Tag: Lindsey Graham

Tim Scott to Host Town Hall – Update

Update – Times for the luncheon and Town Hall have been moved up because of need to get back to Washington.

Sen. Tim Scott is coming to the local area Monday September 28, 2015 to host a Town Hall meeting at the Crown Reef Resort.

Scott is hosting Town Hall meetings around the state to bring Republican presidential candidates and voters together.
In this way, candidates can give their message to voters in a speech followed by a question and answer session with those in attendance.
Presidential candidate and Sen. Lindsey Graham will be the featured candidate at Monday’s Town Hall.
A luncheon will begin at 11:30 a.m. with the Town Hall meeting to follow beginning at 2:30 p.m.

The South Strand Republican Club is inviting all voters in the area to join them at the Town Hall meeting to meet, greet and listen to both senators.

For a seat reservation for the lunch and Town Hall meeting, you can call Senator’s Scott’s Headquarters at 842-766-9412 or Jon E Bonsignor 843-385-3963.

The location is Crown Reef Resort, 2913 South Ocean Boulevard, Myrtle Beach, SC.

Gingrich, Myrtle Beach, Oil and Interstates

Community Forum on Off-shore Drilling

A community forum on off-shore drilling will be held at the North Myrtle Beach Historical Museum June 23, 2015 beginning at 5 p.m.

The forum is being presented by a local grassroots volunteer organization formed in response to the Obama administration’s proposal to open the mid- and south-Atlantic waters to seismic testing and deep water drilling for off-shore oil & gas by the petroleum industry.

Called Stop Off-shore Drilling in the Atlantic – Prevent Oil Pollution, or by the acronym SODAPOP, this grassroots organization will have Peg Howell, a former petroleum engineer with experience working on oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico and the North Sea, as the featured speaker June 23rd.

South Carolina has been one of the states pushing for oil and gas exploration in the Atlantic despite the state’s reliance on tourism on the Grand Strand and Hilton Head.

Only Rep. Mark Sanford opposes off-shore gas and oil exploration among our federal legislators and Gov. Nikki Haley joins the group listening more to the oil industry lobbyists than environmentalists.

Appeals Court: NSA Surveillance Program Illegal

By Paul Gable

The US 2nd District Court of Appeals ruled this week the bulk collection of telephone data by the NSA (National Security Agency) is unlawful.

This decision not only overturned an earlier decision by a US District Court, but also demonstrates how out of touch the Obama White House is with what is legal in surveillance programs as is Sen. Lindsey Graham.

The ruling gives credence to a 2014 independent report from the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board that called the collection program illegal and said it should be ended.

The report said the bulk telephone records program lacked a viable legal foundation with “serious threats to privacy and civil liberties” with only “limited value.” The report also called for NSA to purge its files of these records.

The appeals court said the NSA collection exceeded the provisions of Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which is up for reauthorization before it runs out at the end of this month.

However, the court did not rule an end to the NSA domestic collection program, preferring instead to allow Congress an opportunity to make changes in the program.

Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is pushing to reauthorize Section 215.

But, the court, in its decision, concluded, ““We hold that the text of section 215 cannot bear the weight the government asks us to assign to it, and that it does not authorize the telephone metadata program. We conclude that to allow the government to collect phone records only because they may become relevant to a possible authorized investigation in the future fails even the permissive ‘relevance’ test.”

If Congress reauthorizes the Patriot Act provisions, we could see harsher court rulings result.

Frankly, it’s time someone reigned in Congress and its stomping all over the civil rights of American citizens. This ruling, at least, allows us to conclude that the 4th Amendment to the US Constitution is not dead.

“Those who surrender freedom for security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.” Benjamin Franklin

The Strength (?) of Lindsey Graham

Sen. Lindsey Graham took his Strength Through Security presidential exploratory act to New Hampshire last week playing relatively well, according to media.

However, reading one quote he gave to the Concord City Republican Committee, one has to wonder just how far Graham is willing to go with the strength part.

According to the Concord Monitor, the local paper, Graham demanded restoration of defense spending cuts.

A Little Fun With Presidential Politics

I remember when presidential politics started at the beginning of the year of the presidential election.

Those were the good old days.

Now, of course, the next election cycle begins the day after votes are counted for the last election.

As a result, we are already looking at a Republican field of possible candidates that includes the names Rand Paul, Jeb Bush, Mitt Romney, Ted Cruz, Chris Christie and Lindsey Graham.

1st Winthrop Poll Results Casinos and Politics Together

Gov. Nikki Haley holds a 10 point lead over Democrat Vincent Sheheen in the first Winthrop Poll results with other gubernatorial candidates making little impact.

In like manner, incumbent senators Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott hold very comfortable leads over their main Democratic challengers Brad Hutto and Joyce Dickerson, respectively.

Gambling in Myrtle Beach?

What makes this poll interesting is the three questions on gambling casinos. Respondents were split 47% to 47% when asked if they favored or opposed allowing a limited number of gambling casinos to operate in South Carolina.

Anti-Incumbent Fever Rages in Horry County Primaries

Anti-incumbent fever raged through Horry County primaries Tuesday as five of six incumbents running in contested primaries lost.

One of the causes for the upsets, if you can call them that, was the pitiful, approximately 13%, voter turnout countywide.

The only survivor was S.C. House District 56 representative Mike Ryhal who won in a rematch against challenger Dennis DiSabato who Ryhal defeated two years ago to win the new house district seat.

The two biggest surprises of the night were the losses by incumbent S.C. House District 104 representative Tracy Edge and by Horry County District Three council member Brent Schulz.

Plot to Stop Lindsey Graham Faltering

What does it tell you that the Tea Party’s best candidate to challenge Sen. Lindsey Graham is a former Democratic operative who ran the Michael Dukakis campaign in South Carolina?

Det Bowers officially filed yesterday to challenge Graham. While he is now talking about right wing issues such as illegal immigration, Obamacare, term limits and balanced federal budgets, it is Bowers’ former Democratic associations that reportedly bring hope to stopping Graham.

The thought process is that Bowers will attract at least some of the crossover Democrat vote in the June open Republican Primary that was expected to fully support Graham. It is hoped that this will bring Graham’s vote in the first round of the primary to under 50% forcing a runoff.

Texas Primary Good Omen for Lindsey Graham

If the Texas primaries are any indicator, Sen. Lindsey Graham will have little trouble holding onto his Senate seat despite Tea Party opposition.

In the home state of the Koch brothers and despite help from Sarah Palin and the father of Sen. Ted Cruz, Tea Party challenges to targeted incumbents fell flat yesterday.

John Cornyn, the number 2 ranking Republican in the Senate, was chastised by the Tea Party for not standing with fellow Texas senator Ted Cruz in the federal government shutdown and budget showdown.

The I-73 Contradiction

Gov. Nikki Haley was in Horry County Monday pumping the benefits of the I-73 project and her re-election campaign.

Speaking to the Coastal Carolina Association of Realtors, Haley said I-73 is hugely important for this area.

It’s so important she said someone else would have to pay for it because the state wasn’t about to.

And that is the crux of the I-73 contradiction.