Carolina Politics Online

S.C. Rep. Tracy Edge, R-North Myrtle Beach, said he will take a stab at passing a helmet law in next year’s legislative session.

With motorcycle use - and, in turn, fatal crashes - on the rise in South Carolina, Edge said his thoughts on a helmet law have “evolved” over the past few years.

Edge said he has heard anecdotally - from hospital CEOs, ER doctors and his brother, Horry County Coroner Robert Edge - that motorcyclists who do not use helmets suffer much more severe head injuries, which leads to overwhelming medical bills, if the patient is lucky enough to survive.

The Sun News

I think it’s incredibly stupid to ride a motorcycle without a helmet.  But you know what?  That’s the great thing about America.  We have the right to live our lives incredibly stupid if we so desire.  Well, at least we used to.  Control over your own life is becoming less and less common these days as the dumbing down of America continues and more people look to government to provide their basic needs.  Edge evidently thinks that is part of his role now as well.

Edge uses the argument that the people who have these accidents helmetless and survive encounter medical bills so enormous that they are unable to pay for them and the cost is thrust upon the taxpayer.  I have a very simple solution to that dilemma.  If they can’t pay, don’t treat them.  Sure, it’s sounds harsh, but why should I, a responsible citizen, have to pay to save some careless idiot’s ass?

I would never get on a motorcycle to begin with because I think they are too dangerous, but I respect the right of those that choose to.  Riding one without a helmet though is Darwinism at work.

RALEIGH - The state will ban a kind of video slot machine that has proliferated since legislators passed a ban on video poker in 2006.

The new games use terminals connected to remote computer servers and are based on a sweepstakes scheme. They take advantage of what legislators say was an unintentional loophole in the earlier law.

A bill the General Assembly passed Thursday afternoon, with only two dissenting votes in the House, closes that loophole and is on its way to the governor for his signature.

“We hope it will put an end to video poker once and for all,” said Melanie Wade Goodwin, a Richmond County Democrat who was on of the measure’s primary supporters.

The News and Record

Why is a responsible adult not allowed to play a video slot or video poker machine at an establishment that would choose to have them?  When did we suddenly need a government nanny to tell us how we should or should not gamble?  Write or call Representative Goodwin and ask her.

Authoritarian - exercising complete or almost complete control over the will of another or of others: an authoritarian parent.

Aiken County Councilman Chuck Smith said he plans to encourage the governing body to tighten the smoking ordinance it passed last year.

In May, Smith asked Council’s Judicial and Public Safety Committee to look at the current ban and consider addressing the fact that smoking is still permitted in private rooms in restaurants and bars. Smith said the provision does not protect the workforce in those establishments from secondhand smoke.

The committee is scheduled to look at the smoking ordinance Tuesday. If they choose to amend it, they will pass it along to Council as a whole for first reading

Aiken Standard

If we hadn’t become so “civilized” in modern day and still engaged in tar and featherings, Aiken County Councilman Chuck Smith would be a great candidate for one.  This asshole thinks that someone made him Lord of the manor allowing him to impose his will on every business throughout the land.  He has no respect for the right of private property.  I wonder how he would feel if we went into his home and started dictating to him what he can or cannot do inside.

What’s really amusing is that if you visit the Aiken County Web site it introduces all the members of the County Council with the title “Honorable.”  What a laugh that was when I saw it.  There is nothing honorable about a man who tramples his neighbors’ property rights to force his own view of morality upon them.   

A person does not have to put flame to fuse to break state fireworks laws.

North Carolina laws regulating fireworks center on possession, said Onslow County Fire Marshal Don Decker.

“It is not necessary to be caught using illegal fireworks to be charged with having them,” he said. “If you go to South Carolina and purchase fireworks that are illegal here and come across the state lines with them, you have broken the law.”

Jacksonville Daily News

Why are fireworks illegal in North Carolina in the first place?  Oh, that’s right, I forgot.  The government has to protect you from yourself because you’re too stupid to do it on your own.  Duh!

Another reason I live in South Carolina.

