Category Archives: Money

Apparently, the government had a really, really HARD time taking a dollar from Nikki

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Alert reader J brings our attention to this AP story, which shows that not only can Nikki, the accounting whiz (just ask her; she’ll tell you), not pay her personal taxes on time, but neither could the business for which she acted as bookkeeper:

COLUMBIA, S.C. — A business owned by the family of South Carolina Republican gubernatorial candidate Nikki Haley has been penalized for failing to pay taxes three times since 2003, according to records obtained by The Associated Press.

Haley has frequently cited her experience as an accountant for her family’s clothing store, saying the state needs such business knowledge at its helm.

Records show the store’s taxes were at least 19 months past due each time the state filed a lien.

Two of the tax liens were for failing to pay corporate income taxes and one was for not turning over taxes withheld from employee checks. The company paid nearly $4,000 to remove the liens.

In response, Haley’s campaign said Thurday she is running for governor in part because she wants to cut red tape and taxes that are too burdensome. Her campaign declined to discuss the specifics of the liens.

“As a family, we saw how hard it was to make a dollar and how easy it was for government to take it,” Haley, a state House member, said in a statement. “I’m committed to making government friendlier to the people and businesses it serves.”

A key part of Haley’s economic plan is to eliminate corporate income taxes, an idea the Legislature rejected earlier this year….

Run that nonsense by us again, Nikki:

“As a family, we saw how hard it was to make a dollar and how easy it was for government to take it…”

Yeah, right! Where, precisely, did y’all SEE that? Obviously, in the case of your family business, the gummint had a heckuva hard time taking it.

And this is, apparently, what Nikki means when she says she wants to run government like her business.

Don’t say I never gave you anything, Doug

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Since Doug was such a great sport giving to the critters back here, I’m including this extreme case of gummint waste for his enjoyment:

(CNN) — A worker was paid for 12 years without ever showing up for work at a Norfolk, Virginia, agency funded by federal, state and local money, officials say.

Norfolk Mayor Paul Fraim told CNN on Friday that when a new director took over at Norfolk Community Services Board recently, she was “doing her due diligence” when she discovered the hooky-playing employee was on the books. The director, Maureen Womack, then notified the city attorney’s office, Fraim said.

Sandy Johnson, a spokeswoman for the Community Services Board, told CNN Friday that her agency couldn’t comment because of the ongoing investigation.

On behalf of the city attorney’s office, Norfolk city spokeswoman Terry Bishirjian referred to a statement released on Wednesday that said, “The city attorney’s office, with the approval of Womack, took appropriate steps to prevent any further payments to the employee and the employee was terminated.”

They fired her now, huh? I’ll bet that’s a bitter pill for her — if she can stop laughing long enough.

Kick in a buck for the critters

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Just saw this notice over on the Web site ADCO Interactive created for Pawmetto Pipeline:

Friday, August 27 is Dollar Donation Day!dollar donation day horiz

Sounds simple, but it is so rewarding. We are asking supporters and fans to donate $1 or more in our one-day dollar donation drive. The best part is that everyone can participate from your desk, home or wherever! We have over 4,000 members of our email community—imagine if each person gave $1.00 on Friday. What about $5? Or $10?

We’ll be tracking donations all day on our facebook page and posting pics of the sweet animals you’ve helped, so be sure to check in there often.

Where will all of the money go?  Once we rescue dogs and cats from the county municipal shelters they still need a lot of care before adoption.  All of our pets receive their annual vaccines, spay/neuter surgeries, a microchip, and heartworm and flea preventive before they hit the adoption events.  However, sometimes the needs are greater. Some need heartworm treatments (up to $500), some need dental procedures (at least $200) and others need to be nursed back to health.  We do not give up on any of our animals and we do everything it takes to make them healthy and happy once rescued. Help us help them this by donating $1 or more today.

Donate now

Just look what we can do with $1:

– If 20 people give $1 each, that will pay for kennel cough treatment for one dog

– If 100 people give $1 each, that will provide 3 cats with special-need diet food

– If 500 people give $1 each, that will pay to treat one dog with heartworms (we currently have 6 dogs needing treatment)

– If 1,000 people give $1 each, that will let us save 10 additional lives

Click here to donate now or follow our facebook updates.

Help us spread the word by forwarding this message to your friends.

OK, so I’m no Austin Meyer, but even I can afford to kick in a buck for the cause.

A closer look at Nikki’s idea of fiscal responsibility

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Turning from Nikki Haley’s foot-dragging on transparency regarding her taxpayer-issued computer and e-mails, let’s take another look at her problems with paying her taxes on time.

This is particularly relevant because of her oft-stated wish that government be run like a business, and her touting of her proven skills as an accountant.

