South Carolina

Ketner has been open and honest about every aspect of her life and because of that she has been able to profoundly improve the lives of hundreds of thousands of South Carolinians…including yours and mine. If Andre, Glenn and Lindsey have something to hide, then they and others like them have made their own political beds by attacking gay people at every opportunity. If they are hiding something, they deserve whatever political retribution they get.

Candle Light Vigil

May 17, 6pm – 8pm: Candle light vigil to honor Sean Kennedy and all victims of violence in South Carolina, Piazza Bergamo, downtown Greenville.

For details, contact Elke Kennedy at 864-884-5003 or elke@seanslastwish.org. For more information about Sean’s Last Wish, visit the web site www.seanslastwish.org

if you need help with a ride or are willing to offer rides to others, please call or e-mail me at 803 467 1981 – johndawkins@scpronet.com

Economics and Jesus

Our governor here in South Carolina is named “Plantation” Mark Sanford and he aims to be prezident of these here United States. He’s got this brilliant economic strategy that will bring the rest of America the prosperity it’s brought to South Carolina. Let’s see, he said that South Carolina has a high rate of unemployment because so many new people move here and search for jobs.

However, statistics show that folks are leavin’ here faster than they are a comin’ here. Then he said that there are plenty of jobs and that the Employment Commission is to blame for the high unemployment numbers. Then he said that unemployed folks are all on drugs.

Now, he just cut off extended unemployment to people who had been receiving emergency unemployment compensation. He disqualifies people if they were judged “:at fault” in their last job separation. Oh, and the ” judges” in these cases most often side with the company and against the worker. They have this catch-all reason called insubordination and that’s what they use to deny a worker their benefits.

It doesn’t matter if a worker is under physician’s care because the “judge” will not accept any evidence and if it comes down to the worker’s word or the manager’s, well the manager is always right. It does not matter if the manager threatened, harrassed, and abused the employee.

It doesn’t matter if the manager lies and creates false documents. There is no penalty if the boss lies. they can always get some flunkies to lie for them too.  It’s okay for the boss to lie yet the employee is treated as if they are lying. The j”udge” never even listens to the employee.

If I didn’t know better, I’d swear that the “judge ” was paid off. So now the unemployed worker, is suddenly stripped of his unemployment compensation. It’s okay with the big “Christian” boss and it’s okay with “Plantation” Mark Sanford if this abused worker can’t feed his family, pay utilities, or keep his home. it’s okay if this family is put out on the street and his children go hungry.

It’s okay isn’t it Mr. “Plantation” Mark?  It’s okay isn’t it big boss man? I bet you’re really proud of yourselves and you repiglican Jesus is happy too. That’s fine with me. Throw all you can at me. You want to do away with me but I’ll rise each and every time you hit me. I’ve got faith and I’ve got the real King Jesus with me.

More About “Plantation” Mark

Clyburn’s time has arrived
S.C. legislator confidant of new president

By JAMES ROSEN
jrosen@mcclatchydc.com

Around the White House, some of President Barack Obama’s senior aides have given House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn a nickname.

They call him Sage.

“He’s an amazing man,” Valerie Jarrett, one of Obama’s closest advisers, said in an interview Friday. “He’s a man of extraordinary intellect, judgment and wit. He reads people very well. He’s very wise, yet he’s very humble too.”

Jarrett said she and Obama check in regularly with the South Carolina Democrat — most recently, during her two-hour visit to his Capitol office after lawmakers adjourned for spring break — to talk about the president’s ambitious legislative agenda and to feel the pulse of Congress.

“They know each other very well,” Jarrett said of Obama and Clyburn. “They speak frankly and openly with each other.”

Like many African-Americans around the country, Clyburn wept on the Nov. 4 night of Obama’s election.

Obama’s remarkable rise, Clyburn said that night, vindicated the Rev. Martin Luther King’s dream that his children would “one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”

Clyburn, 68, has too much admiration for Obama’s intellect and political talent to suggest that he is anything like a mentor to the charismatic leader who is 21 years his junior.

