In a story on TheNerve.org Eric Ward reports that the usual suspects, SC State Representatives Bobby Harrell, Kenny Bingham, Dwight Loftis, Joan Brady, David Thomas, and others are pushing a bill to give credits to high risk investors at taxpayer expense–up to $5 million worth per year.

So, according to some legislators, the solution to our economic woes is out-and-out FASCISM. H. 3779 provides incentives to invest in, and removes a substantial amount of the risk for, risky investments for wealthy people who invest in start-up companies very early on.  The taxpayer subsidized credits come into play no matter how the investments perform.  If highly profitable, this special class of wealthy elites still gets a third of their initial investment piled on top the first pile of money they’ve made.

What we’ve got here, ladies and gentlemen, is a case of preemptive bail-outs!

Aimed right at wealthy people, the low end cut-off is described by the bill:

“The Securities and Exchange Commission accredits angels and defines them as investors with either a net worth of at least $1 million, not including their primary residence; an individual income of $200,000 or more per year; or, for married angels, combined incomes of $300,000 or more yearly, according to Andrea Marshall, executive administrator of Charleston Angel Partners.”

So, even if a bunch of us po’ folks got together and put our money up in a pile to invest, we just don’t rate according to the elites like Kenny Bingham and Bobby Harrell.  Equality under the law?  What’s that?

But then, the usual old excuses of keeping the state “competitive” against other states doing the same thing are brought up.  I’m sure they’d be eager to be first to jump off a cliff if other state legislatures were considering it.  In that particular case, however, I’d support their rationale and buy them running shoes so as to be sure to get up a good momentum for the leap.

And do not consider it a mere coincidence that the people in power will be winning many friends among the corporate welfare elites. Elections can be expensive and staying in power in the General Assembly usually means just throwing enough money out there to fool people into thinking that a “true conservative” is running for re-election.  Those most able to contribute and help raise money are considered valuable commodities among the corrupt politicians in the General Assembly.

The only way this state will truly stomp the competition out there is to not give into the “bribe and tax” schemes of other states. Such legislation comes and goes and is always needing lobbyists to facilitate the money flow. What we need is a concrete application of a level playing field.

Perhaps we can start with an equality under the law amendment to the SC State Constitution mandating that no branch of industry nor class of people is favored over another. If a company is looking for a home where they know that they’re treated equally under the law according to the state’s guarantee in the constitution, we’d not only have a more moral and ethical government, we’d also have a more stable, thriving marketplace in which businesses can safely plan and compete.

Build equality under the law and the jobs will come.

Please read the story at TheNerve.org:

http://www.thenerve.org/Comments/11-03-29/Angel_Tax_Credits_Would_Cost_5_Million_a_Year.aspx?utm_source=FITS+-+Morning+Blast&utm_campaign=24d50b2258-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email

Something strange is afoot in the SC gun rights community! Grassroots SC, Inc. (also known as “Grassroots Gunrights”) is a well-known gun rights advocacy organization in South Carolina. For several years now, that organization has strongly opposed any legislation that would threaten gun rights of the citizens of this state. They have fought the good fight.

But something has been going on recently at Grassroots Gunrights that just does not smell right. The organization recently sent out a frantic letter and ballot to “2492 members eligible to vote” asking them to vote to amend the organizations Article of Incorporation to “change from a corporation that will have members, to a corporation that will not have members.” With this ballot comes a lengthy and tortured explanation by the group’s president, Ed Kelleher, why the Board of Directors recommends members vote for this change.

In the letter, Mr. Kelleher claims he “recently found out” - after being a leader in this SC nonprofit corporation since July of 1999 – members have a right under SC law to obtain the membership list. Just how competent is someone who “just found out” such a critical piece of information after being on the board of directors for over ten years?

The letter attempts to scare members into voting for the change to a “non-membership” organization by saying “This private personal information of the most active pro gun rights people in SC – and that means YOU – is vulnerable!”

So is Mr. Kelleher saying that some anti-gun person or organization has indeed infiltrated their membership? Is some anti-gun organization trying to obtain their membership list? The letter never says this outright, but appears to imply so.

But sources say that something very different is happening behind the scenes, and members are not being told the whole story by Grassroots leadership.

A group of members is evidently unhappy with the current leadership of Grassroots. It appears they are worried that the board of directors may have knowingly failed to hold annual membership meetings and annual elections of directors (as required by SC law) since the organization formed in 1999. That is almost TWELVE years!

If there have been no elections in over a decade, this must mean all the current directors have been directors from the beginning. One can assume the other directors are aware of this failure to comply with SC law as well. Just why it is that presumably intelligent leaders of a gun rights organization would open the organization up to civil and criminal prosecution in this way is unclear.

We hear that some members have become so concerned about this exposure to civil and criminal prosecution caused by this failure of leadership to obey the law for so many years, that they have requested a copy of the organization’s bylaws and have requested an election be held. By SC law, any member can obtain certain information from a “membership” organization. By law, any member can obtain documents such as a copy of the bylaws, a membership list with names and addresses, the minutes of past meetings, and copies of financial documents.

