
Gov. Mark Sanford’s getting his neck stretched over the tree stump as legislators will be meeting next week in what’s called an ad-hoc committee to consider impeachment. Local Rep. Jim Harrison will be chairing it, according to Rep. Alan Clemmons and the [...]

Slagging the Bowl Championship Series these days is like being a fan of Nirvana in 1992. Rarely has trying to be a rebel looked so mainstream. Yeah, kid, you want a playoff. Woo. But, really, the bowl system and the BCS is pretty, pretty, pretty [...]

We’ve been leery of U.S. Senate candidate Marco Rubio, because he seems like, oh, a competent version of Gov. Mark Sanford, but you can put the nail in the coffin of Fla. Gov. Charlie Crist, Rubio’s opponent in the Republican primary. Why might [...]

A goodly number of college football teams have live mascots. But the line of Ugas take the cake. We’re especially in thrall of the late Uga V, otherwise known as “Magillicuddy II.” He not only appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated in 1997, [...]
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mullins McLeod said Thursday, the state should remove the Confederate battle flag from the State House dome because it is hurting the state's recruitment of industry.
McLeod, a Charleston attorney, unveiled his jobs plan centering on tax cuts, small business assistance and creating so-called "green" jobs.
"The Confederate [...]
Former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee has sent out a letter supporting state Rep. Rex Rice's bid for the Congress in the 3rd Congressional District.
Huckabee's letter asks supporters to donate money to Rex' campaign, and touts his positions on social issues, federal spending and taxes.
The two have long been [...]

Damn, it seems like everyone and their mom is running for Columbia mayor. The latest entrant is local attorney and Nelson Mullins partner Steve Morrison. It was assumed that he would be battling with front-runner Steve Benjamin for the same votes. That’s now a [...]
South Carolina’s December Events
As always, please be sure to check out our complete December calendar. Also, remember that all of our event calendars, for every month of the year, are available on SCIway’s website 24/7/365 – just go to http://www.sciway.net/calendar.html.
South Carolina’s December Events
Holiday Hope – Christmas Meal [...]

We’re not going to say former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is an idiot, but she is the most ignorant dumbass with a serious shot at national elective office since then-Ala. Gov. George Wallace ran in 1968. It was like every time she opened her [...]

The ruling coming out of the State Ethics Commission on Wednesday has as much use as a fish needs a bicycle. Somebody please tell us what the hell point is it when The State’s lede on the story is about the most stupid goddamn [...]

It doesn’t happen that often anymore, thanks to the inclusion of lethal injection among the options, but a man condemned to death for murder got fried by Virginia’s electric chair on Tuesday. Gov. Tim Kaine, who is against the death penalty (he’s also pro-life, [...]
Mecklenburg County Taxpayers are like a hungry Badger, and Harry Jones is about to jump out of his hole and make a run for it.
We have great memories of when Five Points was torn up, trees cut down and temporary orange fencing placed all over creation. Mmm, good times. Well, if you didn’t have your fill yet, Harden Street is getting more of a makeover.
Turns out, the Five Points [...]

How do you say “YARRRR!” in Somali? The crew of the MV Maersk Alabama heard it again, when it was attacked by Somali pirates for the second time this year.
The last time, it looked pretty bad for awhile. The captain was taken hostage, [...]

How lame is Auburn? Take Clemson, remove the lake, and put it in an even more remote location. Then add fans who like to toilet-paper the campus after a win (classy!). Obviously, our schadenfreude meter was red-lining this morning after being apprised of not one, but [...]

Here we give you the best of the rest, the bills that were noteworthy, but didn’t have other bills that were interesting enough to pair up with. There’s a little bit of everything in here.
Including snakes. And alligators. And God-knows-what-all that Rep. Herb Kirsh is [...]

On to the transportation bills that don’t involve mobile phones. It’s great, we’ve got it all here: speeding, drugs and government travel. But, be reminded — this isn’t pre-Operation Lost Trust anymore. You can’t get do a gator-tail of blow, get inside a car and [...]

Have a mobile phone? Of course you do. You probably yak on it and text your pals and do whatever you need to do on it, all day, all the time. In the prefiled bills, there are plenty that deal with your ability to use your [...]

Oh, boy. If you didn’t think the back-and-forth in Washington of this exchange: “You think you know better than everyone! Keep your big government hands out of health care,” versus, “Oh, you mean, ‘Keep your socialist hands off my Medicare,’” was not coming to our state [...]

During the extended session, Rep. Greg Delleney attempted to introduce his resolution to impeach Gov. Mark Sanford. After extensive discussion, Speaker of the House Bobby Harrell ruled that the bill was out of order at the time but instead should be put on [...]

Take note, Clemson fans. The Bulldogs from Georgia do not like orange. And let’s face it — with last week being the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry, with Auburn visiting Athens, a group of fraternity brothers probably just thought the kid was from Auburn. After all [...]

Who knew that an odd-numbered year would give us the sort of political skullduggery that’s usually reserved for the regular cycle? Well, it came down today that consultant Mike Green was arrested in Myrtle Beach because, according to WMBF, he was trying to create [...]

