Since the Dog Days are now officially over, we should be having some actual news out there…
- House leaders back Obama on Syria strike (WashPost) — I mentioned this before, but it’s still the lede. Wouldn’t it be something if, after all my scoffing at him for taking this route, Obama was able to get unequivocal congressional approval? Remains to be seen, of course. Rank and file members will have their fingers in the wind.
- Kerry Warns Senators of ‘Risk of Not Acting’ (NYT) — Continuing the campaign.
- Columbia business leaders call for action on homeless (thestate.com) — This was a press conference today.
- Morsi supporters sentenced to life (BBC) — Which I guess makes them the lucky ones, considering all the Morsi supporters who have been subjected to summary execution.
- This was only our sixth wettest summer (thestate.com) — Seems like it was wetter than that.
- Four arrested in Irmo meth lab bust (thestate.com) — Did you see the mugs of these guys? They were all white, but none of them looked like Walter. They’re more in the Mike Ehrmantraut mold.
Related Posts
Re: Number three
If the problem is that people are feeding the hungry, and then there is nowhere for them to eliminate, the answer is to provide such a place, not to invite a successful lawsuit on Constitutional grounds, plus national derision. How’s that helping attract business.
I am really not happy with our strong mayor aligning himself with business interests, but that illustrates why I don’t want an officially strong mayor.
Really? What’s wrong with “business interests?” No one has a more vested interest in the success of the community going forward, in its being a place where people thrive and have jobs and incomes with which to do business.
So how is being aligned with them a bad thing?
On a side note… is Benjamin aligning with business, or is business aligning with Benjamin?
Well, no, those of us who bought our homes here usually have a far greater percentage investment of our total assets in Columbia’s success, which we define as a great place to LIVE, not just a great place to make a buck before returning home to Lake Murray.
An asset, like a house, is an asset. A growing, profitable business earns a multiple on its per annum return (income). I’m pretty sure most people feel as invested in their, and/or their spouses, career.
Point is, everyone has a vested interest in Columbia’s success. That applies to homeowners, business owners, tenants and employees. In the same way, everyone suffers when things go haywire.
Agreed. Much easier to move a business than a family.
I meant that I agree with Kathryn. For most people, their home is their largest single asset, and the relocation costs are very high. For better or worse, most homeowners are stuck where they are. As a neighborhood activist, homeowner and resident, I’d much prefer to see the Mayor & Council aligned with residents than with business interests, when the two are occasionally at loggerheads.
Shhhhh… you aren’t supposed to complain about Columbia. The worst thing you are allowed to mention is that it is famously hot.
New slogan, “Columbia is famously crappy.”
You haven’t lived (in downtown Columbia) until:
1) You have seen (full frontal) a homeless guy taking a leak.
2) You have seen a homeless guy dropping a deuce.
3) You have stepped in human feces while mowing your back yard.
I have done all three.
Well there’s another use for the Broken Fireplug. Add a couple of doors and make it an outhouse.
How’s that for their Constitutional Rights, a public place for their daily constitutional.
Re: #1 – So we have our President (who was raised Muslim, and may have deep Muslim sympathies) calling on congress to authorize our armed forces to assist Al Qaeda in overthrowing the Syrian government? Sounds legit.
Silence, how dare you make a comment about Obama that he may be influenced by anything Muslim. Just because his formative years were spent in a Muslim home with a Muslim stepfather who adopted him and he went to a Muslim school while living in Indonesia doesn’t mean one thing. After all, he attended Reverend Wright’s church for 22 years and never once heard a sermon that was close to the “damn America” one Wright delivered. The same Wright he said he could never deny any more than he could his grandmother and then proceeded to throw both of them under the bus.
Just because he failed to finish writing his book, “Dreams from my Father” for the first publisher while living in America but was given $150k by another and then spent over a year in Indonesia writing it doesn’t mean a thing, does it? Maybe he needed inspiration by living in Indonesia so he could hear the call to evening prayer which he described as “one of the prettiest sounds on Earth at sunset”. After all, a first time author needs all of the inspiration he or she can get.
