The Rare Ability to Piss Off Everyone

Party republicans here in SC are whining about the primary process.  It appears that they no longer like the open primaries that they have in the past used to great success.  In fact, they are so up in arms that they are finally moving toward changing to a closed system.  Democratic party officials, not to be outdone, are pissed off that a Democrat colored outside the line.

The big brouhaha is over former Bernie Democrat Dimitri Cherny, who has switched party affiliation in order to primary Mark Sanford in US House District 1.  The problem for republicans is that Cherny is using their own game against them.  The problem for Democrats is that he isn't playing the game by the rules.  The rules that republicans have consistently broken in order to win, and which has over the years given them control over all branches of government, including of late the Supreme Court.

Back in 2010, a smart and unscrupulous republican realized that if certain key state districts could be won and legislatures handed over to republicans, that would enable them to control the upcoming redistricting.  What resulted was the bizarre gerrymandering we have today, wherein most Democrats are swept into one huge district, and many other districts have a comfortable republican margin.  Read the brilliant book Ratf**cked by David Daley for the incredibly ballsy details behind Project REDMAP.  And note:  REDMAP 2020 is in the works.

Closer to home, and back to the republican snit over Cherny registering as a republican, we have indeed had our own questionable candidates.  Back when I was a new and naive blogger, there was Alvin Greene, who despite being totally unknown, handily defeated Vic Rawl in the Democratic primary.  Greene had no prior political experience or ambition.  A closer look (and there were lots of those) found him to have right-wing views on major issues and a couple of pending obscenity charges.  Before the primary he had done no campaigning.  Boy, were our faces red.

The media tried to come up with a number of lame excuses for why his candidacy -- and win -- were legitimate,  from Rawl only campaigned with robocalls and emails, to Greene's name was first alphabetically and on the ballot.  The most logical reason that an Alvin Greene could end up competing against Jim DeMint for the Senate is that he was a republican plant.

Then we have the twenty-year perennial candidate Ben Frasier, who popped up every couple years like Punxutawny Phil to primary a Democrat here in Charleston.  Each election season he dropped in with questionable residency and the ability to disrupt credible races and drain a candidate's financial resources.  He infuriated party elders like Jim Clyburn who accused him of being a plant, but was unstoppable.

Both the Alvin Greene and Ben Frasier fiascos left Democratic Party officials skittish, to say the least.  When Jay Stamper attempted to run against Lindsey Graham in 2014, rumors about his legitimacy had Dems running for cover.  He was not even allowed to introduce himself at a Charleston Democratic group meeting.  At the time, he seemed to me just the kind of candidate that could beat the republican:  fearless, smart, ballsy.  In other words, just the kind that republicans would fear and that Democrats... would also fear.

Stamper was running as a Democrat.  So it is not surprising that Dimitri Cherny would get at best the same kind of welcome as did Stamper.  Given that we actually do have two Democrats running in the primary for SC House District 1, it would make sense that we want our voters to show up for that particular primary.  Cherny has suggested it would be cool for Dems to choose to vote in the republican primary so they can vote for him.

I love you, Dimitri, but that's not going to happen.  What is more likely to happen, however, and what has republican panties in a bunch, is that he can throw a wrench into their primary, which with Dimitri now has three candidates.  I find that absolutely delightful.  Cherny is likely to appeal to younger and/or angrier voters, and given the third candidate, a woman, there is indeed a possibility that Sanford will not easily walk away with a primary win.  And even a win will leave him with republican voters who voted for one of the other candidates.  For once in his graced political life, Mark Sanford might end up breaking a sweat.

The neat thing about Cherny's run is that he just might get some people to get engaged on issues.  Sanford mumbles and bobs-and-weaves his way into sounding like he agrees with just about every stand, and then goes into Congress and votes 100% party line.  As a recent notable example, he happily showed up at town halls last year and expressed total understanding and sympathy over those who did not want to lose Obamacare, and then voted for each of the horrific repeal bills.  Most recently he voted for tax cuts for the rich, his true constituents.   And while he is smart enough to be against drilling off our own coast, he totally supports oil and gas company rights to drill every-damn-where else.  Leaving his supporters back home thinking he is on their side, with no one to challenge him.

The way I see this is:  Sanford wins, and has to go against a Democrat without as united a front as he has had in the past; OR, his republican opponent wins and without the name recognition leaves the Dems with a more level playing field.

OR, Dimitri Cherny wins.  And in the general election we have a Bernie Democrat running against... a Democrat.

No wonder republicans are so pissed off they are actually planning on changing the system.  But Dems, how about lightening up?  Take a page from the truly successful republican playbook and make lemonade out of this strange lemon.  You could just end up winning.

Living with Tim Scott's Bad Choices

Up till now, the secret to Tim Scott's success has been knowing what side his bread is buttered on.  And that side is not the side he grew up on, but that of the well-heeled capitalists who have found the perfect African-American republican.  Little white haired southern ladies love him, and all those rich old white guys know he will fight for them, from the right to bear arms to the right to run roughshod over the environment.

Scott isn't the brightest bulb in the chandelier, but unlike the republican candidate for president, he takes instruction well.  He believes in the republican dream, because it has worked for him.  So he can't see why it can't work for any black man in America.  All you have to do is work hard and suck up to the right... well, the right.  He jumped on the Tea Party bandwagon and it took him right to Washington, and then he sidled up to Nikki Haley, and sure enough, it took him out of the House of Representatives and into the Senate.

