Sibby Online

Daschle outlines agenda

Yesterday Tom Daschle outlined his agenda for rural areas. Here is an excerpt from the Argus Leader report:

His plan includes five planks he hopes to use to guide legislation next year in Congress: education, saving towns, expanding opportunities for farmers and ranchers, cutting health care costs and protecting the environment.

I would like to point out the problem “protecting the environment" poses for farmers and ranchers…not to mention freedom in general for all Americans.

My argument is based on a Henry Lamb column:

Americans were appalled when Castro nationalized private property in Cuba, and led the nation into socialism. Many but not all Americans were appalled when the governments of Zimbabwe and Namibia confiscated private property for redistribution. But a new generation of Americans has emerged who never learned what socialism is, or why their fathers and grandfathers fought so hard to prevent it in America.

For the benefit of those who didn't learn it in school, Socialism is:

1. : any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods;
2. : a system of society or group living in which there is no private property; b: a system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state;
3. : a stage of society in Marxist theory transitional between capitalism and communism.

One threat to private property helps explains why far-left environmentalist Tony Dean supports Democrats and has promoted anti-property rights propaganda:

Socialism is overwhelming capitalism in America because socialist policies are called "smart growth" or "environmental protection." The proponents of these policies either fail to recognize or don't care that they are systematically transferring private property to government ownership and control, and are empowering government to effectively "administer" the means of production.

This process is under way across America. Perhaps the most blatant example is in King County, Wash., where a decade-long comprehensive planning process has produced a plan that will prohibit private landowners from using 65 percent of their property. The people whose ownership is being confiscated by government see the plan as pure theft. Led by so-called environmental groups, proponents of the plan have no problem empowering government to take the property of others.

The sanctity of private property is no less violated in King County than it was in Cuba or in Zimbabwe. In other nations, the process is called confiscation or nationalization; in America, it is called "smart growth," or "environmental protection."

On July 6th, Tony Dean posted this comment by Lynn Lang regarding the expansion of Wind Cave in the Black Hills:

Larry Diedrich is not supporting the Wind Cave expansion in the southern Black Hills. A story in the July 6 Rapid City Journal quotes him as saying he is afraid of prairie dogs and noxious weeds in the park.

"Diedrich thinks the federal government shouldn't expand the park without offering other federal
property for sale to private buyers - a no-net-gain system for the government," according to the Journal.
"Diedrich said he wants a serious discussion on those issues before he could support the expansion plan."

Larry Diedrch does understand the problems Henry Lamb has concerns about. Lang later demonstrates that the three South Dakota Democrats in Washington DC does not:

Tom Daschle supports the expansion. So does Tim Johnson. And Stephanie Herseth. Bill Janklow supported it before he resigned. But Larry Deidrich? No. I'm sure the Wise Use people think he's great.

Let me restate Lang’s last sentence: I'm sure the Wise people think he's great.

For those farmers and ranchers who believe Daschle has more clout than Thune to increase their government subsidies are wrong on two counts. First, Thune will be just as effective, if not more so, to represent their financial interests in DC. Second, the Daschle Democrats will add a cost to the so-called free government money the farmers and ranchers obtain…the cost maybe their land and the freedom that goes along with private property rights.

UPDATE: Thanks to ranchers.net for finding this link from the Herseth web site that provides us with the Rapid City Journal report on the Wind Cave issue.

Journalists fight at Daschle press conference

Two journalists engage each other after a press conference that inluded Tom Daschle:

Two journalists got into a scuffle Thursday following a news conference on homeland security by Senators Tom Daschle, Charles Schumer and Hillary Clinton.

Here is a link to the actual footage.

Wow…normally Fridays are slow

I had a busy day at work and could not participate in the fast moving coverage of the Moore-Daschle saga that ripped threw the blogosphere today. Fortunately the other members of the Dakota Blog Alliance were able to keep up.

First was the Washington Times report on the Hugh Hewitt column of yesterday regarding the impact the Dakota Alliance is having on politics in South Dakota. Glenn Reynolds also linked to that column.

Then came this shocker form the Rapid City Journal:

There was no hug between "Fahrenheit 9/11" director Michael Moore and Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle at the film's June 23 premiere in Washington, D.C., Daschle said Thursday.

When asked about Moore's account of a hug after the premiere and the criticism Daschle has received for it, the South Dakota Democrat said he and Moore did not embrace. Daschle said his schedule forced him to arrive late and leave early.
"I know we senators all tend to look alike. But I arrived late, and I had to leave early for Senate votes. I didn't meet Mr. Moore," Daschle said.

In a lengthy Time magazine piece about the movie and its political effects, Richard Corliss reported Moore's criticism of Daschle's leadership and the filmmaker's account of a hug with Daschle.