So far those who run Grassroots have not provided that member with all of the documents he requested. However, Grassroots leaders did quickly craft a letter and ballot which was mailed out to 2492 members. (One wonders why a South Carolina gun rights organization that has been around for over ten years does not have ten or twenty thousand members by now. After all, this IS a southern state. Could this too be a failure of leadership?)

But shouldn’t Grassroots be able to maintain the privacy of their members’ names and home addresses? Actually no, not according to SC law they shouldn’t. Maybe the list should be kept from those outside an organization, but not from the organization’s own members. With no access to a membership list, a member who wished to run for office in an organization’s next election would be unable to inform all other members of his qualifications and desire to be elected.

Hmmm. It seems that members have had:

1. No access to the Grassroots bylaws for many years,

2. No copies of meeting minutes

3. No access to the membership list

4. No (mandatory) elections.

A common thread begins to emerge, here.  It would seem that Grassroots leaders are running scared, scrambling to find any way they can to prevent giving the list out. Grassroots President Ed Kelleher’s letter claims the reason is to “prevent confiscation” of the names and home addresses of members, by “enemies.” And this privacy is important because Mr. Kelleher “promised” members that the membership list would always remain private. Even if his promise violates the law?

Why not simply provide the member with those documents which the law requires to be released? Why not simply hold a members meeting and an election? Perhaps there is concern among current officers that they would not be reelected. Would not annual reelection of the current officers simply serve to strengthen their legitimacy?

It appears the real truth is that the current leaders in fear of losing their tight grip on the organization. Hence the frantic tone of the letter and the ballot, which if it passes would guarantee the current leaders of Grassroots would remain so for life. But it still would not protect the organization from being sued, nor its officers prosecuted, for failing to hold elections over the past dozen years.

Grassroot may indeed be in the throes of a death struggle right now. But if so, it is NOT from outside, evil, anti-gun forces. Apparently it is because current leaders have failed miserably at upholding their fiduciary duty to follow the law for many years, and someone finally caught them at it.

If Grassroots survives this ordeal at all, it will have to be with new leadership. Who would donate one dime to an organization – no matter how lofty its goals – led by people who are willing to violate the law for to hold on to their offices? And who wants to be a “non-member” of an organization – even a great one – in which people cannot vote, and whose leaders are apparently willing to brush aside pesky laws which conflict with a man’s promise? What other laws are such “leaders” willing to violate?

It could properly be said that if I stoop to the old cliche of comparing political operatives to prostitutes, then I really have nothing to add to the conversation. In all honesty, while I might compare especially bad politicians to prostitutes, it’s not really fair to the prostitutes to compare them to lowly political operatives.  At least with a prostitute, you know what you’re getting and can protect yourself from the stuff you can’t see.  With a political operative, you can’t even turn your back without getting something in the back.  If not a knife, it’s at least a little note that says, "KICK ME!" or something equally inane.

The latter case is apparently what we have with the latest prank from Todd Kincannon in his Quixotic quest to place Patrick Haddon on the throne as SCGOP Chairman for the next two years. Chad Connelly, the generally perceived front runner in the race for SCGOP Chairman (despite Kincannon’s claim that Haddon "has it locked up") has apparently driven Haddon and Kincannon to more desperate measures.

As you may recall, Todd Kincannon is the fellow who held orientations for county precinct reorganizations around the state, including Lexington County, where he made a point of repeatedly bringing up Patrick Haddon as his choice for SCGOP Chairman.

He also, strangely enough, begged us to not kick out "little old lady" neocons while organizing our precincts. This plea became quite the joke among us afterwards.  We reformers are, of course, wicked and cruel and would take especial delight in kicking out little old lady neocons–not because they’re little old ladies, mind you.  We’d do it because they’re neocons!

In addition, Kincannon wouldn’t shut up and carried on way too long after his points were repeatedly made.  But then, that gave him more face time and more Patrick Haddon promoting time.  Believe me, it was pure snooze material after a very short while and definitely not the way to encourage participation in the political party process.

Here is the email that Kincannon has just sent out to a select few in his attempt to plant conspiratorial seeds of doubt among supporters of Chad Connelly for SCGOP Chairman:

Chad [Connelly] now has Drew McKissick working for him. They have struck a deal
that Drew will run against Glenn [McCall] for National Committeeman with Chad’s
support in the 2012 Convention. This is from a Team Chad person who
mentioned it to several people over the weekend thought to be opposed
to Glenn [McCall]. One of them mentioned it to me.

There’s corroborating evidence in this Facebook album:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?fbid=188035954574847&id=100001053300576&aid=4

4174

Todd Kincannon
The Kincannon Firm
1329 Richland Street
Columbia, SC 29201

This is just plain stupid on several levels. For one, the evidence consists of some pictures from a Facebook album taken at an event at Chad Connelly’s house.  Sorry, Todd!  I don’t see any smoking guns there.

