Sibby Files for State Senate

Oh my: fundagelical Tea Party blogger Steve "Sibby" Sibson has filed for District 20 Senate as an Independent.

Just when I thought Gordon Howie's defeat meant I wouldn't have any really good wingnuts to kick around this fall.

Democrat Susan Thie, pay attention: Sibson's entry in the race just doubled your chances of winning. Fellow bloggers, here's the plan: we hammer Sibson for every moonbat proposal and World Net Daily karaoke speech he makes. Austrian economics, full-reserve banking, abolish the Federal Reserve—oh yeah, those are all things Mitchell and South Dakota really, really need. We point out the detachment of Sibson's agenda for practical South Dakota reality. We stir up the 9-12ers he hangs out with enough to motivate them to campaign hard for Steve and bring lots of yahoos to the polls. Every Sibson vote eats into incumbent Senator Vehle's Republican base. Every Sibson vote moves Thie one step closer to victory. Let's those Sibson voters up!

Thank you, Steve. The Democratic Majority Project just got another leg up.

I'm a Marxist Voodoo Priest, Sibby's a Nut...

...and no one else cares.

Because Steve Sibson is so far off topic on my post about the state GOP's mud-wrestling and the window of opportunity for the Gordon Howie theocrats, I'm deleting his whole nutty thread from that comment section. Lest Steve think he has scored some victory by driving me to censorship, I reprint (against my better judgment, but I'm a sucker for lost causes like Sibby) the entire whacky discussion here. Steve, feel free to continue your crush on me on this post.

Steve Sibson said...

Cory,

To you believe in:

"Under God the people rule"?

1/21/2010 3:43 PM

Steve Sibson said...

There I go hitting the publish button too soon.

"Do you believe in:"

1/21/2010 3:45 PM

caheidelberger said...

Steve, you know I'm an atheist. How could I believe in that statement? Or is there some other meaning to your question?

1/21/2010 6:54 PM

Steve Sibson said...

Cory,

That is South Dakota's state motto and is found on the state seal and in the South Dakota Constitution. So I can add anti-South Dakotan to the anti-American Christian hating Neo-Marxist agenda you are a part of as described in this excerpt I copied and pasted on my web site five days ago with a title that included your name regarding attacks at Brett Hume for expressing his Christian beliefs:

"This is the way Jon Stewart and his staff operates: Take a deliberately truncated clip from the person you want to attack, then self-righteously mock and ridicule him and the statement whose meaning you have just distorted.

This tactic is straight out from the playbook of Neo-Marxist humbug Saul Alinsky, the author of "Rules for Radicals," one of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton's favorite books."

Thanks for your post as it proves the point made five days ago. Your distortion was this:

"He's built his reputation in the crusade for theocracy."

1/21/2010 7:11 PM

caheidelberger said...

[Steve, you are hilarious! Because I disagree with on the existence of a supreme being, I hate South Dakota? Wow! With logical acrobatics like that, who needs Cirque du Soleil? (Besides, their name is French, and Marx lived in France; therefore, Cirque du Soleil are Marxists!)]

[Or try this: I haven't eaten pheasant or walleye lately. Pheasant and walleye are the state bird and fish of South Dakota. Therefore, I'm anti-South Dakota! Yaaarrr!]

[Steve and I could play nutty playground non-logic all day long. But I'm not news. Neither is Steve's crush on me. I'd rather hear comments about the actual substance of the post.]

1/21/2010 7:25 PM

Steve Sibson said...

"Steve, you are hilarious! Because I disagree with on the existence of a supreme being, I hate South Dakota?"

No Cory! There you go with the distortions directed at Christians. The truth is that you rejected South Dakota's state motto. Again you prove my point about your Neo-Marxist tactics. And if you are up to it, research John Locke's positon regarding the role of atheists.

1/21/2010 9:02 PM

caheidelberger said...

[No, Steve, it's voodoo tactics: I'm trying to make an earthquake happen! (So far, only my heat pump is rumbling. I should have that looked at.) ]

[I am desperately writhing in the crushing grip of Steve's cleverly sprung bear-trap logic... oh, wait, sorry: that's actually just writhing with laughter. Steve makes it so easy to confuse the two. 8-D ]

[If I delete this thread, it will only be because Steve is totally off topic.]

1/21/2010 9:34 PM

Sunday Punchline: Steve Sibson to Launch Air War?

