’s retail expansion this year.

However, the Rapid City store is still being built. Ground breaking is tommorrow.

Mayor Alan Hanks told me Cabela’s officials contacted him before the news hit the wires to assure him they are committed to building here, and will open the store in July.

By Kevin Woster

This just in: Rush Limbaugh had a stroke.

He tipped over at the microphone midway through a spit-sputtering tirade about John McCain.

OK, not really. But if you listen to Rush - as I do - you know that he gets positively purple around the gills when he rants about McCain.

I find that, well, positively delightful.

It’s about a toss-up whether Limbaugh and the other trash-talking conservative AM radio jockeys hate McCain or Clinton (either one, doesn’t matter) the most.

Rush hates the two (or three, if you count Bill) of them so much that he ends up sweet talking Barack Obama and defending him, for example, against the “race war” that the Clinton Machine has started.

Say what? Rush Limbaugh the civil rights activist? Well, OK.

But how long do you think that would last if Obama was the Democratic nominee?

And as the bonus question: If McCain gets the nomination, isn’t John Thune the best choice for VP?

By Kevin Woster

Two questions:

Can either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama beat John McCain?

And are the Republicans smart enough to see that McCain’s the only GOP candidate who can beat either Clinton or Obama?

By Kevin Woster

Seriously, maybe it’s that simple: Bill loves Hillary.

Heck, who woulda figured?

The national geniuses in political analysis haven’t yet reached that conclusion, as they puzzle over Bill Clinton’s erratic - and not entirely helpful - behavior in his wife’s campaign leading up to the South Carolina Democratic primary.

And he was far from smooth in the way he criticized Barack Obama and unusually defensive - and clumsy - in his dealing with the news media.

Who could imagine Bill Clinton campainging badly? Not me, until now.

Some think Bill’s un-Clinton-like behavior of late comes from desperation, a realization that the Hillary Clinton campaign is floundering.

Maybe, but I think there’s plenty of the Clintons yet to come. And I wonder if Bill’s behavior might go beyond the typical political calculations and into something more profound.

Like, uh, er, well, love maybe?

Maybe he really does love his wife, despite some pretty damaging past evidence to the contrary and all the snorts and guffaws that idea might inspire.

He’s behaving exactly like a guy defending his best girl. That’s neither reasonable nor skillful. It’s emotional.

It’s also something he’ll probably want to control going into the heart of the campaign.

A full-page ad in the Pierre Capitol Journal today

By Bill Harlan

See my story on the RCJ homepage (click upper right).

By Scott Aust

I meant to post this over the weekend but I got caught up in the drama and pageantry of the South Carolina primary — along with all the other U.S. Americans, and such.

Anyway, you may have seen my stories Saturday and Sunday about the resurrection of the the joint-theatre project.

Now, I don’t want to say Friday’s press conference was overly positive, but I though it was a bit much when Mike Reynolds put the mayor in a headlock, rubbed his head, and said “None, of this woulda been possible without this lil’ feller raitcheer!”

Oh wait. That’s just what I imagined happened. Thankfully, there were no group hugs, but it was close.

Still, it was refreshing to see two groups come back to the table on something that for all appearance was dead. The question is, will this good vibe last long enough to actually build something?

By Bill Harlan

Steve Sibson argues, under the “Bleeders and spenders” topic below, that China is becoming a world economic power by decentralizing economic decisions. I had a similar conversation with a friend who extolled China’s free-marketeer, and my wife’s son, as we speak, is in China helping a French company build a factory.

I’d argue that China is a long LONG way from a free-market economy. See James Fallows’ story in the Atlantic, The $1.4 Trillion Question. A pull-out quote:

“Through the quarter-century in which China has been opening to world trade, Chinese leaders have deliberately held down living standards for their own people and propped them up in the United States… This [imbalance] can’t go on indefinitely. But the way it ends—suddenly versus gradually, for predictable reasons versus during a panic—will make an enormous difference to the U.S. and Chinese economies. “

One of Fallows’ main points is how centralized banking and currency decisions are enforcing a 50 percent national savings rate and how the Chinese are lending us money so we can buy more than we can produce. Fallows warns of the consequences of that trend. I’ll leave it to Blogmorites to predict how borrowing from China will affect South Dakota.

