Pat Powers just never stops being a jerk. He misportrays a story from Rep. Peggy Gibson (D-23/Huron) to make it sound as if she were hovering over mangled accident victims seeking petition signatures.
I attended the Democratic event at which Rep. Gibson spoke of her roadside petition gathering. She made clear that she wasn’t up at the accident scene. She wasn’t asking injured people or drivers of damaged vehicles for signatures. She wasn’t interfering with first responders. She was stuck in traffic, along with lots of other South Dakotans and visitors, and she decided to make the best of the delay, speak with her neighbors, and do a little educating about redistricting (an issue striking fear in the hearts of Powers and his GOP minders).
While Powers falsifies the story and his own outrage, he ignores the real abuses perpetrated by shady and illegal signature gatherers on the streets and parking lots of Aberdeen, Rapid City, and elsewhere in South Dakota. He ignores the possible fraud being carried out by operatives who are carrying the fake 18%-rate-cap petition and using the redistricting petition, Marsy’s Law, and perhaps other petitions as cover for their trickery. He does not mention that these fake petitioners may be carrying the redistricting petition without authorization from the ballot question sponsors, perhaps with the disenfranchising intent of collecting signatures and then throwing the sheets away to depress the signature count.
There’s plenty to be mad about in the shady tactics used by out-of-state operatives and their in-state stooges in our petition process. That Powers persistently chooses to ignore those crimes against democracy and instead insult the initiative of a respected legislator caught in traffic shows his fealty to political agendas over accurate reporting and the defense of South Dakota democracy.
The poor guy’s been so overworked and anxious lately he’s capable of nearly any tangent. I’ve never known a politician who wouldn’t get out and shake a few hands in the same situation.
Powers admits to getting paid to do political schlepping, that’s a fact. Our state law requires notices accompany any political messages in which candidates or elected officials are named. So?! Why doesn’t Pat Powers have to disclose who is paying him to slime politicians on those political postings?
They are all in this racket together. Just fleecing the flock, the republican way.
Nobody could think more of Pat Powers than I do. And I think he’s a sloppy, lazy loser who has been unable to move past his sixth grade age psychologically. I have a nephew who’s a doctor of psychology and he’s told me he thinks that perhaps Powers had something traumatic happen to him as a twelve-year-old boy. According to my PhD nephew, those early traumas prohibit people from moving forward psychologically.
Aside from that, Powers is a weak-minded bully with a following of idiots who cheer him on and a bunch of phony crooked politicians who help pay his bills.
The only thing I respect about Pat Powers is his ability to put away the Chinese food at the little Chinese buffet in Brookings. Man, can that guy put away the Chinese buffet! I am respecting of that.
Otherwise, Pat Powers is probably the Earth’s most complete waste of air and other valuable resources.
I’ve mentioned to Mr. Powers that continually insulting people is a sign of a troubled childhood. His response was, quote… “BLAH BLAH BLAH”. And that’s the news.
rwb, thanks for the laugh.
PP is a bully, plain and simple. What he doesn’t know is that GOP leadership don’t even like him. I kind of feel bad for him, he HATES democrats. I may be a liberal, but I don’t hate conservatives. He’s an angry man who has some problems with reasoning skills. Has Pitty Pat ever been invited to a TED talk like Cory? No, because he doesn’t have anything positive and worthwhile to share. It must be hard waking up everyday knowing you failed so horribly at a SOS job you were forced to resign, and your boss was told by the GOP leadership not to run for a second term because if he did a democrat may win. PP may believe he has power in Pierre, but the one bill he should up for, the Autism bill, was killed. If PP was so powerful and popular with the majority that bill would have passed. Pitty Pat, no one gives two shits about you.
I am all about the political process, and Cory you know this. I think there a time an place for gathering signatures. Maybe she didn’t know at the time it was a fatal, and I can accept that. HOWEVER, once she found out about it, she should have kept it to herself. If she announced this at a dinner, in my opinion, it makes her look like an awful human being. Just, MHO.
Of course PP (and I’m afraid you, too, DR) have to assume the worst, and in the case of PP, you must attempt to stretch people’s imaginations to distort reality to make the situation as bad as possible for the Democrat you’re targeting. You have to imagine that all of the people stuck in traffic knew they were stopped because of a fatal accident, and not because, oh, let’s say, a semi jack knifed across the roadway. You also have to assume that it’s wrong to socialize with others while stopped for hours in a traffic jam. What else is inappropriate behavior (according to the GOP) while in such a situation? Can we listen to our car radios? Can we enjoy a beverage? Can we talk on our cell phones? You know if this happened a year earlier and smilin’ Mike was stuck in traffic, he’d be working the crowd, grinnin’ and shaking hands.
“Of course PP (and I’m afraid you, too, DR) have to assume the worst, and in the case of PP, you must attempt to stretch people’s imaginations to distort reality to make the situation as bad as possible for the Democrat you’re targeting. ”
Dave, you must not have been here very long. This is SOP for every Democrat on here when it comes to any Republican involved issue. This place is a breeding ground for that sort of speculation. Cory banks on the fact that his readers are so easily manipulated and driven to create stories and tell them enough times that they begin to believe them.
This place is a breeding ground for that sort of speculation. It is called the truth and reality,DB,look into it sometime.
@Mr. Buresh … It seems you’re attributing Free Press with the characteristics of those you’re trying to defend … that’s called (1. Projection is the psychological phenomenon where someone thinks everyone else is doing and thinking what they are. It is usually seen as the externalization of a person’s negative traits, placing blame on an outside force such as the environment, a government, a society or other people). It’s quite common on the Tea-Winger blog.
Really, DR? We’re not talking about asking for signatures from anyone involved in the accident. We’re talking about a bunch of people stuck on the road, their only connection to the incident being that it’s keeping them from getting where they want to go. What real breach of decorum took place? Now if we were talking about ambulance-chasing, if a circulator had a scanner on, heard traffic was backed up on the highway, and raced out there to grab signatures, that might be questionable. Might. But here we have a circulator stuck on the road and making the best of an inconvenient situation. I don’t think it was any more inappropriate for Gibson to go about her business in that traffic jam than it is for honest South Dakota circulators to be out working for signatures today beneath the half-mast flags marking the passing of Governor Miller.
Daniel, get real. I never assume that my readers are easily manipulated. Quite the opposite: I assume that my readers will scrutinize every word I say and call me out for the least error in fact or logic.