Let’s take a look at Cindi Scoppe’s column Sunday. Cindi, a meticulous reporter if ever I’ve met one, didn’t think much one way or the other about Nikki’s failure to pay her taxes on time until she looked into it further herself. Here’s an excerpt from what she found, going well beyond what had been previously reported:

The problem wasn’t that the Haleys sought and received extensions. It is in fact quite common for people to get a six-month extension to file their tax returns. But as the IRS makes clear, the extension applies only to the return, not to the tax payment itself. Taxes are always due by April 15 — at the latest. The Haleys have not paid their taxes by April 15 in any of the past five years…
Even more significantly, the extension gives people only until Oct. 15 to file. The Haleys filed their 2005 tax returns on July 30, 2007 — eight months after the extended deadline. They filed their 2006 tax returns on July 23, 2008 — also eight months after the extended deadline. Their 2007 returns were filed Nov. 5, 2008, just a few days after the extended deadline. (Their 2004, 2008 and 2009 returns were filed after April 15, but before Oct. 15, so the IRS doesn’t consider them late.)
Now, in my book, anytime you have to pay the government a penalty, you’ve done something wrong, and the Haleys have paid the IRS $4,452 in penalties in the past five years — $2,853 for filing late, and $1,599 for paying late…
Still, the idea that paying your taxes late, and waiting eight months after the extended deadline to file a return, is doing “nothing wrong” is more of a stretch.
But the biggest stretch is the way Ms. Haley has sought to spin her income tax problem into a virtue. She talks about how she and her husband fell upon tough economic times and cut back on their spending and learned to live within their means, which she says demonstrates what a fiscally responsible governor she would be. It seems to me that her actions demonstrate just the opposite.
The Haleys didn’t pay their taxes late once or twice, when things were bad; they paid their taxes late in every one of the past five years — not just in 2006, when their income dropped by half, but also in 2005 when it was going up, and in 2007, 2008 and 2009, when it was going up substantially, topping out at nearly $200,000 last year….
… the fact is that part of her strategy was to avoid paying her bills on time, by essentially giving herself a loan from those of us who paid our taxes on time. A bailout if you will, albeit temporary, for the candidate who deplores federal bailouts. And since she failed to pay her taxes on time five years in a row, it raises questions about her stewardship of money….
I questioned Ms. Haley’s campaign several times to make absolutely sure that the Haleys had not somehow managed to get an additional extension, and her spokesman never attempted to give any sort of justification for their missing the extended deadlines. I’m not sure what the repeated delinquent tax filings suggest: Poor organizational skills? Inability to delegate authority — or, if delegated, to choose trustworthy people to whom to delegate? A disregard for the laws the rest of us have to obey? What I am sure of is that if it were me, I wouldn’t be bragging about it.

The News Corp. contribution to the GOP

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Last night at the dinner table my wife was reading The Wall Street Journal, and on the side toward me I noticed the headline, “News Corp. Gives $1 Million to GOP.” Personally, I wasn’t interested enough to read the story (I’d already seen stuff about it earlier in the day), but I was curious about one thing — what page was I looking at? In other words, how far back in the paper would the WSJ, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., play the story.

It was page A4, she told me. OK, fine. I filed that away and went back to my dinner.

But I was reminded of it this morning when I saw these two Tweets from Jason Zacher:

So if GE (NBC), Disney (ABC), and Viacom (CBS) give tons of political money with no headlines, why do we care about Murdoch’s donation?about 1 hour ago via TweetDeck

OH! That’s right. It’s because the rest of the media hates FoxNews for being #1.about 1 hour ago via TweetDeck

To that, I had to respond, “Because it’s NEWS Corp — mainly about journalism, not making toasters. I don’t care much, but that’s why it gets attention.

Jason said back:

Sure, but a ton of its profits come from 20th Cent, HarperCollins, Fox Television, and several dozen other properties.

Yes, Jason, but the fact remains that Rupert Murdoch is mainly seen as a “press lord.” It’s a matter of image. Like my distant relative William Randolph “Citizen Kane” Hearst delving into politics.

Oh, y’all didn’t know Hearst and I were related? Yep. The Hearsts were originally from South Carolina, you know — way back. Another distant relative who was into genealogy once told us that my Dad was Patty’s fifth cousin. Which means we didn’t exactly come in for a piece of San Simeon.

Anyway, where was I? Oh, yeah. While it doesn’t interest me very much that Murdoch wants to make a political contribution, if it DID, I’d mainly be ticked that he whips out his checkbook so readily for them, when it took him months to send me a measly amount when I had covered one of the hottest political stories of the year for him. But that would be petty of me, wouldn’t it?

