South Dakota Straight Talk

A House Divided

2012-02-03T18:39:00.000-08:00

The Specter of the Litmus Test has raised its head again inthe Republican Party.

Seemingly extremist and self proclaimed South Dakota GOPPurists have published a Party Platform Adherence Index. Thisexercise in name calling was followed up with allegations by some Republican StateLegislators that GOP Leadership had asked Legislative Research Council to reporton legislation being drafted for certain members. The drafting is supposed tobe confidential between the LRC and the Member.

The claims escalated to a formal complaint that wasinvestigated by a bi partisan Special Committee of the LRC. After a hearing thecomplaint was in effect dismissed and promptly labeled by the Complainants essentiallya “whitewash” by the powers that be.

Subsequently amid this turmoil of mistrust and apparentanimosity between some members and the leadership in the GOP Caucus; The GOPHouse leadership removed Rep. Stace Nelson from the Caucus. Rep. Nelson hassince joined Rep. Lance Russell who reportedly had not been attending the GOPin forming a third House caucus they have named The Conservative RepublicanCaucus of Convenience.

This is a very sad state of affairs among Republicans inPierre. Tempers and political passions can be high but it is not a good way torun the People’s business and damages the Republican brand.

Adding to my consternation, when attending the LincolnCounty Republican quarterly meeting last week, the “litmus” question was raisedagain. When discussing County support for our candidates, the inquiry orsuggestion depending on how you might look at it, one committee member saidshould support might only be given to those candidates that supported the PartyPlatform. After brief discussion, it was left to the County executive committeeto make a recommendation.

Sidebar – BTW - JoelArends the Lincoln County GOP Chairman has done a very good job of organizingthe County Party and raising $ for local candidates. Interest is very high.

All of this discussion about real Republicans, partysupport, and litmus tests took me back to an interesting time 14 years ago.

In 1998 the Republican National Committee held its WinterMeeting in Palm Springs, California (a nice place to be in January).

The hot button issue of the meeting was a Resolution by theNational Committeeman from Texas that essentially would require that for anycandidate to receive National Party support they must be Pro Life. This was aninteresting proposition pitting ideology and political philosophy againstpractical politics. With very few exceptions the RNC membership was Pro Life(opposed to Abortion but with varying exceptions).

The RNC Leadership and Chairman Jim Nicholson (a devoutRoman Catholic who served as U S Ambassador to the Holy See) strongly opposedthis Litmus Test resolution. Leadership’s premise was the Party needed to be aBig Tent Party and once empowered we could make policy changes. Changes couldnot be made in the Minority.

To highlight and reinforce his position, Chairman Nicholsonhad come and speak to the meeting Speaker of the U S House Newt Gingrich andCongressman Henry Hyde. Hyde was the author of the Hyde Amendment and themost outspoken Pro Life member of the U S House. Both spoke against the LitmusTest Resolution. You can read a contemporary news report here.

From the report of particular interest is the following: “Mr.Gingrich invoked former President Reagan’s name as he argued against imposing asingle issue standard on candidates. “Reagan understood as leader of Americaand leader of the Republican Party, it was his job to bring us together, notfind ways to tear us apart,” he said.”

The RNC had the good political sense to kill the proposal bya wide margin 114 – 43.

Though talking about slavery, our first RepublicanPresident, Abraham Lincoln said, “A house divided against itself can not stand.”

Paraphrased – A Party Divided Can Not Stand!

In Defense of Lobbyists

2012-01-25T17:37:00.000-08:00

The charge of Lobbyist has once again entered the political debate.

Current top tier GOP Presidential candidates, Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich, are charging, answering, and counter charging over whether or not Newt lobbied for Freddie Mac. Romney says Yes, Newt says No, just counseling or advising. Newt is making the Tom Daschle defense argument that he only advises his clients on strategy but in fact is not a Lobbyist and is thus not registered with the Congress.

Whether he has actually advocated vote positions on certain issues I do not know, however former Speaker Gingrich has advised several important South Dakota interests: Poet and Sanford Health System.

Sidebar – By focusing on the widely accepted notion that Lobbying is bad should not Romney focus his fire on just Gingrich’s association with Freddie Mac (their complicity in the Housing Finance Bubble) and the $1.5 million he received from them for his advice, rather than letting the debate refocus on the definition of Lobbyist and whether Newt did it?

The Lobbyist charge easily crosses partisan lines in South Dakota as well. Recently the SD GOP attacked Stephanie HS for her newly minted status as Federal Lobbyist conveniently forgetting that after his defeat in 2002 John Thune worked in a similar capacity. If my memory serves me, SD Democrats and the Daschle campaign attacked Thune’s lobbyist activity in the run up to the 2004 SD US Senate election.

Lobbying like many professions in honorable, if done honestly and ethically. Lobbying is an essential function of freedom and American Government. The First Amendment of the U S Constitution provides:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. (emphasis added)

Lobbying is a natural extension of being able to bring a voice to the government, either the Executive or the Legislative branches. Having persons either individually or collective bring facts and opinions to their government in an attempt to persuade a preferred outcome is a basic tenant of freedom.

It is important to distinguish lobbying from bribery. Persuading with facts is freedom; buying votes, official actions or favor is against the Law.

While our Federal Officials and the Executive branch of State government have staff to gather facts and study issues, this is not true of our State Legislators (at least in South Dakota where they have no paid staff). Even with a paid staff, the information and expertise that Lobbyist bring to the government arena is essential.

In South Dakota Lobbyist perform several important functions, the most important being expertise on the issues, groups, and individuals they represent. We have citizen Legislators who in many cases have little experience or knowledge of what can be many complex issues or proposed regulations. Having Lobbyists with specialized knowledge of the issues representing what can be several sides of an issue is frankly essential to making good laws.

Good Legislation requires Legislators with common sense and an ability to understand facts and issues when presented to them. The variety of issues require help in understanding complex issues ranging from banking, commerce, transportation, medicine, local government, the law, education, and a smorgasbord of other issues.

Further (and there are pros and cons to this) but having Lobbyists preserves some institutional memory to the Legislature and Executive functions. Particularly with term limits (though even to some extent to my observation of almost 40 years) the Lobbyist may be the only one on the scene (read here in Pierre) that can put an issue in perspective and explain “how and why” that happened.

The GOP Nomination

2012-01-21T12:34:00.001-08:00

This past week has been bizzaro in the campaign for the GOP Presidential nomination.

Two candidates drop out (excuse me “suspend” their campaigns), the Blue License Plate State GOP announces that their election night vote tally was incorrect and eight precinct tallies are mysteriously missing thus upsetting campaign victory spin and momentums, and Newt Gingrich’s second wife makes an eleventh hour claim that Newt asked her for a de facto polygamist marriage.

I would be remiss not to add (this is not bizarre) that an ad hoc coalition of fundamentalist Christians coalesced in support of Rick Santorum.

In October I posted on Finding a Nominee, I am not enthralled with the current crop of candidates. My reasons essentially being I desire a fresh face and one with experience. Of course the Texan in me wanted the Texas Governor to bring it on. It wasn’t to be. Rick Perry clearly doesn’t have the intellectual chops to lead our Nation (Color me disappointed but relieved he dropped out.)

Compounding the bizarreness of the past two weeks you have several Republican candidates and their minions condemning Capitalism and Free Enterprise and many Values GOPers at least dismissing if not even acting like they support adultery and unethical behavior.

After watching the events of the past two weeks and in particular the pillaring of Governor Romney over Bain Capitol, I am following Senator Thune’s and Governor Christie’s lead and supporting Mitt Romney for the GOP nomination.

It’s pretty safe to say that I will support just about any Republican over Barack Obama who has not led, not solved any problems, and in fact delayed tough choices and created more problems – both domestically and in foreign affairs. Whoever is elected in 2012 is likely to make two if not three Supreme Court appointments which makes my anti Obama position even more of a slam dunk.

Governor Romney’s conservatism may be somewhat suspect (remember he is from Massachusetts not Wyoming) but his leadership skills are not. The foremost thing America needs now is Leadership. Romney’s career at Bain Capital was successful, his Governorship was successful, his leadership of the 2002 Winter Olympics, and his campaign is recognized as the deepest and best organized (it not successful yet – remember the results are not all in.)

Class Warfare – It appears that President Obama who cannot demonstrate any results from his tenure in office has decided to campaign on two issues. His claim (actually his just making excuses) or more accurately characterization of a Do Nothing Congress (where his Party held the Majority his first two years and still controls the U S Senate) and pitting the rich against the poor. I’ll save detailed explanation for later.

Rather than trying to water down the President’s charges that I believe actually anti American (not in a patriotic sense) but in a freedom sense, Mitt Romney who comes from the private sector (has never served in Washington, DC) and actually created jobs is a better contrast to President Obama who has never worked in the private sector. Dear Reader you can do your own analysis of the histories of the other GOP candidates.

Both the President and Romney are Harvard grads, the President from the Law School and Romney from the B School. Romney successfully went into private business and Obama into Community organizing and then teaches law school and academia (more on that – see Newt that follows).

What is ironic to me is while President Obama’s minions (his Campaign and Carney, his Press Secretary) are blasting Romney and Bain Capital they are praising the President for saving General Motors. The essential difference is that at Bain they used private money for restructuring while at GM public money was used. Remember the write offs and haircut that the bondholders took (yes GM took Bankruptcy), remember the retirees that lost their health insurance, the plants (and job losses) that were closed. Now GM is on it’s feet again. This is what Bain Capital and Romney did. Ironic and Hypocritical but that’s Politics. (And Gingrich and his Super Pac condemned Romney and Bain (and thus Capitalism too.)

Romney is far and away the best candidate to take on the President on Class Warfare that any of the other GOP hopefuls.

A word on Newt – I agree on Newt Gingrich’s position on probably 90 percent of the issues. I agree with him in particular on a Conservative Opportunity Society. I think he is a great Professor (thinker, talker, and educator) but when he had the opportunity to lead as Speaker did not cut it. When he and Bob Dole took on President Clinton over the budget they lost. It seems somehow lost today but Gingrich was forced from office for substantial ethical problems (in fact he resigned fro the House of Representatives). Then there were his marriages. It is interesting that his being from Academia that so many Republicans currently support him. (I think they just don’t trust a moderate Massachusetts Republican). If he becomes our nominee I may support him rather than vote for Obama - but we Republicans can do better.

Endbar – It’s interesting to note that when Gingrich has gotten jammed up about his problems, first he turns his anger to vilify the Media. (It seems the GOP base many actually hate the media more that they dislike Liberals). This is what I dub when you don’t want to talk about the message, “shoot the messenger.” Then he does in a very general way acknowledge the question or issue and say it is old news and / or he has covered it before and if it is important to them, the listener should go find what he said about it. Gingrich who taught many candidates at GOPAC campaign schools understands that the public has a short memory and the next issue will make them forget to check out the past.

PS – Even though Romney may get Newtered tonight in South Carolina, I will still be with him.

Would You Like Some Cheese?

2012-01-05T15:34:00.000-08:00

The People of South Dakota granted through a Constitutional Amendment an extremely valuable and special privilege to Deadwood – the legalization of Casino Gambling.

I have detailed previously their continued insatiability for more privileges in my prior posting on Legal Shenanigans. I.e. higher limits, more games, loans for developers, and a railroad line. Now Lawrence County State Senator, Tom Nelson is planning to introduce a bill in the upcoming Legislative Session to exempt Deadwood Casinos, as I understand it at their option from the Statewide Smoking Ban.

Senator Nelson may have a conflict of interest. The Project Vote Smart website details him as the Owner Operator of Mineral Palace Hotel and Gaming. I understand (but would stand corrected) he also is an executive with the local casino promotion organization. Whether this conflict is important or not really is not for me to judge as the Senator is elected by voters who surely are aware of his Casino affiliation.

While the Deadwood interests want to blame their loss of revenues (and of consequence the (and I do not dispute this) the State’s loss of gambling tax revenues) on the smoking ban; it was debated both when the ban passed the Legislature and in the Statewide general election in 2010 that there could be a loss of revenues.

Well the people have spoken (by a 2 to 1 landslide margin) and said, ban smoking in public places – it’s unhealthy!

Sidebar – It may be lost over time but the reason we have Tribal gambling in South Dakota is because we allowed gaming to Deadwood.

While the Legislature is legally entitled to consider this legislation, they should kill it in committee and if necessary kill any attempt at (the in appropriately named) smoke out if attempted on the floor.

The People have spoken!

It’s Confidence Stupid!

2011-12-21T17:12:00.000-08:00

Our elected leaders have been unable to manage our economy.

The current political firestorm over the employee portion of the FICA payroll tax is all about politics…and it looks like the GOP has fallen into the Democrat trap. Imagine President Obama and the Democrats are the responsible tax cutters and after a huge bi-partisan vote in the Senate, the House GOP makes the Dems the middle class tax cutters. I repeat this all about the politics – not policy.

A History – Immediately after the 2008 election both parties were hawking their versions of what should be in an economic stimulus bill. The President Elect said pass his plan and employment would not exceed 8%. Well we saw how well that has worked. We even were told we would have a Summer of Recovery and we had several Jobs Summits (PR events).

We passed the Obama $870 Billion Stimulus Package (really nothing more than a Democrat Pork Barrel Spending Bill – see my contemporary post on Stimulus - What Stimulus?).

Without admitting failure the President has said, the economy was worse than he thought and he even admitted maybe there were not as many shovel ready projects as he thought.

In the 2010 elections the GOP Kicked Butt, regained a Majority in the U S House and gained Senate seats. The Obama economy was the issue. In the lame duck session after the election, our Congress were tripping over them selves to fix the economy. They extended the Bush era tax cuts, extended unemployment insurance eligibility to an unbelievable 99 weeks, and despite very weak long term Social Security finances cut the employee contribution to Social Security by 2%. This is a considerable number, estimated to be about $110 Billion annually.

Not to worry, it will stimulate the economy the President told us; in fairness the GOP went for it too because it extended the Bush tax cuts and who can be against lowering taxes – right?

Unbelievably and it is contrary to pretty accepted economic theory the payroll tax cut did not stimulate the economy. More unbelievably (because Round 1 was not working) the President has called for the continuation in his new and improved so called Jobs Program.

With the failed vote yesterday in the U S House, we are in what seems to be the ultimate finger pointing imbroglio. And if you think this isn’t about playing gotcha remember the GOP put the President in a box too with their sidebar issue of the Trans Canada Pipeline decision.

Epilogue – What is holding back our Economic growth? It’s not taxes and it’s not increases government spending. It is CONFIDENCE in our economy. Consumers are not spending and Businesses are not spending, investing, or hiring because they do not have Confidence in our economy.

There are a few positive signs but there will not be substantial and sustained spending until there is consistent leadership. Clearly it starts with the President (Obama is a disaster and has shown little if any leadership on the economy. He gives great speeches but he’s a Waffle House. His menu changes daily.) Lack of leadership extends to the Congress as well. They act like the Keystone Cops. Honestly there are many good people in the Congress but their results look like the inmates are running the asylum.

Endbar – Principles are important but they are a means to an end, not the end. The people want problems solved, sometimes to make progress it requires compromise and yes giving a little to get.

Show Some Real Support

2011-11-03T12:12:00.000-07:00

Yesterday SDSU and USD (alphabetical order) Presidents, David Chicoine and Jim Abbott endorsed a Yes vote in Tuesday’s Event Center election.

It is understandable they would unite to come to Sioux Falls for a presser as part of the campaign to say Yes to Build It Now. While there is much that unites and divides their Universities, both Universities are united by the generous support provided them by the principal financial supporters of Build It Now; First Premier Bank and Sanford Health. To wit: Sanford School of Medicine USD, Beacom of School of Business, Dykehouse Student-Athlete Center.

The Presidents said a Sioux Falls Events Center would be good for their students, a good place for events, and good for South Dakota.

To be generous they came up short in promising any real or specific support for a new EC in Sioux Falls.

Rather than just say, we support it, Los Presidentes could have come to the table with real support. Say for example they could have said: We plan to play half our women’s and men’s basketball games at a new Events Center. That would be a show of real support that perhaps makes an EC more viable. It would bring another 30 or 40 events to the Center per year and inject some serious cash into the operating coffers.

Playing hoops in Sioux Falls would benefit the Universities financially as well. Sioux Falls is a far bigger market than Vermillion or Brookings. More alumni live in Sioux Falls. Holding games in Sioux Falls would increase their fan base and attendance. Increased attendance means increased revenues. In fact this is a scenario where a 12000 seats or larger EC makes sense. One of the unsuspected cash cows of the Omaha Center (Quest – Century Link?) is the 15,000 season tickets that were sold for Creighton Basketball when the Omaha Palace was built. It is not lost on anyone the relationship between North Dakota State and the Fargodome.

A Commitment to Play would be REAL support.

A colleague used to often tell me that that talk is cheap but it takes real money to buy whiskey. Perhaps they should put their money where oh well you know….

Not the Time

2011-10-22T10:56:00.000-07:00

Over the past decade various Community interests have studied and put forth plans for a replacement for the aging and inadequate Sioux Falls Arena. The latest iteration of a plan calls for a 12,000 seat Events Center (styled for basketball, hockey, and concerts – though its economic benefit is being touted as a convention center).

A positive vote expresses public approval for a $115 Million expenditure to be financed out of current City revenues. No specific additional funding source is authorized, nor is future City government action restricted by the vote. This plan has been crafted and championed by Mayor Huether.

The current Arena is inadequate and not representative of Sioux Falls – what Sioux Falls is or can be. The Arena is small, worn out, has terrible sight lines and even worse acoustics. As a City we are worthy of a modern venue. The City has more than doubled in population since the Arena was built.

However – This is not the time and this is not the plan.

Proponents stress that the primary reason to support this plan is almost solely because it is NOW. Their underlying economic argument is economic development (essentially betting on the Come) based on 34 more convention nights and the associated spin off economic development. NOW is also being pushed by those in job sectors would be enhanced by a new facility (Convention and Visitors Bureau, Sports Authority, a few bars and restaurants, those with close proximity to the proposed site). It is not lost on anyone the Mayor's political future is also tied to the success of the election.

I am not convinced of a build it and they will come argument. While the current facility is unworthy and inadequate and beyond what I believe is a failed or at least biased and inadequate economic study; a new facility will not generate near the activity that is being sold.

Our culture has changed. The convention and meeting business has been transformed by technology (teleconferencing, webinars, and the like) and people are taking in their entertainment through technology as well. The most popular concerts are by performers who play to the plus 40 crowds. The Boss, Parrotheads, Dylan, Elton John, etc. With the exception of a couple of current country & western stars young people are accessing their music and entertainment differently. They are not attending concerts.

My other hangup is the finance plan. Any conservative approach demands their must be a dedicated source of finance. While I prefer a dedicated local sales tax that would levy a 1% general sales tax that raises the necessary money in 4 or 5 years and then could be rescinded; even a pledge of parking revenue, beverage revenues, ticket tax of some other source is necessary.

Using and depending on the current general sales tax is risky. While clearly the City could fund bonds it places necessary and ongoing city government expenditures in jeopardy.

If the City grows at 2% per year over the next 25 years (the approximate estimated amortization of an EC bond issue), Sioux Falls will have a population of some 240,000. With a growth of 50% the second penny sales tax must not be put at risk the funding of public safety (police, fire, public health), utilities (water, sanitation, sewer) or infrastructure (streets, parks, libraries, etc.).

It is foolish to believe a new events center would be self sustaining (not that I am overly troubled by that – I know of almost none that are) but to claim that it not only would be self sufficient but make a large enough profit to fund the Washington Pavilion, Zoo, and Orpheum deficits borders on incredulous.

In summary: Without a dedicated funding source, any plan is risky.

As previously posted, given current government finances and Citizen's very real sense of economic uncertainty the ballot measure will not pass. The Mayor however is a good salesman and he has done a masterful job of overcoming objections (location, economic conditions, finance, parking, softball fields, etc.).

The Build It Now campaign so far is well financed and seemingly well orchestrated without (at least so far) significant opposition. I don't think the proponents' campaign is particularly good but it is the only real one out there. Having said that given my back of the envelope polling, the voters I talk with, it will still fail. And yes there are people who support the proposal. Turnout is an unknown and while absentee voting is high, it is hard to know what that means. We'll see on November 8^th.

It’s in the Genes

2011-10-09T13:16:00.000-07:00

Thursday I had the joy of reading at Pre School Story Time at the Ronning Branch Library. This opportunity was afforded to me as a member of the Siouxland Libraries Board of Trustees. City Councilors and members of the Library Board were invited to participate in the nationwide effort to promote reading.

Others participating in schools and libraries throughout Sioux Falls were City Councilors Sue Aguilar, Michelle Erpenbach, Vernon Brown, and Greg Jamison, County Commissioner and Library Board Member Cindy Heiberger and Fire Chief Jim Sideras.

A trip down memory lane – As a pre adolescent I never read books, though I grew up in a house where reading was the number one recreational activity. My Mom never missed reading each week’s edition of both “Life” and “Look” (photo) magazines. She subscribed to the Reader’s Digest Condensed Books that were published quarterly incorporating current Best Sellers in condensed versions. Mom read many best sellers (usually novels) that were rented from a rental library at Monnigs, a local department store in Fort Worth.

Mom for a time was also on the Board of the Fort Worth Lighthouse for the Blind (today it is called by a more politically correct name, eliminating the blind word and incorporating sight impaired or something similar.) Her Board position at the “Lighthouse” was a result of her working through the local Council of Jewish Women and her volunteer time reading to the blind.

My Daddy was a reading machine. A student who never had the opportunity to attend College he was self educated. Dad treasured books and had a large library. His reading was massive and varied. Included in his reading were history and current events, the Classics, even college textbooks on very technical subjects including chemistry and life sciences. He read cover to cover the “Encyclopedia Britannica”, all 24 volumes and “The Book of Knowledge” (a student’s encyclopedia some 20 volumes). His reading often included works of poetry. His favorite books were historical fiction. Late in his life he focused on Judaism and Torah studies.

Being in a home of readers gave me an appreciation of books both in learning about the world and for recreation. Never a good student, I did read a lot but mostly sports magazines, the newspaper, and Mom’s “Life” and “Look” - really never a book.

I was exposed however. Soon after my fifth birthday when bedridden for about 6 months both my Dad and Mom read to me incessantly. This was just before television entered our lives so reading was still entertainment to a young child. Mom read Fairy Tales and children’s books and Dad read young people’s editions of “The Adventures of Marco Polo”, “Robin Hood and his Merry Men”, “Tom Sawyer”, and “The Life of Abraham Lincoln.”

And there was always Poetry - Occasionally after Supper, sitting at the dinner table or in our Den, my younger Brother and I listened as Dad read many poems including favorites “Casey At the Bat”, “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere”, “If”, “The Cremation of Sam McGee”, and so many others.

Only when I was in the seventh grade did I open the cover and read the first real book I remember – “Cheaper by the Dozen.” Even through high school though not a scholar I became a heavy reader.

I love books; I love Libraries, and focused diligently to try to insure that my children became readers as well. Despite a less than stellar effort (I was pretty engrossed in business and volunteer political work) I must have succeeded. Both my son and my daughter Jackie (received her University degree in English Literature) read extensively for pleasure.I am very proud to say my nine year old grandson is an avid reader. Last week in just two days he read and finished “Percy Jackson – The Lightening Thief”.

Yes, reading is hereditary.

Obviously all this came back to me when I read to the three and four year olds at Story Time.

Siouxland Libraries is delivering excellent Library Service to its Citizens. Exposing young children to the world of books and libraries is an essential public service. (Not public safety or utilities but still essential.)

Jim Oliver the senior staff member of the Youth department does a wonderful job of providing enticing programming. Siouxland Libraries’ entire leadership team is focused on getting the young people in our community understanding and using libraries.

I especially want to thank and say I am impressed with the work of Ronning branch director, Jane Taylor (who is high fiving the three and four year olds and calling them by name) and the enthusiasms of Paula Goettsch, the real Reading Lady of Siouxland Libraries.

Finding a Nominee

2011-10-02T18:24:00.000-07:00

Straight Talk hasn’t been talking simply put because I have been mad.

Mad ever since the self imposed debt ceiling raise deadline was kicked down the road to another self imposed debt ceiling deadline. National politics has become even more partisan (if that seems possible) and almost impossible ideologically hardened than ever.

Since the debt ceiling was raised (remember - it was all about the debt) the President is asking (actually threatening and demanding that Republicans) raise the debt by spending another almost one half trillion dollars on a so called Jobs bill. (The President’s Jobs bill is a joke and if I can get somewhat more positive I’ll try to talk about it soon.) In the past month the President has gone into campaign attack mode (about a year early) on Republicans, blaming them for inaction. How long ago it seems he called for changing the tone of political dialogue as a result of the Rep. Giffords’ shootings. Did he forget about Date Nite at his State of the Union address?

The GOP has been centered on their debates and who’s up and who’s down despite the fact that there hasn’t been any test for delegates. In the past eight weeks for the GOP it has just been beauty contest polling, straw polls, and talking heads looking for something to talk about.

For perspective when Michelle Bachman won the Iowa Straw Poll she was on top, now you can hardly find mention of her. Perry up, Perry down and the flavor of the week is Herman Cain.

Just to get this out of the way, Barack Obama is a disaster for this Country. Yes he did not create all of our problems but he has provided ZERO leadership in dealing with them despite all his now empty words. He gives a good speech but hasn’t delivered. I expect because he has never has.

I haven’t been too excited by much of the Republican Cattle Call.

Two Republican friends, Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour and Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels chose not to seek the Presidency. I could have easily supported either for reasons that follow.

What I am looking for is a Republican candidate that is a fresh face and who has held office and thus has experience. Good government and politics are about united people not dividing them (and our Country does need uniting though around (yes) Conservative principles. Consequently I like candidates who find solutions. Of the current group of GOP candidates with the exception of Governor Perry (who relatively just entered the race) none of the others met my wish list.

I have not chosen a candidate, but my madness seems to have melted away some since watching New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s address this past week at the Reagan Library. I am excited by the prospect that Governor Christie might seek the GOP nomination. I do not know if he will enter the race or know of any skeletons in his closet (he has yet to be vetted by the national media) but after watching his speech, find him head above the other candidates. I like his temperament and the assuredness I felt when listening to him, he was genuine. I detect a real voice come from within him, not a practiced speech, talking points, and sound bites. I like he is results oriented.

Watch a great speech and decide for yourself and if you have the time or are intrigued watch the Q & A following the speech.

Note – part 2 of the speech is here.

Downgrade!

2011-08-07T13:40:00.000-07:00

Standard & Poors on Friday downgraded its credit rating of the United States.

