Carolina Politics Online

Gotta give the guy some  credit for standing on principle.

COLUMBIA, S.C. — House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn of South Carolina is saying that he will not be voting for his party’s nominee for U.S. Senate because the candidate has been indicted on a felony charge.

Clyburn said Wednesday that a vote for fellow Democrat Alvin Greene would be an insult to his three daughters and granddaughter. Greene is accused of showing pornographic images to a female University of South Carolina student

AP

ASHEVILLE — The State Board of Elections fined the campaign of Gov. Bev Perdue $30,000 Tuesday for its failure to report as donations 42 flights on private aircraft during her 2008 run for governor.

The board, made up of three Democrats and two Republicans appointed by Perdue, voted along party lines to kill a push by the GOP to hold public hearings in which the governor’s staffers would be questioned under oath about the flights.

The board’s three Democrats also voted against a motion from Republican board member Chuck Winfrey to impose a $75,000 fine. Winfrey then joined with the three Democrats to impose the smaller sanction, making the final vote 4-1.

The News & Observer

I really don’t see this issue being that big of a deal.  Plus, a $30,000 fine for a campaign which probably has  a war chest of millions isn’t really that big of a punishment either , so really, what was the point in all of this?

H/T to High Minded Commentary

RALEIGH, N.C. – A prestigious North Carolina private college cannot have police officers with the power to arrest suspects and enforce state law because the school is a religious institution, the state Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday.

A three-judge panel agreed that the state Attorney General’s Office shouldn’t have commissioned Davidson College officers as law enforcement with powers similar to city police or county sheriffs. An attorney familiar with the case said it may apply to other private colleges with religious affiliations.

Allowing the school’s security officers to carry out laws on behalf of the state violates the U.S. Constitution’s prohibition against laws establishing religion by creating “an excessive government entanglement with religion,” Judge Jim Wynn wrote in the unanimous opinion.

The police power “is an unconstitutional delegation of ‘an important discretionary governmental power’ to a religious institution in the context of the First Amendment,” Wynn wrote before he left the state bench to join the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last week.

Fox News

This has got to be one of the dumbest rulings I’ve seen in a long time and to make matters worse, one of these judges was just appointed and confirmed to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals.  Please explain to me how “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof” translates into campus security cannot have the same police powers as other schools simply because it is a religious school.  This is the kind of bastardization of the Separation Clause that we’ve been seeing, mainly from far left judges, for almost a century now.  If this is the kind of Constitutional ignorance we can expect from the Dishonorable Judge Wynn on the Circuit Court then, no pun intended, God help us.

Both Senators Kay Hagan (D) and Richard Burr (R) were supportive of Wynn’s nomination to the 4th Circuit Court.

Surely by now you have heard of Shaquan Duley.  She is the “poor, distressed” mother who killed her own children and lied about it.  They were found dead in her car which was at the bottom of the Edisto River.  I can think of many words to describe Ms Duley, none to flattering, but in case you wondering about Orangeburg County Sheriff Larry Williams’ opinion, read on.

“The mom has been basically a good mom,” the sheriff said. “For whatever reason, this was her weakest moment.”

CNN

Uh… what?

“The mom has been basically a good mom,” the sheriff said. “

WHAT???????

What the hell is he talking about??  The woman smothered her two youngest children, aged one and two, with her bare hands, put their dead bodies into a car, pushed it into the river, and then made up a story about the car rolling in with the kids inside and Williams’ opinion was that she was a good mom who just had a weak moment?

Fat people have weak moments when they cheat with that slice of double chocolate fudge cake.  Teenage girls have weak moments when they buy into those lame lines their boyfriends use to get into their pants.  Steven Slater had a weak moment when he cussed out an irritating passenger and exited the plane via the evacuation slide.  Shaquan Duley did not have a weak moment.  The woman is bat shit crazy!  Killing your children is not a weak moment; it’s just plain evil.

Enter Sheriff Larry Williams.  What kind of jackass would make such a thoughtless, boneheaded comment?  Oh, she was really a good mother.  She was just in over her head.  She had no way to take care of her kids.  Oh, bleeding heart!  She is the real victim here.  We just don’t understand the hardships that lead her to this dastardly state.

