We were recently forwarded a press release from the S.C. State Ports Authority (SCSPA) touting the reelection of its chairman, Columbia, S.C. businessman Bill Stern. The release also claims that the Port of Charleston recorded its highest monthly cargo volume in nearly five years last month.
That’s all well and good we suppose … but of particular interest in this press release was a quote submitted by S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley.
“It’s no secret that South Carolina’s ports are a major economic development engine for our state, representing $45 billion in annual economic activity,” said Gov. Nikki Haley. “The growth of our ports means more jobs and their continued growth will help us add to the over 37,000 new jobs and over $9 billion in new investment we have brought to South Carolina. We can be confident that under the continued strong and focused leadership of Bill Stern, Jim Newsome and the Ports Authority board, we will see Charleston deepened to 50 feet, Georgetown revitalized with new life and a port in Jasper approved and built.”
Wait … what?
First of all, Nikki Haley can brag about 37,000 jobs and $9 billion in investment all she wants, but the fact of the matter is our state’s labor participation rate is hovering near record lows and our income levels continue sliding further behind the rest of the nation. She may have successfully bribed a handful of companies with hundreds of millions of dollars worth of tax breaks – but rest assured that crony capitalism has come at a price.
But it is Haley’s quote about the Jasper Port that’s truly incredulous – especially in light of the “Savannah River Sellout,” in which she betrayed South Carolina’s economic interests in exchange for campaign cash and a prime time speaking slot at the 2012 Republican National Convention.
Seriously … is this woman on crack? Or has she by some deranged cranial osmosis managed to convince herself that this shameless betrayal (like any number of other things in her life) never happened?
After promising to do a better job competing against Georgia, Haley instead hand-delivered a major competitive advantage to its government-run port. Not only did her decision aid Georgia’s taxpayer-funded port expansion plans (and diminish Charleston’s competitiveness), it killed off any chance for a public-private port facility in Jasper – home to the last remaining deepwater port location on the Eastern Seaboard.
In fact Georgia is dumping the spoil from its dredging project on the Jasper port site – meaning nothing is going to be built there for another half-century.
Yet now – astoundingly – Haley is touting the very port she killed, vowing it will be “approved and built.”
Of all the Haley hypocrisies we’ve covered over the years – and trust us, they have been legion – this is by far the most galling. She kills a private sector port in South Carolina, makes our state’s taxpayers subsidize a government-run port in Georgia, dumps toxic sludge where our port was supposed to go and now says “pay no attention to any of that stuff I just did.”
Again … astounding.
We reached out to SCSPA officials, asking them to name one thing Haley has done to make sure “a port in Jasper (is) approved and built.” Not surprisingly, we received no response.
28 comments
The more FITS hates Nikki, the more I luv ‘er.
Come election time he will cozy up to her. Where’s that leave you?
Why don’t you just leave this state for good so we have no more Haley supporters as dumb as you!
Haley has screwed SC over so many times, its not even bearable anymore! First, the port, your facts are absolutely correct! Then she turns down millions of dollars of Medicare money our state desperately needs since we are one of the poorest in the nation. Then she appoints her cronies to top SC jobs at 6 figure incomes. She never tells the truth and wont disclose any of her emails, she wont talk on her phone so calls cant be traced, she spends our taxpayer money on her many fund-raising and vacation trips! She is an embarrassment to our state and our people and we need the economic growth and money she gives away. All the while, we, the people of SC, are paying for all of this with our taxes and her turning away any funds that come from the Federal Government which we paid with our taxes as well. And we are still dead last in the nation under Haley regarding education, income, health benefits, economic growth, unemployment, etc.!
She continues her own agenda to get to the top, not caring about the people she supposedly represents! And it blew my mind, she would not allow any Democrats (a first in SC) to her Governor’s Mansion cookout when the Congressional session ended. Even had them escorted off the property!!! Whose property is it anyway? The PEOPLE’S, NOT HALEY’S!
You want fries with that?
The Post and Courier
Ports Authority board awards bonus for Newsome and other top executives
By Tyrone Richardson
Tuesday, September 17, 2013
More cargo flowing through Port of Charleston means bonuses for S.C. State Ports Authority’s top managers.
