Sibby Online

Daschle’s hate machine rolls on

Here is what one of the Dumped Daschle Disciples said on his web site regarding President Bush’s speech at the U.S. Naval Academy Commencement in Annapolis, Maryland yesterday:

You hear that Ellsworth employees? Our President, the guy on John Thune’s "speed dial," now says that you’ve been "[wasting] billions of taxpayer dollars, money that can be better spent on giving [those fresh naval academy grads] the tools to fight terrorists and confront 21st-century threats."

I think that makes him a Texas-sized asshole. How do you feel about that, West River? Time to take all those ‘Dump Daschle,’ ‘Bush-Cheney’ bumper stickers off your camo-painted pickup trucks yet? It’s time. It’s just time.

This angry man called the President an asshole for being fiscally responsible with taxpayer’s dollars as he adjusts the military to a new enemy.

This angry man provides us with insight into the South Dakota Democrats’ mindset. They really do not like the military. That is why they could care less if the money would "be better spent on giving [those fresh naval academy grads] the tools to fight terrorists and confront 21st-century threats."

These anti-military Democrats could care less about Ellsworth closing. Their only point in talking about it is that they want an issue to beat up John Thune with. And the South Dakota MSM is all too happy to promote their propaganda.

The true agenda of the Hildebrand lead Dumped Daschle Disciples is not reducing the deficit and increasing America's national security...it's promoting hatred toward conservatives.

Holding SD MSM accountable

I just sent this as a comment to a post at the RCJ's Mount Blogmore:

Bill,

I don’t know which page, but your web site has another report titled "Daschle-Thune race still being fought". It is portrayed as an AP report, but it is nothing more than a David Kranz column from yesterday’s Argus Leader.

Kranz allowed his college buddy Tom Daschle to deny his connection with the current campaign lead by Steve Hildebrand to seek revenge against John Thune. But Kranz neglected to provide the money trail that the South Dakota Politics web site found that proves otherwise:

Since the beginning of 2005 former Daschle campaign manager Steve Hildebrand has personally been paid $2696.63 by the Daschle campaign that supposedly isn't campaigning anymore. Part of this is $809.56 on Valentine's Day. Couple this with the $1518.08 he received the same day from DASHPAC, and there was a lot of Daschle love going out to Steve Hildebrand this past Valentine's Day. You can find these payments on pages 20 and 46 of the PDF document. Hildebrand's consulting company was paid by the Daschle campaign chest a total of $3000 in March 2005 (three separate payments of $1000). You can find these expenditures on pages 31-32 of the report. Add all this up with the DASHPAC money that I noted below, and Mr. Hildebrand and his consulting interests have been paid a total of $13,214.81 by Tom Daschle from January to the end of March 2005.

Kranz also allowed the negative anti-Thune effort to be portrayed by Hildebrand as an effort to hold Thune accountable. But this is what Hildebrand thought about such efforts when the shoe was on the other foot two years ago:

Facing an early attack from an independent conservative group called the Daschle Accountability Project, Hildebrand told the Washington Post that he'll "spend a lot of time attacking the attackers."

When Todd Epp screamed about unfounded ties between John Thune and Jeff Gannon, this paper put the propaganda on the front-page of a Sunday edition. Now we have financial ties between Tom Daschle and a Steve Hildebrand led effort that includes innocent sounding names such as "South Dakotans United to Protect Social Security".

Why doesn’t’ the RCJ and the rest of South Dakota’s MSM follow the money trail into and out of the "South Dakotans United to Protect Social Security" and report it in the same manner they reported on the Daschle Accountability Project a couple of years ago?

For more on that reporting see my web site.

Sibby

Accountability

UPDATE: THE RCJ has published Kranz's pro-Democrat propaganda column as an AP news report. South Dakota MSM bias at its finest (or worst). Epp, I thought you said Kranz's columns are just his opinion? (Hat tip to Todd Epp)

David Kranz provided this Democrat spin in his column yesterday on the Roll Call report regarding Steve Hildebrand’s anti-Thune campaign:

Responding to questions about his postelection actions, Hildebrand told Roll Call that Democrats will monitor Thune in the Senate.

