Sibby Online

The last word for 2004

This is my last post for 2004. As I sip on a couple of bourbon & waters, I may go over the top a little. I doubt that 2005 will be as important as 2004. After all, we got rid of the biggest embarrassment to South Dakota since George McGovern…Tom Daschle.

To those readers on the left: I am sorry if you are offended by my words, but I am passionate about my beliefs. I appreciate those of you who have emailed me in 2004 and I hope to hear more from you in 2005. There are Democrats who speak to me almost daily. Although we disagree, I love them more than any other (except my family). I thank you for helping me grow during 2004. I hope you will help me continue my maturation in 2005.

The left is the problem

The left seems to think that America is hated due to us conservaitives. The Washington Times has a report titled, "U.S. pop culture seen as plague" that points the problem back at the left:

The chance that a young Middle Easterner will see expressions of freedom in American culture is, to Mr. Bork's mind, dim. Because he thinks most of what Hollywood exports is "trash."

Capitalism versus Socialism

NewsMax has a report on the amount of contributions to victims of the tsunamis:

Among the biggest corporate givers are Pfizer Inc., which is donating $10 million in cash and $25 million worth of drugs to relief agencies; The Coca-Cola Co., which is donating $10 million; Exxon Mobil Corp., which is giving $5 million; and Citigroup Inc., which is contributing $3 million. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has pledged $3 million.

Pharmaceutical and health-care products companies were among the biggest givers.

Merck & Co. Inc. is giving $3 million in cash while Johnson & Johnson and Abbott Laboratories Inc. are each donating $2 million; each of the three are also sending drugs and other health care supplies to the region. Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. is donating $1 million in cash and $4 million in antibiotics and antifungal drugs. Roche Group and GlaxoSmithKline PLC were also planning to donate supplies and/or cash.

Nike Inc., American Express Co., General Electric Co. and First Data Corp. are each giving $1 million.

For some corporations with operations in the countries struggling with the disaster, their far-flung enterprises are serving as quick supply routes for aid.

Drug makers with offices or plants in the region sent employees out with antibiotics, nutritional supplements, infant formula, baby food and other supplies. Employees of companies like Coca-Cola, PepsiCo Inc. and Marriott International Inc. hotels in the region are delivering bottled water, food and other supplies.

``They're sending whatever they can, as fast as they can,'' said Elaine Palmer, spokeswoman for PepsiCo, which rushed out Aquafina bottled water from one of its Indian bottlers and plans to contribute a minimum of $1 million to the relief effort.

So how much has Michael Moore given to the cause?

Unexpected Tsunami Heroes: Bloggers

From Human Events:

Bloggers providing relief information and sharing vivid photographs are playing a significant role in the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami that devastated several South Asian countries.

Almost immediately after the tsunami struck Sunday, bloggers began covering the event like a news story, offering graphic details of what happened. Mainstream media outlets have picked up on the reports, too. The New York Times wrote, "For vivid reporting from the enormous zone of tsunami disaster, it was hard to beat the blogs."

Saving Social Security

Devvy Kidd has an interesting column titled, "Social Security can't be saved". She starts out with a lie from the left:

There is a lot of buzz these days about "saving" Social Security. For decades, presidents have been feeding the American people the same old drivel about saving Social Security, the "sacred cow" of politics. For the past 40 years, presidents have declared their intention to save and reform Social Security, i.e., Bill Clinton's State of the Union addresses always carried practically the same sentences: "... we must agree to a bipartisan process to preserve (save) Social Security" (1997); "... we must save Social Security for the 21st century" (1998); "... we must save Social Security for the 21st century" (1999).

I have argued that liberals are actually socialists, but Kidd takes the argument to the next level by saying liberals are actually communists:

Unfortunately, the American people didn't heed the warnings when FDR rammed through Social Security and his "New Deal."

"The New Deal will bring the Communist Party within striking distance of overthrow of the American form of government," (1935) Arthur Henning, Chicago Tribune.

