Straight Talk Commentary – At home we are celebrating my second favorite Jewish holiday, Chanukah. Chanukah is a Freedom holiday and lighting Chanukah candles with Susan makes me (all be it to briefly) feel 10 years old again; Family and Food with joy and laughter – [...]
America faces a Debt Bomb.
A recent piece in the New York Times headlined Wave of Debt Payments Facing U.S. Government pretty much speaks for itself in describing the budget calamity facing our National Government.
The essential facts pointed out the federal debt today is slightly north of $12 [...]
Feeling the heat of the announcement that unemployment has exceeded 10% , President Obama before taking off for his Asian Trip announced that he was calling a jobs summit for December.
The President understands that despite repeated Administration carping that somehow all our problems were inherited [...]
As expected, Kermit Staggers has become the sixth candidate for Mayor of Sioux Falls.
The first in what likely will be two elections, the first among all the would be Mayors on April 13th with a runoff (in the event no candidate receives 50% of the vote, [...]
City Councilman Kermit Staggers who is anticipated to be announcing soon as a candidate for Mayor of Sioux Falls is failing miserably in the most important quality required of a political leader – Plays Well with Others.
A Mayoral Candidate forum is taking place on Wednesday, December 3rd [...]
Republicans in tomorrow’s off year elections are snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
Off year elections are read like tea leaves to determine which way the national political winds are blowing. Real or not the results are a reading of the political temperature of the country.
The GOP is poised to [...]
Straight Talk Commentary –Opinions about Immigration are intense. While immigration is not at the top of the list of hot button political issues today, it remains a national issue that must be dealt with. Even within the health care reform debate there lies an immigration component.
Economics is not like a basketball game where when the game ends you know the score.
This coming week the economic growth rate for the third quarter will be announced. Many economists are suggesting that it will meet or exceed 3% and combined with leading economic indicators [...]
Last month I posted on Colonel Andrea Thompson’s blog, Andrea’s Adventures, Andrea is a South Dakotan serving in Afghanistan. My niece Deb Peterson has also been blogging from across the pond and her adventures are quite interesting even if not as fast paced and important [...]
Straight Talk Commentary – In my previous post Actions Speak Louder Than Words, I responded almost immediately (uncharacteristically) to the announcement of the President’s receiving the Nobel Peace Prize. Just as follow up: Perhaps no one has commented on it better than Israeli Statesman Yoram [...]
This morning it was announced that President Obama will receive the Nobel Prize for Peace.
Shocking! For What? The President has made a couple of speeches, one in Cairo and you might count the one at the United Nations a couple of weeks ago. What has the President [...]
Two weeks ago posting on President Obama’s talk to America’s school children, I said, “The President is the leader of our Country and deserves our respect.” “When we disrespect the President, I said, “we disrespect ourselves.”
Then last Friday when reading a rather routine story in [...]
Straight Talk Commentary – Those running OUR federal government (the President and the majority party) just can’t get enough of the government deepening itself in the ownership and operation of many facets of our economy and our lives.
President Obama last weekend suggested to the nation’s newspaper [...]
The First American Benjamin Franklin must be turning over in his grave.
In Franklin’s City of Brotherly Love, The Free Library ofPhiladelphia announced yesterday that it is closing permanently due to lack of funding from the state government of Pennsylvania.
Ben Franklin who understood the [...] 
There was a political volcanic eruption in advance of the President’s back to school greeting to America’s schoolchildren last week. The President’s Men however brought it upon themselves and consequently their boss. The political lava like fallout was valid but should have been avoided.
The President’s cantankerous [...]
Straight Talk Commentary – District 12 State Representative Blake Curd was featured in today’s “Sioux Falls Business Journal.” Curd has been all the political buzz in the past couple of weeks and is increasingly being talked about among GOP activists as a potential and very serious [...]
Marty Jackley, was sworn in today as the 30th South Dakota Attorney General. He replaced Larry Long who the Governor appointed as a Circuit Judge in the Second Judicial Circuit.
The swearing in ceremony was held in Sioux Falls at the Minnehaha Old Court House Museum. [...]