He was fortunate in that he did not have big intellectual shoes to fill in the Senate.  Jim duh-Mint may not have had anything going on as far as critical thinking skills, but like Tim, he knew where the power lay, and he learned the words to their song.  DeMint and Scott can recite the lines to the Tea Party Manifesto and they believe every word of it.  Because fortune has, as the Reagan bunch promised in 1980, trickled down to them.

Like, DeMint, Scott talks a good story about his hardscrabble childhood, and for Tim it really was;  no Andy Griffith's Mayberry for Tim Scott.  And as with so many who have worked hard and succeeded, they believe that those who don't succeed have no one to blame but themselves and the government.  In their minds, the government that gave DeMint and Scott an awfully good wage and benefits package is preventing the poor from finding success by helping them survive.

Scott doesn't come out too often and say that the poor should be dropped on their heads and left to fend for themselves.  Instead, he has succeeded by using the right-wing trick of attacking those who are trying to help.  Make Obama the bad guy and nobody will see those members of Congress who have been blocking any attempt to move the country forward.  Blame the president for Guantanamo Bay while Scott helped prevent any reasonable solution from finding its way into the debate.  And of course, make his constituents afraid and angry.

Remember ebola?  Tim Scott was front and center demanding that the government ban travel from affected countries.  No so much in the lead when it came to research and aid.  And, as with every other message from Scott regarding any problem anywhere in the country, he blamed the Obama administration for the government's response, whatever it would be.

Now, with the Zika virus, Scott and his hare-brained right-wing colleagues offer up a bill to provide funds for research.  Really???  Check it out.  Carefully.  Because when right-wing politicians tell you the government is going to help, it is really is time to lock up your valuables.  Because first of all, that bill would waive the Clean Water Act to allow for spraying -- when your kids get sick from the chemicals Scott will blame the president, by the time cancer rates have risen he will be on some private corporate payroll.  And here is the capper:  sandwiched in the middle of his description of the bill are the words:  "Offset this spending."  What he fails to mention is that Zika spending will be offset by ebola funds.

Pretty slick, and certainly not dreamed up in Tim Scott's small brain.  He is merely barfing up republican talking points.  The way our current republican presidential nominee has been forced from time to time to regurgitate words dictated by his republican colleagues.

And while politicians like Senate colleague Lindsey Graham who are more secure in their own shoes are speaking out against the diseased mind of Donald Trump, Tim Scott is all in.  He will support Trump in spite of racist attacks and unconstitutional proposals, because Tim Scott can't say no to the republican party.  That is where his bread has been buttered, and he hasn't noticed that when buttered bread lands on the floor, it always lands face down.

This is a really good time for South Carolinians to take a look at Scott's Democratic opponent, Thomas Dixon.

  

Video thanks to Elaine Cooper

Dixon understands what we need from our government because, as he says,

"I was part of the problem for a long time.  I was the person who was so wrapped around me and caught up in me that whatever hurt anybody else didn't matter to me. 

But one day I woke up."

 Dixon woke up.  And that is why today he fights for human rights.  The right to be safe from gun violence.  The right to earn a living wage.  The right to love whom you choose.  A woman's right to make her own reproductive choices, privately.  The right of veterans and seniors to live in security.  The right to healthcare for all.

Tim Scott may have had it rough when he was young.  But he was bought out with promises of success, and every time he votes against those who need his help he realizes that success.  So he is not going to wake up.

And that is why we need to support Thomas Dixon for Senate.  His supporters don't have deep pockets like those of Tim Scott, but that is exactly why we need him to represent us.  And we may not have a fortune, but we can send him our small donations, and we can vote just as well as the well-heeled.

So please spread the word about Thomas Dixon, and help elect him to the Senate in November.  Tim Scott, like Jim DeMint, will do just fine in the private sector.  And we will do just fine with him gone, and Thomas Dixon taking that seat.

Thomas Dixon

for

U.S. Senate

The (Absolute) Least We Can Do

While other states, mostly those that aren't busy trying to dictate women's reproductive health and make sure there are guns in every home, business and classroom, have increased the minimum wage, our legislators are still mostly not sure if that's necessary.  In 2015, there are 29 states which have increased the minimum to wage to levels above the federal minimum wage.

Now, the fact that we have to do that anyway really reflects just how out-of-touch our Congress is with the needs of its citizens.  Not only do our elitist senators and representatives assume that their extraordinary wages and benefits (and extra goodies) are well deserved, they just can't see a need for their constituents to be making a living wage.  Of course this represents the philosophy that what goes into the pockets of American workers is going to come out of the pockets of the millionaires and billionaires who are the people they really truly work for.  Out-of-touch meaning really far away from the rest of us, and pretty much holding hands with guys like the Kochs.

But it is what it is, and it's good that states have recognized that waiting for Congress to do the right thing is decidedly the wrong thing.

And here in South Carolina, there is a bill in the Senate, S 146, which proposes to put the question of raising our state minimum wage on the 2016 ballot.  We don't want to rush into anything here, because those who are struggling to try to live on the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour sure wouldn't have a problem waiting.  And of course raising the minimum wage to $1 an hour over the federal rate would hardly be called providing people with a livelihood.