"The New Deal is to America what the early phase of Nazism was to Germany," (1935) Mark Sullivan, Buffalo Evening News.

Ironically, in the same year, Feb. 7 to be exact, John D. Rockefeller was printed by the Department of Justice to kick off a public campaign for a national fingerprint registration law.

In 1932, William Z. Foster, then chairman of the Communist Party USA, authored a book titled, "Toward Soviet America." On page 281, Foster states that in order to Sovietize America, there would have to be social insurance against unemployment, an old-age insurance (Social Security), free medical services as well as socialized housing. Three years later, Social Security was up and running and the rest has fallen neatly into line to meet communist goals in America.

The solution is not going to happen over night. But Kidd is promoting an idea that is more aggressive than Bush’s partial privatization:

First, learn the facts about Social Security and what the law actually says. Then demand Congress and Bush implement the only solution that will work and in the long run will best serve the American people by getting government out of our lives and stop telling us when we can retire, when we can't and how we will save for our own retirement. That isn't government's job, it is a personal responsibility for a self-determined, independent people.

This won't happen until millions of Americans demand a final solution and not decades more of the same old political slogans about "saving Social Security."

Marxism versus Thou shall not covet

The Democrats still don’t get it. Many people are feed up with the class warfare that they use to implement their hidden agenda of socialism. For Example, Chad Schuldt, paid Daschle campaign staffer, has a rant about the government’s Medicare problem. The system is running the course of a typical socialized medical system…rationing. So instead of negotiating prescription drug prices through the government, the GOP thought best to pass a plan that invoked competition to control prices. Here is Schuldt’s classic class warfare argument regarding these two issues:

The GOP solution? Deny health care to the poorest in society, but continue to pay outrageous prices to wealthy corporations. I wonder what Jesus would think of this?

Perhaps the Ninth Commandment…Thou shall not covet thy neighbor’s house. Meaning:

We are to fear and love God so that we do not desire to get our neighbor's possessions by scheming or by pretending to have a right to them, but always help him keep what is his.

In a free market enterprise system, competition takes care of "outrageous prices". If you can’t afford to pay a fair price for goods and services, is it moral to have the government covet thy neighbor’s possessions so you do not have to pay for your own way in life?

Tom Daschle frequently attacked drug companies, and I am not surprised to see one of his hired guns continue the legacy. So look at what Pfizer, one of those so-called greedy, evil, and wealthy drug companies just did:

Pfizer Inc., the world's biggest drugmaker, is donating $35 million to victims of the weekend's earthquake and tsunamis in Asia, matching the aid the U.S. government has said it will provide.

The company said in a statement today it will provide $10 million in cash to relief groups and $25 million more in products, including its Zithromax, Zyvox and Diflucan anti-infectives.

I wonder what Jesus would think of this? I wonder how much Michael Moore has given to the cause?

An how about this post by a South Dakota Democrat county chairman:

So Long, Bishop!

After defeating Tom Daschle, spending millions on questionable projects (like the Broomtree pheasant hunting area near Irene), weeding out liberal priests and oppressing old nuns who weren't kneeling (because their knees hurt too much), we're so sad to see Bishop Robert Carlson leave.

Luckily Carlson is heading to a place where he can make a difference. Michigan, a blue state, could swing either way in 2008. Carlson will bring his signature "It's a sin to vote for a pro-choice candidate" audio tapes to play in all the churches of his diocese.

Mike Rounds and the bishop have been friends for several years, but I'm guessing even Mike is happy to see Carlson go. Nobody wants to be a hand puppet.

Yes, it looks a couple of South Dakota Democrats are attacking Governor Rounds via sarcastic attacks toward a Catholic Bishop and a divisive class warfare argument with religion as its basis. The future looks bright for South Dakota Republicans, unless the South Dakota Democrat Party reins in these kids who have taken the far-left college indoctrination hook, line, and sinker.