“This guy is very, very smart in more ways than one,” Clyburn said. “He’s smart because he has a high intellect, but he’s also smart because he’s an astute politician. He understands how to make complex things understandable to ordinary people. That is a key to his leadership. No one is suspicious of Barack Obama, because they understand him.”

Yet, as Obama entered the House of Representatives chamber to deliver his first address to Congress in late February, there was Clyburn, walking by his side or just behind him, putting a hand on his shoulder and whispering in his ear over thunderous applause.

It was a striking scene: The nation’s first African-American president, a trim Ivy Leaguer and a basketball player, and the highest-ranking black member of Congress, an older and stouter golfer who went to jail for civil rights sit-ins while attending a state university in the segregated South.

As Obama left the chamber an hour later, Clyburn guided him from one group of waiting lawmakers to the next.

When they reached the back of the hall, dozens of congressional pages, dressed in navy blazers and gray slacks, reached out to shake Obama’s hand and thrust forward pieces of paper for his autograph.

Clyburn recognized Cameron Smalls, a page from Woodland High School in Dorchester. The congressman handed Obama his own program and asked him to sign it for the boy.

It was an experience Clyburn wanted to share and save.

RISING INFLUENCE

With an expanded Democratic majority in the House and a president who shares his activist approach to governing, at an age when many of his peers have retired — James Enos Clyburn’s time has come.

“Jim is one of the most powerful people in the country, quite frankly,” said U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican. “When they write the history of South Carolina politics, very few people will have had a more prominent role to play in Congress.”

Clyburn’s profile has risen along with Obama’s ascendancy. The son of a Church of God minister and a beautician appears regularly on television and in newspaper articles, often to discuss Obama and his legislative initiatives.

Clyburn had a big hand in crafting and then moving through Congress Obama’s $787 billion economic-stimulus plan, which for good or for bad is already destined to be one of the major measures of his presidency.

Friends and colleagues of Obama and Clyburn said they respect each other, but also speak their minds and feel free to disagree.

When Obama was deciding who to choose as his secretary of Health and Human Services — a key Cabinet pick who oversees one of the largest and most well-funded federal agencies — Clyburn promoted Dr. Wayne Riley, a prominent black physician and president of Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tenn.

Looking for someone with better political connections and more experience in Washington, Obama instead chose Tom Daschle, the white former Senate majority leader.

Daschle’s Cabinet candidacy quickly crashed and burned over his past tax missteps.

Clyburn said nothing, publicly or privately.

Clyburn did speak out during Obama’s first visit with Democratic and Republican senators and representatives shortly before his Jan. 20 inauguration.

In front of lawmakers from both parties, Clyburn gently chided Obama about the urgent need to secure funding for J.V. Martin Junior High School, an old, dilapidated facility in Dillon, among the poor, largely black communities along the Interstate 95 corridor for which Clyburn has long advocated.

With Clyburn’s help, Obama had campaigned at the school in the long run-up to his Jan. 26, 2008, victory over Hillary Clinton in the key South Carolina Democratic presidential primary.

“You and I and many other politicians used J.V. Martin (School) as a prop during the campaign season,” Clyburn reminded Obama in the Jan. 5 luncheon at the Capitol. “Now it’s time to give those kids and their families their props with a bold recovery package.”

Less than three weeks later, with Clyburn’s behind-the-scenes help, an eighth grader from the school, Ty’Sheoma Bethea, sat next to first lady Michelle Obama during the president’s maiden address to Congress.

Now, Clyburn is battling Republican South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford in a high-profile struggle to devote part of the $700 million in disputed stimulus funds to rebuilding J.V. Martin and other outdated schools in their state.

INDEBTED TO CLYBURN

Ronald Walters, director of the University of Maryland’s African-American Leadership Institute, said Clyburn delivered for Obama at a critical turning point in his contest with Hillary Clinton.

In spring last year, Bill Clinton had angered many Obama supporters with a series of baffling comments about race, including one in which he compared Obama’s primary win in South Carolina with the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s 1988 victory there.