Partisanship has gotten in the way of fair play again with the political gamesmanship surrounding the replacement of Senator Ted Kennedy.
News media and the blogs have reported pretty extensively on the political kabuki theatre and hypocrisy surrounding Senator Kennedy’s replacement. Senator Kennedy himself [...]
Colonel Andrea Thompson is an important new South Dakota blogger posting on a timely and interesting topic – A Soldier’s Look at the War in Afghanistan.
Today is a mark it on the calendar day for Colonel Andrea Thompson. She reported to her new assignment as the [...]
Senator Edward Moore Kennedy who has been part of the political landscape for close to half a century has passed on. Unless you have been living under a rock on a different planet you already knew this. The report of his death was the entire Associated Press [...]
Sioux Falls now has two more candidates for Mayor for next April’s election. City Councilman Pat Costello as expected has filed the Intention to Run Document with the City Clerks office. Also declaring to become a candidate is Joshua Bradley. Bradley who is unknown in my political circle is [...]
Saw the movie “Julie and Julia” this weekend. A real treat!
When I left the theatre I was light hearted and had completely forgotten about looming Democrat power grabs and un understandable so called health care reform. It was another great performance by Meryl Streep. As I pondered [...]
Straight Talk Commentary – Mega Capitalist, Warren Buffett, and Obama economic advisor (too bad the President isn’t listening to him) weighed in this week on fiscal sanity and what deficit spending is doing to our economy and to the future of our Country.
These are my words and not [...]
Being a good listener is the essential quality of being an effective elected official and is critical to being a successful politician.
Not wanting to listen to citizens is the real wonderment of the current brouhaha over holding public “listening” meetings during the so called “Summer Work Period”, Congressional recess [...]
The Manson Family is back in the news.
Yesterday Squeaky Fromme (whom the New York Times dignifies by referring to her repeatedly as Ms. Fromme or Lynette A Fromme) was released from Federal prison custody for her 1975-attempted assassination of President Jerry Ford. The Squeekster was [...]
Former South Dakota U S Senator George McGovern spoke last Thursday at Zandbroz Variety in Sioux Falls about the latest book he authored, “Abraham Lincoln“(The American President’s Series : The 16th President, 1861-1865).
McGovern as he ages in these informal settings is engaging. He is long in the [...]
If you have the slightest interest in sculpture, get to the Washington Pavilion in Sioux Falls to see the Rodin exhibit.
The exhibit, “Rodin A Magnificent Obsession” is a rare treat for South Dakota. August Rodin was a late 19th Century / early 20th Century sculptor considered [...]
The “Sioux Falls Business Journal” reports today that Sioux Falls Mayoral Candidate, Mike Huether has left his job as executive vice president of Premier Bankcard to focus on his candidacy.
Huether said, “I am excited about focusing full time on community service interests, including my campaign to become mayor of Sioux [...]
Our orderly society depends on our obeying laws and following rules. In a free society people obey voluntarily because there is the expectation of enforcement. The United States is the freest of nations because the People grant power to the government and we freely elect those who make and administer [...]
Those are the words on Slater Barr, President of the Sioux Falls Development Foundation, in the on in one of the lead stories in the July 19th “Argus Leader”. The story was about the believed adverse effects of a Casino being proposed on the South Dakota border in Lyon [...]
Rumors, propaganda, and speculation have been increasing recently concerning the viability of the Argus Leader. There have been many rumors but little information coming from the source.
About a week ago South Dakota’s largest Daily reported in a very short article that there would be a staff reduction of [...]
Former State Representative Bill Peterson's recent announcement that he would be a candidate for Mayor brought the number of candidates with their hat in the ring for the job as Mayor of Sioux Falls to three. Peterson joins Councilman Vernon Brown and business executive Mike Huether.
All three are formidable candidates' [...]
Finding a fair protocol to determine which College football team is the National Champion seems to be looking for a government solution like just about every other problem. Talk about socialism – whew!
President Obama has mentioned on several occasions both as a candidate and as President that [...]