"There are people with progressive voices in South Dakota who care tremendously about what happens in this state, and if he fails in any way to deliver for this state, we're going to call upon him to explain it to the voters here," Hildebrand said.

Chad Schuldt, a paid consultant for the Daschle campaign, made a very similar remark on his web site yesterday:

Somehow, John Thune is now engaged in a bitter battle to keep muzzled anyone who would criticize the Senator’s actions. Specifically, it would appear they would like to take away the right to free speech from anyone who may have worked for former Senator Daschle, including little ol’ me. I think what Thune’s staff is forgetting is that anyone who worked for Senator Daschle holds a deep set of beliefs — belief that the progressive tradition can help build a better South Dakota.

So both Hildebrand and Schuldt believe South Dakota's so-called "progressives" should be allowed to criticize Thune without themselves being held accountable.

Do you remember the Daschle Accountability Project? This was back when the shoe was on the other foot. Conservative South Dakotans were talking about a plan to criticize Tom Daschle for his actions in DC. Here was what Steve Hildebrand said about that:

Facing an early attack from an independent conservative group called the Daschle Accountability Project, Hildebrand told the Washington Post that he'll "spend a lot of time attacking the attackers."

And then we have a Senate Democrat threatening the group with the IRS:

Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., has asked the Internal Revenue Service to investigate the tax status of a Sioux Falls-based group that has been critical of Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D.

In a letter to the IRS, Baucus, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, questioned the Rushmore Policy Council's tax-exempt status and asked whether the political activities of the group violate IRS rules.

Then we have Daschle calling his involvement silly, but look what the Democrats said about Thune’s connection with the Daschle Accountability Project:

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee drew former Republican Congressman John Thune into the battle between the nonprofit Sioux-Falls-based Rushmore Policy Council and Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D.

DSCC Chairman Sen. Jon Corzine, D-N.J., issued a news release calling on Thune to "disavow" the Rushmore Policy Council and its ballyhooed "Daschle Accountability Project." Rushmore Policy Council Director Rob Regier and colleague Paul Erickson were in Washington, D.C., last month trying to raise about $1 million to pay for a humorous TV campaign chiding Daschle for his policy positions.

Google's cache server is not up, so I can’t link to a deleted David Kranz column helping the Democrats falsely tie Thune to the project via a web site.

So, here is another example of how the MSM will call those who voice their dissent toward a Democrat a bunch of GOP operatives who are implementing a negative anti-Daschle campaign as they try to tie John Thune to the effort even though there was no money trail.

Yesterday, the shoe is on the other foot and we have David Kranz helping the South Democrats defend their efforts to hold Thune accountable. They also denied Tom Daschle’s involvement despite the money trial from his Senate Campaign to Steve Hildebrand. And where are the disclosures of who is involved with the South Dakotans United to Protect Social Security project? Why isn’t the MSM calling this an effort by a bunch of Democrat operatives who are implementing a negative anti-Thune campaign? When it comes to accountability, the MSM only gets it half right…and it is the pro-Democrat half.

Todd Epp…are you paying attention.

And Chad Schuldt...if you want an example of those who would be involved in a "bitter battle to keep muzzled anyone who would criticize the Senator’s actions", you have to look no further than the Democrat Party aided by the helping hands of David Kranz and the Argus Leader.

Democrats busted

From NewsMax:

The Democratic Party, the Rev. Jesse Jackson and two groups associated with the civil rights activist have agreed to pay a total of $200,000 in civil fines for campaign finance violations in the 2000 elections.

At issue in the Federal Election Commission case was about $450,000 in election spending by Jackson, the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition and the Citizenship Education Fund using funds from the groups. The two non-profit groups were incorporated, making their money corporate and subject to restrictions under federal campaign finance laws.

