The First Line Is Up On the Odds Board For the 7th District Race

We Finally Light Up the Tote Board For Who's Where in the GOP Battle


     It's a bit ironic today in that after nearly two weeks here in Yankeeville, it's finally sunny yet cool enough for us to get to Belmont Park to watch the horses run.. And now, we have enough polling data to at long last put up some numbers for the odds-on favorites to take the initial primary!


     Yes, our bookmaker, Lefty (no, he didn't lose a hand in an accident - he's called Lefty for the direction a certain part of his anatomy points.  His eye, Pottybrain!) has been culling through all the data, and here's where we are at.  Keep in mind, this is for the Primary only... Once the top two are chosen, we start all over again.  There are some risers and dippers, but we think we're in the neighborhood.


Andre Bauer                 7-2
Tom Rice                      5-1
Jay Jordan                   7-1
Chad Prosser               8-1
Katherine Jenerette       14-1
Randal Wallace            15-1
Dick Withington           35-1
Jim Mader                    50-1
Renee Culler                50-1


  
    Yeah, we have Andre in the lead right now, because he is the only candidate pulling consistently from both ends of the District.   New polling data showed what we thought after the FMU-SC Now first poll: that they overpolled the Grand Strand by about 10 percentage points, and that Tom Rice overpolled and Jay Jordan underpolled.  Jordan finally showed us the money, and despite the general consensus that his ads were subpar, the old adage that even a poor ad is better than no ad. 


    Speaking of ads, the field has seemed to settle a bit, and we think that it may end up very close to these numbers.  Though he has risen, we think Jordan may peak at these numbers.  Chad Prosser seems to already have peaked, or even dropped a point or two, while Tom Rice is leveling at the 20 percent area.  So, although Andre will likely take the first round, it doesn't appear to be a landslide, and the battle for second will be close.  Given the rabid enthusiasm Florence Baptist Temple and the FCGOP to a lesser degree have for this race, it may be enough to put Jordan at Number Two if the GOTV effort is strong...


    The big surprise to us during the whole race is Randal Wallace being stuck in the pack, and gaining little traction.  It appears he's logjammed in a field of candidates with similar resumes, and he just doesn't have the financial backing to break out.  Katherine Jenerette has a niche with the military background, and being the leading female candidate, which is why we think she'll pass Wallace, but only good enough to finish in the middle of the pack...


    In this huge field, Withington, Mader and Culler are afterthoughts, but we'll give Withington the extra point for having enough cash to buy some radio ads.  They've given a couple god ideas - and made the race more interesting at times - but they're in a tough field...


     Feel free to trash us and say we don't what the hell we're talking about -especially those that are too close to see clearly.  That's always fun.  But in 2010, we were 700 miles away, didn't meet a candidate, and called almost every race correctly.  Damn you, Trey Gowdy!!!!  Now, for us, as for the candidates, it's off to the races!

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Ed Robinson: The Gift That Just Keeps Giving to Us

Wait, Don't Tell Us, Let Us Guess.... Is It Another Story of Ed Robinson Getting Thrown In Jail???   YESSSSSSSSSSS !!!!!!!!


     Now we know how the National Enquirer felt every time Elizabeth Taylor got married again..  Yes, Florence's favorite city councilman (if by 'favorite' you mean the one who can't stay out of trouble) did it again..  According to a news report in yesterday's SCNow.com, Ed Robinson was arrested and briefly detained this past April 10th 400PM at a Myrtle Beach Food Lion after a confrontation with the manager, when he refused to produce ID to purchase alcohol, or for the police who arrived later.  For those of you without a calendar in front of you, April 10th was a Tuesday - but we'll just assume he and his wife were on vacation...

     Yeah, we're beating a dead horse, and we're sure most of you have heard this story already, so we won't go too much into it, except to say as usual, Ed Robinson took an everyday situation, and turned into a gigantic incident.  In other words, it was just like ant Florence City Council meeting he attends, except at the City-County Complex, no one gets arrested.  Once he steps off of N. Irby Street, it seems that Ed always get arrested - and he always does it to himself... Need proof? In the article, Robinson claims HE called the cops, not Food Lion, because they were insulting his wife.  That does make a lot of sense, because a retail establishment's main goal is to give justifiable cause for it's patrons to leave without buying anything...


