Sibby Online

NRA Rally tonight

One last quick reminder. The NRA "Vote Freedom First" Rally in support of John Thune and George Bush will be gearing up tomorrow (Saturday) night. For those of you who attended the 2002 rally, this one will be every bit as much fun. People will be coming in from all over the state. Grab a few friends and car pool it. Best part of all ---IT IS FREE!! There will be T-shirts, hats, and who knows what else, being given out. The doors open at 6:30 and rally begins at 7, so be there early before it is all given away. I guarantee you will have a great time.
The rally will feature country music superstar Lee Greenwood and our NRA Leadership people, Wayne LaPierre and Chris Cox. The best way you can show your support for these candidates is by attending and having fun. Forward this to fellow Second Amendment supporters.

Location:
Sioux Falls Convention Center
Ballroom "A"
1211 N. West Avenue
Sioux Falls

I am certainly ready to have some fun. I am holding a replica of Charlton Heston's gun as he said:

Given a musket from that war, he held it above his head and said, "I have only five words for you: From my cold, dead hands."

Mansiongate ad

First check out the latest report on Mansiongate, and then check out this web site and then check out this ad (SDP has a great post on this):

Environmentalists verse SD farmers & ranchers

For those who have followed me for awhile know that there is a problem facing farmers and ranchers. And that is the lost of property rights to the special interests of environmentalists. For those who are fairly new to Sibby Online, you can find more about this by reading through my Tony Dean index. Tony Dean is one of South Dakota’s leading far-left environmentalists. He is also a Sportsman Outdoor writer, but his main camouflage is his claims to be a conservative Republican.

At the very top of today’s front-page of the Argus Leader is a report on the drought relief that recently passed the Republican controlled Congress and signed into law by President Bush. The environmentalists are not happy about how the drought relief was funded:

The disaster package is being offset by reducing baseline funding for the Conservation Security Program from $9 billion to $6 billion. The CSP is a new program created in the 2002 Farm Bill.

Unlike the 20-year-old Conservation Reserve Program, which pays farmers to idle fragile cropland and plant it in permanent cover, the CSP rewards farmers and ranchers for using environmentally friendly practices on working crop and range land.

The program, made available to farmers and ranchers on watersheds identified by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, has gotten off to a slow start, with only $41 million earmarked nationwide this year.

No South Dakota watersheds qualified this year.

Since the CSP program is only a way for the environmentalists to assert their control over South Dakota farmers and ranchers, who received no benefit…the fiscally responsible method of providing drought relief from within the current budget should be Ok to South Dakota agriculture interests. Right? But continue reading the Argus report:

The fact that the CSP is just getting under way might have made it easy for Congress to raid it for a disaster bill, but "it sets a terrible precedent," said Dennis Wiese, South Dakota Farmers Union executive director.

"By taking money out of this fund, we have reopened the Farm Bill," Wiese said. "That's never happened.

"Even though farmers and ranchers will receive assistance for weather-related disasters incurred in 2003 or 2004 crop years, the fact remains that the assistance is taken at the expense of another farm program, and that is unfair."

What the Argus Leader did not disclose about Dennis Wiese is the fact that he is a partisan Daschle supporter. I saw him at the Masonic Temple in Mitchell on October 21 during a Daschle community dinner wearing a Tom Daschle sticker on his shirt. He also attacked me with a letter in the October 15 Mitchell Daily Republic regarding a letter I wrote containing Daschle's voting record on the 2003 Omnibus bill. Today’s MDR has published my response:

Dennis Wiese, president South Dakota Farmers Union, October 15th letter attacked me for misleading readers of this paper. He should have gotten his facts straight before writing his factually incorrect letter.

He referred to my “letter printed in mid-September regarding drought aid”. I had no letter printed in this paper during September let alone “mid-September”.

Wiese then makes a feeble attempt to provide cover for Daschle’s votes against $3 billion in drought aid, by saying, “it was amending his own $6 billion amendment. Wrong, the $3 billion amendment was voted on 27 minutes prior to the Daschle amendment. When Daschle’s amendment did come to vote, Daschle could only muster 39 votes. Five Democrats voted against it, while five more Democrats did not vote at all on the amendment. So much for Daschle’s clout.

Daschle and his partisan supporters, such as Dennis Wiese, should blame Daschle for the ten Democrats that Daschle couldn’t bring to the table before they start placing blame on President Bush and John Thune. After Daschle did not have the clout to increase drought relieve from $3 to $6 billion, he twice voted against the entire 2003 Omnibus bill that contained other funding he is now taking credit for.