The primary reason given was because of the inability of the political system to deal with the rapidly increasing federal deficit. Standard & Poor’s stated in part:

“the gulf between the political parties” had reduced its confidence in the government’s ability to manage its finances:

“The downgrade reflects our view that the effectiveness, stability, and predictability of American policymaking and political institutions have weakened at a time of ongoing fiscal and economic challenge”

The Administration and the Congress are deeply divided as reflected by the divide between the Democrats, Republicans and the President in Washington (no one seems pleased with the absence of Presidential leadership.) The downgrade action by S & P has done what no one else has been able to do and united the D C players in their demonizing of Standard & Poors. As so often happens – When you don’t like the message you shoot the messenger.

There is a lot of he said, she said going back and forth over the downgrade; A downgrade that has damaged American prestige and world economic leadership and certainly raises the cost of debt.

While we may surprised that the S & P downgrade actually happened, I don’t think there is much disagreement that the deficit ceiling increase deal put off fiscal decisions (actual cuts) or that S & P had not previously warned they were considering such action unless the Government got it’s fiscal house in order. In fact on April 18th S & P lowered its Outlook on U S debt from stable to negative.

A little Background – Standard and Poors is a credit rating agency that is a nationally recognized statistical rating organization (NRSRO) by the Securities and Exchange Commission. You do not have to go back very far to remember their work in giving high ratings to those many iterations of mortgage backed securities. Before the brickbats begin think about the fine job of regulation that the SEC, Federal Reserve, Comptroller of the Currency, FDIC, and Congress did in their regulatory oversight of that one. Whoops did I forget to mention those other innocents Fannie and Freddie?

S & P's Downgrade is not just about the U S Government’s ability to meet its obligations but perhaps S & P’s action as noted by the actual facts (not everyone’s political talkers) but as their statement says is about the failure of our political system (in its current configuration) to deal with deficits and spending. The President in recent remarks about a lowering of the credit rating said if that happens it would not be about our failure to pay our bills but the failure of our political system.

The deficit issue is not going away. A 2012 budget still has to be adopted by October 1 (won’t happen – can you say Continuing Resolution?) Putting on my GOP hat here once again, the GOP did pass the Ryan budget plan. Then we will have the report of the Committee of 12 that is due before Thanksgiving and must be resolved before Christmas or the trigger will be pulled. There is a lot of poison in the Trigger (Medicare changes and severe cuts for Defense spending) so I am undecided if it will be pulled.

For any hope of consensus we may have to until the 2012 general election to, as the President would say have any hope of real change.

Rosey Scenario

2011-07-27T18:39:00.000-07:00

Sioux Falls Mayor Mike Huether is proposing to pay for a new Sioux Falls Event Center at the Arena by selling bonds and repaying them out of current income.

Current income being defined by the use of the 2nd penny of the City Sales tax that currently is used for the Capital Improvements portion of the City fudget. The key numbers are yet estimates but will be firmed up by the time of a November 2011 election for Citizen approval for City government to proceed. The numbers: Cost of the EC $100 to $120 million, Interest rate 4%, repayment term 22 to 30 years. The term seems reasonable because it is (within estimate) about one half the projected life of the facility.

I have no doubt that the City can repay a bond issue but I do question what stress it might put on the City’s otherwise very stable and conservative finances. In thinking about paying for a new facility of this magnitude out of funds usually reserved for more routine uses like parks, streets, sewers, parking lots has caused me to question why we are optimistic about City finances.

What follows is not intended to be judgmental about the Events Center project (I have already stated that I currently do not favor an EC at this time) nor a criticism of the City Administration (that I feel is well intentioned) but rather my thoughts about government finance and the economic outlook (at least in the short term – long term I tend to always be optimistic even when facts don’t seem to support optimism.)

Government is broke.

At the federal level - Consider the deficit ceiling issue that is taking all the oxygen at the Federal level. Deficit spending is reaching gargantuan proportions (estimated $1.5 TRILLION this year) because of the weak economy (high joblessness, low consumer confidence) and government spending for every problem for which there is a perceived government solution AND did I mention the big three seemingly untouchable entitlements (Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.) All the players and parties agree - cut spending – the government is broke.

South Dakota state government is broke. State workers haven’t had a raise in three years (upper management including the Governor took a substantial pay cut), many Departments and Divisions including the Court System took a 5 to 10% cut, and State aid to K-12 education has been cut 6.6%. In many areas State revenues are down – The Bank franchise tax, video lottery, contractor’s excise tax, slow sales tax growth and gas tax revenues among others. It’s quite likely that the $80 to $100 million in the Reserve Fund may be depleted to pay for many of the flood related expenses.

Minnehaha County government because of their increased expenses is cutting their employee’s wages and salaries by 5% in 2012 (there will be a 2 ½ % step adjustment though added to their pay (as I understand it). Minnehaha County who made substantial cuts in their 2011 budget was even more austere in the 2012 budget. The County Commissioners would not opt out to raise additional real property tax revenue.

Sioux Falls School District – See State Aid to Education above – The School District did opt out to increase real property taxes over the statutory limit. The State is broke, thus the Schools are pinched. In accordance with their employment contracts many employees and teacher are taking a pay cut because State revenues are less.

Just in today’s news were the Lewis & Clark Regional Water System who will not be receiving enough Federal assistance to even pay their administrative expense, and the United States Postal Service who want to close over 3000 post offices nationwide including 80 in South Dakota. The USPS lost something like $8 billion last year.

However, Sioux Falls seems to be an island of prosperity among all the gloom and doom. The Mayor and finance department will shortly unveil the proposed City budget for next year. Given the economy and the status of both the Events Center finance and the other units of government, the City Budget should be interesting. Moving forward I understand are negotiations with the various Unions representing different units of the City’s workforce. What will be budgeted for worker pay? I assume that Wages and Salaries are a significant portion of the City’s budget.

If memory serves me, the Mayor since early on in his term said he wanted to hold spending at a Zero percent increase for 2011 and 2012. It should be remembered that when revenues slowed for funding the 2010 budget, Mayor Dave Munson ordered hold backs in City expenditures. Mayor Huether continued with the hold backs, and instituted his 0% increase budget for 2011. The Mayor has been very aggressive in watching the expenditure side of the equation. This is another interesting aspect of his new found optimism for economic improvements.

While the City operates in the same economic environment as the other units of government two things strike me as distinctly different. These are: City government bears little responsibility for individual social welfare entitlements and the City has the ability to collect the stable and most quickly forgotten tax - the sales tax.

With the rather small exceptions of the public health center, limited public housing, and perhaps public transportation the City has little involvement with individual welfare. In the macro sense they are responsible for broad based general welfare items as public safety, police, fire, public health, utilities, libraries, parks and recreation. Individual welfare entitlements at other levels of government are causing huge expenditures. The Seemingly Untouchables at the Federal Level, Medicaid at the State level, and indigent care at the County level.

Also there are the increasingly expensive incarceration costs of State Penitentiaries and the County Jail yet the City does not pay such costs.

The City has the stability of the property tax (which grows with economic activity but also remains stable in spite of economic conditions) and enjoys and relies are the relatively stable sales tax. This sales tax importantly is also broad based. This truly makes City government an oasis of revenue prosperity particularly since Sioux Falls is the regional shopping center.

Will the growth in sales tax continue to be as robust as in the recent past may be open to question.

Sidebar – Because of the continued diversification of its economy and because Sioux Falls is such a Great Place to live; Sioux Falls will continue to grow in terms of population and employment.

Why the sales tax may not increase as fast as in the recent past – Simply put the Retail business is Changing! - With the decline of commerce in the smaller towns and the advent of the Big Box Stores, Sioux Falls has become THE regional shopping Mecca. Retail has been pretty much been decimated, (with the exception of the Agricultural enterprise) in the smaller towns (note the proposed Post Office closings). Thus Sioux Falls during the decimation has enjoyed tremendous retail growth but with much of small town commerce shuttered there is nothing left to sustain this growth. To some extent this phenomenon was also true health care in the small towns being replaced by the large Health Systems.

And there is the Internet. Stores are no longer only brick and mortar. Stores have become screens. Enough said!

There is one other budget I must touch on and it impacts and is impacted by all of the above.

Household budgets – In context, our economy is growing but anemically. Unemployment is high. Energy costs are high. Medical costs are high. Food costs are high. Consumer confidence is low. This is in no small part why there is little sympathy for increased government spending.

The future is bright for Sioux Falls but I would keep one eye open in looking out into the future. Bob Dylan had it right almost 50 years ago – “The Times They Are A-Changin”.

Raising the Roof

2011-07-17T14:23:00.000-07:00

We are going down to the wire on the increasing the debt ceiling issue.

May not be fun to watch but will be high political drama.

What in the past has been a pretty routine matter has been elevated to near catastrophic status because of the partisan divide and seemingly intractable positions of the far left and right. Simply stated Republicans see deficits in terms of too much spending and Democrats of too little taxes.

Talking points have come down to Democrats claiming Republicans want to give tax cuts to the rich and oil companies and that Republicans want to end Medicare as we know it. Republicans have the less sexy sound bite of claiming the Democrats just want to keep spending and that they have no plan.

Public Opinion supports spending cuts although not on programs that support them or that they support.

Not curbing deficit spending has endangered American economic viability (tn the past this was a long term problem – it looks like the future has arrived.) Not raising the debt ceiling endangers American government fiscal policy.

These two issues that MUST be reconciled and NOW!

Unfortunately our Federal Elected Officials are doing little about it (publicly) other than pointing fingers, shouting, threatening (if you think I’m bluffing, etc.) and talking past each other.

The GOP to their credit has a plan. The Democrat Party leader who promised change has not offered any specifics just Oba-matic speechifying. Unfortunately, depending on your perspective, the Government is divided, as are the American people. The Democrats hold the better hand, a slim majority in the Senate and 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

An eleventh hour solution with some sort of Compromise seems likely. I am not too sure why, it just seems to me that deadlines crystallize public opinion, which then emboldens or forces officials. My guess is any solution will be short term, although the Leader of the Free World is insisting on a Big Solution, a Long Term Solution, i.e. one that gets us past his Election Day in November 2012. The President does not want to offer solutions nor go through this again before his re elect campaign.

Not meeting the August 2 (artificial estimate at best) will not necessarily cause the Economy back into a recession or cause any worldwide economic panic. However it would cause a tremendous loss of stability that the American economy has enjoyed for a Century (with the exception of the Depression). Ironically foreign investment and holding of American Dollars and U S Government debt was favored because of the stability of our political system which at the moment seems a little rocky.)

Note – The President has said that not raising the debt ceiling by August 2 will put the economy back into a Recession (his attempt to shift blame for his failed handling of the Economy back to the GOP.) President Obama also said he will not sign a short term fix. If all that can be agreed to is a short termer, will the President put us in Recession? (or sign the bill and have his bluff called?)

Public Opinion is demanding spending cuts but all ideas envision cuts later (kicking the can down the road in current vernacular). Other than the GOP plan to reform Medicare (the BIG and wildly growing entitlement – can you say Baby Boomer?) there is not much specificity.

Without question the significant savings must come from entitlement reform (Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid), Tax increases or tax reform depending on your language or economic persuasion, or economic growth (that enables more revenue and is the elixir that both parties are pining for, though their policies are wildly divergent). Because of the current economic situation, Federal Government is spending $1.40 for every $1.00 in revenue (thus Trillion Dollar Plus Annual Deficits.)

I’m just saying – Everyone pretty much agrees (even the opponents) that not raising the debt ceiling will cause government lenders to get a larger premium for their risk (a higher interest rate) for buying United States Debt. Thus a failure to raise the debt ceiling will result in higher government costs (more spending). So denying the raise is in effect increased spending. (Just a note here and I think this is partially what got us into this political faceoff – there should be reform not just an increase in the debt limit.) An increase in the Treasury rate also will cause an increase in the mortgage rate, the cost of an automobile loan, college loan, credit card interest rates, and business loans – all not so good for the economy and as noted previously ultimately federal revenues.

I have not offered solutions that put me in the boat with Congress other than to say:

Compromise, raise the ceiling with real spending and entitlement reform, do something now, and yes cut a program that effects me. Without some shared sacrifice, we will not make progress and just kick the can!

Plan B

2011-07-03T19:02:00.001-07:00

The Mayor has selected and the City Council has approved the Arena site for a new Events Center.

The decision was made by a tie vote of the City Council with the Mayor casting the tie breaking vote. The division of the Council is not surprising in that Citizens are equally divided as to whether to build a new Center and where to build it, either at the Arena site, Downtown, or even as some suggest at a venue on the outskirts of the City.

At the probable point of the highest approval (the Argus Leader poll prior to the 2010 City election) 57% supported a new Events Center. The 57% presumably included approval without details as to specifics to locations, costs, or means of finance. Consequently it is no surprise the Community is divided.

There were interesting divisions in the location debate. Those that outright oppose an Events Center were generally silent, hoping I suspect respective proponents and opponents of the two primary locations would divide and the opponents of any center would conquer.

The Arena proponents and there is some support for the Arena site were generally quiet and rarely heard on the Internet or at Public testimony. (I qualify this comment somewhat in that the City sponsored forums were Question and Answer sessions without the ability for follow up questions, i.e. questions were submitted and responses were given. When attempts were made to follow up, the questioners were reminded by moderators these were not debates.)

There seemed to be no organized group supporting the Arena (and I emphasize I do talk to citizens who like the Arena site), the Build It Down Town group was organized. They have over 2000 “friends” on Facebook (Straight Talk included) and the testimony before the City Council on behalf of Downtown was extensive. I thought particularly Casey Murschel, Kevin Nyberg, and David Billion among others were impressive. I am also impressed that a large group of support for DT comes from young professionals, thirty and twenty somethings.

There is another group of supporters worth a mention. Those event directors and convention types that want more to sell. This includes but are not limited too, officially the Chamber of Commerce, the Sports Authority and the Management Companies of the Arena, and Convention Center. These groups just want more inventory to sell. NOW is their issue not so much where.

This past week the Mayor and his Finance Director have come forward with a cost estimate of $110 Million and the method of finance (essentially sell bonds for the total project costs with repayment from future tax collections from the 2nd penny of the sales tax). It’s summertime and going forward there will be much hot air expended on the costs and finance question. Quite possibly the rhetoric surrounding the cost and finance question may be more divided and heated than the location question.

Bottom line – Construction of an Events Center issue will not pass if put up to a special election this November. While location, costs, and finance are salient issues, it has far more to do with public confidence in the Economy and Community leadership, but mostly confidence in the Economy.

For the past number of years I have supported building a new Civic Center. I believed the Arena is too small, outdated, have worse than awful acoustics and in some cases terrible site lines. Our City is worthy and deserves better. While I have never traveled to Sioux City or Fargo for concerts, I think that Sioux Falls is worthy. I supported and still do a dedicated sales tax to finance such special projects with voter authorization and specific tax rescission when the project is paid for. Unfortunately and I believe for a variety of reasons the Legislature has been shortsighted in not giving local government the power to suggest to the voters such a tax.

Given the expert studies, the debate, and my own research and thought these past several months I currently no longer support an Events Center for Sioux Falls.

I previously posted that Sioux Falls should build a 21st Events Center Down Town. I continue to believe if built it should be Down Town and near the River and the Greenway improvements where nearly $100 million in government money has already been committed. I also believe a Down Town Center would be transformative to Sioux Falls.

The economic studies were narrowly focused to economic benefit with mixed results. The primary argument that surfaced was there could be more conventions if only we had more flat floor space (at one location).

I checked several times, the Quest Center (Omaha), Tyson Center (Sioux City), and Fargodome (Fargo) to see what activities were taking place. It was startling to me how few public activities (concerts in particular but also sporting events) were taking place. The Quest Center does have a large number of conventions but from the website I was not able to reliably determine how often the Events Center was used by the convention. Having Creighton Basketball is also a big plus. Thus I question why for maybe an additional 24 nights (over the current Arena occupancy) a year Sioux Falls needs to build an expensive EC. (Note: The experts did conclude the floor space would be used an additional 34 days – see my discussion below on putting a new enlarged convention center Down Town).

My sense (not verified by fact) tells me that for $110 mil it will just be a big hay barn and will not be too nice. As I in-artfully suggested in my prior post an EC at the Arena would reinforce a Sioux Falls’ 1950 meat packing image not the reality of Sioux Falls in 2020, a diversified economy, including financial services, medical services, medical research, manufacturing, meat packing, service industries, and education.

One man’s opinion on how to proceed – After the proposal’s defeat, to move forward two things should happen (immediately). First the campaign should be analyzed and the election results studied to understand where public opinion is and the cause for the results. Second, there should be a cooling off period without acrimony and give the public time to digest what has happened and time to have some political healing. There will be other important issues to deal with, given that next year State finances exacerbated by the flooding and continued pressure of Medicaid, education funding, public employee salary and wage freezes, and the federal deficit.

I don’t know if the cooling off period should be 6 months or 3 years or more, probably something in between but given that Sioux Falls continues to grow at a 1½ to 2% growth rate. with improvement and of the economy, public confidence of the economy restored, and the railroad removal East Bank will be accomplished - I would suggest the following be considered.

Build a new Convention Center Down Town (preferably East Bank with provisions for ample parking) leaving enough room for a Civic (Events) Center to be added at a later date as the City grows into it both in population and higher average per capita income resulting from the better jobs that are coming to Sioux Falls.

In order to accomplish this, after the new Convention Center was occupied I would convert the Arena site campus into the Sioux Falls Sportatorium. Renovate the Convention Center into an indoor Olympic size swimming pool, and convert the remaining space for additional ice activities and indoor tennis.

Thus the Sportatorium campus would include: The Arena, Howard Wood Field, Matt Staab Stadium, swimming, ice hockey, tennis, gymnastics, wrestling, volleyball, and other flat floor activities. Any of these indoor activities presents multiple opportunities for winter tournaments at a time when hotel occupancy is particularly low (especially on weekends.). Additional athletic facilities are also very near by: softball diamonds (McCart Field), hardball near Russell and Kiwanis, and 12th and Kiwanis, Elmwood Golf Course basically across Russell Street and not too far away are the soon to be Junior football fields at Westport and Benson Road.

Plan B is thus the Phoenix not of defeat but opportunity.

The Flood of 2011

2011-06-02T18:38:00.000-07:00

Getting back into social circles since the Memorial Day holiday, all talk has been about the impending flood. Everyone I come in contact with, at the gym, talk in the hot tub, coffees, lunches, customers –all about the Missouri River.

Since 911 I do not remember talk almost solely about a single issue.

There seems almost universal agreement about the disastrous nature of this unwelcome occurrence. First things first, there hasn’t been a flood of this nature along Big Muddy since the construction of the Main Stem Dams. While floods were far more often prior to the Pick Sloan Plan they have not been seen at anything approaching this year. Perhaps after two generations floods of this magnitude have been forgotten by the majority who were not born when the Dams were constructed.

It seems ironic and many of those I talk to and read about are blaming the very Dams (or the management thereof) for this years flooding. Without question this past couple of year’s climate has been challenging.

Many feel that it’s the mismanagement by the Army Corps of Engineers that has caused the problem. When the crisis has subsided along with the water this will get a political airing, there is talk about lawsuits that will inevitably be filed by those looking to be made whole. I doubt they will go anywhere; however there will be immense political pressure on our Congressional delegation for federal financial help beyond the usual Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) deal.

For a look at the Corps of Engineers response a peak at today’s report in “The Wall Street Journal”:

“Col. Bob Ruch, commander of the Corps's Omaha, Neb., district, said engineers had been releasing water from the reservoirs at a measured pace to clear way for snowmelt. But rains in eastern Montana over the last three weeks equaled a full year's normal total, he said, and "it filled up the space we created to take on the snowmelt, which still sits up in the mountains."

Now, the real danger is a rapid melt. To prepare for that, the Corps must act quickly. It began warning communities last week and is slowly increasing the amount of water in the river to give them time to prepare. “

Flood and its aftermath talk will continue most of the summer and well beyond.

Straight Talk Commentary on two associated issues –

State Finances -What impact will the flood have on the already dreadful situation of State Government finances? How much of the emergency costs is the Corps of Engineers providing? What is the percentage and magnitude of FEMA assistance? How will the State pay the State share (%)? What will be the State’s out of pocket expense? Overtime? Reimbursement for other County and local governments (whose finance are stressed) for the assistance they are providing? How much will the increased social costs be for government assistance to the displaced? How much lost revenue will there be to South Dakota’s tourism industry? What longer term effects will there be on Pierre’s fishing industry? How many businesses will be affected with a loss in revenues? Many questions.

More than a year ago in response to what was then a very wet year throughout much of South Dakota, Governor Rounds raised the possibility of a temporary flood tax to help with the State FEMA match and other costs associated with flooding? Will State government look at such a tax again?

Governor’s Leadership – Governor Daugaard is providing proactive and steady leadership. He has been thoughtful, shown resolve, and been out ahead of the problem. Unlike Governors Miller’s reaction to the 1994 flooding and generally Governor Rounds’ wait and see reactions, our current Governor’s proactive approach is welcome.

It will be no surprise to those who know me, that I am a fan of former Governor Bill Janklow. Like Governor Daugaard, Governor Janklow dealt with problems before they got bigger (pro active), was a problem solver, and almost no one disagrees a great communicator. You would only have to remember Fireman Bill fighting forest fires or being driving into the ditch in the storm on I90 being one of the first to arrive at Spencer when they had the tornado. Like Patton in the movie, directing traffic, I envision Bill Janklow standing of the levees taunting the River to Bring It On!

(Getting off the subject here) One of my regrets is that Governor Janklow did not become the first Director of Homeland Security, or the Director of FEMA.

A Second Chance

2011-05-31T18:17:00.000-07:00

Reading the report in the Sunday Daily Planet about plans for an “upscale apartment building with retail and office space on the ground level” on north Main Avenue put a smile on my face. It was not so much about the positive development of the former Youth Enrichment Services building and Bingo Hall, but the follow up announcement in the report that plans for the previously announced “apartment complex for affordable Senior housing” “has fallen through – at least for the time being.”

Smiling is better than all the kvetching I have been doing about that “affordable senior housing.”

The Uptown project as conceived and announced in February of 2007 was a plan that included retail stores, bars, restaurants, and upscale apartments, perhaps condominiums, and even a “boutique” hotel. I posted on my excitement and support of Uptown contemporaneously. It was planned to be an upscale project that would make Downtown more livable, create redevelopment, and increase the tax base. The planned project is on the east side of North Main Avenue. As an enticement the City would make available under an arrangement the use of the property on the west side of Phillips Avenue from approximately 5th Street to 2nd Street, the Jewel of the Parkway leading to Falls Park.

My kvetching was all about having the “low income housing” queer the deal. If you want an upscale downtown living experience, would entrepreneurs, for example Big Apple Pizza (very good by the way) who sell $20 pies locate next to public assisted housing? Put another way, would the “low incomers” eat $20 pies and $3 brewskies? Or a “boutique” hotel for that matter. (I just love the sound of boutique hotel – it has a ring to it, like flat floor space.) There are other locations more suitable for the assisted housing. Using some of the best real estate downtown is not ideal.

Community Development rightfully should help Developers find a more suitable location for the low income seniors and go for it; but if they want an Upscale Uptown, this delay gives Uptown a Second Chance.

Disclaimers Endbar– Under the right circumstances I can support government assistance for housing projects and I believe in property rights. 1. I don’t believe the Uptown project that involves Community Development is the right location for public assisted housing. 2. If Lloyd Companies want to develop their property and meet existing laws, regulations, and zoning, it is OK with me. However the City does not have to partner with private interest by giving up the use of its prime real estate (the abutting Phillips Avenue property) for less than a prime development. I just don’t think low income housing for an upscale development works.

Speaking of mixed use in the Uptown, I note that the former Crescent Electric Building (700 North Main) has been purchased by The Ransom Church.

1 Year Main Library Update

2011-05-15T18:38:00.001-07:00

Siouxland Libraries renovated Main Library in downtown Sioux Falls has been open for over one year.

Last year I posted on the opening and with pride and optimism of the potential the Library presented to our community and especially our children. In terms of usage I am never satisfied, the Main Library has exceeded my realistic expectations.

The building itself is a jewel in the welcoming environment and its extensive use of natural light. But what happens at the Library is what really counts and it has been happening. Good architectural design can change neighborhoods. This would be true of a DT Events Center also but it is the Library usage I would like to update on.

In the first 51 weeks the Main Library has been BUSY!

Consider the Numbers
674,966 visitors came in the building
512,335 items were checked out
282.309 items were checked out at self check terminals
464,000 items were checked in
4,358 library cards were issued at Main
12,057 titles were catalogued
29,756 items processed by technical services
7.799 Interlibrary loans were processed
126.330 times computers were used by the public
691 times the meeting rooms were used
273 children’s programs
6,979 children attendance
85 adult programs
981 adult attendance
107,715 items in the collection (January 1, 2011)

Uncounted are the many lives that were enriched! – A GREAT First Year!

A 21st Century Events Center

2011-05-04T18:28:00.001-07:00

Mayor Huether has made his preference official. He is recommending that an events center be built at the Arena Convention Center site.

His selection is logical because he is anxious to “get things done” but long term the Arena is not the correct choice.

The focus of where is the best location has been based solely on time and money. Without question the Arena site will certainly cost less and can be constructed sooner. The economic study was narrowly focused primarily on the cost tradeoffs of the two suggested sites and what seemed to me an obsession about parking. (Certainly parking is an issue but not one that couldn’t be dealt with (at either location) with a longer timeframe.

When Howard Wood Field and the Arena were constructed Sioux Falls was a meat packing town. The best jobs were in the meat plants. The Sioux Falls Stockyards was one of the top terminal markets in the Country; Sioux Falls was the center of a large ag trade area. The large businesses in town were Ag based: Zip Feed Mill, Dakon Industries, Sioux Steel, several ag related trucking companies, Sioux Falls was a banking center for agriculture and a correspondent for the rural banks.

In the mid 1970s Sioux Falls began to change. For a more complete look see Dr. Ralph Brown’s study, A Tale of Two Cities. Essentially what Dr. Brown describes are two cities (Sioux Falls and Sioux City) that had roughly the same population and the same ag based meat packing economy in 1970. Yet Sioux Falls changed, grew and prospered. (It’s the changed part I want to discuss.) Why? There were two primary events, South Dakota’s government decision in the mid ‘70s to have a four year medical school and South Dakota’s government decision to invite Citbank to South Dakota in 1980.

Read the study but the upshot is that Sioux Falls’ economy diversified and the character (Finance and Health Care) of the City began to change. There are other demographic factors as well as with transportation and communications improvements along with farms becoming more mechanized and efficient, the exodus from smaller more rural towns was exacerbated.

