Free Republic

Tom Daschle showed at the Democratic Convention Tuesday night, but he was quickly out of town. The Senate Minority Leader has his own race to worry about. John Kerry can take care of his own. On June 1, Democrat Stephanie Herseth prevailed 51 percent-49 percent in the House special election in South Dakota over Republican Larry Diedrich. The Sioux Falls Argus Leader reported that "[t]hose who listen to Herseth and Diedrich side by side often say there isn't much difference between them." When the Argus endorsed Herseth, the editors also said "there's hardly a whiff of difference between them on...

Minnesota Vikings Legend Bud Grant is spreading the word and it's not about the upcoming football season at the metrodome. Instead, the World War II vet wants Americans to know what it's truly like in Iraq. Grant was overseas a month ago as part of a group that entertained the troops. And now he's passing on a message from our service men and women. You've seen the bombings and you've heard about the men and women who've died. But one man says you're missing out on what's really happening in Iraq. Bud Grant: "The morale is very high." Grant visited...

<p>Republicans nominated state Sen. Larry Diedrich of Elkton today to run in the June 1 special election for South Dakota's seat in the House of Representatives.</p> <p>Diedrich won the nomination on fourth ballot after two of the three Minnehaha County delegates pledged to him their support. That decision gave him enough votes to win and prompted the withdrawal of Larry Russell of Sioux Falls, a former aid to U.S. Rep. John Thune, who was the last of the seven challengers to step aside.</p>

Whenever Congress writes major legislation, lobbyists circle to get their industry or group favorably included in the final bill. The $400 billion Medicare prescription drug bill is no exception. Of the Senate's 1,043-page version of the bill, about one-fifth of the pages reportedly are proposed changes to the Medicare program that have little to do with the new drug benefit. According to reports in the Washington Post and Wall Street Journal, lobbyists succeeded in inserting a number of changes in the Senate bill in the early morning hours just before passage on June 27. The House version made certain that...

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Sioux Falls is launching a statewide program this week to promote gun safety and educate people about the consequences of illegal gun use. The U.S. Attorney's Office received $720,000 as part of a federal program to reduce illegal gun use. Radio and television ads in the South Dakota GunWise program will remind people about safe use of guns and that gun crimes can result in long prison sentences. Forgive us for being cynical, but aren't most people already aware that guns can be dangerous if mishandled and that the illegal use of guns is wrong?...

After celebrating his 80th birthday in February, former U.S. Sen. Jim Abdnor, R-S.D., will move from his Rapid City home to an assisted-living center in Sioux Falls. The one-term senator defeated the star Democrat, George McGovern, by 58 percent in 1980. Then, in 1986, Abdnor lost with 48.4 percent of the vote to future star Democrat Tom Daschle. That, after winning by 54.5-percent a bruising primary race against then Gov. and now Rep. Bill Janklow, R-S.D. Abdnor stands as the only candidate to have defeated Janklow in an election, but the 1986 race ended Abdnor's political career. Nonetheless, after a...

ELK CITY, Idaho - In a recent speech to Jesse Jackson's 32nd Annual Rainbow/PUSH convention, former Commander in Heat Bill Clinton asserted that the "gains made under him" were quickly being erased by the Bush administration. To be honest, I couldn't initially recall what those "gains made under him" might have been. In Bill's mind, I'm sure, the names Monica, Gennifer, Juanita and Kathleen come to mind. Truth be told, I had established a mental block regarding the Clinton years. It was a heinous time chock full of lies and deceit, scandal and embarrassment and a usurpation of civil rights...

June 24, 2003 might be a night of weather you tell your grandchildren about. Starting around 5:30 PM, our meteorologists began seeing storms forming over South Dakota and Nebraska. Things didn't quiet down in the Storm Center until just after midnight. Some of the most severe damage happened near Manchester in east central South Dakota. The tiny town will never be the same. Manchester, has a population of around 20 residents, But the twister has turned most of the town to rubble. The tornado didn't let anything stand in its way. Homes were heavily damaged or destroyed all together, and...

Two questions for you: Would you consider me a conservative activist? Do you think I'm a conservative activist worthy of an investigation by Tom Daschle's goon squad?I've been wondering that lately, ever since Daschle's campaign manager, Steve Hillofbeans, told a Washington Post reporter that Sen. Daschle will spend "a lot of time attacking" conservative figures and that Daschle "has assembled embarrassing information on several conservative activists." Cool, maybe I'll be in his soon-to-be-released book.But I don't know if "conservative activist" really fits me, though the Argus Leader referred to me as "conservative columnist and John Thune supporter." So maybe I...

ELK CITY, Idaho - Everybody has one, that condescending, know-it-all neighbor whose arrogance is surpassed only by his or her incompetency. These are the people who call 911 if your dog is barking, yet profess their "right" to allow their 47 feral cats to roam free. These are the people who harangue you with unsolicited advice, meddle in your affairs and whisper innuendo with the skill and speed of an Olympic sprinter. These are also the people who, after years of uncivilized behavior, will insist they be sought out for advice. Which brings us to Tom Daschle and George Bush....