We've heard all the lame arguments about why idiots like Jim DeMint (remember him???) are opposed to increasing the minimum wage:  it's only kids who live at home that make the minimum wage, it would be so costly to employers that they would have to cut jobs, it's anti-American for the government to set a minimum wage.  DeMint may be hiding out at the Heritage Foundation instead of wasting space in Congress, but folks like Tim Scott are happy to fill his expensive shoes.  So we aren't going to see a reasonable federal minimum wage anywhere in the near future.

And the fact is, it takes so long to move our federal lawmakers to increase the minimum wage that by the time it goes into effect it is still too low to make a dent.

But we got what we got, and what we got here in South Carolina is S 146.  And on Wednesday, May 13, at 10 a.m., the bill will go before a Senate Labor, Commerce and Industry Subcommittee.  Here are the members of the subcommittee, and their phone numbers:

Kevin Bryant, Chairman (R) -- 803-212-6320; 864-202-8394
Glenn Reese (D) -- 803-212-6108; 864-592-2984
Shane Massey (R) -- 803-212-6024; 803-480-0419
Kent Williams (D) -- 803-212-6000; 843-362-0307
Lee Bright (R) -- 803-212-6008; 864-576-6742

Or you can send an email by going to scstatehouse.gov, click on "Senate" and then click on "email" and then click on the senator's name.  Unfortunately, you can't do it as a group but you can copy and paste your message in each email.  Put S 146 in the Subject line, and be sure to begin the message by 1) saying if you are a constituent (you don't have to be a constituent to write, but if you are you should let the guy know) and 2) saying "Please support S-146, to allow South Carolina voters to decide on whether there should be an increase in the minimum wage."

Then you can add a sentence or two stating that people can't live on $7.25 an hour, a raise in the minimum wage would take people off the food stamp rolls, an increased minimum wage would put more money into the economy and be good for business in South Caroline, etc.  Don't worry about your literary skills, some of these guys are minimally literate anyway.  They just need to see how many of us are behind this ballot measure.

This is what I just sent to each member of the committee (yeah, even Lee Bright):

I am writing to urge you to support S 146 which would allow voters to decide whether the minimum wage in South Carolina should be raised.
Raising the minimum wage would be a boon to the economy, as the increased wages would be spent in businesses throughout the state.  It would make employees less dependent on government assistance to survive.
Please vote Yes on this bill.

And here's another thing you can do:  you can go to the Statehouse on Wednesday to lobby for a raise in the minimum wage.  Nothing makes a legislator want to say yes than having to look a constituent in the eyes.  If you are able to make it up to Columbia, would like to sign up for a ride, or would like more information, contact Loreen Myerson at:

LoreenJMyerson@gmail.com or 415-637-9119.

Our legislators can do this, but they need to know we are watching.

Tim Scott for the Workers

I'm not sure which weekly email is funnier, The Borowitz Report or Tim Scott's weekly message.  I know which one is more accurate, and kudos to Andy Borowitz for that.  Whoever is doing Tim Scott's messaging apparently thinks his audience not only will believe anything, but won't notice when he leaves out important things, like facts.

I was excited when I read today that Senator Scott is going to bring back the 40-hour work week.  And then I though, gee this is Tim Scott, I'd better read the fine print.  So I clicked on the link that said "Read more about the Amendment here," and I got what amounts to more nonsense about Obamacare and how requiring employers to provide health insurance to employees is destroying full-time employment, here.  So, to summarize, no guarantee of a 40-hour work week, just another way to keep employees from being guaranteed health care.

Of course, Tim Scott has a lovely paid health insurance plan, paid for by us, who I guess theoretically are his employers.

What I would like to say is that it is insulting for Scott to lie to his constituents.  He is not introducing a bill that will bring back the 40-hour work week.  If guaranteeing health insurance was the thing that was killing full-time employment, everyone would have had full-time employment before the Affordable Care Act.  In fact, when I got my first full-time job in a supermarket way back in the last century, in 1971, months into that job "time-study experts" descended.  Of course that means the harder you work the fewer people you need, and my full-time job was cut to part-time.  During the halcyon days of Ronald Reagan there was another wave of job killing, again nothing to do with requiring health insurance, but with increasing profit.

Here are a few more reality based comments on requiring employers to provide health care:

There has never been a correlation between employers cutting hours in order to avoid paying health insurance.  Now, that doesn't mean that they won't whine and threaten.  And I'm sure there are some employers who will actually follow through.

But employees with health insurance (and benefits like sick pay) are more reliable, and yes, healthier.  Employers who provide decent health insurance coverage (not Walmart) tend to have more respect for employees.  A business that is large enough to fall under the Obamacare mandate should have an employer that is savvy enough to understand that accessible health care is important to a smoothly running business, and able to budget insurance for employees in as an expense.

Chris Haire had a little fun with Tim Scott's nonsense.  I think we should all thank Scott for pretending to care about his working constituents.  After all, unlike his predecessor Jim DeMint, he at least cares enough to lie, whereas DeMint just pretty much ignored us.  Of course, just as with Scott's health insurance plan, his disinformation campaign is brought to us by us, the taxpayers.

A Planned Parenthood

For better or worse, much of my life has been a tight squeeze financially.  So I have learned to stretch a dollar pretty much till I could see through it.  That includes giving by volunteering rather than with cash.

