By Kevin Woster

Harlan used to call this stuff back channel. It could also be backdraft, depending on who sends it.

Anyway, a Blogmorite with an interest in bringing justice to those responsible for the taxpayer bailouts in the credit business thinks it’s time to settle on a correct punishment ratio.

For example, for each $100 million in federal taxpayer or federal reserve bailout of banks or investment houses, the responsible parties should spend a set number of years in prison: one year, maybe, per hundred million?

And the punishment should be proportional to the financial compensation in pay and stock options. So for each day a mail room clerk spends in prison, a CEO must spend, oh, 450 or so, in the slammer.

Sound fair?

(And regarding the blog post by Randy below? I’m still uncertain about many things regarding Vietnam, even all these years later. But based on what I’ve read and what I’ve heard from friends who served there, I think the war was lost from the start. That reality eventually landed in Congress, but it began in the rice paddies and jungles, in the tragic loss of lives on both sides, and those caught in the middle, and in a culture we clearly didn’t understand. K.W.)

By Randall Rasmussen

A ceremony was held Saturday at the South Dakota Vietnam War Memorial in Pierre to honor the state’s Vietnam War veterans. Saturday was the 35th anniversary of the withdrawal of the last American troops from South Vietnam.
Veterans of the Vietnam War deserve all the recognition and thanks for their service and sacrifice in that misbegotten and misunderstood war.
I was struck by the apparent significance of the March 29, 1973, date of our withdrawal from a war that cost 50,000 American lives.
They died to defend our freedom by standing firm against a communist hegemony in Southeast Asia and to achieve a lasting peace in the region.
A more appropriate date to honor the service and sacrifice of our Vietnam War vets would be Jan. 27, the anniversary of the 1973 Paris Peace Accords.
South Vietnam eventually was conquered, but not because of the failure of our troops.
North Vietnam violated the peace agreement they signed almost as soon as U.S. forces left.
Democrats in Congress pulled the rug from under our South Vietnam ally and threw the free South Vietnamese people to the communist wolves by cutting off funding to South Vietnam and preventing President Ford from providing military support.
The Soviet Union continued to provide military assistance to North Vietnam and the NVA’s Soviet-made T-62 tanks entered Saigon on April 30, 1975. The slaughter of the innocents began.
I still believe the Vietnam War was a noble mission and that veterans of that war have every reason to be proud of their service.
The Vietnam War wasn’t lost on the battlefields of Southeast Asia; it was lost in the halls of Congress by politicians, seeking a political victory through military defeat.

Under the category of all politics is local.

South Dakota Public Television’s South Dakota Focus program on Thursday night (March 27) featured some West River folks weighing in on the state’s controversial new eminent domain law passed by the 2008 Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Mike Rounds.

The new law is tied to the proposal by the Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad to build a rail line from coal fields in Wyoming across southwestern South Dakota and on to points east.
Margaret Nachtigall, executive director of the South Dakota Stockgrowers Association, and Edgemont area rancher Keith Andersen argued that SB174 tilts the state’s eminent domain laws in favor of private corporations at the expense of private landowners.

Andersen argued that SB174 forces the state to make a final decision on granting statewide eminent domain authority to railroads—a mandate found nowhere else in South Dakota law, according to a Stockgrowers news release.

“That’s because we want to do it right, not do it fast,” Andersen said on the program.
Andersen also said no other private entity has the “quick take” power that SB174 hands to railroads.

But S.D. Farm Bureau CEO Mike Held, representing proponents of SB174, argued that “quick take is only for the public sector.”

Andersen read language of SB174, which says that even while a condemnation lawsuit is continuing, private property may be taken “upon posting by the railroad of a bond to be established by the court as soon as possible.” And, while the railroad must post a bond with the court, the landowner receives no compensation for the loss of the possession and use of his property, Andersen said.

During the discussion, Andersen described how DM&E’s proposed coal-hauling line will run right through the homes of two families he knows. He said SB 174 would grant the railroad the right to bulldoze those homes before the homeowners had received any compensation for the loss of their homes and property.

