Free Republic

View This E-mail As A Web Page The American people are telling our elected officials: "Drill Here and Drill Now!" But five Republicans-in-Name-Only (RINOs) are siding with the NO NEW DRILLING CROWD in Congress and basically betraying American families suffering severe financial hardship because of the high price of gasoline at the pump. You've probably already heard the news. Five RINOs are trying to strike a deal with the devil and they're calling it a "compromise." But like last year's so-called attempted "compromise" on amnesty for 12-20 million illegal aliens... it is NO SUCH THING! In actuality, it's a complete and...

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) - A Democratic state representative who lost a June primary election battle for a Senate seat has switched parties and will try again to defeat Democratic Sen. Theresa Two Bulls. Jim Bradford has served eight years in the House and is term-limited. He failed by 28 votes in the primary to beat Two Bulls. Both are from Pine Ridge. Bradford's political switch was announced Tuesday by the state Republican Party, which substituted him on the GOP Senate slate in the coming general election for a Republican who earlier dropped out of the District 27 race.

Although he didn’t have a winning track record in presidential elections, 1972 Democratic presidential nominee and former South Dakota Sen. George McGovern had no problem critiquing the media for lack of substance. McGovern, an anti-war icon of the left in the late 1960s and early 1970s, appeared at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on August 12. He discussed news coverage of the Democratic nominating process with Washington Post columnist David Broder and University of Maryland journalism professor Haynes Johnson. McGovern told reporters that the changing news business – offering more media outlets – led to too much coverage,...

Abortion advocates in South Dakota on Tuesday officially launched their campaign against a November ballot proposal that would prohibit most abortions. They say the ban is just a first step in overturning the Roe v. Wade decision that allowed virtually unlimited abortions throughout pregnancy. Planned Parenthood, which runs the only abortion center in the state, and the ACLU are leading the collection of pro-abortion groups. State voters defeated a 2006 ban on a 56 to 44 vote that would have prohibited all abortions except those possibly necessary to protect a mother's life. With polls showing voters wanted an abortion ban...

A Sioux Falls man was shot at after attempting to break into a camper. 18-year-old Jeremy H. Miller was arrested and charged with two counts of burglary, criminal entry into a motor vehicle, and possession of alcohol by a minor. It all happened early Sunday morning at Baltic River Park, which is located about 20 miles north of Sioux Falls. The Minnehaha County Sheriff's Office says that when Miller tried breaking into a camper, the person inside shot at him through a window in the door. Tommy Little, Sr. of Sioux Falls says he'd do the same. He, his daughter...

At Sturgis, Harley voters crank throttles for McCain By DAVID HORSEY P-I EDITORIAL CARTOONIST Where but at a biker rally would a presidential candidate offer up his wife as a contestant in a skimpy bikini contest? If ever there were a political story for which I could claim expertise, it was this one – John McCain's visit to the Legendary Buffalo Chip Campground. Buffalo Chip is the pounding heart of the gargantuan gathering of motorcycle enthusiasts that descends on the small town of Sturgis, S.D., for 10 days each summer. The Chip is not just a place to camp; it...

Here are the misguided Senators who joined the Gang of 10. Please let them know what you think of their actions. I've included their contact information and the press releases bragging about their participation in the gang of 10. Sen. Lindsey Graham:http://lgraham.senate.gov/public/ Email:http://lgraham.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.EmailSenatorGrahamSenator Graham Press Relases Contact: Wes Hickman (202) 224-5972 or Kevin Bishop (864) 250-1417 Date: 08/01/2008'Gang of 10' Introduces Bipartisan Energy Proposal WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) helped draft and signed on to a bipartisan energy proposal that enables our nation become more energy independent.  The proposal, New Energy Reform Act of 2008 from the...

The final reports are in, and it appears Barack Obama outspent and out-fundraised Hillary Clinton in the South Dakota Democratic primary despite losing to her at the polls...South Dakota’s primary election was June 3. Despite apparently spending more than Clinton, Obama lost with 45 percent of the votes compared to Clinton’s 55 percent.