The former president’s remark, widely viewed as an attempt to minimize Obama’s appeal in the general election, infuriated African-Americans in particular.

“When he was going through his impeachment problems, it was the black community that bellied up to the bar,” Clyburn told The New York Times. “I think black folks feel strongly that this is a strange way for President Clinton to show his appreciation.”

As he had done earlier in the campaign, Clyburn cautioned Clinton that such inflammatory comments about race could hurt Democrats down the road.

“He was one of the few politicians of any stature to speak out so forcefully,” Walters said.

Though Clyburn didn’t formally endorse Obama until early June, his neutrality helped the Illinois senator.

For long months, Clyburn quietly resisted relentless entreaties, from Bill and Hillary Clinton and their powerful allies, to endorse her for president, even though he had longstanding, close ties with them.

“Without doing very much, he opened the door for Barack Obama to win South Carolina,” Walters said. “Obama owes him a great deal.”

Despite Clyburn’s official neutrality until his June 3 endorsement, friends say they knew where his heart was in the historic White House contest between Obama and Clinton.

Don Fowler, former national chairman of the Democratic Party and a longtime friend of Clyburn, backed Hillary Clinton.

“He never tried to get me to endorse Obama, but I knew where he stood even though he was not publicly committed,” Fowler said of Clyburn.

A MATTER OF STYLE

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, one of Clyburn’s six senior deputy whips, said Clyburn is a good listener who tries to bring people together and corral votes through cajoling and gentle persuasion.

That style, Wasserman said, contrasts markedly with one of his well-known predecessors, Tom DeLay, the former Republican Texas congressman who became known as “the Hammer” as House majority whip after George W. Bush became president in January 2001.

“Tom DeLay got votes through coercion,” Wasserman said. “Jim Clyburn gets votes by consensus.”

Yet, those who go way back with Clyburn said he’s always had a feisty, street-fighter’s stubbornness when pursuing important goals.

Clyburn’s longtime friends say Clyburn will do everything in his power to prevail over Sanford to grasp control of the $700 million in disputed stimulus funds and use the money for its stated purposes of helping schools and hiring cops.

“Jim is not going to let this thing die,” Fowler said. “He will pursue this through legislation if he can and to court if he has to. He is not going to give up or quit. Jim Clyburn has never done that.”

Superintendents weigh in on stimulus money for education

Don’t count on $700 million

Sanford accepts $2.8 billion, says he won’t seek school, safety funds
By JOHN O’CONNOR
joconnor@thestate.com

Gov. Mark Sanford secured South Carolina’s $2.8 billion share of federal aid Friday but warned teachers, school districts and others not to plan on $700 million for classrooms, colleges and public safety.

In a letter to the White House budget office, Sanford reiterated that he will not apply for the $700 million portion of funds. He is asking state lawmakers to use an equivalent amount to pay off debt.

“They’re not going to get that money,” Sanford said Friday of school districts. Sanford was the nation’s final governor to request the money.

“The $700 million doesn’t come unless we accept it. What we’ve said is, ‘Unless we get some kind of very meaningful debt relief, we’re not going to accept it.’ ”

The stimulus bill requires the federal money go to schools, colleges, public safety and — if any is left over — to pay for other government costs. Sanford twice has asked the White House for permission to spend the money on debt and been rejected twice.

Sanford’s request extends the state’s deadline to act — originally midnight Friday — but leaves in doubt whether lawmakers will be able to include the money in the state budget by the time school districts must sign contracts with teachers in mid-May. The governor has until September 2010 to apply for the money, according to the Office of Management and Budget.

Sanford, a Republican, insists the money to pay off debt is there. The GOP-controlled Legislature says it isn’t, arguing that rejecting the federal aid will mean South Carolinians will lose their jobs. The continuation of an already weeks-long debate, state leaders said, will provide little benefit to the state.

“Everybody … makes mistakes,” said former Gov. Jim Hodges, a Democrat. “There are times when things don’t work out, and you move on to talk about other things. I don’t think it’s healthy for the state to spend another month talking about this issue.”