Another thing that doesn’t make any sense: why would Chad Connelly play, "Let’s Make a Deal!" with anyone when he’s the front runner and has more energy, enthusiasm, and drive than just about any other candidate I’ve ever seen?

Sleazy deals such as Kincannon is outlining here are for lazy folks and losers. It’s bizarre and it’s absolute nonsense.  In addition, it’s downright pathetic.  This is exactly the type of politics we here at Stuffed Suits are dedicated to eliminating.

Desperation stinks and Kincannon’s email buffoonery positively reeks of it.

When Chad Connelly was contacted for his reaction, he submitted the following statement:

"I am proud to call Glenn McCall a great friend and ally in our Republican Party. In speaking with him yesterday, we agreed that such false allegations do nothing to advance our conservative principles. Integrity and honesty do matter. As SCGOP Chairman, I will work hard to build our team with even more leaders like Glenn."

There you have it: a classy response by Chad Connelly to yet another sleazy attack from the punk posse.

The United Nation’s Agenda 21 is an attempt to convince our governments to legislatively bomb our own country back into the stone age.

Sovereignty International has an excellent video introduction to and exposure of the evil new world order that is, after all is said and done, the ultimate fusion of red and green: the totalitarian control of Marxism imposed on the grounds of eco-fascist ideology.

The proponents of this radical plan are discussing what would literally turn cities into human compounds with total state control of property and movement for all citizens, except, of course, the “enlightened few.”  What local leaders are seeking to impose here in the U.S., using draconian measures to seize private property, would make the communist and fascist re-locations of 20th century Europe look like child’s play in comparison.

South Carolina State Representative Joseph H. “Joe” Neal, Democrat – Richland District 70 (Richland & Sumter Counties) is on a video calmly discussing the corralling of human beings into what he refers to as “high density, high population villages.”  Regular people would call them “urban ghettos” or “housing project nightmares.”  Some might even call them zoos. At the very least, they are akin to reservations or even concentration camps.  The plan is to treat us as the animals behind fences and let nature run wild around us.

Oh, but don’t you know it will be the same old elites who will have massive government approved sanctuaries and beautiful, “environmentally friendly” mansions. After all, they will “need” such luxury since they will be putting themselves in charge as the high priests of the environment.  This is Algorism with a vengeance!

Such terms as “town and country” and “sustainable development” have been used in the last two decades to described the incremental steps required in the gradual confiscation of property by the state and local governments so as to herd the people into areas where they can be easily controlled.  This is real, it is here, and it is happening now.  And yes, it is being run by the supranationalist one-worlders of the United Nations. It is an “open conspiracy” that you can read about all over the internet.

Already, there have been efforts, for the most part thwarted within this state, to bring about the foundation of state control and accumulation of property so as to eventually eliminate private property and turn us into serfs of the all powerful state. But the fact that members of local government and of the General Assembly–even when they are loonies like Rep. Neal–are openly talking about it indicates that they are not nearly done with the idea.  They are still intent, even if it takes generations, on implementing what is truly an abomination to the dignity of mankind.

Please watch the entire video for an introduction to the nonsense that tyrannies are made of. Then please get involved in the resistance.

Written by Working Tommy C | 25 March 2011

Corey Hutchins of the Columbia Free Times has produced an astounding piece of propaganda!

Hutchins impossibly manages to combine the lyricism of “To Kill a Mockingbird” with the violence and brutality of “The Godfather.”  And he apparently thinks it’s for a good cause: the supposedly reformed panderer, Jake Knotts!

The only problem here is that people can easily believe the admitted police brutality and other violence on Knotts’ part but not the made-up stargazing BS from Knotts’ “magical” childhood.

No one has a problem with Knotts being a literal bastard.  The problem is that he is a metaphorical bastard, too.

The most offensive and most egregious lie perpetrated in the article came from the big mouth of Jake Knotts himself:

“I’m not like the regular person up here worrying about getting re-elected; doing things just to get re-elected. I do it because it’s for the good of the people.”

Yeah, right!  And if you had wings, Jake Knotts, you’d fly.

Written by Working Tommy C | 25 March 2011

Have you knoticed how Jakie Knotts has a “solution” to everything? The problem for us is that his solution is for something else entirely than it appears to be at first blush.

When Governor Sanford, a sworn enemy of Knotts, decided to take a stand against Federal government largesse being funneled to the corrupt legislators in Columbia, Jakie’s solution was to stand up with his fellow (for all practical purposes) Democrats and demand that Sanford accept that money along with all the spending requirements attached to it by the micromanaging big government types in D.C.

Now that Governor Nikki Haley, another sworn enemy of Jake Knotts, has decided to replace the only person she is currently able to replace on the board at USC, liberal Darla Moore, Jakie has taken it upon himself to come to her “rescue.”