There are some in the pro-life community who don't support South Dakota's latest pro-life measure, Initiated Measure 11. IM 11 is a measure which would ban most abortions in South Dakota. Unlike Referred Law 6 in 2006, IM 11 contains exceptions for rape, incest and the health of the mother. The exceptions in IM 11 were carefully written to prevent abuse. For instance, the health exception requires that the issue must involve "a serious risk of substantial and irreversible impairment of the functioning of a major bodily organ or system." In making this determination, the abortionist must use "accepted standards...

Despite an outdoor audience of thousands, the nubile girls grinding on the balcony stopped dancing and sat beside their stripper poles. The bearded bikers, arrayed in rows below with their motorcycles, revved their engines in approval. That stilted parade known as the presidential campaign had marched into a High Plains bacchanal of shiny hogs, leather chaps and skanky tattoos--and the people seemed to like it. "As you may know, not long ago, a couple hundred thousand Berliners made a lot of noise for my opponent," Senator John McCain told the crowd on Aug. 4 at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, an...

Click to watch video: McCain: Sound of Freedom (50,000 Bikers)

Standing on the main stage at a world famous motorcycle rally in rural South Dakota on Monday, John McCain looked out on a sea of denim-wearing bikers and told them he enjoyed their company much more than that of the 200,000 Germans who turned out to see Barack Obama last month. “As you may know,” he told the tens of thousands gathered at the 68th annual Sturgis Rally at Buffalo Chip campground, “not long ago, a couple of hundred thousand Berliners made a lot of noise for my opponent. I’ll take the roar of fifty thousand Harleys any day.”

ABC News' Gregory Wallace and Sara Just Report: Sen. John McCain, R-Az., perhaps unknowingly, volunteered his wife for a beauty pageant on Monday that often features contestants topless

STURGIS - Politicians are used to hearing the roar of the crowd, but Sen. John McCain heard an entirely different roar Monday night at The Buffalo Chip. Motorcycles pounded out a welcome to the Republican presidential candidate at the campground in Sturgis, as he made a campaign appearance. “This is my first time here but I enjoyed the sound,” McCain said. “It's the sound of freedom.” He noted that his Democratic opponent, Sen. Barack Obama, had received a loud ovation in Berlin during a European tour last week. “I'll take the roar of 50,000 Harleys any day,” McCain said. Thousands...

ABC News' Gregory Wallace and Sara Just Report: Sen. John McCain, R-Az., perhaps unknowingly, volunteered his wife for a beauty pageant on Monday that often features contestants topless -- and, occasionally, without any decency -- at the Sturgis, South Dakota, motorcycle rally.

<p>STURGIS, S.D. (AP) -- Republican John McCain has gotten an approving roar from the thousands gathered at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota.</p> <p>He mentioned how Democrat Barack Obama was cheered by a large crowd recently during his speech in Berlin. McCain told the Sturgis crowd, "I'll take the roar of 50,000 Harleys any day."</p>

The Heartland supersized Sen. John McCain last night at a ginormous motorcycle rally in Sturgis, S.D. While no one shouted "Free Bird" to McCain while he was speaking -- a pop culture homage to Lynyrd Skynyrd whose 2008 version of the band is playing at the rally -- the Republican presumptive nominee did call attention to the larger than normal size of his crowd: "As you may know, not long ago, a couple hundred thousand Berliners made a lot of noise for my opponent. I'll take the roar of 50,000 Harleys any day."

STURGIS, S.D. - Thousands of motorcyclists greeted Republican presidential candidate John McCain with an approving roar Monday as he sought blue-collar and heartland support by visiting a giant motorcycle rally. "As you may know, not long ago a couple hundred thousand Berliners made a lot of noise for my opponent. I'll take the roar of 50,000 Harleys any day," McCain said, referring to Democrat Barack Obama's recent visit to the German capital. ~snip McCain played to a crowd that paused for a veterans salute. He criticized Obama for supporting a timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq while opposing efforts...