Held called eminent domain a “necessary evil” and admitted that “some of our members have mixed emotions about the issue.”
You can see the program by going to this Web site: http://www.sdpb.org/Archives/ProgramDetail.asp?ProgID=7006The Farm Bureau and other ag groups say the problems presented by the DM&E projects will be vastly outweighed by the benefits it will bring to ag people and the state in general.

The Legislature and the governor agreed.

But although SB 174 has been signed into law, an opposition group, Protect Private Property, is gathering signatures in an attempt to refer it to a public vote.
The group’s new Web site is www.sdp3.org

What do you think, Blogmorites?

– Steve Miller

By Kevin Woster

If you’ve been submitting posts and they haven’t appeared, don’t take it personally.

I can’t get the new system to approve anything. And without Harlan around, I can’t scream for help and get an immediate response, like I used to.

Still, the screaming is kind of fun, even without a productive response from Harlan.

Yeaaaaaaaarrrrrrrgggghhhhhhhhhhfoooooo!

There, that’s better.

Anyway, maybe when the IT guys get in, they can fix it. (What is an IT guy, anyway? And where do they live?)

Of course, Harlan might happen to drive past the JOurnal Sunday with nothing else to do and, well, OK, maybe not.

Meanwhile, uh, meanwhile, well, er, uh….

Have a nice weekend.

By Kevin Woster

Sen. John Thune was late in arriving at the downtown Rotary Club meeting Thursday in Rapid City.

But he had a pretty good excuse.

“I apologize for being a little bit late,” Thune said. “But when we landed out here at the airport, we were taking a little sniper fire.”

After allowing the laughter to fade, Thune fessed up. It was actually troublesome weather conditions rather than a barrage of bullets that adjusted his travel schedule.

Pretty good line, though.

I would have had it posted sooner, but it took me a while to work my way back to the office through all the land mines.

By Steve Miller

Occasionally, through the cacophony of political commentary, particularly on television, a bit of actual information from an actual reporter seeps through.

Last Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” the erudite editor of Newsweek, Jon Meacham, talked about, of all things, the chaotic election of 1824, which led to an even nastier campaign in 1828 and the birth of the Democratic Party.

Meacham used the 1824 election, when Andrew Jackson was denied the presidency despite winning a plurality of both the popular vote and the Electoral College, as a segue into the arguments between the Obama and Clinton camps over whether the popular vote, or number of states won, or the strategic importance of states won, should count more toward the Democratic nomination.

There is even precedent for Clinton supporter James Carville calling New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a “Judas” for endorsing Obama.

In 1825, Jackson called Henry Clay the “Judas of the West” for throwing his Electoral College support to Adams in exchange for Adams naming Clay his secretary of state.

Jackson, of course, capitalized on the unfairness of 1824 to go on to defeat Adams for president in 1828.

That election was among the nastiest in our electoral history, with charges about Jackson’s “immoral” wife. Jackson fired back that Adams had acted as a pimp for the Czar of Russia while he had served as minister there.

For a more complete look at those two elections, check out the web site: www.sparknotes.com/biography/jackson/section7.rhtml

Sometimes we suffer a misinformed nostalgia for the good old days when (we think) politics was a purer pursuit.

The modern-day Democrats have seemed to have reached the “Judas” level, but have not yet gotten to the “pimp” threshold.

And we haven’t even gotten to the general election.

Stay tuned.

By Randall Rasmussen

After Tuesday’s filing deadline, the South Dakota Republican Party expected to contest all 105 legislative races this November. The state Democratic Party expected to have candidates for at least 95 seats.
That’s a pretty good response for Democrats. I recall some years when one-third of the seats for the state Legislature were conceded to the Republican candidates.
Rick Hauffe, executive director of the South Dakota Democratic Party, said Tuesday: “I think there is a realistic chance of taking control of the state Senate and picking up a lot more seats in the House.”
Hauffe told the Associated Press that Democrats should win more races this year because Gov. Mike Rounds and GOP lawmakers have failed to support adequate funding for school districts and have opposed measures to create a more open state government.
“Basically, he’s (Rounds) handing us the election.”
I’m not smart enough to accurately predict what will happen in November, which is a little more than seven months away.
So, I pose the question: Really, what are the Dems’ chances?
Can state Democrats win on education issues and government secrecy? Will Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton have coattails to help South Dakota Democrats?
Mount Blogmore wants to know.

