South Carolina

Sometime last year, I read about the murder of Sean William Kennedy. A 20 year old living in South Carolina, Sean was murdered because he was gay. At the time, I remember thinking what a senseless tragedy it was and how the perpetrator, himself just a teenager, had thrown his life away. For I trusted justice would be done. And so, just as quickly as the story entered my life, it was forgotten.

Until today. Until tonight.

The outcome of this sordid tale has now come to my attention - an outcome which makes me white hot with rage.

Kos is reporting that South Carolina is strong for John McCain. There's good reason for that. According to The Economist, South Carolina leads the nation in hate groups.  There are more organizations that hate more different people in South Carolina than anywhere.  They hate Jews, blacks, gays, Muslims – there’s more than enough hate to go around.  South Carolina has white supremacist groups, neo-nazis, you name it, including an outfit called the League of the South, whose aim is to secede from the U.S.  Those of us who thought that controversy settled for good in 1865 must have missed something. SC has plenty of other attractions too:

Research 2000 for Daily Kos. 7/22-23. Likely voters. MoE 4.5% (No trend lines)

Obama is getting only 15 percent of the white vote. Kerry, for his part, got 22 percent of the white vote in 2004. This poll closely tracks black turnout with the 2004 election (31 percent versus 30 percent in 2004), and we can assume those numbers will be greatly boosted thanks to Obama's presence in the field. However, those white numbers make it extremely difficult to make a go of this state. Perhaps that's why the Obama campaign talks more about Georgia than they do about South Carolina.

Many of us in SC are ecstatic that Bush/Barrett were overridden on the Medicare Bill.  Finally, their efforts to reward insurance company’s profits at the cost of American citizens have been thwarted.

According to the Los Angeles Times (link),

   Bush issued the veto in the morning, declaring the bill "objectionable" because it would take funds from private health insurers to keep paying doctors and would be "fiscally irresponsible."

Seniors have been faced with more and more doctors not accepting Medicare patients and what do our elected officials do?  They want to cut payments to doctors by over 10%.  Do they have any idea how tough it is for Medicare patients to find a doctor as it is?

One of the most distressing parts of their attempts is that this bill also provides for mental health and other health services to veterans of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom living in rural areas.  Our elected officials opposed this effort to take care of our veterans.

more after the jump...

when I first heard of "Oli" North I was intrigued by the expensive fence he built to keep Osama bin Laden from his home - admittedly surprised to learn that the muslim hoards had perpetrated our borders (this before our current HOmeland security - pun intended HOe) +/- 1983 (I was @ moscow, Idaho - you gotta know I'm laying low)  

Perhaps you have seen the offensive photo S.C. State Senator Kevin Bryant has posted to his web site.  You know, the one with a picture of Obama and a picture of Osama with the saying "the only difference is a little B.S."

What's even more shocking is that people can post directly to his site.  That's right, from looking at what is posted to date, comments are not being moderatored on this politcal candidates blog! Well, well!!  If I were of a mind...

Below the fold, the folks of South Carolina, and the nation, repsond

This is a hard diary to write; I try to be optimistic with all of the progress we are making for equality for the LGBT community.  I cheer as I watch gay and lesbian couples marry in California; I smile when I read polls showing acceptance growing.  I do all of this being lucky enough to be a gay man living in New York where in truth I experience little out right homophobia myself.  But we cannot become complacent and assume that the battle is over.  Every so often things occur which wake us up.

Many people in SC are beginning to wake up and realize that we are in a train wreck (or "in a spin" for you pilots) with no one at the controls.

The latest publicity for our governor would suggest that South Carolinians just aren’t very bright.

The reality is that just like the rest of America, many of us in SC are fed up with skyrocketing gas prices, the mortgage crisis, the health care crisis, and looming bank uncertainty.

more after the jump...

The Greenville news has been reporting that South Carolina's Confederate flag controversy might be flaring up again. State NAACP President Lonnie Randolph implied that the local NAACP is going to push hard on their campaign of economic sanctions against the state because the flag is still on Statehouse grounds.

