Category Archives: South Carolina

No, Joe — it was for inappropriate BEHAVIOR, not any point you were trying to make

Wesley Donehue would be disappointed in me if I let one of his Joe Wilson releases go by without commentary. An excerpt from today’s:

Nearly two years ago I made national news when I voiced your outrage at the misrepresentations being perpetuated by the Obama administration. The media and Obama’s liberal allies attacked me for only pointing out the truth that ObamaCare would cover illegal immigrants.

Yesterday, my point was vindicated when the Department of Health and Human Services announced its newest ObamaCare grant. CNS News reported:

“Because the health care centers receiving $8.5 million in ObamaCare money ‘to target services to migrant and seasonal farm workers’ will not check the immigration status of the migrant workers who seek their services it is inevitable that they will serve illegal aliens.”

The president specifically promised the American people that ObamaCare would not cover those who are here illegally. He misled all of us.

Let’s go back to your initial assertion. No, Joe. You weren’t “attacked” for “only pointing out the truth.” You weren’t attacked, or criticized, for any sort of point you may have been trying to make.

No, you were criticized for the gross indecorum of shouting “You lie!” in the House chamber, at the President of the United States, while he was speaking to you. You “made national news” not for making some pithy, pertinent point, but for startlingly rude behavior.

You know that. You know it was wrong. You apologized. You’re not normally the kind of guy who does stuff like that, and you knew better.

Everybody slips up. But please, please stop going about with this martyrdom act pretending you were somehow a victim in this.

It is NOT a defense, it does not excuse the inappropriateness of the act, for you to say now, “But he WAS lying.” For the purpose of judging whether YOUR behavior was right or not, that doesn’t matter.

Let’s say you were sitting there listening to a speech by a president whose parents were not married when he was born. It would STILL be inappropriate for you to interrupt him by yelling, “You’re a bastard!” And it would be even less seemly, a year or two later, for you to send out a press release showing documentation of his illegitimacy in order to moan about how unfairly YOU have been treated.

OK?

Building the Innovista, one brick at a time

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Or maybe it’s one photon at a time. This just in from CRBR:

SCRA announced its newest tenant at the SCRA USC Innovation Center in Columbia, Nitek Inc.

SCRA described the company as a world leader and pioneer in deep ultraviolet-LED lamp technology. Nitek was launched in early 2007 with the goal of commercializing innovative micro-devices using III-Nitride technology, according to the company website.

Nitek is a spin-off of the University of South Carolina’s Photonics and Microelectronics Laboratory, which was started by USC professor Asif Khan in 1997.

The lab was formed as a small-scale, vertically integrated manufacturing facility for ultraviolet emitters, high-power electronics and visible LEDs and lasers…

The company will initially employ about 14 high-tech, high-wage employees. That number is expected to double in the next three years, SCRA said…

So… they’re selling light, from what I gather. Or something. Here’s wishing them huge success.

Pelosi picks Clyburn for supercommittee

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Apparently, Jim Clyburn is still the former speaker’s go-to guy:

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on Thursday filled out the final three slots on the joint deficit committee by selecting three members of her leadership team to the panel.

Pelosi (D-Calif.) chose Reps. James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.), Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.) and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), giving the panel the highest-ranking African-American and Latino lawmakers in Congress with Clyburn and Becerra, respectively. Pelosi reiterated her call for Congress to consider “the grand bargain” of major entitlement cuts matched with increased taxes…

I don’t know what all that means, except that it would appear that in recent years it seems to have fallen to Rep. Clyburn to try, singlehandedly, to balance out the rightward tilt of our congressional delegation. For what that’s worth. Which, in South Carolina, as about as much as those T-shirts.

By the way, who started calling it “supercommittee?” And if it’s called that, how come Thor, Green Lantern, the X-men and Captain America aren’t on it?

Yeah, you’d BETTER put this on sale…

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… In fact, if you’re trying to get rid if it in South Carolina, you’d better plan on paying people to take it.

This bit of spam email from MyDemocraticStore.com made me laugh when I saw it on my iPhone over lunch.

I suppose there’s someone who would buy it — at a discount.

Oh, wait… you don’t suppose this is an opportunity to get some ad revenue on the blog? Um… my, what a fine-lookin’ bunch o’ products!