South Dakota saved the Supreme Court

On election night as the defeat of Tom Daschle became more and more evident, my first thought was that we saved the Supreme Court. The Wall Street Journal has a column by James Taranto that explains why:

With only 45 senators (including Vermont's Jim Jeffords), they would need the support of six Republicans to vote down a nominee. A minority could filibuster to block a vote (unless Republicans change the rules), but five Democratic defections would vitiate that tactic. Tom Daschle's filibustering of low-profile appellate court nominees is one reason he is about to become an ex-senator, and that lesson surely hasn't been lost on his red-state colleagues.

Lying left attack bloggers

Some lefty in LA does a column titled, "THE YEAR REALITY DIED". Excerpt:

It was the year when conservative bloggers outmaneuvered the established press in spearheading Republican efforts to destroy journalist Dan Rather, Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, and the lifelong CIA agents outraged at the behavior of Bush’s new CIA Director Porter Goss. In the new paradigm of he-said/she-said reporting, persistence matters. Blogs offer the ability to repeat any message ad infinitum without any fact-checking, and do it cheap. As described in Time Magazine: "Just blog, link, and repeat. It worked for conservative bloggers like Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit, who trumpeted the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth’s claims this summer. Say it enough times online, and someone is bound to hear you."

The Sierra Times helps explain that the left’s motivation is anger:

DAN RATHER IS PISSED AT BLOGGERS: "It seems that the chief political writer for CBS is concerned about the right-wing bloggers who helped to oust Tom Daschle, the author of Patriot Act Two as introduced. They feel there is not so much a legal problem as there is an ethical problem. There is a problem for CBS and bloggers just as much as there is one for the leftists. One of those problems is that a blogger was the one that outed their unimpeachable memo against Bush. Within a few hours anyone with an IQ above two digits was rolling on the floor laughing at them. For CBS, bloggers continue to be a problem because they aren’t letting go of that egregious ethical snafu." Their problem with bloggers is that they don't "respect" the fact that THEY are "real reporters" and bloggers are not, according to them. Actually, what bloggers are is better. They don't have to "kowtow" to liberal editors and can report the facts as they ARE, not as their editors think they are. Bloggers don't have to send their stories through a "filter" of liberal thought. And the liberals (one of which is Blather . . .er, Rather) are jealous. Bloggers are "the new press" and the "old press" is losing viewers and readers apace because they slant the news and ignore "inconvenient news" that does not agree with their agenda, while all the time maintaining a façade of "neutrality. Bloggers maintain no such façade. They declare their biases and let the reader make up their minds as to what to believe. Giving documentation for their stories helps. Rather and his friends rely on falsified documents. Rather still maintains the facts were true, even if the documents were bogus. Even a five-year-old won't buy such crap. Rather worries about some blogs being platforms to promote political candidates. So what? Mostly if they are, they're declared as such. Rather's show is a "political platform to get rid of Bush," but he maintains he's "neutral." We now know better. (R. A. Hawkins, 12/20/04) [Posted 12/30/04]

The elitists on the left still don’t get it. We report you decide.

This wasn’t the year reality died, this was the year that the other side of the issues was presented to the electorate and the left hasn’t accepted that reality.

South Dakota’s lying left

Tim Giago has a column published by the biased Yankton Press & Dakotan that praises Tom Daschle:

A bitter battle was fought in South Dakota for the senate seat of incumbent Tom Daschle. In the end it wasn't so much the political skills of Republican John Thune that won the day as it was the millions of dollars that poured into the state and manifested in the guise of 527 ads intended to hurt and maim.

The Republican establishment considered Daschle an obstructionist and the out-of-state money painted him that way. Major Republican figures paraded across the state in support of Thune and Daschle sat back and watched instead of bringing in his own parade. In the end he came up 4,500 votes short and we now have a new senator.

