Criminalizing Speech June 28, 2007
Posted by fitsnews in : SC Politics, US Politics , 7 comments
COURT TURNS THE TABLES ON THE CENSORS
FITSNews - June 28, 2007 - To hear S.C. Rep. Bill Cotty and the editorial board over at The State newspaper (a.k.a. La Socialista) tell it, anybody who doesn’t subscribe to their narrow way of thinking ought to be thrown in jail. Both Cotty and the liberal La Socialista editors went through barrels of ink in recent years demonizing political speech and accusing those who dared to utter it of breaking the law.
Well, it turns out they were wrong. The people who were actually violating our laws – our Constitution, in fact – were Cotty and those of his ilk who sought to illegally suppress our First Amendment freedoms by imposing unconstitutional government regulations.
With the Supreme Court decisively upholding political speech as an essential pillar of our democracy in its recent FEC v. Wisconsin Right to Life ruling, the suppression of issue ads and other political speech in the days leading up to an election is now undeniably unconstitutional. (more…)
Santee Cooper: Here We Go Again
Posted by fitsnews in : SC Politics , 1 comment so far
GOVERNOR’S OFFICE RUMORED TO BE LOOKING AT PRIVATIZING STATE UTILITY … AGAIN
FITSNews - June 28, 2007 - Off the front-burner for nearly two years, S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford may be renewing his push to privatize the state-owned public utility Santee Cooper, sources tell FITSNews.
Several legislators say they have overheard Sanford policy advisor Scott English dangle the prospect of a renewed gubernatorial push to privatize the agency recently, with English allegedly citing as evidence the strong showing by privatization advocate and former Santee Cooper board member Paul Campbell in a GOP Senate primary earlier this month.
The brainchild of English and S.C. First Lady Jenny Sanford, privatizing Santee Cooper makes good taxpayer sense. Government should no more be in the electricity business than the school bus, town festival or port management businesses. Of course, the governor got his clock cleaned on the issue in 2005 when e-mails surfaced showing that his office secretly orchestrated a study to determine the value of the agency after previously denying any gubernatorial involvement.
John Edwards Sucks But …
Posted by fitsnews in : Presidential Politics , 6 comments
… AT LEAST HE’S NOT AN EMACIATED GIRAFFE WITH POTENTIAL GARDENING USES
FITSNews - June 28, 2007 - It’s hard to say anything that would make us feel sorry for John Edwards, but conservative commentator Ann Coulter is making a strong bid. After saying she wished Edwards would die in a terrorist attack on Tuesday, it seems Mr. $400 Haircut is turning her vitriol into beaucoup campaign dollars.
We’ve never understood the fuss over Coulter. To be perfectly honest, she looks a lot like the end result of an anorexic male giraffe humping a heron bird. We’ve never read a word she’s written, never watched a second of her TV appearances and if she ever agreed to sit for a FITSNews‘ interview we’d probably just sit there and ask her over and over again in giraffeese what it’s like to graze on the Serengeti. Oh, you say you’re in politics Ms. Coulter? And you’ve written some books? That’s great. Moving on, do you ever get nervous that lions or cheetahs are going to attack you when you’re nibbling on acacia leaves?
In all fairness, Coulter does do a great job masquerading as soft core pornography for a bunch of Republican virgins who never opened a Playboy. She also seems to be quite adept at avoiding the sun. Come to think of it, if she could keep her hands frozen exactly like they are in the picture above, we might even be able to turn her upside down and get some yardwork done. Hey, we don’t have to wish terrorist death on Ann Coulter after all!
Are Things Really This Bad For McCain? June 27, 2007
Posted by fitsnews in : Presidential Politics, SC Politics, Satire , add a comment
WHY IS THERE A FRED THOMPSON BUMPER STICKER ON RICK QUINN’S CAR?
FITSNews - June 27, 2007 - We were shocked - shocked we say - to find a brand new Fred Thompson sticker affixed to the back bumper of former House Majority Leader Rick Quinn’s Tahoe. The sighting, which is already sending seismic shockwaves throughout the 2008 presidential campaign, took place during a routine FITSNews’ surveillance mission to the Back Porch restaurant earlier this evening.