There are two exceptions to that rule.  The first is the American Civil Liberties Union, for which I maybe don't donate a lot, but I do donate annually.  I figure, without the ACLU, we would most likely be, well, Russia.

The other exception is Planned Parenthood.  This group, like me, knows how to stretch a dollar, but unlike me, they are under constant attack from (as Jim DeMint likes to say) enemies of freedom.  Like ACORN, Planned Parenthood provides services to those who would do without.  And like ACORN, Planned Parenthood's service to the underserved is a great opportunity for the wealthy and powerful.  By attacking those who help the underserved, they are able to keep the focus off their own greedy schemes.

Right now, this very weekend, the Republican House added to their agenda of evil an anti-contraception provision to their already Grinchy funding bill.

Here in South Carolina, each year we are under attack by the truly anti-life right wing in our state legislature, with bills restricting doctors who perform women's services, redefining "life" in ever more absurd ways in order to restrict abortion, and attempting to prohibit access to contraception.

And of course, under attack throughout the country, is Planned Parenthood.

Which is why I am asking you all to do something I rarely do:  donate.

Not as easy as you think.  If you go to the Planned Parenthood website and click on "Donate" you may end up giving to the national organization, in which case our own center will get a mere cut.  In order to donate fully to our own hard-working South Carolina branch this is what you need to do:

1.  Follow this link:  http://www.plannedparenthood.org/health-systems/

2.  On the top right, click on "Donate."

3.  On the right, where it says you can "Give to a specific local affiliate, click here."

4.  At the top where it says Organization, scroll down and select "SC" and "Planned Parenthood Health Systems, Inc."

5.  Be as generous as you can.

After all, doesn't every child deserve a planned parenthood?

Forced Pregnancy

Here in the state where our legislators are working with the NRA to put a gun in every home, bar and school, this land where individual rights are supposedly sacred (literally, as in "God-given"), the battle continues to be fierce over controlling those among us least able to fight back.

While our governor is hard at work cutting health benefits for the poor and making sure that a woman of limited means can't buy a birthday cake with her food stamps, we have a whole slew of bills in both houses of the legislature which aim to make sure that if we get pregnant, we are forced to carry that pregnancy to term.

Lee Bright, Senator from Spartanburg, has been called sanctimonious and "not that bright."  Which is a deadly combination for women, children and the poor in general.  And he has set his mind on sending Lindsey Graham the dreaded "challenge from the right."

Graham, bless his heart, has determined he will out-crazy Bright, and particularly in the area of arming every one of our citizens.  To protect them from our government.  Which he represents.

Senator Graham has filled the void left by the moronic Jim DeMint this year, with a memorable quote on gun rights always at the ready.  You just can't out right-wingnut someone who argues against banning high capacity magazines this way:

"Would I be a reasonable American to want my family to have the 15-round magazine in a semi-automatic weapon, to make sure, if there's two intruders, she doesn't run out of bullets?" he asked. "Am I an unreasonable person for saying that in that situation, the 15-round magazine makes sense?"

So God apparently told Senator Bright to stay away from gun rights and take on that other enemy of the people of South Carolina -- women.

He has right out of the starting gate sponsored the Personhood Act (S 83), and just in case we didn't get it, the Life Begins at Conception Act (S 87), along with a lot of other batshit paranoid bills involving Sharia law (S 81) and funding of prisoners wanting sexual reassignment therapy (S 80).

But then he was quiet.  Too quiet.

Because this week he was back at it with three new forced pregnancy bills:

S 618 seeks to insure that if you work for the state of South Carolina, your health insurance will not cover abortions.  So only state employees of means -- for instance someone like Lee Bright -- would be able to afford to pay for a family member to terminate a pregnancy.  Assuming you work in a lesser capacity for the state of South Carolina, and don't have the financial wherewithal of Senator Bright, you not only will not be able to afford an abortion, but you likely won't be able to afford the baby you have been forced to have.

If not having insurance coverage doesn't work, there are two other bills brought to you by Senator Bright:

S 623 is lovingly called the Human Heartbeat Protection Act (sigh), and its companion forced pregnancy bill is S 626, the incredibly named Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act.  What they really do is prohibit abortions at 12-weeks and 20-weeks.

Make no mistake.  Lee Bright is not much different than the Taliban who have radicalized the concept of Shariah law to control Muslim women.  He seeks the power and notoriety of fellow wackos Jim DeMint and Lindsey Graham.  One would hope that on the national stage he would become as neutralized as Todd Akin after his "legitimate rape" pronouncement.

But meanwhile, we have to deal with him here, in South Carolina, as he attempts to make his name by decimating the rights of women.

I believe the very first thing we should do is more appropriately name this fight.  By calling it abortion, we have allowed ourselves to be focused on the fetus, and whatever aspect of "life" the religious radicals want to speculate upon.

What we really have here is forced pregnancy.  What is being legislated is the right of the lawmaker to control a woman's body, and her trained medical doctor's treatment of her.

We don't have here anything like a concern for infants and children, and surely no concern for the welfare of a pregnant woman.  These laws come from ignorance and seek to coerce.  Whether a woman is being forced to wear a veil so as not to enflame the desires of men who cannot be expected to control themselves, or to carry to term a pregnancy that is not of her choice, the purpose is the same.

