I urge you to check out the important and informative articles about climate change being posted on the Environment page of the The Guardian's website.
The human race is facing the greatest threat to its existence in its history and the mainstream media in this country seems to be oblivious to this stark reality.
When it comes to taking meaningful action to avert a world-wide catastrophe, time is not on our side.
Brad Hutto seems to be gaining more national media attention recently as his would-be opponent Senator Jim “Waterloo” DeMint continues to make headlines in his ongoing war of words against Obama and the DNC. In addition to being highlighted on The Fix last month, Friday Senate Guru posted a piece on the Orangeburg state senator and today Hutto made The Hotline:
Hutto Huddles State Sen. Brad Hutto (D) "continues to mull a run" against Sen. Jim DeMint (R). Hutto: "I'm in the process of meeting with all of the people right now. I have not made any decision. I have looked into it and I'm still looking into it. It's a long process."
Ex-Gov. Jim Hodges (D) "thinks a successful candidate has to provide solutions for the ailing economy," something he feels GOPers haven't done in the past seven years. "Hodges also says Hutto could capitalize on the state GOP's failure to improve the economy and education." Hodges: "I think Brad would be a terrific candidate for higher office. ... Clearly, the Republicans are in trouble right now." Hodges said fundraising won't be an issue for any Dem taking on DeMint. Hodges: "That is a national constituency. Fundraising is less difficult in a U.S. Senate race."
Ex-DNC chair Don Fowler "believes DeMint made himself vulnerable to defeat next November by opposing the federal stimulus package and the president's effort at health care reform." Folwer: "He's against everything." Fowler points out Pres. Obama got more votes in each of SC's 46 counties than John Kerry did. Fowler: "That's direct, meaningful evidence that Democrats have improved their performance. ... He (Hutto) is right on the issues. I think he has proven he has a strong level of confidence between himself and his constituents. He's smart and works hard. The basic elements of good candidates are there," Fowler said.
Fowler "says the biggest hurdle is raising the cash needed to compete with DeMint," since DeMint will have virtually no financial limitations. Fowler: "The way to gain credibility is to raise money in your home state" (Tant, Orangeburg Times & Democrat, 8/2).
While I’m not sure I share Gov. Hodges’ rosy view of campaign fundraising given the current economy, I agree with Don Fowler that DeMint is not as invincible as some folks make him out to be. As we’ve discussed here on IJ, his lack of statewide name recognition and ties to DUI special interest groups (among others) would pose a challenge for Hutto. However, his personal wealth and legislative experience make him a viable 2010 contender, which as all of us who survived last year’s embarrassing Flat Top fiasco can attest, is a welcomed change from the dark days of the '08 Senate race.
In South Carolina the employer is king and employees have little or no rights. It does not matter how much evidence which proves your case, the South Carolina Employment Security Commission (SCES) often refuses to let you present the evidence. The employer, on the other hand, is allowed to falsify employee records as well as give false testimony, under oath, at SCES hearings. In my case, I had medical statements and records from four physicians which the hearing officer declared irrelevant and refused to allow as evidence.
Mark Sanford, on the other hand, walks off of his job, does not call in, stays gone for five days, and not only is he not fired; he's given a paid vacation when he returns from a state-financed excursion to Argentina. Sanford and his friends in the SC legislature are quick to implement policies which deny unemployment compensation or make the rules so complex that people will inadvertently break them an thus have benefits suspended.
This is one reason among many that South Carolina must unionize. Workers need to have a voice or else the employers will continue to disrespect the employees. A labor union gives an employee some backing so that hearings will not be one-sided. The Sanford situation is a prime example of the attitude of many employers in the state of South Carolina. They have the plantation mentality. They behave as they please and are free to harass employees at will, knowing the employees have no recourse. If an employee does attempt to stand up for their rights, they are fired for insubordination.
For years, republicans and organizations like the Chamber of Congress have decried unions. Their standard wail and whine is that "unions will make jobs leave." Guess what, folks? South Carolina has one of the most anti-labor and less unionized work-force in the nation. So, take a look at the most recent unemployment numbers. It sure looks like the companies and jobs left anyway.
The Employee Free Choice Act legislation that urgently needs passing. It will make it easier for labor unions to organize and make it less likely that the companies will intimidate employees. Under current law, management can force an employee to attend management meetings against the employee's will, yet the employee is prevented from union organizing. It is not a level playing field by any stretch of the imagination. It is time to organize in South Carolina.
It appears now that Governor Mark Sanford will not be impeached from office. His friends in the South Carolina state legislature refuse to fire him. They all sit and allow health services for the elderly, disabled, and poor to be cut. Yes, they turn away from misery, pain, and death right here before their eyes. Sanford’s selfish behavior taunts the good people of South Carolina. He cries for the cameras then laughs like a hyena in heat when the lights recede.
