Comments for Madville Times

Comment on Varilek Wrong on Same-Sex Marriage by caheidelberger

caheidelberger — Fri, 18 May 2012 06:38:17 +0000

Whoa! Flag on “homophobic”! Winston, I know you’re flacking for the Barth campaign, but you can boost Barth on this issue without going to false extremes. I don’t hear homophobia from a guy who says folks of all sexual orientations deserve equal protection under civil unions. I do hear a problem with tying a religious definition to government action, and Varilek needs to get over that hump and come to the President’s enlightened position.

Comment on Varilek Wrong on Same-Sex Marriage by Winston

Winston — Fri, 18 May 2012 06:19:44 +0000

The SD Democratic establishment gave us no candidate for the US Senate in 2010. The SD Democratic establishment gave us two “Historic Republican” candidates as the Party’s gubernatorial ticket in 2010, and now the SD Democratic establishment is giving us a homophobic candidate for Congress, who is vague on issues, and runs a campaign with an air of entitlement as evident by Varilek’s constant reference to the fact that he has the endorsements of Daschle, Johnson, and McGovern.

They say history repeats itself, hopefully so. In 2008, Daschle’s endorsement of Obama in the SD Democratic presidential primary was to no avail, Hillary won. Johnson’s hip attachment to the Heidepriem campaign in 2010 offered no greater success than a less funded and organized Billion gubernatorial candidacy received just four years before. McGovern changed his endorsement from Clinton to Obama in 2008, and hopefully he will change his endorsement from Varilek to Barth like so many Democrats in South Dakota are starting to do.

Varilek is running a 70s/80s era candidacy, which will not work anymore. His cautious candidacy is doomed from the beginning. He cannot win on candidness nor compete with Noem’s “Rock Star” image. Barth’s unconventional candidacy, straight forward on the issues, is the only chance Democrats have in defeating Noem in 2012.

The Tea Party and the 99% Movement are political cousins who have more in common than they want to admit. The Koch brothers put aside for a moment, both movements are about average Americans who know the system no longer represents them nor protects them. The candidate who will resinate with a majority of South Dakotans in 2012 is the candidate who is honest and straight forward, not a candidate who offers a “Canned” or “Stock” candidacy from the yesterdays.

Comment on Pat Powers Just Kidding about Using Sec. State’s Office for Personal Business Edge by caheidelberger

caheidelberger — Fri, 18 May 2012 05:06:33 +0000

By the way, looking higher up in the thread, I’m not worried about Rep. Nelson coming after my government job… though if he doesn’t change some Republicans’ minds on funding for education, my job and hundreds of others will go poof.

Say, Jay BK Slater, do you have a campaign website up yet?

Comment on Pat Powers Just Kidding about Using Sec. State’s Office for Personal Business Edge by Testor15

Testor15 — Fri, 18 May 2012 04:48:24 +0000

The structure of the SD law, common law, federal law and common decent behavior says do no harm to your fellow citizens. We have an office requiring a very high degree of integrity to the point of purity. There can be no tolerance of election rigging as proven in Florida, Ohio, Wisconsin and more. Election rigging is election fraud. The people counting the votes, tabulating the votes, approving who can sign petitions, who can file petitions, certify results of elections and petitions should not have anything to do with helping people get or stay in a political office. There should be no room for an ethical possibility of a misdeed, intended or not.
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Our Constitution is not Pat’s, Jason’s, yours or mine alone, it belongs to all of us. We trust people to hold the keys to the office to make sure all have access when we need it. Any elective office is not a political playground to take advantage of, it is a position of trust.

Comment on Pat Powers Just Kidding about Using Sec. State’s Office for Personal Business Edge by caheidelberger

caheidelberger — Fri, 18 May 2012 04:20:09 +0000

That’s a perfectly reasonable position, Donald. I assume that those tests, if jiggered, could have produced results that could have hurt the corporate farms opposed by the non-profit with whom you associated? But that still seems a quantum step or two below Powers’s conflict, where he’s making money from people trying to win the elections that his office supervises and certifies. To make your conflict comparable, you’d have to have been on the payroll of the corporate farm as a consultant helping it navigate whatever regulations your agency could impose on that farm.

Comment on Pat Powers Just Kidding about Using Sec. State’s Office for Personal Business Edge by Donald Pay

Donald Pay — Fri, 18 May 2012 04:08:12 +0000

That was my view at the time, Cory. But, to be fair, we did tests on hogs as well as cattle, and, of course, confined feeding operations have higher incidences of disease unless they load up the animals with antibiotics.

Comment on Pat Powers Just Kidding about Using Sec. State’s Office for Personal Business Edge by caheidelberger

caheidelberger — Fri, 18 May 2012 04:02:28 +0000

It sounds to me, Donald, as if the conflict was less with the legal purview of the state agency for which you worked and more with the political agenda of the Executive Branch. You are right: Powers was crossing a very different line, one that should make voters and the mainstream media much more interested and suspicious.

Comment on Pat Powers Just Kidding about Using Sec. State’s Office for Personal Business Edge by Donald Pay

Donald Pay — Fri, 18 May 2012 03:47:42 +0000

State employees may engage in business, non-profit and political activity outside of their job duties. Generally, though, the activity a state employee may engage in should not create a conflict of interest with your state employment. Powers has skated over that line by a great distance.

When I was a state employee, I was also involved in a non-profit that did public interest research and community organizing around highly charged environmental issues. I worked for what was then the Livestock Sanitary Board, and nearly all of my outside work was outside the scope of that agency. Only once did my supervisor ask me to reconsider my participation in one issue, the huge corporate hog farm proposed, but never built, near the Oahe Reservoir. We had a good discussion, in which we decided to agree to disagree about whether my work on the issue amounted to a conflict of interest. What it boiled down to was he was getting heat from above to make me shut up. I felt it came with a implied threat of losing my job, so I backed away from an obvious public role in the local organizing in order to make it easier for him and me. I continued to provide advise and research, attend public meetings, etc., and speak as a private citizen. That was ok.

Comment on Pat Powers Just Kidding about Using Sec. State’s Office for Personal Business Edge by testor15

testor15 — Fri, 18 May 2012 03:22:58 +0000

Look over on southdacola.com, I posted an extensive list of websites, servers, ownership and other info. Pat is still registered owner of SEC and much more.

Grud and Pat have used Pierre Midco IP addresses in a small amount of research done online public sources.

Comment on Pat Powers Just Kidding about Using Sec. State’s Office for Personal Business Edge by caheidelberger

caheidelberger — Fri, 18 May 2012 03:11:51 +0000

Yes… but I’m not seeing any there there.