Well what the heck is welfare for?  She couldn’t drop the kids off at Social Services?  Why was she having children in the first place?  Did Susan Smith just have a weak moment 16 years ago too?

I don’t have to care why she did it and I don’t have to understand.  All I have to know is that she fries in the chair for this!  There is no possible explanation to excuse what this woman did and yet somehow Sheriff Williams seems to think we should be expressing some sort of sympathy for her hardships.  Get real.

Here are a few examples of how “well functioning” the Orangeburg County Sheriff’s Department is.  Is it any surprise given the leadership?

Well, this ought to reel in the votes for him.  It’s bad enough that Washington turns most of them into criminals, but this guy hasn’t even arrived yet.

U.S. Senate nominee Alvin Greene, a political unknown who became the surprise winner of the South Carolina Democratic primary, was indicted Friday by a grand jury on obscenity charges.

Greene was indicted on one felony count of “disseminating, procuring or promoting obscenity,” according to the Richland County clerk of courts.

He was also indicted on a misdemeanor count of “communicating an obscene message to another person without consent.”

CNN

By a vote of 63 – 37 the U.S. Senate has confirmed Elena Kagan as the next Supreme Court Justice.  Kay Hagan and Lindsey Graham voted in favor of the nomination.  Richard Burr and Jim DeMint voted against confirmation.

That’s called sarcasm.  Of course the TSA lied.  The government always lies.  Remember how they said they weren’t going to be keeping the images of the naked body scans at the airport?  Evidently, someone has a fetish.

For the last few years, federal agencies have defended body scanning by insisting that all images will be discarded as soon as they’re viewed. The Transportation Security Administration claimed last summer, for instance, that “scanned images cannot be stored or recorded.”

Now it turns out that some police agencies are storing the controversial images after all. The U.S. Marshals Service admitted this week that it had surreptitiously saved tens of thousands of images recorded with a millimeter wave system at the security checkpoint of a single Florida courthouse.

This follows an earlier disclosure (PDF) by the TSA that it requires all airport body scanners it purchases to be able to store and transmit images for “testing, training, and evaluation purposes.” The agency says, however, that those capabilities are not normally activated when the devices are installed at airports.

CNET

See, no big deal.  That feature is normally not activated.  Wait a minute, what’s that you say?  They have over 35,000 saved nude images?

William Bordley, an associate general counsel with the Marshals Service, acknowledged in the letter that “approximately 35,314 images…have been stored on the Brijot Gen2 machine” used in the Orlando, Fla. federal courthouse.

Naughty, naughty.

Fortunately, a watchdog organization is not going to be caught with their clothes off.  The Electronic Privacy Information Center, or EPIC (awesome name), is suing to stop the body scanner program.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group, has filed a lawsuit asking a federal judge to grant an immediate injunction pulling the plug on TSA’s body scanning program. In a separate lawsuit, EPIC obtained a letter (PDF) from the Marshals Service, part of the Justice Department, and released it on Tuesday afternoon.

These “devices are designed and deployed in a way that allows the images to be routinely stored and recorded, which is exactly what the Marshals Service is doing,” EPIC executive director Marc Rotenberg told CNET. “We think it’s significant.”

Mr. Orwell was ahead of his time, but not so much as to not be able to see what was coming.

Five death row prisoners in North Carolina are trying to prove racial bias was a factor in their trials, The News & Observer reports.

So they want their death sentences converted to life in prison without parole. None of the cases are local to our area, but they’re significant because North Carolina passed the Racial Justice Act last year, which allows defendants to show race played a factor in their punishment.

The cases were filed today in Union, Randolph, Martin, Forsyth and Davie counties, according to a news release from the Center for Death Penalty Litigation in Durham.

Wilmington Star

You know what’s really ridiculous about this?  They’re not contesting their guilt.  They’ve already been deemed guilty of murder by a jury.  They’re simply opening up new trials to “determine” if racial bias was used in their sentencing because they are black men who killed white people.  Who gives a damn??  They’re murderers!  They deserve to die!  But no, because of ghetto representatives Earline Parmon and Larry Womble who pushed for this discriminatory act to be passed and screw up an already off kilter justice system in North Carolina, the taxpayers now have to foot the bill to reopen trials for their sentencing.  And there will eventually be more of these.