I'm sure this has been diaried already but PPP came out with a poll yesterday for South Carolina showing McCain leading Obama by 6 points:  45 to 39.

http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/...

That, however, is not the interesting part as the cross-tabs reveal something much more interesting.

This is a wake up call, eye popping sorta poll... from the very trusted PPP btw:

McCain: 45%
Obama: 39%
Barr: 5%

Obviously is S. Carolina is this in play, McCain is in a whole lot more trouble than the media lets on.

Obama is doing well with the groups that fueled his blowout win in the South Carolina
Democratic primary. He leads 77-10 with black voters, and 54-32 with voters between
the ages of 18 and 29. McCain leads pretty much every other demographic group.

“It would take an exceptional turnout from young voters and black voters, as well as a lot
of disaffected conservatives voting for Bob Barr, to make a win in South Carolina
possible for Barack Obama,” said Dean Debnam, President of Public Policy Polling. “He
does seem likely to outperform John Kerry, but a victory in the Palmetto State is still a
long shot.”

This morning on CNN's "Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer", McCain supporter and potential vice presidential candidate Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina could not come up with one substantial difference between Bush's and McCain's positions on the economy.

It was amazing, hilarious, and frankly embarrassing to watch Gov. Sanford stumble and fumble while he tried to come up with something, anything, for minute after minute.

CNN has not posted the official video or transcript yet, but my own transcript is below:

Update: I found the video!  Here it is: http://www.youtube.com/...

In a time that we are paying $4.00 or more for gas, food prices are skyrocketing, and we are praying that our children don’t get sick because we just cannot afford the smallest of doctor’s bills, what are we to do?

Does it matter who we vote for?

In my part of South Carolina, it does matter. We can make a difference.

Brand new in the world of politics, I believe whole-heartedly that America can deal with any problem, under one condition: We must all pull together and find solutions NOW!

I have had the opportunity to serve as a pilot in the US Air Force, am now an airline captain, have two step-children, two sons and two grandchildren, and am married to a great guy. A product of my district and believer in the American Dream for all Americans, I have stepped forward to serve the people of the Third Congressional District in South Carolina.

It's lunch time and I'm not hungry, so I was navigating around the tubes and found this.

In a nutshell:

Unless a federal court intervenes, South Carolina drivers may soon be able to profess their Christian faith with a state-issued license plate.

Now I see the little fish symbols, and the dove symbols, and even a cross here and there, all the time.

With 35 Senate seats being contested this year (33 plus 2 special elections), Democrats have only 4 female candidates: Jeanne Shaheen (NH), Kay Hagan (NC), Vivian Figures (AL) and incumbent Sen. Mary Landrieu (LA). That's a shamefully low number. The Republicans only have 2 incumbents, Elizabeth Dole (NC) and Susan Collins (ME), and one sole challenger, Christine O'Donnell (DE).

Overall, this is not a great year for women in the U.S. Senate. The overall outcome will be somewhere between minus 2 and plus 4 female Senators. The most likely outcome is somewhere between minus 1 and plus 1.

So, let's look ahead to 2010. Specifically, to which Democratic female politicians might or should run for the U.S. Senate in 2010.

This is cross-posted from  http://allotherpersons.wordpress.com

The Hill reported plans by Barack Obama to meet with his fellow Congressional Black Caucus members on Thursday (6/19). Relations within the CBC are said to be strained due to the hotly contested presidential primary. Many members of the CBC backed Sen Hillary Clinton, even though black voters overwhelmingly supported Obama.

Obama previously met privately with a group of religious leaders, including megachurch pastor Bishop T.D. Jakes, and Rev Franklin Graham, head of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.  The meeting was held to solicit their input on national and world issues, and not necessarily to get their endorsements.

John McCain is in Ottawa today paying homage to his kindred spirits - the Conservative Party minority government of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his minions -  on a campaign trip paid entirely by the McCain campaign.

But serious questions are being raised about the role of U.S. Ambassador David Wilkins, who appears to have become personally engaged in partisan politics in arranging and promoting McCain's appearance.

(I haven't seen this diaried anywhere else here -- if it has, I'd be happy to remove this posting).