The Daschle campaign has been running negative attack ads at the President and John Thune for doing nothing about drought relief in 2002. The ad used Gene Williams who received $15,907 in disaster subsidies during 2002 thanks to Thune’s work.

Daschle’s campaign has also lied about the Second Amendment, abortion, and tax cuts. But Daschle’s biggest lie is that the people of South Dakota are helpless and not capable of finding a job, providing healthcare, and we cannot survive without him.

After posting the BPI letter that took Daschle to task for lying about a value-added agriculture business, it is disturbing to read a Argus Leader report using a partisan Daschle supporter, represented as a South Dakota Ag expert, who is actually representing the interests of far-left environmentalists…at the expense of South Dakota farmers and ranchers.

Follow up

Last night I posted a report regarding a Daschle Staffer Charged With Notary Law Violation. I asked three questions. The first, yes the Argus Leader did put this on the front page today. That was good. Second, regarding the intensity of the reporting…let’s give them more time, but don't hold your breath waiting.

The third question was regarding Daschle Democrats taking personal responsibility. Here is an excerpt from the Argus Leader report:

"This was an honest mistake," said Daschle campaign strategist Dan Pfeiffer.

No resignations, no personal accountability, and just an honest mistake. This is why I left the Democat party. DVT has given me another reason why I am glad I left the Democrat Party:

But the big news is that a Democratic organization sought and won an injunction from a tribal court against Republican poll watchers monitoring the election on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. The whole effort is led by the former executive director of the state Democratic Party. Excluding one side's election monitors, eh? Doesn't get more absurd than that.

For more on why this is a pile of crap, read the following PDF containing insight from John Fund of the Wall Street Journal: Download voterfraud2002.pdf

SD business offended by Daschle’s lies

The above ad ran on page 16 of today’s Mitchell Daily Republic. It is an open letter to Tom Daschle from BPI, the South Dakota business Daschle portrays as an evil special interest that John Thune lobbies for. BPI paid for the ad. Here is the content of the letter by Eden Roth:

I just saw an ad that you approved referring to BPI as a large meatpacker that is opposed to country of origin labeling (COOL). We are writing you this open letter in response to your recent campaign ads, published without any prior contact with BPI regarding the accusations made in those ads. It is inconceivable that your campaign would spread false information about a South Dakota business like BPI Technology – especially when you know that the information isn’t true.

Your campaign had no concerns about BPI earlier this year when they attempted to solicit campaign contributions from BPI for prior campaigns. Apparently, your problem is that I decided to contribute to you opponent in this election and now that makes BPI fair game for attack.

BPI is a small, value-added processor of beef trimmings – not a large meatpacker as you allege in your ads. We do not buy live cattle, and do not import meat from South America, Australia, or New Zealand. In fact, we compete directly against the frozen imported meats that would be most affected by COOL. The value we add translates into more than $7.50 per head for each and every head South Dakota producers sell to any large packer for processing. While that processing may occur in neighboring states, the value flows back very directly to the producer, whether from South Dakota or any other state.

BPI has NEVER stated any opposition to COOL, and has never paid anyone to lobby on the issue. Our position has consistently been and will continue to be neutral. If mandatory COOL becomes the law, we will implement it. If not, we will label based on customer demands. Again, since we directly compete against frozen imported meats, COOL could actually benefit BPI. Meanwhile, your campaign is knowingly, falsely accusing BPI of opposing COOL.

As a native of South Dakota, I have invested significantly to the State and would hope to do so in the future. We have been discussing a potential $60 Million investment in South Dakota that would employ more than 700 people in a technologically advanced food processing operation. We have met with the Governor and state economic development officials to that end. Making an investment of this magnitude in new, value-added technology is challenging enough, without the additional risk of defending against false attacks by a leader of that State.

The shoe is on the other foot

Here is a KELOTV report:

10/29/2004 Daschle Staffer Charged With Notary Law Violation

On the same day three Republican workers pleaded guilty to breaking South Dakota's notary public law, a staffer for Senator Tom Daschle's campaign was charged with violating the same statute.

Brown County State's Attorney Mark McNeary says Chelsea Peterson is accused of notarizing two applications submitted by people who wanted to become notaries. He says the Secretary of State's office returned those two applications and both people eventually were approved as notary publics.