We need to loudly oppose these bills, and Senator Lee Bright.  We need to tell our legislators to stop forced pregnancy legislation.  We need to inform the people of South Carolina that this is going on, else we become the next state to fall victim to these most un-Christianlike religious freaks.  Our daughters, our sisters, our mothers, our friends and neighbors, are at the edge of the precipice, where their bodies and their lives will be under the control of the State.

If you asked Lee Bright, what he stands for is freedom from state control.  But what he means is the freedom to control.

What's New on April 1

Here are some news items for South Carolina:

A bill has been introduced in the state legislature banning nuclear weapons strikes within the state, but it does allow individuals to carry rocket launchers.

Jim DeMint has been forced to resign from his position as president of a national think tank, due to the fact that he has run out of thoughts.

And lastly, Mark Sanford is reported missing.  He is thought to be campaigning on the Appalachian Trail.

Isn't it a great day in South Carolina?!

Tim Scott on Gun Control

Good luck trying to find a comment from South Carolina's Tim Scott on gun control since the massacre of six-year-olds in Newtown.  Like his hero, Jim DeMint, and his bedfellows at the NRA, Scott knows when to keep a low profile.

But his pro-gun votes go way back, and there is no grey area in this issue for our Tim.  Like fellow House wacko Louis Gohmert, who "just wish to God (the Sandy Hook Elementary School principal) had an M-4 in her office," Tim can't imagine a situation that wouldn't be improved by a gun.

How does he know?  He prays on it.  And, amazingly, he and God have 100% agreement on this issue, as well as all others.

God doesn't talk to me so much, so I can only assume what the conversation was like.  I imagine God told Tim that our children might get gunned down from time to time, but, as God's buddy DeMint might say, "That's the way FreedomWorks."

And we may see his position on women's reproductive rights as intrusion, but I imagine Tim merely sees it as God giving us more babies to make up for the lives lost in acts of gun violence.  

At least Tim's pro-gun control stance aligns well with his anti-abortion sentiments:  he is 100% pro-life until birth.

Let the Games Begin -- So Soon???

I haven't yet had an anxiety dream over it, but when I left the shelter of Wadmalaw Island today to visit civilization, and read the Post & Courier article speculating about Haley's appointment to DeMint's Senate seat, I felt my little heart start to pound.

Because if Haley does appoint Tim Scott to the Senate seat (and Tim Scott's people are all over that), that would leave his House seat open.  AND there would be no appointment for that seat; we would be back to the voting booths, people.

Now I could name a grunch (i.e., greater than a bunch) of y'all who I would love to see have another go at that House seat.  We dems have no shortage of really good, really smart, really qualified people to run that race.

What worries me is that, in order to have a shot at winning, we would need three things:

1.  Money -- Those super-sized billboards you may have noticed cost bucks.  And for those many voters who get their news from FOX, it is going to take TV and radio ads galore to "inform" those folk.  Not to mention mailings to compete with the last minute quality stuff people like Peter McCoy might be sending out.

2.  Money -- If you've just recently run a campaign in this state, you just might not be able to quit your day job, or put your life on hold to do it again.  Those volunteers who worked their tails off in lieu of a paid campaign committee might really want to do it again, but I guarantee they will lack some of the verve they had not so long ago.

3.  Money -- All those awards officeholders like Tim Scott and Peter McCoy have gotten while in office don't come cheap.  You need to be willing to work for your money, and they have.  That means a nearly unending stream of funds from out-of-state big business lobbying groups with big pockets will be making sure that the republican candidate of their choice won't have to lose sleep over the race.  These are the real "party planners."

So, given that, to all you wonderful Democrats who have probably heard nothing since Thursday but, "Well, are you going to do it?" I would like to say, "So are you?"

Because if you are, I am with you.  Let's WIN THIS THING.

(sigh)

Taking the "Think" Out of "Think Tank"

The Heritage Foundation has pretty much always been more about greed than about smarts.  But yesterday, Jim DeMint announced his plans to dumb down the organization just that much more.

If you've been out of town, or perhaps on a space shuttle back from Mars, you may have missed Jim DeMint's resignation, effective January, from the Senate.  He tells us that his decision to accept the position of president of the Heritage Foundation is because the conservative movement "needs strong ideas."  This is like Big Bird trying to convince ETV that he is leaving to teach omelette making.

I see three reasons for Mr. DeMint's jumping ship.

First of all, he may not be smart, but he is shrewd.  I imagine he started to squirm as the national election results began to come in.  It appears he has decided to leave his Tea Party compatriots blowin' in the wind of the electorate's move to more progressive, less corporate, ideals.

Secondly, DeMint is hardly very smart, but he is greedy.  This move will bring him in many more dollars with which he can continue to fight taxation for the common good.

Finally, DeMint is most decidedly not smart, but he knows what he likes.  He does not like talking to people who will ask him annoying questions, or expect him to be accountable for his decisions.  His last election campaign, Running for Re-Election for Dummies, was aided by anonymous donors who vaulted the mysterious and comedic Alvin Greene into the Democratic nominee position, right over a candidate with brains.

Jim DeMint is right up there with Clarence Thomas when it comes to sulking and refusing to talk.  Both believe that their positions of power should not involve having to rub elbows with the peasants they rule.  Beyond that, they hate, hate, HATE being argued with, much less mocked.  It is my belief that DeMint still has nightmares over being the national laughingstock over his comments about single pregnant women not being allowed to teach.

