South Carolina Legislators Say The Flag Could Come Down As Early As Next Week

You know, before the shooting in Charleston, I wasn’t holding my breath on this whole #TakeDownThatFlag movement. Since we moved to South Carolina, there have been petitions and request and newspaper articles about removing the Confederate battle flag from the state capitol grounds, but that was it; the requests came, and then nothing happened.

Now, however, I am cautiously optimistic. And our state lawmakers are saying they are actually confident that a bill to remove that flag could be on Governor Nikki Haley’s desk by the end of next week. My fingers are crossed.

Vincent Sheheen, a Democratic state Senator who represents the part of South Carolina where we live — you just know I couldn’t live in a ‘Red’ county — sponsored the bill, which is expected to pass the Senate by next Tuesday, and then go to Haley by Thursday.

But … and ain’t there always a but? … House Speaker Jay Lucas, and he’s a Republican of course, says he will refer flag bills to the House Judiciary Committee “where they will go through the appropriate process” that might take weeks. Jay Lucas has not shared his opinion on removing the flag, so yeah. Hmmmmm.

And holding off any kind of vote, much less a resolution, could be dangerous. This past Monday night, after pro-flag and anti-flag protestors clashed at the capitol, one man was arrested after shots were fired. And someone threw a red-paint filled balloon at the statue of Ben Tillman, a white supremacist who was a governor and U.S. senator.

“It’s July and hot, and the world is watching. “It will only get worse. If we don’t act, we are encouraging problems.” — House Minority Leader, and Democrat, Todd Rutherford

And we still have some loon, and bigots, and out-and-out anti-LGBT asshats in the legislature, most notably state Senator, and Republican, of course, Lee Bright, who has started an online petition to keep the flag on the State House grounds because, he says:

“I hate how these creeps have misused these emblems.”

Creeps. South Carolinians who want a divisive symbol of racism and hate removed from state property are “creeps.” And if that doesn’t tell the people who voted for Bright — and there’s a misnomer if I ever heard one — that it’s time to vote him out, I don’t know what does.

Still, the 123-member House voted 103-10 and the 45-member Senate voted 42-3 to debate the flag, and those numbers indicate there is the two-thirds support required in the House and Senate to take down the flag.

But, it’s quite clear, by the number of South Carolinians who support removal, by the number of our legislators who support removal, by our Republican governor, who supports removal that the time has come to take down that flag.

Put it in a museum, where artifacts and relics from the past belong. It does not deserve a place on honor on state grounds.

Plus, and this would just be delicious, the Ku Klux Klan has scheduled a pro-flag rally for July 18. Wouldn’t it be rich to have the flag down before they ever showed up?

The State

That's Our Nikki: Blackmailing The People For A Vote

I know the election for Governor isn’t until November, but right now the race is a virtual dead-heat between the incumbent, the oh-so-transparent Republican Nikki Haley, and the challenger, Democratic state Senator, and Smallville resident, Vincent Sheheen. And if Nikki keeps pulling stunts like this, well, that may change in a way she won’t like.

This week Haley announced that she has a plan to repair the state’s roads and bridges with what she calls a “road map for future infrastructure funding, and that it won’t include a tax increase” but she isn’t saying what her plan entails until January; after the election.

See, it’s like this: elect me and I’ll tell you my plan to fix the roads and it won’t cost you a dime; or, don’t elect me and my plan goes away and the roads don’t get fixed and you’ll all suffer.

It’s either a giant lie — go figure, it’s Haley — or else she’s blackmailing the people of South Carolina into voting for her. But that’s our Nikki … so transparent.

Sidenote: while Nikki won’t talk of her plan, except to tell us that we won’t be paying for it, Vincent Sheheen has pointed out any number of ways to fund road and bridge repair, including long-term bonds, dedicating general fund surpluses for infrastructure and increasing vehicle registration fees.

And I know some folks will hate this idea, that they actually have to pay to have the roads and bridges upon which they travel, repaired and strengthened, but at least it’s a plan and not some “I have a dream but I won’t tell you unless you vote me” political ploy of a desperate women trying to keep her job.

