Carolina Politics Online

I am certainly not one of those paranoid nitwits that run around seeing terrorists in every Middle Eastern person that walks by, but when we see yet another instance of American soldiers committing terrorist acts on an American military base and they all happen to be Muslim, well, I think you can connect the lines.

CBN News has learned exclusively that five Muslim soldiers at Fort Jackson in South Carolina were arrested just before Christmas. It is unclear whether the men are still in custody. The five were part of the Arabic Translation program at the base.

Patrick Jones, the Deputy Public Affairs Officer for Fort Jackson, confirmed for CBN News yesterday afternoon that an investigation was ongoing .

Prior to this posting, CBN News learned that these details were also confirmed by a government official with knowlegde of the investigation.

The men are suspected of trying to poison the food supply at Fort Jackson.

CBN

What will be interesting is to wait and see if the Feds attempt to spin this one at all like they did in the wake of the Fort Hood massacre.

I also have some concern however, that a second incident like this in the military in recent months could start sparking a backlash against Islamic soldiers in our military who do not share these violent radical views and have bravely and honorably served this country.  Panic stricken mob mentality can be just as frightening.

Columbia attorney Gregory Brown has entered the Democratic primary for South Carolina’s Sixth Congressional District, challenging Congressman Jim Clyburn.  I don’t know what this guy’s chances are of defeating Clyburn, but I wish him all the luck.  Jim Clyburn has been an epic fail of a representative.  Higher debts, larger government, and a worsening of the “Corridor of Shame” has been Clyburn’s legacy for nearly 20 years now.  The only reason he got elected to Congress in the first place was because the Supreme Court forced the state to carve out a district just for him.  He’s never received any serious opposition.

First it was the Charleston County Republican Party that came out and publicly scolded Senator Graham for his Cap and Trade and illegal immigration support.  Now it’s the Lexington County GOP following in step.  They too have formally rebuked the Senator by passing a censure vote among the county committee.  A censure is really just a symbolic way of shaking their finger at Graham to show their disapproval.  It doesn’t actually have any effect on his ability to hold his office, but now that it’s happened to him twice he may consider taking his head out of his ass.

Of course, South Carolina could have had an excellent Senator in Democrat Bob Conley, but 58% of voters in 2008 decided to stick with Grahamnesty, but continue to complain about him.

The following is a press release from the Voice for School Choice

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Neil Mellen
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
(803) 212-1051

The public schools in Fairfield County have been placed on “probation.”

That’s according to the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS), the accreditation organization tasked with reviewing district policies and procedures.

SACS evaluators identified a lengthy list of concerns ranging from excessive spending on travel, wasteful spending on redundant bureaucratic positions, to misuse of authority by board members, and exceptionally low student test scores. The Association has placed the district on “probation,” with the understanding the schools could lose all accreditation if the school board fails to comply with the SACS inquiries and recommendations.

State Representative Boyd Brown (D-Fairfield) is now calling for an investigation of the Fairfield County School Board.

In a public statement Brown explained “It’s a sad day in Fairfield County. For us to finally see evidence that our school board and administrators are robbing our students and teachers of a better education and learning environment” Brown went on to say, “I just can’t think of anything more disgraceful.”

Data from the South Carolina Budget and Control Board indicate the Fairfield School district spent over $44 million dollars in fiscal year 2008, or, over $15,000 per-pupil. The statewide average for that year was $12,000.

Brown is just the latest in a series of Democratic lawmakers to voice frustration with shortcomings in the administration of South Carolina’s public schools.

In November, Bakari Sellers (D-Bamberg) publicly called for the elimination of the Education Oversight Committee (EOC) a controversial state assessment program he characterized as siphoning money away from classrooms. State Senator Robert Ford (D-Charleston) has advocated a program of tuition tax credits, noting that 247,000 children in the state are trapped in failing public schools.

Randy Page, president of an education watchdog organization in Columbia, praised Brown’s announcement and called on other lawmakers and education officials to join in. “Jim Rex, our state superintendent, lives in Fairfield County but has remained silent on this tragic situation. Superintendent Rex, the School Administrators Association, the School Boards Association, the Education Oversight Committee, and other lawmakers have an obligation to the students and parents in Fairfield to act decisively and correct the failures.”