(dpa) - Senator John McCain, 71, heads to the unlikely town of Sturgis, South Dakota, on Monday to rub elbows with the rowdy tattooed rebels of the American roads at a campground rock concert. With a population of 780,000, South Dakota on the Great Plains is hardly an election-day prize for either McCain's Republican Party or rival Democrats. But the state doubles in population during the annual August motorcycle rally in Sturgis, at the foot of the Black Hills, that draws an estimated 500,000 to 600,000 out-of-state "wild hogs" who roar cross country to celebrate their bike culture. McCain plans...

LifeNews.com Note: Amy Sobie is the editor of The Post-Abortion Review, a quarterly publication of the Elliot Institute. The organization is a widely respected leader in research and analysis of medical, mental health and other complications resulting from abortions.Planned Parenthood of South Dakota is refusing to do abortions. Why? Because a federal court has upheld a new law that would require them to disclose to women the risk factors of abortion. These are statistically proven risk factors that reliably identify which women are at highest risk of post-abortion psychological problems, including depression and suicidal behavior.That's not the way the...

SIOUX FALLS, SD (LifeSiteNews) - On Monday, July 21, eight women arrived at the Planned Parenthood office in Sioux Falls in South Dakota for abortions, but were instead met with locked doors and a hand-written note indicating the only abortion clinic in South Dakota was closed. Planned Parenthood closed its doors after their abortionists, who are flown in from other states, refused to work under the new law that went into effect last Friday. The law orders abortionists to inform patients of the humanity of their babies and that the procedure could affect their mental health two hours before the...

Sioux Falls, SD (LifeNews.com) -- The lone abortion center in South Dakota appears as if it is still not doing abortions following the implementation of a new law a week and a half ago. Rather than tell women abortion kills children and has numerous risks, Planned Parenthood closed its doors to women wanting abortions.As LifeNews.com was first to report last week, Monday was the first day for abortions at the Planned Parenthood abortion center but women who went for abortions were turned away.Dr. Allen Unruh, a leading pro-life advocate who works with Alpha Pregnancy Center, told LifeNews.com that it...

HOT SPRINGS -- Joanne Bugel is happy to be the Earthwatch volunteer who uncovered the 115th tusk at the Mammoth Site and moved the popular Hot Springs tourist site’s mammoth tally to 58. [snip] This group has been a particularly productive bunch, said crew chief Don Morris. [snip] Bones unearthed by 2008 Earthwatch volunteers include: three tusks, a tooth, a patella, six ribs, a fibula, four vertebra and assorted other bones. Neteal Graves, 18, of Kaycee, Wyo., also unearthed some coprolite – [snip] Graves has the Mammoth Site in her bloodline. In 1974, her mother, Cheri Graves, was a college...

Concerned Women for America (CWA) applauds South Dakota for taking a stand to protect the unborn. The 8th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals recently ruled that South Dakota’s informed consent law may now be enforced.  This law requires physicians to tell women who are seeking abortions that “the abortion will terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique, living being.”  Physicians are also required to provide a description of all the medical risks of the procedure, including depression and increased risk of suicide. CWA President Wendy Wright says, “Women want and need to know that abortion kills a baby. Abortionists...

by Steven Ertelt LifeNews.com Editor July 21, 2008 Sioux Falls, SD (LifeNews.com) -- Monday was the first day that Planned Parenthood, which operates the only abortion business in South Dakota, had to comply with a new state law telling women the truth about abortion. Rather than tell women abortion kills children and has numerous risks, Planned Parenthood temporarily closed its doors.

Sioux Falls, SD -- Monday was the first day that Planned Parenthood, which operates the only abortion business in South Dakota, had to comply with a new state law telling women the truth about abortion. Rather than tell women abortion kills children and has numerous risks, Planned Parenthood closed its doors. The state law, which the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld last week, required abortion practitioners to inform every woman that she is terminating the life of a human being. It requires giving her information about the mental health complications such as a high risk of depression and suicide...