Moving the clock ahead about 25 years the nature of Sioux Falls had another seismic event. T. Denny Sanford established the Sanford Project at then Sioux Valley Health System (now Sanford Health), $400 million initially, now $500 million. On announcement day, Senator John Thune stated this was a “transformational event.” The Senator could not have been more right. With Kelby Krabbenhoft at the helm, the Sanford money is being leveraged and Sioux Falls is becoming a center for medical research. I would stand corrected but I have heard that Sanford Health has nearly 10,000 employees in Sioux Falls.

Today the Stockyards is closed, Zip Feed is gone, Greenlee Packing is no longer and while John Morrell & Company is still a very large and important economic force, their closing would not cripple the city’s economy.

My point here is that Sioux Falls has changed and putting a new events center at the Arena site is looking backward.

A Downtown Events Center looks forward and would rebrand a transformed Sioux Falls. It’s clearly synergistic to capitalize on and take advantage of the millions of dollars that have been spent and are being spent near the downtown site. Consider the Phillips to the Falls, the Sioux River Greenway improvements, and the railroad relocation projects. I don’t know the exact number but I would guess it is pretty close to a $100 million investment by local, state, and federal governments.

The East Bank is also ripe for redevelopment. There is a multitude of vacant sites and older structures available for development. Cherapa Place and the new CNA Surety are contemporary anchors that a new Events Center would only compliment and enhance. I understand that arguments are being made that commercial development is different than economic development, but I don’t see it as more than a political argument (a he said she said – a distinction without real difference), Increasing employment with better jobs and increasing our population to me is economic development that is steady day in and day out not economics based solely on tourist dollars.

Also missing from the discussion is the value of the City’s image and what will entice people to make Sioux Falls there home. An enhanced image will also prompt visitors and conventions to come to Sioux Falls. The EC at the Arena will just be a venue for an event, nothing added. An invigorated East Bank, Greenway, Falls Park, Uptown, and Downtown gives the city a forward image consistent with the new Sioux Falls. Over time this is the image that Sioux Falls can portray.

Civic and cultural institutions also play a large role in attracting new businesses. Like good schools, roads and a modern updated airport are to our economy, quality of life venues like libraries, parks, and recreation facilities are important as well. (Ask yourself what a research scientist is looking for in a community.)

Now – my political side – Polling at the time of the Mayoral election (April 2010) showed that a majority supports the concept of an Events Center. But the support was unqualified, no location, no means of finance, no location etc. Also I am unsure if a simple majority would be needed to pass or perhaps 60% because a bond issue approval would be part of the process.

However under almost any conditions I do not think the Citizens of Sioux Falls will currently support and vote for an event center. Partly it’s about location because that is so much of where the public discussion has been focused, partly because of finance, but mostly it is the lack of confidence in the economy. State workers haven’t had a raise in 3 years, our teachers are taking a pay cut (it’s not that I don’t support these austerity moves – the State doesn’t have the money), Social Security recipients have received no inflation adjustment, and gas is nearly 4 bucks. Simply put, voters regardless of what they say will not want to spend the money right now.

One other important component to passage is the discussion has been focused on side show issues like location and the red herring of parking not on selling the benefits of an Events Center to voters. If voters can be convinced an EC is a good idea and will benefit the community they will support it. All of us have wasted a lot of oxygen on less important differences.

Endbar – While I don’t think an Events Center will pass under the current economic and political environment, I would not give up. The economic study did show there was an excellent return with an addition of “flat floor space” at the existing convention center site. (Don’t you just love those terms that make you sound like you know what you are talking about? Flat Floor Space, Black Box Theatre). Maybe the City Council in their deliberation of the Mayor’s proposal will go with a 30 million dollar (yes I made up what I thought was an acceptable number, but that is all anyone else has done on costs to this point) addition to the Convention Center and then when economic conditions improve and the railroad has relocated Sioux Falls can build an transformational Events Center Down Town consistent with the Sioux Falls’ new image looking forward to the 21st Century.

Musings Response

2011-04-22T18:52:00.000-07:00

I was asked to respond to some discussion and conjectures at Jennifer’s Musings blog but of course my response was too long winded to be accepted. Consequently my answer is posted here at Straight Talk.

What Say I?

I suspect my opinion has been solicited because I currently serve as President of the Siouxland Board of Trustees. Since asked, I’ll weigh in.

It is very easy in situations like are described in the above comments to get caught up in rumor and innuendo so I’ll attempt to keep to the facts as I know them with just a little opinion at the conclusion.

As to the Library Board, our duty is to represent the Users and make policies relative to users interactions with the Library System (establishing the annual calendar, usage policies, setting fines, and the like) however the operation of Siouxland Libraries is the responsibility of the City of Sioux Falls administration, i.e. the Mayor. The Mayor’s is given authority by the Joint Agreement between Minnehaha County and the City of Sioux Falls that was agreed to (I believe) in 1995 when the separate Library systems were merged into Siouxland Libraries.

For information - Siouxland Libraries operates 4 libraries in the City and 8 libraries in Minnehaha County. All of the City of Sioux Falls and Minnehaha County are served with the exception of the City of Dell Rapids which operates their own Library. The population served is approximately 190,000 of which about 90,000 are Library patrons. Minnehaha County contributes almost $1 million annually to the Library’s operation.

The Facts (per my recollection, any misstatements are mine) – When Mayor Huether took office last May and put together his first budget, he cut the Library funding going forward by about $1.5 million and one staff person for the 2011 Budget. He also delayed construction plans for the Westside Branch by one year. I had forgotten but the cuts were also made in the budget for the 2 City branches as noted.

In place of the funding for the $1.5 million cut money was taken from the funds that were left over from the Main Branch renovation that had come in (because contractor’s were hungry for work) significantly under budget. In the Library budget, money for materials (books, dvds, cds, ebooks, etc.) and considered capital expenditures, thus the leftover construction money could be used for materials purchases.

Consequently, while there was a significant budget cut there was no cut in service. In fact, Library usage is growing at about a 3 to 4 percent rate.

Concerning the Westside Branch, the Mayor set forth in his budget proposal 0 percent spending growth goals for 2011 and 2012. The reason, the Mayor expressed to me for the delay is that he did not want to add the operational employees and operational overhead expenses (lights, heat, insurance, and the like) until 2013.

Regarding the budget cuts to the Caille and Ronning branches; the money was to be used for facilities renovation (HVAC and the like) and were rescheduled in future years’ CIP.

Currently the Westside Library construction is moving on consistent with the revised 2013 occupation schedule. In November and December a City / Library Task force selected a lead Architect Design firm, to implement construction of the Westside Branch. The selection was finalized in January and the Mayor’s office negotiated the contract that was signed by the Mayor in March. (Yes it takes time, but this is bureaucracy – the contract has to be reviewed by legal, finance, engineering, and the library departments). The Architect firm selected was Architecture, Inc. of Sioux Falls.

Several meetings have been held with the various interest groups and senior library staff to plan what is needed in the library and what a possible design might look like. The library staff is also meeting internally to make their best effort to “get it right” both for the users, the staff and operationally for the taxpayers. A meeting was held today to review and discuss many aspects of the design and library operation, many big and small details. In attendance in addition to the Architects staff of four including engineering, were six members of the senior library staff, several representatives of the City engineering staff, a senior planner from the Parks department (remember the branch is being sited in Memorial Park – 26th Street and Discovery Avenue), myself and I probably left out a few more.

The next planning meeting will be an open house type forum in the first part of May for the Public and the Neighborhood to ask questions and give input.

“The Plan” is to have the design work completed by early fall, contract documents completed by around Thanksgiving, and the bid letting the early part of 2012 with construction to begin in the Spring of 2012. The project appears to be on schedule.

It is very important to note (as noted above) that the Quality of Life II bonds were sold and the money is in the bank. There is no foreseeable need for new appropriation.

This may be more than you wanted to know, but your Library Board is engaged and this is what IS happening.

A Little Opinion - Yes folks in the “Library World” were more than disappointed in the construction delay of the Westside Branch but the Mayor was just elected and given the big benefit of the willingness to let him show his stuff as the newly minted Mayor coming off a highly contested election. It is important to understand that the Library Director works directly for the Mayor (their Boss). You should also remember that the City Council also pretty much went along with the Mayor on the 2011 Budget and Westside Branch delay for pretty much the same reason.

None of this should be interpreted as a defense of Mayor Huether only a recitation of the facts. Divining the Mayor’s motives and drawing conclusions (at this point) I will leave to others. The proof is in the pudding, actions speak louder than words, we will know by the Mayor’s deeds (whether the building is built.)

I must add that it is an honor to serve on the Library Board of Trustees and I am grateful to former Mayor Dave Munson for the trust he placed in me. Finally any discussion of Siouxland Libraries would be incomplete without mention of the accomplished staff and noting the great job they are doing of delivering library service to the patrons of Siouxland Libraries.

Legal Shenanigans

2011-03-07T17:43:00.001-08:00

The Saloon Keepers are upset – AGAIN!

Government grants a license of special privilege and overtime the grantee develops a belief of entitlement. Last month a lawsuit was filed to challenge, in hopes of overturning, the smoking bans for bars that was passed by the 2009 Legislature.

The Booze Boys already challenged the law once when they referred it to a public vote in November of 2010. They in effect t delayed the bans implementation for seventeen months regardless of the election’s outcome. They lost by a landslide - a 2 to 1 margin. If they wanted to challenge the Constitutionality of the ban why didn’t they just file their lawsuit instead of going thru the Referendum process?

Press reports state they are challenging the law, claiming the law restricts the rights of private property owners to make their business decisions. Their attorney is former South Dakota Attorney General, Mark Meierhenry. He is very experienced and will make clever arguments that I expect will appeal to libertarians and anti Nanny Staters. Unfortunately the Constitutionality in regards to the State implementing smoking bans is pretty well established.

They are entitled to Justice and their day in Court. I guess we will see.

I posted on this issue when the legislation was being considered. I said then, “Acting in one’s self interest is the Golden Rule of economics.” In that regard nothing has changed.

During the campaign last fall, the argument was pretty much about the Freedom issue with some discussion about the possible loss of revenue to government (specifically video lottery and sales tax revenue).

Let’s just get this straight – Government gives them the right to operate and sell alcoholic beverages. Pretty close to 100% of the barkeeps are also video lottery operators that is an additional government grant that other businesses don’t have. Yet the minute that awful government does something that impacts their Golden Rule, then government is infringing on their private decisions.

Just for sake of argument – maybe all gas stations, convenience stores, maybe even grocery stores, and ALL restaurants, fast food and otherwise should be able to have video lottery machines, with or without beer and wine or booze. Why are these businesses freedom to do business being restricted by Big Brother? Maybe (again for the sake of argument) every food establishment ought to be able to sell alcohol for on premises consumption. You go to the C Store and fill up your car’s tank and then have a quick draft beer in the Store to fill up your tank.

Of course this is not how it operates or should operate but if such a scenario were suggested the Saloon Keepers would be up in arms telling you of the evils of deregulation.

Finally just a word on Deadwood Casino Gambling (excuse me Gaming). The folks from the Gulch tried several initiated Constitutional amendments for “historic gaming” before it finally passed on Statewide ballot, I think in 1988. My recollection is their campaign theme was: “Deadwood You Bet.”

Essentially the argument was, South Dakota would legalize Casino gambling only in Deadwood (nowhere else in South Dakota), there would be a modest tax that the State would receive and a portion of the revenues would be used for historic preservation. They also suggested that it would be a plus for Black Hills Tourism.

Well it wasn’t too long that the Deadwood folks who in the beginning just wanted a low yield revenue stream and some economic development for their community (for which they received a very special privilege (the only Community in South Dakota with legal casino gambling)) that they wanted more. The cries for more have been endless - Higher limits, more games, state loans for developers, a railroad line and more. Even today they are blaming their receipts or lack there of on the smoking ban as well.

Back to the Smoking Ban and the Booze Boys - I am not sure that they care that not only did the people’s Representatives (the Legislature) but the People themselves had (at their request) the Final Word.

While I believe this lawsuit attempt won’t succeed. I also don’t believe the barkeeps will acknowledge they operate their businesses with the authorization of the Government. Until they acknowledge this I am not sure the legal shenanigans will stop.

Gone to the Mattresses

2011-02-24T17:19:00.001-08:00

Political differences in Wisconsin have gone beyond a budget issue to a power struggle threatening to shatter the foundation of the Democrat Party.

The facts are government workers collectively make political contributions to help elect public officials who will then have the authority to set their pay and benefits.

What Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin is trying to do is limit collective bargaining by Government Employee Unions only to pay and presumably working conditions.

As way of brief background, Wisconsin like many States has run out of money and has faces large deficits. Apparently in the Badger State, government employees do not contribute at all to their health care plans and only a small portion to their pension fund.

News reports the employees are willing to start contributing but their protests are about the loss their collective bargaining rights over matters other than pay. The contention is the unfunded pension liability facing Wisconsin State Government is between $88 and $100 Billion. This near $100 Bill are an obligation of the People of Wisconsin made to their State Workers without providing the means to fund the pension.

In effect government workers have become the elite class. Persons working in the private sector have had to pay more for their health insurance (if they were lucky enough to have that benefit). Many employers in the private sector have quit making contributions to workers pensions or even dissolved their plans.

Particularly of note, many private sector workers have loss their jobs in the manufacturing sector or have seen their benefits disappear. They don’t understand why they must fund a government who bestows these benefits even though the State can not afford them. The "New York Times" had a report on this phenomenon this week.

The Governor is not attempting to take the worker’s rights to participate in the political process. He is attempting to change the rules (through the democratic process) so there is a level playing field. These are benefits bestowed upon government workers by their Democrat team with out any provision to pay for the benefit.

The Democrat party and Organized Labor have been political allies for well over half a Century. What has changed in the last twenty years or so is that Unions like the United Auto Workers, AFL & CIO and the Teamsters have lost members while the NEA (National Education Association) and AFSCME (American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees have grown and become very powerful.

What is happening as States are trying get in control of their budgets they have run into a struggle with the most powerful block within the Democrat Party.

Democrats have gone to the mattresses. The President’s political operation, Organizing for America, has worked with union officials to organize the rallies in the various States. When he was first asked about the situation in Wisconsin, the President immediately said, was “An assault on Unions.”

This is a battle they must win. It goes right to their base.

In terms of the 2012 National Election, this might be the issue of the campaign. This issue I believe is a loser for the Dems. Most Americans while they respect public employees and officials do not believe that they are better or deserve more than the Citizens who must pay the bills.

Interestingly these events are playing out in the Midwest states of Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan. In 2008 these States were all in the President’s win column. These States have lost jobs. In recent elections have become governed by the GOP. In the 2010 elections, Republicans won the Governor’s Chair in all four (Walker, Daniels (in ’08), Kasich, Snyder).

The next few weeks or longer will be very tense, the Political Stakes are very high.

Thune for President

2011-02-20T12:43:00.001-08:00

It seems very likely John Thune will become a candidate for the Republican nomination for President.

JRT has been carefully laying the groundwork for a Presidential for campaign since soon after the 2008 general election. He has enhanced his presence among Republican activists and through his ecampaign and a series of online petition signing please enhanced his already considerable database of online contacts. It is important to note that the Thune organization already had a nationwide network of support as a result of the 2004 campaign against every GOP activist’s arc enemy Tom Daschle.

The 2004 defeat of the Senate Majority Leader raised Thune’s status as a giant killer. During the post 2004 election, Senator Thune’s exposure to Republican activists was further enhanced by high profile speeches across the country at Republican fundraising dinners.

It helped Thune’s stature when he was elevated to the #4 GOP leadership post, the Senate Republican Policy Committee, position when Sen. John Ensign (Nevada) embarrassed himself and had to resign.

For his 2010 re elect effort he hired a recognized top notch campaign manager and put in place a first rate finance and ecampaign infrastructure.

When the petition filing deadline in June of 2010 passed and finding himself without opposition, Thune was freed up to campaign nationwide on behalf of other Republican candidates. This obviously is very desirable in that it enables a prospective Presidential candidate to meet activists and build a national network.

Having $7 million in the bank and not having to spend it on a November campaign doesn’t hurt either. $7 million is a nice nest egg to begin a national primary campaign.

Certainly candidate John Thune has some advantage in that the campaign begins in Iowa. He shares a media market (Sioux Falls and Sioux City) with northwestern Iowa. He understands Agriculture, talks Midwest, and is a Champion of Ethanol. (Thune’s challenge maybe to downplay expectations in Iowa but that can wait for another look in January of next year should he become a candidate.) While Thune is unknown among the National electorate he is very well known among the GOP activists whose help he will need to organize the requisite get out the vote campaigns in the States.

John Thune has said he will make a decision by the end of this month. The questions I believe he is considering are:

Can I make a difference in leading the Nation?

Is this the right thing to do for me and my family?

Can I Win? And the subset, can I raise the requisite campaign War Chest?

How will it affect my political standing in South Dakota (campaigning vs.spending time representing South Dakota)?

John Thune is an excellent political strategist, thoughtful, careful, and determined. He has a history of making excellent decisions. This is not a decision he will make driven solely by power or ego.

Thune has several natural advantages (and one historical disadvantage – U S Senators don’t fair well – 2008 a modern historical exception) working for him in a Republican battle royal. As a candidate he is physically attractive, he is articulate and he is studied on the issues. His name identification as indicated earlier is low but not with those that count at this point. As yes he has that $7 million in seed money and I believe the skeleton of nationwide organization ready to start asking.

Just a note on who is John Thune. If you checked his Senate voting record, I think you will find that he is rated at the top or near top in being the most Conservative. That being said, as a Federal Legislator he has worked very hard to deliver for his constituents.

John Thune believes in Government. It is often forgotten that he worked for 4 years in the federal bureaucracy at the Small Business Administration, worked as Director of the South Dakota Division of Railroads, and for several years (4 or more I think) as the Executive Director and Chief Lobbyist for the South Dakota Municipal League.

He has laid the groundwork. Will he do it? The answer seems to be YES!

Just reading the tea leaves – Friday a week ago he spoke at CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference), most Prexy want-to-bees did. But what was unusual was, it was reported that his wife Kimberly went to Washington for the speech (and I assume for the purpose so that John Thune could introduce her). I do not think she would have flown in for the speech if he were not planning on a Presidential run. I also note an interesting article in last weeks in the Wall Street Journal. Finally I heard a rumor from a credible source that there John Thune will be in Murdo next week. Maybe his just going to the Pioneer Auto Museum but I’ll leave it to others to connect the dots.

John Thune can be successful. He has the skills to run a nationwide campaign and having a President from South Dakota would be good for America and South Dakota (Yes it is a values thing). I could also like Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, and Hoosier Gov. Mitch Daniels and think I could grow to like a Mitt Romney.

Finally, John Thune is the only candidate that has an excellent exit strategy. Running a first class campaign with even modest success would raise national awareness and truly make him a National “Player.” That would leave several doors open to him – a Vice Presidential nomination, a future run for President in 2016 or 2020 depending on the 2012 outcome and even more importantly could put him in line to succeed GOP Senate Leader Mitch McConnell when the time comes.

For John Thune the future is NOW.

Government is Running on Empty

2011-02-18T16:17:00.000-08:00

Current events highlighted by protests in Wisconsin and the budget debates in our nation’s Capitol and our State Capitol are shaking the roots of the socialist welfare state that has become America.

Government is being confronted by those, both individuals and programs that receive government money and the fact that government revenue is not growing as fast as expenditures. Further Citizens are coming to the realization that the overload of debt is causing many problems and has become near unmanageable.

The brutal fact is government does not have enough money. Those (again both individuals and programs) must come to grips (reality) with this. Whether it is government employees, teachers (K-12 and University), Lewis & Clark pipeline, Social Security recipients, Essential Air Service, Farm Programs, the Money Isn’t There.

We can have lots of protests but they won’t change the fact that entitlements and programs are growing faster than receipts. BTW protests are the American way but they won’t solve the revenue problem.

Government can raise revenues (taxes) but generally that is counter productive to growth. And just spending money, i.e. the Stimulus Bill didn’t work to foster economic growth. Once (and if) calmer and saner heads prevail, there might be agreement to raising taxes but not without deep and real spending cuts and real entitlement reform. Neither political Party has shown the stomach for entitlement reform (Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid).

A word about Government Employment – Government Employees have Job Security. In today’s economic environment and the fast paced changes occurring in the economy and occupations that is HUGE! (Job Security). Government workers enjoy generally better benefit packages than those in the private sector. Government employees have health care benefits, vacation benefits, and pension benefits generally better than those in the private sector. In the New Normal of today where worker’s fear for the loss of their job, Job Security is paramount.

The ineffective Stimulus Bill and the so called Health Care Reform Law were the catalysts for the Tea Party. Deficit reduction and opposition to the President’s leadership on the economy were the cause of Republican victories last November. The entitled and the minions of Democrat elected officials will ignore this reality but these protests by the Government Class are going to awake the Sleeping Giant and the 2012 General Election for the GOP will be like an Atomic Bomb. The explosion will make the 2010 election seem like a popcorn fart.

Celebrating the Ordinary

2011-02-13T13:23:00.000-08:00

There is another Do Not Miss exhibition at Sioux Falls’ Washington Pavilion – In Search of Norman Rockwell’s America.

Us Baby Boomers grew up with Norman Rockwell. He was seemingly always there and illustrated the ordinary but what is best about America – its People – the product of a melting pot of many former nationalities. Life was less rushed in those days, and perhaps seemed ordinary though there the omnipresent “Cold War.”

Norman Rockwell thru his art, chronicled America. He partnered with the Boy Scouts and illustrated their annual calendar and many of Boy Scout publications. Most weeks Rockwell drawings could be found on the cover of the popular weekly magazine, “The Saturday Evening Post.”

The Washington Pavilion exhibit in terms of the Art probably only rates a solid B but if you want to see into the soul of America it is an A Plus!

Most of the Rockwell pieces are lithographs or other reprints. There is very little original work either sketches or oil painting. In terms of the art, it is less prestigious than the Pavilion’s earlier exhibit of August Rodin.

An interesting aspect is the presentation itself. The subject matter of Rockwell’s work is juxtaposed to photographs by Kevin Rivoli. While I do not know who produced the travelling exhibit, I sense (am guessing) that Rivoli has his hand in the promotion mix. Using the renowned Rockwell to help exhibit his own work seems to be a good (if not great) idea.

The exhibit ends on Sunday, February 27 though Pavilion evening hours have been extended on many nights.

Long End Bar on the Washington Pavilion - When the Pavilion project was put to a vote in conjunction with the Convention Center at the Arena I opposed it. I thought the Convention Center was a good idea and would provide for economic development but keeping the Pavilion nothing more than a white elephant. I did not understand the Sioux Falls mentality of sentimentality in keeping buildings that has outlived their purpose and had on idea of what to use them for. I thought that the Pavilion would inevitably incur cost overruns and be costly to maintain. I was correct about that.

What I was wrong about was what a great place (though expensive) the Pavilion would turn out to be and how the Convention Center has not lived up to its expectations. The Convention Center is very nice and too requires a municipal financial supplement. In the over 10 years we’ve had the Center I can’t remember more than maybe 10 events or conventions that came because of the facility or events that could not have been hosted in the Arena (and yes we need a new Arena – Events Center).

The Pavilion turned out to include the Great Hall (La Scala on the Plains), the CineDome (Imax knock off big screen theatre), black box theatre (love that name). Discovery Science Center, and Visual Arts Center.

These are all first rate and La Scala on the Plains actually spectacular. While expensive, Sioux Falls is lucky to have the Washington Pavilion.

I use it very little. In its time I have not yet attended the Symphony. My highlight reel includes besides the Rodin and Rockwell exhibits, three big screen natural history movies (excuse me films), songstress Anne Murray, Hal Holbrook in “An Evening with Mark Twain”, the travelling road show of one of my favorite musicals, “Show Boat”, and a String recital in the Black Box with students of Ray Sidoti. I missed Willie but so it goes.

In case it is not clear, I am glad we have the Pavilion, it’s a Plus for Sioux Falls.

Management of the Pavilion has had a rocky history but its fortunes are improving under the capable hands and leadership of Larry Toll. (That’s a theme for another time.) Larry is another big Plus for Sioux Falls.

If Not Now When?

2011-02-10T18:02:00.000-08:00

Since the 112th Congress convened there has been non stop talk about the Budget (both the one for the fiscal year we are in now that began in October and the one that there should be an outline passed this Spring for the 2012 fiscal year beginning in October 2011).

President Obama wants to freeze spending (except for Social Security, National Defense, and National Security) at current levels. In rough terms this would freeze in place an annual deficit of $1.5 Trillion. Even if the economy recovers and tax revenues increase deficits still might be $1 trillion plus annually. – Some plan!

The Republicans by contrast want to cut spending by $100 Billion in spending from the current budget outline. They are having a very rough time to even agree on $40 Billion in cuts (that makes it a long way to $100 B.) Republicans claim if their plan is adopted there would be overall deficit reduction of $2.5 Trillion by 2020. (I just love promises in the “out years”.) Given that the current federal debt is approximately $14.5 Trillion, even if the GOP plan were adopted (it won’t be) the federal debt would still be in the order of $20 Trillion by 2020.

The message of the 2010 election was stop the spending (i.e. outrage over nationalized health care and ineffective stimulus (pork barrel) spending.

Sidebar - what did the last Congress and the President do after the election? When passing an extension of the Bush era tax cuts (yes I favored that) they cut the Employee’s F I C A tax contribution by 2%. I guess the social security trust fund had a surplus. While the theory goes that the extra money in worker’s pockets would boost the economy. While that is true to some extent, I think it is more likely that much of the money is being saved (not altogether a bad thing.) Consumers still are very uncertain about the future of the economy. To create jobs, it might have been a better idea to cut the Employer’s share of F I C A.

All of this brings me to the current brouhaha over the eliminating the federal Essential Air Service Program (EAS). For reference EAS carries a $200 million annual price tag. In the overall scheme of the federal budget this is peanuts. You can argue the merits of the program till the cows come home (essentially that this is a worthwhile program that benefits rural areas and economic development) but the truth is economics will always dictate the allocation of resources and a subsidy dislocates resources. Certainly EAS is not an essential government service. A nice program yes, but there are many nice programs… if we are serious these niceties have to go!

If we can’t cut this program how will we ever cut any spending? At election everyone is a tax cutter and pontificates about cutting wasteful spending. Funny beyond W F A (Waste, Fraud, and Abuse) they never are very specific. But when it’s time to go to work and change Washington, we can’t seem to find cuts or change Washington.

If you believe our rhetoric that we are mortgaging the future, that we will become a second rate economic power, that the Chinese will own us, then we have to start taking some pain and now! If we can’t eliminate $200 mil how will we tackle Social Security Reform or the Farm Programs?

There will be pain but it won’t go away without strong medicine.

