Charleston's Democratic Women

As you may know, Charleston County Democratic Women has been around a long time, fighting for the rights of all South Carolinians.  They are working to make us more aware of the ongoing battles at the Statehouse for women's rights as well as healthcare, education, a living wage and the right to live free of racism and gun violence.  Membership and donations support like-minded candidates, so that we can change the pathetic record of rabid right-wing radicalism in our legislature.

The next meeting of CCDW is this Thursday, February 4, at 6 p.m. at the Holiday Inn Riverview.  The featured speaker is Will Moredock, author and columnist.  Will has been reporting on the weird, wacky and often offensive twists and turns of our state government for well over a decade.  His latest book is a collection of articles from 2002 to 2012 entitled Living in Fear: Race, Politics and the Republican Party in South Carolina.

Will has spoken passionately for women's rights, and is an advocate for reproductive rights, which, since the secretly recorded and heavily edited Planned Parenthood video, are even more under attack by state and federal legislators than they had been in previous years.  Our state legislature currently has twenty or more bills pending that would curb the rights of women to pursue legal abortions in South Carolina, and even restrict the ability to donate fetal tissue to research.

But the attack is not just against women.  It is against African Americans, the LGBT community, college students, workers.  Families, children, the poor, all are under fire from a legislature with the mantra of no taxes.  Small government is cited in denying Medicaid to the uninsured but doesn't apply at all when it is women's right to medical privacy that is being considered.  Bad state government is the reason South Carolina ranks 45th in financial security.

CCDW is planning on keeping us all informed about what is going on in Columbia, and in spearheading some grass roots actions in order to fight all those bad bills, and promote the good ones.

I hope you will be there on Thursday.  We can fight the insanity if we work together.

CCDW

Charleston County Democratic Women

February Meeting

Thursday, February 4, 6:00 PM to Socialize

Program Starts at 6:30!

Holiday Inn Riverview in Charleston

Optional Buffet Dinner is $20

Our Featured Speaker will be Charleston Author

Will Moredock

Living in Fear is a selection of his writings with a focus on the way that racial fear has shaped the politics and culture of our state. Also included in this collection is Will’s 7,000 word essay on the origin and future of these fears.

A South Carolina native and Charleston resident, Will is a veteran journalist with stints at The State Newspaper in Columbia and Creative and Loafing in Charlotte. From 2002 till 2012, he wrote a weekly column on South Carolina politics and culture for Charleston City Paper.

His work has appeared in newspapers around the country including the Washington Post, Philadelphia Inquirer and Charlotte Observer. He is also the author Banana Republic Revisited: 75 Years of Madness, Mayhem and Minigolf in Myrtle Beach and The Storm – A Story for Children.

He's Ba-ack!

Yes, it's just as certain as Punxsutawney Phil coming up on February 2.  The gnats always come out in the spring, and here in South Carolina, Ben Frasier will surely pop up at election time.  We had been wondering where he was in the fall, but he may have that same kind of sixth sense as our favorite groundhog, because instead, here he is, running in the Democratic primary for U.S. House District 1.

Less successful than our groundhog friend and more annoying than a gnat, his motivations have left some scratching their heads, and others, no less than Jim Clyburn, spitting.  In 2008, Will Moredock wrote that Frasier has "been a thorn in the side of the Democratic party for 20 years."  He is pro-Confederate flag, anti-abortion, anti-gay, and the only sensible reason one would think he has for running as a Democrat is that he is a Republican plant.

In 2004, as a warm-up to Jim DeMint, Frasier ran against Inez Tenebaum in the primary for U.S. Senate.  In 2008, when Alvin Greene was distracting us in the Senate race against DeMint, he wasted Linda Ketner's time and resources by challenging her in the primary for U.S. House District 1.  Which appears pretty much to be his game.

There doesn't seem to be much information about him floating around.  But we do know that he has a residence in Maryland and claims to own a driving school there (he is not listed as an owner, merely as one of several instructors).  His online bio at the driving school site claims that he is a retired federal police officer and has a law degree from the USP Academy, which is NOT the US Police Academy and does NOT offer law degrees, but DOES have very weird annoying sound effects on its site and appears to be located in India.  (Please correct me if I am  wrong.)  And you might also want to get a closer look at the Potomac Driving School.  The customer reviews are worth your time.

He apparently has a residence on Wadmalaw Island, a voter registration card and drivers license in South Carolina, which has been good enough for the SC Board of Elections.

Now if I were going to draw some conclusions from all this, I would have to say the expression "con artist" comes to mind.  Just as Alvin Greene was unlikely to have funded his 2008 campaign, I imagine that running in all these various and sundry races may be very lucrative for Mr. Frasier.

Or maybe not.  Perhaps he is just a concerned citizen who has a law degree and owns a driving school in Maryland and really, really believes that South Carolina needs his Democratic vision.