By Scott Aust

I’m sure Blogmore Nation wishes Patti Martinson well on her bid for the Rapid City Council. Read her announcement here.

Martinson, along with Craig Kirsch, will challenge incumbent councilman Tom Johnson on June 3.

The only other contested council race is in Ward 2 where Russell Oubre is challenging incumbent Sam Kooiker. Don’t know much about Oubre, other than he is retired, lives on disability and takes care of his disabled mother.

Any thoughts on who’s the favorite in each race? Will it be as fun as last year’s mayor’s race, or extremely dull. (oh, how I long for some nattering, nabobs of negativity speeches)

By Kevin Woster

Mount Blogmore will never be the same.

It can’t be. Bill Harlan is gone.

He carved it. He babied it. He guarded it with his professional life. He turned it into a pretty good place to chat.

There’s no replacing Gutzon Harlan, our blog sculptor and friend.

But there is a Mount Blogmore in the year 0001 A.B. There has to be. And here’s the line-up:

I’m sticking around. So is Scott Aust. Steve Miller is jumping in, too. As reporters in the newsroom, we’ll try to play the middle-road moderation game.

Randy Rasmussen will be out there swinging more freely from the right. Eric Lochridge, who will begin posting soon, will throw some punches from the left. Randy works on the copy desk. Eric is in features.

They have more latitude for frank position taking that news weasels, like Scott and Steve and me.

There’ll be a new and updated posting system and new blog logo soon. It’ll make it easier to keep out the spam. And the four faces currently up there will be gone. (I miss you Bill…..sniff, sniff)

Speaking of faces, we tried to get a gender mix for the new Mount Blogmore. In fact, I begged. None of the women in the newsroom wanted anything to do with this place.

Go figure.

By Kevin Woster

A day without sunshine?

A transmission without a stick shift?

A rooster without its crow?

Take your pick, or come up with something on your own.

Regardless, there’s a larger question to answer these days in District 35.

How do you follow Bill Napoli?

Carefully, you say? That’s a good idea, especially if he happens to be driving a big, rumbling, dual-exhaust, V-8 Chevy with somewhere in the vicinity of 712 horsepower and a carburetor big enough to inhale his desk on the floor of the South Dakota Senate

Speaking of which, it’ll be a different place without the NapMan around next session.

Whether it’s good different or bad different probably depends on your view of politics, and politicians.

Incumbent District 35 Republican Rep. Jeff Haverly would seem like the odds-on favorite to replace Napoli. Last I looked, he didn’t even have a Democratic opponent in the District 35 Senate, uh, race - much less a primary challenger.

There’ s still time, of course. Just not much.

Moments later…..wait, wait…yes, there is a race in District 35. Alice McCoy has her nominating petitions in for the Republican primary, and Theresa Spry has made the ballot for the Democrats. McCoy is the former District 35 House member who lost her 2006 primary challenge against Napoli. Spry lost to Napoli in the general-election campaign in 2006.

The race is on.

Vroooooooom.

And there could be more on the way. Legislative hopefuls can still make the ballot if they have their petitions in the mail by registered mail before 5 p.m. today.

Secretary of State Chris Nelson said he expects dozens to arrive tomorrow.
“People wait until the last minute,” he said.

Indeed.

The war against President Bush
By Randall Rasmussen

Congress and President Bush have been engaged in a war of words over reauthorization of the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. President Bush wants liability protection continued for phone companies that assist the government in gathering intelligence on suspected terrorists; Democrats in Congress want to appease their anti-war base and fat cat trial lawyers by stripping the liability protection from the bill.
Bush threatened to veto the bill if it did not include liability protection, the Senate passed a bipartisan bill that grants immunity for phone companies that the president demanded.
Which brings us to the U.S. House. Before leaving town last week on their Easter holiday, the House passed a FISA reauthorization bill that did not include liability protection. Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, D-S.D., voted for the bill.
Herseth Sandlin says she votes more independently from her fellow Democrats and has joined the Blue Dog Coalition that seeks to strike a more moderate middle ground between the parties on some issues.
One of those middle ground issues in the past has been national security.
Herseth Sandlin’s vote on the FISA act calls into question her independence from the very liberal House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
It also calls into question Herseth Sandlin’s commitment to protecting national security.
Which is more important to Herseth Sandlin: national security or the trial lawyer bar, which is one of her biggest campaign contributors.
Liberals in Congress seem to take their war against President Bush more seriously than the war against terrorism.
It is disappointing that Herseth Sandlin apparently shares that attitude.