Seth Tupper writes, "Did you see the Toshiba hot air balloon flying over Mitchell last night?"

What, someone launched Sibby out of a cannon? That must have impressed the Japanese Rotarians.

Black Is White: Sibby Shows Cash for Clunkers Has No Negative Impact on Donations

Steve Sibson and I have picnicked together twice this summer. We played the bad kids in class at Saturday's Glenn Beck picnic, distracting ourselves with small asides on what we were hearing.

But our positive personal interaction does not change my opinion that Mr. Sibson has a bad tendency to hear what he wants rather than what is. His post this morning about Cash for Clunkers is a stunning example of Sibby's disconnect from logic and reality.

Sibby's headline: "What Cash for Clunkers Is Destroying." His tag line: "It is obvious that Cash for Clunkers are destroying donations like these."

He then copies and pastes this KSFY article about the Wheels to Work program in its entirety (Sibby! Learn to use blockquote!). I expect the KSFY article to perform the normal function of evidence and support Sibby's argument. Silly me.

Among other things, Cliff Chandler's report says...

• "While [Wheels to Work] has been operating in the Sioux Empire for 15 years, the only started to take off within the past month"... the same month Cash for Clunkers was in effect.
• "Suzanne 'Lynn' Cheesman said, 'We set a goal of ten cars. We know it's a big item to donate and we're blown away.' Tires, Tires, Tires offered to fix the donations up, making sure they're safe for the road. Since the first of the month, more than 30 cars have been dropped off."
• "'So we're going to have enough cars to cover enough people on our waiting list and to help people in the future,' said Karen Hattervig of Wheels to Work."

The KSFY report Sibby cites says not one word about Cash for Clunkers. It says not one word about Wheels for Work or any other auto donation program suffering. As a matter of fact, it says the exact opposite, that Wheels for Work is enjoying unprecedented success in Sioux Falls.

There's plenty of legitimate ground on which to argue the merits of Cash for Clunkers. But Sibby's post this morning is illogical and irresponsible. I like Steve, but he needs to take his head out of his bucket and listen to what the people he cites are actually saying.

Fight Hysterical Republican McCarthyite Propaganda... with Random Headline Generators!

I don't read a lot of Sibby Online. If I want to read a constant stream of verbatim transcripts of Rush Limbaugh, I'll just go to the source. Or I'll just shave my head with a cheese grater, which would provide an equivalent level of pleasure and enlightenment.

But a couple days ago, an amazing stream of absurd propagandist headlines compelled me to drop by Steve Sibson's blog. I just had to ask if he was using a random headline generator to crank out the daily quota of jingoistic culture-war keywords required by Limbaugh Central to keep skewing the Google juice. Consider this sampling of Sibby headlines from just this week:

• Obama, an African Colonialist Marxist
• The Fascism of a Marxist Based Socialist
• Obama and the Socialism of a Racist
• Redistribution, an Agenda Item of the Anti-Christ?
• The Sleeping Pat Powers Laughs into the Face of Obama's Marxism
• Obama Progressives More Like Nazis

When you can't think of anything original to say, I guess it's understandable that your headlines would fall into a pattern.

But the fact is, Steve's pumping out the memes. How are we mild-mannered lefty bloggers to compete with such prodigious mindspace manipulation?

With technology:



The Madville Times Random Headline Generator: build yourself a copy today, and fight peevish misogynist totalitarian theocrat oppressors everywhere!

------------------------
Actually, Steve's constant meme-flogging reminds me of some analysis I did of the software the state tested in 2002 to grade student essays. To get a good score, you didn't have to actually say anything coherent. You just had to keep repeating a loose set of keywords related to the given topic, sprinkle in a few verbs and preposition, et voilà! a perfect score... or in this case, Google juice.

Let's See a Real Tea Party: Run Sibby Against Dike-Pork-Loving Thune

O.K., tea-bag memers: time to stop getting your history wrong and make some real change. Let's see a real Tea Party, a formal political machine to placce candidates on the ballot to run against Dems and the GOP.

Target #1: Senator John Thune. Robbinsdale Radical, Northern Valley Beacon, and South Dakota Watch are having merciless fun highlighting Senator John Thune's flip-flop on stimulus. First Thune seeks political points by calling it pork; then he seeks political points by criticizing the President for not sending that pork to Sioux Falls for dikes. Republican Thune is singing from exactly the same big-government hymnal as Democrats Tim Johnson and Stephanie Herseth Sandlin.