According to the FEC, the money was used for a partisan get-out-the-vote effort and voter registration speaking tour that was coordinated with the Democratic National Committee and included appearances by Jackson and Democratic House and Senate candidates.

Federal campaign finance law bans the use of corporate money for partisan, candidate-specific federal election activities.

Under an agreement with the FEC, Jackson and the two groups will share in a $100,000 civil penalty, and the DNC will also pay $100,000. The commission announced the outcome of the case Thursday.

The $450,000 in election spending was eventually reimbursed by the Democratic National Committee and various other Democratic entities.

Privacy rights?

From Rush Limbaugh:

Folks, listen to this. Listen to this whole thing. An Associated Press story that just recently came over the transom: "A judge in New York tossed out a lawsuit brought by a 115-year-old private club that sought to strike down no-smoking laws so that the club could continue to honor its members, including Walter Cronkite and Carol Burnett, with ceremonies that include lighting up. ' The Players Club', said the judge, 'is no more entitled to special privileges with city and state health inspectors enforcing the laws than are pro-tobacco organizations that tried unsuccessfully to overturn them.' The judge is a federal judge, US District Judge Victor Marrero. 'Individuals have no fundamental constitutional right to smoke tobacco.'" Individuals do have, I'm editorializing, I'm adding to this, individuals do have a fundamental constitutional right to abortion. Individuals do have a fundamental right to kill their babies, but individuals, according to this judge, have no fundamental constitutional right to smoke tobacco. Now, I wasn't aware that it had been declared an illegal substance.

"The judge said that the smoking bans target conduct, smoking in certain places, rather than speech, association or assembly, which are not regulated by the statutes. The judge rejected the argument that the laws caused a prohibition on a club tradition in which members are honored with pipe ceremonies which involve smoking on the club's premises. The judge then suggested the ceremonies still might be able to occur after a substitution of suitable non-tobacco products." Well, what is a suitable non-tobacco product that you can light up? Would that be marijuana? What if the Players Club decided to light up marijuana in their pipes during their ceremony to honor the members? It's a private club. Everybody going there knows exactly what's going to happen. I mean, that's a separate argument, but this line from the judge's opinion, "individuals have no fundamental constitutional right to smoke tobacco." Why not? I mean it's not mentioned. Why can't we say, "It's in there, right to privacy! Right to whatever we want to say it's under"? Find something in the Fourteenth Amendment that allows it. You do have a fundamental right to abortion. Kill your child, but you don't have a fundamental right to smoke tobacco. US district judge in New York.

Show us the money

David Kranz covered the Roll Call report that pointed out the role of Steve Hildebrand, Tom Daschle’s former[?] campaign manager and current leader of the Dumped Daschle Disciples, who are taking their hatred out on Thune by secretly using names such as "South Dakotans United to Protect Social Security". Perhaps Kranz should next report on the where that group gets its money and where they are spending it.

SDP points out that Chad Schuldt, the blogger who consistently promotes the Democrat lie that Social Security benefits are "guaranteed", also does not want us to find out who is paying him consulting fees:

Chad Schuldt, another long-time Daschle staffer, also maintains an anti-Thune website and recently started "consulting," which many take to mean he's working for the anti-Thune project (but he won't reveal his "clients" so this can't be confirmed).

As I stated yesterday, I left a comment on Schuldt’s web site asking who has been paying him. So far he has been silent.

Jon Lauck was honest and forthright with Jennifer Sanderson, the Argus Leader reporter, who did a front-page report in August 2004 where Jon Lauck stated he was a paid consultant for the Thune campaign. Why aren’t the Democrats as forthcoming?

Let’s not forget all the stink the MSM and Democrats like Todd Epp made about the "paid bloggers" for Thune. We haven’ heard any radio spots on KELOAM from Epp demanding the media take a look into the money flowing into Steve Hildebrand’s pocket and report what it finds.

