Tuesday, December 12, 2006
This Is Interesting ....
2004, November Elections: The Herald-Journal Editorial Page endorsed all Republicans running for political office.
2006, November Elections: Endorsed 1 Democrat out of 7 Statewide Races (even endorsed Karen Floyd and Mark Sanford)
With a majority of the population currently placing vast amounts of confidence in newspapers and their editorial opinions, as citizens, we cannot allow these newspapers to mislead and be deceptive. We, the undersigned, ask the Herald-Journal Newspaper (Spartanburg, S.C.) to get a new Editorial Page Editor. Unfortunately, Michael Smith has been and still maintains a big delusional and extreme conservative view. His radical stance should come to an end now, and the Herald-Journal Editorial Page should get back to the sensible center.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
10 comments:
Angry that he ripped your daddy a new one? (See below.)
Article published Dec 7, 2006
Sanford battles free-spending lawmakers in Columbia and Spartanburg
The primary political conflict in South Carolina came to Spartanburg this week. Gov. Mark Sanford called for restraint in state spending, and a local lawmaker jumped at the chance to oppose his call.
Sanford wants the General Assembly to limit growth in state spending to the rate of inflation plus population growth. It's a sensible plan that would keep lawmakers from spending beyond the state's means.
State Sen. Glenn Reese was quick with his response. He tried to confuse the issue. He claimed that Sanford should have saved money by not hiring his former campaign manager to help him conduct his second term.
A spokesman for the governor pointed out that Sanford's office is under budget and will adopt the spending limits he is proposing for the rest of the state.
The exchange is symptomatic of what we have seen and what we will see next year. Sanford will keep calling for fiscal responsibility, and lawmakers will avoid the issue and attack the governor, trying to draw attention from the real problem.
Lawmakers like Reese routinely spend every dime the state takes in. They even go beyond that and spend all the state projects it will take in. They refuse to limit their spending.
In 2004, the state found it had $110 million to spend that hadn't been included in previous budget plans. Sanford wanted to use the money to reduce a $155 million deficit from previous years. Reese wouldn't hear of it. "We're going to appropriate this money, and we're going to spend it," he said.
The next year, Reese opposed using new money to pay off the debt the state owed to its trust funds. Again, he wanted to spend the money.
Reese is not alone in the General Assembly. Lawmakers have grown state government as fast as they can, increasing spending so that the slightest economic downturn creates a fiscal crisis.
In the difference between Sanford and Reese, we see the essential battle over the state's future. Will South Carolina control government growth and spending, or will we continue to allow lawmakers to spend all they can, setting the state up for future fiscal turmoil?
The governor has called upon citizens to pressure their lawmakers to support spending limits. That's probably the only pressure that will affect lawmakers. Taxpayers should let these representatives and senators know that we want them to take and spend less of our money.
This guy with the HJ needs to go to the little boys room, look himself in the mirror and realize he doesn't know jack$hit about politics or policy
This is what Michael Smith wrote on 11/14/06. I think this re-enforces that he doesn't know jack$hit about politics or policy. Maybe his little blog should be sent out to all the public schoolteachers in Spartanburg County?
----"If Jim Rex's 483-vote lead holds through the recount, and he wins the state superintendent of education seat, he will owe his victory to the biggest and most powerful political machine in the state " the professional education establishment.
School district administrators and teachers campaigned tirelessly for Rex. After all, he is one of their colleagues, while they saw Karen Floyd as a threat to the education status quo, someone who does not value public education.
And they are legion. There are about 47,000 teachers in South Carolina. And that number doesn't even include all the administrators and district support staff. Throw in the families of these people, and the numbers expand.
These folks networked. They talked to their neighbors with the status of respected experts. They got out the vote, and they protected their turf.
Even in Floyd's home county, they were very effective. Our wasteful education structure facilitated this political activity. We have seven school districts in this county, with seven separate administrations working hard on behalf of Rex.
This machine wasn't the only reason for Rex's victory. The misguided idea of vouchers as an educational reform really is not a popular movement and was rejected in this election. But the machine capitalized on this sentiment and pushed the Rex campaign.
Now the machine will not rest on its laurels. It will do all it can to shape the coming legislative discussions on education. It's platform is familiar. More money for schools. Higher pay for teachers. Keep the wasteful TERI program. Keeping paying teachers thousands more for national certification.
The refrain is familiar: More money for us. More money for us. More money for us.
South Carolinians can hope that the machine doesn't dominate the education debate to the point that the only reform considered is spending more money."---
http://opinionated.goupstate.com/default.asp?item=214118
If you read and believe what Smith says, it sounds like if Glenn Reese is in charge we'd be shelling out 50% of our incomes to the government, annually forking over half the value of our homes in property taxes and paying a 30% sales tax on everything we purchased. But wait, this guy is in love with Karen Floyd and makes out with Mark Sanford in his editorial section once a week. 1 word - uncredible
"Sanford wants the General Assembly to limit growth in state spending to the rate of inflation plus population growth."
Mr. Smith I highly doubt can even explain what this even means. Maybe he should call Thomas Ravenel and find out .... of course, I doubt Ravenel even understands it either.
... and Jim Rex owes part of his victory to whatever it was about Karen Floyd that pissed off so many of her home county voters. She ran closely with the rest of the GOP statewide ticket in most counties, but something turned her home town crowd off.
Seeing as how I don't live there, I won't even pretend to have the foggiest notion of what that might have been.
People don't like her in Spartanburg. Why didn't Thomas Ravenel win his hometown?
Two things:
1. A newspaper's editorial page is supposed to reflect the community. Given the vote totals, with the notable Floyd exception, I'd say that Smith is spot on.
2. Newspaper endorsements, and endorsements of all types, mean less these days than in the past, not more.
Barber, Moore, and Patterson were defeated 60%-40% in spartanburg, Spartanburg is conservative but for every editorial to be blasting democrats and to endorse republicans 99% of the time is insane.
It's not just in the editorial page. On Goupstate, I was attacked viciously for challenging the religious zealots there who pushed the anti-Marriage Amendment and who actively sought to promote censorship against any who wanted to speak to the extreme positions of the religious fundamentalists. They even 'pigeonholed' religious discussion to one forum called "Religious discussion 24/7."
When they were losing the debate, some wingnut zealot created a false screen name and openly posted that she was my ex-wife (I only married once, never had children, and am still married to the same woman) and that I molested "our" daughter.
I contacted Trey Gowdy, who said he would meet with Sheriff Wright within the hour (this afternoon, 12/14) and that they may be able to find out who it was and they'd have to answer questions under the law.
This is what the religious right activists and extremists are doing on the online boards, too. To protect themselves, the Herald-Journal has pulled down the posts challenging the open defamation with malicious intent.
Post a Comment