Now that he is a “first time author” of a genuine situation requiring him to make the decision to initiate hostile action against another nation, where will he go for his inspiration? Wait a minute, he punted and went to congress for approval to defend his “red line”.
No, there is another possibility if congress doesn’t work out. Maybe he can get Assad and the defacto leaders of the rebels to come to the Rose Garden for a “beer summit”. Yeah, thats the ticket, a “beer summit”. Think about it, Assad, al-Quida, and the Muslim Brotherhood all gathered in the Rose Garden. Remember your time in the ME? Beer and other alcoholic beverages would be acceptable since they are not on home soil where alcohol consumption is forbidden.
Bart – That reminds me of the time I spent whoring and drinking in Manama. Good times with Chinese and Ukranian babes. Thankfully, Allah cannot see me on the island pursuing such decadent, Western pursuits. Good times.
Did you ever get to Bangkok and experience the “entertainment” available there; reminiscent of the song, “One Night in Bangkok”? Our guys were “rewarded” by the owner of the hotel with a 5 day fully paid trip to Bangkok – air fare, hotel, spending money – after being on the job for 6 months. When they returned, I insisted they had to go to the medical clinic immediately and be tested for everything possible.
Nope, never been to Bangkok, yet. I should make it perfectly clear that I was joking about my activities in Manama. I did drink a number of beers there, but I didn’t and don’t actually engage in transactions with prostitutes. While I feel that consenting adults should be able to make whatever contracts they desire, there’s a high likelihood that the women on offer are victims of human trafficking and forced prostitution. Which of course I don’t support.
Silence,
I know you were kidding but unfortunately, the part about the guys from the project in Dubai is true. I was afraid to shake their hand until a clean bill of health was presented.
I never have understood anyone seeking the services of a prostitute, male or female. The sex trade is filled with slavery, disease, abuse, drug addiction, and wasted lives.
#7) Why is Vince anti-gay? http://www.thestate.com/2013/09/03/2958728/2-announced-candidates-for-governor.html
@Silence
The anti-gay marriage stance is nothing but a strategic decision to help Sheheen keep some of the crossover Republican votes he needs to win. He knows there is nothing he can do to lose Democrat votes so he has to make sure he keeps the “guns and gays” wing of the Republican base happy. He knows there won’t be any backlash from the Democrats.
Vince Sheheen’s been consistently anti-gay marriage since 2005. He just lost my vote.
If he’s been consistent, how did he “just” lose your vote?
OK, you caught me. I was probably not going to vote for him anyways. I don’t think Haley’s done a great job, but I don’t think she’s done as poor a job as is alleged.
He’s Catholic, right? He also recognizes that he just needs to be right to the left of Nikki, and he picks up more voters. Pro-gay marriage voters are best served by voting for him, regardless. It’s a good strategy.
He disappointed me anyway, though.
Like I said, will any Democrats hold him accountable for his position or do they just fall back to the party line of “Well, at least he’s not Nikki Haley”?
Somebody should at least get him to expound on his views that two people who marry each other but happen to be the same sex causes some harm to the public as a whole. I’m sure that’s a conversation he would avoid at all costs.
Here’s the thing: I believe it is my responsibility as a citizen to vote for the candidate who has the best chance of governing as I want. I could vote for whoever the the Green Party candidate is, but since s/he has zero chance of getting elected to govern as I want, that is out. Do I want whoever to the left of Nikki can get elected to win? Yes. Therefore, I and similar pragmatists like me will vote for the most electable Democrat.
Besides, what does the governor have to do with same sex marriage? That is legislative, or more likely, federal judicial!
1) According to Brad – the Governor should not govern “how you want” but instead govern however they want, regardless of any popular mandate or the impact on the state.