I can imagine that Knotts’ sick, taxpayer funded fantasy is playing out like a melodrama in a flickering black and white silent movie running inside his huge noggin. Knotts is riding up on his white horse (a Clydesdale, no doubt) to pull Darla off the tracks where she is about to be run over by the reform train.  Meanwhile, a mustached Nikki Haley, complete with top hat and evil grin, is turning the steam up in the locomotive and shaking her fists at Knotts.  Her actions are only interrupted briefly by dialogue cards that read, “Blast you, Knotts!  You’ve foiled my dastardly plans again!”

Poor, poor Darla Moore!  Whatever shall she do? I can hear the plaintive sounds of weeping violins even as I type the question.

Well, for starters, Darla Dee could probably go on a shopping spree spending thousands of dollars every day and never run out of money. You see, Darla Moore is anything but poor.  In fact, she’s a filthy rich banker.  Like the theoretical line of Chinese people marching off a cliff, the growth (from investments, government bailouts, and the like) of her money supply, if able to continue at the current pace, would probably go on forever.

Now, no one at StuffedSuits.com has any problem with someone making money–even bankers.  The problem comes when that money and its attendant power are distilled by legislators from the sweat of working people.  Another problem comes when that money and its accompanying power are used to leverage tax payer dollars, again, from the sweat of working people.  Taking a portion of the working people’s earnings through the government in order to enhance one’s personal wealth or even to indulge one’s social experiments and ideas of just what a particular population needs (whether we’re talking football stadium or industrial park, etc.) is what makes a rich person “filthy.”

In fact, the other F-word, “fascist” describes such projects quite adequately. We, The People know she’s not playing fair.  Yet, that is what Darla Moore and so many other liberal fascist elites are all about: feeding off the working people–usually on the ironic pretense of “helping” them.  We are but slaves to the elites and they will steal the products of our labor if they possibly can.

The latest example of Moore’s “help” has been documented here:  http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2011/mar/24/moore-gives-5m-usc-research-center/ With much more help like that, working citizens in South Carolina will wind up in government work camps since we won’t be able to house, clothe, and feed ourselves with the taxes that will be necessary to keep up with Darla Moore and others’ “generosity.”

And what, dear reader, do you possibly suppose could be motivating Jakie Knotts in his crusade to rescue the helplessly rich Darla Dee Moore? Well, besides the obvious grandstanding opportunities, Jake is sucking up to Moore, no doubt, in the hopes of getting some money for his upcoming 2012 campaign against a candidate (Katrina Shealy) he barely beat in a runoff in 2008.  No doubt, he’ll have Moore’s money funneled through one of those evil PACs he’s been ostentatiously railing against lately alongside his good buddy, Democrat Vincent Sheheen.

Jake Knotts is at least a little clever. He knows a two-fer bargain when he sees one and, just as when he’s around a news camera or buffet table, you’d better not stand between him and the object of his desire or you risk getting rolled over.

Bringing up Jake Knotts’ name over the past several years has resulted in a fascinating and consistent phenomenon that I have witnessed. Yeah, sure, people always seem to describe him as a loud, foul-mouthed, and arrogant drunk, but there’s something else remarkably present in his limited repertoire: “Do you know who I am?” It’s both a brag and a threat by a habitual bully who feels free to throw his weight around anywhere in this state

“Do you know who I am?” tells people that they had better:

1. Pay attention to this obviously “important” man.

2. Do exactly what he demands you do or suffer the consequences of the wrath of this “important” man.

Most folks who have witnessed this in person have laughed while telling me the story of their encounters. The sight and behavior of this pompous, bloated, and pathetically insecure man were hard to take without laughing in his face. No wonder the man drinks so heavily. He’s got to, at some level, detect the reaction he induces in people.

Fortunately for Jakie’s ego, these several random people I’ve talked to over the years were in the service industry or in sales when they encountered him. Respecting the maxim that the customer is always right, they had the maturity to keep their merriment to themselves for the time they were dealing with him.

Poor Jakie, however, does not himself have the maturity to accept the fact that he does not have, and never will have, the class and bearing of a gentleman. Instead he bumbles on, putting up the pretense that people will take a shine to him and heap praises upon him once they recognize his “celebrity” status. In the end, Jake Knotts does not measure up to even the most powerless of our citizens who choose to, at the very least, humble themselves before God and their fellow men.

Most folks who have supported Jake Knotts in the past still bear numerous scars on their backs from the knives he has planted there over the years. Especially for those of us who support and fight for our right to keep and bear arms, we’ve watched Jake Knotts go from teaching concealed weapon’s permit classes himself to reneging on his earlier pro-self defense stances and otherwise making deals with his anti-gun Democrat buddies by doing everything in his power to poison or stop gun rights bills. Apparently, once he had used us to get elected to the State Senate in 2002, we weren’t useful to him any more. The feeling is very much a mutual one.