By Bill Harlan

Here’s a theme Gov. Mike Rounds is hitting hard this year: Lawmakers are “notorious” for offering proposals to cut taxes and spend on programs without offering corresponding program cuts or tax increases. He really hammered that idea during his press conference Friday. See my “bleeders and spenders” story.

This was a storyline during last year’s session, too, as it is most years. Governors on the second floor of the Capitol battle legislators on the third floor. This year, however, the governor’s criticism seems especially … I don’t know what the word is. Pointed? Harsh? Incendiary?

The third floor has been teeing off on the second floor, too. An example. Sen. Gene Abdallah, R-Sioux Falls, a former head of the Highway Patrol, has vowed to return the $2 million Gov. Rounds wants to cut from the Highway Patrol. Abdallah introduced a “placeholder” bill to add $1 dollar to the HP budget, on the chance the bill can later be amended for real money.

The governor’s response? See the last line of the story.

By Bill Harlan

The sonogram bill, defeated in a Senate committee, is back in the House tomorrow. The bill to let cities and counties issue more liquor licenses, defeated in the Senate yesterday, is back for reconsideration tomorrow. The T. rex named Sue is coming back to South Dakota, sort of, and the mountain lion Martha Smith shot is coming back to Fairburn.

There’s a lesson here. When it comes to sonograms, liquor, tyrannosaurs and mountain lions you just can’t … uh, little help here?

Good night.

By Scott Aust

Travel issues have popped up again for the city council, as you can read here.

Kooiker’s point, that the council should talk about how often certain members go to conferences compared to others, seems fair to me, but the council seems to take it as questioning the value of conferences.

Unfortunately, the council’s reaction to Kooiker is almost Pavlovian. As soon as he starts to talk about something, you can almost hear a collective groan and grinding of teeth.

Ironically, it wasn’t Kooiker who kicked off the donny-brook about sending eight to New Orleans last fall, though he did offer an opinion. It was Bob Hurlbut who was leery of the value, and of sending eight.

Kooiker is up for reelection to his council seat this year though I haven’t heard an official announcement. I thought his maverick role hurt him somewhat in his run for mayor, but I wonder how his image plays in Ward 2?

By Bill Harlan

Yipee! The tax rebates are coming, the tax rebates are coming! See the story. How will Blogmorites spend their cash? How many Blogmorites earn too much money to get the cash? How many were hoping for an extension of unemployment benefits instead?

On the policy side, will it do any good?

State Rep. Thomas Van Norman (white shirt) sings with a Pierre drum group.

By Bill Harlan

Rep. Tom Van Norman, D-Eagle Butte, was honored by the United Sioux Tribes for his service. He also sounded pretty good with the drum group. Also scheduled to be honored was LaBradford Eagle Deer, 16, of St. Francis, who spoke to the United Nations. See Andrea Cook’s story. (I missed the presentation. I also missed the buffalo barbecue, the fry bread and the Wojapi. Somewhere my day went horribly wrong.)

By Bill Harlan

Home-state kid Steve Hildebrand plays in the big leagues. Check out how the Wall Street Journal reports Steve’s strategy for Obama. an excerpt:

Steve Hildebrand, Mr. Obama’s chief strategist for early voting states, set out to build an organization that relies heavily on circumventing the established black political gentry in South Carolina. A native of South Dakota, Mr. Hildebrand is not only an outsider, he is also white — an unusual combination for someone setting out to win the black vote here. Many of the people he has hired have come from out of state or have no presidential-campaign experience, or both.

Steve H. even gets one of those cool WSJ line-drawing mugs:

(What the WSJ doesn’t say is that Hildebrand is one of the great gardeners in the state of South Dakota. I fear my reliable supply of fresh cucumbers and tangy salsa may end, however, now that it’s public knowledge that I’ve thrown my Botticelli’s bet in with the Clinton camp. K.W.)

