South Carolina

Wow South Carolina is really ahead of the curve on fighting terrorism. I expect Osama is already packing up shop:

Terrorists who want to overthrow the United States government must now register with South Carolina's Secretary of State and declare their intentions -- or face a $25,000 fine and up to 10 years in prison.

The state's "Subversive Activities Registration Act," passed last year and now officially on the books, states that "every member of a subversive organization, or an organization subject to foreign control, every foreign agent and every person who advocates, teaches, advises or practices the duty, necessity or propriety of controlling, conducting, seizing or overthrowing the government of the United States ... shall register with the Secretary of State."

There's even a $5 filing fee.

That’s amazing and it comes from one of the reddest states in the union. We should do this with everything. Require drug dealers, murderers, rapists and whoever else to pre-register. That would get rid of any need for defense or law enforcement. Of course the bad side is all that added bureaucracy in our government.

Wait?

Republicans are adding bureaucracy?

Yup – again the hypocrisy stinks, but that stench is overshadowed by the over all reeking of stupidity from this idiotic law. And to think the Republicans want America to take them seriously on combating terrorism. Hell you got a better chance of Mark Sanford keeping it in his pants.

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

A South Carolina House panel is holding a hearing today on the pending impeachment of Mark Sanford. So far not much has come out of it, but I did just get this in my inbox:

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) Embattled SC Gov. Mark Sanford faces 37 ethics charges he broke travel, campaign funding laws.

I’ll update this post as more information becomes available.

UPDATE:

NPR has more:

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford faces ethics charges he broke state laws more than three dozen times by violating rules on airplane travel and campaign money, according to details of the allegations released Monday.

It's up to the state attorney general to decide whether to file criminal charges. Sanford's lawyers have claimed the allegations involve minor and technical aspects of the law.

So we could be looking at an actual criminal trial against the once future face of the GOP.

The detail of Sanford’s little lover’s rendezvous in Argentina keep emerging. The latest round shows that Sanford’s office truly didn’t know where he was and couldn’t contact him:

Gov. Mark Sanford’s chief of staff, Scott English, called the governor’s cell phones 15 times during the governor’s secret trip to Argentina to visit his lover last month. But the governor never picked up.

Meanwhile Sanford’s communications director, Joel Sawyer, worked to minimize the fact the governor had been out of touch with his staff for about four days.

Records released Monday show Sawyer juggled e-mails and media calls from around the nation, giving a consistent message that was later proven to be untrue.

One phrase comes to mind – dereliction of duty. How can anyone trust their leader who takes the job so lightly to just leave? Here’s an example of what this dereliction caused:

Those records also show Sanford declined a dinner invitation from a company looking to expand its business in South Carolina because Sanford planned to be in Argentina that day.

So with South Carolina in economic hell, Sanford misses an opportunity to bring in business and jobs. He sure didn’t go into hiding when it came to turning down stimulus money, but when actual economic growth potentials emerge he is AWOL.

South Carolinians and their state assembly need to get rid of this disgrace. This isn’t a situation of partisanship, but rather a question of leadership. Sanford just lost the state business opportunity because of his poor judgment. What next? Will his state suffer in a disaster while he is off on some secret little booty call?

And anyone not calling for his resignation shows poor judgment in management skills. If one of my employees just left with no warning they wouldn’t have a job to come to, and that’s a practice carried out by every business I can think of. So this isn’t just a question of Sanford’s affair, but, and more importantly, his ability to be an executive. Do the right thing and start impeachment hearings.

An interesting point is that during the raging wild fires last month that were threatening South Carolina’s biggest tourist area, Myrtle Beach, Mark Sanford was not around. He was “out of town” while his state burned. So was he in Argentina flaming the fires of lust while his state burned? I certainly hope legislatures in South Carolina are asking this and judging rather he is capable of continuing as their governor.

One of my favorite vacation destinations is in trouble:

A coastal wildfire spread early Thursday toward one of the busiest tourist stretches in South Carolina after destroying more than three dozen homes.