     We've personally dealt with Ed in situations like this, and we can attest, he is not a rational person.  We had to verify his car insurance for a rental once, and there was a small problem, and he just about lost it before we told him we'd work it out, it would just take a minute. That's Ed Robinson in a nutshell: He looks for reasons to get pissed off.   A shrink would call it paranoia, but our degree is in the mail right now, so we'll avoid judging officially...


     No, this incident is yet another small potato in the bushel basket of minor arrests Ed's had.  Does he deserve to go to jail for this mess? Of course not, but it's further proof that District Two in Florence City surely could find someone else to represent them.  As far as being Mayor? Give us a f**king break.... 


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Smile Mr. Candidate, You're on Candid Camera! Keeping Up With the Political Paparazzi ....

Rest Assured, No Matter Where You Are, There Is Always a 19 Year Old Wannabe Douche Around, Taping Everything You Say....


    Campaigning is no picnic.  We've done our share, and honestly we were never good at the retail politicking. Knocking on someone's door like a Jehovah's Witness or a vacuum cleaner salesman wasn't our favorite.  We always preferred the bigger aspects of running for office: mailers, robocalls, media interviews, and meeting people at every non-political event we could find...


    Of course, we were never bigtime, so exposure was never a problem for us.  The major candidates are always under a microscope. We might have said something stupid once or twice on the trail, but the media were never around to catch it - plus it was just before Facebook, Twitter or even YouTube took off.  But in today's viral age, assholes with a recorder or camera are EVERYWHERE.  



    Yes, a bad moment at a 'partisan' event can ruin any campaign... Ask former Virginia Senator George Allen.  His 'Macaca' moment is forever engrained as the classic Oops Moment on camera in recent political history.   The rule of thumb is if something works once, do it over and over again, because lightning often does strike twice in politics...


   It's pretty simple.  Campaigns or parties find a college intern who generally doesn't know jack shit about politics, and make him follow an opponent wherever they go on the campaign trail.  Like we said, they're usually kids, so most don't even know what they're looking for, much less what they're taping.  So, the campaign gives them a list of key words to look for, and try to mark when it was said.  Armed with this, the intern goes out on the trail, and tapes endless hours of junk - trying to find the ten second snippet that will submarine their opponent.  Call it the political needle in the haystack..


   No, any paid political staffer would never waste hours of their time taping and going through this crap for probably nothing - but that's precisely what interns are for. They're just so jacked to be there, they'll do anything... I guess it beats making coffee or stuffing envelopes, but if it were us, our answer would be 'You're kidding, right?' .  Then again, we never were good soldiers....


    However, much like the Wildcat Offense, eventually the surprise is gone, and the candidates get hip to the trick.  Even George Allen, who despite being taped at EVERY event he has in this year's run for Senator against Tim Kaine, has yet to be caught on tape doing anything stupid again...  Hey, maybe that envelope stuffing job is more useful after all!


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Presume No More, Republicans - Mitt Romney Is Your Guy

Guy Smiley Clinches the GOP Nomination After Texas Win....


      And now for the most anticlimatic post of the Month - Mitt Romney wins the Republican nomination.  Yep, he got the 88 delegates needed to reach the magic 1144 to secure his name at the top of the Republican ticket.  That's about it...


      Not much else to say, is there?  It's been a foregone conclusion since February, but with any process, it takes time to become official - especially with the new format that parsed out delegates based on vote totals, rather than winner take all.  In hindsight, we did like it better this way. In 2008, we were all clinched by March.  ZZZZZZZZZZ!!  At least we got an extra month or so out of this cycle.  Now what do we talk about?   Nevermind, we always find something stupid going on in DC, Columbia or Florence..


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Mitt, Please - Avoid Donald Trump Like The Clap ..