SPA’s board of directors on Tuesday awarded president and CEO Jim Newsome a $57,998 bonus. The bonus is in addition to Newsome’s $370,000 salary.
Bonuses of $117,000 are also being awarded among SPA’s top six vice presidents, SPA board member David Posek said.
$$$$$
People, if YOU owned a government monopoly (gas, electricity, water, airport, marine terminal, toll road), you could also print money. While these governmental bureaucrat LOSERS are striking it rich, the “private sector” pays the going tariff. No deals, no negotiating, no nothing.
And, oh, it’s 5:31 pm. They left for home 30 minutes ago.
Maybe Haley knows something about Jasper that we don’t?
Yes, she turned it into a dumping ground for Georgia’s toxic port sludge! Where is her allegiance to SC?
Nikki IS South Carolina’s toxic sludge or is that toxic slut?
Both!!! That is so damn funny!
To the contrary, she knew (and knows) practically nothing about the Jasper Terminal, the SPA, or business outside of her now-defunct three-employee “dress boutique” in little Bamburg, SC.
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And her fatal mistake was appointing former SPA chairman Bill Bethea to represent South Carolina on that bi-state “Jasper port” commission.
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Robert Royall had been SPA chairman from 1985 to December 1994 when he resigned to accept the position of S.C. Commerce Secretary under David Beasley, who was elected governor in November 1994.
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SPA’s bylaws call for the SPA board — not one man — to deliberate and elect its own board chairman.
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Bethea, who had been on SPA’s board for some five years, had carried water for, supported and followed instructions of Royall — an extremely corrupt politician — including the “bid-rigging” of the Charleston Naval Complex Redevelopment Authority’s “Request for Proposals.”
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Bethea and Royall worked with the corrupt CNCRDA Chairman Arthur Ravenel and the corrupt Budget and Control Board’s Procurement Director Jack Sprott to ensure that Ric Tapp and Warren Lasch — both paramours and “Hunley” fund-raisers for Hunley Commission Chairman Glenn McConnell — got the “Veterans Terminal” at the Navy Base without public bidding.
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But Royall’s December 1994 “open nomination” of Bethea as SPA chairman — in front of the news media — embarrassed the rest of the board, who despised Bethea as a servile sycophant to Royall. But as Billy Coleman (then SPA Treasurer) will tell you, the board was “on the spot” and embarrassed NOT to second Royall, who was presiding over his last SPA board meeting. (What were they going to do — argue with Royall over Bethea’s incompetence?)
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So Bethea served as SPA chairman, dutifully following Royall’s manipulative commands for many subsequent years. But from day one, SPA’s board hated Bethea’s guts, and Royall’s guts. Eventually, when Bethea’s “chairmanship” term expired, the board replaced him with Whit Smith.
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Bethea was and is damaged goods — a former rough & tough marine and a lawyer who is something from the Wizard of Oz: born without conscience or character. That’s why everyone on the waterfront — from longshoremen to board members — despised and held Bethea in contempt. Bethea was above the “riff raff” and told you so. He told me that he had “never shared a cup of coffee with a stevedore, longshoreman or crane operator” and “would never do so.”
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So why would Gov. Haley appoint such a lawyer / non-businessman / political insider / non-team-player / corrupt / arrogant / ignorant / inexperienced / disliked human being to the JASPER BI-STATE PORT COMMITTEE?
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Pure stupidity and cupidity.
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NOBODY — no citizen, legislator, or newspaper editor — objected to this wrong-headed appointment when Haley made it.
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That was her first mistake, and the public and legislature deserves blame for not vetting her choice.
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Her second mistake was agreeing to allow — for a few thousand dollars and a TV spot during the RNC — the GPA to use the Jasper site as a dredge spoil dumping ground, and she deserves full blame for that.
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The sleepy public, ALL MEMBERS OF THE LEGISLATURE, and news media deserve just as much blame for the “Jasper fiasco.”
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~~~~~
“El sueño de la razón produce monstruos.”
“The sleep of reason produces monsters.”
— Francisco Goya (1746 – 1828)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sleep_of_Reason_Produces_Monsters
Well done.
And now his wife enjoys her appointment as the SC Education Lottery Director. The rich get richer…….and we, the people picking up the tab get poorer.