A Thousand Words

2011-01-30T09:45:00.000-08:00

Credit to Michael Ramirez, political cartoonist Investor's Busniess Daily, Investors.com

Date Nite

2011-01-24T17:30:00.000-08:00

Colorado Senator Mark Udall requested and subsequently caused the seating at President’s State of the Union Address to be side by side rather than as dictated by tradition divided by political parties.

This change in the seating chart is causing a bit of a stir. We find that Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) will be sitting with Tom Coburn (R-OK), Senator John McCain (R-AZ) with Senator Tom Udall D-NM), and Senator John Thune sitting with Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY).

Its been reported that the President’s speech writers are altering their approach to applause lines since one side of the room won’t be standing and applauding while the other side sits, and perhaps visa versa.

This is all political posturing. The sequence of events goes something like this. As a consequence of the shootings in Tucson, it is alleged by a partisan Sherriff with unfounded opinions and repeated that the shootings are somehow the result of overheated political rhetoric. The President at the Service / Rally at the Tucson church echoes the call of the liberal establishment that there is too much screech in the political wind, i.e.a push back to last November’s election and the Tea Partiers.

Miraculously the tone of political debate has become a hot button political issue of its own. To address the tone issue the Senators and Representative will be sitting in the House Chamber holding hands.

Our politics has become about comity rather than any substance. Let’s sit together that will solve the problems. Certainly changing the tone and returning to civility is important and I would argue necessary. But it has nothing to do with what happened in Tucson and even in the short term bridge the political divide.

It was uncalled for when Representative Joe Wilson (GOP) yelled ‘You Lie” at President Obama during his health care speech, uncalled for when a Democrat member suggests that the Republican Health Care Plan is “Don’t Get Sick” and uncalled for when Senator Tim Johnson called some Republicans, members of the Taliban wing of the Republican Party.

Rather than play acting to get along, rather than all the calls, demonstrations, and Kumbaya State of the Union love ins, maybe our politicians should just act civilly. Rather than talk just talk about it.

Political differences are superior to indifference. Having differences is important as is settling them.

But all this play acting is just silly and as I stated last week when posting on the Tragedy in Tucson, this is just political rhetoric and self serving. Being mannerly will not stop a crazed gunman and sitting cheek to cheek will not bridge political differences.

Endbar – Senator Tim Johnson does not have a position on State of the Union seating while Senator Thune and Representative Noem support it. While I just see the non partisan or bi partisan seating as superficial I do agree with Senator Thune who said about the seating “the greater test” is if Republicans and Democrats work together on pressing issues with “substance and action for the common good.”

Tragedy in Tucson

2011-01-16T14:05:00.000-08:00

It’s a tragedy.

Simply stated the reasons for the killings and at this point attempted assassination of Representative Giffords was because the shooter is mentally ill. There is no evidence that he was politically motivated or induced by any media, right, left, mainstream, internet or otherwise. I repeat no evidence!

The suggestions coming from a few (in my opinion) self righteous Democrats, some of the media and the President are political posturing. For the President in his Tucson, memorial, political, church speech (I am not sure what to call it) this week to call for a more civil tone approaches hypocritical and self serving. Though what the hell it’s politics.

Civil tone apparently refers to the political speech of your opponents, not yours or those you agree with. Ten years ago President elect George W. Bush called for a change in tone in Washington and you see where that went. After 911 the tone only mellowed for about 2 weeks (remember Tom Daschle hugging the President when he made his address to the Congress).

Since the November election, Democrats have been waiting and hoping for some national event to change the subject. Naturally a subject changer was inevitable. Even though no one wanted an event like the Tucson Tragedy, some embraced it and have tried to use it to take back a couple of pegs their political opponents; whether they be Congressional Republicans, Tea Partiers, Conservative Talk Show personalities or spokespersons like Sarah Palin of Mike Huckabee.

Talk of their notion of “Civility” is a direct affront not to the “organized” Tea Partiers but the hundreds of thousands of angry citizens who showed up at tax day rallies, Independence Day rallies, and Congressional Town Hall Meetings last year (when the Congress folks actually had the courage to hold them). Perhaps it’s partly the tone but I think it’s more the message. Those in power did and do not want to hear that people are made about Obamacare, Stimulus package that are nothing more than pork barrel spending, and budget deficits.

Sidebar 1 – It is often forgotten that the first call for rallies was from Rick Santelli on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange for the idea that taxpayers would have to pay for others’ mortgages. Watch and decide for yourself if this is civil discourse.

Sidebar 2 - In all the discussions (pro and con) in the last week I have not heard any suggestion from the political left who wants to find a cause other than a deranged shooter that perhaps it’s the sax and violins on our screens or some of our videogames that could be cause. Surely they won’t suggest because you don’t bite the hand (in this case Hollywood) that feeds you. I am not to keen on censorship but if you think that political speech is part of the problem you ought to look at the whole picture not just those that are your opponents. Just Sayin’

A Courageous State Budget

2011-01-16T13:03:00.000-08:00

Governor Daugaard will propose his State Budget this week to the Legislature.

During his State of the State Address last week he said that his budget will be “austere.”

There have been suggestions and reports in the last weeks that the Governor will propose 10 percent cuts to K-12 Schools and to Medicaid payments. Reports have also indicated that their will also be cuts in Government departments of 10 percent. In the spirit of sacrifice the Governor has taken a 15% cut in his own salary and his Cabinet officials have also taken symbolic and significant cuts in their pay.

If substantiated by fact these steps are bold and politically risky for the Governor. While risky if he is able to have his budget substantially enacted he has in the long run the opportunity to be a winner.

Such a budget takes on two pretty heavy political hitters, the local school districts, the docs, hospitals, and medical community. While these groups are able to weather such revenue cuts to varying degrees (more later) they will not just stand still. They will push back.

Under the previous Rounds administration, State Government has been deficit spending for 7 of the last 8 years. Structural deficit (a new political creation of Governor Rounds and in this case balancing the budget with reserves) is deficit spending. Deficit spending (by the Rosenthal definition) is spending more money than you take in.

This year is time to right the fiscal ship of state. The most important fact to understand is the money is not there.

Raising taxes is a political non starter; this Governor, this Legislature (Republicans and Democrats) and the people are in no mood.

Revenues projections are a mixed bag. The sales tax may have some modest growth, consumer spending has picked up a bit and ag commodity prices are high. Video lottery receipts are expected to be lower because of the Iowa Casino, the bank franchise tax may again be in the tank, thanks to the so called federal bank reforms, the contractor’s excise tax given the economy shouldn’t be at previously higher levels, and who has any idea what to expect from Deadwood revenues as their story changes if not weekly at least monthly to whatever calamity they only are expecting.

Candidate Daugaard has said he will not spend money he does not have and he will not raise taxes. The Governor is also said that State revenues will come back as the economy recovers. I never try to say never, but does anyone see robust economic growth in the near or medium term. I read recently that unemployment may not go below 6 percent until 2020! Expect modest economic growth at best.

Just a couple of factoids to throw into the mix: The DUSEL Laboratory does not appear going to receive the expected revenue that will pay to keep pumping water out of the Homestake Mine Laboratory. Will the State continue putting money down that hole? The Governor has expressed several times he would like to increase the REDI fund for economic development loans to perhaps the $90 million level. Where will that money come from (the budget) and when?

This is the year to get back on a paygo (pay as you go) basis (I am stealing that one from the Congressional Dems, though they don’t do it.) We will not see the numbers until the budget is unveiled this week and we won’t have firmer estimates (an oxymoron?) until later in the Session (perhaps late February) but for my part, this is the year to right the books and get pure.

No spending more than we take in.

What follows I understand is provocative. If the 10 percent cuts are not enough and because the Med and School Communities are being asked to take significant and austere hits; State employees at all levels including all Regent institutions should take a 5 percent pay cut.

For Background – K-12 last year received no increase and Stare employees for 2 years have not received any pay increase (while their medical insurance cost did rise.) Some school districts probably can weather a 10 percent cut by using reserves, though others may have to option out and ask school district voters for a real property tax increase. Schools in the growing districts tend to have fewer reserves and of course receive their state aid a year after the growth in the number of students has occurred.

Cutting State and University workers is a hard ask, though the Governor would be taking a shared sacrifice approach that might make the 10 percenters to the medics and schools more palatable. He just would not be cutting others but more than symbolically cutting his own fiefdom as well.

Sidebar – I expect the Board of Regents will scream even louder than the K-12 or Medicals are. They will tell us about the brain drain and losing staff to surrounding States and Colleges. While maybe true in former times, in today’s economy and environment that just ain’t so. Having a job is its own reward.

Repeating here but the more important point is that the State would be positioned to face the future whatever that is, on solid fiscal ground.

I come from an earlier generation, but I clearly remember when the government (Local, State, and particularly Federal) was not so BIG. Coming out of the 1930s government work always earned less than the private sector. Government workers received lower pay because they had desirable benefits including (most importantly then as well as now Job Security. They also had vacation, pensions, and later health care.

Just a word on the politics – If the State is whole in funding its expenditures after the first year as the economy stabilizes we will be in a position to then grow responsibly. If our budget is balanced as formerly stated the vast majority of South Dakotans will reward the Governor politically.

Whether the Daugaard plan with or without the Rosenthal suggest 5 percent pay cut option succeeds, short term or long term Schools and Medicals will be seeking their own legislative candidates in 2012 (read here recruiting Republicans as well as Democrats to oppose incumbents.)

The Governor was elected on his life lessons of hard work and frugality. Governor Daugaard this is your time and your place. Continue showing Courage.

A Model for Political Leadership

2011-01-09T18:16:00.000-08:00

Tommy Joe Vandergriff, the “Boy Mayor” of Arlington, Texas passed away on December 30. Vandergiff who held elected political office for 44 years is the sterling example of not only of civic accomplishment but leadership.

Tom Vandergriff was elected Mayor of Arlington, Texas in 1951, In the 1950 census the population of the town then located 12 miles east of Fort Worth was 7700. The population by 2010 national head count was 380,000 making Arlington the forty-ninth largest City in the United States and the seventh largest in Texas. Arlington is home to the Dallas Cowboys and The American League champion Texas Rangers.

During Vandergriff’s tenure and as a result of his leadership, the City obtained a General Motors assembly plant (in the days when that amounted to a big deal) and brought a major league baseball team to town(the second Washington Senators (after the original Senators were moved by the Griffith family to Minnesota to become the Twins.)

Besides economic and tourism development (Arlington is home to both the Dallas Cowboys and the Texas Rangers and because of Vandergriff’s efforts was also home to the original Six Flags Over Texas), Mayor Vandergriff spearheaded building the first local hospital and built a lake (nearby Lake Arlington) to secure the necessary domestic and industrial water supply for a growing City.

Sidebar – Let me repeat. Arlington needed water, the Mayor provided vision (the plan), convinced the Citizenry to provide the means ($) and built it. No anxiety about need, location, federal grants, and no waiting. Just we need it, lets pay for it, and lets do it now.

In 1982 Vandergriff was elected to Congress in a newly created Congressional District, the result of the 1980 Census reapportionment. A conservative Democrat he supported President Ronald Reagan more often than not. However he lost his seat in the 1984 Reagan Landslide (Reagan won 49 states, losing only Minnesota and the District of Columbia) to Dick Armey. Texas was Reagan country and it shouldn’t be lost that the GOP National Convention was held in nearby Dallas (Phil Gramm won the Texas U S Senate seat that year after switching parties from Democrat to the GOP as well.)I haven’t researched this but I understand that Vandergriff did not campaign very hard and perhaps took his almost heroic status in Arlington too much for granted.

In 1990 Vandergriff by then a Republican was elected to County Judge for Tarrant County (Fort Worth is the County Seat). In Texas, County Judge is the Chairman of the County Commission and politically the most powerful politician, though arguably, maybe not, as Sheriffs are held in very high respect.

In posting on Mayor Dave Munson several years ago, I said, “being a political leader and in particular a Mayor requires many skills but perhaps the most important is being a consensus builder. Mayor Rick Knobe was superlative in his ability to bring diverse groups together. He worked closely and listened with senior citizens, our schools and youth organizations, labor unions, the business community, with the non-profits as well as with the cultural and arts community. During Knobe’s tenure Sioux Falls grew and prospered. Dave Munson shares these skills learned as a former teacher, State legislator, local businessman, and lifetime resident he understands and has access to the diverse Sioux Falls community.”

Vandergriff understood this in spades. He brought people together to get things done, particularly the Citizens. Arlington was a blue collar town – defense workers, warehouse workers, freight handlers, and later auto workers. Beyond GM Arlington was a small business town. (Oops I forgot to mention that Vandergriff was successful in elevating the status of a two year junior college (Arlington College) to a four year State College (Arlington State College). Today it is The University of Texas at Arlington and has an enrollment of over 32,000 students.)

Besides his physical accomplishments and getting things done, was his style. It was never about him. It was about what made the community a better place to live and work. He never sought the credit, had no personal or political agenda – just get er done!

Vandergriff was a listener. He spent zero time blowing his own horn. Once he set a goal, he just convinced everyone to get in the wagon and start going in one direction. Ideas were important but they all did not have to be his.

Consider this from the report of the public memorial service for T J Vandergriff:

"Tom's favorite personal pronoun was always 'We.' He never wanted to be credited for what the community had done," former Arlington Mayor Richard Greene said during the service.

Greene also read a quote from Vandergriff, who was asked years ago to recall his greatest achievement in office.

"I don't consider what happened as a 'personal achievement.' ... It was an era when, for example, if we needed a hospital we could build it, or if we had to have a lake for our water supply we constructed it. If we wanted our junior college to become a university we had the ability to see that it was done," Vandergriff was quoted as saying.

"In other words, a spirit developed that if we as a community wanted something strongly enough, we could reach that goal ... during those years a feeling emerged that anything was within our reach if we wanted to attain it."

Following is his Obit. (note the mention of former U S House Speaker Jim Wright) Not mentioned is that the Vandergriff Auto dealerships under the ownership of Vandergriff’s son Victor are now the largest privately owned auto sales group in the United States.

Visionary Leader Tom Vandergriff Put Arlington On Map
By: Susan Schrock and Gordon Dickson
StarTelegram.com
December 30, 2010

ARLINGTON -- Tom Vandergriff, the longtime Arlington mayor and Tarrant County judge whose more than 50 years in public life virtually defined growth in the western half of the Dallas-Fort Worth region, died Thursday.

He was 84.

The man once known as Arlington's "boy mayor" -- widely credited with luring the Texas Rangers baseball team and General Motors assembly plant to the city -- died about 3 p.m. Thursday at Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Fort Worth. He had been ill for many months and had suffered a broken hip in October, the day after his beloved Rangers won their first American League pennant.

Still, his son Victor Vandergriff said, "We weren't expecting it today. We haven't had a watch on him. He just gave out."

Tom Vandergriff earned the nickname "boy mayor" in 1951 when he became the city's youngest mayor at age 25.

Mr. Vandergriff also secured land to build Lake Arlington, spearheaded the creation of Six Flags Over Texas and raised money for the city's first real hospital, Arlington Memorial.

Considered the father of the North Central Texas Council of Governments, Mr. Vandergriff is also believed to be the first public official to use the word Metroplex, which today is a well-known nickname for the Dallas-Fort Worth area. With his trademark broadcaster's voice, Mr. Vandergriff was a tireless cheerleader for his city and the region.

"He was a tireless, aggressive promoter. There wasn't anything Arlington couldn't do," Victor Vandergriff said.

His 55 years in politics also included one term as a Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives in the early 1980s and 16 years as a Republican while serving as Tarrant County judge until his retirement in 2006.

Former Speaker of the House Jim Wright and Vandergriff both came to public life in the mid-20th century as the "boy mayors" of their respective cities. Weatherford and Arlington both had populations of 8,500 in 1950.

"Whenever we saw each other in recent years, each of us reflected on how long it has been that anyone called us a 'boy' of anything," said Wright, 88, whose 60-year association with Vandergriff included two years as House colleagues.

"Arlington became one of the most rapidly growing cities in the United States because of the creativity and ingenuity of Tom Vandergriff. I don't know anybody who quite matches him during that span of time."

Mr. Vandergriff had been treated at a rehabilitation center since he fell and fractured his hip in late October.

"His last public appearance was seeing the Rangers beat the New York Yankees to win the pennant. What a way to go out," Victor Vandergriff said.

Luring General Motors
Mr. Vandergriff was born in Carrollton on Jan. 29, 1926, to W. T. "Hooker" and mother Charles Vandergriff. He was 12 when his family moved to Arlington, which at the time was only about 1 square mile with 3,500 residents, relatives said.

He earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Southern California in 1947 and married his high school sweetheart, Anna Waynette Smith, in 1949. He moved back to Arlington to work for his father's Vandergriff Chevrolet dealership downtown.

At age 23, Mr. Vandergriff became president of the Arlington Chamber of Commerce. Soon after being elected mayor, his father encouraged him to court General Motors, which was planning to open an assembly plant in the Southwest. So at age 26, Mr. Vandergriff stationed himself outside the office of the General Motors chairman in Detroit for a chance to sell the company on North Texas.

The pitch worked, and in 1954 the first car -- a Pontiac -- was assembled in Arlington.

"I was there when the first vehicle came off the line," Mr. Vandergriff told the Star-Telegram in 2006. "It was a miracle. ... Definitely the first car to come off that assembly line is the one that will have a place in my memory, always."
Mr. Vandergriff also oversaw the fundraising campaign to build Arlington Memorial Hospital, opened in 1958 on Randol Mill Road on land donated by the Vandergriff family. He served as chairman of the hospital board for 37 years until retiring in 2006.

Major league pitch
Mr. Vandergriff spearheaded the creation of the North Central Texas Council of Governments, which was formed in 1966 to meet the common needs and planning activities of cities, counties and other political entities. Mr. Vandergriff was the council's first president and served as a board member for 15 years.

Mr. Vandergriff championed major road projects, including Texas 360 south of Texas 183 and Interstate 20 in southern Tarrant County. He also believed in and defended the idea of cities and counties working together.

"He was criticized in the early days of COG by people who said we were going to create a new layer of government, and local members would lose their identity," said Michael Morris, transportation director for the council. "But look what's happened. He put together a group of people that every day worried about the region and created a partnership."

For 13 years, Mr. Vandergriff worked to bring a Major League Baseball team to Arlington.

The first step was to build $1.9 million Turnpike Stadium, which opened in 1965, and was home to the minor league Dallas-Fort Worth Spurs, which played in the Texas League. Then in 1971, he persuaded the Washington Senators to move to Arlington, overcoming pleas from President Richard Nixon, himself a baseball fan, to keep the team in the nation's capital.

The team became the Texas Rangers, and Turnpike was renamed Arlington Stadium, with Mr. Vandergriff declining attempts to have the stadium named after him. He threw out the first pitch at the Rangers' inaugural game on April 21, 1972, and this year saw the team advance to its first World Series.

Not everything Mr. Vandergriff supported was a success.

The taxpayer-financed Seven Seas park, which featured dolphins, killer whales and a life-size pirate ship, opened near Arlington Stadium in 1972. But the crowds didn't come. The park lost so much money that the city closed it after less than four years.

After stepping down as mayor in 1977, Mr. Vandergriff regretted that he did not get comprehensive mass transit in place or do more to preserve downtown Arlington, which lost some of its character to redevelopment, his family said. He was also unable to dissuade the University of Texas at Arlington from disbanding its football program.

Still, Arlington Mayor Robert Cluck described Mr. Vandergriff as "Mr. Arlington."

"I don't think there has been a better mayor. Every big thing that has happened in Arlington has been because of his great leadership and vision."

Cluck said Mr. Vandergriff's accomplishments "built on one another and made us more visible and more attractive to businesses and entertainment venues."

Several places are named in Mr. Vandergriff's honor, including Vandergriff Park, the Vandergriff Building known as the Historic V, Vandergriff Town Center, Vandergriff Plaza at Rangers Ballpark, and Vandergriff Way adjacent to the General Motors plant off Abram Street in east Arlington.

"Every good thing that has happened in Arlington is connected to Tom Vandergriff," said former Mayor Richard Greene. "If people are excited about the Super Bowl, they need to realize more than anybody that Tom is responsible for that."

Seeing the big picture
After stepping down as mayor, Mr. Vandergriff didn't return to public life until he was elected to the U.S. House in 1982 as a Democrat. But he served for only one term, losing to Dick Armey, who became a leader of the Republican Party.

Using mostly his own money, Mr. Vandergriff was one of the nation's biggest spenders in the 1982 congressional races, shelling out nearly $1 million to beat Jim Bradshaw by 344 votes.

During his short stint, Mr. Vandergriff was criticized by some for not playing the partisan games of Washington. He often spoke well of President Ronald Reagan, a Republican. Meanwhile, many of his Republican friends liked his voting record but couldn't get over the fact that he was a Democrat.

He didn't become a Republican until after his return to local politics in Arlington.

"History can turn on a dime. He would have been in Congress to this day if he had become a Republican earlier," said Allan Saxe, a University of Texas at Arlington associate professor and local philanthropist who knew him for 45 years. "But he wanted to be loyal to his party at the time."

After losing his seat in 1984, Mr. Vandergriff vowed to stay out of partisan politics.

"I think that I have found that I am a nonpartisan person. ... We had party loyalists on both sides that were uncomfortable with me," Mr. Vandergriff told the Star-Telegram at the time.

Mr. Vandergriff returned to private life. But by the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Vandergriff family fortune was weakening under a mountain of debt created by his two congressional campaigns, a sluggish economy, mounting medical bills for his father and real estate deals gone bad. In 1997, Vandergriff Chevrolet was sold to VT Inc.

Last political office
Mr. Vandergriff returned to the political arena for the last time in 1990 to run as a Republican for Tarrant County judge. He served in that post until his retirement at the end of 2006 at age 80.

Under his leadership, the county built a family law center and sold its convention center to Fort Worth, said Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley, who was a county commissioner at the time. Mr. Vandergriff was also a calming influence during a time of turmoil in the late 1990s, when then-Sheriff David Williams was criticized for several decisions, including department purchases, Whitley said.

"Even when we were going through the rigmarole with the sheriff, I remember one day he [Mr. Vandergriff] got very upset with David Williams," Whitley said. "I kept thinking, 'I wonder if David realizes he just got a lecture' -- because even when he [Mr. Vandergriff] was angry he handled his anger well."

Whitley also remembered his first meeting with Mr. Vandergriff decades earlier. Whitley was a self-described brash 20-year-old college student, and he held a position in a state organization requiring out-of-town travel. Whitley walked into the Vandergriff dealership and asked for free use of a car for a year.

Mr. Vandergriff declined to donate a car but smiled and made Whitley a counteroffer.

"He laughed and laughed, and he said he couldn't just give me a car, but he said if I could come see him once a month he'd see if he could line me up with a car for the weekend -- and he did, several times," Whitley remembered. "He was as nice to me then as he was 24 years later, when I came on the Commissioners Court and he swore me in."

Tarrant County Administrator G.K. Maenius said that as county judge Mr. Vandergriff played crucial roles in keeping the General Motors plant open when the company was contracting. He also may have played a behind-the-scenes role in bringing the Dallas Cowboys to Arlington.

But Mr. Vandergriff never sought accolades.

"There are many politicians in the world, but there are very few statesmen," Maenius said. "Tom Vandergriff was a true statesman. He never tried to generate credit for himself. He was very gracious in extending credit to other court members and elected officials in the county."

He also cared deeply about constituents. Several times, when Tarrant County was unable to help someone who had come for help, Mr. Vandergriff offered his personal assistance, he said.

"I saw him open up his own checkbook," Maenius said. "He was a true gentlemen."

Mr. Vandergriff is survived by his sister Virginia Deering of Arlington; daughter Vanessa Watters of Los Angeles; son Victor Vandergriff of Arlington; daughter Valerie Kelton of Mansfield; daughter Vivica Vandergriff of Mansfield; and grandchildren Katharine Vandergriff, Kendall Kelton, Rachel Kelton, Parker Vandergriff and Caroline Vandergriff.

"He was an amazing public servant, but more importantly he was the most loving grandfather. All of us carry the most wonderful memories of him and will hold those close to our hearts. He was our best friend, our No. 1 cheerleader and our precious Granddaddy," granddaughter Kendall Kelton said.

Funeral arrangements are pending, and the family said a public memorial service will be held.

Staff writers Eva Marie Ayala, Alex Branch, John Henry contributed to this report, which also includes material from the Star-Telegram archives.

How About Those Frogs

2011-01-03T17:22:00.000-08:00

Among family a common refrain heard is “You can’t bring back the good old days but Pabst brought back the beer.”

The 2011 Rose Bowl game on New Years Day returned me to those days of yesteryear to my childhood over a half century ago.

Two years ago I posted on “the most exciting football game I ever saw” (Texas v. Texas Tech). Saturday’s Rose Bowl game (T C U v Wisconsin) was a great if not Classic football game with pretty evenly matched teams but more than exciting it was a blast to the past. In my Happy Days are Here Again post, I said:

“Growing up in the fifties my home town TCU Horned Frogs won 3 Southwest Conference Championships and were consistently ranked nationally despite being a private Church school.”

Thus on this New Years Day my heart was a little lighter thinking of things past and the Horned Frogs return to greatness. To College football fans the story of the non BCS Frogs who are undefeated this season and truly the Cinderella team is well known. I won’t drill into it.

Just suffice to say that the Fort Worth University has a grand tradition and despite the on going National Playoff BCS controversy and the demise of the once great Texas Football League, aka the Southwest Conference (covered in other postings, here, here, and here) WE’RE BACK!

To paraphrase, You can take the boy out of his hometown but you can’t take the hometown out of the boy.

God and Man

2010-12-31T14:33:00.000-08:00

Straight Talk Commentary – There have been many stories on the Web and in the MSM about the end of the trail for Kodak’s Kodachrome film. Gone Digital! But there is a fascinating story in “The Jewish Daily Forward” about its beginnings.

Sidebar – I cannot believe they are scrapping the processing machine rather than putting it into a museum.
On this New Year’s Eve, reflecting on the year past and the coming year (family, ageing and future retirement are the on the highlight reel) this story puts in perspective the quality of one’s life. Public Affairs and Politics being my numero uno interest, it is hard to believe GOP victories in November didn’t make the top of the list.

In reflecting on personal values this article strikes the symbolism of how life can be transformed by not the basics but those special enhancements or spices we add to each day.

Paul Simon (as the article points out - the third Jewish musician) said it best:
“Everything looks worse in black and white.”

”Mama don’t take my Kodachrome away.