      We always got a good laugh from an old MTV clipback in the 80's.  It was an interview with the German Heavy Metal band, The Scorpions - or as we called them Das Scorpions.  It was one of those mid-tour interviews, and they were talking about doing videos.  Matthias Jabs said something that always stayed with me: 'There are things in the videos that you can see..... and other things that, uh - you SHOULD NOT see.'   That's our two cents of political advice for Mitt Romney today...


   Different people have different skill sets, and in politics, it's no different.  However, there are people who you go out on stumps with, in front of 50,000 people - like Chris Christie, John McCain, and to a lesser degree, smaller people who get you press, like Nikki Haley.  Then, there the others.  That is, those who probably have very good advice to give you on certain matters, but whom you should NEVER be seen in public with.  We should know - we ARE one of those people!   We give advice all the time, and most of them follow it - and those who don't usually regret it afterwards. But, will we ever be seen behind them at a podium? Hell no... Who would admit they listen to us?


    That is the lesson Mitt Romney will likely learn after being seen with Donald Trump this weekend.. While we will rarely doubt The Donald's business sense, that is about all he knows.  In politics, you meet with the smart businesspeople in private, locked away offices, clubs or charity events.  You don't get on stage with them.  Why? Because on just about all other issues, Trump doesn't know his ass from his elbow.  However, his inability to get off the damned Birther Issue kills Romney by association - and that's all it takes.  It doesn't matter how smart overall you are. In politics, you are only as smart as your dumbest stance, and Donald Trump looks like a total moron on it...


    Of course, there are other reasons as well... Mainly that Donald Trump is an egomaniac.  First, he considers running for President.  Then after, he tried to 'moderate' a debate between the GOP candidates earlier this year.  Why? So he could get all his opinions in, and try to look smarter than the legitimate candidates.  Trump doesn't do things to put himself on an even level with you - he does it to make himself look better than you.  The reason is simple: Donald Trump thinks he is the smartest guy in the world...


    Most people like Trump shouldn't and don't run for President.  By that, I mean people who go straight from CEO's to President.  Why? Because as CEO, you are the RULER.  The President may be the Big Cheese, but that is a huge block of cheese, and lots of others control parts of that block...  People like Romney do: they run a company, then they get into politics at smaller levels than President and work their way up.. Trump's ego is too big to run for Governor or Senator.  Now if America had a King, Trump would go right for it...


   There's no doubt that Donald Trump wants Mitt Romney to beat Barack Obama in November, and he'd be willing to do anything to achieve it.  Unfortunately, sometimes you do more for a guy by NOT doing certain things.  In this case, Romney needs to confer on occasion with Trump, and have The Donald raise as much cash as possible for him.  As far as going on the road with him, our answer is no f**king way.....  If Romney reads any papers or watches any TV, he just learned that lesson.


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Guess Chicago Can Call It the Memorial Weekend Massacre..

It Was Just Like the Good Old Days....... Except Even Al Capone Didn't Shoot 40 People in a Weekend !


      Yeah, we all had a lot of fun this weekend, didn't we?  This is what is wrong with America sometimes.  While you, me and the rest of normal America are taking a couple days off, enjoying the beginning of Summer and barbecueing, the gangs in Chicago spent the whole weekend shooting at each other - and hurting dozens of innocent people in the process.  Not that shooting kids should bother them...


     All totalled, 40 people were shot and 10 killed in the Windy City (guess they call it that for all the bullets whizzing by) over the Memorial Day weekend.  Our undertstatement of the week goes to Chicago Police Chief Garry McCarthy:  'Clearly we have a gang problem in the city of Chicago'.   Uhh, no shit, Chief..... However, that's not even the dumbest thing going around Chi-Town over this.  Mayor and former Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Enamuel is blaming this on - wait for it - the overabundance of liquor stores!  So far they've shut down four, so by 2257 they should have the problem resolved.  The town I went to college had a higher bar per capita rate than Chicago, and I don't remember anyone being shot....


