Carolina Politics Online

Alvin Greene has been South Carolina’s Democratic Senate nominee for less than two months but already a Washington watchdog group is nailing him as one of the most “crooked” politicians in the nation.

Greene, the political neophyte who came out of nowhere to win the Democratic nomination to face GOP Sen. Jim DeMint, made the good government group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington’s recently-issued list of the “most corrupt and unethical candidates vying for federal office in 2010.”

The “crooked candidates” list focuses on office-seekers “who have engaged in unethical and, in one case, even criminal conduct,” according to CREW.

Politico

He hasn’t even been elected yet and Alvin Greene has already been labeled as one of the most crooked politicians in the country.

“When Mr. Greene won the primary he had engaged in no fundraising, had no website and had no organized campaign,” CREW wrote. “Given Mr. Greene’s apparent lack of funds, CREW and others raised questions about whether someone had paid the $10,440 fee to file as a candidate with his own money.”

Greene has already been cleared of any wrongdoing on his filing fee, although he did take a taxpayer funded lawyer for his pending felony charge when he clearly had the money to pay for him.

CREW also explained that it named the South Carolina Democrat to its list because of a 2009 obscenity charge.

“Alvin Greene is on there mainly because he’s facing a felony charge,” Deputy Research Director Robin Powers said. “Why would you want someone representing you who’s facing criminal charges right now? Americans deserve a better candidate than Alvin Greene.”

“If you can’t even file your statement of candidacy, why should you be running the country?” Powers added.

Being charged with a crime doesn’t mean you’re guilty of it.  If Greene is convicted then so be it, but we are still innocent until proven guilty in this country.  If he is found guilty it will be interesting to see if he steps out of the race or if the Democratic Party uses legal means to force him to.  I think we are going to see a lot of fireworks in this race before the election.  Just a hunch.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) announced Wednesday night that he is considering introducing a constitutional amendment that would change existing law to no longer grant citizenship to the children of immigrants born in the United States.

Currently, the 14th Amendment grants citizenship to any child born in the United States.

But with 12 million illegal immigrants living in the U.S., Graham said it may be time to restrict the ability of immigrants to have children who become citizens just because they are born in the country.

“I may introduce a constitutional amendment that changes the rules if you have a child here,” Graham said during an interview with Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren. “Birthright citizenship I think is a mistake … We should change our Constitution and say if you come here illegally and you have a child, that child’s automatically not a citizen.”

Asked how intent Graham is on introducing the amendment, the South Carolina Republican responded: “I got to.”

“People come here to have babies,” he said. “They come here to drop a child. It’s called “drop and leave.” To have a child in America, they cross the border, they go to the emergency room, have a child, and that child’s automatically an American citizen. That shouldn’t be the case. That attracts people here for all the wrong reasons.”

Read more: Politico

I am very open to this idea.  Illegal immigration has simply become too much of a problem and it’s getting out of hand.  Illegals are coming here and abusing our laws by taking advantage of loopholes such as anchor babies.  They come here and have their child, their child becomes a citizen, and then they collect social services for the child, get them free public education, etc. all paid for by everyone but them.

Citizenship should be determined upon having at least one of your parents being an American citizen.  That would resolve the anchor baby issue.

The Palmetto State is the eighth-laziest in the union, according to a survey released Tuesday by Businessweek.com. We apparently excel at sleeping and hanging around in front of the TV or online and spend a lot less time working than folks in other states. In fact, we rank No. 1 in the amount of television we watch every day. (Three hours and seven minutes, we’re told.)

Business Week’s Website ranked the country’s laziest states, based on data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and other government statistics. The survey averages the amount of time people who are 15 and older spend on various activities. Southern states made the top three – Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas.

The State

North Carolina came in fourth.

Honestly, I didn’t need a study to know any of this.  All I have to do is go outside and observe all of the cottage cheese behinds stomping and waddling around like a pack of elephants to know that we are right up there front and center in reaching for the obesity crown.

In fact, the top ten states are all southern and I have two theories as to why this is.  One, our summers are very hot and humid and nobody wants to go outside.  Personally, I think that is a lame excuse.  I do my three mile runs even when it’s 100 degrees out, but I can see it as a reason nonetheless.  Second, southern cuisine is sort of lacking in the whole nutritional value thing.  Everything is either fried or barbecued.  Take your pick.  Even the Thanksgiving Day turkey is dropped into the deep fryer.  That all packs on the pounds real quick if you don’t stay active enough to burn it off.