Never again.  Just as Clarence Thomas will never be required to utter a word to anyone he deems beneath him, Jim DeMint will now be amongst like fellows.

So, I would like to join the Washington Post in saying that I'm tickled that you have decided to leave this august institution, making it just a bit more august than it was while you were there.  As South Carolina's own Representative Jim Clyburn pointed out, you didn't get along all that well with the other members of Congress, even those on your own side of the aisle.

I wonder how long before Heritage Foundation starts to realize just what they got themselves into....

Proud to Be Tim

Apparently, my soon-to-be-former congressman, Tim Scott, heard that I was going to miss him.  He has been spamming my email since the election.  I can only assume that he is revving up for 2014, and I am willing to bet that he is looking to replace Senator Jim DeMint when DeMint resigns from the Senate to become King of the Tea Party.

Tim always did want to grow up to be Jim DeMint.

Now, when I say Tim Scott is "my" congressman, it is in the sense that I might "have" a bad case of poison ivy.  It is only mine in the sense that I have to deal with it.

In his latest email, South Carolina's reigning African-American Tea Partier leads off with telling me how he is fighting to keep us from getting pushed off that fiscal cliff.  He is of course going to do it without raising taxes on job creators, because that would be "punishing success."

Hmph.

I would think that punishing success has more to do with the low pay we in South Carolina get for our hard work, or the high rate of unemployment for our high school and college graduates.  Or how about trying to make seniors work longer before they can collect social security benefits, and wait longer for Medicare benefits, after a life of contributing to both?  I'm thinking that voting against affordable student loans is pretty much punishing success right there.

Tim Scott is not afraid to brag that he has just received another one of those awards, this time the National Association of Manufacturer's Award for -- hold your hats -- Manufacturing Legislative Excellence!  Now I know the kind of awards our Tim gets, so I looked this bunch up.  Sure enough, they are an industry lobbying group.  You know, the guys who have a lot more money to throw around in D.C. than you or I do.  They want to help convince our legislators that, for example, the Environmental Protection Agency is an evil enterprise.  I guess Tim got the award because he didn't take that much convincing.

Apparently, he also sent holiday greetings to our troops overseas, which means a lot more to him than voting for bills that would improve the way of life of returning veterans.

Our Tim is never one to forget to send a card.

I wish the hypocrisy was funny, but it's not.  We really should be outraged that this fortunate young man pretends to care about the working class people in neighborhoods like the one where he was raised, and then votes repeatedly against those people.  He has thrown his lot in with the moneyed interests, who then give him phony-baloney awards for doing their bidding.

So, once again, shame on you Tim Scott.  

Using Our Veterans

Tim Scott and Jim DeMint are like your grown-up children who take your money and ignore your advice; you don't hear from them all year and then send you a flowery birthday card telling you all the ways they love you.

It came as no surprise today to find emails from both proclaiming their devotion to our veterans.  I'll admit, I did not read them, because to be honest, whatever they say reeks of hypocrisy; the words never change, and it infuriates me.  So I'll spend my time sharing my thoughts with you rather than reading theirs.

These are two arrogant men who believe they have a special relationship with God.  They use their religion much the way they use our veterans.  Even Jesus had his differences with His Father, but DeMint and Scott have never had an opinion that God did not wholeheartedly endorse.

They both propound that they are fighting for "life" but resoundingly vote "no" to health care for all.  And they are against gun control of any kind; you have as much right to that assault rifle as to that 12-gauge you hunt deer with.

And they both hold two exceptions to how essential it is to reduce our debt.  The first is that no one with wealth should have to contribute a penny more than those without.  The second is that we should pay whatever the cost to arm ourselves.

Which brings me back to our soldiers.  These hypocrites have voted against jobs and training bills for veterans, health care bills for them and their families, help with housing.  They don't give a damn that soldiers who signed on have been sent over and over and over again, while their spouses have struggled alone to raise a family.  They speak of our need for military strength in terms of weapons, while ignoring a country fighting hunger, homelessness, poor education, inadequate health care.  That country, of course, being ours.

Yet they routinely send out the pretentious emails claiming their love of country and of the soldiers and veterans who have defended it.  And those who are fortunate enough to not have to endure the results of their cold-hearted congressional acts will wipe away tears and thank God for Jim DeMint and Tim Scott.

South Carolina's Idiot of the Month

I found election night depressing.  I thought everybody in the country would be depressed, until I watched the national news the next day.  It seems I had forgotten that I now live in South Carolina.

Here in South Carolina, we are proud that our relationship with God means that we can be ignorant.  And the poster child for that philosophy is re-elected US Representative Jeff Duncan.

He is a proud Tea Party member and fondly helped along by the ever-so-radical FreedomWorks, so right-wing he arm-wrestles Jim DeMint for the title of biggest right-wing-nut in Congress.

His claim to fame nationally was just about a year ago, when he asserted that allowing "illegals" to stay in this country was like letting vagrants and animals into your house, maybe looking for food, or maybe just wanting to do your dishes.

Closer to home, in 2007 Duncan sponsored a bill to allow guns to be carried concealed into any public school.  This was his empathic, God-directed response to the mass killing at Virginia Tech.  His logic of course was that had there been  some good ole' boy carryin' his weapon, that shooter would have been taken down, pronto.  Even in South Carolina, that bill was quietly put to sleep.