By Kevin Woster

It’s quite a foursome, isn’t it?

They don’t have much in common, except weakness.

Peter - my favorite apostle - showed that himself when fear overcame love and loyalty and he disavowed his captured Lord three times. How could an early disciple and favored apostle claim not to know his savior?

Well, he was human. He was selfish. He was weak.

I admit, I thought of those human qualities during the past week or two, while watching the unraveling of former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s career. It crossed my mind back when Idaho Sen. Larry Craig was in the spotlight as well.

I’m not sure what kind of governor Spitzer was. I’m equally uninformed about the quality of Craig’s job in the Senate. But I tend to think that if each was doing his job, his obvious weaknesses outside those official duties shouldn’t end his career.

Especially if each is willing to fess up and do better.

Spitzer’s liaisons with a New York City prostitute were stunning. Craig’s apparent sexual overtures in the men’s room of a Minneapolis airport were sad. (The techniques of that undercover cop were pitiful in their own way, but that’s another subject.)

I was disappointed that Craig didn’t fess up, but not entirely surprised. If he is gay, that’s a tough suitcase to carry through life in his party and his state. Who knows what kind of bad judgment I’d show in that situation.

And Spitzer? Wow. What arrogance. What hypocrisy. What ludicrous self-delusion. Does that make him unfit to serve as New York governor? I’m not sure.

I’m pretty sure of this: It makes him human in his weakness - even if that weakness is on a supernova scale.

I can relate to weakness. I’ve shown my share over 56 years. And people have shown me a great deal of forgiveness.

You have to wonder if we’d all be better off if we forgave more and condemned less.

I’m guessing St. Peter might agree, especially this week.

By Scott Aust

State Sen. Bill Napoli has decided not to seek reelection, as you can read here.

Love him or hate him, one thing’s for sure, the guy would tell you what he thought. Often bluntly.

Thoughts from the Mount?

Five years and counting
By Randall Rasmussen

President Bush marked the fifth anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq on Wednesday, urging patience. He also called the war “necessary” and “just.”
“The battle in Iraq is noble, it is necessary, and it is just. And with your courage, the battle in Iraq will end in victory,” the president said.
Meanwhile, Democratic leaders took issue with Bush’s assessment.
“With the war in Iraq entering its sixth year, Americans are rightly concerned about how much longer our nation must continue to sacrifice our security for the sake of an Iraqi government that is unwilling or unable to secure its own future,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. “Democrats will continue to push for an end to the war in Iraq and increased oversight of that war.”
President Bush said the war in Iraq was part of the global war against terrorism and that “the situation in Iraq (has turned) around.”
Vice President Dick Cheney got into the act, comparing President Bush’s handling of the war to Abraham Lincoln’s strategy in the Civil War. “(Lincoln) never would have succeeded if he hadn’t had a clear objective, a vision for where he wanted to go, and he was willing to withstand the slings and arrows of the political wars in order to get there,” Cheney said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”
One measure of how well the war in Iraq is going is that the news media files fewer stories about the war. The more progress is made in Iraq, the less the media reports on it.
Retreating from Iraq would make all the sacrifices made so far to have been in vain. Most of the U.S. troops in Iraq want to finish the job they’ve started.
Five years is a long time, but we may be in Iraq for many more years to come.

By Randall Rasmussen

An anti-abortion group will be allowed to use the Dakota Middle School auditorium for an event with “politically associated issues,” according to an agreement announced Tuesday between the Rapid City School District and Citizens For Life.

The group had filed a federal lawsuit against the school district for earlier denying the group’s request to hold an event on school grounds. The complaint alleges the school district policy that bars groups with political or religious viewpoints from using school property is unconstitutional on First Amendment grounds.

The First Amendment guarantees free speech and freedom of religion. But should political or religious groups be allowed to use government property, school district or otherwise? Religious groups use city property. I’m thinking about the Christian music festival that is held at Memorial Park each year. The rally or event planned by Citizens For Life is scheduled for May 14, and the group’s lawsuit will continue.