Remember what SDP has found out so far:

Since the beginning of 2005 former Daschle campaign manager Steve Hildebrand has personally been paid $2696.63 by the Daschle campaign that supposedly isn't campaigning anymore. Part of this is $809.56 on Valentine's Day. Couple this with the $1518.08 he received the same day from DASHPAC, and there was a lot of Daschle love going out to Steve Hildebrand this past Valentine's Day. You can find these payments on pages 20 and 46 of the PDF document. Hildebrand's consulting company was paid by the Daschle campaign chest a total of $3000 in March 2005 (three separate payments of $1000). You can find these expenditures on pages 31-32 of the report. Add all this up with the DASHPAC money that I noted below, and Mr. Hildebrand and his consulting interests have been paid a total of $13,214.81 by Tom Daschle from January to the end of March 2005.

Come on South Dakota Democrats and the South Dakota mainstream media…show us the money. Both groups seemed obsessed about the Republican paid bloggers, lets see the same passion when the shoe is on the other foot. Or are you just a bunch of partisan hacks who can't overcome the hate you feel from losing elections because people are finding out about your lies that the MSM are reporting as truth?

Priscilla Owen and Tom Daschle

Priscilla Owen helps us understand why Tom Daschle lost his re-election bid in 2004 and Priscilla Owen also represents the impact of that loss.

Here is why Priscilla Owen represents the reason Tom Daschle lost in the 2004 South Dakota Senate race:

While conservatives lauded Sutton's confirmation, they chastised Democrats for playing politics with Owen, who becomes the second judicial nominee to face a filibuster by the Senate. For her nomination to pass, Republicans must amass 60 votes, a hurdle they are unlikely to overcome.

Since early March, Democrats have opposed Miguel Estrada's appointment to the influential D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. Minority Leader Tom Daschle said Democrats would use the same tactics to block Owen's nomination to the 5th Circuit.

"She has chosen to put her own position ahead of the law," Daschle said when asked about the filibuster Tuesday afternoon. "In her interpretation of the law on case after case she has made the decisions that her own views are superior, her own views are ones that have greater weight than the law itself."

Instead of Owen, Daschle said Democrats would be glad to consider the nomination of U.S. District Judge Edward Prado. Bush nominated Prado after Democrats opposed two other nominees for the 5th Circuit: Owen and U.S. District Judge Charles Pickering.

Owen has been the target of liberal attacks for rulings she made as a Texas Supreme Court justice. Liberal groups claim she has carried out a campaign against women's rights, and they cite a ruling she made on parental consent for abortion.

It was in 2004 when South Dakota was on its way to pass legislation that would ban abortion in South Dakota. It failed only because of the concern that the US Supreme Court would rule against South Dakota and force South Dakota to pay Planned Parenthood a large sum of money as a consequence.

Tom Daschle’s filibuster of President Bush’s conservative judges based on a litmus test on abortion provided the evidence that Tom Daschle had turned his back on South Dakota values and instead represented the far-left as the leader of the Democrats in the US Senate. Even though his 2004 campaign tried to lie about his position on abortion, Daschle’s DC position was clearly exposed due to the publicity he received as the leader of the Senate Democrats.

Poetically, today’s successful confirmation of Priscilla Owen represents the impact of Tom Daschle’s 2004 defeat. The successful vote would not have been possible without yesterday’s 81 to 18 vote that stopped another filibuster. On May 8, 2003 the Republicans failed to stop a Daschle led filibuster 52 to 45. Senator Tim Johnson clearly demonstrated the impact of Daschle’s defeat. Johnson voted to preserve the 2003 Daschle filibuster, but voted against continuing yesterday’s filibuster. Then today he voted against the Owen confirmation, which clearly shows yesterday’s vote was not one in support of Owen, but one of realization that the past obstructions of Tom Daschle was wrong.

It was because of John Thune 2004 campaign's successful effort, showing the truth about what positions Tom Daschle stood for, that lead to the removal of the chief obstructionist. It was because of John Thune's victory over Tom Daschle that paved the way to today's up or down vote on the confirmation of Owen.