Page, whose South Carolinans for Responsible Government (SCRG) advocates expanded parental choice, remarked that the accusations of waste and bureaucratic excess indicate the accreditation crisis is due to “a lack of leadership, not a lack of funding.”

###

$15k per student for a school district about to lose their accreditation.  According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2007, the nationwide average spent on education per student was $9,666.  It’s certainly more than $10,000 now.  So Fairfield County school district spent 55% more money on education than the nation average from two years ago and they are about to officially be declared a failure.  Oh, can we please have more of this!

In my opinion, if it’s taken this long for SACS to put them on probation, then they have the bar set really low.  The above information also supports what I have been saying for a long time about how money is wasted by school districts.  Education spending doesn’t need to be anywhere near the amount it is.  School districts just don’t manage their money and they waste it on bureaucracy and bloated administrative costs.  The U.S. spends more on public education than any other country, yet we aren’t getting the bang for our buck.  When will people demand a change from the status quo.

Remember all the hubbub about Joe Wilson exclaiming “You lie!” to the President during the State of the Union address earlier this year?  Of course you do.  Despite the chastising he has taken since then by the left and even some on the right for his outburst there is one little problem hanging over the heads of Wilson’s critics.  He was right.  Both the House health care bill and the Senate health care bill still do not encompass provisions to screen out illegal immigrant workers from the mandate on businesses that they provide health care coverage for all of their employees.

The House bill mandates, and the Senate bill strongly encourages, businesses to extend health care coverage to all employees. But the bills do not have exemptions to screen out illegal immigrants, who usually obtain jobs by using false identities and are indistinguishable from legal workers.

A rough estimate by the Center for Immigration Studies suggests that the practical effect of the mandates would be that about 1 million illegal immigrants could obtain health insurance coverage through their employers.

Democrats who wrote the House bill said that employer coverage for illegal immigrants is not intentional, but rather the outcome of people breaking the law.

The Washington Times

Technically, that may be true.  People are breaking the law by hiring illegals, but let’s stop playing games here.  Neither the Democrats nor the Republicans have taken serious steps to crack down on the hiring of illegals.  In fact, under this administration and the direction of Janet Napolitano, INS raids on businesses known to employ illegals have all but stopped.  The Feds aren’t going to do anything about this problem and the Democrats who wrote this House bill know that full well.  Hence, they know they are to blame for the coming crisis if this bill becomes law so they are trying to pass the buck now.

The longer this drags out and receives more attention, the more Joe Wilson may turn out to be a hero to his district rather than an embarrassment.

H/T Hot Air Pundit

This is an audio of Congressman Jim Clyburn’s interview on Air America in which he explicitly states that the Democrats made little effort at bipartisanship on health care “reform” and that reconciliation in the Senate is still on the table.

That’s the total raised by both candidates combined in the 29 days following “Liargate.”  According to campaign finance reports Rob Miller has raised a little under $1.8 million and Joe Wilson a little under $3 million. While it would seem on the surface that Wilson is the primary beneficiary of his own outburst, remember that Miller does not need anywhere near the amount of money Wilson has in order to be competitive.  He only needs to raise a few million to mount a strong challenge, enough to buy advertising and get the word out about why he would be a better representative for the second district than Joe Wilson has been.  He’s easily going to  raise that amount and more.  So when you get down and really look at the nitty-gritty of things, this isn’t that great of news for Wilson, in my opinion.

The Post and Courier also points out that the bulk of the cash donated to both campaigns have come from out of state, 77% of Wilson’s new backers and 86% of Miller’s.  They may have struck a chord with folks around the country, but money raised from people outside the district really doesn’t reflect the feelings of those in the district and who will actually be voting for who.

This will undeniably be one of the most watched races next year and I expect to see a decent amount of polling on it over the next year to keep track.

Congressman Joe Wilson pulled in a cool $2.7 million this quarter receiving donations from more than 50,000 individual donors from all over the country.  He’ll need every penny of it next year.  The infamous “You lie!” outburst has riled up both his base and that of Rob Miller’s whose third quarter report has not been filed yet.

