Good grief! I check in from France to read important text from my Congresswoman, and this is all Kristi Noem can give me?
Families across South Dakota have begun to take down Christmas trees and kids are getting ready to start a new semester at school. It’s hard to believe another holiday season has come and gone, but as we prepare to ring in the New Year, it’s a good opportunity to pause and reflect upon the past year and to set goals for the next.
I continue to feel blessed and honored to serve the people of South Dakota every day. Although the struggles and challenges our country faces often weigh heavily on my mind, I am optimistic that 2013 will bring positive change. I remain committed to getting a Farm Bill passed so that our agriculture community can plan for next year’s crops and will also work to provide additional certainty and stability to our economy and fiscal future.
But as we look at what’s to come, it is also good to reflect on what we’ve accomplished... [Rep. Kristi Noem, press release, 2012.12.28].
Ouch, ouch, make the stupid stop! It's bad enough our college-graduate Congresswoman clumsily repeats her trite thesis statement. It's worse that she can't even follow through on her own chosen words. She promises to discuss "accomplishments," but she fails to list any. She talks about votes but not about laws passed or policies implemented. She talks about the House working "diligently," but she doesn't say anything that "work" has accomplished. (As I learned in the classrooms of Dean Koster and Joe Austin, work equals force times distance; if you aren't moving, you aren't working.)
Rep. Noem mentions her support for government-run health care at the Hot Springs VA, but she ignores her failure to accomplish any change so far in the VA's plan to close the Hot Springs facility. She mentions her newfound crusade to undermine Michelle Obama and all of us parents by putting the USDA "on notice" over its efforts to make kids healthier by controlling portion sizes and eating more greens, but she hasn't gotten the USDA to change course to offer bottomless cheesy tater-nugget casserole buffets every day or offered any rational, research-based counterplan for feeding our kids well.
South Dakota gets no happy new year from Congresswoman Kristi Noem. We get more of her same sloppy Newspeak, words that mean nothing, empty platitudes and lies disguised as farm-wife wisdom. From my family to yours, Kristi (another trite formula with which you ought not sully your official policy writing), cut the baloney (the way the school lunch program did) and legislate.
Mr. Gant has been vindicated by the Justice System. All the meanness thrown at him like custard pies at a circus clown was for naught. Perhaps for double-naught.
As long as the state's weekly newspapers keep lapping the stuff up and reprinting it for lack of anything more substantial, she, Thune, and Daugaard will keep churning it out.
Who writes these pathetic weekly columns for Noem? Talk about garbage...
Mike, this one is so bad that PP wouldn't even post it on SDWC. Think of it, the guy posts every bit of drivel she sends him and even he couldn't stomach this one.
Guessing that he was thinking that even the GOP faithful would be repulsed at the lack of any substance from their chosen leader.
Oh Cory, I am so sad that you even had to see any drivel sent by Ms Noem while you are on your trip. ugggg
This is what she told Keloland:
"I was more than willing to stay there and continue to work through any process that we could have. The problem that we had was the Senate was leaving; the president was leaving for his Christmas vacation. There's very little we can do sitting by yourself," Noem said.
Well, isn't that kind of tough to do when Weeper of the House, Boehner, proposes a Plan B, and then has to withdraw it because he didn't have the votes. Then, the house was convened for 10 mins (TEN MINUTES) on Friday the 21st, and then adjourned for Christmas vacation. And that was long before the President and the Senate left for the holiday weekend.
Speaking of the President and the Senate. Um, well, they are all in Washington right now, and as a matter of fact, the Senate was in session for six hours on December 27th. And where is Ms Noem? The one that is so willing to be in Washington and work on this problem? Oh yeah, many tweets showing her plowing snow, feeding livestock, visiting nursing homes for Christmas here in South Dakota.
what is more frustrating is how close a "deal" was to being sealed. THIS close. THIS CLOSE!
http://upwithchris.tumblr.com/post/39080135801/lawmakers-are-scrambling-to-strike-a-deficit#notes-container
No Ms Noem, you aren't part of the solution. You ARE part of the problem.
