Politics

Horry County Slows New Strip Club Law

Momentum for a new strip club ordinance being considered by Horry County Council is slowing as some council members are realizing there are better ways to spend tax dollars than defending bad laws in court.

This is not to say that Horry does not need a new ordinance governing the licensing and operations of strip clubs. It does. The current ordinance is expected to be struck down as unconstitutional in federal court as part of a lawsuit the county currently finds itself having to defend.

But, the realization that replacing one bad ordinance with another will only bring ever spiraling attorney’s fees is beginning to dawn on some council members.

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Myrtle Beach International Airport

Chicken Strips, Clam Chowder and MBIA Master Plan

A new airport master plan update is being proposed for Myrtle Beach International Airport. Horry County council’s Administration Committee will hear about it Friday at the MBIA conference room.

Will it be time for a new chicken strips and clam chowder agreement?

It is fair to say that anyone who does not know the details of the last chicken strips and clam chowder agreement should not be discussing a new airport master plan. This includes our current airport department staff.

The last airport master plan update for MBIA was completed just five years ago. Among other things, it restricted the airport to one runway and provided for an expansion of the existing passenger terminal on the east side of the runway.

Instead of expanding the existing terminal for $40 – $50 million, Horry County Council allowed itself to be persuaded into approving a $120 million terminal “enhancement” project, which really meant a new passenger terminal with some refurbishment and new uses for the old terminal.

That wasn’t too hard, it wasn’t their money council was spending.

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Obamas-1984

Liberty, Mother’s Milk and the Poison Pill [Poll]

We found out over the past week that the constitutionally guaranteed privacy, civil liberties and freedoms of U.S. citizens have been effectively assigned to the scrap heap by our own government.

Okay. For nearly 100 years, the U.S. government has sought to spy on American citizens through a variety of programs, most of which can be tied to the Department of Justice and FBI reign ever since J. Edgar Hoover got the nod from Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer to establish the DOJ’s Intelligence Division in 1919.

It took Hoover less than a year to collect files on over 150,000 American citizens who, through his perverted sense of propriety, were considered a threat to the U.S. government. Those files were amassed in the days when typewriters were the most modern piece of equipment in government offices, a telephone in a private house was still somewhat of a novelty and the Model T Ford was only 10 years old.

But, Hoover demonstrated how quickly a small government department, with the help of private citizens spying and informing on each other, could invade the lives of American citizens.

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Gaming the City of Columbia Budget

Gaming the City of Columbia Budget

One look at the Columbia city budget deliberations tells you it’s an election year in the city.

Council recently pledged a two percent, across the board pay raise for all city employees in next year’s budget and even more for fire and police.

The firefighters received a 3.3 percent pay raise retroactive to January 1, 2013. Approximately 400 police officers and seventy 911 dispatchers will receive an additional 3.3 percent mid-year pay raise in January 2014.

History proves there is no better way to get city employees on the side of incumbent council members than to give them a pay raise in an election year.

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General Assembly Failing Citizens Again

S.C. General Assembly Failing Citizens Again

This year’s legislative session is down to the last four days and members of the General Assembly are again making sure nothing meaningful will come out of this session.

The Senate killed any chance for ethics reform with a vote that refused to move the ethics reform bill up in the waiting queue. So legislators will maintain ethics investigations in house, actually that means there won’t be any investigations, and we will again not know what their private sources of income are.

Earlier, a bill to expand the Freedom of Information Act was buried in the House where it was recommitted to the Judiciary Committee after getting a favorable vote out earlier. We wouldn’t want the members of the General Assembly to have to divulge their e-mails and other correspondence to the general public. Better they remain secret.

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Curtis M. Loftis Jr. and Chris Christie

What politicians will do for a little ink…

Treasurer Curtis Loftis In Hospital With Chest Pains

Click READ FULL STORY below to wish Treasurer Loftis a speedy recovery.

South Carolina Treasurer Curtis Loftis has checked himself into a hospital after suffering chest pains.

Spokesman Brian DeRoy says Loftis underwent tests Monday and expects to be released on Tuesday. DeRoy says the Republican treasurer has been working long days recently and suspects he suffered from exhaustion.

Loftis’ fight with the commission that oversees retirees’ pension funds in the state led to a lawsuit last month that was quickly settled.

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Defending the First Amendment

The Obama administration’s attack on the First Amendment took a predictable turn recently when White House Press Secretary Jay Carney reiterated the administration’s use of national security concerns in justifying White House investigations of journalists.

In attempting to justify the Justice Department’s seizing of reporters’ phone records and emails, Carney said, “The president believes it’s important that we find the proper balance between the need—absolute need to protect our secrets and to prevent leaks that can jeopardize the lives of Americans and can jeopardize our national security interests on the one hand and the need for—to defend the First Amendment and protect the ability of reporters to pursue investigative journalism.”

The original attack on the First Amendment, with the Sedition Acts way back in 1798, made it illegal for persons to criticize the administration and/or government, even if the criticism was true. The acts were passed by the Federalist Congress in the mistaken impression that they were combating anarchy – a threat to national security.

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Carolina Southern Railroad

Carolina Southern Railroad Heist?

An unofficial committee of three local counties passed two resolutions Wednesday calling for new ownership for the Carolina Southern Railroad while acknowledging the railroad is essential for Horry and Marion counties in South Carolina and Columbus County, NC.

Grandly calling itself the “‘Interstate Railroad Committee of North and South Carolina’, this group of public officials representing several communities and three counties across two states, with no legal basis, has finally come out of the closet with its true purpose.

That purpose is to wrest ownership of the railroad from Ken Pippin and his family.

Since when, in America, is it the purpose of one government or a group of governments to decide who should own a private business?

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Trey Gowdy wants to see IRS jail time

Trey Gowdy wants to see IRS jail time

Trey Gowdy wants to see IRS jail time By ANDREA DRUSCH Rep. Trey Gowdy says he wants a “full throated outrage” from the president over the recent controversy at the IRS. “We’re not interested in retirements and forced ousters, we’re interested in people going to jail,” the South Carolina Republican […]

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We now know that at least three IRS offices were involved in the targeting of conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status.

Investigating the IRS partie deux

We now know that at least three IRS offices were involved in the targeting of conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status.

The Washington Post reported today the IRS Washington, D.C. headquarters sent questionnaires to conservative groups asking about their donors and other areas of their operations while the El Monte and Laguna Miguel offices in California did the same with tea party affiliated groups.

This takes the investigation of IRS activities well beyond the initial claim that some low level functionaries in the Cincinnati office were to blame.

According to the article, an employee in the Cincinnati office told a lawyer representing one of the targeted groups that its application was “under review” in Washington.

Interestingly, it was George W. Bush appointed IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman who told a Congressional committee in spring 2012 that no targeting was occurring. Shulman resigned in November 2012.

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