State Representative Ted Pitts (R-Lexington) has announced that he will be dropping out of the race for Lieutenant Governor next year due to his National Guard unit being called to service in Afghanistan.  According to The State, Pitts will be deployed in January and will finish out his House term, but not seek reelection.  I find it rather commendable that he is putting his duty for his country ahead of his personal ambitions.

Republican Sheri Few has announced her intentions to again seek the seat in South Carolina State House District 79. Few is the founder of South Carolina Parents Involved in Education, a group big on abstinence education and she is affiliated with a curriculum called “Healthy Image of Sex.”  She also participates in the Palmetto Marriage Project, a “cultural movement to promote healthy marriage.”  It is the brainchild of the Palmetto Family Council.  Clearly she is quite a staunch social conservative.

This is her third bid for the seat and she will be running against Anton Gunn (D-Columbia) who just won the seat last year with 54% of the vote after narrowly losing a previous attempt in 2006. Gunn became a key figure in President Obama’s campaign last year as his leadership, profiled by Time magazine, helped Obama yield 80% of the black vote in South Carolina.  He is the author of The Audacity of Leadership and the CEO of Top Gunn Associates, LLC.

This was a Republican held seat prior to this year, but it has been trending Democrat.

North Carolina state Sen. Andrew Brock said wakeupamerica.com has bought time for the 30-second ad in Columbia, Greenville and Hilton Head Island for two weeks starting Monday.

The Mocksville, N.C., Republican, said the ads are needed to back up Republican U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina, who shouted “You Lie!” at Obama as he pitched overhauling health care.

Asheville Citizen-Times

Obama did lie, but that’s nothing unusual.

Senate Finance Committee Democrats rejected a proposed a requirement that immigrants prove their identity with photo identification when signing up for federal healthcare programs.

Finance Committee ranking member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said that current law and the healthcare bill under consideration are too lax and leave the door open to illegal immigrants defrauding the government using false or stolen identities to obtain benefits.

Grassley’s amendment was beaten back 10-13 on a party-line vote.

The bill, authored by committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), would require applicants to verify their names, places of birth and Social Security numbers. In addition, legal immigrants would have to wait five years, as under current law, after obtaining citizenship or legal residency to access federal healthcare benefits such as Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program or receive tax credits or purchase insurance through the exchange created by the legislation.

But the would not require them to show a photo ID, such as a drivers license. Without that requirement, the bill “remains dearly lacking when it comes to identification,” Grassley said. “Frankly, I’m very perplexed as to why anyone would oppose this amendment,” he said.

The Hill

There is nothing perplexing about it.  The opposers of this ammendent want American citizens to pay for the health care of illegal immigrants in the hopes that some day they can grant amnesty to those illegal immigrants and they will vote for their political party.  It’s not hard to understand.

The South Carolina NAACP has decided to boycott South Carolina for their annual meeting this year and are holding it in Charlotte once again over the ominous Confederate Flag flying at the State Capitol.  They’re like that attention starved kid on the other side of the room jumping up and down and making faces thinking “Look at me!  Look at me!”

In more news that nobody could care less about, I burn first, then tan.

The Republican committees of Newberry and Laurens Counties are hosting the first gubernatorial debate for the 2010 election season.  It will be a debate of the five current and potential Republican gubernatorial candidates and will be broadcast via the Web at www.wistv.com.  People across the state can submit questions via YouTube to www.NewberryGOP.com.

The debate will begin at 7:00pm at the Newberry Opera House and tickets are $25 per person and available from both county Republican committees.

Participating candidates are:

• Congressman Gresham Barrett
• Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer
• Sen. Larry Grooms
• Rep. Nikki Haley
• Attorney General Henry McMaster

By a vote of 240-179, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to shake their finger at Joe Wilson and say “shame on you” for calling Obama a liar during last week’s press conference.  And that’s about all this bill does.  There is no official punishment that can result from it, just wasting time on childish partisan politics.

