A Progressive on the Prairie

In what might be considered a somewhat ironic twist, Bill Stegmeier, South Dakota’s J.A.I.L.er-in-Chief, tells the Associated Press that J.A.I.L. plans to take Attorney General Larry Long to court over the ballot explanation Long’s office wrote for the J.A.I.L. measure.

Stegmeier claims Long’s explanation is intended to persuade voters to reject the proposed constitutional amendment. “He’s campaigning is what he’s doing. He’s campaigning with public funds,” Stegmeier told the AP. He also said some of the explanation “is just plain inaccurate and misleading.”

Well let’s review the ballot explanation for accuracy sentence-by-sentence.

“Citizens serving on juries, school boards, city councils, county commissions, or in similar capacities, and prosecutors and judges, are all required to make judicial decisions.” TRUE (See here and here, for example).

“Their decisions may be reversed on appeal, [TRUE: Parties have a right to appeal judicial-type decisions of courts, school boards, county commissions and administrative agencies, to name a few] or they may be removed from office for misconduct [TRUE] or by election.” [TRUE].

“However, they cannot be made to pay money damages for making such decisions.” TRUE.

“This allows them to do their job without fear of threat or reprisal from either side.” TRUE (see also Brech v. Seacat, 170 N.W.2d 348 (S.D. 1969)).

“The proposed amendment to the State Constitution would allow thirteen volunteers to expose these decision makers to fines and jail, [TRUE (J.A.I.L. Sections 3 and 16)] and strip them of public insurance coverage [TRUE (J.A.I.L. Section 19] and up to one-half of their retirement benefits, [TRUE (J.A.I.L. Section 18] for making decisions which break rules defined by the volunteers.” [TRUE (J.A.I.L., Section 3)].

“Volunteers are drawn from those who submit their names and registered voters. TRUE (J.A.I.L. Section 13).

“The proposed amendment is retroactive.” TRUE (J.A.I.L. Section 11).

“The volunteers may penalize any decision-maker still alive for decisions made many years ago.” TRUE (J.A.I.L., Section 1).

SIDE NOTE: I actually might quibble with this one. There’s nothing in the amendment that precludes someone from attempting to sue the estate of a deceased judge, school board member or similar individual and Section 23 of J.A.I.L. says the amendment takes precedence over any “statute, case law, common law, or constitutional provision.”

“If approved, the proposed amendment will likely be challenged in court and may be declared to be in violation of the US Constitution.” So TRUE that this is also also the opinion of the Idaho Attorney General (PDF files).

“If so, the State may be required to pay attorneys fees and costs.” TRUE.

J.A.I.L.’s problem is the explanation is accurate and truth is death for the amendment. Still, the sum and substance of the foregoing may have been summed up best by Joel at Straight Talk: “They are going to lose – and then they will blame the ‘corrupt’ Judicial System – and then of course say (we told you so) ‘this is why we need reform.'”

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[T]he focus of a ballot explanation is restricted. It must clearly, simply, and succinctly identify and summarize the purpose and legal effect of a proposed amendment to an already educated and informed voter who has ten minutes in which to vote.

Hoogestraat v. Barnett, 1998 SD 104

My post on J.A.I.L.’s Jake Hanes is prompting several comments. Although one commenter has suggested that some “can only be blamed on the full moon,” there may be another explanation for others. Hanes has asked the members of the “Survivalists Against the NWO” group on MySpace to “blog the shit out of this guy, he’s attempting to destroy me in the public eye.”

As virtually everything in my post having to do with him came right out of and via Jake’s MySpace site, this seems more a case of self-immolation than anything else. It also seems to speak volumes about a person who thinks that what he has said and held out to the world would “destroy” him. I do have to give Hanes some credit though. When the views expressed by South Dakota J.A.I.L.er-in-Chief Bill Stegmeier on his personal blog became known, he pulled it down. Hanes has the strength of conviction to keep his web site up (and even add a little note about me).

Many of the comments condemned the post as a personal attack and asked why I don’t talk about the J.A.I.L. amendment itself. Rather than reply to each comment to that effect, let me repeat what I said in reply to one commenter: you might look here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here or here. Those are just a few of my posts addressing the substantive provisions of J.A.I.L., what they mean and how South Dakota’s J.A.I.L.ers have tried to mislead the public about what the amendment says and does. Alternatively, feel free to look at any of my posts at the No on Amendment E blog.

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We often give our [opponents] the means for our own destruction.

Aesop’s Fables

Remember when South Dakota J.A.I.L. distanced itself from JAIL4Judges because of a perception that national group was a “bunch of wacko Californians“? It tried selling South Dakota J.A.I.L.er-in-Chief, Bill Stegmeier, as “a regular American, trying to do the right thing.” It also brought in Jake Hanes as “campaign media coordinator” and he is South Dakota J.A.I.L’s main contact person.

So now that J.A.I.L. claims to have rid itself of wackos, let’s take a look at the new face of J.A.I.L. Here is a picture that Jake Hanes uses for his identity on his MySpace website. The caption? “Rise Up!!”

Here’s another shot of Jake and his toy:

But Jake isn’t the only one appearing in his MySpace photos. Here’s Jake with J.A.I.L.er-in-Chief Stegmeier (on the left) dressed up as a couple outlaws:

On his MySpace site, Jake captioned the photo, “Who would follow these bozo’s [sic]?” That’s an excellent question considering that when Jake posted the picture at another MySpace user’s site he captioned it, “Gettin ready for the war.” Yep, just good ol’ regular Americans “trying to do the right thing” by rising up and getting ready for a domestic war.

At least the J.A.I.L.ers are consistent. After all, JAIL4Judges often pointed to the threat posed by the New World Order (“NWO”). And Stegmeier’s personal blog (since removed) asserted, among other things, that 9/11 was a government conspiracy.

One of the ideas behind MySpace is to create networks of like-minded individuals. So Jake has formed and is the leader of a MySpace group called the “Sioux Falls Sociopaths.” He is also a member of a group called “Survivalists Against the NWO.” His list of MySpace friends include:

• Erin(911 Truth) and Anais, both of whom have plenty to say about the plans of the Illuminati and NWO to control the world;
• Militia Dude, who talks about “UN Cremation [sic] trucks” operating in New Mexico and Montana and provides links to sites that give the “real truth” on the NWO and concentration camps in the U.S.;
• You’ll Never Take ME ALIVE NWO!, who tells us that not only was the U.S. government responsible for 9/11 but the “NWO along with the Illuminat, [sic] want to create a one world government with one currency, one religion, and one leader”; and,
• 9-11 was a Fraud!, which seems self-explanatory.

And I certainly can’t leave out another of Jake’s MySpace friends. That would be Amendment E. Poor Amendment E doesn’t seem to have a lot of MySpace friends. It does have a blog, although it “is set to private. This user must add you as a friend to see his/her blog.” Seems odd a group pushing accountability would hide its blog. Of course, while they want to abolish immunity for average citizens and public servants because it is so horrible, Section 20 of the amendment grants total immunity to J.A.I.L.’s “special grand jury” and those working with it.

It seems the new face of J.A.I.L. is no different than the old face. South Dakotans are being asked to throw out their system of government by extremists who see conspiracies lurking around every corner and who think its cute to pose as outlaws or revolutionaries with mock weapons and call themselves “sociopaths.” Distressingly, the latter description may be closer to the truth than we suspect.

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Ignorant, restless desperadoes, without conscience or principles, have led a deluded multitude to follow their standard under pretense of grievances which have no existence but in their imaginations.

Abigail Adams, Jan. 29, 1787 letter to Thomas Jefferson