Thanks, SC5 and the rest of you; our country has for the first time lost its AAA credit rating

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Well, it became official last night, about three hours after I had wrapped up my first Virtual Front Page in awhile:

S&P Strips U.S. of Top Credit Rating

A cornerstone of the global financial system was shaken Friday when officials at ratings firm Standard & Poor’s said U.S. Treasury debt no longer deserved to be considered among the safest investments in the world.

S&P removed for the first time the triple-A rating the U.S. has held for 70 years, saying the budget deal recently brokered in Washington didn’t do enough to address the gloomy outlook for America’s finances. It downgraded long-term U.S. debt to AA+, a score that ranks below more than a dozen countries, including Liechtenstein, and on par with Belgium and New Zealand. S&P also put the new grade on “negative outlook,” meaning the U.S. has little chance of regaining the top rating in the near term…

S&P said the downgrade “reflects our opinion that the fiscal consolidation plan that Congress and the administration recently agreed to falls short of what, in our view, would be necessary to stabilize the government’s medium-term debt dynamics.” It also blamed the weakened “effectiveness, stability, and predictability” of U.S. policy making and political institutions at a time when challenges are mounting…

The WSJ report (and here are others from the NYT, NPR, BBC and the WashPost) goes on to say that it might not be too bad, since the other ratings agencies have kept the U.S. at the triple-A rating, then says…

But the move by S&P still could serve as a psychological haymaker for an American economic recovery that can’t find much traction, and could do more damage to investors’ increasing lack of faith in a political system that is struggling to reach consensus even on everyday policy matters. It could lead to the prompt debt downgrades of numerous companies and states, driving up their costs of borrowing. Policy makers are also anxious about any hidden icebergs the move could suddenly reveal.

Just what we needed, right?

As you see, the reason is that we failed to reach a comprehensive, rational, credible agreement on reducing U.S. debt. That was always the greater danger than the debt ceiling not being raised. And our elected representatives descended to the challenge of eroding the full faith and credit of the United States of America.

Of course, all involved in the government will vehemently defend their agreement against such condemnation as Standard & Poor’s. The Obama administration scoffed at S&P for making “a $2 trillion error” in its calculations. And indeed, well they might lash out, because all will share the blame.

But here’s the thing: Obama was willing to do a real deal. I’m not saying it would have fixed everything, but at least he was pushing the essential elements — both spending cuts and tax increases (or “reform” or “enhancements” or “revocation of cuts” or whatever you want to call it). That was and is essential to real deficit reduction for the simple fact that no one wants to go far enough in cuts.

Oh, four of the SC5 would go far enough. They have a nihilistic desire to cut, slash and burn; they are ideologues, and are not affected by pragmatic considerations. But Joe Wilson wouldn’t be with them; he wants to be re-elected. And if the cuts were deep enough to essentially eliminate the deficit without any revenue increases, they would be replaced in the next election by people who do give a damn about the essential functions of government (or what most voters regard as the essential functions of government, which in political terms amounts to the same thing). It would probably also split our two senators: DeMint cares little for the consequences of cutting, but Graham would balk at emasculating the U.S. military.

Gentlemen, if I may go so far as to call you “gentlemen,” you and those like you have brought us to this. I will watch, not without some trepidation, to see what you do next.

Well, that’s good to hear — sorta, kinda

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Just got this from the state Treasurer:

CREDIT RATING AGENCY MOODY’S REAFFIRMS SOUTH CAROLINA’S AAA CREDIT RATING

Rating agency’s negative outlook for US economy could impact South Carolina

(Columbia, SC) – State Treasurer Curtis Loftis issued the following statement in response to the action taken by credit rating agency Moody’s, who has reaffirmed South Carolina’s AAA credit rating but added a negative outlook similar to that given to the federal government.

“South Carolina has AAA credit for a reason,” Treasurer Loftis said. “We live within our means and are constantly guided by sound financial principles. The negative outlook for the federal government has spilled over to the states and is a wake-up call that government must not spend more than it has. The State Treasurer’s Office is monitoring this situation and is in constant contact with the rating agencies.”

South Carolina’s AAA credit rating means it costs less to borrow money for things taxpayers depend on like schools, roads and bridges.

Moody’s Investors Service will be conducting a credit review of select states including South Carolina within the next 90 days. According to Moody’s, in order for South Carolina to earn a stable outlook, the state must maintain credit quality higher than that of the federal government in the event the U. S. government credit would be downgraded.