Lawmakers informally were discussing their options Friday, exploring the possibility of breaking the impasse by law. Options under discussion included requiring the governor to apply for the $700 million or allowing another state official to do so.

“It is all kind of new ground every day,” said House Majority Leader Kenny Bingham, R-Lexington, of the frequent legal updates about the money. “We’re just trying to write a budget … this thing is serious. We’re just trying to figure out what we have to work with.”

State Sen. Larry Martin, R-Pickens, said lawmakers have floated using income from a higher tobacco tax — approved by the House this week and now headed to the Senate for consideration — to pay off debt for a few years.

While federal deadlines no longer loom, school districts are running out of time to figure out how many teachers they can afford. A bill, awaiting Sanford’s signature, would require districts to sign teacher contracts by May 15.

Personnel costs make up about 90 percent of most districts’ budgets.

Officials in Greenville County, the state’s largest district and the county’s largest employer, said they would have to write a budget without the money if it has not arrived by mid-May. The district said 450 to 500 positions could be eliminated.

Many lawmakers are committed to using the federal money to bolster the state budget.

“When you request money you said you weren’t going to request,” Martin said, “you can’t turn around and try to direct it in a way you’ve already been told no, you can’t do.

“He’s done it (certified the money), and now I think he ought to follow the federal law.”

Reach O’Connor at (803) 771-8358.

Sanford Caves…Not! Don’t Stop the Phone Calls
by: Tim Kelly

Fri Apr 03, 2009 at 07:24:58 AM EDT

While Mark Sanford has agreed to the first step in bring $700 million in stimulus funds to South Carolina, the Ungov isn’t done with his posturing. All he’s done is bought himself some breathing room in hopes that relieved South Carolinians will go back to their comfort zones and stop calling his office.

The fight isn’t over by any stretch of the imagination. Sanford is continuing to insist that lawmakers swallow a compromise that isn’t a compromise before he’ll take the next step to get the funds.

Keep the pressure on. The best way to do that now is to focus on the 11 Disciples. If we can make their lives miserable for the next 75 days, their colleagues in the General Assembly will get the message and refuse to give in to Sanford’s asinine plan to divert the federal funds.

Call these legislators on their business numbers today – and their home and cell numbers all weekend – and demand that the stimulus be spent on education and law enforcement. If you only have time to make one call today, I suggest focusing your efforts on Sanford’s chief toadie, Sen. Tom Davis.

1. Sen. Lee Bright – Senate (803) 212-6108 Bus. (864) 587-1800 Home (864) 576-6742
2. Sen. Kevin Bryant – Senate (803) 212-6024 Cell (864) 202-8394
3. Sen. Tom Davis – Senate (803) 212-6008 Bus.(843) 252-8583
4. Sen. Larry Grooms – Senate (803) 212-6400
5. Sen. Mick Mulvaney – Senate (803) 212-6024 Cell (803) 246-1001
6. Sen. Shane Martin – Senate (803) 212-6100 Bus. (864) 585-4933 Home (864) 597-1619
7. Sen. Phil Shoopman – Senate (803) 212-6032 Home (864) 895-6446
8. Sen. Danny Verdin – Bus. (864) 984-4129 Home (864) 682-8914
9. Rep. Garry Smith – Bus. (864) 963-0337 Home (864) 963-0337
10. Rep. Tommy Stringer – Bus. (864) 877-9511 Home (864) 895-9896
11. Rep. Bill Wylie – Business: (864) 419-3698 Home (864) 987-0575