Last year, Sanford vetoed a bill that would have allowed law enforcement to collect DNA samples at the time of arrest, and the House decided to uphold the veto. Sanford outlined a number of privacy concerns with the bill. If he vetoes the bill this year it will remain in limbo until January, when the Legislature reconvenes.

All states require DNA samples from convicted sex offenders and upon conviction for certain other crimes. Some states allow samples to be taken at the time of arrest, primarily for felony charges.

The bill Sanford is reviewing contains a number of provisions in addition to collecting pre-conviction samples. It also allows prisoners to request their DNA be tested to prove their innocence and a provision that would allow the family of missing persons to have their loved ones’ DNA tested against a database of unidentified human remains.

The Post and Courier

This same provision is up again in a similar DNA bill that has passed both chambers of the legislature.  I think, as before, Sanford should veto this bill.  I don’t like this idea of collecting a person’s DNA based upon an arrest.  Being arrested is not an indication of guilt.  So what happens to your DNA sample if you are found not guilty?

I agree with the provisions allowing prisoners to demand a DNA test to prove their innocence as well as that which allows family members of missing persons to have their DNA tested against human remains for identification.  Those are good ideas and they should have been put up as their own bills instead of being combined with the forced surrendering upon arrest.

With an unemployment office as a backdrop, Democrat Harry Taylor Thursday ripped Republican U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick for voting this month against extending jobless benefits by three months.

“Either she doesn’t know what’s going on or she doesn’t care,” Taylor said at news conference at a south Charlotte unemployment office.

Myrick was among 137 members, all Republican, who voted against the Democratic-sponsored bill.

Charlotte Observer

Myrick made the right vote.  Taylor evidently would have voted for bigger government.  The government isn’t there to take care of you and shouldn’t pay you because you lose your job.  Our entitlement spending is already way out of control.

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court on Wednesday outlawed executions of people convicted of raping a child.

In a 5-4 vote, the court said the Louisiana law allowing the death penalty to be imposed in such cases violates the Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

“The death penalty is not a proportional punishment for the rape of a child,” Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in his majority opinion. His four liberal colleagues joined him, while the four more conservative justices dissented.

There has not been an execution in the United States for a crime that did not also involve the death of the victim in 44 years.

Patrick Kennedy, 43, was sentenced to death for the rape of his 8-year-old stepdaughter in Louisiana. He is one of two people in the United States, both in Louisiana, who have been condemned to death for a rape that was not also accompanied by a killing.

The AP

I think I’ve made my opposition to the death penalty pretty clear. However, the death penalty doesn’t bother me early as much as this block of five constitutionally illiterate Supreme Court justices who’ve apparently never heard of a little something called the 10th Amendment.

For those of you who need a refresher-

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

-The 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

You may find it odd that I’m using a state political website to discuss a national issue, but this brainless decision has statewide implications as well. Once again, the imperial federal nanny-state has decided that all us little children dwelling in our respective home-states are too stupid to decide these things on our own. We need “smart people” like Anthony Kennedy and Ruth Bader Ginsburg to decide these things for us.

I disagree with Louisiana’s death penalty law. But Louisiana, by powers granted to it through the 10th Amendment, has a right to that law. It’s up to the people of Louisiana to approve or repeal that law- not Anthony freakin’ Kennedy! If the people of North Carolina decide they want to repeal its death penalty, or make it more encompassing, that’s up to the people of this state, not 5 dudes in robes in Washington, DC!

Some of you may wonder how the 8th Amendment figures into this, as that was the justification these five judges used to repeal Louisiana’s law.

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

-The 8th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

Sorry, but a quick needle in the arm as punishment for ripping the soul out of some innocent young child, as is the case in Louisiana, is not cruel and unusual. If Louisiana had put child rapists to death using the iron maiden or drawing and quartering, then you’d have a case to make under the 8th Amendment. But I recently had to put my dog to sleep and it was almost the exact same thing as what Louisiana planned to do. Are you telling me that’s somehow cruel and unusual? C’mon!

This is yet more more right taken away from states (and by extension the people) by the imperial federal nanny-state. To make it worse- it wasn’t even legislative, it’s some damn judicial fiat decision that probably can never be overturned.