“The bottom line is simple: the action by Congress and the President causes uncertainty in the business community,” Treasurer Loftis said. “We must demand fiscal conservatism and transparency from Washington. South Carolina is doing its part and I ask D. C. to do the same.”

South Carolina, along with Maryland, New Mexico, Tennessee and the Commonwealth of Virginia, are the five states Moody’s confirmed AAA with negative outlooks with ratings indirectly linked to the U. S. government. Those five states have a combined $24 billion of outstanding debt.

WEB/TV/RADIO: Click Here for a downloadable soundbite (.mpg) of the Treasurer on the debt issue.

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Well, that’s good to hear. Because I was worried about the credit agencies not being pleased with the debt deal signed earlier in the week. (Hey, neither I nor anyone else was happy with it; why should they be?)

All along, the word had been that the credit rating was endangered less by the debt ceiling deadline, and more by the failure of the gummint to come to terms with the deficit. Which they still haven’t done, of course. But let’s embrace whatever good news we can get.

Yo, and stock markets… Please settle down, as I said this morning:

So calm down, already! Stock market, this means you: “@nytimes: NYT NEWS ALERT: U.S. Economy Added 117,000 Jobs in July; Rate Falls to 9.1%”

The big picture for Amazon

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South Carolina hardly rates a mention in this report in the WSJ today (“Amazon Battles States Over Sales Tax“), but I thought some of y’all, your nerves still jangled from the recent battle at the State House, might be interested in this step-back report on what was at stake for Amazon, and how SC fits into the company’s grand strategy. An excerpt:

SEATTLE — Amazon.com Inc., the world’s largest online retailer, hasn’t charged sales tax in most states since its founding in 1994. And it has taken some extreme measures to keep it that way.

Among them: Staff traveling around the U.S. have been required to first consult a company map that shades each state red, yellow or green, said three people who have worked for the retailer. These people said they needed permission from managers or company lawyers before entering “red” states because a worker’s actions might trigger laws that force Amazon to collect taxes in those states.

Such steps to avoid local levies allow Amazon to undercut in-state retailers by the amount they must add in sales tax, which can exceed 8%.

A close examination of Amazon’s corporate practices, based on interviews with more than a dozen former employees and people who have done business with the Seattle company, as well as a review of corporate documents, indicates that the company believes its sales-tax policy is critical to its performance…

Burnie gives it to us straight

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Speaking of Rotary — which I was a moment ago — we had a nice surprise today. It was preceded by this emailed notice, which I did not see until just now, about our main speaker:

Congressman Trey Gowdy is stuck in Washington dealing with the nation’s debt limit, and has been re-scheduled. Instead, our own Burnie Maybank will give a surprise presentation.

I repressed the urge, during the meeting, to Tweet out that he might as well be here, since he wasn’t contributing anything there. Sometimes I am a model of self-restraint.

Burnet Maybank, for those of you who have been away from South Carolina for the last 112 years, is the name of three key figures in S.C. government. The first was governor from 1939-41, and U.S. senator from 1941-54. The second was lieutenant governor from 1959-63.

But we concern ourselves with the current one, Burnet Maybank III, a.k.a. “Burnie.” He was head of the Department of Revenue under Govs. Beasley and Sanford. But he wasn’t just a guy who sat around waiting for the money to come in. He is known for having said to the folks at the State House, give me some money for enforcement, and I’ll bring in far more than that by getting people not currently paying their taxes to pay them. The Legislature went for that, and as recently as this year, a portion of the state budget discussion has dealt with how to spend the “Maybank money.”

There’s no nonsense to Burnie. And he gave a no-nonsense presentation to Rotary today. I doubt he had to prepare much. He got up and talked about what he knows — S.C. taxes, and in particular the crying need for comprehensive tax reform. I had of course heard a lot of it before, having worked for two decades with Cindi Scoppe — whom Burnie cited at one point during his presentation. But I started writing down some highlights of what he said. Unfortunately, I didn’t get far before my pen actually ran out of ink. Here’s what I got:

We have a relatively low tax burden in this state.
But it is a tax system that is “a product of hideous extremes.” For instance, we levy the highest property taxes in the nation on manufacturers, and the lowest property taxes in the nation on owner-occupied homes.
We exempt more in sales taxes than we collect.
The annual cost of the absurd cap on the sales tax on automobiles is $173 million. (Burnie gave a brief history of that tax. He said it was one thing when lawmakers came up with this cap to help auto dealers compete with a similar cap in North Carolina. But then the lobbyists went to work, and started exempting a long list of other items, including aircraft… that’s when my pen started running out of ink. But I did manage to write legibly on of the more ridiculous-sounding ones — “light construction equipment,” but only self-propelled light construction equipment.)
The fact that 45 percent of people in the U.S. who file returns pay no federal income tax. (Doug likes to say 50 percent, but it’s 45.) He mentioned that to make this point: Grover Norquist is seen as the champion of the wealthy in his opposition to new taxes. But in fact, the beneficiaries of his standing in the way of tax reform is the 45 percent who now pay nothing.