So, teabaggers, let's see you put your money where your tricorners and wigs are. Drop the RINO rhetoric; let the Republicans have the name. You don't want it. Organize a third party. Put someone on the ballot to run against Senator Thune and whomever the Dems field. Pick Steve Sibson to take your principles to Washington. I say this with all sincerity: Seeing Steve Sibson go toe-to-toe with John Thune on stage at DakotaFest, the State Fair, and SDPB would be a fascinating and instructive exercise in political philosophy. It would prove to me what the teabaggers have so frequently, desperately and unsuccessfully tried to prove: that the Tea Parties are something more than mostly cranky Republicans blowing smoke.

Run against the Dem incumbents as well. Run Allen Unruh to unseat SHS in the House. Or run Leslee—she's boning up on leadership; have her put those words into practice on the campaign trail. (She's always been campaigning for herself anyway: might as well give her the chance to do it for real for once.)

If the teabaggers have a coherent message and a vision for the country, let's see them put those views into real action. Neither the Dems nor the GOP will sing your tune. So form a party. Run candidates. Win elections. That's the game that matters. Let's see if you're ready to play.

Sibby: Jerry Prostrollo a Fascist?

I think Steve Sibson just called Jerry Prostrollo a fascist:

The key element of the GOP’s fascist agenda is economic development programs that create public-private partnerships. The result is taxpayers’ money is used to pit community against community to attract business. The end result is higher profits to the business owners, and less money in the citizens pockets to buy what the business owners sell. The Governor is now honoring the movement... [Steve Sibson, "South Dakotans Honored for Supporting Fascist Agenda," SibbyOnline, 2009.04.17].

Sibson then quotes from the Madison Daily Leader's coverage of Governor Rounds's selection of Madison's Jerry Prostrollo for the Excellence in Economic Development Award.

I am at least heartened to see Mr. Sibson's equanimity in branding everyone he disagrees with fascists. I can even agree that there are some problems with the zero-sum game of pitting town against town for economic development. Consolidating wealth in the hands of owners while decreasing the puchasing power of labor... dang, Sibby! If I didn't know better, I'd say that's a Marxist critique.

Sibby and I both welcome your comments.

Sibson Almost Supports Stimulus... Almost

On my drive up to Watertown to judge NFLs Friday p.m., I was pleasantly surprised to hear the dulcet tones of certified public accountant, holder of master's degree in accounting, and arch-conservative blogger Steve Sibson on the WNAX news blip. The hardest working man in South Dakota blogging was lobbying Pierre in person, testifying before the Senate Transportation committee in opposition to SB 201, which would raise motor vehicle fees and the gas tax in 2010.

And for just a moment, I thought I heard the Sibster embracing big government and stimulus money:

We need to go fight for maintenance of our roads for our counties. We must say to the federal government, hey, knock off the strings. We here in South Dakota know what's best with the money that you give us for our Department of Transportation. Let us determine how to spend that money.

What? What?!? Was I hearing Sibby talk like every other good Republican in this state, embracing federal welfare money over paying for what we need with our own local tax dollars? That worldview shaker was almost enough to make me do another tailspin on snowy-slick Highway 81.

But then I reviewed the full committee audio and found the populist Grange farm media had simply soundbitten Sibby into near Marxism. Our man Steve opened his testimony with his usual lucid statement of principles:

As a fiscal conservative, I believe that one of the roles of our limited government is the roads.

...followed by...

We are in the middle of a recession. Everybody's tightening their belts in the private sector....

The best government is local government, and I have full faith in our counties to do the right thing, and they do need some help out there, my friends.

Careful, Sibby: channeling John McCain there.

So Sibby crafts a relatively benign and rational combination of accepting federal assistance while maintaining local control. But then the message unravels. After saying the counties are hurting and roads need work, Sibson responds to a senator's question by suggesting we reject the stimulus money and let other states waste it. Who needs road repair or a temporary boost in employment? (Am I seeing some hands go up at Gehl?)

Senate Transportation voted SB 201 on to the Senate, 6 to 1. The lone vote giving Sibby love: Democrat Frank Kloucek.

You win some, you lose some. But Steve Sibson is making the effort, and that I admire. Keep it up, Steve!

Hear Sibby Live in this SDPB audio from Friday's hearing (maybe two thirds in).