Okay, so I am one of the two people in South Carolina who love soccer, and I have to say that is World Cup is on of the best I can recall. Aside from the hoopla about the ball - which even the winnign sides are complaining about, the games are just nuts. First of all, I am pulling for Germany, there I said it. But seriously, how in the hell does the best team in the world lose to a bottom seeded team... yeah, I'm looking at you Spain. Then the US ties England - again the whole ball thing but I can suspend disbelief for a while so that's that. Italy, I can't even talk about; and Brazil, not really showing up.. so what dos this have to do with politics - well absolutely nothing... so on to vetoes.
Would a rational person cut further budgets to agencies in a time when agency staffs are being cut and furloughed to the point that they are unable to accomplish their missions. Platitudes aside, these agencies provide not only constitutionally mandated services, but also provide a social saftey net which actually saves money. -- I say this in the sense that, for some uninelligible reason our state issued a property tax/sales tax swap four years ago. If revenues go down under a system with such elastic tax policies then there are by default a high number of individuals who are out of work and therefore paying less in sales taxes, e.g. they are in greater need of the social safety net, not to mention that in states without a major industrial tax base these types of tax policies result in a vicious cycle, but I digress. -- Getting back on track, of course there is redudancy - yes too much - but unsystematic cuts do not cut out redundancy, they simply decrease the effectiveess of each redundant agency while doing nothign for operational efficiency.
Additionally, how can one possibly consider cutting cultural strongholds such as the museum and Educational Television? I will leave the arguments for social and cultural responsibility to a later date. Other than that I will say that this is one of the most socially, let alone culturally, irresponsible Governors for any state in recent memory. I would remind him that their is more to social and governmental responsibility than simply finances. That being said... GO GERMANY!!!
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Thursday, June 10, 2010
The "right" kind of scandal...
So the news over the past couple of weeks in SC has been nothing but elections and scandals surrounding elections. Unless you have been living under a rock you know that I am talking about Nikki Haley and her two alleged paramours.
Of course the allegations of adultery have been denied by the Haley camp, with her accusers going to entertaining but entirely circumstancial lengths to prove their cases. This got me thinking. Rhambo has already stated his belief that one should never let a good scandal go to waste... or something like that. Anyway, does the right type of scandal serve as boom rather than a bust for a candidate. Consider if you will the idea that Nikki Haley got unprecedented free advertising out of this. Granted this is in a state that was already embarassed by one sex scandal in the past year, but more embarassing was the seemingly endless rambling of our soon-to-be former Governor. This thing really had the other Republican nominees fighting for air time and spending money like no tomorrow to maintain some semblance of relevance in the wake of the Haley:Folks:Marchant story.
Next consider the "way" she won. She lost Greenville which could have been expected given the fact that G-Vegas is Barret's home turf as well as the fact that it is a breeding ground for the "family values conservatives." (Bob Jones anyone? How about Berea - more churches per capita than anywhere else in the US). So she lost Greenville, but cleaned up in Columbia, Lexington and Charleston. As any good SC political observer will tell you, no Republican wins anything without winning in Charleston. One would think that a sex scandal would have hurt Nikki, at least that is the common Conservative Calculus - however (and this is pure conjecture) perhaps the Right wing Christian Values Cons are giving way to the uber fiscally conservative Cons. If this is the case then perhaps my notion of this being the right kind of crisis isn't so crazy. So either Haley and team are a group of political geniuses, or Barret and company took a risky gamblle that didn't pan out.
Of course the allegations of adultery have been denied by the Haley camp, with her accusers going to entertaining but entirely circumstancial lengths to prove their cases. This got me thinking. Rhambo has already stated his belief that one should never let a good scandal go to waste... or something like that. Anyway, does the right type of scandal serve as boom rather than a bust for a candidate. Consider if you will the idea that Nikki Haley got unprecedented free advertising out of this. Granted this is in a state that was already embarassed by one sex scandal in the past year, but more embarassing was the seemingly endless rambling of our soon-to-be former Governor. This thing really had the other Republican nominees fighting for air time and spending money like no tomorrow to maintain some semblance of relevance in the wake of the Haley:Folks:Marchant story.
Next consider the "way" she won. She lost Greenville which could have been expected given the fact that G-Vegas is Barret's home turf as well as the fact that it is a breeding ground for the "family values conservatives." (Bob Jones anyone? How about Berea - more churches per capita than anywhere else in the US). So she lost Greenville, but cleaned up in Columbia, Lexington and Charleston. As any good SC political observer will tell you, no Republican wins anything without winning in Charleston. One would think that a sex scandal would have hurt Nikki, at least that is the common Conservative Calculus - however (and this is pure conjecture) perhaps the Right wing Christian Values Cons are giving way to the uber fiscally conservative Cons. If this is the case then perhaps my notion of this being the right kind of crisis isn't so crazy. So either Haley and team are a group of political geniuses, or Barret and company took a risky gamblle that didn't pan out.
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