Being a former Democrat himself, perhaps Jakie can’t leave his old friends behind. He certainly took pride in standing with them in favor of taking more federal funds with their attendant spending requirements that have helped to further our indebtedness. Now, por ol’ Jake can’t figure out who to blame for all the spending in Columbia.

Of course, as of summer 2010, Jake had made a name for himself around the world as the “Boss Hogg” of South Carolina for his drunken, profanity laced attack on both Nikki Haley and Barrack Obama, referring to them as “f—— rag heads.”

Way to go, Jakie! It wasn’t bad enough that you act like a pompous ass on a daily basis, never standing on principle nor voting for cloture on bills. Instead, you stand on the side and see how the votes go and then situate yourself on the issue so that you have the most to gain in power and control with your votes. No doubt, you’ve learned those self-serving, middleman leveraging techniques from your good buddy, US Senator Lindsey Graham.

Also, like Lil’ Lindsey, you have sided with your Democrat friends on numerous occasions, not the least of which was when you, after having unlawfully accepted thousands of dollars in campaign funds in 2008, used that money to bus in Democrats to put you just over the top in a hotly contested primary run-off. How’s that going to work this time around after you made your raghead comments that still stick like glue to your big round head?

Now, unbelievably, the latest news floating around Lexington is that Mrs. Joe “You lie!” Wilson (who herself goes by the name of Roxanne) has let people know–in spades–that she will yet again be supporting her dear, close friend, Jake Knotts for SC State Senator for District 23.

How can this be? Her husband stated the following in the condemnation he made immediately following Jakie Knotts’ raghead comments last year:

“As a member of Congress representing the Second District of South Carolina, I was hurt and disgusted to hear Senator Jake Knotts direct such offensive slurs at a community which is very close to me.

“Senator Knotts did not reflect the values of our citizens in his language or in the tone of his remarks and certainly did not reflect mine . . .

“I believe Senator Knotts still owes an apology to the people at which the slurs were directed . . . ”

For the record, Jakie never made a real apology. Instead he made more lame excuses for his behavior and was only sorry that some people, according to him, took it the wrong way.

Does U.S. Representative Joe Wilson support his wife’s support of a politician who has “hurt and disgusted” him with his obnoxious behavior and who does not reflect his values? Perhaps, Joe and Jakie are still BFFs and Joe’s counting on our short memories to smooth the way for him to endorse Jakie in the primary.

Then again, there are those who insist that Roxanne actually wears the pants in her marriage with Joe and, if not for her, he would be spitting on windshields and cleaning them off with the cuff of his sleeves for a few cents a pop. So maybe it’s no surprise that Roxanne would not necessarily do what’s best for her husband’s career when she got it into her head to do otherwise. Jakie is apparently her pet project and she has no intentions of letting her boy down.

While she has helped run Jake Knotts’ campaigns in the past and taken a Queen Bee’s delight in pulling off the stunt of busing in Democrat crossover voters to barely beat Katrina Shealy in 2008, do not necessarily expect Roxanne to be visibly in the forefront of Jakie’s campaign this time–at least not at first. Her plan is to bring in a third candidate, as there was in 2008, with the hopes of again preventing an outright win in the initial primary against Jakie which would be a virtual certainty in a two person primary this time. Instead, she wants another primary run-off with its much smaller attendance so that it can once again be manipulated with a few voters and campaign money spread around at the right places.

Roxanne Wilson may or may not be an influential political genius but her choices for strategies this time around have got to be very limited. Even though Jakie has gone “full boar” in his pandering to special interest groups with our tax money and handing out of privileges at our expense, Roxanne has to know the fight will be an uphill battle this time around. She can’t count on a mostly unaware and uninterested electorate in 2012 as we had in 2008. Even Lindsey Graham realizes he couldn’t be re-elected right now.

If Roxanne were REALLY the brains of her marriage with Lil’ Joe, she would publicly divorce herself from Jake Knotts now and never have anything to do with him again. Jake is going down hard in 2012. She should at the very least be able to recognize this inevitability. Roxanne Wilson’s connection with a doomed campaign for such a pathetic, universally scorned, and obnoxious lout as Jake Knotts will help neither her nor her husband in the increasingly volatile political environment of the near future.

17 March 2011

South Carolina Lt. Gov. Ken Ard faces 92 state ethics charges alleging he used campaign money for personal purposes and failed to disclose campaign spending. During the primary for Lt Governor in 2009 and leading up to June of 2010, numerous allegations of financial wrongdoing surfaced from various concerned citizens in the Pee Dee region focused on Ken Ard.

The tax records were readily available through the Florence county website showing a rash of late tax payments. Those late taxes were paid 3 days after he announced he was running for Lt Governor.

Numerous people brought up the fact that Ken Ard was given campaign office space in SC GOP headquarters (with some help from the Punk Posse) and then his financial disclosures actually revealed he wasn’t even paying for it. And to top it all off, a tax increase in Florence county that Ken Ard was adamant about passing actually affected property in the county that he owned and would benefit from by work completed using that tax revenue.