Everybody knows how much congress has accomplished this year. Well at least Kristi Noem managed to personally increase the national debt by $174,000, and get re-elected without having passed any bills. She got hers.
Cory I was at the Rapid Airport not to long after your crew left as my sister's flight out of Pierre was canceled. On the same flight she was on was another group of kids from Spearfish going to DC then to work either on or for a orphanage in Ethiopia . I thought what a great part of education exposing kids to "other things".
"She promises to discuss "accomplishments," but she fails to list any."
Another falsehood. She never has meetings to talk about her accomplishments. She has none.
The senate is back now, why not the House?
Mr. Old guy, I wonder how much these schools are blowing sending kids to France and Ethiopia to expose them to new things when you could send a bus up the highway to Gillette or Billings for a lot less. Think how many books that money could buy or good teachers it could give bonuses to.
Grudz, I wish you would go to France. It would do you wonders. I'm just sayin'.
They don't even eat a proper breakfast in France, Bill. No doubt I'd offend the Frenchies' delicate sensibilities with my practice of sayin' it as it is and laughing at their hats.
The kids I talked to the airport said fund raisers as well as a private sponsor
Oh dear Mr. Grudznick. We definitely need to get you a change in your breakfast gravy. It's affecting the way you think.
My guess is that those kids spent their Saturdays washing cars, fundraisers, saving birthday money and having bake sales to earn their way to see things that will expand their horizons forever. But you knew that, didn't you?
It would be good for you to think beyond gravy, beyond South Dakota and school administrator luxury parking. If you look beyond Curmudgeon Cottage you will see a whole great big world filled with wonderful things and new ideas.
Noem: it's hard but oh well send money.
I can assure Mr. Grudznick that no tax dollars were spent on trips to France or Ethiopia - all done by private fundraising.
I am relieved to read Ms. Fisher's assurance of the children and I knew that Mr. H would be paying his own freight and not riding on the taxpayer's backs. I was just joshin'.
The time for compromise has passed. Let's see if anyone blinks on the increase in the debt ceiling in January. My guess is that strong principles on both sides will be more important than giving in no matter what the cost to the economy.
Are you guys ready to move out to Oregon, yet? Beautiful state with Congressmen and women who take their duties seriously.
Thank you Eve for confirming the funding source.
Now if we can only figure out what the state and school districts are spending on the heated car elevators for school administrators we can put poor Grudznick's mind at ease and let him focus on eating a better breakfast at Curmudgeon Cottage.
I think Curmudgeon Cottage is just north on Grumpy Gulch Road and a little south of Just Joshing Ya Junction.
Thanks for chiming in Anonymous!
The reaction at SDWC has been a little less than what Kristi was probably hoping for.
Kristi, if you've lost the War College...
Just joshing, Grudz? Yeah, just like Kristi whenever she says she's working hard.
G- Oregon's lovely, but we've got to keep somebody here to run the show! Why give Republicans a free pass anywhere... especially lazy ones who win on pretty and lies?
There was a fellow from Canton named Ken Albers criticizing Rep. Noem yesterday in the Argus for the fact she couldn't make up her mind on Boehner's plan B. Did she not have time to think about it? Or was she just in a hurry to get home for the holiday? Whatever the reason, her failure to come off the fence prevented her own leadership from moving the ball forward. This criticism comes from a Republican former state senator. Essentially, Noem is no good for either the country, nor for her own party's leadership in trying to craft a solution to the fiscal cliff. She's just a bump on a log.
Michael Black sez: "My guess is that strong principles on both sides"
HORSE HOCKEY!
The blame for no deal lands directly at the House and Senate Republican caucus's feet. They can't decide what they want, that is the reason there is no deal. It isn't like the President didn't give them an opportunity, giving away the store on their demands for cutting social security earned benefits (that they call "entitlements").
This one doesn't pass the equivalence smell-test at all. This is entirely the Republican's fault and EVERYONE knows it.