I did arch an eyebrow when I read this passage in the WSJ story:

News Corp. spokesman Jack Horner said the contribution was intended to promote the company’s core beliefs. “News Corporation has always believed in the power of free markets and in organizations like the RGA, which have a pro-business agenda and support our priorities at this most critical time for our economy,” he said.

He added, “The corporate donation has no impact on the reporting activities of our newsgathering organizations. There is a strict wall between business and editorial and the corporate office does not consult with our newsgathering organizations … before making donations.”

But for a very esoteric, inside-baseball kind of reason. Basically, the passage is unclear because of the terminology. “Editorial,” used by a business-side guy, is a vague term meaning “news,” and only peripherally, “editorial” in the editorial-page sense. He’s trying to say that the NEWS side is unaffected. And I believe that’s true, aside from the fact that they’re no doubt embarrassed at having to report this, even on Page A4.

But what about the wall between news and editorial (one that is rhetorically erased by using “editorial” to refer to both), or the wall between editorial (as I use the term, meaning the opinion folks) and business side? Obviously, neither of those critical divisions is important to Mr. Horner.

Of course, at the WSJ, the point is rather moot. That paper’s editorial board was totally on board with “the power of free markets” LONG before they were owned by Rupert.

Good move, Vincent. Now release your e-mails, too

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Finally, after a couple of weeks hiatus, there’s a sign of life from the Sheheen campaign, and it’s a good one. Vincent released his last 10 years of tax records, and challenged Nikki Haley to do the same.

Normally, this kind of gesture wouldn’t mean much to me. But it means a lot in the context of this particular contest. As you may recall, refusing to release the last 10 years of her tax records is one of several rather glaring ways in which the Republican running on a “transparency” platform has refused to be transparent. Only after Gresham Barrett pressured her into releasing the last three years (saying, when asked by The State, that releasing 10 years would be an “excessive” amount of transparency) did we learn that she had previously failed to disclose that Wilbur Smith had paid her$42,500 for her influence.

So laying his tax records out and challenging Ms. Transparency 2010 to do the same is perfectly appropriate, and a service to the voters.

Now I’d like to see him release his publicly-issued e-mail records. That is, if he hasn’t done so already (I didn’t get a release on the tax records and had to read it in the paper of all things, so for all I know I missed one on the e-mail records, too). There is no way that a candidate running entirely on trying to tear the veil of secrecy from the Legislature should be hiding her e-mail records behind a special exemption to FOI law that lawmakers carved out for themselves. No way at all.

I did think this was of note:

The couple’s charitable giving has risen as they earned more money. The couple reported charitable donations of $1,025 in 2000, or 1.4 percent of their income. In 2009, the couple reported $7,301 in charitable donations on $372,509 in income, or 2 percent of their total earnings.

Haley and her husband, Michael, earned a combined $196,282 in 2009 and gave $971 to charity, or one half of one percent of total earnings.

Yeah, OK, so he’s giving more than Nikki, but 2 percent is pretty sad. Maybe this doesn’t include giving to the church. I mean, we Catholics are notorious for not tithing but come on, Vincent.

At least he’s not hiding the fact, though.

SC GOP having absolute cow over Pelosi’s $2k

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You may have noticed something about South Carolina Republicans this year — even the ones who have good sense, like Henry McMaster: They’re all about national politics, and not at all about South Carolina.

So it is that you have Henry’s ridiculous “Vultures” ad. And with Nikki Haley, it pretty much seeps into everything she does. For instance, a routine release from her campaign yesterday began:

Friends,
Across this country, we’re seeing people waking up and taking their government back.  We certainly saw it in South Carolina last month …

Now let’s set aside the ridiculous demagogic “taking their government back” construction, which makes zero sense. I mean, really — give us some examples of these instances you refer to, because I’d like to see what this business of “taking back government” looks like, how it plays out in the actual world, what sorts of results it produces.

No, my point is that the frame of reference, the point from which the release begins, is national politics — specifically, a national ideological movement. From this point of view, what happens in and to South Carolina only makes sense within the framework of the latest national ideological fad.

But things like that actually almost make sense set against the paroxysms that have been engendered by a campaign contribution made to a South Carolina congressional candidate by Nancy Pelosi. Various Republicans have today gone wild over this. They just can’t believe their good fortune. Instead of having to play their usual game of pretending that South Carolinians like Vincent Sheheen and John Spratt are liberals in the modern meaning of the term, they actually have an actual liberal touching South Carolina politics. So of course they are jumping up and down with joy and making mighty mountains out of Nancy’s molehill. They are ecstatic, and like many people who are beside themselves with happiness, they have gotten rather silly about it. For instance:

  • Under the headline, “MATCH PELOSI: Let Her Know She Can’t Buy America,” Joe Wilson says, “Nancy Pelosi gave $2,000 to Rob Miller, so we’re asking you to help Joe raise $2,000 today and every day until August 1. Send a strong message to Nancy Pelosi that we’re going to protect conservative leaders and TAKE BACK CONGRESS!” There’s that “take back” construction again (which sort of makes you want to ask, “What did you do with it when you had it last, Joe?”). Then there’s the utter overkill of it. Nancy gives 2 Gs, so the natural response is to raise that much every single day! Somebody needs to take a chill pill.
  • On a special, rather comical-looking Web page called “Washington Liberals” and in a related release, State GOP Chair Karen Floyd exults: “Nancy Pelosi is building a team of like-minded liberals and pouring millions of dollars into South Carolina,” continuing, “You’re next up to bat. Will you let Nancy Pelosi buy South Carolina or will you knock her plan out of the park?”
  • Then, on Twitter, the Blogosphere’s own Wesley Donehue put out Tweet after Tweet pumping the Wilson effort, with items such as “Will you help us raise $2,000 today to match Nancy Pelosi’s donation to Rob Miller?” followed by “Dang! Already half way there after just 20 minutes. Help us hit just $2k for @congjoewilson.”

Which means people are actually giving actual dollars in response to this utter nonsense. What kind of a sap do you have to be to fall for this flapdoodle?

Now as y’all know, I have no truck with folks interfering in the politics of other people’s states. When folks from here get worked up about elections elsewhere that are none of their business, I call them on it. So for the record, I’d greatly prefer that Nancy Pelosi stay the hell out of our South Carolina elections. Of course, there are levels of egregiousness in outside interference. Speaker Pelosi acting in a fairly modest way upon her desire to keep a majority so that she can keep her job is unseemly. Howard Rich pouring a fortune into South Carolina, not for a national issue, but in an effort to impose his ideology upon the South Carolina Legislature, is an outrage. That distinction made, we can do without your involvement, Nancy.

But the really interesting thing here is the way Republicans overreact when they finally, finally get the smallest excuse to make a South Carolina contest about national politics. Since they have no ideas for helping South Carolina move forward, they invariably fall back on the Washington boogey man. And when a prominent Democrat actually plays along with their narrative, they are absolutely thrilled.

Go see ‘Inception’ — even I plan to do so

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Why am I recommending a movie I haven’t seen? Because of this: It’s being held up as a big gamble on originality in a time when studios don’t want to bet on anything but mind-numbing sequels to proven money-makers:

The $160 million surreal thriller, based on an original screenplay about dreams and a group of thieves who steal them for profit, represents something of a rarity in an era when movie executives are choosing to base their biggest summer films on remakes, comic book characters, videogames and toys.
If “Inception” succeeds—and a lot of people in Hollywood are rooting for a hit—it could mark a new turn for an industry that loves to think of itself as delivering fine art to the masses. The film embodies Hollywood’s aspirations of melding high-concept art and high-flying commerce, with all the risks and potential rewards such a combination can entail.
“I think everybody is looking to this movie as proof of concept that new franchises can succeed and you don’t just have to re-tread old material,” says Stephen Prough, co-founder of Salem Partners, a boutique investment bank with a specialty in media and entertainment.

Never mind that the movie might not be any good, as this review indicates in the same edition of the WSJ in which I read the above. The thing is, if studios are thinking, “If this makes money, we’ll take a chance on original scripts more,” then I want them to make money. It’s a rather simplistic calculation, but hey, we’re trying to influence fairly simplistic people here (the backers of movies).

I figure, if they make money on this, maybe we’ll see some original flicks that are actually good. It’s worth the price of a ticket to try, anyway.

Normally, I don’t go to the theater to see anything — I wait for Netflix. But I figure, if we can encourage the studios in this, maybe the choices on Netflix will get better.

And Rob Miller’s got enough money, too

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My giving Joe Wilson a hard time for his hard sell “let me make you mad enough at the Democrats that you’ll send me money” appeal, when he’s already sitting on a mint, produced a productive response.

It you’ll recall, I said I was sure that Rob Miller — who ALSO has more money than needs to be wasted on a futile congressional campaign, also as a result of the “You Lie!” incident — was doing the same thing; I just wasn’t on his mail list.

So I got this today from Brian DeRoy with the Wilson campaign:

Since you somehow aren’t getting emails from Rob, let’s be fair and point out he’s aggressively pursuing donors too.  Remember, he’s raising a ton of money from ActBlue, Moveon.org and the DNC.