A great new 8th Circuit en banc (rehearing by the full court) opinion was delivered yesterday.  It was simply a denial of Planned Parenthood's attempt to get a preliminary injunction to stay enforcement of the statute, and a preliminary injunction is always hard to get.  Even so, an en banc Circuit court finding that "unborn = human" is true and relevant information is pretty powerful.. Planned Parenthood, etc. v. Mike Rounds   U.S. Court of Appeals Case No: 05-3093   U.S. District Court for the District of South Dakota   [PUBLISHED] [Gruender, Author, with Chief Judge Loken, Wollman, Murphy, Bye,  Riley, Melloy, Smith, Colloton, Benton, and...

Women considering an abortion in South Dakota will receive more complete information about how the procedure will affect their bodies and what will actually happen to their unborn child thanks to a ruling by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. South Dakota passed a law in 2005 requiring abortionists to inform women that the procedure ends the life of a living human being, and that they could suffer physical harm from the procedure as well. Jordan Lorence, senior counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), says Planned Parenthood immediately sued to block implementation of the law. "They don't want...

An abortionist who claims to have destroyed more than 20,000 unborn children and who once was Hillary Clinton's OB-GYN says he is doing "God's work" when he terminates a pregnancy. "Embryos and fetuses spontaneously aborted – most, but not all of those 'canceled' by 'God' – are ... luckless human souls," wrote William Harrison, referring to an ancient poem describing the plight of mankind. "But a few spontaneous abortions occur in desired pregnancies with no discernable abnormalities. For those girls and women and their families whose circumstances would make their babies 'luckless human souls,' I 'cancel' them before they become...

A federal court ruled against Planned Parenthood and rejected an injunction against a state law requiring doctors to tell women seeking abortions that they may face serious medical conditions and will "terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being." The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit issued a 7-4 ruling Friday to lift an injunction against the South Dakota informed consent abortion law. Attorneys representing the Alliance Defense Fund filed a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of the Family Research Council in defense of the law. "A woman's life is worth more than Planned Parenthood's bottom...

SIOUX FALLS, SD, July 3, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, in a 7-4 decision, will allow South Dakota to begin enforcing a state law that requires abortion providers to tell women, in writing, that the abortion procedure "will terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being." In Planned Parenthood v. Rounds, the Court vacated a temporary injunction that had been issued by the trial court, which had blocked the law from going into effect. The opinion addresses the important issue of whether South Dakota can enforce its 2005 informed...

McCain to attend; Obama was invited By Hiram Soto UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER June 6, 2008 San Diego will be at the center of the Latino world next month. The National Council of La Raza is set to announce Monday details about its upcoming national convention in San Diego. Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain is expected to appear, and Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, is considering an invitation. NCLR, the largest Latino organization in the nation, will hold its annual conference July 12-15 at the San Diego Convention Center. More than 20,000 people attended last year's convention in...

It's been a long time coming but it looks like we may get our first new oil refinery in over 30 years. By a margin of 58% to 42% the voters in Union County, S.D. have approved the re-zoning of 3292 acres for a new oil refinery. Hyperion Energy has promised billions of dollars in capital investment and thousands of high paying jobs. The construction of the refinery will require 4500 jobs over a four year period and when the plant is in operation it will provide over 1800 full time jobs at a pay scale of $20-$30 dollars per...

Energy Policy: Thirty-two long years have passed since the U.S. had a new oil refinery. But a small South Dakota community wants to change that. Finally, some rational thinking.Union County, home to 12,584 in South Dakota's southeastern corner, voted 58% to 42% Tuesday to approve a request by Hyperion Energy to build a refinery north of Elk Point, the county seat of 1,855. The facility, expected to turn out 400,000 barrels of ultralow-sulfur gasoline and diesel fuel a day, just might be the biggest thing to happen to the area. As far as energy is concerned, it could be the...