2) Vinnie could be campaigning on a “round up the jews/homeless/homosexuals/others and put them into death camps” platform and still get the anti-Haley voters’ support.
3) Will candidate Sheheen say whatever it takes to be elected, regardless of his personal beliefs?
3a) What does he really believe about gay marriage?
4) If a male/female couple were legally married in South Carolina, and one of them undergoes gender reassignment surgery, does that invalidate their marriage in the eyes of the state?
4a) If not, isn’t that effectively condoning gay marriage?
4b) Would they be automatically divorced?
4c) What if they were both undergoing reassignment, but there was some overlap while they were both male or both female? What then?
5) Does Vinnie own an iPhone, an Android product or something else entirely?
5a) Does he ever utilize said phone to play games during the legislative session?
I’m totally with Kathryn when she says, “what does the governor have to do with same sex marriage?” I can’t imagine caring what his or Nikki’s position would be on that. Not one of the things I look to a governor for.
And Silence, to take your points in order
1) Governors should not govern “how they want,” but according to what they, after careful deliberation and discernment, decide is the best course for the state. It might not be what they want at all.
2) His name’s not Vinnie, and your assertion is incorrect.
3) I don’t think so. I don’t think it’s in him to pander as much as, say, Nikki does. Of course, we must also admit the possibility that Nikki really believes that stuff.
3a) Don’t know. Don’t care.
4) I kind of doubt it, but Vincent, being a lawyer, would probably have a better understanding of that than I do. Or not. It’s not exactly his area of the law.
4a) Dunno.
4b) Dunno.
4c) Dunno. I think you’re overthinking this.
5) His name’s not Vinnie. I like to think iPhone, like McCain and me. But an Android isn’t a deal-breaker. Maybe he even uses a Blackberry, which would be really quaint, but OK.
5a) I don’t know. He strikes me as the kind of guy who might fiddle with something on his screen while listening. Personally, I sometimes play solitaire while talking on the phone. Gives me something to look at while talking and listening…
Isn’t her first name actually “Nimratha” or something?
re: #2 – Yeah, he could basically come out and say ANYTHING AT ALL and the Haley-haters would still support him.
re: #5 – what if he used (gasp) an old-school dumb phone? Would you stil support him? If he used the BlackBerry he might be using it to play “Breakout” right now.
Nothing wrong with a dumb phone. But if you can afford a smartphone, which he definitely can, and still don’t get one despite being a modern politician (which requires at least a rudimentary knowledge of social media and such), it would pretty much tag him as a Luddite.
By the way, for those of you following this… @PeterHambyCNN notes that @haireofthedog down in Charleston is quite put out with Vincent for not having changed his position on this matter…
I want to elaborate on something I said above: “Of course, we must also admit the possibility that Nikki really believes that stuff.”
Something I realized about Nikki years ago, back when I was still endorsing her for the House, was that she was not a terribly deep thinker. This, of course, did not set her apart from her colleagues in the House to any startling degree. But I found myself taking particular note of it in her case because she presents herself well. She comes across as articulate. And when a person is articulate, you tend (or I tend) to give them credit for being thoughtful. So it took me a while to realize fully that she wasn’t.
Anyway, my point is that in her case, I don’t think there’s any way to say with certainty whether she is pandering to the Tea Party, or is just a true believer, because she regards issues in a sufficiently shallow manner that she probably finds it difficult to distinguish herself whether the things she says are from deep conviction or mere expediency. I doubt she thinks about it. She just says this stuff, gets positive reinforcement (people voting for her), which makes it sound good to HER, so that there is no conflict in her own mind.
Does that make sense?
And Silence, her name is “Nimrata.”
There is no automatic divorce, but it is possible that the marriage would be void/voidable (annulled) due to the parties’ disqualification. I suppose an analogy would be the discovery of new evidence that the married couple are too closely related.
Bryan?