But hey, at least we excel at something.  We’re a fat and lazy state!

In fiscal crises in a number of countries around the world, investors have lost confidence in governments’ abilities to manage their budgets, and those governments have lost their ability to borrow at affordable rates. With U.S. government debt already at a level that is high by historical standards, and the prospect that, under current policies, federal debt would continue to grow, it is possible that interest rates might rise gradually as investors’ confidence in the U.S. government’s finances declined, giving legislators sufficient time to make policy choices that could avert a crisis. It is also possible, however, that investors would lose confidence abruptly and interest rates on government debt would rise sharply, as evidenced by the experiences of other countries.

Unfortunately, there is no way to predict with any confidence whether and when such a crisis might occur in the United States. In a brief (“Federal Debt and the Risk of a Fiscal Crisis“) released today, CBO notes that there is no identifiable “tipping point” of debt relative to the nation’s output (gross domestic product, or GDP) that would indicate that such a crisis is likely or imminent. However, in the United States, the ratio of federal debt to GDP is climbing into unfamiliar territory—and all else being equal, the higher the debt, the greater the risk of such a crisis.

Over the past few years, U.S. government debt held by the public has grown rapidly. According to CBO’s projections, federal debt held by the public will stand at 62 percent of GDP at the end of fiscal year 2010, having risen from 36 percent at the end of fiscal year 2007, just before the recession began. In only one other period in U.S. history—during and shortly after World War II—has that figure exceeded 50 percent.

Further increases in federal debt relative to the nation’s output almost certainly lie ahead if current policies remain in place. The aging of the population and rising costs for health care will push federal spending, measured as a percentage of GDP, well above the levels experienced in recent decades. Unless policymakers restrain the growth of spending, increase revenues significantly as a share of GDP, or adopt some combination of those two approaches, growing budget deficits will cause debt to rise to unsupportable levels

CBO Director’s Blog

The CBO paints a very grim picture for the future of our nation if the government doesn’t restrain itself from continuing to flush our money down the toilet like we have an endless supply of it.  We are headed into Greece territory in which we will collapse under our debt, but who will come to the aid of the U.S. to  bail us out??

Remember, this was a bipartisan ass raping in the making.  George W Bush took 200 years worth of Federal debt and doubled it in eight.  Now Obama has taken over and kicked debt spending up into hyperdrive.  The men and women in Congress have shamefully written these budgets without the slightest regard for what they are bringing upon us in the future and this year they didn’t even write a budget for the next fiscal year because they don’t want the American people to know right before the elections that next year’s budget will have over a trillion dollars in debt spending like this year’s.  Remember all of this when you go to vote in November.

Mount Pleasant — A group of 10 rallied Monday morning on Johnnie Dodds Boulevard to denounce Sen. Lindsey Graham for his support of Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan.

Staff members from Operation Rescue-Insurrecta Nex, an organization that wants to make abortion illegal, stood outside in the heat for the “Beating, Burning and Hanging Lindsey ‘Benedict Arnold’ Graham in Effigy” protest.

“Lindsey Graham claims he’s a Christian, but he’s a traitor,” said Randall Terry, the group’s director. The protesters said Graham is using babies as part of his political game.

Graham’s office would not comment on the protests but said in a prepared statement that although he does not agree with Kagan’s legal or judiciary philosophies, Graham does think she is qualified, has good character and understands the difference between being a judge and politician.

The Post and Courier

An entire ten people?  Oh yeah, that must have really rattled ole Lindsey.  They sound like a bunch of kooks to me.  Graham is using babies as a political game?  Uh, how about looking at yourself in the mirror Mr Terry.  You sound like an idiot.

As I said before, there are certain battles you fight and others you don’t.  The Kagan nomination isn’t one of them.  The Democrats have 59 seats in the Senate, plus a few of the moderate Yankees who have already given Kagan their blessing, so the numbers are more than there for confirmation and they have enough to break a filibuster.  Attempting to filibuster Kagan would be absurd and it would only backfire on the Republican Party and the Democrats would undoubtedly return the favor the next time a Republican president nominates a Supreme Court justice.  If they want to vote against her in an up and down vote, that’s fine.