That’s about all I got. But you can always learn more by reading Cindi’s work, or by following Burnie’s advice and going to look at the report of the S.C. Tax Realignment Commission (TRAC). Reading that isn’t as much fun as hearing Burnie talk about it, but it’s something…

Rorschach test: The new congressional districts

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Until this morning, I had not had a chance to look at the congressional districts as passed by the Legislature on Tuesday. All that hoo-hah over the new 7th District distracted the coverage from what I, and others who live in the Midlands, wanted to know: What do the 2nd and the 6th look like?

But The Post and Courier has obliged me, and I urge you to go there to see the graphic full-sized.

This was brought to my attention this morning by a friend who presented it as a political Rorschach test: Look at the images, and then state which of them you think is the more gerrymandered, the old or the new?

Not to prejudice your opinion, but to me it’s fairly obvious that the new is less gerrymandered. Certainly the 2nd — no more of that reaching-down-to-Beaufort nonsense. And the new 7th is nicely blocky — no spider legs there.

Of course, the 6th still looks ridiculous coming into Richland only to cut the heart out of it, leaving the rest to Joe Wilson.

And of course, there’s the beef for Democrats — the 6th has WAY more Black Voting Age Population than Jim Clyburn wants or needs. It is the dumping ground for black voters, so that the Republicans don’t have to deal with them in the other six districts.

But don’t look for Dick Harpootlian’s threatened lawsuit to materialize. Or if it does, don’t look for a court to give it the time of day. The Legislature passed this; there was no impasse. The Dems just lost the argument. Their interest in it is clearly partisan.

It is of course inherently racist to gather up as many black voters and stuff them into one district. But Republicans will point to Tim Scott and go their merry way.

Hurrah for the House Republicans — they reject recall

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The SC Democratic Party is griping about this:

Columbia, SC — In a vote along party lines, House Republicans refused to take up an amendment that would allow a statewide Recall Bill to be taken up in the House today. The bill, sponsored by Reps. Boyd Brown, Todd Rutherford, Bakari Sellers, James Smith and Leon Stavrinakis, all Democrats, calls for a recall mechanism for all statewide office holders.

In the past weeks, since the Ken Ard scandal began, voters in South Carolina have been calling for recall legislation as a way to hold their elected officials accountable. Today, Lt. Governor Ard announced he would not step aside from his post, giving Democrats an even greater incentive to pass this bill onto the voters of South Carolina.

Rep. Boyd Brown, the author of the bill, release this quote about the legislation refusal.

“Ken Ard’s unwillingness to do what is right is a clear example as to why the people of South Carolina deserve a chance to recall elected officials. If he does not step aside, he should be removed from office. It’s apparent now, that South Carolina Republicans want to protect their own, while they continue their pattern of neglect towards the people of our state.”

The maneuver was blocked by Rep. Philip Lowe, a Republican of Florence, Ard’s hometown.

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For my part, I say “Hurrah for the House GOP,” assuming this report is accurate. Worst idea in a long time.

Another GOP official who “likes” cop-killing post

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Politico is now reporting that “Corey Norris,” whom it identifies as “a district director for the Lexington County GOP,” has also approving posted the “When Should You Shoot a Cop” post, saying, “VERY good article. Think about it.”

I don’t know whether that’s the same guy as this Cory Norris out of Chapin, but I wouldn’t be surprised. Sample Tweet:

If you live with your boot on the throat of the masses, don’t be surprised if your ankle eventually gets broken.

Jeff Mattox is looking less like an aberration. As the Sage of Wichita used to say, “That’s twice. Once more and it’s a trend, and we can send it to Lifestyles.”