I have heard that events that aren’t as controversial as abortion have been held on school property in the past by religious groups. Is it the controversial nature of Citizens For Life’s agenda or the fact that it is religious or political in nature that is the sticking point?

By Steve Miller

Pennington County Auditor Julie Pearson, along with other state and county election officials, are waiting for the South Dakota Democratic Party to decide if they will allow independents to vote in the state’s Democratic primary in June.

It could be important, since Sen. Barack Obama is presumed by some to do better than Hillary Clinton among independents

State Democratic Party Executive Director Rick Hauffe has said the party would have to change its bylaws and undergo a one-month hearing process on opening the primary to independents before the Democratic National Committee finalized the change.

“They’ve got to decide by April 20 because we have to mail out absentee ballots,” Pearson said this week. “They’re going to have to decide whether independents can vote and they have to describe what an independent is.”

The auditors’ offices keep track of every party voters list on their voter registration, whether it’s Republican, Democratic, Libertarian, Green or Communist, she said.
“If somebody is Green, they’re not independent,” Pearson said.
In the space for party, some people write “None” or “Unaffiliated.”
“That’s not the same as independent,” Pearson said.

The word independent means different things to different people, Pearson said. It’s up to the Democratic Party to define the term, she said.
Pearson also said one party can let independents vote on its primary and the other major party can say no to independents. It’s up to each party.
Do you think independents should be able to vote in the Democratic primary in June?
Also, although this is unlikely to be part of the definition, what do you think are the characteristics of an independent voter?

By Scott Aust

Instead of fixing the sinkholes and piping as a short-term fix for Canyon Lake dam while a long-term solution is found, the city council is thinking about draining the lake right away and focusing on a long-term fix.

You can read a brief story from last night’s meeting here.

The rationale for draining the lake is it removes the potential danger of collapse. It would also mean a year, or more, of no lake.

None of the engineering experts last night could say how high the danger of collapse is. And it’s hard to argue failure is imminent since the dam has had leakage problems for 30 years.

My question for Blogmore is given the uncertainty, is draining Canyon Lake a prudent move or an overreaction?

By Randall Rasmussen

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments tomorrow on a case that could define the scope of the Second Amendment’s right to bear arms.

The court will hear a challenge to Washington, D.C.’s ban on the ownership of handguns by Dick Heller, a security guard who wants to keep his gun at his home in the District of Columbia.

The D.C. handgun ban law has been in effect since 1976 when the murder rate was 32.8 per 100,000 residents, according to FBI statistics. Despite the handgun ban, the city’s murder rate continued to climb, reaching a peak in 1991 of 80.6 per 100,000 people.

Last year, the Washington Post reports, 80 percent of the city’s homicides were committed with a firearm. Tomorrow’s oral arguments will be the most widely watched case before the court in decades. Nearly 70 amicus briefs have been filed, including Congress, 36 states and dozens of interested parties. The District of Columbia’s handgun ban has been shown to be completely ineffective in preventing deaths by firearms.

More importantly, the case could decide whether municipal or state laws regulating firearms are valid or unconstitutional. A decision won’t be handed down until June, but tomorrow’s arguments will define for years to come what “the right to bear arms” means.

By Kevin Woster

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

Wow.

We’re seeing the worst of him these days, or course, captured in raging moments on video and in stunning quotes.

Surely, there’s a much better side of the man as well.

But I gotta think he’s serious trouble for Barack Obama.

Is it long-lasting trouble? Possibly campaign-defining trouble?

Trouble enough to assure me of a dinner at Botticell’s? Or will its real impact not be felt until the general election?

By Scott Aust

The Rushmont project is a big, audacious proposal that could create condos, parking and new retail and offices in this downtown lot, but I wonder if it will ever get out of the “concept” stage.

Judging from comments from the developer and the mayor, I think the city is in for a long wait.

You can read my story here.

I understand not wanting to risk money to fully design the facility and then learn after it’s bid that you’re short of funds.

But surely finding that out now would be better than watching it slowly wither and die through inertia.

You know what they say about getting off the pot…your skin could grow around the seat.