Blatant Reality

Representative Nathan Ballentine wrote a blog entry this past week about the recent approval of South Carolina’s state budget. This wouldn’t be such a big deal except for the fact that Ballentine admits that even though the budget is “debated” after it has been presented by the House Ways and Means committee, nothing ever really changes after it has left the committee room. FITSNews has more on this subject here.

Carol Fowler, the South Carolina Democratic Party chairwoman, announced yesterday that she will be supporting Barack Obama even though her husband, who also is a superdelegate, is supporting Hillary Clinton.

Fowler said she made up her mind last week to back the presidential candidate that “had the best potential for winning in the fall.” She said Obama has demonstrated that ability by turning out new voters and winning in conservative states, including South Carolina.

 

Fowler’s husband also is a superdelegate. Don Fowler has endorsed Hillary Rodham Clinton.

 

“It’s bad judgment on her part,” joked Don Fowler, a former Democratic National Committee national chairman. “I’m starting a movement to repeal the 19th amendment.” The constitutional amendment gave women the right to vote.

There are two House bills currently being pushed by conservation and environmental groups that would restrict the amount of turtle a person could catch in the state of South Carolina. As of right now, there are no laws at all that limit the amount a turtles caught. Therefore, persons from other states are allowed to catch turtles unrestricted in South Carolina and bring them back home.

You might not think that turtle catching would be a problem but the demand for turtle meat to be exported to Asia had risen in recent years. Therefore, people in the US met that demand by exporting turtles caught in the wild. This demand, some claim, is putting to large of a strain on the wild populations of turtles.

That is why the bills H.4392 and H.3275 have been introduced. H.4392 would limit the amount of turtles a person can catch and keep without a permit from the state and H.3275 would make it unlawful to export for commercial purposes live seawater or freshwater turtles caught in the wild.

I don’t know exactly if these two bills are the right way to head off this potential problem, but I do feel it is a good idea to at least introduce some regulation on this topic. I know that in my home state of Missouri we have laws much like H.4392 that cover basically all reptile and amphibian species in the state. As the news articles states, with rising oil prices and Asia getting better at raising turtles themselves, the need for this kind of business is diminishing. Therefore, the likelihood of this law economically affecting to many people will be minimal.

I may be biases but I know one of my favorite things to to back in Missouri when I was younger (and even now to some extent) is to go one of our many spring water stream and see how many turtles and other reptiles I could catch and release in a day. It would be a shame that South Carolina’s future children don’t have the same opportunities I did growing up in Missouri.

Three members from each of the South Carolina House of Representatives and Senate will meet at 10am on Tuesday to try and resolves differences on the Immigration Bill. Some of the differences that they need to resolve are how private employers will check the citizenship of a new employee.

Glenn McCall was the first African American chairman to lead the Republican Party in York County, SC and now he has declared that he is running for one of South Carolina’s two seats in the RNC. If he wins, he will be the only African American to sit on this 100-person board that decides party platforms and such. Why might you want to support McCall? Well, for one thing, he helped to mobilize support against the immigration bill last year. Because of this, one of his goals is to bring about more party accountability.

“I’m not here to be a yes man,” he said at the time. “I’m here to do what’s right for the party. There are folks saying if this happens, they’ll never vote Republican, they’ll never vote for him. And that’s not what we need.”

 

When he became chairman, McCall made clear that one of his top priorities would be keeping closer watch on the voting records of Republican elected officials. Many party faithful have complained to him that their representatives don’t work hard enough to advance the conservative agenda.

 

“There is an attempt in our party to water down what we believe and stand for,” he said Thursday. “We have been victorious over the past 25 years for standing for those things that most Americans want and believe in.”

 

Asked for examples, McCall mentioned lower taxes, strong national defense and the idea that life is sacred.

He sounds like a winner to me. Read the rest of the article for some of his prior accomplishments.