South Carolina: Where the rubber meets the road

Atlanta, the metropolis, identifies with several well-established brands -- Coca-Cola and CNN among them -- and is capital of the South itself, with Georgia generally known for peaches and peanuts. So Georgia feeds its people two ways, with the fruits of the earth and with intelligence about their world.

North Carolina transitioned from tobacco and marine fisheries to Research Triangle Park,

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Haley's cleared after threatening legislators

Corey Hutchens of Columbia's Free Times fills us in:South Carolina Republican Gov. Nikki Haley’s defense against an ethics probe into alleged improper behavior as a lawmaker could be summed up succinctly: Clear me or I’ll throw you all under the bus.

According to a copy of Haley’s defense obtained by Free Times, the governor’s lawyer wrote on March 30 to the chairman of the House Ethics

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Bamberg trustees address lunch money problems

I can understand the need to allow students to charge their meals. Children in poor, rural counties are likely the children of under-employed South Carolinians.

If Governor Nikki Haley finds a spare minute in her day -- I know it must be crowded with national media requests and fashion photographers, all clamoring for an audience with her grace -- she might give some thought to improving the

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Fashion magazine photographs our present leader

I keep looking for some information in all of this coverage that benefits the children of South Carolina, especially the 700,000 children who attend South Carolina's public schools. But I don't find any.

On her recent media tour to Manhattan, I found chuckle-lines about her stiletto heels being useful in our state's political environment. I found trivia about our state's beverage on "The Colbert

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The self-mythologizing of Nikki Haley

Let's imagine, for a moment, a fashion magazine photo spread featuring the bare legs of former Governor David Beasley, the upswept coiffure of former Governor Carroll Campbell, the smoky come-hither glance of former Governor Mark Sanford.

Across the partisan divide, let's imagine former Governor Jim Hodges squinting icily at a sunset from the bow of a yacht, or former Governor Dick Riley

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South Carolina tops Georgia, North Carolina

In teenage pregnancy, that is.

Yes, in a national survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, South Carolina now ranks 11th in the nation in teenage pregnancy. While we're not the highest representative from the South -- Mississippi takes the top spot, thus diverting attention from us again -- we still beat our neighbors to the north and west resoundingly.

It's spelled

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Editors question Haley's motives to publish

One of the benefits of small-town newspapers: Common sense, lack of pretense, no artifice.

Editors of the Greenwood Index-Journal have taken a circumspect look at Governor Nikki Haley's national book tour and observed that not only may Haley have jumped the gun as an author-politico, but she likely has taken valuable time away from the people who elected her Queen to serve her own interests.

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South Carolina software company soon to be Canadian

Did anyone know that South Carolina was home to a $55 million-dollar education software company called Computer Software Innovations?

I didn't.

According to the media in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, it's about to be gobbled up by a much larger Canadian software company called Constellation Software.

Where's Governor Nikki Haley? Isn't she the self-appointed protector of South Carolina jobs?

If we

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"Examiner" pushes Haley as vice presidential material

I've never heard of the Examiner but it bills itself as a "dynamic entertainment, news and lifestyle network that serves more than 20 million monthly readers across the U.S. and around the world." It calls its writers "examiners," "thousands of writers who are self-motivated independent contributors."

One of these is Anthony Martin, who labels himself a "conservative examiner" and is described

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Haley opts for cant in her vanity project

"Cant" is defined at Dictionary.com thusly:noun
1. insincere, especially conventional expressions of enthusiasm for high ideals, goodness, or piety.
2. the private language of the underworld.
3. the phraseology peculiar to a particular class, party, profession, etc.
4. whining or singsong speech, especially of beggars.

verb (used without object)
5. to talk hypocritically.
6. to speak in the

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Governor vetoes voucher expansion bill -- in Arizona

Sometimes, the day's news leaves the rational reader feeling light-headed, dizzy.

Among red states, Arizona takes a back seat to no one.

In fact, the historian and social scientist in me points out that the population of the Southwest reflects the western-most migration of eighteenth-century South Carolinians. Travel through Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas and Arizona, and

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How is Nikki Haley like a potato? Ask Mitt Romney.

Mitt Romney, our governor's favorite candidate for president, visited Jay Leno last week -- apparently to shore up his numbers among cranky conservative insomniacs -- and played a little word-association game using a random list of contemporary American politicos.

So reports The State in a recent edition:Here is what Romney said when Leno asked him to say what came to mind.

N.J. Gov. Chris

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Did Stephen Colbert have the last laugh on Haley?

The present occupier of our governor's office, traipsing across America in search of buyers for her new mem-wah, stopped last night in New York City to appear on "The Colbert Report." Fitting, I thought, that she kicked off her media tour on the cable network named Comedy Central.

O, a fine time was had by all, as native son Colbert played a parlor game of state trivia with Nikki Haley, who

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Haley attacks Rainey, hides behind secrecy rules

Despite his service as chairman of the state's Board of Economic Advisors, John Rainey is likely best known in South Carolina politics as the man who recruited Mark Sanford to run for governor in 2002. To put that decision in context, Sanford's reputation in 2002 was as a principled ultra-conservative -- even Libertarian -- Republican who was famous for limiting himself to three terms in Congress

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Rainey continues fight for transparency, ethics

Former chairman of the Board of Economic Advisors John Rainey continues to fight for clean government, transparency and ethics, with a terrific column in today's edition of the Orangeburg Times and Democrat.The resignation of former Lt. Gov. Ken Ard, followed shortly by his indictment and guilty plea, marks another milestone in the long road of ethical lapses by public officials in South Carolina

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Haley ignores education questions, promotes book

A huge thank-you to Paul Bowers of the Charleston City Paper for catching Governor Nikki Haley's book-promotion gimmick on Facebook yesterday and documenting the interaction. If such things happen again, we should share the word as quickly as possible, to get as many interested South Carolinians as possible involved in asking questions.

That is, the ones who are Haley's Facebook friends.

Here

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Sanford-Haley advisor denies critique of state's economy

A couple of old adages come to mind here. One is that a kicked dog barks. The other is that figures lie and liars figure.

I think the average South Carolinian feels the truth as it's described in an economic report issued by TD Economics recently, which says that our state lawmakers' budget decisions over recent years contribute to our inability to rebound after the recent recession.

Ordinary

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Privatization bill catches national attention

South Carolina's costly and unnecessary proposal to dissolve and privatize the state's school bus transportation system has attracted the attention of a national publication that focuses on student transportation.

Ryan Gray of School Transportation News reported on Friday that the school bus privatization bill under consideration in our legislature has been amended but the issue is still

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Haley begs for national attention in Pennsylvania

Two months ago, Governor Nikki Haley spent two weeks with presidential candidate Mitt Romney in New Hampshire, a state that does not appear among South Carolina's voting precincts.

Then she squired him around her own state, which may have been the kiss of death, as opponent Newt Gingrich cleaned Romney's clock in the South Carolina primary -- a primary, I might add, paid for entirely by South

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History repeats: The State on vouchers, 2007

It's possible that our leaders will pull out their warmed-over voucher bill this week for debate in the House.

Haven't we been here before?

We have. The State newspaper published the following editorial on March 27, 2007, almost five years ago to the day:LET’S SAY THE city police have abandoned some neighborhoods. When residents complain, instead of sending the police back in, the city council

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