A farmer, a teacher-of-the-year, a cheerleader, a shop owner, and a Sunday school teacher were gunned down in cold blood by a serial killer last week in South Carolina. It was a hot sweaty week of pure living hell. The good news is that the serial killer who terrorized the Gaffney, South Carolina area was shot and killed. A North Carolina couple will receive a $30,000 Crimestoppers reward for calling in the tip that led deputies to the killer. Michael and Terry Valentine phoned in the tip to authorities after their puppy barked and woke them early Monday morning.
When they let the dog out, they noticed strange activity at the house next door and thought a burglary was taking place. Actually, it happened to be the Gaffney serial killer, Patrick Burris, who was responsible for at least five murders in the Gaffney, South Carolina area. Officers shot and killed Burris after he opened fire on them early Monday morning. Finally, a little over a week after it began, the terror was over. The killer was dead.
The bad news is that folks in the Gaffney, South Carolina area who may be mentally traumatized by the murders will find it difficult to receive help. Due to a serious lack of leadership from Governor Mark Sanford, the state of South Carolina has cut services to the most vulnerable citizens in the state. Here are just a few of the services recently cut from the state budget.
South Carolina Medicaid will limit coverage for psychological counseling, physician visits, and routine physicals. They will also stop enrolling people living with HIV as part of a $61 million round of budget cuts. In addition, budget cuts include an end hospice care for Medicaid-only patients; a decrease in the amount of assistance for prescription drug costs for low-income, elderly populations; and a reduction in home health nurse visits from 75 to 50 per year; and reducing assistance to hospitals and nursing homes.
Families who move from welfare to work will now receive one year rather than two years of Medicaid coverage. Income requirements for Medicaid benefits have been raised in South Carolina and an estimated 3,700 elderly and disabled people are expected to lose Medicaid benefits. The state also restricted many services, including preventive services.
The South Carolina Department of Disabilities and Special Needs will have to operate on $70 million less than the previous year. This is due to drastic cuts in the agency’s budget. This means that thousands of disabled citizens will be forced to move into state institutions as the funds to provide in-home care have been cut from the budget.
It’s now been over a week since Governor Mark Sanford returned to South Carolina from his rendezvous in Buenos Aires. Michael Jackson has died and a memorial service held in Jackson’s honor. A maniac terrorized Gaffney, South Carolina, was tracked down and killed. Funeral services have been held for all of his victims and memorials have been published for them in all the local newspapers. July the Fourth has come and gone. Question is, where’s Mark Sanford?
He’s still the governor of South Carolina even though he voluntarily quit his job when he vanished for five days. He’s the same person who does not want federal stimulus funds for the citizens of South Carolina. He’s the same person who wants to deny unemployment compensation to the unemployed. He’s the same person who wants funds taken from the poor, elderly, and disabled of this state. He’s the same person who wants to destroy public education.
Yes, while we’ve mourned our losses, paid tribute to our heroes, and spent time with our loved ones, Mark Sanford remains governor of South Carolina. A man who champions the “free market” and wants government “run like a business” is still a Chief Executive Officer. Maybe this is the way Sanford thinks a business should run. He, after all, started his career at Goldman Sachs in New York after his wife, Jenny, got him a job there.
In the “free market” Mark Sanford would have already been fired. South Carolina is not, Mark Sanford, a corporation. South Carolina is a state within the United States of America comprised of hard-working people with friends and families who love them. We are also folks who have no families or no friends. We’re not all big-shot corporate fat cats.
We’re disabled, old, hungry, sick, unemployed, homeless, veterans, who love this state and this country. We were born with cerebral palsy, spina bifida, epilepsy, and diabetes. We’re blind and deaf. We’ve survived heart attacks, strokes, and cancer. We have Down’s syndrome and we have Muscular Dystrophy. We have Alzheimer’s.
We don’t have a competent governor or a state government.
Part-time foreign policy expert Senator Lindsey Graham had timid and passivestrong words for President Obama this morning concerning El Jefe's response to Iranian election protests.
"The president of the United States is supposed to lead the free world, not follow it," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said on a Sunday morning talk show. "He's been timid and passive more than I would like."
Anytime America stands up for freedom we're better off. When we try to prop up dictators or remain silent it come backs (sic) to bite us
Ronal Reagan would be strangling the ayatollah with his bare hands right now. Nevermind that whole Phillippines thing...
They've killed Americans in Iraq...
That's not meddling, that's doing the right thing.
We can only assume Graham would like to see John McCain in the White House so he could use this as an oppotunity to "Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran". See video of Graham and Sen. Chris Dodd's response HERE.
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
You have a party void of ideas, without a hint of a forward-thinking agenda. When you win, it's because the other side hates America. When you lose, it's because the other side hates America. You're ugly and old. There's nothing attractive about you. Leaders of the future will not want to be associated with you. You let clowns like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh take the public face of your policies. Your values are a mystery to the rest of us.
But keep it up. As infuriating as you are to me, I have faith that you won't have a powerful base for much longer. Not with trash like this coming from you.
