Archive for the 'South Dakota Blogs' Category
July 27th, 2008 by Bob Schwartz
Updated below
Yesterday several members of the South Dakota blogosphere gathered at Lake Herman State Park for a little shindig and networking picnic. Along with the good food and good company we had some interesting talk about the future of the “cheetos media” and some ideas for getting our local communities involved.
Todd Epp Tells Us About the Benefits of Twitter
While the turnout was small it was nice to put some faces to the words from many of the blogs I read regularly like Cory from Madville Times (our gracious host), Todd Epp from South Dakota Watch, and Scott Ehrisman from South DaCola and a few new friends like Jackie from Sioux Falls Cartoonists and Rebecca from Flying Tomato Farms.
Big thanks to Cory for the invite and to Rebecca and Cory for providing the kayaks. Not only did my daughters enjoy their first rides in a kayak, the now have a new request for Christmas.
P.S. I didn’t have my camera with me at the lake but hopefully Jackie will provide us with photos of Todd’s kayak ride which let’s just say was quite comical and ended up with him just a bit damp.
UPDATE 7/28:
As promised, here is Todd’s kayaking escapade with the pink kayak.
You should note that despite the spill, the hat from Todd’s mancrush Barack Obama didn’t leave his head.
Thanks to Jackie from Sioux Falls Cartoonists for the photos
May 29th, 2008 by Bob Schwartz
A little over a week ago I wrote about the hubbub revolving around the blogs receiving press credentials for the DNC Convention in Denver. The controversy centered on the selection process for the initial 55 state focused political blogs that would be seated alongside the delegates from their respective states and the prominent blogs that were left off the list. Today the DNC released their latest list that now includes over 120 credentialed blogs that adds the national and niche bloggers chosen as well as the state blogs already selected.
The full list can be seen here and unless I missed one, it looks like South Dakota will not have a second blog credentialed (sorry Todd) besides the already announced SDDP mouthpiece Badlands Blue that got the state credential.
With this announcement today, it appears that all we will have to look forward to in August locally will be Blue’s standard fare of party approved/generated stories and press releases along with some “look who I saw” photographs thrown in for good measure. Oh well, there is always 2012…
UPDATE 5/30: Todd over at SD Watch responds to his DNC snub.
May 23rd, 2008 by Bob Schwartz
Former Clean Cut Kid and Hildebrand Tewes business manager Chad Schuldt pleaded guilty to stealing from the company doing consulting work for the Barack Obama campaign.
Chad Schuldt, 37, pleaded guilty Tuesday in Minnehaha County Circuit Court to two counts of grand theft.
He overpaid himself, issued cash advances and made unauthorized purchases on a company credit card, a police affidavit says, costing the firm nearly $200,000.
Advertisement
Under a plea deal, he will get five years of suspended prison time on one charge and could get up to 10 years on the other. A sentencing date has not been set.
Can he blog from prison?
May 20th, 2008 by Bob Schwartz
Blogging colleague Tim over at A Progressive on the Prairie took exception last week to the selection of a blogger from Badlands Blue getting the South Dakota blog credentials to the DNC Convention in Denver. Initially he assumed that lead blogger and Virginia resident Lowell Feld, whom admittedly has rarely ever even been to South Dakota, was chosen over other South Dakota bloggers including popular lefty Todd Epp from South Dakota Watch. That assumption turned out to be incorrect as Blue co-blogger and South Dakotan Tyler Smith was the one chosen.
While the South Dakota selection controversy has since died down somewhat, nationally the selection of bloggers for this unique opportunity has heated up led by several bloggers including the aforementioned Badlands Blue blogger Lowell Feld.
There’s a bit bubbling controversy regarding a backlash to the Democratic National Convention Committee’s selection process for state bloggers. 21 bloggers representing 12 already-credentialed blogs sent a letter yesterday to DNC Chairman Howard Dean protesting the DNCC’s selection process that appears — in the viewpoint of the bloggers — to have been used by state parties to silence critics.
And
The signers of this letter include Lowell Feld, a top Virginia blogger,the writers of LeftInTheWest.com awarded State Blog of the Year in ‘06 by IPDI; and bloggers from California, Massachusetts, Vermont, Wisconsin, Illinois, Kentucky, and North Dakota.
These bloggers are upset, as was Tim over the selection of the South Dakota Democratic party mouthpiece Badlands Blue, that it appears that the DNC chose bloggers that were more “friendly” to the Democrats. They cited instances where popular blogs were bypassed that had been more critical of the party including a popular New Jersey blog that was excluded in favor of another blog with a mysterious author and with a New York owner (sound familiar?).
Anyway, Howard Dean has yet to respond to the concerned bloggers but it will be interesting to see how this new media controversy will shake out in the weeks leading up to the convention.
