All Politics Are Local

(3 pm. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

While I have no desire to get back into the national political scene, I have been keeping tabs on my local political scene. As you know, or maybe you don’t, I live in South Carolina and Nikki Haley (Republican) was just elected Governor.

Also, if you were at Daily Kos years ago and you have a great memory, you remember that I have had a running battle with our state’s largest newspaper, The State, a holding of McClatchy.

So, how’s it been going?

Not so good.

You see, as I have documented over the years, The State newspaper is one of those cowardly media sources that are content to play GOP apologist. While I spend no money whatsoever on it, they do have a website that has comment posting. It was a venue I used quite frequently.

Well, no more. You see, I obviously crossed a line and my account for posting comments has been blocked. So, I went back and read the posting guidelines and found out that I had, indeed, violated their rules. However, I found out, that was easy to do.

You can’t post links to sites outside of their newspaper. This is obviously a copyright issue and, frankly, one that makes supporting your arguments in the comments infuriating. But, since my account wasn’t blocked immediately after I made posts that had URL’s linked in it, I don’t believe this was the infraction that did it.

As I read the guidelines, I found two other items. You cannot “taunt” or “personally attack anyone” in your comments.

Well. Who would ever want to taunt GOP politicians for the idiot statements they spout? Or, a newspaper that has become so adept at playing apologist for them?

The answer? ME. Not to mention quite a few others in the state. And, taunt the paper, it’s editorial board, it’s President, and politician’s, I did.

In my roughly 50 comments posted, I had almost 300 “likes” (which is the “recommend” system used).

In my usual, “let’s not let facts get into the way of a perfectly good idiot statement” style, I adeptly (and routinely) eviscerated both the paper and the state’s politicians. For an example, I offer this as evidence.

http://www.thestate.com/2011/0…

As you’ll notice, the originating media was the Associated Press, NOT The State newspaper. To date, the AP has scooped The State newspaper at least three times when in comes to reporting corruption or corrupt practices in the South Carolina. If you read the article, which details how because of the $829 million dollar budget shortfall, legislators are trying to figure out how to keep prisons from being closed. You also caught this statement:

House Ways and Means Chairman Dan Cooper, who is on the budget board, said he wants an explanation for Corrections’ deficit. It comes after the passage of last year’s sentencing reform measure that was supposed to save money.

“I don’t have any satisfactory answers,” said Cooper, R-Anderson.

That isn’t surprising to those of us that have paid attention. When faced with the reality of their “lower taxes – cut services” policies, the GOP simply doesn’t have any satisfactory answers. It prompted this comment from me:

So, let’s get this right.

The GOP strangles the state financially year after year. We see more cuts, all the while the GOP cries about lowering taxes and giving corporations even more tax cuts/breaks will solve the problem. Voters continue to put republicans in power. Rinse… Repeat…

Gov. Nikki Haley opposes closing prisons. Shock!

How then, does she propose to FUND prisons when she is advocating ELIMINATING the state personal AND corporate income taxes when the state can’t fund them NOW?

Where, in her GOP voodoo accounting, does the money come from then?

Ask the same for education. Health care. Protective services.

“I don’t have any satisfactory answers”

That says it all. When faced with the REALITY of GOP voodoo economics, they can only say, “I don’t have any satisfactory answers”.

A RESPONSIBLE media would have THAT as their next day headline.

“I DON’T HAVE ANY SATISFACTORY ANSWERS”

The editorial board of a RESPONSIBLE media outlet would be eviscerating the political party daily until they DID have a satisfactory answer.

The business section of a RESPONSIBLE media source would be crunching numbers, putting it in black and white where even the lowliest of educated person could see how voodoo economics doesn’t work.

But, hey… The State won awards for journalism! Didn’t you know?

And, the GOP, that strangled our government to this point and who plan on strangling it even further?

“I DON’T HAVE ANY SATISFACTORY ANSWERS”

Well, that wasn’t the only comment, but, you get the drift.

And, ‘lo and behold, it was very soon after that my account was blocked by The State.

That my account would be blocked, at some point, was almost guaranteed. I hate them and they do their best to ignore me. The timing of it, however, couldn’t have been better.

You see, as we speak, as I type this out, there are three letters heading to the McClatchy Company. One will find Gary Pruitt, CEO, and two will be delivered to two of the members on the Board of Directors of the McClatchy Company. I would have had the letter delivered to every board member, but, sadly, I ran out of printer ink.

I’d do a reprint of the letter, however, it is three pages long. Needless to say, The State has already proven some of the points I brought out in it.

On another, unrelated note, I’m still working on the idea I have for my book. It’s a thriller/suspense involving the Vatican, Nazi sympathizer’s, and… well… I’m finding out that I’m not a great writer. But, it progresses albeit slowly.