You need to be careful about your associations

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This devil’s bargain that the GOP has made with the Tea Party since the GOP’s traumatic loss in 2008 — which seems to have driven the party half-mad with grief, and into the arms of the snake-flag crowd — just looks worse and worse. And not just from the perspective of UnPartisans like me. I would feel a lot worse about it were I a Republican. I mean a real one — of the Lincoln, Eisenhower, or Reagan variety.

Of course, the Democrats are eating it up; they think it’s great — the crazier their opponents get, the better they like it.

For the rest of us, watching these extremists drag down the GOP in the debt “debate,” and the GOP still clinging hard enough to drag the country and the world’s economy down with it, is pretty agonizing.

And if you’re a Republican, this has to be really uncomfortable. First, they helped people like Nikki Haley roll right over the actual conservatives like Henry McMaster (and Bob Inglis, and others).

And then, you have to watch stuff like this Kershaw County “when to shoot a cop” thing just getting worse and worse. It gets hard to disassociate yourself from a guy like Jeff Mattox, as much as you’d like to.

Last night, the picture above cropped up in two places — in an e-mail from the Democratic Party, and in a post by Will Folks. It purports to show Jeff Mattox, the Kershaw County GOP co-chair and member of Kershaw County Patriots (which, according to the Camden paper, he calls a Tea Party group) with you-know-who.

If you’re a mainstream Republican, you cringe in private at Nikki Haley being your governor, if you’re paying attention. Now you have to face the fact that all this anti-government stuff takes you to some pretty crazy places. It’s a matter of degrees, a series of steps.

One step: Mere anti-government rhetoric, with a hint of menace. Gov. Haley likes to say people in government “are incredibly scared and it’s a beautiful thing.”
Another step: This Mattox guy “likes” the cop-killing post, but says he doesn’t really want to kill cops: “No. It’s just kind of a conversation.” Eloquent defense, huh?
Next step: “Basic logic dictates that you either have an obligation to LET ‘law enforcers’ have their way with you, or you have the right to STOP them from doing so, which will almost always require killing them.”

And then you have cops in Kershaw County going around wearing body armor.

It’s all connected. And it’s no wonder that Matt Moore and others over at party HQ are trying to cut themselves off from the more extreme end of the rope.

GOP official likes “when to shoot a cop” link

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First, the Facebook page of a Tea Party-related group called “Kershaw County Patriots” posts a link to a blog article headlined, “When Should You Shoot A Cop.” A sample of that content:

Pick any example of abuse of power, whether it is the fascist “war on drugs,” the police thuggery that has become so common, the random stops and searches now routinely carried out in the name of “security” (e.g., at airports, “border checkpoints” that aren’t even at the border, “sobriety checkpoints,” and so on), or anything else. Now ask yourself the uncomfortable question: If it’s wrong for cops to do these things, doesn’t that imply that the people have a right to RESIST such actions? Of course, state mercenaries don’t take kindly to being resisted, even non-violently. If you question their right to detain you, interrogate you, search you, invade your home, and so on, you are very likely to be tasered, physically assaulted, kidnapped, put in a cage, or shot. If a cop decides to treat you like livestock, whether he does it “legally” or not, you will usually have only two options: submit, or kill the cop. You can’t resist a cop ”just a little” and get away with it. He will always call in more of his fellow gang members, until you are subdued or dead.

Basic logic dictates that you either have an obligation to LET “law enforcers” have their way with you, or you have the right to STOP them from doing so, which will almost always require killing them. (Politely asking fascists to not be fascists has a very poor track record.)

The Facebook link, by “Marlene Motley,” includes this commentary:

‎’If politicians think that they have the right to impose any “law” they want, and cops have the attitude that, as long as it’s called “law,” they will enforce it, what is there to prevent complete tyranny? Not the consciences of the “law-makers” or their hired thugs, obviously. And not any election or petition to the politicians. When tyrants define what counts as “law,” then by definition it is up to the “law-breakers” to combat tyranny.’

Then, Jeff Mattox, who has been identified by Politico and the Camden paper as “a co-chair” of the Kershaw County Republican Party, tells the world that he “Likes” the Facebook post.

The Camden Chronicle-Independent quotes Mattox as explaining:

Police sometimes do overstep their bounds… but advocate shooting a cop? No. It’s just kind of a conversation.

The Camden cops are kind of upset, according to the local paper. And they’re not fooling around, according to Politico: “Local police are reportedly wearing body armor in response to the post.”

I haven’t seen anything like this since G. Gordon Liddy recommended dealing with cops with a “head shot.” How about you?