Showing Their True Colors

How Two Jewish Musicians Developed Kodachrome

The Jewish Daily Forward

By Eric Schulmiller

December 30, 2010

The last picture ever to be developed with Kodachrome film was slated to be processed Thursday, December 30 at the lone processing lab still handling this film — Dwayne’s Photo in Parsons, Kan. A year after Kodak announced that it was retiring Kodachrome film, after nearly 75 years of production (making it the oldest and longest-running film in production of all time), the last shipment of processing chemicals had finally run out, and the last Kodachrome processing machine was due to be sold for scrap.

So what’s so special about a roll of film that everyone from The New York Times to NPR is running its obituary? Besides the eponymous 1973 paean by singer Paul Simon, Kodachrome is best known for its durability, vibrancy and rich colors. It was the film used for many iconic color images, including the Afghan girl on the 1985 cover of National Geographic and the Zapruder film of John F. Kennedy’s assassination. Kodak retired the film because of the widespread adoption of digital formats, and because Kodachrome now represents only a fraction of 1% of its total film sales.

But what’s remarkable to me is that this groundbreaking innovation, which forever changed the face of photography, was invented by two Jewish musicians. Kodachrome was created by Leopold Godowsky Jr. and Leopold Mannes (known together within Kodak as “God and Man”) in 1935.

Godowsky’s father was Leopold Godowsky, one of the great pianists and composers of the early 1900s, and Leopold Jr. was himself a prominent musician, becoming a soloist and first violin with the Los Angeles and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestras. He later married Frances Gershwin, sister of George and Ira Gershwin. Leopold Mannes also hailed from a musical family — his parents founded what is now Mannes College The New School for Music, in New York City, where he later served as president. Mannes studied piano at Harvard and was, in addition, a noteworthy composer.

Godowsky and Mannes were teenage friends who were always interested in seeing things in their truest colors. Dissatisfied with the washed-out pictures of early color film, the two boys built their own color camera and projector while still in high school. They remained in contact as each pursued his musical career, and continued to perfect their color film technology. Their landmark work in this area soon attracted the attention of Lewis L. Strauss, an associate of the investment firm Kuhn, Loeb and Company, who financed the construction of Godowsky and Mannes’s laboratory, where they patented their revolutionary color film invention. Their work gained the attention of Eastman Kodak, and in 1935, Godowsky and Mannes made history with the introduction of their patented Kodachrome film.

But besides being invented, marketed and rhapsodized by Jewish musicians, there’s another connection between Kodachrome, Judaism and music. Unlike any other color film, Kodachrome is purely black and white when exposed to light. The three primary colors that mix to form the full color spectrum have to be added in three separate stages.

This complex process of adding vibrant color to a black and white world is similar to the Jewish notion of keva and kavanah.

The sages divided ritual practice into two distinct categories. The elements that were unchanging and static, such as the words of prayer recited daily, were termed keva — Hebrew for fixed in place. This was the black and white reality that formed the foundation for our world and our place in it. But then there is kavannah — the fluid, dynamic way in which we constantly color our practice with life’s ever-changing perspective. As any good musician will tell you, written music will only get you so far. Until the notes are infused with the kavannah that each artist brings to every performance, they are simply monochromatic dots on a page.

So the next time you upload your images to Flickr or YouTube, say a word of thanks to Godowsky, Mannes and Paul Simon — three Jewish musicians from New York whose work inspired countless millions to see the world in all its rich and vibrant complexity.

Eric Schulmiller has served as Cantor of the Reconstructionist Synagogue of the North Shore in Long Island for the past 12 years, and has a degree in Jazz Piano from the University of Miami

2011 Redistricting

2010-12-10T13:33:00.000-08:00

The Legislature in the next several months will impanel a Special Committee for the purpose of studying and drafting for submittal to the full Legislature for its consideration the new Legislative Districts consistent with the 2010 Twenty-Third Census of the United States. The plan will be considered most likely in a Special Legislative Session in the late summer or early fall of 2011.

I am certainly not perfect on the exact organization of the Special Committee but it generally acts similar to a summer study committee. I presume members will be appointed by the E Board of (Executive Board) of the LRC (Legislative Research Council, Membership will be consistent and in proportion to each political parties membership in the entire Legislature.

It has been affirmed by the U S Supreme Court that the redistricting process is a political one. Lines can be drawn for political reasons.

However Citizens do have civil rights protections and minority groups have protections from being denied representation. An example was a result of the last South Dakota redistricting, a successful legal challenge, led by the ACLU was made that minorities were under represented in Mellette, Todd, Tripp, and Gregory counties. As a consequence of the litigation, U S Federal Judge Karen Schreier, split District 26 into A and B districts. My view is that Judge Schreier applied the law correctly. However I was surprised that she did not let another Judge hear the case, as prior to her judicial service she served a term as Chair of the South Dakota Democrat party.

The Redistricting Special Committee will hold hearings across the State and take testimony on prospective plans. Undoubtedly they will draft several maps for discussion purposes that will have wide circulation. If history holds to form, there will be little interest beyond politicos, until a final draft is put forward. Then the cries of Gerrymandering will begin. Happens every time and generally is meaningless.

Because of the drubbing they took in the election and their small representation in the Legislature Democrats will have limited representation on this Special Redistricting Committee. In terms of final adoption, it’s a bonus that Republicans secured the Governor’s Office. There will not have to be bargaining or a final deal made between opposing parties on the second and third floors.

Despite the perception and all the crying about partisanship, partisanship is not the first consideration in redistricting. The first consideration is ME. Each current Senator or Representative will look at the plan as, is it good or bad for me? Where does it put me? Me, me, me.

After ME comes rural vs. urban. This is becoming less on a consideration as the population continues to shift to the mega counties. Not only do the rural counties have less representation it is worth noting that there are fewer Farmers in the Legislature as well. Over the last thirty years as farms have increased in size there are fewer farmers. There certainly still are the small school factor and other parochial issues that distinguish Mr. Big and Small.

The third consideration is R and D. Really this won’t be too much of an issue in 2011 because the Legislature is overwhelmingly GOP anyway. In fact there will be some contentiousness among Republicans (possibly current Districts 16 and 17 that prompted this post.)

A few generally accepted rules and jargon –

District size – based on the 2009 U S Census projection South Dakota population is 812383. Given the 35 districts the mean district population is 23211. It may be different today but by 2000 standards, the generally accepting deviation was 5 percent that allowed for a variance of plus or minus of 2 ½ percent. For purposes of discussion and assuming there is no growth, then a Legislative District could have a population of between 22631 and 23791.

It is reasonable to assume that there has been some modest growth since July 2009 and April 2010 when the Census was taken. I would assume that Mr. Big got bigger and Mr. Small, smaller. For discussion purposes I will use the 2009 numbers.

For reference:
County 2009 2000
Minnehaha 183048 148281
Pennington 100850 88565
Lincoln 41218 24131
Brown 35204 35460
Lawrence 23498 21802
Union 14589 12584
Clay 13490 13537
Yankton 21986 21652

In the past three redistrictings that I aware of there have been some generally accepted rules (perhaps principles) that the Legislature has tried to follow. First is sanctity of County. It is felt that each County has similar interests and to the extent possible the attempt is made to keep Counties intact. Complimentary to this idea is that if a County was split in the last redistricting they would make an effort to avoid splitting the same County in the next redistricting. Federal Courts have also ruled that while drawn for political purposes the districts must be contiguous. Thus there are three kinds of Counties.

1) One County Districts - Where the District is one County in its entirety. In the current map, only Lawrence and Yankton are sole districts. Based on current population it is likely that Lawrence County in 2011 will remain the only one County District, while Yankton County will have to take on more territory.

2) Multi County Districts – Where the District is composed of one more Counties or parts of Counties.

3) Multi District Counties – Where the County is composed of more than one District.

Just based on the raw numbers and doing some bookie math, based on simple division, Minnehaha will have 7.9 Districts, Lincoln 1.8 Districts, Pennington 4.3 Districts, Brown 1.5 Districts, Brookings 1.3 Districts, and Codington 1.1 Districts.

The end game - As in 2001 in order to effectively pass a plan, the larger multi district mega counties have to agree on their own territories before the rest of the State is carved up. They have the numbers to assure passage of any ultimate plan. Thus Minnehaha / Lincoln and Pennington need to find agreement first.

Going forward there will be discussion and skullduggery to pit incumbents against each other, etc. but it will provide for an interesting five or six months in political circles. As Linda Richman would say, “discuss amongst yourselves.”

The Intrigue of Union and Clay Counties, the Nygaard switch and implications for a Dan Lederman/ Eldon Nygaard GOP Primaryfor the Senate in 2002:

Those pesky state borders. After dealing with the Big Girls, you have to draw the lines from the outside to the inside, meaning from borders inward. Thus Union County in the southeast can only go either north to Lincoln County or East to Democrat land Clay County. Currently Clay is a multi county district with Turner (very GOP) that is currently split and should be made whole again. Throw into the mix that Yankton is now to small and had to add some ground and it’s likely Clay County may be divided.

In light of this scenario and the Senator Nygaard switching to the GOP it will be interesting to see how his caucus treats him and his historically Democrat county in the redistricting process.

I have no guess how this plays out, but only surmise the adage, what goes around comes around.

Double D, Dusty & Chris

2010-12-05T14:38:00.000-08:00

Front Bar – Another delay in posting on 2011 Redistricting; I have wanted to post on the Governor’s appointment of Dusty Johnson to Chief of Staff and announcement of his intent to appoint current Secretary of State Chris Nelson to take Johnson’s place on the Public Utilities Commission. Additionally I wanted to look at what the election means in terms of change in the leadership and management of South Dakota Government. Both subjects are combined in this what I expect will be a lengthy post.

From the outset, I have known Dennis Daugaard for 15 years, have worked with him on his political campaigns and learned from him. He is of the highest character. Dennis Daugaard is easy to like. Based on 14 years in public office we don’t know all that much about him. During his quest for out State’s highest office over the past 3 years I never had a sense of his vision and consequently expected little change from the passive Round’s administration. Much of his campaign was spent on his biography, compelling personal story and South Dakota work ethic.

In my experience, you have activist Governors or passive ones. Think Kneip (activist), Wollman (passive – served 6 months), Janklow (activist), Mickelson (both active and passive), Miller (passive – a little under 2 years) Janklow (activist), Rounds (passive to the point of caretaker though very high public approval ratings).

Sidebar – Ron Volesky when he was a candidate for Governor in 2006, in his stump speech asked his listeners to take out pen and paper and write down three accomplishments of Mike Rounds’ administration. A pretty good test I think for any Governor.

In retrospect based on events and support that Dennis Daugaard had, I expected more of the Rounds’ passivity. Daugaard had Mike Rounds’ endorsement, the support of the Pierre establishment, and Round’s inner circle and the extended regular GOP establishment. Compound that with a three year run up to the Primary. What insiders, high level State appointees, or contractors were going to go somewhere else three years out? The Daugaard campaign was well organized and executed. The fact that Jason Glodt, a former SD Party ED and Governor Rounds’ inside political guy was involved gave the Daugaard inside access to the party apparatus.

The Lt. Governor talked conservative, is against raising taxes, pro gun, and pro life – all requisite Republican primary voter positions. The DD campaign raised over a million dollars early on and basically both in the primary and general election ran as the front runner, saying little, avoiding controversy, really just a run out the clock campaign. Compound these advantages with a personality that is easy to like and a great work ethic, it was a winning combination.
Dennis Daugaard received over 50% of the vote in a five way primary and winning in a landslide in the general election.

Daugaard threaded the needle in his support of Rounds and stating his own positions. During the primary he denied there was a budget crisis or even a big problem that we could not grow out of. During the general election campaign he continued with this line of response offering little more specifics except to say that he would not spend money that he did not have. Only on election night did he say he was going to work on the budget problem.

Consequently after the election, I felt South Dakota was in competent hands but had little expectation of much change.

The reorganization of the Governor’s office staff, the dismissal of about one half of Governor Rounds’ cabinet, and the appointments of Dusty Johnson and Chris has altered my opinion.

Dennis Daugaard may be more of an Activist Governor.

Sidebar – for another look at gubernatorial management style see this recent article by Bob Mercer.

Dusty Johnson – I have been involved with South Dakota government and politics for just over thirty years, with the exception of Bill Janklow there has not been a more completed policy package than Dusty Johnson.

Disclaimer – I have known Dusty for over 15 years since he was Chairman of the South Dakota Teen Age Republican organization. I was one of the people who encouraged him to seek the Public Utilities Commission seat in 2004, and have advised and worked with him on both his Statewide campaigns.

Dusty is extremely smart and bright but is no egghead. He plain just gets it! He is balanced and fair, analyzes and does not jump to conclusions. Dennis Daugaard made a great selection in Dusty. There has been discussion and speculation that Johnson might be sidetracking his career in elected office, but this was not an overriding consideration in his accepting the Governor’s request. Dusty is not in this for personal fame or gain. He wants to make a difference! He understands managing policy for 10 activist agencies and divisions (including Economic Development, Game Fish & Parks, Environment and Natural Resources, Commerce, and Agriculture among others) for the Governor is a far broader portfolio than the Utilities Commission. Dennis Daugaard could not have made a better pick.

Chris Nelson – I have know and worked (to varying degrees) with Chris Nelson also for about 16 years. He was Director of Elections in the Secretary of State’s office when I served as Party Chairman as well as an outstanding candidate for Statewide office in 2002. I have not always agreed with Chris but he is always consistent. He has two outstanding traits; he is always faithful to the law and he is focused. While I agree that there is appearance of the GOP playing musical chairs on the Second Floor of the Capitol, in this case the Governor elect could not have made a better choice. Chris Nelson will be an outstanding Commissioner (fair and balanced one) and a good candidate for his Party.

Note – there has been a lot of carping that someone qualified was not named. Horse puckey – since when is qualifications an issue. Was Laska Schoenfelder, the Davison County Register of Deeds qualified? Or Jim Burg a farmer, Pam Nelson a former legislator and self described consumer activist qualified? Ken Stofferahn? Get over it. With the possible exception of Bob Sahr who is an accomplished Attorney, few are qualified the first day on the job. Chris Nelson will be outstanding.

I note the Secretary of State’s remark upon his appointment that he recognizes the important balance between the consumer and consistently reliable service that can only be provided by vibrant utilities.

With these two appointments, Dennis Daugaard shows thought and action and I applaud him.

I am a little more circumspect about his office reorganization but because of the actions noted above give him more than a big Straight Talk Benefit of the Doubt.

It is now well known that the Governor elect has decided to become hands on CEO Governor. He has formed what is essentially a governing council. The Chairman of his Transition Committee is Jeff Erickson, who it appears suggested the Governor elect adopt a management organization more similar that is found in the private sector. In effect there will now be five or six persons doing what previously one or two were doing. How this provides for better government I am unsure, maybe even doubtful, but Governor Daugaard was elected and is entitled to shape his administration to his liking and as said previously deserves the benefit of doubt. (I certainly don’t see the efficiency and any cost savings.) The proof is in the government.

It will be interesting to see how it works out with the Lieutenant Governor Matt Michaels also now going full time.

There has been criticism of Tony Venhuizen, Daugaard’s son in law serving on the management committee. Tony provides pluses and minuses. The minuses are the political; the Governor elect has noted that there would be criticism. On the plus side Tony is extremely bright and energetic, and experienced. He served on the Board of Regents for five years and did a clerkship in a rural Judicial Circuit with Judge Tim Bjorkman in Salem and Mitchell. Tony also managed the Daugaard campaign. No one seriously believes Tony is not capable of managing his portfolio.

Overall Dennis Daugaard is off to a decisive, speedy and first class start.

Endbar – Governor Rounds will give his Budget address this coming week. News reports are that it will be an austere budget. The Governor elect has indicated that he plans to offer his own budget. What similarities there are will be interesting. Several months ago Governor Rounds asked his Cabinet Secretaries to look for cuts. Times being tough and revenues not meeting projections have been the case for the past couple of budget cycles. Thus it is interesting (and perhaps cynical of me) that Governor Rounds is now looking for cuts when he will not be governing with reduced expenditures. Throughout the Rounds’ Administration we have been operating with what Governor Rounds has termed a structural deficit (an interesting phrase).

Festival of Lights

2010-12-02T16:50:00.000-08:00

Straight Talk Commentary – Chanukah is here, my third favorite holiday ((1) Passover (2) Thanksgiving). Following is the thought provoking holiday message by Israeli Statesman Yoram Ettinger.

As Ambassador Ettinger refers to our National motto, “In God We Trust.” I read recently that the essence of our Nation (The United States of America) can be found succinctly on our coinage. As Ettinger points out tshe message of the Macabees suggests the divine providence of America.

Like Passover, Chanukah is a Freedom holiday.

Chanukah 2010 Guide for the Perplexed

By:Yoram Ettinger

December 1, 2010

1.George Washington first learned of Chanukkah while at Valley Forge,Pennsylvania, 1778: "Perhaps we are not as lost as our enemies would have us believe. I rejoice in the Maccabees' success, though it is long past...It pleases me to think that miracles still happen."

2. "In God We Trust" was inspired, also, by the Maccabees’ battle cry, which adopted Moses battle cry against the builders of the Golden Calf. A literal translation of Moses' battle cry is “Whoever trusts G-D; join me!

3. The Maccabees' sacrifice and political-incorrectness inspired PatrickHenry's "Give me liberty or give me death" and New Hampshire's "Live Free or Die." The Maccabees followed in the footsteps of Abraham, Phineas the High Priest, Joshua & Calev, King David and Elijah the Prophet, who walked against the grain, in defiance of the establishment and conventional wisdom.

4. Inspiration to Benjamin Franklin's "Rebellion against Tyrants isobedience to God." The Maccabees were a tiny minority of “rebels” -condemned by the "loyalists/pragmatists" - rising against an oppressive super-power. They were condemned, by the Jewish establishment, as "enemies of peace" and "extremists." They prevailed due to their principle-driven, determined and can-do state-of-mind and adherence to roots and long-term vision against any odds. They demonstrated the victory of the few over the many, right over wrong, moral over immoral, truth over lies, faith over cynicism and opportunism. The Maccabees became a role-model for the US'Founding Fathers, including Paul Revere (who was referred to as a "modern day Maccabee") and the organizers of the Boston Tea Party. They realized that no free lunches were available for freedom-seeking nations.

5. "Chanukah has a special significance in Montana these days. In Billings in 1993, vandals broke windows in homes that were displaying menorahs. In a response organized by local church leaders, more than 10,000 of the city residents and shopkeepers put make-shift menorahs in their own windows, to protect the city’s three dozen or so Jewish families. The vandalism stopped" (New York Times, Dec. 4, 2009, Eric Stern, senior counselor to Gov. Brian Schweitzer).

6. Historical context Alexander The Great - who held Judaism in high esteem and whose Egyptian heir, Ptolemy II, translated the Torah to Greek - died in 323BCE following 12 glorious years. Consequently, the Greek Empire disintegrated into five, and thirty years later into three, kingdoms: Macedonia, Syria and Egypt. The Land of Israel was militarily contested by Syria and Egypt. In 198BCE, Israel was conquered by the Syrian kingdom. In 175BCE, a new king assumedpower in Syria, Antiochus (IV) Epiphanies, who viewed the Jews aspro-Egyptians and held Judaism with contempt. In 169BC, upon his return to Syria from a war against Egypt, he devastated Jerusalem, massacred the Jews, forbade the practice of Judaism (including the Sabbath, circumcision, etc.) and desecrated Jerusalem and the Temple. The 167BCE-launched rebellion against the Syrian (Seleucid) kingdom featured the Hasmonean (Maccabee) family: Mattityahu, a priest from the town of Modi'in, and his five sons, Yochanan, Yehuda, Shimon, Yonatan and Elazar. The heroic (and tactically creative) battles conducted by the Maccabees, were consistent with thereputation of Jews as superb warriors, who were hired frequently asmercenaries by Egypt, Syria, Rome and other global and regional powers.

7. The Hasmonean dynasty *Mattityahu son of Yochanan, the priest-led rebellion – 166/7BCE *Yehuda the Maccabee, son of Mattityahu – 166-161BCE *Yonatan the Maccabee, son of Mattityahu – 161-143BCE*Shimon the Maccabee, son of Mattityahu – 143-135BCE *Yochanan Hyrcanus son of Shimon – 135-104BCE *…*Mattityahu Antigonus – 40-37BCE

8. Key geographic Maccabee sites are located in Judea and Samaria: Mitzpah (also Samuel's burial site), Beit El mountains (Judah's first headquarters), Beit Horon (Judah's victory over Seron), Hadashah (Judah's victory over Nicanor), Beit Zur (Judah's victory over Lysias), Ma'aleh Levona (Judah's victory over Apolonius), Adora'yim (a Maccabees' fortress), Elazar & Beit Zachariya (Judah's first defeat), Ba'al Hatzor (Judah defeated and killed), the Judean Desert, etc. Jerusalem (beyond the "1949 Lines") was the Capital of the Maccabees. Are the descendants of the Maccabees "occupiers"in thecradle of their own history??? Is Chanukah a holiday of "occupation," or is it a holiday which highlights Jewish moral-high-ground in their historical land?!

9. The legacy of Shimon the Maccabee. He succeeded Judah and Yonatan the Maccabees, while responding to an ultimatum by the Syrian emperor, Antiochus (Book of Maccabees A, Chapter 15, verse 33): "We have not occupied a foreign land; We have not ruled a foreign land; We have liberated the land of our forefathers from foreign occupation." Thus he responded to a super-power's ultimatum to end "occupation" of Jaffa, Jerusalem, Gezer, Ekron and Gaza.

10. Chanukah's uniqueness. Chanukah is the only Jewish holiday whichcommemorates a Land-of-Israel national liberation struggle, unlike Passover (Exodus from Egypt), Sukkot/Tabernacles & Shavouot/Pentacost (on the way from Egypt to the Land of Israel), Purim (deliverance of Jews in Persia), etc. Chanukah is the longest Jewish holiday (8 days) with the most intense level of Light (8 consecutive nights of candle lighting).

11. The origin of the name – Chanukah – is also education-oriented.According to the first book of Maccabees, Yehuda (who succeeded Mattityahu) ordered the Jewish People to observe an eight day holiday on the 25th day of the month of Kislev, 165BCE, in order to commemorate the inauguration (Chanukah, çðåëä, in Hebrew) of the holy altar and the Temple, following Syrian desecration. A key feature of Chanukah is education of the family (Chinuch, çéðåê, in Hebrew). The Hebrew word, Chanukah, consists of two words, Chanu, çðå,(they rested/stationed) and Kah, ëä, (25 in Hebrew), which refers to the fact that the Maccabees re-consecrated the Temple on the 25thday of the month of Kislev (purging it from the idolatries installed by the Syrians/Seleucids). Some have suggested that the celebration of Christmas on December 25th and the celebration of the New Year 8 days later (January 1) have their origin in the 25th day of Kislev (which always “accompanies” December) and the 8 days of Chanukah as well as the 8 days of circumcision.

12. Holiday of light and remembrance. The first day of Chanukah is on the 25th day of Kislev, the month of miracles (e.g. Noah's Rainbow appeared in Kislev). The first and last Hebrew letters of Kislev – åë - equal (in Jewish numerology) 26, which the total sum of the Hebrew spelling of Jehovah. Moses completed the construction of the Holy Ark on the 25th day of Kislev, as was the date of the laying the foundation of the Second Temple by Nehemaya. The 25th (Hebrew) word in Genesis is Light (OR, àåø, in Hebrew). A Jewish metaphor for the Torah is light. The 25th stop of the People of Israel - on their way from Egypt to the Promised Land - was Hashmona (same root as Hasmoneans in Hebrew). Chanukah commemorates the victory of Light (Maccabees) over Darkness and Remembrance over Forgetfulness (the Hebrew spelling of darkness – çùëä – employs the same letters as forgetulness - ùëçä).

13. The origin of the name, Maccabee (îëáé or î÷áé). Yehuda’s middle name was Maccabee, derived possibly from the Hebrew word Makevet (î÷áú), Power Hammer), which described Yehuda’s tenacious and decisive fighting capabilities. It may have derived from the Hebrew verb Cabeh (ëáä, to extinguish), which described the fate of Yehuda’s adversaries. Another source of the name suggests that Maccabee, îëáé, is the Hebrew acronym of “Who could resemble you among Gods, Jehovah” (“Mi Camokha Ba'elim Adonai” îéëîåê áàìéí é').

14. Eight days of Chanukah represent divine capabilities and optimism. The ancient Temple Menorah consisted of seven branches, which commemorated the seven days of creation. The Chanukah Menorah has eight branches, reflecting the additional level of divine capabilities over and beyond human expectations: The victory of the few over the many and the lasting of one day supply of oil for eight days. Some have suggested that the eight day celebration was designed to make up for the holiday of Tabernacles, which could not be celebrated by the Maccabees due to their war of liberation. The shape of the digit 8 represents infinity: No end to divine capabilities to enhance human fortunes, as evidenced by the survival of the Jewish People against all odds. The root of the Hebrew word for 8 (Shmoneh, ùîåðä) is "oil" (Shemen, ùîð), which is also the root of "Hasmonean" (Hashmonayim,çùîåðàéí).

15. Chanukah-Purim-Passover. The heroes of Passover and Purim had nochoice but to defy their enemies. The Maccabees turned down the option of physical peace in return for spiritual assimilation. They refused to sellout the cradle of Jewish history. They were willing to pay any price for adherence to their roots, values and heritage. Chanukah symbolizes the victory of monotheism over paganism, conviction over convenience and opportunism/cynicism (sometime presented as "realism" or "pragmatism"), compassion over egotism, self-control and restraint over temptation and promiscuity, endurance over vacillation.

16. Seven Chanukah (inauguration)-like events: Chanukah of the Creation (Genesis 2:1-3), Chanukah of the Sanctuary (Numbers 7:1-11), Chanukah of the First Temple (Kings 1, 7:51, 8:1-11 & 62-66), Chanukah of the Second Templeand the Ingathering (Ezra 6:13-18), Chanukah of Jerusalem's Wall (Nehemiah 6:15-16), Chanukah of the Temple Priests in 165BC (Maccabees 1, 4), Chanukahof the After World. Some attach the significance of each such Chanukah to a corresponding day of the Creation

Weather Related?

2010-11-21T17:45:00.000-08:00

(Editorial Prerogative) I had planned my next post to be on Legislative Redistricting but since I’m feeling kinda Sunday; a little work, breakfast with my brother Mr. Random Thoughts, and those damn Vikings, my thoughts have turned to the Weather. I’ll get to Drawing the Lines shortly.

Headed to the Shop this morning and it looked more like November 21 than our recent milder weather. The streets were slick and when I arrived felt my age, being very careful to take small steps on the icy sidewalk.