ELK POINT, S.D. — Voters in Union County on Tuesday approved rezoning for what would be the first new U.S. oil refinery in more than 30 years.With all 13 precincts reporting, 3,932 voters, or 58 percent, endorsed their county commission's rezoning of almost 3,300 acres north of Elk Point for the $10 billion refinery while 2,855, or 42 percent, opposed it. The ballot measure garnered solid support in the southern part of the county, with the Dakota Dunes precinct voting in favor 1,017-237 and the one containing North Sioux City approving the ordinance 492-184. Most rural precincts strongly rejected the...

ELK POINT, S.D. -- Flashing a smile, Joyce Bortscheller briefly hugged Hyperion Energy Center executive Preston Phillips as she greeted him in the backyard of her home here. Bortscheller, president of the Elk Point City Council, had invited about 250 supporters to an outdoor barbecue Tuesday to await the returns for arguably the most important election in Union County's history. The big crowd didn't leave disappointed. As midnight approached, they popped the champagne corks, celebrating a hard-fought victory that keeps alive the county's chances of landing the nation's first all-new oil refinery in 32 years. By a solid 58 percent...

Some worrying signs for Barack Obama emerged Tuesday from the final two primaries of the long Democratic presidential nominating race. With the nomination all but sewed up, the Illinois Democrat showed weaknesses in South Dakota in particular that rival Hillary Clinton's campaign has warned could haunt him in November. According to early exit polls, voters Tuesday appeared to have strong concerns about his two decades of membership in Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. More than a third of voters in South Dakota said the issue was important to them, following Sen. Obama's announcement this week that he would...

AND NOW . . . amidst billowing clouds of fragrant, aromatic first- and second-hand premium cigar smoke. . . it is time for . . . that harmless, lovable little fuzz ball, the highly-trained broadcast specialist, having more fun than a human being should be allowed to have, from behind the golden EIB microphone, firmly ensconced in the prestigious Attila-the-Hun chair at the Limbaugh Institute of Advanced Conservative Studies, with talent on loan from G-d, at the cutting-edge of societal evolution, with half his brain tied behind his back — just to make it fair, the all-knowing, all-caring, all-sensing, all-feeling,...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Barack Obama effectively clinched the Democratic presidential nomination Tuesday, based on an Associated Press tally of convention delegates, becoming the first black candidate ever to lead his party into a fall campaign for the White House.

Barack Obama effectively clinched the Democratic presidential nomination Tuesday, based on an Associated Press tally of convention delegates, becoming the first black candidate ever to lead his party into a fall campaign for the White House. Campaigning on an insistent call for change, Obama outlasted former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton in a historic race that sparked record turnout in primary after primary, yet exposed deep racial divisions within the party. The AP tally was based on public commitments from delegates as well as more than a dozen private commitments. It also included a minimum number of delegates Obama was...

On the eve of the final pair of Democratic primaries, a new poll of South Dakota Democrats gives Hillary Clinton a 26-point lead over Barack Obama – a surprise, at least to me, in a state that had the early makings of an Obama stronghold. The survey, from the independent New Hampshire-based American Research Group, shows Clinton pounding Obama by a 60-34 percent spread. The only previous poll in the state, from about a month ago, had Obama up by 12. Because every other state around South Dakota previously went overwhelmingly for Obama, there had been little expectation in the...

RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) - Hillary Rodham Clinton will give her post-primary speech in New York Tuesday night, a rare departure from the campaign trail. Staffers who have worked for her on he ground in Puerto Rico, South Dakota and Montana have been invited to attend the event or go home for further instructions, campaign aides said. The New York senator had no other events Tuesday. She planned to address AIPAC Wednesday in Washington. But she is under increasing pressure to cede the Democratic nomination to Barack Obama after the final primaries. There was a sense of denouement in the...

The purification ceremony isn't an everyday ritual of U.S. presidential politics. The newly named Awe Kooda Bilaxpak Kuuxshish — better known as Barack Obama — faced east, the symbolic source of new life. His adopted Crow father, Hartford Black Eagle, prayed over him. Afterward, they walked arm-in-arm with Black Eagle's wife, Mary, to a podium, where Obama promised to live up to the meaning of his new name: "One Who Helps People Throughout the Land." "I want you to know that I will never forget you," Obama told the crowd, who had not seen a visitor of such political importance...

