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Post updated on 9-3-2005! Now accepting PayPal donations! Scroll down for details. Last night I mentioned that I was helping out on a cool project to get a truckload of relief supplies delivered to Mississippi from my local community. Today,...

From National Journal: Senator's Star Dims, Glows By K. Daniel Glover, NationalJournal.com Politics is a lot like football, and holding elective office, a lot like coaching. One day you're the goat who blew the big game with that final play...

Weekly Standard writer and blogger Ed Morrisey:Ellsworth Saved, Thune Ascendant Success has many fathers, while failure is an orphan. That proverb sounded particularly inapt in South Dakota yesterday when the Base Re-Alignment and Closure Commission announced that Ellsworth Air Force...

Larry Elder has a column that addresses the use of firearms in self-defense:UCLA professor emeritus James Q. Wilson, a respected expert on crime, police practices and guns, says, We know from Census Bureau surveys that something beyond a hundred thousand...

Why does China need that navy?

The new commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, Adm. Gary Roughhead, an interested onlooker of the joint Chinese-Russian military maneuvers during the past eight days, has posed a critical question about the rapidly modernizing Chinese navy: "What do [the Chinese] see as the intended use of that navy?

If that navy "is to ensure the free flow of commerce, that would not be surprising," he said, nodding toward the sea lanes in the South China and East China seas through which pass the oil and raw materials that feed China's expanding economy, not to mention its soaring exports. The admiral added, however: "What if the intent is not purely to defend the sea lanes?" He left the question open.

Indeed. That IS the question.

Kevin McCullough has an interesting column about God and the so-called liberals. Here is the introduction:Liberals hate God. They don't want to believe in Him. And they are at a complete loss when events unfold like that of Hurricane Katrina....

In this post about Ellsworth I argued, amongst other things, that in the name of economic development conservatives must not fall into a reflexive anti-government stance. Here's an example of a conservative Republican foolishly willing to drive the anti-government bandwagon...

Public vote on feedlots prohibited, court says

In a case originating in Moody County the SD Supreme Court upheld the permitting of large dairy operations in the face of opposition from activists, therreby jabbing a finger in the eyes of Dakota Rural Action et al. The decision effectively upholds a rational and orderly oexercise of property rights, without activists'having veto powers.

The case began when the Moody County Commission, acting as the board of adjustment, granted permits for two dairies - Britannia Dairy just west of Flandreau and the Rex Nederend Family Trust southwest of Elkton. Opponents of large feedlots pressed for a vote, and the commission denied their petitions.

The Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the county was correct: Because the commission was acting as a board of adjustment, a referendum is not allowed. The decision applies across much of eastern South Dakota because boards of adjustment grant permits in most counties, said Todd Kays of the First District Association of Local Governments in Watertown

.

Unfortunately we haven't heard the last out of the DRA crew yet:

In March, lawyer Jim Abourezk argued that feedlot permits are legislative decisions. But on Thursday, the court ruled that the distinction applies only to decisions made by the state, or by cities or county commissions.

Wouldn't you know that former Donk (appointed) Senator Abourezk is involved here. At times he makes McGovern look like a conservative.

"In once sense, it's a big loss," Abourezk said. "In the other sense, it gives great urgency to that initiative to plug the loophole that the court wouldn't plug."

Oh no! A LOOPHOLE that allows property owners to develop something on their property without the activists approval! Horrors!

He was referring to a petition that would change state law to subject all feedlot permits to a public vote. A vote could come in November 2006 if enough people sign on. "I think the public is very much for it," Abourezk said.

The libDonks, envirowackos, NIMBYs (Not In My BackYard) will unfortunately probably get enough signatures to get thsi onto the ballot, but the Chief still hopes not. This whole concept needs to be shot down in flames, and then fed through a dairy's manure processing system, where it belongs.

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