The first bill of the 2013 South Dakota Legislature, signed by Gov. Dennis Daugaard today, was HB1066, which continues the current tax rate on tourism-related businesses during the June-September period. HB1066, which passed the state House 64-4 and the Senate by 33-2, makes the 1.5 percent rate permanent.

Since we learned the Boy Scouts leadership was considering capitulating to homosexual activists, the phones have been ringing off the hook at Boy Scouts HQ. If you haven’t gotten through, keep trying. In this politically correct culture, many people and organizations need to hear from decent people sometimes to strengthen their knees. Here’s how you can contact BSA.

How does President Obama repay our nation’s military for their sacrifice? He cuts their funding, does nothing when hundreds of thousands of our veterans are still awaiting medical benefits, ignores the wishes of the military branches who desired to keep “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” in place, sues states such as Ohio to block military votes, complains about taking pictures with our soldiers and calls the killing of four Americans in Libya (two of them former Navy SEALs) a “bump in the road.” Now he is sending F-16s and tanks to Muslim Brotherhood-controlled Egypt.

Obama’s Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently asked “What difference does it make?” when Congress asked about what happened when Islamic militants attacked our consulate in Benghazi and the Obama Administration blamed the attack on a cheesy filmmaker’s freedom of speech. Bill Whittle examines the difference it makes.

The sheriffs across the nation are also one of our last lines of defense against federal tyranny, and it’s encouraging to see that many sheriffs are also vowing to oppose any federal attempts at gun control. This is good news, because our sheriffs do not answer to the feds.

From the time I first heard an interview with Ted Cruz during his primary last year, I could tell he seemed like one of those old-time Republicans. In these politically correct days when the only stones most “Republican” men have are a few kidney stones, it takes a little brass to send a letter to the CEO’s of Bank of America, TD Bank, Smith & Wesson, and Ruger-inviting them to embrace freedom and tell the libs to shove it.

Future military officers at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point are being taught to view freedom-loving Americans as violent, racist terrorists-in-waiting It’s important to remember that taking a firm stand against unlimited government and assaults on freedom doesn’t make one a radical, a right-winger or a racist — just an American exercising your right to free speech.

Rep. Kristi Noem (R-SD) announced today that she joined a bipartisan group of over 145 House members in signing a letter to President Obama encouraging immediate approval for the Keystone XL pipeline. This letter was sent following Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman’s approval of the pipeline route.

The question to Christians across the country is, are we willing to speak up? Are we willing to resist, willing to speak truth to power? Will we refuse to render to Caesar that which is God’s, or will we roll over and let government steamroll all we hold dear? Resist the urge to dismiss such questions as paranoid hyperbole. That mistake has been made before.

Don’t you love the way these liberals (especially the ones who call themselves a “Republican”) have one set of rules for you and another set for themselves? When a journalist asked New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg why he preaches disarmament of the masses when he is protected by several armed guards, Bloomberg sent his goons after the journalist to harass him. Is this America: one set of rules for the elite, another for the unwashed masses?