Weather had been on my mind. One of the topics at Mayor Huether’s Whisk & Chop session was the upcoming trial and execution of the Snow Gate Demonstration Project. Good fortune found me at a table with the two lead operator’s of the City’s snow removal efforts. Before the introduction by Mark Cotter the Public Works Director and presentation by Chad Huwe, the City Engineer, I had the opportunity to speak briefly with them.

My tablemates were diplomatic. I inquired about their opinion about snow gates and they offered none. I asked a couple of very uninformed questions about what data and how the data would be collected and they answered politely and earnestly with an explanation about computers and GPS which I heard but did not understand. I then asked what they did in the “off season”. They said to the effect that they monitored and worked as necessary with the City’s flood control system. I commented that they were certainly busy this year.

Then I asked, without factual substantiation, if we had record rainfall this past summer with lots of flooding of the Big Sioux River (anecdotally - City of Renner, Northern Lincoln County on Highway 11, and the river coming out of its banks 5 times on South Cliff Avenue at Spencer Dog Park, and the exacerbation of the ground water and attendant sanitary sewer line failure) why had not the low lying areas that the U S Corps of Engineers had re designated within the Flood Plain not flooded? I said the City and Corps had been working on this flood control project for a number of years and that the City had spent millions of dollars (I think $14 million this year to raise the bridge on 41st street to accommodate raising the levees. With all the record rainfalls should not there have been some flooding. They had no answer though I thought I detected a very sly smile on one of my tablemates.

Perhaps the federal officials owe us a more in depth explanation on the re designation of the flood plain. As you younger generation puts it – I’m just sayin.

South Dakota weather also jumped out at me in the front section of this morning’s Sunday New York Times. There was a feature story entitled “Storm Upon Storm for South Dakota.” The story is about the extremes in South Dakota weather this year. The Times story was very in depth and about the intensity, variety, and impacts of our weather. Particularly I liked the conclusion despite the day to day challenges of life’s interruptions and challenges how South Dakotans take their weather all in stride.

Is South Dakota weather of national interest? The story or at least the headline with several color photographs (well done) reinforces the image that South Dakota has severe weather, highlighting the idea that South Dakota is the American Tundra of snow and cold. This is not a picture that South Dakota wants to promote.

On a personal level it was interesting to see that this story was about our weather. Two weeks ago, I received a phone call from the story’s writer, A.G. Sulzberger who was traveling through South Dakota to familiarize himself with the State. We arranged to meet and spent (at least for my part) an interesting hour or so together where I talked with him about South Dakota and her people and gave him the nickel tour of Sioux Falls.

Mr. Sulzberger an engaging and very knowledgeable man was bright and like a good reporter had many an insightful questions. He did briefly mention he was looking into our weather but I rather had the idea he was looking for other story ideas.

Arthur as he asked to be called is the new NY Times bureau chief in Kansas City and is covering Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota. He will cover all nature of stories including natural disasters, politics and anything happening or of national interest in those States.

Story ideas - From my pro South Dakota perspective, I would have rather seen a story about what a great place to do business South Dakota, how warm and faithful our people are, how many moms are in the workforce, how (at least in Sioux Falls) how diverse we are becoming. Maybe a story about the new Mother Ship of Sioux Falls and South Dakota, Sanford Health? Would New Yorkers be interested in the South Dakota that is a large financial center or the prospects of a favorite son running for the GOP nomination? Instead we got the weather.

Though we did not discuss it, it was not lost on me given his name, that his family are the principal owners of “The New York Times.” A Google search quickly disclosed that A.G.’s father is the current Publisher and Chairman of the Board of the Times. It is interesting that A. O. Sulzberger, the current Publisher has said, “that someday the New York Times Company will be forced to stop publishing a printed paper.” His grandfather and great grandfather were also Publishers and his great grandfather had purchased the paper before the turn of the Twentieth Century.

Like his Fathers, Arthur is learning the reporting business in the field running through the requisite amount of shoe leather. Real world experience and seeing and learning about South Dakota is a good thing for someone should the opportunity present itself and he chooses to take up the family biz and run a large media conglomerate.

That’s along way from Redistricting but it’s not unusual in South Dakota for the Weather to intercede.

South Dakota Switcher

2010-11-19T20:04:00.000-08:00

Newly elected District #17 State Senator Eldon Nygaard becomes another Party Switcher joining other notable Democrats who have become Republicans including Ronald Reagan, Phil Gramm, John Thune, Norm Coleman, and Dave Knudson.

Nygaard said in a statement about his switch, “I firmly believe I can represent my district's needs in Pierre more effectively as a member of the Republican Party." Nygaard is right.

Particularly in the State Senate Democrats are irrelevant. With only 5 or 6 members they can barely at best cover the committee work, where the heavy lifting is done. If you assume that 2 Senators will serve on the Appropriations Committee, that leaves only 3 others to cover the other committees.

To put in perspective and for reference the nine “major” committees are: Agriculture and Natural Resources, Commerce, Education, Health and Human Services, Judiciary, Local Government, State Affairs, Taxation, and Transportation.

The Democrats in their Senate Caucus will be clueless as to what is going on and powerless to shape legislation in any meaningful way. On a party basis (most committee work is not overly partisan) they won’t even have another Democrat available to second their motions. Further any hope of having an impact is greatly diminished. Dems will for the most part go to Senate Caucus and just wonder what the Republicans are going to do. – No impact!

When Nygaard says he can be more effective as a Repub he is not kidding! As a Republican he can at least get consideration of his bills in the overwhelmingly Majority caucus.

Sidebar – The Democrats got decimated in the State Senate for primarily one reason – Barack Obama. He was like the plague that just rolled out over the Heartland. Many Democrats never had a chance. The President and the Pelossi apologists are in denial. Independents and moderate Democrats who are the swing voters screamed “Change.” Given the dissension in the party ranks in the Democrat Caucus in the U S House this week, I expect you will see a few party switchers moving from D to R in that Legislative Body as well. Looking back; Scott Brown’s election in the Teddy Kennedy special U S Senate election in Massachusetts last January was the canary in the coal mine. The President and Congressional Democrats didn’t listen.

That covers Nygaard’s public explanation. I view his switch as a little more political opportunism.

There are interesting factors in play in Clay County. Prior Clay County Results - In the 2002 Gubernatorial Mike Rounds lost to favorite son USD President Jim Abbott 38.4% to 59.8%, in 2004 John Thune lost to Tom Daschle 36.6% to 63.4%, in 2006 Mike Rounds lost to Jack Billion 48.3% to 49.6%, in 2008 McCain / Palin lost to Obama / Biden 61% to 36.8%, also in 2008 (in the District #17 Senate race) Jerad Higman lost to Ben Nesselhuf 40.6% to 59.4%.

The kicker – in 2010 Dennis Daugaard lost to Scott Heidepriem 49.6% to 50.4% and Teri Jorgenson lost to Nygaard 46.6% to 53.4% (thank you Barack Obama) but the trend to GOP is notable. This trend is not lost on Nygaard and explains part of the reason for his switch.

I also believe that the 2011 Legislative Redistricting Sweepstakes combination Cake Walk and Musical Chairs also is a factor. Redistricting is a more complicated analysis that I will speak to, specifically regarding Clay County, the current District #17, and far southeastern South Dakota in my next post.

Has Her Opinioned Changed?

2010-11-14T17:21:00.001-08:00

This afternoon after watching a the Vikings getting drubbed by the Bears special teams and failing on so many third down conversions without pulling myself off the couch, I started surfing. The Cowboys and the Giants held no appeal and then came across a CSPAN program I was unaware of: Turn The Table.

“Turn The Table” is a weekly show broadcast from the Newseum in Washington, DC. Produced by Politico the show is moderated by John F Harris, Editor and Chief of Politico. Each week the panelists are the hosts of the Sunday Morning national Talk Shows. It appears that the show is taped before each week’s respective Sunday broadcasts in front of a live audience of Washington types, media representatives, and what I judged were a smattering of students.

The panelists were David Gregory (NBC Meet the Press), Bob Schieffer (Face the Nation), Candy Crowley (CNN chief political correspondent filling in for some other dude (wasn’t Wolfie who does their show) and my lunch pal from the ABC Newsmaker Luncheon (ABC This Week’s Christiane Amanpour).

Sidebar – The moderator commented on Schieffer’s distinctive purple socks. Schieffer responded they were a statement for his Alma matter, T C U who is in contention for the BCS. Schieffer noted in this regard he is biased and had editorialized on the National Collegiate Football Championships. Worth noting is that the School of Journalism at Texas Christian is the named for Schieffer.

While watching “Turn The Table”, I was caught off guard by a remark that Ms. Amanpour made. The former well known foreign correspondent for CNN said that this week during our President’s Asian trip, the Chinese were openly questioning whether America is the leading economic power in the World.

I was startled. During my recent lunch conversation with Christiane I asked her about how she felt about China as an economic competitor to the United States. She answered forthrightly that it was a misconception as she did not feel that the Chinese viewed themselves as competitors to U S having the world’s largest economy. From her answer and the way it was delivered I believe she implied this was an American perception (as opposed to a Chinese one.)

Given her report of the Chinese assertion I wonder if her opinion has changed?

Change

2010-11-06T19:55:00.001-07:00

The ABC News sales organization under the influence of Straighttalk's Senior Research Associate extended me an extremely kind invitation to their 2010 Newsmaker Luncheon Friday in New York City.

What an exciting and memorable day! The invitees included ABC sales staff, reporters, journalists (broadcast and digital) (including the “Talent”), advertisers, and the important media buyers. There were a little over two hundred persons in attendance. This outstanding event was held at the famous New York Athletic Club.

The ABC sales team knows how to put on a great show. Reception before a prime rib lunch with cocktails, beer (two open bars) and world class munchies with butler service included fresh shrimp and rack of lamb. As a Foodie I shouldn't forget to mention a lox and eggs breakfast at the “Stage Delicatessen” (in the heart of the Theater District), my Dad's all time favorite deli.

My research director has friends in high places as my luncheon seatmate was Christiane Amanpour, the recently coronated host of ABC's Sunday Morning, “This Week”. Ever the world class reporter Ms. Amanpour asked where I was from and wondered what my connection was to ABC. When she heard I was from South Dakota and, she immediately told me of her interest in the Female Faceoff in our U S House race. She said that she had considered doing a feature on the race on several levels but the story it did not materialize.

On learning of my political involvement (particularly on the GOP side), she intently (though courteously and with I thought a tad of indulgence to my unwashed views) pursued a line of questioning of how the Republicans, specifically, were going to deliver on their promises, to cut spending, cut taxes, decrease the deficit, balance the budget, conduct two wars, create jobs, and increase economic growth.

Sidebar – Her hypothesis was similar to one I heard on election night from CBS commentator, Jeff Greenfield who described the GOP wish list as a Hot Fudge Sundae Diet. Since I had been thinking about Greenfield's metaphor, I was somewhat prepared for my distinguished luncheon-mate's question.

We had a lively exchange. I thought I answered her questions adequately; the featured guest on “This Week” tomorrow will be Kentucky Senator elect, Rand Paul. I expect Dr. Paul will get the Hot Fudge Sundae Diet question with both barrels.

The Newsmaker Luncheon program was a presentation of reporting, analysis, and opinions from the ABC news team. The moderators were World News Tonight anchor, Diane Sawyer, and Good Morning America anchor and ABC chief political correspondent George Stephanopoulos.

The topic of conversation was the mid term elections, what happened, what it means, and where do we go forward from here.

Stephanopoulos said that it is important to understand the “magnitude” of the change. He reminded the audience that he was working in the White House during the 1994 change election. He said that in '94 the White House / Democrats were blindsided by the change in power. In contrast this year those in power saw it coming but either did not understand or under estimated the magnitude.

Stephanopoulos said The President is at least a “little” in denial. The effervescent George continued the President believes in his programs, but he seemingly does not want to drill down and figure out what caused the change. Stephanopoulos described the GOP win as a tidal wave that rolled across Interstate 80 changing many Congressional seats from blue to red. The GOP made significant pickups in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Illinois. I liked the Highway 80 metaphor.

At that point in the presentation, there began a discussion about whether the two parties work could work together and effect compromise. The question came up as to the future of dethroned House Speaker and chief GOP villain, Nancy Pelosi. About 20 words into the subject, Senior Political Correspondent, Jonathan Karl interrupted with the announcement he had just received a text that the Speaker had announced she would indeed seek the Minority Leader post.

Sidebar – I wonder what Stenny Hoyer thinks of that? (Where do you get a name like Stenny?) Personally I thought Madame Speaker was going to resign from Congress within the next couple of weeks. Wrong about that. I guess she just loves the life and cannot let go.

Karl continued that the Liberals, pretty much those Democrats that remain want her to stay and they see her as the defender of their belief in Obamacare and the $800 Billion stimulus that has failed at meaningful job creation. At that juncture of the conversation, The Grande Dame of ABC News, Cokie Roberts interjected that the Republicans were in no mood for compromise anymore than the remaining Democrats. She explained that moderate and even conservative Republicans had lost primary challenges and while the Dems had tilted even further left, the GOP has shifted further right.

Sidebar – At my Research Associate's insistence, at the earlier reception we introduced ourselves to Cokie Roberts. I have always considered her the whole package -very smart, well spoken, and attractive. Mrs, Roberts who is the daughter of Hale and Lindy Boggs, Louisiana politicians (both were Democrat U S Representatives, her Father was the House Majority Leader and Mother also a U S Ambassador) has equanimity and the ability to ask probing questions to get information not score points. It was a thrill to very briefly seek and receive her thoughts on job creation, American competitiveness, and education.

Political Potpourri
Many other topics were covered in the one hour presentation. A few of the highlights –

The challenge to the health care law would work itself through the Court System ultimately reaching the Supreme Court in two or three years. It was questioned whether Justice Kagan would recuse herself from the deliberations and decisions as she might be conflicted having worked on the health care issue when she worked on domestic policy in the Obama White House.

The Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were not issues in the election.

The Tea Party Movement – What are there positions on the wars, free trade, terrorism, immigration? These are important issues. Do these undefined positions have the possibility to fracture the Tea Party and their coalition if there is not agreement?

Hispanic voters – There are 50 million. To which Party are they loyal? Are they persuadable by either party? How does immigration play into building a coalition with them? Related factoid – Harry Reid received 64 percent of the Hispanic vote in his race while in the same election Nevadans elected a GOP Hispanic Governor Brian Sandoval. The other very interesting Hispanic / Immigration fact that was mentioned was in relation to Florida Senator elect Marco Rubio. (You may remember that Rubio expressed “some concerns” about the Arizona immigration law.)

U S law treats Cuban “immigrants” more as refugees. All a Cuban has to do is put a foot on U S soil and they are admitted legally into the Country. This is distinctly and far different than Mexicans who just arriving in the US if they get caught gets them a one way ticket back to where they came from. Many are suggesting that Rubio is the new face of Hispanic Republicans. Will the Immigration issue trip him up?

Al Qaeda – There seems to be a change in tactics. Rather than mind blowing events like the World Trade Centers or the Pentagon, Al Q. is looking to smaller events like the two recent bombing attempts on aircraft, the Times Square attempt, or last Christmas’ underwear bombing attempt. It seems now Al Qaeda just wants to get on the scoreboard, they don’t need to be Headline News thirty days in a row with a Peal Harbor type event.

Even mentioned was how Americans this year have embraced Flu vaccinations. Children and adults are getting them, a very distinct change from last year. (Pharmacies are now giving shots. Either it is profitable or a great lost leader to generate store traffic. I think that the free market promotion may be a factor.)

Facebook and Social Media – In 2008 the Obama campaign owned it. In 2010 the Elephant took over.

Sara Palin – There was a brief discussion as to the extent that she captured the Tea Party crowd. Her endorsed candidates won 62 percent of the time (though she also endorsed incumbents, GOP nominees as well as Tea Party supported challengers. Stephanopoulos ventured his opinion that she would continue to be at odds with the GOP Machine and that Karl Rove in particular would be the he said to her she said. He did not think she would be a candidate for the GOP nomination in 2012 but said he might be weakening ever so slightly on her running. Stephanopoulos did say she could be a factor in who does win the nomination however.

As it concerns the official program, ABC News’ pollster (I do not know his name and am unsure if he is in house or otherwise) gave his summary of 2010 which at a minimum set the stage for voter attitudes. His thought was the most cognizant of the day. He said, “It’s the Economy.” He pointed out the high rate of unemployment, the average length of those on unemployment (the highest since the late 1940’s) and that three fourth of American households have not seen personal income growth in the past two years being the deep causes of voter discontent.

The pollster went on to say, what Americans most want is Security, Liberty, and Opportunity for Prosperity and they feel extremely unsure and threatened at the moment.

Thinking about the day, I saw an ABC News in transition. Gone were David Brinkley and Charlie Gibson. There was the venerable Diane Sawyer who had been a White House staffer for Richard Nixon (she was at times suspected to be “Deep Throat” during the Watergate investigation), whom I perceive is the transitional character to a younger generation of Stephanopoulos’, Karls, and Amanpours. Not only is the Talent turning over but so is the venue. Digital Baby!

ABC is delivering not just on television and radio but extensively on the Internet including their programs and video reports. If you have access, check out their IPad Ap.

As I reflect on sitting there thinking of change, I saw my daughter with her new leader, her other younger and bright colleagues, the wonderfully talented Catherine Sullivan, President of ABC News Sales. I thought about the changing of the guard not only at a communications and media powerhouse network but understanding in a very personal way that Change is inevitable (Yes I’m aging).

My Dad often told me, that the only thing that does not change is Change.

It’s Showtime

2010-10-24T12:43:00.001-07:00

The non profit Sioux Falls State Theatre Company (SFSTC) announced this week they had qualified to receive the entire $200,000 matching grant for restoration of the lobby of the State Theatre in Sioux Falls. The $200,000 was a grant from the U S Department of the Interior through their “Save America’s Treasures” program. The announcement by the State Theatre Company also stated that to date $1 million has been “invested” in the State Theatre’s restoration.

Certainly those interested in “saving” this American Treasure are entitled to organize to do so but such projects should not be at the expense of the taxpayer.

If memory serves me correctly, the original genesis of this effort was the generous donation of the property by members of the Floyd family who were one of the previous owners of Midcontinent that owned KELO radio and television, the local cable company, the local movie theatres among other entertainment and communications interests. I assume that the donors received a federal tax deduction for their contribution. Does the non-profit SFSTC, the owner of the State Theatre pays property taxes or are they exempt as a non profit?

Estimates are that it will take another $5.4 million to complete the restoration and equip the 400 seat theatre with “full digital movie-showing” technology. This all sounds good but it should not be forgotten, that Sioux Falls government in varying degrees is already supporting three theatres at the Washington Pavilion and depending on how you count two or three theatres at Orpheum / Anne Zabel complex on North Phillips Avenue.

I posted previously Is This a Federal Responsibility That our City should pay its own way in repairing the publicly owned sanitary sewer system, so it makes it even harder to understand the justification of a federal subsidy for a privately controlled non profit effort.

To the SFSTC’s credit they are raising money privately from contributors who believe in the Theatre’s restoration. If they can raise $200 thou privately why not $400 thou or even the $5.4 mill, do they really need federal largess?

If the Federal Government is spending money they do not have, and all our politicians are against deficit spending, why are we paying for this kind of non governmental program?

The $200,000 question that should be asked of Stephanie Herseth Sandlin and Kristi Noem before the November 2 election is: Do they support this specific federal expenditure.

Voters are entitled to an answer. It’s Showtime!

Tight as Dick’s Hat Band

2010-10-17T12:20:00.000-07:00

In the South Dakota At Large House race, the intensity has stepped up this weak to fever pitch.

I am not party to any polling but based on daily charges, counter charges, actions by the respective political parties, allied groups, and independent expenditures but based on my observation the race currently is a dead heat.

Just guessing - both candidates are stuck on numbers in the mid 40 percent range (perhaps 44 to 46 percent). Throw in Independent candidate, B. Thomas Marking with maybe 2 percent (which could go higher on election day when those disgusted with both parties opt for him to express frustration over the status quo.) In most instances Marking takes voters from Noem. That leaves maybe 6 to 10 percent of voters undecided.

The Undecideds are the voters Noem and Herseth Sandlin are slugging it out over. They have to persuade them to get there vote. Most of the persuading is negative (not to vote for their opponent) rather than positive (why they should vote for me). Expect all Pollyanna beginning about Thursday or Friday before the election to put a pleasant reassuring face on the candidate just before Tuesday’s election.

In the meantime no holds barred. This week we had the food fight that even got a story in the “New York Times”. As posted previously it’s possible that the Democrats will execute the Social Security (let’s scare our Seniors) card the weekend before the election.

The South Dakota race is perhaps the closest House Race in the country. This week it has received extensive national media coverage. Noem raised more money in the last quarter than any other challenge candidate. There were extensive stories calling her the next Sara Palin, even internationally.

Besides capturing the undecideds both campaigns are using their advertising to mobilize their voters. Citizen disillusionment with President Obama’s policies (in particular the so called health care reform law, and the budget busting stimulus and jobless creation bill has increased voter intensity and produced a strong headwind for Democrat candidates. The fact the incumbent is not marshaling a majority vote and has not raised more campaign funds than her opponent is usually accepted as a tale tell sign of defeat. Incumbents should poll over 50 percent and in 95 percent of all races, the candidate with the most money wins.

This week it appears some one showed up with some money for the GOP as there are signs of increased voter turnout activity in the trenches. More than likely it was the Republican National Committee or the Republican Congressional Campaign Committee. As the race gains profile the national committees usually are not far behind. It is another sign the race is close.

I also heard, as a result of Kristi’s Hannity appearance and showing up on the home page of the Drudge Report, the donations are rolling in like a tidal wave to the Noem campaign. Certainly it has helped the Republican challenger regain her previous momentum.

The next 10 days will be a slugfest. I would not rule out an October Surprise from either campaign but if I were wagering, would expect it from the Democrat camp.

This is the closest race since Tom Daschle beat Leo Thorsness in 1978 by 14 votes, and 139 in the recount.

This race is tight!

Sandy is a Mallie

2010-10-13T18:07:00.001-07:00

Walking at the Empire Mall this last Sunday I was shocked to see that State Senator Sandy Jerstad’s campaign had a kiosk. It was located in the southwest wing where you might find the Easter bunny in the spring.

This is an interesting campaign technique. For a legislative race it seems very untargeted and perhaps not economically efficient. It does reach the masses though. The Empire Mall is the number one tourist destination in South Dakota, even exceeding Mount Rushmore. It was estimated by Governor George Mickelson in the late 1980s that during the Pre Christmas period as much as 20 percent of all state sales taxes were generated from that mall.

Unquestionably this kiosk that was stocked with various Jerstad campaign literature will reach a lot of people including a lot of Iowan’s, Minnesotans, and South Dakotan’s that do not reside in District #12. This technique seems very untargeted and if the kiosk is unmanned pretty close to worthless. I do not whether candidate Jerstad mans her spot or not (I came across her space before the stores were open.) I also question whether shoppers want to be approached by a candidate in this setting.

I do not currently know the cost of kiosk but when I inquired for my own business for the Christmas selling season in the early 1990’s the cost was $170 per day with a requirement of a minimum lease of the entire months of November and December (I did not lease.) In those days space was in demand and there was little shopping done on the Internet. Given today’s economy with excess retail space and the Mall not fully occupied and the “tenant” vacating by a November 2 election day, the space might be more economical.

The larger point is: This is different.

So many campaigns today are unimaginative and candidates seem to use media simply because everyone else does. There is a lot of redundancy – particularly signage.

Signs - This election cycle I have been questioning the effectiveness of campaign signs. There are two primary reasons campaign employ signs, awareness to increase name identification and in the case of yard signs to show support (or as an endorsement.) Years ago I was not particularly a fan of yard signs but over time they became in vogue for down ticket races. So it began that if my opponent is using them I must also. In the mid to late 1990’s I began to use them as part of a larger campaign to build momentum for candidates. Today they seem acceptable and maybe necessary because everyone else is doing it, but where I seen a yard full where every candidate of a particular party in any given yard, the multiple signs seem more like a grave yard than a campaign endorsement. I don’t think they help the candidate at all but rather say more about the homeowner. (Full disclosure: I have two in my yard, Dusty Johnson and Shantel Krebs)

The larger 4x8, 4x6, and 4x4 signs seem to me to be losing their effectiveness as well. Perhaps in the country they are appropriate where they are isolated by themselves for travelers to see and where they increase name identification for statewide candidates but there use in our larger cities (Sioux Falls anyway) is not working – totally overkill. There is an element that everyone is doing it so I should too.

On a historical note, the first 4x8 put up across South Dakota by Laska Schoenfelder. They were homemade plywood signs. Laska was the only candidate using them and they were noticed. The other 3 races where I thought 4x8s were effective were Chris Nelson in 2002, Dusty Johnson in 2004, and Jarrod Johnson in 2006. Now they are just out of hand. Just as an afterthought top ticket races did not start using these until John Thune in 2002 and Mike Rounds in 2006.

Just a note that Sandy Jerstad also used, all be it very briefly before I suspect she was called on it, some rather large signs to talk baseball but to this observer CAMPAIGN. The technical point that these informational signs look very much like a campaign sign before campaign signs in the City are allowed. Jerstad demonstrated however she is not afraid to try something different. Her innovation in part is driven by an aggressive campaign by her opponent, Republican Mark Johnston.

Mall Campaigning – For statewide candidates, I think mall campaigning can work, but the candidate should be very careful. As Jerstad understands (if her kio is manned), it is more efficient to get voters to come to you rather you having to go to the voters. The Supreme Court has ruled that the outside of malls and shopping centers are the Public Square of today and you can interact with the Public if you are not a nuisance. The Public must be treated with deference and respect and approached without campaign literature. Put the palm card in back pocket and give to a person if they ask, want more information or contact info. It helps to have a hook.

My family and I were once approached by Don Ham of Rapid City when he was running against Clint Roberts for the Second District U S House seat in 1980 at the Prairie Market in Mitchell. We cam around to a new aisle of shelves where Don was standing and he said to us (in effect), “I see you are shopping at this food warehouse to save money, if you send me to Washington I will save you some money as well. He then asked if we wanted a campaign brochure.

Here Don was probably reaching voters in his District even though he only wanted to touch Republicans.

How being a Mallie will work for Sandy we will see on November 2.

Thune Getting Closer?

2010-10-09T19:36:00.001-07:00

The Sioux Falls “Argus Leader” ran a story today on their one page business page about the retirement of Jeff Erickson and the changing of the guard at Great Western Bank. Erickson is the well known mover and shaker that has been extremely close to Governor Mike Rounds during his tenure as Governor.

What is particularly interesting was the last sentence in the story:

”He'd also like to get more involved in public service, increase his volunteer efforts and get more involved in politics, possibly at the state or national level.”