This is complete and utter stupidity and this law needs to be repealed, hopefully with the next legislature assuming today’s leadership becomes yesterday’s leadership.

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.

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.

Rock Hill solicitors plan to rewrite a city law that allows police to arrest someone for not obeying commands such as “stop” and “cross the street” without a reason – an ordinance that recently was challenged as a violation of residents’ constitutional rights.

Assistant Solicitor Paula Knox Brown said she and fellow city prosecutors agree with some of the weaknesses in the “resisting police” law, pointed out by B.J. Barrowclough, deputy public defender for York County, as violating a citizen’s First and Fourth Amendment rights.

The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibits laws that infringe on the freedom of speech and assembly; the Fourth Amendment guards against unreasonable searches and seizures.

The Herald

Why did those numb skulls on the City Council pass a law like that in the first place?  Are we living in the Soviet Union?  Policemen are human and with power comes largely inflated egos.  They don’t have the right to simply order you around, although some seem to think so.  The Constitutional ramifications of such a broad and vague ordinance should have been more than obvious when it was written in the first place.

The commander of the N.C. Highway Patrol, Col. Randy Glover, has resigned.

A statement released by the office of Gov. Bev Perdue says she accepted Glover’s resignation Friday about noon.

Glover, who Perdue named as the new commander in August, has been under fire over repeated cases of misconduct involving state troopers.

The News and Observer

Corruption?  Malfeasance?  Miscreants in the State Highway Patrol?  Surely not in North Carolina.

The Highway Patrol’s reputation as the state’s most elite law enforcement agency has been tarnished in recent years by embarrassing reports of trooper misconduct, with many of the incidents involving male troopers and women. Recent problems include a major who resigned after sending sexually explicit text messages; a captain fired for drunken driving; a sergeant fired for abusing his canine partner; a master trooper who resigned after a charges of drunken driving and felony hit and run; and others dismissed or forced to resign for shooting a cat, lying in court and being investigated in the sexual assault of a motorist.

In the news conference last week, however, Glover blamed intense media scrutiny for public perception that the patrol is troubled.

Oh see, that’s no big deal.  It’s just the media having the gosh darn nerve to report about it.  The highway patrol is in no way troubled.  This is perfectly normal, every day behavior in the state police departments across the country.  Nothing to see here, folks.  Move along.

Morgan Bruce Reeves, Green Party and United Citizens Party nominee for governor, faced nine charges in the 1990s, ranging from passing fraudulent checks to driving under suspension and with no insurance.

Reeves also was charged with assault and battery in May 1998, though that charge was dismissed.

Reeves said Monday that he never has claimed to be perfect, and that his past misdemeanors should not affect how voters see him.

“I have nothing in my past to be ashamed of,” he said. “I’m not lily white. I want people to know me as a man who has been through something.”

Reeves first was arrested and convicted on two fraudulent check charges in 1993, according to State Law Enforcement Division records. A day after his assault and battery arrest in 1998, he also was charged with several driving offenses, including driving under suspension, failing to register a vehicle, failing to return a suspended driver’s license and operating an uninsured vehicle. He also was arrested on another fraudulent check charge in 1998.

The Post and Courier

I’m not exactly sure how we can trust someone who can’t follow the law himself to hold the highest government position in the state and be the top lawmaker.  Then again, Tim Geithner cheated on his taxes and the president made him head of the IRS, so maybe it’s not such a crazy idea after all.

CHARLESTON, S.C. South Carolina spends $7.4 million keeping 119 of the state’s most dangerous sex offenders locked up after their prison sentences have finished.

Lawmakers told The Post and Courier of Charleston the money is well spent even in tough budget times and the program isn’t in danger because it has broad public support.

Charlotte Observer

If we did things my way we wouldn’t need to worry about this.  I have stated before that I think rapists and child molesters should be executed.  These people have demonstrated that they cannot be trusted to live among the rest of us in society because they are a danger.  We’re spending millions of dollars a year on incarcerating these people when that money could be better spent.