The spending DURING the campaign was called into question back in 2009. After a bit of googling/searching, came across this information:

The glaring numbers here come from the Ard campaign as he loaned his campaign $200,000. The loan is obviously a smokescreen to cover up the fact that we were all misled then they reported raising $127,000 in one night (same night as gubernatorial debate) when they actually only show $32,500 raised that night.

That loan appears it will come in handy as his propensity for restaurants and to stay overnight in various hotels around the state has been expensive.

July 21, 2009        Hampton Inn, Columbia, SC   $352.80
July 30, 2009        Marina Inn, Myrtle Beach, SC  $326.14
July 31, 2009        Mariott, Columbia, SC  $195.36
August 3, 2009     Mariott, Hilton Head, SC  $142.75
August 3, 2009     Marina Inn, Myrtle Beach, SC   $534.02
August 4, 2009     Marina Inn, Myrtle Beach, SC   $184.70
August 21, 2009   Hilton, Columbia, SC   $117.47
August 24, 2009   Hampton Inn, Columbia, SC  $102.12
August 24, 2009   On same day stayed in Hampton in Columbia, paid Cains BBQ $449.55, Starfire Grill $53.07, both in Florence. If nothing else, the guy is fast.

On 17 August, Olive Garden, Fatz Cafe and Five Guys all got some of the funds from the campaign. All in Florence.

It’s a bit perplexing how the campaign spent the night at the Mariott in Myrtle Beach and the Marina Inn in Hilton Head on the same night.

The restaurant expenses are far too many to list.

Another expense that also showed up on the 2nd quarter filing is $2250.00 for S and D Aviation. ($2500.00 in 2nd quarter) which explains how Ard might get around so quickly. I don’t think they have a plane fast enough to have him stay in Myrtle Beach and Hilton Head on the same night though.

Total, Ken Ard spent $106,599.089 in the 3rd quarter. Most of it to Hotels, Restaurants, fuel and campaign staff. There’s also $29,000 in payments to voter contact services so if you haven’t received an automated call yet, you will.

For even more pondering, Ken evidently had a fundraising event on a fishing charter located in Georgetown on July 30 while on the same night staying at the Marina Inn in Myrtle Beach. The thing that makes this most curious is the fact there are no contributions/donations to the campaign from July 29 to August 27, 2009.

While there’s a simple explanation for all of these expenses, it’s obvious that Ken Ard is a spender. That’s something we certainly don’t need more of. It appears Mr Ard likes a few things

1) Offshore Fishing

2) Staying overnight in various hotels within 2 hrs of his home. (Myrtle Beach 1 hr 45 mins, Columbia 1 hr 15 minutes)

3) Spending money

One might think I’m picking on Ken Ard here but the other candidates (Connor and Scott) have not shown any tendencies toward this type of spending at all.

So everyone was warned about Ken Ard’s spending habits right?

The problem is, there was a powerful group of legislators that was determined that Ken Ard be elected the Lt Governor. This group, led by Jake Knotts, Luke Rankin and Hugh Leatherman, wanted a Lt Governor in place that would not only be “their guy” presiding over the South Carolina Senate, but would also be a puppet they could put in place so that if whoever got elected Governor had to be replaced, someone they “handled” stepped right in.

A huge worry for the South Carolina Senate RINO caucus was a “Tea Party” guy in Bill Connor being able to preside over “their” senate.

Another worrisome aspect of all this is Ken Ard naming Brant Branham as his Chief of Staff. Branham was heavily involved in the Myrtle Beach “money envelope” scams with the Myrtle Beach Chamber of Commerce, and is being investigated by the FBI along with many others. Part of the investigation by the ethics commission directed at Ken Ard may have something to do with non-disclosure of donations received around the time of an alleged fundraiser for Ard spearheaded by none other than, Brant Branham in Myrtle Beach.

Now here’s the real kicker

While Ken Ard is not expected to resign on his own, the pressure for him to do so may be too much to overcome. These are serious charges and should be dealt with seriously.

In the event that the Lt Governor has to step down or is no longer able to perform duties as Lt Governor and Pro Tempore of the SC Senate, the Senate itself selects his replacement

From the South Carolina Constitution:

SECTION 7. Succession when neither Governor-elect nor Lieutenant Governor-elect qualifies or is able to serve.

In the event that neither the Governor-elect nor the Lieutenant Governor-elect shall qualify, or if after taking the oath of office neither shall be able to serve for any reason whatsoever, the office of Governor for the time being shall devolve upon such officers and in such order of succession as may be provided by law. Any such officers while exercising the powers of the Governor for the time being under this provision shall not be subject to the dual office-holding provision of this Constitution. (1972 (57) 3171; 1973 (58) 48.)

SECTION 9. President Pro Tempore of Senate; Senator acting as Lieutenant Governor.