Spratt Urges Sanford To Accept Stimulus Funds

WASHINGTON – U.S. Rep. John Spratt (D-SC) today urged Governor Mark Sanford to accept the $700 million in federal stimulus funds allotted to South Carolina. The deadline for the Governor to accept the funds is Friday, April 3. Spratt chairs the House Budget Committee and had a role in passing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. He contributed to the provision allowing the State Legislature to accept stimulus funds if the Governor declined to act. South Carolina’s share of the stimulus money is $8 billion. Three-quarters of that money is directly allocated to state agencies. One-quarter, or approximately $700 million, is included in the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 that the Governor must request. Of that allotment, 81.8% is designated “for the support of elementary, secondary and post-secondary education and, as applicable, to early childhood education programs and services.” The remaining 18.2% can be used for “public safety and other government services, which may include assistance for elementary and secondary education, and for modernization, renovations, or repair of public school facilities and institutions of higher education facilities, including modernization, renovations, and repairs that are consistent with a recognized green building system.” The Governor must request these funds by April 3, 2009. “Governor Sanford has made his point, and Attorney General McMaster has upheld the legality of the Governor’s position. It’s time to stop quibbling and start considering the real parties in interest, our school children,” Spratt said. “It is unconscionable to me that anyone would reject $700 million designed for educational improvements; it’s not like South Carolina is flush with school money.” Spratt noted that the taxpayers of South Carolina will in time pay for the money through federal taxes, and that it would be a shame to let the funds lapse and be distributed to another state. “That’s unfair to our citizens and uncaring to our children, said Spratt. “The Governor should end the antics and act now. Anything short of full acceptance is equivalent to turning his back on our state and our children and his duties as Governor.” Senators aim to cut $368 million from budget By RODDIE BURRIS rburris@thestate.com State senators spent Monday searching for $368 million to cut from the House’s recently passed $6.1 billion state budget, in order to make up for Gov. Mark Sanford’s refusal of a portion of federal stimulus funds.

Senate Finance chairman Hugh Leatherman, R-Florence, instructed lawmakers to comb through six divisions of state government, including K-12 education and health services, to begin making up for the $700 million the state could miss receiving.

Budget writers were to craft two budgets, Leatherman said during the Senate’s first crack at next year’s troubled spending plan — one with, and another without, funds the Obama administration has earmarked to help states defray the impact from a down economy.

Education and health care are set to absorb roughly 56 percent of the likely cuts, with K-12 education taking a $161.5 million hit, and higher education, a $44 million cut. Health and Human Services, which oversees the state’s Medicaid program, would see slightly more than a $103 million drop from House budget projections.

With Sanford declaring federal stimulus money would be better spent paying down state debt, Leatherman told finance committee members to ax spending and to report back today.

“There’s no way under the sun we go onto the Senate floor with a budget without what I call good money in it,” Leatherman said Monday.

“Until we see which way the governor is going on this, we work out a budget without the stimulus,” he said. “It would be foolhardy (to do otherwise).”

Sanford has until Friday to reverse his decision to forego the federal funds.

Senate Republican Leader Harvey Peeler, R-Cherokee, asked Leatherman to assess the chances Sanford might reconsider his position.

Leatherman’s response was to keep pushing for a budget without the federal money.

“We need to look for a blend of factors in how we fund low-income school districts,” suggested Sen. Dick Elliott,” D-Myrtle Beach.

Reach Burris at (803) 771-8398.

McMaster: Governor has say over stimulus money

Attorney General Henry McMaster issued a legal opinion today saying S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford — not state lawmakers — have final say over whether S.C. accepts federal stimulus money.

McMaster’s 17-page opinion is nonbinding. But McMaster is in agreement with an opinion sought by U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, in which a research arm of Congress determined a provision in the stimulus bill allowing the General Assembly to bypass the governor and accept federal stimulus money might violate the 10th amendment.

The 10th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees state sovereignty.

McMaster, in his conclusion, wrote that a concurrent resolution by the General Assembly “has no force of effect of law.”

“Under the (stimulus act’s) express provisions, only the Governor (or in other cases, other officials pursuant to the particular terms of the Act) may apply to the Secretary of Education (or other federal agencies) for such funds, based upon the federal criteria for eligibility of such funds. Federal law bestows upon the Governor, as chief executive of the State, the discretion as to whether to apply for these funds.”

Sanford has told state lawmakers he will accept roughly $700 million in money meant to help state reeling from a down economy to balance their budgets only if state lawmakers agree to spend a corresponding amount paying down debt. Most of the money would go to education, which would help schools now facing teacher layoffs to preserve those jobs.