Republican Cleveland County Sheriff candidate David Morrow has given validity to those immortal words of Edward Bulwer-Lytton, proving that the pen is indeed mightier than the sword.

Former sheriff candidate David Morrow was indicted for felony assault on a legislator and misdemeanor assault on a female, according to the Cleveland County Clerk’s Office.

Witnesses say Morrow, who recently lost the Republican nomination for Cleveland County Sheriff, threw a dozen or more ink pens at N.C. Sen. Debbie Clary on May 10 as a guest from Raleigh spoke from the commissioners’ chambers.

Two of the pens “struck her in the face,” according to a Shelby Police report obtained by The Star.

The Star

The General Assembly is currently considering HB1403, “Collecting DNA Sample on Arrest,” sponsored by Reps. Wil Neumann (R-Gaston), Pearl Burris-Floyd (R-Gaston), Darrell McCormick (R-Yadkin) and Thom Tillis (R-Mecklenburg). The bill would establish a database of DNA samples – the unique, identifying genetic make-up of an individual – collected at the time suspected felons are arrested. This legislation must be considered philosophically with careful examination of the struggle between liberty and security.

Inevitably, this legislation will cause debate within the conservative movement. Libertarian-leaning conservatives will note potential civil liberties violations while other conservatives will highlight the crime and punishment aspects of the legislation. The debate within the movement is mirrored within the walls of the Civitas Institute…

Civitas

Civitas may be debating it, but I’m not. If I haven’t been convicted of anything, they’ll have to taze me unconscious before anyone from the government gets an iota of my DNA. If I am indeed innocent until proven guilty, which I believe is an important part of American jurisprudence, then my DNA is too.

If you mange to convict me of something, then you can have it. Not before.

The S.C. Supreme Court today unanimously ruled Myrtle Beach’s motorcycle helmet law is invalid because it is superseded by state law.

But also, the court said it found the city impliedly repealed the law itself when it repealed its own administrative court ordinance after the court’s chief justices opined that was unconstitutional.

The Sun News

FORT MILL — A lawsuit against York County Councilman Paul Lindemann was decided with a judgment ordering Lindemann to pay $14,800 to plaintiff Diane O’Brien.

Lindemann said he has not been following the case and was not aware the judgment had been handed down in May.

O’Brien has not been repaid, and the judge ruled that Lindemann owes O’Brien an additional $4,800, to cover interest and attorney fees.

The Herald

No Paul.  Of course you aren’t aware of the judgment.  Of course you haven’t been paying attention to a lawsuit in which you could be forced to pay out thousands of dollars.  Who pays attention to stuff like that?

“I’ve never not paid someone back and I’m not going to start. I can’t help the bad economy,” Lindemann said.

That’s right.  Paul has never not paid anybody back except for John Long, who had to sue Lindemann to get the money owed to him, or former Congressman Tom Tancredo who had to call the York County Sheriff after the check Lindemann gave him for a few thousand dollars bounced.  Then there was Virginia Faircloth who Lindemann wrote a bad check to from a closed account in the amount of $4,230.  And we can’t forget the $10,000 check bounced to Winthrop University.  Nope.  He’s never not paid anybody back.  He gets around to it…. eventually.

“There’re under [a non-disclosure agreement], so I can’t talk about them, but I’ve got one deal going that could pay everyone back in one fell swoop.”

He’s got a deal going on.  I wonder if it’s anything like the deal he had with Advantage Financial.  I’m pretty sure everybody in York County has had enough of Mr. Lindemann’s “dealing.”  Hopefully, Paul will lose today’s election and then go crawl in a hole and stay there.

ASHEVILLE — Attorney Max Cogburn Jr. was nominated by President Barack Obama for a lifetime appointment as a federal judge.

If confirmed by the Senate as a U.S. District Court judge for the Western District of North Carolina, Cogburn would replace Lacy Thornburg, who retired in August after 14 years on the bench.

U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C., recommended Cogburn, a former magistrate judge and assistant U.S. attorney, to the White House in October.

