Dakota Beacon

The contrast is breathtaking, but true. It’s another jolt to traditionally minded voters—especially pro-life Democrats and independents—who voted for ‘change’ on November 4, 2008, and are now absorbing the change they authorized.

The Obama administration and Democratic Congress ‘rejected funding for school vouchers for poor children in Washington, DC, but supported funding for abortions for the mothers of those children.

Over 300,000 pro-lifers marched in Washington last month without notice by the mainstream media. So, I’d like to take a moment to explain what happened.

Because the West has fallen victim to moral relativism, it no longer believes in transcendent Truth.  Thus, stripped of the eternal yardstick that should govern art and curricula, we use emotion as the yardstick and try to provide what makes a given group “feel” good.  This is why we hear about how something isn’t relevant to most because it’s about an “upper-class white man” or was penned by “dead white males.”  It’s why we try to give each group its particular flavor, such as feminism for girls and afro-centrism for blacks.  It’s why we talk about the times and not Truth, saying that a work is no longer “contemporary.”  It’s why education has degenerated to a point wherein all we can do is give everyone a lie that, supposedly, he can relate to.  But this tragically misses the point: Everyone needs the same thing, Truth.   Thus should our goal be to relate it — and help everyone to relate to it. 

President Obama doesn’t like the cards dealt to him of late, to wit: the election of Republican Scott Brown to fill Ted Kennedy’s old seat, the apparent collapse of health care legislation in congress, nagging high unemployment and low poll numbers. What’s a president to do?

Well, he can always apply P. T. Barnum’s dictum to Americans. “There’s a sucker born every minute.”

For its bold attempt at feigning populism, Obama’s discourse was riddled with cornpone and chutzpah. Huey Long couldn’t have done better himself. So, here we have Mr. Obama posing as Mr. Populist.

They are still placing the blame after 365 days of being in power on GWB, though I agree that W deserves his share of the blame. But blame is NOT the solution to what ails this nation today. From a government viewpoint all one has to do is to look at the past when the economy went into a recession or stood on the brink of a depression.

The way to stimulate a depressed economy is to reduce taxes to the business community (especially the small ones), as well as individuals. This puts more money into the economy, and in a capitalistic system, money is what drives the economy. It creates jobs because consumers have more income to spend, placing a demand on production of products the consumers want and need. This increase in consumer activity is a boon to the government due to more workers earning more wages and thereby paying taxes. If one is out of work they pay NO taxes, and this hurts not only the feds but also the state and local communities.

Suppose you were arrested on criminal charges because you were the head of an organization that had produced a film critical of the wife of a former political leader, who was now running for office herself. What country would have such a law? Cuba, Myanmar, China? None of these. Actually, you would be talking about the United States of America.

What is even more interesting and astounding, is that President Obama does not like the decision one bit—as was evident in his State of the Union address on Wednesday evening. What’s the likely reason behind this disapproval?

But not Barack Obama: “I don’t quit.”  So on he went. As my colleague Rich Lowry put it after the Massachusetts vote, the public thinks Obama doesn’t get it, and Obama thinks the public doesn’t get it. And as he’s got the microphone he’s gonna keep talking at you until you do get it. The ever tinnier, more perfunctory sophomoric  uplift at the start and finish can’t conceal the hope-killing, jobs-slaying, soul-sapping message in between, which is perfectly consistent, and has been for two years. As President Obama sees it, whatever the problem – from health care to education, banking to the environment – the solution is more Washington.

I know nothing -- NOTHING!, The Greatest Generation, Will it be one term and out?, That idea is not going to fly, Golly, free-floating anger is fun, Jenkinson bemoaned America’s failure to wake up, ND political correctness, Leafy Spurge for Republicans, a family affair, the case takes on a certain fuzziness, Dorothy was a farm gal through and through, Wait for January markdowns!

Deficit spending is skyrocketing. In December, a report was issued under the auspices of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, the Pew Charitable Trusts, and the Committee for a Federal Budget, declaring that the U.S. is facing "a debt-driven crisis  -- something previously viewed as almost unfathomable in the world's largest economy."

This past year, the federal government ran a deficit of $l.4 trillion. In 2009 alone, the public debt grew 31 percent, from $5.8 trillion to $7.6 trillion, rising from 41 percent to 53 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP).

State's Attorney Richard Riha	Assistant State's Attorney Cynthia Feland	Assistant State's Attorney Lloyd Suhr

HAVE CRIMES BEEN COMMITTED IN THE PROSECUTION OF SANDY BLUNT?

After being apprised that they did not provide a memorandum from the primary prosecution witness that destroys the vast majority of the prosecution’s case, Burleigh County Assistant State’s Attorney Lloyd Suhr,  responds that it was an oversight. Then, he claims that the very succinct document in question is no big deal, that their was plenty of other evidence “of fact and description of events” somewhere in all the other documents turned over to the defense.

Defense attorney Michael Hoffman destroys this nonsense in his letter that also points out that there is very much other evidence that was not provided as law requires. He then explains how Auditor Wahl had likely, in his opinion, committed perjury! Suhr then asserts that witness testimony was not only equivalent in signifigance but likely more important then the MEMO!

A bearded man visited America on Christmas Eve. It wasn’t Santa Clause. Karl Marx (i.e. the spirit of government imposed poverty past, present, and future) was back from the Global Warming summit in Copenhagen. The Socialist Democratic Party’s helpers (Byron Dorgan, Kent Conrad, and Earl Pomeroy) voted for socialized medicine.