Today’s story confirms the rumor that Erickson would soon be retiring that has been circulating in overdrive this week in GOP political circles. The rumor mill however also included the now unconfirmed but more interesting speculation that Erickson (who according to the “Argus” report retires Jan 2, 2011) would join a Thune for President effort, it is assumed in a fundraising capacity.

Given Erickson’s comment in today’s story, this speculation seems logical though not confirmed.

Background and Perspective – John Thune does not jump to conclusions. He is very deliberative in charting his political course. Throughout his career as a candidate he assesses the political climate and calculus very carefully. This was true when he first ran for Congress in 1995, chose to self term limit himself to three terms in the U S House, formed and exploratory committee to run for Governor in 2001 (he decided against it – the interlude suspending other campaigns probably costing Mark Barnett the GOP nomination (that is another story)), decided not to seek a recount of the 2002 Senate election, and choosing to run against the incumbent Senate Majority Leader in 2004. Without question when deciding to make a bid for the White House, John Randolph Thune will be deliberate.

While the clock is running for the Cattle Call for GOP challengers, John Thune will NOT take any formal steps toward a candidacy until after contemplating the November election results.

However, logical steps have already been taken putting the building blocks in place for a campaign for the GOP nomination. Foremost was the hiring of his campaign quarterback, Justin Brassell. Brassell is now ostensibly Thune’s campaign manger for his 2010 reelection effort. Despite the Democrats failing to field an opponent, Brassell is still living and working in Sioux Falls. Reports are Brassell works for or consults for the Republican Congressional Campaign Committee and is consulting and advising campaigns in perhaps thirteen states including Kristi Noem’s campaign.

The three other important building blocks that Brassell directed as part of Thune’s office seeking effort are the cyber campaign, fundraising and building the fundraising apparatus, and enhancing Thune’s conservative GOP brand through policy initiatives (Note, while it certainly was not wished for or planned, the John Ensign scandal has not hurt John Thune’s political visibility when he ascended to the Chairman of the Republican Policy Committee in the Senate.)

Thune’s Senate campaign very early on, under Brassell’s direction put together a first class effort. Brassell brought with him from the 2008 Mitch McConnell campaign Chris Adkins to establish the ecampaign. Watertown native Scott Erickson took over after Adkins established the Internet strategy.(Scott is now an account executive at Lawrence and Schiller advertising agency in Sioux Falls associated with various political clients and the State of South Dakota client.) Very quietly over the 2009 – 2010 election cycle the ecampaign enhanced Thune’s national stature among GOP Internet activists building email list of (I’m guessing) hundred’s of thousands of names. Thune has almost 10 thousand followers on Twitter and 74 thousand on Facebook.

Also during this period Thune and Brassell were very aggressive in fundraising for the reelect and now possibly a Presidential bid. Thune’s latest Federal Election Commission report shows almost $7 million in the bank and his Heartland Values PAC, Leadership Political Action Committee, has a little more than $110 thousand in their treasury.

The addition of Angel Paulson who has national campaign (worked with Romney campaign) and who has national finance experience certainly is a plus. Paulson is a South Dakota native and SDSU graduate.

That is the status of John Thune’s current deliberation and status as I see it. Though I must add John Thune is the favorite of the GOP Senate caucus. They recognize his ability and his attractiveness as a candidate. The missing piece of the puzzle is what does Thune’s family feel and think about a candidacy with more public exposure and scrutiny? His family is and has always been a big and important part of the equation in charting the political course.

Back to Jeff Erickson – For the past several years Erickson has been the major domo in raising money for GOP candidates. He is good at it, is trusted and most importantly for a fundraiser is not afraid to ask. Should Erickson join the Thune team in the fundraising department, it would be a plus. Should an exploratory committee or a candidacy be announce after the November election or shortly after the first of 2011 you can expect that Erickson could lead an effort that would raise perhaps $1.5 to $2.0 million in many large and small donations very quickly just here in South Dakota. GOP activists would be excited, energized and believe John is the man! Rushmore State money would flow into a Thune Presidential War Chest at warp speed.

Presumably Erickson is connected in nearby States where he has a business presence especially among the banking community.

Since Erickson has fundraising experience it is logical that he could help organize the national effort that in part is required to win the nomination. While Erickson might lead the National effort, national Presidential campaigns generally require leaders with really big money abd nationwide connections.

Jeff Erickson has not been on the national stage before. To my knowledge he does not have the chops of (and these are names many may not know) a Mercer Reynolds (George W Bush), Tom Loeffler (John McCain) on the GOP side or Penney Pritzker (Barack Obama).

These are interesting times. Thune is getting closer to throwing his hat in the ring, November 2 approaches (as does November 6, 2012), but time will tell.

Is This a Federal Responsibility?

2010-09-16T18:56:00.001-07:00

Sioux Falls’ sewer emergency commenced on August 4, quick action by the City’s Public Works Department and executive leadership by Mayor Huether ensued and little over five weeks later repairs are made. Good Job!

The sewage line collapse exacerbated by the severe summer rains caused an emergency and disaster was probably averted. Today in a news story titled “Sewer Repair tally: $1.4 million”, it was reported the total cost of the temporary by pass and permanent improvements and upgrade is $1.4 million dollars. The article also indicated that City officials “are hoping that the federal money will help cover the costs.

Money is tight in a City that has uncertain sales tax revenue in an uncertain economy and is operating on a slimmed down budget using significant budget holdbacks implemented by former Mayor Dave Munson.

While the sanitary sewer system was being repaired, a separate track was also being pursued by City officials. On August 31 the City requested from the Minnehaha County Commission a declaration of disaster that would allow the Governor to declare a disaster and trigger a request for FEMA funds to help pay the Sioux Falls’ repair bill.

Sure it is great for someone else to pay your bills but it should not be the Federal government’s responsibility to pay for what is solely a Sioux Falls problem.

$1.4 million while significant is something the City could have handled. The last I understood, there were almost $40 million in reserves.

Is it any wonder that our Federal Treasury is broke? A break in an old sewer line is Sioux Falls under lots of pressure from Mother Nature should not a Federal case. To have any hope of straightening out the fiscal mess in Washington we must get off Uncle Sam’s benevolent teat. More than a little self reliance is called for.

The Problem is ours, not Washington’s!

Endbar – Taking into account the bureaucratic costs, it cost a lot more that the $1.4 when the County, State, and Sugar Daddy get’s involved. And don’t forget whose money it really is, ditto not Washington’s!

It is ALL Spin!

2010-09-13T16:36:00.001-07:00

Democrats under the leadership of Barack Obama are losing the war of Public Opinion in the run up to the General Election. Both polling and the pundits show them nationally in jeopardy of losing the U S House and its being mentioned that even the control of the U S Senate is “in play.”

The Economy and Jobs are the Number 1 Issue.

The President it seems every week, as the polling numbers (his and the Democrats) gets worse seems to have a new plan.

This week President Obama proposes extending the Bush tax cuts for all those with incomes under $250,000. The President and his Party just can not do policy without playing class warfare. Apparently it will not help the economy if you have more disposable income to spend!

Make no mistake, there is no plan to deal with the economy, its all politics and spin.

During the Obama Presidency the White House eco plan has been pork barrel spending to reward his favorite special interests and a PR plan.

Just think of the names: The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, (the first cabinet meeting) Roadmap to Recovery, Jobs Summit, A Summer of Recovery.

Interspersed with all the talk, the President has been blaming George W. Bush and the Republicans for the poor economy and liberally taking shots at the tax cuts he is now endorsing.

It is sad and pathetic that he has not provided real leadership on anything. Even his misguided health care plan was forced on a divided American people – you know the story, I won’t go into it.

Now President Obama has come up with another economic plan just in time for the election - Continuing the Bush tax cuts. And the President wants credit for it!

BHO has Chutzpah and he thinks Americans can’t remember yesterday.

Think About It.

5771

2010-09-08T19:35:00.000-07:00

Happy New Year – Rosh Hashana 5771. Israeli Statesman Yoram Ettinger weighs in on this Jewish New Year, both its current and historic relevance.

Rosh Hashana Guide for the Perplexed
By: Yoram Ettinger
September 8, 2010

Based on Jewish Sages

1. Rosh Hashanah - unlike all other Jewish holidays - is a universal(stock-taking, renewal and hopeful) holiday. It is celebrated on the sixthday of The Creation, which produced the first human being, Adam. Rosh(Hashanah) means in Hebrew "beginning," "first," "head," "chief." The Hebrew letters of Rosh constitute the root of the Hebrew word for Genesis,"Bereshit", which is the first word in the Bible. Just like The Creation, soshould the New Year and our own actions, be a thoughtful - and not a hasty - process. Rosh Hashanah is celebrated at the beginning of the Hebrew month of Tishrei, which means beginning/Genesis in ancient Akkadian.

The Hebrew spelling of Tishrei is included in the spelling of Genesis. Rosh Hashanah is referred to as "Ha'rat Olam" (the pregnancy of the world), and its prayers highlight Motherhood, Optimism and the pregnancies of Sarah and Rachel, the Matriarchs, and Hanna, who gave birth to Isaac, Joseph & Benjamin and Samuel the Prophet respectively. Sarah (the root of the Hebrew word, Israel) and Hanna (the root of the Hebrew words Pardon, Amnesty and Merciful) were two of the seven Jewish Prophetesses: Sarah, Miriam, Hanna, Deborah, Huldah, Abigail, Esther. Hanna's prayer has become a role-model for God-heeded-prayers which are recited by the "non-privileged". Noah – who led the rebirth of humanity/world - also features in Rosh Hashanah prayers.

2. The transient/tenuous nature of human beings is highlighted by thecelebration of Rosh Hashanah (the beginning of a New Year) and the end ofthe previous year. Recognizing human fallibility, Rosh Hashana highlightshumility, soul-searching, responsibility, renewal/rebirth and the need forsystematic education.

3. The Shofar (ritual horn) is blown on Rosh Hashanah as a wake-up call tomend human behavior. Rosh Hashanah is also called "Yom Te'roo'ah" (the day of blowing the Shofar). Shofar is a derivative of the Hebrew word forEnhancement/Improvement (Shipur), which is constantly expected of humanbeings. It requires humility, symbolized by the Shofar, which is bent and isnot supposed to be decorated.

The Shofar is the epitome of Peace-Through-Strength: It is made from thehorn of a ram, which is a peaceful animal equipped with strong horns, inorder to fend off wild animals. The numerical value of the Hebrewword,"ram", is 41, equal to the value of "Mother."

While the blowing of the Shofar is a major virtue, listening to the Shofaris at least as pertinent a virtue. The Hebrew root of "listening" is Ozen,ear, which contains the balancing mechanism in our body. Ozen is also theroot for "Scale" and "Balance", which is the zodiac sign of the month ofTishrei. Both Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur (when people balance their good deeds vs. bad deeds) are observed during the month of Tishrei.

4. The three ways of blowing the Shofar express the inner constant values(Te'kiyah), the tenuous nature of human actions (She'va'rim) and thedetermined pursuit of faith-driven long-term vision (Troo'ah). The last,and very long, blow of the Shofar (Te'kiyah Gedolah) represents long-termsteadfastness capability in face of challenges and threats.

The three series of blowing the Shofar highlights the liberty ofhuman-beings under G-D's Kingdom (Malkhooyot), the centrality ofhistory/memory/roots (Zichronot) and enhancement (Shofarot).

The blows of the Shofar represent the three Patriarchs, the three parts ofthe Bible and the three types of human beings on judgment day (pious, eviland mediocre).

Rosh Hashanah services include 101 blows of the Shofar. It is the numericalvalue of the Hebrew spelling of Michael, a Guardian Angel, which was one ofthe names of Moses.

5. The pomegranate - one of the seven species blessing the Land of Israel -features during Rosh Hashanah meals and in a key blessing on Rosh Hashanah: "May you be credited with as many rewards as the seeds of the pomegranate."

The pomegranate becomes ripe in time for Rosh Hashanah and contains -genetically - 613 seeds, which is the number of Jewish laws (of Moses). Itwas employed as an ornament of the Holy Arc, the Menorah (candelabrum) and the coat of the High Priest. It is employed as an ornament for the TorahScrolls. The first two letters of the Hebrew word for pomegranate, Rimon -which is known for its crown - mean sublime (Ram). The pomegranate (skin and seeds) is one of the healthiest fruit: high in iron, anti-oxidants,anti-cancer, decreases blood pressure, enhances the quality of blood and thecardiac and digestion systems. Rimon is a metaphor for a wise person:Wholesome like a pomegranate.

6. Commemoration Day ("Yom Hazikaron" in Hebrew) is one of the names of Rosh Hashanah. One can avoid - rather than repeat - past mistakes by learning from history. The more one remembers, the deeper are the roots and the greater is one's stability and one's capability to withstand storms ofpressure and temptation. The more stable/calculated/moral is the beginningof the year (Rosh Hashanah), the more constructive will the rest of theyear.

Rosh Hashanah commemorates:Faith in - and Awe of G-D;
Optimism in the face of daily adversity;
The first human-being, Adam, who was created on the sixth day of theCreation; The cycle of nature - seed planting season and the equality of day andnight;
The opening of the Ark of Noah following the Flood;
The almost-sacrifice of Isaac (thou shall not sacrifice human beings);
The three Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were conceived/born duringthe month of Tishrei, which is called "The Month of the Strong Ones" -Nature and the Patriarchs; The release of Joseph from Egyptian jail;
The receipt of the Ten Commandment and the Torah;Deliverance from spiritual and physical slavery (which inspired theAbolitionist movement);
The Prophet Samuel (who inspired the early Pilgrims, US Founding Fathers and the rebellion against the British) was conceived in Tishrey;Reconstruction of the Second Temple and destruction of both Temples;
The ingathering of the Jews to the Land of Israel; The first of the Ten Days of Personal, Annual Self-Examination (similar to afull service of one's car).

7. A Hebrew word for atonement/repentance is Te'shuvah, which also meansspiritual and physical Return to core values and to the Land of Israel. OnRosh Hashanah one is expected to plan a "spiritual/behavioral budget" forthe entire year. The prerequisite for a wholesome "budget" is humility, apre-condition for an effective "stock taking." The three Hebrew words,Teshuvah (Repentance/Atonement), Shivah (Spiritual and Physical Return) and Shabbat (Creation concluded) emerge from the same Hebrew root. Theyconstitute a triangular (personal, national and spiritual) foundation, whosestrength depends on the depth of Education and Commemoration. According to King Solomon, "The triangular cord cannot be broken."

May the New Year (5771 according to the Jewish calendar) be top heavy onTruth, Realism and Endurance and low on misrepresentations, delusion andvacillation.

Kristi – Get On Message

2010-08-30T16:49:00.001-07:00

In my previous post, Not Just Another Pretty Face, I concluded that the South Dakota Congressional will be a hard fought close election. It had been a little over a week since Herseth Sandlin played the Social Security card when last week Democrat operatives exposed what they presume is a character flaw in the Republican candidate. On Thursday KELO TV ran the story “Noem Not Proud of Driving Record.”

Essentially the story reported on the driving records of the four major candidates on the ballot in the November election, (Heidepriem, Daugaard, Herseth Sandlin, and Noem). Particularly to speeding tickets Heidepriem 17, Daugaard 12, Herseth Sandlin 1, and Noem 20. What seemed so egregious is that Noem’s last ticket was for 94 miles per hour and she failed to pay several fines, with failure notices being sent and warrants issued.

Understand that most political campaigns do some opposition research. Even the most rudimentary check their opponent’s positions and their background to varying degrees. For major campaigns like for Governor, U S Senate or House, professional researchers are usually employed to do the opposition research to find the hickeys. In these major campaigns, often candidates even have their own backgrounds and records checked to see what their opponent is finding out about them. If this seems a little unseemly, it may be but there is a lot at stake on the outcomes, it is not illegal, and it is part of the drill for a successful campaign.

Public records are checked, both civil and criminal. Besides driving records, property records, mortgages, liens, judgments, employment histories, divorces, and even visits to the neighbors. You may remember a couple of years ago when Democrat Senatorial Campaign staffers watched prospective candidate and former Lt. Governor’s Steve Kirby’s home to see pet groomers come to his home to tend to his dogs. Remember in the 2004 Senate campaign when Republicans discovered Tom Daschle’s declaration of D C residency on his Washington, DC residence? In my years at the State Party oppo research just came with the territory. As is often said, politics ain’t bean bag!

I can only imagine the light hearts and smiles in the Herseth camp when Kristi Noem’s driving record was exposed, particularly the failure to appear aspect. They had been given a gift.

Herseth Sandlin has been behind in this race, evidenced by both her campaign style and the polling that had been released (primarily by Rasmussen Reports). Stephanie played the Senior card at the Sioux Empire Fair and as previously discussed put Noem on the defensive. Then about 2 weeks later the driving records are exposed.

Sidebar – some may want to shoot the messenger, but it is newsworthy, and it is part of the campaign drill to help the media to its job. The Parties, special interests, candidate’s campaigns send out releases, talking points, blast faxes, emails, now tweets, retweets and on and on incessantly to push messages.

In South Dakota today we have just about lost our political press. I think the AP still has a State Capitol reporter and the R C Journal, the Argus, Bob Mercer, Tupper at the Daily Republic pretty much is the political press. With changing if not failing business models, mainstream media has little budget to do their own research. With high staff turnover and other coverage demands there is little time to scrutinize public records. So when presented with Noem’s failure to appear, it was in a word – Sensational.

When the story broke and confronted by KELO, Kristi Noem did the right thing. She said she was not proud of her record, was working to improve, and wanted to talk about important issues other than her driving record.

The Noem campaign and Republicans now need to move on. Quit talking about driving records, theirs and others. Don’t make this a two day or two week story. Democrats will try to keep ginning this story but the candidate has answered and must resist all impulses to keep talking about it.

What is happening is that Stephanie Herseth Sandlin has regained the momentum. HS is defining Noem rather than Noem doing the defining. I.e. Senior Citizens can not trust Noem and she has character flaws. All the while, Stephanie is running feel good ads appealing to the her Seniors and reassuring her prior voters who might otherwise be questioning her values that she is the independent voice for South Dakota and not the candidate who is on the political fringe.

South Dakota voters do not support the President and the budget deficits are the number one issue. This is the issue South Dakotans care about. Kristi must tell South Dakota voters that Barack Obama is taking our Country in the wrong direction. His $800 billion budget busting stimulus plan is not working. Stephanie supports the President’s wrong direction and supports and voted for his stimulus plan. In her advertising Kristi should look right into the camera and deliver this message with conviction.

Tell voters, real South Dakota values are paying off the mortgage for the future not adding to it. South Dakotans understand you can not buy prosperity. Tell ‘em.

Kristi Noem needs to get on message!

Not Just Another Pretty Face

2010-08-22T13:29:00.001-07:00

The political winds are blowing at close to gale force at the backs of the GOP and into the face of the Democrats. It is very safe to say that Democrats are going to have a terrible electoral year.

The cause and ultimately the blame will be President Obama.

Citizens are worried about the economy, jobs, and particularly the deficit. Surprisingly health care reform that was shoved down the throats of a skeptical and divided nation seems more like a symptom than a cause of voter anger.

The shift in political winds has had a profound effect on the At Large U S House election in South Dakota.

During the primary election campaign, I believed the SD GOP had three very good candidates. In terms of articulating the issues and offering solutions I believed Kristi Noem was the weakest. I thought Chris Nelson and Dr. Curd better articulated the issues. In the end while I thought Nelson would pull out the win, I was not surprised Kristi Noem won. Her gender was a clear distinction and she had the organization and financial support of many activists in the Thune Camp. (I have believed for many years that Women make good candidates.) This is nuanced as nearly 100% of South Dakota GOP activists are in the Thune Camp. Particularly helpful to Noem were the Women for Thune group that worked so diligently for Thune in 2004. They were feeling their oats as a few of the Women for Thune had been in Massachusetts last January working for Scott Brown to win the Ted Kennedy seat, and they returned fired up to put our House Seat in the GOP column. Kristi became their cause. Contrary to suggestions in blogosphere I do not believe that Senator Thune or any of his staffers (campaign or otherwise were involved.)

Polling by Rasmussen has shown for sometime that Stephanie HS is facing a real battle this election cycle. She has the Democrat base and those supporters who have been with her now thru four elections. But she has lost much of her GOP support and the important Independents that supported her in past elections and Barack Obama in 2008. The effected GOP and Independent voters now want another Change.

The latest polling by Rasmussen Reports shows Noem with a 51% to 42% advantage, and on Friday (August 20) the non partisan, call them like you see them, and usually right, Charlie Cook calls the Noem / Herseth Sandlin a toss up.

Without question, the US House race in South Dakota will be the Marquis election in 2010. I suspect that toss up is right. Kristi Noem has the momentum and Republican voters are energized, Democrats are despondent. However Herseth Sandlin as well as the National Democrats has dusted off the Social Security card. In the past this has been a very effective play for them (blaming Republican candidates for wanting to cut Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid.) Given the current state of the House race, the seniors will be the deciding factor in who wins.

A smaller factor in the race is Thomas Marking the Independent candidate. Marking presents some interesting ideas, seems to be a Conservative with a Libertarian bent. He will get some attention but not real traction. His one to four percent of the vote will come from what would otherwise be Noem voters. I will get back to the Social Security issue and debate this past two weeks, after just setting up a few preliminaries

Prelims – Herseth Sandlin is well known, very articulate, a skillful debater, has battled in close elections (Janklow and Diedrich), and is popular. On the downside, last year she seemed to be off her political game. She did not do open events. To the extent she touched her constituents, everything was very controlled. Certainly part of it was the public mood (she wanted to avoid confrontation and the Tea Party) but some element was her desire to be with her infant son when the Congress was out of Session. Her voting on the big issues in the last two years has not followed any distinct pattern. She voted against TARP twice, for the Obama Stimulus package, against Cap and Trade, and against the Health Care Reform bill. To avoid a primary she apparently has promised not to work for health care reform repeal.

Mrs. Noem won the primary election. She has served in the Leadership but in four Sessions not notably led on any Statewide “hot political” issues where she distinguished herself as Mrs. Go To on an issue. In her advertising she ran heavily against Washington, DC and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Politically this bothers me on several levels. While Kristi is running against Washington she has travelled there seeking National Party support and money. It is an assumption on my part but if the past is any indication she is probably accepting money from other GOP Congressional Leadership PACs. Perhaps national GOP figures will come here to campaign for her. Is this an anti Washington message? Send me there and I will become part of the team.

The other Noem statement that “gets to me” is her saying she can not support the San Francisco limousine liberal, Nancy Pelosi. Foremost, the voters that Noem needs to win over for the most part do not know who Pelosi is. They do know President Obama is who they don’t like and the GOP should save their fire for him. The claim is made that Stephanie votes with Nancy 95% of the time. That is probably true but which votes? Does that include only roll call votes or procedural and voice votes as well? For comparison, what percentage of the time does House Minority Leader, John Boehner, 65% or 75%? Noem repeatedly claims she will not vote to make Nancy Pelosi Speaker of the House. Well of course not!

The only vote that a Congressional Candidate (House or Senate) owes their party is to support their Caucus’ nominee for leadership.

In watching the day to day soap opera of national government and politics we sometimes forget that the Legislative Branch of Government (The Congress) is Bi-Partisan and is organized by the two major political parties. The Majority Party organizes the government. The Speaker of the U S House of Representatives organizes the Committees, and oversees the apparatus by which legislation proceeds. The majority rules.

Thus when a person becomes a candidate for a partisan ballot and declares they are a Republican or a Democrat they owe it to their party’s voters to support their party when organizing the government. Otherwise in all other matters, they represent all of their constituents regardless of party by doing in their judgment what is best for the common good.

The Debates, Social Security, and Medicare – Both Candidates have faced off now several times in the past two weeks. I will comment on the two that I watched on the Internet, Sioux Empire Fair in Sioux Falls on August 11 and Dakotafest in Mitchell on August 17.

If you watched the Sioux Empire Fair debate and were unfamiliar with the issues, the candidates, and the politics, you would have easily determined that the more strident, voice raised, finger pointing Herseth was trailing in the polls. Kristi Noem was calm and collected and accounted for herself and made no gaffes. Herseth however did lay a glove on her a couple of times and began positioning Kristi on the Social Security issue. The first time was in response to being question on the vote the day before to spend more for teachers and supplements for health care to Seniors. Herseth Sandlin said used her replied that South Dakota caregivers, nursing institutions, and Seniors themselves had contacted her about lost benefits and lost jobs. Kristi did not respond. In the second instance when questioned about her Stimulus vote, Herseth responded very directly to the GOP candidate that the GOP in Pierre had deficit spent for 7 of the last 8 years and in fact had used the Stimulus dollars that Noem was criticizing to balance the budget. Noem did respond saying that had South Dakota not used the dollars some other State would have.

Thus began the positioning of Noem as not a friend of Seniors. In the next few days both campaigns continued to position themselves and their opponent on the issues.

Stephanie claiming that Noem would cut payments to Seniors or supports privatizing social security (I continue to think this is not a bad idea if properly constructed and with proper oversight. - a complicated issue for another time perhaps. Social Security today is a Ponzi scheme that would embarrass Bernie Madoff.).

Kristi took a pledge of her own promising to protect Seniors and promising to repeal Obamacare that cuts Medicare funding. Unfortunately, the problem is the more Kristi talks about that Stephanie is lying about her position; she is talking about it instead of Congress or President Obama.

At the Dakotafest debate there were more charges and counter charges but this time Kristi punched back and refused to be labeled. Kristi Noem accounted for herself well on issues and presence. She looked like a Congresswoman.

Sidebar – While the debates were pointed it was for the most parts on issues. This was not a catfight. They did however demonstrate why a man running against a woman is at a disadvantage another woman is not at. My observation in the Herseth Sandlin losing effort to Bill Janklow in 2002, Janklow was careful to not be critical of his opponent.

Just a quick note on Stephanie and seniors -They are her secret group. When she campaigned in 2002 she seemed like she was at every senior center in South Dakota. Perhaps she just found it easy to campaign there or she genuinely wanted to build this coalition. (Note to the Noem campaign – go to a few of these also and remind the seniors what Obama and deficits are doing for their grandchildren.) Stephanie has not forgotten them. Remember the advertising in 2008 with Herseth Sandlin playing the piano for the Democrats and Republicans that supported her? Mrs. HS has worked this group and will be all over them this time. You can also expect to see her telegenic Grandpa pitching on her behalf again this year.

And back and forth it will go. I expect there will be money coming in on both sides talking about Medicare, Social Security, and Health Care. Stephanie will try to keep Kristi in the box and Kristi must get out. If the debate is not changed, the current Noem lead may evaporate.