The Senate shall as soon as practicable after the convening of the General Assembly choose a President Pro Tempore to act in the absence of the Lieutenant Governor. A member of the Senate acting as Lieutenant Governor shall thereupon vacate his seat and another person shall be elected in his stead. (1972 (57) 3171; 1973 (58) 48.)

Right now there is a bill moving through the legislature that requires by law that the Governor and Lt Governor run on the same ticket. Both parties in the South Carolina legislature support the bill and it has been expected to pass. Passage of this bill would effectively take the power to name a Lt Governor out of the hands of the Senate and place it with the Governor.

Obviously, this bill needs to be fast-tracked and the effective date be immediate.

So Ken Ard facing 92 total charges is no surprise at all to those of us that paid attention during the primary in 09 and 2010.

What’s surprising is that it’s just 92 charges

09 March 2011

(Photo courtesy of DeLinda Ridings)

“CHAD CONNELLY FOR SCGOP CHAIRMAN!”

By Working Tommy C

March 9, 2011

There’s a freight train coming to the South Carolina Republican Party! It is in the form of Chad Connelly who is running for SCGOP Chairman.  I was in the audience Monday night (March 8th) to hear Chad speak at the Lexington County GOP Executive Committee meeting and received the full brunt of his no holds barred speaking style.  Whew!  That is an experience to be had!

I’m sure he was not aiming his speech at me individually but it was as if he were.  It was a revival meeting of the political kind.  I kept wanting to stand up and shout, “Amen, brother!“  The man knows his history, knows the origins of our freedoms, and is obviously well educated in the fundamentals of our system of governance.

Chad Connelly heavily emphasized the positive aspects of getting more concerned citizens involved in the process and sounded genuinely excited that so many had heard the call and were taking steps to take back their government. He is tuned into the tea party movement as well as being knowledgeable of the process of political organizing due to his years of experience in the GOP as well as in sales and private charity work.

The GOP has an excellent product in its platform.  The main complaint has been that the politicians rarely pay any attention to it other than lip service when running for office.  We could really use a good salesman now who is energetic and can energize and recruit others as Connelly can.
Connelly sums up his issues in “Chad Connelly’s 11 for ’11 (A Platform for Success for a conservative Republican Party).”  Please note that comments following the quoted points are my own:

“1. Building Our Party – but Never Compromising Our Conservative Principles”

Connelly makes the case here for the party taking advantage of the renewed popularity of the fundamental founding principles of American freedom and the disgust so many have at members of our own party who have failed us miserably on these issues concerning our very existence.  Connelly promotes the current movement to restore “personal responsibility, limited government, and less federal intrusion.”  I can’t help but feel that where Karen Floyd took a few tentative steps in the right direction as if at the point of a gun, Chad Connelly will pick up the flag and lead the charge.  That is exactly what this state needs.

“2. Developing the Next Generation”

Chad went into some detail outlining his goals for recruiting good candidates for office and getting more young people involved in protecting their future.

“3. Keeping Our First in the South Primary”

Okay, I’ll admit that on this one, I’m not really hot.  Yeah, we get a disproportionate influence on the Presidential primaries and I trust US more than some other states, but the corrupt powers that be in this state feed on ever more power.  Our disproportionately powerful status in electing Presidents hurts our citizens more than helps in the current political environment.  I think we need to adopt a rotating set of regional primaries nationally so that just a few states do not bear the brunt of such attention that frequently turns us into ants being fried under a magnifying glass.  We’ve got enough problems already with our corrupt homegrown politicians.  We don’t need to give them even further license to steal with greater national influence.

“4. Low Dollar Fundraising”

This is Connelly shifting to going after a broader support among all the people rather than appealing to rich individuals and special interests.  This is a great way to dilute the corrupt influences that get into every political process–well intentioned or not.

“5. Protecting Life”

This is Connelly reiterating the party’s anti-abortion stance as well as his individual efforts over the years in South Carolina groups dedicated to this stance.  This is a moral position that is perfectly suited for action at the state level and hopefully, eventually, will force the Federal government to recognize our right to rule on this issue ourselves.

“6. Protecting Marriage”

This consists of properly defining and protecting marriage: one man and one woman.  This is another fundamental moral principle we must protect.

“7. Protecting Ourselves”

This is protecting the right to keep and bear arms–ALWAYS a good thing!

“8. Protecting South Carolina”

This is essentially rejecting Obamacare as well as “Cap and Trade” (which, by the way, is also supported–at least as an economically crippling tax on “carbon emissions”–by Lindsey Graham).

“9. Staying in Touch”

Connelly states that he will be working personally with all county GOP leaders along with a dedicated staff member and will expand technology to reach as many people as possible.  He pointed out during his speech how far behind some GOP campaigns have been on this front.

“10. Watching the Bottom Line”

Connelly wants to be looking for the “biggest bang for our buck” as well as holding GOP office holders feet to the fire on taxing and spending issues.