John Huntsman - The GOP "Devoid of a Soul"
"The party right now is a holding company that's devoid of a soul and it will be filled up with ideas over time and leaders will take their proper place," he said.
...he took issue with the obstructionist policies of the GOP, describing them as "thwart the opposition, stymie the opposition, obfuscate, be a flamethrower, go out there and destroy the system, and here we are."
"In my party, compromise cannot be seen as analogous to treason, which it has been recently," he said.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/31/jon-huntsman-gop_n_2387879.html?utm_hp_ref=politics
They had plenty of time to get it right. They failed. Now the question is: what things will we do in our businesses to pay for the tax increases?
Mr. Price, this is entirely the Democrat's fault and EVERYONE knows it.
And Mr. Howies.
Love it when the media actually does their job and "fact checks" the politicians when they try to mis-lead viewers with double-speak on any topic, but especially the good ole "taxing the job creators" b.s.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdV-271gjxg
Happy Weird-Gregorian-Calendar-That- Makes-No-Sense-To-Anyone Day!
Larry,
Did the day make sense under the Julian calendar?
https://www.google.com/search?q=New+Year%27s+Day&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
Fund raising and private donations. I'd like to see the percentages of where those dollars came from.
In the last thirty years of my business life I've watched fund raisers go from slave auctions and cars washes and pancake feeds to, Mr Les we have this great opportunity to go to France with Mr Cory and wondered if you could donate $50 or more to help make this happen.?
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Of course the unsaid part of all this is, if we as business people don't donate, there are several hundred students and parents and teachers who will boycott our business.
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Gone are the days where effort is involved on the part of the students. Correct me if I'm wrong here Cory and provided the figures to prove it.
I'm not sure whether or not someone is required to show French Club receipts to anyone besides perhaps the school board, if even them. I imagine that would be up to the individual school district.
I especially doubt there are requirements to show receipts to someone who didn't contribute a penny to the cause, and likely not a supporter of it.
Mr. Les.... "Of course the unsaid part of all this is, if we as business people don't donate, there are several hundred students and parents and teachers who will boycott our business."
Sounds like what people fear if they don't support the GOP or the chamber in South Dakota. Support and get the crony deal of the day...or don't and pay the price.
We still have kids in school and believe me there are still many fundraising efforts...pancake feeds, concessions, candy sales, coupon books, car washes where both kids and parents take an active part.
Passing the hat is the easiest way to raise money for the schools. I'd rather do that than endure another fundraising activity.
Mr. Black makes a great point! But glad our kids put some skin into the game.
The last year at my business for most of my life, donations were at 8500 by mid July, Taunia. Match my support if you will. I only ask Cory to prove his kids are better than the average fund raisers of this young generation as everyone here is so darn sure there is no tax money being spent. What do you know about this event Taunia?
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Jana the number is far fewer because I'm still in multiple positions to be asked for many donations and fewer than more work for event funds as compared to those who just ask us for cash. Btw Jana, is every problem someone else's fault or creation in your world? As a former community biz owner I always feared the tax funded employers in our school systems more than the GOP or chamber. I've witnessed teachers killing a biz in more than one community of our fine state.
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Michael, I've said on many occasions while working fundraisers I still take part in, I'd rather just give them the money. There is something learned and earned by giving of your time, for both children and adults.
The burden of proof lies with you. Prove Cory's group used taxpayer money for this trip.
There is no burden for me. If Cory says there is no tax money used I will believe him..I was less concerned about tax dollars than I was if the students actually worked for the funds used to make the trip.
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I respect Cory for who he is and wouldn't be here if I didn't think his blog carried enough weight to make a difference.
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I doubt though the burden of enforcement or proof lies with me or any other taxpayer. That sounds like you've been running with a former state treasure on unclaimed funds.
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Ms. Taunia, I took some previous posters' word that Mr. H paid his own freight as I knew he would and the kids did car washes and stuff. That's OK.
But Mr. Black's idea about passing the hat for school funding has a lot of merit on a more general broad basis. That could solve a lot of "funding problems" where there are real problems and would let the people putting money in the hat to designate "for football uniforms" or "for administrator parking spaces" or "for math books not language books."