Three Senators, belonging to the “party of personal responsibility”, the “party of small government”, and the “party of individual accountability” voted to throw away $300 billion of your tax dollars.  Lindsey Graham, Elizabeth Dole, and Richard Burr apparently think that it’s their job to hand your money over to irresponsible home owners, real estate speculators, and big companies like Countrywide Mortgage because they got in over their head.  Wasn’t that nice of them?

Stop paying your mortgage.  You don’t have to.  If you default the nannies in Washington will bail you out.  That’s the message that was sent by every Democrat present for this vote in the Senate and all but nine Republicans who were present in the Senate.  Jim DeMint was the only one of our Senators who voted against this feckless piece of legislation.

Dole is up for reelection in November, which I am sure plaid a role in her decision.  Now she can run around the state, when she actually comes here, and shamelessly pander to all the voters.  Look!  I voted to take other people’s money and give it to you so you can pay for that house you bought that you couldn’t afford in the first place!  Vote for me in November!

State budget cuts and the failure to raise the state cigarette tax means S.C. smokers trying to quit the habit will get no help from the state next year.

The State

Oh boo-hoo-hoo.  I smoked for 12 years and when I finally decided I didn’t want to do it anymore guess how I quit.  I just stopped.  No help from the state’s anti-smoking program, no nicotene patch, no Welbutrin.  I just stopped.  The state shouldn’t be investing any tax dollars into these programs anyhow.  Every smoker made the conscious decision to start.  They can make the decision to stop.  We don’t need to pay for it and the government doesn’t need to be our nanny.

For centuries, Charleston’s image has been the very portrait of Southern charms — moonlight, magnolias and mint juleps.

Well, at least we still have the moonlight and magnolias.

In the past year, Charleston police have cracked down on drinking in public. You can’t take your beer on the sidewalk in front of A.C.’s when you need a smoke, or stand on the corner with a cold one on a Saturday night. And the days when you could walk The Battery on a warm summer evening with a chilled glass of wine are gone with the wind.

Better keep your rum punch on the porch.

Last year, police curtailed tailgating at Citadel football games. Since then, they have turned the annual downtown art walk into a staggered event — you can’t carry your wine from one gallery to the next. And now, police say Dave Matthews fans won’t be able to grill out or sit on their cars drinking beer in public parking lots before the band’s July Fourth show at Riley Park.

The Post and Courier

It’s about time they started cracking down on those belligerent art goers. Do you see how out of control they are, blustering about from gallery to gallery with their Sauvignon Blanc, leaving bedlam and pandemonium in their wake? Praise be to God that Charleston has a police chief like Greg Mullen with the courage and the foresight to protect us from these artsy troublemakers.

Are you kidding me??

Go over to Europe. People walk down the streets over there with alcohol in their hand and nobody gives a damn because it’s NOT A BIG DEAL! I spent time in Germany a few years ago and people drink on the street. They drink on the subway. They drink on the bus. It’s not a problem. And….. you better sit down for this one….. they can buy it when they’re 16 years old. GASP!

For a nation that touts itself as the Land of the Free we sure have a hell of a lot of restrictions that most other nations don’t.

The Port Royal Police Department will conduct license and safety checkpoints from 12:30 to 5:30 p.m. Sunday.

Police will be stopping motorists at the intersections of Drayton Drive and West Vine Drive, and Grober Hill Road and Castle Rock Road. Checkpoints will also be set up on Paris Avenue and London Avenue.

The Beaufort Gazette

We had a thread on here the other day about DUI checkpoints. I have written about seat belt check points. I guess now they are starting “just for the hell of it” checkpoints.

Welcome to fascist town of Port Royal. Papers please.

First, a refresher-

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

-The 4th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

So I was out with some friends last night when another acquaintance texted us a warning. Apparently, all the murders, rapes, robberies, and frauds have been solved in my part of N.C., because the local police were out in force manning an alcohol checkpoint on I-40.

Now, not being drunk, I didn’t have too much to fear from a breathalyzer test. I was, however, quite concerned about my Constitutional rights, which appeared to be in grave danger. As it turned out, by the time I left an hour or two later, the checkpoint was gone and I drove home without incident.