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Republican Governors Association Runs Atrocious Political Ad

Down here in South Carolina — where It’s not the heat, it’s the stupidity™ — our governor, the Transparent Nikki Haley is running for reelection against the Democratic candidate, and resident of Smallville where yours truly resides, Vincent Sheheen.

Last time out the GOP barely eked out a victory over Sheheen to put Haley in the Governor’s mansion and this time around they want to make sure it isn’t even closer or, goddess forbid, Haley gets bounced out on her ass, so the Republican Governors Association [RGA] has decided to run what many are calling the Most Atrocious Political Ad Of 2014.

In the ad, Vincent Sheheen our state Senator and criminal attorney is blasted for representing civil and criminal clients because, apparently, our GOP in South Carolina does not believe that everyone is innocent until proven guilty, or that everyone even deserves to have a lawyer.

The new ad, produced by the RGA, targets Vincent Sheheen for “defend[ing] violent criminals” and ends with the tagline “Vincent Sheheen protects criminals not South Carolina.”

Basically, what the RGA is trying to say is that Sheheen should never be governor because he once provided counsel to people who were accused of a crime; not guilty of a crime, mind you, just simply accused of a crime.

And the ad plays up that Sheheen has represented every kind of criminal, even :::gasp::: sex offenders and child abusers and, yes, while maybe some of these people were guilty of their crimes, they all had the right, under our laws, to have legal representation.

And true, some of Sheheen’s clients might have been guilty, but in this country, so far, we don’t lock people up in prison because they are accused to crimes. We have a trial, and even the criminal has a lawyer; evidence is heard and finally a ruling on guilt or innocence is rendered.

How does that may anyone unfit to be governor? Oh, yeah, it doesn’t, unless you’re the GOP of South Carolina; unless you’re Nikki Haley.

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That's Our Nikki: Lying On Job Applications

Let's be clear: South Carolina Senator Vincent Sheheen--who, for the record, lives in Smallville--lost his bid to become South Carolina's governor. Narrowly.Lost. And that lost must ache a bit, so it's no surprise that he attacks Nikki Haley every chance he gets. What isn't surprising, however, is that every attack, every criticism he has of Transparent Nikki, is spot on.

Speaking to a group of Spartanburg Democrats, he reiterated the story floating around the state that then-state Representative lied on her application for a job at Lexington Medical Center. Sheheen is the first prominent South Carolina elected official to directly accuse Haley of deceit on the controversial application.

Nikki Haley's spokesmoron, Rob Godfrey, responded with a typical non-response to Vincent Sheheen via email: "It's sad to see that Senator Sheheen hasn't gotten over his defeat."

Oh, honey, he's over it. He's just calling out more and more of Nikki Haley's lies and deceits. He isn't over that.

Sheheen's accusations against Haley came during a wider series of remarks casting Nikki Haley as just the latest scandal-plagued Republican involved in a years-long wave of corruption in the state Capitol:

"What's happening in Columbia right now is that we are seeing corruption on a scale that we have not seen in the Legislature since Lost Trust and statewide in the last hundred years...Think about what's going on: House members arrested for criminal domestic violence, House members arrested for not paying their taxes, statewide officials going to jail for drug dealing a few years ago, a governor with over 60 ethics violations and a current governor who didn't pay her taxes either, who's holding secret meetings without letting the press know, lying on employment applications — that is what we've been reduced to in South Carolina."

Yes, we all know Nikki Haley has a problem paying her taxes, unless the state threatens to take her property, but what about that job application?

Vincent Sheheen:

"Either the governor's not telling the truth or somebody filled out her application...[and]...I think that it's hard to believe that she didn't fill out that application. I think any reasonable person wonders why she is making the kind of statements she has."

So, what about the job application? Well, on Nikki Haley's August 2008 application to become a fundraiser for the Lexington Medical Center, she listed her qualifications for the job--she had none--and her previous work experiences and salaries. Columbia newspaper, The State, reported that on Haley's application for the medical center position she stated she'd earned $125,000 a year, far more than the $22,000 she claimed on her Federal income Taxes.