Kagan’s appointment to the court does not shift the balance.  She won’t be any more or less radical than her predecessor.  Those ten people have a right to have their protest, but they are just wasting their time.  They have zero chance of stopping the Kagan confirmation and Lindsey Graham doesn’t give a crap about their complaints.

Democratic U.S. House candidate Rob Miller proposed slashing Congressional pay and perks, part of a plan to win back voter trust.

Miller’s plan would also cut federal spending by 3 percent to 5 percent, exempting military, veteran’s affairs and homeland security budgets.

“Hard working South Carolinians, men and women, have lost faith in Washington,” Miller said. “Everybody is tightening their belts. It’s long past time for Congress to lead the way.”

Miller’s plan would cut Congressional pay by 10 percent, and he said he would reject any raise until the federal budget is balanced. Miller would also eliminate Congressional perks, such as cars, cell phones and some paid mail, known as franking.

The State

Gutsy plan.  Very gutsy, but I’m liking it.  Words are one thing, though.  The real question is what is Miller’s plan to build a consensus in Congress to get this achieved?  Can he get 217 other members of the House and 51 members of the U.S. Senate to take a ten percent pay raise?  I’m skeptical.  I do think, however, that the proposed three to five percent cuts in Federal spending are fairly realistic, but even that is a tall order.  We know how the Congress critters love to spend other peoples’ money.  Nevertheless, these goals will not be achieved without members of Congress who will push for them.  You get one elected here and one elected there and eventually you have the numbers you need.  If Rob Miller were to stay true to his word it puts us one step closer to some type of reform.

Charlotte City Council accepted a $25 million federal grant to start construction of a 10-mile streetcar line in a 6-5 vote Monday night after more than two hours of debate.

With that approval, council committed $12 million in matching funds as required under Federal Transit Administration rules. The agency awarded the grant to Charlotte earlier this month.

The vote means the city will move ahead with a $4.7 million contract with the North Carolina division of URS Corp. for the design and construction administration of the grant and for the design of a stormwater system along Trade Street.

Charlotte Business Journal

Now here is the really good part.

City Manager Curt Walton says the city has four fiscal years to figure out how to fund an estimated $1.5 million in annual operating costs for the streetcar.

They have no idea how they’re going to pay for it.  It’s bad enough that the city is going to take $12 million in city tax dollars in the middle of the worst recession in 80 years and use it for a completely voluntary expenditure, but after they do that they haven’t got the slightest clue where they will get the money from to maintain it.  Guess what?  Somebody’s taxes are going up.

The whole idea has been controversial, mainly by party lines.  The Republicans are not in support of the idea while most of the Democrats are in favor, although Democratic Councilmen Michael Barnes and Warren Turner joined the Republicans in voting “no” last night.  Aside from the maintenance cost, skepticism over the amount of ridership is also a factor.  The line will only run 1.5 miles, from the Presbyterian Hospital just outside of uptown to Time Warner arena.  $37 million to build a one and a half mile streetcar line.  I could see some sense in building it if it were going to run from a more residential area into uptown, but I see no sense in this proposal, particularly in these current times.

Tree.com, an online lending and real estate company, is the parent company of LendingTree, which matches consumers to lenders of various types of loans. A nonprofit arm launched in April, The LendingTree Foundation, provides low-income families and individuals with a mentor to help them resolve financial difficulties.

“It’s for people who…just need the coaching to overcome the financial problems they’ve faced,” said Nicole Hall, a LendingTree spokeswoman.

LendingTree also created a website this spring, AboutFinancialLiteracy.com. It offers tools, such as loan calculators and loan coaches, to help consumers with their finances.

Hagan was onsite to learn about the programs. She spoke of starting financial literacy education early in her home, teaching her children the importance of budgeting and borrowing at a young age.

Charlotte Observer

The State of North Carolina should require that every student have a course in financial literacy as a graduation requirement.  Instead of wasting students’ academic time with worthless literature requirements that have no practical value in the working world, they should learn how to manage money and responsibly manage debt when it is necessary to take it on.  It’s good that Hagan supports financial literacy initiatives, but it would also be nice if she practiced it as well.  She did, after all, cast a vote in favor of the current Congressional budget which will have a deficit of $1.5 trillion by the end of the year.