But I was left with a bad taste in my mouth. And it wasn’t just from the one Miller Light I drank.

There are a lot of things we can do to make everyone safe. We can cover the whole state in bubble wrap, for instance. Or we can impose curfews on everyone. We can take away all guns, knives, clubs, and Neil Diamond CD’s so that no one has a deadly weapon. Or we can implant chips in everyone’s head that respond to Dick Cheney’s garage door opener.

But we don’t do these things because they’re unconstitutional infringements on our basic liberties. Except for the bubble wrap idea, which, I admit, would be kinda cool to try.

Alcohol or DWI checkpoints are what I call “velvet chains”. They are an unconstitutional abridgement of your basic rights… but with a smiley-face. And who can resist a friendly smiley-face from the government? Done ostensibly to “protect you”, DWI checkpoints might keep you safe from drunk drivers (although even that’s questionable), but exposes you to a more terrifying and insidious threat. And yes, I realize courts have upheld these checkpoints. Y’know what? Five U.S. Supreme Court Justices just said that Al-freakin’-Qaeda members have constitutional rights, so spare me. Here’s an idea- if we get the Gitmo Boys drunk and send them through a DWI checkpoint, maybe THAT will the ACLU off our backs.

Look, go back up and re-read the 4th Amendment. Done? Good. Now, tell me where exactly it says that government agents (police) can stop my car without cause. Sure, police have a right to pull you over if you’re driving erratically, speeding, or breaking a clearly defined traffic law. But they can’t pull you over, detain you, and essentially search you for no reason other than the fact that they want to. How is that possibly Constitutional?

Remember, “they that can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” That quote is incorrectly attributed to Ben Franklin, but it’s true nonetheless. I’m against drunk driving or any other sort of activity that puts me in danger as I drive home at night. But I’m more opposed to the gradual erosion of basic rights that, even 50 years ago, we would have fought to protect. Too many people these days seem all to willing to turn over more and more of their “essential liberty” to the government in return for some nebulous promise of “safety”. Safety from what? The thing is this world I’m probably most afraid of, aside from Neil Diamond, is an overbearing government barging into my private life with the goal of “protecting” me. As if I’m not an adult and capable of doing that on my own.

Do you want to cut down on drunk driving? Then don’t drink before you drive, and tell your friends not to either.

Do you want those who DO drink and drive to be punished? Good, so do I. So let’s take the police off these checkpoints and put them back on road patrols where they can clearly see erratic drivers and pull them over constitutionally.

It’s time for us to decide what are priorities are. Is it safety above all else? A nice, comfy, government-provided cushion? Or is your priority freedom? Yes, some drunk jerk with a car might, by chance, be able to kill me some night. But government can do worse. Government can take away the very reason to be alive- to live free. Government can make me a slave to my own concerns and wants. And when it does it will never let me experience freedom again.

“Really?”, you say. All that from a DWI checkpoint? As long as we allow it to stand, yes. The death of freedom takes a slow and meandering road. And last night it was on I-40 in Raleigh.

Yeah, right…….

RALEIGH — North Carolina driver’s licenses for people under 21 may soon get a new look.

To make it more difficult for minors to buy alcohol, a state legislator from Winston-Salem wants licenses for young people to be formatted vertically, rather than the traditional horizontal licenses that all North Carolina drivers currently carry.

State Rep. Dale Folwell’s bill is scheduled for its final vote today in the N.C. House of Representatives. A companion bill, sponsored by state Sen. Stan Bingham, R-Davie, passed unanimously in the N.C. Senate earlier this month.

Winston-Salem Journal

I really just pee in my pants laughing every time I see one of these self righteous fools in government waste time and money thinking they can stop a 19 year old from drinking alcohol. There is absolutely nothing wrong with it. Making it illegal twenty something years ago is what the problem has been all these years.

This bill will have an absolute zero result on curbing the ridiculously illegal purchase of alcohol among those under 21. I guess Folwell has never seen a fake ID in his lifetime or maybe he never had any friends older than him when he was under the drinking age.

Dale, you’re an idiot.  Stop wasting the time and money of your constituents.