That's the question Sandy Blunt, former CEO of North Dakota's state workers comp fund must be asking himself.

Because the most serious charge against Blunt was based on Blunt authorizing sick leave for and not getting expenses repaid by an employee who was terminated. Turns out the North Dakota state auditor had reviewed the situation and given Blunt a pass, and reported as much to prosecutor Cynthia Feland well before she went to trial. In fact, these 'crimes' were what enabled Feland to increase the charges leveled against Blunt from misdemeanor to felony status.

This documentary is far better than anything produced on World War II by the History Channel, PBS or A&E. It is certainly better than anything to come out of Hollywood including the realistic film “Saving Private Ryan.”

In the wake of the Massachusetts senatorial election, a sudden cascade of speeches and press releases by President Obama and his surrogates claim that the president is fighting to ‘rebuild the middle class.’ But it is not at all clear what is meant by ‘middle class.’ For more than a year, President Obama defined middle class as people making up to $250,000 a year—promising not to raise their taxes (at one point) and also promising to lower them (at another point). He did not say what the dollar threshold was—that is to say, the income level that puts one in the ‘lower class.

Dr. L. John Van Til—observes the emergence of political claims and terminology that crop up on a daily basis in the media. Yet, the terms are often ambiguous or misrepresented. In his latest op-ed, Dr. Van Til considers the two recent examples: “middle class” and “populism.

Jim Kleinsasser, It doesn't matter, It's about empowering business, confusing world of politics in North Dakota, It's too tangled -- I can't stand it!, another story about Pomeroy, ND's earmarks go, Three Affiliated Tribes, temperature swings, What would Lawrence Welk do?, Financial controls at NDSU, NDSU must clean up Chapman's budget mess, The Blind Duck and dae Udder Place, One-room schools, Leafy Spurge and Buffalo Chips

But fine, have it your way. Tuesday's vote was really a plea by a desperate people for even more Obama. We're going to need even more Obama teleprompters, even more Obama speeches, even more sonorous banalities unrelated to action, even more "Let me be clears..." prefacing even more tinny generalities, on even more reams of even more double-spaced paper. And we're gonna need a really heavy duty rig to carry all that verbiage.

Without pre-submitting questions, Dakota Beacon Publisher Steve Cates sits down with United States Senate candidate Governor John Hoeven and for a 22 minute, on the fly, stream of consciousness interview with a rapid fire series of questions designed to reveal as much as is possible in a short period time, essence of who John Hoeven is - life, loves, the pursuit of liberty, favorite books, movies, most important people, and much more.

Here was a warning against the pallbearers of the progressive death march, from Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger—who hoped to expunge the gene pool of “human weeds”—to the euthanasia precipice to which America is being dragged. It starts with the weakest of vessels: the infant in its mother’s womb.

Timeless words of wisdom to bear in mind this week, as America struggles to survive another year of Roe v. Wade.

The Congressman quickly issued a statement denying it.

But today, yet another story from Roll Call comes out saying these rumors are continuing to persist in Washington about the Congressman's interest in the job.

So the question is:  does he want the job, and if not, why not?

Really, Obamascare itself, just like the man it’s named after, is invidious.  Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Diane Crimestein and the rest of their co-conspirators are invidious.  Big government is invidious.  And my will has become awfully, awfully ill.  Let’s just hope an ill wind of public discontent blows the right kind of discrimination through the halls of government this November.

Why do people take such umbrage at Robertson’s remarks?  Now, I don’t ask why they disagree; to reiterate, I part ways with him theologically myself.  Yet I’m not offended.  I don’t act as if his commentary is as bad as a phony reverend screaming “God d*** America!” from the pulpit — which, I should emphasize, isn’t just saying that God has punished America.  It is asking Him to damn America.  And let us be clear: Damnation in Christian thought is something infinitely worse than sending a natural or manmade disaster our way.  It is wishing on your target the worst thing possible: eternal separation from God.  We should also note the context of that esteemed man of the cloth’s remarks.  He was saying that 9/11 was our just deserts, that, as he put it, “America’s chickens have come home to roost.”  Only, unlike the pastoral admonishment of Robertson and Falwell, he spewed the words with venom.  And I don’t remember the chickens in the media condemning him as they did those two men.  But I digress.

Two prominent workers' compensation columnists say they believe former North Dakota Workforce Safety and Insurance (WSI) Director Sandy Blunt got a raw deal when he was convicted of misusing state funds to pay for items such as employee lunches and sick leave.

And they have targeted the prosecutor in Blunt's case for severe criticism. The prosecutor says the columnists don't have their facts straight.

The congressional race is gaining momentum with Kevin Cramer announcing his candidacy and Rick Bergs' impending announcement on Tuesday.  My intention is to move forward to obtain the GOP nomination for Congress.

As  Michael Barone observed, “the educated class” was dazzled by style, the knuckledragging morons are talking about substance. They grasp that another year of 2,000-page trillion-dollar government-growing bills offers America only the certainty of decline. Just before the Senate’s health care vote, Obama, the silver-tongued orator, declared that we were “on the precipice” of historic reform. Indeed.

On Tuesday, we’ll find out whether even Massachusetts is willing to follow him off the cliff.