A few days ago opponents of the climate change legislation affectionately known as Cap and Trade were rejoicing at the announcement from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) that the job killing, economy destroying proposal had been shelved.  Good news, yes?  Overall, sure.  Stagnation is certainly better than inching forward, however, for those who think it won’t be resurrected, think again.

U.S. Senator John Kerry said Democrats may take up his comprehensive climate-change bill in a lame-duck session after the November elections, while calling on President Barack Obama to escalate his advocacy for the measure.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid yesterday introduced a more limited energy bill that doesn’t include a cap on greenhouse gas emissions, citing the lack of support for a broader bill.

The bigger measure “is not dead,” Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat, said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital With Al Hunt” airing this weekend. “If it is after the election, it may well be that some members are free and liberated and feeling that they can take a risk or do something.”

Bloomberg

Ta-dah!  This year’s lame duck session has long been a fear of mine and I’m afraid that Senator Kerry (D-MA) is correct.  They could very well pass the bill after the November elections if they manage to peel away one Republican in the Senate to join them and give them the 60 votes they need to break a filibuster.  Our own Lindsey Graham right here in South Carolina has had his nose planted firmly up the behinds of Senators Kerry and Lieberman (I-CT) over this proposal.  Multiple polling of the issue has shown that the American people are pretty firmly against Cap and Trade, but the majority also opposed ObamaCare and that didn’t stop them from ramming it down our throats.

A poll recently commissioned by the American Petroleum Institute shows that 67% of North Carolinians oppose new taxes on the oil and natural gas industry. Of that 67%, 46% strongly opposed the idea.  That’s a solid rejection of what is trying to be pushed on us by those in the Federal government all in the name of a theory compromised by lies and distortions.

“Voters know raising taxes on an industry that provides most of their energy and supports more than 9.2 million jobs would hurt them and damage the economy,” said API President and CEO Jack Gerard. “Raising taxes doesn’t address their major concern, which is putting people back to work.”

Energy Tomorrow

It’s a boneheaded time to be pushing this kind of proposal onto the American people when unemployment is in the teens around the country.  Even if unemployment were at historic lows, Cap and Trade is a bad idea because it would have negative economical effects on our nation in order to satiate the appetites of those who believe in man made global warming, which I firmly believe is nothing but junk science.

Americans want a robust economy and replenished jobs and this is part of the reason why this current Congress is taking such a beating right now.  Instead of addressing the needs of their constituents, they are too busy quenching their own ideological thirsts.

Outside, where the temperature hovered between 95 and 98 degrees, about 20 people from the Charleston area took part in the protest, including John Steinberger and Jack Jackson, advocates of the FairTax, a plan to replace federal income taxes and payroll taxes with a national retail sales tax, among other components. “We just want people to realize there is a better way,” Steinberger said.

He said he hoped that Biden took notice of the crowd, but even if he didn’t see the turnout — or it didn’t matter to him — for several hours, passers-by on the busy Columbia roadway did.

One of the event organizers, William Stallings of Rock Hill, stayed up until 3 a.m. with his wife making signs, including one with a picture of a baby and the words “Stop! Spending my money.”

“We want our freedoms back, a responsible government and less spending,” Stallings said.

The Post and Courier

The White House has adjusted its deficit prediction for the year and now estimates a jaw dropping $1.47 trillion deficit for 2010.  You can thank John Spratt for this.  As chairman of the House Budget Committee he carries the most influence over the budget and bears a bulk of the responsibility for the deficit built into it.  Furthermore, this year he failed to pass a budget for the first time ever and it was done on purpose! The projected deficit next year is another trillion and a half and the Democrats don’t want that to be added to the fodder they are going to be nailed with in November. They are already heading for a brutal onslaught by voters all across the country.

Never in American history have we seen such recklessness from a Congress.  I think Spratt is gravely underestimating the furor of the voters in this coming election.

Members of several local tea parties say a resolution passed this month by NAACP delegates condemning elements of racism within the nationwide grassroots movement is misguided and unfair.

The NAACP resolution calls upon “all people of goodwill to repudiate the racism of the tea parties, and to stand in opposition to its drive to push our country back to the pre-civil rights era,” said Hilary Shelton, director of the NAACP’s Washington bureau.