In a move signifying that Democrats believe there is still plenty of mileage to be gained from tying obstructionist GOP leaders to the wildly unpopular Bush Administration, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee released a new ad today accusing several Republican U.S. Senators of pulling a "hit and run with our economy."
"Republicans have done a hit and run with our economy," a narrator says. "For eight years Republicans backed President Bush's policies that let businesses go unregulated, rewarded runaway speculation and favored the wealthy. They broke our economy and now they don't want to help fix it."
The ad takes aim at both South Carolina U.S. Senators Lindsey Graham and Jim DeMint, highlighting quotes of each men naysaying Obama's economic recovery plans.
"I wan't his ideas that I disagree with to fail," Graham says in a brief clip before cutting to an image of Jim DeMint flatly declaring, "I know it's not gonna work."
Both Graham and DeMint voted against President Obama's Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Plan earlier this month.
In case you missed it, yesterday our very own IJ contributor Micah Snead received a well-deserved moment of recognition when President Obama answered his question on veterans' affairs during an online town hall meeting broadcast on CNN.
"The unemployment rate for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans is higher than the national unemployment rate," Snead wrote. "Our veterans are a national treasure. How can you, the VA and I ensure our veterans are successfully transitioning into civilian life?"
Snead's question was selected from thousands of submissions and -- as the President himself noted -- it was a "great question."
Check out Obama's full response to Snead in the video below:
Despite what some of South Carolina's dumber citizens may think, advertising our top industry as far and wide as possible is very important. In 2008, South Carolina's Dept. of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism launched an ad campaign targeting the good people of Chicago. 'Time to Thaw' involved transforming Chicago buses, garages, stairwells, and even phone booths into beach front property and promoting the campaign's website.
Cited as a "powerful integrated marketing campaign", 'Time to Thaw' earned Google's first 'Wisdom of the Crowd' award. From the Charleston Regional Business Journal:
The campaign was selected from three finalists — the others were the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau and the St. Louis Convention & Visitors Commission — chosen from among more than 1,300 entries. The award was presented Jan. 26 in New York City during the Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International’s Adrian Awards Gala. The “Time to Thaw” campaign also won gold and silver Adrian Awards for best practices in travel-related marketing and media.
“Time to Thaw” was a $500,000 effort that centered on engaging, unexpected visuals that turned four of Chicago’s underground parking garages, plus buses and a trolley, into sun-splashed beaches, perfect green fairways and scenic destinations in South Carolina. It included large murals on interior garage walls; elevator and stairwell conversions; trolley and bus wraps and on-board videos; and a 20-foot-long, custom-built sand sculpture.
Other elements were a special Web site, a contest inviting people to photograph themselves onboard a windsurfer in the Grant Park North garage, conversion of a downtown trolley into a rolling “welcome center,” air time on more than 50 Chicago radio stations and personal media outreach.
Rob Torres, managing director of travel for Google, said 73% of people who responded to a survey marked the two top boxes for the S.C. campaign in a question about whether the campaign was likely to “grab and hold their attention”; and 53% said they were “motivated to visit a Web site or call to learn more about the destination.” “In fact, South Carolina’s ‘Time to Thaw’ campaign received the highest ratings by travelers across the board,” he said.
UPDATE: I just noticed I started my last two posts with "Despite". Let this be a lesson, kids. Just because you can type something doesn't make you a writer.
You may have heard that our friends at FITS News recently started a morning email blast service designed to deliver the day's headlines to loyal FITS Heads for a mere $20 a month (or $120 annually).
Our Morning Blast is also customized, easily-navigable and - unlike the other guys - compiled on weekends. Plus we don't filter our search results to conform to any special interests' definition of "relevance," we lay it all out for you to surf at your leisure.
Sounds good. However, if like most folks, you can't afford to drop $120-240 per year on email updates, no worries. The FITS aggregator is also available online for FREE at http://macegroupllc.com/fitsnews/morningblast.html (screen shot below the flip).
That's right IJers, I kid you not. In their hurry to turn a profit on a service anyone using Google Reader or Wes Donehue can create for free, the crack FITS staff forgot to password protect their new pay-to-play aggregator site.
Brilliant strategery.
Now don't get me wrong, I don't begrudge Will Folks for trying to hustle and make some money. Aside from the fact that they're pulling from our IJ Quick Hits feed rather than our Front Page RSS, it looks like a decent enough site. All I'm saying is, from now on, Folks and friends might want to make sure everyone and their brother can't log on to their service before charging big bucks for something that even they unwittingly offer readers for free.
“Time to Thaw” was a $500,000 effort that centered on engaging, unexpected visuals that turned four of Chicago’s underground parking garages, plus buses and a trolley, into sun-splashed beaches, perfect green fairways and scenic destinations in South Carolina. It included large murals on interior garage walls; elevator and stairwell conversions; trolley and bus wraps and on-board videos; and a 20-foot-long, custom-built sand sculpture. 