“I am thrilled that President Obama has nominated Judge Cogburn to serve as District Court judge for the Western District,” Hagan said.

“I recommended Judge Cogburn because of his distinguished record as a jurist and attorney in both the public and private sectors.

“He has the skills and expertise that this important position requires, and I am working with my colleagues to ensure he is quickly confirmed.”

Asheville Citizen-Times

I really haven’t been able to find much out there about Cogburn, just some of his campaign donations.  He has donated several thousand dollars to the North Carolina Democratic Party, Congressman Heath Shuler, Senator Kay Hagan, and John Edwards’ Presidential campaign.

The Mitchell Law group which represents 8th District Republican Congressional candidate Tim D’Annunzio has sent a letter to North Carolina GOP Chairman Tom Fetzer telling him to retract his statements regarding D’Annunzio or face a possible $5 million libel lawsuit.  Below is the letter which was posted on ConservativeNC.

Dear Mr. Fetzer:

As you may know, this firm serves as counsel and represents Mr. Tim D’Annunzio.

Mr. D’Annunzio is deeply saddened by and concerned about the recent defamatory statements and allegations you have made including the assertion that Mr. D’Annunzio is “unfit for public office.” He demands retraction.

Certainly, you and Mr. D’Annunzio have had differences. Mr. D’Annunzio has opined that you have, as the Chairman of the North Carolina Republican party, (1) sought to control him and to compel him to act as you direct, and (2) been angered and upset by Mr. D’Annunzio’s independence, affiliation with “Tea Party” voters, and his unwillingness to be required to submit to you and others in your “political oligarchy,” which he believes will do nothing more than maintain the status quo within the Republican party and compromise the conservative values he holds.

Now, Mr. D’Annunzio believes that you have unfairly personally attacked and assailed him and improperly and inequitably used your power and position in an effort to harm him by making deliberately, intentionally, and maliciously disparaging comments concerning him.

Mr. D’Annunzio is considering filing a civil law suit against you in which he would seek damages in excess of five million dollars ($5,000,000.00) caused by your comments, which resulted in matters from his youth and allegations from a divorce which occurred fifteen years ago being used to impugn Mr. D’Annunzio and to hold him up to ridicule, harming him in his campaign, his business and professional life, and causing great pain and anguish to his family.

As you know, Mr. D’Annunzio maintains his commitment to fundamental constitutional values. Yet, he also maintains that the utterances and publications that you have made individually and in confederation with others are not entitled to constitutional protection. As the North Carolina Courts have said:

At the time the First Amendment was adopted, as today, there were those unscrupulous enough and skillful enough to use the deliberate or reckless falsehood as an effective political tool . . . . That speech is used as a tool for political ends does not automatically bring it under the protective mantle of the Constitution. For the use of the known lie as a tool is at once at odds with the premises of democratic government and with the orderly manner in which economic, social, or political change is to be effected. Calculated falsehood falls into that class of utterances which are no essential part of any exposition of ideas, and are of such slight social value as a step to truth that any benefit that may be derived from them is clearly outweighed by the social interest in order and morality.

Your statements, asserting that Mr. D’Annunzio has not overcome his mistakes, that there is no healing or redemption for those who erred more than 15 years ago in a divorce situation, and that the errors that he made as a juvenile, continue so as presently and always to “disqualify him… from serving [in any] elected office,” are false. This falsity and the structure and form of the statements are such as to cause a hearer or observer of those words to believe erroneously that Mr. D’Annunzio has not overcome, as he has, those difficulties of his past, and that he is not putting the past behind him, learning from it, and moving forward — looking to move this state, this district, and this nation forward, overcoming its own adversities.

In an effort to apply those principles of learning, healing, and overcoming and to move forward, Mr. D’Annunzio is willing to resolve this matter in much the same way as you resolved a civil matter in which you believed you were unfairly cast in a negative light. That is, Mr. D’Annunzio is willing to waive his right to sue, provided that you retract your negative declarations, you issue a letter of apology, and you agree to resolve this matter in a civilized and proper manner.

We will expect your response no later than June 7, 2010. In any event, please accept this notice and demand that retraction is sought.

Sincerely,

The Mitchell Law Group