Search Results: Staggers

Before the elections this past Tuesday I did some trolling on various online forums to see if I could find what people were saying about the campaigns. The thing I heard the most was that Stehly was going to lose because she is negative and Brown was positive. It proved to be true.

These days I have found people prefer to be lied to as long as what they here is positive. The ugly truth does not interest them.

I had the opportunity to be close enough to Stehly’s campaign to review her mailings and website and I asked her several questions about how she came up with some of the information.
Guess what, Theresa never lied about anything. Her campaign newsprint mailer, paid for by her campaign and an obvious promotional piece was dubbed as a fake newspaper not only by people online in forums but by the Gargoyle Leader (I guess they were miffed because the mailer used a mock logo of the USA TODAY which is owned by media-monopoly-corporate-giant GANNET which also owns our down home friendly daily paper). If you read the paper carefully and check on www.siouxfalls.org you will see that Brown’s voting record was as Stehly said it was, and you will also find a PDF of the document where Brown and other councilors donated money to the indoor pool campaign. Yup, the truth. How tragic and negative indeed.

Sure there was an endorsement in the mailer written by Stehly’s friends, but wouldn’t we expect that? After all, she paid for it. Brown‘s mailings were full of vague information that you could interpret several ways, something they call in politics wiggle room. For instance he claims he is saving the city money by buying the Zoo. Huh? Don’t we subsidize the place now because we decided to buy it? Wouldn’t that mean we are losing money on the facility every year? Isn’t that untruthful?

Honestly I don‘t have a personal problem with Vernon Brown. Never had. I actually went to High School with his wife Tammi, who is very wonderful brilliant person. I have to agree with Kermit Staggers on the matter, he just felt Stehly was the better candidate and so did I, because she was truthful and didn’t sugarcoat what is going on in this city. A day before the election, Stehly said to me “Scott, I have always been truthful in this campaign and that is what is important.” Stehly is right. But apparently 60% of the voters in Tuesday’s election prefer to be lied to. Apathy is NOT a beautiful thing.

Populist: A supporter of the rights and power of the people.

This is what I look for in a city council member, and I hope other voters do to on April 8th.

Why is it that the city can tax us, regressively, then turn around and not give us a voice when it comes to city priorities, budgeting and spending? I don’t want a leader sitting on the city council, I want a listener. They are elected by us, to represent us. That is why they are split into districts so they can interact with the people who live within that district.

The local media, especially the Gargoyle Leader, constantly says we need more leaders and less populists on the city council, but lets look at how the public perceives leaders over populists;

Councilor Brown has been considered a leader by the media, so let’s look at Brown’s effectiveness as a councilor:

– He took 3rd in the last mayoral election.

– He supported the rec center and indoor pool which the voter’s turned down by a large margin.

– He continues to support luxuries, like fancy windows for the Pavilion, buying the zoo and Great Bear and expensive floors and trim for the new library.

Brown is being challenged in the upcoming election for his at large seat, and it is a close race with a populist. If he loses it will show that this community wants populists over leaders.

Councilor Staggers is considered a populist by the media, they have even beat him up a few times for it. But let’s look at Staggers track record:

– He was unchallenged the last time his seat was up for reelection.

– He is the most talked about candidate for the mayoral election in 2010, and would be a shoe in.

– He is the only councilor with a political science degree and actually teaches it at a local university.

I’m all for leaders. We need them at our churches and schools, we them at work, we need them as friends. It wouldn’t even hurt to have them running our local media. But when the city is spending our tax dollars, they need to listen to us, not their inner voice.

Theresa Stehly who is running against Brown said it best “The city works for the citizens, we don’t work them. It is time to get our priorities straight.”

Damn right!

Trust me, I rarely defend the Argus Leader and their executive editor Beck. I think in the past year he has really pushed the state’s largest newspaper in the toilet. I don’t think he knows what his readers want, and I doubt he knows what his page editors are doing.

Yesterday’s court hearing was about one thing; The First Amendment and it’s legal precedence.

Sure the parody piece he wrote about Dan Scott was vindictive, mean, and malicious, but it was legal. Scott’s lawyer ‘Wild’ Bill Janklow said that the column was a ‘Hit Job’ on his client. Janklow is right. I think it is safe to assume that it was payback for comments Scott had made at a legislative meeting by making the Argus Leader the butt of one of his jokes with the publisher Arnold Garson present. I’m sure it didn’t sit well with Arnie, so the newspaper shot back. They’ve done it to Kermit Staggers, Theresa Stehly, and even me (Nestor Ramos thinks I’m a stencil vandal, yeah right Maxwell Smart).

This is the one thing the Argus is good at.

Is it ethically right? That’s debatable.

Is it legal? Damn right it is.

Typical politicians’ response to a problem or controversy: throw a bunch of taxpayer money at it to make it go away.

I think if Mayor Bernard wants to prove he did nothing wrong, he needs to put on his tenny-runners and start knocking on doors in Yankton and talking to his constituents. Do you need Kermit Staggers phone number? He can give you some pointers on how it works.

http://www.argusleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071015/VOICES01/710150306/1162/VOICES01

Fellow bloggers have been discussing the purpose of our local press; essentially to be a watchdog for the citizens, especially when it comes to spending our tax dollars wisely. It seems our local press doesn’t care that half of SF is against building an Event Center, especially downtown. This past year they have supported, essentially wasting taxpayer’s money on ‘wants’ not ‘needs’ (Rec center, indoor pool, event center). It seems anything the AL endorses, fails, even political candidates. Where is the editorial support for snow gates on street plows that Staggers has been proposing for years! (it would help prevent 4 feet of snow being piled up in your driveway end).

Our local press needs to start concentrating on giving us news, not pipe dreams.