Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR) says Democrats are stripping approved amendments from their socialized health care bill after the amendments were voted on and approved in committee.

The federal judge who will preside over a highly anticipated gay marriage case in California will allow the trial to be videotaped for later showing on YouTube despite the negative effects that doing so could have on witnesses.

Many Rapid City citizens came out to the meeting of the Rapid City School board tonight to speak against the proposed expansion of the district nondiscrimination policy to 17 different categories of protected classes, including “sexual orientation.” In the end, the board passed the change 4-3, and a third reading scheduled for Jan. 21 is required before it can be implemented.

Citizens for Liberty held their regular lunch meeting today at the Best Western Ramkota in Rapid City. Exiting changes with the group were announced, as were upcoming events. Former Citizens for Liberty President Gordon Howie also stepped down from leadership of the group as he announced his candidacy for governor of South Dakota.

In this study of Greenland climate data, we once again points us to the fact that temperatures in Greenland were once much warmer than they are today, and to the fact that modern hysteria about anthropogenic global warming is pure hot air.

What would you think if a long-time gun control advocate ended up shooting someone? Might the word “hypocrite” come to mind? That’s what happened when North Carolina state senator R.C. Soles shot an intruder in his home. Interestingly, the man he shot was a client of his law firm. Soles is now being criminally charged in the matter.

The latest Gallup report finds conservatism is the top ideology in America. Conservatives (40%) outnumbered both moderates (36%) and liberals (21%) across the nation in 2009.

Today South Dakota Republican Congressional Candidate Thad Wasson ended his campaign and endorsed Blake Curd as the best candidate to take on Stephanie Herseth Sandlin in November.

Kitty Werthmann of South Dakota Eagle Forum will be on the Sean Hannity radio show today. Werthmann spoke in Rapid City a couple of months ago on her experiences growing up in Nazi-controlled Austria in their socialist environment.

I don’t know about you, but I must be looking for Al Gore’s mythical global warming in all the wrong places.

What is killing American confidence and innovation? Bill Whittle takes a look at the Leftist attitudes that threaten the ideals of optimism and progress in the latest Afterburner. But not only that: Whittle reminds us that now is the time for reclaiming the bright future that American once held firmly in her grasp.

Things aren’t looking too bad for the GOP in 2010. The latest Rasmussen poll finds that on a generic ballot, Republicans are way ahead of Democrats. Even in the People’s Republic of Massachusetts, Republican Scott Brown is coming from long-shot candidate to a strong showing in the contest to fill the late Ted Kennedy’s senate seat.

In case you’re not familiar with Media Matters, it’s an ultra-Leftist propaganda organization started by Hillary Clinton to bash anything conservative that gets out over the public airwaves. This video reveals an inside, undercover look at what goes on at Media Matters.

Though President Barack Obama praised the Mayo Clinic last year as a model medical facility, the Mayo has just decided not to accept Medicare patients anymore. The Mayo lost $124 million in Arizona and $840 million nationwide. What does this bode for the future under ObamaCare?

Republican U.S. House of Representatives candidate Thad Wasson of Piedmont told me this morning he will be sitting out this election cycle and will not be running for the House.

A coalition of South Dakota legislators, veterans, and foreign fund investment experts has announced plans for a bill that would force state-controlled pension and trust funds to divest themselves of more than $68 million dollars worth of stock in foreign companies doing business in Iran.

Michael Yon, the blogger who was spent a great deal of time with the troops in Iraq and elsewhere, was apparently detained and handcuffed yesterday at a Seattle airport after returning to the States and refusing to tell a customs baggage inspector how much money he makes.

A Christian home-visit teacher in the United Kingdom was suspended by her company after she offered to pray for one of her sick students. Her employer told her that her offer of prayer could be seen as “bullying.”

The South Dakota Family Policy Council and Citizens for Liberty held an informational and educational meeting at the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology in Rapid City this evening. Representatives from these organizations gave the case in recommending the RC School Board maintain the original six protection classes specified in federal law, rather than adding an additional 11 to the district nondiscrimination policy.

Remember when Barack Obama talked of great openness in government, about welcoming input and doing things in the full light of day? Apparently that was like all the other smack we heard during the campaign: just words. Dems plan to skip the normal conference process for the health care bill and just shove it through.

RNC Chairman Michael Steele says in an interview with Sean Hannity that he’s not sure if the GOP is ready to lead if they win big in congress next year. If Steele is short on candidates that represent GOP values, he should talk to Tea Parties across the country; they are filled with people who unabashedly support the conservative values upon which the GOP is founded.

If you have red American blood running through your veins, this video should send a tingle of excitement through you. It’s time to take American back from the socialist usurpers. It’s time to restore Constitutional government and freedom in America.

It’s interesting when even liberals mess up and accidentally acknowledge a truth they usually try desperately to bury. The New York Times has now vindicated truth-tellers like Sarah Palin who said last summer that government health care would lead to rationing and “death panels.”

The Greenpeace protesters who illegally climbed onto Mount Rushmore and unfurled a global warming propaganda poster have received a slap on the wrist for their slap in the face of American freedom and democracy. With a monument superintendent who thinks “the system worked,” and a judicial system that doesn’t see this as any big deal, we can probably expect future–perhaps more destructive–assaults on our symbols of freedom.

The Rapid City School Board recently began looking to add language to the district nondiscrimination policy which would add “sexual orientation” as a protected class. As the board meets again Thursday Jan. 7 to discuss this issue, the South Dakota Family Policy Council and Citizens for Liberty are holding educational meetings to inform the public on this important issue.