The resolution will not become official unless it is ratified by the group’s board of directors in October. A spokesman for the NAACP in Washington said that until then, the group will not release the text of the document.

Mary Amonitti has attended several meetings and rallies organized by the Hilton Head TEA Party and has been a member of the NAACP for most of her adult life, founding a chapter in suburban Philadelphia in the 1990s, she said.

The tea party’s values — lower taxes, smaller government and personal responsibility — cut across racial boundaries, she said. Those who accuse the tea party of racism are merely trying to discredit the movement without engaging the issues it represents.

The resolution is evidence the NAACP is no longer a nonpartisan organization, she said.

The Beaufort Gazette

Bingo!  This is what I’ve been getting at for a long time now.  The NAACP has ceased to be an organization that advocates the betterment of black Americans, but instead has become nothing more than a political arm for the Democratic Party.  Racial equality overall has been achieved in this country.  We have our first black president for God’s sake.  That doesn’t mean that there aren’t still racists and bigots out there.  Those people will always exist, but the days of white schools and black schools and white restrooms and black restrooms are long behind us.  The NAACP stirs up controversy when there isn’t any in order to keep the funding coming in so the guys at the top can keep their power.  They have a vested interest in keeping racial tensions alive, not ridding us of them.

“During the time President Bush was in office, they made all sorts of statements about him that were untrue — vicious statements, calling him names,” Amonitti said. “I never saw where the NAACP resolved that their members were disrespectful of the office of the president.”

Julian Bond, the recently retired chairman of the NAACP is complete crackpot.  He was infamous for making outrageously over the top accusations about the right wing and the Republican Party, frequently referring to them as the Taliban wing of American politics.  Where were the NAACP resolutions criticizing Bond’s outrageous accusations during his 12 years as chairman?

The NAACP shares some of the same concerns of the tea party, said Elijudah Beni Yisrael, president of the Hilton Head Island-Bluffton branch of the NAACP. But the manner in which some tea party supporters have gone about highlighting those problems is alarming, he said.

“They’re trying to stir up distasteful feelings between blacks and whites,” he said.

How so? What evidence does Mr. Yisrael have to back up his accusations?  Because they criticize the policies of a black president?  Is nobody not of color permitted to do so? The Tea Party Express threw Mark Williams overboard after he wrote his racially tinged letter directed at the NAACP on the heals of their resolution against the tea party, did they not?  It seems to me that the tea party is willing to hold its members accountable for distasteful actions, but the NAACP is not.  The only group to stir up distasteful racial feelings was the NAACP with their loony resolution!

Daniel Denton, a supporter of the Beaufort Tea Party, said such views are not representative of the movement.

“I think if you look at any organization, you’re going to find a few wackos,” he said. “But to pass a resolution criticizing and condemning the entire movement and the issues they stand for was, I think, uncalled for.”

The whole point of that resolution was to get attention and get themselves in the news and it worked.

North Carolina Democrat Elaine Marshall released the results of a new internal poll that found the four-term secretary of state leading incumbent Republican Sen. Richard Burr by 2 points. That’s well within the margin of error, but more to the point was that Burr was held to 35 percent and that nearly a quarter of voters had yet to make up their minds.

The poll was conducted by Lake Research Partners, a firm that conducts polling for Democratic candidates, from July 15-19 among 600 likely voters with a 4-point margin of error. It found Burr to not only have a low job approval rating, but also found a plurality of voters view him unfavorably.

Real Clear Politics

I’ve said many times that Burr is not a lock for reelection, but I’m not buying this.  For one, it’s an internal poll and you simply can’t trust those.  Second, it’s an outlier.  Other polls on this race don’t come close to reflecting the same results.  If we see the same results from a credible pollster like Gallup, SUSA, Rasmussen, etc. then I’ll believe it.

Elaine Marshall can absolutely win this race, though.  I don’t think she will, but she could.  Burr’s approval rating has been well below 50 ever since the election year started.  He is going to be saved by the national mood of the electorate who right now hates the Democratic Party.  If the 2010 environment was like ‘06 or ‘08 Burr would be a dead man walking right now.

Everybody get jiggy wit it.