In her efforts to be A Transparent Liar, Nikki Haley, and her Hounds Of Hell, have repeatedly denied that she provided the $125,000 figure on the application. And, to be fair, some pages of the application carry her signature, but the page regarding previous salary does not.

So, does that mean Nikki Haley fills out applications or does she have people do that for her? Or, does she partially fill out applications, and then have people fill out the rest for her so she can say she didn't lie?

Either way, one thing is transparent about Nikki Haley: she lies. Or she has someone lie for her.

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The State Endorses Vincent Sheheen

Vision, Integrity, Record Make Sheheen Best Choice

The choice between Sen. Vincent Sheheen and Rep. Nikki Haley would be obvious under any circumstances. In the dysfunctional governmental system of South Carolina, it is even clearer that Mr. Sheheen should be our next governor.

A big reason our state trails in so many areas is that a legislature simply isn’t capable of presenting a vision and leading us forward; it takes a governor to do that. But governors have precious little power to translate their visions into action; their success depends upon their ability to sell their ideas to the Legislature. It’s a tricky balance that no one has gotten quite right since Carroll Campbell.

These past eight years have been particularly difficult, as a governor who at least began with a clear vision went out of his way time after time to antagonize the too-prickly Legislature.

Mr. Sheheen doesn’t offer unrealistic bumper-sticker sloganeering about lowering taxes (although he says he wouldn’t raise them) or making government transparent (although he actually believes this should apply to himself). He gives us something better: A solid record of working across political lines to engage our most daunting problems. A pledge to be honest with us and not embarrass us — and a decade in the public eye that gives us every reason to believe he will keep these promises. A focus on returning to the Campbell model of aggressive economic recruitment. A commitment to improving the public schools, which all candidates promise but which is nearly impossible when they carry water for groups that fight those improvements in order to advance their anti-government agendas.

Ms. Haley makes a wonderful first impression. But she has proven herself unable to work even with members of her own party. She has not tried seriously to govern, as a look at the meager list of bills she has introduced demonstrates. She has repeatedly failed to pay or even file her income taxes until many months after her extension expired — while claiming that an accounting degree proves she’s fiscally responsible to manage our state’s finances. She has campaigned against insider political dealing while using her office to enrich herself just like the old Democratic power brokers routinely used to do. She has repeatedly misled us about herself and her opponents, attributing to others the worst of her own characteristics.

Mr. Sheheen understands that our state won’t move forward until all children have the opportunity to receive a good education. But he also understands that while we need to reverse the teacher layoffs and pay the best teachers better, we can’t until our economy recovers — and that won’t happen until there are more jobs; hence his promise to use the tools our current governor rarely used, to encourage businesses to locate and expand in our state.

Mr. Sheheen and Ms. Haley both recognize that we must overhaul our loophole-riddled tax code and consolidate state agencies to give the governor more authority and reduce duplication. The difference is that Mr. Sheheen is a conciliator who builds alliances with the Republican legislators who will make those things happen or not. He and his GOP co-authors wrote the only detailed plan to overhaul the antiquated tax code. He devised the plan to simultaneously empower the governor and transform the Legislature so that it could provide the oversight of state agencies that our state never has had.

We can’t take four more years of political bickering, of a governor whose every claim has to be checked and double-checked, of fixating on the ideological firestorms of Washington. We need to solve our many practical problems at home. Vincent Sheheen has a realistic vision to move our state forward and a record of getting substantive legislation passed. He has done the hard work and played by the rules. He is a man of integrity and sincerity, whose word can be trusted. All of these virtues set him apart from his opponent. He is the clear choice for governor.

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That's Our Nikki: Driving Away Her Own Party

It seems like there are more cracks in the Nikki Haley campaign to be the next Mark Sanford of South Carolina.

Some members of her own party are now lining up behind the Democrat for governor, Vincent Sheheen.