Jeff doesn't think up things like that all on his own.  He will tell you ad nauseum that he does pray for God's help in making decisions in Congress.  Amazingly, God has never disagreed with Duncan's view on any proposed legislation.

Jeff Duncan was disappointed in the presidential election outcome.  I doubt that Mitt would have tickled his fancy either -- far too left-wing for our Jeff.

So Congressman Duncan has decided that it's going to just be up to the House of Representatives to carry on the fight for democracy.  That means things like drilling closer to shore, a national sales tax, ridding us of that "job killing and socialistic" Obamacare, and of course getting those nasty illegals out of this great Christian land of ours.

It was with some pleasure, then, that I found five minutes from Duncan on You-Tube from last November:

Our representative was horrified, just horrified, that our President had failed to give thanks to God during his Thanksgiving address to the nation.

The thing that most tickled me about this, and reminded me that South Carolina does not a country make, is that there were about four times as many "dislike" ratings than "likes."  Having lived here for some thirteen years now, I sometimes lose my perspective.  So thank you, the rest of the country, for reaffirming that Jeff Duncan is a jackass.

Also, though, keep an eye on him this month, because November seems to be when his stupidity and arrogance busts out all over, kind of like a reverse spring.  I guarantee he will have lots more to say about what's wrong with everybody but him and those other crazies in Congress, and I for one, will not want to miss it.

So, Jeff Duncan, congratulations on being November's South Carolina's Idiot of the Month. 

A Sad Day

We all remember the tragedy and horror of 9/11.

And just in case you may not have noticed the date, you will see that your inbox has touching and patriotic emails from the likes of Tim Scott, and even Jim DeMint has condescended to reach out to us.

It is appalling to me that they take advantage of the tragedy to sound the drumbeat for patriotism, talk about the bravery of the first responders and the loss of lives on that day.

Because when it comes to putting their votes where their mouths are, these people consistently vote against people like first responders, against healthcare and benefits for the military who have volunteered to protect us since that day.  They preach about the value of life and vote against bills that would make our lives safer and more secure, like gun control.  And they brag about how they fight for freedom, and then vote for the right to control a woman's body, prevent her from taking care of herself and her family the best way she can.

Maybe our right-wing Tea Party "patriots" need to do a little more reflecting on 9/11, and a lot less politicizing of it.

When Tim Scott's Freedom Is Not Our Freedom

The U. S. House Representative for SC District 1, who is not and never has been my representative, although I live in that district, has a peculiar view of freedom.

For example, he believes that women should not have the freedom to access contraceptive care, but that employees should have the freedom to not provide this coverage when the law requires it.

He calls it "conscience."

I call it bullshit.

When a religious institution feels comfortable taking my tax dollars, which I do not have the freedom to withhold from said groups, regardless of my conscience, the very least obligation they should have is to follow the law.  If their conscience causes angst, they can refuse the federal dollars.  They can also stop pretending they should be tax-exempt.

Tim Scott passionately professes his belief in "life."  That, too, is bullshit.  Jesus, neither Scott's nor anyone else's, would never condone automatic weapons (or war, for that matter).  When innocents are getting gunned down in a classroom or a movie theater, Scott should have more important things on his "conscience" than whether or not a woman should be allowed free contraceptives.

This hypocrisy would puzzle me more if it didn't so much follow the money.  The National Rifle Association has incredible power in this country, and incredibly deep pockets.  So it is no surprise that when Scott "prays" on issues, gun control provokes as resounding a "no" from God as does contraception.

No disrespect to God, however.  Because when Tim Scott prays, he may think he is hearing God's voice, but in fact he is hearing answers that are easy on his ears.  The voice he actually hears, I believe, is that of Jim DeMint.

I have yet to hear of a vote cast by Tim Scott that he has not only agonized over, but then voted against what his hero in the Tea Party has dictated.

And so freedom, for Tim Scott, is the freedom to hear whatever voices he chooses to hear, and to vote "for life" when it is convenient, and anti-life when the NRA and Jim DeMint tell him to.

Shame on you, Tim Scott.

Keeping Whom Honest?

I've been wondering what's been going on with Jim DeMint.  Sure he sends us "Freedom alerts" to let us know what he is voting no on in order to make sure his constituents, i.e., Christians and Corporations, continue to be free to stomp on the rest of us.  But here it is, election season, and I haven't heard him referred to as a kingmaker, not once.  Not like Mr. D to keep his cards close; he's more the kind that thinks it's important to share his wealth (of knowledge) with the common folk.


So I was tickled to hear that Senator DeMint was on the panel questioning JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon about the loss of 2 billion dollars.  I was not disappointed.


Dimon was no doubt anticipating a dressing down, much like the 2008 scolding of the auto industry CEO's who flew in on separate jets to tell Congress they were broke.  Or maybe the kind of all-out vitriolic attack like that directed at Attorney General Eric Holder just days earlier.


Was he in for a surprise.


Our own Jim DeMint pretty much apologized to Dimon, put his arm around him and comforted him, basically saying, "It could have happened to anyone."  In fact, he and the other Class Clowns on the republican side appear to have strategized that this was the perfect time to point out just how much more incompetent was the U.S. Government.


The result should have been embarrassing, except for the fact that these men know no shame.


Wouldn't it be great, though, if DeMint et al were forced to appear before Jon Stewart of the Daily Show, who would hold them accountable?