We can go where we like, but Haley BFF Eleanor Kitzman is going to Texas

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The best historical marker in the world is on the Madison County courthouse square in Jackson, TN. It tells what Davy Crockett told a group of voters, standing in that spot, after being defeated for re-election to Congress:

You can go to hell, but I am going to Texas!

Today, we have a similar case in South Carolina. Eleanor Kitzman, head of the Budget and Control board and the most passionate, emotional defender of Gov. Nikki Haley I’ve run across yet, is leaving us to go work for Rick Perry:

COLUMBIA, S.C. — The director of the South Carolina agency that oversees much of state government operations has resigned, six months after Gov. Nikki Haley picked her for the job, to take a role in government in her home state of Texas.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s office announced Wednesday that Eleanor Kitzman will start her job as that state’s insurance commissioner on Aug. 15. Her term there is set to expire in February 2013.

“I’m confident that Eleanor’s expertise in the insurance industry will make her a strong advocate for insurance customers in Texas,” Perry said in a release.

Kitzman, a 54-year-old Houston native, did not immediately return messages Wednesday evening.

Things that would never occur to Jim DeMint

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Cindi had a good column today on the subject of arbitrary caps and limits and pledges and the like. There are a number of good things to get out of it.

The first is the fact that Jon Huntsman is the only Republican presidential candidate who has refused to sign Jim DeMint’s Cut, Cap and Whatever pledge — which apparently irritates our junior senator no end.

Jim is all like, “I won’t support any candidate who does not support balancing the budget. … So for me, he’s out.”

Which ignores reality, of course. It doesn’t occur to Jim (or at least, he lets on that it doesn’t occur to him, on account of amassing personal political power now being the most important thing to him, judging by his actions) that a guy could be for a balanced budget amendment (which Huntsman is) and not want to kowtow to him by signing his pledge. For that matter, just to go way deeper into territory that Jim DeMint would find impossible to imagine, one can be for, very passionately for, a balanced budget — and yet not favor a constitutional amendment mandating it.

Personally, I’m ambivalent about the amendment thing. A balanced budget should be standing operating procedure, except in times of full-mobilization war and other serious emergencies. But that should be an annual decision by Congress, not a mechanism. Whether we’ve reached the point that we have to throw out that process is not yet entirely clear to me. Maybe we have. I’m just not sure.

That aside, though, there’s a bigger point here — a point even bigger than the national debt. It goes to the heart of representative democracy:

But there’s an important principle involved as well: Pledging to do or not do anything important is an abdication of elected officials’ duty to examine the issues before them and make their own decisions on behalf of their constituents. And it makes it impossible for officials to govern in a changing world. Imagine the pledges some politicians might have signed before 9/11 — and how that could have prevented them from taking necessary actions to protect our nation after the attacks “changed everything.”

Yes! Yes! YESSSS!!! (Waiter, I’ll have what he’s having…) Continuing…

When you sign away your right to consider all your options, when you are bound by uninformed opinions, when you take directions from people whose primary purpose is to maintain power and defeat those who don’t think exactly as they do, rather than taking advantage of different points of view to come up with the best solutions, then you can’t even imagine the complex solutions to our state’s interwoven ills, much less enact them.

Sounds like Cindi was listening all those years, huh? Not that she couldn’t have come up with all those thoughts on her own. Come to think of it, maybe it was me listening to her…

How furious was Kenny Bingham? See for yourself

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I wasn’t there when S.C. House Majority Leader Kenny Bingham tore into Nikki Haley on June 29, claiming her office misled lawmakers on the budget. But I had heard it was really something. After all, it got Kenny a standing ovation, which sort of tells you where our governor stands in the estimation of that Republican-dominated body.

Somehow, it didn’t occur to me to look for the speech on YouTube until someone mentioned it this week. I urge you to watch it.

By the way, for a fuller explanation of what happened, read Cindi Scoppe’s column of July 3.

Bow before me: I’m one of the Twitterati!