At about 9PM on election night, I realized that John Thune was the winner after hearing the results of Minnehaha County. It was at that time that I said the people of South Dakota just saved America from the tyranny of the judicial system. Today is just the first example of that prediction.

Newsweek trashed America

From WorldNetDaily:

Despite receiving national TV and Internet media attention for its international magazine editions that have been branded as anti-American and even treasonous, Newsweek has refused to respond to the growing criticism.

As first reported by WorldNetDaily, Newsweek, still reeling from its forced retraction of the Quran-in-the-toilet story, has been hammered for publishing anti-American cover images and stories overseas that did not appear in the U.S.

While a Japanese edition of Newsweek dated Feb. 2 published a cover story featuring an American flag in a trash can under the headline, "The day America died," and the international edition featured a photo of President Bush with the headline, "America Leads ... But Is Anyone Following?," the U.S. edition cover story was an "Oscar Confidential" featuring Hilary Swank, Jamie Foxx and Leonardo DiCaprio.

The cover story in the foreign editions, titled, "Dream on, America," about what Newsweek characterized as "the world's rejection of the American way of life," did not run in the U.S. edition of the magazine.

Multiple calls to Newsweek, including several messages left with Communications Director Ken Weine, went unanswered this week.

Meanwhile, blogs are further investigating the story, with one publishing a partial translation of the article from the Japanese edition, which was penned by Andrew Moravcsik.

Democrat values

Warning: This post includes strong language.

SDP has more on the John Thune NYC visit that never happened:

The former and current Daschle staffers have been claiming Senator Thune went to NY City last week for a blogger conference, which is untrue. One e-mail to the conference organizers makes clear that Thune turned down a request to speak:

Dear South Dakota Politics team:

My name is Elizabeth Caputo and I am the Marketing Director for the Personal Democracy Forum (www.personaldemocracy.com).

For our conference this year, we invited Senator Thune to speak, as well as several other elected officials, including Senator Jon Corzine, Senator Barack Obama, Congressman Tom Tancredo, and Congresswoman Katherine Harris.

We sent our invitation letters out in March and early April, and heard back from Senator Thune's office, via two conversations with Summer Pitlick, in late April that he would NOT be able to attend.

At no point did we at PDF include Senator Thune as a confirmed speaker in any of our promotional materials,press releases, or anywhere on our website.

One of the Dumped Daschle Disciples who blogged about the trip does so by providing us with some of the Democrat's accepted values:

You have got to be fucking kidding me. Not 72 hours after the emotionally and economically devastating news Friday that Ellsworth Air Force Base was on the BRAC closure list, our Senator John Thune was on a jet to New York City for a ‘Personal Democracy Forum Conference’ to brag about the shenanigans he and his paid bloggers pulled in the ’04 election.

If the introduction wasn’t hate-filled enough, check out the ending:

Good Christ, Senator, you are a waste of space of the worst order. And you fucking love him for it, don’t you Rapid City?

Chad Schuldt, the Clear Cut Kidder, also repeated the misinformation. In a recent post, Schuldt calls lies directed at John Thune as "criticisms". Here is one co-called criticism:

Failing to explain to South Dakotans his support of President Bush’s plan to privatize Social Security by cutting guaranteed benefits and racking up trillions in debt while he represents a state where 20% of the population relys on the program.

I have confronted Schuldt many times about the myth that Social Security benefits are "guaranteed". Schuldt also makes a false allegation regarding the Ellsworth issue:

Never explaining his lies about his ability to keep Ellsworth AFB off the Base Closure list.

Thune never "guaranteed" he could keep Ellsworth open. His argument was that he would be in a better position than Tom Daschle. That is not a lie. Thune has reacted by doing something constructive by introducing legislation. I would bet Tom Daschle's reaction would have been the destructive obstruction with filibusters and threats of shutting down the Senate.

I left this comment at that post:

Hey Schuldt…who has been lining your pockets with the green stuff lately? I thought I would ask while you were on this accountability kick.