Presidential Primary Preference: South Dakota Likely Democratic Primary Voters -- May 31-June 1 Clinton ---60% Obama ---34% Undecided --6% About this Survey - Survey Sponsor: American Research Group, Inc. The American Research Group has been conducting surveys of voters since 1985. Sample Size: 600 completed telephone interviews among a random sample of likely Democratic primary voters living in South Dakota (600 Democrats). Sample Dates: May 31-June 1, 2008 Margin of Error: ± 4 percentage points, 95% of the time, on questions where opinion is evenly split. Question Wording: If the 2008 Democratic presidential preference primary were being held today between...

Will keep this short. Networks preparing for Hillary to (finally) quit in speech Tuesday night. Will be from NY, Staffers being told to turn in expenses, resumes being FedExed to Obama and other state/local campaigns. Staffers at one network recalled from lunches to prepare. Campaign staffers being told to go home. One network had long conference call among suits last night, followed by conference call between tech types to set up remotes, back-hauls, break-ins, etc. Union technicians, cameramen, audio, video engineers, etc. told to expect overtime. More as available From Associated Press RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) - Hillary Rodham Clinton...

"I was moved by his story, impressed by his bravery," Bambagiotti said on Memorial Day, standing on the lush green lawn among the sea of white headstones that mark the final resting places for 4,202 U.S. soldiers and airmen who perished in Italy fighting in World War II. The emergence of the Internet prompted Bambagiotti to seek out Lang’s surviving kin. Hundreds of searches, and about three years, netted the professor a clue to Lang’s surviving sister, who had supplied information for a research project by high school students in Avon, S.D. Bambagiotti drafted a typewritten letter, in not-so-perfect English,...

End of days Pittsburgh Tribune-Review By Salena Zito As Hillary Clinton sprints to the end of the primary finish line and Obama crawls in the dust behind her -- it will be her rival, Barack Obama, that will declare himself the winner by the end of the week. And there does not appear to be a superdelegate within sight that is willing to consider anything other than getting in line with all of the other cool kids.

Public Severe Weather Outlook ZCZC SPCPWOSPC ALL WOUS40 KWNS 291438 IAZ000-NEZ000-SDZ000-292245- PUBLIC SEVERE WEATHER OUTLOOK NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER NORMAN OK 0938 AM CDT THU MAY 29 2008 ...SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS EXPECTED OVER PARTS OF THE CENTRAL PLAINS THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT... THE NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER IN NORMAN OK IS FORECASTING THE DEVELOPMENT OF A FEW STRONG TORNADOES OVER PARTS OF THE CENTRAL PLAINS THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT. THE AREAS MOST LIKELY TO EXPERIENCE THIS ACTIVITY INCLUDE WESTERN IOWA EASTERN HALF OF NEBRASKA FAR SOUTHEAST SOUTH DAKOTA ELSEWHERE...ORGANIZED SEVERE STORMS ARE ALSO POSSIBLE SURROUNDING THE HIGH RISK FROM WESTERN...

Confronting Lion Was Breathtaking Experience. “I was walking this trail I had made, hunting for mushrooms, when I came across a deer carcass which hadn't been there before,” said Ron Olson... “I kind of looked around and didn't see anything. When I turned around, just to my left, there stood a mountain lion.” The lion sighting was officially confirmed Friday by officials from the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission. It is the state's first confirmed sighting in four years. About 90 minutes after they set up the camera, four shots were taken of the mountain lion eating on the carcass....

Operation Chaos South Dakota Update Monday May 19 by 5:00 PM is the last day to register to vote for the June 3, 2008 Presidential Primaries in South Dakota. SD is one of the last states to vote (along with New Mexico and Montana). You have to be registered within each party to vote and bring a form of ID such as a SD driver’s license. As far as I am aware there are no unconstitutional loyalty oaths that some of the other states have tried to enforce. There are 27 delegates at stake for the Reps and Dems have...