The winds of “change”

South Carolina is considered one of the last bastions of the GOP.  Republican’s in South Carolina never had to fear a Democratic Party challenger, merely a primary challenge by somebody who wished to try to “out wingnut” them.

The State newspaper that is based in Columbia, SC, has been a GOP shill rag for decades.  It simply prints whatever Senator DeMint and Senator Graham send to them without fact checking it.  It never prints an editorial that takes these senator’s to task when they lie to the voters.

Well, South Carolina citizens are beginning to wake up.

In 2001, when George W. Bush took office, the unemployment rate in South Carolina was 5.2%.  In January 28, 2009, the unemployment rate was 9.5%.  Education in South Carolina isn’t safe as even teachers could face future layoffs or furloughs.  

The South Carolina Employment Security Commission is almost broke, and, South Carolina Governor Sanford started a big fight with the Commission.  Do you think people who have no job in South Carolina liked seeing the Republican Governor picking a fight that affects whether or not they could afford food?  Neither do I.  

Sen. John McCain won South Carolina in the 2008 Presidential election 54% to Sen. Obama’s 43%.  The political winds are changing, however.  

The most balanced political states in 2008 were Texas (+2 Democratic), South Dakota (+1), Mississippi (+1), North Dakota (+1), South Carolina (even), Arizona (even), Alabama (+1 Republican), and Kansas (+2 Republican).

Even though Sen. McCain won by an 11% margin, South Carolina is no longer considered the safe bastion it used to be for the GOP.  I’ll let this comment on Brad Warthan’s blog at The State newspaper speak for itself.

Well, Brad, Mr. Obama tried very hard to get a bipartisan plan going. From what I can understand, they were not cooperating. This is not on him. You need to write your congressmen and explain that to them. I just got a “questionnaire” from the Republican Party. I was going to answer it, because I do vote Republican sometimes (like for Sen. Graham); but it was so negative, and so push/pull that I became very angry. I’m considering answering it by telling them that the phraseology of their questions is such that I no longer have any wish to have anything to do with such a dishonest party, and will not consider again voting Republican until that party demonstrates that it has turned away from that sort of demeaning technique. I may just send it to Senator Graham with a cover letter asking him why, after receiving such an insult to my intelligence, I should consider voting again for him or anyone else who accepts the ‘Republican’ label. That party’s attempt to make Mr. Obama ‘at fault’ here is just another example of their reprehensible behavior. And I, too, voted for both Sen. Obama and Sen. Graham in part because they seemed willing to try to work together. As far as I can see, Mr. Obama has tried.

No, the writer didn’t suddenly change ideology.  The writer was hit in the face by the GOP in South Carolina sending out dishonest, negative material.  The writer was replying to this piece written by Brad Warthan, VP and Editorial Page Editor at The State.  Notice anything missing in his diatribe?  So did I.  Not once did Brad Warthan call out Sen. McCain for claiming he could reach across the aisle during his campaign only to turn around and attack President Obama on the stimulus bill.

“I think this can only be described as generational theft. What we are doing is amassing multi-trillions of dollars,” said Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), speaking on CBS’s “Face The Nation” with Bob Schieffer.

Schieffer pressed McCain on whether he would support the bill considering economists from across the political spectrum have recommended a large stimulus package to rejuvenate the economy. But the Arizona senator said he could not, seeing the legislation not necessarily as a stimulus for the economy but rather as a vehicle for spending programs and policy prescriptions long desired by Democrats.

“Well, I can’t, Bob. And I can’t because I think it’s the greatest transfer of not only spending but authority and responsibility to government,” McCain said. “I think it’s a massive – it’s much larger than any measure that was taken during the Great Depression. I think it has policy changes in it which are fundamentally bad for America.”

Who else hasn’t gotten called out by The State?  Sen. Jim DeMint for his partisan hackery of putting forth a tax cut only amendment during this financial crisis.  Sen. DeMint’s amendment garnered 36 GOP votes out of 41 GOP Senators.  

And that negativity generated by the GOP and its media shills?  The people like Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Bill O’Reilly, Michelle Malkin, just to name a few?  The people who called “liberals” unamerican traitors and terrorists?  It has had real world consequences; he murdered two people.

“Know this if nothing else: This was a hate crime. I hate the damn left-wing liberals. There is a vast left-wing conspiracy in this country & these liberals are working together to attack every decent & honorable institution in the nation, trying to turn this country into a communist state. Shame on them….