    Still, others are noting the warm weather, and just like the early start to job hiring, crime isn't waiting til Summer either.  Call it crazy from the heat...  We'd like to find another bad excuse and blame it on Derrick Rose blowing his knee out and getting the Bulls an early exit from the NBA Playoffs.  Hey, if they riot over winning, you think they wouldn't start shooting when they lost?


    But fear not, my scared Americans.  First off, Chicagoans rarely leaving town, so unless you have a trip planned, you should be safe.  Thank God for deep dish pizza - it always keeps 'em home!  Also, the cops are on the case. How you ask?  Well.... by monitoring Facebook, Twitter, and other forms of social media, which gangs like to use.  Someone tell Mark Zuckerberg that his Utopian ideal   of social media has been perverted.  Forget about your parents on Facebook - the day Pookie and Slice start using it, it's time to get off.  Then again, that may make it even more appealing...


    No my friends, it's not that gangs left and suddenly came back - they never left.  Not in Chicago, LA or New York - and not in Florence, South Carolina either.  They just had a busy enough week to make the news... Then again, organized crime is nothing new in Chicago - you some of a batching corksuckers !!


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Memorial Day 2012 ...

      Like we do every year, we're noting our annual observance of Memorial Day... We're not going to give any heavyhanded trump on your head to remember what Memorial Day is really all about.  We've done that enough previously, others are doing it enough for us this year, and it seems that most people we know have an idea why we mark (celebrate seems an incorrect word ) the day...


    I always note my Uncle Pete, who died in WWII, and my cousin Chris, who is in the 82nd Airborne, every year, but I often forget my Dad and his other brothers all were drafted in The Big One, as they called it.  Pops never went overseas, and stayed at Fort Lewis most of his hitch, and my Uncle Mike was in Alaska, I think.  My Uncle Tom and Sam I have no idea, but I well remember my Uncle Jimmy had a horrendous hitch in Burma.  Nowadays, they call it PTSD, but I guess back then, it was Shell Shock.  He lived past 90, and it never seemed to get away from him. 


    We're going to have a lot of guys like that well after we finish in Afghanistan - and hopefully, that will be soon.  That's what we ask from you today: If you see a Vet, thank him/her for their service, and try to do something for them.  If you work in retail, give them a little discount. If you're at a bar, buy them a drink out of respect.. It's pretty easy to tink of someway to say it, but if you can't, say thanks to them anyway!  And thanks for reading when we're sure you had better things to do today...

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Jim Clyburn May Have Obama's Ear, But Stephen Wukela Seems To Have Clyburn's....

Jim Clyburn's Impending Endorsement of Preston Brittain Leads Us To Only One Conclusion - That Mayor Stephen Wukela Is Secretly Running the United States From Florence...


    So much for the hubbub that Jim Clyburn was secretly financing and backing Gloria Bromell-Tinibu for the 7th Congressional seat.  Even we bought into it initially, but after a while, we started wondering why he wasn't doing anything if the race would be so tight.  Now we have our answer.  After numerous mis-endorsements (remember Dick Gephardt in 2004?), The Whipper has learned to be coy and wait until everything plays out.  He's lucky he did, because he was pretty close to endorsing Ted Vick for Congress, having attended a Vick fundraiser in DC in March.


    According to SCNow.com, Clyburn will instead endorse Myrtle Beach attorney Preston Brittain for the primary instead on Tuesday.  More interesting than the endorsement itself is who, more than likely, talked Clyburn into it - Florence Mayor Stephen Wukela.  No, we didn't ask P-Luv about it.  But, Wukela's ability to wrap our soon to be former Congressman around his itty-bitty pinkie is intriguing.. What makes us think that Wukela pulled this off? Rather than go to Myrtle Beach and endorse Brittain, where he can catch a round or two of golf, Clyburn is instead going to WUKELA'S OFFICE in Flotown to announce it.  Maybe he'll get in 18 holes at Trace or The Crossings instead - I doubt FCC or CCSC will let him in!


