Carolina Politics Online

COLUMBIA — A senator has proposed a 20 percent surcharge on magazines the state considers obscene.

Greenville Republican Sen. Mike Fair says the fee on magazines such as Playboy and Hustler would raise about $385,000. He proposes that the money go to the state Department of Probation, Pardon and Parole to manage sex offenders.

The Herald-Journal

The upstate is just filled with the “moral majority” trying to force their views of morality on the rest of us.  I am all for more money for managing sex offenders, but why do guys that pick up a Playboy have to pay for it?  How is there a correlation between reading a nudie magazine and sex offenses?  Is Senator Fair trying to somehow draw a parallel between the two because he objects to the successes of Larry Flynt?

COLUMBIA — Smokers would pay 50 cents more for a pack of cigarettes under a proposal approved by a Senate panel today that would use the money to help poor people afford health insurance.

South Carolina’s lowest-in-the-nation cigarette tax would increase from 7 cents a pack, raising roughly $158 million, said Sen. Thomas Alexander, chairman of the subcommittee handling the bill.

“Our goal is to help as many of the uninsured as we can,” said the Walhalla Republican.

The Herald-Journal

Republicans like Alexander are the reason why the GOP lost Congress. Conservatives and fiscal minded folks elect Republicans to keep taxes low and government out of our lives, not to hike taxes and increase Socialism. If this is to actually pass the legislature I imagine Sanford will veto it. Hopefully, there won’t be enough votes to override. I emailed the Senator and gave him my opinion on the matter. Feel free to do the same. I don’t expect a reply.

Senator Thomas C. Alexander
District 1 - Oconee & Pickens Cos.
Contact Address:

E-Mail Address: SGE@scsenate.org

SENECA — With his fall election opponent known, Gresham Barrett made the rounds of the 3rd Congressional District this week, saying he looks forward to a good debate and hinting that this campaign may be his last … at least for congress.

The three-term Republican incumbent said Democratic challenger Jane Dyer of Easley called him this week before filing her candidacy in Columbia.

“I had a wonderful conversation with her and wished her luck … not too much,” he quipped. “She’s a first class lady and I assured her there would be nothing negative. It’s going to be all positive and about the issues.”

The Daily Journal

The talk circulating through the rumor mills is that Barrett may be planning a gubernatorial run in 2010 since Sanford will not be able to run again due to term limits.  Barrett would be a terrific governor with his conservative fiscal sense of mind.

COLUMBIA — The South Caroulina Supreme Court this morning upheld Greenville’s ordinance outlawing smoking in bars and restaurants.

In a 5-0 vote, the justices reversed Circuit Judge John Few’s order from last year which struck down the city’s ordinance.

“It is our opinion that the ordinance is consistent with the constitution and the general law of the state,” justice john waller wrote for the courts. “we hold the ordinance passed by the city is valid and enforceable.”

The Greenville News

This is a disappointing ruling.  This has never been a question of smoking, but private property rights.  What part of the State Constitution do the good judges claim gives city the right to impede on those rights?

The already crowded field for the Senate District 17 race got a little more crowded with the filing of a second Republican candidate on Sunday, the last day to file.

Mark Bennett of Richburg filed for Senate District 17, according to the Chester County Republican Party.

He is the fifth candididate to file or announce intentions to run for the race.

The Chester News & Reporter

I was in Columbus, OH the past few days and drove back to Charlotte this afternoon.  Just outside of Columbus the guy on the radio started talking about Isle of Palms Councilman Ryan Buckhannon’s quixotic bill to fine people hundreds of dollars for not knocking down their sand castles at the beach.  Apparently, the councilman isn’t going to be a laughing stock just in South Carolina.  His stupidity has made it to the national airwaves.

COLUMBIA — South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford said in a letter today that he was not asking the federal government for more time to comply with new driver license standards, but rather explaining why South Carolina was already in compliance because of increased security measures. U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff responded late this afternoon that he was considering the governor’s letter as a request for an extension.The response from Chertoff means South Carolinians will be allowed to use their current driver’s licenses until Dec. 31, 2009 as identification, and will not be forced to use passports or undergo additional screenings to board airplanes or enter some federal facilities.

Sanford’s decision came on the deadline to ask for more time to comply with the law. The state Legislature last year passed a measure that bars South Carolina from complying. Sanford and other governors have complained the Real ID measure costs too much.

The Post and Courier

See? I said before that Homeland Security was full of shit. All this crap about people in South Carolina needing a passport to fly or go through extra security checks was nothing but scare tactics. Sanford did the right thing by standing up to them. It’s too bad more governors around the country didn’t have the stones to do the same.

Bush can take his Real ID and wipe his behind with it.

Bolivia | Just a few days after Brunswick County Sheriff Ronald Hewett was suspended from office, a local grand jury indicted him Monday morning on three counts of embezzlement by a public official and one count of obstruction of justice.

At a hearing soon after the indictments were handed up, Hewett appeared in front of Senior Resident Superior Court Judge Ola Lewis, who set his bond at $25,000 on the four felonies. If convicted, he could face up to two and a half years in prison on the obstruction charge and nearly five years on each embezzlement charge.

Wilmington Star

Trackback: Brunswick County Sheriff Suspended

Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue, Moore’s chief rival in the contest for the Democratic nomination, said Monday in a statement that “nobody in state government should attempt to circumvent, or direct employees to circumvent, our state’s public record laws. We must ensure that those laws and our e-mail retention capabilities are up to the task in 2008.”

The News-Record

Perdue is stupid to open her mouth on this at all.  Because of her position in the Easley administration there is no good position she can take.  She is the Lieutenant Governor.  If she says she didn’t know about this I think she comes off as ineffective at her job and I don’t know that many people will believe her since she’s Easley’s right hand “man”.  If she acknowledges the problem then that opens up the question as to why didn’t she do or say something about the problem until it got bad publicity in the media.

Cumberland County commissioners hope they get a positive bounce from the Democratic presidential primary on May 6.

The commissioners are pushing a sales tax issue that also will be on the ballot. They want to raise the sales tax by a quarter percent.

Voters rejected the county’s first attempt in November, when turnout hovered around 10 percent.

The commissioners think a higher turnout, buoyed by the buzz over Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, will help this time. Both made stops in Fayetteville this month.

“I think people will be coming out for different reasons and will be going to the polls for something — a candidate — rather than going to vote against something in a special election,” Commissioner Jeannette Council said.

The Fayetteville Observer

I’m not exactly certain why a higher turn out would raise the odds of voters casting a vote in the affirmative to allow the county commissioners to pick their pockets some more.  Are they counting on a higher turn out of the ill-informed and stupid?

Wesley Chapel will hold a public hearing Tuesday on a proposed town ordinance restricting the use of firearms.

The hearing will be held at 7 p.m. at Wesley Chapel United Methodist Church at 120 South Potter Road.

The proposed ordinance came about after residents complained about a landowner’s private gun range. Details: Village Office, 704-243-7391.

Charlotte Observer

The ordinance is here.  It’s not a big deal.  All they are saying is that they don’t want people running around their back yard shooting guns for obvious reasons.  I don’t find this to be an unreasonable ordinance.

State Sen. Kay Hagan, a candidate for U.S. Senate, will speak to Rutherford County Democrats Thursday.Hagan’s campaign said she is the keynote speaker for the county party’s annual fundraiser at Isothermal Community College in Spindale.

The fundraiser is at 6:30 p.m.

Asheville Citizen-Times