I guess they will make him into a martyr.  The Congress is like a bunch of school yard kids.

WASHINGTON – Bitterly divided over an accusatory outburst — “You lie” — lawmakers neared a vote Tuesday on admonishing one of their own for his jarring interruption of President Barack Obama.

The proposed resolution of disapproval against Republican Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina added to the already-toxic atmosphere of partisanship in the House. Democrats said Wilson’s behavior during Obama’s speech to Congress last week was an egregious display of disrespect for the president that could not be ignored. Republicans accused the majority party of hypocrisy and wasting the taxpayers’ time.

“That’s a very serious breach of decorum, and if it goes unaddressed then we will probably see other, worse breaches in the future,” Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., said before floor debate began.

But Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana, a member of the Republican leadership, countered, “Our economy is struggling, families are hurting. And yet, this Congress is poised to demand an apology from a man who has already apologized. It’s a disappointment to millions of Americans.”

The AP

COME MEET NIKKI HALEY

CANDIDATE FOR GOVERNOR

Please join us on Tuesday, September 15, 2009 at 6:30 at the Byrd House.

1621 Harrington Street

Newberry, South Carolina

Everyone knows the story now.  The President gave a public address to the Congress on health care.  Congressman Joe Wilson called him a liar.  There was “shock” and “outrage.”  Wilson apologized.  His opponent raised a ton of money.  The White House accepted Wilson’s apology.  Life moves on, right?  Maybe not.

So, with all this going on, of course, the Democrats would just step back and let Wilson and the Republicans stumble around, right? They would follow that old adage of not getting in the way of your opponents when they’re in the middle of self-destructing, right?

Apparently not.

House Democratic leaders plan to bring a resolution to the House floor next week to admonish South Carolina Republican Joe Wilson if he does not apologize on the House floor for his outburst during President Obama’s joint address to Congress, according to several House Democratic leadership aides.

“He’s violated the rules of the House with inappropriate conduct and he’s subject to reprimand,” said Kristie Greco, spokeswoman for House Democratic Whip Jim Clyburn, D-South Carolina.

Earlier, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had said that Wilson violated House rules — but also said that it was “time for us to talk about health care and not Mr. Wilson.”

Pelosi would be wise to get her troops in order and not let this resolution gather any steam. This looks like the Democrats piling on one member who has already apologized both in an official statement and in a personal call to the White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. Obama took the high road Thursday, accepted Wilson’s apology and said it’s time to move on. Trying to keep the story going into a second week makes congressional Democrats look like they’re more interested in crafting political advantage than in trying to uphold parliamentary protocol. Besides, a case can be made that Wilson might, technically, not have violated House rules. A determination would ultimately come down to a party-line vote. But do Democrats really want to have a lengthy debate that might come down to the parsing of the president’s words in a speech — and Wilson’s interpretation of them? Probably not.

NBC

George has a valid point.  If the Democrats keep the feigned outrage going they risk looking like bullies and Stalinists attacking a member of the Congress for expressing an opinion they don’t like.  The public is tired of political shenanigans.  They make great political theater for the mindless masses, but ultimately, the public is not that interested.  They just want things to get done.

Upon heckling the President in his speech the other night, both Congressman Joe Wilson and Democrat Rob Miller have lined their campaign coffers with cash for next year’s election.  As of yesterday, Wilson had slightly outraised Miller in the past couple of days, but post polling shows the race now a dead heat.

Republican Congressman Joe Wilson trails challenger Rob Miller 44-43 in the wake of his shouting out ‘you lie’ during President Obama’s speech to Congress on Wednesday night. Wilson defeated Miller 54-46 in the 2008 election.

Public Policy Polling

Now whether or not this lasts remains to be seen.  It’s not unusual nor surprising that Miller would get a huge bump off of Wilson’s gaffe.  Obama has also enjoyed an uptick of support concerning health care after delivering another one of his classic eloquent, yet empty, speeches.  Once the furor over the incident dies down and people start focusing on the real issues again then Wilson will know if he’s in any real danger or not.  Regardless, Rob Miller has a lot of reasons to be smiling right now and Wilson will be on offense for quite some time.