Honestly, we’re scratching our heads. Could it really be that Quinn - one of John McCain’s staunchest South Carolina allies and the son of his Palmetto State campaign manager - is actually bailing on the Arizona Senator and backing Thompson’s candidacy?
We know these are dark days and everything for Team Straight Talk, but what gives?
UPDATE - Of course Quinn isn’t bailing on McCain. Apparently, one of Sic Willie’s favorite pranks is to put stickers from one campaign on cars belonging to people from other campaigns and then run around saying “Why does so-and-so have a such-and-such sticker on their bumper?” He’s done it to Gov. Mark Sanford on multiple occasions, once putting “Sharpton for President” bumper stickers on all of the state-owned Ford Crown Victorias used to transport the governor to-and-fro. Needless to say, Sanford’s security detail was not amused.
Fred Thompson Made TMZ
Posted by fitsnews in : Pop Culture, Presidential Politics , add a comment
GOP CONTENDER GETTING INK IN THE LAND OF LINDSAY LOHAN
FITSNews - June 27, 2007 - Sure, Fred Thompson was in South Carolina today. Great. The real news was that the imminent presidential contender was also on TMZ.com, one of our favorite celebrity gossip websites. According to the TMZ story, Thompson’s ex-babes are just as stoked as Palmetto State Republicans about the actor’s presumptive White House bid.
“I couldn’t think of a bad word to say about Fred if somebody put a gun to my head,” said Thompson ex Lorrie Morgan.
Come to think of it, we can’t think of anything bad to say about Thompson either, but if somebody put a gun to our heads we could probably come up with something. Like that he’s big-boned maybe. Of course if somebody put a gun to our heads and told us to think of something bad about Mitt Romney, we’d probably end up getting shot because there’s just too many things to choose from.
Veto-Palooza
Posted by fitsnews in : SC Politics , 2 comments
GOVERNOR’S VETO PEN MAY BE CORKED, PEOPLE
FITSNews - June 27, 2007 - If budget vetoes were home runs, S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford would be in the Hall of Fame. Unfortunately, they’re not. Which means he’ll probably have to settle for the honor of “world’s least effective governor.” With a record-setting 243 budget vetoes totalling $167 million this year, Sanford went veto crazy. So crazy, in fact, he should probably submit his veto pen to Major League Baseball just to show us it isn’t corked.
Seriously, we knew the governor was going to swing for the fences with his budget vetoes this year, but this is ridiculous. There are legislators who can’t even count to 243, people.
We actually liked Sanford’s approach last year of vetoing the whole bloated mess and washing his hands of it. The fact is, if our state legislature approved it, there’s a good chance it’s crap we don’t need. Why go to all the trouble just to get to a specific dollar amount that the First Lady says is acceptable? We’ll always appreciate people cutting government, but by rejecting the House’s deal to sustain a manageable number of vetoes, the governor is sacrificing $40 million in taxpayer savings that he could have achieved just to be able to brag about wanting to save $167 million. It’s a $7.5 billion budget, governor. Get the scraps from the table you can or just veto the whole damn thing. Your wife will get over it.
No Deal On Budget Vetoes
Posted by fitsnews in : SC Politics , 1 comment so far
GOVERNOR, SPEAKER UNABLE TO REACH BUDGET VETO AGREEMENT
FITSNews - June 27, 2007 - Will we see a return of piglets “Pork” and “Barrel” to the South Carolina State House this year? Probably not, but a bitter legislative-executive showdown over budget vetoes is extraordinarily likely after a deal between Gov. Mark Sanford and House Speaker Bobby Harrell to manage the veto process appears to have fallen through. Sources close to both politicians confirm that Sanford is now contemplating well over a hundred vetoes totalling close to $150 million for this year’s budget, squelching the popular State House rumor that the governor and Harrell cut a deal to limit the vetoes to a few dozen totalling $40 million.
Sanford, who solidified his reputation as a taxpayer hero three years ago by bringing piglets into the State House to protest the swift override of his budget vetoes, reportedly told Speaker Harrell that he would confine his vetoes to “a handful” if the House approved a paltry $200 million in tax relief out of a $1.7 billion surplus. The House did so, but the governor is apparently unsatisfied with the structure of the tax cuts and has decided to renege on the agreement.
Last year, Sanford vetoed the entire state budget - and was promptly overridden. (more…)