    Give Clyburn a little credit.... As much as he will never listen to any Republican that is smarter than him, he has a knack for heeding the advice of Democrats who have more brains than him.  Given this now-confirmed knowledge, we can only draw one conclusion: since Barack Obama supposedly looks to Jim Clyburn for advice, and Clyburn is now controlled by Stephen Wukela, it's obvious to us that Barack Obama is Stephen Wukela's puppet.  Is Wukela using this power yet? We doubt it, but if we were him, we would....  Whatever Clyburn and Obama have been coming up with together sure isn't working.

Hey, if it's good enough for Jeff Dunham, why not?







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Today's Kooky Not-Facebook Pic..

Like we always say, give a woman anything, and she'll make a handbag out of it.  I'm embarrassed to say it, but for a single guy, I know WAY TOO MUCH about handbags.... Yes, I actually know the difference between a Louis Vuitton, a Michael Kors, a Gucci,a Prada and a Dooneybag - although I likely wouldn't know a knockoff from an original.

Of all of them, I have to say this is my favorite.. You're not seeing things - it's a handbag Sarah made from Capri Sun juice bags!  Why is my favorite?  First off, it only cost about $4 for the juice, which was about $300 less than it cost me to buy her Mom's bag.  But mainly, because it's cute, it involves ingenuity, and she did it herself. Best of all, it's actually functional, because those those Capri Sun pouches are pretty sturdy.  Have you ever tried to get the straw through one of those suckers?  Good luck..  No, it has nothing to do with politics, although I suppose I could go on a tangent about self-reliance and today's excess - but we'll just settle for something being cute.

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Today's Founders Quote: A Due Attachment and Value

"Every man who loves peace, every man who loves his country, every man who loves liberty ought to have it ever before his eyes that he may cherish in his heart a due attachment to the Union of America and be able to set a due value on the means of preserving it."

- James Madison, 1789.


Fair enough words from our 4th President... The first part is easy, with the exception of Rev. Wgight (oops, did we throw a cheap shot?), very few American don't love this country. They should - most nations are pretty crappy compared to us.  However, the second part is where many of us lack, and that is the most important part.  Too many of us complain, and do nothing about it.  It really doesn't take much, and we're not requiring everyone to do as much as some of us do.  Vote, watch an occasional political show.  Read a book on SOMETHING that peaks your interest.  Just try to do a little more, and we'll all be better off for it!


For once, we actually did a little less on this post.  That is, we usually enlarge the pictures, but Sarah Vandella's chest was so ovewhelming, we didn't want to scare anyone!  Not that big boobs ever scared us, but there is such a thing as being partially tasteful.  We're not there yet, but we're trying....


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Cartoons of the Week ..

The good news is the political cartoons were on holiday special this week, so we got a bargain on a couple of them before they went bad over the weekend.. The tough part is they're OK, nothing special this week.  In politics, Barack Obama and his team are still owrking on what didn't work for Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich - attacking Venture Capitalism.  Luckily, this frightened kid is too young to vote...

One story that we meant to write on, but forgot (which is why we usually write these things down) is the survey that found that for the first time ever in 2011, Non-White births outnumbered White births at 50.4%... While some see it as the eventual death of the Republican Party, eventually everyone likes lower taxes and smaller government.  We'll see.  However, if you're White, and you're upset with these numbers, we suggest you get to work and start making babies of your own!

Lastly, and just like we warned you, Facebook's IPO stock is beginning to tank - down 16% since it was put out there.  Hopefully, you weren't like this guy. Drop those books, kids - and get back on the internet!  While these kids are at it, they should check out SC6!

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Au Revoir, Ted Vick.....

The World's Oldest Looking 39 Year Old Calls It Quits...


    And then there were four... Ted Vick, the possible frontrunner for the Democratic nomination in the 7th Congressional District race, has decided to suspend (re: end) his campaign for the seat, and will focus on retaining his current gig as State Representative in Chesterfield.  Good call...  Speeding, DUI, and illegal weapons possession - all with a 21 year old girl in your car - are not good things for a man who is also a pastor in his church to do.  Does it make one a good Congressman?  Maybe not, but it probably would help him find a few 'kindred spirits' in DC..