And dumb phones are great! They are super cheap, hold a charge for weeks, and you don’t have to worry about butt dialing, with a clamshell one.
A tablet, such as the iPad mini I write this on, is so much more functional for anything more than voice calls!
This is about like the confederate flag issue. SC will always be fighting the rear-guard action. On the other hand, that may also be because none of the politicians have the leadership to call it like it is and let the chips fall where they may.
Personally, I am more of a civil union kind of person. But I think it ridiculous that legally (benefits, rights, etc.) same sex couples can’t be viewed as a committed couple by the state (and Feds and local municipalities). I don’t think that it would have been unreasonable to have expected Sheheen to have articulated his views on this instead of quickly parroting Haley’s position. That was just odd to me. If he want’s to be seen as the thoughtful, principled candidate, then he ought to have taken the opportunity presented to at least have presented a slightly more nuanced position – even if he is against gay marriage.
Note that Sheheen did not even speak about the issue. He leaves the tough stuff to his surrogates. This is a repeat of his behavior in 2010. Since he will be the nominee, he should starting acting like it and providing the voters with a clear understanding of his views.
But he won’t – he’ll point to his book (glorified pamphlet) which spends the bulk of its prose on 4K kindergarten.
Does Sheheen have a history of voting “present”?
I find it interesting that it bothers y’all that Vincent didn’t choose to make a public statement, personally, on this subject.
It doesn’t have anything to do with his candidacy for governor. I certainly had no expectation that he address this.
The response seems about right to me. Nikki wants to talk about it, and the newspaper wants to talk about it, but Vincent is uninterested. I would have been fine with his campaign declining to answer at all. But I guess that since he is on the record as having voted on the subject, they felt like they should simply say that no, his position has not changed.
Wait a second.. he voted for the bill but no longer is required to explain why he did?
There is at least a small chance that if he is elected Governor that there may be a bill that comes across his desk one day regarding same sex marriage or same sex benefits. It’s only a matter of time.
Perhaps. But whatever he does with it, it will have no bearing on whether I regard him as a suitable governor.
Nikki chooses to step out and define herself in terms of her position on this. Vincent does not. Nikki is a culture warrior. Vincent is not. I appreciate that about him.
Vincent doesn’t take a position on pretty much anything except 4K school and Nikki Haley.
The link from the Charleston blog used the phrase “perfecting his wet blanket imitation” which I think is fairly accurate.
I honestly didn’t quite get that metaphor. A “wet blanket” is someone who spoils a party, or is a drag on a gathering or something. Somebody who doesn’t join in the fun — particularly someone who goes out of his way to spoil the moment. I didn’t get how that applied here.
I think I messed up. The Microsoft-Nokia deal should have been on my front….
And Verizon’s buying itself back….
We narrowly dodge the “Strong Mayor” bullet this election! http://bit.ly/13i7ocs
Best line from Ike McLeese: “You would be surprised at the number of people who because they get their mail addressed to them as Columbia believe they actually live in the city limits of Columbia,”
Well, no, I wouldn’t, and that’s the problem in a nutshell. People who don’t even have enough information to know what city they live in, where they pay taxes, who they vote for, etc. are being asked and trusted to make important decisions and pick leaders. It’s all the more reason for our representative form of government, and for having a professional city manager.
Mayor Benjamin inconsolable. http://bit.ly/15FWgTz
Well, I’m sorry to see that. That’s bad news for the people of Columbia. And by “Columbia,” I mean the entire economic community in which we live and work.
That IS part of the problem – the fact that many of us live or lived in a city called Columbia (I lived in zip 29223 for 13 years) but had little control over the way the city was governed. The “city” of Columbia is basically Shandon, USC, and low income housing.
That statement is just ignorant, Doug.
Well, then define the boundaries for the city of Columbia for me, please. What neighborhoods are not in Shandon, the USC area, or North Main Street to the area
around Benedict College?