Former Berkeley County supervisor, Jim Rozier, is the latest Lowcountry Republican to throw his support behind Sheheen, saying: "I think it's really urgent that in this country we start pulling together rather than pulling apart. I think the extreme right as well as the extreme left is bad. We've got to come together with some leadership and some statesmanship, and I think that's what Sheheen would do."
Now, Rozier is a gentlemen, and will not disparage Nikki Haley, but simply coming out in support of her opponent speaks volumes. Add to that, the fact that Rozier, along with several prominent Democrats, will host an October 7th fundraiser for Vincent Sheheen.
The event will be held at the Berkeley County home of Robert Royall, who was appointed S.C. Commerce Secretary by Republican Governor David Beasley, and was later appointed Ambassador to Tanzania by President George W. Bush.
Robert Royall has also thrown his support to Sheheen. Royall appeared with Sheheen last month to support his efforts to secure a federal earmark to deepen Charleston Harbor. Nikki Haley says she wants to find money for the harbor in another way, but has no plan, and offers no solutions.
That's our Nikki, all wrong for South Carolina, and even some in her own party know it.

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That's Our Nikki: When The Truth Hurts, She Resorts To Lies

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The Republican and Democrat candidates for South Carolina governor have gone on the attack, with Nikki Haley and Vincent Sheheen both releasing new television ads.
Democrat Sheheen's ad has several different voters talking about contradictions between what Republican Nikki Haley has said and what she's done.

• "She says she's for transparency," says one person in the Sheheen ad, followed by another saying, "But Nikki Haley hid a $40,000 contract that she got because of her connections."
  Is that true? According to the tax records that Haley released and the statement of economic interest forms she filed with the State Ethics Commission, she did initially fail to report $42,500 she earned doing consulting work for Wilbur Smith Associates, a transportation and infrastructure consulting firm.
• The next part of the ad has citizens saying, "She claims to be a fiscal conservative...But she wants to put a tax on our groceries."
  That's also accurate. On August 11th, Haley told reporters that she thought it was a mistake when the state removed the sales tax on groceries three years ago.
  "It looked good. It felt good. It didn't create the first job. Not the first job. So we have to turn around and look and say what was a good idea one year is not a good idea as we go forward," she said.
• Finally, the Sheheen ad says, "Nikki Haley boasts about her accounting skills...But she got fined for failing to pay her own taxes."
  That's also true. She was fined several thousand dollars for paying her personal income taxes late several years. Her family's business, for which she was the accountant, also had tax liens put on it three times for failing to pay taxes on time.

As for Nikki Haley's attacks on Vincent Sheheen:

• Haley's ad attacks Sheheen by saying, "He's a liberal who backs the Obama spending and health care disasters."
  As proof of that claim, the Haley campaign's documentation is that Sheheen put out a press release on April 16, 2009, which read, "State Senator Vincent Sheheen (D-Camden) announced his plan to end the stimulus standoff has earned the support of two Republicans in the State Senate. Senators Luke Rankin (R-Myrtle Beach) and Jake Knotts (R-Lexington) have signed onto the legislation that would require Gov. Mark Sanford to accept stimulus dollars for education and public safety. 'I'm grateful to have the support of my colleagues for this common sense plan to make sure our tax dollars are spent here at home and not in some other state,' said Sheheen."
• The Haley ad then says, "He's a big spending Columbia politician who supports a legislative slush fund that wastes our money on his pet projects."
  The Haley campaign says the "slush fund" is the competitive grants program, which was called a slush fund by the editorial board of The State newspaper. However, the competitive grants program was eliminated by lawmakers, so while he might have supported it in the past, it's inaccurate to say he "supports" it now, since it no longer exists.
  Haley's supporting documentation says, "Haley said the fund--used to pay for pet projects in lawmakers' districts such as community festivals--is 'an example of how government tries to be all things to all people and this is not a responsible way to spend tax dollars.'"
  But Nikki Haley also supported the "slush fund", requesting herself or supporting requests for 15 projects between 2006 and 2008. And while she criticizes Sheheen for funding "pet projects...such as community festivals", she requested $90,000 for the Lexington FunFest in 2006 and another $25,000 for that festival in 2007.
  Nikki Haley's requests from the "slush fund" total more than $463,000.
• And finally, Nikki Haley's ad says, "He's a trial lawyer who's against stopping runaway lawsuits that destroy jobs."
  It is true that Sheheen is a trial lawyer. But he voted to stop "runaway lawsuits that destroy jobs." The Senate Journal from March 8, 2005 shows that Sheheen voted in favor of a tort reform bill.