Let’s see if the Clear Cut Kidder will come clean. The question becomes even more interesting after this from Roll Call (via SDP):

Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) officially took over the seat of former Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D) in January.

But apparently no one told the two men’s surrogates that the campaign ended half a year ago. They continue to spar as if another election is just around the corner.

When the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee pounced on Thune within minutes of the release of the Pentagon’s base realignment and closure list, which included a recommendation to shutter South Dakota’s Ellsworth Air Force Base, Thune’s camp believed the attack had Daschle’s imprint all over it.

When it was followed by another critical e-mail on the base closings penned by Daschle’s 2004 campaign manager, Steve Hildebrand, they felt sure of it. ...

Hildebrand dismissed the notion that Daschle’s campaign against Thune continues and noted that the Social Security group exists to push all lawmakers who support privatizing Social Security in any way to change their minds.

Hildebrand also stressed that no one asks him nor pays him to go after Thune.

Please note this, this, and this. Truth is not a Democrat value, at least not among the Dumped Daschle Disciples, but hatred is.

I wonder what Todd Epp is going to do about this.

Daschle’s campaign continues

While catching up on what I missed while on vacation, I ran across a SDP post showing Steve Hildebrand still receiving funds from Daschle’s Senate campaign. Excerpt:

Since the beginning of 2005 former Daschle campaign manager Steve Hildebrand has personally been paid $2696.63 by the Daschle campaign that supposedly isn't campaigning anymore. Part of this is $809.56 on Valentine's Day. Couple this with the $1518.08 he received the same day from DASHPAC, and there was a lot of Daschle love going out to Steve Hildebrand this past Valentine's Day. You can find these payments on pages 20 and 46 of the PDF document. Hildebrand's consulting company was paid by the Daschle campaign chest a total of $3000 in March 2005 (three separate payments of $1000). You can find these expenditures on pages 31-32 of the report. Add all this up with the DASHPAC money that I noted below, and Mr. Hildebrand and his consulting interests have been paid a total of $13,214.81 by Tom Daschle from January to the end of March 2005.

I also found this in another SDP post:

One of the several lefty/anti-Thune blogs run by former Daschle staffers is now bashing Thune for being in New York City last week. Trouble is, Thune was NOT in NYC last week. The lefty blog just made that up. Of course, this comes from the blog run by the former Daschle staffer who writes about "ripping Thune's n--s off" and promotes "F-- John Thune" t-shirts and was detained by police in 2002 for stalking Thune. Some real gems, those embittered former Daschle staffers. To be completely accurate, of course, we could say they are still Daschle staffers. Daschle's former campaign manager, Steve Hildebrand, has been paid since the election by Daschle's campaign fund and by his political action committee and the fellow who just made up the fact that Thune was in NYC works for Hildebrand. So Daschle is paying for all these attacks. It's worth noting that this month is the one-year anniversary of Daschle's major address at Kansas State University opposing the "startling meanness" in American politics. Yeah right. Maybe the press should ask Senator Daschle, who many believe wants to run against Thune in 2010, if he's bought any of the "F--- John Thune" t-shirts that his staffers are promoting.

Gee…I wonder why Todd Epp and his South Dakota MSM friends are not touching this? They didn’t think twice about falsely reporting a connection between Jeff Gannon and John Thune. Why are the not concerned about current financial connections between Tom Daschle and his former campaign manager.

And then we have David Kranz reporting this on 2/22/2005, just after Valentine’s Day:

Steve Hildebrand isn’t through clashing with Republicans.

The former manager of Tom Daschle’s re-election campaign has been hired to run the national effort to oppose President Bush’s plan to reform Social Security.

He will work with Paul Tewes, a political director with the Democrat Senatorial Campaign Committee.

"Paul and I set up a consulting business, and we were looking for clients. The Social Security folks asked us to run the national effort to defeat the Bush administration proposals," Hildebrand said.

I don’t suppose Kranz would care to inform his readers that two of the clients are DASCHPAC and Daschle’s continuing campaign against John Thune.