A pair of news reports this week has me wondering – do the Bureaucrats really have a tin ear to what is happening in America with average hard working folks that are sending in a big chunk of their earnings to Uncle Sam?
This week the Social Security Administration held [...]
Citizens expect at a minimum when they elect Legislators either State or Federal that they would take the effort to understand what is in the laws they are enacting.
Lately our Congress has taken inattention to new heights. Last February when Congress finalized the Stimulus Bill, the President and Democrat [...]
Highlighting what a PR machine the White House has become an economist friend sent me a video that simply yet eloquently demonstrates how the Obama administration places perception over real substance.
The Rahm Emanuel led White House spin machine at the time the President released his Budget Proposal with [...]
Straight Talk commentary – On Monday President Obama held another Cabinet Meeting. His first Cabinet Meeting on April 20th was the fiscal joke of instructing his Cabinet to be fiscally responsible and find $100 million in budget cuts collectively in their departments.
Monday’s Cabinet meeting dubbed [...]
Note: This post should be considered venting and is not intended to reach the level of a full blown rant. (additional disclaimer – I am an intense user of USPS services and speaking specifically of their service find their pricing competitive, service fast and reliable for small [...]
I visited the South Dakota State University campus this week and was briefed on several of the changes taking place on the campus.
Included were briefings and tours of the SDSU / Brookings Research Park otherwise known as Innovation Campus and the new Electrical Engineering [...]
Sonia Sotomayor was nominated by President Obama on Tuesday to be a Justice on the U S Supreme Court.
Her confirmation process should move smoothly through the Senate Judiciary Committee and she will receive the Senate’s consent easily. The President is popular and the Democrats have a [...]
Voter turnout in the Sioux Falls School Board election was way beyond disappointing.
School Board Elections are Important! The Sioux Falls School District has in round numbers 20,000 students, 3,000 employees and a $170 Million budget. School taxes make up the largest share of real property taxes. While [...]
Pennsylvania U S Senator Arlen Specter’s switch from Republican Party is all about saving his political hide.
Senator Specter concluded that he was 20 points down in polling against former Representative and until just recently President of the Club For Growth Chairman Pat Toomey. Specter wants to [...]
Jack Kemp, the heart and soul of the Reagan Revolution in the Republican Party passed away on Saturday.
Kemp was a friend whom I was privileged to know and spend some time with. I am one of his disciples of economic growth, low taxes, and [...]
A beautiful Spring Saturday was again spent inside the Qwest Center figuratively at the knee of the Greatest Capitalist of our times, Warren Buffet and his sidekick Charlie Munger.
For the past four years I have been privileged to make the Pilgrimage on the first Saturday [...]
News reports in the last few days have gently picked up the pace of political speculation about the top of the ticket races in 2010.
While politicos and the media have been waiting and waiting to hear what the South Dakota Princess has decided to do, she [...]
President Obama held his first cabinet meeting yesterday. The purpose of the meeting was to demonstrate his commitment to fiscal responsibility.
At the meeting he asked his Cabinet Secretaries to go through their budgets line by line and cut $100 million collectively from their budgets.
Remember [...]
Bill Gates and Warren Buffet have more in common today than just being bridge partners and America’s two wealthiest people.
They seem to be doing something that America’s beleaguered automakers are incapable of doing – looking ahead, innovating, and thinking out of the box.
William [...]
Straight Talk Commentary – Jews are celebrating Passover the holiday of Freedom this week.
In this context when thinking about freedom, I am troubled by the inclination of the new administration in Washington to continue to increase government control as their policy prescription to every problem. While I want [...]
Straight Talk Commentary – With the mess in the Washington, the mess in the White House and seemingly no one able to figure out how to liquefy the banks, put people back to work, jump start our economy, and increase consumer confidence I often wish for a nice story [...]
Prediction - In a twist of fate, the opponents of the smoking ban that was enacted by the Legislature and is scheduled to go into effect July 1 will be referred to the 2010 general election ballot.
The opponents primarily the tobacco industry, bars and restaurants, Deadwood [...]