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A couple of years back… actually, to be precise, it ran on the very day before I got laid off from the paper (which really made the part where I reflected on a politician declaring the death of news media, um, interesting)… I wrote a column in which I blasted the very idea of Twitter:

… But so far I haven’t figured out what Twitter adds to modern life that we didn’t already have with e-mail and blogs and text-messaging and, well, the 24/7 TV “news.” Remember how I complained in a recent column about how disorienting and unhelpful I find Facebook to be? Well, this was worse. I felt like I was trying to get nutrition from a bowl of Lucky Charms mixed with Cracker Jack topped with Pop Rocks, stirred with a Slim Jim…

Then, a few months later, Tim Kelly persuaded me that I could promote my blog using Twitter. So I tried it. And I got hooked on the form, sort of a cross between headline writing and haiku. And Tim was prophetic. My blog gets 3 or 4 times the traffic that my old blog did when I was at the paper — something close to 200,000 page views a month, and sometimes well over that.

And now, I’m one of the top Tweeters in Columbia, one of the “Twitterati,” according to the Free Times:

The former editorial page editor of The State tweets a lot and has 1,200 followers. He’s often re-tweeted, tweeted at, and he becomes involved in Twitter debates. Sometimes he’ll even play mediator in said debates.

In any case, it’s obvious that while Warthen has been out of the newspaper game for a few years now he still has some pull at the paper. On May 31, he tweeted, “What in the world are these UFO-looking things all along I-26?” Days later, The State ran a story answering this life-altering question under this headline: “What Are Those Green Things?” — Corey Hutchins

So, you just never know what’s going to happen, do you?

Going after Huntsman: Harpootlian emits a signal made for Republican ears to hear

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Last evening I tried to post on Twitter, and for some reason (probably the fitful Internet connection at my house, which is why I’m about to change providers), it did not transmit. I found it in drafts this morning:

Today’s summary: Pawlenty goes after Bachmann. Harpootlian goes after Huntsman. Huntsman goes after Mitt. And so on…

As you can see from the links (which illustrate an advantage of this medium over Twitter), all of those petty political potshots were fired on Monday.

One of them is out of place. Yes, for some reason, Dick Harpootlian is not content to sit back while Republicans tear each other apart. He is joining in, and attacking one of them in particular.

A couple of weeks ago, I asked Dick why Huntsman? Is it because that’s the Republican he fears the most? The one who might be a threat to Obama in the general election, if he can get past the extremists in his own party? Does he feel a particular responsibility as the Democratic chair in the first-in-the-South primary state to stop him here?

Dick said no. But his actions say otherwise.

Yesterday, I received three separate emails from Dick about Huntsman — the first two telling me, then reminding me, that Dick would have a conference call about Huntsman at 2:30. I missed the call, because I was tied up after the Haley appearance at Rotary. But no fear. Dick summarized his message in this release:

Harpootlian calls Jon Huntsman disloyal and disingenuous.

Columbia, S.C. – South Carolina Democratic Party Chair Dick Harpootilan held a conference call today to welcome Jon Huntsman back to South Carolina.

During the opening of the call, Harpootlian discussed Huntsman’s support for Rep. Paul Ryan’s radical revision to Medicare. In response to Huntsman’s comment on his support, “[If Ryan’s plan is radical] then guilty as charged”, Harpootlian replied:

“He supports a plan that would double the out-of-pocket Medicare expenses to those who are younger than 55, but yet, the taxpayers are paying for the subsides of his private jet, every time he turns it on.”

Finally, when asked if he thought Huntsman was President Obama’s biggest threat on the Republican ticket, Harpootlian responded:

“Here’s a guy who had his lips firmly planted on the president’s butt three months ago, and now is speaking ill out of ’em out of those same lips. Can you trust a guy who turns this quickly? He is somebody who apparently will say whatever it takes to get elected. Huntsman, not only is he disingenuous, he’s disloyal.”

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Of course, that “lips firmly planted on the president’s butt” phrase is classic Dick, but it’s interesting to note that if he can get Republican primary voters to hear it, it will resonate with their Obama Derangement tendencies.

Between the last time Dick went after Huntsman and this time, I don’t recall him going after any other particular Republican candidate so specifically (it’s possible that he did in passing and I missed it in the flow of my IN box, but I know he didn’t go to this much trouble to attack them). It will be interesting to see whether he does so subsequently.

Press a button, and your iPhone shouts ‘You lie!’

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Had to smile at this release about Joe Wilson going all high-tech:

Dear Subscriber,

Today, I am excited to tell you of the newest way you can stay in touch with the campaign by getting the latest updates, news, and stories: a new mobile application available for free to anyone with a smart phone.