The Senior vote is important and critical to winning. Larry Pressler in the mid 1980s and early 1990s was a hero to Senior Citizens. By the 1996 election against Tim Johnson, unfortunately many of his earlier supporters had passed away. In 1986 in the very close Abdnor Daschle Senate election, the weekend before the election (before dialer calls)the Daschle campaign attempted )and completed many) to call every Senior Citizen in the State and tell them that Jim Abdnor had voted to cut Social Security. It has happened before and the stage is being set for history to repeat itself.

At the end of the day, this election will not be a beauty contest and despite the political winds, it will be hard fought close election. Maybe not a Johnson v Thune but a nail biter.

Living in the Past

2010-08-08T12:39:00.001-07:00

This past week I’ve been traveling down memory lane.

On Tuesday, I made and lost a bet with my friend about who played in the 1960 Cotton Bowl. (note to self – don’t make any more Sports bets with Ron – though I will take the Huskers over the Rabbits on September 23rd). Ron had seen the HBO production “The Express” about Ernie Davis of Syracuse. Researching the results of the wager took to me to a phenomenal video recapping the 1957 Cotton Bowl between T C U and Syracuse. (Big Time Hat Tip to Al Gore for inventing the Internet – it is great and I love you man!)

Watching the vid, the memories came rushing back. T C U was my team and they won a piss cutter 28-27 over the eighth nationally ranked Orangeman and their great running back Jim Brown. Brown was outstanding and went on to NFL fame with the Cleveland Browns. The Sporting News in 2002 named Brown “the greatest professional football player ever.”

What really turned my clock into rewind was listening to the sports casting of Kern Tips. Tips was a fixture in Texas Football. I could go into my whole Southwest Conference shtick but suffice to say Tips was an important part of the fabric of life in Texas in the fall. He headlined The Humble Oil radio network. Humble broadcasted all the SWC games each Saturday and Tips always called the most important game of the week.

I had not thought of Tips for many years and Googled him. His Handbook of Texas Online bio revealed that Tips had written a book “Football Texas Style an Illustrated History of the Southwest Conference.” This did not seem to be a book that I could live without so with several keystrokes, I purchased a very good used copy from a vendor at Amazon.com. Amazingly the book arrived, dust jacket and all on Friday. Not too shabby since I purchased it on Wednesday and did not pay for any expedited shipping.

Sidebar – Just looking at the cover shocked me backed to the past. Two friends from the past are front and center greeting the Texas players as they come onto the field. They were members of Campus spirit organizations, The Cowboys and The Spurs. It was always the Jewish guys greeting the players – never the Jewish guys in pads. In any event there were: Names from the past, Morton Lee Herman and Steve Spiritas.

Friday night besides posting about the Sioux Falls sewer emergency it was Nostalgia night at the Rosenthals. In reading about Lone Star gridiron lore, one name stuck in my head, Walter Fondren. Fondren had played Darrell Royal’s first Longhorn team and was All SWC at halfback and also played QB. The memorable thing about Fondren was that his family was one of the principal owners of Humble Oil.

Saturday there was more Googleing. I knew little about Fondren and particularly wanted to know about a super rich jock and what he made of his life. Looking at Walter William Fondren III pushed me even further down Mem Lane.

Walter Fondren led Houston Lamar High School to the Texas High School State Championship in 1953 and received the Texas Sportswriter’s “Outstanding High School Football Player of the Year Award.” Also noteworthy Fondren graduated from UT with a Bachelor of Science in Geology.

Fondren who passed away this past January had been drafted by the Los Angeles Rams but declined to go Pro and went back to Houston to be in business and start a family. His obituary points out that he administered the Fondren Trusts for public purposes particularly medical and educational ones. Beyond that he was an ardent Conservationist with a deep love and interest in the Gulf of Mexico. Fondren III founded and chaired the Coastal Conservation Association in 1977. This is an interesting turn of events considering Fondren’s lineage. Humble Oil after its founding consolidated with Standard Oil of New Jersey and later became Exxon and even later Exxon Mobile.

In reading about the Fondren’s I moved me away from footemaball and into more history that frankly I was unaware of. Admitting this I wonder if my Love Texas and Love Fort Worth cards might revoked.

I began looking into the origins of Humble Oil and found that Walter Fondren Sr. and Ross Sterling had partnered to form Humble Oil in Humble Texas in 1911. Sterling who I had heard of but not in context of Humble Oil became Governor of Texas in 1930. This is not so remarkable as Texas has had several Governor’s in or close to the oil Bidness. William Clements, John Connally, and George W Bush come to mind.

Sidebar – An anecdote from Robert Caro’s trilogy (thus far – when are you ever going to finish and publish the fourth volume on LBJ’s presidency?) on Lyndon Johnson. Caro tells of essentially prominent oil interests approaching Lyndon Johnson and offering to cut him in on some oil deals; Deals that would have made Johnson very wealthy. Being associated with Big Oil is no sin in Texas but for someone who had White House aspirations, being Big Oil could be a big political liability. Johnson declined. Caro’s point was that even in the 1940s Johnson had his sights on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Drilling (excuse the pun) into Sterling I learned that his son in law was prominent Fort Worth architect, Wyatt Hedrick. Hedrick was the architect of choice in Cowtown but I never understood he had national presence. Wyatt Hedrick was the third largest architectural firm in the United States. Perhaps this is not so surprising given his political connection. Hedrick designed many prominent buildings including the Will Rogers Memorial Center, City Hall, and the Texas and Pacific Train Station in Fort Worth. Another shocker (I was clueless) Hedrick was hired in the early 1920s to design Love Field, the Dallas Municipal Airport. For Dallas to reach 30 miles to the west for an Architect, he had to be pretty amazing.

I guess I hadn’t thought enough about the past that I picked up the Sunday “New York Times” to find a fascinating front page story about a reunion of Norman Rockwell models in Arlington, Vermont. Rockwell was America’s premier illustrator who was from a Twentieth Century style that captured everyday Americans in the simple drama of life, their dreams, their wants, their fears, their love, their families, their patriotism. He had a particular relationship with the Boy Scouts, frequently illustrating their calendars and other promotional materials. Art, America loved and understood.

Shocking me back to the present, I saw my granddaughter Sara’s new kicks on Facebook this morning. She wore them last night with her Mom to the Jonas Brothers concert in Joliet. Is this modern art, or even in the present I am living in the past?

Sioux Falls Sewage Emergency

2010-08-06T19:13:00.000-07:00

Public Works are one of civilizations amenities until they are non operational - then utilities you take for granted that are out of sight and out of mind, during an emergency or disaster become a necessity.

Wednesday afternoon one of the City’s trunk sewer lines apparently collapsed. It collapsed likely because of the age of the sewer line, the stress of high ground water tables and heavy use; the heavy use being exacerbated by errant homeowners discharging basement sumps into the sanitary sewer system rather than outside and into the storm water system. Until investigation and study are completed, the exact causes won’t be known and longer term remedies will not be determined. The temporary fix consists of an above ground bypass of the collapsed portion of the sanitary sewer.

Natural disasters such as floods, forest fires, blizzards, tornadoes, and the like are excellent opportunities for political leaders to demonstrate leadership. The events surrounding such disasters also assure high media exposure. Politicians neither enjoy nor wish for these kinds of problems but the exposure and real political opportunity exists none the less. It goes with the territory.

When the sewer line break was discovered and the potential for vast damage was assessed the Sioux Falls Public Works department, the Emergency Management folks, and Mayor Mike Huether swung into action forcefully and expeditiously.

It was reported the break was about 2:30pm and by 4:30pm the Mayor had gathered the media and announcing an action plan. Included were pleas and orders for restricting all water use west of Minnesota Avenue north of 26th Street, and all of Sioux Falls west of Interstate 29. The Mayor also encouraged residents in the north central section of the City to action to move valuables in their basements to higher elevations. Employers were encouraged to let employees return to their homes to protect their property.

City Departments appeared coordinated, including Police, Fire, Public Works, Emergency Management, Media Service, and the Mayor. (Certainly there were others, I am just unaware of all who were involved). Over the past two days our public servants have done their job. While any damage is too much, painful and tragic to the affected, other than to infrastructure real disaster was averted. There was minimal damage. Tonight reportedly 30 homes were affected. Undoubtedly there will be more, but thousands of homes, businesses, and other buildings could have been damaged.

Maybe the City’s orders went too far. Perhaps there was overkill. But in this situation overkill is justified. Residents responded appropriately and Mayor Mike did take the lead.

The Mayor seemed to be enjoying the attention at times, but to the point: actions and results (and that is what really counts) were appropriate, timely, and effective. I understand throughout the emergency, the Mayor communicated with and briefed the City Council on the emergency.

Overall City Government worked as we would expect and deserve high marks.

Caveat – Proper repairs and improvements should be made to the infrastructure, but we should not shoot a pigeon with cannon. Several years ago when there was flash flooding and basements with water in the 33rd Street and Minnesota Avenue area in near South Side and Central Sioux Falls, the City Council rushed to judgment with their cannon to make overly extensive storm water improvements – spending $42 million on what was proposed to be a $24 million project. Our City Fathers should take a deep breadth before hurrying to call in artillery again.

Sidebar - I have been observing Mayor Huether’s job performance since he was elected and it is still too early to assess his job performance. An assessment two and one half months into his term would be anecdotal. Pundits and the public should give him a year so that he is judged by results. However, I do plan to post on Mike Huether a Work in Progress in the near future.

Endbar – Associated Thoughts – I have heard some grumbling about the discharging of massive amounts (over a million gallons) of raw sewage into the Big Sioux River and Covell Lake. I question if it would have been better backed up in homes? Is putting raw sewage more or less egregious than a petroleum spill?

With all the rain we have had in the last several weeks, the high water table, and specifically the two of 5 and 6 inch plus downpours the end of last week; what is the explanation as to why there was not flooding in the areas the Army Corps of Engineers says is in the Flood Plain? Sioux Falls is spending millions to comply with Corps’ Flood Plain revisions and property owners are paying large premiums for flood insurance – Should not there be an explanation?

Looks Like Money to Me

2010-07-28T18:02:00.000-07:00

The cat is now all the way out of the bag. I posted previously the Sioux Falls Stockyards site had been sold and was going to be redeveloped. This last weekend it was reported that the proposed usage of the Stockyards would be for a scrap metal recycling business. Today’s “Sioux Falls Business Journal” has a more complete story of the details about what is being planned.

Since the story broke on Sunday there has been a lot of talk about (I would distinguish this from serious discussion) how undesirable such a business would be so close to Downtown and Falls Park. It is suggested a step in the wrong direction both esthetically and environmentally.

I do not agree.

Scrap yards are as about as green a business as there is.

Foremost they recycle used materials and were one of the few businesses doing so prior to the environmental movement that began about the time of the inception of Earth Day in 1970. Besides the metal processors long time recyclers include the renderers, rag merchants, and paper recyclers.

Today GREEN is all the buzz. Renewable is all the buzz. Would we as a community rather have scrap metal and junk cars laying about all over town at other industrial sites and homes? Consolidating reusable waste to one location is the environmentally right thing to do. Perhaps the connotation “junk” is the problem? You don’t hear any complaints about Millennium Recycling who is processing paper products and electronics.

Any operation that the prospective operator, TJN Enterprises, engages in is regulated. The City, State and Federal governments all have stringent environmental laws and regulations. The property is zoned. There large neighbor, John Morrell and Company, has probably within its facility one of the largest rendering plants to be found anywhere, given they are slaughtering and processing as many as 18,000 hogs per day. The Stockyards itself when operating at full capacity was generating thousands if not millions of pounds and gallons on animal waste.

The size of the property, 36 acres, of which TJN will use about 24 will accommodate off street parking for trucks both delivering raw material and taking away recycled material. The availability of rail service is necessary and also an environmental plus. The new BNSF switching and rail yard will relocate east of the Stockyards location on east Rice Street.

An assumption on my part, but given the location and nature of the business the viewscape will be done in manner to have as much of the operations out of the public’s view as is possible. Cranes are an indispensible part of metal processing as are smokestacks, heat exhaust, and refrigeration condensers are to a meat packing plant. In the talk I’ve heard no one seems to mention either Unit Can Company on North Phillips across the street from Falls Park or Sioux Steel Company that abuts the Sioux River just above the Falls. And there is Barney’s Salvage on North Cliff and Morrell’s sewage pretreatment ponds just north of their plant near the River.

We have zoning for a reason and recyclers provide an important environmental function. Unless there is some really huge problem, the City Planning Commission should grant the Conditional Use Permit once TJN or the Landlord (as appropriate) dots all the i’s and crosses all the t’s. As my tree hugger friends like to say, recycling is part of our ecosystem (I read here economy as well).

Our leaders talk a lot about development but when opportunity presents itself, it should not be turned away because the naysayers believe it’s not pretty. TJN will provide jobs and increase our tax base. This project looks like money to me.

The Library Budget

2010-07-24T18:39:00.001-07:00

Mayor Mike Huether presented his City Budget for 2011 on Thursday. For practical purposes it is a no growth budget. It holds spending at current levels based on the Munson administration’s 2010 “holdback budget” levels. Sales taxes for 2011 are projected with NO increase and there are no increases in City employees.

The Argus leader proclaimed in their front page above the fold story on Friday, “Mayor Seeks Budget Cuts.” The front page story below a very out of the ordinary photograph of the Mayor’s backside with both arms raised above his head (Elmer Gantry style) has the sub headline, “Huether’s plan trims spending for police, snow removal.” Beyond the unusual photograph is the more interesting headline on page 4, where the news report continues and proclaims, “Budget: City libraries also face cuts.”

It is the Library cuts I wish to address. While factually accurate, the headline takes the facts out of context and leaves the wrong impression.

Public Lending Libraries are important! They are an important element and component of life long education, important to our culture and important to our civilization. As Sioux Falls continues to evolve into a medical research center and as out of state talent are recruited to relocate to Sioux Falls, our Library is becoming a part of our economic development effort as well.

In my youth and at the University much of the best time I spent was at the Library.

I have a strong interest in our libraries (libraries are evolving in how they are being used (extremely digital) – a subject for future posts). Currently I have the honor and the privilege of serving on the Siouxland Libraries Board of Trustees. Consequently I have more than a passing awareness of “what’s happening” concerning the proposed City Budget, particularly as it affects the Library.

Sidebar – The Board of Trustees are not responsible for the operation of the Libraries. The Mayor thru his administration sets budgets (with the approval of the City Council) and operates the Siouxland Library System. Direct operational control is vested in the Director of Libraries. The current Director is Sally Felix who has been at her post for about seven years.

The Library “Board sets policies for the library and provides citizen input and recommendations for administrative actions to the Library Director, Sally Felix, and to the governing bodies.” (taken from the City website)

The Board of Trustees is very committed to assuring that our libraries are responsive to the needs of our Community.

Back to the Budget and the “Argus Leader”

The “Argus Leader” story reported –

“Total expenditures for Siouxland Libraries would drop form $11.7 million in the original budget to $6.6 million in 2011 under Huether’s plan, according to the budget documents.”

The report is accurate but totally misleading. The appearance is that the Mayor has gutted the Libraries budget. For whatever reason, the reporter did not drill into the budget, failed to ask the Mayor, the City Finance Director, or the Director of Libraries for an explanation. The reporter did not actually look at line items in the 2010 budget or for any explanation. Had they done amy research they would have found that the 2010 budget included $4.3 million in one time monies for the planning and construction of the Westside Library that will be built at 26th Street and Discovery Avenue in 2012. The funds were budgeted in 2010 and secured through the Quality of Life Bonds II issued last year. The money for the Westside Branch is in the bank!

In the Mayor's proposed 2011 budget there is also a reduction of expenditures from the use of sales tax monies for the capital acquisition of materials. Much of the materials acquisition shortfall will be made up of the use of funds leftover from the Main Library construction and renovation project. This project came in under costs estimates in part due to the poor economic conditions of the past two years. The budget procedure being employed in 2011 is similar to what is currently being done relative to the 2010 budget holdbacks.

Yes, budgeting can get a little complicated, but the Library will continue to be operated in 2011 without any significant cuts in service. Overall the 2011 is about a 0.4% reduction over the 2010 budget with holdbacks.

The Argus has a duty while getting the facts, intentionally or otherwise not to leave a misimpression.

Siouxland Libraries has a dedicated staff that makes our Libraries one of the Crown Jewels of our community.

A little advertising and promotion –

If you have not seen the renovated and expanded Main Branch Dowtown Sioux Falls, it is a MUST.

In the first two months of operation there were:

126,000 visits – up 53% over 2007
91,000 items borrowed – up 20% over 2007
17,000 computer uses – up 3% over 2007
950 new library cards issued – up 22% over 2007
2,600 people attended programs – up 2% over 2007

Goin’ East Bank

2010-07-17T13:13:00.001-07:00

C N A Surety formerly locally owned Western Surety made it official Tuesday it is relocating its offices to a new location on at the Schoeneman lumber yard site on the East Bank of the Big Sioux River on East Eighth Street.

Coincidentally the City of Sioux Falls this week commenced a street project renovation on East Eighth Street from Phillips Avenue going east across the Big Sioux River. The construction work includes utilities improvement, road resurfacing and streetscape (don’t you just love that word?) improvements. Presumably streetscape improvements mean center medians with trees and liberal use of the red brick that is finding its way into other downtown projects. Streetscaping improvements I assume will be the same or compatible to the median and sidewalks on the south side of the Holiday Inn and the Main Library on Eighth Street.

The effects of these two developments will be interesting and impact Downtown in several varied ways.

In the most positive way it sets up development on the East Bank of the river downtown. The new Lloyd Properties development (C N A Building) will be an anchor property on Eighth Street that mirrors the Cherapa Place property at Sixth Street and the river. Both Cherapa Place and the C N A building are being developed down to the riverbank. Also in the planning stage is a City Amphitheatre on the East Bank at the riverbank just south of Cherapa Place. The City bonded for these “river greenway improvements” in July of 2009 with the sale of Quality of Life II Bonds.

These two blocks on the River between Sixth and Eighth Streets will become the Gateway to the East Bank. I do not personally know Jeff Scherschligt, President of Howalt Mc Dowell Insurance, and the mover and shaker of Cherapa but have heard rumors that he envisions an active River Walk on the East Bank than might include gondola rides on the river.

With the development of the Schoeneman property the last remaining trophy parcel along the river bank is the Sioux Steel / Rysdon property north of Sixth Street on the West Side of the River. This property not only abuts the River but the primo property east of Phillips Avenue leading to Sioux Falls’ crown jewel – Falls Park.

Worth noting – The “Argus Leader” reported the Schoeneman property also might be the sight for another commercial property or a hotel.

The effect will be to make Phillips Avenue a little bit more of a shopping, dining, and entertainment district and less of a commercial district. Consider that moving 400 or 500 employees out of the Western Surety Building leaves another major downtown looking for tenants (Midland Life building and recent closure of the DME / Canadian Pacific Office at the former I B M Building on the riverbank at Eighth and Phillips).

Sidebar - It was rumored some months ago that Sioux Falls City government who needs more office space was negotiating for the purchase of the Midland National Life building. However negotiations ended without completing a deal. Will the City now consider purchasing the Western Surety Building at Ground Zero (Ninth and Phillips -just 2 blocks east City Hall)?

What happens to the Up Town development? (on Main Avenue north of Fifth Street) – It seems to me, barring a major tenant being found for one of the properties on Main Avenue abutting the development ground west of Phillips Avenue leading to Falls Park, development has been pushed back on the calendar. These properties seemed particularly “hot” prior to the recession because of the prospects of using the land on the west side of Philips north of Sixth Street. With the East Bank opening up to more offices and ultimately, hotels, dining, and entertainment perhaps Up Town can best be used for Housing and boutique shopping. This area too could be used for burgeoning growth of the County and City government Campus.

Much of this is speculation on my part and will not be completed for perhaps ten to fifteen years but the good news is: Development is happening and those C N A jobs will not be leaving the Queen City. Going East perhaps but not too far!

An Act of Political Courage

2010-07-14T17:38:00.000-07:00

The “Argus Leader” online edition reports that in discussions the Minnehaha County Commission discussed whether to declare the County an “economic recovery zone.” County Auditor, Sue Roust, said such a declaration would entitle (emphasis added) the County access to $2,785,000 of stimulus money.

Remarkably Auditor Roust is quoted as saying, “I don’t think we are distraught.” Minnehaha County currently has an unemployment rate (as reported by the “Argus” of 5.5%, while the national rate is closer to 10%.

Commissioners Anne Hajek and Dick Kelly balked.

Certainly County Government could always use more money. Can you think of any person or organization that couldn’t use more money? The brief article does not report that any specific need was mentioned.

Debate rages in the nation as to whether the economy is truly in recovery or in the throws of a double dip recession. Employment lags and deficits grow. Partisan finger pointing speaks to is the President’s Stimulus Package working. The White House says without qualification YES. They refer to the 2.5 million jobs that have been created or “saved” (whatever that is?)

I understand the temptation of the Washington Pols to use our money (or more accurately borrow) to give us a presents they can take credit for. I also understand the logic if we don’t take it someone else will.

This insanity must stop. The DEFICIT is the number one political issue. It is the glue that binds the Tea Party movement and certainly is motivating Republicans, Independents that are moving in droves (according to polling), and even some Democrats in their support of GOP candidates. The President though and many Democrats, particularly the U S House Leadership, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Appropriations Chairman David Obey, think the road to recovery is paved with more Federal spending. There is even talk of Stimulus II.

Our Government and Economy are a mess. Deficits must be tackled and real leadership is required. I understand how hard it is to give up the teat but as everyone knows (and has known for a long time and has not had the courage to do it) we must give up our share too. Entitlements must be reigned in.

The Commissioners need to act decisively and find the courage to say No, and the taxpayers need to understand that the only way to stop our collective fiscal insanity is to say No.

Endbar – Recollection - In the early 1980’s the City of Faith turned down a federal development grant of $400,000 to build a rodeo arena. Local Citizens did not understand why the Federal Government should pay for a local project. They built it themselves. It has been a generation ago but it is a great example of the kind of political courage all of us need today.

Thanks Ike

2010-07-07T17:25:00.000-07:00

Today is the 91st anniversary of the commencement of the Transcontinental Motor Convoy. The convoy was the first convoy across the Continental United States. It departed Washington, D C on July 7, 1919 and arrived in San Francisco on September 6.
An endeavor of this kind was important because armies move on roads.

One of the prominent leaders of the convoy was Lieutenant Colonel Dwight Eisenhower. Eisenhower who graduated West Point in 1915 never deployed overseas during World War I. He stayed stateside developing the use of armored Tanks for warfare. Eisenhower was third in command of the new Tanker Corps. During the War Eisenhower spent some time training and developing tanker tactics at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. For a training ground he used the hallowed ground of the location of Pickett’s Charge on the Gettysburg battlefield.

Many years later Eisenhower and his wife Mamie purchased a farm home, at Gettysburg adjacent to the battlefield. The home on the farm was remodeled (actually rebuilt) during Eisenhower’s Presidency. The Eisenhowers never took up full time residency until 1961 after Ike left the Presidency. The Eisenhowers were married in 1916. The Gettysburg farm was the Eisenhowers first home.

During the convoy due to the poor highways and the heavy nature of the tanks, trucks, and other military equipment, if any rain or otherwise wet roads were encountered the convoy stopped. During the 1930s Eisenhower studied the German Autobahn.

During his career Ike learned the importance of good roads.

In his book, “At Ease Stories I Tell to Friends”, Ike relates how he came to think about and push for the establishment of the Interstate Highway System. BTW, “At Ease” is a great read. From the book:

“The old convoy had started me thinking about good, two-lane highways, but Germany had made me see the wisdom of broader ribbons across the land.”

“This was one of the things that I felt deeply about, and I made a personal and absolute decision to see that the nation would benefit by it.”

Happenstance is a great thing about history. There is little doubt that without the Eisenhower Interstate Highway System our nation and our commerce would not be what it is today.

The superhighways enabled suburbanization.

Given today’s current political environment, both the partisan gridlock in Congress and the bureaucracy’s inability to deal with large projects (think protecting borders, natural disasters, oil spills, that such a project could pass the Congress or be constructed in a fiscally responsible (large cost overruns) or timely way.

A Significant Development

2010-07-04T18:04:00.000-07:00

Saturday found me at another of Mayor Huether’s weekly listening meetings at the Whisk & Chop. This is the fourth I’ve attended. They are extremely informative and I have learned quite a bit about the operation of City government.

Yesterday’s forum featured Mike Cooper director of Planning and Building Services. As all the division heads have done, Cooper gave an informative presentation on his department, spoke to the current hot button issues, and took questions (hard and soft) about his responsibilities. All of the Division Directors have been very professional.

A few of the facts that Cooper reported that I found interesting were that in the first half of this year building permits were issued for 455 new housing units in Sioux Falls of which 234 were for single family homes and that 25% of the workers in Sioux Falls do not live here.

This morning’s “Argus Leader” reported on the meeting and led with the headline, “City Plans Zoning Code Revisions.” While there was a good deal of discussion about public notification about zoning changes and code enforcement, the news report missed the big news of the meeting.

While Cooper was talking about long range (emphasize long range) planning specifically to roads he mentioned that an overpass is contemplated that would connect Russell Street with Rice Street to make another Cross-town Boulevard similar to what is being developed on 57th Street. While this is long term and other to what I believe conceptual, this overpass might begin at North Main Avenue and connect where Weber meets Rice at the intersection of the Stockyards and Morrells, past the north end of Falls Park. (any interpretations or misinterpretations here are mine – not Mr. Coopers).

This prompted a question about the future of the Stockyards. The Stockyards represents a large (I think he said about 34 acres) site for development within the City – actually near downtown. Cooper answered (at the urging of Mayor Huether to let the cat out of the bag) that the site had recently been purchased by Peska Construction (presumably for development) and an announcement was forthcoming in a couple of weeks.

Sidebar – Hello “Argus Leader” isn’t this news? Did anyone call Peska Construction for comment?

My guess given the fact that the site was a Stockyards and it’s across the street from perhaps the largest slaughterhouse and meat processing complex in the United States (certainly it’s one of, if not the last 19th Century old school multi story plants left), the zoning has to be the heaviest of Industrial zoning unless Stockyards have their own zoning classification.

Finally worth noting from the meeting, Mayor Huether said that he had a call from “Money” magazine within the last two weeks and that he was told Sioux Falls was again being considered to be named their best place to live in America. The Mayor was generous when talking about it and said any credit belonged to Dave Munson.

Along with Sanford research, an announcement by “Money” and Stockyards redevelopment Sioux Falls is moving forward.

Endbar – in the spirit of good things starting to happen, it was reported (yes in the “Argus Leader”) that several of the empty big box retail spaces in The Meadows have recently been leased. These good things are happening despite a languishing recovery in the national economy.