Every night, we who post Top Comments open the Gmail inbox at TopComments AT gmail D0T com to see our "gifts" - comments of the day as chosen by you. Some days are diamonds, and we get lots of comments. The best of days, our submitters also tell us who they are and why they liked the comment they are submitting. We really like that. (And it lets us credit you properly for the find!)
Like most of our TC diarists say, we could not do Top Comments without you.
Welcome to tonight's Top Comments!
I had a conversation yesterday with South Carolina’s best candidate for Superintendent of Education. Those following SC politics (a gloomy enterprise, I can’t recommend it very highly) may recall that four years ago that position was the only state-wide office won by a Democrat (by 455 whopping votes). Jim Rex, currently a candidate for governor (I think he has no hope there) won that position, and was practically the only person standing between Sanford and the dismantling of public education in South Carolina.
More below the fold.
This year, fortunately, South Carolina has a terrific candidate for Superintendent of Education in Frank Holleman. And we have a great candidate for governor in Vincent Sheheen (whom the Greenville News endorsed this am). I would be remiss if I did not mention them and their campaigns.
SC Democrats are working super hard to elect a Democratic governor in 2010, and the stakes could not be higher, with redistricting scheduled for next year. Democrats controlled the governor’s office in 2001 (with Jim Hodges), which is all that stopped Republicans from even more miserable damage to the state in that decade than they already perpetrated. I have not researched all states, but for a South Carolinian, it is difficult to imagine any states’ citizenry getting LESS service from its elected officials than South Carolinians do.
Education is a case in point, one of the most important. In 2006 SC legislators passed Act 388, which swapped education funding for a one cent increase in sales tax, an exchange which was represented to the voters of SC as being equivalent in revenue-raising prospect. (Understood, a sales tax increase is absolutely regressive.) As a result, the act realized some bi-partisan support in SC, I regret to say. Still, even Democrats who voted for Act 388 did not intend to damage or dramatically undermine public education in South Carolina.
Many Republicans concede the situation needs improvement, but they are absolutely and utterly unwilling to reverse Act 388. And, all of the Republican candidates for Superintendent of Education support vouchers and/or tax credits, which would further reduce funds available for public schools. Sometimes it’s hard to think they’re sincere. And they’d have been much more concerned about the lack of funding for schools if there wasn’t a Democratic Superintendent in place to take a lion’s share of the blame. In the current budget alone, the SC Department of Education budget has been cut by $253 million.
One other ‘accounting error’ in South Carolina has resulted in an additional budget shortfall of $120 million. This is gross incompetence, on behalf of Republicans, and it is getting no coverage whatsoever in SC since the story was initially posted.
You know, Republicans have long worshipped at the altar of Ronnie (Reagan), spouting the theory that government is the problem, not the solution. But they are spending almost all of their energy treating his theory as a thesis to be proven and defended, ad nauseum. If one isn’t interested in actually governing, in trying to HELP the citizens of one’s state, holding elective office is simple, indeed. No one proves it better than Jim DeMint and Mark Sanford. The less competent they are, the easier it is to prove their guiding thesis. It isn’t JUST a party of ‘No.’ It is a party which aspires to be worse than that! Why aren’t they challenged on that more often?
And why should ANYONE ever vote for people like that? They give South Carolinians nothing, and get elected nearly by acclamation election after election. Unbelievable. I know they try to prove the same thesis across the nation, but even most Republican politicians trail behind DeMint and Sanford in relative incompetence, in lack of commitment to public service. Those guys lower expectations for government day in and day out, and then go out and fail to meet those free-falling standards. When will the electorate realize this?
Please keep your fingers crossed for us, and for Frank Holleman and Vincent Sheheen!
(If you can donate something to their campaigns, so much the better! (For Vincent Sheheen. For Frank Holleman.) Any amounts welcome and appreciated!
Now on to tonight’s comments!
From Cedwyn:
Kossack JekyllnHyde posts a stunning 'advertisement' suggesting that 'Slick Happens.'
From Julie Gulden:
NMRed made this comment....actually, painted a picture, from my "Jim Nabors" diary.
From indycam:
A never before seen MBSnark was spotted in theDKos forest.
From sardonyx:
In don mikulecky's interesting diary Even the MSM is catching on! on how it isn't always possible to "find a fix for anything," grumpynerd writes about systems thinking, straw men, scientists, and an engineer's primary mode of thinking.