And here’s the communication he shared with me that he said was from the Miller campaign:

Dear Supporter,
As I criss-cross the district meeting small business owners, hard-working people, and community leaders, everyone agrees that we need a plan to get people back to work.  For nearly a decade now, South Carolina’s economy has been falling behind.  Bad trade agreements shipped good, high-paying jobs overseas.  Wall Street’s greed was rewarded with a $700 billion bailout.  Our small businesses and working families got nothing.
Joe Wilson was there every step of the way– casting the deciding vote for CAFTA, voting for the bailout, and opposing unemployment benefits, health insurance, and job re-training for the constituents he abandoned for a few campaign contributions.
It’s time to send Joe’s Wall Street ways packing, and I’ve got the plan to get our economy back on track.  I’ll fight for our small businesses and our communities.  My plan includes:
·       A full-time district office employee whose primary job is helping small businesses get grants and loans,
·       A budget-neutral Hometown Tax Credit to incentivize small business hiring,
·       A permanent extension of the Research and Development Tax Credit,
·       Incentives for small businesses hiring new employees,
·       Increasing lending to small businesses,
·       Cutting red tape and bureaucracy for small businesses,
·       Creating a venture capital fund to promote innovation,
·       Expanding technical school programs, and
·       Equipping churches and other community organizations to teach workplace skills.
Small businesses are the backbone of the American economy, and Joe “Wall Street” Wilson has been ignoring them for too long.  It’s time for a Congressman from Main Street who will fight for jobs in South Carolina, not Central America.  Stand and fight with me.
Semper Fi,
Rob

Yep, that’s cut from the same cloth — to some extent. And it’s got that irritating “fight” language in it that I always find so obnoxious. (And you’d think that a combat veteran like ex-Capt. Miller would know the difference between a political debate and a fight.) I have to say, though, it really doesn’t go nearly to the same extent in trying to demonize the competition. At least, not the way I look at it. What do y’all think?

Anyway, I’m fully persuaded that neither of these guys needs anybody to send him any more money.

Whom we elect in SC is none of your business, Gov. Pawlenty

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As you know, few things tick me off more than the nationalization of local politics. I even get on the case of politicians I like when they start acting like they want to influence the residents of OTHER states as to whom they should elect — especially since they almost always do so in behalf of those abominations, the two major political parties.

So it is that we are not amused at this latest small outrage:

I’m Gov. Pawlenty’s communications director… Watned to let you know
that today, Gov. Pawlenty’s Freedom First PAC will formally endorsing
and contributing to several South Carolina candidates in this fall’s
elections:

Governor – Haley – $3500
Senator – DeMint – $3000
SC-01 – Scott – $2000
SC-02 – Wilson – $2000
SC-03 – Duncan – $2000
SC-04 – Gowdy – $2000

As you probably know, Governor Pawlenty is currently in South
Carolina. Last night, he attended a fundraiser for the state GOP at
the home of GOP chairman Karen Floyd in Spartanburg with Nikki Haley.
(We posted a photo of the two of them on Gov. Pawlenty’s facebook
page.) This morning, he attended a fundraiser for Mick Mulvaney’s
congressional campaign in Rock Hill.

Please let me know if you have any questions or need an on-the-record
quote from me.
Thanks,
Alex

As I’m typing this, I can’t remember who the frick “Gov. Pawlenty” is, but let me guess before I Google it: He’s yet another Republican who thinks he’s got what it takes to be president, cozying up to South Carolina Republicans because of our early primary.

And the answer is… Yes, I was right! Of course, it’s not much of a guess. Even Mark Sanford was once in that fraternity, which shows you, anybody can get in.

At least he’s got a motive. But that doesn’t excuse it.

Folks, Joe’s got enough money. You can stop giving now

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It’s rather incredible that after all those millions that rolled into his (and opponent Rob Miller’s) coffers right after the “You Lie!” incident, Joe Wilson would still be trying to raise money.

But that’s how it works these days. Candidates raise money so they can set up a real steamroller of an operation that will raise them MORE money, on and on. Rob Miller’s probably doing the same thing and just doesn’t have my e-mail address or something.

Anyway, here’s Joe’s latest. Note the bombast. Note the hyperbole. Note the over-the-top demonization of the opposition. Yeah, it’s all extremely destructive to our ability to have a civil society, but hey — who cares if it works in infuriating people enough to give money, right? Here it is:

The clock is ticking to end the spending spree in Washington.  But Nancy Pelosi and her gang of liberals are trying to pull out all the stops to silence our conservative beliefs.  You have less than 24 hours left to have your voice heard since tonight at midnight marks the end of the financial quarter.
Just this week, Democrats launched an initiative aimed at tripping up conservatives and trying to play gotcha games.  Since liberals can’t win with their ideas like government-run health care and raising our taxes, they have to play games instead.
I have been busy meeting with constituents constantly in the Palmetto State.  Hard work is something I greatly value, and my promise has always been to be accessible and accountable.  This recent video will show just one example of my commitment to the Second District of South Carolina.
I realize we are in a tough economy, unemployment is far too high and the liberals in Washington need to get out of the way of small businesses and stop spending your money endlessly.
Going up against people who we’ve all seen will do or say anything isn’t easy.  This is a team effort.  Momentum is on the conservative side, we’ve seen it recently with the historic elections of Republicans in New Jersey and Massachusetts.
My opponent is taking in big bucks from unions and extreme groups like Moveon.org. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has even chipped in a few grand to the opposition.  Such donations will tell you where he really stands.
November may seem like a long way away, but we’re in a battle of ideas.  Our side will win and we will do it together. The financial quarter ends at midnight tonight.  Just $100, $50 or $25 will go along way in helping us send a strong message to Nancy Pelosi.
Please keep our conservative movement running strong as we build momentum for the fall.
Sincerely,
Joe Wilson
US Congressman
PS – The financial quarter ends at midnight tonight. All the political pundits will be reporting on our fundraising totals. Please click here, to make a small donation and let Nancy Pelosi know that big government isn’t the path to economic freedom.
Yeah, things may be tough and you may not have a job, but I’m hoping I can get you to hate those other guys enough to cough up some of the money from your tiny unemployment check to help me stop ’em.

God have mercy upon us.

Like Joe would actually do anything to change the country, even by this pitiful standard, if re-elected. The point is to re-elect Joe, because he really likes being your congressman. He really does. It’s sort of touching, really, the extent to which he digs it, and gets all breathless about it. (I suppose Joe would send out letters gushing about just that, but his well-compensated consultants advise against anything that positive.) He’s like his late predecessor Floyd Spence in that respect. Floyd never tried to DO anything in Washington; he just loved being a congressman and having his picture taken with famous people, and voting a safe, conservative way, and doing constituent service so that folks would let him keep doing it. He never rocked anybody’s boat, and normally Joe doesn’t, either. It’s not his nature.

Which is what makes the “You Lie” thing so weird. I think Joe shocked himself that night, losing control like that. Which is why he apologized… until he saw all that money coming in.

Toll road operator goes bankrupt

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This should give us pause. I’ve often thought we ought to experiment more with toll roads in South Carolina to help us back for our huge backlog of maintenance needs.

Then again, maybe not.

This just in from the Columbia Regional Business Report:

Developer of Upstate toll road files for bankruptcy protection

The nonprofit organization created to develop the Southern Connector toll road in Greenville County has filed for bankruptcy protection, seeking to reorganize some $300 million in debt tied to the road’s development .
Piedmont-based Connector 2000 Association Inc. said in its bankruptcy filing today that it is insolvent and unable to reach a debt restructuring agreement with its creditors. According to bankruptcy records, the association owes $278 million to U.S. Bank National Association and $90.9 million to HSBC Bank USA.
The nonprofit organization was created in 1996 to help the S.C. Department of Transportation finance and construct the Southern Connector in Greenville County. More than $200 million in bonds were sold in 1998 to build the 16-mile toll road, which extends from the intersection of Interstates 185 and 385 to the intersection of US 276 and I-385.
The association said traffic has been significantly lower than original projections and that it has failed to pay some of the interest and principal due on the bonds.
The S.C. Department of Transportation will file a response with the bankruptcy court by the end of the summer and will not comment on the case until that time, said spokesman Pete Poore.

Tech system funding, by the numbers

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A little more perspective on the governor’s three vetoes of Technical College operational funding, courtesy of Midlands Tech President Sonny White, who spoke to the Columbia Rotary Club this afternoon. (He only mentioned the vetoes in passing; I got the rest from him in an interview afterward.)

When the Technical College system was founded at the behest of Gov. Fritz Hollings (who got the Legislature to go along by buying Sen. Edgar Brown a bottle of bourbon and helping him drink it, which shows that in an altered state of consciousness at least, our lawmakers can be forward looking), the system was paid for thusly:

  • 70 percent of funding came from the state
  • 10 percent came from the counties served by the 16 schools — this went to physical plant and other local operating costs
  • 10 percent came from students — which made sense, since this was about providing a bright future to folks who did not already have good income
  • 10 percent came from auxiliary services such as bookstores and the like

In the 2011 fiscal year, the breakdown will be:

  • 70 percent will come from students — some of it from Pell Grants and lottery-funded scholarships, but it will still be up to the students to find the way to come up with it
  • 10 percent from the state — which is just so many different kinds of pitiful that it defies words
  • 10 percent from counties — Sonny expressed his appreciation that counties have at least kept their part of the bargain over the years.
  • 10 percent from auxiliary services.

Oh, and by the way, the technical system has seen a 20 percent increase in enrollment during this period in which unemployment has hovered around 12 percent.

So now you know.