“11. Winning and Planning for the Future”

This is looking ahead by raising money for 2014 and beyond.

Overall, I’d say that I’ve never seen a more energetic individual nor one that I could more seriously believe would follow through on his truly conservative goals than Chad Connelly. At the very least, like the Tasmanian Devil of Warner Brothers’ cartoon fame, I expect Chairman Chad Connelly will bring a storm of activity with him in the effort to make positive things happen for the SCGOP.  I am very excited at Chad Connelly’s candidacy and will support him at the state convention if I have the privilege to attend this year.

Will Folks–the “Emperor Palpatine” of the SC political blogging world

“Reflections on the De Facto Cabal of the ‘Punk Posse’”

By “Working Tommy C”

What’s fun about this whole back and forth regarding the exposure of the de facto cabal better known now as the “Punk Posse” is that http://garnetspy.com, http://stuffedsuits.com, and numerous others who have been calling out the “punk posse” crowd for a while is that we are refreshingly clear of being paid to write things here and elsewhere.

The only motives I have found among the true conservatives have been to just get the truth, good or bad, out there and to stand up for  the right principles. For that reason, I consider such voluntary work to be the ultimate “charity” work possible for an American who believes in our God given rights and is willing to fight for them.  We’re actually making a sacrifice instead of attempting to feed off the system.

We do not seek money to influence politics in this state.  We seek to influence politics as regular working citizens in order to get them to do what is right or to replace them if they’re more interested in pandering, self-aggrandizement, and other corruption.  It frustrates the Boss Hoggs in the General ASSembly like Jake Knotts because they can’t get a handle on us in order to neutralize or control us.  We don’t want special favors, we want equality under the law instead.

I recently emailed Will Folks and reassured him that, while we’ll “do battle” over certain issues on occasion, we probably share something like 95+% of goals for breaking the back of the corrupt establishment and putting the “self” back in “self-governance.”

My main argument with him has been that “you can’t get there from here” in that some of the tactics used by him simply do not make sense–unless he’s compromising for pay.  Working for specific establishment interests may be the only way to get paid on a continual basis with what he does but it’s not the route that I, and many others who want government off our backs, would take.

The ends do not justify the means and the means are severely compromised if one is paid to, or not to, pursue them. Taking into consideration what Will Folks is doing in practice, that is, his “pay to prey” tactics, vs. what he claims to be his long term goals, something just doesn’t make sense.  He is either being disingenuous and is acting as a gun for hire, sometimes even attacking certain political figures or movements in order to extort a ransom from his prey, or he seriously has no clue on how to get from point A to point B.

I have been consistent in holding up Folks as a genius.  An “evil genius” to be sure but one of a very high intellect.  I call a spade a spade.  He is diabolically clever and a master manipulator.  He is the Emperor Palpatine of the blogging world.

I yet hold out some little hope that Folks will come around and not continue down the path of the “dark side.”  Even if he does not see the light, if I were to choose between a political world with or without him, I would choose one with him since he does serve a valuable purpose in exposing a lot of corruption and graft and getting attention for it.

On the other hand, I will let him know when he’s gone too far in my opinion or is otherwise wrong.

I think it’s very healthy to have this exposure by Speight and the editor of this site of the “pay to prey” de facto cabal run by Folks, DonEhue and others. People being able to make informed decisions regarding the source of news is never a bad thing.

And, while I’m on that subject, for the record, I believe I am the only one among the original three writers at this site who supported Nikki Haley for Governor before the primaries.   We are not mind-numbed “Nikkibots” at all.

As a matter of fact, I supported Haley from well before the time she even announced.  I contributed to her when she was at the bottom of the polls because I could see the writing on the wall and knew what an energetic fighter she is.

Be that as it may, the REASON I supported her is because she is an agent for positive change and reform of the corrupt establishment. We do not agree 100% on everything but even where we have disagreed, she has read what I sent her and considered it.

I really wish certain people would keep things more in perspective regarding elected officials  for a while once the elections are over. Even if someone hates the Governor’s guts, he needs to remember that she’s only in office for 4-8 years.  It’s not a lifetime commitment by the voters and I pray that we can get someone even better than she is after she finishes her terms.  In the meantime, I’m going to try to help where I can since she is on the right side of the great majority of the issues.

During campaigns, if I support politicians, I support them because THEY agree with ME on the important items.  I don’t suppress my thoughts or warp my mind to get in line with the candidates’ viewpoints.  I don’t have to do that because, among other things, I’m not paid by them to do so.  In fact, I’ve been the one donating what meager amounts I could to candidates I have supported so their campaign is getting paid in some small part by ME.

I also do not imagine by a long shot that I’m anything special in this regard. I think the great majority of concerned citizens have the same mindset and are willing to sacrifice time, energy, and what money they can to stand on principle.  That, in my opinion, is the ideal of citizen involvement and I’m just doing my best to fit in with THEM.  Now, if we could just wake up even more of the citizenry to take an active part . . .