This in no way diminishes the man, his integrity or his accomplishments. Daschle was one of the first U.S. senators to champion the cause of the largest minority population in his state, the American Indians. Whether Thune picks up the baton and runs with it is still an unknown.

Giago also praised Tim Johnson:

Election 2008 seems a long way off, but somewhere in between South Dakota's Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson will run again. He has been left with the job of picking up the torch carried for so many years by his friend Tom Daschle. His knowledge of Indian issues is immense and he has long held the distinction of being the only Senator to have a son serving in Iraq.

Now compare those statements to those Giago made earlier in 2004:

Our two state senators, Tom Daschle and Tim Johnson, have done little or nothing to bring economic development or jobs to these very depressed areas.

Giago then ripped them for not helping out with the Black Hills:

In 1981 the tribes of the Great Sioux Nation were awarded $105 million for the Black Hills.

Since the Black Hills were taken illegally in 1877, more than one billion dollars in gold, timber and mineral and natural resources have been taken from them, and not one dime has been given to the rightful owners, the people of the Great Sioux Nation.

The tribes have said, emphatically, "The Black Hills are not for Sale."

In the face of the worst poverty in America, Pine Ridge, Shannon County, South Dakota, was proclaimed in 1980 and 1990 by the U. S. Census Bureau, as the single poorest county in the United States of America.

One has to wonder why this is so, when we supposedly have two senators working so hard to improve our lives.

After the money was awarded in 1981, Tom Daschle and Tim Johnson considered the case of the Black Hills closed -- even though the people of the Great Sioux Nation refused to accept the money.

The money has now grown to nearly $600 million ... the people refuse to accept it.

Whenever the subject is brought up to Daschle or Johnson, they immediately say that the matter has already been settled, that money has been awarded.

Then why is it that the more than 60,000 Lakota, Dakota and Nakota, do not believe the matter is settled?

Of course this was back when Giago was pretending to be running against Daschle for the Seante seat:

It is my belief that the Indian nations should appoint an Indian candidate to run in every major election. This will give them the opportunity to get their issues out on the table.

In some states, this may be the only way and the only time that Indian issues will ever be discussed or debated.

My platform is to show the importance of the Indian vote, to bring economic development to Indian country, to fight for a new Indian Gaming Regulatory Act that does not force the tribes under the jurisdiction of state government and force them to pay dividends from their casino profits to state governments, and to give the Indian people a voice in the United States Senate that is not afraid to stand up for their basic rights as sovereign nations.

In October 2003 Giago said, "Johnson And Daschle Can't See The Forest For The Trees".

Will the real Tim Giago, please stand up.

Was it the chicken or the egg

Davie Fiore has an interesting column regarding who is leading the collapse, Democrats or the old media. Here is the ending:

A good friend of mine who involves himself in political pursuits, asked me if I thought the establishment media was leading the Democratic Party down a path of political impotency, or was it the Democrats leading the media down a path of impoverishment in regard to legitimacy among the electorate?

Truly, I had no easy answer for him. Today's Democrats come from the same cloistered towers of liberal academia that yesterday's establishment media came from during the second half of the century, or is it the other way around?

Regardless, this parasitic union of a party and its very own press corps d'elite is spiraling ever-downward by the very shackles they formed together — link-by-shameful-link.

So really, in the end, it doesn't matter at all. Whether it is the Democratic Party hierarchy or the establishment media that captains this boat that was launched so many years ago, they are in rough seas now, and at present coarse, an iceberg lies dead ahead.

Fiore included Tom Daschle in his analysis:

So as the media pounded Reagan for tax cuts, a military buildup, and "Star Wars," as Reagan's missile defense initiative was derisively dubbed, Democrats, from House Speaker Tip O'Neill to one-time Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, began a near-symbiotic relationship with their media cheerleaders on the basis of the liberal ideology they shared. Rarely did their scornful words for Reagan differ in content.

Daschle’s cozy relationship with the Gannett owned Argus Leader is now documented and without question.