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DeMint's Freedom Watch

It was with a mixture of dread and glee that I opened the email from Jim DeMint a few days ago.  I enjoy seeing how long it takes for him to throw out the word "freedom" in his "pro-America" missives.  Today he did it in fifteen words.  (Of course, you can't count the title of his newsletter – "Freedom Alert" – that would be cheating.)  Kudos, Senator DeMint.

DeMint was all up in arms about the possibility that the House would pass the bill renewing the Export-Import Bank.  Okay, I admit, I had no idea what the Export-Import Bank actually is or does, which puts me in good company, I believe, with most American voters.  But I gritted my teeth and did the bare minimum of research, so that I could attempt to form a barely minimal intelligent opinion on this issue.

It appears that the Export-Import Bank makes loans and guarantees to American businesses so that they can sell goods to foreign countries.  The original intention was to help businesses that would otherwise not be able to compete, but apparently has – surprise – been used to finance big corporations like Boeing.  Causing other big corporations, like Delta, to get up in a huff over the preferential treatment.

DeMint, who apparently is a big fan of freedom, claims not to be taking sides against Boeing, he just doesn't think the US should be making loans to businesses at all.  Even though, according to the Washington Post,

"The bank operates through fees and interest charges and does not receive money from the government."

Now the thing is, Demint has gotten so extreme that he is to the right of Eric Cantor on this, who was willing to work out a compromise in the House.  But he has learned to have people write such purple patriotic prose under his name that people like me who know little or nothing about things like the Export-Import Bank just want to stand up and salute.

It is hard to grasp the intricacies of our government.  I tend to believe that if I can't do it, Jim DeMint surely hasn't a clue.  But he does tend to go with his heart, and his heart lies right inside his ego.  He has gained so much notoriety in right-wing and Tea Party circles, that titles like "king maker" have gone right to his head.  And with little sense or reason to fall back on, DeMint does what has worked up till now, which is to veer ever farther right.

So when he becomes so extreme that he loses friends and allies in big business and in the republican party, he continues to tell himself and all who will listen, that he is single-handedly fighting the fight for freedom.  And what is freedom?  It is, of course, whatever Jim DeMint is fighting for.

DeMint Does Daily

You have to see Jon Stewart interview our own Jim DeMint on The Daily Show.  I was so excited at the thought that Jon Stewart was going to make DeMint eat every one of his convoluted thoughts.


Things started well.  DeMint showed up in his rumpled, too-large, Sunday go-to-meeting suit, and I noted that he was the one with the blue tie, Stewart with the red.  Also, Mr. Stewart's chair appeared to be slightly highly than Senator DeMint, so that he appeared to tower over him physically as well as intellectually.


But the part that aired on television was a disappointment.  To see the real interview you need to get past part 1, where Stewart is being attentive and way too agreeable.  I actually worried that Stewart had met his match in DeMint, that even this brilliant interviewer couldn't figure out how to cut through the nonsense.


But parts 2 and 3, on the internets, is where Stewart gets his stride.   By the time he has confronted the senator with DeMint's enflamed rhetoric, the accusations that anyone who is liberal does not love his country, or is not patriotic, and before he gets to the damage being done by the right's unwillingness to compromise, he actually has DeMint stammering.  It is a beautiful thing to see.


Even better though, is that Stewart restates for us what it is that makes America great.  He channels Elizabeth Warren when he says "...no one makes it here by themselves".  Because we are all in this together, and when the powerful corporations are not held in check with regulation, and are not made to contribute an adequate amount of their profits to allow the rest of the country to grow, we all fail.  Eventually.


On the other hand, looking again at the video, Jim ends the interview as smug as ever, and I don't believe he ever had an idea that he had been bested.  It will surely take more than reason to bring down.


But I'm glad Jon Stewart was able to shine a little light on the idiocy that is Jim DeMint

DeMint in a Vacuum

Proud to be from Jim DeMint country again today.  It was that strange Alice in Wonderland kind of experience that happens so often whenever someone from the republic party opens his mouth.


Checked my email, to find a message from Senator DeMint, dated today, Veterans Day.  In it, he goes on about how grateful we should all be to our troops who are risking their lives for us.  Blah, blah, blah.  Contemplated sending a reality based reply, then remembered that that would be like a thought being swallowed by a black hole, and hit delete.


A short while later, I was catching up on yesterday's news, and, quelle suprise, DeMint's name came up.


Seems that yesterday, the day before Veterans Day, Senator DeMint was the only no-vote on a bill to provide tax credits to employers who hire veterans.


Jim thinks this is a "democrat" plot to make him look bad.  And besides, it would be unfair to give an advantage to a guy who just returned from getting shot at defending our country.


Good to know that Jim DeMint has a sense of fair play, even though his command of the English language is questionable.


Actually, forgive my cynicism, but despite the fairy tale spun by the Heritage Foundation, many of the returning veterans are likely to be working class or poor, and many are persons of color.  If those coming back were well-connected, not only would they not be needing the government's help in getting a fair shake, but DeMint would be all over it, wanting to make sure we gave our veterans what they "deserve".


I don't believe that Jim DeMint is a racist.  I believe he is a class warrior.  He will fight and fight tirelessly for those who have, because in his mind, they (himself included) deserve what they have.


So, on the one hand, veterans, Jim DeMint thanks you for your service.  On the other hand, now that you're back, you're on your own.