South Dakota AG Larry Long addresses the South Dakota Right to Life rally in the Capitol Rotunda.

By Bill Harlan

They’re still singing God Bless America in the rotunda, even as I write. South Dakota Right to Life and it’s Pierre chapter noted marked the 35th anniversary of Roe v. Wade tonight in the Capitol Rotunda. AG Larry Long told them the decision ranked with Dred Scott in its impact on the nation. Planned Parenthood of South Dakota, meanwhile, said Jan. 22 marked “35 years of freedom for women.”

Of note: this is the first legislative session in four years with no abortion ban. (The sonogram bill from Sen. Dennis Schmidt, R-Rapid City, gets a hearing tomorrow morning.)

Joe Kafka of the AP, at right, caught in the act of accepting payola
from Sen. Frank Kloucek. That’s a kolace in Kafka’s hand.*

By Bill Harlan

It’s become an annual tradition, the delivering of the kolaces to the Capitol press dungeon by Sen. Frank Kloucek, D-Scotland. (Kolace — pronounced ko-LAH-chee — is a Czech pastry.) Each year the red-vested Kloucek welcomes a large crowd of Czech constituents to the Capitol for a day. The kolaces were so popular today, Frank had only one left. Dang.

Kuchen, of course, is the official state dessert, but what says Blogmore? Kolace or kuchen? It’s a Blogmore poll!

*Argus Leader reporter Terry Woster ended up eating this kolace. Look for his story, “Frank Kloucek — effective leader or champion of democracy?”

By Kevin Woster

Former Sen. Tom Daschle slapped leather this morning in the Clinton-Obama presidential campaign (Oh, yeah, and Edwards, too…)

Daschle says former President Bill Clinton - a two-fisted political pugilist who is throwing some hefty haymakers on behalf of his wife’s campaign - is acting ‘unpresidential’ in the way he is criticizing Barack Obama.

Unpresidential? Bill Clinton? Well, I suppose you could argue that it wouldn’t be the first time, but …

Speaking of the bad old days of the Lewinsky scandal, the formerly close relationship between Daschle and Clinton (or the Clintons) seemed to crumble at about the same time national reporters started writing about blue dresses and presidential fibs.

Bill Clinton and his escapades certainly didn’t do Tom Daschle much good when it came time to run for reelection in South Dakota four years ago, at least for those voters with extended memories.

That’s part of the reason Daschle went with the Obama campaign, I’d guess, and part of the reason he’s speaking out now. Then, of course, there’s former Daschle staffer Steve Hildebrand, an upper-level Obama strategist.

But Daschle - who has formed a sort of Obama posse to fight what he says are the outlaw comments of distortion coming from the former president - also has scars from the harsh assault against him during John Thune’s successful challenge in 2004. And he’s arguing now that Bill Clinton is using those same negative tactics of distortion.

Negative distortions in a presidential campaign?

Geez, who would have figured?

By Bill Harlan

Now comes House Bill 1162, which would make it illegal in South Dakota to “brand minors,” to wit:

FOR AN ACT ENTITLED, An Act to prohibit the branding of a minor and to provide a penalty therefor.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF SOUTH DAKOTA:
Section 1. That chapter 26-10 be amended by adding thereto a NEW SECTION to read as follows:
No person may brand a minor. For the purposes of this section, the term, brand, means to make a permanent mark on a person’s skin through the use of heat, cold, or a chemical compound, or to cut, tear, or abrade the skin for the purpose of creating a permanent mark or design. A violation of this section is a Class 1 misdemeanor. However, any second or subsequent violation of this section is a Class 6 felony.

Well, there goes another South Dakota tradition — the fall branding of the pre-schoolers. Fortunately, you can still rope ‘em or jump on ‘em from yer horse and wrestle ‘em to the ground. (The world record for middle schooler roping is 5.8 seconds.) Besides, won’t this drive all our “minor branders” to Wyoming?

(Seriously, was this not already illegal?)