Author: Paul Gable

Southern Holdings HCPD Defendant Arrested

One of the main police defendants in the Southern Holdings case was arrested early Monday morning for criminal domestic violence and misconduct in office and fired from the Horry County Police Department hours after the incident.

Charles K. McLendon was arrested for actions taken against his estranged wife while on duty, in uniform using a Horry County Police Department vehicle.

McLendon demonstrated erratic, abusive and potentially lethal behavior during the incident, according to details of the arrest. His actions were not unlike those he demonstrated over 12 years ago during the Southern Holdings case.

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Economic Development Incentives and You

One of the biggest ripoffs of American taxpayers comes in the form of economic development incentives given to businesses under the guise of job creation.

This is something we hear about every week, but the cost to the individual taxpayer is never considered.

It has gotten to the point that companies and the governments they negotiate with consider job creation something that should be subsidized by taxpayers.

Businesses understand any expense they can transfer to taxpayers will make the bottom line look better. Government interference in the marketplace is to be avoided at all costs except when business can shift expenses to government.

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Nikki Haley and Economic Development

A recent announcement by the Schaeffler Group that they would be expanding their operations in Cheraw gave Gov. Nikki Haley the opportunity to claim economic development progress as she prepares for her 2014 run for re-election.

Schaeffler is a bearing manufacturer headquartered in Germany with two significant plants already operating in Cheraw with locations in Ft. Mill and Spartanburg as well. The total number of Schaeffler employees in South Carolina already numbers 2,300.

Haley and her propaganda chief Rob Godfrey would have us believe that the announced increase of 190 jobs in Cheraw was the direct result of the governor’s trip to the Paris Air Show in 2011.

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Ethics Reform Task Force Initiative

S. C. Attorney General Alan Wilson is reportedly moving ahead with ethics reform planning with a proposed public corruption task force for South Carolina.

Wilson met Wednesday with members of the House Republican Caucus Ethics Study Committee to outline his plans for a new Public Integrity Unit.

Wilson wants the General Assembly to pass new enabling legislation that would outline the duties, responsibilities and authority of the proposed unit.

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What have you accomplished this year?

What have you done this year? Serious question. If you have an immediate answer to that question, great! But the next (and possibly more important) step is to ask yourself, could your average supporter do the same? If not, how can you expect them to support, volunteer, or take action on behalf of your efforts and organization if they aren’t fully aware of how you’re working to benefit them, society, or an industry?

Every organization likely has its ardent supporters who read every newsletter, follow you on social media, and religiously contribute to your cause. These individuals are essential to any organization and got you to where you are today. If your goal is growth though, you need to constantly and consistently expand the population of “ardent” supporters who may be interested in your organization, but may not be aware of the details of what you actually do and accomplish.

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Lindsey Graham, Taxes and Grover Norquist

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) put himself directly in the bullseye of Tea Partiers and their Republican far right allies when he said over the weekend he would no longer be bound by the Grover Norquist pledge to not raise taxes.

Graham’s comment, “When you’re $16 trillion in debt, the only pledge we should be making to each other is to avoid becoming Greece…” will be used against him over and over during the next two years.

He did not advocate raising taxes at this point, he merely pointed out it is one of the options that should remain on the table as federal legislators attempt to avoid taking the government over the ‘fiscal cliff’ in the next month.

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Getting Economic Growth Back on Track

Economic growth continues in Asia while it stagnates in America. Even though Singapore and Hong Kong have the heavy hand of government involved in infrastructure planning, their private sector continues to boom.

I cast my ballot early because I had to be in Hong Kong and Singapore when Americans voted for president of the United States on Nov. 6. I’ve been following the election closely, but I was struck by how closely everyone in Asia paid attention, also. It seems to those in Asia that we have lost our way.

I didn’t have to look far beyond my hotel window to see the expanse of cranes erecting new buildings, too many to count, across each country.

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Beyond Venture Socialism

It’s a safe assumption that American citizens, no matter their party affiliation, believe government is wasteful. Government programs never come in on budget, as the recent and predictable example of the Affordable Care Act demonstrates. The American people were told that the ACA would cost $900 billion in ten years, but the latest estimates by the CBO indicate that it will cost a staggering $2.6 trillion in its first in that same time period. This does not even begin to include the multitudes of anecdotal stories we have all heard about government agencies spending hundreds of dollars on relatively inexpensive items such as hammers. We hear these accounts and accept them as, perhaps, exaggerations of actual government waste.

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S.C. Supremes vs. Illegal Gambling

The S.C. Supreme Court struck a blow against illegal gambling this week when it upheld 2006 convictions of five people who were arrested for the supposedly serious crime of playing penny ante poker in a private home in Mt. Pleasant.

Even better, the convictions were based on an 1802 law that a majority of the judges considered flawed and outdated.

Do 1802 laws still count in South Carolina? That’s 58 years before the state seceded from the Union and joined in armed rebellion against the federal government. That losing effort had to void something.

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Electronic Communications Privacy Act

One more nail in the coffin of liberty is being prepared in Washington as Vermont Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy’s rewrite of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act is scheduled for a vote next week.

Despite the misleading name, the rewritten bill would allow 22 federal agencies unlimited access to email accounts without a search warrant and without notifying either the account owner or a judge.

This is just another example of how the federal government is solidifying its position as the ever watchful ‘Big Brother.’

The rewritten bill will not be as egregious as other federal government initiatives since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

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