"At the Washington premiere, Moore sat a few rows behind Daschle. Afterward, says Moore, ‘He gave me a hug and said he felt bad and that we were all gonna fight from now on. I thanked him for being a good sport,'" Corliss wrote.

Daschle, who was at the premiere at the invitation of producer/distributor Harvey Weinstein, said he and Moore have never met.

DVT quickly noted the plot thickens. Hugh Hewitt also weighed in and so did Ryne McClaren. SDP discovered Drudge also had picked up the Rapid City Journal report.

DVT then found Glenn Reynold's discovery on Moorewatch.com of an anti-American ad Moore is using in Belgium.

Then history professor Jon Lauck provides us with an analysis that includes Joseph Welch’s comment regarding McCarthy.

I am exhausted.

By the way...where was the Argus Leader in all of this? I emailed (scroll down) David Kranz and Randell Beck a couple of days ago on the Times magazine report and how it conflicted with Kranz's column. I still haven't received a response from either one.

Oh yes...I almost forgot. Greg Belfrage has been on top of this the last two days and has provided a great opportunity for locals to comment.

UPDATE: Now Moorewatch has started a thread on th Rapid City Journal report.

Quentin Riggins is now calling this "Hug Gate".

AFTER THOUGHT: I wonder if Michael Moore will sue Daschle for libel?

Communists support Fahrenheit

WorldNetDaily is reporting that additional communists organizations are voicing their support for Fahrenheit 9/11:

Already praised by the Communist Party USA and the Revolutionary Communist Party, Michael Moore's hit film "Fahrenheit 9/11" has a new honor – great notices in the today's edition of the Socialist Worker, the newspaper of the International Socialist Organization.

The report then details the communists organizations that support the man Daschle hugged at the Washington DC premiere:

Last week, the two most prominent communist organizations in the country – the Stalinist Communist Party USA and the Maoist Revolutionary Communist Party – both lined up in their publications in endorsing "Fahrenheit 9/11."

John Thune in Mitchell today

UPDATE: Coverage from the Mitchell Daily Republic.

John Thune was in Mitchell during the lunch hour to voice his support for the Federal Marriage Amendment, which is expected to be debated in the US Senate soon (more at SDP). Thune argued the Amendment would not be needed, but judicial activism created by the liberals has over powered the will of States whose legislatures have passed laws addressing the issue.

Bob, the Daschle guy, was also there handing out Daschle’s propaganda, regarding the issue, to the media. He refused to provide the Thune campaign a copy.

Sibby Online makes Weekly Standard

Hugh Hewitt has a Weekly Standard column that mentions the focus local bloggers, including myself, is having on the pro-Democratic bias of the Argus Leader and the impact it is having on Daschle:

There are three great blogs covering the Tom Daschle-John Thune senate race--coverage that is necessary because the state's leading paper, the Argus Leader is in the tank for Daschle and hasn't even bothered to report the Daschle-Moore love-fest. The paper's lead political reporter is a long-time Daschle booster whose column on Moore, his movie, and Daschle omits any reference to the Moore-Daschle huggy moment.

But the South Dakota blogs are all over the Daschle endorsement of Moore's assault on America. Daschle v. Thune, South Dakota Politics, and Sibby Online present real reporting, not incumbent boosterism, and their readerships are growing as the race between Daschle and the John Thune heats up.

The influence of blogging on politics is nowhere more obvious than in South Dakota. Tom Daschle has long sold himself as a moderate to South Dakota voters, and has done so with the assistance of a very friendly local press. But now the locals get the news via a stream of serious reporters trawling the national press and internet sites for the real news on the hyper-partisan Daschle. The result is that, for the first time in Daschle's political life, he will have to run on his record, not on what he presents as his record.

John Thune barely lost a race against incumbent Tim Johnson in 2002, and there was controversy around the vote. This time Thune is running with George W. Bush at the top of the ticket, and, given enough money, he should be able to hold Daschle accountable. The embrace of Moore is just more fuel for the political fire, the smoke of which cannot be obscured by friendlies in newsrooms. Reporters everywhere are getting a message: Agenda journalism isn't safe anymore. If you spin the facts, there are bloggers waiting to expose your partisanship. And the candidate you have been covering for.

Yesterday morning I emailed Daschle's college buddy and Argus Leader Chief Political reporter David Kranz (dkranz@argusleader.com) and executive editor Randell Beck (rabeck@argusleader.com) regarding the Time magazine coverage of “the hug”. I have yet to get a response.

UPDATE: Now Free Republic has a thread running on the Weekly Standard column.