In a performance report two years later, Greene received adequate marks for performing tasks assigned to him, complying with standards and training requirements. But Greene’s reviewer marked him as an ineffective leader who lacked organization and was “unable to express thoughts clearly.”

Greene is “usually capable of handling mundane tasks with supervision” but is “not able to adapt to any changes to daily routine,” the reviewer wrote, also noting that Greene had received multiple disciplinary actions for failing to perform his duties.

Greene was also written up for posting sensitive information on a military Internet server, a mistake that resulted in a three-day work stoppage. Records showed Greene was kept at Shaw while the rest of his unit deployed after leadership “recognized his inability to contribute to the wartime mission.”

Greene protested the denial, writing that the reviewer “only concentrates on presenting a negative perception of me by making false statements of my character” and saying the reviewer and other airmen “create a hostile work environment.”

A year later, Greene was evaluated again, this time in his new job as an analyst working with the weapons of mass destruction section. But Greene’s job had little to do with intelligence analysis and more to do with shredding documents and escorting contractors around the base.

Again receiving low marks for ineffective leadership, Greene also was rated as not knowing much about his duties or performing them effectively and not complying with minimum training requirements.

The reviewer also wrote Greene “required a daily to-do list” to perform basic duties and had a “consistent inability to follow instructions or maintain basic job knowledge.” Most seriously, the reviewer wrote that Greene would represent “a threat to others” because of his inability to grasp the basics of military training.

In additional comments, the reviewer said she would not recommend Greene for promotion but did note his community service work and fundraising efforts for a holiday party. “While Alvin is a decent person, he lacks the basic skills necessary for promotion,” the summary said.

The AP

The man is an idiot.  His idea of job creation is manufacturing action figures in his image.  What else is there to say?

Predictably, two amendments of Senator DeMint’s voted on in the U.S. Senate yesterday were rejected.  One would have barred the Obama administration’s ability to sue the State of Arizona over their illegal immigration crackdown law and the other would have permanently repealed the Estate Tax.

The illegal immigration amendment was defeated 55 to 43.  It would have barred funding for the Federal government to prosecute the law.  Democrat Kay Hagan voted against the amendment, while Republicans Lindsey Graham and Richard Burr, along with DeMint, voted for it.  A few Democrats from other states crossed over to support DeMint’s efforts, but not nearly enough and that was expected.  The left has been particularly outspoken against Arizona’s efforts to protect their state from the harm caused by mass illegal immigration.

Permanent repeal of the Estate Tax was nothing but a pipe dream and only 39 Senators voted in favor of it, about what I would expect.

The repeal movement has lost some steam in recent years as former enthusiasts in the business community have sought compromise with the Democratic majority on a plan that would lower the tax, not eliminate it.

But a core of groups representing small businesses and conservatives continue to push repeal, arguing that the tax is an unfair government intrusion and that it serves as a disincentive for individuals to build family businesses.

“What right does a government have to take someone’s property because they die?” DeMint said on the Senate floor.

NASDAQ

Great question, huh?  That is the one that has always rankled me.  Why is the government entitled to anybody’s property simply because they die?  It’s absurd.  The property should stay in the family where it rightfully belongs.  Family business owners and family farms get clobbered by this.  Just because one’s estate is valued at a few million dollars does not mean they are millionaires bathing in golden bathtub of 100 dollar bills.  Pieces of farm equipment can cost a few hundred grand alone and that is all added into the value of the estate.  It’s not uncommon for the children of a family farmer to have to sell off the farm in order to pay the inheritance taxes on the estate.

The Estate Tax is nothing more than another weapon used in the Marxist tactic of class warfare.  It was established by politicians seething with envy, jealousy, and greed.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Vincent Sheheen has signed a pledge, promising to make an effort to appoint qualified women to senior level positions on state boards and commissions if he is elected.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Nikki Haley declined to sign the pledge.

“I’m not for quotas,” said Sheheen, a state senator from Camden. “I’m not for appointing people who are not qualified. But there are plenty of qualified women out there, and we should make an effort to reach out to all people and include them in the next administration.”

The State

I don’t want somebody appointed to a position because they are a woman.  I don’t want somebody appointed to a position because they are black.  I don’t want somebody appointed to a position because they are white.  What I want is the most qualified person appointed and that should be the only criteria regardless of what they look or whether they have a penis or a vagina.  Identity politics serve only to discriminate and inflame tensions; they don’t unite anyone.

