An intermezzo is an interlude between two major musical pieces. It seems an appropriate title for this post after attending the “town hall meeting” on the Judicial Accountability Initiative Law (J.A.I.L.) in Brandon Saturday afternoon. Instead of giving a full report on it, this post will just give an overview and an indication of what will be forthcoming here as a result of that meeting.
Not counting the “panelists” there were about 16 people there, counting me and a person I think was the reporter from the Brandon Valley Challenger. State Sen. Gene Abdallah (R-Sioux Falls), State Rep. Roger Hunt (R-Brandon) and State Sen. Clarence Kooistra (R-Garretson) attended for the “opposition.” Bill Stegmeier was there along with an individual who did not say anything and was not introduced until the very end. It was Jake Hanes, who said he was there for “moral support.”
Although very few people actually asked questions, I would say at least a dozen of those in attendance were people who evidently had been contacted by e-mail about the meeting. It seemed pretty clear that, for the most part, Stegmeier was preaching to the choir and the opposition was talking to a wall. If the goal was to educate the public, I don’t believe it was met just based on how many attended and who. On the “pro” side, most of the questions (and debate) came from Gene Lodermeier, who was there to talk about how he believes he was wrongfully convicted and the system won’t do anything about it.
Lodermeier and Stegmeier accused the legislators of violating the law by unanimously passing a resolution opposing J.A.I.L. Stegmeier specifically accused the Legislature of violating SDCL 12-13-16, which says:
Any person knowingly printing, publishing, or delivering to any voter of this state a document containing any purported constitutional amendment . . . to be submitted to the voters at any election, in which such constitutional amendment . . . is misstated, erroneously printed, or by which false or misleading information is given to the voters, is guilty of a Class 2 misdemeanor.
Why is this interesting? Because, in addition to water, coffee and cookies, the J.A.I.L.ers also made available a brochure I had not seen before. That brochure will not only give rise to additional installments in the “J.A.I.L. Lies” series (demonstrating how the brochure violates the law Stegmeier cited) but at least an additional post in the “J.A.I.L. Shell Game” series and further posts examining — using J.A.I.L.’s own words — the ramifications of the amendment.
The peculiar office of a demagogue is to advance his own interests, by affecting a deep devotion to the interests of the people.
James Fenimore Cooper, The American Democrat
Is this the Lodermeier that was caught in possession of a stolen Case loader backhoe in 1984, and convicted of possessing a couple of stolen Bobcats and stolen John Deere lawn tractor which had their vin numbers removed? Seems like he’s been in court a lot and it just never worked out in his favor. Must have been the vast conspiracy of judges, jurys, appellate courts, prosecuting attorneys, police, the legislature for passing bad laws like making the taking or possessing of someone elses property illegal, the one world Jewish bankers, the tri lateral commission, the authors of the UCC, the little green men from Mars, the man in the moon, etc. that put Lodermeier out of commission. We wouldn’t want that to happen again now would we…so let’s pass Amendment E and let guys like Lodermeier, caught red handed with the goods, sue everyone in the justice system. That will fix the problem…the problem apparently being that the system does a pretty good job of putting societies predators behind bars. I hope he and BS show up at all their meetings together. Lodermeier is the perfect poster boy for Amendment E.