MYRTLE BEACH — Myrtle Beach City Council hit the gas on eradicating motorcycle rallies by passing a three-mill property-tax increase dedicated to an anti-bike-rally campaign and beginning to enact ordinances that will end motorcycle-related vending inside the city.

All seven council members at Tuesday’s meeting voted in favor of the tax increase, which will raise about $1 million a year. One mill equals an additional $4 in property taxes for every $100,000 of assessed value for all owner-occupied homes, and $6 for every $100,000 assessed value of commercial property and second homes.

City staff members are tasked with coming up with a list of strategies for ending the rallies, and city leaders will choose which ones they want to try and which ones the city can afford.

The State

This is one of the most imbecilic wastes of tax dollars I have seen in a while. I don’t live in Myrtle Beach so I frankly don’t care what they do, but am I the only one this idea strikes as totally asinine? They are raising taxes, thus lowering the economic opportunities of their residents and businesses, in order quell what is an economic powerhouse in their city every single year. Huh????? Give this town a Darwin Award!

What kind of city tells their biggest cash cow that they’re not wanted? Go away! We don’t want you spending your money in our businesses. We don’t want your sales tax revenue from the money you are spending at our shops and hotels.

I’ve been to Myrtle Beach during Biker Week. Yeah, it gets a little loud, but it’s not a big deal.

To further add to the insanity, the City Council doesn’t even know how they are going to spend the money. Their idea is to replace the bikers with families, but they haven’t the first clue how. One, how do you stop the bikers from coming? You can’t make them illegal. Even if they managed to find a way, what do they think they can do to replace them? The two bike weeks are in May and the black biker week is sometime in the fall (I don’t know why black bikers have their own week, but whatever floats their boat). Children are in school during those times of year. Hello, McFly! Anybody home?

If they really want to roll in the dough I suppose they could petition the Bible beaters in Columbia to allow gambling. I’m sure comb over Don would love to sink several million into some brand new casinos along the strip. Of course, then you have to deal with the poverty and squaller that will eventually encompass the surrounding area. The Atlantic City Strip where all the casinos are is just lovely, but you literally walk one block away into the city and it turns into one big pile of shit.  I think Biker Week would be a future.

In case you missed it six people were arrested last Saturday at Fort Mill High School’s commencement, for what you may ask?  Not for fighting.  Not for causing a disturbance.  They were arrested and charged for cheering or clapping when their child’s, niece’s, nephew’s name was called.

Now, I have attended graduations where there have been a few obnoxious people in the crowd, but nothing overboard.  That can be handled very simply by escorting the disruptive person out the door.  That’s all.  Nothing else needs to be done.  For the Rock Hill Police Department to actually take these people to jail is over zealous and I think every single one of them should fight these arrests and sue the city for a civil rights violation if necessary.  These people can be fined up to $1,000 and spend 30 days in jail.  For clapping!!

So bear that in mind the next time you hear about what a wonderful city Fort Mill is to raise a family and what a spectacular school system they have.  You may want to think twice about living there.

Another group of elected dinosaurs have decided to dispatch their army to fight in the Battle of the Butt Crack. The Jasper County Council is proposing a ban on “sagging” your pants. They aren’t the first. Such bans have been proposed in different places around the country. I just find it really humorous that actual elected officials find this to be so such a nuisance that they will actually spend taxpayer money to address the “problem” and hold hearings on it. After looking at the photos of the Jasper County Council, I guess I’m not too surprised by their repugnance towards this. By their appearance, it doesn’t seem as if there is a member under the age of 80.

What’s more striking to me about this is how far behind the times these old fogies are. Sagging your pants was a big thing back when I was in high school in the early 1990s and even then it was only practiced by black kids from the ghetto and suburban white boys who desperately desired to be black kids from the ghetto. I hardly see this anymore, even in the city. Does this really merit the attention that both the county council and local media are giving it? I agree that it looks stupid, but we don’t need a law to stop it.

My “esteemed” Congressman Jack Spratt (D-SC-05) who most certainly has had his share of fat, is running around bragging about the record $3.1 trillion budget that the Democrat Controlled Congress has passed in Washington. This is a reckless and irresponsible budget for a great many reasons.

