Charleston City Council convened on February 23, 2010 to receive the Charleston Green Plan, a comprehensive study of ways to make the City more sustainable and to reduce its environmental impacts. The evening proved that the teabaggers, elected and unelected, don't understand the government they want to destroy any better than the Planet they would like to waste.
Image, Right, Mayor Riley Recognizing the members of the Green Committee in City Council's Historic Chamber.
Mayor Riley remains the aging pro, though the years have worn on him. The master who could once play his tightly strung civic instrument like a fiddle now confronts the sprawling metropolis he created which dysfunctionally attempts to unite a priceless urban core with many square miles of suburban nowhere populated by people who get too much of their civic instruction from Glenn Beck.
Charleston has grown from a city where inches matter and detailed knowledge of the background has been the price of admission to a place which stretches from Huger to Johns Island full of people who just got here and a lot of people who have never been anywhere at all. That saved large parts of the urbanizing Lowcountry from devolving into micro cities which can't competently or efficiently govern. It also means that rednecks and teabaggers now show up in the storied room where history has been made at the corner of Broad and Meeting St.
Read about the rest of the meeting in the extended text
The Georgetown County School District says it was a complaint from the national organization Americans United for the Separation of Church and State that resulted in the decision to discontinue a morning prayer time and the passing out of scriptures at Georgetown High School.
(Just for giggles... Looks like somebody needs to update their prefile sheets. - promoted by Jennifer Read)
The South Carolina Conservative Action Council was out today at the State House stating they wanted legislators to "kill H. 3588" and holding up Confederate flags.
But there's a problem, and even WIS in Columbia didn't catch it.
A group of citizens gathered outside and inside the capitol, opposing a pre-filed bill. House bill 3588 would remove the Confederate flag from the State House grounds.
You see, the bill H. 3588 the SCCAC refers to died about two years ago. Instead, they are actually telling legislators to "kill" a bill that makes it against the law to leave a child unattended in a vehicle for more than five minutes.
You gotta love those pro-confederate supporters. When they stick to the past, they go all out.
(News 13 in Myrtle Beach gets props for catching this one.)
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is launching a new radio ad campaign against U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson, slamming the South Carolina Republican for supporting TARP in 2008 but voting against the Democrats' financial regulatory reform bill last week.
The 60-second radio spot, which will begin airing on Wednesday across the Second District, accuses Wilson of putting the interests of big Wall Street firms above the needs of his constituents:
"October 2008, the last months of the Bush presidency. The big banks and financial institutions almost collapsed, putting our entire economy at risk. Remember? We all know we should never let this happen again. That's why what our Congressman Joe Wilson did last week is so disturbing." a male narrator says.
"Congressman Wilson voted to let Wall Street continue the same risky practices that crippled retirement accounts and left taxpayers on the hook for $700 billion dollars," the ad continues. "And he voted to allow the big banks to pay high rolling executives unchecked compensation and bonuses. Maybe the $55,000 dollars that financial special interests have given to Congressman Wilson mattered more to him than protecting taxpayers and consumers.
"Doesn't that just make you mad? Call Joe Wilson, tell him to stop standing up for the big banks and to start standing up for us."
According to CQ Politics, Wilson is one of only five House Republicans the DCCC plans to target this week with radio ads -- a reassuring sign to S.C. Democrats that the national party remains interested in helping Rob Miller put up a strong fight against 'Old Yeller' in 2010.
I'm still waiting for someone to tell me where the $1 billion in scholarship money will come from for our state's 191,000 children living in poverty. Their parents won't get a tax credit because they don't make enough to pay income tax.
And how many scholarships do you think will be available to the best local private schools whose tuition and fees are $10,000-$20,000?
There's a reason that the Chamber of Commerce is against this sham. We will never be able to compete globally - much less nationally - with an undereducated population.
Sanford's friends at Carolinians for Reform Inc. announced Thursday they will spend $230,000 to air ads featuring the governor defending his stance against using federal stimulus cash to fund education and public safety programs in our state.
"Many families are struggling with challenges we've not seen in our lifetimes," Sanford says in the one-minute ad. "Some say the solution lies in more government spending and deeper debt. The truth is, more tax dollars will be spent in our state this year than ever before. But there must be a stopping point. Going further into debt will not solve a problem that was created by too much debt. There must be a price that we will not impose on future generations."
Buying Time Beyond increasing the Governor's national profile for his likely 2012 presidential bid, the CfR ad represents a broader effort by Sanford and his allies to shift the stimulus debate and public opinion in their favor.
Over the coming weeks, the Governor's Mansion will subject us to an endless barrage of Club for Growth talking points espousing the urgent need to protect "future generations," curb reckless spending, reform our broken state government, and pay down tomorrow's debts today.
Sanford will paint his critics as alarmists and victims of misinformation. He'll spin out a myriad of unique counter-interpretations on projected education and public safety budget deficits. And he'll
Image, Right, Mayor Riley Recognizing the members of the Green Committee in City Council's Historic Chamber.