Alabama running back Mark Ingram is moving even closer to becoming the Crimson Tide’s first Heisman Trophy winner, after his performance against Mississippi State during the past weekend. He had 19 rushes for 149 yards and two touchdowns. Without a doubt, the totals [...]

Former Landrum mayor Doug Brannon is getting into the primary race against Rep. Joey Millwood today, joining businessman John Moore. Former Rep. Bob Walker, who Millwood beat in one of the closest elections in the state, decided not to make another try at [...]

For a while, there were plans on something to deal with property taxes effectively, but because property taxes were used to fund schools, that created a whole host of issues. Then doing a shift to sales taxes was expected to be a relatively decent compromise.
Since then, [...]

Oh, laffs. Wouldn’t it be funny, though, if we really could fire Gov. Mark Sanford? No drawn-out impeachment, just pull the trigger and call it a day. That would make the 2010 session a lot more interesting with a gubernatorial candidate in the executive instead [...]

Speaker of the House Bobby Harrell said in a Post and Courier story Monday that he’s still looking at shortening the General Assembly sessions, which presently extend from mid-January through June. The idea is to save the state money while freeing up the ability [...]

Remember when Carolina was 5-1? And ranked? Pepperidge Farm remembers.
But seriously, the Gamecocks are now 6-5, having gone 1-4 since mid-October. Florida was the latest conquerer, coming into Columbia No. 1 and leaving the same, winning by 10. And here’s the seriously galling part [...]

We’re participating in Southeastern Conference sports site SECRivals‘ weekly SEC power poll this season. Let’s see what’s happening.
Week 11
No. 1. Alabama
No. 2. Florida
No. 3. LSU
No. 4. Georgia
No. 5. Auburn
No. 6. Ole Miss
No. 7. Tennessee
No. 8. Arkansas
No. [...]
RoMo's team reported October crime numbers on November 10th with none of the fan fair of 12 months ago. Perhaps RoMo senses that the public is on to his sham, as nationally crime is down considerably without any quantifiable explanation.
For a lot of men, going into your late 20s and 30s doesn’t mean what it used to. We have a tendency to maintain an adolescent mentality, to the point where it’s comical. That situation has been developed into the best new show on television, “[...]

Atty. Gen. Henry McMaster wants you to know he values your religious beliefs, especially when they’re involved with government, and he’s released a video to say so.
If you’re Christian.
There are few things more despicable than when politicians blatantly pander by using religion. If Jesus came [...]

We’re of the opinion that The Garnet Spy is stone-cold batshit fucking crazy. Really, we disagree with people, and absolutely despise others, but it takes a whole different class of person to rise to the level of becoming padded-room eligible.
The man actually thinks his Google [...]
If you missed the reveal of Charlotte's 2010 Chamber of Commerce "Charlotte Skyline Photo" by the Observer this morning, you missed the odd placement of a "mouse pointer" in the down loadable image.
Believe it or not, South Carolina is the fourth-happiest state in the South. According to the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, the Palmetto State is the only trails Virginia, Texas and Georgia in being the happiest state in Dixie. Of all the states in America, Virginia rocks [...]
Former House majority leader Rick Quinn said he will run for the Lexington County House seat being vacated by Rep. Ted Pitts next year.
Quinn was a leading advocate for statewide tax reform, and despite a commission currently studying the tax code and a 2006 statewide property tax relief plan, there [...]

The Republican race for state superintendent of education got its third candidate today, as Newberry College president Mick Zais announced his intention to run for the office. He’ll be facing off against Furman University professor Brent Nelsen and Dutch Fork High School teacher [...]

Columbia has been home to the Gamecocks since 1801, but it’s not legal to own one now, and not later, either. However, the city is looking at allowing residents to keep up to four hens within city limits.
The cluck stops here.
Next Wednesday, a proposed [...]

Perhaps the only issue that gets under our skin is how some flaming douchebags want to make money off middle class college students. These are kids who have good enough grades to get into college, but whose parents don’t have the money to pay for school, [...]

Patrick Davis is one of the best local musicians, and if you’ve seen him in concert, you’d have to agree. When we were in college, we were lucky enough to catch him opening up a few times for Danielle Howle and Jump, Little Children. [...]

Last year, a goodly number of phone calls went out in Aiken County, illegal robocalls in support of Sen. Greg Ryberg and House candidate Scott Singer in the Republican primaries. Ryberg never needed the help, as much as it was, and Singer lost to [...]

In a move that’s likely to surprise exactly nobody, S.C. First Lady Jenny Sanford endorsed Rep. Nikki Haley for governor, sending out a news release letter to local media detailing her decision. Haley’s been considered the “Sanford candidate” from the outset, and has [...]

Nike’s bizarre, “tradition ain’t shit” uniform policy will befoul a number of teams for the rest of the month. Alabama, thank God, has been limited to the swoosh, the NCAA-mandated conference pennant and the script A, through there was that houndstooth collar mess [...]