Let me Google that for you:
http://www.columbiasc.net/neighborhoods
That doesn’t answer my question, Kathryn. Put stakes in the middle of Shandon, the Horseshoe at USC, and the low income housing on I277 at the Jim Clyburn Boondoggle Bridge. Now draw circles of about 3 miles radius. What percent of the city of Columbia falls inside those circles?
As far as I understand, The State plant on Shop Road is outside the city limits. I assume Forest Acres is as well. The river is the boundary on the west side. That’s about a mile from the Horseshoe.
If one defines the area of Columbia as from Batesburg-Leesville to Camden, and Swansea to Little Mountain & Ridgeway, the MSA population would be about 700,000 people. The City of Columbia only accounts for just over 100,000 (depending on how people account for USC students) of that metro area total. That causes problems both ways when Columbia residents complain about the extra services they have to provide to the greater MSA population, and when the greater area residents are asked to remain silent about city political affairs.
@Mark – exactly. Back when I lived in “Columbia” (i.e. Spring Valley area) I didn’t really live in Columbia and get a chance to vote against Mayor Bob.
I face the same issue in Blythewood. I live in Blythewood zip code but don’t “live” in Blythewood the town. I can’t participate in any of the town government activities, can’t volunteer to serve on any boards, or run for office. It’s a very strange setup.
Forest Acres is a separate city and therefore NOT part of Columbia. Arcadia Lakes is a separate city as well. Cayce and West Columbia are across the river and are separate cities. Irmo is a separate city as well, jsut like Blythewood.
There’s a lot more to Columbia than Shandon, USC, downtown and ‘the hood, despite what the media reports on. Yes, some area on Shop & Bluff road is part of unincorporated Richland County. But there are a lot of decent, nice and REALLY nice residential neighborhoods inside Columbia’s city limits as well.
Aresenal Hill
Cottontown/Bellevue
Elmwood Park
Earlewood Park
Eau Claire
Forest Hills
Heathwood
Hollywood/Rosehill
Melrose Heights
Oakwood Court
Old Shandon
Olympia
The Robert Mills/Landmark Historic District
Rosewood
Sherwood Forest
University Hill
Wales Garden
Waverly
Wheeler Hill
Wood Creek
Just to name a few.
Would I be incorrect in my assumption that there are more people who live in the neighborhoods of “Columbia” known as Forest Acres, Spring Valley, The Summit, Wood Creek, Wildewood, The Woodlands, and North Springs than live within the official Columbia city limits? I could be wrong, but it sure seems likely.
How many of those neighborhoods are within one or two miles of Shandon or USC?
I stick by my comment. Columbia “the city” is defined by USC, Shandon, and the lower income properties.
Doug – if you’d like, you could always volunteer for a Richland County board. I know your county councilman very well, and I could put a good word in for you if you’d like to serve.
@Silence
I tried to serve on the Penny Tax oversight board as the representative from Blythewood. But I wasn’t able to due to where I live. I also ran for school board in 2002.
Doug,
Richland County has 384,504 residents.
The actual city of Coumbia has 129,272 residents.
The town of Forest Acres has 10,361 residents.
Spring Valley, the Summit, Lake Carolina and North Springs is approx 22,229 people.
Wood Creek Farms is part of Columbia.
And let’s be clear on something – I didn’t say there weren’t nice or “really nice” neighborhoods downtown. I just divided the city into three segments that probably cover 80-90% of the area.
Yes, Silence! Exactly!
On the flip side, those mail address residents of Columbia won’t ever be city voters – since Columbia completely abandoned its efforts to annex the “donut holes” and adjacent unincorporated areas. So no worries, Silence and Kathryn, the actual city will remain governed by those elected by the current resident voters – regardless of whether under a council manager or strong mayor system.
It does amuse me that some seem to view a strong mayor as inherently corrupt, when there is a long and compelling history proving that both councilors and managers have been corrupted – and sown corruption – across the city. To the detriment of the entire Midlands area.