That's our Nikki.
When the truth hurts, she resorts to lies.
Nikki Haley is wrong for South Carolina.

You Can See Right Through Nikki Haley's Lies

Nikki Haley is your typical Republican.
A 'Say one thing, and do another' Republican.
Nikki Haley has based her campaign on the fact that she is nothing like current Republican governor, Mark "Appalachian Trail" Sanford, and that, if elected, her administration would be completely transparent. No secrets withheld from the people of South Carolina.
Nikki Haley lies.
It seems that she was asked, as was Democratic gubernatorial candidate Vincent Sheheen, to release legislative emails to the media. Sheheen has complied; Haley has not. Oh, she has released some emails, but others, well, not so much. And now her campaign says no further information will be coming from them; there are no more emails.
Nikki Haley is a hypocrite.
Vincent Sheheen has been hammering at Haley over her lack of transparency ever since she invoked a legislative exemption three months ago to shield her taxpayer-funded correspondence from the public. That's right, the Queen of Transparent government, is actually rather opaque.
According to The State newspaper, Haley referred to this exemption again last week in an effort to justify the limited amount of information she finally released.
So, just how incomplete was Haley’s disclosure?
First off, the hypocrite has only released emails from her “G” drive, which is where constituent email, and political spam, is sent. She has refused to release information from her “L” drive, which is where lawmakers conduct the majority of their electronic correspondence.
In addition, the emails Haley released last week only cover a three month period--April to June--of this year, making them totally irrelevant to reporters seeking to investigate any of the three separate affair allegations that have been made against her.
And, more importantly, Nikki Haley did not release any information from her state-issued computer hard drives; those drives keep a permanent record of all sent and received messages, as well as any deleted emails.
So, what Nikki Haley did was to basically dump all her political spam emails, and correspondence from her constituency, in the laps of reporters, and call it a day. And she calls that being transparent. But, the release of Haley’s emails was tightly-controlled by her campaign: reporters were not provided with copies of the emails, nor were they allowed to take photographs of them.
That is Nikki Haley's definition of transparency in government.

By contrast, Vincent Sheheen has released all emails from both his “L” and “G” drives. So, not surprisingly, the Sheheen campaign has blasted Nikki Haley for her failure to come clean, going so far as to compare her actions to those of another, less than transparent Republican, Richard Nixon.
Tray Robertson, Sheheen campaign manager:
“We have heard this story before...remember the missing 18 minutes of the tape? [Well] Representative Haley did not release all of her emails today. She did not release her L drive emails. The Freedom of Information deadline was August 2nd, but she delayed weeks and many of the emails have been deleted. What did those emails say and why weren’t they released? If Representative Haley really believed in transparency, she would have never have dropped these right before the weekend, which is a classic trick by politicians to hide bad news. What does Representative Haley have to hide?”
What she has to hide, and what she clearly cannot hide, is the fact that she is more of the same from the Party Of No. She is not honest; she says one thing and does another; she does not play by the rules which she, herself, have set up.
It's clearly transparent that Nikki Haley is wrong for South Carolina.

A Political Fable With A Truly Transparent Moral

from the diSCust:

Once upon a time in the Southern Kingdom of Carolina there was a princess named Nikki who wore nearly no clothes, for she believed the common people of the land wanted to see her for what she was.

Princess Nikki was fair of heart and well-liked by the king, and the commoners were enamored with the princess for, though they had never seen her, they all had heard the tales of the princess who wore nearly no clothes.

“A princess who wears nearly no clothes clearly has nothing to hide,” they would say, “we can trust a princess who wants us to see her for what she is.”