UPDATE: Kos has more on this here including rumors that the state parties had veto powers during the selection process. So Todd, pissed off anyone in the SDDP lately?
May 6th, 2008 by Bob Schwartz
I normally don’t blow my own horn, probably because I never have a horn to blow when compared with the other fine South Dakota Blogs but this caught me a bit off guard last night.
BlogNetNews is a feed aggregator on steroids that also uses some kind of super secret algorithm to rank the “influence” of the various blogs in their respective categories. The rankings are released weekly and you can pretty much count on either the War College, SD Watch, or Madville Times finishing on top for the week in the South Dakota Blog category with me somewhere at the bottom.
Well something must have gone wrong with BlogNetNews’ algorithm this week (man hackers are expensive, thank goodness for that rebate check) as the screenshot below shows.
I have no delusions of grandeur nor does this mean anything in the overall scheme of things but what the heck, it is nice to know that there is a change of seasons in hell from time to time…
April 28th, 2008 by Bob Schwartz
Updated Below
Chad Schuldt, of Clean Cut Kid fame, was charged with Grand Theft for stealing $200,000 from Obama campaign political consultant Hildebrand Tewes Consulting Inc.
Chad Schuldt, 37, stole nearly $200,000 from his former employer by overpaying himself, misusing a company credit card and causing federal tax penalties, according to a Sioux Falls Police affidavit for an arrest warrant.
Schuldt pleaded not guilty earlier this month to a two-count information charging him with grand theft. He faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
The old adage that the wheels of justice turn slowly surely hold true here as this story first broke 9 months ago and was all the buzz in the blogosphere but pretty much no where else until now.
UPDATE: This morning’s Argus has more details on what Schuldt has been accused of that up until now had only been speculated on and the possible reason why charges have now been filed 9 months after the fact.
According to the affidavit, the accountant found that from April 2005 to June 2007:
Schuldt overpaid himself $28,750;
issued $30,560 in cash advances;
# made $9,988 in unauthorized purchases at hotels, restaurants and retailers using the firm’s credit card.
Schuldt is accused of embezzling $69,298, but the total loss to Hildebrand Tewes Consulting is calculated at $198,146, including IRS penalties, professional fees and other costs.
Schuldt admitted to the thefts in e-mails with Hildebrand and said he would cooperate with the investigation. But police said Schuldt did not respond to their interview requests as of Dec. 17 and he had made no attempt to repay.
April 1st, 2008 by Bob Schwartz
On my way out the door to the airport but this post caught my eye.
Yesterday, we got a mention from Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post , who wrote an article asking for the best state political blogs. Lo and behold, Badlands Blue got named as the best political blog in South Dakota.
Badlands Blue??? Feel free to comment on this among yourselves.
March 24th, 2008 by Bob Schwartz
Badlands Blue has a post calling out Mt Blogmore for a negative post in regards to Stephanie Herseth Sandlin’s vote on FISA that specifically didn’t include Telcom immunity.
In other words, according to the Rapid City Journal’s blog, Mt. Blogmore, Rep. Herseth Sandlin is an extremist, Bush-hating, terrorist-loving librul because she voted against granting immunity to big telecommunications companies for past warrantless wiretapping? Because she voted in support of the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution? Amazing.
And while I definitely agree with Lowell’s criticism of the Herseth-Sandlin hit piece and with his point that we should not be granting immunity for past warrantless wiretaps, I have to wonder where his anger was just a few weeks ago when Tim Johnson broke ranks with Democrats and voted for similar FISA changes that included the same retroactive Telcom immunity that he is now defending Herseth-Sandlin for not allowing.
Selective memory?
March 23rd, 2008 by Bob Schwartz
Will you please give it a rest! Hypocrisy I do not believe is a sin but isn’t jealousy?
All the back and forth used to be funny, now it is just sad…
March 10th, 2008 by Bob Schwartz
Is this all it takes? To steal a line from the SDDP website Badlands Blue whose primary author recently asked this question of the Argus Leader when they changed a headline. They evidently caved because the right leaning blog SDWC called them out for not mentioning Tim Johnson’s horrible power ranking in the sensationalized headline when reporting on the power ranking of GOP Senator John Thune.
That same Argus Leader today called out the blog for a post this morning that gloated over their successful stalking campaign and all but took credit for these tactics forcing Steve Kirby to stay out of the race. But unlike the Argus which relented and changed the headline, Badlands Blue pulled the post completely.
Who said a Virginian with only one visit to the state was out of touch with South Dakotans?
Hat tip to PP over at the SDWC whom has the sorted details including the text of the now MIA blog post.
UPDATE: How hard can it be? Todd Epp asks that question in regards to blogging about politics in a state that you don’t reside. He has started his latest blog project, Tidewater Blue, a blog all about Virginia politics written by someone that should know, A South Dakotan with 3 or 4 visits to the state.