“This was a symbolic killing. Who I wanted to kill was every Democrat in the Senate & House, the 100 people in Bernard Goldberg’s book. I’d like to kill everyone in the mainstream media. But I know those people were inaccessible to me. I couldn’t get to the generals & high ranking officers of the Marxist movement so I went after the foot soldiers, the chickenshit liberals that vote in these traitorous people. Someone had to get the ball rolling. I volunteered. I hope others do the same. It’s the only way we can rid America of this cancerous pestilence.”

“I thought I’d do something good for this Country Kill Democrats til the cops kill me….Liberals are a pest like termites. Millions of them Each little bite contributes to the downfall of this great nation. The only way we can rid ourselves of this evil is to kill them in the streets. Kill them where they gather. I’d like to encourage other like minded people to do what I’ve done. If life aint worth living anymore don’t just kill yourself. do something for your Country before you go. Go Kill Liberals.

This man went to the church to expressly, by his own admission, to kill “evil liberals”.  These are the same “evil liberals” who voted for programs to help poor people, like, the food stamp program.

Suspect Jim Adkisson, 58, who was being held on $1 million bond, had previously worked as a mechanical engineer in several states. He described his violent plans in a four-page letter found at his home, which also explained that his age and “liberals and gays” taking jobs had worked against him.

Another recent setback was that Adkisson’s allotment of government-issued food stamps had been reduced, Owen said.

That’s right, the man who wanted to kill the “evil liberals” was being helped by the food stamp program.  What did Republican’s vote in the U.S. Senate to cut from the stimulus bill?  $40 billion for state fiscal stabilization (includes $7.5 billion of state incentive grants).  That is $40 billion dollars that could be used to help shore up?  A flailing and underfunded state food stamp program.

Sen. DeMint really has America’s interest in mind during this recession that threatens to throw us into another Great Depression.  Well, maybe not.

February 6, 2009 – WASHINGTON, D.C – Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina) made the following statement:

“Americans are beginning to realize that government control of our economy isn’t working. Every new ad hoc spending adventure, every new bailout, and every new special interest handout only deepens the recession and delays any hope of recovery. Today’s heartbreaking unemployment report is a lesson to all of us that until we free our economy from the uncertainty of government manipulation, we will continue to suffer lost jobs, shuttered businesses, and shattered hopes.

“Some want to continue the big government policies that have failed to create jobs over the past year and throughout history. They believe tax cuts are the problem, but giving Americans the freedom to keep more of their own money and make more of their own decisions is the only thing that has ever worked.”

I don’t read a thing in there about families needing help with food stamps.  I don’t see anything about how we will keep people in their homes.  I see nothing but Senator DeMint pandering to the wealthy and corporations by wanting more tax cuts.  Of course, it’s not like Brad Warthan or The State will call out Sen. DeMint’s opposition to the stimulus plan as his own words attest.

And if you don’t care about bipartisanship, think about this: There’s a good chance this stimulus will fail. There’s a good chance ANY stimulus would fail. So how would you feel about it if, once the stimulus fails, the GOP recaptures Congress, and then goes around telling Obama and the world that “We won, so we don’t have to listen to you?”

Far better that we have a stimulus plan that both parties buy into. It’s a little late for that, but it WOULD have been far better. It’s never good to have one of the two major parties politically invested in the nation failing…

ONE of two major Parties?  Would that be the GOP, maybe?  Yet, he can’t even write it out, only allude to ONE Party investing itself in the nation failing, and, it wasn’t even in an editorial, his own bully pulpit, but, hidden on his own blog.  And, how does it feel when one Party and their shills state “we don’t have to listen to you”?  We know about that, don’t we.