Anyone see a good rundown of what Sanford vetoed?

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In the last few days, I’ve run links to a story in The State and another in the Post and Courier giving the 30,000-foot view of Gov. Sanford’s budget line-item vetoes, with all the quotes about political philosophy, descriptions of the state of the political relationship between the governor and lawmakers (somewhat better than in past years, you may be surprised to learn), and rehashes of just how much the governor hates the federal stimulus and is looking forward to saying “I told you so” when the money runs out.

What I have not seen is a good rundown of what he was cutting. And boy, am I missing having Cindi Scoppe working for me. Give her a couple of days of communing with the budget document (which might as well be written in Greek for all the good it does me), and she’d tell me everything I needed to know about it. When it comes to writing about the budget, to paraphrase Blanche Dubois,I have always depended on the kindness of… people who know how to read that stuff.

But a number of things have caused me to wonder in the last couple of days.

For instance:

  • The consternation I picked up on over at ETV studios over the massive cut to their budget. ($5.2 million — that detail was in the P&C report)
  • The call I got from someone yesterday whose girlfriend works at the State Museum, and she was worried because the governor had vetoed the museum’s entire appropriation (which would shut it down if not overridden).
  • An e-mail I got saying the same about the Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum. (I say, is nothin’ sacred?) This appears to be part of the governor’s elimination of the entire appropriation for the Budget and Control Board.

To quote from that last:

Yesterday Governor Sanford vetoed the Board’s entire $25.2 million General Fund appropriation for the Budget and Control Board for next year.  This section of the budget includes the entire General Fund operating budget for the S.C. Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum.  If this veto is not overridden, the museum will have to cease operations.
In his veto message to the General Assembly, the Governor stated that he was taking this action because the “Board has sufficient carry-forward and other funds to maintain its operations in this fiscal year.”  This is not correct.  There are not sufficient funds to make up the $25.2 General Fund cut to the Board, which includes $765,000 for the museum.
This veto represents the greatest threat the museum has faced in our 114 years of existence.  If this veto is not overridden we will no longer be able to preserve South Carolina’s proud military legacy.

Now one can have all sorts of debates as to the relative importance of the museum formerly known simply as the Confederate Relic Room (although I can tell you from having visited that it’s much more now), but what’s bugging me is that, with the vote coming up Tuesday, I just don’t have a clear idea of WHAT all is at stake.

Do any of y’all? And if so, please share.

Clyburn expands upon conspiracy theory

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Alvin Greene isn’t the only candidate that Jim Clyburn thinks has nefarious secret backers, according to TPM Muckraker:

House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn has called for a U.S. Attorney investigation into the mysterious candidacy of Democratic Senate nominee Alvin Greene because he thinks the mischief goes far beyond one wacky race. Clyburn (D-SC), Congress’ highest ranking African American, told TPM in an interview today he believes at least two other Democratic candidates on Tuesday’s primary ballot were planted by people with deep pockets and nefarious motives.

“The party’s choice in the 1st Congressional district lost. The party’s choice for U.S. Senate lost. Sounds like a pattern to me,” Clyburn told TPM. He said Greene was one of three Democratic candidates in three separate races whom the state party didn’t back or even recognize. All three candidates are African American.

One is Gregory Brown, who ran unsuccessfully against Clyburn in the 6th Congressional district. Another is Ben Frasier, who prevailed against state party-favored candidate Robert Burton in the 1st district. Greene, Brown and Frasier have something else in common — they haven’t filed any campaign finance reports with the Federal Elections Commission…

Wow. This is getting deep. Conspiracy this broad and far-reaching suggests the resources of a nation-state, or quasi-national players, such as the old Soviet Union, or the Hezbollah-Iran axis, or Howard Rich. Or something. As the Church Lady would have said, “Could it be… the Devil!?!?”

Naahhh…

I don’t think Rex futures look like a good bet now

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My attention was drawn this morning by an e-mail with the following headline on it:

Make an Investment in Jim Rex!

Sorry; I wish Jim all the best and everything — he’s certainly been supportive of me in the past, and I appreciate it — but in hard, cold dollars and cents, I just don’t think he’s a good investment bet right now.

If my highly trustworthy financial adviser (who gets nervous whenever I name him, lest people think I’m a good example of his work, so I won’t) were to recommend that as a good place to put my pennies to work, I think I’d get another financial adviser.

The question for me at this point is whether Vincent Sheheen wins it without a runoff. I doubt it, but you never know. In any case, the way this ends is that Sheheen is the nominee.