Why Hezbollah supports Moore

Jacob Laskin has a revealing column that explains why Hezbollah is a fan of the anti-Semitic Michael Moore, a man Tom Daschle hugged:

Were Moore to make such a film today, all signs indicate it would be a valentine to the Palestinians’ newest terror campaign, the second Intifada. One clue comes from Moore’s book Dude, Where's My Country?, in which Moore contends that Israelis "know they are wrong, and...would be doing just what the Palestinians are doing if the sandal were on the other foot." (In other words, the world would be flooded with Jewish suicide bombers.) Another clue is Moore’s naked contempt for the Jewish state. As Moore told an audience in Liverpool, Israel is part of his personal axis of evil: “It's all part of the same ball of wax, right? The oil companies, Israel, Halliburton.”

The terrorist attacks of September 11 only strengthened Moore’s view of the real enemies. Reflecting on the carnage of the day, Moore first denied al-Qaeda’s responsibility: “Am I being asked to believe that this guy who sleeps in a tent in a desert has been training pilots to fly our most modern, sophisticated jumbo jets...?” Then he thundered against the United States: “We abhor terrorism -- unless we’re the ones doing the terrorizing.” Finally, he screamed racism: “Maybe it’s because the Ay-rabs are much better foils. A key ingredient in getting Americans whipped into a frenzy against a new enemy is the all-important race card.” And that was all on September 12.

Which highlights yet another reason terrorists want more of Moore: he also wants Americans to die. “I’m sorry,” he crowed on his site, “but the majority of Americans supported this war once it began and, sadly, that majority must now sacrifice their children until enough blood has been let that maybe—just maybe—God and the Iraqi people will forgive us in the end.” But if he’s hostile to the American cause, Moore’s heart goes out to the mujahedeen. In the killers of Coalition troops and Iraqi civilians, Moore sees true heroes. "The Iraqis who have risen up against the occupation are not ‘insurgents’ or ‘terrorists’ or ‘The Enemy,’” Moore has fumed. “They are the REVOLUTION, the Minutemen, and their numbers will grow—and they will win.”

Daschle hugged Moore?

SDP found a Time Magazine report that stated Daschle hugged Moore at the end of the premiere of Fahrenheit 9/11. DVT notes a Kranz column that stated Daschle left the premiere early. I wonder how Kranz and Daschle are going to spin out of this?

UPDATE: Here is the latest.

How Democrats steal elections

WorldNetDaily has posted a column out of their latest issue of Whistleblower magazine titled, “THE PARTY OF TREASON”. The posted column does not include the editor’s note that mentioned the voter fraud reported in the 2002 South Dakota Senate race. I am a subscriber and I highly recommend you to also subscribe. Here is an excerpt:

The manual vote recounts being insisted on by Democratic operatives in Palm Beach County, Fla., have been used for over 20 years to steal elections from Republicans, claim several GOP veterans of hand-recount election-upsets.

According to Bob Haueter, who served as chief of staff for former California Assembly Minority Leader Scott Baugh, and who is an expert on manual recounts, a Democrat lawyer intimately involved in "stealing" elections from Republicans through hand recounts admitted to the process and even shared the techniques involved.

After Tuesday's vote and an automatic recount still left GOP nominee George W. Bush ahead by a slim 288-vote margin, Palm Beach elections officials decided that a manual recount of all 425,000 votes should be undertaken.

"What's happening in Florida is exactly the game plan laid out to me by an attorney who represented the Democrats in a recount in California where they stole a seat from us," former California Assemblyman Pat Nolan told WorldNetDaily.

What’s happening at the US Senate

The Hill has a report on the current agenda for the US Senate. Looks like more opportunities for Tom Daschle to be his obstructionist self. Excerpt:

After the Senate today takes up the controversial nomination of Arkansas attorney Leon Holmes to fill a U.S. district-court judgeship, Frist will follow with his third attempt to get the 60 votes necessary to invoke cloture and proceed to a class-action-reform bill. Frist said he believes he has the votes, since Sens. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) have signed on to the Republican bill.

But the bill is sure to become a target for Democratic amendments and could easily become overburdened on the floor. If Democrats succeed in attaching legislation to increase the minimum wage, for example, some Republicans could fall off the bill.

Amendments on Democratic priorities such as gun control and climate change may also surface. Likewise, Dodd and Schumer could withdraw their support if the bill is modified in other ways.

Frist said he believes the bill should pass but added, “It can be stopped by the minority if they really want to stop it.” Pressed on the bill’s prospects, Frist said he had “two crossed fingers.”

Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) said last month that he doesn’t “hold a great deal of prospects for success at the end of the day” for the bill.

Frist has also scheduled a vote on the eve of the Democratic convention in Boston on a constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriage. He has repeatedly denied that the timing of the vote was chosen to foist a wedge issue on Democrats leading into their convention. He said the timing was determined by state courts in Massachusetts that issued rulings allowing for recognition of gay marriage.