In teacherken's diary Kosabilities: living with my dyslexia, Im a frayed knot wrote on similar experiences in a comment entitled Also a dyslexic.
In gjohnsit's diary Greek contagion spreading to Spain, 22state says it's all about the traders and profit.
My submissions.
I have never submitted a comment from so far in the past, now five days out of recommendability, but I really liked this comment by ferallike, in Frederick Clarkson's Tuesday diary. Also read Frederick's reply.
serrano tells us about a chant in Phoenix for Obama!
This comment on taxation by Gooserock deserves attention, but is, sadly, also out of recommendability. Sorry, Gooserock, did not see it before, but I thank you for making it.
Has BP saved Dartagnan the cost of three college educations? You decide!
It's not often someone stands up for zucchini. Fortunately, noweasels is a welcome exception! ;)
BFSkinner on the too many states dilemma we have heard so little about. ;)
Top Mojo, excluding the tip jars and usual high mojo comments:
1 See "Putting toothpaste back in the tube." nt by MrDeadeye2U - 116
2 I would have included it, but it was lost until.. by BFSkinner - 89
3 hmm...nice thought by AnonObamaAid - 80
4 I pledge by rb137 - 75
5 You speak words of sanity. by Glorfindel - 74
6 Calling on my Scottish heritage by Otteray Scribe - 73
7 Dear Mr. BF, by PhillyGal - 72
8 It's time for everyone to start paying by banana crunch - 72
9 AHem! by BFSkinner - 70
10 You want to play? by whoknu - 70
11 How about......... by Texnance - 69
12 Sure! Just 1 game no cats would ever play... by BFSkinner - 68
13 cute diary, BF! :) by PhillyGal - 67
14 Or the much messier... by BFSkinner - 67
15 This one!! by BFSkinner - 65
16 also see "putting Sarah Palin back by left my heart - 64
17 Thank you. I thought I might need a clue, but t&c by BFSkinner - 64
18 Play? With humans? I'm too pooped by tonyahky - 63
19 No way! They're always innocent! by BFSkinner - 63
20 pretty much says all I'd ever need to know about by mydailydrunk - 62
21 This is just damned superb! This diary is GOLD! by Fishgrease - 62
22 Ha ha! You knew I had to click on that! by Patric Juillet - 61
23 Great! by don mikulecky - 61
24 I Found the BP Spokesman Quite Convincing by JekyllnHyde - 61
25 Nice Diary by Pluto - 61
26 The rights chest thumping by Jeff Y - 59
27 An interesting take. In the late '70s... by Meteor Blades - 59
28 THAT explains the crowd! by BFSkinner - 59
29 Leviticus 19:33-34. by Kimball Cross - 57
30 Magics? by Texnance - 56
Top Mojo, everything included (of 14151 comments in the past 24 hours)!
1 Tip Jar by Alan Grayson - 458
2 Tip Jar by don mikulecky - 349
3 The tip thing. by Crashing Vor - 340
4 Tip Jar by BooMan23 - 333
5 Tip Jar by slinkerwink - 202
6 Tip Jar by not2plato - 201
7 Tip Jar by jamess - 191
8 Tip Jar by BFSkinner - 183
9 Tip Jar by Vyan - 167
10 Say "Thank You" to a Veteran this holiday. by xxdr zombiexx - 163
11 See "Putting toothpaste back in the tube." nt by MrDeadeye2U - 116
12 For the homeless and hungry. by rb137 - 106
13 Tip Jar by TrueBlueMajority - 97
14 Tip Jar by Garrett - 97
15 Tip Jar by Liveblog - 97
16 I hate to hit and run by weatherdude - 93
17 I would have included it, but it was lost until.. by BFSkinner - 89
18 maybe I'm simply fatigued... by papicek - 86
19 hmm...nice thought by AnonObamaAid - 80
20 TIPS by Trix - 78
21 Tip Jar by nika7k - 77
22 Graduation Weekend Tips by whoknu - 77
23 Call me crazy tip jar by LaFeminista - 75
24 I pledge by rb137 - 75
25 You speak words of sanity. by Glorfindel - 74
26 Calling on my Scottish heritage by Otteray Scribe - 73
27 Dear Mr. BF, by PhillyGal - 72
28 It's time for everyone to start paying by banana crunch - 72
29 AHem! by BFSkinner - 70
30 You want to play? by whoknu - 70
Thanks for reading! Please add your own comment finds below!