But I was interested to check out the names of people who will be at this Rex fund-raiser. Stuff like that always interests me. Here’s the list:

Ann & Frank Avignone | Amy & Robert Berger
Duncan Buell | Amanda & Todd Burnette
Anastasia Chernoff | Ken Childs | Don Doggett
David Dunn | Paula Harris | Valerie Harrison
Beth Howard | Lana & Steve Hefner | Lee Ann Kornegay
Betsy Carpentier & Phil Lacy | Oscar Lovelace
Annette & Steven Lynn | Barbara Rackes & Michael Mann
Sue & Robbie McClam | Heather Preston & Tim Mousseau
Angela & Stephen Peters | Julia & Jim Prater
Susan & Ron Prinz | Cynthia Davis & John Reagle
Linda Salane | Susan Heath & Rush Smith
Troy Cassel & Zeke Stokes | Diane Sumpter
Leah & Donald Tudor | Dr. Hoyt Wheeler
This is for a fund-raiser hosted by Barbara Rackes on June 10.

Nicholas Kristof is a traitor to his gender, God bless him

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My wife called my attention to this Nicholas Kristof column the other day. In describing it, she said Kristof had gotten fed up with an unpleasant truth about why aid efforts in poor areas of the world fail to save children: Their fathers blow what little money they earn on booze and prostitutes.

I just got around to reading it a few minutes ago. I expected a rant, an angry diatribe using the kind of slashing language that, well, that I tend to use when I’m fed up about something.

But no, Mr. Kristof was as carefully rational as ever. If anything, I think he undersold his point by being so mild about it. An excerpt:

… Look, I don’t want to be an unctuous party-pooper. But I’ve seen too many children dying of malaria for want of a bed net that the father tells me is unaffordable, even as he spends larger sums on liquor. If we want Mr. Obamza’s children to get an education and sleep under a bed net — well, the simplest option is for their dad to spend fewer evenings in the bar.

Because there’s mounting evidence that mothers are more likely than fathers to spend money educating their kids, one solution is to give women more control over purse strings and more legal title to assets. Some aid groups and U.N. agencies are working on that…

This tracks with what folks who give microloans to the poor in backwards parts of the world have learned: That if they want the loans to go to better the family’s plight, they need to lend the money to the mothers.

Nicholas Kristof, who uses his own bully pulpit to keep us mindful of the plight of the world’s least fortunate — and in doing so shows no respect for the orthodoxies of left or right — has now blown the whistle on guys everywhere. The man is a traitor to his gender. And God bless him for it.

If you think spending TOO MUCH MONEY is the main problem with SC schools, you’ve lost me

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Had to scratch my head at this Tweet from superintendent candidate Kelly Payne:

Education spending is a fiscal time bomb, see my solutions. http://www.votekellypayne.com

I followed the link, and it didn’t help me understand her point better.

There are a lot of problems with public schools — the inferiority of poor, rural schools compared to the suburban ones; the difficulty in hiring and retaining good teachers and getting rid of bad ones; the absurdity of maintaining more than 90 separate district administrations, to name but a few.

But too much money — at least, that’s how I read “fiscal time bomb” (maybe she meant something else; I hope so) — isn’t one of them. Unless, of course, you’re running in a Republican primary. Sigh. Kelly, being a teacher, should know better.

Meanwhile, from the soon-to-be-FORMER mayor…

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I received this from Bob Coble over the weekend:

I am attaching the City’s current Budget and Investment Reconciliation Statement that shows all of the City’s bank and
investment accounts are reconciled and balanced.

I am attaching the link to the City’s current financial that is on our website. The statement is through April. http://www.columbiasc.net/depts/finance/downloads/April%202010%20Report%20Cover%20Memo%20and%20Revenue-Exp%20Report%20Preliminary.pdf

Also, attached is the link to our current check register that is through April 30th. The register shows all the checks written by the City this fiscal year. http://www.columbiasc.net/depts/finance/downloads/Truth%20in%20Spending%20April%202010.pdf

I wanted to give you a budget update. We are continuing to make progress in bringing in a budget. The current budget’s expenses are $5.7 million under budget. General fund revenues are above target. Next year’s proposed budget includes, through greater efficiencies, an additional $500,000 for police overtime. We will add 15 police officers
from stimulus funding. The fire department budget fully funds all fire suppression and prevention responsibilities, and fully funds all firefighter staffing levels. Additionally, we have eliminated over 30 unfilled positions saving over $1.4 million.

Columbia’s financial statements are current and on the City’s website. The City’s check register is current and online. All City bank accounts and investment accounts are reconciled. The City’s general fund rainy day fund and GASB 45 reserves are above $30 million. Moody’s reaffirmed in 2009 the City’s excellent credit rating for the general fund and the water and sewer fund. I will continue to keep you posted.

I also received a copy of an op-ed he sent The State. Last time he sent me one of those I posted it here before The State could consider it, and I worried that I was hurting his chances of being published. Makes me hesitate this time…