“The voters did [decide the election] — including millions of conservative first-timers whom the exit polls and media missed — emerging from the pews and exurban driveways to give President Bush what by any measure is a decisive mandate for a second term. … Just because an election is close doesn’t mean it isn’t decisive. … We do already know … that Mr. Bush has been given the kind of mandate that few politicians are ever fortunate enough to receive.” [Wall Street Journal editorial, “The Bush Mandate,” 11/4/04]

“He [Bush] has, I would argue, a mandate now. You can bet he’s going forward boldly. He announced it today in his victory speech. He said, ‘Honey, I’m not just going to lower your taxes. I am transforming the tax system.'” [FOX News Channel, Hannity & Colmes, 11/3/04]

“There’s no doubt about it, this was a vote against, by the red-state folks who gave the victory to George Bush, it was a rejection of blue-state America. It was a rejection of their values, their attacks on the president. … And the idea, it seems to me, that somehow the folks who won should now surrender part of whatever mandate they have to the folks who lost — I can tell you, what we’re hearing on this panel, people out there in red-state America are finding it very offensive.” [MSNBC, Hardball with Chris Matthews, 11/3/04]

“Americans not only gave President Bush a mandate, they also gave him the necessary tools in the form of more Republican House and Senate colleagues to push through his conservative agenda.” [Sun-Sentinel, “Bush now has the tools to energize his priority programs,” 11/4/04, syndicated by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services]

How did the voters of America really feel after George W. Bush won a term in office?  Well, gallop polls don’t lie.

A Gallup poll conducted just after the election found that 63 percent of voters would prefer to see Bush pursue policies that “both parties support” compared to only 30 percent who want Bush to “advance the Republican Party’s agenda.”

In fact, Republicans in the Senate during the “glory days” of George W. Bush, went so far in pushing their agenda, they threatened to take away the filibuster.

NPR legal correspondent Nina Totenberg reported on April 21: “The judicial filibusters have infuriated the White House, leading to the birth of an idea dubbed the nuclear option by former Senate GOP leader Trent Lott, nuclear because it would blow up the Senate.”

And, since 2006, when the Democratic Party was given control of Congress, the Republicans have never filibustered, right?  In fact, the Republicans set a new filibuster record in the 110th Congress.

The two episodes underscored what has become an epidemic of gridlock within the halls of government. Indeed, a recent study by the progressive-research organization, Campaign for America’s Future, claims that “conservatives in the U.S. Senate” have set a “modern-day record for obstruction.” Only half way through the 110th Congress there have been 62 cloture votes to move beyond a filibuster, one more than the previous record set during the entirety of the 107th Congress in 2002.

The congressional gridlock has been glaringly reflected in public dissatisfaction. A recent Zogby poll reveals that only 13% of Americans have a positive view of congress. But a double digit majority says it prefers Democrats not Republicans-running Capitol Hill.

And did anybody foresee that obstructionism by Republicans in Congress would cost them politically?  Yes.

But, as Rothenberg notes, “you are not going to have [Sens.] John Warner or Ted Kennedy or Ted Stevens sleeping in cots…” Meaning both parties are often left waiting for the other to relent. “The system can’t go on like this,” Rothenberg said. “At some point you just keep putting it off, there is going to be an explosion among the electorate or a third party. There are too many filibusters and too many objections. And it just stinks.”

In fact, Republican obstructionism has reached the level that even today, with the Democratic Party having almost a super-majority in both halls of Congress, the Republicans have forced the Democratic Party to have 60 votes on almost every piece of legislation.  

This is the same political Party under George W. Bush that allowed this to happen as the GOP and Karl Rove politicized every government agency.

WASHINGTON – As far back as 2007, salmonella-laced products were shipped by a Georgia peanut company that knew the peanuts probably were tainted and sometimes after tests confirmed that contamination, inspection records show.

Federal law forbids producing or shipping foods under conditions that could make it harmful to consumers’ health.

Food and Drug Administration officials earlier had said Peanut Corp. of America waited for a second test to clear peanut butter and peanuts that initially were positive for salmonella. But the agency amended its report Friday, saying that the Blakely, Ga., plant actually shipped some products before receiving the second test and sold others after confirming salmonella.

Most of the country learned and voted for change in 2008.  Most of the country learned and voted the Democratic Party an even larger majority in Congress.  South Carolina is on its way to change as the GOP continues its hate, its lies, and its obstructionism.

Yes, the Democratic Party and President Obama do have a mandate to bring change to America, to right the economy that the Republicans destroyed.  The GOP obstructionism cost them.

Democrats rewarded the GOP for its near unanimous opposition Wednesday by ripping business tax cuts out of the final package, members of Congress said after a closed-door meeting to discuss the stimulus agreement reached with the Senate.

Good for them.  The winds of change are in the air — even in that bastion called South Carolina — as the GOP and its shills still haven’t gotten the message; enough is enough children.