The major party committees and election organizations have gotten into the habit of producing Web videos, which it seems that no one watches except for pols and journalists. That’s probably why we didn’t see these until weeks later. It looks like these guys are just chomping [...]

Alabama running back Mark Ingram is still on pace to win the Crimson Tide’s first Heisman Trophy as the team prepares to claim its 10th win of the season, a 7 p.m. ESPN tilt against Mississippi State. In his game versus LSU, Ingram ran [...]
House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, a Columbia Democrat, said Tuesday he doesn't see any point in having a federal Navy brig in North Charleston is it's not used to hold detainees.
Recent media reports have surfaced that the White House may soon send Guantanamo Bay detainees to the state although [...]

The wonks at the Cook Political Report have gone to town with a new base polling system, the “partisan voting index.” It takes into account the last five presidential election cycles.
One is that Republicans have absolutely sucked — or shat the bed, or bollixed [...]

Savvy shoppers turn to creative handmade gifts
(ARA) – The holiday season is fast approaching – a time when thoughts turn to families, friends, holiday get-togethers and gift-giving. For many consumers, remembering the special people in their lives is an important part of the holiday season, [...]
Kathleen Parker, the S.C.-based conservative syndicated columnist, will speak at the University of South Carolina on Nov. 19.
Parker, whose columns appear in The State, has been invited by the School of Journalism and Mass Communications for its Buchheit Family Lecture Series.
[...]State Sen. Larry Grooms has won an early endorsement in his bid for the Republican gubernatorial nomination from two S.C. "Tea Party" activists.
The campaign announced Tuesday that organizers of the grass-roots, limited government activists had endorsed Grooms."While other Republicans were enjoying the pork and hiding their votes, Senator Grooms was [...]
State Sen. Larry Grooms has won an early endorsement in his bid for the Republican gubernatorial nomination from S.C. "Tea Party" activists.
The campaign announced Tuesday that organizers of the grass-roots, limited government activists had endorsed Grooms."While other Republicans were enjoying the pork and hiding their votes, Senator Grooms was building [...]

Our fourth-ever post on this fledgling attempt to counter the toadies of the political blogosphere involved the issues surrounding the fight on who is actually leading the Spartanburg County legislative delegation, a fight that had already been going on for a while. “Hit list” [...]

South Carolinians for Responsible Government’s boy Friday at FITSNews, in between showing off his penchant for T&A jokes that an eight-year-old would find sophomoric, tried to make a recent video taken at an education conference into a joke about Gov. Mark Sanford. The [...]
This afternoon former NASA astro-nut Lisa Nowak escaped jail time and received only 50 hours of community service plus one year probation for her major flip out 3 years ago.
We’ve already conceded Carolina to the Papajohns.com Bowl in Birmingham, where the Gamecocks will take a six-win record to the Magic City in which to play a bad Big East team for the chance to finish the season with a winning record. We [...]
You might have missed the anniversay but WFAE's Julie Rose and Lisa Miller didn't, and they are on point regarding RoMo's pledge to resolve his phoney degree issue.
Batesburg-Leesville has been having more than its share of political drama over the past few weeks, as municipal affairs are turning into fisticuffs, allegations of improper conduct in relation to the water supply and claims of election problems.
In July, councilman Steve Cain and town [...]

The elections to the U.S. Senate of Lindsey Graham in 2002 and Jim DeMint in 2004 sent men with decidedly different styles and base constituencies to Washington. Graham, his power play as a House manager in President Bill Clinton’s impeachment trial notwithstanding, has an [...]

Prominent Northwestern grad, Washington Post writer and ESPN commentator Michael Wilbon had a pretty good day on Saturday, watching his purple-clad Wildcats kill Iowa’s national championship hopes. The Hawkeyes dropped from No. 4 to No. 10 in the BCS standings, No. 9 to No. [...]

We’re participating in Southeastern Conference sports site SECRivals‘ weekly SEC power poll this season. Let’s see what’s happening.
Week 10
No. 1. Alabama
No. 2. Florida
No. 3. LSU
No. 4. Auburn
No. 5. Tennessee
No. 6. Georgia
No. 7. Arkansas
No. 8. [...]

Stop us if you’ve heard this before: the South Carolina football team will start off the season well, even jumping into the rankings. Gamecock fans, a group of which share delusion on par with Chicago Cubs supporters, will start contemplating challenging the Brahmans of the [...]

The political arena is not a place for the thin-skinned or easily offended, though Will Folks and Adam Fogle are trying to overturn that bit of wisdom every day. It can be a rough place, and, at times, a banal place. We know of [...]

The older we get, the more jaded we become when it comes to party-line toeing apologists for our nation’s two largest political parties. It inevitably comes down to, “We’re right, they’re wrong, blah blah blah.” Perhaps the only other thing that’s dumber is the Republican civil [...]
The New York Times ran a piece by Bruce Buschel titled “100 Things Restaurant Staffers Should Never Do”
Over here, we’re big fans of the S.C. National Guard. It was great news to find out that the S.C. Air National Guard kicked ass in an international competition in Jordan. For the first time, a National Guard unit was selected to represent the [...]