Want to work just three days a week? Get elected. Rep. Bill Janklow recently complained about how little work is done by his colleagues in Congress. He was known as a workaholic governor for South Dakota, often putting in time in the governor's office on holidays and weekends. But Washington is a different story. "A lot of good people don't work very hard," said Janklow. "On Fridays, they don't do much. They all want to get on the airplane and go home. On Mondays, very little is scheduled. As a matter of fact, most votes on Monday don't take place...

ELK CITY, Idaho - For those addicted to "Reality" entertainment, the early days of summer bring myriad choices. Though most of these allegedly spontaneous "Reality" shows are scripted to one degree or another - with the participants consisting of failed actors, actresses and models - the genre has nonetheless managed to strike a voyeuristic chord with the American viewing public. You can watch reruns of "Fear Factor," where idiots eat boiled bison testicles, immerse themselves in a vat of worms and endure public ridicule for the chance to win a measly $50,000 (before taxes). You can also watch the latest...

WASHINGTON (Talon News) -- Tuesday's New York Times reported on a $20 billion Pentagon plan to lease air refueling tankers from the Boeing Company. The newspaper cited that liberal and conservative groups opposed to the arrangement called it a "sweetheart deal" that must be approved by Congress. The article pointed out that Boeing has hired lobbyist Linda Daschle, the wife of the Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) to represent the company. South Dakota's largest newspaper, the Argus Leader, is not reporting the story today. In fact, the Argus Leader never prints a story about the lobbying of Linda Daschle....

In James Clavell's novel "Shogun," the hero, John Blackthorne, is a 17th century English captain sailing a Dutch vessel who becomes marooned in Japan after fleeing from Spanish warships in the New World. Blackthorne is, to use the 17th century Dutch word for it, a filibuster, or a privateer who wages war against the colonies of a foreign nation. Americans adopted the word in the mid-19th century to characterize adventurers who plundered weakly governed Central American and Caribbean countries. Filibuster also came to refer to the tactics used to delay or defeat action in a legislative assembly, most notably in...

ELK CITY, Idaho - Some folks just hate guns. They hate them worse than they hate red meat, bluegrass music and tubs of yogurt without a "fat free" label." They hate them worse than they hate neighborhoods which aren't gated and patrolled, those anachronistic wastelands free of zoning laws and aesthetic committees. They rail against the right to keep and bear arms because they long ago lost the desire or ability to care for themselves. After all, one afflicted by an anxiety attack at the sight of a full recycling bin or a leaking faucet can hardly be expected to...

ELK CITY, Idaho - There was a much-repeated phrase floating about during the most heated fighting of the second Gulf War. This slogan, mouthed mostly by celebrities, anti-war activists and the leaders of the Democratic Party, went something like this: "We support our troops," the ultra-partisans would claim, "but we are against the war." I didn't understand those words then, and I don't understand them now. They seemed nothing more than the utterances of those afraid to take a strong stand for their convictions, a not-so-subtle condemnation of the Bush administration carefully constructed to side-step the labels of "unpatriotic" or...

RAPID CITY -- Sitting at his desk at the family business in Rapid City, 81-year-old Jack First wears the well-trimmed mustache and gentle smile of a Main Street shopkeeper - a tailor, perhaps, or a master in watch or shoe repair. But he also wears a .40-caliber handgun on his hip, just in case. Because gentle smile or not, Jack First - a former U.S. Marine Corps sergeant who survived the World War II bloodbath at Iwo Jima - is well-trained and fully prepared to defend himself with a firearm. He is just as committed to defending what he considers...

<p>Korean War veteran Don Wylie attended a pro-war rally Saturday because he wants American troops to know they have support.</p> <p>"I believe in America, and I'm sick and tired of people demonstrating against this," Wylie said. "We're behind them."</p> <p>Wylie's opinion echoed across the Expo Building at the W.H. Lyon Fairgrounds on Saturday afternoon, where organizers estimated 3,000 people attended the Rally for America.</p>

Good vs. evilBy The Journal Editorial Board Nothing illustrates what the United Nations has become in recent years more than Monday's vote to approve Libya's ambassador as chair of the U.N. Human Rights Commission. That's right, Libya. For those with short memories, Libya was behind the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, which killed 259 passengers and crew members and 11 people on the ground. According to the U.S. State Department, Libya is a sponsor of terrorism with a horrid human rights record of its own. State's 2001 human rights report says Libya's citizens have no...

11/13/2002 Thune Will Not Ask For Recount In a statement this morning, Congressman John Thune says he will not seek a vote recount in the South Dakota US Senate race. A vote canvass yesterday brought the difference to just 524 votes short of Senator Tim Johnson. Johnson will begin his second term as South Dakota US Senator in January. Congressman John Thune Statement on South Dakota Election Results:“When I started this journey 13 months ago I highlighted that elections matter. Voting is important and those who are chosen to lead not only represent our values but also chart our future....