McNeary says both of them work for the Daschle campaign and have signed absentee ballot applications, but only after they got their notary commissions from the state.

In other words, he says the investigation found that the infraction had nothing to do with any absentee ballots.

The report seems to have left a lot unsaid. I have questions:

1. Will the Argus Leader have this on the front-page, if at all?
2. Will the reporting be at the same degree of intensity the Republicans notary problem received?
3. Will the Daschle Democrats take personal responsibility as the Republicans did or will they find some lame way to blame this on Republicans?

Randell, can you hear my whistle?

Randell Beck, executive editor of the Argus Leader, announced in his 1/18/2004 column that the Argus Leader could not be used in campaign ads:

In pretty blunt language, I told campaign honchos in the 2002 election that everything appearing in this newspaper was copyrighted and thus illegal for them to use in their ads without our permission. And, I added, we would not be granting permission anytime soon

…

I've worked at six newspapers and covered, it seems, countless political campaigns. But the Argus Leader - with strong encouragement from Arnold Garson, president and publisher - is the first one to draw a line in the sand.
I sent out letters to the Daschle and Thune campaigns last week. I haven't heard any howls - yet.

Let's face it. It's hard enough for all of us to figure where the candidates stand on myriad issues - and we have precious few sources of dispassionate, unbiased information about them.

My message to the candidates: Take your best shot at massaging your message to voters, but leave newspapers out of it. Let us probe and push and challenge. Let us serve democracy that way.

My message to you: Help us police the airwaves during the campaign season. If you see Argus Leader content showing up in ad campaigns, let me know. We'll take turns blowing the whistle.

I received the following ad from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee today. It contains two references to the October 11, 2004 Argus Leader. I am sending this post to Randell Beck. What will he do? Let's see if he is willing to push the DC Democrats around.

Also note the negative out-of-state third party ad says, “Not the South Dakota Way.” Remember all those Demcorats who say out-of-state interests should not tell us how to vote. The DC Democrats are telling was what is or is not the “South Dakota Way”. Bunch of elitist thugs is probably making Linda Daschle upset for having her profession attacked again.(Click to enlarge)

Mansiongate

DVT has more on Mansiongate.

Have you seen the latest updates to the daschlemansion website?

Argus Leader busted again

Jason of SDP just posted a scathing piece of investigative reporting that demonstrates yet again the anti-Republican and pro-Democratic bias of David Kranz and the Argus Leader. Let’s see the Argus Leader’s partner in crime, KELOTV, attack him again for being on the fringes. The truth is…Jason is on the cutting edge.

From my mailbag:

I agree that the Argus Leader no longer deserves our dollars in subscription money to promote its blatent liberal agenda. Instead, we should subscribe to the Mitchell Daily Republic and ask them to run a "Sioux Falls news" insert.

We haven’t seen nothing yet

In a desperate act to get re-elected, Tom Daschle has thrown promises into the wind. DVT has reported the thugs of all attack machines, The Media Fund, is turning it's attack toward South Dakota. DVT has a lot more details here:

The Media Fund, financed in part by billionaire George Soros, is expected to begin airing commercials in the next several days. "The object is to give Democrats cover during a Republican advertising onslaught and to make sure that the national political environment stays favorable for Democrats everywhere," said Jim Jordan, who was Kerry's campaign manager until a staff shake-up last fall, and now is a spokesman for the Media Fund.

Do you remember this back in April 2003 regarding Jim Jordon and tie to the mainstream media:

Last week's calls for the ouster of Republican Sen. Rick Santorum from the GOP leadership after his remarks linking homosexual acts to polygamy, bigamy and incest seem to have fallen on deaf ears. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist defended Santorum, and, on Friday, Ari Fleischer said President Bush thought Santorum was an "inclusive man." Conservatives have started alleging a political motive behind the story. Late last week, Robert Novak reported that the AP reporter who interviewed Santorum, Laura Jakes Jordan, is married to Jim Jordan, campaign manager for Sen. John Kerry's Democratic presidential campaign.

"Jordan herself is pretty suspect," said Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga. Howie Kurtz in the Washington Post reports that "Jim Jordan says he didn't know 'with any specificity' what Santorum had told his wife and (said) that Kerry was one of several Democrats who issued statements at the request of the Hotline political digest. "Even by the usual standards of the right-wing attack machine," Jim Jordan said, "this is just stupid, vicious and sexist."

Here is more about the issue.