As you all know, I love staying in touch with as many of you as I possibly can. This application is designed for just that purpose. It allows me to reach out to you and post updates on local campaign events in your area, different ways for you and your friends to get involved with the campaign, and opportunities for me to visit with you in your community as well as news on the Second Congressional District of South Carolina.

Other features of the app include: interactive poll questions and direct feedback with me. I am also planning to launch a live video chat service in the future that I am very excited about.

In order to save this application to your phone, all you need to do is open up a webpage from your smart phone and visit www.joewilsonforcongress.com. The mobile website will automatically redirect you to instructions on how to bookmark the application on your phone for future use.

I look forward to getting to know you better, and I hope you will join me by using your smart phone to visit www.joewilsonforcongress.com.

Sincerely,

Joe Wilson
U.S. Congressman

Actually, back to my intro, does anybody say “high-tech” any more? I think that term was trendy in Esquire back in the ’70s. I need to update myself. Maybe Joe could help me…

Nikki Haley was at Rotary today, too

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OK, so Lee Bandy wasn’t the only person visiting Columbia Rotary today. He was just the one I enjoyed seeing the most. Nikki Haley made her first appearance at the club since back during the election.

As I said on Twitter, she gave a good speech, centered around her usual themes. She just gets smoother and stronger at that all the time. Guess I was wrong when I said she peaked that day with Sarah Palin; she has continued to maintain her speaking skills at a high level. So I guess it’s more accurate to say she reached a plateau on May 14, 2010. Either that, or this is another peak. If so, I’m not sure what put her in her Zone.

Certainly not audience reaction. The Rotarians applauded a couple of times — the biggest response was when she was sticking up for Boeing. But it was polite, not what anyone would call enthusiastic.

Speaking of polite, I thought you’d enjoy the above clip when our own Kathryn Fenner — who had publicly expressed uneasiness ahead of time about whether she would behave herself — challenged Nikki in a deeply respectful manner. Did it better than I would have. Whenever I’m confronted with any of Nikki’s bumper-sticker platitudes, which she pronounces with such deep conviction, I tend to go into pompous lecturing mode, as I did on this occasion (dang it; I can’t find a link to that video…) in response to her umpteenth repetition in my presence that the wanted to “run government like a business.”

What Kathryn responded to is, like the government-as-business thing (which tends to be spoken with the greatest enthusiasm by people who understand neither business nor government), a favorite of politicians of the libertarian-populist variety. It always goes something like, When families have a windfall, they save it rather than spending it. Which, of course, is nonsense. In hard times, families are more likely to spend a windfall on the necessities they’ve been deferring, such as that new roof on the house, or warm winter coats for the kids. Ditto with the related nostrum, When families fall on hard times, they tighten their belts. Yeah, of course they do — and at the same time they search frantically for ways to bring more revenue into the house. But people too seldom challenge these facile sayings, so it was good that Kathryn did so, and so very politely.

The speech itself, while well delivered, didn’t have anything in it that I found both new and interesting. I’ll be interested to see what the working media who were there lead with. I saw that Yvonne Wenger of The Post and Courier Tweeted this: “Haley unveils preliminary details on faith-based, community-based Neighbors Helping Neighbors program to get state engaged in meeting needs.” But there weren’t many such details. And that’s kind of a yawner. Republicans, even more mainstream Republicans than Nikki, are constantly trying to show they care by calling on churches to do what they don’t want government to do. You know, like maybe the churches aren’t actually trying now, and need the governor to tell them how.

Anyway, that was just in passing, in response to a question. Her main thrust was pretty much standard boilerplate, talking about what she saw as the main accomplishments of her first months in office — roll call voting, other stuff you’ve read about before.

It was interesting to see the rather substantial media contingent at the meeting — one of the larger such turnouts I’ve seen at South Carolina’s largest Rotary club. Their presence seemed to indicate they saw this as a bit of an event. I suppose the governor doesn’t get out much and speak to large groups here in the Midlands — I don’t know; I’ve never thought much about it. I know she talks to the media less than predecessors, which is probably why the press and broadcast types were dutifully lined up at the door waiting to catch her on her way out. (You’ll note on the video that she sort of promises to take questions from them later. I suppose she did. My ride left before that.)

I did have one small moment of epiphany during the Q and A, something that perhaps shed a light on why I don’t see things her way more often: “I’m a reality TV nut,” she said. Suddenly, a lot of stuff fell into place for me…

Seriously, though, I look forward to seeing what the reporters who were there get out of it.

bradwarthen.com

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