    Like the GOP race, the Democratic race was pretty muddled, although Vick had by far the most cash on hand - about $300k - so he did have an advantage.  Now that he is gone, the focus turns to attorney Preston Brittain and G'town carpetbagger with a hole in the back that EXACTLY fits Jim Clyburn's hand, Gloria Tinibu..  The White Guy- African American woman battles in the Democratic Party often get testy, so we'll see how it goes in the next few weeks. 


     For us though, we are glad to see Vick get out - if only for his own benefit.  We're not the only ones who noticed, but politics has not been kind to Ted Vick - for he is by far the OLDEST looking 39 year old we've ever seen!  We're sure his wife is tired of being asked 'Do you always kiss your father like that?'...  We took various photos of Vick, had them analyzed, and were able to project what Vick would look like after a first tortuous term in Washington - and this is what we came up with...

It's a good thing he's out, because we don't think he'd make it through a second term!











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SC6 Civil War Rewind, Part Sixteen: 160 Acres, But No Mule

Lincoln Signs the Homestead Act, But It Doesn't Work Until Decades Later, When Tom Cruise Stars in 'Far and Away'....


     Welcome back to our Civil War Rewind Series, where we note significant events from The War Between the States in chronological order - exactly 150 years after they occurred.. Today, we talk about Land.  Land, lotsa Land under sunny skies above!  Particularly the Homestead Act.  Like most you, we had heard of the Homestead Act, but weren't really sure what it was - and especially what it had to do with the Civil War. Well, we did a little reading, and we'll pass that learning onto you guys...


     By the Summer of 1862, things for the North weren't exactly going according to plan.  The war wasn't over in six weeks, and what battles had ensued, particularly in the East, were going badly.  To defeat an enemy, you have two choices: either pound them into submission, or you give them an incentive to quit.  Since the first wasn't happening yet, Abraham Lincoln tried to spice it up a bit with the second.


    Keep in mind, in 1862, very little west of Texas and Kansas had been settled.  In the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains lie millions of acres of open territory not settled.  Yeah, it was mostly inhabited by Indians, but we never really counted them, did we?  Anyway, homesteading had been a part of the Republican platform in 1860, but it obviously took a back seat to the War.  Now, Lincoln decided that it might be a pretty good way to turn the tide in the War..


    The Homestead Act basically gave 160 acres of free land to anyone (and here is the important part) who had never taken up arms against the United States.  Quite a carrot there, right?  Not only was the plan to settle the West, but to settle them all as Free States, even if they were with former residents of the South.  All they had to do was build a home on it, farm it, and keep it for five years, and it was theirs for a small registration fee.  Call it organized bribery, but it was a pretty good deal for anyone who took advantage of it..



    The bad news was, like most things that come out of Washington DC, it wasn't executed as planned.. You see, the land was cheap, but to build a home and equip it with tools, cattle and everything else cost a lot of money - much more than your Average Joe in 1862 had - especially if they'd been choked off economically by the North for over a year.  Few if any in the South took advantage, and the North didn't use it much more initially. Those who did usually moved only slightly more West, like Iowa to Nebraska, or Minnesota to  North Dakota. The bill was so ambiguous, the wealthy mostly took advantage of it. Of the 500 million acres given out in the 19th Century, only 80 million went to true homesteaders.  Most of the land went to speculators, mining companies, railroads and cattlemen.


     On the surface, the Homestead Act was a total bust during the Civil War, because it didn't do it's intended purpose.  Southerners didn't leave their homes for free land, and the war dragged on.  However, it was a staple program for well into the 20th Century.  In fact, more land was granted in the 20th Century through the Homestead Act than in the 19th Century.  Like in the Tom Cruise movie, Far and Away, that takes place in 1893 in Oklahoma.  No, it wasn't as good as Mission Impossible, but at least we learned something..So, even though off the bat, it didn't achieve it's intended purpose, eventually it opened the West to millions of citizens.


     That's our latest installment, but don't worry... We'll be back in about a week with our next chapter!  Thanks for reading our posts on this. We hope you enjoy them as much as we like writing them for you!


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