No injuries had been reported in the fire that started Wednesday afternoon west of Myrtle Beach, but officials said gusty winds were making the situation worse.

The fire jumped a state highway near North Myrtle Beach and destroyed about 40 homes early Thursday, said Scott Hawkins, a spokesman for the South Carolina Forestry Commission

MSNBC is reporting that its heading towards the House of Blues. Here’s a picture from my visit in 2007:

This is hitting the heart of South Carolina’s economy. Hopefully they get it under control soon and damage is minimized. If not, then I wonder if Mark Sanford will want federal aide to help recover. Kind of a bad twist of irony there.

This goes beyond absurd:

We've now learned that since investigators began trying to build a case, they've made eight arrests: seven for drug possession and one for distribution. These are arrests that resulted as the sheriff's department served search warrants.

We've also learned that the department has located and confiscated that bong.

So the police in Columbia, S.C. have nothing better to do? I like how Sully puts it:

He stands as living proof that pot-smoking is perfectly compatible with being a world-historic athlete. And that cannot stand. These laws are about enforcing lies.

Precisely. If someone in the White House reads this, perhaps we could see Obama’s first pardons be to these eight people, with one pending for Phelps. Also this Sherriff should be looking for a new job, unless there is 0 other, more serious crimes in Richland County. I mean crimes like rape, murder, assault, theft, or anything that involves hurting another – not the refrigerator and your waist line.

Something doesn't seem quiet right about that. If Hillary wants to shake the "wife" image then she should be out there giving the speech - not Bill.

[election 10]

The results will automatically update in your browser as new results come in. This is something I am testing out, so please let me know how it works.

UPDATE 7:00:
With 0% reporting MSNBC is now declaring Obama the winner.

7:02:
CNN is also calling it for Obama (the results in the tracker come from CNN which is why the green projected winner arrow is now next to Obama's name).

7:06:
AP and Fox calling it for Obama - still 0% reporting.

7:08:
CBS calls it for Obama

7:10:
Washington Post calling it for Obama

7:20
ABC Calling it for Obama.

Obama is scheduled to give victory speech at 9:00pm EST.

7:40:
MSNBC projects Clinton to come in second.

7:45
CNN projects Clinton will come in second.

UPDATE 8:40:

Just playing with some numbers here. In the Republican primary there were 442,918 votes cast. With 67% of the precincts reporting the Democrats have already had 338,195 votes recorded. This shows that today's turnout will best last weeks turnout. Considering SC is a pretty red state that is bad news for the GOP.

It's around 50 degrees there so weather is not a problem and they are reporting that turn out is high. The leaves me ponering something. Last week they had snow during the Republican primaries - a weather anomaly in South Carolina. Doesn't that make it seem like God doesn't want Republicans to vote?

OK onto more serious things. I will have the election tracker up around 7:00pm est, which is when the polls close, so be sure to check back and you can track the results.

A lot of people are praising Obama for how he handled the pressure last night from Clinton. I was thinking the same thing at first, but then I got thinking long term. Would Obama's unity message cut it against a Republican contender? I doubt it.

I had bits and pieces gong through my head as I was trying to go to sleep and one really stuck out. Obama got on Clinton and Edwards saying that he picks out one vote out of thousands to pick on. Edwards had the best come back on that when he told Obama that he was doing the same thing - a reference to the Iraq war votes.

If Obama wants to face off against Republicans then he is going to have to learn to go for the jugular, because that is exactly what they will do to him. Also he can't expect to go after the Republican candidate full force and try to sing Kumbaya when they return fire.

If they thought it was bad because a Clinton supporter made an obscure reference to Obama's past drug use, then how are they going to react when a Republican makes it a front issue in the primary?

It's funny how just three days ago all the Republicans could talk about was South Carolina. It's also funny how the media makes a big deal about race issues in the Democratic race, but they never say anything about the Republicans. How about this example. None of the Republicans invited to speak at a MLK day even in South Carolina showed up.