Sanford’s stimulus message falls flat with S.C. voters

Sanford’s stimulus message falls flat with S.C. voters
By JACK BASS
Monday, March 30, 2009

With his approval ratings plummeting, the major political question in South Carolina these days focuses on whether Gov. Mark Sanford is leading the Republican Party into losing territory. Sanford’s political posturing before the national media as a principled opponent of President Obama’s stimulus package remains widely interpreted as aimed at becoming the Republican presidential nominee in 2012.

Despite attempts to portray his refusal to accept $700 million in federal stimulus money except to reduce state debt as a principled position, Sanford failed to explain why the federal government should borrow money to pay off South Carolina’s debt. It’s like asking a strapped neighbor to borrow money to pay off your mortgage. The purpose of the stimulus funds is to revive the economy, primarily by creating jobs.
Jack Bass

Jack Bass

And what state debt is he talking about? Because South Carolina operates under a balanced budget, it appears he’s referring to long term bonds that virtually every state issues for capital improvements.

South Carolina voters are unhappy about his stance. A recent poll conducted by Crantford and Associates, an established firm in Columbia, surveyed 1,382 South Carolina voters and found the once-popular Sanford’s favorable rating among all voters had dropped to 40 percent, with 53 unfavorable, and the rest undecided. In contrast President Obama rated 49 percent favorable and 44 percent unfavorable. More important for Republicans, 54 percent of key swing voters who identified as independents viewed the governor unfavorably, and 56 percent disagreed with his position on the stimulus money.

The basic problem for Sanford flows from his belief that government should operates like a business. The role of a business is to lawfully operate a profitable enterprise meeting consumer demands or desires. The role of government, including South Carolina’s, consists of protecting the citizenry and providing necessary public services to meet their needs, funded by a system of taxation that is adequate and fair.

Sanford, unlike former Gov. Carroll Campbell, who also served in Congress before returning as a two-term Republican governor, often appears baffled about the role of government.

As governor Campbell’s major achievement consisted of bringing BMW to South Carolina, a move that has added more than 40 supplier businesses and now accounts for roughly two and a half percent of the state’s total economy. He called on the state’s full resources. They included the state-operated Ports Authority, which provided a long-term, almost rent-free lease on a vast tract of land it owned near Spartanburg as a site for the plant. Another $20 million in state funds enabled the state’s technical education centers (TEC) to provide a fully-trained work force. Campbell called on Sen. Fritz Hollings to secure millions in federal funding for infrastructure needs.

Sanford has failed to understand the central role of public schools and higher education as driving forces for economic development. Unlike President Obama, Sanford hasn’t even visited South Carolina’s I-95 “Corridor of Shame.” When criticized he uses his taxpayer-salaried spokesman to denigrate critics.

And now the governor is talking about changing the state retirement system to a “defined contribution” instead of the current “defined benefit” plan. Sanford’s move follows his earlier successful recommendation to invest retirement funds in the stock market rather than federal government securities. A report earlier this month revealed that change resulted in an $8 billion loss in the retirement fund’s value from a year earlier.

Meanwhile more than 200,000 unemployed South Carolinians are looking for jobs, with the state unemployment rate second only to Michigan. Unlike Republican governors such as Florida’s Charlie Crist, who visited unemployment offices, talked to people looking for work, and developed sympathetic understanding of their plight, Sanford worries that South Carolina will have to do what other states do in providing its share of a stronger temporary safety net for those who lose their jobs.

Republican political dominance that began under Gov. Campbell already has shown wear and tear at the edges. In the last three elections, Democrats gained four seats in the state House of Representatives, despite a majority of Republicans going unchallenged. In 2008, 44 of the state’s 46 counties voted “more Democratic” than four years earlier.

Whether a Democratic resurgence will happen in 2010 of course remains unknown, but Republicans have reason for concern.

Jack Bass is co-author of the new University of South Carolina Press book, “The Palmetto State: The Making of Modern South Carolina.”