One, it eliminates cuts to Medicare and Medicaid which are both a huge drain on our tax dollars and becoming more of a financial burden on the Federal government with each passing year. These entitlement programs need to be drastically cut back or they are going to consume a piece of the pie far too large for us to sustain in the not so distant future. The budget also expands SCHIP, another Socialist entitlement program that addicts our newborn citizens to the government nanny state the moment they exit the womb.

Spratt claims that we will have a balanced budget by 2012 with a large surplus, but that is also a flawed assessment. This balance will only be achieved if the Bush tax cuts are allowed to expire which will result in the largest tax increase in American history, heavily hitting the middle class and if the are no further military expenses regarding operations in Iraq and Afghanistan after 2009. If John McCain becomes President that is out the window and if Barack Obama becomes President it’s not likely to happen despite what he says.

This is a feckless spending plan that throws the baby out with the bath water.

High schools will be required to have defibrillators under a new law that goes into effect this fall, despite Gov. Sanford’s veto of the proposal. The Senate and House overrode the veto Thursday, hours after Sanford vetoed the bill. Sanford said only about one death a year would be expected to occur in a South Carolina high school.

Aiken Standard

This is ridiculous. Once again the state legislature is playing the role of over protective nanny and costing taxpayers a nice chunk of change. When was the last time you heard of someone at a high school going into cardiac arrest? As Sanford pointed out, the average is about one death a year across the state.

This waste was sponsored by 11 House Democrats:

• Michael Anthony - Union
• Jimmy Bales - Eastover
• Bill Clyburn - Aiken
• Kenneth Hodges - Green Pond
• Lonnie Hosey - Barnwell
• Leon Howard - Columbia
• Joseph Jefferson - Pineville
• David Mack - North Charleston
• Dennis Moss - Gaffney
• Robert Williams - Darlington

And the Governor’s veto was overridden by your “fiscally responsible, small government” Republican majority.

Under the health care measure, the state will spend an additional $21 million to expand the federal-state children’s health insurance program by raising the family income limit for eligibility. Advocates say the program will offer health care to an additional 88,000 children.

Sanford had vetoed that bill and the $6.3 million for the indigent defense program from the state’s $7 billion budget, saying the poor economy didn’t allow for expanded programs. He wanted savings used for prison budgets and school bus fuel costs.

The State

So I have to keep paying high tax rates to fund the doctor visits of other peoples’ brats.  I just got a $500 doctor bill in the mail today.  Will Columbia pay that for me?

The House and Senate Journals should be updated tomorrow.  I’ll be able to see at that point who voted for what.

The Senate spent about five hours on the vetoes, ultimately overriding all but one of the vetoes the House had also overridden. They agreed with Sanford’s veto of a measure that would have required the state’s Medicaid agency to make monthly reports to the Legislature.

Their decisions meant that only $2 million of Sanford’s $72 million in vetoes were sustained after the Legislature overrode 57 of 69 vetoes.

The governor offered a blunt response.

“While we believe that the House ultimately failed to address our state’s financial situation, what the Senate did in not sustaining a single dollar’s worth of vetoes shows not only a disdain for taxpayers, but a complete abdication of their constitutional duty to put forth a budget that is indeed balanced,” Sanford said in a a prepared statement.

He’s absolutely right.  There is nothing else to say.

A House committee today will examine a bill to increase the age from 12 to 16 for riders in open-bed trucks who must wear seat belts. In addition, the bill would remove several exemptions to a 1997 law and increase penalties for violations.

Supporters of the legislation, including Tom Vitaglione of the Child Fatality Task Force, say eight children died and 127 were injured in pickup truck accidents between 2002 and 2006.

Sponsors are Rep. Jennifer Weiss, a Cary Democrat, and Sen. Bill Purcell, a Laurinburg Democrat and pediatrician.

The News & Observer

And exactly what business is this of nanny staters Weiss and Purcell?  Absolutely none.  The only people whose concern this is are the parents of the children riding in the back, not a couple of busy body lawmakers who think they need to poke their noses into every facet of our lives.  I can remember riding in the back of pick up trucks when I was way, way young, like six or seven years old.