There's some promise there to allow people who want to pay more taxes to give to teachers to be able to write "For a raise for Mr. H (or X)" and have input into the substantive policy decisions made at their local school. After all, we can't just let those school board members sit back like they were legislatures who think they know whats best for us and this would be like the idea earlier this year where the citizens got to vote on bills directly over the internet. This is right in line with many ideas floated by some of our state's best Democrats in just the past few months and I'm not too proud to say I think it has some merit.
Dems: Fund Schools by Passing The Hat
It's your idea and you should run with it.
Ms. Taunia, I do think the French Club needs to be as "open and translucent" as the local sanitation board of your average eastern glacial lake and your common city councils. French club should open their books too.
Les,
You wrote, "I've witnessed teachers killing a biz in more than one community of our fine state."
I want names, places, accounting books, and evidence of the organized effort. Most small towns have one teacher per grade and 5 or 6 high school teachers. In short small schools employ fewer than 20. Even if teachers organized complete boycott, the business was in trouble long before the 20 folks removed their business.
In larger communities, it would take a coordinated effort accross buildings. It would also have generates some news coverage in the local press, so you shouldn't have too much trouble finding evidence.
Given that many, including yourself given your recent posts, view teachers as being less desirable folk than muscians in houses of ill repute, I'd guess that the community would have rallied around the struggling business to make up you allege the teachers took away in business.
Point that broom back at your self LK and take a ride if its a witch hunt you want.
Quote my posts on teachers. My family is full of them.
You're the one making the accusation without evidence. I just want evidence. It's warrentless statments like yours that promote the witchunts you claim to detest.
All I want is evidence to support "I've witnessed teachers killing a biz in more than one community of our fine state."
Breaking my own rule of not arguing with stupidity, because they will bring you down to their level and beat you with experience LK, I will bite.
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The worst case of this in my books was a clothing store, the only one in the community. A biz of more than 3 decades the owner was very community involved and chair of the school board.
A decision was made by the board upsetting the teachers who consequently passed those upsets on to the students who passed them to mommy and daddy. Ricks biz hit the fiscal cliff and after a few months Rick said I'm pulling the plug. Though I could stay and fight, in time it would come back, I choose to leave this community I've freely given my time to if they wish to destroy my families livelihood over a decision made by a group and I being the vulnerable one carrying that whole burden. There were roughly 300 k-12 in that system.
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The other didn't bother me to any degree but I personally knew the man in biz so I had a picture of the situation. It was a steakhouse in Belle Fourche operated for under a year and doing an ok biz. Clayton got into a feud with a teacher over employment at his biz and made a statement about teachers in general and they boycotted him and he was done in very short order.
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Are there also issues with mechanics, plumbers, doctors, electricians etc? Yur kind of a weepy little fella LK. Better go dig my posts on those individuals as well.
Careful, Leo: 'Les' uses rolling proxies.
I see that Larry.
There's not a single fact in his examples, just suppositions and accusations without substance. There's no reason to believe that the businesses weren't in trouble before the alleged boycotts.
I doubt anyone who knows me would use the adjectives weepy or little.
There are enough reading this blog who both know me and the situations I spoke of that i don't feel the need of accomplishment in proving anything to a person role playing Barney Fife on mothers computer.
Weepy and little, maybe I was wrong. Possibly like my nephew, obese and belligerent, sitting home at 43 on disability for too much pop, pot and basic disfunction, spouting prove it with his six years of eduction by our state because it was easier here than Seattle.
Hey "Lar", is a rolling proxy something like taking land away in Israel and giving it back in the Black Hills? That's a kind of new one on me.
Love the ad hominem attacks Les.
I hope we can have a civil discussion after your New Year's Eve hangover goes away.
That the national GOP is melting down and serving the coldest dish to its own young is good enough revenge for this old hippie: only the pending spit-slinging in red state legislatures likely yielding to gunfire will seal my pursuit of happiness.