Spokesman Rob Godfrey said Haley a state representative from Lexington County who would be the first woman ever elected S.C. governor if she wins — wants to see more women in public service.

“That said, Nikki is not going to make any pledges in reference to appointments, other than this one — she will always choose the highest qualified person for the job without regard to race or gender,” Godfrey said.

Exactly the way it should be.  Thank you.

South Carolina consumers would pay sales tax on music, book and movie downloads, higher taxes on car purchases and again pay sales tax on groceries in exchange for a lower overall sales tax rate, under a proposal given preliminary approval today.

The state’s Tax Realignment Commission, a Legislature-appointed group of financial experts, voted on a plan that will drop the base sales tax rate from 6 percent to 4.96 percent and add a 2.5 percent sales tax on groceries. The proposal is part of a comprehensive plan to reassess the way South Carolina taxes its residents and businesses, after the recession and ongoing economic slump have drained state coffers.

The proposal is made up of dozens and dozens of recommendations to repeal individual sales tax exemptions. Within the proposal are recommendations to:

• Charge 2.5 percent sales tax on prescription drugs (although purchases made by people on Medicaid and Medicare would continue to be exempt).
• Remove the $300 sales tax cap on motor vehicles, excluding boats and planes. Car, truck and SUV buyers would pay up to $1,200 in sales tax until 2014 when the cap is eliminated altogether and consumers would pay according to the value of the vehicle they purchase.
• Begin taxing music, books and movies, among other digital items, downloaded from the Internet.
• Charge sales tax on the purchase of newspapers.
• Tax at 2.5 percent water sold by public utilities and certain nonprofit corporations.
• Repeal the exemption on wrapping paper.
• Add sales tax to the purchase of supplies, machinery and electricity to television and radio stations.
• Remove the exemption on the sale of plants and animals sold to zoos and gardens.
• Tax vacation time shares.

Maybank said the goal is to have a broad, diversified tax base.

The Post and Courier

There is an exemption on wrapping paper??

Why not make it simple and just have a flat sales tax on everything.  Nobody or no thing gets an exemption.  Wouldn’t that just be the simplest way to do it?  Why do people on Medicare and Medicaid get to be exempt from paying taxes on their prescriptions, but the rest of us don’t?  When you start exempting this group and that group it only complicates things and leads to an unfair burden of taxation on certain members of the populace.

John Ruoff of the advocacy group South Carolina Fair Share warned the panel to consider the consequences of their recommendations.

“The more your system depends on sales taxes, the harder is going to be on low income folks,” he said.

And by “Fair Share” they mean other people should pay their bills for them.  The argument that sales taxes are regressive and hurt the poor doesn’t add up.  Tennessee has a 9.5% sales tax in lieu of an income tax and there isn’t a plague of poor, underprivileged people living in cardboard boxes, starving in the streets.

It’s looking more and more likely that we are going to be hosting the Democratic National Convention in 2012.

MSNBC is reporting the Queen City is the frontrunner to host the Democratic National Convention in 2012.

Despite the positive report, city leaders say a lot of work remains to be done to bring the convention to Charlotte.

“It’s always flattering to be considered a strong choice, but this is a competition and we’ve got to keep working to put the best foot forward for our community,” said Mayor Anthony Foxx.

MSNBC

The Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday gave their approval to Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan. The vote in favor was 12-7 with every Democrat giving her the nod along with Lindsey Graham, the only Republican on the committee to do so. Graham is already getting massacred by the conservatives for his decision. He explains himself in the video below and I agree with him. Barack Obama is the president and he has the authority to pick whoever he wants. Personally, I don’t think Kagan should be on the court. She will not uphold the principles of limited government which were the foundation of the Constitution, but when people elected Obama that isn’t what they chose.

Furthermore, it makes no sense for Republicans to vote against Kagan or filibuster her. Even if they were to be successful in blocking her nomination, which they wouldn’t, Obama’s next nominee would be someone just as radical and we’d be playing through this whole political football all over again. Conservatives who also support a filibuster of Kagan should bear this in mind. If the GOP filibusters her, the Democrats will most certainly return the favor for the next Republican president.