Is Nikki Haley On Crack? Calling Nikki Haley a Crack Whore, does a great disservice to Crack Whores everywhere.
The correct answer to your question is—- ‘IT NEVER HAPPENED’
Grotesquely overblowing of marginal performance, or indeed of even gross underperformance, is standard MO among the management in government bureaucracies and probably in a lot of private companies as well. Claiming failure as success and mediocrity as glowing success is seen week in and week out in the lesser (though often larger) agencies. Ask any underling.
Trikki Haley is a two face liar and this state is dumb enough to give her 4 more years..
Absolutely. She’s got it made in the shade. Coasting to reelection.
OMG, Raj should have used a better birth control method. Since she did not, she should have confronted the mental illness and gotten her daughter professional early on. Guess she didn’t care…kind of like the abuse issue.
Who wants to bet that, in spite of all the misdeeds listed above, FITS will support Haley in 2014?
Nikki’s just like you and most Republicans…she will lie about anything.
The more blatant, the better. Her/your base is susceptible to the ridiculous.
More importantly, you don’t seem to know the difference between “incredulous” and “incredible.”
Haley truly is pathetic as a human being, a Chief executive, a wife, a mother a human being.
I feel she suffers with an antisocial personality disorder as well as narcissism,
She has no conscience and will lie, when the truth would serve her better and she has surrounded herself with advisors and elected officials just like herself: Pearson, Templeton, Kitzman, Keel, Peeler, Bright, Leatherman, Wilson, Eckstrom, all dilusional without moral or ethical integrity.
It’s a wonder she does not have Obama advising her, they’re just alike, cannot tell the truth, incompetent, not ready for service, disengaged except when it benefits themselves.
Obama’s re-election was ha huge mistake! Let’s not make the same mistaake and give Haley anymore time in office, or anyone else more time in her orafice!
She is a very sick woman who really needs help.
Does anyone remember the political ad that was the “nail in the coffin” for David Beasley when he lost to Jim Hodges? I’m seeing a pattern. Georgia had the lottery and SC did not. The ad had a good ole boy touting the revenue that was coming to Georgia by way of SC residents crossing the state line to buy tickets. And it ended up with the actor saying – In Georgia, we just love David Beasley! Wonder if the actor would like to make a new but similar ad?
The “nail in the coffin” for Beasley was the flag. Hodges benefited from the lottery issue and all of the campaign money that came with his support of it, but Republican voters turned on Beasley when he advocated for removing the flag from atop the dome.
Haley: Wrong on so many issues.
WOW….talk about a selfish propaganda article..!? Is Mr. Wil Folks an American or what.?
“….After promising to do a better job competing against Georgia, Haley instead hand-delivered a major competitive advantage to its government-run port. Not only did her decision aid Georgia’s taxpayer-funded port expansion plans (and diminish Charleston’s competitiveness), it killed off any chance for a public-private port facility in Jasper – home to the last remaining deepwater port location on the Eastern Seaboard. In fact Georgia is dumping the spoil from its dredging project on the Jasper port site – meaning nothing is going to be built there for another half-century…..”
Does WIl Folks not understand that GEORGIA could have scammed more than 900 Million to BOEING but Nikki and Bobby and Glenn and Mayor Riley did WHAT..?
So…..Charleston got Boeing and Savannah gets an expanded port….but guess what WIl Folks fails to tell his very readers..!?!
Heck, this whole fluff piece could have been written about Charleston before the CIVIL WAR….but the “Post” nor “Courier” didn’t do it….!!
If Wil is so concerned about SPOIL from Georgia then he needs to actually take some time and get his tookus down to Charleston and take a look at the SPOIL area across from the OIL terminal…!!
MY BAckside…!! What total info propaganda..!!
“…We reached out to SCSPA officials, asking them to name one thing Haley has done to make sure “a port in Jasper (is) approved and built.”….” Well for starters Mr. Folks, it would seem that a SPOIL area was approved to be able to get a Savannah River PORT enlarged…!! How many South Carolina workers living in Hilton Head will make money from the Savannah River port enlargement..??
Guess Wil wants Nikki to put up toll booths between Atlanta and Charlotte…!!