You ain't no old hippie "Lar", ya missed that generation by several years. But if you say so on other accounts, keep yur powder dry and yur ambitions quiet or they'll be coming to take you away.
Still waiting for recent posts of my attacks on teachers. While your at it LK, splain ad hominem so I know where it all fits on these comments under this post.
Les,
Accusing people of destroying a business without evidence is both an ad hominem and enouigh of an example of unwarranted attacks on teachers.
Like I said earlier, I hope we can have a civil discussion after your hangover lessens. If you're not hungover, maybe some Metamucil will help. Either way, having a civil discussion with you today is seemingly impossible.
Sorry Barn, convincing you of anything proves nothing. Sayonara.
For anyone watching: PP smears his blog nearly concurrently with 'Les' visits here.
and the writing styles are nearly identical.
That inane, insane attack of LK by the purported "Les" is a symptom of why the blogosphere is being driven deeper and deeper into the realm of dementia.
And the thread reveals something about the paranoid-demented attitude that teachers must struggle with in South Dakota to do their jobs and retain some semblance of human dignity. Some years back the suburban town I live in had a car dealer who complained during a public board meeting that teachers ought to patronize the businesses in the district where the tax dollars pay their salary. He was angered that some teachers had gone to a dealer in a neighboring town to buy their cars. This produced a response from one of the teachers in a faculty association newsletter in which the faculty member first of all pointed out that the dealer who often railed about any interference with his business had no compunction about ordering teachers what businesses they must patronize. The second thing the teacher wrote was a comparison of the deals offered him by the two dealerships and a detailed account of how much better the quality and price of service was. This information was circulated in the community and it sent many citizens shopping for cars at the neighboring dealership. The local dealer's business fell to the point that he offered it for sale, and it was purchased by the neighboring dealer who still runs it.
If I knew who "Les" was and what business he was associated with, I would drive a couple hundred miles rather than do business with his ilk.
Thanks for proving my point Anne. You have part of the story and you're ready to bankrupt me. Bravo!
http://national.citysearch.com/profile/631162470/canton_sd/les_body_shop_salvage_yard.html
Mr. H would probably want me to herd you cats back on topic.
So how about Mr. Black's idea about passing the hat for school funding? This provides everything the Dems have been screaming into their hats for. It solves the "funding problem", it lets people designate where they want their schools to spend the money and that means it's a substance policy participation directly by the public just like Mr. H's idea to have people vote on bills over the internet.
I hope one of the legislatures seriously introduces this idea as a law.
High school sports resemble your remark, grudz.
That may very well be true, Mr. Kurtz. It may be another point bolstering that the idea will work for scholactic areas as well.
Scholactic sounds like crooked back disease. I'm talking about the book learning part of school that matters like math, science and reading (English). You know what I mean. Learnin.
Class of 2010 "flotsam and jetsam:" Barney Frank.
Passing the hat means that we contribute for the extras. In Rutland, our AD talked to some people that wrote checks and paid for a new wood gym floor when a contractor was willing to give a great deal. Not long after that, we did the same thing with new lights.
When everyone contributes, action takes place. You want to make your community a better place, get out and participate. Do not sit on the sidelines and whine about the state of affairs.
Mr. Grudznick...would you contribute if they passed the hat?
How about if we just had a volunteer pass the hat state budget...do you think anyone would put enough in the hat to still qualify South Dakota as a civilized society?
Out of curiosity, why do you suppose our founders put the education funding in our constitution?
Heck, I bet the school administrators back then got the best hitching posts.
You can go back to your gravy and yelling at the kids to get off your lawn.
You make a full load of sense, Mr. Black.
I am sure studies somebody has show that active and engaged communities make for better schools. My extensive life experience shows that whining communities make for communities of whiners.
Ms Jana, I would contribute more of my means than most.
But still I must insist that you keep off my granddaughter's lawn, young lady.
Passing the hat for extras is Noem-like policy: a distraction from making decisions about basic issues and getting our real work done.
Mr. Grudznick, thank you for calling me young! You old charmer.