The legend of the princess grew and grew, spreading beyond the kingdom into other lands far and wide until everyone knew of the fair princess who wore nearly no clothes.

As it happened, the king’s reign was ending, and by tradition the common people were to choose among the princes, princesses, and commoners who should become the new ruler of the land.

The commoners of the Southern Kingdom of Carolina felt fortunate that the famous princess was in their kingdom. “We are the envy of all the neighboring lands who wish they had such a princess to lead them, for she wants us to see her for what she is.”

At long last the day of the great festival arrived where the commoners would gather and select their new ruler. All the subjects of the Southern Kingdom of Carolina crowded into the courtyard of the castle, anxious to finally meet Princess Nikki who wore nearly no clothes because she wanted the people to see her for what she was.

There was another aspiring leader at the festival, Prince Vincent, but there was little doubt that Princess Nikki would claim the throne.

It was a glorious day and spirits were high as the introductions began.

Prince Vincent was the first to appear on the stage. The people had heard tales of how popular he was among other princes and princesses but they wanted someone who had nothing to hide. “Why is he wearing clothes?” they asked each other. “He clearly does not want us to know him as he really is. He’s only wearing some clothes, but Princess Nikki wears nearly no clothes and that is the type of person we can trust, as she trusts us to see her as she really is.”

The gathered masses applauded Prince Vincent politely for they held no animosity towards him and though they thought he would likely be an able leader, he was certainly no Princess Nikki.

At long last a flourish of horns announced Princess Nikki, but as she took the stage the gathered masses gasped in unison.

“You cannot be Princess Nikki,” they cried, “Princess Nikki wears nearly no clothes and you are fully clothed.”

“I am Princess Nikki,” she replied, “and I indeed am wearing nearly no clothes because I have nothing to hide and I want you to see me for who I am.”

The good commoners of the Southern Kingdom of Carolina were confused. Though they wanted to believe Princess Nikki, she was not as they expected her to be.

“Princess,” a commoner in the crowed shouted “why you are wearing clothes over your torso?”

“The covering over my torso is not clothing,” Princess Nikki responded, “it is part of my royal privilege, afforded to princesses and princes alike though some choose not to display it. But I assure you I am wearing nearly no clothes because I have nothing to hide.”

“But you are wearing clothes over your arms,” another commoner insisted.

“The covering over my arms is not clothing, it is a gift from the king who has told me it is not clothing. As you know, I am wearing nearly no clothes because I want you to know me as I am.”

“But you are wearing clothes over your legs,” a third voice interjected.

“The covering over my legs is not clothing as you can surely see, it is merely a covering.”
“I have told you repeatedly that I wear nearly no clothing,” said Princess Nikki, “yet you continue to question me as to what I am wearing. All of you know who I am and you know I have nothing to hide, so why would you question the fact that I am wearing nearly no clothing?”

“I ask you, dear commoners of the Southern Kingdom of Carolina,” continued Princess Nikki, “do you believe what you know or are you fooled by what you see?”

Many of the people were content to continue believing what they knew to be true, that Princess Nikki wore nearly no clothing because she had nothing to hide.

And the rest of the people finally saw her for what she really was.

Vincent Sheheen For Governor.....He's From Smallville

The streets of Smallville were jammed last night. People everywhere; news trucks, video crews, journalists, lookie-loos.

Why all the hubbub, bub?

Well, it seems as if one of our own, Vincent Sheheen, won the Democratic primary to be the next governor of South Carolina. And he won big; by a margin of 3-to-1.

Now he'll face off against either, Nikki Haley, accused of having two affairs with two different men while her husband was deployed overseas, or Gresham Barrett, who advertised that, if elected, he run the illegal immigrants out of South Carolina like they did in Arizona.

Vincent Sheheen has a great chance to beat either one of these wingnuts. One of the great things about him is that he'll listen, and work with, both parties. He is a dyed-in-the-wool-Palinite-tea-party-wingnut, not a racist-asshat.

It'll be a long hot summer, but hopefully, come November, we'll have a Democrat in the Governor's Mansion in South Carolina.